A Single Man

5 out of 5

I love how the concept of fear in media and current events has such a relevant impact on each decade and generation. It reminds me that whatever the situation, whatever the threat, it is only the current one that is the worst.

I was watching this movie and thinking to myself that the air of sadness was too strong for me to love it, truly. I had the thought that sad things are sometimes perfect in their sadness and moments later the line 'Sometimes awful things have their own kind of beauty' came up on the screen.

I am a sucker for this kind of British-influenced look at the late 50s and early 60s where a spotlight is shined on the unhappy housewife and overlooked homosexual. A Single Man is intriguing visually, not only in light of my propensity toward the genre, but the hue changes from dull to vivid each time the main character sees something he finds beautiful. I find the meaning to be that he couldn't see the beauty until the day he decided to kill himself and leave the world that is of equal parts beauty and pain.

Julianne Moore's eyeliner, college students smoking in class, chronic cocktail hour, and my least favorite era of architecture.

'I realize that everything is exactly the way it is meant to be.'

I loved it and I'll never watch it again.

Inglourious Basterds

4.5 out of 5

Inglourious Basterds was much better than I expected. It started out as one of those 'Well, I suppose there's nothing better to see' occasions and surprised me by making me laugh quite a bit.

I've been a Tarantino fan for over a decade, but I suspected obvious pitfalls in this movie from the trailer. Brad Pitt looked like he was overdoing a campy impression of a funnier George Clooney character and the subject matter seemed like an opportunity for Tarantino to exploit violence. Turns out, it was pretty damned funny in the dark humor department.

Brad Pitt seemed playfully engulfed in his character with an accent and idioms that made me wonder what it would be like to have known my grandparents and great grandparents so long ago. There were also a lot of close ups on his face that showed imperfections and age (I have little tolerance for him as a heartthrob). Turns out, the film didn't even follow the Inglourious Basterds for the majority of the movie. It seemed much more centered around this German henchman (played by a really good German actor, Christoph Waltz) and the Jewish girl that got away from him.

There was much less over the top, graphic bloodshed than I expected; after seeing Kill Bill I wasn't in a big hurry to find out what new and inventive ways Tarantino could squirt blood on a camera lens.

And although I know it's one of his signatures to have long, drawn out, intense conversations that are supposed to build suspense, they can go a bit long for me. Some people feel the drama in them, but lengthy, complicated, quick paced dialog can lose my interest and my mind starts to wander (like in Deathproof); I only felt myself drift once. More than the writing, the physical acting and situations had the theatre silent with anticipation.

One of the most interesting notions was whether the film would follow history or take a fantasy turn most of the world would have preferred. A big part of the attraction in Inglourious Basterds is the sense that anything can happen at any time. The film also had a few trademark stylized moments in it with stark red Nazi flags and cigarette girls that were a nice juxtaposition to the brown hues of typical WWII films.

Julie and Julia

4 out of 5

I didn't go into this movie with very high expectations. I really enjoy Meryl Streep and Julia Child, and I have to say I was not anticipating a merger of the two. I can't quite put my finger on the reason for that reaction. It's almost as though I didn't want the magic of Hollywood and mass-marketing to sully these two icons with a forced imitation.

Thankfully, the movie was raised a level by mature writing and much more comedy than I had expected.

POSITIVES:

• Stanley Tucci got all of the best lines.
• Portrayal of the dirtier side of Julia Child.
• SNL clip of a Julia Child imitation of the ilk I remember as a child.
• Brought up a new inspiration to read Julia's books.
• Meryl's black and white Julia Child's TV appearances did Julia justice.
• Sweet love story for both the Julie and Julia characters.
• Renewed my interest in blogging. Go figure!
• VERY humorous.

NEGATIVES:

• Not a lot of tolerance on my part for a Julia Child imitation.
• Amy Adam's terrible haircut robbed her of her signature cuteness.
• The overt theme of struggle, perseverance, and 'what you believe is your reality' is a turn off for me. Outside of Boo in Monsters, the feel-good music brings out the cynic in me.

Summary - very enjoyable :)