Alacrity

What I did on my Christmas break (so far):
1. Got my parents' tivo set up.
2. Watched movies (via tivo and Hastings).

Rankings from my movie spree
1. Rope (Jimmy Stewart, Alfred Hitchcock) - very good. I see now why my mom didn't like Murder By Numbers. It's a rip off of Rope with similar plot elements but none of the charm. The AMC guy pointed out it was filmed to look like a continuous shot (with two intentional exceptions). It's fun to watch for the tricks they used to allow edits without stopping the camera movement.
2. Beautiful (Minnie Driver, Joey Lauren Adams) - really funny. Thank goodness Miss Adams never went into psycho-crying mode like in Chasing Amy. That was so painful.
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - weird, good, but not that good.
4. Arsenic and Old Lace (Cary Grant, Teddy Roosevelt)- hilarious in that classic movie way. Source of a favorite quote of mine: "Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops."
5. Call Northside 777 (Jimmy Stewart again) - interesting to watch, not action packed or anything. I thought he'd get in trouble with the mob or something, but Jimmy never ran into anything worse than hostility and one gun.
6. Lemony Snicket's... - didn't like it, I'm sorry to say. I didn't hate it, but I wasn't charmed.
7. Bottle Rocket - not my favorite Wes Anderson by a long shot, but interesting.


I also rewatched some movies. I highly recommend them all:
Garden State - after my second viewing I bit the bullet and bought the overly popular soundtrack.
Harvey - hilarious Jimmy Stewart movie. Has great composition in parts, styled like a play being filmed rather than just a movie.
Rear Window - classic. Can you tell I've become a big Jimmy Stewart fan?
Royal Tenenbaums - My favorite Wes Anderson film (I haven't seen the new one yet).
Men in Black - I think that makes 400 times I've watched it.
Vertigo - This was my third viewing. You need to watch it at least this many times to figure out what actually happened. Supposedly, Hitchcock was hunting for a replacement for Grace Kelly at this point in time. Kim Novak didn't make the grade, in my opinion.