City of God and Other Brilliant Movies

City of God (2002) Portugese with English subtitles.

I had heard about this movie, but only here and there. No one looked me in the eye and said, "See this movie. See it or I can't be your friend anymore." And I don't really understand that. It's about a boy named Rocket growing up in the gangs of Cidade de Deus (City of God), and one of the other kids from the city Lil Dice, who later becomes Lil Ze -- the worst bad guy in the City of God, and possibly in movie history. He is a very, very bad guy. A gang war starts, Rocket gets a camera, and the movie captures it all so poetically. It's tragic and brilliant and the cinematography is breathtaking. MUST SEE. A+

Full Metal Jacket (1987)
WORSE STILL is that I only saw this movie for the first time a couple of months ago. How did that happen? I really don't understand how I missed seeing it. This is now my favorite Stanley Kubrick movie besides The Shining, and it's stunning to me how the same director could do arguably the best horror movie and also arguably the best war movie. How did he do it? I don't know.

Full Metal Jacket is a two-part affair, from the point of view of a Marine cadet named Joker (Matthew Modine). First we see the dehumanizing effects of training on the soldiers, specifically the tragic consequences for poor Gomer Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio). It's tragic, but it's also extremely funny. The drill sergeant is outrageous. The second half of the film takes place during the Tet offensive in Vietnam. For those of you who have seen this movie, I haven't really got any great pearls of wisdom about it. This review is just saying to my readers, please, please, don't be like me. Don't wait years and years to see this movie. Watch it now. Brilliant. MUST SEE. A+

We Were Soldiers (2002)
A good war flick, starring Mel Gibson. The scene where the soldiers' wives have to give the bad news letters to the other wives made me weepy. It's sentimental and misty-eyed, the opposite of Full Metal Jacket, and most would say not as good. But still an enjoyable and emminently watchable movie and I recommend it. I give it an A- because I like war movies and am a sentimentalist.

The Last King of Scotland (2006)
I saw this movie at the wrong time. I saw it after it won numerous awards and all my friends really talked it up. I had very high expectations, and it was a little disappointing to me, though I would say on the whole it's a great movie. I also have to disclaim that mutilation scenes really, really bother me, so the part with the hacked up body was not ok. Also, I found it really annoying that Mr. Scrawny Scottish Hotpants (James McAvoy) sort of barged into a very stupid situation, got in way over his head, and then expected everyone to bail him out. But I guess he didn't exactly get off scotsfree, so to speak. Haha. Anyway, yeah, it's a good movie and you should probably see it if you haven't, but don't be like me and expect it to be as good as Full Metal Jacket or City of God, because it isn't even close. B+

And hopefully that's enough movies to keep you out of trouble for awhile!

Movie Reviews: The Happening, Hancock, WALL-E

Tonight I thought I'd write some movie reviews interspersed, or even nestled, amongst some little tidbits about my personal life. Saving the best for last, we would of course start with the M. Night Shamalayan piece of shit that I was stupid enough to spend money and 90 minutes on... The Happening: Wow, it sucks. Not that I'm surprised. M. Night Shamalayan is the watchword for not-worth-watching, unless you're re-watching The Sixth Sense, which is permitted. So, The Happening should be called "When Trees Do Even Worse Things to You than Cause Hayfever, and It's Not So Much Scary as Really Annoying, and Even Mark Wahlberg Cannot Make the Insipid Dialogue Work."

Speaking of hayfever, I've got it bad. The 20-40 kleenex per hour (kph) kind, three kinds of allergy medecine at once, the kind where I have to breathe through my mouth for fear of upsetting my pathetic nostrils kind of hayfever. It's funny how it always coincides with the really hot weather. So it's 85 degrees and I don't have AC, and if I open the window it just lets in more filthy pollinated air which will kill me if I allow it to. If I were a magazine centerfold, perhaps my turn-ons list would be something like this: Hepa-filtered, anything hypoallergenic, air conditioning, non-drowsy antihistamines. Turn offs: Dextromethorphane, dust mites, grass, and picnics in the park.

Hancock: A run-of-the-mill Will Smith action movie. Which means that it was pretty good -- never terrible or amazing. It starts of very well and then just kind of ... meh? Charlize Theron plays a superhero too. What I don't get is why, when she goes into superhero mode, does that necessarily mean she has to wear so much additional eye shadow?

I watched the previous two movies with Alex in Aruba. So I was in an amazing place with my husband and we went to see two mediocre at best movies, but it was good because it was so nice just to relax and not have to worry about a thing. The one I watched today, WALL-E, was with Marcus at Pacific Place cinemas. We went to the movie theater just so I could escape the disgusting plant sex and microscopic dust mites that are plaguing me. And I wound up inadvertantly seeing a very good movie.

WALL-E: This movie is really great. It's got the dystopian nightmare scenario that I love, AND Robot Romance. It's one of the very, very few really interesting movies I've seen lately. Go Pixar!!

Alex is in Yakima for his job, which is prepping 3500 National Guardsmen for deployment to Iraq. He's a JAG lawyer, which means that sometimes he's doing desk work like a regular lawyer, but other times he's out shooting bad guys with machine guns and rescuing people from hostile territory by helicopter and infiltrating terrorist hotspots, where he wears a wire to collect evidence to get those terrorists! It's awesome. And then the rest of the time, he just really helps out these poor dudes who have to go to Iraq by getting them wills and helping them sort out their child custody/divorce issues, and other uber important stuff. So, I'm supposed to go to Yakima for a few days this week for my birthday. "Happy Birthday" and "Yakima" don't really seem to go together, but what can you do?

So, July. Really important month for me. Alex is in Yakima for the rest of the month, which is terrible. My biggest plans for July are to deal with all the wedding stuff, all the thank you cards, name change documentation, moving from Marcus's place, putting stuff in storage, and prepping to rent Alex's condo, and looking for a new place for us to move --all of this On My Own. I hate it. Newlyweds should not have to do this alone. But, me having things the way I want them isn't always good for me is it?

Besides dealing with the above stuff, I have a couple of other projects going on. I'm helping Ben & Libbe with their wedding, and I'm considering auditioning for some plays and movies, and I'm getting back into working out. I signed up for a half marathon for Labor Day weekend. Things are just humming along. It's basically the usual. Except I'm married now. It's
different, it really is, but I'm not sure why.

More will be revealed.

What to Do When You Have the Flu

My brief blog telling you what sucks and what rocks when you have the flu!

Here's what sucks:
The way you feel

Here's what's great:

Dirt
The second season of this fast-paced FX tabloid-centric drama was cut woefully short due to the writer's strike, but the quick-'n-dirty plots with an easy to follow story arch are perfect when you're running a 99 degree fever. If it gets worse, you're going to need something like….

The Dead Girl
This movie reminds you of why it's good to not be a corpse, even if you're pretty sure that the flu is actually going to kill you. I'm not sure the movie has much more meaning beyond that but it's cinematographically fascinating and there are some great performances in it by Toni Colette, Brittany Murphy, and others. And there was a lovely line about trees and sky that got repeated a couple of times. I really liked this movie and I have no idea why.

The Husky Deli Split Pea Soup
Oh my word. I've always been a big fan of the Husky Deli in general. It has all the fancy foreign foods with none of the uppity attitude. Plus the best homemade ice cream in Seattle, and my favoritest deli sandwich, the Turkish Delight (cream cheese, turkey meat, and mango chutney – get it grilled and praise the Lord for its sweet and savory amazingness!). But I've never had the split pea soup until today. It is sooooo good. It's not a murky, grayish-green-brown mush. It's a wonderful soup with wonderful, fresh tasting peas. So creamy and good. Awesome!

Ratatouille
Pixar is awesome for children and sick people. I'm sure other people like it too. Anyway, this is a cute movie about a rat who dreams of being a chef. I liked it, but then again, by this time my fever was up to 101 and my ears hurt which made me need my Spiderman doll.
What else…

The Riches
This show is so good. It's about the Irish "travelers" and their scheming, conning ways. Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver are so good, even if Izzard's American accent is not 100% believable.

Other Assorted Good Things to Have Around:
The cats!
Bunny slippers
Unlimited liquids
Chicken Soup with Sautéed Garlic
Blankies

Movie Reviews: Before Sunrise, Children of Heaven, SherryBaby & The Science of Sleep

Yes, it's time for more movie reviews. Not movies that are new necessarily, but just ones that I've recently seen.

Please do continue to send me your suggestions for movies to see and review. Of course, it may take me awhile to watch your suggestion, given that if I watch one netflix movie a week, it will take me -- let me just get out a pen to jot down the figures -- a year to get through them all. Yeah, 'cause there's fifty-two movies on my queue. And fifty-two weeks in a year. See, I can do word problems! Take that, Mr. Nord! (Lower level math educators... bless 'em!) Anyway, I digress... but if you're read me before, you're used to it, right? Ok. Movie. Reviews. NOW!

Before Sunrise (1995)
Before Sunrise chronicles the short-but-sweet romance of a young American named Jesse (Ethan Hawke) who falls for a French student, Celine (Julie Delpy), on a train ride to Vienna. They spend the night before he has to return to the US walking, talking, and falling in love. This is a great example of a dialogue-based movie that actually works and does not bore. Often dialogue-heavy films do not hold my interest (sorry, I am just not into Clerks), but in this movie the dialogue was beautiful and engaging, and worked well against these lovely Viennese backdrops. If you have not yet seen it, now would be a great time, because Julie Delpy has a new movie coming out that she wrote, directed, and stars in, called 2 Days in Paris. It's supposed to be great. So check out her early work and see what you think. I'm definitely watching 2 Days and also the sequel to Before Sunrise, aptly titled Before Sunset. Look for that reviewed here soon.

Also, just for fun, I'm going to quote Jesse from Before Sunrise: "You know what's the worst thing about somebody breaking up with you? Is when you remember how little you thought about the people you broke up with and you realize that is how little they're thinking of you. You know, you'd like to think that you're both in all this pain but they're just like 'Hey, I'm glad you're gone.'" True that.

And for good measure, here's one from Celine: "I believe if there's any kind of God it wouldn't be in any of us, not you or me but just this little space in between. If there's any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt of someone sharing something. I know, it's almost impossible to succeed but who cares really? The answer must be in the attempt." Solid A

SherryBaby (2006)
Relentlessly depressing, bleak movie about the difficulties of a woman recovering from a life of abuse, crime, and addiction. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays a recently paroled Sherry, just out of the New Jersey pen after a three-year stint. Amazing part of this movie was how real it seemed; as a public defender, I've seen many a drug-addicted client. This movie documents well the broken coping mechanisms that female addicts often use to deal with their lives. Maggie Gyllenhaal's acting was right on the money, but the plot never really went anywhere and many scenes seemed to woefully lack purpose and direction. For some, the fact that there are a lot of nude scenes with a white-trashy hot Mags will be a plus, but honestly, the situations were so depressing that the sex was really not very sexy. C+

Children of Heaven (Iran, 1997)
I don't know if I've ever seen an Iranian movie before, but if this isn't the best one, I would be shocked. What an amazing movie! The story: Ali loses his little sister Zohre's shoes. His family is too poor for new shoes, so they concoct an ingenious plan: they take turns going to school in Ali's shoes, until Ali gets an even better plan. He will compete in a long-distance race where the prize for third place is a pair of shoes. This movie is sweet and affecting without being syrupy or trite. However, I need to cut this review short so that I can find an Iranian man to give me beautiful, wonderful children like these. Solid A

The Science of Sleep (France/Italy 2006)
Stephàne, played by gorgeous man Gael Garcia Bernal, moves to France to be closer to his mother after his father's death, takes a boring job at a calendar company, and then dreams, a lot. Most fascinating to me was the exploration between dreams and art, and the art was so darned cool. I truly loved the felt pony and the cellophane ocean and the cardboard car and the paper towel roll city. But as the film goes on, it seems Stephàne's "dreaming" is interfering with his "reality" a bit too much, and maybe he's just "completely fucking nuts." And like most crazy people, Stephàne is really annoying, especially when he hurts the girl he loves with all his crazy artist dude antics. The object of his affection, Stephànie, played by the um… interesting-looking Charlotte Gainsbourg, is one of the better aspects of the film.

So, on the plus side: interesting premise, good acting, cool art. On the downside: twee Velvet Underground cover, annoying lead character, disjointed plot, and a pretty big what's-the-point-of-all-this-anyway factor. For some, the Urban Outfitter aesthetic might be a bit much too take. It's no Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. But it also doesn't suck and you should probably give it a chance. B-