Posted 11:38pm, Thursday, August 21, 2003

I took a couple of days off a few weeks ago and decided to catch up on my pile of DVDs. I finally saw Steven Soderberg's Solaris. I thought it was a pretty great film.

George Clooney did a good job of playing a man who's life has lost it's meaning, until he's called to look into strange happenings at a space outpost. It's a pretty heartbreaking love story about how we deal with loss.

Solaris got widely panned when it opened last fall. Which only goes to show how the intellect of the American movie viewer has fallen in recent years.

First they line up against Eyes Wide Shut, now Solaris. Ironic, because
Solaris reminded me a lot of 2001. Kubrick's masterpiece would be savaged by critics if it opened today. People just don't have the patience to endure a movie which reaches for more than your passing interest.

Another couple of movies I liked which no one saw was Terence Malick's Thin Red Line and Martin Brest's Meet Joe Black. Both films are slow and deliberate in their storytelling, leaving long gaps where people don't talk. Characters don't act or react. They simply ponder. But American moviegoers are unaccustomed to long silences in their movies. They want explosions and characters that state their objectives through drawn out exposition.

You'll find no shortage of people ready to trash these two movies, but
hardly anyone has actually seen the damn films. Their half-assed opinions come from what they've read. This is a troubling trend which extends beyond movies.

Note to self: See Gigli. Use brain; decide for self

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I really like the new Liz Phair CD. She's been doing press interviews where she admits that she picked Avril Lavigne's producers because she was tired of selling records to her core audience. She wanted more commercial success.

I've come upon several people who have complained that she's a sell-out and her music is no longer relevant. I asked if they had heard the new disc.

" No."

Shut the fuck up. Go listen to the damn thing. Surprise! It sounds like a Liz Phair album. I so sick of the "I'm cool-I read the rock press" thing.

It's better to be good than cool.

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Two good books were just released last week, both by illustrator Chris Ware. Ware was the author of Jimmy Corrigan, the World's Smartest Kid. Corrigan was a heartbreaking graphic novel about a shy introvert learning to cope with loneliness. Compiled from his Acme Novelty Library, the epic book stretched over two centuries and several generations to trace the origins of Jimmy's angst.

The first new book, Quimby the Mouse, a collection of strips Ware did while in college, along with leftover strips from the Acme Novelty Library. Imagine Mickey Mouse's long-lost brother, only tweaked out.

Ware's second book, The Acme Novelty Datebook is actually a reproduction of his sketchbook leading up to the creation of the Acme Novelty Library. I usually like sketchbooks better than the actual resulting work because it offers a glimpse into the author's creative journey.

-Ron