Motion Pictures and Films

Bagdad Theatre
Originally uploaded by Rozanne.

The Academy Awards are coming up. I'm not especially thrilled. I haven't seen a single one of the motion pictures nominated (I'm waiting for Juno and No Country for Old Men to make it to a cheapo pizza and beer cinema like the Bagdad), but I did see some good movies last year. Here are my 10 favorites:

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (excellent, but depressing)
Blades of Glory (the Iron Lotus--need I say more?)
Breach (yet another fine performance from the under-appreciated Chris Cooper)
Into the Wild (a superb adaptation of a riveting book)
The King of Kong (who knew anyone still plays Donkey Kong or that they play it every waking moment?)
Margot at the Wedding (family dysfunction to the nth degree + top-notch performances from Jack Black and Jennifer Jason Leigh--love her!)
Sicko (made me even more outraged about our nation's piss-poor health care system)
Superbad (supergood, superjuvenile, superpenile)
Waitress (a comedy that made me cry)
Year of the Dog (an excellent satire/black comedy)

See them!

I'm in the thick of the Portland International Film Festival (PIFF) right now, and I am sorry to say that I am not batting 1,000 with it as I usually do. So far I've seen three films ("movies" are not shown at PIFF, only films). Two (The Trap [Serbia]) and Unrelated [Great Britain]) were duds. The Trap is little different from a mediocre American thriller. It did have one brilliant moment of home decor in the living room of a scruffy low-level thug—an enormous oil painting of himself talking on a cell phone. An oil painting! Ticky tacky--and hilarious! So, yes, the film has one teensy redeeming facet, but I still can't recommend slogging through the entire thing, which is rather ponderously paced for what purports to be a thriller.

The one PIFF film I do recommend is Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa. It's an American documentary about a bunch of misfits who live catch-as-catch-can in the New Mexican desert. Most are ex-military. For fun, they like to tip over clunker cars and trucks and then set them on fire and/or shoot at them. Somehow these folks manage to live on almost no money at all. Quite fascinating. Good luck finding it on DVD. I don't think it has a distributor. I've also got one more film to see, which is, by all accounts, supposed to be an excellent downer of a film--4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days.

Confusion to the Black-faced Clock!

Day 33/366: Medieval Spikes on the Vista Avenue Viaduct
Originally uploaded by Rozanne.

I have to say I really enjoyed the month of January 2008. Getting out there in the rain and schmizz is key, I think, to not sliding into a funk.

And it has, most certainly, been rainy! Sometimes I'd get back from a walk and as I bent down to take off my doofus-y rain boots, about 6 ounces of water would spill out of the hood of my rain jacket. That's what I mean by rainy. I always maintain that I like rain, so I guess I'm finally living up to that claim.

Today, I picked up tickets for the Portland International Film Festival (PIFF). As always, I'm excited to do a little armchair traveling via film. Here's what I'm going to see (if you must know).

The Trap (Serbia)
Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa (U.S., a documentary)
Clouds Over Conakry (Guinea)
Unrelated (Great Britain)
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (Romania)

There were a couple others I wanted to see (Jar City [Iceland--recommended by Alda] and Caramel [Lebanon]), but, contrary to what you might conclude by the fact that I'm seeing five movies in less than two weeks, I do have a life and both those movies conflict with a party I'm going to.

I'm reading a book right now called In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed. It's all about how people in modern society overbook themselves and rush around like maniacs multitasking, chronically sleep-deprived, and always feeling like they're never going to catch up or have any time to themselves. Sound familiar?

Apparently, the beginning of the end of the leisurely pace came with the invention of the clock. I like this quote (written [astonishingly] in 1304):

"Confusion to the black-faced clock...that awoke me! May its head, tongue, its pair of ropes, and its wheels moulder; likewise its weights and dullard balls, its orifices, its hammer, its ducks quacking as if anticipating day and its ever restless works."

I know just how that guy back in 1304 felt. I've never ever gotten used to the sound of an alarm clock going off, nor have I ever felt like I was ready to get up when it started buzzing, trilling, or chirping at me.

Anyway, it's a pretty good book, even though I don't think I'm as much a victim of the punishing pace as most folks I know (being my own boss and all). And since January was a slowish month workwise for me, I was sort of able to do more of the things I want to do. I do see a tremendous difference in my mood. I feel really good!

Obviously, getting out for a walk every day has got to have something to do with it, but not feeling as much deadline pressure as I normally have is a factor as well, I'm certain. Suddenly, I have more energy for creative endeavors whether it's making a batch of refrigerator pickles or buckling down to knit a terrifyingly ambitious (for me) cardigan. (Just so you know, I'm not making it in blaring hunting-season orange, but in a seasonally appropriate foresty-mossy color.)




Boo!