Familiar

Last night I saw something in the Independent Film Revival's showing of "The Squid and The Whale" that shocked me and turned the movie from being a dark comedy about an upper-middle-class family falling apart into a study of where I, personally, may have gone completely off the rails.

I'm still processing it.

Labels: movies

• 9:41 PM 0 comments

Hellboy II

In spite of being about a demon who is fated to destroy the Earth, "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" is surprisingly... cute.

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• 5:08 PM 0 comments

Two-thumbed fist

Saw "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" last night, a documentary about one of my intellectual heroes.

It made me sad that he's gone, and mad that he's not here to excoriate the Bush Administration and other politicians, and it made me want to get really drunk and write a lot.

So I'd say it succeeded.

Strange that two of my heroes, Thompson and Philip Kindred Dick, shared so many traits. Both incredible and prolific writers, both addicted to drugs, both haunted and fearful of politicians and particularly President Nixon. Both reclusive but social, opening their homes to strangers and newfound friends (and young nubile women), to the detriment of their marriages.

And both of them with personality issues.

Hmm. Food for thought.

Labels: movies

• 9:15 AM 0 comments

I almost forgot

Since I plan on logging every movie I watch in a theater this year, I almost forgot to post that I saw "Secretary" last Monday, as part of the ongoing Independent Film Revival series.

I felt almost skeevy being there alone. Alone in the crowd, I mean. Lots of couples, both boy-girl and girl-girl. I couldn't tell if the girl-girl couples were friends or lovers. I tried not to stare. Man, I'm self-conscious just thinking about it almost a week later.

And after the movie, I felt as if the movie confused and angered me. Yeah. I got issues.

Labels: movies

• 9:19 PM 1 comments

War and peace

In the past couple of days, I've seen two movies.

Thursday night I saw "War, Inc." It's a satire, a thinly-disguised story of a man, played by John Cusack, who is hired by the former vice-president, now C.E.O. of Tamerlane Industries, to conduct a trade show in Turaqistan. Oh, and to help conduct the world's first-ever war run entirely by private industry. And by "conduct", I mean political assassination. And also a political marriage between a Turaqistanian pop star (played by Hillary Duff) and the son of the Emirate.

I tried to get into the movie, I really did. But it all hits a little close to home for me. I found myself thinking, "this isn't really that far from real life" and it kept drawing me out of the story. Dan Ackroyd's Dick Cheney impersonation didn't help. Ben Kingsley's faux Southern accent didn't help. Seeing Joan Cusack ham it up didn't help. Marissa Tomei as an investigative journalist didn't help. Even Montel Williams as the soothing voice of GuideStar (an OnStar clone) didn't help.

Today, I saw "Hancock". Reviews were mixed - on the one hand, Dustin at Pajiba said the second half of the movie ruined the easy-going first half. But Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, said it was good (with minor science nitpicks, which can be expected of a superhero movie). I was unsure if it was worth seeing or not.

I liked it. I liked it because of Will Smith, and because of Jason Bateman, and because of Charlize Theron. And it was funny, and Hancock's character grew over the course of the movie. I was surprised that it was only 92 minutes - I suspect some backstory was cut. Maybe the backstory didn't work; internet gossip has it that there were some last-minute re-shoots just two weeks prior to opening weekend, never a good sign.

But I liked it. It's no "Iron Man" but it was funny.

Labels: movies

• 3:21 PM 0 comments

Wanted

"Wanted" is badass but shallow. It's more cynical (cynical means assuming people and their motives are base, rather than noble) than "Fight Club". It's not as funny or as ultimately inspiring as "Office Space". And it's more misogynistic and unreal (bending bullets?) than "The Matrix".

I enjoyed the spectacle but I didn't like where it was going.

Thanks to Pajiba's review for the comparison of "Wanted" to those three movies. Hard to believe they all came out in 1999, isn't it?

Labels: movies

• 2:29 AM 0 comments

"Get Smart"

"Get Smart" is mostly cute. My only major reservation (and I admit it's kind of a big one) is a completely generic spy plot that could have been written at any time in the last 40 years. Seriously. Russian nukes? Talk about a throwback to the Cold War. Were the writers of the movie asleep for the past several decades?

Luckily I have a huge soft spot for Steve Carell and Dwayne Johnson and Alan Arkin and Masi Oka. And Anne Hathaway is leggy and kinda bitchy, which as anyone who knows me knows is a turn-on.

And the opening scene, when Carell as Maxwell Smart walks through a museum showcasing relics of the TV version of "Get Smart", including the beloved red Sunbeam Tiger... ah, that tweaks the nostalgia bones.

It's a little strange to see someone talking into a shoe phone to someone else on a cell phone. We've come a long way, baby. Cone of silence still doesn't work, though.

And it really shouldn't.

Labels: movies

• 8:23 AM 0 comments

"The Fall"

Since I was downtown yesterday, after I left work around 4:30 I decided to go see a movie. I've had a free pass via my massive patronage of Regal Cinemas and their points system, and I've wanted to see "The Fall" since I saw the trailer.

The story was beautiful and sad. At the turn of the century, Roy, a stunt man for early silent movies, finds himself in a hospital after an injury - or was it a suicide attempt? His girlfriend had left him for the leading man. While recuperating, he befriends a little immigrant girl who seems more than eager to tell stories and steal. Roy tells her an epic story of The Masked Bandit and his co-horts, The Indian, Luigi the Explosives Expert, The Slave, The Mystic, and Charles Darwin and his monkey, Wallace, on a quest to destroy the evil Governor Odious.

The movie makes great use of cinematography and colors. It looks amazing. And it's all filmed in a shifting, dream-like way, where a camera pan reveals an entirely different scene as it shifts, and the story-world of the Masked Bandit meshes with the equally dream-like real life in the hospital. There's an element of "The Wizard of Oz" to it, as people from the hospital end up in the story world.

I love this movie. It's a keeper.

Labels: movies

• 8:21 AM 0 comments

No charge

"Kung Fu Panda" is a cute movie. The CGI perfectly captured the expressiveness and body language of star Jack Black, the story is a great synopsis and homage to the basic tropes of chop-socky movies in general, and it helped seeing it with Kevin and his two young sons, in an old-time-y theater in my neighborhood, rather than a concrete movie warehouse out in the 'burbs.

Labels: movies

• 9:23 PM 0 comments

Loss of love

On the surface, "Annie Hall" (which I saw tonight as part of the Independent Film Revival group's series on Directing Dysfunction) and another movie I saw this weekend, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", are about the same basic thing: love and breaking up.

They both feature men who are still at heart boys, and they are both comedies. Both films make use of improvisational dialogue, and both films were written by their male leads. And while I don't know this for certain about the more recent film, I think they both have been created with a great deal of autobiography.

But what a difference 30 years have made. In 1977, Woody Allen's take on male insecurity was a nervous energy. He was constantly touching and grabbing Diane Keaton. He paced, he stuttered, he mocked himself and others. Alvy Singer had an aggressive "come here/go away" dynamic with every woman in the movie; his male friendship, however, with Rob was more uni-directional - Rob was constantly trying to convince Alvy to do something against his nature; move to California and avoid death.

Jason Segel's Peter, on the other hand, plays a more mellow and unaware insecurity. In fact, to my eyes (and this may say more about me than Peter) doesn't seem insecure at all in the beginning of the movie. It's not until later, when he's in the depths of his depression and he encounters the sympathetic, welcoming, and yet tough force of Mila Kunis' Rachel that I began to see how uncertain he was. I will always hear Rachel's encouraging shout of "Whoo! Dracula musical! Yeah!" into an otherwise silent bar whenever I'm afraid of taking a step through the next metaphorical door I encounter. And look how it turned out for Peter.

As far as the comedy goes, the jokes in "Annie Hall" are vaudevillian and fall mostly flat to my ears now. "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" has some rather broad and rather coarse humor, too, but it's also capable of much more subtle laughs.

I don't want to turn this into a thesis, though. Just seeing these two movies back to back gave me an opportunity to compare. In the end, I related to the more recent movie far more.

I can't believe "Annie Hall" won an Oscar. Over "Star Wars"? C'mon.

Labels: movies

• 10:08 PM 1 comments

I'm sad

I'm very sad that a movie like "The Visitor", which is a wonderful and melancholy movie about immigration and deportation, could even be made. It's one thing thinking about repressive countries in far-off lands like Syria, or Saudi Arabia, or North Korea, or many others I barely even know about... but to think that a story could be told about small simple people wanting to play their music and live their lives being flattened by a monolithic government just for the crime of jumping a turnstile in the subway... to think that such a story could be told and set in the United States of America staggers me.

I know the movie is fiction, and I know that the filmmakers had a viewpoint and an opinion to express. But I have to admit, uncomfortably, that the story is at least plausible. Probably similar stories play out daily.

The intersection of the hope expressed by an image of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and the anger and fear expressed by images of the World Trade Center... at the center is a fear of brown-skinned people, people who "don't even have an American name".

I refuse to fear. In its place I feel sad, however.

Wake up, sleeping democracy. The world needs hope again.

Labels: movies

• 5:55 PM 0 comments

At least WE liked it

As Tracy and I left the theater after thoroughly enjoying "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", I looked around at the predominantly older, retirement age crowd that still remained and were leaving (we stayed to the very end of the credits) and asked her, "Did it seem like we were the only ones laughing?"

Part of my wonderment was that we had watched the movie in Tigard, which for those of you reading me from far away, is a predmoninantly-white suburb of Portland. Ninety percent of the movies I see, I see in theaters downtown, with a younger (though, this being Portland, still predominantly, but not entirely, white) audience and I expect a more rambunctious response to a movie, especially a comedy like "Forgetting Sarah Marshall".

If I had to choose between Kristen Bell and Mila Kunis, I think my brain asplode.

Labels: movies

• 12:35 PM 0 comments

"She's my Rushmore, Max."

Another Monday night, another revival from the Independent Film Revival folk. Tonight was the first entry in the "Directing Dysfunction" series - "Rushmore" (1998).

I've only seen this one once before, several years ago, on cable, and I wasn't paying much attention at the time. To see it tonight with a motivated and appreciative crowd is a treat. Wes Anderson may be an acquired taste for some, but I will always enjoy the mannered and stylized dialogue, the exceptionally art-directed cinematography, and the soundtrack of 1970s folk songs. Bravo, Wes Anderson. Bravo.

Labels: movies

• 10:11 PM 0 comments

Little-known Fact

Indiana Jones was the reason I started wearing hats. My first girlfriend, Amy, gave me an Indy hat as a Christmas gift.

And, yes, I very much enjoyed the latest installment. It's note-perfect.

Labels: movies

• 6:20 PM 1 comments

I didn't know that

I really need to do a full-on write up of it, but before I dash downtown for more exciting jury duty I wanted to note that Kevin and I saw "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies" last night.

The lead, Jean Dujardin's facial expressions and body language were note-perfect in capturing the camp of a 1960s spy movie. Kevin and I could not stop mimicking his serious look and winning smile for hours after the movie. I may end up making those same expressions today, which will surely confuse my fellow jurors.

Labels: movies

• 8:02 AM 1 comments

Good trip

As mentioned previously, tonight I attended a screening of Terry Gilliam's film version of Hunter S. Thompson's book "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas".

Whole lotta hipsters there. I guess me, wearing my fedora and Chucks, fit right in.

The movie is just as drunken and elliptical as I remember it. It's as close as I ever hope to get to being actually stoned.

I'll stick to drunk, thanks very much. That's as out-of-control as I ever need to be.

Labels: movies

• 11:14 PM 0 comments

Go!

"Speed Racer" feels like an entire TV season packed into a 2 hour and 15 minute movie.

And not necessarily in a good way.

Visually amazing, though. Can't really follow what's happening a lot of the time, but still looks amazing.

Labels: movies

• 7:12 PM 1 comments

Shellhead

Make sure you stay all the way to the end of "Iron Man".

And knowing about the Marvel universe helps make the movie more enjoyable.

Labels: movies

• 11:06 PM 0 comments

George Clooney carries a ball and the movie

Got out of work at 4:30 tonight. By 4:38 I was standing in the lobby of the Pioneer Place Theaters, ticket in hand to see Leatherheads.

Cute movie, but the timing seemed a bit off to be the screwball comedy it clearly wanted to be. Also caught John Krasinski looking directly into the camera on at least one occasion, which works for "The Office" but not so much for a major motion picture. Hope that guy finds another role that suits him. I like him but he needs to bust out.

Also, I think I have a little crush on Renée Zellweger. I don't get it, either. But she's cute.

Labels: movies

• 7:59 PM 0 comments

"Expelled" is a deeply dishonest movie

"Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" is a deeply dishonest documentary.

I'm mad enough about it to give the movie and its claims a full-on, point-by-point rebuttal, but here's two small tastes.

Did you know that Darwin was responsible for The Holocaust? That's practically the film's central thesis. They start laying the groundwork for that little bit of propaganda right from the top, as the credits roll over stock footage of the building of the Berlin Wall. Communists, Nazis... and Charles Darwin. The 15 minutes (I'm guessing) of Ben Stein being given a tour through a Nazi sanitarium and concentration camp are surreal - is this really appropriate for a movie purportedly about science? The film descends into self-parody long before Ben Stein tries to pin the evils of the world on noted hate-monger John Lennon.

No. I am not kidding. That's the level of evidence that Mr. Stein and the producers are aiming for. Judge them by their conclusions.

Another argument the film tries to make is that scientists who attempt to research "Intelligent Design" are somehow shunned and blacklisted from the scientific community, denied any grant money and silenced for daring to challenge the orthodoxy of Darwinism (the over-use of that word makes Darwinism seem like some dangerous cult, doesn't it?). But in order to evaluate that claim, the film's producers leave out a huge piece of evidence for evaluating said claim, and leave out some background material to boot.

Like... the evidence. There's virtually no discussion of what research Dr. Gonzalez (who is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, noted creator and proponent of the wedge strategy to get religion back into public schools), Dr. Meyer (Director of the Center for Science and Culture, a branch of... hmm... the Discovery Institute), or Dr. Crocker (Executive Director of the Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness Center, whose board consists almost entirely of Senior Fellows of... hmmm... the Discovery Institute, again), were all pursuing. The most information we get is that their research included the phrase "intelligent design" and that they had their contracts not renewed, their tenure denied, and their research money taken away.

Gee, those poor scientists, just scraping by on the meager earnings they get from the Discovery Institute and the IDEA Center, which has funding from Christian conservatives in the millions. Yeah, that's sad. And obviously they've been simply crushed by the scientific community. Oh, wait, no - they're all collecting incomes and getting grant money from those pseudo-scientific and secretly-religious "think" tanks.

But, besides the money issue - where's the research and evidence that is supposedly being denied? If their research is, in fact, credible and not just strings of half-truths and bad logic, why didn't the producers spend some of their time on, y'know, showing the evidence? Oh, wait, they were too busy dwelling on the horrors of Dachau. I forgot.

Even on the "Expelled" website (which I am not linking to - Google it yourself) there's absolutely no mention of their research. Maybe because said "research" couldn't even stand up to a layperson's review.

So much more to say... but suffice to say that "Expelled" is simply dishonest. Much like the Creationism movement itself.

Labels: movies

• 6:20 PM 2 comments

Halfway

Saw "WITW is Osama bin Laden?" and now I'm waiting for "Expelled" to start. Plan is working.

A lot more people in here. So sad. But still only about 17, not including me, so it ain't no summer blockbuster.

Labels: movies

• 2:26 PM 0 comments

"There Will Be Blood"

Wednesday night Kevin and I saw "There Will Be Blood" at my neighborhood cinema. This completes my quest to see all of the Best Picture nominees for the 2007 Academy Awards.

I was captivated by "TWBB" and not just by Daniel Day Lewis' performance. I very much appreciated the storyline and how it personalized the turn-of-the-previous-century's history of how oil collection and production became a monopoly. But Daniel Day Lewis was great, as well, creating an intense characterization from the ground up.

Yeah. I liked this one.

Now that I've seen the quinella, I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that "There Will Be Blood" will take the Best Picture Oscar. I'm not 100% sure of it; "Atonement" seems more like the kind of movie that the Academy chooses, but in my entirely un-expert opinion, I think they'll lean towards "TWBB".

However, of the five movies, I personally prefer "Michael Clayton". It's a more complex story, with interesting characterizations and plot twists that kept me engaged throughout. It's a writer's movie. It's, frankly, a movie from the ground up; it's in the minority of the top five - only it and "Juno" were written specifically for the screen. The others were all adapted from a novel. So in my eyes, "Michael Clayton" gets the personal nod.

Note I'm not hedging my bets by picking two movies. I really think that the Academy is going to select "There Will Be Blood".

We'll see how right I am on Sunday.

Labels: movies

• 7:46 AM 0 comments

"Jumper"

Saw "Jumper" today. I was in the mood for a goofy action flick, and this one fit the bill.

Hayden Christensen totally reminded me of my youngest nephew. Especially when he does that furrowed-brow angry glare of his. But not when he's teleporting from place to place. I don't think my nephew can do that; he just drives now that he's got his license.

I don't get why movies aimed at "young adults" have to have such dickhead parents. Oh, wait... yeah, I remember being a teenager. Of course it makes sense. Nevermind.

Labels: movies

• 10:05 PM 0 comments

Paradox

Wow. That was the busiest boring weekend I've had in a long time.

Also, "Atonement", which I saw tonight, was sad in an anticipated way, and an unanticipated way. I anticipated that Keira Knightley would not be naked at all, and I was right. See? Sad.

The unanticipated way relates to the ending and I won't be giving that away.

I've now seen four of the five Best Picture nominees. The last one, "There Will Be Blood", I will attempt to see early next week, just to complete the set.

Waiting at the bar next door to the theater prior to showtime, Ayesha, the waitress, asked me what I was doing. I told her about my quest to see all the Oscar nominated films, and listed the ones I'd seen and the one I was about to see. She seemed unusually eager when I listed them off, and then interrupted me to tell me she'd seen "There Will Be Blood".

"Daniel Day Lewis is... is..." she searched for a word.

"Wow," I said, "your eyes just lit up."

An older guy, a regular, laughed. "Chicks' faces always light up when they talk about Daniel Day Lewis!"

Ayesha smiled, happy but not embarrassed by her enchantment with the actor. "No, you guys, seriously. He's mesmerizing in that movie. I couldn't look away! It's, like, a three hour movie and I didn't look away once!" She turned to make change out of the register, continuing to talk over her shoulder. "He's not a good man in that movie, but, damn, I couldn't look away."

I can't wait to see it. It's highly recommended.

Labels: movies

• 10:59 PM 0 comments

"No Country for Old Men"

Kevin called me as my work day unwound. We talked about all sorts of stuff and decided we'd have to get together next week to hang out and do fun, unplanned things. He talked about "Lost", which he and his wife are now watching, starting from the first season, and working their way up. I mostly listened, and I tried very hard not to give anything away.

We also talked about movies. I mentioned seeing "Michael Clayton" and he talked about seeing "No Country for Old Men". He kept talking about the ending, without giving anything away, but said that it ended rather abruptly.

After I left work, I had to go downtown to pick up some stuff before going home. And I decided on a whim, to go see a movie. And of course, I saw "No Country for Old Men".

I liked it. The dialogue is poetic and stylized but entertaining. The character of Anton Chigurh is... well, he's evil. Unstoppable, relentless. I have a theory about the ending. I can't wait to share it with Kevin.

But I have to say that of the three Best Pictures that I've seen, I liked "Michael Clayton" best.

Labels: movies

• 10:04 PM 0 comments

"Persepolis" "Michael Clayton"

I want to write a longer post about each of them, but just so I can make a note, I saw two movies the past two days.

Last night I saw "Persepolis", the movie belonging to the trailer I posted earlier in the week. I recommend it highly. Made me think very much about politics and how it impacts everyday lives.

Tonight I saw "Michael Clayton", the Oscar-nominated film with George Clooney's Oscar-nominated acting, and possibly many other Oscar-nomination-festooned besides. Saw it with Tracy and Gina. Very much worth it. Intricately plotted, sensitively acted.

Labels: movies

• 12:40 AM 0 comments

Cloverfield

Saw the monster movie home video "Cloverfield" last night. I followed most everyone's advice and didn't read any reviews before I saw it.

And so should you.

Labels: movies

• 9:51 AM 1 comments

Demon Barber

Saw "Sweeney Todd" today with Athena, who awesomely showed up even though she's still obviously under the weather. Take care of yourself! Rest up 'n' stuff.

I loved the movie, but I'm an uncritical fanboy when it comes to Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. I've said I would watch Depp read a software EULA for two hours. "Sweeney Todd" was far more entertaining than that. It's a closely constructed tale swiftly told, and Burton's direction and visual style is a perfect fit. The story has what Kevin calls a "button" ending. I'm not giving anything away, am I?

Yes, there's blood. Bright red cartoon blood. Be warned.

Labels: movies

• 4:28 PM 0 comments

Movies

I see a lot of movies. I can't, now, go back and list what movies I saw in 2007 due to a hard drive failure (dammit - make sure your backups are working) but I'm going to attempt to post about every theatrical movie I see in 2008.

This past weekend I saw the Sing-Along "Grease" with Tracy and her friend Gina. It was fun and cheesy... and the costume contest beforehand had some very sexy "Slutty Sandys" which almost made the entire thing worth it. As a movie... "Grease" is not among my favorites. But as audience participation, it was a blast. I'm completely comfortable in my heterosexuality to admit that.

I also saw "Charlie Wilson's War" which was a delight. Entertaining political comedy. Rep. Wilson sounds like the kind of politician I'd like to be: liberal, single, boozehound, womanizer. His press agent's response to a reporter asking if he'd ever been to rehab was, "Rep. Wilson will not go to rehab because they do not serve alcohol there." But, seriously, he was trying to do a good thing after touring the refugee camps in Pakistan. Tom Hanks and Philip Seymour Hoffman both are amazing to watch, though I give the edge to Hoffman.

Labels: movies

• 10:51 AM 0 comments