Even by Playtime standards, this week is pretty heavy on film reviews.  Which isn’t a bad thing at all.  I likes me my movie reviews.  And our headline article this week is by Adam K., making his first (of many, gods willing) appearance on our front page, with his review of James Gray’s Two Lovers.  Now, I have yet to see a single one of Gray’s films, but Adam’s review really piqued my interest.  I’ll probably start with We Own the Night, since it’s available for instant viewing on Netflix, and I’ve already got Two Lovers saved for whenever it hits DVD.  The review is eloquent and contemplative; I get the impression it is much like the film.

The non-review article this week is a humor piece by Alex M., a send-up of gossip columns, in which he pokes fun at the “outrageous” behavior of celebrities — or, more accurately, the way in which gossip columnists respond to everything celebrities do, whether it’s truly outrageous or not.  Very funny stuff.

My own contributions are reviews of Quarantine and Duplicity.  Neither film was very impressive, though Quarantine gave me quite a lot to chew on, and a lot of that was a response to my earlier consideration of Cloverfield and Diary of the Dead from last year.

Altogether, I’m rather grateful for the pieces by Alex and Adam.  It would’ve been a bummer to have two reviews that amount to “meh” with nothing to mitigate that.  Thorough praise for one film and a satirical bite at contemporary media are just the right amount of balance.  Plus, Brian Jewell did a smashing job of selecting and editing the images for the front page.  Very eye-popping.

Sidenote: Isn’t it odd that “eye-popping” is usually a superlative way to describe something that is visually pleasing, whereas “eye-gouging” is an extremely negative way to describe something that is visually unappealing?  When you think about it, if someone’s eyes literally pop, that’s just as messy as if they were gouged out.  Hm.  Perhaps “eye-popping” isn’t the right word, but it does look fabulous.

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