I don't have to review every movie I see, do I?

So, as part of my relaxing South Bay weekend, I watched Knocked Up with Erin, Jon and a couple of their friends on Saturday night. It was actually a pretty perfect evening. We had a few beers - including Naja's cask-conditioned smoked chipotle porter - but before that we played a little pinball.

Then we went back to their place, procured some pizza and watched the movie. It was funny. I'm glad I'm not in my twenties. I liked that he was wearing one of my favorite t-shirts, but that's about all I have to say about it.

Snow Cake - a little dvd review

I kept seeing the preview for this movie on other DVDs and something about it intrigued me, and it was the perfect movie to watch Friday night. I was exhausted when I crawled into bed with my laptop and my headphones.

Alan Rickman blew me away as a random person with shady past dropped by circumstance into the tiny town of Wawa, Ontario. I haven't followed his career or anything, but he fit the role so well, I think that maybe it was the role he was born to play.

Rickman's Alex Hughes had picked up a young hitch hiker, and just before they arrive in her hometown, they're hit by a truck, and the girl is killed. Driven presumably by his own demons, Alex feels compelled to stick around and pay his respects to the mother, Linda. Sigourney Weaver plays Linda, the autistic mother coping with the death of Vivienne, who was both her child and companion. I don't know if I've ever seen or even heard a story about an autistic adult, so this was really refreshing, and I didn't find it predictable or cheesy at all. I'm not sure I bleieved too much in Carrie-Ann Moss as the seductive neighbor, but Alan Rickman's reactions were great.

If you haven't figured it out, I liked dramas that take place is cold, isolated places. So, this fits that bill. It also sounded good - with a lot of songs and scoring by Broken Social scene and conspicuous inclusion of TWO Welsh rock bands, Stereophonics and Super Furry Animals.

And if anyone finds a recording of the Japanese folk song,"Notteru Ondo" that's featured in a couple scenes of the film, let me know.

I really do just want someone to eat cheese with. Is that so wrong?

Oh, I shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition? Maybe they should have called the movie "I want someone to eat cheese with, bitch."

Anyway - it (I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With) was okay. It's always nice to see chicago on the big screen, and there were three or four moments where I laughed very loudly. And only one of these was due to Sarah Silverman's irreverancy. I think the others were all in dialogue between the main character and his best friend.

The weirdest part was when the two guys are leaving the movie theater... and it's The Music Box, which is where I'm sitting watching this movie. And the one guy says "Do you wanna get something to eat?" and I actually whisper to Julie, there's a Dairy Queen up the street (because I could have gone for a Blizzard at the moment) but they didn't go to the DQ. It was just odd though, because even though this film has major distribution, it's all Chicago, and even though it wasn't that great, it was probably pretty true.

Thanks for using me

Well, If anyone talked to me on Monday, they would remember that I was excited about The Blow show, and about having free passes to The Darjeeling Limited. In the end, we didn't get to the screening soon enough, which was fine. So, I waited, and caught an early show after work last night.

I've always had mixed feelings about Wes Anderson's films. There are certain things I love about them, but I do always want just a little bit more. A little bit more of what, exactly, I'm not sure. Rushmore is still by far my favorite. But, I think the Darjeeling Limited might be sneaking in just ahead of the tenenbaums for the number two position.



There weren't quite as many laughs as I wanted, but it was beautifully shot. And I liked the characters, especially Adrien Brody's Peter (he's not too hard on the eyes, either.) I feel like there's quite a bit missing in the implied "way they were raised," but I like the dynamic between the three brothers, and I appreciate that the serious midsection of the film where the boys find themselves in a small village, where language prevents them from saying the stupid things they probably normally would in that situation, was pretty genuine.

And let's just face it. I absolutely love trains.

even heroin addicts are hotter when they've got accents

I saw the movie Pure on DVD over the weekend. I cried a lot. I'm not sure if it was really that good, or if I'm just a sucker for little British kids taking on adult responsibilities. He locks his mother in her room so she can detox, and and he is able to stand his ground and not let her out, even when things get really bad, just to be lured away by the pretty girl who lets him feel her tits. I really wish there were even more scenes with the Scottish narcotics detective though. I love listening to him talk. I think I need some Scottish friends. Maybe I should hang out at the Duke of Perth more often. I don't mind eating all those peas.

I still don't know how to play euchre, but I finally saw ANCHORMAN

One of those movies that everyone is always quoting, but I never got around to seeing. I was waiting for some colleagues to buy some stuff at CVS on Thursday, and I was poking around in the bargain bin. I really don't think $6.99 for a Jody Watley CD is a bargain, but whatever. Anyway, Anchorman on VHS was $3.00 (I know, some of you are thinking: What is this "VHS?" I do no know this.)

I love Will F. and all, but somehow I was still expecting it would be funnier. I did laugh quite a bit though, but really, I don't know that the characters were well developed enough to really stick with me. I will say that it did contain one of my favorite scenes/lines of any movie ever, I think, and this was Steve Carell on the bear. I tried to find a photo of this to post on the blog, but all i found was this.

Don't get too old to make movies, Mr. Loach

I first became aware of Ken Loach in 1996. I was living in Germany, and would cross the border to Strasbourg, France to see films in English. There was one big place that always had a few American or English films, and there was some other smaller, artsy place where you could see more obscure thing, often in series. There was a Ken Loach series at one point, and they were running Land and Freedom and Ladybird, Ladybird. I don't even remember if I saw those films there, so I don't how I remember what they were.

In any case though, by now, I've seen most of his films, and had been waiting all year to see The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Cillian Murphy was very convincing as a blue-eyed Irish doctor who gives up his medical career to fight for Irish independence with his brother and brethren. Ireland in 1920 is something I know nothing about, and I now want to know more. It's curious that an English filmmaker was telling this story. And the English characters were so extremely ugly in this, I found myself wondering if this was accurate, or if Loach was somehow making atonement or reparations for his forefathers.

I haven't cried so hard in a movie in ages. We know, because we hear, that war makes a person do unimaginable things. When someone's loyalty to a cause wins out over their bonds with family, this becomes even harder to understand. And like many war movies, it left me crying not only for the story, but in gratitude for my own privilege and freedom.

I'm glad I wasn't able to catch this in the theater earlier this year, because on the DVD is s short documentary called "Carry on Ken" exploring the director's work. Robert Carlyle, Peter Mullen and other actors from some of his best work, along with crew members and the man himself review the unique ways in which he works, and explain why they think his films are so unique.

I didn't realize it, but he forces his actors to use a lot of improv, which always intriques me in dramas. In fact, they talk specifically about the scene in Carla's Song when Robert Carlyle's character finds Carla in the bathtub. That was improv. The only instruction the actor got was to go to that apartment, find the key, and go in. Amazing stuff.

He's got a new one lined up for next year, I think it's called It's a Free World.

rave against the occupation

There were no previews... we were eating now & laters and telling stories, when the lights dimmed, and a few hebrew titles appeared on the screen. Then, suddenly it was all shaky camera and military checkpoint chaos. And somehow I was rapt from the first moment. Eytan Fox already impressed me with his storytelling in Walk on Water , but I wasn't expecting as much from The Bubble. Alyna and I were discussing this as we were walking in. The slick sexy American look of the poster made it look kinda stupid, but really it was a look into a little bubble of modern young (queer) life in Tel Aviv. A few plot twists that I didn't see coming drew things out to make a longer movie than it probably needed to be, and really - I'm not so sure about that Shakespearean ending, but I did shed a few tears. I also enjoyed listening to the Hebrew, especially the names. It also had a pretty awesom soundtrack. Bebel Gilberto, Israeli covers of Tim Buckley, some Bright Eyes, Belle and Sebastian...Nada Surf...shall I go on? All good, evocative film music. Don't rush out and see it in the theater or anything, but it is pretty good.

that's all over when we ride up troy's bucket

Went to the Music Box for The Goonies tonight. There were far too few people in the theater, but boy do I love that film. First time I've seen it on the big screen since I was a wee goonie myself. So many great moments. I want to watch it again and again.

I'm totally pumped for the Paste Secret Show at Subterannean tomorrow. I can't believe they're keeing us in the dark about who's going to be there. Well, I know it's not Pearl Jam. And that's a relief in my book. I'm hoping for My Morning Jacket. Or Son Volt.

three in one, netflix dvd reviews

fur
loved it. asking/answering the questions about how someone from a prim and proper background ends up documenting the seedy underbelly. the surreal lens, the colors, the fur, hair, sex, etc, were pretty awesome. I could barely stand to watch the shaving scene though. I don't even remember how I used to shave my legs.

gray matters
Piece of crap. Yes, people I know and like enjoyed it but well, I'm convinced that Heather Graham's character will stay single forever. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But see, she thinks it's because she's been chasing the wrong gender all her life... even though she thinks she gay now, she's still got the problem that she's fucking obnoxious.

slc punk
Well, I liked this. Though, I think there were probably a few anachronisms, and there was a clear lack of a plot, it was still a fun little essay of poser/punk coming of age in Salt Lake City. I was drawn to this after spending two weeks there on business recently. I like the actors though, and a did shed a tear when the one dude died.

Counting Backwards - Paris Je'taime and other stories

Every time lately that I listen to something, see a film, or read a book, I want to talk to someone about it. But then I seem to forget some of the most important parts in the telling. And I think, myabe I should write this down.

Maybe I should, and maybe I'll fill in this blog with the backlog in my head, but maybe I should just start with last night.

My office building was evacuated, and not knowing quite what to do withourselves on a Friday afternoon, some colleagues and I ended up at a bar. Did you know that beer is more expensive before 5:00 in evanston?
After 1,2, then 3, it was only 6:30, and and apparently time to see a movie.

We were some of the youngest people in the crowded theater, surrounded mostly by over-60 couples. A bunch of little stories about Paris, and it's hard to pick out my favorite. Tom Tykwer's catalog of memories flashing through a young man's head when he thinks he's being dumped was a favorite, as was mime's story, and the story of Ana, a young mother who sings the same lullaby to her own child with such warmth only to vacantly sing for someone else's as her job later. The moment she wakes up in the dark stands out to me, the blue cups and saucers for a dying's man's coffee date, and Nick Nolte telling his little grandson to shut up. It was pretty cool.

The last story though, of the letter carrier from Denver, eating a sandwich in the park was so awkwardly real to me too. Feeling lost, ending up eating chinese food when she wants to experience paris, wanting some one standing next to her to say "Isn't this beautiful?" to. I have this loneliness when I'm travelling alone. And it makes me sad, but would it really be better if there was someone with me, I don't know.

Anyway, it's worth seeing, whether you've been to Paris or not, but I imagined all these couples sitting in the dark, reminiscing about their romantic trips there in their younger days. I did remember my stroll by the eiffel tour with the Johnson sisters from Idaho, and my lonely hours wandering and getting lost, and finding comfort in a nutella banana crepe.

I would want to see how this is done with other cities too. These stories were more about people than places, so they really could happen anywhere. I didn't like the vampire bit very much, but even that had its moments.

And just like they say about Chicago, Denver, Boston, and probably even Paris, if you don't like the weather here, wait five minutes.