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Equilibrium- another movie that got away (or: how to bring down a fascist regime)
Friday, August 14th, 2009Sean Bean in “Equilibrium”
The internet exposes things, and one of the things it has exposed is the gulf between critical approval and on-the-ground fan-love of all things creative. I only know about Equilibrium because my son found it on something on youtube then checked it out further and forced us all to suggested that we [...]
why is literature always so depressing?
Monday, February 2nd, 2009small boy in badly-fitting clothes, no shoes- truly dismal
I’m reading Frank McCourt’s Pulitzer prize winning Angela’s Ashes, the book that reputedly started the trend for miserable childhood memoirs, and boy, is it depressing. I can blast through Holocaust memoirs with barely a tear, so it isn’t the gloom-laden subject matter itself that’s problematic here- wretched [...]
The Third Man
Monday, January 19th, 2009The Third Man really is an unbelievably brilliant film on all counts: Graham Greene’s clever, unpredictable and morally inquiring story; top-hole acting all round, especially from the mesmerising Orson Welles, who has an amazingly young and modern look about him, as does the whole film; fabulous post-war Vienna locations; and the wonderful bonkers zither music [...]
Hitler reborn over the net: a nerd but clearly quite insane
Friday, November 28th, 2008My son absolutely loves the Hitler meltdown meme on youtube. If you don’t know about that, and why would you really (unless internets are your job), it’s a scene from the 2004 German film Downfall (Der Untergang) where Hitler is in the bunker and he finds out he has lost the war and goes ballistic [...]
I’m trying to “get” New York
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008Still in Austin, that’s an old picture of Time Square from last year. (You could sing the title of this post to the tune of I Happen to Like New York, which, does anyone know why it has that odd monotonous tune and bass-line, is it meant to sound like some New Yorky thing, bells, [...]
more films from Fantastic Fest
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008Chocolate
First up yesterday was South of Heaven, which I hated and do not recommend at all. Second up was The Good, The Bad and The Weird, which I missed because the theater was full when South of Heaven finally finished, which was a bummer, but I definitely want to track it down and see it [...]
Fantastic Fest 1
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008Here are the films I saw here yesterday:
Muay Thai Chaiya
A story of good versus evil in the Bangkok Muay Thai (Thai kickboxing) scene, very bloodthirsty. Looking at the subtitles while avoiding looking at the gross bits was a challenge. About young men being exploited by organised crime in underground fighting dens, with a central dilemma [...]
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl
Friday, August 29th, 2008Every now and then, I see something or read something bizarre, strange, original and wonderful, and then read the critics, and get this rush of something a bit like anger but really more of a sort of frustrated internal energy power-pack that I can’t think what to do with. If I was Sharkboy, it would [...]
evening entertainments
Thursday, August 28th, 2008This is Santa Barbara beach at dusk. We stayed there the other week, and apparently it’s a bit different now than it used to be when Husband lived there for a while as a young child with his father, after the latter kidnapped him. Much more smart and chi-chi. Daughter and I gazed at the [...]
Napoleon Dynamite
Thursday, June 19th, 2008The last ugly picture of Napoleon Dynamite I could find- because it’s all sofa and wallpaper.
Here’s a film I saw last night so you don’t have to, although if you are a film-lover you may want to as it’s quite an important cult film with a major geek/ nerd theme. My notes in order of [...]
