For a guy who claims not to like Christmas very much, I sure do buy a lot of Christmas-themed comic books.

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102/2413. Targets (1968)
Peter Bogdanovich eventually became something of a punching bag for being such a prima dona auteur writer/director — for example, see the character of the pompous director in Burt Reynold's Hooper — but his early movies have stood the test of time remarkably well, even this, his first (for Roger Corman). Largely based on the then-shocking 1966 University of Texas tower shooter, this story of a mentally-ill man who just starts shooting people in a drive-in movie theater could be a below-the-fold newspaper headline today (minus the "drive-in" part, and, well, assuming anyone reads their news on paper anymore). The director does a great job of overcoming the limitations of a low budget to deliver some very effective storytelling. Kudos.

103/2414. Lincoln (2012)
On the other end of the budget spectrum, Steven Spielberg just cannot resist some of his sentimentalist tricks in what really should be a much drier portrait of a man willing to stoop low while doing the best he can to improve American society despite its worst urges. It's a great story, but there's no compelling reason it shouldn't have ended at the amendment's passage instead of watching the great man die. (Not knowing when to end a movie is a recurring problem for Spielberg. See Schindler's List or A.I. Artificial Intelligence among many others.)

104/2415. Lawyer Man (1932)
William Powell stars in a morality tale about a well-intentioned man from the streets taking a great fall because of his tragic flaw: loose women. The charismatic Powell and equally charismatic co-star Joan Blondell are handcuffed by a script featuring the broadest of caricatures. (Powell plays this same character archetype much better the following year in Manhattan Melodrama and Blondell defines the comedic suffering secretary in 1933's Footlight Parade, a personal favorite.) Oh, well. They can't all be classics.

105/2416. Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Maybe they can't all be classics, but this one can. To borrow a quote from Griffin Mill, the protagonist of The Player, "Great movie, huh?" I'd always heard this called The Bicycle Thief (which is what they call it in The Player), but I agree that the more literal translation of the original Italian title (Ladri di biciclette) is really more appropriate to the plot and darkly cynical theme of a man in danger of becoming what he hates. It truly is deserving of its sterling reputation.

106/2417. Synecdoche, New York (2008)
There's a key scene in 1977's The Mouse and His Child (which I watched way too young) in which the title pair are trapped in the bottom of a pond and find a can of Bonzo's dog food with a label that depicts itself inside a label that depicts itself et cetera ad infinitum (aka the Droste Effect). You know the scene. And that is what Scynecdohe, New York is: a movie's (or, as the case may be, a play's) depiction of an infinite recursion of the reality occupied (created?) by one navel-gazing playwright incapable (unwilling?) of getting out of his own head. Equal parts hysterical and depressing, it's brilliant (and occasionally frustratingly opaque) filmmaking from the unique voice of writer/director, Charlie Kaufman.

More to come.

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I was reading in today's newspaper about how those two astronauts that Boeing stranded on the ISS were passing the time after their one-week trip became an eight-month stay, and I made a joke to myself about how this was a good opportunity for a Gilligan's Island reboot where the hapless astronaut castaways keep getting unwanted visits from astronauts on nearby satellites, exiled dictators, rock groups hiding from groupies, and li'l Kurt Russell.

And then the voice in the back of my head reminded me that it's already been done. With Gilligan himself (and Chuck McCann).

Sid and Marty Kroftf's Far Out Space Nuts

Who says they don't make 'em like they used to?

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We asked Audrey what she wanted for her birthday, and of course she said, "Food!" So Mom baked her a cake.

Much to Audrey's disappointment, we did not let her eat it all at once.

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Istanbul

Is this my favorite They Might Be Giants song? No. That changes on a daily basis. But it's always up there.

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