Transamerica
I find it disturbing that Felicity Huffman plays a man playing a woman so well. Once, I was walking through downtown Portland, Oregon, and I saw a she-male that I actually now think was Huffman. They looked disturbingly identical. While the role is a far cry from the belabored, kind-of-hot mom from Desperate Housewives, Huffman will blow your mind with this disturbing, but brilliant performance. Transamerica was released in 2005 and hit the festival circuit hard; visiting... Read More
The Cell
In celebration of the DVD release of Tarsem Singh’s The Fall last week, I decided to rent The Cell for a repeat viewing. Nothing I’ve ever seen has matched the visual imagery Tarsem created in The Fall, and while I remember The Cell wasn’t that great, I just wanted more of Tarsem’s world. I can only watch his Bjork music videos so many times. Click here to read my review of The Fall that I posted here in June. The Cell is sci/fi fantasy. It follows... Read More
The Puffy Chair
The Puffy Chair is one of those seriously low-budget, independent films that reminds you that you really don’t need a $100 million dollars to create a bitchin’ film. I chose to watch this film after last weekend’s viewing of Baghead, (click here to read that review) a more recent film from the Duplass brothers, and couldn’t have been more satisfied. Released on the festival circuit in 2005, and a limited release in north America in 2006, this brilliant... Read More
The Road – A Book Review
For my second Lit Flicks Challenge book, I chose to read the Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. Although I never read No Country For Old Men, the movie fascinated me enough to at least take notice of McCarthy. When I was told they were turning The Road into a movie and it dealt with a mysterious, post-apocalyptic America, I knew I wanted to read it. This is the only book I’ve ever sat down and read in its entirety in one sitting. It was... Read More
Movie Madness
Jen over at www.dailymishmash.com is having her monthly Movie Madness Carnival. Stop on by her place to celebrate bitchin’ films! Read More
The Gift
Cate Blanchett tricked me into watching this film. It wasn’t very nice of her. It’s not that this film was horrible, but when I see Blanchett’s face, I think: Babel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, or Notes on a Scandal. If I had taken the time to look up the director, I wouldn’t have had my expectations so high. The Gift was released in 2001 and was directed by Sam Raimi. Since then, Raimi has disappointed us with films like Xena: Warrior Princess –... Read More
Burn After Reading
Burn After Reading is a seriously good time. And who wouldn’t believe that with it’s ridiculously long list of bitchin’ actors/directors? Last year the Coen brothers took us to a much darker place with the Best Picture winning No Country For Old Men, but this year, they show us a much lighter side of life. The Coen brothers supply the film with a terrific, clockwork script (the kind we’ve learned to expect from them) that shows their fascination with... Read More
Blindness – A Book Review
For my first Lit Flicks Challenge book, I chose to read Blindness by Nobel prize winner Jose Saramago. The book was optioned in to a movie. I caught a glimpse of it a few months ago, and can’t wait to see it. It is an official selection of the Toronto Film Festival, as well as the Cannes Festival. Blindness is the story of a society who’s citizens start going blind at an exponential rate. It follows a group of people who are quarantined in a mental hospital as... Read More
Baghead
The premise of Baghead is simple. After begrudgingly watching a friend’s slightly successful film at L.A.’s Underground Film Festival, four friends decide to go to a remote cabin in the woods for the weekend to write a film with a role for each of them that will jump start their careers. When they get to the cabin, one of group dreams of a man with a bag over his head terrorizing the group. This, becomes the premise of the script they start writing. Strangely enough... Read More
The Tracey Fragments
This movie is pretentious as all get out. The only thing it was able to force me to emote was anger. If that was the intent, well done director Bruce McDonald (Queer as Folk), you made me furious. Seriously, there’s nothing redemptive in this artsy-for-sake-of-being-artsy bullshit. The Tracey Fragments is filmed all ‘stream of consciousness’ with the screen constantly showing between one and 20 (by my count, at least) different views of the same, or sometimes... Read More
