The Intangibility Of Humor
Mood:  not sure
Topic: Movies/TV
I usually strive to maintain a relatively positive atmosphere around here, but I'm sick and I look like a monster - humor me...

For the life of me, I have never been able to grasp how anyone could find Will Ferrell to be funny. An impartial observer watching me watch Mr. Ferrell in any of his numerous performances would have roughly the same experience watching a blind person sit through a performance by a troupe of mimes. I say only roughly the same experience, because there would most likely be considerable wincing on my part.

I just don't get it. Do people genuinely laugh at this guy's jokes, or do they pretend that he's funny out of some sort of general sympathy with his political views? Even when I don't personally like a comedian, I can usually understand what it is about him or her that folks find amusing. In this case, though, I'm entirely at a loss.

I see the horrifically lame TV commercials for this horrifically lame new movie (Kicking & Screaming) about a kid soccer team, and then I see "Ebert and Roever (sic) give two enthusiastic thumbs up!" What's next, an Oscar for Crossroads?

P.S. Recovery from my dread disease is moving forward, albeit slowly. Hopefully, discovering on IMDB that Mr. Ferrell is preparing to begin filming Joan of Bark: The Dog that Saved France won't send me into a relapse...

Before Sunset
Mood:  lyrical
Topic: Movies/TV
I had intended to see this movie in a theater, but circumstances prevented that from happening. Actually, that's a good story in itself. It ran here in OKC for all of one week, and even though I should have known there was a possibility that it would make a quick exit, I waited too long. Sort of ironic, considering the story arc of the Before Sunrise / Before Sunset duet. But then I had another chance - it was still playing in Dallas, and I was down there to see The Eyeliners open for Joan Jett (what a great night that was). So the next day, I check out of the motel and make my way over to the nearest theater where it was showing, only to discover that it had stopped showing at that particular theater the day before! Not panicking yet, I bought a copy of the Dallas Morning News and found another theater where it was showing that was near I-35 and which I would pass on my way out of town. I just had enough time to get there - from south Dallas to north Dallas - if I hurried.

So I tear off like a bat out of hell, figuring out how to get back to the Interstate as I go, encountering considerable frustration with Dallas traffic, but I finally make it to the supposed location of the theater with only a couple of minutes to spare. Only problem is, NO THEATER! I mean, I drove all over that place, desperately searching in vain. I'm not sure how you hide an entire theater, but those Texas folks have figured it out. By the time I realized that I just wasn't going to find it, it was too late to stop and ask for directions. I could have waited around and gone to a later show at a theater I DID know the location of, but that would have pushed me into going home in Dallas rush hour traffic and I wasn't too enthused about that idea (this was on a Friday - I had taken off from work). I guess I could have stayed overnight (I did briefly consider the idea), but I decided to just go ahead and make my way home, having missed yet another chance.

I actually did manage to see Before Sunrise in a theater, during its initial release. I enjoyed it immensely, but I think that in my mind, I didn't initially recognize recognize how much I loved it. I was thinking of it as a romantic comedy, and that probably caused me to underestimate it a little. I mean, it is a romantic comedy, but it's so vibrant, so real, so lovingly made that it absolutely transcends the genre. I especially love the sequence at the end, where we go back to all the places in Vienna that the two lovers have visited during their brief time together, now empty. It was just a beautiful idea, to show those empty places that so recently served such an important purpose for these two people who met and connected in such a sudden, unexpected fashion.

I suppose that at some point I have to get around to reviewing the movie I watched on DVD tonight. Before Sunset picks up nine years after the end of the original movie. The two main characters, it turns out, have had no contact whatsoever in the intervening years. I don't want to reveal much more than that, plot wise, for fear of spoiling it for those who have yet to see it. I can say that at the moment very early on when Ethan Hawke first catches sight of Julie Delpy, MY heart jumped up into MY throat. Goodness gracious, what a woman. Of course I may be slightly prejudiced in light of being hopelessly in love with her, but I really believe Julie is the heart and soul of both films. Ethan Hawke is very good, but these films literally shimmer with the exquisite combination of intellect and passion Julie offers, along with her seamless, completely natural portrayal of the complex, intense emotions encountered in the brief, compressed time these two have together.

Julie and Ethan collaborated with the director Richard Linklater in the writing of this sequel. I think the end result is just as good and rings just as true as the original. On another level, I find it very interesting and gratifying that the people involved in making the earlier movie seem to have been themselves deeply affected by the experience. I suspect that Before Sunset was made on a relatively small budget - it was clearly a labor of love for everyone involved. It's a minor miracle that ANY movie that involves mostly conversations between two people could be made and get relatively wide distribution these days. As you may have guessed by now, I've been smitten all over again...

A Very Long Engagement
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Movies/TV
Went to see it Friday night - it was a delightful surprise to find that it came to my town here in the far backwaters of the movie industry. With this effort Jean-Pierre Jeunet - in concert with his extraordinary muse, Audrey Tautou - proves conclusively that Amelie was no fluke.

A Very Long Engagement is set in the aftermath of World War I, telling its story with a combination of present action and flashbacks. The basic plot involves a girl's unrelenting search for her lover, when available evidence suggests - but doesn't prove conclusively - that the boy had perished in the war. It doesn't blink at the profound ugliness of the war, but Jeunet has a knack for allowing us to see the good in people even as very bad things are happening. Audrey Tautou is a woman beyond my powers of description. For all I know she could be a shrew in real life, but onscreen she is a transcendently beautiful figure who radiates incredible warmth and empathy and literally forces you to fall in love with her.

This movie is considerably darker than Amelie, just by the nature of its subject matter, but echoes from the earlier film are there nevertheless. Considering that Amelie is an epic achievement considered by many to be one of the best movies ever made, that's not at all a bad thing.

ER - Tonight - Be There!
Mood:  special
Topic: Movies/TV
Sorry for the last-minute notice, but if anyone stops by here in the next 75 minutes (CST), my e-friend Alexandra Billings is appearing as a guest star on the TV show ER tonight. Try to watch the show if you can, and then stop by her website to congratulate her (just click on the LiveJournal tab). I don't think she's been a Hollywood guest star before, so this is a pretty big deal for her. Check out the archives on her blog while you're there - lots of heart and wisdom and various cool stuff...

Spear Me?
Mood:  mischievious
Topic: Movies/TV
So I trudge my way home from work last night, heat something in the microwave and plop myself down in front of the television. As I press the power button and the magic box slowly glimmers to life, I soon come upon the realization that I am watching Britney Spears lip-sync her little arse off to "I Love Rock & Roll". Transfixed by the horror of the situation, I sit motionless for several moments. Then the questions started reeling through my mind. It costs millions of dollars to make a major studio film - was there NOBODY in the entire approval process, from her handlers to her record company to the movie studio - who knew enough about music to state the obvious? That it might be wise for a lighter than air pop star who can't really even sing without major computerized assistance to avoid a disastrous comparison by not choosing to "cover" a Joan Jett & The Blackhearts song? Or was this just an unusual case where the assumption that it's impossible to underestimate the taste of the American public was actually proven wrong?

What do you think? How did a monstrosity like "Crossroads" come to be?

Sideways
Mood:  mischievious
Topic: Movies/TV
So, went to see Sideways last night. Another excellent movie from the guy who made Election - Alexander Payne.

Male friendships tend to involve considerably more doing than communicating. That is the case here, but throughout the course of an intense week much is eventually revealed with these two guys - to each other and finally to themselves. The movie doesn't flinch at showing the warts on these men, but ultimately it does give us some reasons to believe that even the seemingly hopeless among us may not be entirely so.

Highly recommended.

Addendum:
With a gentle prod from Mona, I just realized that in striving for brevity earlier today I forgot to mention that this is a very funny movie. There were several spots where I laughed out loud, and there were also any number of cringing smiles. I think my favorite moment was outside the restaurant when Miles tries to make a stand for his manly independence by drawing a hilariously violent line in opposition to the idea of one of their companions possibly committing the unpardonable sin of ordering a Merlot.

Payne has a way of showing us bad behavior with a clear eye, while still allowing a certain amount of sympathy and understanding for the poor targets of his lens. Don't know about you, but I know I'm definitely in favor of hope for the hopeless. ;-)

Fed Up
Topic: Movies/TV
I'm posting this off the cuff, so bear with me. I just finished reading Roger Ebert's review of Team America: World Police and I'm sorry, but George Bush has succeeded in making Roger Ebert stupid. First, Ebert gave Michael Moore's political tract thinly disguised as a documentary four stars, and now he's trying to tell us that we can't laugh at Team America because its creators have the temerity to refuse to take sides in this apocalyptic election.

As far as I'm concerned, Ebert is trashing his reputation as a movie reviewer in order to become a political activist. It's one thing to be an artist who criticizes others on political grounds. Green Day has a new song out called American Idiot - while I'm not buying the political message in the lyrics, I still believe that it's a great rock & roll song. But movie reviewers are not artists, they're journalists. If their objectivity is in serious question - if their evaluation of the quality of movies is heavily colored by their own political beliefs, their value as a critic evaporates. You have to be able to trust these people to give an honest opinion, and it's starting to look like that may no longer be the case with Roger Ebert, a man whose opinion I have always respected in the past.

There's a great deal of stupidity on the left these days that has been provoked by the stupidity of George Bush. I just wish that these people could see that when you allow yourself to be pushed off the deep end by the actions of someone you despise, you're handing that person a victory on a silver platter.

Something For Nothing
Topic: Movies/TV
Well, the Sooners whipped Texas once again. I guess math isn't a strong point down there in the land of Bevo - it's kinda hard to win if ya don't score, fellas. ;-)

OK, I woke up this morning and ran across this article, at long last providing me with a worthwhile subject to post about. These three yahoos who were apparently the inspiration for characters in the movie "Dazed And Confused" have gotten together and decided to sue the movie's creator Richard Linklater, who also wrote and directed movies like Slacker, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. These imbeciles claim that their lives bear no resemblance to the dissipated misadventures portrayed in the film, and their formerly impeccable reputations have been hopelessly besmirched. Yeah, right. The filing of this lawsuit makes it obvious that they're fine, upstanding young men who simply want to prevent anyone else from undergoing the horrific experience of being satirized by that evil guy Linkater.

What's most disturbing is that our legal system will probably allow this thing to go forward, and there's a good chance that at some point these assholes will get some money out of it. This sort of thing is precisely why the Republicans are having success pushing forward draconian tort reform measures with damage limits set so low that they effectively relegate killing someone to a minor cost of doing business. We're going to go from 10 million dollars for a cup of McDonalds coffee to 200 thousand measley dollars for a wrongful death caused by willful negligence.

Lawyers - what a truly lovable bunch of folks...

Movie Time
Mood:  surprised
Topic: Movies/TV
Somehow, without my noticing, a shocking number of exciting new movies - some of them even non-mainstream - have suddenly appeared in my fair town. A new John Sayles movie alone - Silver City - would be great cause for celebration. But at the same time, we also have Maria Full Of Grace, Bright Young Things, The Saddest Music In The World, Sky Captain & The World Of Tomorrow, Garden State, Vanity Fair and Festival Express.

Wow. Folks, OKC is not exactly what you would call a film mecca. Those of you on either coast will not be particularly impressed by the number of movies I listed, but from my perspective it literally represents an onslaught. Now, it is true that A Dirty Shame probably won't play here because of the media stranglehold the ultra-conservative Gaylord empire holds on this town, keeping any and all NC-17 or unrated movies away from our impressionable eyes. However, that circumstance is leavened by the fact that I'm not a huge John Waters fan and A Dirty Shame doesn't sound like a particularly good film.

I haven't even decided what I'm going to see tonight - I'll just pick one when I get to the multiplex. I'd better hit the road - I'll follow up with a review later...

Michael Moore And The Thin Blue Line
Topic: Movies/TV
Just saw this story on CNN today. With all the recent hullabaloo about Fahrenheit 9/11, it reminded me what a really high-quality documentary can and should be. The Thin Blue Line doesn't resort to hyperbolic theatrics - it simply allows its participants to reveal themselves to us in a very natural way. Film-maker Errol Morris certainly does have a point of view regarding this story, but he does not resort to embellishment or fabrication in an attempt to shove that point of view down our throats. He brazenly trusts us to recognize the truth when we see it. A truly great film.

Mr. Moore should take notes, but he probably won't...