Missing Shades of Grue

The psychology of the Golden Compass is wonderful--inner psyches are presented as changing animal daemons that develop through childhood and then stabilize as one reaches adulthood. And I love the twist that authoritative religions might be engaged in stealing one's soul rather than saving it. My daemon, chosen through a questionnaire on the film's web site, is an Ocelot named Aspara. Go figure. Now to find my own armored bear before the next faculty meeting!

Official Golden Compass Site

I'm Not There was there, at my local theater. It's very worth seeing. Cate Blanchett and Charlotte Gainsbourg were outstanding, but there were a number of other good performances, too. Given how closely Todd Haynes tries to capture real moments (like those we see in the Pennebaker and Scorsese films) and real people (like Joan Baez and the Beatles), I found myself laughing at times as though I was watching a satire like This is Spinal Tap. I'm not sure if I was supposed to laugh, but I did. No doubt Haynes is working hard to figure out the identity thing, but I'll need to see it again before I can decipher it all. It could be about self-invention or self-deception or self-preservation, but I'm not sure who the self is that doing the inventing/deceiving/preserving. And if Dylan's a fraud, it's unclear who's being fraudulent. Apparently, that's not the kind of answer Haynes is going for. It's more about the pressures that lead to the fragmentation. And the consequences that result. I was disappointed, though, that the film never overtly captures the core-genius that runs through all these different Dylans--except in the soundtrack. Truth is, I could watch almost anything to that soundtrack.