tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40356524043017353542024-03-19T01:53:16.529-07:00The Celluloid KitchenBombastically seeking truth on the screen and beyondThe Militant Working Boyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533288599729243109noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-33664016761445607702011-06-07T08:15:00.000-07:002011-06-07T08:16:47.965-07:00Charcoal Monday (Tuesday again!)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi93TbgIFdPZknkZwQxE9kADAKU5-rei6z1teQp-ftHY1-93X5AykODSel4OmmO6nKTDaq1QBi9ealKZuJLJ-jhuxuJdeM2-4G8cAPFwmGR1PA4Z369SPKv23GrJ9wCQI7puTAhl0gx3S2t/s1600/edith+piaf+charcoal.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi93TbgIFdPZknkZwQxE9kADAKU5-rei6z1teQp-ftHY1-93X5AykODSel4OmmO6nKTDaq1QBi9ealKZuJLJ-jhuxuJdeM2-4G8cAPFwmGR1PA4Z369SPKv23GrJ9wCQI7puTAhl0gx3S2t/s400/edith+piaf+charcoal.JPG" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I posted this one a while back with the "Paris Post", but here she is again.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-17286051291801466732011-05-28T22:12:00.000-07:002011-06-01T06:24:05.337-07:00So As Not To Break The Rules, This Is A Review Of Kung Fu Panda 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzvoFGt2r2kok6FCB0WNUXxyyKpiJSEBRmE4MtGVW1wjaj9J9O_KHh29oWZOw1FLvIZbFonrvoIK5BcIWg_ubjSINBJE9il_e2BnxpxhusCk0A1byjUbsaBZsxgkld4Q2pMzTb03CJ6KUN/s1600/Fight_Club_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzvoFGt2r2kok6FCB0WNUXxyyKpiJSEBRmE4MtGVW1wjaj9J9O_KHh29oWZOw1FLvIZbFonrvoIK5BcIWg_ubjSINBJE9il_e2BnxpxhusCk0A1byjUbsaBZsxgkld4Q2pMzTb03CJ6KUN/s320/Fight_Club_poster.jpg" width="243" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">“Fight Club” is—if such a thing exists—a philosophical action movie. People come to it for different reasons: to puzzle about things like society, boredom, and carnal impulses; to watch bloody, shirtless men hurting each other and to experience the ensuing desire to immediately go out and beat stuff up; or possibly to see it just to say they saw it, since it is fairly unanimous that this is an “awesome” movie, presenting valid arguments appealing to both ends of the moral and social spectrum. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> The story is about and narrated by a nameless (there’s your first metaphor) corporate minion (Edward Norton) who incessantly attends support groups, though insomnia is his only ailment, and becomes addicted to the emotional vent that they provide for him in an otherwise emotionless life. This he does until a fellow phony named Marla (Helena Bonham-Carter) pops up and ruins his binge. He cannot deal with his façade being validated by the existence of someone in the same boat as him… much less a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">woman</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> Then he meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a macho soap salesman who seems to understand perfectly what is on the narrator’s (and our) minds. He makes things like holding a gun to the head of a store clerk and blowing up buildings seem perfectly logical; you’d be crazy <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> to do it. Materialism is his worst enemy. He leads the life that we all secretly wish we could lead. Not the carefree life of luxury and indulgence—the life of impulse without consequence. The life where pain is merely a side effect of achievement. The life where fear is overshadowed by adrenalin to the point of nonexistence. Hey, why should we worry about consequences when the worst consequence of all is death, and we’re all going to die anyway, right?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> The truth is, we all have a Tyler Durden inside of us. Freud called it the “Id” and said that if it is gone unchecked we would be a civilization of barbarians. “Fight Club” poses the question, “What if we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are</i> a civilization of barbarians? Are we not letting ourselves be destroyed by our own fears and lust for material?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> It uses the glamorization of violence to ask this and does it so thickly it is sometimes plausible to assume that it is validating the very point that it is arguing against—that we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are</i>, in fact, barbarians who cannot balance ourselves between civility and all-out carnage… and given the choice, carnage is far more exciting. Especially when it is done with some fast-paced music, snazzy visual effects, and lots of explosions. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> Like its narrator, “Fight Club” seemingly can’t make up its mind about the point that it is trying to make. It doesn’t know if thrills are what life is all about or if we need stability; and it isn’t sure if we can do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">any</i> of it without falling into the leader-follower syndrome where the powerful take control of the weak and mold them into a culture of enslaved, dead minds. It is, often literally, fighting its self. Only at the end do we catch a glimpse of that one entity that may instigate symmetry. It’s not… can it be… love? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">Nah, this isn’t that kind of movie. Is it?</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"><i>For an analysis far more intelligent and entertaining than the one above, check <a href="http://nerdarchives.blogspot.com/2011/05/i-am-joes-discoloured-left-ear-lobe.html"><u style="color: #cc0000;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">THIS</span></b></u><span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></a></i><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <i>out.</i></span></span></span></span> </span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-1027502705519948962011-05-22T10:43:00.000-07:002011-05-28T22:16:26.842-07:00Roses Are Red And Something Is Askew<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe-vPhjsSeh-OhyphenhyphendvHEkwj7ni3OyOTAPuQ4Zz4BorLMIrV_XvBsfjmWxSpwV94UxxzEpVX0sFSqO0Qjhzpg8DT9VbC9NC6vrT0dlL9MeljAGJmEWCVu_xzuRzRRSSZev-fw1lvJ_SnSj4q/s1600/he+loves+me+he+loves+me+not.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe-vPhjsSeh-OhyphenhyphendvHEkwj7ni3OyOTAPuQ4Zz4BorLMIrV_XvBsfjmWxSpwV94UxxzEpVX0sFSqO0Qjhzpg8DT9VbC9NC6vrT0dlL9MeljAGJmEWCVu_xzuRzRRSSZev-fw1lvJ_SnSj4q/s320/he+loves+me+he+loves+me+not.jpg" width="219" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> Movies are essentially an art of manipulation. The composition of a frame, the angle of a shot, the pace, the score, even the credits are all specifically utilized to bend our perception of the story on screen. The difference between a close up and a long shot is the difference between one awareness and another. In many cases, it is the difference between two stories.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not” is a movie completely reliant upon audience trickery. It builds our trust in one character only to betray that trust by impulsively switching perspectives mid-way through the film. It creates a façade and then dismantles it, piece by piece, with head-slapping logic and more than a few psychological jolts. This is a movie you can watch for the first time twice—once you know the secret that even the misleading trailer takes good care to repress, it becomes a completely different movie.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> The heroine is dainty young art student Angelique (Audrey Tatou) who is conducting an affair with Loic (Samuel Le Bihan), a married cardiologist with a baby on the way. She is madly in love with him and their relationship appears to be a mutually happy one until Loic begins to stand Angelique up in favor of his wife. Angelique consequently assumes a painful downward spiral into depression until a startling revelation is made that changes everything.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> Even more shocking yet is that lying just beneath the outer layer of cerebral mayhem is a sort of ironic humor. We have Audrey Tautou, fresh from her career-defining performance in “Amelie”, whose face would likely appear alongside the definition of ‘adorable’ in the dictionary, playing a deranged jilted lover. The reasoning that discloses the true plot is all so simple, you can almost sense the writers giggling at their own devilishly easy deception. It isn’t often you get a psychological thriller this engrossing that simultaneously pokes subtle fun at its own guise as a sappy love story. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> It’s this simplicity that makes “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not” such a pleasing movie to watch. We don’t have to work out complex concepts or sticky knots of jumbled up relationships. Though there is just enough left untouched to give it a mysterious air, it only plays coy when necessary while dishing out information with precise timing. The complexity is in its knowledge of the audience’s mind and how to manipulate it with smokescreens and imagery. When you know how a person thinks, it infinitely possible to permeate their mind. This is all the more cunning when your tactics go unseen—good advice for cinematographers and unhinged lovers alike.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-23845822733129324592011-05-03T17:45:00.000-07:002011-05-03T17:45:25.291-07:00Charcoal (Conte Crayon) Monday (Tuesday)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghbmfewq5fzoDcctBHRehsqMxIt0cahX6EG4_fjAtayzZY2sgrt6bJS6pKcH7yNKbYcx1jXu6SeFKU5UKv2W4tsA4zgoGw7C5Yy_nGTenu1MtnQcxVWrvwNTWQBp23rdA69b8rsIvRWrhX/s1600/DSCN0961.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghbmfewq5fzoDcctBHRehsqMxIt0cahX6EG4_fjAtayzZY2sgrt6bJS6pKcH7yNKbYcx1jXu6SeFKU5UKv2W4tsA4zgoGw7C5Yy_nGTenu1MtnQcxVWrvwNTWQBp23rdA69b8rsIvRWrhX/s400/DSCN0961.JPG" width="326" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-41455483887912290132011-04-15T10:59:00.000-07:002011-04-22T10:25:42.802-07:00If You Are Uncomfortable With Something, Don't Make A Movie About It<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHNrAo05VORhFnvyYbZEC2_8W9OC5nETbMuN95VMkSkZQJ1kEBjGbx9U6RUufA0DfJ0bwCpqHpLytnIwMRNIkZKp6kWY9eD0Q28Zxl__pHd20BFyHP2AcNeorj4r2B9kSnBo5NpgD8cMBk/s1600/the+reader.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHNrAo05VORhFnvyYbZEC2_8W9OC5nETbMuN95VMkSkZQJ1kEBjGbx9U6RUufA0DfJ0bwCpqHpLytnIwMRNIkZKp6kWY9eD0Q28Zxl__pHd20BFyHP2AcNeorj4r2B9kSnBo5NpgD8cMBk/s320/the+reader.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> “The Reader” is about a lot of touchy subjects: Forgiveness of genocide in the name of humanity, the question of whether one can still love a person who has committed a horrendous crime, the impotence of shame and its translation into a lust for authority, and the never ending debate over whether or not law is based upon morality… just to name a few. And yet the one thing that springs immediately to mind whenever we think about this movie is the sexual affair between a fifteen year old boy and a thirty year old woman. We don’t think of their relationship later in the film, when Michael (David Cross in the flashbacks and Ralph Fiennes in the ‘90s) is forced to choose between exposing Hanna’s (Kate Winslet) shameful secret- she can’t read- or watching her be sentenced to a life in prison for the crime of allowing 300 Jewish women to burn to death in a church during her career as an SS guard. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> Instead we think of the R-rated scenes involving beds, bathtubs, and books. Why? Is it a publicity stunt; to lure audiences in with the promise of sex and controversy before whacking them with a good dose of historical morality after they have already paid for their tickets? This would mean that the true depth of the more intense subject matter would emerge after having seen the film. At least, this was what I was hoping for. A hundred and twenty four minutes later, and my cynicism was in overdrive. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> The problem with “The Reader” is that it presents exacting reality with tenderness and subtlety while treating the subtle and tender with exacting reality. It is not a holocaust film. It is about the lives of the next generation of Germans who had to live in the shadow of guilt and who were faced with the enormity of having to move on.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> It is certainly a unique premise and one that carries a massive potential to resonate in our moral psyches. But it plays it safe. All the way from the rather too coincidental beginning to the neat-as-a-pin ending, it walks ever so lightly on its abundance of ethically controversial material, picking up on the nostalgia of post-WWII films that have gone before, but goes hog-wild when it comes to sexuality, leaping at the chance to at least be bold about <i>something</i>. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> In doing this, it becomes what, in my opinion, is a bad movie. It is based on a story that implores us to consider something that we would prefer to put behind us. It (rightly) doesn’t want to give any answers for fear of having to take sides; but neither does it have the courage to ask any questions. “The Reader” is a movie about a nation that is weary of the shadows of the past, and its responsibility is to have the audacity to cast a light into that darkness. Instead, it is afraid of its own shadow. It is tactful and predictable.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> When undertaking something that is potentially controversial, one must be firm in their convictions and know where they are going and what they want to do. “The Reader” has an identity crisis. Does it want to be a steamy romance? A period piece? A WWII aftermath film? It seems to know that any way it goes about it, there must be a flavor of controversy. And the only way it knows how to do that is not by forcing us to think, but by playing the sex card. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> Maybe we too have an identity crisis. Maybe we are still afraid of our own shadow... our own thoughts. </span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-51426410360152421712011-04-04T12:23:00.000-07:002011-04-04T12:23:05.134-07:00Charcoal Monday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUFMnMjf7Z9bIM17zJJPq0TkC5_TdPzPKAnYx_EydgJM2QrWfvp-hmR7gMfRNQeI7Z4l1F_IElTuHVTFRnPEootCTdzT8FV5DWXd_fgEYJUTsDGqK3bsDM0zbAqb9WU2q_NXKS_Hb-f95A/s1600/IMG_0801.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUFMnMjf7Z9bIM17zJJPq0TkC5_TdPzPKAnYx_EydgJM2QrWfvp-hmR7gMfRNQeI7Z4l1F_IElTuHVTFRnPEootCTdzT8FV5DWXd_fgEYJUTsDGqK3bsDM0zbAqb9WU2q_NXKS_Hb-f95A/s400/IMG_0801.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-42989443556475667292011-04-03T10:46:00.000-07:002011-04-03T10:50:44.895-07:00You Might Be Surprised By What They ARE Afraid Of<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIn1lDA_5DO_ggTH38GTkhOEkHyquAQrtMc-ivrwfLH9y-86r75-9KGWv7X7pJaFK5TQa-nRq-C8d8a57JiZ94FZPU1FhufPQ6culA9Omfsf3Yr-5k8yf2WI2UlOfywumXktbEK_cN_6tk/s1600/whos+afraid+of+virginia+woolf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIn1lDA_5DO_ggTH38GTkhOEkHyquAQrtMc-ivrwfLH9y-86r75-9KGWv7X7pJaFK5TQa-nRq-C8d8a57JiZ94FZPU1FhufPQ6culA9Omfsf3Yr-5k8yf2WI2UlOfywumXktbEK_cN_6tk/s320/whos+afraid+of+virginia+woolf.jpg" width="248" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> I love movies that are based on plays. Using a story that is intentionally fashioned for a presentation where flamboyant effects are limited not only by budget but by reality and is instead forced to place all its cards on the quality of actors and dialogue is a wonderfully sneaky yet effective way to create a movie boiled down to the essence of what great theatrical entertainment is all about. When it doesn’t get overly Hollywood-ized in the process… that is.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” is structurally about as simple as it gets: four actors, very little music, and most of the scenes are set inside one room of one house. The complexity lies in the characters mentality and is expressed in their dialogue, originally penned by playwright Edward Albee.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> The plot, at least on the exterior, is simple as well: A young professor and his wife (George Segal and Sandy Dennis, respectively) meet the daughter of the college president (Elizabeth Taylor) and her husband, an associate prof. of history (Richard Burton) at a cocktail party and are invited to the older couple’s on-campus home for drinks at an hour that straddles both “late at night” and “early in the morning”. Little do Honey (Dennis) and Nick (Segal) know of the marital warfare that rages in the home of Martha (Taylor) and George (Burton).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> All attempts at friendly small talk are quickly muffled by the virtual machine gun spray of dialogue that George and Martha ceaselessly pelt each other with. As the foursome grows drunker and drunker, the two guests become sucked into the combat as well and round and round they all go, ripping each other down verbally until we no longer know what to believe and who to trust.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> It’s movies like this that thrill me to no end. The dialogue is the driving force that pushes the movie forward, only to whip the characters back with such great momentum, they need to take a minute to catch their breath. Elizabeth Taylor’s role in the film has become the stuff of legend- and rightly so- but upstaging even her was the brilliant performance delivered by Sandy Dennis. While the other three incessantly reload their guns with ammo of alcohol and secrets, the mousy blonde Honey is the one who bears the brunt of the situation, as it is she who ultimately discovers that her husband does not love her. It is one of those performances so unique and bizarre, it is impossible to keep our eyes off her even with Elizabeth Taylor just feet away.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> “Virginia Woolf” is a merciless movie. There is not an emotional or psychological stone that is left unturned, not a flaw that goes unscrutinized, not a gun that doesn’t go off; and in the end, we are surprised by our own shock at who can best withstand the blow. But it is also a deeply metaphorical movie that is not afraid of the surreal.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> One might argue the same about long-term marriage.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-90532973881686760162011-03-31T20:31:00.000-07:002011-04-01T16:41:17.943-07:00Back and Forth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-U_wH-4WRwLJ8Wquw9Xd3Oxpv1qEmSWwcTEIXSJDwYNq816TkkBI3AJITKDtLxeGztac19ORpjuu3OFM-s7oAYnHeZmP4QsLm9sSNFOd0wx1SDYqnihOz7xD3qJE8l8ZYqBjUfi2uWmqD/s1600/UnderwoodKeyboard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-U_wH-4WRwLJ8Wquw9Xd3Oxpv1qEmSWwcTEIXSJDwYNq816TkkBI3AJITKDtLxeGztac19ORpjuu3OFM-s7oAYnHeZmP4QsLm9sSNFOd0wx1SDYqnihOz7xD3qJE8l8ZYqBjUfi2uWmqD/s320/UnderwoodKeyboard.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Remember those back-and-forth stories that we all used to do (or at least bored writers with weird friends, like me, used to do)? Where creative juices would run riot as you penned back and forth, each adding to the growing plot that the other had established? Where anything went, and hilarity ensued?<br />
Well, <a href="http://nicomorley.blogspot.com/" style="color: blue;">the internet's best kept comedic secret (Nico Morley)</a> and myself have decided to join forces and establish a blog just for this purpose. She and I will alternate posts, stopping abruptly in order for the other to continue the story. Who knows where it will go? What levels of brilliance will be reached? What caverns of humor, tragedy, life, death, metaphor, and insanity will be delved into? Will they be left undiscovered or blasted open with the force of our combined brilliance? Who knows?... Who cares?... <a href="http://backstoryforth.blogspot.com/" style="color: blue;">check it out!</a><br />
<br />
Also, a last minute note, <a href="http://hemakesthings.blogspot.com/" style="color: blue;">Darryl</a>, whose sense of humor is almost more acerbic than mine, has come on board as well. Let the wild rumpus start!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-75672056091279553032011-03-28T12:32:00.000-07:002011-03-28T16:44:06.600-07:00What Do You Get When You Cross A Baby, A Convict, And A Thesaurus?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis2OyLtkY8TlDcUFmxhIMdqFwBNf9uxlobBvn3OV3E4H6jtRy4Lyv4PKCT1nxswfjHuu8XSQELP6FcdgqkxbwOgb0805OlILqbzu3gGNrXaZkZI1FQfNNGvmfS5jhPCTNLEvK8nBth4C4L/s1600/raising+Arizona.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis2OyLtkY8TlDcUFmxhIMdqFwBNf9uxlobBvn3OV3E4H6jtRy4Lyv4PKCT1nxswfjHuu8XSQELP6FcdgqkxbwOgb0805OlILqbzu3gGNrXaZkZI1FQfNNGvmfS5jhPCTNLEvK8nBth4C4L/s320/raising+Arizona.jpg" width="206" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> Far be it for me to scrutinize those who venerate the more ostentatious calibers of the English vernacular. But when it obstructs a congregation’s ability to assimilate the true intentions of a fabrication… well, that’s just plain bad writing.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> “Raising Arizona” is the better aspects of the later works of the Cohen Brothers all lumped together in one movie proving that chocolate, bacon and Pringles- individually delicious as they may be- do not make a good casserole. In other words, too much of several good things is hardly ever great.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> Here we have all of what would later become the Cohen Brothers usual suspects: dialogue that sounds like it was scraped off the tongue of an eighteenth century Alabaman lawyer, slapstick black comedy, a bounty of colorful characters, a madcap heist plot, and John Goodman. Every one of these aspects is trying to one-up all the others and what results is a movie more confusing than even the Cohen bros. most incomprehensible con stories. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> Holly Hunter and Nicholas Cage star as Hi (Cage) and Ed (Hunter). The former is a two-bit thief who falls in love with Ed, a police woman who takes his mugshots. They marry and decide to start a family but as “biology conspired to keep them childless” and Hi’s criminal record is longer than his hair, rendering them unable to adopt, they have no choice but to kidnap one of the famed “Arizona Quints” based on the logic that five babies is more than any one couple can handle. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> At first, the movie wants to be a zany character piece, scooped from the trailer homes and convenience stores of Southern U.S. Then it switches gears and becomes a dangerously screwball comedy when Hi’s oafish (yet eloquent) prison buddies set up camp in the new family’s home. Then it wants to be an action flick with a chase scene involving a naive truck driver, a package of Huggies, and a Rottweiler in one of those gags that never fails to crop up in chase sequences that need a bit of forced comic relief. There is also a puzzling subplot that somehow manages to make its way into the limelight of the movie’s main storyline involving a grizzly bounty hunter who looks threatening enough until we hear him speak in a stuffy twang that is due to his apparent lack of nostrils. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> There is so much <i>stuff</i> being flung about in this movie, the fact that this bunch of folks are stupid enough to invite company over to see their newly kidnapped baby before they even think of a decent name or rid their house of bundt cake guzzling escapees… yet speak using words like “recognizance” and phrases like “ply her feminine wiles” is laughable- though not in the way intended. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> Of course, The Cohen Brothers went on to dissect the tangled mess that is “Raising Arizona” and grow films like “Fargo”, “The Big Lebowski”, and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” using the seeds of brilliance found therein, thus proving that although credulousness and inexperience may have initially deemed their work asinine, maturity and fortitude were able to play a hand in conceiving their latter works of proficiency.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-63135233629083129002011-03-23T11:19:00.000-07:002011-03-23T11:19:47.601-07:001932-Eternity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5gKbY6eC828N2jTfUCHJXcAAq_Plt93goMW0dFJnQqVpvgXRjuKeCGSaVQ5zjYGxIRZ87G0i4heOibdPSi6Wj-DzyqB0DbEdF9QCKbrl7e3_4iSoKkRVwmPISeHvxLykCJun8fknMsQXq/s1600/IMG_0789.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5gKbY6eC828N2jTfUCHJXcAAq_Plt93goMW0dFJnQqVpvgXRjuKeCGSaVQ5zjYGxIRZ87G0i4heOibdPSi6Wj-DzyqB0DbEdF9QCKbrl7e3_4iSoKkRVwmPISeHvxLykCJun8fknMsQXq/s400/IMG_0789.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-3655947193839152052011-03-17T09:05:00.000-07:002011-03-17T09:06:33.167-07:00You CAN See It Just Once... Because It Will Stay With You Forever<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8msVPxG5fNWU-pWFR7E92FT6feCJAIc4_-GHSFtonJU8ArSJHRgKq712EYAfRi4Q0micBTsiiwcODG7Wzm-4juWBXDedDT97pOhIYGd-G7It_SO96ynnFlVjtSmjlPRxltOF8guNPerGW/s1600/once.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8msVPxG5fNWU-pWFR7E92FT6feCJAIc4_-GHSFtonJU8ArSJHRgKq712EYAfRi4Q0micBTsiiwcODG7Wzm-4juWBXDedDT97pOhIYGd-G7It_SO96ynnFlVjtSmjlPRxltOF8guNPerGW/s320/once.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> What is the difference between song and speech? Both, when well done, can be eloquent, elegant, powerful, and beautiful. Both can implant an awareness of truth in the psyche of the listener. Both are expressions of humanity. The difference is that speech is an expression of the mind, while song is an expression of the heart. “Once” is a song manifested in film.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> The opening scene is of a scruffy, red-haired street musician (Glen Hansard) with a face not entirely unlike a basset hound’s, strumming a- for lack of a better word- threadbare guitar. In hot pursuit of an oddball who has just snatched his daily earnings, he hands his instrument to a passerby, imploring him to “hold this for a second”. The chase ends with the musician offering the stolen cash to the troubled thief who embraces him and asks how his mother is doing. The musician’s mother is dead. The movie is, of course, set in Ireland.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> We never learn the musician’s name. Nor do we learn the name of the young Czech mother (Marketa Irglova) whom he befriends. In fact, we know almost no more about either of them than they know about each other. They first meet abruptly in the streets of Dublin, but unlike most hopelessly romantic movies featuring European artistes, their love affair is not whirlwind, undying, or in any way steamy. “Once” is the story of two people who were right for each other in the right place, at the right time. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> We learn that the musician is/was in love with a woman whom he has long been parted from. We learn that the mother is nineteen and married to (though not in love with) a man back in the Czech Republic. But their personal lives are not important. What is important is music. The immediate, fleeting notes that are never heard the same way twice. The musicians who cannot say what they feel for each other, and who do not have to because their instruments say it all. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> They are an undeniably cute couple. We want them to be together and so do they, but we know in the backs of our minds that their relationship can’t last forever… and so do they. It’s not about physical love and it’s not about romance and it’s not about sacrificing everyday life to be with that special someone forever. Because at the end of the day, we aren’t living in movie land where our children and long lost spouses and financial worries and lonely parents all disappear when we find the person who we want to ride into the sunset with. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> “Once” is one of those movies that only requires one viewing to prove its point. Now can’t last forever. The present will always become the past. But, as the Irish are very proud to state, the past makes us who we are today. As we live in the present, we are creating our past and in doing so, crafting our future. It may not make much sense, but neither does love… or the Irish. </span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-39861072802202607252011-03-13T16:34:00.000-07:002011-03-14T13:23:17.278-07:00Stage And Screen Week<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSp-WhGHEDt5qfFtnVLv5YsaMldtKo78blDpRJreNZAp2Mb9Qu4dXiVAtA1CZT9zjJXxTCxlpl4YdCB3-kVukD0Pi5inoKQvD8pmxIOsKzOzbnGzjGWk-z19WFMcST2GXeXLb0GkGwffMp/s1600/030.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSp-WhGHEDt5qfFtnVLv5YsaMldtKo78blDpRJreNZAp2Mb9Qu4dXiVAtA1CZT9zjJXxTCxlpl4YdCB3-kVukD0Pi5inoKQvD8pmxIOsKzOzbnGzjGWk-z19WFMcST2GXeXLb0GkGwffMp/s400/030.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583986334094915938" border="0" /></a><br />For all you film aficionados out there looking to expand your horizons, I am going to switch into advertising mode in order to plug one of my very favorite places on earth.<br />Mineral Point, Wisconsin is one of those towns that you hear so much about, but never actually encounter. Where the townsfolk conglomerate every morning at a quaint breakfast joint where the boundaries of conversation never stop at the table edges. Where time seems to slow to make room for the hours spent napping on the front porch, as well as those wandering in and out of art galleries and prowling through the sky high shelves of books crammed within the brick walls of the library. This is a place where the arts are a lifestyle, not an ideal and nowhere does this manifest its self better than at <a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);" href="http://www.shakeragalley.com/">Shakerag Alley</a>.<br />Tucked away amongst Mineral Point's quintessential 19th century lead miners cottages is the grand old Stagecoach house guarding the magical realm (if you've ever been there, you'll understand why I feel compelled to use such hokey terminology) that is Shakerag Alley. Peeking out of gardens galore are multiple outbuildings that are home to every type of artistic/creative/literary... and even some technological... workshops that you can imagine. Which brings me to the point of this post.<br />This Summer, besides hosting a slew of workshops in the afore mentioned mediums, Shakerag Alley will be the home of Stage and Screen week- an entire week dedicated to classes on the various aspects of film making and the preforming arts. The cast of characters at the helm of this learning extravaganza includes award-winning writers, directors, actors, costume designers, and many, many more. In addition to teaching about the preforming arts, Shakerag Alley is also home to The Alley Stage, an outdoor theater that entertains townsfolk and tourists alike all summer long with the work of some of Mineral Point's most talented individuals. During Stage & Screen week, the Opera House, usually home to quirky indie films, will collaborate with The Alley in presenting award-winning playwright Bill Svanoe's play, "Persons of Interest". Students in certain classes will also take part in the production of the comedy.<br />So in a nutshell, when I heard about an event of this caliber taking place in the hub of Southern Wisconsin's rural arts culture, I found it all but impossible to not immediately share it with you. For someone, like me, whose idea of an exciting theatrical experience is whenever the local theater gets a movie that isn't made by Pixar, this is too thrilling for words.<br />So tell all your friends! Tell all your enemies! Tell total strangers! Come experience it yourself! I've always said, if you've never been to Mineral Point, you can't know the full potential of Midwestern small-town beauty, or the creativity of the people who live there.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Stage & Screen Week runs through July 30-August 5. For more information, click <a style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" href="http://shakeragalley.com/classes/stage-screen.html">here.</a><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-27264437705158553172011-03-07T07:56:00.001-08:002011-03-07T07:57:49.610-08:00Charcoal Monday<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxTy_r3ccPeWTccsTbpVXlrUsnp906nrEFxfzqBVp1i30H4gI8E4_h_qx7befXdwEqZ1ubs5YbFsxKiZ-YXMlLeM-XBIf8Q2ocqZ6TP0NKUnSfPXnWr5PntCM22bWP4pTOOvEgwI5Su7UB/s1600/IMG_0879.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxTy_r3ccPeWTccsTbpVXlrUsnp906nrEFxfzqBVp1i30H4gI8E4_h_qx7befXdwEqZ1ubs5YbFsxKiZ-YXMlLeM-XBIf8Q2ocqZ6TP0NKUnSfPXnWr5PntCM22bWP4pTOOvEgwI5Su7UB/s400/IMG_0879.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581367656468015298" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-17879582070681774032011-03-04T20:35:00.000-08:002011-03-04T20:45:41.109-08:00Get 'Em While They're... 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style=""> </span>A while ago I watched a documentary on the dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet. I learned that, like film editors, a ballerina’s best work is that which appears to be effortless, flowing, flawless. The audience must never see past the impeccable exterior to the harsh, painful, mentally and physically exhausting work that goes into the art of an unadulterated expression of someone else’s vision. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>However, the lifestyle of a ballerina, unlike that of a film editor, lends its self beautifully to psycho-sexual melodramas starring the likes of Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>Nina (Portman) is a hard-working mommy’s-girl whose personality is reflected in the tight wad of a bun that clings to the back of her neck like a swollen tick. Her mental stability thrives on perfection… too bad she was never told that nobody is perfect. She is cast as the Swan Queen by the sleazy choreographer Thomas-with a silent “S”-Leroy (Vincent Cassel) whose buzzard-like nose indicates Portman isn’t the only one metamorphosing into the bird that most closely resembles their personality.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>But what appears to be the role of a lifetime becomes a paranoid mental coup once the daringly sinful dancer Lilly (Mila Kunis) enters the scene. While Nina gracefully embraces the pretty and pure “white swan”, the Swan Queen’s darker personality, “the black swan” is right up Lilly’s alley. As only one woman must dance both parts, Thomas decides to give Nina a lesson on loosening up, and no, he doesn’t mean that in the traditional choreographic sense.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>Nina is unable to acknowledge her repressed desires, fears, and passions and instead grips that which she can control so desperately that her fingers bleed- literally. Eventually, with the provocation of jealousy and a little help from Lilly, her inner darkness bubbles to the surface in the form of inky feathers that send her soaring into the piths of a mental meltdown. Being trapped behind her eyes, somewhere in the unhinged corners of her mind, we go right along for the ride.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>Even for those of you who, like me, need a bit of brushing up on Russian ballets and their subplots, it is fairly obvious that Nina is the Swan Queen in much the same way that Meryl Streep is Virginia Woolf in “The Hours” or that Steve Carell is Noah in “Evan Almighty”.<span style=""> </span>Ballet has that sensation to it that lends its self exceptionally well to third-degree melodrama. Slap on a thick layer of insanity, and you’ve got yourself one mean theatrical sandwich.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>It is like Portman is a ballerina and we are in her head, looking helplessly out as she skillfully spins faster than lightening. The world seems hazy and dizzying but never does she falter or stumble. Effortlessly- or so she would have it seem- she (and the film editor too) dances with the audience until the world is so blurred, we no longer know what reality is. If Nina Sayers is the Swan Queen, Natalie Portman is no Nina Sayers.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-1994064097923766932011-02-26T22:16:00.001-08:002011-03-03T11:54:00.218-08:00Nico Morley's Non-Recommendation: The Room<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIJf7LKTIuQfkMfcs2wZ8_RdW5lBd7APjr0r89DB2FtMVxcLqaFkTK_15XzIclNHr0HRaD2UjpFLhBlmCXXJI69bYGBbi8DOyQ7QYMjEDcnjXwc4iBFUFkIbGnEmY7__IkTTN_NxX9MxnW/s1600/the+room.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 247px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIJf7LKTIuQfkMfcs2wZ8_RdW5lBd7APjr0r89DB2FtMVxcLqaFkTK_15XzIclNHr0HRaD2UjpFLhBlmCXXJI69bYGBbi8DOyQ7QYMjEDcnjXwc4iBFUFkIbGnEmY7__IkTTN_NxX9MxnW/s320/the+room.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5578249451168721698" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><!--[if gte mso 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mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>Watching “The Room” for the first (and hopefully last) time was a bit like listening to Bob Dylan on auto-tune. No, scratch that. It was like watching Kim Kardashian preform mouth-to-mouth on a blood hound. Or maybe it was like eating a sloppy joe while Judah Freelander massages my feet. Somehow I cannot put together an analogy that completely embodies the queasy, incoherent, weirdly-dark-yet-still-completely-tacky-and-unpleasant-hot-mess-of-a-cult-film that is “The Room”. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>The plot (and I use that word loosely) is composed of a love triangle that contains about as much love as it does geometry. Lisa (Juliette Danielle) is engaged to a hot chocolate-drinking, football tossing, lump of muscle, wrinkles, and grease named Johnny (Tommy Wiseau) but is in love (or at least says repeatedly and menacingly that she is) with Johnny’s best friend Mark (Greg Sestero). (Or at least he says repeatedly and exasperatedly that that is what he is). </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>Tommy Wiseau (who also writes, directs and produces) delivers an incredible performance as Johnny. I was unaware that it was even possible to act while simultaneously asleep and in a coma. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>Furthermore, his skill as a director calls for him to pay great attention to detail. For example, a scene in which Johnny, Mark, Johnny’s pseudo-adopted son/friend Denny, and another pal who just so happens to be a (much needed) psychiatrist don tuxedoes and then scamper out into a back alley to toss a football back and forth. Things such as contextual plot relevance, explanation, and, well, meaning, are obviously unimportant to the development of time fillers such as this. One would imagine that plenty of time could have been filled with coverage of topics such as Lisa’s mother’s breast cancer or the fact that Denny owes money to a drug dealer. But Tommy Wiseau’s imagination is obviously better than the rest of ours, as these matters are tossed aside without so much as the blink of an eye.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" >Instead, most of the movie takes place in Johnny and Lisa's living room where people wander in and out for no reason other than to exchange a few rusty bits of dialogue and in moments of levity, to engage in spontaneous pillow fights. Scenes like this are crudely glued together with completely irrelevant shots of "The Room's" location, San Fransisco.<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>Of course, this film is so bad, it has accumulated quite the cult following. And if my understanding of cinematic cult followings is correct, this is made up of people who can somehow relate to the characters in a way that the rest of us mainstream folk just can’t. Who enjoy listening to dialogue that sounds like it has been wrenched out of a pull-string Barbie doll. Who find refuge in a movie that, in being unconventional, somehow showcases unconventionality in a way that is relatable or thought-provoking. “Rocky Horror Picture Show” did this. “Pulp Fiction” did this. “A Clockwork Orange” did this. If “The Room” is unconventionality at its best (worst), it would make someone like Alex DeLarge want to immediately rush out and apply for a job as an insurance salesman. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>It takes very little effort and/or intelligence to make a bad movie. It takes quite a bit to make a bad movie that means something.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-29932361963247612042011-02-24T07:05:00.000-08:002011-02-24T11:49:55.587-08:00Quitting*Well, after writing for a local paper for almost two years, I finally realized that it was time to call it quits. In deciding the title of my last article, I turned to the American Film Institute's list of the <a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI%27s_100_Years...100_Movie_Quotes">top 100 movie quotes of all time</a>. It was difficult ruling out no. 1 and no. 19 and even no. 25 before resorting to the generic line that graces the top of the article below.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfA68sFZc_EWqb3jvNGpKUIfY4X9ZgLhjxMDrG_-LCtU6h-fyjDdUEBpMVUfY6n0suZOaSyQLRAt6675aY96OleQOD4S8b_Na498czxnrBEI0dLZhpZxcU93Uoiv38nyJfqmHPU6NViB1D/s1600/newspaper+article.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 163px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfA68sFZc_EWqb3jvNGpKUIfY4X9ZgLhjxMDrG_-LCtU6h-fyjDdUEBpMVUfY6n0suZOaSyQLRAt6675aY96OleQOD4S8b_Na498czxnrBEI0dLZhpZxcU93Uoiv38nyJfqmHPU6NViB1D/s400/newspaper+article.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577274601470479218" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Click image to enlarge</span><br /></div><br /><br />*No, the Celluloid Kitchen is not going anywhere.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-66748737729329410282011-02-11T18:00:00.000-08:002011-02-12T19:12:34.773-08:00M.W.B.'s 11th Favorite Movie: La Grande Bouffe<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjag7f53GZcCuCjZ0uvNUY1PJ7kR7F3L8me3DIyD1m91TTLmDV6c94cJrwtupPg7e3oPy1h94wYySPkupuQNZseIpYp4ClZ0Lv4gOafHMstzhyH6nvPrcP2cGWEMYD1cuKuLQlVhkdPErG9/s1600/la+grande+bouffe.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjag7f53GZcCuCjZ0uvNUY1PJ7kR7F3L8me3DIyD1m91TTLmDV6c94cJrwtupPg7e3oPy1h94wYySPkupuQNZseIpYp4ClZ0Lv4gOafHMstzhyH6nvPrcP2cGWEMYD1cuKuLQlVhkdPErG9/s320/la+grande+bouffe.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5572617629319442770" border="0" /></a><br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> 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mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:";" >“La Grande Bouffe” is trademark French cinema at its very best… or worst, depending on your viewpoint and/or gag reflex. To give you a general idea of what I mean by this, I am going to have to venture into its grotesque and frivolous plot. This I do only to warn and recommend respectively. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>We begin with four friends, all upper class, middle-aged Frenchmen who gather in an extravagant home, inherited but not inhabited by one of the quartet. It is to be a retreat from the trials of aristocratic life. Awaiting them are multiple truckloads of fish, cheese, wine, vegetables, and morosely alabaster animal bits. Though not immediately evident, the gathering is a surreal suicide pact. They intend to eat themselves to death- literally. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>Before they even reach the second course of their gloomy gluttony, several young ladies take their place at the table and soon the getaway becomes a feast of food and fornication, each equally emotionless. Despite the over-abundance of luxury, nobody appears to be enjoying themselves. Things that are generally considered pleasurable to humans are conducted with an air of desperation and stoicism. Lavish items are disposed of without ceremony. A monstrously elaborate cake serves only as ammunition in a bizarre food fight and a shipment of meat is strewn about the garden before it gets refrigerated. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>This is not a movie that most Americans (and even some French) find appetizing in any way. When a movie is explicit and disturbing, we tend to take it at face value. In America, if a movie contains a plethora of “graphic content” it rarely bothers to venture beyond its subject matter. The French cinematic tradition, however, tends to regard the risqué with a slightly more nonchalant attitude; and movies that bear the seal of a filmmaker’s politics or philosophical ideals are certainly not hard to come by. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>I like to think of “La Grande Bouffe” as a hybrid of the minds of Louis Bunel and the Marquis De Sade. The characters and their obscure hedonistic actions are merely a foil for a larger idea. It is an allegory and a biting satire on the piggyness of the Bourgeoisie and their blind intent to devour as much extravagance as is physically possible. Their downfall, whether it be by violence or indigestion always comes about as a result of a blind consumption of luxury. “La Grande Bouffe” is tasteless because it wants to express the tastelessness of its subject.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>Aristocracy and decadence are a favorite theme of French satirists- and why not? When extravagance is the norm, what is extravagant? When you have the best, what can you do but want more? When something is untouchable, what is left to do but make fun of it?</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-8006288539235957652011-02-06T20:58:00.000-08:002011-02-08T16:04:39.699-08:00It Is More Often In The Wrong<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTbe3BlHvX9r9ZSD9beKikKjRqkfqYJ1BzSzAcC7sdqdyYc21x00CliA_WbK-4BS_Xu5c7sRNDHmccRe7yxYCkCFxK2qsXsVafdX1EsVPOMGMTYbUXnBOHlDPtt1aaxGrfn5-KbJPAnA08/s1600/the+rite.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 217px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTbe3BlHvX9r9ZSD9beKikKjRqkfqYJ1BzSzAcC7sdqdyYc21x00CliA_WbK-4BS_Xu5c7sRNDHmccRe7yxYCkCFxK2qsXsVafdX1EsVPOMGMTYbUXnBOHlDPtt1aaxGrfn5-KbJPAnA08/s320/the+rite.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570810269597518754" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> 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mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" >I’m always a wee bit apprehensive about movies that end with the high note being the fact that there are fourteen practicing exorcists in the United States today. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>“The Rite” takes on the flavor of a horror movie, oozing with special effects and haunting atmosphere… people coughing up nails, speaking in tongues, getting trampled by invisible red-eyed donkeys, and reading each other’s minds... however, it wants to be taken seriously, not as a horror movie, but as an exercise in demonic possession. It begins with a young embalmer named Michael (Colin O’Donoghue) who is studying to become a priest. When he expresses doubts with the faith, he is sent to the Vatican to take a course on exorcism- partly because his Father Superior believes this may be just what the doctor ordered to rekindle Michael’s piety, partly because there is apparently a lack of people with strong enough stomachs to handle the nasty business of satanic tenure. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>Either way, Michael’s scholarship bucks will roll over into a student loan if he doesn’t scrape together enough sanctity to get himself a degree, so off he goes to Rome where he gets to know Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins), an old-timey exorcist treating a pregnant teenager who is supposedly possessed by the devil. At first, it looks as if a Freudian diagnosis would be more suitable than anything once it becomes clear that almost every character’s relationship with their parents is far from flawless. But I doubt even Freud could explain the goings on once the CGI kicks into gear.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>Anthony Hopkins is his usual scene-stealing British-grandfather-gone-bad self. He knows what to do with the material he is presented with. In “The Silence of the Lambs,” a legend was created because we could get inside the frightening and devious brain of Hannibal Lecter. In “The Rite,” his character is forgettable and far from scary because he is hidden behind an impenetrable wall of gory special effects. O'Donoghue pales (as most do) when placed alongside Hopkins. Unfortunately, he was no rainbow before Hopkins entered the picture and plays the priest-to-be with about as much charisma as one of the clientele back in his funereal days.<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>The concept of using fear of the devil to encourage spiritual devotion is not a new one. “The Rite” is based on this premise but doesn’t know if it wants to use it to sanctify or to scare. It tries to do both, but accomplishes neither and somewhere along the line goes from being a promising psychological thriller to a grimly bitter freak show that wants to take its subject matter seriously and doesn’t know how to with any level of subtlety. If the devil is in the details, then there is no sign of him in “The Rite.”</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-42495119536949088822011-02-06T20:55:00.000-08:002011-02-08T16:05:00.173-08:00Charcoal Monday<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuCTpRrSfX-BjxQKriurFwfgqrZXBbONabqaBlTis5k2YMgveIXG4BhuCFHx4ZW5rOlpdhHw23atECQx9PVo1hwT_kwscablCxkQ9ZV_AVmivs2RmVAYVXQXx9oPp-FqO_Yh48aa98zNPA/s1600/IMG_0759.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuCTpRrSfX-BjxQKriurFwfgqrZXBbONabqaBlTis5k2YMgveIXG4BhuCFHx4ZW5rOlpdhHw23atECQx9PVo1hwT_kwscablCxkQ9ZV_AVmivs2RmVAYVXQXx9oPp-FqO_Yh48aa98zNPA/s400/IMG_0759.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570807218831781474" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-60840825335052948362011-02-02T11:36:00.000-08:002011-02-03T07:01:53.312-08:00Oh, The Things I Do For Your Morbid Enjoyment.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhulNtg7YnJYSNvZ2yLXAmpL7oSW7-Gf_C_ajUTsExY5Jg2Y_wGYMN4U16Jn29ooHpeSqR3Ce5BGPfyXw-pkqOee_b1wECo1KLAC_uZ2vi_T0N_5tRmh7KOqePtQXAZGgcWQGZC6TPQRbT4/s1600/Happy+winter.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhulNtg7YnJYSNvZ2yLXAmpL7oSW7-Gf_C_ajUTsExY5Jg2Y_wGYMN4U16Jn29ooHpeSqR3Ce5BGPfyXw-pkqOee_b1wECo1KLAC_uZ2vi_T0N_5tRmh7KOqePtQXAZGgcWQGZC6TPQRbT4/s400/Happy+winter.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569182742213388770" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBtNTw_zfp6Cwkhljrn-jKeRsXOajaMuEcVBZinfKtexOpuOEa4wndRMVOjvgA5yl4-ANKTtHBkXDrQbny1Fknjyr2SULcc3an4JtKEiCP6y6c9LnUBBI_cceC2D0z_NLDROdcZg5ULu1K/s1600/Happy+winter.jpg"><br /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-20143888223766435242011-01-31T09:30:00.000-08:002011-01-31T09:33:34.289-08:00M.W.B.'s 12th Favorite Movie: O Brother Where Art Thou?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> 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id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--><span style=";font-family:";" >Just to keep things interesting, I am going to start up a monthly post series on a topic absolutely essential to the betterment of the world- my favorite movies. So without further ado (and since it is the last day of January), I give you a review I wrote when I was fourteen years old. I would polish it up a bit to bring it up to par with your extremely high standards, but in case you have forgotten, it’s the last day of January.</span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgfWjl0kTa4b5zs_mH6bmndxP7snzpoN0ErxjRSww6nsfeHxz5DeTRnxaqfRAgb3svlfqUnBLkmNsZvh0rtxSgpvRQwz4MBsXNGvBG5ljk5oLiT9CKLhT_tGTlpW8PmfWmfxvobs3EgPOJ/s1600/o+brother+where+art+thou.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 218px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgfWjl0kTa4b5zs_mH6bmndxP7snzpoN0ErxjRSww6nsfeHxz5DeTRnxaqfRAgb3svlfqUnBLkmNsZvh0rtxSgpvRQwz4MBsXNGvBG5ljk5oLiT9CKLhT_tGTlpW8PmfWmfxvobs3EgPOJ/s320/o+brother+where+art+thou.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568404140776993618" border="0" /></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:";" >Rarely does a movie come along that is not only laugh out loud funny, but also exceedingly intelligent. What the Cohen brothers have created in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” is something like a cross between the “Three Stooges” and Homer’s “Odyssey” played against the backdrop of the Great Depression. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:";" >Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney) and two other convicts, Pete (John Turturro) and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) escape from prison to retrieve a 1.2 million dollar treasure that Everett claims to have stolen and buried. However, they have only four days to recover it, before its burial place is flooded as part of a new hydroelectric project. Coincidentally, this is also the day when Everett’s wife, Penny (Holly Hunter) is planning to marry another man. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>The parallels in the movie, to Homer’s “Odyssey” are unmistakable for a well-rounded intellect such as myself. From a one-eyed giant (played by John Goodman) to three beautiful women who seduce the travelers, the Cohen brothers have made the classic tale their own by adding their characteristic wry humor. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>The melodic aspect of this movie had been a much discussed topic. Some have even categorized it as a musical. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that, but music does play a major role in the film. Almost every scene is set to the tune of an old-timey bluegrass song, I doubt you’ll be able to keep your foot from tapping along to the Soggy Bottom Boys version of “Man of Constant Sorrow”. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>The makers of the film have produced a brilliant ensemble cast. I can’t imagine any of the characters being played by anybody else. Who better than George Clooney to play the hilarious know-it-all, Everett, or John Goodman as the temperamental one eyed Bible salesman?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>Everything about this movie is absolutely spot on, from the washed out color tones, to the signature humor that clearly identifies this movie as a Cohen brothers creation. It has an old-fashioned and welcoming feel, and isn’t quite like any other movie I’ve ever seen. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" > </span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-40536480447096058552011-01-30T07:51:00.001-08:002011-01-30T07:53:45.566-08:00Oscar Contender No. 1: True Grut<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4pEbX0PMO-G7VPNx9l1ex6RvGQf3xCy8wp6VuIHsegY83dhjOecpou_QxOiQjc4w7ZZuMSYHIPK22tMt5LGM7Xa_G2aAlOLE7FA8rYRSMJQUTVy6Xnfde47tWdhCF1ME5msUWX_kDGFy4/s1600/true+grit.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 204px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4pEbX0PMO-G7VPNx9l1ex6RvGQf3xCy8wp6VuIHsegY83dhjOecpou_QxOiQjc4w7ZZuMSYHIPK22tMt5LGM7Xa_G2aAlOLE7FA8rYRSMJQUTVy6Xnfde47tWdhCF1ME5msUWX_kDGFy4/s320/true+grit.jpg" alt="" 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It is this characteristic that progression in filmmaking relies solely upon and it is filmmakers who are not afraid to challenge the status quo that will leave their footprint on the history of cinema. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>The Cohen Brothers have a reputation as being “mainstream” directors who go against the grain with outrageous plots inundated in intelligent dialogue and allegory for those with a sharp enough eye to catch it. They transform Hollywood actors into legendary characters and never let themselves be restricted by things such as genre. Their unpredictability is not shock-driven, but is rather a byproduct of that rare desire to make a movie without caring what the general public will think of it. This quirkiness goes hand in hand with the Cohen Brothers name. It has come to be expected.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>I was as shocked as the next person to hear that the genre-busting brothers were to remake the John Wayne classic, “True Grit”- perhaps the most garishly Western movie ever to come galloping out of the sunset. Now, let’s face it. Westerns aren’t what they used to be. Desert showdowns and 20-gallon hats have been done until they were more tired and dry than a Texas tumbleweed. They were episodes of cheap gallantry at worst and rough-and-tumble humanism at best. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>John Wayne’s Rooster Cogburn, I would argue, fell somewhere toward the former end of this spectrum. Jeff Bridges does not seek to mimic him but instead creates a Rooster out of the “real west”. He is probably smelly, not pleasant to travel with, and isn’t quite the gun-slinging spring-chicken he presumably once was. His ally is the plucky fourteen year old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) who is on a quest to avenge her murdered father. As far as grit goes, the duo certainly isn’t going to run dry any time soon. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>The Cohen Brothers put into play some of the elements that made the classic Westerns great- spellbinding landscapes, moments of tense isolation broken by the thunder of gunfire, and larger-than-life characters who gradually become more and more human. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>When we are introduced to Mattie and Rooster, it is evident that these are two characters that have experienced the wildest of the Wild West and are right capable of taking care of themselves. But Mattie is growing up and Rooster is growing old and even the grittiest of the gritty needs a healthy dose of friendship to help them along the lonesome trail of life. You can’t fend for yourself until you can fend for others.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>I never expected the Western to make a comeback with modern audiences. I don’t expect that it will. But it is in giving new life to one of the most formulated genres around that two filmmakers pushed the boundaries of their own ability as well as the ability of today’s moviegoers to appreciate a piece of good, old-fashioned filmmaking. </span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-59975284957872084542011-01-27T13:38:00.000-08:002011-01-27T13:40:35.971-08:00Reader's Pick #1: East Of Eden<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBIk0QI_ZC4Six1raIscKtKgNgAvEgGffOh-abGhkkbbkQXw6c05A1DXWX5vUAUgLw381ShW5vhBQ4i8VE201LaKg1IZrjnLm3ZOjjBQJd97xDF80pCLLzjy0IMTZSSKFrLptukuthQb4K/s1600/East+of+Eden.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 228px; height: 320px;" 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0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>The confusion of adolescence, the eclipse of love and jealousy, the concern with one’s origins, and the innocence of a first-time film actor meld into one great emotional surge of a movie that is Elia Kazan’s “East of Eden”. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>The film is based on the latter portions of John Steinbeck’s epic (and hefty) saga, focusing on the dynamic of the Trask family in sweeping, picturesque California. We are engaged especially with the younger of two sons, Cal (James Dean), and his relationship with his father and brother. The Trask family patriarch (Raymond Massey) is an aspiring businessman with a preference for Cal’s dutiful older brother Aron (Richard Davalos) and a want to control that which he does not understand. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>Cal is heedless and daring. He is also intelligent and business-savvy and tries to win his father’s affection by assisting him in ventures with vegetable refrigeration. Nevertheless, his father’s love continues to be directed toward Aron whom the father feels he can better relate to, leaving Cal to be valued only with authority and disregard.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>No one can ever forget the first time the world clamped eyes on James Dean. His hunched figure on the sidewalk in his tawny sweater and quizzical gaze, peering up from beneath a shock of tangled hair became a symbol of adolescence, of being misunderstood, and of wondering where life is going to take you.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>“East of Eden” was the first of James Dean’s three films and the only one released during his lifetime. Unpolished by a lack of experience, Dean’s performance is guileless and raw; we can’t take our eyes off of him. Having yet to assume an acting style of his own formation, Dean flavors his performance with an appropriate smack of Marlon Brando influence and a measure of feral improv. His inexperience lends its self exceptionally to a role that requires budding virility charged with vulnerability and insecurity. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>Jo Van Fleet plays Kate, Cal and Aron’s long lost mother who has broken free from her husband’s domination to become the madam of a successful local brothel. We learn that it is from her that Cal inherited his high-strung personality and intellect as well as his financial diligence and it is because of this semblance to his mother that he has become estranged from his father.<span style=""> </span>He differs from her only in his desire to please and be loved by her husband.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>Just as Cain murders Abel in the Biblical story that was the inspiration behind Steinbeck’s novel, Cal’s romance with Aron’s girlfriend, Abra (Julie Harris) pushes Aron to his breaking point, recklessly enlisting in the military- an act which had previously been against his and his father’s ideals. And making his father question how well he really understood his beloved son.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span>“East of Eden” is both tender and lurid in its fervent look at the complexity of human growth and familial bonds. It makes clear the necessity to forgive in order to progress, and it expresses our need to understand one another because that which is misunderstood can never be loved. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" >It is because Cal <i style="">sought</i> to understand that in the eyes of moviewatchers, he will never grow old.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-56308192127014605702011-01-27T10:07:00.000-08:002011-01-27T10:57:21.463-08:00What Critics Do For Fun<div style="text-align: center;">Here is how I spent the last several hours of my life. Don't even ask about the carpet.<br /></div><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwMdsrdSFb2zhzyM7KW1-BRGNiAHMlE55ndoYS6Nl_UNMLOVsGIeUCAqlr5-psbbJ1ZGMfENUMCyunrrk8_3g' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4035652404301735354.post-56481348660902186752011-01-11T18:33:00.001-08:002011-01-12T05:51:33.244-08:00Books That Even A Movie Snob Can Love<span style=";font-family:";" >True, I may spend every waking moment of my life in passionate dedication to the movies. I may have more movies on my Netflix queue than there are books in the library</span><span style=";font-family:";" >. </span><span style=";font-family:";" >And yes, the thought of entering the movie section at Barnes and Nobel with a gift card in hand is almost too pleasurable for me to physically handle. However, I am not completely ill</span><span style=";font-family:";" >iterate. In fact, I enjoy a good book just as much as the next self-proclaimed intellectual. So without further ado, here is a list of the books that I would read even on the opening night of a Tarantino mo</span><span style=";font-family:";" >vie.*</span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz2sUIucTgOWyHBgC5lSVK24i8TrRkfe9cD_rsyrcPrVTapt2eDDRoQN_3nK-kU_-Ydt6xcmc8u6Gxq7xsKTveJ8UOyBnun5kMX0iL-46EwNXAW82sUnt64-78Civ09pPDD0zdLAjwPjfc/s1600/IMG_0619.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz2sUIucTgOWyHBgC5lSVK24i8TrRkfe9cD_rsyrcPrVTapt2eDDRoQN_3nK-kU_-Ydt6xcmc8u6Gxq7xsKTveJ8UOyBnun5kMX0iL-46EwNXAW82sUnt64-78Civ09pPDD0zdLAjwPjfc/s320/IMG_0619.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561122305029274930" border="0" /></a></span></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal">No, this one isn't on the list just to confirm that I am, in fact, an intellectual. Through its philosophy of the weightlessness of life, "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera examines the fleeting artistry of politics, love, death, women, men, and above all, thought in a way that only an intellectual could appreciate.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=";font-family:";" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9D6kcX-UBDyWrKrmt3srCR3SubQ6pxWuGlNso6TRC9jTA7YkZGJDYKDngWgebd6B58nLBMPqh7JUcgch4NzjWIBDqFT3I5leDlhTKuCziY_bc5jRZm1t-Yod3wYeQZkgl0ummtFjgJPtX/s1600/IMG_0620.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9D6kcX-UBDyWrKrmt3srCR3SubQ6pxWuGlNso6TRC9jTA7YkZGJDYKDngWgebd6B58nLBMPqh7JUcgch4NzjWIBDqFT3I5leDlhTKuCziY_bc5jRZm1t-Yod3wYeQZkgl0ummtFjgJPtX/s320/IMG_0620.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561125911271597506" border="0" /></a></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal">Chocolate and Sandra Boynton. Need I say more?</p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNV5F3VgOq1fYybElw91tJOCse8nYD2xeJPgxSNnBZqKHXT_JVGRST1tZrtXEheMFUTipRJ_GWPiakYjM8lh-pri8u-R1_8BLMvvEu6r0nWGBHPBShYIILf55Q1haik-c32QiZYVL2Scjf/s1600/IMG_0634.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNV5F3VgOq1fYybElw91tJOCse8nYD2xeJPgxSNnBZqKHXT_JVGRST1tZrtXEheMFUTipRJ_GWPiakYjM8lh-pri8u-R1_8BLMvvEu6r0nWGBHPBShYIILf55Q1haik-c32QiZYVL2Scjf/s320/IMG_0634.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561130602874835874" border="0" /></a></span></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal">I can think of no one who paints a better picture with words than my author friend, Judy Sutcliffe. "A Collection of Old Men" is a series of exquisite portraits of elderly gentlemen who entered her life at one point or another. It is modestly beautiful and refreshingly personal.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=";font-family:";" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8dD73EzA3Tp1uGXYWrEvjvXR2f323aBo74NvbRp7vVH4xFx79Rah2vrjT4tC47gniWYP6H65B4V1AQ4-L2tmO5HZW955NxXdOetn7kvk078gufcw5njLZQ4633Q40WWmdmTwSJKT8XeQK/s1600/IMG_0632.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8dD73EzA3Tp1uGXYWrEvjvXR2f323aBo74NvbRp7vVH4xFx79Rah2vrjT4tC47gniWYP6H65B4V1AQ4-L2tmO5HZW955NxXdOetn7kvk078gufcw5njLZQ4633Q40WWmdmTwSJKT8XeQK/s320/IMG_0632.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561133391969076562" border="0" /></a></span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal">I'm not going to lie. I don't understand a word that ever dripped out of James Joyce's pen. Example: <span style="font-style: italic;">He gnawed on the recititude of his life; he felt that he had been outcast from life's feast.</span><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal">But how can you not love that?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=";font-family:";" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdN2GCVEWZ8V0XdsA6VZT_HkKrZBbTXVLM-omwpIwDo4uzr44MFd9niqG17xLNP8uHDVLs_AbScoJ0X1AmbcczluwmgJpkXg9ssJRtf_F8xEglCXWapB0sde6EDkCfcNdCGqvxgMNBPO0d/s1600/IMG_0649.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdN2GCVEWZ8V0XdsA6VZT_HkKrZBbTXVLM-omwpIwDo4uzr44MFd9niqG17xLNP8uHDVLs_AbScoJ0X1AmbcczluwmgJpkXg9ssJRtf_F8xEglCXWapB0sde6EDkCfcNdCGqvxgMNBPO0d/s320/IMG_0649.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561126450721392802" border="0" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal">Yes. It is a dead-serious book on gnomes. Written by Wil Huygen, "Gnomes" is as interesting as it is irrelevant.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkiLfCI-EaIPZSpBBvmZjf-xxEmtH8S5Y4N8aY1m8RSXUT8gDovgsCAe40Xg0P-_oTEmqYC8oRylxAibuAL0gIXkDiL403b8zqRJjuDv7gcwJqfhJDgXKwXTNA0Djff70n1sVqYh1wP9U_/s1600/IMG_0658.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkiLfCI-EaIPZSpBBvmZjf-xxEmtH8S5Y4N8aY1m8RSXUT8gDovgsCAe40Xg0P-_oTEmqYC8oRylxAibuAL0gIXkDiL403b8zqRJjuDv7gcwJqfhJDgXKwXTNA0Djff70n1sVqYh1wP9U_/s320/IMG_0658.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561129959088515042" border="0" /></a></span></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal">I can think of at least fifty authors whose way with words I dearly long to posses. Dean Bakopoulos is among them; but unlike Leo Tolstoy, Charles Dickens, and Shakespeare, Bakopoulos, who is a professor at Iowa State University, will inspire you to try. His book, "Please Don't Come Back from the Moon" is delicately surreal as it makes a point about our desire to fill in the blanks of life and society by replacing the absent and becoming absent ourselves, in return.<br /></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFnJtcSA0IzuKxNFbrAGsZqcdcBGio3E2JYLPr1kTcmx6E4Nq5DBkpFvUi0eUq3Z_8vF3vZ6Zo2DZL8uxH4psMYT1JBLqrShkwSM64QXQ4zFPI5ft-dcCAFLxym2bj8wiFdq9pVGX6GRRo/s1600/IMG_0656.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFnJtcSA0IzuKxNFbrAGsZqcdcBGio3E2JYLPr1kTcmx6E4Nq5DBkpFvUi0eUq3Z_8vF3vZ6Zo2DZL8uxH4psMYT1JBLqrShkwSM64QXQ4zFPI5ft-dcCAFLxym2bj8wiFdq9pVGX6GRRo/s320/IMG_0656.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561126667576972722" border="0" /></a></span></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal">"A Confederacy of Dunces" is the darkest brand of comedy around. It is grotesquely, royally, bitingly, funny with dialogue the likes of which could only be found in a book.<br /></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWgZb5KLaT7OWyzLwxIntvXCk6jOxwFTvobGNv0s8wrJTOjRVfDrbHzYOEN9p4OpXBUP6x_gC4AaatJPvvDpMzReQrYdfDH1YuhgxcNtcLyk_6uzDKBHvjMxPKO8gR-Yuig001m0AK6lQg/s1600/IMG_0631.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWgZb5KLaT7OWyzLwxIntvXCk6jOxwFTvobGNv0s8wrJTOjRVfDrbHzYOEN9p4OpXBUP6x_gC4AaatJPvvDpMzReQrYdfDH1YuhgxcNtcLyk_6uzDKBHvjMxPKO8gR-Yuig001m0AK6lQg/s320/IMG_0631.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561126145761625314" border="0" /></a></span></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal">Yes, I know it's on every ladies' book club reading list in the country, but "Like Water For Chocolate" is just about as sensual an allegory as you are likely to find. Dinner will never taste the same again.<br /></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWgZb5KLaT7OWyzLwxIntvXCk6jOxwFTvobGNv0s8wrJTOjRVfDrbHzYOEN9p4OpXBUP6x_gC4AaatJPvvDpMzReQrYdfDH1YuhgxcNtcLyk_6uzDKBHvjMxPKO8gR-Yuig001m0AK6lQg/s1600/IMG_0631.JPG"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=";font-family:";" ></span></span></span></span></span></a><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=";font-family:";" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCuBNo-Z5JRBDw43k-jOxZTF1NgTImDpISTqeB692JPHqwCsNlCVp0-PqRsv3zvbzNiEKO7bFeNCqpauK3Lw9Pj71Ikvbn1pWD0nlRQHgHJwr1aRMUpqRkeP-degpH8BpkJ3rOVN-kS5e6/s1600/IMG_0667.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCuBNo-Z5JRBDw43k-jOxZTF1NgTImDpISTqeB692JPHqwCsNlCVp0-PqRsv3zvbzNiEKO7bFeNCqpauK3Lw9Pj71Ikvbn1pWD0nlRQHgHJwr1aRMUpqRkeP-degpH8BpkJ3rOVN-kS5e6/s320/IMG_0667.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561130793835460066" border="0" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal">The Mistress of Murder- The Dame of Death... I am an absolute sucker for anything Agatha Christie. It's the murder mystery genre the way it should be done... a deadly concoction of rapier-like wit, acute knowledge of human nature, and logic so airtight it just might take your breath away.</p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"> Bad pun intended.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">*While waiting in line at the theater, of course. </span><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" ><span style=""> </span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com17