#213

Hello all.

It’s almost two o’clock in the morning and I am roughly halfway through The Tenant, with a free moment to post so I thought I would. Fairly decent weekend, I worked all day Friday and yesterday morning. My cousin and I went to the Hawks game (in which we not only won but also destroyed a solid Nuggets team) and today I spent the day watching movies and football. God I love Sundays.

I have become obsessed with www.twitter.com/nietzschesays lately. It’s going through a particularly important (and EXTREMELY interesting) part of Human All-Too-Human and I love getting home and catching up on the day’s posts. Tomorrow marks the last post for Cherished Cinema’s Horror Project, with the next project being announced on Tuesday. That’s it for now, it’s late and I will finish this film then head to bed. Thank you for reading!

#212

Hello all.

I am sitting at home and finally giving the new Say Anything a listen, genuinely surprised by how much I am enjoying it. I suppose this has to do with all the negative reviews I have read so far. I really need to stop listening to other people until I give it a listen for myself. I have NOTHING going on today, I went to a screening of a film called Beau Travail this morning, a bizarre but shockingly interesting film. For those who follow me on Twitter, this post may seem a bit redundant due to the fact that I am currently going through TimeOut’s 1000 Films to Change Your Life and it’s a great read. I tweeted a bit of what I found interesting this morning so here are those tweets and some other general thoughts. I am only about halfway through it so I might have more to add later.

Amazon link.

From my Twitter:

Michael Mann on DR. STRANGELOVE – “shit, this thing is going to end soon.” For those who have ever felt that way understand how imp. that is

Jonathan Romney describing MEMENTO as “gimmicky but satisfying” is brilliant

From my personal notes:

“At this point, it should be noted that while some contemporary comedies are considered acceptable, these are normally made by Jim Jarmusch, Wes Anderson, or Alexander Payne, so aren’t actually funny at all. They might make you chuckle (inwardly), stroke your beard and say ‘how clever’, but they’re not exactly Airplane!.) – Peter Watts in “Have a sense of humour!”

“I don’t think that the fear of cinema being obsolete has any reason to exist, because it’s not the big screen that makes a cinema superior to your home theatre – it’s the fact that you’re watching it with an audience, and particularly that you’re watching with people who you don’t know. ” – Roman Polanski on “Safety in numbers”

The first quote made me laugh out loud in the library. The article itself was brilliant and extremely pertinent to a good deal of my thoughts as of late. I have been discussing with numerous people how much flack comedies get that they shouldn’t. Sure, there are some real duds out there but there are at least a few good comedies that come out a year (hell, I put Forgetting Sarah Marshall on my top ten of 2008). This article points out that AFI selected The 40 Year Old Virgin for one of the best movies of 2005 which says a lot. The second quote, from one of my favorite directors, is a great explanation of the “theater experience,” one of the biggest joys in my life.

I hope you all enjoyed those, the book itself is fantastic. The site has a new post, here it is, and there are only three more entries into the Horror Project. Thank you for reading!

#211

Hello all.

I am sitting in the library after taking a brutal exam and just finished my latest update for Cherished Cinema, here it is. I hope everyone’s week as started off the best that it could. I spent most of yesterday studying for the exam I had today and spent four hours watching the game last night. Although we lost, I have to say we looked damn good and Falcons fan have to consider that we played well in probably the roughest environment we’ll play in all year.

There is nothing else too exciting going on, I am going to try and work tonight but if I don’t it will just be a night full of  movies. What else can I say? This weekend is crazy movie-wise here. I am hoping to see A Serious Man before then (all rests on how much extra money I have this week) but An Education, The Men Who Stare at Goats, and Precious all open this weekend.

That’s it, I am going to run and grab some food. I hope everyone has a great day. Thank you for reading.

#210

Hello all.

Late update today, had a rough time getting started this morning but I am home and ready to go as of right now. My roommate and I are watching 25th Hour (only my third time this year…) and I have a few more things to do before I start studying. I have to be done with studying so that I can watch the Falcons play tonight and hopefully be able to watch a bit of Game 5 of the World Series.

Today’s post is up, here it is, and I thought this was only fitting.

There isn’t much else to say, I was ten and two on my picks yesterday — the Jets and the Cardinals ruined my perfect day. I am leading but I sacrilegiously picked the Saints tonight and Michael picked the Falcons so hopefully this week we end in a tie. That’s all for now, hope everyone has had a nice start to the week. Thank you for reading!

 

#209

Hello all.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! Happy for the new month, this is my last full month of undergrad so I have reason to be excited for this one. Also, because it is the first of the month, it’s time for a monthly wrap-up. Here goes…

October

274. The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (Ray Müller, 1993)
275. Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer, 2009)
276. The New Guy (Ed Decter, 2002)
277. Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (Gisaburo Sugii, 1994)
278. The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993)
279. Homicide (David Mamet, 1991)
280. Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (Errol Morris, 1999)
281. Toy Story 3-D (John Lasseter, 1995)
282. Toy Story 2 3-D (John Lasseter, 1999)
283. Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000)
284. In the Mood for Love (Kar Wai Wong, 2000)
285. Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
286. The Brothers Bloom (Rian Johnson, 2009)
287. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, 2009)
288. Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg, 1988)
289. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, 2009)
290. Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977)
291. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Blake Edwards, 1961)
292. She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman, 1933)
293. Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze, 2009)
294. Whatever Works (Woody Allen, 2009)
295. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, 2005)
296. Cloverfield (Matt Reeves, 2008)
297. Suture (Scott McGehee & David Siegel, 1993)
298. Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965)
299. Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen (Michael Bay, 2009)
300. Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965)
301. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (Jake Kasdan, 2007)
302. Antichrist (Lars von Trier, 2009)
303. Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997)
304. Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)
305. The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (Neal Brennan, 2009)
306. Session 9 (Brad Anderson, 2001)
307. Gattaca (Andrew Niccol, 1997)
308. What About Bob? (Frank Oz, 1991)
309. Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer, 2009)
310. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)

I watched forty-one movies this month, which means I will easily be able to hit my goal of three hundred and sixty on the year (only need to watch about 28 movies/month for the last two months of the year). I am thinking about putting my top weekly artists (via last.fm) here on Sundays as well, we’ll see how it works out.

1  Cursive 103
2  Manchester Orchestra 35
3  Murder by Death 28
4  Brand New 21
5  Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate) 20
6  Los Campesinos! 17
7  Minus the Bear 12
7  Thrice 12
9  …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead 11
10 Thursday 10

That’s it for now, I have some work to do today for Computer Science and the other site, but other than that, I’ll just be watching football. Everyone enjoy their Sunday, thank you for reading!

#208

Hello all.

This is my first attempt at a sort of weekly roundup for the other site, we’ll see how it goes. There may be some changes but not much because this is all pretty straightforward.

Horror Project

The Introduction

Entry #1 – Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977)

Entry #2 – Antichrist (Lars von Trier, 2009)

Entry #3 – Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997)

Entry #4 – Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)

 

With that being done, I am off for the next few days and I can’t wait. I hope everyone has a great weekend and a safe and fun Halloween! Thank you for reading.

#207

Hello all.

I am sitting downstairs in Aderhold in between classes with a few minutes to spare. I have an exam later today and a paper due tomorrow, but that will be it for awhile so I really do not mind. The Hawks had a good start last night, struggling a bit early on, but they showed that they will be able to score some points this year and hopefully repeat (or maybe even improve on) what they did last year. I spent last night watching the World Series instead of completing my study guide, and Cliff Lee made it worth it. I thought I was going to be disappointed in myself for wasting my time with that game instead of knocking out some work I had to get done but watching Lee absolutely dominate in Yankee Stadium was simply incredible. I hope we get to see him pitch one more game so I can see that spike curve at least one more time.

I was pointed in the direction of this website early today via my school’s philosophy listserv. I do not know how interested you all would be in it, but I have read six or seven of the questions and I find it fascinating. I am hoping to make at least one trip to the movie theater in the next few days as to the fact that I have barely been over the last two months. A Serious Man finally opened near me, so hopefully I will be able to see that tomorrow night or sometime over the weekend.

Strange as it is, I have to work tomorrow and then that’s it until the following Friday. I took Saturday off because it is Halloween and we will most likely be slow. I do not work Sundays. The Falcons play Monday night so I am not working then either (Monday is an extra shift as it is) and I really have no idea why I took Tuesday off. I requested it off months ago and for the life of me I cannot figure out why.

I hope everyone has a great close to the week today and tomorrow, and thank you for reading!

#206

Hello all.

I’ve had kind of an interesting morning so far, headed to school (on time for once) and fought through traffic to get to MARTA. After getting out of my car, I realized that I did not have my wallet, meaning no MARTA pass and no money so I had to head back home. That may be the second time in about six years that I have forgotten my wallet, but it’s alright, I have a ton of work to do around here and I am missing a class that I have great attendance in (as it is my most interesting class – Film Theory).

The new post is up on Cherished Cinema, on the film Antichrist. An interesting (and not very good) film to say the least, I hope you check that out. The Pacific is looking more and more fantastic, as a new trailer was released recently and can be found on its fansite, here. I intend on working my way through Band of Brothers sometime in the next few months.

There’s not too much else going on, I have an exam tomorrow and I have to work all day Friday but fortunately, I do not have to work again until the next Friday. This is the result of a weird chain of events but I will try my hardest to enjoy the time away. This week’s halfway over, and the month is just about done, before we know it, it will be 2010. Thank you for reading and everyone have a great day.

#205

Hello all.

Just wrapped up an assignment so I have few minutes to update before my next class. Rainy day today, and nothing too exciting going on. I took the night off because I have a fairly large project due in the morning and I also have two tests on Thursday. I spent yesterday morning and this morning catching up on the past two Filmspotting podcasts and also the last two “I Love Movies” podcasts, I enjoy both so much.

We saw a bit of this yesterday in class and I am dying to watch the rest.

Everything is going according to plan with the new website thus far, I have been flying through movies and trying my hardest to write some decent posts. Here the newest post, the first entry into the Horror Project, on the film Suspiria. That’s about it for now, have to run to class. Thank you for reading.

#204

Hello all.

That was a good stretch without any updates, and for that, I apologize. I have to say there was good reason though. I have officially started a new site. I do not intend on replacing this one but due to the fact that this has become a much more personal blog I decided to start a new one for film related stuff. The site’s title is “Cherished Cinema” and here is a link.

I thought I would make this a post full of links and hopefully actually write a meaningful update sometime later this week. So here goes…

Twitter – www.twitter.com/thomasbalkcom AND for the new site www.twitter.com/cherishedcinema

Facebook – www.facebook.com/thomasbalkcom

my roommate’s photography (some fantastic stuff in here) – www.johnemcdonald.com

I am not too sure what I intend on doing with this site. Most likely I will just continue to use it in the fashion that I have since August, as a personal blog and maybe I’ll include a Saturday wrap-up of all my posts that week from the other site. We’ll see. Thank you for reading!

#203

Hello all.

I had a weekend full of work so please forgive me for no updates lately. I do not have too much going on today, went out and picked up the new Transformers Steelbook, going to post pictures of that and then head to school.

Thank you for reading!

#202

Hello all.

It’s no secret, I love Wednesdays. Although it has rained for the past few Wednesdays, they are always such great days. Today, so far all I have done is attended a screening of Dead Ringers and an interesting lecture right after. Right now I am sitting down after doing a bit of cleaning and planning what I will do with my evening.

I am seeing Where the Wild Things Are tomorrow at midnight and even more exciting — I am seeing A Serious Man Friday night after work! I could not be more excited. This made my week yesterday…

That’s about it for now, should update tomorrow. I hope everyone has a nice evening and thank you for reading!

#201

Hello all.

I am home from school with a few minutes to spare before I head to work, so here is an update. The past couple days have been far from exciting, I have been sleeping more than usual, actually watching films, and reading. It’s all very shocking considering my recent behavior. Things are looking up in terms of productivity; I think a good deal of it has to do with the fact that I am growing more and more aware of the fact that I am less than eight weeks away from graduating.

I desperately need a haircut, it’s longer than it has been since high school and it is really starting to bother me. I will most likely get one tomorrow as to the fact that Wednesdays are always brief days for me. I have always used a system that I get a haircut every four months (usually works out to where it’s the same week that I change my oil) and I am getting to the point that I am a month overdue.

There are two two-month periods every year in which I purchase the most DVDs. These months are March and April and mid-October to mid-December. Considering that we are on the cusp of one of these periods, I thought I would post some definite purchases coming up.

October 20th – Transformers (FYE Steelbook)

November 10th – Up (BD Steelbook — already preordered), possibly Monster’s Inc (if I can find it at a decent price

November 17th (big day) – Moon (BD for sure, favorite film of the year so far) & Star Trek (deciding between the Steelbook and the excellent BD packaging) & The Limits of Control (blind-buying as to the fact that I own all of Jarmusch’s films)

November 24th – The Vengeance Trilogy (seeing as how I don’t own a single one of the films)

December 1 – Terminator: Salvation (BD)

That’s it for now, off to work. Thank you for reading.

#200

edit: 200th post, insanity

Hello all.

I just wrapped up the paper that I mentioned in the previous post so I decided to write an update with the time I have. Sunday came and went once again. Ever since I stopped working on Sunday, the day has become such a great day; one that I look forward to every week. I sleep in (the only day of the week that I get to really do this with no consequences) and enjoy football for the most of the day. I may squeeze a movie in and I usually spend the night doing homework. As for football, in the third week of picking winners, I actually won. Michael, John (my roommate), and I have been doing it and I have yet to win (guess it helped that John was out of town this weekend) until the Colts won last night.

This month is flying by and before we know it, it will be 2010. Assuming I pass all of the classes I am taking right now, in less than eight weeks I will have completed my undergrad. On the topic of October, I absolutely love this month. There is great weather, work starts to get busier, baseball playoffs, the return of NHL, the middle of the NFL season, and the start of the “Oscar season” of films. The only real downfall for this time of the year for me is midterms.

I really, really hope that A Serious Man opens here this weekend. I am dying to see it (as it is my most-anticipated of the year) and it does not help that I have been inadvertently hearing about it since its limited release last week.

That’s about it for now, I haven’t completely abandoned my movie reviews, I just have a lot else going on. I might skip revisits or something along those lines and hopefully catch up (even if it is by cheating). I hope everyone has a great start to the week, thank you for reading.

#199

Hello all.

Sorry about a full week with just about no updates, I have been working a good deal and have a lot going on at home. Hopefully that will change here this week with only one paper that is due tomorrow (which I have yet to start by the way). I went earlier today to preorder Up and get the Steelbook case for it and also the fourth season of It’s Always Sunny was on sale so I picked it up as well. Here are some pictures…

Time for some Falcon football, I hope everyone has a great Sunday! Thank you for reading.