Category Archives: there’s a difference between films and movies

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Dumb

Posted by katie ett on March 14, 2012 – 12:00 pm
Filed under good times at everyone else's expense, readin' and writin', there's a difference between films and movies, why i'm better than everyone else
Tagged as , , , ,

Isn’t it funny when you’re so close to something that other people’s lack of knowledge about it seems preposterous?

Like when your co-worker comes up to your desk in the year 2010 and asks, “Have you heard of this band Radiohead?”

Or when you overhear a guy dining at the finest restaurant in the city ask the waiter if the oysters can be left off of their signature dish.

Or when you read a blog post in which a woman goes to see the movie version of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, one of your favourite books of all time, and writes:

I was tearing like a silly woman at some point whereas my hubby was holding up his chin and trying hard to keep himself awake with the pop corn. The story about a boy who lost his father in 911 is sentimental but rather slow moving. I think it’s probably not a movie for men who usually enjoy comedies and action.

Have you ever seen someone so entirely miss the point?

Yes, I have a superiority complex.

A Guide to What Happened at the Oscars for People Who Don’t Really Care

Posted by katie ett on February 27, 2012 – 12:00 pm
Filed under there's a difference between films and movies
Tagged as ,

I didn’t watch the Oscars last night (and similarly didn’t see a single one of the nominated movies this year, because seriously, what?), but here’s what I gather happened based on the tweets and Facebook updates of my friends:

• Billy Crystal appeared in blackface (this has to be a joke, right?)

• J. Lo’s nipple slipped

• People liked Rooney Mara but not her name

• Everyone thought it was funny to talk about current nominees winning for previous pictures (“if Christopher Plummer doesn’t win for The Sound of Music . . .”, “Meryl Streep has it in the bag for Death Becomes Her“)

• Cirque du Soleil was really the whole reason to watch, unless you were a straight male, in which case it was “gay”

• Someone named Octavia Spencer exists and did something that people are “whoo!”ing about

• Last night was the first night that anyone ever noticed Angelina Jolie is skinny

• Someone sang a song and was missing a tooth

• People exist who don’t like Tom Hanks (WHAT?!)

• Jonah Hill got fat again (YES!)

• People care more about zombies than award shows

I didn’t see The Artist, but here’s my favourite Facebook post about its winning, by my friend Steve:

“What a shock! A mediocre movie that makes people feel that they’re smart and sensitive. Once again, the Academy sinks to the occasion.”

His friend Drew asked, “Was it the ‘Here Come The White People To Save Us!‘ movie?”

Steve said, “No, it was the ‘It’s Silent So It Must Be Art‘ movie.”

Until next year, when I don’t watch again!

I’ve Never Seen Star Wars

Posted by katie ett on September 13, 2011 – 12:00 pm
Filed under there's a difference between films and movies
Tagged as ,


Star Wars wallpaper by Super7

I’ve never seen Star Wars. I don’t know that what’s-his-name is Luke’s father, and I don’t know that Luke and Leia are brother and sister, and I couldn’t name that famous planet they’re all from right now if you had a gun to my head. I mean it.

What haven’t you seen?

Extremely Loud & Incredibly, Incredibly Close

Posted by plumpdumpling on May 18, 2011 – 12:00 pm
Filed under living in new york is neat, narcissism, readin' and writin', stuff i like, there's a difference between films and movies
Tagged as , , , ,

I got to Kamran’s apartment after work yesterday to find these signs taped in front of his building:

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Filming

I know it really steps on a lot of people’s toes to say things like this, but I really feel like Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close means more to me than it does to anyone else.

Okay, maybe it means more to one other person. And maybe it means just as much to you. But it means a lot–a lot–to me.

I read it just after I started working at Barnes & Noble in December of 2005. I had lived here for just over five months and was, as I’ve previously embarrassingly admitted–crying all over the damned city. And of course the book is about walking all over the damned city. I missed my dead mom, and Oscar was trying to find a piece of his dead dad. I knew I was being manipulated by cutesy phrases like heavy boots, but I felt like my own boots were dragging me into the concrete, so I didn’t care.

My then-boyfriend kept asking me why I was reading this book that would make me cry two minutes after I sat down with it, but it was too beautiful to put aside. Ability to produce continual, pathetic tears or not, a well-written book still eases my mind. I haven’t been able to touch it since, and my copy sits on my bookshelf still tabbed with sticky notes on every other page to mark my favourite spots. And I’ll never forget the way the pages leading up to the end just fly by, building up to the climax so much that I felt like I could actually hear a trumpet fanfare in my head. Apparently this is something that happens to me with books I really, really love, because I remember it with my very favourite book, Dandelion Wine, and one of my other Top Fives, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

So it seems really meaningful somehow that the movie version of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is taping right outside of Kamran’s apartment tomorrow. I feel like I should take off work to watch. I feel like I should have desperately tried to become an extra. I feel like I should rush the set and try to talk about the book with Tom Hanks.

But I doubt it means as much to him as it does to me.

In your FACE, Hanks.

Kinetic Typography Collection

Posted by plumpdumpling on October 27, 2010 – 12:00 pm
Filed under there's a difference between films and movies
Tagged as ,

Weeks ago, my friend Eric Google Buzzed the latest Cee-Lo Green song, “F*** You”, and I thought the video for it was genius. The song is super-catchy to begin with, but when you present the lyrics in such a playful way, you’re begging people to watch and remember them.

I was showing the video to my friend Anthony yesterday, and he informed me that this is a whole video movement called kinetic typography, of which there are about 8 zillion examples on YouTube. Here are a few of my favourites:

Now find me some more or let me know what you like best!