Half-Blood Prince

"Your King Osama looks like a dirty wizard, or a homeless Santa Claus."

-Sacha Baron Cohen as Bruno

Which unfortunately kind of sums up my personal appearance today. I'm all unkempt and unshowered and whatnot, I need a haircut, and I just had one of those weird epiphanies which revealed to me that I'm still wearing the same shirt I was wearing twenty-four hours ago. I've changed everything waist-down, thank God, but no dice with the shirt. You ever have those? I'm pretty easily distracted, and then sometimes stuff like this escapes me.

Also, see Bruno. Even if you're easily offended, you need to be offended by this. Besides being the funniest movie released this year (to say the least), it's an important piece of cultural reflection, probably will stand as one of those weird time-capsule artifacts in fifty years. And honestly, haven't you always wanted to watch an English comedian in character as an Austrian fashionista blow the ghost of Milli from Milli-Vanilli during a seance?

I also saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yesterday, and I thought it was just a gorgeous movie. I'm one of those rare folks who think that the series is much better on film (J.K. Rowling is a hack who had one good idea). Many elements are missing from the bloated, self-indulgent source novel, and that's a good thing; conceptually, it remains intact, but many of the unnecessary bits from the book can be summed up in a single scene. Which they are, here. I'm glad they stuck with this David Yates fellow (who, for the uninitiated, directed Order of the Phoenix and will now go on to direct the two-part Deathly Hallows). I actually kind of hate the last three Harry Potter books, Order more than the others, but I absolutely loved that movie. And this one.

It contains, first of all, the most magnificent shot of the series: the camera backs away from Hermione, crying on Harry's shoulder in a heartbreaking failure of strength, then it begins a radial track winding like a spiral staircase up the outside of one of the tower/turrets of Hogwarts, through a window of which we see Ron sharing a secret kiss with his new infatuated girlfriend; at the top of the tower, the camera shifts into a vertical track of the castle to reveal Draco Malfoy brooding in the shadows of an upper floor, tormented by the injustice of the course his life must now inevitably take. A single, unbroken shot, mind you, no edits which are in any way obvious.

Things like this are what make this movie; action is mostly absent (although what action there is feels harsh, brutal, and absolutely real). But I love the element of burning sexuality among the students, which comes more to the forefront here than ever before. For anyone who cares to listen, I've long thought it criminally idiotic to pretend the age of sexual consent to be 18; the entire cast of Hogwarts kids, from 14 on up, are totally capable of said consent, and the camera simply loves them for it. It's evident in a curve outward of hip, as Ginny Weasley goes in for another secret kiss with Harry (she has a boyfriend, and tells Harry "You can leave that up here as a secret too, if you like"), in totally natural, undirected physical cues evident in everyone; that these actors are actually teenagers is apparent in every way. Mr. Yates, brilliant though he is, didn't have to tell them how to kiss each other, or how to attract each other. See Hermione sit coldly next to Ron, wanting furiously to imagine them as an old married couple before any overt courtship has ever begun; see also the way she takes his hand and leans over him while he hurts in Madame Pomfrey's sick room, relieved that she can do what she needs to while he sleeps. That's what this movie is about; I won't bore anyone with spoilers or plot details.

The new Wilco album is awesome. I don't have the proper perspective to write about it yet, but you should buy it.

No one forget about the Clever Animals' dates on the 24th and 31st. That's all. :)