Deathbed #fridayflash

She was dying and there was nothing I could do. All of the experts agreed. What had started as just a mild problem quickly became the end of the road. And here, in the moments before her death, I was unsure how we had gotten here so quickly. How could I continue without her, my most reliable companion? I was supposed to help her, support her, and I had failed utterly.

"I'm not sure what I'm going to do without you," I told her. She didn't respond--couldn't respond, really. I didn't expect anything out of her now but the last few gasps and then the end of the wheezing sound she had taken the past three days. This was a horrible way to go.

The best thing to do, everyone said, was to pull the plug and let her go quickly. I had been putting it off, prolonging her suffering, trying to steal every moment before she was gone. But she was completely unresponsive. There would be no happy ending in the 11th hour. All that was left was to make it official.

"I'm sorry," I said. It felt cold, knowing that I was going to make the decision that was going to cause it all to end. I wasn't sure whether to feel compassion or crushing guilt. There had been so much promise, but now ... now it was gone.

When I had finally done it, pulled the plug and saw her die, I walked out of the room. My friend was there, waiting for me. When he saw the look on my face, he shook his head, trying to be sympathetic. But he didn't understand. Who could?

"I'm sorry. I know how much she meant to you. But don't worry, we'll get you set up with something new as soon as you're ready."

"How could you talk about replacing her at a time like this?" I said, collapsing numbly into the chair.

"Can't go through life with no computer. Come on, get up and we'll find a new one. You'll feel right as rain. It's like ... like a pet. The best way to get over one is to get another."

"That's horrible."

"It might be turbulent, but it gives you something to focus your energy on. Don't grieve, nurture."

"If you say so. I miss her."

"I understand. But you'll move on, to new experiences with a new companion. C'mon, let's go shopping."

Together we left, the dead left behind, soon to be replaced by the working. Such was the cycle of life.

Fruits of Labor

So, I know I've been pretty neglectful of the blog and fridayflash and all the other things I should have been doing the past few weeks. The problem was/is, that my day job workplace imploded due to a suddenly unexpected rush of work, plus one of my co-workers being out for a month, leaving us drowning and shorthanded. I've always been the kind of person who needed a lot of down time, but when I was working 60 hours a week, 7 days a week, I essentially had the energy to exist and work and sleep and not much else.

Thankfully, it looks like it's all settling down finally, and it's time to get down to business. The first order of business is what to do with the MESS of overtime I got. The most obvious choice, because it's the one thing in my life I'm least satisfied with, was replacing my older, not-so-awesome computer with something truly epic.

So I decided to set out to build my first computer, with the help of one of my friends (because work is slowing down a bit, but I really don't have time to do all the research on equipment right now within anything resembling a reasonable time frame). My needs were many, in part because I'm making a transition from being primarily a console gamer to splitting my free gaming time between PC and console.

Anyway, because I'm proud of the rig that's about to be put together (hopefully at the end of this week), I figured I'd post all the components here, both to say "look at what I've got!" because secretly I'm just a bouncing 8 year old about some things still, and in part to keep some record of what I did and why.

Case: Raidmax Smilodon
Motherboard: ASUS M4A79 Deluxe AMD
Processor: AMD Phenom II 3.2 GHz Dual Core
Video Card: GeForce GTS 250
HDD: 250 GB Western Digital drive
Other Junk: Card Reader, DVD Drive, 4 GB of Ram, 560W Power Supply
OS: Windows 7 Professional

Now I'll admit that there are some concessions made. That hard drive isn't NEARLY enough, but it was the easiest place to cut corners on my budget because I can slap in a TB drive next month and keep going like nothing ever happened. But otherwise, it's pretty solid. 4 GB of RAM will work for now, though I think I might go more sooner or later.

Windows 7 was easily the most expensive part of this rig, but that's because A) I need Virtual XP due to some of my game tastes. How am I going to mount virtual drives in DOSBOX to play Daggerfall otherwise? (No, I don't actually do this. Though I have before.) and B) I wanted support in case something breaks, so I wasn't going to go out on a limb with the OEM. If I'm spending the money anyway, why dick around with half measures?

Anyway, that's the computer. As of this morning, all three shipments are out and slowly making their way towards me. I can't wait to assemble this, but right now I'm playing the 'move everything out of my old computer to the safe haven of my external HDD. This is probably the last time I'll mention this computer on the blog, but I'll be tweeting about it this weekend, I'm sure.

And that's all the update I have for today. I swear swear swear swear I'll have fiction up for fridayflash this week, so look for that at the end of the week. Otherwise, be excellent to each other.

Observatory -- a fridayflash

The hatch to the observatory opened up to the emptiness of the star field. The first time Heather had seen this view, when they making their way out of the solar system and gliding past Saturn hanging heavy in nearly the entire view of the room, she had gasped with delight and with the sudden, lurching sense of both awe and vertigo. But that was seven years ago now and the stars were nearly unmoving in their familiar patterns.

She settled into one of the chairs that ringed the observatory. The room was small, only a few feet across. Even so, the engineering to keep the bubble window intact was remarkable. No expense was spared on the creation of the Jormungand.

"Colonel, you look very tired." She looked over at the figure on the other side of the observatory. With the hatch closed it was pitch-black in the observatory, the seats all dark and everything shadows against the general blackness of space.

Heather settled back against one of the seats, the cushion designed to hold onto a body to keep it settled in the lack of gravity. "How are you doing today, Father?"

"I do wish you wouldn't put me up here. I'm able to help the crew in so many ways, yet here I am, discarded in the attic."

"You're here with three layers of aluminum silicate glass between you and heaven, Father. I would think you'd be pretty comfortable in this perch."

"Your romanticism of the situation notwithstanding, I'm built to provide crew services. As comfortable as you have become with this spiritual adviser role, I assure you that I do not 'feel' anything in particular about the situation one way or another, other than an unfulfilled desire to realize my function."

"You're doing just fine here, let me tell you," Heather said, leaning back and closing her eyes. "Everybody needs someone to talk to. We're all in close quarters, trying to coexist as peacefully as we can. We can come up here, be removed from it all, and have you as someone who only sees us from the outside. Impartial, capable, intelligent."

"I'm programmed for much more than playing ship psychologist, Colonel. My skeletal structure is much stronger than yours. I could conduct repairs, move equipment, help with the-"

"We can take care of the busywork ourselves. Do you know how long we've been out here?"

"Two thousand six hundred and seventy four days, three hours, twenty eight minutes, forty three ... forty four ... forty five, you get the idea. I could go further, but I'd be speaking too fast for you to properly process."

"You aren't here to be a smart ass, metalhead."

"Yes sir," he replied simply. Heather opened her eyes up and looked across at the shadow, a black blot among the infinite blackness behind. She only knew that it was there because she knew there was a line of stars in that direction that was being blocked off.

In her mind, she could remember what the automatic crewman looked like, his silver face with golden eyes and highlights along the brow and nose. His mouth with the infinite pieces that could change into various shapes to mimic emotion. She tried to forget that. He was here for her. He was the Father to which she would come and make confession. Like every week. Or whenever it actually was.

"What are you thinking, Colonel Warren?"

"That time around here doesn't seem to be bound much by the rigid structures of life back on Earth. You know, somewhere in the second year I really stopped counting it. Nobody seems to mind much, anymore. We exist on only the time between sleeping."

"Timekeeping and scheduling is one of my many functions, sir."

"I know," she said with a wave of her hand, dismissively brushing aside his programmed helpfulness. She couldn't see her own hand, but she knew that his sensors wouldn't miss it. "That's why you're up here. Everything below is so ... fluid. Time, movement, dreams ... we aren't the people we were. You know, three hundred years ago my family were builders. They cut rocks and used them to create buildings that reached into the sky. Can you imagine?"

"I am incapable of imagining anything, but I am aware of the history of-"

She didn't let him finish. "We were people of clay, Father. Man, born out of the dust. Ashes to ashes. You know the drill. And yet now we're people of the sky. Do you think we could return to clay, after this?"

"Your function is to seek out the target planet and activate the colonization programs, adaptation to an alien world is not an inherent part of your function."

"I know this. I'm just saying, here ... you have all the memories of what time is, of what Earth was like. Do you know how much time has passed since we left?"

"I haven't been privy to the navigation logs since you relocated me up here, so there could be some variance in the numbers due to local gravity wells and automatic unforeseen course corrections, but by my estimation the time on earth has progressed some nine hundred years, six months, seventeen days."

"No hours? Minutes?"

"I cannot judge that, no. The variances are far too great to give you an accurate prediction. Even at days, there is a margin for error plus or minus three days. Even I, sir, am not immune to the effects of our time away from our home planet's way of judging time."

"But you remember. That's enough." Heather sighed and looked up at the stars. "You know, we're seeing things that no human on Earth has ever seen before. Or at least hadn't when we left. We have no idea what they might be up to now."

"That is true."

"See that star?" She pointed up to a faint light, far distant, a pinpoint among millions. "That star went nova before we were crawling out of the oceans. Or ... I was. You were some minerals probably scattered all over the earth."

"I don't know the condition of my individual components in their native state."

"Regardless, that star is gone. Nothing but cosmic debris. Dead. But the rest of the universe doesn't know it. Hell, from where we are, it's still alive. The observer makes it true, right? Our star maps show this star as existing in this moment, when it doesn't. Which reality is accurate? Dead things aren't dead because we see them still, not the other way around."

"Are you getting at something, sir?"

"Nothing," Heather said with a sigh. "Just talking aloud. Can't talk to yourself around the crew, not when you're in charge. It's bad for morale." She hesitated, staring up at the unmoving stars. They were hurtling along at speeds so fast she had a hard time wrapping her mind around them, but from here it looked as though they were completely adrift in a sea of nothingness. Space indeed.

"As I said when you entered the observatory, Colonel, you look very tired today."

Heather didn't bother answering him. What was there to say to that? "What do you see out there, Father, with those eyes of yours?"

"I am rated to observe all manner of spectra, visible or not, and compile the information into an indexed overlay in order to-"

"No, no, I know your specifications. Give me something more. Give me the poetry. Tell me what it looks like to you. As a person."

"I am not a person," he said.

"Come on, you're supposed to be playing priest. Where's your damn personality routines when I need them? When you look out there, tell me what you see in words that I can imagine and understand. As a faithful woman coming to a holy man for advice."

There was a pause, but when he finally spoke Heather heard, or at least imagined, that some of the mechanical sound was gone from his voice. "It is all numbers, you understand. It's hard to put into words and loses much of its meaning. But there is an elegance to it all. What you see as blackness and faint stars I see as a swirling infinite reality of energies--existing, being created, being destroyed, all of it coming from everywhere. Up close it is all turmoil, but far away it takes on a simplistic elegance."

"Do you like it?"

"I find it fascinating. There is something to what is out there, some sense of the infinite, that I know to be untrue by my understanding of the universe. Yet, it seems like there are endless variations on what seems possible. In the years since I was relocated up here, I have never stopped finding things of interest."

"This is what my ancestors thought heaven was, up here among the celestial bodies."

"I'm not sure I believe in such a place, and it certainly has very little bearing on physical reality should it exist."

"You know, Father, for a religious official, you don't sound pretty convinced about this religious figure thing."

"I know only what I observe. I observe the cosmos. What more do you want?"

"That'll do, I suppose," Heather said as she leaned forward. "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been three days since my last conf-"

"Two weeks."

"Two weeks?"

"Yes, I could break it down further for you, but you seem annoyed by that." There was another pause, and he spoke again. "You know, Colonel, you're the only one who comes to see me anymore."

"Time passes, people get lonely. Not many people have much faith anymore."

"But you do?"

Heather nodded in the darkness, the stars wheeled overhead. "I do."

"Then begin your confession."

"Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been ... two weeks since my last confession..." The automated crewman that was serving as the Colonel's priest listened to her, trying to understand the sin from the noble act, the moral from the immoral. But she was right, things were fluid. His binary understanding of the universe, even augmented with psychological subroutines, had a hard time keeping up.

He let her speak and responded when necessary, but his mind wandered to the universe above him. Space, infinite space, was comforting in its patterns and lack thereof. In its uniformity and its boiling chaos. Colonel Warren looked for absolution from a machine. He looked for something ... something he couldn't even identify, out there among the universe.

Together they hurtled onward.

The Movies of 2010 - things I'm looking forward to

So, with the year starting up in earnest finally, I figured it's time to get down to brass tacks. I'm trying to keep you up on things in my life this year, at least in part. One of those things is the big movies of 2010. Like my friend Elizabeth Ditty, I'm bringing to you a small list of the top movies that are really getting me excited this year. There are dozens more movies, but these are the best of the best, the ones that I can't wait to see. So, in no particular order, I bring you

My Most Anticipated Movies of 2010

Tron Legacy
Release Date: December 17

I'm not even the world's biggest Tron fan, but there's something about this movie that's captured my imagination in every way possible. From the retro cyberpunk set and production design, to the slick modern look to the effects, to the fact that DAFT EFFIN PUNK (!!!) is doing the soundtrack. Tron Legacy is probably my most anticipated of 2010. And so far away!

Shutter Island
Release Date: February 19

I'm actually kind of at the end of the hype train for this one, since I originally got excited for it back when it was supposed to come out in October. Thankfully, it hits next month and by all accounts it's fantastic. Scorsese going into full on thriller mode is something I can't wait to see.

Beauty and the Beast in 3D
Release Date: February 12

Beauty and the Beast is easily one of the best Disney movies I've ever seen, the movie that was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars and helped advance animated movies as an acceptable art form in America. So the chance to see it again in theaters in a glorious rerelease is too much to pass up. I'm not sure how 2D animation in 3D is going to work, but I'm more than willing to find out.

Hot Tub Time Machine
Release Date: March 19

Look at that title. LOOK AT IT! Isn't it glorious? The story of a bunch of friends who find a hot tub that takes them back to the 1980s, this looks like a pretty awesome genre-bending comedy. John Cusack and Craig Robinson are the ones to watch here, I think. Love them both. And seeing Craig Robinson get bigger and bigger roles over time has been a pleasure.

Clash of the Titans
Release Date: March 26
One of the few remakes I'm genuinely very excited for. The original Clash of the Titans was the definition of a special effects movie and the update looks like it takes enough cues from the original and adds in all the scale and ability of modern effects work to create something that looks like it's going to be pretty awe-inspiring.

Toy Story 3
Release Date: June 18

The final Toy Story movie, ripped from the grasp of Disney's past mismanagement, looks like it's going to be a darker film than the first two. With heavy themes of abandonment and identity, the worst fears of the first movie have come true. Take that and wrap it around a prison break movie and you have what will likely be another Pixar masterpiece.

Inception
Release Date: July 16

Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite directors working today. From Memento through to the Dark Knight, I adore each and every one of his movies in its own way. They're masterpieces of identity and madness. And the latest looks to be every bit as mind-bending. The teaser trailers look very much like the initial trailer campaign for the Matrix, but I have much more faith in Nolan, and whatever Inception is, I can't wait to find out.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World
Release Date: Summer 2010

I just recently read the first three volumes of Scott Pilgrim on recommendation, and I can't wait to read the rest of it. Scott Pilgrim is the perfect amalgam of webcomics-inspired storylines, music and video games and action and relationships into something really special. I can't wait to see this movie, even if it's a disaster.

The Expendables
Release Date: Aug 13

Stallone, Statham, Li, Lundgren, Rourke, Willis, Trejo, Schwarzenegger. If that (not even full) cast list doesn't have you wanting to see this on principle, then you haven't seen enough movies. The Expendables is hopefully going to be Stallone's ridiculous over-the-top action masterpiece. But even if it isn't, that cast alone is enough to get me excited.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Release Date: Dec 10

My favorite Narnia book is turning into a movie. I'm looking forward to this one quite a bit, even thought it seems like there's very little hype behind it. Ships and adventure are always great fun.

Black Swan
Release Date: TBD 2010

Darren Aronofsky's new film is a thriller about rival ballerinas starring Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman. Though knowing Aronofsky's work, I imagine that it's going to get a little crazy, and probably extremely sad. I've become a weird Aronofsky superfan lately, so this one is pretty huge on my radar. Unfortunately, this one's probably the least along, so I don't really have much else to share about it.

Movie Rundown - January 3 to January 10

This was really supposed to be a bigger list, but snowpocalypse and workpocalypse and all sorts of other pocalypses kept me worn out and in the house when I would otherwise have headed to the theater. That said, what little I do have I'll offer up here. You guys are probably lucky you get a week off.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby - ***

Anchorman, but for Nascar instead of the 70s. I don't really have much to say about this one, honestly. It was okay. I thought it'd be much worse than it is. But you already know if you're interested in what's being offered here.

Tetsuo: The Iron Man - ****

A super low budget Japanese cyberpunk thriller from the late 80s, Tetsuo concerns a man who runs over a metal fetishist, a man who inserts pieces of metal into his body in an effort to achieve some sort of organic-industrial hybrid. After killing the fetishist, the man begins a transformation into a metal monstrosity, absorbing and growing scrap metal. This movie actually reminded me a lot of Lynch's classic Eraserhead, except instead of the horror being directed at infants and parenthood, it's instead horror about modern life and its encroachment into our daily lives and selves. It's a great movie, frenetic and strange and surprisingly effective.

The Ten - ****

A series of short stories about the ten commandments. This was something I went into with some trepidation, as I recently saw one of the director's previous movies (Wet Hot American Summer) and left it feeling pretty unimpressed. That said, the short story format here works really well. The storytelling can be very brief due to how much is being told, and that suits the filmmaking far better than the lack of cohesion Wet Hot American Summer had. That said, the Ten Commandments stuff is really just a frame. Don't expect much in the way of religious farce here.

Night of the Living Dead - ***

Tom Savini's remake of George Romero's masterpiece is best summed up as 'more.' More action, more make up, more production values, more gore. That said, one of the things about Romero's movie that made it what it still is today is the understated nature of it, the commentary on people. Something that Savini includes with all the grace of a brick to the face. That said, there's an interesting twist on the ending of the film that is actually surprisingly satisfying, and enough to earn this a third star.

Full Metal Jacket - *****

Full Metal Jacket is amazing. But you probably knew that. I feel like I'm really late to the party on this one, Kubrick's take on Vietnam and the military and warfare in general. I had watched the first half once upon a time and lost interest once they got to Vietnam, but upon revisiting I'm kind of sad I didn't stick with it the first time. The story of what happens to a man when he's turned into a soldier, and what it means to see 'the shit' is depressing and frightening and feels real in a way that meant something to me. Could not recommend this enough. For now, my favorite Kubrick movie.

Bye Bye Birdie - **

I hate Bye Bye Birdie. I don't even know where to begin with this movie. From the lack of characters I could give a damn about to the over-reliance upon dated 50s stereotypes to the musical sequences that feel perfunctory more than fun. There's probably a great stage production behind this movie, but the movie itself feels old and worn and not particularly interesting. Some of the dance stuff towards the middle is pretty good, which is the only thing keeping this from rock bottom, but ... no thanks.

3:10 to Yuma - ****

I watched this finally after being a pretty big fan of the remake from a while back, and I was pretty impressed. One of the problems with American westerns from that era is that nothing feels particularly dangerous or emotional in any way. That has a lot to do with acting styles and presentation, I understand, but it's always been a negative for me. That said, Glenn Ford's performance as a captured outlaw just waiting to be broken out by his gang has a surprising amount of jovial menace to it. That said, I think the two films are pretty similar in quality, separated only by the eras they were made in.

Broken Arrow - **

It's telling that five days after I watched Broken Arrow I can't remember quite how it ended. I think John Travolta gets impaled on a missile. But I could be wrong. Look, if you want a dumb action movie with smarmy Travolta, go get Face/Off. It's just as dumb, but Nic Cage gets to play both hero and villain and it's one of my favorite Cage performances. Instead, for this movie you get Christian Slater. Not a fair trade, IMO.

48 Hrs. - ***

Perhaps the first buddy movie, Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte are both sad reminders that they used to be actors and now one of them is crazy and couldn't become coherent enough to perform in a good movie if his life depended on it and the other is Nick Nolte. That said, this movie's pretty good, with a lot of menace from both of the leads. This movie makes Lethal Weapon look like a Disney production.

Movie Rundown: Week Ending Jan 2, 2010

Here we are, the start of a new year. In fact, the start of the OFFICIAL YEAR OF THE FUTURE, TWENTY TEN. And as such, I'm going to restart the long-running series of movie reviews that used to grace this site on an almost-weekly basis. I'm not going to run down the entire list of things that were missed between the last time I did this and now, because that list is 121 movies long. Instead, I'll give you the last week and change.

Also, as a slight change in format, I probably won't be expounding at too much length on most of these. Mostly because it was the extent I was going on about these movies that caused my burnout in the first place. If anybody wants to hear my opinion on any film, of course, you're free to ask for it. I can probably go on at length.

Anywho, the list!

The Ice Harvest - *****

Neo-noir is a funny thing. The balance between calling back to the classic film tropes and updating the settings and characters for a modern audience is a crazy tightrope to walk, and there are many roads to choose, from the historical recreation of The Good German, the modern absurdist transplant of Brick, or an irreverent take like Fargo. The Ice Harvest strays closest to Fargo in setting and tone, though much of the warmth is sucked out of it by taking away any relatable character and instead giving us John Cusack at his kinda-smarmy, kinda-adorable best.

Thankfully, it's a gloriously understated film, with the violence rather perfunctory and all the characters tired old washouts struggling to steal a paltry 2 million and get out of the icy backwater of Wichita Falls. And the fact that it goes so poorly, and does so with such a dry sense of humor, is what puts this firmly among the neo-noir greats. The film is simply fantastic. I can't recommend it enough. It might actually be my favorite Cusack role to date.

Jules et Jim - ****

My second Truffaut film is his third, and the difference between this and 400 Blows is pretty evident. 400 Blows was a deeply personal film, obviously of great importance to the director. It felt heavy with intimate knowledge of the experience. Jules et Jim, meanwhile, is set up with Truffaut providing narration as he tells a story, adapted from another person's work. And with that distance comes the real appeal of Jules et Jim. It's a movie about friendship and what love can do between friends, but the love triangle is presented with a detachment I found stunning. The characters comment on each other's loves without hesitation, pointing out the problems, but in the end they are all blind to their own problems, and we are left to consider how easy things look from the outside, and how complicated it is when we ourselves are caught up in similar circumstances.

My only problem with the movie stems from the final ten minutes. I won't give anything away, but I feel like the story veers too far into melodrama too fast, when everything has been so beautifully understated for the rest of the run time. It doesn't mar the film that much, but it was sad to see it end on such a sour note.

The Bicycle Thief - ***

My problem with movies about people suffering under unbeatable odds is that it seems kind of ... detrimental to enjoying a movie. There are exceptions, to be sure, but typically around minute 40 you know what kind of movie you're in and you have a pretty good idea of how it'll end up. At that point, watching life shit on the main character stops being engaging on any rational level. Some movies get around this by being just that damn poignant (Grave of the Fireflies is my favorite example) or by presenting problems that are the natural outgrowth of flawed protagonists (Requiem for a Dream, here).

This is not either of those. It's a movie about a good man having horrible things happen to him due to fate, and then it's over. It's sad, but in a detached way due to the general grunginess of it all. Sure, he's starving, but so is everyone else in post-war Italy. The scope is just wrong, and it never connected.

I understand the impact, neorealism and an appraisal of Italy in that period. I just ... don't care. And that's a fatal flaw, if you ask me.

Knife in the Water - ****

Roman Polanski's first feature film, the story of a middle aged couple who picks up a hitchhiker and brings them along on a sailing trip around the lakes of backwoods Poland. Knife in the Water is pretty claustrophobic, taking place almost entirely on the sailboat. It's also pretty good. There's a real sense of menace as all three strangers bounce off each other in interesting ways, and the interloper forced in close confines with a married couple exposes all the underlying tensions of a marriage. It's pretty great.

Blade Runner - ****

Look, it's Blade Runner. Go see it. Seriously. It's one of those movies everyone should probably see, since it informs a pretty broad stretch of pop culture. I thought it was fantastic, though I had reservations that I believe seeing the Final Cut or Director's Cut versions would probably solve. We'll have to see at a later date. However, you should see Blade Runner. I mean it.

The Gay Divorcee - ***

Let me tell you my problem with 40s musicals. You see, they're typically fun, so long as its a bunch of singing and dancing. Astaire and Rogers are fantastic. But in this period of Hollywood, there was this presumption that the song and dance sequences needed to be framed by a plot that has all the grace of a middling studio product from that era (i.e. none).

So while The Gay Divorcee has about a half hour of absolutely amazing singing and dancing (and a huge sequence at the end that had me riveted to the screen) it's hard to justify it for anyone who doesn't enjoy the musical sequences for their own sake. They're stunning, but the film that frames them isn't much to see. So ... move along unless you're already on board.

Sherrybaby - **

You know all of my problems with The Bicycle Thief above? Copy and paste them here. But the problem is that Sherrybaby has no excuse. It's not 60 years old, three years old. And the story of a young mother getting out of prison and trying to kick her heroin addiction has all the charm of a bad rash. Instead, it comes across like the big screen version of a Lifetime movie of the week. I won't deny that Maggie Gyllenhall's a good actress, and the story here has an appropriately dim ending, but ... no connection. I don't know. These kind of films really aren't my thing.

It Happened One Night - ****

One of the last movies before the production code was put into effect in 1934, It Happened One Night is a screwball comedy that plays pretty well. I'd never seen a Clark Gable movie before, and was pretty impressed with his comedic timing. The movie hits all the notes really well, in a way I haven't felt from a classic comedy since seeing Bringing Up Baby.

Wet Hot American Summer - **

I get that this is both a send up of summer camp movies and a solid entry in its own right. I get it. But ... well, I hate summer camp films. And the narrative felt like it was just a barely held together series of sketches. I don't know, the only thing I really liked about this movie was the wildly miscast 10-years-too-old set of actors. Otherwise, I was kind of bored. But then, like I said, this genre does little for me.

The Fountain - *****

The Fountain is a story about death and love told in three time periods--the time of the conquistadors, the modern day, and the far-flung future--about the bond between characters played by Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. The Fountain is a lyrical, nigh-incoherent movie, but it's really beautiful and heartbreaking and is easily my favorite Aronofsky movie. There's just something to the depictions of scenarios playing out similarly through the ages that gets me. The movie got under my skin the first time I saw it in theaters but lately it's been coming up more and more often, so I revisited it and fell hard for it. Cannot recommend it enough.

Up in the Air - ****

I knew going in I would enjoy Up in the Air. George Clooney is the movie star of our generation, and Jason Reitman is a pretty solid director. I ended up liking this movie far more than Juno, but less than Reitman's debut, Thank You For Smoking. Part of that is due to the subject matter, with Up in the Air being a more clinical, bleaker film. Which was fine, I suppose, though I was left feeling let down by the ending, which seemed intent on building to something and then forsaking it for a throwaway 'look at us isn't this independent!' unresolved moment to close the movie out. Oh well. It's still quite good and feels very of our times.

Avatar - ****

There's been enough words on the internet about Avatar, so I'll be brief: the movie is predictable in the extreme, but is beautiful and well-made and should most definitely be seen on the big screen. I don't think that what it is would translate as well in the home theater. Along with Star Trek, the definitive popcorn movie of 2009.

Following - ***

The first movie by Christopher Nolan, Following in a no-budget, super-small neo noir with Nolan's typical flair for nonlinear storytelling. There's a lot of Memento's pacing in this movie, but the acting really isn't up to snuff and the shooting isn't nearly as refined as his second effort (and all after) would show. It's not a bad movie, but it's more a curiosity than a great time.

Kinsey - ****

I've never been really big into biopics. I feel like standing in the fuzzy line between fact and reality typically ruins most of the good fictional qualities of a movie. Which is why I also don't hold much for 'true stories'. That said, Kinsey is really quite good. Liam Neeson's take on the famous entomologist-turned-sex-researcher really does provide a nuanced take on what has been a pretty controversial figure in contemporary American history. Also of note, is the rampant period ignorance about the subject. Kinsey makes a great case both for exploring the life of the man and exploring through his situation the reality of the need of his work and how much of an impact him and others like him have had on advancing our knowledge as a culture in the past century.

The Jazz Singer - ****

The first full length motion picture to have spoken dialogue, The Jazz Singer is known for a lot of things. It is a seminal film, the bridge between the silent era and the talkies. What's surprising is how modern it feels the moment it does speak, and how out of place it is between the silent beats. Also, The Jazz Singer is the template for 'rise to stardom' films, so far as I can tell. There are beats in it that are repeated endlessly through the history of movies into the present day. It's not only an interesting historical study, but a good film even now. That said, the blackface is, admittedly, kind of hard for me to fit into my 21st century sensibilities.

Ikiru - *****

The story of a government official in postwar Japan who discovers that he has fatal stomach cancer, Ikiru is the story of searching for life's meaning on a deadline. It's a sad, beautiful film, not entirely unrelated to The Fountain in many ways. It's certainly a more muted, understated film, but is a classic for good reason. A must see.

Sherlock Holmes - ***

Look Sherlock Holmes has more tonally in common with Pirates of the Caribbean and Scooby-Doo than it does the famous detective. Yes, there are plenty of references to the canon, and the film isn't that much of a bastardization, but it feels ... like a misplaced move with the source material. That said, the movie was fun enough, with great chemistry between Jude Law and RDJ. I know this one's probably going to become a franchise on some level, and I think I'm okay with that, but ... I hope that maybe they do a bit more detecting and bit less adventuring in the next one. Also, don't reveal all of Holmes' obvious plot deductions that any fool could figure out all in the last five minutes. It just makes him look smarmy, not on the ball.

Nine - ***

Rob Marshall's film adaptation of the Broadway musical adaptation of Fellini's classic 8 1/2, Nine has all the hallmarks of a Rob Marshall production--beautiful, heavy on color and sex, impressionistic at the sake of coherency at times. Which makes him a good choice to tackle the source (see below). Unfortunately, I felt like the music itself just wasn't quite there on the level it should have been. Too much set piece and not enough exposition, it was beautiful in a train-wreck kind of way. I am tempted to rate this higher, simply because I really ended up sympathizing with Guido as an artist, but really, what mostly happened was that Nine inspired me to finally go ahead and watch...

8 1/2 - ****

I tried early in 2009 to watch this movie and failed rather spectacularly. But coming off of my general interest in Nine I couldn't help but feel the need to fire it up and see what was what. What I got was a movie that even still felt a bit over my head, but in a way I could see the merit of. 8 1/2 is a very personal movie, a movie about a director struggling with the demands of creativity and productivity and what it does to his life and those who are along for the ride. It dabbles in surrealism, with understated exaggerations in design and editing put together to straddle the line between imagination and reality. Guido often enters the realm of his own mind, and with little warning to the audience. It is a tightly wound film, a piece about tension and desperation that looks very confusing to those who have never been through something similar. It isn't an easy movie to approach, but I'm glad I did, and I'm sure that it'll grow on me over time and I'll revisit it more than once in my lifetime.

Love Me if You Dare - ***

A strange romantic French film, the story of a boy and a girl who grow up playing an escalating series of dares as they grow into a turbulent adulthood. This was a recommendation by Elizabeth Ditty based on my professed appreciation for Marion Cotillard in Nine, and I have to say that I am glad I saw it, but ... it's a weirdly dark movie. I don't know what I think of it still, and that score reflects that. We'll see how it grows on me. I suspect well, though probably not enough to warrant a fourth star. Still, if you're into darkly warming and whimsical movies, it's pretty good.

The Proposition - ****

One of the millennial westerns from director John Hillcoat, better known now as having directed The Road, The Proposition is a story of 19th century Australia and an outlaw played by Guy Pearce who is offered freedom for him and his younger brother if he tracks down and kills his psychopathic older brother. The Proposition is like many of the millennial westerns, brutally realistic and violent, but with a sense of poignant loss that runs throughout the film. Like The Road, the movie is shot amazingly well, with the whole backdrop of the vistas of Australia a strangely unfamiliar take on the general southwestern America of most Westerns. If you're a fan of the genre in its most recent incarnations, it's a hell of an example.

Taken - ***

Also known as the Liam Neeson Badass Power Hour, Taken is a single-minded movie almost to the point of hilarity. There's some token stuff about an absent dad trying to connect with his kid, but to put it simply, Neeson's daughter is kidnapped and sold as a prostitute and Liam Neeson is an ex-CIA agent with a lot of paranoia and a lot of skill. The movie would be dumb, but the action is fast and well paced and Neeson is a genius stroke of casting. His general severe gravitas takes what would easily be a straight to DVD Steven Segal affair and makes it something really special. It's dumb, but it's awesome.

Being John Malkovich - *****

This is one that's been on my list for a very long time, but finally broke down and watched. You know what? Sometimes I'm a damn fool. Being John Malkovich is amazing. Simply amazing. I was completely blown away. I can't count how many times I was surprised into genuine laughter. Of all the movies on the list this week, this is the one that I just have to say--go see it, really. It's on Netflix Instant. It's great. Do it. For yourself. For me. For Malkovich.

Matt's Favorite Movies of 2009

Well, here we are after another long year. And what a year it's been. I'm not going to indulge in a lot of retrospective 'this is what I did all year' BS, because if people wanted those kind of updates they could just follow me on twitter and get it all as it happens.

Instead, I'd like to offer you something a little more substantial. Anyone who knows me knows that my really hobby, the thing I probably dump the most time into outside of work and sleep, is movies. And 2009 was surprisingly a pretty good year for movies, all told. So today I'm going to present my top 10 and change for the year, the things that really set my world aflame and I think are most definitely worth checking out.

This list isn't really in any sort of order based on quality or anything. They're all good, and picking a favorite is next to impossible. And I'll admit that I've hardly seen every major, notable release for 2009. If those films are truly amazing, there will likely be an edit to this list once I get a hold of them. Or I'll roll them into the Top 2010 films. Depends on how good a year 2010 is.

Anyway, enough of that. We're off. Feel free to share your opinions in the comments. And if you have your list of movies, feel free to offer me a link. The always radiant Elizabeth Ditty has her own list here, and it's a good one (though I still grumble about Star Trek). I'd love to hear what you felt belonged on here and didn't make it, or what you thought of the movies listed here. At the end of the day, it's all opinion anyway, and so long as we're watching movies, we're bound to be better people on the other side.

My Favorite Films of 2009

Easy Virtue

Easy Virtue is probably the first movie I knew would be on this list, way back in the beginning of the year when I had heard enough of Elizabeth Ditty talking about it and went to find it for myself. And man, I am so glad that I did, because Easy Virtue belongs on this list. It grabbed its position and held on for dear life during what was a pretty awesome year.

What is Easy Virtue? It is the story of a young man and a young girl who fall in love and get married. But the boy is British and the girl American, and when the boy brings the girl home to his traditional British family all hell breaks loose.

The best part of Easy Virtue is that it plays on two levels. There are many of the Americans-versus-Brits comedy of errors sorts of scenes, and those are truly well and good, but the film is also an exaggerated parody of those films. The characters each represent the archetypes of this subgenre, but together it becomes a farce about both sides, and a film about the journey that the characters take as living, breathing people as a result of what is at heart a trivial clash of personality.

What really set my heart on Easy Virtue was the amazing performance by Colin Firth as the burnt-out war veteran patriarch of the family, a man drifting through life and trying to hold onto a shadow of his former self. I single him out because I had forgotten about Colin Firth before that movie, and was soundly reminded of his brilliance. But he's not the only great performance in the movie. The film received a pretty small, limited release in the US, but I would recommend it to anybody without hesitation.

Drag Me To Hell

Sam Raimi is good at one thing, and that thing is slapstick horror. The kind of horror that's kind of dumb, full of cliche and genre love, but is at times the best physical comedy outside of WB cartoons and other times some of the most genuinely tense stuff (usually despite his efforts). Spiderman be damned, this is what he's good at. But you know that, because you've seen Evil Dead 2, right? Right.

Drag Me to Hell isn't quite the masterpiece that Evil Dead 2 is, but it's got its own charms. The story of a young girl who falls under a gypsy curse, it is your typical morality tale of the genre told through the ridiculous veil of Raimi at the top of his game. Unlike the Evil Dead series, this movie isn't constrained by no budget, and it shows. This is sometimes good and sometimes bad, but it feels much more like a slick, modern Hollywood horror film at the start, with people you kind of know from other things playing humdrum, upper-middle class young people.

That's when the shit goes down. And boy, does it ever. Raimi is a master of timing, and the comic and the horrific is sometimes only a matter of a few seconds one way or another. Raimi is perfect when it comes to that and his talents are on full display here. Not only that, but the film plays fast and loose enough with the narrative that what on the surface seems to be a typical horror film story can be interpreted much deeper. I've heard more than one compelling argument that the movie is actually about anorexia. It's that kind of ambiguity that sets Drag Me to Hell apart, as a film that's greater than Raimi's typical, superficially entertain fare, to something worthy of inclusion on this list.

Food Inc

This is kind of an oddball choice, I know. I'm hardly a green, organic-buying, tree-hugging hippy about anything, much less my choice in food. That said, I continue to watch the food documentaries, things like Super Size Me, King Corn, Fast Food Nation, and the ilk. For what reason, I don't know. Masochism, perhaps. Those movies always make me long for a cheeseburger after all that shock photography and grassroots, heavy-handed moralizing. And that's what I expected to get out of Food, Inc.

But Food, Inc. is not that kind of movie. Instead, it's a movie of facts. Sure, there's a scene in a chicken farm that's not exactly easy to watch, but at the same time there is a scene of organic chicken farmers doing things the old fashioned way and it's just as disgusting, though in a different way.

And that's really what I found so powerful about Food. Inc. It's certainly a documentary about the evils of big, corporate farming and what it means for our society. But it presents it at all levels, from the scares of contaminated meat to the death of the farmer to the organic movement and its broad selling out to big food companies to the patenting of seeds and the damage from corn subsidies. As someone who lives in an agriculture state, these are things I've grown up seeing play out in the local news, and the movie presents a truth that is multifaceted and has no easy answer. Even the knee-jerk, down with the big guy response is shown to be a too simple-minded response.

In short, this is a documentary doing what it's supposed to. It has an agenda, but it lays out the facts and lets you make the next step if you feel the need for action. Instead of propaganda, it presents stories and information, and the conclusions drawn aren't laid out in a moralistic way, just in a blunt reality sort of fashion that I found refreshing for this subset of docs. In short, it's the kind of film that can change your mind. And I find that a powerful thing, worthy of acknowledgment.

Moon

There was a lot of great sci-fi in 2009. But among all the big, tent pole entries with huge budgets and a heavy reliance on special effects was Moon, standing tall among the giants. Moon isn't an ambitious film. It is the tale of a lone astronaut and an AI at the end of a multi-year stay on a moon mining facility. It in a small, intimate tale, with claustrophobic sets and two actors interacting for the entirety of its run time.

If this sounds suspiciously like 2001: A Space Odyssey, then I'm glad you were paying attention. Moon takes a lot of things from Kubrick's epic, but it is a much smaller film with an entry level to match. While 2001 is nearly indecipherable to anyone going in, the tale Moon tells is immediate and human and relate-able. It is one man trying to remain sane alone, the discovery that perhaps the reality he's accepted is not what it seems, and the prices to be paid for that truth.

The film takes quite a number of twists and turns, but it's never as difficult to follow as something like Primer or even Pi, indie sci-fi movies that used confusion as a part of the plot. The movie is clear and concise, as cold as the vacuum of space in presenting an intimate tale, and it's the juxtaposition of the grandness of the setting and the microcosm that the story inhabits that makes the film something really special.

The Brothers Bloom

The Brothers Bloom was a movie that I went into thinking I wasn't going to like. In fact, I was determined that it was going to be a huge disappointment. The trailer looked fun in a campy, frolicking sort of way (the way the better Oceans movies rode on at times) but I've never exactly been overflowing with love for Adrian Brody.

Thankfully, I was convinced to give it a shot on DVD after completely overshooting it in the theaters. Which was an amazing move, as The Brothers Bloom is a truly fantastic film. Part heist film and part crime comedy, the movie breezes in with a single mindedness and sense of fun that truly sets it apart. The story of two con men, one who wants out and one who wants to live the dream brings them into contact with Rachel Weisz, who plays an idealistic heiress wrapped up in all of the intrigue of the titular Bloom brothers' last big score.

The Brothers Bloom is a lot of things, but above all else it is incisive, with a sense of genre that embraces conventions even as it knocks them down and sends them up. The characters are both archetypes, playing against the norm, and living and breathing people with the kind of heightened reality of films like Amelie or the works of Wes Anderson. I was worried that Rian Johnson's herculean effort in making Brick (a brilliant film in its own right) wouldn't be repeated, but The Brothers Bloom is a testament to a director who can play the conventions of cinema as vehicle to explore new, interesting ground.

All that, and it's still hilarious.

District 9

District 9 is an epic. And I mean that in the old-fashioned, huge-scope, this film is going to take you on a journey way that is so rarely utilized these days. This film isn't just big (though it does become very big) but it is exhausting and powerful and vast in presenting a story that tells a singular message, a message of humanity writ in the metaphor of aliens. Like all the greatest sci-fi tales, the other is simply a mirror to show us ourselves.

The story of a bureaucratic effort to relocate aliens who landed and settled on earth is widely known to be an extended metaphor for apartheid. But in reality, it's much more than that. An examination of the use of force and the predilection to remove the weak in order to assuage the will of the strong ("You mean Avatar didn't invent that story?" No, Jimmy, tis an ancient tale.). A look at the officious, well-meaning face of evil on a level not seen since Brazil. It's the US storming into Iraq, it's 1984, it is about prejudice and apathy and the evils of both. It's a big scope, and the film handles it all with heart and brains to match.

The film isn't without its faults. I feel the finale goes a little too big and action-heavy for its own good, but the first half is so pitch-perfect that it's hard to hold a misstep or two against it. A film that had no business going as big as it did really set the bar high for spectacle sci-fi, and it's amazing what a scrappy movie with a relatively small budget and no-name actors can pull off.

Ponyo

Ponyo is a difficult film to write about. Either you already know the majesty of Hayao Miyazaki's films, or you don't, and trying to tell someone why they're awesome is hard. If you don't know who he is, go see his work right now.Spirited Away is his best, Kiki's Delivery Service or Laputa: Castle in the Sky are easier entry-level films. Ponyo is his latest movie and it too joins the ranks of instant animated masterpieces.

A retelling of the Little Mermaid story with a decidedly Japanese bent, Ponyo is the story of a young boy, Sousuke, who meets a young goldfish named Ponyo. Ponyo is a princess of the Ocean, but develops a sense of young love for Sousuke and thus uses her magic to turn herself into a girl. Unfortunately, her actions bring about an imbalance in nature that threatens to destroy the world.

Ponyo is a film of wonder, animated in a beautiful style, with watercolor-esque scenes and a landscape of windswept island chains and huge seas a la The Great Wave Off Kanagawa. But it's also an emotional tale about childhood and dawning responsibility and the awakening of greater emotions. Miyazaki handles it all wonderfully, with an eye for the careful juxtaposition between the mundane human world Sousuke inhabits and the alien awe-inspiring unreality of the magical undersea kingdom and inhabitants.

It is hard not to gush about Miyazaki, but the elderly director is still perhaps the greatest single force in animation. Ponyo will go down with the rest of his work as not only some of the best animated movies of all time, but of legitimate, amazing movies against the wider field of all of cinema.

Inglourious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino's long-in-coming World War II epic comes pretty quickly on the heels of Death Proof, a masterpiece that was swallowed up by the general indifference to the joy of Grindhouse by the masses. And with one bold move Tarantino regains his lost ground with interest, creating what is quite possibly his greatest movie, and certainly one of his boldest.

Inglourious Basterds doesn't pull any punches. It is the sweet blending of the spaghetti western, the war film, and the revenge flick. There is intrigue, there is violence, and there are genuine laughs and cheers to be mined from the material. Tarantino's fairytale take on WWII is the stuff that cinema history is made out of, the notes of exploitation film and arthouse romantic drama working in much the same way that the low humor and high aspirations of Shakespeare provided enduring entertainment to all walks of life.

That's not to say the film is without the Tarantino quirks. The chapter framing of Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill returns. The violence isn't nearly as cartoony as Kill Bill, instead relying more heavily on the slow buildup and quick, brutal release of 70s American cinema and the Spaghetti Western. It's powerful, heady stuff. But the payoff is incredibly, with a sense of exhilaration the likes of which is rarely felt on screen.


Zombieland

Once upon a time, Zombie Comedies as a genre began and ended with Shaun of the Dead. And it was good. But then, lo and behold, there came upon the world Zombieland, and the gauntlet was thrown down, and the two titans strove for the title of greatest. And though the outcome of that battle is lost to the ages, many talk of the power of both combatants to this day.

Okay, enough waxing poetic. You can't talk about Zombieland without mentioning Shaun of the Dead, which really helped in reigniting zombie fervor and is a fantastic film in its own right. Let me come right out and say it--I feel Zombieland is the superior of the two films. Shaun of the Dead is much more innovative, but Zombieland is much more dedicated to its themes and goes further with them.

You know the drill by now. Zombie outbreak. Band of survivors from various walks of life meet, try to survive together, and all learn something about being human. In between, there are clever scenes of practicality, excess, and the wild dream of living in a world without constraints. This film is devoted to that framework set down so long ago by Romero, but it is also a smart, fast-paced comedy about American life.

As much as Shaun of the Dead is about the UK, Zombieland is about the America of 2009, about the rednecks and the hopeful and the nerdy and the broken, people who live on pop culture and a heated dislike for people who are not like them. They are violent, volatile, emotional, and more than a little lost. The zombie apocalypse is more a catalyst for bringing people together than anything else, a tableaux for the convergence of all these lives missing something vital. For survivors, none of the cast is particularly well adjusted. But who is, these days? Zombieland is us, and we are Zombieland, as the best films of the genre should be.

Fantastic Mr Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox is not my favorite Wes Anderson movie (that title rests firmly upon The Royal Tenenbaums) but it is, in my opinion, the best of them. Wes Anderson has always had a lyrical, hand-crafted feel to his movies. The sets look like doll houses, the characters like something out of a story. It is a natural extension, then, to remove the meat of physical actors from the equation and simply use some of the most painstakingly high-quality stop motion around (I'd say of the year, but Coraline was also an amazing achievement).

The storybook quality is even more reminiscent here, with everything made miniature or constructed to be the whimsical playground of the fantastic models used. Of course, the voice work is superb, with Wes Anderson's typical cast of characters being lead by the commanding tones of George Clooney. But the two come together in a lyrical, impressionistic way that brings it all home. Clooney's Mr. Fox is a suave poseur of a criminal, aspiring to the upper class, but the snarling animal nature that takes over from time to time punctuates the inherent absurdity of the hopes and dreams of the animals, and the animation that accompanies it is charming and hilarious.

The general whimsy of Anderson is on full force here, going full speed into the stratosphere of his personal style. I feel like Fantastic Mr. Fox is the first time he's really been free to just throw it all out there as perfectly as he sees it in his head, and it's an impressive, spellbinding vision.

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans

Nicholas Cage is the kind of actor that will raise a man's blood pressure. He goes from great movies to shit on celluloid seemingly at random, veering to and fro with the kind of chaos one might expect from a natural disaster. Which makes watching one of his movies a little like playing Russian Roulette with your afternoon. Which is why Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is probably the best movie Nicholas Cage will ever make.

Port of Call is not a great film. In fact, it tries very hard to be a bad film. It is a bad film in the way that only a great director or a complete fuck-up can make. The narrative veers wildly from Cop-Who-Doesn't-Play-By-The-Rules drama to police procedural to a drug film (both pro and con) to a man-on-the-edge film to a film about race relations to a revenge flick to outright comedy. The story of a cop with good intentions, chronic pain, and a habit for loose women, hard drugs, and big gambling, Port of Call is the kind of train wreck that gets off on being wild and raucous, even when on screen it's being muted and reflective. I assure you, that's only for decoration. No morals are to be found here.

And Cage takes to it like a fish to water. One minute he is the seedy, slimy Nicholas Cage from most of his best obscure roles, next he's tripping out wildly seeing (or imagining? it's never made clear) reptiles as hard as Raoul Duke in Fear and Loathing, and then he's waving around a massive magnum and spouting one liners like the days when he flirted with being an action star. Even his performance goes from manic to static between cuts, his delivery slurring one minute and sharp the next. It's entrancing, and the world around it is as ridiculous and uneven as the actor and director, wheeling around and around the lip of ruin but never quite falling in.

The poster I've included with this is an unused one from early in the production. It perfectly captures the tone of the movie, and is one of the best scenes of the movie, where our hero pulls a gun on two innocent, well-meaning old women. But apparently the MPAA feels that a picture of someone pointing a gun at another person, even fictionally, is too much for the public at large to handle. Which is why I use it, despite its obvious watermarks. This film is simply too much for the public at large to handle.

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And so ends the list for 2009. I know that I've been kind of negligent of the blog this year, but I'm hoping to change that in 2010. I'll be starting up the movie reviews again, though don't expect me to go on at length like this. I'm aiming for sub-50 words on most of the films I've seen, just to try to formalize my thoughts in sketch form .

Also, because these days I watch far too many films. I'd be spending days on the reviews. I don't have days. Too much to watch. ;)

See you in 2010.