Kung Fu Panda

I watched Kung Fu Panda tonight on a friend's recommendation and have to say I really loved it. The colors and Chinese motif were beautiful, the animation was breathtaking at moments.

It's weird, it has all this Buddhist philosophy throughout; I mean, it's pretty explicit. Do kids get that stuff these days? It's surprisingly sophisticated if you ask me.

The plot, however, wasn't. It was fairly typical, although there were some emotional moments. I loved the wise old turtle the best; I loved looking at his neck. And I loved the chubby bear portrayed as an emotional over-eater.

I love bears, but not panda's. The markings around their eyes freak me out and remind me too much of raccoons, which I hate.

Angelina Jolie and some other famous actors did the voice work. I don't get that. Her character was pretty thin and not too important. Why have a big star do that? There's nothing distinctive about her voice. And you don't get to see her face, which is her big draw.

Gary Gulman at Gotham Comedy Club

Last night a friend and I went to a comedy club and had so much fun. The headline act was Gary Gulman, whom I had never heard of, but who was so charismatic and funny. The other acts were great too. The evening was hosted by a woman who had a whiny good-naturedness to her that I found very entertaining. She made a lot of jokes about having small children. Then there was a guy who I don't remember as well. He was quite funny, but his personality didn't quite emerge in the same way. Oh, he did make some good comments about what kind of people would never become president (openly homo or midgets). Then a superbly funny geeky guy with an undercurrent of hostility. Finally, Gary Gulman, who as I said was really charming.

I think I like comics best when you can warm up to their persona. Like when you enjoy watching and listening to them even when they are not laugh-out-loud funny. When they are taking their time setting up their jokes. Also, there is a kind of brilliant, incisive humor that can be very mean-spirited, which often makes me uncomfortable even as I am laughing. Last night wasn't mean-spirited at all, and I had a wonderful time.

Sidewalks of New York

I watched Sidewalks of New York last weekend but forgot to post about it. It's really crap. Pretentious crap. Adopting a cinema verite style that made no logical sense, it follows a bunch of intertwined New Yorkers and explores their romantic relationships. It's very nothingish but tries to be deep and funny and it's just crap. I hated it.

Brittany Murphy is in it and I love her and enjoyed watching her.

Gypsy

I saw a matinee of Gypsy yesterday with my mother. Patti Lupone. She was amazing, but kind of underwhelming; her voice isn't as layered and lovely as it once was. But it was incredible, incredible performance.

Gypsy seems unique for a musical in that it is psychology complex, about unhappy, unsatisfied, dysfunctional relationships. In fact, much of the humorous moments or gags left me cold, seemed to be getting away from what is so gripping in the story. I felt that Patti Lupone's Rose could have been slightly more unlikeable or something. Even though Louise kind of triumphed, Rose basically ruined her daughters. But I didn't feel pulled into the melodrama, felt distracted by the musical numbers and the hamming. Also, the sound quality was off -- it was kind of hard to hear a lot of the lines.

Helpless

I just finished reading this engrossing novel, Helpless by Barbara Gowdy, about a girl who is abducted. The novel explores the subjectivities of many of the characters and is well written and sensitive. I particularly liked the girlfriend of the abductor. However, the end was abrupt and seemed like a cop out.

Winged Migration

Winged Migration wasn't easy for me to get into from my desktop. I think it would be better as a captive audience with the big screen. However, I'm really, really glad I watched it. It is incredibly beautiful, amazingly filmed. It follows all these different flocks of migrating birds and provides very little narration. You are just watching birds fly. And it's incredible. They are so fascinating and intense. The cinematography was really awe-inspiring. No special effects were used and the whole thing seemed kind of fake because it was so other-worldly and surreal. There were some sad narrative moments, too, when birds got caught in sludge or were shot down by hunters.

In a way I would have liked more narration, because I know so little about birds and am now fascinated by them and want to know more. At least about geese and pelicans and penguins and cranes. I don't give a rats ass about pigeons. Sorry, but I just don't.

Fun Home

I started Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel on the subway on my way to work this morning and could not put it down all day. I had a two hour break between presentations where I sat in a Starbucks completely absorbed in it. Then I spent another couple of hours with it on my couch.

It's a graphic novel memoir about a woman's strange family life. He father ran a funeral home and was a closeted homosexual. The story is very much about the pall that his shame and unhappiness cast on his family. The way they lived with something that was never said or understood but that which effected them all very much. It's also about how the daughter reconstructs her own and her family's past, how she begins to understand her anxieties and her relationships with her parents. It is interspersed with the unfolding of her own gay sexuality as well as her and her family's reading of literature. Joyce, Collette, Fitzgerald and Camus are very much entwined in the story. I thought it was excellent. It was incredibly sweet, and creepy, and fascinating, and moving.