the mind slips sideways

that title is a line from one of my favorite movies, enchanted april. maybe i should read the book. if there is a book. anyway, i went to the gene siskel film center for the first time and i went alone, which hasn't happened in a while. i went to see I Remember You, which is an uzbek film from 1985. it was good. it was dreamy and artsy in a way i didn't think central asians could be. sometimes i think art is a luxury of the upper classes, but i guess uzbekistan was a pretty developed area.

the movie's about a dying mother who wants her son to go to russia and find the grave of his father, who died during WW2. she needs some of the dirt from the grave to go on her grave. he doesn't want to do it, but she makes him. he's a vet, which i don't think they even have in the kz, and he takes a week off and takes the train to where his father was buried. the journey is interesting, filled with new people and customs. i'm not sure if the movie would have been as good if you didn't know central asia.

i learned that i still understand russian, although i needed the subtitles. i also learned that things haven't changed much since 1985. it's kind of nice. and, that uxbek men are hot, but i already knew that. this guy was a fox. there was also an nice sequence with a fox running through the snow. a real fox.

starring monsters and adrien brody's nose

i loved predators! is that ok? it was mindless and had lost of glowing blood and a little suspense and hotass adrien brody talking low. i know adrien brody's kind of a sketchball since he mouthraped halle berry, but i still just love him. in predators, he's the leading badass. he's wearing long sleeves and a thick vest for most of the movie and i was wondering if he had any muscle at all. i kind of liked the idea and he didn't/couldn't put muscle on. but then his shirt is sleeveless and his arm's are pretty big. and in the end, he's shirtless and killing and covered in mud. and, he's ripped and lookin' good. i think that he wasn't sleeveless/shirtless for most of the movie because he has to work really hard to keep muscle like that one and he couldn't do it for the whole movie. i just love wiry dudes.

banksey's a genuis

so, i've kind of fallen out of the art world, but exit through the gift shop really reminded me of what smart people who make art to change the world are like. i really think banksey is one of those people. i haven't paid much attention to his art, but it's pretty moving and amazing. i think it's even better than most street art. i know i'm not alone in thinking that, and that's fine.

and, there's this guy space invader in it who put up tile space invaders all over paris and then the world and in 2001 and 2002 i really loved him and took pictures of his space invaders around paris and london, so that made me feel like i was a part of something.

anyway, the movie is about this french guy from la who always video tapes everything and his cousin is space invader so he starts video taping space invader putting up his art around 1999 and then filming other street artists and eventually banksey. he becomes friend with all these guys because they need someone to video tape their work because it's gone so quickly.

then banksey becomes famous and the rest of them follow and banksey wants this guy to finish the documentary about street art that he's been making, but it turns out this guy just films and then saves the tapes but doesn't watch them.

so, the guy does make a horrible documentary kind of thing, and banksey wants the tapes so he can make his own and tells the guy to go back to la and make street art (which he's started to do a little) and have a show.

so, the friend guy takes him really seriously and sets up a huge show of his work and hires people to make his work and just jumps in without any talent or experience. and, the la show is a huge success and this guy, now mr. brainwash, makes a shitton of money.

but, all the street artists, including banksey, don't think his art is good and that he has no meaning behind it and they kind of hate him.

but, the question is, is it true or is it a banksey prank to show how lame artworld people are and how you can just make someone without talent famous. it could go either way. i took banksey seriously that he wasn't happy with what happened, but he's kind of a liar.

and, i can't really tell that mr. brainwash's art is bad. i guess i know it's bad compared to the real thing, but it's so hard for me to tell. modern art doesn't usually move me deeply, so the pleasure has to come from other places and some of his art give me some of that pleasure.

sorry for the long post.

holy moly

the other day was a two movie day starting with heartbreaker and ending with holy rollers, which is a based-on-a-true story about Hasidic jews who smuggle ecstasy into the states. that kid jessie eisenberg? plays lead and he's ok. not the fast talking moop he usually plays. there are some sad moments and some action moments but mostly it's about how people feel stuck in the life they were born into and can't always get out.

not so heartbreaking

it takes some time for me to watch movies with subtitles, but heartbreak is soo so worth the reading. it's this great french movie about a brother/sister/husband team who make a living breaking up unhappy couples. the man seduces the woman and allows her to see that she's unhappy and leave her husband. they don't break up couples that are happy.

the heartbreaker is the sexy-in-french way little russel brandt. i love him. his sister and her husband are great. of course they're asked to break up a couple that seem actually happy and of course he falls in love with her, vanessa paradiso, johnny depp's other.

this movie had humor, action and romance. i just loved it.

salt that wound

did you hear how originally the main in salt was supposed to be a man but it feel through and they cast angelina jolie? it's true, which made me want to see the movie and watch the whole thing thinking about how it should be a man. and, chris and jill saw it on a date recently and jill said it was amazing but mostly she was glad to be away from her kid for a few hours.

so, salt is a badass who might be a russian spy or might be an american spy and someone took her husband and she's working her ass of to get him back.

this movie was impossible to predict and i watch a lot of movies and tv and could pretty much write any of them. there are twists and turns and unexplained ends but mostly there's a lot of action and freaky skinny jolie with her big lips. it's awesome.

my kinda town

so, as i've mentioned, i fucking loved the town. i asked aaron about it and he said that he thought, "ugh, another movie glorifying violence." and then realized that's totally what his mother would say.

ben affleck really did it up for this one. i love that he was already off drugs. i love that his dad was such a shit and chris cooper, whom i love. i thought a lot about if i would have fallen in love with him like rebecca hall did. i'm not sure i could have. i'm a snob, you know. but maybe because she was sad and damaged too.

and, i love jeremy reiner. i didn't think he was totally amazing in this because he didn't have much of a part and i'm not sure why he got the oscar nomination, but i love him and am glad for any press he gets. he was really amazing as a totally fucked up fuck.

i really loved how smart they both were and even how smart the cop guy was. i felt like john ham was maybe miscast because he wasn't a very good badass, but liz pointed out that he's just a badass for his job and it was a good contrast.

and, i thought boston looked really good and it really showed how fucked up the neighborhood are there.

oh, and i was happy that it didn't end really horribly. i'm a sucker for a happy ending and that ending was happy the right amount.

wolves rule

I guess wolves are pretty private animals, something to do with most of them being killed to protect livestock and so wolves, very afraid of people. And so it's been hard to get the deal on them. That's why this dude sort of put together a pack of wolves as puppies and hung out with them and then released them into a sanctuary to study and film them from afar. It's not really from afar though. This dude and his wife get pretty close, like she even crawls into the den to check out puppies when some get squeezed out. And the alpha wolf is total buds with the dude. Lucky people! I learned that wolves are supersocial and familyobsessed but vicious and mean but also love to play. I don't like Discovery Channel documentaries. They're not as good as the BBC ones. I'm a snob?

not so tough

I rented Martyrs but couldn't watch it because the trailer terrified me. I'm not saying I'll never watch it. I can't remember how you are with scary but here's the trailer if you think you can handle it. Maybe it's no big deal? Ugh, shudder, ugh.

jennifer's body

I was like a really big Hole fan when I was about 14. There's an awesome song on their second album called Jennifer's Body. This movie is a horror movie about indie bands, satan and the fucked up relationship girls have with each other in high school. The lady who wrote Juno wrote it. I wonder if she ever stripped to a Hole song?

Have you seen Big Love? I'm trying to remember what else the daughter is in, but in JB she plays a nerd with a boyfriend and a best friend who is a not nice person and also a cheerleader.

Okay, I realize I'm gonna hafta tell you the whole story, so this is the spoiler alarm ringing!

It starts out totally sweet with the nerd in jail and you're all, I thought the cheerleader is the demonmurderer, what's this?

The cheerleader is the demonmurderer but the nerd is the demonmurderermurderer. The cheerleader and the nerd go see an indie band in their town called Devil's Kettle. Yikes! The indie band sacrifices the cheerleader who says she's a virgin at the Devil's Kettle waterfallbottomless pit because they get so sick of touring and trying to make it that they get into occult shit to make it happen for themselves. Anyway, she's so not a virgin and so she ends up becoming a scary demon that vomits tar and eats quarterbacks. It's not okay but not too bad until she goes after the nerd's boyfriend and starts messing with the nerd cos the nerd is onto her game. The nerd also found the occult section at the library, just like the indie band, so she finds out the story. And then she sets about taking the cheerleader demon down at the big dance. There're some good parts, I enjoyed it, it got pretty silly and dumb but at times was selfaware. I like the satanic indie band thing. They did get famous. I like the girllovehate thing. I like that a Hole song played at the end but I was bummed that it was Violet and not Jennifer's Body. Anyway, the nerd wins but all anybody ever sees is that she kills the cheerleader. Bummer for the nerd. She gets some demon powers though, for the kill, so in addition to spitting on everyone at juvy and kicking everyone else, she can also float. Neat, huh?