Archive | 3:00 pm

Look Out for That Bus!

8 Feb

So after last night’s episode of Lost, it’s official: a character getting hit by a bus is my favorite plot twist on a TV show. You don’t see it all that often, but when it happens, BLAMMO! — it’s an effective shock that makes the episode even better. I remember the first time I saw the Felicity episode where Todd Mulcahy was hit by the bus. It was so random and unexpected that I laughed as I jumped out of my seat. And last night, when Juliet’s ex-hubby got hit, I had the same reaction, minus the laugh. It was shocking and exciting and unexpected. There are so many clichés of TV shows, but characters getting hit by a bus just hasn’t gotten old yet, and I hope it never does.

Poor Little Rich Girl

8 Feb

Andy Warhol is famous for, among other things, saying, “In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.” And in the new movie Factory Girl, we see how Andy took one woman — Edie Sedgwick — gave her those 15 minutes, and then threw her away. Sedgwick (played in the film by Sienna Miller, Jude Law’s former squeeze) was an aspiring artist from a wealthy family, who became Warhol’s muse and a central figure in his “Factory” in the 1960s. She was transformed by Warhol — and not just physically — and the film takes us on the whirlwind ride from bottom to top and back down again. And it feels like a whirlwind because the film is only an hour and a half long — which, mind you, is not something I’m complaining about, but it definitely feels a little too short because there clearly has been a bit of editing here, and it feels like certain details are missing. Miller is good, but I didn’t get the bigger-than-life sense about Sedgwick or Warhol (played by Guy Pearce, from Memento). I mean, she was swept up into this world, and really, it didn’t seem all that cool or exciting to me. It’s interesting to think of how different the movie would have been had Katie Holmes been cast as Sedgwick (not better, I think). All told, I’m giving Factory Girl a B–.