Movie Diary 11/14/2011

Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954). Filling out the program for an upcoming talk at the Frye Art Museum on films that explore confined spaces or perspectives; and needless to say, nobody does it better.

To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962). I am always amazed at how many years can go by without re-visiting a film. But yes, the movie is awfully good, and those small-town roads and front yards make a city person wish he’d spent part of his childhood there, as I certainly wished when I was 13 years old, thanks to this film.

Everyday Sunshine (Lev Anderson, Chris Metzler, 2010). If your life ever brushed up against the madcap music of Fishbone, this rockumentary about the band ought to fill in some gaps. (full review 11/18)

One Big Hapa Family (Jeff Chiba Stearns, 2010). I am doing some blogging and interviewing again this year for KCTS-TV’s ReelNW series, movies made in the Northwest. This is a nicely-judged look at the filmmaker’s interracial British Columbia family, as he finds the “inter” part might have much to do with the effect of World War II (many Americans may be surprised to learn that Canada’s actions against its citizen of Japanese descent were just as terrible as the U.S.A.). More on ReelNW, including the ability to watch the actual movies and interviews, here.

At What a Feeling!, more Eighties stuff: a review of The Man Who Wasn’t There, a movie that has nothing to do with the Coen brothers and everything to do with Steve Guttenberg and 3-D.