Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Lil' hobby
More debate over the City Hall streetscape. I'm not nuts about big plazas. They can have this creepy, abandoned feel. Keep the parking, please, and spend the money on bus shelters or something else from this list.
Valuable research, I'm sure, but maybe a little oversensitive. Sure, sure, "there is no safe level of exposure," but if there is, surely walking by one smoker fits that definition?
So our basketball team was fat. Is that what you're saying?
Sort of a beautiful guest editorial on science here, by Mark Farmer, but I doubt it'll convince any loonies. "If my grandfather was a monkey, then why was he killed by a monkey?"
Also, McGeezy has a new home. I'm still kind of trying to figure it out. Too many click-throughs, but there do seem to be some comments, which is good. The former usually exist to promote advertising, but I don't see any of that here. They do make me less likely to read every story, FWIW.
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Valuable research, I'm sure, but maybe a little oversensitive. Sure, sure, "there is no safe level of exposure," but if there is, surely walking by one smoker fits that definition?
So our basketball team was fat. Is that what you're saying?
Sort of a beautiful guest editorial on science here, by Mark Farmer, but I doubt it'll convince any loonies. "If my grandfather was a monkey, then why was he killed by a monkey?"
Also, McGeezy has a new home. I'm still kind of trying to figure it out. Too many click-throughs, but there do seem to be some comments, which is good. The former usually exist to promote advertising, but I don't see any of that here. They do make me less likely to read every story, FWIW.
Movie Diary
1) Too Late to Say Goodbye: Yes, the Lifetime movie based on the true crime book by Ann Rule based on the real-life story of the dentist who murdered his wife and his former girlfriend and made them both appear to be suicides. You got a problem with that? I think, more than anything, watching this, relatively terrible as it was (and not quite in a The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story or Martha, Inc. way, where those movies seemed very wink-wink and turned out awesome as a result), made me realize that Tommy Wiseau (The Room) really has a long way to go, even if this is what he aspires to. Anyway, Lauren Holly appears to have messed up her face in a big way, and most of the movie consists of her acting crazy suspicious (she probably saw the print ads for the movie) until, magically, she's proved right. It does contain one lovely bit, where, in the middle of a heated conversation with her mom in the kitchen, she sets down what she's been working on and says, "Here's your favorite sandwich." Whatever writer put that adjective in there, I could kiss you. It's a beautiful moment. Anyway, about par for the course for Lifetime movies, maybe even a little under average in that nothing happens for a really long time. Also: no attempt at southern accents, which I find sad as much as a competent decision.
2) Over the Edge: So I think I used to mix this up with River's Edge quite a lot (and understandably, considering they're from a similar era, both about at-risk youth, and both have the word "edge" in their titles; plus, I think the VHS box art was similar), but having seen both now within the past year, this is much better. River's Edge just isn't so much my thing, all moping and dampness and lack of affect, whereas Over the Edge has a certain joyousness to it, even in its desire to see things burn. The score is marvelous, for one thing, with echoes of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf in the meandering yet somewhat menacing oboe line that runs through it, and all the young actors are very natural, with no desire to appear cute or play to the camera. It's got a lot of energy, this film, a real low-fi/Roger Corman vibe, but in the way that works out, thanks to some restraint and strong direction. I should have seen it much earlier in my life, but thankfully I still have enough of an anti-authoritarian streak to root for the kids.
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2) Over the Edge: So I think I used to mix this up with River's Edge quite a lot (and understandably, considering they're from a similar era, both about at-risk youth, and both have the word "edge" in their titles; plus, I think the VHS box art was similar), but having seen both now within the past year, this is much better. River's Edge just isn't so much my thing, all moping and dampness and lack of affect, whereas Over the Edge has a certain joyousness to it, even in its desire to see things burn. The score is marvelous, for one thing, with echoes of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf in the meandering yet somewhat menacing oboe line that runs through it, and all the young actors are very natural, with no desire to appear cute or play to the camera. It's got a lot of energy, this film, a real low-fi/Roger Corman vibe, but in the way that works out, thanks to some restraint and strong direction. I should have seen it much earlier in my life, but thankfully I still have enough of an anti-authoritarian streak to root for the kids.
Labels: movies
Monday, November 23, 2009
Lil' hobby
Blake has some info on the jail's cost here, including, mostly, a cost-per-square-foot analysis.
Cutbacks also mean UGA may not offer every class a student needs to graduate at a time when it can be taken. I'm sure that contributes as well.
I'm really proud of the ABH for this editorial on vegetarianism. I don't make that choice myself, but I do try to minimize meat-eating, for a variety of reasons (health, economic, ethical), and people should be more open-minded about a diet that doesn't contain animal protein.
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Cutbacks also mean UGA may not offer every class a student needs to graduate at a time when it can be taken. I'm sure that contributes as well.
I'm really proud of the ABH for this editorial on vegetarianism. I don't make that choice myself, but I do try to minimize meat-eating, for a variety of reasons (health, economic, ethical), and people should be more open-minded about a diet that doesn't contain animal protein.
Movie Diary
1) Julie and Julia: So, the film does a disservice to the smart, hilarious, foul-mouthed Julie Powell by making her seem more of a whiny drip and by far minimizing her troubles (the apartment in Queens, for example, seems fairly palatial, and when she gripes, "Is every night going to be like this?" the viewer doesn't know what she's talking about; the maggots have also been eliminated), and it's very Nora Ephron (girl power of a sort that involves extremely supportive men doing the absolute bidding of ladies who are somewhat nuts but we're supposed to love them anyway), but there is still something here. And it's probably only there if a) you have creative ambitions (which I don't, so much) or b) food is really, really important to you, and c) you love someone (check). Food is not only more important to me than almost anything else, but cooking is very much an act of love, and if I have cooked for you, then chances are pretty good I love you. Even turning potage parmentier into a dull chocolate cream pie is forgivable if you somehow get the bigger thing right or enable your viewer to extrapolate the point. Oh, and Meryl Streep really is pretty fantastic.
2) Monsters vs Aliens: Dreamworks continues to get better at this animation thing (this is no Shrek, packed with horrible topical humor, fart jokes, and Smashmouth) while still, mostly, failing to transcend "pretty good." The Incredibles has the exact same message (many superhero movies do; i.e., "don't hide your light under a bushel") but gets it across with considerably better style. Still, the voice work is good, if there are fart jokes they're kept to a minimum, and it actually made me laugh a few times. You could do worse.
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2) Monsters vs Aliens: Dreamworks continues to get better at this animation thing (this is no Shrek, packed with horrible topical humor, fart jokes, and Smashmouth) while still, mostly, failing to transcend "pretty good." The Incredibles has the exact same message (many superhero movies do; i.e., "don't hide your light under a bushel") but gets it across with considerably better style. Still, the voice work is good, if there are fart jokes they're kept to a minimum, and it actually made me laugh a few times. You could do worse.
Labels: movies
Reflections
The college football season's not quite over, but I think I can say with some confidence that this photograph really managed to predict what Georgia turned out to be quite well. Which is to say: we have little dicks, and we don't know how to make it seem as though we don't. We also don't know how to use what we do have, which makes it much, much worse. Sure, the fans leaving with a minute-plus left in the game, when Georgia had just turned it over to Kentucky due to a poorly executed toss sweep at the 1, showed little faith. But then again, they were right, weren't they? Just like the dearly departed Uga VII, we've got balls to spare (you have to have balls to squib kick it to the 30 and think that's going to work out), but very little in front of those testes. Annoyed I stayed up until the very end of the game? What ever would give you that idea? Here's hoping Georgia spends the offseason doing Kegels.
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Labels: football
Friday, November 20, 2009
Read
Margaret Talbot's piece on using a modified version of cognitive-behavioral therapy to rewrite nightmares is pretty interesting stuff (Nov. 16 New Yorker; not free), although some of that may be just from a morbid outsider's perspective. I'm not much of a dreamer, or at least not much of a rememberer, and I'm not prone to nightmares. Sure, sometimes I dream I'm being chased, but it's not that scary, and I have one recurring dream about being Buffy, but that's pretty awesome. Anyway, she has one logical misstep in the article, when she attempts to cover changes in dreams throughout eras:
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Yet if one gives credence to the accounts of dreams by Sigmund Freud and his patients--many of which are overstuffed scenarios that take pages to lay out, and include formidable chunks of dialogue--dreams today often seem to be quicker and choppier than they once were, more closely resembling a YouTube video than a novel. . . . as the British psychoanalyst Susan Budd writes in a 1999 essay, "Modern patients don't often produce the kinds of dreams that Freud had. Modern dreams mostly seem to be shorter and more fragmentary, and this is because the dream is undoubtedly a cultural as well as a neurobiological product."That's a big if in the first sentence. Maybe reports of dreams have changed as the culture changed more so than dreams themselves have changed.
Labels: New Yorker
Lil' hobby
Dude, this is not a good year for this kind of thing. Sometimes, when you walk around, it feels like everyone's tense all of the time, and that bleeds over into violence here and there. It just feels like every day in 2009 has been a hair's breadth away from tragedy.
Ed Robinson's right in that, unless you provide something like the young center early on, you might need more and more of the diversion centers later, but that said, it's not as though no money has been spent on the equivalent of Boys/Girls Club from this SPLOST round, and the diversion center is pretty critical. Thanks also to Girtz, Robinson, and Kinman for suggesting fancying up the city hall block is maybe less important than bus shelters. Yay for bus shelters!
I'm kind of surprised at the outcome of this trial. Libel has to be damaging, right?
So reading it on the Senate floor makes it more accessible than, say, posting it on the Internet? Do y'all have 34.5 hours to kill?
Sure, this would be great.
Appropriate name aside, I'm not sure Ken Justice is correct on this point. Economies of scale have got to come into play with regard to construction costs, and it's not as though it costs the same to build five smaller hunks of jail as to build one the same size.
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Ed Robinson's right in that, unless you provide something like the young center early on, you might need more and more of the diversion centers later, but that said, it's not as though no money has been spent on the equivalent of Boys/Girls Club from this SPLOST round, and the diversion center is pretty critical. Thanks also to Girtz, Robinson, and Kinman for suggesting fancying up the city hall block is maybe less important than bus shelters. Yay for bus shelters!
I'm kind of surprised at the outcome of this trial. Libel has to be damaging, right?
So reading it on the Senate floor makes it more accessible than, say, posting it on the Internet? Do y'all have 34.5 hours to kill?
Sure, this would be great.
Appropriate name aside, I'm not sure Ken Justice is correct on this point. Economies of scale have got to come into play with regard to construction costs, and it's not as though it costs the same to build five smaller hunks of jail as to build one the same size.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Counterpoint
So, Uga VII has left us. And don't get me wrong. I feel really bad for the Seiler family. They seem like nice people who love their animals, and having a pet die is always very sad.
That said, Georgia hasn't exactly had the best record since Uga VII's debut, and I may at times, in my bitter superstition, have blamed it on this Uga's notable lack of enthusiasm. I wish he'd just gotten to retire early and sit on a bag of ice at home, doing nothing but chillin' his balls, but maybe the team's fortunes are changing.
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That said, Georgia hasn't exactly had the best record since Uga VII's debut, and I may at times, in my bitter superstition, have blamed it on this Uga's notable lack of enthusiasm. I wish he'd just gotten to retire early and sit on a bag of ice at home, doing nothing but chillin' his balls, but maybe the team's fortunes are changing.
Labels: UGA
Lil' hobby
You know, the furlough days suck, but at least they're days off. Cutting holiday pay is certainly a worse option for employees.
But the stock market's up. Awesome.
Students are right to be skeptical.
It could also set exciting precedent. I'm sure Richard Dawkins would love to write an introduction to the Bible.
Yes, anything but collect taxes.
Lisa Majersky's into pointing out the irony of Glenn Richardson's situation. Or aptness.
Presumably you do that by allowing someone back onto the team who sucker punched another player during a game and tried to attack his own fans? That sets an example of collective responsibility beautifully. (<-- totally not fair argument)
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But the stock market's up. Awesome.
Students are right to be skeptical.
It could also set exciting precedent. I'm sure Richard Dawkins would love to write an introduction to the Bible.
Yes, anything but collect taxes.
Lisa Majersky's into pointing out the irony of Glenn Richardson's situation. Or aptness.
Presumably you do that by allowing someone back onto the team who sucker punched another player during a game and tried to attack his own fans? That sets an example of collective responsibility beautifully. (<-- totally not fair argument)
Police Blotter (mysterious socks edition)
Burglary: On Nov. 5, a deputy was dispatched about 1:30 p.m. to a possible burglary in progress at a Natalie Court apartment. An employee of American Pest Control went to the address to treat the apartment when he saw a window in the back door shattered and the door open. He called for a deputy, who arrived and found no one inside. The deputy realized the adjacent vacant apartment had been entered in the same manner. The maintenance man came to the scene and said he found some white gym socks lying near his pickup that were not there when he came to work. The resident then arrived and determined the thief stole her son's PlayStation 2 game system, along with some loose coins.Look, I'm not Sherlock Holmes. I can't tell you how the socks fit into it, but I'm accepting theories.
Burglary: On Nov. 10, deputy Tim Parr was dispatched about 4:30 a.m. to a Jack Sharp Road, Colbert, home after a woman saw an intruder inside. The woman said she went to bed shortly after 2 a.m. but checked the doors beforehand to make sure they were locked. She said she awoke just after 4 a.m. to see a man crawling on his hands and knees into her bedroom. When she threw the TV remote at him, he got up and fled. Parr found where a window was opened and a pot set on the ground outside the window. The woman determined $2 was missing from a wallet.See, who needs dangerous weapons?
Oconee. Madison.
Labels: police blotter
Movie Diary
The Room: Lord, how to talk about something that is largely recognized as idiotic hilarity and turns out to be exactly that. I guess I'd say that even cult classics should try to keep it under 90 minutes--at around the 100-minute mark I'm way past impatient. So this has been playing off and on at Cine for a while, late at night, and I'm sure it's fun to see in a theater, too, but its home is on a television, just like the Zalman King productions it imitates. Now, I understand that some people may think Tommy Wiseau is secretly in on the joke, some kind of genius in disguise, and normally I'd love to go along with such a theory, but I'm not sure you can have seen the movie and propagate that view. Also, it's quite possible Wiseau has sublimated homosexual desires, judging from the ratio of time paid to rippling male torsos in love scenes versus the total boobage onscreen. It is kind of astonishing; I just don't know what to rate it on Netflix (which theorizes 3.2). I think he should make more movies. Here's Chris Hassiotis's interview with the filmmaker from Flagpole, which I haven't had time to read in full yet.
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Labels: movies
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Lil' hobby
David Lynn can read the legislators' minds. Does it really hurt to ask? I'm not saying I'm in favor of sales taxes on Internet purchases or removing fluoride from the water (I ain't), but shouldn't the commission decide first what it thinks is worthwhile as a goal rather than focusing entirely on realism?
Among outrages, this is a smaller one, but it's great to hear the governor's office pointing out how many promises it's broken.
I'm still not loving this approach to funding the jail's construction. I'm sure y'all don't exactly follow museum issues in your spare time, but it seems to me that relying on bond issues is what got Cleveland in such a load of trouble. Plus, there are still some significant total dollar differences. Longer articles, please.
Dudes. Dudes. Barrow County School System. You are getting into something you really do not want to get into.
Regents continue to raise tuition in a way that's acceptable to them but way harder on students. Yay!
If by "work" you mean "potentially reduce the number of high schools making AYP statewide," then yes.
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Among outrages, this is a smaller one, but it's great to hear the governor's office pointing out how many promises it's broken.
I'm still not loving this approach to funding the jail's construction. I'm sure y'all don't exactly follow museum issues in your spare time, but it seems to me that relying on bond issues is what got Cleveland in such a load of trouble. Plus, there are still some significant total dollar differences. Longer articles, please.
Dudes. Dudes. Barrow County School System. You are getting into something you really do not want to get into.
The draft policy would explicitly prohibit teachers from communicating with students - both online and in person - as if they are peers, but also would restrict what teachers can post on social networking Web sites like Facebook. Specifically, school district employees would be banned from posting "provocative photographs, sexually explicit messages, use of alcohol, drugs or anything students are prohibited from doing." The policy also authorized administrators periodically to search for teachers' sites that violate the policy.Admittedly, Coffee County's policy is very similar (that's where they got the language), but that still doesn't mean it's a good idea. How is this not similar to prohibiting political views? Facebook is legal and so is drinking above a certain age. It's not quite the same as saying you can't smoke weed.
Regents continue to raise tuition in a way that's acceptable to them but way harder on students. Yay!
If by "work" you mean "potentially reduce the number of high schools making AYP statewide," then yes.
Labels: ABH, Flagpole, opining
Read
I really enjoyed the article about Hollywood dialect coach Tim Monich (not free) in the November 9 issue of the New Yorker, but is it convincing? When your examples are Leonardo di Caprio in Blood Diamond and Brad Pitt in both The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Inglourious Basterds, wouldn't you start to get a little worried? Sure, he seems methodical, and suckiness can always be chalked up to an actor, but wouldn't you tell these dudes they sound like they're speaking with a mouth full of oatmeal? Now, I haven't seen Amelia yet. Maybe he coached Hilary Swank beautifully. I'm just saying I'm skeptical.
The article on Jonathan Gold, L.A. food critic, is fabulous and, thus, not online (no, Chris, I haven't emailed customer service yet), but Lawrence Wright's piece on the Gaza strip is, and even I have to admit it's more important. Here's a question: how do you use white phosphorous in accordance with international law? Matches?
Finally, even if it pisses you off, you should read Elizabeth Kolbert's review of Jonathan Safran Foer's new book, Eating Animals, which both probably has a point and won't make any fewer people think he's a self-righteous, pleasure-denying little douchebag. Both are true! She concludes with a paragraph that explains why we have to shut out some of the suffering of the world:
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The article on Jonathan Gold, L.A. food critic, is fabulous and, thus, not online (no, Chris, I haven't emailed customer service yet), but Lawrence Wright's piece on the Gaza strip is, and even I have to admit it's more important. Here's a question: how do you use white phosphorous in accordance with international law? Matches?
Finally, even if it pisses you off, you should read Elizabeth Kolbert's review of Jonathan Safran Foer's new book, Eating Animals, which both probably has a point and won't make any fewer people think he's a self-righteous, pleasure-denying little douchebag. Both are true! She concludes with a paragraph that explains why we have to shut out some of the suffering of the world:
But is even veganism really enough? The cost that consumer society imposes on the planet’s fifteen or so million non-human species goes way beyond either meat or eggs. Bananas, bluejeans, soy lattes, the paper used to print this magazine, the computer screen you may be reading it on—death and destruction are embedded in them all. It is hard to think at all rigorously about our impact on other organisms without being sickened.So... think about it sometimes. Not all the time. Or curl up in a ball and do nothing, ever.
Labels: New Yorker
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Lil' hobby
He's got the robo calls going again, too.
I'm sure there will be some wringing of hands over this, but it's a good idea, and it'll be easy to pay for.
The thing is, yes, these people are pigs and probably fairly drunk, but I also saw a lot of overflowing trash receptacles. Is it possible to have still more available?
Also, how 'bout that game Saturday? I enjoyed the feature on Kevin Butler's taint almost as much as the announcers referring to Willie Martinez as "an excellent defensive coordinator" and telling me Grover Cleveland was elected in 1892 as opposed to focusing on what was going on on the field when one team was running a no-huddle offense.
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I'm sure there will be some wringing of hands over this, but it's a good idea, and it'll be easy to pay for.
The thing is, yes, these people are pigs and probably fairly drunk, but I also saw a lot of overflowing trash receptacles. Is it possible to have still more available?
Also, how 'bout that game Saturday? I enjoyed the feature on Kevin Butler's taint almost as much as the announcers referring to Willie Martinez as "an excellent defensive coordinator" and telling me Grover Cleveland was elected in 1892 as opposed to focusing on what was going on on the field when one team was running a no-huddle offense.
Yay, the Internet is back
BellSouth/AT&T has a bunch of defective modems, apparently. Enjoy these photos from the creepy Athens mall. This is a whole storefront of deflated kiddie slides.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Read
Man, that Cartoon Issue of the New Yorker was like the least cartoony one ever. Not even an article on cartoonists or a review of new comic books. Nothing. The only surprise is that Chris Ware's marvelous cover gets four pages inside and turns into a narrative, the first time I can ever remember that happening.
You might should also read Elizabeth Kolbert's review of Cass R. Sunstein's new book, On Rumors, both of which address our current idiocy and willingness to put our own blinders on in a desire to believe anything on the Internet. Here's your fabulous paragraph that encapsulates the rest of it:
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You might should also read Elizabeth Kolbert's review of Cass R. Sunstein's new book, On Rumors, both of which address our current idiocy and willingness to put our own blinders on in a desire to believe anything on the Internet. Here's your fabulous paragraph that encapsulates the rest of it:
The acquisition of knowledge is, as Sunstein points out, a social process: it is shaped by language, by custom, and, since the Enlightenment, by certain widely accepted standards of evidence and rationality. Suppose there is a debate that pits the National Academy of Sciences against a group of armchair meteorologists. Or, let’s say there is a disagreement between Sarah Palin on the one side and every major medical and news organization in the country on the other. Whom are you going to believe? There really shouldn’t be any contest here, and yet there is. For a great many Americans, global warming is a hoax and “death panels” a reality.Yup.
Labels: New Yorker
Movie Diary
1) Dancer in the Dark: Fairly ridiculous that, having seen nearly all of Lars von Trier's other movies (sans The Idiots, Manderlay, and Antichrist) and being a big fan of that idiot and, even more ridiculous, having held onto the DVD a friend lent us for more than two years, it took us such a long time to get around to it. What can I say? When I hear something's 2 1/2 hours long and unbelievably depressing, I don't race to put it in the DVD player. And I guess I was kind of right in this case, although I certainly do respect the film and think it does some very interesting things. For one thing, there's its kneejerk anti-Americanism, which is overblown and silly, especially from a guy who refuses to fly over here. He's been roundly trashed for that. It's occasionally annoying, but it's also deliberately so, so what's the appropriate reaction? Oh, there you go again, Lars... It's also another story about a female martyr, what I guess he refers to as his "Golden Heart Trilogy," which can get old. The thing is, and Jared doesn't agree with me here, I think he's rather impatient with his long-suffering ladies. It might be one thing if he were a Christian, but he's certainly not, and I think the films indict them as much for their passivity and complicity in what happens to them as any outside factors. Jared said, he thinks you should be allowed to be an idiot and not suffer any consequences, and I don't disagree with that, but there's something he's doing in these movies with contrasting the bootstraps/self-worth ideology of the United States with the fatalism of Europe (particularly Scandinavia), and he doesn't like either. Anyway, he'd go on to make Dogville next, which deals with much of the same ground but is a far better film, partially due to its ending. This is still totally worth seeing, though, and not much like anything else (except, maybe, Pennies from Heaven, which is about equally depressing and anti-escapism). Also: Peter Stormare is always awesome.
2) The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer: I hadn't seen this since high school, and I didn't remember it all that well, except for a scene in which Shirley Temple (the teenager of the title) refers to her high school boyfriend as "a child." It's not a stand-out, must-see Cary Grant movie, but it's also better than some, and it's got a weird basketball scene in it that makes you realize just how short men's shorts used to be.
3) Duplicity: Smart, adult, well-scripted and with tons of twists, plus good actors (one of whom is the delectable Clive Owen)--what's not to like? Well, it's plenty good, but it kind of misses the boat on great, and I've been trying to figure out why. Netflix knew we'd only give it three stars (and I've been paying more attention to what its formula thinks we'll rate things--it's pretty accurate so far). Maybe it's that in its PG-13-ness, it misses the adult consequences and it can't do too much with sex. I mean, that's the whole point of this little game they keep playing with each other, isn't it? It's a turn-on. But when all you see is a little bit of tonsil hockey and a bare shoulder, it doesn't really convey lust. Or maybe Owen and Julia Roberts lack chemistry. Whatever it is, the movie's missing something. It aims to be Charade, but it doesn't quite get there. Still, it's worth your two hours.
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2) The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer: I hadn't seen this since high school, and I didn't remember it all that well, except for a scene in which Shirley Temple (the teenager of the title) refers to her high school boyfriend as "a child." It's not a stand-out, must-see Cary Grant movie, but it's also better than some, and it's got a weird basketball scene in it that makes you realize just how short men's shorts used to be.
3) Duplicity: Smart, adult, well-scripted and with tons of twists, plus good actors (one of whom is the delectable Clive Owen)--what's not to like? Well, it's plenty good, but it kind of misses the boat on great, and I've been trying to figure out why. Netflix knew we'd only give it three stars (and I've been paying more attention to what its formula thinks we'll rate things--it's pretty accurate so far). Maybe it's that in its PG-13-ness, it misses the adult consequences and it can't do too much with sex. I mean, that's the whole point of this little game they keep playing with each other, isn't it? It's a turn-on. But when all you see is a little bit of tonsil hockey and a bare shoulder, it doesn't really convey lust. Or maybe Owen and Julia Roberts lack chemistry. Whatever it is, the movie's missing something. It aims to be Charade, but it doesn't quite get there. Still, it's worth your two hours.
Labels: movies
Detail-oriented, huh, Land Rover?
Click on the ad to enlarge. This was inside the back cover of the New Yorker, so I doubt I'm the only person who noticed.
Labels: advertising, New Yorker
