“I was born under unusual circumstances.” And so begins The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, adapted from the 1920s story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards: a man, like any of us, who is unable to stop time. We follow his story, set in New Orleans from the end of World War I in 1918, into the 21st century, following his journey that is as unusual as any mans life can be.
Directed By: David Fincher
Starring: Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett
Currently screening over at Pitchfork.tv is Ben Wolfinsohn’s 2005 film High School Record. It’s absolutely fantastic, far superior to and more genuine than this year’s ‘real’ teen documentary American Teen and a great companion piece to the Can’t Hardly Waitanniversary.
High School Record follows four awkward 17-year-olds as they struggle through their senior year. Like most high school students, they ride a continual wave of embarrassment: crappy after-school jobs, attempted sex in the science room, tinfoil shorts, guitar-strumming hippie teachers and brushes with the law. The only difference is that their moments of humiliation are all caught on tape — our gang of four are the subjects of a documentary shot by fellow classmates.
Featuring members of Mika Miko, Lavender Diamond, Minutemen, and No Age, who also provide music along with Dan Deacon.
It’s only online until the end of the week, so watch it quick over HERE.
Not at all unexpected, but still . . . every word I’ve been trying to type here does no justice, so go watch Cool Hand Luke. The Sting. Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. The Hustler. The Long Hot Summer. The Young Philadelphians. Hud. Harper. Buffalo Bill & the Indians. Slap Shot. The Color of Money. Absence of Malice. Nobody’s Fool. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Exodus. The Verdict. Road to Perdition. The Hudsucker Proxy.
Watch and remember fondly just how much cooler he was than any of us.
How Landmark pried the prints away from Disney is beyond me, but Twin Cities anime fans rejoice – two early Hayao Miyazaki classics will play at the Uptown Theatre as midnight movies in the coming months.
First off is My Neighbor Totoro, which is pretty much the greatest children’s film ever made.
Two young girls, Satsuke and her younger sister Mei, move into a house in the country with their father to be closer to their hospitalized mother. Satsuke and Mei discover that the nearby forest is inhabited by magical creatures called Totoros. They soon befriend these Totoros, and have several magical adventures.
My Neighbor Totoro
Saturday, December 6
Uptown Theatre
Minneapolis, MN
11:55 PM l $9
In the far future, man has destroyed the Earth in the “Seven Days of Fire”. Now, there are small pockets of humanity that survive. One pocket is the Valley of Wind where a princess named Nausicaa tries to understand, rather than destroy the Toxic Jungle. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Saturday, January 3
Uptown Theatre
Minneapolis, MN
11:55 PM l $9
Woo! Just as the Cloverfield director is planning its American remake, the award-winning Swedish coming-of-age horror tale Let the Right One In is hitting U.S. shores.
Oscar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl who turns out to be a vampire feasting on his neighbors.
Let the Right One In opens in Minneapolis at the Lagoon Cinema on November 21.
