Obligatory movie reviews

At the IFF sneak previews, Brian (not the former Kendall Brian) will explicitly ask attendees to rave about the movie to others, so that the studios might see results and give them more screenings. So, here it goes.

No Country for Old Men is the latest Coen Bros. Flick. Our screening was followed by a Q&A with the lead, Josh Brolin, who is a fun interview. Oddly, he's listed as 3rd at IMDb, but... I think Tommy Lee Jones is the Morgan Freeman narrator more than the actual plot lead. Although, there's room for dispute.

Armak warned me that it was "Brutal". And it was. Still. well done. I like most Coen brothers films. It's apparently pretty true to the original book, which I haven't read. The scariest part of the (really scary) villain is his hair... wait, no, I take that back, Javier Bardem was the lead in The Sea Inside? Damn, wow. I totally didn't recognize him. He's Good!

Solidly recommended.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is the latest by Sidney Lumet, who is not, in fact, dead. Go figure. He's been directing (masterpieces) forever, so it IS a bit of a surprise. The plot can politely be described as a downward spiral. The top of the spiral, the beginning of the movie, starts out with seeing Philip Seymour Hoffman naked, and just gets More Horrifying. Marisa Tomei still looks good neked, but, trust me, it's not enough.

Hoffman has been on my shitlist since Happiness, which is still the Worst First Date Movie Ever, although, as hahathor pointed out, if a movie gets a strong reaction (due to the effectiveness of the delivery of the plot, as opposed to "who thought this angle/lighting/dialogue/close-up would work?") then the cast and crew did very well. Happiness is an awesome film that I Never. Want. To. See. Again.dougo's date was also at last night's screening, and had an anecdote about how someone else found that an even worse date movie.

Like Happiness, I don't want to see this awesome film ever again. Which is to say it was very effective, very well done, and, if you can take it,  worth seeing once. Once.

::

The Somerville is all kinds of upbeat right now. The other theaters were showing Michael Clayton, Eastern Promises and Gone Baby Gone. I came home direly wanting something upbeat. Jon and Stephen are reruns this week, another guilty pleasure was pre-empted by coverage of the San Diego Fires, so I ended up watching TiVo's "recommended" The Good Girl, because anything with Jake Gyllenhaal should cheer me up, no matter how depressing, right? Sigh.

Obligatory movie reviews

At the IFF sneak previews, Brian (not the former Kendall Brian) will explicitly ask attendees to rave about the movie to others, so that the studios might see results and give them more screenings. So, here it goes.

No Country for Old Men is the latest Coen Bros. Flick. Our screening was followed by a Q&A with the lead, Josh Brolin, who is a fun interview. Oddly, he's listed as 3rd at IMDb, but... I think Tommy Lee Jones is the Morgan Freeman narrator more than the actual plot lead. Although, there's room for dispute.

Armak warned me that it was "Brutal". And it was. Still. well done. I like most Coen brothers films. It's apparently pretty true to the original book, which I haven't read. The scariest part of the (really scary) villain is his hair... wait, no, I take that back, Javier Bardem was the lead in The Sea Inside? Damn, wow. I totally didn't recognize him. He's Good!

Solidly recommended.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is the latest by Sidney Lumet, who is not, in fact, dead. Go figure. He's been directing (masterpieces) forever, so it IS a bit of a surprise. The plot can politely be described as a downward spiral. The top of the spiral, the beginning of the movie, starts out with seeing Philip Seymour Hoffman naked, and just gets More Horrifying. Marisa Tomei still looks good neked, but, trust me, it's not enough.

Hoffman has been on my shitlist since Happiness, which is still the Worst First Date Movie Ever, although, as hahathor pointed out, if a movie gets a strong reaction (due to the effectiveness of the delivery of the plot, as opposed to "who thought this angle/lighting/dialogue/close-up would work?") then the cast and crew did very well. Happiness is an awesome film that I Never. Want. To. See. Again.dougo's date was also at last night's screening, and had an anecdote about how someone else found that an even worse date movie.

Like Happiness, I don't want to see this awesome film ever again. Which is to say it was very effective, very well done, and, if you can take it,  worth seeing once. Once.

::

The Somerville is all kinds of upbeat right now. The other theaters were showing Michael Clayton, Eastern Promises and Gone Baby Gone. I came home direly wanting something upbeat. Jon and Stephen are reruns this week, another guilty pleasure was pre-empted by coverage of the San Diego Fires, so I ended up watching TiVo's "recommended" The Good Girl, because anything with Jake Gyllenhaal should cheer me up, no matter how depressing, right? Sigh.

Fort Point Review

The map of Fort Point Open Studios has changed dramatically since I first started going. Almost half of the original warehouse/studio buildings are now non-artist condos, most notably, the Revolving Museum, which used to contain the awesome studio of Wayne Viens and room enough to race around all the 3-wheeled toys built by Jeff Smith.

I don't know where Viens' studio is now. Jeff moved across the street, onto the same floor with Jim Kalambokas and Danny O, and they seem to be ok with the few 3-wheeled toys being all over the floor. (And are far more akin to what I loved about the Revolving Museum than what goes by that name in Lowell.) For folks on my flist who think they kick ass at collage, this guy PWNS you. Just sayin' And, Jim won me over with these (which was what I meant to mention to toonhead_npl at party 2 on Saturday, but drew a blank and mentioned Leisuretown instead, or whoever it was who did the perverse cereal box mascots... I can't remember now.)

This year, that floor also had an installation of sod area rugs. Since it was pretty hot on Sunday, and we'd been out for hours at that point, the grass was cool, fragrant and refreshing. And they were glad that some of the visitors knew enough to interact with it.

The reason it took so long to get there was because the map's changed. I had to start with Building A to visit Dan and Bebe. Building A has for years been The A Street Cooperative.

However, now a lot of the (richer) artists have drifted further south, to the new Midway Studios. The new Building A is shiny, posh newly refurbished warehouse. A lot of the artists there are doing really well, and, while these aren't always directly proportional, are really talented. Jennifer Lewis had Alice in Wonderland themed stuff, so I have to give it mention. Paul Stremple, the inventor of the Banana Bunker, lives there. Since I've had no end of amusing interactions since I first encountered one at the ICA, it was awesome to find out he's local.

And Paul Laffoley, who will blow your mind. He is possibly the weirdest person I've met. He has a scientific approach to modern comprehension of classical Pantheons. If you crazy kids in TAG don't already know this guy, then you need to find out about him. If you don't love him, I expect an insanely detailed treatise with full color diagrams explaining precisely why not. Really, really, check his stuff out. My companions had to come back and rescue me because I couldn't get a word in edgewise long enough to escape. And, well, who wants to anger a dude who figured out how to make an electric VooDoo machine? He has a lot on his mind, and I bet most folks think he's some new age nutjob.

Then we went to see Steve Hollinger, who I adore, and I like his art too. (o: The cutest artist we saw was Timothy Kadish. The girls were on the prowl and kept pointing out the hot guys to me. I have a bad habit of looking at the art and decor and not the people.

Our mob had dwindled to just Purple and myself by the time we got to Dan and Bebe's building, which is so familiar to me that I probably break speed records with how quickly I go through all six floors. The biggest impression was Martin Berinstein, whose current bubbles series decorates at least one whole wall of the fantasy bathroom I'll never be able to afford.

By the time we reached 300 summer street, the central building to the event, we were too burnt out to look at more than the gallery and cafe.

Then a rogue band of vegetarians dragged me to the falafel palace (a first for me), and I made it home too late to even consider checking out a concert. Too fried as well. The weekend had been team practice, head of the charles, making cider, birthday party E, harvest party, 6 hours of sleep, weight training, brunch and 5 hours of urban art hiking. Probably one of my busiest weekends of the year. Woo!

Fort Point Review

The map of Fort Point Open Studios has changed dramatically since I first started going. Almost half of the original warehouse/studio buildings are now non-artist condos, most notably, the Revolving Museum, which used to contain the awesome studio of Wayne Viens and room enough to race around all the 3-wheeled toys built by Jeff Smith.

I don't know where Viens' studio is now. Jeff moved across the street, onto the same floor with Jim Kalambokas and Danny O, and they seem to be ok with the few 3-wheeled toys being all over the floor. (And are far more akin to what I loved about the Revolving Museum than what goes by that name in Lowell.) For folks on my flist who think they kick ass at collage, this guy PWNS you. Just sayin' And, Jim won me over with these (which was what I meant to mention to toonhead_npl at party 2 on Saturday, but drew a blank and mentioned Leisuretown instead, or whoever it was who did the perverse cereal box mascots... I can't remember now.)

This year, that floor also had an installation of sod area rugs. Since it was pretty hot on Sunday, and we'd been out for hours at that point, the grass was cool, fragrant and refreshing. And they were glad that some of the visitors knew enough to interact with it.

The reason it took so long to get there was because the map's changed. I had to start with Building A to visit Dan and Bebe. Building A has for years been The A Street Cooperative.

However, now a lot of the (richer) artists have drifted further south, to the new Midway Studios. The new Building A is shiny, posh newly refurbished warehouse. A lot of the artists there are doing really well, and, while these aren't always directly proportional, are really talented. Jennifer Lewis had Alice in Wonderland themed stuff, so I have to give it mention. Paul Stremple, the inventor of the Banana Bunker, lives there. Since I've had no end of amusing interactions since I first encountered one at the ICA, it was awesome to find out he's local.

And Paul Laffoley, who will blow your mind. He is possibly the weirdest person I've met. He has a scientific approach to modern comprehension of classical Pantheons. If you crazy kids in TAG don't already know this guy, then you need to find out about him. If you don't love him, I expect an insanely detailed treatise with full color diagrams explaining precisely why not. Really, really, check his stuff out. My companions had to come back and rescue me because I couldn't get a word in edgewise long enough to escape. And, well, who wants to anger a dude who figured out how to make an electric VooDoo machine? He has a lot on his mind, and I bet most folks think he's some new age nutjob.

Then we went to see Steve Hollinger, who I adore, and I like his art too. (o: The cutest artist we saw was Timothy Kadish. The girls were on the prowl and kept pointing out the hot guys to me. I have a bad habit of looking at the art and decor and not the people.

Our mob had dwindled to just Purple and myself by the time we got to Dan and Bebe's building, which is so familiar to me that I probably break speed records with how quickly I go through all six floors. The biggest impression was Martin Berinstein, whose current bubbles series decorates at least one whole wall of the fantasy bathroom I'll never be able to afford.

By the time we reached 300 summer street, the central building to the event, we were too burnt out to look at more than the gallery and cafe.

Then a rogue band of vegetarians dragged me to the falafel palace (a first for me), and I made it home too late to even consider checking out a concert. Too fried as well. The weekend had been team practice, head of the charles, making cider, birthday party E, harvest party, 6 hours of sleep, weight training, brunch and 5 hours of urban art hiking. Probably one of my busiest weekends of the year. Woo!