Hopefully, those will give you a feel for the tone of this blog. Perhaps while you’re noodling around reading those, you’ll run across something else you might like.
Enjoy, and thanks for reading!
Hi Y’all,
Just so we’re all on the same page, here are some links that’ll help you get a better understanding of what this blog is all about, if you happen to be visiting for the first time.
The Origin of the Phrase: ‘He was Redoing His Bathroom’ – Nattering about the realities of acting, based on my extensive experience in watching movies, listening to commentaries, and reading books about acting. And making things up because they sound cool.
‘There’s No Such Thing as an Honorary Black Person’ – Entry detailing how the vicarious thrill that white people get from watching movies aimed at minority audiences does not come with a jacket and inclusion to that minority group. (P.S., I’m white!) Probably would also be enjoyed by fans of StuffWhitePeopleLike.com.
Hopefully, those will give you a feel for the tone of this blog. Perhaps while you’re noodling around reading those, you’ll run across something else you might like. I might do some kind of ‘best of’ thing on Friday, since the blog’s birthday is hovering around. We’ll just have to see.
So I’m sure you’ve heard the news by now: Anne Hathaway will be playing Selina Kyle in ‘The Dark Knight Rises.’
Of course the internet and many armchair critics shit their collective panties over this, but we were also concerned about the casting of Heath Ledger as the Joker, and we all know how that turned out.
Here’s why I am fully prepared to see her appear in the film, and have it be another perfect casting move:
"Bette Davis Eyes. I has Them."
This is the movie she was nominated for an Academy Award for–an arthouse film by Jonathan Demme that sort of slipped through the cracks. Or maybe it didn’t. 2008 is kind of a blur to me.
It’s about a young woman who is given a brief pass from her rehab program in order to attend the wedding of her sister.
I have to be honest; I started watching it, but it was so heart-rending that I stopped about 20 minutes in. I’m going back to finish it some day, but at the time it hit way, way close to home for me.
Anyhoodle, this film and others are more than enough to convince people she has the acting chops to play Selina Kyle.
But Catwoman?
Here’s the thing: when Christian Bale was cast in Batman Begins, he was cast as ‘Bruce Wayne’ and not ‘Bruce Wayne/Batman,’ likewise for everyone else, except The Joker, who had no other name.
I’m not going to guess how they’ll present Catwoman, if they do at all; Nolan doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to strong female characters, and it was discussed on another well-read blog that I’m too tired to find the link to. I don’t know if I’d want to see her as the usual ‘jewel thief’ character she tends to be; they might take a lot of inspiration for her from the ‘Hush’ storyline, so that’s a possibility.
So that’s just my two cents on the Anne Hathaway casting. I haven’t even wrapped my mind around the casting of Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. However it turns out, it’ll be awesome, I know that much.
I love them, as I’ve already discussed in a few entries on my blog. There’s nothing like a Man With No Name cleaning up a town through a judicious usage of fists and bullets–especially when the bad guys are rapists or murderers. It’s awesome.
Westerns!
I love them, as I’ve already discussed in a few entries on my blog. There’s nothing like a Man With No Name cleaning up a town through a judicious usage of fists and bullets–especially when the bad guys are rapists or murderers. It’s awesome.
I’ve also already discussed my disappointment with the current spate of mopey, angsty Westerns that the US has produced: Movies like 3:10 to Yuma, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and No Country for Old Men are all great movies, but the genre seems to be dominated by miserable people. Even the Australians got in on the mope-fest with The Proposition, which was another great movie but which was a little too rapey for me to really enjoy. I’m looking forward to the upcoming Cowboys vs. Aliens movie, but it’s also possible that won’t be intended as a Western at all and won’t explore Western tropes much. Also, Daniel Craig has monkey ears.
Also, I think he's afraid that if he smiles, his career will be over. Which doesn't bode well for Cowboys Vs. Aliens being a fun movie.
Apparently, in the middle of the 20th century, Eastern Europe began making Westerns called Osterns, which usually depicted Native Americans in a more compassionate light as freedom fighters, compared to their role in American Westerns as villains. I haven’t seen any of these, but I’m really curious to.
And now, breathing new life into the genre come a group I am going to call East Meets Westerns. Made by or starring Asians, the genre only has a few entries at the moment: The Good, the Bad, and The Weird; Sukiyaki Western Django; and The Warrior’s Way, which only came out this weekend in theaters.
I think of them as East Meets Westerns because I like how that sounds; the filmes of Sergio Leone were known as Spaghetti Westerns because they were made with cheap Italian labor in Italy, and that name has always bothered me a little. Of course the Italians call them something else, but it doesn’t seem like these new Westerns yet have a name. It could be because they aren’t intended to be their own genre–after all, it’s not like every movie that gets made in Asia has to be branded as part of a genre. But for the sake of searchability for enthusiasts, say on Netflix or through Amazon, they really should have their own name. God forbid someone searching for a good, fun Western gets suggestions for Westerns where everyone is miserable and dies at the end, when there are fun movies like this getting overlooked because of a semantics issue.
When Hollywood remakes this movie, they will meticulously remove every possibility of joy and no one will be smiling on the poster.
Anyhow, I’ll be reviewing Good, Bad and Weird and Warrior’s Way today, so that’s what we’re working on.
Sorry I haven’t been posting much, but I recently got a new job after literal YEARS of unemployment and haven’t been able to blog as much as I used to. Between work, editing my novel and the general business of life I haven’t been able to sit down and watch too many movies, (GASP!) so I’m trying to get back into the regular habit.
Anywho, there’s a new post about 2009’s Dorian Gray, and some general rambling about race relations. Please enjoy!
