Happy-Go-Synecdoche

I don't remember what my first movie was.  Some kids do, they can recount the first time their parents sat them down in front of the strange black box.  It's usually Disney or one of the classics like The Sound of Music or The Wizard of Oz.  I don't think my first was The Wizard of Oz, but it must have been one of the earlier ones because I can distinctly remember an absolute terror of the Wicked Witch of the West.  At my daycare when I was three we used to stage frequent productions of The Wizard of Oz in the living room.  On those days I was forced to play the Wicked Witch that way I couldn't be frightened of myself.  Mostly all that was required of the role was sitting in the corner while clutching the disgusting broom from the kitchen.  The whole experience was an early indicator that I was not meant to be an actor.

Movies were a big deal at my daycare.  Once a month or so all the parents would meet for secret discussions the children weren't privy to.  We would get pizza and cram into the tiny back room in front of the TV.  I don't really remember watching movies at these gatherings.  I remember long arguments about what movie we should watch and long stretches when the TV was having technical difficulties.  During one of those waits one of the older kids told us that the black and white static on the screen was teams of black and white ants racing.  Every few minutes we'd get to ask which team was wining.

On Friday I saw "Happy-Go-Lucky" and last night I saw "Synecdoche, New York."  HGL I really wanted to like, but it fell short.  I think the main problem was I could never really like the main character, she always kind of bugged me.  So I watched all of her exploits with mild irritation.  Then none of her exploits were resolved in the end.  They just kept introducing story lines and none of them were completely wrapped up.  

Synecdoche on the other hand.... wow, that's a trip.  It's written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, the guy who did Adaptation and Being John Malkovich.  I'll watch Adaptation at some point, Meryl Streep's in it, and Being John Malkovich is one of my favorite movies.  I went in expecting something pretty trippy, but still brilliant.  That was what I saw, but the trippy really outweighs the brilliant.  I felt like I was trying to process a new way of looking at everything while trying to keep up with the story and multitude of characters.  James over at A Blogwork Orange says it's a film that must be seen twice.  That would probably help.  It's quite the creative work and the performances are incredible.  But it fucks with your mind.

Hysteria at a Funeral

I watch a lot of movies on the weekends. This weekend I think I watched more movies than I did homework. In some cultures that's what's known as screwing yourself over, but I call it watching a lot of movies. Some day I'll actually plan ahead and watch Meryl Streep movies. But obviously that hasn't happened yet.

Friday night I saw The Dark Knight. Fuck, that movie is scary. I'm scared of clowns, I don't think it was a good decision to see it. I'm still trying to come up with a logical, not roundabout way to link it to Meryl Streep, this is the best I've got so far. Michael Caine is in The Dark Knight and Little Voice with Ewan McGregor who's in Moulin Rouge with Nicole Kidman who's in The Hours with Meryl Streep. But it doesn't make any sense in my head that Meryl Streep and Michael Caine haven't done anything together because they're both so brilliant, yet nothing is coming to mind. I might have to look that up later.

I spent most of Saturday in Philly. We went to the protest against Prop 8 in front of City Hall and that was pretty amazing. It's awesome to see so many people out there supporting something that wasn't even on the ballot here. And I think we all need a good protest now and again, good for the soul. We have freedom of speech and right to assemble, good not to forget how to use it. After protesting we went to South Street to buy things for Rocky Horror. Not everyone just has garter belts and fishnets lying around. Although wouldn't that be handy?

Saturday night there was a screening of Death at a Funeral. My role was to put the DVD in the DVD player and push play. I almost couldn't take the excitement. Luckily, I held it together because I spent most of Death at a Funeral laughing hysterically. British humor is so under-appreciated here. All our movies should include blackmail, acid, and everything possible going utterly wrong. I have two ways to link it to Meryl Streep and both of them I'm missing names. And both of them use the movie Love, Actually. So, there's a guy in Death at a Funeral who was on an amazing British sitcom called "All in the Family." I think. He was also in Love, Actually, he played Colin, who goes to Wisconsin to pick up girls. One of the better story lines of the movie. Also in Love, Actually is Colin Firth - wow that sentence was written by Yoda. Anyway, Colin Firth is in Mamma Mia! too. I think I use him too much.

Then we watched Rocky Horror. I love that movie. I'm Brad in our show of it here. Susan Sarandon was in The Banger Sisters with Goldie Hawn who was in Death Becomes Her with Meryl. So Hah. I'm late for history.

Edit: Epic fail. Colin Frissell, the guy from Love, Actually is played by Kris Marshall, who was in the sitcom "My Family," not "All in the Family." Oh well, I was close. But otherwise that works.

One Month till Doubt

I've had the pestilence for the past week.  It's been a party, but I think I'm getting over it.

Not much has happened on the movie front.  I watched half of Pride and Prejudice (new version) and half of Sophie Scholl and twenty minutes of Angels in America.

The presence of Judi Dench in Pride and Prejudice (not BBC version) got me thinking.  I want there to be a movie with Meryl Streep and Judi Dench and Helen Mirren and... Laura Linney and Emma Thompson.  Ideal situation.  Fantasy casting, like fantasy football, but better.  And they're be in a really well written movie about women being kick ass and awesome, and it'd be altogether a fabulous experience.

That's be cool.

The main reason for this post is that there is exactly one month until Doubt comes out.  I think that's pretty important.  Unfortunately, because it is the day before my show and the weekend before exams, I don't know if I'll get to see it on opening weekend.  That makes me very sad.  I hope other people go see it for me, because I'd hate to have to go on another crusade in defense of a Meryl Streep movie like I did with Mamma Mia!.  Because that wasn't amusing and entertaining at all.  No sir.

Still, Catholic nuns, priests, possible sexual harassment of altar boys.  Sounds like a party.

Tipping the Velvet

With the exception of Prop 8 and its friends, I'm pretty thrilled about the results of the election.  Washington state even managed to keep its democratic governor, cool beans all around.

Yesterday I watched Tipping the Velvet with a friend.  Meryl Streep is not in this film, but it would be awesome if she was.  There's this extremely kinky (well, extremely kinky for London circa The French Lieutenant's Woman) woman who sort of takes in the main character and even though Anna Chancellor is very attractive, Meryl Streep would have been amazing in that role.  Anyway, movie was fun, I highly enjoyed it.  The smut scenes were excellent.  I tried to explain the plot to my friends afterwards and they really could not handle the main character's name being Nan, so she became known as Main Character for the rest of the evening.

Anna Chancellor was Mr. Bingley's sister in Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth who won the most adorable award for Mamma Mia!  That's using a mini series, which isn't technically a movie, but Tipping the Velvet is a mini series as well, so I don't feel bad.

So the plan of watching Out of Africa this weekend is totally not going to work out.  It's parents weekend and there's a million other things to do, like going to see the student production of Macbeth and an orchestra concert.  But I'm still watching plenty of movies.  I want to write my term paper for history on European identity in film, so viewing some potential candidates.  I'm going to try to get through all four this weekend, but I doubt that'll happen.

More Non Meryl Movies

This weekend was a big movie weekend.  Not a big Meryl Streep movie weekend, but maybe next week.  I want to finish Out of Africa someday.

Friday night we watched The Jane Austen Book Club.  Well, first, in honor of Halloween, we watched an episode of Supernatural.  I really liked TJABC, it was cute.  Nothing too serious, but sometimes serious is really overrated.  The moments of "serious book club" were fun, but few and far between.  Sort of like the director was like "oh shit, it's about a book club, right, I'd better make sure people know it exists."  Then back to lunch dates and romantic visits to used bookstores.  And Emily Blunt was in Devil Wears Prada with Meryl Streep.  Or, Hugh Dancy was in Ella Enchanted with Anne Hathaway who was also in Devil Wears Prada.  Or Hugh Dany was in Evening with Meryl Streep, but I didn't know that one off the top of my head, I looked it up.

Last night we watched Young Frankenstein.  I love that movie.  It has all my favorite things in it, utter silliness, black and white, Madeline Kahn, bad puns, good puns, immature jokes, and bizarre sexual references.  It makes me happy.  I'm still trying to figure out how to link it to Meryl Streep, give me a second.  

A random film recommendation:  The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother.  Gene Wilder wrote and stared in this one with Marty Feldman and Madeline Kahn, so basically the same cast as Young Frankenstein.  It's not the greatest, but the last fifteen minutes made me laugh so hard I fell off the couch.

OH!  Okay, so I had to look up the title of the Sherlock Holmes movie, I couldn't remember if it was younger or smarter brother.  But, anyway, Dom DeLouise is in that and also in Robin Hood: Men in Tights with Cary Elwes who's in Ella Enchanted with Anne Hathaway.  Or, he's in The Princess Bride with the guy who plays the Sicilian who's in Manhattan with Meryl Streep.

Damn I'm good.  My roommate says I get ten points.  Yay me.  The Sicilian's name is Wallace Shawn, I did look that up.  

Mamma Mia! Party

I realized I never actually did a post on seeing Mamma Mia.  Just several posts on how other people were seeing Mamma Mia.

Well.  Now I've seen the movie three times.  I love it.  I can't wait for the DVD.  That's on November 27, by the way.  I looked it up.  Everyone should buy it.  

So last night was viewing number three and it has not decreased in awesomeness.  In fact, its awesomeness may be exponentially increasing.  I may make a graph of Mamma Mia awesomeness as a function of circumstances.  One such circumstance is viewing it with a lot of happy people who have been fed and given feather boas and shiny sunglasses.

It wasn't crazy as I wanted it to be though.  It would have been way more fun with a bunch of people (possibly intoxicated) singing and dancing like crazy people.  I mean, the movie's grand awesome fun on its own, but singing and dancing would have helped.

Then we watched Finding Nemo on a computer while drinking beverages.  Finding Nemo can be linked to Meryl by Allison Janney who plays Peach in Finding Nemo and Clarissa's lover Sally in The Hours.  If I have to look up my links, I'll admit to that.  But usually I can do it off the top of my head.

Plenty

It's incredible what procrastination can do to a person.

I live in a dorm that will burn down in 37 second if fire reaches the roof.  For some reason, this doesn't really ever bother us.  There is also reason to believe that Harry Potter lives in our cupboard under the stairs.  But since I'm being Harry Potter for Halloween, I'm apprehensive about this rumor.

Next to Harry Potter's cupboard there's a nook.  Unlike other nooks, I'll be honest, my experience with nooks is rather limited, but ours is very special.  There's a light, two windows and a plaque that someone up up in 1997.  We like to study there and watch movies.  Nearly a month ago (I've been busy) we watched Plenty.

I love this movie.  I wish I could tell you what it's about, but I haven't the faintest idea.  Most of it makes no sense.  Or I just didn't get it.  I love Tracey Ullman in this film, she's a shining light in an otherwise rather bleak premise.

So Meryl's this World War II spy type person and she has sex with this with this other spy type person.  Well, first they have tea, obviously a pick-up line, then they look at the mackerel sky (there are no fish in the sky, however) then they have sex with their clothes on.  This shows they are not French, but British.  

Meryl spends the rest of the film looking for the same dude.  Instead she marries a dud.  And has a lot of sex.  She has sex with Sting on a couch and it would be really sexy if you didn't feel like you were intruding on something.   I totally think she should have hooked up with Tracey Ullman, that would have been an awesome movie.

I really had fun with this one - it's beautifully shot, the costumes are awesome.  Somebody amazing, not Ann Roth, put Tracey Ullman in a man's suit and she's adorable.

Later we watched the first twenty minutes of Out of Africa, but then I had to return it to the library and we haven't checked it out again.  Hopefully we will soon.  I liked the first bit.  Once again the fact that Meryl has a completely different dialect blows my mind.  But I've started seeing bits of Miranda Priestly in some of her parts, that's kind of amusing.

Not much else is new.  My calc midterm is on Friday and I might die.  I bought Angels in America and it's beautiful.  There's a Mamma Mia party in the campus center on Friday, it's going to be amazing.

Everyone should go see Doubt on December 12 because it looks totally hardcore.

Happy Sweater Vest Wednesday