flwyd | Cinema-menah (Reply)

Since my keyboard broke, I've seen a few movies worth noting...

Spirited Away: This was fun. I've also seen Princess Mononoke and My Neighbor Totoro, both of which were also fun. I think it would be really neat to watch these films without sound -- what I enjoy most is the creative cast of characters, from floating cat busses to radish spirits to faces that turn themselves upside down. I wish more anime was like this and less like middle school.
Revolution OS: A documentary about GNU, Linux, the Free Software Foundation, and other aspects of free software and open source. You have to be a bit of a geek to enjoy this -- it didn't seem to be a gripping enough documentary to enthrall people who've never thought about free software before. Visually, it was like a lot of free software -- the message is more important than looking pretty. Examples of this included interviews with people who would change location (inside to outside, say) in mid-sentence. I learned quite a bit; I didn't previously have a good idea of who Richard Stallman is, and I learned that the pronunciation of Linux (straight from Linus's mouth) has changed since we downloaded that audio clip in the computer lab circa 1996. He claims it hasn't, though.
While watching, I reflected that in the 1960s, the people with long hair, casual dress, and subversive social and political ideas were hippies, and the people who worked with computers were nerds and didn't get involved in politics or society. Now, the people with long hair, casual dress, and subversive social and political ideas are the ones who work with computers, and most of the hippies from the 60s are wearing suits, working 9-5, and voting out of suburban paranoia, if at all.
Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The story of the Funk Brothers, the studio band behind almost every Motown #1 hit. Lots of great music, cool stories, and neat history. I should have told my dad this was showing. (BTW, IFS is showing American Astronaut on several Tuesdays this semester. Locals who haven't seen it should check it out.)
Songs from the Second Floor: Poetic black comedy from Sweden. This is sort of several short, interrelated cinematic poems set in a city where everyone's trying to leave. Humorous parts include a guy who's been fired holding onto the leg of his boss shouting "I've been here 30 years" and the boss responding "There's nothing I can do" as he drags the ex-employee down the hall; and a magician who saws an audience voulenteer for real, and the unfortunate man's later trials with simple tasks. If you get a chance to see this, and don't mind being in a weird mood, this is great.
Back to the Future: (The latter part of the original and all of part II). I'm not particularly keen on these. Mildly entertaining, but philisophically uninteresting. Perhaps the fact that I didn't see them as a kid is part of this.
But I'm a Cheerleader: This is an over-the-top satire about a girl who gets sent to a "gay rehab" center, despite not thinking she's a lesbian. Through the film, she comes to the realization that she is a lesbian, a few people get kicked out of the camp for doing gay stuff, etc. I didn't realize this was made in 1999; it seemed like it was a perfect mid-80s sendup of the ex-gay scene. It seemed like I had more to say about this, but I'm drawing a blank. It's well worth watching, especially for satire and irony fans.
Groundhog Day: I watched this and the previous one at the Philosophy Retreat.^* Unlike Back to the Future, this one handles time issues in a philosophically interesting way. Furthermore, it would be really easy to do this movie badly. But Bill Murray and company manage to do the same thing several times and make it humorous each time.
On Guard: A swashbuckling film that has it all -- intrigue, assassination, slapstick, verbal humor, disguise (including crossdressing), foreshadowing, revenge, wit, old-timey European costumes, a girl kicking butt, hunchbacks, and plenty of swordfighting. It feels great to watch a well-done movie like this. I should probably change my "Dumas" LJ interest to "swashbuckling," since I like the genre as a whole. I think I'd have 1023 interests if I wasn't limited to 150.

It feels good to be watching movies regularly again. The past few semesters, RAness has dominated the times I could have watched interesting IFS movies. I ought to organize some movie nights this summer. I've got 34 movies on the Top 100 I've not yet seen. That's pretty cool, since there were about 60 when I decided to pursue that challenge 3 years ago, or so.

Anyway, be seeing you.

*: If I haven't posted about the philosophy retreat in a couple weeks, bug me about it. I forgot that was one of the "in my head, waiting for a keyboard" posts.