Bing's Weblarg.

Quick question

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:40:01 GMT

I am thinking of blogging again

Question: do I do it here or at my website?

Update!

Wed, 12 Jan 2005 23:33:13 GMT

The new site is live, but barely.

It needs a lot of work, but it functions ok.

My Top Ten of 2004 kicks things off.

http://www.garamond10pt.com/

Enjoy.

Wed, 15 Dec 2004 15:26:01 GMT

Sorry about the updates. Finals have been busy. I hope to get the new site up by the New Year.

In other news, I got a few new toys.

Mon, 15 Nov 2004 20:43:44 GMT

new site's almost up.

Saw a bunch of movies.

The 7 up! series is good and getting better (I'm on 21).

The Philadephia Story didn't really do it for me. Cary Grant wasn't very Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart either. Ah well.

The Incredibles was excellent. Did anyone else notice that Sarah Vowell did the voice of the daughter?

Ease the pain

Thu, 04 Nov 2004 19:41:02 GMT

Tue, 02 Nov 2004 13:31:28 GMT

Um... vote?

Wed, 27 Oct 2004 04:02:56 GMT

Ok, so I lied about the new site being up soon.

Here's a quick recap of what I've seen recently:

The Parallax View: 12/15. It's just better than middle of the road, but even the mediocre 70's paranoia thrillers are ten times bettter than what's out today.

The Cider House Rules: 13/15. Yeah, I'm sure if I thought about it, I'd know how cheap it is, but sometimes you want something you don't want to have to think about. Unlike Big Fish, though, it doesn't shove its stupidity in your face; it puts on a guise of honesty the whole way.

Saved! 11/15. It's a good teen movie, but not really anything more than that. Jena Malone should be reaching a crossroads soon. I hope she doesn't follow the unfortunate Leelee Sobieski.

The Tin Drum: 12/15. It looked beautiful, and the first half-hour or so is near flawless. The rest gets a little mired in hyper-symbolism or not enough symbolism. Maybe it's just not being familiar enough with specific German history.

Primer: 14/15. Excellent and original sci-fi flick. Try not to read anything about it and just go see it. What it does so well is that its universe is such a natural extension of the real world, it's all the more awesome, despite the fact its scope is severly limited by its budget.

True Grit: 8/15. The girl's good, but everything else is just middling. John Wayne definitely has had better acting performances; it's a shame he got the pity Oscar for this instead of The Shootist, where he actually is deserving of one.

Solaris (the Tarkovsky one): 7/15. Gets lots of creepy points, but then again, so does Event Horizon. It touches on a bunch of really interesting issues, but doesn't really do anything with them. I wouldn't mind the slow pacing as long as it actually went somewhere.

Ed Wood: 12/15. A nice story from back when Burton had real emotion in his films. The staging of everything is a nice homage.

Fri, 15 Oct 2004 14:14:45 GMT

Emily made me this shirt. I'm really excited.

Also, I'm a total geek.

Mon, 04 Oct 2004 03:00:23 GMT

So I always imagined Anthony Lane as being one of those snarky Dan Savage types, but it turns out he's just British.

I mean, look how well groomed he is:

And he has a wife, though I swear he thought 8 Women was one of the best movies, ever, but I suppose you can chalk that up to being British, too.

So anyway, we caught the New Yorker festival showing of Duck Soup at the DGA auditorium. The beneficent New Yorker gave away free water and Milk Duds (Milk Duds!), but the dogmatic DGA took them away at the door. (The New Yorker people suggested we hide them in our bags).

The movie was good, but I just don't think I'm a big Marx Brothers fan. I liked it a lot more than A Night at the Opera.

Afterwards, Anthony Lane just barely fended off one of those comment whores, but scored major points by conspicuously checking his watch and interrupting with "So, what's your question?".

And then there were more Milk Duds.

(I have a bunch of backlogged reviews, but most weren't really notable. A couple notes, though. Save the last half-hour The English Patient wasn't as great as everyone seems to think. It's sad, too, because the one thing it does really well, its epicness and depth of importance, was the one thing absolutely lacking in Cold Mountain which I desparately want to be one of my favorite movies, but it's just not good. Let's hope next time Anthony Minghella can pull both halves off.

Also, Moonstruck was really good. Who knew?)

Sat, 02 Oct 2004 03:15:07 GMT

I've got a backlog of reviews, but I got some webspace so I'll be moving off of LJ when I get everything set up, alas. Look for www.garamond10pt.com to go live soon-ish.

On another note, the Iron Chef's theme is from Backdraft, a track called "Show me your firetruck". Good job, guys.

Robot shoes!

Mon, 27 Sep 2004 20:10:50 GMT

Got myself some robot shoes. I'm trying to figure out if I should screen a robot in red on the side.

Spent yesterday walking down B'way checking out the new Tom Otterness sculpture exhibition on the mall. It was also really interesting seeing Harlem give way to Columbia back to the more run down 90's until the full-blown Upper West Sidedness of the 70's. Apparently there's a ping-pong club around 100th st. Who knew? Also: the Ollie's in the 80's looks a lot like "Ollie'e". Thumbs down to bad signage.

Mildred Pierce (1945), Michael Curtiz:
Strange how Michael Curtiz isn't a familiar name. I mean Casablanca alone should do it for him, and then there's Robin Hood and this.

It seems odd of all forties genres to mix melodrama and noir, but it works really well. All the standard melodrama setpieces seem pretty similar to the noir ones, it's always about wanting and the friction that comes from it.
14/15

The Navigator (1924), Buster Keaton, Donald Crisp
The Love Nest (1923), Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline
The Boat (1921), Buster Keaton:
The Navigator isn't Keaton at his best. It does seem like a minor work; there's just not the same imagination en masse as in some of the others. It does, however, have some of the funniest bits I've ever seen on screen.

The Love Nest also had some really funny gags and good rhythm.

The Boat I wasn't that sold on. Some stock gags, some nice touches, but nothing that special. Then again, Buster Keaton in the rotating room is alwasy funny.
13,12,7/15

Fri, 24 Sep 2004 16:05:19 GMT

Falling behind on both my movie watching and posting.

Storytelling (2001), Todd Solondz: 5/15

How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), Jean Negulesco: 14/15

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), Jim Jarmusch: 8/15

Mon, 20 Sep 2004 19:40:15 GMT

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), Kerry Conran:
Sigh, part II of my highly disappointing movies of the year series. I would say there's always The Life Aquatic, but I don't want to jinx it.

Ok, so it looks gorgeous, there's that. Not even in a Attack of the Clones type of way, but absolutely gorgeous, melding technology with art design and an actual goddamn asthetic (You hear that, Lucas?) Unfortunately, Mr. Conran doesn't seem to have that much experience in other areas such as writing and directing and such not. I mean, it's great to have a vision, it's also great to know how to execute that (yet another lesson to be learned from Mr. Lucas.)

It's evident in almost every aspect of the movie. The action scenes, which should be the highlight, are too confusing. There's really not much explanation one way or another why they're doing what they're doing, instead of something else that doesn't involve being in the middle of a firefight. I mean, without a goal, there's really not much tension.

The acting was for the most part horrible. Jude Law tried to get by on charisma alone, which doesn't work all time. Gwyneth looked completely lost, adopting the New York lady reporter diction for all of two lines, and running away from the CG robots in a manner befitting someone running to catch a cab. Of the entire cast, only Angelina Jolie knew how to play it perfectly. Giovanni Ribisi was decent, but the role didn't do much, and the rotting corpse of Laurence was pretty much a letdown. This, too, I blame on Mr. Conran. To bring back Lucas, if Hayden Christensen does a bad job, it might just be him, but a cast like this should do better.

There's a bunch of little things that sabotage the rhythm of the piece. There's really only a couple of things that are built up that ever receive their resolution. For the rest, they're either left hanging or resolve for no reason at all. A lot of the things are excusable, but how about the chemistry between Jude and Gwyneth?

Also, why are they referring to World War One if this takes place in 1938/1939? It might be an homage to a possible continuity error of period comic books, but I'm not about to give him credit for that just yet.

It had some really witty parts, though, and there's definitely the making of an Indiana Jones style adventure somewhere in there. Here's hoping that next time it comes together better.
7/15

Sat, 18 Sep 2004 15:25:48 GMT

American Movie (1999), Chris Smith:
I feel like it's the people who really liked Waiting for Guffman who were behind this movie. I couldn't really get into it. It was engaging, but after a while I just wanted to know what was going to happen instead of following Mark around.
10/15

The Shootist (1976), Don Siegel:
A near perfect end of career movie for John Wayne. It's a perfect part and has a great surrounding ensemble. Jimmy Stewart has to be there, and he is, and Lauren Bacall is always great. Bittersweet without ever becoming saccharine. Everything looks great, too. The only soft spots are the lamentable Ron Howard and the horrible camerawork. It's the only thing that really dates the film.
14/15

The Man Who Loved Women (1977), François Truffaut:
A very witty Truffaut product. There's some really funny moments in there, which is impressive because most of it falls on the side of being New Yorker "Huh, that's funny" funny. It's also a pretty insightful portrayal of the relationship between men and women.
12/15

Dogville (2004), Lars Van Trier:
Thank you Lars for making me hate the human race for another three hours.

Did he purposely cast it as he did? I mean, they're all great, great actors, but it seems an odd choice to cast Nicole Kidman, Paul Bettany, Stellan Skarsgård, and Zeljko Ivanek in the great American movie.

It's a great movie, though. With the whole Our Town thing, it's the perfect arena for looking at humanity. In a way, it's pretty much the same premise as Pleasantvile. Taking the stock characters of old americana and giving them real emotions. Of course, Pleasantville never really left the safety of the old pattern. I mean, seeing the kind soda jerk become a kind artist doesn't really mean anything. Seeing the nice, inept writer, head full of lofty ideas, give into human temptations is what's really interesting.
14/15

Thu, 16 Sep 2004 14:53:21 GMT

The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942), William Keighley:
One big catfight of a movie and Bette Davis is the nice one? She's easily the best thing of the movie. The rest I could go without, what's the fun of having a no-good curmudgeon if there's no comeuppance? What about the phone bill??? These are the things I worry about. The movie was pretty enjoyable once I let go, but it took a while.
11/15

The Vanishing (1988), George Sluizer:
I had expected better. I've just heard and read such great things about this movie and what do I get? A psychological thriller that doesn't exactly try to out-Hitchcock Hitchcock but doesn't exactly try to do anything else. The end was good, but there really has to be more.
9/15

They Were Expendable (1945), John Ford:
One of the great lurid movie titles. It's really just a solid, middle-of-the-road war drama. It's John Ford; he keeps an even keel throughout. John Wayne isn't quite John Wayne, which is a good thing in my book, and Donna Reed does that whole cute thing pretty well.
11/15

Mon, 13 Sep 2004 18:32:39 GMT

Had a nice day yesterday.

Started off with
Sherman's March (1986), Ross McElwee:
Which is a good entry point for a lazy Sunday. It's funny and fascinating, but laid back enough that you can step away to tend to your hashbrowns. It's a shame that his other movies don't seem to be as good as this, though I guess this really is a singular piece. It did seem to run a tad long, and I'm not sure how replicable it could be. Regardless, it holds together remarkably well and is a surprisingly coherent look at the South in society, not too distant from his original intentions.
12/15

After that, we completed the holy grail of living in New York, actually going to The Cloisters on a Sunday afternoon instead of just making plans to do so. I still feel a little guilty skimping on the donation, but I guess if they really wanted us to pay the full $14 (which is a little pricey), they'd make it full admission, or at least give more of a puppydog guily face. Maybe even a sign of resignation would be enough, but there was none.

It's really amazing how uncity North Manhattan is. I mean, trees, and rocks and stuff. I'd say it's the calming presence of Jersey, but I guess all of West Manhattan has that. Maybe it's the Bronx.

What next? We've been on a big Tony Bourdain kick, and I've been craving steak, so Les Halles was the only reasonable solution. What's nice is that it's not really a "food experience" place; it really just seems like a place that sells really extravagent comforting food, more concerned with the actual food than the exoticism or presentment. Well, having a slab of butter on your sirloin is always great, too. Good beer is a plus, too. There's no awkward formality of inspecting the cork and swirling and sniffing while everyone knows that you really have no idea what you're doing. And at least I know something about beer.

Then we went to the Film Forum and for once I actually made it through a show there without falling asleep, despite being full of meat and beer.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), FW Murnau:
Sunrise was really really good. I had only seen Nosferatsu and hated it, so I wasn't really sure what to expect from Murnau, but the production values were really really nice. There's no silly or primitive movie pieces that date the film, and the actors seem really to be acting, not silent-film-acting. For some reason, I expected the film to be much darker than it was, but once I got the hang of it, it was astounding. It's a shame Murnau didn't make more Hollywood films. I hear good things about The Last Laugh, though.
15/15

Sat, 11 Sep 2004 20:49:14 GMT

Cries and Whispers (1972), Ingmar Bergman:
Thumbs up.
14/15

Like Water for Chocolate (1992), Alfonso Arau:
It was good, but there wasn't enough food or magic realism for it to be great.
12/15

Fri, 10 Sep 2004 15:11:01 GMT

The Apostle (1997), Robert Duvall:
It seems a little too much like Robert Duvall's personal project than a movie he just thought he should make. For some reason, though, seeing people start up in a new town always makes for good story. Maybe it's seeing people do what they do, I don't know. Besides all that, though, I'm not sure it really does what it's supposed to do. Billy Bob comes, gets saved, and promptly disappears from the movie. Well, Robert Duvall does a good job.
12/15

The Asphalt Jungle (1950), John Huston:
I just couldn't really get into it. Heist films blah blah.
10/15

Tue, 07 Sep 2004 03:34:13 GMT

Love and Death (1975), Woody Allen:
A lot of it was lost on me because I'm not really that up on my Russians. There's some amazing gags, though, back when Allen wasn't too shy about letting everyone else have one-liners. Diane Keaton really is wonderful.
12/15

The Big Heat (1953), Fritz Lang:
It's a nice noir, not of the standard femme-fatale-broken-destiny type, which is refreshing. The acting isn't particularly great, and it shows at places, but it's just so delightfully lurid. I mean, disfiguration by boiling coffee, blackmailing widows in fur coats, all that fun stuff.
13/15

Nashville (1975), Robert Altman:
Emily really had the best points to say about this. She likes the sound editing, which she feels helps keep everything together. She's disappointed that it didn't come from an honest love of Nashville. She also says that she needs a second viewing to really get this movie, and I think so too.

One of the reasons Altman is a genius is the way he can juggle the characters and plot arcs and loose ends without losing the audience, and he does exceptionally here. The problem is that some things do get lost and you can't really invest yourself into any one thing except the couple major storylines. I liked the movie, but I didn't love it.
12/15

Sun, 05 Sep 2004 03:28:09 GMT

Household Saints (1993), Nancy Savoca:
Ugh. The first half hour? Great. The second? Also great. The third? Starting to get suspect, but it looks like it's going to pull through. Then... Jesus? No, really, Jesus?
6/15

Radio Days (1987), Woody Allen:
I really don't see what Woody Allen sees in Dianne Wiest. I'm just glad he hung on to Diane Keaton. Julie Kavner is also really great, though I never really noticed her until now. It's not classic Allen, but it excels when it needs to and doesn't make a single bad move.
13/15

Sat, 04 Sep 2004 03:22:00 GMT

Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Billy Wilder:
It's good, but not really for the actual drama. Marlene Dietrich is good and creepy as ever, Charles Laughton is great, as is Elsa Lancaster. But besides the last fifteen minutes, the movie just seemed to be a better vehicle for letter the characters do their thing than the action motion of the courtroom drama. Maybe I'm just spoiled by Law and Order.
11/15

Fri, 03 Sep 2004 18:56:55 GMT

True Romance (1993), Tony Scott:
I actually didn't expect to like this as much as I did. Tony Scott did a pretty good job of staying out of Tarantino's script. I bet if Tarantino hadn't've sold his baby, he would've refined the story by the time it hit the print, but with Scott, I guess it wouldn't really matter. What comes across is a pastiche of Tarantino themes, thrown together in an altogether enjoyable film with a decent glossy finish. It's a perfect cast; something where Bronson Pinchot fits completely. (side note: he's engaged to Amy Heckerling?)

The use of the Badlands score was really nice, though it's a shame that flash of Tarantino goodness had to be wasted on this and Natural Born Killers.
12/15

Hero (2002), Yimou Zhang:
Ah well. I guess part of the disappointment was from looking forward to it a lot, but it really didn't engage me. The opening fight scene was really one of the best I've ever seen, and the art direction and cinematography was pretty amazing. The movie just seemed really flat. None of the themes really had any more depth than presented, nor did much of the movie do anything besides look really nice. I know it's not the simplistic message, because one of Zhang's last movies, Not One Less had an equally simple and traditional message, but he was able to create deep and compelling motion out of it. Even the visuals weren't top-notch, some of the CG seemed a couple generations old and many of the fight scenes didn't have enough flair to become more than just another fight scene.
7/15

Thu, 02 Sep 2004 02:57:12 GMT

The Train (1964), John Frankenheimer:
Honestly, I wasn't really paying very much attention. I really keep hoping Burt Lancaster will be like Richard Burton, but it never really happens.

Tue, 31 Aug 2004 03:54:13 GMT

It feels a lot more of an accomplishment and a lot less like sitting on my ass for most of the summer if I just post the list of movies from school out to school in.

1. Blow-up
2. In America
3. The Ipcress File
4. The Year of Living Dangerously
5. Notting Hill
6. City of God
7. The Last Samurai
8. Witness
9. Johnny Guitar
10. The Miracle Worker
11. Imitation of Life
12. The Verdict
13. Hilary and Jackie
14. the King and I
15. Frankenstein (1931)
16. Rashomon
17. Papillon
18. Bride of Frankenstein
19. Salaam Bombay!
20. Dead Man
21. Patton
22. Zatoichi (2003)
23. Boys Don't Cry
24. The Seventh Seal
25. The 400 Blows
26. The Limey
27. Fearless
28. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
29. La Jetee
30. Shadow of the Vampire
-. 21 grams
31. Three Godfathers
32. Videodrome
33. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
34. Night of the Hunter
35. The Cruise
36. Ordinary People
37. Meet me in St. Louis
38. The Missing
39. Cinema Paradiso
40. Gigi
41. A Night at the Opera
42. Wild Strawberries
43. On the Beach
44. Bubba Ho-tep
45. Word Wars
46. The Right Stuff
47. Winchester '73
48. A Streetcar Named Desire
-. Master and Commander
49. The Marathon Man
50. Touch of Evil
51. The Hidden Fortress
52. McCabe and Mrs. Miller
53. Steamboat Bill Jr. / Convict 13 / Daydreams
54. Badlands
55. Shallow Grave
56. Paint your Wagon
57. The Gold Rush
58. Farewell My Lovely
--. Spellbound (2002)
59. Mirage
60. The Piano
61. Atlantic City
62. All About My Mother
63. Big Night
64. Rebecca
65. Sleuth
66. Anastasia (1956)
67. Ikiru
68. The Elephant Man
69. L'Avventura
70. Spider-man 2
71. Gone with the Wind
72. Fireworks (Hana-bi)
73. Huey Long
74. The Gunfighter
75. Ball of Fire
76. Bus Stop
77. Crumb
78. Days of Heaven
79. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
80. Samurai I: Miyamoto Musashi
81. Mystic River
82. Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple
83. Nosferatsu: a Symphony of Horror
84. Serpico
85. Victory Through Air Power
86. Bugs! (IMAX)
87. American Graffiti
88. In the Heat of the Night
89. All the King's Men
90. For a Few Dollars More
91. Samurai III: Duel on Ganryu Island
92. Broadway Danny Rose
93. The Boys from Brazil
--. Johnny Guitar
94. Kind Hearts and Coronets
95. Dead Ringers
96. My Darling Clementine
97. Big Fish
98. Being There
99. The Candidate
100. Wings of Desire
101. Les Mistons/Antoine et Colette
102. The Crying Game
103. The Bourne Supremacy
104. 25th hour
105. Tombstone
106. Heist (2001)
107. Dr. T and the Women (I'm sorry everyone)
108. The Thief of Baghdad
109. A Star is Born (1937)
110. Prizzi's honor
111. Tie me up! Tie me down!
112. Cold Mountain
113. Roger and Me
114. Arsenic and Old Lace
115. The Celebration (Festen)
116. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
117. Silverado
118. Fist of Legend
119. Double Indemnity
--. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
120. Stagecoach
121. The Producers
122. My Life as a Dog
123. Thief
124. Midnight Cowboy
125. Night of the Iguana
126. Swimfan
127. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
128. Collateral
129. The Edge
130. Bloody Sunday
131. The Taking of Pelham 123
132. The Thin Red Line
133. Sling Blade
134. Rio Bravo
135. Cowards Bend at the Knee
136. The Lady Vanishes (1937)
137. JFK
138. 8 1/2
139. It happened one night
140. Bye bye brasil
141. Leaving Las Vegas
142. The Godfather pt III
143. City on Fire (the Chow Yun Fat one)
144. Starman
145. River's edge
146. Grand Illusion
147. Persona
148. Western Union
149. Red River
150. One False Move

Tue, 31 Aug 2004 03:53:18 GMT

Western Union (1941), Fritz Lang:
No, really. Apparently he did a bunch of them. I just realized now that this was a war-time movie, so I didn't really look for the themes, but it might help explain some things. There are a couple places where Lang starts building unexpectedly complicated themes, but overall, it's a pretty tame Western.
11/15

Red River (1948), Howard Hawks:
So I think I'm finally getting the hang of John Wayne. I don't think I quite get Howard Hawks, though. He has lots of straight-up flat movies and he's able to throw out something like this. It's not quite The Searchers, but it's like the wholesome twist on the Western. Montgomery Clift is good, too.
13/15

One False Move (1992), Carl Franklin:
Emily has a theory that in the early nineties, people had the same fondness for quaint backwater towns that they apparently still seem to have towards retarted people on film (hence the completely bafflingly well reviewed Sling Blade). It's ok, but it really doesn't seem to be anything special.
6/15

The Longest Day (1962), lots of people:
Probably one of the best WWII movies I've seen. Most of it is the way it excels in handling the standard war movie problem: how to handle the enemy. The Germans have everything we have, soldiers (whom, of course, we don't see), brilliant military leaders, materiel everywhere. It's the system that fails. Relying on the Fuhrer, not trusting the deductions of their generals, not having the zeal of Robert Mitchum or Henry Fonda. Of course, it's not their screw-ups that let us win. It wasn't luck, and the Allies had their share of mistakes, too. It's really difficult to keep all this in balance, but it does it.

I think it more than trumps Saving Private Ryan. Ryan might have the versimilitude, but The Longest Day smacks of first-hand experiences. There's all these little touches, like when the soldier finds his recoil pushing his ladder backwards. That for me is worth any number of severed arms and bloodied beaches. Of course there's the silly war movie conventions, but the whole just seems to ring truer.

The movie does, predictably, run a bit long. The battles which avoided the A Bridge Too Far effect of all starting to run into each other, started running into each other by the end. It's well worth the extra hour, though, just to watch Mitchum and Richard Burton strut (well, hobble).
14/15