Recently in Let's Go to the Movies Category
Having managed unintentionally to avoid it since its release in 1992, I finally came around to seeing Baraka this evening. Being entirely without dialogue, though bursting with visual and aural atmosphere, enjoyment of this film is probably a great deal more subjective than it is for the majority of feature length pieces. It's enough to say that I enjoyed it without going into what it "said to me" -- again, entirely subjective, and I'm not about to spring a spiritualist monologue on anyone at this hour of the morning -- and that there were certain sequences that I'd love to watch again. On a 50" plasma screen. With 120 watt bass speakers. Or failing that, at an IMAX cinema.
Better yet would be to see, in person, as much of all that there is to see in the world before I'm inevitably run over and killed by a bicycle.*
* This statement is far less random than it seems to those that know me.
I can't believe how quiet you're being! You take the trouble to pull together your own template, graphics, bits of code, present it all to the world, attract an audience with measure upon measure of tantalising vacuousness and then... go silent?
Actually, yes.
...
Don't look at me - I'm not the one with the problem.
But!
That said, I'm here now; I was just sent a picture of my sis' by a girlfriend in Paris, who found her face mounted on a bus shelter.
What we'd really like is one of these posters in Japanese, Russian, Scandic, Arabic or Greek. Bus shelter size, please. No? Didn't think so. Minor fixation with foreign alphabets, is all.
I found myself sitting in a cinema, this evening, for the second time in as many days; the tentative plan had been, perhaps, to go and see a film tomorrow with a friend, but events have left me craving solitude, here and there, and so I bailed. As someone who never bails, it was a bit of a cop-out all the same, since the trip to the local picturehouse was t.b.a. in any case.
And so I ended up sitting in front of what I would have been sitting in front of anyway, but instead of a friend, I was accompanied by even more vital a companion; there's a lot of love in a tub of Ben & Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk ice cream... grrrowf. And I got the badge; independent cinemas are so much more fun.
Rather different from last night's Cold Mountain, which I enjoyed with some minor reservations (I'm easy to please, but no critic; I recognise a bad movie; it wasn't that), American Splendor was a warmly crafted piece based on the comic book writer, Harvey Pekar, who, from 1976, penned an autobiographical series under the same title as the film.
Harvey Pekar the movie blends fictional and documentary styles together with an easy manner, splicing together interviews with the real Harvey, his wife and his friends, with the fictional portrayal of his life, played by actors and, occasionally, drawings. At one point, the actors are seen next to the people they represent, and it suddenly becomes easy to appreciate just how accurately they emulate their subjects. Somewhat novel. And if you see the film, you'll understand why I was repeatedly transported to the Simpsons universe; think Barney Gumble and the fabulous comic-book geek.
It wasn't phenomenal, but it was both gently humorous and touching; liked it. Just one tear.
The film release schedule goes haywire, hereonin; starting with Lost in Translation, tomorrow (and bloody late by present UK standards), a whole volley of releases and re-releases begins, including Girl With a Pearl Earring, again featuring Scarlett Johansson (who I remember best from The Horse Whisperer), Belvaux's three-part Trilogy work, which I have to see, Tim Burton's Big Fish, which arouses some curiosity, Sylvia, a re-screening of Timecode, and Bertolucci's The Dreamers.
Secretary (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is being re-screened too; missed it the first time around, and then thought about buying the DVD blind (£8.00 from Blockbuster), but I'm tempted to see it on the screen since Adam and my own film-friends, all with rather similar tastes to mine, assure me I'll enjoy. Subjective, as all things, but experience has shown that such recommendations do alright, on the whole.
This is why I need a real job.
And another hand-job.
Fans of hunky Viggo Mortensen - we interrupt this broadcast to highlight the fact that I am not a Viggo fancier, merely having a personal interest in this movie as I was on set whilst it was being filmed on the edge of the Sahara in September - aka Strider/Aragorn, will be glad to know that his next big not-The-Lord-of-the-Rings movie release has now got an online trailer. Incidentally, he is a nice chap, and I'll afford him his privacy, but I strongly contest his insistence that rattlesnakes abound in the lower Atlas; I'm no herpetologist, but I reckon they're exclusive to northern and central America. Live with a biologist and experience the might of pedancy for what it really is.
Stellar, oscar-winning performances, perhaps not - though the whole cast was uniformly solid, not least the great leads (Stewart, McKellen) - gripping excitement, fantasy and special effects, aplenty! X-men 2 was a success in this corner, ladies and gents, and I'd heartily recommend it to anyone who is into the genre, or who enjoyed the first incarnation at any rate. Heck, make that everyone.
Die-hard fans of the comics and animated series might wonder whether the finale has undermined the entire Phoenix Saga, but that said, there's room for a sequel, and I don't think it'll involve alien Empress Lilandra, a M'Kraan crystal or any such original plot lines. Frankly, they just wouldn't do it for me in a film, and this is a plus point, because the characters on the celluloid take have already begun to develop in different, more plausible directions, and I'm content with where they're headed. Bryan Singer, Dan Harris and Mike Dougherty can feel free to guide this franchise down its current path with my compliments.
On a less overly-fervent note, it's a beautiful evening tonight, and bar the chilly breeze, it's starting to feel pretty summery 'round about now. I can smell the barbecues and cut fens already.
X-Men 2, x-men 2, out to-mo-rrow! La la la! I conceal my excitement with the skill of a master. I owe it to myself to report my opinion. Back soon.
"It's basically about being gay," Sir Ian McKellen told us. "Or at least, being part of a minority that society disregards."
...so quoth he at the British premiere of X-Men 2, which saw all of the cast members, bar Halle Berry, and half of London descend on Leicester Square last night. I guess it's a sensible point, though one which more unreasonable conservatives would be hard pressed to empathise with. That said, it's not why I love the X-Men universe, but a Macedonian style mish-mash of minority issues, stretched science and pure fantasy fiction is enough to keep this chap happy. Concerns that the sequel will not live up to its predecessor will shortly be addressed, but until then, I'll keep my expectations low.
Incidentally, what isn't utterly delightful about that cat licking Logan's (Wolverine) claws? A lighthearted moment, but seriously, turn me into a cat already.
