the groundhog day project

The last recap post had themes of puberty and werewolves, and transformation of self in general. Ultimately, I think that has been the biggest theme in this blog. Even when a particular entry, or a particular film, has not been about that the writing of this blog has been . For me, I mean. And, I don’t need to quote that in my master’s thesis because that is an idea I’ve already promoted many times. Still, for my own edification or some researcher’s future use, this entry will get a “thesis” tag at the bottom because I try to be thorough. That being said, Groundhog Day is playing because it’s the 2nd, and Phil just met Ned for the second time (not counting when they knew each other in school, of course). I’ve written before about how it can be comforting returning to this film each month. Today, it’s more like background music, a favorite song I’ve listened to many, many times. The winter quarter begins in two days, I’m teaching three classes and taking two, and winter quarter is t...

Two very different movies today-- The Revenant and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang . The former: a beautiful film, visually, with minimal dialogue, bouts of serious violence and blood, and Leonardo DiCaprio trying for an award again. He should really take on roles like Tom Hardy's here. There's more nuance to it. But, I digress. The latter: one of the great Christmas stories--Shane Black writing and directing a nice Christmas yarn about a missing girl, some murders, incest, violence, and some kickass narration. You know, classic Christmas trappings. Meanwhile, you've got Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu directing Leonardo DiCaprio--who despite my tone above, was awesome as real-life Mary Sue Hugh Glass--Tom Hardy, Will Poulter and Domhnall Gleeson (who just keeps showing up this week) acting the crap out of a script with a lot less--a lot less dialogue--than Shane Black's talkative Hollywood noir...           And then, I'm here just watching Kiss Kiss Bang Bang because it...

I was prepared to make some sort of joke about Carol relating to Christmas because, you know, Christmas Carols, and then not ten minutes into the movie I realize it's actually set around Christmas and Carol (Cate Blanchett) first meets Therese (Rooney Mara), she (Therese) is wearing a Santa hat. My actual Christmas movie for today is In Bruges --it's playing now. I didn't expect to really be arguing that Carol is a Christmas film.. Note: This blog has had a few extra views of late, probably because of my one two Star Wars The Force Awakens entries. I wanted to note for new readers that I do not generally review films. If you want a review of Carol , try NPR or the International Business Times or the Boston Herald or Screen Crush or wherever you like to find movie reviews. I don't know what to call what I do. I take a movie and maybe deconstruct it, or maybe tie it to some... other thing, or link two movies ( Carol links really well to yesterday 's Brook...

So, I did get some work done today, got some stuff ready for the upcoming winter quarter. I also managed to oversleep, go for a walk, and watch... Technically, this-- Go is on right now, because I wanted a classic Christmas film--is my fifth movie in 24 hours. I watched the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated movie--which is nowhere near as good as most of the episode of that show that I have seen. I watched Steve Jobs . I watched Spectre . And, I just finished Brooklyn . The quick rundown before I (probably) get distracted by some tangent and forget all about the specific films in question: I've seen the Clone Wars thing before, as well as a lot of episodes of the series... For whatever reason, I never kept up consistently, but I've had Star Wars on my mind of late, for some weird reason. This theatrical release was a edit of a few episodes with a self-contained story, and it's pretty kid-friendly--baby Hutt nicknamed Stinky--and pretty weird--a Truman Capote-sequel...

"Dragon breath" is racist. That's 1. But then you throw a gong into the soundtrack after? That's 2, and that's 1980s casual racism. Gremlins again . Kieran's watching with me. He just made the connection between this and The Wizard of Oz . "Pointless dialogue." - what Kieran said about the mother's line about her husband's inventions not working. Because, no duh. Also, I realize, I may have been a little rude to Lynn Peltzer (Frances Lee McCain), identifying her just by her relationships to two males. Saer's also here. She just called Billy a goober for telling Gizmo to smile for the camera. Also, she might be drunk (for the record, that's a joke; she's 13). She just asked if I wrote that she called him a "stripper." I just noticed that Chekhov's race car driving is accompanied by a poster for The Road Warrior . I think Gizmo has dreams of grandeur. Kieran recognized Pete (Corey Feldman) from Stand By Me an...

For a Christmas movie, Gremlins starts with some seriously shady goings on. With the voiceover from the Rand Peltzer (Hoyt Axton)--which I had totally forgotten was a thing--it's like some film noir detective story, except with a whole lot of red thrown into the color scheme. Then he pulls out his "bathroom buddy" invention and things get silly. Then the Mogwai shows up, with some adorable singing, and we drift into some white privilege territory with Rand thinking he can just automatically buy anything he wants to buy just... because. Kidding. I mean, yeah, I'm totally right about that, and it may mean that the entire Gremlins incident may just be a warning about what happens when we do not check our privilege. But, I was specifically looking to not get into politics or social commentary today... Which, when I think about it now, is pretty stupid. As I have argued many times about movies in this blog, every movie can tell us a lot about the time and place where...

Imagine it: last December, I was watching Christmas movies for this blog. It was nice and pleasant... Well, there was Black Christmas (with a brief venture into Silent Night, Deadly Night , but mostly it was... Nice. There was talk of filmmaking and screenplay structure and Christ-Figures, but mostly it was about how good people can and should be to one another. Or, at least, that is how I remember it. How I choose to remember it. And, the year before, when I was stil watching Groundhog Day every day, I also squeezed in a silly little Christmas film-- 12 Dates of Christmas . This year, I find myself inclined toward more serious fare, toward lengthy rants like the other day . To be fair, December usually includes a lot of the more interesting movies for me since that is when Oscar hopefuls show up in theaters. This year, as well, there is a.... What shall I call it? There is an interesting political climate about in America. Donald Trump is still going strong in his campaign for ...

Let us switch gears after that rant yesterday . Today, I saw Krampus in the theater, and first thing: I am glad for a family-oriented horror film that embraces the PG-13 rating and allows scary things to actually happen instead of just being silly. In fact, while I was wary of the... SPOILERS, of course. (Just skip the next paragraph.) While I was wary of the inevitable reset that had to come after the plot of this film--and hoped it wouldn't happen--I actually rather liked the way the reset finally came and was also countered with the apparent memory of everyone involved (including the family dog). Weta's practical monsters were amazing (as usual), and the level of violence in the film was remarkable, again, for a family-oriented film. That should be the end of the SPOILERS. I'm not interested today in a lot of words... Maybe to counter yesterday. I'm also not interested in a review of the film so much as a review of... I guess it is the holiday itself, the sens...

The Night Before --the new movie starring Seth Rogan, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anthony Mackie, not the 1988 classic starring Keanu Reeves and Lori Loughlin--is fairly straightforward as to how it is marketed and what you're going to get for your money. That is, if you want to see it, you will probably enjoy it. In fact, I don't feel that there's much to say about it that isn't painfully obvious. It's funny, it's entertaining, it's crass, occasionally ridiculous and ultimately quite heartwarming. It's the kind of Christmas movie that makes you want to spend time with the people who are important to you. So, after I saw it, I came home and hung out with my kids. The message is simple--figure out who matters to you and spend time with them.

(Got a mention on reddit today, so there have been some new readers today--a nice jump in pageviews. Thing is, they're probably looking for Groundhog Day . Recently, I spent another week ( 762 763 764 765 766 767 768 ) with that film, and I still watch it once a month, but my 365-days-in-a-row ended more than two years ago. Lately--i.e. phase three--I try to watch a different movie each day, but occasionally they repeat if I've got more to say (like today). I'm writing my Master's Thesis about writing this blog (primarily that first year with Groundhog Day ) and there's been talk about a book, but I haven't had time to look into that possibility just yet. Meanwhile, there are movies that need watching; and mostly, I pick movies I have seen before so that I've got room to go off on tangents or prepare ahead with research. With today's film-- The Ref --it's the former. Enjoy.) The synchronized "Fuck you!" that ends the opening scene...

Christmas movies in September--that's the way to go when you you just wasted a few days on increasingly bad spoof films, were stuck in the 1980s and might drift back into them again soon but just don't feel like an 80s film for a change. (I'm considering doing some classic horror films next month--remember, last October, I watched slasher films. And, after The Visit I kinda wanted to watch more horror films. But, it's too early. Not enough days before the 2nd ( Groundhog Day again) to go forward with another set of movies I've got lined up, so.... Today's movie came out in 1994, by the way. It's The Ref . It starts off with some sort of stereotypical small town Christmas scenes, kids looking in store windows and whatnot. Then we join a married couple, Lloyd and Caroline Chasseur (Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis) in couples therapy. This is not going to be your usual Christmas movie, clearly. ...I'm staring at my Netflix queue, which swelled up recent...

i have been stabbed, shot, poisoned, frozen, hung, electrocuted and burned . That's the last time I did a recap post, and that was too long ago. As Groundhog Day plays tonight, I shall recap a few entries. For example, back in September, I watched a few romantic comedies, starting with When Harry Met Sally... : Day 395 - men and women can't be friends got into the definition of romantic comedy. Day 396 - write about things that happen to other people gets a little personal because I do that from time to time. Day 397 - sit with someone and not have to talk gets into the commentary track. Day 398 - the only person i knew in new york is me getting annoyed with Annie Hall as a side project in my week of When Harry Met Sally... , and suggests that a romantic comedy needs to be urban. Day 399 - i'm too structured gets into Social Penetration Theory and my general approach to blogging about movies. Day 400 - one of the secrets that no one ever tells you is about the ...

Sticking your tongue where it probably shouldn't be. Fantasizing about how much your teacher likes you. Fantasizing about being the savior to everyone around you. Just another day in the life of an adolescent boy. Yesterday was serious. Today—not so much. Unless, of course, it is. A Christmas Story is a coming-of-age story for Ralphie Parker. As mentioned in the commentary track (and as should be obvious to anyone watching the movie) the one throughline of the film is Ralphie's pursuit of the Red Ryder BB Gun. I've written before about the " cowboy " as the "quintessential man's man" and that comes into play here again. Ralphie, on the brink of not being a child anymore fantasizes about being a cowboy (and also about being a spy, given the Little Orphan Annie decoding bit, but maybe that scene isn't to be taken so literally... more on that below). Ralphie seeks a phallic symbol he can use to demonstrate his manliness. There is not even much ...