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Drugstore Cowboy
I came across Drugstore Cowboy on TV today. Even better it was just before the section that's scratched on the library DvD so I could actually watch the stuff with William Burroughs in it properly. (Abe and I watched it together the first time when we were going through are post Naked Lunch beat phase, so i have a soft spot for it). Anyway, listening to Burroughs talk, I am always amazed by how well Peter Weller does him in Naked Lunch, catching the odd intonation and vocal mannerisms without turning it into parody. Anyway, I watched it with Trainspotting in my head, which I've watched a few times, most recently last week, pocking at the different ways the movies handled similar themes. Narrative voice is so important in both of them, the themes so similar, yet the effect is very different. There is a shot of Matt Dillon on a train, when he's going back to Portland where for a second he looked like Christian Bale. He turned, and his profile suddenly morphed into Robert Pattenson, complete with the famous hair and Edward Cullen emo sulk. Ah the recurrence of certain facial proportions in male leading men. I have nothing profound to say here.

Star Trek
First off, I never thought I'd be drooling over Bones, but Dayumn! Sulu was poetry in motion. Also, Eric Bana is weirdly hot bald with tattoos. Who knew? I'm really not used to being catered to sexually in SF films, but between this and Wolverine, I'm definitely liking it.

Performance wise, I was impressed that Kirk, Spock, and bones, read right without being exact copies or pastiche. That's very hard to do. Kirk was still obnoxious, but nowhere near as annoying as Shatner and I only found myself cheering for him to die once, which is a record for fewest times in any film with Kirk in it. With Spock, it was a reasonable interp even though I did periodically expect him to eat Kirk's brain and/or kiss him. I was a little weirded out by him being into earth women, but that was script, not acting, if that makes sense. Bones was perfect, catching exactly the right tone and feel without being annoying. I don't just say this because he's sexy, either. I didn't spot a wrong note. We didn't see enough of Sulu to see how he'll pan out, but I liked the contrast between star Fleet correct bridge officer and gleeful fencer which fits. Chekov was not what I expected, but I can live with it. Uhura was not as fleshed as I would have liked, given her screen time, but it was good to see them using her as a linguist and not just a glorified receptionist. Simon Pegg was some brilliant casting. Someone clearly had a flash of brilliance. I liked what little I saw of Pike and George Kirk. I know this is blasphemy, but Nimoy seemed tired and ill, and the Vulcans in general were unimpressive. Mini Spock rocked for a little kid though. Mini-Kirk, not so much.

The plot though... ugh. I get why they did it, but even knowing that, I still had a hard time swallowing it. They tried to balance it by extreme fan service in dialog references. I know the others clapped and cheered by I felt manipulated and it broke suspension of disbelief after a little. I wouldn't have minded one or two or even three, but there were just too many catch phrases and references for a single movie. I know mini-skirts are canon, but watching the women trying not to show us everything on the bridge, I found them distracting and impractical. And then there were the plot holes, but this being star Trek, it's par for the course. The real problem for me was that I kept getting pulled out of the movie. I couldn't maintain suspension of disbelief for more than a scene or two at a time, and found myself watching the audience instead. It was beautiful and as I mentioned, most of the acting really worked, but the project was too self conscious just generally, and once I realized that they were throwing out Star Trek's history from before I was even born until now, I found that wildly distracting, my brain picking at it and picking at it. I know they do this all the time with superheroes, but I didn't grow up caring about superheroes, so I guess it doesn't hit me the same way. (Yes, I watched Adam west's bat man, and we loved the reeves Superman when it came out, but I was watching star trek every week from infancy with my dad and I still drool like Pavlov's dog when the end credit music from the original show plays because we always had Sunday dinner right after Trek ended. Yes, I grew up geek.) I know Wolverine's claws bug the ******** out of superhero fans, but my only exposure to X-men was the cartoon in the '90's and the movies. I simply don't have the knowledge to get worked up, if that makes sense.

Again, I did have sporadic fun; I'll likely watch the next one. It's just this was flawed. It also weirdly, reminded me of how little I liked TNG initially. I actually missed the first 2 or 3 seasons as I had no television, and watched them later in syndication while we were watching the new ones. I got into it because Abe and the Corvallis guys watched it like a soap opera. Season three or four was interesting enough, but I hated half the characters, which didn't help, and the image I had of Tasha Yar in my head was significantly more interesting that the real Tasha when I saw her. In my opinion, TNG only became really good rather than watchable after Rodenberry died, and i generally prefer DS9 to any of the other franchises. I know, I know, more blasphemy. My problems with TNG were various. The Rodenberry era blandness wasn't a problem with the new film, but the shortage of strong/competent female leads that can stand with the men as both characters and characterizations is still a problem. (Tasha: uneven and weak. Beverly: bland. Improved over time, but essentially the nurturing mother stereotype. That Betazoid: Worse shrink ever. Week, glaringly incompetent, relies entirely on her weak empathy instead of having a knowledge of psychology nd how to actually help people. Wears special Starfleet push up bra. Need I go on?) Uhura's the only female lead in this film and while she could have been so much worse, she also could have been so much better. The other females in the film were barely characterized at all. It doesn't help that as an adult I'm very cynical about Federation Culture and star fleet in particular, for reasons to complex to explain here, but I kept getting rubbed authentically wrong, if that makes sense. I also have trouble believing in Kirk's competency, a problem I've had with classic Trek ever since I was old enough to question it at approximately puberty. I could believe in Picard as a new federation captain and Cisco as a throw back to oldstar fleet, with Janeway somewhere in between. Hell, I hated Enterprise, but the problem was not believing they'd put that captain in charge of a ship. I've never really believed a Star Fleet that stems from that culture would not haul Kirk away for therapy. It's too contradictory, if that makes sense.

I think the fact I've been rereading Bujold doesn't help. Pike makes Kirk exec. They send Ensign Miles Vorkosigan to Kiril Island to see if he can work in a chain of command, and Barrayar is way more savage that the federation. I have an easier time buying Barrayar ultimately finding a use for a manic unorthodox genius like Miles, than I do believing JT Kirk wouldn't get forcibly sent for star fleet's version of Betan Therapy. I realize this is a personal problem, but it's a problem I've had with Star Trek since before Bujold even imagined Barrayar.


I know, I know, it's a minority opinion. Let the flames begin.

For plot holes: http://biomekanic.livejournal.com/466335.html?style=mine#cutid1

Public Enemies
I couldn't sleep, so I saw Public Enemies. I think this is more evidence of Depp's complexity and skill as an actor. Dillenger really is hard, that mix of charisma, mischief, sensitivity, intelligence, and capacity for sudden brutal violence could have easily left a fragmented performance, but it didn't. Depp sold it to me, all the way through. The script design was well balanced, giving Purvis, the mafia, and nelson as contrasts. I loved how it captures that sense I always got living back east that police or mob, it's mostly a choice of gang colors a lot of the time. The FBI and the mafia being bookends squeezing out the independents was honestly perfect. Nelson's brutality and lack of care for civilians so like that of the FBI. There were scenes where I was wondering what happened to those innocent people who had been shown just before the violence erupted. Where they okay? I loved Dillenger's self awareness in the face of change.

The details of costuming, set dressing location, etc. really grabbed one. The use of period music really pulled one in. In the first bank scene, I shivered, remembering how cold marble banks and post offices used to be, back when they were civic temples, the chill sinking into the stone no matter what the weather was like. I can't remember when i was last in a bank like that. Odds are, it was 1983. The architecture drew me back east as well, into my childhood, there are so few buildings like that out here. The buttons on a dress, reminded me of my great aunts, the fabric of another of my grandmother. The station reminding me of childhood trips. It was little touches like the heights drawn on the jail wall, that pulled one into the time and place.

My local library turned out to unexpectedly have a copy of [rec], though not Quarantine. It turns out that except for the end, Quarantine was a fairly faithful adaptation. I do think [rec] is slightly better overall. I can see why they changed the end from the original one in [rec], but I think thy replaced one set of problems with slightly different ones. Ah well.