Movies

Lest anyone think I'm such a book snob that I never watch movies, I do in fact watch a lot of movies. I suppose some will consider me a snob because I won't see most of the mindless crap the studios put out -- I tend to watch only indies and foreign. Most of what I've seen lately is courtesy of Netflix, but I've seen a couple with movie popcorn or courtesy of HBO.

Pan's Labyrinth: Loved it.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: The slaughter at the end is just horrifying.

The Lives of Others: One of the best so far this year. Set in East Germany a few years before the fall, concerns a Stassi officer who spies on a playwright, and how his immersion in "the lives of others" force his re-examination of his existence.

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle: amusing

The Illusionist: Super. Nothing is as it seems.......

The Good Shepherd: Eh. Okay.

The Departed: As usual, a high body count, but not bad

The Last King of Scotland: Yeesh -- some disturbing scenes, but an excellent movie

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont: Not bad. A lovely story of old and young.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada: A study in points of view.

Super Size Me: Not that I eat Mickey's but ick.

Wordplay: Eh.

Hollywoodland: Better than I thought -- but I like a decent mystery.

Cars: Eh.

The Aristocrats: Got old really, really quick.

Little Miss Sunshine: A hoot. I loved it. One day I heard some women talking about how they hated it, but from the look of them, they won't like anything Oprah doesn't expressly tell them to like.

Hustle & Flow: Okay.

Syriana: Not bad.

Blood Simple: Atrocious. I have a 20-minute rule -- if I'm not into it in 20 minutes, I quit. I didn't make it past 5 on this piece of dung. Drew picked this one, and has a historically, um, spotty record of movie selection. After this clunker I took over the Netflix queue.

An Inconvenient Truth: Thought-provoking.

Thank You for Smoking: Not bad.

The Station Agent: Very good.