Seen Anything Good Lately

Fri 13 Dec 200207:21 PM

December seems to have forty percent fewer livable, workable hours than any other month. Now that Christmas is gone and my dog’s obedience training is coming along nicely, I’m hoping to do a few things: get back to the blog regularly and catch up on all the movies I haven’t had time to go see lately:

Moving Pictures

Sun 29 Sep 200210:29 PM

Ancient History

Sat 14 Sep 200207:02 PM

Feardotstupid

Wed 21 Aug 200212:56 AM

Stephen Dorff makes another brilliant career move in what looks to be the stupidest movie of the year, “Feardotcom.” This is just more proof that Hollywood doesn’t have the faintest understanding of the digital world.

Getcher Pants On

Mon 19 Aug 200209:28 PM

Those looking to find out a little bit more about “24 Hour Party People” subjects Joy Division and Happy Mondays are in luck — the Trouser Press Record Guideis recently back online after a long hiatus. If you had a superior attitude about the music you listened to in the 70s, 80s, or 90s, then the Trouser Press probably has it cataloged here. I’m just kidding! About the ‘superior’ bit, not the catalog bit.

Death of a Party

Sat 17 Aug 200212:02 PM

Oh yeah, so two days ago I saw “24 Hour Party People,” Michael Winterbottom’s chronicle of Manchester impressario Tony Wilson and his Factory Records empire.The trailer was half wildly promising and half very worrisome, but I’m happy to say that the former part won out, thankfully. “24 Hour Party People” is consistently hilarious and restlessly inventive, engagingly manic and deeply comic. I had a great time watching it. And if director Michael Winterbottom fawns a little too much over the Ian Curtis character, the movie is still loaded with far fewer pretensions than the average pop history movie.

Hella Good

Mon 8 Jul 200210:28 PM

I’m a big fan of the comic book artist Mike Mignola, who brings a noirish sense of design to his Jack Kirby-esque compositions. His Hellboy series is destined for the silver screen sometime next year — with the help of Guillermo Del Toro — and I can’t wait.

No-No-Notorious

Sat 6 Jul 200212:47 PM

On a whim, I went to see Margaret Cho’s new concert film, “Notorious C.H.O.” on Wednesday evening. It’s frequently hilarious and I admire the nose-to-the-grindstone way she has rebuilt her post-“All-American Girl” career. I didn’t realize until arriving at the theater that it was opening night, or that Cho would be there in person, or that she was going to be actually standing at the theater door, greeting moviegoers and taking each person’s ticket. It was a cute gesture.

Report

Mon 24 Jun 200207:49 PM

I saw “Minority Report” over the weekend, and was pleasantly surprised by most of it, though it falls apart in the fourth act (that’s a joke). I’ve never liked Spielberg’s work all that much, but I admit that he’s created a real vision here. If nothing else the movie, set in the year 2054, is filled with hypothetical user interfaces that are beautifully executed — for a change in a Hollywood film, they’re interfaces that actually look like they were designed by real designers.