dbborroughs' Journal

9:57pm: Wow where has everyone gone?
Hell where did I go?
Life and Unseen films have eaten my brain
Jeeze its only been a few months but eveyone is gone.
I guess I'm going to have to figure out what to do with this place....

8:11pm: HAPPY NEW YEAR
Yes I'm alive
I've been wanting to post but LJ has been testy lately and I haven't been able to sign in.
I wish everyone a happy new year and hope to post more in the new Year.

10:14am: Happy Thanksgiving
Just thought I'd pop in and say HI
It's been a while.
I'm alive, beyond that I have no clue.

2:15pm: Alive
So far so good.

Sandy came through and knocked down some limbs, tore off a shingle and twisted a shed door.

Power is spotty around me, but for the moment we have power. I say for the moment because last year LIPA turned off power to fix one thing and we were down for several days afterward.

Everyone I can contact is alive- though some have suffered damage with my boss having a tree into her house, and Randi's mom and dad's house (canal side) prorbably in a condition I don't want to contemplate.

I'll keep you posted about anything that comes up

10:21am: Falling Farther and farther behind
Normally I read what is posting here on the friends page, but the last two weeks I've been too busy with the blog.Too much NYFF and other stuff. I'm having fun but god damn it's work.
I'll have to catch up and post some real thoughts but I'm so behind on reviews for Unseen FIlms I'm not sure that won't be for at least another week or so.

9:03pm: 30 years on I get a call about my high school reunion....
do I want to go in two weeks....
I must have sounded daft saying I'm covering the NYFF that weekend

7:52am: FInaable to log in for the first time in over two weeks...whats up with that?

11:40pm: I'm alive
too busy with NYAFF and unseen to do much of anything else.

I have been watching moldy oldie mysteries to fall asleep to.

I saw Brave which kind of almost works---the problem is its a mixture of serious story telling and goofy cartoon movement- pick one guys...

Saw some trashy stuff on DVD

Tale of the Voodoo Prostiturte- Horror film with pretntions... The script wantsto promise more than it delivers

Mack and Devin go to High School- Snoop DOg comedy is amusing even not stoned.Really low brow but it has a few laugh.

Brother WHite- New minister comes to town. Been there done that

A Mother's love- Christian play shot as a film...might have worked if it wasn't played as a play.

9:38am: 3 posts for the NYAFF to finish up for unseen then I can take two weeks off and try and catch up with recent films and my laundry

7:50pm: At some point I'm going to have to bring my real life and online life into line.... because it's getting too complicated

12:41am: movies
Piranha 3dd
this is awful.
its made to be bad and worse for that reason

Men in Black 3
great monsters great set pieces but it's so damn artifiical in construction and gee whiz factor its less then the sum of it ssuperior parts

12:49am: two quick reviews
Battleship
Stupid cliche set up and linking material is off set by stunning action set pieces. This stuff is the best of the alien invasion films of late. It does make sense (with in reason)

Dark Shadows
the early gothic sequences are stunning . Its wrecked by unfunny comedy and an ending that is just too much

8:03am: Girl Walk//All Day
http://girlwalkallday.com/
Three people dance across NYC
This is playing at The Korean American Film Festival New York June 6 and should be seen on a big screen. If not here it is.
Warning the music is infectious but frqently not work safe

3:04pm: The last few days
Doing a random bounce from thing to thing.
Sorted papers this morning.
Worked on the film blog
did dishes
noodled online.

that's about it

Movie-wise still decompressing from Tribeca

Watching Adam Curtis's Mayfair series. I fell into his stuff in bits and piece over the years but seeing his All Watched over Documentary had me tracking down his films en-mass. I loved All Watched over-even if the end doesn't pull it together the way it should. I am also loving his other films- which are available to see on line simply because the amount of found footage makes them nigh impossible to get clearance for home video.

Saw The Grey- a super adventure film that's more about ideas and Liam Neeson's character then a straight forward adventure tale. I know some people hate the ending. I loved it

Detachment was a kick in the pants. Not sure how exactly I feel about the film but it's in your face style and from the trenches look at education forces to to think and react

Cabin in the Woods didn't live up to the initial hype. SO many people I know loved this that when the hate started I was kind of shocked...then I saw it and realized that it's clever but not particularly good. Yea it has some great sequences but the film as a whole doesn't work.

Next on my list is learn to be social once more because frankly I've lost my ability to be social.

Going to try and see Avengers this week. I'll report in.

11:06am: Tribeca is done
Except for the writing and maybe a couple of on line films it's all done...

7:18am: I'm exhausted
I'm beat. tribeca is kicking my ass. I don't have to do this but I wanted to try so I am.
Yesterday I saw 5 films two of which made an impression (Benji- about Benji WIlson who was killed in Chicago on the eve of being a huge basketball star. Also Freaky Deaky a good but not great Elmore Leonard adaption.)
If you want to know whats been going on check out Unseen since I'm doing daily reports and lots of reviews.

11:12pm: Checking in
The prefestival press screenings of Tribeca are done. I've seen 27 out of 32 I planned to see. Most have been good, a few mediocre and amazingly very few sucked...but when they sucked they did so big time. I'm running a review of a movie Thursday night at Unseen Films that is a real stinker (the movie not the review). I'd love to talk about it but because of embargos I can't. This turkey prompted the response from one person in attendence to the effect that it wrecked any desire to ever see a movie ever again.

Since last I posted I saw Leap of Faith on Broadway and it was good but not great.

I saw Simon Callow do Being Shakespeare and thought it was marvelous

Out side of that I haven't done much....my laundry...and the day job.

Right now if you want to know what I'm up to read Unseen because thats where I'm reporting the films I've been seeing...and all I've done since March 27th is watch movies.

So if you've been wondering I'm alive and I've been reading but all my writing is going elsewhere...

8:31am: Tribeca blind notes
There have been 11 films screened for the press and I've seen 8. My dad was having oral surgery so I missed 2 and then I didn't want to see one yesterday. There are five today and I'm aiming for 3.

SO far more hits than misses. They seem nutty about embargos so I'm not going to say anything about titles... other than Eddie the Sleep Walking Cannibal was Ghoulish fun.

I think there have been three great films
Two very good films
One that has great pieces but disappoints as a whole
One with funny dialog and scenes but doesn't hang together
and there was one film that was just okay, but could have been something if there had been an ending however instead it stooped instead of ended. Its a real miss.

It's fun butI'm exhausted from all the fravel.

The real poser for me is the chatter about when we can post. I have no idea how crazy they are but something started before Friday's screenings and they have been sending out warnings about not to post until the festival starts.

Anyway- gotta get ready and go.

8:42am: Things are getting crazy.
I was at a midweek screening for the NYICFF wednesday of the amazingMonkey King Uproar in Heaven. Last night was mythbusters live. Today and tomorrow more NYICFF. Next week it Tribeca stuff. I beat and things are only starting.

10:50am: Been busy-Atteneded some press screenings for New Directors New FIlms. A good but mixed bunch of films.

I really like THE RAID a great deal (so much so I got into a Fangoria preview screening to see it again). Its a fantastic action film thaat is a must see for action fans

Also good was How To Survive a Plague about ACT UP's efforts to try to make sure a cure for AIDS was worked on. Its a moving documentary, though it suffers from assuming we know some of the story.

The Rabbi's Cat is a beautiful animated film based on Joann Sfarr's graphic novel. The 3D works against it since it mutes the colors and adds almost nothing to the film or sense of space in the frame.

There were others but not worth the time to mention- then again Neighboring Sounds has gotten great press going into the festival- but having seen it I'm at a loss to know why. The film is about a neighbor hood in a Brazilian city that gets a private security firm to watch over it. We watch the people come and go and then it all ends with a WTF was that moment as things are referenced that we've never learned of---and are not even mentioned in the press notes.

I've been seeing a great deal at the NYICFF-

Of note is the Disney documentary CHimpanzee- which had signs up saying the screening wasn't for review. I have one set to go at Unseen Films but I'm not sure when I can actually post it. All I'll say is if you like the trailers or commercials you'll like it, but that I have issues with it, though I liked it.

Most of the other stuff I've seen at the Festival is up at Unseen Films.

I saw John Carter yesterday and loved it. I completely understand why its splitting audiences. The film is an old school respresentation of an old school novel. I think it hits it perfectly. I believed I was on Barsoom. For me the moment John Carter proved he was a hero was when he sends his lady love away and then stands all alone and takes on an advancing army. There is a wonderful moment in it that has Carter standing there killing all comers and we watch as th bodies pile up around him like in a Frazetta painting.

I've been watching Adam Curtis documentaries, bad Euro crime films and NCIS episodes.

Actually the problem is work is crazy making and Unseen FIlms has been eating my time. I've been writing up stuff, pushing things forward and getting things ready for the Tribeca Film Festival which will eat most of my free time once the press screenings start.

I don't like that I'm not writing here but live is getting in the way.

I can't blme this on Facebook since I'm not there, though I have been doodling with twitter for the film blog.

I am sorry to those of you I have made promises to about stuff, I'm just getting moved in odd directions.

I think thats it for right now. You guys and girls keep posting I am reading

11:21pm: Oh crap- just looked at my friends page and realized I'm a week behind....gotta start reading

11:23pm: someone smack me because this film blog thing is way out of control

11:36pm: Have only seen bits of the oscars- I got hooked into Alex Gibney's Catching Hell on ESPN which was excellent

1:19pm: I'm reading but sadly not posting.
Life is getting in the way.
Actually whats getting in the way is prepping Unseen Films for the next say 12 weeks. There are a ton of Film Fests in and around NY (three start March 1 and run together for 2 and 3 weeks), I have press passes to some - like Tribeca, but I still want to have the blog run a film a day plus I have other blog and non blog stuff to deal with- its over whelming me.
I know it can and will get more complicated I just hope my head doesn't explode

9:05pm: yes I'm alive
I'll report soon