Saturday. Except posted Sunday.
First, a quote from The Dresden Dolls blog:
My belly is toned (from the yoga) yet substantial (from the beck’s). it’s gorgeous and i fondle it a lot.
I’ve seen a lot of movies lately.
Life is Sweet - I love this movie. It’s small, in that it details the small details of normals people lives. It’s quirky and sublime and really moving. I adore Mike Leigh’s work and need to see more. Alison Steadman as the mum, really surprised me, though I’ve seen her work before and know she’s good. Her character’s goofy and silly throughout the film, but has a confrontation w/ her daughter near the end that’s really poignant.
Here’s a snippet of dialogue, between the twin sisters:
[Natalie and Nicola ponder having children]
Natalie: Well, I wouldn’t fancy bringing one up on me own.
Nicola: It’s better to be on your own than be with a bastard.
Natalie: Well, presumably you wouldn’t *choose* a bastard in the first place if you had any sense!
Nicola: All men are bastards!
Natalie: *What*?
Nicola: They’re all potential rapists!
Natalie: That’s a bit sweeping!
Nicola: All men have got the ability to rape.
Natalie: Well they don’t all do it, do they!
Nicola: But they’ve got the ability; they’ve got the desire.
Natalie: That’s paranoid rubbish!
Nicola: What d’you know about paranoia?
Natalie: Well, not half as much as you do, I’ll give you that.
Rocky Balboa - I was stunned at how much I liked this movie. I went thinking it would be a bit of camp, but Stallone really did good. It’s a slow, quite film. There were so many times when he could’ve made the easy, typical choice as far as plot, but didn’t. At every turn he surprised and impressed me. I got the whole Rocky canon from Circus Mel’s work - we’ll see how far I get tonight.
Tarnation - I have mixed feelings about this one. It’s a documentary about a guy’s mother and her struggle w/ mental illness. But it’s very arty. Lots of recreated scenes (that aren’t identified as such, you have to watch the commentary to know), lots of stretches of fancy IMovie tricks. I don’t like how some scenes are presented as real, when they’re recreations. It’s dishonest. I also don’t like one scene where he harasses his grandfather ’till the old man calls the police. It made me feel sad.
But overall, it’s interesting and wrenching. His mom had an incident when she was young that caused her parents concern, so she spent several years after that getting electroshock therapy, which fried her brain. Apparently, there was nothing wrong w/ her in the first place. Scary.
Nico/Icon - Weird and cool and depressing. I’m not sure whether to feel bad for her or not. She was called a failure by everyone interviewed in the film (more or less), was a heroin addict, her teeth were rotting out of her head. Yet, she lived how she wanted to. Performed, made herself ugly (she was bothered being so beautiful. God, can I relate.), lived relatively free.
I find John Cale’s singing voice comforts me almost as much as Leonard Cohen’s speaking voice.
The Thin Blue Line - Errol Morris is my favorite documentary film maker. This tells of the wrongful conviction of a guy accused of killing a cop in Texas. Scary god damn stuff. I’ll have to Google and follow up, ’cause I’m sure there’s been something since this was made, like him being released or something.
Theremin: An Electronic Oddysey - The story of the invention of the theremin and the instruments creator. Neat. I want a theremin to be playing as I walk down the aisle when I get married in Vegas.
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