Another great collection of short stories. The standouts in this one are an exquisitely concise and chilling sketch of Hell called Other People, a story from The Matrix called Goliath that is better than both sequels combined, and The Problem with Susan - a very dark and satisfying epilogue to the Narnia chronicles, especially for those readers who were surprised and perhaps a little put off to discover their beloved childhood fantasy was a big fat religious allegory upon closer inspection. There's also an American Gods novella with a little spin on Beowulf for fans of Gaiman's earlier novel. Not to be missed for Gaiman fans.
Seen a bunch of movies lately too. Quite a few good ones.
My personal favorite of the bunch is The Wrestler. I love all of Aronofsky's films and Mickey Rourke was my high school hero. He's fantastic here, continuing the comeback that started with his pure badass-concentrate portrayal of Marv in Sin City. Rourke, the guy, is kinda crazy and he's really fucked up his face with plastic surgery, but somehow this just makes him even more compelling to watch. He's a walking tragedy and you can't take your eyes off him. I really hope we get to see him face off against Robert Downey Jr. in the Iron Man sequel. The Wrestler is a great new spin on the Rocky story and one of the best movies of the year says me.
Gran Torino was a disappointment. Clint does another tweak on his tough guy image as a cranky old bastard, annoyed and eventually charmed by all the Hmong Vietnamese immigrants taking over the neighborhood. The major problem with this movie is that Eastwood has cast a bunch of non-actors as the Hmong kids. I understand he's gotten a lot of praise for casting actual Hmongs and all, but the problem is, they can't act. At all. They seem like they're in a high school play and Eastwood blows them all off the screen. It's very distracting. Eastwood runs around calling them all dinks and zipperheads and it's oh so funny 'cause, y'see, he's old (ha ha). The girl who plays his main foil has a lot of raw charisma, but still ...she can't act. Kind of a stumbling block when your performance is supposed to be the lynchpin of a major motion picture. I've heard a lot of people love this movie, but it left me cold. And I'm a big Eastwood fan. Oh well.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is great. I wept like a little girl. Pitt is solid. Cate Blanchett is the best actress working today. Tilda Swinton is teriffic in a smallish part. The actress who plays his adoptive mom does great work too. I should look her up on IMDB. The visual effects of Pitt aging backwards are fantastic. And bonus awesome points 'cause Dr. Jekyll plays Pitt's pop. (Yeah, that's right, I liked The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Sue me.) There's some logic problems that bugged me a little, but mostly I swallowed this one whole 'cause I'm a big sentimental sucker. I think it should get Best Picture.
MILK was also great. A very interesting story. That Anita Bryant sure was a coo coo nut. Josh Brolin is fast becoming one of the most interesting actors in the movies. And Sean Penn is freaking brilliant in this. He plays a guy that is so not like Sean Penn, so not like Sean Penn's image, and just disappears into the guy. No histrionics, no niggling acting tics. He just becomes Harvey Milk. He should win Best Actor. I kinda wanted Mickey Rourke to get it just 'cause Mickey Rourke is the coolest bag of nutballs on the planet, but Mickey's really just doing a spin on himself. Penn is Acting! As the Master Thespian would say. God, I'm old.
Slumdog Millionaire is another good one. Maybe not as great as everyone says it is, but a good time at the movies. Kind of a feel-good music video about life in the slums of Bombay. It looks great, it whizzes by, it's light as a feather.
Revolutionary Road was interesting. Pitch black drama about entropy in the suburbs. Kate Winslet is fabulous as per usual. Leonardo DiCaprio is a fine actor, but although he's 37 he still looks like he's about 14. I can't get past it. I didn't buy him as a tough guy in Gangs of New York or The Departed and I don't buy him as a family man in this. Otherwise, the movie is good, but blackly depressing.
Pride and Glory was OK. Funny that I don't remember ever reading or hearing anything about this movie even though it stars Ed Norton, one of my favorites. Colin Farrell is good in it too. This is a pretty cool corrupt cop movie until the end when it gets dumb. Coulda been a classic if it had a better ending.
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