Showing posts with label Oscars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oscars. Show all posts

day zero: my academy award for best picture list

Task #17 on my Day Zero list requires me to watch all movies that have won the Academy Award for Best Picture. This is one of those tasks that I want to be able to say I have done, but I'm not all that excited to actually get down and do it. I think that's mostly because some of the Academy's choices over the years have sometimes been, as we all know, a bit flawed.

All that having been said, I'm determined to jump into this task along with all the others. So here's the list; movies I've already seen have been struck through. Just like with last week's list, I've decided to only count the movies I've seen in the last fifteen years. I have a hazy memory of watching Mutiny on the Bounty with my parents when I was about ten... but there's no way that counts.

...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , at 4:09 PM on Wednesday, November 17, 2010
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
4 people had something brilliant to say.

four thoughts on the 81st oscars

  1. I got 6 out of 8 of my predictions ("who will win") correctly. That's a heck of a lot better than I did last year! (Captain Crash slaughtered me, and his movie knowledge is about on the same level of my rugby knowledge.) I missed two categories: Best Supporting Actress, which was pretty much a toss-up anyway, and Best Actor, which was probably close, but I did list Sean Penn as my pick who should win. So I'm going to claim it as a modest victory.

  2. I've heard some back and forth on this, but I fall solidly in the camp that loved Sunday night's show. We are so on the right track here. A few of the musical numbers seemed to start out a bit awkwardly, but always ended spectacularly. The structure of the show actually made sense (imagine that!), and I loved, loved, loved the idea of having previous winners pay tribute to each of the acting nominees. For the first time, the Academy put some weight behind the cliché that "it's an honor just to be nominated." I'd like to see this same idea implemented for some of the other categories (directing, writing), but I know that might be a little much.

  3. I've gotta soapbox it for a second. Rant alert. I am getting so tired of hearing people talk about how boring the Oscars is, how it doesn't make for good TV, how the awards are not in touch with the masses, and how they should just not televise some of the less-than-sexy awards (Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, etc.) If you agree with all that, I'm going to talk directly to you for a second: Get over yourself. The Oscars do not exist to entertain you. It's not about the TV production, and it's much bigger than what you choose to watch on one Sunday night a year. The movie-making process is a gargantuan undertaking, and most of the really hard workers are already relegated to an untelevised "Scientific and Technical Awards Banquet". We only have a few, major-as-hell technical awards at the televised Oscars, and you can suck it up and sit through the award that goes to the guy that labored for months making your movies just perfect. We do not need our Oscars to be dumbed down.

    If it weren't for the Academy Awards, our film industry would be completely money-driven, as opposed to mostly money-driven. We'd lose all the art, in favor of a money-making machine. The Oscars, other awards, and the acclaim that go with them, are why little movies like Frozen River and The Visitor even have the chance to exist. If it were not for that, do you think studio executives would spend a dime on a production that wouldn't appeal to the masses? Remember, these are the same masses that helped Beverly Hills Chihuahua stay at #1 at the box office for a week last October. I don't want the Oscars to relate to those masses!!! OK, I'm calm now. But just one more thing. Remember 1984? Remember the Fiction Department, with the computer-generated plots, characters, and storylines? Take away our way to honor the art within film, and see how long it takes to get there. I'm just saying.

  4. Finally, to end this post on a bit of a lighter note, I give you Pistola Whipped and her favorite Oscar moment, which was...

    "...when Jennifer Aniston was presenting with Jack Black and the camera cut away for an Angelina Jolie close-up. Her fake laughing should have stopped the ceremony so the producers could have grabbed the trophy from Penelope Cruz's hands and awarded it to Jolie. That was truly legendary acting. Her best ever."
...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , , , , , , at 3:17 PM on Tuesday, February 24, 2009
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
4 people had something brilliant to say.

nayana's 2009 oscar picks

As of last night, I've finally done it! I've had the chance to screen every movie that's nominated for a major Academy Award this year. And so, here you go: my Oscar picks for 2009.


Best Picture

Nominees: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ~ Frost/Nixon ~ Milk ~ Slumdog Millionaire ~ The Reader

Who will win: Slumdog Millionaire. It's an underdog that's not under anything anymore. It's got 10 nominations overall, and has largely swept the awards circuit, getting major awards from BAFTA, the Golden Globes, the National Board of Review, the Producers Guild, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Writers Guild, among others. Plus, it's a great flick. This won't break my heart.

Who should win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Despite everything I just said, Benjamin Button was the film that captured my heart this year. I've heard a lot of people deride this movie as slow, weird, the second Forrest Gump... whatever. It was beautiful, and it touched me. That plus Cate Blanchett is all I need for a Best Picture. Besides, it didn't end with jazz hands. WTF, Slumdog?


Best Director

Nominees: David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ~ Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon ~ Gus Van Sant for Milk ~ Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire ~ Stephen Daldry for The Reader

Who will win: Danny Boyle. Besides the fact that Oscar likes to give Best Director and Best Picture to the same film, Boyle really did do a fantastic job with this one. On the other hand, it's cool that Stephen Daldry has gotten his third nomination...for his third film! No other director of at least three films has ever been nominated by the Academy for his entire body of work. Even so, Daldry will have to be happy with that. The Oscar goes to Boyle.

Who should win: David Fincher. Everything fit so well together in this movie: the flow of the story, the performance of the actors, the special effects, the overall feel. It was seamless, and for that I give credit to Fincher.


Best Actor

Nominees: Richard Jenkins for The Visitor ~ Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon ~ Sean Penn for Milk ~ Brad Pitt for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ~ Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler

Who will win: Mickey Rourke. Everyone loves a comeback. And I'm thinking a lot of people just want to see what he'll do at the podium when he wins.

Who should win: Sean Penn. In all honesty, I think Sean Penn is kind of a tool. He's one of those people who takes himself way too seriously. But he can act. And he did a great job acquainting us with the flawed, brilliant, trailblazing Harvey Milk. Though I'm not a fan of his, Sean Penn did his job, and he deserves to be rewarded for it.


Best Actress

Nominees: Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married ~ Angelina Jolie for Changeling ~ Melissa Leo for Frozen River ~ Meryl Streep for Doubt ~ Kate Winslet for The Reader

Who will win: Kate Winslet. She's been previously nominated for her acting five times, and has yet to win an Oscar. Besides, her performance was brilliant, conflicted, and moving. I'll be happy for her.

Who should win: Angelina Jolie. I have similar feelings for Ms. Jolie as I do for Sean Penn: not a big fan of her personally, but I can't deny her acting ability. She knocked me on my ass in Changeling. By the way, I'd also be thrilled if Anne Hathaway took this one home. Her performance was powerful, touching, and (it may seem weird to say this about an Oscar nominee) underrated.


Best Supporting Actor

Nominees: Josh Brolin for Milk ~ Robert Downey, Jr. for Tropic Thunder ~ Philip Seymour Hoffman for Doubt ~ Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight ~ Michael Shannon for Revolutionary Road

Who will win: Heath Ledger. It was an astounding, buzzed-about performance before Ledger's tragic death, and when he passed on, it became legendary. Voters will want to give him the Oscar he should have received for Brokeback Mountain.

Who should win: Heath Ledger. OK, I'll go along with that.


Best Supporting Actress

Nominees: Amy Adams for Doubt ~ Penelope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona ~ Viola Davis for Doubt ~ Taraji P. Henson for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ~ Marisa Tomei for The Wrestler

Who will win: Viola Davis. She's a long-respected theater actress, and she blew our minds with just one scene. She managed to take a position which was unthinkable and make it relatable.

Who should win: Amy Adams. Same movie, not as flashy... but perfect. Plus, I gotta root for my hometown girl.


Best Original Screenplay

Nominees: Courtney Hunt for Frozen River ~ Mike Leigh for Happy-Go-Lucky ~ Martin McDonagh for In Bruges ~ Dustin Lance Black for Milk ~ Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, and Pete Docter for WALL-E

Who will win: Dustin Lance Black. The Academy won't want Milk to go home empty-handed, and Best Actor is not necessarily a lock for Sean Penn.

Who should win: Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, and Pete Docter. A story almost without dialogue that moved audiences so profoundly; this hasn't happened since The Red Balloon.


Best Adapted Screenplay

Nominees: Eric Roth and Robin Swicord for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ~ John Patrick Shanley for Doubt ~ Peter Morgan for Frost/Nixon ~ David Hare for The Reader ~ Simon Beaufoy for Slumdog Millionaire

Who will win: Simon Beaufoy. Slumdog'll sweep it.

Who should win: David Hare. I was a fan of the book, The Reader, and Hare didn't make me hate the film. It's a rare achievement (adapted screenwriting is harder than anything most of us will ever do), and it should be rewarded.


Best Animated Film

Nominees: Bolt ~ Kung Fu Panda ~ WALL-E

Who will win: WALL-E. Pixar has never made a bad film; in fact, they seem to get better and better. This romantic, touching fable deserves an Oscar sweep.

Who should win: WALL-E.

So, there you have it. Tune in Sunday night to see how it all unfolds... and then come back here next week to see me gloat... or, more likely, take my lumps. ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , , , , , , , , , at 1:13 PM on Friday, February 20, 2009
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
9 people had something brilliant to say.

LAMB devours the oscars: best actress

Note: this post was part of an annual feature at the LAMB entitled "LAMB Devours The Oscars". Each day one blogger discussed one category of the Academy Awards. To read more of the entries, click here.

As I've complained ad nauseum on The Center Seat, I've been a very bad film geek this year. I'll spare you the gory details, but life has conspired... and I've actually had to make a conscious effort to see all the 2009 Oscar films. But still, I thought I was doing pretty well... until Fletch assigned me Best Actress, a category in which I had, at that point, seen only one of the nominated films!

Actually, it was a good thing. I got off my booty and went to the theater (and, in one case, Blockbuster), and now I can hold my head up in the LAMB's distinguished company. So, here we go.

Melissa Leo, Frozen River

This was a gripping story about a recently single mother who resorts to border smuggling to pay the bills--and it's the Canadian border. Cool twist, right? We're saturated with Mexico border stories, so this was refreshing. And I have to say... maybe it was the snowy backdrop, or the northern accent, or the raw desperation to keep her head above water, but I saw a lot of people I know in Melissa Leo's character. She's real, frank, unadorned, the anti-glamour-puss. Of course a lot of the credit for that must be shared with the person who created the character: screenwriter Courtney Hunt, who is also nominated.

Leo is fairly unknown; a quick perusal of her IMDB page reveals lots of guest stints on Law & Order and CSI, and roles in various obscure films, perhaps the least obscure of which is Mr. Woodcock. Did you see that one? Yeah, me neither.

I'm actually really cool with Leo's obscurity. How great would it be if relative unknowns were nominated at every Academy Awards? Of course she doesn't have a chance in hell, but it'll be nice to see her there Sunday night.

Meryl Streep - Doubt

Meryl Streep has gotten fifteen Academy Award nominations. Fifteen. That's more than any other actor or actress in the history of the Oscars. I'm sure there's a chair somewhere in the Kodak Theatre with Meryl's ass-print permanently molded onto the seat.

Still, it shouldn't be a surprise. Girlfriend can act. Overall, Doubt was a bit depressing for me (it's the story of a priest who may or may not have misbehaved with one of his school's young male students), but it was one of those movies that seemed custom-built as a showcase for great acting. And, naturally, Streep didn't disappoint. She portrayed a harsh, militant nun who suspected the priest of wrongdoing and did all she could to prove herself right. That character had so much potential to be flat and uncomplicated, but Streep gave her flashes of humanity, with a fleeting look of uncertainty or a slight shaking of the hands. This is one case in which the actress seems to have made the character who she was. But, fairly or not, that's what we've come to expect of Meryl Streep. Anything less than perfection in her would be a disappointment. Kind of a tough place to put her in, huh? Whatever. She's got fifteen Oscar nominations.

Kate Winslet - The Reader

I came to this movie with the distinct disadvantage of having read the book. We all know that books tend to far surpass their movie adaptations. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this movie, with its raw sexuality and complicated morality.

It's hard to think of a more complicated, conflicted character to challenge Kate Winslet. In this movie, she played an illiterate Nazi war criminal who has an affair with a 16-year-old boy. It's kind of Summer of '42-meets-Judgment at Nuremberg-meets-...I don't know... a Lifetime movie about illiteracy. Of course Winslet pulls it off. She is somehow able to portray vulnerability and pride simultaneously, but perhaps her greatest feat is that we forget about Kate Winslet and instead become wholly absorbed in the story. This is a case, in contrast to Doubt, in which the acting is merely a part of the experience of the film.

Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married

This is it. We are officially no longer allowed to dismiss Anne Hathaway as Princess Mia. I think we all suspected she was awesome (how much ass did she kick in Brokeback?) but now, there it is in black and white. She is a contender for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

It wasn't just handed to her either. In a film which was sometimes difficult to watch, Hathaway delivered a stunning performance as a recovering addict trying to fit in with her family upon her return from rehab. She's the classic black sheep, but the issues go deeper than that. In fact, the myriad issues of this textbook dysfunctional family explode at perhaps the worst possible time: the days surrounding the wedding of the "good" sister.

I have never seen Anne Hathaway like this. She knocked me on my ass. Frankly, she would absolutely get my vote for this particular Oscar, if it had not been for the final contender in this category...

Angelina Jolie - Changeling

I get a lot of flak from people I respect (Pistola, I'm talking to you) about my professional regard for Ms. Jolie. In this case, it's sometimes hard to distinguish feelings about Jolie's personal choices from judgment of her acting ability. Many people dismiss her as a skank/homewrecker/baby factory/whatever, and I'm not necessarily arguing with that. But I have always been a fan of Angelina Jolie the actress. From her first major role as a doomed supermodel in Gia, to her Oscar-winning turn as a sociopathic mental patient in Girl, Interrupted, to her heartbreaking portrayal of her own friend Marianne Pearl in A Mighty Heart, to this most recent role as a bereaved mother in Changeling, Angelina Jolie is a devastating actress. Her work speaks for itself.

I was shaking after I saw Changeling... Jolie is heartbreaking as a mother who tirelessly fights to find her lost son, even angering police and being thrown in a mental institution in the process. Of course she's a great actress, but she brought something outstanding to this particular role. We all know, regardless of our personal feelings for her, that she loves her kids. In addition, she lost her own mother shortly before starting filming on Changeling. Perhaps it was this personal experience that allowed her to lay herself open on screen in such a raw way.

I am going to unabashedly throw my full support behind Angelina Jolie for this Oscar. But the truth is, no matter who wins this year, we can't lose. The Academy has nominated five outstanding actresses, and whoever wins will do so because of merit, and not because of pity, or politics, or "it's about time", as in certain previous years (Halle Berry, I'm looking at you.) ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , , , , , , , , , at 12:49 PM on Thursday, February 19, 2009
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
0 people had something brilliant to say.

the dark knight

Yeah. I know. I'm massively late.

That tends to happen when I see a movie and can't bring myself to talk about it. Sometimes that's because my love for the movie runs so deeply (see: Forgetting Sarah Marshall), and sometimes it has more to do with a sense of disappointment, which ends up morphing into indifference.

That's the case here.

Before The Dark Knight's debut, buzz was running higher than I've ever seen it in my short tenure as a film geek. I was excited, too, but there was a definite vein of skepticism running through it. Obviously a big cause of that buzz is, of course, Heath Ledger's stunning performance followed by his untimely death. Hey, I was stunned by the trailers, too. I thought it looked great before he died. But then the tragedy came, and people were all jumping on the bandwagon, yelling, "Oscar!" As nice as that sounds, if he gets that Oscar I want it to be for the right reasons (a career-topping performance), not because of sympathy, or regret. That way it can be a real victory, undiminished by legitimate criticism. It's sad that a great performance may have been overshadowed by all this hysteria.

I hate to do it, people, but we need to get real. Heath Ledger was a fantastic actor. One of my favorites of all time. He almost always delivered a stellar, mind-blowing performance, from 10 Things I Hate About You, to A Knight's Tale, to The Dark Knight. But in my opinion, none of that, even his turn as the Joker, even came close to Brokeback Mountain. That performance actually haunted me for a few days. I'm really sorry, but Dark Knight is no Brokeback.

Others have been saying The Dark Knight was the best movie of 2008, or even the GREATEST MOVIE EVER. Not so. Sorry. It's a superhero movie. It's a good superhero movie, but it never reaches beyond the conventions and limitations of that genre. You always know what's coming... you can sit in the theater and say, OK, we're only an hour into it, so there will be about 3 more suspenseful climaxes....

And I'm sorry, but Christian Bale's voice modulation whenever he put that suit on was super-distracting. It's like the second he got in that mask, he needed to get his Darth Vader on too. I think the role would have been far more interesting if he had lost that weird affectation.

Now, I don't want you to think I didn't like this movie. I did. Ledger was great. Gyllenhaal was great. Freeman was great. Eckhart was great. Oldman was great. Bale was great (except for the whole voice thing). Et cetera.

It truly was, by far, better than any of the pre-Batman Begins Batman stuff. But it was not the best movie of 2008. Perspective, people. ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , , , at 9:47 AM on Tuesday, August 5, 2008
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
14 people had something brilliant to say.

the stone angel

The Stone Angel opens tomorrow in six theaters around the country. So if you don't live within movie-watching distance of Edina, MN; Los Angeles, CA; Encino, CA; Pasadena, CA; New York, NY; or Bethesda, MD... I guess you're out of luck. No word yet on a wide release.

I do think it's one to keep your eye on, though... I'll lay down modest odds that we'll see an Oscar nod for Ellen Burstyn. More on that in a bit.

First, the movie. I was lucky enough to score an advance screening last night; in all honesty, I kept flashing back to Fried Green Tomatoes. The formula is familiar: Meet old person. Old person has dithering family. Old person has dismal living situation. Oh, but look at this flashback. Old person used to be young and feisty. Old person used to have lots of sex.

Overall, it was pretty depressing, and a bit predictable. I did enjoy Fried Green Tomatoes once upon a time; unfortunately, The Stone Angel substitutes empty sexuality for true warmth, and pithy wit in the place of genuine joy.

The one redeeming factor in this movie is Ellen Burstyn, the aforementioned old person. She gets all the great lines (some of them really are fantastic), and it's obviously intended as an Oscar vehicle for her. Nothing wrong with that. Her performance is impeccable, and I'd be surprised to see her snubbed.

It's just... I forget... entertainment is supposed to be entertaining, right? ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , , , at 11:08 AM on Thursday, July 10, 2008
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
10 people had something brilliant to say.

afi top 100

Last week I posted the IMDB Top 250, and I listed the ones I'd seen in bold. I had only seen 91 out of 250 at the time of that post, but since then I've added three more. Subsequently, we all pretty much came to the conclusion that lists like this are meaningless... especially the IMDB list, which is chosen by popular votes from ordinary yokels. (If you have any illusions that the masses are capable of choosing the best movies, just look at the weekly top grosses so far in 2008).

In spite of all that, I thought I'd waste a bit more time, and post the AFI 100. This list was published in 2007, and was chosen, of course, by the American Film Institute. The main glaring flaw of this list, in my opinion, is that it fully ignores foreign language films (which include many of my favorites). So, whatever. If my count is correct, I've seen 39 of these.


  1. Citizen Kane (1941)
  2. The Godfather (1972)
  3. Casablanca (1942)
  4. Raging Bull (1980)
  5. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
  6. Gone With the Wind (1939)
  7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
  8. Schindler's List (1993)
  9. Vertigo (1958)
  10. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
  11. City Lights (1931)
  12. The Searchers (1956)
  13. Star Wars (1977)
  14. Psycho (1960)
  15. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
  16. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
  17. The Graduate (1967)
  18. The General (1927)
  19. On the Waterfront (1954)
  20. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
  21. Chinatown (1974)
  22. Some Like It Hot (1959)
  23. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
  24. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
  25. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
  26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
  27. High Noon (1952)
  28. All About Eve (1950)
  29. Double Indemnity (1944)
  30. Apocalypse Now (1979)
  31. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
  32. The Godfather Part II (1974)
  33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
  34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
  35. Annie Hall (1977)
  36. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
  37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
  38. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
  39. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
  40. The Sound of Music (1965)
  41. King Kong (1933)
  42. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
  43. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
  44. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
  45. Shane (1953)
  46. It Happened One Night (1934)
  47. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
  48. Rear Window (1954)
  49. Intolerance (1916)
  50. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
  51. West Side Story (1961)
  52. Taxi Driver (1976)
  53. The Deer Hunter (1978)
  54. M*A*S*H (1970)
  55. North by Northwest (1959)
  56. Jaws (1975)
  57. Rocky (1976)
  58. The Gold Rush (1925)
  59. Nashville (1975)
  60. Duck Soup (1933)
  61. Sullivan's Travels (1941)
  62. American Graffiti (1973)
  63. Cabaret (1972)
  64. Network (1976)
  65. The African Queen (1951)
  66. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
  67. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
  68. Unforgiven (1992)
  69. Tootsie (1982)
  70. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
  71. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
  72. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
  73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
  74. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
  75. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
  76. Forrest Gump (1994)
  77. All the President's Men (1976)
  78. Modern Times (1936)
  79. The Wild Bunch (1969)
  80. The Apartment (1960)
  81. Spartacus (1960)
  82. Sunrise (1927)
  83. Titanic (1997)
  84. Easy Rider (1969)
  85. A Night at the Opera (1935)
  86. Platoon (1986)
  87. 12 Angry Men (1957)
  88. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
  89. The Sixth Sense (1999)
  90. Swing Time (1936)
  91. Sophie's Choice (1982)
  92. Goodfellas (1990)
  93. The French Connection (1971)
  94. Pulp Fiction (1994)
  95. The Last Picture Show (1971)
  96. Do the Right Thing (1989)
  97. Blade Runner (1982)
  98. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
  99. Toy Story (1995)
  100. Ben-Hur (1959)

Well, that's it. I think it might also be fun to do a list of all the Academy Awards for Best Picture (it's always fun to count along during the Oscar montage), and maybe the top-grossing films of all time. But eventually I'll do the perfect list... which, of course, will be my own Top 100. Because my list will be flawless, naturally.

 ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , at 12:07 PM on Tuesday, April 1, 2008
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
12 people had something brilliant to say.

penelope

***BEWARE SPOILERPHOBES***

She's ugly. She's awful. She's a monster.... right? Well, she must be, because her suitors tend to run screaming whenever she enters a room. Sure, these guys are bluebloods, ("old money", as one potential beau puts it), but they can't have such a warped perspective that they would be so violently repulsed if the girl weren't truly... awful. Right?

Uh... no. She's Christina Ricci with a pig nose. Honestly, any objective observer can see that she's a perfectly lovely young woman, with an oddly shaped schnoz. You might wonder if there had been an unfortunate accident, or you might think that perhaps a plastic surgeon's scalpel slipped, but you would not, by any means, run screaming from the premises and then go to the police department to report a monster on the loose. I'm not kidding. That really happens in this movie.

In all honesty, I was more than a little disappointed. The concept of Penelope is actually quite engaging: a wealthy girl in the upper classes of society is cursed before her birth, so that she would have "the face of a pig" until she finds someone "of her own kind" to love her for who she is. At that point, the spell will, presumably, be broken. Of course, Penelope's snobby parents take the "of her own kind" clause to mean someone also descended from an old, prominent, wealthy family. That particular element is as transparent as a Lil' Kim red carpet outfit; anyone can see that it's going to mean something different.

What really bummed me out, though, is that Penelope does not have the face of a pig. She has the face of Christina Ricci... with a wrinkly, turned-up nose. Imagine how much more believable and engaging this story would be if Ricci had been given the true pig-face! Unfortunately, in Hollywood even the "monsters" have to be smokin' hot.


Another element of the movie that really got on my nerves was the character of Penelope's mom, played by Catherine O'Hara. There really wasn't much to her; she was one of those broad characters that the audience is supposed to "love to hate." She turned out to be the real monster in this movie, giving Penelope the impression from the time she was little that no one would love her as she was.

What bothered me the most, though, is that at the film's climax, Penelope comes close to forgiving her mother everything; I believe the line was, "It's OK, Mom, you didn't know." Excuse me??? We're going to excuse a mother for not loving her child unconditionally? Of course, Mom continues to show her true colors and gets what's coming to her in the end... but I did not like the alls-well-that-ends-well idea they were flirting with for a moment.

Overall, Penelope was only passable... but had the potential to be a truly fantastic movie. I know this was the first effort by director Mark Palansky and producer Reese Witherspoon... but as we just saw in last weekend's Oscars (dang it, I wasn't going to mention them again!), inexperience doesn't necessarily mean lack of quality.

One positive: having first discovered James McAvoy as Tumnus in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe--and since then only seeing him in The Last King of Scotland and Atonement--I'd never seen him with an American accent! I gotta say, that was pretty hot. ;-)
 ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , , , at 10:47 AM on Thursday, February 28, 2008
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
7 people had something brilliant to say.

some things

  1. I'm officially done with the Oscars for the season. If someone else wants to discuss it, cool, but I will not be making any more Oscar posts.
  2. I haven't quit making my daily McDonald's breakfast run. I figure, what the heck? Plus, they're giving the burritos away for free this Thursday and Friday.
  3. Greg and I killed a bottle of Jacob's Creek Sparkling Rosé last night. It sucked. So we switched to Yellow Tail Pinot G. It didn't suck.
  4. Today was "hat day" at work. I love hat day. I wore a Park City, UT trucker cap with pigtails. I want to go to Sundance someday. Anyone want to cart me along?
  5. Captain Crash and I are going to finish watching In the Valley of Elah tonight. Also received from Netflix: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.
  6. I'm getting mixed thoughts from coworkers and friends... but I'll put this to you. I am contemplating dreadlocks. I feel like there's a lot of "edge" inside me that doesn't express itself in my personal style. Does that make any sense? I think I'm definitely going to do it.
  7. I saw Spiderwick Chronicles last Wednesday and was underwhelmed. I intend to do a full post on it in the near future.

Well, there you go. I couldn't muster up a full-on, well-thought-out post, so I just thought I'd catch you up on some of the myriad thoughts bouncing around in my noodle.

Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , , , , , , , at 4:55 PM on Wednesday, February 27, 2008
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
4 people had something brilliant to say.

ten best moments at the 80th oscars

10. Marion Cotillard's heartfelt, emotional acceptance speech for Best Actress in La Vie En Rose.

9. Jon Stewart's sly wit. Good to have him back.

8. Javier Bardem's shout-out to his mommy en español. Anyone know what he said? I'm just curious.

7. Ethan Coen's two short-but-sweet acceptance speeches. "Uh, thank you very much." and "I don't have a lot to add to what I said earlier. Thank you." Awesome. He should teach a course.

6. Tilda Swinton giving props to Clooney's Bat-nipples when she won Best Supporting Actress for Michael Clayton.

5. Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová's stirring performance of "Falling Slowly" from Once contrasts sharply with all four of the competing songs which, frankly, look like they're trying too hard in comparison.

4. Diablo Cody's humble, shaken acceptance speech (and dedication of her Oscar to the writers) when she wins Best Original Screenplay for Juno. (Note: she wasn't being grumpy when she walked off, people. She was trying to hold it together so she wouldn't start bawling like a five-year-old in front of all those famous folks.)

3. Frances McDormand is visibly stoked as her husband Joel and brother-in-law Ethan nonchalantly accept their Oscar for Best Director for No Country For Old Men.

2. Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová win Best Original Song for "Falling Slowly" from Once, over three songs from Enchanted.

1. Jon Stewart brings Markéta Irglová back onstage to finish her acceptance speech, after the orchestra cut her off in what would have been one of the harshest moments in Oscar history. ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , , , , at 7:45 AM on Tuesday, February 26, 2008
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
9 people had something brilliant to say.

LAMB Devours the Oscars: Best Documentary Short Subject

Best Documentary Short is a frustrating category for me. Like this year's foreign film nominees, these films have not been available to the average viewer who can't make it to the myriad film festivals (Nayana's world tour is still several years away). Therefore, you should maybe keep in mind while reading this that I haven't seen any of these films.

The 2007 nominees for Best Documentary Short Subject are as follows:


1. Freeheld
This is the story of Laurel Hester, a lesbian New Jersey police officer. The 23-year veteran of the Ocean County prosecutor's office contracted an aggressive form of lung cancer, which metastasized and spread to her brain. She spent her last months petitioning her county's board of freeholders to allow her pension to be transferred to her registered domestic partner upon her death (who otherwise would not have been able to stay in their home). If the trailer is any indication, it's a moving, heartbreaking piece. However, while I'm all for GLBT rights, this one frankly looks like a big fat bummer.

2. La Corona
In Colombia, apparently they go crazy for beauty pageants; the national obsession even spills over to the.... prison system? Yep, each cellblock at El Buen Pastor prison gets to nominate their own contestant for the prison's yearly beauty pageant. The women are murderers, armed robbers, you name it... but they're also nationally televised, and critiqued by celebrity judges. According to the Sundance website (it was featured at the Park City, Utah film festival this year), it has moments of humor, as well as sadness. Oh, what the heck. It looks like fun to me.

3. Salim Baba
This is the story of Salim, a 55-year-old man in Kolkata (most of us remember "Calcutta"), India, who supports his wife and five children in a unique way. He splices together discarded scraps of film from movie theaters, as well as trailers and other bits of movies, and shows them on an ancient hand-cranked projector which he inherited from his father. Salim entertains the children of his neighborhood, and apparently makes a living at it; he hopes to leave the projector to his children so that they, too, will have a viable livelihood. There has been a bit of controversy with regard to this particular film: as reported by Vanity Fair, a reporter from a major Indian newspaper claims that Salim, the subject of the film, was misled and underpaid. The charges seem to be without merit, and Salim himself has retracted some of his claims, but the controversy may make Oscar a bit gun-shy with this one.

4. Sari's Mother
One more documentary about Iraq. Yes, Iraq is a disaster; yes, we screwed up; yes, people are suffering; yes, people are dying. But I (and I suspect the Academy) am just so dang tired of thinking about it. All right, with that out of the way: this short focuses on a ten-year-old boy named Sari who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion. His mother stubbornly, hopefully, and smilingly cares for him and tries to get him treatment, though the healthcare system over there is even more screwed up than our own. *sigh* I suppose I'll watch it. It looks important. But it looks exhausting, too.
Documentaries (especially in our times) so often seem to be downers, don't they? I understand why that is, and I also understand how important documentaries are, especially in rough times like these.... but just because I've got so much outrage fatigue, I'm going for the nominee that looks halfway lighthearted: La Corona. We'll see if the Academy agrees with me.
 ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , , , , , at 2:25 PM on Friday, February 22, 2008
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
0 people had something brilliant to say.

LAMB Devours the Oscars - Best Animated Short Film

Best Animated Short Film is the coolest Oscar category ever! Anyone know why? Well, aside from a lack of the usual bitchiness and intrigue that plagues many of the other awards, this is one of the few categories in which a movie-phile like me (or you) has the opportunity to sit down and watch all the nominees... in under two hours!

That's right: if you're lucky enough to have an arthouse cinema in your town (or a theater chain that passes for one, like Landmark), you can see a feature film which is just a compilation of all the nominated shorts, in either the Animated or Live Action category. I watched both, but the all-knowing, all-seeing Fletch has assigned me the Animated Shorts. So, here's the rundown, in the order in which I saw them:

Même les pigeons vont au paradis (Even Pigeons Go To Heaven) - France
This film (available on YouTube) is part silly slapstick, part dark social commentary. An enterprising priest tries to scam a feeble old man into buying a machine that will take him to heaven. The animation is exquisite and engaging. There are a few twists and a satisfying (if ironic) ending, and the film is definitely good for some hearty laughs. Underneath it all, however, there are dark themes of death, bad karma, and the masses getting screwed by religion. Of all the short films on the list, Even Pigeons is the most user-friendly, and earned the most out-loud laughter from our audience.

Moya lyubov (My Love) - Russia
The most startling thing about My Love is the animation. It was rendered with oil painting on glass, and it comes out looking like a fluid Monet painting come to life. Visually, it was stunning; honestly, though, after a few minutes, my eyes started to water. And as masterful as the animation was, the story seemed to be slapped together with Play-Doh. The film follows a teenage boy in pre-revolutionary Russia. He's yanked around by his libido: one moment, he's passionately in love with a family servant, and the next moment, he is utterly devoted to a mysterious neighbor woman. The boy lurches back and forth between the two women, and is ultimately disappointed, as neither fantasy is what he had hoped for. It is worth noting that My Love's director, Aleksandr Petrov, has been nominated three times before in this category, winning once for The Old Man and the Sea in 1999.

Madame Tutli-Putli - Canada
This short is a seamless integration of computer and stop-motion animation. We follow the title character as she takes an eerie late-night train ride with all her worldly possessions. The film starts out light and mildly funny, but it soon morphs into suspense, horror, and eventually metaphysical whacked-out-itude. Technically, it's marvelous. Madame Tutli-Putli's huge eyes alone are an animation masterpiece (according to Wikipedia, Jason Walker came up with the idea of using composited human eyes and adding them to the stop-motion puppets). The detail is amazing, from the veins in Madame's legs to the endless collection of odds and ends she hauls with her. Personally, though, I just found it gross. And weird.

I Met the Walrus - Canada
In 1969, a ballsy kid named Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon's hotel room with a reel-to-reel tape recorder and somehow convinced the Beatle/activist/music god to give him an interview. Holy crap, right? That kid's got something to talk about for the rest of his life. But rather than rest on those fantastic laurels, Jerry grows up and produces a poetic animated short with the interview as the audio track. It's like SNL's "Fun With Real Audio", but way, way cooler. The animation mostly consists of pencil-type drawings that illustrate Lennon's words; sometimes humorously, sometimes poignantly, but always reverently. And the greatest thing about this film: forty years later it's still completely relevant. Turn on CNN right this minute, and you can apply John Lennon's observations on war, peace, and the ultimate futility of revolution. Please, please, please let this one win.

Peter and the Wolf - UK/Poland
I grew up loving this classic work by Prokofiev. My mom was a classical music buff, and she jumped at the chance to present this piece to my sister and I as a way to teach us about the different instruments in the orchestra. Most of the time, in fact, when Peter and the Wolf has been produced, it has been narrated for children, as an introduction to classical music. Personally, I was always enraptured by the story of a boy, his pet goose, a bird, a cat, a grandfather, and the Big Bad Wolf. This new production, however, goes much darker. We still have the basics of the story: Peter sneaks out of the gate into the forest and plays with his animal friends; the wolf attacks; and Peter and his grandfather are ultimately victorious over the predator. Before all that, though, the film introduces us to Peter's hometown: a dirty, decaying industrial hole, crawling with bullies and miscreants. While Peter and the birds are playing, the cat and wolf mirror the human antagonists. Most strikingly, the film does not shy away from the darkest elements of the story, which have traditionally been whitewashed by Disney and other producers. This was probably the most well-rounded of the shorts, with moments of humor, suspense, and horror all blended in a modern update of the classic tale.

OK, if you made it through that whole write-up, you know who I want to win. For creativity, uniqueness, and sheer pluck, I Met the Walrus needs to take home the little gold man. Of course, Even Pigeons easily has the most mass appeal in this category (but when does Oscar ever reward mass appeal?) On the other hand, if Academy voters are going for technical impressiveness, Madame Tutli-Putli or My Love could take the cake. I suspect, however, that we'll see Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman climb those steps for Peter and the Wolf: it's got a great pedigree, and it's a gritty take on a classic tale. The Academy will eat that right up. ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , , , , , , , , at 10:02 PM on Wednesday, February 20, 2008
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
4 people had something brilliant to say.

the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford

Of course the first thing we all notice is the ponderous title. It's a spoiler, it's a mood-setter, it introduces the two principal characters. Name me one other title that accomplishes all that. Seriously, comment below if you can think of one.

It took me quite a while to get around to finally seeing this; I got the Netflix envelope in the mail a few weeks ago. I had a feeling I wasn't going to enjoy it. Even though the film got great reviews, and Casey Affleck got that Oscar nod, I had a feeling it would be long... slow... and as verbose as its title. And you know what? It was. But I loved it.

From the get-go, we're introduced to the two title characters, and we see them for what they are: James is a cool, swaggering, ruthless, larger-than-life folk hero, while Affleck's Ford is a puny, grinning nincompoop of a fanboy. As the film progresses, however, and numerous other characters insert themselves between James and Ford, the dynamic between hero and anti-hero begins to change. James is (rightfully) paranoid, mistrusting everyone he comes across; Ford (also rightfully) begins to fear the man he once idolized. When the titular event finally happens, it's not wild and dramatic; rather, a feeling of melancholy and resignation permeates the scene.

The performances are outstanding from everyone involved. Pitt convincingly applies his own experience to express the world-weariness that comes from limitless fame. Affleck disappears into his role as nervous, stammering Ford. Finally, the two are supported by a fantastic cast, including subtle performances from Sam Rockwell, Mary Louise Parker, and Zooey Deschanel. I was also pleasantly surprised to see James Carville in this film. He played a politician (not much of a stretch), but his acting was certainly passable.

I think my recent experiences in film have reminded me of the dangers of anticipation. I was stoked to see Definitely, Maybe, went through all kinds of trouble to see it, and was promptly let down. On the other hand, I avoided Jesse James for weeks, and ended up loving it. Go fig. ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , , , at 7:48 AM on Tuesday, February 19, 2008
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
16 people had something brilliant to say.

oh happy day!

After 100 days, the writers are writing again. Unfortunately, TV may have lost me forever... but I'm stoked for the Oscars! (Please let them not be a snooze-a-thon.)

I've been wildly busy this week and haven't finished any movies since Sunday! (I got about halfway through Roman Holiday.) I'm a bad, bad movie blogger. Tonight I hope to rectify.

Tomorrow night I'm catching Definitely, Maybe, and then Friday night I'm seeing the Oscar-nominated shorts! If I were any more excited, I'd be vibrating.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , at 6:50 PM on Wednesday, February 13, 2008
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
6 people had something brilliant to say.

a weekend of reruns

What do you do when there is absolutely no new quality movie fare in the theaters? I guess stay home and pout... or go see some old quality movie fare.

I was intrigued by my friend Pistola's raves on South Minneapolis's Riverview Theater (as well as a great review in City Pages), so Captain Crash and I took a leisurely drive along the Mississippi and checked it out.

Guess what... I have a new favorite theater.

The Riverview has:
  • one screen with over 700 seats
  • a huge, comfy lobby with 60's mod decor and cozy living-room furniture
  • popcorn with real butter
  • and best of all, admission tops out at $3.
Unlike many other single-screen theaters, they don't limit themselves to one show; the Riverview plays at least three different movies per day (five on the weekends). Friday night at 9:00, they were showing Into the Wild; we had initially loved that one, so we decided to see it again.

It was even better the second time, people. The run time is almost 2 1/2 hours long, but it flies right by. Into the Wild is a heartbreaking story, and just like ten years ago with Titanic, we all know how it's going to end... but that doesn't diminish a thing. Big kudos to Sean Penn for crafting this story in such an intense and affecting way. There were countless mind-blowing performances; Hal Holbrook absolutely deserves his nomination, but the Academy could have shown some love for Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden... The list goes on. At the top of the list, though, should have been Emile Hirsch for his subtle and complex work in the lead role. His heartbreak is devastating at the end of the story, when he makes a vital realization (which ultimately comes too late.) And, hey, if anyone feels like sending an I-deeply-love-Nayana present, that Eddie Vedder soundtrack is boss.

Saturday it would have been my sixth wedding anniversary with the former Mr. Anthony... but just to show you what mature and well-adjusted people we are, Greg and I went to lunch and then caught Juno at the Heights. (In case anyone wonders, this is my third Juno viewing. And, yes, it still kicks ass.) Greg does not have anywhere near my enthusiasm for good film, and he was about to waste his cash on Fool's Gold. I just couldn't let him do it, folks. Even if he did stomp mercilessly on my heart and break it into a million pieces (just kidding, Greg, you know momma loves ya), no one deserves to sit through that drek. He also mentioned a desire to see Untraceable. Ugh. Looks like I'll have to nip that one in the bud, and drag him to see a real thriller, like No Country For Old Men.

Juno is comedy of the highest quality. And I've officially decided that I'm ok with all the weird lingo in the beginning of the movie that seemed to irk so many people. In fact, the offbeat dialogue may actually be one of the biggest reasons I liked the movie. There's nothing wrong with expressing old, common experiences in a new, uncommon way. I am still firmly a massive Diablo Cody fan.

So that was it for this weekend. This week, I'm going to try to finally tackle The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Roman Holiday, Sabrina (the original with Audrey Hepburn), and whatever looks good on TCM.

P.S. I'm crossing my fingers on that writers' strike thing, people. It looks like we may actually have a deal... so Oscars as usual? (oh please oh please) ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , at 11:37 AM on Monday, February 11, 2008
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
5 people had something brilliant to say.

taxi to the dark side of kong: a fistful of quarters

Somewhere in the world right now, there are prisoners being brutally tormented by U.S. forces without ever having stood trial. Somewhere else, there is a middle-aged man sitting at a vintage video game, trying feverishly, obsessively, to nudge that electronic score higher than it's ever been. And in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Nayana's head is about to explode as she tries to digest both these slices of America in one night.


So Wednesday night, Captain Crash and I attended an advance screening of the Oscar-nominated documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side. As is my preference, I knew almost nothing about the movie before we went to see it, only that it was a documentary about Afghanistan. Yeah. It was a documentary about an innocent taxi driver (in Afghanistan) who had been arrested by U.S. forces, held without trial, and tortured for days until he died. I had already gotten a small dose of the-United-States-tortures-people-now-and-apparently-that's-ok outrage when I saw The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, but Taxi went much more in depth. According to the film, those horrifying pictures from Abu Ghraib that were supposedly the work of just "a few bad apples" reflect a systematic pattern of psychological torture, developed by the CIA, and used on thousands of military prisoners. Yep...thousands of prisoners were (and are) held by the United States, without ever being brought to trial.


It's awful. And it pissed me off. But, to be honest, I (and much of the rest of this country) have been pissed off for quite a while. Remember when I mentioned "outrage fatigue"? That is exactly how I felt when walking out of the theater. To be sure, the film was impeccably produced, and the message is urgently relevant (especially in an election year), but I'm so freaking tired of being pissed off!

So when I got home, I thought it would be a great idea to lighten the mood with The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. It had just come in the mail from Netflix, and I thought, hey, my evening has just been one big bummer. Maybe this will give me a laugh. Boy, did that backfire.


The King of Kong was another very well-done documentary... but it just fell flat with me because of the circumstances. Basically, this really nice guy named Steve Wiebe, who hasn't had a whole lot of luck in his life, sets out to beat the all-time world record for Donkey Kong that was set by Billy Mitchell in 1982. Billy Mitchell, apparently, is not a really nice guy. He's got this whole posse of hangers-on (who seem to have their own sad little lives), sneaky tactics, and a Styx haircut/Jesus beard combo that he was probably sporting when he set the world record 26 years ago. Sure, it was entertaining. It definitely got me rooting for the "good guy"... but the whole time I kept thinking "there are people in Guantanamo Bay being waterboarded right now. Is it really crucial that Mario jumps all the barrels?"

I think I'll have to catch it again sometime when I'm not so utterly bummed out. That's the problem with outrage, I think. It takes away all the joy of the stupid stuff in life. I miss the stupid stuff.
...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , , , , , at 10:48 AM on Friday, February 8, 2008
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
11 people had something brilliant to say.

no end in sight

I'm a very naughty girl. I have The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford sitting in its Netflix envelope on my coffee table, untouched. I caucussed yesterday, so maybe I have an excuse? I'll try to get to it tomorrow; tonight, Captain Crash and I are catching an advance screening of Taxi to the Dark Side.

I did see No End In Sight this weekend, though. The critics all seemed to love it (a rare "A" rating from Entertainment Weekly and a 94% on the Tomatometer), and Mark Harris of EW's back page feature wrote a full column just on why this movie was a must-see. That's generally more than enough to get me to throw it on my Netflix queue, but then it got its very own Oscar nod for Best Documentary Feature. OK, done deal.



I don't know what I was expecting. This was the year I saw Sicko and Ghosts of Abu Ghraib... so I was braced for another angry documentary, bellowing for political change. Instead, it was more like a cool-headed History Channel presentation. No End In Sight walks the viewer carefully, methodically, almost dispassionately, through the myriad mistakes that transformed the liberation of Iraq into a violent insurgency, and then civil war. There was no political posturing, just a cold recounting of events. Of course it made me angry (how could it not?), but the facts were presented in such a calm, matter-of-fact way that the anger came from inside me, not from the words of the filmmakers.

Even if you have what Mark Harris calls "outrage fatigue", you've got to see this movie. It's not outrage ... It's just chilling, distilled truth.

P.S. The press are reporting that Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose from prescription medication. We all knew he wouldn't have left his little girl on purpose, but it's nice to have it confirmed. Such a devastating tragedy... there will always be a Heath-shaped hole in American cinema. Rest in peace. ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , , , , , , , , at 9:17 AM on Wednesday, February 6, 2008
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
5 people had something brilliant to say.

before the devil knows you're dead

An email interchange today between me and a coworker, Pistola Whipped. Pistola and I regularly trade recommendations on movies; we share a similar taste in movies and an affection for Ryan Gosling which I won't get into here. ;-)


From: Whipped, Pistola
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 8:12 AM
To: Anthony, Nayana
Subject: You were totally right

We went up to the Riverview and viewed Before the Devil Knows You're Dead last night.

Did not like it at all. I mistakenly thought it was supposed to be a comedy. Dead wrong. Yuck. Did every character seem miserable to you? And the music? Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. And the weird, super urban apartment with the waif-y, pusherman drug kid? It was so bizarre and hateful.

Luckily it was $3, Riverview popcorn is the bomb and I got a little snuggle time in with my main man...otherwise totally not into it.


From: Anthony, Nayana
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 9:33 AM
To: Whipped, Pistola
Subject: RE: You were totally right

Depressing. Everyone else seems to think it was the cat's pajamas. I sat there watching it, thinking "...Really?" It was awful.


From: Whipped, Pistola
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 9:49 AM
To: Anthony, Nayana
Subject: RE: You were totally right

I know it! I read several reviews (The New Yorker, City Pages, Star Tribune) and they just raved over it. Sometimes I think one reviewer sets the pace for other reviewers and they are afraid to bash something in case it goes to the Oscars and they get called out for their mistaken pan review. I would have given it a piss poor one even if I was writing for the damn Rolling Stone!


From: Anthony, Nayana
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 10:10 AM
To: Whipped, Pistola
Subject: RE: You were totally right

Yeah, that's the nice thing about the position we're in... we watch movies for FUN. So we're allowed to have any opinion we want. :-) The worst that can happen is our friends could give us a hard time... it's not really a financial risk.

So is THAT why I'm not a professional movie critic? Maybe I'll just tell myself that.

Additional Note: If any of you have a different opinion on Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, please, by all means, share it. I honestly would like to know why you liked this movie.


 ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , , , , at 10:26 AM on Tuesday, February 5, 2008
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
12 people had something brilliant to say.

atonement

There was not a whole lot of new stuff in the theater, kids. So I decided to give Atonement another chance.


Compared to all the other major Oscar-nominated films, Atonement initially left me underwhelmed, and a bit disappointed. I guess I was expecting it to sweep me away... I just felt like it was random and depressing. This time, it was a little better... maybe because I knew what was coming, and ***spoiler alert*** was a bit more prepared for the big giant bummer of an ending. I still didn't think it was the greatest movie this year (or even in the top ten), but I did notice a few new things.

First of all, that score! Especially in the beginning, it's really cool and frantic. It's dominated by this intense typewriter sound, especially when little Briony (our yellow journalist) is on the scene. The score also sets the mood effectively in some early scenes with Cecilia; it evokes the restless quiet she feels in the middle of her privilege.

Second... how spoiled/snobbish are Cecelia and Briony??? Especially with the way they talked to the servant, Danny. (And the fact that ***another spoiler alert*** Cecelia automatically suspected Danny of the story's pivotal rape.)

Third... I did like the cool interjection of real WWII footage of the evacuation to Dunkirk. It added gravitas to an otherwise silly story.

Still, give me The Diving Bell and the Butterfly or No Country For Old Men any day. That was gripping drama. ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , , , at 9:41 AM on Monday, February 4, 2008
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
4 people had something brilliant to say.

movie wasteland part deux

Looks like it's week two in a Minnesota movie dry spell. There is nothing premiering in the theaters that interests me in the slightest (except for Nanking, which looks pretty cool). Captain Crash saw Rambo and said it was great, but my dear roomie and I often differ on what makes great cinema. (No chick flicks for him, no dick flicks for me).

I got No End In Sight from Netflix, though, so maybe the weekend won't be a total waste... but I'm kind of tired of staying in. (Now that the temperature has finally risen above zero, it's relatively safe to venture out). Oh, well.

I am counting the days until February 15, when I get to see all the Oscar-nominated short films. They're showing at the Lagoon. Yippee!

Until then, I'm going to try to exercise patience. ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.
Posted by Nayana Anthony in , , , , , , at 3:29 PM on Friday, February 1, 2008
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
5 people had something brilliant to say.
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Copyright © 2008-2010 The Center Seat
Free WordPress Themes designed by EZwpthemes
Converted by Theme Craft
Powered by Blogger Templates