For 13 months in 1933–34, John Dillinger robbed banks all over the Midwest, leaving behind a legend and con­tribut­ing to the growth of the FBI. Johnny Depp gives a charis­mat­ic per­for­mance of a ruthless and audacious killer, who endeared himself to the public as he liked to give money back to the customers of the banks he was robbing. Christian Bale is the cold, efficient lead FBI agent, in charge of a brutal and not very competent team, little better than the men they chased. Marion Cotillard is Dillinger's girlfriend who he's willing to brave all to be with after …continue.

Up is another gem from Pixar. A shy little boy Carl Fredrick­sen meets the exuberant Ellie, who also hero worships Charles Muntz, noted explorer of Paradise Falls. They grow old together and Ellie dies before they can achieve their lifelong dream of an adventure. With nothing left to lose, Carl attaches 10,000 helium balloons to his house and floats off to South America in search of Paradise Falls, in­ad­ver­tent­ly taking Russell, a Wilderness Explorer, with him.

The movie appealed just as much to the kids at our showing as the adults. The sto­ry­telling is first rate, combining humor, adventure, love, …continue.

Ob­jec­ti­fied is a doc­u­men­tary about industrial design and the man­u­fac­tured objects that litter our lives. In interviews with some leading designers, Hustwit brings forth such topics as our emotional attachment to those objects; the ephemer­al­i­ty and planned ob­soles­ence of most of this “stuff”; the approaches of different designers; designing the man­u­fac­tur­ing process as well as the object; how good design often almost dis­ap­pears; sus­tain­abil­i­ty, when most objects end up in landfill; in­ter­ac­tion and interface design; etc.

The danger with such a broad survey is that you can't do justice to anything. I was left wanting to know more about many of the topics. In the Q&A afterwards, …continue.

I saw Terribly Happy at SIFF tonight.

Robert is a Copenhagen cop, demoted to a remote village in the bleak bogs of Jutland. The locals are clannish and do things their own way. Robert quickly finds himself coming between the man-hungry Ingerlise and her abusive husband Jørgen. She complains about Jørgen, but won't swear out a formal report. Robert is un­will­ing­ly drawn to her.

Billed as a “blackly comic thriller”, it's more of a psy­cho­log­i­cal drama. Robert's unsmiling face carries the film.

Betty Bacal is an only child, abandoned by her father, raised by her Rumanian Jewish mother in New York. Stagestruck from an early age, she takes acting classes for years but gets little stage work. Modeling work is a fallback. A cover shot for Harper's Bazaar leads Howard Hawks to bring her out to Hollywood. Within months, Hawks' protogée, now Lauren Bacall, is the lead in “To Have or Have Not” and falling in love with her costar, Humphrey Bogart. Bogie is 45 to her 20, but it doesn't …continue.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who Watches the Watchmen?) asked Juvenal.

Answer: we do. The Watchmen movie, that is. Peter, Carol, Raven, Iain, Emma, and I are all going to see the midnight initial showing at the Pacific Science Center IMAX.

I'm not sure that I've ever been geeky enough to watch the midnight opening of a movie before. But it was Peter's idea.

Peter and I shared an apartment in 1990–92 when we were both grad students at Brown, and it was his copy of Watchmen that I first read.

And so the loop closes.

As promised yesterday, we saw the initial midnight showing of the Watchmen movie at the Pacific Science Center IMAX. And, lo, the geeks came in their numbers and they were greatly pleased. Some were dressed as Rorschach, one came as a smurf; no, I lie, he was Dr. Manhattan.

I summarized the plot in my review of the book. That still holds: the movie was largely faithful to the book. In many scenes, it was clear that the book had served as a storyboard. Too faithful in some ways at 165 minutes long. Some subplots were elim­i­nat­ed; no doubt they will resurface …continue.

A few years ago, after watching one too many whodunnit TV mysterys, I coined my

Law of Economy of Characters

The killer is in­nocu­ous­ly introduced in the first 20 minutes.

In real life, the killer may not be known until late in the in­ves­ti­ga­tion—if ever.

In a TV mystery, any non-recurring character who gets more than a few lines has to be a potential suspect—to the audience. The character is not there gra­tu­itous­ly. Their salary is being paid for a reason.

It's not uni­ver­sal­ly true, but it works more often than not. It's less true in books, where throwaway characters are easy to introduce.

Googling around, I found the following, …continue.

Clint Eastwood directs himself as Walt Kowalski, a retired auto worker. Newly widowed, estranged from his sons, and haunted by his Korean War ex­pe­ri­ences, Walt is a bitter, racist old bastard.

He doesn't like the Hmong immigrants who live next door and he nearly shoots the teenage boy, Thao, when he catches Thao trying to steal his beloved 1972 Gran Torino. The theft was to be the reluctant Thao's gang initiation. The gang come by to punish Thao and Walt runs the “gooks” off his lawn at gunpoint. The Hmong neighbors start bringing over food and flowers in gratitude. Walt is confounded …continue.

Liam Neeson is Bryan Mills, a former CIA “pre­ven­ter” who re­luc­tant­ly lets his teenaged daughter visit Paris. Kim is abducted by an Albanian pros­ti­tu­tion ring and he sets out to rescue her. Non-stop mayhem and action ensue.

Taken works fairly ef­fec­tive­ly as an action movie in the Bourne mode. The plot moves fast enough that you don't have time to reflect upon the gaping holes or the improbable ef­fec­tive­ness and in­vin­ci­bil­i­ty of Mills.

Neeson carries the movie, convincing as the pissed-off hardass who'll go to any lengths to find his daughter.