Review: Into the Wild

Have you ever been on a day hike somewhere and some 23-year-old kid comes along who's been out there for five days and is moving twice as fast as you, so you step aside and let him go by? He'll always thank you but he'll never slow down. Isn't he annoying? Well, what if you knew he had had $24,000 but gave it all away to charity and just ran off and bummed rides and meals off of people, plus doing odd jobs for a little while until he felt like quitting? Wouldn't that be even more annoying? But you have to admit, it would be kind of inspiring, too. By the way, if you are that kid, I know you don't mean to be annoying or understand how you're inspiring, but just be aware that you are.

That's what Into the Wild is about. It's exactly like that. The acting is as real as a five-day beard and the look of the film is like a 23-year-old's road trip: All over the map, but gorgeous and memorable the whole way. There are only two kinds of people who should see this movie: young and old.

FNL 10/19

OK let's just knock it out of the park on the acting before the opening credits, shall we? Plemons and Palicki! And on from there.

You offend me, you offend my family!!!

I saw Justin Lin and the stars of his new comedy, Finishing the Game, at a CAAM event last night. It's hilarious and smart and opens in San Francisco on Friday. Learn more at -- get this -- www.youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com. Justin said a few interesting things:

- They achieved the vintage look of Finishing the Game the old-fashioned way. They actually went out and rented old cameras, the kind he hated having to use in film school because they were all the department had.

- The opening-weekend success of Better Luck Tomorrow in 2003, which was promoted as critical to the viability of Asian-American films, had an immediate impact. Right after leaving a theater where BLT had sold out, Lin got a call from the makers of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, who said they were greenlighting that film because of the success of BLT.

- Parry Shen was considered for the role of Harold before John Cho got the part.

- The cars in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift had to be scrapped after the film because they had been modified for right-hand drive and weren't street legal in, apparently, either Japan or the U.S.

I also chatted with Sung Kang, who is as easygoing in person as he is intense on screen. He said his Tokyo Drift character was written as a smoker but he didn't want to smoke and thought it would be a bad influence on young viewers and generally unoriginal. So he snacked instead.

Dustin Nguyen (yes, of "21 Jump Street") and Roger Fan were also there. Now that Roger's cut his Breck Girl hair, he actually looks as hot as everyone always said he did. No, I didn't bring a camera.

Get out your color wheels

It's not a film, but I think it says something about film: In the SFMOMA exhibition Your Tempo, by Olafur Eliasson, which is famous for having a frozen BMW, there's something more extraordinary. 360 degree room for all colours features a round room with a translucent wall lit from behind. The color of the light changes frequently, with quick, smooth transitions. Just when you get used to one color, another one overtakes it.

How did I know how to view this artwork? From seeing the people already inside it. (There was a line.) Everyone was standing close to the wall and staring at it, so I went over to the wall and stared at it. I assumed there were images I couldn't see from the side or something. In fact, the man next to me said to his son, "wait 'til you see the airplanes." I don't know what he meant by that. I think I asked him, "are we supposed to see something?" and he said, "Just unfocus your eyes and look at it. It plays with the rods and cones of your eyes." Were there instructions somewhere?

Well, I took off my glasses, the better to unfocus my eyes, and stared at the wall. Each new color imposed a new mood. It quickly turned into an intense, absorbing experience. There were no words, no narrative, no breaks or stopping points in the show. It was like being in another world for a minute or two, or I don't know how long, really. All I remember is the hot pink, which was like an incredibly loud noise without a sound. I almost had to look away.

It showed how color can affect our perception of what we see, and specifically film and video. For example, how could Run Lola Run be anything but an intense and high-strung movie, given the main character's artificially bright red hair? Lola's hair is a counterpart to the red second hand on the clock, a different shade but just as pulse-quickening.

On the other hand...

More disturbing signs on tonight's FNL. Experimental treatments? Buddy losing it again? A hyperactive, unprofessional "character" of a live-in nurse? And the shots are getting more bland. I think they're pullin' the brisket outta the smoker too soon and tryin' to add back the flavor with sauce. Never works.

However ... maybe I can live with this Landry and Tyra thing if the danger stays vague, unsettling, and in the background. Plemons and Palicki are dynamite together.

FNL: Nail-biting time

I hope this MSNBC article is overly pessimistic, but I fear it's not. I was thinking just last Friday, before the season premiere, that FNL is a rare all-out drama on TV that isn't about murder, corpses, or courtrooms. Looks like I spoke too soon. Can the FNL team recover the ball?

However, I love what's still great about this show. Today I was instant-messaging with a friend and fellow fan at work and started speculating that if Connie could pick any movie from Netflix it might be Like Water for Chocolate, and oh, what Eric would have to say about that. Then I realized I was starting down the slippery slope toward fanfic. Regular readers know I can be a very enthusiastic fan of things I like, but FNL is the first work I've ever wanted to write fanfic about. Not that I have TIME for that, but the impulse is there. Weird.

Review: Lust, Caution

Director Ang Lee, one of the world's most agile filmmakers, for years had a desire to win over the audience that softened the edges of excellent films such as Eat Drink Man Woman, Sense and Sensibility, and even The Ice Storm. But in 2005's Brokeback Mountain, he stuck with a chilly tale of doomed love to the end, making what in some ways was his richest movie yet.

With Lust, Caution, an erotic thriller set in 1940s Shanghai, Lee has gone farther still, creating a black hole of a film that swallows all glimmers of light. Contrary to his earlier instincts, that absolute darkness is enough to draw us in throughout Lust's roughly two and a half hours.

As imperial Japan overruns much of China, student Wang Jiazhi (newcomer Wei Tang) does her part against the occupiers by pretending to be a businessman's wife and then seducing Mr. Yee (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) a key Chinese collaborator. But as complex as this role is for her, their relationship becomes even more complicated.

With a screenplay by Hui-Ling Wang and longtime Lee collaborator James Schamus, based on a story by Eileen Chang, Lee builds what feels like the world of a novel. The tale unfolds slowly and in subtle ways, though with a clarity that's been a hallmark of Lee and Schamus's work. This is by far their most complex and mature work. But what drives the film most are Tang and Leung's performances.

The round-faced Tang looks like a classic Chinese beauty but brings remarkable strength, along with vulnerability, to her role. Leung, who's created some of cinema's most glum male characters, seems to have wound all their disappointments into a very tight ball in the character of Mr. Yee. His malevolence is visceral and believable, never more than in the explicit sex scenes that earned Lust its NC-17 rating. They are too painful and fascinating to watch to be erotic.

As in Brokeback, Lee maintains a perfectly consistent tone throughout the film, this time one of brooding and impending doom. For Lust, he seems to have tapped into the elegant yet hard-edged imagery of Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, with long takes of social interaction along with some bloody, realistic violence.

Lust, Caution is a movie of hard truths, using both the brutal conditions and the strange opportunities in wartime Shanghai to expose the voids in some human hearts while making us question what fills others. Though firmly centered in a Chinese world, it's a very relevant film for our American age of murky and questionable crusades.

FNL SP Take 5

OK I am just not down with this Tyra and Landry situation. It took me out of the FNL world. Not that it's completely impossible. Maybe they'll salvage it somehow. No shortage of acting skill between those two.

The Taylor family drama just gets better. Part of me just loves watching them, but another part just wants to get out of that house as soon as the scene's over. It's so realistic I can almost smell the dirty diapers.

Alright Buddy Garrity! Losing your shit at last! Brad Leland rocks.

Overall it was a busy episode setting things up, maybe a little less edgy look in some of the scenes, some incredible high points and some other stuff that felt like ploys to get more viewers. Gimme 15 minutes of Connie and Kyle every week and I'm there no matter what.

FNL SP Take 4

Are these party scenes shot a little more conservatively than last season? I do like some of the other stuff, though.

Coach Taylor raging, catching himself, whistling. Ha!

"I'm not wearing any shoes, Dad!" But she is being SUCH a bad girl.

Chandler: Amazing in the car scene. Very good lament by Julie, too.

OK, yes, it IS getting a little too dramatic with Tyra.

FNL SP Take 3

Nice jump cut to Tami .... wow wow wow Connie Britton! Tremendous acting!

Is it getting a little too dramatic with the Tyra and that weirdo?

FNL SP Take 2

Very Riggins comeback: "You look good."

I LOVE Grandma!

More great Taylor family scenes. Kyle Chandler rocks!

FNL Season Premiere: 1

Why are they getting all Paul Thomas Anderson on us with this pool scene?

Oh, OK, that's more like it. Very dynamic hospital scene.

Wait, this kid is supposed to be three months premature?

Countdown to FNL

The best show on the airwaves is back in less than 12 hours (if you're on the West Coast like me). Great acting, fine writing, and it looks. So. Good.

It's not really about football, by the way.