Summer's goin by fast...

Well, July is pretty much over now but the blogging bug has bit me again so let's see what's been going on in my world.

Rachel's parents came down this weekend to spend some time with us. We managed to celebrate Dave's birthday by going to Natt Spil, an eclectic fusion restaurant just off the Square that has what is, in my humble opinion, the best damn pork sandwich EVER. On crispy home made french bread, with spicy mayo and plenty of cilantro and jalapenos. Mmm-mmm good.

We managed to get quite a bit of theater in this weekend as well. On Friday after attending a bbq at Joseph and Leah's we headed out to go see You've Ruined A Perfectly Good Mystery, a play written and performed by Madisonians that is headed off to the New York Fringe. The play was about a Sherlock Holmes rip off set in a completely irreverent choose-your-own-adventure and narrated by someone with a hilarious love of overworked simile and heavy handed puns, much to our main characters' dismay. Probably the best part about this play was the scenery, which was carried and acted out by the rotating portion of the cast. Particularly awesome whenever there was travel involved. Plus, at the end, dirigible battle!

Next up was Captain America. I liked it, maybe not as much as I liked Thor (THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRR!!!) but it was a fine addition to the Marvel line up. Hugo Weaving had an amazing clipped German accent as the Red Skull and, as Rachel put it, "Everyone hates Nazis, and when you have people that even the Nazis hate then you just don't care how many get blown up!" Hat tip to Marvel for including Nick Fury's Howling Commandos as part of the storyline and making Bucky into a badass. Also, the Avengers trailer at the end? YES.

Finally we traveled an hour out of town to Spring Green, WI to watch a play at the American Players Theatre. This place was very cool as it's an outdoor theater, and we have been blessed all weekend with absolutely perfect weather. Unfortunately we were a bit confused as to exactly how seating was going to work and brought a picnic dinner, only to find that there were actual theater seats and outside food wasn't allowed in the theater. Nonetheless we quietly broke out our peanut butter and raspberry & hot pepper jelly sandwiches and served ourselves slices of gourmet sheep and goat cheese on crackers while the play was going on.

The play that we saw was Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, a comedy about a man who accidentally brings the spirit of his first wife back from the grave with terrible results. It was very witty and the actors performed quite admirably and, for being an outdoor production, the special effects were good. I do have to say that it did drag on a bit especially towards the beginning, but overall it was a great way to finish out the evening. Plus I think I saw more bats during the play than I have at any other point, which is awesome.

And that's mostly what's been going on. Deb, as I know you're reading this, if you could send me some of the pics from the weekend I'd love to post them up.

Thanks for reading!

Up In The Air

As you can probably tell form the title and the large movie poster located just above these words, this is going to be a movie review of the film Up In The Air, which came out a couple of weeks ago. The story follows one man, Ryan Bingham, at a pivotal moment in his life. Ryan works for a company that fires employees for other companies that "don't have the balls to do it themselves" and flies all over the country to do so. He's also a motivational speaker whose talk is titled "What's In Your Backpack?", the metaphorical backpack being your life. He advocates that it should only be filled with the things that you absolutely need, throwing away the rest of the people and possessions that unnecessarily clutter your life. He also advocates stereotyping as "it saves more time that way."

These factors combine to conjure a man whose only "real" home is in the airport. There's a very neat sequence that's repeated a few times throughout the film showing just how at home he is- the carefully choreographed dance of putting things on and taking them off at the security checkpoint, the breezy pace that he can use thanks to his many elite statuses, and the casual, measured stroll of someone cheerfully strolling through a park. The airport and its accessories are his domain, and he treats them with more tenderness and care than anyone from what most people would call his "real" life. The concierges at the airports know him by name and wait on his every whim. His own neighbor he rarely sees as he is away most of the year, and there's the family that barely communicates with- these are unneeded peripherals that would unnecessarily hassle his streamlined existence. The only goal that he has in mind is to earn a truly spectacular number of frequent flyer miles and thus earn the ultimate of elite statuses. Ryan is all about loyalty, but only to those things that benefit him and his miles.

But of course, stories are all about conflict, and conflict enters Ryan's life in the form of Natalie Keener, a recent addition to the company who has convinced his boss to suspend the constant flying and have his employees fire people via video conference. Ryan takes her to task, and is himself tasked with showing her how his job works out on the road. He also meets a fellow travel-junkie by chance and begins unwittingly trying to fit her into his metaphorical backpack.

It's not only because he loves his ephemeral airport world that he defends his "life style choice." He isn't a misanthrope- instead he looks at his job and philosophy as beneficial ones. In his job he has the skills, training and experience to be the best person to help these unfortunates through what is probably one of the toughest times of their lives. Other people (like their actual bosses) don't have the right touch to deal with the situation in an efficient and effective manner. He firmly believes that a video conference would break that fragile bridge that he is trying to build between the shattered remains of their now previous employment and the next opportunity that they can grasp. And as for his philosophy, he is merely trying to make sure that he gets the best out of what he enjoys in life without encumbering others unduly- we're all going to die alone anyway, so what's the point?

Of course, this is only the beginning of the plot- it has plenty of quite logical and starkly realistic twists and turns as Ryan tries to deal with the possibility of losing his current lifestyle and being forced to build something permanent with the fixtures in his life. He definitely shows himself as a character capable of making change if convinced to do so, but the world often reacts to his attempted changes with the mixed message that is reality. That's not to say that everything is serious- there are plenty of light hearted and snarky moments in the movie that had us laughing, just that overall things tend to be based on reality.

If you are going to watch this movie, don't watch it for moral stories or a plot building to some kind of conclusive whole- there isn't one. Instead it is a great character study into the ways that people deal with the big events in their lives. Being forced to come home, ending a relationship, getting married- these all appear in the film, and the reactions are, like the rest of the movie, logical and realistic. So are the characters, especially the female ones, which is excellent as they are what cause the changes in Ryan's life. Even the bit parts like his sister's groom are played like they were the stars of the show- nothing is left to stereotyping.

So, in summary: I liked it. If you liked Jason Reitman's other films like Thank You For Smoking or Juno (though, a little less on the latter) you'll like this one. If you like character studies, I think you'll like this one too. It's a movie that, (shamelessly stealing from the Los Angeles Times) "makes it look easy. Not just in its casual and apparently effortless excellence, but in its ability to blend entertainment and insight, comedy and poignancy, even drama and reality, things that are difficult by themselves but a whole lot harder in combination. This film does all that and never seems to break a sweat."

Until next time...

"It liberates the vandal to travel--you never saw a bigoted, opinionated, stubborn, narrow-minded, self-conceited, almighty mean man in your life but he had stuck in one place since he was born and thought God made the world and dyspepsia and bile for his especial comfort and satisfaction."
- The American Abroad speech by Mark Twain, 1868

District 9: A Review

District 9 has been out for a while, but I figured that some of you might be interested in seeing it/simply dismiss it as "an alien movie." It is much more than that. In my previous post I believe that I used the term "Hotel Rwanda with aliens" and I meant it. This is the most realistic, gut wrenching movie involving aliens that I have ever seen as it takes the entire premise and turns it on its head.

The movie begins (and is interspersed) with documentary style interview with various people and their views on the events of the movie. We learn that 20 years ago a large alien space ship entered Earth's atmosphere and came to rest over, of all places, Johannesburg, South Africa. The South African government breaks into the ship after several weeks of waiting to discover that the craft is basically derelict and the occupants are barely clinging to life. In a humanitarian move the gov't brings the aliens to earth and sets them up in what becomes the eponymous slums known as District 9.

The aliens in this movie are an oppressed minority that are generally looked down upon by humanity. While possessed of great technology, they do not have the capacity to create more, and most seem to be devoid of any kind of motivation to use it. They are easily taken advantage of by Nigerian crime lords, the decidedly questionably moral company Multi-National United and any others that come across them. More importantly, because they are in fact not human humanity seems on the whole to not deem them worthy of humane consideration. There technology is also almost worthless to humans as only beings with alien DNA can use them, leaving the aliens (racial slur of choice: Prawn) with few to no bargaining chips on the table.

The movie is very graphic, realistic and at times depressing. The actions scenes fully take in how horrible the combat is, especially when the awesome might of alien technology is used against a human target. And even then, you realize that most of the movie is simply about survival: survival of the main character, survival of the aliens, survival of hope. The atrocities that humans inflict on the aliens is rather incredible in its brutality, vehemence and conviction, recalling and surpassing anything that happened in any human race conflict.

That isn't to say that everything is horrible in the movie- the seemless blending of computer generated imagery and real world footage is simply amazing and the absolute best job that I have seen of it in any film whatsoever. Everything feels real- the whine of ships' engines, the awkward gait of the aliens, the rust on everything, the lighting, firing and damage effects of the alien weapons, the omnipresent site of the alien mothership- all feels solid and truly there. And I guess that that is part of the reason that it is so horrible at times, as it feels that this could easily happen.

Because it was so realistic and because it has a pretty damn good story overall, I really liked District 9. I'm not sure if I would see it again, but seeing it once was an excellent experience. Just make sure that you know what kind of movie it is before going in.

But, words only do so much. Here are a few of Neil's previous works so that you can get a feel for what kind of movie it is.






Until next time...

"It's lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened. Jim he allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened; I judged it would have took too long to make so many. Jim said the moon could 'a' laid them; well, that looked kind of reasonable, so I didn't say nothing against it, because I've seen a frog lay most as many, so of course, it could be done. We used to watch the stars that fell, too, and see them streak down. Jim allowed they'd got spoiled and was hove out of the nest."
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn