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January 1, 2007
Housekeeping
Recovering from four (generally good) days at MLA and the long drive from Atlanta to Fayetteville, but just wanted to mention a couple of planned posts that may happen later today. I've been invited to participate in the "five things" meme, which I'm planning to do a little later. I've also received a request for more personal entries here. Hopefully that will happen in 2007, but besides work stuff, there really isn't a whole lot happening right now.
Also wanted to mention that this year's annual family Xmas movie was the Will Smith drama, The Pursuit of Happyness, a Reaganite fable about a struggling hospital equipment salesman who takes an unpaid internship with a major stock broker with the hopes of becoming the one intern who stands out enough to secure a job at the film (I honestly can't remember which one, and I'm too lazy to look it up, plus they don't need me to do any free advertising for them, anyway). The Smith character, Chris, loses his apartment and is forced to spend teh duration of the internship living in homeless shelters with his young son (and, significantly, the film does little to question Chris's behavior). Maybe I'll have more to say about Happyness later, especially its treatment of the American Dream myth, but that probably won't happen.
Robert DeNiro's The Good Shepherd, a history of the early years of the CIA, was a bit more compelling, especially given its treatment of the paranoia and elitism of Edward Wilson (Matt Damon), whose story is used to convey this history. Wilson's scerecy and paranoia makes it almost impossible to identify with him as a character, but that's part of the point, of course. There's also a fascinating scene early in the film (reviisted at a couple of key moments) in which Shepherd links the secrecy of the CIA with the similar secrecy of Yale's Skull and Bones fraternity. There's a lot going on in the film, and I think it may merit a second viewing at some point. Also caught this film with my family (at least my dad and sister), which made for an intersting conversation because the images of bureacrcay in 1960s Washington reminded my father of his early career in DC.
Oh, I almost forgot. Sujewa has named my humble blog as one of the best film blogs of 2006, an honor that I deeply appreciate. I'm flattered to be in the same company as GreenCine Daily, Drifting, and other cool blogs. I'm also happy to see that Sujewa will be back behind the camera in 2007, and once again, will be working with Jennifer Blakemore, a major strength of Date Number One's ensemble cast.
Happy new year to all my readers.
Posted by chuck at January 1, 2007 1:01 PM
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