Who gives a fuck?

[Just Some Girl]

Christina Hendricks looks like shit in that movie, though.

I find that impossible.

I'm sure her looking like shit is still better than most of my better days.

[Poop Fresh-Herbed Pickles]

Fair points. Even more of the credit to Gosling then. Still, good on Refn. How many directors are there who have the kind of knack for getting out of a good actor's way that he showed?

I just thought that was interesting trivia you'd enjoy.

I really agree with you that he seems like a good director of actors.

Check out Bronson if you haven't already.  That's a total art film and doesn't have the genre restraint of Drive.

[Bizarro]

Albert Brooks is fantastic in this movie. He actually manages an original portrayal of a mob heavy, without resorting to quirk.

[Bizarro]

Christina Hendricks in Drive.



Does she look like shit for the world? No. Does she look like shit for Christina Hendricks? Yup.

[Just Some Girl]

You put your money were your mouth is.  R-E-S-P-E-C-T.  I couldn't do it: you know, family and other responsibilities.  But had I been younger and unattached, I would have been there.  

I agree, one-million per cent. Yeah, mathematical impossibility, but impossible, too, is my level of respect for Matthew. Occupy Toronto were cut off, too, and I did/said nothing to keep the fight going, and I never would've camped out in that park. I'm too old, I tell myself. When the reality is, I just suck now.

[Just Some Girl]

I want to see Take Cover, too. Michael Shannon can do so much with just his face and halting voice that lends itself to this kind of story (well, knowing the basic premise, I think I'd like the actual story too). I haven't seen Revolutionary Road, but finished the book not that long ago and I'm sure the film version is exactly as depressing as y'all said it was...

[Bizarro]

Don't get me wrong: I would kill all of of you and everyone you care about to get to Christina Hendricks. I would pile your bodies into a corpse pyramid and climb over your lifeless faces with dogshit on my shoes to get to Christina Hendricks.

I'm just saying she didn't look her best at all. She spends much of her screen time in sweats, for crying out loud.

[Just Some Girl]

What y'all consider meat (the cow, the pig, etc) is a cultural bias. Lots of others eat animals y'all consider pets (the dog, the cat, etc.). I think someone pointed out that every critter is meat. The only difference is partly emotional (those cultural biases against/for certain beasts/fishies) and part taste/texture. Maybe Fido tastes a zillion times better than that slab of pork belly, but you'll never know. I suggest you eat all critters, or none.

I know y'all essentially said the same things yesterday, but I'm just sticking my vegetarian nose in it now (delicious, by the way) and not really meaning to call y'all hypocrites or anything.

I agree. This big racist at work (the Zionist fella who hates Arabs, the UN and Obama/loved McCain & Palin) loves to regale people with his tale of informing a former co-worker of his (who happened to be Chinese) that "here in Canada we don't eat cats and dogs", usually adding his observation that "those people" are not "civilized". He's crazy and he's appallingly ignorant, but generally speaking I find this hypocrisy so flagrant and obvious that I am forever fascinated by the number of people who cannot recognize it as such.

I am considering returning to meat. This is strange for me because I have no desire to eat meat for its "tastiness", nor am I over the visceral/existential willies I get from eating flesh of another being. Somehow I feel that my body is crying out for something in it.

I was never really a vegetarian...I use the term much like I do "atheist"... I don't care to be associated with a group because I do not share the opinions of most of the people who consider themselves as such. I was never so deluded that I believed I was living a harm-free existence because I didn't eat meat (millions of animals, entire forests, river systems and ecosystems have perished and continue to perish at the hands of agriculture) ... I live my life all too aware of the history of suffering inherent in every action and purchase I make (from shoes to salad). I just fell out with meat. It creeps me out. I don't particularly care for it (fowl) and I do not like most meat at all (beef and pork). I happen to be allergic to the one kind that I did sorta enjoy (fish).

I stand behind animal rights and most of those groups labeled "eco-terrorists", but the "meat is murder" argument is without a shred of supporting evidence. The argument can be made only if murder = killing and this opens up vegans/vegetarians to the charge that agriculture = murder.

It does not help that one of my co-workers has become full-fledged insufferable vegan because of her associations with the animal shelter that a few of us (myself included) volunteer at once a month. She has been a vegetarian for 20-something years (and is terribly unhealthy/obese) and was preachy before...but now she's starting to piss me off with her undeserved self-righteousness.

She is totally oblivious to the fact that her lifestyle has the ecological footprint dwarfing that of many meat eaters. A million self-reliant hunters couldn't begin to match the carnage inherent to the lives of all the grilled-fofu wrap-eating-hipsters who pass through Aux Vivres (trendy/tasty Montreal eatery) in a day. She isn't a hipster, but she would certainly applaud them for their "cruelty free" diets... and I can't take much more of this delusion.

(personally)

I have been vegetarian for twenty-five years. I think I was strident at the beginning, and far less so now that I've actually lived in the world (unlike the 20-somethings who are the most vocal about this kind of thing). I DO use the term, not to align myself with anyone (I can't abide such "groups" much like you, Matthew), but more to just let people know and ONLY if it's in an eating situation..and that's only because, well, you have to. If not, then who the fuck cares what anyone eats?

I can't control anyone else, and (unlike my younger self) don't want to impose restrictions on what I think others should eat. I dunno, I feel like I've had this same post a million times here. I have a lot of political views (and actions) that don't mesh with those of larger Western society, and I have to choose which ones to speak up for/to, and those i can let sit, and always (as an older person) figuring out which things and times make sense. I recognize, for example, that while my siblings are smart enough not to invite me to their kids' christenings (only to food fest after), that if one of their peeps tries to engage me on Christianity, I will either fight or leave (depending on how important the situation is to the other people I care about.

As I get older I realize that I cannot change the world, BUT I can talk about my thoughts when I think people are receptive to listening.

If that makes sense.

I've had some bourbon and hard cider.

It probably doesnt make sense.

[Just Some Girl]

Don't get me wrong: I would kill all of of you and everyone you care about to get to Christina Hendricks. I would pile your bodies into a corpse pyramid and climb over your lifeless faces with dogshit on my shoes to get to Christina Hendricks.

I'm just saying she didn't look her best at all. She spends much of her screen time in sweats, for crying out loud.

As above, her worst is one thousand million times better than other women's (me included) absolute best. Oh well.

[Poop Fresh-Herbed Pickles]

They gave Christina Hendrick's deliberately bad make-up in the movie, I guess, to make her look like a low-life.

[Full Blown Possession]

Hey pat it's Noles Vs. Irish bowl game

[matthew]

Albert Brooks is fantastic in this movie. He actually manages an original portrayal of a mob heavy, without resorting to quirk.

Agree with this, too. I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed his performance, because he usually gets on my nerves. I wish the mob guys in Ghost Dog were more like they were in Drive. (ie less quirky/goofy)

[matthew]

I thought Ryan Gosling's performance was by far the best thing about Drive. Replace him with say, Ryan Philippe, and what do you have? A late night cable oddity.

That's not to dismiss Refn's work. He had the sense to hire Gosling and trust him.

I respectfully disagree on the lingering shots, Matthew. I think they are key. Much more so than the 80s fetishism, the Tangerine Dream-style score (full disclosure: I like Tangerine Dream's scores, ESP. Miracle Mile), or the admittedly well-handled but hardly unique riff on The Man with No Name/Yojimbo/Shane character.

I think my frustration with the movie isn't even about the film itself. It's on people fixating on the wrong things.

I love Miracle Mile. One of the earliest films I watched was SORCERER (and was WAY too young to understand it) and have always had a soft spot for such music (I even have the Sorcerer soundtrack on my ipod), but I thought we were talking about the Euro-pop theme song, not Cliff Martinez (a musician I still associate with RHCP)'s ambient score.

What you are not hearing (or perhaps I am not making clear) is that I agree with much of what y'all are saying, but that I felt that the film was packed with too much stylistic styrofoam for it to really sink in to my head. I felt that it came very close to being a movie I would love (which is why I brought up my nostalgia for neo-noirs of the 90s), but just fell short.

It is entirely possible that I would have appreciated it more if were actually dumber than it was.

So many of our "gifted young directors" either bury us in dialogue or try to hypnotize us with flash (or try to lure us in with some take on realism). Refn wrote a character with a rich internal dynamic who didn't reveal it by chattering. Then he hired the right actor, put the camera on him, and had enough sense to let the thing breathe. That, to me, is what is interesting.

I do not feel that this was the case here. I like Gosling but I did not feel that the "rich internal dynamic" was apparent at all in the "lingering" shots. Those shots felt like dead air to me. Glimmers of nuance to the character were more precisely conveyed in Goslings performance of the abrupt bursts of violence.

Okay, anyone else bored of talking about Drive?

How about The People vs George Lucas?