A few of the diversions I’ve enjoyed this summer: Books: The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University, by Kevin Roose. A 19-year-old sophomore at Brown University decides to spend a semester studying at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Among other things, he gets in the habit of praying multiple times [...]
Archive for the ‘Movies’ category
The Monday Photo (“we have it? yeah, we have it.”)
The struggle for self-determination, the struggle for what a character wants his life to be…I look for characters who feel strongly enough about something not to be concerned with the prevailing odds, but to struggle against those odds. Robert Aldrich
I’d like to spank the Academy, redux
Random thoughts on the Oscars, in the style of a 2006 post. 1. So glad The Curious Case of Bradjamin Pitton flopped! I’m no Pitt-basher, but all his best work in this movie was done by the makeup department. Seriously, his facial expression never changed in the entire 5 hours and 27 minutes of the [...]
2008: top-fives
Some of mine… Film: Let the Right One In (Sweden) Synechdoche, New York Tell No One (France) Milk The Dark Knight TV: The Wire The Mighty Boosh (British import: DVD) Gossip Girl The Daily Show The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric Music: Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago Atlas Sound: Let the Blind Lead [...]
Trouble and truth in pixie hollow
One of my favorite films last year did not star Mickey Rourke or Sean Penn; there were no vampires or superheroes or ex-presidents; no narcissistic recovering drug addicts or triumphant game show contestants or tortured suburbanites. One of my favorite movies last year was TinkerBell, direct from Disney’s marketing department to DVD. Some adults, especially adults [...]
Thursday favorites: Falling apart in Wisconsin
Hi all. I’d like to use the Thursday slot for talking about a movie I like a whole lot. My favorite movie ever? I don’t know — I could probably find other movies I like “as much” or even “more”. But I will say I think this movie is as good, as fully realized, as [...]
Stella at the movies
Stella is on vacation in the cradle of Western civilization. She traveled through tiny streets and the unlikely police blockades of the neighborhood of Exarchia to see a movie. The movie theatre is open air in the middle of several apartment blocks. The fountains gurgle before the film starts and they play 70s music. It’s [...]
Thursday Playlist: Superheroes
We kind of skipped out on the whole kids’ music scene, and now that our son Jasper is approaching five it looks like we’ve left it behind. I know kids’ music has gotten much better in the past ten years, what with all the aging B- and C-list recording artists starting second careers once they [...]
Danse macabre
Bob Fosse made five films between 1968 and 1973. The first, Sweet Charity, he had directed and choreographed on the Broadway stage in 1966. Fosse won his fifth Tony Award for the choreography of this show, which starred his wife, Gwen Verdon. I was surprised to learn that the book by Neil Simon was based [...]
