So I have no idea if anyone is reading this besides my faithful follower Nicole who is in fact my cousin's lovely wife and not some gracious stranger who stumbled upon my blog and intrigued, decided to come back for more... not that Nicole is not gracious. As I said she's lovely. But my point is as far as I know she's the only one out there in the land of interwebs, nets, etc reading this.
But I will take one faithful reader over none and with that in mind I pose the following question.... what movie from the list would you like to hear about next? Now I'm going to give you 5 to choose from but if you feel strongly about any others on the whole list you just let me know.
So here's my five possibilities:
1. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind - an animated feature by the genius Japanese writer/director Hayao Miyazaki (feature on him to come)
2. From Dusk til Dawn - an action/thriller collaboration by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino featuring outlaws and vampires starring George Clooney.
3. Appaloosa - a recent western that flew under the radar starring Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris and Jeremy Irons
4. Sunshine - a sci-fi effort from director Danny Boyle of Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting and 28 Days Later fame starring Cillian Murphy.
5. Death at a Funeral - a British comedy directed by the very talented Frank Oz
so let me know what you want to hear about... is it one of these five? something else from the list? or is there something else entirely that I should be watching immediately?
Looking forward to your feedback..... Nicole. haha.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunshine Cleaning
so I promised that I would get around to talking about Sunshine Cleaning... as per my thesis (so to speak) for this blog I promised I would be writing about one new movie a week meaning this blog is late. Shame on me. But hey, better late than never. So here it is... thoughts on Sunshine Cleaning which was released on DVD this past Tuesday....
Sunshine Cleaning is the story of Rose (Amy Adams), a single mother juggling a dead end job as a maid cleaning the homes of high school classmates who have gone on to lead much more successful lives, a sister Norah (Emily Blunt) who cannot keep a steady job, an affair with her now married high school boyfriend Mac (Steve Zahn), and a child so imaginative and perhaps so smart (maybe) that his teachers don't know how to deal with him. So what's a girl to do?
Norah pulls her son Oscar out of school and most of the time leaves him in the care of her father Joe (Alan Arkin) who spends most of his time trying to sell various products to businesses out of the trunk of his car, while she starts up her crime scene clean up business at the urging of boyfriend Mac who happens to be a cop. With me so far?
So as you can see Sunshine Cleaning throws a lot at you very quickly and this is overall problem with the film as most of these threads never really come together to form a cohesive story. The performances are great - no surprise there as the cast is stacked with great talent. There are glimpses of the movie that could be but they don't last all that long.
Sunshine Cleaning is brought to you by some of the folks behind Little Miss Sunshine and with that in mind I expected a comedy with some dramatic turns that anchor all the quirkiness in reality but Cleaning is much more drama than comedy and the characters definitely have their quirks but there's just some piece of the puzzle that's missing. Or maybe there's too many pieces to the puzzle. The story is fractured.
Don't get me wrong though. The movie is far from terrible... it's just not really great either. It's ok. The performances are solid, the ending leaves a lot unsaid but answers enough questions to leave you satisfied. My recommendation would be to give it a shot if anything I've said has piqued your interest at all. You won't be left feeling like you've wasted your time.
That said... we can cross Sunshine Cleaning off The Movie List.
Sunshine Cleaning is the story of Rose (Amy Adams), a single mother juggling a dead end job as a maid cleaning the homes of high school classmates who have gone on to lead much more successful lives, a sister Norah (Emily Blunt) who cannot keep a steady job, an affair with her now married high school boyfriend Mac (Steve Zahn), and a child so imaginative and perhaps so smart (maybe) that his teachers don't know how to deal with him. So what's a girl to do?
Norah pulls her son Oscar out of school and most of the time leaves him in the care of her father Joe (Alan Arkin) who spends most of his time trying to sell various products to businesses out of the trunk of his car, while she starts up her crime scene clean up business at the urging of boyfriend Mac who happens to be a cop. With me so far?
So as you can see Sunshine Cleaning throws a lot at you very quickly and this is overall problem with the film as most of these threads never really come together to form a cohesive story. The performances are great - no surprise there as the cast is stacked with great talent. There are glimpses of the movie that could be but they don't last all that long.
Sunshine Cleaning is brought to you by some of the folks behind Little Miss Sunshine and with that in mind I expected a comedy with some dramatic turns that anchor all the quirkiness in reality but Cleaning is much more drama than comedy and the characters definitely have their quirks but there's just some piece of the puzzle that's missing. Or maybe there's too many pieces to the puzzle. The story is fractured.
Don't get me wrong though. The movie is far from terrible... it's just not really great either. It's ok. The performances are solid, the ending leaves a lot unsaid but answers enough questions to leave you satisfied. My recommendation would be to give it a shot if anything I've said has piqued your interest at all. You won't be left feeling like you've wasted your time.
That said... we can cross Sunshine Cleaning off The Movie List.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Origin Story
Now any reputable movie list, like any reputable super hero, needs an origin story - how did my Frankenstein's monster come to be...
As 2005 was drawing to the close I was a Junior at Drew University living in a dorm with a roommate who was making me absolutely miserable. (the result of a rash, stupid decision.) Anyway, I was putting off some work and thinking about the upcoming awards season, the Oscars especially. What movies did I still have to see? Well like any self respecting young woman I decided to make a list ... and thus my beast began its infancy.
My list grew quickly and now totals roughly, at this very moment, 215 movies... make that 214 as I FINALLY watched Sunshine Cleaning today with my dear friend Nicki (more on that later).
This number does not include all the movies I have watched and crossed off the list. If you add those in you can probably double the number.
so without any further ado.... I proudly present..... The Movie List:
1.Letters from Iwo Jima
2.Beyond Borders
3.Topsy Turvy
4.Mystic River
5.Annie Hall
6.Spanish Judges
7.The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
8.Because of Winn Dixie
9.The Interpretor
10.Where the Red Fern Grows
11.Nacho Libre
12.Barton Fink
13.Hurly Burly
14.Manhattan
15.the Matrix
16.Ameile
17.Four Rooms
18.The Life of David Gale
19.Punch Drunk Love
20.Cache
21.Dirty Pretty Things
22.Hideous Kinky
23.the Aviator
24.The Whole Wide World
25.United 93
26.House of Sand and Fog
27.The Good German
28.the Fountain
29.Happy Accidents
30.Accepted
31.Lost in Translation
32.the Night Listener
33.the Hoax
34.Killshot
35.Purfume: the Story of a Murderer
36.Permanent Midnight
37.Giant
38.the English Patient
39.Jersey Girl
40.Mississippi Burning
41.Naked
42.Dr. Strangelove
43.Breakfast at Tiffany's
44.From Dusk til Dawn
45.True Romance
46.Get Shorty
473Angels in America
48.Vera Drake
49.Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
50.Venus
51.Fearless
52.Hotel Rwanda
53.Fracture
54.Dreamland
55.Penelope
56.the Lookout
57.Journey to the End of the Night
58.Snow Cake
59.Year of the Dog
60.Tsunami:the Aftermath
61.Candy
62.the Secret Life of Words
63.You Kill Me
64.Sunshine
65.August Rush
66.Deception
67.Born into Brothels
68.Death at a Funeral
69.Mr. Brooks
70.1408
71.Fur
72.Cassandra's Dream
73.I'm Not There
74.December Boys
75.Strangers on a Train
76.the Serpent and the Rainbow
77.Midnight Cowboy
78.Shakespeare in Love
79.Castle in the Sky
80.Mulholland Drive
81.The Machinist
82.Lost Highway
83.The Newton Boys
84.Forgotten Silver
85.Lars and the Real Girl
86.The Hardy Men
87.Pollock
88.The Postman Always Rings Twice
89.Speed Racer
90.Less Than Zero
91.To Have and Have Not
92.Reign of Fire
93.Copying Beethoven
94.Big Nothing
95.Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
96.Seven Samurai
97.Lust, Caution
98. Goya's Ghosts
99.Street Kings
100.Notorious
101.Leatherheads
102.Funny Games US
103.Paris, JeT'aime
104.Reversal of Fortune
105.Winter Passing
106.Calendar Girls
107.Into the Wild
108.Mysterious Skin
109.Barefoot in the Park
110.Once
111.Papillon
112.Fido
113.The Mummy:Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
114.RKO 281
115.Grosse Point Blank
116.Zelig
117.Adam's Rib
118.The Slammin Salmon
119.Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
120.Stop Loss
121.Man Bites Dog
122.the Brothers Bloom
123.The Savages
124.the Triplets of Belleville
125.the Long Hot Summer
126.Seven Year Itch
127.Sunset Bulevard
128.American Graffitti
129.the Cat Returns
130.Y tu Mama Tambien
131.Toy Story 3
132.Sleuth (Caine/Olivier)
133.Sleuth (Caine/Law)
134.Bonnie and Clyde
135.Where the Wild Things Are
136.All's Faire in Love
137.The Lovely Bones
138.I, Lucifer
139.Ishtar
140.Number 13
141.Patti Smith:Dream of Life
142.Lou Reed:Berlin
143.Double Indemnity
144.Chinatown
145.All About Eve
146.Vanilla Sky
147.the Fantastic Mr.Fox
148.Transformers 2
149.Body of Lies
150.Incediary
151.Urbania
152.the Rum Diary
153.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part I
154.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part II
155.The Laramie Project
156.The Great Pretender
157.Ripley's Believe It or Not
158.Gnomeo and Juliet
159.Killing Pablo
160.RocknRolla
161.The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassu
162.the Namesake
163.4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
164.The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
165.Sherlock Holmes
166.Eagle Eye
167.Blindness
168.Australia
169.Synecdoche New York
170.the International
171.the Great Escape
172.Carlito's Way
173. W
174.The Deer Hunter
175.This Sporting Life
176.the Black Cat
177.the Evil Dead
178.Zombieland
179.The Expendables
180.Shutter Island
181.12 Monkeys
182.Watership Down
183.The Devil's Backbone
184.Appaloosa
185.Mongol
186.Pirate Radio
187.the Escapist
188.Last Chance Harvey
189.Ponyo
190.Taken
191.State of Play
192.Earth
193.Taking Woodstock
194.the Wackness
195.Duplicity
196.Funny People
197.H2
198.Drag Me to Hell
199.Away We Go
200.9
201.the Informant
202.Avatar
203.the Invention of Lying
204.Nine
205.It's Complicated
206.Invictis
207.The Princess and the Frog
208.The Men Who Stare at Goats
209.The Vampire's Assistant
210.Amelia
211.Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
212.The Road
213.Couples Retreat
214.Capitalism A Love Story
As 2005 was drawing to the close I was a Junior at Drew University living in a dorm with a roommate who was making me absolutely miserable. (the result of a rash, stupid decision.) Anyway, I was putting off some work and thinking about the upcoming awards season, the Oscars especially. What movies did I still have to see? Well like any self respecting young woman I decided to make a list ... and thus my beast began its infancy.
My list grew quickly and now totals roughly, at this very moment, 215 movies... make that 214 as I FINALLY watched Sunshine Cleaning today with my dear friend Nicki (more on that later).
This number does not include all the movies I have watched and crossed off the list. If you add those in you can probably double the number.
so without any further ado.... I proudly present..... The Movie List:
1.Letters from Iwo Jima
2.Beyond Borders
3.Topsy Turvy
4.Mystic River
5.Annie Hall
6.Spanish Judges
7.The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
8.Because of Winn Dixie
9.The Interpretor
10.Where the Red Fern Grows
11.Nacho Libre
12.Barton Fink
13.Hurly Burly
14.Manhattan
15.the Matrix
16.Ameile
17.Four Rooms
18.The Life of David Gale
19.Punch Drunk Love
20.Cache
21.Dirty Pretty Things
22.Hideous Kinky
23.the Aviator
24.The Whole Wide World
25.United 93
26.House of Sand and Fog
27.The Good German
28.the Fountain
29.Happy Accidents
30.Accepted
31.Lost in Translation
32.the Night Listener
33.the Hoax
34.Killshot
35.Purfume: the Story of a Murderer
36.Permanent Midnight
37.Giant
38.the English Patient
39.Jersey Girl
40.Mississippi Burning
41.Naked
42.Dr. Strangelove
43.Breakfast at Tiffany's
44.From Dusk til Dawn
45.True Romance
46.Get Shorty
473Angels in America
48.Vera Drake
49.Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
50.Venus
51.Fearless
52.Hotel Rwanda
53.Fracture
54.Dreamland
55.Penelope
56.the Lookout
57.Journey to the End of the Night
58.Snow Cake
59.Year of the Dog
60.Tsunami:the Aftermath
61.Candy
62.the Secret Life of Words
63.You Kill Me
64.Sunshine
65.August Rush
66.Deception
67.Born into Brothels
68.Death at a Funeral
69.Mr. Brooks
70.1408
71.Fur
72.Cassandra's Dream
73.I'm Not There
74.December Boys
75.Strangers on a Train
76.the Serpent and the Rainbow
77.Midnight Cowboy
78.Shakespeare in Love
79.Castle in the Sky
80.Mulholland Drive
81.The Machinist
82.Lost Highway
83.The Newton Boys
84.Forgotten Silver
85.Lars and the Real Girl
86.The Hardy Men
87.Pollock
88.The Postman Always Rings Twice
89.Speed Racer
90.Less Than Zero
91.To Have and Have Not
92.Reign of Fire
93.Copying Beethoven
94.Big Nothing
95.Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
96.Seven Samurai
97.Lust, Caution
98. Goya's Ghosts
99.Street Kings
100.Notorious
101.Leatherheads
102.Funny Games US
103.Paris, JeT'aime
104.Reversal of Fortune
105.Winter Passing
106.Calendar Girls
107.Into the Wild
108.Mysterious Skin
109.Barefoot in the Park
110.Once
111.Papillon
112.Fido
113.The Mummy:Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
114.RKO 281
115.Grosse Point Blank
116.Zelig
117.Adam's Rib
118.The Slammin Salmon
119.Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
120.Stop Loss
121.Man Bites Dog
122.the Brothers Bloom
123.The Savages
124.the Triplets of Belleville
125.the Long Hot Summer
126.Seven Year Itch
127.Sunset Bulevard
128.American Graffitti
129.the Cat Returns
130.Y tu Mama Tambien
131.Toy Story 3
132.Sleuth (Caine/Olivier)
133.Sleuth (Caine/Law)
134.Bonnie and Clyde
135.Where the Wild Things Are
136.All's Faire in Love
137.The Lovely Bones
138.I, Lucifer
139.Ishtar
140.Number 13
141.Patti Smith:Dream of Life
142.Lou Reed:Berlin
143.Double Indemnity
144.Chinatown
145.All About Eve
146.Vanilla Sky
147.the Fantastic Mr.Fox
148.Transformers 2
149.Body of Lies
150.Incediary
151.Urbania
152.the Rum Diary
153.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part I
154.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part II
155.The Laramie Project
156.The Great Pretender
157.Ripley's Believe It or Not
158.Gnomeo and Juliet
159.Killing Pablo
160.RocknRolla
161.The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassu
162.the Namesake
163.4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
164.The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
165.Sherlock Holmes
166.Eagle Eye
167.Blindness
168.Australia
169.Synecdoche New York
170.the International
171.the Great Escape
172.Carlito's Way
173. W
174.The Deer Hunter
175.This Sporting Life
176.the Black Cat
177.the Evil Dead
178.Zombieland
179.The Expendables
180.Shutter Island
181.12 Monkeys
182.Watership Down
183.The Devil's Backbone
184.Appaloosa
185.Mongol
186.Pirate Radio
187.the Escapist
188.Last Chance Harvey
189.Ponyo
190.Taken
191.State of Play
192.Earth
193.Taking Woodstock
194.the Wackness
195.Duplicity
196.Funny People
197.H2
198.Drag Me to Hell
199.Away We Go
200.9
201.the Informant
202.Avatar
203.the Invention of Lying
204.Nine
205.It's Complicated
206.Invictis
207.The Princess and the Frog
208.The Men Who Stare at Goats
209.The Vampire's Assistant
210.Amelia
211.Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
212.The Road
213.Couples Retreat
214.Capitalism A Love Story
Monday, August 24, 2009
The Movie List... does it ever really get shorter?
Hello and welcome to what i'm very affectionately calling 'The Movie List'. I could also call this blog 'The Thorn in My Side'. My movie list is very much like 'The Song That Never Ends' just when you think you've made some progress the chorus starts over again.
I love movies. I love talking about movies. I love getting the inside scoop on movies. My only problem with these films I love so much is that there never seems to be enough time to see them all. Everytime I watch one movie it seems like there are another three I'm hearing about for the first time that I just HAVE to see.
I've seen so many movies in my short life that people find it hard to believe that there are some big popular ones I haven't - The Matrix comes to mind. I just tell them "It's on the list...."
So I'm inviting you to see my hallowed (haha) list. I'll be posting it up here and adding to it and subtracting from it as time goes on. My goal is to watch at least one movie a week and write about it here in addition to other movie news, thoughts and other odds and ends.
Welcome to 'The Movie List'!
I love movies. I love talking about movies. I love getting the inside scoop on movies. My only problem with these films I love so much is that there never seems to be enough time to see them all. Everytime I watch one movie it seems like there are another three I'm hearing about for the first time that I just HAVE to see.
I've seen so many movies in my short life that people find it hard to believe that there are some big popular ones I haven't - The Matrix comes to mind. I just tell them "It's on the list...."
So I'm inviting you to see my hallowed (haha) list. I'll be posting it up here and adding to it and subtracting from it as time goes on. My goal is to watch at least one movie a week and write about it here in addition to other movie news, thoughts and other odds and ends.
Welcome to 'The Movie List'!
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