17th Favorite Movie - City of God

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

City of God did not receive much attention when it was released in theaters in 2003, but it has picked up a following on DVD. It is currently #17 on the imdb.com Top 250 of all time, and it even spawned a television show called City of Men. I imagine there are a lot of people who would love this movie but will never see it because it is a Brazilian film in Portuguese with English subtitles. It took me a few years to convince my last roommate Brent to watch it... he kept saying he doesn't like having to "read" during movies. I think he owns a copy now.

The film is about a group of kids growing up in the slums of Rio De Janeiro surrounded by gang and drug activity. It begins when they are elementary school aged and follows them until they are in their late teenage years. Think Boyz in the Hood or Goodfellas, although even bleaker and more harrowing because of the impoverishment where they are growing up. They live in a neighborhood called called City of God, but it is about as far from paradise as you can imagine. The main character, Rocket, hopes that his passion for photography will one day provide an escape from the neverending cycle of violence which has claimed the lives of many of his friends and family.

City of God has some great names for its characters: Shaggy, Carrot, Lil' Dice... and it is broken up into chapters, each one beginning with a title such as "The Story of Knockout Ned". It was nominated for 4 Oscars in 2004 including Best Director, Best Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Writing, but was shut out in all four categories (that seems to be a reoccuring theme in this list). While it is very violent and stylized, your heart will break for these kids and you will discover that there are places other than L.A. and New York in the world with communties that are devasted by gang warfare.

18th Favorite Movie - Munich

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

Message to Bethany:

Sorry hon, the final Spielberg movie to make my list is not your childhood favorite, E.T. Nothing personal against your beloved long-necked, flashlight-fingered alien, but I've only seen E.T. once and that was when I was in the third grade. But I do want to watch it again with you sometime!


Something that my wife realized years before me is that Spielberg is a genius. I had always thought highly of Indiana Jones and Saving Private Ryan, but a couple years ago after rewatching Jaws and then seeing Munich in the theater, I realized how big of a Spielberg fan I am. I really like Duel, Close Encounters, Jurassic Park, Amistad, Minority Report, War of the Worlds... I just have such confidence in his work, when I watch one of his films I just know that I am in good hands (except for A.I., but that was probably due to Kubrick's influence on that project).

Munich, released in 2005, is about Israel's response to the 1972 hostage situation at the Olympics when 11 Israeli athletes were killed. Spielberg uses this situation to pose some serious philosophical and theological questions: when is it justifiable to take a life? Does violence just beget more violence? How does being Jewish affect the life of a soldier who is paid to assassinate people for his country, which was founded to be God's light to the nations?

The acting in this film is terrific. Eric Bana turns in his best performance to date in the lead role. Daniel Craig plays his partner and shows why he was picked to be the new James Bond. Geoffrey Rush plays his shady supervisor. I think Geoffrey Rush is a very underrated and versatile actor. This guy is hilarious as Barbosa in the Pirates movies, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1996 for Shine, and he has been nominated twice for Best Supporting Actor (Shakespeare in Love, Quills). He even provided the voice for the pelican Nigel in Finding Nemo! He should get more attention than he does.

I don't want to spoil the movie by talking about the plot much, but know that it is deep, dark, and a bit depressing. The film ends with an intense conversation between two characters in New York with the camera framing the World Trade Center in between them in the background (remember, it takes place in the 70's). The shot makes you wonder... is Spielberg suggesting that the events set into motion at the 1972 Olympics somehow led to the tragedy of 9-11? Or is he just making a general statement about the massive casualties when nations war against one another? I'm not sure, but I will always think of the last shot of this film as one of the most powerful in the history of cinema.

19th Favorite Movie - L.A. Confidential

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

This movie came out in 1997, the same year as Titanic. I remember seeing it with my dad and my brother one night after our neighborhood "Block Party" in that old-school theater in North Berkeley. I liked it the first time and grew to like it even more over the years. Had it not come out the same year that everyone went ga-ga over Titanic, it probably would have won more Academy Awards and become more well-known.

L.A. Confidential features Russel Crowe before Gladiator, Guy Pearce before Memento, and Kevin Spacey riding the wave of The Usual Suspects. I have always felt like The Usual Suspects gets a little too much attention and L.A. Confidential does not get enough. This movie had a twist I didn't see coming (The Usual Suspects' twist is obvious if you know you should be looking for one) and is a more epic and ambitious film. The cast is incredible - rounding out the three leads mentioned earlier are Danny Devito, James Cromwell and Kim Basinger (for which she won Best Supporting Actress). It is a very entertaining movie and I cannot point out a single flaw in it. The only reason I did not rank it higher is because it is not a movie that is trying to impact you in a big emotional way except for it just being a great movie. Most of the movies ranked this high on my list have some sort of emotional, educational or transformational impact on me.

By the way, there is a film to begin shooting in November called White Jazz (also based on a James Elroy book) that will feature Russell Crowe reprising his role as Bud White, but Guy Pierce, Kim Basinger and director Curtis Hanson are not involved. Hanson is in talks about a true sequel that would cover what happened to the characters in the 10 years following where the original film left off. Sounds pretty cool. I hear that Ocean's 13 is pretty good, temporarily restoring my faith in sequels, after plodding through the garbage that is Pirates 3 and Shrek 3. Stay away. You've been warned.

20th Favorite Movie - When Harry Met Sally

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

It has been said before that all great love stories are the same: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Think for a second: what percentage of "chick flicks" have that formula? It has to be at least 75%. The only other way to write it is to make it so they don't get together until the end (Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail), which accounts for the other 25%.

Speaking of "chick flick", I will argue to my death that When Harry Met Sally is not one of them. I will grant you that it is a romantic comedy, but it is not a chick flick. Here is why: it is a Billy Crystal movie, not a chick flick. By nature, Billy Crystal is incapable of being the leading man in a true chick flick. Even Forget Paris had the basketball scenes for guys to enjoy. Chick flicks are often more wishful and sentimental, while When Harry Met Sally is more edgy and realistic.

Also, there is something about the scenes where Billy Crystal is together with Bruno Kirby that is completely un-"chick flick". They are actually very funny, and they are written for men to enjoy. By the way, Bruno Kirby is one of my favorite actors of all time and I was sad when he passed away last summer. He was also brilliant in City Slickers and Godfather Part II. His screaming "baby fish mouth!" during the Pictionary scene when the correct answer was "baby talk" is one of my favorite scenes in this movie.

I don't want to give the impression that a chick flick cannot be a good movie, or a funny movie. I thought Notting Hill was good and very funny and I have probably seen it 10+ times. And coming soon on this list is a undeniable, no-doubt-about-it chick flick. So stay tuned.

Crunch time!

This will be a quick post, but I think short is better than nothing! The past few weeks have been hectic and busy (I know, I sound like a broken record - I should stop being surprised by how crazy our lives are) and the chaos is now culminating in the end of my school quarter. I have to read two books, write reports on them, and write a 10-page paper in the next week. Doable, but stressful! It doesn't help that I'll be working all day tomorrow because it's the Fuller Northern California graduation day. Should be fun!

Even though I've enjoyed my class, I'm really looking forward to the quarter being over. I'll finally have time to do those luxurious things that fall by the wayside -- like laundry and cleaning the bathroom. Besides housekeeping, Danny and I do have a great summer planned. We get to attend the wedding of two great friends, then the next day we celebrate our one year anniversary! Where has the time gone? I keep thinking we're still newlyweds because honestly, I'm not tired of Danny yet! Haha. But seriously, I thought the first year of marriage was supposed to be a lot harder than this, so I kept waiting for the fun to run out before the one year mark. But it's still great! We're planning a quick getaway to celebrate, somewhere near the ocean - woohoo! The details are still being kept from me, which makes it way fun.

July will continue with the birth of our ringbearer's little brother (hang in there Adelle!) a trip to Seattle for me (mixing work and play) then a trip to Alaska for Danny (youth group mission trip). At the beginning of August I head to Colonial Williamsburg for the wedding of one of my Japan mission teammates. The yon-nin matsuri (that's Japanese for four-person festival) will unite again! Can you tell I can't wait for school to be over and the summer to begin? One more thing I'm excited about for summer - this summer I'll be in an office with windows. Call me silly, but the past few summers have been very depressing while all my high schoolers are out in the sun and at camp and I was freezing in cubicle-land with no natural lights for miles. Just another perk to the new job, which is BUSY but so much fun!

Anyway, back to quickly recapping the past few weeks. Danny and I got to host some fun people in our home, including my sisters at different times for some sibling bonding which included getting Trisha addicted to American Idol. Don't judge us, you know you love it too. We also got a huge surprise visit from Tim, another member of the Japan yon-nin matsuri! He came to San Francisco for training and treated us to dinner at the hotel where he was training. Dinner was Asian-Cuban fusion, very unique and really tasty. We had a ton of fun. I love catching up with friends that I've known for years (almost 10? Yikes!) and it feels like you just saw each other the other day. Tim's really a blessing and it was great to see him!

Then it was time for Camp Cov, the First Covenant Memorial Day tradition. This was my first year to experience an entire Camp Cov, and it was really fun. We spent the whole weekend in the Santa Cruz mountains with fresh air. Highlights were napping in the sun while chatting (me) and playing volleyball (Danny) with friends, drive-in movie and Marianne's ice cream with the teens, and getting to know some First Covenant family better. The low was Danny being subjected to the traditional "Dunk the pastor" dunk tank, but that's another story.

Gotta run, will share more soon!