Super easy hints, since y’all are suffering.
Archive for May 13, 2009
Actor trivia
1. Runs. Loves opera. Stays at the airport.
Solved by Christina (comment#1).
2. Flirts with the king. Is married to the head of the Secret Service. Is a nun.
1956, 1967, 1947
TIE: Solved by Hazel (comment #18) and Melville (comment #19).
3. Has trouble eating breakfast. Sells wands. Is arrested naked.
Solved by Bill (comment #8).
4. Dances. Is a famous author. Investigates a power plant.
Solved by Melville (comment #11).
5. Loses his memory. Strikes back. Is a beggar.
1942, 1934, 1944
Solved by Melville (comment #19).
6. Writes plays. Marries the mob. La-de-da.
TIE: Solved by Ben (comment #5) and Bill (comment #6).
7. Is a poet. Is stalked. Avenges Israel.
Solved by Christina (comment#14).
Monday Movie Review: I Married a Monster from Outer Space
I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958) 7/10
On the eve of his wedding, Bill Farrell’s body (Tom Tryon) is taken over by an alien. Marge Farrell (Gloria Talbott) quickly realizes she is married to a stranger, and gradually is able to confirm her fears, but how to get others to believe her?
I absolutely watched I Married a Monster from Outer Space for the giggles, and ended up impressed by its subtlety. It doesn’t deserve its campy title.
In the opening moments, Bill is overtaken and the cheesy alien costume and special effects are revealed: No Cat People here! Instead, the horror is personal and romantic. The young newlywed was so in love, but this man is not loving; her life is isolated and hellish, but not in a way she can explain. Meanwhile, cold, unfeeling aliens take over this small town. When we see that cops are among the aliens we know that help will be hard to find.
There is a surprising amount of sexual and social subtext in this film. Long before we learn that the aliens have breeding as a goal, there are long camera pans to one or the other of the Farrells going upstairs to bed, there are hookers and party girls trying to gain interest from both normal men and aliens, and finally, there is a visit to the family doctor; Marge is concerned about her fertility. Which means, yes indeed, that she is having sex with the unfeeling stranger who terrifies her; enough sex to expect that she’d be pregnant by now. That’s creepy.
The whole thing is put together with subtlety and intelligence, although there are also gaps and missed opportunities in the narrative. Certainly this is not Invasion of the Body Snatchers; despite a very similar theme, it lacks the power of a true classic. But it is thoughtful, and tense, and has all sorts of lovely grace notes. Music is one: Most B movies tend to abuse music in a way that may well violate the law; this movie hits the right balance of expression without hammering a point home. The ending was satisfying and exciting, and not at all what I expected.
There’s also an enormous amount of sexual politics that the writer never intended. It’s just there, like the classic fifties cars. Aliens only overtake male bodies. Ultimately, we learn the aliens themselves are all male, but why does that matter? Our human, oxygen breathing lungs are no problem for the methane-breathing aliens, why should it matter whether or not they overtake bodies with penises? It’s simply the writers who cannot visualize a male in a female body, even a tentacled, glowy male. Similarly, if only male bodies are being overtaken, why not rally the women to fight back, rather than risk approaching men who may or may not be compromised? It never occurs to anyone in the film. How could it? Women are helpless creatures good only for love and sex, both the human and alien males agree on that.
Am I underestimating screenwriter Louis Vittes? Is the gender role thing there on purpose? I doubt it; surely a moment of dialogue would have been dedicated to it if it was really a part of the theme. Yet it is one of the films most fascinating components.
It’s yesterday once more
Last night I was at a volunteer meeting and I ran into a woman, a former student, whom I had not seen in seventeen years. We didn’t recognize each other at first. Seventeen years!
A few weeks ago, an ex-boyfriend from nine years ago ran into me on the Internet and used the opportunity to write a lovely apology to me for the way he had treated me. Which was badly, by the way.
Everything is a circle. Nothing in my life gives evidence of a linear universe; everything turns around and comes back again, sooner or later. And that is a great comfort to me. Weird, but a great comfort.
My second day at the new job
…which is not today. Today is like, Day Six. But anyway.
I arrive promptly at 9 a.m., because, y’know, new job. And no one is there. So I loiter outside the office for about 10 minutes until Kevin arrives and unlocks. Unfortunately, the woman who I share an office with is not yet in, so even though I am now inside the office, I am locked out of my office. While loitering in the hall, Kevin and I have a productive conversation/meeting. But still.
The office manager comes in at 10 every day. When she arrives, she tells us my office mate is sick with flu-like symptoms. Oy vey. She also gives me a set of keys.
Lunchtime rolls around and I have brought a lunch, so I prepare it and put it in the microwave and…the microwave is broken.
So I decide to explore the neighborhood and find someplace to buy lunch. Which is when I get in my car and discover the battery is dead.
Because the car is 4 years old and has the original battery, I am concerned that this may be an actual deceased battery, rather than just needing a jump, so I call a tow guy and they tell me one hour. So I buy a sandwich from the guy in the building and go back to my desk, and phone the tow people after an hour and fifteen to find out where they are. Twenty minutes, they tell me.
An hour and a half later, they arrive. By the time my motor is actually running, it’s four o’clock, and the guy advises me to keep the engine running and to bring it in somewhere to have the battery tested. So I phone upstairs to tell them I’m leaving and drive straight to Sears.
The guy who is testing my battery tells me that my tires look bald. Then the woman with the paperwork tells me my tires look bald. Then the service guy across the room shouts at the woman to check my tires because they look bald.
A new battery and four new tires later, I drive away.
Fortunately, subsequent days have been somewhat less eventful. But the microwave is still broken.
Actor mix-up: All solved!
Well done.
Tuesday trivia: Actor mix-up redux
1. A transvestite and Rachel’s mom in a tear-jerker.
Solved by Melville (comment #3).
2. A joker and a hallucinating teen fall in love.
Solved by Tom Hilton (comment #1).
3. Disabled by birth plus mute by choice equals adversaries.
Solved by Melville (comment #8).
4. She knows Sinatra. His father is Gary Cooper. They’re not made for each other.
Solved by Melville (comment #4).
5. A member of the Foreign Legion and a flirtatious heiress on their wedding day.
Solved by Hazel (comments #5 & 6).
6. A gang tale of an exceptionally long-lived king and the friend of an exceptionally hairy king.
Solved by Christina (comment #2).
7. Cosmetics CEO on a road trip with supervillain.
Solved by Ben (comment #10).
Monday Movie Review: Son of Rambow
Son of Rambow (2007) 8/10
In 1982, two boys become friends. Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) is deeply imaginative, lonely, and forbidden to watch TV by his strict religious family. Lee Carter (Will Poulter) is a troublemaker, frequently punished in school. With Lee’s movie camera and Will’s script, they set out to make “Son of Rambow” in order to win a young filmmakers contest.
There should be room for little movies. Son of Rambow will not change your life, or the world, or filmmaking. It is not, by and large, extraordinary. It is the very definition of a “small” movie. Its budget appears low, its stars are unknown, and its concerns are the delicate moments in young lives. It’s almost hard to figure out how to review it. It’s just this lovely little movie, so what is one to say?
It’s 1982. Will’s father is dead. He carries a journal with him everywhere; richly illustrated, it is an adventure tale with monsters and heroes and a father being rescued. He has never seen television or a movie, but he is busily creating them in his journal. He is incredibly sheltered and innocent, but his geekiness is not overdone. It’s enough to know that he’s absorbed in his own book. There are no scenes of him being teased or ostracized, but it’s pretty clear that he has no crowd, no friends, no life outside his inner creation. When Will visits Lee’s home for the first time, he sees his first movie: First Blood (the first Rambo movie, which Lee is making pirate copies of), and he’s stunned. He’s simply floored; adventure, heroics, explosions—it’s his fantasies come to life. He begins to rewrite his adventure tale to make his imprisoned father “Rambow,” and give himself Rambo’s abilities.
Meanwhile, a busload of French exchange students have arrived at Will and Lee’s conservative English school, and one student, Didier (Jules Sitruk) makes a huge splash by introducing his New Wave style and disaffected sensibility.
What happens is uncomplicated, comical, and engaging. The characters are not exactly profound or complex, but they are uniquely themselves. Will is no stereotypical geek, Lee is not a clichéd “bad boy,” and Didier is unlike anything or anyone. Most of the fun is in the making of Son of Rambow; the insanely clever setup of stunts and effects is fun to watch, and also a bit of meta-commentary on making a low-budget film. As things get more complicated, they get less fun, which is what we might expect an indie filmmaker to say. But the movie retains its fundamental innocence, unencumbered by commentary on filmmaking or anything else.
Happy Beltane
Hooray hooray
The first of May
Outdoor “loving”
Begins today.
Or not, in this weather.
