the armload, refilled, short and sweet

Wow, talk about your mixed bags:


Lord of War (in theaters) - Terrific.

Ma Mere (on DVD) - Drastic.

Off The Map (on DVD) - Very nice.

Ivans xtc (on DVD) - Unwatchable.

The Quiet Family (on DVD) - Good start, weak finish.

Assisted Living (on DVD) - Nice, but very sad.

The 40 Year Old Virgin (in theaters) - Very funny.

Transporter 2 (in theaters) - Loads of ridiculous fun.

Silver City (on DVD) - Weak but still watchable.

MPD Psycho (volume 2, on DVD) - Great stuff, if you can stomach and/or understand it.

Hellevator: The Bottled Fools (on DVD) - Bizarre but very interesting.



ques es mas macho, pineapple o knife?

adrenaline junkie

So far this year there have a been a handful of games that I'd lay claim to as best of year material, without benefit of the year being over. Some - Resident Evil 4 and God of War - were so artistically polished that your jaw dropped from the sheer look of things before you ever got into the immensely enjoyable gameplay. Others - San Andreas for the Xbox and Mercenaries - were vast and fun and terrifically entertaining. But as of five days ago I have been immersed in the most highly-charged game I've played since...well, since the last iteration of the same series: Burnout Revenge.

Imagine yourself strapped to the nose of a bullet train careening down the streets of various cities or country roads. Add to that the sheer insanity of plowing through traffic and bouncing cars off said roads without any risk to your own hide. Burnout Revenge is all about blurred speed and the victorious travesties of auto damage.

Buy it, praise it, and remember to stop occasionally for meals, sleep and day jobs.

favorite girl; favorite films

Crys has a different take on film than I do. Not better, not worse. Just different. She actually majored in film at college while I was devouring it in a much less scholastic manner. Yet our tastes are more frequently aligned than conflicting.

My wife is a huge fan of Wong Kar Wai, and I've been dutiful in obtaining for her DVDs of every one of his films. Similarly, she loves Spalding Gray, and forgive me if this sounds insensitive, but now that he's dead it shouldn't be so hard to get DVDs of his work. She recently purchased a copy of Paris is Burning, an early-90s documentary on the craft and community behind Harlem drag balls and the art of voguing. The film, directed by Jennie Livingston, received critical raves but disappeared after its initial release. I once asked the director if she anticipated a DVD release, and she didn't make it sound promising. But now Miramax has unceremoniously (and silently) dumped the film on DVD, with no marketing or promotion that I can discern. So my lovely wife has her copy of the film, one she prizes very highly. I always assumed that it was one of her favorites, but I learned that while very special to her, her favorite films are:


(listed alphabetically)

FALLEN ANGELS - Wong Kar Wai, 1995

THE GODFATHER, PART II - Francis Ford Coppola, 1974

SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA - Jonathan Demme, 1987

THIRTY TWO SHORT FILMS ABOUT GLENN GOULD - Francois Girard, 1993

VANYA ON 42ND STREET - Louis Malle, 1994


I have to say that I only learned about Gould and Vanya because of her interest, and fell in love with them immediately. Cambodia was something I discovered all on my own, and I gradually became a fan of the Godfather films over a couple of decades. Fallen Angels, I must admit, is one of those WKW films I have yet to see.

I recommend them all highly. My girl has great taste.

But since it's my blog and everything eventually comes down to what I think, listed below in no particular order are some of the best and most effective films I've ever seen:

BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY - 1973
Kinji Fukasaku's best entry from the Yakuza Papers series. The precursor to so many genre pictures it's just silly.

CHUNGKING EXPRESS / IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE - 1994 / 2000
Okay, if we're going to talk Wong Kar Wai, these would be my choices.

DEAD MAN / GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI - 1995 / 1999
And when the discussion came up of how we both wished we liked Jim Jarmusch's films more, I threw these out as my favorites, both terrific examples of Zen storytelling and filmmaking.

REJECTED - 2000
Don Hertzfeldt's screamingly funny psychotic break of a short film about advertising.

MY BEST FIEND / BURDEN OF DREAMS - 1999 / 1982
Documentary cousins: Werner Herzog's valentine to frequent collaborator and thorn-in-side Klaus Kinski, and Les Blank's amazing look at the production of Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. Hands down two of the best documentaries ever filmed.

HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A FILMMAKER'S APOCALYPSE - 1991
George Hickenlooper's chronicle of the near-disasterous production of Apocalypse Now. Another BEST doc.

THE THIN BLUE LINE / THE FOG OF WAR - 1988 / 2003
Two more: Errol Morris's look at a cop-killing in Dallas and at the life and philosophy of Robert S. McNamara. Fog, especially, is a very telling film that deserves all the attention it can get.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY - 1966
The Penultimate Western.

BARFLY - 1987
The Penultimate Bukowski Adaptation.

SEXY BEAST - 2000
An intimate shotgun blast of a gangster film. I'm not even sure if Fukasaku saw it coming.

SINGING IN THE RAIN - 1952
The best musical ever. The happiest film ever.

SONATINE / FIREWORKS (HANA BI) - 1993 / 1997
If you want a taste of renaissance man "Beat" Takeshi Kitano, start with these films.

BLOODY SUNDAY - 2002
Paul Greengrass's so-realistic-you'll-think-it's-a-documentary chronicle of an Irish civil rights march and the ensuing riot and massacre is one of the most intensely powerful films of recent memory.



Making lists makes me tired. To be continued...

the shameful splinters of a great nation

So much good comes out of the people of this country, but mostly when others are in crisis. We can be a pretty selfish, petty, self-centered, opportunistic, xenophobic and materialistic people, but when others take a beat-down of epic proportions, we rally behind them and show our best, brightest colors. Conversely, we act pretty badly at those same times of sorrow, and people can be insensitive, hateful, inappropriate and wrong-headed in such ways that it detracts from the focus of the moment.

In the aftermath of Katrina, with all the suffering in Louisiana and Mississippi, there have been a lot of very public moments that would not make a level-headed populace proud: Jesse Jackson bringing race into what should be a color-free rescue and clean-up project; Barbara Bush making insensitive and elitist comments about evacuees; Wolf Blitzer over-earnestly bringing race into a news report; Kanye West making a potentially accurate point at an inappropriate moment; certain Christian groups saying the devastation was God's wrath against abortion clinics; even the people at risk, shooting at rescuers, cursing those who brought aid and looting goods that would be no help to them at all.

At this juncture, the ratio of bad to good behavior is 1:5. 20/80. Not so bad, but not really great either.

I don't really have a clever close to this.




www.redcross.org

hey! fats domino!

Okay, I read it wrong. Diddy and Jay-Z donated a combined million to the Red Cross. Still, I'm impressed by the effort.

They found Fats Domino! Finally, some good news.

recent observations -- tragedy, shame and beauty

The random notes piled up over the past weeks, while I was focused on other things. And today’s paper and the events of the last few days just added to it. So here’s a quick (?) rundown:

-Which East Coast independent darling of the silver screen recently showed up in the papers with Hep-C, a collapsed lung and a crack team of intravenous drug users for a support group? That would be

A. Vincent Gallo
B. Natasha Lyonne
C. Lili Taylor

Apparently back when she was filming The Grey Zone in 2000, Natasha Lyonne rubbed up against David Arquette or some such nonsense and got Hepatitis-C, then got involved with the wrong crowd, and perhaps because she starred in Blade III, ended up in a seriously bad condition. While I hope she gets better, maybe this will make her think twice about starring in any more films with Michael Rappaport.

-While I appreciate the Dallas Morning News filling me in on all the heaviest fashion magazines, it ultimately seems like a waste of space. Who really has any practical use for a $98,000 bracelet or the sage commentary of Kirsten Dunst?

-I’m sure there were some cultural events they could have promoted, or maybe given more space to some world event. Maybe the story of the more than 950 people killed in a frenzied stampede on a Baghdad bridge yesterday could have warranted more coverage. Do you see that number? 950. On a bridge. After rumors of suicide bomber spread throughout the crowd that gathered for a religious ceremony, hundreds rushed ahead to escape. The ensuing crush caused deaths by trampling, asphyxiation, drowning, all because of a rumor, not even an actual attack. It’s a horrific tragedy not unlike our own situation in Louisana and Mississippi. Of course, I didn’t see any reports of people in Baghdad shooting at the authorities attempting to help them.

-This one galls me. Helicopters sent into the Lousiana area to pick up stranded residents were shot at by locals with weapons, requiring the state to send in armored helicopters to do the job. The only reasons you would fire a weapon at someone coming to save you after a horrific tragedy are:

A. You are hiding something that would otherwise
get you into trouble
B. You are crazy and need to be strapped down
C. You are a mean, unthinking bastard and probably cause trouble
even when it’s sunny outside

I hope all the law-abiding citizens of Louisiana can get their lives back in order and re-build their cities. As for the rest of them…I hope the authorities can manage with minimal injury.

-To the Atlanta Amoco gas station that had $5.87 to $6.07 per gallon fuel prices posted the day after Katrina hit, all I can say is I hope they revoke your ability to sell lottery tickets, you loathsome, greedy prick.

-Speaking of loathsome, greedy pricks: last week thieves stole gasoline from a church charity’s van, causing hundreds of dollars in damages and the need for the charity to find a replacement truck to pick up supplies for their food drives. What is wrong with people?

-Lastly, Slate has a story about the troubles facing New Orleans entitled “Jazz Funeral”. While, again, the damage to the area is sad and very troubling, I have to say that the photo Slate uses is gorgeous…how do you find beauty in a tragic event? It’s a very fine line, saying this. Maybe beauty is important at a time like this. All I can say is I was taken aback at the crisp, dark image of a water-logged street, people wandering about, cars and buildings now landscape rather than objects. If this offends you, I apologize. I can’t help my reaction.

-I also have a new-found respect for rappers “Diddy” and Jay-Z, each of whom donated a million dollars to the Red Cross. Bravo, gentlemen. I wish we could all do the same. You are honorable standouts in the community that has too much insincere celebrity.




I got 99 problems; the Red Cross ain’t one