This isn’t a great film. The dialogue is stilted, the tone of certain scenes feels forced (particularly in the first half hour), many of the performances are excrutiatingly one-dimensional, and the film is visually flat (lacking the strong compositions and use of shadow and light in Spider and Crash, for example). What exactly did I expect from another graphic novel adaptation? But as a particular kind of American allegory, A History of Violence makes for an extremely potent piece of cinema (and there are scenes and moments that are just about as good as it gets). I can see why this was such a hit at Cannes. As I was watching, however, I wondered what David Lynch could have done with this material, and I guess that’s not such a great endorsement of Cronenberg’s work.

Another one of Joan Allen’s flurry of good and overlooked films this year. This is more melodramatic than I am usually willing to sit through, but it’s well done. Nothing “stupid” happens in the plot, which I appreciate on one hand. However, I wonder how realistic it is that a mother and four daughters get abandoned by the father and none of them strike out at Kevin Costner, or do anything less than act like a grown-up. The mother is the least stable of the bunch, and that seems unlikely, though certainly possible; and even she deals with the obstacles thrown into her life in a mostly grown-up way (She does drink a lot, but so do I. Who am I to cast stones?) (more…)

i mean for films that seem interesting*? something i watched last week had a preview of linklater’s philip k. dick adaptation. it uses the same technology/style he used in “waking life”. it may fit well with the mood of dick (quite apart from the ways in which it presumably frees him up from the laws of physics). but i can’t think of anything else. oh yes, the “narnia” trailer makes me want to read those books–then again unlike you cynics i am a fan of tolkien.

i continue to wait for someone to pick up my idea of a screen in a multiplex that only shows previews. i tell you, people would be willing to pay for that. i’d be willing to watch a whole series of previews like this one.

*though i suppose we could talk about the preview as genre as well, if we’re really bored, as we probably are.

i have found a plugin that i can install which allows people to edit their own comments for a fixed period of time after they make it. sounds good? the problem is this: it works by ip address, not by login cookie. for those of you who might make comments from a university lab or on some other shared network this means a possibility that someone else who logs on to the network after you log off and gets assigned the same ip could potentially edit your comment within that time window. does this make sense? and if so, does it matter to you lot? it is a somewhat unlikely scenario i suspect, and we could make it more unlikely by setting the window to something as short as 15 minutes. this might be a good idea anyway, since it would be enough time to catch typos but would probably prevent the temptation to substantially alter a comment after the fact (and mess up the flow of the conversation).

let me know if you want me to install. i’ll wait to hear from those who complain about this the most: mauer, john, jeff and mike and then delete this topic so as to not give our external readership of 3 any ideas.

I was thinking of cross-stitching some pillows with movie lines. Sort of off-kilter aphorisms.

“The Dude Abides” was my first thought.

“I know it was you, Fredo” was my second.

I thought I’d open it up to you all. Then maybe I can start a design company for the movie loving cross stitcher.