When Phantom Menace was released, I took the day off work and drove up to the AMC 1000 Van Ness in San Francisco. If you ask me, it’s got the best screens in the city, although maybe the new AMC multiplex in Daly City beats it these days. But that multiplex was built over hospital parking, and is thus morally flawed, so I vote for the 1000 Van Ness. Besides, the Daly City multiplex wasn’t done when Phantom Menace came out. ...
It hasn’t been posted on their calendar (original) yet, but the Spring 2005 Brattle schedule is out. Highlights include: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and The Pink Panther, both with new 35 mm prints. Ong Bak one more time, if you missed it at the Kendall. A classic Westerns series, including Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, John Wayne), The Searchers (more John Wayne), Shane (mmm, Alan Ladd), High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood directing and starring), Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In The West, and The Quick & The Dead. The Asian Cinevisions (original) Film Festival, which includes Joint Security Area this time around — it’s Park Chan-Wook’s first feature movie, which was followed by Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy. Neither of which I liked, but so many people I respect adore his work that I’m gonna keep delving into it until I figure it out. (Which means seeing Old Boy at the Kendall this weekend, I think.) A Hal Hartley mini-fest, just for Jeff. It includes Girl From Monday, his latest movie. Hartley’s latest, not Jeff’s. A Harold Lloyd (original) festival, running a full week and showing 13 different Lloyd movies. All three James Dean movies. That’ll keep me pretty busy.
Damn it. No more Boston Legal this year (original). Sure, I can understand the decision, but I’m very sad about it.
Peerflix sounded really intriguing. It’s a service that hooks up people who want to trade DVDs. You tell them all the DVDs you want to trade, and every now and then someone says “Hey, I want that DVD,” and Peerflix says “Hey, send that DVD to her!” You do so, which earns you Peerbucks, which you can then redeem to get DVDs from other people. It turns out that it’s really emulating Netflix rather than EBay, though. When you send someone a DVD, you just send them the DVD — no case or anything. The idea is more that you’re lending them your DVD (you can even automatically request the DVD back when they’re done) rather than trading. Which does not so much gratify me, since I don’t want empty DVD boxes littering up my apartment. Time to drag ‘em all down to CD Spins (original). ...
Via Twitch (original): frame to panel comparisons (original) of Sin City the movie and various Sin City comics. The impressive thing is how close Rodriquez came on some of the in-between shots — sure, he got the payoffs right, but he also got the rooftops right in between payoffs. The movie’s gonna open huge, by the way. I’m predicting 30 million.
Paul Thomas Anderson just announced his next movie. (Link will age out eventually.) It’ll be an adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s Oil, a book I know nothing about. I’m still excited. California, corruption, sprawling story — sounds perfect.
I finished the second season of Gilmore Girls this weekend, and feel relatively well-qualified to comment: to discuss. Lots to talk about. (Does that mean there’ll be more of these lengthy posts? Maybe! Obsessive now.) But mostly… I’m thinking the Nip/Tuck boys need to stand down, and our favorite morticians should get accustomed to being second-best. Lorelei Gilmore (elder) has got to be the most messed up, fascinating, conflicted character on my television screen. (Vic Mackey lost his edge somewhere in the third season.) What a total piece of work she is. ...
This is to blame. She was: Working next to me A rare thing Fine as: a bee’s wing so fine a breath of air might blow her away A lost child Running wild Sleeping rough back on the Derby beat Even married once, to a man named Romany Brown I was: Nineteen when I came to town In love with a laundry girl We: Busked around the market square Picked fruit down in Kent ...
A while ago, some of my friends were bandying around the idea that 1999 was the best year for movies in our generation. Others agree (original).
I had this entry going where I was trying to contextualize M.I.A. and talk about influences and stuff, but screw it, truth is I don’t know about about the British music scene to do that. So here’s a 17 meg QuickTime video. Square-wave synth beats — very video-game — with a melodic poppy rap going on over them, and a tribal chorus that takes over the song by the end. The imagery is pop violence; her father is (to some unspecified degree) connected with the Tamil Tigers. Careless appropriation of terrorism chic? Conscious rebranding? Damned if I know. ...