200 Books & 0 Girlfriends
July 12th – July 18th
Inception – Christopher Nolan’s latest is one in which you can’t really be brief in talking about it. A proper post would run on and on. That being said, I really loved this movie. A truly great summer blockbuster. And a true relief from all the remakes, reimaginings, and reboots. After watching it the first time without knowing too much about it, I then consumed all the reviews (both positive and negative) and interpretations that I could get a hold of before seeing it a second time. Somewhat surprisingly, I found myself liking the movie even more the second time around.
A Real Young Girl and Perfect Love — Two from Catherine Breillat. The first is a rare coming-of-age story. It’s rare in the fact that it deals with an emerging sexuality in a truly visceral way, full of fears, confusion, kink, and exploration. It’s also rare because it’s a girl’s coming-of-age story. This uniqueness makes for a sometimes shocking little film. The other tells the story of a young man’s inadequacy (which are several) in making his relationship with an older woman work. There are some really good performances in this one, and Isabelle Renauld is stunning as Frederique. After a half-dozen or so Breillat films, I can say that I’m certainly a fan. Sure, they can be disturbing at times, but those feelings are not without their purpose.
Bukowski: Born Into This — A documentary about the seedy American poet. I really like Bukowski’s work, or rather the little I’ve read of it. But the man himself…I’d just like to punch in the face. He comes off–for me anyway–as too insufferable. He seems like a cliche of the tortured artist, except one who might throw his empty beer bottle at you if you ever made such a claim in his presence. That being said, the perceived behavior of a man is not necessarily his art. I’m still curious to check out more of his stuff, particularly some of his novels.
2012 — A much, much, much stupider summer blockbuster (than Inception). But one that I still have a lot of fun with. Along with The Day After Tomorrow, Roland Emmerich delivers fun popcorn movies. They’re like high-budgeted SyFy Originals. They may not engage the brain all that much (okay, not at all), but they’re an entertaining amusement park ride.
