Netflix Queue 11
(Could of gone to a show but was too tired. Currently eating ice cream in my bed watching netflix)
Religulous
Set Up
Sleeper Cell
Luther
The Kennel Murder Case
Magic Trip
Night Catches Us
The Reel Mix-tape: See, create, make.
Work can be draining. Even when it’s something you like. And being an artists who has a “day job” work can be extremely draining. So where can someone find that extra bit of inspiration that tiny kick you need to get your juices going. For me, I have and will always turn to the movies. Movies are magical things that I’ve notice make things better.
So here is a “mix tape” of movies I find to be extremely inspirational and personally make me want to get out there and do something. (In no order…)
1. Art & Copy
This is the prefect film for people who are getting ready for the new season of Mad men.
2. Hoop Dreams
This documentary is touching and so thought provoking you will never see the game of basketball the same way again.
3. Amelie
I hate that this has become a new age hipster film, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a fantastic fairy tale about bright perspectives, goofy love, and the ever charming hobby of eavesdropping.
4. The September Issue
Fashion (past all the snotty attitude) is a beautiful art form. And with Vogue Magazine, it has a very strange and intense back round story. Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington are ying & yang to watch them in their element is a rare and oddly inspiring thing.
5. Helvetica
Yes, a documentary about a font no less. But think about it you see it everywhere but do you know anything about it?
6. Harold and Maude
A very strange and unlikely love story that makes you think what the importance of life and death, what it means to be a old soul or young free spirit.
7. Harvey
A grown man who’s best friend is a 6 foot imaginary friend?
8. The Thin Man
I know I’ve talked about this movie before (it’s one of my favorites) but this film is less of an inspiration and more of a pick me up. The screenplay and humor gets me every time.
9. Dead Poet Society
I mean come on: Carpe Diem — seize the day!
10. Life is Beautiful
Being a child the world seems like a big beautiful place and during a time of war it can be altered. Having a father who paints a different picture for you is something we all need sometimes.
11. Finding Nemo
By far one of my favorite movie and I was so happy to hear it was going to be in 3D. The story line runs parallel with Pinocchio but it’s an adventure tale for any age.
The Reel Mixtape: A greed & capitalism movie marathon.
Capitalism: A Love Story
Inside Job
The Yes Men Fix The World
Wall Street 2: Money Talks
(Saturday Night watching these movies with my dad.)
“The Cave of Forgotten Dreams”: The Intern Review
(Please note I am not going to rate this film on my normal scale of 10/10)
I am a bit of history nerd. It fact, it was my second favorite subject. Of course I got over that real quick seeing as high school history sucks and is pretty much fiction. However, next to the Food Network and Cartoon Network, the History channel is my favorite thing to watch. So when I heard that German film maker Werner Herzog was teaming up with History Channel to produce a documentary about the Chauvet caves in Southern France, I was really excited.
These caves are remarkable! Preserved from the outside world, these caves hold the secrets of human kind. With cave paintings that are nearly 30,000 years old.
Yes, this was a movie about cave paintings. A subject that wouldn’t normally grab people’s attention, but was such a fascinating matter.
Since these cave paintings are so old, a lot of what we believed to be “true” is now being questioned. Art, human kind, civilization, religion, survival, etc. are looked at completely different since the discover of these prehistoric paintings.
Seeing that we have the privilege of technology we are aloud to come to conclusions about how old these paintings are, how prehistoric man documented events, and what animals were still around back then. We are able to help restore the voices and stories of people long before our time.
There’s an amazing quality to the way these cave paintings were drawn. A scene of animation, movement and perspective are used. It’s overwhelming to think about the these ideas being executed thousands of years ago. Proving maybe prehistoric man knew more about art, life, and design then we are lead to believe.
At one point of the movie, as cheesy as it sounds, I got a bit emotional. There’s a section of the cave where a man pressed his palm print to the wall. And how crazy it is to image that a human 30,000 years ago touched that spot. How his palm print says so much. That he once had feeling, a heart beat, maybe loved at some point, lived, and was an artist.
The possibilities and ideas that can now be generated from the discover of these caves is remarkable. That slowly we are learning more and more about the past.
NOW… enough with all the mushy stuff.
The film was beautiful. My problem is that film maker Werner Herzog can be a bit pretensions. One of my biggest pet peeves with documentaries film makers is when they interrupt the person they are interviewing. There were moments where Herzog would cut someone off he could turn the conversation his way. And not letting it happen organically. And that weird thing at the end about the albino alligators… what?!
BUT that’s just me being a film snob.
Here is great/funny clip of Werner Herzog on The Colbert Report.
