A Short Review: The Fall (2006)

I agree with the Ebert assessment of The Fall: Definitely see it for the eye candy. The behind-the-scenes stuff on the DVD don’t do justice to the numbing number of shots in exotic locales that were set up — some for a two-second scene or less. From the opening credits which depict a rescue effort unfolding in slow motion to the final denouement, the visual artistry (costuming, cinematography, locales, special effects) gets in the way of the problematic story which turns out to be a good thing as there’s no way to turn it off. The director is quoted on one of the extras saying something like “Either this movie works or it’s going to be a long, bad music video.” This tautology is clearly on display and interestingly, Tarsem Singh got his start directing fantastical music videos and TV commercials. Possibly to prevent the latter from occurring to the audience, Tarsem chose Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony for much of the soundtrack.

It’s about an injured stuntman in a hospital telling a story to a little girl which is fine, however, I generally don’t like movies with narration for the usual reasons cited by critics for liking the director’s cut of Blade Runner over the theatrical release. The story the stuntman tells is fraught with errors in fashioning a proper hero story namely, too many heroes with too many moral ambiguities. It’s a pleasure watching the girl actor, Catinca Untaru, bring the story within the story back to the child’s realm sort of knowing the stuntman is going to screw it up again with the bile from his misanthropic unrequited soul and broken body.

Well, hm. The more I write about it, the more I like it. 4/5 stars.

Three Hits from the Intertubes

Even though I’m mostly Irish, I usually end up hiding out on St. Patrick’s Day. I’m just not a big fan of the kelly green plastic crap, “kiss me I’m Irish” buttons, Irish sports bars, or fake Irish accents.

WFMU has launched its video podcasts with this stunning debut. I hope you donated to the station if you ever listen.


Video Quest from WFMU Episode 1

If they’re blooming everywhere, maybe we should eat jellyfish! Asians specialize in clear or white base foods that don’t taste like much: cellophane noodles, tofu, and rice, so you also have all the great spices, sauces, and pickling techniques. It’s only a matter of time before I order some jellyfish in chinatown though the texture scares me. Full disclosure: I got stung pretty badly by jellyfish as a kid which resulted in my shunning the ocean altogether for a few years. Nobody peed on me.

If the AIG executive bonus scandal has been good for anything, it’s brought what’s been wrong all along with how the Obama administration has handled the bailout / stimulus by putting faces on the corporate welfare recipients. Over at kos, barbinmd has proposed some simple policy guidelines for executives who remain with bailed out institutions: “Executives at a failing company don’t get a bonus. Executives at a failing company don’t get a raise.” Simple answers to simple questions.

Fixer Upper For Sale

The Wall Street Journal reports Obama’s poll numbers are really starting to slip. While this may be true, the MSM’s insistence that this has been true all along is false, partly because MSM coverage of the stimulus has been disingenuous. Obama’s centrist approach will keep him afloat for a little while. So the fringe is starting to fray.

Other stuff from Richard:

  • Chas Freeman’s on his withdrawal from the National Intelligence Council. Discusses the smear machine in front of the Israel lobby. Politico’s Ben Smith comments.
  • CIA reports Israel likely to go the way of South Africa.
  • Naked Capitalism still skeptical about bank behavior. The Japan model is just kicking the can down the road.
  • The left and the right both fascinated that the FBI’s terrorist watch list has hit 1 million. Keeping track of a million terrorists must be pretty easy!
  • Tom Engelhardt gives a history lesson in American imperialism in light of rhetoric over Afghanistan. (very long)

Before He Was Famous: Robert Duvall


Robert Duvall in The Time Tunnel


Everybody doing the funky chicken in the time tunnel lab

Hulu has the entire run of a show I loved as kid: The Time Tunnel. I used to tumble around with friends in slow motion pretending to land in some other time before playing cowboys and indians or cops and robbers. The wiki article has some good trivia on the show. It was produced by Irwin Allen who also did Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space and then went on to do a few of the famous 70s disaster movies like Towering Inferno and the original Poseidon Adventure. For this, people called him The Master of Disaster.

I was rather surprised to find Robert Duvall in one episode playing a time-traveling tool. How many actors can go from playing idiots in kitschy old sci-fi shows or movies to the Oscars® and superstardom? (And which of them worked with George Lucas? Duvall is also in THX-1138.) Harrison Ford is the only other one I can think of and he has only managed a nomination. On a similar tangent, it’s interesting that a former porn star, Sibel Kikelli, won the German Oscar for best actress (the Deutscher Filmpreis) in 2004. (Head-On is a great film by the way.) You go girl.