It is a rout!

SESPO (Spitler Extremely Scientific Polling Organization) conducted a poll over four days last week on the question:  Lady Gaga or Madonna?

It was not even close.

Madonna:  73%
Lady Gaga:  27%

Two people in their twenties took pains to proclaim that Lady Gaga was their generation.  Another twentysomething said they did not particularly like Lady Gaga's music, but were proud of the 'body image' message Ms Gaga projected.

Another woman in her thirties said, "There would be no Lady Gaga if not for Madonna." And, another woman in her thirties voted for Lady Gaga but told the pollster, "Do not tell my Wife."

Alright, cyrillic alphabet text tattoos.  Okay.

Thank you to everyone that participated in this poll.








P.S. David Fincher directed the Express Yourself video, and Vogue, to boot! Booyah!

Come home David Fincher,

Near all is forgiven.  I forgive you for Benjamin Button, and I forgive you for this, and for this, too.  I forgive you because House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, and Kate Mara, is such a delicious sour candy treat.

Basically, House of Cards, a remake of a UK series, based upon a novel of the same name, is a epic miniseries version of The Prince by Machiavelli.  But with a top-notch cast, great writing, and some great directing talent.  Fincher directs two episodes, James Foley three, and Joel Schumacher two.  Plus, the whole first season, all twelve chapters, thirteen hours, is dropped right unto our laps in one shot.

It is fun mean cynical stuff, and I am ripping through the first season as we speak.  A second season has already been given the go-ahead, so, there will be that to look forward to, as well.

I barely started the original UK series, but abandoned it quickly.  It was not bad.  I just was not in the mood.  I will give it another crack after I have finished the US version.

Fincher's episodes, the first two, remind you of the all the things we like about him:  His knack with young people, and their situations; and his dry sense of humor and wit.

Great cracking addictive stuff.

House of Cards, both the US and UK versions, stream on Netflix.









Mwah, ... 

I would like to give David Fincher

Credit for the obvious irony behind his truly crappy film, The Game.  By which, I mean that he, as a filmmaker, has spent a godawful amount of cash, hiring actors and technicians to produce a "game" for the audience to witness and (sort of, not really) participate in.  Much like the "game", an insanely extravagant wasteful in poor taste birthday present for Michael Douglas, in said film.

Really? What do you get for the man has everything?

Apparently, it is this awful film.  I was okay with the film for a while, until the guns starting shooting, and there were car chases.  Then, when I learned it was a con, I could not help but think how many dozens of films there are out there about the Long Con that are way way way better than this piece of shit.  Then the ending happened, and I was totally done.  What a joke.  What a complete waste of talent and money.  What a complete waste of two hours of my time.

Maybe the clown can explain it all to me.

What is it with Fincher? He seems to only make good films or absolute disasters.

The Wife asked me after it was over -- I had bought it for half price (Thank God!) on Criterion bluray -- who I should give the film to? But, then Renee had a much better idea:  We are keeping the bluray, and we are going to treat it as a Camp Artifact, and foist it on our friends when they come over for a dinner party, laughing at it throughout, and pointing out to everyone what a disgustingly awful film it is.

(The Wife and I are mean, hunh? We are so pissed off about losing two hours of our life to this joke of a movie that all of our friends have to suffer, too, apparently.)

Not recommended.  Do not see it.  Do not buy it.  But, if you are looking for a good larf, and a fantastic dinner, made by Chef Renee, come on over to Club Villas some evening, and we will treat you well.

Bring some wine.










xxxoooxxx,
Ardent.

There were two things I liked

About The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo:  The opening credit sequence, which dispenses with the credits in under ninety seconds and the final fifteen, twenty minutes of the film where Rooney Mara vanquishes one of the film's many villains and then sets about "courting" Daniel Craig. Sorry, spoilers and all, but I do not think I am really spoiling anything.

(Re the opening credits:  Renee nailed it a few bars in and said, ever so casually, "That's Karen O, singing." Brill.)

Rooney Mara, near the only thing I liked about this movie.

So, that accounts for a little over twenty minutes of a one-hundred and fifty-eight minute long motion picture.  That does not make for a very pretty Slugging Percentage.

I understand that this is a very dark, bleak, Swedish story about disgusting and inhumane men who do disgusting and inhumane things to women but could Fincher use a different palette for once? These sickly, nauseating yellows and greens he keeps using over and over in every one of his films are near to becoming a joke, or self-parody.  Are there not other colors in the spectrum that could tell this story?

And does any audience need to suffer through yet another, "I have trapped you just when you thought you had me.  Yes, I killed them all.  And now I am going to talk to you all about it for the next five minutes or so.  Hopefully, your partner will not get here in time to save you, yes?" You know, if it is something like BBC Sherlock, or Hot Fuzz, or the OSS movies, or the crappy James Bond franchise, or anything even showing the barest modicum of irony or sense of humor then I can buy it.  But not with this film.

(There are far too many reasons to recount here why Kind and Hearts and Coronets is a stunning masterpiece, the finest film Ealing produced, but one of them is director and screenwriter, Robert Hamer's take on this type of scene:  Dennis Price has trapped the last member of the D'Ascoyne family -- all members of the D'Ascoyne family are played by Sir Alec Guinness -- that he needs to execute in order to become the Duke of Chalfont.  Price tells Sir Alec that he has murdered them all and that he is going to murder him, too.  Price tells Sir Alec he did it because of the shameful way they excommunicated Price's mother from the D'Ascoyne family after she married for love instead of status.  Then Price aims his rifle and shoots Sir Alec dead.  Price runs away.  End of scene.)

I thought Rooney Mara's performance was terrific.  I loved every little detail of the way she inhabited Lisbeth.  My fave detail was the way she held her cigarettes. But, I also liked her make-over scene because it reminded me of the film, Battle of Algiers and the scene where the Muslim Algerian women put on Western make-up and clothes in order to "blend" and set off a terrorist bomb.

Daniel Craig did not do much of anything for me, nor did the guy who played Martin, and Christopher Plummer was essentially wasted here.  (Plummer did get some good lines, one of which is, "Isn't it interesting how fascists always steal the word, freedom?")

Overall, it was a really big disappointment for me and Renee feels the same.  She might like it a little more than I do.  Or maybe I am just a big baby and should stick to Miss Marple and Detective Montalbano.  Those months of darkness really do take a toll on Sweden, hunh?



All my love,
Ardent

Yeah, this is probably more my speed, hunh?

There must have

Been reasons why I did not see The Social Network in a theater but I cannot recall them now.

Anyhoo, I saw it over this past weekend.  The movie is great, the first scene is amazing.  The Howard Hawks-like speed w/ which characters speak is invigorating and thrilling to watch.  The script by Aaron Sorkin is smart, spiked w/ sour wit, and still always moves the story forward.  There are good performances all over the screen but my favorites are Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer (as the Winklevoss twins), & Rashida Jones.

In fact, my favorite storyline in The Social Network is that of the "Winklevi".  I love how they are set up as WASP Supermen.  What is the quote, "I am 6' 5", 220 pounds and there are two of me"? The twins are uber-privileged, part of a dwindling old-money American aristocracy, who are first shown lapping their crew competition and then towering over a gawky, socially awkward Zuckerberg.  We never see the twins win anything again.  They always come up short, yet try to remain gentlemen.  Cameron Winklevoss finally snaps when his Harvard crew loses the big race in England.  There is something so correct and perfect and honest and lovable about the twins that goes against most traditional class-struggle movies or arcs, whathaveyou.

I am not rooting for Zuckerberg in this film.  It is brilliant that Sorkin found this class-turnabout in this Facebook story.  Zuckerberg is not likeable.  He is so socially awkward, so narcissistic, so loathesome, so condescending, etc, ... My skin crawls when Eisenberg asks Rashida Jones' lawyer out for dinner.  And the scene where Zuckerberg keeps trying to pull his ex-girlfriend away from her friends,  to "talk alone, for a minute" (everyone in this splendid script is seeking a private conversation at one point or another, yet so many are connected to this extremely non-private social network creation), well, folks, I have been there before and it is chilling and uncomfortable to watch.   Rooney Mara as Erica plants her feet firmly in the ground and tells him off.  Good for her.

I am not going to ruin the ending.  It is brilliant like the rest of the film.  But everybody involved here seems to have nailed it.  It had to be perfect to succeed and that is v dangerous territory to be playing around in.  The Citizen Kane references are correct.  Not in any way related to the film itself re how it looks, how it was shot, etc, ... but that they took on a media giant by telling his story as a big-budget Hollywood entertainment (and they weren't v nice to their "hero".)  People as talented as Sorkin and David Fincher had to be anxious and excited to tackle this remarkable real-life, real-time story:  One of the most socially awkward, icky guys around, who has  no friends at all creates frickin' Facebook.  Sorkin & Fincher dived in and nailed it.  Good for them.  


Actually, now that I think about it, there may be another way this film is like Kane.  There will be arguments over the decades about who was more integral to The Social Network, Sorkin, the screenwriter, or Fincher, the director.  Personally, I am in the Sorkin camp at this early juncture.  Just like I am in the Kael/Mankiewicz/Toland camp re Kane.

Winklevi & Zuckerberg.

P.S.  One more thing, it was so lovely to hear a real Beatles song in a movie.  I am sure they had a pay a mint but it was worth it.