Yale's Capsule Movie Reviews

Winged Migration I'm willing to bet that this film set the record for having the words "stunning" and "gorgeous" in its reviews. And it is stunning and gorgeous, and occasionally fascinating, but not terribly engrossing all the way through. I kept cracking jokes while we were watching it to the effect of: "You know what this movie needs? Adam Sandler."

The Big Lebowski Though I tried on three separate occasions, I could not hold my attention to this movie for more than ten minutes. I don't know if that's more an indictment of the movie, or of my attention span...

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 2 Four episodes of the old TV series, one of which features a very youthful looking William Shatner. This show holds up well over time, despite some pretty blatant hyperthespianism and some seriously primitive costumes. It's also funny that on one of the episodes that takes place on an airliner, the stewardesses ask the pilots out on dates and refer to them as "flyboys."

Waking Ned Devine Fantabulous, if slightly absurd tale of an Irish village coming together to try to lay claim to a winning lottery ticket held by a dead man. Like many place-specific movies (e.g. Fargo), the villagers' thick accents act as sort of a character themselves, lending an extra hunk of charm to an already charming movie. Great shots of the Irish countryside as well.

Full Metal Jacket I'd seen this several hundred times before, but Glenda had always avoided it, thinking it would be too depressing. She finally watched it and was pretty engrossed in it. I marveled at what a great character actor R. Lee Ermey is (the drill sergeant).

Spellbound Holy shit, this is the best movie ever. Well, best movie I've seen this year at least. It's a documentary that follows eight kids from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds as they prepare for the National Spelling Bee. As a former spelling bee dork myself (I took 4th in my junior high spelling bee and advanced to the Missoula County bee, where I bombed out of the third round by misspelling "intravenous," just after having a bunch of coins fall out of my pocket and all over the stage as I approached the microphone), I have a keen appreciation for the discipline it takes to succeed in these sorts of things, especially since it doesn't exactly win you a lot of cool points in the junior high milieu. And indeed, part of what makes this such a good film is the level of scorn you find yourself feeling toward these fucking über-achieving geeks that seemingly have nothing better to do with their childhoods than memorizing 8000 words a day with their pushy, overdriven parents. And actually, only about half of the parents are pushy; some of the other parents seem so ineffectual and detached, you wonder how they ended up with such smart, motivated kids.

Mr. Show: Season 2 Having happened upon several David Cross interviews lately, I wanted to like this really badly, but as it turned out, I could scarcely muster so much as a polite chortle or snicker. Which is too bad, because watching this, you really get the sense that Cross and partner Bob Odenkirk put a helluva lot of effort into this endeavor.

Rabbit-Proof Fence Yet another top-notch film from Australia, this film follows three aboriginal girls in the 1930s who escape a Christian reprogramming camp and try to hoof it a couple thousand miles back home. Unbelievable performances by the kids, and the "making-of" extras on the DVD reveal what a wrenching process it was to make this movie.

Heart: Alive in Seattle I've had a soft spot for Heart for several years now, so I was excited to see this concert. It doesn't disappoint; that Nancy Wilson is no slouch on guitar at all, and Ann's precipitous weight gain seems to have bolstered her vocal power. All their classic 70s stuff is here, plus a couple throwaway hits from the 80s ("These Dreams") and two Zeppelin covers, which I could have easily done without.

Magnolia This is Glenda's favorite movie of all time, but I just can't get into it. This is my second attempt, and I don't know... it just doesn't do anything for me. Not enough substance to live up to the epic scope of the film. I will say that, with this one outstanding performance (and a well written character), Mr. Tom Cruise singlehandedly redeems himself from years of shit like Days of Thunder and Cocktail. You know, capping on Tom Cruise is kind of a turkey shoot, but I think the guy can pull his weight if the writing is up to snuff.

Ghost World This is one of those movies that I loved, but I couldn't really articulate exactly why. Maybe it's the fact that the two girls are so hyper-cynical, which is such a stark contrast to Steve Buscemi's obsessive record geek character. The movie just sort of lopes along without much excitement, but for whatever reason, is completely intriguing in a sort of "This American Life" sort of way. Except instead of holding up the characters as everyday heroes, they're held up more as the objects of ridicule.

=======================================

This just in: There has been an indefinite moratorium placed on feeble attempts at humor based on the the word "masticate" and its perceived aural proximity to the word "masturbate." This watery joke was only vaguely amusing when I first started hearing it in sixth grade; subsequent abuse of this word has become so tiresome as to become totally unacceptable.

=======================================

Leftover Lynx:

Here Margaret Cho posts all of the racist, misogynist hate e-mail she's gotten in response to some anti-Bush remarks she made recently. Who ever said right-wingers were violently hostile half-wits?

David Foster Wallace Parody Contest

=======================================

NoMeansNo: Sex Mad / You Kill Me
(Alternative Tentacles, 1987)

COMMENTS

HIDE