All Consuming : josh bis

Consuming "The Inheritance of Loss"

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:16:24 GMT

The Inheritance of Loss

by Kiran Desai

am I horrible for wishing ... (rated 3 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:36:58 GMT

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

by Junot Diaz

... that Oscar’s life had been briefer and/or more wondrous?

A story about "Out Stealing Horses: A Novel"

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:37:41 GMT

Out Stealing Horses: A Novel

by Per Petterson

the only bad thing about this is that I fear that it will make every other novel I read in 2008 pale by comparison.

A story about "His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass"

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:51:32 GMT

His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass

by Chris Weitz

Much worse than I expected. The acting and special effects were fine, but It’s as if they severed the book from its daemon and put the resulting dull-witted zombie script on screen.

At least the bearfight was cool.

A story about "Hvarf/Heim"

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:50:27 GMT

Hvarf/Heim

by Sigur Rós

interesting : the untitled tracks from () have names on these discs.

A story about "Night Falls Over Kortedala"

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 07:13:20 GMT

Night Falls Over Kortedala

by Jens Lekman

An advantage of having a friend living in Sweden is that he can buy mind-blowing CDs for you ahead of their U.S. release. This album from Jens Lekman is bound for my 2007 hall of fame.

run, jason, run.

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 05:20:19 GMT

The Bourne Ultimatum

by Paul Greengrass

A two hour chase, with only the briefest pauses for plot and dialogue. Aside from those last two minor elements (which were fine), it was astonishingly well made and incredibly fun to watch.

A review of "For Your Consideration"

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:04:46 GMT

For Your Consideration

o.k., but you’d be better served to rewatch A Mighty Wind, Waiting for Guffman, or Best In Show. This one never really came together.

A story about the last time I consumed "In the Beginning...was the Command Line"

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:27:44 GMT

In the Beginning...was the Command Line

by Neal Stephenson

In the middle of the extended essay about operating systems is this riff on David Foster Wallace’s “E Unibus Pluram”

“The problem is that once you have done away with the ability ot make judgments as to right and wrong, true and false, etc. there’s no real culture left. All that remains is clog danceing and macrame. The ability to make judgments, to believe things, is the entire point of having a culture.”

at last

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 06:38:00 GMT

Funny Ha Ha

I’d been wanting to see this forever and it was never in stock at any video store. Then, there it was at Target right next to a DVD I was buying from someone’s wedding registry and it was only ten dollars.

Pretty good, though its weird to own this movie, particularly since I liked Mutual Appreciation better. Still, it’s an impressive document of inarticulate awkwardness that’s both compelling to watch and often uncomfortably relatable.

maybe "worth consuming" but not "good" (rated 2 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 07:21:33 GMT

Transformers

by Michael Bay

too many humans, not enough robots.

18 out of 20, with only 2 misses (rated 4 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 06:02:26 GMT

Paris je t'aime

by Various

Many of the shorts in this collection were excellent, but “Faubourg Saint-Denis”, set in the Xe, by Tom Tykwer, starring Melchior Beslon and Natalie Portman was stunningly great.

talky gore (rated 4 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:33:49 GMT

Grindhouse: Death Proof

by Quentin Tarantino

Apparently, the double feature format wasn’t successful enough (and/or was too confusing) during the initial run; so the european release of the film splits the two parts. Tarantino’s half, Death Proof is the first out of the gate.

I saw it at Kriterion, my favorite Amsterdam theater. The afternoon screening was an ideal remedy to the previous night of heavy drinking, which is pretty much all that I was looking for.

***

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Tue, 15 May 2007 22:42:09 GMT

Waitress

by Adrienne Shelly

I had to keep reminding myself that this was essentially a fairy tale to preempt fits of rage over plausibility and ethical conflicts. With that out of the way, it is a pretty cute movie with small charms.

A review of "All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone"

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 08:56:31 GMT

All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone

by Explosions in the Sky

not quite as dramatic as previous releases, but with such high standards set for themselves, even below average explosions in the sky is pretty good.

A review of "The Host (??)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 06:44:06 GMT

The Host (??)

by Bong Joon-Ho

I saw the Host tonight and was underwhelmed. Maybe I like my monster/adventure movies a little more intense or scary? I thought that parts of it were really interestingly done, but others were so heavy-handed (the U.S. incompetency sections), and others felt really really slow. I kept wanting it to be something that it wasn’t.

A review of "Fast Food Nation"

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 16:46:37 GMT

Fast Food Nation

by Richard Linklater

Linklater enlists his favorites (and Avril Levigne?!) interesting narrative take on Schlosser’s nonfiction. Threads pick up and drop off loosely, and no one except the meat packing industry really “wins”. The odd thing about this message movie is that, like so many others of its kind, it’s unlikely to draw viewers who aren’t already aware of and already receptive to its lessons.

dreamy danish comedy (rated 5 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 08:09:36 GMT

Dark Horse (Voksne mennesker) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Australia ]

by Dagur Kári

By the time a parade of elephants marches past a cafe window without comment, I was head over heels in love. So much so that I immediately forgave the way the movie falls off track toward the end, particularly when it picks up the seemingly unconnected story about an insomniac judge who’s losing his own grasp of reality.

The gorgeous new wave-inspired black and white & the slowblow soundtrack complement the hilarious (subtitled) dialogue and the absurd situations that the endearing, attractive cast get themselves into.

I'll conceded that it might be fifteen minutes too long

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 07:48:59 GMT

Mutual Appreciation

usually movies about everyday life should be incredibly boring, but I couldn’t help but love this one. it has almost no story or resolution, but it’s pitch perfect throughout with not entirely likable characters and brilliant awkwardness.

saying something like “Bujalski is the Whit Stillman of this generation” might be over-reaching and not completely accurate, yet it might also be partially true.

A review of "Zodiac"

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 21:16:57 GMT

Zodiac

by David Fincher

At several points in the very long run time of Zodiac I found myself wondering exactly what sort of movie it was trying to be. It’s an impeccably made film with a lot of fascinating and pretty surfaces, but almost no depth. A not particularly suspenseful thriller as motivation for an unrevealing series of character studies. By the end, the biggest mystery ~~- the motivation for the legendary killer, the police investigators, and the obsessive journalists -~~ remains (perhaps brilliantly) unrevealed.

a series of unfortunate events (rated 1 star)

nobody@allconsuming.net (josh bis) — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 23:06:25 GMT

Babel

by Alejandro González Iñárritu

... less about the difficulty of communicating than about a few people making improbably bad decisions. of course, all of the storylines connect in a schematic way. SPOILER: if only japanese big game hunters didn’t give their guns to tour guides, overpriviledged white children wouldn’t get lost in the desert.