Category Archives: Flicks

Dear Owen Gleiberman,

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I’m reading your review of “Let the Right One In“, (published in Entertainment Weekly #1018) and wow, I can’t believe how WRONG you got this one. The dude who kills people and drains their blood? He’s neither an actual “serial killer” nor the vampire’s father*. He’s something like her butler, or her servant (or perhaps someone her vampire family entrusted to aid her). He goes out and kills people and drains their blood…TO FEED HER. So she doesn’t go out killing people vampire-style and get caught and say, perhaps, staked in the heart.

Seriously,
I know it was in Swedish, but it wasn’t that hard to understand,
CMS

*Certainly no one I saw it with thinks he’s her ‘father’ and most vampires would acknowledge their ‘father’ as being the one who turned them.

My Evening with Kevin Smith / Big Screen: Zach and Miri Make a Porno

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7:30pm – Already in line for Zach and Miri an hour from now (ridiculous).

7:31pm – But turns out pomegranate jelly bellies are addictive. So there’s that.

7:43pm – This is worse than the Battlestar lines at Dragon*Con. And no twins here to keep me company.

8:35pm – Oh shit Kevin Smith is actually going to be here!!
[Viewing Zack and Miri Make a Porno]

10:31pm – Kevin Smith Q and A is making me very happy!

10:37pm – Someone just asked “Kevin, did George Lucas step on your balls about Star Whores?”

10:43pm – Kevin Smith used to be a Front Wiper. I do not jest. [Until Harley Quinn’s birth when a nurse told him he should be doing it the other way!]

10:47pm – His next movie* is so bleak “it makes Dark Knight look like Beverly Hills Chihuahua.”

11:12pm – Rosario Dawson was supposed to play Miri. [They moved the timing of filming and that made it conflict with “Eagle Eye” so they had to find someone else relatively last minute. But Elizabeth Banks is actually perfect in it (my opinion AND his) so it worked out great. Per Kevin: “She really grounds the movie.”]

11:24pm – Kevin Smith’s all-time fav porn title: “Jerk my cum crayon and color me white.”

*Next movie = Red State. Described as him finally finding a way to talk politics. A political horror film. Not funny at all. Having trouble finding financing.

Explanatory:
At Chicago Film Festival to see Zach & Miri. Often there are directors and/or actors who take Q&A afterward but it’s generally noted in the program. This one didn’t say so but surprise surprise. So sad my dad couldn’t be here to see this!!! If you don’t know: Kevin Smith LOVES doing Q&As. If you’ve ever listened to a SModcast or watched one of his An Evening with Kevin Smith DVDs, you can pretty much imagine how a) awesome and b) funny this was. And also how insanely comfortable he is talking about any and/or every personal detail of his life.

Other random quotes that I didn’t actually twitter:
Ben Affleck on viewing Jason Mewes’ nude scene: “You realize Mewes is just one pump away from full liftoff, right?”

Personal note to Ben from me: Are you just maybe kinda jealous because Jason Mewes is so smokin hot in this movie? [I’m so not joking. Skinny and his hair all clean cut? And damn those shoulder tattoos are AWESOME.]

After talking about Red State and saying “Sorry for bringing the whole room down”, someone started their question with “Not to bring the whole room down again” and KS yelled “So Don’t!” and tried to move on. Turned out the dude wanted to ask him about the whole “how’re you doing on your diet thing?” [What a dick.] KS wasn’t necessarily “happy to” but he, in his usual brutally honest way, did respond and chat about it. But the best part was when he pointed out “You know, some skinny motherfucker always has to point out how fat I am!!!” And the whole audience looked at the questioner disapprovingly! Ha!

And the movie?
Lots of fun. Totally crude and nasty and gross. And soooooo funny and very sweet and romantic. Honestly, the last five minutes, even with the Dutch Rudder jokes, were so touching. YAY!!! [And I don’t even like Seth Rogen.] Also Darryl from The Office? is HYSTERICAL in this. Brandon Routh was a total Tom Cruise doppelganger. So much so it gave me a little doubletake each time. A great night at the movies. The flick alone made me grin like an idiot. And then Kevin Smith’s appearance just sent the evening over the top.

*Bliss*.

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

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Eating: Way too much. Every day. I can’t be stopped. I WILL be the fattest girl in the universe, just give me a couple more days.

Making: Started a pair of dad socks. That’ll only take me 10,000 years. Have one quilt basted and another just about to be but won’t be have time to work on either of them for a week or so at least.

Reading: At home I’m reading the Ford-edited short stories from our July / October challenge. On the train I’m reading “The Conversations at Curlow Creek” by David Malouf which is very slow and measured but weighty in its own way.

Watching: A crapload of movies at the Chicago International Film Festival. You can follow the updates on the 2008 movie page. Or you can wait for me to post about them here.

Listening to: Not a damn thing. Dad was here for a few days so all the times I’d normally be listening, I was busy talking to him. And just a few hours after he left, the Film Festival started and now all the times I’d normally be listening, I’m in a dark movie theater mostly watching totally intense, brutal movies where people’s hopes and dreams are crushed to pieces and/or ripped to shreds, which may sound like the same thing but isn’t necessarily so.

Big Screen: Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist

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Sweet but cheesy. I enjoyed it more for the NYC settings (oh nostalgia to my early NYC days…Ludlow Street, I miss you!) than for the plot which I thought was sadly more juvenile than I expected. Unlike Juno, which was very much a movie about growing up, Nick and Norah was just about “being that age.” Also found the title a bit of a misnomer. Like buying a sign that says “we really want to hype our soundtrack.”

But Michael Cera did give a wonderfully tender, nuanced performance. So there’s that.

Big Screen: Burn After Reading

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On the surface, a very funny, often abruptly violent movie that you could easily just laugh through and enjoy “for what it is.” Dig a little deeper and there’s some very prescient criticism of the (practically defunct? hello 9/11) US spy system.

Hilarious and very twitchy performances by Clooney, Pitt and McDormand. Over the top and really hilarious belligerence by Malkovich.

People and Things Other People Hate* that I Love

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  • Philip Roth / and his books
  • Madonna
  • Films of Keanu Reeves, in general.
  • “Point Break” in particular.
  • “Ishtar”

People and Things I Hate* that Other People Love
  • Cormac McCarthy / and his books
  • Renee Zellweger or, interchangeably, Gwyneth Paltrow
  • Films of Mel Gibson, in general.
  • “Braveheart” in particular.
  • “Knocked Up”

*Hate merely as opposite to Love, when it could technically just be “don’t particularly care for” or “like to criticize” and is not necessarily of the “hatred running through my veins at all times” variety. Although in some cases…
I’m sure this will be added to. Intermittently.

DadReaction: Doomsday

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If you don’t see this, you’re missing one of the best movies of the year. Kick-ass girl-power movie. There’s a one-eyed woman cop, tough as nails. Takes on all of Scotland, kicks butt. It’s a lot like 28 Days Later, Mad Max, and Aliens. Also influenced by Satyricon and King Arthur.

Beautifully filmed; the action scenes are great; you’re on the edge of your seat. Stunning photography. Just a great ride.

[Note: Doomsday was written & directed by the same guy who did The Descent, one of Dad’s top five from last year (which was way tooooo fucking scary if you ask me.), and also Dog Soldiers (which I am way way WAY too scared of to watch).]

Best of August

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The best movie I saw in August would have to be the ONLY movie I saw in August which is ridiculous and pathetic but that’s something for a different post, eh? Yeah, so anyway, that’d be Wall-E, which was fine but animation isn’t really my thing.

The best book I read in August was The Likeness by Tana French. It’s somewhat of a sequel but you don’t really need to have read the earlier book to enjoy it; different main character.

The best gig I went to in August was Great Lake Swimmers.

My favorite tunes in August were the songs that wound up on my current favorite playlists.

Random personal highlights: (Only) one day at Lollapalooza (this time around); Silvia came to Chicago two weekends in a row! Woot!; Hot Doug’s with Cinnamon. I actually went to KIP twice, if you can even believe that. And then there was this little thing I went to called Dragon*Con (which also encompassed a week long trip to Georgia to crash the Happy Pants home).

Lowlights? I don’t know, looking back it seems like it was a fairly decent month. Maybe bursting into uncontrollable tears about 15 minutes after meeting my crush? Fun times (poor Carrie and Cat).

Big Screen: Tropic Thunder

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So hilarious. Brilliantly satirical.

Two things alone are worth the price of admission:
1) The fake previews, ESPECIALLY the RDJ/Tobey Maguire one; and
2) Tom Cruise’s performance. He deserves a fucking Oscar for that. I thought I was going to start crying, I was laughing so hard watching him during the closing credits. The boy may be totally and completely insane, but you’ve got to give someone credit who’s willing to put it all out there like that.

If you need to know more, you can re-read the DadReaction to this flick.