November Notes

Is it November already?

I realize it's been a while since I've posted anything movie-related. That's partly because there haven't been very many movies that I've felt compelled to see in theaters and partly because, per usual, I've fallen behind in my reviews.

I did finally finish my writeup of "The Social Network", which hasn't worn particularly well with me over the last month. Don't get me wrong, I still think it's a good movie; I'm just less and less convinced it's the masterpiece so many were proclaiming it was when it first came out.

Looking ahead, I'm eagerly anticipating the Colin Firth Oscar vehicle "The King's Speech" and Darren Aronofsky's mad-ballerina thriller "Black Swan", both of which should drop some time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm also planning on seeing, among other things, "127 Hours", though I probably won't be able to watch the most talked-about scene (if you don't know why, Google "Aron Ralston"), and "Howl", because one can never get too much of James Franco and because I'm one of the geeks who's actually intrigued at the prospect of Franco recreating the original reading of the entire poem.

Finally, R.I.P. Jill Clayburgh, best known for her performance in "An Unmarried Woman," which I haven't seen, but who built a well-respected career on screen and stage. And a much more belated R.I.P. for the divine soprano Joan Sutherland, whom I'll always associate with her frequent duet partner, Luciano Pavarotti, but who was as a great a star in her own individual right.