danajohnhill.org

I have no interest in the latest Batman film.  I am, in general, no fan of comic books or films adapted from comic books, especially Batman.  When the buzzword surrounding this latest installment is “dark”–an adjective that defines all I hate in cinema–I am sure to stay away.

Happy New Year!

Mrs. Hill and I spent New Year’s Eve at home, where we enjoyed a delicious spaghetti dinner (she makes the sauce spicier than most; it’s good), caught a final movie for the year, and watched Dick Clark countdown to 2008. We lit sparklers in the house for the occasion, frightening Moggie.

As some may know, for years now we have kept a list of every film we’ve seen at home or in the theater, and we set a record in 2007 with 234 movies. That might seem like a lot, but it might have been much higher had we continued at the pace we established in January and February: by the first of March we had already seen 66 pictures.

Movie highlights for me included: Mermaids (1/2); The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (1/27); Hotel Rwanda (2/10); Elizabethtown (4/13); Breaking Away (5/15); The Simpsons Movie (8/5); Stranger Than Fiction (9/9); The Illusionist (9/19); Walk Hard (12/21), and, believe it or not, Dirty Dancing, which we saw in the theater on May 1. I also re-watched some other films I regard as great, including Jaws; Saving Private Ryan; Field of Dreams; Back to the Future; Der Untergang and what may be my favorite movie of all, The Sound of Music. The complete list is here.  And, for the record, the 2006 list is here.

I hope 2008 is brings you good health and happiness. Hard times come again no more.

Mrs. Hill went to the theater Friday night and saw Walk Hard on opening night.  A synopsis isn’t necessary, but the highlights for me were definitely the songs, especially “Life Without You”, “Dewey Cox Died”, the Marshall Crenshaw-composed “Walk Hard” and the cleverly suggestive “Let’s Duet”.  Kudos to John C. Reilly for being a genuinely great singer with a ringing high F#.  And Tim Meadows has some of the funniest material.

Also note: everybody in the world was in this movie, including people you have seen before in lots other things, but whose names you don’t know; and tons of other people with big names who have small parts.  Now, I am sure you’re wondering, “but, Dana, does it have Jackson Browne?”  Hell yes, it does.  It even has butterscotch blonde Fender Telecasters.  So, something for everybody, specifically me.

I don’t often eagerly await motion pictures, since I don’t generally go to the theater to see movies anyway.  But a film opening today has me excited.

Walk Hard stars one of my very favorite actors, John C. Reilly, in his first leading role, playing a character named Dewey Cox, a fictional legend of popular music, whose life and career trace a contour reminiscent of scores of rockers and country singers.  The film is apparently a humorous homage to music biopics from Walk the Line and Ray to The Buddy Holly Story.   John C. Reilly sings all the songs in the film, and from the excerpts I’ve heard, he is actually a talented singer.  And the songs, while presumably played for laughs, seem to be genuinely good compositions.  I heard a bit of a tune from the picture called “A Life Without You”, a Roy Orbison-inspired  ballad, and it is fantastic, and, had it been written in 1960 would undoubtedly been a number one hit record, even sung by John C. Reilly.

I encourage you to listen to this extended interview with Reilly and director Jake Kasdan from the December 3 edition of Fresh Air.  At about 24 minutes you can hear an excerpt of “A Life Without You”, and plenty of other music from the film throughout.

And, as an added bonus which I only just realized from looking at the IMDB entry for Walk Hard:  the movie also stars Jenna Fischer.

When I was a kid I saw a movie called Invasion U.S.A. with Chuck Norris, in which he shoots two Uzis in seemingly random fashion. It was so over-the-top, preying on Americans’ irrational fear of invading Soviet forces, that I am sure if I was fortunate enough to see it again today I would laugh throughout. At the time I saw it, however, I was terrified by the perilous situations depicted in the film. For instance, terrorists attach a bomb to the side of a school bus sitting in traffic. Back then I rode the school bus each day, so the scene struck a chord with me. A chord of fear. Thankfully, Chuck Norris saves the kids, and dispatches the terrorists with a witty one-liner (and their own bomb).

Fast forward over twenty years, and the Soviets no longer inspire fear in the hearts of Americans, in spite of their backsliding on democracy under Vladimir Putin. There are actual lunatic terrorists on the loose in places like Pakistan, but god forbid we make good on President Bush’s “you’re-either-with-us-or-you’re-with-the-terrorists” rhetoric and come down hard on Pervez Musharraf. I am all in favor of parachuting Chuck Norris into the mountains of Tora Bora and having him deal with Osama bin Laden in whatever manner he saw fit. I imagine it would look something like this, but possibly less swampy.

Still, that doesn’t seem to be a priority for Republican voters or political candidates. Rather, their enemy has suddenly become Mexico, as though we’ve rolled the clock back to 1846. I have a big problem with politicians exploiting people’s bigotry to win office, nevertheless, if they do it like Mick Huckabee does here, I can at least appreciate it as comedy: