The Button Down Blog

It’s A Wonderful Life

Matt Algren — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:21:05 +0000

I finally saw It’s A Wonderful Life last week. I opted out years ago in protest of Ted Turner’s colorized version, and then it just annoyed me when it was on 24 hours a day throughout December in the 1990s. By the time that ended, not having seen it had become a test of wills; Matt vs. The World, Christmas edition. But I’ve finally decided that it’s time to finally see this classic film and find out what the fuss is all about.

Of course, I already knew most of the story. You can’t get away from it that absolutely; after all, the story’s been re-used several times. The fun was watching the details that haven’t made it into the cultural database.

The first two thirds of the movie was pretty darn good. I appreciated how George Bailey had grand plans that kept getting interrupted by his sense of duty to others. He didn’t get to college, he didn’t get a honeymoon, he didn’t get to have a lot of money or go to cities around the world or do anything he’d planned. Instead he compromised, and compromised, and compromised.

Not that that’s a bad thing. That’s just the way life happens sometimes.

I wasn’t feeling the last third of the movie, though. From the time Clarence hit the ground on, it took a turn that was a bit too optimistic for me, and a bit narcissistic. I mean, according to Clarence’s reality, no other boy could have saved George’s brother, and Mary would have turned into an old maid who couldn’t possibly have found another mate, and nobody in the world would have stood up to old Mr. Potter. Et cetera.

I’m only half serious here; I’m well aware of the limited message that Frank Capra was trying to give. And while it’s a little heavy handed for me, I do understand the appeal of that message, especially at Christmastime. Regardless, it was all worth it for the scene between George Bailey and his daughter Zuzu. That was a sweet moment.

And of course, without It’s A Wonderful Life, we wouldn’t have The Lost Ending to It’s A Wonderful Life.

Merry Christmas, movie house!

New Andrew Peterson Album Another Must Have

Matt Algren — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:42:06 +0000

I’ve been a pretty big fan of Andrew Peterson for awhile now, previously commenting here on his book. But it’s his day job as a singer/songwriter that originally pulled me in. The honesty in his lyrics is such a refreshing change from the run-of-the-mill bad Christianity-and-water soft rock that radio stations like K-LOVE play. It’s not just the lyrics that set him apart, though. There’s an artfulness in his music that has become rare in standard mass-produced radio-ready three-chord Christian music.

Well, Peterson has a new album out. Resurrection Letters: Volume II is a loosely connected collection of songs about sacrifice. (Volume I is tentatively set to release sometime in 2009 and will focus specifically on Holy Week and Easter.)

Rather than yammering on about each track, I’ve decided to crib episode 5 of the Rabbit Room podcast, in which Peterson plays an edited version of each track, adding commentary on each. It’s 35 minutes long, so get a cupajoe, plug in your headphones, and give it a listen.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Probably my favorite track on Resurrection Letters: Volume II is the second. When I got the album, I was especially struck by the arrangement of Hosanna (Thanks to Ben Shive for writing those strings!). It was only five or six weeks later that I really listened to the words. This excerpt is a great example of Andrew Peterson lyrics.

I have struggled to remove this raiment,
Tried to hide every shimmering strand.
I contend with these ghosts and these hosts of bright angels.
Hosanna.

I have cursed the man that you have made me.
I have nursed the beast that bays for my blood.
Oh, I have run from the one who would save me.
Save me, Hosanna.

You can purchase Resurrection Letters: Volume II from any major music retailer such as amazon.com or over at the Rabbit Room store (CD or download).

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Matt Algren — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:31:49 +0000

An Alfred Hitchcock film today, this one a remake of a film he’d made 22 years earlier. The Man Who Knew Too Much stars Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day, in a rare dramatic role. They are Ben and Jo McKenna, on vacation with their son in Morocco in the 1950s. After a series of seemingly innocent encounters, Ben is given a piece of information that puts the entire family in jeopardy.

Hitchcock is amazing. Even today’s directors don’t hold a candle to his skill. Here we have a mystery with clues flying all over the place as the audience follows Ben and Jo around. But there isn’t enough information to know the good guys from the bad, and the audience is left to try (unsuccessfully) to piece it all together.

At this point Hitchcock does something that most filmmakers won’t. At just the right time, as the tension is becoming unbearable, he veers from the lead characters’ perspective and gives the audience an additional bit of information. He did it in Rear Window when the audience watches a woman leave the neighbor’s apartment while Jeffries sleeps, sure that she’s been murdered. In The Man Who Knew Too Much, Hitchcock takes us to the kidnappers, where we learn exactly when in a piece of music a man will be killed. He points out which instrument to watch and lets us hear a recording several times to make sure we’ve got it.

Then he drops us back into the lead characters’ lap, where we find our place in the viewing fundamentally changed. We aren’t following them around as they search for clues anymore, we’re trying to lead them around hoping they figure out what we already know in time to stop a murder. Hitchcock has made us active participants, powerless to do anything but watch in horror.

Jimmy Stewart is wonderful as the clumsy and confused doctor put completely out of his element without the first idea of what to do. It’s an intriguing series of events that leads to the meat of the story, and Stewart is an exceptional choice for getting the audience there without realizing it.

Doris Day (below) does an impressive job, especially given the departure this was from her usual light-and-fluffy comedies. I wouldn’t call her acting revolutionary, but she’s certainly charming in the role, and especially effective near the beginning when her husband is dismissive of her suspicions.

This is brilliant film making. It’s not my favorite Hitchcock (that still belongs to Rear Window), but still great.

Neil Patrick Harris Still Dreamy and Awesome

Matt Algren — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:47:29 +0000

Remember back in June when I talked about how remarkably awesome Neil Patrick Harris is? Remember Dr. Horrible, the internet sensation starring Neil Patrick Harris? Ooh, and what about the 75% real / 25% scary-put-on internet crush that I have on him?

Yeah, well he’s still great. So great, in fact, that Entertainment Weekly just put him on their list of 2008 Entertainers of the Year. While I raise an eyebrow to his spot on the list and that terrible picture they used, the fact that he’s on the list at all is tremendous and well deserved. The fact that they never mentioned that Neil is gay is pretty darn cool. He’s popular, he’s mainstream, and he’s gay. Here’s a video he made for Entertainment Weekly.

So great that he’s certain to make the Out100. (Images in this post are from the photo shoot Neil did for Out magazine earlier this year. Click them to embiggen.) The ceremony is Friday night, and I’ll be updating this post once his place on the list is released.

Update: Well, the Out100 came out and Neil’s not on the list. Why, I don’t know. I also don’t know why Kate friggin’ Perry would top the list. But never mind. EW beats OUT any day.

As promised in June, I’ve start catching up on How I Met Your Mother, and I’m currently one DVD away from finishing Season 2. It’s not a perfect show, but it’s certainly better than much of the current crop of sitcoms. Surprising no one, the best part of the show is Neil Patrick Harris. (Pay no attention to my bias.)

I’m sure he won’t manage by some freak of happenstance make it to my tiny blog twice, but just in case:

Neil? Keep standing tall. You make us proud.

2008 Presidential Election in Two Images

Matt Algren — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:32:19 +0000

I’m biased, but I think these images capture the essence of the candidates pretty well:

Bonus Image:

An Open Letter To Matt’s Alarm Clock

Matt Algren — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:14:26 +0000

Dear Matt’s Alarm Clock,

We haven’t known each other long, you and I. Just this summer I noticed that my old alarm clock was losing a few minutes a week and since it was a good ten years or so old, I figured it was time for a new one. I found you and fell instantly in love. Nice big speakers, a port for my iPod. Even though your LED display is so bright I have to put something in front of it to sleep, I think we’ve gotten along well. Don’t you agree?

So it is with heavy heart that I must write you about the incident we experienced last weekend.

One thing you’ve learned about me, Matt’s Alarm Clock, is my propensity for lateness. Curse your snooze button! (j/k) Well, the autumnal change from Daylight Saving Time is my one day of reprieve from that. On DST Day (as I like to call it) I can count on being on time for church for a change. Early, even.

Every year I look forward to turning my alarm clock back an hour and giggling as I fall asleep, resting assured that I’ll either get an extra hour of sleep or my internal clock will awaken me early in the morning.

And so it was this year. I changed your time, remembering to go back an hour (a common mistake). When I awoke, it wasn’t even 8:00 yet, so I lounged around for an hour and a half before getting ready for church. At 9:30, the time clearly indicated by your display, as I got ready for a shower I looked at my new cell phone and noticed that it showed 10:30.

Thinking that it hadn’t gotten the update from the tower, I turned it off, waited a few minutes, and turned it back on. Now it was 10:34. I checked the internet. 10:35. WHAT? HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?!?

It wasn’t until later in the day that I realized that you must set yourself for DST Day, and that you were two hours back instead of one, causing all sorts of confusion and frustration in my life. I was 30 minutes late because of your self-setting ‘feature’ that you didn’t bother to remind me about!!!

Consider yourself on notice, mister.

Just five more minutes,
Matt

Scary Roller Coaster Is Scary

Matt Algren — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:10:28 +0000

I posted last September about a trip to King's Island (an amusement park in Cincinnati, Ohio), and included a picture of me scared out of my wits on a children’s roller coaster. It’s a trip my sisters and I take our nephews on every year. Our oldest sister had to leave with her son home before the picture was taken last year. (He was a half inch too short anyway.)

This year, the three of us with all of the boys were able to ride the Fairly Odd Coaster together, and through the magic of overpriced amusement park ride portraits we have a picture of all six of us in one shot.

Repeating what I said last year: It’s a really, really scary ride. Swear to gald.

LG Dare Completes Matt’s Life

Matt Algren — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 21:13:18 +0000

Okay, maybe that’s overstating it a little bit, but I’ve had my LG Dare ¹ for a couple months now, and I’m still digging it.

Overall, the design is well executed with the necessary buttons placed intuitively. From what I understand the Dare is a bit thicker than the iPhone, but that’s not a major concern for me. There’s a nice weight to the phone, which is one of the things I’ve always loved about LG products. My last phone felt like a toy, so this is a nice change.

Measuring 3″ diagonally and 240×400 pixels, the Dare’s touch screen is exceptionally responsive. Initially, I was concerned about not having an actual bank of buttons other than the virtual ones, but LG has offset that with vibratory feedback with each screen touch. The vibration strength is customizable, allowing me to set it where I need it. They’ve also given the option of audible response, but after a few days getting used to the phone, I found that unnecessary. Another nice feature is the virtual QWERTY keyboard that pops up when you turn the phone horizontally. It’s a must for texting or browsing online.

One of the major draws of the LG Dare is the phone’s phenomenal digital camera. It comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera complete with a Schneider-Kreutznach certified lens ², face detection, flash, optional manual ISO adjustment, face detection, multi-shot mode, and Smart Pic technology. The maximum image size is a whopping 2048×1536. The most disappointing surprise, considering all these features, is the lack of a simple lens cover. I’m not sure why that was omitted, but it’s a major error.

The Dare also comes with some fairly advanced on-board image editing capabilities, but I found them unnecessary, and have only used the feature a couple times. It’s much easier to download the image to a PC and edit there.

The most glaring feature omission is the lack of access to Verizon’s Mobile TV service. Rumor is that there was a design problem with the touch-only interface, but Motorola’s release of a touch-only phone that does include optional mobile TV capabilities would seem to indicate that the problem has been overcome. Hopefully we’ll see a software update in the near future to correct the lack of access.

While the phone can’t get Mobile TV, it does allow access to Verizon’s V-Cast pre-recorded video service. I’ve found the feature quite helpful, though the quality of video is understandably low. That said, V-Cast’s video quality is miles ahead of the quality from Youtube. It’s nice to have some access to video content, but holy cow is it ever low quality. (Part of the problem, of course, may be my location. I’m hardly in a major metropolitan area.)

The biggest problem I have with my LG Dare is the browser. It flat out sucks. I don’t expect PC capabilities, but the internet experience is dismal. Verizon only permits firmware on their phones (though that’s scheduled to change next year), so the we’re stuck with the Teleca Obigo Q7.0-1.3. It’s technically a full HTML browser, but response time and scrolling capabilities are unimpressive at best. The phone’s capable of aping the iPhone’s ‘flicking’ response in other programs (address book, V-Cast), so why isn’t that possible within the browser? Especially on longer pages, the endless inch-by-inch scrolling is maddening. And for some reason LG has included a standard font that doesn’t render properly. Apostrophes, quotation marks, and sometimes colons are rendered as spaces.

The other major aggravation with the phone’s browser is the handling of cookies and browser history, and to be honest, I don’t know if it’s a fault of the browser or the phone. All I know is that if I log in to a message board I register as logged out within three clicks. Same goes for other functions that require a log in, though rendering in mobile mode rather than full HTML seem to work better, presumably since the page isn’t using as much memory. I’ve seen several hacks to get around the deficiency, but honestly, I don’t trust myself to make them. One that I was surprised to find out isn’t possible is to reroute the cookie handling and browser history to an sd chip that could handle the amount of data.

Finally, some blessed soul’s put up an LG Dare icon-based homepage creator, and I’ve found that to be a nice alternative from the Favorites list that isn’t customizable or re-orderable. Find it here. He gets you started with over a hundred common preset icons , but you could always make your own.

The LG Dare is a darn good phone, even with my complaints. From what I’ve heard, it’s no iPhone killer, but for my money it’s a good substitute. If they’d work out these flaws, LG’d have a true winner on their hands.

Oh, and you can use it to call people, too.

¹ Before anybody asks, yes, I wanted an iPhone, but I needed to switch to Verizon to take advantage of an employee discount. ⇧
² They tell me that’s good. ⇧

An Open Letter to Freezer Cake Sales Giant Sara Lee

Matt Algren — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:26:42 +0000

Dear Freezer Cake Sales Giant Sara Lee,

It’s not often that I write to companies that sell freezer cakes, but I was at the grocer’s last week and saw something in the freezer section that I almost couldn’t believe. I’m talking, of course, about your Sara Lee Cheesecake Bites.

I just stood there for a moment, standing a little bit on tip-toe, mouth agape as I tried to process the taste sensation that must accompany such a wonderful confection. My hand started to shake and my knees buckled in anticipation as I opened the freezer and reached in to pick out my container of frozen joy.

That’s when I realized that there was more than one variety. You don’t just make original Cheesecake Bites. You also make Strawberry Cheesecake Bites and Chocolate Cheesecake Bites. That’s just ridiculous!

Well, Sara Lee, it’ll come as no surprise to you that I picked the Chocolate Cheesecake Bites. You’ve known me long enough to know that chocolate is my anti-drug. I took the container to the checkout area, and the cashier asked where I found them because she wanted to get some too. She took my money and I managed to drive home before I opened the container.

It’s at this point that I get a tad emotional. It’s not often that a food that could have been custom made just for me. It’s as if you knocked on the door of my dreams and found my best hopes and warmest fuzzies, and spun the glories that you found there into little bits of digestible heaven.

So thank you, Sara Lee. Thank you for creating the best food since God Himself sent manna from heaven. If you were here (and a dude), I would totally open mouth kiss you to within an inch of your life.

Never mind the saturated fats,
Matt

The Third Man

Matt Algren — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:38:53 +0000

I hadn’t even heard of The Third Man until Netflix told me I’d like it. I decided to give it a shot. I mean, it’s got Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten from Citizen Kane, and the reviews are pretty darn positive, so there must be something to it.

Fortunately for Netflix (we’re still on the outs since The Treasure of the Sierra Madre), I liked The Third Man quite a lot. The zither music throughout the film set it apart as a film, and I was delighted at what I saw. (BTW, it’s rated A for Adults.)

Set during the post-World War II occupation of Vienna, the film follows American author Holly Martins (played by Joseph Cotten, below) as he tries to figure out how his friend died. Before long, Holly is caught up in a web of lies so complex that even the audience isn’t sure if he’s right.

And that’s the film’s first success. Before I got the DVD I knew that the accident that killed Harry Lime, and even the fact that he died, was in question. I also knew that the part of Harry Lime (what a great name) was played by Orson Welles, so Harry would obviously be making an appearance. Still, I found myself questioning everything right along with Holly. Was Harry murdered? And by whom? For what reason?

Alida Valli, the actress who played Harry’s love interest Anna, has a haunting, troubled beauty. She knows things as they are, not as she wishes them to be. In occupied Vienna, she knows that things like the black market and forged papers are necessary. But with American ideals that see the city from across the ocean, Holly would claim that morality is binary; either a thing is right or it is wrong.

The occupying forces, of course, agree with Holly. They’re bringing Vienna back from the brink of barbarism, and their rules are there for a reason. What they cannot see, or at least cannot acknowledge, is that their laws may work when looking at the grand scheme, but also crush the people with their rigidity.

Major Calloway and Sergeant Paine (pictured above) are, then, in an impossible position. They’re the middlemen who see the hardship on the street while also seeing the ideal being propped up. They understand why people must circumvent legal means of trade, but see the importance of shutting down the black market.

And that’s where Harry Lime comes in. Harry is the underbelly of the black market personified. He’s in Vienna to make a buck, plain and simple. If someone gets hurt in the process, then that’s just the price we pay for society’s advancement.

This is what makes The Third Man successful. It’s a seemingly simple problem, but writer Graham Greene and director Carol Reed present it within a story of intrigue that both complicates and finally answers it with a breathtaking chase through the sewers of Vienna and a long walk after a funeral.

Dark and humorous, beautiful and cynical, this classic noir is a film of contradiction. Give it a look and see if you agree.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Matt Algren — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:06:56 +0000

With apologies, this is easily the shortest review I’ve written. It’s just that I don’t have much to say about this one.

I saw The Treasure of the Sierra Madre last weekend. I was mostly unimpressed by the experience. I’m not sure if I was just in the wrong mood, but I felt like it was just standard 1940s movie fare. Pretty heavy handed on the moral lesson, a bit over-the-top on the performances, overbearing music, the whole nine.

It’s not that Humphrey Bogart or Tim Holt (above, for example) gave a bad performance, it’s just that it was so obvious how it was going to turn out. I guess there’s only so much you can do with “Hey, I’m a swell guy.” “Gold’ll change you!” “Hey, I’m a bad guy now because of gold.” “Told you.”

I never knew where the “stinking badges” line came from, so it was fun to have it sneak up on me. That was the best part of the film for me. Well, that and Walter Huston’s little jig.

His Oscar-winning little jig.

All in all, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre only ended up rating mediocre for me. Better luck next time, John Huston.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Matt Algren — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:59:23 +0000

Warning: This review contains a major spoiler, so if you don’t want to know what happens in the last ten minutes turns out, turn back now.

I actually enjoyed The Heart is a Lonely Hunter for most of the movie. It had the right mix of quirky and earnest to suit my tastes. It’s the story of a deaf man (Alan Arkin, below) who is waiting to gain legal guardianship of another deaf man who is also mentally challenged and committed to a mental hospital.

While he waits for permission to remove his friend from the hospital, we follow him as he gets acquainted with the town he’s moved to. We meet a middle aged couple dealing with financial hardship, a teenage girl afraid to dream, a drunken drifter, a black doctor looking back on a lifetime of choices, and the doctor’s daughter, who has a tenuous relationship with her father.

The film has a great cast, including Cicily Tyson, Stacy Keach, and Sondra Locke. I even recognized the second deaf man as Tinker Jones from the first season of Little House on the Prairie ¹, so that was cool. Even with this cast, though, I don’t think The Heart is a Lonely Hunter lived up to its potential.

Maybe it was the change of era from the book’s 1930s to the late 1960s. The financial problems would have been a lot more potent set against the Great Depression. Other parts of the story would have made more sense in the original setting, too. The institutionalized racism shown in the doctor’s subplot were interesting and germane to the times, but I wonder if his story would have benefited from being set before the Civil Rights movement.

There were also problems with the direction. It had that late 1960s loosey-goosey ‘that’s good enough’ feel to it. It reminded me of the direction in Sybil, though in that case the failure wasn’t fatal. Here, I just kept wondering if they couldn’t have given each scene one more shot.

But the biggest problem I had with The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was in the last ten minutes. It’s going along, and going along, and a bunch of disconnected things are happening, and I’m waiting for all the storylines to join into one, and hey isn’t that drifter going to return soon, and then Alan Arkin kills himself and the end. Muh-wha? Excuse me?

I just about threw the remote at the TV.

If I were handing out opinions about what film you should see (which, come to think of it, I am!), I’d skip The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Maybe see it for Alan Arkin, because he’s truly wonderful in the role. And the doctor’s story is kind of poignant. Otherwise, it’s a pass.

¹ And yes, I remembered the character’s name without looking it up. Such is my love for the first season of Little House. ⇧

(Thanks to DVD Beaver for today’s screencap.)

…you might be a redneck.

Matt Algren — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 04:30:16 +0000

I was driving home from church yesterday and saw the strangest thing. I just had to capture the moment for posterity.

You can’t tell from this angle, but the toilet wasn’t exactly in “mint condition”, if you know what I mean.

Hello, Dolly!

Matt Algren — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:26:16 +0000

I’ve wanted to see this film ever since I saw WALL•E in the theater. Several of the songs from Hello, Dolly! are used in that one, and I was curious to see the source material. I saw it as a stage production, but that was 20 years ago in high school¹, so it was fun to see it and almost remember some of the songs.

What a fun movie. From the opening sequence of people’s shoes walking in time to the music, it had me under its spell. Jerry Herman’s Oscar winning score is light and effortless in its expression of unadulterated joy. I’m not the biggest Barbra Streisand fan, but she is marvelous as Dolly. Her voice is impeccable, and she owns the music.

Of course, Barbra isn’t the only star. Michael Crawford (above) is convincing as Cornelius, a man-child who’s never left Yonkers to explore the big city. He has a Dick Van Dyke-ish quality in his performance. It grates after awhile, but he does it well. With totally-not-gay-life partner Barnaby, Cornelius makes his way to New York City to find a couple of fag hags women to kiss².

Walter Matthau serves as leading man, and honestly, his performance is the weakest link in Hello, Dolly! for me. Sourpuss was Matthau’s stock-and-trade, but here he is so sour that I couldn’t figure out why Dolly would be so enamored with him.

You can definitely see director Gene Kelly’s fingerprints all over it, and Michael Kidd’s choreography meshes wonderfully with the music. The whole production is just BIG, and not just in scenes like the big parade. Even the smaller sets have a bigness to them. When set against its time (1969, when Midnight Cowboy won best picture and anti-war protests were common), Hello, Dolly! stands out as a statement of defiant optimism.

And that’s an optimism that we need to see again. Take another look at Hello, Dolly! and remind yourself of the prosperity of spirit that should accompany our daily lives. Then watch it again so you don’t forget.

¹ Upon realization that it had been 20 years since I was a high school sophomore, I curled into a fetal position and slowly rocked back and forth for about an hour. ⇧
² Oh, come on. They spend the night in the cellar together. Cornelious is 28 years old and he’s never kissed a girl. They’re going to show the girls the town “from top to bottom” then take them to a ballroom dancing competition. They may as well as have had pitcher/catcher shirts on! ⇧

Blog Neglect

Matt Algren — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:02:48 +0000

I’ve been neglecting the Button Down Blog for the last couple weeks. It’s a combination of things, really. For one, I’ve been getting my other blog up and running. It focuses on religion, politics, and being a big ‘mo. If you’re interested in my perspective on those things, you should check it out.

Also, it’s been unbelievably nice out, unseasonably so, and I’m having trouble sitting still for two hours to watch a movie. Hopefully the weather will turn shitty in the next couple of days and I can get back to it. Fingers crossed.

Till then, here’s another blog you should check out. Shorpy.com is a photoblog that presents old (very old) photographs in high definition. Lots of wonderful stuff to look at the good (and not-so-good) old days gone by. The photograph I’ve posted below is my favorite. It’s my desktop wallpaper. Click on it to go to the (very) large version at Shorpy.

Gone Baby Gone

Matt Algren — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:31:22 +0000

I was a bit skeptical last year when people started raving about Ben Affleck’s first directorial work. I’m not exactly in the “HE SUX!” camp, but he doesn’t exactly have the most distinguished record in front of the camera. But with Gone Baby Gone he more than got himself out of the doghouse.

Gone Baby Gone is the story of private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro (Casey Affleck and Michelle Monoghan, below) as they search for a missing four-year-old. Based on the novel from author Dennis Lehane (#4 in a series, from what I gather), the first half seems almost straightforward in execution, almost Law & Order–esque¹.

Then, somewhere in the middle, the emphasis went from the dramatic aspect to the thriller, with a pinch of character piece for good measure. It went from being about the missing little girl to a fascinating series of questions, each leading to the next, all of them exploring what happened around her abduction.

But the film succeeds on more than just plot. The performances are stellar. Ed Harris has an intensity that one would expect from a Boston police investigator. I loved his scene alone with Casey Affleck. Very powerful stuff. And Morgan Freeman was used sparingly, but he owned every scene he was in.

Amy Ryan (above, with Harris) turned in a stunningly honest performance as Helene McCready, mother of the missing girl. Putting aside her perfect accent, she was completely believable in the role. From her early flippancy to later when Helene finally understands the gravity of the situation, she totally sold it. She is the coke ho, in a totally appropriate way. (And she doesn’t really look like that. She’s breathtaking in real life.)

But really, Gone Baby Gone belongs to the Affleck Brothers. Ben surprised just about everybody with his directorial vision. For starters, he had a difficult story on his hands, done in two acts rather than the standard three, which added some potential for failure. Also, I loved his use of local folks as extras in their native Boston (specifically, Dorchester), firmly rooting the film in reality.

By far my favorite scene was (how do I do this without giving something away?) the one in the bathroom. I didn’t see it coming², and the choice to shoot it as if it were a traumatic memory, with the slow drumbeat in the background slowly fading out as it passed, was insanely effective. Just wonderful.

Casey Affleck, who I loved in The Assassination of Jesse James, outdoes that performance with Gone Baby Gone’s detective struggling with issues of morality and duty. I totally believed him as he worked his way through the complex web of deception, and his performance in the aforementioned bathroom scene was (I’m running out of adjectives) stunning. (I do wish he’d get the marbles out of his mouth, though.)

Of course, now we come to the question that everyone asks after they’ve seen this film: Do you think he was right? I’ve heard arguments from both sides, and I can say without reservation, he absolutely did the right thing.

Both times.

¹ Almost! I said almost! ⇧
² I literally gasped and held my hand in front of my mouth for a good five minutes. ⇧

We’ve moved! Again!

Matt Algren — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:45:53 +0000

The Button Down Blog has moved, and hopefully you didn’t even notice! Say what you will about the political junk behind the scenes at WordPress, but moving the blog from one domain to another was almost painless. If I were keeping the old domain forever it would’ve taken about ten seconds to make the change. Literally.

Since I’ll be releasing ownership of the old digs in six months or so, I had to do some additional work porting stuff over to the new digs. But it was still almost painless, and now the name matches the address. W00t!

The only reason you’d notice any difference is if you’ve subscribed to my rss feed, in which case you got a nice sized dump of all the moved posts in your feed reader. Sorry, couldn’t be helped.

Anyway, as you were. Nothing to see here. We’ll be back tomorrow with a review of Gone Baby Gone.

An Open Letter to Matt’s Minister

Matt Algren — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:12:47 +0000

Dear Matt’s Minister,

Last week I watched with interest as a new bishop was elected for our jurisdiction. (Church politics have become so interesting to me. Just understanding the inner workings of the conference system of the United Methodist Church is a challenge.)

Judging from the vote counts throughout the two days, it’s petty clear that the issue of human sexuality played a major part in the deliberations, at one point leading to a standoff between supporters of Greg Stover (on the board of directors for the so-called Confessing group) and David Bard (pastor of a Reconciling Congregation). While neither of them was elected, the election was marred by the struggle for a statement about homosexuality.

It seems like I’m always giving you a reason to sweat, but…

Several weeks ago you preached on Ecclesiastes 3, including the verse that says that there is “a time to be silent and a time to speak”. Dr. Bard lost because he wore my colors while I sat quietly in my pew. My time for being silent has past. I’m not about to disrupt worship services, but beginning Sunday I’ll be wearing this lapel pin whenever I’m at church and will engage people if/when the question arises.

Just an FYI in case you get some backlash.

-Matt

As I was getting this post copied in from my email (yes, I really did send it to him, and no, it’s not enough), my rss reader served up a new post from the Reconciling Ministries Network Official Blog.

All is not lost. All is not well, but it’s not lost either.

(Note: I’ll be starting a separate blog for these kind of posts in the very near future. I’ve been thinking about doing that, and I have five or six unpublished posts that don’t fit here ready to go, so it’s time to get it started. We’ll return you to your regularly scheduled blog shortly.)

Dr. Horrible: Peace (Not Literally)

Matt Algren — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:26:14 +0000

You’ve heard of Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, right? It’s an Internet only project from Joss Whedon about a supervillain who wants to rule the world, but is constantly thwarted by his arch nemesis Captain Hammer and secret crush Penny. There are three acts to this comedy/drama/musical, all of which have now been released and are available for FREE at DrHorrible.com for a very limited time.

All episodes will be pulled at midnight this Sunday, so hurry over and watch. It’s darn good stuff, especially if you have an internet crush on Neil Patrick Harris, which I do. But it’s still good even if you don’t for some weird reason. Great comedy, touching drama, impressive music, the whole nine. Plus it’s got NPH. Did I mention that already?

Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog also stars Nathan Fillion (of Firefly, Serenity, and Desperate Housewives fame) as Captain Hammer and Felicia Day (of Internet Sensation The Guild) as Penny.

Now go! Hurry up! And if you don’t get there in time, it’s also available for purchase at iTunes and later (according to rumors) on DVD. But for now, it’s FREE!

Gladiator

Matt Algren — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:36:47 +0000

A quickie today. I saw the much lauded film Gladiator a few weeks ago, and I’ve been putting off reviewing it because honestly, I don’t have that much to say about it. I went in with (somewhat) high expectations, what with it being the Oscar darling of 2000, but I have to admit that I was pretty disappointed with the entire film.

The whole movie just seemed…obvious. There was no question at the beginning that they would win the battle, that something would happen to get Maximus (Russell Crowe) to eventually be the titular¹ Gladiator, so the first section of the film almost seemed like a waste of time.

Of course, there’s more to a movie than just going from point A to point B, but I didn’t find the characters that engaging either. Richard Harris was the standout actor, and he died fairly early on. (oops, that’s a spoiler) Jaoquin Phoenix and Connie Nielson were serviceable in their roles, but they weren’t given much to work with. And Russell Crowe does a fine grousing reluctant leader, but I was hoping for more depth in his role than that.

I’m not saying it was a bad film; it just didn’t rise to the level of majesty that I think Ridley Scott was going for. It was all supposed to be Very Very Important, and it just didn’t work for me. The almost generic Important Movie Score, the golden glow cast over the every image (with the exception of the first battle, which got a bluish glow) seemed too calculated for me to get emotionally involved.

As I say, I was pretty disappointed.

¹ *snicker* ⇧

Independence Day

Matt Algren — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:41:45 +0000

A bit late for the July 4th celebration (totally Netflix’s fault), I finally saw the film Independence Day. This is one of those popcorn movies that I don’t generally like all that much, but I figured I’d give it a shot and I’m glad I did. There’s plenty wrong with the movie, but there’s plenty right about it too.

Independence Day, for those who haven’t seen it, is the story of aliens coming to Earth bent on destruction and how we (led by the Americans, of course) defeated them. There’s barely more to the plot, but that’s the gist of it.

This is one of those times when I really think the director (Roland Emmerich in this case) made a pretty good movie in spite of himself. ¹ What I mean is that the faults were pretty outstanding. So many of the characters were just paper-thin caricatures, so many story points depended on unbelievable coincidence that I found my eyebrow furrowing in derision pretty often. And there were so many ham-fisted performances!

Harvey Fierstein’s endless prancing across the screen, Brent Spiner’s “Look how wacky I am!” mad scientist, Randy Quaid acting drunk (poorly) for most of the movie, Bill Pullman talking all gravely voiced for no good reason, Judd Hirsch being the stereotype Jew, James Rebhorn as the mustache twisting Secretary of Defense, Jeff Goldblum as the smartypants recycling guy… The list goes on and on.

Don’t get me wrong, the positives outweigh the negatives in this case. I was actually impressed with most of the CGI. It’s almost revolutionary for its day. I appreciated that we didn’t actually see the aliens for quite some time, helping to build the tension until we finally did see them. While the bringing together of the different players was a bit clumsy, once they were assembled it seemed to work. And the final battle was laid out pretty well.

Some of the actors did a pretty good job in spite of their direction. Will Smith brought his A-game, and was one of the more three-dimensional characters, stripper girlfriend or no stripper girlfriend. Jeff Goldblum turned in a (I can’t believe I’m typing this) decent performance in the last hour of the movie. In fact, one of the highlights for me was Smith and Goldblum’s scene in the alien craft. Their interaction was believable, their individual reactions to space travel were distinct and honest to the characters.

So what sets Independence Day apart from other popcorn action flicks like [cref 338]? Why is this one good when that one (for example) was so very bad, especially since they have so much in common? The only answers I can come up with are that the actors elevated the project, and while both were studio-driven, Independence Day seemed a little less conscious of it.

All in all, a good movie. A little on the long side, a bit brainless for my usual tastes, but I can overlook its faults and understand why it was such a blockbuster in its day. I’m not sure if I’d see it again, but it would be interesting to see it in a full theater.

¹ A quick look at his filmography bears that out. Since 1996, Emmerich has made 1998’s Godzilla, The Patriot, The Day After Tomorrow, and 10,000 BC. Hardly a winning lineup. ⇧

WALL•E: Believe the Buzz

Matt Algren — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:11:52 +0000

I rarely see a movie in the theater. Now that DVDs are released so soon after the film’s premiere, I have even less reason to go spend $20 at a theater. But when I saw the first ad for WALL•E, I knew this was one I’d have to see on the big screen. So after hearing raves from several friends, I decided to catch a late Saturday showing.

Oh. Man. Am I ever glad I didn’t wait.

The first 20-30 minutes are dialogue-free, as WALL•E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) goes about his lonesome daily routine, collecting and compacting trash, keeping interesting relics for the home he makes with his trusty cockroach sidekick. Director Andrew Stanton and his production team from Pixar spent a lot of time and energy getting the pantomime just right. The result is magical.

When a spaceship lands with EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), WALL•E immediately falls in love, while EVE remains focused on her mission. Through a long series of events that I shan’t spoil here, EVE and WALL•E wind up on the humans’ spaceship, where they quickly become outlaws for reasons that (again) I’ll leave for you to find out at the theater. Just trust me that it’s great, okay?

Need proof? Okay, see that picture up there? It’s the future and there are both capes and robots! And Fred Freaking Willard appears as the CEO of Buy N Large, the Wal-Mart-esque super-mega-corp, second only to Try N Save in fake store naming! Also, taco shakes for dinner, which I’m not entirely convinced would be such a great thing.

WALL•E has action, it has humor, it has drama (seriously, bring the tissues), but more importantly, it has a heart. Two songs from musical Hello, Dolly! (“Put on Your Sunday Clothes” and “It Only Takes a Moment”) are crucial to the development of the plot. Kudos to 20th Century Fox for allowing Pixar/Disney to use clips of the film. WALL•E wouldn’t be the same without it. Count on a resurgence of interest in the nearly 40-year-old film! (An added bonus: Jerry Herman, the lyricist who wrote both songs is in love with WALL•E, saying “What a wonderful use — to show a desolate world contrasted with the joy of those lyrics.”)

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Pixar feature without a Pixar short. They’re always great but this one outdoes even Lifted, my previous favorite that shipped with Ratatouille. Presto is a dialogue-free piece of genius about a rabbit and the magician who forgot to feed him before going on stage. Big mistake. What follows is a wildly imaginative series of magic-induced punishments that left the audience in my theater laughing in the aisles. It’s hysterical, on par with Chuck Jones’s Wabbit Season/Duck Season shorts from the 1950s. (Presto is now available on iTunes.)

There’s talk of WALL•E being submitted in the Best Picture category rather than Best Animated for this year’s Academy Awards, and I think that would be a smart move. Take my word for it. WALL•E is the real deal.

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness

Matt Algren — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:41:29 +0000

I mentioned phenomenal singer/songwriter Andrew Peterson last week, and I still heartily recommend his music. But today I look at another project of Peterson’s, his new fantasy children’s/young adult novel On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. (Click this link for an excerpt provided by the publisher.)

Janner, Tink, and Leeli Igiby are three siblings in a little town in the middle of nowhere. Janner, just turned 12, aches to travel the world beyond the Glipwood Forest that looms above the Dark Sea of Darkness. As the annual Dragon Day (one of the few days of freedom since losing the war with Gnag the Nameless and the Fangs of Dang) approaches, Janner becomes increasingly frustrated by being forced to take care of his brother and sister.

I’ve read that On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness started as bedtime stories for Peterson’s children, and the whimsy in his storytelling shows evidence of that. The book is full of little details that almost had to have come from questions from a little kid during a telling of the story. Many times, he tucks the details and side-jokes away in footnotes, including one of my favorites, explaining the definition of “THAGS”:

Three Honored and Great Subjects: Word, Form, and Song. Some silly people believe that there’s a fourth Honored and Great Subject, but those mathematicians are woefully mistaken.

But Andrew Peterson doesn’t stop at humor; he’s made sure the book has a heart as well. The mysterious absence of Janner’s father only heightens his desire for something different. As he learns a few of the family’s (and the town’s) secrets, questions fill his head, questions that Peterson addresses with a rare sensitivity.

He looked down at the quill in his hand and remembered the feel of the sword he had swung in the weapons chamber. It had felt good, like he was no longer a powerless boy in a boring town but someone whose life could mean something, like his father’s had. All the tears that had gathered in him just moments ago changed into words, and he began to scratch them into his journal.

There’s so much I’m leaving out, so many other bits that flesh out the story and make it real. Things like the ongoing battle between Grandpa Podo (a retired pirate) and the thwaps in his totato patch, Peet the Sockman’s loose hold on reality, delicous recipes for maggotloaf, and the dangers of the Black Carriage that comes at night to take girls and boys to their doom.

One last bit of information and I’ll close. By a third of the way through, I thought I’d figured out all of the story’s twists. Some of you think you’ve figured out all of the twists just by reading what I’ve written here. But Peterson was two steps ahead of us, and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you read On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness.

Speaking of which, you can purchase the book, first of the Wingfeather Saga, by clicking here.

An Open Letter to AMERICA’S Neil Patrick Harris

Matt Algren — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:14:59 +0000

Dear ~~TV’s~~ AMERICA’S Neil Patrick Harris,

First of all, I love your work, though I realize as I type this that I’ve never seen How I Met Your Mother. One of the downfalls of not having cable/satellite, you know. I’m putting it on the top of my Netflix queue, I swear!

Anyway, I saw this awesome ad for Old Spice deodorant (left) in last week’s Entertainment Weekly, and realized that you’re a model of what an out gay man should be, especially at such a crucial time in our nation’s history.

Hotness aside (and that’s a big aside, my good man), you’re showing your generation and the next that being gay doesn’t mean that you can’t be happy. Closeted guys will and do find in you a hope that telling people who they really are doesn’t have to lead to the end of the world, that they don’t have to be relegated to the role of a stereotype. Out guys can see in you someone they can proudly claim as well. Newbies like me (eight months out!) can look to your example as one to follow as we navigate this strange new world of living in our own skin.

Just as importantly, your increasingly high profile in mainstream Hollywood gives The Straights (weirdos) someone to balance their image of The Gays. It’s nice to have a stable force when we keep getting news of Senators and other public figures getting caught in restroom stalls.

About a year and a half ago, Tom and Lorenzo from Project Rungay gave you some advice. Thanks for taking it, even if you never saw it.

Boys? A little advice. Please do NOT become activists. That’s not your job. Your job is to entertain us and thankfully, you seem to understand this for the most part. You want to help out the gays? Win an Emmy. Get yourself on the cover of TV Guide or People (for something other than your sexuality). Walk on the red carpet with your boyfriend. Be really good at what you do, avoid scandals or embarrassments, do your best to live a happy, out life and you will have accomplished more for the gay community than any speechmaking or marching you could do. Just be happy, fulfilled and successful (however you define those terms) and future actor fags and singer fags and entertainer fags will never even think of trying to lie about who they are and attempt to fool the public. Just be fabulous.

Good luck to you boys and once again, thank you.

Finally, um, if you, like, ever split up with David (GOD FORBID!!!), I’m, you know, available. I don’t have David’s perfect skin, or David’s boyish face with those dimples, or David’s gym-toned body (Wow, I’m terrible at this), or that Adam’s Apple you just want to give a good lick (Why am I still typing?!?), and I can’t cook worth a darn, but I have no problem being next in line.

No. Problem.

At all.

Yours in awkward but totally non-stalker admiration,
Matt

Ben Shive Album Released; Title Explained Repeatedly

Matt Algren — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:19:50 +0000

Ever been excited about an album release and have your expectations exceeded? It’s rare, but that’s what happened this week when Ben Shive, the newest member of The Square Peg Alliance, released his first solo album, The Ill-Tempered Klavier.

I’d heard of Ben Shive before, first as a lyricist with the song Canaan Bound, from Andrew Peterson’s 2003 album Love and Thunder. It’s a pretty great piece of music, and Shive has followed it up with lyrics like this excerpt from the song Nothing For The Ache from The Ill-Tempered Klavier.

And the world’s a pretty harlot
When you’re traveling alone
And a fool can see she’s looking
And a fool would take her home

Cause her love is so expensive
And her flattery is cheap
When you’ve gotten what you wanted
And you’re back out on the street
Then you’ll see

So yeah, I’m a fan of Ben Shive’s writing, but I had no idea that he was also a singer until recently. Over the last few years, I’ve seen his name attached to the records of singer/ songwriter/indie-types like the Andrew Peterson, Randall Goodgame, and Eric Peters in roles from producer to writer/arranger to keyboards/pianist. The man’s been busy, that’s for sure.

Shive is a piano player, the kind who brings other players to their knees. It’s been years (far too long) since I touched a piano, but man, Ben Shive can play like I could’ve only dreamed. Most of the album is piano driven, which leads us to my favorite song from the album, Out of Tune. Take a listen:

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

I’ve been trying to pin down Shive’s style, and the best I can come up with is singer-songwriter/alternative/retro, or something like that. Whatever he is, it’s a unique and refreshing sound that I can’t get enough of.

Get in on the ground floor with this amazing multi-talented ‘new’ artist by downloading Ben Shive’s album The Ill-Tempered Klavier for the low, low price of $10, available exclusively (for now) at The Rabbit Room.

Transformers

Matt Algren — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:01:26 +0000

Let’s just get it out of the way: Transformers is the worst piece of crap movie I’ve seen in a very long time. There are so many problems that I don’t know where to begin.

Okay, let’s start with this. You could lop off the first hour of the movie and you’d lose next to nothing. There was nearly an hour of no visible Transformers (which is what I was there to see), setting up useless characters (I’ll get back to that in a moment) and situations that weren’t necessary. Start with the scene with Sam and Hot Chick #1 meeting the Autobots (below), mention that Sam has a car, and insert a truncated version of the attack in Qatar. You now have a movie that is roughly the standard length for a summer popcorn flick and has lost absolutely nothing of substance.

Here’s a list of other problems:

Hot Chick #2 (the Australian one) served no purpose in the movie. Eliminate her, and replace her with African American #3 (the fat one). Or vice versa, I don’t care. There’s no background offered for their friendship, and no resolution to the subplot of them getting in trouble for stealing the microchip, so there’s no negative consequence.
Every black character, including Jazz, is a stereotype.
There are two whole female characters of substance in the movie and they’re both Hot Chicks Who Are Really Smart And Tough.
This is a bit of personal preference, but all of the robot forms are overly complicated. The Decepticons all have the same murky paint job. I’m not asking for a lot, just the ability to tell one from another.
Michael Bay brought the movie to a screeching halt every ten minutes for a slow motion sunset military hero shot straight out of a Be All You Can Be commercial. We get it, you have a hard on for guns and uniforms. Now let’s keep your bloated two hour fifteen minute movie moving.
This is beyond wrong:

Somehow, the writers thought it was a good idea to have a ten minute “hee hee the robots are hiding in the yard” scene, completely obliterating any tension that had been created in the film so far. This was actually a problem more than once, as the script moved back and forth between angsty drama to slapstick unfunny comedy.
Case in point, in the middle of a gun battle in the Middle East, Brave Soldier #1 needs to call the Pentagon, but the Indian Stereotype operator insists on getting a credit card number from Brave Soldier #2. IN THE MIDDLE OF A DRAMATIC SCENE.
Stereotype Father and Stereotype Mother think it’s totally awesome that Sam snuck Hot Chick #1 into his bedroom.
I wish they’d just taken a break for commercials instead of having (skinny) people posing in front of Burger King^©, drive GM^© vehicles, and (bet you missed this one) use Pepto Bismol^© for their stomach discomfort. (I know it’s based on a kid’s toy, but still. A little subtlety goes a long way.)
Bumblebee’s sudden ability to speak is never explained.
There are quite a few characters who just disappeared. Brave Soldier #4 (the Hispanic one) was hurt (I think) but never heard from again. Hot Chick #2, Hot Chick #2’s Nerd Friends, African American #3, Ineffective Government Guy, and Lead’s Best Friend just disappear never to be seen again. Lead’s Best Friend was left on the side of the road, for crying out loud.
Finally, another visual aid. Someone explain to me why you would cast Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson (below) in a movie and never show them with their shirts off. NOT ONE TIME. That’s like, 2/3 of their appeal!

Okay fine, I might be a little hypocritical on that last one. I did have my hopes up, though.

I do have one or two good things to say about Transformers. While Brave Soldier #4 is a bit annoying (I said good, didn’t I?), they did something on the DVD that most people probably won’t find. I wondered how they dealt with his lapses into Spanish on the Spanish dubbed track, so I switched over and found that they flipped it so he was speaking English. They also switched Sam’s grade from a B- and A- to a seven and “ten with reservations”. It’s pretty awesome that they took the time to make the changes.

The second good thing I have to say about this movie is that I finally broke down and bought a RiffTrax. RiffTrax are basically Mystery Science Theater 3000 reformatted as audio-only commentaries on mp3. You download a RiffTrax onto your [cref 289 iPod] and sync it up with the movie. The syncing is incredibly easy to do, and they even have a media player that syncs automatically if you want to watch on your computer, though I couldn’t get that to work. I’m assuming it was the DVD’s fault.

But never mind that, I got to hear Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy making fun of a movie again. And RiffTrax are DRM free, so I get to feel superior. Not bad for four bucks. Spot on commentary to boot.

So yeah, two positive things about Transformers and neither has anything to do with the actual movie. Kudos, Michael Bay.

The Philadelphia Story

Matt Algren — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:09:14 +0000

Today we look back to 1940’s The Philadelphia Story. Starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and Jimmy Stewart, this film is a slam dunk. It has a little bit of everything and blends it all into a rare gem of a film.

The story revolves around heiress Tracy Lord (Hepburn) and her wedding to a self-made millionaire who some think is beneath her station. Ex-husband C.K. Dexter Haven (Grant, with one of the best character names ever) and writer/reporter Macaulay Connor (Jimmy Stewart, in an Oscar winning performance) crash the event looking for a story for Connor’s newspaper. Hilarity ensues, as do romance, drama, and just a soupçon of angst.

Katharine Hepburn is wonderful as a confident, self-assured woman who wants it all. Having failed at marriage the first time (with a surprisingly off-handed scene of spousal abuse played for laughs), she’s trying again and is determined to succeed, if only her husband-to-be came from her world. In scenes of intimacy, we find that Tracy isn’t as sure of herself as she wants people to think. The turn in Hepburn’s character is quietly played out, leaving her a bit mystified at its complexity.

Cary Grant is laid back in his portrayal of the jealous ex-husband. Well liked by Tracy’s family, he understands better than she does why their marriage didn’t work (aside of the abuse, of course), and it wouldn’t hurt his feelings if they gave it another go. Quiet and unassuming, Dexter is on hand when Tracy has to face the hard questions about her wedding, her fiancé, and herself. He’s ready to woo her again, but he needs her to be ready to be wooed.

And then there’s Jimmy. As I’ve said before, my experience with Jimmy Stewart as a younger actor is fairly recent, and he was amazing in The Philadelphia Story. Macaulay is kind of a loudmouth at first, later becoming intoxicated with love for Tracy, while the woman who loves him stands aside.

The centerpiece of his performance, and probably the reason he won the Oscar, is his drunk scene with Cary Grant (above). I watched it and immediately rewound it to watch the master at work. (I’m not sure if the “I have the hiccups” line was in the script, but my guess would be that it was improvised. I kind of hope not, because that delivery was note perfect.)

The Philadelphia Story was adapted for the screen from Philip Barry’s play of the same name, and its theater roots are pretty obvious. Much of the film is in the theater style of “talk for 20 minutes, then change rooms and do it again,” glaringly so in the final scene, but the film doesn’t necessarily suffer from it.

This is a film that I’ll be able to go back to again and again. This is one for the vaults.

Children of Heaven

Matt Algren — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:30:07 +0000

This gem of an independent film has me completely under its spell. From Iranian director Majid Majidi, Children of Heaven (Bacheha-Ye aseman) is about a boy’s dilemma when he loses his sister’s only pair of shoes. It’s a simple story, but Ali’s problem is played with such delicacy and honesty that we are pulled into his panic and indecision. (Yes, it’s subtitled in English with audio in Farsi. Get over it.)

Amir Farrokh Hashemian plays Ali, the aforementioned poor child who doesn’t know what to do when his sister Zahra’s shoes are lost on the way back from being repaired. The children decide that Zahra will wear Ali’s shoes to school in the morning and run home to hand them off to Ali so he can wear them to school in the afternoon.

Of course, the plan doesn’t work as well as they’d hoped. The shoes are too big for Zahra (a wonderful little actress named Bahare Seddiqi). They’re clumsy and ugly and she’s ashamed to wear them. Ali is always late to school and is nearly expelled. Eventually Ali hears about a race with a third prize of a new pair of shoes. He decides that he’ll win third place and give the shoes to Zahra.

There’s some wonderful interplay between the children along the way as they try to make decisions that they think would be best. Ali feels compassion for his sister, and to her credit, she tries not to be too angry at him. Zahra also finds out where the shoes went to and is moved to compassion herself.

The race that Ali runs was a wonderful piece of cinema. As Ali runs as fast as he can, we flash between him and his sister running alongside him in his mind. The two are one in this trial, and we hear the sound of her feet with his. The visuals are pulled into slow motion while the sound of Ali and the other boys breathing hard is played at normal speed, adding a tension even though we think we know the outcome. Near the end of the race, the music swells (a rare event in Children of Heaven) and Ali’s feet fall in time with the music.

I won’t give away the ending, but one piece of information is necessary for Westerners to understand the symbolism of the final shot. The intertubes tell me that in Iranian culture, gold fish are symbols of renewal and rebirth. (Someone correct me if that’s wrong. Thanks.) That’s all I’ll say about that.

This is a film that everyone should see at least once. Like Amélie, it is an expression of unabashed joy. In this case, the joy comes through the loving sibling relationship between Ali and Zahra. Neither of these brilliant child actors has made a film appearance since Children of Heaven, but it would be lovely to see them both acting as adults.

I’ve moved Majid Majidi’s other films higher in my Netflix queue. I hope you will as well.

Galaxy Quest

Matt Algren — Tue, 27 May 2008 05:00:58 +0000

Not being a big Tim Allen fan, I skipped over Galaxy Quest when it hit theaters in 1999. I didn’t give it a second thought until someone whose taste I generally trust started raving about the film a few weeks ago. With great trepidation I put it on my Netflix queue (currently coming in at 248 DVDs) and bumped it to the top.

Our story: The fictional TV series Galaxy Quest (a Star Trek stand in) has been off the air for 18 years, and the stars (below) long for an end to their degrading public appearances at conventions and store openings. At the same time, a group of aliens has intercepted reruns of the show and think it’s real. The Thermians have reordered their society using Galaxy Quest as a blueprint. (They also think Gilligan’s Island was real.) When another alien species threatens to exterminate them, they turn to the crew of the NSEA Protector for help.

Galaxy Quest surprised me with its seamless blend of sci-fi show clichés, slapstick humor, and even genuine dramatic tension from time to time. Tim Allen played none other than Tim Allen (as usual), but the attitude worked for this character. I loved Sigourney Weaver’s token woman whose job was to show cleavage and repeat what the computer said.

About the only thing missing from the TV show within the movie was a cute little robot. I suppose the ship’s pilot, 10-year-old Tommy Webber will have to do. (Aside: That’s a young Corbin Bleu of High School Musical fame playing young Tommy.)

The aliens were well done. Near clones at first glance, each of the Thermians (above) had a quirk or two to make them individuals. Enrico Colantoni was somehow able to give the Thermian leader a tragic quality even when he was doing the funny voice. (Another aside: That’s a young(er) Rainn Wilson as one of the Thermians. He disappears halfway through the film, which I probably wouldn’t have noticed before The Office (USA) hit the air.)

Special and visual effects were top notch too. Sarris, the main baddie (down there in the green) looks like he was plucked right out of Star Trek, and in a good way. There’s also a scene on a planet with hundreds of CGI alien children. Considering that Galaxy Quest was made in 1999, they were astonishingly lifelike. Kudos to the tech crew.

Galaxy Quest did a good job of skewering Star Trek and Star Trek fandom, but there were way too women at the convention. Otherwise, well done. I had to chuckle at the parts of the ship that made no sense whatsoever. The wall of flame at the end of the hall of smashing things that served no purpose was inspired.

All in all, a surprisingly good film. It had a depth that I didn’t expect. Now somebody do me a favor and watch out for other Tim Allen movies that aren’t terrible. I won’t be holding my breath, but as you can see, I’ve been wrong before.