It’s Wednesday night here at BCB After Dark: the hippest hangout for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in and join us for a while. We’re got no cover charge this evening. There are still a few tables available. The show will start shortly. Bring your own beverage.
BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.
The Cubs got shut out by Mackenzie Gore and the Washington Nationals tonight, 2-0. The Cubs wasted a pretty terrific start by Matthew Boyd, who got victimized by a solo home run by Amed Rosario on a pitch that was so far outside it would have gone in the dugout had Rosario not made contact. OK, it wasn’t that far outside, but it was really far outside the zone. You don’t expect someone to do anything with those other than swing and miss or take it for a ball.
Last night I asked you what you thought Cubs team president Jed Hoyer needed to do to keep his job. Thirty percent of you think that Hoyer has already earned a new contract and another 24 percent think the Cubs just need to win the division for Hoyer to get a new deal. Only four percent of you think that Hoyer should be fired no matter what.
Here’s the part where we listen to music and talk movies. You can skip that if you want.
Tonight we’re featuring pianist Bill Charlap and the Bill Charlap Trio. They’re playing the jazz standard “Out of Nowhere.” Peter Washington is on bass and Kenney Washington is the drummer.
This is from 2021.
I watched director Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island (2010), which is a Scorsese picture I had missed up until now. (There are others—more on that later.) I thought the film was gorgeous, shot in Massachusetts, partially on an island in the Boston Harbor that stands in for the title island, which is a home for the criminally insane. I thought Leonardo DiCaprio turned in a terrific performance as the troubled US Marshal and that the classical music soundtrack, which was picked out by Scorsese’s longtime friend Robbie Robertson, worked perfectly. The film suffers in that the big “mystery” of the film is pretty obvious from early in the film and it was frustrating getting to the reveal at the end because you keep asking yourself how far is the film going to drag this thing out? (To be fair, dragging it out gives DiCaprio more opportunities for his character to go nuts, which may be the most entertaining part of the movie.)
I’d like to steal something from a little filmlet that runs on TCM between movies in which Scorsese confesses his obsession with movie ratings as a kid. He noted that Night of the Hunter got two-and-a-half stars and Scorsese says something like “It wasn’t great. It wasn’t even good. But that little extra half star meant it was ‘almost good.’” I’d actually give the film three stars, but I can see giving it two-and-a-half if you’re grading it on a curve of Scorsese’s oeuvre. Shutter Island is good. It isn’t great.
(And Night of the Hunter deserved four stars. It was criminally underappreciated in its day.)
I don’t like to write about 21st Century films because I figure that you can read about those films in lots of places on the internet. I make exceptions for more obscure indie or foreign fare, but while Shutter Island wasn’t a box office smash, no Scorsese film can be considered obscure anymore.
So I thought I’d let you vote on your favorite film directed by Martin Scorsese tonight. I’ve seen most, but not all of these. My favorite is Goodfellas, which is one of my top ten movies of all time. But I can certainly see how people might disagree with me on that point.
I do want to point out that one Scorsese film that I haven’t seen is The Aviator, which I’m embarrassed about because I own the Blu-Ray. To be fair, it came in a relatively inexpensive three-pack at Target along with Goodfellas and The Departed, and I bought it for those two. I always meant to get around to watching The Aviator later, but I kind of forgot about it.
So tell us about your favorite film directed by Martin Scorsese. Do you go with the classics like Taxi Driver or Mean Streets? Do you favore the epic boxing biopic Raging Bull, which I remember topped a lot of “Best movies of the 1980s” lists that came out in 1990. Are you, like me, a Goodfellas fan? Or what about his epic concert film The Last Waltz? Or the film that is probably most personal to Scorsese, the religious film The Last Temptation of Christ?
While it’s not my favorite Scorsese film, I’d say The King of Comedy is his most underrated. Four stars.
So discuss your favorite Scorsese film in the comments. And if you’ve seen it, tell me if I need to go back and watch The Aviator ASAP or if I can wait a while.
Poll
What’s your favorite film directed by Martin Scorsese?
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Mean Streets (1973)
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Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
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Taxi Driver (1976)
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The Last Waltz (1978)
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Raging Bull (1980)
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The King of Comedy (1982)
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After Hours (1985)
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The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
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Goodfellas (1990)
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Cape Fear (1991)
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The Age of Innocence (1993)
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Gangs of New York (2002)
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The Aviator (2004)
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The Departed (2006)
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The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
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Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
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Something else (leave in comments)
(0 votes)
0 votes total
Welcome back to those who skip those non-baseball sections.
The All-Star Game ballot was released today and I’m sure all of you are stuffing the ballot for your Cubs favorites. Or you’re not. Either way is OK with me. Some years I vote and stuff the ballot box. Other years I decide I don’t care who gets picked.
In any case, I think we’d all be surprised if Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong wasn’t selected to start for the National League. Beyond being one of the best players in the NL so far this season, he’s also one of the most popular. Not only is he a flashy defender and baserunner, but the enthusiasm he shows for the game. Davy Andrews over at Fangraphs even wrote an article entitled “Pete Crow-Armstrong Just Wants a Hug” about the way that PCA bolts onto the field to celebrate when the Cubs win in walk-off fashion. That stuff makes a player a fan favorite.
But tonight I’m going to ask you which Cub other than PCA is most deserving of starting for the National League in the All Star Game? There are nine Cubs on the ballot. If you were only allowed to vote for two, which one other than Crow-Armstrong would you vote for?
Poll
Which Cub, other than PCA, is most deserving of starting in the All-Star Game?
Thank you for stopping by tonight and all week. A special thank you to everyone who joins the conversation in the comments. Please get home safely. Tell your friends about us. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us next time for more BCB After Dark.