Things Best Said

While I live in the southern United States, an area whose maps are spotted with battlefields and monuments, I haven’t had much urge to visit them on Memorial Day.

It’s not that I don’t care about history it’s just that I don’t really feel close to much of it. Time has made it so far removed from now that it seems like the history of another culture. In some ways it would be like visiting the monuments of Greek battle sites or of great warriors - distant and removed.

I’ve spent a good bit of time thinking about how different the world must look today. All the technology, the hustle. Are people really so different now than our (recent) ancestors?

The lives and beliefs of our grandparents seemed to be shaped so differently, by an alternate set of parameters. Our culture now is so cynical, even jaded. What’s done that to us? Is it the constant barrage of (mis)information that has taken away some of our innocence? Or, have people always been as harsh as they are now?

Continue Reading »

Reviewlette [reh-vyoo-let] - noun
“A small review, usually of movies or music, lasting no more than a few hundred words. they are quite often media that old enough to be considered ‘retro’ by now. reviewlettes are usually spoiler-free, very subjective and often stray from the original topic.”

I am one of the millions of people who, in the fall of 2002 had better things to do than go see Solaris. I saw the previews and thought “Soderbergh and Cameron doing science fiction?!”. Then, just as quickly as that thought left my brain for the ether…so too did the movie leave theatres enroute to the home media market where it was then ignored by an even wider audience.

Continue Reading »

What an amazing show! Just over 3 hours of music spanning his entire career. Accompanied by Vinnie Colaiuta (drums), Nathan East (bass), Lionel Loueke (guitar).

My wife buys movies sight unseen every so often. They’re usually the innocuous movies usually starring some overly pretty guy making a romantic dash across countries / time / socio-economic divides to be with the woman he loved / loves / gave up for dead only to find that she’s comatose / waiting for him / a ghost.

This was not that movie.

A while back my wife had an afternoon free and picked up a copy of Hard Candy. She says it was only because it starred Patrick Wilson and we left it at that. (Hey, I’ve been known to go out of my way to rent a flick or two with some doe-eyed starlet or another). In giving me a quick review she gave the whole thing a “well, it wasn’t what I was expecting” shrug and it wasn’t discussed again.

So, the other day I’m wandering through the house trying to figure out how to while away the rest of the day. I see the copy of Hard Candy sitting on the table in our TV room and pop it in.

Spoiler-free review commencing…

Hard Candy is mostly a two-person drama in the confines of a single location (indie-speak for “no budget”). It’s cleverly written with a whipsmart approach to dialog that makes the characters never quite on even footing.

Technically, it’s one of the sharpest indie films I’ve seen in quite a while. Most low / no-budget films rely on getting everything in a master shot instead of closeups because it’s often too expensive to keep crew and actors around. This whole film seems to be shot about 60% in closeup, 30% two-shots and 10% master shots. With a ratio like that, you’re always in the face of the characters. Add also that this is the first film where I’ve seen a digital colorist get billing during the opening credits.

So, now why wasn’t it one of those films my wife would normally watch…well, I can’t tell you. I know it’s a cryptic review and I’m sorry. If you’re truly interested in it you’ll already know way too much about it / won’t know anything but are now curious / will disregard my pseudo-review / have purchased copies for all your male friends.

If you are going to watch it, I suggest that you rent it, don’t own it.

I can’t help regularly surfing over to online confessional, Group Hug just to see what’s new. I go there and read page after page for all the same reasons Elmore Leonard and Tom Robbins books sell in mass numbers…you want to know that someone out there has more issues than you do, that there is someone more sick, depraved….more _____ than you.

Finally, someone posted the best confession of all time.