I’m back with a big update. You’ll have to excuse me for my less frequent posts, I’ve been busy writing my book “Moneyball 2: how steroids and three aces created a playoff team.” It’ll be a closer look at the A quick sidebar: how is it that new ads for Gossip Girl can say “OMFG”? Is this really allowed by sensors? Do they just not know what it means? I think this goes back to the whole “skeet skeet” thing from a few years back. It’s obscene but really it’s some sort of inside code of obscenity, so they’re skirting the issue. If it were up to me I wouldn’t allow it unless I allowed the word Fuck on prime time television as well. While we’re at it, I demand that John Cena change the name of his wrestling from the STFU to something more appropriate.
Anyway, I’m not here to talk baseball or censorship today, I’m all about my true passion, the art of film. I’ve been plowing through my Netflix queue lately. I saw No Country for Old Men again, and it was just as great as the first time I saw it. There was a huge outcry when the movie came out because the ending didn’t provide enough closure, there was too much ambiguity, but after seeing it again I actually enjoy the ending more. It was a much more satisfying ending than last year’s best picture, The Departed, where just about every character gets killed. (Sorry if you haven’t seen it perhaps I should have written “SPOILER ALERT!!!” or perhaps you should’ve seen it by now, it’s a year and a half old.) Anyway, even if you didn’t enjoy the ending I strongly recommend seeing it again, on the other hand if your problem was that you didn’t enjoy a sociopath mowing down everyone in his path; well I guess that’s a valid reason to skip it.
On the other end of the spectrum we had the Darjeeling Limited. I’ve been a big fan Wes Anderson’s films, and also a huge fan of Owen Wilson, but I feel like I’ve spent too many hours of my life watching slightly less interesting versions of his previous works. Wes is suffering from the law of diminishing returns, Rushmore was great, very funny and unique, but then came the Royal Tennenbaums which I thoroughly enjoyed but not nearly as much as Rushmore and so came The Life Aquatic an enjoyable trip and now the Darjeeling limited, each time the laughs were fewer and further between. I don’t really have any advice for Wes on how to remedy this, but I’m not paying for another identical comedy, no matter if it comes with a short film where Natalie Portman gets naked or not.
Anyway, these were pretty well known releases, especially No Country for Old Men, but I wanted to shine a light on a lesser known film, that film, Southland Tales. Southland Tales was Richard Kelly’s directorial follow up to the cult classic Donnie Darko. From all appearances I’d say that Kelly was trying to make a masterpiece but ended up with a total frickin’ mess. I don’t know how far off this film was from coming together and being a masterpiece, perhaps it’s a very thin line between garbage and masterpiece, but this one never came together. I had actually heard as much before renting Southland Tales, but I’ve always been a big fan of ambition, and frankly I miss it. Ever since the punk rock movement in the late 70s there hasn’t been nearly enough ambition, no one tries to make epic masterpieces anymore. The Led Zeppelins of the world gave way to The Ramones, mostly because no one was as talented as Led Zep, so most were better off imitating the Ramones. My point is that I’m willing to watch crap like Southland Tales in the hopes of someone making the next Star Wars or Godfather Trilogy. There were some enjoyable scene but I’d strongly advise against this one. I’ve taken the bullet for all of us on this one, and even though I support ambition, there’s no point in all of us sitting through it. Don’t cry for me, the lovely and talented Cheri Oteri was in this one, so I don’t regret my sacrifice..
That’s all I’ve got for today.
-Bender Out
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