aaliyah, 1979-2001
the news of aaliyah and her crew members dying in a plane crash last night is really upsetting to me. i really appreciated her music, or rather, was starting to. i especially love her song "try again" and have found myself listening to it on repeat several times. that's all. :( �� sunday, 12:01 p.m.
...
zelda
saturday, august 25, 2001
i'm developing a curiosity on zelda fitzgerald. given that i've entitled this entry 'zelda', you would think i'd have more to say about the matter, but i don't. i'm just intrigued. it reminds me of when i got intrigued by rose, tennessee williams sister. i guess it's the mental illness angle. shrug. anyhow.
went and saw The Others with nicole kidman today. since this past week has almost entirely consisted of catching reruns of the twisted sister vh-1 special, an actual new movie was a real treat. and i liked it, i did. it scared me good, it did. not entirely fresh, but a nice, classic haunted house feel to the story with just enough fun twists and pretty nicole kidman to counter the panic stricken string section on the soundtrack.
i tried to play all macho and not cover my eyes when i thought i might need to, but i never quite succeeded -- i spent plenty of time shrunken down into my seat, eyes squinting so much i could only make out enormous featureless blobs of light and shadow on the screen in front of me. so. not a revolutionary movie, but definitely okay. yes.
and i'd like to plug something: tomorrow night, USA network, 8 p.m. is the network premiere of American History X. this movie has the dubious honor of being the only movie i almost had to walk out from because i wasn't sure i could handle it. i felt physically ill. at the time of my almost-walk out, i was unable to see the screen because i was crying too heavily, and it wasn't even half-way into the movie. considering i have never even left a theater movie to go to the bathroom, and never cry in public outside of a cheesy tear at the end of smarmy romantic movies, that's a pretty serious reaction on my part.
obviously, the movie will be edited for network tv, so i can't say that the version airing will be quite as intense and disturbing, but i still want to recommend it. if it moves you, go rent it and see the full version. the warning being that it is very graphically disturbing in spots.
edward norton in the lead is outstanding, and the best of the movies i've seen him in (yes, even better than in fight club and primal fear). it weirds me out to watch his physical appearance in this movie and compare it with his usual appearance - not only did he manage to completely mold and build his body muscles, but his very facial structure and presence behind his eyes seem changed.
comparing the frighteningly strong, cocky, confident, intense and scary norton-x with his usual weak-faced, silly-squinty eyed, nervous almost lispy voiced norton (note: i -like- the latter described norton, so i don't mean it in a bad way, eh..) almost can't be done. i don't know how he did it, but i know it's proof of his amazing acting talent (he reminds me a bit of guy pearce in that sense). impressed? me? indeed.
eh. i'm tempted to say too much, so i'll just stop and say it again: tomorrow night, 8pm (east coast time), USA network, american history x. oh, they're running it without commercial interruptions -- yey. i'm taping. this movie is on my personal toplist of intense emotional movies that mess me up (it's surpassed only by new zeeland urban maori movie once were warriors).
whenever i'm sucked in by a movie i end up sifting through the comments given by people at imdb.com. i particularluy scan for the negative reviews to see what others noted as issues. this movie got a majority of comments saying "wow! most powerful movie i've ever seen!" with a few contrasting comments saying it was the lamest, dullest most shallow hollywood garbage ever made to trigger emotions. i suppose both views a valid. everyone's got their own opinion, and that's fine. the guy who left this comment doesn't seem to agree with that though:
"Just had to see it!!! And I'm glad I did!! I went into this movie like so many other people (probably because the thought of Nazis is enough to get me to go get a gun and be rid of these people), and, of course, I came out better for the wear."
... personally i think a point of the movie, or any movie dealing with racism, is to see that lumping people, ANY people, together into a faceless "these people" group and threaten to blow them away is not a solution for anybody, but maybe that's just me ...
eh. i give up. cin cin.�� 11:58 p.m.
