What's the last movie you've seen?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The Squid and the Whale

This has been on my list of things to watch for a long time and my brother just happened to find a copy of the DVD for $3 somewhere. It was excellent.

It's almost a de facto prequel to Adventureland as the Jesse Eisenberg character is basically the same. It's just pre-college as opposed to post-college. It's even set in the same time period.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The Squid and the Whale

This has been on my list of things to watch for a long time and my brother just happened to find a copy of the DVD for $3 somewhere. It was excellent.

It's almost a de facto prequel to Adventureland as the Jesse Eisenberg character is basically the same. It's just pre-college as opposed to post-college. It's even set in the same time period.

Yeah, that's pretty weird. I didn't even notice that until they went to see Blue Velvet. This movie hit close to home in some ways.

Uh, how did you not notice? There's a big title card near the beginning that says "BROOKLYN 1986". If you mean you didn't notice anything 80s in it that makes sense since it had such a low budget they didn't even really try, just about all the cars were post-80s. There's even a 9/11 memorial visible on the ambulance near the end.

Did you like this or Adventureland better? Pretty tough call for me.

Probably Adventureland since it focuses more on the humor and storytelling instead of occasionally diving into being pretentious like here. Still great though.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It's pretty obvious that the script merely put it in 1986 because Noah Baumbach based it off his own experience with his parents' divorce (Eisenberg's character is basically a stand-in for him), which was around the same time period and they didn't have the budget to do anything to pretend it was 1986. But there is also a huge title card near the beginning stating that...

That also makes me wonder if Baumbach has any serious issues with his own father. If the dad in the movie is based off him it's not exactly flattering to put it mildly.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The movie starts out by saying "Park Slope 1986."  But yeah the S&W was a bit pretentious at points, but that had a lot more to do with its oddly short running time.  If Baumbach had bothered to go into all (or at least some of) the subplot points he introduced, it would've been far easier to swallow.

It makes me believe that it's a lot of a true story and he didn't want to write any fictional explanation scenes for any of their behavior.

So Baumbach played a Pink Floyd song at his high school's talent show and claimed it was one he wrote himself? If so he's even cooler than I thought before.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

You know I realized that setting movies in a time like the 80s and mostly ignoring the setting still gives the advantage of that you can also avoid elements of the modern day that would be kind of annoying and detracting to the plot. There is no Fridge Logic over things like why teenagers aren't texting each other constantly or going on Facebook and you can actually focus on the plot instead of teenagers' shallow interest. Granted I suppose the 90s would work better here. Of course if I wrote a high school movie I would unquestionably set in the 90s just because I would look like an idiot trying to imitate modern day teenagers (kind of the whole point behind Totally Radical.) Much like how the movie Mean Creek has a rare spot on portrayal of that age group in a movie...except it's a spot on portrayal of teenagers in 1991, not 2004 (except they listen to Death Cab for Cutie.) And the director graduated high school in 1991.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Toy Story 3.

Indeed one of the best third in a trilogies ever. Ending actually made me even more sad just because I'm looking at getting a new car and thus abandoning my old one, now it can make you feel sad for inanimate objects!

It seems kind of weird to get kids Lotso Huggin Bear toys with his role in the movie, though those are clearly being sold.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The Green Hornet

I went to the midnight showing because my dad really wanted to see it. It was alright, I guess. It actually did a somewhat decent job of paying tribute to the original radio and TV shows. It also had some funny bits and a few interesting ideas but it also contained a lot of pointless garbage. It was way too long and the 3D, as usual, sucked.

How was the dude from Inglourious Basterds? I'm sure he was nowhere near as impressive of course since it wasn't as good as a script or well-written character but I am interested in seeing him again.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Wait, Nicholas Cage turns down roles? Based on his resume he appears to be one of those actors who will start in literally any role that is offered.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Frozen, which had some scenes I had to look away from. Not a bad movie, but ugh.

Have you ever seen Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Frozen, which had some scenes I had to look away from. Not a bad movie, but ugh.

Have you ever seen Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom?

I can't say that I have.

I have to wonder if you'd have to look away watching that one then.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The Mechanic.

If you like the rest of Jason Statham's movies, you'll like this one, far more violent than the Transporter series but nowhere near as over the top as Crank (then again what is?) Ben Foster was excellent and is great at playing that type of character, which created kind of an odd dissonance but in a good way. It was like the character was written for an indie drama but somehow ended up in an action movie.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The only Gosling movie I've seen is Lars and the Real Girl.

I will see Blue Valentine and Half Nelson sometime. I will never see The Notebook.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Quiero movie recommendations!

Check out Lymelife.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Movies set in the 80s but not made in the 80s tend to be far better.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The Runaways.

It was pretty solid, even if the story was predictable and obvious where it is was going (even if it's a true story, it's still a cliche.) I wished Dakota Fanning didn't look hot in it, that's just wrong and made me feel dirty. Part of me also wonders what Joan Jett and Cherie Curie would think of having two girls from Twilight portray them...they did a very solid cover of Cherry Bomb though. (Granted it's on record that Kirsten Stewart at least personally hates Twilight.)

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The Runaways.

It was pretty solid, even if the story was predictable and obvious where it is was going (even if it's a true story, it's still a cliche.) I wished Dakota Fanning didn't look hot in it, that's just wrong and made me feel dirty. Part of me also wonders what Joan Jett and Cherie Curie would think of having two girls from Twilight portray them...they did a very solid cover of Cherry Bomb though. (Granted it's on record that Kirsten Stewart at least personally hates Twilight.)

Both of them were fine with it. Cherie Curie even called Dakota Fanning her "favorite actress".

Plus, it's hard to fault child/teen actors for crap parts like the Twilight movies.  You take whatever work you can to jumpstart your career.

How about Hailee Steinfeld?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

You know I just realized that movie is basically a 16-year old boy's dream movie. Imagine how hot a 16-year old boy would find them, and it's not a kiddie chick flick like almost every movie with mostly teenage girls in the cast.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Unknown.

It wasn't bad as an action movie but the main plot was kind of predictable and if you're Genre Savvy you can figure it out. Also Diane Kruger's character was kind of hard to buy, she's an illegal immigrant from the former Yugoslavia who needs to get about 4000 Euros to get papers or whatever and works low-class jobs living in a slum. Yet she looks like Diane Kruger, I don't think she'd have much trouble getting the money or papers.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Renner was kind of boring, he was just a generic tough guy type character. I thought Jon Hamm gave an impressive performance but didn't stand out because his character was a bit shallow and one-dimensional.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Please Give.

It was pretty well-written and acted, especially Amanda Peet who did a great job getting across how much of a huge bitch her character was. Sort of struck me as a work mocking latte liberals that latte liberals would enjoy more than anyone else though.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Sucker Punch is getting mostly garbage reviews. I'm still probably gonna go watch it tonight. How bad could a movie about hot chicks fighting robots and ninjas really be? Who needs a plot when you already have that stuff!?!

Sounds like a Peter Griffin production.

Better than Shakespeare.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Sucker Punch.

If you want to see what me and Eraserhead are describing, then go see it. You will love it. If you don't want to see it, you will not like it. Apparently most critics can't appreciate hot girls fighting zombies, robots, ninjas and giant samurai. Their loss.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

You went to the midnight? How was the turnout?

Not all that good but I went to the theater downtown. Attendance there is heavily linked to how many people are in the area clubbing or going to the restaurants, and now everyone is pissed about the surprise snow hit and that it's cold again and is staying in. The bars are pretty dead too.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I saw Source Code over the weekend. I thought it was pretty solid though it got kind of predictable (it wasn't hard to identify the villain) it probably should've ended about 10 minutes before it actually did (one of those movies where there's a scene that would be the perfect ending but it kept on going).

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Hanna.

This movie had a very interesting directorial style considering the plot, but it worked. The middle lagged a bit but the beginning and end more than made up for it. And don't overlook it because of the rating, you'll never notice that it's PG-13. It wouldn't have been in the 90s.