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.