recent tracks:

Of Movies

Leon (The Professional):
****
Joins my top ten list. A sweet movie about an abused 12 year old girl whose family is murdered at the hands of a corrupt DEA official. The eponymous Leon is the hitman next door. He is a consummate professional whose primary loves outside of work are his houseplant and milk. At the orphaned Matilda's urging, Leon takes her and trains her to be a hitperson so she can exact revenge on the man who killed her family. There are as many heartwarming moments as there are deaths, and the characters of Leon and Matilda drive the plot (which otherwise had the potential to produce a run-of-the-mill action film). You know how I love character-driven films.

Tarnation
**
Speaking of character driven, great merciful heaven am I ever glad not to have been raised in Jonathan's family. Jonathan had a pretty messed up early childhood with a pretty messed up mother and ended up raised by his grandparents. He grows up a very openly gay aspiring actor somewhere near Houston, Texas. Surprisingly, though, given his focus on the issue throughout the cinematic memoir of Tarnation, Jonathan's sexuality turns out to be cast in a distinctly supporting role. The main billing is instead a catalogue of Jonathan's and his family's mental and emotional disorders and the ways in which they ebb and flow over time. As such, Tarnation is quite interesting albeit painful. The movie fails somewhat, though, upon reflecting on the product as a whole. Jonathan is just a bit obsessed with Jonathan, and although his story is an interesting one, at some point you begin to feel as though you're being held captive by a ranting bore at a dinner party hosted by your friend Aloysius's great aunt Edna--and Aloysius won't even come over and rescue you. Some friend he's turned out to be.

Otherwise:
In attempting to fall asleep for a while last night, I ended up compiling a list of the top ten concerts I've attended, then considering what lucky star I must live under that it is actually difficult to whittle the list of contenders down to ten. Then I decided to provide top ten lists of movies, books, and either songs or albums--so look out for those in the coming days!

Now I'm going to go home and do work. I'll probably also compile yet another list of people I need to get in contact with--last night, lying awake, I came up with quite a few of you, too.