The Checkout Counter #45
August 2026

Limón y Sal

Kamome Diner

Dog Day Afternoon

happy september! if you're reading this on my website, you may have noticed a visual update—it's one that i've been fiddling around with for a while. the theme switcher on the header still has the classic styling, along with some new and reworked themes. i've also added a kitchen section, which i hope to fill with many more food-related links.

thanks for reading 😊

Film

  • Taxi, 2015 (تاکسی)movie piracy is beautiful 🤍 i'm very familiar with panahi's work now so there were no real surprises here, but this is the most plausibly deniable it's-not-a-movie-trust-me film of his that i've seen so far. it's very intimate, like we (panahi, the cast, the audience) are all in on a joke together.
    Drama. Filmmaker Jafar Panahi drives a yellow cab through the streets of Tehran, picking up and dropping off passengers throughout the day.
  • Dog Day Afternoon, 1975MOVIE! the first third or so of this is so funny, like when al pacino has to stand on chairs to spray paint security cameras and doesn't know what the fuck he's doing, or when the head teller played by penelope allen refuses to leave with the police. as the afternoon crawls on toward evening the tone shifts appropriately and it's so satisfying and nail-biting how everything changes for the worse as the sun sets.

    michael corleone has always endeared me to 70s al pacino and he's perfect here—and all the supporting cast members are on his level. i'm going to remember some of the line deliveries in this forever. perfect august watch. let's fly to wyoming.
    Thriller, crime, drama. A bank robbery on a hot August afternoon soon escalates into a televised hostage situation.
  • Kamome Diner (かもめ食堂), 2006it tastes better when someone makes it for you :) wonderful movie. the diner interior is ridiculously cute and the overall production design is a marvel. somehow this never got too twee or saccharine for me—maybe it was the brief moments of magic realism, or the way sachie remains a bit of a mystery. or, i don't know, maybe i'm only allergic to hollywood's brand of sentimentality.

    i pointed at the screen and felt like leaping up when the man without a past star markku peltola appeared, what a brief but arresting screen presence. kopi luwak!
    Drama, comedy. Sachie opens a diner in Helsinki, serving Japanese comfort food to a small but dedicated customer base of three.
  • Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, 2025perfect example of the type of movies we could get if copyright didn't exist (how on earth did this get made). this didn't quite hit for me, maybe because i'm not familiar with the original show at all or i'm just not on these two's exact wavelength, but i had fun. the moment in the movie theater when matt realizes something's deeply wrong and that he actually time traveled is so fucking funny.
    Comedy, adventure, scifi. After failing to book a show for seventeen years, musicians Matt and Jay travel back in time to 2008.
  • Boyfriends and Girlfriends (L'Ami de mon amie), 1987i kind of didn't care for this plot at all but the visuals are so stunning and the two leads are so gorgeous it was still a very pleasant watch lol. i suppose i'm easily placated by fashionable women and the mazelike architecture of the parisian suburbs.

    expectedly very straight and they obviously should've had a crazy foursome and blanche and léa should've made out at that cafe but alas, it was the 80s and challengers hadn't been invented yet.
    Romance, comedy, drama. Blanche and Léa become quick friends after a chance meeting at lunch. Léa is dating Fabien but is considering leaving him, while Blanche is interested in a mutual acquaintance, Alexandre.

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