yipes, this was bad, bad, bad. the spectacular special effects/imagery and a really good-looking clarke kent couldn’t save the way the plot dragged on and on. spacey was dead-on brilliant. never a dull moment with him, never uninteresting to watch.

still and all, i’m glad i saw it so i can know what the fuss is all about.

hey. wanna see a good movie? check out The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, tommy lee jones’ directorial debut. there’s nothing lightweight about it but at least you won’t leave the movie wishing you could have 2hrs of your life back.

superfood is action-packed with so much goodness, things like spirulina and wheatgrass, that it’s become a basic. orange juice is overrated. i drink this instead.

it’s worth seeing for all the visual hoopla but i had problems with this movie.

i didn’t understand why chinese movie stars were telling a japanese story through a white male hollywood director’s perspective. i figured they’d get japanese actors for the leading roles, especially when the history between those two countries is considered. or at least scour the diaspora for asian actors to fit the bill. white actors play characters from other cultures, etc. why not asians as well?

but hey—i’m funny that way.

nevermind the bollocks. this stuff is a miracle elixir. period. i can’t stand the way it tastes but anything that’s going to do that many wonderful things for my body is well worth consuming.

i can’t believe that something so healthy can taste this good. what’s scary is that its actually quite delicious. nowadays i take my tea with a little cream, but gone are the childhood days of me chugging a glass of ice cold whole milk like some beer-swilling plumber.

this is a great way to eat more soy without torturing yourself. who knew?

it’s worth watching but only because of streep and tucci. the two of them were worth the price of admission, eclipsing hathaway and her circle of friends into oblivion. they were flat-out just more interesting to watch, not because of the way it was written but because of the way that they played it. but then again, both of them are classically trained theater actors that are as comfortable on stage as they are in front of a camera. as far as i can tell, the best actors usually are.

the whole thing felt very “sex and the city” - like i was watching an update on young post-college (white) female new york city life. that whole wide-eyed (white) girl in the city thing - single, taken or otherwise—(and hathaway was very wide-eyed) has become a massive cliche. it’s so annoying, to see a lifestyle and a world that has been marketed and packaged to sell to middle america instead of something that’s a little more inclusionary, a little closer to what the city is really like. but hey. that’s just me.

i must say, streep’s performance is a thing of wonder. (that montage with the coat and purse on the assistant’s desk made me laugh out loud.) she is a consummate actress, period. one wonders how people can carry on over julia roberts the way that they do when streep nails it time and again and again. they even carried on over her when she bombed miserably on broadway.

hm. i guess roberts has the better publicist.

what a great movie this is. dizzyingly sickening, brilliant and depressing all at once. a must-see. everybody’s addicted to something, whether it’s heroin or food or sex or approval or someone else. this movie explores those outer limits with eloquence and an intensity that is so frightfully immediate, there are moments when it’s genuinely way too hard to watch. btw: ellen burstyn was ROBBED of an oscar when she was nominated for her role as the junkie’s mom.

i had heard quite a bit about this movie for its sexual explicitness but what surprised me was that it gave such a three dimensional glimpse into the world of sexual aberration—from a female perspective. isn’t the sick twist always a man? not this time.

i have to admit it. it made something in me flinch involuntarily to see a somewhat dignified and rather conservative older woman (albeit attractive to my eye but still older, which by today’s standards means that she is inherently undesirable) put on a trenchcoat (playing up to that stereotype nicely), self-consciously creep into a porn shop filled with men (who look at her oddly), settle into a booth and, as she’s watching the porn, she’s digging through the garbage for used (semen-covered) tissue. when she finds it, she sniffs it with such an expression of disgust and sweet relief, it’s almost stultifying. the boy she takes up with is as blonde and young and sweet and fine as she is not. yow.

needless to say, the actors’ full-on commitment to their work takes all of it even further. ultimately, i felt more for her than i imagined i would. and i was left to wonder about where sexual aberration comes from. what is “normal”, exactly, anyway? and who but the french could have made such a flick? we’re way too puritanical and prudish to ever pull of something like this.

insightful, strange, full of feeling and tenderness when you least expect it, violent and achingly sad. a definite must-see.

i had the most perfect cobb salad in – of all places – auburn, ny at a place called green shutters cafe. it’s only open during the summer months. lovely place. the salad was absolutely delicious. the whole thing turned into a never-ending buffet of yummyness: blue cheese, hard-boiled egg, crispy lettuce and cucumber and tomatoes nicely diced, avocado sitting pretty, with the chicken breast grilled and hot and flavorful, the bacon warm and crisp and everything else was nicely cold. what a smorgasbord! a little creamy italian dressing and as God is my witness, i couldn’t stop eating it until it was all gone.

how could anyone not like a cobb salad?

this is a good movie but the French original is funnier. interestingly, that’s usually the way it goes with hollywood remakes.