her blog

the shamptons love amy heckerling. clueless is one of those movies that neither of us can resist if its on, despite the fact that we own it. shawn can actually do a pretty good cher impression. alicia silverstone cracks us up. (note to self: write a post about funny blondes.) so, we were pretty excited when we heard amy heckerling was making a movie with alicia and krysten ritter.

imagine sex and the city with vampires. yep. seems like a terrible idea. its ridiculous (12 step style meetings for vampires, a frat boy renfield). has an jam packed cast (malcolm mcdowell, justin kirk, sigourney weaver, richard lewis, wallace shawn) and we loved every silly minute. i highly recommend forking over the $7 onDemand. 

i love mike birbiglia. he makes me laugh and breaks my heart and makes me cringe so hard sometimes i see stars. 

saturday night we watched sleepwalk with me. if its playing in your city, GO! if not, see if you can order it on demand. seriously. 

i noticed the artist was plating at the bagdad theater this weekend. i really wanted to see it, we love the bagdad and it seemed like it would be a fun thing to do with shawn's mom. so, we went tonight. first off, i'm certain the bagdad was the perfect place to see this movie - an old movie palace for an old-fashioned movie about movies. beyond that, there's nothing about it i didn't love. there was tap-dancing and john goodman and a cute dog and hats! oh and did i mention the tap dancing? well, there was tap dancing.

this afternoon wil wheaton tweeted a link to this story and to this blog post. i listened, read and knew that i was going to need to watch stand by me tonight. i'd caught bits and pieces of it recently but i hadn't actually watched the entire movie in years. and so i did.

i forgot. i really did. i forgot how magical that movie is. first of all, how can this movie be 25 years old when it made me feel like i was 11 again. i remembered sitting with my best friend marni, underneath the giant oak tree at our elementary school arguing over who was cuter, wil wheaton or river phoenix. we had bought tickets to another movie and snuck in to see stand by me since it was rated R. it was awesome.

it was the summer before everything changed. our elementary school fed into two jr. high schools and this was our last school year all together. marni & i would do to the same school but many of our friends wouldn't. there would also be a ton of new kids in jr. high. things started to get complicated, the way they do. so that summer was it for us. there were no dead bodies but we rode our bikes for miles and miles, we got into a fair amount of trouble, we ate nothing but candy, listened to music and we talked for hours and hours. replace these boys with girls and you've got it.

a magic movie. really and truly. its sad and beautiful and hilarious. it captures those moments, those very last moments of childhood perfectly. 

incidentally, river phoenix breaks my heart now but wil wheaton is still cuter. then again, i always did like the smart boys.

mystery tiger by pearson maron

its been awhile but sometimes i like to watch movies that scare the crap out of me. and then i like to write about those movies. i did that tonight. read all about it here.

i know, i know. i seem to be in the minority here but i LOVED alice. i liked that alice was an adult. i liked that it was kind of dark. and i loved looking at it. it was lacking in some areas but i was giddy with ideas after watching it. the costumes, oh the costumes. and the giant toadstools. and the enormous fiddleheads. oh, i loved it so. 

and i think i'm finally going to make myself this skirt, which i've been obsessed with for months since i first saw this photo. i even already have the gazillion yards of ric rac, waiting to be hand dyed.
 

and the latest update in my 31 horror movie in 31 days festival:

1. dark hours - interesting. and yes. i mean that in the passive agressive not so much kind of way.
2. living death - kristy swanson's best work since buffy. that's not saying much.
3. shallow ground - i'm not sure what happened here. naked killer boy with oozing blood and bodily fluid that infects everyone it touches. ew. and yeah, not so much.
4. eden lake - brutal. upsetting. glad i watched it in broad daylight.
5. it - not sure what possessed me. i am terrified of clowns and pennywise is terrifying. like every other stephen king though the ending completely craps out and takes the terror away.*
6. drive thru - another clown movie. and unlike it, the clown isn't at all scary AND the movie was totally satisfying.
7. dorm of the dead - what can i say about this movie? well, i'm fairly certain that everyone on a porn set decided they were bored with porn and wanted to try their hand at gore. bad acting. bad sets. bad clothes. bad sound. bad editing. bad sex. bad bad bad.
8. when a stranger calls - how have i not seen this? carol kane in a horror movie? thumbs up.
9. arang - same old asian formula. long inky black haired ghost, atmospheric tension, water. i enjoyed it though - it was amazing to look at.
10. return to sleepaway camp - ridiculous. kind of fun. and a boom mic oops toward the end. who can ask for anything more?

* doesn't count toward the total because i've already seen it.

total so far = 28 movies, 22 i haven't seen

we went to see where the wild things are tonight. it was incredibly beautiful and dark and complicated. its definitely not suitable for all kids to see. there were some things that were rough to process as an adult so i can't really imagine how kids would handle it. i'm actually still processing. overall though, thumbs up.