Wild Strawberries

Nothing's really happened this weekend or since the last update or whenever. I've got over my fear of driving the work van. If you know my vehicle, you'll know that it's a small car that I can handle with ridiculous ease. The work van is a monstrousity. However, I drove it to Russellville (about 30 minutes each way), and worked it out. Then the next day I took it to the bank for the daily deposit. I've mastered it. Sort of. I did run into the curb once on the way back from the bank, but that's cause a jerk in the other lane was getting too close.

Also, on Friday, I grilled my last steak on my grill on the front porch. It was different this time because I played guitar outside while I was waiting for the charcoal to turn grey. It was good times. Serenading the people as they drove past. One woman was pointing me out to her gentleman company. I think it was because at the time, the fire in the grill was pretty big, and not so much due to my playing. Oh well. It was a 1.2-pounder. And it was pretty darn good. I REALLY want to find one of those, if you can eat this meal in one sitting, then it's free places in Bowling Green. Free food until they ban me!

Also, I just (past half hour) bought Ingmar Bergman's "The Wild Strawberries" on ebay. It's supposed to be new and with shipping it was only $23. So hopefully it will be a great deal. I was thinking about getting Fritz Lang's "M" as well, but someone got it before I was done with my nightly scouring. Okay, now movies (and other DVDs...you'll see).

Small Change-Francios Truffaut's classic film about childhood (that isn't The 400 Blows)! This movie was Ebert's pick as #1 film of 1976 (I think that was the year). It follows a bunch of school children around as various anecdotes happen to them. I could tell I was already sucked into this film in the first 20 minutes. Something which is usually dreadful happened and I was trying to persuade the kid not to do what he was doing. It's a good piece of movie. I haven't seen much Truffaut (only the Antoine Doinel series and Jules and Jim), but I've been a fan. If you get the chance, watch it.

The Public Enemy-James Cagney plays a gangster! The only other Cagney gangster film I've seen is White Heat. I thought that was probably better, but The Public Enemy is still really good. I was kind of indifferent until the end when Cagney shows up onscreen and is awesome. I think that this came out the same year as the original Scarface (the good one), and that's a far superior film, but this is sort of like the shadow of it. Therefore, according to my analogy, this was a good movie.

Buffalo '66-Vincent Gallo's feature-length debut! This is a crazy kind of movie. It's on James' list of must-see movies, so I figured I'd check it out. The story is pretty darn cool (and it's insanely stylistic, especially the end), but I did spot a downside. It seemed as if the whole thing was done with only a basic knowledge of Avid editing equipment. I could have edited that movie had Gallo let me and had I not been 13 at the time. It wasn't like it was a bad job or anything, I just expect everything I see to be done by people with more skill than myself. (There was one scene at the very start where Gallo has just been released from jail and all of his thoughts of the past five years are going through his mind, so little windows of the thoughts pop up on the screen. That would have been tough for me to do and I admired that, but the rest I probably could have done). However, seeing as how my complaints are only with the way it was edited, I declare this movie good.

The Work of Director Spike Jonze-I love Spike Jonze! I have been a fan of Jonze's ever since I saw Being John Malkovich for the first time. It had to be one of the most original, crazy movies I had seen at the time (partly due to Charlie Kaufman's script, but anyway...). Then Adaptation only affirmed my admiration of him. I was really looking forward to this DVD and I was definitely not disappointed. It consisted of a lot of music videos, a few documentaries, and a couple of shorts. For the music videos, even if he had done a lame job on the videos (impossible, btw), the songs were still mostly really cool. I was already well aware of how awesome Weezer was, and I've loved the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" for years. However, I didn't know about Pharcyde/Fat Lip and I hadn't really heard any Bjork, but they were also enjoyable. Music videos gets a thumbs up. The documentaries I didn't get to see all of. If I owned the DVD (which I plan to at some point), I would have watched them. I did watch all of the documentary about the Torrance Dance group performing at the MTV music video awards (so friggin' awesome). Documentaries = thumbs up. Shorts: to be honest the only one I recall is "The Way They Get There" or something like that. I have absolutely no clue how he funded this, but it was really, really cool. I would probably buy the DVD just for that. In summary, this DVD's awesome. So watch it.

Kinsey-Oh, morality! This movie was pretty good. There were a few times I caught myself snickering like a middle-schooler (I believe it was supposed to be like that, but it's not important). Liam Neeson did a good job as Kinsey, the man who set out to study what people do sexually. Also, John Lithgow as his strict, Methodist preacher-father. I think my brother over-praised it, but it's still a good movie. It just didn't make my top 10 of 2004 (regular or honorary mention). Be warned there is nudity and sex in this movie. If you didn't know that, slap yourself and then be warned. It's a good movie.

The Chorus-little French trouble-makers that learn to sing! I liked this movie. It's a little heart-warming tale. A new prefect gets boys to behave by forming a choir with them. They all start respecting each other and things of that nature. Really nice music in this movie as well. This did make my honorable mentions list (even though it's well past 2004). And I'm gonna stop making long reviews for now, so watch this movie.

The Machinist-a cool little thriller with a concentration campesque Christian Bale! This movie was pretty darn cool. I don't know if I'm just stupid, but it kept me trying to figure out what was going on until the end pretty much. It was nothing spectacular or amazing, but it was a cool little flick. Watch it if you like movies with cool twist type things.

The Work of Director Chris Cunningham-crazy dark music videos and film installations! I wasn't a fan of the music of this one, but the video's were still pretty cool. And the installations were pretty cool (I wish they would have had all of "flex" instead of just an excerpt though). However, I was not impressed with this collection as much as the Spike Jonze one. The Aphex Twin videos (especially Come to Daddy), the Bjork video, and the Leftfield videos were the best. However, I prefer the Jonze collection. I'm planning to get the Michel Gondry collection tomorrow, so we'll see how that one compares to the other two. Then I'll know if I need to get the Director's Label Series (right now, I'm thinking I will).

Sunday night Adult Swim rules! It's got Family Guy, Space Ghost is coming back, Robot Chicken, Oblongs, Brak show, etc. It's nuts and very, very funny. Also, does anyone know how to upload photos on here? I've seen it done, but don't really want to waste the time trying to figure it out myself. Shower now. Bye.