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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 342 responses total. |
richard
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response 272 of 342:
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Feb 20 20:06 UTC 2006 |
ELECTION-- This is another really good movie I just watched on dvd.
Matthew Broderick plays a high school teacher having a midlife crisis.
He's the advisor to the student council and has to monitor the upcoming
elections. The problem is he can't stand the girl running for
president, a conceited type-A resume-obsessed student played by Reese
Witherspoon. So he decides he wants her to lose, and secretly recruits
another student, the airhead former star quarterback, to run against
her. Then this guy's lesbian sister also decides to run, on
an "abolish the student council" platform. As the election nears, and
Broderick's feud with Witherspoon's character gets worse, he slowly
cracks up. This is a terrific "dark comedy", and Broderick and
Witherspoon-- who alternate narrating-- create memorable characters.
Witherspoon deserved a nomination for this in fact, but it came out too
early in the year. I liked the final scene, which takes place a couple
of years after the "election, when Broderick's character-- having had
his life utterly destroyed by the earlier events, is in Washington D.C.
as a tourist, and sees Witherspoon getting into a limo with a
congressman, and he chucks his soda cup at the back window as they
drive off.
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edina
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response 273 of 342:
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Feb 20 20:07 UTC 2006 |
Are you on an Alexander Payne kick?
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richard
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response 274 of 342:
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Feb 20 20:28 UTC 2006 |
re #273 yes! I was wondering if anyone would pick up on that. I
rented "Election" because Alexander Payne wrote it, he is the same guy
who wrote "Sideways". Good for you Edina, you know your screenwriters.
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richard
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response 275 of 342:
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Feb 20 20:29 UTC 2006 |
Payne also wrote "About Schmidt", another terrific "dark comedy"
featuring Jack Nicholson in a "late life crisis"
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edina
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response 276 of 342:
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Feb 20 22:15 UTC 2006 |
He also directed them and is/was married to Sandra Oh, who is in "Sideways".
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remmers
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response 277 of 342:
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Feb 21 14:35 UTC 2006 |
Interesting insights in #270.
I recently acquired Federico Fellini's 1960 film "La Dolce Vita" on DVD.
Among the special features is an appreciative introduction to the film
delivered by (guess who!) Alexander Payne, who says that "La Dolce Vita"
was an important influence on his own work. I can see that. Like the
Fellini film, "Sideways" and especially "About Schmidt" are rather
episodic in structure, and both films describe a personal journey by a
flawed and somewhat lost and insecure protagonist.
(Quick, somebody change the subject before this item is taken over by
esoteric film buffs! ;-)
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nharmon
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response 278 of 342:
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Feb 21 14:49 UTC 2006 |
My wife and I watched "Garden State" over the weekend. We both enjoyed it.
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tod
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response 279 of 342:
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Feb 21 16:57 UTC 2006 |
re #277
Under the Tuscan Sun had some subtle references to that movie.
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edina
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response 280 of 342:
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Feb 21 18:36 UTC 2006 |
I *love* "Under the Tuscan Sun".
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jadecat
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response 281 of 342:
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Feb 21 19:03 UTC 2006 |
Watched "The Cell" over the weekend. The hubby said it was an art
director's movie... and he was right. The concept of entering another's
mind was interesting, the plot- eh, acting... well it wasn't horrible.
The visuals? Absolutely stunning! So for that I give it a B-.
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tod
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response 282 of 342:
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Feb 21 19:07 UTC 2006 |
I think it should've been named "Menopause with Vodka Marinara"
I didn't like the WASP broad digging into everyone's private business. Had
she been a loyal neighbor, she would have put the father of Chiara into the
loop. Instead, she meddled and lied. No, no..I didn't like that movie.
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tod
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response 283 of 342:
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Feb 21 19:08 UTC 2006 |
re #281 slipped
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mcnally
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response 284 of 342:
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Feb 21 20:13 UTC 2006 |
re #279:
> Under the Tuscan Sun had some subtle references to that movie.
"subtle references"? It's mentioned several times by name. One of
the characters re-enacts a scene from the earlier movie, for goodness'
sake. What part of that is "subtle"?
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tod
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response 285 of 342:
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Feb 21 20:20 UTC 2006 |
The subtleties(sp?) are the bored socialite and the "serious" writer/deep
thinker similarities in both films. The sad difference is that nobody dies
in the end of Tuscan Sun. I'd had preferred if they all went off a cliff in
Marcello's Porsche.
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albaugh
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response 286 of 342:
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Feb 21 20:48 UTC 2006 |
> Society would not accept the relationship of Romeo and Juliet
Uh, wrong: It was about what the Montagues and Capulets wouldn't accept,
not "society". West Side Story was about inter-racial/cultural,
BM is about intra-gender.
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tod
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response 287 of 342:
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Feb 21 20:52 UTC 2006 |
BM is about cornholing
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happyboy
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response 288 of 342:
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Feb 21 23:24 UTC 2006 |
ooh raw!
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richard
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response 289 of 342:
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Feb 22 15:41 UTC 2006 |
the Montagues and Capulets REPRESENTED society
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jadecat
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response 290 of 342:
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Feb 22 16:08 UTC 2006 |
No, they were two dueling families- had either married anyone else it
would have been perfectly fine.
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tod
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response 291 of 342:
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Feb 22 17:16 UTC 2006 |
re #289
Did benvolio represent Jesus?
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richard
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response 292 of 342:
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Feb 22 18:45 UTC 2006 |
re #290 I was talking about metaphorically
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jadecat
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response 293 of 342:
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Feb 22 18:50 UTC 2006 |
resp:292 I know you were- but it's not an apt metaphor.
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gull
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response 294 of 342:
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Feb 23 03:40 UTC 2006 |
I rented Peewee's Playhouse Season 1 from Netflix. My GOD this is a
trippy show. When I originally saw it as a nine-year-old kid I didn't
really appreciate that.
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krj
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response 295 of 342:
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Feb 26 04:53 UTC 2006 |
News flash via charcat in party: GRIZZLY MAN, my favorite film of
2005, is airing on the Discovery Channel. Remaining showings this
weekend are 8 & 11 pm USA Eastern Time on Sunday.
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/grizzlyman/grizzlyman.html
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/grizzlyman/about/about.html
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eprom
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response 296 of 342:
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Feb 26 11:40 UTC 2006 |
too bad they interupt the movie ever 5 minutes for a commercial
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