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Thank heavens for Tubi. If you’re not using this free streaming service, I highly recommend enjoying it while it lasts. The service generally has fewer ads than Hulu, Freevee, and other streamers. It also has an intriguing catalog of movies and TV shows. I expect it’s only a matter of time until Tubi is taken over by new corporate overlords and ruined. I’ve recently re-watched such well-known releases as The Long Goodbye (1973), Red Hook Summer (2012), and Hope and Glory (1987). But I’ve also enjoyed more obscure films like First Spaceship on Venus (1960), Mysterious Island (1961), and Whistle Stop (1946).

This week I watched High Risk (1981) on Tubi, a heist film with an improbable and stunning cast – Ernest Borgnine, James Brolin, James Coburn, Bruce Davison, Cleavon Little, Anthony Quinn, and Lindsay Wagner. Lindsay Wagner! The music, while sounding like a 1980s TV movie score, was composed by Mark Snow, who later composed music for the entire X-Files franchise. The plot is something along the lines of Deliverance meets High Sierra, with the title referring to the age-old premise that great reward requires great risk. The final act is a massive shoot-’em-up that normally wouldn’t appeal to me, but somehow I found High Risk very watchable. I doubt the producers intended anything profound, but the film does work somewhat as a parable of U.S. interference in Latin America. I didn’t really know what to make of the story until the final seconds, which I had to watch twice to be sure I hadn’t imagined it. I won’t spoil the ending, but it’s unexpected and oddly satisfying.

I also started reading Barbra Streisand’s memoir My Name is Barbra. (It’s a complete coincidence that I approached Streisand’s memoir the same week I watched a movie featuring her husband James Brolin.) I rarely read celebrity memoirs and I’m often disappointed with those I do read. At 900+ pages, I’ve barely scratched the surface of Streisand’s book, but so far the book is as fascinating as the author – learning that she suffered tinnitus from an early age, and equally suffered harsh judgment and criticism about her appearance give context to Streisand’s professional achievements.