"So where does that leave us? On the precipice of a brand-new movie morning. One of the great joys of the first moments of Oscar aftermath is that it affords all of us an almost limitless amount of optimism. The year 2012 will bring us Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln and Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby and Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit and Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables. We’ll see major new films from Kathryn Bigelow and Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson, from the Wachowskis and Ang Lee and Christopher Nolan and Ben Affleck and Wes Anderson and Alfonso Cuarón and the suddenly blessedly prolific Terrence Malick. And something or someone will explode out of Cannes or Toronto, an event as unforeseeable today as The Artist was a year ago. I hope they’re all great. 2012 doesn’t feel like a year for the mild or minor or gentle, but a year in which filmmakers are prepared to swing for the fences. It’s about time."
- Mark Harris
"Oscarmetrics: A Good-bye to Awards Season" on Grantland
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Screened: October 2011
October 2: I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang
Screened: For class
October 5: Drive
Screened: In the theater
I'm so glad I let the buzz prevail over my action-movie misgivings, because I loved this dreamy, pulpy movie. A side effect of working in the film class I TA'd for this semester was thinking more about the impact of seeing a movie in the theater as opposed to watching it at home - watching Drive in the theater felt like being steeped in a pure distillation of the essence of an action movie.
October 7: Hanna
Screened: At home, DVD from Netflix
October 9: Moneyball
Screened: In the theater
I think Moneyball at its heart is a perfect expression of its story's central thesis, an idealized portrait of moving parts working in concert. It felt like it had just the right amount of everything - the wonkiness of delving into sports statistics, the emotions of tracing players through the ups-and-downs of the sport as commercial enterprise (including the flashbacks to Billy Beane's start as a player), and the ultimate embrace of pure sports-movie cliche in the culmination of the A's lengthy winning streak.
October 9: Maurice
Screened: At home, DVR from TCM
October 11: The Ides of March
Screened: In the theater
I liked this movie, particularly the performances from the ensemble and Clooney's command of the current media climate, but I wondered whether the relatively insular focus on the campaign at the heart of the story prevented Clooney and his collaborators from making broader claims about politics in general. Not that I think the characters here needed to map more clearly onto familiar political figures; I wasn't expecting, say, Primary Colors, but I think I was expecting something more like Peter Morgan's studies of Tony Blair, where at its heart it's making larger points about the difference between persona and reality or the substance of today's political climate.
October 12: Limelight
Screened: At home, DVR from TCM
October 16: She Done Him Wrong, Gold Diggers of 1933
Screened: For class
October 21: Bad Teacher
Screened: At home, DVD from Netflix
Screened: For class
October 5: Drive
Screened: In the theater
I'm so glad I let the buzz prevail over my action-movie misgivings, because I loved this dreamy, pulpy movie. A side effect of working in the film class I TA'd for this semester was thinking more about the impact of seeing a movie in the theater as opposed to watching it at home - watching Drive in the theater felt like being steeped in a pure distillation of the essence of an action movie.
October 7: Hanna
Screened: At home, DVD from Netflix
October 9: Moneyball
Screened: In the theater
I think Moneyball at its heart is a perfect expression of its story's central thesis, an idealized portrait of moving parts working in concert. It felt like it had just the right amount of everything - the wonkiness of delving into sports statistics, the emotions of tracing players through the ups-and-downs of the sport as commercial enterprise (including the flashbacks to Billy Beane's start as a player), and the ultimate embrace of pure sports-movie cliche in the culmination of the A's lengthy winning streak.
October 9: Maurice
Screened: At home, DVR from TCM
October 11: The Ides of March
Screened: In the theater
I liked this movie, particularly the performances from the ensemble and Clooney's command of the current media climate, but I wondered whether the relatively insular focus on the campaign at the heart of the story prevented Clooney and his collaborators from making broader claims about politics in general. Not that I think the characters here needed to map more clearly onto familiar political figures; I wasn't expecting, say, Primary Colors, but I think I was expecting something more like Peter Morgan's studies of Tony Blair, where at its heart it's making larger points about the difference between persona and reality or the substance of today's political climate.
October 12: Limelight
Screened: At home, DVR from TCM
October 16: She Done Him Wrong, Gold Diggers of 1933
Screened: For class
October 21: Bad Teacher
Screened: At home, DVD from Netflix
Screened: September 2011
September 3: Sunset Boulevard
Screened: At home, on TCM
September 5: The Birth of a Nation
Screened: For class
September 10: Paul
Screened: At home, DVD from Netflix
September 11: Within Our Gates
Screened: For class
September 13: Thor
Screened: At home, DVD from Netflix
Like the Iron Man movies, Thor was ultimately a bit too concerned with moving necessary pieces into place looking ahead to The Avengers, but Chris Hemsworth did a good job of establishing his character and I think Natalie Portman, like Hayley Atwell in Captain America, made the "superhero's girlfriend" role seem not entirely thankless.
September 17: Something Borrowed
Screened: At home, DVD from Netflix
Since I wrote about my thoughts on the trailer back when it came out, I figured I should check back in post-viewing. A lot of my concerns expressed there were indeed borne out by the film - much of that boils down to changes made from the original book that negatively impacted the movie. The alterations to the characters of Ethan and Claire contributed to a feeling of overly broad humor that permeated the tone of the movie. The transition from the book's first-person narration obscured the emotional underpinnings of both Rachel's friendship with Darcy and her relationship with Dex. And while I recognize that it's probably too much to expect the screenwriter to draw from Giffin's other books to bolster this adaptation, I think the Thaler family dynamics she lays out in Heart of the Matter are much more interesting than the fairly boilerplate parent-son relationship depicted in the movie. (Not to mention the third-party perspective she gives in Tessa observing Dex and Rachel's relationship.) The crazy thing is that I liked John Krasinski and Kate Hudson enough in their roles that I was still really curious at the end to see how a film version of Something Blue might work. But maybe it's for the best that that doesn't seem likely to happen.
September 20: The Sheik, It
Screened: At home, Netflix Instant Watch
September 25: The Jazz Singer
Screened: For class
September 27: Beginners
Screened: In the theater
I keep wanting to call this movie "sweet," but I feel like that's suggesting something shallow about it that isn't quite what I'm trying to get at. It's a clear-eyed portrait that interweaves romantic love and family love, always conscious of its medium but also emotionally honest in the best way. It doesn't shy away from its moments of deep sadness, but ultimately embraces a feeling of hopefulness. Heartwarming, but not pandering. Yes, sweet.
September 27: The Breakfast Club
Screened: In the theater
Screened: At home, on TCM
September 5: The Birth of a Nation
Screened: For class
September 10: Paul
Screened: At home, DVD from Netflix
September 11: Within Our Gates
Screened: For class
September 13: Thor
Screened: At home, DVD from Netflix
Like the Iron Man movies, Thor was ultimately a bit too concerned with moving necessary pieces into place looking ahead to The Avengers, but Chris Hemsworth did a good job of establishing his character and I think Natalie Portman, like Hayley Atwell in Captain America, made the "superhero's girlfriend" role seem not entirely thankless.
September 17: Something Borrowed
Screened: At home, DVD from Netflix
Since I wrote about my thoughts on the trailer back when it came out, I figured I should check back in post-viewing. A lot of my concerns expressed there were indeed borne out by the film - much of that boils down to changes made from the original book that negatively impacted the movie. The alterations to the characters of Ethan and Claire contributed to a feeling of overly broad humor that permeated the tone of the movie. The transition from the book's first-person narration obscured the emotional underpinnings of both Rachel's friendship with Darcy and her relationship with Dex. And while I recognize that it's probably too much to expect the screenwriter to draw from Giffin's other books to bolster this adaptation, I think the Thaler family dynamics she lays out in Heart of the Matter are much more interesting than the fairly boilerplate parent-son relationship depicted in the movie. (Not to mention the third-party perspective she gives in Tessa observing Dex and Rachel's relationship.) The crazy thing is that I liked John Krasinski and Kate Hudson enough in their roles that I was still really curious at the end to see how a film version of Something Blue might work. But maybe it's for the best that that doesn't seem likely to happen.
September 20: The Sheik, It
Screened: At home, Netflix Instant Watch
September 25: The Jazz Singer
Screened: For class
September 27: Beginners
Screened: In the theater
I keep wanting to call this movie "sweet," but I feel like that's suggesting something shallow about it that isn't quite what I'm trying to get at. It's a clear-eyed portrait that interweaves romantic love and family love, always conscious of its medium but also emotionally honest in the best way. It doesn't shy away from its moments of deep sadness, but ultimately embraces a feeling of hopefulness. Heartwarming, but not pandering. Yes, sweet.
September 27: The Breakfast Club
Screened: In the theater
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Idle TV Thoughts
I didn't want to let this season of Justified go by without stating how very excellent I think it's been thus far. Last season was really good, but even with the great work done by the regular cast and guests like Kaitlyn Dever and the actors playing the Bennett sons, it was largely the Margo Martindale Show and as unbelievable as it was when she was on-screen, the show then felt a bit lacking when she wasn't. This season seems to be more evenly distributed between characters, and the result is Timothy Olyphant, Walton Goggins, Mykelti Williamson and Neal McDonough comprising this glorious cornucopia of all different kinds of swagger. The writing kicked up a notch too - the banter flows so smoothly, and whenever each of those four (but especially Williamson) steps up for a monologue, it feels like an aria. Reading back over that prose, it feels a little hyperbolic, but I'm honestly mesmerized by the show these days.
Random TV Love
My weekly television account seems to have completely fallen by the wayside, but I wanted to highlight this particular selection from last week. I knew a bit about the basics of the Loving case, but realized when I watched this movie that I don't think I'd ever heard either of them speak before. The documentarian really allows the footage of both the Lovings and their ACLU lawyers to speak for itself and drive the story of the case as it wound its way up to the Supreme Court. There's something really powerful about Mildred Loving's simple, plainspoken assertions of her rights, especially on days when people still find it necessary to be, well, versus Virginia. Hopefully, it will be available outside of HBO at some point.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
A Distinct Sense of Accomplishment
Talking to my friends last week, I realized that I never posted these pictures, which I meant to do shortly after these mittens reached their intended recipient (as a Christmas present for Hanna). We noted in our conversation that academic work can often feel awash in a sense of dissatisfaction with one's work that never really achieves resolution, and I observed that part of what I enjoy about knitting and baking is that there's an end where you can point to something definitive that you've completed. This was the first big Fair Isle project I'd done, which made it that much more rewarding.
I watched a lot of British miniseries while I was working on these. Watching The Buccaneers convinced me that there's nothing I'd like to see so much as a Downton Abbey prequel where we go back to the days of Robert as the titled fortune-hunter and Cora as the rich American. Imagine - meeting the previous Lord Grantham, he of the Entail of a Thousand Problems! Violet at what I assume must have been the very height of her powers as the mistress of Downton! Young Carson!
I watched a lot of British miniseries while I was working on these. Watching The Buccaneers convinced me that there's nothing I'd like to see so much as a Downton Abbey prequel where we go back to the days of Robert as the titled fortune-hunter and Cora as the rich American. Imagine - meeting the previous Lord Grantham, he of the Entail of a Thousand Problems! Violet at what I assume must have been the very height of her powers as the mistress of Downton! Young Carson!
*pattern from Debbie Bliss Knitting Magazine, Fall/Winter 2010*
Miscellaneous (Now Kind of Old-ish) TV Links
Getting this business back on track after the schedule-warping time drain of my Valentine's Day party last week.
- A Grantland piece on Skins upon the beginning of the sixth series in the UK - I particularly like that this essay credits the show for its unique handling of a played-out soap trope in Tony's recovery from his accident in the second series. I'm hoping that the fact that the fourth and fifth series have reached these shores without making a pit stop on BBC America means that it won't be too long before the sixth is available on Netflix or iTunes or somewhere. I wonder if they're sticking with the penultimate episode death for this generation of characters - the arc works with Chris' story in the second series, but Freddy's death in the fourth is one of the more absurd TV twists I've ever seen.
- An A.V. Club retrospective on Homeland - after I saw that the whole season was still available On Demand while I was home for winter break, I ended up watching all twelve episodes in about three days and loved it. I picked the interview segment with "The Weekend" because it was easily one of the best episodes of TV drama I saw all year. This is the first show that's ever made me want to subscribe to Showtime instead of just recording Showtime shows on my parents' DVR and watching episodes haphazardly whenever I'm home. (I'll also include a link to the fourth part of the interview because it has such a great picture of Carrie's rainbow timeline on her conspiracy wall. Maybe I'm over-identifying with her crazy self, but I think there's probably an apt comparison to be made between academics and fictional characters attempting to unravel major conspiracies. Like, I've never had a corkboard wall, but I definitely have enough paper to fill one.)
- And another A.V. Club piece from Todd VanDerWerff on the pacing of watching seasons of television - particularly in speeding through shows versus watching week-by-week. Looking ahead to March, I started intermittently watching Mad Men over again from the beginning and on this rewatch I've become convinced both that Adam Whitman is more important to the show's mythology than most fans give him credit for, particularly in how Don relates to his kids in wanting to remain an active presence in their lives (which in turn is a major factor in the whole "Why is Betty still around when she's such a horrible person?" debate), and that he's also an easy character to overlook if you're watching the show too quickly.
- A Grantland piece on Skins upon the beginning of the sixth series in the UK - I particularly like that this essay credits the show for its unique handling of a played-out soap trope in Tony's recovery from his accident in the second series. I'm hoping that the fact that the fourth and fifth series have reached these shores without making a pit stop on BBC America means that it won't be too long before the sixth is available on Netflix or iTunes or somewhere. I wonder if they're sticking with the penultimate episode death for this generation of characters - the arc works with Chris' story in the second series, but Freddy's death in the fourth is one of the more absurd TV twists I've ever seen.
- An A.V. Club retrospective on Homeland - after I saw that the whole season was still available On Demand while I was home for winter break, I ended up watching all twelve episodes in about three days and loved it. I picked the interview segment with "The Weekend" because it was easily one of the best episodes of TV drama I saw all year. This is the first show that's ever made me want to subscribe to Showtime instead of just recording Showtime shows on my parents' DVR and watching episodes haphazardly whenever I'm home. (I'll also include a link to the fourth part of the interview because it has such a great picture of Carrie's rainbow timeline on her conspiracy wall. Maybe I'm over-identifying with her crazy self, but I think there's probably an apt comparison to be made between academics and fictional characters attempting to unravel major conspiracies. Like, I've never had a corkboard wall, but I definitely have enough paper to fill one.)
- And another A.V. Club piece from Todd VanDerWerff on the pacing of watching seasons of television - particularly in speeding through shows versus watching week-by-week. Looking ahead to March, I started intermittently watching Mad Men over again from the beginning and on this rewatch I've become convinced both that Adam Whitman is more important to the show's mythology than most fans give him credit for, particularly in how Don relates to his kids in wanting to remain an active presence in their lives (which in turn is a major factor in the whole "Why is Betty still around when she's such a horrible person?" debate), and that he's also an easy character to overlook if you're watching the show too quickly.
Thursday, February 02, 2012
Trailer Thoughts
I didn't catch the terrible name pun until my second viewing of this.
- On the Yahoo page I got this from, the movie was listed under Tyler Perry's Good Deeds, which, if that's how it's going to be marketed, is one of the most self-aggrandizing things I've ever seen.
- I'm going to go ahead and assume that my curiosity about the genealogical breakdown of that whole "fifth-generation Ivy League" thing won't be satisfied.
- This...doesn't look terrible? Thandie Newton was easily one of the best things about For Colored Girls..., Perry's a million times more tolerable when he's just playing a regular dude, and if the story doesn't depend on Gabrielle Union and/or Phylicia Rashad's characters being total shrews completely out of proportion with reality then I could be on board.
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Idle TV Thoughts
Somehow, even though the person being sung to was wearing an eyepatch, that rendition of "Ben" still wasn't quite as whacked-out as I once hoped it would be.
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