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(2002) P.T. Anderson - Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Luiz Guzman, & Philip Seymour Hoffman

Synopsis: Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) isn’t living a worst-case scenario, but he’s not exactly walking on sunshine. His seven sisters—and the absence of anything else in his life—have him cornered into alternating periods of rabid defensiveness and nervous reticence. He runs his own business and not much else. And then, one morning a piano-like instrument (okay, a harmonium) falls off a truck. And then a woman, Lena, (Emily Watson) stops by and asks him to see that her car gets taken care of. As you might guess from the title and/or any other knowledge of the film, ‘Punch-Drunk Love’ is an off-kilter romantic comedy sort of movie.

Review: Boogie Nights [•••] was, well, good, and Magnolia [••••½] was excellent if a little too pretentious (and maybe a little too long), but Punch-Drunk Love is nearly pitch-perfect. Adam Sandler is astoundingly good. So is Emily Watson, but you’d basically expect that. What’s difficult is trying to pinpoint what exactly makes this movie so good. First things first, it’s very well directed. The scenes are, basically, brilliantly composed; there are lots of opportunities to notice this very early on, but the most blatantly outstanding scene that caught my attention was a birthday party Barry goes to (it’s for one of his sisters), where the scene is framed well and the action’s smooth and there are like a million conversations going on that don’t distract or detract from the scene but feed into one another. Another area where PDL struts its stuff well is in expectation versus uncertainty. Essentially, there’s an excellent balance of expectation against complete uncertainty. As with previous P.T. Anderson flicks, weird, bizarre, unexpected things happen. This is true here as well. And while you have a certain idea of how things might happen, or at least how they’re going to end up—it’s a romantic comedy, after all—you’re never entirely sure. You’re not alienated by having your expectations bashed again and again into the ground, but you’re not spoon-fed, either. Another thing: Jon Brion (who did music for Magnolia and possibly other P.T. Anderson movies) puts together a very excellent score. All around, it’s a fun film. An enjoyable film. Barry’s pitiful and quirky and has some problems with his anger, but is a generally likeable character. The sisters, who constantly harp on Barry, are annoying and yell at Barry, but they’re also defensive of him. On the phone with Lena, one of Barry’s sisters apologizes for Barry’s behavior, saying, ‘he’s weird’; when Lena politely agrees with her, the sister responds, ‘well, he’s not that weird, okay? Don’t think he is.’ It’s a great balance. Really, the whole movie’s about balance. It’s never too normal or too arcane. Never too fast or too slow. Never too loud or too quiet.

Rating: [••••½] out of [•••••]

Go balloons. Go balloons. More balloons. All balloons. All balloons. Come on guys, let’s move it! . . . We need more balloons!

(via BoGlo: “Balloon drop dribbles instead,” by Bryan Bender and Robert Gavin [July 30, 2004])

This is somewhat interesting:

Spider-Man India interweaves the local customs, culture and mystery of modern India, with an eye to making Spider-Man’s mythology more relevant to this particular audience. Readers of this series will not see the familiar Peter Parker of Queens under the classic Spider-Man mask, but rather a new hero – a young, Indian boy named Pavitr Prabhakar. As Spider-Man, Pavitr leaps around rickshaws and scooters in Indian streets, while swinging from monuments such as the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal.

My own reaction was that it’s pretty interesting, despite the fact that this new creation was obviously not designed with me in mind (and despite the fact that I never caught on to Spider-Man comics in the first place).

There are any number of questions raised by it, however.

(None of which I intend to answer.)

Is it artistic evolution, an idea taken and expanded beyond its original scope? Is it capitalism at its most savagely imperialistic? Is it radical artistic creativity? Is it simply a “neat thing”? Is it even going to work?

Who knows.

(via memepool)

Via MeFi:

A $1,700 subscription for free

By calwatch

The National Journal opens up its doors to the public for two weeks every four years. Best known for its annual vote ratings (which declared John Kerry most liberal senator of 2003), there’s also ads galore, snarky coverage of the media, and more polls than you can shake your fist at.

• Listen, Stop & Roll. The World Of Stuart has a neat little project, Big Songs for Little Attention Spans: 100 songs you can download. Not only 100 songs, but 100 short songs; 100 songs that actually fit on one compact disc.
• Movie Magic. And, from the people who brought you The Shining, reenacted by bunnies (mentioned here previously), comes: Alien in 30 seconds, re-enacted by bunnies. (via the ever-helpful MeFi)
• You’ve got questions? So do we. Question: What would happen if bees disappeared? Question: When is Assassination in Order? (The former is informative, if only slightly, whereas the latter [in the comments section] covers some interesting ground.) (Science Actualitßs: “What would happen if bees disappeared?” by Jacques Tarnero)
• Clear as Stone. BoingBoing mentions translucent concrete that’s being developed by a Hungarian architect, ferrying you along to an AP article and to the National Building Museum exhibit on liquid stone, where you can learn that concrete is the second most widely consumed substance on earth. (BoingBoing [July 8, 2004])
• It’s Aboot time. PLANetizen guides you to a pretty interesting article about the differences between Canadian and US cities (and between Canada and the US in general). Not too long, with plentiful illustrations along the way. Requires PDF reader. (Funder’s Network for Smart Growth: “Canadian Cities American Cities: Our Differences Are the Same,” by Patrick Condon [February 2004])
• Quotes to Live By.

  1. Just think Teletubbies—with a hint of Hooters. Eleven-inch, flat television screens adorn the fronts of T-shirts worn by winsome women deployed to be, in the words of the product’s developer, “aggressively friendly.”

  2. “There are so few people in the world saying, ‘I wish advertising were a little more intrusive,’ ” says David “Jelly” Helm, a longtime adman now at Wieden & Kennedy in Portland, Ore.

  Both quotes are from an article in CSM on the new trend of placing “billboards” (the TV-in-a-T-shirt) in high foot-traffic areas. (CSM: “‘Billboards’ that walk, talk, and even flirt a little,” by Clayton Collins [July 8, 2004])

• You may be a rock star.¹
• You may be a terrorist.
• You may be overweight.²
• You may be ill in the head.³
• You may be running out of gas.⁴

Notes:

1. via All Facts and Opinions; I’m a WRCL—yes, that’s right, I may be a rock star. Find out today what you may be!
2. AlterNet: “Keep Yer Flab On,” by Lakshmi Chaudhry [July 15, 2004]
3. BMJ: “Bush plans to screen whole US population for mental illness,” by Jeanne Lenzer [June 19, 2004], via How To Save The World
4. CSM: “EPA’s m.p.g. ratings get an inspection,” by Mark Clayton [July 15, 2004]

Chuck Palahniuk interviews Juliette Lewis, without ever saying anything to her. Or that’s how it reads, anyway. Great stuff, as usual.

(Guardian: “Girl, Interrupted,” by Chuck Palahniuk [July 16, 2004] - excerpt from Non-Fiction)

I’ll trade you an Avian Flu and Strep A Infection for your Cyclosporiasis.

Get your Set 1 Disease Cards today! (They’re free, if you can believe that.)

Or maybe you’d rather have diphtheria or mumps or chickenpox, in which case you’ll have to check out Series 2.

(via BoingBoing)

You think it’s a joke. The first words you read on the page are,

You don’t support Democrats.

Why should your ketchup?

and you figure, it has to be a joke, right? You see a picture of a ketchup bottle (right) with the words “America’s Ketchup” emblazoned across it, and you figure, it has to be a joke.

You glance over the comments section, where there’s a place for comments on the right and a place for comments on the left, and you can’t reasonably see how W Ketchup is anything but a joke. The fact that it’s a joke, you reason, has to be intentional. Right?

Comments like “You’re not only tasteless, you a##holes are stupid!” on the left and “Thanks for filling the ketchup void for us patriots!! Great label, too!” on the right, and it seems literally impossible that this is anything but a joke. Everything fits into an almost perfect stereotype—one that’s too perfect, in fact. So you think, is this a joke? Is it?

Probably not, is my own personal belief, against my greatest hopes and dreams; it seems, ladies and gents, that W Ketchup, with its encomium for Ronald Reagan and its donations to the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund, is the real deal.

It’s tongue-in-cheek, yes, but also serious.

Sez W Ketchup(TM):

The leading competitor not only has 57 varieties, but has 57 foreign factories as well. W Ketchup comes in one flavor: American.

What can I say? I’m not going to be buying a case anytime soon, but you’re certainly welcome to if it lights the fire of passion in your heart.

I mean, it’s a free country.

That’s what they say, anyway.

There’s witty banter, there’s political crosstalk, there’s incomprehensible oddity; it’s all there when Larry King interviews Jon Stewart.

Banter:

STEWART: Can I tell you something, I appreciate you acting interested in me the night after you had the president on. I think that’s really sweet.

KING: Hey, wait a minute.

STEWART: You’re focused like this.

KING: Each night is a new night. That’s past. This is present. I focus on you. You count.

STEWART: That is the most profound thing I think I’ve ever heard in my life. But I will say this, I do think you are phoning in a little bit, because if I may just to the people, there’s nothing in my cup. You have coffee, you’re taken care of, you’re pampered and you’re in the good chair with the nice comfy and I sit…

KING: There was something in Clinton’s cup.

STEWART: I’m sorry, did the president drink everything?

Is that what happened?

KING: No, he had diet something, Diet Pepsi or Coke something.

Are you mad?

STEWART: I’m not mad, it diminishes me.

KING: It was not my fault. Maybe the crew has let you down.

P-talk:

STEWART: Well, I established my war cabinet, you know, years ago when we talk about this sort of thing. You know, there have been four justifications that I’ve heard so far for the war and you tell me if I’m wrong about this. There was the weapons of mass destruction. There was the ties to al Qaeda. There was the oppressed his own people. And there was one other in there somewhere. Weapons of mass destruction, ties to al Qaeda, possible nuclear. OK.

KING: Support terrorism.

STEWART: That describes like five countries. So if that is the standard that we’ve set to go into a war, shouldn’t we also be…

KING: North Korea.

STEWART: Iran, Sudan, aren’t they all doing the exact same thing and have maybe closer ties to al Qaeda, even?

KING: How do you know they’re not next?

STEWART: What have you heard?

KING: We’ll be right back. We’ll take your calls later for Jon Stewart.

STEWART: Am I being drafted?

Oddity:

KING: Toronto, hello.

CALLER: Hello.

KING: Yes, go ahead. Speak up

STEWART: They’re bilingual.

CALLER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

STEWART: Oh, is that a delay?
KING: Yes, we have a delay.

STEWART: What he said was…

KING: Don’t say what he said.

STEWART: He praised us.

KING: Here’s what he said.

STEWART: What he said was. What he said to us was.

KING: What a great show.

STEWART: He basicly paraphrased Dick Cheney to Pat Leahy, but was to referring to us instead.

KING: Yes, he was referring to us instead.

STEWART: Surprisingly to see that from Canada. They’re typically very pleasant.

KING: I know.

…read the complete transcript here.

In Bad Comma, Louis Menand takes Lynne Truss (author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves) to task for her peculiar and highly idiosyncratic application of punctuation. The revelation of how wrong Truss is, by itself, is comical (at times), but it’s unfair to say that Menand writes about nothing else; the entire article is insightful, engaging philosophical questions and cultural norms along the way to developing a book review. Worth a read? I’d say so—particularly if you’re thinking of picking up East, Shoots & Leaves at the bookstore (or anywhere else).

By the sound of things, E,S&L might be entertaining, as long as you’re only looking for an outlet for your grammatical irritation (e.g., irritation at signs reading “The Albertson’s” hanging by the mailbox, what signs lead you to mentally ask the Albertson’s what?)

At any rate, I haven’t read E,S&L. I don’t plan to, though it’s always a possibility. If you’re looking for an entertaining and highly educational book on grammar, I can recommend the brilliant Deluxe Transitive Vampire (full title: The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed), which is ably authored by the irrepressable Karen Elizabeth Gordon. E,S&L sounds like it might be hit-and-miss. DTV is all hit and no miss. So there you have it.

(The New Yorker: “Bad Commas” by Louis Menand [June 28, 2004])

There are some articles whose headlines and captions appear written by mentally deranged waterfowl, and then there are articles whose headlines virtually write themselves (though not without human intervention, of course); the following, I think, is one of the latter.

Continue Reading »

One guess who said this:

[The legislators] cannot have the guts to come out there in front of you and say, ‘I don’t want to represent you. I want to represent those special interests: the unions, the trial lawyers’ … I call them girly-men. They should get back to the table and they should finish the budget.

Well?

Here’s another hint:

That’s right, the Governor of California called the CA legislators “girly-men.” Does self-parody get any better than this?

(AFP: “Schwarzenegger mocks California legislature as girly-men” [July 18, 2004])

The NYT has a list of the 1,000 best movies ever made. So they say. Best of all, though, you don’t need to be registered to see the list. I’n't that spectacular? (At least, I don’t think you need to be registered to see it. If it turns out you do, lemme know.)

Of the thousand movies declared the best by the NYT, I’ve seen a hair over 10%, which is either bad, good, or somewhere in-between. Though I have to say, there are a couple movies on my “best” list (certainly my “1,000 best” list) that were left off the NYT list. A technical error, probably. I’m sure they meant to include “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead,” and merely forgot about it.

(NYT: “The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made” by The Film Critics Of The New York Times)

Ubuweb relaunches (though I have to confess, I missed the initial launching) its 365 Days Project: 365 mp3s of crazy, eccentric, off-the-wall recordings.

Wild and crazy stuff, like Casper The Friendly Ghost singing Motorcycle Policeman (yes, that Casper the Friendly Ghost), and Van Morrison singing songs called Ring Worm, You Say France And I Whistle, and Want A Danish (yes, that Van Morrison), and Barbie and Ken singing Nobody Taught Me (yes—incredibly—that Barbie and Ken). Though of course, being what it is, there are also lots of tunes from groups you’ve never heard of, like Leslie Harris and the House of Fire, and the, er, Badger Theatre Movie Phone, which isn’t quite a “group,” but you get the idea.

Lots of great stuff, browse away. Commentary and pictures for almost all the entries.

(via MeFi [June 24, 2004])

Also: Speaking of Barbie, here’s an interesting news bite:

A Utah artist… won a five-year legal battle with Mattel Inc. over his photographs of Barbie dolls sometimes naked and paired with kitchen appliances on Tuesday…

…

Forsythe incurred Mattel’s wrath with his “Food Chain Barbie” series of 78 photographs featuring the popular plastic doll in kitchen appliances ranging from a martini glass to a fondue pot. Other photos showed the doll stuffed into a tortilla, a fondue pot and a blender.

…

U.S. District judge Ronald Lew… [wrote] “There was little risk of consumer confusion… Defendant’s parodic intent was clear.”

(Reuters: “Artist Hails Court Win Over Barbie Parody” [June 30, 2004])

• Wonder Dog? In Toronto, a dog may well have prevented a massacre. The dog—whose identity has yet to be confirmed (sounding more and more like a superhero)—approached a man who was planning a killing spree, thus defusing the situation. The man’s plan was to load his weapons and then drive around, killing at random, etc., etc.; fortunately for everyone involved (or not involved), the plucky pooch melted his heart, averting disaster. Said Det. Nick Ashley: “He happens to be a pet lover, and decided that since there was such a nice dog in the area, that people were too nice and he wasn’t going to carry out his plan.” Police found the following in the man’s car:
  • 6,000 rounds of ammunition
  • two rifles
  • a shotgun
  • a semi-automatic pistol
  • a revolver
  • an air rifle
  • a machete
  • a hunting knife
  • a throwing knife
  • a camouflage mask
  • netting

  People are betting it’s either Elvis Presley, a black border collie, or Dante, a husky-Australian shepherd mix, though it also could’ve been park regular Mattie.

  (Reuters: “Friendly Dog Prevents Killing Spree?” [June 25, 2004]; and Reuters: “Mystery Hero Dog Captures Toronto’s Imagination” [June 28, 2004])

• A Gamble. In other news, less civic-minded dogs were found gambling in Atlantic City (right). To be fair, it wasn’t entirely their fault. Employees at Sands Casino used dogs to re-create the scene of the famous painting with dogs playing poker (called “Looks Like Four of a Kind” and painted by C. M. Coolidge around 1910, for all you trivia buffs). Here’s the original (below, center), if you’re itching to make a comparison:
  

  (via AP/CNN: “Dogs gamble in Atlantic City” [June 24, 2004]; other informative links above left uncited)

• Rest Easy. In July of 2003, something appeared on a beach in Chile. A very large something: 13 tons, more or less; a giant, amorphous blob. To the dismay of those hoping for proof of some as-yet-unknown species of enormous deep-sea squid (keeping in mind that known deep-sea squid can get large enough, thankyouverymuch), scientists have recently proved that the blob and others like it are nothing more than the remains of dead whales. These same scientists put to rest the question of numerous other beach blobs, including
  

  …the “giant octopus of St Augustine” from 1896, the 1960 Tasmanian west coast monster, two Bermuda blobs from the 1990s and the 1996 Nantucket blob…

  (New Scientist: “Beach blob mystery solved at last” by Jon Copley [June 27, 2004])

This sentence is so wickedly, outlandishly sloppy that it’s almost funny:

Thus, although Bush cited only British evidence that was determined to have been inconclusive, other intelligence files clearly contained other inconclusive evidence of the truth of the claim.

The whole article reads like a bad tenth grade essay. Admittedly, the AP’s not here to bring us fine literature, but they could at least bring us coherent sentences.

(AP: “British report says assertion was ‘well-founded’” [July 18, 2004])

The WorldWatch Institute has a guide to good stuff. Here it is. With topics on everything from DVDs to meat, WWI’s guide to good stuff lets you know what’s good and what’s not. The Consumption Manifesto accompanying the guide is also good, with 10 principles of good consumption.

(via How To Save The World)

• Pentrix. I’ve never been able to master the 360 degree normal—that annoyingly absent-minded trick where somebody (we’ll call him “Ace”) spins a pen effortlessly around his thumb. Then again, I’ve never really been good with pen tricks in general. But now there’s a web site that can help. Well, maybe it can’t help me, but it could help you. (via MeFi)
• Those Crazy Apes. Mischievous apes (well, chimpanzees) at the brand spanking new Regenstein Center for African Apes now have the opportunity to surprise unsuspecting visitors with bursts of air. It’s a neat-sounding place, as ape houses go; it’s designed to be more natural for the apes (airy and spacious and green with a mulch-covered floor), and has fans that the apes themselves can control (to, as the article puts it, “moderate the effects of Chicago’s muggy summers and icy winters”). (AP: “Lincoln Park Zoo Apes Get to Take Revenge” by Lisa Schenker [June 26, 2004])
  
• Speaking of Apes… There’s been a rumor going around (maybe you’ve heard it, maybe you haven’t) that that much-loved fruit, the banana, is in mortal danger of extinction. I know I’ve read the terrible rumor in some relatively respectable (or at the very least, glossy and picture-filled) science publication. Well, it turns out the rumor’s a little bit over-the-top; a little too alarmist, if you will. Yes, it’s true that the Cavendish (the variety most familiar to the American consumer) faces potential dangers, and yes, it’s true that bananas are essentially clones, which dramatically cuts down on crop diversity. And yes, it’s true that a once-popular variety, the Gros Michel, was totally wiped out by disease in the space of a decade (paving the way for the Cavendish). But Snopes says bananas are here to stay—for now at least—and I tend to believe them. Until I hear otherwise. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted as the banana saga unpeels. (Snopes: “Banana Peal; Claim: Bananas will be extinct within ten years,” by Barbara Mikkelson [September 23, 2003]; via BoingBoing)

(City of Lost Children)

(1995) dirs. Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet - Ron Perlman, Daniel Emilfork, Judith Vittet, Mireille Mossé, Joseph Lucien, etc., and The City

Synopsis: The core story, maybe, is that there’s a mad scientist (of sorts) who, has… well, problems, as mad scientists are wont to have. Unable to dream, said mad scientist (Krank, played by Daniel Emilfork) sees a solution in kidnapping children and stealing their dreams. Except that all he gets are nightmares, the city being what it is and the children having the fears they do, and he wakes up from his stolen dreams, screaming. Tragic. But science marches onward, as does Krank, who (via his own motley ‘family’ which includes a number of clones a brain floating in a fish tank and an extraordinarily short woman, not to mention the ‘cyclopses’) kidnaps circus strongman One’s little brother (One being played by Ron Perlman and his little brother by Joseph Lucien). One is not happy about this, and desperately wants to find and rescue his little brother. One stumbles into a group of orphan thieves, befriends one of their ilk, Miette (Judith Vittet, who’s outstanding), who in turn agrees—eventually—to help One find his brother. Along the way lots of things happen, all of it taking place on the stage of the extraordinary dark and twisted city created by Jeunet and Caro.

Review: The sets in ‘City’ are nothing if not outstanding. And they’re outstanding. As are the numerous bizarre characters we chance upon throughout the course of the movie. Clones. Genius demented divers. I think I mentioned the cyclops characters already. Etc. etc. Anyway, there are lots of weird characters. There are points in the movie when you’re not even sure the plot’s there, and you think the movie might have gotten completely distracted, but it doesn’t really matter because the characters are so three-dimensional—four- and five-dimensional, some of them—and it’s really just an enjoyable film. Or I thought so, anyway. So maybe it isn’t entirely obvious if the city was created for the sake of the story or the story was created for the sake of the city, but either way, it’s wickedly creative and cleverly warped. Fantastic.

Rating: [••••] out of [•••••]