10/13/12

Word of the day : nuncupative
                                                  : spoken rather than written, oral

Cave Bear

Ah, the weekend.  Gabriel's slightly under the weather, but I don't think he'll be hampered from doing his Saturday thing: watching cartoons and playing outside.  Julia just finished reading Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear and is upstairs in the guest bedroom, watching the movie version with Daryl Hannah.  Working on this blog, all of what I overhear from the film sounds like characters having non-stop sex.  She assures me, however, that it's just pre-historic grunting and gesturing.  I'll take her word for it.  (Perv.)

Did any of you catch the series premiere of Nashville Wednesday night?  Terrific opener, that's for sure.  I'm not quite sure the show wants to be a layered, multi-faceted, ensemble piece about modern life in a complex, scheming city (ala The Wire); it seems like the show wants to be more of a good old- fashioned soap opera, which is fine two.  Thank God T-Bone Burnett is the man behind all the music we hear; Burnett can put another notch in his belt for memorable soundtrack work (alongside O Brother Where Art Thou? and Crazy Heart, to name a few).  Thank God, too, for Connie Britton, who gets the lead role as a fading country star relegated to be the opener for the popular, oversexed, manipulative Taylor Swift-like (not to say the nice, wholesome Taylor is any of those things!) star of the moment, played by a well-cast Hayden Panettiere.  Britton, who was so great in Friday Night Lights and the best thing - the only human thing - about the first season of the loony American Horror Story, gets a plum role, and, imbuing it with down-home believability and sexiness, looks like she is going to run with it - it might be the best role for an actress on network television this season. 

Brief Movie Reviews

Lola Versus (2012), a slight romantic comedy, has some appealing performers - The Killing's Joel Kinnaman and Hamish Linklater - but none more so than star Greta Gerwig, who carries this minor but enjoyable film as the titular heroine, a loopy, neurotic, confused NYC woman who was just dumped by her fiancee days before her wedding and now finds herself spinning along in the city as a kooky, up-for-anything single gal.  Gerwig can do no wrong, really, but I wished there was more of Debra Winger and Bill Pullman as her parents, who just might have been to some seriously kinky stuff back in the 70s. 
Grade: B 

The only reason anyone at all has heard of A Better Life is because of Demian Bichir's surprise Oscar nomination last year in the lead role.  Directed by Chris Weitz (About a Boy) from Eric Eason's screenplay, the film teeters on the precipice of earnestness and some of the teenage dialogue sounds fake.  Nevertheless, the story of Carlos Galindo, an illegal immigrant working as a gardener and trying to support his son in L.A., has an undeniable pull.  When Carlos' truck is stolen, the film threatens to turn into The Bicycle Thief - as father and son scour the streets in search of it.  This is a film, the filmmakers remind us, about the people we don't notice, the anonymous everymen who do the shit we don't want to do.  Any preachiness is snuffed out by Bichir's heartbreaking turn; a speech to his son, a declaration of his love, is a heartbreaker. 
Grade: B+ 


- A performance today for my list of the 500 Greatest Performances of All Time?  Why not...

Demian Bichir 


as Carlos Galindo in A Better Life (2011) 

It's one thing to constantly juggle languages back and forth from Spanish to English in a film, it's another to make it look so effortless.  Bichir, a handsome man, is so believably nondescript here, you would almost never think he's an actor - that's a compliment, folks.  From his worn, hesitant gait, to the lost expression in his eyes, Bichir slips into the skin of a man we would never want to know one thing about.  But by the end of this low-key winner, his character has become one for the ages. 

* 

- Football picks for the weekend, here we go.  (I whiffed on Pittsburgh Thursday night - oh, well.)

- Cleveland over Cincinnati.    (sorry, I just don't trust the Bengals to keep beating the Browns, who seem to be getting better)
- Atlanta over Oakland      (6-0?  Is that a misprint?) 
- Baltimore over Dallas    ( I think this is a must-win for Dallas, but I just don't trust them)
- Miami over St. Louis    (in a close one) 
- the NY Jets over Indianapolis
- Philadelphia over Detroit    (don't like Detroit, don't trust 'em) 
- Tampa Bay over Kansas City   (if not now, when, Bucs?)
- Buffalo over Arizona       (I might be crazy, but...)
- Washington over Minnesota
- New England over Seattle    (I don't think Seattle is ready for this kind of game yet) 
- SF over NY Giants     (revenge)
- Houston over Green Bay     (wow, who knows?  I know this would mean GB losing three straight, but Houston is tough) 
- Denver over San Diego     (I just think the Chargers are frauds, I really do) 

Last Week's Record:  10-4
Season Record: 44-33   







Images courtesy of:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVC7Asv2KzGIP3vpTAq79b6B53dBc9GU-Dcsn8KiC0UZkkn2KrA_N4NKUm4-xeKsXImTsyJXVBrMXJPrqp6LOsDYl1JN62pwBd1ofkzwxMuc6fO5CxdDpgdynCns8PIzLrSCZ00sEJvDk/s1600/Demian+Bichir+as+Carlos+in+A+Better+Life.png

Another weekend

Word of the day : excoriate 
                                             : to wear off the skin of ; abrade
                                             : to censure scathingly

The weekend comes creeping along... Let's see what's on tap: 

- parent-teacher conferences w/Gabriel's teacher tomorrow
- LSU-South Carolina Saturday night
- a lot of playing outside w/Gabriel now that the weather is cooling off and the bugs are going bye-bye
- a trip to the library and bakery 
- Some terrific NFL games (NE vs. Seattle, NYG vs SF, GB vs Houston)

Wish we could take a little road trip somewhere, but with Julia headed to Durham next weekend, we might not. 

New Movies Opening This Weekend:  

Argo    By all pundits' accounts, one of the two or three automatic Best Picture candidates of 2012.  Ben Affleck, whom by now can be called a great director, makes his third trip behind the camera and stars too in this true-life story as a CIA exfiltration expert called upon to rescue six Americans caught behind the lines of the Iranian Revolution.  The plan?  You've probably seen the trailer or previews: They pose as a film crew.  A big cast: Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin, Tate Donovan, Kyle Chandler, Clea DuVall.  Great reviews.
Verdict: Very Interested  

 

Sinister    This one looks really scary.  Ethan Hawke plays a true-crime writer who moves his family into a new home... which just happens to be the scene of a horrible crime.  Soon enough, Hawke finds a creepy box of super-8 home movies up in the attic.  And naturally, creepy things start happening to the family.  It's giving critics the chills - even if they claim that it's a patchwork of other films.  Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) directs.  Vincent D'Onofrio has a plum supporting role as a university professor specializing in the occult. 
Verdict: Very Interested

Seven Psychopaths    What more do you need to know?  It's Colin Farrell and the writer-director In Bruges back together again!  Martin McDonagh's new film is about... well, I'm not really sure.  It looks like a wacky, violent, hyper-articulate comedy about lowlifes and screenwriters and dog kidnappers all wandering around L.A. and the desert.  But how about the cast: Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken, Gabourey Sidibe, Tom Waits, and Abbie Cornish.  If that's not a selling point for you, then I don't want to know you. 
Verdict: Very Interested

Here Comes the Boom    Kevin James plays a high school biology teacher who becomes a mixed martial arts fighter.  That's really all you need to know.  Surprisingly decent reviews. 
Verdict: Not Interested 

 
Smashed    There's talk that Mary Elizabeth Winstead - hitherto an actress relegated to pics like Final Destination 3 and The Thing - might have a shot (a long one, no doubt) at an Oscar nod.  Her and Breaking Bad's two-time Emmy winner Aaron Paul play an alcoholic married couple whose relationship is put to the test when the wife decides to get sober.  Good reviews, though some critics are saying it's not truthful or bleak enough.  Octavia Spencer and Megan Mullally co-star.
Verdict: Interested 

*

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

Robert Mitchum
as Jeff in Out of the Past (1947) 

For my money, Mitchum was the greatest of all film-noir PIs.  That heavy air of melancholy and acute, weary, seen-it-all indifference.  That presence.  He was an actor who was probably easy to typecast, yet he always seem to find variations and nuances within roles and characters that seemed similar from picture to picture.  This film, directed majestically by the great Jacques Tourneur, has Mitchum in one of his best roles as a small-town gas pumper lured back into his old life by gangster Kirk Douglas (cheerfully malevolent) to find femme fatale Jane Greer in Mexico.  Naturally, Mitch finds her and falls in love... but in this kind of movie, there's plenty of twists in store.  Mitchum is just flat-out commanding here.  His character has been put through the ringer and above any sort of tricks.  But, of course, like all of us, he's a sap where love is concerned and is destined to be pulled into a world he can't get out of. 

* 

A score for tonight?  Sure.  This seems like something of a classic trap game for Pittsburgh.  Tough, close win over in-state rivals Philadelphia, short week, on the road... But yet again they're playing Tennessee.  Has there ever been a so-called "great" running back like Chris Johnson who has had so many disappointing, lethargic outings?  I can't recall any.  Tennessee can be tough to move the ball on, but even with Matt Hasslebeck running the show, I just hate Tennessee's offense.  I think Big Ben & co. do just enough to win. 
Pittsburgh 23, Tennessee 13  

*

Finally, the next two artists in Professional Photographer's list of the 100 most influential photographers of all time: 

David Loftus
(#65)

Link:  http://www.davidloftus.com/


Brian Duffy
(#66)

Link: http://www.famousphotographers125.com/brian-duffy.htm



















Images courtesy of: 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiad3A6wryF35w6_gE1i2OQHiO3Sad0BbdgWku8SiI-4FFZexhWKIwATzwX32m3X7Ijq3Y_6UujdmLMvX-m3CN5h6-lkX8E3HaDoa7K6PeRkWYQsxSMMTeeA8M8RXbQjny770tW74_voAaR/s400/davidloftusdessert.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwFLhlokNuLDZGKkElDPr3S-2tV0sOYbKLZ6t8BQTp6G8UJf1ygXPyCrief-NQYb-oC95bdTOX-hiGebPuMvAthR0u0ACtgApETWMxMgV2tqz2vinNC2B9GWWVgv-KQkMcpO6w3l16Ua93/s1600/David+Loftus+2.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaYBtybdz0LJMJ0N7ndkXwn3m5-lnbtfODHWmJdreSQrS9NvVR1RMx_AhJjLJX8-ICSVnaDFdQBSNVtrVeqFwYLf-P5CsMViT982qUspoXSZvmjgyFXKUKeOTCu0HXkynzrxmo3tfYuig/s640/brianduffy7.jpg

http://www.famousphotographers125.com/images/john-lennon.jpg

http://www.doctormacro.com/Images/Greer,%20Jane/Annex/Annex%20-%20Greer,%20Jane%20%28Out%20of%20the%20Past%29_01.jpg

http://www.takeonecff.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/SinisterFeat-480x330.jpg

http://cdn.wegotthiscovered.com/wp-content/uploads/smashed-aaron-paul-mary-elizabethwinstead.jpeg

Catch-Up Day

Word of the day : lenticular 
                                             : having the shape of a double-convex lens
                                             : of or relating to a lens

No, no, no, no.  About a year ago I haven't forgot about a feature I started about nine or ten months ago on the blog.  At the time, I was interested (and still am) in learning more about famous photographers.  So I consulted a list constructed by the staff of Professional Photographer magazine of the "100 Most Influential Photographers of All Time."  A few times a week I would devote a section to information on the photographers on the list, with accompanying samples of some of their more iconic work.  I was moving along at a pretty good clip, but then I gradually let it go.  I wasn't entirely sure if readers were interested in it, for one thing.  But I believe in finishing what you start and seeing that I'm over three-fifths of the way done, I might as well bring it home, right? 

So for each blog post now, I will show a quick sampling of the work, minus the history and biographical information, of the remaining photographers on the list, along with a web link (or personal website) where you can find more information on the artist.  Capisce? 

Mick Rock (#63) 

Pink Floyd creator Syd Barrett

David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed

Link:  http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2012/04/07/150090097/sex-drugs-and-rock-photography

Sebastiao Salgado (#64) 

Child worker at Rwandan tea plantation

schoolroom in Southern Sudan

Link:  http://www.amazonasimages.com/

* 

I guess today is a bit of a recap-sort of day.  I also have been constructing my own list, as you may have noticed, of what I consider, to date, the 500 Greatest Performances in English-Language Films. 
Well, I am a little over one-tenth of the way done.  To date, here are the 53 selections: 

F. Murray Abraham, Amadeus
Christian Bale, The Fighter 
Ingrid Bergman, Casablanca 
Humphrey Bogart, In a Lonely Place
Marlon Brando, The Godfather 
Gary Busey, The Buddy Holly Story 
Michael Caine, Educating Rita
John Cazale, The Godfather Part II
Julie Christie, Away From Her
George Clooney, Michael Clayton 
Glenn Close, Fatal Attraction
Gary Cooper, High Noon
Joseph Cotten, Shadow of a Doubt
Matt Damon, The Talented Mr. Ripley
Daniel Day-Lewis, In the Name of the Father 
Robert DeNiro, The King of Comedy 
Michael Douglas, Wonder Boys 
Colin Farrell, In Bruges
Mia Farrow, Rosemary's Baby 
Albert Finney, The Browning Version
Laurence Fishburne, What's Love Got to Do With It?
Henry Fonda, The Grapes of Wrath
Morgan Freeman, Street Smart 
Zach Galifinakis, The Hangover 
Janet Gaynor, Sunrise
Gene Hackman, The Royal Tenenbaums
Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump
Tom Hanks, Saving Private Ryan  
Katherine Hepburn, Bringing Up Baby 
Holly Hunter, The Piano
Anjelica Huston, The Grifters
John Huston, Chinatown
Diane Keaton, Shoot the Moon
Frances McDormand, Laurel Canyon
Matthew McConaughey, The Lincoln Lawyer
Jack Nicholson, Five Easy Pieces
Laurence Olivier, Hamlet 
Al Pacino, Donnie Brasco
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Claude Rains, Notorious
Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech
Kurt Russell, Miracle
Susan Sarandon, Dead Man Walking
Paul Scofield, The Crucible 
Robert Shaw, Jaws 
Sissy Spacek, Carrie 
Barbara Stanwyck, Double Indemnity 
Meryl Streep, The Bridges of Madison County 
Meryl Streep, Silkwood
Donald Sutherland, The Eye of the Needle
Jessica Tandy, Driving Miss Daisy 
Elizabeth Taylor, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?  
John Travolta, Pulp Fiction 

Here is today's selection:

Don Cheadle
as Mouse Alexander in Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) 

It's not easy to steal a film from Denzel Washington, but that's precisely what the at-the-time little-known Cheadle does in Carl Franklin's atmospheric, jazzy adaptation of Walter Mosley's acclaimed (if confusing) 1990 novel.  As the murderous, trigger-happy friend to Denzel Washington's PI Easy Rawlins, Cheadle comes on like firecrackers - he gives you a bad feeling as soon as you see him.  You can't predict his next move.  He's the perfect friend, but he's sure to get you up to your neck in more trouble.  "If you didn't want me to kill him, why did you leave me alone with him?" Indeed.    

* 

And finally, this foggy Wednesday, a work of art by today's birthday boy,  Jean-Antoine Watteau, the most famous of all French rococo artists.

  
A Pilgrimage to Cythera 
1721
oil on canvas
Louvre

Rococo was all about pastel colors, sinuous curves, and patterns based on vines, flowers, shells.  The sensual delights of light and color were appreciated.  Myths and images of daily life were more important than heavy religious and historical subjects.  Cythera is an island in southern Greece, thought to be the birthplace of Venus, the goddess of love.  In this allegorical painting, Watteau gives us couples in the various stages of seduction.  An army of putti (Cupids) surround them, intervening at will.   Good old courtship!  





Images courtesy of : 

http://cakeheadlovesevil.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/syd-barrett.jpg

http://emmaknock.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/mick-rock.jpg

http://img.artknowledgenews.com/files2009b/Sebastiao_Salgado_Child_Worker_Tea_Plantation.jpg

http://www.pdngallery.com/legends/legends10/art/photos/fullsize/g3_1.jpg

http://www.samefacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/devil_in_a_blue_dress-cheadle.jpg


http://silverandexact.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/pilgrimage-to-cythera-jean-antoine-watteau-1721.jpg

No Ideas

Word of the day : viand
                                      : an item of food; a choice or tasty dish
                                      : provisions, food

Another week here in Shitsboro, and it is noticeably cooling off some.  Good weekend of college and NFL games (I was 9-5 on my picks), nice weekend to hang around the house and play outside with Gabriel and Daisy.  A couple more school days after today, and Gabriel goes on his fall break.  

Dexter and Homeland are just crackling this season, aren't they?  There really could be nothing else on television besides these two shows and I would be okay with that.    

I don't really have many ideas for a post today on this blog, so go over to my other blog - http://mybookylife.blogspot.com/    - where I will have literature-related stuff and catch up.

*

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

Donald Sutherland
as Faber in The Eye of the Needle (1981)

"The war has come down to the two of us," Faber, the relentless German spy out to spoil the Allies' D-Day plans, tells the lonely, isolated wife (Kate Nelligan) of a crippled British officer at the end of Richard Marquand's underrated, exciting version of my favorite Ken Follett novel.  As the tall, quiet, ice-cold Faber, merrily jaunting along, Sutherland is at his best; he's all determined steel underneath.  He falls for Nelligan, and we can see the interior conflict of Faber - a man torn between love and his loyalty and mission for his country.  Sutherland has been in as many movies as Michael Caine - about 4,786 - and he's familiar to us as some of our relatives, and while he's almost always dependable, he really excels at playing villains and leering men of bad means.  Here, he's a dandy-ish terror.     








Images courtesy of:

http://cineplex.media.baselineresearch.com/images/93713/93713_large.jpg  

Saturday

Word of the day: stravage
                                           : to roam 

Well, we've gotten to the end of the week.  Here are the Fischer's News and Notes:

- We're off to the Fall Festival at Gabriel's school today.  Could be fun - maybe not.
- We finally had a lawn service guy out to the house yesterday, and, boy, does he have our bushes looking good!
- Daisy, one week after having her neck collar removed, is back to her old frolicsome self!
- My cousin Steven gets married tonight!  Sorry I couldn't be there... Hope it goes well.

We watched this last night:

I thought it was a lot of fun!  Emily Blunt, a very talented, rangy, and beautiful actress who lets her remove down at times here in a way she hasn't before, and Jason Segel (in sarcastic, sloppy, teddybear-adorable mode) have good chemistry as a San Francisco couple (he's a sous chef, she's a psychology student) who constantly put off their engagement.  When Blunt moves to Michigan for a post-doctorate fellowship at Ann Arbor, Segel comes along with her, but it isn't long before he realizes - and can admit to her - how much he hates the Wolverine State.  (I say to him: give Statesboro, Georgia a try.)  As relationship dissatisfaction - bolstered by the fact that he can't find a worthy chef job - settles in, it's clear that their wedding will be put on the backburner even longer.

It's a gentle, occasionally observational comedy about the ways in which modern life - particularly life in academia - constantly threaten to hamper the dreams and goals of couples.  Most things seem to not work out as planned or expected, and the film is balanced and fair enough to treat both main characters - and their flaws - equitably.  It's R-rated, although it's not as frank as most other Judd Apatow productions; it was co-written by Segel and Nicholas Stoller, and directed by Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall).  There aren't many laugh-out loud moments, but it's constantly amusing, and there are scene stealers galore, chief among them Chris Pratt and Alison Brie as, respectively, Segel's brother and Blunt's sister.  Rhys Ifans is Blunt's boss, Mindy Kaling is a fellow student, Dakota Johnson (Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith's daughter) is the absurdly-energized new girlfriend of Segel's, and David Paymer and Mimi Kennedy are Segel's uncommunicative parents.  Kennedy gets one of the film's best lines: Chastising Segel, who has separated from Blunt, she taunts him about his past choices, shutting him up with a "F--- you, dummy."
(Nice to see the University of Michigan on screen too.)

*

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

Daniel Day-Lewis
as Gerry Conlon in In the Name of the Father (1993) 

Confession:  I wasn't that wowed by Day-Lewis' performance in There Will Be Blood.  Sure, I thought it was good, but for me, it was ultimately too much, too distractingly actor-y and fruity (and what was with that bowl-of-plums accent?).  I thought he was much better here, in his second Oscar-nominated turn, as Gerry Conlon, one of the Guilford Four, four young me falsely convicted of a bombing that killed four off-duty British soldiers and a civilian in 1974.  Day-Lewis, sharing the screen with Oscar-nominated Emma Thompson (as the lawyer who takes his case) and the late Pete Poslethwaite (one of Day-Lewis' real-life idols and mentors), as his imprisoned dad, is bracing here, clear-eyed, hauntingly physical and emotive, with geysers of inner strength and integrity.  Day-Lewis is the rare actor whose being, whose temperament, look, mannerisms, seems to differ from film to film.

*

Here are my NFL picks for the weekend.  Hopefully I'll do as well as I did last week:
(so far, I'm 1-0, with St. Louis prevaling Thursday night)

Cincinnati over Miami
Green Bay over Indianapolis 
NY Giants over Cleveland
Baltimore over Kansas City  (though it could be close)
Philadelphia over Pittsburgh  (don't feel great about this one, but I like the Eagles' defense)
Atlanta over Washington 
Carolina over Seattle  (I think this a good time for Seattle to derail) 
Chicago over Jacksonville
Minnesota over Tennessee
New England over Denver  (should be a great one)
San Francisco over Buffalo 
New Orleans over San Diego  (the Saints, horrid defense aside, are too good to go 0-5)
Houston over the NY Jets  (though I do think the Jets will come out inspired and aggressive) 

Season Record, pre-Week 5:  34-29 

* 

Happy birthday, Le Corbusier.  (Hey, that rhymes.) 

Dear Le,

I don't think I've ever seen one of your buildings.  This will be amended if Julia happens to get a job at Assumption College in Worcester next year.  Surely the Fischer fam will ride over to Cambridge to see this beaut: 

http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Carpenter_Center.html

Sincerely,

Le Charles

















Images provided by:

http://www.reellifewithjane.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/five-year-engagement-poster.jpg

http://thebestpictureproject.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/in-name-of-the-father2.jpeg

Nicole Pees on Zac

Word of the day : seriocomic
                                               : having a mixture of the serious and the comic

Well, well, happy Thursday, readers.  Today is pretty much going to be a movie day:

New Movies Opening This Weekend:
 
Taken 2    I loved the first Taken, an exciting, impactful Liam Neeson action-er from the three years ago.  I'm not really sure why they had to make another one.  Neither are critics.  (The first one was a surprising box-office smash.)  This time around, we're in Istanbul, and not only is Liam's daughter (Maggie Grace) kidnapped again, but so is his wife (Famke Janssen.)  Lots of action and scenes involving Liam disposing hordes of Eurotrash, no doubt.  I'll see it, but critics are saying blah!
Verdict: Interested

The Paperboy    Director Lee Daniels (Precious) brings Pete Dexter's 1995 novel to the screen - a hot mess of Deep South overheatedness, sex, murder, seduction, and white trash.  Nicole Kidman is reputedly stunning as a piece of local trash, John Cusack is a dirty, hick-ish death row prisoner, Zac Efron and Matthew McConaughey are brothers working in their father's newspaper business.  Set in 1969, it's a lurid mystery reminiscent of John Macdonald or maybe even Elmore Leonard.  Some graphic scenes.  Critics are all over the place on this one - there's energy, they write, but it's very, very ridiculous.  Co-stars Macy Gray and Scott Glenn.  And there is a scene where Nicole relieves herself on pretty Zac.
Verdict: Interested

Butter    A political satire that, with Jennifer Garner doing a mild Sarah Palin impersonation, maybe a few years late, but nevertheles, it's getting decent, if tepid reviews.  It's more of a gentle riff on Red State living, as various butter sculptors clash at a carving competition.  Hugh Jackman is a pot-bellied used-car dealer, Olivia Wilde plays a goth hooker, and Ty Burrell and Alicia Silverstone also co-star.
Verdict: Mildly Interested 

Frankenweenie    Tim Burton's latest stop-motion animated romp, the film is about a boy mourning the loss of his dog and then scientifically bringing the dog back to life - ala Frankenstein - only to see his creation wreak havoc in his town.  Critics like it.  It's actually an expanded take on a short film Burton made in 1984.  Martin Landau, Catherine O'Hara, Winona Ryder, and Martin Short are among the voice actors.
Verdict: Mildly Interested

*

A new month means ten new films for my list of 200 Essential American Films.  (This month's selections will take us up to 100.)

 
- The Descendants  (2011; Alexander Payne)
                    About a year ago or so on this blog, I said that I thought this was a near-perfect movie.  I still think that.  

- Ed Wood  (1994; directed by Tim Burton)      
                  The best movie Tim Burton has ever made.  A loving, kooky, eccentric, big-hearted, blackly funny tribute to the titular worst director of all time, played beautifully by Johnny Depp.  One of the reasons this film is successful and easy to love is that Burton (shooting in glorious black-and- white) loves these losers so much.  A coterie of colorful supporting players (Bill Murray, Sarah Jessica Parker, Vincent D'Onofrio chief among them) are spot-on, but, in his Oscar-winning performance, Martin Landau steals everything as the dying, up-for-anything Bela Lugosi.

- Hannah and Her Sisters  (1986; Woody Allen)
                  Along with Crimes and Misdemeanors and The Purple Rose of Cairo, one of Woody's highlights from the 1980s, with a glorious cast (Oscar winners Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest, Carrie Fisher, Allen, Mia, Max von Sydow, Barbara Hershey), philosophical musings, and plenty of  one-liners.

 
- Rain Man  (1988, Barry Levinson)
                  I don't know how this film has held up for most people, but to me, it's a film that has gotten better with age.  Maybe it just hits home more.  Tom Cruise gives a superb performance, navigating his character's 360-degree aboutface with surefootedness, and Dustin Hoffman never slips out of character.  What's most impressive is how un-sentimental the film is: there are no easy answers or solutions for Raymond Babbitt.  And, yes, living down here in Shitsboro, a town without decent grocery stores or shops, I can agree that K-MART SUCKS!      

- Rio Bravo  (1959, Howard Hawks)
                  One of my two or three favorite movies of all time, Hawks' ode to male camaraderie and companionship, loyalty and courage pits sheriff John Wayne (at his most commanding), drunken Dean Martin, crippled Walter Brennan, and earnest young gunfighter Ricky Nelson, against a local bad guy out to spring his brother from jail.  Simply wonderful.

- Sullivan's Travels  (1942; Preston Sturges)
                   A masterpiece.  Sturges, a master of slapstick and frenetic, rapid-fire dialogue, proved how great he was at the seriocomic with this tale of a director of fluff (the wonderful Joel McCrea) setting out across the American South to see how the other side lives - with the idea that he'll get inspiration for a socially-conscious drama.  Veronica Lake is his companion.  Full of symbolism and rife with ideas and truths, it's just a flat-out great movie.  (Incidentally, the film McCrea's character is making - O Brother, Where Art Thou? - was, of course, the inspiration for the Coen brother's 2000 movie.)

This is Spinal Tap  (1984; Rob Reiner)
                   The definitive mockumentary and a final word on the egoism of popular musicians, Reiner's comedy has so many memorable one-liners and sight gags, it doesn't really do to reproduce any of them here.  It's a shame that Christopher Guest and his stock company don't make more movies.

This month's other selections:   

- The Maltese Falcon (1941)
- The Philadelphia Story (1940)
- Trouble in Paradise (1932)

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

George Clooney
as Michael Clayton (2007) 

I always thought Clooney was a charismatic, suave performer, but it wasn't until this smart, layered drama that I realized how superb of an actor he was.  As a legal fixer engulfed in a corporate morass, Clooney beautifully underplays and yet projects a conflicted confidence and cunning.  Like all great actors, Clooney acts with his face and eyes, and even as the film gets more and more complex, we have the actor to carry us through it all with weary, sometimes uncertain grace.  Clooney is one of the actors made to play legal types - he's so smooth yet unafraid to get ruffled, and he just commands a frame, sometimes by doing very little.  

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A pick for tonight.  I'll have to go back and check, but I think I've picked the 4-0 Cardinals to lose every game so far.  Hmmm.  Well, I'm not sure how, outside of fantastic defense, they've won so far - especially over some tough teams (New England, Seattle, Philly).  I think the 2-2 Rams are a solid squad, and they're playing at home.  Sorry, Arizona, I don't dislike you, but I like the Rams right now.
St. Louis 19, Arizona 16 


Be sure to check out my other blog later this afternoon or tomorrow morning, for I'll have a new post up!  http://mybookylife.blogspot.com/






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2sday

Word of the day :  inspissate
                                               : to make or become thick or thicker

Another day, another dolla here in Shitsboro, Jaw-Juh.  More B.S. from GSU, but, hey, at least Daisy gets her neck collar taken off, huh?

- I was 13-2 on my NFL picks this weekend.  Damn, that's good!

- I kind of liked 666 Park Avenue, ABC's new Sunday night supernatural entry that's a little bit The Devil's Advocate, a little bit Rosemary's Baby, a little bit a lot of other stuff.  Terry O'Quinn lords over the proceedings as the mysterious, obviously malevolent (we know this because Quinn's jack-o-lantern grin is flashed every few minutes) owner of a Beaux-Arts Upper East Side apartment building.  Dave Annable and Rachael Taylor are the naive, new-to-the-city couple who take a job - DON'T SIGN THE CONTRACT!  DON'T SIGN THE CONTRACT! - as resident managers of the building.  Little do they suspect the nefarious goings-on that hint at a frightening reality: Check into this building and you'll never check out.  Not bad for what it is, though I wonder if it will have the stamina and inventiveness to intrigue and surprise us over an entire season.

- Dexter is back and if Sunday's smash premiere is any indication, it's going to be another fantastic season.  Debra knows.  She knows!  And that revelation - and all the complications it will entail - will have me eagerly awaiting (as if I don't already) each week's episode.

- Homeland is pretty great too.  What more can you say?  Great acting, great storytelling, great set pieces, great characters...

- Happy birthday, Graham Greene!  If you've never read

This

 Or that

Then what are you waiting for? 

*

An entry for my list of the 500 Greatest Performances of All Time:  

Laurence Oliver  
as Hamlet in Hamlet (1948) 

Before he descended into late-career camp, Olivier was, of course, one of the greatest stage and screen actors in England.  In this Best Picture Winner, Oliver directs and stars as the world's most famous melancholy Dane, and Oliver makes internal conflict relevant and engaging.  He was, of course, if a great verbal actor, and it's a pleasure just to hear him speak.    


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Be sure to check out my other blog today.  I posted some brief information on new releases and a review of T.C. Boyle's Wild Child.

http://mybookylife.blogspot.com/

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