movie review: the horse boy

I just finished this movie that I had heard quite a bit about: The Horse Boy. It was featured on that new podcast I am in love with: To The Best of Our Knowledge. The story chronicles one family’s struggle to come to terms with their four year old son’s autism. After realizing that their son has a unique connection with all animals and horses they decided to seek out healers who are horse people. We follow the family as they take the boy to see shamans in Mongolia and southern Siberia.

The touching movie really showed the difficulties this family is dealing with. They clearly make the movie on a shoestring budget, but the vistas are beautiful, as is the family.

Of note in the film were a few things. 1. The dad LOVES AC/DC. In fact I don’t think I saw him in the movie without an AC/DC t-shirt on the whole time. 2. I was a bit shocked at the family’s home. They live in Texas on a farm with horses. The mom is a professor. They are clearly pretty poor, or at least have a disregard for their home. Perhaps I am too obsessed with having a comfortable and clean home, but I don't think I would have been comfortable showing the world my home if it looked like theirs.

The music in the movie was great too...no AC/DC was played...just FYI.

This movie only reinforced my interest in going to Mongolia...it just looked so much like eastern Montana, that I might try to get Brent to go there first.

I would highly recommend this movie.

fun movie

Doesn't this movie look like fun?

movie review: Disfigured

I just finished this movie, Disfigured. The story is about two women: one is severely overweight and the other woman is anorexic. They become friends over weight so to speak. The low budget movie deals heavily with how society perceives weight. And you really get an insight into how both women are treated by society. Everyone is so mean and judgmental. The women have frank talks which are sometimes so honest they are difficult to watch.

How is it that we all seem to hate our bodies? The skinny people and the fat people are all able to find ample problems with their bodies.

I just want to be happy with how I look and be able to enjoy activities that I love and wear cute knee high leather boots. Is that too much to ask?

I think about this sometimes when I look at other women's bodies. I think, wow, they could lose some weight, or look at her muffin top. And then I catch myself reminding me that there are always going to be people bigger than me and smaller than me and maybe I need to stop being so damn judgmental in my head and focus on my behavior. And then I think maybe muffin top girl just lost x number of pounds and is super happy with her body.

Bottom line: the movie does a great job dealing with a taboo topic in our culture: bodies.

movie review: the walker

I just finished watching The Walker. It was a movie about a man, Carter, who escorts socialites in Washington to events. He is gay and has a boy friend, so the walker, played by Woody Harrelson, is more of a muse, acting a lot like a Japanese Geisha.

The star studded cast included:
* Woody Harrelson as Carter Page III
* Kristin Scott Thomas as Lynn Lockner
* Lauren Bacall as Natalie Van Miter
* Ned Beatty as Jack Delorean
* Moritz Bleibtreu as Emek Yoglu
* Mary Beth Hurt as Chrissie Morgan
* Lily Tomlin as Abigail Delorean
* Willem Dafoe as Senator Larry Lockner

Carter covers for one of his supposed friends when her boy friend is found dead in his apartment. Carter is implicated and has to decide whether to chose to continue to lie about what happened or to come clean.

The movie was not good.

The most interesting thing about the movie was how it felt like I was watching a movie from the 80's. The music screamed 80's, the videography, even the clothes...but they clearly meant that the viewer would think the movie was current. So strange.

movie review: cherry blossoms

We just watched this German movie, Cherry Blossoms, about a husband and wife. The wife finds out at the beginning of the movie that her husband has a terminal illness and not much time to live. They give her the option of telling him. She has always wanted to visit Japan, and to be a Japanese dancer. And then she just dies. The husband, seeking to find his wife, travels to Japan, without knowing that he was sick. His quest to find his wife is the story.

The kids are so self involved. But now reflecting on the movie, all of the family was too self involved, even the dad/husband. No one seems to know anyone, appreciate them, or understand them. I suppose this is why the film is so sad to me.

On Thursday we went to see A Year of Magical Thinking. This play is based on the book by Joan Didion. She lost her husband and daughter in the space of less than a year and a half. The play starts out with her telling the audience, this will happen to you, even if you don't think it will. And I suppose she is right. A few times in the play she asks herself/the audience if she even knew her husband and daughter? "Were we always so afraid of one another?"

I like to really know people. I don't want the how are you, I am fine response. Marika told me when she was here the other day, that in Slovak there is no phrase to ask, "How's it going?" as a greeting. If you say this to someone, they think you really want to know, so they tell you. When did we start asking people how they are and stop caring about what they said? And when did we all decide to lie about how we are really doing?

Movie Review: “Being There” (1979)

What a strange movie. I just finished watching it and I feel like so many cultural references are based on this movie that I am a bit surprised. The movie tells the story of Chance, the gardener, who is turned out of his house when the man who owns the house dies. Washington, DC ca. 1979 was not a nice place to be homeless. Luckily Shirley McClain’s driver backs into Chance giving him a new chance at life if you will.

Chance is rather simple minded. Forrest Gump’s character is most likely based upon him. Chance seems to be in the right place at the right time all of the time. At the end of the movie, a man is placed into a large pyramid burial tomb. This tomb looks just like the tomb described in that book I reviewed a few months ago, Eros, by the German author. I would love to call that guy up and just ask if he has seen the movie…

The movie is based on a book by Jerzy Kosinski. (Read more about him and his other books by clicking this sentence.)

The most interesting piece of the film, has Chance walking away from the funeral on water. The most typical association with someone walking on water is Jesus. I am not sure what to make of the connection. Chance seems surprised to be walking on water too.

What is most appealing about Chance to both the people in the movie and the view is his presences. When he is talking to you, he is listening. He is there.

Good viewing for a Sunday afternoon organizing files.

Movie Review: Wall-E

The setting: a dystopian future where humans have abandoned the world because our trash has taken over the world. Robots have been left on earth to clean it up for us. The humans have been gone for so long that only a cockroach and one robot are still alive. The humans forgot that they wanted to go back to earth because they live on a cruise ship, talking on their cell phones, and riding around in little carts. People can no longer walk and don’t know how to make any decisions for themselves. A la 2001 A Space Odyssey the computers/robots have taken over.

How is it that this movie captured the hearts of America this year? It did. And boy what cute a movie it is. Because really, the movie is a parable dressed up as a love story.

Did anyone notice the real message of the movie: we are losing our relationships and robots are taking over the world. Wait, that is kind of strange message. But I can’t help thinking every time I see someone crossing the street talking on their cell phone while about to get hit by an SUV, that something is wrong.

Can our electronic connections take the place of human connections? No, of course not. The movie Wall-E takes all of our internet surfing, cell phone chatting, and consumption to its logical conclusion: if we don’t start taking care of our planet, we are going to have to leave. I wonder if any kids are picking up on the real message of the move...any reports from the field?

what a difference an hour makes

I love falling back. What fun. I feel like it is so early in the day. We have so much time. In honor of all of that extra time, I am wasting it watching short movies put out on disk by Wholpin. Wholpin is an impression of McSweeney's, which is basically David Eggers's (author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) creative outlet. He also has a hand in my favorite literary magazine, The Believer.

As an aside, when I first heard about The Believer I raced out to get it, only to find that it was not yet in stores. I tried to find the magazine on the internet, only to learn that The Believer was named after a then-defunct Christian magazine. I emailed The Believer, once I found them, to tell them this. If you google The Believer you will now find my magazine, not the defunct one. It was nice to send an email out into the ether and to get a response.

Well, two movies of interest. Oh, we are back at the main topic now, the short films. The first movie that is great is about a 13 year old girl in Yemen who refuses to wear a veil and continues to go to school. You will fall in love with Najmia.



The second film is much shorter at a mere 3.48 minutes. Two guys played volleyball over the wall between the US and Mexico. Crazy.

Movie Review: Zack and Miri (Make a Porno)

The title here is very explicit. So go to the movie with the knowledge that a porno is going to be made. But what a cute movie. Don’t take the kids, but go anyway.

The movie was written by Kevin Smith aka Silent Bob. His movies started the more recent rash of what I am calling palpably authentic crack-me-up cinema. The movies are made with people who are not always attractive, and the stories reflect the more mundane aspects of life. Oh and the people are FUNNY, really funny in these movies.

Zack and Miri is a great example of these films. Both co-stars feel like people I could be friends with. Zack, played by Seth Rogan, is a cute, if a bit chubby, dude who works in a coffee shop in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania. His roommate, Miri, played by Elizabeth Banks, needs a new dye job, but is also lovably adorable. The two friends have known each other for since first grade, and seem to be each other’s only friends.

What is great about the movie is that you see a little community of mis-fits come together to make something bigger than themselves individually...Ok so they are making a porno, but for valid reasons. (Did I just type that?)

Really, it is not a movie about making a porno, it is a love story about two people struggling to make it in the world and realizing that they can really get through anything (even making a porno) if they have each other.

Movie Review: Mama Mia

Starring: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård, Collin Firth

I get why Meryl Streep did the movie Mama Mia: she gets to make out with Pierce Brosnan, and it all takes place on a beautiful island in Greece. What I don’t get is why it sucks. The idea was cute, but the movie lacked that zing, that thing that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Maybe it was because the people playing the parts were too old. I know they are acting, but that only gets you so far sometimes. And boy can Meryl move. She does not look like she is 59. She looks great. But she is supposed to be playing the mom of a twenty-year-old. Mind you the movie never mentions how old she was when she had her daughter, but because her mom would not let her come home after she got pregnant, I would guess she was around 20. That makes Meryl, even in great shape about twenty years too old for the part.

I think the other thing missing from the movie was a little more back-story about the daughter. Ostensibly, all of her mom’s ex-lovers are in town because of the daughter’s wedding. (Neither the viewer nor the daughter know which one is her dad.) Then we learn she is only 20. Oh and her best friends have British accents while the daughter sounds like an American. And what about college? I guess I don’t know where the daughter is coming from or where she is going or why she is getting married.

And just one more horrible thing: the singing. Meryl can. Pierce can’t. And the painful thing is that they have Pierce keep going and going. The man has a terrible voice and even with support from Meryl, it is a flop. Oh and he starts singing at the end of the movie. Everything is resolved and everyone is having a nice dinner. This song should have been left on the cutting floor, which I gather from the Wikipedia site about the movie is where a lot of the other ABBA songs in the movie ended up.

The best part of the film comes when the credits are rolling: Meryl, Pierce, and Collin, with the other three adult characters, all sing ABBA songs on a stage wearing typical ABBA outfits. They all look great. In fact, Collin Firth turned out to be the one with the biggest gut, and he is the youngest!

I would only recommend the movie if you are going with a group of good friends and are interested in a good laugh, at the movie.

Movie Notes

We just returned from seeing Oceans 13. What a hoot. Lots of fun, nothing but fun for a Friday in the summer. The cute boys are nice to look at as well!