I don’t think I want to make it a habit here, but this is a little chance to catch my breath and mention the reviews I’ve been writing for DVD Times. In case anyone reads this who doesn’t regularly visit the DVD Times site, here’s a link to all the reviews I’ve done. I’d prefer to mostly keep what I do here separate, but I’ve just put up something I wrote about one of my very favorite films, Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, and I’ve been so terrified I would screw it up that I had to put together some sort of addendum over here to help alleviate my anxiety. Like I do most of the time, I wrote the bulk of the piece in one sitting, and I’ve fretted and repeatedly read over the thing for nearly a week now. At some point, I just had to let it go and move on. I think it reads better the first or second time than the hundredth, for sure.

I also wanted to thank anyone who read or commented on my No Country for Old Men review, which has been predictably popular and yielded some kind words. I think it’s one of my favorite things I’ve written, and it’s always more fun to write about a film you love than something you’re indifferent to or flat-out don’t like. Night and the City was another one of those for me. I do like the variety of different works I get to review, and a look at what I have here coming up confirms that. The three Second Run releases I’ve reviewed have been especially rewarding, particularly Palms, and Miklós Jancsó’s The Round Up promises to be at least as challenging. Also in the near future, I’ll be writing about new volumes of The Untouchables and The Mod Squad television shows. Neither one is particularly great, but I do find something comforting and entertaining about both.

The BFI will be releasing an Otto Preminger double feature of his pre- and post-Laura films, Margin for Error and A Royal Scandal. I’ll aim to have that reviewed by the March 31st release date. There’s also the animated Bee Movie, from Jerry Seinfeld, which I just received on release date last week. That will get a run-through after I finish Eclipse’s “Lubitsch Musicals” set. There’s a certain aptness in moving through Wilder to Lubitsch to A Royal Scandal. Serendipity, I guess. I should also mention that I’m modestly proud of most likely being the first person to turn E.E. Cummings’ “anyone lived in a pretty how town” into a template for a film/DVD review of Last Holiday. I amuse myself in funny ways, not all of them successful.