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Crime movies set in L.A. tend to show the dark world that exists beneath
the sun-drenched paradise. In Chinatown, Jake Gittes opens up a can of worms by investigating an adulterous husband. In The Salton Sea, there is no illusory paradise; it is L.A. as the post-apocalypse city. Although this movie shares the same atmospheric Miles Davis-inspired trumpet music as Chinatown, as well as its lingering cigarette smoke, it’s nearly void of any redeeming characters or resolution.
The Salton Sea is the classic revenge story. In this regard it shares a similar story line with Quentin Taratino’s Kill Bill movies, but it lacks Taratino’s cartoonish quality and humor. Tom Van Allen (Val Kilmer) witnesses the murder of his wife by masked men at a desolate house near the Salton Sea. The couple were there to score drugs. The trauma remakes Kilmer into a full-time methamphetamine addict (referred to as “gak” by the characters) known as Danny Parker. But all of this is told as a back story.
The incomparable Vincent D’Onofrio is Pooh-Bear, a gak dealer who lost his nose as a result of his drug habit. In one of the most demented scenes on celluloid, we are introduced to Pooh-Bear as he and his friends re-enact the JFK assassination. They use three snipers, a remote-controlled car as the presidential limo, and pigeons as sit-ins for the presidential party. One bird wears a pink pillbox hat, à la Jackie Kennedy. After a blast of bullets, the car lands as a mess of blood and feathers at Kilmer’s feet. Nice to meet you, Pooh-Bear. I rank D’Onofrio’s Pooh-Bear as one of the creepiest bad guys in the movies, in the ranks of Willem Dafoe’s Bobby Peru in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart. The JFK assassination scene below:


In addition to being a meth addict, Kilmer’s Danny Parker is a police informant, who is tipped off that drug lords are out to get him. He attempts to flee L.A., and attempts to make one good deal prior to disappearing. This deal is set up wit...

I found this while looking for the original “Louie, Louie.” There’s something beautiful and haunting about the chorus. What do you think?

Seconds (1966)
Director: John Frankenheimer
Rating: 4 Ambien (out of 5)
On the surface, Seconds is the story of the myth of the ultimate male fantasy. Imagine The Truman Show voyeurism with the lustiness and self-loathing of a Woody Allen character.
Arthur Hamilton (John Randolf) is a successful but miserable banker, the man in the gray flannel suit who is known for his silences. He has a loving wife but their marriage is on life support. His grim life is will soon end, one feels, without him experiencing

It’s Friday night, so that means it’s time for another installment of The Insomniac’s Movie Review. We had a great time last week and I hope to make this a regular Friday night feature. So grab your popcorn and Hot Tamales, it’s time to leave politics behind — at least for a little while.
Next week I’ll be reviewing Seconds, recommended by No Quarter regular, TexasMirth. Please watch it this week if you want to join in the discussion.

Born to Kill (1947)
Director: Robert Wise
Rating: 3 1/2 Am

Jonathan Martin of Politico reports that the Pennsylvania GOP is running the following
ad in the Key Stone state. Martin writes:
McCain has refused to invoke Wright or allow his campaign to use the pastor in ads. A senior campaign aide said they knew nothing about the Pennsylvania party’s ad in advance. Officials with the state party didn’t respond to an e-mail.
Martin, however, wants to blame McCain for the ad:
McCain’s campaign is taking a hands-off approach, not disavowing the ad.
Says campaign sp

h/t Red Dragon 62

Here are my notes from the McCain/Palin conference call that ended moments ago. Rick Davis, McCain’s Campaign Manager, said the following:

Watch for an unprecedented velocity of McCain TV ads this final week
Obama was spending $40 million a week during housing crisis, he’s now to normal levels
They will be spending $10 million more than Obama on the air this week
They believe they have been winning the economy and tax argument over the last 10 ten days
Of note for Hillary supporters, they have “learn

h/t td

At the end of the Democratic Primary season, this was the situation:
Popular Vote
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton: 17,857,446, (48.04%)
Senator Barack Obama: 17,584,649 (47.31%)
Pledged delegates
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton: 1,730.5 (39.17%)
Senator Barack Obama: 1,747.5 (39.55%)
Then, for no apparent good reason, this past June Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosis decided THEY, not the delegates chosen by the electorate and not the superdelegates appointed via proper party procedure, were going to decide

h/t Medusa
Created by the conservative group “Let Freedom Ring,” this one-minute ad just aired during prime time in the swing state where I live. I think it’s very effective.

According to Daily Kos, Obama’s internals show him with a mere 2 point lead in Pennsylvania. If true, this is very bad news for the Anointed One. John Kerry carried Pennsylvania by only 2.5 points, and Kerry didn’t insult the voters there.
Heidi Li Feldman and Marc Rubin of the Denver Group and Democrats for Principles Before Party (DFPBP) have two ads currently running in different metro regions in Pennsylvania. Watch the most recent one, here:

Pennsylvania is key in the election, and as you may hav

A new audio tape was released this week of John F. Kennedy at a dinner party with Toni and Ben Bradlee (of Watergate fame), journalist James M. Cannon, and Kennedy’s wife Jacqueline. The conversation was recorded shortly after Kennedy announced that he was running for president. It’s about politics, of course, but it’s also a philosophical conversation on politics as a vocation and raising children.
For all that has been written on Kennedy, he is in many ways a mystery. The first books written afte