Rattle Down the Bones

Fall foliage has arrived after a temporary detour into winter (including a night where it sounded like the house was in a giant bowl of Rice Krispies as trees which did not expect to freeze did). An acquaintance believes this is a sign of the end times, snow in Boston before Halloween. All this seasonal instability has just made us aware of how ready we are for egg nog - which could be year-round, like chocolate milk, and why not? Why not year-round egg nog? Who is suppressing this?

Thanks to impromptu arrangements by Mom's friend Ellen, we did manage a small bonfire for Guy Fawkes', despite this almost certainly being illegal, and we did throw in a Guy and keep the fire going long enough to roast sausages over his flaming effigy. Sausages: slightly dry. Apple cake afterward: excellent.

Ciro and I have been watching a lot of movies now that we have time to do that.

Martha Marcy May Marlene - Good. Excellent, even. Also, when driving there, I found a new route to Kendall Square, and it's much faster and simpler. Therefore five stars.

The Illusionist - Some of it was funny, but the script really shows its age and I have trouble believing in the "innocence" of the relationship between the characters, or finding the gender politics short of troubling. I identify with the rabbit.

Bridesmaids - I only saw the last half hour, and it had a phoned in "everybody dances" climax along with some raunch that felt forced, but there was enough absurdity thrown in to keep me interested.

Deep Red - Argento film considered possibly the best Giallo film of all time. As usual in these kinds of movies, I don't understand why the leads stupidly put themselves in danger, but the murders were extraordinarily well handled. Connecting them to physical sensations the audience would have experienced is genius, and the surrealism is beautiful and terrifying.

Taxi Driver - I don't really understand the last 10 minutes of the film and often found myself wondering how the audience felt, watching it brand new - how different from their expectations it was, or how closely it conformed or didn't to their views of New York. There was a lot more humor than I'd been led to believe by the superfans who as usual seem to have not understood what they were watching. Also interesting because DeNiro and Shepherd physically resemble Ciro's parents when they were that age. Would consider assassinating dead Ronald Reagan in exchange for some of the sunglasses that appear.

Hanna - dreamlike, visually excellent, often funny, great score, but couldn't find a point of entry to the narrative - was either too high concept or too low concept for me. I still like Joe Wright and Saorise Ronan. An interesting failure.

Melancholia isn't out yet, but I'm very excited about it.