Utopia

Let them drive to war!

Going to see him tomorrow at Berklee. Sweetness.

Movies to put in your queue

The Matador

This movie...what can I say to do it justice? It is such a fantastic mix, it is the Bourne series meets Firefly. The plot revolves around Pierce Brosnan, a lecherous burnt out corporate assassin, sharing a pretty hilarious few days with Greg Kinnear's character, a salesman from Denver, that starts at a bar and ends with a great scene at a bull-fighting event. The story progresses with Pierce Brosnan botching two jobs in a row and being marked for death by his old employer. On the run, a few months later Brosnan shows up in Denver to do one last job.....classic plot...executed so damned perfectly. Unbelievably perfectly. Brosnan, as usual, is amazing. I forget what rating system we use so I'll just give this movie a rating of "variety of adderall pills."




Shortbus

Another just wow! movie. My roommate turned me onto this movie, for the record, it got him laid (for good reason). In a nutshell, a couple has problems in the, ahem, bedroom because the woman, Sophia, can't have an orgasm. The problem is compounded because Sophia is a couples counselor and has to hear sex stories all day. A gay couple comes for a consult and one wants to allow other people into the relationship and one thing leads to another, Sophia reveals she's never had a climax. Then the film gets really interesting....check out the trailer below. For exceptional, in your face story-telling that managed to shock me on numerous occasions I give this movie one of our highest ratings ever, two flaming soccer balls.

Bourne Ultimatum

I found time between romancing fat women and playing soccer to take in a movie in Boston. I checked out The Brattle, which is an independent theatre, but they were playing Meatballs so instead I stopped by the Loews in the square (Harvard that is). Couldn't find the pregnancy movie so instead I watched the Bourne Ultimatum. I had previously seen one of the other Bourne movies and was pleasantly surprised to find myself interested and entertained.

This manifestation of Bourne is interesting because the director or whoever hired a pretty good consultant that did a heckuva job making sure the little details about the spy business be correct. Whether choosing routes to walk to avoid cameras in London to using passersby as diversions or buying pre-paid telephones the movie let itself wonk out.

What's more, the movie included a rogue black-ops CIA office that was just amazing to watch. The people who ran it, the way they talked of drawing up rendition protocols and sneak'n'peeks really let me visualize (correctly or no) what I imagine to be happening in a case like Maher Arar.

The other thing I wanted to mention, since I just watched this Bourne thing, is there any movie I can't get on the internet anymore? No. Unequivocally no. There is no movie not currently residing on the internet waiting for me to find it and download it (in your face grammar).

Absurdistan

This book is simply amazing. It could very well be that as an Eastern European I enjoy this book more than I would as an American. I don't rightly know. The point is, pick it up, read it, the writing reminds me of World According to Garp on speed.

Blood Diamond

I avoided this movie for a while, mostly out of a not unfounded anger towards the fact that it took a blockbuster movie to begin to wake everyone up to the fact that the diamond trade is a wholly unethical business, that prices are unnecessarily inflated and lives have been lost for that 3 month salary your girl wears on her finger. I understood this back in high school and I was pretty clueless then.

Anyway, back to the movie. Leo is one of my favorite actors and he does an amazing job adopting different accents. I have heard people complain about this but he really does perform well. I think a testament to that fact is that he is acting opposite several talented African actors without missing a step. I did have some problems with the story line, especially towards the end. Sometimes the movie lapsed into the over-the-top and a bit cliched story line most movies follow. But, the movie did have excellent cinematography and some really beautiful shots of Africa.

All in all, it had potential to be better but it's still worth a viewing. I'd even consider watching it again as part of a double-feature with The Constant Gardener.

LINK


(continuing with my Africa theme I'll be watching and reviewing Darwin's Nightmare later)

Russian Debutante's Handbook

I am now onto Gary Shteyngart's second book, Absurdistan. The Russian Debutante's Handbook was a great story. Starting off in New York, Vladimir is a 25 year old working at the Emma Lazarus Society for inducting new immigrants. Switching girlfriends he realizes he needs more money to maintain his lifestyle. He travels to Florida to take a college entrance exam for a drug lord's son on a recommendation from his best friend where his a-hole is put at dire risk of being penetrated but for a well-placed punch and a cabbie willing to drive to NYC from Florida for $5000. Vladimir's problems multiply and multiply forcing him to flee for his life to Eastern Europe where he meets The Groundhog, a Russian mobster...hilarity ensues.

Keep the River on Your Right

I was expecting this documentary to be about the peoples of the tribes in New Guinea and Peru that painter and anthropologist Tobias Scheenbaum lived with many years ago. It turns out that it really was about Scheenbaum and his own perceptions and memories more than anything else. At first I was a bit put off. He seemed like a bit of an odd old man that was going to make an extraordinary story sounds boring. However, as the film progressed it turns out that my first impression was wrong. In fact, it became quite interesting to hear his tales of taking male lovers in New Guinea or eating human flesh in Peru. Of course, those are the 'sensational' parts of the story-the ones touted in the trailer.

In the end, this was an interesting, and even moving, look at a man who seems so genuine and so kind that it is hard not to feel a bit of bittersweet sadness when, from the top of Machu Pichu, he discusses how he has done everything he wants to do and death is going to be welcome soon.

What started out as a frustration ended rather nicely. And I couldn't help wanting to reach through the screen when they show old interview clips because the people just didn't get it. Not to say it would not be the same today.

A Map for Saturday

I ordered but have not seen this movie yet. I am really looking forward to it. Here is a review via Gadling.

House of Leaves

HoL is one of those books that is almost impossible to describe (though that doesn't stop me from trying). A description can't do it justice because there is only so much it can encompass. When my cousin recommended it to me he pushed it into my hands and said, "I can't describe it but you have to read it. We will talk when you are done." At times it's an extremely good, plot-driven horror story, at times it's a memoir of a strung-out Johnny Truant, at times it's movie-and those are just the obvious ones; the list could continue. But it's always deliciously, frustratingly fun. Getting lost in the footnotes that double back on themselves and finding the proper way to continue through the text that is, well, let's just say, unconventional, mimics the story so well you almost don't realize what MZD is doing until you sit back and think about it afterwards. I'm still finding stuff that I missed my first two times around.

Also, don't miss Haunted by MZD's sister, Poe. She was working on the album the same time he was working on the book and so they are both heavily influenced by each other. Not only is Haunted one of the best written albums recently, but it is conceptually very interesting (for more on what I mean read the inside of the album cover and listen very closely to everything). Much like bands from Pink Floyd to Tool, I believe that to fully appreciate and enjoy Haunted you need to listen to the entire thing. It's not a CD to where you should skip around to different tracks. That said, I'm not going to listen to my own and advice and I'm going to post one song.