68 posts tagged “movies”

Ever one to try to bring culture to the masses (snicker on many levels) my latest blog for the DML website is about all the nifty foreign movies Trent and I have seen recently which are now out or are coming out soon on DVD. You can follow this link to read the whole post:

http://daytonmetrolibrary.blogspot.com/2009/03/movies-worth-reading.html

OR you can just get out and try to see Tell No One, Waltz With Bashir, I've Loved you So Long, and Let the Right One In. There's something there for everyone! Thriller, taught family drama, animated masterpiece/war movie, ingenious horror flick.

Have fun!

We have actually been really slow on the movie front this year...but we have seen a few good and bad:

"Slumdog Millionaire" is good, but it's not blindingly great. It doesn't make either of our "Best" lists. It's worth it if you are interested though.

"The Wrestler" is also good...and also not great. Mickey Rourke IS very good as is Marisa Tome...but Evan Rachel Wood blows pretty hard & the story is a little predictable...more worth your time than the previous.

"The Reader" is really good. It IS on both of our "Best" lists. Great performances all around and just a fascinating story. Well worth your time.

"Revolutionary Road" is bad...Kate Winslet is good (but not great) but that's not her fault. The script would have worked best as bird cage liner...and she could only do so much with that load of tripe. As Trent said, the characters had no subtext to work with, they shouted it at each other. They had amazo-disappearing kids that were present when they were needed as plot points. The only thing worth seeing here is the supporting cast...but wait for DVD. (Spooky aside: Kathy Bates seemed to be channeling my grandmother--same hair...same voice...very similar faces...and THE SAME NAME! ;-) This is VERY missable.

"Milk" is really good. I think it too is on both of our "Best" lists (it is on mine). It is a very good biopic with a very good script. Sean Penn was amazing. Mickey Rourke was playing in kind--Sean Penn was playing a whole other person. And Josh Brolin was good and crazy. This is well worth your time. If the producers had THOUGHT, they would have released it before the November election & we wouldn't have this Prop 8 crap to deal with.

"Doubt" is Trent's favorite for the year. We both really liked it...great performances all around. Of this list, it's probably the not-to-be-missed title with "Milk" a close second.

So Great and not-so-great stuff out there...and on Revolutionary Road...don't believe the hype.

(We have no interest in "Benjamin Button" the "Forrest Gump" retread by a bunch of people who missed the central joke of the source material...and made it maudlin)

This is Favorite Movies, Out of 154 we saw at home and in the theater...These were my tops. Yes, we see far too many movies.

And here are books...out of 146 books (yes, I feel I slacked this year...) here are the tops. Yeah!

The Duchess Trailer

We saw this Saturday & both of us liked it. I think I liked it more than Trent...but it was a great period piece. I thought all the performances were fab. And it made me want to find out more about Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire. Which, being a librarian, I did!

then Sunday we woke up and Trent convinced me to turn on the furnace for the first time...good thing he did, because it's dead :-( and I will spend my Thursday morning babysitting the dudes from the furnace company as they frighten the cats and install the new one. (The old one lasted 16 years...let's hope this one lasts longer--I heard that laughter!)

Sigh

It got a wide release, so it should be somewhere near you. It is number ten on the top ten of the week (hopefully it will be revised upward when the real numbers are in), so it should be somewhere near you...

Sure the religious among you might, at first, take offense...but not if you listen with your head instead of your "faith." Yes it's funny. But it's also quite personal. And the message (I hate to use that word, I could say "upshot" or "epilogue" but they aren't quite right): that man unfortunately got the power to annihilate himself before he outgrew his superstitions...and that as long as we continue to let those guided by imaginary voices be our leaers instead of electing people with their feet on the ground and their heads in this world, we will continue on the path towards our own destruction...that message is one everyone (especially in America) needs to hear.

Fabulous! Now go see it!

PS--Holy (hehe) Crapola...it only opened in 502 theaters...and THREE of them are in fricken' Dayton! I'm floored

Well, from a spectator's (?) viewpoint, it was a roaring success. I hope it was for The Neon Movies. But this is how we spent our weekend. Trent and I (and our friends Earl & Chuck) got all gay and watched a lot of gay gayness on screen. This was the third annual GLBT Film Fest in Dayton. (We unfortunately missed the second annual due to a prior commitment to Bonnie Tyler in Canada--we have our priorities: Bonnie outweighs our gayness :-)

Here's the line-up:

Friday, Sept. 26
WERE THE WORLD MINE (preceded by the short ROMEO'S KISS)

Saturday, Sept. 27
BI THE WAY (preceded by the short JUST ME?)

Saturday, Sept. 27
THE EDGE OF HEAVEN

Saturday, Sept. 27
WRANGLER: ANATOMY OF AN ICON

Sunday, Sept. 28 at 3:00
TOP DRAWER SHORTS:
BENNY'S GYM
YOU, ME, AND HIM
OPERATED BY INVISIBLE HANDS
THE MANUAL
LE WEEKEND
FILLED WITH WATER
I JUST WANTED TO BE SOMEBODY
SILVER ROAD
NO BIKINI

Sunday, Sept. 28
READY? OK!

I loved the festival. I liked some of the movies better than others (I think Sunday was the best day). Wendy Robie, the music, and the pretty boys were the best part of "Were the World..." it felt like an extended short feature--which is what it was.

"Bi the Way" went on a little too long...and was outshone by the short feature that preceded it. "Edge of Heaven" kind of lost me 1/2 way in. "Wrangler" was a hoot.

The shorts were GREAT! And "Ready? OK!" is a must see. It will be on LOGO for those of you who have that lovely little channel...and on DVD shortly after for those who don't.

It all served to take my mind off the Doctor's visit I had Monday morning...all tests came out fine :-) Yeah Healthy me!

So, you aspiring movie buffs...let's see YOU watch five features and thirteen shorts in two and a half days! Get crackin

Ever see a movie and think, "That was good, but I could never recommend it to anyone."

We saw one over the weekend.

Savage_grace

"Savage Grace" stars Julianne Moore who is always fabulous...I know I use that word too much--she's a very talented actress--any way & it is based on the book of the same name by natalie Robins and Steven Aronson which in turn is based on the lives of Barbara Daley Baekeland and her son Antony. Her husband (heir to the Bakelite fortune) leaves her for another woman...she and her son remain in society. Morals seem to be something foreign to all. Everyone has self-esteem issues. Everyone is self-centered and hates everyone else. Antony is gay. There is incest. Antony kills Barbara.

Savage Grace, featuring Julianne Moore - Theatrical Trailer

People depicted in the movie (and book) have said both are less than totally accurate. And one very important point was missing entirely from the movie (Antony was diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic & his father wouldn't allow him to be treated...kinda puts a different spin on the story). Trent and I couldn't come up with a theme/point/whatever for the movie--except to say "these people existed" (and they were pretty nasty when they did). If the mental issues had been included in the plot, I think it would have been an improvement--perhaps the director Tom Kalin left it out to avoid another psycho homosexual murderer...but the murder doesn't make sense without it.

If all that blab didn't scare you away, you can check out the trailer. It was a very visually pretty movie.

It was my weekend of dysfunction, since I was reading this:

The Alcoholic

Which is good, but not spectacular (Now I'm going to hold all graphic biographies up to the gold standard of Alison Bechdel's "Fun Home"). I reviewed it on amazon if you're interested in more of my blather :-)

Cranford

Absolutely fabulous! Even if costume drama is not your thing...you should give this a try. Going in to it, I knew nothing of the story or the author (I knew her name & had likely read an excerpt or two in the thousands of Lit classes I subjected myself to in college and grad school). I just knew that the cast was high power.

Wow.

It's a cliche to say "I laughed I cried" but we did. Repeatedly. The characters were so well presented & the dialogue so witty (it was nearly all lifted from Gaskell, not updated at all). Three great nights of entertainment.

I am now going to seek out Gaskell's books starting with "Cranford" and the two other novellas this was based on ("My Lady Ludlow" and "Mr. Harrison's Confessions"). The making of featurette on the DVD was very neat--aside from watching the cast interact "dressed up" but not in character, the writers & director and producer talked about how they created the story from Gaskell's works. Neat! I want to read the source.

Highly recommended!

Cranford

We saw most of the first couple episodes on one of our trips to Maine but missed the rest. Now we got the DVDs. Loving it! Judi Dench, Julia Sawalha, Emelda Staunton, Eileen Atkins...what an amazing cast. You gotta see this! If for no other reason...the "lace restoring" scene.

Hilarious!

We went to two movies this weekend & I heartily recommend BOTH of them. Democratically, one was Trent's choice and one was mine...here's just how schizophrenic our household is:

Ne le Dis a Personne

Trent's choice: French thriller based on a Harlan Coban book. I thought it was just fantastic! I've never read Coban, but I sure might now. Doctor's wife is killed...then eight years later he gets e-mail from her & sees her on video online...every American studio apparently passed on the property, so they made it in France. Now the French version is doing so well, they are going to remake it in Hollywood--sad sad commentary on the state of big budget American Moviemaking...This is definitely worth your seeking it out and reading it--it will be ruined when re-made.

And MY choice:

Anna Faris House Bunny Challenge

Quite--uh--a refreshing change ? I LOVE Anna Faris (and Jayma Mays who I unfortunately often confuse Faris with). I think Anna Faris IS the new Lucille Ball. I laughed so hard I got a headache. Yes, sure I know the story was formulaic but the jokes were fresh and Faris was amazing. Trent said she deserved an Oscar nod...and I agree! Also, Trent proved just how deeply he loves me by seeing this movie--not because he's averse to a silly comedy, we saw and loved "Tropic Thunder" last week--but because Hugh Hefner is in this. Trent has a very low tolerance for womanizing pigs. I told him to pretend it was Stan Lee every time Hef was on screen :-)

Both of us really enjoyed BOTH movies. Have a double feature! You WILL be entertained!