Category Archives: Recommending

Big Screen: Redbelt

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A David Mamet script PLUS Jujitsu? Come on now, people, you can’t go wrong with that one. Really compelling interesting story. Really cool fights (woot).

A lot of good performances here (Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tim Allen (unexpected), Alicia Braga), including one from Emily Mortimer (whose character undergoes one of the biggest transitions), and a really great one from Max Martini (yum), whom you may recognize from The Unit.

I’ll tell you what. He, Dean Winters and Tahmoh Penikett need to do some kind of brothers/mafia/cops movie together. Ah, that would be wonderful.

Big Screen: Iron Man

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A full Family Reaction even featuring the extremely rare MomReaction!! (No, we did not see it together.)

DadReaction: Eye popping effects, but with a lot of character. And not so effect heavy that you lose the humor as in some action movies. Downey is really great here. He’s a stronger character as an actor and so much more entertaining than, say, Spiderman. Christian Bale brought a lot of grimness to Batman but Downey is very funny, lively and self deprecating. Really uses his wise ass attitude so well here, and it makes the idea of a superhero movie so much cooler. His and Paltrow’s characters attraction feels very real, even though it’s an under the table sort and they dance around it. Jeff Bridges was good too.

MomReaction: There’s a really topical social edge to this movie about collateral damage and what you do to the world, what weapons do to the world. They don’t hide behind the story: War is bad. Guns are bad.

GirlReaction: Fanfuckingtastic. Everything you could want in an action movie AND MORE. Lovedlovedloved it.

Fantasy: Dragon Bones, by Patricia Briggs

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Burning through fantasy in the offhours while reading this month’s challenge book.

I’ve recommended her modern day fantasy to you before. Now I can highly recommend her more traditionally set (you know that whole medieval-type, middle age-sort of world that so much fantasy is set in; similar to the worlds of Robert Jordan, George R.R. Martin, among others) fantasy as well.

LOVED this book. Absolutely loved. In love with Ward, with Oreg, completely sucked in by the myth and the magic. Beautiful. Some kinda icky torture (physical and psychological), that just makes you care even more deeply about these characters. Wow.

Fiction: Belong to Me, by Marisa de los Santos

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The second in a (somewhat loose) series about Cornelia (and, now, Teo). I liked the first book, but didn’t love it. I LOVED this one.

Less Claire in this book, although still importantly part of it. Dev was a great character, scenes with him really shone.

Easy, natural conversational tone that just sucked me right in, I could barely put it down. Laughed with it, cried with it. Ouch. Friendships, families, what makes them, what breaks them. Many similar themes to the earlier book. But, in my opinion, much better written and handled.

Definitely a step up.

Recommended.

Album: Jesse Malin “Glitter in the Gutter”

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I’ve mentioned this album a few times (here, here, and the single here) but in case you weren’t paying attention…

Great lyrics, insistent rhythms. Sometimes plaintive, sometimes demanding. A little Springsteen feelin’ (he even sings on a track). A little Eagles soundin’ (particularly the chorus of “Aftermath”: “Standing on the corner, watching people walk on…”) and he definitely has a little Southern Rock twinge to him (listen to his pronunciation when he sings “From the desert to this love-stained town, I still find comfort in the underground…” in “NY Nights”). He’s a bit more rockin’ than the average dude on my “melancholy boys” playlist…sometimes a bit more mad. 😉

Two to three months later (March purchase) and it’s still in pretty constant rotation. It’ll take something seriously magical to knock this out of my 2008 Top 10.

Cover of the Day…and Some Other Recommendations

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“I Should Have Known Better” – She & Him (Zoey Deschanel & M. Ward)
Beatles done alt-country style. Sweet. Zoey D = the next June Carter Cash?
Other singles (but not covers) I’m diggin’:

  • “She Loves Everybody” Chester French
  • “Tick of Time” The Kooks
  • “Roadway Hymn” La Rocca
  • “Heart of Mine” Peter Salett*

*So I’ve been rewatching Keeping the Faith lately. So what. You SHOULD be too.

Short Stories: The Complete Stories by David Malouf

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The March selection in Dad’s and my reading challenge. I had read a few Malouf novels so this was one of my suggestions.

LOVED it. [Both of us did.] Had no idea going in, but the dude is a MASTER of the technique and these are certainly some of the best stories I’ve ever read, and probably the best overall collection. [Dad might not be QUITE as nutty about them as I am.]

Seems he can write from any angle, any point of view: young boy, middle-aged woman, loner, popularity queen, happy, sad, criminal, just. The atmosphere is rich and vivid (and reeks of Australia, I could feel myself there again). The language is thick and layered and sensual [reminded Dad of D.H. Lawrence stories]. Really beautiful. In many stories, a BIG event has taken place “offscreen” (never to be known), with the focus on the human reactions and following chain of effects.

My favorite stories were: “Every Move You Make”, “The Domestic Cantata”, “Sally’s Story”, “Great Day”, and “A Traveller’s Tale”.

Highly recommended.

Recommendation.

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I didn’t even realize that Anthony Minghella was the director of one of my favorite guilty pleasure films and yes although I do love The English Patient (one of the rare combinations where I love both the film AND the movie) and yes I thought Matt Damon was great in The Talented Mr. Ripley but no that’s not what I’m talking about.

Mr. Wonderful. Rent it. It’s sweet and funny and Matt Dillon is completely irresistible in it and William Hurt is as icky as ever and it’s got New York City and bowling and big Italian family scenes and (sort of) karaoke and all kinds of good stuff. And I have already seen it oh 78.9 billion times. I’d happily watch it again tonight.