Jack, a thirteen year-old country boy and Eddie, a sawdust-filled teddy bear prone to drunken benders, embark on a (literally) hard-boiled detective case: Humpty Dumpty has been murdered, boiled alive in his own swimming pool. The case takes them to the chocolatey power center of the corrupt metropolis of Toy City, as one by one, the well-known nursery rhyme celebrities in town (otherwise known as Pre-Adolescent Poetic Personalities) drop in the most macabre ways possible. Rankin's prose is at times too gimicky, and unfortunately blemished with several instances of fatphobia trying to pass as humor. It's also hard to buy that Jack, with his proper English diction and mad detective skills, is actually thirteen. Nevertheless, the convoluted title of the book is confidently redeemed by the end as the formula-aware crime novel unfolds in a clockwork cascade of predictable unpredictability.
____________________ What does that star rating mean?
Finally! This is an unwieldy one. Read at your own peril.
The Stuff of 2008 * Astrid and I celebrated our first Shack-Up-iversary in February of '08, which really means we just celebrated the 2nd one at the time of this publication. Life is good.
* My school year continued to be put on hold through January…February…and clear into March.
* I became stupidly hooked on Facebook. Someone sucker-punch me quick.
* I launched a new blog about fat, food, and health. It's called Ambivalent Fat Girl.
* Rumors began to surface that we would have to move from our beloved TriBeSa apartment.
* Due to the crisis at my school and their failure to give me my financial aid check, I had to get myself a part-time bookkeeping gig to stay afloat while finishing up my master's program.
* Went camping with Calisto & Dave at the beautiful Bodega Dunes campsite. Had an amazing conversation with Calisto about the emergence of religion out of the death anxiety. I had a lot of conversations this year about death anxiety, owing to my lifelong obsession and its culmination in my thesis project.
Bree, out in the perilous and wonderful natural environs.
* With some diligent student organizing efforts, my graduate psychology program was able to transfer to another university in March and thus we began the process of completing our studies.
* Despite the relief of starting classes again after a four-month hiatus, the stress continued as I waited for my student loans til the end of April.
* Entertained Astrid's mom and aunt on a rare trip they took north to visit us in our fair City of Sin. In preparation, we cleared out the questionable material from our bookshelves in a shameful exercise in self-censorship. We did manage to take them to a lesbian wedding, which was quite an incredible experience (mazel tov, B & C!)
* Saw DJ graduate from UC Berkeley amid a lot of pomp and circumstance, and, eventually, whiskey. I was hoping that the keynote address by Ishmael Reed was going to be really excellent, but it turns out that even brilliant authors become dumb fountains of "us vs. them" polemics when given a graduation gig.
* Continued to waste a mess of time and accumulate an uncalled for level of stress and anxiety in not writing my thesis. Yep, pretty much two-thirds of 2008 was consumed by thesis anxiety.
* Joined a gym and started "working out" as the yuppies say.
* In August, I graduated from motherfucking grad school! I am now the holder of a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology. Why am I still broke?
* Also in August, I unveiled Vintage Bree, a new feature at Toothpick Labeling, showcasing classic old anecdotes that otherwise might not enter my personal blogosphere.
* Entered my second year of interning at the clinic, learning ever so slightly more about being a psychotherapist.
* Bought a new bike with the help of many kind and generous friends! Humble thanks, folks!
* My nephew Joey got married to his lovely girlfriend D. I cried, happily, through the entire ceremony. Even being someone not drawn to getting married myself, I am continually amazed at how moved I am at weddings. And this one was downright staggering because I've known Joey his whole life, and he is so dear to me. In 2009, I'll also be seeing my niece Halina get hitched to her beau, M.
* Started looking for jobs.
* Vacationed with Astrid in Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula for my dear friend Callie's wedding.
*Freaked out about being unemployed, and then, after a long two months of searching, got a bookkeeping gig at CompuTrap.
* Began an illicit blog promotion campaign, with a reach as far north as Ontario, thanks to Killsbury!
* Proposition 8 passed in California, taking away the all-too recently earned right of queer couples to marry. Fuck you, Church of Latter Day Saints. Fuck you right-wing Christians. You've let your mythology seep into public policy.
* Attended a small reunion BBQ where I got to hang out with folks from my Jewish youth group days, some of whom I hadn't seen for 20 years. Glad to report we're all aging fairly gracefully. And I guess I'm actually getting some use out of Facebook.
* Astrid and I made the stuffing for my family's Thanksgiving celebration!
*Astrid's bike got stolen! From right outside our house. Fuckers!
*Visited Astrid's family for xmas for the second year. Feeling more and more connected and like a part of the family. It's pretty wonderful. At the same time, it's hard to be there for several days during which time it is tacitly, and sometimes glaringly, obvious that many people in Astrid's immediate family think that homosexuality is a sin and that we're going to Hell-in-a-hand basket. While I loved our visit, it was also a joy to come back home to San Francisco, the most abnormal place on Earth, where I feel normal.
The Annual Pop/Culture Reviews: Obligatory overview of my patented two-pronged rating system:
Prong Numero Uno: The Star System - to convey my idea of the "objective merit" of a piece of work (i.e. if I were a professional critic, these are the ratings I'd give the thing). Wherein…
* = fucking awful ** = a few redeemable moments *** = worthwhile, with some reservations **** = exceptional ***** = a rare masterpiece
Prong Nummer Zwei: Ranked-order – in each category, I will rank from top to bottom the book or film or show or album or what have you that I enjoyed most to least. This is how I would justify ranking Howard Jones' Dream Into Action (***) above Nirvana's Nevermind (****). Deal with it!
Books The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (2003) **** If you haven't come across this novel yet, it comes with my strong recommendation. You may at first be put off if you're not into "sci-fi" or "romance," but the novel transcends or at least expands the concept of both categories. Henry has a genetic abnormality that throws him into the past and the future against his will, where he winds up naked, nauseous, and fiercely hungry. Clare meets Henry in his time travels and grows up with him from childhood as he fits and starts into middle age, having known her all along. Niffenegger weaves the story through a chronology that is craftily structured around pivotal emotional events in the lives of the characters, just as we weave our consciousness around mental, if not physical, travels to past and future.
Love's Executioner by Irvin Yalom (1989) **** This master of existential and interpersonal psychotherapy shares ten detailed vignettes of therapy work with clients who are grappling with dilemmas that Yalom sees as stemming from "existence anxiety" or the terror of death. Beautifully written and meaningful to lay people as well as shrinks, Yalom is always brutally honest and even fearless in conveying the sometimes very ugly side of his own countertransference or feeling states aroused by clients. In the case of his work with a very fat woman, for example, his fatphobia is hard to take in, but his ultimate ability to be accountable with his client about his own blind spots is the richest tool he gives his readers.
A General Theory of Love by Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, and Richard Lannon (2000) ***½ Absorbing book on the neuroscience of emotions, written in an accessible language for anyone interested in the intersection between the mysterious alchemy of love and the physical brain processes that propel it. I would like to give this book five stars, but I have two major critiques. The language and therefore the concepts the authors keep coming back to are very gendered. For virtually every example given, the subject is assumed male, and male pronouns are used. The caretakers in examples about babies' brain development are always female. I can't believe we're in the Aughts, and intelligent writers who are challenging the traditions in their field are still using stale old masculinist language. It was so obvious that I actually felt alienated reading it, and I have a pretty high threshold for this sort of thing normally. I will also say that the authors made short shrift of the complexities of emotional trauma when reaching conclusions about how the structure of the brain impacts our psychology. Otherwise, I have to say that this basic explanation about our limbic brains and the bonding we do with one another as a result is really informing my thinking about what is curative about psychotherapy, and why we are so entrenched in the sorts of emotional patterns we find ourselves in.
The Fermata by Nicholson Baker (1994) ***½ Like the musical notation of the title, Arno Strine can stop time in an elongated holding pattern. And what does he do with this extraordinary ability? He doesn't strategize some brilliant plan to conquer or to save the world, he doesn't steal mountains of money, he doesn't interrupt injustice or bring hope to the oppressed. Obsessively detailed and morally ambiguous, Arno Strine stops time and uses the frozen world as his personal masturbatory funhouse. I think Arno would enjoy knowing I was hot and heavy for most of the read; I think Nicholson Baker would enjoy knowing I was hot and bothered.
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger (1961) ***½ I had read this in my early twenties, and probably would've given it four stars then. On second read, it is still easy to become immersed in Salinger's precise language and the portrait he paints of the mid-century privileged and neurotic Glass family, characters he developed in several stories during his productive writing years. This time, though, a more mature reading allowed me to absorb the heavy-handedness of the author's spiritual bents, making me realize that my teenage love affair with Salinger (beginning, as is the case with most fans, with The Catcher in the Rye) had been a little doe-eyed. Perhaps there is something intentional in the way Franny and Zooey struggle to live under the strident spiritual mantras of their older brothers Seymour and Buddy, leaving the reader similarly oppressed. If you're interested in reading more of Salinger's oeuvre, including unpublished works, check out this wonderful online collection.
Psychoanalytic Case Formulation by Nancy McWilliams (1999) **** Not a book I'd recommend for laypeople, but a fascinating and useful guide to conceptualizing psychotherapeutic treatment for clinicians. McWilliams provides a way to understand patients' symptoms from a psychological framework for structuring therapeutic interventions, rather than looking at clusters of symptoms simply as ways to justify psychotropic meds. My single critique of the book is that McWilliams could use some consultation around issues of oppression, cultural diversity, and sexual orientation, and therefore improve the usefulness of her otherwise thorough text.
Everybody Into The Pool by Beth Lisick (2005) *** The Bay Area's own Lisick delivers an amusing memoir that juxtaposes her wholesome suburban middle class upbringing in Sunnyvale with her coming of age in decrepit punk warehouses in San Francisco. Some stories hit the mark with emotional depth and specificity (for example, finding a pubic hair from last night's trick between your teeth at the holiday brunch of a family friend) and some stories are merely Mission-hipster clever.
Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking by Aoibheann Sweeney (2007) **½ A Mainer comes of age in New York City with a surrogate family of gay men who were once friends and colleagues of her father's. The realizations she makes about her own life and sexuality and that of her father's come painfully slowly after many predictable turns of plot. It's just interesting enough to pick up for a quick read (maybe on an airplane), and might make a good after-school special on network TV, but the characters and story are never fully realized.
Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1915) **½ I'd wanted to read this early feminist utopian novel for several years, ever since my days of hanging out at the wonderful eponymous bookstore/café in Santa Cruz back in the day (may it rest in peace). The novel is remarkably prescient in its feminist-socialist philosophy, but the writing is super-pedagogic and almost anthropological in style. It has value as an historical piece, but the story is just silly.
Films in the Theater There Will Be Blood (2007) ***** It is a tall order for most actors and most directors to create a fully realized, relatable character that is greedy to an archetypal level, and as black-hearted as the oil that makes him wealthy. Daniel Day Lewis and director Paul Thomas Anderson accomplish this in Daniel Plainview. Anderson also creates such a precise narrative and visual design of fictitious California desert town Little Boston in the early 1900's that he is able to capture something profound, if not essential, about our cultural and economic oil-dependent fate in 21st century America. Gripping and elegant.
Milk (2008) ***½ This film was right time and right place enough for me to weep almost from start to finish at the screening we caught at the Castro Theatre.
In the wake of the passage of California's Proposition 8, this biopic about slain San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk could only have come at a better time if its release had actually preceded the election and swayed some votes. It is deftly acted by Sean Penn as Milk and Josh Brolin as his fellow supervisor and assassin, Dan White. I'm taking some points off for a screenplay that relies too heavily on voice-over/flashback narration, an easy pitfall from first-time screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (who, as of this writing, won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay anyway. Certainly deserved it more than Juno from '07.)
The Dark Knight (2008) **** Since everyone on the planet has seen this movie, judging by its box office gross, and on top of that, I'm just about hitting my annual movie-reviewing threshold, I'm not gonna devote much ink here. I'll say that it was certainly one of the best films of 2008, arguably the best, and that's coming from a body normally not at all interested in the comic book superhero genre. Yay Christopher Nolan. Rest in peace, Heath.
Wall-E (2008) ***½ The first half hour plays as starkly as a Kubrick film, with its bleak post-environmental apocalypse narrative conveyed mostly though physical action, soundtrack, and the occasional beeps and squawks of the R2-D2ish title character. Definitely one of the most visionary of all mainstream animated films, with a firm but skillfully woven message about corporate-driven over consumption and environmental devastation. It was hard for me when I saw the film to reconcile the fatphobic forward-projection of humans in their adopted outer space habitat aboard the starship Axiom. There have been several articles on this topic, of note this one from slate making the case that Wall-E's themes suggest obesity is being demonized as part and parcel of mass consumption and of environmental degradation. And here's a counter argument at the expandrive blog that takes exception to slate's premise.
The Diving Bell and The Butterfly (2007) **** Film adaptation of Jean-Dominique Bauby's 1997 memoir. The book had been scribed by an assistant while Bauby, paralyzed by a stroke, dictated by blinking his left eyelid. An amazing story beautifully rendered for the screen by Julian Schnabel.
The Polymath, Or the Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman (2007) ** Probably one of the worst documentaries I've seen in terms of production quality and narrative structure; nevertheless, Samuel Delany, prolific sci-fi writer (one of Astrid's favorites) and outspoken gay African American savant is so charming and knowledgeable about the slice of history he embodies that it's satisfying just to listen to him spin his yarns.
Superbad (2007) *** You're about to read three reviews in a row featuring the huggably nerdy Michael Cera. Of the three, I found Superbad to be the most fun, owing much to Cera's grounded sincerity juxtaposed with the gruff immaturity of Jonah Hill'sSeth and the newfound prowess of McLovin:
I went in expecting not much more than Porky's for Generation Y, but got both a rollicking party and ultimately earnest story about friendship instead.
Here marks the sharp drop off in enjoyment
Juno (2007) **½ Someone, I don't recall who, said this about Juno: it's a great indie movie for people who don't normally see indie movies. Since it came out in '07, and pretty much everyone saw it and everyone buzzed about it, I'm not gonna add much here you don't already know. I liked Ellen Page's performance, and I always like Mr. Cera. I liked the concept of a movie dealing with a teen pregnancy in a somewhat realistic way, and I also liked the concept of an underdog one-time stripper, first-time screenwriter penning what went on to be an Oscar-winning script, but it shouldn't have been Juno. The always-snarky dialogue, the pat treatment of the option of abortion and of the complexity of emotion that this situation incurs are just a few reasons that Diablo Cody should have lost the Best Original Screenplay award to either Tamara Jenkins for The Savages or Nancy Oliver for Lars and the Real Girl.
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008) **½ Mr. Cera again plays the same nebbishy sweet geek here that he's played in the other two films reviewed above, and as much as I was disappointed by Juno, at least that film had a story to tell. What Nick and Norah deliver is an updated version of the guy-searching-for-girl all nighter we've seen in countless other forms. This version has more gay visibility (Nick is the token straight guy in a (horrible!) homocore band) and a slightly more realized female lead (played sulky-brainy by Kat Dennings).
Knocked Up (2007) **½ I'm all for a film tackling the male point of view in an accidental pregnancy story. But in this one, the women are shrews and the men are schlubs, and the audience is decidedly laughing with the schlubs and at the shrews. Some funny moments, but not worthy of the hype it got alongside Superbad, the better Judd Apatow production of 2007. Even further than Juno's taboo treatment, the idea of abortion is anathema to the players in Knocked Up, to the point that the word can't even be uttered (a conversation ensues in which a character calls it a "shmashmortion.") See Katha Pollitt'sgreat article from last year for more on this topic.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) **½ – Bugs! Snakes! CGI gophers! Evil Russians! Aggressive Tribal people! You get the idea – it was all predictable Indiana Jones tropes, but fun to look at, and fun to mock. And no one mocks (or socks…ahem) movies better than the Sock Tubers!
Ultimately, it was a hammy, poorly-written and usually boring $158 million Hollywood flick. I think Spielberg and Lucas should take a continuing education workshop with Christopher Nolan before either of them produces another action flick.
The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008) ** Sadly, this was a major disappointment on all fronts. The plot is dull, the motivation for the characters to engage in the action is nonexistent, and the paranormal elements are about as mystifying as pleather. Mulder and Scully share some tender moments, but with such a scant plot, their relationship remains flat. And without giving away too much of the plot, let me just say that villains should always be gay Russians – très de rigueur!
TV Shows (mostly on DVD) Swingtown, Season One (of One) (2008) *** - the first TV series I've watched during its original run since maybe the last season of Friends. Spotty writing at times, but a fantastic premise, memorable characters, and really fine acting. See my write up here for more juice on this, one of the only TV shows to deal matter-of-factly with open relationships (sadly, destined not to last.)
Angel, Season Five **** The last season of the series was possibly the best in terms of dramatic narrative, putting the Angel Investigations crew in the Wolfram-and-Heart of the beast.
A weird comedy with deep dramatic leanings, or a drama with a sense of humor too odd for mainstream TV success, Freaks and Geeks gave one season of life and a multitude of dimensions to the kinds of characters that have been routinely stereotyped in Hollywood productions. Perhaps it would have fared better with a refinement of its sometimes awkward meshing of the two elements, but what is the high school experience if not awkward?
Firefly, Season One (of One) ***½ Joss Whedon does it again, this time inventing a world where the Great West meets outer space. No aliens in this 'verse, just a rag tag group of outlaws lookin' for gold in all the wrong places. A bit too quirky to score the ratings, the series was pulled before it got a chance to hit its stride.
30 Rock, Season One **** The much-acclaimed wacky workplace sitcom written and exec-produced byTina Fey gets off to a frenetic start.
The L Word, Season Four ***½ A lot of good stuff this season: Shane getting serious with Paige while parenting her brother Shay is pretty great. Jenny gets even crazier by exacting an outlandish revenge on Stacy Merkin (quirky Welcome To The Dollhouse star Heather Matarazzo) the critic who panned her book at Curve Mag. Cybill Shepherd is very funny as Bette's newly-deflowered lesbian boss. The Papi and Helena storylines were kind of meh, particularly the tiresome basketball game. The Bette/Jodi thing was hot 'n' cold – I liked that Jodi challenged Bette's anality, but that routine was wash-rinse-repeated a few too many times.
The L Word, Season Five ** Best of season: Dawn Denbo and her lover Cindy; worst: ludicrous romance between Jenny and Nikki.
Documentaries on DVD The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007) **** If you haven't seen this documentary about the epic battle of Donkey Kong champions, run out right now and rent it. Seriously. There has doubtful ever been a more dramatically rendered story about a subject so trivial.
The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) ***** Rented this in preparation for seeing Gus Van Sant'sMilk later in the year. This is an essential documentary and a crucial piece of LGBT and social justice history. Can't believe I hadn't seen it before.
The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2005) **** Beautiful and disturbing portrait of Daniel Johnston, a forever underground, bi-polar aesthete who is arguably either a brilliant or awful musician and artist, depending on your tastes.
Who Killed The Electric Car? (2006) *** Illuminating doc about the politics behind the campaign literally to scrap the electric vehicles produced in the 1990s and early Aughts.
Red Without Blue (2007) **½ This doc has a compelling premise, about twins in their twenties from Montana, one of whom is a gay man and one of whom transitions to become female. The story of their lives clearly has a richness and depth that feels somehow untapped in the film. Perhaps there isn't enough perspective on the life experiences of these siblings and their family to put together a narrative about them just yet. This speaks to a Seven-Up! style longitudinal study about this family, and maybe a better film could be made about them 14 or 21 years from now.
Narrative Films on DVD Lars and the Real Girl (2007) **** A troubled loner's love for his blow-up doll girlfriend triggers a range of emotions from hilarity to tangible grief, thanks to first-rate direction from Craig Gillespe, afore-mentioned screenwriting by Nancy Oliver, and acting by Ryan Gosling and the exquisite supporting cast [Patricia Clarkson (who it seems I mention in every Wrap because I loooove her), Emily Mortimer, and Paul Schneider].
Persepolis (2007) **** Animated film based on Iranian-French graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical book of the same name. Gorgeous and lush in vision and narrative, this comic book revision's specificity in telling young Marjanes' story of growing up during the Iranian revolution ensures an emotionally evocative and affecting film that bests many of the live-action dramas in theaters in '07.
The Savages (2007) **** I'll write here just what you'd expect me to write: Laura Linney and PSH were excellent, and, as noted above, Tamara Jenkin's script and direction were just shy of spot-on. I am a sucker for the right amalgam of drama and understated comedy; this is the stuff of life (and death.)
I've Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987) *** If you're a fan of the Miranda July quirk-fest Me and You and Everyone We Know (and I am) I'd recommend checking out this similarly odd indie film about an eccentric artist finding bliss in life's minutiae, which presaged July's film by nearly twenty years. (Thanks for the tip, Mag.)
I'm Not There (2007) **** Todd Haynes' gorgeous, impressionistic biopic about Bob Dylan, in which six actors play incarnations of the iconic singer/songwriter. To be honest, I was pretty lost during the "Billy the Kid" segment with Richard Gere, but that was the only Haynesian reality-departure, among many in the film, that didn't move me. Otherwise, stunning.
Zodiac (2007) **** David Fincher does an amazing job at crafting a thriller/procedural drama that keeps the viewer on edge while immersing us in the tiny details that make this story human.
The Visitor (2008) ***½ Walter, a depleted Connecticut econ professor (Richard Jenkins) goes back to his NYC apartment for a conference and finds people living in it. The couple, illegal immigrants from Syria and Senegal (Tarek, played by Haaz Sleiman and Zainab, played by Danai Jekesai Gurira) are victims of a housing scam and have nowhere to go, and Walter, apparently uncharacteristically, allows them to stay while they look for another place. A sensitively rendered story both about the current political and bureaucratic climate around immigration and about Walter's journey to rediscover life, I found it less emotionally evocative than the fraught narrative would suggest, but still a strong and engaging film.
Once (2007) ***½ - musicians inspire each other and decide not to fall in love. This rich and understated independent movie achieved such word of mouth success, they made made over $14 million on a film with a budget of $160,000, and scored an Academy Award for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture for Falling Slowly.)
A Clockwork Orange (1971) ***** There is no doubt that this is an artful, influential, and fascinating film, an achievement well above most great films. And, it's disturbing as all get-out. So while the ethical and psychological issues around violence, conformity, and "reforming" criminals by making aggression physically aversive are all immensely compelling and brilliantly drawn, I can't say that I wholeheartedly "enjoyed" watching the movie.
Kamikaze Girls [Shimotsuma monogatari] (2005) **½ - Japanese comedy about the unlikely pairing of two teenage girls—one obsessed with frills and Rococo, the other a surly biker chick head-butting her way through the world.
Half Nelson ***½ A fascinating, realistic film about a high school teacher and junkie (Ryan Gosling) who forges an important connection with a student (Shareeka Epps), through sordid circumstances. The film wrestles with its own self-awareness of moral ambiguity, even as it hands us some contrived moral lessons.
Batman Begins *** (2005) The first of Chris Nolan's revamp of the Batman franchise, and worth seeing, but pales in comparison to its 2008 sequel.
Matewan (1987) ***½ –John Sayles's exceptional film about the 1920 Battle of Matewan, West Virginia, in which a dispute between unionizing coal miners, local police, and detectives hired by the mining company to break up the union erupted in gunfire and resulted in the death of ten men. Rich performances by Chris Cooper and James Earl Jones, and Sayles delivers a narrative that balances the complexity of the relationship between Matewan's poor white and black coal miners in drawing out what is at stake in organizing for better working and living conditions for all.
Barbarella (1968, rerun) **½ – I always have fun watching this movie, which I estimate having seen more than a dozen but less than 20 times. I think this time around, though, I was perhaps the most sober I've ever been while watching the young, nubile Jane Fonda chastely "loving" her way through the galaxy and engaging in countless sexy-astronomatrix wardrobe changes while battling the evil Durand Durand.
And watching this campy sci-fi flick sober means being painfully aware of how ridiculous it is. A must-see if you've never, and do bring the wacky tobacky!
Serenity (2005) **½ - being that I wasn't a hardcore Firefly fan while the series was actually on the air, I wasn't privy to the fan-driven campaign to get the studio to agree to make a feature length movie based on the prematurely-yanked Joss Whedon TV series. So, in light of that, and even as a fan of the show, I probably have more to be critical about than a fan who was in the thick of the excitement that this movie actually got made. It was pretty disappointing.
Girlfight (2000) *** - A girl from the projects wants to box. Michelle Rodriguez, in her first role, delivers a strong performance, and the sensitive, realistic narrative is handled deftly by writer/director Karyn Kusama.
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999, rerun) ***½ It's rather disturbing that this film made it onto the EW Sexiest Movies Ever list. Sure, Jude Law is easy on the eyes, but it's not terribly sexy to see him get brained by Matt Damon in a rowboat.
Pink Flamingos (1972, rerun) *** You've seen it, and if you haven't, just be prepared for both hilarity and nausea. This may have been the 20th time I've seen the movie, and (dare I say) perhaps it was the last.
Black Sheep (2006) ** – genetically mutated sheep take over the New Zealand countryside and start feeding on human flesh!
This Is England (2006) *** – A young boy falls in with skinheads in a small English town in 1983. Really nice, and by "nice" I mean disturbing, acting job by the young Thomas Turgoose, who'll be one to watch for in the coming years.
Flight of the Navigator (1986) ** Having never seen the movie before, I had zero nostalgia to bring into my adult revival experience; from this perspective, it's not so hot.
Cloverfield (2008) **½ – It's like The Blair Witch Project meets-Godzilla-meets-young NYC douche bags. I was shocked by the ending of the movie, not by the scary monster, but by the abrupt ending to the doomed love story, frozen in the rubble under a bridge in "US-447, area formerly known as Central Park."
Yuppies roam the streets of New York
While the protagonist's film-long search for his longtime friend and recent lover was cliché, there was something satisfying about the kind of nihilistic statement the film seems to be making that in the end it's impossible to redeem oneself through love. Meditating on this, I gave the movie that extra half star.
Michael Clayton (2007) *** – I found this Clooney legal thriller to be substantially less than the hype it got. Tom Wilkinson did deliver a wonderful performance as a brilliant lawyer who freaks out in equal parts from going off his bipolar meds and from his own gnawing conscience. Tilda Swinton was great, but I was surprised that her limited role actually won the supporting actress Oscar. Aside from those performances, the movie was predictable and geriatricly paced.
Midnight Madness (1980, rerun) ** I once loved this wacky college comedy about an all-night scavenger hunt through the streets of L.A., featuring a 13 year-old Michael J. Fox, Archetypal Hollywood Nerd Eddie Deezen and a brief cameo from Paul Reubens as a disgruntled arcade proprietor. The premise and the atmosphere of the movie are really fun, but it certainly doesn't hold up over time, particularly due to the very cheap "laugh at the fat kid" humor and the god-awfully formulaic dialogue.
Whole New Thing (2005) **½ - a precocious 13 year old Canadian boy who looks like a lanky Harry Potter has a crush on his 40-something male English teacher. I wanted this movie to be good, but it's pretty tedious.
Sex And the City – The Movie (2008) ** What a stinker. And for this, all the hype about "women's power at the box office."
Deep Throat (1972) ** – Our viewing was prompted by an early episode of Swingtown, in which the main character, Susan, goes to a private screening of the infamous porn movie in support of star Harry Reems's legal defense fund. The infamous "art"-porn movie is pretty bizarre to watch, full of big-dick face-fucking ("deep throat" provided by Linda Lovelace) to the sound of random background burbling. Sorta psychedelic, always hokey.
One Missed Call (2008) * – good god, this was a bad movie. A horror flick with such a flatness of emotion and nonsensical plot that absolutely no suspense was created. The principle character, played by Shannyn Sossamon had exactly two emotional expressions: predictable fear and bored bafflement. Bored and baffled, indeed, was my feeling by the picture's end. Wouldn't even recommend it under the "so bad it's good" ironic viewing category. Pretty much just bad.
The Playlist Maybe a few words here and there, otherwise, just ranked. New Releases:
New Pornographers Challengers (2008) ***½ Key words: indie pop; power pop; supergroups; quirky lyrics.
Sloan - Parallel Play (2008) *** Key words: indie pop; power pop; Canada; nerd rock.
R.E.M. Accelerate (2008) *** I agree with the fanfare that this is R.E.M.'s best new album in a decade, but even so, I found Accelerate to be just north of okay, with about three great tracks. See this review by George at MIOHHS for a good summary.
R.E.M. with their new drummer, Stephen Colbert.
Mountain Goats Heretic Pride (2008) *** - also, a couple fantastic tracks, like this one:
…but mostly just kinda okay, which is always a bummer from one of your favorite acts. Key words: indie; low-fi; folk; literary.
Electrelane - The Power Out (2004) ***** - this has quickly become one of my favorite albums of all time. Keywords: post-rock; Stereolab-influenced; Velvet Underground-influenced; Brighton; women artists; shoegaze; alt rock.
Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs, Vol. 1 (1999) **** Key words: melancholy lyrics; ironic humor; synth; 80's-influenced; indie rock.
Stereolab - Switched On (1992) **** Key words: shoegaze; alt rock; French; Velvet Underground-influenced; electronic; female vocals.
X Los Angeles (1980) **** - I'm so glad to have X finally in my life, after years of not getting around to listening to them. Cheers, Exene & Jon! Key words: L.A. punk; roots rock; literary; play it loud!
Mekons Fear and Whiskey (1985) ***½ Great middle-period album from the band if you're interested in checking them out. Key words: Leeds; punk; post-punk; roots/country rock; alcohol; progressive politics.
Arcade Fire - Funeral (2004) ***½ Key words: indie/alt; art rock; Talking Heads-influenced; Modest Mouse-influenced; dirgy; Montreal.
Grandaddy - Under the Western Free Way (1997) ***½ Key words: Modesto; post rock; synth; indie.
All Natural Lemon and Lime Flavors – Straight Blue Line (2000) ***½ Key words: shoegaze; Stereolab-influenced; My Bloody Valentine-influenced.
New York Dolls - New York Dolls (1973) ***1/2 Key words: punk; pre-punk; CBGB; cross dressing.
Other music I acquired in 2008; not really ranked, 'cept stars.
Radiohead – Hail To the Thief (2003) ***1/2 Pavement - Wowie Zowie (1995) *** X Wild Gift (1981) *** TV On The Radio (2004) *** - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes King Crimson Beat (1982) *** TV On The Radio (2003) Young Liars (EP) ** TV On The Radio (2006) (n/r) Return To Cookie Mountain X (1982) (n/r) Under the Big Black Sun
Live Shows
Magnetic Fields, 2/29/08 - Herbst Theatre ***** - one of the most gorgeous shows I've ever attended.
Mountain Goats, 3/1/08 – The Independent *** - hyper arrangements, obnoxious audience members, too many Noise Pop bands resulted in a short performance. I've seen 'em under better conditions, and they're amazing. Also, one of their openers, David Dondero, was just embarrassing. He has a decent voice and guitar picking style, but his songwriting is really horrid.
When I first moved to San Francisco in September of 2000, or "Y2K" as some were known to refer to it, I was paying next to nothin' to live in an anarcho-syndicalist communal household in the lovely and rapidly gentrifying neighborhood once known as the Fillmore, now known as Duboce Triangle, and fondly referred to by many of my friends as TriBeSa, the Triangle Behind Safeway. Well, it wasn't really anarcho-sydnicalist, but a watered-down communal post-punk socialist sort of arrangement. Décor included a taxidermied white long haired cat on the mantel and decaying linoleum in the kitchen and dining room. There were four of us in the house, including myself, cute lil gay Spencer, and Émile & Jaqui, a nonmonogamous straight/bi couple who were the longest running denizens in the house. I was paying like $300 a month for a pretty sweet situation, save for the aggravation of living with Jaqui, who was the only housemate I've ever had who I didn't get along with. At one point, late in the game when I'd long since decided to find another living situation, Jaqui derided me in one of our house meetings by suggesting that I must have grown up in a "flophouse" because I put my feet up on the living room ottoman with my shoes on.
But here's why I am compelled to write about this experience: when I first moved in, before the petty battles with Jaqui (because I wasn't clever enough or stylish enough or whatever it was that doomed me never to make the grade with her) the four of us had amused ourselves with an exercise. When I moved in, and set up all my stuff and unpacked my boxes and stocked my bookshelves, we walked around the apartment scoping each others' libraries to see what books we had in common. This was evidently a long-standing tradition when new housemates moved in. It turned out that the only two books each of the four of us owned at that time were The Marx-Engels Reader and Switch Hitters, a book of erotic stories in which gay male authors write dyke fiction and lesbian authors write gay male fiction. So at least we had liberal arts degrees and smut in common. This leads me to wonder what books my readers might have in common with their housemates. If you're interested in investigating your mutual bookshelves and care to leave a comment, please do. In this age of Shelfari and other virtual bookshelves, I challenge you to do the physical work of perusing the real-world library of your housemates or live-in significants and let me know what odd combinations of shared literary enthusiasm you've got.
Doing this exercize now, I see that Astrid and I both own the following books:
* Astrid and I shacked up! This is a feat that occurred not without considerable angst on both our parts, given our respective histories of living with, and in my case, almost living with previous sweeties.
We're both pretty amazed and grateful that it's working as well as it is. We had a kick-ass housewarming party in March, and thus began our Alter to the Weird mantel installation. February '08 marks a year of living in sin!
* I started interviewing for clinical internships. I ended up applying to two really competitive places in the City that rejected me outright without a chance to interview. I also applied to work in the bereavement department at a hospice, doing short-term grief therapy with people who have recently lost loved ones. I had a killer interview (oof, no pun intended), and really hit it off with the director of the program, but they were too pokey about getting back to me, 'cause, as I was told later, they were holding out for someone a bit older if possible. Meanwhile, I interviewed at a fourth place, an LGBT mental health clinic, and ended up accepting a position there.
* Road-tripped down the coast for spring break. With our bikes tied to the back of the Astridmobile, the gf and I wound slowly 'round the coastal mountains, camped in Big Sur and biked through the wine country outside of Solvang. We bought some amazing chardonnay and pinot noir there and had a visit with some regal ostriches.
Moving further south, we did a great bike loop in Goleta through the UCSB campus, and then drove east to visit Astrid's family in the Mohave desert for Easter.
* My cousin Andrew died, tragically, horribly, wrongly. I’ve blogged about this before, so I won't belabor the point. I miss him. Everything else I will report about the year seems trifling in comparison, but it's the trifling matters that keep us sane, I guess.
* We wasted lots of time playing Dr. Mario on Astrid's old Nintendo 64 and watching back-to-back episodes of Buffy and Angel.
* I fucking finished my first year of grad school! I've immensely enjoyed being a student again, showing off my geeky chops, and using parts of my brain that had atrophied significantly over the last near-decade being a bean-counter. I've also learned a ton from my classmates and have made some really good pals. I would say, though, that I have mixed reviews on the whole about the hippy-dippy liberal arts college I chose. After two years at an institution that bounces student loan checks, hires mediocre instructors, and has been on WASC probation and on the brink of losing accreditation, I can't say I'd make the same choice again.
* Went on a camping trip at the Russian River. Highlights: swimmin' with the tadpoles, wine tasting, making killer aloo gobi over the campfire, snuggling with Ms. Astrid in the cozy tent.
*I rediscovered backgammon, a game I hadn't played in probably twenty years, and learned how to play dominoes, though I kind of suck.
* I resigned from my bookkeeping jobs!!! As of July of 2007, I turned in the ol' abacus and haven't looked back.
* I started my internship and began to work with my first psychotherapy clients. It's been an intense and humbling transition into this new work. I still have pretty much no idea what I'm doing, but the learning is really magical, and fucking hard, man.
* Astrid and I started taking ballroom dance lessons! We've learned a little rumba, swing (West Coast, East Coast, Lindy Hop, Charleston), and dabbled with some tango and foxtrot.
I hope as school mellows out, I'll be able to dance much more often with Astrid, 'cause she is, amazingly, even more radiant when spinning on a dance floor, shining that ecstatic smile at me.
* I avoided writing my thesis. Majorly. But as of this writing, the first draft (a drafty draft, indeed) has been handed in.
The Annual Pop/Culture Reviews:
Many of you know my trusty two-pronged rating system by now. If not, here's the method-in-madness:
1. The Star System - to convey my idea of the "objective merit" of a piece of work (i.e. if I were a professional critic, these are the ratings I'd give the thing). Wherein…
zero stars = abysmal * = meh ** = average *** = respectable **** = outstanding ***** = incomparable
2. Ranked-order – For each category, I will order from top to bottom, indicating the read, flick, or show I enjoyed the most to the least in that section. The way I rank shit may or may not correlate with the cultural zeitgeist (it often doesn't). This is how I can get away with ranking, say, Barbarella (**1⁄2) over the four-star Taxi Driver.
Capiche? Okay, onward!
The Books I Read in '07:
The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker **** (1973) – the book that inspired my thesis topic, Becker's influential Pulitzer winner rewrites psychoanalytic theory from an existential perspective, posing that the basic anxiety facing humanity is the terror of death. From this point of departure, Becker considers the psychological and philosophical explanations that connect basic character structure and psychopathology to the death anxiety. Highly recommended for all you cerebral types or anyone interested in death studies, existential philosophy, and critique of psychoanalysis. I mark it down from five stars because of Becker's dated take on the nature of homosexuality (this book was written before the psychiatric establishment changed its official stance on queerness as pathology) and also for Becker's insistence on a spiritual answer to the basic problem of death anxiety, lauding Christianity in particular. I think it's an annoyingly culture-bound conclusion to this otherwise extraordinary book.
- One of those street-sale scores, Astrid and I picked up this book quite randomly while on our way to eat a bowl of clam chowder, as I remember. I couldn't resist buying it when I read the ballpoint inscription in the front leaf (all in caps, mind you) "TO SOMEONE WHO WILL NEVER BE ONE…LOVE, MOM & DAD, 12/99." Ah, the blissful ignorance of well-meaning parents who don't understand that the geek identity has been firmly reclaimed. The book provides an overview of the history of the construction of the internet, from its modest bureaucratic beginnings at the Pentagon in the '60s to the era of microcomputing and commercialization of the web. Importantly, the author tells the story in a way simpletons like me can understand. Since the book and accompanying PBS documentary were produced in 1998, you can imagine how much of the story had yet to unfold. In this sense, it's as dated as Adam Sandler's hair in The Wedding Singer. But if you're a non-geek and curious about what the hell "packet switching" is and interested to hear about the launch of ALOHAnet, the first wireless computer network (all the way back in 1970!!) this is a really relaxed and educational read.
Anal Pleasure and Health by Jack Morin ****½ (1998, revised 3rd ed.) This is the ultimate Butt Bible, the most straight-forward and least embarrassing tome you can own that can help you find the way to digestive and anal-muscular health and pain-free anal exploration. Pick this book up if you want to reduce anal tension, become less freaked out about anal functions, increase your overall wellness, and get more enjoyment out of playing with your arse. The very small critique I would offer is that Morin's book gives very little attention to women who have sex with women (wsw).
His small research sample had very few lesbians/wsw, and I would love to see a book that included more discussion of anal sexuality among dykes. That said, the language in this 3rd edition is inclusive and widely applicable to people of all genders and sexualities, as well as to people who are interested in anal health more generally and not as drawn to the topic of sexual exploration.
Mortified ***1/2 (2006) edited by David Nadelberg. Mortified, the book, is an anthology of hits from the live shows of the same name, which happen regularly in New York, LA, Boston, San Francisco, and Chicago. The premise is simple: adults read their childhood and teenage diaries, letters, awful poetry, and other real-life angsty accounts, verbatim, in front of a live, frenetically laughing audience. "Mortified" has become quite a phenomenon, producing this book, and a forthcoming sequel (Mortified 2: Love is a Battlefield, due out this winter), as well as a host of merch and related video clips. To get a feel for the "Mortified" oeuvre, check out this pathetically hilarious story by Will Nolan, I Hate Drake.
Immaterial Facts: Freud's Discovery of Psychic Reality and Klein's Development of His Work **** (1988) by Robert Caper. One of the assigned readings for my Advanced Psychotherapy Techniques class, this book is a real gem, because it explains, in comprehensible prose, the context and timeline of Freud's theories and the clarification and modification of his work by Melanie Klein. This could be an enjoyable read for psych students and laypeople alike, though if you're unfamiliar with psychoanalytic theory, you might want to refer to other sources to help with the terminology. Try the allpsych dictionary as a companion reading.
Bicycling the Pacific Coast **** (2005, 4th ed.) Thorough and well organized guide to biking from Vancouver, B.C. to the California-Mexico border. We used this book extensively on our springtime car/bike trip down the coast. Full of easy-to-navigate maps, points of interest, hostel and campground info, and detailed route descriptions. Applicable for both novice and skilled cyclists.
Strangers In Paradise, Volume 3 **1/2 by Terry Moore. I enjoyed the third volume, but not nearly as much as the first two. I must trudge forward with the series once I'm done with all this thesis nonsense.
Yiddish with Dick and Jane ***, by Ellis Weiner and Barbara Davilman, with illustrations by Gabi Payn. Pretty funny parody of the old D&J primers, with a Yiddish flare and contemporary irony. Check out the abbreviated and quite clever YouTube version.
Films on the Big Screen:
No Country for Old Men ***** (2007) The Cohen Brothers' latest is certainly the best movie I've seen in some time, and the only new movie I've given five stars since Dirty Pretty Things back in 2003. No Country is the kind of movie you could put in a time capsule for people to dig up a hundred years from now so they might truly know America, in its arid beauty and its (masculine) antisocial violence. Amazing cinematography, performances, plot development, pacing, and a haunting simplicity that subtly masks the layers of meaning within. Check out Rocchi's review at Cinematical for a more thorough discussion. My only criticism is that the story, like so many other films (and the book it's based on), is concerned solely with the male experience and gives very little attention to the women whose lives are impacted by the narrative. I won't detract any stars for this, but I'm noting it because I really do want to see more films this brilliant about women's lives.
Pan's Labyrinth **** (2006) - beautiful fantasy by Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro in which a young girl splits her time between the enclave of her fascist general stepfather in Franco-era Spain and the magical, and sometimes just as dangerous, underworld of the labyrinth.
Little Darlings ***½ (1980) - revival at the Castro. Anyone who knows me is aware of my Little Darlingsfixation. Seeing it at the Castro was fucking awesome.
Pump Up The Volume ***1/2 (1990) – revival at the Castro. Also a treat to see on the big screen, the energy and spirit of this movie hold up over time, as does Christian Slater's performance. The pseudo-philosophic-politico rants are fluffy and vague, but this is as radical as Hollywood gets, I guess. And, um, the rooftop make-out scene with Samantha Mathis: hot, hot, hot!
Bleak and depressing in not nearly the clever and ultimately redemptive way that Squid was. The plot is weak relative to the rich character development that reveals the players' sympathetic sides just to the point that you can embrace them despite how self-absorbed and embarrassing they are. The performances are strong all around, and the dialogue is a solid B+, but I wish Baumbach would concern himself with a world beyond the idiosyncrasies of the East Coast intelligentsia.
"In mainstream movies the woman's role is mostly just to prove that the leading man is heterosexual. I'm not good at that, and I'm not interested in that." -Jennifer Jason Leigh
Citizen Kane ****½ (1941) - revival at the Castro. After seeing Citizen Kane again, for the first time on the big screen, I must admit that it wasn't quite as extraordinary as I'd previously felt. The visual mastery, innovative plot devices, and prescient political commentary are still truly captivating, and Orson Welles' performance is magnificent, one of the all-time best. My only critique is the other performances, which on the whole, were schmaltzy even giving allowance for the staginess so often present in films of the era.
Sicko *** (2007) - Michael Moore's latest documentary about the shitty American health care system. Depressing, as would be expected, given the subject matter. Full of fascinating international comparisons, from Paris to Cuba. Unfortunately also full of Michael Moore's usual heavy-handed narration which presumes the audience to be incapable of formulating its own opinions. Bless him for cracking open the glass ceiling on documentary, but here's hoping that someday he branches out stylistically.
Footloose **1/2 (1984) – revival at the Castro (double-feature with Pump Up The Volume). The less satisfying of the two movies, but full of fun 80s popculty nostalgia and deliciously over-the-top melodrama.
Sixteen Candles **1/2 (1984) – revival at Dolores Park. I think this teen angst flick from the John Hughes oeuvre is plainly classic, with highlights including paying a buck to see Molly Ringwald's underpants in the boy's bathroom, the jock-strap donning nerds, Jake and Caroline dancing to "True" by Spandau Ballet.
But the cheap racist/sexist humor tarnishes this movie substantially. Here's some commentary generated from the screening at Dolores Park this summer, concerning the depiction of Long Duck Dong, played by Gedde Watanabe. People don't seem to get as visibly upset about the sexism as they do about the racist caricatures, but it pisses me off every time I see the scene after the party, when Jake tells Farmer Ted "I could violate (a passed out Caroline) ten different ways if I wanted to." Overall, kind of painful to re-watch. And seeing this movie at Dolores Park, while a nice idea, was logistically awful: the park was so crowded, there was no way of getting an undisturbed view of the screen, and the sound was even worse.
For the Bible Tells Me So **1/2 (2007) – a documentary about how Christians should tolerate milquetoasty gays because we're just like everybody else. I would recommend the film to moderate/liberal Christian folks who want to ignite their own inclusive activism, but I think other documentaries that address homophobia and LGBT culture do a much better job at portraying more realistic and diverse images of queers. This one speaks to a very narrow margin of religious people who are already open-minded: in more cliché words, it's preaching to the choir.
TV shows on DVDWhich last year was dominated by a certain vampire slayer…
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Season One ***, Season Two ****, Season Three ****, Season Four **½ , Season Five ****, Season Six *****, Season Seven ***½
Angel - Season One***, Season Two****, Season Three*****, Season Four **
What can I say about the Buffyverse and how much it's impacted my life in 2007? After watching nearly the whole of two series' worth of episodes, totaling some two hundred hours of DVD viewing, all the while in grad school getting my masters degree, you might say I've double majored in psychology and Buffyology. I seriously considered incorporating aspects from Buffy into my thesis, but it's a bit late for that. But needless to say, the themes in the series, specifically about death and destruction and love in the face of death, are some of what has gotten me so severely addicted.
Here are some good Buffyverse links, which are, naturally, full of spoilers. I've had to be vary sparing in my internet snooping about Buffy til recently, so I haven't explored these sites very thoroughly. Here are my impressions of some of 'em:
If you can suffer through the annoying pop-up ads, this site is a great all-around resource for Buffy/Angel fandom. It has summaries and intelligent reviews of the episodes by season, with ratings broken down into dramatic and comedic elements, as well as for how well the episode moved the story arc.
One of the only decently designed sites on general Buffy/Angel interest, as well as one of the only sites that has recent content (many fansites stopped growing after the shows wrapped in 2003/2004.) The cast/character page has adorable clickable avatars of all the major and recurring characters.
Ginormous amount of psycho/philosophical babble about all aspects of the 'verse, including character motivations, moral ambiguities, good vs. evil, the various theories of philosophy represented in the series, discussion boards, etc.
A message board about various themes in the 'verse. Pretty dated, but cool to see fans posting their thoughts, excitements, and gripes in real-time while the series ran.
Documentaries on DVD An Inconvenient Truth **** (2006) – the Al Gore documentary on global warming. If you haven't seen it, please do. While the narrative style (much like Al Gore himself) is a bit dry, the information presented really speaks for itself, powerfully. And please stop driving so fucking much, okay? That is all.
The right-wingers want you to believe this is a "natural" phenomenon that has nothing to do with industrialization and pollution.
The Celluloid Closet **** (1995; rerun) - Anyone who’s interested in film history, not just queer history, should see this documentary based on the book of the same title by Vito Russo. Both the book and the film detail Hollywood from the Silent era on through the first films in the '80s that presented a positive queer point of view. The film discusses how the "anti-obscenity" Motion Picture Production Code of 1930 drove queer themes underground and created a lasting legacy of cinematic invisibility at best and films filled with violent homophobia at worst. Really great interviews with Susan Sarandon in particular, as well as Tony Curtis, Arthur Laurents, Harvey Fierstein and more. Narrated by the amazing Lily Tomlin.
Word Play **** (2006) – highly enjoyable documentary on the mighty crossword puzzle: the people who create them and the people who go slightly mad solving them.
John Stewart rocks the crossweird.
Before Stonewall **** (1984) – pioneering documentary about LGBT political and cultural history for the decades preceding the Stonewall Riots, the explosive starting point of the contemporary Gay Liberation Movement. Wonderful interview footage of Harry Hay, Audre Lorde, Allen Ginsberg, and many more movers of GLBT liberation.
Jesus Camp ***1/2 (2006) – after seeing this film, discussing it with friends, and reading a decent amount of commentary about it, I'm still perplexed by it. The film's images and scenarios, played out candidly by avidly churchy children (whose beliefs seem dangerously concrete) still chill me, months after seeing it (earnest tears as they pledge allegiance to god's army, for example). What's most disturbing about it is the hands-off style of filmmaking, allowing the point of view of the filmmakers to be left ambiguous, with the exception of footage of an ex-right wing radio commentator given the floor periodically during the film's run. One of the most thoughtful reviews of the movie I've seen comes from David Byrne's blog. Have a look.
The U.S. Vs. John Lennon *** (2006) – Doc about John Lennon's anti-war and civil rights activism, primarily centered around his battle with the INS over deportation after marijuana possession charges in the early '70s. I found it enjoyable but not very enlightening, full of great personal footage and interviews but lacking in depth about much, be it his activism or his turbulent personal struggles. The editor at Ebert's page hits it on the head.
After Stonewall *** (1999) – the follow up to Before Stonewall. Worth seeing, as it documents the GLBT rights movement post Gay-Lib and focuses on the impact of AIDS/HIV on the community. Not nearly as well made or memorable as the first film.
Sigmund Freud: Analysis of a Mind ** A&E "Biography" episode about Freud's life and major works, which is overall not terribly revealing and remains theoretically very shallow. The only interesting footage comes in the two interviews with Freud's grandchildren. When dealing with one of the largest personalities of the 20th Century, and particularly with Freud, the ultimate narcissist, it is truly moving to hear a grandson's recollection of his grandfather's jaw cancer, and how Freud was in so much pain from his illness and some 30 surgeries that after a point, his lap just wasn't for sitting upon anymore.
Siggy in his 30s
Narrative Films on DVD
Punch Drunk Love **** (2002; rerun) – it took this second viewing of the movie to make me realize that it's possibly one of my all-time favorites. If you've never seen an Adam Sandler flick you've liked (and I wouldn't blame you), remember that this is not an "Adam Sandler movie" – it's a P.T. Anderson masterpiece.
The Big Lebowski **** (1998; rerun) - I’m finally beginning to understand the brilliance of this movie. It's also amazing to think about the breadth of the work of Joel and Ethan Cohen as filmmakers – that they are capable of such searing pop culture satire and also such rich dramatic tension, and that most of their movies contain strong elements of both, so that you can't put any of their films into one box or another.
A Scanner Darkly **** (2006) – I've never read Phillip K. Dick's novel, so I can't compare it here, but the animated film by Richard Linklater works beautifully. I was skeptical about Scanner at first, because I felt his earlier attempt at an animated feature, Waking Life, to be a long-winded regurgitation of the philosophical musings of the far superior Slacker.
And while I love Slacker, A Scanner Darkly accomplishes something that none of Linklater's films have before: its eerie emotional resonance lingers after viewing. It's not unlike the feeling of frantically scratching to rid oneself from the itch of the hallucinatory bugs of substance withdrawal, álà the movie's first sequence. This owes to the rich source material for the film, which expands Linklater beyond his usual micro personal milieu.
Stranger Than Fiction ***1/2 (2006) – I liked this Will Ferrell/Maggie Gyllenhaal flick a mite better than I thought I would. If you liked the thematically similar The Truman Show and the similar fiction-writing milieu of Adaptation, give this one a go. I'd say it's almost on par with the former, not as literary as the latter, and overall, a bit less challenging and neater/tidier than either.
The Princess Bride ***1/2 (1987; rerun) – I had only seen it once back in the day, and I decided to pop it in recently, since Astrid owns the disc. It holds up, for sure, especially the fantastic chemistry between Inigo Montoya (I had no idea that was Mandy Patinkin!) and Fezzik (Andre the Giant). There's a lot of snoozy parts, but certainly it's worth seeing again if it's been fifteen or twenty years since your last viewing. The one-liners alone ("…Anybody want a peanut?" "Have fun storming the castle!" et al) are quite satisfying when taken out of the popcultural ether and put back in the context of the movie.
Volver ***½ (2006) – It's wonderful to see a solid film about the emotional lives of women. But I felt similarly about The Hours: instead of "solid," or "very good," it'd be nice to see an excellent one for a change. And ah, those whimsical farting ghosts…
Conversation(s) with Other Women *** (2005) – I liked this talky film with Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart. The performances were great, but the writing, and thus the emotion, fell flat often. The entire movie is rendered in split screen, and while distracting at times, this device was used to good effect to convey the different POVs of the two characters, as well as visually to invoke the possibilities of the past and future.
Primer *** (2004) Really fascinating and disturbing movie. I was left with two distinct feelings at the end: I was moved, and yet I didn't know what the fuck had happened. Here's some guy's understanding of the timeline of the movie, which considers both on-screen action and off-screen events that influence the plot.
The Science of Sleep *** (2006) – an imaginative romp and a pretty film to look at, with pretty leads (Gael Garcia Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg) to boot, but ultimately a film more memorable for its crafty visual effects than the somnambulant solipsism of its story.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home *** (2006) The members of the Enterprise prevent the destruction of Earth by going back in time to save the humpback whales. Campy hilarity ensues.
Quinceañera *** (2006) A 15 year old Latina and her family deal with a mysterious pregnancy and the struggle to live amid the gentrification in their LA neighborhood. Good performances and a promising story, but the narrative could have used some significant changes. Jesse Garcia and Emily Rios in Quinceañera
Shortbus **1/2 (2006) - both better than I expected it to be, and not as good as I wanted it to be. Lots of sex – woot! Pretentious people – woot! A couple of the subplots are interesting and realistically portrayed, but this is a pretty disappointing follow-up to Hedwig.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer ** (1992) - the original movie that spawned the far superior TV show. The premise, of course, is fantastic: an airhead cheerleader at a Los Angeles high school learns her destiny as the Vampire Slayer. The execution, however, save for bits of campy goodness, stinks. How in sam hell did they get Donald Sutherland to be in this piece of shit movie?
Singles **1/2 (1992) – I'd never seen it before, if you can believe it. It was not as good as I thought it would be, and I don't have an explanation as to why I thought it'd be good. Campbell Scott is always good. Matt Dillon was pretty good. I kind of wished that Bridget Fonda's character had been played by Parker Posey instead; maybe then I'da given the flick three whole stars.
Love and Death **1/2 (1975) – by far not my favorite Woody Allen movie. (Can you tell I'm kind of tired of writing reviews now?)
Dead Silence * (2007) – you can't ask for much from a possessed dummy movie, though it was great fun watching it with a group of ornery folks while DJ pointed out the holes in the plot.
"Beware the stare of Mary Shaw, she has no children, only dolls," the inane refrain refrains.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier * The one with the super-cheesy "God"-creature floating around in the deepest reaches of space, beyond the "Great Barrier." This is where my commitment to the Star Trek movies ends.
The Playlist
In which I talk about the new (which is sometimes quite old) music in my life!
I've been totally obsessed with this album for months, with its 30 songs worth of catchy, rollicking good tunes. All four band members (Chris Murphy, Jay Ferguson, Patrick Pentland, and Andrew Scott) contributed tracks, each with his unique flavor. With this record, Sloan runs the gamut from memorable Beatlesesque ditties to moody, airy tracks álà Grandaddy, and never loses their particular combo-punch of clever indie plus good old fashioned guitar crunch rock 'n' roll. What's best about this album is that the tuneful ballads, blasts of hard core, and quirky psychedelia all flow together beautifully with seamless track mixing and careful balancing of each of the songwriter's numbers.
The Mountain Goats: Get Lonely **** (2006) – I would say of the two Mountain Goats albums I acquired in 2007, Get Lonely just slightly edges out The Sunset Tree, with its subtle, small songs about love lost and losing yourself in the face of it. Several of the songs on the album make me cry routinely, like this one:
The Mountain Goats: The Sunset Tree **** (2005) – Like all of John Darnielle's lyrics, these are utterly earnest without losing their affecting emotionality. "This Year" might be one of my top 5 favorite songs of all time.
- an album I've been meaning to get for a few years now, as it's been referred to as influential to some acts I really like (Belle and Sebastian and Elliott Smith to name a couple.) Underrated and subdued, it's not the proto- punk of "You Really Got Me" but the reflective nostalgia of the Kink's middle period, with an oft-debated reverence/ironic sarcasm toward simpler times that may or may not have ever existed.
Chumbawamba: Shhh! ***½ (1992) – For the folks out there who have never heard any Chumbawamba besides the dangerously catchy/annoying 1997 single "Tubthumping", it's worth checking out this earlier release which captures more of the spirit of the band.
Despite "Tubthumping's" massive commercial success, the band of lefty anarcho-punk d.i.y.ers, needless to say, have a range and stylings that are much broader and more interesting (i.e. punk, pop, folk, labor songs, dub, hip hop, gospel) showcased playfully on this ode against artist censorship.
- I have a passing interest in prog rock, and more than a passing interest in the sociomusical influence of prog on newer forms of music and on pop culture. I'm fascinated, for example, with the prog rock family tree that so many major bands in the '70s and '80s have been connected to. Greg Lake, for example, was one of the original members of King Crimson, and then went on to form Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and then played with the prog supergroupAsia. Anyway, yeah, I'm a rock triv dork.
So this album, the first effort from King Crimson's off and on career that spans nearly 40-years, is considered one of the first progressive albums and possibly the first symphonic rock album, and is a mélange of jazz improv, classical, and acid rock. It's really more a bridge between the Beatles' Mystery Tour era and the later music which would become the "true" prog rock, including many of their own later releases. Track four, "Moonchild Including the Dream and the Illusion," bears more resemblance to experimental jazz than the sweeping tempo changes and rhythmic juxtapositions of progressive rock. Taken out of its natural habitat, a marijuana smoke-filled basement in 1970, say, it's more novelty amusement than epiphany-inducing. Yet the subtle classically-inspired guitar string manipulations and the peaceful encroachment of the mellotron become quite captivating by this point in the album. This early record is not on the whole a good match to my personal musical tastes, but I think I'll be giving King Crimson's later work a go at some point, particularly the Adrian Belew era that has more new wave/Talking-Headsy/proto-electronic stylings.
- Billy Bragg's third album represents a shift toward more singable folk-pop, with all the lefty political spirit still intact. In fact, even as he has moved on to much more generously produced music, he's never compromised the politics, the homage to the labor movement, and the grit of his early days. Check out "Greetings to the New Brunette," the standout (and most accessible) track, for a taste of Billy's brand of spirited folksy-rocky-political-
love song. If you want to start with something a bit more contemporary than this often straight-up leftist fight song collection, check out his later release with Wilco, Mermaid Avenue, for which the songsmith was hired by the estate of Woody Guthrie to put the legendary folkie's unpublished manuscripts to music. The results are gorgeous.
Live Shows
Mountain Goats at The Independent 3/7 ***** - Darnielle conveys so much spirit and joy, even when he's singing the most heartbreaking songs. I think if I were a rock star, this is what I'd aspire to: writing songs with meaning; performing them with utmost relish; being low-key enough to publish my photos on flickr.
Sunset Rubdown at The Independent 10/21 ***** - showing up on time really improves the concert experience. One of the best live shows I've ever seen, and this with lead brainchild Spencer Krug feeling a bit under the weather.
The chaotic sound scrapes, evocative vocals, and Spencer's sweat dripping onto the keyboard: concert-going bliss.
Photo of Spencer at the show compliments of The Undertoad.
Sloan at the Independent 4/30 ***1/2 - this would've been a four-star review, 'cause Sloan is always fantastic in concert, but this time they made the audience squirm through about a half-dozen songs with Andrew on lead vocals, and while the guy is a great drummer and a competent songwriter…HE. CANNOT. SING. The songs he wrote and performed on Never Hear the End of It are catchy and short, and his voice in-studio is mixed down enough that it can actually sound decent. Live, he can't keep a tune, really. So anyway, minus Andrew's songs, Sloan rocked the fuck out at the Independent.
They Might Be Giants at The Fillmore 9/30 **** I blogged about this show here.
- Back in the day, I was the 1991 cliché of a dyke. I wore tie dyed shirts and Birkenstocks, couldn't go a day without wearing the freedom rings, and listened to the Indigo Girls obsessively. I hadn't seen them live in many years, and it took Iris visiting from Guatemala to get me to go this time around. Her sister-in-law is a complete Indigo Girls freak, and staked out her territory, stage side, starting at 6:00 am that day (loathe to be the random dreadlocked girl to step onto Shirley's tarp!) Sporting proper amounts of hipper-than-thou irony, Iris and I descended into the sage-clouded crowd and ended up pretty blown away. Emily and Amy still know how to fucking rock. Their performance of the Buffy Sainte-Marie cover, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" was as moving this time around, maybe more so, than when I saw them perform it more than a decade ago.
Pinback at Bimbo's 10/27 *** - the band wasn't in top form this time 'round – Zach's voice was just off, cracking like a 13 year old boy's. His guitar playing, as usual, was sublime. Rob held his own, and the instrumentation was trance-inducing, in a really good way.
Sunset Rubdown at the Bottom of the Hill (no rating) 4/22 – this one barely counts, ‘cause Astrid, DJ, and I got there so late we only got to see three songs. They were opening for a really pretentious noise band called Xiu Xiu. Thank god we got to see 'em again later in the year.
Here's my first book review of 2010!
