Tag Archives: film

Caffeinated Links: Women’s Journeys in Film, Tenenbaum, Kickstarter Novel

shoes_and_whiskey_by_browneyedgambit-d4wxpb8

Badass Digest on why women’s journeys in film are always different than men’s – “Socially speaking, we’ve been trained to believe that women are less prone to make mistakes, but there’s this tricky double standard in which we blame them for the ills that befall a man (if a marriage or relationship dissolves)” RT

Pajiba’s Courtney Enlow snark-destroys Chris Brown, and does it good. “And then he starts talking about his class about violence against women. Oh guys. He has some thoughts on it.” RT

Via The Rabbit Room, this looks like an unexpectedly lovely/worthy Kickstarter Project – “Almost ten years ago I put my three kids to bed, told Jamie for the millionth time about my desire to write a novel, and with her blessing dug out my sketch pad to draw the first map of Aerwiar. I turned off the television (this is key) and sat in the recliner with my high school art supplies, eager to tell a story. As with any adventure, had I known how much work and time it would have taken, I might not have had the guts to start. I drew the coastline of Skree on the left, then for some reason on the right I drew another coastline and named the continent Dang.” RT

Everything Tenenbaum. “On Tuesday, New York Magazine TV critic Matt Zoller Seitz will release his sumptuous coffee-table book, The Wes Anderson Collection. The book delves deeply into each of Anderson’s seven films, dissecting every angle and influence with commentary, illustrations, and photography. Every chapter is anchored by a lengthy conversation between Anderson and Seitz about the making of each film.” RT

New Full-Length Desolation of Smaug Trailer

EPIC SCREAM.

How Journeys Begin

hobbits

Pop Bits

Austenland is a ridiculous but, surprisingly, highly entertaining little flick. As long as one goes in with the understanding that there will be not a dollop of seriousness in this effort and that it’s straight flimsy from start to finish, it’s a really enjoyable ride.

And on that note, I just realized that JJ Field, who stars in it alongside Keri Russell, is also in a film with Benedict Cumberbatch, called Third Star.

So the film stars these two men –

jjfield

benedict_cumberbatch

Need I say more?

Caffeinated Links: Colin Firth, Ken Follet, Breaking Bad

coffee3

One must always share the trailer for a new Colin Firth film. Methinks forgiveness and hatred and suffering and revenge and love are all a part of this and all for the better. Also – great cast. RT

Did you know that there was more than one miniseries adaptation of Ken Follet‘s books? I did not. Adding World without End to my watchlist asap. (Also – Ben Chaplin!)

How the Bard would end Breaking Bad

“In Shakespeare’s works, each of us has a certain destiny. We can try to thwart it or challenge it, but ultimately we must align ourselves with it. The consequences of doing otherwise depend on the world in question. If the world is benign, you get slapped around a bit and fall in line. If the world has a malignity or malice toward you, you’re going to get slapped around and die. What can you do about it? Nothing. In either case, once Shakespeare’s characters discover who they really are, the world harmonizes; it falls into place.”  RT The Atlantic

North America is so woefully behind the times transit-wise. New study shows living near convenient transit increases your happiness.  “Well-planned transit can be more than a ride — it can be a positive emotional force.”  RT The Atlantic

A damning Steven Lloyd Wilson film review is one of my favorite things.  “I’m at a loss to say what the director was even aspiring to do. Whatever it was, he failed. Catastrophically.” RT Pajiba

Dramabeans is having a meetup in Seattle September 21st. If Korean dramas are your thing (and they should be) go to this. RT Dramabeans

Ce n’est pas la vrai vie

This was not a particularly memorable film, but it was the best-cast film I’ve seen in years.
midnightinparis

Hey, Los Angeles (Caffeinated Break)

kitten

Hugh Laurie’s love letter to Los Angeles in The Telegraph is the kind of defense I wish I could give of LA to the (many) unbelievers I’ve encountered since leaving the City of Angels.

“I love you, I hate you: you might call it a mixed message, if the message weren’t so unmixed. You’re allowed to love Paris, up to a point, New York, more or less, Dublin and Glasgow, definitely, but loving Los Angeles is just plain wrong. Oxymoronic, in fact – if you promise to go easy on the oxy.

…And then, as the drowned man said, there’s the weather. Great, fat dollops of it. On the eighth day, God reached down and set southern California’s thermostat to “lovely”, and he hasn’t really touched it since.

But Los Angeles, if it’s anything, is a place of reinvention, the edge of a continent, both inner and outer, from which you can step off into a new life and a new way of looking at things. Or, if you prefer, you can decide that your old life was just fine. Either way, you end up better off.”

Hugh Laurie’s Los Angeles

And the Huffington Post has a fairly brilliant analysis of a troubling aspect of the ever-increasing collisions between nerd culture and “pop” (as in “popular”) entertainment.

“I enjoyed Star Trek Into Darkness, but the worst part of the movie was the almost complete recreation of the Kirk-Spock death scene from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It’s not so much that J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof did recreate that scene, it’s that they did so in an effort to make people watching say, “Oh, I get it.” Great! I mean, of course you “get it.” How could you not get it? Everyone gets it. That’s the problem. The best kind of fan service is when very few people get it. Being beat over the head with a reference to a prior movie isn’t fun for anyone.

I keep thinking about Whedon’s sentence, “I feel that’s what all of culture is becoming — it’s becoming that moment.”

-Joss Whedon Is Right About ‘Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom’

Caffeinated Links: Peter Capaldi, Disable Youtube Ads, Mayer

industrialnecklace

23 Reasons to Love Peter Capaldi RT Buzzfeed

This took 10 seconds and actually worked. Love. Disable Ads on YouTube With This Simple Command, RT Lifehacker

Mayer’s crime wasn’t prejudice, it was hubris. When he subsequently came down with a throat condition that threatened to rob him of his voice and prematurely end his career, Mayer’s post-interview punishment seemed to take a biblical turn. RT Grantland

“I didn’t do it for awhile because I didn’t think that I could do it. Until Short Term 12, I didn’t find myself all that interesting. I sit with myself all the time, it’s really hard, I think, for any sort of person with an intelligence to look in the mirror and say, yeah, aren’t I great enough to be followed around for twenty days and then make a movie about it? And with a movie that’s in so many ways so subtle and a character that’s so subtle, I think it was hard for me to grasp that that would be worthy of a film, I guess.”  FSR Interviews Brie Larson

Caffeinated Links: Franzen, BB Cream, Creativity, and Women in Media

quirkywatch

What you’re left with is a funny film that never gets really funny. It’s fine, but not thrilling, the film version of eating at Chili’s. – FSR on “We’re the Millers”

Gratified to see that there’s a reason I don’t like Jonathan Franzen – “I think she was surprised that I wasn’t moaning with shock and pleasure,” Jonathan Franzen says of his phone call with Oprah Winfrey in Boris Kachka’s Hothouse, recently excerpted at Slate. “I’d been working nine years on the book and FSG had spent a year trying to make a best-seller of it. It was our thing. She was an interloper, coming late, and with an expectation of slavish gratitude and devotion for the favor she was bestowing.” -A Handy Guide to Why Jonathan Franzen Pisses You Off, RT Flavorwire

Creativity requires giving myself away. It involves nicking an artery somewhere and seeing what bleeds out, then using what’s there constructively and thoughtfully. In this way, creation is the very opposite of consumption; it’s a generous outward motion. There is no greed in it. It’s communication, born of a desire to participate in and engage with the world, instead of merely absorbing it.” – RT Lawless Gentile

Birchbox presents an incredibly helpful guide explaining what BB cream, CC cream, and the like are – “Unlike lipstick, which is meant to be seen, base makeup is supposed to be your invisible ally, masking imperfections, evening out skin tone, and creating a perfect canvas for the rest of your makeup—without anyone knowing it’s actually there. Since that’s easier said than done, we’ve created a coverage guide to help you choose which formula is right for you.”  –The Base Makeup Coverage

Woot! No words to describe this awesome. “Good news for people who like to watch people other than white men host their evening news programs: PBS has grabbed Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff to co-host NewsHour, the channel’s long-running nightly news program. According to PBS, “This will mark the first time a network broadcast has had a female co-anchor team.” Bonus diversity points because one of them isn’t white!” – RT Jezebel

Caffeinated Links, Snark Edition

tumblr_mczay2J91s1qb0j8no1_1280

It must be so HARD to receive a free text message that may help save lives. What’s Up with that Amber Alert

Or maybe your movie was just BAD. The Lone Ranger cast slams critics for having an “agenda” in their reviews 

Or really really good, and killed by self-centered merciless film critics. That must be it. “I was just going through my daily life, doing my job, caring for my loved ones, engaging in what seemed to me a perfectly average, everyday routine. But then I saw this video of Lone Ranger stars Jonny Depp and Armie Hammer and producer Jerry Bruckheimer talking about what I, and people like me, had done to their precious baby.” Confessions of a Serial Movie-Killer

Having a woman as the smartest, bravest person in the universe, being able to fix any problem, save the world with her wits, a magical vehicle, and boundless courage–who wouldn’t want to watch that show?The Depressing, Disappointing Maleness of Doctor Who’s New Time Lord

As David Itzkoff noted in 2006, what’s curious about “Dune” ’s stature is that it has not penetrated popular culture in the way that “The Lord of the Rings” and “Star Wars” have. There are no “Dune” conventions. Catchphrases from the book have not entered the language.  – “Dune” Endures