Wow, i did not realize it had been more than a week since my last post.
i haven't been on here because, although i've watched several movies in the past week or two, none of them have completely totally knocked me off my feet (the way, say, Titus did), so i was waiting for a collection. Also, i've spent some time watching some TV shows, in light of the Emmy nominations announcement. namely, catching up on Nurse Jackie and watching the first season of The Good Wife. My parents told me that show was good, but i didn't have time this past year to keep up with it, but now i have, and it is indeed good. i enjoy a good legal procedural, and this one manages to keep the characters in focus and interesting (similar to one of my favorites, Boston Legal, but on the serious side).
As for movies:
i finally rewatched Shutter Island, a movie that has now blown me away not once, but twice. Its mixed and negative reviews must surely be from people who are stupid.
The African Queen, with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. A really fun adventure movie (i would assume one of the first of the "adventure" genre as we know it today). i was watching with an interesting perspective though, thinking, "In today's Hollywood, i don't think anyone could make a movie about a riverboat escaping Germans in WWI occupied Africa...and still manage to make it a bit of a romantic comedy, without it being lambasted as political incorrect and insulting in tremendous ways." Yet we look back and view this film as a classic. Interesting how situations reverse and flip and turn oh all sorts of ways.
Poltergeist - really exciting horror movie from the early eighties. Written and produced by Steven Spielberg, though not officially directed by him. However, many have come to believe Spielberg to be the de facto man behind the curtain, and those familiar with the look and feel of Spielberg's movies (especially the earlier ones), can easily see his thumbprint all over this movie - with the possible exception of the final sequence where suspense and supernatural thrills turns to all out horror (coffins popping up out of the ground and skeletons falling out, all in the mud and rain, etc etc). Really well worth the time for an example of how a movie doesn't have to be a scare-a-minute kind of scary to still work.
A Passage to India - David Lean's final movie, another epic. This time set in India (obviously), it is, as Lean's work always is, incredible to look at. As with Doctor Zhivago, it's difficult to avoid getting sucked in and immersed in all the sights and sounds...but then again, why would you want to avoid it? That's the experience! This movie is benefited by a better story than Doctor Zhivago, focusing its energies on the class system of British Imperial India, and the friendships and relationships therein, rather than on a romance. i can't think of much to say specifically, except that it has held up really well over almost 30 years, is fascinating and enjoyable.
Finally, i've been continuing in my viewings of Woody Allen movies, still enjoying them immensely. Of particular note is Zelig, a faux documentary about a man in the 20s and 30s who had a particular chameleon-like genetic trait, allowing him to develop the features of those around him, and therefore, blend in. (For instance, when standing next to Orthodox Jews, he grew a beard almost instantly. His skin color would even change around African and Native Americans.) it sounds absurd when i simplify it as such, but it was really amusing and interesting. A psychiatrist (or psychologist...) played by Mia Farrow is determined to help figure out his condition and help him control it. Between the lines, it's a movie about learning to be comfortable with ourselves as we are and not feel the need to conform to whatever seems to be the easiest way for us to get by. Taken on that level...well, it was a really great film.
That's it for now, i guess.
shalom, y'all!
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