I'm coming back to you.
So, yesterday was kind of intense. It's not that I had so much to do, or that I started so early in the morning and ended so late at night, but once I was up and moving I had only exactly enough time to do everything I had planned. There really wasn't ten minutes to spare on any one leg of the journey, and I had to keep checking to make sure I was on schedule. But, the great part is that I DID IT ALL. I feel like I packed in the might of twelve weekends into that one day.
The other strange thing is how weirdly symmetrical my day turned out to be. I started by walking all the way down Wythe to volunteer at the animal shelter in Williamsburg. I ended the day by walking up Wythe after going to the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Between, I walked to the Nassau Ave G stop to catch the train to Tim's housewarming party. Shortly after returning, I walked to the Nassau Ave G to go to the Thai restaurant before the concert. If you made a map of everywhere I'd been, it would look almost like a perfect "J," and you would have traced over it twice. I kind of liked the way that turned out, although a smarter person might have arranged everything so that they'd only have to go to Williamsburg and the Nassau Ave G stop once. (I actually wound up walking seven miles getting from place to place.) Efficient planning isn't nearly as interesting.
The Music Hall stop was to see Bishop Allen for the first time since they released Grr…. No broken glasses this time. If you compare what we knew then to what we know now, the setlist seems pretty similar to the one we had in November. Actually, the one from last November seems a smidge better, if only because that one had "South China Moon." Still, it's definitely more fun to see them when you know all the songs. Plus, you're probably getting sick of me gushing about how adorable they all are, but it's fact. They were very jumpy last night. The best part of the concert was, when they played "Shanghaied," they started it by all jogging in place-all of them. It was delightful. The first band that went on was the buzzy Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, which is a horrible name for a band that actually turned out to be pretty good. They have an awesome drummer and he's only 14 years old. (Jesse Twittered during the set, and the lead singer totally called him out for it. That’s what you get for being in the FRONT ROW.)
Speaking of things that are awesome, Adventureland was great. That and Coraline are my favorite movies of the year so far. I say so because the movies I saw in March were more of a mixed bag. There's not even that many of them.
Watchmen: B+
What a good way to start off the month! I only gave it a B+ not because of how it compares to it source material, but because it's not as perfect as The Dark Knight. Jesse's right in that there is a lot of slow motion and the fight scenes are a little silly. But, other than that, I think it stayed true to the spirit of the graphic novel. They changed the ending and replaced it with something that makes complete sense. The actors did justice to the characters, though some (Jackie Earle Healey!) were better than others (sorry, Malin Ackerman). They got the look of the Watchmen world in most cases. Some of what they added that didn't come from Alan Moore-some of the music cues, and the opening sequence where they briefly run through the history of the Watchemen-were some of the best parts of the movie. So yeah, it's not the best movie ever, but, overall, I'm satisfied. Sorry, squiddy.
The Great Buck Howard: B-
This movie was good without giving me a reason to recommend it to anyone. Malkovich gives a terrific, off-the-wall performance. Colin Hanks is perfectly likable. The two share some splendid moments together. Emily Blunt is in it, but she doesn't really serve any purpose. It's fine, and then it ends. There's not really much else to say about it. Oh, except that Colin Hanks's character wants to be a writer, so you can pretty much imagine that this is a sequel to Orange County and the transition is pretty seamless.
Sunshine Cleaning: B
Geez, this movie was serious, wasn't it? I feel like they had exactly one lighthearted moment so they can put something funny in the trailer. The rest of the movie was about beautiful women who suffer and in their suffering only become more beautiful. Which they were, but still, Amy Adams and Emily Blunt had great chemistry and I would've liked to see more goofing around between them. Still, nothing in the movie was as devastating as some indie movies can get, so it could've been even more serious, I guess. And, at this point, I'd pretty much watch Amy Adams do anything-they really could have made this movie 90 minutes of her actually cleaning a house, and I'd still go to see it.
I Love You, Man: B-
I really enjoy Paul Rudd and Jason Segal, and they do what they do here, so on some level it delivers. I wasn't expecting so much of the humor to be embarrassment-oriented, but that's really my problem, not the movie's. The movie has other problems. I feel like they made the typical romantic-comedy formula movie only about two guys instead of a guy and a girl. In this case, Jason Segal plays the quirky individual who plays by his own rules and teaches the guy to be less uptight, a la Julia Stiles in A Guy Thing. That's not that unusual, either: Superbad is a great movie that plugs two dudes in the rom-com formula. My problem with this is that Rashida Jones is really funny, but they don't let her do anything. It's like now that they finally figured out how to make both halves of a romantic comedy be funny, they're still not even going to try to let women be funny. I feel like when you're peddling a movie that has dog reaction shots, you have no excuse for sidelining your funny women.
Knowing: A-
Nicolas Cage is the secret to this movie's greatness. He's his own suspension of disbelief machine. For example, in Ghost Rider, when he picks up a martini glass and starts eating jellybeans out of it, no one says, "That's so out-of-character!" It's just…Nic Cage. So he can take the dopey silliness of this movie and really sell it in a way that more conventional, more believable actors wouldn't be able to. And within this really hokey framework, there are some actual moments of genuine suspense, some amazing sequences (sorry but that plane crash looked really awesome), and even some tenderness. Some laughable parts, too, but for the most part I was with it because Nicolas Cage makes the best faces.
Monsters vs. Aliens: B+
Not to always be harping on the status of women in movies, but I definitely agree with Slate's assessment that it was excellent to have a chick hero who wasn't anyone's mother, girlfriend, wife, etc. I didn't expect the movie to be so focused on Susan, but I'm glad it was. On the other hand, the most enjoyable parts were when Susan banded together with the other monsters for general mayhem and world-saving. Seeing them all fight a giant alien robot totally trumps any character-development scenes they gave her. I still appreciate that they were there. Besides the feminism, the monsters (and even the evil alien) were all terrific. I don't think all celebrities are good voice actors, but they picked a great bunch of actors this time-every monster was funny in a different way. (I really dug Bob's inability to separate his feelings from everyone else's.) Unfortunately, there are humans in the movie too, and they're bland and boring. Since it's a Dreamworks movie and not a Pixar one, there are stupid gags mixed in with the good ones, and the humans more often than not get the short end of the stick. Oh well, not everything can be Up.
Duplicity: B
I liked it better than Michael Clayton. That's about the best I can say, since I don't like Julia Roberts, and that completely colors the whole movie. I always wanted Clive Owen to have the upper hand, even when I wasn't supposed to want him to have the upper hand, just because I don't like anything about her. (If you've seen it: I wanted them to go ahead with the pizza plan because I like him better.) Other than my "meh" feelings towards JR, the rest of it was entertaining and kept my interest. It's not the worst way to spend an afternoon.
were more of a mixed bag. There's not even that many of them.
The other strange thing is how weirdly symmetrical my day turned out to be. I started by walking all the way down Wythe to volunteer at the animal shelter in Williamsburg. I ended the day by walking up Wythe after going to the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Between, I walked to the Nassau Ave G stop to catch the train to Tim's housewarming party. Shortly after returning, I walked to the Nassau Ave G to go to the Thai restaurant before the concert. If you made a map of everywhere I'd been, it would look almost like a perfect "J," and you would have traced over it twice. I kind of liked the way that turned out, although a smarter person might have arranged everything so that they'd only have to go to Williamsburg and the Nassau Ave G stop once. (I actually wound up walking seven miles getting from place to place.) Efficient planning isn't nearly as interesting.
The Music Hall stop was to see Bishop Allen for the first time since they released Grr…. No broken glasses this time. If you compare what we knew then to what we know now, the setlist seems pretty similar to the one we had in November. Actually, the one from last November seems a smidge better, if only because that one had "South China Moon." Still, it's definitely more fun to see them when you know all the songs. Plus, you're probably getting sick of me gushing about how adorable they all are, but it's fact. They were very jumpy last night. The best part of the concert was, when they played "Shanghaied," they started it by all jogging in place-all of them. It was delightful. The first band that went on was the buzzy Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, which is a horrible name for a band that actually turned out to be pretty good. They have an awesome drummer and he's only 14 years old. (Jesse Twittered during the set, and the lead singer totally called him out for it. That’s what you get for being in the FRONT ROW.)
Speaking of things that are awesome, Adventureland was great. That and Coraline are my favorite movies of the year so far. I say so because the movies I saw in March were more of a mixed bag. There's not even that many of them.
Watchmen: B+
What a good way to start off the month! I only gave it a B+ not because of how it compares to it source material, but because it's not as perfect as The Dark Knight. Jesse's right in that there is a lot of slow motion and the fight scenes are a little silly. But, other than that, I think it stayed true to the spirit of the graphic novel. They changed the ending and replaced it with something that makes complete sense. The actors did justice to the characters, though some (Jackie Earle Healey!) were better than others (sorry, Malin Ackerman). They got the look of the Watchmen world in most cases. Some of what they added that didn't come from Alan Moore-some of the music cues, and the opening sequence where they briefly run through the history of the Watchemen-were some of the best parts of the movie. So yeah, it's not the best movie ever, but, overall, I'm satisfied. Sorry, squiddy.
The Great Buck Howard: B-
This movie was good without giving me a reason to recommend it to anyone. Malkovich gives a terrific, off-the-wall performance. Colin Hanks is perfectly likable. The two share some splendid moments together. Emily Blunt is in it, but she doesn't really serve any purpose. It's fine, and then it ends. There's not really much else to say about it. Oh, except that Colin Hanks's character wants to be a writer, so you can pretty much imagine that this is a sequel to Orange County and the transition is pretty seamless.
Sunshine Cleaning: B
Geez, this movie was serious, wasn't it? I feel like they had exactly one lighthearted moment so they can put something funny in the trailer. The rest of the movie was about beautiful women who suffer and in their suffering only become more beautiful. Which they were, but still, Amy Adams and Emily Blunt had great chemistry and I would've liked to see more goofing around between them. Still, nothing in the movie was as devastating as some indie movies can get, so it could've been even more serious, I guess. And, at this point, I'd pretty much watch Amy Adams do anything-they really could have made this movie 90 minutes of her actually cleaning a house, and I'd still go to see it.
I Love You, Man: B-
I really enjoy Paul Rudd and Jason Segal, and they do what they do here, so on some level it delivers. I wasn't expecting so much of the humor to be embarrassment-oriented, but that's really my problem, not the movie's. The movie has other problems. I feel like they made the typical romantic-comedy formula movie only about two guys instead of a guy and a girl. In this case, Jason Segal plays the quirky individual who plays by his own rules and teaches the guy to be less uptight, a la Julia Stiles in A Guy Thing. That's not that unusual, either: Superbad is a great movie that plugs two dudes in the rom-com formula. My problem with this is that Rashida Jones is really funny, but they don't let her do anything. It's like now that they finally figured out how to make both halves of a romantic comedy be funny, they're still not even going to try to let women be funny. I feel like when you're peddling a movie that has dog reaction shots, you have no excuse for sidelining your funny women.
Knowing: A-
Nicolas Cage is the secret to this movie's greatness. He's his own suspension of disbelief machine. For example, in Ghost Rider, when he picks up a martini glass and starts eating jellybeans out of it, no one says, "That's so out-of-character!" It's just…Nic Cage. So he can take the dopey silliness of this movie and really sell it in a way that more conventional, more believable actors wouldn't be able to. And within this really hokey framework, there are some actual moments of genuine suspense, some amazing sequences (sorry but that plane crash looked really awesome), and even some tenderness. Some laughable parts, too, but for the most part I was with it because Nicolas Cage makes the best faces.
Monsters vs. Aliens: B+
Not to always be harping on the status of women in movies, but I definitely agree with Slate's assessment that it was excellent to have a chick hero who wasn't anyone's mother, girlfriend, wife, etc. I didn't expect the movie to be so focused on Susan, but I'm glad it was. On the other hand, the most enjoyable parts were when Susan banded together with the other monsters for general mayhem and world-saving. Seeing them all fight a giant alien robot totally trumps any character-development scenes they gave her. I still appreciate that they were there. Besides the feminism, the monsters (and even the evil alien) were all terrific. I don't think all celebrities are good voice actors, but they picked a great bunch of actors this time-every monster was funny in a different way. (I really dug Bob's inability to separate his feelings from everyone else's.) Unfortunately, there are humans in the movie too, and they're bland and boring. Since it's a Dreamworks movie and not a Pixar one, there are stupid gags mixed in with the good ones, and the humans more often than not get the short end of the stick. Oh well, not everything can be Up.
Duplicity: B
I liked it better than Michael Clayton. That's about the best I can say, since I don't like Julia Roberts, and that completely colors the whole movie. I always wanted Clive Owen to have the upper hand, even when I wasn't supposed to want him to have the upper hand, just because I don't like anything about her. (If you've seen it: I wanted them to go ahead with the pizza plan because I like him better.) Other than my "meh" feelings towards JR, the rest of it was entertaining and kept my interest. It's not the worst way to spend an afternoon.
were more of a mixed bag. There's not even that many of them.