I'd pay $3 for a pickled Buffalo tongue right now.

That might not be my favorite line in the movie, but it was such a good one, it stuck with me. So I saw True Grit without seeing any trailers or commercials, just like you. I like to read reviews, and I like to watch trailers after the fact or in the movie theater but I don't like the commercial versions because they are too short.

You're totally right. True Grit is either almost perfect or perfect. The kid-- amazing! Did you hear about how they auditioned 15000 kids or something? She carried the movie. Also, sometimes I forget what a great actor Jeff Bridges is. He's, like, seamless. I looked for cracks in the Rooster character, but it was impenetrable.

I liked how it started and ended with trains. I loved how she was an old spinster. I loved the scene right before she falls in the snake part, where her and the texas ranger watch rooster come up on the four dudes. Everything about it was so great. I love the Coen brothers.

EVERYONE'S SWEET GIRL

I loved Black Swan, I think. It's hard to tell.

At first, I was all, DANCER IN THE DARK.

But then I loved the way it messed with me, like how I was all relieved when she was having what everyone seems to be calling lesbian hate sex with the girl from that 70s show, like awesome rebellion pleasure let go, yeah!

But then it never happened. And then she murders the girl with a mirror shard and proceeds to perform after that, omg, that was like, holy shit, but then that never happened. I mean, she stabbed herself, she was always scratching, stabbing, picking. When winona ryder stabbed her own face, that was incredible. It's been awhile since I've reacted so physically to a movie. I was curled up in a ball, rubbing my fingernails a lot. Finger/toenails I feel are a big horror thing for people. Good one, Arnovsky (sp?)

I hated how she kept seeing her own face on everyone else's, that was really lame, and I hated the mirror stuff. yawners. I loved how her arms turned to wings at the end-- bjork video! I loved how she had stabbed herself and she was going to die. I loved that. I didn't love all of the melodrama. I didn't love the histrionics. The heavy breathing soundtrack and cracking bones and toenails and bloody nails, all that, gross! Yet I loved that! I loved all the pink and white but then she was so competitive and naive, like not all artists are all dark and broody. Also, ugh, her mother throwing/not throwing the cake away, so great! Her mother was a monster, she was sort of surrounded by monters, but then she's a monster, so it looks like it's all monsters out there, kiddo. The movie made me think about this Degas exhibit I saw once that was all paintings and sculptures of horses and ballerinas and how they were both movement and muscle and animals.

this is nice:


but then bjork did this:


so i guess we all have it in us. actually, i hope we don't all have schizophrenia. it's good to be competitive. it may even be good to have wings. but schizophrenia? no thanks.

don't turn yr back on me

Another day, another Errol Morris documentary. This is the one that made Herzog eat his shoe. He bet Morris, if you make a documentary about a pet cemetary, I will EAT MY SHOE. And so he did, and then he did. Gross, right?

What's nice about the late 70s is the clothes that people wear. We have some great patterns and strips to see in this documentary. Not to mention facial hair, awkward hair, smelly looking fabrics and cute cars. This is sort of a muted scene, but it's nice anyhow:


The deal is that this guy in North Dakota buries his faithful dog when he's a kid, near his family farm, and he lets other people who loved their faithful animals and don't want to send them to the rendering plant bury their animals there too. [The rendering plant and the guy who runs it are the foil to this guy and the pet cemetary. The rendering plant and the guy who runs it don't seem all that bad, but next to this hero, he looks like a major a*hole who's just trying to do his job. The zoo comes out shady, as well.] He does the same in California but as like a business. But then the lease is up on the land in California, and all the graves have to be moved. Then they move it, some people are miffed, some not as much, some lady wears a fur to the exhumation and that makes another lady mad, and then either another family takes it over or something or it's another pet cemetary (I fell asleep or daydreamed through some of it, the 70s are almost always out of focus to me and require special effort, for some reason this does not apply to The Godfathers. maybe cos they're so beyond great. anyway!), anyway, then it's a father and his two sons who run the pet cemetary and it's called Bubbling Well, which is a gruesome name for a cemetary, right? Yikes, yucks.

Then there's lots of interviews with pet owners and the father and the mother and their two sons. The father wants to retire soon. The mother connived to get both sons back in town. The older son burns out in the insurance business and brings his annoying motivational-speaker personality to the business. But he gets there after his broken-hearted younger brother, so the motivational speaker is the lowest man on the totem pole and he doesn't like that. The younger brother seems mellow. He lives near the pet cemetary, maybe they all do, but he lives alone and he has a nice speech about playing guitar. Then he does this and it is amazing:



How could you not rent this?

bored to life

Isn't it perfect that after you told me that yours and peter's thing about adulthood is being bored and lonely and then I rent bored to death which I think you and my mom, the tv twins, have also talked up? Is that perfect? I project a lot. I wish that meant I got more done, really it just means I think about things and get nothing done. I have nothing to show for anything.

Although, I watched Disc 2 of the first season of Bored to Death this afternoon. I love it! I hope the videostore gets Disc 1 in so I can watch that one while I clean/pack/organize tomorrow. The videostore has a deal for Wednesdays: 4 movies (can't be new releases, which is fine, there's so much to see), 7 days, for 7 dollars! Killer, right? Okay, they just called and Disc 1 is in! I'm, like, live blogging! I really want to live blog a movie sometime. I will get my computer fixed next year, I promise myself.

I love Bored to Death. Do you remember I used to live in that neigborhood? So that's nice. I recognize a lot of things, which I love. Also, love Ted Danson. Love the episode where he decides to try bisexuality and he talks to the male prostitute (Conrad from Weeds, so great!) about books and movies. And the boxing match. And Brighton Beach! I'm excited for Disc 1. I like Zach Gali--etc. too.

I love the quirk of it, the Brooklyn-ness, the literary-ness, the mystery-ness, I guess it's got everything? I always thought Brighton Beach was too far of a subway ride too. It's nice we got to drive there.

i wanna go away

At some point during Xmas vacation, my mom watched Away We Go and I happened to go into her room while she was watching it and it was the part with Maggie Gyllenhall and the fight about the stroller and even though I had no interest in seeing it when it came out (sometimes I avoid things that I think I marketed directly for me, you know? it's lame because usually I end up liking them. marketing works. I should know that by now. maybe even be grateful?), it looked pretty good and i liked the nick-drake-esque soundtrack and i like all the people in it, so when my mom said it's good and talked it up, i decided i should see it soon.

so i saw it. i really liked it. i love allison janney and catherin o'hara. i'd like to see them someday have a scene together, they're both so right on and hilarious. of course maya rudolph and jim from the office were adorable and have the kind of relationship everyone wants, right? in the making of thing, they talked about how the writers have a shorthand between them and they gave that to the characters and that was awesome. i love the shorthand, even between friends i love the shorthand. it makes things more fun and go quicker, right?

can you imagine dating the same person you dated in college? it seems nice onscreen but whoa, so much time has passed and will pass. anyway, yeah, it seems awesome. i watched the making of featurette and i learned that most of the movie was filmed in CT. so they squeezed montreal, phoenix, miami and madison out of CT. the filmmaking illusion machine is totally amazing. i love it!

cowboy clever

so, i loved true grit. i've since seen a couple commercials on tv and i'm glad i didn't see anything before going to the movie because the commercials are alright, but they don't really set the movie up right.

peter sent this blog about the lack of contractions in the movie and how that's not really period accurate but just helps to make the dialogue sounds old. i loved the language. i loved how hard you had to focus to get everything and how funny some of the lines were.

i also loved how totally awesome the little girl was. the whole horse thing was spectacular and really gave me something to work towards. i need more grit in my life and i'm gonna get it!

classic canadian cartoon

As you know, I watched/finished A Series of Unfortunate Events last night. Although the drive to and from Buffalo to Maine was not a series of unfortunate events, returning to my gloomy house in Portland did seem slightly unfortunate, and although still I had not necessarily enjoyed this movie enough to finish it the first time I started it, just before holiday travel, I thought, second chances are sometimes a good idea, and usually always with movies. And so, as you know, I watched/finished aSoUE last night.



That's what Jim Carrey reminds me of in this movie. I've seen Eternal Sunshine so many times, love it!, that I've become accostomed to that Jim Carrey. I remember thinking his 90s movies were funny or else really bad, depending on the movie, anyway, after watching the Making Of featurette on the ES DVD, I just think, maybe I learned that Jim Carrey is kind of a jerk? I'm excited to see I Love You Phillip Morris, though, aren't you?

The second time I really liked it, despite my casting criticisms. Like, the children are too adult looking and beautiful. They don't look very much like children, with the exception of the baby. But then they grew on me because they're all really great. I was excited that Jennifer Coolidge was part of the theatre troop. I love her in this, she is so great:

I loved Meryl Streep in it and whoever is the snake uncle. That snake story was so great, I was sorry when he died. What else? I dunno. The marriage play was amazing. That eye stuff was intriguing. I wonder, will they ever make more movies? I guess I should read the books.

Although I liked the movie, ultimately, I do wish it had been all like the end credits because that stuff: loved it the most!

tom fucking cruise

i got the movie knight and day because it looks fun and i'm not sorry at all. even though tom cruise is batshit crazy these days, i still have a soft spot for him and knight and day brings out the best of tom cruise, it's like his character from magnolia, he's intense and totally in control and a cartoon.

knight and day seems to be about a rouge secret agent (cruise) who is running around like a crazy person, killing people and crashing planes. cameron diaz is just so pretty and she's hardly wearing any make up, which is nice. she does scream too much and seems too flaky and dumb, but she works things out and takes care of herself and really pulls it together in the end. so, there isn't gender equality, but there is a balance that i respect.

i liked this movie too much.

too much make up, drew

i was really excited for the movie going the distance to come out. it's kind of sick about how much i was looking forward to it because i like structure in my life and i like things to look forward to.

it held up pretty well. it's about justin long and drew barrymore falling in love while she's in town for six weeks and then trying to make it work long distance.

there are good side kicks in charlie from it's always sunny in philidelphia, floyd from 30 rock and christian applegate. and, drew barrymore is still just so fucking awesome and cute, who would not want to make a relationship work with her?

i'm such a sucker.

my mickey rourke

i really have a mickey rourke problem. like, i'm way too attracted to him now when he's all plastic and creepy and gross. but, there's something about him. i saw diner a long time ago before he made his come back and he just looked like bruce willis but less good looking. so, i watched the pope of greenwich village, which is from 1984, making mickey rourke 32 in the movie. he's interesting young, but i'm still really attracted to him. he's a lot like logan from veronica mars.

the pope of greenwich village has mickey rourke as an italian, new york guy working and stealing from a restaurant, dating a girl and working very hard on his look. his cousin, eric roberts (julia robert's half brother, i think) ropes mickey into a plan to steal money from a safe, which slowly totally blows up in their face with the mob and eric losing his thumb and everyone losing all kinds of things.

mickey really stays almost silent the whole movie but he has this amazing power behind him. there's a strong contrast between him and his cousin because the cousin talks all the time and seems really dumb and mickey manages to not seem dumb.

there are some great lines about wasps out growing mickey and about how it's harder to be honest than to be a thief.

i don't know if i'd like this movie if it wasn't mickey rourke.

is she the right one

i finally watched let the right one in. i'm bad at watching movies with subtitles sometimes. but, i watched this one and it was pretty good. i know you love it and plenty of other people love it too, but i found it pretty slow. like, it would have been better as a half hour short. but, i liked the parts when things happened.

i thought the end was really violent. peter made the book sounds better than the movie, so i'll have to give that a try.

breaking up is hard to do

sorry so much blogging. i have not been doing much besides watching movies.

so, i watched breaking upwards because it looked kind of funny. it's written and directed by the two people who star in it. it's probably like tiny furniture because it's about being young and unsure in nyc. peter watched some of it and said that these two people got to make a movie because they're both so good looking. which is funny because they're both pretty jewish and good looking, but not in a normal way. they're both cute, the guy more cute and the girl more sexy.

this movie is about how hard it can be to break up and this couple is taking off days and stuff, but ultimately break up. there's a joke in it about how they're breaking up like lesbians.

i liked this movie alright. at one point the woman states that she doesn't like him when he's around but really misses him when he's not. that's how i feel about peter a lot of the time and it was nice to see it.

julia roberts is paid to laugh

i read eat prey love in the kz and it was interesting because the woman writing the memoir is annoying and not likable to me at all, but the things she was doing and the people she met i liked a lot. so, it's an odd mix.

eat prey love is a about a writer, elizabeth, who goes through a nasty divorce and gets money to write a book about going to italy for four months to learn italian, going to india to practice at an ashram for four months and then going to bali to hang out with this old medicine man for four months.

it's all about this annoying, unlikable woman trying to find balance and happiness. but, she loves a lot. she has her husband, then a boyfriend, then a whole 8 months without anyone and then she's in deep deep love again. fuck love.

the movie wasn't that good, but it had it's moments. the book's better.

move over lindsey lohan

easy a got a lot of stars on netflix and i had high hopes, even though i'm trying to not watch so many teen movies. easy a is about a girl in high school (emma stone) who tells her friend she had sex with a college guy, the whole school learns about it, she kind of likes the attention and the looks, her gay friend asks her to pretend to have sex with him so he'll get picked on less and, quickly, emma stone moves into bustier with a scarlet a wearing maddness and everyone in her high school notices. she pretends to do all kinds of things with different guys and they give her gift cards.

of course, it all gets old and blows up in her face and she realizes she does not want to be thought of as a slut and works on fixing everything.

there are some really funny lines and a hot guy from gossip girl. mostly, it was annoying because no one really cares about anyone that much and it's stupid to pretend high school is any other way.

it's a trotsky life

i didn't even know about this canadian movie called the trotsky. it's stars that kid who's in all the judd apatow movies, jay something. so, his name is leon b...., which was leon trotsky's real name and this high school kid is convinced that his the reincarnation of leon trotsky and his life will follow the same course that trotsky's did.

this involves attempts are unionizing thing and dating an older woman.

mostly, this movie is totally charming. it's canadian and that makes the people more real and normal and wonderful. it made me really want to move to canada and it also made me want to have a 17 1/2 year old passionate boyfriend.

paint it black swan

i loved black swan! i loved how natalie portman was fragile but strong. i loved that that 70s show girl was perfectly cast as sexy but girl-next-door. i loved the creepy sound effects. i loved that the ballet director was sexual and creepy but didn't actually rap her or anything. i loved the ending and how everything was resolved although still fucked up.

but, mostly i loved that it it really showed how crazy jealousy and competition can make a person. i feel like that so often because i have so much internal anxiety and jealousy and i feel like i'm always being ranked and judged against other people and all those feelings make me feel crazy and horrible. black swan was a movie version of those feelings and even by showing and the bringing the internalness out in the world, i feel better. so the next time i'm freaking out and don't feel like i measure up, i'll think about what that feeling did to natalie portman and i'll work on feeling better.

i also loved that it wasn't about making a relationship work because that's what everything is about.

the kids are fine but the adults suck

i'm not sure i'm smart enough to understand the kids are all right. did you see it? i don't think you blogged about it, but i'll have to look.

i think what i missed is how mark ruffalo is the bad guy. i understand that he had an affair with one of the moms and he wanted her to leave the other mom and transplant they family to him, but he was in love and in love with having a family and, sure, he cheated a little because he wasn't around for the first 18 years and he'd only known them from a few weeks, but i think he just got a little swept up in the moment.

you need to see it and explain it to me because i'm not sure.

it also bothered me that when he wants to start a family, he doesn't even think about doing that with his hot hosts/sex friend. she seemed really hurt and i think it's because she would like to start a family with him and he didn't even think of doing that with her. is it true that guys have the madonna/whore thing?

your boy a

i got the british movie Boy A because it stars your boyfriend and it got a lot of stars on netflix. i've learned that andrew garfield made sadass movies where he has hot sex.

andrew just got out of prison for murdering a little girl when he was a minor. his social worker has him pick a new name and gets him a job and a place to live and works to convince him that he's not the murderer anymore and he deserves happiness, even though people want to kill him. he was a minor, so no one knows his name and there aren't adult pictures of him.

he's a little strange. he had a hard childhood, his best friend was a psychopath, and he spend most of his life in prison. he's quiet and awkward, but he's working and making some friends (guys are so easy) and dating a girl and things are moving a long. until they aren't, of course.

i wasn't sure how i liked the movie, but i kept thinking about it after i watched it and it really stayed with him. sometimes i don't like sad movies because i don't like to feel sad, but i understand that it can be important to feel sad and simple to feel, so, because of that, i liked this movie.

forget the riches

i needed some tv to watch and i went with eddie izzard's series the riches. it also has minnie driver. it's funny because they're both british but they're playing american travelers, or gypsies.

so, minnie driver has been in prison for two years and eddie and their three kids pick her up and take her home to their traveler camp. she comes from a long line of travelers and is kind of traveler royalty. but, eddie realizes that the travelers are mean, rude, stupid and boring and wants to get out of that life, so he steals the family bank (the cut of the money the temporary leader takes from everyone) and leave. while running, this car goes off the road (not their fault) and the two people die. so, they take over these people's lives (mr and mrs rich). this is not a comedy.

i guess it's kind of good because it's about conning your way into everything and how everyone's a liar, even if they're not completely lying like these guys. but, mostly it's too serious and i spend too much time holding my breathe and waiting for everything to go horrible wrong. it's too much and i haven't watch any more after my initial hours of watching it.

not so super troopers

have you seen super troopers? i had not seen it until the other day. i'm always looking for the funny and people told me the funny could be found with super troopers, so i gave it a shoot.

it's funny, but not that funny. like, there are a little too many dude jokes or no jokes at all.

it's about the state troopers of new hampshire (i think) who are fuck ups and jokers and loosing funding so they're trying to make a big drug bust so they can keep their jobs. they do have these funny games they play of people they pull over to fuck with them. like, one guy bet the other that he couldn't say meow ten times while talking to a guy they pulled over. it's really funny when someone says meow instead of now or something else. that was pretty good.

but, overall, i didn't love it.

shit you not, sherlock

so, the BBC has a new series of sherlock holmes episodes called simple sherlock that are set in modern england. it's kind of amazing how well sherlock holmes and the whole thing lend themselves to modern life.

vanessa and npr recommended them and i watched them all on a day i should have been finishing my school work. luckily there are only three episodes at about an hour and half each.

watson is played by the british jim from the office, and he's really wonderful. he's this great mix of old-fashioned and charming. holmes is played by a kind of funny looking guy with super pale blue eyes. there are mysteries and holmes amazes people, but some people hate him because they think he's a psychopath and there are some gay jokes, but seriously, watson and holmes totally loved each other.

the show is slick and mysterious with little jokes and lovely london. i can't wait for more.

teense stop me

i need to stop watching teen movies. i just want them to be good and sometimes they are really good, but usually they're dumb, slow and boring. latest example: angus, thongs and the perfect snog. it's british and based on a ya book, so i thought it would be better, but no dice.

it wasn't horrible, it was cute and funny sometimes. it's about a teen-age girl who wants to kiss a guy, duh. she has a big noise and is a little bit of a dork, but she's also a planner and keeps working out ways to get his attention.

in the end, it all works out. seriously, please stop me. angus was a big, funny cat, which is good.

oh russell, too much hairspray

i have a new, strong love for russell brand and a comedy special of his is on instant and i pretty much loved it. he's just so smart and funny and sexy. he talks about how he's a scarecrow, but that's my type.

he does wear too much makeup and his hair is too much, but otherwise he's great.

he makes a lot of jokes about how people who hate gays are the sucks and other things. really, i just love rock and roll.

annoying divorced men

i watched white on rice as a late night relaxer. it's a comedy about a japnese guy who moves in with his sister and brother-in-law in the us after his wife leaves him. he's forty and has never really had a job and is a pretty annoying, dumb guy, but maybe in a charming way. he annoys his brother-in-law but his sister loves him. he falls in love with his niece (not related) although she doesn't give a shit about him.

the best part about this movie was the quiet view of everyday struggles to enjoy life and family, the nerdy, independent son and that the side kick from hero was in it. i missed that guy, even though i forgot about him until this movie.

i'm always looking for a good comedy and this wasn't really great, but it wasn't bad.

celtic secrets

so, i actually had to make a list of movies to blog about because i'm so behind. what a mess.

secret of kells is this short (less than an hour) animated movie about a celtic legend of the book of kells. it's animated in a really wonderful style that's kind of a mix of power puff girls and yellow submarine (two things i love). the first time i watched it, i fell asleep of a little bit and when i woke up, i was confused. so, i rewatched the part i slept through, but i was still a little confused. but, i like that confusion. like, there are things we will never understand about other cultures and traditions.

i just read the first book in a series called the secret of the immortal nicholas flamel and these books work in all kinds of legends and gods and traditions. i feel like secret of kells will make more sense after i've read all these books.

bad movies need love too

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a bad movie. It's like Heathers with vampires, which I would expect to be great, except it's not that smart or dark or funny. There are loads of lame jokes. I can't even remember any. But what I like is that the whole power thing still comes through. I like the strong cheerleader thing, I guess. Girl power, and whatnot. I like Kristy Swanson, she's such a good ditz, and Donald Sutherland is a good patriarch type person as her Watcher. There's no Watcher Council or anything, he keeps getting reborn with all Watcher knowledge, so a lot is different from the series. I'm so glad they remade it. Anyway, besides the snotty silly dialogue, the best part of this movie is all the bit parts that people who would get way more famous later have. Well, Pee Wee is not the villain but he's like the Vice President Villain, but I guess he was already famous. Hilary Swank plays one of Buffy's bitchy friends who gets nasty when Buffy starts missing chearleading practice to kill vampires. Ricky Lake is a waitress in a bar, she waits on David Arquette and Luke Perry. Luke Perry becomes friends with Buffy after she accepts her fate as the Slayer. David Arquette is his friend who becomes a vampire. They're sort of like Christian Slater in Heathers, both wearing grubby clothes and I think they're mechanics, so they're not as dangerous or as cool. Ben Affleck is a basketball player on the team that plays Buffy's high school team and during that game one of her team's players comes out as a vampire. I think that's it? Oh, Liz Smith has a cameo, she's a gossip columnist I think, as a reporter, at the end. I hope I didn't forget anyone. See, one of my favorite games is spotting people or character actors and naming other things they've been in. This is especially awesome with TV, especially HBO shows, because a lot of the same people from like The Sopranos or Sex in the City also show up in Six Feet Under or something.

I wonder what the new Buffy movie will be like.

never enough wiig

last night I watched some TV and the movie MacGruber. Have you seen the MacGruber skits on SNL? well, they made a movie. I thought, oh, let's not get high hopes because, outside of Wayne's World, SNL movies usually blow. I'm not saying MacGruber was totally great, but it was better than anything Rob Schneider has ever been in. The story is the MacGruber's wife (Maya Rudolph) was killed by Val Kilmer (when did his face get so fat?) on their wedding day so they're mortal enemies. MacGruber's been living in a monastary for ten years and everyone thinks he's dead until Cunth (haha?-- that's val kilmer) gets a nuclear weapon and the us govt is all, only you MacGruber can defeat Cunth and save the world so leave the monastary and go kick ass. MacGruber headbutts Ryan Phillipe and gets Kristin Wiig (she was his wife's best friend) to join them on their search. The phrase "let's go pound some Cunth" pops up a lot. It's funny? There are some funny parts. Like a heartfelt scene where Ryan Phillipe is all, how come Cunth killed yr wife? And MacGruber tells this story all serious and sad about how Cunth and Maya Rudolph were married and Maya Rudolph was pregnant and she started banging MacGruber and she left Cunth and had an abortion and MacGruber is all, that's why he took my first love away. So silly. Super silly sex scenes, reminding me of how Pee Wee Herman dies in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'll blog about that too, cos I also just watched that one. But here's what it was like:

Is posting videos annoying or helpful? Is it cheating? Let's keep it honest.

fanny och alexander

You love TV so you might love Fanny and Alexander. We talked about it on chat. It's so beautiful, and there are four episodes. I think they're each about 70 minutes? I'm not totally sure. There's also a truncated movie version which loses all the best parts in my opinion, although it's still good but don't watch that one first. Or I guess you could. It's your life.

The story is that Fanny and Alexander are the children of some theater people in Sweden. When their actor father dies, their mom gets really lonely and marries the bishop that's been on her since her husband's death. So the kids go from a jubilant happy rich red colorful dramatic and loving house with giggling servants and lots of children to a big cold stark white walled stone house with mean servants and a creepy dying aunt and no children, only ghosts. The bishop is mean, the mom realizes her mistake, and wants a divorce but the bishop refuses. He is so terrible! So the mom's first mother in law has been having an affair forever with a Jewish puppeteer named Isak and he uses magic to hide the children in a trunk that he buys from the bishop. Then the mom doses the bishop with sleeping pills and makes her escape. Finally she returns to the theater. The important parts of this movie are the ghosts. The dead father, the bishop's dead children, there are others I think, not to mention the character of Ishmael, who is Isak's nephew (although the character is played by a woman, which could also be a theater reference, right?) and is locked up in the puppetshop and is dangerous but the danger is that he can make people see the future. One of the dead father's brothers is a charming, windbag philanderer and the other is a whiner with a German wife who he's so mean to. The matriarch of the dead father's family is a former actress and super rich, I guess they're all superrich. Sweden, 1907. So interesting. I wonder if everything really was as red as it is in this movie. I love the theater parts. I love how when the father dies, he's performing as the ghost in Hamlet. So much to love.

good morning!

Okay, so this is the second time I've reposted something that I've posted on Facebook. I've been on a videoposting frenzy on Facebook. I love videos. YouTube is so great.

I watched Good Morning by Ozu this week. Ozu is a Japanese filmmaker who I guess was way more influenced by American films than Kirosawa, I guess. He makes movies about the middle class a lot and families a lot. Floating Weeds is a good one about a Kabuki troupe. This one is about a neighborhood in a Japanese village. Mostly it's families with kids and the only people with a TV are a young couple. The girl used to sing in a caberet, oh dear. So all the kids in the neighborhood, there doesn't seem to be any little girls, just boys, they all go to watch TV at this couples house. They're skipping English lessons and the parents don't like it at all. The parents try to stop the kids but fail. Finally, two brothers, the ones in the video, go on a hunger strike until their parents buy them a TV. Meanwhile, there's gossip and possibly some love action happening between some single people who need to get married just like everyone else, jobs or no jobs. The kids get their TV in the end. Three cheers for civil unrest meets child demands!

Cat Saves the Day

After napping after Reds, I watched Coraline while I ate chicken noodle soup and waited to go to the radio station. I've listened to some audiobooks of Neil Gaiman's, and I heard the I think Terry Gross interview about this movie forever ago. I did see it in 3D but when I saw it on the library shelf, it appealed to me. I like the plastic doll feeling of the animation. I like all the yellow and blue. I like that a cat saves the day. I like the part where Coraline turns her pillows into parents when they're missing in the evil spider witch's web. I'm not sure exactly what the moral of the story is. Coraline gets mad that her parents are too busy working on a gardening catalog to pay attention to her, which is worse because they've all just moved to a new state and the creepy Pink Palace apartment building, but she has a nice Russian acrobat neighbor and some weird former-performer ladies who stuff their dead dogs and eat hand stretched taffy as other neighbors. So a kid gives her a doll that looks just like her, she finds a tiny door in the wall and when she goes through it she finds her life but better, like her parents on this side of the door fall all over her and make her cakes and mango milkshakes but they have buttons for eyes and eventually want to button her eyes as well. This is gruesome. I will not dwell on how gruesome it is. More and more she wants to be on the other side of the door, where things are nicer and more delicious. The cat is always like, kid, it's a trick, you know, but Coraline doesn't listen until it's too late. The cat is the one that helps her out of the jam when the spider lady traps her and then kidnaps her parents. The better life on the other side of the door was all a game to feed the spider lady, how scary! She gets out in the end and frees spirits and saves her parents and then is happy to be not trapped by the evil spider lady anymore. So is the point that good things are fake? Love your parents? Listen to cats?

epic love for the socialist set

I worked for about 12 hours on Tuesday (whine and cheese) and then had to work sort of early on Wednesday but also was done by noon so the plan was to go home, get under my two down comforters, put a movie in my tiny personal pan dvd player with its little screen, hook it up to the bose speakers because the player's speakers are the worst, and nap in and out until it was time to do something. I picked up Reds and Coraline at the library where I was working, and Reds seemed the obvious choice due to its length.

I didn't nap all that much at all, I napped after, and ended up watching the whole thing. Diane Keaton is so amazing. Warren Beatty is pretty amazing too, and it's always fascinating when a star is directing. How does tht work? He's in almost every scene. And behind it, too. Jack Nicholson was good too as Eugene ONeil. Diane Keaton is Louise Bryant and she leaves her husband in Portland Oregon to go to NYC with Warren Beatty who is a radical journalist named Jack Reed (Reid?). They live in Greenwich Village, which seems so much nicer when it's less nice. She doesn't find anything specific to do and she hates his friends because they ignore her. They have really great fights. It takes her forever to figure out what to do and mostly it seems she follows him around or he leaves a lot to go to socialist or whatever conferences. Back and forth, back and forth, it's based on a true story, I wonder what Louise Bryant ever did? She trekked across Finland to find Jack, that's one thing. They end up in Russia during the revolution in 1917 (I think) and that's cool. Jerzy Kosinski plays a tough communist who doesn't agree with Jack Reed. Jack Reed dies and then the movie ends, which I hated. It was all nice and romantic and not glossy about love being easy or people always sleeping only with each other, they were into free love, and they seemed to have a nice time in Provincetown with theater before getting whole hog into the red stuff, but he dies and that's it? What did she do then? Maybe I should wiki Louise Bryant. Anyway, I love movies that are long. Over three hours is a real treat.

sunshine state

Besides Fog of War, I hadn't seen another Errol Morris documentary until I rented Vernon, Florida, on Matt Brown's suggestion. It's 56 minutes long of interviews with mostly old men. You never hear the questions, they're just talking at the camera. Topics include: opposums, fishing in a dead mule's body in a swamp, turkey hunting, turkey hunting as a cure for diahhrea, oak trees as signs from God, wigglers, books, brains, cops hiding and not hiding, and other things. It was made in 1981. I want to start watching documentaries made around this time, find out what the world looked like when we were just born.

Anyway, I highly recommend this one. There are subtitles, it's hard to understand with your ears what the accents are muddying sometimes, and it's not the kind of thing that isn't a respectful documentary. And, unlike Herzog, Morris is entirely absent as a persona. That' a nice relief, right?

on the wright track

so, this isn't about a movie i watched, but yesterday morning there was a great story on weekend edition sunday about black filmmakers in hollywood.

it talks about why it's so hard to get films made that star black people in normal roles but not something like booty call or whatever. they mentioned just wright, which i love. and also medicine for meloncoly, which i have to watch.

i felt like blacks were pretty equal in our society, but it's good to remember that it's still really unequal.

get me to the greek with him

so, i had pretty low expectations for get him to the greek because i pretty much hate jonah hill and because some review on npr said that it stars two supporting guys (russel brand and lame jonah hill) and they can't hold up a movie.

but, it turns out that those two with sean combs can hold up anything as well as the next guy. i thought sean combs couldn't act, but he delivers his lines with real feeling and it's fucking amazing.

mostly, russel brand is really something special. have i mentioned the russel brand interview on fresh air? it's really something special. in some ways, i wish i knew someone like russel brand. someone sexy and wild and fantastic and smart. but, in other ways, people like that might be too much for me. i think it's that russel brand is smart is really great because it only makes him better.

this movie made me want to see forgetting sarah marshal again. i didn't like it the first time, but i do love him.

sex jokes in the sex city

i had to watch sex and the city 2. i realized that i don't remember the first movie at all. i totally saw it, but what's to remember?

this one is pretty horrible. it's all about being rich and buying everything and being stupid. but, there are some really hot shirtless men and some really great lines.

favorite, samantha called a guy "lawrence of my labia"

but, mostly it was dumb. it did remind me that relationships are not perfect and can be annoying and hard. i guess that's good.

the last girl with/who movie

Sunday was another double feature day. First, The Inside Job again. It wasn't as good the second time.

Next, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I love the main characters here. I love Blomqvist the journalist and Erika the other journalist and Lisbeth the girl with the tattoo and Blomqvist's sister who is Lisbeth's lawyer. It's not the best of the triology. That high five belongs to the first one. The second one was okay. I might rank them: 1,3,2. The third one gets second place because it's so sweet to see things finally kind of work out for Lisbeth. She shows up to court all punk/goth with big studs and piercings and a giant mohawk. She's, like, the tiniest goth you have ever seen. So, what happens is, apparently she set her dad on fire cos he abused her mom and then she was institutionalized because her dad was actually a russian spy and no one could know he was in the country and the mom had lost her mind so the little girl who would get a dragon tattoo and play with stuff and kick other stuff was like the only witness and there was a cabal of dudes in the govt assigned to make sure no one knows about the spy. So she gets locked away and declared unfit to handle herself. Except she's an awesome hacker and an information wizard. Which carries her for awhile until things get worse and worse. Until Blomqvist and his magazine Millenium and his sister get on board and they get really organized and then the govt gets involved and they track down the cabal members and discredit the doctor that says the Lisbeth is schizo. After her super horrific life, finally people are on her side and she's really vocal and right on in court and all the jerkoffs get in big trouble and arrested and it's great.

But I dunno if it was an awesome movie. It was more like, here, viewers, here's the wrapup!

So, there's HP2 and the new Coen Bros (True Grit!) and then what's next?

happy accident

I keep thinking about this one Zach Galifinakis joke and it occurred to me that I saw it on his monologue when he hosted SNL so it is totally appropriate to share here and then I can talk about how I feel about SNL, just in case I've never covered that.

So he says something like: Did you hear that the kid who slept with his high school teacher died today? ..... He died of high fiving.

I watched the entire episode and it was just okay. I don't love SNL, I don't watch it regularly, I loved the Amy Poehler episode. I'm so behind on TV. I will get cable someday, I will indeed.

where the sun don't shine (eternally)

I love Michel Gondry, don't you?

I love Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

I watched it last night. I do own it so it's not like I haven't seen it a million times, but it's a fun movie to return to because it's so strange.

One thing I found out while watching it with commentary by Gondry and Kaufman this morning before work is that the movie has the sunshine dust quality of light in it because there is actually smoke all over the place. You can't really see the smoke, it just filters the light. So that's how it looks so real or like dirty without being actual video.

I don't love Jim Carrey, but I do love Kate Winslet, and it's fun to see her playing such a crazy girl. I'm glad that the crazy girl is 30, too, and still dying her hair weird colors and working at Barnes and Noble and making potato dolls. I'm glad Jim Carrey is kind of haggard and scruffy. I love the scene where they're eating dinner in the restaurant and not talking. That used to give me so much anxiety with long-term boyfriends but now I think, a little silence never killed anyone. I guess people have problems not because it kills but because it bores.

Also, I love Mark Ruffalo and Kirtsen Dunst and how Kirsten Dunst is in love with the doctor who erases the memories and also how low-tech and shoddy the whole opertation is. I love cassettes!

I guess they try again, too, which is nice, but it's also kind of sad. I like that it's not too hopeful, like, you know what's coming, but isn't it sweet that although they erased each other from their minds that they are drawn to each other again?

I think that's so nice, is that silly?

famous dad tears

happy tears is another movie i got because the preview looked funny and it has parker posey. too bad it wasn't very good or even very funny.

it's about two sister, one married a rich guy, who are in pittsburgh because their dad is crazy and shitting himself. their dad has a probably crack addict girlfriend (a scary ellen barkin) who is maybe stealing their dead mom's stuff.

mostly this movie is about taking care of your dad even if you hate him. demi moore dislikes her dad because he always cheated on their mom and is a general pain in the ass. parker posey is a little crazy and has strange dreams and visions and was spoiled and protected and didn't realize what a cheating ass her father was until demi spells it out for her.

there's just too much in the movie. there are parker's hallucination, there is some drugs, there is a buried treasure in the back yard, there is the resentment between sisters, there is the maybe gay husband, there is the other husband who's going crazy, there is simply too much for it to be good.

and, it's written and directed by mitchel lichtenstien, who is roy lichtenstien's son. there is a character in the movie who's the son of a famous, dead artist, but he's minor, so i don't understand how much of the movie is autobiographical. plus, roy is the most boring of the pop artists.

extra kevin kline please

have you the extra man? i don't think you blogged about it, but it seems up your alley. it's stars kevin kline as an older man living in nyc. he gets by by teaching a class and by being an extra man. an extra man is not a gigolo or a hustler, but simply an addition to parties where there are more women than men. he feels that he adds a lot.

paul dano (love him) is a shy orphan who has moved to nyc after being fired as an english teacher at some small prep school. he wants to write and maybe cross-dress a little. he rents a room, and by room i mean small hallway, from kevin kline and they become kind of friends.

kevin kline really has some amazing lines in this movie. you just have to see it to really experience them. i think he was interviewed on fresh air and he shared some amazing lines then.

mostly, this movie is about learning to understand strange people and about making the best of situations. it's probably about other stuff too, but i can't think of them.

i liked it because i love both those guys, and because as my life continues on a non-traditional path, i like to see movies about grown-ups with non-traditional lives who don't hate everything about their lives. it makes me feel better.

white guilt

i got Princess Kaiulani because the preview looked good. turns out, the movie is slow and predictable and not very good. but, i learned new stuff about hawaii and was disgusted with the past and the shit white people tried to get away with.

princess kaiulani was the princess of hawaii around 1880s. she had a hawaiian mom and old man scottish dad. her uncle was king and the decedents of the three original missionaries who took over hawaii want to take over the government. dole is one of them, but the really bad one is someone not famous.

so, there's an armed upraising and kaiulani's dad sends her to england so she'll be safe. oh, her mom's dead at this point. so, most of the movie is about her life in england and how people are mean to her sometimes because she's brown and a princess and how she falls in love with a british guy who says he'll follow to hawaii and that he loves her.

but, when she needs to go back because things are really bad on hawaii and the white people have her aunt (now queen after the death of her uncle) under house arrest and the natives can't own land or vote, even though they're 90% of the population.

so, she goes to washington dc and pleads her case and she gets an audiance with presendent cleveland and he says he'll back her.

and, she goes to hawaii, which is about to be annexed to be part of the usa. kaiulani saves the day by giving a big state dinner and making a speech about how her people need the right to vote and dole backs her and the other guy leaves angry.

then, her white fiances shows up and loves her, but not enough to live in hawaii and live with her having any power. so, he leaves. and, she dies at 23, about a year later.

sorry that was so long. i didn't know any of that stuff about hawaii. and, it's fucking horrible that even after the civil war, fucking white minorities wanted to oppress the hawaiians after taking their country from them. assholes.

harry in nowhere land

i don't have a lot to add about the harry potter movie. i'm also really excited for the second one. i feel like then i'll be able to really enjoy it.

although, i think they stopped at a good place for this one and i like that. i was talking to a classmate who hasn't seen the movie or read any of the books and i mentioned that my facebook quiz about what wesley i would be had a spoiler because people die at the end of the 7th book. and she was really surprised (sorry to spoil it for you too) and she wanted to know everyone who died. so, i talked about how the 7th books starts with hedwig and madeye dying while helping harry escape. she got kind of mad and talked about how it's kind of dumb that so many people have to die for harry. i laughed and said that that's why the books are so good. because in the book and the movie, harry also freaks out about how so many people are dying for him and he wants to run away. but, his friends point out that they're not dying for him but for something bigger. they're standing up to evil and for their way of life and sometimes bad things happen to people to stand up for what they believe in. i love that about the books. people want to be selfish but the narrative won't let them because it's not always about you but about life.

i can't wait for number 2.

harry potter goes to the mattresses

Last night I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in IMAX, totally huge! Something Aaron and I often do together when going to the movies is walk into the theater just as the feature is starting. Not smart on Thanksgiving day and a totally popular movie and IMAX. We ended up sitting way up on the stairs because it's really hard to watch a movie when yr sitting so close yr basically beneath the screen. So, we'll try to go earlier, but actually I liked sitting on the stairs because it's different and you can stretch out more. Most people dont' pee as much as I do either, so I didn't have to move a lot for other people or ask other people to move a lot for me. All of this is extra, though! What about the movie!

Well, I totally, totally loved it! Those kids are so grown up, it's amazing. And the whole war thing, it reminded me of The Godfather a little, like, how they're going to war and they have to leave their homes and families, they call it going to the mattresses.
I'm not going to know anyone's name really because I never read this book and it's been too long since the last. But! I love Voldemort's nose. I love the flies buzzing around Bathilda (?) the historian so you knew she wasn't really her, that she was dead when Harry and Hermione meet her meat on the road near the cemetary. I love how the snake comes back up the stairs in her house when you think it's dead! I love Hermione and Harry dancing after Ron left! I love the whole mental illness or depression or self doubt thing about the locket, and how Ron totally defeats it but not before having some trouble! I love those Weasly twins! I love the adorable clothes Hermione and Ron wear and how tiny Hermione is! I love the evil lady in the pink suit who wears the locket in the courtroom! Evil middle aged women are my favorite! I also love Luna Lovegood! What a cute purple jumpsuit she was wearing when they were all stuck in the dungeon!


I was pretty much in love with this movie from the beginning until the end, and I'm so psyched for Part 2. I haven't loved all the Harry Potter movies, but I do think they've gotten better and better. I feel really satisfied by that movie, and even though I did'nt read the book, I don't feel left out.

Anyway, I guess I don't have much to say besides that I really like it. Harry Potter is such an escape, JK Rowling has really done us all a favor.

Snatch This

I couldn't watch Snatch, I tried but I couldn't do it. Do you like Guy Ritchie movies? Should I give it another shot?

go to lunch

Remember David Mamet? I'll take him over Aaron Sorkin anyday. After Inside Job, I had to watch Glengarry Glenross. It's about ponzi schemes, I think. What is a ponzie scheme? Anyway, you can't go wrong with one of the best all-male (I'm obsessed with gender and sex) ensemble cast ever! Jack Lemmon, Young Alec Baldin, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, Al Pacino, Ed Harris! Everyone's really on top of it in this one. It's a movie with a capital M. I saw this on Broadway and all I remember is that it was amazing and that Alan Alda played the Lemmon character and that good theater is so powerful, it gives you such powerful feelings.

bad job

If you had any doubts that the white man is responsible for the economic excrementstorm currently ruining everyone's lives, Inside Job will tell you, doubt no more! There are some supervillains running the financial world. They have private jets, and multiple houses, and expensive prostitutes, and mountains of cocaine, and lie, and no morals, or even scrupples. Like, they'll totally tell Congress it's cool to sell people stocks that yr company is betting will fail. Or that selling debt around is totally okay. Or...maybe I don't remember that much. This documentary was very dense, and Matt Damon's voice is really great, and when he says stuff, it's easy to see it's important by his tone, but there was so much! So it's impressive that Inside Job explains the whole financial meltdown from the beginning and tries really hard to bring you up to speed. It's almost like a lecture on the subject, complete with charts and graphs. Also, very slick and neat, with some charm and some good humor. I recommend it when it's streaming and you're in the mood for loving good guys and hating bad guys. It's all real, too, is what might get you. It's all about stuff that's effecting our lives right now. I guess it's all the fault of the government for not regulating certain activities in American finance, and so there has been a rotation where the same people are economics professors or government officials or working for private companies, and they all kind of switch places, and that even with Obama, all the same dudes are in power so it's just business as usual. There have been some amazing people trying to make things right but they have no power and they get squashed. Maybe this documentary will help. It might be totally on YouTube, too

In conclusion, I hate rich people.

TV Party

So I saw Radiant Child, a new doc about Basquiat, directed by the woman who directed Billy Madison and is married to one of the Beastie Boys and has directed like a million major music videos, like the one with Cher and Beavis and Butthead-- totally awesome 90s chick. Anyway, before she was a 90s chick, she was an 80s chick and a friend to Basquiat. She was in film school and, since he was famous since he turned 20 or something, he was already famous so she interviewed him and then this old never-before-seen interview is the centerpiece of the whole thing. There is some nice rich yellow background wallpaper in the background during the interview, and whatever kind of camera she used, it just looks beautiful. It doesn't hurt that Basquiat is a nice looking man with a fun to watch face. Anyway, he talks about how hard it is to be famous, how racist critics can be and some other things. He was really aware and called people on stuff. He knew so much about art and was just so smart. Like, someone you'd like to talk to, really interesting but not crappy.

But the interview was interspersed with biographical info about him and interviews with people who knew him. There was a great public access show in NYC in the 80s called TV Party and when he was doing Samo graffiti, he came on the show and typed Samo stuff that would run on the bottom of the screen. Really great.



TV has potential, like Ghoul a Go Go, amazing: http://www.ghoulagogo.com/



So, this kid, he gets so famous so fast, he's all in nice galleries and studios but never feels like he is accepted by the museums. He's more NYT magazine than MET, I guess. Too trendy. And he always seems like he knows what's going on, right up until he was like 25 or 26, and I think he really got famous around 20, so that's a good 6 or 7 years. But then he starts doing hard drugs and gets paranoid and just gets really, really sad. People talk about him like he fell down. Such a bummer. Such a nice, smart, neat boy and he just couldn't keep his shit together. Anyway, I loved watching the interviews with people I recognized from their counterparts in the Bowie/Warhol movie. Charming, a lot of them.

So, I recommend this one. It's nice to get out of our time for a minute, and this documentary can do this for you. Although you might cry. Basquiat was so young. Younger than us, you know?

riding the 70s red

so, all you talk about andrew g made me want to watch something with him in it. i've seen the imaginarium of..., and i liked him in that. he was cute, but it wasn't a sudden cute. like, i had to see him a lot to really lust after him. he has such a skinny, angular face that it took some time.

so, this british movie or maybe made-for-tv movie called red riding: in the year of our lord 1974 is on instant. and, there are two more parts with him in it, which is why i think it's a tv thing.

this thing's kind of amazing. he's a very 70s rookie journalist investigating murder and corporation in northern england. the accents are really serious and instant doesn't have subtitles, but i was able to understand most things.

it also has that rebecca hall actress i blogged about in please give.

so, your boyfriend is really skinny and hot and kind of a fucking machine, which is nice. but, spoiler alert, he doesn't make out too well by the end. like, i thought he was the star of all three, but as we're moving along and shit just keeps hitting the fan, i can't figure out how he'll get out of it alive and in a one piece.

although, looking on imdb, he is in the other two movies, so maybe he does recover. i'll have to watch and find out.

let the sunshine in

so, we had a copy of sunshine in the kz, but i never watched it. david did and said it was pretty cool but i wasn't sold. but, peter read a review or something and wanted to see it, so i got it.

it's kind of like moon and kind of like a ridgly scott movie. premise: the sun is dying and these seven(?) people are taking a super fancy space ship named icarus (my favorite greek myth)II (the first one disappeared) to the sun. they have a big bomb and they're going to set it off to make a star within a star. action and death ensue.

it has that scottish guy with the huge eyes from 28 days later (same writer and director) and he's looking good. and, there are lots of brown people on the ship, which i think will be true in the future. this let me play my favorite game, name that ethnicity. check out the guy at the top. can you name his ethnicity?

please give the teen a kick

i put please give on my list and then i couldn't remember why. but imdb tells me why. it's written and directed by Nicole Holofcener. she wrote and directed lovely and amazing and walking and talking, two movies i love, and friends with money, which i hated.

i liked please give. it's about women, although here's a husband in this one, which isn't the norm. mostly her movies are quiet reflections of insecure/mean women's thought and feelings. and please give did that. i think there were some surprises and i laughed aloud a couple times, which isn't bad.

it's stars this women rebecca hall. she looks a lot like scarlet johanson's plainer sister. she even makes some of the same faces. but, they don't seem to related in any way.

also, there are two sisters living together and i had a good time thinking about myself as either sister. i think i'd be the quiet, searching one, but i'd probably be the mean, dumb, fake one.

an island with a city?

i've watched some movies, but this one needs some blogging. i don't remember it coming to theaters or anything, but it's called city island and netflix said i'd like it. it's stars andy garcia as a prison guard. he lives in city island, the bronx, which seems like a magical place. so, he's at work and he realizes one of the inmates is his son, the son he never met because he was 19 and split before the guy was born.

his son could get out if he had a family member to take him home, but his mom's dead. so, andy garcia takes him to city island with he's bossy wife, secret stripper daughter and son who's a feeder and is just getting into that side if himself with is obese neighbor.

there's so much that i don't want to spoil anything because it was good. it was like next stop wonderland, which is one of my favorite movies of all time.

sibling helpervy

Do you have Cinemagic in Chicago? What is the name of your movie theater chain? Here it's Cinemagic.

Today I went to see a noon showing (love the noon movie!) of Conviction, the one about the innocent brother who gets locked up for life and his sister who gets a GED, BA and law degree so she can be his lawyer. You love to cry, so you would love this movie. I forgot all about DNA testing not really happening until the late 80s or something. I guess about 300 innocent people have been released or unconvicted because of it. This lady's brother was one of them.

So, the cast was great and it was set in a little Massachusetts town. I love how Massachusetts is either boarding school/Harvard or trashville. Conviction=total trashville. Great accents. Clea DuVall and Juliette Lewis play drunk old lady types, angry ones, and ex-lovers of the non murdering brother. Hilary Swank plays the sister, and Sam Rockwell is the brother. There are some great flashbacks to their childhood, how their mom sucked and how they were close. Then some bits here and there about a bad cop and how the brother is whacky and a bit of a loose cannon. Then-- he goes to jail! Sister goes to law school! She becomes friends with Minnie Driver! She eventually finds the evidence box and get DNA testing! He's innocent but shit! The prosecutor says he could be an accomplice! So then they have to get statements from the old witnesses that lied about him admitting to the murder! Even though you know the ending, because the story had been all over the place, sort of, it's still a surprise that this lady pulls it off. It sort of destroys her marriage but it seems like that's okay because her jerk-ex kind of forbid her from going to college anyway. And the cop who arrested the brother is such a witch! Like a framing witch! Ugh. The law is pretty yucky.

I feel like this one could make it to the Oscars, what with the cast and the story and all, so I'm glad I saw it. It felt mostly like a maintenance see, however. You know?

bill maher is religulous

Have you ever seen Real Time with Bill Maher? What's incredible about Bill Maher is that he is SO SMUG and his jokes are REALLY CORNY but he somehow manages to hold my attention and make me laugh. I give him time I'll never get back, and I never feel good about that.

I did it again last night by watching Religulous. This is his documentary where he's in love with himself (like always) and he guffaws (?) at religious people and how religulous they are. Like, creationists are crazy, yeah. And some Christians hate gay people. Right. And everybody's weird and the Vatican is rich. There was a nice part about how the Jesus story would make a good Hollywood movie: guy fathers a son to a virgin, the son is also him and the son goes on a suicide mission, etc. There's a nice part where Bill Maher talks to a dude who plays Jesus at a Christian theme park. I don't know why people would want to watch a bleeding dude with a cross on his back stumble along a paved lane while they sit on cement "boulders" but so maybe I have more in common with Bill Maher than I think.

What I wanted was a liberal documentary to make me feel better and complacent since I've been a little uneased because Maine's governor does not seem like a good guy. What I got was Bill Maher: Smugulous! It was pretty good, though.

welcome (back) to sunnydale

Did you ever finish watching buffy the vampire slayer? I can't believe I don't know that. What I don't know could fill something very, very, very large. Possibly enormous, or even gigantic. What I once knew and now don't remember could probably fill a football field, but is the sky the upper limit of a football field or what? That's a lot of space.

I am back in the last season and I'm totally in love with it and Spike.



I never really had a punk rock boyfriend. Did you?

peter parker!

I can't exactly explain why I'm wasting time on a website like this, but I can gush about the news that Andrew Garfield, my new favorite, is the new Spiderman! Hooray! I love those two things!
Ugh, this website is gross: http://bumpshack.com/2010/10/12/andrew-garfield-buffing-up-for-spider-man/

the way life should bleed, and bullying

so Thursday evening, I went to see Damnationland, a series of 7 short horror films made in Maine. last weekend I saw Derek's new short film, too, so there's been lots of local short films in my life.

Derek's short film is called The Bully, and true to (Derek) form, it's about how randomly cruel kids are and how disappointing adults can be. There's a funny chub friend and a reserved boy who decide to maybe try to beat up the class bully to impress the cute girl with the glittery silver flop hat. They run into a bit of trouble and the reserved boy gets abandoned by the funny friend and reserved ends up sort of participating in the bullying of the bully by the bully's older brother. older brother bully ends up getting reserved totally drunk and when reserved gets home to his sister's birthday party, he is totally drunk and his parents don't notice. it was overall charming and high on moments that are really common where nothing happens but are heavy with normalcy. it looked really beautiful, it was shot in wisconsin, and the kids were really good actors. i had to leave right after the first short film because i had to do my radio show, but from the applause i could hear as the door hit me on the ass on my way out, he got a good reception. good work.
you can watch the trailer here, if you feel like watching a trailer: http://www.lasthouseproductions.com/thebully.html

and then, yikes, i went to damnationland! here's the trailer for that one if you feel like you can watch another trailer: http://www.damnationland.com/
i haven't seen it so i'm going to watch it now...okay, i watched it. with no sound, but i did see it. anyway, it was great! and not great, too! it was great because local film is great. it was not great because two of the films were about crazy dudes who kill chicks. seriously, kill ANOTHER prostitute why don't you, horror makers of the world? ew, in this one the guy made the hooker dress up like the ex gf that he killed when she exed herself. yuck. and then the other one was about a guy with a crush who kept fantasizing about killing his crush. there was a pretty sweet yr-cooking-and-oh-no-now-yr-face-is-on-cast-iron-pan scene. then there was a nice one about those bells they put in coffins so that if someone was buried alive they could ring the bell and be saved. there was an adorable zombie one where a survivor guy is totally kicking zombie brains until he is shot by another survivor guy who thinks sg#1 is a zombie and sg#2 never even knows he killed a possible friend. there was a stand/apocalypse type one where a supercomputer makes everyone kill themselves because of radio waves, kinda dull. there was a great one about two killers, one who wants people to die with fear and another who wants people to die happy, and they race each other around killing people and the fear killer is winning and the happy killer is trying to catch up. that one was neat, lotsa stuff about "how you die shapes the next world you go into" and all that jazz. it had the best humor, too. so all in all, it was worth it and totally not scary. i guess there were some jumpy moments. i love local film around here. maine is great sometimes.

flat las vegas

i've watched all my tv, so tonight i watched saint john of las vegas on instant. it wasn't bad. it had steve bushemy, sarah silverman and conrad from weeds. someday i should learn conrad's real name because i really love him. like, really love him. and he was great in this.

so, stevie b is a down-on-this-luck gambler who now works for peter d//// the little guy as an insurance guy. he and conrad are going to go out to investigate a claim and it's stevie's big chance for a promotion. things go write and wrong and sometimes they're funny.

mostly the desert looks really amazing. oh, this movie also has that guy who wrote/directed and starred in leaves of grass. i guess i'm on a theme here.

twin ed nortons

so, because baron was sick, we watched two movies in one day. leave of grass is this ed norton movie where he plays a classics professor that everyone loves and his hick, okie, pot growing twin. this movie was written and directed by the funny looking guy in oh brother where art thou and many other movies.

it was kind of great. it was funny and small and charming. there were some family break through moments about why you are ashamed of where you come from and why you still love your pot growing, fuck up brother.

really it's just worth it to see ed having a fight with himself when one of himselves has a bad haircut and a wicked accent.

queen and common

so, you may not know this about me, but i love common. so, i had to see just wright, the queen latifa/common romcom, only it wasn't really funny so it's more of a romance.

the plot is that QL is a awesome, sports fan physical therapist and common is an NBA star. QL's friend wants to marry rich and she just happens to meet common and the marrying rich thing is looking good. but, common hurts his ankle and the girlfriend leaves him. QL takes over his therapy and pulls him out of his depression and gets him in the play offs. as you can guess, they end up together because common realizes she's amazing and wonderful and real even if she isn't super sexy and smooth.

this movie needed some better writing, but it wasn't bad. it's nice that common was such a regular guy and kind-hearted. and, it's also good that they really connected and the relationship didn't seem forced.

maybe i don't have love because i'm too much a homegirl?

dragons as cats

how to train your dragon was pretty solidly cute. i want there to be more. it's about a viking kid who's bad at fighting and that embarrassing to his huge, leader viking dad.

but, the kid takes down a super stealth dragon but can't kill him. instead, he helps him fly again and learns that dragons don't want to hurt vikings but are just protecting themselves. he then blows the minds of all the other vikings and saves the day.

mostly liz and i spend the movie comparing the different types of dragons to our cats. we now have three cats so it was a fun game. i love cats!

lyme meh, life meher

I know that lyme disease is really bad. I mean, all diseases are bad, some are worse than others, I hate disease. Here's the thing about this movie, why I think it sucks: the whole thing is supposed to touch on the gravity of lyme disease, or like the anxiety of the possibility, of it being around in this town and the threat that anyone could get it, deer ticks, etc, and that lyme disease and the shittiness and anxiety of having it or it being all over the place is supposed to be this foundation onto which the rest of the dramatic action is built. but, unless I missed it (<-- totally possible), the film totally doesn't really talk about what lyme disease is, and I kind of needed that. I think the movie needed it.

If you want to see really awful acting by Alec Baldwin, this is your movie.

So, yeah, it's the 70s, Lyme disease is all over, parents are having affairs and terrible marriage fights and kids are awkward and creepy and exploring their sexualities in normal ways that still make them and maybe you uncomfortable. I don't remember much of the plot except one husband with Lyme disease is always hiding and sketching in odd places (his basement) and he witnesses AB porking his wife (the lawyer from Sex in the City) and he draws that and she finds out that he knows because she finds the sketchbook. At the end, he gets a gun and you're not sure if he shoots the wifescrewer or the deer he's been stalking. Like, the movie ends with a gunshot. It's so crappy. There's some good acting but mostly it just seems like a waste-of-time-and-film Ice Storm. Maybe I'll rent the Ice Storm tonight. Now that's some good 70s marital/teenage horror.

National Jenny Spends All Her Time at the Movies Week

In the past seven days, I have seen 4 movies in the theater, one movie twice and two movies in a row in one day, so that's 5 movies, 2 theaters and 4 trips to a theater. Here is the log (sidenote: I just saw a book called Who Let The Blogs Out? here at the library. now i have that song in my head, but then it reminds me of Todd Barry on Flight of the Concords. Todd Barry is really funny.).

The first movie I saw was The Social Network. It's written by the West Wing guy and directed by the Fight Club guy. Imagine Harvard Square looking all Fight Club-y. It's great. The birth of Facebook is all wet, gross, angry, and girl-hating. The best part of the beginning is when a BU girl breaks up with Mr. Facebook and he had been insulting BU a bunch. GO BU, right? Truth be told, I liked it a lot better the second time. But I'll get to that. You might not see this one at the movies but I recommend it for the old queue.

The second movie I saw was Let Me In. I'm pretty devoted to the Swedish movie, I even read the book and bought the soundtrack. At first I was offended that someone would remake it, but then I remembered how many more people would see the story and that was encouraging. The little vampire is played by HitGirl from Kick Ass. She's good. The little boy is really good. Some stuff is different, like this one is more special-fx-y, glowing eyes and whatnot, more fake. The pool scene is great. It's not as good as the original, but it's better than most movies. Plus I love how the kids are neighbors and communicated with each other through the walls with Morse code, and Richard Jenkins is always so great and sadfaced, and I love how the ancient vampire loves puzzles and is always saying "we can't be friends" but ends up with the little boy anyway. Also, bullying is so intense. I'm pretty sure I was a bully before 6th grade when I got weird, and then high school I was the opposite of a bully, so I get mixed feelings. When the boy strikes back against his bully it's pretty amazing, even though you know the bully is bullied himself by his older brother. And that the vampire encourages him to strike back: good influence or bad influence?

The third movie I saw was called Phillip Seymour Hoffman Never Shuts His Mouth All the Way. Just kidding. It's called Jack Goes Boating. Based on a play, and I think PSH was in the play, also he directed the movie. Amy Ryan is pretty adorable in general. PSH is okay, he used to be a fave but that has waned. Anyway, he's a dopey car service driver in NYC and his best driver friend who tells him he loves him all the time decides to set up a double date with Dopey and the BDF and the BDF's wife and the BDF's wife's co-worker, Amy Ryan. The girls work for some kind of funeral thing but it's a lot of sales and it's unclear. The BDF's wife has lots of affairs and apparently the BDF is a loser. Dopey loves reggae. Amy gets attacked on the subway and Dopey brings her a reggae tape and asks her out to dinner but when he makes dinner for her and the couple, they smoke a hookah and get high and then he forgets about dinner which burns and then he hides and cries in the bathroom until Amy plays the reggae song and everybody sings. The best part is how the BDF teaches Dopey how to swim in a pool because a pool was a big part of my life in NYC so I just sat back and enjoyed the nostalgia. Another good thing was the Grizzly Bear/Fleet Foxes soundtrack but seriously, this movie was bad.

The fourth movie I saw is the first movie, the same. I watched Jack Goes Boating and it wasn't enough and I couldn't fathom sitting through The Town or Wall Street so back into The Social Network I went. It was much better the second time. I was less shocked by the misogyny and more entertained by the characters, especially the giant Aryan twins, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, and the kid from Zombie Land, the more substantial looking Michael Cera. I love the ex girlfriend even though she's barely a character and Karen from the Office is in it and her character is also barely in it but manages to be really annoying. The thing is, it's all about lawsuits and then college, so that's interesting and also how shockingly cutthroat this kid the mother of facebook is. I'm always happy to see someplace that I've spent a lot of time in on the big screen. Also way overscored. Maybe Trent Reznor is bottled up, I dunno. Although, the second time I was totally into the ominous sounds every time something was about to happen, was happening or had just happened.

The fifth movie I saw was Never Let Me Go. You said you read some of the book so maybe you have some idea of the tone. It was all pretty charming and eerie. Love the big old boarding school, love the incredible wardrobes of toggle coats and wellies and wool hats and nice sweaters, love the tearjerking of it all. The love triangle was hard to take because you just know that the one girl goes after the boy to upset the other girl but what I didn't like was how in the end she was all, i'm sorry i kept you two apart. it's like this boy had no say in it. so that was annoying. I also can't capitalize consistently. Anyway, it was sad sad sad and foggy British browns and greens and lots of seaside windy scenes. I recommend this movie, it's got a lot of good things going for it, like story, acting and style. I didn't cry even though that was my main motive for seeing it. Everybody seemed to be crying. I was too wrapped up in the main character's story, and she seemed more stoic than sad. Stoic could be something to aspire too, at least for a minute or two, but then again I don't think it works that way.

earth schmearth

I have one Blue Planet DVD, or at least I thought I did. Inside the case, I discovered a Planet Earth DVD. Probably this belongs to somebody else. So I think nature documentaries are probably one of the most relaxing things besides David Attenborough's voice, so it's nice that David Attenborough does nature documentaries. The PE disc I watched had segments on jungles, great plains, and shallow seas. The jungle was neat because I love timelapse video of things like mushrooms growing. One mushroom has a kind of net that looks like a honeycomb pattern skirt going to the ground. Other mushrooms grow, and they look great. I didn't love the part about all the monkeys eating figs. I might be more into plants, insects and marine life than I am into mammals. The great plains was shocking because of the brush fires. An entire herd of gazelles had to hightail it out of the plains because of a rapidly approaching fire. I know Sigourney Weaver narrates a US version. I'm glad I didn't have to watch that one. She's not bad but she's no this guy. And then the shallow seas was all about coral reefs and humpback whales. There are so many stories in this segments, and the footage is very beautiful and all in all, I feel not so much educated as relaxed. Maybe that's the point.

temperence brennen (jenny's review)

I failed to take yr advice on watching clips of Temple Grandin before watching the HBO movie, but I will take it eventually. I got this movie out of a Redbox, first Redbox experience ever. It was okay, there wasn't a very good selection but I was very happy this movie was a choice because I have been thinking about the hugging machine a lot and I was dying of jealousy that you'd already seen it.

This was an intense movie. Temple is pretty amazing. I didn't cry but I did sit there dumbfounded the whole time, which is the intellectual equivalent of crying for me. I kept thinking her mom was Juliet Binoche, too, so I was annoying myself. Claire Danes was amazing. Everyone in it was pretty great. It made cattle handlers look like a*holes. I loved the way things were written on the screen. I loved how she got into the hugging machine at first and that she fixed the gate. I'm glad she went to school and the way everything converged is amazing. Like, she ended up at her aunt's ranch and then studying science and everything. It made me think, because at first I was not in favor of her mother dragging her to college, Temple was so upset, but it was good that her mother pushed her a little bit because it seems like Temple was able to do so many things for the bizarre cause of slaughterhouses. What a fascinating movie.

The only thing I didn't like and never like about HBO movies is the overscoring. Always with the melodramatic music and I feel like it takes down the drama cos it's so over the top and unceasing.

I can't wait to see Temple explaining things.

single forever

so, a single man really is a beautiful movie and colin forth is just perfect in it. he's looking strong and handsome, i just love it. it's painfully sad, but i didn't cry. i usually only guy when things are really happy and this one doesn't get there. the flashbacks of love are really prefect and movie. and julianne moore all drunk and unhappy is wonderful. the previews make her seem crazy and in denial, but i thought she was more drunk and lonely. and who doesn't feel like that sometimes?

tom ford really knows how to make men hot and shirtless and the 60s really look smooth and inviting. it's a great meditation on loss and love.

now i'll stop calling her temperence brennen

so, the HBO movie temple grandin was totally amazing and i was crying better much the whole time because she's so amazing and her actions and thought are so powerful. you know about her, right? autism and killing cows? either before or after you watch the hbo movie, you should really watch some clips of temple grandin explaining things. she's so amazing, but so autistic, you know. seriously cried the whole time.

clarie danes is really doing something right. i guess i never disliked her, but she was really great in this and me and orsen wells. i like that she's older and less vacant.

hot tubbing

so, the preview for hot tub time machine totally sold me on it and i laughed. but, mostly at the beginning. sometimes i think comedies like that just can't go the distance because they have too much of a plot and there is more plot and less jokes at the end, which is never good.

the jokes in this one were mostly of the poop variety, which is just fine with me. that black guy from the office is really funny. the best thing in the movie, for sure.

repo faster

so, i was out for drinks with my other student teachers yesterday and we were talking about movies and i was saying that melissa should just watch the first 30 minutes of the assassination of jessie james in fast forward because it's really slow but the ending is good. and i couldn't remember a movie liz and i had done that with that was totally good because the ending was important and kind of amazing.

so, liz just taught me how to see what movies we got from netflix and it was repo men. that movie was alright, but it was slowish and liz had to go to bed, so i just started fast forwarding, but the ending is this real kicked ass hard core. and, kind of crushed my soul.

why not me and orsen wells?

so, i got the movie me and orsen wells because the preview looked cute, i love orsen wells and i love zak efron. and, it's deliveried. it's set during the week before orsen stages caesar. it's his first broadway play and it's his theater, the mercury, of course, and things are crazy. zak comes along as a high schooler looking to belong.

it's directed by richard linklater, which i didn't know but totally makes sense because it's nice and funny and understated. i really liked because because orsen wells really came off as a genius. it's about how's he's a womanizing dick, but he really does have everything under control all the time and has read everything and remembers everything and knows everything. basically, i want to be orsen wells, and not just because he's sexy while 20 pounds overweight.

oh, and clare danes has never been so good. i think she's finally growing up and not hard to watch.

date night every night

tina fey has really come into her own and i just love it. i really laughed during date night. it's nice because the good parts aren't all shown in the preview. it got a little dumb with the stripping silliness (no one would think that was hot) but otherwise it was totally great.

i love markie mark without his shirt on and i love to laugh, so i was totally set.

i see the losers sequel already

sometimes i want to watch everything. visiting aram last weekend reminded me that some people watch foreign films or good films, and i pretty much watch trash. but, sometimes it's really great and it's hard to know.

i got the losers because it looked like an action movie i'd like. i didn't even know it had denny from grey's anatomy (and the weed's dead husband) in it. and, he didn't die, which is pretty amazing.

mostly, it's about a special military unit who should have been in a helicopter with a bunch of kids when it exploded, but they weren't. so, they go out to find the guy who ordered them killed and kill him and clear their names and come back from the dead.

it's smooth and funny and stringer bell's in it with a wicked scar. the villian was pretty weak, but he'll be in the sequel too, i'm sure.

chris evans was in it. he's like the new paul walker. he's the white, young, action star that is totally forgettable. he was in this pretty cool action movie push and he was an ex in scott pilgrim. he's everywhere and then forgotten.

all graphic novels, all the time

ok, so i'm working on blogging, here goes. scott pilgrim vs the world was totally amazing. everyone's famous in it, at least all of the boys and some of the girls. it has it all. i didn't know much about it when i went to see it and i don't want to tell you too much. have you read the books? i haven't.

kiran culkin plays a sarcastic gay the way only a culkin can i just love him for it. michael cera is the best actor in his 20s out there, for sure. there's girl named knives chan and she's totally perfect. i couldn't figure out if it's supposed to be set in the 90s or if that's just canada. there are two bands in it and they're both really great.

mostly, it's about how you have to work through all the bullshit past in relationships and fight for love. only in this movie, the exes are actually trying to kill you. and, one of her exes is a famous actor now and it was funny because they dated in eighth grade before he became a famous tool.

it was great to see it in theaters because it's loud and colorful and action packed and that stuff has to be on the big screen.

liz liked it because it's clearly not real life, which is nice because movies don't have to be real.

Cigarettes will kill you

Remember Ben Lee? He was that superyoung cute kind of twee singer songwriter from Australia, from the 90s? I saw the first few minutes of a new-ish movie he is in. He's older and less cute or maybe that's just the movie. So, the story is he's a senior in high school who gets beat up for being gay and he has hippie new age parents. He catches his mom going down on a lady. His dad is not susceptible to anger. His best friend is a nerdy girl who is totally hot. There's a film contest at the school and a cash prize for the person who makes the sunniest film about the school. He makes a ringer called Life is Super Dooper, and it's cute and has appearances by people smiling and talking about how great the school is. So he wins. Then there's a screening and he switches the winner for another version, same title, but it's all hidden camera footage of teachers talking about trying to sleep with students or wanting to kill them and how upset his dad was that his mom went a little lezo. Then he decides to get an office job? None of it really makes any sense. I fell asleep about 30 minutes in. It's called The Rage of Placid Lake and his name is Placid Lake. I guess at the end he gets weird again and everything is cool. It was not that great of a movie.