Movies in November

Finally I'm all caught up! Now if the same could just be said about the writing...

The Last Airbender was like a chilling wind blowing through my soul; I could feel the metaphysical frostbite and it burned, oh how it burned. How could he have gotten every single thing wrong? (Dev Patel and Shaun Toub were the one bright spot in an otherwise muddy mess of a film). I hope they aren't planning more, or at least they get a different filmmaker on board a la Harry Potter. I'd much rather see M. Night Shyamalan make another M. Night movie and not try to adapt someone else's story.

Vertigo was also a bit of a disappointment. I can see that it's technically stunning, and it has the lush look that says Hitchcock, but the story was just not doing it for me.

A classic that was just as fun as I'd hoped: The Sting with Robert Redford and Paul Newman. The boys enjoyed it as well.

Brick is the first film from The Brothers Bloom director Rian Johnson. It's a noir story set in a high school starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. And by nior I really am talking about the story: the characters and how they speak and the plot. Film visuals usually associated with noir are almost entirely absent. That gives an interesting effect. It might be carry-over from having watched The Brothers Bloom first, but in my mind it made the movie feel very literary. I liked this less than The Brothers Bloom largely because it was noir, though. I don't have a great interest in the seedy underbelly of society, or women who use their sexuality to manipulate men. Not my cuppa tea. Still, well done.

Mulholland Drive didn't make sense to me until I read on Wikipedia that it was intended to be a pilot for a TV series, and when he couldn't sell the series he crafted an ending to make it a film. I think it had potential to be a very watchable TV show, but as a film the first two-thirds feel nothing like the last third and it was interesting but not quite complete.

College is a Buster Keaton film. Buster is a scholar who is forced to take an interest in sports to get the girl he likes to notice him. He fails at everything he tries until his girl is in peril - the film ends with Buster running across campus, pole vaulting and leaping hedges and doing everything else he's been trying to do in the early part of the film. It wasn't as funny as some of his others, but the man was a genius of physicality.

Some more Madhuri Dixit films: Ram Lakhan was notable mainly for casting Amrish Puri as the bad guy (yea!). Prahaar took a very long time to get going (the first hour of the movie is guys training in the army in far too much detail), but once the story settled itself in a neighborhood overrun with gangs strong-arming the locals, and the army major who came in town for the funeral of one of his former protegees stays to clean things up. For a Bollywood movie, this had a lot of realism (no musical numbers, no makeup on the actors, and the fight scenes were very real). It was directed by Nana Patekar, who as an actor has done some very meaty, and often quite dark, roles. I wonder why he only ever directed the one film. It wasn't great, but it was an interesting first try.

Two French films which were musicals: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg wasn't the sort of musical that features songs. It was more like the actors sing-songed the entire script. Interesting, and I liked the story, but when I hear singing I want to hear choruses and verses, not just an endless sing-song. The Young Girls of Rochefort I liked immensely. It was an old-school musical with a double love story interrupted by songs. The costumes and sets were colorful and like a window back in time. And it has Gene Kelly in it - speaking French.

The Girl Who Played with Fire I liked better than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, if only because it had fewer scenes that made me intensely uncomfortable. I'm not sure why they recast this part for the English language version (or, quite honestly, why they had to make an English language version). I'm going to have trouble believing any other actress in this part.

Dollhouse Season 2 wrapped up that story in a semi-satisfying way. Unlike, say, Firefly, I didn't get the feeling that there was so much more story left to tell. It was an interesting concept, but I'm not sure there was enough material to carry a show. I loved Topher, though, and Victor channelling Topher was hilarious - so spot on.

Finally, a documentary about guitar players. It Might Get Loud features three generations of guitarists: Jimmy Page, the Edge and Jack White. They have three very distinct styles and approaches to music, and individually talking about what they do and why I loved. But the scenes where the three tried to jam together in my mind mainly served to drive home just how individualistic these three musicians are. I found this documentary compelling enough to watch it twice. Aside from making me want to dig my guitar back out (which would be a very bad idea - no time!), a lot of what they are saying about music applies equally well to writing. I love listening to artists of any stripe talking about their craft.

Here's the trailer, in which you see one of my favorite moments: Jack White showing you don't need to buy a guitar:

Books in November

Only four books read in November (but wait until you see December...)

First off, I capped off my China Miéville marathon with his latest, Kraken. While this doesn't quite nudge Un Lun Dun off as my personal fave, it comes pretty close. Very readable prose, with such detail to the worldbuilding. I particularly like the magic-wielders who use sci-fi tropes for their magic. Who doesn't want a sonic screwdriver for a magic wand? It's so much cooler than a willow branch.

Behemoth is Scott Westerfeld's sequel to Leviathan, this time set in Istanbul. A fun read, the illustrations are quite good. All the talk of spices was making me hungry. And in the next book they are heading further east; should be interesting.

The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia is another book that's been around the house for ages in various To Be Read stacks. I loved the Russian details (particularly Father Frost, whom I've adored since the movie), but the story itself didn't quite suck me in as much as I'd hoped.

Drive by Daniel H. Pink also wasn't as engrossing as I'd hoped, mostly because a lot of his ideas come from Dan Ariely, and I've already read him. Not enough new here. On the other hand, if you've not read Ariely, this look at people's relationship to their work and what motivates us might be interesting (on the other, other hand, I'd really just recommend reading Ariely).

It's back to work for me; these stories don't write themselves, you know. In the meantime, a few of my favorite quotes:

Living a satisfying life requires more than simply meeting the demands of those in control. Yet in our offices and our classrooms we have way too much compliance and way too little engagement. The former might get you through the day, but only the latter will get you through the night. - Drive

She didn’t know what it was about subways – perhaps the fact that they were carved into a dark wet heart of the earth – that made them so magical. But she used to have an unshakeable conviction that they were the way to a hidden world where she could escape. – The Secret History of Moscow

“Sometimes you can’t get bogged down in the how,” Baron said. “Sometimes things happen that shouldn’t, and you can’t let that detain you. But the why? We can make headway with.” – Kraken

“My name’s not Rosencratz,” Eddie Malone said. “I wasn’t going to carry a message I didn’t understsand.” – Behemoth

Movies in October

Oh, the lateness. These movies are from October, dude. Let's see what I remember...

The Secret of Kells was a so-so story told with some of the most eye-catching animation I've seen in a while. It was kind of Samurai Jack-y; very cool. I particularly loved the snow that was little Celtic knots.

Van Helsing was just as bad as everyone said it was. *Sigh*. Nice hat, though.

Koyla, Mrityudand, and Sailaab were all Madhuri Dixit movies. Koyla had Amrish Puri as the bad guy, and that's always a good choice (non-Bollywood fans would recognize him as Mola Ram in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom but I love him best as the very Bond-villain Mogambo in Mr. India. Man, he was awesome in that). These three were all pretty forgettable movies, though.

Heroes, Season 4 was their last season. As much as the show never really found its footing, never got more than mildly interesting, I have to give it props for not tanking the ending like BSG or Lost. Maybe not having an end in mind and having to wrap everything up at the last minute because you've been cancelled can be a good thing.

The Venture Brothers, Season 4, Volume 1 was, of course, awesome. Particularly the first episode, told out of sequence with a number in the corner that keeps changing value. The minute I figured out what that number meant - that was sublime. (I also like the ep when Dean discovers the world of prog rock). The boys are moving through adolescence in a convincing, often emotionally moving way. For a show that's mostly about terribly inappropriate jokes, the details of this family are rendered with great love. Yes, I'm deeply admiring of this show.

And finally, how did I love the movie The Brothers Bloom? Let me count the ways.

• First off, the character names come from my all-time #1 favorite book EVAH, Ulysses. Brothers Bloom, you had me from the title.
• The prologue about their childhood told in verse? Pretty much clinched it. I was in love before the credits started.
• Rachel Weisz's character Penelope is so beyond awesome. She's a 30-something shut-in who collects hobbies by learning how to do things from books. (Of course I love her). She plays all these instruments, speaks all these languages, makes her own pinhole cameras - she even juggles chainsaws.
• You don't have to have read anything to get the movie, but the subtle way literary references are woven through the story was just delightful. But like Bloom says, his brother constructs cons the way dead Russians write novels.
• This was the movie that moved Mark Ruffalo in my mind from some guy who always looks familiar, like I've seen him in stuff, to an actor I instantly recognized. And just in time, as he's taking over the Hulk role from Ed Norton.
• This movie has one of the best, most perfect kisses in it. You realize some things about Penelope that no other moment could convey so well.
• The music is perfect for the scenes, too. I particularly loved the epiphany (because any movie that takes its title from a James Joyce novel has to have an epiphany) set to Cat Stevens. Man, perfection.
• The nearly Harpoesque Japanese demolitions expert Bang-Bang. Pay attention; when Stephen says she only speaks "like three words of English", you can start counting her dialogue. Karaoke aside, it's exactly three, well chosen, words.
• The message is pretty cool too. It certainly encapsulates my own philosophy of life.
• I've watched this movie more than a dozen times since. It might just be a case of one of those movies that feels like the writer went inside my own head and created my perfect thing, but I think it's pretty near perfect.

So, on that note, here's the trailer: