Completely Unnecessary

I borrowed a slew of movies from friends of mine a while ago. American History X has sat, untouched for weeks, on top of our TV cabinet.

Though it’s been nearly ten years since I first saw it, I couldn’t bear to watch the curb scene again.

And I mostly avoided it. I wound up watching the actual moment peering through my fingers, but it wasn’t as graphic as I remember. It’s more the fear in the victim’s face before the act that sets up the terror of the moment. (By the way, this is not so much a I-don’t-want-to-give-it-away-moment as an I-don’t-want-to-describe-it.)

Anyway, the film is a mixture of brilliance and maudlin. Edward Norton’s white supremacist, Derek, (who predates Ryan Gosling’s Jewish neo-nazi by two years) is clearly the emotional center of the film, despite narration by his younger brother.

I have trouble connecting with Norton’s voice, though. There’s some strange Fight Club/Primal Fear holdover that makes it difficult for me to engage with his dialogue. It’s like I mistrust what his character is telling me… His body language and intensity, however, is why he’s one of the most highly-regarded actors around.

Horribly, the curb scene is the highlight of Norton’s performance. The manic joy in his eyes as he awaits arrest is both repellent and intoxicating. In the next scene, the moment is made all the more compelling via the deadness in the eyes of Cam, Norton’s character’s mentor.

There are highs and lows, most of which are summed up by the uneven, heartstringy ending. After a dramatic moment, we’re left with more questions than answers of what this might mean for the characters. The soundtrack during the rather predictable jail rape scene is overwrought and belies an unnecessary terror on the part of the composer (I feel as though few movie composers find themselves prey to incarcerated gang rapes).

Derek’s brother Danny (Edward Furlong) narrates and acts well, and there are strong moments from Doris (Beverly D’Angelo), the brothers’ mother. There’s a strangely stilted performance from the almost uniformely fine Elliot Gould; there’s no question he was directed poorly in both of his scenes.

Even if you have bad memories from the first time, American History X is worth a re-watch. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that it made me want to re-watch The Believer as well. There’s only so much neo-nazism I can take - it’s not really the genre I was looking for this week.

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In two sentences or less:

The Notebook (film): Meh. Too much or not enough softcore (especially in the deleted scenes), I can’t tell.

Wuthering Heights (book): Sister Emily should have sold the story rights to Charlotte.

The Girl with the Pearl Earring (film): I can’t take seeing Cillian Murphy tragically wasted in another film this week; two was enough. Also, as a character note: I hope to she sold that shit.

Maus (book - graphic biography?): Wonderful - still not sure how I never read the original since Maus II has been a favorite of my bookshelf for years.

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union (book): Getting better. I know it’s a noir, but it shouldn’t take me 100 pages to care.

Buffy (Season Six, Disc 2 - ‘Life Serial’, ‘All the Way’, ‘Once More With Feeling’, ‘Tabula Rasa’) (tv): Maybe my favorite three episodes of Buffy ever. ‘All the Way’ would make it four if Dawn’s grisly murder had been a plot point.

‘Life Serial’ gets an additional two sentences, since Warren’s (Adam Busch) outburst during one of The Trio’s James Bond arguments still makes me laugh out loud anytime I hear it or think of it:

I mean, there’s a shot of, like, pigeons doing double takes when the gondola blasted by!  Moonraker is inexcusable.

I think that’s honestly the best combination of writing and delivery I’ve ever seen.

Angel (Season Four) (tv): Kinda zzzzzzz. Narrative structure, much?

Herald Sun (newspaper): I actually had to read some of the HS for some research the other day - hands down the worst newspaper I’ve ever read. HS is inexcusable.

[Things I forgot! -Ed.]

Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (online video) - Awesomely wonderful. If I’d know there was only a short period of time to watch it for free, I would have done it a bunch more times.’

Possums (animals) - So cutie pie and so everywhere. I lure them over with the promise of food, but then get a little nervous and ride away.

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How pretty is Chicago?!?!

That’s my takeaway from The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan’s new installment in the Batman series. In short: it was great.

But back to my pretty city. In Batman Begins, most of the action focused around ‘The Narrows’, a CGI island plunked in the middle of the Chicago River. In Dark Knight, however, the city is filmed with a lot less computer fussing and frequently during the day.

The river even looked clean! It was the best the city’s looked since The Fugitive. And it’s the closest to feeling homesick I’ve been since returning to Oz. It’s really funny to watch chase scenes running up and down Lake St. and the ending up somewhere completely different. (Look out also for the awesome ‘GTA’ bus.)

And, of course, there’s the obligatory chase scene on Lower Wacker Dr. I was just joking to my friend Avi, which whom I watched Batman Begins the other day, that any movie filmed in Chicago must involve Lower Wacker. And as a cop yelled, “Go down to Lower 5th Avenue!” (or something like that), I turned to Avi and said, ‘See? Here we go.’

Which is not to say that those pesky things like plot, action and acting weren’t present as well. The story was a little overpacked, even with a runtime of 2.5 hours. But that’s not a major complaint. There just wasn’t always time to digest everything that was going on with the large number of characters.

I was thinking the other day that Zodiac is basically a who’s who of who’s good in Hollywood these days, but the Dark Knight cast has it beat, actually. Plus, this movie was also more or less a who’s who of men I’d cheerfully marry if it came to it. Or even just suggested, really.

Heath Ledger’s performance, as has been widely speculated, etc., was amazing. It’s clear that he was coming into his talent in a big way, and would probably have been one of the greatest performers of his generation. The only thing that detracted from his turn as The Joker was that it was almost too nuanced for film. There was so much going on in his face and eyes, that I sometimes missed what he was saying for watching him so intently.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is a happy replacement for Katie Holmes as Rachael. Aaron Eckhart is great as always. Gary Oldman gets better material to work with this time around; I thought the writing for him was really bad in the first film.

Strangely, Bruce Wayne kind of got left out of this movie. There were few scenes with Christian Bale as Wayne - and he was often shot from the side or from behind his shoulder. The person part of the character was subsumed by Batman, but I think that’s the point. It’s definitely a second in a trilogy, darkest before the dawn kind of thing.

Nolan really knows how to make beautiful set pieces. The Bat… Lair(?) this time around is beautifully minimalist in stark blacks and whites.

That all being said, I am so jealous of those of you who get to run around beautiful Chicago. Go play in the Lake and see The Dark Knight when it cools down.

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Part of the Universal lot burned today. This makes me very, very sad:

Officials say the iconic courthouse square from “Back to the Future,” has been destroyed, and the famous clocktower that enabled star Michael J. Fox’s character to time travel has been damaged.

What a shabby way to go. It should have been destroyed with 1.21 gigawatts!

Unfortunately there’s no youtube video of the lady shaking the can screaming ‘Save the Clocktower!’ That would have been perfect.

Universal Studios Fire [AP via HuffPost]

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Dith Pran died today of pancreatic cancer at the age of 65.

Dith is most famous for his partnership with NYT journalist Sydney Schanberg. The two covered Cambodia during the rise of the Khmer Rouge.

Unlike Schanberg, who had an American passport, Dith was unable to escape Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime. He lived through a time in his country’s history that remains nearly unspeakable to this day.

It seems impossible to believe that he survived so much, only to be felled by his own cells. It is tragic that his life (as well as the lives of all who died as a result of the KR regime) was cut so short.

If you haven’t read The Death and Life of Dith Pran, I highly recommend it. Dith and Schanberg were also the subjects of the Academy Award-winning film, The Killing Fields. The film is good, but I recommend the book. If you get interested in the Khmer Rouge period, I also recommend, Stay Alive, My Son.

The NYT also has a photo gallery of Dith, including some of his work with the paper after his escape.

Link:
Dith Pran, ‘Killing Fields’ Photographer, Dies at 65 [NYT]

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My extended period of Internet non-activity (Thailand and Cambodia) was totally fine by me. But, once given my computer, I return to it like the drug it is. I’ve spent numerous hours over the last two weeks catching up on almost none of the stuff I wanted to do, but, somehow, what I have done has involved lots of typing.

But now I’ve been trying to do my actual work - typing up notes from the theory (gag!) books I’ve been reading for my thesis. My right hand - the one connected to my bum shoulder (as my grandmother would put it) - is literally just throbbing constantly at this point. Same goes for my neck, pectoral muscle, the bit at the back of my armpit and the usual series of huge knots surrounding my shoulder blade.

I only have six more Excedrin, since my bottle got taken out of my bag somewhere between Chicago and Melbourne, so I’ve had to medicate with wine instead. And distractions through movies whilst typing - it’s just copying out of a book; I multitask.

But! There was an actual purpose to this post, which was to trumpet my excitement of hearing from one of my best friends in the whole wide world today after a period of, jesus, years.

He’d presumably gone to Iraq, and I’ve spent the last couple years wondering where he was - both our uni emails were turned off and addresses left. I’d been thinking of him a lot lately, cursing George Bush, as usual, for putting my friends in harm’s way. Having scoured the Internet - though apparently not hard enough - I had actually considered checking the list of the injured and dead. But, my unflagging ability to put off things that seem inherently soul-crushing prevailed, and I never did it.

But, joy of joys, Facebook has an actual utility. And that is to make you continue to hurt your own body because you’re thrilled your president hasn’t managed to hurt your friend’s.

In completely unrelated news, 13 Going On 30 (or Suddenly 30 as it’s known here) is just as charming as I always assumed it’d be. I hate me some romcoms, but Jennifer Garner is adorable and Mark Ruffalo is lovely, as always. Ocean’s Eleven is on now, and I’m on page 28 of Stokes (2003). Hey! It’s Chicago!

God, this is going to be a long semester…

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Um, there’s a film in preproduction right now called Dali & I: The Surreal Story.

Who would be bold enough to take on the part of everyone’s favorite artistic crazy man? Why none other than Hollywood’s favorite crazy man: Al Fucking Pacino.

Al Pacino is playing the part of Salvador Dali in a film.
To clarify, Salvador Dali is being played by Al Pacino.

These are the things I learn stalking Cillian Murphy on IMDB. Sunshine was pretty weird, but oh, oh so worth it.

Um, so I have to go to Asia now. Bye.

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Against all odds - and really most of recorded history - Australia got a film before anyone else. Namely Cloverfield, which I was excited to see a) because it’s JJ Abrams and LOST is still kind of awesome and b) it’s fodder for my post-9/11 disaster movies PhD, which is totally impractical but is still a fervent dream. The Statue of Liberty gets blown up and NYC gets a pummeling. Great stuff.

And, unfortunately, I’m going to give it what I imagine must be the worst kind of review in Abrams’ mind: meh.

It had some interesting elements, but was dragged down by incredibly stilted dialogue (shame on you, Drew Goddard, you’ve done some great stuff) and just a general inability to build interest in the characters. Luckily, they don’t seem that interested in each other either, so that works out. The direction is uninspired - the filmwork is jarring but good - Matt Reeves is a TV director and it shows.

Cloverfield’s major redeeming factor is the line I’ve quoted in the title. I think I laughed for nearly a minute on that one. That’s the Drew we know and love. But! One line does not a disaster movie make. I will give Abrams credit for not pulling his punches, though; he deals out the death not just the destruction.

So, it wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t particularly interesting either. And at only 75 minutes long, my $15 ticket is all the more upsetting. And I’m now convinced that Abrams has no idea how he’s going to wrap up LOST. I think he just likes weird and inexplicable.

So then we snuck into Juno. People who approximate my taste in films all gave glowing reviews of this film, but again I was unwowed. If I had to come up with a one sentence review, it’d be: ‘Wow, teens sure have a whole lot of funny words’ or ‘Motherhood is rewarding even in the most trying of circumstances, sometimes pretty contrived ones.’

But getting back to Cloverfield, perhaps ’some thing has found us.’ Walking home tonight, something scurried along the path, and I literally cannot tell you what phylum this beastie belonged to. A bug? A rodent? Who he hells knows?

Which brings me to a point I’ll leave for tomorrow - provided I don’t die from the Off I just sprayed all over my bed to keep the mosquitoes away.

Update: Inexplicably, the Age thought Cloverfield was amazing; um, the NYT did not.

Update II: The Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips pretty much wrote the exact review I would have - if, you know, I was writing for something other than my own personal amusement (and didn’t have some strange LOST loyalty to Abrams about not wanting to give the monster secrets away. Sad!)

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And by ‘breach’, I mean ‘flying United’. Ew.

America has been teh fun. I think I ate everywhere I needed to (though confidential to Irazu, I hope you step up the burritos back up when you get done renovating) and saw nearly everyone I needed to see.

A note to Australians: no brunches for a while. I’ve been to so many freaking brunches since I’ve been home; it’s muesli and yoghurt for the next month or so.

What craziness did I get up to for my last night in town? Um, I saw There Will Be Blood because I’m sure it won’t open until June (or later) in Oz.

Daniel Day-Lewis was amazing, but he was overshadowed by the guy playing Eli Sunday, the preacher. I couldn’t place him during the film, but he turns out to be Paul Dano, the silent brother in my totes favorite film evah, Little Miss Sunshine. I thought he was good in that wretched little movie, but he was incredible in this. TWBB dragged a bit about 3/4 through and I couldn’t figure out why until Eli turned up again. He’s like a younger, brown-eyed, American Cillian Murphy. I expect great things (which Murphy can also get on to doing any time now).

Hey, so every minute I spend blogging is one less minute I have to do all the insane amounts of crap I haven’t gotten around to doing over the past six weeks. If it can’t be left to the last minute, it isn’t worth doing. Or so my philosophy appears to go.

Lygon Street gelato in T-30 hours!

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I’ve been watching too many disaster/alien movies (Transformers, War of the Worlds, Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow) tonight and its 2am, so this is brief:

The NYT is reporting that Musharraf is refusing to give an end date to the state of emergency, and it appears it will go through the elections. Complicating matters is, of course, our noble leader:

Speaking one day after President George W. Bush said Musharraf was the best president for Pakistan, the general said the emergency decree was justified by the need to fight terrorism, and would “ensure absolutely fair and transparent elections.”

Bush said Saturday that he supported Musharraf because “we share a common goal” in the fight against Al Qaeda, an endorsement the general appeared to use to his advantage Sunday as he justified his extrajudicial measures.

“I cannot give a date,” Musharraf said when asked directly about the lifting of the emergency decree, under which several thousand civilians have been jailed, the Constitution suspended and the Supreme Court scrapped. “We are in a difficult situation, therefore I cannot give a date.”

“The emergency reinforces the war on terror,” he said.

The NYT article mentions the other major factor, but this AP story in the Tribune covers it better. Military courts are going to be used to try civilians.

It would allow military courts to try people accused of treason, sedition, or “giving statements conducive to public mischief.”

I know it’s just that I’ve watched four movies today in which the military has to order people around and authoritarian measures are used… but Bush de facto supporting these measures? This is all starting to sound a little too New World Order to me.

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