Too cool for Tokyo

Frozen was compelling and kept me awake through the night while I was feeling sick. Still, it joins the company of other films in which I imagine my own ending to replace the film's ending. In my version, the girl remains stuck under the fallen ski lift. The camera holds on the shot of her trapped foot while the rest of her body is off-frame. On the soundtrack, we hear wolves approach and the girl scream. The same shot is then held for the next ten minutes as we hear wolves making eating noises and occasionally glimpse part of a wolf in the frame. After ten minutes, a sharp cut to black with the white words, FROZEN. Roll credits.

We've finally gotten back to Smallville and have begun season 2.
Vortex - decent conclusion to the season 1 finale and start to season 2. Continues the lame cheat of an idea that anyone unfriendly who learns Clark's secret MUST DIE!!!
Heat - silly puberty episode.
Duplicity - real progress here. Pete discovering Clark's secret allows for new plot developments.
Red - just a fun episode. Abby nailed things by commenting something like "Red K Clark is even dorkier than normal Clark."

I watched American Masters: Jeff Bridges. A bit of a lovefest, but alright. Bridges is a great actor and deserves the recognition and praise.

I finally watched Lost in Translation.

Lost in Translation opens with a close-up of Scarlett Johansson's rear end resting on a bed. The last shot of her character features her walking toward the camera. Her head bobs happily out of the bottom frame to that most triumphal anthem: "Just Like Honey." Progress, right?

Really, the film is not much more than this generation's An Extramarital Affair to Remember. Coppola dishes up a heaping large plate of traditional Hollywood adulterous romanticism with a quirky hipster twist. I lose patience quickly with this sort of thing.

[side note: I know that Brandon is sick of the word "hipster." For the record, my use of the word hipster here is not necessarily as a pejorative. I simply use it to describe anyone who would end their film with a Jesus and Mary Chain song. The "too cool for school" mentality is also written deep into the warp and woof of this film and is one of the problems of our heroine. Also, for the record (who is keeping track of these pronouncements?), Automatic was one of my favorite albums when I was young (my older sister was and is ten years older than me. I was listening to Jesus and Mary Chain when I was ten in 1989 because I had to be cool like her). The J+MC version of Head On is still one of my favorite songs. I understand hipsters and embrace hipsterism (ironically, of course) because I'm not too hip to disdain the label hipster. I'm just hip enough to keep on using the word. The word hipster has become so uncool that it's cool again. I am hipster, hear me proclaim my movie nerd opinions.]

I know that Ben and Brandon both love this ridiculously overrated movie. What saith Jason?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGp47YwDZ48