A Nice Movie Streak I Had

Last week I went on a pretty great movie streak. I saw 7 movies in 5 days between Tuesday and Saturday. This was, I think, the second best movie streak I've ever had after 8 movies in 8 days last summer. I guess that's kind of weak, but hey, I'm still young. So I thought, since I don't have much better to write about, that I'd give some brief little reviews of all these movies that I just saw, and I will for once try to keep them brief (that means no synopses people! Look them up yourself!). Maybe you'll discover something good.

Tuesday:
Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) - This was the best movie of the streak. This documentary, a look into the international world of street art directed by its foremost figure, the notorious and mysterious Banksy, transcends its label. It's by far the best documentary I've ever seen (sorry, "Helvetica") because it has not one moment which feels teachy, and there is a compelling human story which is not only reported on by the movie, but is created by the movie. It stays captivating throughout like you would think only a scripted movie could.

Wednesday:
Melvin Goes to Dinner (2003) - Definitely a unique movie. This is basically one big long dinner conversation, with only some flashbacks (excellent cameo opportunities for David Cross and Jack Black!) interspersed in between. So it certainly does get slow, and if you have a terrible attention span this might not be the movie for you (believe me, I'm really on that spectrum too) but the conversation is interesting and witty. My credit to the writer Bob Odenkirk for keeping this movie bearable.

Thursday:
The Joneses (2010) - I enjoyed this movie a lot more than the critics did. The environment was really well set up, David Duchovny's performance was outstanding, and the themes came through really well. It dealt with both consumerism and family, and was able to go into both of these really well. And that setting of the snobby suburbs wasn't quite as well done as in, say, "Edward Scissorhands" or "Weeds", but it's definitely up there. This movie is highly recommended by me.

Up (2009) - Pretty overrated, in my opinion. Yeah it was really sad, more sad than even I expected after hearing miles about it. But I thought the story was pretty weak by Pixar standards, and parts were way melodramatic for my liking. Still a good movie, but I certainly had my reservations.

Friday:
Igby Goes Down (2002) - I found this one pretty unbearable. I had high expectations because it was compared to "Cather in the Rye", "The Graduate", and, one of my favorites, "Rushmore". It also stars Keiran Culkin, who I loved in "Scott Pilgrim". But the movie was godawful! Nothing ever happens. Really, nothing. Please don't bother.

Signs (2003) - This was my first exposure to the work of M. Night Shyamalan, but I had heard enough about him to... well I don't have time to think of a whatever-it's-called (metaphor? analogy? I can't keep this shit straight). Supposedly his work has gone downhill since this movie, but I found this one entirely pleasurable, and I particularly noticed his direction as a plus. What he did amazingly was show the small town in which the movie takes place gradually be overtaken by dread over the extraterrestrial occurences that are taking place. My biggest problem might have been Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix as brothers - they're 18 years apart in age and look nothing alike, and that annoyed me the whole time.

Saturday:
Brick (2005) - This one was also really unique and interesting. It was made as an homage to noir mysteries, but it turned out to actually be exactly like those stylistically. But when it was put against the setting, a high school with all of the social classes that it has, it made a fascinating result. The movie was also helped tremendously by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who gave a great performance in the lead detective role as he was just breaking onto the scene.

Conclusions have never been my strongest suit in writing. So that's it I guess.

Solitude Is Bliss

If only you could see the conditions in which I live a lot of the time...
Especially with things related to this blog... Most of the time when I'm writing, or when I'm watching TV shows and movies and listening to music to write about, I lie on my bed with the door closed and the light off, just my computer and me savoring the darkness and loneliness. I do enjoy it, though.

Coincidentally, there are two awesome songs that have been in heavy rotation on the soundtrack of my life that talk about loneliness, and even in a bit of a positive light, the type that I was talking about.

Check them out after the jump...

I Love Great Writing

This is going to be the shortest post so far in the short history of this blog. I just wanted to say that "Community" and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" are both on incredible hot streaks right now. It's really a gift to see such sharp writing on a weekly basis. Sunny's season is almost over, but hopefully Parks and Rec will come back strong and keep the trend going.

That's just what's making me happy.

So this post isn't a total waste, this is an awesome song. Enjoy.

Scott Pilgrim

I saw the Scott Pilgrim movie in theaters back when it first came out. It was pretty fun. I saw it with my friend who was obsessed with the books, and he dressed up and all. Pretty sweet. The movie is one of the most unique I've ever seen. It's completely ADD, always jumping around and it has all these crazy visual effects. It's pretty unprofessional actually, but it works. I just saw the movie again, it was my first iTunes movie rental ever (and, for new releases, those things are damn expensive. 4 bucks to see a movie on my computer? Honestly not worth it). But I liked the movie even more on second watching. Maybe it just took some time for me to get into the world, but either way I'm thinking now that it was a great movie. It probably just moved into my top 5 of the year.

I really want to read the books now, and I think I could become a huge fan of the whole franchise. There's also this song, it actually inspired the books. "Scott Pilgrim" by Plumtree. Plumtree was this awesome Canadian all-girl indie rock band, and this song is pretty sweet. Listen to it below.

Top Movie Scenes

I still don't really have anything timely to say. Also I had a hand injury and couldn't type much. But I guess I'm reaching into the bag of things anybody could do, and I'm going to write a list of my favorite movie scenes ever.

This conversational style might be more effective if anybody was actually reading...

Anyway, here is my list. It's not ranked, because Roger Ebert hates that (and I kind of agree with him).

On a side note, I could barely read that whole article. I felt so guilty knowing that I'm taking up about as much web space as Ebert is and I'm such an inferior writer to him. I'll stop moping and start my list now.

Rushmore - The scene where Max first meets Miss Cross
The blocking of this scene is brilliant, certainly the best of any on this list, and that's what makes it so great. This is the scene where Max first speaks to his love interest, first grade teacher Miss Cross. She is smoking on the bleachers, and he on the other side of them. But as the conversation shifts in tone, he physically moves closer to her. When Max gets into a good topic, he slides towards her. And when he thinks he's offended her, he slides away again. This scene inventively puts into images what anybody on an awkward date feels like doing, and once again director Wes Anderson does a fantastic of subtly turning emotion visible.

I couldn't find a video of just this scene, but it is in this video, just around 4 minutes in. But of course, if you haven't seen Rushmore yet, then you should just see the movie because it is that good.


Inglourious Basterds - Opening scene
This is just a wonderful torture scene. Christoph Waltz is soooo good as Hans Landa, the "Jew Hunter", and when he's drinking the milk... chills run down my sping. It's fantastic. By the way you're going to be seeing a lot of Tarantino on this list. Just warning you.

Also, apparently I'm a terrible Youtube researcher, because I couldn't find a video of this scene. If you have anything, please put it in the comments and I'll add it.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Final scene
Until this scene, I was pretty indecisive about my feelings on "Eternal Sunshine". I was confused by it and didn't really feel like there was a point. But all of the point came from this scene. This one scene carried out the message of the entire movie, that it's worth it to have good times with somebody even if you know that the relationship won't end well. It's a beautiful message, and this is a beautiful scene.

I did manage to find a video for this scene, but the quality's absolutely awful (as, if you go to the video's page on Youtube itself, you could see I commented). I can't really understand what anyone's saying, but I'll post it here anyway and wish you luck.



Napoleon Dynamite - Final scene (tetherball)
I suppose this one really isn't too unique. But it's made really sweet just because of who the characters are. Two awkward kids, who had only been gradually drifting together throughout the movie. The shot is really well-done, it stays at the same wide angle the whole time, slowly zooming out. And I love that something so mundane like tetherball can be made into such a romantic experience, actually the climax of this romance as we see it in the movie.

This video is also pretty bad quality, and with this scene more than any I wouldn't think it would make too much sense without the context of the whole movie. But here it is regardless.


Pulp Fiction - Royale with Cheese/Bumping off Brett
This scene is also not that unique, it's just really, really incredibly well done. The dialogue, as it is in this whole movie, is so well-written, and John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, as they are in this whole movie, are at the tops of their respective games. Also there's a really funny parody of this scene with Bert and Ernie.
I have videos of the two parts of this scene plus the Sesame Street one. These all seem to be in pretty good quality. Then again I didn't watch them all the way through, but they seem alright.





Wayne's World - Bohemian Rhapsody
Need I say more? This scene, which brought Queen's fantastic song back to popularity, is a classic, and it's really funny.


So that's basically the list right now. There are scenes from "Midnight Meat Train" and "Lost in Translation" which deserve honorable mention as well.
Stay tuned, don't forget about the blog because I will write stuff on here. At some point, eventually, yeah.