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January 20, 2004

Movie notes

I’ll admit it: I actually want to see Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. I mean, come on, it’s got Topher Grace in it. And Josh Duhamel. Oh, and I guess there are some girls in it too, I don’t know. Heh. It comes to theaters this Friday, along with an altogether different movie that Thom and I plan to see at some point, a French animated film called The Triplets of Belleville. The new E Street Cinema (and most other Landmark Theatres) will be showing Triplets with Destino, an animated short that began as a collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dalí and has finally come to the big screen. Sounds amazing. And looks amazing, too, from the available stills (or cels, I suppose).

Burnt MoneyLast weekend I watched Plata quemada (Burnt Money) on DVD. It’s an Argentinean film set in 1965 concerning two gay gangsters (who are also lovers) on a heist gone terribly wrong. It was okay. I mean, the premise is neat, the main characters have some depth and there’s good acting to support it, and the movie is visually interesting. But the plot wears thin and tiresome, and after a while it all just seems needleesly protracted. So it’s a wash.

Linguistic aside: I found it interesting that in Argentina, vos is used rather than (the familiar “you”). All the characters in the movie use vos with each other (I didn’t get what they were saying at first), and when they cross the border into Uruguay, one of them meets a local who says she knows he’s not from around there, what with his accent and all his “vos, vos.”

The article I link to above also mentions the corresponding verb forms (e.g., vos tenés instead of tú tienes, “you have”), but I don’t remember if they were prevalent in the movie. My Spanish skills are getting rusty. Is it time again for that PBS language-learning series disguised as telenovela, Destinos? And by the way, anyone remember French in Action? How about Say It with Sign? Oh, what a tangent this is. I swear this was about movies when I started. I’ll stop for now.

Nate and Max

“Your man found a boyfriend.”

I turn around. “What?!”

For a second, I think Thom’s talking about Rufus, but no, not him. He means my other man, Nate Berkus. Le sigh. My design cutie is off the market. For now.

Nate BerkusThom’s latest comment today on my blog expresses some surprise at my not having written about it. Heh, maybe I’ve just blocked it out? So yeah, here’s the scoop: Nate Berkus has hooked up with Will & Grace co-creator Max Mutchnick. What a pair. We must have them over for dinner, eh?

On the other hand, am I the only one who has a love-hate relationship with super-cute power couples? (Well, as much as one can have a “relationship” with famous people one has little chance of ever meeting.) Maybe I’m just jealous. Er, I mean, I wish them all the best.

(W&G note: Megan Mullally will host Saturday Night Live on Feb. 7, 2004, with musical guest Clay Aiken.)