30 November 2009

agreeing with @Natterjack that @Netflix needs to give customers the ability to add Tags and Notes to individual films.
too many comedy writers are lazy, fishing for easy laughs in shallow waters, never delving toward our souls. "Being There" (1980)

29 November 2009

"We are protected by the enormity of your stupidity." - Notorious (1946)
in slow building "Swimmers" (2005), a simple crisis for a Chesapeake fishing family dredges up a bed of overlapping imperfections.

26 November 2009

"Little Children" (2006) is not without ambition, but is always just a little too self-conscious, like a child striving to impress.
if the lag we're experiencing with Netflix Instant Watch is any indication, many of you aren't really chatting with your family right now.

25 November 2009

understated, feral and moving "Let the Right One In" (2008) may be our favorite vampire tale since Bram Stoker's epistolary novel.

21 November 2009

"Planet 51" (2009) is 51 years of cliches mashed up and rendered in 3D animation. kids will laugh. extra bit mid-credits.

19 November 2009

why do the college educated forensic scientists on forensic cop shows have the IQ of C students in the 3rd grade?
nice use of stop-motion photography by Robert Caplin, on @Vimeo. even though we could care less about baseball. http://ping.fm/o0uE4

16 November 2009

"The Fall" (2006) is a fantasy for the eyes, with the soul of a wounded child. must be seen wide-screeen.

14 November 2009

we so rarely watch actual television, i've actually forgotten how annoying commercial breaks are.

12 November 2009

i can imagine how iMovie makes it easy-ish for regular folks to string together their video snapshots. but i just can't grok it, myself.
had to completely rewire my video editing synapses just to replace fade-in & fade-out with freeze frames. metaphors are powerful memes.
woo hoo! i found the "Playhead Info" option. oh, crap. it only shows seconds, no frames. [sigh]
quick'n'dirty video edit in a coffee shop, on laptop sans Final Cut. iMovie '09 is odd. my ol' school brain wants to see timecode!

06 November 2009

i can't tell if the writers of "Californication" are crass lads trying to be clever, or clever fellows struggling to be crass.

03 November 2009

watching the end credits is how we come up for air from good cinema. we like it when movies reward us for sitting all the way through.

02 November 2009

"No Jews were harmed in the making of this motion picture." - A Serious Man (2009)