Movies
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To be clear, Tammy has seen the Shining many times. She just didn’t feel like watching again. ↩︎
Watching Fresh tonight. I have no need to know anything more about this topic. I believe I’ve read and seen all I need to, but it seems too important to not stay focused on it.
The Shining
Friday night I had my friends Jim, Tom and Tim over for the first “movie night” in our new family room. I’ve been wanting to watch The Shining for a while, but Tammy wasn’t interested1. I’m not much for watching any movie by myself, much less one of the most disturbing horror movies of all time.
The Shining has kept a firm place in my psyche for over two decades. I don’t remember when I first saw it, but I do know that I was most likely far too young to see it. When I was a kid I had a ridiculously good imagination and if a room was dark, like when you go to sleep at night, I could see clearly whatever was in my head. The Grady twins were often in my head after seeing it.
It’s still a fantastically freaky movie but now I can appreciate the cinematography and the delightful cadence of the dialogue. I don’t know if there is any movie that has so many pauses in dialogue that just leave you hanging there. If your curious to learn more, the Shining Wikipedia page is a good starter and then the essay Hidden Meanings in the Shining by Bill Blakemore as well as Mazes, Mirrors, Deception and Denial by Rob Ager. Both of these leave you with a much deeper appreciation of everything going on in the movie.
If you haven’t watched the Shining, or if it’s been a while, read some of those essays and give it another watch. Details will pop out from everywhere, but you’ll still be terrified. 😊
Margin Call
I can’t remember where I first saw Margin Call referenced. The movie depicts a 24-hour segment of the 2008 financial crisis. I’m a sucker for high-finance movies (Wall Street, Boiler Room) and knew I wanted to see it right away. Then I saw the cast and that Kevin Spacey was in it, one of my favorite actors. I was happy to see it on iTunes as an “in theater rental” so we watched it in the new family room last night.
It was an odd movie. The movie has 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, which honestly surprises me a bit. I think if you took some of the star power out and just went on the screenplay it would be much lower. Spacey is awesome, as always. The pacing of the movie I think is what had me off. It would go for long moments at a crawl and then without transition speed along. Similar to one of my favorite movies, Glengarry Glenn Ross, there are no heroes here.
If you watch it, share your thoughts. I’d love to know what others think of it. The Margin Call website is one of the better movie websites I’ve seen though.
Moneyball the movie
Last night Tammy and I went to Moneyball. I read the book a while back and really liked it. I was curious what the movie was going to be like since, to me, the book didn’t read like a movie at all. Brad Pitt as Billy Beane seemed odd to me, but was actually really good. Check out the movie, however, I would still recommend reading the book. If you’re just curious about the numbers behind the book in the movie read up on sabermetrics and Bill James. I was a little disappointed that the word sabermetrics wasn’t even mentioned in the movie, however Bill James was given a number of references.
Contagion
Last weekend Tammy and I had a nice dinner at Kings Wine Bar (one of my new favorite places) and then went to a movie. We went to Contagion. It was a good movie, and if anything underplayed the kind of pandemonium that would follow the kind of epidemic depicted.
When I got up at the end of the movie all the other people in the movie theater seemed like something to get away from. 😀
Midnight in Paris
Tammy and I got to see a movie last night after a very, very long time. Can’t even remember the last one. We went to Midnight in Paris at the Edina Cinema. I really liked it. Fun, interesting and left us with a smile.
Inside Job
I finally got a chance to watch Inside Job tonight. Wow. Very good documentary on the financial collapse. For those that have read a bit about the issue the recap of CDO’s and Swaps will be redundant, but it’s not much. The skewering of the ratings agencies and the economic profession is pointed.
17 Again. Wow. Bubble gum. To be clear, Tammy’s pick.
Away We Go — fun movie, puts a smile on your face.
Watched Wendy and Lucy. Sad movie. Wendy is broke. Her car needs a new engine. She loses her dog, Lucy.
Up
Mazie was ecstatic to see Up. She was giddy running to the theater to see it. We all really enjoyed it.
Role Models
We were on a real role with movies this weekend and decided to finish it off with a rental on Apple TV. Role Models was funnier than I was expecting.
Tammy and I continued her birthday weekend extravaganza with a second, really good movie, State of Play. Classic thriller, done right.
The Soloist
Tammy and I went to see The Soloist last night and I thought it was just a great movie. I hope we never stop making movies like this.
Tammy and I went to I Love You, Man tonight. Pretty funny. It was exactly what you would have expected. Light. Simple. Funny.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Okay movie. Interesting. Perhaps a little slow. No big revelation in the plot.
Sitting down to watch The Real Dirt on Farmer John.