11.2 ~ Documentary of the Week

"America the Beautiful" (2007)



From Netflix: "Director Darryl Roberts' provocative documentary examines America's fixation with outward appearance and the unrealistic standards of beauty dictated to the public by the media, pop culture and the fashion industry. Featuring interviews with fashion experts, media personalities and celebrities such as Mena Suvari and Aisha Tyler, the film looks at everything from plastic surgery's growing popularity to widespread concerns about eating disorders."

Insane. Incredible. Eye-opening.

IMPORTANT.

You must watch this. I'm not even joking. It has it's share of things that just make you go "WOW", or make you wonder how such things are allowed for the sake of the beauty industry, but what is REALLY important is for people to see all the complications and consequences of plastic surgery and how much more PREVALENT these consequences are than people would think. So many people my age, and people I personally know, think happiness is as easy as saving up a couple grand and getting yourself "fixed", and it's remarkable how many life-long problems they're allowing themselves to succumb to, and that's IF they make it through the surgery unscathed.

Not preachy whatsoever, definitely something to watch from an educational standpoint. Very happy I watched it, and I hope others will, too.

10.3 ~ Documentary of the Week

"A Wink and a Smile: The Art of Burlesque" (2008)

From Netflix: "In this titillating documentary, filmmaker Deirdre Allen Timmons takes her camera inside Seattle's Academy of Burlesque to shadow 10 ordinary women -- among them, a taxidermist, a housewife and a doctor -- who are learning the art of the striptease. Under the tutelage of the academy's sultry schoolmarm, Miss Indigo Blue, these budding burlesque dancers are shedding their inhibitions, along with their clothing, one tassel at a time."

Yay, burlesque!

I'm all about it. The sensuality without explicit sexuality, the refined sophistication while still maintaining some level of fun and bawd, the glamour, and of course the wardrobe...I'm all for it. I can't think of any reason why a woman would NOT want to learn about burlesque, considering how much it is tied in to OWNING your sexuality and really being in power and control of yourself...

This film follows a professional burlesque performer, who teaches a workshop to help regular everyday women find their inner diva. The many performances by herself and other popular professional performers are punctuated by interviews with 10 different women of all different ages and walks of life, whose uniting thread is that they are all taking this class together to learn about burlesque.

Definitely not safe for work (LOL) but a very interesting look at a culture that is all but lost...

11.1 ~ #19

"Clue" (1985)

From Netflix: "Director Jonathan Lynn's board game-inspired campfest finds six colorful dinner guests gathered at the mansion of their host, Mr. Boddy -- who turns up dead after his secret is exposed: He was blackmailing all of them. With the killer among them, the guests and Boddy's chatty butler (Tim Curry) must suss out the culprit before the body count rises. Lesley Ann Warren also stars in this hilarious whodunit (filmed with three different endings)."

This movie is SO a classic!

I've loved this movie FOREVER and I used to play it OUT on VHS, when I recorded it off of HBO as a youngin' LOL

Fantastic cast, fun story, laugh out loud jokes that STILL make me laugh after hearing them at least 50 times in my life...just all out awesome! it might be that it's one of those movies that's so bad, it's good, but I'm biased. I grew up loving this film!

The movie as I remember it always had three endings, the first being "what ifs" and the last one being the "actual" ending...but I found after watching the DVD that apparently when it was originally released, you'd see a different ending (of the three) depending on which theater you went to. I appreciate how that's kinda cool...the board game always had a different ending, so why not the movie? But at the same time, imagine going to see the flick, then discussing it with a friend that saw it at a different theater, and being entirely confused when you guys can't agree on the whodunit? Fail.

Still, great movie, awesome cult classic, a real taste of my childhood...and it bothers me immensely that they're remaking it for next year. Boo. So much for cult status, every douchebag on earth will think themselves a "fan" just cuz it's the cool thing to do.

I hate when things I love are raped by the masses. LOL

If you haven't seen this, GO WATCH IT! You won't regret it!

10.2 ~ #18

"Clerks" (1994)

From Netflix: "Made on a shoestring budget by director Kevin Smith, this classic indie comedy won awards at both the Sundance and Cannes film festivals. Convenience and video store clerks Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) are sharp-witted, potty-mouthed … and bored out of their minds. Between serving nonstop shoppers, the overworked counter jockeys play hockey on the roof, visit a funeral home and deal with their offbeat love lives."

I love all things Kevin Smith.

EVERYTHING he's ever written, directed, starred in...is GOLD.

Except Jersey Girl, but I love him enough to forgive him for that.

I've only seen Clerks a handful of times...it's a little more grown-up than a lot of the movies Kevin Smith did later on in his career, mostly because it's so verbose. The whole thing takes place inside a convenience store, and is completely dialogue-driven. It's also completely in black-and-white, a trait that they play homage to in the opening of Clerks 2...which I own and have PLAYED OUT. And of course, you can always count on Silent Bob and his one line that seems to wrap up the whole movie in a nice, neat, philosophical package...

Great movie, but maybe I'm biased because I watched movies like Dogma & Mallrats before I watched this one for the first time, so I was already used to the style, plus I already liked a few of the characters. I don't know how I'd feel about this film if I had watched them all in the order in which they were made. This is the first film featuring recurring characters from the View Askewniverse, a badass world that our friend Kevin Smith created.

Great film, though I'd love to discuss it's merits with someone who sees it with new eyes, before being exposed to other works of Kevin Smith...

10.1 ~ #17

"A Clockwork Orange" (1971)



From Netflix: "In this Stanley Kubrick classic based on Anthony Burgess's novel, teenage miscreant Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) wanders aimlessly amid a bleak, futuristic urban landscape, drinking drugged milk and listening to Beethoven with his fellow "droogs." But he also spends his time stealing, raping and beating innocent people in nihilistic orgies of violence, all in an attempt to get his nightly kicks."

The opening scene is BEAUTIFUL, visually at least.

Is the dubbing REALLY off, or is it just my internet connection?

Well isn't that lovely? A beating 4 minutes in, and a rape 6 minutes in.

ok, turns out it WAS my internet connection LOL

(in case you haven't caught on, I'm writing as I watch, if only to make this more tolerable. I have absolutely no motivation to watch this film, and have actually been actively avoiding it.)

Less than 15 minutes in and I'm generally repulsed with myself for allowing myself to continue to watch thus far...

wow it's ridiculous how poorly Netflix streams this movie. That paired with how little I want to watch is making it very difficult to force myself to continue watching...

and a CONSENSUAL threesome less than thirty minutes in. So far, smut for the sake of smut.

"Api-poli-logies"? British people have the weirdest slang...Why bother making a slang term for something if it's just going to be longer or otherwise more difficult to spit out than the regular word?

Alright, props to me. I got through 45 minutes of it with awful lag and crap, well, everything (even WITH the giant penis statue). I suppose it's not fair to judge the whole 130 minute film on the first 45 minutes, but if I had to, I would say 100% utter crap. Perhaps I'll give it a chance again at a later date and under different circumstances, but certainly for now, I've had enough.

:signing off:

5.3 ~ #16

"Apocalypse Now" (1979)

From Netflix: "Francis Ford Coppola's timeless epic adapts Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness to the Vietnam War, where special operations Capt. Willard (Martin Sheen) must travel deep into the Cambodian jungle to locate and kill the mysterious -- and insane -- Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando). This double feature includes the 1979 Oscar-winning masterwork set in the Vietnam War, along with the re-edited and expanded 2001 director's cut, Apocalypse Now Redux."


Finally got around to watching this. I've had it at home for almost 2 whole months and I couldn't bring myself to watch. I'd seen a few scenes of this when I was in middle school and I expected something REALLY gory and sad, what I got instead was almost three hours of BLAH.

I really couldn't make myself care enough to pay full attention. Maybe I missed something crucial that would make me understand it's brilliance, but although I watched the whole thing, I'm pretty sure I could have lead a full existance without ever having seen this.

Dennis Hopper was the best part of the movie...he was only in it for about 20-30 minutes at the end, but his acting made the whole movie. I really hope he won something for his role...though true to the film, I don't care enough to actually look it up and see for sure.

Well, at least now I can say I've seen it, though that's all I can say about it.

Trying to get back on track, though at this point I think it's safe to say that the schedule is screwed...but I will do my best to catch up on the list as quickly as possible! :)

9.3 ~ #15

"Citizen Kane" (1941)

From Netflix: "Orson Welles reinvented movies at the age of 26 with this audacious biography of newspaper baron Charles Foster Kane, which, in essence, was a thinly veiled portrait of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. Welles's complex and technically stunning film chronicles Kane's rise from poverty to become one of America's most influential men -- and it's considered one of the best movies ever made."

Great movie.

It probably would have been better if I hadn't already know what Rosebud was before I watched it, or maybe it would have been a huge letdown if I found out when I was supposed to. Yes, I think so.

The movie had a wonderful cast, no one I had ever seen or heard of before, but wonderful because all movies of this time were driven on plotlines and delivery rather than pyrotechnics and CGI. I particularly liked the actor that played the title character, though he must not be any big name because he doesn't even appear on Netflix's description of the movie. (Scratch that. Apparently he doesn't appear as the star because he appears as the director...the film was directed by and starred Orson Welles. I'm going to have to find out more about this dude...)

Very good film, definitely one to watch at least once. Teaches a lot about perception...




Next up: "Apocalypse Now" (finally lol)



(EDIT: how COOL! Orson Welles died THE DAY BEFORE I was born. Maybe I was put on this earth to replace him LOL)