Monday, Jan. 06, 2003
Another Snow Day! Yay!, posted at 11:29 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Snow Day! Snow Day!It snowed all day yesterday, against the forecasts of the weathermen who called for an inch. It snowed so much, in fact, that I even though there might be a chance of no school today. Alas, I woke up to find no cancellations.
By the time I left for the gym, a 2-hour delay had been instituted. But I was caffeinated already and decided to go in for a relaxing workout and head to school early. While at the gym, though, I noticed on the news that school had been cancelled altogether. I couldn't believe my eyes, so I called Andi to confirm. So it was.
I now feel like this day was given to me to catch up on my grading, so I'm going to spend a few hours doing that. I still haven't done much of the huge box that I carted home to Michigan and back to Baltimore. This gives me a chance to do that. Hopefully I can reward myself with a movie later on today if I do well enough - About Schmidt, Antwone Fisher, and Rabbit Proof Fence are high on my wish list.
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I did see four movies over break that I haven't mentioned yet. I loved Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and found it superior to the original, which I also liked. The special effects were incredible, not because they were "oh wow" but because you didn't even notice they were special effects. This especially goes for Gollum, a well-drawn character who happened to be computer-generated. All of the characters were dileanated more clearly than in the first film, and I'm beginning to see the character arcs for the three films. The last twenty minutes were emotionally overpowering. A pretty great movie. My grade: A-.
Gangs of New York was the next one I saw. It was three hours, but it didn't feel like it. The film had its flaws (a muddled, sloppy ending; Cameron Diaz's character; soundtrack was too modern), but this is the sort of grand, bold, epic filmmaking that I love when it's done well. And this is. It's a pleasure to watch an artist like Martin Scorcese at work, with his distinctive style and graceful camera work. Daniel Day-Lewis gives a great performance and should be Oscar nominated (though I don't think his performance was any better than Mel Gibson's in Signs, and he won't be Oscar-nominated...). Leonardo DeCaprio's character isn't as flashy, but he is solid. I blame most of Cameron Diaz's issues with her miscasting and the lack of necessity for her character; she seemed to only be there to provide a love interest. The rest of the cast is excellent, and the film is damn good - harrowing, unrelenting, and mostly entrancing. My Grade: B+.
Catch Me If You Can was next, and I liked it for the most part. It's a light movie, but it's also intelligent and well-made. Speilburg's work here isn't as good as it was in Minority Report, but the film was decently entertaining. It was a bit overlong and had some slow parts, and the emotional triangle between Tom Hanks (the father surrogate), Christopher Walken (the father), and Leonardo DeCaprio (the boy) never quite comes together as I thought it should. But I laughed in a few places, thought the performances were good, and thought it flowed well. Certainly not one of the best for anyone involved, but I could see Walken scoring a Best Supporting Actor nomination. My Grade: B-.
Lastly was Adaptation. I liked it a lot. I didn't love it as much as I thought it would - There were too many "in-Hollywood" jokes... it didn't work as a satire for me and I still think Signs and Bowling For Columbine were better movies this year - but this is dazzling, imaginative, funny, and emotional work. Did I like it as much as Being John Malkovich? Not on first viewing, although this one might need another viewing to savor (So, am I getting this right by assuming that Charlie Kaufman's twin is entirely imagined in the film? I've got to see it again). The whole cast should be nominated for Oscars, though, and it was great to see Meryl Streep (so sexy here even at her age) do comedy again. By the way, The Orchid Man, which is featured prominently in the movie as the film is sort of about the screenwriter attempting to adapt the book to screen and muddling himself in a big bout of writer's block, seems like a great book. My Grade: A.
I'm hoping to see the rest of the big ones this month so I can get my top ten list generated.
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Gosh, I really need to pay my Gold Membership Dues. I wonder if all my images will be back up there if I pay it, or will I have to download them all again?