The Lives of Others

I saw The Lives of Others last weekend and have to say that it was amazing, brilliant, compelling--and any other hyperbolic adjective I can toss at it. But it truly was a fantastic (there I go again) movie. It deservedly won the Best Foreign Film Oscar, though I haven't seen Pan's Labyrinth yet (still).

The story is about a Stasi (aka, secret police) agent in East Berlin in 1984, and he is assigned to spy on a couple--a playwright and his actress girlfriend--suspected of being anti-government. At first, the Stasi guy is a hard-assed hardliner, a ruthless bureaucrat. But soon, as he gets more and more involved in these people's lives, he has an awakening. A moral awakening, you might call it. And from there, the mounting drama unfolds. The direction, acting, score--all of it is top notch. And, though it is devastating, it has one of the more satisfying endings that I've seen in a long time. I even cried. Go see it.

Random Friday Thoughts

Decision 2008: Is it just me, or is anyone else sick of the 2008 Election already? Jesus, it's, what, 17 months away still? I guess it's a reflection of how eager we are to be rid of Dubya. I dig Obama, but in the end I just want a Democrat to win.

March Madness: My alma mater, Vanderbilt, won its first round of the NCAA! I might actually have to watch basketball this weekend. I can also claim Florida as an alma mater, since I went to grad school there. But I never liked Florida--the state, the school--so I don't bother to root for them.

Lost: I still love this show, despite what naysayers are saying. And I even love 24, even if one of its creators is an asshole rightwing freak.

Roommates: God, I so need to live alone. Or with someone rational and not a tidiness Nazi.

Weekend Reading: Got to finish a fantastic novel called Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber. I'm writing the press release for it (for another company; it's one of my side gigs that pays little but is still fun to do). Also, magazines. Stack and stacks piled in my room. Also Plainsong by Kent Haruf and Cures for Heartbreak by Margo Rabb.

Best Movies of 2006

Here are my favorite movies from 2006, thought keep in mind I STILL haven't seen Dreamgirls, Letters from Iwo Jima, Pan's Labyrinth, and The Lives of Others, not to mention other small movies.

1. Children of Men
2. United 93
3. Half Nelson
4. Babel
5. Little Children
6. Little Miss Sunshine
7. Volver
8. The Departed
9. Infamous
10. Heading South
11. L’Enfant
12. Notes on a Scandal
13. The Queen
14. Devil Wears Prada
15. Borat
16. An Inconvenient Truth
17. Twelve and Holding
18. Casino Royale
19. The Last King of Scotland
20. Shortbus

I would have given the Oscars this way:

Picture: Children of Men
Actor: Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson (Honorable Mention: Clive Owen, Children of Men)
Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen (though Meryl and Judi and Kate and Penelope were amazing and justly nominated, but also Charlotte Rampling in Heading South)
Supporting Actor: Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children (Honorable Mention: Michael Caine, Children of Men)
Supporting Actress: Rinko Kikuchi, Babel
Director: ah, hell, give it to Martin Scorcese already, so we can stop hearing about it. And The Departed was a good movie, will edited, exciting, fun.

And, well, they did give it to Marty.

But Children of Men. Wow. It blew me away. It was bleak, exciting, funny, beautifully filmed, brilliantly acted. Go see it. Or rent it.