Grosse Pointe Blank

By AllPosters.com, film is copyright 1997 by Hollywood Pictures, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13679554

The squad from High Fidelity are at it again? in what is the kinda prequel, in a meta production sense, and a really great movie in my eyes. It makes me feel good. The cast really brings it, the movie is fun, and I think it set up some conventions or archetypes that carried forward into movies we see today (I think, at any rate).

This is the first time I actually make something that sounds like it’s in car so if you’re in a car it’s double messed up. A bold strategy, Cotton. I didn’t talk about the action at all. I realize that. The action isn’t huge but it’s good. They’ve got Cusack doing the most he possibly can which might have actually been all of it (I can’t remember at the moment–it’s been absolutely nuts this entire past month and the month before). Makes it feel good. It’s not too serious, not too goofy. Groundedly whimsical.

There’s a lot of daytime in this movie. I think they intentionally wanted it to feel more like a high school reunion movie that has an assassin in it than an assassin movie taking place at a high school reunion. The big action scene is set in the middle of the day. It’s cool. It really genuinely is.

If I had to choose a favorite little shot I would choose the one set in Debi’s bedroom when Martin is leaving. She tells him “you’re a fucking psy-cho” and does like a hand talking thing. That was an improvised gesture–she previously saw John and Joan doing that to each other between setups. That’s one great part but the opposite shot, John’s kinda manic wild “don’t rush to judgement on something like that” is just very unique and fits perfectly. Unhinged but just under the surface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgGTP5Cevrs – (2948) Benny “The Jet” Urquidez • Highlight – YouTube

“Cool Rock”, “Blue Ska”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

I love the movie. It’s worth a look. A lot of nostalgia for this one. Check it out. I’m @coolmarkd on twitter for as long as it lasts.

High Fidelity

Top 5 hackiest tropes in media analysis and presentation:
* Cribbing aspects of the media itself
* Talking about how you can do a thing but haven’t and then, in the edit, do the thing.
* Not actually organizing thoughts into coherent and structured form
* Being late and making it rushed
* Starting a Top 5 list and then running out of things so you have filler

Yeah, I’m Mark and this is 2000’s High Fidelity. Let’s get this Hamletesque Annie Hall-like romcom on the road. To be fair the Annie Hall comparison brings a lot of baggage with it that is undeserved. But it’s more the deconstruction from a male-centric point of view that I mean. And also the main character slowly losing their mind. The Hamlet link is a reach–I just like alluding to it. Makes me feel like I learned something in school.

I feel like I really had Things To Say here but this month has been absolutely destructive to me. No thoughts head empty. So I’ll leave you with it. Oh, right! I didn’t mention how “High Fidelity” is the opposite of the infidelity that occurs and how that concept is defined. I won’t though. I’m exhausted.

Smooth Lovin’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

If you want to reach me, I’m @coolmarkd on Twitter.

I.Q.

What could go wrong when you convince a mathematician at a prestigious university that you’re a genius, with the help of geniuses, just to go on a date with her? Not much, right? Right. This is I.Q. and, when I write it out this way, it seems wild.

It is wild. Leave your practical brain at home and enjoy the performances, Matthau especially, and conceits of this movie as they come. Do your thing. Odds are you haven’t seen and cannot easily see this movie anyway, so stay a while–and listen.

@coolmarkd

I want to point out that Princeton at this point in time was an absolute pop off of technology and research. I don’t remember placing the exact year that this movie was set in (nor do I think that it particularly matters–it’s roughly mid 50’s) but at Princeton you could have run into John von Neumann who is, arguably, more important than Albert Einstein in a lot of ways. Check him out if you get a chance. This man’s biography is where I learned that I do not like reading the biographies of people wildly more interesting than I am.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann