Brianland

I’m Not There — film review
“Life is a crazy, dark circus.”
FANTASTIC, inspired filmmaking. (I gotta look for more Todd Haynes.)  Maybe I was super-well prepared for it by this late date, but as it was, I could easily follow it, and it painted a brilliant million-dollar-picture.
Obviously the unsuspecting could be caught off guard by the allegory [...]

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It’s funny when some Americans talk about who is an American and who isn’t . . .
And it made me think of some commonly-perceived “Great Americans” who weren’t born here, like  . . .
Christopher Columbus (Italian)  (“discovered” America, and for whom cities & holidays, and circles & squares are named after)
William Penn (English)  (founder of [...]

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This is a work-in-progress . . . but it’s a helluva good list of movies . . .
Even if this list makes someone see just one great movie that they never have, it’s worth it.
.
Brian’s Top Elevan Movies:
(movies that are essentially perfect — every shot, every word, every scene, roughly speaking)
Rear Window
Treasure of The Sierra [...]

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Here are some of reviews of films I’ve written for IMDB.com . . .
http://www.imdb.com/user/ur2433069/comments
including:

1.
1969 (1988)  12 August 2003

2.
Bully (2001)  14 August 2003

3.
Carny (1980)  20 April 2005

4.
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001)  6 August 2006

5.
Festival Express (2003)  16 September 2003

6.
The Gates (2005)  3 July 2008

7.
Happy Accidents (2000)  11 September 2003

8.
Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971)  28 September [...]

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It opens Friday, April 4th.  Here’s some info on it . . .
Shine A Light  (2008)
The Rolling Stones, with Darryl Jones, Chuck Leavell, Blondie Chapman, Bernard Fowler & Lisa Fischer, and a 4-piece horn section led by a wailin’ Bobby Keys.
Special Guests:  Buddy Guy, Christina Aguilera, Jack White 
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Cinematographers:  Scorsese brought together [...]

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 film review:  Lucky Numbers (2000)
Directed by Nora Ephron; starring John Travolta, Lisa Kudrow, Tim Roth, Ed O’Neil, Richard Schiff, Bill Pullman, Michael Rapaport, Michael Moore. 
First of all – this is made by Nora Ephron!  Heartburn!  Sleepless!  Her and Penny Marshall have to be the two best female filmmakers going – at least of the older [...]

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Here’s an article I wrote on the film Festival Express, published in Relix Magazine, April 2004. 
Drivin’ That Train . . .        
The Festival Express Rolls Again After 30 Years
by Brian Hassett

“That was the best time I’ve had in rock and roll,” said Jerry Garcia. “There were no straight people.”
In the summer of 1970, the Grateful [...]

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Fawlty Towers
  
it was written / created post Monty Python (1969-74), by John Cleese and his wife, Connie Booth.  He had an opportunity to do “something” for the BBC, so they came up with doing a grumpy hotel manager, which was based on a recent film shoot by the Pythons making Holy Grail or something in [...]

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If you’re a fan of funny films and/or sixties music, boy is there a new movie for you!  The comic docu-drama “My Dinner With Jimi”, features master Hendrix, The Beatles, Brian Jones, The Moody Blues, Donovan, Frank Zappa, Jim Morrison and numerous others, all seen through the eyes of the writer, humorist and lead Turtle, [...]

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