Something Else to Watch

We have recently started watching the short-lived but so incredibly wonderful NBC series Freaks and Geeks. The show aired in 1999-2000 and was cancelled after 13 episodes. They'd filmed a few more already, so the dvd collection has all 18 episodes. This show is filled with familiar faces. James Franco (from Spiderman and his recent performance art piece on General Hospital) plays the unofficial leader of the freaks, and he spends his time cutting class and hanging out with Seth Rogan (from every Judd Apatow movie) and Jason Segel (from I Love You, Man and How I Met Your Mother). The dad is the hilarious Canadian comic Joe Flaherty, and Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman, Ben Stiller, and loads of other people are in an episode or two.

Freaks and Geeks is an hour-long show (or 48 minutes or whatever), and I guess it's mostly funny and touching. There are dramatic aspects of the show, but they never get too heavy before something funny or awkward happens. The show takes place in Michigan in 1980, and they use the fashion , music, cars, interior design, etc of the time as the cherry on top of the great scripts and incredible acting. These high schoolers (especially the geeks, who are freshmen and sophomores) really act like kids. I don't know if this is the best bunch of actors ever or if the writers were the best bunch of writers ever, but all of these kids transcend the 'child actor' stereotype. According to the show's wikipedia page, it won the Emmy award for outstanding casting. I believe it!

Part of why I like this show so much is that it doesn't have the typical teenage drama topics... there's no teen pregnancy or any of that stupid stuff. It's just kids trying to make it through normal life filled with teachers and parents and friends and music. But it's very funny and sweet, like normal life can be.

Another Movie Review

Yes, I still cook, but I haven't yet uploaded the picture of last night's dinner, so let me talk about this movie we just watched.

Pulp Fiction is pretty much my favorite movie of all time, and I very much respect and like Quentin Tarentino, but I can't say I totally love his other films. Jackie Brown was pretty good, but the rest seem full of more violence than I care to see.

So why did I want to see the Nazi-scalping film Inglourious Basterds? Well, I think it's gun-shooting that gets to me more than general violence. Also the machismo that goes along with most gun/violence movies... give me a break. This movie contained violence of all types-- guns, bats, knives, explosions, strangulation, but so what! This movie is great! The 'Jew Hunter', one of the main Nazis, is one of my favorite characters in recent memory. Mike Myers had a small role as an English armyman-- weird and funny. The whole movie was weird and funny and interesting. From the first scene, in which there is this really cool, quick, change of camera focus, I was totally into this movie. I thought I would be annoyed by Brad Pitt in the quirky role he played, but no annoyance whatsoever. He was pretty likable. I look forward to watching this movie again.

Non-Food Post

A couple of days ago I read some movie reviewer's Top 10 Movies You Didn't See Last Year list, probably on slate.com. A lot of the movies on the list seemed gritty and crime-y: two words I would never use to describe a movie I'd be interested in watching. Toward the end of the list was a Robin Williams movie called World's Greatest Dad. I'm kinda back and forth on Robin Williams. I'm sure I've liked him in some movies, but whenever I think of him I think of cocaine and too much energy and try to think of someone else.

Well the Red Box movie dispenser at Walmart had World's Greatest Dad, and since some random reviewer said it was good, we rented it. And it was good! It was very good! It was written and directed by the illustrious Bobcat Goldthwaite (luckily I didn't know this until the closing credits, because you can be sure there's no way I would've watched a Robin Williams movie written by Bobcat Goldthwaite).

I don't want to discuss the plot, because we really had no idea what it was about or what to expect when we started watching, and that whole sense of unknowing made the viewing experience even more pleasurable, I'm sure. Robin Williams' son in the movie is not a very nice person, and has quite a potty mouth... this movie earns it's R rating. If you can get around profanity, I think you'll be happy you spent the 90 minutes or whatever watching this dark comedy.



The other movie we got from the Red Box is Extract, by Mike Judge, starring Jason Bateman. That one was not so good. Mike Judge's other movies are way funnier, and Jason Bateman is way, way funnier in Arrested Development. But if you liked Extract, you'll love World's Greatest Dad, because it's an all-around much better movie.

Another thing that makes WGD good: a quick scene with Krist Novoselic. He doesn't even talk, but it's just nice to see him again. Another thing that makes Extract bad: Ben Affleck is in it, and has the worst haircut ever worn by anyone.