#43 — The Brothers Bloom (Rian Johnson, 2009) Rian Johnson’s second feature film virtually reverberates with a love of storytelling. The main plot is driven by an elaborate con that unfolds across several nations, so there is naturally an abundance … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Forty-Three
There’s a moment in Kathryn Bigelow’s new movie, The Hurt Locker, which is predictably tragic and tragically predictable. A military man who’s stationed in Iraq, but largely unversed on the dangers that exist on those sun-scorched streets, tags along on … Continue reading When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone
Your result for The Godzilla Personality Test!… Titanosaurus: The Overlooked Dinosaur Titanosaurus. A dinosaur that lives at the bottom of the ocean. Bad News: There’s a lot of bad news here. First of all, you’re kind of the bastard child of the Godzilla series (You and Battra), having only appeared in one film(didn’t even get your name in the title) and some video games. Your powers also aren’t that great. You can create winds and whirlpools. You have a sonic scream and that’s about it. Good News: You look really cool and you’re pretty tall. You’re a great swimmer. You’re … Continue reading With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound he pulls the spitting high tension wires down
Writer-director Judd Apatow’s new movie Funny People has a lot of dick jokes in it. A lot. If you’re an undiscerning fan of dick jokes, finding each and every one of them hysterically funny, then this movie may actually be … Continue reading Whatever went away, I’ll get it over now, I’ll get money, I’ll get funny again
#44 — Lars and the Real Girl (Craig Gillespie, 2007) Movies are routinely celebrated for making the impossible happen. This praise is usually reserved for spectacles of special effects that send superheroes slicing across the sky or warriors facing off … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Forty-Four
“My inner chemistry had been hijacked by a mad scientist, who poured the fizzy, volatile contents of my heart from a test tube marked SOBER REALITY into another labeled SUNNY DELUSION, and back again, faster and faster, until the floor of my life was slick with spillage.” –Jonathan Lethem, As She Climbed Across the Table, 1997 “AFTER MINUTES THAT ARE ETERNITIES, SHE REACHES HER DESTINATION, BLINKS AT A LIGHT THAT STINGS HER EYES, AND WHEN HER VISION CLEARS, GASPS…COLORS AND BRIGHTNESS AND SOUNDS AND A SUBTLE PERFUME SUCH AS SHE HAS NEVER IMAGINED…HER HEART POUNDS AND SHE GROWS DIZZY WITH … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
I have, despite my best efforts, a completist’s mentality. This undoubtedly stems from my extended time in thrall to comic books, a field of fandom in which thorough, dedicated acquisition of product is the fully exploited norm. I’ve still got longboxes that testify to my dedication to owning, say, the entire run of John Byrne’s Fantastic Four. That same inclination seeped into my other media consumption. I follow movie directors to places I wouldn’t otherwise go and routinely stick with television series well after their creativity has faded because, hey, I watched every other episode so I should see it … Continue reading One for Friday: Suzanne Vega, “Stockings”
So much attention and outrage has been leveled at the sorry state of the American food industry in recent years, from the meticulous reporting of Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation to Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me up through the hugely … Continue reading Warning sign, warning sign, I see it but I pay it no mind
#45 — Vera Drake (Mike Leigh, 2004) It is practically a necessity to begin any discussion or celebration of a Mike Leigh film by detailing his unique methodology. As is well-established, Leigh begins by assembling his actors and assigning them … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Forty-Five
Kung Fu Panda (Mark Osborne and John Stevenson, 2008). in the realm of computer animated features, there is Pixar and then there’s everyone else. Others have reaped box office success, but there’s an broad, enduring gap when it comes to artistry. Dreamworks Animation is arguably the outfit working most diligently to cross the divide. Kung Fu Panda doesn’t accomplish that, in part because the storytelling is as by-the-numbers as it gets, but it does boast a visual sense that is smoothly well-realized, generally engaging, and, at times, very striking. In particular, the sequences involving the elaborate prison created for the … Continue reading She’s making movies on location, she don’t know what it means
Coffee for Two 