Yummy or Crummy?

Stranger Than Fiction (2006), Sony Pictures Entertainment

Recently I received a complimentary SIFF membership for a year. (Thank you, SIFF!) That means that from time to time, I’ll have a chance to go see a film before it opens nationwide. So I jumped on an opportunity to check out Stranger Than Fiction, scheduled to open November 10.

In short, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I know that’s not saying much, but I can’t spoil the movie because Lucretia has not seen it and she’s a large chunk of this blog’s readership — so I can’t afford to offend her.

But I will say a bit more. I think the main concern I had before I saw the film came from a review I vaguely remember reading a while back, which accused the film of relying too heavily on the initial “interestingness” of the premise — which is the main character played by Will Ferrell, Harold Crick, can hear the voice of the author narrating the story of his life — to carry the entire film. I’m not sure if I summarized that correctly, but now that I’ve seen the film, I don’t agree with that statement. I believed in the characters, I sympathized with them, and I was touched by what happened in the end. It didn’t matter that the plot was wholly unrealistic or not believable, because the characters were all likable, sympathetic, and well acted. The “interestingness” of the premise didn’t seem overused — with a film like Being John Malkovich or Memento, sometimes you find yourself distracted by the trickery, and looking for some inconsistencies in the film so you can feel smart. With this one, not so much. I was basically content to watch the film and root for the main guy.

I hope Lucretia will see it so we can talk about it more!

I’m not usually a gamer at all, so I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m just recently getting into Nintendo DS. A few weeks ago, I had a chance to take it home to try out its wifi feature for work, and that’s when I got hooked.

That weekend I played Mario Kart against some punk on the internet, and he (or she) kicked my butt. Then I played against my friend, also over wifi — he still beat me but I put up a better fight. Once I got connected to the Nintendo’s system, the gameplay was surprisingly smooth.

Conveniently enough, my birthday was coming up — so I convinced Lucretia that we should introduce this nifty little machine into our lives as my birthday present. It helped that she got hooked on it during the same weekend. Her game of choice: Tetris DS. And I was doubly excited to find out that they had JUST come out with two new colors: onyx black and coral pink.

The photos above are my new black DS. It’s sweeeeet! If it wasn’t for this I would be posting here more often, but for now, I’m way into New Super Mario — Princess Peach needs me, so blogging can wait. This is a phenomenal game, by the way. It is such a great combination of nostalgia and new challenges. The levels are designed so well — by the time you realized you’re addicted, it’s too late — you have to keep going! Plus the website (by POP) reflects the charm of the game perfectly.

LOVE. IT.

I just started listening to The Sound of Young America podcasts. I like the laid back style of the host, Jesse Thorn — he doesn’t hesitate to delve in without being on the offensive when he’s interviewing.

I caught a few episodes from the podcast archive, and heard some standup comics that I liked.

Mike Birbiglia was really funny. He often mumbled and sounded timid, which reminded me of good ol’ Mitch Hedberg. The comedy style is not very similar, though — who can imitate Mitch, anyway? I do like his self-depricating humor.

Brent Weinbach is another comic I heard at the end of the episode. He did a bit on substitute teaching in Oakland. A bit racist, maybe. But still hilarious. Reminded me of some of the stories that Lucretia would come home with during her student teaching.

Fall movies look better than the summer ones so far. Lucretia and I went to see Lost in Translation — I didn’t drool over this one like the critics have been, but I like Billy Murray so naturally I tend to like the movie better. I’d say B+. I want to see Cabin Fever (pancakes!) but Lucretia won’t go near it…. I also want to see Anything Else, and after that the winter releases look good, too. TLR, Matrix, The Last Samurai… Luc and I will definitely be continuing our weekend-matinee tradition in Seattle.

Better Luck Tomorrow official Web site

Here’s Salon’s review. Not a great review, but I don’t really trust movie critics anyway, even Salon’s. As an Asian I should have been the first in line to see this movie when it came out. I’m shooting for this weekend — hopefully X2 will attract the big crowd so I can watch this in peace.