Film Frames Friday

The Sick Report

I've had a bad cold and been watching some crappy television. So here's the recap.

How To Make It in America

Watched pretty much the full season. It's a likable show, while not being particularly interesting. HBO had had some pretty bland comedies in the last few years.

The Barefoot Contessa

Well-written, witty drama by Joseph L. Mankiewicz that outstays its welcome. Just too long, or I was just too sick.

The Roommate

Sorry Friday Night Lights fans, but Minka Kelly really cannot act.

Saw

Heard this was decent (unlike its spawn) and it was. Fast, twisty and gruesome, and with a spectacularly bad performance by Cary Elwes (intentional?).

Poetry Monday

I Started Early - Took My Dog

by Emily Dickinson


I started Early - Took my Dog -
And visited the Sea -
The Mermaids in the Basement
Came out to look at me -

And Frigates - in the Upper Floor
Extended Hempen Hands -
Presuming Me to be a Mouse -
Aground - upon the Sands -

But no Man moved Me - till the Tide
Went past my simple Shoe -
And past my Apron - and my Belt
And past my Bodice - too -

And made as He would eat me up -
As wholly as a Dew
Upon a Dandelion's Sleeve -
And then - I started - too -

And He - He followed - close behind -
I felt His Silver Heel
Upon my Ankle - Then my Shoes
Would overflow with Pearl -

Until We met the Solid Town -
No One He seemed to know
And bowing - with a Mighty look -
At me - The Sea withdrew -

Beginners

A series of scenes that repeat themselves and go nowhere. Maybe that's why it's called "Beginners," but it's frustrating to watch. Ewan MacGregor plays an LA-based graphic designer coming to grips with his father's death while starting a new relationship with Melanie Laurent, a French actress. The actors (and the film, at times) are attractive to look at but that's about it. You know a film is in trouble when MacGregor, Laurent and Christopher Plummer are all upstaged by a Jack Russell Terrier.

Film Frames Friday

 

Vintage Caine

Having just watched Get Carter I've been thinking about Michael Caine, one of our greatest living actors. For whatever reason, probably just in the right place in the right time, there are some very cool vintage shots of him floating around the web. How did he manage to seem both nerdy and dangerous at the same time?

Started Early, Took My Dog

Last night I watched the final episode of the Jackson Brodie series on PBS (courtesy of the BBC), and this morning I finished the final Jackson Brodie novel (well, final for now). The book was a mess at times, the way it switches its POV was often distracting and confusing, but then it all came together in the end. I think of these books as tragi-comedies, and the final twenty pages, or so, of this novel were extremely moving. Better than the TV series, that seems to catch the complexity of Brodie but not necessarily the complexity of all the other characters.

Oh, and best title of a book this year. Has to be, right?