Big Fan
Just in time for football season, check out this character study of obsessive New York Giants fan Paul Aufiero (comedian Patton Oswalt, in a remarkable performance). After some overzealous stalking of his favorite player leads to an assault, he has to decide where his loyalties lie. Some of the best moments are the nightly calls he makes to his local sports radio show, as well as his rivalry with another frequent caller, Eagles fan Philadelphia Phil. Highly recommended even for non-sports fans (it was a Sundance favorite last year, and was directed by the screenwriter of The Wrestler).
-Beth
Actor Sean Connery, born in 1930 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and celebrates his birthday on August 25th.
Although best known for portraying James Bond in six feature films (1962-1971), Connery has maintained a successful career post-Bond. He has portrayed four different kings: King Daniel Dravot in The Man Who Would Be King (1975), King Agamemnon in Time Bandits (1981), King Richard in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) and King Arthur in First Knight (1995). He won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and Golden Globe for his role in The Untouchables (1987). Connery was awarded Knighthood of the British Empire in the 2000 Queen’s Millennium Honors List for his services to Film Drama. His latest feature film role was Allan Quartermain in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003). Connery lives in the Bahamas.
Johnny Depp celebrates a birthday on June 9th. Happy Birthday, Johnny!
Beautiful Losers
Beautiful Losers chronicles a loosely knit group of “street” artists who conquered the commercial and fine art worlds. Featured artists include Ed Templeton, Geoff McFetridge, Shepard Fairey, Margaret Kilgallen, Harmony Korine and others, all of which embody a punk-DIY spirit. Most interesting is the connection between contemporary art and skateboarding. If you are snickering you’ll swallow it when you immediately recognize the work. These artists (some of them anyway) are paid large sums to sell you diet cola. As a teen, Templeton was my favorite skater. I never liked the lines of his paintings but thrilled over the lines he cut with his skate. In the interim, his work has grown by light years. N-ville’s favorite cringe monger H. Korine is mostly on good behavior, filming his talking head shots in Fannie Mae Dees Park. He laments the lowered crime rate. Tricky implications of outsiders becoming insiders are glossed over, but Beautiful Losers is an inspiring film that can enlighten people as to where the art and design that surrounds them originated.
I assume the title of the film, and the group show it accompanied, is borrowed from Leonard Cohen’s great novel of the same name. Do it… yourself.
I am freaking out at the impending end to my beloved TV show Lost. What could possibly take its place??? Books?? (Just kidding, a little library humor thrown in for free.) If you’re in the “so sad to see Lost end” camp like me, here are my suggestions to work through your grief and move on.
- Battlestar Galactica – if you haven’t watched BSG (the new series), you’re in for a wild journey. Like Lost with great characters, intriguing mythology, mystery and suspense, but in Space!
- Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy – if you especially enjoy the philosophical side of Lost, Pullman’s novels will definitely fill the void.
- Rose and Bernard, although minor characters of the cast, have a huge following among Losties! For more retired persons/senior citizens on adventures, read The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian, or watch the Oscar-winning animated movie Up.
- The Prisoner – this amazing British TV series from the late 1960’s starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan will satisfy your need for deep intrigue and mystery.
- The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher – if you especially like Sawyer’s biting wit (and those nicknames!), you’ll dig this fantasy series featuring Chicago’s only wizard in the Yellow Pages, Harry Dresden.
- One of my favorite scenes on Lost occurred when Hurley declares a desire to write the script for The Empire Strikes Back and send it to George Lucas. For more hilariously geeky conversations and lovable characters, don’t miss The Big Bang Theory.
- My personal favorite suggestion to overcome Lost grief, and one I hope to someday achieve: travel to Hawaii and visit locations where Lost was filmed.
It might get loud
This is a very interesting and unique movie – part documentary, part travelogue and part cross-generational rock star meet up. Great use of various archival footage, still photos and current film of these three guitarists alone and together keeps things moving along nicely.
I went into this not really caring for Jack White that much (or at least his singing) but I now understand his attitude and inspiration – Son House, and realize for him it’s all about passion and getting a feeling across. The White Stripes may be a slightly manufactured band but there is a core of real honesty in their music. The Edge is clearly and admittedly all about sound craft and getting the perfect tonal quality and feel from his guitars and the arsenal of effects he uses. “It’s my voice.” One scene has him listening to early U2 guitar parts in his kitchen (on cassette!) as he taps out the various digitally delayed time signatures, obviously second nature to this musical alchemist. There is also a wonderful outtake of him running through some classic U2 riffs on a soundstage – the tonal palette is unmistakably and uniquely The Edge.
Jimmy Page is like a wizard steeped in rock history; partially responsible for some of the heaviest, most creative sounds of the 70’s. He is a joy to watch and highlights include his unpretentious and remarkably luminous presence, complete with priceless facial expressions when he listens to someone sharing a story. Another great outtake is him demonstrating the intricacies of “Kashmir” on guitar as the Edge and Jack try to absorb it, with wonder in their eyes. Having Jimmy Page run through vintage Led Zep tunes in front of you has to be a thrill for anyone!
I liked this movie quite a bit – it shows three unique and very different musicians for who they are and shows some genuinely entertaining and sometimes amusing interactions. Never taking itself too seriously, there is sure to be something worthwhile here for everybody!
Phil
Actor, singer, and adventurer Ewan McGregor celebrates a birthday on March 31st. McGregor was born in Scotland in 1971, to teacher parents that encouraged him to pursue his acting dreams. After attending London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama for three years, he left right before graduating to take a role in a TV miniseries called Lipstick on Your Collar. McGregor has had a successful acting career in both mainstream and independent films. His first notable performance came in the 1994 film directed by Danny Boyle called Shallow Grave. Boyle directed McGregor again in the gritty film Trainspotting based on the novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh. Star Wars fans were pleased with his portrayal of young Obi-Wan Kenobi in Episodes I, II, and III.
Musical fans discovered McGregor could sing when he appeared along side Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge!. In 2004 he and friend Charley Boorman traveled around the world on motorbikes. Documentary footage of their journey was made into a TV series called Long Way Round, then a follow-up series called Long Way Down.
March isn’t just for basketball, it’s also time for the Academy Awards! After many years of five “Best Picture” nominees, ten films have been shortlisted for this year’s award. Although this category has included only five nominees for many years, there have been as many as twelve films nominated. If you want to geek out on the Oscars, visit the Academy Awards Database. Listed here are films that were nominated from 1931 to 1940, when the “Best Picture” category was called “Outstanding Production,” and the number of films nominated topped out at twelve.
- Crystal
British actor Jeremy Irons was born in Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, a small island just off the south coast of England. His career began with two years of training at the Bristol Old Vic School, after which he joined the repertory company working in everything from Shakespeare to contemporary dramas. He moved to London in 1971 and had a number of odd jobs before landing the role of John the Baptist in the hit musical “Godspell”. Irons made his on-screen debut in Nijinsky. In the early 80s, he gained international attention with his starring role in the adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel Brideshead Revisited. In 1984 he won a Tony for his role opposite Glenn Close in Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing.” Irons won an Oscar in 1990 for his role again opposite Glenn Close in Reversal of Fortune. His most-watched movie from the 1990’s may only include his voice –he brought to life Scar in The Lion King. His latest roles include Brom in 2007’s Eragon, and the Earl of Leicester in Elizabeth I.
The 2010 Winter Olympic Games is just a few weeks away. Go Team USA! For all things Olympics, visit www.Vancouver2010.com. Learn more about Olympic history through these documentaries and films, available from your Nashville Public Library:
Check out videos about the Olympic Games.
Robert Pattinson, the young British actor who portrays Edward Cullen in the Twilight series movies, is next in a long line of actors who have played dark, brooding characters.
Listed here are others, including the best, Marlon Brando, who have taken a turn at playing the brooding male lead. Unfortunately, the 1939 version of Wuthering Heights with Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff (the ultimate brooding character!) is out of print at this time.
Check out more movies with Dark, Brooding Characters.
- Crystal
There Will Be Blood
Wow! This 2007 movie lives up to its accolades as an American epic, with Daniel Day-Lewis earning an Academy Award for best actor for his mesmerizing portrayal of oil prospector/land speculator/entrepreneur Daniel Plainview. Set in the dust bowl areas of California between 1898 and 1927, Day-Lewis is riveting as a swindling, greedy boss out for land in his quest for his ever-expanding oil drilling operations.
I was sometimes reminded of a few other favorite films, including Paper Moon, No Country for Old Men (in the ironic, elliptical discussions between Plainview and devoutly religious Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), whose main concern is always The Church (he is also a healer and has some hilarious early scenes) and Dead Man (especially in the belching, clacking soundtrack, composed by Johhny Greenwood of Radiohead).
This movie is full of great acting, surrealistic scenes and dark humor. Plainview negotiating with the Standard Oil executives is one such scene. Some of his memorable lines include “I really don’t like people” and “I like all religions…” (the latter as he tries to assuage the townspeople early on that he is sincere in his plans).
The cinematography is often stunning (Academy Award winning, in fact. Comparisons to Citizen Kane are not out of place.) as in the scenes involving building the oil drilling apparatus against the western skies. This is quite a long film and the tension and turmoil builds throughout as Daniel becomes embroiled in conflicts as the ultimate capitalist, obsessed beyond his wits against the determined preacher. Like in HBO’s late great Carnivale series, this central battle at times reaches crazy, epic, disturbing proportions.
A film based on Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel “Oil”, this one is not to be missed!
Winter is in full swing here in Nashville! Looking for something to stave off that cabin fever? Try an epic movie. An epic is a genre of film that emphasizes human drama on a grand scale.
- Crystal
There’s still time to create your list of top ten movies released in 2009. Did you catch all the best of 2008?
Check out the films that at the top of last year’s “best of” lists.
- Crystal
Sugar
This heartfelt film by the writers of Half Nelson realistically follows the life of a minor league baseball player from the Dominican Republic. With a stunning lead performance and an unexpected resolution, this is not your average sports movie.
Bright Star
The butterfly scene alone makes this lovely film about the doomed love of poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne worth your time.
Moon
A Science Fiction movie for people who don’t like Science Fiction movies, this is more art house than action film.
- Beth
Comments (0) 
