No Country for Old Men (2007): Netflixin 5/15/08

• Why I rented it: Lots of background static about this one a while back. Won the Oscar for Best Picture, so people I may or may not agree with think it's good. Raising Arizona (by the same guys) is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen.
• Verdict: 8.5 / 10. It's always fun to listen to extended philosophical dialogue sequences between rednecks with ridiculous accents who use words like "linear" and "immobile" as much as they use double negatives and psychopaths with existential streaks who operate like Terminators. This movie is also dang depressing and nihilistic. It sticks in your head. That's a good movie to me.

I Am Not Making This Stuff Up

SETTING: An idyllic workshop, the early days of Spring.

Wisps of fine birch sawdust twitter ephemerally in the late afternoon breeze. In the background plays Number Five of Brahms' Eleven Chorale Preludes for Organ (Opus 122, Schmücke dich, o Liebe Seele). A coterie of dilettantes has assembled to partake in the erudite fortnightly dispensations of our signsmith.

"Dear friends," he begins. "Thank you for accompanying me as I unveil my latest placard.

"As you may recall, during our gathering last month I waxed philosophical on Sortes Virgilanae, a sort of divinatory bibliomancy by which one endeavors to predict future events through careful study of passages of Virgil's Aeneid.

"Ah yes, Mademoiselle DuChamps. You will no doubt be pleased when I tell you that my new French translation is proceeding quite well, in spite of the intrinsic difficulties of transposing the cadence of dactylic hexameter in First Century BC Latin epic poetry onto modern Gallo-Rhaetian-derived languages.

But, as, to borrow an apellation applied to our bard by many post-Renaissance scholars, the "Swan of Mantua" himself once wrote in Book III of the Ecologues: Latet anguis in herba. A snake lurks in the grass.

"So who among you needs his or her lawn mowned?"

Ivrythang mus go!

Spotted this one while out riding yesterday:





















I don't know about you, but I'm a sucker for a closing ellipsis. It makes me tingle with anticipation.

Juno (2007): Netflixin 5/6/08

Ok, just for kicks n' giggles, I'm going to start putting blurbs about movies I get via Netflix on here. Not drawn-out critical reviews, since there are plenty of them around if you want them. No, just a sentence or two. Your humble blog author's opinions.

Ok, first one:

• Why I rented it: It played at the Kentucky Theater for weeks on end. Supposedly edgy, underground, all of that.
• Verdict: 7.5 / 10. Better than average, but probably works better as a story than as a movie. The witty repartee is amusing, but it sounds too much like what old people in MTV boardrooms think teenagers talk like. Edgy content: this movie mentions Sonic Youth and Dario Argento. Also, thick Canadian accents are fun.