Liberty Liberty Liberty. Liberty. (Patreon)

Apologies to foreign readers (and just to those who don't watch ad-supported TV) for that annoying-jingle reference, meant to signify that last week's request-poll heads-up loser, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, won decisively in its repeat engagement, taking 63% of the vote opposite Smile (the 1975 Michael Ritchie film, not last year's horror movie). As previously noted, I haven't seen it since 1995, when I vaguely recall being a bit underwhelmed, relative to its canonical stature. Long past time for another look. Streaming on Amazon Prime, Paramount+, all over the place.

Algorithm-wise, March brings us both a current request (Night of the Comet, which had been a poll option for 23 non-consecutive weeks) and an older one (Sleeper, which came and went multiple times for a total of 15 weeks). Been ages since I saw either—both of them predate my logs, begun in 1992 (though it's possible that I rewatched Sleeper during 1992–95, as I didn't yet log repeat viewings). I believe Night of the Comet would've been in the '80s, though definitely not during its theatrical run in '84. That one's available via Kanopy, Tubi, the Roku Channel, and various rental options. Sleeper, however, seems to be hibernating, perhaps because its auteur has become toxic. (Reservoir Dogs, left over from last month's random drawing, is on my docket for tonight.)

So yesterday, while taking my more-or-less-daily-weather-permitting exercise walk, I tripped on a tree root, fell forward, caught myself with my hands, and sustained the classic distal radius fracture, i.e. my right wrist is broken. (Technically my arm, but it's the wrist that's really affected.)  Not very badly, prognosis is good, but my entire right arm is currently in a splint, to be replaced next week by a proper cast. Basically, I don't have the use of my right hand for the next 8-12 weeks. Did I mention that I'm right-handed?

As you can imagine, or may know from experience, this presents a great many challenges, with previously simple tasks (tying your shoes, opening a bottle) becoming difficult or impossible. As far as writing's concerned, it's mostly just a pain in the ass—typing with just my left hand, as I'm doing now (and did when composing my Outwaters review earlier), is laborious and slow. But it can be done, as you see. And I'm gonna experiment with dictation options, though for some reason I find it hard to write that way. Anyway, nothing much should change on your end, with one exception: While the splint/cast is on, I'm gonna require distraction, so expect to see shorter reviews (excluding requests) of more movies than usual. Maybe I'll treat the next couple of months like an extended festival-at-home, with regular reports akin to those I filed from TIFF-at-home two years ago. It's barely been 24 hours since my injury and I'm still figuring things out.

As ever, my deepest gratitude to each of you for your support, without which I wouldn't be able to pay for the X-rays I got last night and all the X-rays I'll be getting down the road. Thanks so much.