Three sentence movie reviews–It’s a Wonderful Life.


This is my favorite holiday movie even though I find the main character to be whiny, petulant and mostly unlikeable. There are so many good lines where I snort or hoot with laughter–“Mary? You on the nest?” is perhaps my favorite. And every year it kills me when George Bailey finds out that no man is ever poor who has friends.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1946/its_a_wonderful_life.html

Three sentence movie reviews–Before Sunset.


Most of adult life is pretty boring and repetitious: hours, days, month spent doing the same thing over and over again with no real surprises. I can’t really convey the pleasure and the anticipation this movie brought letting me join the characters of Before Sunrise nine years later. They are still the same age as me and there is still a lot of walking and talking and well-thunk thoughts.
Crap, I can’t do this in three sentences, here are a few more: Never has a walk up a staircase been so full of tension. I’m hoping Linklater will take up Roger Ebert’s suggestion to drop in on them every nine years so we can see what has become of their lives.

Also, watching these movies one after another really highlights the aging that can take place in a decade. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, just looking at Ethan Hawke, I thought, “Wow! Has my face undergone similar changes?” Which of course it has, as I smoked for seven years and love the sun and tend to shy away from sunscreen.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2004/before_sunset.html

Three sentence movie reviews–Before Sunrise


I was the same age as the characters in this movie when it was released and I couldn’t imagine anything more exciting then meeting a boy on a train, and accepting his offer to wander the city overnight with him engaging in long conversations about well-thunk thoughts. I fell in love with this movie and the characters and thus, I can never give an impartial review. Watching it now, 11 years later their well-thunk thoughts seem so earnest and young and a bit silly I giggled, but that didn’t diminish my love.

Note: I watched this originally with Cindy and Sara at Cindy’s house and thanks to her, I will always be distracted by the noise Ethan Hawke’s jacket makes. The dress Celene wears always reminds me of Sara. In those ways they both continue to watch it with me, every time.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1995/before_sunrise.html

Three sentence movie reviews–Zach and Miri Make a Porno


I think that, in between his hugely successful movies, Kevin Smith has a lot of free time on his hands and there is much sitting around thinking thoughts like, “What if I made a romantic comedy about two friends making porn?” Illegal substances may be involved, though Smith strikes me as someone a little too uptight to indulge. This was middle of the road Kevin Smith fare, with a lot of raunch, a few disgusting scenes and more evidence that under all his adolescent humor, he is really a squishy romantic at heart.

Three sentence movie reviews–Paranoid Park

Filmed in Portland with a lot of scenes near my work! The first twenty minutes of this movie have more dialog than Van Sant’s three previous movies combined. Much arty filming of skateborders, who remain youth that I have a soft spot for.

Note: a few years ago I decided to watch all of Gus Van Sant’s movies in order. This brings me up to date as of last year, now I have to see Milk. I split Van Sant’s movies into three categories: Early Portland, Commercial/Independent fare, and the “No Talking” Trilogy. With Paranoid Park and Milk, I seem to need a new category. In the meantime, my favorites from the current categories:

  • Early Portland: Drugstore Cowboy (probably a top 20 movie for me, beautifully filmed)
  • Commercial/Independent: To Die For (Nicole Kidman is good, but Matt Dillon and Joaquin Pheonix truly sparkle. Also, Illeana Douglas and Allison Foland are fabulous.)
  • No Talking: Gerry. (How could two guys walking around in the desert not talking be so mesmerizing?)

SNOW!

So far it has turned our Holiday Party/Overnight into just a Holiday Party (for this I am thankful.) It has canceled our church service and Sunday school at 11:15. It has kept people from the Nutcracker, ensuring me the best seat I will probably ever have at the ballet. What will it do next?

It doesn’t look like a lot, but for Portlanders, any snow is too much snow. Sometimes even a forecast for snow is too much snow.
The pioneers have even more struggle. They are covered in snow!
City Hall looks picturesque.

White Elephant Theme: Summer.

Each year for the youth group holiday party we have a white elephant gift exchange. This year we decided to go with a theme: summer. Here Sam models some of the gifts. From the top: A lovely red hat, which now is named Fernando. A fabulous sword. A quite nice swimsuit that Deborah was happy to grab for someone, but first Sam had to model it. And some lovely flip flops, sadly obscured by the couch.