Am I not "turtle-ly" enough for your turtle club? Turtle. Turtle.
(in Italian... Am I not tartaluga-ly enough for your tartaluga club? tartaluga. tartaluga.)
So America booted Christina off American Idol while she was in the hospitial - CRUEL. But I am satisfied with the decision. RJ (even though he did very poorly this week) seems like a sweet guy and reminds me of a boy band version of my pal Kenny, so I always approved of him more than Christina who seemed to get much more attention than she was worth for her good looks.
On the reason why I am sleepy this morning. Following my TV watching, I watched "The Royal Tenenbaums" last night. The jury had been out on this film for some time. During the spring, I sat in as a regular on Jack and Michelle's "Entertainment Wrap" show on college radio. Over some break when both had seen this movie - they reviewed it: Michelle was charmed by it and Jack said the characters were one-dimensional and he was bored and hated it. I side with Michelle on this one and liked it more than anything I've seen in a while. I liked the way the film was costumed and styled, including a true vintage authenticity that for some reason, reminds me of the old introduction to Sesame Street where a coloring-box group of kids in horiztonal-striped lacosse shirts and slim blue cordoury pants were climbing in and out of a hayride wagon. That probably won't make any sense to anyone except people exactly my age who watched Sesame Street episodes filmed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I will agree with Jack's observation that the characters were flat - but at the same time, I guess it has a lot to do with viewer expectations or what one really wants to get out of a film or what one believes a movie should be. This one really isn't about story - but there are several poignant moments where I think this film really shows what the lack of intimacy, inability to express yourself, or even what a decade's worth of stewing and repressing does to a person. It gives the weight to sunglasses, cigarettes, and a favorite security blanket of a fur coat that we assign to our nearest and dearest. It tries to overcome those human shortcomings (to much success of the five main characters) but it pins down defining idiosyncracies to an absurdly attention-holding end.
This has been Owen Wilson week, much to Michelle's chagrin I am sure. We also rented "Behind Enemy Lines" a decent cat and mouse military chase movie also featuring Gene Hackman (Royal Tenenbaum). That one is more for my father, but that also held my interest. At least that movie had enough going on to keep the attention away from Owen Wilson's messed up nose. As Andrew Gustafson would surely say, "it looks like he's been kicked in the face by a horse."
During my two and a half weeks as an adult, I'd like to get out to the movies more often. I need to see the Zhang Yimou new one "Happy Times" (like everything Chinese * shy of the impoverished, repressed people *, the first word is "happy" - think of the delectable entrees like "happy family," "happy family delight," and "happy family with shrimp.") I read about Robert Evans in the Globe last week and would like to see "The Kid Stays in the Picture." While in Ossining, I hope to rent "Beijing Bicycle" (at the video store, who knew?) and there were more there that seems appealing which slip my mind, perhaps "Sidewalks of New York" for some light, but profound in an independent / not widely released film, kind of way. Maybe I'll make it to see "13 conversations about one thing" another title that caught my eye. Anyway, that's enough ranting, sometimes this serves as my outloud to do list.
Boss is gone again, through the 19th and then sporadically in through August. His proposal to teach in Maine while maintaining the role of a curator was accepted, so again I get to fend for myself. It'll give me a chance to focus on a few more film projects and finish the summer in a good position on my applications and on-going personal projects.
posted by lmjasinski at 8:48 AM
