Hannah Nixon: Richard.
Richard Nixon: I can’t.
HN: Something has to come of this. It’s meant to make us stronger. Thee art stronger than Harold, stronger than Arthur. God has chosen thee to survive.
RN: What about happiness, mother?
HN: Thee will find thy peace at the center, Richard. Strength in this life, happiness in the next.
In Theatres, Rated PG-13, 100 minutes
Runnin’ Down a Dream
3. Tom Petty hired Jimmy Iovine to produce their 3rd record (Damn the Torpedoes), who said that after hearing “Refugee” and “Here Comes My Girl”, no more songs were needed (to make a great album). “Even the Losers” and “Don’t Do Me Like That” are included on the album.
4. 14 year old Eddie Vedder bought Petty’s 4th album Hard Promises the day it was released at lunch, memorized the song “The Waiting” during the afternoon at school and was able to play it that night. Petty’s songwriting style is interesting and well-depicted. When writing “The Waiting”, Petty indeed patiently waited for the song to come to him (almost like it’s provided by the Almighty – he admits he doesn’t try to understand where the songs come from – for fear of losing the ability to create them). Vedder is seen singing “The Waiting” with Petty, clearly a childhood dream come true.
9. The producing styles of (Trveling Wilburys member and producer) Jeff Lynne and Jimmy Iovine are well-contrasted. Lynne building the song in layers and Iovine recording every part simultaneously. ("Refugee" is said to have around 150 takes).
After he inadvertently blinds a singer, Chow Yun-Fat tries to quit his assassin job so he can take care of her. But the cops are hot on his trail and his former employer has other things in mind. Of all the fine-line-between-cops-and-crooks films that have come along the last 100 years, this is probably the best. There’s one stunning action scene after another and Woo’s camera is perfectly placed in the expositional dialogue scenes.
There’s a 2 ½ minute continuous shot in the climactic sequence at a hospital where Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung kill (at least) 33 bad guys. They take a break in the middle of the shot in an elevator for dialogue before going on a different floor. Woo’s operatic violence is endlessly entertaining. Is this the greatest action movie ever made? It’s up there with Die Hard, but since Die Hard successfully avoids a Lionel Richie song, it wins. 
I was all ready to take in a screening of Director Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei. I'd be willing to take a beating to watch the film this early, let alone the opportunity to participate in tonight's Q and A session with Aronofsky himself. Too bad I called the AFI offices this morning to get an idea of how early I needed to show up for the 8:00 screening to get a seat. Click below for more of my bitterness.
Daniel Plainview: I worked for Geological Survey and went to Kansas. I couldn’t stay there. I just couldn’t. I don’t like to explain myself. Are you an angry man, Henry?
Henry: I don't think so. No.
Plainview: I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people.
Henry: That part of me is gone. Working and not succeeding- all my failures has left me . . . I just don't . . . care.
Plainview: Well, if it's in me, it's in you. There are times when I look at people and I see nothing worth liking. I want to earn enough money that I can get away from everyone.
Henry: What will you do about your boy?
Plainview: I don't want to talk about those things. I see the worst in people, Henry. I don't need to look past seeing them to get all I need. I've built up my hatreds over the years, little by little. Having you here gives me a second breath. I can't keep doing this on my own with these . . . people.
(Plainview laughs) 
When we left James Bond in Casino Royale, his special-lady Vesper had just betrayed him because she was blackmailed. Bond (a tough Daniel Craig) spends the majority of Quantum of Solace pursuing the blackmailers. The film opens mid car chase just seconds after the close of the last film. He’s taking Mr. White to an interrogation with M (Judi Dench) and other British agents. Before it is over, Bond’s pursuit will lead him to Haiti, Austria, Bolivia, Italy, and Russia. He will meet 2 beautiful women (Olga Kurylenko and Gemma Arterton) and many bad guys (including Mathieu Amalric - Munich) who are part of a secret organization trying to get control of some land in Bolivia (among other things) . . .
In addition to the fuller (and less archetypal) characters, Quantum of Solace has better, more beautiful locations: craggy rock formations, parched desert locales, and beautiful Italian vistas. It’s also better paced, coming in 38 minutes shorter than its predecessor. The climax here is more satisfying as well, partly because it gives not one, but 2 characters gratifying closure. The film strives for complexity, with governments changing sides and the line between heroes and villains intentionally blurred. Americans are portrayed as oil-obsessed opportunists. (Outstanding Goldfinger homage, by the way). But even when most characters don’t know who the good guys and bad guys are, the audience does. Bond may be hellbent on revenge, but there's never any doubt of his noble intentions.
and why so many poets choose it as a subject, which sets the tone and direction of the film. I would bet this was added after a poor reception of the film at Cannes earlier this year. As Caden struggles for happiness and relevance as he "hurtles toward death", his paralysis by neurosis becomes apparent, and by the end of the film he is being directed in his actual life by his replacement on his vast play. Caden's relationships with Adelle and his daughter are only sources of extreme pain after they leave for Berlin, and he cannot connect with the one who loves him, Hazel. Hazel is played brilliantly by Samantha Morton in one of my favorite performances this year. It is a very naturalistic and diverse performance, with her ranging from attractive, naked, frumpy, old, confident and insecure. Caden can't make himself love her when she loves him, but only wants to get back to that place after he loses her. 
The Office: Business Trip
Another big-time guest star, another success. Jennifer Aniston is a long-time Chicago friend of Liz and Jenna visiting New York who ends up hooking up with Jack. Meanwhile, Tracy tries to cheer Kenneth up by getting part of the cast of Night Court to put on a fake finale. Alec Baldwin is hilarious in his addiction to Aniston. Aniston gives an inspired, against-type performance. Fey continues her hot streak and the dialogue is great – love her speech about getting “the business”. The Night Court stuff doesn’t work as well, particularly Jenna’s were-lawyer (WTF?). There are lots and lots of hilarious throwaway lines. Kenneth even manages a reference to Eyes Wide Shut. There's an interesting all-string musical score. See it here. B+
There is too much poker-playing and the post poker love story could have probably lost a few minutes. The last action scene is too unrealistic and disappointing given all that came prior, but it’s all pulled together beautifully in the final seconds as Craig delivers his last line. Eva Green is terrific as one of the “Bond girls” and her conversation with Craig on the train before they start all the poker stuff is well-done, especially when they deconstruct each other. Judi Dench is equally good as Bond’s boss and their discussions about his future and her advice to him are interesting. This is easily the best Bond movie since the 60s with only The Spy Who Loved Me coming close. B+
The elephant in the room is Magnolia and Paul Thomas Anderson used Short Cuts as a blueprint, including the climactic act of God. But Anderson is simply much better at comedy, drama, suspense, music, everything and avoids the unpleasantness of dead children and the stunt of gratuitous nudity. In Short Cuts, Frances McDormand and Lori Singer go full frontal. Madeleine Stowe goes topless and Julianne Moore goes bottomless. With the exception of Singer (where Chris Penn – and thus the audience – is peeping through a fence), the nudity is hardly titillating, showing (somewhat obviously) that woman are much more open and naked with their emotions than men. The nudity arguably serves a purpose, but still feels gratuitous – and distracting. These actresses are great enough to convey what Altman wants fully clothed. 
Indeed, 15 years out, the film also plays like a who’s who of early 90s cinema. The star-studded cast is uniformly great, particularly Jack Lemmon, Bruce Davison, and Andie McDowell as the grandfather, father, and mother of the dying child. Matthew Modine and Tim Robbins are also memorable as the guys married to sisters Moore and Stowe, respectively. There’s not a bad segment or disappointing story in the bunch, but none of the characters really change or grow (admittedly tough to do in the course of 2-3 days). Not that they need to, but if your characters argue, cheat, suffer, and lie more than they laugh, share, help, and learn, you’re in for a challenging 3 hours. 
Nearly all of the characters live in the deglamorized, grungy part of L.A. Not least of which is Jennifer Jason Leigh, who makes a living talking dirty on the phone. I guess it’s amusing that she does it while changing a diaper and, in a way, it’s more interesting than PT Anderson’s similar set-up in Punch-Drunk Love. But Anderson made a whole movie about the porn industry that was nowhere near as dirty as Short Cuts. I hadn’t seen Short Cuts since my early 20s and I certainly understood more this time around. The relationships were fuller, more character connections were made, and Altman’s style was less foreign and obtuse. It has a very European sensibility, and if you’re OK with that, the rewards are there. B+ 
"I wanted to see exotic Vietnam, the jewel of Southeast Asia. I wanted to meet interesting and stimulating people of an ancient culture and kill them. I wanted to be the first kid on my block to get a confirmed kill."
"Oh, Michael. Michael, you are blind. It wasn't a miscarriage. It was an abortion. An abortion, Michael. Just like our marriage is an abortion. Something that's unholy and evil. I didn't want your son, Michael. I wouldn't bring another one of you sons into this world. It was an abortion, Michael. It was a son Michael. A son. And I had it killed because this must all end. I know now that it's over. I knew it then. There would be no way, Michael, no way you could ever forgive me - not with this Sicilian thing that's been going on for 2,000 years."
"Listen up, ladies and gentlemen. Our fugitive has been on the run for 90 minutes. The average foot speed over uneven ground, barring injury, is 4 miles an hour. That gives us a radius of 6 miles. What I want out of each and every one of you is a hard target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, hen house, outhouse and doghouse in that area. Checkpoints go up at 15 miles. Your fugitive’s name is Dr. Richard Kimble. Go get him."
“First of all, you write a screenplay without conflict or crisis, you’ll bore your audience to tears. Second, nothing happens in the world? Are you out of your f@cking mind? People are murdered every day. There's genocide, war, corruption. Every f@cking day, somewhere in the world, somebody sacrifices his life to save somebody else. Every f@cking day, someone, somewhere takes a conscious decision to destroy someone else. People find love, people lose it. For Christ's sake, a child watches her mother beaten to death on the steps of a church. Someone goes hungry. Somebody else betrays his best friend for a woman. If you can't find that stuff in life, then you, my friend, don't know crap about life. And why the f@ck are you wasting my two precious hours with your movie? I don't have any use for it. I don't have any bloody use for it.”
"They got this guy in Germany. Fritz – something or other. Or is it? Maybe it's Werner. Anyway, he's got this theory. You wanna test something, you know, scientifically - how the planets go round the sun, what sunspots are made of, why the water comes out of the tap - well, you gotta look at it. But sometimes you look at it, your looking changes it. You can't know the reality of what happened, or what would've happened if you hadn't-a stuck in your own g@ddam schnozz. So there is no "what happened". Looking at something changes it. They call it “The Uncertainty Principle". Sure, it sounds screwy, but even Einstein says the guy's on to something. Science. Perception. Reality. Doubt. Reasonable doubt. I’m sayin’ sometimes the more you look, the less you really know. It’s a fact. A proved fact. And in a way, it’s the only fact there is."