Before Night Falls

Watched this biography of Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas last night. Lots of people had recommended it to me, and I finally put it on my Netflix list. While the photography was beautiful, there was good acting throughout and Javier Bardem was extremely easy on the eyes, as a biography I think it failed. I didn’t really understand much more about this man’s life after watching the movie than I did before it started. And the structure was so fragmented and dreamlike that at times it became more irritating than illuminating.

Still, it was atmospheric and interesting throughout, which is more than you can say for most theatrical releases these days. And how can you fault a movie that has Johnny Depp as a prison transvestite?

A sidenote: Is anyone actually interested in me reviewing movies that aren’t in theaters now? I don’t normally do reviews of stuff I see on video.

20 Most Annoying Conservatives 2003

I thought we could all use a laugh this morning.

Turkey Accomplished

I don’t much care that President Bush carried around a prop turkey during his photo-op visit to Iraq on Thanksgiving Day. It was a fake event, so a fake turkey doesn’t really bother me.

But then there’s the latest lie, about the British Airways pilot spotting Air Force One. This story has changed more than Michael Jackson’s face already. And it’s strange, because it’s such an inconsequential thing. They had a wildly successful PR stunt, but they had to goose it just a little bit more, and now it’s biting them on the ass. (Well, just a nibble of course, as usual.)

This British Airways thing reminds me of the “Mission Accomplished” sign, that Bush laughingly denied was the work of his staff. Well, it was. And I’m baffled that the administration would go out of its way to tell tiny falsehoods that could be so easily discovered.

Some say they’re pathological, that they don’t know the difference between a lie and the truth. Well, I don’t buy that. I think they are so drunk with power, realizing they can literally do or say anything they want, that it becomes fun. Remember the “Twilight Zone” episode where the small boy could turn anyone in the town into anything he liked? Kind of like that.

What really scares me is that so few people care about these lies, big or small. And when the President is caught stabbing a small child in the neck on the White House lawn, don’t come crying to me. 🙂

Average Joe

What fascinates me most about this show is its intense Darwinian quality. A beautiful woman holds the fate of 16 “regular guys” in her manicured hands. She has all the power, and they are her willing lapdogs. They jump through her hoops until they are eventually cast aside. The show’s producers even added to Melana’s power this week by letting her spy on the guys as they talked behind her back about her fat cousin – who was (and get ready for a shocker if you’ve never seen a television show before) actually Melana in a fat suit!

The best thing about this week’s show was the elimination of the evil bully Zach, who was headed for the winner’s circle had he not dissed Melana-in-fat-suit as the DUFF: “Designated Ugly Fat Friend.” Nice. Plus, his kiss-off on the show was a profanity-laced diatribe about how “Guys talking to guys is always different.”

Memo to Zach: blow me.

Now that Melana’s gotten rid of Zach, she’ll probably pick the last “average joe,” Adam. She even got a little weepy talking about him this week. And let’s face it – do you really think they’ll let her pick a model on a show called “Average Joe”?

Here’s what I really want to see: the anti-Darwin dating show. Let someone like the late lamented Dennis from earlier in this show be the star, and have 16 beauties compete for his attentions. No money, no other incentive for the women than the average joe’s basic attributes. Give the schlub the power, for once. Would any of the women feel anything for him? Would they just want to compete to win against the other women, or compete to stay on TV? Now there’s a show to get excited about.

Shattered Glass

I think there’s an entertaining movie to be made from the story of disgraced New Republic reporter Stephen Glass. “Shattered Glass” isn’t it.

Basically this movie is Hayden Christensen painting a picture of the most unctuous kiss-ass in history, until you yearn for his inevitable spanking. The spanking part, free of anything all that interesting or unexpected, takes up about 2/3 of the movie. We just see in agonizingly slow detail how Glass’s lies finally got the better of him.

And then it’s over. There’s almost no background, no motivations explored, no context at all, really. And interestingly in a movie about fabricated people and events, few of the characters or situations rang true for me. Glass, as portrayed by Christensen, would have been despised by most of the journalists I’ve known; they’re a cynical lot who don’t put much stock in fawning flattery. And I would have liked to know how a story containing absolutely no real people, places or things made it through the New Republic’s supposedly fanatical fact-checking process.

Plus, Glass’s fellow reporters are portrayed as either ciphers with no personality, or as whiny insecure office gossips. I have trouble believing this depiction of the group of young hotshots supposedly running “the in-flight magazine of Air Force One.”

Maybe that’s the way it really was. But hey, that doesn’t make for a very entertaining or involving movie. Maybe they should have punched it up a little.

Not recommended.

Rick and Colin

I recently learned that one of my media crushes, Rick Spence, has been replaced as host of HGTV’s “Curb Appeal.” This is an outrage! What’s next – Patrick Norton leaving “The Screen Savers”? Even the thought of it makes me a little light-headed.

On top of that now come reports that Angelina Jolie has taken Colin Farrell off the market, at least for the next five minutes or so. Angelina and Colin met on the set of “Alexander the Great,” where she plays his *mother.* (I know she’s not his real mother, but still, ick.)

At least in Colin’s case, I have faith that he’ll make his way ’round to me, eventually.

Fight Club

Feeling pretty pessimistic about the state of the world, frankly. The turkey stunt in Iraq, people popping out of the woodwork to affirm why I’m not an equal member of society, the usual bile over at Dean Esmay – stuff like this is getting me down. I know it’s all small stuff. I know I should just shut out the right-wingers and concentrate on what’s good and what I can do. But it’s hard. I feel really angry. I also feel like I’ve lived in “the bubble” for too long, so I don’t think ignoring people like Sean Hannity and Dean Esmay is going to be a good long-term strategy.

The real trick is, figuring out the best way to fight. We didn’t start this fight, but we better win it.

Pieces of April

I saw this Thanksgiving-themed movie last night in an empty theater, after the family left. I often enjoy that experience, because it makes me feel like they’re screening the movie just for my benefit (which I guess they are). It was a nice capper to a fantastic day of cooking, talking, laughing and eating.

Katie Holmes of “Dawson’s Creek” is surprisingly good as the rebellious, tattooed April, who has invited her estranged family, including her terminally-ill mother (Patricia Clarkson) to Thanksgiving dinner in her rundown apartment. Other than Sean Hayes’ over-the-top neighbor with an unrealistically swanky stove, the acting is great throughout. There were many times when the story went in unexpected directions, and it was touching and darkly comic in turns.

Clarkson, also great in “The Station Agent,” was fantastic as the prickly mother. I know in her situation, I would get pretty tired of people asking how I was all the time too.

It was eerily appropriate for me to see this movie after just having prepared a feast for my own (real) family. When April dropped the uncooked turkey on her almost comically dirty kitchen floor, I audibly gasped. And as I watched her decorate the hallway with streamers and make placecards as she ran around the apartment building looking for a replacement for her broken oven, I thought, “No way she’s doing that all in one day.”

Recommended.

Happy Thanksgiving

Call me a shrieking commie baby-eating America-hating purblind idiot if you must, but this photo makes me ill, on so many levels.

Norman Rockwell is spinning in his grave.

NOTE: This is absolutely NOT the post I was intending to make tonight. But I saw another version of this photo on, you guessed it, Dean Esmay’s site, along with some intense praise for the President’s bravery and the size of his “brass ones.” And it angried up the blood, as Grandpa Simpson would say. This stupid election-year photo-op stunt is going to be gobbled up like edible panties on a hooker. And despite myself it’s added a little queasy edge to what was a wonderful family celebration today.

Listening to…

“Mad Mission,” Patty Griffin

It’s a mad mission
But I got the ambition
Mad, mad mission
Sign me up…