"fishiiiinnng......with John...." is the hypnotic opening track from each of John Lurie's episodes. It's a neat collection of what I'd consider vacation videos with friends...not your usual friends of course, as they include Tom Waits, Jim Jarmusch, Willem Dafoe, Matt Dillon, and Dennis Hopper. The casual talk is fun to listen to and using a "National Geographic"-like narrator (Rob Webb) makes it even more amusing (and funny).
Just listening to how Philip Seymour Hoffman's Father Flynn delivers his sermons reminds me how messages can never come through to people unless they are brought down by someone who can articulate them well. The "Gossip" sermon was particularly entertaining. Meryl Streep was great, but in this movie Amy Adams, Viola Davis, Philip Seymour Hoffman shined much brighter.
Stephen Daldry and the cast did a magnificent job keeping afloat the underlying emotions in this film. Once you realize that you're seeking past the obvious stimuli such as eroticism and wartime historical references, you know someone has found a way to keep you in pain....or guilt....or hope.
I admire filmmakers who are able to approach a common theme and find another way to express it. Let The Right One In is one such film taken out of the vampire genre. Stripping the concept to its bare blood-thirsty, light-sensitive core and projecting it through the eyes of two young chracters gave this film a depth that I hardly want to consider this a horror film at all.
It just wouldn't be right to have entered 2009 this far without looking back to 2008.
28 movies in 2008. It looks like a drop, but only because it does not count the Battlestar Galactica series discs in between. Of the 2008 films, notable notes:
The Hunger - sometimes you just have to have more of em...so with Ellen Page, after Juno (and for me, after Hard Candy, really) the hunger was to see her again in The Tracey Fragments and An American Crime. Same goes for Cate Blanchett in Charlotte Gray and I'm Not There, Catalina Sandino Moreno in Maria Full of Grace and The Hottest State, and Paul Dano in Little Miss Sunshine and There Will Be Blood.
The Sparrow - Edith Piaf's life story through La Vie En Rose really brought a lot of attention to Marion Cotillard and I really admired her performance in the film. It felt rewarding to see her win the Oscar for the part.
Grace is Gone - It was a great turn for John Cusack to show he does have range.
The Jodie Factor - when Jodie Foster gets pushed in the corner, she turns into a banshee...its pretty much what surprises you when entering The Brave One with low expectations. Never underestimate someone whose good friend happens to be a guy named Hannibal.
Le Honor Roll
131 Melvin Goes to Dinner - I really didn't see it coming but after watching so many Progressive Insurance commercials I found myself getting really fond of Flo (a.k.a. Stephanie Courtney) and so I just had to see if she's done work outside of these commercials and sure enough I found this one. It's a really good independent film that follows a group of.....well friends and acquaintances in their conversations at a restaurant. It was also a pleasant surprise to see some guest actors making appearances, like Melora Walters, Maura Tierney, and David Cross.
That punch John Malkovich inflicted on Brad Pitt was as crisp as the one Tommy Lee Jones smacked on Will Smith (in MIB 2) and was the personal highlight for me. It's quite a cast with John and Brad, plus Frances McDormand, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, and JK Simmons! And the Coens are probably one of the few who could assemble these folks and make them portray these middle-aged clowns in a story that can never be serious because there's a stupid turn at every corner and you just find yourself shaking your head in laughter.
126 - Tropic Thunder
123 - Hard Eight
It's disturbing to watch this with the awareness that it was based on actual events or a case in the 60's. Cathy Keener plays the part well, but the story I think lacks depth in exposing more of what was behind that misdirection or insanity (or maybe I just don't fully understand the misguided ways religion has been used or what struggling single mothers really go through....). For those who've always though of Ellen Page as this waifishly annoying brat, this will give you something different to look at.....
