Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The Trim Bin #68


- That's what I looked like a few weeks ago when Jess and I found out another kid was on the way. The abbreviated version: big, highly improbable surprise, lots of incoherence and cursing out of both God and science, a more serious discussion of our options than anything in Knocked Up or Juno, more incoherence, and finally the decision to prematurely rob Luna of her only-child status (she loves other kids, at least). We're terrified, of course, but we couldn't ask for a better daughter and, as my friend Kate pointed out, our aggro-fertility will help combat an Idiocracy-like future. Plus, I get to name this one! Can't wait to meet you, little Mordecai or Cloris.

- Walter Chaw's latest post from The Trench: cranky, arrogant and genuinely provocative.

- CHUD's You Got It All Wrong series: cranky, arrogant and completely pointless.

- Culture Snob has a fascinating take on the elusive appeal of The Shining (thanks to Film Experience for the link). This is why The Shining is one of my very favorite movies - like most of my favorites, it continue to reveal itself to new interpretations and approaches many years after its release.

- Paul Clark's post on Amadeus, a part of his Movies of My Life series, perfectly sums up why it's more than the boring costume drama it seems to be written off as lately, and particularly why it means so much to people in Paul's and my demographic (for some reason Amadeus was very popular in my third-grade class).

- Tried to write a top 10 of the best transformation scenes per the request of my friend Michael, but I could only come up with 9 (and I only had much to say about 3 or 4). The list was exclusively made up of '80s movies, the golden age of latex, prosthetics and K-Y slime following the apex of the subgenre - when it comes to transformations, there's An American Werewolf in London and there's everything else. Any other favorites worth mentioning?

- Finally, with There Will Be Blood hitting DVD last week and a wider audience discovering its insane brilliance, the glut of Plainview parodies and milkshake jokes is only going to keep growing (see Patton Oswalt's prediction that Plainview will be the go-to impersonation for hack comics). This one is my favorite: it's simple, I couldn't tell you why it's funny, and I can't stop watching it:



6 comments:

Dan E. said...

Congrats on the kid. You do realize that naming your kid Mordecai will almost guarantee he ends up as a butcher or furniture salesman (Come on down to Morty's!!!)

As for transformations, there's the vast majority of David Cronenberg's career. I've always been partial the The Fly

Paul C. said...

Yes, good job on the second child. I do hope you're joking about the names though. Mordecai makes me think of the falcon from The Royal Tenenbaums. And all due respect to the esteemed Ms. Leachman, but I would imagine Cloris would be a little difficult on a child sooner or later. Once her classmates learn about the reproductive system, you'll have every smartass boy strategically inserting "it" in her name for his own amusement. Remember, just because they can't find it doesn't mean they can't spell it.

And hey, thanks for the shout out. I sometimes worry that no one reads these things, especially when I don't get comments. Nice to see I'm wrong.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations and don't worry, I bet you can handle another child. You are much smarter than Seth Rogen in knocked up, after all.

Anonymous said...

P.S. about that Chud list; I can understand being fustrated by Kubrick fiddiling with A Clockwork Orange's outcome even if they aren't really coherent about it,but are they even aware that Palinuck actually liked the film's ending. T

Dr. Criddle said...

Congrats! I'm positive Luna will get along famously with her younger brother or sister. They tell me being an only child's no fun anyway.

As far as transformation scenes... I've got to agree with you and Dan that American Werewolf and The Fly pretty much take the cake. I'm also quite partial to some of the squishier sequences in From Beyond.

There was also an old Universal movie called Werewolf of London. Not an especially brilliant film, but it does have a great tracking shot sequence where Henry Hull walks behind a set of roman-style columns, and turns more and more into an anthropomorphic wolf each time a column passes in front of the camera.

Andrew Bemis said...

Thanks for the kind wishes, all. And yeah, those names were indeed a joke, though with a last name that rhymes with "penis" and is also the name of a waste company, the kids are pretty much doomed for first through fifth grade anyway.

Good calls on The Fly and From Beyond. I'll have to check out Werewolf of London (does he walk through the streets of Soho in the rain?).