Brothers (Danish)

While not pleasant to sit through, this movie was very good. A morality tale told through the lives of 2 brothers. My wife and I agreed that if this movie was remade by an American film company they would probably lessen the moral decision that one of the brothers is forced to make in order to make it easier to identify with him. Aside from the element of Scandinavian reticence and aversion to talking over one's problems, this movie would translate very well into an American setting.

2046

This is a strangely beautiful movie that drifts between 1960s China and a fictionalized future imagined by the main character - a suave lothario that loves 'em and leaves 'em. The movie is set almost entirely indoors mainly in a slightly above seedy hotel. Nothing really happens other than people lamenting past lost loves and passing time, but the movie is so well composed and shot that it makes it watchable despite an absent plot.

Munich

Steven Spielberg is a ham-handed story teller. He can manipulate all the right cinematic levers of suspense, character, and mood, but I find him patronizing and overly obvious. That said, the movie was entertaining. I give it 6.5/10.

Serpico

This was a great movie. Pacino's Serpico is bizarrely cool. Learning ballet moves, filling his tiny Greenwhich Village apartment with more and more animals and sticking it to the corrupt NY police heirarchy. I was expecting something bloody and violent. There was much more tension and suspense than violence.

This was almost a perfect movie. 9/10.

The Squid and the Whale

When I first learned about this movie I was excited: written by Noah Baumbach who co-authored The Life Aquatic, Dean Wareham soundtrack, and featuring Laura Linney. Even the initial previews looked promising. However the more I read about it the more I began to dread it. I didn't want to watch a harsh portrayal of a marriage breaking up.

It was harsh. But the characters were interesting, complicated, sometimes funny and well interpreted by the actors: especially Jeff Daniels and the older son. Surprisingly, Laura Linney's character was not as developed as the others.

The movie takes place in a claustrophobic Brooklyn full of narrow streets, small cars, subway stations and an indoor tennis court. There are no sweeping camera shots of spaces that allow you to take a breath as you watch the movie.

Since this was a 2005 movie it would fall in our rankings from last year and would probably push The Interpreter out of the top 5.

What I'm Reading

I'm currently reading Captain James Cook: A Biography by Richard Hough. When I was in Hawaii last August I became interested in Cook and what his "discovery" of the Hawaiian Islands meant for the Hawaiians. I read a very basic and cursory biography I found in a used book store in the fall, but wanted a more detailed and critical book. I put several Cook-related books on my Amazon.com wish list and ended up getting 3 of them from my sister and mom. At first I worried that I was over my Cook phase, but once I started reading the biography I got hooked again. I am on page 58 of 370.

First Snow

First Snow
Originally uploaded by phedlund33.

This is our house.

2006

Ok, I'm not a good blogger. I like the idea of blogs and read them from time to time, but I have not yet found a subject that inspires me to be a consistent blogger. So here's my next idea: I will report on movies, albums and books that I see, listen to and read in the next year.

MOVIES
This is the second year in a row that Lynn and I have gone through and rated our favorite movies of the year and I have a hard time remembering all the movies that we saw and need to consult the New York Times and Christian Science Monitor's lists. It would be easier to go back through my blog and collect the list from there.

Looking back, here are our top five movies from 2005:
1. Capote
2. Syriana
3. Me and You and Everyone We Know
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
5. The Interpreter

MUSIC
Last night driving back from northern Virginia we listened to a podcast of NPR's All Songs Considered review of the year's best albums. I realized that I had no idea what albums I bought in 2005. It all seems to bleed together for me.

BOOKS
As far as the best books of the year go, I don't read that many current books so I would have to come up with a year end list based solely on those books that I read that year, not books that were published in that year.

To Do, Sunday July 4th

1. Watch Wimbledon Men's final
2. mow lawn
3. finish fence section
4. bake cookies if Roddick loses
5. prepare fruit salad for Rourk's picnic
6. Clean workshop

Looking for DVDs

With my wife doing some work tonight I decided to rent a movie. I went to Movie.com and went through every recently released movie. Here is the list I came up with:

Blow-up - Michelangelo Antonioni
Dirty Pretty Things - Stephen Frears
In This World - Michael Winterbottom

Dirty Pretty things was checked-out and I chickened-out when I looked at the actual DVD case for In This World: it looked too intense.

Going to the video store is such a complicated calculus. I am always balancing my current mood with the tone of the available movies. By tone I mean pictures on the cases and 5-word review blurbs on the back of the case. It is rare when I find a perfect match.

I ended up in the foreign film section and found Russian Ark in the Russian section and SLC Punk in the independent section. (For some reason, Blow-Up was not in the Italian section).

2Lazy2Blog

I am way to lazy to type a bunch of gibberish into a blog every day. I have more important things to do like watch TV. Plus it's really hot.