Margot at the Wedding

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We saw the trailer on another DVD. We thought it looked promising.

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Not even the great Jack Black could save it.

Nicole Kidman plays Margot; she and her son are off to what looks like Connecticut for the wedding of her sister Pauline (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, in one of her rare non-prostitute roles); the groom is Malcolm, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Jack Black.

The entire group is more than a few sigma on the high side of the dysfunctional bell curve. Margot is especially egregious. She can't help herself from bringing chaos and hurt into her own life and those around her.

And everyone shares just way too much. You never heard such a bunch of narcissistic wankers rattling on about things that either (a) shouldn't be talked about; or (b) nobody could possibly care about. My guess is that a lot of the dialog was "improvised", which nobody should do unless they're Will Ferrell, and usually not then.

And, yes, this was two Nicole Kidman movies in a row. Good catch.


Last Modified 2024-02-01 5:35 AM EDT

The Phony Campaign

2008-05-25 Update

Hillary maintains a slim lead in the only poll that matters:

Query StringHit CountChange Since
2008-05-18
"Hillary Clinton" phony226,000+2,000
"Barack Obama" phony223,000+7,000
"John McCain" phony216,000+17,000

The big upward swing in McCain's hits may have something to do with what blogger John Hawkins calls his propensity for "lying through his teeth on one of the most crucial election issues and then changing his position the first time he believes he can get away with it."

The issue, in case you haven't heard, is so-called "comprehensive immigration reform," a hot-button issue for Hawkins and a lot of other conservative bloggers. You'll want to read Hawkins' full post (and this followup) for the full dose of outrage. But the bottom line is:

Put very simply: John McCain is a liar. He's a man without honor, without integrity, who could not have captured the Republican nomination had he run on making comprehensive immigration a top priority of his administration. Quite frankly, this is little different from George Bush, Sr. breaking his "Read my lips, no new taxes pledge," except that Bush's father was at least smart enough to wait until he got elected before letting all of his supporters know that he was lying to them.
Not everyone's with Hawkins on this. Professor Bainbridge deems Hawkins' post a "screed" (and Michelle Malkin's reaction is a "hissy fit"). According to the prof, nothing really changed in McCain's position.

Jim Geraghty was concerned enough to get the word from the McCain campaign.

Team McCain tells me the senator's comments were poorly worded. There's been no discussion within the campaign of altering their stance on illegal immigration, and as far as everyone on the campaign is concerned, the policy is still, 'secure the border first.'
Well, that's a relief. The campaign's policy hasn't changed.

My view: Hawkins has it essentially right. McCain altered his public pronouncements on immigration just enough to gull GOP primary voters. But he's simply too self-righteous to whole-heartedly adopt a policy at odds with his pro-comprehensive history. His "poorly worded" comments were just the result of a slipping mask.

Which is why Senator McCain gets sole posession of this week's phony posting.


Last Modified 2014-12-01 11:02 AM EDT

Dick Martin is Dead?

You bet your bippy.

[UPDATE: you can look that up in your Funk and Wagnall's.]


Last Modified 2008-05-25 11:01 AM EDT

Experimental Results

2008-05-25

This week's test of the Sunday Basic Cable Movie Actor Theory:

  • 11:00AM on AMC: Force 10 From Navarone (Harrison Ford)
Unexpectedly slim pickings this week.

Force 10 was made between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. Ford is pretty wooden in it. I remember, seeing it in the theater at the time, thinking something along the lines of: "This guy was pretty good in Star Wars, but we'll never see him in anything else again."

Theory status: unrefuted for fourteen consecutive weeks.