Thursday Movie Picks: Nonlinear Timeline

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Gone Girl

(2014)

On their fifth anniversary, Nick's wife Amy comes up missing. From there, the plot bounds forward while weaving in plenty of flashbacks from various parts of her life. The plot twists itself into knots but never frays in the sure hands of director David Fincher, nor those of his protagonist played by Rosamund Pike in full force-of-nature mode. Her performance is one of my all-time favorites and this is my top movie of 2014. (Full review)


Between bites of pie, I tell my brother the same thing I tell him every year: I'm not going with him to stand in line at Walmart. I can't deal with all the psychos hunting for TVs and toys.

Man, is this turkey good! It's succulent, the dressing is moist, and as usual, no one in my family touches the cranberry sauce.

Getting them out of the house this morning is a mess. You know, teenagers. They only have one speed whenever you need them to get a move on - slow.

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Kill Bill

(2003-2004)

The Deadly Viper Association strolls into an out-of-the-way chapel in Texas and kills everyone involved in the ongoing wedding. Well, they kill everyone except The Bride, but not for lack of trying, as she gets a bullet in the head. Lo and behold, she lives and vows revenge on the whole damn gang. It sounds pretty forward, but it leaps back and forth through time to tell it's story. For instance, the first kill we see is actually of the second person on her revenge list. We know because we actually get to see this list and know that she isn't working out of order. You probably know that this movie is broken into two parts. I'm including them as one entry here, as the same storytelling techniques are employed in both.


I just woke up on Mama Dell's couch. Time to cut a slice of pie. Who am I kidding? I mean slices of pies. I promise I'll be done after this.

The topic for this week's Thursday Movie Picks hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves is nonlinear timelines.

I don't know why I volunteered to make a ham this year. It's way too early in the morning to be cooking. I hope I don't burn the thing.

Traffic isn't too bad out here. Actually, it's moving along quite nicely.

Arrival

(2016)

In Denis Villenueve's Arrival, when aliens dock ships all over our planet, we don't immediately go to war. We try to do the level-headed thing and talk to them in hopes of learning why they're here. That requires the services of the world's best linguists, of which, Louise is one. We watch her efforts to communicate with the aliens, but also see various parts of her life, seemingly from both her past and her future. Time and the way it progresses is indeed an integral part of this film. And it works marvelously. (Full review)

Since it's still Girl Week, I went with movies about women. Thanks to all of you who have joined so far, and will join before it's all over.

I'm carving the turkey even though it is a thankless job I wind up doing every year. Just once, I want someone to come up to me and say "Damn, that's a nice cut!" Just once.

It's getting late,  going to be a long drive home. I'll probably be the only one awake while everyone else snoozes all the way back. At least I finally get to pick the music.

The first thing I want to say to you all is...