The descent. (Patreon)

Tight race this week, but ultimately The Ascent, which pleasantly surprised me by making it to showdown despite its relative obscurity (Criterion release surely helped), couldn't quite muster enough support (48%) to beat classic Preston Sturges (51%). I've seen The Miracle of Morgan's Creek just once previously, in 1998; my memory is that I found it slightly disappointing, if only by comparison to Sturges' other canonical films. And indeed it's not currently on my 1944 top 10 list (though apparently I need to move it to 1943, in any case, as that's when it premiered overseas). So prepare for some contrarianism or some crow ingestion. It's streaming on the Criterion Channel.

So are both of April's random selections. My Night at Maud's (also last seen by me in '98) showed up in the poll for six weeks quite some time ago, whereas the 7-hour, two-part Russian War and Peace had been a perpetually ignored option for almost a year now. (My friend Victor has been a patron since day one and in that time has made exactly two requests: War and Peace and The Miracle Maker, which likewise got randomly drawn. Time to brainstorm again, sir.) Regarding the latter, I'll need to make a decision about whether to consider it one film or two; Criterion released it as a single entity, but also dates it as "1966-67," which I can't tolerate. But the IMDb has it listed as a 1965 film that runs just 100 minutes! I assume that was some sort of Greed-level debasement that's since been corrected, but more research is needed. Assistance welcome.

And speaking of welcome assistance (KILLER SEGUE), y'all continue to be the greatest and I remain immensely grateful. As I write this, I'm in between Pfizer shots—first dose was two weeks ago tomorrow; I'm back for the booster next Friday—so hopefully some semblance of normal life will soon resume. But there's no question that I wouldn't have remained solvent over the past year without your support, and I can only again say: Thank you so much. Especially for not unsubscribing when I didn't like Real Genius.