Month: June 2020

Interstellar is Engaging, Confusing

Interstellar

Interstellar

Directed by Christopher Nolan
Written by Jonathan & Christopher Nolan

The review:

Matthew McConaughey, in his I’m-a-serious-actor period, travels through Nolan’s take on space (and time) in a film that is engrossing, and yet left me with many questions.* It’s interesting how the first big moment of action/tension comes more than an hour into the film, yet the story up until that point is more than enough to hold my interest.** As mentioned in the previous review, I still wasn’t a fan of Cooper’s manly I-make-the-decisions move, but this time was too busy enjoying the performances of Mackenzie Foy, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain to let it bug me.***

The verdict: Good

Cost: $2.99 via Google Play
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*This seems to be a theme of Nolan’s more recent films. [Vague spoilers ahead] I’m thoroughly engrossed, but what exactly did that data programmed into the watch do? Where did that tesseract thing come from? Why did Murph have to go to a different station, couldn’t Cooper have gone to her? How, exactly is Cooper getting to Brand in just that little ship? [End vague spoilers.]
**I would be curious to see a well-written drama that was a prequel of sorts. Just how did the world get to be anti-science and farmers-only?
***Plus, Wes Bently! What do I have to do to get more Wes Bentley? [Checks IMDB] Apparently, I must watch movies that I have not watched that don’t exactly appeal to me.

Questions:

  • See above questions
  • Has Matthew McConaughey’s I’m-a-serious-actor phase ended? What movies do you think that phase spanned?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

The giant dust clouds were created on location, using large fans to blow cellulose-based synthetic dust through the air.

Also:

The documentary-style interviews of older survivors shown at the beginning of this movie and again on the television playing in the farmhouse toward the end of the movie are from Ken Burns The Dust Bowl (2012). They are real survivors, not actors, of that natural disaster.

Other reviews of Interstellar:

Interstellar

Portland City Walks Irvington and Sullivan’s Gulch Loop

Time for a fun date! Once again Laura O. Foster provides a great walk for us..

It’s a house that John Povey, of Povey Brothers Glass Company fame lived in! Such a charming façade!

The book said Povey’s name could still be seen in the front steps. It took a bit of squinting, but Matt eventually found it and pointed it out to me. Can you see it? Look at the top step.

Portland has hosted its share of protests focused on racial injustice, police brutality and the killing of George Floyd and others. The Irvington Neighborhood was awash in signs included this Burma-Shave-type message:

Last sign says: Our Minds

We spotted this fella in some side yard bamboo.

Aside from signs, Irvington is awash in Little Free Libraries. I found a big win in this one. Look at all these postcards!

And everyone can use a neighborhood cat review.

Or two.

Cambia Todo Cambia translates as Everything Changes (or maybe Changes, Everything Changes?) You can see a delightful performance here and read the translated lyrics here.

I can tell that the Crystal Garden Apartments were built when Apartments were faaaaaaancy. Guess how!

It’s that plaque telling “tradesmen” to go around to the side.

I found a great site that has a list of apartment houses, including the Crystal Garden Apartments. The same site also has two images of my beloved Rose-Friend Apartment, now torn down, but forever in my heart as my first Portland home. Actually, I’ve now just spent 15 minutes clicking around the site which includes an interactive map with current and destroyed Apartment Houses. There were apparently three other apartment houses in the next block over from my beloved Rose-Friends Apartments. This is a fabulous site and you should check it out. The Apartment House in Portland.

I wonder if the cat at 1538 and the dog at 1530 are aware of each other’s presence.

This gorgeous house has unique window covers on the second story.

Names of Black people killed by police.

I also thought these signs were beautiful despite the sadness that comes with them having to be made in the first place.

This was a great walk! Thanks Portland City Walks!

I’ve Now Seen Jaws and It Is Excellent

That’s my hot take on this 45-year-old movie.

Jaws
It must have been fun to be an extra for this movie. Look at what a good time that girl on the left is having.

Jaws

Directed by Steven Spielberg
Written by Peter Benchley, Carl Gottlieb

The review:

Thank goodness for malfunctioning mechanical sharks as the shark-less filmmaking tricks hold tried and true 45 years later, expertly establishing a solid level of fear so that when the mechanical shark does show up* I was willing to treat it with the same amount of fear I had when it was being implied. Aside from many Coronavirus parallels, this movie is packed with excellent scenes** and provides many legitimate scares. I wondered if I would end up rooting for the shark,*** but the menace was properly recorded and while I would have liked to broker a peace agreement to perhaps avoid violence being perpetuated on both sides, I was okay with how things turned out.****

The verdict: Recommended

(It’s ridiculous I am just watching this for the first time.)
(This happens a lot with movies that were released before I could walk)

Cost: $1.99 via Redbox On Demand
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*It hasn’t aged well, though is pretty impressive from a practical effects standpoint.
**Roy Scheider watching with worry as people frolic on the beach; Robert Shaw’s fingernails-on-chalkboard introduction; Shaw’s tale of the USS Indianapolis; Any scene with Richard Dreyfuss; Lorraine Gary’s realization that sharks can bite through boats and her about face from “it’s okay” status.
***As I did for the whale in the Ron Howard film In the Heart of the Sea.
****This movie also has an interesting split. Most of it is the story of a police chief’s interactions with people in the town and trying to make good decisions. The last section is Men vs. Nature. The end of the film doesn’t wrap back around to tie into the chief/town part. Interesting.

Questions:

  • Does everyone find Richard Dreyfuss as mesmerizing as I do, or is this some imprinting thing that happened to me in the 80s?
  • What was the scariest part for you?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Several decades after the release of Jaws (1975), Lee Fierro, who played Mrs. Kintner, walked into a seafood restaurant and noticed that the menu had an “Alex Kintner Sandwich.” She commented that she had played his mother so many years ago; the owner of the restaurant ran out to meet her, and he was none other than Jeffrey Voorhees, who had played her son. They had not seen each other since the original movie shoot.

Other reviews of Jaws:

Jaws

All Movies Watched on Kanopy December 2019–Present

Kanopy. Quality films for free.

Recommended

  • I Am Not Your Negro
  • Memento

Good

  • Margot at the Wedding
  • Heartburn
  • Girlhood
  • The Watermelon Woman

Skip

  • The Lobster
  • Lady Macbeth
  • The Beat Beneath My Feet

The Watermelon Woman is a Bushel of Fun

The Watermelon Woman

The Watermelon Woman

Directed by Cheryl Dunye
Written by Cheryl Dunye

The review:

A few months ago I watched Nisha Ganatra’s Chutney Popcorn and was charmed by it’s 90’s indie energy;* so it was for this film, an imperfect, yet incredibly engaging story of a video store clerk on a quest to find out more about a Black actress from the 1930s. While the production values are low, the charisma is high, and this film is funny.** While it’s a Good film for anyone to watch, it’s Recommended if you were of a certain age (say, 16–30) in the mid-90s, have an interest in new Queer cinema, or are curious about what’s up with that mysterious 1930s actress Cheryl is so interested in.

The verdict: Good

Cost: Free via Kanopy. It’s also streaming for free right now on the Criterion Channel
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*And yes, the many markers of the 90s were part of its charm for me.
**”Welcome to the Center for Lesbian Information and Technology.” (CLIT) (Ha!)

Questions:

  • What are you willing to forgive in shoddy filmmaking as long as something else is present?
  • What’s your favorite low-budget movie from the 1990s?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

(None because they are both too spoiler-y)(Here’s one from a New Republic article.)

Dunye made The Watermelon Woman on a shoestring budget of $300,000—about one tenth of which came from an NEA grant. The film received limited attention when it was originally released in the U.S., but that didn’t stop it from generating controversy when Michigan Republican Pieter Hoekstra cited it as inappropriate use of government funds. He tried unsuccessfully to get his colleagues in Congress to deduct Dunye’s $31,500 grant from the NEA budget, citing NEA funding for a series of gay and lesbian films that “most Americans would find offensive” and referring to The Watermelon Woman specifically as “patently offensive and possibly pornographic.”

Moira Donegan, New Republic

Other reviews of The Watermelon Woman:

The Watermelon Woman

On Hold Since March

Back in March, I made a special Friday trip to grab my holds. My weekend had cleared and I wanted to have books and movies to tide me over. There was one book that had arrived, but it wasn’t with the other books on the shelf.

“Oh well,” I said to myself. “I’ll grab it on Monday.” Monday was my usual hold pickup day.

I did not grab it on Monday.

The libraries shut down along with everything else and it was about three months before I could bring this book home.

To do that I had to make a phone call, sit on hold, and arrange a day and time for pickup.

Pandemic fun!

I enjoyed the book, by the way.