They Don't Call Them Classics For Nothing

I'm a bit ashamed to admit this, but I had never seen High Noon until now. High Noon stars (dignity personified) Gary Cooper as Will Kane, the marshall in a town under siege. It also includes a very young Lloyd Bridges, beautiful as always Grace Kelly, and the eternally villainous Lee Van Cleef. When I was a kid, two of my favorite films were Sergeant York and The Pride of the Yankees - both films featured Gary Cooper, who I looked up to as a hero. Wow, it is fantastic! Check it out, you won't be sorry!

Superb Illustrations

The illustration work of Howard Tangye is superb, utilizing reductive line in a Egon Schiele meets NYC fashion magazine kind of way. Don't listen to me, go check it out here.

Bardem: Spanish For Awesome

Just watched the Milos Forman film Goya's Ghosts. This was an interesting film concerning the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic conquest of Spain. This is a brutal, brutal film, but is beautifully shot and acted, with a truly original plotline. The film features excellent performances from Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgard, and Natalie Portman (in a chameleon-like performance).

But the real reason to watch the film is another towering performance by Javier Bardem. What an amazing talent he is - Bardem brings an energy on screen that is not like any other actor. Darkness, evil, compassion, tenderness, sometimes all in the same film! I have now seen him in several films - Before Night Falls, No Country For Old Men, Collateral - and is hard to take your eyes off of while he is on screen. Cool as cool can be.

Anyway, check out Goya's Ghosts - it is brutal, but superb filmaking. Striking.

Rumble Fish: Still Underrated

The Sheila Variations is a great blog that I read often. It covers alot of my favorite topics - film, literature, art. But the author of the blog often touches on particular issues that I am into, namely James Joyce, Marlon Brando, and recently, a superb essay on one of my very favorite films of all time, Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish. Anyway, check it out here. It's great, and will remind you how amazing Mickey Rourke can be. Rourke truly is one of the most underated actors of the past 30 years, and is mesmerizing in Rumble Fish, but also in Angelheart, Diner, and the truly unparalled Barfly (which absurdly is not available on DVD). Anyway, check out Rourke, Rumble Fish, and the Sheila Variations - all good ways to spend your time.