Orange Ink

I’m slowly going through the list of films that I have missed and that everyone “should see.”  Somehow Chinatown had slipped through the cracks but thanks to Netflix I finally  got around to it.  In this Facebook world where vocabulary is lacking and your only options are to “like” something or not, I would have to opt for “I liked it.”  I will break out of this Newspeak mold and expound on this in another post (but warily.  Facebook is watching).

My biggest moment of “hey, I’ve seen that guy in something else” was with James Hong who plays the Evelyn … Continue Reading

Thanks to the beauty of Netflix on demand through Google TV and my propensity to avoid what is going on in pop culture I have managed to work my way through season 1 and two thirds of season 2 of Mad Men and I have no idea what happens next.  This is the perfect way to view a series, all at once like drinking it in from a fire hose.  I figure I should be up to season 5 in a few weeks though, and will have to wait for … Continue Reading

How does one make a film that is incredibly disturbing yet visually beautiful?  Pedro Almodovar does this time and time again.  In his latest film, The Skin I Live In, he manages to present yet another set of uncomfortable, often sexual, situations that might keep you up at night.

But don’t let that stop you.  It’s gorgeously filmed by Jose Luis Alcaine who has collaborated with Almodovar several times before including the beautiful Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (if you would like something far lighter than the usual Almodovar bleak sex change themes go rent this).  From beautifully … Continue Reading

So after seeing The Artist I have been saying that it is the best thing I have seen in the last ten years.  Just to keep myself honest I made a list of other good movies from the last ten years but it does in fact beat them.  See below for my list of the top 45 over the past ten years.  With a gun held to my head my top five would have to be The Artist, The Lives of Others, Micmacs, Wall-E, and House of Flying Daggers.

American Splendor

Big Fish

Capote

Children of Men

Downfall

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Finding Neverland

Frost/Nixon

Good Bye, … Continue Reading

On the original Star Trek  series there were pipes and tubes all over the starship Enterprise  that were labeled “GNDN.”  The abbreviation was placed there by some otherwise bored set designers.  It stood for “Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing.”

I often feel like Alexander Payne’s are GNDN movies.  There certainly tend to be story arcs  but the main characters end up in the same physical place in which they started, progressing little in the abstract.  I don’t feel that a film has  to go … Continue Reading

Some observations on a very short trip to Singapore:

It only took 45 minutes to get from the gate to my hotel including going through customs.  Unlike London or New York there is an actual functional highway between the airport and downtown.   And the airport was put much closer to a place you would like to get to.  An interesting fact is that since the airport is so close to downtown, buildings are not permitted to be above 919 feet tall.  There are three that are this tall, soon to be more.

I had to wait a whole two minutes for … Continue Reading

I am not a fan of CGI.  There, I said it.  But I watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes on an LED television where everything looks fake anyway so it was tough to judge.  Why anyone would want to watch a movie on a television that makes everything look like it was from a soap opera on the BBC in the 1970’s is beyond me.  I have heard people say that it looks “too real” on these TVs.  Too real?  What could that even possibly mean?  Bright? Yes.  Weirdly lit? Yes.  It’s anything but real to me.

So watching … Continue Reading

Why I have so much trouble writing scripts is because I cannot make my characters make bad decisions.  I find my self being so disappointed when I watch characters on the big screen do stupid things.  I know.  This makes films what they are. Hide the body.  Don’t call the cops right away.  Sure, have sex with that random person you met in a bar.  But when I try to write these things I keep asking myself “why would anyone act so stupid?”  It’s not like I make perfect decisions all of the time, or even most of the time … Continue Reading

Someone told me this wasn’t a “chick flick” but a romantic comedy, which made me stop and think.  There’s a difference?  I guess the chick-flick label is reserved for overly sappy and predictable romances where you spend most of the movie saying “uggh WHEN are they going to get together (and then back together).”  I can’t think of any movie that  I have seen recently that fits this model since I avoid them like the plague. Okay, 27 Dresses.  I would certainly not include movies like Love Actually or Amelie in this category but I suppose this is in the … Continue Reading

It’s that in-between movie season in the U.S. where I seem to burn through my Netflix queue more quickly than usual and head to the theater quite a bit less.  Since this film (To Live 生活) is always listed in his top two or three, I am surprised that I have not seen this masterpiece from Zhang Yimou much sooner.  Just when I feel like I have seen all of the good movies in existence a gem like this sneaks into a red envelope and ends up in my DVD player.  Possibly with the … Continue Reading