Let Me In

Like most peeps, I was down on it when it was announced there would be a Hollywood remake of the excellent Swedish film, Let The Right One In. Somehow, I doubt this remake will even come close to the original, but this trailer doesn't look half bad.

Japanese cinema

The publisher Intellect is currently offering a free download of The Directory of World Cinema: Japan, a shiny 298 page e-book on my favourite national film industry. While it's not short of ideas for the Netflix/Lovefilm/whatever rental queue in your life, the collection of reviews and essays "was never intended to be a conventional film guide, as the overall aim was to discuss Japanese cultural life and history as expressed through the medium of film," according to editor John Berra. I haven't read the book, but a skim this afternoon in my clunky .pdf reader looked pretty promising (and made me want to get an iPad).

Also of interest in the same generalist vein, but in old-fashioned print, is Donald Richie's A Hundred Years of Japanese Film. Richie's writing on Japan has been personally very influential on my own evolving views and tastes. His book on Ozu (my favourite director, from any country) is also one of the best things on my shelf. Or rather, in boxes in storage in a garage in California, but that's another story. My library will join me in Helsinki one day.

(Above: Yasujiro Ozu)

Last Exit To Nowhere

For all the movie nerds out there, make sure you stop over at Last Exit To Nowhere. LETN makes goodies (mostly t-shirts and hoodies) with the logos of fictional corporations and organizations from your favorite flicks. I recently picked up one of these Nostromo shirts from Alien.

Also, the LETN peeps have also posted some pretty cool iPhone wallpapers, which I've gathered up into one zip file for you. My favorite one is the HAL 9000 one, from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The other ones are the Tyrell Corporation (Blade Runner), Omni Consumer Products (Robocop), Weyland Yutani (Aliens), and Nakatomi Corporation (Die Hard). I'm not sure if they'll show up right on other phones, but it could be worth a shot. Download the wallpapers below, if you're so inclined.

>>click<<

Many happy returns, sensei

Get on the catbus and raise a glass to Hayao Miyazaki, who turns 69 today. A beautiful scene for the ages:

Favorite films of 2009

Because we all like lists of some sort, these are my favorite films of the past year. Keep in mind these aren't really in any order, and they are basically out of what I've seen. I haven't seen Avatar, Up In The Air, Precious or anything else that people are going crazy about. So there. Check out my faves after the jump.

Black Dynamite

If you live in the Bay Area, the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland is going to be screening Black Dynamite at midnight this Saturday. This blaxploitation parody looks like it could be ridiculously enjoyable, so I might give it a chance, seeing as how the theater is just down the street from where I live. I definitely could use a few laughs. Check out the trailer.

The golden age

A new decade is soon upon us, and while some people (um, like us) are busy looking back, putting together mixes of their favorite music from the past ten years, Momus is naturally already looking ahead. Go and read his notes on 2010-2019 right now, and you will understand why we'll soon begin to eat more mushrooms, learn to make more things with wood, and finally stop wearing jeans. Furthermore:

Your body will thank you for using a bicycle every day during the new decade. Using bicycles will become a condition of using computers successfully too: the correspondence between them will become clearer over time.

I can only hope he's being literal here, and the widespread adoption of pedal-powered laptops becomes reality. Finally:

You have been underestimating the colour yellow.

Indeed we have. I can't wait for yellow--gossamer, silky, pale, enlightened, friendly yellow--to be the new silvery blue-black, which for some reason has been the only legal color in Hollywood since about 2001. The monochrome black thing is never a sign of cultural health--it wasn't for the puritans and it sure isn't now. (I'm looking at you, Tim Burton. The director of Pee-wee's Big Adventure knows better.)

So in the spirit of yellow, and of bicycles, and of a friendlier decade ahead, let's have a look at this picture:



This is from Ryan McGinley's 2007 series I Know Where The Summer Goes. I hope this type of photography will be an influence on the values of the next decade. McGinley's is an aesthetic of adventure, playfulness, and vitality, with nary a scowling angel-of-death supermodel to be seen. (Warning: As there are lots of nude people in this summery series, that link I just gave you isn't very safe for work. Sorry if you've already been fired.)

That is all for now. You have 53 days left to wear your jeans, so put them on, go outside, and slide around in the mud. Have fun.

The Exorcist

Scariest movie ever? I think so. Check out this crazy trailer. Happy Halloween!