Lars and the Real Girl (and other stories)

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Last December, I saw Lars and the Real Girl (2007) in the theatre, and then again yesterday on DVD. This film is really charming, with a strong story line and a pitch-perfect cast. Nancy Oliver's screenplay was nominated for an Oscar and several other awards, and Ryan Gosling and Emily Mortimer also received recognition for their respective roles.

One of Ryan Gosling's earlier movies, Half Nelson (2006), is also one of my current favorites. It's a lot darker than Lars but also an intensely well-crafted piece with its own string of award nominations/wins.

To add to this tangential list, one of Emily Mortimer's earlier movies, Lovely and Amazing (2001), also features really strong performances from her, Catherine Keener, and virtually everyone else in the movie, including a young Jake Gyllenhaal. This movie was written and directed by Nicole Holofcener and was described in one quote on the cover as a "witty moving comedy!" Lovely and Amazing was witty, and it was moving, but in my opinion, it was definitely more of a drama.

Stranger Than Fiction (2006) featured Will Ferrell in a straight role. I think the man is a talented comedian, but after watching him on Saturday Night Live and later in a string of occasionally funny comedies, I wasn't sure he could carry this off. I was very pleasantly surprised by his acting in this movie. Maggie Gyllenhaal (Jake's sister) played the baker that Will Ferrell's IRS agent character is auditing, and Emma Thompson played an author with writer's block.

I don't know if I can continue the connect-the-actors element of this post, but there are a few other strong scripts I'd like to add to the list:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, and--in a minor role--Mark Ruffalo),

The Truman Show (1998, also starring Jim Carrey and the lovely Laura Linney, who starred in 2000's You Can Count on Me with Mark Ruffalo),

Love Actually (2003, with a large ensemble cast including Emma Thompson, Laura Linney, Colin Firth, and Hugh Grant),

Sideways (2004, with the underappreciated Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, and Sandra Oh),

and Little Miss Sunshine (2006, with Abigail Breslin, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Alan Arkin as the grandfather you might not want your kids to hear, the incomparable Steve Carell, and Bryan Cranston in a small but pivotal role).

Happy Poetry Month! (Part 2)

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A couple of days ago, I posted links to some poetry online, and today I wanted to highlight some alternatives to traditional print reading:

Visit Born Magazine, "an experimental venue marrying literary arts and interactive media." One of Born Magazine's recent collaborations featured a poem called "What Afterlife" by Keetje Kuipers paired with an interactive design by Andrew Kostuik. In addition to the multimedia version, there is an option to view the poem in a static form.

Sign up for Knopf's Poem-a-Day mailing list and receive one poem via e-mail on each day in April. To subscribe, send a blank e-mail message to sub_knopfpoetry (at) info.randomhouse.com or visit www.randomhouse.com/knopf/poetry/poemaday.
The first poem to be featured this year was "A Phone Call from the Future" by Mary Jo Salter, from her book A Phone Call to the Future: New & Selected Poems. Knopf's site also has links to the poems, broadsides, and a podcast, which includes Mary Jo Salter reading this poem.

Listen to more poets reading on the web. The April is National Poetry Month podcast features a number of poets reading and discussing their own work. One of my favorite poems I've heard so far was "The Big Picture" by Ellen Bass. (You can get to this one by scrolling down toward the bottom of the page and clicking on the accompanying Play button.)

Become a vector (or just print a lovely broadside for yourself) at Broadsided. Their current feature is "Among Trees (or) The Heart Is a Bee Hive" with art by Elizabeth Terhune and poetry by Cindy St. John. (Please click here to view this broadside as a pdf).

Then, when you're tired of cruising around on the web, go outside! It's finally April. Walk to your local bookstore and buy a literary journal or a book of poetry, or attend a reading or other event celebrating Poetry Month. The Academy of American Poets has a calendar of events happening throughout the United States, and the League of Canadian Poets has a readings calendar for Canada.

Happy Poetry Month!

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Now that we're into April, I wanted to post links to some poetry:

"Purple Peruvian Potatoes" by Rosa Salazar (a poem from r.kv.r.y., Winter 2008)

"The Lake Oswego Girls' Soccer Team at the Hilton Pool" by Keetje Kuipers (a poem from From the Fishouse, December 2006)

"The Sleepwalker's Wife" by Zachary Greenwald (a poem from The 2River View, Summer 2006)

"Swallowed" by Anne Haines (a poem from Valparaiso Poetry Review, Spring/Summer 2007, and reprinted in Best of the Net 2007)

"Dreaming Your Death" by Karen Buckley (a poem from Orbis, Spring 2005)

"she told me her mother slept with a revolver" by Justin Hyde (a poem from The Orange Room Review, October 2007)