moving pictures

So, if two counts as lots and lots, we did in fact see lots and lots of movies yesterday. Yay!

And both of them were good. Double yay!!

I liked KILL BILL, VOL. 1 much more than I went in expecting to. I'm actually glad to know that there are still movies full of gratuitous vilence that I can like; I was a bit worried by how off-putting I found the violence in UNDERWORLD. But if this is glamorized violence, it is also cartoonized violence, and not the kind of violence that is going to convince human beings watching it they should run out and do that. The limited use of guns is a plus. There's a high body count, and yes, it's violence at its unapologetic limit, but the movie acknowledges the moral construct in which those who suffer violence willingly participate. It makes a difference. I don't want to get into spoilers, but I'll say this, that there's a scene very early on that makes it clear that The Bride understands the potential cost of her vengeance, that I much appreciated as part of the story.

Other than that, it clicks along, the most successful western version of a Hong Kong action flick that I've yet seen -- it gets that stuff right and managed to have the same gleeful sense of invention that the best HK movies do. I came out of it wanting to see part two, and saying that while Tarentino can be a bit obnoxious (or at least he comes off that way), there's not another director I can think of who could pull off with such ease the structure and style of this movie without it feeling like a pretentious hex bag.

The other movie we saw was the delightful and Preston Sturges-esque (high praise, that) INTOLERABLE CRUELTY, directed by the Coens and (mostly) scripted by them too. Although, I found this felt less like a Coen bros. movie than any before, which makes sense. It still works, and it's still a very enjoyable romantic comedy. One of the best I've seen in years and very much in the grand tradition of romantic comedies. Clooney can carry that off. He's excellent. Zeta-Jones does well too, certainly holds her own, but I did wish the female lead had been a little bit more talented at physical comedy (although the part as written/played here didn't require it). But, a minor quibble. Delicious. Clooney wears a kilt at one point. Did I say delicious already?

I smell lunch.

(I should have a TOC for the next issue of Say... to post very shortly. Christopher's trying to reach our esteemed poetry editor, who he's pretty sure is out ice fishing or polka dancing. Or not.)