Film sidenotes;

Quickly going to jot down some film notes before I head to my next class. I like to have my initial reactions in writing and I've been watching more movies than usual lately. Though I'm certainly behind on seeing the Oscar nominees for this year - out of the nominees for Best Picture, I've seen exactly 0. Ahem.
Onto my recent views:

No Country for Old Men (2007): A brilliantly written and suspenseful thriller, directed by the Coen brothers and based on its namesake novel by Cormac McCarthy. Javier Bardem is absolutely bone-chilling here as a murderous sociopath.

Chunhyang (2000): This is a Korean film that I found notable for its mix of both modern storytelling features as well as the traditional pansori musical poetic style involving a singer and a barrel drum player. It's a universally known tale of love and loyalty in Korea that has been made into a movie for modern audiences by director Kwon-taek Im. Great way to experience Korean culture and history.

As for movies that are currently out in theatres, I'm excited to see Coraline (a surreal animated film which opens tomorrow, based on a Neil Gaiman book), as well as The Wrestler and Slumdog Millionaire. My housemates and I tried to go to see Slumdog last week, but it was sold out at E St Cinema. Sad.
Anyway, I'll sum up by saying I'm pleased that I am getting plenty of respite from my academic- and job-related duties so far this year. My friend just got me a DVD of Shakespeare Behind Bars which I'm excited and curious about - it's about Kentuckian prison inmates performing Shakespeare. Reminds me of the episode of This American Life (which I loved) in which Missourian prison inmates get together to put on a staging of Hamlet. You can listen to that one online by following the preceding link.