What's the trouble with Harry?

We watched Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 comedy The Trouble With Harry last night. It was a favorite of my parents, and the first time I saw it as a kid, it scared the dickens out of me. Very funny black comedy. Recommended.

Pass the Popcorn Please

Because I love Terry Pratchett so much, I was a little loathe to see a screen adaptation of one of his books. Thanks to Cinderbelle however, and her Netflix membership, we spent the last two evenings watching the BBC production of Hogfather. It wasn't bad. In fact, I quite enjoyed it. Some of the characters were not quite as I had pictured them, but all in all it was very true to the book (which I reviewed here a few days ago.)

One question: HAVE YOU BEEN NAUGHTY OR NICE?

Recommended!

See. This. Film.

You might not recognize the name Philippe Petit, but if you are old enough you may remember the man who crossed the space between the twin towers at the top of the World Trade Center in 1974, walking on a high wire. He didn't just cross it once, he spent 45 minutes going back and forth, dancing in the air 102 stories above Manhattan. Man On Wire is a new film that documents Petit's performance that day, as well as all of the preparation that went into it.

The film plays like a heist movie. Petit started dreaming of this act as a young man, before the WTC was even built. Once it was mostly complete and open to the public, he spent months observing and taking notes in the building. He and his team (a pretty ragtag group made up of a few friends and some last-minute recruits) smuggled their supplies to the still-unfinished tops of both towers. Then on the eve of what he termed "the coup", they secured the cable and the following morning Manhattan woke up to see Petit suspended between the towers. Amazing.

Equally amazing is the fact that not once during the film is 9/11/2001 mentioned. It was certainly in the back of my mind as I watched, but I found Petit's story to be transcendent. As I write this two days after the 7th anniversary I am reflecting on how the entire tragedy -- whatever its source -- has been hijacked, perverted, and multiplied exponentially in the past 7 years. We've been bludgeoned with it. It was so beautiful to watch this movie and see those towers stand for something else -- something so improbable yet whole.

If you have a chance to see this on a large screen, it is well worth it (even if you have to pay $3 for fictitious amenities. Hey, Bob Redford needs our money!) It was breathtaking and beautiful.

Also, a Movie Review

The young Misses Ether and I watched the 1984 cult classic Repo Man last night. (And then this article appeared on Crooks & Liars today. Coincidence? I think not. It's like this: You'll be thinking about, say, a plate of shrimp. And then someone will say the word "plate" or "shrimp." Or "plate of shrimp." Is that a coincidence?)

I last saw this movie back when my hair was ultra short and moussed. In other words, a long time ago. I remembered it being bizarre and funny. Guess what? It is bizarre and funny! Emilio Estevez plays Otto, a kid at loose ends who falls in with a seedy "repo man" (played by one of my favorite actors, Harry Dean Stanton.) There is so much to enjoy in this movie! There is a ridiculous car chase scene between rival repo men, àla Road Warrior. There are the punks turned convenience store robbers. There is the nerdy Kevin -- whose character had to have been the model for Napolean Dynamite. (I'm putting that nicely. Napolean Dynamite was an obvious rip-off.) There are the old stoner parents of Otto, who have become followers of Pat Robertson. And the junkyard philosopher, Miller.

It was produced by the only Monkee with any talent, Mike Nesmith. (No slight intended against any monkeys here, just Monkees. And it's another ... non-coincidence! This is starting to weird me out a little.)

If you haven't seen this, it's a fun flick.

(And another excellent movie from the same era ... Tapeheads, starring a very young Tim Robbins and John Cusack. I HIGHLY recommend it.)

There. I've provided you with everything but the popcorn.

Time for a movie review.

Well, I think I've redeemed myself after the not so excellent choice of Wool 100%, a movie reviewed by my dear husband a while back. Sparkly Sea Cow and I went to the big main library yesterday, with a charge from Cinderbelle to "get a movie." (She's so bossy.) Sparkly went for the Hollywood features, while I couldn't resist the foreign films. What did I choose? Night of the Living Dorks, a German film. Here's the description from the box:

Philip and his best friends Konrad and Weener are the three biggest losers at Friedrich Nietzsche High. But when an inept voodoo ceremony by the local Goth clique leads to a fatal car accident, this trio of über dorks returns as indestructible zombies with an insatiable appetite for human flesh, wild parties and gym class revenge. Can Philip now score with the hottest girl in school before he decomposes?Is there any personal dismemberment that can't be fixed with a stapler?

Enough spoilers. If you're craving a laugh (and some brains) look no further. This was a totally goofy and fun romp.

Once in a blue moon I go to a movie ...

... and last night was one of those rare occasions. I went to see Son of Rambow, and I was blown away (no pun intended.) The setting is somewhere in rural Britain in the early eighties. The protagonists are school boys. Lee Carter is your quintessential bad boy: snub nose, freckles, always getting thrown out of class for insubordination. William's family is part of a religious sect called the Brethren, who attempt to live apart from the outside world, but they allow William to attend the local school as long as he doesn't fraternize with the other students. William has a very active inner life, which comes out in his fantastic drawings that fill all of his books (including his Bible.) When Lee and William come together by accident, Lee sees their chance meeting as an opportunity to strongarm William into helping him make a film that he plans to enter in a BBC young filmmakers' contest.

Son of Rambow was quirky, funny, wholly original, and altogether wonderful. SEE IT!

Have You Hugged Your Librarian Today?

This is the trailer from a new documentary, Ann Seidl's The Hollywood Librarian. I posted this trailer last winter, in my early blogging days. I'm posting it again because I just got to see the film, and I highly recommend it.

The film juxtaposes popular film images of librarians with real librarians talking about their work, and it underscores the importance of free public libraries in a democratic society. Did I say important? Let me amend that: Essential. Libraries are essential.

The Hollywood Librarian made me want to stand up and cheer! And then cry, because the scope of the assault we are under and the magnitude of what we are losing -- what our children are losing -- at the hands of this administration, Congress, and festering ignorance of so many people, is so great.

I don't think this film has been released commercially, not yet. It premiered at the ALA convention this past summer (where else?) and is being screened in libraries and on college campuses across the country this week in recognition of Banned Books Week. Unfortunately, the web site doesn't list any other screenings after this week. Contact your local library or the filmmakers directly, to find out future plans for the movie.

Bring Them Home, Pete Seeger

This afternoon I went to see the documentary Pete Seeger: The Power of Song. Pete Seeger has long been a hero of mine. He is a folk music icon, but how many people know what he sacrificed when he stood up to Joseph McCarthy and the House UnAmerican Activities Committee in the fifties? For seventeen years, Pete was banned from the airwaves in the U.S., both radio and television, because he told HUAC that his politics were none of their business. Seventeen years. Yet he is a man who harbors no bitterness towards his persecutors, but speaks only of love, peace, and understanding.

During the years when Pete was blacklisted, he made his living doing school programs. I was extremely moved by the footage of him singing with children. He preaches a gospel, if you will, of community singing. This is something I have been doing with my students for a few years now, and it is very near and dear to my heart. Listening to Pete talk about it was a huge affirmation of my work.

I wept through a good half of the film. I wept with nostalgia, I wept in celebration of this life writ large, and I wept for the state of our country now.

If there was one thing wrong with the film, it is that it plays things a little too safe. There are allusions to what is happening today, but nobody overtly connects any dots. Natalie Mains is featured talking about Pete's blacklisting, but she makes nary a peep about her own. Bruce Springsteen warns that fascism could come again, not acknowledging that it is HERE and NOW. Pete's environmental work on the Hudson River is highlighted, but nothing about the environmental disasters we are facing as the world warms up. Footage of Vietnam, but no mention of Iraq. I found that disappointing and frustrating.

It was also disquieting when many of the people talked about him in the past tense, as if he was already dead. He is still very much alive.

But critiques aside, this is a film that is well worth seeing if you get the chance.

And I'll end by telling you what I tell my students: Sing. Don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't or shouldn't. There is power in singing, and that power belongs to all of us, not just the Pete Seegers of the world. (And Pete would be the first person to tell you that.) So often these days, we surrender the music to someone else, to the professionals, and we go around plugged in to our iPods or Walkmen. I tell my students that music is participatory, not a consumer product, and that their voices are an instrument that they always have with them wherever they are. I also tell them that that is the most important lesson they'll learn from me, more important than reading, writing or math. (Take that NCLB!)

Peace.

Pass the Popcorn

We went out to see a movie last night. I'm a tough film-goer to please (i.e. stubborn, opinionated, judgmental, dogmatic, and snobbish.) In fact, I've all but stopped going to movies -- or even watching them at home -- because I fear and resent disappointment. So it is such a pleasure to come home and feel that both my time and money have been well spent, that I haven't been shamelessly manipulated into feeling something for characters who are totally unbelievable or unlikeable, and that my intelligence wasn't insulted.

No, we didn't go to Harry Potter. We saw Mira Nair's The Namesake. Like all of her movies, it explores the straddling and melding of Bengali and American culture. This one is about a family living in New York City; the Indian-born parents and American-born children and specifically the drama around the oldest son who has the unlikely name of "Gogol."

It is a beautiful and loving portrayal of a family. If you have a chance to see it, I highly recommend it.

Happy Happy Feet

Well, I went to see the movie Happy Feet and I was going to write a long treatise about why I didn't like it at all, including the fact that the two female penguins had cleavage, for God's sake, and they made little orgasmic noises when they sang, plus it was presented as an environmental tale, but ended by giving the impression that it's all OK now because the humans have seen the error of their ways all because of the dancing blue-eyed Elijah Wood penguin who seems to have gotten stuck in adolescence but is still able to father children (and what's THAT a metaphor for?), and predatory animals like sea leopards and orcas were made to look mean and bad, and if I see one more animated feature with celebrities doing the voices I'm going to barf ... anyway I was going to write all of that, but I'll just say I didn't care for it much and leave you to formulate your own opinions about it.