Pema Chödrön // The Wisdom of No Escape // Books // Thursday, April 12, 2012 // 1 note

“The message is that each of us has all that it takes to become fully enlightened. We have basic energy coursing through us. Sometimes it manifests as brilliance and sometimes it manifest as confusion. Because we are decent, basically good people, we ourselves can sort out what to accept and what to reject. We can discern what will make us complete, sane, grown-up people and what — if we are too involved in it — will keep us children forever. This is the process of making friends with ourselves and with our world. It involves not just the parts we like, but the whole picture, because it all has a lot to teach us.” — Pema Chödrön

Breathless // Jean-Luc Godard // # // Monday, February 13, 2012 // 3 notes

“Modern movies begin here, with Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Breathless’ in 1960. No debut film since ‘Citizen Kane’ in 1942 has been as influential. It is dutifully repeated that Godard’s technique of ‘jump cuts’ is the great breakthrough, but startling as they were, they were actually an afterthought, and what is most revolutionary about the movie is its headlong pacing, its cool detachment, its dismissal of authority, and the way its narcissistic young heroes are obsessed with themselves and oblivious to the larger society.” — Roger Ebert

“Modern movies begin here, with Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Breathless’ in 1960. No debut film since ‘Citizen Kane’ in 1942 has been as influential. It is dutifully repeated that Godard’s technique of ‘jump cuts’ is the great breakthrough, but startling as they were, they were actually an afterthought, and what is most revolutionary about the movie is its headlong pacing, its cool detachment, its dismissal of authority, and the way its narcissistic young heroes are obsessed with themselves and oblivious to the larger society.” — Roger Ebert

Friday Night Lights // Tami Taylor // Eric Taylor // # // Monday, February 13, 2012 // 1 note

Mulholland Drive // Naomi Watts // Laura Harring // David Lynch // # // Tuesday, December 20, 2011 // 95 notes

“For ‘Mulholland Drive’ finally has little to do with any single character’s love life or professional ambition. The movie is an ever-deepening reflection on the allure of Hollywood and on the multiple role-playing and self-invention that the movie-going experience promises. That same promise of identity loss extends to the star-making process, in which the star can disappear into other lives and become other people’s fantasies. What greater power is there than the power to enter and to program the dream life of the culture. Who needs continuity if you can disappear into a dream?” — Stephen Holden, New York Times

“For ‘Mulholland Drive’ finally has little to do with any single character’s love life or professional ambition. The movie is an ever-deepening reflection on the allure of Hollywood and on the multiple role-playing and self-invention that the movie-going experience promises. That same promise of identity loss extends to the star-making process, in which the star can disappear into other lives and become other people’s fantasies. What greater power is there than the power to enter and to program the dream life of the culture. Who needs continuity if you can disappear into a dream?” — Stephen Holden, New York Times

Jonathan Franzen // Freedom // Books // # // Monday, December 19, 2011 // 4 notes

500 Days of Summer // Zoey Deschanel // Joseph Gordon-Levitt // The Beatles // Ringo Starr // # // Tuesday, December 13, 2011 // 8 notes

Tree of Life // Terrence Malick // # // Monday, December 12, 2011 // 20 notes

“Terrence Malick’s ‘The Tree of Life’ is a film of vast ambition and deep humility, attempting no less than to encompass all of existence and view it through the prism of a few infinitesimal lives. The only other film I’ve seen with this boldness of vision is Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ and it lacked Malick’s fierce evocation of human feeling. There were once several directors who yearned to make no less than a masterpiece, but now there are only a few. Malick has stayed true to that hope ever since his first feature in 1973.” — Roger Ebert

“Terrence Malick’s ‘The Tree of Life’ is a film of vast ambition and deep humility, attempting no less than to encompass all of existence and view it through the prism of a few infinitesimal lives. The only other film I’ve seen with this boldness of vision is Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ and it lacked Malick’s fierce evocation of human feeling. There were once several directors who yearned to make no less than a masterpiece, but now there are only a few. Malick has stayed true to that hope ever since his first feature in 1973.” — Roger Ebert

Laura Dern // Enlightened // HBO // # // Sunday, December 04, 2011 // 17 notes

“The show is fueled by small moments in which people miss opportunities for connection or self-improvement rather than seize them. The only other TV series that can match ‘Enlightened’ in this department is ‘Louie’ — and in some ways ‘Enlightened’ might be more impressive, because it’s so much more tightly structured and outwardly traditional, yet strikes emotional notes that are just as surprising … The series manages to be corrosive and compassionate at the same time. Judging from what’s on-screen, there’s no doubt that White and Dern appreciate and empathize with all of these characters even though they don’t cut them so much as a millimeter of slack. What we’re seeing isn’t a cliched ‘edgy’ indie film worldview — a variation of ‘I love humanity; it’s people I can’t stand.’ ‘Enlightened’ is richer than that. It’s merciless yet somehow not misanthropic. The tone is about as warm as can be without turning gooey. ‘Enlightened’ is probably the sharpest satire of modern white-collar work since the original British version of ‘The Office,’ and its skewering of this world intertwines with its portrait of individual personalities so deftly that you can’t separate them. White has a social satirist’s keen ear and eye.”— Matt Zoller Seitz, Salon

“The show is fueled by small moments in which people miss opportunities for connection or self-improvement rather than seize them. The only other TV series that can match ‘Enlightened’ in this department is ‘Louie’ — and in some ways ‘Enlightened’ might be more impressive, because it’s so much more tightly structured and outwardly traditional, yet strikes emotional notes that are just as surprising … The series manages to be corrosive and compassionate at the same time.

Judging from what’s on-screen, there’s no doubt that White and Dern appreciate and empathize with all of these characters even though they don’t cut them so much as a millimeter of slack. What we’re seeing isn’t a cliched ‘edgy’ indie film worldview — a variation of ‘I love humanity; it’s people I can’t stand.’ ‘Enlightened’ is richer than that. It’s merciless yet somehow not misanthropic. The tone is about as warm as can be without turning gooey.

‘Enlightened’ is probably the sharpest satire of modern white-collar work since the original British version of ‘The Office,’ and its skewering of this world intertwines with its portrait of individual personalities so deftly that you can’t separate them. White has a social satirist’s keen ear and eye.”— Matt Zoller Seitz, Salon

Laura Dern // Enlightened // HBO // # // Sunday, December 04, 2011 // 15 notes

Laura Dern // Blue Velvet // David Lynch // # // Sunday, December 04, 2011 // 4 notes


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