Like Something About Mary and American Pie, sometimes the most well-observed character-based comedies come in disguise as crass gross-outs. They also have a tendency towards saccharine sweetness, but there are worse crimes.
Author: Chad Ossman
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La Cité des enfants perdus (The City of Lost Children)
After having my mind blown by Delicatessen in college, I managed to catch The City of Lost Children in the 1995 Cambridge, England film festival. Any bits of my brain left over were blown out again.
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Daily Dork Report for February 9, 2006
I don’t understand what a Babbage Difference Engine is, exactly, but a Lego Babbage Difference Engine is awesome.
The greatest voice in the universe records every sound and combination in the English language.
It took a little more hunting than I expected to find the Danish editorial cartoons featuring Muhammad online.
A guest submission, actually overheard by a friend. The ultimate dorkeriffic put-down: “Your mama’s so fat, her JPEG’s, like, 7 megs!”
Michael Stipe covers one of my favorite songs six times to benefit the In the Sun Foundation.
The Interactive Mona Lisa looks at you with disdain.
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Daily Dork Report for February 2, 2006
In Interactive Design news, there’s the possibility that Flash Player (and other plug-ins) won’t work on new Macs. This is a big deal.
The Rumor Mongers have dug up some more dirty dirt on iPotential iProducts (no longer online: hrmpf.com/wordpress/48/new-apple-patents).
Educating our representatives about digital music sounds like a good iDea (no longer online: ipaction.org/campaigns/ipod), but hopefully nobody’s iPocketing the iProceeds. OK, that’s enough iJokes for today.
Isn’t The Infinite Cat Project against the law of physics or something? If so, it just may force scientists to reconsider String Theory as just something for kitties to play with.
Here’s how much of a dork I am: whenever I see a headline about the DAVOS summit, I can’t help but think of Davros.
Speaking of the good doctor, the Sci-Fi Channel has finally coughed up the Euros for the first season (no longer online: forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/01/13/ap2449530.html), with an option for the second, starting March 17. Maybe now it’s time for this TV-Luddite to finally get cable? Or I could always get the Region 1 Canadian dvd…
Ooga Chakka Ooga Ooga Ooga Chakka, Kitt! (no longer online: youtube.com/watch?v=Gi2CfuqcUGE)
Here’s a good one (no longer online: cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/02/01/zoo.death.ap) for The Darwin Awards.
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Daily Dork Report for January 27, 2006
Wow. What human endeavor (no longer online: alaskaalpineclub.org/IceWall/04-05IceWall1.html) can accomplish, given lots of time and plumbing.
Remeber when Pac-Man (no longer online: ebaumsworld.com/pacman.html) was just a little yellow circle that ate smaller yellow circles? I guess this is Progress (no longer online: namco.com/games/pacmanworld3).
“It’s tiny, it lives in acid and it has these bizarre grasping fins.” I love this kind of stuff. But not as much fun as when a “new” dinosaur, giant squid, or a cyclopean kitten (no longer online: news.com.com/2061-11199_3-6026605.html) turns up.
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Lord of War is a Nicolas Cage treasure hidden in plain sight
I initially dismissed Lord of War when the trailers and posters first appeared. In other words, it got caught in the crude mental filters that routinely handle my first-pass “ignore” of all the crap that flows through my eyes and ears all day every day. But when my regular email newsletter from Amnesty International endorsed the film, it seemed possible this was something more substantial than National Treasure.
And it is. In an impressive marketing slight-of-hand, Lions Gate marketed it as an action comedy. But like Syriana, Lord of War is actually a very strongly-felt topical film loosely based on actual events. It has a more human and darkly comedic tone than Syriana, which often felt like a very consciously-constructed intellectual puzzle. But on the other hand, Syriana‘s strict focus is perhaps a virtue; Lord of War‘s several dramatic plotlines involving the main character’s marriage and wayward brother don’t always sit very well against the larger themes of entrenched human violence.
For another Nicolas Cage treasure hidden in plain sight, I recommend Ridley Scott‘s Matchstick Men.
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Red Eye
I had heard Red Eye was a refreshingly unpretentious thriller that played on Americans’ changed relationship with air travel in a post 9/11 world. While technically true, it’s actually a very disappointing runaround decidedly lacking in the most routine pleasures that come with thrillers. Where’s the expected third-act twist? Is the twist that there actually isn’t one?
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Daily Dork Report for January 25, 2006
In interactive design news, Microsoft announces a “Flash Killer“? Please. Adobe tried it, failed, and resorted to buying their only competetor Macromedia. Can somebody please explain to me how that’s legal? So I suppose one way to look at things is that a resumption of competition is good news.
Yo, watch the way I navigate! The new Gorillaz EP Feel Good Inc is new to the iTunes Music Store. Kudos to the iTMS for carrying more music otherwise only available on pricy imports.
Memo to Costco: what with your fancy-pants biometrics technology (no longer online: money.cnn.com/2006/01/24/magazines/fortune/pluggedin_fortune_biometrics/ and all, keep an eye out for that crazy Wendy’s lady [link no longer online: english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/148A8A21-6BF1-4651-B2FD-99BC3BC6357F.htm]. It’s gotta be a big-time world-spanning meme if it hits Aljazeera.
Better pundits than I have surely already opined at great length at this, but isn’t it odd Google will accommodate China (no longer online: money.cnn.com/2006/01/25/news/international/google_china.reut/) but fight for its right to party in the US?
Snakes on a mutha#*$&ing Plane! (no longer online: wigu.com/overcompensating/2005/09/snakes-on-plane.html) Another piece de resistance from New Line Cinema. I gotta get me one a these mutha&$#@s! (no longer online: topatoco.com/snakes.htm)
Maybe I was wrong to have such a pet peeve with sci-fi films with efficient public transportation set only about 10 years in the future.
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Woody Allen’s Match Point plays with your sympathies
Woody Allen’s Match Point is fantastic. Brilliant. Morally complex. Almost unbearably intense. It plays with your sympathies in way I haven’t seen since Hitchcock’s Frenzy (which I personally found cruel and sadistic, unlike Match Point). Up there with Crimes & Misdemeanors among Allen’s best.
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Manhattan
Amazingly, upon a second viewing I didn’t care for Woody Allen’s Manhattan nearly as much as I remembered. Perhaps its status in the canon has retroactively enhanced my opinion. But it still inspires as a big, fat, sloppy kiss to my city, and a poster of Woody & Diane beneath the Brooklyn Bridge hangs on my wall.