Why do I think I'd be better served to see Cate Blanchett do Bob Dylan when that opens than I will be with Elizabeth II, the return of the queen? She looks like a floating island, not queen of one!

Even reading all the scathing reviews of Elizabeth II, I'm really tempted to see it this weekend.

Saw Across the Universe.

Now, I'm definitely not in the intended audience. About 25% of the songs I wouldn't have known were Beatles songs if not for knowing that they were all Beatles songs.

Taken simply as a movie it really isn't all that good. The story is very simple and surprisingly linear. It felt about an hour too long and several times the songs felt crammed in (particularly in the beginning).

So, as a movie it isn't good. But I found myself watching it not as a movie but as a type of artists portfolio where the flaws of one item don't necessarily reflect on the merits of the others. A cinematic gallery exhibit, if you will. When in a gallery I may very well pass up the first 20 pieces saying "ho hum" "nice try but no" "insipid" etc., but if the 21st is a piece where I just want to sit and look at it for a couple hours then the whole thing is a success.

And the very disjointedness of the thing allows for that. I'd say about half the pieces did absolutely nothing for me. They were flat, literal, and/or simply boring. Most of the others had some element that kept them entertaining. But three or four were absolutely magnificent in staging or audacity. T.V. Carpio's "I Want Hold Your Hand" as she ditches small town Ohio. Max's induction. The 1-2 punch of "I am the Walrus" and whatever the next mostly spoken piece was after that with Eddie Izzard ("The Benefit of Mr. Kite"?). Definitely when Taymor was willing to go the surreal and psychodelic it worked better than when she was playing it straight.

Those made it worth it and so I don't care that as a movie it really isn't very good. That is the strength of the genres of action movies, musicals, and porn. They can be 90% suck (excuse the pun in relation to porn) and redeemed by the 10% great.

And I don't know if this will annoy Steph, but when Bono first appeared on screen, for about a second and a half I thought it was Robin Williams.

Tuesday night I saw the best movie of the decade: The Game Plan.

Now some of you may wonder why someone of my age would enjoy a treacly Disney "family" picture so much. But if you look closely at the scene in the restaurant/club, you will see an incredibly beautiful basketball player—one I'm especially fond of—hanging out and enjoying the party.

I can't wait for the DVD!

Argh! Hehe. I'll harass you about it in a couple of weeks...

How funny - that is exactly the way I described it to the team of LoTters with me. (I also said the same of "Me and You and Everyone We Know.")

Has anyone had a chance to see the Ian Curtis biopic CONTROL? It looks pretty amazing to me, but it's not playing anywhere I can easily get to.

Lars and the Real Girl. What would have been a one-trick pony was surprising, full of hand-and-hand pain-delight. Tom said - and I agree - that there was a small ledge upon which the concept might have been well-executed... and the movie confidently strode out on that ledge without so much as a hint of doubt.

It's a story about a man whose crippling insecurities leads him to develop a full-scale delusion that his mail-order sex doll is a real person. It sounds like a tawdry gimmick, really, but the film takes the concept to such.. dare I say... innocent places. Sweet ones. More than just a film about a man trying to bring himself emotional comfort, it's also about the family and the town that stands firmly behind him through his crisis, despite their own struggles with the situation.

The screenplay was well-crafted, the directing lovely, and the performances excellent all around, particularly Gosling-- I have been touting him as the new generation's best for a few years now and I continue to feel vindicated. Gosling's subtle path from a man who refuses touch to a man who seeks it was beautifully realized. Supporting performances by Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider and Patricia Clarkson all excellently handled the myriad reactions to a loved one's (or a patient's) lost mind.

This isn't a movie that will interest realists. It's a fairy tale, and requires a fair amount of suspension of disbelief (though there were moments that were so believable it made the rest seem practically plausible.) But if you open yourself to it, I think it will surprise and delight you. It certainly did so for me.

I'm watching Xanadu on HD Movies as I type..

Wow, what weird memories this brings back.

It played at the Aero when we were in PS, so I haven't seen it yet. i really would like to see it.