In lieu of anything else to say...

... Monica Vitti makes me remember my love of walking, napping, and movie magazines.

Peter Parker's Glasses

As the summer movie season is already in full swing it's worth taking a moment to appreciate the fact that rather than suffering through the bloated, special effects laden superhero blockbusters of yore we can now depend upon comic book films to deliver both balls out action AND compelling melodrama in a single package.

After the Batman & Robin debacle, studios had every right to throw in the genre towel (like they did with westerns and musicals) and search for a new direction; however, luckily for summer film goers everywhere, studios continued to green light new franchises and in the hands of capable directors and talented actors, the superhero blockbuster has (with some exceptions) been elevated from forgettable escapist pap to thematically complex and emotionally engaging cinema. This summer is bookended by Iron Man and The Dark Knight, serious, big budget productions featuring awards caliber actors in the title roles; not too long ago the best we could have hoped for was George Clooney playing cute in a rubber suit.

Whether you enjoy superhero films or not, there is no denying that the increased care and attention that has gone into their production has yielded surprisingly high-minded and well-made results.


Jump back to 2002. Yearning to be taken seriously, the producers of Spiderman 2 brought an early draft of their script to Pulitzer prize winning author Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay) for a rewrite. According to Chabon, the original version featured numerous costumed villains and suffered from a lack of focus. Chabon did a full rewrite, paring the narrative down to just two costumed characters, Doctor Octopus and Spiderman, and offering a more thorough treatment of their respective alter egos, Otto Octavius and Peter Parker. The script would undergo more revisions before filming but many of Chabon's key plot points remained intact (he was given a credit for screen story) and Spiderman 2 stands as arguably the most compelling and fully realized character study in the superhero film pantheon.

Recently released for a limited time as part of a promotion for his new non-fiction book Maps and Legends, Chabon's script lacks certain memorable scenes such as Mary Jane's disappointing attempt to recreate her upside down kiss or Peter gratefully accepting a piece of cake from Mr. Ditkovich's niece, but as a whole it is a more elegant and serious treatment of the film's basic themes of identity and duty.

Development of some of the side characters is lacking - Harry Osborne and Aunt May feel penciled in almost as an afterthought - but Peter and Dr. Octavius both benefit from Chabon's more thorough attention. Octavius especially comes across as a much more intriguing character and his romantic relationship with Mary Jane would have added an interesting dimension to the film. Chabon also authors a more graceful and physiologically plausible explanation of how Peter loses and eventually regains his powers.

Spiderman 2, for all its considerable merits, is admittedly uneven and at times benefits from an indulgent viewer's willingness to forgive certain inconsistencies and extrapolate meaning from subtexts that are very thinly explored. Fans of the movie will find much to appreciate in Chabon's script as it more candidly addresses some of the film's darker qualities and provides a more consistent and carefully considered view of Spiderman's world.

Michael Chabon's Spiderman 2 script - it really takes off about halfway in...

I understand that this script may be of limited or no interest to many Dinner on the Molly patrons; so, for the rest of you, here is Michael Chabon offering up his eloquent - yet strangely twitchy - endorsement of Barack Obama:

DVD Review: Youth Without Youth

Francis Ford Coppola took on quite an endeavor in making "Youth Without Youth". The film was financed by Coppola's successful vineyard and the original cut was a daunting three hours long. The poor editor Walter Murch had to sift through over 170 hours of footage just to get a releasable motion picture. Francis Ford Coppola is quite notorious for cinematic narcissism and it is well rumored that Robert Evans had to beg, plead and threaten a young Coppola to shorten the already epic "Godfather". So, it really is no mystery that "Youth Without Youth" being a personal piece of Coppola's resume of motion pictures dares not to defy his headstrong approach to filmmaking. "Youth Without Youth" is visually stunning, though. Adapted from the novella by Mircea Eliade, Coppola gathers a rather renowned cast to bring this story to celluloid: Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs, Little Odessa), Alexandra Maria Lara (Downfall), Bruno Ganz(Wings of Desire) and an uncredited cameo by Matt Damon.

Tim Roth plays Dominic Matel who at the very beginning of the film is an elderly professor of linguistics. When he is miraculously struck by lightning he begins to age backwards. The audience sees the film in forward yet reverse (chronological) order (if that makes any sense). As Dominic's predicament gains the attention of the growing Nazi party obvious conflict arises. Nazi scientists want him for experimental reasons and Dominic wants nothing more than to reunite with his long lost love, Laura. Dominic is also interested (to a fault) in the origins of language. The ultimate conflict is the fight to chose between what he wants and what he needs. "Youth Without Youth" is not meant for leisurely viewing. The complexities of this film don't hide in the plot necessarily but in the mere fact as to why someone would make such a motion picture. Many critics have called "Youth Without Youth" a 'personal film' which obviously falls on Coppola's lap. There is no doubt in my mind that this was indeed a 'passion project' but it is quite obvious why YWY got a limited cinematic release. Roth is wonderful despite his cryptic and almost philosophical lines of dialogue while Maria Lara's performance, despite her stunning looks is a mere after thought. If "Youth Without Youth" happens to be somewhere on your Netflix queue, I advise you to remove it immediately.

Caption this Picture! Punnett!

"Ah, yes, the pea plants are growing beautifully."

Let's Hear it for the Left!

I’ve always been fascinated with handedness. Only 10% of humans are left-handed, and being left-handed has some consequences for how the brain is organized. In lefties, language, a normally left-hemisphere dominant function, is more lateralized between both hemispheres of the brain – some even show a right-hemisphere dominance. While it is still unclear what effects these differences in cortical organization have on everyday functioning, it is possible that lefties, being wired a bit differently than 90% of the population, may have a few extra tricks up their sleeves.

With that being said, I was reading a popular press article about the handwriting styles of the candidates. While this stuff is probably a bunch of bunk, I thought it was fun to see that our two nominees (for all intents and purposes) are both left-handed. And, that four of our last six presidents were left handed (the exceptions being Bush Jr. and Carter).

Now we just have to hope that the left-leaning lefty becomes the next president.

We Can All Die Happy

Many of us know that when it comes to beers, nothing is more refreshing, nor more classy, than an ice cold Pabst Blue Ribbon tall-boy. Some of us might even love it so much that we want to drink it forever and ever. And if we really, really love those PBR pounders--like I know we do--we'll want to keep chugging them even after we're dead.

One such Chicago man took his love of the exceptional brew to unprecedented heights, ensuring that he can still enjoy a frosty PBR from the grave:


SOUTH CHICAGO HEIGHTS, Ill. — Bill Bramanti will love Pabst Blue Ribbon eternally, and he's got the custom-made beer-can casket to prove it. "I actually fit, because I got in here," said Bramanti of South Chicago Heights.

The 67-year-old Glenwood village administrator doesn't plan on needing it anytime soon, though.

He threw a party Saturday for friends and filled his silver coffin — designed in Pabst's colors of red, white and blue — with ice and his favorite brew.

"Why put such a great novelty piece up on a shelf in storage when you could use it only the way Bill Bramanti would use it?" said Bramanti's daughter, Cathy Bramanti, 42.

Bramanti ordered the casket from Panozzo Bros. Funeral Home in Chicago Heights, and Scott Sign Co. of Chicago Heights designed the beer can.







All I can say is, when I die, I hope I meet Bill at the bar in heaven so I can buy him a round.


PBR Fun Facts:
-Pabst was the first brewery to put beer in cans back in 1935.
-Pabst was originally called "Select," but people started asking for that "Blue Ribbon" beer in 1882 when the Pabst Brewing Company started tying silk ribbons to the bottles.
-The words "Blue Ribbon" were officially added to the bottle in 1895.
-The first cans had a picture of a can opener on the side with instructions on how to open the can of beer.

Elmo and Robert De Niro on Sesame Street

This may have been circling the net for a while now. I discovered this WATCHING the Street one afternoon and I was blown away on a number of levels. It's Elmo and De Niro shooting the shit about acting. What a right. A laugh riot.



ahahahah ahahahha ahahahah

Dolly, Goddamn.

Before she was the darling of the country music scene, Ms. Parton made some experimental forays into pop music with stellar results.


Don't Drop Out (1966).

I think end of semester congratulations are in order for anyone still in school.

Product Review: Life Vanilla Yogurt Cereal

I don't like milk and consequently I only utilize cereal in a dry snack capacity. Usually I stick with standard plain cereals like Cheerios but on my last trip to the store I decided to shake things up and try something new. Life Vanilla Yogurt cereal by Quaker is a mix of a vanilla flavored Life squares and yogurt covered oat clusters. Compared to Cheerios, it packs a higher calorie punch while providing just as much iron, folic acid, and essential B-vitamins. On paper this seemed to satisfy all of the core requirements for a solid snack cereal but as soon as I opened the box things fell apart.

Life Vanilla Yogurt cereal can kindly be described as tasting like generic brand Nilla wafers and leaves a film on your teeth reminiscent of sugary kids' cereals. I thought perhaps that the yogurt clusters would redeem the cereal but not only were there no yogurt clusters in the first two handfuls, I had to remove the bag from the box before I could even see one. In the bottom corner of the bag amidst the broken squares and Life dust were half a handful of pathetically small clusters. I dug some out only to find that they tasted exactly like the Life squares; in a blind taste test it would be nearly impossible to tell the difference between the two elements.

While certainly not the worst cereal I've ever had, Life Vanilla Yogurt is high on the list of most disappointing.

Tough Talk

More than any policy that I personally oppose, and even more than his chilling attempts to raise his arms, I am terrified by John McCain's dependence on teleprompters. Here he is "passionately" reacting to Obama's declaration of McCain's toughguyism.



I fully understand that a lot of campaign speeches are carefully constructed by enormous teams of strategists, but this method is unnerving. The way he turns his vehemence on and off is embarassing. Are the people in attendance really convinced that he is formulating what to say in his head? And even scarier, are they really pacified even if they know that he isn't?