nyc was/is gorgeous this weekend. so adam and i took advantage and tried to get out a bit. i know going to a movie doesn’t exactly seem like “getting out” but it’s new york, so you end up walking a lot and doing other things as well. saturday we ended up in the park, which was gorgeous, and sunday we spent a lot of time walking in greenwich village and noho, since we saw a movie at the IFC Center (King Of Kong).

first things first, i give Superbad 3 stars. i expect this low rating was mostly due to too much hype. i had read and heard so much about how this was “the greatest movie of the summer” and even more, “the greatest movie EVER” …that my expectations were just too high. it was funny enough, but i thought Knocked Up was funnier. and while i enjoyed Jonah Hill so much in Knocked Up as a smaller “sidekick” roll, i found him so over the top in every scene here in Superbad that i couldn’t ever truly get on board. he was yelling (his voice completely hoarse at times) and over-reacting in literally every scene. i know, i know, it’s a raunchy teen comedy and that’s his character, i’m just saying, for me, it didn’t really work that well to begin with and got old really really fast. Michael Cera fares better, if only because his character is less obnoxious and very like his lovable failure from Arrested Development. many people said to me that Fogel (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) stole the show, and he was funny, but to me i guess, nobody stole anything. again, i suspect this is as much a case as over-hype as anything else, and i’m willing to admit that. i’m sure i’ll see it again on cable at some point (no doubt hbo will re-run it 6,000 times one month in a summer or something and i’ll end up seeing it at least 3,000 more times) and maybe it will play better. if so, i’ll make sure to upgrade my netflix score accordingly.

i finally saw Me And You And Everyone We Know, directed and written by Miranda July. 3.5 stars. already being a fan of July’s writing, i suspected this would work for me, and it did. it was equal parts beautiful, bizarre, and bittersweet. Adam complained that though he liked it, he found it a little too precious. i tend to agree with him, but it wasn’t enough to ruin the film for me. i thought it was one of the better independent films i have seen in a while and i’m sad i waited so long to get to it. the bad news is that someone told me Miranda July is a Scientologist. more on this later after i do some digging, but if true, i’m so very sad.

so here’s what we’re really here for. King Of Kong. go see it, NOW. it was great. 4 stars. Steve Weibe would totally make my list of 10 real life good guys – see: http://blog.1979semifinalist.com/2007/07/20/the-list/

[mild spoilers…maybe, it’s debatable]

the documentary The King Of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, about the world record holders for the Donkey Kong video game and a very specific rivalry between a long time champ (circa 1982) who is also completely evil and cowardly (i’m not giving anything away here) Billy Mitchell and an honest and heartfelt challenger Steve Weibe. the story actually follows Weibe as he beats Mitchell’s long standing record and the controversy and battles that ensue.

basically the core issue, to my mind, is that the whole industry lead by Twin Galaxies creator Walter Day is pretty inbred in that it is a very small community and they all know each other (too well) and in this case have been kowtowing to Mitchell for years. To Day’s credit (and Twin Galaxies) when Weibe shows up and proves himself (time and again) they are pretty acknowledging of both his integrity and his skill. but it takes some time. to understand the innate corruptness, you only need to know that Weibe’s original world record (i.e. Mitchell beating) score, submitted via videotape, is judged by a panel that actually includes Mitchell. HELLO!?.

the funny thing is that when Weibe shows up, he wins these people over pretty quickly. he’s a good guy, and they’ve been operating under the “rule” of someone not much unlike satan reincarnated on earth as a pro USA mullet wearing son of a bitch (Mitchell) so it is pretty easy to convert them. even Steve Sanders, Mitchell’s disciple since Mitchell first handed Sanders his ass back in 1982 at a Donkey Kong challenge game, admits freely and in front of Mitchell that Weibe is the best kind of guy, that he trusts him and his integrity implicitly. Mitchell is visibly put off by this statement (and Sander’s obvious judas behavior), when Mitchell is asked by the filmmakers if he agrees with that assessment Mitchell claims that he doesn’t really know the guy, and while this is technically true, it is just the last in a series of cowardly responses and behaviors, since he has been given every opportunity to know Weibe, and chose to chicken out every time.

this is the best kind of story, it was incredibly interesting and often hilarious. special props to director Seth Gordon for both having the instincts to know what a great story he had stumbled upon and excellent handling of the material he was able to capture. additional props to whoever is responsible for the use of the song You’re The Best (Joe Esposito – who knew?), which fit this movie so perfectly i cannot even articulate it in a human language. go Steve Weibe, you are truly, the best around.

so i was watching whatever the hell that show that used to be called Ebert & Roeper (which was first called Siskel & Ebert) is now called this weekend to see what they had to say about this weeks films.  not that i generally trust Roeper and whoever his accomplice for the week is (although this week the accomplice was pretty good – i think it was the guy from The Village Voice), but if it’s on and i’m around, i’ll watch.  notably missing this week was an actual mention of whether the films in question actually got a thumbs up or down.  i mean it was pretty obvious from the review, but i kept waiting for that official thumb ruling.  i thought first that they must have changed the format and that they were going to recap with the thumb rankings at the end, perhaps to get viewers to hang in until the end credits.  no such luck.  no mention of thumbs anywhere.  my experience seemed a bit empty.

so yesterday, my boyfriend sends me this link to explain away our confusion:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070825/ap_en_tv/tv_ebert_thumb_ban

basically Ebert, on death’s door as he is wont to be over the last few years, has apparently “exercised his right to withold the ‘thumbs’ until a new contract is signed”.  geez man.  c’mon.  the show has been pretty respectful about putting in guest hosts, but never settling on even a “temporary replacement”.  he is often mentioned on the show and anyone over the age of, i don’t know 25 maybe? knows about his existence and his part in the “creation of the brilliance that is the thumbs up” (read: sarcasm).  how can you even copyright a thumbs up, weren’t people doing that shit casually forever before he put his name to it?  in fact, i feel like blaming him for actually starting this whole copyrighting nightmare (i.e. Trump wanting to copyright “you’re fired” and the myriad of idiocies before and after that).  stop holding on so damn tight Ebert.  let Roeper take it over already.  nobody is trying to push you out except the universe man.  just let it go. 

perhaps this is why being a critic instead of a creator is bad.  it eventually makes you be like this…makes you hold on to something you believe you invented because you slapped your name and logo on it, and you believe this because you never did anything creative and good in your whole life. 

now onto my next book review!  joke.