Portland Glass

Movie Reviews, Crumb and King of Kong

Both Documentaries Crumb, by Terry Zwigoff and King of Kong, by Seth Gordon

Both Incredible as for the candidness captured on screen. Post-notes were moving. And the DVD extras were well worth perusal. Zwigoff's intimate moments with Robert, Charles and Max were by far the most touching and stunning parts of Crumb. I don't know if that's simply a matter of choosing subject matter or if Zwigoff simply draws out the best, but I was riveted simply by that. Gordon, on the other hand just used massive amount of film - hundreds of hours - he caught both sides of important phone calls, candid moments of all the players, countless rabbit-trails. And boiled them down to 79 minutes. And the poverty of each minute was heart-breaking. His subjects were more than willing to be candid, even in the midst of incredibly poor decision-making. And the film - ranked among some film greats - e.g., Shane, Star Wars, (True Grit) - took on a mythological sheen as it pitted good v. evil - and came out with nothing good for anyone.

Watch them.

More reviews...

Thought I'd redeem my last post by giving a few positives...

1. Stories of God: an unauthorized biography - John Shea (1978). Excellent, though dated, read. Not a theological text per se - but he speaks from the heart and references many great theologians. His treatment of who God is and our relationship to God in this era is fantastic. And his paradigms fall easily in with other excellent authors such as Henri Nouwen and Parker Palmer. A good one to read, let settle a few years then read again.

2. Watchmen (movie - 2009) - not the illustrated novel (Moore / Gibbons - 1995)- which I haveto confess I haven't read. Concepts were riveting and I'm still working them over. I love a superhero story with angst, even if it's as poorly done as Hancock was. Watchmen was not poorly done, and has far more angst than any superhero movie I've ever seen. It's worth the watch (watch the watchmen), has a great soundtrack, but is way intense visually, particularly re: gore, fight scenes, and a little bit of sex.

3. American Gods - Neil Gaiman. (2001) Pulp fiction - so nothing significant to say. A friend recommended this after I'd told him about Roger Lancellyn Green's treatment of the Greek myths (which I raved about). American Gods was the story of gods and heros set in modern America. The gods hadn't changed, except for being weaker for lack of worshippers. And Gaiman tells his story with enough understanding about their mischievious, often deadly character faults. And the reading is easy. But it reads like so many other modern fantasy genre that I was a little put off. But I had nothing better to do, so I stormed through all 465 pages in just a few days of mandatory lying in bed because my back is killing me.

There you have it.

My Latest Movie Rave - Once (2007)

(http://www.foxsearchlight.com/once/)

Once is a romance with a simple plotline. And I'm sure they adapted the story to fit the actors. The cast are all musicians, and 95% of the score is written by the cast (mostly by the main characters). The score is moving and the story is riveting. Set (and filmed?) in Dublin. R rating solely because of the use of the word "fuck". This movie is believable, moving, captivating and beautiful. And it doesn't hold to hollywood's schtick romance. Made my top 10. I'm not sure what it bumped. More on that later.