Not too much to say about this one. Two high school girls drift about the summer after graduation, meddling with people’s lives. It had the pathetic, depressed quality of American Splendor (also a comic-to-film), but I didn’t enjoy it as much.
1. Children of Men
2. Stay
3. Pan’s Labyrinth
4. Heavenly Creatures
5. Uzumaki
6. Ghost World
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A friend of mine shared this song with me today and it just destroyed me. It resonates on so many levels. It seems impossible that someone wrote it without knowing me. I know the people in the song. I’ve been looking for her.
The Girl That’s Never Been
– Escape Key
It was sixteen years ago, outside an aging movie show
I was found not knowing where I was that night
Not a thing did I possess but an old blue gingham dress
And a faded photograph in black and white
Now my memories are quite clear, even if I still can hear
All the shrinks who said some trauma was to blame
Light another cigarette, breathe in deep, try to forget
That it’s a photograph of Dinah and that Alice is my name
Chorus:
Save me, save me, I’ve lost my memory
I’m outside the world looking in
Save me, save me, I’m lost in the memory
And I’d swear I’m a girl that’s never been
Now it’s all the life I knew, except I know it can’t be true
I’m not her– there’s no such thing as Wonderland
Hold a steady job somehow, three months clean and sober now
Oh, the ways I tried to get back there again
“Try to move on, don’t be sad–” so I placed a personal ad
I asked, why is a raven like a writing desk?
And on the phone, out of the past, so glad he’s found me now at last–
And I’m afraid to go and meet him but I know my answer’s yes
[chorus]
Just another city loner wearing sunglasses at night
Leather jacket, purple turtleneck and blue jeans worn too tight
Just a rummie by the jukebox in a casual curious pose
But I don’t know how he knows the things he knows
Well he sits down with a grin, “Why little Alice, where’ve you been?
Not so little, not so Alice, now, are you?”
As he sips my untouched drink, I say “I can’t be who I think”
He says “You are, and you’re not, and I am too.
Are we figments of our gin? Are we long-lost orphaned kin?
Or the mad descendants of a writer’s pen?
No one’s sane behind their mask. Ask what you really want to ask.”
And I close my eyes and whisper, “Can you take me back again?”
[chorus]
“Darling Alice, so bereft, there’s no back– you never left.
All the rhymes are still there waiting to be sung.”
And he holds up in the air a little picture paper square
Slips between my lips and underneath my tongue.
“Shall I tell you now, Miss Little, what’s the answer to the riddle
Of the raven that you used to send your call?”
He takes the glasses off to see, yellow cat’s eyes turn on me, and says,
“It’s nothing like a writing desk at all.”
Chorus:
Save me, save me, I’ve lost my memory
I’m outside the world looking in
Save me, save me, I’m lost in the memory
And I’d swear I’m a girl that’s never been
And he faded, leaving nothing but a grin.
A very dark fairytale. The two worlds of the film, 1944 Spain and the Faerie world are both richly textured and detailed. There are really two stories interwoven into one, each one equally engaging. The creature designs are gorgeous, with very little CGI for the main creatures. The violence in the film is extreme and gory, but it all occurs in the “normal” world, which makes it that much more horrific. The camera rarely ever looks away, even when you wish it very much would.
1. Children of Men
2. Stay
3. Pan’s Labyrinth
4. Heavenly Creatures
5. Uzumaki
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10.
Uzumaki didn’t have quite the same effect the second time around. Also, I saw it with a bunch of friends, so it didn’t seem as creepy.
1. Children of Men
2. Stay
3. Heavenly Creatures
4. Uzumaki
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I’m not too familiar with Peter Jackson’s earlier works, so Heavenly Creatures was a bit of an education. It featured Kate Winslet in her very first role, a surprisingly mature and capable young actress.
1. Children of Men
2. Stay
3. Heavenly Creatures
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I’ve moved all the posts and comments from Blogger over to this new WordPress blog. I lost a lot of the images, though. As I come across them, I will try to replace them.
I was really surprised with Stay. I had expected a mildly entertaining Sixth Sense or Jacob’s Ladder retread. Instead I got a thought provoking, cleverly woven story with exceptional cinematography and fascinating visual tricks. I had never noticed Ryan Gosling before this film, but he, Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts and Bob Hoskins were a great cast. I’m surprised there wasn’t more buzz about this film.
1. Children of Men
2. Stay
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Even if Children of Men had been worthless, it would still make the #1 slot by virtue of being the first film I’ve seen in 2007. Fortunately, it is a work of art.
Absolutely devastating, at once horrific and beautiful. One of the most frightening movies I have seen in quite a while. We absolutely cannot let the world get anywhere close to the one in this movie.
At the very least, this is the Oscar for best cinematography. There is a single take that is one of the most astonishing things I’ve ever seen on film. It goes on forever, impossibly choreographed, flawlessly executed.
1. Children of Men
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Maybe if I put it all in one place, it will start to come together and mean something.
I guess I’m now “retro blogging.” Remember: you heard that term here first!
Via xkcd…
