NP - Into the Woods - movie

[Mark Thibodeau]

Two days after my year-end entertainment review (see below), and I've
already augmented my year's viewing by quite a few titles! Check out my
bullet reviews from two days of binge-movie-and-tv-watching right here and
now, below!

http://dailydirtdiaspora.blogspot.ca/2014/12/year-end-entertainment-catch-up-viewing.html

Nightcrawler

Two fine films in one! The most searing satire about the television news
industry sinceNetwork, and a beautifully observed character study about an
ambitious go-getter whose innate psychopathic tendencies have been honed to
a hypodermic point by a steady diet of self-help books and management lit.
As Lou Bloom, Jake Gyllenhaal is great, and will likely be nominated for
multiple awards, but England’s Riz Ahmed (of the Christopher Morris Islamic
terror satire Four Lions) really stands out as Bloom’s reluctant, somewhat
dim assistant Rick.

What We Do in the Shadows

"Trailer Park Vampires"? This is a mockumentary about a bunch of vampires
who all live together. In Wellington, New Zealand. And it’s fantastic…
maybe the best comedy I watched in all of 2014. It’s absolutely hilarious
and unexpectedly good-hearted. They could have gone the other way with it
and still had a great, original movie, but I’m glad they decided to make
these guys recognizably lovable losers. If this was a series, I'd watch.

The Dance of Reality

Alejandro Jodorowsky's surrealist autobiographical phantasmagoria has a lot
going for it. The imagery is gorgeous and inspired, as always, and it's
emotionally devastating in parts. However, I imagine this movie would be
tough going for anyone who wasn't already a fan ofJodo's oeuvre. The same
cannot be said of the previous Jodorowsky film this year,Alejandro
Jodorowsky's Dune, which was one of my Fave Fives of the year (see below).
Fans of Fellini might also find something here to love.

The Brothers Solomon / Let’s Go To Prison

I'm a long-time fan of Bob Odenkirk, co-creator with David Cross of the
seminal 90’s sketch series Mr. Show with Bob and David. I think he’s one of
the finest comedy minds of our generation. Unfortunately, he recently wrote
and directed two of the most badly-reviewed movies of the decade. Let’s Go
to Prison scored 13% on Rotten Tomatoes, while Brothers Solomon scored 15%.
Those are some ugly numbers. So I decided to check them out, just to see
how bad they really are. And you know what? They’re not that bad. Don’t get
me wrong; they’re not exceptional or anything … but they certainly aren't
as bad as their reviews. Both films are far funnier than, say, The
Interview, and that piece of crap sits comfortably at 52%. They’re just a
couple of fun, dumb flicks, and I guarantee if you watch them, you’ll laugh
at least a few times during each one. I could certainly think of worse ways
to spend a couple hours than watching these two movies.

St. Vincent

If you're a fan of great ensemble acting – and everyone in this movie is
giving it their all, acting-wise – and you don't mind choking down a hefty
side-order of schmaltz to go along with it, then maybe you'll be able to
forgive St Vincent its emotionally manipulative excesses and enjoy its
finer qualities. This movie could have been great, but as it stands, it’s
only just decent. Sometimes, that can be worse than an outright failure.


Mike Tyson Mysteries

In the first episode of this Adult Swim series, Mike Tyson, an Asian girl,
the ghost of theMarquess of Queensberry and a pigeon with the voice of
comedian Norm MacDonaldhead to New Mexico to help novelist Cormac McCarthy
– who is a centaur – write the ending to his latest novel and defeat a
Chupacabra, which turns out to be John Updike in disguise. In subsequent
episodes, things get weird.

On Thu, Jan 1, 2015 at 11:29 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> Do NOT go see this!  I cringed! I squirmed for its end to come. My brain
> hurt enduring this crap!
>
> David Morris
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20150102/96ad3ca2/attachment.html>