Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I had so much fun. Good action movies make you want to do the things you see on screen. Iron Man is fun to watch, but I don’t feel like I want to fly around and shoot beams out of my hands. But this? Yeah, I want to hold up a shield and run through locked doors. The First Avenger is still my favorite of the Marvel movies, but this is a nice elaboration and keeps the good drama/humor balance. Such a great character, becoming more suspicious, more wary of what he’s asked to do.
Michael Clayton
Michael Clayton. I love this movie. (Previously.) Clooney has the lead role, but Wilkinson (incredible) and Swinton bring in the color and the contrast - each of the three responding to the ongoing toll of their work. Other good slow-burning corporate conspiracy mood movies? Gotta check out Arbitrage and The Conversation.
아저씨 (The Man from Nowhere)
아저씨 (The Man from Nowhere). Another abduction/rescue movie in the spirit of Taken or Commando, but it plays with the pace quite a bit more. Surprised both by how dark/graphic it was, and by its melodrama (colorful, sunny flashbacks). I like the use of first-person POV in some of the action scenes. Oldboy has some similar driven/relentless/remorseless violence. I also liked Won Bin in Mother.
Deadfall
Deadfall. There’s some good northern winter noir here and there, but it’s not consistent. I wonder if a different, shorter edit would have worked better for me. The Place Beyond the Pines is a better exploration of family relationships + law enforcement. The Grey is a better snowbound film where the odds are stacked from the beginning. I should re-watch both of those.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Grand Budapest Hotel. I dig it. It’s got the usual fussy-awesome art direction and some technically interesting camera stuff, but what I really liked here: a good heart. Didn’t have much of the rooted dysfunction or cynicism or weariness that made some of his previous movies kind of a drag for me at times. I think I’ll call this my favorite of the Wes Anderson movies I’ve seen.
Kickboxer
Kickboxer. Another childhood favorite revisited. This has not aged well. If you need ‘80s Van Damme, you will be much, much happier with Bloodsport. This one does have that classic dance scene, though.
Interesting villain-in-prison cliché to see popping up recently
Interesting villain-in-prison cliché to see popping up recently. Practical for shooting movies (nothing blocking your view), but then again, these days you can put a camera anywhere. Pairs nicely with a more paranoid, surveillance-oriented approach to war and policing. Can’t fight what you can’t constantly observe, or so they say.
The Great Discontent: Austin Kleon
On the “velvet rut”:
It’s real, and it’s easy to get stuck in it. You start to think, “I’ve got my breakfast tacos, my sunshine, my BBQ, and my food trucks. I’m just going to sit here and do my thing.”
If you mull over a movie or TV show for a week, you liked it
One of my general rules is, if you’re on the fence about a movie/TV show/etc and you mull it over for a week, you liked it.
Matt Zoller Seitz. Also applies to books, concerts, paintings…. people?
“Beat It” composed using only Michael Jackson’s voice
Demo of Beat It composed using only Michael Jackson’s voice
As Jackson couldn’t fluently play any instruments, he would sing and beatbox out how he wanted his songs to sound by himself on tape, layering the vocals, harmonies and rhythm before having instrumentalists come in to complete the songs.
One of his engineers Robmix on how Jackson worked: “One morning MJ came in with a new song he had written overnight. We called in a guitar player, and Michael sang every note of every chord to him. “here’s the first chord first note, second note, third note. Here’s the second chord first note, second note, third note”, etc., etc. We then witnessed him giving the most heartfelt and profound vocal performance, live in the control room through an SM57. He would sing us an entire string arrangement, every part. Steve Porcaro once told me he witnessed MJ doing that with the string section in the room. Had it all in his head, harmony and everything. Not just little eight bar loop ideas. he would actually sing the entire arrangement into a micro-cassette recorder complete with stops and fills.”
Reasons why I laugh when people say he wasn’t a real musician.
Dang. Dude was good.