September 30, 2005
I'm trying to record narration for this new short, but my voice has gone hoarse. I thought I'd take a brief constitutional of sorts and take into account here that ever-so-exciting topic - Movies I've Seen Recently.
I saw George Clooney's Good Night, And Good Luck yesterday morning, which was terrific and emboldening (in terms of content, yes, but also in the simple fact that Clooney made it), and I'll probably write more about it later (should I ever catch up in the 'write more later' department). I also saw Proof, which was a great deal better than I expected. The writing overcame most traces of Miramax-ishness - which were so abundant in the trailer that I almost wrote off the film completely. I'd have loved to see it on stage, especially if Gwyneth Paltrow was in it; she gave an enormous amount of texture to a fairly one-note role. I wanted to give her character a hug throughout the whole film. And then ask her out, because I'm hopelessly attracted to pretty girls with mental problems.
And then there was a press screening of Wallace & Gromit: Curse Of The Were-Rabbit this evening. It's an absolutely delightful film, and achieves the miraculous feat of not seeming a second longer than any of its 30 minute predecessors. Between this and Corpse Bride, I'm just about desparate to replace all the burnt out bulbs on my stop-motion set and finish the last minute of that film (that I can't is probably not too terrible a thing, though, given the number of projects on my plate).
One of the many great things about the Wallace & Gromit film was its wonderful perspective on animal rights; it had a strong anti-hunting message, and the word 'humane' was dropped with great frequency. This reminded me that I meant to post a link to this article from Sunday's paper, which will be the only article formerly published in American Conservative and written by a member of Bush's cabinet (a former speechwriter, no less) I ever link to alonside an admonition of it's brilliance. But there it is: this article is important, and a must-read (except for those friends of mine to whose choir the piece will be preaching - although in our case, the odd sense of amazement that comes from finding oneself in agreeement with a Republican shouldn't be discounted). While it is clearly written with a conservative readership in mind (and contains a handful of conservative bon mots I'll waive from accountability for the moment), its content is of great importance to anyone who hasn't given the issue due consideration: after all, one of the most important facts outlined in the article is that the matter of animal rights is not political - it is simply moral.
Hmmm. My voice is still scratchy.
Posted by David Lowery at September 30, 2005 02:55 AM
Comments
start smoking again. then the narration will sound sweeeeeeeeeeeet.
Posted by: brad at September 30, 2005 08:24 AM
yeah, good idea....you can sound like Tom Waits!
Posted by: frank at September 30, 2005 11:17 AM
That is indeed one of the things that quitting smoking has deprived me of: the chance to age into a fine gravel voice. So much character, precluded! Maybe if I try hard enough I can fake it.
Posted by: Ghostboy at September 30, 2005 12:03 PM
I would have written off Proof until I read your review. Now I might give it a shot. I've been curious about the Clooney film, so next weekend, I might give one or both a look.
Posted by: Chuck at October 1, 2005 12:39 PM
Yeah, I'd definitely recommend them. Neither one is top-ten material (although Clooney's film comes really, really damn close), but they're both great kickoffs to the fall movie season.
Posted by: Ghostboy at October 2, 2005 02:06 AM