[Movies] Into the Woods (2014)

I often remark that the works of Stephen Sondheim are pretty much sacred to me. And as we trace that road back and back, we'll always end up with Into the Woods, which remains to be my favorite Sondheim musical. And when news of a movie adaptation came out, I wasn't all that excited. Hollywood's track record when it comes to such adaptations is less than stellar plus the fact that this is a rather complex story with some rather adult themes. Throw in the fact that it was confirmed that Disney was handling the production, and I was really worried.

But I tried to keep the faith given this Into the Woods movie still had Stephen Sondheim involved in the production. So that had to be good news, right? And to be fair, Disney made sure to include a lot of top acting talent in this movie, including the one and only Meryl Streep.

And while the movie seems to have done well at the box office and had generally favorable reviews, I can't help but feel like it was missing something. And yes, I'm probably speaking more as a fan of the original theater production and thus I'm breaking my usual "rule" of trying to separate the adapted work from its source material, but it's really hard not to given how important the production is to me. Still, at least it wasn't terrible.

[Movies] Birdman (2014)

At the end of the ear the awards season for movies and television really begins to kick into high gear and suddenly we find all these movies we've never heard about getting nominated. You know those sorts of movies - the ones that either were released and didn't get a lot of buzz since they're "serious" movies that have been traveling the indie circuit or they were released late in the year to coincide with the nomination season.

Birdman is precisely one of those movies that just totally slipped past my radar and I really didn't know what to think about it based on the title of the movie. I mean come on, the only Birdman that I know of is the old Hanna-Barbera cartoon character that saw greater humor as the Adult Swim character Harvey Birdman, Attoryney at Law.

And while there is a superhero in this story that dresses up like a bird, that's not quite the main focus of things. It's really about a guy who was popular because of a bunch of superhero movies but now he's trying to redefine his career with more serious stuff and he just happens to be played by Michael Keaton. So meta.

[Movies] Her (2013)

When people think science fiction, images of the far future with space ships and talking robots are the most common ideas that form. And that's only natural - it's one of the more popular aspects of science fiction that has been a heck of a lot more salable in the public view.

But movies like Her remind us that there's a lot more to science fiction than the speculated high technology of the future. Some of the best science fiction is much closer to home and tries to explore current technologies as we try to imagine how they might develop and evolve. And this movie is a wonderful example of that.

But beyond the science fiction aspect to things, this is a love story, a movie that explores how human emotions also try to adapt to new technologies. And while it's easy to think of some of the aspects of this movie as just being crazy or perhaps even inconceivable. And that's all part of good science fiction - how speculation about the future and about technology can be used as a canvass upon which one can try to figure out new aspects about what it means to be human.

[Movies] Duplicty (2009)

There are days when I actually dig up a movie to watch just to have something to review for this blog. It's part of the "job" that this labor of love of a site is and sometimes it does mean that I get to enjoy some seriously interesting movies. Other times, well, at least I have something to review.

If you were to ask me the basic question of whether or not I liked Duplicity, I'm really not sure what to say immediately. I'd hate to have to answer the question with a response like "Well, it depends" - but that may be precisely how I feel about this. There's a lot going on in terms of this narrative that can distract you from value of watching Clive Owen and Julia Roberts try to flirt the pants off one another without actually flirting.

Then again, maybe you really enjoy those sorts of overly complicated narratives that require that you think in 4 dimensions. Or maybe you like transition devices that feel more at home in the 1960's even though that's not the setting of the movie.

[Entertainment] Movie Awards Season

In case you haven't already noticed, I've recently developed a penchant for the TIME Magazine website, particularly as a source of analysis of current events and not necessarily as a news source - for that it's always best to scan or search Google News.

Recently they've published a string on interesting articles that I wanted to share with everyone about the various awards being given out for the entertainment industry. Enjoy!

• On the Golden Globes - Hollywood with a British Accident
  
• On the Sundance Film Festival - The Trouble with Sundance
  
• On the Academy Awards Nominations - A Nightmare for Dreamgirls

Enjoy!