2011 In Review: Movies

**** Tree of Life
*** Midnight In Paris
*** Rango
** Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
** Melancholia
** Rio
* The Muppets

2011 In Review: Music

**** Army Navy - The Last Place
**** Dengue Fever - Cannibal Courtship
**** Dum Dum Girls - Only In Dreams
**** Lindsey Buckingham - Seeds We Sow
**** The Strokes - Angles
**** The Title Tracks - In Blank
**** Wild Flag - Wild Flag
*** Beirut - The Rip Tide
*** Blitzen Trapper - American Goldwing
*** Blondie - Panic of Girls
*** Brilliant Colors - Again and Again
*** Charlotte Gainsbourg - Stage Whisper
*** Everybody Else - Wanderlust
*** Fountains of Wayne - Sky Full of Holes
*** Kathryn Calder - Bright And Vivid
*** Mates of State - Mountaintops
*** Pugwash - The Olympus Sound
*** REM - Collapse Into Now
*** Ralph Covert & The Bad Examples - Smash Record
*** Raveonettes - Raven In the Grave
*** Rockpile - Live at Montreaux 1980
*** Scout - Pi
*** Stevie Nicks - In Your Dreams
*** Surfer Blood - Tarot Classics
*** The Wrong Words - The Wrong Words
*** Wilco - The Whole Love
** Alice Cooper - Welcome 2 My Nightmare
** Carole King - A Christmas Carole
** Cut Copy - Zonoscope
** Fruit Bats - Tripper
** Human League - Credo
** Kate Bush - 50 Words For Snow
** Ladytron - Gravity the Seducer
** She & Him - A Very She & Him Christmas
** Sloan - The Double Cross
** Spoons - Static In Transmission
** TV On The Radio - Nine Types of Light
** The Bangles - Sweetheart of the Sun
** The Cars - Move Like This
** The Decemberists - The King Is Dead
** The Ettes - Wicked Will
** The Feelies - Here Before
** The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar
** The Sounds - Something To Die For
** They Might Be Giants - Join Us
** Viva Voce - The Future Will Destroy You
** William Shatner - Seeking Major Tom
** Woods - Sun and Shade
** Yes - Fly From Here
** Young Galaxy - Shapeshifting
** Yuck - Yuck
* Destroyer - Kaputt
* Michael Bublé - Christmas
* Robyn Hitchcock - Tromso, Kaptein
* The New York Dolls - Dancing Backward In High Heels

Our Selves, Other Cells - Boing Boing:
"How many people have left their DNA in us? Any baby we’ve ever conceived, even ones we’ve miscarried unknowingly. Sons leave their Y chromosome genes in their mothers. The fetal cells from each pregnancy, flowing in a mother’s bloodstream, can be passed on to her successive kids. If we have an older sibling, that older sibling’s cells may be in us. The baby in a large family may harbor the genes of many brothers and sisters. My mother’s cells are in my body, and so are my daughter’s cells, and half my daughter’s DNA comes from her dad. Some of those cells may be in my brain. This is squirm-worthy."

We have to do better on inequality - FT.com
"Why has the top 1 per cent of the population done so well relative to the rest? The answer probably lies substantially in changing technology and globalisation. When George Eastman revolutionised photography, he did very well and, because he needed a large number of Americans to carry out his vision, the city of Rochester had a thriving middle class for two generations. By contrast, when Steve Jobs revolutionised personal computing, he and the shareholders in Apple (who are spread all over the world) did very well but a much smaller benefit flowed to middle-class American workers both because production was outsourced and because the production of computers and software was not terribly labour intensive."

This was written by Lawrence Summers. Either he is incompetent, or he is trying to delude us. Either way he is an idiot.

via @bittman

The Bishop's Wife (1947)**
Bizarre theology, even by Hollywood standards, and the original casting with Grant in the role of the bishop might have worked better. It just seems like it is all cobbled together just so we can have a tearful "I must go" scene. A Christmas perennial although the holiday has nothing at all to do with the story.

Duck Soup (1933)****
The Marx Brothers' best film. Consistently funny, briskly paced, wonderfully silly.

Obama and Geithner: Government, Enron-Style | Rolling Stone:
"In other words, Geithner and Obama are behaving like Lehman executives before the crash of Lehman, not disclosing the full extent of the internal problem in order to keep investors from fleeing and creditors from calling in their chits. It’s worth noting that this kind of behavior – knowingly hiding the derogatory truth from the outside world in order to prevent a run on the bank – is, itself, fraud!"

No War Crimes Trial for Bush/Cheney, While Chirac Convicted on minor Fraud | Informed Comment:
"Ironically, Chirac was the princpled one here. He opposed the Iraq War and castigated Bush for speaking of a ‘war on terror.’ He quite reasonably said that terrorism (with which the French had a great deal of experience) is a police matter. Bush militarized our heritage of democracy rooted in 1776, whereas Chirac declined to do that to his heritage, of 1789.
"The French don’t put their former presidents on a pedestal, beyond the reach of accountability, the way cult-of-personality prone Americans do."

John Lennon: "I was sick of White Christmas" | Music | guardian.co.uk:
"Then there's a song he and the Plastic Ono Band will be recording that very night, for their Christmas single. It's called Happy Christmas (War Is Over), and he says that when he first played it to Spector, the producer said that the first line is a direct crib from the Paris Sisters' I Love How You Love Me, which Phil produced back in the pre-Crystals days.

"'I like quoting from old songs,'" John says, "'but you get into such trouble with copyrights. It's a drag.'"

Scrooge (1951)**
Alastair Sim is fine as the iconic miser but the film is too heavy handed and boasts the tallest and healthiest looking Tiny Tim of any version of the oft-told tale.

Empire of the Sun (1987)**
Earnest, uneven account of a boy enduring a Japanese internment camp of British exiles in China during the end of WWII. First and last half hours are terrific, entire middle is sluggish and too long. Spielberg still can't lay off the overbearing music cues either.

Melancholia (2011)**
Wants to be a fable, but it is filmed with such realism and cinema-verité that you're never quite sure what the director is going for. Still, the opening montage is stunning, and if you have to watch the Earth be destroyed, you could do far worse than this group of actors. Pluses for originality and chutzpah.

Bernie Bytes: 5 takes on Pujols, Marlins:
"Sure, he could take the Cardinals' money even if the offer is inferior to Miami's. It's still a lot of money. And he could live happily ever after. But I'll repeat: Pujols is under no obligation to do that. This is his chance to determine his future on his terms. Sure, he has said he wanted to be a Cardinal for life. Sure, he has said he wanted to be like Musial. Sure, he has said that winning is the top priority. A move to Miami would obviously contradict all of those declarations."

It's always the player who is the bad guy. Miklasz pays lip service to Mr. Pujols saying he is not under "obligation" to sign with the Cardinals low-ball offer. But then in a thinly disguised way castigates him for not being Stan Musial. Mr. Musial was incredibly underpaid as a performer and never even had the opportunity to be a free agent so the comparison is ridiculous and erroneous. These sports romantics are always comparing current players' situations to those in the past but there can be no comparison. Yes Musial played his whole career with the Cardinals. HE HAD TO! Unless he was traded or cut by the owner, who of course would have been "obligated" to do so by the player's poor performance. Give me a break. I hope Mr. Pujols moves on from St. Louis. The smugness is getting even thicker than normal there.

The Evolved Self-management System | Edge:
"So now, where does the placebo effect fit in? Placebos work because they suggest to people that the picture is rosier than it really is. Just like the artificial summer light cycle for the hamster, placebos give people fake information that it's safe to cure them. Whereupon they do just that.

"This suggests we should see the placebo effect as part of a much larger picture of homeostasis and bodily self-control. But now I'm ready to expand on this much further still. If this is the way humans and animals manage their physical health, there must surely be a similar story to be told about mental health. And if mental health, then—at least with humans—it should apply topersonality and character as well. So I've come round to the idea that humans have in fact evolved a full-blown self management system, with the job of managing all their psychological resources put together, so as to optimise the persona they present to the world."

The Muppets (2011)*
Huge step down for the Muppets. Not funny, not original, and the tone is one of contempt for the audience. Even little tots will be affronted.

I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)***
How a romantic comedy is to be made. Take great actors, cast them well, construct a believable, interesting story, set it in a place and culture seldom scene on film and direct with style and wit. Treads close to the mawkish at times (hard to believe Scots are ALWAYS loving and kind to everyone) but chooses to remain bound to the real.

Mad Love (1935)***
Peter Lorre is sensational as the mad doctor and Karl Freund's direction is stylish and evocative. Only sore spots are Colin Clive and Ted Healy. Unfortunately they are in lead roles.

Timeline of a mass extinction - MIT News Office:
“'The rate of injection of CO2 into the late Permian system is probably similar to the anthropogenic rate of injection of CO2 now,' Rothman says. 'It’s just that it went on for … 10,000 years.

"Rothman says the total amount of CO2 pumped into Earth over this time period was so immense that it’s not immediately clear where it all came from.

"'It’s just not easy to imagine,' Rothman says. 'Even if you put all the world’s known coal deposits on top of a volcano, you still wouldn’t come close. So something unusual was going on.'”

Mimicking the brain, in silicon - MIT News Office:
"The MIT researchers plan to use their chip to build systems to model specific neural functions, such as the visual processing system. Such systems could be much faster than digital computers. Even on high-capacity computer systems, it takes hours or days to simulate a simple brain circuit. With the analog chip system, the simulation is even faster than the biological system itself.

"Another potential application is building chips that can interface with biological systems. This could be useful in enabling communication between neural prosthetic devices such as artificial retinas and the brain. Further down the road, these chips could also become building blocks for artificial intelligence devices, Poon says."

Go ahead, cling to your mind is more than the brain beliefs. You'll be able to argue about it with your robot soon.

Out of the Past (1947)***
Archetypal noir given something extra by the nascent star power of Mitchum and Douglas. Might seem cliched now, and some of the dialogue is a bit too cute but in its time this was thrilling.

The Shootist (1976)**
The Duke is fine, but the direction is 3rd rate, the supporting cast, except for Stewart and Bacall, is laughable, the writing is of the most cliched variety. Wayne's final film.

Penn State sex scandal engulfing revered Paterno:
"Sandusky was described by Keith 'Kip' Richeal, co-author of his autobiography 'Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story,' as a loving father of six adopted children.

'I hope to God it's not true because I admire the man very much,' Richeal said. 'All I saw was Jerry was kind to kids of all ages, including the students he dealt with.'"

Jesus H. Christ! There are enough alarm bells in just those few sentences to alert a one-eyed deaf monkey to potential abuse. Paterno et al need to be up on criminal charges. At some point, as a nation, as a society, we have to get back to EVERYONE being held accountable. Not just people on the lowest economic strata of society, but everyone.

Six adopted children. Loves to hang around kids. His fucking autobiography is called "Touched" for crying out loud.

Sleeper (1973)**
More silly than funny as Woody Allen resorts to goofy sight gags too often. Not one of the better Allen comedies.

The Ghost Train (1941)**
Enjoyable comedy thriller from wartime England. Rather bland direction overcome by a good cast.

Neuroscience And Justice Edge Master Class 2011 | Conversation | Edge:
"We have this thing over here, in the left side, that we've called the interpreter. It's not in the right hemisphere, you can't get the right hemisphere to do this kind of thing. The interpreter is just weaving the story, the narrative that makes sense out of these modules that are constantly bombarding us with information, with actual behaviors, with felt states, with everything. We've got to tell a story about what's going on and that's what we think this narrative function does."

The Nutty Professor (1963)**
Silly riff on the Jekyll-Hyde legend is nonetheless a showcase for director Jerry Lewis' distinctive visual style, excellently rendered by his frequent cinematographer W. Wallace Kelley. Beautiful looking film.

The Men Behind The War On Women:
"When asked about the dissonance among Catholics and the leadership on abortion and contraception issues, Bishop Lori said that divisions were beside the point.

'It's not for a government to exploit fault lines within religious institutions,' he said. 'We recognize that not everybody shares that teaching; nevertheless, it is a fundamental right for the church to stand by their convictions.'"

Just as in the priest child rape cases, these bishops declare their religious liberty is at stake if they are not allowed to be above the law. This is an extremely disturbing and disgusting group of men.

The Masque of the Red Death (1964)**
I suppose in its time this was a daring and risqué film depicting Satan worshiping 12th century Italian 1%ers engaging in depraved, immoral acts. But today it seems rather naïve and quite tame. Still, Corman's use of color and the lovely cinematography of Nicolas Roeg are worth a peek.

David Lynch: mild at heart - Telegraph:
"In fact, film criticism aside, the harshest thing anybody has had to say about him was when ex-girlfriend Isabella Rossellini blamed their painful break-up on Lynch’s unreasonable hatred of 'cooking smells' in the house."

The Body Snatcher (1945)**
Early Robert Wise picture about the procuring of cadavers (against their will) for medical research in mid 19th century Scotland and the moral toll it exacted on those involved. Nicely done with a creepy and believable Karloff the high point.

The Book Bench: Is Self-Knowledge Overrated? : The New Yorker:
"Nevertheless, there is a subtle optimism lurking in all of Kahneman’s work: it is the hope that self-awareness is a form of salvation, that if we know about our mental mistakes, we can avoid them. One day, we will learn to equally weigh losses and gains; science can help us escape from the cycle of human error. As Kahneman and Tversky noted in the final sentence of their classic 1974 paper, “A better understanding of these heuristics and of the biases to which they lead could improve judgments and decisions in situations of uncertainty.” Unfortunately, such hopes appear to be unfounded. Self-knowledge isn’t a cure for irrationality; even when we know why we stumble, we still find a way to fall."

O Lucky Man! (1973)**
It's tough to buy Malcolm McDowell as a naive Candide and episodic films are extremely difficult to pull off especially when they run to 3+ hours. Well made, well intentioned failure.

House of Usher (1960)**
Lush and atmospheric, but a threadbare story line doesn't expand to feature length well. Yawn.

OWS's Beef: Wall Street Isn't Winning It's Cheating | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone:
"That's why it's so obnoxious when people say the protesters are just sore losers who are jealous of these smart guys in suits who beat them at the game of life. This isn't disappointment at having lost. It's anger because those other guys didn't really win, and people now want the score overturned."

The misunderstanding about the protests also has the stench of the "we're the smartest guys in the room these plebes can't possibly understand us" mentality that the 1%-ers carry. That's also reflected in the infuriating copy the financial "journalists" foist upon us, the whole "it's just too complex to explain" lie.

Michael Clayton (2007)**
The film is shot very darkly and may have been better off in black and white since it's essentially a noir with a script intent on keeping viewers confused all the way beyond the ending.

Wild Things (1998)**
Sexy neo-noir boasts a fine cast and pretty location scenery, but when it gets to the fifth double-cross, and that's early in the picture, you stop caring about what happens.

The Thing (1982)***
Terrific gross-out monster movie that takes itself seriously. But not TOO seriously. Good fun.

The Night of the Hunter (1955) ****

Bold, inventive, confounding film by first (and only) time director Charles Laughton. Robert Mitchum gives a no holds barred performance in a career destroying role for any other star. Weird at times, silly at times, but always interesting. It's a shame Laughton never directed another picture. Very influential film.

UPDATE (08/20/2022): This is a masterpiece. A perfect example of how to use cinema to create a symbolic fantasy and still engage the viewer emotionally.

The Terror (1963)**
Spooky "thriller" from legend Roger Corman. The cast keeps it moving.

Murder by Decree (1979)**
A truly top-notch cast, but appalling script and direction as well as shoddy production values. Not a good Holmes film.

Did Fannie Cause the Disaster? by Jeff Madrick and Frank Partnoy | The New York Review of Books:
"In particular, the authors accuse two quasi-public but profit-making companies, Fannie Mae (the Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation), of adding risks to the mortgage markets that resulted in disaster. Much the same criticism has been made by Peter Wallison, a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, who wrote an angry dissent to the findings of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC), which was appointed by Congress to investigate the causes of the crash.1 Contrary to Wallison, the nine other members of the commission, including three others appointed by Republicans, concluded that Fannie and Freddie were not the main causes of the crisis.

"Along with many other experts, the nine members pointed to considerable evidence that, despite large losses, these government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), as they are known, bought or guaranteed too few highly risky loans, and did so too late in the 2000s, to cause the crisis. But in their new book, Reckless Endangerment, the New York Times reporter Gretchen Morgenson and mortgage securities analyst Joshua Rosner try to revive the issue of their responsibility."

This is a frequent occurrence: make an assertion, the assertion is proved wrong, write a book reiterating the assertion. This is how "history" and "the facts" are made.

Director drama heats up on "Dredd" - latimes.com:
"EXCLUSIVE: It's not often that a director of a major action film is asked to step aside as the movie enters its postproduction phase. But that's what has happened with director Pete Travis and 'Dredd,' the remake of the 1995 Sylvester Stallone vehicle 'Judge Dredd,' casting a pall over the anticipated reboot."

Wait a minute. "Judge Dredd" reboot? Has our culture just STOPPED? Have we completely run out of ideas?

Secret panel can put Americans on kill list | Reuters:
"Some details about how the administration went about targeting Awlaki emerged on Tuesday when the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Dutch Ruppersberger, was asked by reporters about the killing.

"The process involves 'going through the National Security Council, then it eventually goes to the president, but the National Security Council does the investigation, they have lawyers, they review, they look at the situation, you have input from the military, and also, we make sure that we follow international law,' Ruppersberger said."

Oh they have lawyers? Well ok then. Thank goodness they're following international law. At least there is some accountability then, right? Oh did I say "accountability"? Forgot that word doesn't exist any more.

The Omen (1976)**
Gregory Peck lends more gravitas to this flick than it deserves. It's well photographed, just a bit too silly to be truly frightening. Intrusive score doesn't help.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)**
Clunky remake of the classic sci-fi thriller tries for a slightly more political angle by placing the main action in San Francisco (liberals can be conformists too!). Interesting time capsule of mid-70's SF.

Walk the Line (2005)**
Bio-pic about the early years of Johnny Cash but the only reason the film exists is because of Cash's popularity. There's nothing bigger going on and the lead performances are not compelling enough.

The Exterminating Angels (2006)*
Now I enjoy watching young French actresses masturbate as much as the next guy, maybe even more than the next guy, but even that has its limits. This "film" exceeds that by an order of magnitude. And THEN it gets silly!

Secret Things (2002)**
Nice soft-porn-ish French "thriller" about 2 young women using their, uh, "feminine wiles" to succeed at business. Too bad the company that hires them is run by Satan himself. Or something close.

Memento mori, Tom:

Our life in this world — to what shall I compare it? It is like a boat rowing out at dawn, leaving no trace behind.

-- Sami Mansei

Under Pressure: Pushing Ahead of the Dame:
“'Under Pressure' is a day’s indulgence by two men past their prime, who were entering a decade that would reward and diminish them; Mercury had only a decade more to live. So there’s a sadness along with the bravado, a sense of loss to go with the heroics. Something is going away, going away for good, and Bowie and Mercury see it, if only in shadows. Anthony Miccio once called 'Under Pressure' 'the best song of all time,' and there are a few days when I think he was right."

The Grifters (1990)***
Very nicely done neo-noir about a trio of cons trying to outdo each other. Enjoyed it despite the presence of John Cusack.

Jaws (1975)***
One of Spielberg's more restrained directing jobs believe it or not. Interesting screenplay is like 2 movies in 1.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)**
If I had seen this film at the time of its release, I would have probably given it 4 stars. But I saw it for the first time 92 years later and it just doesn't hold up. It does a lot cinematically but also for a silent it is very "talky" in that there are a lot of intertitles much of them unnecessary.

The Innocents (1961)**
Deborah Kerr was never lovelier, and the black and white cinematography is very good, but the film only hints at the possibilities in the story and ends up ho-hum.

The Time Machine (2002)*
If you like special effects, you might enjoy this. If you like a coherent story though...

Volver (2006)***
Penelope Cruz shines in this comedy-drama about mothers and daughters and village life in Spain.

Sic Semper Tyrannis : We should give Israel our veto in the UNSC:
"We are told by the US Government that we will veto the application because we love peace and that UN membership for the Palestinians would be an obstacle to peace. Such pronouncements reduce the American citizeny to the status of mushrooms, a rabble to be kept in the dark and fed horseshit. The truth is that our Israeli masters fear and hate the Palestinians as tribal enemies and do not intend to ever deal fairly with them. All else is lies and mirrors."

The 2 Billion UBS Incident: "Rogue Trader" My Ass | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone:
"Nonetheless, thanks to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act passed in 1998 with the help of Bob Rubin, Larry Summers, Bill Clinton, Alan Greenspan, Phil Gramm and a host of other short-sighted politicians, we now have a situation where trillions in federally-insured commercial bank deposits have been wedded at the end of a shotgun to exactly such career investment bankers from places like Salomon Brothers (now part of Citi), Merrill Lynch (Bank of America), Bear Stearns (Chase), and so on.

"These marriages have been a disaster. The influx of i-banking types into the once-boring worlds of commercial bank accounts, home mortgages, and consumer credit has helped turn every part of the financial universe into a casino. That’s why I can’t stand the term 'rogue trader,' which is always tossed out there when some investment-banker asshole loses a billion dollars betting with someone else’s money."

Guest Post: Obama Team Feared Revolt If He Prosecuted War Crimes : naked capitalism:
"The process raises a question to anyone who relies on our best-known national news-gathering organizations for political information: Why does a story of this scope arise almost by happenstance more than 2 1/2 years after decision-making by Obama’s top advisers? Whatever the case on that, let’s examine the political implications. Edley’s rationale implies that Obama and his team fear the military/national security forces that he is supposed be commanding.

"It suggests also that Republicans have intimidated him right from the start of his presidency even though voters in 2008 rejected Republicans by the largest combined presidential-congressional mandate in recent U.S. history."

Interview with Former FBI Agent Ali Soufan: "We Did Exactly What Al-Qaida Wanted Us to Do" - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International:
"SPIEGEL: As you explain in your book, you are convinced that 9/11 might have been stopped if there had not been the so-called "Chinese wall" between the CIA and the FBI.

"Soufan: We always worked together. We worked together during the East Africa embassy bombing. We had a great relationship. But suddenly that wall appeared due also to the misunderstanding of new guidelines organizing the relationship of intelligence and law enforcement. Unfortunately that directly contributed to the lack of knowledge about 9/11. We had actionable intelligence we transferred to the CIA but there was no follow-up.

"SPIEGEL: What kind of information was that?

"Soufan: We were investigating the Cole incident in Yemen. And we had a person who participated in blowing up the ship -- killing 17 sailors, injuring 39 -- tell us he delivered money to a main al-Qaida guy. So people who were involved in the Cole incident delivered money to two people who later flew a plane into the Pentagon. People in our government knew that these two people were in the United States, in San Diego. So, when you're doing an investigation and almost a year before you know about people moving and money and meetings, I think you have to understand that there are some limits to the wall. We had the lead, the CIA knew the identity of the two in San Diego but they did not put them on a no-fly list, they did not communicate their names to the State Department so that their visa would not be renewed."

I don't understand how "We had actionable intelligence we transferred to the CIA but there was no follow-up" is somehow evidence that the "wall" between the FBI and CIA prevented us from stopping the attacks. Apparently all you need to do to breach this impregnable wall is "transfer" the information you have to the other agency. Sounds to me like the problem was not that the FBI couldn't get information to the CIA, it was the fact that the CIA was incompetent.

Neuroscience vs philosophy: Taking aim at free will : Nature News:
"The conscious decision to push the button was made about a second before the actual act, but the team discovered that a pattern of brain activity seemed to predict that decision by as many as seven seconds. Long before the subjects were even aware of making a choice, it seems, their brains had already decided. As humans, we like to think that our decisions are under our conscious control — that we have free will. Philosophers have debated that concept for centuries, and now Haynes and other experimental neuroscientists are raising a new challenge. They argue that consciousness of a decision may be a mere biochemical afterthought, with no influence whatsoever on a person's actions. According to this logic, they say, free will is an illusion. 'We feel we choose, but we don't,' says Patrick Haggard, a neuroscientist at University College London."

Why say a "mere biochemical afterthought"? All thoughts are biochemical.

Last Tango in Paris (1972)**
Maria Schneider is beautiful and Brando does his thing but it doesn't add up to much of a movie. Disappointing.

The Changeling (1980)***
Nicely done, contemporary ghost story with George C. Scott and wife Trish Van Devere.

A Good Year (2006)*
Ridley Scott manages to take Russell Crowe, Albert Finney, Marion Cotillard and gorgeous Provence locations and comes up with a film that is not only bad, but insultingly so. If he would have just let the actors sit around the lovely estate used for the film and have a party it would have been a thousand times better.

The Haunting (1963)****
Still can bring the chills. Superbly directed by Robert Wise.

M (1931)****
Way ahead of its time and the best film Fritz Lang ever made. Great visuals, use of sound/silence, bizarre story.

All Through the Night (1941)**
Comedy-thriller about Nazi espionage in NYC tries hard but comes up short. Bogey is fine but the script is sub-par. Jackie Gleason and Phil Silvers in early supporting bits.

Too Late the Hero (1970)**
Well played WWII Pacific actioner (particularly Ian Bannen) with a British patrol at war with each other at least as much with the Japanese. Lots of anti-heroes, a bit too talky, and a bit too in-your-face with the Vietnam allusions.

Robin Hood (2010)*
Preposterous 'prequel' to the legend we all know directed in lazy fashion by Ridley Scott. A waste of a good cast and tons of money. It's essentially a bad comic book movie.

Monkey Business (1931)***
Fine effort from the zany Marx Brothers with more laughs than yawns.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)****
Watched this again recently and was struck by how quickly it moved. Perhaps because I can now see and enjoy the immense detail in nearly every shot not having to worry what it is "about" or narrative points. And there definitely IS a narrative here. One of the finest films ever made. Still.

Red River (1948)**
A very good cast, John Wayne in an unconventional role, Montgomery Clift's debut (before he became a stiff 'method' actor) but the film is way too long and the ending completely destroys any credibility it built up over its 2 hours and 10 minutes running time.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)**
The 8th and final installment in the Potter series sees the creaking plot come to a fitful end. Lots of wizardly wand-play and pseudo-spiritual mumbo-jumbo and some nifty special effects. Not much time for character interaction or introspection.

State of Play (2009)***
Slick, well-made political thriller, a bit on the naive side, that amazingly builds to a particular, truthful conclusion about military private contractors, then in the last 10 minutes completely obfuscates that conclusion and offers something petty in its place. Very unsatisfying. Solid, professional performance by Russell Crowe.

Libeled Lady (1936)**
A first rate cast but a crazy convoluted plot, even for a "screwball" comedy, and a dearth of laughs make for a mostly pleasant but unsatisfying flick. It was thought hilarious at the time and was nominated for Best Picture so YMMV.

Go West (1940)***
Marx Brothers movies are always a mixed bag, but this bag contains more gems than rocks. Classic train chase sequence for the finale.

Panetta: Bigger defense cuts would be devastating - Yahoo! News:
"Panetta was asked about news reports that the Pentagon is considering reducing military retirement benefits, which, along with military health costs, have ballooned in recent years."

I used to have a bit of respect for Panetta since he seemed like one of the view principled members of Clinton's cabinet. Now I know he was just a great actor. This kind of statement is absurd. Either he is lying because he is afraid of the generals, or he is just plain stupid. I suspect a bit of both. The Pentagon is notorious for being profligate with money and doesn't even pretend any more to have an accounting system. And nobody seems to care. But to try to scare people needlessly and then to top it all off, to say "Well if we have to cut, it's gonna have to come from the personnel" is despicable. To all my military friends out there, NOBODY wants to reduce in any way the pay or compensation for military personnel both active and former. On the contrary, they need to have their benefits increased at the very least. But there are billions of dollars to be had in cutting the defense AND state departments. And despite Panetta's deplorable bleatings, the security and efficiency of both departments, and our national security, can be enhanced at a much cheaper cost.

Pregnant Pacifica woman killed by family pit bull:
"Residents and visitors to the quiet block struggled to make sense of what had occurred. 'They are not barking dogs. They seemed friendly,' Carlson said of the two pit bulls owned by the Naporas. 'I have a pit also, and he's an absolute angel. It's just really sad.'"

It's like having a loaded revolver with the hammer cocked pointed right at you. It may never go off, but do you really need to be in that situation? And here's the thing: there is nothing, NOTHING that breed gives you that other much less volatile breeds don't. Except that sense of danger. Anyone who owns one of these things is an idiot. Yes that goes for this person too.

The Invasion (2007)**
Well made thriller that doesn't have the guts to stick with the uncompromising source material and opts for the Hollywood ending. Proves Nicole Kidman can still carry a picture all by herself.

Bill Murray | The Talks:
"I feel that pressure in life. Actually I don’t feel like it’s a pressure, it’s sort of an obligation – not to entertain and be funny but to have a certain levity. I don’t mean in terms of just being jocular, I mean that there’s got to be a lightness in your way. There has to be a lightness; you have to be as light as you can be and not get weighed down and stuck in your emotion, stuck in your body, stuck in your head. You just want to always be trying to elevate somehow."

3:10 to Yuma (2007)*
Wildly implausible and illogical Western trying to be about fatherhood, manhood and honor. Silly.

The Book of Eli (2010)*
Exceptionally harsh film that revels in violence and bleak despair for nearly 2 hours and tries to absolve its own sins in the last 10 minutes. The look of the film (harsh light, lots of greys, browns, lots of characters in silhouettes for long periods) is hard to take. Amateurish direction.

Black Snake Moan (2006)***
Nifty little character study of an old bluesman trying to change his life. And if that involves chaining a half-naked Christina Ricci to a radiator for half the picture all the better!

The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938)**
Edward G. Robinson tries awfully hard, but he is badly miscast as a genius physician out to discover the physical causes of criminality. Ostensibly a black comedy, it's not very funny nor believable.

The Legislation That Could Kill Internet Privacy for Good - Conor Friedersdorf - Politics - The Atlantic:
"Tracking the private daily behavior of everyone in order to help catch a small number of child criminals is itself the noxious practice of police states. Said an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation: 'The data retention mandate in this bill would treat every Internet user like a criminal and threaten the online privacy and free speech rights of every American.' Even more troubling is what the government would need to do in order to access this trove of private information: ask for it."

In the Realm of the Senses (1976)****
A more forthright depiction of human sexuality in a serious motion picture you are unlikely to see. Once that novelty wears off (early in the picture), you are left with an intense depiction of 2 people trying to remove themselves from the world via sex. Beautifully shot and acted.

The Tree of Life (2011)****
It's original, expertly crafted, ambitious, thoughtful. Terrence Malick continues to create a unique cinematic language that tries to film how humans experience life. Seems to be all in the head of the Sean Penn character as he struggles with ennui and disillusionment. Oh and there are dinosaurs too.

Michel Gondry | The Talks:
"He forced me to go see Kill Bill Vol. 2 and I walked out of it, just like every time I go and see a movie by Quentin, besides Pulp Fiction – I finished that one. But all the others are too mean for me. I mean, he is a brilliant director, much more skilled than me. You see great performances, great images. Everything is great, only the message is dangerous. It’s all revenge and vengeance, about being mean and cynical. I would almost say that these movies are not made for my son, but it is exactly those movies that young people love. Even if they are too young they just sneak into it."

Potiche (2010)**
Earns its two stars only because of the iconic French actors Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve. It's not funny, it's not memorable otherwise.

Macbeth (TV 1961)**
Apparently produced with a budget of $163 Canadian, what we're left with are the actors and the words. Even in this 85 minute, condensed form the words are marvelous and the actors are not bad. Sean Connery's brogue is appropriate for once and he does a good job as the lead. Quite rushed and stagey.

Statement on the Gang of Six Plan | Press Releases:
"'It is striking that the Gang of Six chose to respond to the crisis created by the collapse of the housing bubble by developing a plan that will give even more money to top Wall Street executives and traders. By contrast, the European Union is considering imposing financial speculation taxes to reduce the power of the financial industry and raise more than $40 billion a year in revenue.

'The plan calls for substantial cuts elsewhere in the budget which are likely to cut into the incomes of large segments of the population, especially the sick and the elderly. The cuts it proposes to the military are just over 1.0 percent of projected spending over the next decade."

This is the plan Obama calls "a balanced approach". Jesus.

Miranda July, The Make-Believer - NYTimes.com:
"But when she showed me the construction-paper card, holding it very carefully, she was clearly touched by this man’s love for his wife. With her film, she’s trying to understand and excavate something of that love. There was no fetishizing of the oddball, no crippling nostalgia, no lack of gravitas, either in that desire or in its result.

Maybe not everyone will believe this about her. I asked her what, if anything, she would like to say to those people. “I would just say I’m totally not kidding,” she said. “Life is too short. This is all too hard to do to actually be kidding about the whole thing.”"

via @ebertchicago

Synecdoche, New York (2008)****
One of the finest films ever made, builds to an unrelenting crescendo of regret, loss, despair and death. Must be seen more than once to appreciate due to it's unconventional "story".

Timecrimes (2007)****
Nifty time travel pic shows that imagination and talent trumps heavy handed special effects, focus-grouped, muddled scripts and star-driven action movies every time. Keeps you thinking and involved the whole way.

The Shining (1980)****
Tremendous production design propels this beautifully shot ghost story. Kubrick tinkered with King's novel, making the supernatural elements much more subtle, but it's still pretty obvious that Jack had a lot of help in his descent into madness.

Is David Brooks Really Clueless About the Inefficiency of the U.S. Health Care System? | Beat the Press:
"This means that Brooks' discussion of our willingness to die when life loses its joys is beside the point. The choices around the end of life are important and difficult, but that is not our health care cost problem. Our health care cost problem is the cesspool [of] corruption that we rely upon for our health care."

Stardust Memories (1980)****
Fantasy and reality are indistinguishable (mostly) in one of Woody Allen's best and most imaginative films. It's funny, but it's mainly very serious.

Greed, Excess and America's Gaping Class Divide | Taibblog :
"They'd be right, were it not for the relative comparison -- for the fact that out there, in that thin little ithsmus between the Upper East Side and Beverly Hills, things are so fucked that public school teachers and garbagemen making $60k with benefits are being targeted with pitchfork-bearing mobs as paragons of greed and excess. Wealth, in places outside Manhattan, southern California, northern Virginia and a few other locales, is rapidly becoming defined as belonging to anyone who has any form of job security at all. Any kind of retirement plan, or better-than-minimum health coverage, is also increasingly looked at as an upper-class affectation."

Full Metal Jacket (1987)****
How humans are built to adapt to madness. "I am in a world of shit, but I am alive. And I am not afraid."

Man's penis cut off, put through garbage disposal - Yahoo! News
"He was conscious when his penis was removed," Nightengale said."

Hell hath no fury...