Thursday, 13 January 2011
A couple of weeks ago, I listed off the books I read in 2010. I mentioned that I had read God Hates You, Hate Him Back, a book I received free from the publisher with the intent that I write a review of it. Well, HERE’S MY REVIEW. So, you know, more stuff to read!
And noticed how, in my post for January 11th, I complained that I’m sick of hearing of Loughner as an “alleged” shooter? Well, now, apparently, he’s been upgraded to “suspect.” Yeah, it’s true. They called him a “suspect” at least three times on my drive home from work this evening. Oh, that’s so much better.
In other news: Court orders blood transfusion for baby boy.
This evening, my wife and I watched the film Thank You For Smoking. It was decent; worth a watch. We seem to have stumbled upon this sub-genre of comedies that are designed to look like a documentary in parts. It’s hard to explain but, we’ll be watching the movie, and it’s constructed in the usual narrative format, when, all of the sudden, they’ll be a narrator of a quick succession of cuts designed to imitate a news clip. Idiocracy was like that. So was The Darwin Awards. I think Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was like that in places, too. It seems to be a mini-trend going on lately.
Friday, 14 January 2011
Today we watched the documentary Man on Wire. It details the story of Philippe Petit’s desire to highwire walk between the Twin Towers. I know, it doesn’t sound that compelling. I first heard of the documentary in the weeks leading up to the 2009 Oscar ceremony. I didn’t know anything about it but, when we watched the Oscar ceremony, Man on Wire won the award for Best Documentary. The short clips and very brief words they said about the film really pique our interest, and so we immediately put it on our Netflix queue.
That’s where it sat for nearly two years.
The disk finally arrived in our mailbox a couple of days ago.
And it was a very well-made documentary! At one point, I even told Jennifer that I was nervous – to which she replied, “that shows that they did a good job making this.”
Man on Wire has the converse of the cliché that I mentioned above: it’s a typical documentary, but it’s liberally interspersed with drama; as if we’re suddenly watching a work of fiction. The footage is sped up in these parts, reminiscent of Vaudeville and silent films. The film is also almost entirely in black-and-white.
The ending is no secret: Petit did tightrope between the Twin Towers, as is common knowledge. The fun, though, is seeing how he planned it out. The planning was extensive; including several trips back and forth between America and Europe, numerous dry runs, and lots of site scouting. I had been unaware that Petit performed his stunt without permission from either the city of New York or the Twin Towers management. Seeing how he and his troupe got around security at every step made for an engaging story. With the beefed-up security since 9/11, it’s tough to see how anyone could do something like this again.
Go rent it.