January 2011
10 posts
I'm listed in Tumblweeds under film, movies, cinema
I’m listed in Tumblweeds, a user-generated community directory that rates Tumblr bloggers by their number of followers. Find me listed in #film, #movies, #cinema
Released in 2010, mostly seen in 2010
Just a quick little round up of the film of 2010 that I saw, with a few thoughts thrown in. This list is pitifully short and I resolve that this year I will do better.
Pyaar Impossible!
A Bollywood movie that was streaming on Netflix, nothing special
The Art of the Steal
I live near the Barnes collection and is a must see for Philly folks and art lovers
Alice in Wonderland
You can see my thoughts here
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Oof. Good film, skeptical about the intentions of it.
Iron Man 2
Couldn’t say it better myself
Just Wright
Watched this for a film paper, surprisingly decent for the rom-com genre
Sex and the City 2
Much like The Human Centipede, it’s a film you only watch to prove to yourself that this kind of bullshit was made
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Yeah yeah, you already heard about it here
Inception
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Re-watched this recently. Still not what it could have been, but definitely not as offensive to me the second time through. Probably because I’d been drinking wine
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Number 3 is still my favorite, but it seems as thought the series will end on a high note.
A Few Quick Thoughts on "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work"
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work was a film from last year that I was very interested in seeing. I the trailer looked fantastic and the reviews coming in piqued my interest. I find comedians to be fascinating, especially those who find themselves on the margins of celebrity, and Joan Rivers presents a complex set of issues to be discussed. Her age and looks are frequent targets, but what about her complex relationship with the media as a celebrity commenting on other celebrities? What about the toll that 50 years of nonstop entertainment takes on a person? A family?
Saddly, the film is something of a let down. I watched it tonight on a whim since it’s streaming on Netflix. Presented as a sort of fly on the wall type of documentary, you can see Joan’s hands all over it. The pacing is terrible and what should be the emotional climax of the film doesn’t hit the kind of pitch it could. I appreciate that she’s a hard working woman, that Joan suffered some tough times, that it’s hard to be her, hell that’s what drew me to her story in the first place. But in an age when reality TV has redefined the private lives of celebrities, documentary film needs to be better than this.
Using Film in the Classroom
Hi Tumblr friends. I could give you a lot of excuses about my very long radio silence, but we’ll skip that part. Let’s get right to the good part - chit chattin’ about film.
My father is a high school history teacher with a lot of passion for his job. Recently, because of policy changes at his school, he’s had to scale back the number of films he’s allowed to show in class and in the process of doing that, he’s been reassessing his little library of films for his American History classes. He and I both agree that you can’t just plop a movie into your course and use it as an excuse for your students to take a break. We both hate the overuse of films like Glory and Forrest Gump as tools for showing “how things were back then” rather than as the actual, biased texts that they are.
So.
He’s decided to show Modern Times to one of his classes and The Great Dictator to another, which I think are great choices for illustrating a lot of things about the USA and the role the entertainment industry played. For something fun to illustrate the psychedelic era, he wants to show Yellow Submarine, a childhood favorite of his, not really a favorite of mine. As alternatives that focused on the 1950’s and 1960’s I suggested Rebel Without a Cause, Naked Kiss, or a western like The Magnificent Seven. These were all deemed to “depressing” for him to show. (“yeah, whatever” was my reaction, teens love to feel angsty and watch people get shot)
So, now’s the time for you to pitch in. Suggest to me a film that you think would be good to show to a high school American History class. It must be:
-not too heavy, my old man said it must be on the lighter side
-school appropriate, so no sex scenes, not too gory, and no cussin’
-American, this is a US History class afterall
What would you want to show to a high school class?
