Watched: Operation Endgame

Cartoonishly violent, sardonic take on workplace aggression. The fact that there are no weapons in the locked underground office where all of these secret government assassins do their paperwork allows for plenty of creativity. It's also an impressive cast. And finally, I loved the meta nature of the two government agents watching the carnage unfold, acting like a Greek chorus. The camera cuts to them grimacing during the particularly gruesome kills. It's pretty hilarious.

Well.

That last post now seems quite ironic. C'est la vie.

Watched: The Spirit

I don't have screencaps from this, because I watched it at work, because my job is awesome. But I do have snippets of conversations I was having while working (we gchat freely, my job is awesome) with Benjamin. Here, via gchat, are my thoughts on The Spirit (or as I now like to refer to it: the movie by which I shall compare all other terrible movies). It takes a lot to seriously offend me. Keep this in mind.

Watched: Valhalla Rising

Semi-shameful confession/revelation: I really like movies about the Middle Ages. I realized this when I realized that somehow I have managed to watch multiple movies about the Rome's lost Ninth Legion, supposedly massacred in North England. Hollywood clearly shares my weird love for this niche: Robin Hood, Centurion, Braveheart, Kingdom of Heaven, A Knight's Tale, King Arthur, The Lion in the Winter, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (snerk). I'm playing a little fast and loose with dates here, but let's say that I'm counting basically anything from Rome's attempted conquer of Britain to the Renaissance as generally Medieval.

I don't know why I nerd out over this genre (beside the fact that Hollywood provides plenty of fodder for nerding), but I suspect it is for same reason I'm fascinated by Westerns: there is a code of honor, and though the good man may not be all good, they are bound by it. The bad men are not. Knights and Cowboys are really only different by a few centuries and a couple thousand miles. There is a LOT of cheesy, Hollywood version of Medieval Europe to be found (just as many as there are cheesy Westerns, probably). Valhalla Rising is not one of them.

Never was Hobbes' description of the life of man as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" better exemplified. I really liked Nicholas Winding Refn's Bronson, which shares this film's brutality. I suspect his Pusher trilogy is similarly violence-happy; it seems to be his calling card. But like Bronson, this film is also extremely meditative. There are long stretches of silence. The men are constantly grappling with how much life essentially sucks. Like, seriously, just totally sucks. The plot seems almost inconsequential (Mads Mikkelsen is some kind of indentured fighter for a Norse chieftain, he escapes and kills everyone except a little boy. They then join up with a bunch of Christians trying to get to the holy land; a fog sets in while they are at sea and they end up in North America. Then shit gets weird.). The film is much more focused on displaying the enormity of nature, still untamed, against these men. The cinematography is beautiful, displaying equally the windy hills of Europe and the unforgiving endlessness of wild Northeastern forests (despite the whole thing being filmed in Scotland. Well done there, Refn). The North American sections of the film actually reminded me a lot of Terrence Malick's The New World. Partly because of their score-less contemplation of nature (a common theme in Malick's stuff) and partly because of the sense of unseen but ominpresent malice.

So look: this film is not for everyone. There's a lot of long pans, stationary panoramas, and most of the plot is unspoken. The main character is a fucking mute. And while the acting is generally good the focus is never entirely on just the characters. My personal interpretation of the film is that Refn was trying to explore what a base, cruel world must have existed during the Middle Ages. That, and how utterly unstable the idea of religion or sanctity of life or even the sense of self must have been. Like I said, I'm a sucker for that stuff. So while I really like this (and really liked The New World, for that matter, and generally most films about man grappling with nature or trying to eke out some code of honor) I can understand why others wouldn't.

Watched: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

I'm not the biggest Tennessee Williams fan, I think mostly because I have never seen his work on stage. Only in movies. Generally the movies (and I'm thinking specifically here of A Streetcar Named Desire, with that iconic Brando performance) are fine examples of writing and acting, but they're not always interestingly filmed. Although Cat on a Hot Tin Roof does make some efforts to open up the mis-en-scene and give the characters some space, this is still a play made into a movie. The action is all happening in this southern mansion; a storm rises and rages as metaphor for the characters rising tempers (groan.). And while that can be fine as long as the acting and writing are superb, (which they are- Newman is at his moodiest, blue-eyed, Newmanest best and Elizabeth Taylor manages to be sexy, vulnerable, and a shrill all at once) by the time we get to the fifth or sixth loud confrontation and resulting epiphany I was totally burnt out.

I felt the same way with the 1951 Streetcar; even with Brando method acting up the joint and Vivien Leigh perfecting the deranged Southern belle, I checked out about 20 minutes before the movie was over. I just couldn't watch these characters continue to verbally kick the shit out of each other anymore; I was past caring. So: the Technicolor makes this film nice to look out. But: it is still a long, drawn out Southern bitching fest. Man up, 50-plus-year-old fictional characters. Get over it.

Bonus: Jack!!! My parents' sheltie. Spent plenty of time chilling with this guy when I was in NYC. At first you think he's kind of lame and not really cute, but then he grows on you. And then you kind of love him.

This is maybe the best thing that's ever happened to me.

I can't help it if you might think I am odd.

I haven't written in a while, and I may not anytime soon. I don't have anything particularly interesting to say right now. I just got the Witmark Demos and finally got to hear the original version of this song. It's really good, but Nico's version is still my very favorite.