Burn After Reading
The Coen brothers strike again. This really captures the spirit of life in DC with all the insanity, self-0bsession, bureaucratic foolishness and lack of depth that I remember from four years just outside the district but well inside the beltway. There is a bit of hamming it up by George Clooney and Brad Pitt but it sort of fits with the spirit of the thing. Clooney as the jogging lothario and Frances McDormand as the fitness worker who must have plastic surgery at all costs are highlights. Highly recommended.
Eagle Eye
This is standard Hollywood paranoia. Someone at the department of defense builds the amazing but misguided machine which then tries to take over due to having been given the world's least clever guidance program and can only be stopped by the attractive, romantic slacker and his single mom sidekick. Yawn. Have we heard this one somewhere before? Oh, and the technology part is ridiculous. Not recommended.
XXY
Normally you would not think "let's go see the movie about the hermaphrodite" would be something to offer up, say, on a date, but in fact this movie is simply wonderful. The acting and writing are both first rate and the movie raises, but does not glibly answer, important questions about gender, individuality, what it means to be helpful and what it means to be authentic. Highly recommended.
Who was my favorite student this term?
7 years ago
