Haven’t posted in a few days. I’m not sure why, exactly… I’ve seen two sneak preview movie showings in three days… Last night’s was “The Cooler”, which despite an impending theatrical release had a 2002 copyright. (Yes, that was the first thing that came to mind when thinking of it, so no, don’t bother.)
Tuesday night we saw “Big Fish”, the new one directed by Tim Burton. Last night nate and I debated the style of it, and how Burton it felt to both of us. I felt that it was a very good movie, compared to other movies, but that it didn’t really stand up next to his other movies very well. It was good in its own right, and worth seeing, but perhaps a disappointment to those of us who really want Tim Burton’s visual style to dominate a film. Also, Ewan was fairly wooden… (again), and the rest of the cast supported him throughout.
On Wednesday night I purchased used books on amazon, and paid less than $12 for all four. Then I paid another $14 for shipping, but it was well worth it. I’m very excited to get them in the mail.
I could blame the writer’s almanac, but it hasn’t just been there that I’ve been finding new poets to read and admire. For years now (three?) I’ve probably only read one new poet a year. Now in the last week I’ve actually purchased a book of poetry (by fernando pessoa, an author recommended to me by my friend Pete) and I’ve also discovered Mark Yakich who was featured today in the almanac. I spent a few minutes pouring through some of his poems, and have yet to read something of his that I didn’t like.
Just to state my side, I thought the Tim Burton film was very “Burtonesque”. Although not as “out there” as some of his other movies, I really think no one could have done it as well as he did. He just has an eye for weird things. I think what was so neat about it was that he took a very strange and fantastical story and made it seem real. Any other director would have played up the fantasy too much. Tim is a god…