Opening in Dallas, Weekend of 06/09
by Brian
Cars (trailer): A new Pixar movie is a genuine cinema event. Reviews have so far been mixed, though it seems generally on the favorable side. Given Pixar’s flawless track record, though, I frankly wouldn’t care if every review was terrible. Side note: new trailer for Pixar’s Ratatouille available today.
A Prairie Home Companion (trailer): Never been a big fan of the admittedly few Altman movies I have seen, but this actually looks fairly interesting. Also, in their short existence, Picturehouse Films has distinguished themselves as a very high-quality joint. Jackrabbit Slim has a more in-depth preview here.
The King (trailer): Always an interesting actor, William Hurt really became something of a must-see for me after last year’s performance in A History of Violence. Like Nick Nolte, he seems to have accepted his status as a character actor and really made something of it.
Sketches of Frank Gehry (trailer): Sydney Pollack-directed documentary about architect Frank Gehry. Wells dug it, and that’s good enough for me to go check it out.
Look Both Ways (trailer): From the description, this movie sounds kinda … precious. But the trailer plays OK, might be interesting. The movie’s won a bunch of awards, especially in its native Australia, but I haven’t heard much about it. If I get time, I’ll go.
Twelve and Holding (trailer): I somewhat unfortunately, I feel, missed Michael Cuesta’s debut film, L.I.E., about as unfortunate as one can feel for missing a movie about a pederast doing all kinds of pederasty stuff. But I’m really, really tired of movies about disaffected suburban youths and all the terrible things they do when their parents aren’t around, and until I hear that this one has more to offer than, say, Thirteen, I’m probably going to skip this.
The Omen (trailer): Yawn, I guess. I’d love to get all worked up about a dumb-ass remake and the stupid release date but I honestly couldn’t care less. Whatever.
A Prairie Home Companion (trailer): Never been a big fan of the admittedly few Altman movies I have seen, but this actually looks fairly interesting. Also, in their short existence, Picturehouse Films has distinguished themselves as a very high-quality joint. Jackrabbit Slim has a more in-depth preview here.
The King (trailer): Always an interesting actor, William Hurt really became something of a must-see for me after last year’s performance in A History of Violence. Like Nick Nolte, he seems to have accepted his status as a character actor and really made something of it.
Sketches of Frank Gehry (trailer): Sydney Pollack-directed documentary about architect Frank Gehry. Wells dug it, and that’s good enough for me to go check it out.
Look Both Ways (trailer): From the description, this movie sounds kinda … precious. But the trailer plays OK, might be interesting. The movie’s won a bunch of awards, especially in its native Australia, but I haven’t heard much about it. If I get time, I’ll go.
Twelve and Holding (trailer): I somewhat unfortunately, I feel, missed Michael Cuesta’s debut film, L.I.E., about as unfortunate as one can feel for missing a movie about a pederast doing all kinds of pederasty stuff. But I’m really, really tired of movies about disaffected suburban youths and all the terrible things they do when their parents aren’t around, and until I hear that this one has more to offer than, say, Thirteen, I’m probably going to skip this.
The Omen (trailer): Yawn, I guess. I’d love to get all worked up about a dumb-ass remake and the stupid release date but I honestly couldn’t care less. Whatever.
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8 Comments:
So where's this weekend's rundown? I've been saving a choice comment about Need for Speed: Midnight Club Edition, oh, wait, I mean The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift....
Coming soon, I had actually forgotten!
And in a related note, my dad's not getting a Father's Day card this year.
Saw Cars over the weekend, in my mind the first misfire for Pixar. Not egregiously bad, but I kept looking at my watch through this one. I think the problem is that it just wasn't funny. My 8-year-old nephew laughed a few times, but I didn't. And what was with the knock on the Interstate? I'm sorry, but saving hours of driving time is well worth the sacrifice of some small towns getting bypassed.
I understood what they were getting at with the Interstate, and they're right. None of the best things to see and do on a road trip are on the Interstate. I take the Interstate because I usually have to, but I much more enjoy going through towns and seeing the sights and taking my time, especially in scenic areas.
If I could, I'd take a whole summer to just drive around aimlessly. I'd never even look at an Interstate.
Yes, Brian, point well taken. I like driving the backroads when I'm not in a hurry. But the tone of the film is that the Interstate is some sort of evil entity. Yes, it's boring and ugly. But after last week, when I drove back and forth from New Jersey to Michigan, I'd hate to think how long it would have taken me without it.
I didn't see it that way, as an "evil entity". Just the flip side of a coin.
I've taken a lot of long trips on the Interstate, when I need to get 900 miles in a day. It's a good thing on the whole, no doubt. But you miss a lot, and I think that's all the movie was saying.
I think the interstate highway system was a good idea, but how it was conceived and the way it has turned out are quite different, and I'm not sure it is a good thing. Who is to say that a nationwide system of parkways that ban commercial traffic and have strictly-controlled zoning that keep rural areas around them rural combined with an efficient rail system wouldn't have resulted in a much more pleasant place to live? Or how about just an interstate system that was truly for travel outside of urban areas? I don't so much mind that small towns have been bypassed by interstate highways as I mind that much uglier ersatz towns clustered around interstate exits have sprung up to replace them. And then about twenty years later you end up needing to build a bypass around the old bypass.... People in my neck of the woods still can't get it through their dense skulls that paving over more land is never ever going to solve your traffic problems. By the time each I-40 widening project is finished the peak overcapacity of the road is always worse than it was before the project began. :-(
Meanwhile I've become convinced that future generations will look back with horror at the way we accepted traffic fatalities as a way of life.
I don't so much mind that small towns have been bypassed by interstate highways as I mind that much uglier ersatz towns clustered around interstate exits have sprung up to replace them.
Yeah, this is an aesthetic concern that I think most people would acknowledge. It doesn't really affect the efficiency of the Interstate system, which I think is top-notch, at least outside of highly populated areas.
But there's no question that we've missed the boat in a severe and miserable way when it comes to rail. Rail travel is virtually nonexistant in most of the country, and we're so far behind the times in terms of technology that it's not even funny.
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