Black Swan, True Grit, and The Kings Speech
These three moves are playing at the Grand and they are all very good. However. Don't go to see Black Swan if you're not prepared to cover your eyes for a lot of it. It's bloody, and not a little scary. Good. But still a horror movie. True Grit is a really good movie from the Coen Brothers. Not as good as their best, but a great Western with a really great cast. And The Kings Speech is a very good drama, again with a great cast. Spend a day and see all of them! (Or a half day and just Read more…
Looking Ahead to Twenty Eleven
These past few days I've been in Madison WI and St. Louis for some New Years cheer with Mary's family. I haven't posted much here because I've been finishing off a lot of thinking and a lot of reading. The reading and thinking has primarily been around 3 main topics: technology, creativity, and innovation. In pursuit of those topics, I've been reading a bunch of books, watching a bunch of TED talks, and then thinking about what it means for my own life and work. I have come to realize that I really really like creating things. These "things" could Read more…
Please Vote for Me
If you want to see a really engaging documentary, this one hour movie was quite good. Here's AO Scott's preview of Please Vote For Me. This convinced Mary and I to rent it and we weren't disappointed.
Ebert’s Top Ten is in order this year
In response to the reader protests of recent years, I’ve returned to the time-honored tradition of ten films arranged in order from one to ten. After that, it’s all alphabetical. The notion of objectively ordering works of art seems bizarre to me. via blogs.suntimes.com Short list: 1) The Social Network 2) The Kings Speech 3) Black Swan 4) I Am Love 5) Winter’s Bone 6) Inception 7) The Secret in their Eyes 8) The American 9) The Kids Are All Right 10) The Ghost Writer I’ve only seen four of these, and I really liked those that I did. The Read more…
This is my biggest problem with the MPAA.
“Saw 3D,” which hit theaters last week, earned the designation for innumerable scenes of violence, torture and depravity; “The King’s Speech,” which will be released at Thanksgiving, got it for one brief scene where the future king of England, encouraged by his therapist, utters a volley of swear words to cure his stutter. To call the decision crazy and unhinged would be to let the MPAA off too lightly. Its ratings decisions, which frown on almost any sort of sex, frontal nudity or bad language but have allowed increasing amounts of violence over the years, are horribly out of touch Read more…
The Social Network: The new “Behind The Music?”
I would highly recommend The Social Network as a great drama with good comedy. A really well-done film. Good acting, good director, good script. (just be warned not all facts are necessarily accurate). But what interested me about the film was how close it is to the story we love to tell about rock bands. Band gets together. Band strikes it big. Band has glorious time of it with women, cash, and drugs. Band relationships start to show cracks. Band falls apart. (I would recommend the South Park parody of the story with Guitar Hero if you want to see Read more…
Twilight Tourism: Volterra and Montepulciano
Yes, Twilight fans, Mary and I visited Volterra, home of the Vulturi (For the non-Twilight readers, the Italian hill-town of Volterra is the setting for part of the second Twilight book where vampire royalty live) and Montepulciano, where Twilight New Moon was filmed (the city was a stand in for Volterra). Rick Steves has recommended both towns long before Stephanie Meyer re-invented Volterra as a vampire home, so it's not like we went just to see vampires. But I have to say, seeing the cult of Edward and Bella that has developed was one of the highlights. Take for example Read more…
On Nostalgia
I ran into this quote on Andrew Sullivan's blog and was really struck by it. It's an excerpt from an interview with Matt Novak, who posts images of what people used to think the future would look like. Nostalgia as a symptom of fear is far too broad of an idea, and frankly I regret saying it so matter of factly. There is an important distinction I feel that we should make between personal nostalgia and societal nostalgia. Personal nostalgia is that smell of your first teddy bear or the feeling of your first kiss. Personal nostalgia is a wonderful Read more…
Some summer movies
Inception The best critique of Inception is that it's too clinical. That it's such a puzzle that you can't get into it much. But so what? It's essence is that of a heist movie. And it's a fabulous height movie. Inventive, interesting, great effects, incredibly complex, but still follow-able. Really a good film. Dinner for Schmucks Steve Carell stands out in this. It's mostly funny throughout without too many of the traditional misunderstandings that can mar a film like this. Some good laughs. Salt Angelina Jolie is a good heroine. This is basically a launch of an action franchise. It's Read more…
A couple movie notes
Toy Story 3 Toy Story 3 was once again, a very sweet movie with some good laughs and a lot of heart. I still don't feel like 3-D really ads anything to the story, but I don't think it really marred it either. The Girl Who Played With Fire The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was a fabulous crime film. But the second book just doesn't lend itself to adaptation as well. It was good, but probably not worth it if you haven't read the book (unlike the first movie).
^