it should come as no surprise

That I've been spending most of the week at the movies. Let's recap:

On Monday, I saw 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, which is the Romanian movie that won the Palme D'Or at Cannes this year as well as some other accolades. The stuff that wins such prestigious awards. Bor-ring. Do we really have to watch every detail of these people's day? It reminded me of the lauded, but equally boring, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, also Romanian.

On Tuesday, Christmas Day, I was determined to keep up my tradition of going to the movies. I couldn't last year since I was in London and everything shuts down on Christmas there. Seriously, public transit does not run and nothing is open save a few Indian and kebob restaurants. Anyway, I made sure to finish Atonement (the novel) so I could go see the movie again. I rarely see movies twice in the theater, so that should tell you how highly I regard this movie. Definitely the best of the nine movies I've seen in eleven days. Probably the best I've seen this year. I also think the movie is better than the book, but I could imagine that if you read the book before the movie, it would have a very powerful impact.

On Wednesday, I went again to Arclight to see There Will Be Blood, only playing in NYC and LA, and here, only at Arclight on three screens! I saw it in their largest auditorium, which was a treat, because I do think it's something to see on the big screen. There are some great shots of landscape and the immense scale of drilling for oil in rural outposts. I was glad to see that the battle wasn't really the simplistic good vs. evil, but instead capitalism vs. evangelicalism. Of course there are other things going on, but I think the trailer is pretty accurate in showing you who the main rivals are. Daniel Day-Lewis was incredible, as to be expected, but don't discount young Paul Dano. It was also surprisingly funny in parts.

Yesterday I ventured all the way to Encino to see Persepolis, which is the autobiographical graphic novel turned animated French film of an Iranian girl growing up in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution. I enjoyed it. The most interesting part was perhaps her time in Vienna before returning to Iran (where she left again for Paris), because of the trying time she had there.

I've pretty much run out of things to see that I have much interest in. I think I might finally drag my butt to see Lars and the Real Girl for $3 today. It's near Canter's and I want a rye bread, anyway. I have no idea what I'm going to do this weekend. Maybe I'll finally go see Enchanted, but it's been out so long I feel silly going now. I tend to go right when things open, if you hadn't noticed.