tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-96885822024-03-07T21:54:15.274-05:00Silly Hats OnlyNow with more sodium! Sweet Jesus!Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.comBlogger734125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-57003338052235899442015-08-27T22:18:00.003-04:002015-08-27T22:18:45.619-04:00I wish I knew how to quit you, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJb9KaVTufGwk1L7MHPeX-HH0jgX1Eec2Ifpq7oYiEf2U_UR2JxeUVluntMNVgyIOWH5u55sfSdQoD8SDQrIgfmIlKMjnphyphenhyphen6dwzJLszFO4TaXbOr72LSCuO5LricJx99nzsqm6Q/s1600/AGI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJb9KaVTufGwk1L7MHPeX-HH0jgX1Eec2Ifpq7oYiEf2U_UR2JxeUVluntMNVgyIOWH5u55sfSdQoD8SDQrIgfmIlKMjnphyphenhyphen6dwzJLszFO4TaXbOr72LSCuO5LricJx99nzsqm6Q/s320/AGI.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I'm generally not big on the idea of "giving up" on filmmakers. For one thing, it seems like kind of an empty gesture, like when I was younger and I'd tell everyone I was "boycotting" certain movies that I didn't want to see instead of just keeping my mouth shut and seeing something else like a grown-up. For another, you never know when a director might surprise you. After all, if I gave up on every director who hit a cold spell, I would've missed out on great movies like <i>Tetro</i>, <i>Goodbye to Language</i>, and <i>The Hurt Locker</i> (Bigelow's <i>Weight of Water</i>/<i>K-19: The Widowmaker</i> seems like ancient history now, eh?).
<br />
<br />
That said, it's somewhat easier with directors I never cared for all that much in the first place. To cite two obvious examples, I haven't bothered with Marc Forster ever since he managed to make a dirt-boring Bond movie, and I'm not looking to partake of another Matthew Barney filmed thingamajig now that he's made a movie involving him and Bjork having sex, chopping off each other's limbs, and morphing into whales, only wayyyyyyyy less interesting than that synopsis would suggest.
<br />
<br />
Then there are the in-between cases. For instance, take the strange case of M. Night Shyamalan. Conventional wisdom states that he's been more or less in free-fall ever since <i>Signs</i>, but I can't quite cut the cord. <i>Sixth Sense</i> is pretty awesome, both <i>Unbreakable</i> and <i>Signs</i> are tense as hell, and his subsequent (original) works have had some great moments in between the goofball digressions and jarring tonal dissonances. Even <i>The Happening</i> had that great scene with the handgun.
<br />
<br />
That's also how I feel about Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu. I can't write off the guy, because he's clearly talented. That's been clear ever since he made <i>Amores Perros</i>, which shares some of the miserablistic tendencies of his later work but is so propulsive, so thrumming with energy, that it never comes across as a wallow. Sadly, the films that followed didn't really capitalize on that potential. <i>21 Grams</i> is well-acted but suffers from a overly-deterministic plotting and a needlessly jumbled chronology. I sort of hated <i>Babel</i>, which in addition to coming across as a globalized version of <i>Crash</i> (which I also hated) but boasted one of the worst throw-my-drink-at-the-screen moments in recent memory- the scene involving the Moroccan boy spying on his sister, in case you're playing at home.
<br />
<br />
So after getting burned twice in a row, I felt pretty comfortable skipping <i>Biutiful</i>, especially when I heard it was the sort of wallow that <i>Amores Perros</i> somehow managed to avoid becoming. And I was ready to do the same for <i>Birdman</i> until the buzz began to generate. Had AGI turned over a new leaf? Well... yes and no. "Yes" in the sense that he was no longer engaging in grief porn in order to come across as a serious storyteller; "no" in the sense that his work was as wanky and show-offy as ever, with the jagged editing and shuffled chronologies traded in for a <i>faux</i>-single shot gambit that was as attention-grabbing as it was pointless (<a href="http://thedissolve.com/reviews/1152-birdman/" target="_blank">Scott Tobias did a great job explaining a lot of my issues with the movie in his review for the late, much-missed Dissolve</a>). More and more, it seems like the guy is the sort of talented filmmaker whose talented is deployed in ways that rub me the wrong way, like a gifted impersonator who spends his entire routine doing pitch-perfect impressions of Jerry Lewis and Gilbert Gottfried. There's no denying the skill, but you can only watch for so long.
<br />
<br />
So I've decided to give Gonzalez Iñarritu one more shot with the upcoming <i>The Revenant</i>. Once again, he's doing the single-shot thing, but I hold out hope that maybe this time it'll serve a purpose- say, to allow the audience to experience the hero's ordeal through his eyes, or at least at his side. But if I don't like this one either, I don't know how many more chances I'll give him. But then, you never know with talented filmmakers. I mean, I stuck with Woody Allen through <i>Jade Scorpion</i>, <i>Hollywood Ending</i>, AND <i>Scoop</i>, right? I can handle damn near anything at this point.Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-73417882746748315582015-06-02T22:08:00.000-04:002015-06-02T22:08:07.112-04:00White Elephant 2015: Did you know your last name is an adverb?<i>Here is my contribution to this year’s White Elephant Blogathon, hosted once again by Philip Tatler over at <a href="http://profoundlyrewarding.blogspot.com/2015/06/its-2015-white-elephant-blogathon-people.html" target="_blank"><u>Diary of a Country Pickpocket</u></a>. To the person to suggested this- if you love this movie, sorry I didn’t enjoy it more. And if you hate this movie, sorry I didn’t dislike it more. Anyway…</i>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKEWMrSXl-owb80Emy7Z4-gOpbi0zz-gT5tCh_dtRX24UUWHSzye00hFj_c0YUJbRI172FCs7EwPW_McndXsQlSqg6VWpDTlUnwAWKiEWtLlMN_f0SuO_9Rm4zkK62_iOxPdZ2Iw/s1600/Johnny.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKEWMrSXl-owb80Emy7Z4-gOpbi0zz-gT5tCh_dtRX24UUWHSzye00hFj_c0YUJbRI172FCs7EwPW_McndXsQlSqg6VWpDTlUnwAWKiEWtLlMN_f0SuO_9Rm4zkK62_iOxPdZ2Iw/s400/Johnny.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
<br />
What can one say about a movie so resolutely mediocre as Amy Heckerling’s <i>Johnny Dangerously</i>? I realize this question may come off as a cutesy lead-in to a dismissive review, but I’m honestly at a loss for what to say about a movie this run-of-the-mill. That’s not to say it’s unpleasant, but it’s the sort of movie meant to stumbled upon on basic cable in the mid-afternoon, and<u><i> </i></u>which you’ll watch for a few minutes while you wait for a phone call you’re expecting or for guests to arrive. It’s not terrible by any means, but it practically evaporates on contact.
<br />
<br />
<i>Johnny Dangerously</i> was one of a rash of gag-based comedies cranked out by Hollywood in the wake of <i>Airplane!</i>, hoping to replicate that film’s success. Here, Heckerling and her team of writers (the movie credits four), took on gangster movies, particularly the classic Warner Bros. cops-and-robbers pictures of the 1930s. Granted, this wasn’t a particularly fresh genre to spoof, but the movie’s lack of timeliness isn’t the issue. The real issue is that it’s not particularly funny.
<br />
<br />
That’s not to say it isn’t at least fitfully amusing. One of the movie’s best-remembered gags involves gangster Roman Moronie (Richard Dimitri), who spouts off phony curse words in a cartoonish, foreign-sounding accent. When he starts fuming and calling his enemies a bunch of “farging iceholes” and the like, it’s genuinely funny, and it’s even funnier when he’s called upon to deliver a prepared deposition before the District Attorney, and while it’s still full of faux obscenities (“the mouth on that guy!” exclaims his chief rival), it’s delivered in a perfectly flat voice.
<br />
<br />
But for every joke that hits, there are roughly a half-dozen that don’t quite reach the mark. Part of the problem is that Heckerling and her writers mistake “zany” for funny, as in a scene where the titular gangster (Michael Keaton) shows his law-student kid brother Tommy (Griffin Dunne) an educational film called “Your Testicles and You” in an attempt to steer him towards clean living. The shots of men walking around with freakishly bulging crotches (due to misuse, of course) is sort of amusing, but the movie doesn’t really do anything with this. It’s a one-off gag, and the payoff- an aghast Tommy proclaiming “I’m going back to law school!”- is weak.
<br />
<br />
Bits like this are typical of the movie’s approach to humor. <i>Johnny Dangerously</i> goes for obvious laughs, but doesn’t really go to the effort of making them really funny. Johnny’s chief rival Danny Vermin (Joe Piscopo, best remembered as the guy who “wasn’t that bad- really!” on early-1980s SNL) has an oft-repeated catchphrase in which he responds to a perceived slight by saying that one of his family members did it to him “… once.” And that’s it. It’s not a bad idea for a running joke, but it feels like the first draft of the joke, not the final version. A lot of the movie’s humor feels like that, like the writers should have worked on their ideas a little more in order to make them sharper and funnier.
<br />
<br />
There are a few things I enjoyed. First off, the cast is good. Peter Boyle is solid as Johnny’s mentor, the benevolent crime boss Jocko Dundee, and Maureen Stapleton gets some good bits as Johnny and Tommy’s beloved Ma. At the time Stapleton was only a few years removed from her Oscar-winning performance in <i>Reds</i>, but she was enough of a consummate professional that she gave just the right comedic spin to the character, even in wackier moments like when she blurts out that she “swings both ways.” Though not even Stapleton could pull off the moment in which she dismisses Tommy’s do-gooder impulses by telling him he “sounds like a fag choir boy.” Jokes at the expense of homosexuals were an unfortunate tendency of 1980s-era comedy, and <i>Johnny Dangerously</i> falls into that trap, most egregiously with a District Attorney played by Danny DeVito, who gets a little too hands-on with Tommy and coos with delight over the gift of a red smoking jacket. And speaking of dating poorly, Vermin’s line that his custom made .88 Magnum “shoots through schools” would cause audiences to wince nowadays.
<br />
<br />
However, if <i>Johnny Dangerously</i> works at all, it’s because of Michael Keaton. Three decades, two <i>Batman</i> movies, and one talking snowman later, it’s easy to forget a time when Keaton was best known for being Hollywood’s funniest smirking wiseass, but he’s sort of perfect here. The character of Johnny Dangerously was inspired primarily by James Cagney, and Keaton captures Cagney’s puckish energy and cocky strut without resorting to impersonation or parody. <i>Birdman</i> be damned- THIS is the Keaton I miss, and seeing him in <i>Johnny Dangerously</i>, I despaired that he wasn’t given better material by the filmmakers. It’s an inspired performance, and if only the filmmakers had been working on that level of inspiration, this could’ve been a comedy classic instead of the largely forgettable time-waster it ended up being.
Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-79949578369591768282015-04-29T21:33:00.000-04:002015-04-29T21:33:59.966-04:00New WHO Essentials, Part 1: The Russell T. Davies YearsNot long ago, I posted a short remark on Facebook referencing a (then purely hypothetical) list of favorite <i>Doctor Who</i> episodes. But as tends to happen with me, the goal of the list changed while I was making it. Eventually I decided that rather than rattle of a list of my favorites, I’d try to include lots of different kinds of episodes on this list, in the interest of picking titles that represent as many of the different stripes of modern-day <i>Who</i> episodes as I thought worthy of inclusion. In the process, I decided the only way to really do this would be to split the list in two, with the first devoted to the four seasons executive produced by Russell T Davies, and second (which is still in the conception stage) to focus on the Stephen Moffat years.
<br />
<br />
This list is presented in chronological order of air date. Additionally, I've decided to count two-parters as a single episode for the purposes of this list. As always, feel free to disagree in the comments.
<br />
<br />
“The Empty Child” / “The Doctor Dances” (season 1) – written by Stephen Moffat
As tends to be the case with many TV shows, reboot or not, series 1 of <i>Doctor Who</i> got off to something of a rough start, with some questionable effects and an overreliance on the flatulent but not particularly frightening enemies the Slitheen. However, Christopher Eccleston’s sole season in the TARDIS did produce one stone-cold classic, this two-parter set during the London Blitz. Fans of the series and its spinoffs remember this episode fondly as our introduction to the dashing omnisexual con man Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), to say nothing of the comedy inherent in Billie Piper’s Rose hanging from a barrage balloon in the middle of an air raid, sporting a Union Jack t-shirt. But it also produced one of the Davies years’ most lingering images, that of a little boy wearing a gas mask and asking, “are you my mummy?” The solution to the mystery of the little boy is first haunting, then poignant. The first sign that the new <i>Who</i> was set for the long haul.
<br />
<br />
“New Earth” (season 2) – written by Davies
With the first season of <i>Doctor Who</i> behind him, Davies set forth in season 2 to expand the possibilities of the show’s universe, and this began with its premiere episode, in which the Doctor takes Rose further into the future than she’s ever traveled, to the city of New New York on the titular planet after the original Earth has been destroyed. After arriving, they encounter a number of characters they met during the first season, namely the ancient Face of Boe and the last “pure” human, Cassandra, who is little more than a face in the middle of a sheet of tightly-stretched skin. However, she doesn’t stay that way, having formulated a system for transplanting her consciousness into others- in this case, Rose. Davies resolved in season 2 to write Billie Piper an episode that would allow her to be funny, and she’s a hoot here, with her lower-class wardrobe contrasting nicely with the snobbish, bitchy lines coming from Cassandra’s brain (it’s particularly funny listening to her attempt Cockney rhyming slang). The Doctor would return to New New York the following season with Martha in the similarly good episode “Gridlock,” but if I’m forced to choose only one New Earth episode, this is it.
<br />
<br />
“The Girl in the Fireplace” (season 2) – written by Moffat
One of the original edicts mandated by the BBC during the first years of the original series was that <i>Doctor Who</i> should serve as an educational show, with storylines set against the backdrop of history alternating with the monster storylines. This mandate eventually fell by the wayside when audiences responded more to the creepy-crawlies than to the educational episodes, but even in its new incarnation the producers include the occasional historical adventure, and this one may be the best. Taking a page from the best-selling <i>The Time-Traveler’s Wife</i>, the storyline finds the Tenth Doctor popping in and out of the life of Reinette Poisson (the fragrant Sophia Myles), later to become Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Henry V. The primary threat comes from some nifty-looking clockwork maintenance droids, who are stalking Reinette through time for their own (icky) purposes, but the real highlight is the chemistry between Myles and David Tennant, who demonstrates enough wit, charm, and dashing romantic spirit to cement himself as one of the great “boyfriend doctors.”
<br />
<br />
“Rise of the Cybermen” / “The Age of Steel” (season 2) – written by Tom MacRae
One of the biggest differences I’ve noticed between the Davies years and the seasons exec-produced by Stephen Moffat is that the Davies years seemed to place a stronger emphasis on character. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the frequency we see the families of the Doctor’s companions and other associates. Whereas in the Moffat seasons family members would occasionally turn up then disappear with scarcely a thought given to their whereabouts, Davies and his writers would often give his characters complicated family dynamics off which they could bounce the main storylines involving the Doctor. This was done to particularly good effect in this two-part episode, which presents an alternate-universe version of Rose’s family, in which Rose’s father is not only still alive but a successful business man, her blue-collar mum is a nouveau-riche snob, and Rose has been replaced by a dog (also named Rose). Meanwhile, the alternate version of Rose’s off-and-on boyfriend Mickey (Noel Clarke, who was never better than he was here) is a revolutionary, and the Cybermen, one of the Doctor’s oldest adversaries, are the brainchild of a dying inventor. MacRae brings these plot strands together capably, but what makes the episode really effective is how it illustrates the idea that, even in a universe full of unlimited possibilities, you still have to choose what’s most important.
<br />
<br />
“Human Nature” / “The Family of Blood” (season 3) – written by Paul Cornell
In most of his adventures, the Doctor comes off as an intergalactic superhero, landing in a perilous situation and clearing it up through cleverness, an encyclopedic knowledge of the universe, and technological savvy. But in this two-part episode he’s far more human, literally- in response to a threat, he actually becomes human, in the process losing his memories and his identity. Here we see him as a teacher in a boys’ boarding school, even embarking on a sweet romance with the school’s nurse. Eventually, a group of sinister aliens sniff him out and launches an attack on the school. But most of the story’s drama has less to do with the alien threat than with companion Martha’s (Freema Agyeman, in perhaps her finest performance on the series) perspective on the event, as the Doctor to whom she’s sworn loyalty not only can’t remember who he really is- or who she is, for that matter- but also is powerless to stop the threat. In the end, the Doctor we all know returns, but not without some sacrifice.
<br />
<br />
“Blink” (season 3) – written by Moffat
With a series called <i>Doctor Who</i>, you would think that the producers would put the Doctor front and center, and in most cases you’d be right. But on a number of occasions, producer Russell T Davies shook up the formula in order to serve up a story in which the Doctor’s involvement was more tangential. Season 2’s “Love & Monsters” told the story of a group of Doctor fanboys and –girls, while Season 4’s “Turn Left” imagined an alternate reality in which then-companion Donna (Catherine Tate) had never met the Doctor. But best of all- and one of the overall highlights of latter-day <i>Who</i>- is this episode, which introduced audiences to perhaps the eeriest of modern-day Who baddies, the Weeping Angels. The focus of the story is Sally Sparrow (future Oscar nominee Carrie Mulligan), who happens upon the Angels and soon finds herself having to contend with repeated threats from them, with little more than oblique hints from the Doctor (a message written on a wall, a one-sided conversation included as a DVD Easter Egg) to get her out of the jam. Clever, impeccably performed, and above all, seriously spooky.
<br />
<br />
“Voyage of the Damned” (special episode) – written by Moffat
One of the hallmarks of the Davies years is that, unlike the more neurotic incarnations that followed, Davies’ Doctors genuinely liked people as a whole. This was most apparent in the episodes when the Doctor was without his usual companions and had to enlist people on the fly to help him save the day. Given the frequent turnover of the Tenth Doctor’s companions, this happened quite a bit, and one of the temporary companions (Donna) ended up a full-season companion later on. “Planet of the Dead,” in which Doctor #10 teams up with rich-girl-turned-jewel-thief Lady Christina De Souza, is a lot of fun, I’m giving the edge to “Voyage of the Damned” for three reasons: (1) the fact that the story is set on a space-edge version of the Titanic, which at one point ends up in free-fall and headed right for Buckingham Palace, (2) the introduction of Donna’s ornery old grandpa, Wilf, and especially (3) because the episode’s single-serving companion is played by Kylie Minogue, who would have been an awesome companion if somehow Catherine Tate hadn’t been available.
<br />
<br />
“The Fires of Pompeii” (season 4) – written by James Moran and Davies
Of all the Tenth Doctor’s companions, Catherine Tate’s Donna was the most three-dimensional, mostly because she wasn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with her centuries-old Time Lord traveling partner, which made her a welcome change from Rose and Martha, both of whom nursed crushes on the Doctor. But with so many classic Donna moments, which am I to choose? I’m tempted to pick “The Unicorn and the Wasp,” which provided the funniest Doctor/Donna scene of the series. But instead, I’ll give the edge to “The Fires of Pompeii,” in which she gets plenty of comedic moments while also displaying her other great strength, which was to provide an empathetic sounding board for the Doctor, encouraging him to follow his better (non-Weeping) angel. Throw in appearances not only by a future companion (Karen Gillen) but also a future Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and you’ve got yourself a damn fine hour of <i>Doctor Who</i>.
<br />
<br />
“Silence in the Library” / “Forest of the Dead” (season 4) – written by Moffat
For sheer horror, it’s hard to top the Weeping Angels, but the Vashta Nerada come close. In this episode, the Doctor and Donna land in a planet-sized library that contains copies of all the books in the universe, but which is totally uninhabited except for the Vashta Nerada, a race of microscopic and highly carnivorous creatures referred to as “the piranhas of the air.” Or is it all the dream of a troubled little girl? Doesn’t matter- this two-parter is full of unnerving moments, not least during the “ghosting” scenes, in which the consciousness of a recently-deceased person continues to converse with those around him. In terms of pure inventiveness, this storyline is hard to top. All that plus the introduction of River Song, of whom we’d be seeing much more during the Moffat years.
<br />
<br />
“The Stolen Earth” / “Journey’s End” (season 4) – written by Davies
Whether this is best Tennant/Davies episode is a debate for another time. But in many ways this is the ultimate Tennant/Davies episode, to which the entire series up to that point had been building. The baddies are the Daleks, naturally, unleashing perhaps their boldest scheme yet, pulling the Earth (and 26 other planets) out of their normal places in the universe into a formation in order to create a “reality bomb.” But never mind the details. This episode has everything one would want from a Tennant episode – Daleks a-plenty (including their creator Davros and the crazed Dalek Caan), multiple Tennants, and Donna finally fulfilling her destiny as a companion. Plus there are guest appearances galore, including a scene in which the Tenth Doctor’s companions past and present all fly the TARDIS together. Tennant would continue as the Doctor in a handful of subsequent specials, but this feels like the climax to which the Davies years had been building all along.
<br />
<br />
“The Next Doctor” (special episode) – written by Davies
The Christmas episode was a new <i>Doctor Who</i> tradition that began with Tennant’s first full episode. These episodes, which have rarely involved the current companions, are generally stand-alone stories meant to tide viewers over until the beginning of the next season. A number of these episodes have been noteworthy (including the aforementioned “Voyage of the Damned”), and I have a soft spot for the Matt Smith-starring “A Christmas Carol,” in which the Eleventh Doctor softens the heart of grinchy industrialist Michael Gambon. But I’m going with “The Next Doctor” here, largely for the ingenious touch of bringing the Doctor face to face with himself (in a manner of speaking) by placing him in the path of another man who claims to be the Doctor and does the Doctor’s work, after his own fashion. Part of the novelty of this episode was that Davies paired Tennant with David Morrissey, who at the time was rumored to be the frontrunner to succeed Tennant at the TARDIS controls. Alas, it wasn’t to be- which is kind of too bad, because Morrissey’s “Doctor” cuts a similar sort of courtly swashbuckling figure to Doctor #3. But what I enjoy most about this is that it gives Tennant the chance to do a victory lap, the first in a series of them culminating with…
<br />
<br />
“The End of Time” (Parts One and Two) (special episode) – written by Davies
The Doctor’s most famous adversaries are The Daleks, but no enemy has made the fight more personal than The Master. After turning up periodically on the show’s original incarnation, The Master (played here by John Simm) first appeared on the new version during season 3, making life hellish for the Doctor in particular and the world in general. After being vanquished during season 3’s finale, the Master (a Time Lord himself) was resurrected again for Tennant’s final two-part episode. The Master’s plan is an especially crafty one, in which he invades the body of nearly every person on Earth, from the President of the United States to the head of NATO command- and the only thing standing between him and total world domination is that pesky Doctor, with the occasional clumsy but always loyal assistance of good ol’ Wilf. Does the Master prevail? You can probably guess. But what really puts this episode over the edge into classic status is the denouement, in which the Doctor (who to be fair takes FOREVER to regenerate) pays one last visit to his old friends before stumbling into the TARDIS and proclaiming, with a tear in his voice, “I don’t want to go.” We know the feeling, Doctor #10. We hated to see you go, but we loved to watch you leave.
Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-12013929405844749382015-04-01T20:00:00.000-04:002015-04-01T20:00:00.748-04:00The Forgotten One-Season WonderOne of the best ways to achieve a cult status among TV aficionados is to be an awesome show that gets canceled after one season or less. After all, if a show doesn't last very long, it doesn't get a chance to jump the shark (or whatever we're calling it these days). Rather than bemoaning how it lost its luster over time, we get to sit around and talk about how it never got the chance to reach its full potential.<br />
<br />
Yet among devotees of <a href="http://www.avclub.com/features/one-season-wonders-weirdos-and-wannabes/" target="_blank">"brilliant but canceled" television</a>, there's one classic show that rarely gets mentioned- <i>ProStars</i>, which debuted in September 1991 and was yanked unceremonious after one 13-episode season. Maybe it's just snobbery that causes them to overlook a show that was originally broadcast as Saturday-morning animated fare, but that shortchanges one of the greatest shows of its day. Therefore, in an effort to rehabilitate the show's critical rep and rescue it from the dustbin of pop-culture history, I hereby present...<br />
<br />
TEN REASONS WHY <i>PROSTARS</i> WAS/IS AWESOME<br />
<br />
1. Because, well, it's about Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, and Wayne Gretzky solving international crimes. It's like James Bond meets CAPTAIN PLANET, only with world-famous professional athletes, which makes at least 20% more awesome right there.<br />
<br />
2. That theme song. It's "We Will Rock You," but with new lyrics - "We are / We are / PROSTARS!" Of course, it seems like the lyricist ran out of inspiration about Michael - "Jordan jams, in your face / gonna put them in their place" - but why nitpick? This was actually the first exposure I ever had to "We Will Rock You," and I remember one time when I was at a baseball game with a friend and they started playing the original version over the PA system. I turned to my friend's dad and asked him why they were playing the <i>ProStars </i>theme song, and he told me to shut and drink my beer so he could get back to watching the game. Ah, memories.<br />
<br />
3. Because this was 1991, they made an effort to work a "Bo Knows" joke into every episode. That's what you call topical humor, folks.<br />
<br />
4. One of the show's recurring villains was named Clockwork Delorange. For those of you playing at home, that's a Kubrick reference. JUST LIKE ON "THE SIMPSONS."<br />
<br />
5. More topical humor: in one episode, the ProStars take on a gang of basketball-playing goons called the Pontiac Hoods. Anyone who remembers the Bad Boy Pistons of the era should appreciate that reference, I'd think.<br />
<br />
6. The ProStars team was made up of three members, which is a dramatically clean number. Think of most good jokes you've heard involving a group of people- more often than not, there are three people in that group. One person to introduce the idea, one person to cause the rising action or complicate things, and the third to lead to a resolution. I'm pretty sure Aristotle came up with that. Anyway, there were three ProStars, but they represented all four of the "major" sports. Michael played basketball, Bo played both baseball and football, and Wayne represented hockey, which after Gretzky got traded to the L.A. Kings in the late 80s was a sport Americans were forced to acknowledge was played more than every four years at the Winter Olympics. Today, in our more inclusive times, the ProStars would have to welcome all kinds of other members just so there could be a hero for everyone in the audience. There would be at least one female ProStar (maybe one or both of the Williams sisters, I dunno). There would no doubt be a <i>futbol</i>-playing ProStar for the Latin audience. Who knows, they might even find a way to squeeze in an Asian-American. Meanwhile, <i>ProStars</i>' idea of diversity was that THEY INCLUDED A WHITE GUY.<br />
<br />
7. And yet... if there was a third wheel on <i>ProStars</i> (and considering how many members were on the team there would kind of have to be) it was Gretzky. Which is sort of mind-boggling when you consider that America was still struggling with the idea of political correctness and racial sensitivity, and some major-media commenters were still questioning, for example, how successful a black quarterback could be in the NFL (overlooking the fact that Doug Williams had recently led the Redskins to the Super Bowl and Warren Moon and Randall Cunningham were also doing just fine, thank you very much). But on <i>ProStars</i>, the team's most vital members- Michael and Bo- were the African-American ones. Michael was the leader and the brains of the outfit, and Bo was super-strong. Wayne was just kind of there to help out when needed, like if something required skating and/or smacking an object with a stick. A pretty limited skill set compared with the other two. Wayne wasn't just the white guy on the team - he was the TOKEN white guy.<br />
<br />
8. So the writers, in an attempt to justify the Wayne character's presence on the show, turned him into the primary source of comic relief. Considering we were just coming out of the 1980s, a golden age for the cliché of the wacky black sidekick, that was a risky enough move. But look at how much of Wayne's comic relief stems from his appetite (seriously, the dude talks about food, like, all the time) and the show becomes downright subversive. That's right, kids - at the height of the War on Drugs and the era of Just Say No, the creators of <i>ProStars</i> were selling kids on the idea that one of the world's most celebrated athletes was HIGH AS A KITE. Suck it, Nancy Reagan!<br />
<br />
9. This being the early 90s, they couldn't have a show aimed at kids without including a lesson at the end. But there's something about having the lesson delivered by Wayne Gretzky and Bo Jackson (and less frequently, Michael Jordan) goofing around on soundstages while pretending to talk to each other that makes it go down somewhat easier. Plus there's one episode that doesn't really have a moral, so Wayne just ends up talking about the history of the Stanley Cup. Because he could do that, y'know. His name was engraved on it four times (at the time, anyway).<br />
<br />
10. And finally... because after one season, the producers of <i>ProStars</i> already felt like they had enough awesome material for a clip show. That takes some serious cast-iron balls, folks.<br />
<br />
So anyway, where's our deluxe-edition <i>ProStars</i> Blu-Ray, Criterion? I hereby volunteer to write the essay.Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-77982925113897350902014-06-01T00:30:00.000-04:002014-06-01T00:30:00.596-04:00White Elephant 2014: A Perfect Getaway (2009, David Twohy)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ2JtcYyk2CCEE_DMJMHl3XGrGzgQxgUkwbtTLSqEe34O1yfAfl5vCIAQzxanEMIBcmTIjTQUjhBilD6KwwELccV7xLI040zfi7puKpx85YQezKsFj0K5oJeNBw2SEANPJt6SfNw/s1600/perfect_getaway_ver4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ2JtcYyk2CCEE_DMJMHl3XGrGzgQxgUkwbtTLSqEe34O1yfAfl5vCIAQzxanEMIBcmTIjTQUjhBilD6KwwELccV7xLI040zfi7puKpx85YQezKsFj0K5oJeNBw2SEANPJt6SfNw/s1600/perfect_getaway_ver4.jpg" height="400" width="268" /></a></div>
<i>What's a nice little thriller like you doing in a place like this?</i> I ask this because although participants in the White Elephant Blogathon are free to submit any movie they choose, there seems to be some disagreement on what sorts of movies are best to submit. Like any white elephant gift exchange, there will always be those who bring in junk just to watch other people squirm (I pity the fool who got stuck with my submission, Menno Meyjes' <i>Max</i>), while others are more charitable. Like the person who brings a secondhand trinket and leaves with a bottle of wine, I somehow drew David Twohy's legitimately good 2009 movie <i>A Perfect Getaway</i>.
<br />
<br />
While I was pretty happy with the movie, it left me in a somewhat precarious position as a writer. After all, this is a movie that depends a great deal on its plot twists and turns. Since some of you may not have seen it, I'll tread lightly.
<br />
<br />
Twohy centers his story on a pair of couples vacationing in Hawaii. The first, played by Milla Jovovich and Steve Zahn, are honeymooning there. Zahn plays the part of an up-and-coming screenwriter (not "screenplay writer," he insists), and Jovovich plays his stay-at-home wife, who is still getting used to the new last name. Despite a recent news scare involving a newlywed couple killed on the big island, Zahn and Jovovich proceed with their original plan to hike to a legendary remote beach.
<br />
<br />
It's along the way that they meet the second couple, played by Kiele Sanchez (the little-loved Nikki from <i>Lost</i>) and Timothy Olyphant. They're the kind of couple one sometimes meets while traveling- almost oppressively friendly, somewhat clingy, full of tales and prone to showing off. Olyphant in particular is sort of alarming, with his war stories and arsenal of weapons he's packed away in his bags. When he kills a goat for dinner, Sanchez promptly sets about to field-dressing it. Given the outrageousness of their stories and familiarity with weapons, could they be the killers?
<br />
<br />
I enjoyed <i>A Perfect Getaway</i> quite a bit on a moment-to-moment basis, particularly in its first half when Twohy sets up the dynamic between the two couples. It helps that he gets solid performances from his principal cast, especially Olyphant, who projects both gregariousness and laser-focused intensity even in his quieter moments. But while the film's second half is also well-done, the construction is such that the film comes off less as a story to be enjoyed unto itself than a screenwriter's (not "screenplay writer's") exercise designed to snatch the run out from under the audience. Granted, Twohy plays fair according to his rules, so it's hard to begrudge him the manipulations. Yet I ended up feeling a little disappointed in the direction the film ended up taking, since it was going so well that it didn't really need the extra trickery.
<br />
<br />
Yet despite this disappointment, I still feel like I lucked out with <i>A Perfect Getaway</i>. It's not the kind of movie I would normally think of when coming up with titles to force others to watch, but it's also not a movie I would have watched without some motivation to do so. In that respect, it ws a nice surprise, even if it was somehow difficult to revise in a satisfactory manner (did I succeed? Best not to answer that). In light of my receiving <i>A Perfect Getaway</i> this year, I'm seriously considering submitting a good movie next year. Hell, I might even do something like <i>Citizen Kane</i>. Now THAT oughta make someone squirm...Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-33704883134712188602013-04-03T20:40:00.007-04:002013-04-03T20:40:53.848-04:00"Hang on. This isn't going to be subtle."<i>Here lieth my review of <u>The Core</u>, written for this year's edition of the White Elephant Blogathon. And my God have mercy on my soul.</i><br />
<br />
What can one write about a movie as aggressively mediocre as <i>The Core</i>? As those of you who follow me on Facebook can attest, I’m rarely at a loss for words. But when trying to write something readable about this movie, I find myself drawing a blank. I’m not kidding about that- this is already my third attempt at a review, and I don’t know if I’m any closer to finding a way in now than I was the first time I tried. It’s not that it’s a difficult movie by any means- it’s just that it’s so forgettable that it’s already evaporating from my memory after less than 24 hours.<br />
<br />
Still, I must forge ahead. I said I’d review something for the White Elephant Blogathon, so here I am. (Why couldn’t I have gotten the chimp secret agent movie? Rian Johnson’s a fan!)<br />
<br />
The premise, such as it is: something has caused the molten core of the Earth to stop rotating, leading to disastrous results with our planet’s electromagnetic field. Eventually, the field would break down, leaving us completely exposed to the sun’s radiation. Hunky Dr. Josh Keyes (Aaron Eckhart) demonstrates this by incinerating a peach with a Zippo and a can of air freshener, proving that college professors do the best Science Fair projects.<br />
<br />
But before the Earth turns into a pêche flambée, we get the obligatory, seemingly-random-but-not-really disasters that inevitably take place in a handful of cities throughout the world. The one that opens the movie is pretty good, as the electromagnetic disturbance causes a bunch of people’s pacemakers to stop working. The others, alas, aren’t as good. A scene in which pigeons suddenly attack people in London ’s Trafalgar Square feels like a half-assed Hitchcock ripoff. Even more disappointing is the destruction of Rome by a killer lightning storm. It’s not so much that I was taken out of the movie by some shabby model work (that’s par for the course in disaster movies, after all), but it seems like a missed opportunity that the filmmakers didn’t set the scene in Paris . After all, what’s the Eiffel Tower if not a massive lightning rod?<br />
<br />
It was during this scene in particular that I questioned whether <i>The Core</i> really wanted to be disaster movie at all. Most movies in the genre linger on the destruction with a kind of lip-smacking glee, but <i>The Core</i> seems almost ashamed of the carnage and chaos. Nowhere is this more apparent than when the sun first breaks through the electromagnetic field. Oh sure, we get expected destruction of a landmark (The Golden Gate Bridge, in this case) and the resulting fires and deaths, but director Jon Amiel and his screenwriters don’t seem to have any interest in showing the incident in detail. There are some dead fish, a random guy in a car suddenly gets burned, and the bridge gives way, but the aftermath is kept to a minimum, shown entirely on a TV news report. There’s no public panic or anything, not even an explosion. Where’s the showmanship?<br />
<br />
Alas, <i>The Core</i> isn’t as interested in the apocalypse as it is in the mission to stop it. It’s less Irwin Allen than Jules Verne. Unfortunately, the filmmakers can’t find a way to make scenes of a half-dozen people in a ship particularly exciting. As the $50 billion metallic phallus burrows its way through the Earth, it hits one obstacle after another, and the team has to improvise solutions that more often than not involve (a) jettisoning a portion of the ship, and (b) one of the team members dying. While this gets repetitive, it’s also a handy gauge to how much of the movie has elapsed. By the time the only crew members left are the ones you’re confident will survive to the end, you’ll know it’s pretty much over.<br />
<br />
(Seriously, I could have watched <i>The Stuff</i>! O cursed fates…)<br />
<br />
At least the cast is good. In addition to Eckhart, there’s also Delroy Lindo, Stanley Tucci, Tcheky Karyo, Richard Jenkins, Bruce Greenwood, and Alfre Woodard, who are all professionals and do a professional job. Eckhart and Tucci seem to be having the most fun here. Eckhart shakes off the mantle of being Neil LaBute’s go-to guy by making his character something of a goof and a showboat (e.g. the flaming-peach thing), while Tucci does his thing as a pompous fellow scientist whose involvement in the project conceals a big secret (one that feels completely gratuitous in the story). And Lindo, despite playing a thinly-written eccentric-inventor role, actually musters up some real gravitas in a number of scenes, even getting the movie’s most heroic death (SPOILER!).<br />
<br />
With all that talent onscreen, it’s sort of jaw-dropping that Hilary Swank has two more Oscars than anyone else in the cast, considering she’s easily the weak link in the ensemble. Is there a “name” actor nowadays who’s less fun to watch onscreen than Swank? Her characterizations are invariably thin and one-dimensional, and she projects none of the joy of performance that characterizes most really talented actors. In the midst of superior talents, all she’s capable of mustering is steely resolve, which is pretty much all she has going for her as an actress. While everyone else seems to be enjoying themselves, she seems to be convinced that she’s chasing down another Oscar, which makes her feel distractingly out of place.<br />
<br />
And speaking of things that don’t belong, what the hell was going on with the computer hacker played by DJ Qualls? The government ostensibly drafts him to assist with the mission by “hacking the Internet” in an attempt to keep the mission a secret. But honestly, we mostly see him sitting behind a desk at Mission Control typing away and downing Hot Pockets while General Richard Jenkins looks over at him every once in a while. He doesn’t seem to do anything specific until the secret “Plan B” mission comes to light, at which point he runs interference while the heroes carry out their heroic mission before Plan B ends up causing more disastrous problems than it solves. Perhaps it’s just my distaste for the movie’s need to introduce a Plan B at all as a method of generating additional suspense (because the uncertainty of whether our heroes will manage to jump-start the core isn’t suspense enough, right). But introducing a character who serves almost no discernible purpose in the story then having him wait until a situation arises where he’ll actually come in handy feels like lazy screenwriting to me.<br />
<br />
Ten years ago I was single, which gave me time to see all the movies I wanted to see. Nonetheless, I took a pass on <i>The Core</i>, probably because I was kind of a snob and hadn’t yet developed my palate for genre-based trash. Now that I have less time to watch movies, I’d skip it for another reason- because it’s more or less a waste of time. Movies like <i>The Core</i> serve no purpose other than occupy two-odd hours of people’s time and leave them mildly entertained (possible pull-quote for the poster: “I totally saw it! And so can you!”). I’m generally averse to dismissing a movie by saying, “well, there’s two hours of my life I’ll never get back,” but I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t my first reaction after I watched <i>The Core</i>.<br />
<br />
Worse yet, I didn’t even get a good review out of the deal. Just consider that I could’ve watched <i>Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death</i>, and even recorded an audio review in character as Werner Herzog, and shed a tear for humanity.Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-13562982333343190422013-04-01T18:33:00.000-04:002013-04-07T17:51:07.299-04:00White Elephant 2013: This year's victims (updated 3/5)So, great timing for the White Elephant, eh? Nothing else going on this past weekend, am I right? <br />
<br />
OK, so maybe some of us had other plans these past few days. And in the interest of including those who might have been busy over Easter Weekend, I'll be posting White Elephant contributions throughout the week. Still, tradition dictates that this shindig take place on April Fool's Day, so to honor that I'll post what I've got so far.<br />
<br />
Many thanks to everyone who contributed, and check back throughout the week to see what else we've got in store for you!<br />
<br />
Added 3/7: Patrick Williamson monkeys around with <a href="http://redherrings.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/spymate/" target="_blank"><i>Spymate</i></a>! <br />
<br />
Victor Morton dials up <a href="http://vjmorton.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/2013-white-elephant/" target="_blank"><i>976-EVIL</i></a>!<br />
<br />
Philip Tatler draws <a href="http://profoundlyrewarding.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-q-word.html" target="_blank"><i>The Paper Man</i></a>!<br />
<br />
Dennis Cozzalio meets <i>a <a href="http://sergioleoneifr.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-2013-white-elephant-blog-thon.html" target="_blank">Red Angel</a></i>!<br />
<br />
Steve Carlson says, "<i><a href="http://steveosteve.tumblr.com/post/47075510673/lighting-up-the-great-white-elephant-way" target="_blank">Don't Play Us Cheap</a></i>"!<br />
<br />
Kent Beeson sees the world through the <a href="http://letterboxd.com/kza/film/eyes-of-the-mothman/" target="_blank"><i>Eyes of the Mothman</i></a>!<br />
<br />
Paul Clark gets shaken to <a href="http://opalfilms.blogspot.com/2013/04/hang-on-this-isnt-going-to-be-subtle.html" target="_blank"><i>The Core</i></a>!<br />
<br />
Jason Alley goes on a <i><a href="http://letterboxd.com/jason_alley/film/turkey-shoot/2/" target="_blank">Turkey Shoot</a></i>!<br />
<br />
Josh Bell tracks down <i><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2013/04/white-elephant-blogathon-beast-of-yucca.html" target="_blank">The Beast of Yucca Flats</a></i>!<br />
<br />
Andrew Bemis throws out <i><a href="http://cinevistaramascope.blogspot.com/2013/04/nobodys-ever-gonna-live-in-our-house.html" target="_blank">The Evictors</a></i>!<br />
<br />
Christianne Benedict faces off against <i><a href="http://krelllabs.blogspot.com/2013/04/white-elephant-blogathon-2013-ice.html" target="_blank">The Ice Pirates</a></i>!<br />
<br />
Kenji Fujishima finds some <i><a href="http://mylife24fps.blogspot.com/2013/04/white-elephant-blogathon-2013-hidden.html" target="_blank">Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death</a></i>!<br />
<br />
Jaime Grijalba gets a taste of <i><a href="http://overlookhotelfilm.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/white-elephant-blogathon-the-stuff-1985/" target="_blank">The Stuff</a></i>!<br />
<br />
Peter Labuza heads south with <i><a href="http://www.labuzamovies.com/2013/04/white-elephant-blogathon-promedio-rojo.html" target="_blank">Promedio Rojo</a></i>!<br />
<br />
Ivan Lerner takes a loooooooooooooong journey with <i><a href="http://lernerinternational.blogspot.com/2013/04/flying-sperm-dogs-yo-neverending-story.html" target="_blank">The NeverEnding Story</a></i>!<br />
<br />
Matt Lynch gets Objectivist with <i><a href="http://nonunionmexicanequivalent.tumblr.com/post/46804968899/for-2013s-white-elephant-blogathon-over-at-silly" target="_blank">Atlas Shrugged, Part I</a></i>!<br />
<br />
Don Marks gets drafted for <i><a href="http://letterboxd.com/captfuzz/film/baseball-bimbos-in-hillbilly-hell/" target="_blank">Blood Games</a></i>!<br />
<br />
Michael May stops for <i><a href="http://michaelmay.blogspot.com/2013/04/thunderbirds-are-proceed-with-caution.html" target="_blank">Thunderbirds Are GO</a></i>!<br />
<br />
Patrick Miller says <i><a href="http://patrickmiller.tumblr.com/post/46852134653/goodbye-uncle-tom-2013-white-elephant-blogathon" target="_blank">Goodbye, Uncle Tom</a></i>!<br />
<br />
Kevin J. Olson hitches a ride with <i><a href="http://kolson-kevinsblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/white-elephant-blogathon-space-truckers.html" target="_blank">Space Truckers</a></i>!<br />
<br />
Stacia hopes to see us <i><a href="http://shebloggedbynight.com/2013/white-elephant-blogathon-same-time-next-year-1978/" target="_blank">Same Time, Next Year</a></i>!<br />
<br />
Bryce Wilson signs up for <i><a href="http://thingthatdontsuck.blogspot.com/2013/04/white-elephant-girlfriend-experience.html" target="_blank">The Girlfriend Experience</a></i>! Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-90613887201609712602013-02-24T17:00:00.000-05:002013-02-24T17:00:01.105-05:002012 Oscar predictions<u>Best Picture</u>
<br />
Amour
<br />
Argo
<br />
Beasts of the Southern Wild
<br />
Django Unchained
<br />
Life of Pi
<br />
Lincoln
<br />
Les Miserables
<br />
Silver Linings Playbook
<br />
Zero Dark Thirty
<br />
Will win: ARGO is the sort of movie most people seem to like but few seem to love, which is par for the course for the Oscars lately. Plus it's a hooray-for-Hollywood story, so the Tinseltown types should eat it up.
<br />
Should win: AMOUR's the best movie of the bunch, and it would have had my vote if I'd had one. But let's not kid ourselves that it has a chance at winning. Of the movies with a genuine shot, LINCOLN is the one that feels the most like a "Best" Picture- handsomely made, with seriousness of purpose but some comedic elements as well, driven by strong performances. And, oh yeah- really frickin' good.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Never in a million years would the Academy have gone for THE LONELIEST PLANET, an artsy, observational film that balances 2 hours of behavior (flirting, walking, dancing, walking, drinking, walking some more) with about five seconds of actual plot. But if you're on its wavelength, it's pretty spellbinding stuff.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Lead Actress</u>
<br />
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
<br />
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
<br />
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
<br />
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
<br />
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
<br />
Will win: Lawrence is a talent who will deserve an Oscar someday, but she'll probably edge out Riva and Chastain this year. As much as I hate to say it, the hotness factor will probably have something to do with this. After all, Oscar voters have historically tended to go for actresses who get their start in "looker" roles only to show off their acting chops later. Chastain is incredibly attractive as well, but by the time anybody knew who she was, she was already a Serious Actress, whereas Lawrence was glorified T&A on a basic-cable sitcom. And it's easier to imagine Riva taking this if she was more of an icon a la Catherine Deneuve, but seeing as how her most iconic role came more than half a century ago, I don't know if Sony Pictures Classics can successfully play the "legend" card...
<br />
Should win: ...which is really a shame, since she's easily the best of the bunch, beautifully embodying the physical pain and emotional torment central to AMOUR with a minimum of fussiness. Her performance is less about (over-)playing than it is about gradually dimming the light behind her eyes until we can practically see it flicker out. Devastating stuff. Plus her (86th) birthday is the same day as the ceremony. Who doesn't want to make this happen?
<br />
Should have been nominated: Rachel Weisz won an Oscar for THE CONSTANT GARDENER, but she deserved at least a shot at a second for THE DEEP BLUE SEA, as an adulterous wife consumed with love for a hotshot airman (Tom Hiddleston) who is first drawn to, then repulsed by, the depths of her obsession.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Lead Actor</u>
<br />
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
<br />
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
<br />
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
<br />
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
<br />
Denzel Washington, Flight
<br />
Will win: In spite of the fact that he already has two Oscars, Day-Lewis remains the safest bet of the night. I mean, Daniel Day-Lewis as Abe Lincoln. Whaddya need, a road map? The only possible spoiler I see is Hugh Jackman, if for some reason a LES MIS groundswell happens. But I doubt it.
<br />
Should win: Day-Lewis warranted the hype, but Joaquin Phoenix's deeply committed and borderline grotesque performance felt like an exposed nerve onscreen. Nice to have him back.
<br />
Should have been nominated: AMOUR is a two-hander that succeeds primarily on the strength of its performances, yet they nominate one and not the other? A shame too, since Trintignant is arguably even better than Riva, albeit in a part that (on the surface anyway) is more reactive. But delve more deeply into his performance and you'll find the film's true painful center, as he plays a man who can't bear the thought of the love of his life slipping away and will do anything within his power to stop it from happening.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Director</u>
<br />
Michael Haneke, Amour
<br />
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
<br />
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
<br />
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
<br />
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild
<br />
Will win: Spielberg's the one to beat here, since SILVER LININGS and LIFE OF PI never quite got the across-the-board groundswells they needed to overcome LINCOLN. Plus if ARGO wins Best Picture the voters may want to recognize LINCOLN as well.
<br />
Should win: Haneke- not just because AMOUR's the best of the five films nominated here, but also because wouldn't it be awesome to see him win a whole slew of Oscars?
<br />
Should have been nominated: In a year full of small-minded cinema, both Leos Carax and the newly-minted filmmaking team of the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer thought big, bold, and ambitious. Whether or not you're into HOLY MOTORS or CLOUD ATLAS, it's undeniable that their makers swung for the fences.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Supporting Actor</u>
<br />
Alan Arkin, Argo
<br />
Robert DeNiro, Silver Linings Playbook
<br />
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
<br />
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
<br />
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
<br />
Will win: When is it possible for such a wide-open race to be boring? When all five of the winners is already an Oscar-winner, that's when. To that end, I suspect the gold-watch Oscar will end up going to DeNiro, an acting legend who's gotten a little lazy onscreen in recent years, and who will probably net himself a third Oscar simply for waking up and coming to play for a change.
<br />
Should win: Most of the nominees in this category seem to have been nominated because the voters like them in general and want to recognize for doing their thing yet again. The exception is Hoffman, who shows a delicacy and precision that's unlike anything I've seen from him before.
<br />
Should have been nominated: I'd seen Scott McNairy in a handful of films prior to last year, but KILLING THEM SOFTLY announced in no uncertain terms that he had arrived as a character actor worth watching. As a low-level crook who plans a blindingly stupid heist, McNairy practically sweats desperation as he tries to navigate his way through a criminal underworld that's designed to chew up and spit out guys like him.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Supporting Actress</u>
<br />
Amy Adams, The Master
<br />
Sally Field, Lincoln
<br />
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
<br />
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
<br />
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook
<br />
Will win: Hathaway's had this in the bag ever since she was the centerpiece of the first teaser. The Academy doesn't really-really-like Sally Field enough for her to overcome the Hathaway juggernaut.
<br />
Should win: Honestly, none of these performances really blows my hair back, but I wouldn't be unhappy to see Hathaway win. Of course, she was better as Catwoman in my opinion, but oh well.
<br />
Should have been nominated: It certainly wasn't as respectable as any of the ladies nominated here, but I'm hard-pressed to think of a performance as gleeful as Eva Green's priceless vamping in DARK SHADOWS. I wasn't keen on the movie itself, but Green cartoony femme fatale was compulsively watchable- not to mention a hoot.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Original Screenplay</u>
<br />
Amour
<br />
Django Unchained
<br />
Flight
<br />
Moonrise Kingdom
<br />
Zero Dark Thirty
<br />
Will win: ZERO DARK THIRTY boasted a strong and well-researched screenplay by former journalist Mark Boal, but considering the recent controversies surrounding the film- as well as the fact that many see ZDT as being slightly inferior to Bigelow and Boal's 2009 Oscar winner THE HURT LOCKER- I'm giving the edge to AMOUR here. Although I wouldn't rule out a DJANGO upset either.
<br />
Should win: This is MOONRISE KINGDOM's only shot at an Oscar (seriously? No production design nomination?), so it would be nice to see Wes Anderson's film win something.
<br />
Should have been nominated: LOOPER combined a clever premise with bold storytelling and some heady ideas, all packed into an exciting and well-executed thriller. So why would the writers' branch even think of nominating a relatively unremarkable rehabilitation drama in its place?
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Adapted Screenplay</u>
<br />
Argo
<br />
Beasts of the Southern Wild
<br />
Life of Pi
<br />
Lincoln
<br />
Silver Linings Playbook
<br />
Will win: ARGO might net Best Picture, but Tony Kushner's mammoth LINCOLN screenplay is still the one to beat.
<br />
Should win: It shouldn't come as a surprise that LINCOLN was well-researched and -constructed. But few historical dramas boast so many well-drawn supporting characters- or so many great lines of dialogue.
<br />
Should have been nominated: BERNIE is the kind of low-key charmer that gets perennially overlooked by the writers' branch. And that's a shame, since the film deftly plays a dark true-crime premise as comedy while injecting observations about Texan identity into the story for anyone who cares to look for them.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Animated Feature</u>
<br />
Brave
<br />
Frankenweenie
<br />
ParaNorman
<br />
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
<br />
Wreck-It Ralph
<br />
Will win: No obvious front-runner, but I'd say that WRECK-IT RALPH's cleverness edges out FRANKENWEENIE, since the Academy seems to be in no hurry to honor Tim Burton.
<br />
Should win: Kind of a weak year, but I'd give the edge to PARANORMAN, not least for the unexpected (and totally offhanded) coming-out bit. Didn't expect to see that in a family movie, not that I'm complaining.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Once again, the Academy seems to totally overlook the fact that animated features aren't just made for family audiences. I'm not saying the animation branch should've recognized IT'S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY- although yeah, they totally should have- but it would've been nice to see something geared toward adults and not just a bunch of greasy kids' stuff.Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-56192133182182928762013-02-23T17:00:00.000-05:002013-02-23T17:00:00.283-05:00Hindsight Oscars: 2007<u>Best Picture</u>
<br />
Atonement
<br />
Juno
<br />
Michael Clayton
<br />
No Country for Old Men (winner)
<br />
There Will Be Blood
<br />
Should have won: THERE WILL BE BLOOD edges out NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, though I love them both.
<br />
Should have been nominated: 2007 is known by many cinephiles as one of the greatest years in recent memory, and two of the reasons why (COUNTRY and BLOOD) were recognized by the Academy. But the third of the year's trifecta of instant classics- David Fincher's ZODIAC- went sadly overlooked, and that's a pity, since while it's surgically precise and filled to the gills with information, it also stands as perhaps the defining film about the unwieldly, lumbering nature of our law-and-order system in practice. It may very well stand the test of time better than any other film of 2007.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Lead Actress</u>
<br />
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
<br />
Julie Christie, Away From Her
<br />
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose (winner)
<br />
Laura Linney, The Savages
<br />
Ellen Page, Juno
<br />
Should have won: In a fairly lean year, Page runs away with this, giving a deft, star-making performance that finds her successfully navigating some ornate and overly-precious Diablo Cody dialogue without losing the character's heart.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Carice Van Houten gave the year's female lead performance in BLACK BOOK, but for a great overlooked performance from someone we know the Academy likes, why not Nicole Kidman in MARGOT AT THE WEDDING? In a role that takes advantage of her stylized and almost brittle screen presence, Kidman is pathetic and caustically funny.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Lead Actor</u>
<br />
George Clooney, Michael Clayton<br />
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood (winner)
<br />
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
<br />
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
<br />
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises
<br />
Should have won: Day-Lewis. There's a reason this character became so iconic so quickly. It's impossible to imagine anybody else in the part.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Sam Rockwell is one of the great sadsack character actors of modern cinema, and he often utilizes his motormouth persona as a rebuke to a world that seems to be bypassing him (or at least his characters). What makes his performance in JOSHUA so effective is that he can no longer hide behind the buffer of comedy. As a dad struggling with a son who clearly has it in for him, Rockwell seems to represent every happless dad dealing with the idea that his little boy isn't the chip off the old block he'd always hoped for, only taken to horrifying extremes.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Director</u>
<br />
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
<br />
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men (winner)
<br />
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
<br />
Jason Reitman, Juno
<br />
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
<br />
Should have won: The Coens did a masterful job and Schnabel worked wonders with tricky material, but THERE WILL BE BLOOD is much more of a director's showcase, and Anderson made it sing.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Bong Joon-ho turned his Korean blockbuster THE HOST into perhaps the greatest Spielberg movie not actually directed by Spielberg. And five years before ARGO, Ben Affleck used GONE BABY GONE to prove to anyone who was actually paying attention that he was already more talented as a director than he was as an actor.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Supporting Actor</u>
<br />
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
<br />
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men (winner)
<br />
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War
<br />
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
<br />
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton
<br />
Should have won: Bardem took a potentially ridiculous character- that murder weapon! That hairdo!- and made him singularly unnerving. Though Affleck would've been a worthy choice as well.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Kurt Russell's been one of Hollywood's most reliable man's men for so long that it came as a surprise to see him take his persona in an altogether different direction in GRINDHOUSE, first as a smooth-talking, coldhearted psychopath, then as the simpering baby that's found within every true bully. Bardem made for one of the great villains of modern cinema, but I'd argue that Russell's performance was even deeper.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Supporting Actress</u><br />
Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
<br />
Ruby Dee, American Gangster
<br />
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
<br />
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
<br />
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton (winner)
<br />
Should have won: Solid as Blanchett and Swinton are, no one touches Ryan's brilliant turn as a trashy mother suffering in the fallout of her daughter's abduction.
<br />
Should have been nominated: All right, so I'm bending the rules a little, seeing as how the Academy has never really gone for omnibus films. But can anyone who's seen Margo Martindale in the "14th Arrondissement" segment of PARIS, JE T'AIME really say she doesn't belong here? Martindale anchors the film's most memorable section- in broken French, no less- as she navigates the story of a Midwestern tourist in Paris from fish-out-of-water comedy to something approaching transcendence.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Original Screenplay</u>
<br />
Juno (winner)
<br />
Lars and the Real Girl
<br />
Michael Clayton
<br />
Ratatouille
<br />
The Savages
<br />
Should have won: Combining an absurd yet irresistible premise with some of Pixar's tastiest and most sophisticated dialogue, Ratatouille should have walked away with this one.
<br />
Should have been nominated: HOT FUZZ cleverly cross-breeds a number of venerable big-screen genres- police shoot'em'ups, Agatha Christie-esque murder mysteries, even a dash of eccentric-village comedy. That it works so well is a credit to how much screenwriters Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg honor their inspirations, even as they kid them.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Adapted Screenplay</u>
<br />
Atonement
<br />
Away From Her
<br />
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
<br />
No Country for Old Men (winner)
<br />
There Will Be Blood
<br />
Should have won: No Country for Old Men, which found the Coens refusing to goose their source material and instead tweaking it subtly to make it as Coen-esque as anything they've done.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Does anyone in Hollywood know who Richard Shepard is? Only one of the most singular comedic filmmakers currently working, that's who. THE HUNTING PARTY takes a fairly standard war-in-the-Balkans storyline and injects it with loose-flywheel comedy that's dark yet sincere.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Animated Feature</u>
<br />
Persepolis
<br />
Ratatouille (winner)
<br />
Surf's Up
<br />
Should have won: Ratatouille, hands down. I respect that Persepolis aimed for adult audiences, but its reliance on cheap crowd-pleasing moments (um, "Eye of the Tiger" anybody?) made it lose a lot of its charm.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Uh, THE SIMPSONS MOVIE? I'm drawing a blank here.Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-10771285801291334962013-02-22T17:00:00.000-05:002013-02-22T17:00:01.275-05:00Hindsight Oscars: 2002<u>Best Picture</u>
<br />
Chicago (winner)
<br />
Gangs of New York
<br />
The Hours
<br />
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
<br />
The Pianist
<br />
Should have won: THE TWO TOWERS is as good and as entertaining as its predecessor while doing a masterful job of setting up the final installment in the trilogy. GANGS and PIANIST are pretty great too, but I'd give Jackson's film the edge.
<br />
Should have been nominated: There's no way in hell 8 WOMEN could ever have gotten a Best Picture nomination, but it seems remarkably shortsighted that the two 2002 releases that have had perhaps the greatest staying power- 25TH HOUR and PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE- were overlooked. The former in particular seems especially egregious- the Academy has never been all that keen on Spike Lee, but considering the timely setting and the emotional pull of the final reel, it might have found its way onto a good number of ballots had Touchstone given it any marketing push whatsoever.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Lead Actress</u>
<br />
Salma Hayek, Frida
<br />
Nicole Kidman, The Hours (winner)<br />
Diane Lane, Unfaithful
<br />
Julianne Moore, Far From Heaven
<br />
Renee Zellweger, Chicago
<br />
Should have won: Even while submerging herself in the heightened style of 50s melodrama, Moore mustered more genuine feeling than any of her competition. No mean feat, that.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Isabelle Huppert is one of the world's great actresses, and few movies show off the depths of talent and fearlessness she brings to the screen than THE PIANO TEACHER. As the repressed educator of the title, she seems to give so little, but conveys so much as the emotions barely seem to flicker across her face.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Lead Actor</u>
<br />
Adrien Brody, The Pianist (winner)
<br />
Nicolas Cage, Adaptation.
<br />
Michael Caine, The Quiet American
<br />
Daniel Day-Lewis, Gangs of New York
<br />
Jack Nicholson, About Schmidt
<br />
Should have won: Day-Lewis' Bill the Butcher is seriously scary, but that's really more of a supporting turn, isn't it? Instead, I'll take Cage's riotous double act as the neurotic screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and his genially doofy brother Donald. It's rare to see a Cage performance that keeps his wackadoodle impulses in check while still being powered by his crazy energy.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Hey girl. I know you think Ryan Gosling's all sensitive and swoon-worthy. But prepare to have your mind blown by his youthful turn as a Jew-turned-skinhead in his breakthrough vehicle THE BELIEVER. Hard to imagine him not being nominated if he gave that performance today- but would he dream of doing so?
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Director</u>
<br />
Pedro Almodovar, Talk to Her
<br />
Stephen Daldry, The Hours
<br />
Rob Marshall, Chicago
<br />
Roman Polanski, The Pianist (winner)
<br />
Martin Scorsese, Gangs of New York
<br />
Should have won: There's a temptation to reward Polanski for exorcising his childhood demons or Scorsese to realizing his long-gestating dream project. Yet no nominated directorial vision came through more strongly than Almodovar's, which combined his love for melodrama, dark comedy, and sexual outrageousness in a way that he hasn't been able to duplicate since.
<br />
Should have been nominated: When is an Adam Sandler comedy not an Adam Sandler comedy? When Paul Thomas Anderson turns it into a jagged, candy-colored autocritique of an Adam Sandler comedy. Just that fact that he forced the ol' lunkhead to actually act speaks volumes about Anderson's achievement.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Supporting Actor</u><br />
Chris Cooper, Adaptation. (winner)
<br />
Ed Harris, The Hours
<br />
Paul Newman, Road to Perdition
<br />
John C. Reilly, Chicago
<br />
Christopher Walken, Catch Me If You Can
<br />
Should have won: Hard to argue with Cooper's hillbilly charm or Newman's last great big-screen performance, but I'm partial to Walken, who finds real poignance in a con-man father who despairs that his son might have followed in his footsteps but also takes pleasure in how well his chip-off-the-old-block has done for himself.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Ten years after THE TWO TOWERS, the actor's branch still has yet to acknowledge the skill it takes to bring a motion-capture performance to life. So while it would have been super-cool of them to recognize the performance that pioneered the form- Andy Serkis' indelible Gollum, of course- it's inevitable that they would have overlooked it. Too bad.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Supporting Actress</u>
<br />
Kathy Bates, About Schmidt
<br />
Queen Latifah, Chicago
<br />
Julianne Moore, The Hours
<br />
Meryl Streep, Adaptation
<br />
Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago (winner)
<br />
Should have won: Meryl Streep has become such an institution, what with her knack for accents and her ability to play outsize characters, that it's easy to overlook what a pleasure she can be when she lets her hair down. ADAPTATION is one of Streep's best character roles, and she's rarely been this charming and funny. Too bad she keeps gravitating back to stuff like THE IRON LADY.
<br />
Should have been nominated: I can imagine half a dozen performances from 8 WOMEN meriting a spot in this category (because Queen Latifah sureyeahright). Since I already mentioned Huppert in another context, why not the film's youngest cast member, Ludivine Sagnier, who injects real life force into the proceedings while going toe to toe with some of the biggest names in French cinema.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Original Screenplay</u>
<br />
Far From Heaven
<br />
Gangs of New York
<br />
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
<br />
Talk to Her (winner)
<br />
Y tu mama tambien
<br />
Should have won: TALK TO HER is the best of the bunch, though it would've been fun to see Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN win as well.
<br />
Should have been nominated: ALL OR NOTHING has long been one of Mike Leigh's more sadly overlooked films, and considering the Academy's ongoing love for Leigh- and the relatively weak competition- it wouldn't have seemed out of place here.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Adapted Screenplay</u>
<br />
About a Boy
<br />
Adaptation.
<br />
Chicago
<br />
The Hours
<br />
The Pianist (winner)
<br />
Should have won: ADAPTATION is the most writing-centric movie nominated, although THE PIANIST was pretty solid as well.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Watching MORVERN CALLAR, it's hard to believe it was adapted from a novel, which is a credit to how complete Lynne Ramsay's cinematic translation was.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Animated Feature</u><br />
Ice Age
<br />
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
<br />
Spirited Away
<br />
Treasure Planet
<br />
The Wild Thornberrys Movie
<br />
Should have won: SPIRITED AWAY. No contest.
<br />
Should have been nominated: In a category with one killer and plenty of filler (when was the last time you thought about SPIRIT: STALLION OF THE CIMARRON) it's hard to imagine that there's anything that could have been left out.Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-53092205338200996922013-02-21T17:00:00.000-05:002013-02-21T17:00:01.985-05:00Hindsight Oscars: 1997<u>Best Picture</u>
<br />
As Good As It Gets
<br />
The Full Monty<br />
Good Will Hunting
<br />
L.A. Confidential
<br />
Titanic (winner)
<br />
Should have won: TITANIC may be a grander entertainment, mixing old-school melodrama with cutting-edge effects, but L.A. CONFIDENTIAL is, pound for pound, the superior movie. Acting, directing, writing, production values- everyone involved is firing on all cylinders here.
<br />
Should have been nominated: The Academy never would've touched David Cronenberg's infamous auto-erotica classic CRASH with a pole of any length. But in words of Wooderson, it woulda been a lot cooler if they diiiiiiiiiiiid.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Lead Actress</u>
<br />
Helena Bonham Carter, Wings of the Dove
<br />
Julie Christie, Afterglow
<br />
Judi Dench, Mrs. Brown
<br />
Helen Hunt, As Good As It Gets (winner)
<br />
Kate Winslet, Titanic
<br />
Should have won: Before TITANIC, DiCaprio was the fan-magazine anointed golden boy, while Winslet was the corset-wearing arthouse starlet. But Cameron's mega-hit made it clear that its leading lady had enough charisma- and acting prowess- to go toe to toe with Leo, and to carry the biggest movie ever (circa 1997) on her capable shoulders to boot. Too bad she had to wait another decade to win the Oscar she deserved here.
<br />
Should have been nominated: 1997's Oscar-bait movie that wasn't, THE ICE STORM contained a number of great performances, none more so than Joan Allen as a suburban mother trying to keep her head in the free-for-all world of the 70s. Allen doesn't engage in any of the histrionics of AMERICAN BEAUTY's Annette Bening (in a similar role), and her performance is all the more heartbreaking for it.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Lead Actor</u>
<br />
Matt Damon, Good Will Hunting
<br />
Robert Duvall, The Apostle
<br />
Peter Fonda, Ulee's Gold
<br />
Dustin Hoffman, Wag the Dog
<br />
Jack Nicholson, As Good As It Gets (winner)
<br />
Should have won: Nicholson was fine, but let's not kid ourselves- the voters honored him because they dig the Jack thing so much. Duvall, on the other hand, was positively inspired, giving an outsized performance that works so well because it comes from so deep inside. Even more impressive was that he directed himself, with the knowledge of just far he should push without going over the top.
<br />
Should have been nominated: It's become a cliché by now that the Academy almost never recognizes comedies. But in creating WAITING FOR GUFFMAN's "leading man" Corky St. Clair, Christopher Guest gave one of the funniest and most priceless turns of the decade. Too bad the Oscars didn't make an effort to notice.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Director</u>
<br />
James Cameron, Titanic (winner)
<br />
Peter Cattaneo, The Full Monty
<br />
Atom Egoyan, The Sweet Hereafter
<br />
Curtis Hanson, L.A. Confidential
<br />
Gus van Sant, Good Will Hunting
<br />
Should have won: For all its problems, let it not be said that James Cameron doesn't direct the hell out of TITANIC, The sheer grandeur of the film is impressive enough, but considering the massive scale of the production, it's a testament to Cameron's strength of vision that it stayed afloat at all, let alone turn out to be a rousing success.
<br />
Should have been nominated: It was almost a running joke in the 90s that the Academy's documentary branch neglected better movies than they recognized. But even if the documentarians didn't want to nominate FAST, CHEAP AND OUT OF CONTROL, why couldn't the directing branch have recognized what a singular achievement the film was?
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Supporting Actor</u><br />
Robert Forster, Jackie Brown
<br />
Anthony Hopkins, Amistad
<br />
Greg Kinnear, As Good As It Gets
<br />
Burt Reynolds, Boogie Nights
<br />
Robin Williams, Good Will Hunting (winner)<br />
Should have won: Forster was the least-known actor of this bunch, and he gave the most low-key performance. It was also the best, inhabiting a seemingly ordinary man with such empathy and bone-deep weariness that he doesn't so much steal the movie as quietly take control of the movie and win the sympathy of the audience.
<br />
Should have been nominated: LOST HIGHWAY is Robert Blake's last film to date, which is understandable considering what's happened since then, but it's also kind of a shame since he's just killer as one of cinema's great creepy villains. But then, the Academy didn't nominate Dennis Hopper in BLUE VELVET either, so maybe they just couldn't handle Lynch's taste in baddies. Their loss.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Supporting Actress</u>
<br />
Kim Basinger, L.A. Confidential (winner)<br />
Joan Cusack, In & Out
<br />
Minnie Driver, Good Will Hunting
<br />
Julianne Moore, Boogie Nights
<br />
Gloria Stuart, Titanic
<br />
Should have won: There are several worthy performances in this bunch- Cusack's a screamin the otherwise forgettable IN & OUT- but Moore just breaks your heart as a woman who takes it upon herself to be a mother figure for other lost souls because she's so definitively failed as a biological mother.
<br />
Should have been nominated: OK guys, I know somebody saw THE SWEET HEREAFTER. After all, it got a Best Director nomination. So what's with overlooking Sarah Polley's performance as a paralyzed accident victim with a secret agenda, a role that practically screams "Academy catnip" (she even performs several songs on the soundtrack). But I guess that since she doesn't drop a necklace in the ocean that doesn't matter, does it?
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Original Screenplay</u>
<br />
As Good As It Gets
<br />
Boogie Nights
<br />
Deconstructing Harry
<br />
The Full Monty
<br />
Good Will Hunting (winner)
<br />
Should have won: BOOGIE NIGHTS, which not only balanced a dozen or so major characters with verve and wit, but also served as the Hollywood coming-out party the colossally talented Paul Thomas Anderson.
<br />
Should have been nominated: By any yardstick, IN THE COMPANY OF MEN is a bitter pill to swallow. But its unsparing, darkly comic look at corporate drudgery and gamesmanship is magnificently written by first-timer Neil LaBute.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Adapted Screenplay</u>
<br />
Donnie Brasco<br />
L.A. Confidential (winner)
<br />
The Sweet Hereafter
<br />
Wag the Dog
<br />
Wings of the Dove
<br />
Should have won: Strong cases could be made for both L.A. CONFIDENTIAL and THE SWEET HEREAFTER, which translate well-regarded novels to the screen skillfully even if they don't quite stick their respective landings. But I also have been OK with DONNIE BRASCO, which de-emphasized high-octane suspense and violence in favor of tangy, jargon-heavy dialogue and vivid character development.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Now that Quentin Tarantino has made it his mission to mount one big-budget fanfiction after another, it's easier to appreciate what an achievement an anomaly JACKIE BROWN was in his career. Tarantino was able to sublimate his own voice in order to accommodate an equally strong one- that of writer Elmore Leonard- and it works so well that one wishes he'd try it again sometime.Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-11178802492457351012013-02-20T21:12:00.001-05:002013-02-20T21:12:42.450-05:00Hindsight Oscars: 1992I don’t know if I could pinpoint exactly when my love for cinema was born, but I do know that some of the seeds were sown twenty years ago this year, during my freshman year of high school, when I began going to the movies with friends on a regular basis. One of the first I remember seeing on my own was UNFORGIVEN, which at the time had been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar but hadn’t yet won. Because of this, I really felt like I had a horse in the Oscar race for the first time.
<br />
<br />
Of course, I’ve had something of a love-hate relationship with the Oscars in the past couple of decades, but I always feel kind of sentimental about the idea of the Oscars, even if they almost always disappoint me in some way or other. Therefore, to commemorate the last twenty years of Oscar, I’ll be posting retrospective ballots from 1992, plus other anniversary years- 1997, 2002, and 2007- leading up to my final Oscar predictions on Sunday. I’ll include the “Big Eight” categories- picture, director, screenplays, and the four acting categories- plus animated feature when applicable. And if you have any additional remarks about your choices, don’t hesitate to post them too.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Picture</u>
<br />
The Crying Game
<br />
A Few Good Men
<br />
Howards End
<br />
Scent of a Woman
<br />
Unforgiven (winner)
<br />
Should have won: UNFORGIVEN, no contest. Awesome as CRYING GAME is, UNFORGIVEN is a masterpiece, and one of the rare really deserving winners here.
<br />
Should have been nominated: GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS is twice the play A FEW GOOD MEN is, and twice the movie too. <br />
<br />
<u>Best Lead Actress</u>
<br />
Catherine Deneuve, Indochine
<br />
Mary McDonnell, Passion Fish
<br />
Michelle Pfeiffer, Love Field
<br />
Susan Sarandon, Lorenzo’s Oil
<br />
Emma Thompson, Howards End (winner)
<br />
Should have won: Sarandon and McDonnell gave the best performances of the bunch, although part of me would award this to the great Deneuve, who got her only Oscar nomination here. Then again, it’s for effing INDOCHINE, so maybe not.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Not exactly a banner year for female lead performances, eh? Although if RAISE THE RED LANTERN was eligible, Gong Li definitely deserved a nod.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Lead Actor</u>
<br />
Robert Downey Jr., Chaplin
<br />
Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven
<br />
Al Pacino, Scent of a Woman (winner)
<br />
Stephen Rea, The Crying Game
<br />
Denzel Washington, Malcolm X
<br />
Should have won: Washington still has yet to top this, although anyone but sympathy vote Pacino would have been fine.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Gary Oldman’s Dracula was one for the ages, and it’s too bad the Academy has never been cool enough to go for a performance as crazy as John Lithgow in RAISING CAIN.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Director</u>
<br />
Robert Altman, The Player
<br />
Martin Brest, Scent of a Woman
<br />
Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven (winner)
<br />
James Ivory, Howards End
<br />
Neil Jordan, The Crying Game
<br />
Should have won: By this time, it was no longer a surprise that Clint Eastwood was an honest-to-goodness filmmaker, but he has yet to top UNFORGIVEN.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Spike Lee, who reinvigorated the old-school epic form with MALCOLM X, and on a non-epic budget no less.
<br />
<br />
<u>
Best Supporting Actor</u><br />
Jaye Davidson, The Crying Game
<br />
Gene Hackman, Unforgiven (winner)
<br />
Jack Nicholson, A Few Good Men
<br />
Al Pacino, Glengarry Glen Ross
<br />
David Paymer, Mr. Saturday Night
<br />
Should have won: Hackman. He’s almost a co-lead in this, but he gives good, un-fussy villainy and gets a surprisingly pathetic fade-out.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Sydney Pollack won Best Director for OUT OF AFRICA, but he never got his due as an actor- a shame, because his performance in Husbands and Wives is every bit as good as co-star Judy Davis’.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Supporting Actress</u>
<br />
Judy Davis, Husbands and Wives
<br />
Joan Plowright, Enchanted April
<br />
Vanessa Redgrave, Howards End
<br />
Miranda Richardson, Damage
<br />
Marisa Tomei, My Cousin Vinny (winner)
<br />
Should have won: Judy wicked-awesome Davis.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Michelle Pfeiffer got nominated for the wrong movie, dammit! Sorry, Anne Hathaway- Michelle’s still the Catwoman to beat.<br />
<br />
<u>Best Original Screenplay</u>
<br />
The Crying Game (winner)
<br />
Husbands and Wives
<br />
Lorenzo’s Oil
<br />
Passion Fish
<br />
Unforgiven
<br />
Should have won: UNFORGIVEN's script is one for the ages, although I can’t begrudge the Academy its change to recognize the masterful misdirection of CRYING GAME’s script.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Quentin Tarantino's become an Academy perennial of late, so it's easy to imagine that RESERVOIR DOGS might have gotten nominated here today, though it's not like the voters would have paid him any mind back then.
<br />
<br />
<u>Best Adapted Screenplay</u>
<br />
Enchanted April
<br />
A Few Good Men
<br />
Howards End (winner)
<br />
The Player
<br />
Scent of a Woman
<br />
Should have won: THE PLAYER. Altman’s effortless direction and Tim Robbins’ performance are aces, but Michael Tolkin’s acidic storytelling sets the tone nicely.
<br />
Should have been nominated: Alec Baldwin's "Always Be Closing" monologue was famously written just for the movie version of GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, but it's become such an integral part of the text that it's actually been used in the majority of subsequent stage productions. If that's not strong adaptation, I don't know what is.
Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-48503970541663657332013-01-25T19:53:00.001-05:002013-01-25T19:53:52.422-05:00It’s Back!: White Elephant 2013<div class="yiv1989823418MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2397">
<span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2411" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2410" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Let’s take a break from our regularly scheduled Muriels planning to focus on another Silly Hats Only tradition – The White Elephant Blogathon! Now in its seventh year of existence and its fourth year at its current location, the White Elephant has become a kind of April Fool’s Day mainstay for a certain strain of masochistic movie lover.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1989823418MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2408">
<span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2432" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2431" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">If you’ve done this before, I don’t need to tell you what to do. But if you haven’t, here are the rules as laid down by creator Ben Lim:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1989823418MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2403">
<span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2402" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2401" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">1) Submit the title of a movie that you want someone else to review (preferably something available via Netflix).</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1989823418MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2430">
<span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2429" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2428" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">2) Review the movie that you get assigned and post the review for your site/blog <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1359161476_0">on April 1</span>.</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1989823418MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2427">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">3) Have fun!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1989823418MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2406">
<span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2405" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2404" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Not sure what movie to submit? You’ve got plenty of options, as evidenced by last year’s selections – classics, garbage, divisive stuff, and out-and-out curiosities. Basically, if you want to see someone write about it (hopefully at some length), feel free to submit it.</span></span><br />
</div>
<div class="yiv1989823418MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2421">
<span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2420" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1359161475392_2419" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">So if you’re interested in taking part this year- and yeah, you probably are- please send your submission to me at <a href="mailto:lastwordsquiz@yahoo.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" ymailto="mailto:lastwordsquiz@yahoo.com"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1359161476_1">lastwordsquiz@yahoo.com</span></a> no later than <strong><em>February 15</em></strong>. And if you’d like to know more about the White Elephant Blogathon, feel free to e-Mail me about that as well.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">See you in April!</span></div>
Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-24882114463302710022013-01-09T20:12:00.001-05:002013-01-09T20:14:30.959-05:00Oh what the hell: My predictions for tomorrow morning's Oscar nominations<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2144">
<span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2143" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2142" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Although my proposed Oscar contest never got off the ground- as we Cleveland sports fans like to say, there’s always next year!- I figured I’d go ahead and post my predictions for this Thursday’s nominees. Each category’s predicted nominees are listed in order of how likely I think they are to be announced on Thursday morning.</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2155">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></b><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span></strong> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2154">
<b id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2170"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2169" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2168" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Picture</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2148">
<i id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2167"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2166" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2165" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Lincoln</span></span></i><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;"></span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2153">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Argo</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2152">
<i id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2164"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2163" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2162" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Les Miserables</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2151">
<i id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2161"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2160" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2159" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Zero Dark Thirty</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2149">
<i id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2158"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2157" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2156" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Silver Linings Playbook</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2150">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Life of Pi</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2173">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Moonrise</span></span></i><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;"> Kingdom</span></span></i><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;"></span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2174">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Amour</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2175">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Beasts of the Southern Wild</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Django Unchained</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2176">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2177">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Possible spoilers</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: <i><span style="font-style: italic;">The Master, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Flight, The Dark Knight Rises, The Perks of Being a Wallflower</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2178">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2181">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Comments</span></span></u><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2180" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2179" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: top 6 seem to be pretty secure, with <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Moonrise</span></i> looking stronger as the season progresses .<i><span style="font-style: italic;">Amour</span></i> could be the late-in-the-game critics’ favorite that garners support, while <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Beasts</span></i> and <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Django</span></i>, despite their precursor support, could be too wonky to get wide-ranging love. Because there could be up to 10 nominees, I’m predicting a top 10, but I’d guess the Academy would be more likely to go with 7 or 8 this year.</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2182">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2183">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Lead Actress</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2184">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Jessica Chastain, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Zero Dark Thirty</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2185">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Jennifer Lawrence, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Silver Linings Playbook</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2186">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Naomi Watts, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">The Impossible</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2187">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Emmanuelle Riva, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Amour</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2188">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Marion Cotillard, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Rust and Bone</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2189">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2194">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Possible spoilers</span></span></u><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2193" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2192" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: Quvenzhané Wallis, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Beasts of the Southern Wild</span></i>; Helen Mirren, <i id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2191"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2190" style="font-style: italic;">Hitchcock</span></i>; Judi Dench, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel</span></i>; Meryl Streep, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Hope Springs</span></i>; Rachel Weisz, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">The Deep Blue Sea</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Comments</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: top 3 seem pretty safe, and if <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Amour</span></i> gets Best Picture love then Riva should slide in here as well. I’m predicting Cotillard in the fifth spot because more often than not this category seems partial to young and hot, especially when they play disabled or otherwise afflicted characters. However, if Wallis gets nominated, don’t be surprised if a best picture nom happens for <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Beasts</span></i> as well. </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Lead Actor</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Daniel Day-Lewis ,<i><span style="font-style: italic;">Lincoln</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Denzel Washington, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Flight</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Hugh Jackman, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Les Miserables</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Bradley Cooper, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Silver Linings Playbook</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">John Hawkes, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">The Sessions</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Possible spoilers</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: Richard Gere, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Arbitrage</span></i>; Joaquin Phoenix, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">The Master</span></i>; Jean-Louis Trintignant, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Amour</span></i>; Jack Black, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Bernie</span></i>; Bill Murray, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Hyde Park on Hudson</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Comments</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: This group looks pretty solid, actually. Hawkes is the only one who seems slightly vulnerable, mostly because <i><span style="font-style: italic;">The Sessions</span></i> didn’t take off with critics and audiences from the performances. Phoenix might have been a shoo-in if not for his anti-Oscar sentiments, so I’m guessing that if anyone could surprise it would be Gere, an established name star who still hasn’t been Oscar-nominated.</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Supporting Actor</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Tommy Lee Jones, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Lincoln</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Philip Seymour Hoffman, <em>T<span style="font-style: italic;">he Master</span></em> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Alan Arkin, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Argo</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Robert De Niro, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Silver Linings Playbook</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Matthew McConaughey ,<i><span style="font-style: italic;">Magic Mike</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Possible spoilers</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: Javier Bardem, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Skyfall</span></i>; Leonardo DiCaprio, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Django Unchained</span></i>; Christoph Waltz, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Django Unchained</span></i>; Eddie Redmayne, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Les Miserables</span></i>; Ezra Miller, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">The Perks of Being a Wallflower</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Comments</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: I’ll admit that McConaughey seems like kind of a left-field pick, but there are a few of them every year. Besides, I don’t think the Academy is going to nominate a Bond movie (no matter how well-liked) outside of the tech categories, and the <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Django</span></i> guys will most likely split best-in-show honors (although Samuel L. Jackson beats them both in my opinion). However, if the voters feel the need to support something younger, Redmayne or Miller could have an outside chance, doubly so for the former if they truly fall in love with <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Les Mis</span></i>.</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Supporting Actress</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Anne Hathaway, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Les Miserables</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Sally Field, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Lincoln</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Helen Hunt, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">The Sessions</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Ann Dowd, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Compliance</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Maggie Smith,<i><span style="font-style: italic;">T he Best Exotic Marigold Hotel</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Possible spoilers</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: Amy Adams,<i><span style="font-style: italic;">The Master</span></i>; Nicole Kidman, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">The Paperboy</span></i>; Judi Dench, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Skyfall</span></i>; Samantha Barks, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Les Miserables</span></i>; Jennifer Ehle, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Zero Dark Thirty</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Comments</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: top 3 look pretty good for nominations, and Dowd’s ongoing self-funded campaign is the kind of thing Oscar voters historically have rewarded (see also: Melissa Leo). I’m feeling Smith over Adams and Kidman because <i><span style="font-style: italic;">The Master</span></i> hasn’t really caught on with most audiences and many voters won’t make it through <i><span style="font-style: italic;">The Paperboy</span></i>. Besides, Smith has become the Betty White of the Anglophile set, and I think the historically Brit-loving Academy will be on board with that too.</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Director</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Steven Spielberg, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Lincoln</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Ben Affleck, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Argo</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Kathryn Bigelow, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Zero Dark Thirty</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Ang Lee, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Life of Pi</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Michael Haneke, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Amour</span></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Possible spoilers</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: Tom Hooper, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Les Miserables</span></i>; David O. Russell, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Silver Linings Playbook</span></i>; Quentin Tarantino, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Django Unchained</span></i>; Wes Anderson, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Moonrise Kingdom</span></i>; Paul Thomas Anderson, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">The Master</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Comments</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: While audiences have responded positively to<i><span style="font-style: italic;">Les Mis</span></i> for the most part, Hooper’s direction is probably the most criticized element of the film, aside from maybe Russell Crowe’s <s>croaking</s> singing. Because of this, I have a feeling the director’s branch will pass on him. Likewise, comedies- even ones as nervy as <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Silver Linings Playbook</span></i>- are often ignored in this category in favor of heavier fare. Therefore, I’m predicting Haneke to slide into the fifth spot here, being the sort of internationally acclaimed, Sony Pictures Classics-anointed auteur who the directors’ branch likes to recognize every few years or so (see also: Mike Leigh).</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Original Screenplay</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Zero Dark Thirty</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Mark Boal)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Moonrise</span></span></i><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;"> Kingdom</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Django Unchained</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Quentin Tarantino)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><em>Flight</em> (John Gatins)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Looper</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Rian Johnson)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Possible spoilers</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Amour, The Master</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Comments</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: This category tends to have a few surprises, which is why I feel a little strange about how predictable most of these choices are. Still, I like <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Looper</span></i> and <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Flight</span></i> over potential Best Picture nominee <em>Amour</em> because Haneke's film feels like more of a director's triumph, a la <em>The Tree of Life</em> last year.</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Adapted Screenplay</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Lincoln</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Tony Kushner)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Silver Linings Playbook</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (David O. Russell)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Argo</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Chris Terrio)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Life of Pi</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (David Magee)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">The Perks of Being a Wallflower</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Stephen Chbosky)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Possible spoilers</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Beasts of the Southern Wild; Les Miserables, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel; The Dark Knight Rises</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Comments</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: I’m predicting <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Perks</span></i> over <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Beasts</span></i> not just because it feels like more of a writer’s movie, but also because it’s the rare case of an author successfully shepherding his acclaimed book to the big screen. Seems to me like something writers would be inclined to recognize.</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></b><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span></strong> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Animated Feature</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Frankenweenie</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Brave</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Rise of the Guardians</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Wreck-It Ralph</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">The Rabbi’s Cat</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Possible spoilers</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: <i><span style="font-style: italic;">ParaNorman</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Comments</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: It’s assumed by many that, due to the number of eligible films in this category, there will be five nominees this year. In all the previous years in which the animation branch nominated five films, there was always at least one non-major studio release included in the bunch. Therefore, I’m predicting the French production <i><span style="font-style: italic;">The Rabbi’s Cat</span></i>, the highest-profile of the non-Hollywood contenders. However, if the Academy ends up going with fewer nominees, I would predict <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Frankenweenie</span></i>, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Rise</span></i>, and one of the two Disney releases.</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Documentary Feature</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Searching For Sugar Man</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Malik Bendjalloul)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">The Imposter</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Bart Layton)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">The Gatekeepers</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Dror Moreh)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Chasing Ice</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Jeff Orlowski)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Alex Gibney)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Possible spoilers</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Bully; The Invisible War; Ethel; This Is Not a Film</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Comments</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Sugar Man</span></i> and <i><span style="font-style: italic;">The Imposter</span></i> are the most crowd-pleasing of this bunch, while <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Gatekeepers</span></i> and <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Chasing Ice</span></i> deal with the Middle East and the environment, two issues that tend to resound with the doc branch. And <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Mea Maxima Culpa</span></i> is directed by previous winner Gibney. However, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Bully</span></i> and <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Invisible War</span></i> could sneak in there if the voters decide to embrace other hot-button issues, or <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Ethel</span></i> if they’re feeling nostalgic for that old Kennedy-family magic. Finally, I don’t imagine that <i><span style="font-style: italic;">This Is Not a Film</span></i> could actually get nominated, but I’ve included it here in the hope that I’m wrong.</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Foreign-Language Film</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Amour</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Austria)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">The Intouchables</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (France)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">A Royal Affair</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Denmark)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">No</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Chile)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Kon-Tiki</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Norway)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Possible spoilers</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Sister</span></i> (Switzerland), <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Beyond the Hills</span></i> (Romania), <i><span style="font-style: italic;">War Witch</span></i> (Canada), <i><span style="font-style: italic;">The Deep</span></i> (Iceland)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Comments</span></span></u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">: <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Amour</span></i> looks like the favorite, although <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Intouchables</span></i> could sneak in for the win if they want something more feel-good. The two Scandinavian picks have the epic sweep the foreign-language branch tends to like, and <i><span style="font-style: italic;">No</span></i> seems more crowd-pleasing than the remainder of the finalists. <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Sister</span></i> may sneak in as well.</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">And the rest…</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></b><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span></strong> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Original Score</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Lincoln</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (John Williams)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Life of Pi</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Mychael Danna)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Anna Karenina</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Dario Marianelli)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Argo</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Alexandre Desplat)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">The Master</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Jonny Greenwood ) </span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Original Song</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">“Suddenly,” <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Les Miserables</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">“Skyfall,” <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Skyfall</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">“Still Alive,” <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Paul Williams Still Alive</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">“For You,” <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Act of Valor</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">“Learn Me Right,” <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Brave</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Editing</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Zero Dark Thirty</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Dylan Tichenor & William Goldenberg)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Lincoln</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Michael Kahn)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Life of Pi</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Tim Squyres)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Argo</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (William Goldenberg)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Les Miserables</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Chris Dickens)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Cinematography</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Life of Pi</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Claudio Miranda)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Skyfall</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Roger Deakins)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Lincoln</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Janusz Kaminski)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Les Miserables</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Danny Cohen)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Zero Dark Thirty</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Greig Fraser)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Art Direction</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Les Miserables</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Eve Stewart)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Anna Karenina</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Sarah Greenwood)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Life of Pi</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (David Gropman)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Lincoln</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Rick Carter)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Dan Hennah)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Costume Design</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Anna Karenina</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Jacqueline Durran)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Les Miserables</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Paco Delgado)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Snow White and the Huntsman</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Colleen Atwood)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Lincoln</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Joanna Johnston)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Cloud Atlas</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (Kym Barrett & Pierre-Yves Gaurad)</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Makeup</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Lincoln</span></span></i><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;"></span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Hitchcock</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Visual Effects</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Life of Pi</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">The Dark Knight Rises</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Cloud Atlas</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Prometheus</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Sound</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Life of Pi</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Les Miserables</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Zero Dark Thirty</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Skyfall</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">Best Sound Effects Editing</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Life of Pi</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">The Dark Knight Rises</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Marvel’s The Avengers</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Skyfall</span></span></i></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Note: I’ve only familiar with one of the finalists in the Animated Short film category (Pixar’s<i><span style="font-style: italic;">Paperman</span></i>, which played before <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Wreck-It Ralph</span></i>) and none of the documentary or live-action shorts. So I’d just prefer to avoid guessing those altogether. I’m sure you understand.</span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Prediction tallies:</span></span></u></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">12 – <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Lincoln</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">10 – <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Life of Pi</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">9 – <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Les Miserables</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">7 – <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Zero Dark Thirty</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">6 – <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Argo</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">5 – <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Amour; The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">4 – <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Skyfall</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">3 – <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Anna Karenina</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">2 – <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Brave; Cloud Atlas; The Dark Knight Rises; Django Unchained; The Master; Moonrise Kingdom ; The Sessions</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="yiv1111175555MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2223">
<span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2222" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2221" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">1 – <i id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2220"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1357779867821_2219" style="font-style: italic;">Act of Valor; The Avengers; Beasts of the Southern Wild; The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel; Chasing Ice; Compliance; Flight; Frankenweenie; The Gatekeepers; Hitchcock; The Impossible; The Imposter; The Intouchables; Kon-Tiki; Looper; Magic Mike; Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God; No; Paul Williams Still Alive; The Perks of Being a Wallflower; Prometheus; The Rabbi’s Cat; Rise of the Guardians; A Royal Affair; Rust and Bone; Searching For Sugar Man; Snow White and the Huntsman; Wreck-It Ralph</span></i></span></span></div>
Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-3179832312324487372012-11-23T19:33:00.001-05:002013-01-09T00:50:35.636-05:00Retro Muriels: Best Music<br />
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
</style>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">After
hearing Ennio Morricone’s ultra-swoony <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cinema
Paradiso</i> theme on the radio last week, I got to thinking about my favorite
movie scores. That, in turn, compelled me to throw together a (highly informal)
list of Best Music nominees to go with my other retro Muriels from back in the
day.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Ever
since Steve and I rolled out the Best Music category back in 2008, we wanted to
make the selections as diverse as possible, ranging from instrumental scores to
song scores, originals to well-done adaptations, and even notable compilations
of previously-existing material. That was my aim here as well. Although my
picks tend to lean mostly to original works, I made room for some compilations
and adaptations here, especially when the music was particularly well selected.
And even among my original-skewing nominees, I made sure to choose a number of
rock and jazz scores as well. In addition, I’ve tried to throw some sublimely
silly choices into the mix, including at least one score that features a whole
lotta kazoo.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Winners
for every year since 1995 have already been chosen, while winners for 1954-1994
will be chosen at a later date. Due to the wide range of styles represented
here, expect a fair number of ties. Sorry about that.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">If
there’s something so self-evidently awesome that you can’t believe I forgot it,
feel free to smack me around in the comments section.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1954:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Earrings of Madame De… (Oscar Straus & Georges Van Parys)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">M.
Hulot’s Holiday (Alain Romans)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Magnificent
Obsession (Frank Skinner)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">On
the Waterfront (Leonard Bernstein)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Rear
Window (Franz Waxman)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1955:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">All
That Heaven Allows (Frank Skinner)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Man With the Golden Arm (Elmer Bernstein)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Night
of the Hunter (Walter Schumann)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Rebel
Without a Cause (Leonard Rosenman)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Wages of Fear (Georges Auric)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1956:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Court Jester (Walter Scharf & Vic Schoen)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Forbidden
Planet (Louis & Bebe Barron)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Godzilla
(Akira Ifukube)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">La
Strada (Nino Rota)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Ten Commandments (Elmer Bernstein)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1957:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">12
Angry Men (Kenyon Hopkins)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Bridge on the River Kwai (Malcolm Arnold)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">A
Face in the Crowd (Tom Glazer)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Nights
of Cabiria (Nino Rota)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Sweet
Smell of Success (Elmer Bernstein)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1958:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Big Country (Jerome Moross)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Mon
Oncle (Alain Romans)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Some
Came Running (Elmer Bernstein)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Touch
of Evil (Henry Mancini)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Vertigo
(Bernard Herrmann)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1959:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
400 Blows (Jean Constantin)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Anatomy
of a Murder (Duke Ellington)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Imitation
of Life (Frank Skinner & Henry Mancini)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Lola
Montes (Georges Auric)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">North
by Northwest (Bernard Herrmann)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1960:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Cranes Are Flying (M. Vaynberg)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Exodus
(Ernest Gold)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Magnificent Seven (Elmer Bernstein)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Psycho
(Bernard Herrmann)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Spartacus
(Alex North)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1961:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Breakfast
at Tiffany’s (Henry Mancini)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">El
Cid (Miklos Rosza)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">La
Dolce Vita (Nino Rota)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Elevator
to the Gallows (Miles Davis)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Innocents (Georges Auric)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1962:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Cape</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> Fear</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> (Bernard Herrmann)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Last
Year at Marienbad (Francis Seyrig)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Lawrence</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> of Arabia
(Maurice Jarre)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Lola
(Michel Legrand)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">To
Kill a Mockingbird (Elmer Bernstein)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1963:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">8
½ (Nino Rota)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Charade
(Henry Mancini)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Hud
(Elmer Bernstein)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Jason
and the Argonauts (Bernard Herrmann)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Leopard (Nino Rota)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1964:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Contempt
(Georges Delerue)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">A
Hard Day’s Night (The Beatles & George Martin)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Marnie
(Bernard Herrmann)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Umbrellas of Cherbourg
(Michel Legrand)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Woman
in the Dunes (Toru Takemitsu)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1965:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Doctor
Zhivago (Maurice Jarre)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Help!
(The Beatles)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Hush…
Hush, Sweet Charlotte (Frank de Vol)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Juliet
of the Spirits (Nino Rota)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Repulsion
(Chico Hamilton)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1966:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Blowup
(Herbie Hancock)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Fahrenheit
451 (Bernard Herrmann)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">For
a Few Dollars More (Ennio Morricone)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Seconds
(Jerry Goldsmith)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Alex North)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1967:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Far
From the Madding Crowd (Richard Rodney Bennett)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Ennio Morricone)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">In
Cold Blood (Quincy
Jones)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Privilege
(Mike Leander et al)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Two
for the Road (Henry Mancini)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1968:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Lion in Winter (John Barry)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Planet
of the Apes (Jerry Goldsmith)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Producers (John Morris et al)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Romeo
and Juliet (Nino Rota)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Young Girls of Rochefort (Michel Legrand)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1969:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Burt Bacharach)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Easy
Rider (various)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Midnight
Cowboy (John Barry)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Model
Shop (Spirit)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Once
Upon a Time in the West (Ennio Morricone)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1970:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Ballad of Cable Hogue (Jerry Goldsmith)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Beyond
the Valley of the Dolls (Stu Phillips et al)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Conformist (Georges Delerue)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Let
It Be (The Beatles & George Martin)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Zabriskie
Point (Pink Floyd)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1971:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Bananas
(Marvin Hamlisch)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
French Connection (Don Ellis)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Macbeth
(The Third Ear Band)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Straw
Dogs (Jerry Fielding)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Walkabout
(John Barry)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1972:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Duck,
You Sucker (Ennio Morricone)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Godfather (Nino Rota)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Hot Rock (Quincy
Jones)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Superfly
(Curtis Mayfield)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Two
English Girls (Georges Delerue)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1973:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Last
Tango in Paris (Gato Barbieri)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Long Goodbye (John Williams)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">O
Lucky Man! (Alan Price)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Pat
Garrett and Billy the Kid (Bob Dylan)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Way We Were (Marvin Hamlisch)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1974:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Amarcord
(Nino Rota)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Chinatown</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> (Jerry Goldsmith)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Godfather, Part II (Nino Rota & Carmine Coppola)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Phantom
of the Paradise (Paul Williams)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Stavisky…
(Stephen Sondheim)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1975:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Barry
Lyndon (Leonard Rosenman)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Fortune (David Shire & Jose Padilla)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Jaws
(John Williams)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Nashville</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> (various)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Wind and the Lion (Jerry Goldsmith)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1976:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Bugsy
Malone (Paul Williams)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Carrie
(Pino Donaggio)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Obsession
(Bernard Herrmann)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Outlaw Josey Wales (Jerry Fielding)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Taxi
Driver (Bernard Herrmann)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1977:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Aguirre,
the Wrath of God (Popol Vuh)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Close
Encounters of the Third Kind (John Williams)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Saturday
Night Fever (David Shire et al)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Sorcerer
(Tangerine Dream)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Star
Wars (John Williams)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1978:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Days
of Heaven (Ennio Morricone)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Fury (John Williams)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Heaven
Can Wait (Dave Grusin)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Lord of the Rings (Leonard Rosenman)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Superman
(John Williams)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1979:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1941
(John Williams)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Black Stallion (Carmine Coppola)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Muppet Movie (Paul Williams & Kenny Ascher)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Nosferatu
the Vampyre (Popol Vuh)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Star
Trek: The Motion Picture (Jerry Goldsmith)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1980:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Airplane!
(Elmer Bernstein)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Altered
States (John Corigliano)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Dressed
to Kill (Pino Donaggio)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Empire Strikes Back (John Williams)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Somewhere
in Time (John Barry)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1981:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Blow
Out (Pino Donaggio)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Caveman
(Lalo Schifrin)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Chariots
of Fire (Vangelis)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Last Metro (Georges Delerue)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Raiders
of the Lost Ark
(John Williams)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1982:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Blade
Runner (Vangelis)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Conan
the Barbarian (Basil Poledouris)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">E.T.:
the Extra-Terrestrial (John Williams)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">One
From the Heart (Tom Waits)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Victor/Victoria
(Henry Mancini & Leslie Bricusse)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1983:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Koyaanisqatsi
(Philip Glass)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Local
Hero (Mark Knopfler)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Rumble
Fish (Stewart Copeland)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Terms
of Endearment (Michael Gore)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Videodrome
(Howard Shore)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1984:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Indiana</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> Jones and the Temple of Doom (John Williams)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Natural (Randy Newman)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Once
Upon a Time in America
(Ennio Morricone)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Purple
Rain (Prince)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">This
Is Spinal Tap (Christopher Guest, Michael McKean & Harry Shearer)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1985:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Color Purple (Quincy Jones et al)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Mishima
(Philip Glass)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Pee
Wee’s Big Adventure (Danny Elfman)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Ran
(Toru Takemitsu)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Witness
(Maurice Jarre)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1986:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Blue
Velvet (Angelo Badalamenti)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Down
by Law (John Lurie & Tom Waits)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Mission (Ennio
Morricone)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Peggy
Sue Got Married (John Barry)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">‘Round
Midnight (Herbie Hancock)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1987:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Empire
of the Sun (John Williams)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Innerspace
(Jerry Goldsmith)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Ishtar
(Dave Grusin & Paul Williams)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Last Emperor (Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne, and Cong Su)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Princess Bride (Marc Shaiman)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1988:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Last Temptation of Christ (Peter Gabriel)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Rain
Man (Hans Zimmer)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Thin Blue Line (Philip Glass)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Tucker:
The Man and His Dream (Joe Jackson)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Wings
of Desire (Jurgen Kneiper)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1989:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Black
Rain (Toru Takemitsu)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Cinema
Paradiso (Ennio Morricione)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Do
the Right Thing (Bill Lee et al)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Glory
(James Horner)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Little Mermaid (Alan Menken)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1990:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Avalon
(Randy Newman)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (Michael Nyman)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Edward
Scissorhands (Danny Elfman)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Hamlet
(Ennio Morricone)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Miller’s
Crossing (Carter Burwell)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1991:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Beauty
and the Beast (Alan Menken)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Dead
Again (Patrick Doyle)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Defending
Your Life (Michael Gore)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Double Life of Veronique (Zbigniew Preisner)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Naked
Lunch (Howard Shore)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1992:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Aladdin
(Alan Menken)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Bram
Stoker’s Dracula (Wojciech Kilar)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Last of the Mohicans (Randy Edelman & Trevor Jones)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Malcolm
X (Terrence Blanchard)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Unforgiven
(Lenny Niehaus)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1993:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Age of Innocence (Elmer Bernstein)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Dazed
and Confused (various)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Naked
(Andrew Dickson)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Schindler’s
List (John Williams)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Three
Colors: Blue (Zbigniew Preisner)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1994:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Ed
Wood (Howard Shore)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Little
Women (Thomas Newman)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Lion King (Hans Zimmer & Elton John)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Pulp
Fiction (various)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Three
Colors: Red (Zbigniew Preisner)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1995:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">12
Monkeys (Paul Buckmaster)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Heat
(Elliot Goldenthal)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Il
Postino (Luis Enrique Bacalov)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Safe
(Ed Tomney)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Secret
of Roan Inish (Mason Daring) [winner]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1996:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Chung
King Express (various)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Dead
Man (Neil Young) [winner]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">English
Patient (Gabriel Yared)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Fargo
(Carter Burwell)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Grace
of My Heart (Larry Klein et al)<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1997:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">As
Good As It Gets (Hans Zimmer)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Boogie
Nights (Michael Penn et al)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Fast,
Cheap and Out of Control (Caleb Sampson) [winner]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Good
Will Hunting (Danny Elfman & Elliott Smith)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Ice Storm (Mychael Danna)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1998:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Dark</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> City</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> (Trevor Jones)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Gods
and Monsters (Carter Burwell)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Rushmore
(Mark Mothersbaugh et al)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Thin Red Line (Hans Zimmer)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Velvet
Goldmine (Carter Burwell et al) [winner]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1999:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Magnolia
(Jon Brion and Aimee Mann)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Ravenous
(Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Red Violin (John Corigliano)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">South
Park:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bigger, Longer and Uncut (Trey
Parker and Marc Shaiman) [winner]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Straight Story (Angelo Badalamenti)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">2000:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Dancer
in the Dark (Björk)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Ghost
Dog:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Way of the Samurai (RZA et al)
[winner]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">O
Brother, Where Art Thou? (various)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">POLA
X (Scott Walker)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Requiem
For a Dream (Clint Mansell)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">2001:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">A.I.:
Artificial Intelligence (John Williams)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Lord
of the Rings:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Fellowship of the Ring
(Howard Shore)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Man Who Wasn’t There (Carter Burwell)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Monsters,
Inc. (Randy Newman)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Waking
Life (Glover Gill and the Tosca Tango Orchestra) [winner]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">2002:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">25<sup>th</sup>
Hour (Terence Blanchard) [winner]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">8
Women (Krishna Levy et al)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Far
From Heaven (Elmer Bernstein)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Punch-Drunk
Love (Jon Brion)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Sex
and Lucia (Alberto Iglesias)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">2003:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Fog of War (Philip Glass)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Kill
Bill:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>vol. 1 (RZA et al)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">A
Mighty Wind (various) [winner]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Spider
(Howard Shore)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Triplets of Belleville
(Benoit Charest)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">2004:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Bad
Education (Alberto Iglesias)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Birth
(Alexandre Desplat) [winner[</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Greendale
(Neil Young)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Incredibles (Michael Giacchino)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (Mark Mothersbaugh and Seu Jorgé)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">2005:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Beat That My Heart Skipped (Alexandre Desplat et al)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Gilles’
Wife (Vincent D’Hondt)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">King
Kong (Howard Shore)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Pride
& Prejudice (Dario Marianelli)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Tony
Takitani (Ryuichi Sakamoto) [winner]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">2006:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Brick
(Nathan Johnson)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Drawing
Restraint 9 (Björk)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Fountain (Clint Mansell) [winner]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Prestige (David Julyan)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Proposition (Nick Cave and Warren Ellis)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">2007:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Nick Cave
and Warren Ellis)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Once
(Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Ratatouille
(Michael Giacchino)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">There
Will Be Blood (Jonny Greenwood) [winner]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Walk
Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (Michael Andrews, John C. Reilly, et al)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">2008:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Cassandra’s
Dream (Philip Glass)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Happy-Go-Lucky
(Gary Yershon)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">My
Winnipeg (Jason
Staczek et al)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Speed
Racer (Michael Giacchino)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">WALL*E
(Thomas Newman) [winner]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">2009:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Coraline
(Bruno Coulais)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Fantastic
Mr. Fox (Alexandre Desplat et al)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Informant! (Marvin Hamlisch)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Tetro
(Osvaldo Golijov) [winner]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Up
(Michael Giacchino)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">2010:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Never
Let Me Go (Rachel Portman) [winner]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Scott
Pilgrim vs. the World (Nigel Godrich et al)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Social Network (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Soul
Kitchen (various)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Tron:
Legacy (Daft Punk)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">2011:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Drive
(Cliff Martinez et al)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Hanna
(Chemical Brothers)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Rango
(Hans Zimmer)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Tinker
Tailor Soldier Spy (Alberto Iglesias et al) [winner]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Tree of Life (Alexandre Desplat et al)</span></div>
Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-67320880051341813062012-10-31T22:47:00.003-04:002012-10-31T22:47:35.602-04:002012 Muriels: The Game Plan<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/>
<w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
<w:Word11KerningPairs/>
<w:CachedColBalance/>
</w:Compatibility>
<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><img src="//img2.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" style="background-color: #b2b2b2; " class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" id="ieooui" data-original-id="ieooui" />
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Hey folks.
Sorry I haven’t updated this in forever, but I’ve been spending most of time online
over at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MurielAwards">Facebook </a>and <a href="http://letterboxd.com/opalfilms78/list/watch-list-2012/">Letterboxd</a>. If
you want to keep tabs on me, that’d be the place for it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Anyhow, it
just hit me that I only have about three months before Muriels ballots are due,
and considering what a grind it is to finish my ballots on time every year,
I’ve decided I need a game plan. So after looking at the list of movies I want
to watch before the end of the year, I’ve decided to estimate how many movies,
realistically speaking, I’ll make an effort to see before turning in my ballot.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In making
this estimate, I’ve taken all the first-, second-, and third-tier priority
movies from my huge “need to sees” list, paring away the ones that I’d like to
see for some reason or other but which aren’t a huge priority. And to the list
of keepers I’ve added the movies I plan on seeing with my family even if
they’re not what I personally want to see, because that’s how it works when
you’re married with a kid.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This
brings me to 36 movies, or 12 per month. I can handle that. Of course, this game
plan comes with some caveats: </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">1. It’s
still October. So obviously, there’s plenty of year still ahead of me, and
plenty of time for more releases to be announced later. These will be added to
this list as I see fit. </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">2. I live
in Ohio, not
NYC or LA, so my access to the limited releases is limited. Columbus
being Columbus,
some arthouse titles might not make it here until weeks or months after they
come out in the “major markets,” and who the hell knows if they’ll make it here
before the Muriels deadline. Therefore, as I say every year, I’d be grateful if
anyone could pass along screeners of any of these, especially the ones that
aren’t currently scheduled to play Columbus and those that don’t have a DVD
release date.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">3. I
prioritize mainly on the basis of three things- the director, advance or
festival reviews from people I trust, and occasionally my feelings about the
source material. The latter happens less frequently than the other two, but it
does happen. For example, I’ve included <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Les
Miserables</i> on this list even if I’m not entirely sure about Tom Hooper as a
filmmaker. But I’m willing to allow that my prioritization process isn’t
perfect, and it could let some really good movies slip through the cracked.
Therefore, if you feel like there are other titles on <a href="http://opalfilmslog.blogspot.com/2012/03/ratings-for-2012-releases.html">my full “need to see”list</a> that you believe should be a higher priority for
me, feel free to let me know in the comments section, either here or on
Facebook or Letterboxd.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So here’s
the list, which I’ve arranged by week of theatrical or home video release. The
[number in brackets] denotes how much of a priority the movie is for me, unless
of course it’s one of the previously-referenced see-it-with-family movies then
never mind.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Now
available via legal means:</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Goodbye
First Love</i></b> (Mia Hansen-Løve) [2] {now on DVD/Netflix}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Definitely
a director to watch.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I
Wish</i></b> (Hirokazu Kore-eda) [1] {now streaming on Netflix, 6 Nov on DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Kore-eda’s
never quite lived up to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maborosi</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">After Life</i>, but he’s still pretty great.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Looper</i></b>
(Rian Johnson) [2] {now in theatres, 31 Dec on DVD} </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This + <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Moonrise</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Kingdom</i>
= Body of Work nomination for Bruce Willis, perhaps?</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Argo</i></b>
(Ben Affleck) [3] {now in theatres}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The Town</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> was kind of a letdown, but I really
liked <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gone Baby Gone</i> and it would
probably be good to see this before it sweeps the Oscars, y’know?</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cloud
Atlas</i></b> (The Wachowskis & Tom Tykwer) [2] {now in theatres}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">When a
movie gets reviews as polarized as this one, that makes it more interesting,
don’t you find?</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Magic
Mike</i></b> (Steven Soderbergh) [3] {now on DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Because of
the director, duh. Also Matthew McConaughey is having a good year, which may
sound surprising to everyone who hasn’t seen him in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reign of Fire</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">November
2-8:</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Day He Arrives</i></b> (Hong Sang-soo) [3] {DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Honger!</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Flight</i></b>
(Robert Zemeckis) [3] {wide release}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So good to
see Denzel doing some real acting again. When was the last time he really swung
for the fences? It’s been eleven years since <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Training Day</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Your
Sister’s Sister</i></b> (Lynn Shelton) [3] {DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Don’t
think I’ll get the wife to watch this with me, since <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Humpday</i> practically gave her hives. Then again, she has a low
tolerance for posturing-male jackassery, even if it’s being held up to scorn.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wreck-It
Ralph</i></b> (Rich Moore) [seeing this for the offspring] {wide release}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Although
you gotta admit that John C. Reilly seems to be perfectly cast, especially if
he plays Ralph as Principal Fitzgerald with huge biceps.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">November
9-15:</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Holy
Motors </i></b>(Leos Carax) [1] {limited release/scheduled at Drexel} </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Welcome
back, Leos. We’ve missed you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Skyfall
</i></b>(Sam Mendes) [3] {wide release} </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">All right,
this may not have much bearing my ballot, but Daniel Craig makes an awesome
Bond so lay off OK?</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">November
16-20:</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Loneliest Planet </i></b>(Julia Loktev) [1] {limited release/scheduled at GFC}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Supposedly
this is even better than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Day Night Day
Night</i>. Works for me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lincoln
</i></b>(Steven Spielberg) [3] {wide release} </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“Mr.
President, the Civil War is draining the Treasury!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“DRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAINAAAAAGE!!!!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rust
and Bone </i></b>(Jacques Audiard) [3] {limited release – no Columbus release date announced}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Marion
Cotillard – rowr. Sony Pictures Classics – GAH.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 </i></b>(Bill Condon) [seeing this for the
special lady] {wide release} </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In her
defense, she enjoys vampire stories so she’s read all the books, plus she loved
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Seven Psychopaths</i> so don’t let’s hold
this against her.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">November
21-29 (includes Thanksgiving weekend):</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Silver Linings Playbook </i></b>(David O. Russell) [2] {wide release}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I love <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Three Kings</i> and all, but Russell’s
always felt most at home making nervy, hyper-verbal comedies, so this should be
fun. But can he actually persuade DeNiro and Chris Tucker (!!!) to put forth an
effort? Stay tuned!</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Life
of Pi </i></b>(Ang Lee) [3] {wide release}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Could go
either way, honestly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rise
of the Guardians </i></b>(Peter Ramsey) [seeing it for the offspring] {wide
release}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The
offspring has complained that the title makes it sound like a ripoff of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of
Ga’Hoole</i>, which is one of his favorites. But I don’t think that’s a deal
breaker or anything.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">November
30-December 6:</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alps</i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></b>(Yorgos Lanthimos) [2] {DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Reviews
haven’t been great, but Lanthimos!</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beasts
of the Southern Wild </i></b>(Benh Zeitlin) [3] {DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Honestly,
this is the one I probably feel least strongly about. For every rave I read, I
come across another review that makes this sound really over-hyped. Still, it
feels like the kind of movie I should probably have an opinion on, I’d say.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Killing
Them Softly </i></b>(Andrew Dominik) [3] {wide release}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I’m just
hoping it’s a lousy trailer that doesn’t do the movie justice, because… well,
it’s a lousy trailer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">December
7-13:</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Nothing!
Absolutely nothing!</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">December
14-20:</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey</i></b> (Peter Jackson) [2] {wide release} </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">People who
complain about Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth movies being too long are like
people who complain when baseball games go into extra innings in my opinion.
You’re getting extra goodness for free, so why whine about it?</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">December
21-27 (includes Christmas Day releases):</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Amour</i></b>
(Michael Haneke) [1] {limited release – no Columbus release date announced}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Sony
Pictures Classics strikes again. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
White Ribbon</i> didn’t come to town until the weekend after ballots were due.
D’oh.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Django
Unchained</i></b> (Quentin Tarantino) [1] {wide release}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I’m always
a little nervous whenever Tarantino puts out a new movie that maybe this time
he’s tried to work his magic on a genre that will be immune to it. But then,
I’ve worried about this since <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jackie
Brown</i>, so who knows if it’ll ever happen?</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zero
Dark Thirty</i></b> (Kathryn Bigelow) [2] {wide release}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Bigelow
tackles another recent American military story. Can lightning strike twice?</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Killer
Joe</i></b> (William Friedkin) [3] {DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">See above,
re: McConaughey. But that still doesn’t make we want to see <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Paperboy</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Les
Miserables</i></b> (Tom Hooper) [3] {wide release}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Sacha
Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as the Thenardiers is sort of brilliant
casting.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Post-Christmas/January:</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cosmopolis</i></b>
(David Cronenberg) [2] {2 Jan on DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Cronenberg’s
last few have been disappointing for me, but the dude is still David effing
Cronenberg. Besides, nobody can adapt tricky literary works quite like he does.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Barbara</i></b>
(Christian Petzold) [3] {limited release – scheduled for 11 Jan @ GFC}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Reviews
out of TIFF were enthusiastic, especially for leading lady Nina Hoss. If
there’s something my ballot can always use more of, it’s great female lead
performances.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Columbus</span></u><u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> release after Muriels deadline:</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sister</i></b>
(Ursula Meier) [3] {limited release – scheduled for 8 Feb @ Wex} </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Home</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> is awesome, y’all.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">No DVD
release date announced so I won’t hold my breath:</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Almayer’s
Folly</i></b> (Chantal Akerman) [2]</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Jeanne Dielman</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">, baby!</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crazy
Horse</i></b> (Frederick Wiseman) [3]</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Then
again, Wiseman’s pretty sparsely represented on DVD, so I’m not expecting this
to happen or anything.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oki’s
Movie</i></b> (Hong Sang-soo) [3]</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Although
if I only end up seeing one Hong drunken-buffoonery-fest before I cast my
ballot, I suppose I can live with that.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Photographic
Memory</i></b> (Ross McElwee) [3]</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Where’s
the buzz on this one?</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Rome With Love</i></b>
(Woody Allen) [3]</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Supposedly
the release date will be announced sometime in November, so that’s cool I
guess.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Additionally,
in the event that I don’t have access to a higher-priority title, here are some
possible backups I might watch. Call them [4a]s if you’d like:</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Anna Karenina</i> (Joe Wright) {16 Nov in
theatres}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel</i> (John
Madden) {now on DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Compliance</i> (Craig Zobel) {8 Jan on DVD} </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Imposter</i> (Bart Layton) {22 Jan on
DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Keep the Lights On</i> (Ira Sachs) {TBA on
DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Last Ride</i> (Glendyn Ivin) [4] {now on
DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lawless</i> (John Hillcoat) [4] {27 Nov on
DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Neighboring Sounds</i> (Kleber Mendonça
Filho) [4] {TBA on DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oslo, August 31st</i> (Joachim Trier) [4] {now
on DVD/streaming}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Perks of Being a Wallflower</i> (Stephen
Chbosky) [4] {TBA on DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Red Hook Summer</i> (Spike Lee) [4] {26 Dec
on DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Samsara</i> (Ron Fricke) [4] {8 Jan on DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Searching for Sugar Man</i> (Malik
Bendjelloul) [4] {TBA on DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Take This Waltz</i> (Sarah Polley) [4] {now
on DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We Have a Pope</i> (Nanni Moretti) [4] {now
on DVD/Netflix}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wuthering Heights</i> (Andrea Arnold) [4] {7
Dec @ GFC}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Finally, if
I have time I’d like to watch the following again:</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bernie</i></b>
(Richard Linklater) {now on DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">My
frontrunner for best ensemble performance right now. OK, so Shirley MacLaine’s
nothing to write home about, but some of those interview subjects are priceless.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Deep Blue
Sea</i></b> (Terence
Davies) {now on DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Wish I
could have seen this one in theatres, but I was busy moving.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Dark Knight Rises</i></b> (Christopher Nolan) {4 Dec on DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Nolan’s
films tend to reward multiple viewings, so maybe this will reveal something
once the initial disappointment has worn away.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It’s
Such a Beautiful Day</i></b> (Don Hertzfeldt) {now on DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So stoked
that this is Muriel-eligible this year. Go Hertzfeldt go! Seriously guys, you
should see this.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Master</i></b> (Paul Thomas Anderson) {now in theatres} </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Particularly
if it hits DVD before the deadline. If not oh well.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Moonrise</i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Kingdom</i></b> (Wes Anderson) {now on
DVD}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">As prickly
in its way as LIFE AQUATIC, this is one that should improve on second viewing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Turin Horse</i></b> (Bela
Tarr) {now on DVD/streaming}</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It’s not
that I think I missed something. I just want to drink in the good parts again.</span></div>
Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-73278233359745569372012-06-09T15:07:00.005-04:002012-06-09T15:07:54.578-04:00On “Wimpy” Role Models<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/>
<w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
<w:Word11KerningPairs/>
<w:CachedColBalance/>
</w:Compatibility>
<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
Lately, my kid has been reading the <i>Diary of a Wimpy Kid</i> books. Because I was curious about the pop culture he consumes, I looked at them myself, and I wasn’t impressed. Setting aside the writing style, which is pitched squarely to kids, there’s just not a whole lot to these things. <br /><br /> What’s more, I worry that these books may be sending a negative message to him about how to live his life. Basically, the book’s “hero,” Greg Heffley, is a kid who disrespects his parents, treats his friends like crap, and more or less sees people in terms of how they can benefit or amuse him. Of course, Greg doesn’t have a whole lot of friends and gets in trouble, but he only sees his problems through the prism of his own experience- in other words, thinking that others treat him unfairly rather than seeing the way others treat him as the consequences of his behavior. <br /><br /> Now, I don’t want to discount the tradition of the self-centered jerk as a comic antihero. I mean, I’m a longtime fan of W.C. Fields, who did as much as anyone to advance and perfect the type. But Fields didn’t intend to make his characters heroic or worthy of emulation, and when bad things happened to him onscreen the movies usually acknowledged that, yeah, he probably deserved it. <br /><br /> By contrast, <i>Wimpy</i> author Jeff Kinney clearly wants the reader to think that Greg’s antics are not just hilarious but cute. For example, when Greg decides to give a friend of his the silent treatment for several days, he doesn’t just do it for his own amusement but also involves others in the class until the other kid has finally had enough. Middle or school or not, that’s an asshole thing to do, especially when the kid you’re doing it to is supposedly a friend. Making matters worse is that Greg never really gets called out on it, and there are never any real consequences for his actions. <br /><br /> Normally, I wouldn’t bother saying anything about a book like this. After all, most pop culture aimed at kids (and adults, for that matter) is pretty junky and full of suspect messages. But after talking with the offspring about the books, it was apparent that he saw Greg as a kind of role model, striking back against clueless parents, mean fellow students, and other people who would keep him from doing what he wants. <br /><br /> Not to sound like an old fogey or one of those alarmist “parenting experts” who mostly talks about how different things are from what they were young, but is it too much to hope for that my son have a role model that’s actually, you know, positive? Someone who can make him want to be his best, instead of making him think that being egotistical is funny and cool? <br /><br /> If I had a pop culture role model as a kid, it was Indiana Jones. To me, Indy was better than other action heroes because he wasn’t just a globe-trotting adventurer who wielded a whip. No, I really liked Indy because he was smart, and the reason he got to do the things he did was because people respected him and wanted his help, which was largely because he was so intelligent and educated. <br /><br /> Or look at Harry Potter. In many ways, Potter is a fairly regular teenager, albeit one burdened by prophecies and circumstances set in motion long before he even knew what was happening. But while Harry isn’t the best student or the most powerful wizard at Hogwarts, he nonetheless has a strong sense of morality and a hunger to do what is right and just, even if it means running afoul of the establishment. Consider the way he spearheads Dumbledore’s Army in <i>Order of the Phoenix</i> when Dolores Umbridge takes over Hogwarts. When he breaks the rules, it’s not because he disrespects authority, but because the authorities have become corrupted. <br /><br /> Compared to these, <i>Wimpy Kid</i> is pretty feeble. Greg’s major ambition in life is to spend all his time playing video games and avoiding unnecessary contact with others. As a role model, Greg is pretty terrible, but he’s also attractive to a lot of kids because, compared to Indy and Harry, his ambitions require almost no effort, especially if, like Greg, your mother is an abject, mouth-breathing idiot (let it not be said that Kinney doesn’t flatter his audience). It’s easy to aspire to be Greg since there’s really nothing to aspire to, and you especially don’t have to change or improve anything about yourself to get there, since if it’s never your fault, why should you have to change? <br /><br /> Granted, I don’t expect my son to read <i>Wimpy Kid</i> books forever. But as he gets older, he’s going to start having to make ever more difficult choices, mostly because the difference between what is right and what is fun and/or easy will become much more pronounced. And with the non-values of unworthy role models like Greg firmly instilled in him, I fear that his ability to choose wisely will be underdeveloped, and that the consequences of these choices and that lessons he’ll have to learn will be particularly hard on him. And if he’s anything like Greg, he’ll wonder what he did to deserve it. <br /><br /> As a parent, it’s my duty to prevent this from happening, and to make sure he’s equipped not just to make responsible choices but also to truly learn from his mistakes. As such, I feel like I should function for my son as a kind of gate-keeper to popular culture by steering him toward books (and movies and television) that will keep him entertained without the unpleasant worldview and dubious messages of stuff like <i>Wimpy Kid</i>. To that end, I’m not going to take away his <i>Wimpy Kid</i> books- because nothing whets a kid’s appetite for a book more than being told it’s objectionable-, but I’m also not going to encourage him to read it either. I mean, yeah, it’s good to see him reading and all. But I don’t think it’s too much to ask that the books he read broaden his mind at least a little bit, do you?Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-34225658952066279592012-04-05T17:47:00.001-04:002012-04-14T09:02:45.567-04:00"So... what did you think?" or: how I put entirely too much thought into my movie ratings system<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Why
do we grade movies? Some would argue
(and have!) that critics should forego ratings entirely, because
any good review will convey to the reader why and how much the reviewer liked
the movie. Yet somehow it’s become
expected that if we’re going to tell others our thoughts on a movie, we should
provide a score for them as well, if only as a quick reference for those who
are paying attention. This seems
especially important for bite-sized assessments posted on social media
sites. After all, social media sites
like Twitter tend to have a character limit, and since it’s not like one can
cram a lot of detail into 140 characters, some kind of grade can succinctly sum
up what a review would otherwise convey.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">But
which grading scale to use? As a
sometimes blogger and would-be critic, that’s a question I’ve struggled with
for years. In my early years, I employed
letter grades, until it hit me that letter grades tend to carry different
weight with different readers. For
example, those junior achiever types like I was in my school days tend to look
down on anything less than an A, so when one rates a movie a B, that somehow
seems subpar even if it’s a perfectly serviceable entertainment.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">After
that, I moved on to the four-star scale, which seems to be the most popular
right now. However, the problem with
this scale, aside from its ubiquity, is that there isn’t really a consensus for
what the different star ratings actually <i>mean.</i> Back when he was still co-hosting <i>At
the Movies</i>, Roger Ebert stated that anything receiving three stars or
more would constitute a “thumbs up,” which denoted a positive review. By contrast, the four-star scale used by The
<i>Chicago Reader</i> is closer to the following:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">0
stars – Worthless</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1
star – Has redeeming facet</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">2
stars – Recommended</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">3
stars – A must see</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">4
stars – Masterpiece</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Because
of how ill-defined my four-star system was, back in 2007 I decided to switch
to a Sicinski-esque 10-point scale. At
the time, this suited my needs best, since it required little explanation. If you rate a movie “on a scale of 1 to 10,
10 being the best,” people will have a pretty solid idea of how you feel. It’s simple math, really- if 10 is the best a
movie can be, and 1 (or zero in my case) is the worst, then logically speaking
a rating a 5 would mean average, and therefore a 6 or higher would be above
average, and 4 or lower below. So you
can see how I found that pretty useful.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">But
the other day, I looked at my lists of the movies I’ve seen and graded between
2007 and 2011, and it hit me that maybe the 10-point scale isn’t right for me
after all. It’s not that it’s not an
accurate scale, but something about it just feels… wrong. Look at the chart below:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEyVB5n4BYfYVGLfbvwMt0Ock91L3NOdEIwBmqdXaX_wAKLpKEkIONauDC5WYGLqVJyytMRumPgWpyxLbDSmDl6y-KAkPgcaRG8IRAvuroIc0piFvCXKML07r_3y5K8zLRiVuTbg/s1600/10+pt+ratings.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEyVB5n4BYfYVGLfbvwMt0Ock91L3NOdEIwBmqdXaX_wAKLpKEkIONauDC5WYGLqVJyytMRumPgWpyxLbDSmDl6y-KAkPgcaRG8IRAvuroIc0piFvCXKML07r_3y5K8zLRiVuTbg/s320/10+pt+ratings.JPG" width="271" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Notice
something a little off? If 5 is supposed
to be the “average” or “mediocre” rating, then my ratings distribution feels a
little asymmetrical. My movie intake has
curtailed since 2007, but the constant is that 6 ratings- given to movies about
which I’m positive but hardly passionate- outnumber the rest. And as you can see, the other ratings tend to
follow a pretty similar pattern as well, bottoming out with both 10s and
everything 3 and below.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Of
course, if I actually saw every movie out there the chart would look rather
different. I dare say that the
distribution would shift to the left, perhaps even left of “average” rating of
5. But the truth is that I’m like most
paying moviegoers in that I tend to stick to movies that I think I or my family
will enjoy. Granted, there are some real
stinkers out there, and when they’re pitched loudly enough to kids, chances are
I won’t be able to avoid them. But now
that my kid is old enough that he doesn’t feel like he has to see every new
animated family movie out there, this is less of a problem than it used to be.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Another
problem with the 10-point scale is that it devotes as many points to bad movies
as good ones. Unless you see a lot of
bad movies- which thankfully I don’t anymore- it’s pretty hard to tell the
difference between movies that deserve a 1, a 2, or a 3. If something’s really offensively awful, it
deserves one of these, but considering how pissed off I am after I watch a
really terrible movie, the last thing on my mind is trying to pinpoint just <i>how</i>
bad it really is.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">This
is my big problem with the Ebert scale.
Ebert has traditionally ranked movies out of four stars, including
half-star ratings, which makes a total of nine possible ratings. Of these, six of them are negative. Now, there’s obviously going to be a
difference between a 0-star rating (given to the worst of the worst) and a 2
½-star rating (given to movies that aren’t quite good enough to
recommend). But why would one need six
different ratings in which to categorize movies that (a) aren’t good, and that
(b) one wouldn’t recommend to others? Seems
excessive to me, having to come up with a bunch of different ways to tell
people a movie sucks.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Meanwhile,
that leaves only three positive ratings, which basically boil down into (a)
good, (b) very good, and (c) great. Sorry,
but that isn’t enough for me. If I’m
praising a movie, I want people to know whether I think it’s a flat-out
masterpiece or something that’s just really enjoyable, which to my eyes is a
fairly substantial difference.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">So
what is my alternative? In the last week
or so I’ve been toying with the idea of a modified
<i>Reader</i>-style system, which would incorporate half-star
ratings but would otherwise have similar emotional responses applied to the
ratings. Here’s what I’m looking at
right now:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">0
stars – Simultaneously terrible and offensive.
I’m angry at myself for seeing this. (0 to 2 on the current scale)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">½
star – Terrible, but not offensively so.
Mostly just a waste of time. (3)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1
star – Not recommended. See if you must,
but don’t say I didn’t warn you. (4)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1
½ stars – Not <i>quite</i> recommended, but has some redeeming
facet that could make it worth seeing. (5)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">2
stars – Pretty good, not bad, I can’t complain. (6)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">2
½ stars – Well worth your time. (7)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">3
stars – A must-see. A contender for my
yearly top-10 list. (8)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">3
½ stars – A near masterpiece. One of the
best films of the year. (9)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">4
stars – A masterpiece. See it, like,
now. Very rare. (10)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">I
went back and forth about including the half-star rating, largely because I
wasn’t sure I needed another negative rating in there. However, I decided to include it since I
thought it was necessary to distinguish between your garden-variety bad movies
and the true crimes against cinema.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">So
if I switch my 2007-2011 ratings over to the new scale, this is what the
distribution looks like.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1PdVI-IYgKebTbFkOsk02grrG0_k4yoadzFraXu2g3pzRmzo9m6QqO2VDutFa9PWY5_zQyJIpCzjPQKAEfGAKsCCd33AoZ08eYyrxvICZ9LSmaN1yJNA2IutnPEoRS36A3i_5_Q/s1600/4+star+ratings.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1PdVI-IYgKebTbFkOsk02grrG0_k4yoadzFraXu2g3pzRmzo9m6QqO2VDutFa9PWY5_zQyJIpCzjPQKAEfGAKsCCd33AoZ08eYyrxvICZ9LSmaN1yJNA2IutnPEoRS36A3i_5_Q/s320/4+star+ratings.JPG" width="273" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Looks
better to me. What do you think?</span></div>Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-59117300666547629572012-04-01T11:26:00.005-04:002012-04-04T21:26:58.070-04:00White Elephant 2012: The Victims<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Today’s
the big day! Let’s see what our April Fools have been up to lately:</div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Simon
Abrams caught <i><a href="http://extendedcut.blogspot.com/2012/03/112-breaks-1999.html">The Breaks</a></i>! </div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Jason
Alley shared the <i><a href="http://jason-alley.xanga.com/760722077/item/">Intimate Confessions of a ChineseCourtesan</a></i>! </div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Jim
Bach engaged in a <i><a href="http://cinemastuff.blogspot.com/2012/04/duel-to-death-ching-siu-tung-1983.html">Duel to the Death</a></i>! </div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Kent
Beeson went on a <i><a href="http://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2012/04/john-dies-at-end-castle-freak.html">Castle Freak</a></i>! </div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Andrew
Bemis learned how <i><a href="http://cinevistaramascope.blogspot.com/2012/04/buddy-youre-in-wrong-place-at-wrong.html">To Live and Die in L.A.</a> </i>! </div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Christianne
Benedict told some <i><a href="http://krelllabs.blogspot.com/2012/04/white-elephant-blogathon-forbidden-lie.html">Forbidden Lie$</a></i>! </div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Steve
Carlson rhapsodized on a theme of <i><a href="http://steveosteve.tumblr.com/post/20290751888/play-you-like-a-violin">Paganini</a></i>! </div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
I sat
back and let the evening go with <i><a href="http://opalfilms.blogspot.com/2012/04/white-elephant-2012-sgt-peppers-lonely.html">Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band</a></i>! </div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Kenji
Fujishima stalked some <i><a href="http://mylife24fps.blogspot.com/2012/04/white-elephant-blogathon-2012-prey-ing.html">Deadly Prey</a></i>! </div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Jaime
Grijalba gave a much-needed jump to <i><a href="http://exodus8-2.blogspot.com/2012/04/prowler-1981.html">The Prowler</a></i>! In Spanish! </div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Stacia Kissick Jones
found <i><a href="http://www.shebloggedbynight.com/2012/04/white-elephant-blogathon-clara-bow-and.html">It</a>!</i><br />
<i> </i> </div>
Peter
Labuza got familiar with <i><a href="http://www.labuzamovies.com/2012/03/white-elephant-blogathon-dev-d.html">Dev. D</a></i>! </div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Matt
Lynch dove into the notorious sausage-fest <i><a href="http://nonunionmexicanequivalent.tumblr.com/post/20277731272/now-im-stinky">Freddy Got Fingered</a></i>! </div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Joe
Neff came clean with <i><a href="http://deadstaebler.blogspot.com/2012/04/unbearable-lightness-of-being-jenny.html">Dirty Love</a></i>! </div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
Seema did it for her country with <i><a href="http://endlesspictureshow.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/grease-2-2/">Grease 2</a></i>!</div>
<br />
Caroline
Shapiro witnessed <i><a href="http://garbolaughs.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/return-of-count-yorga-1971/">The Return of Count Yorga</a></i>! </div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Philip
Tatler dropped in on <i><a href="http://profoundlyrewarding.blogspot.com/2012/04/how-do-you-explain-midgets-or-sock.html">S. Darko</a></i>! </div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Patrick
Williamson found the ugliness in <i><a href="http://redherrings.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/poor-pretty-eddie/">Poor Pretty Eddie</a></i>! </div>
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<div class="yiv1597700624msonormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
I plan
on adding more throughout the day, so check back later, will you? You
just never know what kind of goodies we’ll share with you!</div>Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-49500771469979094212012-04-01T00:30:00.000-04:002012-04-01T11:55:50.050-04:00White Elephant 2012: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOCA0Iw4Oji8g4WOqXbi-eatYgPNwZzUlcgOqlSaMK0OUaJCoQgPbh3IiuhbUAzK3N_qH2rF66I2kF8ocuBUVKKNJSqxytpA1vzVp8tEoQnfsavrDnPwYIylFTMSvyHj9UOPKf5g/s1600/WE2012+button.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOCA0Iw4Oji8g4WOqXbi-eatYgPNwZzUlcgOqlSaMK0OUaJCoQgPbh3IiuhbUAzK3N_qH2rF66I2kF8ocuBUVKKNJSqxytpA1vzVp8tEoQnfsavrDnPwYIylFTMSvyHj9UOPKf5g/s1600/WE2012+button.JPG" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Nowadays,
Hollywood isn’t
known for its ambition. One look at the
box-office charts and it’s easy to see why- of the ten highest-grossing movies
of 2011, only one wasn’t a sequel, and that exception
(<i>Thor</i>), was made with the intention of setting up an imminent
<i>Avengers</i> movie. Faced
with these dire circumstances, it’s easy to wax nostalgic about the 1970s, in
which bold emerging talents created wildly original films in a climate
characterized by creative freedom. And
by “creative freedom,” I mean drugs.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">As
evidenced by accounts of Seventies Hollywood such as <i>Easy Riders,
Raging Bulls</i> and <i>The Kid Stays In the Picture</i>, as Tinseltown’s
young Turks made their journey through cinema, drugs regularly rode
shotgun. At a time when seemingly half
of Hollywood
was crashing on Jennifer Salt’s couch while the other half was sleeping with
Warren Beatty, drugs were pretty much everywhere. Many of the decade’s key figures such as
Martin Scorsese, Hal Ashby, and Sam Peckinpah made era-defining films while
under the influence of intoxicating substances of various stripes. If you never heard about “drug problems” back
then, it was because everyone had drugs or could get them, so what was the
problem?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjckrJKfc1tl343Bw2-ACZ7ZXx_TbqzzpjkOl01A5gHu4YnPVMihoCWDQLS7ukUISYvVmwzWLsXyAtIHSL_BVVnXPS6St7KjznYx0lYoV5nOY0_b4-Cwg1ylb1gRLRssrbeza4BMg/s1600/sgtpeppers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjckrJKfc1tl343Bw2-ACZ7ZXx_TbqzzpjkOl01A5gHu4YnPVMihoCWDQLS7ukUISYvVmwzWLsXyAtIHSL_BVVnXPS6St7KjznYx0lYoV5nOY0_b4-Cwg1ylb1gRLRssrbeza4BMg/s320/sgtpeppers.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">However,
by the time 1978 rolled around, drugs were getting sick of being the silent
partner in Hollywood’s
resurgence. So drugs decided to make
their own movie, throwing a bunch of Beatles songs into a flimsy frame story
and calling it <i>Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band</i>. And this being the 1970s, drugs got
ambitious- they didn’t just cast movie stars, no sirree. They also cast loads of rock stars, because
if anyone will jump at the chance to work for drugs, it’s rock stars. Of course, drugs ran into trouble when it
came to those killjoys at the Director’s Guild, who balked at the idea of an
assortment of chemicals, pharmaceuticals and plant derivatives taking work from
flesh-and-blood filmmakers. But while
Michael Schultz took the credit (or the blame, as the case may be) for bringing
<i>Sgt. Pepper</i> to the big screen, this is still essentially a film
by drugs.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">But
while drugs played a part in some of the most important and popular works of
the day, in each case there was inevitably a sure creative hand on the wheel,
keeping things moving in a productive direction, usually with a strong vision
in mind. To cite the obvious example,
the album with which this movie shared its title was recorded while the Fab
Four were deep into their drug phase.
Yet because the Beatles- both individually and collectively- were
genius-level musicians, the result was brilliant, sometimes in ways that were
only enhanced by the drugs. However,
drugs alone can’t substitute for talent, and if there’s no vision behind a
project, things get dire pretty quickly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Ever
listened to someone who’s stoned out of their mind try to tell a story or talk
about something in any depth? That’s
basically what the <i>Sgt. Pepper</i> movie feels like. The governing principle behind this movie
seems to be having the entire cast and crew show up on the set and inhale crazy
amounts of blow and pot, then decide what the hell they were going to do that
day. How else to explain musical numbers
like the one in which Steve Martin (in his first movie) mug-sings “Maxwell’s
Silver Hammer” surrounded by dancers dressed up as Boy Scouts, then
dance-fights with Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees? And why did anybody think it was a good idea
to take Paul McCartney’s melancholy ballad “She’s Leaving Home” and have it
sung partly by leather-clad fembots?
Because drugs, that’s why.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">And
I guess it should go without saying that with so much chemical inspiration on
the set, coherence isn’t <i>Sgt. Pepper</i> strong suit. But really, this movie’s story, such as it is,
makes no sense even one a scene-to-scene basis.
For instance, when the band first arrives in California, they have a drug-fueled (duh)
dinner party at the home of record mogul Donald Pleasance. The scene is shot to emphasize its sinister
implications, with freaky camera angles and leering close-ups of Pleasance as
he watches the boys sign with his label.
Clearly we’re supposed to think the boys are signing away their
lives/innocence/firstborn children, right?
But no, everything goes pretty great for them from that point forward. Then there’s the scene in which the band’s
manager plots with his sexy singer girlfriend to steal all the band’s money- as
they sing “You Never Give Me Your Money,” naturally- only to have their crooked
dealings forgotten one scene later.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7bu123jDWpFyg3NJPcgx0vqgLr-Sqfw6roawm0sYwIUSP9eVnagIl3bQ7ICbzXmIC-INjXFya-L73dHK_0kt9szEKFohLSJ-525J24nGcEYfIyZoE_z_KC2zh8vx5wYdHzPbCLw/s1600/sgt-peppers-6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7bu123jDWpFyg3NJPcgx0vqgLr-Sqfw6roawm0sYwIUSP9eVnagIl3bQ7ICbzXmIC-INjXFya-L73dHK_0kt9szEKFohLSJ-525J24nGcEYfIyZoE_z_KC2zh8vx5wYdHzPbCLw/s320/sgt-peppers-6.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">I
suppose glaring plot holes like these make <i>Sgt. Pepper</i>
amusing and watchable in an terrible sort of way, but that doesn’t mean it’s
any good. It doesn’t help that standing
in for the Beatles- who actually possessed real screen presence and acting
chops, it should be noted- was a quartet of musicians who had no business
top-lining a major studio production. Peter
Frampton fares worst of the bunch as Billy Shears, a happy-go-lucky sort who
enjoys wearing pink outfits and white overalls monogrammed with his name. Frampton shows no signs of acting talent or
big-screen charisma, and he’s forever being upstaged by his hair, which makes
him look like he dumps peroxide on his head regularly. With no clue how to behave onscreen, he
mostly just mugs for the camera, giving the impression that he was called to
the set just after snorting his lunch off the craft services coffee table,
except in his darker moments when he sulks around like a spoiled teenager who’s
just been grounded.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Despite
being the reformed Lonely Hearts Club Band’s lead singer, Frampton invariably
gets shown up by The Bee Gees, who play his band mates the Henderson brothers. Granted, the brothers Gibb can’t act either-
the sole trick in their acting arsenal is to smile widely and strike album
cover poses- but at least they know what to do with a song, and their ability
to conjure up impeccable three-part harmony is pretty impressive. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Most
of the Bee Gees’ bad laughs come courtesy of Barry Gibb’s wardrobe. This being the seventies, exposed chests were
considered the apex of male sexuality, and Barry takes full advantage of this. As my lovely wife put it, “I don’t think
Barry’s shirts button above the navel,” but that’s not entirely accurate. At a funeral scene near the end, as the boys
bear a casket to the tune of “Carry That Weight”– which, come to think, is
still subtler than the soldiers in <i>Across the Universe</i>
carrying the Statue of Liberty while singing “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”– Barry’s
mourning blouse buttons up to his sternum, which under the circumstances should
be interpreted as a respectful gesture to the deceased. But even during Barry’s more modest moments,
a young George Michael was clearly taking notes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
good news is that, even amidst the drugs and the lousy acting and the
unfortunate fashions, there’s always the music to enjoy. And even though the late-seventies setting
necessitated a disco-funk production style (courtesy of former Beatles producer
George Martin, no less!) some of the musical performances hold their own. Earth, Wind and Fire does a Philly soul
version of “Got to Get You Into My Life” that’s pretty good, if slightly marred
by their futuristic tribal wear and some of the singers’ tendencies to pull the
“Africa face,” to quote <i>Get Him to the Greek</i>. And even when onetime Beatles collaborator
Billy Preston shows up at the climax of the film to save the day by flying
around and shooting lightning bolts from his fingers and turn the villains and
random passerby into clergymen (again, because drugs), he still manages to work
in an energetic and decidedly funky take on “Get Back.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Best
of all is Aerosmith, who drop into the story near the end to deliver their
justly famous rip-roarin’ take on “Come Together.” Now that Steven Tyler has reinvented himself
as everyone’s favorite crazy uncle on <i>American Idol</i>, it’s
nice to see him doing something he’s actually good at, sneering and belting and
sexing up the song. Rocking out, in
other words. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs_WRslpm4eOD7hJwVZbY8xdlW6QcBcUptPYs6BfIOfOLiGnCZNc24hwfwZIIojE5dk5aqwjWp2Nj4memvvQtOxr7ijiO9tQH5po6X80wtELDB8n98rZ_Zj1gmezNx4nkjp_Gjcw/s1600/5791446_std.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs_WRslpm4eOD7hJwVZbY8xdlW6QcBcUptPYs6BfIOfOLiGnCZNc24hwfwZIIojE5dk5aqwjWp2Nj4memvvQtOxr7ijiO9tQH5po6X80wtELDB8n98rZ_Zj1gmezNx4nkjp_Gjcw/s320/5791446_std.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">But
as good as Aerosmith’s number is, it’s also indicative of the biggest
(non-drug) problem with the <i>Sgt. Pepper</i>- for a movie that’s
allegedly about rock’n’roll, there’s a decidedly anti-rock bias. What made the Beatles so great an influential
is that they took rock’n’roll and infused it with real artfulness, but in a way
that didn’t make the music any less rockin’.
By contrast, this movie seems designed to placate all the bluehairs in
the audiences who still hated rock music, portraying the titular band as a
quartet of old-school tunesmiths and the real rockers (played by such
luminaries as Aerosmith and an eerily Frank Zappa-esque Alice Cooper) as the
villains. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Consequently,
<i>Sgt. Pepper</i> feels like something of an orphan movie. Anyone who hated rock would have next to no
interest in a <i>Sgt. Pepper</i> movie. Meanwhile, those people who appreciated the
Beatles and what they did for popular culture would find the movie’s take on
the material both square and fairly disrespectful. More than anything, it reminds me of the
classic <i>Mr. Show</i> sketch “Rap: The Musical,” in which
rap-phobic theatergoers were treated to a Cohan-style singin’-and-hoofin’ revue
featuring hip-hop lyrics and subject matter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Because
the parties responsible for <i>Sgt. Pepper</i> were all about
finding new ways to water down their inspiration, the movie builds to a massive
singalong reprise of the title tune that doubles as an homage to the classic
album cover. Among the ringers producer
Robert Stigwood enlisted for this scene were Tina Turner, Donovan, Sha-na-na,
Keith Carradine, Wolfman Jack, and Carol Channing. Some of the folks who turned Stigwood down
were Elton John, Rock Hudson, and Barry Manilow, which forces us to contemplate
a project that was too ridiculous for the guy who gave the world “Copacabana.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Also
hiding out in the crowd were Paul and Linda McCartney, as well as George
Harrison, who one year later would form his own production company, Handmade
Films. History tells us that Harrison
started up Handmade to bankroll <i>Monty Python’s Life of
Brian</i>, but I like to think the idea began on the set of <i>Sgt.
Pepper</i> when he looked around and thought, “hell, even
<u>I</u> could do better than this.”</span></div>Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-161030341322098362012-03-13T18:19:00.002-04:002012-03-13T18:23:02.814-04:00In which I put off writing something of substance to talk nonsense about CarsSo I’ve recently been thinking of why the <span style="font-style: italic;">Cars </span>movies feel so “off” to me in relation to other Pixar movies. It’s not just that they’re easily the lamest movies Pixar has made. It’s more that every other Pixar production takes place alongside the human world, either because the characters are human themselves or because they’re small enough or have limited enough interactions with humans that they can have their own stories that are somewhat independent of ours. However, <span style="font-style: italic;">Cars </span>1 & 2 don’t work that way, since logistically speaking, a lot of the stuff they do (auto races, for example) would never escape our notice.<br /><br />So what’s the deal? One possibility is that the cars are actually Matchbox/Hot Wheels toys being manipulated by people, which would explain (a) why the cars aren’t cognizant of the humans’ presence, and (b) why the cars’ world feels like a sanitized kiddie version of our own. And hell, imagine how well that sets up a “gotcha” twist at the end of the inevitable CARS 3. <br /><br />But I’m more intrigued by the idea that the <span style="font-style: italic;">Cars </span>saga actually takes place in a distant future, long after some <span style="font-style: italic;">Terminator</span>-esque takeover by the machines. With no more people- or animals, it seems- in the world, the cars would have the world to themselves. But since their entire history has been spent as slaves to humans, they have very little of their own culture on which to build. Therefore, they have to fall back on human institutions to create their own world, since it’s all they know. They build human-like towns, find human-like forms of entertainment, live and work and dress themselves in ways reminiscent of the way it was back when humans ran the show. Hell, they even set up human-like systems of government and business. In a way, it’s kind of like Lars Von Trier’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Manderlay</span>. Sure, the cars are living in the past and have re-created a system designed to keep them subservient, but it’s the evil they know. And after generations of living this way, no one- not even Doc Hudson, who's the closest the <span style="font-style: italic;">Cars </span>universe has to a Danny Glover figure- knows any better.<br /><br />Of course, this theory doesn’t explain how the cars are able to talk by manipulating their bumpers- or for that matter, how the insects are tiny cars themselves. But still, thinking about these movies like this lends them a little bit more of an edge, even if it doesn’t necessarily make them better.Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-40690805459425747452012-02-28T22:56:00.002-05:002012-02-28T22:58:55.719-05:00The White Elephant Rides Again<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> <w:dontvertaligncellwithsp/> <w:dontbreakconstrainedforcedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> <w:word11kerningpairs/> <w:cachedcolbalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathpr> <m:mathfont val="Cambria Math"> <m:brkbin val="before"> <m:brkbinsub val="--"> <m:smallfrac val="off"> <m:dispdef/> <m:lmargin val="0"> <m:rmargin val="0"> <m:defjc val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent val="1440"> <m:intlim val="subSup"> <m:narylim val="undOvr"> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif][if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" defunhidewhenused="true" defsemihidden="true" defqformat="false" defpriority="99" latentstylecount="267"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="0" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Normal"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="heading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="35" qformat="true" name="caption"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="10" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" name="Default Paragraph Font"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="11" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtitle"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="22" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Strong"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="20" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="59" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Table Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Placeholder Text"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="No Spacing"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Revision"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="34" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="List Paragraph"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="29" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="30" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="19" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="21" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="31" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="32" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="33" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif][if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">With all the <a href="http://murielcommunity.blogspot.com">Muriels </a>excitement of late, it seems I’ve completely forgotten about another momentous annual event- the White Elephant Blogathon!<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But while we’re just over a month from April Fool’s Day- traditionally the date the White Elephant is held- I think we can still find a way to make this happen.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">So for those of you who are new to this, here are the rules as laid down by White Elephant founder Benjamin Lim:</p> <p class="MsoNormal">1) Submit the title of a movie that you want someone else to review (preferably something available via <a href="http://www.netflix.com">Netflix</a>).<br />2) Review the movie that you get assigned and post the review for your site/blog on April 1.<br />3) Have fun!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Now, some of you may be wondering what sort of movies to submit.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Really, it could be anything you want to see another person review.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It could be something you’d love to show to your best friend, or it could be something you’d only force on your worst enemy.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But if you feel like being nice, be warned- you might be lucky enough to get a movie like Claude Chabrol’s <i><a href="http://nonewvocab.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/le-boucher-1970-dir-claude-chabrol/#more-172">Le Boucher</a></i><a href="http://nonewvocab.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/le-boucher-1970-dir-claude-chabrol/#more-172"></a>, but you’re just as likely to end up with Madonna in <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"></span><i><a href="http://whenthedeadwalktheearth.blogspot.com/2010/06/swept-away-2002.html">Swept Away</a></i>.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So plan accordingly.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Anyway, if you haven’t been scared off already, you can send your submission to me at <a href="mailto:lastwordsquiz@yahoo.com">lastwordsquiz@yahoo.com</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Because I’d like everyone to have plenty of time to watch and review the movies I choose for them, submissions will be due no later than 11:59 PM on <b>Tuesday, March 6.</b><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In other words, one week from now.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And if you have any questions about the White Elephant or anything having to do with cheese or pugs, or pugs made out of cheese for that matter, feel free to e-Mail me about that as well.</p>Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-42007530358905767452011-12-23T16:32:00.002-05:002011-12-23T16:34:56.962-05:00We Need to Talk About Kevin ("Gee, ya think?")<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqHrliqXJ5APp_l0wwWFHqEUmK0-JsWR7717cLdEyUCXS6IpJ0Vs9DhMPas732TR1domqVNax89cmaYxsu52McoURzhnetd5pAK76voL2tqa08XkLcE5HsFhwCnSEiLSVcLNB9CA/s1600/kevin_stills_medium_a_l.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqHrliqXJ5APp_l0wwWFHqEUmK0-JsWR7717cLdEyUCXS6IpJ0Vs9DhMPas732TR1domqVNax89cmaYxsu52McoURzhnetd5pAK76voL2tqa08XkLcE5HsFhwCnSEiLSVcLNB9CA/s400/kevin_stills_medium_a_l.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5689440401538038034" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Of all the complaints I’ve read about <i>We Need to Talk About Kevin</i>, Ramsay’s first film in nearly a decade, the most interesting to me is the idea that the film doesn’t work because Kevin (played by Ezra Miller as a teenager) is a monster more or less from the time the doctor cut his umbilical cord. And you know what? Those folks aren’t wrong- a film in which a mother looks back at the fleeting, subtle signs that her kid is going to end up shooting up his school does (on paper, anyway) sound more compelling than one in which a child reveals his evil from the get-go and seems inevitably careening toward cataclysmic violence.<br /><br />Yet I don’t think that Ramsay wants to examine the genesis of a killer, so much as she wants to explore how inadequate the vast majority of us are when confronted with unfiltered evil.<br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://opalfilmslog.blogspot.com/2011/12/we-need-to-talk-about-kevin-2011-lynne.html">Click here for full review.</a></div>Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-29657258432154399742011-12-23T16:31:00.001-05:002011-12-23T16:36:12.337-05:00Screener grubbing 2011I’m a busy guy. After all, I’ve got a wife and kids, I’m working full-time, and I take college classes to boot. So while I try to carve out time for movies I want to see, there are always a few that slip through the cracks. Therefore, as in previous years, I’ve decided to make a list of the movies I want to see most, in the hope that some Good Samaritan out there might help me see what I really want to see before the Muriels deadline at the end of January.<br /><br />Note: some of the movies I’ve listed are scheduled to come to Columbus, while others are or will be available to me to view at home before the deadline. Titles that are <i>italicized</i> are ones I probably won’t be able to see- at least, not without help.<br /><br /><b><i>1. A Separation (Farhadi)</i></b><br />Usually, the movies I look forward to most are known quantities, more often than not coming from established filmmakers. So it seems a little odd that the movie I feel most compelled to watch before the Muriels deadline is from a director whose work is unfamiliar to me. However, based on the raves for <i>A Separation</i> since it first premiered at last year’s Berlinale, I’m willing to make an exception to my usual M.O. In recent years I’ve become more selective of critics whose opinions I really trust, so while it’s impressive that Farhadi’s film was at the top of Roger Ebert’s best-of-2011 list and placed prominently on the lists of both EW critics, that means less to me than the love it’s getting from Mike D’Angelo, who’s the exact opposite of a critical “easy lay.” Yet D’Angelo has rated the film higher than any new release since <i>The Man Who Wasn’t There</i> fully a decade ago. Good enough for me.<br /><br /><b><i>2. Margaret (Lonergan)</i></b><br />Speaking of a decade ago, remember when Kenneth Lonergan was an exciting new directorial voice, poised to take American cinema by storm in the wake of his <i>You Can Count on Me</i> success? Then <i>Margaret</i> happened- a movie that was caught up in litigation for five years before trickling into the most cursory of releases, a cautionary tale for up-and-coming filmmakers who would dare to think big within the Hollywood system. But while the groundswell of online support for <i>Margaret</i> is heartening, in the end a film must succeed on its own merits, and judging by all the evidence, it’s the sort of ambitious, underloved work that’s usually right up my alley. I’m just hoping I can check this out sooner rather than later.<br /><br /><b><i>3. George Harrison: Living in the Material World (Scorsese)</i></b><br />There are quite a few notable documentaries still on my cinephile dance card before the movie years wraps up (see #6 below), but the one I’m most curious to see is this one. Being both a Scorsese fan and a Harrison fan of long standing, I really want to check out what the master filmmaker has to say about the most spiritual- and in many ways, the most complicated- of the Beatles.<br /><br /><b>4. A Dangerous Method (Cronenberg)</b> [coming 27 Jan to Columbus]<br />I wasn’t the world’s biggest fan of <i>Eastern Promises</i>, but when Cronenberg’s on, he’s pretty great. And considering I dig a lot of his more cerebral works, I’m hoping this is in the tradition of <i>Dead Ringers</i> and <i>Spider</i>.<br /><br /><b>5. Aurora (Puiu)</b> [available 10 Jan on DVD]<br />Puiu’s bitterly cold comedy <i>The Death of Mr. Lazarescu</i> made my top 10 back in 2006, so I’ve waited a while for this, his follow-up, and felt terrible that I had to miss its single screening at the Wex. No matter- the upcoming DVD release should help me rectify this.<br /><br /><b><i>6 (tie). Into the Abyss (Herzog)<br />Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (Berlinger/Sinofsky)</i></b><br />Two documentaries about the complexities of the American justice system, from two (okay, three) gifted filmmakers. Reviews for <i>Into the Abyss</i> haven’t been stellar, but Herzog’s always compelling, and I’m curious about his take on the death penalty. And while the West Memphis Three were freed just a few months ago, I believe the third <i>Paradise Lost</i> documentary should present a fitting coda both to the case and to this great and noble documentary series.<br /><br />I’ve listed the other movies in my to-see list below, in alphabetical order. As before, titles that I don’t think I’ll have a means to see prior to the Muriels deadline are italicized, so if anyone out there can hook me up with a copy, that would be awesome:<br /><br />The Artist (Hazanavicius) [coming 13 Jan to Columbus]<br />Carnage (Polanski) [coming 20 Jan to Columbus]<br />The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Fincher) [now in theatres]<br />House of Pleasures (Bonello) [coming 2 Feb to Columbus; also available on SundanceNow]<br /><i>The Interrupters (James)</i><br />Moneyball (Miller) [now in theatres]<br /><i>My Joy (Loznitsa)</i><br />Mysteries of Lisbon (Ruiz) [now on DVD]<br /><i>Pina (Wenders)</i><br /><i>Shame (McQueen)</i><br /><i>The Skin I Live In (Almodovar)</i><br />Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Alfredson) [coming 13 Jan to Columbus]<br />Tuesday, After Christmas (Muntean) [coming 27 Dec to DVD]<br /><br />Thanks!Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9688582.post-82737216251952392632011-11-21T18:46:00.002-05:002011-11-21T18:50:02.334-05:00New Content AlertSo hey, look! I actually wrote some new reviews for the blog. If I only I liked the movies, that would be even more awesome! Anyway, here goes:<br /><br /><a href="http://opalfilmslog.blogspot.com/2011/11/twilight-saga-breaking-dawn-part-1-2011.html"><i>Breaking Dawn</i></a>- "If you need the book to explain the movie, then the filmmakers have dropped the ball."<br /><br /><a href="http://opalfilmslog.blogspot.com/2011/11/happy-feet-two-2011-george-miller.html"><i>Happy Feet Two</i></a>- "What was once endearingly off-kilter now feels focus-grouped to death."Paul C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com0