Girl Detective

I recently noted how I had a hard time recommending Mr. and Mrs. Smith because most people interrupted to say that they didn’t like Angelina. While I certainly understand being bugged by an actor, I also know that good directors can get compelling performances out of normally average actors. Two relatively unknown films I have recommended often get eye rolls because of their stars, yet those who pass up these movies will miss out, because they are treats.

Out of Sight, directed by Steven Soderburgh, starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez.

Femme Fatale, directed by Brian De Palma, starring Rebecca Romijn-Stamos and Antonio Banderas.

#31 in my 50 movie challenge for the year was Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I know that you may not like either of the stars, particularly Ms. Jolie, since this is a usual comment once I say that I saw and liked the movie. This was a good summer action film. It was funny, it had good car chase scenes, and like it or not, there was good chemistry between the stars. They looked like they were having fun. Vince Vaughn was good if underused in the role of Pitt’s less good looking but funnier friend. The metaphors of lying for repression and violence for sex were hardly veiled, but some of the updates on the war of the sexes were quite good, e.g., he keeps his guns in the toolshed while she keeps hers in the oven.

#30 in my 50 movie challenge for the year was Crash, directed by Paul Haggis. In Altman-esque fashion, Crash follows a handful of characters through a few days and several belief-straining coincidences. But the story doesn’t suffer for these coincidences, as it doesn’t from a few bits of stilted dialogue. Instead, I was swept up in characters, their stories, and amazement because I didn’t see a bad performance in the bunch. Don Cheadle was, as usual, amazing, but the surprises were Sandra Bullock and Brendan Fraser, both cast against type. Matt Dillon and Terrence Dashon Howard both chewed up the screen during their scenes. Dillon’s character was sometimes so hateful that it was a brave role to take on, and an even braver one to do so powerfully. Crash was about racism, and it had some ugly moments, but it had compensating beautiful ones, too. What was most interesting was the complexity of the characters. Only one character seemed wholly good; the others were all a compelling, wrenchingly real mix of good and bad. I am still thinking about this film days after I saw it. One of the themes I took away was that we often can’t predict outcomes, so we might as well act in line with our higher ideals rather than out of our baser fears.

I’m coming to you cordless from the relative cool (about 80) of my basement as I test drive some new hardware while Drake naps. I have a few wrinkles to iron out, but I think a new writing routine is in the works, one that doesn’t involve skulking around the too-hot upstairs study.

Technically, I’m wireless, not cordless, but then I wouldn’t have been able to quote from one of the best teen movies ever, The Sure Thing. Did you miss that 80’s gem? If so, watch it to see Anthony Edwards with hair, Nicolette Sheridan before she became a skank, John Cusack being cute and charming as always, and a funny small role by Tim Robbins.

A reminder that the FX series Rescue Me has just begun its second season. The first episode, “Voice Mail” aired on Tuesday, but will be re-run several times. Rescue Me stars Denis Leary as Tommy Gavin, a drunk, foul-mouthed fireman who has been psychologically crumbling ever since he lost his cousin and best friend on 9/11. Much of it is set in the firehouse, and the sexism and the rampant testosterone are jaw-dropping, entertaining, and scarily believable. Leary’s hair always looks a little too yellow, a little too long and like it’s got a little too much product in it. In spite of the odd hair, it’s a good show. Dark, but not without redemption. The writing is fast and sharp, and I find it exhilarating to see a show built around such a deeply flawed character. And I don’t mind watching Daniel Sunjata, who plays a fireman named Franco, once a week, either.

Two movie tickets: $16.50
Medium (quite yucky) popcorn, bottle of water, box of Junior Mints: $11.25
Discounted parking: $2
Friend who offered to watch child at last minute so both of us could go to movie together: priceless.

DVDs are easy impulse buys, which my husband G. Grod and I have successfully managed to curtail in the last several months. Instead we’ve been watching movies from Tivo (too often not in widescreen format. Why? I think only Turner Classic Movies and the Independent Film Channel get this right.), watching DVDs previously bought on impulse, or renting them from the library, though it has a prohibitively long wait list for most good, new releases. But tallying up the costs of our night out means that most DVDs are less expensive than a night out for two, even without paying a sitter.

There are certain movies, like Batman Begins, which is what we saw, that benefit from being seen on the big screen. Yet there are many others that are fine viewed at home, where we usually have much better snacks. Yes, Netflix is still a better deal than buying, but only if you keep returning those movies. We had the same three movies for three months around the time Drake was born. I don’t even remember what they were. We returned them unwatched when we cancelled our subscription. But perhaps impulse-buy DVDs are not the worst budget wrecker in the world. Plus, I bet they’d bring good re-sale if sold quickly at either at Half-Price Books or on Ebay, lowering the cost even more.

Batman and I go way back. My first celebrity crush was on Adam West, when I was in first grade. I watched Batman every day, even if I’d seen the episode before. I remember lying to my mother that they only re-ran episodes once to try to get out of a trip to the store. I missed whatever episode that was (Batman and Robin trapped in a beehive, perhaps?) but I did get a few comics that day. Then my comic reading and Batman appreciation went dormant for many years, emerging much later when a boyfriend handed me the two graphic novel standards–Watchmen by Alan Moore and The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. I was back into Batman, and back into comics, and have not abandoned either in the fifteen (!) years since. Soon after those initial graphic novels, I read Batman Year One, also by Frank Miller, and I liked it even more than I did Dark Knight Returns. (This view, I know, borders on heresy in the geek-dom.) It was a dark story, very much of its time in the 80’s, that emphasized the all-too-human aspects of the characters Batman, James Gordon, and to a lesser extent, Catwoman.

Therefore it was with some trepidation that I saw that a Batman origin movie was coming to the screen. I’d seen all four Batman movies, liking each one less, and actually feeling ashamed at having seen the last one. I had to be reminded who it was who played Batman in it–that was how forgettable George Clooney was in the role. Part of the problem of a Batman movie is the casting of Batman. Most actors can play either rich playboy Bruce Wayne or Batman, but not both. But when the reviews started to come in that Batman Begins was good and Christian Bale was well cast, I began to hope. And when a friend offered to watch Drake so that my husband G. Grod and I could actually go out and see a movie together, we knew immediately what we wanted to see.

Batman Begins was movie #29 in my 50 movie challenge for the year. And it was great fun. It was dark and atmospheric with good special effects. Everyone there played it straight, even the villains–there was no overacting or kitsch factor. There were a few throwaway one-liners to please the groundlings, but overall, it was extremely well done. This is not a movie of Batman Year One. The director and Frank Miller have been reminding people of that in recent interviews. It is, however, a well-done work on the origin of the man behind and within the mask. And because of that, I think it’s a fitting homage to one of my favorite graphic novels.

#28 in my 50 Movie Challenge for the year, and a recommendation from my friend Zen Viking back from the Shakespeare post. A high school riff on Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. Funny and engaging in a teen movie kind of way, i.e. it’s not life changing. Larry Miller is hilarious as Bianca and Kat’s obstetrician father who refuses to let them date. I had a tough time suspending my disbelief that either Heath Ledger or Julia Stiles was scary enough that no one would date them. They still look like movie stars. David Krumholtz seemed to be channeling Richard Kind, but has since graduated from the part of “less good looking but funnier friend” (one of Roger Ebert’s Movie Cliches), to hot young thing on Numb3rs.

I finished watching Season Two of MI-5 on DVD last night, and am in the middle of A. L. Kennedy’s alcoholic love story, Paradise. I must take some drastic measures to lighten things up. If those are the only two media things I’m in the midst of, I might forget what hope is.

Both, though, are extremely good. I recommend them, just in conjunction with other, lighter things.

Closer. 2004. Directed by Mike Nichols, who is Mr. Diane Sawyer, FYI. #27 in my 50 movie challenge for the year. I’d heard mixed things about this film. Some said it was great with terrific performances. Others said it was too dark and overly cruel. Both are true, though. It is well directed and acted, and doesn’t paint a reassuring portrait of couples in love. It does show, though, with cutting accuracy some of the truly funny and pathetic things people do while in pursuit of what they call love. I thought Clive Owen’s performance as Larry was the strongest, and not just because I have a crush on him. Many reviews said there were no sympathetic characters, bu at the end of the film, I liked and understood Larry, which I think had a lot to do with Owen’s portrayal. The scene when he and Julia Roberts reveal secrets to one another had tremendous emotional power. Much less effective was Natalie Portman. I am mystified that she earned an Oscar nomination. I could tell by Portman’s delivery that the script originally was a play. She sounded like she was reciting lines. Owen starred in the stage version, though in the character of Dan, played by Jude Law in the film. Charlie Rose interviewed Owen and tried to get him to admit which of the two parts he liked best. Owen, however, would not be goaded into an undiplomatic statement. He was unequivocal in his respect for having worked with Nichols, whom he called brilliant, but rather less effusive about Robert Rodriguez, with whom he worked on Sin City.

Lone Star. 1996. Directed by John Sayles. #26 in my 50 movie challenge for the year. I love watching a film and feeling swept up in the hands of an expert storyteller and skillful director. Lone Star intertwines stories of people in a small town around the theme of prejudice. It’s a mystery, told in the present and the past, with stellar performances. The characterization of a huge number of characters is pulled off gracefully, even as it shows people in all their messy complexity.

#25 in my 50 Movie Challenge for 2005. You knew this was coming, didn’t you? To finish my Don Quixote related media, I watched Lost in La Mancha, the documentary of Terry Gilliam’s failed attempt to bring DQ to film. Much was made of the fear of this turning into The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, a costly Gilliam flop. The documentary details the painful deterioration of the film due to an accumulation of almost unbelievable bad fortune. The production is plagued by bad weather, absent actors, military maneuvers, an ill lead actor and more. What I found most interesting was that Gilliam did not intend to film a straight adaptation. His film was to be called The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Johnny Depp, sporting a thick mane of dark, wavy hair with a blond streak, was cast as a modern ad agency guy who is transported back in time, and mistaken by DQ for his squire. I was surprised to hear Gilliam has an American accent. I thought he was English because of all the work he’s done with Monty Python, and was chagrined to learn at the IMDB that he’s from my neck of the woods, Minneapolis.

23. The Night of the Hunter. 1955. Directed by Charles Laughton. Mitchum is mesmerizing and terrifically creepy. While some of the sets were laughably fake (one house looked as if it were a cardboard cutout silhouetted against the sky), this movie still packs a wallop of tension. It can’t be coincidence, can it, that in the end, a character notes that “Children abide” while Jeff Bridges noted at the end of The Big Lebowski that “The Dude abides”?

24. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. 2003. Directed by Peter Weir. An entertaining, well-crafted and not over-the-top epic. Russell Crowe has good hair, and carries off puffy shirts well.

More from my 50 movie challenge for 2005. My friend Becca wondered if I pick out what I watch/read in advance. Nope. I make it up as I go along. Becca lent me movie #s 18 and 20, which were good antidotes to #17.

16. Second Sight 2: Hide and Seek. 2003. Eh.

17. About Schmidt. 2002. Directed by Alexander Payne. Overly long. Unpleasant. Not that funny. I much preferred Sideways.

18. The Big Lebowski. 1998. Directed by Joel Coen. Very funny. The Dude is an amiable, like-able loser, unlike Schmidt. Favorite quotes: “It really tied the room together” and “Nice marmot.”

19. The Interpreter. 2005. Directed by Sydney Pollack. Sean Penn is stunning. A good, solid thriller. They were wishy washy about the romantic tension and should have left it out entirely.

20. Army of Darkness. 1993. Directed by Sam Raimi. I liked this much better than I remember liking it when I watched it before. Is it the director’s cut? Is it that I didn’t watch Evil Dead 1 & 2 right before it? In any case, good, silly, B-movie fun.

21. Laurel Canyon. 2003. Directed by Lisa Cholodenko. Not a good movie, but a great performance by Frances McDormand. How do you know that Kate Beckinsale has fake tits? Her bra never comes off. Not during sex with her boyfriend, not in the pool or in bed for a three way. McDormand is a good actress, and her beauty is real, interesting and complex. Beckinsale looks and acts like a Barbie doll.

22. The Iron Giant. 1999. Directed by Brad Bird. I love this film. Great story, great 1950’s look, great voice casting.

What were you thinking, asked people when I exclaimed over how huge the Sistine Chapel was.

“A little room, 20 feet square maybe, with a six foot ceiling. You know, a ceiling that you can actually imagine someone painting.”

How big did you think he was going to be, asked people when I stared up and up at David’s statue in the Accademia in Florence.

“Seven feet, tops. Bigger than life, sure, but not more than double!”

As I mentioned in my oil-change story, there are a lot of things that I simply don’t know until I experience them myself.

I was reminded of these gaffes when I went to the library yesterday. Over the past several months, references to Don Quixote have been accumulating in my mind, making me ever more aware of this gap in my cultural literacy. Terry Gilliam made “Lost in La Mancha,” a documentary that detailed his failed attempt to make Don Quixote into a movie. A new translation of Don Quixote was published to much acclaim, and a weblog was created in response. My friend Duff recommended The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters in spite of its cover; it features a fictional attempt to commit Don Quixote to film.

It’s time, I thought. I reserved it from the library, and was bursting with excitement when I went to pick it up. Then I literally picked up the Neal Stephenson”•sized* volume. I had NO IDEA that Don Quixote was such a long book. My enthusiasm evaporated.

Until I read the translator’s note, that is.

The extraordinary significance and influence of this novel were reaffirmed, once again, in 2002, when one hundred major writers from fifty-four countries voted Don Quixote the best work of fiction in the world….

And his writing is a marvel: it gives off sparks and flows like honey. Cervantes’s sytle is so artful it seems absolutely natural and inevitable; his irony is sweet-natured, his sensibility sophisticated, compassionate, and humorous. If my translation works at all, the reader should keep turning the pages, smiling a good deal, periodically bursting into laughter, and impatiently waiting for the next synonym (Cervantes delighted in accumulating synonyms, especially descriptive ones, within the same phrase), the next mind-bending coincidence, the next variation on the structure of Don Quixote’s adventures, the next incomparable conversation between the knight and his squire.

My enthusiasm returned, more cautiously this time. Maybe, I thought, just maybe I can read Don Quixote. I can give up my “one book at a time” rule while I do, so it isn’t the only thing I’m reading. And if I read 50 pages a day, I can finish in three weeks.

Am I brave or foolhardy to take on this tome? Will I fail? Readers, I will let you know.

Works mentioned here:

*Copyeditor’s note. To be precise, I am using an en dash in an adjectival phrase consisting of an open compound (here, a proper name) to another word. The Chicago Manual of Style only mentions this use with prefixes, though. As the CMS notes, this is a bit fussy, but I’ve spent so much time looking it up that I’ve included it.

There’s a new episode of Veronica Mars on tonight, Tuesday April 19 at 9 p.m. Eastern/8 p.m. Central. Last week’s episode had a kiss between Veronica and Logan. What will come of it? Watch tonight; maybe we’ll find out.

More reviews from my self-imposed 50-Movie Challenge.

10. Bad Santa. 2003. Directed by Terry Zwigoff. So dark that it often goes beyond the reach of humor. Weird, uncomfortable, sometimes quite funny. Sad for John Ritter that this was the last thing he worked on, because the unfunny scenes with him and Bernie Mac were reportedly tacked on in order to extend to movie’s running time.

11. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. 2002. Directed by George Clooney. Sam Rockwell plays Chuck Barris, creator of cultural icons like The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, and The Gong Show, who claimed in his autobiography that he moonlighted as a hitman for the CIA. Barris later recanted, and Clooney’s movie does an excellent job with this amibiguity. The casting of megastar Julia Roberts as a spy, along with interviews with former Barris associates, contribute to the “is it real?” vibe. The film also slyly reminds us that reality TV is not a recent phenomenon.

12. Mean Girls. 2004. Directed by Mark Waters. Had some good commentary on how girls undermine other girls. Avoided many cliches, and had some laugh-out-loud moments.

13. Destry Rides Again. 1939. Directed by George Marshall. Jimmy Stewart is charming. Marlene Dietrich is funny. Great catfight. Tons of fun.

14. Second Sight. 1999. Directed by Charles Beeson. Not a film, but rather a Mystery miniseries starring my boyfriend Clive Owen as a detective who is going blind, but trying to hide the fact to protect his job. It veers occasionally into the realm of cheese, but is overall a good story, well acted.

15. Sin City. 2005. Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. Dark with a capital D. A stunning visual adaptation of Miller’s graphic novels, but one that replicates their flaws: simplistic, violent, misogynist, and hyper-fetishized. Rosario Dawson is the only performer who falters. The others are able to bring some dimension to their reductive characters, all the more impressive since the movie was filmed almost entirely in front of a green screen. My boyfriend Clive Owen’s accent is flattened, but not obliterated.

There is a new episode tonight of Veronica Mars on UPN at 9 p.m. Eastern, 8 p.m. Central.

The front page of Salon today had features on the show and its creator Rob Thomas, both of which I’ve written about previously.

If you didn’t believe me, believe Salon. Veronica Mars is good. Check it out.

More on my self-imposed 50-Movie Challenge. I’m not writing about books lately because I’m doing research for my novel.

9. Tully. 2002. Directed by Hilary Birmingham. A quiet little gem of a movie about a small-town loverboy who learns not to be such an ass. The beautiful scenery and the unconventional, red-haired beauty of Julianne Nicholson both reminded me of Malick’s Badlands, though that’s a heavy comparison for this little film. A little slow to start, it eventually got me completely engaged with its story and characters. I loved it.

A few days later, I started to watch All the Real Girls. 2003. Directed by David Gordon Green. I watched for thirty minutes, then gave up. It is also the story of a small-town loverboy. I did not, though, buy Paul Schneider as the lead. Yes, I know womanizers don’t have to be good looking or socially ept, but I find them more believable in fiction when they are. (Seriously, who are you going to buy as a womanizer? Him, or him?) I didn’t buy Natasha Leone as an ingenue. While Tully unfolded slowly and carefully, All the Real Girls jumped around in fits and starts, often dropping in on characters in mid-conversation. It felt too self-consciously clever on the part of the director. Both movies got great reviews, but I couldn’t work up the gumption to finish the latter.

There are several geek-friendly movies coming out soon. Frank Miller’s Sin City on April 1. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on April 29. Batman Begins on June 17.

Wait, isn’t there something else the geeks are excited about this year, coming out soon?

Oh, right.