The Week In Entertainment

Film: The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus - Terry Gillliam's masterwork. I've since read a lot by critics who can't get over Heath Ledger (Manohla Dargis says "Mr. Ledger’s death understandably haunts the movie, shadowing its every gaudy and hyperventilated scene to alternatively distracting and depressing effect," for example. Dargis also, insanely, said that the scene of Ledger's Tony hanging from the bridge should have been edited down, if not cut completely. WTF? It was crucial to the story. If you can't forget that Ledger is dead, wait ten years to go, but I fail to see why Gilliam should have pandered to that aspect of the cult of personality, or fear of death, or whatever it is. It's not like the man hanged himself, after all.) Anyway, I don't think his ghost haunts the film at all though, obviously, ymmv on that score. I just saw a very good performance by lots of gifted actors, him one among the rest.

DVD: Книга мастеров (Kniga Masterov, the Book of the Masters) - a Disney film shot in Russia, by Russians and starring great Russian actors, an adaptation of Russian folk tales about a young man, Ivan (everyone he meets asks him if he's a fool - Ivan the Fool is the protagonist of many folk tales) and the Kamennaya Knyazhna, the Stone Princess, who needs a Master to awake a gemstone so that she can rule the world, and her daughter, who lives with Baba Yaga ... the movie is full of hilarious touches to anyone familiar with Russian folktales (an up-to-date rusalka who's married to Kaschei the Deathless, the chicken legs na remont (under repair), the talking horse, the GPS-ball-of-yarn, the 34th hero... As far as I know it's only in Russian, with Ukrainian and Kazakh subtitles. But if you can understand one of those, or find it in English, I definitely recommend it. Also 9, which is as visually intriguing as anything I've seen this year.

TV: "We have unhappy Germans. Nothing good has ever come from that." I love Veronica. "Is everything we do down here evil?" "That's ridiculous! What about ... Kills. Kills. Kills slowly. Kills quickly. Helps you lose weight ... and also kills. O, God; we're evil scientists!" I love Phil and Lem. And the whole thing with using Nixon's voice - "I'm beginning to think you really are evil scientists!" I love Ted. And Scrubs reboot is getting better, now that Dorian is gone. How ... odd; yet how nice. Leverage - a nice episode showing a bit of Nate's past and the way the team pulls together (and how Tara only does it for the money). The Mentalist - enjoyable, very. I loved the way Cho swapped his attention as soon as Jane started talking, there at the end.

Read: The Anthologist, which is a fascinating melange of literate ramblings and opinions as a self-labelled minor poet tries to overcome his writer's block and finish (honestly, start) the introduction to an anthology he hopes will revive his career. It will send you to the Internet to look up poets, I guarantee it. Also a couple of short things by Scalzi: Judge Sn Goes Golfing, a short story, very funny, made even funnier to me by my living near Dulles; and The God Engines, which definitely packs a punch.