The New, The Old, and The Ugly (aka Lynch, PTA, and TV)

Man oh man, for a guy who reads film stuff all the time I sure am surprised that I didn't even know about David Lynch's new film Inland Empire coming out apparently soon until I read about it in the New York Times (click the pic) from good old Manohla Dargis. Anyways, I'm really excited to see it, which is something I haven't been able to say as often as I would like to these days. Actually I took a few seconds to look over the list of new films that came out this year which I saw in theaters and, with the exception of Little Children, I didn't really make much of an effort to see any of them. They were all mostly just going to see movies with friends (which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy any of them, The New World and Three Times were both great works of art) I should really remember to get in more Lynch films. Despite the fact that I was blown away with Mulholland Drive and Lynch's indisputable unique point-of-view as a filmmaker, I haven't yet seen anything else by him since (rented Blue Velvet a few times but never got around to watching it).

While waiting to use the computer, decided to check out a few scenes from Magnolia, as it had been on my mind lately since watching Little Children and mentally comparing the melodramatic qualities of the two films. What started as just watching a scene here and there turned into going through the entire movie and stopping at great and memorable scenes - which comprise about half the frickin movie! Man, I remembered Magnolia being superb but not this good! How I wish I could have experienced this film in the theaters!

People who complain about how American cinema is dead need to shut up, sit down, and pay attention to one Paul Thomas Anderson. He could single-handedly carry American cinema on his back. What a beautiful, moving, daring, spiritual film this is. This man has not only yet to make a bad film, but yet to make a film that wasn't an absolute jewel. People - including myself - need to stop our prideful and snobbish habits of looking elsewhere for great filmmakers, we've got one right here and he's one of the very best not just of our time, but ever! And that's a statement I'm not too worried about making: Even if PTA were to stop making films today, I can count on one hand the number of other filmmakers oeuvres that I would trade for Sydney, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch-Drunk Love.

Anderson for me also scores huge points for perhaps being one of the few art filmmakers out there who appears utterly human and without pretensions in real-life. Looking and listening to this skinny young dude joke about his love of Adam Sandler or Terminator 2, you'd never believe him capable of crafting films of such emotional and humanistic profoundity. I think I have a crush on Paul Thomas Anderson.

Last, and certainly not least, I caught a bit of the show Day Break tonight and got drawn in. I've resolved to download some episodes and check them out. What a great premise! I haven't made an effort to follow any non-poker TV shows since probably high school so this is a big deal for me. We'll see how this one goes, hopefully it's good.