Cinema Italiano

So today is Thursday, which means it's my day off, except that I have hours of reading I have to do before tomorrow. My first assignment this quarter is also due tomorrow, so that's exciting. It shouldn't be to bad really, and I already took my first quiz: 11/12--not too shabby. The quarter is rolling on. Anyway, besides reading, I have to do laundry and dishes and go grocery shopping. And the third season of How I Met Your Mother arrives today from amazon, so just how productive I will be remains yet to be seen. I think we all have a pretty good idea though where the day is going.

So in another effort to put off chores and homework, I am writing here. Anyway, the Golden Globes are almost upon us--this Sunday people! Today it also dawned on me that my reception of NBC is terrible. Sad day. But 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation return tonight! Course I won't be watching till this weekend. So last year I was so on top of the movies, it was awesome. This year, I have to battle things like school, rain, money, and parking. Still I've seen eight of the ten films nominated for Best Picture. On Monday I saw Up in the Air which I will talk about later, and yesterday I saw Nine.

So my friend Kristen asked if I didn't think Nine was contrived and full of archetypes, and my answer was yes. But Nine is a musical=contrived about muses=archetypes. It's not the best movie I've ever seen in my life, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable film. Besides it's loosely based on Fellini's classic 8 1/2. In fact I now want to see Federico Fellini's films, seven of which are in my book 1001 Movies to See Before You Die, isn't that impressive? Nine was also the march of the Oscar winners from director Rob Marshall (Chicago), it stars Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood, My Left Foot) as an Italian director, Guido, getting ready to shoot his epic ninth film Italia--the only problem is he hasn't written the script yet because he's completely burned out. The women in his life include his wife Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose), his mistress Penelope Cruz (Vicky Christina Barcelona), his mother Sophia Loren (La Ciociara), his leading lady Nicole Kidman (The Hours), his costume designer Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love), American journalist Kate Hudson (Almost Famous), and the prostitute Stacy Ferguson (no Oscar for you Fergie). Okay, so Rob Marshall and Kate Hudson didn't win Oscars either, but I thought they did until IMDb corrected me. Anyway, if I remember right everyone sang one number except Daniel Day-Lewis and Marion Cotillard who each got two songs. Daniel Day-Lewis is a brilliant actor, though not one of my favorite people, but I thought his casting was inspired. My friend Elise's favorite scene was Nicole Kidman's number "Unusual Way" which was basically the key to the entire film, and while it was very good, Kidman's singing made me think of Moulin Rouge! and Baz Luhrmann sets and Ewan McGregor, and while those are all very fine things, it took me out of the movie a little bit. Actually the striking thing is that I preferred the songs from the Oscar-less women. That may have been because Fergie and Kate Hudson had the most fun and stylized musical numbers: "Be Italian" and "Cinema Italiano" respectively. Here in fact is a trailer for Nine set to "Cinema Italiano." Kate Hudson plays a journalist from Vogue who states that style is the new content. That idea is an attractive one to me much to my own chagrin since I think it's also the idea behind so much of today's societal ills: style not content. Still, it's a very fun number and you'll be singing "Guido, Guido, Guido!"

Be Italian!

Remember my list of my favorite films of 2009? Well I need to go back and put Up in the Air at the top of the list. It is the best film I've seen this this year (or really last year?). This may sound a little surprising coming from director Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking, Juno) who also co-wrote the screenplay adapted from Walter Kim's novel, but with Up in the Air, Reitman's really found his stride. George Clooney plays Ryan, a man married to his transitory lifestyle of flying around the country where he's brought in by various companies to lay off their workers. A film mixing air travel with massive layoffs has never been so timely. Anyway, Clooney is not only an obvious choice but an inspired one since his character convinces us that he is more than satisfied with his no-strings attached lifestyle which only makes it that much more crushing when everything, inevitably, falls apart. Vera Farmigia goes toe to toe with our leading man as Alex, the charming and droll sexual interest for Ryan. Our third character is Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) who is both an idealist and a hard-nosed realist. She's a young upstart at Ryan's company who threatens his lifestyle and so is taken under his wing to show her the dirty end of their business. Along the way Ryan, and the rest of us, learn something about life, love, and how to deal in these modern times. I think it was sometime around when our three leads were discussing said subjects in the St. Louis Airport (right Rae?) that the film really took off for me and I knew I was watching something special. What's really amazing is how easy the movie could have been wrapped in cliches from stock characters including our three leads to Ryan and Natalie's boss (Jason Bateman), from Ryan's sister's frumpy, small-town wedding to Ryan's aha moment, everything is presently real and transcends cliche. Okay, so his aha moment is actually a bit cliche, still... It's also a film that raises some interesting questions but nothing is neatly resolved. With all of that said, I think Up in the Air is one of the best written, directed, and acted films this year along with being one of the smartest and funniest. Go see it!

So after I got out of Up in the Air, I returned to my car which had a parking ticket which I actually kind of expected. The ticket couldn't quite kill my mood because it was such a good movie, but sometimes I really hate Seattle which has nothing to do with the weather, though it's grey and rainy again today. See I parked in a zone I wasn't allowed to park in, but only because there is no parking in Seattle, the traffic is also an utter mess too. So driving in Seattle sucks which wouldn't be so bad if Seattle had a good public transit system. The buses are okay, but I don't live near any good routes. I mean I wouldn't want to drive in London either, but the Underground is brilliant. My citation is also at least twice what it would be in SLC, because Seattle is bloody expensive. I would hate see what California is like. First of all what kind of matinee movie ticket is called a bargain at $7.50? My grocery bill is also more than twice what it would be back in good ole Utah. Sure they pay more and there's no state income tax, which would be nice if I had a job, but I'm just throwing my student loans at sales tax. Though it's okay if I don't drive because I have no social life in Seattle. Sure I'm friends with some people in my program but with grad school and part-time jobs nobody has time to hang out, and the Seattle freeze is very, very real. See how much rage a simple parking ticket released? So lately I've decided I need to live in the Midwest. Me a gay (soon to be) librarian with a humanities background and with a taste for indie films, HBO, good wine, and craft breweries. I really shouldn't condescend to the Midwest but that's my indie films and HBO talking. Rae, Amber, and Megan, what do we think of the Midwest?

Well, I better get on with everything I need to do today, now that it's three o'clock in the afternoon. Awesome. Oh and the other two films I need to see? It's Complicated and Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire. With any luck, I'll see those this weekend before the Globes.