course description included Archives: dvd
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10 March 2010
Berlin Alexanderplatz: The Punishment Begins [Die Strafe beginnt] (1980)
The story of Franz Biberkof, Berlin Alexanderplatz is a fifteen hour film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder based on the novel by Alfred Döblin. I haven’t seen all of it yet, but I hope writing about each section will not only give me the momentum to finish it, but it’ll give some perspective to what I [...]
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9 March 2010
Fishing with John: Tom Waits (1991)
John and Tom go fishing in Jamaica for snapper. There are long periods of waiting before either of the men gets a bite. Tom finally catches a fish. Upon catching the fish, the men discuss catch and release, and Tom decides to put the fish into his pants. It is unclear whether this is what [...]
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8 March 2010
Fishing with John: Jim Jarmusch (1991)
The first episode of Fishing with John is by far the best. You are simply not prepared for the interplay between the fishers and the narrative (Oh. My. God.), particularly given the whole tone of the fishing sequences is correct, minus the fisherman. They have quiet, introspect conversation while fishing. Jim and John are fishing [...]
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25 January 2010
Texhnolyze [テクノライズ] – (2003) – Rogue 01 “Stranger”
An anime by Hirotsugu Hamazaki, with characters by Yoshitoshi ABe. I used to watch more anime than I do now, the last two series being the truly funny Abenobashii Magical Shopping Arcade and the really beautiful Heibane-Renmei. There’s something about the characters that Yoshitoshi ABe creates that have really appealed to some inner artistic urge [...]
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10 January 2010
The Dead (1987)
Speaking of The Dead, that’s a pretty apropos post to begin the ‘new year,’ given my continual failure to remain committed to the purpose of this: I consume a lot of media, I like to write, so why not write about the media? Lionsgate finally got around to releasing the DVD, but it appears as [...]
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20 February 2009
The Great Debaters (2007)
I was only half watching this on a ski trip, so I may not be fully cognizant of the particulars of the screenplay, which was far better than it deserved to be. It’s the same zero-to-hero type story about nurturing young minds and creating passionate individuals set in a different context. But here are a [...]
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31 January 2009
Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild (2008)
If a movie starts out explaining for 3-4 minutes why all the principle actors have changed, you’re in for a thrill a minute. But what the sequel was truly missing was Graham Norton and his prosthetic pegleg. And that vomit sequence was gross.
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21 January 2009
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994)
I can’t get over the praise for Jennifer Jason Leigh in this movie. She is AWFUL. Just because she drawls on in an unintelligible speakeasy drag doesn’t make a performance compelling. It distracts, in fact, until Dot is so drunk that its irrelevant.
I love the Dorothy Parker quote printed on one of the flaps [...]
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31 December 2008
Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)
I NetFlix’d this movie because of a Miranda July story Eugene made me listen to on Selected Shorts while we were driving back from New Hope a couple weeks ago. The story is “Roy Spivey” and is about a quirky woman who sees herself as a pushover, and as such, finds herself next to a [...]
