11 posts tagged “movies”

What are your plans for the weekend?

First, movies. The Seattle International film Festival started Thursday, and I've only seen one film so far! I have tickets for two more this weekend, and might add a third. I'll be posting about them at my movie blog, letterboxed. Last night was a French horror/thriller, tonight is a Canadian indie, Sunday is a documentary, and Monday might be a film from Hong Kong.

Second, if I can drag myself out of the house for something other than film, I'll head down to the Seattle Center for Folklife. I looked through the schedule, and there is something each day that I am interested in, as long as it doesn't clash with movies or napping. Hey, napping is key on the holiday weekend.

Third, my apartment is a disaster. I need to fold laundry and maybe do more, take out trash, do dishes, and do some cooking out of my organic produce box. 

All that, plus knitting! Movies from Netflix! Catching up on "The Sopranos"! And maybe even some sewing? Too bad it is -only- three days.

What's the most famous movie you've never seen? 

Hey! A movie question! Yay!

There are lots of movies I haven't seen, which is surprising and also scary when you consider how many I have seen. But there you have it. I have never seen Ghostbusters or Gremlins or The Goonies (although I did try, but was bored to death.) I've never seen Lawrence of Arabia, but that is because I am determined to see it in the theater and not on my wimpy little television, and other than that I've seen all of the top 10 of the AFI's top 100 American films. I've never seen anything you were supposed to see in the 80s, like Dirty Dancing or most of the horror movies.

How do you decide what is famous? Of the IMDb's top 250, in the top ten I haven't seen The Godfather, part ii (which is ridiculous because I adore The Godfather) or The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly or The Seven Samurai. (Which is kind of sad. I think they're in my Netflix queue at least.) Or maybe all-time box office? Of the top twenty there I've only not seen Shrek 2. Mostly because I didn't care for the first one.

(Hi Vox! I have missed you! I have an entry on my home computer about the gay marriage battle in Washington state, which I will try to remember to post tonight, and also I should have new knitting pictures soon. Many projects in progress, oh yes.)

I just got back from seeing Serenity on the big screen. Third time, I think. Once a free preview, once in Canadia, and now here. Plus multiple times on DVD, natch, and there were still things I hadn't seen before, still details that were new.

I went with a friend (which is good, because otherwise I would have talked myself out of going), and I'm lucky to have a revival house I can walk to, I realize this. And here's the thing. I know that people hate going out to movies. I know that the fact that this is the SIXTY FIFTH movie I have seen in the theater this year is flat-out insane to most of you. But I do not give a shit how high-tech your personal in-home theater might be. It's not the same. Mine certainly isn't, as it's made up of a ...hmmm ...fifteen inch television and a region-free DVD player.  But even if I had a flat screen and fancy speakers it still wouldn't be the same. It wouldn't be with an audience. It wouldn't have  a theater full of people laughing, or gasping, or letting out the loudest cheer of all for Kaylee's declaration that she's going to live. (And can we blame her? For Simon is really fucking pretty. I could do an entry on that alone. Dude.)

Keep your projectors and your subwoofers and all that jazz. I'm going out into the world. I'm meeting my neighbors and my fellow fans. And I am going to cheer for the pretty that is Sean Maher*, and I am not going to be alone.

*Did anyone see that movie? Where he kissed Uncle Jesse? Because.. that made my brain melt. The mere existance, that is. I haven't actually seen it. Just screencaps.

What's your favorite holiday movie?

This is funny, because I was actually going to post this to Vox last night, when I was watching them, but then I got distracted. Like you do.

(Also, I was going to add these as videos in my collection, but for some reason it bothers me to add things via Amazon that are out of print, and both of the editions I watched last night are. There should be an IMDb interface... but then Vox would lose referral money, I guess.)

So! Anyway. First I watched my all-time favorite Christmas movie,  The Ref. That's what the holidays are really about -- getting in huge fights with your family. I followed it up with the natural choice, The Nightmare Before Christmas. I won it on DVD a few years ago at the Landmark movie poster sale, which was apparently lucky, as it is now out of print and going for $50 or more everywhere.

I have the special edition, which is particularly sweet because it includes two Tim Burton shorts. Since everything also exists on the Internet, I share one with you in ... um ... the spirit of the holidays.

Vincent by Tim Burton

What are your top 5 movies/DVDs of 2006?

I'm amused that this is the QotD, because this morning in the shower I was thinking about how I can't do a year-end film report yet, since not only is the year not over, but there are always year-end vying-for-limited releases that take a while to make it to Seattle. I usually do a film wrap-up in February. For reference now, my top five (favorites, not best) at the time from when it was a QotD a while back, and currently my profile on my film journal links all the films I've seen in theaters so far this year.

That said, stuff I have to see before I can answer questions like this, roughly in order of desire:

• Children of Men (I am doing a dance RIGHT NOW because it's going into -wide- release on Christmas. Yes!)
• Pan's Labyrinth
• Little Children
• Dreamgirls
• The Good Shepherd
• The Good German
• The Departed
• Notes on a Scandal
• Venus
• Perfume
• For Your Consideration
• The Pursuit of Happyness
• Unknown

So, Vox. It's a little early to name my top five of 2006. Sorry!

Books, movies, music; what's in your top 5 right now?

Top Five Movies I Have Loved So Far This Year (In the Theater):

1. Wristcutters: A Love Story
2. Little Miss Sunshine
3. The Science of Sleep
4. C.R.A.Z.Y.
5. Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story

Fair warning, though: so far as I'm concerned, the end-of-year film rush starts November 3rd with the release (in Seattle) of Tideland and Babel. And the film I'm most excited for now is Volver, which should show up here the week after. Yay film!

Today I woke up at an ungodly hour. I blame jet lag. I wasted some time screwing around on the internet, like you do, and then took myself out to breakfast. Did you know that if you get to Glo's before 8am on Sunday you can sit wherever you want? 'Cause you can. Over breakfast I finished reading The Prestige just in time for the film to come out on Friday. Totally looking forward to it, because it's just the sort of crazy twisty narrative that Christopher Nolan can work wonders with. Everyone's seen Memento, of course, but has anyone else seen Following? For it is awesome.

Now at home I'm watching the rain and thinking about all the things I'm not doing today. It's a quiet brainstormy day, I think. I've given myself permission to blow off grocery shopping so long as I do it tomorrow, and laundry has been bumped to tomorrow as well. Stitch & Bitch isn't for hours yet, and thus go my obligations.

Ever since I moved into this apartment I've been in a weird purging stage. I'm nearly finished trashing all of my CD cases in favor of oversized wallets, which feels amazing. My next area to work on is clothing -- tons of it needs to just go away, and then I need to sew two sweatshirts up into pillows. Then comes the project I spent time researching today: the t-shirt quilt. There are a lot of involved patterns on the Internet, but I'm interested only in basic hints re interfacing and the like. I made a denim quilt already, I know basically how I want it to go, and I know that it's an art, not a science. It'll be a good winter project. I can already see it spread out across the living room.

Next, I've been eyeing up my books, at least the few I have with me here, and I've decided to start bookcrossing them. Most of the titles I want to get rid of I got for free or very cheap, and I just don't think I'd ever get around to selling them, and if I did, I wouldn't make much off of them anyway. Better to be entertained, that's my theory.

I've not been writing for some time now, and I don't know how I feel about that. There are some writing-things coming up, with deadlines and everything, that might get me back in the mood, but I'm not going to worry about it too much. I think I'm just in a different sort of space, a consuming space, maybe, instead of a creative one, and maybe that's okay.

It's raining today, and it'll keep on raining for the next 6 to 8 months regardless of how I feel about it, so I will try to not fear it, I will try to not fear free time, I will try for a world outside of my apartment, but I will try to not punish myself unduly if I fail. 

Vox has wanted to know all kinds of things lately that I haven't had much to say about, like the highlight of my summer (difficult to say, because the end of it was swallowed by depression), my favorite vacation spot (I've never gone on any sort of traditional vacation, so that's non-applicable), favorite foreign accent (...). I did have an answer to "what's up?", though. Two things: the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Ray's hair.

Yup.

Last night I started to watch Saving Face because I still had some work to do after the pilot of "Studio 60" ended. I didn't get very far into it because I had forgotten how much of the movie is subtitled, and though I can knit and read subtitles, I can't alphabetize invoices and read subtitles. However, I did notice something I missed the first time around, and that is that my former professor and undergrad advisor's son was the cinematographer. Which is pretty cool.

What else, what else. I want to tell you people about me and the WB, but that will have to be tomorrow, I think, because it's 3:30 and I haven't done anything I wanted to accomplish at work today except go to a meeting about holiday assistance programming.

Peace out.

If you could watch any movie on the big screen right at this moment, what would it be?

Yay! A QotD that I instantly knew the answer to! Right this minute I would love to see Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World on the big screen. I did see it twice in the theater and oh! It was just amazing. The film is brilliant anyway, filled with such lovely touches from the books & effectively evoking what life would have been like on the Surprise, with visual details that shine on the big screen. Plus, the sound design -- the endless creaking of the wood and the ropes, the splashing of the water, and the voices from others on the ship in other cabins and on other decks offscreen -- really calls for something more than my pathetic little television.

What is your favorite children's movie?

Easy QotD! Woo! My favorite children's movie is one I didn't see until I was in my 20s: My Neighbor Totoro. Apparently it's out on DVD now with a Japanese language track, so I should pick it up. Right now I just have it on VHS.

When I was a kid, though, my favorite movies were classics & musicals. I watched old black&whites on PBS and AMC. This was back when AMC was still cool, though, when it showed actually old movies & Nick Clooney introduced them. I blame that channel for my love of cinema in general. Mr. Clooney's anecdotes and miniature film classes first taught me that there was something more to the movies. Thank you, sir.