b l o g o r e l l i

Project 365: Day 256

"Eat, Pray, Love" with my sisters (in-law.) Oddly, the only other two people in the entire theater were (sensitive?) men. I absolutely loved Julia/Liz's wardrobe in the movie <drool.>

Spielberg to Western PA: Let's talk

When I was visiting home about six weeks back, I heard a bit of townie news that might be the most exciting in years: DreamWorks Studios will be setting up shop in Vandergrift, PA, to film "I Am Number Four."

Aside from being right next to my hometown of Leechburg, PA, Vandergrift also has the distinction of being designed by landscape architect Frederick Olmstead, the very same one who designed the Emerald Necklace in Boston and Central Park in NYC. 

From the Vandergrift Public Library:

"Founded in 1895, Vandergrift was the first successful planned industrial town designed to be sold to its workers. George McMurtry, president of the Apollo Iron & Steel Co., Apollo, Pa., needed to expand his successful galvanized steel operations. Beset with labor problems and unable to acquire additional land, he selected a 650-acre farm site a few miles downstream on the Kiskiminetas River, some forty miles from Pittsburgh.

He than approached the designer of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, Frederick Law Olmsted, to design a town that would be "something better than the best." The result was Vandergrift, (named for Capt. J.J. Vandergrift, a director of the steel company) a town with gently curving streets that follow the natural slope of the hills. Everything was made ready in advance...In 1895, this was a unique idea in America--that a company would build a town entirely in advance and then turn over its control to the workers.

The spirit of Frederick Law Olmsted, the famed landscape designer who worked in partnership with nature, is evident in Vandergrift's natural layout--in its curved, tree-lined streets, in its parklets, and in its wide mall leading from the old railroad station to the historic Casino town hall."

For a local who knows how hard hit the area has been by the downsizing and closing of steel mills, I find an even better aspect of the filming to be that the crew will be revitalizing the town's main street (and leaving everything behind after filming is complete) while pumping money into the local economy (may I recommend an excellent restaurant?)

"I Am Four" will be based on a novel written by James Frey ("A Million Little Pieces") about nine alien teens who come to Earth after their planet is destroyed by an enemy species. I can't wait until the movie hits theaters in 2011 (and I might even read the book beforehand)!

Swelled with PA Pride,
Blogorelli

 

Project 365: Day 45

The Prof and I before seeing "Avatar" in 3D...or trying too hard at a Ray Charles tribute concert (I'm not sure which option would make us more like an advertisement for Stuff White People Like.)

Project 365: Day 25

Otto and The Baron (or more commonly known as ours and the ChoBos' cars) had a movie matinee date today to see The Young Victoria. I rather liked the film -- very lavish scenery and costumes, Emily Blunt did a solid job but wasn't over the top and Rupert Friend (her husband Albert in the movie) is not hard on the eyes. Half Pint, who also went with us but parked in another lot so her Jetta Wagon didn't make the shot, commented that Friend is the "new Orlando Bloom." 

Does it make us old that we know about the original Orlando Bloom?

Expectation for Año 32 = "Fantastic"

Are foxes the new owls?

Every year, I have an unspoken tradition to go see a movie and have dinner with The Gang. This cycle began with the Harry Potter movies, which always seemed to come out near to my birth date (16 November.) Last year, no Harry Potter, so the gals and I went instead to the premier of Twilight. We all enjoyed for the mere novelty of being in a theater full of screaming pre- and teens (no, really) but the movie didn't quite live up to what was expected of it given the occasion.

THIS year, oh boy, am I excited because the new (and first animated) Wes Anderson movie is opening on November 13 -- The Fantastic Mr. Fox. From the trailers, cast list (Murray, Clooney, Streep, Wilson, Schwartzman, Dafoe,) and soundtrack titles (Jarvis Cocker from PULP--!--did I ever mention how much I loooove his voice?!?), this one will be a knockout dragdown success.

<exhale>

As a Roald Dahl fan, I also love the little production details, like how "the armchair configuration Mr. Fox has (with a board propped up over knees and across the arms of the chair) is a nicely done homage to Roald Dahl’s own method." Autumn just might be the perfect time to dig out my "The Best of Roald Dahl."

 

Severus Is His Stripper Name

Random Monday office fun: downloadable Severus Snape paper doll.

Who knew such a beefcake was hiding under those robes and waxy complexion? Perhaps this is why J.K. singled out Snape as one of her favourite characters to write.

I always liked the (psuedo) bad boys.
Hubba hubba.

Simpsonize Yo-Self

I know, this is not a "new" thing, but has everyone made his or her Simpson's avatar? If not, better get on it, what with the movie opening tonight and all. Besides, I think creating oneself in Springfield style is even more fun than becoming an M&M.

The Prof is crazy for the avatars and has created one for us, him and his current co-workers, and even his entire family. Send me yourself as a Simpson and I'll post it!

Below: Me (in glasses) and The Prof, both wearing novelty tees

YEA! People actually sent me some avatars...

The Mad Hungarian and The Polish Princess

The Dairy Queen

General Disarray (and friends)

and Yannick (still reads from Switzerland!)

Critical Disarray Edition #2

It's almost summer movie time...but what to watch until the blockbusters hit? The General weighs in with his list -- a few music docs, a bit of Fellini, and  some Faye Wong thrown in for safe measure.

Edition #2: 22 May 2007

Broadway Danny Rose
Hilarious Woody humor with great shots of New York in addition to a really sweet story. His character, Danny Rose, is probably Woody's most human and vulnerable role.

L'Enfant
I honestly don't know what to think this film yet. The characters are so frustratingly real and flawed. It does come together nicely, though, and it is always a pleasure to watch a character grow.

La Strada
Before Fellini went completely bonkers he made really good films like 8 1/2 and La Strada. Giulietta Masina (Fellini's wife) is a marvel.

Radio Days
Has many of the same elements of his other classics but lacks a cohesive thread to bind them together into something meaningful. More just a series of vignettes and memories.

The Best of Youth
A fantastic film. If you can handle the 6 hour running time, I highly recommend. Feels like 5. Tops.

Chungking Express
Another beautiful film by Wong but in a different vein as ITMFL. Less of a waltz / more rock n roll. Hard not  to fall in love with Faye Wong.
(BLOGORELLI NOTE: This is one of my all-time favorites!)

Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
If anything this half doc/half tribute concert film got my interested in Cohen. Not particularly well done as a movie but I liked the small bits of the man I glimpsed and a few of the tribute songs.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Engrossing biodoc of Daniel Johnston, the loony tune satan-fightin singer/songwriter cartoonist. Feuerzeig does a superb job placing you in the world of this man who is a few miles past the edge.

Don't Come Knocking
Absolutely stunning film to look at. However, every other ingredient inherent to film that separates it from a photo essay is either missing or not paid attention to. Gorgeous shots, though. Wow.

Scenes from a Marriage
Wonderful intimate portrait of the disintegration of a seemingly happy marriage. With this long film/mini-series Bergman cements his claim as a master of dialogue and film in general.

Critical Disarray Edition #1

Generay Disarray (née Jeffé) watches more movies than almost anyone I know, or at least, I make that presumption by all the Netflix Movie Notes I receive from him. But I like reading his summaries; they're succinct with just a dash of opinion. He can be a little bitchy sometimes, or underserving sentimental...perfect for a movie critic with a little column -- THIS one! So, without further adieu, I introduce:

Edition #1: 28 March 2007

Babel
A nice surprise. Thinking it would be another Crash it turned out to be the film Crash wished it had the restraint and subtlety to be. By far Inarritu's finest film to date.
(In theaters)

Half Nelson
Gosling is rather excellent in this surprise seemingly formulaic film with a unique twist. However, there is little else to praise except a strong performance by young Shareeka Epps.
(In theaters)

Kind Hearts and Coronets
Wonderful classic dark comedy with Sir Alec Guiness playing more than half of an outstanding cast of characters. A lot of fun.

300
Exactly as advertised. Beautiful slow motion battles with much brawn, blood and badassity. Relentless.
In theaters)

Marie Antoinette
Beautiful film. Beautiful costumes. Beautiful setting. Beautiful score. Beautiful people. No story.

Memories of Murder
A miraculous mixture of suspense, horror, mystery, comedy and drama, this fact-based Korean thriller is a wholy unique film for me. Well shot with great characters and great atmosphere.

Mutual Appreciation
Awkward and unsophisticated, Bujalski's second film is a very fun look at the life of a musician trying to get through life, have some fun and play music every now and then.

Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles
Nice story with some really beautiful cinematography of China. Glad I got a glimpse of it before it's covered in high-rises. Ken Takakura is also excellent.

Three Times
The first two vignettes of the film are hauntingly beatiful little tales in themselves. The way they work together only heightens their perfection. Unfortunately, the third was just too jarring for me

Trust the Man
Yes, I rented a romantic comedy. And this one wasn't half bad. Funny, actually. However, because it belongs to the Romantic Comedy Union it was forced into that ugly pitfall ending that they all suffer from.

Zodiac
Just ok. Not dark and stylish as Se7en was. More like All the President's Men, but drawn-out and flat with less star-power.
(In theaters)

A Four-Eyed Monster, Then A FEM

I <3ed this sentence describing the indie film "Four Eyed Monsters" before even viewing the trailer...

"They have four eyes, two mouths, eight limbs that wrap around themselves. 'It’s disgusting!' Arin says, as we see images of couples throughout New York City. 'But I can’t help but envy them.'

Just gets better...

Arin is a wannabe filmmaker and highly inexperienced with love, despite the fact that he spends most of his time editing wedding videos. In one of the most populous cities in the world, he is alone and tormented by the beautiful women he sees everywhere. He turns to the Internet. (BLOGORELLI INTERJECTS: My high school friend SusieC did [eharmony,] and now she's engaged!)

Susan is an art school graduate working as a waitress and suffering from a lack of inspiration. She receives a message from Arin, but since she’s tired of dating, especially online, she suggests that he should just stop by her work.

Arin is too shy to introduce himself. So instead, he follows her home without her knowing and emails her pictures of her mundane daily trudge. She is intrigued.

They decide to meet up, but in an attempt to keep their interaction interesting, they make a pact to not speak to one another. As their romance develops, they only write, draw, email, text, have sex, instant message, and make videos for each other. No talking.

Susan’s creative clouds begin to lift, and Arin’s dry spell has ended. Unfortunately, a new world of more complicated problems is discovered, and they are forced to deal with intimacy as they meld together and create a monster.

Arin and Susan actually made this film and, after waiting months for a screening in The Bean, I found out today that anyone can buy FEM on DVD right here! For all of us original 'four eyes' who had to wear Sally Jesse Raphael-esque glasses until ninth grade AND those with whom we chose to create our monsters...well, does anyone ever tire of a non-conventional boy-meets-girl love story?

Utterly Random Thursday Movie Review

Dear Inter-net,

Recently, I watched a film so unbelievably horrid that I stunned even myself by finishing it. In fact, the movie might actually give my #1 "Most Ridiculous/Worst Ever" (A Walk in the Clouds) a run for the money.

I realize that I'm probably one of the only people in North America who would Netflix 2004's "The Phantom of the Opera " with a straight, even eager, face. So, what made this cinematic attempt truly disastrous...the laughable choreography? Minnie Driver playing the diva with a misguided and not-at-all comedic Italian accent? The horribly cheap looking special effects throughout the movie (gold painted hands coming of of holes in a dungeon wall holding candelabras, anyone?)...or the fact that Emily "Fishface" Rossum only closed her mouth for a total of about 4 minutes throughout the whole 2 hour fiasco?

Did I mention that all the actors did their own vocals? Why yes, yes they did.

On the positive side, the Phantom was actually sort of hot in his partial face covering. We all know that I'm attracted to emotionally unavailable men, and this one was wearing an actual mask as opposed to the invisible one I usually encounter. But lordy, by the end, I was wishing someone would drop a chandelier on me.

Luckily, Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey will be coming to my romantic movie rescue  soon enough with Enchanted.

That's right my friends; I dabbled in the dark side of big budget movie-making and nearly came back a ruined woman.

(exhaling,)
Blogorelli

Simply Enchant-ing

Oh, look...Zach Braff is in a new movie called The Last Kiss . Predictably (?) he's playing a male having his quarter life crisis. Also notable is the fact that, as with Garden State, Braff put together the soundtrack. I wonder what band's life he'll change  this time.

<snicker>

In more positive news, my newest non-sexual cinematic crush Amy Adams (the effervescent break-out star of Junebug -- see it!) is in NYC filming a movie with Patrick Dempsey called "Enchanted". Ok, it IS a Disney "vehicle." But remember Who Framed Roger Rabbit? That one was good...right? RIGHT?!?!

The plot sounds right up my sappy romantic alley:

"Enchanted is a Disney film currently in production.  It uses both traditional 2D animation and live-action — the animation depicts the fantasy/fairy tale world, and the live-action depicts New York. Giselle (Amy Adams), a girl from an animated world is thrown out by the evil Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) into live-action New York, where the girl falls for a man living in the city. The film will be the first live-action/animation film by Disney since 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Legendary Disney music composer Alan Menken will be providing the film's original score."

I am salivating. Le sigh.

Paris 2054

If I spoke French, this preview for Renaissance , the new animated movie by Christian Volckman, would probably seem even more exciting than just the black-and-white images indicate.

More background info and details on the animation process here at Wikipedia.

(Out from Under) the O.C.

After what seemed like years on my one-disc-at-a-time Netflix subscription (but was actually only about 2 months, ) I have finally finished my fervent indulgence in The O.C. Season 2. Now my nights can return to all of the stuff I should have been doing while watching those wacky Orange County residents: this blog, writing for Bostonist.com and starting Christmas list prep (oh yes I did.)

Since his review of "Grizzly Man" was so well-received and as I am obviously getting heavy help from my friends this week, I present three reviews from Jeffé on recent movie viewings. I haven't seen a movie since "Serenity" opened (a whole different story for a whole different day,) but this week I might catch "Capote," so then perhaps I'll pen a little critique of my own.

Enjoy.

----
Paris, Texas { Wim Wenders } 1984
My introduction to Wenders' films was a definite success and I can't wait to see another. I'm a fan of simple well-paced stories combined with beautiful cinematography and Paris, Texas offered me just that. The highly saturated shots of the seemingly barren Texas landscape was a treasure to behold just as much as the few but memorable shots of the luscious Nastassja Kinski. The story was warm, touching and rewarding.
---
Wild Strawberries { Ingmar Bergman } 1957
Wild Strawberries is somewhat of a combination of Capra's It's a Wonderful Life and De Sica's Umberto D. both of which I am not the biggest fan of. Bergman's film takes the retrospective wasted life / death story and weaves a much more interesting and successful tale. It lacks the ridiculousness (and ridiculous actor) of Capra's film and the inevitable loneliness and despair of De Sica's morbid chronicle of a man at death's door. It gives hope to death. I like this.
---
Sword of Doom { Kihachi Okamoto } 1966
I wasn't sure what to expect from this film and the little review I read beforehand was completely off anyway. What I found was a solid samurai film that deals with the sword as a death instrument in a more serious way than I have witnessed before. Tatsuya Nakadai is wonderful as Ryunosuke who is a student of killing so devoted to his sword and it's purpose that he has lost sight of the ramifications of that purpose. This is a fantastic movie with some of the best b + w shots i've seen on film. Toshiro Mifune plays an important but subtle roll and his fight with would-be assassins in the snow is absolutely gorgeous.

Wail on Das Bellows

I love accordian music. Now, for me and everyone who shares my unexplainable addiction, Swiss director Stefan Schwietert has given the world "Accordian Tribe," a documentary about "five highly individual musicians from different countries get together to…achieve the seemingly impossible: return their long disregarded instrument to the worldwide recognition it once enjoyed as a powerhouse of emotions."

I'm sorry, "return"? Was the classic ziehharmonika ever NOT a powerhouse of emotions? Not in the Blogorelli household, that's for sure.

The plot reads just like a modern day reality show that is actually likeable (a senseless dichotomy, I know) and the translated version is almost as confusing AS watching the contemporary reality genre:
"Starting point is Schwietert's meeting with the blind Viennese accordionists Petrol Lechner, which taught himself the hand organ play in self-direction and today is an old Hohner virtuos by all music styles. Lechner is member of five created by the New Yorker Guy Klucevsek named 'Accordion Tribe'…the Swede Lars Hollmer, FinninMaria Kalaniemi and the Slovene Bratko Bibic, went 2002 on European tour and brought CD."

Huh?

Still, blame my Nona and our Benny Hill watching, blame the fact that sometimes accordian players have DogsInSweaters!DogsInSweaters!DogsInSweaters!, blame complete fascination with Old World sensibilities, whatever the culprit, you'll see me at The Accordian Tribe,…along with everyone else using their seniors' discount card.

New Pot-tah Trailer

It's from a French site, and the buffering is a bit choppy, but it looks pretty fantastic:
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The Grizzly Obsession Continues...

Ok, so Jeffé's review really got some great, er, reviews. And a lot of hits. That makes me either want to have him write here a whole bunch or never again. The Gang is STILL discussing grizzly bears. Half Pint started it this morning; see transcript below.

(Note: I read ALL the comments.)

---
HALF PINT (afraid of thunder&lightning storms): No one ever goes back and reads Blogorelli comments (do they?) so I thought I should e-mail you both: I read that story of Treadwell in Vanity Fair (a highly-esteemed pub) about a year ago in which the *grisly* ending was described in such detail that I have developed an insane phobia of bears. Cho can confirm this since we are supposed to convince Blogorelli to try camping but I can only go where there are a certain number of well-lighted campers in the vicinity. I swear if you can track down that Vanity Fair article you will never sleep well in the woods again.

I'll take thunder & lightning over bears any day.

JEFFÉ: Bears in New England are roughly the size of microwaves.

HALF PINT: Well, that sounds pretty cute. although I'm skeptical, since that's coming from someone who is roughly 7 feet tall. (Note: Jeffé is 6'5")

BLOGORELLI (never been camping outdoors ever, petrified of the pitch black night): Well, *I* read the comments! But yes, i am very glad that they did not play the audio of their attack during the movie.

JEFFÉ: Ha. No, the black bears can get fairly large but nowhere near the sizeof a grizzly; plus the black bear is much more skittish so your chances of seeing one is fairly remote as it will almost always run away at the first notice of people.

CHO: But not at the smell of sweet, sweet, nectar...last summer a bear 'attacked' the hummingbird feeder up at the lake and sucked down all the sugar water, bending the wrought iron hanging post. Definitely a soft target...I mean, he didn't even battle the bigger birds for the bird seed!

GRRR...izzly Man

Yesterday morning, amid the solicitations for Viagra in my email box, was a pleasant surprise: a notice that I'd won free tixs to a pre-screening of Grizzly Man, the new documentary by Werner Herzog.

Jeffé accompanied me, and I had to brainchild that we should both write reviews afterwards and I would post them today. He has a Rotten Tomatoes screen name; I just put "Because of Winn Dixie" on my recently opened Netfilx queue. So this morning, he sends me his review, which is just excellent (see below.) I truly did enjoy the movie, and also Timothy Treadwell's oddly schizophenic character study/personality that seemed to be a mixture of Andy Warhol and The Littlest Elf...he was entrancing. But I feel that Jeffé's words really cover the nitty gritty of this docu-pic and anything that I add will seem superfluous.

Although I will add one thing: last night I was chatting with Dad-orelli after I got home from the movie and I mentioned the topic and how Treadwell refused to arm himself with a gun and ultimately died because of it. In his ever-eloquent way, my father, a man who had a handgun sitting on his leather ottoman the last time I went to visit him and who shoots squirrels in his rose garden out of his living room window with a bb gun while wearing Hanes tighty whities, proclaimed:
"Well, that was a real asshole decision!"

Enjoy
---
German director Werner Herzog has been persistent in his pursuit to explore the human paradox of passion vs. madness (and the grey area between) in one's pursuit of objectives and their inevitable self-destruction. With his two most famous films, Aguirre: The Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, Herzog portrays two obsessed dreamers striving for fortune and glory in the jungles of South America. One, Aguirre, lusts for the lost city of gold to his doom while the other, Fitzcarraldo, struggles against insurmountable odds to realize his dream of bringing high opera to the deep dark parts of the Amazon.

In Herzog's newest endeavor, Grizzly Man, he brings to the screen the interesting story of Timothy Treadwell. Defying the National Park Service and every expert in the field, Treadwell went to live with Grizzly bears in the wilds of Kodiak Island, Alaska. For thirteen summers, Treadwell camped among the bears vehemently insisting that he was protecting his "friends" from poachers and other dangers while his "enemies" claimed he was only upsetting the order of things by acclimating the bears to human contact and putting them at further risk to poachers.

In theory, you have to see the logic of the experts. However, after seeing his tale brought to life you realize that it was not possible for Treadwell to do anything else, to be anything else. Treadwell's aimless life was on a dangerous downward spiral of drugs and alcohol. Then he arrived in Alaska and his life's work was realized. Does it matter that his work almost certainly pressed him to the brink of insanity? That he would undoubtedly die at the claws of those he loved more than anything else in the world? Not to Treadwell. I speak of Treadwell in the past tense because he did indeed meet his end in a huge Grizzly's jaws. Staying at his camp long after his friends moved on to their winter mountain slumber, Treadwell and his girlfriend were attacked and killed by a desperately hungry rogue bear outside their tent. The harrowing part of the ordeal is that the camera was running. The lens cap was on but the audio was hauntingly clear. Herzog himself listened to the audio but would not put it in the documentary. He pleaded with the caretaker of the tape, a former girlfriend, to destroy the tape. "One's death is something sacred, secret."

It's an engrossing tale with gorgeous shots of Treadwell with his friends, bear and fox, and their picturesque surroundings. Herzog leaves it for you to decide if Treadwell's endeavor was geared by madness or passion. Herzog's personal reasons for continually revisiting this lesson are clear. Herzog himself and his long-time leading man, Klaus Kinski, were widely considered megalomaniacal madmen for their "tenacious" attempts to make their films. In one telling scene in Grizzly Man, Herzog narrates a crazed rant of Treadwell's by saying knowingly, "I've seen this madness before." To view Herzog's own madness, check out My Best Fiend: Klaus Kinski and Burden of Dreams, Les Blank's documentary of Herzog's insane persistence to make Fitzcarraldo.

I highly recommend Grizzly Man and all of the films noted above.

- Jeffe

Grab That $3.50 Icee and A Seat

Although current weather conditions in The Bean would indicate we're having a chilly monsoon season, I hear there's actually SUN in other parts of the country...which means that the time is almost here for summer movies(!) You know, when the sweltering heat drives you into an air-conditioned theater, smuggled candy in pocket, to watch a big-budget blockbuster.

Trailers are up on Apple's site for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and the new Harry Potter ("Goblet of Fire"). Of course, the Tom/Katie romance, as well as the overwhelming amount of testosterone in the Red States, will give War of the Worlds big numbers. And Mr. and Mrs. Smith will generate revenues through the roof because of a little demographic called "Women Who Read US Weeky," or as I fondly refer to them, "my sisters."

But my #1 movie to see this summer isn't any of the above, in fact, it's a documentary. March of The Penguins follows a group of penguins as they make their yearly migration to find mates and start families. From the synopsis, I almost thought they were describing my life as a singleton in The Bean:

"In the Antarctic, every March since the beginning of time, the quest begins to find the perfect mate and start a family. This courtship will begin a long journey - a journey that will take them hundreds of miles across the continent by foot, in freezing cold temperatures, in brittle, icy winds and through deep, trecherous waters. They will risk starvation and attack by dangerous predators, under the harshest conditions on earth, all to find true love."

Well, except for the Antarctic, starting a family, and starvation parts! Seriously, watch the trailer and there's NO WAY you will miss this movie.

Granted, they managed to jam Morgan Freedman in there (narration), but doesn't that make you feel comforted somehow? Because what story could be truly heart-warming yet teach a moral leson without at least a cameo by Morgan Freedman?

To summarize, I once saw a news clip about a family in Japan who adopted a penguin. They made him a little sort of "freezer" to live in, complete with small wading pool. Every morning, the mom strapped a little backpack onto him, and he slowly waddled through town to the fish market, where the owner put a fish in his backpack. Then he made his way home, where he got to eat the fish and relax in his chilled room. The site of that little, backpacked penguin's body cresting over the horizon as he happily waddled home, well, I've never forgotten it.

See "March of the Penguins." Unlike music by The Shins, it might actually change your life. Well, at least you'll want to hug a pet penguin!

Meg+Sandra+Julia=?

Finally, SOMEONE gives America an initiative that's been on my agenda for years...unfortunately, it's this douche.

Ég skil ekki

the move went well. 2 hours, one hot mover boy named phillippe and another who looked like a stockier version of patrick dempsey, $200, and the deal was sealed. the real test was later saturday night, when Her Majesty BKP arrived at the new abode. she approved. i unpacked the vintage plates.

to give myself a break from pushing boxes around, i went to see Noi last night. this coming-of-age import takes place in a small town on a fjord in Iceland. since Reykjavik is one of my travel destinations for 2004/5, i was particularly interested...

and not disappointed. i might even buy the soundtrack. also, the main character is an albino. he was tall too. his teeth were also rather nice. and he wore a Members Only jacket...like, in a good way.

i can't really say *why* i liked the movie, just that i did. ever have that feeling? anyway, i would recommend it to anyone in the arthouse mindset.

DIRECTOR'S QUOTE:
“I am not trying to show realistically what it is like nowadays to live in a small village in Iceland,” Kari recently told Cahiers du Cinema. “I use Iceland’s state of isolation to work on the idea of closure.”

HIPSTER WARNING FLARE:
"With musical acts like Bjork, Sigur Ros, Gus Gus and Mum attracting international attention, Icelandic pop culture is no longer the hipster’s best-kept secret."

just like a pink pearl

tonight's plans include seeing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the new Charlie Kaufman "vehicle." (did i mention that i am currently fascinated with calling people's pursuits "vehicles"?)

anyway, besides the good buzz, the movie also has something that most don't: a decent advertising campaign behind it, including a series of posters featuring the different characters (see below.)

the name came from this poem if you're interested. i wonder, though...what would you choose to have erased from your mind? i would probably erase the day in 3rd grade when the zipper on my cool "side zipper" 80s jeans broke and my pants fell down as i was halfway out of the classroom door. it wouldn't have been so bad except that i was wearing "day of the week" undies. and they said Sunday. but it was Tuesday.

MORE MOVIE MENTIONS
City of God
there's more to Brasilia than nudie Carnival celebrations and being photographed at the border, people. a very violent but beautifully shot and directed story about the slums of Rio de Janeiro and the gangs who run them...saw it, would recommend it, got me very excited to take up my friend p natty's invitation to shoot some guns at his family's cottage in maine. bang bang amigos

Coffe and Cigarettes
not a memoir of my senior Book Design class as I might have expected, the movie is described as "A collage of shorts features a few actors sitting around drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and getting into some mostly improvised dialogues at tables with checkerboard patterns. Some make sense (Iggy Pop vs. Tom Waits, and Meg White vs. Jack White), while others pair polar opposites (Roberto Benigni and Steven Wright) and other just make you want to pee your pants (RZA, GZA and Bill Murray). Full of great jukebox music, including a new Iggy Pop cover of "Louie, Louie."
(aside: hmm, another cover song? what a great idea.)

so my hair was curly when i woke up this morning. ??? perhaps all of the Equal and Splenda I've been pilfering like an 80-year-old and consuming over the years is having negative health effects but positive beauty ones? cause i look like a cross between the fashionable 2004 spring "loose curls" trend and a Lion King poster. GRRRRR!

rising triplets and a fallen angel

for quite some time, i've wanted to extol the virtues of the French animated film "The Triplets of Belleville." now, it's gotten an Oscar nod (Animated Feature Film) so the time seems right for me to proclaim that everyone should run, not walk, to the nearest moviehouse and see it!

i think that the film really touched me because it centers around a spunky Grandma. and i looove my Grandmas! also, the animation is great and the soundtrack is excellent.

unfortunately, it's up against Finding Nemo, but a gal can always hope, right?

in less happy news, the WB is canceling Angel! nooo! ok, even though i must admit (since i am currently watching season 3 on DVD) that the newer episodes are not as strong as the previous seasons, i am still sad. What is your problem, The WB? you think i'm gonna watch One Tree Hill or something now? WTF?!?!

(sigh)
thank god there's a new Queer Eye on tonight.