Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold (bottle)
Cleveland, OH
5.8% ABV
This one was in honor of Harvey Pekar, who died while I was in Prague and didn't have access to American beer. Pekar was from Cleveland, and so I thought a fitting tribute to him would be to review a beer from a microbrewery in Cleveland, even though so far as I know Harvey wasn't a beer drinker and didn't have any particular connection to Great Lakes Brewing.
Anyway, this was a very nice dry malty lager, with lots of complexity and a crisp hoppiness. I'd definitely buy it again.
My numerical rating: 7.0/10
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
05 August 2010
07 March 2009
More Watchmen Funnies
This has a shelf-life of about ten minutes, but it's still pretty funny.
Wolverine looks decent, but no way is it going to match the genius of Watchmen.
There's also this, for those interested in the Watchmen video game. I'm interested in the game, I'm afraid it's just really just going to be a way to sully Moore's intellectual property again.... (Was there a V for Vendetta game?)
Wolverine looks decent, but no way is it going to match the genius of Watchmen.
There's also this, for those interested in the Watchmen video game. I'm interested in the game, I'm afraid it's just really just going to be a way to sully Moore's intellectual property again.... (Was there a V for Vendetta game?)
06 March 2009
Saturday Morning Watchmen
Just ran across this while reading blogs. I can't get it out of my head. It's insidious.
I think this may be even better than "Watchmen Babies."
I know there's a videogame in development based on Watchmen, and I just hope it doesn't suck ass.
I think this may be even better than "Watchmen Babies."
I know there's a videogame in development based on Watchmen, and I just hope it doesn't suck ass.
26 February 2009
Obligatory Oscar Post
I know I'm about a week behind, but Shana and I DVR'd the Oscars this year and we only got around to watching them last night. A few comments.
General Oscar Stuff
Every year we get the same talk about how the Oscars are hidebound, reactionary, never honor the right films, etc. etc. We also seem to continually get comments from the conservative wingnutosphere about how liberal the Oscars are, and how they should be honoring movies that people actually see rather than commie Oscar Bait movies. (Big Hollywood just gave them a place to sun themselves -- those of us who pay attention have been seeing the same whining for years.)
Here's my take. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is an industry association, really no different in principle from any one of a million professional groups that will be renting out conference rooms in airport hotels across the country this year holding their annual suit-and-tie banquet dinners and award ceremonies. The Oscars are ruled by exactly the same kind of inside politicking and the same Old Guard that would be picking "Best Tire Salesman" in another context, and that's pretty much precisely as it should be. The Independent Spirit Awards are a much more reliable gauge of quality, and tend to pick the kinds of idiosyncratic flicks that people like you and I probably think deserve to be honored. If the Oscars are a bit old-fashioned, that's just the price we pay for the prestige and history of the award. Usually, certainly not always, but usually, Oscar oversights are corrected in the long run, anyway.
And as far as the populist argument goes, consider the top-grossing movies of the year. Admittedly, 2008 was a pretty good year as far as the top-earners were concerned, but do we really want to start giving Oscars to movies like Horton Hears a Who (10th highest grosser of 2008), Marley and Me (14th), or (shudder) Twilight, the seventh highest grosser of the year? 2007 was even worse -- you don't get to a really good movie until you get to number 15, and that was Juno. The Oscars tend to honor middlebrow artsy films made within the studio system that make middling amounts of money, and it's likely to stay that way for a long time to come.
Anyway....
The Show
I was actually really impressed with the show this year. Jackman doesn't have the comedy chops of previous hosts, but he played to his strengths in a pair of song-and-dance Broadway-style numbers, one of which was amazingly funny and the other of which was just great spectacle. I loved the opening bit with the no-budget dance number, and Anne Hathaway was a great sport and very funny in her own right. She'd make a great Nixon!
Speaking of funny, this was probably the highlight of the entire show for me.
I wouldn't be shocked if Janusz Kaminsky ends up in Apatow's next film. (Okay, I really would be, but I still think they'd make a fine comedy team.)
Ben Stiller's Joaquim Phoenix bit fell flat for me. Good concept, but I think a bit more suiter for the MTV movie awards than the Oscars. And Bill Maher's material really didn't work -- he seemed more like a man pissy at not being nominated than a man honoring documentary achievement.
The idea of bringing on past nominees to present the awards in the big acting categories was a good one. Some complain that it just makes the whole thing longer and more self-indulgently insufferable, but I thought it helped tie this year's Oscars to the past, putting the performances in better context, and generally were actually pretty funny. I only wish Anthony Hopkins had been the one to talk about Frank Langella's performance as Nixon, since, you know, Nixon.
The Awards
I said above that Oscars generally go to movies that are made within the Hollywood system, so honestly I figured this year would be Benjamin Button's year. Brad and Angelina looked like Hollywood royalty, and with both of them up for top-level acting honors, I was expecting it was their time to shine together. But I guess Slumdog really is an amazing film (I haven't seen it yet, or any of the big movies except for The Wrestler), for it beat all my expectations and won many of the big prizes. It's funny that this year's best director was making zombie flicks just a few years ago.
Does anyone really think that Milk really deserved its screenplay Oscar and that Sean Penn gave the best performance in his category? Admittedly, I haven't seen the film, but screenwriter Dustin Lance Black is better known for his work on Big Love than on feature screenplays, and if he's that good he could have been honored for another project down the line. And I don't even think Sean Penn believed that he deserved to beat Mickey Rourke this year -- he specifically honored Rourke at the end of his acceptance speech, almost like an apology. I hate Prop 8 as much as anyone, but giving out awards based on "sending a message" politically is just playing into the hands of those who believe that's all Hollywood ever does.
Was there any doubt that Heath Ledger would win? Was there any doubt that he deserved to win? His Joker is probably one of the all-time great movie villains, and watching the clips of his performance last night just made it hit home all the harder the amazing talent we lost. I don't think The Dark Knight is a great movie, but Ledger's performance elevated the whole project, and I don't think that movie would be anything close to what it was if it hadn't been Heath playing that role.
Anyway, I think that's all I've really got on the Oscars. Good show, entertaining, with a few missteps, but ultimately I think I like the new format. The movies themselves weren't really compelling this year, but overall I can't complain too much.
General Oscar Stuff
Every year we get the same talk about how the Oscars are hidebound, reactionary, never honor the right films, etc. etc. We also seem to continually get comments from the conservative wingnutosphere about how liberal the Oscars are, and how they should be honoring movies that people actually see rather than commie Oscar Bait movies. (Big Hollywood just gave them a place to sun themselves -- those of us who pay attention have been seeing the same whining for years.)
Here's my take. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is an industry association, really no different in principle from any one of a million professional groups that will be renting out conference rooms in airport hotels across the country this year holding their annual suit-and-tie banquet dinners and award ceremonies. The Oscars are ruled by exactly the same kind of inside politicking and the same Old Guard that would be picking "Best Tire Salesman" in another context, and that's pretty much precisely as it should be. The Independent Spirit Awards are a much more reliable gauge of quality, and tend to pick the kinds of idiosyncratic flicks that people like you and I probably think deserve to be honored. If the Oscars are a bit old-fashioned, that's just the price we pay for the prestige and history of the award. Usually, certainly not always, but usually, Oscar oversights are corrected in the long run, anyway.
And as far as the populist argument goes, consider the top-grossing movies of the year. Admittedly, 2008 was a pretty good year as far as the top-earners were concerned, but do we really want to start giving Oscars to movies like Horton Hears a Who (10th highest grosser of 2008), Marley and Me (14th), or (shudder) Twilight, the seventh highest grosser of the year? 2007 was even worse -- you don't get to a really good movie until you get to number 15, and that was Juno. The Oscars tend to honor middlebrow artsy films made within the studio system that make middling amounts of money, and it's likely to stay that way for a long time to come.
Anyway....
The Show
I was actually really impressed with the show this year. Jackman doesn't have the comedy chops of previous hosts, but he played to his strengths in a pair of song-and-dance Broadway-style numbers, one of which was amazingly funny and the other of which was just great spectacle. I loved the opening bit with the no-budget dance number, and Anne Hathaway was a great sport and very funny in her own right. She'd make a great Nixon!
Speaking of funny, this was probably the highlight of the entire show for me.
I wouldn't be shocked if Janusz Kaminsky ends up in Apatow's next film. (Okay, I really would be, but I still think they'd make a fine comedy team.)
Ben Stiller's Joaquim Phoenix bit fell flat for me. Good concept, but I think a bit more suiter for the MTV movie awards than the Oscars. And Bill Maher's material really didn't work -- he seemed more like a man pissy at not being nominated than a man honoring documentary achievement.
The idea of bringing on past nominees to present the awards in the big acting categories was a good one. Some complain that it just makes the whole thing longer and more self-indulgently insufferable, but I thought it helped tie this year's Oscars to the past, putting the performances in better context, and generally were actually pretty funny. I only wish Anthony Hopkins had been the one to talk about Frank Langella's performance as Nixon, since, you know, Nixon.
The Awards
I said above that Oscars generally go to movies that are made within the Hollywood system, so honestly I figured this year would be Benjamin Button's year. Brad and Angelina looked like Hollywood royalty, and with both of them up for top-level acting honors, I was expecting it was their time to shine together. But I guess Slumdog really is an amazing film (I haven't seen it yet, or any of the big movies except for The Wrestler), for it beat all my expectations and won many of the big prizes. It's funny that this year's best director was making zombie flicks just a few years ago.
Does anyone really think that Milk really deserved its screenplay Oscar and that Sean Penn gave the best performance in his category? Admittedly, I haven't seen the film, but screenwriter Dustin Lance Black is better known for his work on Big Love than on feature screenplays, and if he's that good he could have been honored for another project down the line. And I don't even think Sean Penn believed that he deserved to beat Mickey Rourke this year -- he specifically honored Rourke at the end of his acceptance speech, almost like an apology. I hate Prop 8 as much as anyone, but giving out awards based on "sending a message" politically is just playing into the hands of those who believe that's all Hollywood ever does.
Was there any doubt that Heath Ledger would win? Was there any doubt that he deserved to win? His Joker is probably one of the all-time great movie villains, and watching the clips of his performance last night just made it hit home all the harder the amazing talent we lost. I don't think The Dark Knight is a great movie, but Ledger's performance elevated the whole project, and I don't think that movie would be anything close to what it was if it hadn't been Heath playing that role.
Anyway, I think that's all I've really got on the Oscars. Good show, entertaining, with a few missteps, but ultimately I think I like the new format. The movies themselves weren't really compelling this year, but overall I can't complain too much.
21 February 2009
Funny People Trailer
I believe that The 40 Year Old Virgin is one of the finest comedies of the last couple of decades, and deliberately saved Knocked Up for when I needed a good laugh, but found myself sorely disappointed by that flick. While Virgin was all about giving a human face to a high-concept flick, Knocked Up was born more out of the personal neuroses and problems of Judd Apatow, and while there is humor to be mined there, to be sure, Apatow seemed somehow too close to the material, too personally invested to allow the film to really take off the way that Virgin did. I was so disappointed by Knocked Up that I still haven't even seen Superbad, although I know that Apatow produced that one and didn't direct.
Now here's the trailer for Funny People.
Okay, besides the pretty generic title that's a little too close to last year's Smart People for me (and the presence of Adam Sandler in another two-word movie brings to mind Bedtime Stories), the maudlin tone and general lack of energy make me think this is a lot more Knocked Up than Virgin. I love Seth Rogen and I think the idea of seeing him do standup is a good one, but this trailer just makes me think it's sort of like a Bucket List for people my age, a generic feel-good piece of emotional pap that avoids any real depth while also managing to not be very funny.
I'd love to be wrong, but I really wish that Apatow would team back up with Steve Carell.
(Just for the record, I liked Pineapple Express a lot and adore Forgetting Sarah Marshall. And Observe and Report looks like a lot better mix of comedy and dark character drama than Funny People.)
Now here's the trailer for Funny People.
Okay, besides the pretty generic title that's a little too close to last year's Smart People for me (and the presence of Adam Sandler in another two-word movie brings to mind Bedtime Stories), the maudlin tone and general lack of energy make me think this is a lot more Knocked Up than Virgin. I love Seth Rogen and I think the idea of seeing him do standup is a good one, but this trailer just makes me think it's sort of like a Bucket List for people my age, a generic feel-good piece of emotional pap that avoids any real depth while also managing to not be very funny.
I'd love to be wrong, but I really wish that Apatow would team back up with Steve Carell.
(Just for the record, I liked Pineapple Express a lot and adore Forgetting Sarah Marshall. And Observe and Report looks like a lot better mix of comedy and dark character drama than Funny People.)
19 January 2009
Foundational
The Unshelved Book Club has rarely been more up my alley than with this entry:
I don't actually think that George Lucas specifically ripped off The Foundation Trilogy when he wrote Star Wars, but clearly Lucas's most famous works rely greatly on science fiction tropes and ideas that were utilized so well in Asimov's work. (For that matter, Asimov could hardly claim to have invented a lot of those same tropes, since E. E. Smith's Lensman series did it decades before Asimov.) While I don't consider any of the Foundation books to be Asimov's masterworks, they're among the most famous works of the early days of science fiction, and it's always nice to see them getting their props.
It's ironic that this was posted just as this news came out:
Roland Emmerich? Directing Foundation? Okay, so this isn't the absolutely worst news that we could hear -- it could be Paul W.S. Anderson at the helm. But with such a classic piece of SF that's been in and out of development for at least a decade, I wish that we could get someone with a little bit more vision for the themes of the story rather than relying on spectacle -- we need a Peter Jackson to tackle this project, and instead we're getting the guy whose best movie so far is Independence Day.
Who do I think could tackle this and give it the respect it deserves? Personally I'd vote for Darren Aronofsky, but that's just a pipe dream...
I don't actually think that George Lucas specifically ripped off The Foundation Trilogy when he wrote Star Wars, but clearly Lucas's most famous works rely greatly on science fiction tropes and ideas that were utilized so well in Asimov's work. (For that matter, Asimov could hardly claim to have invented a lot of those same tropes, since E. E. Smith's Lensman series did it decades before Asimov.) While I don't consider any of the Foundation books to be Asimov's masterworks, they're among the most famous works of the early days of science fiction, and it's always nice to see them getting their props.
It's ironic that this was posted just as this news came out:
Columbia won an auction late Thursday for screen rights to "Foundation," Isaac Asimov's ground breaking science fiction trilogy. The film will be developed as a directing vehicle for Roland Emmerich.
Emmerich and his Centropolis partner Michael Wimer will produce the film. The deal was mid six-figures against low seven figures.
Roland Emmerich? Directing Foundation? Okay, so this isn't the absolutely worst news that we could hear -- it could be Paul W.S. Anderson at the helm. But with such a classic piece of SF that's been in and out of development for at least a decade, I wish that we could get someone with a little bit more vision for the themes of the story rather than relying on spectacle -- we need a Peter Jackson to tackle this project, and instead we're getting the guy whose best movie so far is Independence Day.
Who do I think could tackle this and give it the respect it deserves? Personally I'd vote for Darren Aronofsky, but that's just a pipe dream...
12 January 2009
Why I'm Not Planning on Seeing Bride Wars anytime soon.
From Massawyrm over at AICN:
So, yeah. If just seeing the trailer wasn't enough to make you want to avoid Bride Wars like a drunken WWII-era sailor avoids the hooker with the mouth sores, this should certainly help.
(Yes, I'm writing this while under the influence of alcohol. Why do you ask?)
Imagine if Nora Ephron awoke from a dream to pencil down a half baked idea based upon having watched Rushmore just hours before and then that notepad was stolen by someone with no imagination whatsoever that wanted nothing more than to set feminism back 20 years or so. That’s Bride Wars. Lacking a single enjoyable, or hell, even palatable moment, this film meanders from lame girly revenge moment to lame girly revenge moment as two women who were at one time lifelong friends, seek to completely humiliate the other by dying their hair blue, giving them a super orange tan or tricking them into overeating so they won’t fit into their wedding dress. For 90 cringe inducing minutes.
Yeah. It’s Mean Girls for the ladies that found that film a little too cerebral.
So, yeah. If just seeing the trailer wasn't enough to make you want to avoid Bride Wars like a drunken WWII-era sailor avoids the hooker with the mouth sores, this should certainly help.
(Yes, I'm writing this while under the influence of alcohol. Why do you ask?)
30 December 2008
29 December 2008
My Year in Review, Movies
As I said before, I didn't get to see too many movies in theaters this year, and thus don't feel comfortable really putting together a "ten-best" list of movies made in 2008. I did, however, see dozens of movies through Netflix, and have decided to put together a personal ten-best list based on the movies that I saw during the year 2008 that I rented from Netflix. If you go back and look at the full list of movies I quoted in the earlier post, you'll notice that many of the films I saw this year are recognized masterpieces, which made it very difficult to pick just ten (plus a handful of honorable mentions) that really stood out from the rest. To that end, I've decided to pick ten that meant something to me personally, or movies that stood out from the pack and stuck in my head more than the others.
Other than the top three or four on this list, it wouldn't be that hard for me to change my mind. Certainly I wouldn't argue that some of these picks are better than some of the others I didn't place on the list, but the essence of making this kind of list is making decisions, so here are the ten that I'm picking, in reverse order.
10. A Fish Called Wanda (1988). Now, I'm not saying that this film is better than Stray Dog or Do the Right Thing, but it's certainly funnier. Kevin Kline and Jamie Lee Curtis join about half the cast of Monty Python in a modern (okay, modern for the 1980s) take on a classic screwball comedy-slash-crime caper. The double-crossings come fast and furious, no one's motives are quite what they seem, and the physical comedy is some of the best ever filmed. Kevin Kline in particular is superb as a thief with delusions of intellectual grandeur and pretty much steals the show out from under the feet of the rest of this amazing cast.
9. Lake of Fire (2006). Tony Kaye's three-hour abortion documentary was nearly two decades in the making, and while the photography may be black-and-white, the nuance and moral complexity is all about shades of gray. The long running time gives the viewer time to settle in and get comfortable with the pace, to meet the people on camera and begin to understand each viewpoint before moving on to the next person. I got to the end of the film and couldn't imagine how anyone could ever think that Lake of Fire ascribes to a pro-life position -- I've read reviews from the other side of the aisle that indicate viewers who disagree with me on the subject of abortion tend to feel the film takes their side instead. Kaye's film includes some startling imagery of actual aborted tissue and contains its fair share of vulgar language, but no one can argue that this film treats its subject with anything other than dispassionate humanism. A must-see for anyone who cares about the abortion debate.
8. In Cold Blood (1967). This adaptation of Truman Capote's "nonfiction novel" is one of the greatest crime dramas ever made. Forget the fact of its verisimilitude and its attention to the details of the actual crime -- In Cold Blood gains its power by showing exactly how two nobody small-time crooks managed to commit a horrific crime. It humanizes its protagonists without ever excusing their crime. And yes, it becomes a bit of an anti-death penalty screed towards the end, but you can excuse some of the preachiness and just focus on the brilliant performances, direction, and amazing cinematography by Conrad Hall. (Original review here.)
7. Nashville (1975). Possibly Robert Altman's greatest film, which is saying something. Another three-hour chair-buster, Nashville uses its running time to introduce us to a huge cast of characters in the titular city, and provides a dozen or so musical set pieces that altogether probably comprise a full hour of the film. Watch it at least twice; while it may seem like this movie is almost entirely plotless, tiny threads move throughout the film and what seem to be meaningless details eventually add up to become amazingly detailed plot threads. Robert Altman, you will be missed.
6. Chinatown/Knife in the Water (1974, 1962). Two films from Roman Polanski that I saw for the first time this year, both so good I can't choose just one. Chinatown is a note-perfect noir made thirty years after noir was king with a breakthrough performance by Jack Nicholson and an ending that curdles the blood. Knife in the Water is a masterpiece of low-budget film -- it takes place almost entirely within the confines or immediately outside a small sailboat and has only three actors.... but they have enough psychological and sexual tension for six or even sixteen. Both are brilliant and deserve inclusion but if you asked me to pick just one it'd be Knife.
5. Double Indemnity (1944). Possibly the noir picture. An insurance agent (Fred MacMurray) and a femme fatale (Barbara Stanwyck) conspire to do in her husband. She wants the money; he wants.... We never really find out what he wants, probably mostly just the satisfaction of getting away with it. Edward G. Robinson plays a smart fraud agent at the insurance company and has a knack for finding just the wrong time to ask just the right question. A film so modern in its approach that it could be made today... but no remake could ever even attempt to topple the original.
4. Downfall (2004). This was the film of a thousand Youtube parody videos, but the original retains its power through sheer storytelling. This story of the last days of Hitler is possibly the most disturbing and depressing piece of cinema ever made, but lovers of cinema will be energized by the amazing cast, cinematography, and direction. Bruno Ganz is electrifying as one of the most evil men in history -- Downfall is worth seeing for his performance alone. A must-see for film fans and/or history buffs. (Original review here.)
3. Dawn of the Dead (1978). Not the first of Romero's zombie movies, but the best. Dawn of the Dead starts with a society in chaos from the zombie apocalypse and never takes its foot off the gas pedal. Romero uses his zombies to examine the effects of racism and sexism, of class and social standing, of consumerism and of desperation. Combine this with the fact that Dawn is easily one of the most terrifying experiences I've ever had (with many of the most tension-filled sequences played out in full light, at that!) and contains some truly horrifying examples of zombie gore and you have what is bar-none one of the finest films I've ever seen.
2. City of God (2002). This was a late entry for me -- I saw it only days before writing this list. Nevertheless this crime drama from Brazil is definitely one of the finest films I saw this year; a sort of bleak Brazilian Goodfellas that has the kind of assertive and propulsive energy you'd expect from a much more experienced filmmaker. The violence and dread of violence is punctuated by a coming-of-age tale (that somehow never grates) and sequences of great humor, but at all times City of God reminds its audience that death and destruction can be just around the corner. Go into it knowing as little as possible and I promise you won't be disappointed.
1. Once Upon a Time in the West. (1968). I don't usually like Westerns, but I absolutely loved this Western. Sergio Leone makes one of the most elegiac films I've ever seen, a long song, even a hymn, to the Old West. As Society and Civilization invade the wide-open spaces of these characters' lives, we see how some of them can deal with it while others can't. The cinematography captures some of the greatest images ever put on film, and Ennio Morricone's score is so amazing that I've been listening to it regularly ever since seeing the film. The Western you should see even if you hate Westerns. (Original review here.)
(But, but... what about Wings of Desire and Stray Dog and and and.... Forget it, I've already gone one over already.)
Okay, fine. A few more that I loved -- here I'm focusing on genre pictures, films that fill a niche perfectly rather than films that really deserve inclusion. Four more, in no particular order:
Bound (1996). Lesbian noir, how can I say no? Before the Wachowski brothers were pretending they knew how to philosophize and do kung fu at the same time, they made this low-budget indie masterpiece. Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly play lovers who steal millions from mobster Joe Pantoliano. It's the kind of premise that sounds like a "gay cowboys eating pudding" movie but the plotting and script are first-rate, the performances are mannered but great, and the Wachowskis show they have a great sense of style when they don't let their own computer fetishes get out of hand. Oh, and the sex scenes are some of the hottest ever put on film.
Martin (1975). Three years before returning to the zombie movie with Dawn of the Dead, George Romero gave the world his take on vampirism. Is the titular character really a vampire, or just a fucked-up kid? Romero never really supplies an answer, and this low-budget horror film works just as well as a character study of a young man who can't quite come to grips with who (or what) he really is. It all leads to a finale which has to be seen to be believed.
Ravenous (1999). Oh, what happened to you Guy Pearce? This might be the movie with the hokiest premise (well, except for Six String Samurai) I saw all year: vampire cannibals in the 1840s. What starts off as the story of a disgraced military officer slowly becomes one of the great genre movies of all time as the mystical powers granted by the eating of human flesh become known to the characters. Standout performances by the aforementioned Pearce, Robert Carlyle and Jeffrey Jones.
Encounters at the End of the World (2007). Werner Herzog goes to Antarctica. He meets crazy scientists and sees some amazing sights of the natural world. What else do you need? Go rent it.
Okay, that's my list for 2008. Hopefully in 2009 I can do a lot more to get to write up regular reviews of the films I'm watching so that these sorts of lists will have more meaning. I'm aiming for two a week, but I don't think there's a chance in hell that I'll actually make that kind of schedule.
Other than the top three or four on this list, it wouldn't be that hard for me to change my mind. Certainly I wouldn't argue that some of these picks are better than some of the others I didn't place on the list, but the essence of making this kind of list is making decisions, so here are the ten that I'm picking, in reverse order.
10. A Fish Called Wanda (1988). Now, I'm not saying that this film is better than Stray Dog or Do the Right Thing, but it's certainly funnier. Kevin Kline and Jamie Lee Curtis join about half the cast of Monty Python in a modern (okay, modern for the 1980s) take on a classic screwball comedy-slash-crime caper. The double-crossings come fast and furious, no one's motives are quite what they seem, and the physical comedy is some of the best ever filmed. Kevin Kline in particular is superb as a thief with delusions of intellectual grandeur and pretty much steals the show out from under the feet of the rest of this amazing cast.
9. Lake of Fire (2006). Tony Kaye's three-hour abortion documentary was nearly two decades in the making, and while the photography may be black-and-white, the nuance and moral complexity is all about shades of gray. The long running time gives the viewer time to settle in and get comfortable with the pace, to meet the people on camera and begin to understand each viewpoint before moving on to the next person. I got to the end of the film and couldn't imagine how anyone could ever think that Lake of Fire ascribes to a pro-life position -- I've read reviews from the other side of the aisle that indicate viewers who disagree with me on the subject of abortion tend to feel the film takes their side instead. Kaye's film includes some startling imagery of actual aborted tissue and contains its fair share of vulgar language, but no one can argue that this film treats its subject with anything other than dispassionate humanism. A must-see for anyone who cares about the abortion debate.
8. In Cold Blood (1967). This adaptation of Truman Capote's "nonfiction novel" is one of the greatest crime dramas ever made. Forget the fact of its verisimilitude and its attention to the details of the actual crime -- In Cold Blood gains its power by showing exactly how two nobody small-time crooks managed to commit a horrific crime. It humanizes its protagonists without ever excusing their crime. And yes, it becomes a bit of an anti-death penalty screed towards the end, but you can excuse some of the preachiness and just focus on the brilliant performances, direction, and amazing cinematography by Conrad Hall. (Original review here.)
7. Nashville (1975). Possibly Robert Altman's greatest film, which is saying something. Another three-hour chair-buster, Nashville uses its running time to introduce us to a huge cast of characters in the titular city, and provides a dozen or so musical set pieces that altogether probably comprise a full hour of the film. Watch it at least twice; while it may seem like this movie is almost entirely plotless, tiny threads move throughout the film and what seem to be meaningless details eventually add up to become amazingly detailed plot threads. Robert Altman, you will be missed.
6. Chinatown/Knife in the Water (1974, 1962). Two films from Roman Polanski that I saw for the first time this year, both so good I can't choose just one. Chinatown is a note-perfect noir made thirty years after noir was king with a breakthrough performance by Jack Nicholson and an ending that curdles the blood. Knife in the Water is a masterpiece of low-budget film -- it takes place almost entirely within the confines or immediately outside a small sailboat and has only three actors.... but they have enough psychological and sexual tension for six or even sixteen. Both are brilliant and deserve inclusion but if you asked me to pick just one it'd be Knife.
5. Double Indemnity (1944). Possibly the noir picture. An insurance agent (Fred MacMurray) and a femme fatale (Barbara Stanwyck) conspire to do in her husband. She wants the money; he wants.... We never really find out what he wants, probably mostly just the satisfaction of getting away with it. Edward G. Robinson plays a smart fraud agent at the insurance company and has a knack for finding just the wrong time to ask just the right question. A film so modern in its approach that it could be made today... but no remake could ever even attempt to topple the original.
4. Downfall (2004). This was the film of a thousand Youtube parody videos, but the original retains its power through sheer storytelling. This story of the last days of Hitler is possibly the most disturbing and depressing piece of cinema ever made, but lovers of cinema will be energized by the amazing cast, cinematography, and direction. Bruno Ganz is electrifying as one of the most evil men in history -- Downfall is worth seeing for his performance alone. A must-see for film fans and/or history buffs. (Original review here.)
3. Dawn of the Dead (1978). Not the first of Romero's zombie movies, but the best. Dawn of the Dead starts with a society in chaos from the zombie apocalypse and never takes its foot off the gas pedal. Romero uses his zombies to examine the effects of racism and sexism, of class and social standing, of consumerism and of desperation. Combine this with the fact that Dawn is easily one of the most terrifying experiences I've ever had (with many of the most tension-filled sequences played out in full light, at that!) and contains some truly horrifying examples of zombie gore and you have what is bar-none one of the finest films I've ever seen.
2. City of God (2002). This was a late entry for me -- I saw it only days before writing this list. Nevertheless this crime drama from Brazil is definitely one of the finest films I saw this year; a sort of bleak Brazilian Goodfellas that has the kind of assertive and propulsive energy you'd expect from a much more experienced filmmaker. The violence and dread of violence is punctuated by a coming-of-age tale (that somehow never grates) and sequences of great humor, but at all times City of God reminds its audience that death and destruction can be just around the corner. Go into it knowing as little as possible and I promise you won't be disappointed.
1. Once Upon a Time in the West. (1968). I don't usually like Westerns, but I absolutely loved this Western. Sergio Leone makes one of the most elegiac films I've ever seen, a long song, even a hymn, to the Old West. As Society and Civilization invade the wide-open spaces of these characters' lives, we see how some of them can deal with it while others can't. The cinematography captures some of the greatest images ever put on film, and Ennio Morricone's score is so amazing that I've been listening to it regularly ever since seeing the film. The Western you should see even if you hate Westerns. (Original review here.)
(But, but... what about Wings of Desire and Stray Dog and and and.... Forget it, I've already gone one over already.)
Okay, fine. A few more that I loved -- here I'm focusing on genre pictures, films that fill a niche perfectly rather than films that really deserve inclusion. Four more, in no particular order:
Bound (1996). Lesbian noir, how can I say no? Before the Wachowski brothers were pretending they knew how to philosophize and do kung fu at the same time, they made this low-budget indie masterpiece. Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly play lovers who steal millions from mobster Joe Pantoliano. It's the kind of premise that sounds like a "gay cowboys eating pudding" movie but the plotting and script are first-rate, the performances are mannered but great, and the Wachowskis show they have a great sense of style when they don't let their own computer fetishes get out of hand. Oh, and the sex scenes are some of the hottest ever put on film.
Martin (1975). Three years before returning to the zombie movie with Dawn of the Dead, George Romero gave the world his take on vampirism. Is the titular character really a vampire, or just a fucked-up kid? Romero never really supplies an answer, and this low-budget horror film works just as well as a character study of a young man who can't quite come to grips with who (or what) he really is. It all leads to a finale which has to be seen to be believed.
Ravenous (1999). Oh, what happened to you Guy Pearce? This might be the movie with the hokiest premise (well, except for Six String Samurai) I saw all year: vampire cannibals in the 1840s. What starts off as the story of a disgraced military officer slowly becomes one of the great genre movies of all time as the mystical powers granted by the eating of human flesh become known to the characters. Standout performances by the aforementioned Pearce, Robert Carlyle and Jeffrey Jones.
Encounters at the End of the World (2007). Werner Herzog goes to Antarctica. He meets crazy scientists and sees some amazing sights of the natural world. What else do you need? Go rent it.
Okay, that's my list for 2008. Hopefully in 2009 I can do a lot more to get to write up regular reviews of the films I'm watching so that these sorts of lists will have more meaning. I'm aiming for two a week, but I don't think there's a chance in hell that I'll actually make that kind of schedule.
22 December 2008
A to Z Meme
I saw this floating around the net a while ago, but seeing Chad Orzel's version made me decide to just step up and do it myself. It's the A-Z movie meme, in which the idea is to pick a movie beginning with each letter of the alphabet. I'm kind of just going with what sticks in my head first, here, so don't think that I'm picking the absolute best movie for each letter or anything. I'm deliberately picking only movies I've seen, so some of these might be a little weird. Here goes.
A: American Beauty. The first entry on my list is the first movie directed by Sam Mendes (also the first movie written by Six Feet Under's Alan Ball). I haven't seen this since its original release, and the backlash generated around the film is in full force, but I'm guessing that it holds up pretty well despite that.
B: Blade Runner. Proof that a slightly off-kilter plot will never be able to kill a great story. See also The Dark Knight for more evidence in favor of this.
C: Citizen Kane. Cause you just have to.
D: Die Hard. You mean this isn't everyone's favorite Christmas movie? The birth of the modern-day Bruce Willis, as opposed to affable-comedy-guy-Blind Date/Moonlighting Bruce Willis, or (even worse) poor-man's Billy Joel Bruce Willis.
E: Edward Scissorhands. This strange fairy tale may be Tim Burton's best movie.
F: Fargo. This or No Country for Old Men is probably the Coen Brothers' best film. Plus my backyard kind of looks like this movie right now.
G: Ghostbusters. I've seen this movie so many times I could probably reconstruct it scene for scene from memory after the apocalypse.
H: Home Alone. I feel terrible that I can't think of a great "H" movie, but isn't this still the highest-grossing comedy of all time?
I: Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Just finished watching this a half hour ago. A bit dated, but a classic of the genre.
J: Jackie Brown. Underrated Tarantino masterpiece, with great performances from Pam Grier and Robert Forster.
K: Knife in the Water. Polanski's first directorial effort, a low-budget film with only three actors but with enough tension for six.
L: Lake of Fire. Tony Kaye's three-hour documentary about abortion is dispassionate enough to be work seeing no matter where you stand on the issue.
M: Magnolia. Paul Thomas Anderson's third movie, a masterpiece of coincidence, love, loss, and pain.
N: Night of the Living Dead. George Romero's first zombie movie, wildly influential, hugely successful. Invented the modern zombie story.
O: Oleanna. David Mamet's study of sexual harassment, a two-person show that is amazing in its ambiguity. We see everything that happens, but we have no idea what it means.
P: The Princess Bride. I'm sure there are other movies I could put here, but I keep coming back to this classic tale from William Goldman. One of the most quotable movies ever.
Q: Quiz Show. I loved this movie in my late teens -- whether it holds up now is another question. My guess is that seen metaphorically it'd seem remarkably prescient as a metaphor for the loss of national innocence.
R: The Rules of Attraction. Roger Avary's low-budget, deeply strange, widely misunderstood loose adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's novel. Victor's trip to Europe is one of the greatest four minutes or so of film I've ever seen.
S: Six String Samurai. How has this movie not developed a massive online cult following? Just watch the trailer and tell me why.
T: Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Still possibly James Cameron's best film, one of the greatest action pictures ever made.
U: UHF. At first I thought that the only ones I could think of were movies I haven't seen: Unforgiven, The Untouchables, Under the Cherry Moon. And IMDB is no help. But finally I thought of this Weird Al Yankovic vehicle from the mid-eighties.
V: V for Vendetta. Another hard one. It's a great graphic novel that got turned into a good movie.
W: Who Framed Roger Rabbit? A technical milestone and a classic of family entertainment.
X: eXistenz. Yes, I know it's cheating a bit, but this remarkable David Cronenberg flick deserves a look if you haven't seen it already.
Y: Young Einstein. Because no movie list is complete without a Yahoo Serious inclusion.
Z: Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Kevin Smith saves me from having to list Zelig.
Now let's do something a bit different: I'll name twenty-six movies that I haven't yet seen, but want to. This should be a bit easier than naming movies I've already seen.
A: Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Love to see some more Werner Herzog movies.
B: The Big Sleep. Film noir's always in season, right?
C: Clockwatchers. Ebert gave this indie flick three-and-a-half stars -- it sounds like Office Space for temp workers.
D: Dog Day Afternoon. For the Pacino performance.
E: El Topo. Because I'm fucked in the head.
F: Falling Down.
G: The Godfather. That's right, I've never seen the Godfather movies. So sue me.
H: House of Games. David Mamet. 'Nuff said.
I: Intolerance. My knowledge of silent movies is sadly lacking.
J: Jarhead.
K: King Kong. I've never seen the 1933 original.
L: Lolita. Although I'd like to read the book first.
M: McCabe & Mrs. Miller. You can never have too much Robert Altman.
N: Nosferatu. Have wanted to see this ever since I saw Shadow of the Vampire.
O: Once Upon a Time in America. I so love ...in the West that I'm looking forward to seeing this 1984 thematic-follow-up.
P: Pink Flamingos. The film that gave John Waters to the world.
Q: The Quiet American. Both versions.
R: Rashomon. And:
S: Seven Samurai. Because I need to see more Kurosawa movies.
T: Talk Radio. One of the few films of Oliver Stone I haven't seen.
U: Unforgiven.
V: Vertigo.
W: Walkabout.
X: Xanadu. For my gay friends.
Y: You Can Count on Me. For Laura Linney and Matthew Broderick in indie-mode.
Z: Zulu. I've heard it's a great indie film.
Okay, that's enough alphabet for now. I feel like my brain is turning to soup.
A: American Beauty. The first entry on my list is the first movie directed by Sam Mendes (also the first movie written by Six Feet Under's Alan Ball). I haven't seen this since its original release, and the backlash generated around the film is in full force, but I'm guessing that it holds up pretty well despite that.
B: Blade Runner. Proof that a slightly off-kilter plot will never be able to kill a great story. See also The Dark Knight for more evidence in favor of this.
C: Citizen Kane. Cause you just have to.
D: Die Hard. You mean this isn't everyone's favorite Christmas movie? The birth of the modern-day Bruce Willis, as opposed to affable-comedy-guy-Blind Date/Moonlighting Bruce Willis, or (even worse) poor-man's Billy Joel Bruce Willis.
E: Edward Scissorhands. This strange fairy tale may be Tim Burton's best movie.
F: Fargo. This or No Country for Old Men is probably the Coen Brothers' best film. Plus my backyard kind of looks like this movie right now.
G: Ghostbusters. I've seen this movie so many times I could probably reconstruct it scene for scene from memory after the apocalypse.
H: Home Alone. I feel terrible that I can't think of a great "H" movie, but isn't this still the highest-grossing comedy of all time?
I: Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Just finished watching this a half hour ago. A bit dated, but a classic of the genre.
J: Jackie Brown. Underrated Tarantino masterpiece, with great performances from Pam Grier and Robert Forster.
K: Knife in the Water. Polanski's first directorial effort, a low-budget film with only three actors but with enough tension for six.
L: Lake of Fire. Tony Kaye's three-hour documentary about abortion is dispassionate enough to be work seeing no matter where you stand on the issue.
M: Magnolia. Paul Thomas Anderson's third movie, a masterpiece of coincidence, love, loss, and pain.
N: Night of the Living Dead. George Romero's first zombie movie, wildly influential, hugely successful. Invented the modern zombie story.
O: Oleanna. David Mamet's study of sexual harassment, a two-person show that is amazing in its ambiguity. We see everything that happens, but we have no idea what it means.
P: The Princess Bride. I'm sure there are other movies I could put here, but I keep coming back to this classic tale from William Goldman. One of the most quotable movies ever.
Q: Quiz Show. I loved this movie in my late teens -- whether it holds up now is another question. My guess is that seen metaphorically it'd seem remarkably prescient as a metaphor for the loss of national innocence.
R: The Rules of Attraction. Roger Avary's low-budget, deeply strange, widely misunderstood loose adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's novel. Victor's trip to Europe is one of the greatest four minutes or so of film I've ever seen.
S: Six String Samurai. How has this movie not developed a massive online cult following? Just watch the trailer and tell me why.
T: Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Still possibly James Cameron's best film, one of the greatest action pictures ever made.
U: UHF. At first I thought that the only ones I could think of were movies I haven't seen: Unforgiven, The Untouchables, Under the Cherry Moon. And IMDB is no help. But finally I thought of this Weird Al Yankovic vehicle from the mid-eighties.
V: V for Vendetta. Another hard one. It's a great graphic novel that got turned into a good movie.
W: Who Framed Roger Rabbit? A technical milestone and a classic of family entertainment.
X: eXistenz. Yes, I know it's cheating a bit, but this remarkable David Cronenberg flick deserves a look if you haven't seen it already.
Y: Young Einstein. Because no movie list is complete without a Yahoo Serious inclusion.
Z: Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Kevin Smith saves me from having to list Zelig.
Now let's do something a bit different: I'll name twenty-six movies that I haven't yet seen, but want to. This should be a bit easier than naming movies I've already seen.
A: Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Love to see some more Werner Herzog movies.
B: The Big Sleep. Film noir's always in season, right?
C: Clockwatchers. Ebert gave this indie flick three-and-a-half stars -- it sounds like Office Space for temp workers.
D: Dog Day Afternoon. For the Pacino performance.
E: El Topo. Because I'm fucked in the head.
F: Falling Down.
G: The Godfather. That's right, I've never seen the Godfather movies. So sue me.
H: House of Games. David Mamet. 'Nuff said.
I: Intolerance. My knowledge of silent movies is sadly lacking.
J: Jarhead.
K: King Kong. I've never seen the 1933 original.
L: Lolita. Although I'd like to read the book first.
M: McCabe & Mrs. Miller. You can never have too much Robert Altman.
N: Nosferatu. Have wanted to see this ever since I saw Shadow of the Vampire.
O: Once Upon a Time in America. I so love ...in the West that I'm looking forward to seeing this 1984 thematic-follow-up.
P: Pink Flamingos. The film that gave John Waters to the world.
Q: The Quiet American. Both versions.
R: Rashomon. And:
S: Seven Samurai. Because I need to see more Kurosawa movies.
T: Talk Radio. One of the few films of Oliver Stone I haven't seen.
U: Unforgiven.
V: Vertigo.
W: Walkabout.
X: Xanadu. For my gay friends.
Y: You Can Count on Me. For Laura Linney and Matthew Broderick in indie-mode.
Z: Zulu. I've heard it's a great indie film.
Okay, that's enough alphabet for now. I feel like my brain is turning to soup.
21 December 2008
My Year in Netflix
I've been very lax on writing up movies the last couple of months, partly because I've been adjusting to my new environment, partly because I haven't been watching as many movies as I used to, and partly because I'm just damned lazy most of the time. I also haven't seen more than a handful of movies this year in theaters, due to lack of money, time, or availability of the really interesting films that have come out this year. (Oh, Synecdoche, New York, why won't you play near me?) So as it comes towards the end of the year, that time in which all of those who style themselves critics feel the compulsive need to assemble a "best-of" list, I find myself pretty much shit-out-of-luck.
On the other hand, I've spent the majority of 2008 filling in gaps in my film knowledge by using Netflix to view classic films. And while my consumption has declined in the last couple of months, according to my rental history, I've rented and viewed eighty-six films this year, excluding TV-on-DVD and a handful of movies that I didn't watch all the way through for one reason or another. So I've decided to compose a "best-of" list of the movies I saw during 2008, a list that aside from being an examination of my own personal year of film, is also a celebration of sorts of Netflix itself, and an appreciation of the ability to get to cheaply see such a variety of movies in a single year.
In that vein, I'm posting today a list of all the movies that I've seen this year. I know there are still a dozen days left (and I'll surely see at least a couple more movies before the clock strikes midnight on Dec 31), but any movies that I see this year will be considered for my 2009 list. (It'd be nice to think I'll have the stick-to-it-tiveness to do this next year, as well, isn't it?)
Here's the list of all the movies that I have returned to Netflix during the year 2008.
28 Weeks Later
3:10 to Yuma
A Fish Called Wanda
A Simple Plan
Audition
Baby Face
Battle Royale
Bella
Bound
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Brokeback Mountain
Bruce & Lloyd Out of Control
Catch and Release
Chinatown
City of God
Creation Adventure Team
CSA: Confederate States of America
Dawn of the Dead
Day of the Dead
Desk Set
Do the Right Thing
Double Indemnity
Downfall
Encounters at the End of the World
Following
For the Bible Tells Me So
Freaks
Gangs of New York
Ginger
Hard Candy
Husbands and Wives
Ichi the Killer
Idiocracy
In Cold Blood
Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter
Kiss Me Deadly
Knife in the Water
Lake of Fire
Land of the Dead
Left Behind: The Movie
Martin
Munich
Nashville
Oleanna
Once Upon a Time in the West
Patton Oswalt: Werewolves and Lollipops
Q & A
Ravenous
Redacted
Renaissance
Repo Man
Romance
Romance & Cigarettes
Rushmore
Salò
Secret Honor
Shoot 'Em Up
Six-String Samurai
Slaughterhouse Five
Slipstream
South Park: The Imaginationland Trilogy
Stardust
Straw Dogs
Stray Dog
Taxi to the Dark Side
The Assassination of Jesse James
The Comedians of Comedy: The Movie
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Day the World Ended
The French Connection
The Hammer
The Long Goodbye
The Maltese Falcon
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Third Man
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Wild Child
Triple B Collection: The Dallas Connection
Undead or Alive
Versus: Director's Cut
Waitress
Westworld
Wild Things
Wings of Desire
Wizard of Gore
Expect my ten-best list in the next few days, along with another couple of year-end retrospectives detailing things that are of interest to this blog.
On the other hand, I've spent the majority of 2008 filling in gaps in my film knowledge by using Netflix to view classic films. And while my consumption has declined in the last couple of months, according to my rental history, I've rented and viewed eighty-six films this year, excluding TV-on-DVD and a handful of movies that I didn't watch all the way through for one reason or another. So I've decided to compose a "best-of" list of the movies I saw during 2008, a list that aside from being an examination of my own personal year of film, is also a celebration of sorts of Netflix itself, and an appreciation of the ability to get to cheaply see such a variety of movies in a single year.
In that vein, I'm posting today a list of all the movies that I've seen this year. I know there are still a dozen days left (and I'll surely see at least a couple more movies before the clock strikes midnight on Dec 31), but any movies that I see this year will be considered for my 2009 list. (It'd be nice to think I'll have the stick-to-it-tiveness to do this next year, as well, isn't it?)
Here's the list of all the movies that I have returned to Netflix during the year 2008.
28 Weeks Later
3:10 to Yuma
A Fish Called Wanda
A Simple Plan
Audition
Baby Face
Battle Royale
Bella
Bound
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Brokeback Mountain
Bruce & Lloyd Out of Control
Catch and Release
Chinatown
City of God
Creation Adventure Team
CSA: Confederate States of America
Dawn of the Dead
Day of the Dead
Desk Set
Do the Right Thing
Double Indemnity
Downfall
Encounters at the End of the World
Following
For the Bible Tells Me So
Freaks
Gangs of New York
Ginger
Hard Candy
Husbands and Wives
Ichi the Killer
Idiocracy
In Cold Blood
Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter
Kiss Me Deadly
Knife in the Water
Lake of Fire
Land of the Dead
Left Behind: The Movie
Martin
Munich
Nashville
Oleanna
Once Upon a Time in the West
Patton Oswalt: Werewolves and Lollipops
Q & A
Ravenous
Redacted
Renaissance
Repo Man
Romance
Romance & Cigarettes
Rushmore
Salò
Secret Honor
Shoot 'Em Up
Six-String Samurai
Slaughterhouse Five
Slipstream
South Park: The Imaginationland Trilogy
Stardust
Straw Dogs
Stray Dog
Taxi to the Dark Side
The Assassination of Jesse James
The Comedians of Comedy: The Movie
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Day the World Ended
The French Connection
The Hammer
The Long Goodbye
The Maltese Falcon
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Third Man
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Wild Child
Triple B Collection: The Dallas Connection
Undead or Alive
Versus: Director's Cut
Waitress
Westworld
Wild Things
Wings of Desire
Wizard of Gore
Expect my ten-best list in the next few days, along with another couple of year-end retrospectives detailing things that are of interest to this blog.
16 November 2008
Quantum of Solace
Got back from QoS a bit ago. No new Watchmen trailer attached. Daniel is an unhappy camper.
Review of QoS coming tomorrowish maybe if I can get off my fat ass and do it.
Review of QoS coming tomorrowish maybe if I can get off my fat ass and do it.
27 October 2008
Hollywood Does McCain Campaign Videos
Just an entertaining video. Captures the stylistic excess of the three directors more-or-less perfectly. (Although the John Woo one is just a bit over-the-top.)
Counting down to November 4...
Counting down to November 4...
06 October 2008
Ebert on Palin
Ebert hits the mark remarkably well, as usual:
I can just see Sarah Palin storming out of an interview saying, "I'll do your damned lot count!"
When she was on familiar ground, she perked up, winked at the audience two or three times, and settled with relief into the folksiness that reminds me strangely of the characters in "Fargo."
Palin is best in that persona. You want to smile with her and wink back. But who did she resemble more? Marge Gunderson, whose peppy pleasantries masked a remorseless policewoman's logic? Or Jerry Lundegaard, who knew he didn't have the car on his lot, but smiled when he said, "M'am, I been cooperatin' with ya here." Palin was persuasive. But I felt a brightness that was not always convincing.
I can just see Sarah Palin storming out of an interview saying, "I'll do your damned lot count!"
05 September 2008
30 August 2008
An Amusing Video
Sorry I haven't been a very good blogger lately. Life has been kind of insane, as I'm about to move to Kalamazoo, MI (a city and state I've never been to) and life is pretty much composed of working and packing right about now.
Anyway, here's a funny video of Kevin Smith completely owning a fan at ComiCon.
(Am I really the only one that kinda liked Jersey Girl?)
Anyway, here's a funny video of Kevin Smith completely owning a fan at ComiCon.
(Am I really the only one that kinda liked Jersey Girl?)
18 July 2008
Watchmen Trailer
Shana and I saw The Dark Knight at a midnight showing last night (didn't get into bed until 4 AM, and had to be at work at 8 -- yes, I'm tired!), and yes, it was awesome.
At least equally awesome, though, was the Watchmen trailer.
I have to admit, I haven't been particularly excited about this adaptation, given the long history of this adaptation, and how iffy a lot of V for Vendetta turned out to be. But this trailer makes me absolutely jazzed about the final result -- I don't think there's a single shot in the trailer not taken directly from the graphic novel.
Of course, whether the excitement built out of two minutes of footage can be sustained over the course of a nearly-three-hour picture is another issue, but for now I think that Warner Bros. is planning a really nice early birthday gift for me.
At least equally awesome, though, was the Watchmen trailer.
I have to admit, I haven't been particularly excited about this adaptation, given the long history of this adaptation, and how iffy a lot of V for Vendetta turned out to be. But this trailer makes me absolutely jazzed about the final result -- I don't think there's a single shot in the trailer not taken directly from the graphic novel.
Of course, whether the excitement built out of two minutes of footage can be sustained over the course of a nearly-three-hour picture is another issue, but for now I think that Warner Bros. is planning a really nice early birthday gift for me.
07 July 2008
A Movie Every Year
The AV Club has a post in which one of their music critics picks a favorite album for every year they've been alive. Personally, I'm not enough of a fan of music to pick an album for every year, but I thought it might be interesting to do a version of it for movies. Here are my picks.
Note: There are some years in which there are very few movies I've even seen, and more in which my pick is only slightly higher than at least one or two other films. I'm picking them at this moment based on a "what would I like to watch most often" criteria, as opposed to trying to judge absolute quality. In other words, I don't think The Princess Bride is really a better movie than Full Metal Jacket.
Second Note: Wikipedia has lists of movies by year -- I started here and worked my way forward.
1980: The Empire Strikes Back
1981: Superman II
1982: Blade Runner
1983: Wargames
1984: Ghostbusters (or Revenge of the Nerds, I can't decide!)
1985: Real Genius
1986: Ferris Bueller's Day Off
1987: The Princess Bride
1988: Die Hard
1989: How I Got Into College (Yeah, crucify me, but I loved this movie as a kid and I'd love to see how it holds up.)
1990: Goodfellas
1991: Terminator 2: Judgment Day (just slightly over JFK)
1992: A Few Good Men
1993: The Fugitive
1994: Pulp Fiction (One of the greatest years ever for movies -- I could pick a dozen I love almost as much.)
1995: Strange Days (Despite my love for Nixon, which is probably Oliver Stone's best movie)
1996: Fargo
1997: Chasing Amy (honorable mentions to L.A. Confidential and Face/Off)
1998: Pleasantville
1999: Magnolia (1998 and 1999 are both amazing years)
2000: Snatch
2001: The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
2002: Adaptation
2003: What a terrible year! Very few movies I've seen that I really love unreservedly. I'm sticking The Rundown in here because...
2004: ...Kill Bill Volume 2 is really only included if you include Volume 1 in 2003, and I consider the two-part series to be much better than either part by itself. And 2004 also had Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Shaun of the Dead, and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story besides.
2005: The 40 Year Old Virgin (with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Sin City both getting honorable mentions
2006: Clerks II is my favorite, despite the presence of Children of Men and Borat
2007: There Will Be Blood
2008 (so far): Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Yes, better than Iron Man and Wall-E)
Obviously I've left myself a lot of wiggle room here, and there's a lot of stuff that I'd probably pick differently on another day, but it's an interesting thing to look at. Anybody want to pick a bone with anything?
Note: There are some years in which there are very few movies I've even seen, and more in which my pick is only slightly higher than at least one or two other films. I'm picking them at this moment based on a "what would I like to watch most often" criteria, as opposed to trying to judge absolute quality. In other words, I don't think The Princess Bride is really a better movie than Full Metal Jacket.
Second Note: Wikipedia has lists of movies by year -- I started here and worked my way forward.
1980: The Empire Strikes Back
1981: Superman II
1982: Blade Runner
1983: Wargames
1984: Ghostbusters (or Revenge of the Nerds, I can't decide!)
1985: Real Genius
1986: Ferris Bueller's Day Off
1987: The Princess Bride
1988: Die Hard
1989: How I Got Into College (Yeah, crucify me, but I loved this movie as a kid and I'd love to see how it holds up.)
1990: Goodfellas
1991: Terminator 2: Judgment Day (just slightly over JFK)
1992: A Few Good Men
1993: The Fugitive
1994: Pulp Fiction (One of the greatest years ever for movies -- I could pick a dozen I love almost as much.)
1995: Strange Days (Despite my love for Nixon, which is probably Oliver Stone's best movie)
1996: Fargo
1997: Chasing Amy (honorable mentions to L.A. Confidential and Face/Off)
1998: Pleasantville
1999: Magnolia (1998 and 1999 are both amazing years)
2000: Snatch
2001: The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
2002: Adaptation
2003: What a terrible year! Very few movies I've seen that I really love unreservedly. I'm sticking The Rundown in here because...
2004: ...Kill Bill Volume 2 is really only included if you include Volume 1 in 2003, and I consider the two-part series to be much better than either part by itself. And 2004 also had Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Shaun of the Dead, and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story besides.
2005: The 40 Year Old Virgin (with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Sin City both getting honorable mentions
2006: Clerks II is my favorite, despite the presence of Children of Men and Borat
2007: There Will Be Blood
2008 (so far): Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Yes, better than Iron Man and Wall-E)
Obviously I've left myself a lot of wiggle room here, and there's a lot of stuff that I'd probably pick differently on another day, but it's an interesting thing to look at. Anybody want to pick a bone with anything?
27 April 2008
Interview with Errol Morris
Despite appearances, the Onion AV Club is actually one of the best movie review and information sites I've seen, and their interviews are top-notch. Not the least of which is this one of Errol Morris, famed documentarian of (among others) Mr. Death and the Oscar-winning The Fog of War. His latest is Standard Operating Procedure about the Abu Ghraib scandal, and it sounds as fascinating as ever.
Anyway, it looks fascinating -- this and Taxi to the Dark Side are most definitely on my too-see list if they ever get anywhere near Huntsville.
AVC: They just were foolish enough to be within the frame. Or not even foolish: They didn't think anything was wrong with being in the frame.
EM: I actually think it's neither of that. I think they knew it was wrong. Look at Sabrina's letters. She's constantly writing about how this is immoral. That's another misconception about this, that these guys were void of morality. But see, they're all wrestling with morality. I wonder, do people forget that it's the military? You know, they were following orders. Uh-eh-hem! It's the military! What do you think people do in the military?! Sabrina is constantly saying "This is wrong." She also talks about taking the pictures as proof that the stuff is wrong. Here's another irony. You can take a picture thinking you are providing proof that the army is guilty of A, B, C, and D. And that picture can be used to prove that you are a sadist with respect to A, B, C, and D. In many instances, they took the pictures to protect themselves. That's what's sooooo unbelievably bizarre about all of it. And they at least had some rational reason to believe that. Sabrina Harman, on November 4, 2003, gets into the shower where they've stored a corpse for the night. A corpse of the guy who was killed by the CIA. That's what happened there.
Anyway, it looks fascinating -- this and Taxi to the Dark Side are most definitely on my too-see list if they ever get anywhere near Huntsville.
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