Weekend

An abnormally swampy, humid day in mid-January Shitsboro.  Julia has a faculty meeting this morning, and now that my cold-flu thing is mostly in the rearview and I've found a book that I want to read (Joseph Kanon's The Good German, which was adapted into one of the rare George Clooney movies that I haven't seen), I'm looking forward to an unperturbed morning with Gabriel.  

Big sports weekend, Golden Globes too... oh my! 

New Movies Opening This Weekend: 

- Gangster Squad    According to critics, this is L.A. Confidential for less discerning viewers - a.k.a. idiots.  Directed by Ruben Fleischer (who mace the appealing Zombieland), this one stars Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Giovanni Ribisi, Anthony Mackie, and Robert Patrick as a brutal pack of L.A. cops out to rid the City of Angels of east coast mobsters, specifically Mickey Cohen (a scenery-chewing Sean Penn).  Emma Stone shows up as a gangster's moll.

- Quartet    Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut and catnip for those of us who loved The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.  Taken from the stage play, this film stars Maggie Smith (yes!) as a singer who moves into a home for retired musicians - including the members of the group she was once a member of!  A great cast of Brits - Tom Courtenay, Pauline COllins, Michael Gambon, Billy Connolly.
(Yes) 

- A Haunted House    It seems like a Wayans Brothers film but it's not, really - only one (Marlon) is here.  It's a parody - though critics don't find anything remotely funny about it, including the non-stop homophobia - of found-footage/Paranormal Activity films, as if anyone was asking for one. 

* 

A performance today for my ongoing list of the 500 Greatest Performances of All Time: 

Ryan Gosling 
as Dan Dunne in Half Nelson (2006) 

It's surprising and a crying shame that Gosling has only been nominated for an Oscar once, and that his work as drug-addled, idealistic inner-city high school teacher Dan Dunne - his lone nod - lost out to Forest Whitaker's overacting as Idi Amin.  A Method turn in the greatest sense of the phrase, Gosling acts with every part of his body.  He's a sympathetic, tragic figure, trying to make a difference in the lives of kids many have already written off.  He has plenty of great scenes, and his relationship with one girl (whom he also coaches on the basketball team), played memorably by Shareeka Epps, is indelible, but my favorite scene is the one in which his character goes home to visit his parents, a pair of a sour, once-fiery, opinionated liberals.  I've never seen an actor convey disillusionment the way Gosling does in that scene.   




Image courtesy of: 

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