There Will Be Speeches

A couple of my fellow bloggers and I saw over 10 hours of movies yesterday, as part of AMC's Best Picture Showcase. There was a diverse audience, composed of people who want to see good films even if they may not like them, who get into the films enough to respond outwardly, and are ready to chat about them while waiting in line at the concession stand or when milling about between films — the best kind of audience, in my opinion. It was a fun experience, and I hope they continue to do it every year.

As for the Oscars themselves, here are George Clooney's picks:

Picture: No Country For Old Men
Director: Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country For Old Men)
Actor: Daniel Day Lewis (There Will Be Blood)
Actress: Julie Christie (Away From Her)
Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men)
Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone)
Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody (Juno)
Adapted Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country For Old Men)
Cinematography: Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood)

I'm inclined to agree with Clooney's picks, although the Actress categories are up in the air for me. The winners could easily be Marion Cotillard and Cate Blanchett, or Laura Linney and Saiorse Ronan (OK, maybe not that far). Also, I wouldn't count out cinematographer Roger Deakins, who's shooting for his first Oscar (he's up for two films). I'll go out on a limb and say that Ratatouille will win for Animated Feature, although I wouldn't be too surprised to see Persepolis take it. I've seen both, and they're great in their own ways.

SNL was back last weekend, and here's its spoof of the Oscar nominated films:

You can also consider the latest Digital Short a movie spoof as well. (Not a movie spoof: Tina Fey and Steve Martin brought the funny in the monologue.)

Be Kind Rewind

Usually before going to watch a movie I'll do some cursory web surfing about the movie. I ran into something interesting. I haven't researched this a little more but this post seemed interesting. I don't think Michel Gondry commented on this yet. I don't know about the use of "steal" etc. It's interesting nevertheless.

I think one comment on the post resonated with me:

I do find it utterly strange that movies come in twos so often, however, independent inspiration exists, and having a similar plot just isn’t a big deal anymore.

In keeping with the theme of documentaries....

In speaking of documentaries. I just got done watching a good documentary on Howard Zinn. It's a quick watch. I was just checking google news and found that they're bringing readings of it to film. With a strong lineup it sounds like an entertaining documentary.

I was hoping it was going to be a film and not just a documentary. I know that Michel Gondry "worships" Noam Chomsky (link)
and a lot of people who like Chomsky like Zinn. Maybe he could throw together a film where they pair a comedian with a rap star like Artie Lange and E-40 and reenact moments in history. I'd definitely watch that. Twice.

King of Wrong

Juno-bashing is so mainstream at the moment; if you want to be out of the box, start hating on the documentary King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Jason Scott wrote about why he hated the film, and later added a follow-up (short version, long version), after a lively discussion sprouted up in the comment section of his original post.

In summary, he dislikes the film because the plot and character conflict that make it so compelling are a deliberate fiction, presented as fact (beyond the normal editorializing that all documentaries have). I haven't seen King of Kong yet, but I wonder how Scott's criticisms (which seem apt to me) change people's opinions of what they saw.

I will refrain from using the cliche "skateboarding is not a crime"

I found this on Thrasher this morning. Not that I condone how the kid acted but I thought it was interesting how the cop acted. Despite a level of acceptance there is still a big stigma attached to skateboarding. Part of it is cool that the stigma is still there, but it's reaching the point where it's walking a thin line between "fit in my back pocket" vs. full blown multi-zillion dollar demographic etc.

The attitude today very much seems like, "Skateboarding is cool in video games (EA Skate, Tony Hawk part 1 thru 390091491), sports channels (Xgames, dew tour, and anything sponsored by a deoderant brand), and MTV (Rob and Big, Life of Ryan, MADE). It's even cool to buy and even buy shares of the products. Whatever you do you better not be doing it in the real world."

Before this becomes a full blown rant, here's the video from the article:


Here's another one different place/people:

Happiness is a warm puppy

This article covers the return of the aptly named "Uno" the beagle as winner of best in show at the Westminster dog show.

The only breed consistently among the nation's most popular dogs for nearly 100 years, a beagle had never won in the 100 times the Westminster Kennel Club had chosen a winner. That changed when judge J. Donald Jones pointed to this nearly 3-year-old package of personality.

No longer an underdog — make that an Underdog — Uno beat out two neatly primped poodles, a top Sealyham terrier, a sleek Weimaraner, a lively Australian shepherd and a sprightly Akita.

I don't know too much about dog breeding etc. but the story caught my interest with the title, "Hail, Snoopy! Beagle Wins Westminster".

I. Drink. Your. Milkshake! I Drink It Up!

alliesglove asked me for more There Will Be Blood links.

Link the first: Alex Ross on Jonny Greenwood's musical score in The New Yorker.

Most soundtracks lean so heavily on a few preprocessed musical devices—those synthetic swells of strings and cymbals, urging us to swoon in tandem with the cheerleader in love—that when a composer adopts a more personal language the effect is revelatory: an entire dimension of the film experience is liberated from cliché.

Link the second: American Cinematographer's coverage of TWBB's cinematography in its January 2008 issue. As usual, it's a bit technical and jargony, but it also has some great insight into how the film captured the era it depicts.

Shaking his head at the memory, Elswit adds, "The next night, we had to shoot the reverses of the actors reacting to the big fire, and Paul didn’t want to use any artificial light." In fact, these reverses were lit with real fire generated by either the powerful flame jet operated by Cremin and his crew or, for certain shots, flamethrower-like devices. Crewmembers were protected from the heat by flame-resistant suits, but the grimaces on the actors' faces are genuine. "The flames got very, very hot, but that’s how we did it," says Elswit.

Link the last: USA Today's story on the growing popularity of "I drink your milkshake!" as a catchphrase. The article digs up its origin (via director P.T. Anderson):

Anderson concedes that he's puzzled by the phenomenon — particularly because the lines came straight from a transcript he found of the 1924 congressional hearings over the Teapot Dome scandal, in which Sen. Albert Fall was convicted of accepting bribes for oil-drilling rights to public lands in Wyoming and California.

In explaining oil drainage, Fall's "way of describing it was to say 'Sir, if you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake and my straw reaches across the room, I'll end up drinking your milkshake,' " Anderson says. "I just took this insane concept and used it."

The film's studio, Paramount Vantage, is even using it as a marketing slogan.

paper iphone

I was having a recent conversation with Arun and Henry and the hipster PDA came up. After a little research I found this site: pocketmod. Totally cool applet that lets you print out a customized 8 page "mini-zine" format. Definitely a useful applet.

Many things make this little personal organizer special, here is a list.

1. It fits easily in your back pocket or purse.
2. It's as cheap as one piece of paper (Because that's all it is!)
3. It opens like a book. Leading to easier to find, more organized notes.
4. The first page has a pouch, big enough to carry a business card!
5. Customizable with "Mods" tailored to your needs.
6. It's free and fun!

Olafur Eliasson

SFMOMA has an Olafur Eliasson exhibit that alliesglove was talking about yesterday, and — not-coincidentally — a couple of the bloggers I follow mentioned seeing his works there recently.