Movie: Munich

You MUST see One Day In September first. To understand Munich, you must watch the documentary of the hostage-taking in the Munich Olympics. This movie, being historical fiction, picks up where the documentary must leave off: Israel's covert, and still mostly secret, project to assassinate those responsible for killing the Jewish athletes. Without this background, one may fall into the common error of misunderstanding the process and reality of why & how this project was done. Yes, it's fiction - but sometimes fiction tells us the story of reality we cannot, for want of secrecy, be told. Well done, though not entertaining.

Movie: A Fistful of Dollars

Now that's a western.

An older film, featuring younger rock-solid star Clint Eastwood, of a nobody wandering into the middle of a feud destroying a small nowhere town. With few words, subtle action, and intrigued by the money to be made in the process, our nameless hero destroys both gangs and saves the innocent, asking nothing else in return - even the money is ultimately nothing to him.

I'm usually not big on westerns, but this one works.

Book: On Writing (Stephen King)

In one of the several forwards to this book, the author comments that a book about writing should be short. Indeed, the essence of the book is 29 pages - weighty enough that aspiring writers should read it, often. Another 100 pages or so gives useful insights on applying that core material. The rest of the book, which lists for $8, is autobiography which (A) while interesting would be difficult to publish in its own right, and (B) bulks out the text so you don't feel slighted by $4.

King is indeed a skillful writer, making the reader feel very comfortable (save for copious obscenities) and expresses his advice clearly and usefully. Being successful and talented, his advice is valuable being from one who has lived the reality of the industry, providing subtle suggestions and contradictions which add value far beyond what an academic portrayal of the craft would usually entail.

Thinking of writing? Get this book. The slim portion on "Toolbox" is more than worth the cover price.

Movie: .45

Losers.

That really just sums it up nicely. The movie is well acted, and the story is strong as stories go, but it's about ... losers, being losers, losing. Meh. Actually took me three days to get through it because I couldn't watch it all in one stretch, but having paid for it and spent enough time watching what I did I just wanted to see which of several possible losing endings the losers would lose by. I want a story where, somehow, I can look up to the protagonist(s); for this, I had to squint to see that low.

Story? He's a jerk, she won't leave, and conspiracies form to, er, extricate one from the other. She could have just walked out, but then the movie would have been about 10 minutes long.

Movie: A Scanner Darkly

A faithful, if abridged, adaptation of Philip K. Dick*’s novel. Undercover narcotics cop Fred is ordered to comprehensively investigate hardcore drug addict Bob; there’s just one problem ... Fred is Bob. Then comes the twist…
In a nearly inexplicable turn of movie production, the entire movie was filmed live, then hand-animated (rotoscoped) into stark, flat “posterized” coloring. Interesting result; save for one important visual effect I don’t see why they did it (“because it hadn’t been done” aside).
The book was significantly more depressing. The movie kinda hustles you thru the WTF elements, the book gives you full icky development thereof.
Upshot: a should-see for those fond of experimental mild-scifi tragedies; other people, not so much.

(* - PKD wrote the stories later turned into Blade Runner, Paycheck, Minority Report, and several other mind-benders.)

Movie: Rebecca

In standard Masterpiece Theater style, we have another classic British aristocratic drama in the Jane Austin / Emily Bronte tradition. Lower-class girl finds herself romantically entangled with a fabulously wealthy man, and must endure fancy clothes, fancier accoutrements, palacial residence, formal balls, aristocratic snobs & twits, strange servants, and her man's dark secret which they together face, heroically overcome and humbly suffer the tragic consequences of, abiding in the deep love they share after all.

Movie: War

Modern "Dirty Harry" cop vs perfect Japanese intra-gang asassin. Cool guy-movie mindless violent action gets too clever for it's own good at the end. I hate such endings.

Movie: Only You

Cheesy romantic comedy. If you'd say yes to a guy like this then you'd get what you deserve. Oh sure it's funny, but really...

Movie: 88 Minutes

Al Pachino's invariable character sets the tone for a psychological thriller where a psychologist has 88 minutes to realize an incarcerated serial killer is out to get him, and how. Exactly what such a description sounds like it will get you if you're in the mood for such a story.

Movies: Top Ten

I'm occasionally asked for my top ten movies. Here's a whack at it:

1. Koyaanisqatsi
"Life out of balance": a two-hour minimalist music video, no actors, no script, just the mesmerizing arpeggios of Philip Glass bolstering a portrayal of city life on a scale you rarely perceive - and how, someday, it must tragically collapse. I just can't see this one enough, and have done so at least 8 time (once with live introduction by Glass).

2. Being Human
A forgotten film, portraying Robin Williams as Everyman across the ages. Set in four eras, we see different parts of the same life (as most lives are mostly the same) played out in vastly different eras. Moving, capturing love lost, gained, and all in between - including the eternal quest for shoes that fit.

3. Braveheart
Powerful portrayal of manliness: total devotion to family and country at the cost of total personal sacrifice. FREEEEDOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!

4. The Truman Show
Good stories depict the arc of personal discovery and change; what could be more so than discovering one's entire life is the set and subject of a TV series, recorded and broadcast by thousands of cameras, and everyone around is a hired extra? Moody music by Philip Glass as a bonus.

5. Ghost Dog
A loser in the 'hood is, by momentary shoulder-shrugging whim, saved from death by a mobster. Thereafter said loser reads the ancient samurai text Hagakuri, and immediately devotes himself fully to the samurai way - and the perplexed thug who saved him. Leveraging this resource, this mid-level mobster uses him as an assassin ... and when the hits make things too complicated, the mob tries to take him out. Unusually, the script brings out the mobsters as the dingy losers they are, and portrays the tragedy of a devotee of a Way without any teacher to guide him.

6. Blade Runner
Gritty, messy, intense thriller that asks what it means to be human. "Time to die" ends one of the great on-screen pontifications. Subject to inappropriate editing in earlier releases, find the "Final Cut" version, done as the director intended.

7. Babette's Feast
A lovely, gentle tale (yes, I have a soft side) of secluded life in a religious commune, and the effect that good food can have on lives.

8. La Femme Nikita
Lost to society and subject to the death penalty, our dysfunctional heroine is trained to be a dark betrayer and agent of society: a spy. Particularly striking, among the gritty setting and tragic consequences, is how we the audience are _not_ privy to the whys and wherefores of her assignments. (The American remake of this French film fails precisely because we _do_ get answers and see consequences.)

9. The Lord of the Rings
A grand portrayal of the fantasy epic. Abridged (focusing on the high action, neglecting the art and scenery along the way), and flawed (director Peter Jackson should stick to filming stories, not altering them), but otherwise captures the vast scale and grandeur of the tale.

10. The Matrix
Whoa. Fantastic kick-butt sci-fi heady action. Not insightful, just way cool.


Honorable mentions:

Equilibrium
The Matrix meets Farenheit 451 meets 1984 in this stylized future of governmental eradication of anything emotionally stimulating. Preposterous, but very cool. In the commentary track, the director observes "action is how men express romance on film. Whether it be romance for family, wives, children, king, country, it doesn't matter. They express their love by whipping ass in the name of one or the other of the above."

Pi
Cube
The Blair Witch Project
El Mariachi
I have a fondness for ultra-low-budget movies: given very little to work with, and forced into thinking way outside the box (or, in the case of Cube, being stuck inside a very small box), capturing the essence of a _good_ story is a remarkable achievement.

Romeo and Juliet
Hamlet
The MTV-modern depictions of these classics show how well Shakespeare captured the essence of timeless human existence. Transplanted into modern-time alternate-universe settings of Verona Beach CA and Denmark Corp. respectively (where much is as life is now save for everyone speaking Elizabethan English, and Post Haste Delivery & Elsinore Castle Apartments are socially well-known), the essence of the Bard's works still shines.

Movie: Playtime

Tour-de-force bad, on par with Russian Ark. We’re talking grand unique concept, huge execution, laudable acting & cinematography, worthy of adulation in all things – and it is unbelievably boring. Filmed in large-frame 70mm to capture all the detail, it indeed captures all the detail as intended ... so very much detail that, in a possible and unintended view thru an autistic’s eyes, anything akin to story and social interaction is almost completely lost amidst the surrounding activity.

Movie: How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days

a decent date movie that no guy would want to see with his date. I only consented to see it long after I married her. Very predictable, occasionally embarrassing, generally an amusing chick flick. Next movie?

Movie: WALL-E

Another win from Pixar, marred only by the slightly heavy-handed moralizing about environmentalism. A long-awaited attempt at a pop animation with minimal dialog. Cute, clever, insightful ... but I just can’t quite think of much to add here.

Movie: The Phantom of the Opera

Not the high-budget drama-laden tear-jerking love-story version. This is the same story, but shows that one story viewed slightly askance becomes sheer horror.

Movie: Corpse Bride

Another nifty over-the-top physical animation by Tim Burton et al, following the feel of The Nightmare Before Christmas without being a sequel. Pretty good if you like that kind of thing.

Movie: Pitch Black

Over-the-top yet uber-cool bad-ass guy movie. Ok, so it’s about escaping a crash-landing on a planet that rarely sees night, which of course our heros & anti-heros arrive just in time for, only to watch the crew picked off by light-fearing hungry alien beasts.

Movie: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

TV adaptations of stories rarely live up to the depth & edge we hope for. Too much time building up the lanky, irritating character of Ichabod Crane, too much time on the obligatory and non-canonical love triangle, and far too little time on the encounter with the real-after-all Headless Horseman.

Movie: Resident Evil

Mila Jojovich killing zombies. ‘nuff said. Don’t expect more. Get the popcorn, guys.

Movie: The Fall of the House of Usher

A great movie – insofar as the silent-movie era goes. Unlikely to interest modern generations save for historical value. It was the best of its time, portraying depth despite technical & artistic limitations; we've moved on to another millenium now.

Movie: The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns

A full-length young children’s movie, with just enough grown-up material thrown in to keep Mom & Dad interested. The two plot lines hardly intersect. Good for your 3-year-old when you have to watch too.