Summer Update

My gosh, is it August already? I have not written one blog entry this whole summer! What’s wrong with me? It’s paradoxical that I am more productive during the school year than my work free days in the summer, but sometimes the lazy days of summer get away from me and I find it’s almost dinner time and all I did for the day was pick raspberries and go on a walk (oh and other trivial activities like that). Or watch movies which I have been doing. Here are comments about some of the movies I’ve seen since the end of May.

Midnight in Paris – I really enjoyed Midnight in Paris especially after having just visited Paris. Woody Allen depicts a beautiful world of artists and writers amid romantic nostalgic Paris. How could I, Parisophile/ Francophile that I am, not like immersing myself in this romantic world of intellectual Paris?

Bridesmaids – I wanted to say so much about this movie – I had a whole diatribe rehearsed in my head, but sadly I did not get it written down. Because of its novelty, a female buddy comedy movie, I was excited to see it and while it’s hilarious in parts and original in other ways, I think they really botched it in the area of female friends. The long standing cliché about women is that they’re catty back biters who sabotage other women for self-serving reasons – usually having to do with a guy. And sure there were some nice friend moments that seemed real in Bridesmaids, though mostly I didn’t recognize these childish women. I love comedy, I love women comedians, but I didn’t love where they took this movie. Can’t women be funny and act like grownups at the same time?

Never Let me Go – based on a Kazuo Ishiguro novel, a stark look at a world where children are raised to be organ donors. It’s disturbing and very well acted especially by Carey Mulligan.

The Tillman Story – great documentary about professional football player and soldier Pat Tilman and his mysterious death in Afghanistan. This movie, like Fair Game which tells the story of Valerie Plame, makes you seriously question the integrity of our national government. Can there be that much subterfuge and hypocrisy in Washington and in our military? I don’t like to believe it, but this movie makes you wonder.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007) – This movie definitely belongs in my list of quirky documentaries (see below because I just added it to the list). It’s about two middle aged guys who pursue a Donkey Kong high score. It’s weirdly wonderful and takes me back to my days of having the high score on the Donkey Kong game at the Bayfield arcade (it’s true!)

Super 8 – Kyle Chandler and references to Stand by Me got me to see this movie and while it wasn’t entirely what I expected nor my “type” of movie, I’m glad I went. The cute earnest kid ensemble was great and the nostalgic take on the late 70s made the movie worth seeing, oh and Kyle Chandler.

The Yellow Handkerchief – forgot it -- does that mean it is forgettable? Maybe it was good?


The Switch – another stupid romantic comedy by Jennifer Anniston. I like Justin Bateman so I thought, well maybe, but no, maybe not.

Wacky Documentaries

I was listening to humorist Joe Queenan on the radio talking about his dislike of documentaries; he finds them too educational and dry and equates them to health movies he saw when he was in Catholic school: "I would rather have my limbs yanked out of their sockets by enraged rhinos than sit through a documentary. " I protest. Documentaries are fun and weird when they profile the weird and wacky. While I sometimes feel too voyeuristic (akin to watching reality TV) I can get a huge charge out of them.

Here are three of my favorite wacky documentaries:

My Brother's Keeper (yr?)
Capturing the Friedman's (2003)
American Movie (USA 1999)

Grizzly Man

Last night I watched the DVD version of Grizzly Man. I wanted to watch it -- mainly because I wanted to be in the know about weird and wackly documentaries (my favorite kind), but yet didn't want to also. I thought it might be too scary. We wouldn't actually see him get mauled by a bear would we? My friend Deb assured me that there would be no mauling and that I should watch it just to appreciate its oddities.
And indeed it was odd. I found Timothy Treadwell, the man who lived unarmed with grizzlys in Alaska for 13 summers, to be really out there and probably disturbed. His repeated use of the word "love" was particularily annoying. He loved those grizzlies, the foxes who lived near him, and even his stuffed bear that he slept with.
All in all, worth seeing if you like to watch movies for the weird factor. And, as many people say when they have nothing else to say about a movie: the scenery is beautiful.