A bright and colorful comedic kung-fu movie about a young widow who was tasked with protecting a family fortune from a greedy brother. The joke is that the young girl is treated as though she is an elderly matron as she discovers the excitement of early twentieth century China. The fights were so-so despite Gordon Liu in a wig and the “jokes” didn’t quite nail it for me.
The only reason I knew that this movie existed was a YouTube review of the soundtrack by Sean Rowley. The music is by a group called Cat’s Eyes and it has a cool Julee Cruise vibe throughout. The film itself a slow, arty story about two women in a sort of S&M relationship. Sounds sexy right? Well, there are far more close-ups of bugs than any actual skin on the screen and I wasn’t really sure if all this was supposed to be a joke. I don’t want to sound judgmental, when someone longs to be a “human toilet” I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Sure, whatever floats your boat but all I know is that I don’t want them preparing any meals for me.
Although I was entertained for the most part, it’s hard not to see that this movie desperately wants to be a John Waters film. It (fortunately) isn’t as shocklingly gross as a Waters movie, but it also lacks a bit of the heart of Waters. These are just nasty characters with no humanity (or clothes). All the while it’s just trying oh so hard to be a cult film. Still, it’s quite funny in the exploitative way of a Tim & Eric sketch.
This was my first cyberpunk novel (if you don’t count getting stuck in Neuromancer on the IIgs). I thought it was pretty good but the middle of the book is bogged down explaining the main motivation of the bad guys via an overly long dive into Sumerian history and biblical references that would make John Galt complain about the length.
Another big book about risk from Taleb filled with math, anecdotes, history and Fat Tony. This time it’s all in service of his idea of anti-fragility: systems that are improved by stress and disorder. Again, there’s a lot in this book that is over my head but I found myself highlighting and picking up quite a bit. He would argue that reading (and re-reading) difficult books increases one’s anti-fragility and makes you better. So there.
This is hardly the most memorable Morricone soundtrack. It’s a bit repetitive and lacking in hooks, but it provides a decent bed of loungey background music if you don’t want to be distracted by it while you work.
The opening title track is a dull, schmaltzy pop song, but once you’re past that it ramps up into a tense, Morricone thriller vibe. Lot’s of swooshy electronic noises that sound like someone’s racing slot cars in the studio.
A good premise that sorta spoils itself by being a pseudo sequel to Cloverfield. A least there is no shaky-cam.
Although billed as a thriller, this is just art film garbage. I guess the point is to show of awful and cutthroat the world of high fashion modeling is? Meh. It’s pretty and every frame is a visual treat but the wooden acting and dumb story keep this from being anything but mediocre.
I know I say this about every Morricone record I own, but seriously, this is one of his absolute best scores. Certainly it’s the best of his late 60’s easy listening pop soundtracks. There’s just a great mix of styles that all work together from bossa nova, to lush orchestrations, to a trippy sitar track and, of course, Edda Dell’Orso.