Tuesday Trivia on Wednesday

March 25, 2009 / / 22 comments

Actors:

1. A delusional northerner, an addicted teacher, the young self seen in flashbacks.
TIE: Solved by maurinsky (comment #4) and Christina (comment #5).

2. A prison warden, the First Lady, a woman accused of witchcraft.
TIE: Solved by Christina (comment #5) and maurinsky (comment #7).

3. A white outsider in an Asian family, a white member of a Native American family, a one-eyed gang leader.
Solved by George (comment #21).

4. A reporter pursuing a rodeo star, an embittered dancer, a court-appointed psychiatrist.
Solved by Tom Hilton (comment #1).

5. An army surgeon, a compulsive gambler, a burlesque club owner.
Solved by Tom Hilton (comment #2).

6. A baseball fanatic, a cellist, a “heroine.”
Solved by Steve H. (comment #9).

7. An Olympic athlete, an evil newspaper columnist, second in command on a submarine.
Solved by Hogan (comment #18).

Crap. I forgot.

March 24, 2009 / / Comments Off on Crap. I forgot.

Wednesday trivia lacks that jazzy alliteration. Forgive me.

Monday Movie Review: Things We Lost in the Fire

March 23, 2009 / / One comment

Things We Lost in the Fire (2007) 7/10
Audrey (Halle Berry) and Brian (David Duchovny) are happily married, but fight over Brian’s friend Jerry (Benicio del Toro). Jerry is a drug addict whom Audrey distrusts, but Brian insists on helping. When Brian is killed, Jerry and Audrey need each other’s help to mourn.

Things We Lost in the Fire is a beautiful movie, in that it is gorgeously filmed, and that it is about its characters, and doesn’t go for easy answers. The thing that is most remarkable about the script here is that Jerry and Audrey are individuals, they are not “the widow” and “the junkie,” and I think ninety percent of writers who attempted this script would make them exactly that.

On the down side, it’s also a very self-conscious movie. For every exquisite shot, there’s a look-at-me-I’m-exquisite shot. And while these look-at-me shots are genuinely beautiful, waving at the camera detracts from the story.

The same could be said for the script, with writing that occasionally underlines that the story will not play out in a conventional way. There is one conversation, between Jerry and one of the Burke children, that is more or less, “I want this story to follow conventional movie arcs.” “But it won’t.” And it was smartly written, make no mistake, but a little obvious.

And yet, I am so touched by the vulnerability of these people. Audrey, who is wealthy and apparently competent, and strong and smart, all these things, and yet broken, and not broken because her husband died, but broken because she’s a human being with parts that break, those parts we all have, and losing her husband removed all the veneer from the brokenness. Berry is at her best in these vulnerable roles. Give her a superhero or someone street smart to play and she’s flat and relies on her beauty and a certain snappiness, but give her some pain and some weakness and she sinks deep into her huge round eyes and digs in. This is her best work since Monster’s Ball.

Del Toro, on the other hand, really isn’t an uneven actor. He’s always this good. And Duchovny? I have no idea why he gets as much work as he does, but he doesn’t detract.

The pacing is slow, sometimes glacial, but it works. This isn’t an action movie, it’s a story of healing, and of not healing, and it’s lovely.

Spring Equinox

March 20, 2009 / / 5 comments

I’m having an ironic first day of Spring here, as it’s snowing out.

The equinoxes have a poorly-formed tradition in most of the Pagan community, and I don’t know if I’ve ever attended a really dazzling Spring Equinox or Fall Equinox ritual. (I’m talking community rituals, here, not oathbound Tradition stuff.) For six of the eight holidays, there is plentiful folklore and a rich and varied ritual tradition throughout Neopaganism. The equinoxes, not so much. Fall tends to be a Thanksgiving sort of thing, “Harvest Home,” but both the festival before and after are also harvests, and have other distinctive and beautiful features.

Spring equinox, which some call Ostara, tends to be a bit of a piggyback on Easter. Colored eggs and all that. Which is fine; Pagan holidays and Christian holidays are often related. But the colored eggs don’t figure prominently in ritual behavior—no egg hunts under the High Priestess’s robe, although hey, that’s a thought.

In much Western occult tradition, equinoxes are considered unlucky. Balance is always sought in magical work, but healthy balance is dynamic and fluid. Perfect balance is stasis, so on the equinox, change cannot be effective. Initiations and marriages are not performed.

Spring equinox is when we plant early seeds. Where I live, peas are ideal, as they are harvested about the time other planting is done. If you use starter seeds (rather than planting from seedlings), they should be started now in temperate climates. My normal spring equinox ritual is a consecration and planting of seeds, and this can be quite beautiful (despite my grumpiness).

Important information on how to watch a movie

March 18, 2009 / / Comments Off on Important information on how to watch a movie

This weekend, I met my son’s girlfriend. But wait, that’s not the information. This sophisticated young lady, who has taken film history classes, had never seen Four Weddings and a Funeral. So that’s what we did. We laughed, we cried, we bitched about Andie MacDowell.

So I taught her my trick. Here’s how it works: You take Four Weddings and a Funeral, and you stand it next to Notting Hill. Then you squint really hard.

The result is Four Weddings and a Funeral, starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. The perfect movie.

Trivia solved crazy fast!

March 17, 2009 / / 3 comments

Mostly by Evn:
» Read more..

Tuesday Trivia: No particular theme

March 17, 2009 / / 11 comments

1. “You ruthlessly slept with me twice.”
Solved by Evn (comment #1)

2. Based in part on a real-life incident, the movie’s pinball machine was a pool table in reality.
Solved by Evn (comment #1)

3. River Phoenix was scheduled to appear in this film. The actor who replaced him upon Phoenix’s death donated a large sum from his salary to two of Phoenix’s favorite charities.
Solved by Evn (comment #1)

4. “We knew the girls were really women in disguise, that they understood love, and even death, and that our job was merely to create the noise that seemed to fascinate them.”
Solved by Evn (comment #3)

5. “All radio is dead, which means that these tape recordings I’m making are for the sake of future history – If any.”
Solved by Evn (comment #3)

6. A real-life former Supreme Court Justice plays a Supreme Court Justice in this film.
Solved by Evn (comment #3)

7. “You should have seen the Atlantic Ocean back then.”
TIE: Solved by Melville (comment #2) and Evn (comment #3)

Monday Movie Review: Watchmen

March 16, 2009 / / Comments Off on Monday Movie Review: Watchmen

Watchmen (2009) 6/10
In an alternative timeline, it is 1985. Richard Nixon is in the fifth term of his presidency, the world is at the brink of nuclear war, and masked heroes have been made illegal. Most heroes retired, but Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) has refused, and continues to function as a vigilante. When The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is killed, Rorschach suspects that someone may be going after “masks;” his efforts to contact other retired heroes sets off a chain of events. Directed by Zack Snyder.

Full disclosure: I’ve read the graphic novel Watchmen maybe four times. Maybe five. I can’t review the movie as-is, I can’t un-read the novel I’ve read, or remove the knowledge of it from my brain. I’m not one of those geeked-out people who can’t abide any deviation from the original: Movies are their own medium, and slavish recreations of books in movie form tend to be soulless and flat. Nonetheless, there’s no way to refrain from comparison, and I won’t try.

It’s possible that Zack Snyder wanted to make a unique movie, using the graphic novel as a jumping-off point, sort of Hitchcock to DuMaurier, but that doesn’t explain his absolute visual commitment to the original, down to specific frames, which makes every change seem deliberate and glaring.

The visual styles, despite this commitment, are very different. Snyder is a slick, pretty storyteller with a lot of whiz-bang. Moore’s story and Gibbons’ illustrations are gritty and hyper-realistic. In the book, the costumes look (as costumes will) a little goofy, and that’s part of the point. In the movie they look gorgeous.

The original is a deeply violent and unsettling work. The film ups the ante on all the violence. In a film struggling to fit in a complex story, where a lot had to be cut out, you have to wonder why every fight is so extended, why the camera lingers (as the comic did not) on dripping gore in scene after scene. I think it’s counter-productive, for example, for Rorschach to tell his “origin” story, which is horrifically violent, after so much film violence that (a) Snyder has to make it even more violent, and (b) its impact is reduced after an hour of numbing horror.

» Read more..

I’m sick of the economy

March 11, 2009 / / One comment

Who isn’t?

But seriously, it’s all I hear about. It’s all I read about. The radio has gone to 24-hour-economy. CNN probably has an Economy Logo.

And obviously this is an important story, arguably the most important story right now. But you know what? It’s not the only story.

We’re still at war in two countries, peace has not yet been achieved in Middle East, and the situation in Darfur is still dire. The battle for civil rights continues, reproductive freedom is still being chipped away at, and gay marriage is still not legal in most states. Many Americans lack healthcare, global climate change is an increasing crisis, and there are cute kittens caught in trees right this very moment.

I get it. Economy. But please tell me something else too.

Tuesday Trivia: More actors

March 10, 2009 / / 36 comments

I am not feeling good. My brain thinks it’s three a.m. and I shouldn’t be awake. I have no idea why.

Anyway, no damn chance of seven trivia questions, so we’re doing more actor round-robin. It was a lot of fun last week. I’ll start:

An obsessed fan, a boxer, an overprotective father.

« Older Entries   Recent Entries »
zeeReputation Theme