the chutry experiment

Yesterday I wrote about "Pieces of April" on my blog as a Thanksgiving movie recommendation (that's if I do not end up at a movie theater).

Sujewa
*******

Pieces of April is certainly a guilty pleasure film for me. A lot of people don't like it , but it worked for me for some reason.

I'm getting some work done, so I may stay in and watch some of my Netflix films....

Just saw Capote today and I'd recommend it.

Why resist Capote?

You know, I'm not sure. Maybe it's the biopic thing. Or maybe I'm resisting the hype for Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance. It's also possible that I'm resistant to the "literary adaptation" aspect (I know the film has a complicated relationship to its literary "source," but still).

But if I recall, you wrote a very positive review of the film, which is one of the primary reasons I'll likely see it (if I feel like going out at all).

If I hadn't seen it as soon as it opened here, I would probably be tired of the Hoffman hype already, so that's understandable (as well as the other possible reasons). I hope you do eventually see it though. I'm tempted to go back and see both it and Good Night, and Good Luck again.

"Review" is a kind word for it, thanks. I think I just gushed (and about Seymour Hoffman too). I tend to either gush or write about everything else a movie made me think about.

I do enjoy your comments about film, so don't be too modest. I may see Capote tomorrow night. The trains stop running at midnight on Thursdays and I was worried about having to take an expensive cab ride back from the theater (plus it's damn cold here tonight--in the mid 20s already).

Is the AFI theater in Silver Spring convenient to your digs? A terrific new print of Louis Malle's ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS is playing there through the weekend. I recommend it highly. As for me, I plan on checking out THE ICE HARVEST. I'm a big fan of the book.

I've been to the Silver several times. It's right down the street from a Metro station, so it's quite convenient. I had the good luck of catching "Gallows" a few weeks at one of DC's Landmark Theaters. "Ice Harvest" is an interesting option....

Two months after seeing [i]Capote[/i], I can barely remember Hoffman's performance, but I'm still impressed by Miller's direction. Despite all of the buzz, [i]Capote[/i] works and feels like what it really is -- a small, nicely-made, and relatively-independent film. It's among the top two or three American films I've seen this year.

So what did you end up watching (if anything)?

I ended up staying home. It was the first cold night of the year in DC (temps in the low-mid 20s, not a big deal, but just not in the mood to go out) and since the subways stop running at midnight on weeknights, I didn't want to get stranded.

I may see Capote tnoight, but there's a Japanese horror film, Pulse that intersects with one of my research areas (haunted media technologies), so I'll likely see that.

For the record: having just seen Walk The Line, I urge you to follow your instincts and skip it. But don't skip Capote - I'm seeing it for a second time tomorrow morning. One film is a biopic, and suffers the usual pratfalls of the subgenre; the other is a work of art that happens to be about real events.

I really didn't like Pulse much when I first saw it on video a few years ago, except for a few choice scenes; but it's been getting such generally great reviews, and I'm such a fan of Kurosawa's other work, that I feel like I should give it another chance.

Hmm...I had an unexpected late night last night, so I my not make it out to theaters. If Pulse is on DVD, I'll just watch it there.

Good to know that my instincts were correct on the Cash biopic.