Is That a Banana in Your Pocket...

I'm out in Cincinnati visiting Emily and finally meeting her parents, but more on that later (possibly).

I'm a day late, but I just wanted to share my oddest Christmas gift and stocking stuffer.
It's a plastic banana guard. That's on oddly phallic gift to get from your own Grandma, no? Her explanation: Whenever I see bananas I think of you. What?!

Beside the oddness, how practical is a banana guard anyway? For one, I can never take that out in public. Secondly, how many bananas are so perfectly shaped like that?

Merry Christmas!

The Sun's Not Yellow, It's Chicken

I was going to write about "I'm Not There" this morning along with Juno, since they were the two films I watched on Wednesday, but I figured I had gone on long enough about Juno, as I do tend to ramble if you haven't noticed, and had to get going out into the freezing cold to go watch the Bears game.

I'm even sort of frustrated writing this about the film, but was what Todd Hayne's made really necessary?

I keep trying to think that maybe I just didn't get it or something, but I honestly just think there isn't much to get.

What I get, and I'm no Dylan expert:
Bob Dylan is pretty damn enigmatic, and throughout his career (or more specifically from his 60's folk protest singer days to his 80s found Jesus days) he remained elusive by simply refusing to assume a single identity. From a young folk singer who lied about where he was from and loved and admired Woody Guthrie, here played by Marcus Carl Franklin, a young black boy "named" Woody Guthrie, to an up and coming star in the New York folk scene falling in love and then struggling with failed relationships and divorce (Joan Baez, Suze Rotlo-the girl on the cover of Free Wheelin', Sara), here played by Heath Ledger as Robbie Clark, an actor instead of a musician, to the androgynous Dylan that went electric hopped up on amphetamines in 1966 and toyed with reporters that tried so hard to pin him down in "Don't Look Back", played by Cate Blanchett as Jude Quinn, to the post-motorcycle accident Dylan who missed Woodstock living in the country played by Richard Gere as Billy the Kid (how clever that Dylan acted in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid), to the Dylan that found Jesus played by Christian Bale as Jack Rollins.

While the film interestingly takes these points in Dylan's life and career, assigns them to individual characters, and jumbles things around a bit, it becomes a difficult not to see the film as an artful and admirable experiment, but one that isn't ultimately very worthwhile. That's not to say that I wish the film was more biographical. There honestly doesn't seem much more that can be known about Dylan unless he is actually going to decide to say more. The problem with the film is actually that it seems to regurgitate what we already do know.

Most critics are discussing Cate Blanchett's performance as the high point of the film, and, while I find it admirable how she is totally lost in the part, to say that she isn't just playing an extrapolated version of the Dylan in "Don't Look Back" (and somehow intertwined with Fellini's 8 1/2) is delusional, and is pretty exemplary of what's wrong with the movie in the first place. Either it's supposed to actually be about Bob Dylan, in a biographical sense, or it's not, but the film just straddles that line a little too much.

What really stood out for me as the high point of the film, rather than Cate Blanchett, were the portions of the film with Heath Ledger and Charlotte Gainsbourg as Robbie and Claire. Maybe I am just a sucker for a crumbling romance, but there are few women as naturally beautiful as Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Heath Ledger gives the best performance of the film of someone who isn't just trying to emulate the physicality of Dylan. There is a real struggle in Robbie's desire to want to be a good husband and father despite his tendencies, and a real sadness when even with a stewardess with him in his hotel room, he is truly alone without his family.

Writing about it, I guess because it at least feels like there's so much to discuss, it's worth seeing (maybe I even have to see it again), but right now, I just think time spent watching "Don't Look Back" or "No Direction Home" is time better spent.

And I Know You Weren't Bored That Day...

I've been trying to stay pretty busy and distracted, so even though I've been done with finals for a couple days, I already feel like I've neglected any writing.

One more day until I'm actually going to be busy with Christmas, Cincinnati, New Year's, and my annual CD City residency.

So after an excruciatingly painful yet delicious meal at Fogo de Chao on Wednesday, I lied on the couch over at Jon's and we watched some movies.

Juno:
Thankfully due to my living arrangement, I've been able to see Juno twice now, and strangely, over the last couple days, I haven't been able to get it out of my head. After that first viewing, I thought it was a decent but pretty standard indie, but it's really starting to grow on me. When I finally catch up on the rest of what I've missed this year, I really won't be surprised if it sneaks onto my top 10 (if I ever get around to making one).

I'd read and heard plenty about Juno after it seemed to wow critics and audiences at Sundance, went in with the expectation that it was just going to be overhyped and overrated, and have read and heard plenty since, and in a lot of ways, I don't have much new to say that hasn't already been said. I really am walking the critical line with this one.

The film's greatest strength is the depth of emotions it's able to display of a young girl who as she says, just hasn't decided what kind of girl she wants to be yet. The final stretch of the movie is just so heartfelt that it's hard not to be won over. When Juno narrates about how her and Paulie didn't want to see the baby, it's really heartbreaking stuff.

This time around, I was also much more sold on the romance between Paulie and Juno. Where it seemed more of a romantic subplot hurriedly dovetailed in for a seemingly happy ending the first time around, it really does work. These are just two confused high school kids. The fact that one day Juno is consumed with the thought of being pregnant and finding people to adopt her baby, and then when everything falls apart realizes that she just misses the simpler times of just hanging out with her friend really plays naturally.

It's the film's attempts at being clever that really stand in its way. While I appreciate some pop culture references, the film just has too many. Here's just a few: Sonic Youth, blogs, Herschell Gordon Lewis, The Melvins, The Blair Witch Project, Etch and Sketch, slurpees, hamburger phones, and Thundercats. While Blair Witch Project being on Starz might be the funniest line in the film, that "Thundercats are Go!" after Juno's water breaks is cringe worthy, and is a glaring mistake in what is almost a flawless final act. It's also the film's own cleverness that really makes it difficult to get into at the beginning with a ridiculous Rainn Wilson cameo. I get that some of what makes the character of Juno so likeable, besides Ellen Page just being outstanding, is her cleverness and verbal quips, and that as the film goes on, that tougher exterior begins to fall away, but the film still really struggles due to its dialogue and survives because of its story. Just based on the two screencaps which I think really capture the film for me, it's really the quiet moments that are the most memorable and effective.

Theme Song for the Next ____ Days

This is the story of a - girl
Who cried a river and drowned the whole world
And while she looked so sad in photographs
I absolutely love her
When she smiles
When she smiles!

Note: This also my favorite part of the song, right at the end (or at least based on the different versions of the lyrics I've found online). Note the hyphen. I'm no musician, but that syncopation is mad genius.