Not that she ever reads this, but my sister is celebrating her 21st birthday today (not by getting totally bombed, though :p), and my boss was kind enough to grant me a vacation day on relatively short notice (I asked on Friday). The day shall be full of celebration! Hooray! Also, we're seeing Inception today. :X
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009): I have probably mentioned this here in the past, but I think Nicolas Cage gets a bad rap. People -- including myself -- mock him because he has been in so many bad movies; however, the thought then usually progresses to "Nicolas Cage is a bad actor", and this is not the case. Rather, Cage's talents adjust themselves to the level of the script. He is not the type of actor who will make a bad movie good. The remake of The Wicker Man, for example, was a terrible movie, so Cage's performance was appropriately shitty. But give Cage a good script, and he will knock it out of the park. Such is the case with this movie, about a crooked cop who investigates a murder while slowly imploding due to his various vices. Not a pleasant movie to watch, mind, but it's good.
Macross: Do You Remember Love? (1984): Macross: DYRL? is a movie that should be seen by anyone who claims to be an anime fan. (Of course, the catch is that it is best seen after absorbing the TV series. Contrary to my claims the other day, the movie can be watched on its own, but I do not believe the story can be fully appreciated that way, because there are certain ideas it just does not present as well as SDF Macross.) It is a popular, enduring monument to everything great about 1980s anime. Of course it looks fantastic, but it also has a visual spirit to it that ... well, rather than say it does not exist these days, I'll just say that it is different. DYRL? is something that could not be made today, period.
A couple of things: Where the TV series strikes among the love triangle, the war and its depiction of interaction through culture (high and low), the movie focuses mainly on the love triangle, with the war and the culture as backdrops (but great backdrops). The movie is unbashedly romantic, but it does it incredibly well. Second: The movie fits into the Macross canon in a bizarre way -- apparently, in Macross 7, it is revealed that DYRL? is actually an in-universe movie. Huh.
Coco Before Chanel (2009): Not a bad biopic of Coco Chanel; I do like that it's not a fawning, flattering portrait of her. It shows her as very resourceful and willing to use people, even as she is knowingly being used, herself. And I'm impressed yet again by how broad Audrey Tautou's acting range is. If only she had a better English language vehicle than The Da Vinci Code. Sigh. :(
On the queue for this week: Pale Rider (1985)
Total Movies: 92 (The Taking of Pelham 123, The Station Agent, The Final Destination, Silent Movie, The African Queen, Departures, Moon, Bound, Solaris, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rifftrax), Wristcutters: A Love Story, In the Loop, Public Enemies, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Rifftrax), Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-Hen, District 9, The Magnificent Seven, Night Moves, My Name is Bruce, Big Fan, Almost Famous, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Drag Me to Hell, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Kara no Kyoukai 1-7, 9, Zombieland, Ninja Scroll, Primer, Re-Animator, Summer Wars, The Changeling, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Ponyo, Eden of the East: The King of Eden, Porco Rosso, Something Something Something Dark Side, Castle in the Sky, Robot Carnival, Halloweentown, Whisper of the Heart, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, Fiddler on the Roof, Kiki's Delivery Service, Genius Party, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, The Sky Crawlers, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, My Neighbors the Yamadas, THX 1138, The Stepfather, Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks, Tremors, Horror of Dracula, The Brood, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, Rabid, Inglourious Basterds, Them!, The Yakuza, Alphaville, Ghost in the Shell, Priceless, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance, Whip It, A Boy and His Dog, Fletch, The Blind Side, Speed, June 17, 1994, Nobel Son, Invictus, Toy Story 3, The Two Escobars, Soylent Green, Up in the Air, Tyson, This Is Spinal Tap, The Proposition, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, The Informant!, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Coco Before Chanel)
