movies to watch

--at least, ones that I'm excited to watch, no matter the ticket prices in Boston! After a pretty empty summer of films, I have a pretty long list of enticing movies (and two documentaries!) to close out 2010.

BLACK SWAN


Trailer released today. Looks amazing. Natalie Portman and Vincent Cassel, with whom I fell in love in Eastern Promises. And of course, Darren Aronofsky is one of my favorite directors. I was surprised to see Mila Kunis opposing Portman in the trailer--I thought she was the most interesting thing about The Book of Eli.

Toy Story 3 and duty

I saw Toy Story 3 (finally!) on Tuesday.

What a thrilling, emotionally satisfying, beautifully rendered, human film. The conflict that struck me the most was that of duty. (spoilers ahead) In the middle of the film, Woody has to choose between duty to his owner or duty to his friends--duty to the system and tradition versus his duty to the relationships in his life. He can go back to Andy's house to go to college with him, and a life that's safe although useless but to be displayed, as if on a pedestal, or he can attempt to save his friends from certain harm but risk being press-ganged and trapped in the process. If he tries and fails, he is unable to return to Andy, lacking the ways and means to move about and get things done that Andy does.

The similarities between Woody's struggle and the choices that women make in navigating their lives, their politics, and (sometimes) husbands made me sit up and watch this movie with fascination. As the end approached: what would the toys do? To where would they go? And the choice they made in the end--Bonnie's versus Sunnyside, where Barbie stayed! What does that say?

To answer those questions, a little background is in order. As I was a radical, socialist, red state high school feminist, Andrea Dworkin was formative in my thinking. In particular, Right-Wing Women asks the questions: Why do right-wing women agitate for their own subordination? How does the Right, controlled by men, enlist their participation and loyalty? And why do right-wing women truly hate the feminist struggle for equality? Those questions were crowding at my consciousness, and even now, their derivatives come up daily in my thinking. The answer that Dworkin supplies:

Right-wing women understand that their behavior hurt other women, but most importantly, places them on a pedestal for the admiration of one man in particular: their husband. This choice, whether conscious or subconscious, is actually the safe, intelligent choice.

We as an audience are given a look at life with Bonnie that is simple, generous, kind, and loved--her toys adore her, and she clearly has a good heart, having rescued Chuckles (and Woody, too). Having found this paradise once, it should be no surprise that Woody chooses to spirit himself and his friends off to this owner, to this "husband." It's Woody's devotion to Andy, his performance of and commitment to being the perfect toy (the perfect wife) that leads him away from Sunnyside and into Bonnie's home in the first place. And having found the perfect "husband," why waste something good for something that has a reality of being nasty and only the slight potential of reform (Sunnyside)? Rejecting Bonnie is dangerous. It places the toys at the mercy of a larger mechanism than themselves. Sunnyside renders a lot of agency useless, even if there is no master whose every demand needs to be met.

Here, we can look at Sunnyside as a wider society. More specifically, the ease with which it slides into horror and oppression is perfectly represented in the Caterpillar Room, a state which is reinforced not only by Lotso but also a host of other enforcers, all comfortable in their privilege of the Butterfly Room. A woman who rejects the protection of a potential or real husband by refusing to perform the roles of the perfect wife--the cautionary tale of Sunnyside and the Caterpillar Room is her lot.

The reform at the end of Toy Story 3 is really intriguing. It seems that Barbie is able to inspire Ken to give up parts of his privilege in favor of some nebulous form of (more) equality. Barbie seems to be some sort of antebellum social reformer, in the lines of prison reform, temperance, women's suffrage, and abolitionism. Indeed, Sunnyside is a prison, so what she does is nothing other than prison reform. But without Ken's support, his ways and means derived from his authority as a former enforcer, I don't see Barbie accomplishing what she did. Indeed, she would not have been safe enough to implement a lot of these changes if Ken had not defied Lotso--in Barbie's case, then, Ken has taken over part of her ownership in protecting her.

This scenario then calls into question the role of the oppressor in progressive movements and in reform; Toy Story 3 says it can be for the greater good both of a society and to the individuals who find a good, decent protector (or protectress, for Bonnie).

We get the best of both worlds in this movie. Woody's two duties, to his owner(s) and to his friends (the group grows to include the rest of the toys at Sunnyside, with whom Woody and Co. do feel some sort of solidarity), are both fulfilled. Woody and Co. become useful again to Andy by allowing him to pass his beloved toys on, they find a new owner and make themselves fundamentally useful again as toys to be enjoyed, and Barbie stays behind to make sure the Sunnyside toys also get to experience some of the same joy and security that comes from being owned and wanted, but institutionalized.

This ending is why Toy Story 3 remains a children's movie.


Here's what some other people thought this movie said about society (emphasis mine):

The film begins with Woody trying to defend a crumbling system of communism (presumably the Soviet Union). Toys have a duty to their owners, he argues. The owner is a personified totalitarian state (Stalin?) — he decides what the toys do and the toys are not permitted to escape....Communism having collapsed, the toys emigrate to Sunnyside (the US, that nation of immigrants), which leader Lotso depicts as a libertarian paradise. In his introductory he speech, he touts the joys of self-ownership and interacting with children through the market (new children are constantly replacing old ones, maximizing the efficiency of the toys), as well as the improved material comforts his system brings (the repair depot, the dream house)....Ken and Barbie now lead Sunnyside, making it a “fun and groovy” socialist utopia. --The Political Philosophy of Toy Story 3

As social commentary, Toy Story 3 is provocative but vague, even unrealized. Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear's torment of Woody's friends by locking them in with the daycare's younger and considerably less kind children suggests something of a slave trade. Their nightmare imprisonment is practically a statement on gentrification, as you get a sense of the rich life Lots-o'-Huggin' and his cronies enjoy being impossible without other, less fortunate toys wasting away in less desirable, impoverished conditions. (There's no "in" for the undesirables, just one way "out": the trash.) The scenario is evocative, suggestive of a New York City street with a Whole Foods and expensive luxury rentals on one side and the projects on the other, but the correlation the film makes to real-life urban gentrification ultimately feels tacky because the way justice comes to Sunnyside has no correlative in Harlem. (slant mag)

But the movie is all about identity and what do you become when everything you knew is gone?....I could go all day about the prison metaphors, the fact that Woody himself was always kind of obsolete as far as toys go, or entertain excessive discourses about Big Baby, the scariest toy in all three Toy Story movies. And then there’s the fact that the Ken doll (Michael Keaton) is one thousand percent gay and no one in the movie (and probably, a good chunk of the audience) has any idea. So I suppose you can add mob mentalities, closet cases, and the like to the list of Pixar’s storytelling devices. (The Faster Times)

The shocking parallels to the Holocaust in Toy Story 3 begin just moments after the opening playtime set piece. Andy is seventeen and about to leave for college. These toys are left behind, just as host nations left behind the Jews as the Third Reich conquered Europe. --Toy Story 3 as Zionist Text

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Here's a thought and a lovely photo of the day to end this giant post:

What are the nature of my duties?

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the miracle of The Blind Side

Today I heard a made-for-tv movie being advertised as being "as inspirational as The Blind Side." Who would have imagined that this football movie would become the highest grossing sports movie ever, along with the highest grossing movie with a female lead?

to dress like a girl

Movie recap for this year

The only new release I'm likely to see before the new year is Emily Blunt's The Young Victoria. with that out of the way, here's a look at which movies I finally did get around to seeing this year, compared to the ones I wanted to see early in the summer...

Ones that I saw:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
I adored this movie! Was suitably impressed by Tom Felton as a conflicted Draco Malfoy, and loved Alan Rickman and Helen McCrory as Snape and Narcissa, respectively. the bathroom fight scene was visually great as well.
The Hurt Locker
loved, loved, loved this movie. Emotions were really strong all throughout, and the level of tension in the action scenes was incredible.
Sherlock Holmes
Saw it last night - was entertained very much. however, I found the story to be extremely lacking, although the humor and character interactions hit a very special place in my heart. in addition, the movie, although obviously computer generated (especially after viewing Avatar), had some great atmosphere in the settings of 1800s London.
Moon
Was so amazing. Perhaps my favorite movie that I saw in theaters this year. the plot, music, and set were so incredible and clever. the plot, especially, I couldn't stop talking about with the friend who saw the movie with me. in addition, I've been listening to Clint Mansell's masterful score on and off since this summer.
Where the Wild Things Are
Didn't like this as much as others - this movie was scary! Plus I didn't like the kid.
Little Ashes
This was a piece of shit but I had to watch and laugh at Robert Pattinson's moustache.
Terminator Salvation
I actually liked and enjoyed this movie. it was entertaining! and had Anton Yelchin and Sam Worthington...
Up
wrote about my thoughts here.
Public Enemies
see here.

Movies that I didn't see but will at some point:
Bright Star
Missed this one in theaters in Boston, and now it's not playing in Columbia. will find it somehow! I just love the poetry of John Keats and the trailer was so well done. I've heard good things about Abbie Cornish's acting, also.
An Education
Same as above, just missed this in theaters, but I want to see it so very much still!
Precious
Looks like awards-recognition is fading, although I'd still like to see this movie sometime - perhaps not in theaters, though.
Agora
FINALLY has a release date! Hooray!
Dead Snow
Have not seen this in theaters anywhere, maybe not looking hard enough...
I Love You Phillip Morris
Its release has been pushed back AGAIN from Valentine's Day 2010 to March 26, 2010. ah, can't wait.
500 Days of Summer
Will see this at some point, especially since my roommates have recommended it so enthusiastically.

Movies that have fallen off my radar:
Amelia
Apparently was one boring movie.
Taking Woodstock
Same thing as above.
Bruno
Hasn't fallen off my radar as much as I was disgusted with it.

In addition, I'm really bugged by the awards-hoopla that Up in the Air is getting. wtf? why do people like to hear and watch an entire movie about upper middle class white people getting laid off and making fun of their misfortunes, besides?

fifteen

Taylor Swift - New Music - More Music Videos

So I admit it, I've been listening to Taylor Swift. This song reminded me of Don Bachardy and Christopher Isherwood. I'm going to get Isherwood's A Single Man soon and read it before Dec. 11, when Tom Ford's adaptation comes out. (Tom Ford, another person with whom I have a love/hate relationship.)



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I was going to post the new Acne underwear campaign

Remember the Spring/Summer 2009 campaign?

But then I found this one from Fall/Winter 2008.



It's Freddie Stroma:

(via)

AKA Cormac McLaggen:

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Whodathunkit?

they should just ask me to do it

when I was doing my latest movie post, I couldn't find a movie poster for An Education, so I just picked out my favorite movie still. Guess what? They made that still into the movie poster!


(via)

I think they did a great job with the poster. particularly love the cutouts at the bottom. however. is that a weird-ass photoshop job I see? Did they remove Peter Sarsgaard's hand through photoshop? jesus, people. his hand's not THAT ugly. compare:

You talk about life and talk about death / and everything in between / like it's nothing and the words are easy

Saw Public Enemies over the weekend. liked it. my mom and I talked about how it was a troubling movie because (SPOILER) Dillinger is betrayed by a close friend, and the net closes in on him in sharp detail.

What intrigued me just as much as the movie itself were the previews. Previews for Shutter Island, Bruno, and Amelia. An odd mixture for sure.

Shutter Island: did not expect a horror movie. Not sure if I'm interested anymore.

Bruno: definitely not interested anymore. Humpday, though, after reading about it, is sounding more and more appealing. IMDB calls it "indie couter-programming" to Bruno. sounds about right.

Amelia: looks amazing. So excited!

movies I want to see (book-adaptations and a tip of the hat to the ladies edition)

Draco gets expanded characterization compared to previous books and movies. Snape gets screentime. The only book with better news for Slytherins is the seventh. I can't wait to see Narcissa's scenes, for the record. I hope she gets to keep them from the book.

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Ben Whishaw, who is exclusively doing period pieces it seems, and Abbie Cornish star as John Keats and Fanny Brawne in Bright Star. and Paul Schneider, Gus from Lars and the Real Girl, plays Charles Brown, the thorny third angle to Keats' and Brawne's romance. He resents Brawne because he regards love as being detrimental to poetry. Drama ensues.

Jane Campion remains the only female director to have won the Palme d'Or (with The Piano - and off the top of my head, I think she actually shared that one in a tie with Kaige Chen for Farewell, My Concubine, which was the first mainland Chinese film to win the Palme d'Or), but she was definitely in contention this year with Bright Star. Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon took the prize, but Campion's film is probably going to be easier to find in the US. Haneke's worldview is just too depressing for US audiences.

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So this one is a little older than the others, but it still hasn't been released anywhere near where I live. Kathryn Bigelow directs. She's an oddity in the action genre, but one which I heartily endorse.

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An Education premiered at Sundance. I've loved Peter Sarsgaard since I saw him in Kinsey. The premise of this movie is nothing special - a teenage girl falls in love with a much older playboy in 1960's London. But the acting promises to be great. Carey Mulligan plays protagonist Jenny, and she was plucked from acting on Broadway. (The Seagull opposite Kristin Scott Thomas!)

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Not your father's Star Trek? Not anybody's Sherlock Holmes, either!

Distribution is ambitious. Christmas Day. I'm sad Jude Law isn't on the movie poster. I'd think that his name is just as large as Robert Downey Jr's.

But I, for one, am insanely happy that Watson is being fairly represented. Jude Law is actually a little too skinny for my tastes, but I can finally envision Watson as (a very slight) rugby player, fit from serving in Afghanistan and faithful follower of Sherlock Holmes.

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A different kind of directorial triumph if this movie is recognized. In any case, this looks like a very powerful movie.

We are the people that rule the world /

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I saw Up yesterday. It made me laugh and cry, but I was still bitterly disappointed.

Carl and Ellie's story, told as it is mostly in images and without words, had me bawling. I don't even know why, as it's a fairly typical story of two people growing old together.

Dug made me laugh. The Cone of Shame, in particular, was a nice touch and its use at the very end is a nice illustration of how the circumstance can influence a person's identity.

But holy crap. The Wilderness Explorer (a Boy Scout parody) kid, Russell, was beyond annoying. It got to the point where I was groaning every time he came on screen, which was basically every minute of the last 3/4ths of the movie. His existence just reaffirmed my opinion that kids suck. Every minute on screen he was whining, pouting, or arguing. Or looking "sad." I put sad in quotation marks because that kind of "ohhhh poor me I'm a puppy don't kick me" look doesn't work well unless it's on a puppy's face (read: Dug).

The part that angered me, though, was the ageism against Carl. Oh, sure, he's 70+ and the real hero of the movie, but that doesn't stop the old-people jokes from flying fast and furious. My question: What's the point of making a character a hero if the movie just makes fun of said character the entire time?

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Today I read Someday This Pain Will Be Useful, by Peter Cameron. It's about an 18-year-old boy, James Sveck. He has gotten into Brown but is thinking about abandoning college to live in a no-name town in the Midwest and pick up a trade, all because he hates people his own age and would much rather be a loner. He is the quintessential rich white city boy. He doesn't fit in anywhere. He spends his time thinking about the past, and hates pop culture but is at the same time very aware of the culture. He's able to pinpoint a Marimekko dress that is worn backwards, and identify a Comme des garcons shirt. Those are pretty obscure high fashion brands!

The one part that stood out the most to me was when James is attending the American Classroom, one of those week-long camp things run by conservatives that supposedly give you experience in civics and government. Actually, James is telling the reader what happened during his stay with the American Classroom, which happens several months prior to the present of the book. James likes to sit alone at the tables because he is acutely aware of his own uncomfortableness with other kids and also disdains the rules that govern their (and his) lives, such as having the back of the bus reserved for the "cool kids." (Oh, how I remember that the cool kids were always in the back, and you really wanted the back seat, and how this one bus driver would reserve the back seat for the birthday kid.)

During the intermission of a dinner theater performance, another girl invites James to sit with her table. James is disgusted because he recognizes that she thinks she is doing him a favor, and is trying to be nice, but he doesn't think that it's nice at all. He would much rather be alone.

And so I find this a really strange book to put in the young adult section of a bookstore or a library, but that's where this book is classified. I suppose it's for all the loners of the world, but I can't say if this is an optimistic book or not. James finds that not even his dream of living in a beautiful old home in the Midwest can stand up to scrutiny. He ends up attending Brown, but it's not an active decision.

This worldview is so completely from all the other books and movies out there. this one says it's okay to feel like James does, although it probably won't make you happy.

When I read this book, I ended up just feeling sad. I recognized all the social awkwardness in myself, but I was also too cowardly to buck the silly rules that James disregards.

movies I want to see 2 (fall/winter/beyond edition)

As I have previously mentioned, I really want to see this movie. Alejandro Amenábar, Rachel Weisz. Atheism and Christianity during a troubled Rome.

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This looks like a scifi movie along the lines of Gattaca, not really Rendezvous with Rama hard scifi but also not Serenity or the new Star Trek cowboy space opera fun. BUT. It's only playing in NY or LA? Kill me dead.

Also, Kevin Spacey voices GERTY, the on-board computer.

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European zombie horror flick.

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Okay, so this one is coming out in the summer, not in the fall/winter/beyond.

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One of my favorite books as a child, and I reread it a lot at work.

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Okay, so I couldn't find a movie poster for this movie, even though it's been completed for months and is being set up for a Best Picture Oscar run.

it has Hilary Swank and Ewan McGregor, and if you know me, you know I love Ewan McGregor. What else? Richard Gere is also in this baby, and it's directed by Mira Nair. I may be wrong, but I think this is the first movie directed by a woman to appear on these lists. There is such a shortage of directors who are female.

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I really hate the movie poster for this movie. I suppose it's better than not having one, though. But in any case, that's why it's not here.

Guess what? It's Ewan McGregor again. And apparently Jim Carrey in a The Truman Show-like performance, and not like his recent comedies. This movie was apparently banned to NC-17-land for a moment there, but I think it's back to R. It looks like a Catch Me If You Can-type con movie, which tickles me greatly.

last night

was awesome.

Thanks to those of you who gave me a memorable night. okay food, passable movie, great music, amazing people.

and about the movie - oh, it was better than Wolverine. But still, once special effects get so cheap to make that every summer movie contains such a huge dose of CHEESE factor that I can feel myself metaphorically gagging with the onslaught of cheese oozing from the plot holes of the movie, that is enough. I don't want to start laughing in the movie theater because some stunt was so absurd that the director saw fit to repeat it again, and again. Cars blowing up? That's cool. Cars blowing up because of some warped notion of physics and half-way believable special effects? Not cool, Terminator Salvation, not cool.

movies I want to see (looooong list)

I know, I know. Robert Pattinson.

But you know what, I find him oddly endearing. After all, he seems to be popping up in fashion magazines at an alarming rate.

However, it's Dali. And Lorca.

And apparently "there were all these Spanish electricians giggling to themselves" during the shooting of a sex scene. I do find Pattinson's responses to that interview (linked in the previous sentence) juvenile, but hey, I'll give the dude a break. Also, director Paul Morrison, who was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar, says Pattinson has the ability and talent. Okay.



Although the 'stache does make me giggle:


And here is the (cheesy) trailer:


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Alien invasion. Cars being blown up. Sorry Channing Tatum, but I'm going to take the sequel over the new franchise this time around.

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Self-explanatory. Still waiting for the Pixar with a female lead, however.

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Christian Bale makes another appearance. Oh wait, so does Channing Tatum. Damn. Wait. He plays "Pretty Boy Floyd." Maybe I'll be okay. (Well, who am I kidding. The dude used to model. I don't mind looking at him.) And hey, wait, did I forget to mention the dude who's on the poster?

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I love this poster. It's so photoshopped. Also, it's no longer Nc-17? Officially an R.

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Joshep G-L is SO HOT. Check. this. out:










You know me. I'm a sucker for those fashion magazine spreads. Those black and white Vman ones especially.

We are the hollow men we are the stuffed men

want to see this.

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This is the way the world ends