My creative process begins with: just thinking. I do a lot of thinking, a lot of pondering. I rarely watch films in airplanes; I just sort of sit there, looking at the ceiling. Day dreaming is the equivalent of doodling; it’s mental doodling.
Composition No. 62 from Rear Window
Composition no. 62 is from Rear Window (1954, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) Cinematography by Robert Burks
I love love love that you can see the reflection of the window through the lens.
Finally, A Non-Embarrassing Classical-Music Scene in a Blockbuster Movie - The New Yorker
The tendency to associate classical music with murderous insanity is a curious neurosis of the American pop-cultural psyche.
Finally, A Non-Embarrassing Classical-Music Scene in a Blockbuster Movie - The New Yorker
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. It’s fun! I wish it were as stylish as some of its predecessors. I wasn’t picking up on a McQuarrie directorial stamp like we saw in the De Palma, Woo, and Abrams movies. Also a little bit disappointed with Hunt this time around. Seems like he was a bit overmatched at times – more like something you saw in the early stages of Edge of Tomorrow, or something out of Indiana Jones. I’m use to a Hunt that’s more ruthlessly (absurdly) competent. But still, really solid, and I love the pace. That Ferguson is Cruise’s equal (superior?), the opera scene is top-notch, the villain is perfect, and it’s nice to see an action movie that doesn’t feel like it needs a built-in romance. Filed under: Tom Cruise, Mission: Impossible.
I’d never had to think about exactly what I meant
I’d never had to sit and try to think about exactly what I meant by each thing I was saying, because normally, I had written it. And so honestly, what I tried to do was picture what an actor I admired would do, and I copied that. And that is the absolute truth. I imagined what somebody would do if they were given this part, and then I did all of those things.
Jason Segel talks about taking on the daunting role of David Foster Wallace.
Mindy Kaling's Guide to Killer Confidence
Here’s how I think you can get your confidence back, kid: Work hard, know your shit, show your shit, and then feel entitled.
Song of the Sea
Song of the Sea. From the same crew that brought you The Secret of Kells. This one is lighter, and more of a mess. It is heart-stoppingly gorgeous at times, and I love the sound design. I also love how much the story was told visually. The direction tunes us in to the acting, their moods, what’s they’re interacting with, where they are, guiding us along as they meet their new challenges. That’s all lovely. But there’s a lot of mythology and plotting and tasks that got in the way for me, and when the climax came around, I just wasn’t invested enough to revel in it. I think The Secret of Kells is the stronger of the two.
When Did Feminism Get So “Sneaky”?
There’s a nefarious, Mobius strip quality to “sneaky feminism” as a piece of rhetoric. If the point of using it is to satisfy readers that the product in question is ideologically sound, but also chill (Lean in! Not too far!), then this ostensible attempt to make feminism palatable is rather anti-feminist, if sneakily so. That’s because one of feminism’s foundational goals has always been to release women from their disproportionate obligation to show tact, delicacy, and sweetness—to say their piece without being aggressive or annoying about it. Yet we’re asking feminism itself to shimmy through a window and creep down a corridor dancing between laser beams before whispering its claims in the cultural ear.
The Guest
The Guest. It’s a really satisfying little thriller. Love that they cut out whatever dumb backstory explains this guy, and just ran with it. Sort of like Jack Reacher, with a drifter passing through town, getting mixed up with some teens that are waaaaay out of their depth. Love the creepy pumpkins and jack o'lanterns other spooky mood bits throughout. Gotta be one of the last movies to work CDs into the plot. Killer soundtrack.
Q&A: Kobe Bryant talks retirement, playoffs and life after basketball
“They see me workout. They see me train. They see the effort I put in. But I’m always Dad to them. If I try to show them how to make a move, they are like, ‘Dad, seriously?’ [Like] I don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m just Dad. It’s awesome.”
Q&A: Kobe Bryant talks retirement, playoffs and life after basketball
Three Colors: Red
Three Colors: Red. Third and last in the Three Colors Trilogy. This one felt more natural than Blue (and less of a drag), and not as zany as White. So balanced and sure. I dig it.
The Anthropoid Condition - The Los Angeles Review of Books
This is one of the best interviews I’ve read in recent months. I could feel my brain stretching and warping throughout. Thanks to @mattthomas for recommending it. Some good morsels, unapologetically out of context:
My modus operandi in general: to try to be as precise and informed as possible while also taking metaphors seriously as paths to insight.
And:
Since mortals cannot read (or write) very many books, I think an author should thank the reader for choosing your book by not wasting their time.
And:
The history of media theory from McLuhan to Kittler was always also an implicit theory of gender. What if the philosophy of technology focused on birth as much as death? What if we appreciated container technologies as much as power technologies, or labor on life as much as work on things? What if we took domestication not as lost vigor but as the site of the hardest and greatest work? The book doesn’t answer these questions at length, but suggests they are essential to any future philosophy of media.
And:
It would take a lot of thought to detail my research techniques but they include the following imperatives: write early in the morning, cultivate memory, reread core books, take detailed reading notes, work on several projects at once, maintain a thick archive, rotate crops, take a weekly Sabbath, go to bed at the same time, exercise so hard you can’t think during it, talk to different kinds of people including the very young and very old, take words and their histories seriously (i.e., read dictionaries), step outside of the empire of the English language regularly, look for vocabulary from other fields, love the basic, keep your antennae tuned, and seek out contexts of understanding quickly (i.e., use guides, encyclopedias, and Wikipedia without guilt). As to tools, the body is the writer’s essential tool, and I have not quite resolved the question of how to write and read and have a body at the same time.
His new book sounds great.
I run a university. I’m also an Uber driver.
Instead of getting a glimpse into the new economy, I was getting full exposure to the burdens of the old economy — specifically, how hard it is for regular working people to make it from their home or apartment to a job every day.
Trainwreck
Trainwreck. Gonna sound like a total old man, but this is a mess. I walked out of the theater thinking, “Okay, that was fun here and there”, and as the week went on I got more and more annoyed. Vulgarity can be fun, but it’s not enough. There’s some super lame homophobic/racist stuff. The main character seems to despise her sister’s child and husband for no good reason. Surprisingly frosty relationship. Interesting that it opens up with strong resistance to anything resembling slut-shaming… and then tells a story leading to a very traditional redemption and triumph. Acting-wise, Schumer is better than I expected. Hader every bit as good. LeBron is magnetic, but his character is just weird. Better writing would have helped him shine. In general, the celeb cameos are lame. There is some lovely physical comedy, though. Like early on, walking down a shitty sidewalk in heels, and a triumphant moment on the boat. And later one, putting an average person next to pro perfomers, and seeing how they compare. That’s great stuff. But the scene exists as a dance ex machina (sorry), and doesn’t work. Where did she find time for that? No idea why Ezra Miller exists in this story. Blah. Cf. The Age of the Jokeless Comedy
The best way to communicate your needs is to trust them
The best way to communicate your needs clearly is to trust them, vs. spinning them in the most favorable way or second-guessing your own normalcy.
The Place Beyond the Pines
The Place Beyond the Pines. This was my second viewing (cf. the first), and I really really liked it. The whole thing hung together for me better this time. One thing I noticed the second time around that I appreciated: the movie opens with the sound of Gosling’s breathing prominent; the second main chapter opens with Cooper’s. I would watch a feature film made entirely of those tracking road shots.
The map of American literature’s most epic road trips
Lil B sums up summer in Atlanta
Blackhat
Blackhat. Some really cool moments and scenes, but a bit underwhelmed the second time around. (The first.) Updated Michael Mann rankings:
Selfish
I read Kim Kardashian West’s book Selfish, and can’t help but like her more. (I’ve never watched the TV shows, and only know the bare sketches of her bio and place in culture at the moment.) I think any book of portraits of just one subject would have a similar effect. Just another human gettin’ by.