60 Second Movie Review: Skyfall (2012)

December 11, 2012 by 1 Comment

It’s been a couple weeks since I skipped out on life on a Monday afternoon and went to watch Skyfall at 11:40 am with a half dozen other people in the theater and a tub of popcorn all for myself.

Other than the buttery goodness, what I remember most of the latest James Bond film is how aware it was of itself as a James Bond film. That’s somewhat true of all Bond films. Sean Connery may have kept a straight face while calling Honor Blackman “Pussy Galore” in 1964′s Goldfinger, but the film was definitely winking at the audience.

Honor Blackman and Sean Connery in Goldfinger

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Sunday Night Video – Questioning Woody Allen

December 9, 2012 by 3 Comments

I haven’t seen Robert Weide’s Woody Allen: A Documentary, but I’m interested. Watching the following unusual questions posed to Allen, I was struck at how much of an old man Allen is. Sure, he’s long looked old and even creepy, but more than the answers, I was struck by his slowed-down demeanor. Presumably it’s partially just due to him not playing the frantic version of himself he places on the big screen, but sitting down to answer questions one-on-one.

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Bike Transportation in Pop Culture

December 9, 2012 by Leave a comment

Commuting by bike is enjoyable and healthy, and bike commuters do their part to reduce pollution and traffic congestion. So why does American pop culture depict bike commuters as weirdos?

For the most part, those who use bikes for transportation are invisible in pop culture. I’m disconnected enough from recent pop culture that I may have missed an example or two, but I’d be surprised if bike commuters have become familiar figures.

This rumination began when I realized, on traveling home one afternoon on my bike with its basket in the front, that I bore some superficial resemblance to Miss Gulch, the dog-hating neighbor in The Wizard of Oz, associated in Dorothy’s mind with the Wicked Witch of the West.

Cropped screenshot of Judy Garland from the tr...

Cropped screenshot of Judy Garland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Sunday Night Video – The Beatles, “Help!”

December 2, 2012 by Leave a comment

T. and I are about 2/3 of the way through The Beatles’ 1965 film Help!, which I haven’t watched since high school. Lord knows I love me some Beatles, who serve as the foundation of my sense of music, but Help! simply isn’t as strong a film as 1964′s A Hard Day’s Night. Sure, Help! has plenty of fun, and some extraordinary songs, but the larger framework of the ring which designates a sacrificial victim just doesn’t work as well A Hard Day’s Night, when their journey to putting on a concert served as a sufficient excuse to all of the shenanigans. Oh well, I still love the boys. Enough so that I’ll probably even re-watch 1967′s Magical Mystery Tour one of these days.

Here are the Beatles on August 14, 1965, singing Help! on The Ed Sullivan Show.

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Monday Night Video – Mike Birbiglia’s Sleepwalk With Me

August 27, 2012 by 1 Comment

I’m excited about the release of comedian Mike Birbiglia’s film, Sleepwalk With Me. Like many people, I first came across Birbiglia’s easygoing charm in an August 2008 This American Life episode entitled Fear of Sleep. This American Life included Birbiglia’s tale of a sleep disorder and the havoc it created on his personal life. The story came from his one-man show, which also formed the basis for the movie.

I feel fortunate that Sleepwalk With Me is opening on August 31 at the Aquarius in Palo Alto. Ira Glass co-wrote the script and This American Life is asking its fans to make sure the film has as wide a distribution as possible. It has a 6.5 rating right now on IMDB, which isn’t great for an independent flick, but I like the people involved enough to make sure and give it a go. As you can see from the trailer, there’s even a part in it for Marc Maron!

SEE ALSO
superfabulousgettingby: Stumping the Comedian

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60 Second Movie Review: Killer Joe (2011)

August 22, 2012 by 6 Comments

It’s an old joke, but for as long as I can remember, I’ve had a poor memory. Blogging is great for that, as I can write what I recall in the moment, and then let it go into the ether. If I forget what I thought of an old movie or TV show, I can use the Google instead of my brain. Unfortunately, when I saw Tracy Letts’ play Killer Joe at the Renegade Theatre Experiment almost two years ago, I didn’t write a review, so I can’t compare the film in great detail. I’ll have to stick closely to the movie with these reactions, which assess the film as a whole, definitely wandering on occasion into spoiler territory.

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60 Second Movie Review: An American in Paris (1951)

August 16, 2012 by 3 Comments

Seeing An American in Paris on the big screen at the Stanford Theatre was my first time seeing it all the way through on any screen. I’ve been a huge Gene Kelly fan since childhood — one of my now not-so-private secrets is that I took a couple years of tap dancing lessons as a kid. My fandom was founded primarily on Singin’ in the Rain, with a dash of On the Town sprinkled on top. But An American in Paris? Whenever it came on the teevee, it seemed a tad disjointed and superficial, without that sustained momentum of my favorite Kelly flicks, so I never stayed with it. I still feel that way, but the movie has plenty of delightful performers and performances.

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60 Second Movie Review: The Apartment (1960)

August 13, 2012 by 5 Comments

The Apartment is one of those classic films that I kept intending to watch, but never quite got around to viewing. I started it once, a couple years ago, but my then-girlfriend was less of a fan of old movies than I am. That’s fair enough, but her tentative interest made me extra sensitive to the slower pace of this particular Billy Wilder flick. The Apartment doesn’t have the same rapid-fire wit and gags of Some Like It Hot, which was released the year before, but it’s deeply pleasurable in its own right, and definitely lifted me out of the doldrums when I went to see it at the Stanford Theatre on a Tuesday evening in August.

Be warned…possible spoilers inside once you step inside…

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Weekend Movie Review: The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

August 3, 2012 by 3 Comments

I went to see The Dark Knight Rises at the Grove and could tell that I was in L.A. because the screen and sound was super awesome. It made for some great visceral fun. Planes in the air! Explosions underground! Chase scenes through the streets that didn’t bore me! So, uh, that’s my review in a nutshell. What follows presumes that you’ve already seen the film — probably before I did! — and I talk a lot about the movie’s politics, so if that spoils the fun you find in watching grown men wear capes, please do not make the leap…

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Weekend Movie Review: Words and Music (1948)

July 26, 2012 by 9 Comments

I went to see Words and Music at the Stanford Theatre knowing that it is a post-World War II MGM all-star musical, so I figured that this highly fictionalized account of the career of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart would provide a series of pretty darn good musical numbers, perhaps tied together by a clumsy narrative. Unfortunately, the songs were fewer in number than I’d hoped, even after accounting for the fact that Rodgers & Hammerstein was much more prolific than Rodgers & Hart. A bland narrative hung over the film like Perry Como (who was actually pretty likable in the film), spiced up by the frequently fascinating presence of Mickey Rooney, who played Hart.

RODGERS: A tune without a lyric is a mighty lonesome thing.

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Wednesday Night Video – The Laughs of Richard Dreyfuss

July 25, 2012 by 1 Comment

I’m not even sure why I find this whole thing fascinating, but what an opus!

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Weekend Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

July 19, 2012 by 5 Comments

I was on the fence about whether or not to go see The Amazing Spider-Man, but knew I had made the right decision as soon as the lights went down and the trailers began. You know how it can be easy to tell how bad a movie is going to be by how difficult it is for them to find choice moments for the preview? Well, the best line in the trailer for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 was the following:

DUDE: I didn’t expect you to be so — you.

Awesome sauce. I now know not to go see The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2. Seeing Spider-Man already saved me twelve bucks.

Random thoughts on Spidey — including some spoilers — after the break.

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