Spike Jonze once again wowed me with this subtly dystopian exploration of isolation and connectedness in a near-future world. The pace is unrushed, the ideas razor-sharp, and the story somehow utterly believable - I think because it focuses microscopically on the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters, whose faces (those who have one, anyway) the camera seems to want to sink into, the close-ups are so devoted. The set design too is inspired, as is the acting, perhaps most…
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Much Ado About Nothing 1993
Joss Whedon's 2012 version of Shakespeare's famous comedy got good of word of mouth, so I thought I'd revist Kenneth Branagh's early-90's version before taking in the most recent adaptation. It is as I recall it: entertaining enough, with some great acting, but a bit forced-feeling. The merry-making seems staged to distraction at points and the repeated use of the "Sigh no more, ladies" verses as song becomes a bit tedious. Denzel Washington, Branagh and (his then-wife) Emma Thompson are…
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Ethan Frome 1993
I may have been the only junior high student in history who didn't hate the Edith Wharton novel this film is based on. Either I had an early appreciation for symbolic literary fiction or I responded viscerally to the tension between social propriety and forbidden desire - maybe both. Either way, at 12 or so I swore I'd name a son Ethan Frome if I had one. (Maybe it's best I'm childless.)
I never saw this adaptation in the 90s…
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Long Way Round 2004
I'm not a reality TV person but couldn't get enough of this series about riding motorcycles from London to New York "the long way round" (19,000 miles through Europe and Asia, Alaska, a bit of Canada and the northern US). It's about difficult travels on nonexistent roads amid unbelievable and remote beauty. But it's also about the value of struggle - about why we travel, and challenge ourselves with the unknown, and how it shapes us into more patient and…