Happy Birthday Bryan

Today is Bryan's 27th birthday. Happy Birthday.

Bryan is not a big fan of having his picture taken at the computer - I have a ton of pictures exactly like this one

We ate sushi and saw LITTLE CHILDREN, which turns out to be a really excellent movie. It's not really about pedophilia the way it has been described, it's really about suburban desperation. It manages this perfect tonal balancing act between really funny and really tense. The narration is fantastic. I highly recommend you go see this movie in the theaters because my money is on it for best adapted screenplay at least. Plus, I don't know how anyone could market this movie correctly, so there's been little press and little attention. Go see it anyway. Seriously. It's really good.

Hold the Presses: I just saw Lady In The Water

Sorry for the lack of posting of late. The 100+ and no air conditioning makes me uncreative when it comes to blogging. So I had planned to relay the recipe for the veggie dish I cooked last week: Summer Leeks and Yellow Peppers, but then I went to see Lady in the Water and so now that recipe is on pause for tomorrow.

Before I continue, I just have to say that if you haven't seen the movie and want to, and want to give it a fair shot, STOP READING. Check back in tomorrow for more recipes and come back to this post after you've seen the movie (that's not a recommendation by the way - wait for the video).


I'm just going to dig right in with spoilers. First of all, I have never seen a filmmaker as egomaniacal as M Night. I think it would be an understatement to say that the man has a God complex. Why, you ask? Well maybe because in this film, a mythical creature comes to an apartment complex to inspire a man to write something that will change the course of history for the better. Who would be cast in such an important role in the film? M Night casts himself of course. I bet you didn't know Signs or the Village was going to save humanity. Well according to him it will. The man recently compared himself to both Bob Dylan and Michael Jordan. Nice.

Oh but have I mentioned that he's so self-involved that he's beyond crazy? Check out this review of his new book for some of the dirt:

http://movies2.nytimes.com/2006/07/10/books/10masl.html

As far as the movie is concerned, it's just bad storytelling with so many plot holes and confusing mythology that it's not even worth going into except for the following:


I CALL FOUL when one of the character's (Frederico from Six Feet Under) entire character is based on the fact that he's only been working out ONE of his arms, so that one arm is huge while the other is normal. AND YET at the end when it's revealed that he's the guardian he does not use his SUPER ARM to throw anything. He just stares the beast down. FOUL!!!!


I CALL FOUL on Shyamalan casting himself in such a pivotal role in the film and then when it should clearly turn out that Giamatti's character was the true writer who's been inspired, he refuses to give up that glory and keeps it for his own character. FOUL!!!


I CALL FOUL on Shyamalan for never giving Ron Howard's daughter any pants!!!!


I CALL FOUL on his stupid animosity towards critics which he takes out on the Bob Balaban character with a great deal of unnecessary self-reference!

and finally, and perhaps most importantly:

I CALL FOUL for pawning off an almost incomprehensible myth on an unnamed Asian tradition...and DOUBLE FOUL for being stereotypical and, I'll say it, racist in the process.

Shame on you Shyamalan for being a talented director who's too mired in his own ego to make a good film when you could be great if you'd just get over yourself.

End rant.

Interviews and Companions

This is Tim


Tim is our friend who played the lead in our short film THE BOX, that we are working to make into a feature film. Here he is at the premiere of another short film he was just in entitled EXIT INTERVIEW. Doesn't he look fab in his green suit?

We went to the premiere because we had heard lots of good things about the film and they were all true. Here we are in the theater (he really was taking a picture of us, not just those two in the front)


The premise of the film is that a man who is in a bad place in his life, goes to a job interview only to slowly discover that it is an exit interview he had set up before this life. In fact, his body is hanging in a car accident below. He's to determine whether he's learned all the lessons he set out to learn and so move on, or return to his life and continue this journey. I won't tell you which he picks. The print was gorgeous and it was fun to see so much support for a short. I even had one of my rare celebrity sightings (I'm always the one who either doesn't see the celebrity standing in front of me that everyone else sees, or I just don't know who they are) when I noticed Tony Shalhoub in the audience.

Also this weekend we went to see A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION,


so the question of the day is...What is this movie? I get that it's probably not directed of me because I am not a rabid fan of the radio program, but the film just left me so confused. It's actually a lot like the radio program in that it's slow, without plot and though Garrison Keillor's voice is sort of pleasant, it makes me want to change the channel after 5 minutes. The attempts at plot fell so flat that I was left wondering if the characters weren't some elaborate inside joke that only fans would understand, and thus leave the rest of us out of the club and confused. I don't get it. I don't like it, and I sure don't understand it. If anyone out there can explain the appeal of this film/radio program/host, I'd be much obliged. But in the meantime, I'd wait until this comes out on video. It's the kind of movie that's good to put on in the background while you're doing something else, like cleaning, or cooking.