Sprawling from Grace: Driven to Madness

The Fallacy: Advances in technology will empower Americans to continue living life the way they have always lived, and it will do so by providing alternative energy sources to power their cars, trucks, and SUVs… and that everything will be fine.

“For as long as most Americans can remember, the car has been the icon of the American dream. It stirred our emotions and embodied our notions of freedom, wealth, and independence. At the same time, it reinforced our vision of a bright and shining future.”

That bright and shining future was an illusion. Fueled by the prowess of modern marketing and made possible by the frenzied shortsightedness of a post World War II generation, American citizens saw only the possibilities of a better life, with no consideration of the obvious future ramifications.

Former President Bill Clinton and former Governor Michael Dukakis are among the two dozen leaders warning of the dangers of the status quo of American city planning and transportation. These thought leaders urge Americans to refocus their energies on the wise creation of centralized livable communities. Sprawling from Grace: Driven to Madness, a film by David M. Edwards, addresses their concerns.

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Movie Review: Gone Baby Gone

I usually do my best to review a movie, give my opinions and still keep the important surprises for you to discover on your own should you decide to see the movie.

I started a blog for Gone Baby Gone a few weeks ago but stopped because I realized that I didn’t really want to do a review about it. I didn’t want to tell you bits and pieces to intrigue you to see it. I wanted to have a commentary on it, and when I read this article today about a severely neglected and abused child, I knew that was what I had to do. The article may be long, but I IMPLORE you to read it.

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Movie Review: The Dark Knight

Here it is, people. The one for which you’ve all been waiting. Quite honestly, I was at a loss for how to start this one. I loved the movie. It was fabulous. I can’t wait to see the next installment, but even I’m getting tired of hearing myself sing the praises of practically every movie I review. I feel like I purposely need to start watching movies that I hate so that I can build some credibility, you know? Or at least to stop exhausting my thesaurus in search for new synonyms for words like spectacular and tremendous and mesmerizing and enchanting, etc.

I’d like to say that The Dark Knight picks up where Batman Begins left off, mainly because it just sounds cool, but I don’t really remember a lot of Batman Begins. I enjoyed it, but I only saw it once, and it wasn’t one that I felt like I needed to add to my collection. So for artistic sake, we’ll just say that it picks up where it left off, k? K.

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Movie Review: Brideshead Revisited

I had originally planned to spend my Wednesday evening at a screening of Death Race at Northpark. I knew it wasn’t going to be a movie that I would rave about later to friends, but it was free, and I figured it would diversify my blogging.

Then I got an invite to a free screening of Brideshead Revisited at the Magnolia. Much more my style AND the email boasted a brief Q&A afterward with the film’s star, Matthew Goode. People, the universe has granted me an early birthday present. It’s no secret that I have quite a few celebrity crushes, and he’s been one since I saw Chasing Liberty in 2004. My inner twelve year old was screaming with glee. I was going to be sharing the same air space with a very cute, very British, very tall boy.

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Thoughts on The Bucket List

Friday night. Just finished watching The Bucket List. I was expecting this to be one of those films that gets my wheels spinning. You know the kind. The ones that make you want to reevaluate your life and find more meaning in every waking moment and makes you kiss the bathroom floor out of gratefulness for the new day. That kind of stuff.

I give it a C. Yes, I had the self-evaluating thoughts. Yes, I’m sitting here writing about it now. But no, I was not moved to tears. And I was NOT challenged to live a more meaningful life. I love the actors. Maybe it was the execution. I’m not a director, so I don’t know what punch it lacked.

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Movie Review: The Fall

When I went to see The Counterfeiters at Magnolia a few months ago, I saw the poster for The Fall.  It caught my eye as I was headed to the ladies room before the movie started.  I stood transfixed by the poster.  I’m not really sure why; I just stared at it a few moments, and then I saw the starring line, and great googly moogly, I couldn’t believe my eyes.  Lee Pace was the star?!  Then I got to see a trailer for it before The Counterfeiters, and I was speechless.  I HAD to see this movie!

Ok, so at this point, you’re probably thinking, “Who the heck is Lee Pace?”  Well, he’s only the cutest thing to ever hit the silver screen.  If it’s possible, I’m more enamored with him than Daniel Day Lewis and Hugh Jackman put together.  Yeah, I know; it’s probably hard to believe, but I think it’s got a lot to do with the character he was playing the first time I ever saw him: Ned, the Piemaker, from Pushing Daisies.

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Movie Review: Then She Found Me

So this blog was supposed to be about Mama Mia.  Faithful Angelika had come through with a free screening pass to Mama Mia, and I invited my old college roommate, who lives in Bedford, to make the trek to Dallas on a Thursday night to see it with me.  We were going to make a night of it: dinner and a beer at Trinity Hall and then laughing and singing our way through the movie version of the HIGHLY acclaimed musical.

That’s when we got in line and found out that they had filled the theater in record time.  Oh well, all was not lost.  If we hadn’t spent a few extra minutes chatting at Trinity, we might have gotten in, and then we would have missed out on Then She Found Me.

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