Entertainment

As a rule of thumb, whenever a movie review contains the words, “Rated R (for strong sexual content, nudity, language, some violence and drug use),” I’m pretty sure I’m going to like the film. And indeed I did like "Swimming Pool," our latest art flick entertainment at Salem Cinema. On the face of it, it’s one of those “repressed old maid writer unleashes her unexpressed wild side” movies, which wouldn’t make it too special. But the gorgeous Ludivine Sagnier, complete with alluring French accent and even more alluring frequent topless scenes, makes Swimming Pool special, as does the ending, about…

Meaning, this is a movie to see, because you’ll like it. Really. It is indeed all about birds, with people showing up in just a few scenes (and even then often badly, as when hunters are shown shooting down hard-working geese, gamely migrating along in their beautiful aerodynamic fashion, only to be sent into a downward death spiral for the pleasure of a few guys who think it is macho to kill a defenseless bird with a shotgun). Roger Ebert’s review contains some interesting background information about the film, which I won’t bother to repeat. “Winged Migration” has images that…

Laurel and I have been caught up in summer movie madness recently, except we haven’t gone to see any of the movies that people are mad about. No Charlie’s Angels (sexist and lacks redeeming social value, according to Laurel, which are two great reasons to see it, in my no-account opinion) . No Hulk (we agree: movies based on comic book characters are off-limits). No 2 Fast 2 Furious (nothing is more boring than movies with a car theme except the Indy 500, where cars do crash—which is interesting—but only after going around and around in ovals—which isn’t). So we’ve…

A great movie that leaves you feeling like you want to take up soccer (or, as they say in the civilized world, football) and be eighteen again. Or, at least, be eighteen again. Yes, it has a thoroughly happy ending, but you don’t see it obviously coming like the crude happy ending freight train of less skilled movies. Rather, it sneaks up on you in such a fashion that the big smiles come only at the end, and don’t stop even after you leave the theatre. “Bend it” is a soccer term (pertaining to the trajectory of a free kick,…

Another unexpectedly delicious DVD find, "Femme Fatale," a 2002 Brian de Palma film with a Hitchcockian flavor. I can’t even remember it in the theatres. It must have had a short run, probably because it is more artsy than mainstream films, and less artsy than art house films. “Tweeners” like Femme Fatale often get overlooked, which is too bad. Any movie with Rebecca-Romjin-Stamos in it deserves to be looked at, particularly the scene in the second half where she does a highly seductive bad-girl strip tease in the basement of what looks like a biker bar. Except…we theorized that any…

This was an unexpected pleasurable DVD find, made possible by the usually-reliable "two thumbs up" notice on the front cover. I don't think this movie got much notice when it was first released, which figures: it is quirky and full of great dialogue, but not much sex or violence (lots of talk about sex--little explicit action). Roger is an advertising executive who, not surprisingly, has a way with words, and a way of using words to seduce women. The only problem is that he falls prey to his own bullshit and can't separate his malarkey from his real self--assuming he…

Should have gone with my heart, "Bowling for Columbine," rather than calculating, "they'd never vote for Michael Moore"...would have won with 11 picks, rather than tying with Laurel and one other person who also had 10 at Jim Ramsey's traditional vegetarian AA potluck...regardless, 10 or 11 is still pretty pathetic; my sister and brother-in-law report they got 16 and 17 respectively, ending up the top two at their AA get-together...congratulations! though don't I recall you saying, Carol Ann, that you do advance research on the Internet, checking out the projected winners from various sources, and then averaging them all together?...doesn't…

Having just seen Adaptation, we were pleased that Chris Cooper and Meryl Streep got supporting actor/actress awards for their roles in this great movie. Not being familiar with Cooper, I was astounded to see a old (meaning, about my age) white-haired guy go up on stage to get his award--never would have recognized him as the largely-toothless good old southern boy orchid hunter he played in Adaptation. One of the best lines in this movie, or at least one of the few lines we remember: "It's what you love that matters, not what loves you." So, pursue your passion, and…

This was last night's enterainment at Salem Cinema, where the newly installed seats add a lot to our viewing enjoyment. Plus, you can drink a cup of decent coffee and eat some almost-healthy popcorn (probably truly healthy if you get the brewer's yeast option). Last time we went, before this, the owner made a nice little speech before the movie about the new seats, and how much she appreciated everyone's support over the years, and please turn off your cell phones, but if you don't, everyone in the theater should feel free to scream at you when the ringer goes…

A great movie, absolutely, and our most recent DVD entertainment. I can only wish that I live to see a future in which you get to drive cars up and down the sides of buildings, as well as on futuristic freeways. And I loved how Tom Cruise, et. al, controlled computers with their fingertips. If I could control this damn crash-a-holic Windows XP piece of crap operating system with a sledgehammer (hmmm...not a bad idea, now that I think about it) I'd be happy. I enviously noted that throughout the entire nearly three hour movie the sophisticated computers seemed to…

We watched this movie on DVD last night, and ended up with the familiar art film feeling of, "Ah, that was interesting, though not particularly pleasant; now we're even more confident that life has no answers, as if we didn't know that before." It is always refreshing, though, to have a movie end with all the loose ends still flapping, rather than tying them up tidily like Hollywood usually does. And the theme, happiness, can't be beat. Who ever gets tired of trying to figure out this happiness thing? Having written a book called "Life is Fair" (published non-commercially in…

One mere minute after posting the "13 Conversations" message below, in which I pondered questions about happiness, I opened up an email from my sister that contains the answers. Well, maybe. Carol Ann thought this column by Mark Morford from SF Gate.com sounded like me, maybe because it is titled, "Resolutions For The Damned For 2003: More veggies, louder orgasms and, of course, defy ShrubCo at every possible turn" Yeah, as a verbose vegetarian liberal I'm in favor of all three, so she's right. Most of the piece will irritate Bush-lovers, but the ending bits of advice hold true for…