very simple

This seriously felt like the longest week ever.

Work was crazy, to the point where I was having crazy stress dreams that woke me up hours before I needed to be awake (my favorite? the one on Tuesday, where my dream that my blackberry was going off actually woke me up because I thought I needed to check the damn thing). All leading up to last night, when I was at work past midnight.

But now? Now I’m officially on vacation. One would think that this would indicate to my subconscious that I could sleep in (my plane leaves overnight tonight). One would be wrong. I fell asleep at about 2 in the morning, and woke up at…six. No alarm clock, no pressing need to do work. Just me and my lovely new insomnia. So now it seven, and I’m doing laundry so that I can at least pretend to be productive.

Anyway, all of these crazy long days made this week seem like it took just forever to get done. I’m sure part of it is the fact that there was a big shiny prize at the end of the week being, you know, not have to go to work for two weeks.

Just to give you an idea of how nuts I was this week, here’s an approximation of the conversation that I had with a friend at work yesterday:

ME: I’m going crazy! I’ve got too much to do before I leave! I’m going to be here all night!

FRIEND: [says something about wanting to go to the 32nd floor]

ME: why? what’s on the 32nd floor?

FRIEND: you didn’t see the e-mail?

ME: what e-mail?

FRIEND: the one labeled "Film Production"

ME: No – It was clearly not related to the crazy work I’ve been doing, so I ignored it.

FRIEND: [shows me the email]

Contents of said e-mail? A notification that sections of our offices will be unavailable for the next week and a half, while [extremely attractive, academy award-winning, awesomely liberal actor/writer/director (but not a blogger!)] will be filming a movie!

There goes my fantasy that the only thing keeping us apart was that I had no chance of meeting him, ever. No. Apparently it’s my inability to read a friggin’ e-mail.

After much, much running around this weekend with pre-vacation shopping (no, seriously, I went to the Old Navy on 34th street three separate times in two days!), I took a break, and went back down to 34th street to catch V for Vendetta. It’s the first movie I’ve seen in a theater since Syriana, which I saw with my dad in early December, long enough ago that it was on my end-of-2005 movies I saw list. It’s now mid-March. That’s either a sign of how busy I’ve been or how sucky the post-Oscar rush of movies has been, and I’m voting for the latter. I actually went looking for a movie to see a week ago, and there was nothing playing that I wanted to see.

(SPOILER ALERT!!)

So anyway, the movie. It was…interesting. I never read the Alan Moore graphic novel, so I really have no comparison to make, but I have to say that it was quite chilling. Hugo Weaving was simply amazing. Particularly since you never see his face, or any emotion of any kind, as the mask is completely solid. You really got a sense of V, and it was all through his voice.

I always like Natalie Portman, but I found her English accent to go in and out a bit (enough so that it was actually distracting). But she should be bald all the time. She’s unbelievable looking.

As for the plot – It’s interesting in the way that this was written well before the current crises (actually as a reaction to Thatcher-ite England), yet seems so much more timely for today. David Denby in the New Yorker panned the film, wondering why they couldn’t blow up some random, made-up structure relevant to the movie, rather than such an enduring institution of Democracy like Parliament. I think he completely misses the point. It’s these very institutions of democracy that we have to be ever-vigilant in protecting, because it’s these very institutions that can so quickly and easily becomes symbols of something else in the hands of the “wrong” people. The fact that it’s Parliament is precisely why the act has so much meaning.

And I probably shouldn’t have, but I got totally choked up with the zoom out to show hundreds of thousands of Britons in Guy Fawkes masks. It was a damn cool visual.

I did keep thinking that V was going to turn out to be Evey’s father, just based on the backstory we’re given about him, but I’m happy that they left them as relative strangers. I do kind of wish that his treatment of her had radicalized her, but that she didn’t forgive him. I think she let him off the hook too easily on that one. And Stephen Rea was great – perfectly ambivalent, trying to do his job, but knowing the difference between what was the law and what was right.

Anyway, I certainly recommend it. And yes, this may just be my hyper-liberal point-of-view endorsing the film, but the underlying story could just as easily evoke communism as it does fascism (as much as either one of those is a complete distortion of reasonable leftism or rightism). Absolute power corrupting absolutely is not limited to either side of the political aisle.

I don’t know, maybe I’ve reached the point of nostalgia for that crazy european deal that I worked on, since we actually pulled an all-nighter at the printer in London on Guy Fawkes Day, witnessing the fireworks from our conference room windows…

I found this handy dandy list of all of the movies to be released in 2005 thanks to Monty who does a year-end wrap-up of the movies he’s seen each year, and as I was perusing, I realized that I was somewhat disappointed in the movies I had actually managed to see (and half of them were only thanks to cable). A whole bunch of films that I planned to see and never got around to (thanks crazy summer of moving and fall of living in a hotel room in Italy with only CNN!).

So, to copy a bit from Monty, here’s the list of films released this year that I actually saw, ordered only by their release dates…

Assault on Precinct 13: Ok, I saw this one, like 2 weeks ago on cable. What can I say, Ethan Hawke is very very cute.

Elektra: I’m almost embarassed to admit this one – but again, it was a catch on cable. I love Alias and that Goran Visjnic guy, so it was like I was practically tied to a chair and forced to watch. But really? It was terrible.

Bride and Prejudice: Loved this one. I’ve blogged about my somewhat obsessive fascination with Pride and Prejudice before (and OK, my stepmother’s friend Wendy and I forced her and my dad to sit through the BBC production (again!) the other night when we were all hanging out – I should also point out that my stepmother had foot surgery the day before, making it impossible for her to escape our obsessive clutches – my dad escaped by falling asleep 20 minutes in). Ahem. Anyway, this was a cute update, even though I didn’t really love Martin Henderson as Darcy. He was fine, but no Colin Firth.

Fever Pitch: saw this on the plane on one of my transcontinental flights to or from Italy. It was a good airplane movie. That’s all. Again, Jimmy Fallon is fine, but he’s no Colin Firth.

The Interpreter: another plane movie. What can I say, my choices were this or the same episode of Everybody loves Raymond that had aired on the previous three flights.

Sin City: This one was pretty awesome. and different. and gruesome. I actually still have the Netflix DVD that my brother made me rent for him before he left for Palau. I should probably return it one of these days.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith: Oh come one, you saw this too.

Batman Begins: Certainly the best comic book interpretation of the year, and of the Batman ouvre (Nicholson’s scenery chewing included).

March of the Penguins: LOVE.

The Aristocrats: I almost peed my pants laughing – and bonus feature? No annoying children in the theater.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: see above re: annoying children in the theater (I can’t believe that I didn’t blog about this experience originally, because the child behind me was so out of control I almost walked out, but I did see it the week I was moving, so I guess I was preoccupied – short version – child, with both parents present, spent the entire film screaming at the top of his lungs that he wanted to go home. The parents? spent the entire film trying to bargain with the damn kid instead of dragging him out by his hair).

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: see above re:…oh whatever, I loved it.

Pride & Prejudice: I know, I need to see a therapist. But this one was…eh. The best review that I read of it pointed out that they "Brontefied" Austen. And that’s exactly it – Austen was all about the satire of conventional romance – They turned this into a straightforward romance. Oh yeah, and Matthew MacFadyen is no Colin Firth.

Syriana: I actually saw this on Sunday with my dad. It was excellent. It was also very depressing.

Walk the Line: Excellent acting. Sappy script.

Brokeback Mountain: Excellent all around. I was bawling at the end.

Wow – I really didn’t see very many movies this year. I imagine that I actually caught a bunch of the 2004 films on cable and whatnot, but I need to do some catching up – I’m pretty sure the list of films that I meant to see from this year and missed was longer than this one. I’m off to go update my Netflix queue.

that took forever edition…

• More news on the High Line renovations, including pictures! (wed jun 15 2005 11:41 am)
• Getting home today should be fun…Snapple attempts massive stupid stunt in Union Square (tue jun 21 2005 5:23 pm)
• Oh my god. There’s going to be another film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. And it’s not going to be a modern reinterpretation or anything. It’s going to be period. Look. It’s one of my favorite stories of all time, but why on earth would they try to improve upon the quintessential period version starring Colin Firth? Why? (wed jun 22 2005 11:29 am)
• A windowless concrete cube reaching 20 stories into the air is not exactly what I think of when I hear the word "freedom" (thu jun 30 2005 11:08 am)
• Perfect timing. Since I’m not getting a landline in my new apartment, I was actually looking for something exactly like this. (thu jul 21 2005 6:01 pm)

As I promised myself, I went to see March of the Penguins today. It was awesome in all of its penguiny goodness. And yes, it had me in tears after about five minutes. Because I’m a sentimental fool. These little animals, over the course of one of the harshest winters anywhere on earth, waddle hundreds of miles back and forth all winter in order to mate and then provide food for their young. Talk about a biological imperative.

But of course, I was surrounded, yet again, by inconsiderate movie patrons. I understood going in that there would be plenty of kids, and the requisite ambient kid-noise to go along with that. I was ready for the kids who kept "narrating" to their parents through the film. But the kid sitting in front of me was beyond belief. I was sitting with my legs crossed so that my right foot hung into the aisle a little bit (as happens with most people). He decided about twenty minutes into the film that he didn’t like my foot there (about 2 feet below the armrest), so he actually pushed it out of the way. I, being a stubborn person who was physically bigger (if not necessarily more mature), and having done nothing wrong, kept my foot right were it was. The kid’s response was to start waving his arms in the air to block my field of vision, and to turn around and stand in his chair to stare at me.

The entire time, of course, his mother is just sitting there silently, watching the movie. I finally had to yell (well, whisper-yell) at the kid to sit down and turn around. Where he began rocking violently back and forth in his seat for the rest of the film, leading me to believe that there was actually something wrong with him. As soon as the credits rolled, the mother grabbed the kid and practically ran out of the theater. It was all so bizarre.

One of these days I’m going to bite the bullet and buy a large flat-panel TV so that I can watch even the "theater-worthy" movies at home.

Now this is what a Batman movie should be. I’d say it’s even better than the "original" modern Tim Burton vision.

They actually had a 9:15 am showing this morning, and since I was up, I decided to go see it. I actually love going to movies at that hour, because there are like 5 people in the theater (which greatly reduces the possibility of other people annoying me to death), and I got the perfect center seat. In front of the biggest screen at the theater. I think I may only ever go to early morning shows from now on. Plus, I was out before noon, and got to enjoy the beautiful day out as well.

So, the movie. All-star cast (Liam Neeson was particularly awesome) and a backstory that finally makes sense. There’s always a certain amount of suspension of disbelief whenever you watch a movie like this, something rooted in the supernatural, but there was actually a gritty realism to the whole thing. A hyped up reality, but it was dark and dirty, as opposed to flashy. Which is the only thing that really works with the Batman story. He’s always been the darkest (and the most human) of all superheroes and he deserves a film that plays, well, down to that. And the surprisingly low-tech Scarecrow (straight out of the comics) was pretty cool too. No bells and whistles, just pure psychosis wrapped in a burlap bag.

Anyway, if you’re going to pay $11 on a blockbuster movie this month, you should definitely pick this one over, say, George Lucas’s bloated shlock-fest.

I had nothing to do tonight, after a day of running errands, so I took myself to see the last installment of Star Wars. Which…well…met my expectations. The dialogue sucked, the imagery was pretty awesome, and The Empire Strikes Back is still far and away the best of the six films. I get that this is really nothing more than a vanity project for Lucas at this point, because if he really cared about these characters, he would have recognized his own limitations as a writer and gotten some help, but I was really hoping that this one would somehow, i don’t know, rise above it. And at some points it did. But it’s really like he took point A (where the last film ended) and point B (where this film needed to end so that it would lead in to Episode IV), and then stuck them, along with some minor plot points, into a cliche-o-meter.

And it’s not just that we already know how it ends. We know how the Lord of the Rings ends because the books have been around for 50 years, but somehow I was still on the edge of my seat throughout all three of those films. And now my mind is wandering off to the thought of what if Peter Jackson had been allowed to play with these characters….how awesome would that have been?

Then I wonder if maybe the original films weren’t actually that good, and I’m just remembering them fondly because I was about 3 when my dad took me to see the original (seriously, waiting on line for star wars is one of my earliest concrete memories. and yes, i’m a dork). But then I remember that in college, I somehow ended up with a friend’s box set for a semester (he didn’t have a VCR), and when we were bored, my roommate and I would have a marathon (we also didn’t have cable, and it snowed a lot in Buffalo). And we could watch those films over and over again and enjoy them thoroughly (except for the Ewoks. We always hated the Ewoks). And even if I owned the prequels, I just couldn’t imagine sitting down and watching them all the way through for the 9 or 10 hours it would take. Sure, I could see popping in the DVD and fast forwarding to the good parts (such as they are), but these films have actually made me less of a fan of the entire ouvre.

So, as a film, I can’t really recommend it. As a conclusion to a film journey that has spanned pretty much my entire life to date? it was somewhat necessary to see.

Took myself to see Sin City this afternoon. Visually, it was amazing. The story? was somewhat lacking. It certainly couldn’t have stood up to scrutiny without the spectacular filmmaking. And that’s somewhat of a shame.

But here’s a question. What kind of parents bring a kid, who clearly can’t be more than 12 or 13, to see this film? I don’t really consider myself to be a prude, but the entire film was about extremely graphic violence and prostitution. And sometimes, things are rated "R" for a reason.

When I was a teenager, I read a lot of books – absolutely devour them. And my parents loved this. I would read just about anything, and my mother, who belonged to the book of the month club, was more than happy to pass along anything she read to me. But I still remember that there was one book that I was absolutely, positively forbidden from reading. And that was American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. I read it when I was older, of course, but that still sticks with me. And I think about every time I see a parent abdicating all judgment when it comes to exposing their kids to something that is clearly inappropriate.

I can’t believe I forgot to mention this one in yesterday’s post. When I went to see Bride and Prejudice, I sat next to yet another in a long line of inconsiderate movie patrons.

I got to the move 20 minutes early (as I do), and took the aisle seat. two other women (one pregnant), took two of the inside seats (one seat away from me). I happily joke with the pregnant lady that I’ll of course move out of the way for whenever she needs to use the restroom. The theater was maybe half full.

As the lights are dimming, girl rushes in, and sits in the middle seat. Even though there are plenty of other more easily accessible seats. Ok, not a big deal – it’s an empty seat – a little weird that she wedged herself in between two people when there were plenty of others, but hey, to each his own. Here’s where the real fun starts though. She then spreads out, coat arms and what not spilling over in the both mine and pregnant lady’s seats, and she *accidentally* pushes my arm off the armrest. Yeah, so not happening. My arm is back there in about a millisecond.

She then proceeded to make three phone calls during the film.

And here’s the kicker – she stole my cupholder. I had my bottle of water in the armrest that was between us since before she got there (we each had an empty one on the other side, so it’s not like I was "stealing" hers). I’m left handed, so it was the logical spot for me, and, well, I was there first. About 10 minutes into the film, I take a drink, and when I go to put the bottle down, her coffee cup is now sitting in my cupholder. It’s like she was waiting for the second I would give up the space so that she could pounce right in.

I’m sorry, but does anyone remember the days when the last person into the theater had to sit in the front row? Or when you were appropriately grateful, after showing up late, that there was a seat at all that you didn’t start elbowing your neighbors?

I know this is all incredibly petty stuff, but I’m about ready to ditch going to movies altogether and just start waiting for the DVDs. I haven’t been to a movie in months where I haven’t been surrounded by people who seem to think that they’re in their own living room.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m an utter fan of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and it’s theatrical adaptations. Well, today I woke up with nothing to do, and that weird modern day version was on TV, so I watched it. The story translation to modern day wasn’t too bad, and I think setting it in the mormon community could have actually helped the story, since it makes more sense that these young people would be more conservative about sex, etc. than the general population, but the acting was terrible. Frankly, with a better (more believable) cast and characterizations, it could have worked. And I couldn’t figure out whether it was trying to be earnest or camp. It’s like different actors were given different scripts, with one told to be a ham, one told to play it seriously, and all the girls told to act like they were Mary Cherry in Popular.

So then, to redeem my faith in the storyline, I took myself this afternoon to see Bride and Prejudice – the Bollywood-ized version of the story. It still doesn’t live up to the book or the A&E adaptation, but it was pretty enjoyable, and I certainly felt like the characters were attracted to each other. And heck, I’d pay $11 to see Naveen Andrews read out of the phone book for two hours, so that was nice (it was also interesting to see him play a part with his actual British accent rather than an Indian (English Patient) or "Iraqi" (Lost).

I actually thought about rounding out my day by watching the definitive A&E version again (since, of course, I own it on DVD), but then I realized that it might be a little overkill. Plus, Deadwood premieres tonight. can’t miss that.