Fashion Victims (2007)

Florian Bartholomäi who plays the gay son is just cute enough to make this gay tilted comedy worth seeing. Apparently, he was in The Reader playing the older brother to the Michael Berg character though I don't remember that clearly. The script has some funny twists and conflict, but nothing really noteworthy. There is a very low key coming out scene. There is a slightly unsympathetic lesbian story line as well. Oh yeah, the movie is in German.

Intelligence and How to Get It by Richard Nisbett

Most interesting are the chapters on Asians and Jews. Nisbett goes out of his way to say that Asians don't have higher IQs than Europeans/European Americans. (Thanks, dude!) But Asians just work harder and the importance of family rather than individual results in increased motivation to success. Nisbett then tries to explain how Jews disproportionately obtain Nobel prizes.

What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell

I had low expectations for this anthology of New Yorker pieces by Gladwell. Well, I mean because usually such a conglomeration of stuff seems not very timely and jumbled. A surprising number of the chapters were quite interesting. And in fact, I felt the same way afterwards as when I normally read a Gladwell book: which is like I'm not sure what I've learned after reading it, except for some random interesting facts. A book of this style is uniquely suited for reading piecemeal.

(500) Days of Summer [2009]

I always liked Joseph Gordon-Levitt from his 3rd Rock days, though I had a thought that he wouldn't look so great grown up. In this film, he's got a mysterious attraction, despite the longish hair, angular face, and impossibly slim physique. I'm going to say something annoying here that girls say so often, but myself almost never: it's the eyes -- I think. Anyway, I really liked this film. The acting is great. I think it's said in other reviews, but it was a bit like falling in love as vicariously as that can be in watching a film. The way it ends is perhaps not a surprise, but the how and why are strangely intense. And the music is excellent.

# # # Major spoilers

After some discussion with friends, apparently the blue theme of the post-coital celebration apparently represents something. Except for in that scene, the female character is the only character in the film to wear blue (I never noticed this). And in a way, that color blue indicates something about the behavior of that character. She is not a typical female. In fact, she acts almost like a male in a female's body which leads to the gay interest tag here. How come I never noticed that she was always wearing blue? First of all, because I'm a male and I don't notice those sorts of things. Second, I'm gay and I never really looked carefully at the girl.