La Nana

This is an excellent movie. It kind of knocked me out.



It's smart, funny, fascinating, moving, multi-layered, a brilliant character study.... I mean, part of my excitement over this, I'm sure, has to do with being shocked and relieved it's not the formulaic, simplistic piece of crap I kind of expect recently made movies to be these days. See it if you're interested, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

They Live! They really do.

I saw THEY LIVE this weekend. Apparently it's a long-treasured, cult classic B movie, its 5-minute plus long fight scene (hilarious) highly youtube-able, wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper in the lead (ok?), written and directed by the man who brought you Halloween, John Carpenter. Well, I didn't know any of this. I just knew P was hopping up and down from excitement when it arrived in the mail courtesy of Netflix. Do the smart thing and get your hands on a copy of it. Or just watch it right now here. (Crazy internet.) You won't be sorry. It's so brilliant. OK, it's not for everybody and I do get alarmingly hyperbolic about things I like sometimes. Whatever. It's still brilliant.

Documentary showdown

I saw two documentaries this past weekend. The first was MAN ON WIRE, which I realize has been a big hit with everyone, but sadly I didn't really dig it. I've just had it with Phillip Petit, I think. Yes, it's amazing that he crossed the towers and anywhere else he threw a wire. But lord. What a narcissist! And I say this sadly, because before this, I always had a fondness for him. The Chelsea apartment he lived in when he crossed the Towers was on 22nd Street, where I grew up. I remember him and his crew stretching out the wires on the street on what must have been the day before the event, and I remember seeing the noticeable carrot-topped (i.e., fathead) Petit on the block and walking around the neighborhood.



There was just something about watching Petit tell the story with such blind gusto, as if he'd learned nothing, while his friends told it with such thought and feeling, that struck me as unnerving. And the film itself seemed thin, as there were a bunch of unanswered questions I had about things like how Petit supported himself while he obsessed over his projects and what exactly happened with his friendship fall outs.



On the other hand, DEEP WATER was a revelation! I can't say much about it, because one of the pleasures of watching it is not knowing what happens. But it's only fair to say it's not a gentle ride...so beware.

Here's a non-spoiler-y synopsis from Netflix: In 1969, Donald Crowhurst, a former engineer whose bravado outweighed his sailing expertise, entered a London Times-sponsored yacht race around the world. This thrilling documentary incorporates actual footage of the race to depict the harrowing conditions Crowhurst faced. Refusing to turn back even as his homemade boat took on water, he depended on his ingenuity to survive the dangers of the sea and the threat of insanity.

It was weird how DEEP WATER seemed to be exactly the opposite of what I meant when I was complaining about the paucity of this or that in MAN ON WIRE. DEEP WATER is an immensely satisfying, character-rich, dizzyingly fascinating and gripping tale that's very well told. But I can easily see how DEEP WATER wouldn't be every one's cup of tea...O.K., that's TWO warnings! Watch at your own risk! And if you do watch it, make sure to check out the cool extras on the DVD.

To get one's goat

It was P's birthday this past weekend, and in addition to the life-sized, crystal champagne glass full of his favorite bubbly, faux chinchilla coat and matching hat, and vintage rollerskates with flourescent wheels that I gave him as presents, I also adopted a goat for him, for the year, from a place called Little Meadows Farm in North Carolina. There are tons of places you can adopt animals from, but this place won me over for many reasons, including the fact that along with goats and sheep, they also have LLAMAS and ANGORA BUNNIES. ANGORA BUNNIES. The bunnies that can end up looking like this:



I had fun making a quick card for P announcing the goat gift:



P kept laughing each time he looked at the card so I guess he found something amusing about these drawings. I don't know why. They are incredibly serious goats, as you can see.



Also, while I was drawing, I am slightly embarrassed to admit, I was watching the Ridley Scott/Denzel Washington semi-disaster...no, actually, it's pretty much a total disaster...American Gangster. (That's where I got the idea to get P a chinchilla coat.) In the movie, Denzel, who is very boringly angry in the same dead-eyed, rigid expression-y way throughout the whole movie, gets a matching coat/hat chinchilla ensemble from his wife as a present. Well, this outfit gets him some unwanted attention and he ends up throwing the coat (but not the hat. What happened to the hat?) into his fireplace and then watches it, grumpily, burn, while his horrified and disappointed wife looks on. It was a very bad movie, never really an unexpected thing from Sir Ridley, unfortunately, but still.

But let's get our minds off that. I have other exciting news to report. Over the weekend, Frank and Patrick got married in L.A.! Whoop, whoop! It was all very last minute, so I didn't have enough time to jump on a jet plane and see this happen in person, which of course is a big bummer. One night, the proposal, the next day, the courthouse steps! But the next time I see them I'm going to pelt them with rice anyway, and you should, too. Heh, heh.

Just like "Starting Over"

I love this Wil Barnet painting. Isn't it great? And it's not just because of all the time I lie around in bed with a cat on me, looking all fish-eyed out from under whatever I'm reading. A framed poster of it is hanging up near my bed. So I was taken aback when the other night, watching this movie, Starting Over, I noticed it in the very first scene.



Burt Reynolds and Candice Bergen are breaking up in MY bedroom, basically! I mean, what the hell! Burt, Candice: Get out of my apartment and go settle it somewhere else! Damn.



Now about this movie. It's so magnificently silly and great, and so, so funny...if anything, it's a bit sad watching it, realizing, they sure as hell don't make movies like this anymore. Well, and it's hard to not think of director Alan Pakula's horribly random death on the godforsaken Long Island Expressway, too. But it's a comedy, people! A COMEDY!! I mean, Candice Bergen unexpectedly belting out crazy Carole Bayer Sager songs...a grumpy ex-husbands' support group with Austin Pendleton, Wallace Shawn, and Jay O. Sanders...