Well, for one, I'm tired of seeing his "Obey" shit everywhere. I think for me, and for the very little I know about that whole scene (due to one friend of mine in the community, and from the other street artists featured in the film), it's all about stealth. It's all about getting in and out, making your mark, and causing people to talk and speculate. Now I realize this is America, and if you find something that works, well I can see how that might be a thing you'd want to pursue, just to get some sort of financial security. But the street art itself is about being stealthy, and here's Shepard Fairey posing for pictures and taking the Frenchman out on bombings. Most everyone else had pixelated faces, and wanted to maintain their anonymity. I don't begrudge Shepard his success; I just don't like his style nor his attitude given the genre he claims to be part. And yes, I realize most artists are narcissistic, but there are, on occasion, some very humble ones. Maybe those are the ones who don't make a ton of money off their art. (btw, this is why I recommended the movie "Style Wars" too, which discusses the writers in NYC in the early 80s. Again, it's all about getting in and getting out, and they weren't doing it for money; they were doing it so that they could say they did it, and they could see the evidence of it on the trains that rolled past.)

As for Banksy, I've often thought that he's got minions around the world who do the work FOR him. It wouldn't be that far removed from what Warhol did, and even a little genius in itself. And yes, I'd wonder if the guy featured in the film is really Banksy too. As for the money earned, I'm just supposing he keeps money available for his travel, supplies and equipment (can't speak on the elephant). I don't imagine Banksy living some lavish lifestyle; I just don't think that's part of what or who he is. I could very much be wrong, and am open to that possibility.

Basquiat. There's a name I haven't heard in a while. Wasn't there an awful movie about him and Warhol a few years ago? thanks for the book rec, I'll check it out.

Started "Broken Embraces" last night, but fell asleep before it was over. Time to brew up the coffee and finish it. So far, so good; the movie didn't bore me, I was just physically wiped last night.

The Road -- After anticipating this movie for two years, I got it from Netflix yesterday. After 15 minutes, I had to turn it off. Possibly the worst voice-over narration I have ever heard. Completely unnecessary. The actor who plays the boy is about 3 years too old. It captures the look of the movie, but that is about it. I'll probably finish it tonight but I don't imagine that I will be able to avoid crushing disappointment.

d's...points well taken.

so many artists have assistants doing their work while they supervise.
in many cases the work would never be completed without them but there are still cases where it still feels wrong. but then, who's to say what is "wrong" in art. someone seals herself behind drywall in a gallery and eats her way out. how does this warrant a two week show?

i loved banksy's comment at the end about helping people but the best was his associate's comment about the "joke". that summed it all up for me.

on another note, broken embraces was wonderful but then i'm a freak for anything almodovar.

not fer nuthin' but banksy's work has been auctioned off at sotheby's.

Finally got around to watching Crazy Heart last night.

It was ok. I gave it 3 stars out of 5 on my netflix ranking. The fact that this was supposed to go straight-to-video says something about what you're getting into. First, Bridges was great, and like many-a-reviewers have pontificated previously, if it wasn't for him, and the great soundtrack, the film would've been horrible. I wasn't a fan of The Wrestler, so likening this to that didn't sweeten the pot either. Though, I could see the blaringly obvious parallels (like that was a new plot device...).

Maybe I'm being too rough on it, and expected more. I can't really say what I expected out of it, but do think its a crime that this--of all films he's done--is the one that finally gets Jeff Bridges his Oscar. To me, that's a crime. A crime because this film will essentially live on past its due date because its got an asterisk next to its name for an Oscar won. When so many of his films will inevitably be dropped from circulation, this one will continue. It happens a lot, and maybe I'm taking that out on this film unjustly, but its part of the problem.

One positive note, due to the soundtrack I sought out Ryan Bingham, who I've never really been interested in. I downloaded "Mescalito" and really look forward to checking it out.

I agree Rabbit, you're being too rough on it.

Fortunately, it DID have Jeff Bridges and it DID have the soundtrack and it entertained me.

There's a reason that, in a year with 10 Best Picture nomitions, it wasn't up for it.

Scott Walker: 30 Century Man. i've never been a huge fan of scott walker's, though i've appreciated what i've known of him. i watched this on a whim and was amazed. i really enjoyed the way this was laid out, too - first third on his career up through scott 4, next third on his years until tilt including about ten minutes of other musicians simply listening to and commenting on his music, then the remaining third basically on tilt, the drift and a summation. now i figure i might as well dive into his discography, considering the people who gushed over it. when brian eno is saying that music hasn't progressed since something walker did in the late 70s or when classical composers are flummoxed over how he got a particular sound, listeners without their ears should probably take that as a cue that something amazing is happening in those recordings.

MacGruber. this is one of the dumbest movies i've ever seen. it's also hilarious. no, the idea of a 30-second SNL sketch turned into a feature-length movie did not make me rush to the theater, but the mild raves did. and i totally understand why people are saying what they are. it's a perfectly acceptable matinee: incredibly dumb with lots of laughs. also, val kilmer's pretty underrated as a comedic actor.

Shrek Forever After
Maybe a little oversentimental, with a heavy-handed moral. (You never know what you have until it's gone.) But still well-done with some very funny moments. I did enjoy it and, cheeseball that I am, I even got a little misty-eyed toward the end. Damnit. Well worth taking the kids to see. But if you don't have kids in the 4 to 10 year range, it's probably not worth your while or your money. And the 3D was very good, and (unlike the sentimentality) NOT done with a heavy hand; just added a lot to the look of an already great-looking movie.

Hm. Sounds like MacGruber may be a definite rental after all.

Took in a handful of movies over the long weekend:

Where the Wild Things Are. I was talking to a friend about this yesterday after having watched it Saturday night. He told me he had it in his Netflix queue, and I told him he should take it out and not even bother watching it. That's how worthless I thought it was. Not even worth seeing. I'm sure a lot's been written about problems with the "story" implemented to fill in the gaps created from making a short children's picture book into a 100-minute feature film, but I really thought it was exceedingly dull. Yes, I understood the obvious symbolism and that the childish, dysfunctional monsters weren't simply that but were representations of Max's own psyche and his relationships with others. I just don't find a child's struggle to come to terms with those things to be all that interesting or satisfying. Visually, the movie was great, but that just wasn't enough to save it, especially when I felt like they left out what could been one of the coolest scenes taken from the book - the jungle growing in Max's room. I suppose it was probably pretty problematic figuring out how to work that out with the expanded storyline (having Max run away and then come back probably worked better dramatically than having it all happen in his room), but I was still disappointed not to see it.

Iron Man 2. Fun popcorn/big screen movie. One of the few times we've gotten out to a theater since the baby was born, and I feel like this was a good choice. Of course there are better movies out there - not many mainstream flicks, though - but this is exactly the kind of theater spectacle and escape that I'm generally in the mood for these days when going out to see a movie. The other stuff we can rent. Anyway, I really like the cast in this franchise, and that's what really made this movie work. It was definitely a step down from the previous movie, but there were some improvements, too. Don Cheadle was good - possibly better than Terrence Howard who he replaced - and Sam Rockwell actually made a better sleazy villain than Jeff Bridges did, I thought, as did Mickey Rourke. Seeing more Samuel Jackson was cool, but the weak link was Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow. To me, perfect casting for that part would have been Milla Jovovich, someone older with a more sleek/athletic physique. Johansson's action sequences were among the silliest in the whole movie, and there were plenty of silly parts. I think Favreau does a far better job of the more character-centered scenes (where the actors are really able to shine) than he does on the action sequences, but so far he's still on track to make this the second-best superhero movie franchise right now next to Nolan's Batman.

Precious. This was far darker and more disturbing than I expected, but I really knew nothing at all about it going in. Still not really sure how I felt about it, but it'd be hard to say I liked it. It was just too much. I was a tad bothered, too, by the fact that the only positive male presence in the whole film is a meek male nurse (played by Lenny Kravitz). No coincidence there, I think.

The Blind Side. Some interesting parallels between this and Precious given that they both end up heading in opposite directions. Also interesting that of the two, this feel good Hollywood flick is the one based on a true story while Precious is a wholly concocted (although, I'm sure, based on various real events and real people) work of fiction. Michael Oher may never have really been the gentle giant he's portrayed as here, but, as manipulative as this obviously was, it was still hard not to be moved by it. I liked it, honestly, and it worked wonderfully as an antidote to the journey through the muck that was Precious.

Somewhere buried in this thread is my take on this and it looks similar to yours. Just a raw, visceral watch that left you with zero redemption even despite her getting her life together. Just brutal. I do like art to illuminate at times no matter the subject but christ was this just a total bummer.

Monique's performance is Oscar worthy but I have no desire to see this ever again.

That big, violent fight with her mom was pretty incredible, though, I'll give it that.

Get ready to be mind-numbingly bored.

Really? That's a bummer. I got the PJ Philly boxset this weekend, so I was overwhelmed, and didn't get to check out Mescalito. Sad to hear that.

This weekend, I'm planning to see both Splice & Get Him to the Greek. Hopefully, that will help cheer me up after what has been a horrible week (moving truck was supposed to load in Arkansas on Tuesday and be here by Friday... instead, due to delays and an accident, the truck won't even load until Saturday morning - meaning by the time I see my wife and kids again, it will have been almost a month since I've seen them).

GHTTG looks close to awesome, while Splice looks all kinds of horrible & beautiful, so I will see both.

For Adrien Brody-starring popcorn movies, though, I am really looking forward to Predators. But, then, I am a sucker for Nimrod Antal (Kontroll & Vacancy were a bit better than Armoured, all the same). Plus, Alice Braga.

Fuck, & yes, to Ms Underpant. (Since Bragas means Panties in Spanish.)

probably gonna see both of those too this w/e but i'll sneak into one.

Hmmmm, perhaps I should do this as well. You are a bad influence!!!

I would like to see Get Him to the Greek as well. I have a newly developed crush on Jonah Hill.

Toy Story 3. pixar has come a long way since toy story 2 over ten years ago. they've branched out from animated movies that were far more geared toward children than adults. now the pendulum has kinda shifted with wall e and especially up. every movie they've done has pushed another level in animation and storytelling. but toy story 3 is back to being a kid's movie. i didn't feel like i was seeing anything that pixar hasn't done before. however, that being said, this is really good. it's funnier than i'd expected and the plot moves at a good pace. some of the new characters are developed really well, too. this is basically a jailbreak movie, so it has numerous references to prison movies. (my favorite was stolen from cool hand luke.) the ending is pretty sappy, seeing as how it appears they're wrapping up this series, but they pull it off in style. highly recommended.

Can't wait to see that.

Saw Crazy Heart over the weekend. Decent flick. Kinda soft and forgettable, but I enjoyed it for the most part.

The Karate Kid
Good enough for what it is. But if you don't have kids 8-12, don't bother.
Jaden Smith has some talent, but he mostly just mugs for the camera, tries to dance, act tough, and be cute. The one surprise in this one is Jackie Chan actually flashing a few acting chops. I didn't think that he had it in him, but he was surprisingly effective. Not that he is threatening to grab an Oscar or anything, but he was actually acting. And he was good.

Karate is no longer good enough for the Karate Kid. He must now learn kung-fu.

But you can't name a movie Kung-Fu Kid. That would be impossible.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. somehow i'd never seen this before. i caught it on encore westerns over the weekend and really enjoyed it. well, let me rephrase that. i enjoyed it exactly for what it is. some of the historical inaccuracies bothered me, but it's all for dramatic license, right? and aside from something like blazing saddles, it's easily the funniest western i've ever seen ("who are those guys?"). good stuff.

Spirited Away. this came to me backed with a lot of hype and failed to spark much interest. 40 minutes into it i was opening mail. as always with miyazaki, it looked wonderful. but the story didn't do much for me at all, unfortunately.

Alice in Wonderland. The Tim Burton one. This wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be, and in many ways was actually pretty good. It had a lot of problems and was way too CG-saturated (I'd say about 80% of it was CG), but I think it was probably the best Burton movie I've seen since Big Fish. (I know that sets the bar kind of low.) I liked Helena Bonham Carter has the Red Queen, and somehow, Johnny Depp playing a loony in a Tim Burton movie again wasn't unbearable. Maybe it helped that the Mad Hatter get-up made Depp nearly unrecognizable and that he wasn't in at least half of the movie. There were a lot of things in it that didn't work or didn't quite work (Crispin Clover, Ann Hathaway), and the ending/updated version of the plot was kind of weak. There were some great character and set designs and some really weak/awkward ones. But somehow, overall, it didn't have that oppressive, Tim Burton cartoon-goth feel to it, and it managed to be entertaining. I probably wouldn't watch it again and wouldn't recommend that anyone go out of their way to see it, but it's probably worth a Red Box rental or something.

Couldn't have described it better myself.