Categories: General
have you heard of ‘the fall’? i don’t really care about the answer to that just go see it immediately. it is the most beautiful cinematography, fantastic acting, and amazing story-telling i’ve seen in a long, long time.
Categories: General
Many books are screwy, a great many are dull, some are irredeemable, and there are way too many of them, probably, in the world. I hate all the fetishistic twaddle about books promoted by the chain stores and the book clubs, which make books seem as cozy and unthreatening as teacups, instead of the often disputatious and sometimes frightening things they are. I recognize that we now have many ways to convey, store, and reproduce the sorts of matter that formerly were monopolized by books. I like to think that I’m no bookworm, egghead, four-eyed paleface library rat. I often engage in activities that have no reference to the printed words. I realize that books are not the entire world, even if they sometimes seem to contain it. But I need the stupid things.
Categories: General
ARF had a fund-raising dog walk on Sunday which I participated in. I raised $350 (donated by friends and family) to give to ARF and in exchange I got a goody bag with t-shirt, disposable camera, lots of dog treats, a collapsible water bowl, light-up keychain shaped like a dog bone, a pedometer….and so many other things! It was awesome getting swag for philanthrophy. Obviously, also, it was awesome raising money for kitties and puppies and walking around an outdoor mall with my brother, his girlfriend, and their baby.
Some of the kittens being saved by the donations I raised:
Categories: General
big b lumberyard on the corner of contra costa and the trifecta of taco bell, wendy’s, and the fish store is turning into a casino!
what the fuck, pacheco? how the fuck do you have casinos in the middle of the suburbs? especially how will you support two ON THE SAME BLOCK? is the historic landmark one moving to this new location? it’s been there since 1854. why is my childhood relocating?
thank you for your time taken on my rant.
Categories: General
winnowing down a list of 104 movies to something i could actually manage to attend is hard. but doable. as i can prove by the following list of most want to see. take a look and let me know if you are interested in any of them too. cause i like movie friends. also i like you pointing out other ones you would like to see which maybe i wanted to see too but purged from my list for various reasons. change my mind! you can DO IT!
Friday, April 25th, 6:15pm, Kabuki
The Danish town of Rudkøbing has its problems. For one thing, the endless construction in the town square makes it look like a bomb site. And when a stuffy lecturer and leading citizen mentions he’s seen a naked man roaming the streets at night, Rudkøbing’s conservative residents break out in a general panic. The construction workers declare a strike until the culprit is identified, and a group of concerned citizens decides to use the town’s hotline service to ferret out the offender.
Note: Wacky, small town comedy! Who doesn’t like those? I love them! Especially when they’re from Denmark!
Saturday, April 26th, 9:00pm, Kabuki
Imagine a pubescent Esther Williams shipped overseas to a public school in the suburbs outside Paris, and you’ll have some idea of the alluring blend of teenage athleticism and ennui embodied by Marie (preternaturally perceptive lovestruck loner), Anne (zaftig party-crashing eccentric) and Floriane (sultry swim team tease), the titular water lilies who dive deep into the chilly waters of adolescence with only nose plugs, training bras and each other’s kisses and confessions for protection.
Note: Um, hello, synchronized swimming lesbian teenagers.
Friday, May 2nd, 1:30pm, Kabuki
Jay Chou plays Lun, a music student at the Tamkang Secondary School (the director’s alma mater), a seemingly timeless place where uniformed students engage in innocent flirtations and heated “piano battles” (Chou faces off against Nan Quan Mama’s Zhan Yuhao for the Chopin title). One day in the old music room, Lun encounters Yu (Kwai Lun-mei) playing an evocative tune. The mysteries of that melody and of Yu herself will come to haunt Lun’s life. When Lun sees a photograph of Yu with his father (the perennially entertaining Anthony Wong), Secret’s delicate teen romance rises to a crescendo of blood-on-the-keys supernatural melodrama.
Note: Jay Chou! And Anthony Wong!! I heart Anthony Wong! Plus it looks pretty and I am way too into Taiwanese piano playing dramas lately. Let the weird streak continue with Secret.
Saturday, May 3rd, 12:45pm, Kabuki
The two best buddies in this film are busy taunting girls, imagining ghosts and animate statues and playing pranks on schoolmates. For their crimes they are forced to spend the rest of the hot, humid semester repairing library books after school. But rather than fix anything, the more literate Liar No. 1 reads wild stories to the younger Liar No. 2. The stories inspire the boys to plan a voyage to Orz, a faraway world over the Taiwanese sea that promises endless fun, depicted in several beguiling animation sequences. A scheme to whip up a transporting tornado with ten electric fans ends in a blown fuse. Finally, they settle on a solution: a nearby seaside park’s spiral waterslide is a portal to Orz. The hundredth trip down the slide will trigger a blast into that anti-Neverland where children turn instantly into adults.
Note: It looks both cute and sweet and then also probably depressing. But, you know, mostly endearing. I vote yes.
Thursday, May 8th, 7:45pm, Kabuki
Half lush historical drama, half mind-bending detective story, this elaborate murder mystery set during Korea’s Chosun era is a tour de force of cinematic entertainment, a non-stop thrill ride full of plot twists, intrigue and power struggles, screaming victims, nail-biting escapes and gruesome acts of torture. And for those who want visual splendor with their thrillers, the film delivers cascades of opulence, with beautiful women in elaborately ornate costumes and art direction so exquisite, so precise in its attention to historical detail that the film could easily be savored for its look alone.
Note: Mmm, pretty! Also looks like an excellent murder mystery story. And South Korean film is really up and coming with delight.
Categories: General
next month is national poetry month. i’m attempting to get the punk kids at the high school to give me original poetry to put on display in the library. sadly they have very little to say in poetic adulation of their “guns” (side note: total in-joke, sorry). i’ve only gotten 2 poems so far and the deadline is this thursday.
so i’m opening the floor. wanna be put on display in a glass case? your poetic efforts laminated and put up next to some shakespeare, wordsworth, dickinson? now is the time! give me the poems! you can email or post them in the comments. they can be haikus, iambic pentameter, free verse, i’m talking open opps here, people. you can make up a high school persona to write as complete with nom de plume, you can use your real name, you can be anonymous. i promise to take pictures of the display and post them in april.
for inspiration and cheese reasons, i give you these photos of me in the library “working”:
Categories: General
this is kind of late notice, but the festival starts this weekend. yey!
so i bring you my top 3 most want to sees and hope that someone might want to see them too.
Friday, 3/14, 4:00pm, Kabuki
From slacker comedies like No One’s Ark (SFIAAFF ’03) to the hit schoolgirl rock band film Linda Linda Linda (SFIAAFF ’06), Nobuhiro Yamashita has demonstrated a knack for offbeat humor and for finding poetry in the mundane. With his seventh feature, A Gentle Breeze in the Village, Yamashita turns his perceptive eye to the emotional world of a teenage girl living in the bucolic countryside of Japan.
Adapting Fusako Kuramochi’s popular manga series Tennen Kokekko, Yamashita tells the story of Soyo, the oldest of six students in a combined elementary and middle school, and the only student in eighth grade—until Osawa, a handsome city-boy, transfers from Tokyo. His arrival sets off tremors in Soyo’s halcyon life, and soon she must ponder the difference between a kiss and a handshake, and learn to listen to the growing feeling in her heart the same way she listens to the whispers of the surrounding mountains.
This is a film not of dramatic fireworks, but of finely observed details in the world of an adolescent girl, where the smallest of gestures and revelations can carry the weight of the universe. Those details take on a warm, magical glimmer as Yamashita effortlessly evokes the gentle rhythms of rural life. The resulting portrait of a simpler life—whether seen as pastoral fantasy or nostalgia for a disappearing era—is sure to leave the most refreshing and blissful aftertaste of any film this year.
NOTE: I LOVED ‘linda, linda, linda’, so i’m pretty excited about this.
Sunday, 3/16, 9:45pm, Kabuki
Steeped in traditional Thai folklore and with an eerie period setting, Wisit Sasanatieng’s (Citizen Dog, SFIAAFF ‘06) new feature takes a departure from his earlier flamboyant, distinctly modern films to serve up an elegant classic ghost story. Set in 1930’s Siam, the story centers on a young pregnant woman named Nualjan who travels to Bangkok in search of her missing husband. On the way, she takes refuge in a dilapidated mansion whose odd inhabitants include an elderly woman who stalks the grounds at night, the talkative and superstitious boarder Choy, and the severe house manager Miss Somjit, who treats Nualjan to a cold welcome and warns her against snooping. Most mysterious of all is the reclusive Madame Run Juan, the beautiful mistress of the house, who never leaves her second floor lair and is said to pine for a lost love. As Nualjan’s curiosity about the mansion’s secrets grows, she is drawn deeper into the ghostly world of this sinister place, and the mysteries of its lonely inhabitants.
The Unseeable unfolds like the most chilling of folktales, made all the more gripping by Sasanatieng’s skillful use of sound effects, camera work and ominous lighting. Inspired by the pulp illustrations of Thai artist Hem Vejakorn, the film’s lush landscape and gorgeous period details create a haunting world where the supernatural lurks around every corner. Using no digital special effects and instead relying on traditional filmmaking techniques to create suspense, The Unseeable is a stunning homage to classic Hollywood thrillers like The Haunting and Rebecca.
NOTE: those of you who saw ‘citizen dog’ with me in 2006 (gene and christine) will hopefully be as excited about this one by the same director.
Thursday, 3/20, 7:30pm, Kabuki
Korean b-boy culture gets a vibrant look in talented new filmmaker John Kwon’s debut feature, Always Be Boyz. Employing a cast of real-life breakdancers to enact a narrative inspired by a true story, Kwon has crafted a stylish hip hop dance musical brimming with visual flair and youthful heart.
For Seven, b-boying is not a hobby, but a lifestyle. With his father unable to return from North Korea and his older brother in mandatory military service, the restless Seven reads Socrates and Plato, yearning to make sense of the world through art. The one real and tangible goal for him and his crew is the Battle of the Year tournament, where they can pit their skills against the best and earn respect. But as injuries and defection deplete his team, and Seven struggles to secure corporate sponsorship for his crew, he finds artistic inspiration in ballet—and a budding romance with a ballerina. And with his own military service looming, Seven must decide what his life will stand for.
Always Be Boyz fits comfortably into the familiar genre of underdog dancer films, but here the cast of non-professional actors deliver surprisingly natural and heartfelt performances, lending what is at times a documentary-like persuasiveness to this portrait of b-boy culture. Yet every shot is completely malleable in Kwon’s hands, as he stops, slows, speeds up and refracts the images like a DJ into a thoroughly stylized presentation. The film marks the arrival of a fresh and promising new voice.
NOTE: it’s a Korean ‘save the last dance’!! I can’t pass that up!