August 03, 2004
movies
thanks to the peterson's generosity with their netflix, we've been watching a lot of movies as we wait for the baby to come. seems like most of them lately have been non-special-effects dramas and such, which is a refreshing change...just to have a good story acted well. we're generally behind the curve since we dont see all that many movies, so most recently we took in:
spellbound - a documentary about the national spelling bee. alway interesting, sometimes frightening, sometimes really funny. this sparked a good conversation about parenting, since some of the parents were basically slave drivers. I really dont think I want my kid memorizing words for 50 hours a week, but who knows what the future holds?
shattered glass - a true story about the reporter who made up stories in the New Republic back in '99. a well made film about a very messed up guy. bonus features include a '60 minutes' interview with the actual guy, who proves that, 5 years later, he's still messed up.
Posted by bobw at August 3, 2004 10:15 AM
I love spellbound! What a hilarious movie, even when it is not met to be. I do agree with you; I don't think that I would want that kind of pressure on my children. I espically think of the boy who was from India and was told that if he won, he Grandfather would feed 5,000 poor people in India.
Spellbound is the best. It's amazing to see a real documentary that so resembles one of Christopher Guest's mocumentaries (Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, Waiting for Guffman, etc.)--those guys are good. I love the old Texas couple that opens the film talking about why Angela is such a good speller--classic!
Spellbound is one of my faves. I bought it the day it came out on DVD.
Tech note: It was shot all on digital, edited on Final Cut Pro.
I'm a nerd.
I showed Shattered Glass to my journalism class and it provoked weeks of debate. They were the best lessons all year.
Did you watch the interview with the real Stephen Glass? Interesting.
yeah the interview proved to me that he learned pretty much nothing. not just the interview itself showed me that, but the fact that he was doing the interview in order to schlep his book about the whole affair (a "novel" which depicts him as the victim). what a dork. check out this slate article too: http://slate.msn.com/id/2091015/
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