"Sin City": The year's first great film. I haven't opened a comic book in about 20 years, but I loved this one, a standout both thematically and stylistically. Co-directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, "Sin City" was like the best mid-'90s Tarantino knockoff ever made. A great cast led by an Oscar-worthy Mickey Rourke, amazing production design and effects- just great stuff all around. Unless you've got a problem with violence/amputation/"swirlies," I reccommend seeing "Sin City" immediately.
"Fever Pitch": I had major doubts going in about this one, but in the end I absolutely loved it. A wonderful synthesis of its three separate creativce teams- the Farrelly Brothers, Nick Hornby, and Lowell Ganz/Babaloo Mandel, the film gets both romance and Red Sox fandom exactly right, faithfully recreating the unforgettable 2004 season and tying it seamlessly to the plot. And most surprising of all, Jimmy Fallon wasn't that bad.
Uber Sox fan Bill Simmons has gone after this movie hard, both because of the Fallon/Barrymore incident during the World Series celebration, and Fallon's general unlikability. But I expect Simmons to back off once he sees it, for three reasons: it was pretty good, there's a "Road House" reference, and Drew's father is played by James B. Sikking, who played Mr. Walsh on his beloved '90210.' My full review is here.
Over the weekend I watched "Citizen Ruth," which I got from Netflix after it was on my to-see list for about six years. A flawed film to be certain, full of the sort of gleeful white trash-bashing common to the films of director Alexander Payne (see "About Schmidt," "Sideways," etc.) But it had some interesting points to make about the abortion issue without taking a predictable line, and the entire thing was so precognizant of the Terri Schiavo case it was almost scary, with two sides scoring political points at the expense of an innocent woman caught in the middle. The analogy holds, right down to the outside-the-clinic prayer circles, and the callous liberal landing in a helicopter a hundred feet away.
Also noticing the similarity- the blog "Sparkwood and 21," which I like not only for the fact that it's named for an extremely obscure "Twin Peaks" reference.
UPDATE: And... I'm a dumbass. James B. Sikking was the dad on "Doogie Howser," not on "90210." So yes, Simmons is now free to hate the movie (which he did).
Posted by Stephen Silver at April 12, 2005 01:04 AMI love it when people properly recognize the TP reference of my blog's name.
Posted by: brittney at April 12, 2005 10:44 AMJim Walsh's last name was Eckhouse....not Sikking. (I once had a roommate who looked just like him)
Posted by: Hannah at April 12, 2005 04:26 PM