A balloon the size of a football stadium will lift the BLAST telescope array above Earth's atmosphere to photograph deep space.
The science is hands on and way out there in two recent documentaries just out on DVD:
“BLAST!”: The title stands for “balloon-bourne large aperture submillimeter telescope” which, I’ll grant you, doesn’t sound all that sexy.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Paul Devlin’s documentary is about a group of astrophysicists who hope to photograph deep space by using a massive balloon — it’s the size of a football stadium — to lift a sophisticated telescope above our atmosphere. There it can drift for several days, taking pictures of parts of our universe never before seen.
Most of the team members — professionals and grad students — hail from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Toronto.
Devlin’s film follows months of preparation as the telescope is hand crafted. Then his cameras tag along Continue Reading »
Posted in Deep thoughts...maybe, Documentaries, New on DVD | Tagged Antarctica, astrophysics, nanotechnology, Ray Kurzweil | 1 Comment »
“CARS 2” My rating: C- (Opening wide on June 24)
105 minutes | MPAA rating: G
The animation wizards at Pixar are yet to make a genuinely bad movie.
But with “Cars 2” they’ve made a truly mediocre one.
Continue Reading »
Posted in Popcorn movies | Tagged "Cars 2, Larry the Cable Guy, michael caine, Owen Wilson, Pixar | Leave a Comment »
“ANOTHER HARVEST MOON” My rating: C (Opening June 24 at the Glenwood Arts)
88 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13
With “Another Harvest Moon” we get about 300 years of acting experience up there on the movie screen.
Too bad that talent is put it to such unremarkable use.
Continue Reading »
Posted in Art house fare | Tagged alzheimer's, Anne Meara, Doris Roberts, Ernest Borgnine, Piper Laurie, retirement homes | Leave a Comment »
(This piece has nothing to do with movies. Occasionally I feel the need to write about something different. Enjoy.)
Some years ago, my wife Ellen came home from her job at the Kansas City Art Institute with a wriggling bundle of joy.
It was a puppy given to her by one of the students (kids were always trying to balance their studies with pet ownership and failing), who said it was a black Lab.
Our daughter named him Josh.
Josh was loyal, loving, dumb and destructive in ways that only an energetic, tail-wagging Labrador retriever can be. Also, it turned out that while there might have been a black Lab in his family tree, there was a lot more Great Dane. This was one big dog. Continue Reading »
Posted in Reveries, Uncategorized | Tagged black labs, dog stories, labrador retrievers | 2 Comments »
Get your tickets and gird your loins.
GayFest is upon us.
That’s the Gay & Lesbian Film Festival of Kansas City, for the uninitiated, and it gets underway Friday, June 24 at the Tivoli Theatre in Westport.
I’ve been able to pre-screen several of this year’s titles; what follows is one guy’s picks of the best of the fest: Continue Reading »
Posted in Art house fare, KC Film Scene | Tagged " "Leave It On the Floor, " "The Boys in the Band, " Chely Wright, " Ewan McGregor, " Mart Crowley, " neo-burlesque, " voguing, "Beginners, "Fishnet, "Gun Hill Road, "Making the Boys, "Wish Me Away, Carson Kressley, Christian Seriano, Christopher Plummer, Edward Albee, Esai Morales, Harmony Santana, Judy Reyes, Kansas City Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Mike Mills, Rashaad Ernesto Green, Roddy McDowell, William Friedkin | Leave a Comment »
I have met Terrence Malick.
I’ve talked to Terrence Malick.
In a manner of speaking, I interviewed Terrence Malick…to my knowledge, I’m the only journalist ever to have done so.
Flashback to 1979:
Malick, whose “The Tree of Life” is currently in theaters dividing audiences like a hot knife through a stick of butter, was attending Show-A-Rama, a gathering of movie exhibitors and studio reps that for more than 20 years was held in Kansas City. (It subsequently evolved into ShowWest and moved to Las Vegas).
That year the relatively unknown Malick was named Show-A-Rama’s Director of the Year and showed up to claim his plaque. (At this May’s Cannes Film Festival he declined to make an appearance to collect his Palme d’Or for “Tree.”) Continue Reading »
Posted in Art house fare, Deep thoughts...maybe | Tagged " "Days of Heaven, " "The New Woirld", " "The Thin Red Line, "Badlands, "Tree of Life, Show-A-Rama, TerrenceMalick | 5 Comments »
THE VETERAN ACTOR STARS IN “ANOTHER HARVEST MOON,” OPENING JUNE 24
Ernest Borgnine has longevity.
Ernest Borgnine (with Anne Meara) in "Another Harvest Moon"
At the age of 94 he can look back on an acting career that includes a best actor Oscar (for playing the titular lovesick butcher in 1955‘s “Marty”) and roles in landmark movies like:
“The Wild Bunch,” “Bad Day at Black Rock,” “From Here to Eternity,” “Johnny Guitar,” “The Vikings,” “The Flight of the Phoenix,” “Escape from New York,” “The Dirty Dozen,” “Ice Station Zebra” and “The Poseidon Adventure.”
And those are just a few of the more than 100 films in which he has appeared.
So when he gets recognized on the street (and it happens all the time), what movie do strangers always mention?
“It’s not a movie,” Borgnine said in a recent telephone interview.
“It’s the TV series. ‘McHale’s Navy.’ Everybody knows that show.
Continue Reading »
Posted in Art house fare | Tagged Anne Meara, Another Harvest Moon, Doris Roberts, Ernest Borgnine, old age, Piper Laurie, retirement community | 2 Comments »
“THE TREE OF LIFE” My rating: A-
138 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-134
“The Tree of Life” is a sublime, transcendent movie experience.
“The Tree of Life” is like watching your car rust.
That both of the above statements are true only goes to show the uniqueness of the latest effort from the reclusive Terrence Malick.
Continue Reading »
Posted in Art house fare, Deep thoughts...maybe | Tagged ", " "The Tree of Life, " mysticism, "2001: A Space Odyssey, "Tree of Life, Brad Pitt, creation, Jessica Chastain, Sean Penn, Stanley Kubrick, Terrence Malick | 3 Comments »
“THE WOODMANS” My rating: B (Opening June 17 at the Screenland Crossroads)
84 minutes | No MPAA rating
How do you compete with a ghost?
That’s the conundrum facing a family of artists in the wake of the suicide of their hugely talented and deeply disturbed daughter.
George and Betty Woodman struggled much of their lives to make it as artists. He was an abstract expressionist painter. She was a ceramicist whose credo was to make useful objects.
But they were easily eclipsed by their daughter Francesca, who picked up a camera in high school and by the time she was enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design was already on the way to being one of the 20th century’s great photographers.
Her classmates recall a girl who didn’t come to learn so much as to refine her already established style. Francesca specialized in self-portraits, often nudes, taken in aging rooms with peeling wallpaper and worn floors.
Continue Reading »
Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries | Tagged Betty Woodman, Francesca Woodman, George Woodman, nudes, photography, Rhode Island School of Design, Scott Willis | 4 Comments »
“MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS” My rating: C (Opens wide on June 17)
95 minutes | MPAA rating: PG
Jim Carrey used to be dangerous.
You wouldn’t know that from “Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” a soft-hearted comedy that has “cute” scrawled all over it.
Continue Reading »
Posted in Popcorn movies | Tagged Angela Lansbury, Carl Gugino, Jim Carrey, mr. popper's penuins, penguins | 1 Comment »
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