the groundhog day project

Two very different movies today. First, a torture-porn sort of thriller/horror film called Vile and right now Renaissance Man , a Penny Marshall-directed comedy drama that's quite family-friendly. It's been a while since I've watched this movie, but I remember liking it (and my kids watched it for English class). But, I'm looking at Roger Ebert's review and he calls it "a labored, unconvincing comedy that seems cobbled together out of the half-understood remnants of its betters." Nice description, but not too positive. Meanwhile, I just watched a bunch of actors, ranging from poor to mediocre, hurt each other after being locked in a house and wired to some plot-devices that collect their dopamine and... plot-juice. Interesting thing was that film was almost trying to have a point. This one long-haired guy in the group... oh, SPOILERS are coming, so skip the next paragraph (jump to after the image) if a movie about ten people being locked in a house toge...

The thing about Everything Is Illuminated is it suggests--at the same time, mind you--that it's never too late to get over your past and your past will always catch up to you. If The Grey was purgatory , this is somehow both heaven and hell... or maybe just another form of purgatory... or maybe just life. The movie returns us to the idea that life is just stories , the what we choose to remember-- how we choose to remember it--matters more than the reality. Stories change over time. So do memories. Each return of a memory is affected by the previous one--that was a detail in the latest Pixar movie, Inside Out that I rather liked, in fact; positive memories turn negative, joy turns sad... and vice versa, I suppose. Bittersweet is introduced. Everything Is Illuminated is based on Jonathan Safran Foer's first published novel. It is, of course, about a young man named Jonathan Safran Foer going to the Ukraine in search of family history, specifically, the woman in a photo...

Oh, the red and green. I wish I had the time to grab screencaps galore, because it is kinda crazy how much red and green is in this movie, particularly the beginning. It’s like the McCallister house is where Christmas threw up. Wallpaper patterns—several of them—red and green. Rugs red and green. Red bedspread. Red flowers (and not just poinsettias). Green lampshades, green phone. Kevin’s shirt is red and green (the green looks blue in some shots). Red chairs. Every one of the kids (plus Frank and Leslie, but not Peter (though he’s got a green and red scarf when they run through the airport) or Kate) is wearing red, green or red and green... except Linnie; she wears pink, but she’s got a necklace that looks like Christmas lights. Here, look at this: Buzz, Kevin and Rod all wearing red and green. Someone let the set decorators and costumers go a little nuts with the Christmas decor. Pizza delivery car is red, it’s signs red and green on white. Pizza delivery guy wears a red and gre...