Jonathan Yardley Review of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Archive for the 'Movies' Category
New Film Accommodation of "The Tempest"
Mon, Oct 13th, 2008
Julie Taymor, who did a stunning adaptation of the harrowing Titus Andronicus, is fix to adapt Shakespeare's The Tempest for film. Russell Brand, of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, is set to play the drunken clown Trinculo.
Yous'll never judge who's going to play Prospero.
Can't look. Even if it'due south a mess, it'll be a gorgeous one. (Link from Entertainment Weekly)
Better in Black and White
Thursday, September 18th, 2008
Stefan Kanfer, at the Metropolis Journal, on films in black and white (Link from Arts & Letters Daily):
Gregg Toland, the greatest cinematographer of his generation, never shot in color. He and his A-moving-picture show directors, including John Ford, Orson Welles, and William Wyler, preferred to give audiences the sense that they were watching a suite of etchings. Who needed colour when the haunting landscapes of Wuthering Heights materialized on screen, as if photographed in Emily Brontë'due south nineteenth century? Or when Citizen Kane's deep-focus montages breathed life into the story of a fatally ambitious press lord?
Those of us in the Twin Cities are fortunate to accept a proficient cinema culture that screens many of the blackness and white films Kanfer mentions. If you don't have access to motion picture revivals, though, TCM and Netflix do an outstanding job of making these films easily available.
On a Lighter Notation
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
Is information technology me, or are photos of Claire Danes with her costar Zac Efron from the upcoming movie, Me and Orson Welles, more than than a petty reminiscent of those of Angela and Jordan Catalano from My So-Called Life?
How We Concluded the Long Weekend
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
At that place was much crying and screaming at bedtime final night. I wonder, is the "cost" of a adept day a difficult bedtime? We met friends at the puddle, so met them again subsequently for burgers, hot dogs and great french fries at the Bulldog NE, picked by Minnesota Monthly every bit having the best burger in the country. Afterwards that, bedtime was challenging. But once Drake and Guppy were _in_ bed, they stayed there and fell asleep quickly, then Grand. Grod could sentinel a flake more of Branagh's Village. I'g not sure how I fabricated information technology through all four hours in the theater when it came out. I can't brand it through an unabridged 60 minutes without nodding off. And so once again, I was unmarried, without kids and twelve years younger in '96.
Half Price Books Labor Mean solar day Weekend Sale 2008
Sabbatum, Baronial 30th, 2008
Half-Cost Books (a U.s. used book, movie and music store) is having a sale over Labor 24-hour interval Weekend with an extra twenty% off everything in the store, which is near all at least half price already. Our little family brought habitation quite a stack of books and dvds last dark; a pic to come up, I promise.
Trailer Music for Baz Luhrmann's "Australia"
Monday, July 28th, 2008
I love the films of Baz Luhrmann. When I saw the trailer for his upcoming Australia, and heard the accompanying music, from one of my favorite films, Branagh's Henry V, I got pretty excited. I know the music won't necessarily be in the film, but the trailer + the music was quite stirring.
"At the Movies" Balcony Will Close
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
Deplorable news for fans of Ebert, Roeper, and fans of adept moving picture reviews. They are officially leaving At the Movies, the show that introduced Ebert, Siskel and the Thumbs Up and Down ratings.
Richard Roeper joined Roger Ebert on the show after Gene Siskel'south death. Ebert has long been absent from the show for health reasons. Several guest critics have filled in, but just a few have fifty-fifty come up close to Ebert'south high standards of review, in my opinion: New York Times' A.O. Scott, Village Voice's Robert Wilonsky, and Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips.
Ebert and Roeper will go on to review movies in different media formats, such as Ebert's site.
Motion picture Trailer: Tale of Despereaux
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
I Sentry Stuff has the trailer for the flick adaptation of Kate DiCamillo'southward Newbery-award winning book, The Tale of Despereaux: Beingness the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread.
I was surprised how cutesy this preview looked. The volume is quite dark, even vehement at times. DiCamillo is an advocate of not writing down to kids; she trusts her readers with stories that include life'due south difficulties and injustices, too as hope and redemption. I promise that this adaptation is more true to the book than the preview indicates.
Correction added later: The blitheness for the Despereaux movie is non washed by the same team who did the bizarrely cute Triplets of Belleville. (Thanks to Camille of Book Moot for giving me the heads up that this had inverse.) The directors previously worked on Flushed Abroad, Seabiscuit and Pleasantville. Check out the cast of voice talent, though. It'southward impressive.
Related Reading: Didactics and Classics
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
I feel every bit if I'k caught in a reading zeitgeist, with many online articles touching on similar themes.
At The American Scholar, William Deresiewicz details what he sees as "The Disadvantages of an Elite Education":
[I]t makes you incapable of talking to people who aren't like y'all …[and] inculcates a imitation sense of cocky-worth.
An education from an elite US academy, similar Yale, will reinforce the class organization, and prepare students for the security of an upper-class task, not introspection and contained thought.
In "The New Learning That Failed" at The Criterion (link from Arts & Letters Daily), Victor David Hanson argues that mod universities accept lost 2 of import lessons from a classic, Western instruction: the value of self-criticism and introspection, and theories of exploitation based in the real world. The result, according to Hanson, is teaching focused on what to retrieve, not how to recollect.
Hanson too notes the loss of three things that used to distinguish betwixt what once was studied in a traditional liberal arts didactics, and popular culture:
an appreciation that a few seminal works of art and literature had weathered fad and deceit and, by general agreement, due to their aesthetics or insight, or both, spoke universally to the human status.
[an] old assumption that professors, through long training, were necessary to guide students through such archetype texts [like] Dante's Inferno
an appreciation of a mode of formal thought and dazzler that separated some high art and literature from more popular and accessible counterparts.
Historian David McCullough echoed this thought of established classics in a recent commencement spoken communication, "The Love of Learning" (link from Mental Multivitamin):
Read for pleasure, to be sure… But accept seriously–read closely–books that have stood the test of time. Study a masterpiece, have it apart, study its architecture, its vocabulary, its intent. Underline, make notes in the margins, and after a few years, go dorsum and read information technology again.
At The Times, Rod Liddle writes most books that don't survive their historic period (link from Bookslut):
[T]hey seem to be books that fitted in far too comfortably with the sensibilities of a certain chattering-class elite when they were published. Remove a work of fiction from the milieu in which it was written and y'all remove some of its purpose and point, of class; even so, with Hesse, Powell and Fowles, as with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, you lot seem to lose all the purpose and signal. Everything just evaporates.
Liddle's, though a rant, is similar in discipline to Jonathan Yardley at the Washington Post on Cannery Row and other Steinbeck works (link from Arts & Letters Daily):
Non many books of our youth survive unscathed into what passes for our maturity, and many other books look that maturity before nosotros are ready to appreciate and sympathize them.
For more on Steinbeck'south books as classics, see "The Rescuing of Steinbeck" at The New York Review of Books. (link from Arts & Letters Daily)
All of the preceding manufactures provide an interesting context for Amusement Weekly's lists of new classics–the top 100 since 1983 in books, movies, tv, music, and more. In the blogosphere, at least, EW's lists seems to have speedily eclipsed the AFI's 10 elevation x, released the aforementioned week. As with any list, there's a peachy deal of righteous protest: This should take been higher, that lower, this i's missing, I tin can't believe that 1 is on there.
EW qualifies their lists upwards front. They're not only based on quality, but on influence. They include contempo works, because that's what EW does–it's a weekly mag for entertainment, focusing on what'southward new.
A few things struck me about the lists, and the commentary on it. First, I think there'due south not bad value in a waiting menstruum to run into if a piece of work endures. Second, lists are just ever a starting betoken for give-and-take. Nearly every listing that's published acknowledges this, but that gets lost in the ensuing outrage. 3rd, I think in that location was a great deal of justice done in the lists for works that were critically acclaimed just not blockbusters, or for things like comics that still aren't considered by many to be real books. Finally, my own numbers told an interesting story: 37 books, 87 movies, 67 tv shows, and 46 albums. I don't agree with all of EW'south choices, and I remember they put as well much emphasis on contempo works, only it affirmed why I am a fan of the mag–I similar much of what the writers like, and then EW is a good alphabetize of things I might like.
AFI'south ten Top ten
Monday, June 9th, 2008
AFI has a special, 10 Tiptop 10, on US tv next Tuesday, June 17, 2008, naming their top x films in 10 categories. Take a picture quiz (I'one thousand a Picture show Main, with 34 out of 40 correct) or endeavor to option the 10 winners in a contest. At that place are some tough questions, but some good ideas for stuff to encounter, though at that place were some headscratchers in there, too. Disharmonism of the Titans for All-time Fantasy? Really?
This evening on TCM: "Our Homo in Havana"
Fri, June 6th, 2008
As role of a spy-themed dark, Turner Archetype Movies is showing Our Man in Havana this evening in the US at 10pm EST. Information technology's based on the novel by Graham Greene (the writer of The Serenity American). It'due south not available on DVD in the Us, then this is a rare opportunity to see it. (Link from Laurel's TV Picks.)
Predicting the Summertime Hits and Misses
Dominicus, May quaternary, 2008
Hither's what the oversupply picked during previews before Iron Man on opening night:
Applause for Indiana Jone and the Crystal Skull and Batman, no reaction for Incredible Blob, and laughter (non the skilful kind) for M Night Shymalan's "The Happening" either for the trailer, or the lightheaded title.
Uk Reviews of "Miss Austen Regrets"
Sun, April 27th, 2008
"Miss Austen Regrets" was probably my favorite new film of the recent PBS series, The Consummate Jane Austen. It'southward just at present showing in England, and Austenblog has a good roundup of the reviews, which seem more negative than the ones stateside.
It also has a link to the Jane Austen Social club of Due north America's details on the men in the moving-picture show, which I establish illuminating.
Sweet Escapism at the Parkway
Mon, March 31st, 2008
Twin Citians, nosotros deserve a sugariness escape from this dreadful weather. The new series from TakeUp, screwball romantic comedies from the depression, starts this evening at the Parkway. The snowfall volition foreclose me from going this night, but those of you lot who are closer might check out Like shooting fish in a barrel Living, which I've not seen.
Mr. Correct vs. Mr. Good Enough?
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
I am not romantic you know. I never was. I ask just a comfortable home; and considering Mr. Collins's graphic symbol, connections, and situation in life, I am every bit convinced that my risk of happiness with him is equally fair, as most people can boast on entering the matrimony state. –Charlotte Lucas to Elizabeth Bennet, Austen'southward Pride and Prejudice
In the March 2008 effect of the Atlantic, Lori Gottlieb makes an argument for settling that reminded me strongly of Charlotte Lucas's speech explaining her credence of the boorish Mr. Collins's proposal of marriage. Gottlieb, who decided to go a mother fifty-fifty though she'd not found "Mr. Correct," wonders if settling before for "Mr. Good Plenty" would have made for a happier and easier life.
It'due south a fair question, and clearly i that's been around some time. Information technology made me wonder what communication Jane Austen might accept given. The recent PBS Masterpiece showing of Miss Austen Regrets had a few conjectures. Austen commented to her niece that "The just way to get a human being like Mr. Darcy is to make him upwards!" Afterwards, a reader comments to Austen that Elizabeth Bennett just realized she was in love with Darcy after she saw what a large house he had. Austen herself never married, and Miss Austen Regrets raises the question of whether she later wished she had settled. While we tin't know, information technology's interesting to wonder, peculiarly since Austen'due south ideal of marital elation as portrayed in her novels was (near?) always a combination of financial security and romantic dear.
Moviewatch: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Twenty-four hour period
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Coming soon, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Twenty-four hour period is based on one of the selections from the charming and lovely Perspehone Books. Miss Pettigrew is a nanny sent to the wrong accost, who ends up living the high life with an actress for the day. It'due south a sweetness, funny story. I'yard property my breath, because with Frances McDormand as Miss Pettigrew, and Amy Adams as the flighty extra, this has some of the pieces in place to be a practiced accommodation.
80th Almanac Academy Awards: Selected Moments
Tuesday, Feb 26th, 2008
Democrats do accept an historic race going, Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama. Normally, when yous encounter a black man or a woman president, an asteroid is about to hit the Statue of Liberty.
–Jon Stewart, from the opening monologue
What is happening?!
–Diablo Cody, on winning Best Original Screenplay
Fair play to those who cartel to dream and don't surrender.
–Marketa Irglova, co-winner for All-time Song, brought back onstage by Jon Stewart later on being rushed off by the orchestra
Mazel tov to the Coen brothers, who scored a hat fox with No Country for Old Men. Did you know they'd simply won ane other Oscar, for the original screenplay for Fargo?
Did you detect how The Bourne Ultimatum won all iii awards for which it was nominated? I call back the Academy members were trying to give that film, one of my favorites of final year, more of the dearest information technology deserved from Oscar.
Overall, I was disappointed in the manner. Black, cerise, and blage. Where was the colour? Where was the joy? Oh, I sound like Michael Kors on Projection Runway. Hated the peekaboo shoulder bullseye on Katherine Heigl'southward dress; was she promoting for Target? And who did her makeup? Hated what Jennifer Hudson'due south dress did to her should-take-been voluptuous chest. And while Tilda Swinton is weird, there are quirky dresses that are pretty; she didn't have to cull a velvet garbage bag and forgo her bra. For more fashion dishing and dissing, Go Fug Yourself.
Jane Austen for Geek Guys
Thursday, Feb 14th, 2008
Nathan from TeeVee dishes on his geek love for Austen and the PBS Masterpiece'due south The Consummate Austen, which I've been (mostly) enjoying. I concur that Olivia Williams was groovy in Miss Austen Regrets, and that the series as a whole is well washed and enjoyable. I don't, though, retrieve Gillian Anderson is doing herself whatever favors revisiting Scully-red hair, and I found the Mansfield Park production in general, and Billie Piper in item, wanting.
"Guy" Movies
Wednesday, Jan 30th, 2008
GQ lists the ten best "guy" films "you" haven't seen (quotaton marks, mine, and link from A Listing of Things Thrown Five Minutes Agone.) I felt rather smug that I'd seen the kickoff four on the list: Rififi, Croupier, The Limey and The Matador. One of the remaining v, Point Bare, was given to my husband, G. Grod, for Christmas, and so we'll run across it shortly. Of the other five, though, I was affrighted to find I hadn't heard of three: The Last Detail, The Sand Pebbles and The Beat that My Heart Skipped.
Interestingly, Rififi, The Limey and The Matador were all 3 recommended by my friend The Big Encephalon, a guy. Croupier, though, was recommended to me by my gal pal Rock Hack, who said she thought I'd like the lead thespian, some guy named Clive Owen. It was a skilful phone call, both on the film and on Clive.
2008 Oscar Nominations
Friday, January 25th, 2008
Oscar Nominations were announced earlier in the week, though they've been somewhat eclipsed by Heath Ledger'southward untimely expiry. Note to young Hollywood: Just say no. Sheesh.
I've seen simply two of the best-flick nominees–Juno and Michael Clayton. Both were excellent. I take several more to see, though, if I'k going to feel at all informed near the competition. It was an Oscar season of years by, probably the one after Drake was built-in, that inspired me to offset my annual film challenges. I'd seen none of the films; I'd seen no films in a long time. I'd allowed a babe to proceed me from 1 of the things I love, so I rearranged my priorities, gear up myself a challenge, and accept seen lots and lots of films since.
I use the Oscars as a guide, non a list. There are lots of skilful movies that don't get nominated for Oscars, and plenty of mediocre movies that do. The foreign and documentary films seem to have an especially poor selection process.
I had a few "wherefore art thou" moments going over the nominees. The Bourne Ultimatum was a very good film. It should have been considered for bigger awards. Knocked Upwardly had some of the funniest writing this year, and newcomer Christopher Mintz-Plasse stole all his scenes in Superbad.
My plan this yr is to see At that place Volition be Claret, No Country for Old Men, and Persepolis, as shortly as I can. They've been the best reviewed films and ones I remember I will savor. Sweeney Todd, Into the Wild, and I'm Not There too audio worthwhile. All these films also sound every bit if they're proficient as a whole. Many of the others boast good aspects, like a performance or the cinematography, but non plenty holistically to describe me. I'm curiously indifferent about Atonement; it feels like a pic calculated to win awards.
From Oscar.com:
80th University Awards - Nominations
LIVE Telecast: Sunday, February 24, 2008
Operation by an actor in a leading role
George Clooney in "Michael Clayton"
Daniel Day-Lewis in "In that location Will Exist Blood"
Johnny Depp in "Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
Tommy Lee Jones in "In the Valley of Elah"
Viggo Mortensen in "Eastern Promises"
Performance by an thespian in a supporting role
Casey Affleck in "The Bump-off of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men"
Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Charlie Wilson's War"
Hal Holbrook in "Into the Wild"
Tom Wilkinson in "Michael Clayton"
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Cate Blanchett in "Elizabeth: The Gilded Historic period"
Julie Christie in "Abroad from Her"
Marion Cotillard in "La Vie en Rose"
Laura Linney in "The Savages"
Ellen Page in "Juno"
Performance past an extra in a supporting role
Cate Blanchett in "I'grand Not There"
Carmine Dee in "American Gangster"
Saoirse Ronan in "Amende"
Amy Ryan in "Gone Baby Gone"
Tilda Swinton in "Michael Clayton"
Achievement in directing
"The Diving Bong and the Butterfly", Julian Schnabel
"Juno", Jason Reitman
"Michael Clayton", Tony Gilroy
"No State for Old Men", Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
"There Will Be Blood", Paul Thomas Anderson
All-time motion picture of the year
"Amende"
"Juno"
"Michael Clayton"
"No Land for Old Men"
"At that place Volition Be Blood"
Source: http://www.girldetective.net/?cat=23&paged=2
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