Category Archives: Flicks

Big Screen: Star Trek

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I’m so not a Trekkie, I’ve probably seen maybe 10 episodes total? But I’ve seen just enough to be able to tell what a great job they did with the casting of this flick. The actors were able to give performances that were just reminiscent enough of the actors of the original as to make it believable that this was them in their younger days.

Enjoyed a lot of the humorous touches. Didn’t take itself too seriously. Some cool effects. Pretty good job, if you ask me. But again, not enough of a Trekkie to have taken issue with it anyway! 🙂

Big Screen: Gigantic

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A quirky little indie flick that was quite enjoyable but ultimately suffers from a lack of plot. Nice nuanced performances by Paul Dano (who played the brother who rarely talked in Little Miss Sunshine) and Zooey Deschanel. But ultimately one of those movies that’s a bio piece on a quirky dude but nothing much happens or if it does, it doesn’t seem to lead to anything. Also there’s a weird little Fight Club thing happening in the background that never ultimately amounts to much (or is even explained).

So while I liked it…I also thought it lacked that “story” or momentum that would have brought it to a higher level.

p.s. I did think John Goodman was a bit over the top. For a quiet, slowly evolving movie to have this big ole loud dude on screen? He always took me a bit out of the “action”. Not that it was “action” per se.

Big Screen: Hurt Locker

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F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C.

Best movie you will see all year. Now get your butts out there to see it so it makes enough money to get wider distribution and maybe, just maybe, be shown in the teeny town theater near my pops who really, really wants to see it.

It was one of the best war movies I’ve EVER seen. And I have seen a LOT of war movies.

DadReaction: UP!

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Well, we have another summer where the most realistic humans are in CARTOONS!!! They do an intro montage on the life of this old couple and your jaw drops at the sheer sadness of time, time passing, frailty, as the kick off to this fantasy!!!

ALSO: The fantasy/adventure really rocks. Could NOT take kids to the flick. Much scarier than Drag Me To Hell. NO EXAGGERATION. 🙂

[bold = mine. he cracks me up.]

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

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Eating: At Lula, tonight. I’m excited; I’ve never been!

Making: A bullshit annoying stupid summer shirt thingamabop. How do I always forget how much sewing clothes FUCKING SUCKS. I need to stick to quilts.

Reading: “Dark Places”, by Gillian Flynn. I LOVED (her earlier/first novel) Sharp Objects, but this book is much more….conventional? Sort of? Its main mystery is more conventional and it doesn’t have as interesting or as strong of imagery as SO. But after picking it back up this week, I really haven’t been able to put it down.

Watching: Reruns of NCIS. or CSI. whichever’s on. And I’m going to a screening of MOON on Monday: can’t wait!!

Listening to: New albums from Eminem, Green Day, Telekinesis!, Gomez, Phoenix, and shitloads of random singles, especially the Glee cast cover of “Don’t Stop Believin’ “, Iron & Wine doing New Order’s “Love Vigilantes” and random old, nasty nasty songs like “Crazy Bitch” by Buckcherry.

Failing at: Staying upbeat. Being patient. Imagine the shitstorm when the lack of those collides. My brain is a bad place to be!

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

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Eating: Today: nothing. Tomorrow: a cake like this one, I hope.

Making: Good week for dreaming of projects a-plenty. Bad week for actual crafting.

Reading: Just started this month’s challenge book: “Motherless Brooklyn” by Jonathan Lethem. Loving all the Tourettes’ word experiments.

Watching: New season of Burn Notice, yippee. Also about to start in on the Band of Brothers DVDs. For real this time.

Listening to: “Orange Sky” and “All of My Days” (Alexi Murdoch, both) back to back to back. Thanks to seeing “Away We Go” last night (a: it was AWESOME and b: Murdoch was basically the entire soundtrack), I just can’t listen to anything else.

Failing at: Focus. Control. Willpower. The usual.

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

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Eating: I’m drinking so many calories, there is no room left for eating. Bygones.

Making: Finishing the second of the two baby boy quilts. And an awesomely cute pair of wrist warmers that are sadly not for me. Sigh.

Reading: Another Dublin purchase “Eureka Street” by Robert McLiam Wilson. It’s self deprecating and fun and I quite like both the scruffy narrators/heros.

Watching: All the TV there is available to watch. Plus lots of old movies on random cable channels now that I got rid of all my 975 movie channels, in a preemptive “I may have no income soon” move. Oldies like Top Gun. Ah, Top Gun.

Listening to: New Great Lake Swimmers “Lost Channels” which I LOVE; new U2 “No Line on the Horizon” which I like a lot of; and an awesome new playlist made by yours truly on which I mixed in a few oldies more than my norm. Shouldn’t EVERY song sample the BeeGees? SHOULDN’T THEY ALL? Want a new mix? Got something I’d like in trade? E-mail me and we’ll see.

Failing at: Restraining addictions. Of many kinds.

Best of February

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The best movie I saw in February was The Class (Entre les Murs). I enjoyed the experience of watching The Wrestler…but did not ENJOY the movie. If you can parse that one out. In fact, it annoyed me greatly.

The best book I read in February was a tie between Delicate, Edible Birds, by Lauren Groff, her new short story collection, and For All We Know, by Ciaran Carson, a very novel-istic book of poetry. Both are very highly recommended.

The best gig I went to in February was a tie between the only two gigs I’ve been to ALL YEAR: Griffin House, who was totally kickin’ it and it was a very enjoyable evening although it was a rough weekend having gotten some really shitty news at 4:45 that Friday. Grrr; and a week later Prairie Cartel, who were really great. (You may remember my friend Nan’s brother Mike who used to be in Fig Dish and then Caviar (check your “Charlie’s Angels” soundtrack) is part of Prairie Cartel.)

My favorite tunes in February were the latest albums from Mick Flannery and Joshua Radin.

Random personal highlights: Trip to Dublin!; Bowling Geeks Unite; Huffencooper Hot Sauce party.

Lowlights? Getting fucked over by someone on the aforementioned Friday afternoon. Getting stuff stolen from my checked luggage on the way home from Dublin. Getting violently ill upon arrival home from Dublin.

Big Screen: Sunshine Cleaning

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Very enjoyable. Certainly the most worth seeing of the movies I’ve seen recently. And I think it would stand up to higher standards as well.

While it’s being marketed as another psuedo comedy, as with indie peers such as Little Miss Sunshine and Juno, it’s really a much deeper movie than that. Much more concerned with the little miseries of our day-to-day lives and how much greater an effect the bad things have than the good.

In other words, you take one small step towards improving your life, it helps a tiny bit and then just one little bad thing happens and KABAM you are five steps backwards. A very realistic look at that place of struggle between “doing OK” and “not really doing OK at all” or “barely hanging on” where so many people are stuck. It was so topical and seemed very true to that moment (moreso really than Little Miss Sunshine in fact).

Amy Adams and Emily Blunt were believable as sisters not just in appearance but in attitude and we both really enjoyed it. Although T did ask on the way out: How many movies with “Sunshine” in the title are these people going to make? And are they all going to have Alan Arkin as the dad? 🙂