Monday, January 28, 2008

Review: Atonement

atonement.jpg Geez.  It's not very often that I love a romance movie.  Last night I attempted to see The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, but instead fell into Atonement, and boy am I glad.

While I've wanted to see this movie, I hadn't really made a commitment to see it in the theater, but two hours after the titles typed across the screen I'm proud to be able to say that I saw it on the big screen.

The story was excellent.  Epic, large, and full of emotion the story is a solid two hours within itself, and the director makes no apologies for pacing and doesn't need to.  From the moment of initial betrayal to the final act of atonement, this story is gripping but most importantly personal.  For the three characters involved, it's a lifetime's worth of pain, suffering, and (Tada! The cliche!) atonement.  The story was greatly enhanced by the editing in post and dreams of the characters, usually lacking in an epic love piece.  What the period bring to the film, i.e. snootieness, is made up for in personal involvement.

Kiera is grating, but I come to expect that from her roles.  Her performance is great as well as that of John Malkovich.  And oh yeah, that dress was freakin' amazing.

This film was great, with constant returns to previous story lines from different perspectives, the story was engaging, the acting was superb and the all together product was phenomenal.  It's too bad, but I'm nearly positive that his film will get snubbed at the Oscars.  With an easily identifiable story, Academy Voters won't want to appear dumb, and in my opinion, will probably go with the more critically acclaimed There Will Be Blood.  If you can run out and see this flic while it's still in theatres, I hope you take the opportunity.  You'll really appreciate it, believe me.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

New Star Trek to take Place on Battlestar Galactica

Film School Rejects posted a picture of a hallway from J.J. Abrams' Star Trek set.



I took one look at this and immediately thought of one of my favorite TV shows, Battlestar Galactica.

Evidence:
battlestar_hallway.jpg


Hmm...What does everyone think?  Is BSG more powerful than I'd previously imagined?

I'm not sure what I think of the upcoming remake (I'm not a Trekkie) but I believe in JJ and A-framed walls.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Westboro Church - Where do these people get off?

Less than 24 hours after the passing of Heath Ledger, and he's already been condemned.

During a cursory glance of the IMDB Dark Knight Board, I found a link to the following picture. Please know, I in no way support the organization and personally despise their views. Be warned, what is said in this following is sick and inhumane.



What are these people thinking? I don't understand where they get off, protesting a funeral.

I just don't know what else to say other than the fact that I'd like to express my disgust, and disapproval.

Saturday, January 05, 2008

The Good Fight


This is a post from one of my favorite authors about dreams and fighting for what you want. It seems to exemplify where I am at this point and where I hope to be.


The good fight
Category: Writing and Poetry

“I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith,“ says Paul in one of his Epistles. And it seems appropriate to remember the theme now that a new year is stretching out before us.

Men can never stop dreaming. Dreams are the food of the soul, just as food is to the body. In our existence we often see our dreams come undone, yet it is necessary to go on dreaming, otherwise our soul dies and Agape does not penetrate it. Agape is universal love, the love which is greater and more important than “liking“ someone. In his famous sermon on dreams, Martin Luther King reminds us of the fact that Jesus asked us to love our enemies, not to like them. This greater love is what drives us to go on fighting in spite of everything, to keep faith and joy, and to fight the Good Fight.

The Good Fight is the one we wage because our heart asks for it. In heroic times, when the apostles went out into the world to preach the Gospel, or in the days of the knights errant, things were easier: there was a lot of territory to travel, and a lot of things to do. Nowadays, however, the world has changed and the Good Fight has been moved from the battle fields to within us.

The Good Fight is the one we wage on behalf of our dreams. When they explode in us with all their might – in our youth – we have a great deal of courage, but we still have not learned to fight. After much effort we eventually learn to fight, and then we no longer have the same courage to fight. This makes us turn against ourselves and we start fighting and becoming our own worst enemy. We say that our dreams were childish, difficult to make come true, or the fruit of our ignorance of the realities of life. We kill our dreams because we are afraid of fighting the Good Fight.

The first symptom that we are killing our dreams is lack of time. The busiest people I have known in my life had time for everything. Those who did nothing were always tired and could hardly cope with the little work they had to do, always complaining that the day was too short. In fact, they were afraid of fighting the Good Fight.

The second symptom of the death of our dreams are our certainties. Because we do not want to see life as a great adventure to be lived, we begin to feel that we are wise, fair and correct in what little we ask of our existence. We look beyond the walls of our day-to-day life and hear the noise of spears clashing, feel the smell of sweat and gun-powder, see the great defeats and the faces of warriors thirsty for victory. But we never perceive the joy, the immense joy in the heart of those who are fighting, because for them it does not matter who wins or loses, what matters only is to fight the Good Fight.

Finally, the third symptom of the death of our dreams is peace. Life becomes a Sunday afternoon, not asking too much of us and not asking more than what we want to give. So we feel that we are “mature“, leave aside the “fantasies of childhood“ and guarantee our personal and professional success. We are surprised when someone our age says they still want this or that out of life. But deep in our heart we know that what has happened is that we gave up fighting for our dreams, fighting the Good Fight.

When we give up our dreams and find peace, we enjoy a period of tranquility. But our dead dreams begin to rot inside us and infest the whole atmosphere we live in. We start acting cruel towards those around us, and eventually begin to direct this cruelty towards ourselves. Sickness and psychoses appear. What we wanted to avoid in fighting – disappointment and defeat – becomes the only legacy of our cowardice. And one fine day the dead and rotten dreams make the air difficult to breathe and then we want to die, we want death to free us from our certainties, from our worries, and from that terrible Sunday-afternoon peace.

So, to avoid all that, let's face life with the reverence of mystery and the joy of adventure.

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Tuesday, January 01, 2008

"Eve just wanted to know shit"

Well, it's been a great winter break. I'm at Schuckman's tonight. I've been doing a lot of traveling, and phew, it takes a lot out of a guy. We're watching Hedwig, and I realize how much I've missed just hanging out without thinking about projects or what comes next.

This new year's eve was most excellent...and decidedly Legendary.

I had the yearly family drink-a-thon the other day, just getting lubed up for the night's excursions. The final talley was seven parties. We started at 10ish with pink champagne,
and by midnight, I was five sheets to the wind. I had an extraordinary midnight kiss from Jodi, Thanks btw. As Brady and I enjoyed some Scotch and a Cigar on the porch, we talked about hopes and such until we were assaulted by the rest of our party, ready to move on to Molly's, the local bar. We found out they had Absinthe and it was game over for Joe.

We went to a few more places, Suzie's and Dave Morgan's, after which I retired to Brady's...but Hark!

Around four thirty I remembered a bottle of wine I'd left in the snow at 11 that evening. We found it, still corked in the snow where I left it. Six hours later makes it LEGENDARY!


I'm still looking forward to getting back to FL though. I'm ready to get the mother-effin' ball rollin'. Ya hear?