Movies: Con men, Gentlemen, and Lunatics

I've gotten a bit out of order, so I'll do a quick wrap-up of some other movies recently watched.

The Sting (1973). You all know the basic plot and players, I imagine. But I'd never seen it. What a blast! I completely abandoned my critical lexicon in favor of exclaiming, at regular intervals, "What a cool movie!" and "This is the coolest movie ever!!"

Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2006). I'd heard good things about this. It's a fictional story of the filming of a movie adaptation of Laurence Sterne's quirky 18th-century novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. (No, I've never read it either.) B and I thought it quite funny--that may be a combination of us being snooty literary types and also having been on film sets on location, complete with the volunteer historical re-enactors--and it has also garnered favorable reviews. (Even the official website of the movie is all self-reflexive, nuevo-pomo.) Those of you who find the process aspect (business end) of movies interesting, you'll particularly enjoy this one.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). Apparently, there was another gaping hole in my experience of American film, which has now been remedied. What a completely bizarre movie. Peter Sellers appears as Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, a British exchange officer, U.S. President Merkin Muffley, and a disabled (and completely insane) Nazi physicist. Frankly, I really didn't see it going where it did. Clever, funny, and terribly, terribly disturbing.
Best surprise: A very young James Earl Jones in his movie debut playing bombardier Lieutenant Lothar Zogg.