Fever Pitch

This was on tv a couple of weeks ago and I stayed up to watch it because I remember liking it so well. It's a really great movie, kids. It's Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore who are both really great in it. Barrymore is a career-driven journalist who meets Fallon, an elementary school teacher. They start dating and Barrymore and her friends start wondering how is this super cute and super funny guy is still single? Well, that gets answered. He's obsessed with the Red Sox. I mean crazy obsessed. It's hilarious. It has themes of sacrifice and compromise and the things we do in relationships for the sake of relationships. It is really funny. It's based on a Nick Hornby book, so you know the dialogue is really good. He's so great at writing dialogue. I'd recommend it highly to even romantic comedy haters.

Also... I just finished The Pale King by David Foster Wallace last night.

But I don't really want to talk about that. Anyone have a copy of The Passage I could borrow?

Blood Simple

I caught this movie on IFC last night. OK, so I missed the first half hour, but man, this movie is KILLER! All you Cohen brothers lovers out there, don't miss this oldie but a goodie (1984!). Features our beloved ms. McDormand, of course and it just blew me away. The cinematography is spectacular. That, you'll just have to see to believe. It's basic storyline is about a man in Texas, a bar owner, who hires a man to kill his wife and her lover. And of course, all has to go wrong. But as I was watching it, having read that brief synopsis, I was still just floored by how the Cohens can twist the 'all goes wrong' part. There's a nightmare scene towards the end that totally creeped me out. I swear I've had dreams like this before. And may I just warn my dear sister, Em that I had, in my mind, named that character Pukey McPukington. And I quietly applauded his death...or was it? Ha, anyway. This movie IS CLEARLY ONE NOT TO MISS. I can't believe it eluded me for so long. Stars beyond stars. On thars.

The Social Network

This is a really great movie! Believe the press. Of course, it's about the origin of the social networking site that we all use. You just get right into this computer science nerd world, rife with rebellion and subversiveness. Jesse Eisenberg is brilliant in it. Really captures the character (albeit a bit more cute and witty than I think the real Mark Zuckerberg, maybe? Kind of Michael Cera-ish, eh?). What I was really impressed by is how non-gratuitous, trashy and cheap it was. It really maintained the feel of a quality movie throughout. And really, a movie about college students creating a social networking site, they could have really gone another way easily. You have to hand it to director David Fincher for that. Maintaining some integrity there; I respect that. What you end up with is a thoroughly raptruring film. I would recommend it to anyone. All of you, if you Facesauce, you should really rent this film that traces it's inception from Harvard over 8 years ago!

Defendor

This is really a nice little movie. Not what you would expect of a superhero film at all. Woody Harrelson is great. It has about 3 swears, but it's funny and a good story and it was very endearing to me. I enjoyed it very much. Travis liked it as well.

Just finished reading this a few minutes ago. This is one of my all time favorite novels. I've probably read it 5 times before. And, of course, it blew me away as always. I just love John Steinbeck. He doesn't really ever use many literary 'tricks'. It's just the way he words things that slays me. I have this collection of 4 Steinbeck works in one volume. I got it out to read 'Of Mice and Men' because of Sawyer. Then there was 'Tortilla Flat' and I was like, well, I'll read this because I've only read it once before and I remember it being kind of a cute little story. Then there was 'Cannery Row'. And, same thing, I thought well, I've only read this twice before, but I liked it quite a bit. I really love the Doc character and I wanted to remember why. Hey, I'll read it again. Then there was grapes and I just had to. It has been several years since I read it last. It was in college and I did a big thesis on it. This is truly Steinbeck's masterpiece. The writing is so beautiful, it will make you pause. It's a compelling story about the triumph of the human spirit. It takes place in the '40s during the dust-bowl migration. When thousands of families were forced to flee the Oklahoma/Kansas region in search for work in California. I'm kind of glad I've finished it now, though because for the last couple of weeks, my inner narrative has been in the voice of a Joad (the central family). For example, when I'm really hungry, in my mind I'm saying 'I ain't et yet' and such. Hopefully that will fade over time. All: I implore you; If you have not read this book (Em), do treat yourself. It is amazing. Now 'git'.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

This movie is Deeeeeelightful! Loved it, 4 stars. So funny and just a joy to watch. Especially when Mr. Fox eats his waffles. Laughed for days.

5 Stars - A Should be Wright Classic

This should be a Wright Classic. It is an amazing film. It came on USA tonight. I had to watch it after loving it at least a year ago and haven't seen it since. The greatest thing I think about this film is how the family totally rallys together during the pageant. First of all, Olive and her grandpa's relationship is just the cutest. Then, Greg Kinnear's really only human moment is during the pageant as he becomes ostensibly less and less comfortable. Meanwhile Duayne and Frank have really opened up to eachother. So during Olive's number, which by the way we haven't had a hint of (it's just, I'm going to go practice my rutine over there). But it's totally like this inappropriate for a little girl to dance this way, but, hello, what number in that crazy pageant is? Just in a different way. So funny. So then, this totally disfunctional family just totally gets together in this amazing last scene that I just love. Love it, Love it. Especially when Steve Carrell hauls it into the hotel to get Olive registered. Too great.

3 stars - worth seeing

So when Hancock first came out, Travis and I thought it looked pretty good. Neither of us are the rush to movie theatre for anything type at all. So when it came out on dvd, he picked it up and it's really pretty good. I'm a big Will Smith fan, and he was just cracking me up the entire time. I think Travis has watched it 4 times since we got it, but I just got around to it on New Years Eve. I had kind of an agoraphobe's night that night and just didn't want to go anywhere like we had planned. So watching movies was just perfect. Hancock is a really funny movie with some really great surprises in it. Jason Bateman!! I would rank it as highly recommended. Oh, yeah, and I just realized that I never do review type reviews on here. All I ever do is tell you guys how much I liked/hated it. So I'm going to attempt to do a bit of a plot analysis. Hancock is an almost homeless and definite substance --abuser super hero. He has super powers like flying and super strength and the like, but for some reason, everytime he does something good for the world, something else is sacrificed. Confusing, I know. Here's an example: He saves a beached whale by throwing him into the ocean by the tail, but the whale ends up landing on a sailboat and probably kills all on board. That type of thing. But then here comes Jason Bateman who is a PR guy and wants to help Hancock improve his image because he does enough good in the world that people should love him. But I think we've all seen enough super-hero movies to know that no matter what they do, someone will always hate Spiderman. Someone will always hate Batman. So they strike up this relationship. Then the rest, I can't tell. It's a secret. But it is good. And if this is a movie you've been humming and hawing about whether to see or not, I think you should see it. It was surprisingly good and entertaining.

5 stars! A Wright Classic...Remade

If you haven't seen this, do yourselves a huge favor, que it! It is outrageously funny. I literally slapped my knee several times. The Producers is definitely a Wright classic, and this remake is just great. It brought up so many memories watching it! Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick are amazing as Bialystock and Bloom. Will Ferrell is Franz Leibkin!! And the lovely and lithe Uma Thurman is great as Ula. So good, so good, so good!!

Four Stars. Loved it, loved it. I wish I knew how to make the image bigger. ( a little help, Em?) This is a movie called "A Prairie Home Companion". It is based on a radio show I am devoted to. It's like an old-time radio variety show like the kind they did 50+ years ago. It's hosted (for 30 years, I think?) by this guy named Garrison Keillor. He has just the best voice for radio ever. Every week they do this show before a live audience. Mostly from their studio in St. Paul, but they do hit the road and travel to various venues. They've come to Salt Lake a few times, but I have never gone to see it live. The movie is about the show's very last performance. Only some of the players know this. And there is like this death figure on the prowl. And that's pretty much it. It is very Robert Altman-ish (he directed the film, but died before it was released). But I think I had a ginormous grin on my face throughout the entire thing. Kevin Kline is hilarious as Guy Noir (a hapless Private Investigator). Dusty and Lefty (from this cowboy bit they do on the show that is hilarious) are played by Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly, repectively and are just so funny I had tears down my face during their bit, it was so funny. Lily Tomlin (Altman is to Lily Tomlin as Allen is to Dianne Keaton) and Meryl Streep were wonderful (especially hearing their attempts to do Mid-western accents!) I so wish I was from Minnesota. As far as continental US accents go, that is my favorite. A close second is metro-Boston. A former employee at Motion Control and good friend of mine nick-named me wicked smaht. Love it. Anyhoo, I don't know if you have to be a fan of the show to enjoy the movie, or if you might just take a chance on watching it and join me in what Booker calls "The Grandma Hour". This is the block of time I reserve to listening to my favorite radio shows.

I am Sam

This is a really great movie I just saw last Saturday. It came out in 2001 and stars Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer. Four stars.

It is about a mentally retarded and autistic man (Penn) who gets a homeless woman pregnant. When the baby is born, she just up and leaves him to raise her (a surprisingly cute little 7 year old Dakota Fanning). Usually I can't stand her, but I guess 7 year old precociousness can be cute but loses it's cuteness at around 11.

Sam is really easy to fall for. He is obsessed with The Beatle's for one thing. And you just can't help but sympathize with him raising a little girl on his own. He works at Starbucks and tries so hard to do the right thing even though, of course, he's clueless. Luckily he has an agoraphobic neighbor (Dianne Wiest) who helps him to understand the little things like how newborn babies need to eat every two hours. He also has this adorable bunch of friends (all challenged in a myriad of ways) that help him.

They seem to be getting on OK, then on Lucy (Diamond)'s 7th birthday, DCFS gets called and she is taken away from Sam. It becomes clear that poor Lucy loves her dad so much, but knows he is different from other daddys. She is super smart, but stops trying when she discovers that she is starting to get more intelligent than her dad and it upset her. So she's having problems at school.

The rest of the movie is Sam trying to get Lucy back with the help of a high-priced lawyer (Michelle Pfeiffer). She ends up accepting it pro-bono to prove to her colleagues that she's not a total snobby piece of crap. Said lawyer, by the way has a young son who she has no real relationship with.

As the movie progresses she becomes less and less annoyed by Sam and really starts to like him and to want to help him. He ultimately prods her into an epiphany about what is wrong with her life and relationship with her son.

I don't want to go much further with this, but it is a must see. Sean Penn is brilliant. It is moving and sweet. Really, really good.