I got pretty close to understanding The Mirror this time. Well, close-ish. I guess when a story is told from the jumbled memories of a dying man, it’s understandable that things just don’t always make sense. In any case, The Mirror is a visually stimulating movie, with just enough brushes with “normal” life to keep the viewer grounded. I look forward to watching it again one day.

In the aftermath of the Moscow airport suicide bombing, we thought it would be good to have a sort of RussianNight… an opportunity for our many Russian guests to hang out and take comfort in some classic Russian cinema. Indeed, one fifth of our house was Russian on the night, and the program started with a Tatu video – in English. (C’mon Richard! Stop trying to second-guess the audience!) I hope to make good the Tatu situation with a genuine Russian video soon. And, by the way… one fifth of ten people is two people. Well, it was cold.

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The Last Seduction drew an unexpectedly large audience on a cold, January Thursday night! Our first guest of the evening was delighted to learn of the MovieNight custom of rewarding punctuality with a free cocktail, and requested “Something with rum, please!”. I delivered a “Treasure Trail” which must have looked quite appealing to the next people to arrive… before long the room was full of happy “Trailers”. It’s funny how that happens. The best news is that we didn’t run out of ingredients! The Treasure Trail is one of my own inventions, as you might have guessed from the innuendo in naming; others include the Hot Pretty Lady, and the venerable Pink Dick (would you like that straight up, Madame?). Had I had just a little more (too much?) time on my hands, I might have come up with a special drink to go with the movie… I imagine it would be called the Icy Bitch! How to make a Treasure Trail.

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After the roller-coaster ride of The Last Seduction, we enjoyed a nice bit of hang time. I was looking for Touch Yello to put on, but I had misplaced it (don’t worry – it’s since been found), and stumbled upon a kind of “home movie” from about many years ago which featured my then five year old daughter, and a full cast of vacationing family members enacting our own version of Cinderella. It was so funny that my now almost twenty-one year old daughter didn’t even cringe at this public showing. That’s saying something!

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Bien cool, as they say in Paris. Good-looking people, twisty plot, wonderful music, great cars… kind of like MovieNight itself. Oh wait… we don’t have a car… unless you guys all want to chip in for a 300SL like the one in the movie.

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Joan Rivers, the famously sharp-tongued doyenne of comedy, and plastic surgery poster-gilf, brought plenty of mirth to us as we wrapped up the year. Although even the bleakest of movies we’ve shown this season solicits a laugh here and there, this one was pretty much non-stop… it was good to hear.

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The last line in James Berardinelli’s review of Before Night Falls was pretty much on the money: “It is an intriguing and sporadically powerful motion picture with a stellar central performance.”  Although somewhat disjointed, the story did get told, and at times the camera work was delicious.

We chose to show Before Night Falls to mark Tania’s birthday (of one of our regular guests, who happens to be Cuban-born), and as part of the celebration, we had four (yes four!) special cocktails, all rum based.  Rather unexpectedly, we had a full house, and for a while we were “in the weeds” behind the bar. So much so, that I kind of refused to make a Hot Pretty Lady for one of our guests (sorry Alex!) and suggested that he have a strawberry mango daiquiri instead. He seemed to enjoy the substitute, but I do feel a bit like a bully. Next time, sir, I will try to be more accommodating.

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