1) Requiem For A Dream (2000) – Ellen Burstyn is phenomenal (she was nominated for an Oscar in this role as Sara Goldfarb) in this film that centers on addiction and spiraling delusion of four linked characters played by Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans. I’ve said it before: though it’s labeled a drama it’s actually one of the better horror films released in the last decade, and I remember Aronofsky himself saying it was a roller coaster ride that crashes into a brick wall — like that was most moviegoers' idea of fun! Burstyn’s palsied declaration, “I’m going to be on television,” with the refrigerator coming after her is indelible stuff. Each character ends up in the fetal position.

"Man, I see in Fight Club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. Goddamn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off," says Fight Club's Tyler Durden -- played to perfection by Brad Pitt  -- who is the dark alter ego of the nameless narrator/protagonist played brilliantly by Edward Norton. Equally powerful is the actress Helena Bonham Carter in the supporting rolel of Marla Singer. Meat Loaf and Jared Leto also play secondary characters in the film.

Today, October 15th, 2009, is the ten year anniversary of the date the David Fincher directed movie first arrived in cinemas.  Based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk, the engaging dark tale, with its underlying theme of consumerism and the ptifalls of materialsim, is about the nameless Edward Norton character who, in his struggle with insomnia and lack of medication to treat it, ends up in support groups, which he soon becomes addicted to attending. And then by some twists of fate he gets drawn into the web of the dark violent psychē of Tyler Durden, ending up living in his large dilapidated house where the fight club is formed. The violent and provocative film, which has a really dark humor to it, is the sort of film you can go back and watch repeatedly. The movie's great soundtrack by the Dust Brothers also includes The Pixies ("Where Is My Mind"), Marlene Dietrich ("No Love, No Nothin"), and Tom Waits ("Goin' Out West")... Look for both the Fight Club CD and DVD at each Amoeba Music store. Below is the scene with the eight rules of Fight Club.

I was 15 years old when My So-Called Life was on TV, exactly the same age as its main character, Angela.  I remember watching it as it originally aired on ABC and becoming more and more obsessed with the show.  I really felt like it was like watching my own life in so many ways...  except I don't have an annoying little sister, just an aggravating older brother.

The parents are truly exactly like my parents, the friends really are like my friends from high school, especially Sharon, Ricky and Brian-- I didn't have my own Rayanne until college.  Everyone has had a Jordan Catalano in their life to some degree, let's face it.

Anyway, so the show has just been reissued on DVD and I am having the best time watching and reliving it all.   I guess it's been about 2 years since I watched any of the 19 episodes, and this DVD set has all kinds of extras the other one didn't.  The day I got the new box set I eagerly watched every extra (minus the commentaries as of yet). 

There's a recent interview with Claire Danes (Angela) and she has this weird air about her.  She seems unnaturally poised or something, and her perfectly coiffed layered blond hair stands in stark contrast to her fire engine red stick straight hair back when she played Angela.  She seems miles away from Angela, and I guess she should since that was 13 or so years ago.  In a way though, I still feel often like that kid I was in high school, and Claire, despite admitting to sharing many characteristics with the fictional Angela, seems not only to have moved waaaaay beyond her 15 year old self, but also seems determined in her speaking on the DVDs to prove it to be so.  Maybe a lot of people come up to her in the street and still expect her to BE Angela.  That really would get old.  I'm glad she's agreed to be on the new DVDs at all.  It was an interesting experience to see her now, speaking about what transpired so long ago.