Gone Elsewhere

Gone Elsewhere has gone elsewhere

2007-03-25T15:56:00.000-05:00

All right, people, I was emailing Brian about this and he was all right with it. We'll see how it works out.

As I told him; I was just checking out Wordpress, since no one was willing to do or say anything about whether or not to move to a new spot, when I inadvertedly reserved the "goneelsewhere" address there, and apparently now I can't take it back. This of course was a fucked up thing of me to do, so of course I thought, what the hell, let's see how much more damage I can do.

I've only been playing around with it for two hours or so and I have to say it's quite a bit better than Blogger from what I can surmise. It's more complicated, sure, and if we want to do any grand changes to it we'll have to pay money and learn CSS coding, but even the little stuff so far is better than what we have on Blogger. I think. I don't know. I still haven't found a way to get a sidebar for latest comments. Maybe that's one of those things we have to pay for.

But the fact that I could just import practically our entire blog over in less than five minutes is pretty cool.

Anyway, so after my screw up, of which I tried to do the best I could, I mailed Brian, asking if I should kill it or not (and if I did that specific address would be lost without way of getting it back), since if he's all right with it (him being unofficial copyright holder of the name and all) then I guess that that's all right then.

I think that if we gave this thing a shot it could turn out better and a cooler place to post stuff than the one we're using now. Anyway, you guys be the judge, but keep in mind that I don't know what I'm doing, and I've only been doing that for around two hours. A lot of stuff can be changed.

But to do so, you guys have to join Wordpress (you don't have to get a blog there to do so, by the way) and then mail me at kockum (*at*) gmail (*dot*) com, so i can send invites for you to do damage.

There are four options here; either I make you an administrator, editor, author or contributor. It's up to each of you to judge if you wanna help out structuring the site and editing posts/comments and so on. I don't know what the specific differences between them are, though. I suppose we could make all of you administrators in a spirit of democracy, but democracy has it's faults as well. Some might be comfortable just posting a review or news item from time to time.

Speaking of that, I don't think I'm alone in thinking that there are some setbacks to having a blog from having a forum. Reviewing and longer thoughts and articles work better than before on the old forums, but random bullshit less so. Blogs are so serious.

My suggestion would be having both a blog and a forum. Problem is I know even less about setting up a forum than I do a blog. If someone else knows more, speak out, man. I remember our old administrator Brian (Walker) offered to help us if we decided to set up one. Anyone feel we should get in touch with him, or could we handle such a thing by ourselves?

Anyway, here's the address for the Wordpress blog in progress:

goneelsewhere.wordpress.com

Let me know what you all think, without saying 'it looks nice'. Some proper constructive criticism so we can make it a smooth place to hang out.

This blog hasn't always been as active as it was those first two months of March and April 2006, but nonetheless we've managed to post more than 340 posts and logged in over 2000 comments to those posts, and lately activity has been pretty good. Let's hope we can continue doing that in a potentially spiffier place.

The Top 100 Overlooked Films of the 1990s

2007-03-24T23:14:00.000-05:00

A sort of sequel to this thread, a few years back the Online Film Critics Society published a list of what they thought was the 100 most overlooked films of the 1990s. The list in what appears to be order of rating is below with my comments on those films I've seen:

Miller's Crossing
Safe
The Sweet Hereafter
Lone Star
Heavenly Creatures
Waiting for Guffman
The Hudsucker Proxy
Babe: Pig in the City
Dead Man
Fearless – Haven’t seen it for a few years, but this film starring Jeff Bridges struggling dealing with the fact that he miraculously survived a plane crash without harm is first-class. It’s easy to see why it failed at the box-office as it was that 1990s Hollywood mainstream rarity – a central character that wasn’t that likable, slowly paced, doesn’t spell everything out. Definitely deserving of being here.
Bound
Chungking Express
The Straight Story
Searching for Bobby Fishcer
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
That Thing You Do!
Dead Again
Sneakers – For the most part this caper comedy starring Robert Redford is smart, slick and entertaining. But it really lets itself down in the final few minutes with a really dumb ending that sees it go from the mentality of an intelligent feature film to a dumbass sitcom. Despite that, deserving of being in this list.
Zero Effect
The Butcher Boy
Truly, Madly, Deeply
In the Company of Men
Devil in a Blue Dress
The Red Violin
Cemetery Man
Hamlet
Breakdown
Welcome to the Dollhouse
The Apostle
Eve's Bayou
Hard Eight
Defending Your Life – Albert Brooks comedies invariably tend to be underrated as despite them having a lot of good qualities, he’s seen as a poor man’s Woody Allen. I really liked this when I first saw it but seeing it again recently, it just wasn’t as funny as I imagined. I think the issue is that while Brooks can draw up clever situations, he doesn’t maximize the potential humour out of situations. Still, probably deserving of entry in here.
A Little Princess
Bringing Out the Dead
Hana-Bi (Fireworks)
Jacob's Ladder
The Spanish Prisoner
Pump Up the Volume
Beautiful Girls
The Double Life of Veronique
Very Bad Things
Richard III
October Sky
Strange Days – This James Cameron written film is the classic template of an underrated film who’s reputation grows over the years. Has too many unpleasant and other elements to make it popular but its overall qualities ensure that it gets appreciated for the generally fine film it is. No classic and not really overlooked, but deserving of being in here.
My Neighbor Totoro
L.A. Story – Slick and enjoyable Steve Martin film that looks like a masterpiece compared to the dreck he’s dished out in the last few years
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
A Bronx Tale
The Limey
A Perfect World
Before Sunrise
Bob Roberts
Dick – Comedy imagining that the Watergate scandal was actually started by two teenage girls. Lame one-joke effort that deserved to be ignored.
Raise the Red Lantern
One False Move
The Ref – This Christmas comedy has a lot of things going for it. Constantly sharp, funny and cynical with an excellent cast including Denis Leary, Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis. It isn’t as satisfying as it should be as its not particularly well directed and gets a bit sappy at the end, but I liked it a lot more then this decade’s version of a cynical Xmas comedy, ‘Bad Santa’. A deserved entry on this list.
Exotica
Sontaine
Joe Versus the Volcano – Doesn’t deserve to be here, not just because its an ordinary movie but because its somewhat galling that the star, Tom Hanks, who was treated as the greatest actor going around in the 1990s, now gets a category in the underrated section. Let someone more deserving get the adulation.
Matinee
The Ice Storm – Film examining an early 1970s middle-class American group of families who are completely unable to handle the new permissive lifestyle. While this film has a lot of good qualities that make it a critic’s favourite, it’s emotionally cold which distances one from the film and while a worthy film in many aspects, it could’ve been better and not one that demands repeat viewings
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – It may have been ‘underrated’ in America but it was the opposite in Australia. It was a massive hit here and was all the rage for a while. Never really cared for it from what I've seen of it.
Croupier
The Winslow Boy
Girl on the Bridge
Bullet in the Head
Darkman
Cannibal! The Musical
Fast, Cheap & Out of Control
Smoke
The Last Days of Disco
Fresh
Eye of God
Flirting with Disaster
Bottle Rocket
Ashes of Time
Fallen Angels
Great Expectations
Kundun
A Midnight Clear
Deep Cover
Ravenous
Twin Falls, Idaho
The People vs. Larry Flynt – Fine film documenting how Hustler publisher Larry Flynt became an unlikely champion of free speech in America. It’s raised being a well done but predictable film by being well directed by the underrated Milos Forman.
Quick Change – While its not up there with Bill Murray’s best films (its not bad), this was a significant turning point in his career as he began to shed his 1980s persona (which I often found obnoxious and smug) into much more richly rewarding and diverse work. ‘What about Bob?’ would’ve been a better choice, a very funny film.
The Secret of Roan Inish
Beloved
Big Night
Topsy-Turvy
Living in Oblivion
Jesus' Son
Glengarry Glen Ross – An excellent film but does this belong in this list? I thought it was the classic case of a film whose reputation has deservedly grown over the years.
Chaplin – Biopic of Charlie Chaplin. Robert Downey Jr. is excellent in the title role but apart from that this has little going for that, mainly because as per usual director Richard Attenborough is obvious and heavy-handed, makes it pretty tedious. The best bit of the film is the montage of clips from Chaplin’s own work, showing up how inferior the rest of the film is.
Dead Alive
Jude
Cradle Will Rock
Proof
The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl
Titus
Mystery Men – Saw about 30 mins of it recently, seemed like a film with some good ideas but yet another badly executed, laboured Hollywood comedy. I guess by this stage they were struggling to fill out the list and had to take what they could get.

It's a good idea for list although I think they could've narrowed it down to 50 or less. They've either got films that plainly don't deserve to be there (Mystery Men) or films that were fairly popular or got critical acclaim at the time of release (The Apostle, That Thing you Do!)

What other candidates are there for the list? I can't think of too many right now, although as I wrote above, 'What About Bob?' would've been a better Bill Murray choice then 'Quick Change'. It's hilarious and never really goes out of control until the very end.

One of the two Brady Bunch movies they made in the mid-1990s I would also have there. They may not seem like much, but in a decade of poorly thought out movies based on TV shows, this was an exception that managed to be an entertaining spoof on the series but something that fans of the show could still take to.

The Stardust trailer

2007-03-23T17:22:00.000-05:00

The trailer for Stardust is up at Yahoo! Movies. It looks excellent.

I highly recommend the Neil Gaiman novel it's based on. It's as enjoyable, witty and clever as fairy tales get. The film is directed Matthew Vaughn (who made a very impressive first film with Layer Cake), who passed on X-Men 3 to do this instead. He seems to have added some spectacle and scenes to the film, and set a somewhat different mood (the novel is somewhat more sombre).

Oh, and the Spider-Man 3 trailer is out, as well.

NC's Resurgent Film Industry

2007-03-23T16:13:00.000-05:00

I had just been reading bits and pieces over the past couple of months about several new productions starting soon in NC, and I was thinking, wow, it's almost like the '90's all over again. Things had pretty much petered out after The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. If anyone cares to read more about it, the INDEPENDEnT Weekly has a nice collection of articles, featuring news on Clooney's film, Leatherheads.

Inland Empire

2007-03-23T15:55:00.000-05:00

Well, somehow it has happened. Again. I always eagerly look forward to any new David Lynch film, and early buzz on Inland Empire had me, well, who cares--it's a David Lynch film. I've barely seen any clips or reviews of it, and that doesn't matter. It came here two weeks ago, and bounced between a trio of arthouse theaters where it was getting one show a night (the one most convenient to me played it the full two weeks, but pre-empted it several nights for special screenings). I was going to play hooky to go see a matinee of it at a distant theater on Wednesday, but, damn, the weather was so nice it was too hard to play hooky to go sit in a theater. Then I planned to go last night, and it didn't work out. And now, well, it's gone. After just two weeks.

The Good German redux. And Inland Empire had even less promotion than German, but that shouldn't surprise given its nature--Lynch is self-distributing. It's just....

I'm still a bit distressed that I have yet to see any DVD release details (like when and whether there's going to be Soderbergh commentary) for German, which makes going down to the virtual Canal Street all the more tempting.

Opening in Dallas, 03/23

2007-03-23T14:50:00.000-05:00

I suppose I ought to begin by noting that the AFI Dallas International Film Festival kicked off here last night. It seems that I remember that when the festival was announced, it was made out to be a major festival, striving to be on par with Toronto, Venice, Berlin, etc. A quick look at the actual films being presented, though, is pretty underwhelming. While I feel a little bit guilty about skipping out on it, I just don’t see any reason to be excited about it until somebody points out something that I missed or am just too ignorant to recognize.

Now, on to this week’s openings:

Becket: How exciting - I never thought in a million years that this would open here, and I didn’t even realize until earlier this week that it was.

Reign Over Me (trailer): Looks decent, but I’m skeptical. I always felt that Mike Binder’s The Upside of Anger was overrated if not outright annoying.

The Namesake (trailer): Preventing Adam Sandler from winning the week’s “Goin’ Straight Award” is Kal Penn, appearing here in what appears to be a legitimate role that requires actual acting.

Color Me Kubrick (trailer): Sounds interesting, but I saw the trailer for the first time the other night, and it really looks bad.

Shooter (trailer): Antoine Fuqua back in his element after the comically poor King Arthur.

The Last Mimzy (trailer): I don’t know what a mimzy is, but, like Mohicans, it’s probably worth saving the last one.

TMNT (trailer): What I wouldn’t have given for this to come out 15 years ago. But, alas, the Turtles did not age well, and now they just seem goofy in retrospect..

Pride (trailer): Not that I don’t wish Terrence Howard the best and all, but a 1.7 user rating on IMDb is enough to chase me away, thanks.

The Hills Have Eyes II (trailer): Is this cheap horror fad never going to end?

Quote of the Week

2007-03-22T12:25:00.000-05:00

Justin Timberlake:
"I'm the nice guy who follows through on the things he commits to. But I don't know if I'll be going through that sort of thing again. I feel like the Grammys used me for ratings."

Uhh...what else are they going to use you for, your rapier wit? Other than ratings, why else would an awards show be broadcast?

This almost reminds me of his Nirvana comment that he got flak for a few years back:
"There's different forms of rap that are pop. Nirvana was pop because they were popular. And so I think that's the whole concept behind the song itself."

Perhaps he shouldn't talk to the press.

Lost, 3/21, "The Man From Tallahassee"

2007-03-22T07:14:00.000-05:00

Discuss in comments.

So weird

2007-03-21T17:31:00.000-05:00

And then you combine that with this.

So what dead actor/person would you like to see re-animated?

Best Movie Posters

2007-03-19T14:43:00.000-05:00

By way of Jeff Wells, here's the link to Premiere's 25 greatest movie posters of all time:

Premiere's 25 greatest movie posters of all time

Some good choices there, but I would add a few:

Opening in Dallas, 03/16

2007-03-16T16:14:00.001-05:00

I had to go to Las Vegas for a few days this week, so I’ve got a bit of work to catch up on today. Because of that, and because there’s really nothing interesting this week (anyone know anything about Le Petit Lieutenant?), I’m running titles only.

Le Petit Lieutenant (trailer)
I Think I Love My Wife (trailer)
Premonition (trailer)
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (trailer at official site)
Dead Silence (trailer)

Introducing the iRack

2007-03-16T12:41:00.000-05:00

Paris, je t'aime (Paris, I love you)

2007-03-16T07:59:00.000-05:00

There have been good romantic films, but most of them, especially the ever prevalent romcom's, feel like nothing. Fluff. So a series of short films about love in the so called "city of love" might be inviting extreme corniness, to not say tackiness if it's done as a marketing ploy by the city.

I don't know how this project was brought together, but the film, as a whole, works. It's eighteen segments, each one after the other, taking place and named after a different section of Paris, with love as a central theme in each. There are bad, tired, incomprehensible segments, and towards the end an attempt at a conclusion that is misjudged. But there are also some really, really good parts, and they comprise almost half of the film.

What is to love here, excepting the stories themselves, is the directors assembled, and seeing what they can do given free reins. You sit there and you notice certain things about some of the directors styles and affectations, some good things, some bad things.

(Click |LINK|, for fast spoiler-free reviews of some of the segments)

Overall, those willing to see a good romantic film (films?), go see it in May when it gets a limited run in the States. The good parts more than made up for the bad ones.

Like, I don't know who Oliver Schmitz is but his segment ("Place des Fêtes") might be the best one. An immigrant cleaner meets a woman he's been flirting with during unfortunate circumstances, flashbacks going back and forth. Perfectly comprised in time, in the end heartbreaking.

Gus Van Sants "Le Marais" feels most reminiscent of this 'vague' thing his work seems to be going through. Or, anyway, I didn't get it.

And I used to think Wes Craven was a victim of some kind of typecasting in directing horror films, but even here, when he wrote the thing, the supernatural makes an appearance. Self-typecasting?

And Vincenzo Natali's (Cube) segment "Quartier de la Madeleine", with Elijah Wood hunted by a vampire, illustrates a problem that the current wave of films with digitized palettes (like Sin City and 300) seem to suffer from. They're too cool, with a total lack of human commitment, striking one as soulless. Wes Craven cameos.

Sylvain Chomet's (Triplettes of Belleville) "Tour Eiffel", is perhaps the most commercial and stylized of the parts, but it's also the most enjoyable. It's an ingenious tale, practically a cartoon, of an Eiffel tower mime finding love, and made me laugh loud more than once.

The Coen Brothers' "Tuileries" has Steve Buscemi, who, if I recall correctly, doesn't say a word, getting involved in a humorous confrontation at the Paris underground.

Gurinder Chadha's (Bend It Like Beckham) "Quais de Seine" has a very sweet interplay between two French teenagers, one a Muslim girl.

Isabel Coixet's (My Life Without Me) segment ("Le Bastille") is classic short film stuff, with Miranda Richardson in another near-silent (or non-French speaking, at least) role. None the less, it's effective, with one of those voice-over uses that only the French and English films seem to get away with (I think it's because Americans tend to overdramatize).

I loved Alfonso Cuaróns segment ("Parc Monceau") simply because it has Nick Nolte going on a ramble through the streets of Paris. Sometimes that's enough. Of course it's all one long take.

Tom Tykwer's (Run Lola Run) "Faubourg Saint-Denis" with Natalie Portman, made me rewind and watch the whole segment again. It's another one of his hyper-spool-time-segments-whatyamayhaveits with a techno beat but, dammit, it works again. Even if Portman plays ditzy American girl, again.

Alexander Payne's "14th Arrondissement", is the last segment of the film, and has Margo Martindale (Swank's mother in Million Dollar Baby) as an American tourist with a horrible french pronounciation. Might be more enjoyable for those with some understanding of french.

There are others, but they were mostly forgettable, or just plain bad (Nobuhiro Sawa's "Place des Victoires" with Juliette Binoche and Willem Dafoe was especially horrible).

Lost, 3/14 episode, "Par Avion"

2007-03-15T07:12:00.000-05:00

Discuss in comments.

Breach

2007-03-14T17:42:00.000-05:00

Last month when this was released, Brian marveled that a good studio picture like this would show up in February. I think I know why--it was slotted as a late-year Oscar-contention release, and then the powers-that-be realized they didn't have an Oscar contender and held it until February. I don't know this, but I guessed from my own reaction and the 2006 copyright notice.

Jackrabbit already said he found it "okay," and I have to agree or go even further to call it a disappointment and perhaps even pointless. I vaguely recall the CBS TV miniseries version of this from a few years ago, and I found it more compelling (and with perhaps an even higher-caliber cast than this film! William Hurt, Mary-Louise Parker, David Strathairn, Ron Silver, Peter Boyle...). That version rightly focused on master double-agent Robert Hanssen rather than on the guy the FBI assigned to keep tabs on Hanssen in the month before his takedown, played rather dully by Ryan Phillippe (as noted by Jackrabbit).

Watching the film I kept feeling like it should be building towards something, but it just kind of sat there, spooling away (and I was perhaps disappointed that this was one of two analog films at the all-digital multiplex where I saw this, complete with scratched-up print and popping analog Dolby Stereo--did they dump their film projector digital sound equipment? It felt like going back to the early '90's). The moments of suspense seemed contrived, though perhaps they were rendered in complete attention to what actually happened, but in every case I had no question about what was going to happen. There have been great films based on historical events for which I knew every detail depicted in the film, and yet I still felt suspense watching them. This was not one of those films.

Chris Cooper was good, Laura Linney was good, and it was nice to see Caroline Dhavernas (who I haven't seen since Wonderfalls) provide some presumably required Canadian content to this production while showing that she can do an East German accent about as well as Mira Furlan does a French accent on Lost. And Dennis Haysbert--when he appeared as a generic no-nonsense FBI agent, I almost laughed out loud. He is being typecast to death, isn't he? He's come a long way since he was the last-minute replacement for Eriq La Salle (who was replacing Denzel Washington) in Love Field.

Kim Morgan was on & Roeper

2007-03-12T16:27:00.000-05:00

One of the stars of our links in the right sidebar, and yet another former columnist at that site we left, was the guest fill-in for Roger Ebert this past weekend on what I've taken to calling the & Roeper show. I hadn't checked out Kim Morgan's column in a while--maybe I should get in the habit again. Her site was mentioned on the show, though the tagline below her name was "MSN Entertainment," where it looks like she has another blog. Back last year Jackrabbit brought up some of the issues around Ebert's replacements. I'm beginning to wonder if Roger is ever coming back.... :-(

But anyway, good for Kim Morgan.

The Lives of Others

2007-03-12T08:12:00.000-05:00

One of the surprises from the recent Academy Awards was that the German film, The Lives of Others, won the Best Foreign Language Film over Pan's Labyrinth, the Mexican film. Pan won three other Oscars, but got aced out by Lives. However, those who had seen the film were not surprised, which reminds us that the voting in that category is limited to those who see all five nominees in a theater and pre-arranged screenings. I caught up with Lives on Sunday, and while I may not have voted for it over Pan, it is a worthy victor.

As to why it won, I can only surmise that The Lives of Others tells just as terrifying a story as Pan does, but without any fanciful fairy-tale imagery, which might have turned off the older, more conservative voters who usually dominate this category. The German film, written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmark (research project for the future--longest name of any Oscar winner?) is similar to Pan in that deals with the horrors of a totalitarian state, but the evils in this film are all human.

The film tells the story of a member of East Germany's secret police, the Stasi, in the early eighties in Berlin. Wiesler is a man who is totally dedicated to his job, which is to capture the enemies of the state, which in East Germany's case was anyone who uttered a peep of dissent. He seems to be so dedicated to his work that he has no family and no other interests, a faceless bureaucrat who has no problem with imprisoning people for minor offenses. One night his boss, the minister of culture, takes him to the theater for the premiere of a play by a popular playwright, played by Sebastian Koch. The playwright is one of the few in the country who is not seen as disloyal, and actually believes in his country. Wiesler gets suspicious, though, and volunteers to monitor Koch and his girlfriend, his lead actress, played by Martina Gedeck.

As Wiesler listens to every conversation that takes place in their apartment, he becomes drawn into their lives, and the film in some ways parallels Coppola's The Conversation. Wiesler undergoes a change, and a cat and mouse game ensues between him, the artists that Koch runs with, and Wiesler's higher ups. I don't want to go any further than that, because this is the kind of film which is difficult to see what is coming next.

Von Donnersmark has written an excellent script and directed to fully maximize the justifiable paranoia of the time period (with the current administration in the U.S., you might leave this film and go home and check to see if there are any microphones behind your light switches). I think the largest kudos are due to Ulrich Muhe as Wiesler, the kind of man who blends into any crowd, which makes him all the more terrifying here. Watching this character grow over the course of the film is quite rewarding.

Opening in Dallas, 03/09

2007-03-09T14:21:00.000-06:00

The Host (trailer): Previously reviewed by Nick, and now released in the US courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. Looks like they did an OK job with the marketing, too - the guys on the oldies station this morning were going on and on about it.

300 (trailer): Like so many movies with this kind of fanboy appeal, I can’t help but want to see this, but I also can’t shake the feeling that it’s probably something I won’t like all that much.

Believe in Me (trailer at official site): Never heard of this before this morning, but maybe it’s not all that bad? Good review in the Dallas paper.

Starter for Ten (trailer): I hate it when stuff like this comes along, because there’s just nothing to say about it. There’s not much advance word one way or the other, and it doesn’t look either particularly good or particularly bad. It’s just there.

Maxed Out (trailer): Worthy subject, but sometimes documentaries come out where I feel like everyone already knows everything they have to say.

Puccini for Beginners (trailer): First of two lesbian comedies this week that don’t look any more interesting than the typical romantic comedies involving straight people. This one stars Elizabeth Reaser and Gretchen Mol, who were both in good movies last year.

Gray Matters (trailer): Second of two. This one stars Heather Graham and Bridget Moynihan, who were both not in good movies … ever, maybe.

The Ultimate Gift (trailer at official site): FoxFaith entry about … oh, I don’t know. Somebody dies or something. Lessons are learned. Lives are changed.

Lost, 3/7 Episode--"Enter 77"

2007-03-08T07:31:00.001-06:00

Discuss in comments.

Opened in Dallas, 03/02

2007-03-05T15:47:00.000-06:00

Still trying to get over the respiratory infection that has been plaguing me for a week and a half. Hopefully, in the next few days I’ll be able to actually go see a movie again.

Zodiac (trailer): Jackrabbit Slim posted a review already earlier today. As for myself, not a Fincher fan, but looking forward to this all the same.

The Dead Girl (trailer): Garnered high praise for the performances late in 2006. I had forgotten about it until this week, though.

Black Snake Moan (trailer): Looks every bit as compelling yet completely stupid as director Craig Brewer’s Hustle & Flow was.

Days of Glory (Indigènes) (trailer): Best Foreign Film nominee, by way of the Weinsteins, so it’s probably not that great. Hope it hangs around for a couple weeks, else I won’t have time to see it on account of the illness and the resulting backlog.

Two Weeks (trailer): If MGM really wants people to know about this, they might start by, you know, mentioning it somewhere on their website. I know that by itself wouldn’t accomplish much, but, well, it’s a start.

Full of It (trailer): I don’t really know what this is.

Wild Hogs (trailer): My goal in life is to someday have kids who don’t carry on like this trailer is the funniest thing they’ve ever seen. If I can accomplish that, my time on earth will not have been in vain.

Zodiac

2007-03-05T08:02:00.000-06:00

*VERY SLIGHT SPOILERS*

First, so you know where I'm coming from, I thought Seven was okay, and I did not like Fight Club. That way you can understand that I am not one of those fan-boy legions who seem to worship David Fincher. I think he has an interesting visual style but I don't find him to be an amazing auteur. That being said, I thought Zodiac was a good film, his best so far, and this even when he has a story that is too messy to conform to classic film structure.

The story concerns the investigation into five killings in the San Francisco area in the late sixties. The killer, clearly someone who wanted attention, wrote letters to the area newspapers, including cyphers. A political cartoonist becomes obsessed with the killings and keeps working on the case, long after the police and the public have lost interest.

This film is full of details and red herrings that give it a two-hour and forty-five minute length. That's a little too long, given that there are two lengthy scenes that one thinks involve Zodiac but turn out not to. Fincher seems to have the same obsession for detail that Robert Graysmith, the cartoonist who stuck with the case and wrote two books about it, did.

Some critics have come down hard on this film for the messy structure. This is always a conundrum. Do you stick to the truth, and have the audience walk out without a sense of closure, or do you tidy things up and rewrite history? One solution is not to make a film about a case that has no definitive solution, but then we wouldn't have all those Jack the Ripper films. I'm fine with what Fincher has done here.

The film is basically in three parts. In the first third, three killings are shown, including one that will forever change your reaction to Donovan's "Hurdy-Gurdy Man," and another that is a very creepy attack on a couple of college kids. Letters to the papers are sent, and a crime reporter, Robert Downey, Jr. gets involved, as well as the paper's boyish cartoonist, Jake Gyllenhaal, who has no official role but eventually worms his way into it.

The second third of the film involves the police investigation, and I found this to be the best section. It's classic police procedural, like a Law and Order episode on steroids. The detectives, Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards, like a guy name Arthur Leigh Allen, but can't get the smoking gun that would lock him up. The intensity of the investigation nearly drives Ruffalo over the brink, and Edwards eventually has to transfer out of homicide. When the killings and letters stop, Ruffalo has to let it go.

The last third of the film brings back Gyllenhaal. He hasn't stopped, and wants to write a book about the killings, and attempts to bring a reluctant Downey and Ruffalo back in. There are few more red herrings, particularly a visit to a film theater owner, but eventually Gyllenhaal thinks he has the answer. Meanwhile, his marriage to Chloe Sevigny suffers.

The acting is interesting in this film, as it involves many different styles. Gyllenhaal is perfect as the Eagle Scout cartoonist, and Ruffalo simmers as the hard-boiled cop. Downey, who is always an interesting actor, may have given his character too many quirks. Each line he says seems to have come from a different part of his brain. Sevigny, stuck in a thankless part, does manage to give the character some life.

Judging by the box office numbers, when a movie like Wild Hogs can out perform Zodiac three-to-one in ticket sales, it may be a bad sign that the public just doesn't want to sit in a theater for three hours watching a film about a serial killer that doesn't have the killer getting justice. That's a shame, because I'm sure that five minutes of this film is far more interesting than John Travolta getting hit in the face with a bird.

Countrypolitan Favorites

2007-03-05T00:29:00.000-06:00

What I've been listening to the past week or so: the latest album by Southern Culture on the Skids, a covers collection of some of the songs that most influenced them entitled Countrypolitan Favorites. I was initially disappointed when I heard about this--their last album was a live concert album, and now a covers collection; one has to hope someone doesn't have writer's block. But I've really been digging their surprising take on songs I'm familiar with as well as several songs I'd never heard of. (Note: if you buy the CD, be sure to get it at an independent record store, where it will come packaged with a special indie-only SCOTS four-track bonus disc.)

My favorite is the old Lynn Anderson song, "(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden." I love Mary Huff's voice--her songs on SCOTS records are always something to look forward to. Something always gets me about taking a song like that and forcing it into a more upbeat tempo.

For those unfamiliar with SCOTS you may recall their appearance as the band at the beginning of I Know What You Did Last Summer. Or maybe you heard their minor hit, "Camel Walk," which they performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno way back when (lyrics: "Baby, would you eat that there snack cracker in your special outfit for me, please? Baby, you make me want to walk... like a camel. The way you eat that oatmeal pie just makes me want to die!").

I've been listening to them for about 15 years now. I was hard-pressed to explain to people what exactly their music was until I saw them listed in the category of "psychobilly." That's a good description. While they may appear to be making fun of the image they are projecting, they are also embracing it wholeheartedly.

Though SCOTS is a local band I heard them first on CD, having shunned their live shows because I thought they were a straight country group. And at their live shows you might find boxes of fried chicken, biscuits, and little cups of banana pudding being passed around (uh, food has featured prominently in several of their songs; see "Camel Walk," "Eight Piece Box," and others), and a masked wrestler may also make an appearance. It is better experienced rather than described.

P.S. My other favorite local band is Two Dollar Pistols. While I don't profess to be a country music fan, I love that honky-tonk Dwight Yoakam/pre-Hee Haw Buck Owens sound.

Lost, 2/28 Episode--"Tricia Tanaka is Dead"

2007-03-01T08:45:00.000-06:00

Discuss in comments.

Oscar Talk

2007-02-27T08:37:00.000-06:00

Well, another Oscar season over. I did so-so, getting 11 of the 21 categories I predicted. I was bummed Peter O'Toole didn't win, the look on his face after he lost was like, "I can't believe I came all this way and sat through this show again, and for nothing," but I was glad for Scorsese, even if that was catching up for all the times he was screwed in the past.

I liked the show. Every year I watch with friends and we enjoy it and then the next day I read blistering reviews. Ellen was okay, particularly the interaction with Scorsese and Eastwood. I liked the Will Ferrell/Jack Black number, and the Pilobius (sp?) stuff was amusing. I'm not sure what critics are looking for in this show.

Some upsets always help. Even though I picked him Alan Arkin had to count as one, and certainly The Lives of Others was another, especially since Pan's Labyritnth won three other awards. But Foreign Film is voted on by only those who have seen all five films, so it's a smaller sample. Also, it was certainly a big night for Al Gore. It was also probably the only time a female Oscar winner has thanked her wife (Melissa Etheridge).

What did you all think?

Strange week

2007-02-25T12:19:00.000-06:00

First they found a giant half-ton squid.

Then in San Antonio, Guatemala, a gigantic 130 feet wide, 330 feet deep, hole just opened up, swallowing two.

And now James Cameron claims to have proof of finding the tombs and bodies of, among others, Mary, Joseph and Jesus Christ. And, oh yeah, Jesus' son Judah.

Somehow I thought people would be less focused on the Oscars during the end of days.

10 years since the Titanic phenomenon

2007-02-25T04:53:00.001-06:00

Later this year, it will be 10 years since the release of James Cameron’s ‘Titanic’ which is – despite increasing ticket prices over the past decade - still comfortably the highest grossing film of all time.

And unlike so many modern day high grossing films, it didn’t gain its grosses through a massive marketing campaign and enormous anticipation that ensured, even if it wasn’t particularly well liked, that it would be a massive hit. In fact, as I recall the buildup to the film was quite negative with lots of talk about a troubled production that had seen the budget skyrocket. There was little indication that it would be a major success.

But after its opening, it clearly captured the public’s imagination as it went from being a hit, to a major hit, to a phenomenon. People weren’t just seeing it and recommending it to others, they were seeing it a 2nd and even a 3rd time. To top it all off, it won 11 Oscars.

And yet 10 years late, despite being a film that captured the public’s imagination like few others, its reputation has dwindled in that time. A good statistical example of this is its average rating of 7.0 from the over 124 000 votes on the IMDB site – it’s pretty good there’s very few Best Picture Oscar winners over the past 50 years that would have a lower rating (‘Out of Africa’ is the only one I could find with a lower rating).

But on a broader level, there was a backlash against its massive success as growing segments of people found it an incredibly overwrought, sappy and manipulative film, filled with one-note cardboard characters (Billy Zane’s villain especially so). Specifically critics noted how absurdly idyllic the life of the poor was portrayed and that if it hadn’t been for the Titanic’s sinking, the film implied that DiCaprio and Winslet’s characters would’ve gone on to live a life of harmony despite the vast differences in their backgrounds and personalities.

Also, James Cameron’s performance on Oscar night didn’t help matters. His ‘king of the world’ exclamation became rather infamous but what always stuck in my memory was his self-indulgent request of a few moments of silence in memory for the victim’s of the Titanic. I guess some would say it was well intentioned but there wouldn’t be an Oscar ceremony where an actor or filmmaker could make such a request for the real-life victims portrayed in their film (‘Schindler’s List’ being an obvious example).

One of the reasons why I’m interested in looking back on this film is my personal reaction to it. I went to see it soon after it was released and not only enjoyed but was quite moved by it. In fact, it stayed with me so much that I went to see it again a few weeks later. It’s the only new release film to date that I’ve gone to see more then once during its theatrical run.

However, it is not a film that I’ve maintained an interest in over the years. I haven’t seen it since and don’t really have an interest in watching it again, let alone purchasing it on DVD. When I saw a few minutes of it during a TV screening a while back, it didn’t hold my interest. So it seems my reaction to the film reflects how people overall have reacted to it.

My questions are: what were the qualities in it that made it such a massive hit in the first place and why has its reputation dwindled over the years (or has it)?

2007 Independent Spirit Awards

2007-02-25T00:17:00.000-06:00

Okay, I didn't blog it live (or nearly live) like I did last year, because I wasn't watching it anywhere near live. Moreso than last year there were several films I had never heard of (I didn't pay attention to the nominations until just before I watched the show) and even more that haven't played here yet (though for all I know they may already be on DVD). Just to show my ignorance, of the more prominent nominees I was unaware of American Gun, Sweet Land, and Land of Plenty. Okay, that's not so many, but I think last year there was just one.

Just before it started I thought, wow, Little Miss Sunshine is going to clean up here. And I was right. The show seemed like the Oscar Consolation Awards for Little Miss Sunshine.

Oh, and for Ryan Gosling, too. He made light of finally winning against Forest Whitaker, who was nominated, but not for The Last King of Scotland (it was American Gun this time).

Last year Felicity Huffman provided the highlight of the show in her funny acceptance speech, but this year she was the lowlight as she announced winner Shareeka Epps twice as Shakira Epps. Sarah Silverman later announced that Facility Hoffman would be the host next year.

This year's highlight for me was Minnie Driver singing the show song for Pan's Labyrinth: "I Blew a Giant Frog to Smithereens" to the tune of the old Melanie song "I've Got a Brand New Pair of Rollerskates." I watched that three times!

Opening in Dallas, 02/23

2007-02-23T15:25:00.000-06:00

The Lives of Others (trailer): Yay! Been looking forward to this one since … what, Cannes? Has it really been that long?

The Astronaut Farmer (trailer): Liked the Polish brothers’ Northfork a few years ago. I’m a bit suspicious about this one, but willing to give the benefit of the doubt for now.

Amazing Grace (trailer): I could write something very snide here, but I’ll let it pass.

The Number 23 (trailer): I finally quit on Joel Schumacher for good. I’ll go see this only if someone gives me a damn good reason to.

An Unreasonable Man (trailer): Appears to be Nader revisionism of the highest order. Myself, I don’t blame Nader for running - I blame Democrats for making such a big fucking deal about a fringe candidate.

Reno 911!: Miami (trailer): Never watched more than a few minutes of the show. Used to like “The State” OK.

The Abandoned (trailer): Just another horror movie with a creative poster.

Going Elsewhere

2007-02-23T10:59:00.000-06:00

Regarding Brians comment in the Lost thread, great minds think alike. Been thinking about that myself lately. Even started doodling potential banners for my own amusement.

Checked out Vox, looks great! I dig it. My own small suggestion would be Wordpress, which doesn't look as cool, but looks more stable (here's an example of a nice site). Not a Livejournal fan, aesthetically and programming-wise it looks like a bitch.

Personally, I'm all for moving.

Vanity Fair

2007-02-23T09:31:00.000-06:00

One of the things to look forward to for many years before the Oscars has been the extravagant Hollywood Issue of Vanity Fair. In the past they've featured in-depth articles (that were sometimes later turned into books) on subjects like the making of Eyes Wide Shut, the making of Sweet Smell of Success, the rise and fall of various production companies and Hollywood go-getters, etc. etc. Great stuff. Plus for eye candy there was the cover and then the, uh, elaborate photo essay on the inside.

I can't remember last year's issue off the top of my head, and I didn't even buy this year's after I happened across it in, of all places, the public library. (Aside: if only they'd sell coffee there I think they'd make a real go of it!) After flipping through over 200 pages of ads and filler, I finally got to a real article, a bit of a ho-hummer on the making of A Face in the Crowd, a movie worth seeing for those who don't remember Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts or the Original Amateur Hour, which are the roots of the Idol shows today. Anyway, the article tries to make more of the film than I think was there, and I saw it for the first time less than two years ago. You can look at the rest of the issue yourself, but I thought the film noir theme fell flat, with a bit of a perfunctory essay on the genre and their most over-the-top Hollywood Portfolio yet, which did nothing for me, and didn't look as good as the staged shoots HBO does for each season of The Sopranos. The issue's ad spread for Disney theme parks with Scarlett Johansson et al looked more inspired, and was also photographed by Annie Leibovitz no less. Come on guys, just give us Jennifer Aniston soaking wet in the grotto at the Playboy Mansion again, that's all we want! Wow, everything I've talked about here was photographed by Leibovitz.

Anyway, I came away thinking that it shouldn't help the MPAA's fears of piracy that I found the most fascinating article in the Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue to be the long piece on The Pirate Bay. I had no idea those guys were in Sweden, and I thought they had been shut down a long time ago.

This is a very cool poster

2007-02-22T10:40:00.000-06:00

It'll probably never be anywhere near as big as South Park, but this is still a damn nice poster. Always good to see someone strive for art in a poster. I'll add a scene from the series that gets me every goddamn time.

Oscar Picks

2007-02-22T08:46:00.000-06:00

Here are mine. If you have yours, post them!

Best Picture: Babel, by a nose over The Departed. I don't buy the Little Miss Sunshine talk.
Best Director: Martin Scorsese
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, although I'm rooting for O'Toole
Best Actress: Helen Mirren. Duh.
Best Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin, in an upset over Murphy
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson
Best Original Screenplay: Little Miss Sunshine
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Departed
Best Animated Film: Cars
Best Makeup: Pan's Labyrinth
Best Foreign Film: Pan's Labyrinth
Best Art Direction: Dreamgirls
Best Cinematography: Children of Men
Best Costumes: Dreamgirls
Best Visual Effects: Pirates of the Caribbean
Best Editing: Babel
Best Score: The Queen
Best Song: Listen, from Dreamgirls
Best Sound Mixing: Dreamgirls
Best Sound Editing: Pirates of the Caribbean
Best Documentary Feature: An Inconvenient Truth

As for the Short Subjects, I haven't a clue.

Lost, Feb. 21 episode

2007-02-22T07:30:00.000-06:00

The title of the episode was "Stranger in a Strange Land." Discuss in comments.

I'm a Cranky Old Man Who Doesn't Like Change

2007-02-19T08:50:00.000-06:00

What the hell have they done to the IMDb?

Opening in Dallas, Weekend of 02/16

2007-02-16T16:20:00.000-06:00

Breach (trailer): Looks interesting, and if the reviews so far are any indication, it’s actually good! Imagine that - from a major studio! And right here in the middle of February!

God Grew Tired of Us (trailer): I don’t want to be a jerk, but why does this look so insufferable? Am I supposed to laugh when the guy says that he expects using electricity to be very hard? That doesn’t seem funny. In fact, it seems downright condescending to laugh at that. What kind of a world do we live in where grown men have never used electricity? But yet, it gets a laugh every time I see it. Ha, ha, those charmingly goofy Africans with their backwards, non-electricity using ways! Maybe I’m the one that’s insufferable. Yep, that’s probably it.

The Italian (trailer): Talk about insufferable. Might go see it anyway.

Ghost Rider (trailer): Might get dragged along to this, in which case I anticipate 100 minutes or so of Nic Cage amusing himself more than anyone else in the theater. As usual. (Sorry, that last part was mean.)

Music and Lyrics (trailer): Might get dragged along to this, too, but whatever. It’s February, so these things happen.

Opal Dream (trailer): Indy kids movie by Peter Cattaneo, who did The Full Monty, which as far as I can recall wasn’t bad. Only playing daytime shows at one theater.

Bridge to Terabithia (trailer): Not much to say. Don’t have kids. Didn’t like Narnia enough to see every movie about kids in a fantasy world.

Daddy’s Little Girls (trailer): Man, lots of kids in movies this week.

Lost, Feb. 14 Episode

2007-02-15T08:25:00.000-06:00

Discuss in comments.

Best and Worst of 2006

2007-02-12T21:37:00.000-06:00

Jumping the gun on this a little bit, since there are still a few movies out there that are technically 2006 releases. But I thought I'd do the hard work of ordering more than 130 movies now. But first, a few comments on the year that was (a month and a half ago):

--If things continue on their current course, I'll remember 2006 as the year that the bottom fell out of the Dallas independent film market. So many movies that didn't play here, that I thought would have in previous years. Of the film's on indieWIRE's Critics Poll, four of the top ten and six of the top 20 have yet to play here. I realize that this sounds like a silly complaint to those who don't even have stuff like Pan's Labyrinth playing near them, but it really bothers me all the same.

--2006 was the Year of the Decent. As you'll see from my year-end list, I found a lot of movies that I was at least OK with, and I saw very few that I strongly disliked. Of course, this is mostly because I try to avoid things that I think I'll hate - there's no Little Man or Hostel to be found on my list. But in general, I didn't feel like a lot of films really let me down.

--On the other hand, nothing really knocked me out, either, except for the top two films, and one of those was made over 30 years ago (but not released in the US until 2006, so it's eligible for the list as far as I'm concerned). Last year, there were 5 that I thought were truly exceptional (see that list here).

And thus, without further ado, the best films of the year (subject to change, but unlikely to do so):

1) Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro)
2) Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville)
3) The Prestige (Christopher Nolan)
4) The Queen (Stephen Frears)
5) Neil Young: Heart of Gold (Jonathan Demme)
6) Brick (Rian Johnson)
7) Inside Man (Spike Lee)
8) Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón)
9) Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (Michael Winterbottom)
10) United 93 (Paul Greengrass)
11) Akeelah and the Bee (Doug Atchison)
12) An Inconvenient Truth (Davis Guggenheim)
13) World Trade Center (Oliver Stone)
14) The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky)
15) Sweet Land (Ali Selim)

Clink "Link" for the rest of the year, meticulously ordered by preference. SPOILER: Running with Scissors was my least favorite. END SPOILER.

VERY GOOD (20): Clean; Volver; Block Party; The Proposition; The Notorious Bettie Page; Little Miss Sunshine; The Departed; Marie Antoinette; Tsotsi; L'Enfant (The Child); Sophie Scholl: The Final Days; Monster House; Fateless; Cars; A Prairie Home Companion; Cavite; The Heart of the Game; Idiocracy; Flannel Pajamas; Letters from Iwo Jima

ALSO GOOD, IF NOTHING SPECIAL (39): Casino Royale; Lemming; Half Nelson; Glory Road; Shortbus; Babel; Little Children; Rocky Balboa; Perfume: The Story of a Murderer; The Good Shepherd; Bubble; The Pursuit of Happyness; Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan; Find Me Guilty; Down in the Valley; Duck Season; 13 Tzameti; The Good German; A Scanner Darkly; Factotum; Stranger Than Fiction; The Last King of Scotland; Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World; Why We Fight; Running Scared; Eight Below; Thank You for Smoking; Wah-Wah; Strangers with Candy; Favela Rising; My Country My Country; Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles; The Bridesmaid; A Good Year; Come Early Morning; Fast Food Nation; Game 6; Wordplay; Darwin's Nightmare

DOESN'T SUCK (31): Don't Come Knocking; 16 Blocks; The Devil Wears Prada; The Painted Veil; Notes on a Scandal; Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos; Jesus Camp; Apocalypto; V for Vendetta; Ask the Dust; The History Boys; Venus; Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas); Lonesome Jim; Friends with Money; Art School Confidential; Sketches of Frank Gehry; Peaceful Warrior; Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man; The Illusionist; All the King's Men; Renaissance; Curse of the Golden Flower; The Science of Sleep; Infamous; Deja Vu; The Nativity Story; Winter Passing; Breaking and Entering; Mission: Impossible III; Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest; The Da Vinci Code

SUCKS (22): Lady Vengeance; Miami Vice; Drawing Restraint 9; Hollywoodland; Copying Beethoven; Catch a Fire; Factory Girl; Flags of Our Fathers; The Descent; X-Men: The Last Stand; Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus; Trust the Man; Hard Candy; Superman Returns; Dreamgirls; The Break-Up; The Lake House; Firewall; Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor); Blood Diamond; The Architect

REALLY BADLY SUCKS (10): Unknown White Male; Lady in the Water; Bobby; Miss Potter; Man of the Year; Poseidon; The King; La Moustache; For Your Consideration; Running with Scissors

Delivering Movies Over The Internet

2007-02-12T18:36:00.000-06:00

NOTE: Though long and rambling, not a comprehensive study by any means

Is it really here yet?

I've been waiting for internet-delivered movies to come for some time. Mostly, I've been waiting for the convenience to come for some time. Oh, sure, there have been the Reals, GoogleVideos, YouTubes, etc.... that have been delivering video clips forever. And there were/are movie services that claimed you could download movies for a fee. I didn't know what I wanted, but I knew that nothing tickled my fancy quite yet.

Video On Demand blew up big a few years ago and when I finally got it with Comcast I thought my ship had come in. Tons of video content and full movies that you could get any time you wanted! But nothing was in HD and the widescreen versions were actually confined to letterbox within the 4:3 aspect ratio. HD is still coming along in the OnDemand world. Most of it is pay-per-view for new releases and things, so I'm still deterred. Sure there's a lot of content and I still find myself watching some things on occasion, but it still doesn't feel like it's all there.

Also, with Comcast you need the set-top box, cable connection, and television. Same kind of deal with satellite. You can't necessarily take your DISH or cable box in to the kitchen or bedroom to watch tv. So you need to opt for multiple installations or devices or pieces of equipment. And you'll need a DVD player for each one to catch up on your rentals and other sundry movie-watching. But even then you're confined to inside the house or garage. What if you're on a date and Gorman is up to bat?

It would seem as though Slingbox is the answer to all of my prayers. And it almost is as far as satellite/cable-delivered content is concerned. I mean, this thing is amazing! As long as you set it up right you can watch and control your TV from any device that has an internet connection. A problem....How do I watch my rented DVDs? Also, it's another piece of equipment.

Consolidating a few items into Windows Media Center Edition seemed like a great solution a few years back. So I have a computer that can do everything a computer does that is hooked up to my TV. It also plays my DVDs, records TV, plays pictures, all my music, etc... But, again, without a slingbox or ORB (also really, really cool) installed, I can't get access to it anywhere else besides sitting right there in front of the TV.

Without going into all other available options out there that I haven't tried, let me tell you what I stumbled upon last week. Well, really last month. I read an article stating that Netflix was getting into delivering movies on demand over the internet. The idea intrigued me but I was wondering what it would look like and how they would do it, what the costs would be, what the requirements would look like, etc...

Later on I signed in to my account from work to find a notice stating that the "Watch Now" service would be activated for all subscribers by June 2007....just keep checking back. OK. No biggie. Then last week I found an additional tab at the top of my Netflix menu:
The last tab was labeled "Watch Now". Hey, I was activated! I couldn't wait to get home and try it out. That night I fired up my laptop and headed for netflix.com. I scanned the meager selection of movies. I immediately noticed one thing: there was nothing I even remotely wanted to see. However, there was one pre-selected segment called "From your DVD queue" which contained 4 movies. Aha! So there were a few that I wanted to see. At least, a few that I had put in my queue.

As most married men know, getting your wife to "sign off" on technology can only mean good things. It doesn't even have to be a positive embrace, just as long as you don't get the evil eye whenever the subject is broached, you're usually good to go. While thinking about this I spotted a movie in the "classics" section starring Doris Day (The Thrill of It All). I don't know what the fascination is, but my wife is one of many enamored with all things Ms. Day. This had to be my shoo-in! My plan was to turn in early and spring the delivered movie on my wife whilst she sat amazed at her technology king! (not that I played a part in development or even discovery of watch now...those are merely facts)

The interface seemed easy enough: find movie you want to watch, click Play. So I got the site up, logged in and clicked Play. You're first taken to a screen which lets you know you need to install the Netflix Player. This is really a web browser plug-in as there is no external program that gets installed. It seemed harmless enough so I went for it. Unfortunately the installer never lets you know when it finishes. So after waiting around for a few minutes I went ahead and clicked Play again. The new player window opened up with simple controls: play, pause, a volume slider, and a full screen button. A few seconds later I was told I needed to upgrade my media player (which I found odd because I had the latest version of Windows Media Player). But I clicked OK and a few seconds later the "upgrade" was complete (I'm guessing this is another plugin and not a full-blown upgrade). Now, the moment of truth!

From the speakers came the opening salvo and I saw the old Universal logo appear. It was working! But the logo stood still! The sound kept going and the screen went black! Now a still picture appeared and the sound kept going! I was getting crystal clear sound thanks to my high-speed internet connection, but the picture was jumpy to say the least: One frame every 3 seconds. This simply would not do. Now, my laptop is 5 years old. It's a P3 1.2gHz with 512mb RAM. Come to find out these are the minimum specs for Netflix's watch now service. Full screen and windowed mode were the same. My trial was a bust! It wasn't until 4 days later (yesterday) that I remembered my TV has a much newer computer connected to it.

So last night I went through the installation machinations on my Media Center and lo & behold - it works! Like a champ! Flawless! Full screen mode is comparable to satellite TV service and the sound is clear. Mind you, this is only with a movie from 1963, but I can see the potential. And Netflix is literally adding new titles every day. I now see that Sherrybaby, Amadeus, The Matrix and others are all available. Netflix first removed the chore of going to the video store and now it's removing the chore of going to the mailbox. I can get fatter at a more rapid rate!!

But this still isn't the end-all. I'm still tied to my media center, though I am no longer tied to the postal service. Theoretically with a beefier laptop I can have ubiquitous entertainment (netflix combined with aforementioned media extenders)! But is that even really what I want? Am I just dissatisfied for dissatisfaction's sake? Do we need more ways to get entertainment?

Lost in a sea of gadgetry and convenience the answer is probably No on all counts, but it sure is fun to see what they will come up with next!

Opening in Dallas, 02/09

2007-02-09T21:43:00.000-06:00

I suppose that after I see the two Weinstein movies (i.e., the top two, although Hannibal Rising is also Weinstein Co.) this week, I'll be able to consider 2006 closed, and start writing a year in review post. In mid-February! At least I'll still beat the Oscars.

Factory Girl (trailer): I don't get all the skepticism about the idea that Sienna Miller is good in this movie. I've seen Layer Cake, Alfie, and Casanova (ugh), and she seems perfect for this kind of role to me.

Breaking and Entering (trailer): I'd consider myself an Anthony Minghella fan, having really liked The English Patient and The Talented Mr. Ripley, and even Cold Mountain to a lesser extent. I don't expect this one to be all that great, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't well-shot and well-acted enough to roll with it.

Hannibal Rising (trailer): Weinstein Overload Week (W.O.W., ironically) continues with a movie that can't possibly be any good. Can it?

The Last Sin Eater (trailer at official site): Yes, I want to see Norbit so little that I'd rather go see something from Fox Faith. Neat title, though.

Norbit (trailer): Hard to think of something that's come out recently that I've wanted to see less. This looks worse than any of the Wayans brothers stuff, cheap-ass horror movies, stupid crass kids comedies, the last three years of the Weinsteins' output, Pokemon movies, direct-to-video American Pie sequels, that movie that tried to make Dennis Rodman an action star, or even anything else that Eddie Murphy has been in over the last five years or so.

A Simple Plan

2007-02-08T15:08:00.000-06:00

My plan for Tuesday night was to see Pan's Labyrinth after a dinner out, in which case I would have been searching for a photo of Guillermo del Toro on the set, preferably with at least one person in the photo pointing (these are getting harder to find as film websites love to embed publicity materials inside flash animations, ugh--for The Queen I had to go their French website). Unfortunately, I arrived at the theater short on cash and confronting a sign that said "no credit cards or debit cards accepted" despite the fact that the box office was equipped with a PC connected to the internet and a little thermal printer that looked just like the ones used for printing credit receipts. It was colder than a witch's teat that night, so I didn't feel much like hunting around for an ATM, and I went home. So much for my getting back to the cinema-going rate of a hundred films a year.

For some suitable cold-weather entertainment I pulled out my DVD of A Simple Plan instead. I first saw this film in early 1999 and enjoyed it, but it wasn't until I received the DVD as a gift a year later that I realized how much I liked it. I've probably seen it at least seven times now--it's one of those films that creeps up on me how many times I've seen it, and while I may not laud it the way I do, say, Citizen Kane, 2001, or Lawrence of Arabia, those repeated viewings mean something to me the way they do for What's Up, Doc?, The Great Waldo Pepper, Diner, and Apollo 13.

What impresses me on repeat viewings of Simple is how it continues to induce stomach-twisting tension in me for such a high percentage of the movie--and I've seen it before! The plot may not be airtight, but it's believable enough to me every time I see it, I love the performances (I always cringe when Gary Cole makes his entrance), the score, and Tuesday night I was especially noticing the cinematography, and the way so many of the outdoor scenes have this quiet stillness about them; they look like little tableaus from Andrew Wyeth.

People praise thrillers in which characters don't do the usual stupid things that serve to move plots along; in Simple a lot of stupid acts are committed, but the viewer is sucked into a feeling of dread for the protagonists as things reach their inexorable conclusion.

I think the film would have received a lot more recognition if it hadn't been orphaned by its production company. Oh, yeah, that was the year Shakespeare in Love dominated the Oscars, remember?

And now Sam Raimi is Mr. Spider-Man....

Lost, February 7 episode

2007-02-08T07:23:00.001-06:00

Discuss in comments

Rental Quick Takes

2007-02-07T20:17:00.000-06:00

First things first, Blockbuster is officially On Notice. I signed up for their online subscription a couple weeks ago, and things were running along smoothly until Werner Herzog's Stroszek came along. I noticed before I even put the disc in that it had a weird crack on the side of it, but it wasn't that big, and it was close to the edge, so I thought maybe everything would be OK.

Well, it wasn't, and with about 10 minutes left, the movie froze up, and I couldn't get it to play any further. I thought, what the hell, these things happen, and reported the disc as unplayable and sent it back. Three days later, I get Stroszek back in the mail and ... it's the exact same disc. Still cracked. Still doesn't play.

I sent them an email, and am awaiting a response. Better be good, guys.

Anyway...

Sex, Lies, and Videotape: Fun movie, in the sense that it's not really very good but knows how to push buttons and screw with your expectations. It's like Soderbergh's career all makes sense to me now.

Brief Encounter: As (almost) always, I was impressed with the efforts of the Criterion Collection for this movie, but honestly, the movie felt rooted in outdated attitudes and acting styles. I tried to put myself in the position of a conservative 1940s viewer but I couldn't really get there.

Reds: Here's one that was easy for me to put myself in the mindset of the contemporary viewer. This is because, despite the events in the world during the past 20 years, Communist paranoia is still alive and well in the fever swamps of American right-wing politics. This movie must have caused quite the stir back in 1981, but I thought it was a good reminder of just how great Warren Beatty can be. Also, interesting to watch Diane Keaton play someone I didn't hate.

Donnie Darko: Finally got around to seeing it (I rented the director's cut). I loved the first two hours of it, but felt cheated a bit by the last ten minutes. Incidentally, I really enjoyed this essay on the film buy RogerEbert.com's Jim Emerson, although it didn't really help me with the last ten minutes.

The Princess and the Warrior: Enjoyed it as much as I could, but I have to chastise Sony for their DVD. It seemed that it wasn't encoded for progressive scan, so there was an incredible amount of of digital artifacts, scan lines, etc. I fought through it the best I could, but it probably made the movie seemed longer, slower, and uglier than it actually was.

Casting the inevitable "Insane diaper-wearing Astronaut stalker" movie

2007-02-06T10:27:00.000-06:00

Toni Collette as Lisa Marie Nowak

Tony Schloub as Cmdr. William Oefelein

(These should be up on Defamer shortly as well)

The Queen

2007-02-05T14:01:00.000-06:00

It's taken me forever to see this, as it came to arthouse theaters here last fall, and it premiered in Puerto Rico the weekend I left (I honestly thought it would be interesting to see both The Queen and The Last King of Scotland with Spanish subtitles, but alas ;-) ), and now it's migrated into multiplexes. I would have posted a comment to the previous thread that included this film and some comments on it, but I've done that before to old posts and the comment seemingly goes into oblivion (except that Brian might notice it).

I loved it. Now that's not to say I think it's a great film, and I can see watching it over only in some edited version that removes all the extraneous documentary footage of Diana, because I was getting very tired of that. But as a sort of "The West Wing" meets the Royals, I thought it was very well done.

My viewing companion had a more mixed reaction, while agreeing that it was good, but was too turned off by further dwelling on the death of Diana. She had thought that the plot sounded like something completely uninteresting to her, but sometimes the plot doesn't matter if the film is good enough and you can just admire the acting and the craft of the film, but in this case she thought the plot did matter.

Maybe I have a bit more fascination with the royal family. While all the hub-bub over the death of Diana caused irreparable damage to my opinion of what was then supposed to be serious news media (Time magazine had her death on their US cover two weeks in a row!), I was also someone who had gotten up early to watch her wedding live on television.

And while I'm against a flag-burning ban amendment to the Constitution, I also complain about businesses and organizations that bother to fly the flag but can't seem to do it properly--something that comes to light most starkly when we have any situation calling for flags at half-staff. I guess that's just the old Cub Scout in me. And so there was one moment in The Queen that definitely had me, when there was all the back-and-forth over the flag at Buckingham Palace.

At first while watching the film I thought, oh, yes, as with Forest Whitaker and The Last King of Scotland, Helen Mirren is giving a performance that, while not her best, is certainly showy in just the right way to get an Oscar. And by showy in this case I obviously don't mean the sort of visibly straining neck muscles and throbbing temples bit, nor do I mean Nick's observation that she's showing off how well she renders internal conflict, but rather that she's playing the reigning British monarch in a front-and-center starring role, and doing it rather believably. But as the film went on I came to think that she was actually doing such a subtly good job, and I found myself particularly affected by the two scenes in which she's looking at the flowers left for Diana.

When was the last time the roles of "king" and queen both won Best Acting Oscars the same year?

The contrast between the lives of the Queen and Prime Minister Blair also left me to ponder if we're really better off in the US for not having a monarchy, for we tend far too much to elevate the President to that role, when we might be better served by having someone in that role who possesses no real power, and leave the business of running the country to someone who is not entitled to the royal treatment. Of course, we could take the route of those countries that elect a figurehead head-of-state without having a monarchy....

Venus

2007-02-02T22:23:00.000-06:00

The question occurred to me while watching Venus last weekend - what exactly is acting? Peter O'Toole's performance in the film, of course, has been nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, but I had mixed feelings about it.

Just to get it out of the way, I don't think the movie is really all that good. It's fitfully amusing, and there are nice moments here and there (mainly the ones O'Toole shares with Vanessa Redgrave), but on the whole I didn't feel it adds up to much. Frankly, I think a big problem is that the character of Jessie, played by Jodie Whittaker, just isn't that interesting. She's a terribly ordinary girl, boring even. It's hard to know why Maurice (O'Toole's character) cares to spend any time with her at all; I was progressively less willing as the movie went on.

So I got to passing the time wondering if anyone would have noticed O'Toole's performance if he wasn't "Peter O'Toole", with all the history and baggage that the name carries with it. It seemed clear to me that he and director Roger Michell were leaning less on O'Toole's actual acting than his image as a legendary, but feeble, old actor. It didn't seem like a natural or sincere kind of performance; it felt like an old man with a bag of tricks playing to the audience.

Yet, I don't necessarily mean that as a criticism, at least not completely, because they're still impressive tricks. I mean, how do we judge performances anyway? If the intent is to play off of one's image, is it still "acting"? Is a performance any less noteworthy (or Award-worthy) if it depends on what the audience brings to the film, instead of what they find there?

Like I said, these are the things I was pondering while watching an otherwise dull film. Wish I could say that I came up with a decent answer, but a week later I'm still scratching my head.

If I Were A Casting Director for the Dark Knight

2007-02-02T14:35:00.000-06:00

Casting for The Dark Knight (aka Film Most Likely To Be Seen By Brian 2008) is apparently under way. Edward Norton appears to have passed on playing Harvey Dent.

Rumoured to be running are Jamie Foxx, Josh Lucas and Aaron Eckhart.

Out of those three, I'd pick Foxx. Eckhart sounded good at first, but then the thought of him as a friend/nemesis to Bale's Wayne doesn't really get the vessels pumping. What Nolan could do with Foxx could be very cool, though.

Of course, Paddy Considine playing Two-Face could be the most awesome thing on God's green earth.

Opening in Dallas, 02/02

2007-02-02T12:32:00.000-06:00

Super Bowl weekend, meaning of course nothing worthwhile opens. So I'm completely phoning it in; this will probably be the first time since I started doing this that I won't see any of the movies listed.

The Messengers (trailer)

Because I Said So (trailer)

Constellation (trailer at official site)

Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds (trailer at MySpace page)

Go Bears!

The Bad German

2007-02-02T10:52:00.000-06:00

Well, somehow it has happened. I always eagerly look forward to any new Steven Soderbergh film, and early buzz on The Good German had me psyched. Of course, as I saw clips for it I got a sinking feeling--they looked like everyone was trying way too hard, too caught up in an homage to The Third Man etc. The Good German came here two weeks ago, with an "exclusive engagement" at a multiplex I've never visited, because I've heard that it's the worst of the three from that chain in this area, and while their best one is okay, the middle one is detestable, so.... But I still meant to go see it, even though the theater was bad and out-of-the-way for me, and now, well, now it's gone. After just two weeks.

I think Bubble had a longer run here than that (at an arthouse cinema). Given the investment in it, I would say that The Good German has to be a pretty big flop. Guess that's why they've got Ocean's 13 up next. *sigh*

February Movies

2007-02-01T10:56:00.000-06:00

It's my birth month and to me the list looks worse than January with few bright spots. But there is one that I'm DYING to see....

Now if only the film was as good

2007-01-29T08:41:00.000-06:00

Why is it that, nine times out of ten, the poster for a horror movie is much better than the film itself?

Opening in Dallas, 01/26

2007-01-26T14:03:00.000-06:00

Venus (trailer): Hey, it’s about time. I know that if I had a little-known movie with a lead performance that allegedly deserved an Oscar, I’d make sure that it didn’t arrive in major markets until after the nominations were announced. Way to build up the word, guys.

Sweet Land (trailer): I’ve heard a lot of good about this, and I’m quite pleased to have a genuine quality indie release in town.

Seraphim Falls (trailer at official site): Looks interesting, but I think I’ve warned against movies with a great cast yet no advance buzz before.

Smokin’ Aces (trailer): Perhaps the loudest trailer ever. Looks far too eager to please.

Catch and Release (trailer): I would guess that two things are true here: 1) This is the most charming, down-to-earth performance that Jennifer Garner has given, and 2) the movie sucks anyway.

Blood and Chocolate (trailer): A teenage werewolf movie, but serious this time. Awesome.

Epic Movie (trailer): Lots of problems here. One, none of the movies spoofed, as far as I can tell, are what I’d call “epics”. I mean, Nacho Libre? Second, none of the jokes in the TV ads are even really jokes. Third - they’re making fun of Paris Hilton, really? And fourth, how exactly does one spoof Borat? And fifth, why are Borat and Paris Hilton in a spoof of “epics” anyway?

Letters From Iwo Jima

2007-01-25T09:44:00.000-06:00

Three words: Japanese Hamburger Hill. That's probably an unfair assessment, given that Letters from Iwo Jima is a far superior film to that late '80's Viet Nam War film, but once the battle action started I was having much the same feelings that I recall from when I saw Hamburger in a theater (and haven't seen it since, btw)--this disquieting feeling as the bloodshed grinds on and on and we see characters fall away one by one.

Letters is an astonishing film: an American film with an almost exclusively Japanese cast speaking Japanese and retelling the story of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II in sympathy with the Japanese, when previous narratives have at worst demonized them and at best made them faceless automatons (even so in the companion film Flags of Our Fathers). It is a straightforward story well-told and well-acted, and that sums up its power. There may even seem to be a few war-movie clichés, but watching this film you just accept them without question.

While there were nods to John Ford in Flags, the pre-battle scenes on Iwo in Letters seemed so eerily like some Japanese films of the '50's and '60's that I thought director Clint Eastwood must have been channeling Akira Kurosawa (and that makes for some kind of going beyond full-circle doesn't it?). The film has even more color drained from it than Flags did, and when situations get especially grim it seemed to go almost completely black-and-white.

Letters is asking the question: what is it like to be the "bad" guys on the losing side? What happens when you prize honor and dignity and know you are in a situation where you are going to be killed? Letters provides some explanation for some of the more extreme actions taken by the defenders of Iwo.

The cast is uniformly excellent in their roles, and I thought Ken Watanabe's tightrope-walking portrayal of a decent commander who is also dedicated to his country was as complex and nuanced as one could hope for (too bad he wasn't as larger-than-life as Idi Amin).

However, I think Flags of Our Fathers was a better film, and it puzzles me why Letters should be receiving more accolades. Those I saw it with, who also thought Flags was excellent, thought Letters was better, but admitted that part of it was the novelty of the Japanese point-of-view--if it had been a similar story told with Americans then it wouldn't have been as good (is this why Japanese critics might prefer Flags?). I thought Flags was a more complex and deceptively subversive story, told in a way that makes one question American culture, but perhaps its unsettling nature and/or the way it was so entwined with aspects of patriotism that some viewers seemed to take at face value has been its downfall. Let me put it this way: I knew the concept of Letters and came away with pretty much what I expected, but Flags was a great surprise to me even though I had been clued in to how it was going to critically examine celebrity and heroism. I can see watching Letters one or two more times, but I would like to see Flags several more times. I can't wait for the DVD boxed set.

Oscar reaction

2007-01-23T09:31:00.000-06:00

A few thoughts on this morning's nominations...

Obviously the biggest news is that Dreamgirls, despite leading the pack with 8 noms, got shut out of Picture, Director and Screenplay. This will reverberate throughout the Oscar-blogging world, and certainly will get some publicists fired. I would hope this teaches David Poland a lesson.

Cinematography, for the first time since 1967, when there were two awards given (for B&W and color) does not have a best picture nominee in its midst.

Judi Dench now has six nominations, all coming past the age of sixty.

Kevin O'Connell, nominated for Sound Editing for Apocalypto, now has 19 nominations. He has never won.

Thomas Newman, composer of The Good German, now has ten nominations, he has never won.

Dreamgirls is the second film to get three song nominations, the first was Lion King.

All five films in the Original Screenplay category are written by first-time nominees.

Lots of categories are wide open, including picture. I'll post my predictions and thoughts here along the way.

Meebo

2007-01-22T16:49:00.000-06:00

Why didn't you guys tells me about this? I've been looking for a way to consolidate IMs forever....

You can also embed the direct chat on your webpage, if you want visitors to bother you, like thus:

DVD Announcement of the Day

2007-01-22T16:16:00.000-06:00

Here's a DVD announcement to be happy about - the very nice folks at Criterion are putting out Mathieu Kassovitz's Hate (La Haine).

I've never actually seen the film, but just by coincidence, I was browsing the IMDb's Top 250 this morning and noticed it there. I also noticed that there was no US DVD available. Well, problem solved.

Notes on a Scandal

2007-01-22T07:21:00.000-06:00

Notes on a Scandal is based on a novel called What Was She Thinking, by Zoe Heller, and that certainly is the question you will ask during much of this film, which is crisply directed by Richard Eyre and masterfully spun by screenwriter Patrick Marber, but ultimately crumbles, like an expertly made sand castle. At the heart of this story is a conflict which tends to sag with the weight of melodrama, without being important enough to sit up and take notice.

The story concerns two women, teachers at a school in London. The elder, and narrator of our story, is played by Judi Dench. She is a bitter, lonely old woman, who jots down in her diary how superior she is to everyone. Like Richard III, she tells us about the treachery she's about to commit. The other woman is played by Cate Blanchett as a novice art teacher who seems to be constantly at odds with the world around her. She is unsure of herself in the classroom, and quickly bonds with Dench as one might to a mentor. She is completely unaware of the insidious manner Dench has about forming a friendship.

Soon enough it is clear that Dench is actually a frustrated lesbian, but unwilling to accept her inclinations, instead longing to have a friendship with Blanchett. However Blanchett seems happily married to an older man, Bill Nighy, and is the mother to two children, including a boy with Downs Syndrome. It is only when Dench discovers that Blanchett is having an affair with a 15-year-old student does she realize she has the upper hand.

This affair is the "Scandal" in question, and I'm never completely convinced why Blanchett undertakes it. Yes, her character is a bit of flibberty-gibbet, or perhaps simply someone with an "artistic" temperament, but there just isn't enough there to explain why she carries it out. Nothing on screen about her relationship with Nighy suggests a reason for it, nor is the boy, played by Andrew Simpson, a freckle-faced lad with a Scottish burr, so incredibly charismatic that he is irresistible.

The titillation of such an affair is fueled by the many instances of it in the news. A similar relationship between an older man and a teenage girl is rightly seen as nothing but creepy and reprehensible, but when the genders are reversed, though the law deals with it just as severely, public opinion seems to judge it differently, with a wink and a nod. This film does the same.

The performances are excellent. Dench sinks her teeth into this role like a lioness into an antelope. She puts a lie to the claim that there are no roles for women of a certain age. If she is Oscar-nominated for this role, as I expect her to be, it will be her sixth, all past the age of sixty, astonishingly unprecedented. Blanchett, also one of the finest actresses in film, is good, but again she has less to work with. We hear Dench's every thought in the frequent voice-over narration of her diary entries, and we see Blanchett through her eyes. As for Bill Nighy, he's fast becoming one of my favorite character actors. If he is in a film, his part is sure to be interesting.

Also worth mentioning is the gripping music score, by Philip Glass.

Lotta Love Up On Those Mountains

2007-01-19T17:54:00.000-06:00

The NY Times 'Carpetbagger' David Carr has a video up on his blog from Sundance, with appearances by two by now well known figures.

Poland just before he started wailing "And I Am Telling You".

While Jeff will always have Brokeback Mountain.

Opening in Dallas, 01/19

2007-01-19T15:58:00.002-06:00

Not much happening this week:

Flannel Pajamas (trailer at official site): Got mixed reviews at Sundance last year, although a rave by Ebert is featured in the (good) trailer. I’ll go see it, what the hell.

The Hitcher (trailer): I’ve always thought that Sean Bean is a very good actor, but if there was ever a warning against the perils of being typecast, he’s it. I don’t think this is going to help him much, but someday I’d like to see him break out of the villain rut that he’s been in since Patriot Games.

That’s it!

Oscar Nomination Predictions

2007-01-19T09:37:00.000-06:00

Okay, here goes. These are my predictions for the Oscar nominations, which will be announced on Tuesday.

BEST PICTURE

Babel
The Departed
Dreamgirls
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

Same five as I had in December. Only question is whether Letters from Iwo Jima dislodges LMS.

BEST DIRECTOR

Bill Condon, Dreamgirls
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima
Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, Babel
Martin Scorsese, The Departed

I’ve bumped Pedro for Clint. Paul Greengrass could get in, I’m more doubtful of the Little Miss Sunshine duo, even though they got a DGA.

BEST ACTOR

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed
Ryan Gosling, Half-Nelson
Peter O'Toole, Venus
Will Smith, Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Same five as before. Four are locks, Gosling is still my choice, but this is a very weak year for this category and could allow for an oddball nomination like Baron Cohen, Craig, or Eckhart

BEST ACTRESS

Penelope Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children

No changes. The entire world is picking these five. Very surprised if someone else breaks in.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Jack Nicholson, The Departed
Brad Pitt, Babel
Michael Sheen, The Queen

The most wide-open acting category. Anyone of ten guys could in, and Murphy is the only lock. Haley, Walhberg, Hounsou, shit even Ben Affleck stands a chance.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Adrianna Barraza, Babel
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

I’ve bumped Emma Thompson for the nanny from Babel. Feel pretty confident with these five.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Babel
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen
Letters from Iwo Jima
United 93

Identical to WGA except Letters instead of Stranger Than Fiction, Volver and Pan’s Labyrinth also possibilities

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Children of Men
The Departed
Dreamgirls
Little Children
Notes on a Scandal

Children might be wishing. Dreamgirls doesn’t deserve it, and sometimes the writers spot bullshit (like Titanic). Borat probably left out.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Canada, Water
Denmark, After the Wedding
Germany, The Lives of Others
Mexico, Pan’s Labyrinth
Spain, Volver

The Academy was helpful and whittled a list of 61 down to 9. Hard to imagine a Paul Verhoeven film getting in here (Black Book).

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Deliver Us From Evil
An Inconvenient Truth
Iraq in Fragments
Jesus Camp
The War Tapes

The Dixie Chicks get left out.

ANIMATED FEATURE

Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House

Edited to reflect only three nominees. Thanks for the info, Nick

VISUAL EFFECTS

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Poseidon
Superman Returns

Also eligible: Casino Royale, Eragon, Night at the Museum, X-Men

MAKEUP

Apocalypto
Pan’s Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Also eligible: Click, The Prestige, Santa Clause 3 (!) X-Men

COSTUMES

Curse of the Golden Flower
Dreamgirls
The Illusionist
Marie-Antoinette
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Apocalypto
Children of Men
The Departed
Dreamgirls
The Illusionist

The ASC nominated The Black Dahlia and The Good Shepherd, but I figure bigger films will bounce them.

EDITING

Babel
The Departed
Dreamgirls
The Queen
United 93

ART DIRECTION

Children of Men
Curse of the Golden Flower
The Departed
Dreamgirls
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

SOUND

Blood Diamond
The Departed
Dreamgirls
Flags of Our Fathers
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Always the toughest category, because every friggin’ movie has sound!

SOUND EFFECTS EDITING

Cars
Flags of Our Fathers
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

The Academy usually announces a short list of seven for the bakeoff, but haven’t heard anything yet.

MUSICAL SCORE

Apocalypto
Babel
The DaVinci Code
Notes on a Scandal
The Painted Veil

SONG

Bobby, “Never Gonna Break My Faith”
Dreamgirls, “Listen”
Dreamgirls, “Patience”
Happy Feet, “Song of My Heart”
An Inconvenient Truth, “I Need to Wake Up”

Song of Ice & Fire to become HBO series

2007-01-17T16:54:00.000-06:00

Variety reports that David Benioff (writer of Troy and 25th Hour) and D.B. Weiss (screen adaptations for Halo and Pattern Recognition) are to write and produce a series on HBO of George R.R. Martin's fantasy series.

For those who have read the series, of which four out of seven have been written, this is pretty big news. Rome proves that HBO can do high budget bloody spectacle, which this undoubtedly will be. But will it be any good?

Benioff involved is mostly good news. Troy was boring, but his novel the 25th Hour, and the film, are very good, and a friend said his recently published collection of short stories had some excellent stuff in it. Don't know about Weiss, but if Weir approved of his adaptation of Gibson's Pattern Recognition he has to have plenty going for him.

But doing this right is going to be pretty difficult. Martin himself has said that he wrote the series to come away from the budgetary restrictions of writing for television (he co-wrote and produced the Beauty & the Beast series with Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton). And each book requires dozens of pages at the end to go through lineages and alliances. Each book has a cast of hundreds, taking place in dozens of widely removed locations. The writers and producers have their work cut out for them.

It will probably take a few years for this come out anyway, so by that time they will probably have done it half-right, at least. And maybe the fifth part will be out, as well.

And if you haven't read the series you should definitely give it a shot. Frankly, some of the most riveting stuff you can read anywhere, and some of my favorite novels ever.

Pan's Labyrinth

2007-01-17T08:24:00.000-06:00

Pan's Labyrinth, from director Guillermo Del Toro, is a sumptuous feast of a film, building on the archetypal story elements of fairy tales, but set in a very real, very scary modern time period. The story concerns a young girl, Ofelia, in Spain in 1944. Her father has been killed in the war, and her mother has remarried to an officer, Captain Vidal, in Franco's military. He is stationed at a remote rural outpost, hunting resistance fighters in the woods. Since Ofelia's mother is pregnant with the officer's child, he wants her there when the baby is born, despite the hardship of the travel.

Ofelia loves books, particularly fairy tales. When her mother tells her she has a surprise for her, Ofelia immediately wonders, "Is it a book?" Her vivid imagination allows her to remove herself from the misery of her current situation, but when a large winged insect starts following her around and then leads her to a stone maze on the grounds of the house where she is staying, the stories from her picture books seems to be all too real.

Ofelia meets a faun (in English he is called Pan) who, in a marvel of movie creativity, manages to be both cuddly and menacing. He tells Ofelia that she is the long lost princess of his world, and that if she can complete three tasks, she will resume her rightful place on the throne. In the meantime, the insanities of the conflict around her continue. Her mother is in very bad health. The guerrillas in the woods are being aided by a kindly woman who works for the Captain, and she must remain vigilant that she won't get found out, because the Captain has a fetish for torture.

Del Toro does a wonderful job of taking us back and forth between the bleak reality of war to the surreal world of Ofelia's fairy tale, parts of which are quite scary (the scene involving an eyeless creature who seems to like skewering babies is particularly frightening), but are also quite beautiful. The Captain is one of the more awful villains in recent memory, a man who is devoted to military discipline and the ghost of his father, a general who was killed in battle.

Ofelia is played by Ivana Baquero, who is quite good. She is imaginative, without being precocious, and rightly plays her scenes around the Captain is a kind of permanent clench of fear. When she is in her fantasy world, though, she knows she is the heroine of her own story.

Interestingly, it is left ambiguous as to whether her fantasies are real or not, and I think a definitive answer to that is irrelevant, as the world is certainly real to Ofelia, which is what matters most.

This Year I Look Forward To...

2007-01-17T05:11:00.000-06:00

Global Warming!
It's mid-January and there's no snow or ice outside, at all! Hasn't been any practically all year. Summer was amazing, too. All sun, all the time. Sure, there's been some hurricane winds and some warnings of floods (Skåne is quite flat), but there's a price to everything these days.

Having a proper summer vacation
Don't know where yet. Suggestions have been Ghana, Kenya, London, New York and renting a Croatian lighthouse in the Adriatic. Probably end up in Stockholm again.

Going to more concerts
I like going to concerts. Don't know why I don't do it more often.

Fixing up those last pieces of my apartment
That damn Billy shelf is going to hang on the wall like a rock. They will be like one. Along with all those picture frames.

Reading Tolstoy's War & Peace
This summer's literary project. If completed in good time to be followed by Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.

Seeing some TV-series conclude
Rome, Sopranos, and my new favorite Death Note promise to do so this year.

Seeing the Wells and Poland fight escalate
I've read both of them for some time now, and they've never been as vicious and odious as the past year. Last time it led to Poland breaking up, but they reconciled. Now they're getting riled up more than usual. Maybe they figure it gives more page hits. None the less, very fun.

Click here to read the rest of it

Seeing Some Films:

The Films I Haven't Seen Yet
Children of Men, Pan's Labyrinth, Harsh Times, Letters From Iwo Jima/Flags of Our Fathers, Little Children, The Conformist, Army of Shadows, The History Boys, Fast Food Nation,

Crazy CGI-epics
300 (I mean, you've seen the trailer, right? It's going to be humongous), Stardust (Neil Gaiman wrote the book. Loved the book. Recommend it highly), Beowulf (Neil Gaiman co-wrote the screenplay, Zemeckis is directing and great cast), Golden Compass (the trilogy is one of the finest fantasy epics released. Good casting so far, Kidman & Craig, but Weitz directing is worrying, and production looks too bright), Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix

Westerns!
3:10 to Yuma (Christian Bale hunting Russell Crowe), Seraphim Falls (Liam Neeson hunting Pierce Brosnan)

Spy Films!
The Bourne Ultimatum (this is near the top of most expected), Lust, Caution (Ang Lee's latest set in WWII Shanghai with Tony Leung and Joan Chen), The Kingdom (Peter Berg is a very good director and the story is written by Michael Mann), Rendition (Tsotsi director makes American debut with Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon)

Thrillers!
Zodiac (March 2, folks), Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg directs what seems like a History of Violence continuation with Viggo Mortensen as a hitman in London), American Gangster (Ridley Scott with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. Bada bing), Gone Baby Gone (book is great, casting is amazing, and director is Ben Affleck? Strangely look very much forward to this), No Country For Old Men, Red Road (Scottish low-budget a la Caché. Big hit at Cannes)

Being passively forced by the market powers to go to this summer's CGI-sequel-fests
You know the ones.

The (Fingers Crossed) Well-Made Comedies
Knocked Up (Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen reunite), Margot at the Wedding (Noah Baumbach with Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh), Boss of It All (Lars Von Trier latest), Ratatouille, Hot Fuzz (seems funny enough), The Simpsons Movie (it will probably be good. But I don't know, something feels off), Cassandra's Dream (Woody Allens latest London project with Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell)

The Presumptive Oscar Dramas
There Will Be Blood (PTA's oil epic with Daniel Day Lewis), Atonement (the book is very good, wonder how it will translate, though. But Wright's Pride & Prejudice was, I agree, first class craftmanship), Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan with Matt Damon and Anna Paquin), Charlie Wilson's War (Mike Nichols with Tom Hanks and Philip Seymour Hoffman), The Golden Age (Elizabeth was as historically inaccurate as a historical drama can get, but highly entertaining nonetheless), Reign Over Me (I look forward to an Adam Sandler movie? Check pulse..), Lions for Lambs (strange title, Robert Redford directing, meh, Tom Cruise starring, more meh)

The I-Don't-Know-Where-To-Put-These
Black Snake Moan, Grindhouse, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Lesley Vernon (premise is promising, and word is very good), Sunshine (Danny Boyle sun sci-fi with a helluva cast), I Am Legend (great book vs. Will Smith), The Lookout (Scott Frank's directorial debut. Wrote Out of Sight and Minority Report), Angel-a (Luc Besson first live-action in years. But Invisibles looks like shit, so), The Invasion (very delayed, but director deserves benefit of doubt. Second Craig & Kidman pairing of the year), Rescue Dawn (Herzog's crazy Vietnam film with Bale and Steve Zahn), Talk to Me (Cheadle plays 60's radio host with Chiwetel Eijofor)

(List of films found at LA Times)

Poets Corner Demolished?

2007-01-16T16:52:00.000-06:00

Seems like our old hangout has been wiped out. Can't find it on Google even. It's like it never even existed.

Rentals

2007-01-16T15:32:00.000-06:00

Been watching a few more DVDs than usual lately.

M: I keep telling myself that I’m going to start up a Netflix account one of these days, and when I do, the Fritz Lang titles will flow like a rushing river. I loved M, and I loved Metropolis when I was lucky enough to catch in during a theatrical reissue a few years ago. Originally released in 1931, it plays like it was made a good 20 years later. It’s well beyond any American movie I’ve seen from the same time period, whether in terms of direction, acting, sound … you name it. And all praise and glory be to the Criterion Collection for their wonderful DVD.

Blue Velvet: Obviously compelling, but I can completely understand why Ebert hated it. I don’t feel as strongly as he does (did?) about it, but I think it’s a little bit too cartoonish to be taken seriously and a little too serious to be taken cartoonishly, and Lynch wasn’t really able to get those ends to meet.

Amores perros: I basically feel the same way about this as I do 21 Grams and Babel: impressed but not enamored. All told, it worked better than those two, but there’s something frustrating about González Iñárritu that I can’t quite put my finger on. His characters always feel just the slightest bit prop-like, and it’s hard to feel too engaged with what happens to them.

The Devil’s Backbone: Pretty fantastic, but in a surprisingly low-key kind of way. I seem to recall it being marketed as a horror movie, and the current DVD cover makes it look like a Rob Zombie movie. Much like the very awesome Pan’s Labyrinth, however, director Guillermo del Toro regards his heroes very warmly, and finds apprehension and dread in the outside world around them, while eschewing horror movie conventions. I’d retroactively add it to the list of 2001’s best, if I had such a list in the first place.

3-Iron: Kim Ki-Duk films will also be forthcoming when I open the fabled Netflix account. I enjoyed his Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring a few years back, but missed 3-Iron during its theatrical run in 2005. Based on a recommendation from Nick, I picked it up in the video store, and loved it so much that I didn’t even mind that a key image from the movie was spoiled on the DVD cover (and theatrical poster). Thanks, Nick.

Japanese Film Magazine's Top Ten Surprises

2007-01-13T11:01:00.001-06:00

Kinema Junbo, one of Japan's leading film magazines, released it's top ten best foreign films list a few days ago, and one thing grabbed me; they gave their top spot to Flags of Our Fathers. Second came Letters From Iwo Jima and third The Host.

Even if I haven't seen either of them, I can understand the respect for Letters, it's their side of the story told for once, but this accolade for Flags?

Is it a political statement? "You understood our side, now we understand yours?" Or is it really a genuine respect for the film? According to most American critics Letters is the better film, but perhaps that's a political and moral statement as well?

Only A Matter of Time

2007-01-13T07:10:00.000-06:00

Continuing on from Olaf's casting of Day-Lewis as Zidane I'll offer my own casting suggestion.

Not sure how many are familiar with Pete Doherty of Kate Moss/multiple drug offence-fame, but whenever the man inevitably croaks of an overdose I know just the guy who can use it as Serious Actor springboard.

Bound to happen, unless Doherty somehow survives past 30.

Opening in Dallas, 01/12

2007-01-12T15:09:00.000-06:00

Pan’s Labyrinth (trailer): I’ve grown progressively more excited for this in the past few weeks. So, I decided to rent The Devil’s Backbone, which I had missed during its theatrical run. Very good show - in fact, quite beautiful in its way - and now I’m more excited than ever.

Letters from Iwo Jima (trailer): On the other hand, my anticipation for this has been steadily waning since I saw the trailer. Hope I’m wrong.

Alpha Dog (trailer): Surprisingly mixed reviews for this; I should maybe check it out if I have the time.

Stomp the Yard (trailer): I assume “Truth University” is fictional, but it has me wondering. What would their athletic teams be named? What would their mascot look like? These things are really important if a movie wants to be credible.

Arthur and the Invisibles (trailer): So much I could write about this, even without seeing it. But I’ll just say this: there was a time - 1995-1996, I guess - when I would have gone to see any movie that Luc Besson made. But The Fifth Element was disappointing, and The Messenger was offensively bad. And when I watched The Professional lately, I realized that, despite my earlier enthusiasm, it had never been any good either. So long story short, this looks awful - really and truly awful - and I can happily skip it without feeling guilty.

Primeval (trailer): After reading some of the real story behind Gustave, I’m convinced that a great movie could be made from it. Basically, you have the story about a giant killer croc, with political overtones given the ongoing civil war in Burundi. Somehow, though, I’m pretty sure that Primeval is not that movie.

Release dates and the Oscars

2007-01-12T12:14:00.000-06:00

Brian, I saw your response to Jeff Wells' item about Mark Harris' column http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20008261,00.html, that says that the Oscar dates being moved up have screwed late releases. I can't agree with you more, that's bullshit. For years we heard complaints that movies released early in the year were forgotten, now the Oscars shift four weeks earlier and it's the splashy Christmas releases we're supposed to boo-hoo over? Please.

The Oscars can happen anytime they want to, it's their ball. If the studios want to play the craven game of marketing for awards, they'll have to adjust.

As for the examples of Day-Lewis, Brody, and Harden, I think in each case they won the Oscar because they were the only alternative. Voters didn't want to annoint Tom Cruise at such a young age, so they went with DDL. Brody won because (ironically enough) they didn't want to give DDL another Oscar for Gangs of New York, nor could they bring themselves to give Nicholson a fourth. And Kate Hudson was the front-runner the year Harden won, and the voters came to their senses and realized Hudson's role was mostly fluff. I'll bet a lot of people who voted for Harden didn't even see Pollack.

ZZ's Top

2007-01-10T19:25:00.000-06:00

Completely off topic and irrelevant, but should they decide to make a movie about Zinedine Zidane:

I found out who should play him:

There was something on Comcast.net about celebrity trivia and I saw a picture of DDL akin to the one above and thought "What the heck is Zidane doing in this trivia section?"

Opening in Dallas, 01/05

2007-01-05T16:11:00.001-06:00

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (trailer: Tom Twyker question - did anyone see The Princess and the Warrior? Was it any good?

Notes on a Scandal (trailer): Daytime soaps come to the big screen, only inexplicably with a great cast and loads of other prestige factors. OK, maybe that’s not really fair, but could they have cut this trailer to be any more overwrought? I mean, it was overwrought by the time the streaked makeup shows up, and by the time the Dench-Blanchett catfight arrives, I wanted everyone to just take a quaalude and chill the fuck out.

Miss Potter (trailer): From the Unoriginal Thought Dept: I wish costar Emily Watson was playing Beatrix Potter in this movie, instead of Renée Zellweger.

Thr3e (trailer at official site): So, FoxFaith gets around to releasing a Christian-themed serial killer movie, called Thr3e no less. Gee, no ripoff there. I swear, this is true. “From a producer of X-Men”, just in case you doubted the pedigree of such a production.

Freedom Writers (trailer): Judging by the trailer - admittedly a bad habit - Hilary Swank is an early nominee for the Most Painfully Awkward Performance of the Year award for 2007. Jennifer Connelly narrowly beat out everyone else in the Blood Diamond cast to win last year’s award.

Code Name: The Cleaner (trailer): It seems like an odd thing for me to say, but I kind of like Cedric the Entertainer. I don’t know why; as far as I know he’s never done anything that I enjoyed. But it seems like he could be funny, in the right situation. Which this movie is almost certainly not.

Happily N’Ever After (trailer): No chance in hell.

Also, as an addendum, The Painted Veil (trailer) was the only movie to open last Friday, but I never got around to mentioning that then.

My first films of 2007--Dreamgirls and Children of Men

2007-01-05T08:56:00.000-06:00

Dreamgirls is, if I had to choose one adjective, obvious. Toward the end of the film there's a scene where the record company depicted in the film, Rainbow Records (a stand-in for Motown) has a TV special celebrating their tenth anniversary. The production design gets it just right, capturing the cheesiness of 70's TV variety shows. Unfortunately, that's kind of the tone of the whole film. No matter how much glitter and pizzazz this film tries to create, I was left mostly bored and uninterested.

The key problem is the script. As with most musicals, the plot is thin and the characters two-dimensional. Jamie Foxx is the Barry Gordy figure, who discovers three girls at an amateur night in Detroit and turns them into stars, betraying two of them on the way up. Foxx does everything but twirl his mustache, a standard cardboard heel. Of the three girls, only Anika Noni Rose is an actual actress and comes off well. Beyonce Knowles, to me, is a competent singer and actress, but lacks star quality, and I am mystified by her popularity. She plays the Diana Ross figure, and the script lets her off easy, apologizing as she makes her way to the top over the back of her former friend, played by Jennifer Hudson.

As for Hudson, the presumptive Oscar-winner, well, again I'm mystified. She has a marvelous singing voice, but it's in the style of many of the American Idol contestants--a constant belting. There's not much phrasing or shading to it. And her acting is again, just competent. If this was community theater it would be great, but this is the big stage. The script, though, doesn't help. She's supposed to be a proud woman, but comes off as merely petulant. Her show-stopping number, I Am Telling You I'm Not Going, is indeed a thrilling moment, but Armond White is right--if you listen to the lyrics, you realize it's a stalker's anthem.

The Children of Men should be the film getting Oscar buzz. It's a classic of dystopian literature, and the production designers deserve a great deal of credit for filling every nook and cranny of this film with remarkable detail, evoking a future of harrowing despair. It's 2029, and for over eighteen years there have been no births. No one knows why, but mankind realizes that in sixty or seventy years there will be no people left, and a collective depression has settled over Earth. A glimmer of hope surfaces, and a former radical, Clive Owen, finds himself protecting that hope.

The plot is rather simple, a standard getting from point A to point B with various obstacles in-between, but it is what this plot is decorated with that makes the film so thrilling, from the photography to the set design to the sound. This is a very loud film at times, but it is very appropriate, because I'm sure real combat situations are even louder. Owen gives a very solid performance, and the script is smart. My viewing companion mentioned that she appreciated that no one really does anything stupid in this film, which is how lesser films further their plots.

Dreamgirls does not deserve a boat-load of Oscar nominations, Children of Men does.

Little Children

2006-12-29T07:00:00.000-06:00

Having read and enjoyed Tom Perrotta's book, Little Children, I was eager to see the film version, and after much waiting for it to reach the hinterlands, it finally arrived, and I was not disappointed. I will say, though, that the film is not the feel-good hit of the year, and it is quite arid. As with Todd Field's first film, In the Bedroom, Little Children at times feels like a scientific examination of his subjects. This is established at the outset, when a voice-over tells us that Kate Winslet's character likes to think of herself as an anthropologist as she sits with the catty, small-minded mothers at a park, watching the children play.

Winslet's character is the focal point. She has a master's degree in English literature, and struggled to find a place in the land of Goldfish crackers and juice-boxes. She is married to a man who is more interested in Internet porn than anything else. Enter Brad, who is mooned over and called The Prom King by the other mothers. Winslet, though, actually speaks to him, and before long they are banging each other in her laundry room.

Brad (Patrick Wilson) is married to the gorgeous Jennifer Connelly, who would seem to be perfect. But Brad is drawn to the harried, disheveled Winslet. Into this mix enter Ronnie, a sexual offender and pedophile, who has been released from prison and wants to live a quiet life with his elderly mother. But a citizen's "committee", led by an ex-cop, seeks to harass him into leaving town.

What we have here is a very Cheever-esque situation, updated to the age of Oprah. It is certainly not novel for a writer or film-maker to lift the rock and take a look at the nastiness lying below the perfectly-manicured lawns of suburbia. What this film does, though, is take a slightly different view of hypocrisy. So often when you hear the phrase, "For the sake of the children," it's a cover for all sorts of petty behavior. Ronnie, deftly played by Jackie Earle Haley (you won't think of Kelly Leak at all while watching him), is a creep, to be sure, but a human being with rights. It's not easy for an audience to accept this, which creates an unsettling rustle in the theater.

Little Children has copious voice-overs. The narrator sounds like someone in nature documentary. Instead of watch the lion eat the gazelle, it's watch the disaffected suburban mom make a grasp at happiness with the handsome young father. Voice-overs are always tricky in films, because they tell rather than show, but it's clear that Field didn't want to lose a lot of the sterling prose from Perrotta's book. I wouldn't disagree with someone who thinks it's all a bit much, though.

Despite this slight reservation, Little Children is one of the best films I've seen this year, and Kate Winslet in particular gives an outstanding performance.

Opened in Dallas, 12/25

2006-12-26T10:03:00.000-06:00

Children of Men (trailer): Been wanting to see this for awhile, for a few reasons. But the biggest reason isn't the end-of-the-year acclaim it's been getting, or the high-quality filmmakers and cast involved, but that it just plain looks interesting on its own, without taking those other things into consideration. There's only a handful of movies that come out every year that I think that about.

Dreamgirls (trailer): Of course I'll go see it, but it's kinda the opposite of Children of Men; it doesn't look all that interesting, it's not made by filmmakers whose work I particularly look forward to seeing, and even the reviews have been disappointing given the advance hype.

Black Christmas (trailer): More Dimension dreck from the Weinsteins, but again, they have the high-quality awards season films to make up for it. For example, just this year they have ... um ... Bobby, I guess. Which was frankly awful. So it's been an off-year, but last year they had ... hmm. Mrs Henderson Presents and Transamerica, but those were hideous also. Oh, well, guys, keep plugging. Maybe someone will like this little Black Christmas movie of yours.

50 Lost Movie Classics

2006-12-23T23:29:00.000-06:00

The English Guardian newspaper recently ran an article listing 50 lost movie classics - not only because they've been underrated but that many of them haven't even been released on DVD as yet. Below is the list of titles (as well as director and year of release) - I've added comments to the ones that I've seen:

1 Salt Of The Earth Herbert Biberman, 1953

2 Petulia Richard Lester, 1968 (fully deserving of appearing here. Terrific film that benefits from repeat viewings and more then any other film I've seen presents an excellent portrayl of what life would've been like in the hippie centre of San Francisco at its peak in 1968.)

3 The State Of Things Wim Wenders, 1982

4 Newsfront Phillip Noyce, 1978 (Also deserving of an appearance here. Doesn't get the kudos that other Australian films of its era do (probably because its less pretentious) but is very entertaining and manages to capture an accurate snapshot of Australian life in the decade after WW2).

5 Fat City John Huston, 1972

6 I Wanna Hold Your Hand Robert Zemeckis, 1978

7 The Swimmer Frank Perry, 1968 (Like 'Petulia', another unjustly neglected film from 1968. Brillantly done and insightful with a superb performance by Burt Lancanster, who handles the pysical aspects of the film despite being over 50 when the film was being made.)

8 Under The Skin Carine Adler, 1997 9 The Front Page Lewis Milestone, 1931

10 The Damned Joseph Losey, 1961

11 Ace In The Hole Billy Wilder, 1951 (Saw this many years ago. Very well done and ultra-cynical in the traditional Wilder style but I wonder whether this would hold up as well today in these far more cynical times, especially when journalism is regarded in such a low esteeem.)

12 The Beaver Trilogy Trent Harris, 2001

13 Top Secret! Jim Abrahams, David and Jerry Zucker, 1984 (Don't really think it deserves a place in here. It's pretty funny and has some classic bits (best of all is when they're in the cow disguise) but it's slow and sluggish early on, and only really gets going once the 'Blue Lagoon' character joins in.

14 Bamboozled Spike Lee, 2000

15 3 Women Robert Altman, 1977

16 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me David Lynch, 1992

17 Let's Scare Jessica To Death John D Hancock, 1971

18 The Low Down Jamie Thraves, 2000

19 A New Leaf Elanie May, 1971

20 Quiemada! Gillo Pontecorvo, 1969

21 The Hired Hand Peter Fonda, 1971

22 Safe Todd Haynes, 1995

23 Housekeeping Bill Forsyth, 1987

24 Le Petomane Ian MacNaughton, 1979

25 Lianna John Sayles, 1982

26 Bill Douglas Trilogy Bill Douglas, 1972-78

27 The Parallax View Alan J Pakula, 1974 (The template for how a paranoid/conspiracy thriller should be made. While Pakula's 'All The President's Men' is probably a better film overall, I'm personally biased to this film and how it's made - one of my favourite films of all time, let alone most underrated). 28 Babylon Franco Rosso, 1980

29 Dreamchild Gavin Millar, 1985

30 Ride Lonesome Budd Boetticher, 1959

31 Breathless Jim McBride, 1983

32 The Day The Earth Caught Fire Val Guest, 1961

33 Less Than Zero Marek Kanievska, 1987

34 Day Night Day Night Julia Loktev, 2006

35 Tin Cup Ron Shelton, 1996

36 The Ninth Configuration William Peter Blatty, 1980

37 Cutter's Way Ivan Passer, 1981 (Admirable in many ways, but bleak, depressing and not particularly entertaining and not a film I'd want to watch again).

38 Save The Last Dance Thomas Carter, 2001

39 The Mad Monkey Fernando Trueba, 1989

40 Cockfighter Monte Hellman, 1974

41 The Narrow Margin Richard Fleischer, 1952

42 Terence Davies Trilogy Terence Davies, 1984

43 Wise Blood John Huston, 1979

44 Robin Hood Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973

45 Two-Lane Blacktop Monte Hellman, 1971

46 Beautiful Girls Ted Demme, 1996

47 Millions Danny Boyle, 2004

48 Round Midnight Bertrand Tavernier, 1986

49 Jeremy Arthur Barron, 1973

50 Grace Of My Heart Allison Anders, 1996

Any underseving entries in there? I haven't seen it but 'Tin Cup' I would've thought was the classic ho-hum Costner effort that saw his career decline so rapidly during the 1990s. And the Disney version of 'Robin Hood' has generally been seen as symptomatic of their decline during the 1970s. Any others that deserve a mention under this category?

I Cried

2006-12-23T00:13:00.000-06:00

It was too short. Other than that, I thought Rocky Balboa was the perfect ending to an excellent series. There's so much I want to say about this, and it may include spoilers so beware, but I don't know if I can get it all in.

To get in the mood I've been listening to the soon-to-be-released Rocky Balboa:The Best Of Rocky Soundtrack on Rhapsody for the past few weeks. It's excellent, dated, and excellent again. I watched the original Rocky OnDemand last week. I've been talking it up to people at work. Been reading about it online everyday. I checked in for every single one of the Q&A's at AICN.

So, yes, I'm a fan.

And, yes, that makes my opinion biased. But as a fan your opinion can go a few different ways. You can be so tied to what already exists that you feel you know what happens and needs to happen next. We all know LOTR fans who hated the movies because they dropped key parts of the books only to find other fans who adored the movies because they were exactly how the books were envisioned in their heads. Who's more right? Were the ones who liked it less justified than the ones who hated it? I've already told you I loved the movie and that I'm a diehard fan. Am I more or less valid than Bill Simmons? I don't think so, but you've got to make your own decision on that one.

Rocky Balboa not only works as continuation or sunset on the fictional life of Rocky Balboa and all of the characters that come with it. I could see myself and people I've read about and heard from in this movie.

The beginning surprised me. Adrian has died of cancer 4 years prior (not the surprise) and Rocky visits her often (everyday it would seem). Paulie can't take the visits to the grave and the old haunts anymore because, while it helps Rocky remember the good times, it makes Paulie remember how horribly he treated his own sister. This makes Paulie more real to me. For him to say that in the beginning broke my heart. He's always been a lousy shiftless layabout moocher wanting nothing more than to ride Rocky's coattails while drinking himself through life. And I expected nothing different than that from him this time around. But while he's still incorrigible, he clearly hates himself for how he was previously and doesn't see any way to make it right.

Rocky's son, to me, alludes to movie fans who are questioning this comeback. When I first heard about this movie and its premise in 2005 I thought it was ridiculous. I forwarded the news blurb to my friends as if it was the latest YouTube joke of the day. We laughed about Mason "The Line" Dixon and how ludicrous it would be for an old fighter to come back. Especially after the RockyV bomb! Dumb dumb dumb....Which is how Rocky's son is inside the movie. He distances himself from Rocky...wants to come out of his shadow...doesn't like the attention...thinks he's too old...thinks the comeback is all about ego...until he realizes he hasn't made that decision on his own. He's let people around him feed him this as well as create the shadow that he thinks his father is casting. Rocky gives him a great talkin-to outside of the restaurant and while I think the turnaround is a little too quick, the right things were said.

Paulie, ESPN, the press, Mason Dixon, the boxing commission, et al, represent basically everyone who said it couldn't be done (which is almost everyone). Fans & non-fans included. They call him a Balboasaurus (as you heard in the trailer) and scoff at the ridiculousness of it all. A friend of mine at work laughs off Rocky because he's a boxing fan and the fighting in this movie is not real. And Stallone is too old. Of course! It's a movie! My only response is "You DO know that Johnny Depp is not a real pirate, don't you?" I do agree that there has to be some believability to this, and 60 years old is definitely too old to fight, but once you see the kind of shape he's in, you can suspend your disbelief for 90 minutes to think he might be able to drop a few "hurtin' bombs". And if you can't, then you can't.

Little Marie (great addition) represents the few...VERY few...who believed that Sly could get this done and do it well. When Rocky questions himself (as I'm sure Stallone did), wondering if it's only about vanity & ego, Marie is there to tell him that he needs to do what's right for him. "Fighter's fight." Kudos to anyone who stood behind Stallone and helped him get this done. I think this movies shows that he was right to finish off the series this way.

Overall you know that Rocky is "the greatest underdog story of our time." The message is to stay true to yourself, if you believe it you can achieve it, don't only care about what others think, etc etc etc. Themes we've heard a million times, but they resonate profoundly in this simple character created 30 years ago. It's like hearing from an old friend as opposed to a random person on the street. You can trust Rocky in his simplicity.

I would say for Rocky fans this is a must see. For people who don't like Rocky, you're not going to find anything really new here except more insight into the genuine heart of Rocky and things I've already mentioned. For those on the fence, I'd definitely recommend seeing it. Especially if #5 soured you on the whole series. That was not the proper closure needed on this character. He gets it right in this 6th "round".

I thought it was a well-directed, well-written, well-acted, too short (and therefore too easily moved from point to point), but ultimately satisfying, finish to one of my favorite movie series of all time. Sure, I'm a fanboy drooling, but I think you can trust me.

Opening in Dallas, Weekend of 12/22

2006-12-21T12:26:00.000-06:00

Finally! A few movies to get excited about.

The Good German (trailer): I know buzz on this hasn’t been terribly strong, but I couldn’t really care less. A new Soderbergh movie is a genuine cinema event as far as I’m concerned, even though (or maybe because) he’s all over the place, whether in terms of genre, style, or quality.

Volver (trailer): At long last. Previously reviewed here by Nick.

The Good Shepherd (trailer): I don’t know what to make of this one. I’m generally of the mind that a willingness to cast Angelina Jolie in any role indicates a fundamental lack of seriousness by the filmmakers towards a project, since it’s been awhile since Angelina Jolie has seemed serious about acting. But the movie seems first-class in every other respect, although again, reviews have been spotty so far.

Curse of the Golden Flower (trailer): The second Zhang Yimou film to hit the US this year, after the fairly decent but ultimately slight Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles. This one looks like Hero, but with a lot more cleavage.

Rocky Balboa (trailer): I’m sorry, but I’m too young by about 3-4 years to have really gotten Rocky. I’ve seen 1-4, of course, but like Star Wars, I feel like I just missed the cutoff date for the age when Rocky was a mandatory part of American childhood. And ultra-Rocky fan Bill Simmons’ review kinda confirms my suspicions that the new one just isn’t very good.

We Are Marshall (trailer): Ordinarily, this would be higher, because it actually looks somewhat decent. But there’s just one thing … the “Directed by McG” line at the bottom of the poster. I’m not just trashing the guy out of antipathy towards Charlie’s Angels, either - I also genuinely hated the dude’s trashy music videos back in the day. I’ve been a hater ever since Sugar Ray’s “Fly”. Or maybe it was Fastball’s “The Way”. Or Smash Mouth’s “Walkin’ on the Sun”. Or…

Night at the Museum (trailer): I’m kinda tired of Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, but on the other hand, Mickey Rooney’s “He looks like a weirdie!” is pretty strong. So yeah, it’s at the bottom of the list, but I really don’t feel all that bad about it.

IndieWire Poll

2006-12-21T10:56:00.000-06:00

As the Village Voice, as part of neutering it's film criticism, dropped the year-end poll, it's been carried on by IndieWire. The results can be found here: http://www.indiewire.com/critics2006/.

Lots of films here I haven't seen. Most of them can be found on Netflix. (Army of Shadows can not, although it does seem to exist on DVD).

The Last King of Scotland

2006-12-18T16:37:00.000-06:00

I spent last week in Puerto Rico, and I was reminded of another reason I haven't been seeing as many films in theaters lately--I haven't been on enough vacations. Going to at least one movie while traveling is always a must.

This was my first time in Puerto Rico, and I was amazed that the newspaper ads there for movies featured art/independent films, and most days the only ads were for art films. Just a block or so down the street from my hotel in San Juan's Miramar district was the Fine Arts Cinema, run by Caribbean Cinemas, who seem to have a near-monopoly on theaters in Puerto Rico, or at least a near-monopoly on newspaper advertising for films in the San Juan Star.

While I went to PR with the intent of catching The Fountain (just for the Ponce de Leon verisimilitude), I found it wasn't playing when I arrived, though it did start there last Friday at one theater that I wasn't sure I could easily find (English version, no subtitles).

So I saw The Last King of Scotland (with Spanish subtitles), and I enjoyed it, though it's one of that genre of films I find a little tiresome--it's saying to the audience, oh, you poor deluded white man, you thought you could go amongst these savages and fix things for them, and look at what a mess you have made; while I'm usually thinking, oh, you poor deluded white filmmaker, you think you can tell the black/yellow/brown man's/woman's story by making a white man/woman the central character.

Anyway, the only reason to see this film is for Forest Whitaker, who is great as usual, but I don't think this is anywhere near his greatest performance. Like his recent work in TV's The Shield was way better than what he does in this film. But everyone thinks he's going to win an Oscar, and I'm cool with that.

The Last King of Scotland is the first English-language film I've seen with foreign subtitles, and I found myself unable to ignore them, which made for a somewhat interesting experience as I was getting a few Spanish lessons along the way.

The Queen started playing at the Fine Arts Miramar last Friday, and I wanted to catch that, but time did not permit.

Puerto Rico is a pretty cool island, and while there I thought it was a little bit sad that I know several acquaintances who have been to Cuba while I did not know anyone who had been to Puerto Rico (other than through the San Juan airport). Like Puerto Rico isn't hip enough for the with-it traveler, and it's not safe enough for the Caribbean traveler whose only interest is to hit the beach and Carlos 'n' Charlie's or Señor Frog's. Maybe instead of going to Alaska on my next trip I should go to Libya, just so I can be the first on my block?

No Tony Montana in Puerto Rico, but Michael Corleone appeared in sticker graffiti in Old San Juan.

Balneario Punta Guilarte on 16 December. 85 degrees. Water temperature 75 degrees. And the place is deserted....

Apocalypto

2006-12-18T08:42:00.001-06:00

Coming after one of the most controversial films in history, Mel Gibson has followed up with a film that is cozily familiar, at least in structure. The only dissent I've read is by someone who is angry that actual Mayans weren't used in the cast of the film, which concerns Mayans in the sixteenth century (I suppose only Danes can play Hamlet, too). The world that Gibson takes us into is certainly unique, going so far as to use the Mayan language, but the plot of the film is straight out of Hollywood B pictures of the forties.

The story concerns a young man named Jaguar Paw. He lives in a village that are hunter-gatherers. One morning his village is raided by an opposing force, which captures several of the men and leads them on a trek to their land. These Mayans are temple builders, a somewhat more developed society, except they still have the nasty habit of commiting ritual sacrifice, which includes ripping still beating hearts out of chests and decapitation. Oh well, all societies aren't perfect. Jaguar Paw attempts to escape, and leads his captors on a merry chase back to his jungle. It is this portion of the film that reminded me, no joke, of Home Alone.

I can't speak to the authenticity of Mayan life in this period. As a coddled person of the 21st century there are many moments when I looked at the many piercings the tribespeople have and said to myself, "That must have hurt," or after a nasty wound, "That's going to get infected." The violence is certainly vivid, but is usually so over the top in a Grand Guignol manner that it's almost comic.

This film is dressed up like it is an important picture, it is simply a fun time at the matinee, and really makes no particularly insightful statements about the nature of man.

Opening in Dallas, 12/15

2006-12-14T21:16:00.000-06:00

You know, it's mid-December already, and I keep waiting for all the good stuff to come out. I'm starting to think that it's just not going to happen.

The Pursuit of Happyness (trailer): Funny thing in the EPK featurette that's been showing before movies during the past month: Will Smith talks about "Doing these scenes with my real son, uh, definitely adds to, uh, the ability to, uh, become Chris Gardner for those scenes." Because nothing helps you transform into someone else like working with your own actual kids, I guess. Otherwise, I've read a few times that this movie isn't really as sentimental as the trailer. And good thing, too.

The History Boys (trailer): Really, this just looks boring. I know nothing about the play, and I'm sure it's great, but we all know that a good teacher is great and inspiring and ... whatever.

Cave of the Yellow Dog (trailer at official site): From the makers of The Story of the Weeping Camel, which I'm kind of sad I didn't see. I believe that, although there are 3 theaters and 16 screens in town that are supposedly dedicated to independent film, this will be the only actual independent film playing in Dallas next week.

Charlotte's Web (trailer): Not much to say; it's not for me.

Eragon (trailer): This really looks incredibly bad. As in, really, terribly, awful - dumb story, laughable acting, fake special effects, even relative to all the fake looking special effects we've seen in the CGI era. Even the name is stupid - Eragon. Yes, I'm feeling hostile.

No More Chinese River Dolphins

2006-12-14T19:17:00.000-06:00

The Chinese River Dolphin is now extinct. Whoops.

Ennio Morricone

2006-12-14T09:56:00.000-06:00

An honorary Oscar has been awarded to Ennio Morricone, film composer. This award, which usually translates to: Sorry We've Overlooked You in the Past, But Now That You're Old Here You Go Award, would seem to be for passing him over as much for his memorable music. He was nominated five times but never won.

I think it's proper recognition. He wrote what is perhaps my favorite bit of music from any film--the main theme of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. It's running through my head right now, and it's hard to resist whistling it. His music was also the best thing about some films, particularly The Mission.

Congrats, Ennio. In light of what happened to Robert Altman, Federico Fellini and Satyajit Ray, who all died within a year of winning this award, you may want to buy extra life insurance.

Peter Boyle Has Died

2006-12-13T10:58:00.000-06:00

Although probably best known to most in the U.S. for his long-time role as Frank Barone on "Everybody Loves Raymond," I will always remember him as the monster in Young Frankenstein. One of my favorite comedies, his performance, mostly without dialogue, has many priceless moments.

Awards Season Begins

2006-12-11T13:07:00.000-06:00

"Awards! They do nothing but give out awards here! 'Greatest Fascist Dictator: Adolph Hitler!'", Woody Allen as Alvy Singer in Annie Hall.

The two most prestigious critics' awards have been announced, and, as usual, the bloggers are poring over the results, trying to portend what this means for Oscar. The LA and NY film critics results can be found all over the Web, and this new format isn't allowing me to insert a link, so you'll have to trust me on that. Basically, the highlights are that LA went with Letters From Iwo Jima (as did the almost completely irrelevant National Board of Review), while New York chose United 93. Both went with Forest Whitaker from Last King of Scotland for Best Actor (in LA he tied with Sasha Baron Cohen, aka Borat), and Helen Mirren for The Queen.

So what does this all mean? Well, remember that critics are voting on these awards, and zero critics vote for the Oscars. The only influence is that a critics award could remind Academy voters of certain films, and help build buzz on performances. Clearly, Letters got a big boost, and looks like it could be Million Dollar Baby all over again--a film with a release date moved up, and also directed by Clint Eastwood. In my earlier predictions, I think Letters could easily knock out Babel, which is getting skunked in Critics' Awards. I have trouble imagining it could win, though, because no film that is not primarily in English has ever won the Oscar for Best Picture (Letters from Iwo Jima is, of course, in Japanese).

United 93's win probably means less, although it could have established itself as the choice of this year's "9/11" films, leaving World Trade Center behind in the dust.

For the performances, this certainly revives Whitaker, whose buzz had been previously thought to peak too soon, and solidifies Mirren's march toward the podium at the Kodak Theater. I'd be very surprised to see Baron Cohen get an Oscar nomination--it's difficult to imagine the staid Academy recognizing that kind of work. He should be a cinch for a Golden Globe in the Comedy category. It would be interesting to see if he came to the ceremony in character.

Blood Diamond

2006-12-10T20:20:00.000-06:00

Saw Blood Diamond this afternoon, thought it was kinda stupid. It tries very hard to be a serious-minded movie, but it's too much of an action movie to have much impact on a political level. I'll give Zwick credit for bringing up an issue that no one really wants to think about, and at times being willing to deal with it in very brutal terms. However, I think stopping every 20 minutes to blow some shit up just for the hell of it really trivializes the issues at hand. Maybe that's just me.

And it's not even a very good action movie. It relies too much on lots of machine guns being fired and not hitting anyone, and it's the type of movie where the action scenes always start just as an important conversation is ending. It's like a Michael Bay made the thing.

As for the acting, I can somewhat respect what Leo does here, but really his character is too ridiculous to be believed. It's like he's part Rambo, part James Bond, and part Rick Blaine. It's a testament to his ability he's as credible as he is, but there's only so much he can do.

Jennifer Connelly is close behind. Again, she's not bad, but she's stuck playing off of two female character cliches: the tough-as-nails professional and the girl who swoons for the badass. Djimon Hounsou comes across best, but late in the movie his character goes into Complete Idiot Mode, and it really makes him hard to root for.

By the end, I was actually laughing at it. I don't want to spoil anything - so if you're worried skip the rest of this paragraph - but during the last scene of the movie, the ending of Michel Gondry's Human Nature came to mind. "Would you testify to Congress?" "OK, if you think it would help." Funny stuff.

Seen in 2006

2006-12-10T06:54:00.000-06:00

It's getting to be the end of the year, so I thought I'd start summarizing.

All in all, I'm surprised. There's been a lot more good stuff released this year than I thought before I began the list. Little Miss Sunshine caught me by surprise, but it is hands down excellent.

There are some bigger fishes I have gotten around to yet (Departed, Prestige, Fountain, Pan's Labyrinth), and some I've seen but just forgotten to mention, but I'll probably be completing the list all through next year.

Great: Little Miss Sunshine, Brick, Half Nelson, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, The Proposition, The Queen, The Lives of Others, United 93, Election 2: Harmony is Virtue, V for Vendetta, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Babel

Very good: Inside Man, Cocaine Cowboys, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, Crank, The Squid & the Whale, Boys of Baraka, The Host, Tsotsi, Casino Royale, Why We Fight, Monster House, Talladega Nights, Thank You for Smoking, Running Scared, The Banquet, Perfume

Good: 13 Tzameti, The Devil Wears Prada, Volver, Mission: Impossible III, After the Wedding, Slither, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Dark Horse, Nacho Libre, Storm, Brave Story, Election: Triad Elections, Miami Vice, Find Me Guilty, Accepted, A Scanner Darkly, Akeelah and the Bee, Cars, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Over the Hedge, Click, Friends with Money, The Matador

Flawed: Superman Returns, X-Men: The Last Stand, Art School Confidential, The Illusionist, Lucky Number Slevin, 16 Blocks, Shooting Dogs, La Moustache, Falkenberg Farewell, Fearless

Bad: The Break-Up, Just My Luck, World Trade Center, Silent Hill, Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, The Sentinel, Underworld: Evolution

Horrible: Da Vinci Code, Running with Scissors, Poseidon, RV, Hostel

Notable performances: Steve Carrell (Little Miss Sunshine), Shareeka Epps (Half Nelson), Michael Sheen (The Queen), Ah-Sung Ko (The Host), Yeong-ae Lee (Sympathy for Lady Vengeance)

What I'm Watching

2006-12-09T16:31:00.000-06:00

All times PST (the personal beginning of this article is on the Timewaster)

SUNDAYS:

Football. Anywhere. Everywhere.

NBC really made a good decision to grab the Sunday night game AND get Al Michaels & John Madden. Al is by far the best sportscaster in the biz (IMHO) and he & john go together like peas & carrots.

MONDAYS:

Heroes - 9pm NBC.
I've already written 3 posts on this subject so you pretty much know where I stand on this show. They've been taking it slowly and revealing a little bit at a time much to my delight.

24 - 9pm (?) FOX
As you can already see, I'm going to have a dilemma on my hands once these two shows return in January. Shall I shell out the $600 for a dual-tuner Tivo series 3 HD? Don't think so.

I've been watching this show since hour 1 of the first season which was set to debut right after the Sept11 attacks. They subsequently delayed the start and edited a few things, but it's been a (cliche alert!) "non-stop thrill ride" since the beginning. My only wish is that they'd quit jumping ahead 18months - 2 years between each season. I'd like to see what happens in between, but I guess that's what the video game and movie are for...

Monday Night Football - 5:30pm ESPN
ESPN messed up when they broke up the Sunday night crew. They weren't the best, but at least they had been doing it awhile and had a good rapport with each other. These guys don't even remotely sound like they get along and with Tony always questioning Joe, it's a wonder there aren't more brawls.

Now they're bringing in celebrity guests every week to liven things up and look like a kid's lemonade stand compared to NBC's Sunday Night Starbucks. (I'm not so good with the analogies)

TUESDAYS
Friday Night Lights - 8pm NBC
I accidentally caught the ending of the pilot (when I flipped it on the Panthers were celebrating on the field, then praying, then going to the hospital) and it was enough to grab me for the season. I love the style of this show. No sets or lighting or makeup, a few semi-known actors and away we go. And it's less about football than you'd expect.

The ratings are in the toilet, but NBC is giving it a full season. All episodes are currenly online for free with nothing to sign up for or download. You don't even have to give an e-mail address. Just click here and you can start with Episode 1.

American Idol - 8pm FOX
No one over 12 or under 60 admits they watch this show. But I love it. I caught ithe first season by accident after I saw an ad where Simon berated someone onstage. I was sold! Each year it starts I say I'm not going to watch and each year I keep getting sucked in. It's definitely a juggernaut. But it may get supplanted by my love for the Dillon Panthers.

House - 9pm FOX
Liked more by my wife than me, Hugh Laurie is more irascible than ever this season. I hope probation does him some good.

WEDNESDAYS

American Idol - 8:30pm (?) FOX
The so-called results show. More fluff than anything, I watch the end to see who goes.

Lost - 10pm ABC
Trying to sidestep the American Idol juggernaut... We discuss it weekly on this blog (when it's on) so you can tell the emotions run high on this one.

THURDSAYS
My Name Is Earl - 8pm NBC
The "dumbest" show on my list. I watch it because I've been a fan of Jason Lee (and Ethan Suplee to a lesser extent) since Mallrats. It makes me laugh. And last week's episodes with John Leguizamo were HI-larious.

The Office - 8:30pm NBC
For me, it's the funniest show on TV right now. I do like it better than the British version but that's mainly because I'm not British. Some of the jokes I just can't get from across the pond. I do think Ricky Gervais was brilliantly hilarious though. Steve Carrell isn't as offensive as "David Brent" but he is certainly as hopeless. The 3rd season is just getting rolling and I think they are hitting their stride. Everyone in the cast is perfect for their parts.

FRIDAYS
Numb3rs - 10pm
Another one of my wife's shows. David Krumhotlz will always be Bernard the Elf to me, so it's hard to take it seriously. But you gotta love Judd Hirsch. Been on TV as long as I can remember.

And thus concludes my week. A sad state of affairs, to be sure.

New Blogger version

2006-12-09T15:21:00.000-06:00

I upgraded to a new version of Blogger this morning, and the upshot is that you'll now need a Google ID to sign in. I think that everyone will be able to sign in OK without me doing anything further after registering with Google, but if not, let me know. Thankfully, you don't need to give any info except for an email address to sign up with Google.

Opened in Dallas, 12/08

2006-12-09T15:00:00.000-06:00

I'm obviously late this week, and between a fairly busy work week and new-Blogger-version related technical frustrations, I don't have any comments. I may go back and add them later in the weekend. At any rate, Apocalypto is the only one I really want to see, although I imagine I'll actually see the top 4 on the list.

Apocalypto

Blood Diamond

The Architect

Candy

The Holiday

Coffee Date

Unaccompanied Minors

The Host (Gwoemul)

2006-12-06T08:16:00.000-06:00

I really love Asian films. I think it's the cinematography that gets me, mostly.

One of the hardest genres in cinema has to be the monster movie. Seriously, considering the output, and how little is good, it's gotta be a bitch to make one that is actually worth watching. Try to count them up the good ones in my head, and I get Godzilla. And that's not good.

The Host is one of recent years biggest box-office successes in South-Korea. Probably one of the more expensive ones, too. And it's a good monster movie. One of those rare things, a foreign blockbuster.

Directed by Bong Joon-Ho (Memories of Murder), there's a lot to love about this film. Like his last film, the horror and thriller elements are masterfully done, and the performances, mainly from Kang-Ho Song (Memories of Murder) and Ah-Sung Ko as his daughter, are an amazing mix of naiveté, sorrow and humour. Incredible for being credible. The first third of this film propels the film forward at an exhilirating pace.

Like Memories of Murder, though, it has some uneven narrative problems. There are places that drag, some unnecessary back and forth-ing, more than one cliché and a third act device so silly I didn't know whether to giggle or groan.

But what gets me is that it's gripping. I cared about what happened to the family at the focus of the film, a family struck hard by the monster. And the monster itself was nice. There are times you stop thinking "oooo, nice fx" and start thinking "eeew, creepy" or just plain "fucking hell".

A story about the sacrifices a family is willing to do for their loved ones, it's a film I can recommend to almost anyone. While there are clichés and some bad plotting, there's a core that's good enough to withstand it. But don't forget to bring the popcorn.

Volver

2006-12-06T05:57:00.000-06:00

In 1999 Almodovar's mother died and it's obvious something about this event changed his state of mind, his perspective. A more somber artist, more mature, less given to the screaming hysteria of his earlier work emerged from that. I personally wonder how, even if, a film like Bad Education would have been made if his mother were still alive.

Volver is obviously him working out the trauma of losing his mother. Yet it's as much a film about dealing with the living as the dead. And, as is his wont, it's the women who have to deal with the consequences of men's actions.

The problem I have had in reviewing Volver has much to do with that while I know it's a good film, might even be a very good film, I didn't feel it. How explain why you had a lack of film for a film? While there may be good thoughts and themes in the film, I mean, I know there was, I found nothing under the surface. A lack of emotional undercurrent, you might say.

It's a pleasant film. It's, as usual, usually funny, people dealing with dealing with tragedy with that distinctly Almodovian mix of hysteria and panache. And it's very nice to look at, nice production design, but nothing engaged me, made me feel it was real.

I think the best way to summarize my feelings is Penelope Cruz. The woman is a goddess in this film. All those who have been speaking of Cruz as one of the great beauties of the screen, all right, I get it now. But there's no way such a magnificent woman works as a cleaner. I might admire how Cruz' skills in trying to project herself as a regular salt of the earth type, but there's no way I'm going to believe it. There are no great panoramas of pain written in her face, even though by the end of the film you realize there clearly should be.

In the end I feel for the film much the same way I feel for that glorious behind Cruz carries and swishes around throughout the film. It's looks great, but I just know it's fake.

Borat

2006-12-04T08:03:00.000-06:00

I had resisted seeing Borat, but being out of the loop, culturally speaking, was getting the best of me, so I finally took it in this weekend. I had resisted it because I generally don't care for humor in which not all participants are in on the act. This ranges from Candid Camera, to prank phone calls, to the "found" style of humor practiced by personalities like David Letterman.

I did find Borat to be funny, sometimes brilliantly so. There were elements of satire in the film that are worthy of Swift. I will admit, though, that it was not easy to watch. Sacha Baron Cohen, the creator and inhabiter of Borat, is so extremely gonzo in his approach that anyone with any shred of empathy will feel crushingly embarrassed for him.

The story, for those who are living in a cave, has Cohen playing Borat Sagdiyev, who is a TV reporter from Kazakhstan (a fictionalized version, mind you). He has come to America, "the greatest country in the world," to learn new things to take back to his homeland. While in his hotel room, he stumbles upon an episode of Baywatch, and becomes enamored with Pamela Anderson, and he changes his mission to heading to California to make her his wife and "make a romantic explosion on her stomach."

Along the way he meets various types of Americans. Part of the time while I was watching these segments I had to wonder how much of it was staged and what was ambush. Some frat boys from USC, who reveal themselves to be bigoted lushes, are suing, which indicates they weren't in on the joke. But how could they not, with a camera stuck in their faces? Were releases signed? Did Cohen really go to a dinner party in the south (on Secession Drive) and hand his hostess a bag of his own feces? And have a hooker come over? If so, the mind boggles at his temerity.

In addition to sending up American values, Cohen also has some classic slapstick and deliciously rude humor, such as a naked wrestling match with his corpulent producer, played by Ken Davitian, that has to be seen to be believed. Suffice it to say that Borat later yells at him, "I can still smell your testes on my mustache!"

Borat is a classic of its kind, but it also gave me a nervous stomach. Prepare to watch part of it through your fingers.

Opening in Dallas, 12/01

2006-12-01T14:10:00.000-06:00

Does any of this sound good to anyone?

The Nativity Story (trailer): New Line kinda seems to be trying to ride The Passion of the Christ’s coattails on this one, but I don’t think this movie has the raison d’etre that showing Christ beat to a bloody pulp offers. In terms of art, I mean. And religion, I guess.

Sleeping Dogs Lie (trailer): Bobcat Goldthwait film about a woman who once blew her dog. Her husband has a problem with it. I would assume that arguments follow. So, that sounds fun.

Turistas (trailer): High school kids get chopped up while visiting Brazil. Good riddance, probably.

Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj (trailer): I have to admit, the title of this movie got my attention, as it strongly implied that there had been a Van Wilder 1, and that it was successful enough to spawn a sequel. After some diligent research - I take this column quite seriously, thank you - I discovered that, yes, there had been a Van Wilder I, only it was called simply Van Wilder. It starred Ryan Reynolds and Tara Reid, and was released in 2002. Now Reynolds and Reid are gone, which I guess in their own way makes them a kind of current-day Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz.

The Scarface phenomenon

2006-11-30T06:50:00.000-06:00

About a decade ago, I got my first chance to watch Brian De Palma’s ‘Scarface’ when it appeared on TV. I’d heard a bit about it that it was considered a disappointment in its day but was worth watching, especially for Al Pacino’s performance as gangster Tony Montana.

So I watched it and overall enjoyed it, although it was overwrought and excessive (what else could one expect with De Palma as director and Oliver Stone as scriptwriter?). For various reasons (not least its unpleasant tone) it wasn’t a film I particularly didn’t want to watch again and thought, it would be remembered in years to come (if at all) as a campy curio. How wrong I was.

In the last few years, it seems that ‘Scarface’ isn’t just becoming a cult film, it’s become a mass phenomenon. There have been multiple movie books about the 1980s I’ve seen with Al ‘Tony Montana’ Pacino on the front cover, as if to imply that it was the film of that era. But it’s also grown as a pop culture icon. From Wikipedia on the film:

Scarface is also notable for its extensive popularity with many hip-hop artists and fans, in particular those affiliated with gangsta rap. A number of rappers single out Tony Montana as a role model for his transition from poverty to wealth.

Recently, I saw a car driving down the streets of Melbourne with the Scarface logo and Al Pacino as Tony Montana painted on the side doors. And the film is now rated by the general public as the top 250 films (224) of all time on the IMDB site. And just the other day I saw a poster for a video game about the ‘Scarface’ that’s due to be launched.

There have been certain films (and film personalities) who’ve grown in popularity long after they were made, but it would be hard to top the explosion on popularity of ‘Scarface’.

There are reasons one could pinpoint as to why it has grown so much in popularity (e.g. the public’s increasing fascination with gangsters) but overall, how an enjoyable but trashy and throwaway film has become so massively popular and significant has got me baffled.

It's Getting to Be That Time of Year...

2006-11-27T13:51:00.000-06:00

for Oscar talk! I know some of you don't give a shit, and it seems that every sentient being has their own Oscar prediction web site, but what the hell, here's my early pics (I refuse to join the circle jerk of those who predict the day after the previous ceremony). Just about everything has been seen by some critics. This will no doubt be revised after critics awards and Golden Globe noms come out.

PICTURE

Babel
The Departed
Dreamgirls
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

DIRECTOR

Pedro Almodovar, Volver
Bill Condon, Dreamgirls
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Alejando Gonzalez Innaritu, Babel
Martin Scorsese, The Departed

ACTOR

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed
Ryan Gosling, Half-Nelson
Peter O'Toole, Venus
Will Smith, Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

ACTRESS

Penelope Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Jack Nicholson, The Departed
Brad Pitt, Babel
Michael Sheen, The Queen

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel
Emma Thompson, Stranger Than Fiction

Note these are not my personal choices, just one man's inconsequential prognostication. Discuss or ignore to your heart's content!

My Greatest Movie Year

2006-11-24T23:56:00.000-06:00

Brian's talk of seeing 128 movies so far this year reminded me of my peak moviegoing year, when I probably maybe got up to 100 or so in the theater, and I am including any repertory shows, because they should count, dammit (and I didn't see any of them for free!). I wasn't certain exactly which year that was, but I looked up two movies that I knew were prime candidates for that year, and indeed, they were both from 1994: China Moon and No Escape.

I remember those two because they were both pretty bad, actually, and that is what made me back off from then on. China Moon I ended up liking when I saw it because it was trying to be like Body Heat and other great film noir, and pretty much failing miserably, but it was at least trying, and that's something you come to appreciate when you see a lot of movies. And No Escape was just an average flick that nowadays I can't imagine bothering to go see in a theater, let alone sneaking out from work to catch a weekday matinee. I guess that's how bad my addiction was then.

Seeing that many movies gave me a new appreciation for film critics. Sometimes a reliable critic would enthuse over some movie I would then go see, only to find that it was pretty average, but maybe it was different--and that comes to mean a lot when you're seeing way too many movies that all begin to seem too much alike, etc. Being a film critic may seem like a cool job, until you start to realize how many bad movies you're going to be seeing. As a non-critic it might just be easier to sustain a high moviegoing rate now without getting too jaded, because of the rise of independent cinema. But I'm not sure.

I may have approached 100 or so in some other years in the '80's (1982/83 springs to mind because I managed to see Still of the Night, ugh), but that was in some of the glory years of repertory cinema before home video pretty much killed it. I discovered Cary Grant movies not on TV, but in local theaters in the 1980's.

Just in the past year my moviegoing has dropped off precipitously, and I'll probably be lucky to see 10 movies in a theater this year. But I'm actually watching far more movies than ever, thanks to TiVo and channels that show movies uncut and letterboxed etc., plus DVDs.

Anyway, I entitled this My Greatest Movie Year, but 1994 was also probably my Worst Movie Year in terms of the number of bad movies I saw. I had also gotten enough feeling of entitlement that I had no qualms about bursting into the projection booth at a local arthouse theater to berate the projectionist for using the wrong lens (at least three times during that period, I think) or to tell him he'd damn well better flick on the Dolby Stereo for Lawrence of Arabia because it's been restored, dammit, even though I know they didn't have Dolby Stereo in 1962....

Brian's mention of seeing so many movies just got me musing--I imagine there are probably others out there who have seen even more movies in a year (probably because they were working at a movie theater?).

Opening in Dallas, Weekend of 11/24

2006-11-21T13:50:00.000-06:00

The Fountain (trailer): I want to see this so bad I can hardly wait until tomorrow night. All praise and glory be to The Fountain!

Deja Vu (trailer): I hope this doesn’t suck. Tony Scott’s Domino was one of the worst movies that I saw last year, and two sucks in a row would be a very bad sign for a guy who’s not all that great to begin with.

Bobby (trailer): I know I should see it, and I certainly will, but everything I’ve seen and read about it leads me to believe that I’ll hate it.

Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny (trailer): Noted without comment, because I honestly don’t know what to say.

Unknown (trailer): Rule #1 of independent movies: Beware the movie with a large, well-known cast, that appears out of nowhere and without advance buzz.

Deck the Halls (trailer): I don’t know if I’ve ever formalized the Matthew Broderick Rule, so here goes: There’s only 2 reasons that Matthew Broderick appears in movies. Either it’s because other, better actors said no, or it’s because the filmmakers actually wanted Matthew Broderick in their movie. Both reasons are a giant, red blinking warning light. With accompanying siren. And a man on a megaphone yelling, “Stay away! Stay away, for the love of your souls!”

Robert Altman Dead

2006-11-21T11:40:00.000-06:00

The New York Times are reporting that Robert Altman died Monday night. Bummer.

After the Wedding (Efter Brylluppet)

2006-11-19T16:59:00.000-06:00

I really liked Susanne Bier's Brothers, and I really wanted to love this her latest and most ambitious, and say that Wells was wrong on this one, but there are weaknesses in this film.

Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale) plays Jacob, the owner of an orphanage in Bombay who is forced by rich, loudmouthed, charity donator Jörgen - played excellently by Swedish Rolf Lassgård - to come to Denmark for Jörgen's daughter's wedding. As the title implies, something is revealed after the wedding that unravels the lives of all those involved.

The problem with the film is the secret is revealed early on, and the mystery of Jacob's and Jörgen's motives not that shocking or even original. While there are certainly some powerful scenes, and some great performances - Lassgård and this little Indian kid Pramod (Neeral Mulchandani) stick out in my mind - I found the plot somewhat rote, and nothing we really haven't seen before.

While it's still a good film about losing control, or realizing that there are certain things in life beyond control, the weakness in the plotting still brings the film down a notch.

Opening in Dallas, 11/17

2006-11-17T16:52:00.000-06:00

Casino Royale (trailer): I always look forward to a new Bond movie, and I’m actually impressed by the strong reviews so far. On that score, however, the last two were so completely terrible that the temptation to admire the effort this time around, must be pretty strong. See Star Wars: Episode III for a good example of what I mean.

For Your Consideration trailer): I guess I’m looking forward to this, too, even if “diminishing returns” were the first words to mind after I saw the trailer. A lot of easy targets there (agents, producers, marketing people, etc.).

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (trailer): A lot of tough reviews out there for this one. For myself, I wish I hadn’t missed Secretary, director Steven Shainberg’s previous film.

Happy Feet (trailer): It might be a bit of a stretch to say that I want to see this, but I’m more willing to see it than any of the other non-Pixars that have come out over the last two years or so.

Come Early Morning (trailer): Ashley Judd returns to a 3.6 IMDb user rating - ouch. 64 from Metacritic, however.

Fast Food Nation (trailer): Follows Super-Size Me in its groundbreaking “fast food is bad for you” message. Who knew? Richard Linklater was on Colbert last night, and I actually fell asleep halfway through the segment.

Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner trailer): Nothing against Tony Kushner, but I don’t really feel like watching what appears to be a strictly by-the-numbers documentary about him.

Let’s Go to Prison (trailer): Because what the world needs is an hour and a half of dropping-the-soap-in-the-shower gags.