February 23, 2007

Top Movies Of 2006

I think this was a great year for movies. Some of my friends disagree. See, this year was deep. There were a ton of great movies. But there wasn't a clear pack of frontrunners. There were just a ton of really good movies.

But many of the good ones weren't ones that a lot of people saw. Not just that. Many of the good ones were actually tough to see. I went way out of my way to see a lot of these. In fact, though I am always willing to pay to see any movie, I could not possibly have seen all of these without piracy. That's an argument for "day and date" movie release. But I feel like I saw most of the things I needed to see in coming to this list. The only exceptions are that I haven't seen Dreamgirls, For Your Consideration, Happy Feet, Letters From Iwo Jima, Marie Antoinette, La Moustache, Shortbus, or Venus. So, with those excluded, here are my top fifteen and honorable mentions.

»» Continue reading "Top Movies Of 2006"

Posted by Barzelay at 12:34 AM | Comments (12)

January 23, 2007

Oscar Nominations Are Out

The Academy has released its nominations for 2006. Nothing too surprising there, although there are some pretty notable absences.

My top movies list is imminent, but there are at least 4 more movies that I have to see first: Notes On A Scandal, Dreamgirls, Volver, and Pan's Labyrinth. Then there a bunch of others that I'd like to see, but will be willing to make a list without doing so.

Posted by Barzelay at 11:15 AM | Comments (4)

November 21, 2006

Mini-Reviews

Music

  • The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
    Not a revelation, but not at all disappointing. It's very good, and I can't wait to listen to it in crisper-quality. We have until January 23 to wait for the official release, thanks to Sub-Pop's marketing schedule, even though it's completely done now. On first listen, from the very first notes on the album, it feels so comfortable and pleasant returning to The Shins sound (and I'm not implying that it sounds stale or that it's just like the old stuff). They have such a distinctive sound. Some great bands grab one instantly, others take a while to insinuate themselves into one's musical pantheon. For me, The Shins were in the former category. I sat at my desk and listened to Chutes Too Narrow straight through twice when Jon Cooper first told me to download it. Nothing else going on, just listening. It was that good, that fresh. Would Wincing The Night Away have been the same, had I not already been familiar with The Shins? Maybe. Either way, it's a great album.

  • Beck - The Information
    Good, but more of the same. Sea Change was amazing, then Guero went in a completely different direction--it was a very good album, but it was clearly lighter fare than Sea Change, and it recycled a lot of Beck's earlier sounds. The Information might as well be "Unreleased tracks from Guero." That isn't necessarily negative, but Beck is at his best when he tries new things. This album won't surprise anyone with its sound. Still, Beck album are like sex and pizza; even when they're bad, they're still pretty good.

  • The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
    Great. The second track is a twelve-minute suite that is just awesome. This is the best album The Decemberists have put out, and I loved Picaresque and Castaways And Cutouts. And even though it's their major-label debut, this album is far less catchy than their previous ones. Twelve-minute songs don't make for easy radio play, even on college radio stations.

Movies

  • Tideland
    Probably none of you saw this, but this is Gilliam's darkest film to date, and yet it retains Gilliam's beautiful spark: hope and survival through fantasy and imagination. This is not going to be a movie for everyone. It's like The Adventures of Baron Munchausen but here he keeps the fantasy inside the young girl's head. At times I rolled my eyes, because it has a couple of the typical, over the top Gilliam characters. It also made me uncomfortable at times, which is pretty tough to do. But overall, I think it's an excellent and fitting addition to his oeuvre, not like that last piece of crap.

  • The Prestige
    Awesome movie. I really loved some movie from the first month or two of last year, but now I can't remember which one. Pending recovery of that memory, I will say with confidence that The Prestige is my favorite movie so far this year. It keeps up an impressive level of action and suspense, but still manages to satisfy the discerning film viewer with its wonderful acting, smart script, and beautiful cinematography, as well as the geeks with its reverence for both magic and science (is there any difference?). Definitely see this.

  • The Departed
    I loved this all the way through, but then the ending left me with way too many unanswered questions. I got the feeling that this one was cut pretty heavily to avoid it being a four-hour NC-17 flick. I'll reserve judgment until I find out whether an Extended Edition is forthcoming. This had some of the best dialogue I've ever heard in a movie. The dialogue here was Glengarry Glen Ross, Pulp Fiction good.

Posted by Barzelay at 11:33 PM | Comments (11)

May 2, 2006

Should documentary filmmakers release their raw footage under Creative Commons license?

Jason Schulz asks, "Should Documentary Filmmakers release their raw footage under Creative Commons licenses?" Then all of their unedited footage would be available for people to see and to make up their own minds. Their biases would be open to scrutiny, and when their neutrality was attacked, they could simply point to the footage. For that matter, I think the same suggestion would be good for all media that makes a claim of objectivity (basically, "news").

It's a pretty interesting idea, all the more so in light of a discussion I had with Aaron a month or two ago about neutrality in documentaries. His contention was that, since true neutrality will never be achieved, it is better for filmmakers to abandon all pretense of objectivity and simply present their take on the material as what it is: their take on the material. I suppose that such a viewpoint would have to extend to all supposedly objective newsmedia, since everything from newspaper articles to the evening news is skewed in the same way.

My argument, on the other hand, was (and is) that, although there can be never be complete neutrality, there is value in presenting stories in as objective a light as possible, and when such an effort has been made in good faith, one has every right to claim objectivity; since nothing is objective, any claim of objectivity necessarily connotes only an attempt at objectivity, and it is always the viewer's responsibility to take into account the possible biases of the filmmakers.

Hence, if FOX News truly believe themselves to be fair and balanced, they have every right to claim to be fair and balanced. Viewers must take into account FOX News' bias. The strongest argument against this idea is that, by presenting news as if it is objective, people (even intelligent, skeptical people) are often (maybe even usually) duped into believing it to be objective. If one had never been told that FOX News skews way right, then the only way to find that out for oneself is by comparing it to other news sources. But each of those other news sources also has its own bias, which must be held under the same scrutiny. At some point, one can really only figure out what's happening by taking into account the presentations of all the news sources out there, and figuring out as much as one can about each of their respective biases. And even then, all the available news sources might be fed the same biased information. Who has time to do all that sorting of facts?

On the other hand, [my extrapolation of] Aaron's argument breaks down just as dramatically. Who can be trusted to reveal the extent of their own bias? If someone truly has a bias, they must have it because they seek to impose their viewpoint on the events in question, and in so doing, alter the perception of the events for some purpose. Underreporting their own biases would mean people would view their version of the events as being closer to the objective truth than is the case. And many people fancy themselves much more able to be objective than they, in fact, are. And so that system requires just as much scrutiny as if everyone claims to be objective.

Anyway, I just put a lot of words in Aaron's mouth, and extrapolated his argument way beyond his original intention, which was to argue that Grizzly Man was a great documentary. In Grizzly Man, Werner Herzog clearly presents his own view of the facts, withholding a crucial piece of the puzzle because showing it does not fit into his idea of the meaning in the story. Aaron thought it was a wonderful movie, putting it in his Top 10 of 2005, and fully supported the filmmaker's decision to withhold that piece, preferring Werner Herzog's opinion of the facts of the story.

Whereas I think Grizzly Man was the biggest cocktease of a movie since Bring It On. Werner Herzog plays up the story of this bear-lover hippie guy who lives with the bears every summer for years, the whole time alluding to an impending disaster. About halfway through, he tells the viewer that he has the recording of the guy finally getting eaten by one of the fucking bears. So what does he do? He talks on camera about how he got the recording, and about what the recording will show, and then Herzog shows himself listening to the recording, but then REFUSES TO PLAY THE RECORDING FOR THE VIEWER! The most interesting thing in the whole movie gets dangled in front of the viewer like a carrot, only to have the filmmaker tell the viewer that no one should be subjected to such a grisly scene. Apparently we aren't mature enough. Insane.

I hated the movie. I thought that the filmmaker had stumbled upon some of the greatest footage ever available to a documentarian, and then completely dropped the ball, making probably the most self-indulgent, pointless documentary I've ever seen. In fact, the main redeeming thing about the movie is as a study of just how much a documentary can go wrong when it becomes more about the filmmaker and his perceptions of the story than it is about the story.

Anyway, if Herzog released all his materials, I'd finally get to listen to the guy getting eaten by the bear, and for that reason alone, if nothing else, I wholeheartedly support Jason's idea. It sounds like a great concept, and I'd love to see it employed by all newsmedia.

Posted by Barzelay at 3:47 AM | Comments (10)

April 20, 2006

Snakes On A Link

Brian Finkelstein, my sectionmate at Georgetown Law, is in the press for his website, SnakesOnABlog.com. The website started out as a simple request: Brian wants to attend the Hollywood premiere of the movie, Snakes On A Plane. It has since become the central location for internet-based discussion on the movie. And last week he was on CNN, MSNBC, and in the aforementioned WaPo article.

Interesting revelations from the article: Due to the internet support, the producers realized their audience consisted of those looking for a consciously ridiculous horror-thriller. So, they decided to do some re-shoots, adding scenes in order to bring the rating up from a PG-13 to an R! That's the first time I've ever heard of a company doing that, which is pretty awesome. It means we get to hear Samuel L. Jackson say, "I want these motherfucking snakes off the motherfucking plane." PG-13 only allows one usage of the f-word. They've also added some brief nudity. And an earlier move to change the title of the film was quashed after wide protest on the internet.

And it looks like New Line may even fly Brian out for the premiere.

Posted by Barzelay at 4:07 PM | Comments (3)

March 1, 2006

Top Fifteen Movies of 2005

I've finally seen the last movie I absolutely needed to see before making this year's top movies list. The top music of 2005 list was out a long time ago.

This year's crop of movies was nowhere near as strong as last year's. Everything on this list had flaws that would have kept it out of last year's top fifteen except, probably, the top six or so. But I saw a lot of movies this year, and saw most of the good ones. Indeed, I saw every feature-length American narrative film nominated for any Academy Award. That said, I've also missed a lot of movies adored by people whose taste I respect.

Anyway, here are the top fifteen narrative features of 2005, according to me, ranked by varying factors including but not limited to how much I enjoyed watching them, how much they stuck with me after having watched them, how technically proficient they were in their production, how well-written they were, etc.

Top Fifteen Narrative Movies of 2005:



  • 15. Sin City

    Gorgeous and innovative visually, and a lot of fun. Like the comics (some of which I'd read), it was ultra-violent and uncompromising. In fact, the major flaw of the movie was that it followed the comics too well, resulting in a disjointed story. But a lot of fun to watch with some really badass scenes.



  • 14. A History Of Violence

    Totally over the top, and full of quick shots to traditional (as opposed to CG) gore, like pretty much all David Cronenberg stuff. It has great performances by Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, William Hurt, Ashton Holmes, and Ed Harris. It ends a bit unresolved, as most of Cronenberg's films also do. In the hands of another director, I think it probably would have been better, but as is, it was still very engaging and surprising.



  • 13. Jarhead

    The first of Sam Mendes' movies that I haven't absolutely loved (the other two being American Beauty and The Road To Perdition). Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Saarsgard, Jamie Foxx, and Chris Cooper are all great, but the movie lacks a full story arc. It feels like the second half of Full Metal Jacket (which also lacked a complete story arc--the two halves should have been separate movies). It is left unresolved, and unexplained. I got that that is meant to reflect the war that is the subject of the film, but that is really no excuse. I liked it a lot, and I will definitely revisit this movie. I love war movies. But it could have been much better with another fifteen or twenty minutes of resolution at the end (and if they were concerned about running time, they could cut out the thirty minutes of screentime Jake Gyllenhaal's butt got).



  • 12. Junebug

    This movie was hilarious and poignant. Amy Adams was great. I thought it all wrapped up very well. Some people didn't think a lot of it made sense. But it all worked for me, and the emotions, at least, were very real and universal, even though the characters here were sometimes over the top.



  • 11. Syriana

    The best thing about this movie is its refusal to take a side. It decries those in power while at the same time reminding us of the benefits of oppression and exploitation. And it takes the side of those in power honestly (unlike those in power). We should be able to evaluate the benefits and moral questions surrounding propping up our country on the backs of other nations. There can never be an a priori moral condemnation of any position whatsoever for intelligent people. I can't wait to see more from Stephen Gaghan. Oh, and Matt Damon's acting sucked in this, and I like Matt Damon. On the other hand, Alexander Siddig is amazing as Prince Nasir. He is so dynamic and intense. You may remember him as one of the doctors on one of the Star Trek shows (Deep Space Nine?). He reminds me so much of Ben Kingsley and Raul Julia in their amazing versatility and power. I definitely want to see him in a lot more stuff.



  • 10. Brokeback Mountain

    Nothing much to say about this that anyone hasn't already said. Great film, great love story. My only problem with it is the first time they have sex. It's too abrupt. There are too many inner mechanisms preventing it to have them all broken down in the span of ten seconds. All I wanted was another five minutes of struggling against their desires. Instead, Ennis enters the tent with no expression of emotion having occurred, and maybe fifteen seconds later he's spitting on his hand to lube up for the sex. Besides that, this movie is great. Either Heath Ledger or Phillip Seymour Hoffman deserve Best Actor (unfortunately, Capote was not nearly as good as this movie, so I don't know whether Phillip Seymour Hoffman has a chance).



  • 9. The Squid And The Whale

    Great story of a marriage breaking up. Reminded me a bit of Kramer vs. Kramer, only a lot more comedy. The emotions and people were mostly quite real (except the little brother, whose character did insane things for no reason--"Suck my dick, ass man!"). The use of the descriptive term "Philistine" to describe someone who isn't into books, philosophy, and art (basically a jock) is a great thing that I am really hoping will catch on. The movie is hilarious. Also, maybe it's just me, but I think Sophie was much cuter than Lily, and was clearly the correct choice.



  • 8. Match Point

    I love Woody Allen. This is nothing like most Woody Allen. That said, tt clearly has A LOT in common with Crimes And Misdemeanors, though it's transplanted to England, and cuts out the entirely tangential arc with Allen himself that's in that film. In fact, the one flaw in this film is shared (but done better) in Crimes And Misdemeanors. That is, the scene where the main character is "visited" by someone/people who are not really there and heard them talking. It's pretty silly, breaks the third-person point-of-view, and adds nothing. The acting in this movie is mostly outstanding, especially Jonathan Rhys Meyers. But Scarlett Johannsen sucks in this. She's usually great, but she really, really sucks in this. Oh well. If it means Woody's found a new muse that will inspire him to make great films, then I can put up with a less-than-stellar performance from her.



  • 7. The Constant Gardener

    Similar themes to Syriana, only this film does take a side. And this one also has a lot more to do with love. The structure of this film is great, and the ending was very satisfying (if not at all happy). That's particularly satisfying in a year when most filmmakers seemed to have trouble committing to an ending of any sort whatsoever. Ralph Fiennes is always great, and Rachel Weisz is excellent, too. Again, I can't wait to see more from Fernando Mereilles (director of last year's amazing film, City Of God).



  • 6. Tristram Shandy: A Cock And Bull Story

    Along with two others in my top six, few people reading this saw this movie. It's a British comedy. It's hilarious. Basically, The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is an early novel (with all the hallmarks of postmodernism) where the main character sets out to tell his life story, but digresses so much, and becomes so distracted by the periphery and prelude to the story that, by the end of the novel, he still hasn't gotten to his birth. So, it's considered an "unfilmable" novel. So, as often occurs with unfilmable novels, they instead make a movie about the making of the movie (such as with Adaptation., or even, in its own way, 8 1/2). Anyway, this movie is really funny, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon are wonderful.



  • 5. The New World

    Terrence Malick has made four films in his thirty-five year career. The three I've seen are all amazing (Badlands, The Thin Red Line, and The New World). His style is very distinctive, especially in his two newer films. All of his films involve themes of returning to a more natural state, the beauty of the primitive and the simple, and a deep love of nature. He uses a lot of voice-over internal monologue, a lot of slow motion, and a lot of shots exploring the relationship between the characters and nature. The New World is a beautiful film. The cinematography and soundtrack are wonderful. I swear it looks like ninety percent of this movie was shot in the hour of sunrise and the hour of sunset. Most of the story is told visually. There is very little dialogue, which is pretty impressive. And wow, Q'Oriana Kilcher is an amazing find. Very beautiful, and her performance is great.



  • 4. Me And You And Everyone We Know

    Miranda July is very, very hot. And this movie has the single funniest scene of any movie in the last ten years. That's all you need to know. The more pretentious aspects didn't bother me as much as they did some other people, and everything else worked very well for me. If you get the DVD, make sure you watch the Deleted Scenes, as it ties together a lot of the movie thematically and makes it make a ton more sense.



  • 3. Mr. And Mrs. Smith

    Like the ACT questions that would ask, "Which of the following doesn't belong?" this choice clearly sticks out of the pack. This is the one that wasn't in some way critically acclaimed. Even its special effects were nothing groundbreaking. So why is it on the list? Because I can't deny that I had more fun in the theater watching this movie than any other movie this year. It is pure entertainment popcorn action comedy bliss. This is the way action comedies used to be, when self-respecting people could watch them without rolling their eyes at the screen every few minutes at the idiocy in front of them. This film was one of the few action movies in recent years that was prtty much free from eye-rolling. It won't make you cry, or consider the tragic plight of the people of Uganda, but you will have fun. The most surprising thing about this movie was how funny it was. I have very high standards for comedy, and most contemporary comedies don't pass muster. I wish to God (or would if I believed in him) that the world would tire of Van Wilder, Wedding Crashers, Scary Movie 3, etc. So it was very surprising when this movie actually made me laugh throughout, without making me cringe. The supporting cast is good. Vince Vaughn is hilarious here, as he usually is when the surrounding material isn't utter crap. What finally sealed it was a scene late in the movie, in which Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie play rival spies working for rival black market spy agencies. The two agencies are on their way to a battle against each other in which all hell is going to break loose. Then we see one of the young recruits of one of the spy agencies, with a terrified look on his face, scared shitless about the firestorm they're about to enter, and with an extremely worried glance at another spy, he says, "Do we get dental insurance?" That killed me. Well-written, good chemistry and timing between the leads, and great action.



  • 2. Munich

    This was Spielberg's best film since Schindler's List. I really loved it. I thought everything was portrayed very fairly. Unlike many Jews, I don't think Israel was necessarily on the moral high ground. But I loved every minute of this. In fact, it felt very short. What a cinematic achievement! He problematizes every aspect of terrorism and counter-terrorism, and goes a lot deeper into examining how far we're willing to go for safety than most are willing to go. And that question is very poignant and relevant these days.



  • 1. The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada

    This movie was amazing. I was very intrigued ever since seeing the trailer, and the movie blew me away when I finally saw it. It was perfect, and emotional, and beautiful, and draws the depth out of things that are, on the surface, simple. Like Peckinpah, it depicts people in their most soul-searching moments, having epiphanies in the midst of distressing situations. This is the first film Tommy Lee Jones has directed, which is amazing because all of the performances are wonderful. Tommy Lee Jones himself is great as an old coot of a cowboy. And there is a tremendous amount of black comedy running through this Western drama. Dwight Yoakam is especially hilarious. The cinematography was great, and the sound and music were the best and most fitting of any movie I've ever seen. Everything about this movie was perfect. You should definitely check it out, and soon, as it's still in theaters in most of the country.

These are the next fifteen. They're the honorable mentions, in alphabetical order. Brief explanations, and no pictures. I also really enjoyed these, and what kept them off the top fifteen was that their flaws were deeper, or else I was just less willing to forgive them. All of these are also great.

Honorable Mention:

  • The Aristocrats - Very funny, and I love comedy without borders. My dead friend Jordan would have loved this movie for that very reason.
  • Batman Begins - Best Batman movie, and by far the most close to the comics, at least the ones I've read (mostly all the Frank Miller storylines).
  • Broken Flowers - Pretty hilarious. If only Jarmusch could stand to give us a resolution of some sort, this would have been a classic.
  • Cinderella Man - Good film, but plays way too transparently with our emotions.
  • Capote - Flawless, amazing acting by Phillip Seymour Hoffman. If only it would have had a story arc, and not been so closely tied to that one book he wrote.
  • Crash - Ridiculously unbelievable first act, good second act, wonderful third act. It all works out so well that it made forgive the silliness of the beginning. It deserves its Screenplay nomination.
  • Good Night, And Good Luck - Felt like half a film. A wonderful half of a film, but just when it seems like we've got all the complications and the story is about to begin, the movie ends. David Straitharn deserves all the respect he's gotten, and he deserves a lot of great roles that he'll hopefully start to get.
  • Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire - The HP movies are really just pure joy and wonder. None of them have matched the first, but I could watch a new one every day and never get bored, if only they could make them that fast.
  • Hustle & Flow - Like Mr. And Mrs. Smith, this movie mostly gets its props for not sucking, when it really ought to. When a movie seems to have every intention of making me throw up on myself for the stupidity I'm witnessing, but instead just entertains me without pissing me off, it gets a lot more credit than if I'd just expected it to be good in the first place. And Terrence Howard is great.
  • The Ice Harvest - Best Harold Ramis (Egon Spangler) movie in a long time. Again, most comedy sucks these days, so when one doesn't, it really astounds me.
  • King Kong - The action is great, but for all the depth people read into this, it's really a pretty shallow movie for 2005 (though I'm sure it worked in 1933).
  • Kingdom Of Heaven - Ridley Scott is always great. Apparently this was an AMAZING movie but then the studio cut like an hour out of it? They released the Director's Cut at like one theater and it got astoundingly good reviews. Hopefully we'll see a DVD of that version. Until then, it's still pretty good.
  • Memoirs Of A Geisha - A lot of people were apparently quite bored with this. I wasn't. I love long movies. Would have been much better if they'd filmed it in Japanese. The actresses speaking in a language other than their native language really hurt the acting, and in a character-based epic, that doesn't work.
  • Paradise Now - This was #16 on my list, but it had to be cut. great film from Palestine. It's very enlightening as to the Palestinian side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as to the motivations of "terrorists" in general.
  • Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith - Finishes up the prequels as best it can, managing even to scrounge up a bit of dignity for the series again. If Lucas would have cut the last five seconds where Darth Vader waves his arms in the air and screams, "Nooooooooooo!!!" this would have made my top fifteen. And props to George Lucas for having the balls to make Anakin kill a bunch of children, and then for showing the subsequent amputation of all of his limbs.
  • Thumbsucker - Funny movie. I'm a sucker for dysfunctional suburban stories, even though my own family is quite functional (unless I'm just in denial). The female love interest in this movie is gorgeous, at least in the movie. The stupid dream scenes should have been cut, and the Keanu Reeves scenes and Vince Vaughn storylines were horribly unbelievable, but not enough to be surreal. Otherwise, great.
  • Transamerica - Wonderful acting by Felicity Huffman. In the end, the characters get off a bit too easily, and the stuff with the son's past was unnecessarily dramatic and added nothing. But very funny and poignant.

There were also a lot of movies that I didn't see about which other people raved. Some notable unseen films were Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Palindromes, Everything Is Illuminated, Hostel, Cache, Tsotsi, Best Of Youth, Sympathy For Lady Vengeance, Brick, and Millions.

Posted by Barzelay at 5:24 AM | Comments (11)

November 10, 2005

The Fountain teaser turns me into a geeky fanboy

The teaser for Darren Aronofsky's new sci-fi film has just hit the net. Go watch it and be amazed by the stunning visual innovation, as well as puzzled by the strange plot, of The Fountain. Then go to the absolutely addictive insanity of The Fountain's website and screen saver. I actually installed the screensaver a month ago or so, and then removed it because I couldn't stop looking at my computer screen.

I've absolutely loved Aronofsky's last two films, Pi and Requiem For A Dream. Requiem, especially, is one of the most masterfully executed, most unapologetic, most shocking, most real, most innovative movies of all time. I am quite excited for Aronofsky's foray into science fiction.

As near as I can gather, The Fountain stars Hugh Jackman as a conquistador in 1500, a doctor in 2006, and something insane in 2500. He is on a quest to save the life of his love, played by Rachel Weisz. The whole thing is about love, mortality, the fountain of youth, etc. Darren Aronofsky describes the genre as "psychadelic sci-fi," and they're using close-up photography of chemical reactions instead of CGI. Oh, and the main character is named Tom, after Major Tom from David Bowie's "Space Oddity." And apparently David Bowie is doing a third Major Tom song for this film. So cool. I can't wait.

Posted by Barzelay at 4:47 AM | Comments (0)

November 2, 2005

My Favorite Movies

Tonight I made fried tilapia, fried shrimp, sauteed shrimp, salad, and baked potatoes, and had Zeeshan over for dinner for the first time. He only eats Halal meats, so tonight's dinner of fish and shellfish was perfect for that. Anyway, Z, Ryan, and I got to discussing movies. I mentioned a few they hadn't heard of (but that I feel are quite well-known: Requiem For A Dream, and Pi), and they asked me to list some of my favorites. Well, I started rattling off some of my faves, and out of maybe fifteen movies I said, the only one that either of them expressed unqualified approval of was Indiana Jones. Anyway, it got me thinking, so here are my All-time Top Ten Movies:

10. Annie Hall
9. Apocalypse Now
8. Schindler's List
7. The Seventh Seal
6. Monty Python And The Quest For The Holy Grail
5. Labyrinth
4. Indiana Jones (trilogy)
3. Brazil
2. Pee Wee's Big Adventure
1. The Goonies

Those top seven I was pretty sure belonged in my top seven, but the bottom three I picked from a pretty distinguished list of movies that didn't make my top ten (and this list isn't by any means exhaustive of movies I would rate this highly):

»» Continue reading "My Favorite Movies"

Posted by Barzelay at 1:11 AM | Comments (8)

October 3, 2005

They're Not Remakes, They're Re-Imaginings

BoingBoing led me to these three movie trailers re-cut to make their movies look like totally different genres.

Here's a NYT story about The Shining trailer.

Posted by Barzelay at 4:38 AM | Comments (0)

July 18, 2005

A Cornucopia Of Non-Political Links
  • A magazine has directions for how to make a sod couch. It looks pretty cool in the picture (though it also looks fake). I'd love to have one of these in my yard, but I wonder how well it would actually turn out, and how well it could maintain its shape. Nevertheless, this is exactly the kind of thing I'd want in the kind of quirky yard I might some day have.

  • Apparently, there exist sweat shops for artists as well. Chinese factory workers crank out many paintings per day that are copies of originals by famous artists. Pretty interesting, but it also raises the question, "What is art?" If a copy of an artistic masterwork is produced by a skilled copier, is the copy also art? I think perhaps not, in terms of an "art object." But the copy can nevertheless evoke the original and all of the same effects the original had, so for all intents and purposes it is just as valuable without being art as is the original that is art. Everett, what say you?

  • Links to a lot of printable paper sculptures and origami, via BoingBoing.

  • Wow. Privacy advocate Katherine Albrecht says RFID tags embedded in people's skin for identification could be what the Bible was referring to as "the mark of the beast." Religionists sure are nutty, though I've liked her work in other instances.

  • General cool guy Richard Stallman explains why we should boycott the new Harry Potter book in order to protest for the right to read. Several Canadians were mistakenly sold the book prior to its release date, and then once in possession of it, and back at their homes, they were ordered not to read the book. While I support the idea that there should perhaps be an enumerated "right to read," I don't really think this boycott could possibly help. Scared executive: "We only sold ten billion copies of the new Potter book in its first week! Oh no! Where were the other 200 copies we were expecting?!?!" Second executive: "It must be that right to read boycott! We better pour all our resources into lobbying the government to change the law!"

  • Plan 9 From Outer Space, widely referred to as the worst movie ever made, by worst director Ed Wood (and the subject of much of the movie Ed Wood), is available for free download from the Internet Archive.

  • This website has short alternate takes on how a few movies should have ended. Right now they've got Star Wars IV, The Matrix: Revolutions, and Saving Private Ryan, but there are more to come. Very funny.

  • Visit this page for the state of the art in multilinking. You must access it with Firefox or else it won't work correctly. Stupid IE.

  • Some birds are starting to mimic cell phone ringtones. Interesting, but kind of sad. It is mostly birds who live in urban environments.

  • Via Boing Boing, check out this sexy toolbelt. Mmmm, nothing beats a burly, sweaty woman with rough-hands.

  • Carbon Silicon, a band featuring members from The Clash and Generation X, has one of the first models I've seen where offering free downloads could really drive up sales of a band who will already be getting a lot of press. They are offering free downloads of "extra" stuff, like discarded studio takes, interviews, material that doesn't make it to the album, live shows, and even works-in-progress. I think it would be a more sustainable model if they didn't offer their albums for free as well. Offering "extras," in my opinion, is a way to drive new sales without losing sales to pirating (not that I'm so innocent about piracy, ahem).

Posted by Barzelay at 7:37 PM | Comments (0)

July 9, 2005

Oliver Stone Making 9/11 Film

Oliver Stone is making a movie about 9/11! For those unfamiliar, Oliver Stone is like the Michael Moore of narrative filmmaking. He's made such politically charged, controversial, critical films as JFK, Nixon, Platoon, Heaven And Earth, Born On The Fourth Of July, Wall Street, Salvador, and Natural Born Killers. I definitely think he is one of the strongest voices in film today, and he's one of my favorite directors. But I am often frustrated by the fact that he has stayed away from making the kind of intimate but visceral explorations of unremarkable people that Peckinpah did with Straw Dogs, Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia, and The Wild Bunch. Instead Stone's middle and recent career has been all very big biopic or conspiracy films, and while sometimes gripping and always interesting, they've lacked in humanity. So, depending on how he treats this, it could be just the thing I've been looking for from Oliver Stone: a more intimate story where everyday people are put in extraordinary situations.

I don't know what to think of this. Stone has been extremely critical of Bush in the past, even saying "He's worse than Nixon in his vulgarity. He looks like he shops at Wal-Mart. That’s not what the president is supposed to be. He has no intellectual curiosity and is proud of it." I can't believe Stone would make something like this without it being very political. On the other hand, he is also a veteran, and basically obsessed with war and with military history. So though he is extremely liberal, he might be a bit more in line with the war hawks here.

I guess I'd love to see the narrative version of Fahrenheit 9/11 (though, for the record, I did not like Fahrenheit 9/11 very much at all). But in the end, I think it would be better to show the small story here. If he can evoke the larger context by portraying a more intimate struggle, I think it could be very effective. He has all the right people behind him on this one, so it looks at least like he'll have an easy time getting this one made, not like many of his pictures.

Who knows? If it turns out to be ultra-political, ultra-critical, it'll still be fun to argue about.

Posted by Barzelay at 7:21 PM | Comments (1)

June 28, 2005

The 8th Wonder of the World

Oh, and also, the trailer is out for Peter Jackson's King Kong. Those people on the island look a bit too much like orcs. Besides that, it looks really awesome.

Posted by Barzelay at 3:31 PM | Comments (0)

Remember, Remember the 5th of November...

The one-sheet poster is out for V For Vendetta. The movie was written by the Wachowskis and is being directed by the first assistant director on The Matrix or something like that, and apparently they changed the story all around and made it suck, though I'll reserve judgment till I see footage. The graphic novel was awesome, and I love that teaser poster. It's so true. "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." It's pretty badass that they put that on the poster right now. And V looks perfect in it.

Apparently, they made all of V's dialogue contain almost solely words that start with V, and at the end, they have the whole crowd wearing V masks, which makes no sense. It is also troubling that the poster makes it like the Wachowski's came up with V For Vendetta, when they certainly did not, Alan Moore did.

Anyway, I wonder how Homeland Security will feel about this. I don't think they'll like it, although they might find an unlikely adversary in GW Bush, who will probably like the explosions.

Posted by Barzelay at 2:30 PM | Comments (0)

June 16, 2005

Batman Begins and Mrs And Mrs Smith

Batman Begins - This is the first Batman that really nailed the character. Tim Burton's first Batman was good and had a tone all its own, but Michael Keaton sucked, and the psychology was all wrong, and they made him too likeable and too much a hero. A big part of Batman is that it's such a thankless job. The other movies have never captured this, but Batman Begins does so perfectly. One of the villains, Scarecrow, is also really cool and creepy, with a lot of room for further development. The drugs he uses are a nice excuse for the movie to go as over the top as it ought to be without suffering the resulting cheese. That said, there are still a lot of really cheesy parts, and I thought the movie lacked scope. Effective, but not great. Katie Holmes' nipples were constantly hard in the movie, by the way, if you're into that sort of thing. 7/10

Mr. And Mrs. Smith - I really loved this movie. This was the perfect popcorn blockbuster action/comedy. Reminds me a bit of True Lies although this was better. I really thought they completely nailed it. It was hilarious, and constantly fun. It looked pretty decent from the trailers, but it really surprised me just how good it was. 10/10

Posted by Barzelay at 1:10 AM | Comments (0)

June 10, 2005

Latest news in my life, Movies, some pictures, etc

Today I'm going to apply for a job at Carrabba's. I can't think of any decent places to wait tables here. We don't have a PF Chang's anywhere nearby. I may also apply to Chili's, but that is by far the inferior of the two choices. I would have applied to Friday's, but the manager here is the most peppy and strangely fake happy ridiculous person ever, and I don't want to deal with that. Any other suggestions for places where I'd get decent tips and it wouldn't completely suck?

Since I got home, all I've really been doing is watching movies, editing Israel photos, and slowly unpacking stuff from Vanderbilt. The problem is, my dorm room was bigger than my room at home. My dorm room was beyond full, as many of you know. My room at home was also basically full (although not like my dorm room). So, I've no more room in my bedroom, and I've got to fit approx 150% more stuff in there. I have a pile of stuff to give to Goodwill. The pile is about 4'x10'x3'. I also started selling some of my old saleable stuff (old video game systems, etc) on eBay to make space and money.

»» Continue reading "Latest news in my life, Movies, some pictures, etc"

Posted by Barzelay at 6:11 AM | Comments (0)

June 3, 2005

Movies I like

1. Total number of films I own on DVD/Video:
Well, on Video/DVD that I've purchased, maybe 30. If you count all the films I've downloaded and burned, at least 300.

2. Last film I bought:
Hmmm... I think it was Punch-Drunk Love. Which is an awesome movie, by the way, and everyone should watch it and if they don't like it I think they are dumb.

3. Last film I watched:
On the plane from Tel Aviv to Newark, I watched Assault On Precint 13 (the remake, not the John Carpenter), which was a decent popcorn action movie, and Hitch, which was an entirely forgettable comedy that was exactly how I expected it to be. My choices were somewhat limited. I'd already seen Million Dollar Baby (which I didn't like very much at all), and didn't particularly want to watch The Wedding Date or Racing Stripes.

4. Five films that I watch a lot, or mean a lot to me.
(I'm gonna do more than five):
The Goonies - Tons of fun. Probably perfect (assuming you didn't see the version that included the deleted octopus scene, which sucked). I've seen this at least 150 times. By far my favorite film of all time. Pure joy, innocence, and adventure on screen.

The Seventh Seal - Pretty much the opposite of The Goonies. It's dark, long, meditative, and slow. It is one of the few films I've seen that unashamedly puts ideas in front of story, but still manages to work. The film follows a knight returning from the crusades. Death comes to take him, but he challenges death to a chess match. If he wins, he gets to live. if he loses, death takes him. The chess match is played slowly, as the knight travels. A move is made every few days or weeks. He gets to continue living while the game continues. It's all about life, death, religion, existentialism, etc. You should definitely see it if this sounds interesting to you. It's black and white, and in Swedish, by the way. Here are some quotes:
-"Is it so hard to conceive God with one's senses? Why must he hide in a midst of vague promises and invisible miracles? How are we to believe the believers when we don't believe ourselves? What will become of us who want to believe, but cannot? And what of those who neither will nor can believe? Why can I not kill God within me? Why does He go on living in a painful, humiliating way? I want to tear Him out of my heart but He remains a mocking reality which I cannot get rid of... I want knowledge. Not belief. Not surmise. But knowledge. I want God to put out His hand, show His face, speak to me. But He is silent. I cry to Him in the dark, but there seems to be no one there." - Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal
-"No man can live with Death and know that everything is nothing." - Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal
-"Many people think neither of Death nor of nothingness." - Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal
-"Here's squire Jons. He grins at Death, chuckles at the Lord, laughs at himself and smiles at the girls. His world exists only for himself. Absurd to all, even to himself. Meaningless to heaven, indifferent to hell." - Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal
-"To believe is to suffer. It is like loving someone in the dark who never answers." - Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal
-"It's hell with women, and hell without. Best to kill them while the fun lasts." - Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal
-"Love is the blackest of all plagues, but you don't even die from it, and usually it passes." - Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal
-"I could have purged your worries about eternity, but now it's too late. But feel, to the very end, the triumph of being alive!" - Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal


Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind - Expresses (at least under my interpretation) a lot of my feelings about love and the search for it. Very unique and original.

Cool Hand Luke - I've only seen this three times, but it's quite awesome.
-"Callin it your job don't make it right, Boss." - Cool Hand Luke
-"Dyin'? Boy, he can have this little life any time he wants to. Do ya hear that? Are ya hearin' it? Come on. You're welcome to it, ol' timer. Let me know you're up there. Come on. Love me, hate me, kill me, anything. Just let me know it. [He looks around] I'm just standin' in the rain talkin' to myself." - Cool Hand Luke
-"Sometimes nothing can be a real cool hand." - Cool Hand Luke

The Andromeda Strain - I've seen this so many times, and loved it by the time I was five or so that I have no idea whether or not this movie is objectively any good. It's tense, and awesome, and based on the early Michael Crichton novel.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - The first movie I ever really lobbied my parents to get to see in a theater.
Dad: "I think it's fine for him to see it. He's seven years old. It's Indiana Jones. What could be wrong with it."
Mom: "Bobby! The last one had peoples' hearts getting ripped out!"
Dad: "Oh... Well, still..."
Raiders Of The Lost Ark is probably the best of the series, but I saw this one first.

Bamboozled - One of the only movies I've ever seen that is nothing but satire. Excellent. Mocks everyone on race issues. Everyone. Hilarious and awesome, and woefully underrated. Do The Right Thing is awesome, too, and probably a better movie, but I've got a soft spot for straight satire.

Schindler's List - Possibly the only perfect drama I've ever seen. Wow. Showed me that movies can be topical, idea-oriented, moving, long, boring, emotional, and still be perfect and successful.

Wet Hot American Summer - Hilarious and no one even knows about it. Features most of the cast of The State, which was an amazing sketch comedy show on MTV in the early 90s. Very quotable and memorable. Also features the most graphic portrayal of gay sex I've ever seen in a mainstream film.

5. Finally, tag five people to do this quiz:
Meh. I don't know who already did it. Do it if you want to.

Posted by Barzelay at 1:05 PM | Comments (0)

April 30, 2005

Ratzinger On Homos, HG2G

This article by some gay Catholic guy, discussing Ratzinger's doctrinal positions on homosexuality. Ratzinger actually seems to be quite reasonable on the subject, though still far from the outright endorsement of buttfucking that I'd prefer.

Saw Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Thursday night at midnight. Went with a bunch of hoopy froods from McGill, and we all went carrying towels. I can easily describe my feelings about the movie in one word, which I will then spell out and repeat. "Meh. M-E-H. Meh." The movie wasn't bad. It was just underwhelming. It wasn't funny.

The best parts, in my opinion, were some of the additions. The bureacracy of the prisoner release worked well. The lemon juicer thing was alright. The point-of-view gun worked. All of the guide stuff was great. The physical comedy all worked very well (for instance, the fly swatters on Vogsphere, as seen in the trailer, the "lend me a hand" bit, the really big woman in the bar). But in regards to the plot, some of the things that were added (by Adams himself, supposedly), ostensibly to better unify the plot, ended up entirely unresolved. Why did Humma Kavula want the gun? What happened to Zaphod's head? Why are towels so useful? And the jokes from the book, with some notable exceptions (especially the whale), just weren't that funny. The books, for me, were never laugh-out-loud funny, they were just appreciate-the-irony-and-the-inherent-humor-quietly funny. In the movie, that irony just doesn't resonate.

Other things were just ridiculous, for instance, the Vogon army consisting of a mere sixty or so Vogons. Why bother going after Zaphod when the Heart Of Gold was on the surface of Magrathea? They could have just gotten their spaceship back and left. Also, with regard to the mice being merely a protrusion into our dimension of immense pan-dimensional beings... we see them commanding Deep Thought, seemingly in their own dimension, and they are not very immense. They took the form of mice so as to be unobtrusive. Their natural form could have been unobtrusive as well. And why didn't they have the opening and closing doors thank the people for walking through them instead of just having them sigh contentedly?

I didn't really like the HG2G book much either, although The Restaurant At The End Of Universe and Life, The Universe, And Everything were great. My problem was that, although funny and fresh, it was just extremely lacking in scope. The next two didn't have that problem. The movie suffered the same lack of scope, although even more so since they tried to save money by combining locales.

The actors were all pretty great in the roles. I didn't have complaints with any of them. Mos Def was my favorite. Perfect though unexpected casting. I love Mos Def. Everyone should watch Bamboozled at their earliest convenience.

So, on the whole, it was okay, but the plot needed some more polishing in order to resolve things, and I wanted more scope, and just more in general. More guide, more peripheral characters, etc. The irony of everything did not come across well in the movie, and that, I guess, is the worst thing. So, for me, the movie was not offensively bad, it just fell flat. I give it a 6.3, which places it solidly in the upper-meh-class.

Posted by Barzelay at 2:50 AM | Comments (0)

April 18, 2005

Caesar's Bath Meme

I've been spending a lot of time this weekend on Vanderblogs. It was Jacob Grier's idea, and I told him months ago that I'd make it, so I figured I'd finally get on that. Feel free to get on and check it out, submit your blog/livejournal, but with the understanding that you'll almost definitely have to resubmit it later once features are added and it goes live at www.vanderblogs.com. Jacob has the domain registered and hosting and all, so it shouldn't be too too long.


In other news, I've been memed (for epistomology, talk to Jacob). I got passed this meme by Meredith Gray, who got it from Mike Mott, who got it from Jacob Grier, and he got it from people I don't know.

Behold, the Caesar's Bath meme! List five things that people in your circle of friends or peer group are wild about, but you can't really understand the fuss over. To use the words of Caesar (from History of the World Part I), "Nice. Nice. Not thrilling . . . but nice."

Affirmative Action:
No matter how deeply I have embraced liberalism, I simply cannot get into this one of its tenets. It's not that I don't understand the idea, and it's not even that I don't agree that in the longterm it will help to even things out. I just don't think the present inequality and the decreased productivity that occur because of it at all levels of society are worth the results. I still think that in general, although obviously not all the time, the ambitious members of any class, race, or gender will succeed. I don't want to debate different definitions of success, and even if that's true, it isn't enough to justify my position. But I also think that the standard for how ambitious minorities have to be to succeed is lowering, and quickly. Not quickly enough for many people, myself included, but the aims of affirmative action are occurring anyway, and the negatives of affirmative action are, in my opinion, not worth it.

Million Dollar Baby
I thought this movie was crap. It was so sappy and silly while exploring nothing non-obvious in terms of emotion and psychology. I didn't even think it deserved to leap from Lifetime to the big screen, let alone be nominated for Best Picture. Ugh. Phantom Of The Opera also sucked, although thankfully that didn't get nominated for Best Picture. There were so many more-deserving movies this year that didn't get nominated:
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, The Machinist, Closer, Hotel Rwanda, Shaun Of The Dead, Love Me If You Dare, The Dreamers, Collateral, The Incredibles, Bad Education, The Motorcycle Diaries, Garden State, Kinsey, Love Actually...

Dark Tans
I'm just not into tans. Tan people look disgusting. I've only just started realizing this, but I actually tune people out visually who are very tan. I can see the same girl two days in a row, be totally attracted to her the first day then she gets a tan and be completely disgusted by her the second day. I'm not actively grossed out usually, but like I said, when I see tan people, I just don't even bother looking at them to see if they're otherwise attractive, because they can't be. And for this to be the case, they don't even have to be tan to the point of being leathery where people can generally agree that they're gross. My threshold is much lower. I just don't understand why people are into this. I *do* like when people are generally normal-colored but have a little sun to show they aren't vampires. For instance, my favorite feature on women is freckles. But who usually gets freckles? Fair-skinned girls. I'm not against people getting sun while being outside. But the purpose of being outside should not be getting sun.

Basketball
Only major sport that I never played as a kid. So, I always sucked at it, and hence, never played it and never improved. So I always sucked and never got into it. I scoff at your final four. Give me baseball, football, tennis, hockey, soccer, even cricket. A lot of readers of my livejournal don't know this: I'm secretly a huge sports fan. But basketball does about as much for me as my grandmother in a bathing suit.

Anime
Anime seriously sucks, with the exception of the few big arty ones that reach the mainstream. I liked Princess Mononoke a little, liked Spirited Away a lot. Vampire Hunter D and Bloodlust were also good. The rest are crap (and yes, I've seen every single one and am qualified to make that judgment and you all are obligated to believe me).

and a couple more, just for kicks:

Soutwestern Food
Chili's, Baja Fresh, Qdoba, Chipotle etc. Does not apply to strictly Mexican places.

Smoking
And this includes cigars, and even pot. Why doesn't everyone just take shrooms all the time?

Reality TV

UPDATE: I forgot to meme others. I pass this meme to Sarah, Claire, Christy, Chris, and Karen.

Posted by Barzelay at 6:18 AM | Comments (0)