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before sunset is a beautiful film. i feel that most of the time film pales when compared to theater in terms of really convincing character development, but this is one of the few films i've seen that had a real emotional depth to it. if this had been in new york, there's no doubt in my mind it would've been a strong contender for best new play. and just b/c it's expected and the norm, it is no less a travesty that julie delpy, who is breathtaking, wasn't nominated for a best actress oscar. (although apparently the boston society of film critics gave their "2nd best movie" award to before sunset and SF's critics, in a very independent move, gave delpy their best actress award.) i highly recommend you see before sunrise so you can see this movie. a big part of the depth of this movie to me was the power of seeing two people after 9 years has passed in real time. this is a big part of the attraction to the "up" documentary series (7 up, 14 up, 21 up, etc.) which andy and i started recently, which follows 14 or so british children and takes a snapshot every 7 years of their lives. we watched the first two and were immediately captivated and wanted to see the rest (49 up was released a few years ago), although i kind of want to hold off b/c it's a bit painful actually to see the years fly by in such quick succession. it has a richness of real life that, although it may be imitated well in film and literature (and extremely well in before sunset) isn't so deeply true. i highly recommend that series as well. apparently also there's a US version started in 1991. (btw the actors of before sunset have said they thought at one point could continue every 9 years which would be very interesting.)

i'm not the biggest fan of harry potter, but this site has some amazing disney-like interpretations of the books. the sketches get progressively better, and some are quite wonderful.

recently consumed: craig thompson's blankets: read it all in one go (staying up past my bedtime in the process). i seem to be on a catching-up-on-famous-indie-graphic-novels kick (next up is jimmy corrigan), esp. b/c the boston public library is well-stocked w/ them, and it's true it seems like a lot of them are about childhood and adolescence. in general it seems to me that way too much literature is devoted to what amounts to less than 1/4 of our lives, and since i've recently read two such books i was a bit distanced from the first part of the book; but i was soon won over. the artwork is well done and often blooms (esp. as the book progresses), and you'll find yourself falling in love w/ the main female protagonist as much as the main male protag does (who btw is a hottie). the book centers around a first, high school love (which i seem to have missed out on; not surprising since i grew up in hicksville). the denouement was a bit sudden, but the final chapter was just gorgeous. not an earth-shattering book, but very enjoyable and, like ghost world, a great intro to the graphic novel genre for people who think they wouldn't like them. and don't be surprised if you find yourself feeling particularly amorous to your sig other after reading it. here are the first few pages from amazon, the publisher's site, and a fairly ho-hum interview. before sunrise: surprisingly moving. on the surface the plot sounds like a "romantic comedy", but as you may know it's a very, very talk-y linklater film (he did waking life, dazed and confused (which i hated), tape, and school of rock). one of the things that made me appreciate it, though, is that the two protagonists were (perhaps intentionally) not "my kind" of people; so even though i was distanced from them as people, not being in love w/ them made me feel even more moved by their situation b/c it constantly reminded me that they were just two people out of millions in similar situations (one of the big themes of the movie). i really hope this was intentionally done by linklater (and the other writer). i'm inclined to think it was b/c linklater seems like an intelligent guy, and also b/c i think in real life ethan hawke isn't quite so toothy. either way, julie delpy is totally gorgeous. why isn't she in more movies? cheesy to say, but her skin can only be described as "luminescent", a la (as ethan hawke's character notes) a botticelli painting. next up: before sunset (the sequel!). no idea how that's going to be, but i'm really looking forward to it.

came across this site called askmen.com randomly that has proven to be a rather entertaining inside view of the straight man's psyche. in particular, their entries on female musicians are very amusing. apparently PJ harvey gets pretty decent marks, and they're not completely scared off by ani difranco. the categories are pretty hilarious ("personality & talent", "sexiness", "accomplishments & fame", "natural beauty", "personal style"), and the bios are actually pretty informative.