Unconventional Christmas Tunes

Wonderful soundtrack. Not so great movie from what I hear.

Christmas Films

Over this break I have had the opportunity to see several films, and I thought I would post a two to three sentence review of each film I've seen. Here they are in no particular order:

With three powerfully honest performances at the heart of this independent gem, Beginners is one of the better independent films in the last few years. Christopher Plummer deserves the awards he will likely receive for his performance, and Ewan McGregor gives his most nuanced performance to date. The quirky feel brings out the character in writer/director Mike Mills, and I certainly look forward to his next film.

The Descendants, a unique and surprising study of grief, is a courageous glimpse into the slow reconstruction of a family after the husband (Clooney) discovers that his wife, comatose and soon to die from a boating accident, has had an affair. There were times when watching this film that I wasn't sure whether to laugh, cry or be outraged - I think this is the films greatest draw and, perhaps, draw back. With one of Clooney's best performances (I'm still partial to Michael Clayton), and a strong addition to Sideways for Payne, Descendants is sure to be a strong contender for best picture.

Given that I am a big Mission Impossible fan, I can say that Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol hit every mark as far as I'm concerned: beautiful locations, ferocious action, familiar theme music, cool gagets, humor, and Tom Cruise being his usual self with bravado to spare. Brad Bird, of Pixar fame, does a fine job directing this big budget installment into the franchise, and I think it's fair to say the Mission Impossible world is safe in the hands of Jeremy Renner.

Martin Scorcese, with his first family friendly film, delivers a magical story of a young boy's search for a message from his father, which unfolds into a small piece of Cinema history in Hugo. Scorcese blends childlike adventure and history together beautifully, helped as per usual by perhaps the greatest living editor, Thelma Schoonmaker. Hugo is certainly the must-see family movie of the break.

Well...I could spend a long time on this one. If you haven't seen it yet, do. I'd be happy to talk about it with you!

Wow. One of the most unique films I have seen. Painter turned filmmaker Steve McQueen is adept at building and releasing tension, almost effortlessly. Hunger felt like a dance, and that is saying quite a lot for a film about prison inmates organizing a hunger strike. Very dark, very graphic, yet nothing here feels gratuitous. Also, keep an eye on Michael Fassbender - he is slowly becoming one of the best actors in film today. His performance here is arresting.

With Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen has crafted his most crowd-pleasing film of recent years (as the numbers would indicate). From the fairly straight forward but interesting plot, to the game of spot the reference/historical character, this film has something for everyone.

OK, so I saw this one last break, but I just had to finish off the list with The Muppets! Very funny and very fun, this one is definitely worth a (very pricy) night at the cinema.

Gazing at the Tree

The Christmas lights are singing stars
that lift the proclamations of the
angels toward celestial heaven

And I, a lonely shepherd pressed
against my couch, can only think
of innocent sheep
beneath God's lions of holy light

Peace

The absence of noise is not in all cases the same thing as the presence of peace. Wordsworth also found morality there of one sort or another. But Damaris had never yet received any kind of impulse from either vernal or autumnal woods to teach her more of moral evil and of good than all her sages. Certainly she had found no particular impulse that way in her sages either, but that was because she was rapidly becoming incapable of recognizing a moral impulse when she saw it, the sages from Pythagoras onwards meaning something quite different from her collocation. Peace to her was not a state to be achieved but a supposed and necessary condition of her daily work, and peace, therefore, as often happend, evaded her continually. She ingeminated Peace so often and so loudly that she inevitably frightened it still farther away, peace itself being (so far as has yet been found) a loveliness only invocable by a kind of sympathetic magic and auto-hypnotism which it never occurred to her to exercise.

~Charles Williams, The Place of the Lion

Peace is a discipline sought through virtue. So often I think I expect things to give me peace (movies, books, etc.), as if it were a thing to be gifted or bought, but it is good to be reminded that true peace is is a state of active being.

7 December 2011

The evening sits with me and listens
Listens to the passers by
Immortal gods in conversation
Whistling down the winds of time

The bustle of the trees is hushed
The prophet's mouth is stricken dumb
My breath is stilled in expectation
For the words, words yet to come

Insomnia

Some sleepless nights

          My mind lines up my thoughts

Like dominoes and flicks them down

          To build them up again an hour later

For My Mother

This is a poem that I wrote for my Mom and thought I would share.

Warm hands
Skin and bones
Made full with memories
We four will share

Tears, joy
Wind and rain
Fixed at home
Fluid in time

Breath of my life
Life to my soul
Whispers my name
Name of my ancestors

Laughs through the phone
Smiles heard in silence
Walks down our streets
Flights through the starlight

Burdened with worries
You never deserved
Strength of my family
Lover of virtue

If ever I'm proud
Of who I've become
Your spirit lives on
My reflection of you