I was curious to see what my reaction to the film would be; Hartley’s films use highly stylized language and line readings, and they frequently veer into minor surrealism. Would the movie hold up over time or would quirks of the film be revealed as nothing more than gimcrackery?
Even though some of the gimmicks come off as stage-y, the movie as a whole really does hold up, and it has more emotional depth and resonance than I remember. Of course, fifteen years ago, I was young and stupid (as opposed to now, which I guess I could call “rapidly heading towards middle-aged and stupid”). In some ways it’s a very dated object, in that it has many of the hallmarks of indie filmmaking of the early 1990s, but that should hardly be counted as a failing (Lawrence of Arabia has many of the stylistic hallmarks of its era, but that hardly makes it any less of a great film).
Anyway, in other news:
- I’ve upgraded the software that runs this blog to MovableType 3.34 (the very latest and greatest version), in large part because of some long-overdue speed bumps (made possible mostly by the fact that it’s finally possible for mere mortals to use MT under FastCGI).
- A friend of mine recently sent an email with his resume and cover letter to a law firm; he got a rejection note in 28 seconds. That is not a typo.
- This looks like a great art show.
- For some reason, all the fact patterns in my recently-completed trial advocacy course seemed to take place in the same city. It also seems that this is a pretty dangerous city—we had fatal car accidents, bar fights, arsons, suicides, cocaine deals, and then some. I did learn a lot about life insurance, though…
- Sometimes I don’t understand Wall Street. Apple introduces a product that’s not going to ship for six months and the stock goes up more than 11% in two days. Then Apple announces a billion dollars in profit in a quarter and the stock drops 5%. Go figure.
- So there’s this new carbonated tea drink called Enviga on the market that claims to burn calories, and I had one tonight. It’s actually almost drinkable, but the aftertaste is goes far beyond vile to some bizarre disgusting place. There’s also a lot of caffeine in the sucker…
- Art Buchwald, one of the only men to ever check out of a hospice while still breathing, is remembered in the Post. With his passing, we lose a great, if somewhat underappreciated, man of American letters.
And for those of you playing at home, I’ve gotten up to “Bartok” in the song list. This is gonna take a while…