Thursday, December 15, 2005

Jesus is Magic (2005)

R:
I liked this alot. For those of you who saw "The Aristocrats," you know that Sarah Silverman is basically the only person who was able to make the joke shocking, at least by modern standards. So she's foul. For "The Aristocrats" the Michigan put a warning up on the door, indicating that some viewers might find it offensive. I believe the sign for "Jesus is Magic" indicated that "many viewers" would find it offensive. Awesome.

The humor is... I don't want to say "subtle," but there isn't a clear stream of jokes.

K: In fact, she didn't have that self-aware stage presence that many comics have, where they constantly wink at the audience--no no, it's just a joke, you see? And that made it really effective.

All I can say is, "I don't care whether you think I'm racisist, I just want you to think I'm thin."

R: As for whether you should see it or not... This should have been a special on Comedy Central. It's not, because it's too offensive, not because of any cinematic quality. See the DVD.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Pride and Prejudice (2005)

R-
I mostly enjoyed this. I wouldn't call it essential viewing, but it's a reasonably agreeable way to pass the time. "What's this?" you ask. "Don't you utterly despise Jane Austen?" I offer three reasons that I enjoyed the movie:

1. It is funny (intentionally). No, seriously, it is. And not just incidentally funny, but I might go so far as to say there's more of this than of the heavy breathing stuff, which is nice.

2. It is funny (unintentionally). It is rife with (presumably accidental) wildly inappropriate citations of other movies. In order: (1) the idyllic scenes of "rural life" are straight out of Hobbitton (even the mud is clean), (2) there is a scene on the cliffs somewhere that I think is the same landscape that was used in one of the LotR movies, the first or second one -- I expected a legion of Orukai mounted on giant wolf things to stampede over the horizon, and (3) when Mr. Darcy comes all slo-mo out of the fog, I fully expected a Matrix-style action scene. Of course, there wasn't one, but it would have been awesome.

3. I kind of get it. Mostly thanks to an NYRB article. I won't pretend to be really excited about Jane Austen now, but I can what might be interesting in it.

K--I also enjoyed this, mostly for the same reasons. It was unself-conciously funny. It managed to be relevant without losing the period feel (I could imagine someone's little sister acting just like Mr Darcy's. They even the managed to make the dancing seem really fun, rather than the stiff interpretation of the period that I've seen before.) And Donald Sutherland is the man. Seriously.

That said, I've never read the book, and I'm not an avid Jane Austin fan, so I can't really comment on whether it does the book justice. Some fans (I know you're out there) would disagree. Violently. Hopefully, some of them will comment.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Memento (2000)

(Ross)
OK, so I'm the last person in the world to see this movie. I'll offer a few observations, and be brief about it.

This is a very good movie. I didn't really enjoy it. The insulin scene is, I think, the most horrifying thing that I've seen since "The Princess and the Warrior," and I found the whole idea of being trapped in the present to be very unsettling. I'm impressed that they made an engaging movie out of a "twist" that could have turned out to be, well, trite. Formally innovative, etc. And I'm glad I saw it. But I don't know that I'll be watching it again.