Fin

Just a note that this blog has long been defunct. I still watch and love movies, but I no longer feel the need to share my reviews. Thanks for visiting!

Fin

Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

*gasp*

I'm back up for air. It's been a while, I know. I couldn't possibly hope to update you on all of the movies I've watched between then and now. Water under the bridge. Yet, I felt that continuity insists that I share my thoughts on TRON: Legacy. I wrote an open letter to Hollywood. Demands were issued. How could I not follow up on that?

Oh, TRON. Dear, sweet, phosphorescent TRON. This was the movie for any kid with even a remote interest in video games in the 80s (no pun intended. Power glove. Ha!) I cannot review this sequel without acknowledging a few things about the original. It was not Citizen Kane in a light suit. It was cheesy, it was predictable, and it was a little hokey for a science fiction film. But it was Disney, and it did look to please the kiddies. What made it was the action, the effects and the concept. Man vs. Machine. Could it be any more charming?

And that's how this new TRON succeeded for me. It got the tone right. It had a great concept, man was still up against the icy machine, and the effects are dazzling. It was charming as hell.

The ace in the hole is Jeff Bridges, his acting is light years (no pun intended) ahead of what it was in the first TRON. He is dynamic as both the calculating CLU and the older, wiser Flynn. There's a dash of The Dude visible here. I found it refreshing. It was a reminder that he was unarguably human living in a digital world. Every moment he's on the screen is incredibly gratifying. Garrett Hedlund as Sam Flynn is also pretty good. He reminds me a bit of Cillian Murphy (who is also in this movie for a millisecond) and Chris Pine (who was considered for the role), but I think he lacks in the presence department. He doesn't seem as big as Bridges, or even Michael Sheen, who is quite the hidden treat here channelling Ziggy Stardust. I do think Hedlund will get there. He's very likable as Sam. Olivia Wilde, I think it's hard to separate her from her look here. It's a lot of look. She pulls it off. I'm just not sure she can fill Milla Jovovich's bandage suit when it comes to portraying a female savant. But my favorite part was that Tron is in TRON. He's still the valiant program fighting for the user. He could have so easily been forgotten or written out, but he's the heart of the story.

That's where I have to say: Thank you, Hollywood. Thank you for remembering that what makes us love a movie, what makes a movie a cult classic out of the cheesiest of films, is a great story. A story that appeals to our higher values. TRON lived on past its expiration date because we all want to believe that man can create something better than himself, that technology will not be our undoing, it will be our gift to the world. TRON: Legacy kept that story alive.

My one gripe is that I think the pacing could have been better. The action sequences are good, but they don't transition well to the dramatic sequences. And while I do enjoy Daft Punk's soundtrack, I think it could have been better. Again, I feel a mix of orchestral and techno music was better accomplished in The Fifth Element.

Some faith in the Hollywood machine has been restored. However, I don't think Hollywood can take all the credit. I think they relied a great deal on fans of the original, and when the fans are involved, it's hard not to have a happy ending.

Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

Movies for Travelling: Ratatouille, Airplane! & Tootsie (and don't go see Thor)

All right- No excuses, apologies or promises this time as it's clear they don't do me any good. I'm just going to blog. Let's do this thing!

Now, I've mentioned before that I have an iPad. I love my iPad. Real love. If it were to break, be stolen, or get lost, I would mourn it like a dear friend. Okay, maybe more like a beloved hamster. I'd be inconsolable for a few days, then probably get a new one.

But that's beside the point.

I've spent a lot of time streaming movies on my iPad, but only recently have run into the difficult situation of buying and downloading a movie onto my iPad. Dan was leaving for Chile and wanted to bring the iPad. I told him I'd buy a few movies so that he could watch them on his long plane ride, seeing as though streaming movies on public WiFi is never reliable.

Little did I know that deciding which movie to download onto the iPad was a far more complicated process than I imagined. It's something like this:

And that's all assuming the movie you want is even on iTunes and you can know exactly what you're looking for. The browsing process in iTunes is maddening. It basically assumes that all anyone cares about is what's new or popular. Anyone who knows anything about movies knows that you're going to have a pretty ho-hum selection if you stick to what's new and popular.

So here are the three movies I currently have on my iPad:

I really do love all three of these movies. I could watch them over and over. They were priced appropriately, and none of them causes a reaction so extreme as to bother anyone sitting around me.

Let me tell you why:

Ratatouille

This is, perhaps, the best movie about food and cooking that I have ever seen. Pixar really hit it out of the park on this one. The animation is incredible, the textures and movements are so rich that you get easily sucked into this wonderful, virtual Paris.

Yes, the plot itself is incredibly far-fetched, but the wonderful characters, the wacky humor and the smart dialogue help you forget about that. But the real star of this film is the food. You can practically smell it right through the screen. The way the characters talk about food and handle food is romantic. This film always makes me hungry, and it makes me want to cook something. I have gotten up halfway through it to make ziti with alfredo sauce. I am a picky eater and a reluctant cook, and this movie makes trying something new seem fun and exciting. And you actually learn a lot about food and cooking during it.

Another reason I find it easy to watch is that it's fun, light and short. The perfect recipe for a travel movie.

Airplane

Now, if you haven't seen this movie before, you probably shouldn't watch it on a plane. You'll laugh too much. It's one of the funniest movies ever made and many of its lines have become phrases everyone knows. The most famous of which is:

Striker: "Surely you can't be serious."

Dr. Rumack: "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley."

Of course, I'm not sure how you can live in the U.S. and can not manage to at least see part of this movie. It seems to always be on television. But trust me when I tell you that the best parts were edited out for time or lewdness.

The jokes come one right after another. Sight gags, puns, wisecracks, running gags- all these and more. Each just as funny as the next. It's the screwiest of all screwball comedies. For its time, it was one of the most daring spoofs. The comedic performances are flawless. Even actors that deliver only one or two lines are funnier than half the so-called comedians you see on t.v. or the big screen these days.

Is it a high budget film with perfect execution? No, but I find that's part of its charm. It's scrappy, it's playing it fast and loose. You can watch it over and over, it's appropriately priced, and you never have to think too hard about it.

Tootsie

I know this is kind of coming from left field. But again, screwy movies are the best kind of movies for travel. And Tootsie is actually impeccably written for having such a weird concept as the foundation of it's plot. This film was a pet project for Dustin Hoffman after he worked on Kramer vs. Kramer:

"Dustin Hoffman first got the idea to do this film while working on Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). He felt his character in that film had to be both a mother and a father, so he started thinking about how to play a man and a woman. Several scripts, several writers and a few directors later, this was the result."

Honestly, most leading men couldn't pass for women, but Hoffman's small frame, small features (except for that nose, but girls have big noses too!), and the mannerisms he adopts to appear feminine are so believable that it's not such a stretch to think he could pass as a woman.

The dialogue is fantastic and most of the performances are fantastic. I think Jessica Lange is a bit of a weak link, but it could be that her character is simply written to be so weak and vulnerable that I can't help but dislike her. But I can tolerate it with ease because she's never on screen without Hoffman, who is simply sublime.

This movie is also funny as hell. All of Bill Murray's lines were improvised, and they are hysterical. The great thing is that there are just as many laughs generated by the reaction shots as those garnered by the punchlines.

The ending is really not so great, so I give you permission to stop it right after the kooky hospital scene ends, which I sometimes do, but the beginning and the build to the climax are so incredibly worth it. Worth it to the point where I'll watch this movie many many times.

---------------

I did go see Thor the weekend it came out. It was utterly ridiculous and kind of irresistibly campy. The thing I kept thinking while watching it was:

"Anthony Hopkins couldn't have possibly read this script. He must have heard the words 'Kenneth Branagh' and 'Zeus' and signed on without thinking."

At least that what I tell myself to help it all make sense.

The worst part about all of it is that the Norse myths themselves are so awesome and easy to understand, and the explanation given in the film about Asgard and the old gods is so ingenious that there's really no excuse for how they patched it all together.

Thor, Loki, Zeus, Asgard- all of their back stories and origins are botched. I don't really know much about the Thor comic books (I know, I know, I call myself a geek and I don't know this) so perhaps they were following that cannon, but I grew up with the old stories. My dad and uncle loved vikings, and read us books and told my brother and me the old Norse legends that are so damn entertaining and awesome that I really can't respect anything else.

Odin didn't lose his eye in a battle with the Ice Giants. He sacrificed it in exchange for infinite wisdom. Loki is not Thor's brother. No explanation is given as to why or how Thor has a Japanese man in his group of warriors in this film. Granted, Tadanobu Asano is fucking awesome and was the star in Ichi the Killer, which is about 60 times better than this movie, but he's still out of place in this movie. In fact, instead of wasting any more of my or your time telling you about the truly forgettable Thor, I will simply tell you to take that $20 you were going to spend on a ticket to see Thor and spend it on a Netflix subscription and put Ichi the Killer on you queue.

So, there.

Til árs og frí ar!

Movies for Travelling: Ratatouille, Airplane! & Tootsie (and don't go see Thor)

Underdogs: Get Him to The Greek and The Men Who Stare at Goats

I've always been a fan of cult films. The kind of movies that you can use as a litmus test for new friends. You drop a quote into the conversation at a party, and if the other person can finish the dialogue, you're instantly friends.

I watched two movies recently that are sure to build a small but devoted following for years to come.

The first, was The Men Who Stare at Goats. Ewan McGregor plays a reporter who follows his gut on a story, and finds himself in a top-secret military organization that must be real, because no one could make anything like this up. The plot is so ingenious and the dialogue is so clever that I was smitten by the 20 minute mark. Basically, the premise is that Jeff Bridges, a high-ranking military officer, is sent by the Pentagon into the love-child subculture of the 60s after he returned from Vietnam. His task is simple: Conceive of a method that utilizes natural human gentleness for military purposes. He succeeds, and the new-age warfare techniques he develops are simply far out.

The film opens with a disclaimer that more of the story is true than most would like to believe. But the really fantastic thing is the way that the movie keeps you guessing as to just how real all these psychic powers and new-age fighting techniques are, and how much of it is the shared delusion of the Jedi. When it turns on a dime and makes you start to think that maybe these love-happy warriors really are onto something- the film becomes transcendental. It lifts you up, and keeps you laughing the whole time.

George Clooney, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey have such an innate sense of comedy that it's strange that we know them best for their dramatic work. It makes me wish that America still had a palate for rat-pack or Marx Brothers-style farces. Surely Clooney, Bridges and Spacey would star in many of them. Watching them in this movie is joyous. I laughed myself silly. A group of masters playing off of each other and taking it all to another level. If only every movie could have a cast like this.

It does feel very much like a Cohen Brothers rip off, but I mean that as a compliment. It reminded me so closely of Burn After Reading and Fargo that I was impressed. Punchy colors, wonderfully simple and realistic sets, and costuming that acts as part of character development. There's also a brave use of narration here that most contemporary movies don't dabble with. Perhaps not since Fight Club have I seen it done so well.

Not too much, (Perfect example of too much: Most episodes of "Sex and the City"- Really, Carrie? You're telling me you just arrived at home while I'm watching you, on screen, arrive home? That's maddeningly redundant. Either tell me what you're doing or show me what you're doing. Don't do both or you'll just annoy the crap out of me. This isn't a damn cooking show.) not too little (I don't have an exact example of too little, but pretty much anytime you're watching a movie and think to yourself "I shouldn't watch movies when I'm drunk because I have no idea what's going on" but then you remember you're not drunk, the movie's narrative is just confusing as hell and some voice-over would really help you out.).

See The Men Who Stare at Goats. It's wonderful.

Get Him to The Greek needs a preface:

I have an amazing friend named Lucie. She's just plain awesome. We became good friends while working at Sephora, especially after she heard me yell in frustration at a hand truck "It goes in the hallway or else it gets the hose again!" She laughed hysterically and I was thrilled to have found someone who can appreciate a well-timed Silence of the Lambs reference. We spent many an evening watching movies together. We have incredibly similar taste and she has an impressive selection of DVDs. Lucie, and her husband, Jon, between them have just about any movie worth watching on DVD. And they are kind enough to rent their collection out to their friends! See? I told you she was amazing. Plus, she's beautiful. That's just icing on the awesome cake.

So, I was at Lucie's, and we were all talking about movies, and I remarked how surprised I was that actually wanted to see the Arthur remake. Lucie agreed, and then we began discussing the strange genius that is Russell Brand. I admitted I had never seen Get Him to The Greek, and Lucie and Jon insisted Dan and I bring it home to watch. they promised we would love it.

OH MY GOD were they ever right.

This movie is riotously funny. What I like so much about Russell Brand is his gift for absurdity. Things are funnier if it seems like no sane person would ever speak or act in that way. And here, he's let loose to play.

Jonah Hill portrays Aaron Green, a normal, if a bit awkward, guy who works at a recording label. Sean "P. Diddy" Combs plays the head honcho of the label, Sergio. (More about this in a moment) Aaron comes up with an idea of having his favorite rock star, Aldous Snow, (who has fallen from popularity after a terrible album) restored to his former glory by playing an epic anniversary concert at The Greek. Hilarity ensues when Sergio sends the starstruck Aaron to bring the hard-to-handle rocker from London to L.A.

Get Him to The Greek is outrageous, but also tender. Aaron and Aldous embark on a journey of self-discovery- but that tired movie cliche is not to be found here. You will see things you never thought you'd see in a movie. Aldous is clearly modeled after Tommy Lee, and his roller coaster relationship with his Pamela is just as complicated, yet so romantic in a really dysfunctional way. Aaron learns that his hero is simply a lonely man, who only yearns for love because he didn't have any as a child. The heart of this movie truly touched me. It really tries to show that most of us don't really comprehend what it is to be a rock star- To leave all of yourself on the stage, for your fans. And the harsh reality of that is that, often times, there's not much left to hang onto off-stage. They drift along, not really living until the next time they get to perform. The drugs and the sex just fill the void in the meantime. It truly reminded me a lot of This Is Spinal Tap in how it balances mockery and empathy.

But it's also just funny as hell. Brand and Hill are a chemistry match made in comedic heaven. Every scene between the two of them is delightful. Brand really gets to show some range here, he's not just a big haired buffoon, he has a soul, and it's tortured. And he somehow manages to carry it off without it seeming tired and cheesy. Elizabeth Moss is effective as Aaron's girlfriend Daphne, but she sort of gets lost between Hill and Brand, literally one time.

But P. Diddy is a revelation. Who knew he was this funny? He's not in most of the movie, but his big scene, the "Jeffrey" scene, is some of the funniest material I have ever seem committed to film. It's Monty Python-worthy funny. It's Mel Brooks-level funny. I was laughing so hard I thought I was going to pee myself. Pure bliss. This is the scene that you will be quoting for the rest of your life and hoping that someone else knows what you're talking about. It's really that good.

So much of what happens is unexpected and bold. There's a lot of gross-out humor, but just like in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, I enjoy it because, hey, that's real life. We puke, poop, have sex- why hide it? It's funny because it's true.

Watch it, you won't be sorry. Stroke the furry wall.

Underdogs: Get Him to The Greek and The Men Who Stare at Goats

Fighting the good fight: The Fighter

Oh my, how I have neglected my poor little blog!

I've been neck-deep in a job hunt since January, going on interviews, sending out resumes and praying to the career advancement gods. But I am happy to report that my prayers, networking, sparkling personality and skills landed me a great new gig. I miss a lot of the people from my old office, but it was time to move on. I started last week, and I've been busy finding my place and trying to remember all the new names and faces (the latter is not my strong suit), but I promised myself I would post. The handful of you who read my blog deserve it.
The Fighter knocks out (get it? Ha! Puns!) any other Boston film in recent memory. Actually, I think this story, pulled from the 90s, is the perfect portrait of America right now.
Micky Ward is a down on his luck boxer. The toxic, but well-intentioned hold his family has on his career is preventing him from fulfilling his potential. His brother, Dickie, was a once-famous contender who's losing the one fight he can't afford to lose: His addiction to crack. But a new love in Micky's corner just may be his inspiration to do what needs to be done.

Micky is a lot like Lowell and other small cities in America right now. He has a lot of potential and just needs the right team of people to help lead him to victory. Mismanagement, desperation and greed have done a number on Micky, but he's not giving up. In the wake of the recession, strong management, hard work, and tenacity are the only things that can help our country off the ropes.

The performances in this movie are inspiring. Melissa Leo, Christian Bale and Amy Adams are the most believable Joe Schmoe Massholes I've seen since Blake Lively blew me away in The Town. They fit so well into the neighborhoods of Lowell and the locals used as extras that you almost forget that they're Hollywood hoi polloi off screen. My favorite cast members have to be the ladies who play the Ward sisters. They're simply a lot of fun to watch, like a gum-smacking, cigarette smoking female version of the Goodfellas gang.

Using the real City of Lowell for much of the movie, and using a wardrobe that involves some of the worst crimes against fashion the 90s ever committed, gives this film genuine character. Did you ever think you'd see Christian Bale wearing MC Hammer pants, and not in an ironic way?
The best thing about The Fighter is that it doesn't condescend. There is no irony in it. It shows how junkies, has-beens, nobodys and never-weres have just as many stories to tell as the champions. The empathy you'll feel for these characters will catch you by surprise. This is a feel-good movie that doesn't sugarcoat reality.

I admit that I've pulled some punches here by not hitting you with a lot of puns, but I really I know that kind of thing could put me on the ropes and stop me from being a contender. It can be a rocky road out there that can leave you feeling boxed in or raise you up like a million dollar baby, so I just want you to know you're not fighting alone. I'm in your corner, like a raging bull.

There, I got it out of my system!

Now, I've seen a lot of movies since I last posted. Date Night, Running with Scissors, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Enter the Dragon, and a couple others. I promise to share my thoughts on all of them with you and soon!

Sent from my iPad

Fighting the good fight: The Fighter

The Millenium trilogy: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire & The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest

We all love that feeling we get when we start reading a book, but then find ourselves unable to put it down. We read it voraciously, consuming the words, plot and characters like a black hole. We suck them in, and they become a part of us. The characters become old friends, and we
cherish their memory.
Rarely do movies afford us this same type of sensation. Only the epic greats like Jackson's Lord of the Rings can come close. And even these can fall victim to producers so eager to profit off of the fans that they end up disfiguring the franchise in such a way that true fans become disgusted, and turn away jaded. (See Star Wars, the Burton-started Batman, and poor Indiana Jones.)

But, just the other day, I found myself sitting on my couch watching three movies back-to-back. Four more than six hours, I watched intently, pausing only for bathroom breaks and small refreshments. At the end of the third movie, I felt a strange sadness. I was sad that there wasn't another movie to watch. I was sad that I would not be hearing more about these characters in the foreseeable future.

I had heard good things about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The book had been a best-seller, and the Swedish film adaptation was critically acclaimed. I was thrilled to discover, that Sunday morning, that the film was available instantly on Netflix. I was even more excited because I had a new iPad on which I could watch it. I have the cables that hook my laptop up to my HDTV, but I find the picture on the iPad to be superior.

So, I started the first movie and was so sucked in by it that I searched for the second, The Girl Who Played with Fire- available instantly! And then, if I'm in for a penny I might as well be in for a pound, I searched for the thrid movie, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest- also available instantly! I love living in the future!

The Millenium Trilogy follows two characters: The tireless investigative journalist, Michael Bloomkvist, and the hyper-intelligent, gothy hacker, Lisbeth Salander. They are first brought together when Salander is hired to find evidence against Bloomkvist, and Bloomkvist is hired to solve a cold case disappearance. Salander seeks out Bloomkvist because she suspects that he's been set up, Bloomkvist realizes Salander had the intelligence and skills to help him solve his disappearance case. Together, they stumble upon a web of intrigue that, by the end of the third film, goes deeper and more personal than they could have ever imagined.

Noomi Rapace plays Salander, and she is a revelation. She displays an icy exterior, but her eyes show the bubbling rage that lies within Salander. If only there were more roles like this. Salander is a character so well thought-out and rounded that only the most skilled of actresses could bring her to life.
Salander's story itself is distinctly feminist. It shows how easily women can be oppressed, how even the most steely woman has vulnerabilities that can be exploited. The intended title of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was Men Who Hate Women. We see how sadism and misogyny are so often overlooked. If a woman is raped by a man, no one's really surprised, and they wonder what she did to provoke it. If a man is raped by a man, then everyone is shocked. If a prostitute or runaway is tortured, raped and killed, the police don't put in a lot of effort into the investigation. Even in the U.S., rape kits sit on a shelf, backlogged, waiting to be processed, while the rapists freely walk the streets.
Salander's antagonists easily use the patriarchal system to take away her rights. So, her vengence seems entirely justified and logical, because the patriarchal system doesn't give her any other options.

There's also some great villain-casting in these movies. All the baddies are so perfectly loathsome that they turn your stomach.

The films themselves are neo-noirs. Every bit as gritty and artistic as Chinatown and Seven. The light is harsh, the colors are cold, and the characters' environments closely mirror their emotions. It's incredible to see how gloomy and menacing the Netherlands can be, when shot in the right way.
Be warned, there is a graphic rape scene that is brought up in all three films. To say that it is difficult to watch is an understatement. Take comfort in the fact that it doesn't go unpunished, and is not glamourized or fetishized. These movies are not date night material.

What I like best about Swedish movies is the casting. Too often, movies are filled with men and women who look like models, or are certainly better looking than the average person. In these films, the people look like regular people. There are only one or two really good looking people, and that's because it's part of the character. It's not just window dressing.

Of course, the stories are what makes these films so great. Stieg Larsson's characters and plot are well developed and incredibly interesting. He's able to construct conspiracies that boggle the mind, but do not defy logic. Your disbelief is totally suspended while watching, and it feels more like a "ripped from the headlines" episode of "Law & Order" (if they had an all-star writing team) than an episode of "The X-files" (the terrible conspiracy episodes, not the awesome monster episodes).

In short, these are three of the best films I've seen in quite some time. They can hold their own up to The Maltese Falcon, The Lady From Shanghai, and any trilogy out there.
They are so successful that I don't quite understand the need for English versions apart from the fact that a lot of people are too lazy to read subtitles. Dub the damn things if you have to, just please don't dumb down these incredible works for mass consumption. Could you imagine if someone dared to do that to The Maltese Falcon?

-- Noel
Sent from my T-Mobile phone

The Millenium trilogy: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire & The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest

They don't make 'em like that anymore: True Grit & The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

I grew up watching a lot of westerns. My dad had always been a fan of any western, and my mom enjoyed the Clint Eastwood and John Wayne classics.

Western is one of the most challenging genres. They are operettas. They share a great deal with Shakespearean tragedies, old world mythology, and Japanese shogun films. Central themes include honor, justice, and, most commonly, revenge. They explore the complexity of the moral spectrum- sometimes the good guys are pretty bad, sometimes you have to break the law to get justice.

True Grit is about revenge. The shockingly intelligent Mattie Ross is on a mission to avenge her father's death. Trouble is, she's a 14 year old girl. So, she seeks out the toughest, meanest U.S. Marshall she can find: Rooster Cogburn.


I don't know how, but the Coen brothers managed to make a true, classic Western. I didn't think this kind of movie was even possible anymore. Unforgiven was close, but Eastwood was trying to give us something a little more modern. The Coens clearly studied the old movies closely to create something that feels so authentic.
The way the camera moves and the way the characters interact with each other and their environment evokes the atmosphere of the classic westerns. Part of this success may be that they were so faithful to the original 1968 serial. The dialogue is the shining star. People don't talk like that anymore.


It's a shame that Jeff Bridges won the Oscar last year, because the work he does in this movie is incredible. He contorts himself into this rugged curmudgeon in such a way that he is almost unrecognizable. He chews on his words like tobacco and growls like an old lion. His familiar face is the only thing betraying his identity.
Hailee Steinfeld is amazing as Mattie Ross. Her intensity and tenacity are pitch perfect. It is impossible that anyone else could have played this role so believably and organically. The casting here is excellent. The woman who plays Mattie as an adult, Elizabeth Marvel, blends with Hailee seamlessly.
Matt Damon is good here because he is not playing a hero. Damon excels when he is vulnerable, but good-hearted, and he wears the character of LaBoef as well as the buckskin he sports.


The cinematography is breath taking. It draws inspiration from classic westerns like True Grit, The Searchers, and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, but it mixes in just enough modern technique to make it all seem fresh. The composition of every shot is lovely. It borrows from both the American western of the 50s an 60s, but it also works in the epic scale and sophistication of Leone's spaghetti western.
The story-boarding the Coens did really shows through. They do it for every film, but here you can practically see the panels. It feels like a graphic novel. Like a less-concept-driven 300 or Sin City. The special effects are used sparingly, and they make quite an impression without distracting from the rest of the film.

Apaloosa and 3:10 to Yuma were noble efforts to try and re-capture the romance and drama of the Western, and truly wonderful films, but True Grit hits its mark without feeling pretentious or boring.


The title itself refers to the quality Mattie is looking for in Rooster Cogburn. He is a lawman, he has morals, but he is not what most would call a "good man". Yet, when the moment calls for it, he is honorable. He has "true grit".
If you love Westerns, or just long for a fresh dose of American mythology, go see True Grit.





Now, for a very different kind of classic, the likes of which you will never see again, get your hands on 1968's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Revel in the glory that is Maggie Smith before we saw her as Professor McGonagall in the Potter movies, or Wendy in Hook. She's a grand dame cut from the same cloth as Judi Dench, Elizabeth Taylor and Helen Mirren, but she just doesn't get the same recognition, and that is a sin!


The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is adapted from a novel of the same name and tells the story of an eccentric school teacher at a private school for girls in Scotland. Her romantic and bohemian ideas about truth, beauty, art and love lead the students she mentors to places they never could have expected- and not always in a good way.


This movie is sort of disturbing because you think it's going to follow the path of Dead Poets Society, or To Sir, with Love, but it goes careening in another direction entirely. It's a dark tale about obsession, about living vicariously through others, and about how our own feeling of invincibility or superiority can damage those around us.


I'd put The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in the same category as Doubt or Notes on a Scandal. But the thing I liked the most about it was how it embodies everything I like best about movies made in the late 60s. The fashion, the colors, the hair!
There is some great foreshadowing here and there of the fates of the characters. I won't spoil it for you, but we all know that sometimes the games of children reflect their true desires or destinies.

They don't make 'em like that anymore: True Grit & The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

A dissection of Black Swan *Spoilers Within*

I've been ruminating on my interpretation of Black Swan, and I can no longer wait to share it with you. Spoilers be found here, so if ye hath not seen Black Swan, venture no further.

A lot of people have been panning the movie because they feel it's trite, saying that artistic perfection can only be found in death, the ultimate sacrifice.
I don't think that the movie was saying that artistic perfection can only come through death.
Nina killed herself because the only two futures she saw for herself was that of Winona's has-been ballerina or her mother's miserable never-was ballerina.
The character of Lily was a happy ballet dancer, Nina projected her own issues onto Lily. Lily was serving as the foil. Showing that someone can simply be a ballerina and not a total nutcase.
Nina was not simply a perfectionist. She was psychotic. She was self-mutilating from an early age, and her mother's response was to simply cut her nails shorter. She'd been stewing in her own private obsession for years, and was totally isolated thanks to her mother. Even with the role of her dreams, Nina could not allow herself to relax and be happy.
We were never, not once, supposed to look at Nina as an every woman. We are not supposed to identify with her. She is an anti-hero.

The masseuse in the beginning tells her that she's holding all of her tension in her diaphragm, it's no coincidence that she stabs herself in the diaphragm at the climax. The motion the masseuse makes with her hand into Nina's diaphragm directly foreshadows the stabbing that occurs later on. Whens he stabs herself, Nina is attempting to exorcise her own demons through blood sacrifice because she is not willing to sacrifice her career in the interest of her own health. She isn't trying to heal herself. Her journey of self-destruction is complete, and only that is what satisfies her. Nina had always viewed sacrifice as perfection, in her mother, in Winona Ryder's character- that is why she could never allow herself any small happiness or indulgence. Whether it be a piece of cake or an orgasm.

People have read misogyny into this film. I do not think the director hates women at all. I think he recognizes them as human. I think he was showing how damaging all of the pressure put on women to "do it all" can be. Nina represents our unrealistic expectations of ourselves- you cannot make yourself perfect, you can only die trying.
Perfection is not what we should aspire to, we should aspire to be healthy and happy. Sacrifice and pain is not the path to achievement.

I have also read criticisms that the characters are too stereotypical. But I think there's a reason for that. I think this film is a bit of an ink blot. Interpretations will vary, and I always love movies like that.
If it was meant to be allegorical, then broadly painted "type" characters are appropriate. We know stage mothers, predatory bosses, bad girls, etc. We don't need that much character development to recognize them immediately. And if the performances or characters are complex, it narrows the room for interpretation.
Was her mother really so overbearing, or was she a projection of Nina's self-destructive emotions?
Did the ballet director really regularly seduce his leads, or was Nina (so afraid of her own sexuality but clearly very attracted to him) simply painting him that way so that she could stay chaste?
We know Lily wasn't nearly as wicked and sexual as Nina was perceiving her, so this makes me give the other characters the same benefit of the doubt.
If those characters were more developed and complex, I wouldn't be able to wonder that. That's the beauty of the allegory.

My interpretation was that Nina's perception of reality was so perverse that none of the characters were operating under the motives we thought they were. It was simply Nina's paranoia and projection that was turning the world against her. I think this is most interesting in the case of Nina's mother. We, as a society, love to blame parents for the faults of their children, but that can be a mistake. Granted, her mother probably should have sought therapy for her daughter when Nina was scratching herself, but her mother could have been simply naive. Assuming the scratches were accidental isn't a stretch, it's realistic. It was also unclear to me if the portraits Nina's mother was painting were of Nina or of herself. I wonder if it was intentionally left ambiguous, or if it didn't matter. If Nina's mother truly was a stage-mother, then she simply would have seen Nina as an extension of herself, so a portrait of Nina is really a portrait of herself, and vice versa. Or, if they were all self-portraits, perhaps her mother was too consumed by her own failed dreams and depression to even notice that something was wrong with Nina. She may have just been going through the motions, supporting her daughter, and not really concerning herself with whether or not Nina would succeed. She did not react critically or negatively when Nina first called her to say that she had not won the role of Swan Queen. Nina's mother seemed supportive in those moments. This leads me to believe that she was not so much an overbearing stage-mother, but depressed and fragile, being supportive but also content to play the martyr because she felt it would benefit Nina. Could Nina have lived on her own? I'm not sure how much a lead dancer in a ballet company gets paid, but it seems that Nina was very happy being in the nest. When she becomes defiant, it's like the defiance of a teenager- she's happy to take what her mother offers, but resents the rules and discipline that go along with it.
Of course the scene with the cake speaks volumes. Her mother is clearly unbalanced in one way or another. I just really enjoy how complex her character is once you truly think about it.

If you have different interpretations, please share them in the comments! All ideas are welcome.

A dissection of Black Swan *Spoilers Within*

Dancing with myself: Black Swan

The other day I found myself watching Vertigo while surfing the web. I would momentarily look up and relish the profound intensity and sadness that seems to permeate Hitchcock films. No one is truly happy. The protagonists are always sullen or haunted, the antagonists hide
wickedness behind Cheshire cat grins.
And I was sad for a moment. Sad that they just don't make movies like these anymore.

Black Swan is the closest to new Hitchcock we'll ever get. I don't often leave a movie feeling fulfilled. Aronofsky took on the idea of ballet, and the idea of the ballerina, and used them to construct a staggeringly beautiful piece of film for women.
Natalie Portman is a ballerina, hard working and dedicated, who finally gets her chance at a starring role. But will the pressure be too much?

This film is about pressure. It's very much about women, our relationships with each other and our bodies. For a ballerina, and for most women, the ideal instilled in us creates an incredible amount of pressure.
We want our bodies to be perfect, we put pressure on them, it becomes impossible to have a healthy relationship with our bodies when we view them as a thing standing in the way of achieving perfection. We see perfection or flaws in other women, we put pressure on ourselves and others to compete for the ideal, it becomes impossible to have a healthy relationship with other women.
The ballet is a pure and beautiful form, it is not vulgar or sexual. Nina has rejected or repressed any vulgarity or sexuality in herself.

If our bodies are the enemy, if other women are merely competitors or has-beens, if we cannot even love ourselves- can we live an ordinary life without cracking?
If we cannot accept our limitations and imperfections, our humanity, can we be human?
Can we achieve the ideal, "have it all", the perfection, without completely destroying ourselves and everyone around us?
The Black Swan rises up, it flutters its massive wings, it hisses "No.", and swallows us whole.

Go. See. This. Movie.

"Get thee to a nunn'ry!"

-- Noel
Sent from my T-Mobile phone

Dancing with myself: Black Swan

The movie gifts that keep on giving

There are only four shopping days left until Christmas. Five if you count Christmas Eve, but I don't count Christmas Eve. If you haven't bought a gift for someone by now, you obviously don't really like them all that much. You know who I'm talking about: Those people you can barely tolerate, but yet are forced to exchange gifts with because of the suffocating grip tradition and social niceties have on our collective lives.

Here are some gift ideas for those people on your list. You will be able to fulfill your obligation and express your distaste for it all at the same time. Or you'll almost certainly never be invited to the Yankee Swap again. Or you'll be considered the most hysterically ironic person in your group of hipster friends.

Titanic 2- This actually exists. But hey, it's not like they did something so tasteless as to resurrect the first ship only to have it sink again. No, this is the story of an entirely different boat by the same exact name that predictably meets the same end when "a tsunami hurls an ice berg[sic] into the new ship's path...", because these filmmakers have integrity.

He's Just Not That Into You- If there's someone on your list that you want to insult in an incredibly passive aggressive manner, I encourage you to buy them this movie on DVD and really emphasize the fact that "I thought you would just love this. It's so perfect for you." It's like Closer, but with a lobotomy.

Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue- Do you have a child on our list, a child whose parent you greatly despise? Give that child this movie. Not only will you be killing the child's brain cells and thereby ensuring its academic disadvantage, the parent will be slowly shaken from their sanity by their child's repeated requests to watch this movie over, and over, and over, and over... If the child is male and conforms to the western social ideal of their gender role, you should substitute Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes.

The Lost Boys: The Thirst- You've got to know someone who deserves an ill-advised third installment to a classically good-because-it-is-bad cult flick which stars Corey Feldman. It promises that "The Frog brothers are back for blood." Think of the look the Best Buy clerk will give the recipient when they try to return this for store credit. For extra fun you could insist on watching it with them so that they can only try to sell it used and you get to see them pretend to enjoy it.

Wrong Turn at Tahoe- I recommend this, not because I have the slightest idea what it's about or how it will bring unhappiness to the person you give it to, but because Christmas is a time for charity. And I think it's pretty clear that when Cuba Gooding Jr (who has an Oscar) and Harvey Keitel (who is just really awesome) are doing movies named after Bugs Bunny's punch lines, they need all the charity we can give. Show them the money!

Have a fantastic holiday. Thank you so very much for reading my blog, and I look forward to all of the movies I'll share with you in 2011.
If I see TRON before then, I'll be sure to let you know what I think.

If you also have some great ideas for terrible movies to give as gifts, or ones you have received, please share them in the comments. Extra points if you can buy it on VHS.

The movie gifts that keep on giving

Indie in-demand: Whip It & Scott Pilgrom Vs. The World

I find it fascinating that "indie" has become a genre. The term "indie" used to refer to any independently made movie, regardless of subject matter and genre. Now, any quirky movie with young characters and certain "it" actors that gives the sarcastically sweet treatment to white, middle-class life (with a soundtrack full of "indie" bands) is deemed to be "indie" regardless of its budget size. I really wish there was another name for this new genre. I propose calling them "suburbies".

Whip It is the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore. It is a thoroughly charming movie with a "girl-power" theme that's pretty refreshing compared to most of what's out there. It tells the story of a Texas teenager, Bliss, who finds a purpose and motivation for life in roller derby- but struggles to gain her beauty pageant loving mother's approval.

Don't know anything about roller derby? Don't worry- Whip It lays out all the rules for you so you're not left wondering what's going on. I was confused by the fact that the features of roller derby that, I feel, are most important to the film's theme are sort of glossed over. Bliss's mother has shoe-horned her into competing in beauty pageants, which force girls to compete over something which they cannot totally control- their body and their face. No matter how great your talent or speech-giving talents may be, if you aren't born with the right body and face, you can't win a pageant. The forces girls to become alienated from their bodies. Their bodies become the thing that holds them back, the thing they cannot change or control, and this manifests in eating disorders and other body image problems.

Roller derby is an athletic sport where different body types are not only welcomed, they are essential to the different positions on the team. Blockers need to be big and strong, jammers need to be quick and nimble. Bliss finds herself viewing her body as a tool, as something she can control and use to get closer to her goals. This creates a positive body relationship that can culminate in body acceptance.
Roller derby players also play up their sexuality, while still being tough athletes. This breaks down the beauty conventions that women are fragile and demure, or must be perceived as such in order to be attractive. Players choose aggressive stage names like professional wrestlers do, but their contact sport is not costume play. They get hit, they knock each other over. Bones are broken, eyes are blackened, and lips are busted. They also have rabidly loyal fan bases who admire the women not only for their physical appearance, but their skill and ability as athletes.
Whip It barely touches these points, and it sort of makes me wish that there were a documentary to go along with the fictionalization. What is great is that the roller derby players in the film have diverse lifestyles, one is a single mom, but they are all equally dedicated to the sport and talk openly about what it means to them to be able to compete.

Barrymore is a competent director. She excels at giving us intimate glimpses into the relationships of her characters. But, as I mentioned, I hope that she learns how to flesh out the parts of the story that aren't character-driven. She is also a gifted comedic presence, and created an ensemble cast that you can tell are genuinely friends off screen, so the chemistry on screen is fantastic. Kristen Wig, who plays one of the roller girls "Maggie Mayhem", is a treasure, and I always enjoy watching her. Juliette Lewis plays an antagonistic derby girl "Iron Maven", and she smolders in every scene she's in. Ellen Page plays Bliss, and it's nice to see her taking a turn as a teen who doesn't think she knows it all. Perhaps now that she's 23, she knows the whole "disturbingly mature teen" shtick could no longer hold any water. It's easy to seem wise beyond your years when you're already actually five years beyond those years.
If you like sports movies and feel like there aren't enough of them starring women (which is disappointingly true), see Whip It. It's a lot of fun to watch.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446029/) is a movie is so inventive that I can't help but like it and insist that others see it. It's far from flawless and definitely has some pacing problems, but I don't think I've ever seen a translation of comic book-styling and video game-structure so eloquently portrayed on screen.
The titular Scott is an average Canadian guy in a garage band. Well, except for the fact that his band is actually good and that his ex-girlfriend is now a rock sensation a la Gwen Stefani. Everything seems like it's going to maintain a steady course until Scott meets Ramona Flowers, the literal girl of his dreams, who has a literal league of vengeful exes.

So, this film runs with the literal gag. All the cinematography evokes a comic book feel. The special effects evoke a video game feel. There are bangs, ker-pows, and coins appearing where bodies once were. However, the film does fall victim to a problem that plagues many comic book and video-game inspired films: all that fighting starts to get boring after a while. It's extremely difficult to balance action with plot development, and when filmmakers try to cram a lot of both into less than two hours the results are never that great.
What saves this movie, aside from the aesthetic genius, is a strong cast. Michael Cera is perfect as the average, yet awesome, Scott Pilgrim. Ellen Wong is hysterical as Knives Chau- Scott's teen aged girlfriend. Mary Elizabeth Winstead somehow managed to be a witty, mumbling, effortlessly cool Ramona Flowers without being an Ellen Page clone. She's also simply beautiful and the camera loves her. Kieran Culkin steals the show as Scott's gay roommate, Wallace. And all of the "evil exes" actors- Satya Bhabha, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, Mae Whitman, Shota Saito, Keita Saito and Jason Schwatrzman- are perfect, growling video game villains. They are terrific comedic foils for the average likes of Scott and his crew.

This movie is tough to wrap your head around while watching. It's very self-aware and willing to make jokes at its own expense, but it has some poignant moments that try to ground it as best they can.
I think Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is best viewed with a group of friends. I think the action and the comedy will be greatly enhanced by the group experience. Plus it has action, comedy and some romance. It will appeal to geeks and hipsters of all shapes and sizes.

Indie in-demand: Whip It & Scott Pilgrom Vs. The World

Win, lose or draw (Megamind and The Princess and The Frog)

Do you like cartoons? I love cartoons.
I'm sure it's because being born in the 80's, I was able to enjoy some of the best animated television shows and Disney's feature film renaissance of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and The Beast, Aladdin, etc. I have a soft spot for hand-drawn and 2D characters following familiar story arcs and bursting into catchy songs.
So, it was bittersweet for me as I watched Pixar usher Disney and the rest of animation into a 3rd dimension. Sure, I love to marvel at the skill and artistry these technologies use to create dimensional and believable fictional worlds. And yes, the stories (at least the Pixar ones) were every bit as compelling and classic as the Disney favorites I had come of age watching- but it wasn't the same. There's something inherently charming about the way those movies could take a character, so obviously fake, made of ink and paint, and turn them into a living, breathing thing that we could relate to, aspire to, and love.
I was thrilled when Disney announced it would deliver a 2D feature film, just like old times. Only unlike old times, this one would feature some ethnic diversity and not so-closely adhere to gender stereotype-heavy "twoo wuv will save me!" story lines as before. I looked forward to The Princess and The Frog. I was disappointed when it received poor reviews. I decided to let some time pass, and then make up my mind for myself.

I should have listened to the reviews. The Princess and The Frog, while refreshingly pretty to look at and features great characters with great values to match, was decidedly lacking.
The story itself was terrible. Many parts of it worked on their own, but let's face it, Disney is at it's best when it's rehashing a classic fairytale. They simply changed too much about the old story about a princess, her favorite gold ball, and the frog who so tirelessly worked to get her to see him for what he truly was.
Tiana is the hard-working daughter of a seamstress. Her friend, the spoiled Charlotte, wishes only to marry a prince so that she can continue to live a life of privilege. Tiana's dream is to have her own restaurant, and she's happy to put in the elbow grease to get it. When a penniless, free-wheeling Prince Naveen comes to town, he makes a deal that changes all of their fortunes.
Of course they all live happily ever after. I'm not giving anything away by telling you that, it's a Disney movie. That's how they always end.

What cripples this movie is that the set-up for Prince Naveen and the villain he makes a deal with, Dr. Facillier, is poorly developed. The prince has just come to town, why would he so quickly strike a deal with a dastardly stranger he's just met? It's also not clear why Dr. Facillier is tricking this man. All that's shown is that he's jealous of Charlotte's father's money, but it doesn't seem very compelling.
To make matters worse, once Tiana and Naveen are turned into frogs, the main plot of movie becomes their quest to be human again. It's too simple. And we all know that they're going to get what they want, so you don't even feel particularly anxious about their quest.
Maybe this wouldn't be as apparent had Disney not already made much more successful "quest for humanity" movies such as The Little Mermaid and Beauty and The Beast. On top of all of that, I felt like Pirates of the Carribean and The Rescuers had the whole "voodoo in the bayou" thing sewed up pretty nicely. It would have been nice if the movie had stayed in the city of New Orleans, but set in a different time period, that would have at least felt less like deja vu.
Disney used to excel at bringing us new and exciting worlds in every movie. Fidning Nemo, Atlantis, The Little Mermaid- all set in the ocean, but it was new and re-imagined in every one. Beauty and The Beast, Ratatoullie and The Aristocats- all set in France (the latter two in Paris) yet they didn't feel stale or boring.

The thing that bothered me the most was the simple fact that Tiana was unmistakably a dark-skinned, wider-nosed version of Belle (this picture shows Tiana with blue eyes, in the film they're light brown) same face shape, same eye shape, same eyebrows, same nose line, and same lips save for the cupid's bow:

Prince Naveen was dark-skinned version of Prince Eric, or a slightly older and darker Aladdin. In the picture you can see the same face shape and same facial features.:

Even Dr. Facillier smacked of Jafar:

It was offensive to me that they didn't give these characters their own style or unique features. Mulan, Pochahontas and Lilo were treated more thoughtfully than Tiana. Belle, Ariel, Snow White and Cinderella each have a look and style all of their own. You could not mistake one for the other. Even Cinderella and Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty) have features that set them apart from each other. Tiana deserved better.

Bruno Campos (who I only really know from his incredibly disturbing turn on Nip/Tuck) is delightful as Naveen. As much as his physical appearance may not stand very far from other Disney leading men, his personality oozed charm. His accent was funny- but not so funny that it seemed kitchsy- and His character showed some of the best facial expressions in the film.

Keith David (you may remember him as The Cat in Coraline, or as Goliath in the TV series Gargoyles [yes, I am a total nerd]) is magnetic as Dr. Facillier. So magnetic that it makes it painfully obvious that his character is poorly developed and not adequately motivated. He gets the most entertaining musical number.

Anika Noni Rose does her best as Tiana. But terrible dialogue and Belle-all-over-again look and personality make her truly forgettable. Next to Bruno Campos, she fades away. The only supporting characters that truly hold their own are Charlotte, played to hysteric perfection by Jennifer Cody, and her "Big Daddy" (Tennessee Williams is rolling in his grave), voiced unmistakably by John Goodman.

What does it say when the most interesting supporting characters in the movie are white? That the writers just weren't sure, or were too scared, to take any risks whatsoever with any of the other characters. Dr. Facillier could have been more flamboyant, he should have been out to take revenge on the sugar barons for profiting off of the hard work of their slaves and under-paid workers. Tiana could have shown the other side of the struggle, and that she didn't want free reparations, she was willing to work for what she wanted and earn the respect of those around her. Charlotte and Big Daddy could have been more sympathetic to Tiana and her family, in the end promising to give back to the black community and offer loans or support to people like Tiana who wanted to start their own business. Naveen should have been humbled by seeing the struggle of people of color in America while he had lived a spoiled and privileged life in his home country. He could have acted as ambassador and helped with integration. That would have given us dynamic and compelling characters, while still sugar-coating reality enough to be a Disney film.

For a film that was clearly made to be empowering, and with the best intentions, it was not. If you want to see an empowering Disney movie, see Mulan or Dumbo (one of my favorites). Please, do not see The Princess and The Frog. I took one for the team here.

A movie you should see, critics be damned, is Megamind. All the critics pooh-poohed and said "It's like The Incredibles, only not as good."
No! It is not like The Incredibles. Megamind is a more straightforward send-up of the Reeves Superman films, whereas The Incredibles was more teasing at the old super hero cartoons and comic books. Unlike The Incredibles, it has a more adult-oriented cast and humor.
Imagine if Dr. Evil was the star of the Austin Powers movies, that's the angle Megamind is working.
An alien child, Megamind, is sent away from his dying home planet to Earth. His journey is paralleled by a fortune-favored, handsome alien child, Metro Man. Rather than standing in the shadow of his privileged, popular counterpart, the ostracized Megamind decides to become a super villain, and he's pretty good at it. Until he manages to defeat Metro Man. Hilarity ensues.

The brilliance worth seeing here is the dialogue so perfectly delivered by Will Farrell, Tina Fey, Brad Pitt, David Cross, and Jonah Hill. The comedy talent here is peerless. The only way it could have been improved were if those offering their voices had actually written their lines. The thought of them even getting to ad-lib all in a room together is like a wet dream for your funny bone.

Is it a great work of timeless class? No. Is it entertaining? Hell yes! I laughed really, really hard. I found myself repeating the funnier parts later on and still laughing. The more sentimental story lines were sweet but slightly boring, yet not forgettable or tedious.

The thing I really thought was lacking in Megamind was a distinctive visual style. It looked like The Incredibles, and that's what hurt it so much. And seeing as though Dreamworks gave us Shrek, Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar, they're clearly up to the task, so why they simply phoned it in and copied Brad Bird on the visuals, I'll never know.

Win, lose or draw (Megamind and The Princess and The Frog)

By the numbers

A lot of people are saying that the movie The Social Network is a zeitgeist.

Zeit-geist: n. The spirit of the time; the taste and outlook characteristic of a period or generation.


I disagree. Facebook could be called a zeitgeist, but the movie about the creation of Facebook is not.

(500) Days of Summer is a zeitgeist. It's a movie by, for, and of my generation. The best thing about this movie is the creative approach it takes to the traditional plot of any boy-meets-girl film. It's about a young man named Tom, and his relationship with a young woman named Summer.

The story is told in non-chronological order, like Pulp Fiction and Memento. There are also many plays on POV, with surreal, fantastical, or exaggerated sequences that crib from other film genres. Pop culture is woven into the characters lives in such an organic way that it's impossible to tell where the cultural references stop and the characters begin.

This is the way so many millennials, or Generation Y, experience life. We have an endless internal index of movies, shows, music, books and characters with which we can annotate occurrences in our daily lives. We see our experiences reflected in the media that we consume and share with each other. We deepen our interpersonal relationships by sharing our media and experiences. We love to tell people why we love the things we love. I'm doing that right now, right here on my blog. We put an emphasis on sharing similar interests with our significant others. We expect them to like the same bands, the same movies, the same shows. Thanks to Facebook and other social networks, we can now like and share our friends experiences. Our internal collection of references grows, our networks expand, and we find that our lives are inextricable from the context we seek to create around them. A context of cultural touchstones and the approval of others. Our experiences are the sum of their parts, not the sequence in which they happened, which is why we so enjoy nonlinear narratives in books, movies and other media.

(500) Days of Summer is truly representative of my generation. Tom, the main character portrayed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is frequently seen wearing t-shirts declaring his love of a certain band or film. His apartment is littered with similar references. Even the music he listens to is audible and acts both character development and plot device. One of the first things that makes him really notice Summer, played by Zooey Deschanel, is that she hears a The Smiths song he is listening to and comments about how she also likes that band and song. Tom is floored. He so closely identifies with that music that the simple fact that Summer also enjoys the music means, to him, that they are perfectly compatible. He also takes pride in thinking that The Smiths are vintage and not well-liked by the general public, so he considers his taste, and Summer's taste by association, to be extremely rare and sophisticated.

Considering the fact that The Smiths have almost 900k fans on Facebook, you begin to see how this frame of mind can be misleading. This film also highlights another generational problem: we are in love with love. A large chunk of Gen Y are hopeless romantics, and its no wonder considering the fact that we grew up on John Hughes's work and other movies like Pretty Woman and The Goonies. We take breakups harder than most. All we see is a cacophony of references to our failed relationship. That show we used to watch together. That movie or band we both liked. That shirt I wore when we first met. Our internal index works against us, and we find ourselves dissecting it to try and find the cause of our broken romance. And we blame ourselves. The true romantic in us cannot blame love, it blames itself, and it almost enjoys the suffering- for nothing is quite as beautiful and romantic as heartbreak.

In short, the cinematography is impressive and very emotive. The screenplay is inventive, the dialogue is fresh and believable. The acting is first-rate, both Deschanel and Gordon-Levitt are magnetic and charming. The soundtrack is impeccable, for all of the reasons I list above. It's the mix tape we all made at some point for someone, that described a relationship from start to finish.
(500) Days of Summer is entertaining, beautiful and quirky. I couldn't think of a better love-note written by Gen Y and addressed to everyone. It says "this is who we are. this is what our life is like, and we hope you like it." I liked it. I hope you will too.

If you want to see a love note written by Gen X and addressed to everyone, watch High Fidelity. John Cusack's Lawrence of Arabia.

By the numbers

Why I love sports movies

I love sports movies. Sometimes in spite of myself, sometimes in spite of the fact that I don't follow sports in real life. There is a charm to the standard sports drama that never fails to appeal to me. It's the underdog story, the inevitability of the underdog to win, and the satisfying righteous nature of that mega-happy ending. Sports dramas are reliable that way: they enthrall, they inspire, and they're usually pretty straight-forward. Sports comedies follow the same plot structure, only the defeats and short-falls are hilarious instead of heartbreaking.

Dan also loves sports dramas. And, since I've been subjecting him to every manner of "I know you don't want to watch this movie, but it's an important movie that you should like", I decided to watch a couple of movies I knew we'd both enjoy.



I started off with The Greatest Game Ever Played. I figured this was a sure-thing. Dan loves golf. Dan loves Boston. This was a movie about a famous golf player from Boston. The fact that it's a Disney movie directed by Bill "Game Over, Man" Paxton, starring Shania TheBeef gave me pause, but I was doing this for Dan, so I put it on my Netflix queue. I'm so glad I did. Most of my family members are avid golfers and I've lived in Massachusetts my whole life, yet I had never heard of Ouimet and "The Greatest Game Ever Played". It's an incredible story and I really feel that this movie did it justice.

The Greatest Game Ever Played is partially a biopic of two golfers (Francis Ouimet and Harry Vardon) and partially about the world of golf in 1913 and how these two players changed golf forever.

Vardon came from humble backgrounds to be the most successful and famous professional golfer of his time. Francis Ouimet was from a working-class family and grew up at the foot of a prominent country club in Brookline. Ouimet was inspired by Vardon at an early age, and Ouimet finds himself playing in the U.S. Open against Vardon. Ouimet and his ten-year-old caddy, Eddie Lowrey, are amateurs, but determined to win. The resulting round of golf was called "The Greatest Game Ever Played" by local papers.

The story itself is so incredible that Dan and I took to Wikipedia several times to see what amount of Disneyfication was going on, but the most unbelievable aspects of the story are the ones that are true. And Bill Paxton is actually a pretty good director. He does an excellent job of character exposition and gives a great moody undertone to balance out this mega-happy ending. Paxton even gets artsy with us, using clever camera angles and cutaways to illustrate the nerves Vardon and Ouimet feel before every swing of the club.

Shia LaBeouf is likable and just awkward enough as the young golfing prodigy Ouimet. But what I liked the best in this film were the supporting performances. Elias Koteas as Ouimet's father, with a flawless French Canadian accent, is a tough blue-collar guy who just wants his son to succeed, but not in golf. Stephen Marcus (you've seen in him as Nick The Greek in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) is bombastic as Ted Ray, the big golfer with a short temper. And this film would not be half as good as it is without Josh Flitter as Eddie Lowrey, Ouimet's loyal, wise-cracking caddy. My favorite scene from this film is the one where the men in charge of the U.S. Open try to manipulate the pair into replacing Lowrey with "a proper caddy". Lowrey bursts into hysterics, in a way that was instantly recognizable and believable as the way that any kid reacts when they feel betrayed and heartbroken. "They told me you'd want to..." he chokes out between sobs to Ouimet, and it got me. My heart was wrenched.

Another thing I liked about it was how it visually contrasted the world of the rich club members and the world of the golfers. The former is polished and cold, the latter is dingy and earthy.



The other sports film I watched with Dan was The Blind Side. It was good. Not "deserved to be nominated for Best Picture and for Sandra Bullock to win Best Actress" good, but simply good. The real power to this film, like The Greatest Game Ever Played, is that it's hard to believe it's all true. It is simply incredible that anyone could escape the life that Michael Oher was living. It's incredible that anyone would take a person they hardly knew into their family, with few questions asked. That story itself is well worth watching, and leaves you with a good feeling. Other than that, this movie is pretty standard. I think the reason Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for it was because the role proves that she can act and that she can pull off a Southern drawl quite nicely. But she doesn't exactly disappear into the role of Leigh Anne Tuohy. I just think she's so very much like Leigh Anne Tuohy that no one else would have even been considered for the role. The character, in spite of being based on a real person, is very Bullock-esque. I was very much aware that I was watching Sandra Bullock. It's still a sin that she won over Gabourey Sidibe's performance in Precious, but at least now I have a little more perspective. Tim McGraw and Kathy Bates are also in this movie. They're okay, too. I really wonder if those roles were given simply because the real people got to pick who would play them in a movie. I could see Leigh Anne picking Bullock, Sean picking McGraw and Miss Sue choosing Kathy Bates. Nothing spectacular.

I did really enjoy Quinton Aaron as Michael Oher, but the performance confused me. The role is very similar to Precious in Precious, but without the narration, we lose our concept of the character's inner thoughts and feelings. Through much of this movie we are simply left to wonder why Michael is so cryptically stoic. I feel this is the place where the film falls short. Those moments where Michael does express himself, on the field and off, are the ones that really let this movie soar. But we don't see enough of them. The way we see Michael portrayed in the movie, and the real-life clips and photos at the end seem like two different people. The movie-Michael is withdrawn, stone-faced and insecure. The Michael we see in clips and photos flashes wide grins, and seems to have personality oozing out of his pores. This disparity bothered me. I would have liked to know more about how he felt in those times, and seen that big friendly personality emerge more often.

Where I do think the movie triumphs is showing how those of us who live outside of the harsh world of the ghetto are the ones with a blind side. We don't know what it's like for those people who live there. We don't hear or see anything about them unless they're being arrested or killed. And we don't do anything to help them because of it. All Michael Oher, and so many other young people, need a safe environment surrounded by people who truly care about them in order to succeed. This is the same lesson Precious provides, but it's delivery will make most people uncomfortable. The Blind Side is able to deliver the message that love is what saves people while not making people uncomfortable with their ignorance or inaction to "the other America". Which is why it was more successful than Precious. But that isn't important as long as people are taking that idea to heart at the end of the film, and I hope they are.

The Blind Side is a great family movie, and it is heartwarming to see how the entire Tuohy family falls in love with Michael. Kind of made me want to run out and adopt a football player.



If you want a sure-fire, feel-good, mega-happy ending, go with a sports movie every time. Others I recommend are The Natural, Miracle and Rudy.

And feel free to dump some Gatorade on someone the next time they do a good job. Nothing says "Nice work!" like being cold, wet and sticky.

Why I love sports movies