October movies, part 2 of 3:

135. (1194.) Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)
What a lightweight movie. It's too shallow to call it a character study, making it more like an extended SNL sketch. It works best when Streep is singing; you can't help but laugh.

136. (1195.) The Paradine Case (1947)
This Hitchcock film felt like a gender-flipped variation on his earlier masterpiece Rebecca. It's good, though I'm not nuts about Gregory Peck in the lead role.

137. (1196.) Kiss of the Tarantula (1976)
A dumb, low budget horror movie about a girl who kills people with — guess what? — tarantulas. It's too dull to have a lot of entertainment value as a cult film, but if you really like the fantasy of revenge flicks and spiders, this might be for you.

138. (1197.) Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)
Setup, punchline, repeat. This sequel trades the "heart" of the original for nonstop comedy and snark. I enjoyed it. (Hey! Pentatonix is even in it!)

More to come.

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I'm not a big music person. Most of my cd collection is soundtracks, and I don't really care for live music. I can count the bands I've seen in person on one hand — Pink Floyd, Drivin' N Cryin', Living Colour, and They Might Be Giants. Now I have one for the thumb: last night I went to Atlanta's Aaron's Lakewood Ampitheatre to see Pentatonix.

I've enjoyed Pentatonix since they won NBC's The Sing-Off in 2011. I can't believe that a five-member a capella group can generate so much sound. Now I've seen them in person, and I still can't believe it.

Technically, Kelly Clarkston was the headliner. It's a testament to Clarkston's talent that a big crowd turned out to see her performance despite the terrible weather. I'd like to say that her set blew me away, but I didn't stick around to hear it. As I said, I'm not really a big music person.

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