In the Headlights

Do the Hustle

I had an evening this week when I was too tired to do anything, but too wired to sleep.  So I spent 99 minutes in mindless entertainment.  The message seems to be that the mean and venal will prevail.

It was that classic martial arts movie, Kung Fu Hustle.  Stephen Chow does it again.  I enjoyed his Shaolin Soccer, so thought I'd give this movie a try.  Totally over the top.

Sing, a petty street hustler and his friend want to join the notorious Axe Gang, a large urban gang of thugs who wear tuxedos and kill with axes.  They are pretty cold blooded, which is amply demonstrated in several scenes in this movie.  When Sing and his friend try to shake down the town of Pig Sty posing as Axe members, it focuses the attention of the real gang on this impoverished town.

Coming to the town's protection are a series of Kung Fu masters.  The first doing pretty cool martial arts stunts, but as the movie goes on, they display more and more superpowers.

The plot is pretty cheesy, the acting hammy, the special effects okay, and way over the top.  In short, it's great entertainment. 

Across the Universe

Stryder sent me a YouTube link to a music video called "Across the Universe", with Joe Cocker singing "Come Together".  It's directed by Julie Taymor, who is also known as costume director for the Broadway musical, "The Lion King."  Taymor has won two Tonys out of four nominations, and an Emmy, so she's definitely a force to be reckoned with.

"Across the Universe" is also a movie, directed by Taymor. It is the story of a group of friends finding their way through the minefield that was the 1960's.  Love, war, activism.  All set to a Beatles soundtrack.  Could be worse.  In addition, Stryder said the movie was excellent.  As did the person who posted the comment on the imdb site.  My sense is that the movie is not for everyone, but that it will rock those who lived through the period.  I just added it to my Netflix queue, and moved it to the top.  At the rate I'm going through movies, it would probably be a year before I got to it, otherwise.

Meanwhile, get your fix watching this great video.

Hairspray

While Julie was here, we spent a couple of evenings watching the movie "Hairspray." We got halfway through it the first night, and were practically comatose, so we finished it the second night.  We both felt the second half was better than the first.

I hadn't seen it before, though remember that it was a John Waters (starring Divine) cult classic years ago, and then somehow became a Broadway hit, then a well-regarded movie.

Everything in this movie is, no pun intended, larger than life.  Nikki Blonsky is a charmer as Tracy Turnblad.  Her parents are John Travolta as her mother, Edna, and the increasingly weird (is that even possible?) Christopher Walken as her dad, Wilbur.  The cast is filled out with such standouts as Queen Latifah, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Amanda Bynes and Brittany Snow.

It's hard to take your eyes off the screen as wild scene follows wild scene.  LOTS of music and dance sequences.  Traci is an overweight teen with a boufant flip who dreams of getting on the Corny Collins Show, Baltimore's teen dance show, which features a weekly "Negro Day."

She achieves her dream, and competes for the title of Miss Teenage Hairspray (sponsored by Ultra-Clutch spray...As Corny famously says, "you look like you could use a stiff one.")

Tracy's rival is Amber Von Tussle, blonde diva from the Corny Collins Show, and former beauty queen Velma Von Tussle's  (Michelle Pfeiffer) daughter. 

(It was good to see Snow again.  I remember her fondly from a show Red and I used to watch, "American Dreams."  I thought she was a fine actress in a fine show at the time.)

Tracy's focus shifts when Negro Day is cancelled, and she takes part in a march for equality.  Everything crescendos at the pageant, which is hilarious.

At the end, when Travolta's Edna overcomes her shyness to take to the stage and strut her ample stuff, I was so hoping he/she would strike a couple of Saturday Night Live poses.  It would have been so right.  Sadly, I waited in vain.

The bottom line is that we really enjoyed the show, which only got better as it went on.

Once

Upon a time in Dublin.  Sandy and I watched the movie "Once" on Friday.  Interstingly, we both had a Netflix copy of it.

I was on my way home and called Sandy to see if she had eaten, if she wanted to go out and get something, or maybe come over to watch a movie over pizza and wine.  Part of this was drivine by the fact that I enjoy her company, part by the fact that my New Year's resolution was that I wouldn't drink alone, at least for the month of January, and I really wanted a glass of wine.

The movie got great reviews, so our expectations were high.  Unfortunately, high expectations are difficult to reach.  It turned out to be a sweet little movie about two musical people who meet, grow close through music and make beautiful music together.

Kim had given me a copy of "The Swell Season" by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.  I play it constantly.  It is the companion CD to the movie music. Actually, that album came out in 2006, and the songs were included in the film.  That is, some of the songs from the sound track are on it, but others also that aren't featured in the film, but fit well with the plot.  I got that and the soundtrack to "Once".  The music is the best thing in the movie, and that is fitting.

The couple meet when he is a busker on the Dublin streets, playing the guitar and singing to supplement his income as a Hoover repair guy ("Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy").  Hansard and Irglova, a couple in real life, wrote and performed all the music on the soundtrack except one number.

Dublin looks wonderful.  The accents are authentic:  often hard to understand.  For me at least.  He has broken up with an unfaithful girlfriend, she has left her husband in the Czech republic and moved to Dublin with her mother and young daughter.

That's all I'll say about the plot except their music brings them together, and transforms both of their lives, though not in any formulaic fashion.

It's a small gem.

Kung Fu Soccer

Last night, I spent an evening centered around about 90 minutes of mindless entertainment.  With chips and salsa, even.

I watched a Netflix movie, which had been recommended by Stryder and his wife a long time ago.  I don't watch a lot of movies, and I kept bumping others to the top of the queue, but I finally watched Shaolin Soccer. It was really good. I had to pay attention, too, because it was in Chinese, with English subtitles.

It's the story of "Golden Leg" Fung, a has-been soccer star who decides to field a team for a $1,000,000 prize tournament.  He befriends a gone-to-seed Kung-fu master who enlists his gone-to-seed Kung-Fu master brothers, though not without difficulty.   Stephen Chow (who also co-wrote and directed the film) is "Mighty Steel Leg" whose mission it is to teach the world about Shaolin king fu.  He tries a song and dance routine, but it doesn't work.

The humor is very tongue in cheek.  When Mighty Steel Leg meets Mui, he has no money to pay for her divinely made sticky buns, and leaves his old sneakers as collateral.  She patches them with "Hello Kitty" patches.  She is scarred from acne, but has a beautiful soul, and makes heavenly sticky buns using her gifts as a kung fu master (mistress?).  But after her heart is broken, her tears turn them salty and bitter.  She loses her job and disappears...for a time.

Anyway, each brother has a kung fu power, not unlike a super power.  When Fung brings the team to practice, the biggest challenge is getting them to control their powers and play as a team.

Their first game is against Team Rebellion.  It looks like a reasonable group, until, during an introductory handshake, a large crescent wrench falls out of the captain's shorts and hits the ground with a clang.  "Oh...,"  he says, "...I'm, uh, a...mechanic....I'm...I'm on call."

Lines like that had me laughing out loud throughout this movie.

All the soccer scenes are, as expected, way over the top, with every blatant dirty trick possible brought out.  Players fly.  The ball turns to flame, or bends the goalpost. 

Their final game is against Team Evil, owned and coached by Hung, Golden Leg Fung's rival from the old days.  Team Shaolin is nearly decimated by Team Evil...until...

Anyway, I've seen this movie compared to "The Karate Kid."  I don't get the comparison.  First of all, "The Karate Kid" was meant to be serious, whereas "Shaolin Soccer" is very much tongue in cheek.  The only comparison is that it's an underdog movie, and as such can be compared just as appropriately to "The Bad News Bears" and hundreds of other underdog movies.

If you're up for a silly, very entertaining movie, you should give this one a try.

For much more detail and cast description, go to Wikipedia.

Ratatouille!

Ratatouille used to mean a French peasant dish made with various vegetables.  When I was growing up, Mom would make it by grilling eggplant, green peppers, onions, and slicing tomatoes, then layering the whole thing with ham and Swiss cheese, herbs, salt and pepper, then baking it.  Served with a crispy baguette and butter, it was a delightful Summer dish.  Now it refers

Now, no one has to remember the dish, though it adds a layer to the title of this movie (and is featured at the end of the movie), which centers on a beguiling little rat named Remy with a distinct culinary gift. The Pixar animation is truly wonderful, not only of the characters, but of the beauty of Paris and the French countryside.  Disney and Pixar collaborated on this film.  Animators spent time in culinary schools, to understand the workings of the kitchen, and they went to Paris to appreciate the beauty and spirit of that city.

Remy comes to Paris from the countryside and goes to visit the restaurant of his culinary god, Gusteau,  only to find that the reknown chef has died.  Not to worry, though, Remy gets to commune with his spirit.

When Alfredo Linguini, the janitor spills the soup special, he attempts to cover it up by throwing ingredients into the pot.  Remy can't stand by and watch, and fixes the soup.  Linguini discovers Remy, and they form a partnership.  Remy hides under Linguini's toque and pulls on his hair to direct his movements. It's adorable.

The plot is complicated by sous-chef Skinner's desire to profit from Gusteau's name, the hitherto unknown fact that Gusteau had an heir, a romance between Linguini and chef Colette, and malevolent critic named Anton Ego. Not to mention the ethnic tension between humans and rats, and the rat genocide taking place all the while.  A restaurant is not a safe place for a young rat, as is amply demonstrated every time Remy's cute little nose shows itself.

Definitely a charming, fun movie. Pixar does it again!

One Woman's Mistake

is another's opportunity.  Tonight, I watched Notes on a Scandal, with Dame Judi Dench and Cate Blanchette.  The acting chops in that sentence pretty much assures that it will be worth watching.  Having said that, I postponed watching it for awhile, not sure how creepy it would be.  I thought Barbara Covett (Dench) was going to play rough, blackmailing Sheba Hart, and then...what?

But it was more nuanced than that.  When Bathsheba slipped into an affair with a 15-year-old student, you may have gasped, but you could see the inevitability of it.  He was complicit, and not much of a child.  Was she wrong.  Yes.  In her place, would I have done it?  I don't know.

Then Barbara, who has a budding friendship with Sheba finds out and confronts her.  But as the conversation develops, she promises not to tell...she sees it as a way to become close to Sheba.  As Sheba tries to break off the affair with Steven Connolly, Barbara insinuates herself more and more into her life as friend, confidante, and, well, one who shares an important secret.

The more we learn about Barbara, the more distasteful it is.  And yet, she is what she is. All she has in her life is an unsatisfying job, a diary which she has kept for decades, her best friend (YES!), and her cat.   Lonely, bitter, opportunistic.  She falls in love with Sheba, and allows her fantasies to carry her to an unrealistic perspective on their relationship. 

So of course she blackmails her, emotionally.  She believes that Sheba's marriage with an older man is unhappy, (though that doesn't really seem to be the case either) and that she is the right partner for Sheba.  When Barbara's cat dies, she expects Sheba to leave an important family function to be by her side.  Sheba doesn't come, and everything comes apart after that.

I can see this happening. I think perhaps liaisons between teen-aged students and teachers are more common that we can know.  And bitter spinsters as well. Indeed, I wonder why it doesn't happen more often.  Maybe it does.  Lots of dysfunctional people out there.  (Sorry, I didn't mean you.)

And so, I felt sorry for Sheba.  And Steven.  And Richard, Sheba's husband.  And their kids.

Even Barbara.  Even as I disliked her and sneered at her.  She was pathetic.  But caught in her own maelstrom.  She didn't set out to hurt anyone.  In fact she set out to be loved.  She just didn't do it very well.

Many of us don't.

It's a fine movie.

[Image from Reel Life Wisdom, which also has a review of the movie]

Awake

A new movie is coming out in the next day or two.  Awake.  My friend Tim, an anesthesiologist, isn't looking forward to this at all.

He anticipates a batch of hyper-anxious patients showing up in his operating room.

He agrees that awareness during anesthesia is a problem that is taken very seriously by the medical community, but it is relatively rare, especially in the way that strikes the most fear:  being awake, paralyzed, in pain, unable to communicate.

He adds that the figure of 1:700 applies to a continuum of awareness from being wide awake, to having implicit memory of the event that is elicited through psychological tests following an anesthetic.  So many people who were "aware" aren't aware that they were aware.  In addition some people may have been vaguely or even explicitly aware of events at the beginning and end of their anesthetic that they mistake for intraoperative events.  Some folks think that being aware at all during a procedure means that intraoperative awareness has taken place.  Not so.  Many anesthetics are done with nerve blocks and sedation, or just sedation, where the aim is pain and anxiety control, not unconsciousness.

Tim explains that anesthesia can drop your blood pressure, and some patients are at high risk of morbidity or death if that happens.  Examples are trauma patients who have lost a lot of blood, or some heart patients.  In addition, in obstetrics, general anesthetics are kept light to minimize the depressive effect on the baby.

And that's what he plans to tell his patients when they come for surgery, frightened after seeing Awake.  Can it happen?  yes.  Is it rare?  yes.  Rarer still to be awake and paralyzed like in the movie.

"But", he sighed, "if you have such fears, what you need to do is talk about them with anesthesiologist."  "He or she is in the best position of explaining the anesthetic you will have, and whether awareness is likely, or expected with a particular anesthetic."

*************

In this thriller, a young man needs to have a heart transplant, and after undergoing anesthesia realizes he can hear everything going on in the room.  Including details of a plot to do away with him during the surgery.  I don't know how he gets out of that situation.  It would seem to me that the deck is stacked against him, but I think it would be a very short movie if he didn't get out of it.

Stars Hayden Christopher, Jessica Alba, Terrence Howard.

{Image from About.com]

Borat

Last week, I finally got around to watching Sacha Baron Cohen's oeuvre, Borat.  I found it to be a work of great seriousness and import.  In fact, I watched much of it with my hands covering my face, peeking through my fingers, sort of the way I watch the evening news.

Really, the guys at the dance studio still "do" Borat.  It's not uncommon for Muki to shout out "I'm king of the castle, king of the castle" out of seemingly nowhere.  "Verrrry niiiiice" and "my sister, she is the number three prostitute in all of Kazakhstan."

The quotes are endless.  Here's a sampling that had me laughing all over again.

Totally un-PC, as you know.

But the most amazing thing was not how far they could push the envelope of taste...they pushed it pretty far, I must say (and yes, the nude wrestling scene was one of the grossest sights ever...I couldn't take my eyes off the screen).  The most amazing thing was that none of the interactions with the interviewees was staged.

The poor folks with the etiquette class, and the feminists came off okay, but most showed how smarmy they really are.  The car salesman ("but where IS this pussy magnet"), the gun salesmen, the frat boys.  OMG, they had plenty to answer for.

Finally, he reaches California and meets his dream girl.  The following sequence, and the fear in her face as she runs through the parking lot.  That wan't staged.

I understand they faced a bunch of lawsuits after making this movie.  I can see why.

It you're not real squeamish, this is a great movie.  Totally deranged, but funny as hell.

[I got the image at Funny Pictures.net.au, which has lots more funny pictures]

Away from Her

Last night, I watched a film I've been looking forward to...and dreading...for some time.  "Away from Her", starring Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent as Fiona and Grant Anderson, a 60-ish couple who lead an idyllic life in a lovely cottage in beautiful, snow covered Canada.

Christie has had a long, illustrious career, but I remember her as the radiant beauty in her early movies, Dr. Zhivago, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and Shampoo.

Here, she has aged a lot.  No filters on these cameras, though it is apparent that she is intelligent, sophisticated, and still beautiful.  But something's wrong.  The movie dives right into it.  She is somehow inappropriate.  She will enter a conversation, and say something that really makes no sense.  She puts the frying pan away in the freezer.  And she is aware of the changes in herself.

Her husband watches in horror as she slips away, but holds on.  One day, she goes cross-country skiing, then abandons her skis and wanders off.  When he finally finds her, she doesn't know who he is.

It comes and goes, but she insists that they discuss that she might require institutionalization.  He resists, but as she sees the changes in herself, starts to say "it's time"

And so she goes to Meadowlake.  (An aside here.  If there are really institutions like this, then I'm ready to move in.  The quarters were elegant, the staff were patient and genial.  Even the food looked good.)

Eventually, she enters the residence home.  Their rule is that there can be no visitors for the first 30 days.  An eternity for him, but she settles in well, and when he visits, she is playing cards with a group of other patients.

As he returns on a daily basis, it is obvious that her new life is her life now, and the man at whose side she is constantly, Aubrey, is her new man.  She is polite with her Grant, but it is clear that he has no context for her any more.  She sees him, quizically, as a new suitor, perhaps.  She says to him "you're persistent", but has no idea who he is.

It's poignant as hell.  The eyes have it in this movie.  Christies show alarm at first, at her realization that she is changing, slipping, and then get blanker and voider as the movie progresses.  Pinsent's in turn, become more and more pained and lost.  Adding to his torment is the fact that twenty years before, he had had an affair, that ended when he left the university and they moved into the cottage they lived in at the beginning of the movie.  One of the last things she remembered clearly.

Even the soundtrack was good.  I dissolved into tears when Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" started to play.  Young's "Helpless" performed by k.d. lang was equally moving.

This superb movie breaks one of my rules.  I try to select movies that are funny and entertaining (ok, not always, but I try).  This one isn't funny.  It isn't entertaining.

But I wouldn't have missed it.