, came to give a lecture on them while I was a student at Ohio State. I was so excited to see this movie was made and would be playing Portland! I am hoping they add more dates around the country soon. It was fantastic to hear the architects involved talk about what must have been, and continues to be, an unimaginably exciting, heartbreaking, and tumultuous experience. Ricardo Porro in particular is such an entertaining character. If you get a chance to see this movie in a theater I highly recommend it!
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Sunday, February 12, 2012
PIFF: Unfinished Spaces
, came to give a lecture on them while I was a student at Ohio State. I was so excited to see this movie was made and would be playing Portland! I am hoping they add more dates around the country soon. It was fantastic to hear the architects involved talk about what must have been, and continues to be, an unimaginably exciting, heartbreaking, and tumultuous experience. Ricardo Porro in particular is such an entertaining character. If you get a chance to see this movie in a theater I highly recommend it!
Monday, November 15, 2010
Movie Time: Mary & Max
Last week we watched the animated film Mary and Max after I was reminded (by a fellow tumblr) that I really wanted to see it after seeing trailers for it some time ago. When I saw a post about it I immediately went to look for it on Netflix, and it was even available streaming, so we watched it right away!
I've always enjoyed claymation movies, probably because of all the shorts on Pinwheel on Nickelodeon when I was a kid. Not too long before watching Mary and Max we watched $9.99, which is also an Australian film. Both films are very gritty, well, as gritty as you can make animated clay. Although both films are a little dark in subject matter, $9.99 is much more clearly an adult/art house film.
To quickly summarize Mary & Max, it's about a girl in Melbourne who picks someone at random to become pen pals with since she has no friends. She ends up corresponding with Max, a New Yorker with Asperger syndrome. The move covers about 20 years of their life, starting in the 1970s. One feature of the film that has me considering rewatching it sometime soon is the fact that although it is claymation, a typically colorful form, it's nearly black and white. There are only occasional splashes of color, usually red, and otherwise if there is any color it is very subtle. I noticed this early in the film, and I intended to pay some attention to the use of color throughout the film, but I got too wrapped up in the characters and story to check when and if some portions of the movie were more bright and colorful to correspond with the plot points. At the very least I noticed that Mary's Melborne seemed a little brighter, perhaps sepia, than Max's New York, which is black, white, and red. But I still think it warrants another viewing. The only thing we weren't really crazy about was the soundtrack, which I thought was a little overbearing.
Oh, and one other thing: It does have the ugliest animated cats I've ever seen. I still love them, because yes I am a crazy obsessed cat lady who loves cats and all representations of cats. Although I will admit these are some pretty ugly cats, they are still cute, you know, in a cat way. All cats are cute by default.
Speaking of Claymation, when we moved here I picked up a brochure for the Northwest Film Center and found out they have a class in stop motion animation taught by Will Vinton who is famous for coining the term claymation and also for developing the California Raisins! I used to love their Christmas special. Anyway, it's rather expensive but I did read in The Finder (a magazine Willamette Week puts out each year as sort of a guide to Portland) that one of the things you should do to become a real Portlander is take some classes there, so this might be on the horizon, eventually! At least I hope so.
I've always enjoyed claymation movies, probably because of all the shorts on Pinwheel on Nickelodeon when I was a kid. Not too long before watching Mary and Max we watched $9.99, which is also an Australian film. Both films are very gritty, well, as gritty as you can make animated clay. Although both films are a little dark in subject matter, $9.99 is much more clearly an adult/art house film.
To quickly summarize Mary & Max, it's about a girl in Melbourne who picks someone at random to become pen pals with since she has no friends. She ends up corresponding with Max, a New Yorker with Asperger syndrome. The move covers about 20 years of their life, starting in the 1970s. One feature of the film that has me considering rewatching it sometime soon is the fact that although it is claymation, a typically colorful form, it's nearly black and white. There are only occasional splashes of color, usually red, and otherwise if there is any color it is very subtle. I noticed this early in the film, and I intended to pay some attention to the use of color throughout the film, but I got too wrapped up in the characters and story to check when and if some portions of the movie were more bright and colorful to correspond with the plot points. At the very least I noticed that Mary's Melborne seemed a little brighter, perhaps sepia, than Max's New York, which is black, white, and red. But I still think it warrants another viewing. The only thing we weren't really crazy about was the soundtrack, which I thought was a little overbearing.
Oh, and one other thing: It does have the ugliest animated cats I've ever seen. I still love them, because yes I am a crazy obsessed cat lady who loves cats and all representations of cats. Although I will admit these are some pretty ugly cats, they are still cute, you know, in a cat way. All cats are cute by default.
Speaking of Claymation, when we moved here I picked up a brochure for the Northwest Film Center and found out they have a class in stop motion animation taught by Will Vinton who is famous for coining the term claymation and also for developing the California Raisins! I used to love their Christmas special. Anyway, it's rather expensive but I did read in The Finder (a magazine Willamette Week puts out each year as sort of a guide to Portland) that one of the things you should do to become a real Portlander is take some classes there, so this might be on the horizon, eventually! At least I hope so.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Recommended for Viewing: The Garden
A few nights ago we watched the documentary The Garden about the urban farm in South Central L.A. (it's available streaming on Netflix for members.) The farm was 14-acres, making it one of the largest urban gardens, in a neighborhood that sorely needs community-building spaces and activities. Needless to say this isn't the happiest movie, but it's one that as someone in planning/design profession, I feel is very important to see. It did get some recognition as a nominee in the documentary category of the Academy Awards last year, but nonetheless, I hadn't heard of it before Chuck pointed it out to me (it relates somewhat to the thesis project he's wrapping up this semester.) So I just wanted to bring it a little more attention. There's also a great entry about the farmers on wikipedia that includes a listing of some of the types of plants that were in the garden, which in itself is quite amazing. There's is a bunch of stuff on that list I've never even heard of, and all I eat is plant life. Clearly I need to learn more about farming. Watch the film! And also check out the South Central Farmer's website for updates; they even have a twitter if you are so inclined.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Top of the Morning...
It's been over a week since I've posted anything, so I thought maybe this morning I would throw a little blogging into my morning routine. Coffee, surf the internet, is typically what I do, but I tend not to blog for fear of lack-of-coffee-induced-typos, and general non-sensicalness. But it's been a while, and before I go off and study all day long (or find ways to procrastinate from studying) I thought I'd stop by.
Most of the last week or so hasn't been all that interesting, just studying. I've got a 300 page study guide that I'm working my way through, a box of flashcards, a CD and a sample test booklet...all of which I need to go through before the test on Tuesday. We've been trying to make that a little more interesting by going out to coffee shops, but mostly it is what it is, not too exciting.
I still found some time to finish off my knee-high socks, but they're still waiting on the weaving in of the ends, and I need to take some nice pictures as well. I've got plenty of shots of the progress, so once I take the last set of pictures I might post a collection of those images, just for fun.
Oh, and I meant to find a moment last week to post about something we ate, just to say we used a recipe for tempeh meatballs from the blog vegandad, which turned out great. We also picked up a smoothie mix by Naysoya that they've started carrying at our local grocery store, which was also very tasty.
Lastly, we did get in some movie watching this week, and have sorta made the theme for the weekend "movies directed by Sam Mendes." I was pretty interested in seeing Away We Go since we saw the trailer attached to Limits of Control, because of the concept of a couple trying to find the right place to live and the fact that David Eggers wrote the screenplay. I was not disappointed, it wasn't quite what I expected and instead was sweeter and more intelligent. Then last night my parents had rented Revolutionary Road, which I was interested in seeing, so we stuck around to watch that with them. I was less excited about that movie, it just wasn't terribly interesting. But I do enjoy a somewhat themed weekend of movies nonetheless.
As a side note, I think we were at the theater that recently hosted the premier of that new Johnny Depp movie. The evidence of that was the fact that they had removed all of the movie posters in the mega-plex AMC and replaced them with posters of Johnny Depp. I believe the premier was the night before, although there seemed to be something going on as we were leaving. Anyway, not terribly exciting since we didn't see anyone famous, just thought it was interesting!
Most of the last week or so hasn't been all that interesting, just studying. I've got a 300 page study guide that I'm working my way through, a box of flashcards, a CD and a sample test booklet...all of which I need to go through before the test on Tuesday. We've been trying to make that a little more interesting by going out to coffee shops, but mostly it is what it is, not too exciting.
Lastly, we did get in some movie watching this week, and have sorta made the theme for the weekend "movies directed by Sam Mendes." I was pretty interested in seeing Away We Go since we saw the trailer attached to Limits of Control, because of the concept of a couple trying to find the right place to live and the fact that David Eggers wrote the screenplay. I was not disappointed, it wasn't quite what I expected and instead was sweeter and more intelligent. Then last night my parents had rented Revolutionary Road, which I was interested in seeing, so we stuck around to watch that with them. I was less excited about that movie, it just wasn't terribly interesting. But I do enjoy a somewhat themed weekend of movies nonetheless.
As a side note, I think we were at the theater that recently hosted the premier of that new Johnny Depp movie. The evidence of that was the fact that they had removed all of the movie posters in the mega-plex AMC and replaced them with posters of Johnny Depp. I believe the premier was the night before, although there seemed to be something going on as we were leaving. Anyway, not terribly exciting since we didn't see anyone famous, just thought it was interesting!
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Jarmusch & Art
I love Jim Jarmusch movies. We were basically first in line to see his new movie The Limits of Control Friday night (while everyone else was off seeing Star Trek, I'd imagine.) I might mention a few things...We haven't gone to see very many movies the past year. I believe the last thing we saw in a theater was Indiana Jones (fun) and that was way back in Seattle. But seeing a new Jarmusch movie in the theater...these are the kinds of things I will go out of my way for. We found out it was playing at a theater here in Chicago called "pipers alley," which I thought sounded cool and artsy but turned out to be a loews/amc. Though it did feature a very odd small escalator that no one was really using and didn't really need to be there....which in my opinion gave a nice Jarmusch -y feel to the place in spite of itself.
I of course really liked it. Not everyone will, I'm sure, the pacing is slow, and it has even less dialogue than other Jarmusch films, which is saying a lot. As a confused person behind me repeatedly, annoyingly, pointed out more than once "it's sooo repetitive." (by the way i might not recommend starting with this movie if you're not familiar with his other films.) But that was all part of the way Jarmusch carefully crafts his films, and I thought was clearly related to the theme of the movie and gave an odd kind of character development that only happens in his movies.
It was really packed full of stuff to think about. I've seen so many movies where you can't make yourself care about the characters at all...Isaach De Bankolé's "lone man" says so little in this film, yet within a few scenes I was glad to be experiencing the imagery with his character in mind. He was definitely a recognizable Jarmusch character, yet I'm not sure exactly what was done to get him there, but it doesn't matter, it worked for me. And art was prominently featured, with the lone man spending much of his time in Madrid's Renia Sophia (where Picasso's Guernica is housed.) It also tied into the story line in a really lovely way. I spent my morning today googling art, trying to remember who created some of the art work featured and referenced.
I'm actually positive it's going to take a few more viewings and time to let this movie sink in, which makes me really happy. I always have such a sense that I relate to Jarmusch's films...which I tend to attribute to his being from Ohio, orginally...though that's surely a little silly since he left when he was about 17. But regardless of how he got there, I love the appreciation of art, science, taking time to consider these things, landscapes, his fascination with communication and language...and I always adore the way he films car travel. So there you have my completely biased crazy positive review from my favorite director ever. I can't wait until his next movie!
And I will definitely be seeing Star Trek in the theaters before long.
I of course really liked it. Not everyone will, I'm sure, the pacing is slow, and it has even less dialogue than other Jarmusch films, which is saying a lot. As a confused person behind me repeatedly, annoyingly, pointed out more than once "it's sooo repetitive." (by the way i might not recommend starting with this movie if you're not familiar with his other films.) But that was all part of the way Jarmusch carefully crafts his films, and I thought was clearly related to the theme of the movie and gave an odd kind of character development that only happens in his movies.
It was really packed full of stuff to think about. I've seen so many movies where you can't make yourself care about the characters at all...Isaach De Bankolé's "lone man" says so little in this film, yet within a few scenes I was glad to be experiencing the imagery with his character in mind. He was definitely a recognizable Jarmusch character, yet I'm not sure exactly what was done to get him there, but it doesn't matter, it worked for me. And art was prominently featured, with the lone man spending much of his time in Madrid's Renia Sophia (where Picasso's Guernica is housed.) It also tied into the story line in a really lovely way. I spent my morning today googling art, trying to remember who created some of the art work featured and referenced.
I'm actually positive it's going to take a few more viewings and time to let this movie sink in, which makes me really happy. I always have such a sense that I relate to Jarmusch's films...which I tend to attribute to his being from Ohio, orginally...though that's surely a little silly since he left when he was about 17. But regardless of how he got there, I love the appreciation of art, science, taking time to consider these things, landscapes, his fascination with communication and language...and I always adore the way he films car travel. So there you have my completely biased crazy positive review from my favorite director ever. I can't wait until his next movie!
And I will definitely be seeing Star Trek in the theaters before long.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Shalom in Photos
I finally got some photos of the Shalom Cardigan I recently finished in action. I've already worn it at least three times, but it wasn't until the third time and the photos that I realized how happy with the project I am overall. Somehow pictures just let you know everything worked out as planned!
I also found a little scrap busting project which used up a bit of leftover cotton-ease from my leaf cardigan, and then a cabled hat. This didn't take very long at all. Come to think of it, the leaf cardigan started as a result of some left overs from the hooded tunic project. But thanks to this pattern from Persnickety Knitter, my adventures with cotton-ease my have finally come to an end. At least in this lake/blue color way.:
And on a very unrelated subject: movies! I found out there's a new Jim Jarmush movie coming out...today in very select locations. Not here, unfortunately. And I haven't been able to find anything about when it might see a wider release so far. But, the stills look great. Meanwhile, I guess the X-men movie about Wolverine did come out today, which is about as far from an art house Jarmush pic as you can get, but nonetheless, it sounds fun, and I've heard good things. We may be visiting a theater near us for the first time since....Indiana Jones? Yeah, I think that's right.
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