: a bright region on the sun caused by the light emitted from clouds of
calcium and hydrogen and often associated with a sunspot
HOT! HOT! HOT! Merciless heat, and I'm staying out of it. No walk for Daisy today. Gabriel has speech therapy and Julia has to meet with some colleagues today.
A lot of famous people were born today: George Bernard Shaw, Carl Jung, Aldous Huxley, Robert Graves, Stanley Kubrick, Mozart, Mick Jagger, Kevin Spacey, Sandra Bullock. (There will be no profile today.)
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New Movies Opening This Weekend:
The Watch The release date of this sci-fi comedy was pushed back due to the Trayvon Martin, but it sounds too goofy to really offend anyone with sensibilities. It wasn't screened for most critics, which is surprising for a film with stars who are genuine box-office gold: Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill. Filmed in and around Atlanta, the film is about four suburban guys who get together to form a sort of neighborhood watch group, only to discover that their 'burb is being infiltrated by aliens.
Verdict: Mildly Interested
Killer Joe An NC-17er! Director William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) brings to the screen another Tracy Letts play (after 2006's Bug) and this one is earning some good reviews, especially for Matthew McConaughey's turn as a genteel hit man. Emile Hirsch stars as a drug dealer whose stash is stolen by his rotten mother (Gina Gershon), forcing him to get it back. Thomas Haden Church and Juno Temple co-star. Everyone is rotten and amoral, and the rating is due to graphic violence, sexuality, and brutality. It will be interesting to see if McConaughey gets an Oscar nod for his work.
Verdict: Mildly Interested
Step Up Revolution What else do you need to know? It's the fourth entry in the Step-Up series. Fun movies, but if you've seen one you've seen them all.
Verdict: Not Interested
Ruby Sparks Paul Dano, not the most charismatic of performers, and his real-life girlfriend Zoe Kazan (who wrote the script) star in this quirky romantic comedy from the directors of Little Miss Sunshine. Dano is a young writer who has come down with a case of the Block. He creates a female character (Kazan) who soon enough comes to life! Good reviews, though it's said to create only mild sparks. Co-stars Annette Bening (in a tiny role), Elliott Gould, Steve Coogan, Antonio Banderas (blink and you'll miss him!), and Chris Messina.
Verdict: Not Interested
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Today's promised work of art by yesterday's birthday boy Thomas Eakins?
Max Schmitt in a Single Skull
1871
oil on canvas
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Eakins, arguably the greatest portrait painter to come out of America in the nineteenth century, studied in Europe and then returned to the states in 1870. Almost immediately, he began painting rowing scenes. Schmitt, a champion oarsman and boyhood friend of Eakins, is in a skull on Philadelphia's Schuylkill River. Eakins himself, rowing away, is in the distant boat. For one of the first times in his career, Eakins captures outdoor motion, but here each figure seems temporarily paused, as if in mid-motion. The details are clear and bright. It's a big, luminescent example of American Realism.
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Speaking of Matthew McConaughey. He definitely deserves a spot in my list of the 500 Greatest Performances (English-language) of All Time? For what? Well...
Matthew McConaughey
as Mick Haller in The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)
McConaughey continues to grow and grow as an actor. Here he's at his slick, rhythmic best, giving a jazzy, infectious performance as a slick criminal defense lawyer taking on the case of a pampered rich boy (Ryan Phillippe, chilling) accused of beating and raping a prostitute senseless. Just watching McConaughey walk, you know how in character he is. The actor makes Haller flawed, smart, a little misguided, strong, certain, cunning. I frankly couldn't see any other actor in this role and doing it with so much sexy verve and charisma. The only reason this film and performance wasn't recognized at last year's Oscars was because of it's early release date (March) and, I guess, because voters saw it as a dime-a-dozen genre pic. I've seen the film three times now and I'll probably watch it again soon.
Images:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Max_Schmitt_in_a_Single_Scull.jpg
http://www.cinemablend.com/images/news_img/22178/the_lincoln_lawyer_22178.jpg
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120509013840-killer-joe-story-top.jpg
Information:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/34.92
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