Cinema Saturdays: Stranger Than Fiction
Four weeks ago I recommended the great Kaufman movie "Adaptation". Two weeks ago I recommended "The Adjustment Bureau" If you haven't guessed yet, I love meta topics.
This week it's "Stranger Than Fiction". Will Ferrell plays the character Harold Crick. Crick has to be the most boring accountant ever. He lives by a strict and regimented life. We know this because as he goes about his day, a narrator tells us each little mundane detail.
God, this would be an awful movie, but that only goes on for a few minutes. Then, one day, Crick begins to hear the narrator talking, explaining what he's doing. First he thinks he's crazy, but slowly he begins talking to the narrator. A sort-of dialog ensues.
Crick is in a book, and our narrator, Emma Thompson playing author "Karen Eiffel" is struggling to bring a bunch of drama into Harold's life and make his story interesting. Harold, meanwhile, doesn't really like the story he's stuck in. He meets a beautiful woman, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Which parts of our lives are pre-ordained and which can change? What makes for a good person, a good story? How do authors mentally interact with the characters they create? It's all here and more. There are many, many parts of this movie I love. For instance, about halfway through, as astute viewers might be internally-criticizing the plot, Harold goes to meet a literary professor played by Dustin Hoffman. He reviews Harold's story so far, then makes the same conclusions the audience has. It's a wonderfully triple-mirror trick: We see a writer writing a movie we're watching. We see a writer in this movie, writing a story about Harold Crick. Then we see Harold and the professor criticizing the life and story they ended up in. It just me smile all over.
This is a comedy, a drama, a tragedy, but most of all, I think it's an existential morality tale. Highly recommended.
From Space-X to a new inside-out Wenkel engine for DoD, it's been an amazing week for inventors.
Hey @bdkoepke , @dmrq70 , @fforfun , @MikeDwyer , @stevenMsmith , @AgileJazz , @XxWolfBanexX , @HappyDawn , @katamen , @SmileSyndicate , @DanielBMarkham
I've moved!
Locals is turning off their free accounts and I've decided that I'd rather go back to maintaining my own site than sign up for any more "free" services that end up changing the conditions of service later.
The new site is just like this one, only no "locals" in the name. It's https://danielbmarkham.com
Please give it a shot, and please let me know if you have any problems signing up. I think I have the configuration down but you guys will be the first 100 or so to sign up, so there'll probably be some snags.
Daniel
danielbmarkham.com
Hey @ShiroiKami , @osio , @btbytes , @QrzZDE2e , @jslezak , @gtramontina , @planti , @kavalau , @NzDan , @dadsfsadf
I've moved!
Locals is turning off their free accounts and I've decided that I'd rather go back to maintaining my own site than sign up for any more "free" services that end up changing the conditions of service later.
The new site is just like this one, only no "locals" in the name. It's https://danielbmarkham.com
Please give it a shot, and please let me know if you have any problems signing up. I think I have the configuration down but you guys will be the first 100 or so to sign up, so there'll probably be some snags.
Daniel
danielbmarkham.com
Hey @markthien , @vikdutt , @mavenllc , @Dauugavpiils , @rmonaghan , @Vic8888 , @GeorgiaLogCabin , @godfrey , @yumaikas
I've moved!
Locals is turning off their free accounts and I've decided that I'd rather go back to maintaining my own site than sign up for any more "free" services that end up changing the conditions of service later.
The new site is just like this one, only no "locals" in the name. It's https://danielbmarkham.com
Please give it a shot, and please let me know if you have any problems signing up. I think I have the configuration down but you guys will be the first 100 or so to sign up, so there'll probably be some snags.
Daniel
danielbmarkham.com
