Sidewalk Stories (1989)

And I thought it was hard to avoid comparing Bless Their Little Hearts to Bicycle Thieves! Sidewalk Stories has so much in common with Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid it might as well be a remake. Both are silent black and white movies about a lovable but destitute man whose life changes for the better when he takes responsibility for an abandoned child. The nearly 70 years between these movies did create some gulfs that differentiate them, but the joy both bring seems a bit more universal.

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Bless Their Little Hearts (1983)

One of my favorite Letterboxd reviews is Filmspotting producer Sam Van Hallgren’s blurb on the 2017 horse drama Lean on Pete. It’s barely more than a sentence: “You’re either the kind of movie person who doesn’t mind waiting around a couple of hours for a kid to burst into tears – or you’re not. Simple as that.” Without providing any details or real spoilers, he told me everything I needed to know about the experience of watching that movie. So I am proud to follow in that tradition with Bless Their Little Hearts: Either you’re the kind of person who can wait an hour for a couple to have an explosive fight – or you’re not.

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Cane River (1982)

Like so many of the movies I’m writing about this month, Cane River is unique and ahead of its time and was so close to being a big deal, but ended up being lost for decades. Its easy to imagine an alternate reality where a movie about a Romeo and Juliet-esque forbidden romance deeply steeped in an interesting, under-explored part of American history from a Black director and cast and crew could have set the world on fire. Indeed, it sounds like Cane River was a hit in its few screenings in 1982, when taste makers like Richard Pryor and Roger Ebert raved about the film. But writer-director Horace B. Jenkins’ sudden death put a stop to Cane River‘s planned 1983 release, turning this potential landmark into myth until it was restored earlier this year.

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Losing Ground (1982)

I’m happy to bring our weekend of women directors to a close with Kathleen Collins, a trailblazer whose second film, Losing Ground, is considered to be the first feature-length movie directed by an African American woman. Although that credential is somewhat debated, as some point to directors of the silent era while others say it was the commercial distribution of Daughters of the Dust (which I’ll get to in a few days) that made Julie Dash the one to finally brake that glass ceiling, nonetheless it is obvious and irrefutable that Collins had an immense talent and her career was cut tragically short.

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My Brilliant Career (1979)

With some prominent actors, you do end up asking the question “where did they come from?” This was something I often wondered with Judy Davis, though I suppose the literal answer to this question was of course “Australia”. She’s the kind of character actress that has always seemed like a bit of an odd fit for American films, though also seemed to be respected for reasons that weren’t obvious to me. However, all of these questions became abundantly clear after watching My Brilliant Career, a coming-of-age tale that saw Davis giving an effortlessly brilliant, career-making performance. Ugh, that felt a little too close to Gene Shalit territory (sometimes Criterion Month feels longer than a month, my friends). Anyways, you could also say the film had a similar effect on the career of director Gillian Armstrong, another Aussie who has also had a long and interesting career that has often flirted with Hollywood.

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