Author: arnab

ocean’s twelve

watched this last night. mike, tell me again why i’m supposed to love it. i thought it was okay but if i’d fallen asleep or if the dvd had jammed i don’t know if i would have cared. in fact, sunhee did fall asleep and doesn’t want to finish it today.

what i liked a lot: matt damon so happily playing third fiddle, and a putz at that; elliott gould–did ocean’s eleven get him any more work? that’s about it–the heist stuff was uninvolving, the script not particularly witty, and it featured catherine zeta-jones (whose appeal continues to elude me). and i would like to point out that the theatrical trailer is NOT a “special” feature. unless that was a joke–if so, it might explain why i didn’t think the movie was a hoot.

my own private neverland

michael asked in one of his comments if finding neverland, which i mentioned we were about to watch some nights ago, is worth checking out. i suspect he knows the answer to this question but i’ll provide it anyway.

the film came highly recommended by well-known pornographer, jim kincaid. since he is an authority on such matters ( see the ringing 4th endorsement on this page) i decided to watch it. i knew there wasn’t much likelihood of there really being any uncomfortable investigation of barrie’s relationship with children and childhood (if there were would the film have been nominated for academy awards?) but i wasn’t expecting either the degree to which the film would try to rehabilitate him into a normative marital adult/heterosexual narrative. his wife is cold and unfeeling and unworthy of access to his core self–her final infidelity merely mirrors this. barrie is attracted not just to the davies children but also the mother. the latter attraction the film has the grace to not push too heavily; the former, however, becomes just another getting “in touch with your inner child but not touching it inappropriately” narrative. apparently, there is a little neverland in all of us. whatever.

the michael jackson defense should show this film to the jury.

vera drake

watched this last night. the performances, the cinematography, the rhythm of the film–all these things are very well done and the film comes together really well. what is less subtle, or adroit, is the film’s handling of class. there are basically three kinds of people in this film: hardcore working class, working class on the move, and upper class. everyone in the first category is a saint, everyone in the second category is a traitor, and everybody in the third category is either vicious or vaccuous. while the film presents itself as quiet social realism what it really is is quiet agit-prop. nothing wrong with agit-prop of course, but here it is mostly condescending to the people on whose behalf it is agitating.

mira nair–vanity fair etc.

we didn’t get to “sin city” last night–instead we watched “vanity fair” on dvd. as some of you know i have a strong antipathy to mira nair. when asked to explain this i sometimes, in the interests of economy, say only that someone who makes a film like “kamasutra” should and can never be taken seriously again. she is an interesting figure, however: the minority/third world director trying to make it in mainstream hollywood. and it may be interesting to compare her career, and choices, with those of directors like ang lee and wayne wang (to name only two). i’m not going to do that here. i’ll note only that unlike those two nair hasn’t (or hadn’t until “vanity fair”) succeeded in crossing over into the hollywood mainstream–which for such directors may be marked by the making of a marquee film that has nothing to do with their culture of origin (nair’s “the perez family” flopped and i don’t know that it was a marquee film anyway).

i would argue that nair’s career is essentially all about the search for this mainstream crossover and that what differentiates her from someone like lee or wang is her continued deployment of her culture of origin whether it is wholesale in exoticizing trash like “kamasutra” or cynical ethnic-chic like “my big fat monsoon wedding”, or in what may finally have been her ticket to the big time, a big-budget costume extravaganza with a big hollywood star: “vanity fair”.

Continue reading mira nair–vanity fair etc.

deadwood: season 2

i can’t tell if this show is getting more or less ridiculous, but i am compelled to watch.

apparently the west was not the jolly barrel of laughs it was portrayed as being in films such as “paint your wagon” and “blazing saddles”. season 1 established that a lot of people swore then/there, and thanks to season 2 i know that doctors did not use much anaesthesia. but where exactly is all the laundry being done? the people on this show are done up better than on masterpiece theater. perhaps season 3 will clear this up.

speaking of boys’ clubs

did you lot read this article in the ny times about the new hollywood comedy power brokers?

Mr. Ferrell, Mr. Apatow and Ben Stiller are among the club’s kingpins. Mr. McKay, Owen Wilson, Jim Carrey, Vince Vaughn and Jack Black belong, as do Nick Stevens, a United Talent agent who represents Mr. Carrey and Mr. Stiller, and Mr. Gold and Mr. Miller, who have much of the group in their stable.

The funnymen appear in one another’s movies, from “Dodgeball” to “Anchorman” to “Elf” to “Zoolander,” creating a wheel-of-comedy effect that can leave viewers wondering just whose movie they’re watching. What’s more, the stars and their representatives live, work and play in a continuum that has virtually shut the studios out of the development process. By coming up with their own concepts, finding screenwriters and then offering the whole package for production – script, director and cast, take it or leave it – this group is reshaping screen humor to their liking.

whatever happened to janeane garofalo and sarah silverman?

beyond the edge of reason

speaking of fat girl, we watched “bridget jones: the edge of reason” last night. this is what i don’t get about these movies–and let me note that i quite enjoyed the first one: instead of getting a hollywood actress to put on a lot of weight for a role (which i guess, along with the accent, means she’s “acting”) why not just hire a talented actress who isn’t an anorexic to begin with? ditto for charlize theron in “monster”. i mean, it isn’t like the character’s weight is fluctuating in the film (as with de niro in “raging bull). yes, yes, i get how the box-office/star system nexus works.

this would not be a bad film to watch on a plane but there’s no reason to watch it under any other circumstances–i don’t know why we did.

other notes: hugh grant is so much better playing against type (see also “about a boy” and “an awfully big adventure”); what is the appeal of colin firth? now that clive owen is on the scene are there enough roles for the two of them and sean bean?

how can i resist?

i just received an email from amazon touting something called lady in a cage. has anyone seen it? here’s part of the amazon summary. (the full summary at amazon gives the entire plot away so beware.)

In Lady in a Cage, Olivia de Havilland plays an aging, wealthy widow who is recuperating from a recent hip operation and is forced to use an elevator to get from one story of her home to the other. While she’s headed for the upper story of the house, a power failure occurs that leaves her stranded in the elevator car 12 feet off the ground. The elevator’s alarm bell arouses the curiosity of a passing wino, who comes in and helps himself to the widow’s wine cellar. The transient and a friend begin looting the house until they are one-upped by a trio of feral, neobeatnik thugs (led by a very young James Caan). All the invaders merely ignore the widow’s pleas for help as they toss her house in an orgy of violence.

i don’t know that i’m going to buy it but if netflix gets it i’m definitely renting it.

the office

people speak highly of this show, which apparently comes close to toppling “suddenly susan” as best portrayal of life in an office. i have never seen it. however, i see that bbc america is running a marathon of the first season on march 26th and the second season on april 2. is there anything on the dvd’s that makes them worth renting or am i safe just taping and watching it on vhs?