It's Been A While. Let's Catch Up.

Wow, my last post on here was about The Peanuts Movie.  So much has happened since then.  The Packers suffered heartbreak, the Badgers had a fun run in the tournament... it always comes back to sports for me, I guess.  Better than thinking of other things, like politics, which I don't much like to discuss anyway.  People's veins and eyes start to bulge when politics and politicians are being discussed.  Want to really get your blood boiling?  Get on Facebook and see what's trending, and then start reading the responses to the stories.



What's safe, then?  Entertainment, of course.  It's what I usually do on here.  Last month the story broke that the new head of AMC Theatres wanted to open up some theaters to texting.  Said that not allowing it basically told millennials to cut their arms off above the elbow.  I believe that to be true.  People can't part with their phones long enough to walk across a street, let alone live without them for two hours.  There should be a commercial showing someone texting and walking to illustrate the dangers of texting and driving.   Seems like the more technology we have, the less attention we pay to what matters. 

Enough talk about the tiny screens.  I've seen some good stuff on the big screen this year.  I decided to let the Star Wars hubbub die down a little bit before hitting the theaters, but installment number seven is still the best thing I've seen all year.  I was a little worried when I arrived (half an hour early, which gives a person time to worry), but it took all of five minutes to completely hook me.  I loved just about everything, but the pacing was fantastic and I loved the blend of new and classic characters. 

I've been ranking the movies I've seen this year on Letterboxd, and the worst one I've seen so far this year is the new Pee Wee Herman movie Pee Wee's Big Holiday.  The second worst was Concussion, which could have been the worst, but at the end of the day Concussion had a purpose and a story to tell, while Big Holiday just felt kind of stale and pointless.

Eye In The Sky was a gripping and engrossing film that really highlights the way wars are fought now.  A drone mission to eliminate high-ranking terrorists in the Middle East is complicated by a girl who starts selling bread outside a house where the terrorists are preparing to carry out a suicide attack.  No-win decisions have to be made by a team with members in multiple places, and most of the film is very tense. 

TV-wise, I watched the fourth season of Veep, in which Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) must now campaign to win her own term in the White House.  This was my least favorite season to date.  It's not that it wasn't funny, but a couple of the episodes were more obnoxious than amusing. 

That'll do it for now.  I'm hoping to see a couple of movies in the next couple of weeks, most notably Sing Street (directed by John Carney, who also directed Once).  I've also read a lot of good books this year (including some Pulitzer Prize winners picked out by my brother), so I'll get into that next time.  I'm currently in the middle of Everybody's Fool by Richard Russo, which is his follow-up to his early 90s novel Nobody's Fool.  So far so good.  It'll be interesting to see what twists and turns Russo throws in. 

Letterboxd list:

http://letterboxd.com/mfrets78/list/matts-movie-standings-2016/

Playlist- May 15, 2016

Today's playlist features some songs that I heard for the first time in the last few weeks.  I love the new Alicia Keys song "In Common", and Yuna's last album was one I really enjoyed, so it's good to hear the new tunes, including a track that features Usher.  "Are You Serious" is the title track from Andrew Bird's latest.   "In My Own Way" is a solid track from Ray LaMontagne's latest. 

The Peanuts Movie

There's no new ground broken in The Peanuts Movie.  Ordinarily, that's a criticism, but for me (and I would imagine most Peanuts fans), it was completely welcome.  I knew going in what I was going to see:  a kid who feels that he can't get anything right and has that feeling confirmed over and over again.   Kites won't leave the ground when Charlie tries to fly them.  Baseballs that he throws are hit back at him so hard that his clothes wind up scattered around the mound.  Charlie can't even pick out a normal Christmas tree without fouling it up.

Charlie's problems continue in The Peanuts Movie, and chief among them is shyness.  The little red-haired girl (she's still not given a name) moves in across the street and is in Charlie's class, but he can't work up the nerve to spit out a syllable in her direction.  How will he get her attention?  The film builds to that by the end, and in between Snoopy has some airborne adventures trying to rescue his love Fifi from the red baron.

It's really refreshing to see something like Peanuts brought back and not be messed with.  I was nervous heading in to see what might change, but really, the style and message of Peanuts is not altered at all.  The voices sound really similar to the Christmas special, and it was good to see that Peanuts was not really modernized (Charlie Brown's still using that blasted fountain pen, Snoopy's still plucking away at his typewriter).  I had a pretty goofy grin going during The Peanuts Movie.  For once, something I loved didn't change, and that was just fine with me.

Books: Ready Player One (Ernest Cline)

I ripped through Ready Player One quickly on my Nook.  It's a fast read, but the premise is also fascinating.  Set about 50 years from now in a dystopian USA, Wade Wells escapes from his grim reality by plugging into the OASIS, which is basically the ultimate virtual reality experience.  Users can go to custom-created worlds and their avatars don't have to resemble them whatsoever. 

The creator of OASIS, James Halliday, created an Easter Egg hunt in the Oasis.  Trouble is, he made it so difficult that no one is able to get anywhere for long stretches of time.  Wade's mission is to be the first to complete the hunt, since the winner gets a cash prize beyond their wildest dreams.  An evil corporation is complicating things, however, by trying to game the system by hiring Halliday nerds and find the egg, which Wade fears will mean the end of OASIS as he and the world know it.

Ready Player One is set to be adapted as a film in 2017 by Steven Spielberg, and I'll be really curious as to how much of the book is kept.  While it's a quick read, I can imagine the film bogging down a bit in the details of the quest.  I did love the format, though.  I was never all that talented at role playing video games and lacked the patience to play them, but Cline's very visual style captured my imagination throughout.  As good science fiction will do, the book also provokes thought about the future while entertaining. 

 

On The Trail

Hart Park, 6 AM
Can see my breath but short sleeving it
Go ahead black cat cross my path
Rather you than the train

Calves start tight
Hit the first bridge
Smell the breakfast food from the village

Others out here too
Runners, walkers, strollers, workers
Enjoying morning peace

Legs are pumping now
Music in my earbuds
Looping around the pool and Landing
Imagining it on a busy day


Got to keep the breathing steady
Legs are only part
Lungs are at the heart

Downhill a little
Let the legs relax
Pick up the pace on the homestretch

Passing tennis courts, baseball fields
Maybe a couple loops on the running track
I've got a burst now
Looking forward now, not back





 

Catching Up

Quick takes on things seen recently...


While We're Young:

A film about what happens when people try to act younger then they are.  Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts play Josh and Cornelia.  After the couple they normally hang out with has a baby, Josh and Cornelia begin hanging out with a couple in their twenties.  I didn't find While We're Young entertaining at all.  The film tries to comment on life in the present moment but comes off kind of preachy and pretentious.  The film is best when it stays with the theme of "40s vs 20s", as opposed to a subplot that questions what a documentary should be.  Either way, this one was just so-so for me (although Sarah liked it a bit more than I did).

Furious 7:

I don't think I have to go into the story too much.  This film was just a blast to watch.  The stunts were pretty amazing (cars...dropping from a plane!), and I think an action movie needs a good villain, which Furious 7 has.  The tribute to Paul Walker was touching.  We saw it on a regular screen, and I can only imagine how great it would be in IMAX form.

A Coffee In Berlin (Netflix):
(In German w/subtitles)

This one was recommended by my brother.  Filmed in black and white, it's a story about a guy who can't seem to get things right.  His girlfriend breaks up with him, loses his license because of a DUI (and the agent hearing his reinstatement case is in no mood to give it back), is pretty much broke, and to top it all off,  he can't seem to get a cup of coffee.  The film has a wry sense of humor and I enjoyed it quite a bit.







 

Whiplash and Top Movies So Far

 

In Whiplash, Miles Teller plays Andrew, a young drummer attending the prestigious Shaffer music school.  Teller has a love for drumming and knows he has to practice hard to stay ahead of the competition.  He's interrupted one day during a practice session by Terrance Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), the leader of the JVC Studio Band, and this begins a very volatile relationship between the two.

Fletcher initially tries to learn a little bit about Andrew, which leads Andrew to believe Fletcher's not so bad.  Andrew soon finds outthat Fletcher's way of bringing out excellence is to bully his students into fearing him.  He berates them and doesn't stop at verbal abuse, as he throws things at various members and at one point slaps Andrew, who's not "on Fletcher's tempo".  I watched the film with a pretty full theater and heard the gasps as Fletcher's antics escalate.  I was surprised that no one walked out, but I think at this stage everyone knew what they were getting into. 


I also think that in many ways, Whiplash is the antithesis of Dead Poets Society.  In Dead Poets Society, Robin Williams plays John Keating, who is brought in to take over a literature class.  He quickly dispenses with the conventional way of teaching literature and seeks to get the best out of students by making them see other points of view.  His method is to make the literature come alive and make students see that they can succeed and love the subject matter.

J.K. Simmons plays Terrance Fletcher, a man from whom Keating would probably run screaming.  There's little reverence on Fletcher's part for the music being played; it's all material to be memorized and performed as precisely as possible.  The drums are a cog in the machine, and playing them requires endurance and practice (oh, and plenty of Band-Aids). 

DPS revolves around the magic that Keating creates in dissecting literature.  Whiplash is very physical and punishing.  Even when practicing, Andrew looks like he's at war with his drum kit.  Blood is spilled from wounds opened, and being in Fletcher's group is a test of endurance.  There are a lot of stare-offs between Andrew and Fletcher, and Teller's eyes do a lot of work in the film, both when he's battling the drums and when dealing with Fletcher. 

I didn't leave the theater uplifted as I did with Dead Poets Society, and that's really not a spoiler.   Whiplash is all about the limits one can withstand mentally and emotionally, and it tests the audience just as much as some of the characters are tested.


Movie Standings So Far*

1.   American Sniper

2.   Whiplash

3.   Top Five- Chris Rock's latest comedy.  Word to the wise- this is a hard R rated movie, which I wasn't aware of going in.

4.  22 Jump Street: Really enjoyed Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum.  They even made the obligatory sequel jokes pretty clever.

5.  Fargo:  I bought the first season of the TV show and thought I should watch the movie first.  It was good enough,  although by the end the whole accent thing seemed a little overdone.

6.  Guardians Of The Galaxy:  Wished I had seen it on the big screen.  We don't have a small screen, but some of the visuals seemed a little cheesy.  Still a fun adventure, though.

7.  Alive Inside:  Documentary on how music can bring those with dementia to life by stimulating memories.  The filmmaker programs personalized iPods for residents of memory care communities, and seeing those afflicted light up was a joy.  Working in the senior living industry, I didn't feel that I learned a whole lot, but I'm glad the film's out there.

8.  Love Is Strange:  Alfred Molina and John Lithgow play George and Ben.  After nearly 40 years of being together, they're finally able to marry.  After they do, George is fired by the church that employs him.  They have to sell their apartment, and in the meantime, George lives with two cops who love to party, and Ben moves in with family.  As much as I like Molina and Lithgow, they're not together enough (which I suppose is the point), and the other people in this movie are insufferable.  Kind of a let down for me, as I'd heard good things about the film.

9.  Zodiac: 2007 film about the hunt for San Francisco's Zodiac killer.  Very deliberately paced movie in which Jake Gyllenhaal's cartoonist character looks crazy to others quite a few times.


*Only films that I saw for the first time are listed.