Night Moves

~ Mark

Night Moves. Movements of all sorts cultivate their own extremists. Part of being on that fringe is wrestling with futility. Even if you accept that you’re not able to do one huge world-changing act… you may not even be at peace with your own puny effort. Reichardt captures pretty standard thriller genre stuff with a spooky calm. The lead-up to and climax at the dam is brilliant. I love the scenes with jabs at how we’ve alienated ourselves. There are glimpses of homes with heavily landscaped backyards that imitate nature itself; leisure activities like golf in the same faux-natural environments; campgrounds where people sit in RVs and watch TV; gear stores that sell a squeaky-clean impression of interest in the outdoors; etc. Been a while since I’ve seen a character use a public library. Eisenberg is a master of sulking. He’s so good.

The Dark Science of Pop Music

~ Mark

While most users think of Shazam as a handy tool for identifying unfamiliar songs, it offers music executives something far more valuable: an early-detection system for hits. By studying 20 million searches every day, Shazam can identify which songs are catching on, and where, before just about anybody else.

The Dark Science of Pop Music

Jack Reacher

~ Mark

Jack Reacher. I liked it the first time, but I appreciate it so much more now. More subtlety than I remembered, like starting with a solid 8-10 minutes without dialogue. More great humor than I remembered, like Reacher sometimes acknowledging that he’s a bit ridiculous. And the mouthing off before the fight outside the bar. Love the dynamism in the car chase, great filming there. Also LOVE how he takes control of the hostage negotiation on the phone. There’s nothing else like it. This, then Oblivion then Edge of Tomorrow is a solid three-year run.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1

~ Mark

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1. It’s ~40 minutes of almost-revolution and ~80 minutes where we watch them shoot commercials. yawn I think there actually is an interesting movie to be made (already made?) about the internal/self-directed marketing for revolutionary movements, but it’s not this one. The first movie is the best. The second one has its moments. The trend is not good. Fingers crossed for a good finale.

Beyond the Lights

~ Mark

Beyond the Lights. This is pretty much at the peak of the bell curve for average, solid rom-drama. One thing I thought particularly interesting: the sexualization of pop music is more apparent/disturbing when it’s a fictional celebrity. There’s no built-in aura of fame, so the constructedness is so much more calculated and weird. Another thing: that they needed to invent a whole new set of songs (that are pretty passable) is an odd peek behind the curtains.

Interstellar

~ Mark

Interstellar. First time I’d seen anything on IMAX. Lives up to the format. It’s one of the best Nolan films since The Dark Knight, probably. But it’s very Nolan: he can direct the crap out of some spectacular action/space sequences, but it rarely moves me. (The truck/rocket scene above in the above screencap is a glorious exception). And it could use some trimming. I have to give him credit for directing original material though, and working with smart ideas. No one is doing crazy stuff at that level like he is. Maybe my second favorite after Memento? I need to re-visit The Dark Knight and The Prestige to see where it fits in.

Birdman

~ Mark

Birdman. Not for me. But like I said, If you like reading writers writing about how hard writing is, and also acting, you might like it. I appreciate the one-camera, no cuts constraint, but it feels claustrophobic after a while. Sweet soundtrack. Keaton is still the man.

The Thin Man

~ Mark

I read Dashiel Hammett’s book The Thin Man, and quite enjoyed it. Awesome story of a lovable couple casually working their way through a murder case that’s too amusing to ignore. Has some good droll observations about how people work, like the social boilerplate around saying goodbye:

We shook hands and make polite speeches all around and they went away.

Nice turns of phrase, like this bit after an underling compliments his boss:

“And what a hunch!” Flint exclaimed, practically top-heavy with admiration.

And I’m pretty sure this is one of the greatest paragraphs in the English language:

When we stopped at Reuben’s for coffee on our way home at four the next morning, Nora opened a newspaper and found a line in one of the gossip columns: “Nick Charles, former TransAmerica Detective Agency ace, on from Coast to sift the Julia Wolf murder mystery”; and when I opened my eyes and sat up in bed some six hours later Nora was shaking me and a man with a gun in his hand was standing in the bedroom doorway.

How could you read that, and not go immediately to the next chapter? I watched the movie right away, too, like I did with Gone Girl (movie, book). Both recommended.

The Thin Man

~ Mark

The Thin Man. I watched this after I read the book. It lives up to the source material, for sure. Delightful murder mystery + comedy. It’s nice to watch a charming couple (and pair of actors) just having a great time.

Nora Charles: You know, that sounds like an interesting case. Why don’t you take it?
Nick Charles: I haven’t the time. I’m much too busy seeing that you don’t lose any of the money I married you for.

~ Mark

Since my son was born I realized: soon, he’ll be three-and-a-half. Soon, he’ll be able to see who I was. And shortly after that, what he’ll be reading in the oldest blogs will be closer to his age than mine. Now, I write for him.

Anil Dash.
~ Mark

spoliamag:

When I lived in Christian places like Kansas and Texas, every so often I’d get a Christian trying to convert me. Now, though, I only get atheists trying to do the same thing.

I regularly receive emails from atheists who need to bring me to the truth and the light, and the most recent one came two weeks ago. “I feel sorry for you,” he wrote, which is always a good opener. “I feel sorry for anyone who continues on fantasies of Santa Claus or god past the age of 4.” 

He wanted to save me through conversation and conversion. The thing is, I had just the week before written this, in my essay on polytheism for the Los Angeles Review of Books, now up on their site:

What a tremendous weapon pity is! If you can frame someone as “pathetic,” then it’s okay to take their land, destroy their language and heritage, steal their children and place them in “decent” homes, and kill off their gods and heroes. It’s for their own good, after all.

In duBois’s book, the language monotheist believers use to talk about the heathens is essentially the same as the language New Atheists use to talk about all believers: “pathetic,” “superstitious,” “irrational,” “a stupendous system of error.” (That last one was said by Scottish missionary Alexander Duff about Hinduism.) Those who believe in something else are not simply different: they are misguided and need correction. This has been the justification for any number of wars or cultural erasings. Religion and dogma as colonialism.

And I wanted to write back, thank you for the concrete example of what I had just been writing about in the abstract! That’s amazing! But his email continued:

“I’ve seen your picture, and I think maybe we could have some fun. :) If you would like to meet up to discuss further, I’d love to buy you a drink.”

Women! Do not fuck your colonialist oppressors! Starve them out until they see the error of their ways or at least die without corrupting any others!

I did not write him back. 

Image: get it, St. Hildegard

Nightcrawler

~ Mark

Nightcrawler. This is at or near the top of my 2014 favorites. Gyllenhaal and Russo are great. A warning about the easy path from consumer to witness to amateur to professional to accomplice. Joblessness, economic precarity makes that transition even easier. Business theories unmoored from real flesh and blood humanity are worthless. Though the context here is metro network news, it also works as an indictment of CNN (et al.) and international affairs. Promote violence to sell more violence. Think globally, act locally. I love the moment during Bloom’s first monologue in the studio, where this laughably sentimental soundtrack eases in, cleverly undermining the creepster ravings. It’s a wink to the audience – “Can you believe this nut?“ Of course not. I think I might see this one again. It’d make a good L.A. nighttime adventure moral compromise double-feature with Collateral.