BSR

Arthur Fils, 20yo Frenchman currently ranked #14

So Far Away was released in Spain April 11, no idea when it comes out in the US. While I liked some parts of it while watching it initially, I felt that it dragged on too much, with simply too little story to fill 1h40m of screen time. But after a couple of days of reflection, I’ve come to appreciate it more. The protagonist Sergio travels from Barcelona to Utrecht with his brother and buddies to watch a soccer match, but on the trip back he inexplicably throws his wallet away so that when he gets to the airport, he cannot board the flight. His brother & friends give him whatever cash they can spare, but he is basically stuck in the Netherlands with no ID, friends, family, money, or knowledge of Dutch. Why Sergio did something so bizarre and baffling becomes obvious when you see how he looks at his fellow dishwasher, a beautiful Moroccan named Yusuf. I struggled to understand why Sergio is so repressed since 2008 Barcelona was already as gay-friendly as any homo could ask for. Nor did the film make any mention of Sergio’s family being particularly homophobic. After a while I figured Sergio was simply one of those guys who struggle with accepting their sexuality for reasons known only to them. I shifted from initial dissatisfaction to eventual appreciation mostly because of Mario Casas’s performance, a subtle yet moving portrayal of a man who’s going through hell and suffers that hell completely alone. No spoilers, but there’s a scene where Sergio’s brother flies up to visit him that I could watch a dozen times. While I still wouldn’t say it’s a great movie, I am glad I saw it. When it inevitably shows up on streaming, give So Far Away some consideration. PS: the dialogue is in 5 languages — English, Catalan, Spanish, Dutch, and Arabic. Under no circumstances should you watch it dubbed (Netflix always offers a dubbed option) because the language shifts, while subtle, are critical to understanding the film.

Raise your hand if you think the dad is hotter than the son …

$30 in 1981 is $105.54 today, a bargain compared to today’s dizzying prices.

Another recession indicator: furniture sales I was at a poker table where one of the players owned a furniture store, a business started by his grandfather and where he had worked all his life (he was mid-50s). He claimed that furniture sales were the first sign of a recession because new furniture has the most elastic demand of just about all goods. Sure, you can put off buying a new pair of shoes for a while when times are tough, but at some point they are completely spent and you have to buy a new pair. The same is true of cars, clothes, etc., whereas even the well-to-do can put up with their old couch at least a little bit longer.

The number of deaths is now 218. With a small area still not cleared of rubble and some survivors in critical condition, the number might climb even higher. What a tragedy, it’s hard to wrap your head around it.

More than 300K reviewers on IMDb have given it an average rating of 1.6 … Wow. The 2025 Snow White’s box office is bombing. I wonder how big Disney’s loss will be.

I’d have a snowball’s chance in Hades of making it onto that jury. If the prosecution is smart, they’ll show prospective jurors a shirtless pic of Luigi then look for “that look,” you know, that starving wolf -> juicy ribeye look. They’d ding me so hard I’d sail clear over the Hudson River.

Mine is a photo of Mikel Erentxun, the lead singer of the Spanish rock band Duncan Dhu. I picked him (a pic from his youth, he’s now 60) because he was a great case of a guy who’s neither handsome (imho) nor has a great body yet is sexy AF. We’ve all met guys like that. They’re delightfully puzzling.

Yes, that’s the correct Yogi-ism. Berra was referring to a pennant race, but it can apply to any baseball game (8/5/2001 Seattle blew a 12-0 lead, Cleveland came back to win 15-14) or series (2004 ALCS, Boston came back from 0-3 games down to beat the Yankees 4-3). My favorite Yogi-ism: “Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.”