Monday Mini Movie Reviews

Let the Right One In - Classiest gore ever! Plus I have a weakness for most things Swedish, so I was happy that this lived up to the hype. Both kids, especially Eli, were about perfect in these roles. The scene where she comes in the house uninvited and the pool scene were visually perfect. I think I'm so used to seeing horror movies made with close ups and "scary moments", so this style (long shots!) was really refreshing. I also liked how they showed the infected woman (Victoria?) dealing with her transformation. Most movies just have people immediately pumped on killing, and this seemed more realistic. I also liked that they didn't try to make Eli a "good" vampire...she/he was responsible for way more violence than the bullies, but it worked within the story. Great ending.

The Room - Holy god please see this movie right now. I had read about it in this article, but thought it would be one of those bad/good movie that's mostly boring but has a few funny lines. This movie made me laugh more than most intentional comedies. I 'm not even going to try to quote the multitude of quotable quotes in this movie, just watch it, because it's all in the delivery. And the four awesome and really unpleasant sex scenes.

Snow Angels - Ugh. I've followed David Gordon Green since he made All the Real Girls, one of the most believeable love stories I've seen. Plus he makes weird comedy like Eastbound and Down. But save yourself the pain of seeing this movie. Basically, bad people do bad things to each other, a child dies, and then someone commits and murder/suicide. The End! It was well-made, and I don't mind bleak films, but what else was there here? There was a sweet relationship between two teenagers, and Amy Sedaris was good...

Synecdoche, New York - To give you a little background, this is the newish Charlie Kaufman movie. It begins with Caden Cotard (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a playwright whose marriage falls apart. His wife takes off to Germany and takes their daughter with her. He then receives a MacArthur genius grant, and decides to stage a play in a massive warehouse about...life. His own life, and everything in it. He spends years building sets within sets and scenes of his life play out just minutes after they actually occur. Actors playing actors playing real life people inhabit the warehouse. No audience is present, but it doesn't matter...he's trying to make the purest, truest form of art he can. Cool idea, but it gets more and more tedious as the movie goes on. I think after the first hour or so I stopped trying to make sense of things and just accepted the situations that were put forth and the emotions that went with them. It's weird...I admire this movie but I don't love it...it's waaay meta and self-indulgent and was kind of a chore due to how bleak it was. It's basically about time and death. But the work that went into it was amazing...so much detail...and anything dealing with aging and the passage of time worked. Hazel, one of Caden's love interests in the movie, purchases a house that is literally on fire, expresses her concern with dying in the fire, and continues to live in it until the inevitable happens. You make your choices, time passes, and you have to live with them. We are all headed down the same path, and we're all the same. It could have benefited from subtler symbolism and a plot, but that's what made it unique...I'm torn on this one. It's been fun to think about and overall I appreciated the themes, but I never really felt connected to the characters. I should probably watch it again, but I don't really want to. But I do hope Kaufmann makes another movie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotard_delusion(Caden's last name)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgras_delusion (Caden replaces his absent wife's cleaning lady, and sleeps in the closet of his wife's apartment, which she's subletting from "Capgras")
http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/synecdoche-new-yorkinterview-with-charlie-kaufman/ (An interesting interview that clears up a few things)
http://www.beingcharliekaufman.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1038&Itemid=103 (Stop caring so much!)
http://www.pajiba.com/film_reviews/synecdoche-new-york.php

Look at his head.

Little D Hatching Out of the Egg from Class 1-208 on Vimeo.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/03/09/us.religion.less.christian/index.html

"America is a less Christian nation than it was 20 years ago, and Christianity is not losing out to other religions, but primarily to a rejection of religion altogether, a survey published Monday found."

I wonder why...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/03/11/brazil.rape.abortion/index.html?eref=rss_health

A doctor excommunicated by the Catholic Church for performing an abortion on a 9-year-old rape victim received a standing ovation during a national convention on women's health, according to a local media report. Archbishop Don Jose Cardoso Sobrinho of Recife excommunicated the doctor, the child's mother and the medical team involved in the procedure. However, the stepfather was not excommunicated, with Sobrinho telling Globo TV that, "A graver act than (rape) is abortion, to eliminate an innocent life."

Dumb little things are annoying me today. Like my boss just asked me to "shoot _______ an email" and ask her to see him when she gets a minute. Her office is two doors down from him. So I just walked down to her office, told her to see him, and she walked back down the hall with me into his office. Now I don't mind working, but come on, just send her the one sentence email. Or walk down the damn hall. Weird.

Anyway, the weekend was nice and relaxing...ate some food, saw a movie, had some family time. Had a class on Saturday morning. It's a really good class, but there is one dude in it...almost every class seems to have one. At first I thought he was just a good participator. He answered almost every question, sometimes to excess. But as the class goes on, it becomes apparent that he's pretty much a smug douche. He's a bit older and always takes an opportunity to remind us how long he's been teaching or how he knows how to do amazing IT things, like forward an email or unjam an printer. Seriously. On Saturday we were reviewing resumes and he asks,

"Would you include every organization you're a member of?"

Come on Gary, use some judgement. If it's NAMBLA, no.

Of course the professor asks, "What kind of organziation?"

Gary says........."Do you know what MENSA is?"

COME ON. DID THIS NEED TO BE MENTIONED.

The professor did not know, and asked if anyone else did, so I raised my hand and semi-sarcastically explained that it was a club for geniuses. She said it was impressive, but might come off a bit narcissistic. Yeah.

Also, if you're a member of MENSA, do you really need help with this decision? Shouldn't you be teaching this class? Fucking Gary.

Anyway, Russ and I went to Mexico some weeks ago. We tried to balance laying on the beach with some adventure...we snorkeled, hiked, swam, drank, saw some ruins, had lunch with a Mayan family, saw a parade, and descended into a completely brutal cenote. It was beautiful. Photos are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bundlesofvitals/sets/72157614277246398/

Coolio

This afternoon is dragging, and the fact that I feel like crap both mentally and physically is not motivating me to work. So I thought I'd share one of my favorite scenes from Hot Rod, which I caught again on Showtime the other night. There are about 6 things that make me laugh here, but mostly the use of the phrase "dong bags" and the ending...