Wow. When Tod Goldberg and Bookslut both recommend the same book, I figure it must be good. I had no idea it would be THIS good. Blown away.
Ree Dolly searches for her father, raises her brothers, protects her mother, takes a beatin’…
Powerfully sad. Powerfully hopeful. Amazing. Soooooo good.
The EW review that made this sound like a literary version of “Sliding Doors” may have gotten my expectations up too high as I expected to just outright adore this book. I did like some of it. But there were certainly points where the plot (either plot, sometimes both at once) just wasn’t going where I wanted it to and thus I found myself a little disappointed. And there were also times when I found myself frustrated with the decision making process of the characters and (some of them’s) incredible slowness at doing so.
Great descriptions of Irina’s artwork: to the point where you can almost picture it in your mind and really wish you could actually go buy these books for kids you know!!! (Similar to the descriptions of Bill’s paintings in Siri Hustvedt’s “What I Loved”. They seem so intensely “real”.) Liked the subplot with Irina’s family.
But afraid my expectations were not quite met.
Also I found the tenuous 9/11 connection a bit annoying, as I did with Ian McEwan’s “Saturday” as well. Don’t think either book really made that work in their favour.
Portuguese title: Um Tiro No Escuro. Half the story of a kidnapping, half a crime caper movie, the two of which get really bizarrely entertwined. Some great acting. Little worried that we were at a porn flick due to a few scenes at the beginning shot so close up that they make the Bada Bing look tame.
While watching: totally entranced, worried, upset, shocked, moved.
But once removed: wow, there are a lot of things you could pick apart about this plot. but oddly enough, still doesn’t make me have enjoyed it any less.
Definitely worth seeing.
From the same brilliant minds that made OfficeSpace. But significantly darker, to my mind anyway. Two people of average intelligence are sealed up for an experiment…yet while they’re “asleep” the entire society gets so dumbed down (ouch! too close to home?) to the point that when these two are mistakenly awaked, they are now geniuses. And the contretemps ensue…
Luke Wilson is great in this. And I loved the whole “Who’s on First?” tattoo machine moment. Also: “Gatorade” has taken over the world!
Sadly when this really goes down it’s going to be a company a LOT worse than that…
Funny. But sort of secretly dark. Or super dark behind the scenes once you start thinking about how likely some of it feels… You could watch it without those inner thoughts. But who would?
How is it possible that there are still people out there who don’t know about the humor that is the masterpiece Office Space? It doesn’t SEEM possible but apparently it IS as I just had the chance to initiate someone into the gloriousness of this movie. There are so many funny moments in it, it’s not really describable.
If you haven’t seen it in a while, maybe it’s time for a rewatch. And if you’ve never seen it…it’s available on DVD and it’s worth the money, slackers. GO.
So Glory Road reminded me how much I tend to love sports movies since I love a) sports and b) movies. It’s a win-win and Miracle is one of my all-time faves, and oh look they have it on iTunes. Perfect.
Looooove Kurt Russell in this. LOOOOOOVE Hockey. Love hockey fights. Love sassy boy (playing a boy) from Boston. Loooove some of the other “little” boy actors who have oddly (most of them anyway) appeared in almost nothing else of note. But they’re so good in this, why people haven’t been knocking on their doors offering them roles in sitcoms and romantic comedies, I have no idea. The only really recognizable one is Eddie Cahill who most of us know as “Tag” from Friends.
Honestly can’t think of anything I don’t like about this movie.