Roku Picks of the Week

Worthwhile viewing available instantly on Netflix.

Party Down: Season 2

Looks like episodes are being added a week after they premiere on Starz. Funniest comedy on TV.

Roku Picks of the Week

Worthwhile viewing available instantly on Netflix.

Smart Sci-fi Edition

Most movies labelled as science fiction are really futuristic action movies. The movies below are all about ideas and characters. All were relatively low budget.

Moon

Made a lot of critic's top ten lists for 2009. Can't say enough good things about Sam Rockwell's performance.

Donnie Darko

Hasn't aged as well as I'd hoped, but manages to create a world that feels like 1988 (a bland year which shouldn't have a "feel"). The sound track of this movie is very effective.

A Scanner Darkly
Linklater's adaption of Philip K. Dick's paranoia classic is more drug movie than sci-fi. Worth watching to see trippy, roto-scoped Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey Jr.

Primer

Shot in Dallas, spare in both length and story, this movie was made for only $7000.

Roku Picks of the Week

Worthwhile viewing available instantly on Netflix.

Lost in La Mancha
This documentary chronicles Terry Gilliam's failed attempt to film an adaptation of Don Quixote with Johnny Depp. All the more fascinating, now that Gilliam is trying to do it again, over a decade later, this time with Robert Duvall. One of the best documentaries ever about film-making.

The Salton Sea

Loved this tweeker-noir movie when I saw it in the theater and revisited it as a counterpoint to my current obsession with the excellent, similarly methamphetamine-themed Breaking Bad. Seemed a tad contrived on second viewing, but still worth watching for all the character actors in bizarre roles.

Non Sequiturs - March 2010

Antonyms

1. The opposite of "bathtub meth" is "toilet tank hydroponics".
   
2. The opposite of "tweezer" is "facial crescent wrench".
3. The opposite of "cotillion" is "South by Southwest".
4. The opposite of "South by Southwest heebie geebies" is "ACL Festival anticipation".
   
5. The opposite of "nostalgia" is "meta".

This Was Said©

Perfectly sensible sentences uttered by me, now stripped of all context.

1. You're like my sense of humor's consigliere.
2. My dating method? I just go out in public a bunch, then incessantly check Shot in the Dark / Missed Connections personal ads.
   
3. Yeah, that's my brand of charm. Suave quirkiness.
4. People listen to him. Guy's got aphorisms.
   
5. No, I don't want to see Stomp. It's just youths in loose clothing, trying to percuss the mundane.

Classic Grifts©
A public service to raise awareness of notable cons, flimflams, swindles, and cheats.

1. Solipsistic One-card Monte
2. Duodenum for a Day
3. Tall Shorty-Pants and the Less than Flattering Kerchief
   
4. Top Shelf Boozahol with Bottom Shelf Company