Nancy Grace and her endlessly yapping mouth! I realize that the case of Caley and Casey Anthony (the 2-year old apparently killed by her mom) is hot news and right up Nancy's aisle of sensationalistic journalism revolving around the deaths of young children, but if I have to listen to her call Casey Anthony "tot mom" one more time, I'm gonna seriously slash my wrists. It's one thing to debate the case on your show, but shouting down anyone who doesn't immediately advocate for the death penalty and makes any point apart from "the prosecution is gonna slam dunk this case because "tot mom" is 100% guilty and there's nothing else to discuss" is getting so old. And her constant "tot mom" refrain just seems like a pathetic and demeaning attempt to make the story compact and soundbitey (similar to the horrendous moniker "Octomom").
All the press coverage of the Sascha Baron Cohen Bruno movie. It might be hilarious - I thought Borat was a riot - but I'm already sick of seeing this guy show up everywhere in character looking like a goddamn rejected stunt cupid with Zoolander face. It's making me not want to EVER see your movie, dude! The upside of Michael Jackson's death is that it's pushed this loser off the front burner on E News (not that I'm particularly proud I watch that), but now I'm sick of the MJ coverage on every single news station. Can't win.
Those Credit Report dot com commercials seem personally aimed at me in order to make me feel as pathetic as possible. Isn't it bad enough that I'm in massive debt without being reminded of the fact that I may end up a decrepit spinster as a result? "Hey loser, not only will you never be able to by a brand new car but your husband's gonna leave you!!! How do you like dem apples?!!?" What if I promise my future prospective husband that even though I'm his "dream girl with bad credit" we won't live in my parent's basement? (They don't have one, ha!) And what's really so bad about working at a Renaissance Faire anyway?
Is Pixar sexist? So that's a huge exaggeration of the issue at hand. Apparently a female writer at NPR posted an open letter to Pixar requesting a female lead in one of the upcoming films. (See the original letter here.) This has sprouted a lot of controversy and an extreme distortion of her request. Cinematical has covered this debate and links to another blogger's overly defensive response: "Dear Pixar, How about a Chick Flick?" (See that article with link to the "Chick Flick" post here.) So now both sides are getting overly reactionary. The feminists are complaining about the lack of female leads in the Pixar cartoons and the guys are complaining about feminist shit that wants everything to be politically correct. But here is what I think the actual point of that open letter was: Pixar, you make the best cartoons around. And though you have created a lot of great female characters, the stories haven't been theirs - they've been supporting characters. And since you're the best around, could you please make one of your future flicks about an awesome female lead who's not a princess, cause the lead female characters are always princesses. That's all. It's not a criticism of Pixar or their films, or a request for there to be an equal number of male/female films. Just that we'd like to someday see a Pixar cartoon where Ellie from Up or Violet from The Incredibles were the main character.
But there are a couple of redeeming bits of pop culture on the horizon...
I found this great clip of an SNL "Sex and the City" sketch with Christina Aguilera doing a kick-ass impersonation of Samantha. It gave me a chuckle. This is the only clip of it I could find.
I really liked ABC's recently canceled mid-season replacement show "The Unusuals." It had a great cast (Harold Perrineau, Adam Goldberg, and Amber Tamblyn to name a few) but the guy that stuck out to me was Jeremy Renner. I've seen this guy around a lot, mostly in small, forgettable roles, and Elizabeth likes to tell me he was terrifying in a movie about Jeffrey Dahmer (where he starred), but other than that, don't know much about the guy. But after watching him in "The Unusuals" he's on my radar, I have a little crush, like his ability to be tough and tender and funny and cute. His current film, The Hurt Locker, is getting great reviews, so be on the lookout for that if you're interested. (Reviews of The Hurt Locker: Stephanie Zacharek, Entertainment Weekly, Pajiba)
I found another dependable site for movie talk. It's called Pajiba - Scathing Reviews for Bitchy People and it has brought me a lot of honest joy over the last week as I have devoured their entire review index (the site only dates to about 2004, that's only about 4 1/2 years of reviews - didn't take long). The writers of this one seem more in my age range, and also seem to have a lot of my movie sensibilities. They're crass and they cuss and they're occasionally unprofessional (this site isn't affiliated with any major publication or news agency, so I guess they're free to stink it up) but that doesn't mean these people can't write or that they don't have some great insight. The fact is, they like most of the same movies as I do, only they're much more articulate about why which makes me feel smart and right. How very self-righteous of me. But it's a good feeling. As much as I love a good, serious film board - like the Scanners or The Cooler blogs - sometimes I just wanna feel validated and laugh. And this site offers that in abundance while continuing to adeptly analyze movies. (They also have a great group of readers/commenters who are inappropriate and funny and full of opinions, but don't take themselves too seriously and don't meanly jump on people who disagree - it's all plays out like warm banter.) Here's a smattering of quotes I really liked and agreed with:
From the review of Sideways:
The exuberantly physical Jack doesn’t hold himself back from Miles, as men in films (and life) usually do; he hugs him, he jumps on him, he mimes rutting on him when he’s teasing Miles about going to bed with a woman. It’s what saves Jack from being wholly unlikable: He loves this uptight sad sack and so, after a while, do we, so we forgive Jack for being coarse and selfish.
From the review of August Rush:
Because while August Rush is not an important film, while it is not a serious one, or an Oscar contender, or subversive, or destined to be a cult classic, it is a movie that — if you allow it — will liquefy your innards, that will make your small little atrophied hearts grow three sizes and then melt into a giant puddle of gop that those poor, put-upon theater workers will have to mop up while you’re out singing and holding hands with the denizens of Whoville. It is a magically romantic movie in the way that movies are meant to be romantic, a feel good movie that still feels good after you’ve taken stock, after you’ve digested it all and checked the undercarriage for faulty lines because you may just find that you’ve sprung a goddamn leak.
From the review of Brokeback Mountain:
Jack struts around like a stud horse, intoxicated with the idea of being a rodeo star and proving his worth to his disapproving father and, by extension, the world. Gyllenhaal’s performance at first seems a little out of place; everyone around him ... seems entirely at ease and unactorish, but on a second viewing I realized that what I was watching wasn’t Gyllenhaal’s performance — it was Jack’s. Jack is constantly trying to fill the role of Western hero, trying to impress; when we first see him he leans against his truck in an exaggeratedly casual posture, with a “hey, cowboy” leer. The pose seems tentative here, but when he strikes it again later, after he knows he’s won Ennis, it’s triumphant. Unlike Ennis, Jack knows what he wants and is willing to go after it, though he may be only a little better at understanding it.
From the review of Brick:
Brendan’s fights with the jock and Tug are fairly close together, and they’re disturbing in their visceral honesty. This kid just starts beating on people, and gets plenty bloody in the process. The fight scenes, and there are several more, are often completely free of music, and what few melodies do appear in them are far from the bass-heavy bombast of typical genre brawls. Composer Nathan Johnson, the director’s brother, interweaves spare melodies and reworks haunting themes for each of the characters, ranging from something like loose, instrumental indie pop to piano-based ballad lines that play like an uber-depressed Gershwin. But his silence in the fight scenes serves to ground the film even more in its own sad realism: We start to understand that, far from the neutered deaths of a Bruckheimer movie, these people might actually kill each other.
From the review of Wedding Crashers (confession - I can't even adequately describe how awesome Vince Vaughn is in this movie. He's on crack, in a good way.) :
The film is really about the interplay between Owen Wilson’s wise-assed honeyed drawl and the rapid-fire, morally valueless interjections from Vaughn, a comedy duo as energetically complimentary as Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell would have been if they were allowed to use verbiage from the Urban Dictionary. These two have played scene-stealing sidekicks for so long that the combination, at first, seemed unsustainable. But Vaughn and Wilson battle in a game of one-upmanship throughout, effortlessly competing in a volley of witty crassness that doesn’t let up (though, it is Vaughn who ultimately wins out), and in which the only danger is one of comedic over-stimulation.
From the review of Juno:
I’m almost at a loss for words to describe just how good — how deeply and honestly good — Juno made me feel, and how its big bright beating heart is capable of delivering moments of genuine love and heartache and confusion and the general feeling of being left to the cold mercy of the universe in the hell that is growing up.....There’s a moment in Juno when it becomes clear that the film will not walk the well-trodden ground of easy comedies that have come before it but instead aim for — and grandly achieve — something greater, and truer, and full of the shivering joy of life itself. And it’s a small moment, too. Juno shows up on Paulie’s lawn one morning and tells him she’s pregnant, deadpanning that her situation typically leads to “you know … an infant.” and Paulie pauses for a few moments before asking, “What should we do?” His eyes show just the barest glint of tears for the rest of the conversation, and you can tell he’s working through too many emotions to count. He doesn’t freak out at her, and he doesn’t swear at her; he doesn’t even ask if it’s his. He just knows, and acknowledges it, and in that moment he cements everything he feels about Juno and everything the film itself will be: blunt, funny, and warmly accepting.
Occasionally the reviews are fucking hysterical, like this following excerpt from the review of The Lake House. (Disclaimer: I don't actually think Keanu Reeves is the worst actor in the world, but this cracked me up nonetheless.)
But then again, I suppose if Hollywood scriptwriters (or in this case, South Korean scribes) abided by the rules of logic and common sense, then we’d never be treated to pointless bullshit romantic sci-fi films like The Lake House, in which the only moments of amusement come when Keanu Reeves is asked to sneeze or cry onscreen — two actions that look remarkably similar when Neo is trying to sell his dramatic talents. Granted, I’ve been a fan of Reeves since he provided unheard-of levels of unintentional comedy in Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing, but Keanu’s talents do not run toward weepers, where his tears look about as natural as Ashlee Simpson’s new nose, and whatever chemistry he shared with Sandra Bullock in Speed was clearly eradicated when that bus fell below 55 miles an hour.
Also found this great little gem in the review of Sex Drive - it has nothing to do with the movie, but everything to do with the certainty one feels as a teenager when the first movies you see and love will always be the best"
Of course, as a product of the late ’80s/early ’90s, I like to believe that I grew up on the golden age of teen comedies, but I’ve come to the realization that, for most folks, the teen comedies they were given when they were teens are the ones they are most fond of (this explains, in my mind, the inexplicable fascination with Empire Records, for those who were born between 1978 and 1983, and also why I don’t getFast Times at Ridgemont High as much as people who are a little older than I am do.). So, essentially, what I’m saying is this: Modern teen comedies need to be judged, not against Say Anything or Pump Up the Volume (do today’s teenagers even know what a short-wave radio is, or a boombox?), but against the teen comedies of the era they grew up in because those are likely the only ones modern teenagers are familiar with. After all, I doubt there are a lot of high-school sophomores troubled with the derivative nature of Superbad. Movie critics, on the other hand, are going to shit all over Sex Drive because they’ve seen it too many times already. But if you’re 16, fuck the critics. You know why most of them loved The 40-Year-Old Virgin? Because it spoke to them. And they’re still pissed off that John Hughes promised dorks all that trim and didn’t deliver, and now they’re too bitter to see a new generation of sex comedies with fresh eyes.
My favorite part of that passage is the section about Empire Records; I heard about this movie all over the place in 7th or 8th grade and it used to play on our one movie channel all the time (probably Encore) and I fucking loved it. Seeing it today I can admit the plot is ludicrous and the acting mostly absurd, but the music is fun and I'll always remember loving it then. And you just can't explain that to someone who didn't know at the time. (I wonder what my kids will think of Titanic. How can I possibly explain the beauty and freshness of a young Kate Winslet when she will be well into her 40's before I even conceive? And how can a child of of the 2020's possibly understand why Leonardo DiCaprio was such a phenomenon, or why those special effects were amazing? By 2020 we'll be on Transformers 5: Decepticons Go Nuclear on Our Asses; all special effects, no plot, for two and a half hours. We're talking gooooood special effects. Titanic's gonna look pretty lame in comparison. Especially if my kid's a fucking boy.)
Other favorite part about this site? They make lists!!! That's actually how I found it in the first place; I clicked a link to their most recent "Seriously Random" list, which I can't remember right now - I think it was either the 15 Mot Influential Classic Movies of All Time or the Best Movie Dweebs - and I found this great site. Other favorite lists include the 5 Most Unattractive Hot Women, Men Heterosexuals Believe Gay Men Love, Best Coming of Age Movies (which included personal faves Billy Elliot, Almost Famous and What's Eating Gilbert Grape), If They Have to Remake The Breakfast Club Dream Cast, and the Biggest Paycheck Whores. A little something for everyone and good time suckage during a slow day.
After I made my mom pick her 10 favorite movies, I thought it was only fair to subject my dad to the same treatment. Lucky for me, dad and I have already talked about our favorite movies enough that I knew he'd be able to come up with a list without me coaxing it from his soul. He even ranked them for me! Thanks dad!
10 - The Mexican (2001): If it didn't have so much cussing in it, dad would undoubtedly find a way to show this in his classrooms every year as a "treat." In my opinion, it's pretty funny, perhaps overly maligned by critics, Brad Pitt is actually really funny and should play comedy more often - he's good (see Burn After Reading), and I love the James Gandolfini/Julia Roberts dancing, handcuffed together, to '80's classic "Safety Dance" scene - you know, "you can dance if you want to..."?
9 - On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969): It's been a lotta years since I was familiar with the early James Bond catalogue (I used to regularly watch my dad's collection and even though they sucked, I had a fondness for Live and Let Die and The Man With the Golden Gun) but my dad and I have always liked the sole George Lazenby entry the best. The plot is equally ludicrous, but hey! Telly Savales was Blowfelt and Diana Rigg was Bond girl Tracy, whom Bond MARRIED. I loved that. Apparently it's still dad's favorite Bond movie (although his favorite Bond will always be Connery). As for me, Casino Royale blew the other Bond movies out of the water for me. I still think Connery was the best, but I never wanted to sleep with him the way I do Daniel Craig. Brosnan didn't do it for me either.
8 - Quigley Down Under (1990): Never seen this one though dad frequently talks to me about it as though I have. Just yesterday, actually, he started talking about how much he likes Laura San Giacomo's character in this (you know, the awesome Kit DeLuca in Pretty Woman?) and he started being all, "you know" about specific scenes, and I had to remind him for the zillionth time that I've never actually seen this movie. Very similar to his music quizzes: he likes to ask my sisters and I random classic rock/pop questions when certain things come on the rasio, but then completely forgets having already asked about that song before. Example: without fail, everytime "Incense and Peppermint" plays he will quiz, who sang this one-hit-wonder, and we'll roll our eyes and respond, "Strawberry Alarm Clock, duh. You've asked this question a million times. I know this answer better than my social security number." But it's sweet.
7 - Notting Hill (1999): Yes, my dad really likes romantic comedies. That Reese Witherspoon.Mark Ruffalo bomb Just Like Heaven? Probably in his top 20. But Notting Hill is definitely number one. Loves Julia Roberts. Loves Hugh Grant. Really loves Rhys Ifans. Favorite scene: probably the dinner party where they all tell their sad stories to win the last brownie. He also really likes the scene where Anna asks Will if he wants to come up to her hotel room because she's so nervous and vulnerable, but asks him twice anyway because that's what she really wants. He also psycotically loves the songs "She" by Elvis Costello, and "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone," as well as the visual scenes changing scene that accompanies it.
6 - Live Free or Die Hard (2007): I can't believe this is here instead of the original Die Hard, which is vastly superior, but never underestimate my dad's love for Justin Long. Bruce Willis is the man, and dad loves the character of John McClane, but this one wins because he thinks Long is hilarious. (I kind of agree, my crush on Justin Long is definitely coming along and I love those Mac/PC commercials despite being a proud PC user.) Personally, I think Kevin Smith is awesome in this, because you know in real life he's totally that guy, sitting in his Lazy Boy in the basement, lamenting the end of Star Wars. But, hot as he is, Timothy Olyphant is no Alan Rickman. Too bad.
5 - Gattaca (1997): I've written about this before (see it here) and dad pretty much agrees with me. Great atmosphere, interesting futuristic premise, asks a lot of good questions, Jude Law as Eugene is awesome, fantastic montage at the end with triumphantly sad score and good voiceover. If I had to guess, his favorite scene (excluding ones with Law) would be Vincent's nighttime swimming race against younger, genetically superior brother Anton. Anton can't believe Vincent's winning and he asks him how he does it. Vincent's reply: "You wanna know how I did it? This is how I did it Anton. I never saved anything for the swim back."
4 - Blade Runner (1982): Confession time: I have never particularly warmed to Blade Runner. I get it's visionary qualities and the way it has influenced all future sci-fi flicks, and the story is interesting, but I just always come aways thinking, "Is that it?" However I won't deny the awesome cinematography and set design, or the great performance of Rutger Hauer as replicant Roy Batty. The final fight between him and Harrison Ford in the rain is touching and cuts to the heart of the material. I also enjoy a younger and skinnier Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) as this mysterious figure in a trenchcoat, dropping origami all over the place. And remember when Sean Young had a promising career?
3 - A Hard Day's Night (1964): Ah, the Beatles. Dad's a huuuugggge Beatles fan. They are gods. Can do very little wrong. He has all the cartoons and decorates his classroom walls with posters and clippings of their careers (he still has the original "McCartney Quits" article from 1970), so of course he adores their first feature. I do too. There are no bad scenes in this movie. All of the songs are lip-synched but the Beatles still perform them with joy. The train, the "clean" grandfather, Ringo's lonely montage, George at the ad-man's, John in the bathtub, it's all gold.
2 - Arsenic and Old Lace (1944): Most critics would consider this one of Cary Grant's lesser films. It's a little too broad and slapstick for their sensibilities, but I suspect that's why dad loves it: it is so very ridiculous. There's a criminal who looks like Boris Karloff and uses Peter Lorre as a sidekick, two dotty aunts who are sweet as pie but poison people, and have their mentally impaired brother, who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt, bury them in the basement, which he thinks is the Panama Canal. Cary Grant is the poor nephew who's just trying to introduce his fiance to this mess of a family and cover up all of their misdeeds before anyone finds out. It's a mad scramble and very funny.
1 - Dances With Wolves (1990): I've talked about this one plenty too, both in my Top 100 and my best Bromances list, so I don't have much to add. Let's just say that dad used to play the soundtrack for this movie ALL THE TIME. I think John Barry's a great composter too, but damn, did I get sick of this one. To this day I still get this score confused with his score from Out of Africa - they are remarkably similar. Kind of like how all of Rachel Portman's (Emma, The Cider House Rules, Chocolat, etc.) scores use the same instruments and rhythms. Lately I've run into a lot of criticism of this film from writers I respect, but I still get choked up watching this movie, so I'm just gonna take that con-crit with a grain of salt.
I found some art I absolutely fell in love with. ("With which I absolutely fell in love"? Why do so many sentences naturally end in a preposition?) When we were down in San Francisco for Andrea's graduation we skipped over to Sausalito (which is like a fab combination of Ashland and Newport) for a day and I popped into this art gallery (The Fingerhut) which was showing a Dr. Seuss collection (pretty fun stuff - I always wanted a poster size print of the Friendly Lorax). But I stumbled across this other artist, Victoria Montesinos, and I want to make out with her work. That hasn't happened in forever. If I had had $2,000, I would have plunked it down then and there. Her pieces are mostly just big florals, but the colors are amazing in person. And she does this airbrush lace detail that is totally lost in thumbnail form. Here's a sneak peak:
I don't want to post all the pieces I like cause I'm pretty sure it's copyrighted, but here's the link to her work at the gallery. My favorites are "Lillies Become a Dream" (which is beyond beautiful in person, I stared at it for at least 10 minutes) and "Let's Dance." For some reason my favorites were the yellow and blue ones, despite the red/orange/hot pink family being more my style.
Anyone watching "American Idol" this season probably saw the promos for the new Fox series "Glee." I fully intended to watch the pilot after the performance finale of Idol, but fell asleep at 8:30pm like the freak of sleeping nature that I am (because I'm up til at least 2am every other night, of course). The show had a lot of buzz because it's from Ryan Murphy, the creator of the WB's cult hit "Popular" and FX's "Nip/Tuck." Both of these shows are primarily known for their outrageousness, so combining that kind of balls-to-the-wall crazy with a high school music club? Seems like a winner.
I finally got around to watching the pilot on Hulu this weekend and it was even better than I thought it would be. Not only does it have all those fantastic musical aspects of "High School Musical" (yes, I really like those movies) but it combines it with the darkly humorous voice-overs and characterizations of Election (Reese Witherspoon has never been better) and the oddball misfit vibe from "Freaks and Geeks" (and shocker, I LOVE that series too!) It's a pretty winning combination. I think the humor of the show could stand to be improved a bit in certain areas, but I also unexpectedly snorted soda out of my nose in others, so it's doing something right. I also look forward to seeing the writers flesh out more of the characters. The show has been criticized for ripping off the HSM premise (popular jock wants to sing and dance too, faces scorn of teammates) and to a lesser extent, as I mentioned, Election (overachieving lead female character who is often unlikable/main character teacher with occasionally underhanded practices, etc.) but because the tone of the show mixes elements from all of these inspirations, it still feels vitally different from those original premises. However I'm glad to know that the teacher has an adorable soulmate in a fellow teacher, and that the other members of the Glee Club (an assortment of oddballs) have personalities that can be fleshed out in a series.
"Glee" doesn't officially premiere until next fall; for whatever reason, Fox decided to air the pilot now to take advantage of the post-Idol glow and pick up some momentum. Unfortunately, that means there are no other episodes to watch except the pilot. It's still available on Hulu (for at least a couple more days, I think) and I'm embedding it here in hopes that some of you will check it out. At least skip ahead to 39:42 in the episode for the showstopping number of "Don't Stop Believing." Yes, that Journey. It's meant to show what's possible in the future for the Club and I'm telling you, the enthusiasm is infectious. (Not to mention, that song will be stuck in your head for days.) Please enjoy!
