confessions of an amateur cineaste

Quick hits, dude. I am getting way behind.

* Shakespeare in Love, because it was 3 in the morning and hot and I couldn’t sleep. And I love it, okay? And all the Twelfth Night bits fill me with fannish squee.

* Oldboy follows Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and I found it much more engaging. (And more fucked-up.) I’m glad I saw it as I thought it was pretty great, but I’m not sure that I know many people I would recommend it to.

* Shallow Grave is dark and comic and we all know it’s good.

* Captain Blood: Thanks to for the rec. Now -that- was a fun pirate movie. Yay!

* Zombie Honeymoon was an astonishingly bad movie. I mean, I knew it would be bad. But I didn’t know that it would be that bad -and- that it was created as a way to help the filmmaker’s sister work through her grief at the loss of her husband. Now -that’s- fucked up.

* “Kitchen Confidential” is awesome. I’m angry it’s cancelled. I’ll have to buy the DVD, though, if FOX ever wakes up and releases it properly.

* The Matador turns Pierce Brosnan’s 007 character on its head. And Hope Davis is always worth watching.

* Spice World. …oh, shut up.

* The Others. I forgot it had Christopher Eccleston. Really great performance. Word of advice, though. Never watch this with subtitles, or you’ll realize how much time Nicole Kidman spends sighing in it.

* “Slings & Arrows“. It’s Shakespeare! It’s … everyone in Canada! It’s season 2, so it that includes Colm Feore (squee!). So great.

* 2 episodes of “My Life As A Dog“. Ugh. This was -terrible-. The movie, however, is amazing. Trust me on this.

Wow. That is. That is really a lot of tv. All I can say in my defense is that it is really hot here these days, and that I cleaned & unpacked during some of them. And knitted! Don’t forget the knitting!

Aquamarine was a Netflix surprise and much better than it had any right to be, especially in terms of the ‘message’ of the ending. It wasn’t good, but there were good -bits-, which so far as I am concerned showed the involvement of Jessica Bendinger.

I recently bought A Home at the End of the World because I found it for cheap used. I stayed up too late last night rewatching it. It’s lovely and complex. Yes, Colin Farrell can act. And Dallas Roberts, as I have said before, should just be in everything. Fantastic.

PS I really hate the headshot thumbnails on the IMDb.

Why these? Point A: Peter Sarsgaard. Point B: They were available at the library. Sometimes it’s just that simple.

The Skeleton Key is that one Kate Hudson Louisiana bayou thriller. Y’know. Looked like the concept had potential, but the execution would likely be terrible. It wasn’t great or anything, it certainly didn’t scare me, but I’m tempted to give it a rec because it ended the way I wanted it to. Which isn’t to say it was predictable — though maybe it was; I don’t watch that many American thrillers. It’s just that I thought, “well, the movie would be much cooler if it ended this way.” And then it did. So right on. I didn’t care enough about it to watch the special features. (Oh, hey, it was written by Ehren Kruger. That makes sense.)

After that, Shattered Glass was just kind of boring. Peter was fine and everything, and it’s a total who’s-who cast, but Hayden Christensen was just empty space. He’s playing a pathological liar, so there are some who might say it was a creative decision, but obviously the character was meant to be charismatic. The DVD I got included a “60 Minutes” feature on Stephen Glass, and the real guy was much more interesting than Hayden. (And no, that’s not always true.) ((Well, it’s always true that other people are more interesting than Hayden, but it’s not always true that the subject is more interesting than the portrayal.))

After great Netflix drama, I finally got to watch Wonderland last night. It was worth the wait and yes, I do need to buy it.

It’s a beautiful film about a family in London: aging parents and their grown children. It’s gritty & realistic while still bright, and follows the characters over a Guy Fawkes weekend. Plus, it has the Best Cast Ever, including Gina McKee, Molly Parker, Shirley Henderson, and Ian Hart. Yay.

Last night I caught a free screening of Little Miss Sunshine, and let me tell you, it was about time I saw a decent free movie. I just went back to check, and the last actually good movie I saw for free was Thank You For Smoking in -March-.

This one I have been hearing about since Sundance. It’s about a dysfunctional family road trip to California for a beauty pageant, and all of the really interesting things I want to say about it involve spoilers. There are sad bits and hysterically funny bits and bits that are over-the-top but by then you’re so invested in the characters that you’re not bothered.

Everyone in it was fantastic. Steve Carrell’s performance was a particular treat. I’ve not seen him in much of anything as he’s pretty much never in anything I care to see, but here he was amazing, with wonderful levels of sadness & emptiness.

I hope it does well. I think it should. Judging from the audience reaction it should get good word-of-mouth.

After the success of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid I put a hold on The Sting at the library. While not a must-own for me, I enjoyed it. It’s a solid & stylish caper flick, and everything that the Ocean’s movies will never be.

It won the Best Picture Oscar in 1974, which intrigued me, so I went to have a look at the other nominees. The only other two I’ve seen are American Graffiti and The Exorcist. I have hugehuge love for American Graffiti, but since when has the Academy gone with my favorite, right? Right.

(A side note: I was so annoyed! The library DVD was full screen! Why would anyone want it in full screen? Grr.)

The more I think about Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, the more I hate it, and I’m getting really annoyed at hearing that my expectations were too high and I should just have fun with it. I really don’t think that a plot and a lack of racism might be too much to ask for in a movie. Look, I don’t expect it to be as great as the first one, but I expect it to have some dramatic tension and drive, and I’d like to have just a little bit of character consistency (and no, flogging the dead horse of the rum joke does -not- qualify). Argh. It was long and it was boring and the actors were slaves to the special effects. And the ‘cliffhanger’ ending? -Whatever-. I am full to the brim with NOT CARING.

Second on the bill at the drive-in was Cars, which would have just been vaguely meh if it was from any studio other than Pixar, but because it -was- Pixar it was terrible. I should have known going in, since the trailer for it did nothing for me, but it followed Monsters Inc & Finding Nemo & The Incredibles, all of which were fresh and clever, so I was hopeful, but no. Absolutely zero emotional involvement, and a very old and tired plot. Oh Pixar. I still have hopes for Ratatouille, though, so all is not lost.

In better (ie, actually -good-) film news, Tristram Shandy comes out on DVD tomorrow. Huzzah!

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is fun and frothy and we all know this. It’s a popcorn movie, it has pretty people, it has zombie pirates, it has emotional investment and also a plot. These are all good things. We will look back fondly on them after the torture of the sequel, coming soon to a media journal near you.

I followed it up with Twelfth Night, or What You Will, which I have discussed a bit with some of you elsewhere. There were a lot of things in it that didn’t work for me ( the production value, a lot of the music, the secondary characters in the Malvolio subplot save Feste, a few line readings that I am particular about because of my big love for the play) but I loved Viola (Parminder Nagra!), Orsino (Chiwetel Ejiofor!), Sebastian & Antonio, and the use of Hindi (a fact gone unnoted on the IMDb page). It’s a darker version, and that’s a good thing.

I have to admit I kind of bought Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid on impulse when the slick new deluxe edition came out this spring. But it was worth it! It’s a classic for a reason. Well, for lots of reasons. The only nit I have to pick with it is that the music dates it, but that’s a small price to pay for the chemistry and the banter and that famous final scene.

Note to self: Put The Sting in Netflix queue, and strongly resist Newman/Redford fangirl-ness.

(And here, let’s stick in yesterday too, and we’ll be all caught up.)

Happy Independence Day. Let’s watch some critical war movies. Really, I should have watched them the other way ’round. Three Kings came out long before Jarhead, but in terms of history it’s the reverse.

My DVD copy of Three Kings opens with this warning: “The makers of ‘Three Kings’ used visual distortion and unusual colors in some scenes of this film. They intentionally used these unconventional techniques to enhance the emotional intensity of the story line”. It’s so odd to think that just a few years ago that was so odd that it required comment, but now, though not used often, it needs no explanation. Anyway. Three Kings is an anti-war war movie, where motives are complex and every bullet counts. Excellent. Also, Saïd Taghmaoui is really hot. I’m just saying.

I don’t know that I have anything new to say about Jarhead. It’s still fantastic, Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance is still underrated, and I am still surprised at finding a rewatchable film from Mendes *rimshot*.

Sunday, instead of doing anything productive, I had a mini Sarah Polley marathon. My Life Without Me is one of those films with a concept that could easily show up on Lifetime (young mother! has cancer! tells no one!) but the writing, acting, and production turn it into something worth seeing.

(It was definitely a flick that sent me running to the IMDb, though. One of the daughters I also just saw in Eve and the Fire Horse. And the hairdresser was Anais Nin in Henry & June. And the neighbor! Was in Talk to Her! Oh my goodness! Which makes sense, because Almodovar was a producer. Plus, of course, the doctor was in Hard Core Logo. )

In my head the natural follow-up was Dawn of the Dead. I haven’t seen the original (yet!) so I don’t know how it works as a remake, but as a stand-alone film it’s frickin’ fantastic. I own it mostly because it came in a double pack with Shaun of the Dead for the same price as buying either one alone. Right on.