we like to watch

I was hoping to see ‘Syriana’ today but it turns out that there are no “selected movie theaters” in Ohio, so I watched ‘Jarhead’ instead. It was much better than I expected, given the way the trailer is cut and the New York Times review. ‘Three Kings’ is the obvious comparison, and it lacks the absurdism of that movie and its emotional detachment from either war or the main characters. ‘Jarhead’ is not as good a movie as ‘Three Kings.’ But it is trying to do different things, and it ends up being a pretty damn good movie.

A few random thoughts. First, its subversiveness is more clumsy and obvious than ‘Three Kings,’ but it is nonetheless devastating. The failed equipment, the charred bodies on the Highway of Death, the way the first Gulf War was oversold, the stupidity of the military commanders, all add up to an indictment of the war, and the connections to what is happening today are made quite clear.
Continue reading Jarhead

Maybe I should post this under the Jesus Silverman thread–but bloggengruppenfuhrer Chakladar can make that decision later, if he so chooses. Borat lives! Given our conversation there about ‘mocking’ racism, I’m curious how people respond to Sascha Baron Cohen’s trio of disruptive personae? In particular, Borat, getting a crowd of country-western fans to sing “Throw the Jew Down the Well”….

For the trivia fans: Seth Rogen was writing for Da Ali G Show… and I hear Borat will be the star of his own film in the not-distant future.

what special editions and gift boxes are you lusting after for the holidays? I go to the criterion collection website and get quite dizzy. of course, if i get any of these items i will receive puzzled looks and questions from my family (what kind of movie is that? that looks dull…etc. etc.) but I want Criterion’s Le Samourai, The Wages of Fear, L’Eclisse, The Leopard and Fassbinder’s “BRD Trilogy” (Marriage of maria Braun, Lola and Veronika Voss). i also lust after the Val Lewton collection coming out. and though I am generally opposed to music box sets and question my need for another version of Blitzkrieg Bop, I am inexorably drawn to “Weird Tales of the Ramones” which includes a DVD and a comic booklet. some of the boxed sets fill me with anger–the laurel and hardy “collection” includes their most painful film Utopia which is only there because it is not under copyright protection while most of their classic silents are totally unavailable; the steve mcqueen collection includes a bore like The Thomas Crown Affair while totally neglecting Hell is for Heroes, the coen brothers collection includes Intolerable Cruelty but not Miller’s Crossing, etc. etc. and when i see the glittering collections for the simpsons, futurama, monty python, ren and stimpy, aqua teen hunger force, the prisoner, etc. i weep with despair at my financially marginal position–all that neatly packaged nostalgia and culture, all those commentaries, all those anecdotes lost to me!!! but who exactly is buying the boxed sets of Diagnosis Murder?

Pondering Frisoli’s comments about movie critics. Presumably an obvious defense for movie critics would be that they cannot take advantage of the conversational nature of a blog. A.O. Scott cannot assume that the average reader of his review this week, read his review of a different movie three months ago. So it is next to impossible to develop an argument, still less to circle back to modify an argument or admit that you wrong the first time around. And of course the whole thing is monological so the movie critic has no particular reason for modifying his/her views. The value of the blog is that it is dialogical, and it has a history of shared understandings (or disagreements) to which we can continually return.

That said, and having got to use the words ‘monological’ and ‘dialogical’ outside of class, it is still hard to understand why most movie critics are so bad. I have a particular dislike of David Denby, who seems to suck the life and enjoyment out of every movie he reviews – a veritable Dementor among movie critics – and simply doesn’t appear to actually like movies. But he is scarcely alone. So, which movie critics do people on this blog read/listen to and what do you think of them? For me it is Denby and Lane at the New Yorker, whoever is reviewing at the New York Times, and David Edelstein. Anyone I should be reading?

I would guess that Harry Potter is an awkward franchise for this blog; the bloggers are too old and their kids are too young to have to pay attention to the movies. Still, I thought it was worth a quick post.

The fourth Harry Potter movie does some things effectively. There are some fine action sequences, particularly the three tests. The claustrophobic underwater scenes of the second test, and the broad expanse of mist hanging over the maze for the third test build tension and give the whole movie a darker feel than the earlier ones. The teenage romance scenes are pretty horrible, but not quite as cloying as I anticipated. You get a good sense of the disgust felt by 14 year old boys at the prospect of having to deal with girls (or at least you get a good sense of the disgust that adults think 14 year old boys will feel). And the adult acting is superb. Brendan Gleeson is excellent, and Ralph Fiennes manages to be menacing without going completely over the top. His nose is the perfect replica of a snake’s.
Continue reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Career-killing blog?

Tomorrow I have to go into New York for two days; it will be my mission there to go see this Sarah Silverman concert film. partly for an ulterior motive–I am a sucker for sexy semites with a slight overbite. but also because of all the raves I’ve heard from all of you concerning her part in The Aristocrats, and because I just heard a good interview with her on NPR. of course I will also feel like a fool paying $10.50 for a 75 minutes film of a stage show. but the chances of ever having an opportunity to see it here in the lehigh valley are about as good as pennsylvanians giving up scrapple and deep fried pork bits. i’m not saying pennsylvanians are fat….but when they sit around the movie house…

by the way, i believe john and mike might have been in the car with me and Pete (in Pete’s old volvo), on our way to the “good luck” bar, when a woman who I believe was Sarah Silverman pulled up beside us to tell us that she too was from Nashua NH (she saw it on the license plate)…even though I recognized her, I stared blankly and missed my opportunity to invite her along, knowing that probably in her secret heart she wished to spend the night with a bunch of English graduate students from USC. instead, i believe the evening ended with the “little New Yorker” at Cantor’s , served by a matronly Helga in white shoes, and then a morning of nightmare-ravaged sleep. ah, the days when we towered over the LA entertainment scene and made or broke careers with a mere glance….or at least the days when we had a regular table at Musso and Frank’s and every agent in town solicited our opinions…or at least when we dominated the Taco Bell on Figueroa and the homeless begged us for nickels and dimes….or maybe it was Norm’s and just that one guy who smelled….