Happy Thursday, everyone! Big snowstorms here in the United States with a lot of people with no power and it's, well, it's going to be 80 here in Virgina today. (But a high of 45 on Saturday! Yeesh.). So settle down if you can, get some cocoa and let's look at what I've found recently.
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I missed Castle Rock in its original run on Hulu back in 2018-2019, which is a little weird because I'm a big Stephen King fan who usually sees the major adaptations*. But I heard enough interesting things about it and it's insanely good cast (seriously, Melanie Lynskey, Tim Robbins, Jane Levy, Lizzy Caplan and Bill Skarsgård, among many others?) that it was always in the back of my mind. So when I ran across this at my local shop (and for frankly a really cheap price) I took a chance on it. And c'mon, Sissy Spacek is in this. If anyone else has earned a chance to take a second try at King (in apparently a very different role) it's Spacek.
Castle Rock is still streaming on Hulu.
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Freaky Friday, the novel, was published in 1972. Written by Mary Rodgers, also a songwriter who contributed a lot fo music revues and also the Marlo Thomas album Free To Be You And Me (a staple for a lot of '70s kids but I think I missed it by a couple of years; when I saw a stage performance of it a few years ago I found it pleasant but had absolutely no childhood connection to it). Friday has been adapted for features movies three times, one the Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsey Lohan movie in 2003 (which I've honestly never seen), one the very fun horror film Freaky in 2020 (directed by Christopher Landon, who also directed the excellent Happy Death Day films) and this, the original feature film imn 1976. Directed by Gary Nelson, who worked a ton in TV over the years (and only passed away last year) but also directed a few feature films (I'm one of the people with a bunch of weird affection for Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold, though I'm sure if I watched it now I'd see a lot of White Savior stuff).
Anyway, you probably know the basic story. Barbara Harris is the mother, Jodie Foster the daughter, they fight, make a weird wish and they switch bodies for the day. It's all in the execution, and both Harris and Foster are pretty delightful here having fun with doing impersonations of each other. It's good goofy fun, very 1970's live-action Disney.
Freaky Friday is streaming on Disney+.
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The era of Bleeding Kansas is a tragic and weird little corner of the prelude to the US Civil War as pro-slavery and abolitionist groups clashed as the debate grew over whether slavery would be legal in what would become Kansas. Terrorist groups attacked between Kansas Territory and Missouri, resulting in a lot of death and political killings. In many ways, the fighting in Kansas between slavers and abolitionists (including that they had separate capitals) mirrored what was coming a few years later. Ang Lee's Ride With The Devil might not be as well known as Brokeback Mountain or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon but it's a quite effective look at the wars, starring a lot of young actors of the time, like Tobey Maguire and Skeet Ulrich, effective casting to show that in a lot of cases these were essentially teenagers fighting a war they barely understand. (And hey, Jewel Kilchner is pretty good in this!)
Ride With The Devil is unfortunately not streaming anywhere in a package, but is available for rent or purchase at the usual places.
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