From the Couch Hole: Is Good for You, You, You

Previously on FTCH, when love breaks down there is time enough for love during warfare. You gotta have fun during the night moves with double-fudge cookies. This week was the odd space between April and May where it’s not slow but it’s not as busy as it will be throughout May. This week the Alpha child was Tuck everlasting just one day at a time. The wolf man met the eternal daughter for spicy, loaded nachos. Remember, at FTCH, one call does it all!

Pop Culture Ephemera

• Natalie Babbitt – Tuck Everlasting (1975) (Published by Farrar, Strauss & Giroux): “Don’t be afraid of death; be afraid of an unlived life. You don’t have to live forever, you just have to live.” It’s funny that when I was in school just years after its release, this wasn’t that popular of a reading selection. When my children were in school earlier this century, this was an evergreen for middle-school reading. I finally got around to knocking it out. It’s a short, rainy-weekend, peaceful read. It’s descriptive paragraphs bring life to the valley. I can see why this resonates for the young reader with questions of immortality and making moral decisions. It gets off to a slow start, but once the Tuck family is introduced, it proceeds at a full gallop. There’s a sadness that runs through the story. Even though it is about immortality, it’s just as much about missed opportunities. It’s barely the length of a Stephen King novella, but Babbitt manages to impart some heavy thinking. I’m glad it’s still allowed in middle-school curriculum.

Buy Tuck Everlasting paperback

• Space: 1999 – “Alpha Child” (1975) (S.1 E.7) (Peacock): “A day to remember.” – Alan Carter. The first child is born on Alpha. Those moments of excitement that start the episode are quickly dashed by a scream from the mother as the newborn is now a five-year-old crammed into the incubator. Koenig (Martin Landau) thinks something is fishy. As a viewer, you are thinking, why is he the only one who is concerned about this? The season to this point has suffered from having a good concept to each episode, having good effects, and ending up disappointing at every turn at the end of each episode. This is the best by a mile so far. The plot is what I want from the series. It’s part Star Trek, part Marvel Comics, and a good dose of classic science fiction. The elements of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a key reveal, but gave the episode a fun last act. I wish more episodes of this show were this entertaining.

Buy Elton John – Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy CD

• Elton John – “One Day at a Time” (1975) (from Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy): “You are my weakness / You are my friend / Nothing I have in the world / Makes better sense.” Elton John is a better singer than John Lennon. I’m not breaking any big news there. The odd thread of the relationship between Elton and John as one is rising and the other is trying to find his spot in the world after being in the biggest band that the world ever saw, is an interesting story in many ways. This Lennon cover was the B-side to “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.” The original from Mind Games is like John being a little stoned and reading a love letter to Yoko. Elton takes it to a higher level with his ethereal vocals. This feels like a more universal love song under his control. I would like to have had a whole album of Elton doing Beatles and solo Beatles’ covers.

• Wolf Man (2025) (Directed by Leigh Whannell): “Sometimes when you’re a daddy, you’re so scared of your kids getting scars that you become the thing that scars them” – Blake. There’s not going to be much suspense when the family consists of father, mother and daughter and the film is called Wolf Man. This film is not bad enough to be called terrible. The cast is serviceable and the cinematography is decent except when they just go black dark. The film is not good enough to recommend. It’s a film that I’m writing about just after I finished because I’m confident that by the time I wake up tomorrow morning, I won’t remember many details about this effort.
  
  There’s nothing to hold onto as a viewer. There’s some attempt to create a story about father and son that dies off quickly. If I’m supposed to feel like the husband and wife love each other, the “why” is lost on me. They might as easily just been brother and sister or maybe second cousins. The man-to-werewolf transition isn’t unique as much as elongated. The best werewolf films (and I’m a big fan) are character studies that plumb the inner animal in us all. This film just turns out the lights, and makes me wonder if it was edited by a student in a college course.

• The Eternal Daughter (2022) (Directed by Joanna Hogg): “My mother has a relationship with this house. She was here when she was young.” – Julie. Tilda Swinton plays both roles of mother and daughter (Julie/Rosalind) in this gothic ghost story. It’s marketed as a mystery and horror, although I didn’t find it to be either. Julie and Rosalind show up to a remote British countryside hotel that used to be Rosalind’s home in youth. Julie is a filmmaker preparing a movie on her mother’s life. The film takes place almost exclusively at night. The two appear to be the only guests at the inn, and Julie can’t sleep with all of the noises. The dual role brings to mind Kim Novak’s role in Vertigo (1958). The mother and daughter are more mirrors of each other. The plot is repetitive in that same way as the Hitchcock film. I’m left with wanting something more other than a ghost-story ending. A film can have great production, good acting, and still be wanting for something to bring it all back together. I remember this making lots of Best-of Lists of 2022, and I just can’t get to that point.

Best of the Rest

• One of the few John Lennon songs of this era in falsetto. This was pre-break-up with Yoko, but things were going rough at the time. This feels like a very personal look into their lives, which is where Lennon excels compared to the other Beatles. He is a raw nerve. The falsetto choice is the only thing I don’t love. His serious lyrics should be almost whispered like a lover. There are multiple takes on the extended version of Mind Games (1973). I could make an argument for any of them over this one.
  
  BONUS BEATS: If you aren’t familiar with the alternative history where the Beatles never broke up, then hold onto your butts. Below is “Anybody Else” that contains elements of “Somebody” by Paul McCartney, “One Day (At a Time)” by John Lennon and “Monkey See-Monkey Do” by Ringo Starr.

• Entertainment Weekly (3/28/97): “Best Commercials of All-Time” #23: Dannon “Russians” (1977): I have remembered the name Bagrat Topogua for years, but only this week could I place it. This is still the only American ad I recall to have been filmed in Soviet Georgia. These were the days of the Yogurt Wars in the TV-ad industry. I don’t recall the winner, except for maybe Bagrat.

• The Raveonettes from Denmark covered “One Day at a Time” for an Amnesty International fundraiser called “Instant Karma.” Their ethereal cover sounds like a punk cover from the late ’80s. It’s hardly recognizable as a John Lennon song with the Jesus and Mary Chain-style instrumentation. I am sure I have heard it before this week but didn’t associate it with Lennon until looking for his original on YouTube.

Sunday Morning Tuneage Flashback

• On the Sunday Morning Tuneage from 6/4/2007 to 7/12/2009, I ranked my 100 Favorite Films of All-Time. I did one per week with the arbitrary rule that they had to air on television that upcoming week. It ended up being a pretty representative list in retrospect. A few were ranked out of order, but I stick with that list for that point in my life. The 2009 stats check out.
  
  6 – Alfred Hitchcock films.
  5 – Steven Spielberg films.
  4 – Stanley Kubrick films.
  4 – Billy Wilder films.
  
  I’m going to attempt the impossible over the next 20 weeks. I’m going to use that old list as a template and rank five films a week, without planning it all out ahead of time. Remember, these are “favorite” and not necessarily “best” movies. Enjoy critiquing me along the way.
  
  2025 Running Stats (#26 -100)
  • 3 – Directed by Terry Gilliam
  • 3 – Directed by Rob Reiner
  • 3 – Directed by Steven Spielberg
  • 3 – Directed by Quentin Tarantino
  • 3 – Directed by David Yates
  • 2 – Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
  • 2 – Directed by Brian De Palma
  • 2 – Directed by John Hughes
  • 2 – Directed by Terry Jones
  • 2 – Directed by Sergio Leone
  • 2 – Directed by Kevin Smith
  • 1 – 1900’s
  • 2 – 1920’s
  • 3 – 1940’s
  • 3 – 1950’s
  • 6 – 1960’s
  • 17 – 1970’s
  • 15 – 1980’s
  • 16 – 1990’s
  • 7 – 2000’s
  • 4 – 2010’s
  • 1 – 2020’s
    
• FAVORITE MOVIES OF ALL-TIME (2009)
  • 30. The African Queen (1951)
  • 29. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
  • 28. Raging Bull (1980)
  • 27. Rear Window (1954)
  • 26. Double Indemnity (1944)
    
• FAVORITE MOVIES OF ALL-TIME (2025)
  • 30. Dogma (1999) (Dir. by Kevin Smith): It’s important that one of Kevin Smith’s best films steps out from his comic shop/restaurant/mall setting to tell a much-larger story. I debated the placement of it in my list, but few films of that past 25 years have aged as well as this one.
  • 29. The Great Train Robbery (1903) (Dir. by Edwin Porter): I was reluctant to put a 12-minute silent film in this spot. It’s the film that influenced D.W. Griffith who has set the table for every director that I’ve ever loved. As is necessary for this list, it’s also an enjoyable film that creates a train-heist formula that will last over a century and a quarter.
  • 28. Silver Streak (1976) (Dir. by Arthur Hiller): It’s a buddy comedy. It’s a train-heist film. It’s the first pairing of the great team of Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. It also borrows a ton from the Alfred Hitchcock playbook. It’s also a film that I love to watch.
  • 27. Some Like It Hot (1959) (Dir. by Billy Wilder): To this point in my list, there is no film I have watched more often than this film. Wilder has an amazing filmography, but there might not be one that can win over a person who says they don’t like “oldies” more than this one.
  • 26. Ant-Man (2015) (Dir. by Peyton Reed): It’s not just a pun to say that the MCU found success when it went smaller. After watching it again recently, I did a deep dive into the average ratings of the MCU films. I was pleasantly surprised that it had some of the highest audience rankings of the early films. They should have learned from this film to keep it simple.

Buy Ant-Man Blu-ray

1975 in Review

• May – Daredevil #121 (Marvel): Written by Tony Isabella. Art by Bob Brown. Cover by Eli Katz. “I came here to ask Nelson to join S.H.I.E.L.D.” – Nick Fury. I don’t remember owning this, but that cover with the huge Hydra logo is present in my mind as something I saw on the shelves at the Five & Dime. The back-up stories are from the Hostess Pie ads.
• May 1 – Already the Home-Run King, Hank Aaron (Milwaukee Brewers) broke Babe Ruth’s career RBI record with his 2,210th RBI vs. the Detroit Tigers. His final career number of 2,297 RBI’s is still unbroken.
• May 3 – TV Guide. Art by Al Hirschfeld. Approaching the end of its first season, Rhoda (CBS) was a genuine hit. It was consistently ranked #6 in the Nielsen’s. Rhoda and Joe were married earlier in the season; a marriage that would last a couple of seasons. This was a Monday-night staple that fared well even against the Monday Night Football (ABC) juggernaut.

What the Hell Did I Put in My Mouth?

“When we’re together
Or when we’re apart
There’s never a space in between
The beat of our hearts
‘Cause I’m the apple, and you’re the tree” – John Lennon