Our Nixon (2013) ***1/2
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) ***1/2
The Dark Crystal (1982) ***
A Good Day to Be Black and Sexy (2007) **1/2
F/X (1986) ***
Scrooge (1935) ***
Mud (2013) ***1/2
Play Misty For Me (1971) ***
Ne Change Rien (2009) ***1/2
Lebanon (2009) **1/2
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These are my five favorite movies and why:
5. Wild Strawberries (1982, Ingmar Bergman)
It would be difficult for me to not include at least one Bergman film. The question is, which film? Other strong candidates are "The Seventh Seal," "Through A Glass Darkly," "The Silence," "Shame," "Fanny & Alexander." Bergman was an amazing filmmaker in multiple ways. He dealt with deep religious and philosophical questions head-on. He was great at exploring daily life and personal relationships. He demonstrated a deft comedic touch. As strong as he was as a scriptwriter, his films at the same time are remarkable for their striking cinematography. He was a tremendous director of actors and actresses (he was very involved in Swedish theater). He filmed the acting of actors and actresses as well as any director I have ever seen (refer to "Scenes from a Marriage"). Most importantly, his films are machines through which we can consider the questions most fundamental to human existence.
I settled on "Wild Strawberries" as my favorite Bergman film. Why? Because it works so well as a cohesive whole, yet at the same time offers a sampler of the Bergman goods. It includes surreal scenes brimming with symbolism. It includes realistic scenes of the affairs of everyday life. It is a beautifully shot film, with a variety of locales and imagery. And it is a moving story of an old man attempting to reconcile himself to both his past life and his future death.
4. War and Peace (1967, Sergei Bondarchuk)
How do you film an adequate adaptation of the great and immense novel War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy? With the full support and cooperation of the entire Soviet state, that’s how. While it is difficult to obtain precise budget figures, at the time of its release it was certainly one of the most expensive movies ever produced, if not the most expensive. Bondarchuk was granted access to all of the historical sites/artifacts necessary for the telling. When you see icons, emperor’s crowns and churches in the movie, they are likely the same icons, emperor’s crowns, and churches utilized by the real protagonists of the acutal war against Napoleon.
This all helped to make the adaptation adequate. Bondarchuk went further and made a magnificent film. In large part this is a result of the fact that his directorial impulse was to utilize all these resources to create a film that was as true to the original novel as humanly possible. Now this is something that is almost never done. Read any great book and watch a filmed version of it, and you almost always can find multiple instances where the director has taken liberties. This film however treats Tolstoy’s novel as absolute gospel, as if it is worried that knowledgeable Russian readers will revolt at the slightest deviance. Only it doesn’t feel like a forced limitation. Rather, the film rejoices in illuminating the great stories, truths, and moments found in Tolstoy’s seminal work. Specific areas to praise: the acting is fantastic, the slightly hazy feel of the film is intoxicating, and the battle scenes are perhaps the most amazing I have ever seen (it is incredible what a master director can do with an unlimited budget and tens of thousands of extras…). To give this film the highest praise, for me watching it provides the same intellectual and emotional sensations as reading the novel it is based on.
Over at the DG, I make my NBA conference finals picks.
Click here to read them.
Over at the DG, I write about stress.
Here's an excerpt:
"When I have a headache, I often tap into the bottle of pain relievers that a colleague of mine keeps on her desk.
Usually the bottle contains ibuprofen, which works well enough.
But when an article in the journal Psychological Science reported that Tylenol has been found to reduce anxiety associated with 'thoughts of existential uncertainty and death,' I suggested we make a switch.
'Let’s get Tylenol,' I said. 'It will make us feel better about life.'
I’m always looking for ways to reduce stress and always feeling stymied in my efforts.
I take vacations. I swim. I walk. I set aside time for leisure and enjoying the company of my friends. I climb mountains. I own pets.
Occasionally, I splurge on a massage. I did this a few weeks ago, partly because I was experiencing some tightness in my neck and shoulders and partly because I thought it would help me relax. Ideally, a good massage contributes to an overall feeling of calm and well being that lasts for a little while.
However, my most recent massage simply did not work.And it wasn’t the fault of the massage therapist."
Click here to read the whole thing.
Over at the DG, I write about returning to the garden.
Here's an excerpt:
"My landlord and I have decided to give gardening another go.
Last year we were first-time gardeners, and I’d probably give us a C-plus ... if I was grading on a curve. We did OK until about August, and then things sort of fell apart. We were both away a lot, and it was extremely dry. By September, our community garden plot was a wild, jungly tangle of weeds, tomato plants and zucchini. I kind of enjoyed finding new ways to use the zucchini, like making zucchini bread, but my landlord was less enthused. 'I’ve had enough zucchini,' she said."
Click here to read the whole thing.
Over at the DG, I review the new Jeff Nichols movie "Mud."
Here's an excerpt:
"The new movie 'Mud' is a boys’ adventure story in the same mold as 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' and cinematic coming-of-age quest stories, such as the great film 'Stand By Me.'
Directed by Arkansas native Jeff Nichols, the film tells the story of two 14-year-old boys who befriend an outlaw living in a boat on an island off the Mississippi River; because Nichols has a gift for striking, memorable images, the boat is lodged high into a tree, and the boys see it as a treehouse and hideaway. Instead, they find themselves running errands for the man who lives there, who goes by the nickname Mud, and bringing him food and other supplies. Mud (Matthew McConaughey, continuing his career renaissance with another eye-opening role) explains that he is waiting for his true love, Juniper (Reese Witherspoon), and that he recently killed the man she was involved with, because he was abusing her.
The boys, Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland), both come from troubled homes, which might explain why they gravitate toward this mysterious older man: Ellis’ parents are breaking up and Neckbone lives with his uncle and his little memory of his parents. Another crucial character is a weathered old man named Tom Blankenship (Sam Shepard) who lives in the river house across from Ellis’, and is one of the few people Mud trusts. We are informed that he was once a sniper, and you can bet that this is the sort of movie where he’ll have the opportunity to demonstrate his skills.
What makes 'Mud' immediately compelling is its sense of place. Nichols knows this territory well. He understands the people who live there, and the appeal, as well as the challenge, of living in a rural community where earning a decent living is becoming harder and harder. Ellis loves his house on the river, and the beauty and sense of freedom it offers; when faced with the prospect of moving into town, he yells, 'I ain’t no townie!' This is a corner of America that has seen some hard times, and Nichols portrays his characters with the compassion and complexity they deserve; 'Mud' might be a fable, but it always feels real."
Click here to read the whole thing.
Over at the DG, I write about the Red Sox's surprising success, and recent slump.
Click here to read it.
Over at the DG, I write about my old friend Jeremy Charron, and how I feel in general about memorials.
Here's an excerpt:
I traveled to my sister’s place last weekend to celebrate my niece’s first birthday, taking my usual route through southern Vermont and New Hampshire. This is a lovely drive, highlighted by winding, rural highways that run alongside rivers and lakes and over rolling hills and small yet impressive mountains.
One of the things I enjoy most about this particular trip are the old haunts it takes me through, such as the small New Hampshire town of Hillsboro, where I lived until I was 14. Driving through Hillsboro always makes me nostalgic, and although sometimes I stop to visit old friends, I often pass through as quickly as possible, on my way to other places.
My sister and her husband live about an hour northeast of Hillsboro. Every time I go there, I pass through a traffic circle in the town of Epsom that I’ve been driving through since I was a child heading to Maine on vacation. On one of my more recent trips, I noticed that the traffic circle had been renamed for two fallen police officers: Jeremy Charron and Michael Briggs. A portion of the highway that runs through Epsom is also named for Jeremy Charron.
I didn’t know Michael Briggs, who was originally from Epsom and was shot and killed in the line of duty in 2006.
But I did know Jeremy Charron.
Click here to read the whole thing.
Over at the DG, I list five songs I'm totally into at the moment.
Click here to find out what they are.
Notes on Marie Menken (2006) ***
The Place Beyond the Pines (2013) ***1/2
Mysterious Object at Noon (2001) **
Monsters (2010) ***
The Boy Friend (1971) ***
Date Night (2010) ***
Over at the DG, my colleague Margaret Hartley writes about moose in her column Greenpoint.
Here's an excerpt:
"The phone rang on a Monday evening. The 12-year-old boy down the road was calling to tell our 12-year-old boy that there was a moose in his yard.
Half an hour later, our daughter called from New York City to tell us we had a moose in our neighborhood. Apparently her buddy, who lives next door to the 12-year-old down the road, had texted her when the moose strolled over to his yard.
News travels fast. So do moose.
The next day, several people in the next town over had reports and photos of the moose — it was seen walking down the sidewalk toward the high school, swimming in Lake Luzerne, strolling by the music camp on the other side of the lake. If it was the same moose as the one in our neighborhood, it probably had taken another swim, across the northern tip of the Great Sacandaga Lake, on its way to town. Or maybe it took the South Shore route and crossed nearer to where the Sacandaga meets the Hudson."
Click here to read the whole thing.
Over at the DG, I revisit the classic Sam Peckinpah western "The Wild Bunch."
Here's an excerpt:
"I’m a big fan of the classic 1969 Sam Peckinpah western 'The Wild Bunch.' I watched it several times in college and wrote a paper on it for the western unit of my American cinema course. However, college was a long time ago. I’ve been wanting to revisit the film, and so on Monday I headed out to Proctors for a special screening of 'The Wild Bunch.' Is the film as good as I remembered?
Well, yes. 'The Wild Bunch' remains a pretty bracing revisionist western — cynical, dark and uncompromising in its depiction of a band of outlaws and their ill-fated last stand. It is possible, at times, to sympathize with the aging gang, because they live by a code that stresses loyalty and toughness, and are fond of doomed, romantic gestures, such as giving stolen gold to a kindly prostitute before heading out to die. But Peckinpah never pretends his outlaws are good men, or that they really care about anyone other than themselves. We see them mercilessly gun down civilians, use women as human shields and initiate shoot-outs in public squares crowded with children. Of course, this being a Peckinpah film, the children are intrigued by the violence, rather than repelled by it; after the Wild Bunch tears through one village, children are seen running through town, pretending to fire guns. They aren’t scared of the outlaws. They admire them."
Click here to read the whole thing.
After viewing the first episode of Netflix’s “House of Cards,” I found myself facing a dilemma. As I looked at the 12 remaining episodes, I had to decide if I would give in to instant gratification and do some binge viewing or take things at a slower pace and savor the episodes.
Ultimately, I took the middle ground, sometimes watching a single episode and other times jumping into another episode when I absolutely had to find out the fate of Congressman Frank Underwood, the deliciously devious character portrayed by Kevin Spacey.
This is part of the experience of watching a Netflix original series. Unlike traditional television, they serve up an entire season’s worth of episodes at once – a viewing experience closer to watching the entire season of a series on DVD.
When Netflix released its latest series, “Hemlock Grove,” though, I found myself facing a different dilemma. After watching the first episode, I was left wondering how many more episodes I should watch before calling it quits.
The answer is two episodes.
I don't know a lot about experimental film, but I manage to touch upon Laurie Anderson, Marie Menken, Ken Jacobs and others in a recent DG post about Anderson's recent EMPAC presentation.
Click here to read it.
Over at the DG, I write about the younger terrorist brother, and how people are wrong to feel sorry for him.
Here's an excerpt:
"Not long after Boston Marathon suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was apprehended, I heard someone express sympathy for him.
'I feel sorry for him,' this person said. 'If it wasn’t for his older brother, he wouldn’t be in this mess.'
I thought this was an isolated sentiment, but no: I keep running into people who feel sorry for Dzhokhar, though they’re always quick to add that there’s no excuse for what he allegedly did, and that he should suffer the consequences.
I didn’t know what to make of these comments, which I completely disagreed with.
I don’t feel at all sorry for Dzhokhar, and I don’t understand why anyone would. Nor do I buy the dominant narrative, that Dzhokhar was a guileless bystander until his mean older brother led him astray. But even if I did accept this, I doubt I would sympathize with Dzhokhar. In fact, I might find him even more repugnant than I already do.
To me, there’s nothing sympathetic about someone who lacks strength of character and a functioning moral compass. If your mean old brother can convince you to plant bombs at a marathon, you probably weren’t a very good person to begin with."
Click here to read the whole thing.
