Jarmusch hanging out in those long stretched out moments in between the typical Hollywood dialog.
And. Winona.
Category: Only Cool Movies
9.0 October Sky
Play me like a fiddle, rip my heart out and leave me here to bleed, you sappy Disneyesque swing-for-the-bleachers small-town-trap escape story. You nailed it, baby Jake. Viva la rockets!
9.0 Promising Young Woman
I found my militant feminist movie last night, after Hustlers failed hard to deliver on every level. Damn, some intense manhating. Good stuff, hahaha. Carey Mulligan continues to steal my heart.
About as dark as I Care A Lot, but with a solid theme: men are disgusting lustful gluttons.
9.0 Think Like A Man
Another retro ensemble making me happy. Has my fave girls from Person of Interest (Taraji Penda Henson) AND Black Monday (Regina Hall). And Kevin Hart tearing it up. Silly romcom but never slows down. Hey there’s J. B. Smoove, too!
8.5 Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her
My obsession with old ensemble movies with killer casts continues… This melancholy gem captured the depth of a host of unique female characters across half a dozen intermingled story lines. Cameron Diaz and Calista Flockhart brought their A games, as Holly Hunter always does.
9.0 The Informer
Two of my favorites bring it home. Common and Ana de Armas are in it, too.
9.0 Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Rosamund Pike, Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan in the same frame, acting side by side? Yes please. Not to mention Judy Dench at her most wicked best, world-class Donald Sutherland, Talulah Riley of Westwood fame, and Tom Hollander, the quintessentially damaged supporting actor. Great cast executing a classic story.
9.0 Toni Erdmann
A bracing still life of moments between a dad struggling to use humor to connect with his daughter, and the daughter caught up in the priorities of “success”. Sometimes it’s heavy work finding the lightness of being.
Coen catchup
Picked up on a few more Coen gems recently:
- rewatched Burn After Reading
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- Gambit (written by, not directed)
Such good fun, from Tom Waits yelling “you measly skunk!” to Cameron Diaz’s ridiculous drawl to Brad Pitt crazy jamming to his Walkman drinking Jamba Juice…
Center for Biological Diversity Raleigh Meetup
I created a Raleigh-based meetup group for the Center’s Ignite Change action network. I’m excited to keep it going! (even though the first meeting was a bust because I cluelessly scheduled it to start at the exact moment that the Superbowl started! Doh.)
Here are some teasers for what’s to come. Tropic cascade is a fairly recent famous exciting biological observation showing that apex predators have complex positive effects on the layers of flora and fauna under them. Most famous is the example of the effect of wolves re-introduced to Yellowstone. Here is the link, followed by the TED talk of the guy who basically narrated it before it was brilliantly captured with Yellowstone footage. And more and more real-world amazingness. Fight for it!!
- George Manbiot spins out the initial Yellowstone yarn in 2013
- The amazing and beautiful Yellowstone wolf trophic cascade video
- The scientist who initially lit it on fire (with starfish)
- A longer National Geographic deeper dive into Yellowstone that hopefully survives copyright infringement…
- Trophic cascade, Australian style