the netflix rundown
i got two movies i was really looking forward to seeing a couple of weeks ago: sylvia and sugar cane alley. i'd never seen sylvia, and it had been years since i saw sugar cane alley, but i remember really enjoying it. sylvia is a biopic about sylvia plath, the literary genius who was also rather unfortunately emotional unstable. love her poetry, and the bell jar was semi-autobiographical fiction brilliance. sugar cane alley is one of the most well known and acclaimed caribbean films, a coming of age story about a young boy growing up in martinique.
too bad neither one of the dvds would play. i tried cleaning them, etc, they just wouldn't play. so i sent them back.
then i got happy endings, broken flowers, and murderball. i liked, but didn't love, happy endings--one of those dark comedy ensemble films telling the separate stories of several dysfunctional characters that eventually all intersect. when it was released to theaters, it was critically well received. have no idea how popular it was. i found it entertaining, but not very compelling or even as terribly unique as the reviewers made it seem. as i was watching it, i constantly was reminded of the last book i read, all aunt hagar's children by edward p. jones: both the movie and jones made a habit of using a lot of foreshadowing, and of telling what would happen to the characters 10, 20, 30 years down the road, long after the action of the story, as the writer/filmmaker is telling us, is concluded. (i know professor mendelson would kill me for writing this paragraph. do not, he always said, fall into the trap of comparing the last 2 things you read.) sent happy endings back and got atl. cuz i'm told i should see it, and i do love t.i.
next i tried really hard to watch murderball, but i found it waaaay too uncomfortable to watch the gentlemen in wheelchairs banging into each other and flipping their chairs over and landing uncomfortably on their faces, necks, etc, in these rugby matches. i had to turn it off after about 20 minutes. so, perhaps i am a punk, but it was too emotionally draining for me to watch. back in the day, when oz was on tv, i also found that too emotionally draining to watch. but i haven't sent the movie back yet, cuz i might give it another try.
and i haven't even attempted to watch broken flowers again. it's a bill murray movie, and i hadn't heard about it in life until i saw it on my friend's netflix queue. the netflix friends feature has provided me a gold mine of film recommendations, so thank you to my netflix friends. anyway, i found myself unable to sit through a bill murray film in the 90s: what about bob? and groundhog day just did absolutely nothing for me. i heard good things about adaptation, but i've never seen it. lost in translation, however i adored. i watched it because i'm a scarlett johansson fan. so i think i'll watch broken flowers and then watch adaptation, too.
and i just thought i'd add that i'm really looking forward to seeing will smith's new movie the pursuit of happyness in theaters, but i'm bitter about the misspelling of happIness in the title. i understand it's all symbolic and whatnot and pertinent to the plot and message of the film, but it irritates me. but i'll see it anyway.
too bad neither one of the dvds would play. i tried cleaning them, etc, they just wouldn't play. so i sent them back.
then i got happy endings, broken flowers, and murderball. i liked, but didn't love, happy endings--one of those dark comedy ensemble films telling the separate stories of several dysfunctional characters that eventually all intersect. when it was released to theaters, it was critically well received. have no idea how popular it was. i found it entertaining, but not very compelling or even as terribly unique as the reviewers made it seem. as i was watching it, i constantly was reminded of the last book i read, all aunt hagar's children by edward p. jones: both the movie and jones made a habit of using a lot of foreshadowing, and of telling what would happen to the characters 10, 20, 30 years down the road, long after the action of the story, as the writer/filmmaker is telling us, is concluded. (i know professor mendelson would kill me for writing this paragraph. do not, he always said, fall into the trap of comparing the last 2 things you read.) sent happy endings back and got atl. cuz i'm told i should see it, and i do love t.i.
next i tried really hard to watch murderball, but i found it waaaay too uncomfortable to watch the gentlemen in wheelchairs banging into each other and flipping their chairs over and landing uncomfortably on their faces, necks, etc, in these rugby matches. i had to turn it off after about 20 minutes. so, perhaps i am a punk, but it was too emotionally draining for me to watch. back in the day, when oz was on tv, i also found that too emotionally draining to watch. but i haven't sent the movie back yet, cuz i might give it another try.
and i haven't even attempted to watch broken flowers again. it's a bill murray movie, and i hadn't heard about it in life until i saw it on my friend's netflix queue. the netflix friends feature has provided me a gold mine of film recommendations, so thank you to my netflix friends. anyway, i found myself unable to sit through a bill murray film in the 90s: what about bob? and groundhog day just did absolutely nothing for me. i heard good things about adaptation, but i've never seen it. lost in translation, however i adored. i watched it because i'm a scarlett johansson fan. so i think i'll watch broken flowers and then watch adaptation, too.
and i just thought i'd add that i'm really looking forward to seeing will smith's new movie the pursuit of happyness in theaters, but i'm bitter about the misspelling of happIness in the title. i understand it's all symbolic and whatnot and pertinent to the plot and message of the film, but it irritates me. but i'll see it anyway.
Labels: film
Did Sylvia have Gwenyth Paltrow in it? I really wanted to see that...it came on Lifetime Movie Network one day...but I missed it...
Posted by
Brandi |
2:37 PM
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