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February 28, 2005
Irreversible on DVD, 2/27/05
I have a friend who really likes this movie and I was eager to see it. Problem was it turned out to be quite a disappointment. I couldn't figure out the reason to tell this story backward except to tell each section of the movie as a different genre of film. Existential conversation, gritty horror movie, revenge flick, breakup story, sex comedy then finally, life affirming love story.
The biggest problem was a rape scene that I'm pretty certain lasted 20 minutes. It was gratuitous and, worse of all, the woozy camera work that had been flitting around the scenes and making me nauseous, stopped and stood still. It gave me one very long look at a nasty scene played out in all its gruesome brutality. I think it's telling that the short feature on special effects brags about giving the rapist a virtual penis. It's also telling that I didn't realize that they'd killed the wrong man until I watched those extra features. When all the joy in a film goes to making suffering so realistic and visceral, I'm sure I just don't need to see it.
Posted by deaconmf at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)
Joanna Newsom, Nicolai Dunger, Nedelle and Okay at the Swedish-American Hall, 2/26/05
Didn't much like Okay. They were hippy-ish and not much fun. Nedelle was much better and her cover of that old Smokey Robinson tune was fun. Nicolai Dunger went on a little too long.
Joanna Newsom owned this show. She's got that strange little girl thing which works for her. Her voice is a powerful, yet sounds very uncontrolled. That'll get more sure as she goes on. Her playing was rather amazing considering the bleeding blisters on her fingers and the frayed strings. I know I should refrain from reporting celeb sitings, but I saw Spike Jones. I should have asked him out just to say I had. LOL.
Posted by deaconmf at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)
The Station Agent on DVD, 2/25/05
Are quiet indie films really so much about characters thawing, so to speak? I remember how much I liked The Accidental Tourist (ok, not indie). Garden State certainly is about the same thing. Here's another movie where a couple of characters move toward living as opposed to living stasis. This time, the two characters move toward living again. Guess I'm glad it's not with each other this time, because that would have been the most obvious. Besides, we could always use more movies about friendship instead of lovers. We have a million of those already.
Posted by deaconmf at 11:50 AM | Comments (0)
February 24, 2005
Calculated Risk, Gerd Gigerenzer
A good solid book explaining why percentages really should be stated in terms of how many people they affect. In other words, we shouldn't be told that "30% of people suffer sexual problems when they take Prozac"; we should be told that "3 in 10 people do". As it turns out when he asked, the doctor that told his patients this information about Prozac, they assumed they would have problems in 30% of their sexual encounters. The book labors its thesis somewhat.
It also opens up a very provocative argument. He argues that patients should be told the odds of the correctness of their diagnosis and their chance of a cure. It occurs to me that a lot of patients with rather dire diagnoses may just want to be told what to do. If anyone is still reading this blog, let me know what you think. I'm not so certain myself that I'd really want to know what my chance of surviving is and try to compare that to the pain I would have to suffer. Guess I should get the living will in order.
Posted by deaconmf at 03:13 PM | Comments (0)
February 21, 2005
The Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson, 2/20/05
It's not often you see a novel with a Buddhist point of view built in, but here's a sci-fi novel that takes it so seriously, the characters keep getting reborn. The history of the world changes when the Europeans are largely wiped out by the Black Plague in the 13th century. The other Eurasian civilizations (most notably, Islam, China and India) conquer the rest of the world and for the most part ape much of the history of our world in very different configurations. Here, the scientific revolution takes place in Samarkand and instead of Locke, we get a Chinese Moslem and his quasi-feminist wife.
It's an interesting book, but I'm not sure it has much of an audience outside of science fiction readers. I wonder if I'm actually part of a much larger existence, but really can't tell what the raft of character I know could possibly be doing in the world.
Posted by deaconmf at 12:41 PM | Comments (0)
The Yes Men on DVD, 2/20/05
These two guys got the idea of creating a fake website for the World Trade Organization using the organization's predecessor, the GATT. Other organizations, not paying attention to the info on these faked sites, sent invitations to these men to speak as representatives of the WTO. This is the documentary they made about a couple of those invites. It got them some headlines but it doesn't seem like people are paying very close attention to what they two are doing. In a presentation in Finland, they advocate slavery and wear strange golden lame costumes with some very phallic monitors to watch over their workers.
I'm glad that these two were able to do this, but it worries me that so many people didn't understand this as politically pointed humor. Is capitalism really this indestructible? Are people at conferences gullible, tired, or just not paying attention? I'm not sure and this really worries me, but I'll laugh at it everytime.
Either way, these two were cute. I'd do 'em.
Posted by deaconmf at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)
28 Days Later on DVD, 2/19/05
Gotta love running zombies. They seem to do far more damage than the normal movie varieties. So, it was definitely worth it. The scenes of an empty London were eerie enough and Cillian Murphy sure is a hottie. I think the movie's detour into that strange adventure with the military didn't work as well, but I've missed seeing Christopher Eccleston, so that was ok.
The alternate endings were great. The first bleak ending made more sense, but it didn't really do much for the rest of the movie. The alternate ending which they storyboarded but couldn't figure out how to make that one plot point work was a lot more intriguing.
It's a fun movie and there really isn't much more to say about that. But those two actors are hot. Zombie orgy!
Posted by deaconmf at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)
February 19, 2005
Live Freaky! Die Freaky!, The Roxie, 2/17/05
Um. I'm not sure what to say about a musical puppet show based on the life and times of Charlie Manson. This movie is trying so hard to gross out the audience, but it just doesn't work well with puppets and fake blood. Some of the jokes are great, but after awhile, I just got tired of watching because the movie's relentlessness just gets boring.
Posted by deaconmf at 03:17 PM | Comments (0)
Elephant on DVD, 2/18/05
I finally got around to seeing this one. It was beautifully interlocking and I liked watching people walk in and out of each others' lives. The sense of dread is tangible because those kids keep looking at the sky uncomfortably, like they hear something flying overhead. It's discursive, seemingly elusive and vague. For some reason, I think it works for this movie. Most lives in high school seem rather separate from one another. You know some people and interact with them for a couple of seconds.
Um, remember every review I do is a spoiler. LOL.
Anyhow, this does turn into the horror show promised by the advertisements. It feels like a series of exclamation points inserted at the end of story where everyone seems to be screaming after so much silence. Well, go see it anyway, if just to watch hot boys and get confused about finding murderers sexy.
Posted by deaconmf at 03:16 PM | Comments (0)
February 17, 2005
Lagaan on DVD, 2/12/05, 2/14/05
There aren't many politcal movies about taxes, there's aren't many sports movies on cricket and there sure aren't many Bollywood movies that aren't romantic musicals. This is different alright. A movie on taxes, cricket and Indian nationalism is one unusual subject for a movie. Of course, the amazing thing is that it works in spite of the heavyhanded message of tolerance and the songs and dancing. Check this one out if just to check out one very handsome man and learn the rules to cricket at the same time.
Posted by deaconmf at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)
February 14, 2005
Ok, I'm catching up, OK?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm slow, deliberate and procastinating. I'll get to this month soon. LOL. Meanwhile, check last month's entries. I'm getting there. Slowly. Deliberately. Lazily.
Posted by deaconmf at 11:48 AM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2005
In the Mood for Love, DVD, 2/12/05
There's this thing that Wong Kar Wai gets right about relationships. The movement from stranger to friend (or more) wanders from event to event. In most cases, it moves slowly even imperceptibly until the both of you are friends. You forget when you learned certain details or even conversations that you've had, but the information remains somehow. And this is what Wong Kar Wai gets right. This movie feels like the memory of a old relationship. Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung take forever to meet because they keep repeating their trips to the won ton shop until they finally meet, but when they finally do, it all feels so tentative, like their relationship in the film. He even heightens the experience by putting Maggie Cheung in the chongsams that looks like they might have been from that time, except that they're seem too brighty colored. And Tony Leung is still an incredibly hot man. I'd sleep with him anytime he wants. Call me, Tony. LOL.
Posted by deaconmf at 07:35 PM | Comments (0)
February 07, 2005
The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, Castro Theater, 2/4/05
I've been trying to write this entry for some time now, because there was something about J. T. Leroy's book that I really liked, yet something about the movie that I didn't. I went to the opening of the Independent Film Festival and thought I'd be seeing an amazing movie. Asia Argento directed the adaptation of his collection of loosely connected short stories. She was supposed to be there, but she couldn't make it. J. T. was lurking somewhere in the audience, keeping himself inconspicuous as usual.
Then we watched the movie. I was puzzled by my reaction because the movie is very faithful to the book. It follows those stories closely and simply depicts quite clearly and simply so much of what the book describes. And yet, I was disappointed. I had to read the book again to figure out what that was. (If you want to read the first few pages, Amazon has them online.) A conversation with a good friend helped clarify my ideas too. (Thanks Roddy.)
J.T.'s writing is amazing for using very simple wording and sentences to create some very complex child characters. Part of the effect is accomplished by the wording, I think. He's also very good at giving his characters multiple motivations for their actions. In the first story, we see how repulsed Jeremiah is at this woman who's claiming to be his mother. His foster parents seemed so perfect and she is such a mess. At the same time, it's clear he wants someone to be his mother. Like all children, he seems so needy.
Unfortunately, it doesn't quite translate in the movie. The looks of the movie is very much right. It looks downright squalid. The low budget certainly helps in this case. In the first part of the movie, it seems like Jeremiah choses to stay with his mother because she's bullying him when the truth should be both his mother's bullying and his consuming want for a mother. It turns the movie into a litany of horrible events in a child's life, but that child seems so distant from most of it. The horror of the situation encompasses the whole of the film without much of Jeremiah's complexity. I think the first problem is having three actors play the same part. The second might be that none of the actors playing the role is very convincing. The third problem is visual. By depicting the events in the book so clearly, the horror aspect of the movies is emphasized over the neediness. The fourth problem would be that once I figured out how horrible this life was going to be, I started looking for the moments where the Jeremiah actor could not have been physically in these horrid scenes and I started finding how those scenes were edited together. It was distancing, which doesn't help with this particular movie.
I hope that J.T. Leroy's other books are filmed, but I'm doubtful they'll ever come out right. The filmed version of Jesus's Son comes closest to what this movie could have been, but it may require a subtlety movies lack.
I'm still glad I saw the movie, but I just expected more. If I were to give the movie a letter grade, I'd give it a solid B, but I'm not sure how to improve this difficult adaptation.
Posted by deaconmf at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)