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AFI’s top 100…

September 11, 2007 in lists, movie reviews, movies | 6 comments

i caught the tail end of AFI’s top 100 movies last night on Bravo. i have no idea if this was a first run or repeat, i expect it’s a repeat but i’m feeling too lazy today to find out. regardless i found their choices to be pretty good overall. as usual i felt strongly that some stuff was misplaced…even if it belonged in the top 100, it didn’t belong above or below such and such, which is i suppose how we all feel about lists.

it did make me think about my own lists though (fyi – i love lists – i suppose it makes me feel in control in a world of utter chaos). anyway, i think i’ll try to do a Kelly’s Top 100 sometime soon. i suspect that’s a much more difficult task than it sounds, but i’m going to give it a go. so keep an eye out, i’m sure my list will be much more controversial than AFI’s…for example Citizen Kane (AFI’s #1), will be on my list but certainly not at #1 and you know what else will be on my list? The Faculty. that’s right, i love that freaking movie…and this is MY list! Bwahahahahahahaahaha!

Here’s a link to an article about the AFI Top 100, which includes the full list, in case you’re as behind as i am…enjoy!

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/320663_afi21.html

this article also has the 1998 top 100 list as a pretty nice comparison. it’s fascinating to see the stuff that has really jumped up or down on the list.

a still from The Faculty…tell me it doesn’t look awesome…c’mon!!!!!!!

#32…it’s comics and i’m counting it

September 10, 2007 in book reviews, comics, the walking dead, writing, x-men | 9 comments

normally i wouldn’t count a comic book, unless it was a really impressive graphic novel or a long collection or trade, as a “book” especially for my review/goal purposes, however i am both WAY behind on goal, and the quality of the books i read this weekend was so high, and also quite frankly i think i read almost 60 comic books on sunday and so, well, it took all day and i’m counting it.

feel free to call bullshit on this if you like in the comments (i’m sure Josh will).

this all started because i was at the always awesome Jim Hanley’s on Saturday (of course they did not have a copy of James Jeans’ Process Recess 2, so i’m disappointed, but whatever). anyway, here i am and as usual i somehow find myself in the X-Men section (why does this always happen? must be my childhood rearing it’s head). so i bought a copy of Astonishing X-Men #22 (the current issue). Astonishing X-Men is currently written by Joss Whedon and i am a huge Joss (therefore Buffy) fan and the art, by John Cassady, was impeccable. so i take it home Saturday night and read it. it was awesome. the best comic book (excepting The Walking Dead or the original run incarnation of Supreme Power) that i have read in an age.

so this began a quest to get and read the previous 21 issues, so i could actually know what the hell was going on. suffice to say that was done with much assistance from Adam (thank you!). and i absolutely loved the whole damn thing. every issue was beautiful and brilliant. a smaller cast (primarily Scott Summers/Cyclops, Dr. Hank McCoy/Beast, Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat, Emma Frost/White Queen, and Peter/Piotr Rasputin/Colossus, and Logan/James Howlett/Wolverine) made much more time for character work and beautiful art mixed flawlessly with Joss’ spot on dialogue – sparse when necessary – dense only when absolutely necessary. in a word, beautiful. and i’m officially back on the train. i’ll be buying this book until Marvel fucks it up and breaks up the dream team, which happens in comics more times than a fangirl like myself can count. Astonishing X-Men #1 – 22. Whedon/Cassady. 4.5 stars.

Update: after a little research i find out that the “dream team” of Whedon and Cassaday is pretty much already broken up. apparently this book has had problems being on time and Whedon had only committed for a certain amount of time. the book is scheduled to be taken over by Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi. Warren Ellis is a huge talent so maybe that won’t be so bad, i’m going to try to stay positive. i’m not familiar with Bianchi, except for cover art, which is good. i can’t imagine anything being up to Cassaday’s work, but i’ll give it a try. the problem for me often with art is that even if the penciling is good, if the layouts are ridiculous it is pretty hard for me to enjoy it. that is one of the beautiful things about Cassaday’s work – those panel layouts are just gorgeous. i can’t tell exactly when this new arc starts, but i’ll be holding my breath until then i guess.

so maybe you’re wondering where i came up with 60 books, when i clearly only read 22 books…well after reading astonishing i had to go back and dig up the Grant Morrison run on The New X-Men as i felt astonishing borrowed heavily from that history (i.e. in Whedon’s Astonishing Jean Grey is dead…but i didn’t know how…and that felt wrong). i had picked up single issues here and there of Morrison’s amazing run on New X-Men, but never the whole thing. between Adam and i however we pretty much had issue #114 – #150, which was exactly the run i was looking for.

so after Astonishing i dug in to Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s take on The New X-Men. as i remembered, these issues were amazing. and the art? foget about it. Quitely is the master. his layouts are gorgeous and his pencils are sublime. i never can get into his women’s faces as much as i’d like (they always look a bit pinched and “older”) however he has a way of drawing that is so not the traditional plastic look of superheroes…you can almost feel the flesh, it’s beautiful. the only downside to the art is that with such a long run (114 – 150) there were times when guest pencillers had to step in and while there were a few stars in there, sometimes the quality really dropped considerably.

Morrison is a genius and it’s evidenced in where he took these characters that so many of us have seen everything already written about…i guess that’s the point really isn’t it? it’s not just what you’re doing to the characters, it’s how you’re constructing it and how everything bounces off of that construction. i felt the arc (ending with 150 and Jean Grey’s death) really lost me in the end. i somehow suspect Marvel and not Morrison as i remember there was a lot of controversy over this book – i believe it was getting critical but not commerical success, which can often drive a book into the ground and perhaps Morrison was getting pressure to make it more accessible. i’ll add an update if i find anything about that. regardless, overall it was a great run, one of the best (and most important) in the X-Men “history”. The New X-Men #114 – #150. Morrison/Quitely 3.5 stars.

since i’m making these two books share one spot (#32) on my books reviewed list i’m going to split the difference between them and give #32 an official 4 stars. fair enough?

greatest interviews ever…!

September 7, 2007 in comics, jeffrey brown, writing | 1 comment

okay, well maybe only for a fanboy/fangirl like me, but it is still a great site.

Adam sent it to me today: http://www.ifpthendirt.com/interviews.html

each envelope contains an interview with a great (truly great!) artist of the comics persuasion. Adam sent it to me because of my open love for Jeffrey Brown (second envelope down on the left) but also present here is Robert Crumb, Joe Matt, James Kochalka, and Adrian Tomine. all amazing, all favorites.

make sure to click on the page when you are ready to advance to the next page. what a great idea…such an organic and personal way to interview someone…i suppose it could be interpreted as ultimately impersonal since there is no actual meeting taking place, but because it is the writer/artist/creator actually responding exactly how they want to, with no filter from a magazine or reporter/writer it is actually incredibly personal. a great idea. the only thing i would suggest is adding a clear date on the pages as it is difficult to tell when the interview was returned to Dirt, unless you can read the envelope, which in most cases you can’t.

as a sidenote, Dirt has his own strip that he does and which can be found on his site. his stuff is funny and interesting, not necessarily up my alley, but you should check it out as it might be right up yours (for some reason that sounded dirty…sorry).

below is page one from Jeffrey Brown’s interview:

damages update

September 7, 2007 in damages | 2 comments

let’s be clear, the show is still good. the show is still better than 90% of what’s on television these days. that said, in my opinion they are dropping the ball a bit.

this stalker/plant woman (Lily i believe her name is), that is after Ellen’s fiance David is a completely ridiculous bit of television. here’s my argument: if she is a plant/set up by either Patty or Frobisher then she should not be spying on Ellen & David in their apartment looking all crazy and ready to boil their bunny…because she’s just doing her job…i don’t think she would take it so personally as to look that way (i.e. like he is cheating on her and she’s “super crazy i must have him” in love).

so, considering her crazy behavior, i have to assume that she is a legitimate stalker that has fallen for David (in about two minutes) and that has nothing to do with the larger picture of Patty v. Frobisher and that this storyline just happens to be occurring in David’s life (something very rare – when was the last time you or your partner had a bunny-boiling level stalker? yeah, me either) at the same time that major conspiracies and machinations that involve dogs being killed, and people being beat up and shot is happening. that is too much coincidence, i don’t buy it. so the writers/creators have either fucked up, or they are far smarter than i am and it will all fit together like a finely worked puzzle in the end and i’ll have to eat crow (i genuinely hope it is the latter).

more evidence that this is a fuck up and not a finely worked puzzle? the unnamed blonde woman that (oh so conveniently) hooked up with idiot Gregory a couple episodes ago and ran away when he got jumped on the street, was again conveniently hanging outside his apartment kind of casually hoping to run into him. are you kidding me? who believes this? women don’t hang around neighborhoods that aren’t their own hoping to run into guys that they drunkenly hooked up with and who got jumped in front of their eyes. the fact that Gregory doesn’t know she is a set up, while he is living inside a nightmarish conspiracy that is threatening his life is ridiculous. fortunately this charade was quickly ended because the blonde got shot by a stalker/assassin working for Patty. this whole fiasco makes me feel like the Damages team needs a female (or more female) writers (i’m available by the way). although this does not explain why Patty and Ellen are so well written (which they really are).

anyway, despite my complaints this is still a great show. the stuff with Ellen and Patty at the dinner party was fantastic. Patty is such a great character, she has the incredible ability to confide in Ellen and impart genuine knowledge which you can slowly see winning Ellen over, yet she has this side that is so hard and sharp that it is constantly taking Ellen by surprise. it is fascinating. Frobisher’s foray into having a book ghost written about himself, to show “the people” how wonderful he is was delightful and ended/advanced in a hilarious way. Fiske’s (Frobisher’s lawyer) dreams were telling and horrifying. great great stuff.

ugh…

September 6, 2007 in comics | 3 comments

i’m definitely NOT going to miss these guys…

September 5, 2007 in big love, hbo | 1 comment

i had the unfortunate experience of catching the Entourage season finale on repeat last night. blech. it was just a terrible 34 minutes of television. this show is so in love with itself (for no real reason) that it has become a cesspool of self congratulation and narcissism. the characters, if they ever even were fully developed characters (which i’m not sure about) have turned into full-on characatures of themselves. Kevin Dillon, who on average i used to enjoy more than the others, literally shouted (in traditional borderline hoarse Drama voice) every single one of his lines, whether he was arguing with French hotel staff or just talking. it was terrible.

here’s the crux of the problem to my mind. Entourage used to be a good and funny show. it was smart and witty and often funny and always a bit slick for its own good, but that was okay, because it was also GOOD. now it is just super slick and there isn’t anything GOOD in sight. but i guess everyone will keep watching it because it is a fantasy show and everyone wants their life to be that good and easy, also because we as tv viewers don’t usually demand quality programming, i mean as lame as Entourage is these days it’s still better than most network sitcoms, which is just sad. i feel like HBO viewers do demand quality though, so i don’t know why this show is sliding by without someone calling bullshit on it.

Entourage was good when it was funny early on and the few times that you learned something about the characters and relationships, such as when their old jailbird friend got out and came to visit for about half a season and it completely changed the dynamic of the show and actually created some controversy – still easily solved at the end of the half hour, but there was an actual story arc, i swear!

[spoilers]

anyway, let’s get specific, things i hated in this episode were:

1. anything having to do with Drama and the fact that he shouted and over-emphasized every single line he was given.

2. the “take turtle downstairs and give him your best blowjob ever” bit, are you kidding me? gimme a break.

3. the fact that after the best scene in the whole episode (the negotiation with studio head Dana) Ari gets a phone call that undoes the whole deal and then instead of dealing with anything we cut directly from them toasting the deal to the red carpet at Cannes. are you kidding me? we resolved nothing here?

4. the ridiculousness of Drama having sex on the beach with his “true love” while maybe a hundred plus people look on, apparently unbeknownst to either Drama or his girl. c’mon. who is writing this crap and expecting us to believe it?

5. uh, everything that wasn’t the negotiation scene.

also, since i have given HBO props recently for keeping Big Love on the air (a show that is controversial and female centered despite its subject matter) i have to give them shit for having this show on the air, which basically denies the existence of any woman that is not super hot, and even the super hot ones aren’t good enough to garner more than two or three episodes, because in Entourage women are an afterthought, usually one involving some kind of denigration. i know they’re trying to do an “accurate” portrayal of hollywood here, and hollywood puts a very high value on looks, but i lived in LA from 2000 – 2005 and i saw plenty of successful and in the know people that were not models. so while this stereotype is partially true, it is not law and it would be nice of them to break free of it a bit. but i’m talking to air, because nobody cares.

you know what? the only good character on this show is Lloyd. the only way i would continue watching this show next season is if it was totally revamped and renamed Lloyd.

ZERO STARS. BOOOOOOOO.

this is Lloyd. go Lloyd.

uh…teaser panel…inked?

September 5, 2007 in comic of the week, comics | Permalink

for the record: in these panels and in everything i’ve sketched so far in gearing up for this strip i somehow manage to make myself look better than reality and adam look worse than reality. which i suppose is one of the reasons i’d like to make things more iconic, so it’s really just an idea of us and not really us. we’ll see. i’ve done a couple strips over the last couple weeks and come up with ideas for many more, however i’m just not happy yet with the style (which i expect will develop over time anyway) but it’s just not ready for release yet. hopefully next week i’ll bite the bullet. thanks to everyone for hanging in and being patient.

flight of the conchords…sniff

September 4, 2007 in hbo | 2 comments

so sad to see you go.

it was also kind of a sad episode. with the boys spending time apart and then being made to feel like ultimate losers by being dumped by their new band members. the show ended on a bit of a bittersweet note, but at least they were together, and have yet to sell out to “the machine” that is hollywood/pop/everything that makes money but is soulless.

i cannot wait for the triumphant return of bret and jemaine. perhaps someone will buy me the series on dvd (that was a hint people).

ps – i didn’t even bother with the soulless Entourage, i’m sure i’ll catch it on repeats, i’m also sure there will be nothing of real note to report. *sigh*

non-fiction…what a shock.

September 4, 2007 in book reviews, books | Permalink

i read two more books this weekend, both non-fiction, which is not usually my style, although one is probably considered self-help more than non-fiction (self-help being even less my style) and the other, though in no way considered self-help by the world at large i read largely for “self-help” reasons. my this got complicated fast.

both books came to me on recommendation of my therapist. yes, i have a therapist. in fact, i believe it is required by law that you start seeing a therapist within two years of entering the state of New York (i made it just under the wire). anyway, both books were good recommendations, which i hope means i’m getting the right kind of mental help…okay, onto the reviews…

#30. Susie Orbach On Eating. By Susie Orbach. Self Help/Non-Fiction. 3 stars.

i’m giving this 3 stars for now, with the option to re-evaluate it after i have the chance to embrace some of her “teachings” this month. if the shit works then i reserve the right to raise it to 4 stars (hell, if the shit REALLY works then 5 stars here we come). what is good about this book, regardless of whether what Orbach preaches works for me or not is that this is the non-diet diet book, and not in the way that still means there is “diet” inside. Orbach talks about no diet. she just talks about living, which is incredibly refreshing. there is no health bar or microwave meal tie in. there are no “real-life” stories of stars (or normal folks), it’s just some common freaking sense…which made A LOT of sense.

Orbach has five basic rules about food and life, that actually are pretty basic and are probably how people used to eat and live back before we all became obsessed with being thin and living up to unrealistic ideals and waif looks…when people were more concerned with real problems (survival?) than with the more vain (and i include myself here) problems of looking like the latest best looking bitch on the block.

Orbach does say that people’s bodies have a personal set point that our bodies are comfortable with. i’ve always believed this personally (depsite the fact that i know for a fact that my body’s set point is far lower than where i’ve put myself) but i have many beautiful female friends that live their lives unhappily, or who don’t quite live at all because of those final ten pounds they can’t manage to shake. i just want to shake them and say “Your body has a personal set point! You are at that set point! Just be happy and live damnit!” i somehow suspect this would not go over well.

anyway, i think everyone, or at least every woman should read this book, even if it doesn’t work (we’ll see) then at least it gives a person a different way about thinking about this life pbsession that has somehow grabbed us while we weren’t looking and overcome everything that life was supposed to be about.

#31. Lust In Translation: The Rules of Infidelity from Tokyo to Tennessee. Pamela Druckerman. Non-Fiction. 3.5 stars.

this is not my kind of book, but i enjoyed it enough to think about exploring some other non-fiction that i’ve been interested in lately. i read this for edification and to a lesser extent “self-help purposes”. i’ve been thinking a lot about infidelity this year (long story, don’t ask) and this book was both really helpful and also upsetting.

it’s hard for me to review non-fiction with any kind of intelligence, since i’m sadly so out of my depth in the field. suffice to say i learned a great deal from this book and i felt it was well pieced together and well researched. though the facts and percentages were necessary, they were certainly the least interesting aspects of the book, most riveting were the author’s personal stories and experiences, which were often fascinating.

on a personal note, i find infidelity infinitely depressing. i have to admit and accept that it is a reality in the world and more specifically in my life and the lives of people all around me. this is, as said, infinitely depressing. it also has created an issue with me and men (a group i BARELY trusted prior to this past year) and it has amped up my interest in militant feminism (which i have also had to accept i will never achieve, i’m just not the girl for it, i want to be, but i’m just not).

here’s the bottom line i guess for me at this point in my life: the person i am closest to in my life is a man. he is my best friend and just about my everything. yet i have learned that ultimately, no matter how much i want to trust him and give over everything to him in the pursuit of romantic love and a happy future together, i must keep part of myself removed, because ultimately i cannot trust him, not necessarily because of who he is, but just because of who people are. people belong only to themselves and as much as i want he and i to possess one another, it can just never be as complete as i’d like it to be. i doubt he would like hearing this (and he will i’m sure read it here and not like it) but i suspect that he does the same thing in our relationship, but perhaps with less deliberate intention, perhaps just with a more natural survival instinct. i suppose i just find it truly and heartbreakingly sad that someone wants to give so much of themselves, but has been hurt too badly to be able to do that in their lives. after reading this book i know that the one thing i am in the world, is not alone in being hurt.

maybe time heals it, i have no idea, although i guess i’ll find out.

suffice to say a tough read, but i’m glad i read it.

movies movie movies

September 3, 2007 in movie reviews, movies | 2 comments

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.