"So it's basically the New Zeeland version of Napoleon Dynamite?" If you haven't seen Eagle Vs. Shark that's what you're thinking. There are plenty of laughs like in Napoleon Dynamite, but you know that scene at the end of the movie where Napoleon sticks his neck out for Pedro and his awkwardness becomes more than just funny, it becomes grace in some sort of odd way? Well, in Eagle Vs. Shark that isn't just the finale, that's really the center of the film.
The trailer is a bit misleading in how it portrays this film. From the trailer one would assume that Jarrod (Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords ) is the main character and awkwardly endearing. Well, as it turns out Lily (Loren Horsley) might be better called the main character and it is her awkwardness that is both endearing and is her (and Jarrod's) saving grace. All the while Jarrod is a bit of a self-absorbed ass.
Perhaps the most enjoyable movie I saw at Sundance last year, Rocket Science has just come out on DVD and was just as fun to watch a second time.The movie works on many levels:it’s an off-beat, quirky (and on a side note, when did “quirky” become the most used word to talk about movies, and when did that unequivocally become a compliment – a discussion foranother time I suppose) comedy that falls in line with many Wes Anderson/Alexander Payne films.It would be impossible to not see this film as a coming of age story, which it is, to some extent.But the real beauty of this film, and why I fell in love with it, is because it is really about the process of searching.And while searching is normally relegated to high school/coming of age stories, it is not because most people have found what they were searching for by adulthood, but because they simply got tired of searching.
Title: No Country For Old Men Director: Ethan & Joel Coen
I recently had someone define evil for me as “that which ought not be.”
When it comes to evil, really what more can we say? Is it possible to fully explain what it is, why it is or even where it came from? Is there anything more to say than ‘it is’ and ‘it should not be’? Is evil something that can be understood? It can be resisted, but can it be stopped?
The crime you see now, it's hard to even take its measure.
No Country For Old Men is a perfectly crafted film that takes its viewers into the dark world of drugs and money near the Rio Grand. But don’t think Traffic . This is a Coen brother’s film, so it is more a sampling of circumstances than a grand political statement. This film is a story that asks questions, not an agenda offering answers.
Title: Various Director: Various Type: Advertisement
Sunday night: Super Bowl XLII. Some watch for the love of the game... some for social reasons... some for the ads.
Monday morning: I sat down at a local coffee shop and happened to catch a glimpse of a fellow customer's computer screen. He was browsing Cars.com.
"They did well last night" I thought to myself (as if they were a team playing).
I continued to sneak-a-peek when it hit me: "Do you think he's on their site BECAUSE of the Super Bowl ads?"
Sunday night's ad collection was much like any other year:
Some were funny (E*Trade, Budweiser, Pepsi, and cars.com)...
Some tried to be funny (Ice Breakers, Bridgestone, Garmin)...
Some were almost meaningful (Dell, Anti-Drug)...
Some were borderline offensive (SalesGenie.com)...
Some were creative (Tide)...
Some were classic (Coke, Anheuser-Busch)...
Some just weird (UnderArmour, CareerBuilder, Amp, and Doritos II)...
One likely changed "a" life (Doritos I)... Zero political ads.
The
viewership for Super Bowl XLII was the highest in Super Bowl history
with 97.5 million viewers - peeking at 105 million in the 4th
quarter. The only television event in
U.S. history that had more viewers was in 1983 when 106 million people tuned in
for the final episode of M-A-S-H. 105
million! In case the numbers seem
somewhat arbitrary, it might be helpful to be reminded that there are an
estimated 303 million
people in the United States. You can do
the math.
Meticulous, intense, huge, intimate, bleak, enigmatic.These are just a handful of the words that dance in my mind as I reflect on There Will Be Blood.PT Anderson picks right up where he left off in Magnolia, both with intensity and depth of characters.While I recently wrote some about The American Dream as it relates to The Wire, PT Anderson attacks the concept in a very different way than David Simon.If The Wire is asking whether or not America can afford the American Dream, There Will Be Blood is asking whether we, as individuals, can afford it.Can our souls afford our “prosperity”?Can it really provide the happiness (or even peace) we so desperately seek?Is The American Dream simply self-centeredness, mixed with self-reliance, cloaked in patriotism?Does that ever satisfy us?This film takes us deep inside what it means to grab onto that dream with hands covered in blood, dirt, and oil.
