More Movies.


by Berck

I told Joanna that I didn’t really want to see Unforgiven, but rented it for her anyway. What I didn’t remember is that I’d already seen it. Now that I’ve seen it twice, I can state that as far as westerns go, it’s a good one. As for as movies go– I don’t get the big deal. B-.

Boogie Nights, a melodramatic look at the porn industry in the ’70s wasn’t as good as we’d thought it would be. Amusing at the beginning, but thoroughly depressing by the end. C.

The Good Girl is yet another example of how bad a movie can be when people without a southern drawl try to adapt one. Is there really such a dearth of people with southern accents that they need to have people fake it? I make this comment not out of some homesick, prideful love of the South– I really dislike both the South and its associated dialect. Still, if you’re going to insist that your film’s dialogue be drawled– get some real southerners to do it. The movie showed some promise, staring Jake Gyllenhaal and John C. Reilly, even if they had a poorly affected drawl. Jennifer Aniston, however, takes the cake for the worst southern accent since Meg Ryan. I’ll give her this though– at least she was consistent in her awful affectation. To make matters worse, the film wasn’t even set in the South, but in Texas! The accents being affected were clearly patterned on the South, but Southerners sound nothing like Texans. As for the movie itself– the quirky plot seemed promising, but never really delivered. C+. The movie also featured, in a bit part, Zooey Deschanel (Jonah thinks she’s cute), who starred in All the Real Girls. In All the Real Girls she also affects a southern accent, but I managed to get used to it after awhile. About halfway through the film, I found myself feeling quite bored, and the feeling just got worse the longer the movie went on. Joanna didn’t like it either. C-.

After sitting through Boys Don’t Cry, Jonah intimated that I ought to have liked it because it was about lesbians. Only, it’s not in any way about lesbians– it’s about a girl who thinks she’s a guy then gets raped and killed. In response, I rented Kissing Jessica Stein which is an excellent movie with what I think is an exceptionally realistic view of human relationships and which features some lesbianism, but no rape or murder. It’s also made by a bunch of Jews who seem to enjoy poking fun at themselves. Joanna liked it as well. B+.

Finally, we just watched Crash, which I think is one of those few movies that actually deserved to win awards. It offers an intriguing view of just who is an American and how screwed up we are. It simultaneously reinforced and challenged my previously held notions about race. Joanna thinks it’s a great movie and, “People should have to watch it.” It’s one of those movies I think some people will view in a way that I consider incorrect, but still, I challenge anyone who claims patriotism to watch it and think a bit about who we actually are. On a small note, it seems to agree with the immigration policy that both Joanna and I both tend to support (i.e., let ’em in). Some folks have mentioned that the plot is difficult to follow, but I didn’t find it so at all. Because of those comments, I spent a lot of effort early on trying to make sure I knew what was going on (pausing, backing up, etc), but it turned out not to be very complicated at all. Joanna claimed at first that all of the characters are morally ambiguous– but I’ve since managed to convince her that this isn’t entirely the case. I think that many (but not all) of the characters had serious flaws– but I don’t know that I find ambiguity in most of their wrong deeds.

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Netflix entertains us, some.


by Berck

Joanna wanted to see Capote, so we did. I’ve read In Code Blood, so there wasn’t a whole lot new for me there. It seems like the man must have been far more interesting than the movie bothered to portray. The plot was weak at best– Hoffman’s portrayal, while clearly technically difficult, seems to be the only thing the movie has going for it. C.

She also wanted to see Boys Don’t Cry. I suppose that I have a somewhat odd view of movies, in that I’m really not interested in being pummelled with a constant reminder of how horrible our world is. I’m relatively aware of its awfulness, and chose not to stew in it. C-

Joanna had seen Reality Bites and suggested that I’d enjoy it. I did, though it continually reminded me of Kicking and Screaming, a much better rendition of a similar tone, albeit with less kick. B+

We also just watched the director’s cut of Donnie Darko. We’d already seen the original once, which allowed us to taste the movie a bit more slowly and appreciate what I think its creators intended. Many people seem off-put by the plot, which I hardly found confusing, in spite of the fact that I’m easily confused by confusing plots. Generally confusing plots are not so due to their complexity, but rather their lack of continuity and sanity brought on by someone wishing to create a film which looks cool, and as a result, fails to do anything else. My only complaint is that Donnie makes a choice in the end, that much is clear, but it’s unclear exactly how he affected his choice. The director’s cut is a 20-minute slightly longer, better filled-out version– but don’t expect more “explanations”, although I hear many of those can be found in the DVD commentaries, which we didn’t watch. A.

I’m somewhat amused that I’ve rated 268 movies on Netflix. I’m sure this only represents a portion of the total number of movies I’ve actually seen– it makes me wonder how many I *have* seen. And how that number compares with the general population. 268 seems like an enormous number– if you asked me to write down 268 movie titles from memory, I don’t think I could do so. Yet I’ve actually seen far more than that.

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Graphic material. Viewer discretion advised.


by Jonah

Michele’s foot hasn’t been doing well. I talked to her on the phone today. She said cheerily that it looked like they’d only have to amputate a third of her foot. “But there’s a vein of black going all the way up to my ankle,” she said. “And when I say it’s black, it’s not blue or dark. It’s black like coal. But I’m hoping that part is just faking it.” They scheduled an MRI today to see how much bone was alive. If bone is dead, it doesn’t grow back. They have to cut it off.

I was a little distracted the rest of the day.

I went to visit Michele this afternoon and got to be there while the foot doctor was there. I even got to watch him change the dressing. “You okay with this?” he said, as I eagerly peered forward.

“Oh yeah,” said Michele.

“I used to work in the OR,” I said.

He nodded and unwrapped stained bandages. Michele’s foot looks horrible. It’s the worst wound I’ve ever seen. I watched an amputation once when I worked in the operating room as an anesthesia aide before going to college; a lady with diabetes had to have most of her foot taken off. That was gross. This is unbelievable horrendous looking. Her flesh is a raw mass of black and red and blue on one side of her foot. The two toenails look like fuzzy growths of fungus clinging to a rotting loaf of what used to be bread.

“This is good,” said the doctor, pointing at her toes. “See this pink here? This wasn’t there before.” I have to say that it looked like a miracle to me…that new life could be generating out of that ugly mass of black seemed entirely improbable.

He doused it with a little saline and then wrapped it up again. The MRI results weren’t ready yet, he said. He’d come back when they were.

He popped back in the room a little later. No change in the bones, no spread of dead tissue. He wouldn’t need to amputate tomorrow. He wouldn’t do any cutting, just “power-wash” the dead stuff away and put synthetic skin grafts over the places where the skin was gone.

I asked him about these grafts, and he started explaining them. Michele said something like, “Ooo! Biotech!” and wanted to know all about the company. I was interested in the science. He said they have big petri dishes where they grow skin cells. Then they remove the cells, just leaving behind a protein matrix. He said he’s starting to use this kind of stuff to replace injured cartilage in knees and stuff too.

He was explaining all these while Duncan walked in. Poor Duncan was waiting to hear how much of his wife was going to be removed, and the doctor kept going on about the technical aspects of this new grafting technique. Finally, I blurted out, “He’s just going to do a power-wash tomorrow!” which, I’m afraid, didn’t help Duncan out at all.

The doctor explained what that meant. He said Michele would probably lose both toenails, but with her continued recovery, he expected her to come out of the hospital with all ten toes. “There goes my modeling career,” said Michele. He said he might send her home Friday. He says he’s very happy that there has continued to be no infection, and he thinks she’ll be less likely to develop infection outside of the hospital.

All three of us looked like we were trying not to break into tears.

Boy, this has been a roller coaster day. I’ve been asking God all day, why. And he seems to be saying, “Oh, I’m not finished yet.”

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