Wonderful Terrible Movie

Should I be ashamed to admit I watched this movie last night? That I was excited to watch this movie? Well, regardless of your answer, I'm not ashamed. Because it was hilarious. I love bad movies, movies that try to be good but just end up so bad, especially ones featuring beasts of any kind. Also I think you can learn more about the craft of writing from godawful things like this than you can from The Greats. It's much easier to see the glaring, horrible mistakes in a script like this than to understand what works about something that seems perfect. At least, it is for me.

Everything was so wonderfully terrible. Embarrassing script, laughable acting, cheap CGI effects, and a freaking oversized shark breached the water to eat an airplane full of people inside. I haven't seen such a good bad movie since Trog.

No Bullshit Movie Reviews

Newly discovered by me, probably old news to the rest of the world: The Filthy Critic's hilarious expletive-happy movie reviews. I almost like the terse one-sentence sum-ups on his extensive archive page even better.

And according to Wikipedia: "The Filthy Critic was (temporarily) killed in a bicycle collision late on August 7, 2003. 'He died the way he lived — wobbling aimlessly in the slow lane.' appeared on the web site. He was later resurrected to continue his career."

Badass, Filthy Critic. Faking your own death = extra points for you.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

I love documentaries, especially ones that, like Banksy's new film, are made mostly from archived footage. Exit Through the Gift Shop highlights a fascinating subject (street art, pop art, and douchey copycat Hollywood artists) with a masterful narrative arc. I went in expecting to just see a movie about Banksy but it was much more complex than that -- it ended up showcasing a compelling and inimitable underground movement, and following its (and its much less-impressive spinoffs) rise to gallery prestige. Can't recommend this movie enough.

50 Lessons Learned From Movies

This blog post is quite entertaining, and loaded with clichés to avoid in writing.

Oh, Movieworld, you silly place!

Whatever It Takes

Here's a film review I wrote as a dailykos diary about Whatever It Takes, a moving documentary that aired on PBS last night. Excellent film about education reform, produced by a friend.