Ravenweb Blog

Lebanon, PA is a well executed mediation on the value and benefits of living in the big city versus a small town in contemporary America. Will is a mid-career ad professional from Philadelphia who returns to Lebanon, Pa. to bury his recently deceased father. As he closes out his father's affairs and spends some time in Lebanon, he discovers to his surprise that the small town life suits and soothes him. He discovers the simple pleasure of mowing a lawn, begins a romantic affair with a local, and questions whether he can live in a small town like Lebanon permanently. Lebanon, PA was an interesting film and I enjoyed the performances and attempt at a nuanced, non-judgmental portrayal of the cultural divide in America. In summary: give this indie movie a chance. My rating: three stars (out of four). You can learn more about the film at the Lebanon, PA movie website or on Twitter @lebanonpa_movie , and watch the theatrical trailer at http://youtu.be/mulTye9gsFk .

I really wanted to see Waiting for Superman when it came out in theaters, and I finally had a chance to see it a few weeks ago. That I ended up watching it the day before the Oscar's was coincidence, although I was shocked that the film wasn't even nominated for Best Documentary. A lot has already been written about the movie, so I'll stick to my immediate impressions, which I logged right after seeing the film: The American public school education system is broken. We now lag the other major powers in student performance. Good teachers are vitally important, but unfortunately there aren't enough of them and there are too many mediocre and bad teachers. Even worse, bad teachers are almost never fired. We don't measure teacher performance well enough. We need some way of rewarding excellent teachers. Some public schools are essentially "dropout factories". Charter schools have arisen as a viable alternative to public schools. If you're an ...

All companies need creation myths, and if one doesn't exist, it's probably necessary to invent one. It's unclear how much of The Social Network is fact and how much is exaggerated and fictionalized, but it doesn't really matter as David Fincher's film succeeds as a compelling story of a smart but irreverent college student who doesn't quite fit in at Harvard but pounces and executes the right idea at the right time. The results speak for themselves as Facebook has become the number one social network site in the world. I enjoyed the film and especially appreciated the balanced treatment of Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg). He comes across neither as a sympathetic figure nor as a villain, but somewhere in between, and mostly as a lonely and sometimes angry kid who desperately wants to fit in. This flailing coupled with his savvy at building innovative web applications (first MP3 software, than the infamous Facemash, and, finally, Facebook), leads to an unexpecte...

She's Out of My League is a mildly funny and easy-going-down comedy about an average guy named Kirk (played by Jay Baruchel) who finds himself dating Molly (Alice Eve), who's better looking, smarter, and more successful than he is. Basically, he's a 5 out of 10, and she's a 10. The premise works because the characters are likable and we want them to work it out and be happy. This is true despite the fact that there are no real surprises here, and the plot paints by the usual romantic comedy numbers. I did like that the story took place in Pittsburgh, and that the writers gave Molly some substance -- she is ridiculously pretty, but she's not an airhead. I recommend She's Out of My League if you're interested in a light romantic comedy with some probable rising stars, especially Jay Baruchel and Alice Eve.

I had a chance to watch three movies during the recent Memorial Day break. As it turned out, it was a case of really good, decent, and just so-so. Whip It! Whip It! was a lot of fun, with a quirky, indie feel and great performances. The movie follows Bliss (Ellen Page), a small town teen who joins a women's roller derby team in Austin, Texas. Drew Barrymore really impresses in her directorial debut -- the film has a lot of energy, the characters are believable, and the film avoids the girlsploitation trappings that might have been tempting or hard to avoid in a story about a provacative women's sport. Bottom Line: Definitely recommended. Date Night Date Night was pure comfort food. Steve Carrell and Tina Fey are two of the funniest people on the planet, and you generally are guaranteed to be entertained when you watch one of their movies. They don't disappoint in Date Night , and even though the script isn't great, they wring as many laughs and funny moments ...

TiMER is a fresh and fun Indie film where the technology exists (TiMERs) to show people the numbers of days, hours, minutes and seconds until they will meet their soul mate. The film is ostensibly a romantic comedy but it resists easy categorization and at times feels as much like a drama or a science fiction film as it does a romantic comedy. We learn about TiMERs through two sisters -- Oona (Emma Caulfield) and Steph (Michelle Borth) -- who approach dating and relationships in large part based on the readouts of their TiMERs. For example, Steph knows that she won't meet her soul mate for many years, so she is casual in her encounters and resists intimacy. Oona's TiMER is blank, which indicates that her soul mate hasn't installed a TiMER yet, and the impasse leaves her frustrated and impatient for her one to emerge. In this state, Oona departs from her calibrated routine and begins a relationship with a younger man. The change and excitement wake Oona up, and she finds...

When I conceived and started the 25 Days of Christmas blog series , I didn't know all the topics I would post about or the item I would feature on Christmas Day. I figured my bias would slant toward It's a Wonderful Life or A Christmas Carol , because of their strong, emotional stories and staying power. I knew I always liked A Christmas Story, but it wasn't until I started thinking about just how well the movie captured what it felt like to be nine years old during Christmas that I knew it would be my Day 25 choice. When you're nine, there's that one gift you want for Christmas above all else that interjects so much high drama and gravitas to the Christmas season. You're so excited for Christmas that the days leading up to the holiday seem to go on forever and you wonder if Christmas will ever arrive. Though there's some anxiety that accompanies the wait for Santa and the uncertainty that you'll get that one gift you want, the relative slow-moving ...

At some point in It's a Wonderful Life , George Bailey begins to resemble one of the many men Thoreau foresaw leading lives of "quiet desperation". There are so many reasons why this is a great Christmas movie, but what's always stood out for me is the honesty of George's desperation. Many of us know what it's like to pine for better opportunities and are one medical illness away from financial ruin. What the movie does so well is remind us to keep perspective, and remember our family and friends and all the things we have instead of what we don't. This is part of my 25 Days of Christmas blog series.

A Christmas Carol is of course one of the most celebrated and timeless Christmas stories of all time. The redemption of Ebenezer Scrooge -- in both the original text and movie sources -- is one of those moments that transcends its material and is truly timeless. Everybody has a favorite, of course, and I'm no different. I prefer reading the original Dickens novella and watching the 1984 George C. Scott film version . Every year I try and read the novella or watch the movie. I love the story. It's a tale of hope with a stirring message that it's never too late to change. Perhaps Scrooge's nephew, Fred, says it best: I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come around apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-...

Now we're talking. Bad Santa is crude, lewd, and utterly irreverent. But it's also hilarious and, in my opinion, the best Christmas comedy of them all. This movie works and is funny in so many ways that a lesser film like Scrooged is not because it starts with a bad, drunken Santa (played by Billie Bob Thornton) premise and carries it through for the whole movie. It doesn't compromise or cheat to a happy ending. Yes, there is a lonely uncool kid who attaches himself to Santa. But instead of the redemption arc, where the kid helps the bad Santa become a better person, it's Santa who helps the kid become a little bad and less of a loser. Of course this film isn't for everyone. My wife, for one, detests the movie, and refuses to watch it with me. But for people who know that sometimes a movie is very funny and "not about what it is about" [1] , Bad Santa is a holiday gem. [1] Roger Ebert, Review of "Bad Santa" This is part of my  25 Days...

The film version of The Polar Express deftly combines traditional Christmas elements in a fun, adventure story. This comes together as a young boy boards a train on Christmas Eve headed for the North Pole. On the trip, he encounters other children and sees many fascinating things, and ultimately receives a "gift" of Christmas. This is part of my  25 Days of Christmas  blog series.

Today's Christmas post comes from my wife who, when I asked her for a contribution to this list, quickly came back with the original A Miracle on 34th Street . As this is a Christmas film I've never seen in its entirety (something I hope to rectify this year), I was curious why she liked it so much. She said, foremost, that it's a great story that not only connects with traditional Christmas themes but, in its own right, illustrates the power of hope and faith. Beyond that, my wife said that she thought the film was ahead of its time (it came out in 1947) and deserving of respect for featuring a divorced, single mother as the female lead. This is part of my  25 Days of Christmas  blog series.

Reid Gershbein is one of my root friends I grew up and he's just released a new movie entitled Here. My Explosion... under a Creative Commons license. There's also a Boing Boing thread about film here .

Mickey Rourke is exceptional as an aging broken-down wrestler and delivers a memorable, bravura performance. Go see The Wrestler, if you haven't already.

I love the Half-Life franchise , so I thought this short movie was great (not to mention remarkable considering the budget).

The trailer for The Incredible Hulk is out, and I'm psyched. If the clip is any indication, it looks like the second film in the new franchise avoids the mistakes of the overly ponderous Ang Lee effort and gets it right, illustrating Bruce Banner's dilemma of being the Hulk but contrasting that struggle with the need for the Hulk against monstrous villains, like the Abomination.

Caring for a baby doesn't allow much time to see movies, but I saw a few over the holidays. The titles are listed in the order in which I saw the films. Dan in Real Life was the first (and, to date, only) movie my wife and I saw in a movie theater since the birth of our daughter. Because the novelty of an evening out away from the baby loomed so large, it's difficult for me to assess if the movie was really any good or not. I can say I enjoyed Steve Carell's performance and the easy digestion of the movie. I was also happy to see Juliette Binoche again, and may finally forgive her (and all involved) for The English Patient . Bukowski: Born Into This is a documentary about Charles Bukowski, a troubled but gifted Beat poet and novelist who, since his death in 1994, has become increasingly popular and interesting to modern readers. I had heard of and read some Bukowski prior to seeing the film, but I was mostly ignorant about the author's life and work. The documentary ...

This is one of those entirely self-indulgent and nonsensical posts, but I was wondering who I would want to play me in a movie. Instead of focusing on actors who look like me or maybe have similar mannerisms, I picked actors who I enjoy, are close to me in age, and who I think in various ways represent my personality. The candidates to play me are: Zach Braff Why? He can likely portray my nerdiness while still being funny. Plus, his star is on the rise, so he would be a big box office draw. John Cusack Why? With The Sure Thing , Better Off Dead , and the classic Say Anything , John Cusack has already played me, or played a version of myself, just as he's no doubt played versions of countless other men who grew up in the 80s. And this was before he did High Fidelity , and anyone who was the lead in that movie would definitely nail the part of me. Joaquin Phoenix Why? The sleeper pick of the bunch, Phoenix brings intangibles and an intensity to his craft that few other actors can mat...

I didn't see that many movies over the summer, mostly due to the time sink of extensive home remodeling. But I did watch a few (mostly DVD rentals) and wanted to provide some capsule opinions. The titles are listed in the order in which I saw the films. Blood Diamond This was very good, much better than I thought it would be. A fast-paced thriller set amidst the gruesome Sierra Leone Civil War, Blood Diamond deftly managed to combine a traditional action plot within the moving context of a broader historical arc, in this case, unsavory diamond-mining in Sierra Leone. Djimon Hounsou was superb as a fisherman captured by Revolutionary United Front rebels who eventually finds a huge, rare pink diamond. Leonardo DiCaprio was effective (despite the accent) as a Rhodesian merecenary who trades arms for diamonds but eventually makes the moral choice. - - - - - - - - - - Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End I group Spider-Man 3 and Pirates 3 together because bo...

You are my root movie and have been a seminal influence. Thank you. See also: Young Jedi .