We saw Zodiac on opening night, in a packed house. I was excited because I had enjoyed Fincher’s previous work (Se7en, Fight Club, Panic Room) and I had great fondness for pretty much the entire cast. (I read a comment recently about Mark Ruffalo, full of “who is this guy and where has he been?” and I was like, “Hello! You Can Count on Me! Where have -you- been?”) ((Also, he was on an episode of “due South.” Hee.))

BUT ANYWAY. I thought the movie was fantastic. Of course, I was going in expecting a movie about obsession and not a movie about a murderer, and I suspect that might have made a difference. It just totally and completely sucked me into that world for nearly three hours, and when the movie ended I was really dazed to return to the real world. Which isn’t something that happens a lot to me, at least not to that degree.

(Also, in a film with an all-around great cast, I was delighted by two unexpected cameos — Clea DuVall & Ione Skye.)

A restored print of Becket is making the rounds, and hit Seattle last month. Awesome. I try to take advantage of revival film as much as possible, because there’s nothing like seeing movies on the big screen, and this was no exception.

It was both funnier and more queer than I had expected. And it was fantastic to see young O’Toole, so soon after seeing Venus. Now I need to put a hold on The Lion in Winter.

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 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.

* Jonathan Creek, Series 1. It went in my Netflix queue because QI has hit me over the head with Alan Davies, and I stayed with it because I’m a sucker for English mysteries, locked room murders, illusionists and… Alan Davies. Am in the process of acquiring the remaining 3 seasons, because they’re not available on Region 1 DVD yet. Woe.

* Dexter, Season 1, on the recommendation of , among others. Michael C Hall as a serial killer serial killer? Awesome. Disturbing and effective and also beautiful in its way. Plus, I adore David Zayas as Angel. That’s how I roll.

Another film that I was afraid I missed, Little Children has had its run extended thanks to critical acclaim & a few Oscar nods, all of which are deserved. I had been eager to see it as a fan of Field’s earlier film In the Bedroom, and like that, it was a deceptively simple story told in a really compelling way. I am still turning it over in my mind. Strong performances all ’round, particularly Jackie Earle Haley, who hasn’t been seen in anything since 1993. Dude.

(And Patrick Wilson? Too pretty. He looks like a Ken doll. I don’t believe he’s a real person. It’s kind of unsettling.)

Last night I went to Blood and Chocolate because it was free, because it was about werewolves, and because the cast included Bryan Dick (Joseph Nagle in Master & Commander).

And lo, was he pretty. All wavy hair & pale skin & long coats & white shirts with big cuffs & stalking about all, well, wolfishly.

The movie itself was pretty forgettable, I thought, with some things that might have worked well on paper but were kind of silly on film, and a patriarchal society that was challenged not so much on the basis of being patriarchal, but because Our Heroine had found herself a boy she liked better than the one she was promised to. The werewolf mythology they used was interesting, though, but I don’t have much of a monster background as it were, so I don’t know how it compares.