confessions of an amateur cineaste

I caught Breach this morning, since all seats before noon are five bucks, and it was well worth the dollars for the exact reason I went to it: Chris Cooper. Utterly mesmerizing. Laura Linney’s always solid, and I can take or leave Ryan Phillippe. Most startling casting was Caroline Dhavernas, mostly because I’ve only seen her in “Wonderfalls”, and so I spent her first few scenes going, “Is it? It can’t be. But it really looks like her! But!” And then it was. Clearly. But with an odd accent, apparently the effect of having a French Canadian play an East German. Hmm. The movie would have been nothing without Chris Cooper, though, so keep that in mind.

Then moving on to Notes on a Scandal, which is best taken as straight camp, much with the melodrama. I’m really not sure how I feel about it. Parts of it made me uncomfortable and parts of it frightened me, and none of them are the parts you’d think. As usual, Glass’s score is overwhelming. It’s weird. I actually like his scores, or I would if they weren’t mixed so high.

(On the Notes page, IMDb recommends The History Boys first off. Which is interesting because Notes did make me think of it. Not for the obvious reason of the teacher-student bits, but for the dangers of the closet and related repression on relationships, and the difficulty thereafter of forming healthy/appropriate ones.)

I keep forgetting that I haven’t posted about the short films nominated for the Oscar. But the thing is? I wasn’t that excited by any of them, so it’s hard to get motivated to talk about them. I mean, last year had some great animation, including the glorious steampunk Jasper Morello, even though it didn’t win, and the live action winner was the black comedy “Six Shooter” and my favorite of the bunch.

This year, though, I felt like all the best stuff was on the short list (the animated set wasn’t feature length as it was, so they added five other 2006 shorts. Plus, for some unknown reason we didn’t get “Lifted”, so that’s probably the best one of the nominees.) “The Danish Poet” was much better than last year’s roughly autobiographical entry, “The Little Match Girl” was a nice reminder of how beautiful 2D animation can be (timely, since Disney grew some brains this month and made an announcement that they were bringing back 2D), “Maestro” had interesting camera work but the payoff was only so-so, and “No Time For Nuts” was cute but was banking on knowledge of an established character (from Ice Age).

On the shortlist, “A Gentlemen’s Duel” was notable for its medieval/gundam mash-up, “Guide Dog” was funnier than all of the nominees put together, “One Rat Short” stole my heart for obvious reasons (oh ratties! Beautifully rendered, too), “The Passenger” was probably the best of the lot (including the actual nominees), and “Wraith of Cobble Hill” was dark claymation.

Then, live action. “Binta and the Great Idea” is probably going to win, since it has just the sort of things Academy voters go for, and the great idea in it really was great, but it is flawed. “Eramos Pocos” was lovely, even though I knew how it was going to end, it did a really nice job of getting there, “Helmer & Son” was my favorite, very funny and touching. “The Savior” thought it was cleverer than it was, and speaking of which, the falafel rivalry “West Bank Story” … I actually kind of hated. And I was totally set to love it! But no.

I had expected this weekend to be all about “due South”, so boy was I surprised when it turned into Alan Davies-O-Rama. Not that I had a problem with it, mind you, but if I’d known I would have brought my external hard drive instead of my dS dvds. So now I’ve finished “QI” Series 1. We saw some of series 2 (wherein Alan Davies cut his hair) and series 3 (wherein the curls were back, thank god). Plus, I had Alan Davies: Urban Trauma, which was brilliant and we hurt ourselves laughing. (If anyone knows where I can get his other show, Live at the Lyric, please let me know. I’m only seeing it on PAL tape, and even that’s not actually available.)

On the bus to and from I finished the first series of “Life on Mars“, which is just so fantastic I can’t even tell you. Tonight’s the third episode of the second (and last) series. This is something I love about television from the UK: shows that stay tight and awesome and end when the story ends instead of dragging on forever *cough*TheXFiles*cough*Lost*cough*

Back to Seattle yesterday to a mailbox full of Netflix. I started with Henry Fool, which comes with all manner of critical whatsit and… I hated and did not finish it. Take that, critics. I swapped it out for Educating Rita, a good move, as that one I loved, as well as liked much better than Alfie, also from the team of Gilbert & Caine. Finally, Shopgirl, which I had put off for some time because I had this theory that I was going to read the book… yeah, right. The film was flawed but beautiful.

I know that I was far behind the rest of the world in seeing The Queen, but I’m honestly glad it took that long, because it meant I got to see it with my aunt when I was visiting family in Spokane two weeks ago. We both thought it was fabulous, witty and moving. Something random that I particularly liked about it was the set design, specifically the contrast between the living quarters of the Royal Family and the lived-in home of the Blairs. The toys on the kitchen floor, a silly detail to notice, I know, but so great! Also, now I would really like to see The Deal, but it doesn’t appear to be available. Woe.

Half Nelson arrived from Netflix the day it was supposed to be released, which is rockin’ service so far as I’m concerned. It is possibly true that it got bumped up my queue thanks to Ryan Gosling’s Oscar nod, but it is definitely true that it was worth the watching anyway. Shareeka Epps in particular is fantastic, and I rather wish I’d been able to see it in the theater because I would have been able to focus better on the natural quietness of it.

Finally, Venus! Which broke my heart, just a bit. Maurice’s line about not knowing anything about himself hit me in a place still bruised by “No one could love me — I talk too much” delivered by Hector in The History Boys. Wonderful performance by O’Toole, brave and clever and fragile, in a story all the more moving for its prickliness. Gorgeously lit and framed, too, the many shots of Maurice tucked into a tiny corner of the screen, the elderly and the past all boxed up. And! It’s written by Hanif Kureishi, who wrote My Beautiful Laundrette! (Which was directed by Stephen Frears, which brings this entry full circle.)

* The Dresser was recommended to me by a friend in high school. Clearly I am a little behind. I don’t even know where he is anymore, so I can’t contact him and say “thank you!” and “I can’t believe it took me this long!”

* Sunday in the Park with George. Mandy Patinkin. Need we say more? I think not. (Although, since it hasn’t been that long since I last saw Into the Woods I was playing the “hey, it’s that guy!” game for a good portion of it.)

* Nightwatch. Once I sorted out the subtitle issue (Russian audio side, with English subtitles for the hearing impaired, because seriously, dubbing blows, plus, the subtitles are incorporated in a really fantastic way) I totally got into it. Utterly gorgeous. It is the first part of a trilogy, and that is clear, but I found it satisfying and not frustrating on its own.

* My Beautiful Laundrette. Did you know I had never seen this before? I -know-. Someone should have tied me up and remedied the situation -years- ago. Don’t you make the same mistake.

* I only got to watch the first disc of My Voyage to Italy because the second disc was cracked. Woe! I put a hold on it at the library instead of having Netflix send me another one, because I need to watch the seventy billion Italian films I have listed from the first half alone before I dare continue on. It’s really a fantastic documentary, basically a master class in Italian film, and it kicked up my Scorsese love a few notches, a thing I had not thought possible.

* Kitchen Stories charmed the pants off of me. It’s a really quiet film about a project in the 50s, where Swedish researchers tracked the kitchen movements of Norwegian bachelors, with an eye to increasing efficiency. Wait! Come back! It’s beautifully shot & acted, and full of sly, subtle humor, when the observer and the observed inevitably interact.

* I added Sherrybaby because I like Maggie Gyllenhaal, and she is absolutely the main reason to watch it. Also, there was a surprisingly touching performance (to me, anyway) by Danny Trejo.

* And as for Bridget Jones’s Diary, well. We all have our cheese. And I needed something on while I packed. And Colin Firth is hot.