September 18, 2003

Life in general & Two Quick Movie Reviews

I blew off night class the past two nights in a row.

I had my reasons, of course. Last night was to reclaim the time I spent working for Community Development the night before, unpaid, collecting IP addresses for 2 and a half hours...I had a paper to write that was due on Wednesday morning, of course. I took the time I would have spent in night class and spent it doing the paper. And got it done at around 11PM, which for me is fantastic. Its a great paper, all about social utility theory applied to teacher-rating sites online.

Tonight, I skipped playwriting (which to me isn't really a full class - its a pure elective on my part, doing absolutely nothing for my studies, not even counting for so much as a free elective on my tally) to go downtown to see "Anything Else", the new Woody Allen/Jason Biggs/Christina Ricci film.

The movie is fantastic. I haven't seen much of Allen's work (although I'm learning more and more about him in Film Seminar) but to me, this seems to be one of the most farcical of his works - the exaggeration employed for humorous effect is fantastic. Biggs assumes the role of the new neurotic, pseudo-Allen, stuck in relationships that he fears breaking apart from. Ricci plays Biggs' current girlfriend, and portrays the character beautifully. Allen chooses to stay off to the side and become Biggs' guide, projecting his own neuroses and foibles as Biggs stumbles along the road to what he truly wants. It's a fantastic plot, with some decent scenes. It feels like another "Annie Hall" - but in this version Allen plays the outer friend Rob, Biggs plays Allen, and Ricci becomes Diane Keaton. I feel that its marketed completely wrong though - being made up as a teen comedy (down to the multicolored movie poster) however, it is truly a Woody Allen film, and teen audiences may not get the subtlety of some of the humor.

The other film was from seminar today, "Taxi Driver". It's disturbing, and I don't have much more than that. It's an incredibly rich film, and there are connections to so much within it. DeNiro is so young, yet so incredibly intense...the famous "You talkin' to me?" scenes being the pinnacle of that intensity. The film really bothered me, and still has to a degree. I need class tomorrow to figure out exactly whats going on.

So yeah, go see "Anything Else." Fantastic.

Posted by Matthew at September 18, 2003 01:45 AM
Comments

Who is John Caffney and the Beaver Brown Band, thank you very much.

Stop trying to justify the fact that you missed class by saying its an elective. You feel guilty for missing night class. Who misses night class? The whole point of even taking a night class is so the temptation to skip said class will be jettisoned. Who misses night class? Seriously, get to class. Get THERE!

Posted by: French Stewart on September 18, 2003 07:58 PM

I need some storm coverage, DeMizio! Help me out!

Posted by: John Ogden on September 19, 2003 10:16 AM

My girl wants to party all the time, party all the time, party all the tiime
My girl wants to party all the time, paaarty alll the tiiiime. OOOOOOOHHHH YEAHHHHHH!

Posted by: Eddie Murphy on September 25, 2003 08:43 PM

Hey Demiz,
how about a rawls link to contrast the utilitarian bullshit that is being pushed on society nowadays. Lets forget about this utility maximizing bullshit and try for some equality, lest i lead a communist revolution. I will strike at your doors and ask for heaven on Earth now, lest you should wish for the fury of hell to be unleashed upon your head.

Figure it all out and get back to me....

Love ya man

Posted by: johnny boy, a blast from your past on September 26, 2003 05:20 AM

Yo DeMiz... we should add on another one-act to the bill where we just do a few scenes from Raging Bull... howabout you'll be Jake and I'll be Sugar Ray and you'll punch me in the face over and over again... Booyah!

Posted by: Ryan Carey on September 28, 2003 04:05 PM
Post a comment