On the black Fellini sails, tattered rags that hangs on nails reminds me
Jan. 7th, 2010 | 05:03 pm
posted by: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
coffeefortwo
It's hard to see Nine as anything other than a retreat of sorts for director Rob Marshall. He followed up his Oscar-feted Chicago--a film you may recall that I quite like--with an attempt to branch out into prestige fare that doesn't involve toe-tapping numbers. The result was 2005's Memoirs of a Geisha, a film that inspired yawning indifference. So it's back to the musicals, bringing the early-eighties Tony-winner Nine to the screen. A song-and-dance reworking of Federico Fellini's 8 1/2, it's a notable enough work that it enjoyed a relatively well received revival in the past few years, but I do wonder if the original show sits in the pantheon of Broadway productions for anything more notable the costume Anita Morris wore in it.
As evidenced by the film version, there's little to get excited about in the songs by Maury Yeston. This is about as plodding and uninspired a batch of tunes as one could imagine. Nearly every offering is lacking in wit or wiles. They don't move along the plot or add depth to the characters. They're just there providing about as much added context to the greater work as the step-up-and-sing offerings on an average night of American Idol. The only reaction they might provoke is a wince or two, especially if it's one the new numbers written for the film like the painfully dippy "Cinema Italiano," which sounds and is staged as if it were lifted whole from some aborted Austin Powers sequel. It's perhaps a mark of how clumsy and out-of-step Marshall is in his efforts this time out that that's the song he chooses to bring back to kick off the closing credits, making the terrible misjudgment of sending the audience out the door with a reminder of the film's weakest moment ringing through the surround sound.
Marshall is all over the place. Considering he's assembled no less than six Oscar winners to fill out his cast, it's remarkable how little they're given to do. This could have been presented as a bare-bones revue with little discernible impact, the stars perched on stools in their street clothes on an otherwise empty stage, reciting their lines and singing their songs while staring down at their folded-over scripts. Judging by how much more interesting the "rehearsal montage" teaser trailer is than anything else that ended up the finished product, it probably would have been significantly better. During the musical numbers Marshall always seems to have the camera in the wrong place, crushing in on the dancing when scope is what's needed, pulling back to the widest of wide shots when tightening on in the intricacies of the movement would be better. For one of the few songs with any verve, "Be Italian," delivered here by Fergie and a striding chorus of torn-stocking harlots, Marshall sets his camera rolling around behind some set dressing in the foreground, perhaps mimicking the sight-line of innocent boys peeping at the exotic prostitutes from behind some beachfront rocks, but absolutely obscuring the performance.
In some respects, this film was also going to be an enormous challenges. Even putting aside the debatable merits of the original musical, it was always going to work easier on stage than in a film format, where the Fellini film inspiration is going to loom large. A musical version of Casablanca might be cute on the Broadway boards ("So sad to see that plane depart/But a beautiful friendship is about to start"), but bringing it the format of the story's greatest triumph is going to invite some daunting comparisons. And so it is for Nine, where the dreamlike wonder of its predecessor only emphasizes the awkwardness of the transitions between the more concrete story of a Lothario, creatively blocked Italian director and the musical numbers that, presumably, exist mostly in his mind. The whole endeavor feels rushed. Edges haven't been smoothed out, problems haven't been fixed. It's a show that needs a few more weeks of trial and error before opening night. There's no such option, though. On film, the flaws live forever.
(Posted simultaneously to "Drilling Holes in the Wall.")
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State of the Goat 2009
Jan. 7th, 2010 | 01:10 pm
posted by: ![[info]](http://pics.livejournal.com/marta/pic/000gzfga)
theljstaff in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/newsinfo.gif)
news
It's been a momentous 12 months here at LiveJournal. We crossed a capital T at Ten years young. And, like most precocious pubescents, we celebrated turning double digits by publishing our first book! Needless to say, we've experienced some major changes, both inside and out. Before we recap, we'd like to thank you for bearing with us as we've struggled through ungainly growth spurts, identity pangs, and, yes, the occasional blemish. We hope you'll continue to stand by us: We're gaining wisdom with maturity.
Stuff you liked
- Back in February, we placed a call for entries for our ten-year anniversary anthology in
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif)
lj_turns10. In December (less than a year later!), we officially announced the publication of Live Journal: The First Decade. Featuring an inspired collection of writing, photographs, and artwork from the pages of LiveJournal history, the book has been selected by Blurb.com as a top staff pick! We are proud to have played host to so much talent over the years, and we thank our contributors for sharing their extraordinary work. - We all love quirky surprises, but not when it comes to managing our account settings. This year we streamlined settings into one central account management area. No more pouring through FAQs to figure out how to control privacy settings, modify notifications, adjust mobile settings, or update contact information!
- Being users ourselves, we realize our own mothers couldn't find us on LiveJournal based on our usernames and userpics alone (*heaves heavy sigh of relief*). But since there are times when we actually want to be found, we created a search tool--Find Your Friends--to help locate people by email address (it's in the Friends drop-down menu).
- Spam counter-attack: The war against vicious malware and spambots reigns eternal, but we've been making serious inroads to ensure your online security. We've established new protocols, such as requiring email address validations. We've grown more savvy about ferreting out suspicious behavior. We've added features, like whitelisting, to help you protect your communities. Our valiant (i.e., overworked) spam avengers (a/k/a the LiveJournal ops team) are standing on red alert so you can sleep safely at night.
- After an intensive beta, we launched My Guests at the end of the year, which lets you see who's been hanging around your journal. A number of you have even discovered secret admirers (not all of whom are creepy)!
- Last, but by no means least, we want to thank our volunteers for providing invaluable support and feedback. Their Herculean efforts enable us to answer your questions more efficiently, identify spammers, reduce abuse, and deliver better features (through tireless testing). On behalf of the staff and the larger LiveJournal community, we are truly grateful for their diligence, intelligence, loyalty, and passion.
You got your fix
- We recently debugged a number of the oustanding issues with the rich text editor so your entries look great regardless of whether you know html. You can read more about text editors here.
- In response to user demand, we brought back international voice posting. For more info on voice posting, read here.
- At long last, we revived TxtLJ with Verizon. For more info on TxtLJ, check out the FAQ.
Paid features you enjoyed
- In December, we introduced My Stats, which provides detailed data on who's been viewing your entries as well as statistics on commenting, RSS requests, friending history, and more. Despite a few early glitches, the response has been extremely favorable.
- This year, we launched and improved Notes (i.e., the feature formerly known as Alias), which lets you add private comments on friends and commenters (it's in the Profile drop-down menu). This way you won't be caught red-faced when you strain to remember details about that wonderful LiveJournal friend who sent you a birthday vGift. For more info, read the FAQ.
- When we first announced View friends pages by date, we thought it would be a quiet, minor enhancement. The rave reaction floored us, which made us all very happy. We gave it a fine tuning in February of 2009, so it's even better!
- How embarrassing! It appears pingbacks have gone back to the shop for service. We’ll keep you posted.
We didn't know just much you liked pingbacks until it went in for service. It's back and, judging by your irritation when it wasn't available, this is good news. FYI, pingbacks send instant notifications (via screened comments) whenever someone links to one of your entries on LiveJournal. For more info, read this entry inpaidmembers or check out the FAQ.
Mixed reviews
- The search is still on. Some of you have reported getting more comprehensive results for keyword searches using the new Yandex search engine and like the ability to search within content categories (like entries or comments). Others have not been satisfied with the relevancy of search results. Please be patient. We're still tweaking this product.
- This past December, we wanted to try out a new holiday promotion. Given the crap economy, we decided to offer our Paid/Permanent users a stack of $10 coupons to send to Basic/Plus users for paid account upgrades. We hoped you would like it. And some of you did, but many were disappointed that we didn't offer Give More as well. We want to thank you so much for letting us know. Your input will help us plan better in the future. Just FYI, Paid/Permanent users can continue to send out coupons through January 15th. Coupons can be redeemed through January 31, 2010.
- We were pretty excited about Your Journal Your Money, which allows Paid/Permanent users to earn extra cash by displaying Google ads to Basic/Plus and logged out users. A number of you tried it. Some of you really like it. Others, not so much. (Just FYI, Paid/Permanent users who do not participate in this program will not view ads on journals. Participants will see ads on their own journal, but won't see them on other journals unless they specifically opt in.) For additional details, visit here.
- We relaunched m.livejournal.com, our mobile app. While it offers a nicer UI and enhanced functionality, some of you think we can do better on load times. Like most of us, it's a work in progress. You can customize your mobile settings here. For more info, please read the FAQ.
Missing Inaction
- We shudder to bring up the neon purple elephant squatting on our heads, but, yes, we didn't give you those a la carte userpics. We've been making radical improvements to our backend in order to support them. But no excuses. We know you want them. We cringe every time you mention them. We're sorry we dropped the ball on this, and we promise to do our best to get them to you in 2010.
Stumbling points
- Back in early August, we experienced outages related to a series of DDoS attacks. We are proud to report that we were down a total of one hour over the course of a few days. We thank our heroic ops guys for getting us up sooner and more consistently than any of our less fortunate social networking friends. We apologize for leaving you temporarily stranded.
- A couple of months back, we offered a free, unrestricted vGift, which induced a snowflake cookie avalanche. This resulted in backed up/delayed notifications, which, in turn, led us to reboot systems, rendering scrapbooks unavailable. It took a while to shovel free. Apologies for the inconvenience. We learned a valuable lesson that should keep us calamity-free in the future (fingers crossed while knocking on wood).
- That darn Best Buy ad. First off, we're sorry about the audio auto-play (we got it turned off as quickly as possible). While it's true that we'll continue to show this type of ad to accounts that normally see them (never to Paid/Permanent accounts), we'll make sure the sound defaults to off moving forward. We promise to do our very best to keep ads to a minimum on LiveJournal, while keeping a roof over Frank's head.
Full steam ahead!
As we plunge headfirst into the next decade, we want to take a moment to look back and thank all of our employees, both past and present, who have worked so hard to create our unique and magical universe. We couldn't have made it this far without you: Your contributions brighten our path everyday. We also want to extend our heartfelt appreciation to each and every one of you. Whether you've been around for ten days or ten years, your humor, intelligence, talent, and creativity are what makes this the most vibrant global community on the Internet (the best place on the Web, in our humble opinion). Here's hoping that 2010 will be the greatest year yet! We thank you for joining us as we embark upon another glorious decade of LiveJournal history!
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(no subject)
Jan. 7th, 2010 | 02:35 pm
posted by: eggycaption
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Great Moments in Literature
Jan. 6th, 2010 | 07:58 pm
posted by: coffeefortwo
"The women cross their ankles, their flats kicked off and carried by Sissy back to the foyer, where they are paired and lined in rows: Pappagallos in various colors, sandals with daisies chiseled in the cowhide, or bright, artificial flowers attached to the straps. Now in the soft glow of the lighted room, the women's feet, bare and colored at the toe, caress the Corsican rug. They have had another round of drinks; they are trying to think of what to say next."
"AND I DON'T USE GUNS--THE INSANE WEAPON OF AN INSANE SPECIES! VIOLENCE BEGETS VIOLENCE! DIDN'T YOU EVER LEARN ANYTHING FROM HISTORY--OR MAYBE FROM JOHN AND YOKO?""
(Posted simultaneously to "Drilling Holes in the Wall.")
--Kate Walbert, A Short History of Women, 2009
"AND I DON'T USE GUNS--THE INSANE WEAPON OF AN INSANE SPECIES! VIOLENCE BEGETS VIOLENCE! DIDN'T YOU EVER LEARN ANYTHING FROM HISTORY--OR MAYBE FROM JOHN AND YOKO?""
--Linda Fite, THE CAT, Vol. 1, No. 1,
"Beware the Claws of...The Cat!," 1972(Posted simultaneously to "Drilling Holes in the Wall.")
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(no subject)
Jan. 6th, 2010 | 11:09 am
posted by: whiskeyson
found image this is a test...
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(no subject)
Jan. 6th, 2010 | 09:49 am
posted by: eggycaption
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Ephron, Hunt, Kieslowski, Kieslowski, Tykwer
Jan. 5th, 2010 | 07:54 pm
posted by: coffeefortwo
Three Colors: Blue (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1993). The first film in Kieslowski's famed Three Colors trilogy stars Juliette Binoche as a woman dealing with the recent death of her famous husband and young daughter in a car crash. She retreats from the world, getting drawn back only reluctantly, in part due to interest and controversy over her spouse's last, incomplete work. There's tremendous thematic heft in the work, with the specter of mortality drawn over the entire work, enhanced by the sense of all the ways in which life itself drifts away from us. Binoche is moving and insightful in her role, all the more impressive given that the character's primary mode is one of self-imposed isolation, giving Binoche little to play off of except the sense of her own tragic history, so vividly realized that you can almost see it reflected in her eyes. Kieslowski is a sensual visual artist with this effort, continually coming up with boldly unorthodox ways to frame his shots and wash the screen with color.
Three Colors: White (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994). The second film in Kieslowski's famed Three Colors trilogy stars Zbigniew Zamachowski, even if the American movie poster really tries to make people think that it's a showcase for Julie Delpy. Zamachowski plays a Polish immigrant in Paris who suffers through an embarrassing divorce from his lovely young wife, played by Delpy. After hitting bottom, he launches an elaborate plan to exact some level of revenge on her, a plan that begins with the ever-so-simple step "Become wealthy." Every strength of Blue is absent in White. The visual inventiveness is gone, as is the richness of character and emotion. What remains is implausible in story and pedestrian in execution.
Frozen River (Courtney Hunt, 2008). Hunt's debut feature is a lean, deceptively fierce little film about a desperate woman in upstate New York who starts smuggling illegal immigrants across the border in an effort to get some quick cash. There are strains in the plot here and there, and occasional moments when motivations aren't as fleshed out as they could or should be, but overall the film is disarmingly evocative in its depiction of lives lived on the very edge of economic devastation. Veteran character actress Melissa Leo was justifiably lauded for her focused performance in the leading role. The understated intensity of her work is nicely counterbalanced by Misty Upham, who brings that right mix of calculated disinterest and impatient opportunism to her performance as the Native American who becomes the leery partner of Leo's character.
The International (Tom Tykwer, 2009). My oh my, is this ever dull. The film involves a vast global bank conspiracy that is investigated by an Interpol agent played by Clive Owen and a New York Assistant District Attorney played by Naomi Watts. It's stern and serious and focused to a fault, almost entirely absent of any energy as it tightens its jaw and purses it lips and sets about being a highly refined political thriller. Tykwer displays none of the wild, inventive verve that launched him on the scene with Run Lola Run a decade earlier. In its place is a personality-free, professional sheen that looks accomplished enough, but has no inner life whatsoever. Watts looks alternately bored and distracted, while Owen makes the unfortunate miscalculation of pitching his performance at a level of unrelenting intensity that borders on silliness.
Julie and Julia (Nora Ephron, 2009). The very premise is this film is actually quite clever, interlacing a biography about Julia Child's rise to culinary fame with a click-by-click depiction of Julie Powell's attention-getting effort to cook every dish in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which she documented online to life-changing results. By the end, though, one half of the film has so overtaken the other that I was left wondering if Nora Ephron ever considered jettisoning the modern day blogger altogether. Or was she stuck because the title Julia was already taken. A couple times over. Ephron certainly doesn't have any idea what to do with Powell's story, at one point so stuck that she just has Powell and her husband sit on their couch and watch Dan Aykroyd's famous Saturday Night Live skit involving Child and a few gallons of fake blood. It leaves Amy Adams with nothing do as Powell but flutter and overplay her stress until it starts to come across as intolerable brattiness. The portion of the film that follows Child is often delightful, however, especially because of Meryl Streep's inspired work as the legendary chef. She gets the mannerisms and the cadences down just fine, but that's easy part. Streep also nails the far trickier challenge of convincingly tapping into the ebullient thrill that Child gets out of life and food and her beloved husband. Stanley Tucci plays that part with supreme gentleness of spirit. When he and Streep are on screen together, they're performing a marvelous duet that also stands as one of the finer portrayals of the sort of mature partnership that constitutes a healthy marriage that you're likely to ever find in a Hollywood movie.
(Posted simultaneously to "Jelly-Town!")
Three Colors: White (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994). The second film in Kieslowski's famed Three Colors trilogy stars Zbigniew Zamachowski, even if the American movie poster really tries to make people think that it's a showcase for Julie Delpy. Zamachowski plays a Polish immigrant in Paris who suffers through an embarrassing divorce from his lovely young wife, played by Delpy. After hitting bottom, he launches an elaborate plan to exact some level of revenge on her, a plan that begins with the ever-so-simple step "Become wealthy." Every strength of Blue is absent in White. The visual inventiveness is gone, as is the richness of character and emotion. What remains is implausible in story and pedestrian in execution.
Frozen River (Courtney Hunt, 2008). Hunt's debut feature is a lean, deceptively fierce little film about a desperate woman in upstate New York who starts smuggling illegal immigrants across the border in an effort to get some quick cash. There are strains in the plot here and there, and occasional moments when motivations aren't as fleshed out as they could or should be, but overall the film is disarmingly evocative in its depiction of lives lived on the very edge of economic devastation. Veteran character actress Melissa Leo was justifiably lauded for her focused performance in the leading role. The understated intensity of her work is nicely counterbalanced by Misty Upham, who brings that right mix of calculated disinterest and impatient opportunism to her performance as the Native American who becomes the leery partner of Leo's character.
The International (Tom Tykwer, 2009). My oh my, is this ever dull. The film involves a vast global bank conspiracy that is investigated by an Interpol agent played by Clive Owen and a New York Assistant District Attorney played by Naomi Watts. It's stern and serious and focused to a fault, almost entirely absent of any energy as it tightens its jaw and purses it lips and sets about being a highly refined political thriller. Tykwer displays none of the wild, inventive verve that launched him on the scene with Run Lola Run a decade earlier. In its place is a personality-free, professional sheen that looks accomplished enough, but has no inner life whatsoever. Watts looks alternately bored and distracted, while Owen makes the unfortunate miscalculation of pitching his performance at a level of unrelenting intensity that borders on silliness.
Julie and Julia (Nora Ephron, 2009). The very premise is this film is actually quite clever, interlacing a biography about Julia Child's rise to culinary fame with a click-by-click depiction of Julie Powell's attention-getting effort to cook every dish in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which she documented online to life-changing results. By the end, though, one half of the film has so overtaken the other that I was left wondering if Nora Ephron ever considered jettisoning the modern day blogger altogether. Or was she stuck because the title Julia was already taken. A couple times over. Ephron certainly doesn't have any idea what to do with Powell's story, at one point so stuck that she just has Powell and her husband sit on their couch and watch Dan Aykroyd's famous Saturday Night Live skit involving Child and a few gallons of fake blood. It leaves Amy Adams with nothing do as Powell but flutter and overplay her stress until it starts to come across as intolerable brattiness. The portion of the film that follows Child is often delightful, however, especially because of Meryl Streep's inspired work as the legendary chef. She gets the mannerisms and the cadences down just fine, but that's easy part. Streep also nails the far trickier challenge of convincingly tapping into the ebullient thrill that Child gets out of life and food and her beloved husband. Stanley Tucci plays that part with supreme gentleness of spirit. When he and Streep are on screen together, they're performing a marvelous duet that also stands as one of the finer portrayals of the sort of mature partnership that constitutes a healthy marriage that you're likely to ever find in a Hollywood movie.
(Posted simultaneously to "Jelly-Town!")
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project365.year38.week24
Jan. 5th, 2010 | 05:10 pm
location: swannanoa
mood: 
drained
music: nil
posted by: firthofforth
brief and to the point this week. record cold, no water for a day, lots of work and not really starting the new year off "clean"
( project 365 pics all located here, click here )
( project 365 pics all located here, click here )
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(no subject)
Jan. 5th, 2010 | 09:51 am
posted by: eggycaption
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Homepage Spotlight 1/04/10
Jan. 4th, 2010 | 02:38 pm
posted by: ljspotlight in lj_spotlight
2amtomorningIf you find yourself at the crossroads of insomnia and insanity, this is the place to channel those demons that keep you sleepless. Vivid pictures, poetry, ruminations, and confessions from the nether hours between dusk and dawn. Originally formed to celebrate the city at night, there's a strong urban theme.
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Homepage Spotlight 1/04/10
Jan. 4th, 2010 | 02:37 pm
posted by: ljspotlight in lj_spotlight
green_futureDedicated to promoting global sustainability, this community offers a forum for discussing current environmental news, research, and issues with tips on how to make positive, pro-active changes to reduce carbon impact. You'll also find information on how to get involved in eco-activism and learn about events near you (i.e., act local; think global). Offering a wealth of data on earth-friendly products and practices, you'll be inspired to don an organic bamboo cape and save the planet.
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Homepage Spotlight 1/04/10
Jan. 4th, 2010 | 02:35 pm
posted by: ljspotlight in lj_spotlight
wtf_sexismSelf-described as "a little community with a lot of rage," you can soak up impassioned vibes and read blistering exposes detailing sexist attitudes in the news, pop culture, and science! A must-join community if you are, or love, a feminist. (NB: the topic of whether a "man" can be a feminist is outside the scope of this spotlight, but will probably wind up on the Writer's Block.)
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Trying to fly away might have been your first mistake
Jan. 4th, 2010 | 04:24 pm
posted by: coffeefortwo
There have already been plenty of words devoted to all the ways in which Jason Reitman's Up in the Air is especially timely, so let's instead consider the elements that make it timeless. Yes, the profession of the film's main character--who jets across the country to deliver the troublesome news of company firings, a service provided to cowardly managers--has a ripped-from-the-headlines-of-the-busines
Clooney's Ryan Bingham is good at his job, not just maneuvering across the minefield of being the bearer of the worst possible occupational news, but also the simple mechanics of perpetually living out of a suitcase (the compact model, ready to be wedged into a variety of overhead compartments) and slicing through airport terminals with the greatest efficiency. He's a modern variant of Tom Wolfe's old masters of the universe, completely in command of his place in the intricate black widow web of corporate America, achieving great success at the expense of others. His happily solitary life is challenged in different ways by two women who come into his life anew: a fellow traveler, and a youthful innovator who he's charged with mentoring on the road, played by Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick, respectively. These two characters are distinctive, complete, and as thoroughly woven into the fabric of the film as Clooney's. From the standpoint of the drama, they are clearly there to help shape the protagonist's journey, but, as opposed to how many films work, they don't feel like secondary constructions. They are supporting roles, not subservient ones. That doesn't seem like an observation that should be all that remarkable, but such a thing is strikingly rare. In response, both Farmiga and Kendrick turn in memorable performances that hit their own unique notes of moving.
Jason Reitman directed the film after adapting the screenplay from a novel by Walter Kirn (Sheldon Turner is also a credited writer on the film). Just as Juno was a significant step forward from his debut, Thank You For Smoking, this third outing marks great progress as a filmmaker. He's especially good at balancing out the often delicate tone of the movie, which slaloms between bittersweet comedy and piercing studies in the way disappointment descends, often when least expected. It's a film that thrillingly about adults. It's about the vast array of choices that are laid before a life, and the inevitable compromises that result when there are only so many departing flights that you can get on. There are no easy answers, just fumbling attempts at getting things right followed by, at best, fleeting moments of reward. That may seem like a fairly downbeat assessment, but movies as good as Up in the Air are their own sort of celebration.
(Posted simultaneously to "Drilling Holes in the Wall.")
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(no subject)
Jan. 4th, 2010 | 09:12 am
posted by: jupiterjuniper
someone stole my imac. glass everywhere. on new year's eve, they think. happy monday to you, too, universe.
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Now I'm very big, I'm a big important man, and the only thing that's different is underneath my hat
Jan. 3rd, 2010 | 09:14 pm
posted by: coffeefortwo
Apparently, I need one more day of mental recovery before stringing words together properly again.
Following one of my usually tactics in such situation, here's a little something from Daniel Clowes:
You can read more about it.
Following one of my usually tactics in such situation, here's a little something from Daniel Clowes:
You can read more about it.
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project 365: 1 jan - 3 jan
Jan. 3rd, 2010 | 12:29 pm
posted by: jupiterjuniper
1 jan
happy new year, we just survived the oregon trail.
( the rest of week one. )
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Everything was cool, diggin' on me, diggin' on you
Jan. 2nd, 2010 | 09:12 pm
posted by: coffeefortwo
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Fifty Fridays: Week Sixteen
Jan. 1st, 2010 | 09:27 am
posted by: coffeefortwo
As with last week, it seems like the appropriate time to look to the calendar for inspiration about this week's topic.
As always, please play along...
( 'It must be wonderful to ring in the new year over and over and over!' 'Please kill me.' )
As always, please play along...
( 'It must be wonderful to ring in the new year over and over and over!' 'Please kill me.' )
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mulled wine of the gods
Dec. 31st, 2009 | 06:55 pm
posted by: jupiterjuniper
2 bottles red wine (merlot preferred; any robust reds work fine)
1.5 cups dark brown sugar
1 cup water
8 cloves
nutmeg, cinammon
1/4 lemon + peel
1 orange (cut, squeezed in + peel)
1 tsp real vanilla extract
dash of soco
repeat every 3 hours.
1.5 cups dark brown sugar
1 cup water
8 cloves
nutmeg, cinammon
1/4 lemon + peel
1 orange (cut, squeezed in + peel)
1 tsp real vanilla extract
dash of soco
repeat every 3 hours.
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Top Fifty Films of the 00s -- Number One
Dec. 31st, 2009 | 06:06 pm
posted by: coffeefortwo
#1 -- No Country For Old Men (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 2007)
After all the words I've tapped out in the name of this ongoing project, this public exercise in grappling with the films that have meant the most to me, spoke to me most truly and forcefully these past ten years, it's strangely difficult to come to the title at the top of the list. All the explanations and opinions and justifications of the previous forty-nine essays are, in some ways, just a precursor to this. Such is the imposing stress of that slender digit, that number one. To anoint this the greatest, the best, the favorite, or whatever near synonymous term you choose, of the past ten years begs a daunting question. What do I love about No Country For Old Men?
It starts with the story itself, adapted faithfully from Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel, a page-turner so terse that it could have been handed out on the set in the event that the scripts went missing. Set in a desolate corner of Texas in 1980, the story involves a leather-tough, laconic Vietnam veteran named Llewelyn Moss who stumbles upon the site of a drug deal gone bad in the desert. He finds bullet-riddled trucks, a few corpses and a satchel stuffed with money, the last of which he gladly claims for himself. He also finds a victim on his way to dying but not quite there yet, which haunts him and sends him back to the crime scene in the middle of the night to deliver some water to soothe the man's suffering. It's an act of kindness that brings all manner of mayhem down upon him, a storm led by the seemingly unstoppable man-hunter named Anton Chigurh.
That role is played by Javier Bardem, who does nothing short of delivering a performance that is instantly iconic. From the moment he arrives on screen, you simply know that this is the stuff of movie legend, the sort of performance that you'll be watching in clip packages of cinematic greatness for as long as such diversions exist. He commands the screen with an almost inhuman menace, a piercing intelligence and a grinding impatience for those who bore him with their weakness and ineptitude, a population that comprises just about everyone. He lives by his own set of rules and warped sense of honor. No threat is idle, no comment offhand. Anything he says he'll do is a rock-solid pledge which can only be undone by fate itself. It's a great character to begin with, and Bardem embodies the role. Underneath a bad haircut and behind alert eyes that serve as a window to a dangerous electricity sparking in his brain, he embodies this man that is pure force. After watching the performance it's tempting to try it out, to roll "friendo" off the tongue like he does, just to see if you can taste the genius of it.
It's so good and so dominating that it's easy to lose sight of how much great acting is contained within the film. Josh Brolin is revelatory as Llewelyn, taking a role that's highly internalized, built off of short, sharp one-liners as much as anything else, and signaling the reservoirs within the man. You get a sense of the decency that sends him back to a place he knows is dangerous, and the weakness that will be his eventual undoing. Kelly Madonald plays his wife Carla Jean with a tremulous concern, a preemptive exhaustion at the trouble that looms and a welling certainty that there's no way out of the mess that'll get here. Tommy Lee Jones plays a lawman investigating the case, watching the problems unfold from a step or two behind the action, and slowly, surely buckling under the weight of a world that changing in ways that he just can't fathom. Decency is slipping away, and increasingly feels helpless, unable to do much more than slowly shake his head at the awfulness of it all. Though the parts are briefer, there's equally strong work further down the cast list, including Woody Harrelson as a droll bounty hunter who tried to warn Llewelyn about the full extent of Chigurh's formidable power, and Garret Dillahunt as a deputy working with Jones's sheriff, bringing an amusing untainted eagerness to his investigative efforts. Out of all the great moments in No Country For Old Men, few delight me quite as much as Dillahunt riding his horse around the detritus of the drug deal gone bad and verbally speculating about how the conflict escalating with the simple and perfect phrase, "And then, whoa...differences..."
There's a lot of praise to be doled out for the film, but the litany of great contributors must begin and end with the names Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. They've presided over a long list of exceptional films, but there's something especially gratifying about their efforts on this one, perhaps because of the happy schism of seeing the men who've made their reputation largely on inspired excess craft of a film that is a model of shrewd discipline. Clearly responding to the restraint of McCarthy's original work, the Coens deliver their leanest, tightest film since their debut, Blood Simple. McCarthy undoubtedly gave them great material to work with, but it was up to them to shape it into a movie with its own energy, its own identity, a task that's more difficult than it might seem, as evidenced by the massive number of great books, including those penned by McCarthy, that have been transformed into mediocre films. The Coens largely achieve this through focusing on the most important, and yet often neglected or woefully under-realized, responsibility of a filmmaker: telling the story visually. Whether it's a silhouette of a truck on a distant hillside or the chilling shadows creeping in from the crack beneath a closed door, the Coens continually find clean, novel ways to convey the most important information in the film. They don't feel the need to explain everything directly, but the intricacies of the film should only be a mystery to those who aren't really paying attention, or at least those who have been so decisively driven away from the beautiful vernacular of cinematic narrative by brain-dead, bludgeoning spectacles that excuse their shortcoming in the name of entertainment that they can no longer recognize the craftsmanship of true masters.
So what do I love about No Country For Old Men? That's easy.
Everything.
(Posted simultaneously to "Drilling Holes in the Wall.")