A jewel thief tries to build the perfect life for himself, only to find he's in hock to more powerful gangsters in this stylish Neo-noir film that has one foot in 1970s American New Wave and another in the 1980s crime thriller.

Starring James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Robert Prosky, Willie Nelson, and James Belushi. Written and directed by Michael Mann.

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A young Dubliner puts together a band of working class musicians to play American soul music in this shaggy film based on Roddy Doyle's novel.

We talk about music, what it means to be a cover band, questions raised by white singers trying to sound "black", and whether we've lost touch with making art for yourself.

Starring Robert Arkins, Michael Aherne, Angeline Ball, Maria Doyle, Dave Finnegan, Bronagh Gallagher, Félim Gormley, Glen Hansard, Johnny Murphy, Andrew Strong, and Colm Meany. Written by Roddy Doyle. Directed by Alan Parker.

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Beach Month ends with the loving parody of the genre, where Frankie and Annette rekindle their marriage, their son falls in with punks, and their daughter falls in love with a genial surf bum. It's packed with cameos from 1960s sitcom stars, musicians, and a whole lot of green-screened surfing.

Starring Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Devin Sladin, Lauri Loughlin, Tommy Hinkley, Connie Stevens, Don Adams, Bob Denver, and Pee-Wee Herman. Written by Peter Krikes, Steve Meerson, and Christopher Thompson. Directed by Lyndall Hobbs.

The classic Arthurian story is given a Pagan spin, where the adherents of the Goddess of the Old Religion--lead by Vivian, the Lady of the Lake, and her chosen successor Morgaine--are at odds with the growing Christian religion of Glastonbury and Camelot. Everyone hopes that Arthur will be the one true king to unite the two faiths into one nation, but, well, we all know how that turns out.

This tv miniseries adaptation of Marion Zimmer-Bradley's extremely popular novel is lusciously designed for its time, but the story falls apart in the second half, not only skipping large portions of the book, but rewriting it in ways that I found frustrating.

Starring Julianna Margulies, Anjelica Huston, Joan Allen, Samantha Mathis, Edward Atterton and Michael Vartan. Written by Gavin Scott from the book by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Directed by Uli Edel.

CW: contains a brief discussion of the child sexual abuse allegations against Bradley and her ex-husband.

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Beach Month continues with no beach, no Frankie, and no Annette, but we do get a corpse in a creepy house who has to perform one last good deed in order to get into heaven, his evil attorney trying to cheat two young people out of a fortune, and the Bobby Fuller Four as the backing band. It's very silly, not remotely beachy, and a far cry from movies like Gidget or Beach Party, with the only continuity coming from the return of Eric Von Zipper and his biker gang. But it also has very strong Scooby-Doo vibes, so who are we to complain?

Starring Tommy Kirk, Deborah Walley, Basil Rathbone, Nancy Sinatra, Aron Kinkade, Quinn O'Hara, Harvey Lembeck, and Boris Karloff. Written by Louis M. Heyward and Elwood Ullmann. Directed by Don Weis.

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Beach Month continues with one of the weirdest of the Frankie & Annette beach party movies: skydiving, scheming managers, bikers, murderous pool sharks, a silent film star, and a mermaid take over the beach and make things hard for the perennial lovebirds.

Starring Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley, Harvey Lembeck, John Ashley, Jody McCrea, Linda Evans, Don Rickles, Paul Lynde, Buster Keaton, and Earl Wilson. Written by Leo Townsend and William Asher. Directed by William Asher

We kick off a brief series on beach movies with a viewing of the original, the story of a tomboy who takes up surfing thanks to the help of the king of the beach bums, the Big Kahuna, while falling in love with his sidekick Moondoggie.

Starring Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson, and James Darren. Written by Gabrielle Union. Directed by Paul Wendkos.

It's the 4th of July, which means it's time for baseball, mom, and apple pie. We bring back Mary's sister to talk about one of her favorite movies (that Mary somehow avoided), a story about a bunch of boys playing neighborhood baseball in the summer of 1962. It's all rose-tinted glasses and lemonade, an exercise in nostalgia, and it's a pretty good movie.

Starring Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Patrick Renna, Chauncey Leopardi, Marty York, Brandon Adams, Grant Gelt, Shane Obedzinski, Victor DiMattia, Denis Leary, Karen Allen, and James Earl Jones. Written by David Mickey Evans and Robert Gunter. Directed by David Mickey Evans

The newly-discovered Scrolls of Merlin have been stolen by a time-traveling MacBeth, so it's up to the Gargoyles to retrieve them. That's right, we check out the Disney fantasy series from the 1990s that combined Shakespeare, fairies, Celtic magic, evil billionaires, and cyberpunk aesthetics.

Gargoyles, season 2, episode 4: "A Lighthouse in the Sea of Time"

Starring Keith David, Ed Asner, Bill Fagerbakke, John Rhys Davies, and Paul Winfield. Written by Lydia Marano & Brynne Chandler Reaves. Directed by Frank Paur.

This is a preview of the latest episode of our series Hollywood Avalon. To hear the entire episode, join the Mary Versus the Movies patreon for $3/month to hear this and the entire series Hollywood Avalon: https://www.patreon.com/maryvsmovies.

A mobster's widow is romantically pursued by both the FBI agent trailing her and the don who killed her husband. Oh, and the don's wife wants her dead. What's a girl to do?

Starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Modine, Dean Stockwell, Alec Baldwin, and Mercedes Ruehl. Written by Barry Strugatz and Mark R. Burns. Directed by Jonathan Demme.