Filled with moving rescue stories. Starting four weeks after the evacuation for hurricane Katrina, hundreds of brave and passionate volunteers attempt to rescue the estimated 10,000 to 20,000 animals left behind before they starve to death. A lot of things in this movie were very unpleasant to watch: grisly images of dead and decaying animals, along with gruesome images of dogs injured in dog fights and animals who suffered violence at the hands of humans. But it was a fascinating story. And the good news is that laws have now been passed to ensure that animals are included in FEMA emergency evacuation plans in the future.

Before I saw this film, someone told me that it was causing quite a stir in China because couples were ending up in the emergency room after attempting the sex acts depicted in the movie.

It was a very well-done film, but it should be noted that 17 minutes of sex were cut from the film to obtain the NC-17 rating. And apparently it’s those 17 minutes, being circulated around the internet, that are inspiring all these attempts at of acrobatic sex.

But it doesn’t live up to its promise

“On Choosing Motherhood After a Lifetime of Ambivalence”

I got this to help my partner and I think about the issue of becoming parents, and to address our mixed feelings about it. This was definitely worth a read, but I have to say that while Walker may have been ambivalent about motherhood her whole life, she certainly isn’t now. This narrative does address some stresses and pain and worries of pregnancy and parenthood, but it is very much a rah, rah, babies are the most incredible magical miracle of life kind of book. I didn’t read it with my partner because I knew he was looking for something more even-handed.

and you like your feelings really raw. It’s definitely real. Watch it if you want to learn learn “101 things NOT to say to your spouse when he/she is upset.” It seemed to me that the only thing more excruciating than being one of the people in this movie… would be watching this movie.

This was one of the best movies I’ve seen all year; it works on so many levels, as a thriller and a fascinating character study. I immediately watched it again with the director’s commentary on, and then I liked it even more. I was fascinated by the fact that the actor playing the Stasi officer had actually experienced surveillance as portrayed in the film, during his youth as an actor. Apparently after the wall fell, he read his Stasi file and discovered that many people he thought of as friends, as well as his wife of many years and the mother of his children, were listed as informants against him.

But the thing I have been talking about most, several days later, is the underlying theme of the movie. The director explained that his inspiration for the film came from an anecdote about Lenin. Lenin is quoted as saying that listening to the Appassionata made him want to stroke people’s heads, but he needed to smash their skulls in to accomplish his revolution; so he couldn’t listen to that music any more. The director was amazed at the power art and beauty have over people, and wondered what would happen if someone forced Lenin (or Hitler for that matter) to listen to such music. And this film is what came of that question.

The film really speaks to me about the impact art and beauty can have on the world. Maybe I’m no Mozart or Michaelangelo, but I can create beauty and joy too.

As I was reading this, each time I came upon another outrageous scene, I’d ask myself, “wait, is this a true story?” and look at the cover. Yes, the cover says memoir… then something else absolutely unbelievable would happen, and I’d look again. Yep, a memoir. At some point I went online and read the Vanity Fair article about the real life family’s response to the book and movie. (They sued him for defamation of character, but eventually settled for something added to the beginning of the book acknowledging that that’s not the way they remember things.) Also, I understand that Burroughs is also estranged from his mother to this day.

This could have been a light and funny book, and it seemed like that’s what Burroughs was trying to go for. I could see embellishments, places where he might have told himself, “wouldn’t it be funny if it had happened like this instead?” Instead, I felt like I could read between the lines of the book to a kid in a lot of pain, and a family who, while certainly eccentric themselves, reached out to him when he had nowhere else to go. I was much more moved by that tragic and heartbreaking story than by the actual book.

Pictured are the actual sisters, and they’re pissed.

Unfortunately I found the book itself to be a little underwhelming.

This is documentary makes those in this unconventional lifestyle seem almost… ordinary.

After seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, three 12 year old friends, Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala and Jayson Lamb, began filming their own shot-by-shot adaptation of the film; starring, of course, themselves and their friends. Filming took place in the basements and backyards of their Mississippi homes. It took them 7 years and thousands of dollars of allowance money to finish their film. Unlike most low-budget filmmakers who try to set reasonable exectations and cut back on special effects to save money, these three teens were determined to have their film be exactly like the original. The final film includes lots of flames (where on earth was the babysitter?) and a car chase scene in which Indy is dragged underneath and behind a moving vehicle. Since this was before VHS, the teens had to bring an audiotape recorder into the theater and take meticulous notes in order to recreate the film themselves.

The final film is a testament to determination and passion for film. I saw it in Minneapolis recently, and honestly, for the first 10 minutes it was funny to see 12-year-olds in their ill-fitting Sundayschool suits pretending to be businessmen. After that, I laughed and hooted and clapped because Indy got away from the headhunters, not because this film was made by 12-year-olds. At the screening I attended, the film got a standing ovation from the packed house.

For more info:
http://www.theraider.net/films/raiders_adaptation/index.php