Thought Chasm

Archive for October, 2007

reign over me

Wednesday, October 24th, 2007

So you’ve got Adam Sandler (Punch Drunk Love) and Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) paired up in a dramatic movie. Considering the subject matter and the talent involved, it couldn’t really be bad, so I gave it a shot. I’m not disappointed, but I’m not screaming from the rooftops either. It was slow, and predictable, but there was a lot of heart to it.

Alan Johnson (Cheadle) runs into his college roomate, Charlie Fineman (Sandler), and tries to catch up with him. His life has become too routine and Charlie is his way of venturing out of the house. Charlie’s family was killed in 9/11 and he’s taken it very hard, blocking most of his memories. He hides from the outside world, keeps out of contact, and tweaks whenever his family is mentioned.

The pace is slow. Not a lot happens. Alan learns from Charlie to appreciate what he’s got. Charlie doesn’t really change much. I think that’s the point. The film is very subtle. The symbolic video game (Shadow of the Colossus), the dialog, and the relationships between the characters all seem to hide much more than they show. It works well. The bond between Alan and Charlie is stronger because so much is left unsaid.

There are some funny bits scattered throughout. Sandler nails his character and Cheadle is spot on. The acting with the rest of the cast is adequate, but no one’s stretching, so that should be expected. Binder did a good job directing. He used focus, or loss thereof, quite a bit. He also kept the timeline moving. The events in the movie are spread out so you’re left filling in the gaps with assumptions.

It’s a good movie, but over-hyped.

*** 1/2

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drink it in…

Wednesday, October 24th, 2007

…it always goes down smooth

I don’t buy bottled water. It suffocates the environment and prolongs our dependence on oil reserves. I’m cool with folk that do though, because there’s too heavy a marketing push to ignore. The fact that Coca-Cola rapes foreign lands and depletes their fresh water reserves means little to anyone. They are foreign after all, and thus insignificant. Plus, most of that goes to soda, and folk will kill an indigenous mother with their own hands for a six-pack of Pepsi. Still more people buy filtration pitchers and sink systems to purify their H2O.

Turns out it’s all a waste of time for Minneapolisites Minneapolans, Minneapolisans, Minneapolites; I haven’t a clue. Well, maybe not a waste of time, because maybe your pipes are rusting out, but definitely a study in expense vs. necessity. And I don’t mean to badmouth those that partake in bottled water goodness. Most of the people that aren’t complete assholes reuse or recycle the bottles and that’s almost fourteen percent.

This was just a time for me to gloat about my reuse of the same 32oz Gatorade bottle for the past seven months. Picture me throwing my arms in the air, hooting, bringing my fists together and pretending to churn butter, and doing some awful imitation of someone doing the sprinkler. In other words, boo ya!

That is all, please resume your day. Go out and buy a Dasani to celebrate. It’s local tap water filtered to lower standards than it originally had. I’m sure it’s delicious.

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the lookout

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007

I didn’t know what to expect from this one. The previews were intriguing, but people are paid to make them just that. I liked Brick and think Joseph Gordon-Levitt is solid. Jeff Daniels is solid. Isla Fisher is sexy, but can’t hold up a movie. Scott Frank is new to all this directing stuff. I get into heist movies. There are a lot of factors. Turns out it’s a mediocre movie that I ended up liking. Who knew?

The story centers on Chris Pratt (Gordon-Levitt). He’s the shit in high school and everyone wants to be him or do him. He goes all risky for a second and drives his car into a wreck. Fade to black, cut, caption, and it’s four years later. Now he’s dealing with the aftermath: a brain injury that makes day to day routine difficult and a family that pushes him to be as he was. He works at a bank as the night janitor and lives with a blind fellow he met through the counseling (Daniels).

Enter a new set of friends, Gary (Goode), Luvlee (Fisher), and some other shady cats. They pump him up, telling him he’s better than others see him, and treat him as an equal. Or, he thinks they do, because he becomes aware that they are just using him in order to scope the bank he works for. Surprise.

It’s slow going for a good chunk, but it feels like it’s intentional. It doesn’t hurt it all that much. We see the repetition and strain that comes with all of Pratt’s issues. The characters are decent, but the Daniels and Gordon-Levitt are the only ones that hold any acting cred. The directing is safe, but it works well with the story. The third act is filled with action. Predictable, but entertaining none the less.

It’s as though the action is secondary. Like Frank wanted to go deeper. He does, but I doubt to the level he thinks he does. The movie’s more about a man’s struggle to regain normalcy after a tragic event. Pratt goes through his day constantly thinking of what things were like before. He visits the place he was thrown from his car many times through the film. His family acts as though nothing happened almost to the point of patronizing him. It depicts him fighting this isolation and takes you through his transition into partially accepting it.

…or maybe I read into it a little too far.

** 1/2

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photos

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007

I was posting some photos from this month onto the interweb over at picasa and noticed the “embed slideshow” function. Figured I’d give it a go if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. s’all good either way:

[slideshow disabled]

You can check the larger set [link disabled] here. Photogs include two birthdays or the early celebrations of them at least, a shitton of animals, and a Packer game. If more photos are taken, they’ll be added to the album because that’s how monthly groupings of miscellaneous photos work.

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billboard

Monday, October 22nd, 2007

She’s as beautiful as she’ll ever be. She is fit, active, and young. Her legs are smooth and toned, her lips are full, her hair is still flexible and smooth, and her breasts have yet to feel the molesting hands of gravity. Her boyfriend either worships her or hates her. She sits a couple rows behind me, listening to her iPod and reading her book. Unlike gorgeous celebrities, she is attainable, but I’m not interested.

Her seduction is naive and superficial. Instead of seeking a man’s respect she wants his affection and attention. She layers her face in cosmetics, ritualistically manipulates her hair, and displays her skin in excess to prove her attractiveness. None of these things matter. She uses bold exposure instead of insightful conversation to entice the opposite sex. She’s self-conscious, awkward, and unsure.

Soon her metabolism will slow and pockets of weight will develop. Wrinkles will appear, and her curves will sag, but she’ll become more attractive. She will learn what she wants, what she deserves, and how she can get it. Eventually the make-up may enhance her appearance, rather than fog it. Clothes she buys will make her look and feel sexy, rather than showing off as much as possible. Most of all she will learn that a man’s attention and the opinions of others shouldn’t govern her habits.

Or, as is the case far too often, she won’t. She’ll remain socially immature and find affirmation only in the shallow. She’ll stress of her outer appearance and never develop a sense of self. She will date unappreciative men and grow lonely or pathetic. She will pass onto her children the same superficial values. She’ll read Cosmopolitan to learn how to please a man, or better her life, from articles written by men. She’ll desire the ogling eyes of men as proof that she’s more attractive than she feels. She will perpetuate the patriarchal assumptions.

It’s too early to tell. Her brains could be betrayed by the flaunting of her temporary body. Her low-cut tank top and low-rise jeans could be material means to gain attention for an insecure child. I don’t have the patience or attention span to find out. For now she is just an audacious billboard for a product I don’t want on the traffic-jammed interstate that is my life. Eye-catching, but barely worth a second glance.

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joyeux noel

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

[merry Christmas]

This is a war movie, sort of. It has action and violence and battle. But it’s more than that. It’s the true—though probably slightly exaggerated—story of the human spirit. I was impressed. It was mentioned in passing by a friend of mine on our way out of another movie (Valley of elah). I wanted to take a look, because it’s a compulsion. The summary she gave me was exactly how the film played out, but there were subtle undertones, derived from the timing of its release, that make it fantastic.

In World War I, soldiers from Scotland, France, and Germany made a temporary truce in order to celebrate the holidays. Their commanding officers were in the dark on this ceasefire. The men traded drink, stories, and celebration. They came to know one another and then, as the holidays ended, were enemies again. It’s a story about a different side of warfare. The human element that is almost always lost in history and cinematic depiction.

The acting is great. The stories they act out are strong and layered. There’s a sense that the men know they are doing something against conventional wisdom, but genuinely good. The interplay of commanding officers, between the men, and, at the core, between enemies, drives the film. A commentary on war runs at a different, more subtle, level than the action. It’s a commentary on war, how it was and how it is now.

War has not changed. It is still a battle between people for the same reasons. Territory, defense, or freedom are still the root causes of a war. The soldiers are still pawns in the vicious chess game being played by their superiors. But a movie like this will never be made and the actions shown therein will never happen again. War is now a battle between cultures. The common ground of soldiers has been erased by propaganda and perceptions. We will never again have an impromptu truce on the grounds of common holidays.

That’s what makes this film so powerful. It’s more than a film of war, a film about soldiers relating across the lines of culture, and a film showing the humanity during violence. It’s a snapshot in time. I don’t know how the events really happened for those few days in France in 1914, but the story behind it is incredible. The film shows a reality of war that is rarely touched on. To say both sides are justified in any conflict now is to say the sky is down, be anti-american, or Iranian.

It’s a good film based solely on the story. The setting is good, the action is realistic, and the characters are solid. It’s not necessarily a Christmas movie, but it seems to fit the winter season very well. I’m throwing out a recommendation that you throw this in when you’re forced into a night in due to blizzard or excessive chill. It’s a fun show.

****

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