Weekend Update

More Inland

Many page views this week for people checking out the Inland Empire reviews. It's cool to see the film before a lot is written about it, I'm not sure how much my thoughts will resemble the critical consesus that eventually develops, but for me, they felt right on this viewing. The film that it most reminds me of, besides Lynch's own stuff, is Mike Figgis' Hotel. Both are shot on DV and explore the line between cinema and reality. I think Inland's much better than Hotel, but if you liked it, definitely give Hotel a look. And for the curious, here's my ranking of all Lynch's films:

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Mulholland Dr.
Lost Highway
Inland Empire
Blue Velvet
Eraserhead
Dune
Wild at Heart
The Straight Story
The Elephant Man

Patti Smith

I've been listening to a lot of Patti Smith stuff to preprare for Sunday's show at CBGB's. I feel a bit bad taking a ticket since I'm not a huge fan, and don't have any particular connection to the club. However, I'm liking her stuff more and more, and I'm imagining she'll give it her all for the final show. I'm figuring it'll be at least a two hour set, probably closer to three. My favorite stuff is definitely her 70s work, Horses, Easter and Wave. But, I enjoyed 1997's Peace and Noise as well. I'm not sure where she draws most of her stuff from live, but I'd guess that she'll probably be playing more classics than she would at an average show.

Veronica Mars - 'My Big Fat Greek Rush Week' (3x02)

Mini review for the episode this week. I still find the Keith plot rather convoluted, and the difficulty of figuring out what's going on numbs any emotional impact. The problem is the Fitzpatricks were always treated as one entity, and it's difficult to follow a story that involves them doing seperate things. Veronica's plot was pretty fun, a bit of an Alias Jr. feel, and the show once again questions her moral authority. She sees the world in black and white, and that winds up causing problems when she realizes the sorority isn't all bad. I think a major arc should be really breaking Veronica down, and forcing her to confront the way she lives her life. But, the show doesn't seem to have any interest in exploring that, it comes up occasionally, but is never really developed. Also, I thought they outlawed prison experiments, but that was a pretty fun storyline. It was cool to see not only Samm Levine of Freaks and Geeks, but also Rider Strong of Boy Meets World. He was pretty good, and I could see him as a potential recurring.

I would say the episode was stronger than the first week, but there's still an issue with the fact that the show generally has a pretty light tone, but it's got to deal with this ongoing rape storyline, something you can't really quip about. More than that, I found it odd that Veronica felt so guilty about not checking in with Parker, considering there were no cries for help, what was she supposed to do, turn on the light and say "Everything going okay here?" I suppose it's more just general guilt, but still.

Studio 60 - 'The West Coast Delay' (1x04)

This was a pretty good episode, bringing back a lot of memories of Sportsnight. However, this show just embaresses Sportsnight in terms of visual scope, so I don't mind retreading stuff. I found it odd that Lucy Davis, who played Dawn in the original The Office is playing a character in the writers' room. There's nothing weird about her being on the show, but just the fact that she's such a minor character, and I hadn't heard anything about it at all. I'm hoping she'll get more material later, she's too talented an actress to waste in a really minor position.

Upcoming Dates of Note

10/14 - Marie Antoinette at NYFF
10/15 - Patti Smith at CBGB's
10/25 - Seven Soldiers #1 Released
10/27 - Babel Released
11/22 - The Fountain Released