Today's Birthday's

The lovely and wonderful Maggie Gyllenhaal turns 30 today

The Goonies are Good Enough, Martha Plimpton turns 37 today The Cosby Kid I always fancied, Lisa Bonet turns 40 today

Whatup?

Didn't have as much time to myself to watch as many films as I'd hoped this weekend and have only had time to watch two. The two are pretty different movies.

Stranger Than Fiction (2006) is Will Ferrell's first foray into more serious material (a lá Jim Carrey in the Truman Show) and is surronded by a wonderful cast including the lovely Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman and Arrested Development's Buster Tony Hale. The film reminded me a little of Charlie Kaufman's work in the most flatering sense, writer Zach Helm is certainly one to watch for the future, the high concept plot sees Ferrell as an IRS investigator who starts hearing a woman's voice narrate is life, one days he hears her say that is death is imminent. It's a wonderfuly kookie movie that I strongly recommend.

Con Air (1997) is a different type of movie = pure popcorn. The movie is dumb from start to finish and more then once defies logic and common sense, it's never meant to be high art but it's utterly enjoyable with enough exciting and (intenionally) funny moments. A good cast to boot including Ving Rhames, M.C. Gainey and Dave Chappelle in supporting roles, Steve Buscemi is the best though, when I was a youngling this film played a small part in me becoming a fan of him.

The Departed, The Devil Wears Prada, Rent and The Black Dahlia should be among those watched this week.

Bask in the loveliness of...

Maggie Gyllenhaal

A bit about me and film

I have exactly 1650 DVDs. That's a lot right? Yeah I know the answer, it was a rhetorical question. I started collecting them in September 2001 after having a long love affair with VHS, whilst VHS was in my childhood and teenage life, I had to rely on pocket money to feed my habbit and never reached the heights of 1650 that my adult life could afford me.

My favourite actors are Robert De Niro (I own 45 of his films, I'm getting there) and Jack Lemmon. My favourite actress is probably Audrey Hepburn, but have love in the modern world for Natalie Portman and Maggie Gyllenhaal. My favourite director is Billy Wilder with Scorsese a very close second. My favourite film, I often usually cite as Once Upon a Time in the West but it's very hard to choose and my favourite television show of all time is M*A*S*H.

I am a filmmaker with a couple of shorts under my belt, people consider me talented and I could go with that, I have also taught film theory and film history on occasion.

I am not here to personally argue if I am or you are a bigger film geek (or fan or whatever) and Harry Knowles or Q.T might be world famous film geeks and I'm not comparing myself to them. I am writing here cause I love film.