Live, Sister, Live

Trying really hard to get back into a normal habit here involving writing, so I'm going to make this one quick in order to move onto the next movie in line, one I hope provides more inspiration that Die, Sister, Die.

It's not that Die, Sister, Die is a bad film.  Yeah, I fell asleep during it (three times), and that caused me to rewatch it until I finished it in one sitting while awake.  It is just REALLY boring and it doesn't know it's tone.  One minute its a dramatic piece on the relationship between siblings, next it's a hyper-gory dreamlike movie where heads are being lopped off, but usually it's a mystery story that has a pretty obvious solution to it.  Hint - if you are wondering what happened to the third sibling, the title is a HUGE spoiler.

Alright.  Time to move on.  C'mon....I'm hoping for a great film to build enthusiasm and momentum here.

And 321 is....

You know, I do believe that there is a reason for everything.  The Royal Tenembaums it is, which is funny because I was just thinking this morning that it would be appropriate for me to watch this movie in order to process some serious and personal issues that are occurring in my life.  Looks like I'm meant to see this film at this time.

The Spaces Between Days

Holidays are a funny thing.  While they are a welcome step away from daily activities, they also become a break in routine.  You step out of the routine, you lose your pace and your focus.  Matters get upended, sleep is lost, priorities are shuffled - a basic clusterfuck.  So, while I'll like to blame 'the holidays' for my lack of writing, it's actually my break from routine that is to blame. 

Where were we?  Yeah - True Grit.

Now, with this 'project', I knew that there would come a time where I would watch a film that I had bought but hadn't seen before.  Yeah, I know its a little strange to buy a film you haven't seen, but there was a time when video stores would sell five DVD's for $20, and I would more often than not find three films I would really like and had to randomly choose two in order to complete the sale.  That's what happened in this case - it was the fault of Blockbuster that I own this movie.

I tend to be hit and miss with Coen Brothers movies.  I either REALLY enjoy them (I'm looking at you Barton Fink and The Hudsucker Proxy) or I'm indifferent - for instance, I'm indifferent about this one.  It's a pretty film to look at, mainly due to the landscapes that the film is set in.  It hearkens back to a John Ford movie - beautiful wide country shots for our interpret heroes to ride across.  Real cowboy stuff.

For the most part, the story is a revenge plot.  Josh Brolin kills some girls father, girl gets consumed by revenge, hires a Westerm version of The Dude to track him, Matt Damon does a Brad Pitt impression.  And, like most narrated films, you know that in the end the narrator will survive because they are telling the story.  Sprinkle in a few Biblical images, like a dark tunnel that someone falls into after they achieve their revenge as they struggle to get back into the light high above them - then you cue up a snake that bites them.  Pretty standard stuff - not bad, not great.  A movie that you get to fill out the necessary five titles to get a sale.

Yup.  Over that film, time to go to the next!  But before we do, lets do some housekeeping.

- I bought a movie recently, so it's getting added to 'the list'.  It's a documentary called Never Get Tired.

- End of the year always makes me want to look back and see the great media that was released.  In years past I usually put out a list of the top movies or albums that I listened to, but this year I want to do something different.  Gone will be the traditional numbered list, and instead will be a smorgasbord of different things for people to hear about.  Sure, I've got my 'number ones', but I'm more interested in talking about WHY I liked the things that I did.  Expect that soon - be forewarned, though, because it's going to contain a lot of discussion about Ghostbusters.

New title!!  Hey, ho - lets go!

Lets see what number we get......

....and the movie is.....

DIE SISTER DIE!  We are going to have a field day with this one - promise it will be much longer that this post.