get your netflix on, yo.
i have just finished (re)watching the entire LOST series, all 3.5 seasons. & now i don't quite know what to do with myself and my free non-painty time. so um, i've watched 2 great movies in the past 2 days, and i am now recommending them to thee.
the first is "13 conversations about one thing" & that thing is happiness. it stars the lovely and talented matthew mcconneghey (sp?) & that guy from o brother where art thou... ol'what'shisname w/ the mangled grill. it's done vignette style, with the past and present intermingled non-sequentially. i love movies that rearrange time... some notable examples: Memento* and um, LOST. the film analyzes different attitudes toward happiness- what it is, what creates it, maintains it, destroys it. ultimately one realizes that it is solely one's attitudes and beliefs about happiness that determines its presence in one's life. nicely done.
the second movie, "night on earth" written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, consists of 5 vignettes about 5 taxicab drivers and their fares in 5 cities- L.A., New York, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki. it's a comic drama- hilarious at times... how could it not be hilarious w/ Roberto Benigni in it? amazingly enough, the horridly irritating Rosie Perez couldn't even damage this rock solid film with her shrill, typecast "rosie-perezness". the coolest thing, i think, is that the director makes allusions to other great directors and films throughout all the sequences. i definitely recognized Fellini's hand in the Roman bit. there's a scene that's straight out of Nights of Cabiria... the entire film is beautifully shot- the cinematography is exquisite. each vignette opens with a montage of establishing shots- the location is artfully framed with a series of semi-stills, and the soul & character of the 5 cities are revealed to an original soundtrack by Tom Waites. haunting & melancholy, beautifully decaying decadence. the urban wasteland is inhabited by clowns and fools, endearingly human and humanizing.
*Guy Pierce has no upper lip, wtf?
& as an aside... i had an American Beauty moment today, watching a plastic bag caught in a whirlwind, dancing.
the first is "13 conversations about one thing" & that thing is happiness. it stars the lovely and talented matthew mcconneghey (sp?) & that guy from o brother where art thou... ol'what'shisname w/ the mangled grill. it's done vignette style, with the past and present intermingled non-sequentially. i love movies that rearrange time... some notable examples: Memento* and um, LOST. the film analyzes different attitudes toward happiness- what it is, what creates it, maintains it, destroys it. ultimately one realizes that it is solely one's attitudes and beliefs about happiness that determines its presence in one's life. nicely done.
the second movie, "night on earth" written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, consists of 5 vignettes about 5 taxicab drivers and their fares in 5 cities- L.A., New York, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki. it's a comic drama- hilarious at times... how could it not be hilarious w/ Roberto Benigni in it? amazingly enough, the horridly irritating Rosie Perez couldn't even damage this rock solid film with her shrill, typecast "rosie-perezness". the coolest thing, i think, is that the director makes allusions to other great directors and films throughout all the sequences. i definitely recognized Fellini's hand in the Roman bit. there's a scene that's straight out of Nights of Cabiria... the entire film is beautifully shot- the cinematography is exquisite. each vignette opens with a montage of establishing shots- the location is artfully framed with a series of semi-stills, and the soul & character of the 5 cities are revealed to an original soundtrack by Tom Waites. haunting & melancholy, beautifully decaying decadence. the urban wasteland is inhabited by clowns and fools, endearingly human and humanizing.
*Guy Pierce has no upper lip, wtf?
& as an aside... i had an American Beauty moment today, watching a plastic bag caught in a whirlwind, dancing.