Day: August 29, 2011

I had this Netflix DVD sitting on my living room table for about 3 or 4 days before I got the courage up to watch it. That’s how Todd Solondz’s films affect me, on the whole. I finally watched it last night, and I was surprised at how “light” it was, compared to Storytelling and Palindromes and of course the magnificent Happiness. Yes, this seemed to be “Solondz lite,” even though the film picks up where Happiness, which I think everyone here would agree is a brutally and relentlessly discomforting film, left off. Having said that, I still enjoyed the film. It’s not without its uncomfortable moments; there are a few conversations between Timmy and his mother (the excellent Allison Janney) that are reminiscent of that final, painful conversation between Billy and his pedophile dad at the end of Happiness. Continue reading Life During Wartime

I was in an airport bookstore browsing for something to read while I waited to get re-routed around the hurricane, and I saw a new edition of Tinker, Tailer, Soldier Spy, It had the tag: “Soon to be a major motion picture.” And sure enough, on the back there was a cast list including Gary Oldman and Colin Firth. Really? Wasn’t the Alec Guinness TV mini-series version about as good as television got in the 1970s? I still have tremendous affection for the mini-series, and I can’t think of George Smiley except as Alec Guinness. And the book has so many moving parts that I doubt it can be compressed into a couple of hours without doing serious damage.