My favorite song of the decade is Andre 3000's original, but Obadiah Parker's slowed-down, de-funked, acoustic version highlights the killer-sad lyrics and holds up surprisingly well. It's the second best cover of a hip-hop song after Dynamite Hack's Boyz in the Hood.
Continue reading this postThursday, December 17, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Best of 2009
1. Inglourious Basterds
2. An Education
3. In the Loop
4. Public Enemies
5. Adventureland
6. Up in the Air
7. Taking of Pelham 123
8. Up
9. Extract
10. Hangover
11. The Road
12. Funny People
I still need to see Precious, Avatar, The Last Station, Hurt Locker, Crazy Heart, Invictus, Brothers, and The Messenger.
Song of the Day - Pa Pa Power, Dead Man's Bones
Another Europpraiser selection. A pretty good song from Ryan Gosling's band.
Continue reading this postTuesday, December 15, 2009
Golden Globe Nominations Announced
This really is one of the weakest years I can remember. Click below for the full list of nominees:Best Drama: "Avatar," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglorious Basterds," "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," "Up in the Air."
Best Musical or Comedy: "(500) Days of Summer," "The Hangover," "It's Complicated," "Julie & Julia," "Nine."
Actor, Drama: Jeff Bridges, "Crazy Heart"; George Clooney, "Up in the Air"; Colin Firth, "A Single Man"; Morgan Freeman, "Invictus"; Tobey Maguire, "Brothers."
Actress, Drama: Emily Blunt, "The Young Victoria"; Sandra Bullock, "The Blind Side"; Helen Mirren, "The Last Station"; Carey Mulligan, "An Education"; Gabourey Sidibe, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire."
Director: Kathryn Bigelow, "The Hurt Locker"; James Cameron, "Avatar"; Clint Eastwood, "Invictus"; Jason Reitman, "Up in the Air"; Quentin Tarantino, "Inglorious Basterds."
Actor, Musical or Comedy: Matt Damon, "The Informant!"; Daniel Day-Lewis, "Nine"; Robert Downey Jr., "Sherlock Holmes"; Joseph Gordon-Levitt, "(500) Days of Summer"; Michael Stuhlbarg, "A Serious Man."
Actress, Musical or Comedy: Sandra Bullock, "The Proposal"; Marion Cotillard, "Nine"; Julia Roberts, "Duplicity"; Meryl Streep, "It's Complicated"; Meryl Streep, "Julie & Julia."
Supporting Actor: Matt Damon, "Invictus"; Woody Harrelson, "The Messenger"; Christopher Plummer, "The Last Station"; Stanley Tucci, "The Lovely Bones"; Christoph Waltz, "Inglorious Basterds."
Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, "Nine"; Vera Farmiga, "Up in the Air"; Anna Kendrick, "Up in the Air"; Mo'Nique, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"; Julianne Moore, "A Single Man."
Foreign Language: "Baaria," "Broken Embraces," "The Maid (La Nana)," "A Prophet," "The White Ribbon."
Animated Film: "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," "Coraline," "Fantastic Mr. Fox," "The Princess and the Frog," "Up."
Screenplay: Neill Blomkamp, "District 9"; Mark Boal, "The Hurt Locker"; Nancy Meyers, "It's Complicated"; Jason Reitman, "Up in the Air"; Quentin Tarantino, "Inglorious Basterds."
Original Score: Michael Giacchino, "Up"; Marvin Hamlisch, "The Informant!"; James Horner, "Avatar"; Abel Korzeniowski, "A Single Man"; Karen O, Carter Burwell, "Where the Wild Things Are."
Original Song: "Cinema Italiano" (written by Maury Yeston), "Nine"; "I Want to Come Home" (written by Paul McCartney); "Everybody's Fine"; "I Will See You" (written by James Horner, Simon Franglen, Kuk Harrell); "Avatar"; "The Weary Kind (Theme from 'Crazy Heart')" (written by Ryan Bingham, T Bone Burnett); "Crazy Heart"; "Winter" (written by U2), "Brothers."
Song of the Day- Perfectly Lonely
A song for my married brothers, Perfectly Lonely by John Mayer sums up my perspective as well as pretty much any song I've seen. Hear it here.
Continue reading this postDVD and Blu-ray Releases 12/15/09
G-Force - #
The Hangover - #, *
Inglourious Basterds - #, *
La Boheme - #
The Other Man - #
Taking Woodstock - #
Star Trek Season 3 - Original Series - #
The Tudors: 3rd Season
# - also on Blu-ray
* - Doctor approved
Monday, December 14, 2009
The Blind Side - B
In theaters. Rated PG-13, 128 minutes. Trailer. 
The Blind Side is the feel-good movie of 2009. Which is to say, a towering cynic such as myself has a hard time watching it without throwing up, even though parts of it are quite good. Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw star as wealthy Tennessee private school parents that adopt a homeless black student (that had recently been admitted as a charity case) from the school. The plot is EXACTLY what you would guess it is based on that one sentence description, which makes it great/makes it terrible at the same time. Click below for more on BS:
Bullock gives a good but one-dimensional performance as the sassy domineering mother with a heart. Tim McGraw is (gulp) the best thing about the film, delivering multiple indulgent one-liners. Having said that, when his character quotes Tennyson I was reaching for the throw up bag. The black character in question is portrayed by newcomer Quinton Aaron through a series of distant looks and expected smiles.
The basic message of the film and the portrayal of the Christian family is great. They are successful, smart, Christian do-gooders with a sense of humor - a rare fair depiction of the backbone of America. Writer/Director and Longview native John Lee Hancock (A Perfect World, The Rookie) is a talented guy and is making a clear intentional choice to make a by-the-numbers film based on a true story (I won't ruin the most obvious story ever for a character named 'big Mike').
This is a movie for people that hate No Country For Old Men - boomer moms across the heartland are eating this up. Part of me gives the film a C- the other part gives it a B+. Take your mom.
Song of the Day - Damn It Feels Good to be a Gangster - Geto Boys
A classic song even before its use in Office Space - its use in this montage is truly profound - Gen X gives it to the Man.
Continue reading this postSunday, December 13, 2009
Up in the Air - B+
In theaters. Rated R, 109 minutes. Trailer.
Life is better when you are connected with people rather than living a vacuous corporate lifestyle without such connections. Such is the basic point of Up In the Air, a pretty good movie that is getting lots of talk as the Best Picture of 2009. I suppose that the main theme of the film is interesting or profound to some people, but to me it was so obvious that it undermined the impact of the film. Click below for more on UITA:
George Clooney stars as Ryan Bingham, a professional 'terminator' that flies around the country firing employees because the owners of those companies won't do it. He is comforted by the routines and special privileges afforded 'road warriors' and has a goal of reaching 10 million AAdvantage miles on American Airlines (something only 7 people have ever done). He avoids his family and views human connections as simply weight in your 'backpack' of life. After his boss (a slimy Jason Bateman) embraces a webconferencing idea from a freshly minted Cornell grad (Anna Kendrick) that will end his life on the road, he is faced with the prospect of his protective emotional casing being torn down. In order to familiarize Anna with the realities of firing people, Bateman sends the 2 out on the road. Along the way, Clooney finds his female counterpart (Vera Farmiga) and begins a potentially weighty relationship.
Co-writer/Director Jason Reitman (Juno, Thank You For Smoking) delivers on a thoughtful film with some interesting sequences and scenes, but as I've already mentioned, there is a bit of a 'duh' to the whole thing. Who doesn't realize that living like Bingham is shallow and ultimately sacrifices your soul - even a dumb movie like Wedding Crashers touches on this theme. Maybe this thing works for the elites on the Coasts for whom the embrace of family is foreign, but for me it fell flat. There are some mildly effective scenes showing the economic pain being felt by companies and the real people that are working and being layed off at them.
What did work well were the scenes with Kendrick - the cross-generational discussions were substantive and playful and mostly devoid of cliche. The multiple scene bit about Bingham's obsession with travel perks and efficiency were also enjoyable. My plot summary petered out, but I couldn't go further without ruining the film. The ending was intriguingly ambiguous, which I greatly appreciate, but my feeling was more of a 'who cares' than it was after other ambiguous endings (i.e. No Country For Old Men).
This is worth seeing, but don't go in with great expectations or you will be disappointed.
Weekend Box Office: 12/11-12/13/09
Title/Gross/%Change/Total
1. Princess & Frog: 25 mil / (+) / 28 mil
2. The Blind Side: 15.5 mil / -23% / 150 mil
3. Invictus: 9 mil / (-)
4. New Moon: 8 mil / -48% / 267 mil
5. Christmas Carol: 7 mil / -12% / 125 mil
6. Brothers: 5 mil / -48% / 17.4 mil
7. 2012: 4.4 mil / -35% / 155 mil
8. Old Dogs: 4.4 mil / -36% / 40 mil
9. Armored: 3.5 mil / -46% / 12 mil
10. Ninja Assassin: 2.7 mil / -47% / 34 mil
11. Up in the Air: 2.5 mil / (+) / 4 mil
The Blind Side and A Christmas Carol continue their great holds and Invictus opens soft. Up in the Air's expansion is succeeding. Click on the picture, print it, frame it, and put it on your mantle.
Song of the Day - Winter
By U2
I may have missed discussion about this song and am certainly not the resident U2 expert, but it feels and sounds like old times from the super-group. It's from Brothers, the Jim Sheridan film in theaters right now. Maybe Sheridan got them in touch with their Irish roots.
The yellow sun
Well, it took the hand
Of a country boy
To a city in a far-off land
We made no mark
No shadow at all
On the ancient, holy streets
Where I learned to crawl
The broken and the bruised
The young and the used
The sure and confused
All here
Words will then land on me
Then abandon me
Mangle, untangle me
Leave me on the floor
Rhymes, they sprang in me
Summer sang in me
But summer sings in me no more
Now I'm twenty-five
And trying to stay alive
In a corner of the world
With no clear enemies to fight
It's hot as hell
We're like butter on toast
But there's no army in this world
That can fight a ghost
The broken and the bruised
The young and the used
The sure and confused
All here
Words will then land on me
Then abandon me
Leave me stranded
In guard of the door
Rhymes began in me
Summer sang in me
But summer sings in me no more
Listening to the cries
The strangers
The silence of the foreign grave
Listening to the thunder
The sky is strange
Stretched over everyone
Listening to the tales
The child sings
That goes for days and days
Listening to the calls
Shouts, frustration
At twenty-one
I was born a son
And on that day I knew
I could kill
To protect the ones
We put bullets in guns
Or anything it takes
To take a life until it's still
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Song of the Day - The Weary Kind
by Ryan Bingham
From the upcoming film Crazy Heart where a grizzled country singer (Jeff Bridges) looks for redemption. Bingham's raspy voice seems to fit the worn-down lyrics. You'll probably be hearing a lot of this song in the following months.
Your heart’s on the loose
You rolled them seven’s with nothing lose
And this ain’t no place for the weary kind
You called all your shots
Shooting 8 ball at the corner truck stop
Somehow this don’t feel like home anymore
And this ain’t no place for the weary kind
And this ain’t no place to lose your mind
And this ain’t no place to fall behind
Pick up your crazy heart and give it one more try
Your body aches…
Playing your guitar and sweating out the hate
The days and the nights all feel the same
Whiskey has been a thorn in your side
and it doesn’t forget
the highway that calls for your heart inside
And this ain’t no place for the weary kind
And this ain’t no place to lose your mind
And this ain’t no place to fall behind
Pick up your crazy heart and give it one more try
Your lovers won’t kiss…
It’s too damn far from your fingertips
You are the man that ruined her world
Your heart’s on the loose
You rolled them seven’s with nothing lose
And this ain’t no place for the weary kind
Friday, December 11, 2009
Holiday Movie Releases - 12/11/09
Invictus
Morgan Freeman stops playing "Morgan Freeman" (i.e. Red) and becomes Nelson Mandela shortly after Mandela is released from prison in the mid 1990s. Freeman certainly has the talent and charisma to carry a long Eastwood-paced film. He's already picking up best actor awards here and there. Somehow, a blond rugby-playing Matt Damon is relevant to the story. Wide release.
The Lovely Bones
Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) gets murdered by Stanley Tucci and then stays in some kind of purgatory and watches her parents (Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz). Peter Jackson directs, so the fantastical elements should work well. But this looks super-creepy and Tucci looks like the biggest perv in years. Congratulations. Limited release.
A Single Man
Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, and Nicholas Hoult (About a Boy's Marcus) star in a story about a gay British college professor (Firth) who loses his lover in 1962 and has to deal with the sadness and isolation. Sounds like Brokeback Mountain except this one has fabulous costumes instead of rugged peaks and wide valleys. As much as I love Moore, I'll defer this review to my colleagues. Limited release.
Song of the Day - Piano Man, Billy Joel (as sung by Aaron Lewis)
All the love for Outside led me to this great version of a song that usually drains my lifeforce. Priest, we'll see whether you like it.
Continue reading this postThursday, December 10, 2009
Top Songs/Albums List on Rollingstone
In these musically-splintered times, Rollingstone is the only magazine that still tries to cover it all. Maybe that's good, maybe it's dumb, but it makes their "Best of" lists the only ones that come close to representing all of pop music. Their Top 100 Albums of the Decade (Kid A, #1), and Top 100 Songs of the Decade (Crazy, #1) are based on surveying performers (from ?uestlove to Miranda Lambert to Colin Meloy), insiders (Cameron Crowe), and their own editors (list here). More fun, they publish 25 artists' ballots (often handwritten) here, with some real surprises. Lars Ulrich names U2's Moment of Surrender as his #1 Song of the Decade?!? (The song is #34 on the overall list? I was stunned). Anyway, a fun list full of some real surprises.
Continue reading this postBest Films of the Decade 5-1
5. Zodiac
David Fincher confidently walks into areas owned by All the President's Men (newspaper genre) and Vertigo (obsession) and very nearly matches their standard. The cop genre is satisfyingly incorporated with detectives using their brains, not guns. Fincher also has the guts to re-enter the serial killer genre where he already has his own masterpiece and comes back with something even more substantial. In his first period film, Fincher convincingly recreates 1970s California to the last precise detail. Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Robert Downey, Jr. are the standouts, but there are at least a dozen more character actors doing superb work. Extrapolating the story to our modern era is an unexpected bonus. We have less and less closure these days. Not putting Hitler on trial was just the beginning. We can't even find the bad guys anymore. Sometimes, we're not even sure who they are.
4. There Will Be Blood
The best film of the decade - until they get to 1927 and Daniel Day-Lewis's Daniel Plainview descends into parody (as evidenced by everyone's ability to mimic his lines - which were never meant to be catchphrases). But director Paul Thomas Anderson salvages it with a Kubrick-worthy last shot (and line) and a perfect musical cue. Nobody seems to be capable of inhabiting characters like Day-Lewis. Anderson's complex treatment of religion and greed is staggering as is the oil derrick scene - one of the most startlingly original and exhilarating film moments of the decade. Cinematographer Robert Elswit captures the barren landscapes (and everything else) terrifically. And Jonny Greenwood's original score breaks almost as much ground as Plainview himself did in the film.
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Charlie Kaufman dissects love in the modern era with a thoughtful, touching script about getting rid of bad memories to survive even though those bad memories help make us who we are. Jim Carrey will never be better and the supporting cast (especially Tom Wilkinson and Mark Ruffalo) is equally great, but it's Kate Winslet who is the force of nature as the troubled, exciting, spontaneous Clementine. Director Michel Gondry has certainly disappointed since, but his use of classical filmmaking techniques (forced perspective, trick lighting) as well as CGI serve the story well. The "science" is more fictional than anything found in Minority Report, but the truthfulness of the emotions and the conclusion that love should not be explained but experienced will resonate for a very long while.
2. Mulholland Drive
No other film has captured our movie & celebrity obsessed culture so well. A young starry-eyed lady (Naomi Watts) moves to Hollywood in the hopes of achieving great success and things go well - until the best hard left turn in any film since Psycho (twist endings are different). Every film genre (westerns, mystery, mob, romance) is included in the first 90 minutes as part of Betty's/Diane's fantasy, hallucination, or dying vision (your choice, pick one). Each scene is fascinating in appearance and sound. David Lynch had an excellent pilot TV episode which, when rejected, he flipped on its head and turned the focus on addiction, obsession, jilted lovers, revenge, memory, dreams, and everything in between. Making it somewhat coherent and complete is nothing short of astonishing.
1. No Country for Old Men
It's an excellent cat-and-mouse chase movie with the Coens' droll humor laced with tension and suspense. There's an excellent sense of time and place (1980, West Texas), great cinematography (clouds, water, sunlight), greater performances (led by Javier Bardem), and a minimal use of music that works quite well. Then, the genius third act kicks in and Tommy Lee Jones's character (Sheriff Ed Bell) comes to the forefront (even though he provided the opening narration). In last hotel crime scene, it seems like he chooses to ignore Anton Chigurh and live rather than confront evil incarnate. Or does he? Bell may have been an unreliable narrator all along, sharing his bleak outlook on the world. Every aging population thinks the young are going to screw it up. The themes of life, fate, choice, chance, dreams, reality, redemption, and the trivial nature of human existence hit me harder than any film of the decade. The Coens have always had the technique; they needed novelist Cormac McCarthy to provide the substance.
6. The Departed
7. Memento
8. Adaptation
9. Minority Report
10. City of God
11. Children of Men
12. The Lives of Others
13. The Incredibles
14. Traffic
15. Master and Commander
16. A History of Violence
17. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
18. I'm Not There
19. Almost Famous
20. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
21. Finding Nemo
22. The Dark Knight
23. Sideways
24. Once
25. The Hurt Locker
26. Let the Right One In
27. Cinderella Man
28. Synecdoche, New York
29. Miami Vice
30. Punch-Drunk Love
31. Up
32. Lord of the Rings
33. Erin Brockovich
34. Michael Clayton
35. Lost in Translation
36. Inglourious Basterds
37. About a Boy
38. Public Enemies
39. Amelie
40. Collateral
41. Munich
42. Black Hawk Down & The Constant Gardner
43. Mystic River
44. The Aviator
45. Cast Away
46. The Wrestler
47. Gosford Park
48. Kill Bill
49. You Can Count On Me
50. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
51. 21 Grams
52. Ratatouille & WALL-E
53. Road to Perdition
54. Billy Elliot
55. The Royal Tenenbaums
56. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
57. Downfall
58. Hot Fuzz
59. The New World
60. Knocked Up
61. Inland Empire
62. United 93
63. Babel
64. Pan's Labyrinth
65. In the Bedroom
66. Monsters, Inc.
67. The Pianist
68. Batman Begins
69. 3:10 to Yuma
70. King Kong
71. In Bruges
72. No Direction Home
73. Intolerable Cruelty
74. Little Children
75. Gangs of New York
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Best Films of the Decade 10-6
10. City of God
A wildly imaginative and violent trip through the Rio de Janeiro slums with multiple characters trying to survive. Director Fernando Meirelles uses creative camera angles, amazing natural lighting, and quick cutting to infuse the film with incredible energy and force. The moment that amazed me most was the "History of the room" scene, a truly inspired scene that helps universalize the story and strangely makes the characters more real. Perhaps the most ingenious and innovative film of the decade.
9. Minority Report
Steven Spielberg uses classical filmmaking techniques and flawlessly merges them with state of the art CGI. Janusz Kaminski's strong use of bright white and blue lights gives the workplace a sterile and cold feel. He then changes his lighting scheme (more browns, golds, and greens) for the more personal and emotional moments. Samantha Morton gives one of the best female performances of the decade. Predestination and fate are effectively explored. The best-looking film of the decade and the best science-fiction film in two.
8. Adaptation
Charlie Kaufman's difficulty adapting Susan Orlean's novel The Orchid Thief is profoundly documented with Kaufman collaborating with director Spike Jonze. Kaufman breaks every screenwriting rule - it's like he's using flash-forward and flash-back techniques on the page. He tells you exactly what he is going to do and you're still surprised when he does it. But this would only be a stimulating cerebral exercise if he didn't stick the landing. Toward the end, when Donald tells Charlie that the unrequited love he had for a girl in high school made him happy because it belonged to him and not the girl is an original idea and gives the broken-hearted everywhere comfort.
7. Memento
Christopher Nolan's breakout film is a neat trick on the page - the story of a man with short-term memory problems trying to solve his wife's murder is told both chronologically (the black and white phone call) and in reverse (the one in color with all the action). The film has a surprisingly great sense of humor while remaining a terrific mystery. What actually happened is left up to the viewer. What isn't in doubt is Nolan's ability to apply big concepts to an entertaining film. Here, memory (what we choose to remember and why, and what memories we alter to make ourselves feel better) is the central focus. The fact that the 2 storylines merge at the moment where Leonard loses his way is just icing on the cake.
6. The Departed
Martin Scorsese's return to the crime genre was rightfully celebrated by the public, critics, and Oscar. William Monahan's tough-guy dialogue is the best of the decade - hilarious, memorable, and quotable. Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg seem to get the best lines. Jack Nicholson's crazy, improvised performance sometimes veers off course, but adds another dimension to the film. Matt Damon gives his best performance since Good Will Hunting, but it's Leonardo DiCaprio that runs off with the film. DiCaprio's performance is a knockout - desperate and heartfelt, tormented and intense. Scorsese directs with his typical expertise and there are important themes about identity, morality, and trust.
11. Children of Men
12. The Lives of Others
13. The Incredibles
14. Traffic
15. Master and Commander
16. A History of Violence
17. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
18. I'm Not There
19. Almost Famous
20. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
21. Finding Nemo
22. The Dark Knight
23. Sideways
24. Once
25. The Hurt Locker
26. Let the Right One In
27. Cinderella Man
28. Synecdoche, New York
29. Miami Vice
30. Punch-Drunk Love
31. Up
32. Lord of the Rings
33. Erin Brockovich
34. Michael Clayton
35. Lost in Translation
36. Inglourious Basterds
37. About a Boy
38. Public Enemies
39. Amelie
40. Collateral
41. Munich
42. Black Hawk Down & The Constant Gardner
43. Mystic River
44. The Aviator
45. Cast Away
46. The Wrestler
47. Gosford Park
48. Kill Bill
49. You Can Count On Me
50. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
51. 21 Grams
52. Ratatouille & WALL-E
53. Road to Perdition
54. Billy Elliot
55. The Royal Tenenbaums
56. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
57. Downfall
58. Hot Fuzz
59. The New World
60. Knocked Up
61. Inland Empire
62. United 93
63. Babel
64. Pan's Labyrinth
65. In the Bedroom
66. Monsters, Inc.
67. The Pianist
68. Batman Begins
69. 3:10 to Yuma
70. King Kong
71. In Bruges
72. No Direction Home
73. Intolerable Cruelty
74. Little Children
75. Gangs of New York
New Pumpkins (For Free)
The Smashing Pumpkins, Lawyer fav, have announced a plan to give away their next 44 songs, one at a time. Hear the first one, "A Song for a Son", here. It's pretty good, and Corgan's voice is as stellar as ever. And here is the rest of it.
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