Yay! More movie talk!

Movies that weren't great but that you should see:
Bowling for Columbine
Adaptation
About Schmidt
One Hour Photo
The Kid Stays in the Picture
American Splendor

Movies that were great:
About a Boy
The Pianist
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Shattered Glass

Movies that sucked ass (bah!):
Far From Heaven
Road to Perdition
Punch Drunk Love

Not surprisingly, as I watch most of my films on premium movie channels I've not seen most of the 2003 listings. I do plan to see The Station Agent, School of Rock, The Man Without a Past and Mystic River at my earliest convenience.

Amanda, what is Shattered Glass? I could look it up, but I'm feeling lazy.

Also, why was Far From Heaven so revered by critics and the smart set? Subject matter? Is that it? Production design? Sure, it looked great, but the story seemed so trite — typical liberal movie-going fare. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) It wasn't an awful movie, but it didn't appeal to me, didn't seem anything other than ordinary, and I don't understand the accolades.

J.D., exactly what you said about Far From Heaven, only I really didn't care for it--probably because of its Best Picture nomination and the overwhelmingly positive press it received. Um, why? Bah!

As for Shattered Glass, it's the story of (I believe his name is) Stephen Glass, a former journalist at (again I think it was) The Economist who fictionalized part or all of a good portion of his articles. The movie stars Hayden Christiansen and Peter Saarsgard, both of whom I have the hots for... so take my recommendation with a grain of salt.

(I'm too lazy to look it up, too.)

The publication Stephen Glass worked for was The New Economist.

(I decided to look it up.)

Ni!

Um, The New Republic. I have 'economist' stuck in my head, apparently. Sorry.

I don't see snow - I just see rain....where are getting snow from?

EGAD - where are YOU getting snow from?

There was snow there earlier. Honest! It was there all last night and then again this morning. There was even a weather advisory warning of accumulation at ground level in the valley. It's all gone now. Waaah!

I see that all three judges liked "Catch Me If You Can." I also liked it, but didn't it grate on your nerves that Tom Hanks sounded like Sheriff Tupper from Cabot Cove? I expected Jessica Fletcher to jump out at any moment and say, "Sheriff, it looks to me like the boy snuck out of the plane here -- under the toilet."

Bah.

It was -9F this morning, with a wind chill of -30F. It's much worse up north...

I'm telling you, JD. You really need to visit MN in January or February to get the full effect =)

after careful research, I've determined the following: The Travel Lodge in St. Paul, MN has a latitude of 44.9526 degrees N of the equator while the latitude of Canby, OR is 45.25 degrees N of the equator. It sure is warm up North, Dana :)

Joel and I are traveling to Vermillion, South Dakota (Lat? Long? Just a bit below Minneapolis, and a little to the right) and are terrified of what the cold midwesterly weather will do to our soft Portland complexions ... Mac, do you want to come with to experience the chill as it sweeps across the open plains firsthand? We'd be glad to have your company (i.e., as we huddle together for warmth) ...

Aimee and Joel,

I suggest that you dress in layers, always wear a hat, think seriously about a scarf, and if it's really going to be cold, consider mittens as opposed to gloves.

The layer thing is really important -- t-shirt, shirt, sweater, jacket is a good combo. Always wearing the hat is also very important. Put it on before zipping up your jacket or putting your mittens/gloves on.

Oh, also, you'll probably want chapstick/blistex/etc. and some sort of skin lotion, as it's VERY dry out here on the prairie in the winter (all the moisture freezes and falls to the ground, you see...)

I find that, really, if it's not windy that anything below about 10F feels about the same, you just get cold faster. But that could just be me. I grew up out here, and my metabolism has reacclimated. I know a guy from up on the Iron Range who never wore a hat or gloves, and was only witnessed to zip up his jacket twice in the 5 years I knew him...

Hope this helps!

Yes, yes, mac. Ahem

Bah! Bah!

JD won't get the full effect from going to Minnesota for a piddly -9F.

He needs to go visit my in-laws in Grande Prairie, Alberta to get the full effect. When we were there at Christmas it warmed up to -10 to 15F during the day - they thought it was warm.

We usually encounter a spell of -40F to -50F (the coldest I have ever experienced) when we are there. It really isn't too bad if there is no wind; but, it doesn't take much of a breeze to make it bitter cold.

to clarify...I understand that MN is colder than OR in the winter, MUCH colder. However, it's not because the latitude of MN is higher than that of OR...it's all about the big blue Pacific. Ask Gates...she'll tell you:)

Oh, and Vermillion doesn't looks like it's better than we are right now, anyway.

Why the trip to Vermillion, out of curiousity?

Ahem. I was trying to say that Vermillion does look a bit better than Minnepolis right now.

And I was just teasing, Mac. I know all about the Atlantic. Duluth sort of has a similar deal going because of Lake Superior. It's cool in the summer...

Does one really need a reason to visit Vermillion, SD in January?
Well, there is a school there that we're looking into. Not a very well-known institution, but rated top-notch in fields we're interested in.

Does one really need a reason to visit Vermillion, SD in January?

Well, not as much of a reason as you might need to visit Minot, ND. =)

Who is going (back?) to school? What field(s)? When is the visit?

I once spoke to a woman in California who had gone to Rochester to look into a post-doc or something at the Mayo. Her hair was wet when she left her hotel, and it froze solid before she got back indoors. Doesn't this sound fun? =)

Okay, Dana, you realize that both of the Mirons (Joel Alexander and Aimee Rose) come from the Midwest, right? Aimee Rose, if I recall correctly, hails from the heart of Lake Wobegon country, whereas Joel is a Wisconsin/Dakota type guy. They grew up in the Midwest, went to college there, etc. They're well aware of the climate issues. :)

I've never met the Mirons in person and I know virtually nothing of their backgrounds. I believe they're in your book club, however...

Yeah, Aimee's from all over MN, and I'm from Brookings, SD. But Dana's advice and information is well taken. I know I'm not going to be prepared for the South Dakota weather. I don't even own the right gear anymore. I'm just hoping we survive our brief exposure with a minimal loss of extremities to gangrenous frostbite.

But hey, we're jacking this discussion. I thought Catch Me If You Can was the best movie I saw in '02 (though I never got around to seeing The Pianist). I am a bit surprised by the strong +'s for The Bourne Identity. I love Clive Owen and would find Franka Potente really attractive if she didn't remind me of my sister, but I thought the movie as a whole was very O.
We recently saw School of Rock- for what it's worth, it's the greatest Jack Black movie of all time (if you don't count High Fidelity as a Jack Black movie). It was overall a pleasant little well-made comedy. I suppose it made so many top ten lists because so few comedies seem to get made these days without an overreliance on poop jokes.

D'oh!

Sorry for the patronizing, then! Whereabouts and when was Aimee in MN? Now that my memory has been jogged, I think I asked her this before. I wonder if she was anywhere close to me or any of my relatives?

2003:
man without a past ++ (watched this one last night!)
lost in translation ++
man on the train +
spellbound +
sweet sixteen +

2002:
punch drunk love ++
about schmidt +
spirited away +

the rest were either crap or i didn't see them. catch me if you can was trite. adaptation was too crazy for crazy's sake and crap. mighty wind was dull. signs was absolutely terrible. so was minority report. i seem to hate almost all comic book, sci-fi and fantasy movies...

I loved Signs, but apparently, I'm in the monority. Speaking of which, I kind of liked Minority Report, as well.

Far From Heaven was a movie that I enjoyed very much. I thought Dennis Quaid's portrayal of a man so conflicted in ways that he can't even put voice to was very compelling. The usual way for a modern film to deal with characters in conflict is to have lots of exposition: characters often speak clearly and in great detail about their innermost conflicts, express clearly and cogently the intricate details of their thoughts and feelings and just exactly what should be done about it.

After seeing Far From Heaven in the theater, I ordered up All That Heaven Allows to compare the remake to the original. I thought the manner in which the remake went about retelling and revisualizing the story (right down to the contrast of the brilliant technocolor set and costume design versus the bleakness of the characters' lives) was really interesting, even exciting.

I hardly ever go into a movie with that kind of "meta" appreciation, where things like scenery, costuming, symbolism, and subtext matter to me. In the case of Far From Heaven, though, it all really worked for me, above and beyond that "triteness" of the story itself.

As no one has mentioned it thus far, I wanted to chime in about Whale Rider. I rented it about a month ago and thought it was just wonderful. I was glad it got so much positive press.

And speaking of Lost In Translation, I also thought it was the best film of 2003; however, I reserve the right to alter that opinion should Mystic River live up to its hype. I really need to see it before the Oscars.

Sorry for the hijacking ...

[Dana: I grew up in a small town overrun by slovakian bachelor farmers (perhaps the reason for the minus 100 population and frost-bitten global perspectives) called St. Stephen in central Minnesota. When you hail from a town with two bars, a Catholic church, and a bank, then you're actually going to know some of those Holdingford lunch ladies who recently won the Powerball jackpot. I graduated from Sartell High School in 1996 and the University of Minnesota in 2000 ... During my tenure at the U of M, I worked at the Guthrie Theatre and called Powderhorn Park home. I really miss the Washington Street bridge on chilly January days, the witch's hat in Prospect Park, Nye's Polonaise Room, the bas-relief inside the Uptown movie theatre, the cops at that liquor store on Cedar who will bag your cheap bathtub gin for you, and a freeway system untroubled by the presence of converging waterways. Portland is pretty, but Minneapolis is gritty - I'd love to return to the Land of 100% humidity heat waves (that you can actually see on warm summer nights), oversized farm equiptment navigating I-94 headed upta Fargo, Viking myths, tall tales, The Best State Fair Ever!, seasons that are counted by wildlife toll (e.g., Fall: "How many deer d'ja get this year?" Summer: "How many deer d'ja hit this year?" and Ach! I could go on, but this isn't my weblog ... Thanks for the stroll down Memory Lane. Be well, do good work, and keep in touch ... ]

Um, yeah ... Movies ... I liked movies in 2003 ...

JD: I'm going to begin writing my Book Club Pick Essay right now ... :)

Ah, who cares about Hijacking JD's blog? Certainly not me! =)

Amusing coincidence #1:

I've been living in Minneapolis from Feb '96 through the present. I was at the U of MN in the physics dept as a grad student and/or system administrator from Aug '97 through Dec '98. Apartments variously at 494 & 35W, "Marcy Homes" (about one block past 35W on University -- that was Jun 97-Dec 98. While you were at the U, also. And my brother was in the chemistry dept. finishing his PhD, unlike myself...), and a couple places here in and on the border of Uptown.

Amusing coincidence #2:

JD and Andrew visited me out here twice -- once in, oh, August of 99, I think, and then again about the same time the following year. Sounds like you were here for at least the first of those trips. Heh.

Amusing coincidence #3:

St. Stephen, I see by mapquest, is just off 10, in the Brainerd area. My sister-in-law grew up in Staples, just up the road a bit (Do you know any of the Storbakkens? Inga should be about your age -- she went to St. Scholastica). My friend Zoe (who is a bit older than both of us) grew up in Sauk Rapids. My grandmother grew up in Askov, also not *that* far from you.

My family is mostly up a bit north of Moorhead. I lived in Moorhead from Jun '79- Feb '84. My Dad grew up on a farm (still in the family, but not farmed by the family) between Borup and Felton, and he had an Uncle and Aunt and a mess of cousins up in Ada (they kept bees and ran a honey-house -- holy cow, do I remember that smell. Best honey in the world, though... Always in a big square yellow bucket).

I liked signs, too - go figure.

Well now lets see. Of all the movies above, I have seen exactly four of them! Those were Minority Report, Road to Perdition, Finding Nemo and Harry Potter. I hated Minority Report. It was a stupid movie! Ye gads how I hated it. All those stupid moves by Tom Cruise in the beginning... Yikes! Frozen people! I HATED it with a sheer hatred!

The other three are okay . I'm pretty nuetral about them. So what movies do I like? I'm not sure! My favorites go way back; Ghost, Stepmom, and whatever that one is with Tom Hanks where he says, "Houston we've got a problem!" I totally fell in love with Tom Hanks in that movie!

BTW, do you notice how I often forget the name of things? I seriously think I have the beginnings of dementia or Alzheimers. It's gotten so bad that I'm going to mention it to my doc next visit! This is getting really serious! Ok so you really don't care! I'll quit blabbing.