In the month of December, I matched Shopgirl (2005) with seven recent films about lovers separated by age. The finest remains Susan Sarandon & James Spader in White Palace (1990), where a happy ending was the only misstep in an otherwise candid romance. At the shallow end of the pool are Michelle Pfeiffer & Paul Rudd in I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007), which stumbled from hostility to rage. What surprises me is how many people still seem uncomfortable by depictions of relationships that defy their own personal laws of physics, even in a movie.

57 Years Old and Broke ~ Crazy Heart (2009)

Everyone Laughs At The Older Woman ~ Being Julia (2004)

Alone With Some Young Beauty ~ The Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)

An Old Lady, Next To You ~ The Good Girl (2002)

She’s Really Too Young For Me ~ Shopgirl (2005)

The Biggest Surprise In A Man’s Life Is Old Age ~ Elegy (2008)

Not The Man I Dreamt I Might Be When I Was Young ~ The Girl in the Café (2005)

The Girl Was A Zygote When You Were In the 7^th Grade ~ Beautiful Girls (1996)

In the month of November, I circled the globe to sample recent animated features. I could have devoted the month to anime in Japan and another to the work of Studio Ghibli, whose masterpieces like My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away are too good to be considered “Japanese anime”. I loved every movie I covered here. For one, the genre has the power to explore worlds too expansive or too complex for live action. And when it comes to pushing animation beyond singing and dancing animals, the film industries of several other countries have Hollywood in their rear view mirror.

Caution: Rogue Robots ~ Wall-E (2008)

We’re Wild Animals ~ Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

The Book That Turned Darkness Into Light ~ The Secret of Kells (2009)

50 Piano Lessons For Mr. Horse ~ A Town Called Panic (2009)

Entering Dark Places ~ Waltz With Bashir (2008)

Today’s Iran Is Not For You ~ Persepolis (2007)

Sita Has Many Names ~ Sita Sings The Blues (2009)

Your Friend In Australia, Mary Daisy Dinkle ~ Mary and Max (2009)

Women of Dreams Are Busy These Days ~ Paprika (2006)

In the month of October, I uncovered my eyes to take a look at nine recent horror films from eight different countries. I stayed away from France and Japan — two nations with robust genre film operations — because what I’d seen there appeared far too flagrant for my tastes. Another trend I noticed was no big shocker: the U.S. film industry has all the financing in the world, but for a few dollars less, filmmakers elsewhere maintain the creative freedom to produce work that is far more exciting.

Twelve For A Long Time ~ Let The Right One In (2008)

Turn Off The Camera ~ [Rec] (2007)

Living Dinosaurs ~ Rogue (2007)

Little Hoods ~ Eden Lake (2008)

There’s Someone Out There ~ The Strangers (2008)

God Sends Me Demons ~ Requiem (2006)

Good People Were Scared of the Left Bank ~ Left Bank (2008)

Passport To the Other World ~ The Orphanage (2007)

Ulla Harms Does Not Exist ~ The Substitute (2007)

In the month of September, I looked at ten recent movies that pass The Bechdel Test. Like a segment for The Daily Show, the “test” is a goof illustrating a real problem: the shortage of visible roles for women in film. What did I learn? Charlize Theron is underrated. Her beauty sells magazines but what gets ignored is the work she poses to publicize; small films with a point of view and challenging roles for women. For more Bechdel rental ideas, take a peek at Theron’s superlative body of work.

A Bunch of Bad Ass Chicks on Skates ~ Whip It (2009)

A Woman Everybody’s Used To ~ Trucker (2009)

An Extraordinary Little Girl ~ Orphan (2009)

Attachment Is Such A Difficult Thing To Undo ~ Bright Star (2009)

The Slower We Move, The Faster We Die ~ Up in the Air (2009)

Is Your Boyfriend Interested In Clever? ~ An Education (2009)

Actual Evil, Not High School Evil ~ Jennifer’s Body (2009)

Smoke From A Burnt Cholla ~ The Burning Plain (2008)

A Good Sense of Distaste ~ Coco Before Chanel (2009)

The House Was Alive Then ~ Summer Hours (2008)

My inner quirk now resides somewhere between Amy Adams and Emily Blunt from Sunshine Cleaning (2009).

After a seven month layoff, I’ve gone back to work. While this means I will no longer have to eat Apple Jacks for supper or wait on Sacramento to shake some loose change out of the sofa for my unemployment check, a daytime gig means I have been unable to produce any new content for This Distracted Globe. Please bear with me while I readjust to wearing socks and having a clue and I’ll be back real soon.

There was probably no better year to be a kid going to the movies than 1984.

It seems like I might have spent most of the year at two theaters in northwest Houston: the AMC North Oaks 6 and a six screen General Cinemas theater at the gargantuan Willowbrook Mall. Willowbrook featured countless retail stores. Toys By Roy and a shop that sold role playing game gear are two that stand out because I was their ideal customer at the time.

I preferred North Oaks. In addition to the movie theater, there was B. Dalton Booksellers and Aladdin’s Castle arcade. North Oaks lacked an essential element in the development of the mall as a social scene — the food court — but this suited my purposes well. I could safely enter the world of the movie with minimal risk of running into Shu-Shu Taylor and worrying what I would have to say to her.

Romancing the Stone, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Ghostbusters, The Karate Kid, Top Secret!, Night of the Comet, Dune, Beverly Hills Cop and Starman are among the pictures I remember spending time in a darkened theater with. Some (Red Dawn, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, Johnny Dangerously) I felt were masterpieces at the time. Others (Conan the Destroyer, Cannonball Run II, Runaway) I felt were crap then and 25 years has done little to change my mind.

Dialing the way-back machine to the year of 1984 with me over the next several days are the following bloggers. This post will be updated as their links continue to come in, so check back. If you enjoy the content you’re discovering at these sites, bookmark, blogroll or brag about them to anyone you know who loves reading about movies.

Jeremy Richey at Moon In The Gutter brings us all a dream of Wes Craven’s original A Nightmare On Elm Street, with some spooky screen shots.

Neil Fulwood at The Agitation of the Mind opens up the ledger on Sergio Leone’s melancholy swan song Once Upon A Time in America.

Ivan Lerner at The United Provinces of Ivanlandia (too bad for anyone else thinking of naming their blog that!) is all over the stupidest smart movie of 1984: Red Dawn.

Mike Phillips at goatdogblog answers the question of how you make a documentary without the cooperation of the subject with Maximillian Schell’s Marlene.

“Wings” at Caffeinated Joe beholds Crispin Glover dancing and other Crystal Lake horrors in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.

Jeff McMahon at When the Dead Walk the Earth chimes in with what he loves about Bill “Ghostbustin” Murray in Ghostbusters.

Patricia Evans at Pretty Pink Patty’s Pictures takes us back through the dark woods with Little Red Riding Hood in The Company of Wolves. Apropos to Patricia’s location, Neil Jordan’s adult faerie tale opened in the U.K. in 1984.

Kelsy Chesnut at cheerful cynicism embarks on a review as epic and ridiculous as the film itself, taking her first trip to the David Lynch adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune. Fantastic post, Kelsy!

Jim Wilson at Let’s Not Talk About Movies recounts the legend of Roy Hobbs, a siren’s bullet and a baseball bat called Wonderboy in The Natural.

Chuck Bowen at Bowen’s-Cinematic revisits Ron Howard’s “wonderful, frisky fantasy” Splash. I couldn’t have said it any better, Chuck!

Edward Copeland at Edward Copeland on Film polishes off his Blue Blaze Irregular badge and blasts back to The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension.

Daniel Getahun at Getafilm marvels over The Gods Must Be Crazy. A film connoisseur, Dan knows that this South African comedy played all over the globe before reaching U.S. art houses in 1984, but his take makes me glad he picked it.

Amanda Rehagen at My Life in Movies ventures back to Fantasia for Wolfgang Petersen’s adaptation of Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story. Awesome selection, Amanda! Can’t wait to find out if that creature was a dragon or a flying dog.

In the first of two exclusives he nabbed for this blogathon, Jim Magovern at The Moviezzz Blog chats with actress Catherine Mary Stewart about The Last Starfighter and Night of the Comet. Coming real soon, Stewart’s Comet co-star Kelli Maroney. Jim, you win the Carl Bernstein Award for tenacity!

Jim Magovern at The Moviezzz Blog grabs a word or two with actress Kelli Maroney about Night of the Comet.

Megan Cahalan at All I Need Is Everything uses the movies of 1984 to recall an experience growing up. On Monday, it was doing “The Neutron Dance” from Beverly Hills Cop. Tuesday brings memories of Michael Douglas & Kathleen Turner doing the business in Romancing the Stone. I really enjoyed your take on this blogathon, Megan.

J.D. Lafrance at Radiator Heaven dreams about Michael Pare and Diane Lane in Walter Hill’s maligned rock ‘n roll fable Streets of Fire.

Christian Divine at Technicolor Dreams turns in an old homework assignment, but his defense of Alex Cox’s Repo Man rates way better than an incomplete grade.

Marilyn Ferdinand at Ferdy on Films descends into Michael Radford’s adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984. Thanks, Marilyn! This post was worth the wait and is a key film to close to the blogathon on.

“What you looking at? You never seen a guy who slept with a fish before?” — Freddie (John Candy) in Splash (1984)

This Distracted Globe will host its first ever carnival — The Class of ’84 Blogathon — on Monday, October 26, 2009. On this date, anyone with a website is invited to post their thoughts on a movie or movies released in 1984. October 26 marks the 25th anniversary of The Terminator, which will be my addition to the festivities.

In addition to those contributors previously announced, the following bloggers are also set to go nostalgic:

Wings over at Caffeinated Joe will return to Crystal Lake with Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.

Between hot dogs and beer, the busy Tommy Salami at Pluck You, Too! is weighing his options carefully.

Kate Hanley at Life with a Cocktail is set to go Footloose.

Also making her contribution a game time decision will be Megan Cahalan at All I Need Is Everything.

If you haven’t already done so, RSVP This Distracted Globe in either the comments section below or via email at journeymanjones [at] gmail [dot] com. As soon as your post goes live on October 26, remember to email me your URL so I can publish it. Failure to do so may result in a bucket of seawater being thrown on yous.

“Honest work. Let me tell ya somethin’ about ‘honest work’. When somebody says they got ‘honest work’, you know what they got? They got a shit job, that’s what they got.” — Charlie (Mickey Rourke) in The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984)

This Distracted Globe will host its first ever carnival — The Class of ’84 Blogathon — on Monday, October 26, 2009. On this date, anyone with a website is invited to post their thoughts on a movie or movies released in 1984. October 26 marks the 25th anniversary of The Terminator, which will be my contribution to the festivities.

Who’s participating so far and which movies are they planning to revisit?

Why a 1984 blogathon?

If you haven’t already done so, RSVP This Distracted Globe in either the comments section below or via email at journeymanjones [at] gmail [dot] com. As soon as your post goes live on October 26, remember to email me your URL so I can publish it. Failure to do so may result in a Bedbug Eddie number being put on yous.

This Distracted Globe has announced that its first ever carnival — The Class of ’84 Blogathon — will convene Monday, October 26, 2009. On this date, anyone with a website is invited to post their thoughts on a movie released in 1984.

The registrar’s office has released the names of those scheduled to participate and the films they plan on bringing to class:

Marilyn Ferdinand at Ferdy on Films will descend into director Michael Radford’s adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984.

J.D. LaFrance at Radiator Heaven to dream about Michael Pare and Diane Lane in the maligned “rock ‘n roll fable” Streets of Fire.

Jim Magovern at The Moviezzz Blog is weighing in on the most influential movies of 1984.

Neil Fulwood at The Agitation of the Mind will open up the ledger on Sergio Leone’s gangland masterpiece Once Upon A Time In America.

Ivan Lerner at The United Provinces of Ivanlandia to go gung-ho over John Milius’ guerilla warfare fantasy Red Dawn.

Amanda Rehagen at My Life In Movies is making her contribution a game-time decision.

Kelsy Chesnut at Cheerful Cynicism will take a trip to David Lynch’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune.

Charles Bowen Jr. at Bowen’s Cinematic to take a look back at Tom Hanks’ first starring role with Splash.

Patricia Evans at Pretty Pink Patty’s Pictures is bringing Neil Jordan’s adult faerie tale The Company of Wolves.

Edward Copeland at Edward Copeland on Film will give props to The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension.

Michael W. Phillips Jr. at Goatdog Blog to cover Marlene, Maximilian Schell’s documentary on Marlene Dietrich.

Daniel Getahun at Getafilm is naming his contribution at the bell.

Pat Piper at Lazy Eye Theatre will throw his gaze on whichever 1984 movie he pleases and the rest is for YOU to find out.

Ned Merrill at Obscure One-Sheet to throw a party for Jonathan Demme’s perfect concert film Stop Making Sense.

Jeff McMahon at When the Dead Walk the Earth is also naming his contribution at a later date.

Jim Wilson at Let’s Not Talk About Movies will be a horn of plenty, ’84 style, with articles on The Natural, The Razor’s Edge and 2010.

Jeremy Richey at Moon in the Gutter to bring us all a dream of Wes Craven’s original A Nightmare on Elm Street.

October 26 will mark the 25th anniversary of The Terminator, which will be my contribution to the festivities.

Multiple perspectives on the same movies are welcome. To participate, RSVP This Distracted Globe in either the comments section below or via email at journeymanjones [at] gmail [dot] com. As soon as your post goes live on October 26, remember to email me your URL so I can publish it.

“I’ll be back.” Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger)

There was probably no better year to be a kid going to the movies than 1984.

It seems like I might have spent most of the year at two theaters in northwest Houston: the AMC North Oaks 6 and a six screen General Cinemas theater at the gargantuan Willowbrook Mall. Willowbrook featured countless retail stores. Toys By Roy and a shop that sold role playing game gear are two that stand out because I was their ideal customer at the time.

I preferred North Oaks. In addition to the movie theater, there was B. Dalton Booksellers and Aladdin’s Castle arcade. North Oaks lacked an essential element in the development of the mall as a social scene — the food court — but this suited my purposes well. I could safely enter the world of the movie with minimal risk of running into Shu-Shu Taylor and worrying what I would have to say to her.

A sample of the movies that came in 1984:

This Distracted Globe will go nostalgic by hosting its first ever carnival — The Class of ’84 Blogathon — on Monday, October 26, 2009. On this date, anyone with a website is invited to post their thoughts on a movie released in 1984. October 26 marks the 25th anniversary of The Terminator, which will be my contribution to the festivities.

To participate, RSVP This Distracted Globe in either the comments section below or via email at journeymanjones [at] gmail [dot] com. As soon as your post goes live on October 26, remember to email me your URL so I can publish it.

If you were too busy playing Zork on your Commodore 64 to recall the year’s movies, I recommend consulting The Moviezzz Blog, where Jim Magovern recently generated a list of many of the films that hit theaters in 1984. Below are some buttons Aaron Valdez has designed for any promotional needs you might have.