Watching Netflix Instant

Katie Jarvis was discovered on a train platform having a fight with her boyfriend. As Fassbender tells it on the podcast for the Museum of the Moving Image, when the casting director approached her she told her to ‘fuck off’.

Which is perfect.

She plays Mia, the 15 year old animal-girl spending her days pacing back in forth in an urban cage (drink every time she shares a frame with bars, gate, any kind of barrier) until her mean, slutty mother brings home a kind and hot boyfriend.

It’s just beautiful.

The rest of this is obnoxious and vaguely spoiler-y.

AND (pardon me) Andrea Arnold provides a great fucking new perspective to the sexist and gross fantasies that are so celebrated in literature, film and pornography. The lolita, step daughter, daughter’s friend, teenage next door neighbor etc. You know that classic story of the broken, older man who has maybe lost himself but is basically good maybe finding redemption in the arms (pussy) of a younger woman? For the male character to be sympathetic the girl needs to not have much of an internal life of her own and exists solely to tempt him/teach him something about himself. He just can’t help it! Isn’t that exhausting and boring? Why not just make everyone a human being? A complicated, sometimes awful, sometimes wonderful human being?

It made me want to hate watch American Beauty. Side thought: If she hadn’t been a virgin he would have boned her. Because you can’t taint something that’s already dirty. How is his restraint seen as heroic? God that movie is so condescending.

The main point of conversation is definitely the Mia/Connor plot line but I also adored the relationship she had with her younger sister. These are people with deep emotions for each other who do not have a language beyond rage and hate to express it.

Blah blah blah - I have feelings, just watch it! It’s good!

If you’re like me, many is the time you’ve thought I enjoy his acting work, love his diamond vodka, but what I really want from Dan Aykroyd is to sit in a living room with him while he chain smokes and rambles on about UFOs for an hour and a half. Wanderer, you may wonder and wander no further

The trailer to this movie made me cry so I was really looking forward to seeing Babies.

Firmly believe this concept works better as a short subject. You can call me heartless ice womb for all I care but I thought this movie was annoying and turned it off halfway through.

Check out the excellent trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vupEpNjCuY

Below - 2002

Written by Darren Aronofsky, directed by the guy who did Pitch Black (which is good), starring Olivia Williams (6th Sense, Rushmore) with Zach Galifianakis? Yes please.

This movie does not deliver! At all! There’s nothing interesting or even weird about it except how boring it is. The only good part is when Zach Galifianakis reads a passage from a book. His delivery says “This movie sucks. I give up.”

The premise is that they are on a submarine with a ghost who is really into Benny Goodman? I don’t know. Its seems like the parties involved wanted to make a really “classy” genre movie. All the takes are long, everyone is talking about stuff that I don’t care about, there’s such an effort made to announce that this is an ALLEGORY not just some spooky story with no SIGNIFICANCE as if we fans of sci-fi/horror/fantasy etc don’t deserve to be entertained.

David Cross - Bigger and Blacker 2010

David Cross is one of those guys I have always loved and always found myself defending to people who found his comedy too angry or nihilistic. Now that I’ve become a mature adult full of wisdom and restraint I don’t defend his tude. Also, I’m busy. He is an angry guy and I see how it’s off putting. But he’s so goofy and funny it gives his point of view context. Look at Mr. Show. I feel that was fueled and made great by Bob and David’s laser sharp hatred of many things funneled into iconic American comedy. It seems like an innocuous sketch but try to imagine the The Audition without it.

That being said …

This is sooo nihilistic and angry. Maybe its because he looks like shit and when he isn’t beating you over the head with political and religious rhetoric he’s doing junkie jokes about himself. It’s personal and honest and I hate to say this but I found the entire lecture to be exhausting and joyless. That is with the exception of (hay Chicago people!) the very funny Mort Burke in a featured role.

Assault on Precinct 13 - 1976

Bad ass and awesome.

This is John Carpenter’s first film and the beginning of his hot, hot streak. Watch this mash up of Night of the Living Dead and Rio Bravo late at night and turn it up loud.

BONUS: That blonde child actress who is currently on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills has a small but unforgettable role.

Lately I’ve been really into watching some of my childhood’s greatest hits. (Is this a sign of depression?) This is one of them. Gilda in those overalls singing “Let’s Talk Dirty to the Animals” is like smelling my grandmother’s mac and cheese.

My adult analysis? Damn. She was really good. It’s a thing that’s so obvious it’s easy to forget sometimes.

Mike Nichols directed this concert film and from the lovely set that is a stage within a stage to the moments he captures, whether it’s her changing between sets or a close up of her feet banging on the door, this special is truly … special. (Sorry.)

It made me appreciate the enduring influence of Gilda Radner on the Chicago improv/sketch community. It’s staggering and we’re better for it. She’s charming, sweet, adorable, dark and versatile. She’s a woman with a point of view and a funny way of expressing it without ever announcing her womanhood to the world or defending her ability to be funny. Also, she had an incredible amount of control over her body.

She sings an awful lot and promising sketches come to a halt with her belting out a lame song, Mick Jagger and Goodbye Sacchrine in particular, but her physicality in both make them mesmerizing. A lot of her SNL characters show up.

Also featured are Paul Schaffer and Father Guido Sarducci, known to young people as that weird priest at the Rally to Restore Sanity.