I just find that I can't get overexcited about Prime, The Legend of Zorro or The Weather Man. A new Weekly Movie Guide is up at Gothamist, and I'll make the same suggestion here that I made over there: you should go see Paradise Now, which I saw and briefly reviewed during the New York Film Festival. Maybe it's a movie that a nice Jewish boy from a very pro-Israel family in San Francisco "shouldn't" like, but I found it incredibly compelling and, in its own way, a wonderfully balanced argument as to how many -- or maybe even most -- Palestinians view the current situation. It's also terrifying to watch these young Palestinian men calmly go through the process of preparing to blow-up themselves, how emotionally detached they must be on some level from those people they're closest to in order to take such a drastic action for what they consider to be a greater cause. I still find the most fascinating element of the movie to be the inclusion of the only rational (to my mind, and therefore, peaceful) voice in the movie to belong to one of only two prominent female characters. Paradise Now is simply a fascinating examination of a culture and a struggle many of us can't understand either due to our distance from it or our allegiance to one side or another.
Beyond that ... it's Halloween bitches! And kudos to the Two Boots Pioneer for their "All Night Vampire Movie Marathon." Sadly, I'll be packing and prepping my move otherwise I would seriously consider attending the 10-hour fang-fest, if only to catch Larry Fessenden's Habit and Guy Maddin's Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary, but the latter won't screen until after 4 AM, and while I'll likely be up, it will be because of my so-far-failing conscious effort to not still be packing when movers arrive next Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, I'd still love more feedback on the guides over at Gothamist. This week's is about half-as-long as my previous ones, but apparently still more than they want, so things may be fundamentally different (and more along the lines of simple suggestions rather than any type of overall view of what's out there) going forward, supplemented by other picks throughout the week. But again, let me know what you think ... what works, what doesn't. And feel free to comment on the Gothamist site too.
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