Sufficient Cynic

England is a slightly more difficult destination, mostly becuase, unlike the sun-drenched coastline of Italy, England isn't necessarily known for its sun-drenched, well, anything.  It's a lot of craggy rock coastlines and temperamental weather patterns, leading to a film culture that is disappointingly lacking in road trip films.  I personally have always been a bit obsessed with England, considering myself at least a mid-level Anglophile.  I blame it on reading Pride & Prejudice at an early age, but the truth is it goes further back.  My parents, my dad especially, were PBS fiends in the 70s and 80s, basically anticipating the next installment of Poldark the way people today are jonesing for Breaking Bad.  As further explanation, I was once told that I had probably spent a previous life in England, to which I basically said, "no duh!".  Anyway, all of this is to say that while I've done my research on British films, not many of them have the "Tour Arou…

In the past there have been monster movies, fighting robot movies, and action movies that dabble in between, but I'm not sure that any movie has gone for the whole shebang quite as well as Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim.  I was initially excited for this film for several reasons, and none of them have to do with me being an exceptional fan of either of the first two categories mentioned above.  First and foremost, as I think with most people who were truly excited for this film, it was the director attached.  Del Toro is one of the few directors for whom the term "visionary" can't be used often enough. He and his team are usually able to put such visceral and palpable effects on the screen, that, even if you want to, you can't look away (see the creepy underground lair king in Pan's Labyrinth for more clarification on this phenomena).  The second reason being that, well, it's summer and I just wanted my friggin' blockbuster, all right?  Is that …

Every now and then I have a night where I just can't sleep, as I'm sure most humans with remotely stressful lives can attest.  You're exhausted and get in bed and then it's too hot, it's too cold, it's too dark, the alarm clock is too bright, it's raining, you wish it was raining, etc.  Whatever the case is, we all have some way of attempting to deal with the tossing and turning.  A long time ago, I found mine:  The soundtrack to the beautiful film Il Postino(The Postman). It was a gift to me on my birthday a long, long time ago(I can still remember) and but I didn't fully appreciate the wonder of it, or it's magical powers until about 7 years ago.  I had forgotten about it for a bit, mixed in and hidden beneath all of my other cds, until I had one of those re-discovery moments, when suddenly the beauty of this album carved out a place in my heart and has stayed there ever since.  The odd thing about the soundtrack is that in no way is it soporific…