Palo Alto: A quick review.

Palo Alto is a drama directed by Gia Coppola, niece of Sophia and granddaughter to Francis, that explores the doldrums and escapades of everyday teen life. I started to watch it in the morning (I blog now) and decided to save it for the evening family movie. I really wanted to hear my 16 year old son’s opinion on it. The movie goes about its business of painting a landscape of awkwardness and despair with Coppola’s even hand. It’s a treat to watch. We are even graced early on with a cameo by the incomparable Val Kilmer.

My son’s assessment of the movie came early, decisively– and I quote, “Basically everyone in this movie is a piece of shit.” He really doesn’t like nasty people and the kids in this movie are p nasty.

It didn’t really surprise me and my son will seldom make the critical distinction between technical ability and the content of the movie. I maintain its raw aesthetic and beauty is unmatched. It’s a whole package thing for him. Why bother with all the luxe aesthetics if the story and characters suck.

I’ll take it all though. I’m a p big fan of nihilist teenage dramas. The best thing about the movie? Well, that’s easy- the protagonist. Teddy. I’m partial. Once again, for the record, my name is Teddy. Not Ted. You can only call me Ted if you were grandfathered in before 2001. Sorry, after that I never introduced myself as Ted. I digress though. If anything, you’re gonna come for the Nihilism but you’re gonna stay for Teddy. Watch on any streaming service. I don’t think it is free. I paid out $5 to own. No buyer’s remorse. Awesome soundtrack.

09palo1 span videosixteenbynine1050 v3 1024x576  Palo Alto: A quick review.
Twee Nihilism. Teddy in repose.

Intermission

No matter the time of day. It’s just bad form to watch a Grace Kelly movie unshaven and in your pajamas. I take the opportunity to make myself presentable during the intermission for Dial M for Murder.

IMG 0179 1024x768  Intermission

The red dress is a nice touch on Hitchcock’s part but the significance is probably lost on today’s audience.

Reel around the fountain

Pretty much every morning I wake up I will have a song in my head. Sometimes I sing it. Sometimes I don’t. C_ thinks it is quite incredible to be so singy and chipper each morning. It has gotten to the point where Rhen is starting to make commentary. Obviously, C_ isn’t much of a morning person. Rhen seems like a morning person but he doesn’t enjoy it, yet.

Songs vary. Who knows why. It’s like subconscious Bingo. I don’t even care to know why. This morning’s song wasn’t a singer, but it was a hummer – Binary Sunset by John Williams of Star Wars fame. You know, the part when Luke is on Tatooine looking awesomely heroic while the sun goes down?

Update – Just in case you forgot, except for Leah 🙂

The weekend update

Last night I enjoyed a meal from the pages of “Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food” by Jessica Seinfeld. We had Macaroni and Cheese 1 with Cauliflower. Who knew that when cauliflower is pureed and added to mac and cheese it is DELICIOUS?! Of course Rhen didn’t touch his portion so I ate it. I felt a bit like a king knowing that I was dining on food that comedy legend Jerry Seinfeld eats. The transference was almost tangible with each deceptive bite. The cookbook looks really old school. It has cute little hand drawn illustrations. I like that. It is also easy to open and it stays open because it has the spiral notebook binding. A real no-brainer for cookbooks but you’d be surprised how many publishers skip it. I’m really looking forward to cooking out of this book and I say that with all seriousness.

I’ve had a terrible cold the past week. My sinuses feel crowded and gluey. I’m sure I’m on the mend (hey, tea can only do so much) but each morning feels like a small death until I can blow and hack everything out. I know, gross.

Today I’m looking forward to receiving my next two Netflix movies! Hooray for the Netflix and hooray for the United States Postal Service! Rhen is getting The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep and I’m getting There Will Be Blood. I’ve been a huge fan of Mr. Day-Lewis ever since he played Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York.

Oh! Last weekend Christi’s office mate found us a Schwinn bike trailer for ten bucks at a garage sale! Practically brand new but missing the coupler to hook it up to a bike. Go online, find part, order part for another ten dollars, wait three days, hook it up last night – perfecto!  Trailer retails for $200. We got it for $20. Just awesomeness. Rhen loves it.

What else? Hmmm. Shuffle through papers. Hmm, nothing really there. In basket empty. Out basket empty. Of course there will be photography and emails I need to catch up on too. Always nice to write and photograph.

So I will sit, drink coffee and be patient while winter plays its last hand over this fine weekend.

“Capote” and “Da Vinci Code” review up at Tedfoo on Multiplyâ„¢

I don’t know why I post these things at another blog. But I feel that the Multiplyâ„¢ format fits movie reviews best. Or I can blame Rachel. Anyways, the review is over here.

That seems to all end with the craptacular Da Vinci Code. There are only a handful of movies that I have turned off before they finish. After a good solid attentive twenty movies I just simply couldn’t convince myself that I cared anymore. I got bored and I turned it off. I think it was the hair. What the fuck was up with his hair? And flagellates. Yuck. It doesn’t surprise me that every idiot in the world loved this book.

Yesterday was a Scarlett Johansson Superfest!

For some reason or another the stars and planets aligned my Netflix movie queue and two movies with Scarlett Johansson were beamed into my mailbox. I’m not sure if I did this on purpose or it was just a twist of fate. Regardless my day was beginning to look a whole lot like a Scarlett Johansson Superfest. Well at least a double feature. Hot.

The matinee was Girl with a Pearl Earring. Holy shit! Every little scene shot is a masterpiece of studio lighting. Look, it’s Scarlett the maid washing clothes! Gorgeous. It’s Scarlett walking with her boyfriend the butcher! Breathtaking. The movie is complete eye candy. It’s slow and quiet but I don’t mind. Not every movie needs the frantic pacing of Bruckheimer to be good. But it is a movie about a painting. How exciting can it be? Not very but I still love it.

The evening show was The Black Dahlia. Sure, Scarlett isn’t the leading actress but she has a big enough role to reassure me that I was still at the Scarlett Johansson Superfest! Anyways, the movie? Holy Shit! Man, how fucked up are people? This movie is about one of Hollywood’s most horrendous unsolved murders. Someone freakin’ cuts a young starlet in half. Bisected. The first two hours of the movie are bullshit (it’s film-noir but a little over the top if that’s possible with film-noir). The last ten minutes scared the freakin’ holy living snot out of me. I was walking backwards up the stairs when I was finished with the movie. It has a good boxing scene in the beginning. De Palma definitely nails that but the rest of the movie is terrible. Not terrible terrible because I think it grows on you after awhile. The dinner scene with the Linscott family is funny and deserves an Academy Awards for “Weirdest Dinner Scene Ever”.

If I had to do the star rating bit (One out of five, five being the best) I’d give both of them a solid three. I liked them but not because they were any good but because they had the luscious Scarlett Johannson Superfest people!

Scar Jo on the DVD player is time well spent. I don’t know about The Horse Whisperer. I’ll have to think about that before I queue it up.

On the questionable accuracy of Netflix’s personal movie recommendations

Similar to Amazon and Google’s Orwellian technology for matching advertisements and products to shit you check out on the web, Netflix makes an attempt to recommend movies to you by analyzing your movie choices and ratings. So Netflix? Just because I like one Nicholas Cage movie (Wild at Heart) that does NOT mean I want to rent every Jerry Bruckheimer film under the sky.

In hopes to avoid confusion like this in the future, I have joined the Netflix Friends program. Here you can recommend movies and check out each other’s queues and ratings. Click on the link below to be my Netflix Friend. So, we can like, trash talk movies. If you’re into the whole Netflix thing.

Be my Netflix friend. Click me.