The Center Seat

This is a movie blog. But I'm gonna talk TV for a second.

Can I tell you how much I love, love LOVE Glee?

I don't watch a whole lot of TV. That's partly because I've got lots to do; partly because I hate commercials; but mostly because, frankly, TV is crap lately.

Not Glee. Only four episodes into its first season, Glee is on the FOX network (home of some of my three least favorite shows). In contrast to FOX's normal fare of escalating torture-based serials and tired reality shows, Glee incorporates humor, drama, and goosebump-y music in a way we've not seen in ages. Matter of fact, have we ever seen a television musical series that was actually good?

Glee centers on a high school teacher (played by Broadway vet Matthew Morrison) who is trying to relive some past glory by putting together a kickass show choir. The thing is, the fabulously singing students are a bunch of... well, freaks. The brat, the stutterer, the flaming gay boy, the sassy black chick, the jock, and the kid in the wheelchair are all relative unknowns. A few have done stints on Broadway here and there, or bit parts on the odd TV show, but this is the first time most of us have ever seen them. Together, they're absolutely magic.

The cast is rounded out by some fantastic villians: Jessalyn Gilsig (don't you remember Ms. Davis from Boston Public?) plays the teacher's spoiled wife, and the scene-stealing Jane Lynch is a nefarious cheerleading coach who wants nothing more than the demise of our little glee club.

If you haven't caught this show yet, it's on Wednesday nights on FOX... and you should definitely catch up by watching the first four episodes on Hulu. It's free, and no, Dad, it won't put a virus on your computer.

For now, enjoy Glee's football team and their rendition of Beyoncé's "Single Ladies".
...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.

I realized something weird today. Out of the 172 posts I've written (yeah.), I've only featured two musicals. And I really love musicals. I can only think of one musical I didn't enjoy--From Justin to Kelly--and nobody enjoyed that one. I don't even think Justin and Kelly enjoyed that one.

So I'm going to be talking more about musicals I love, starting with Fiddler on the Roof. My parents brought me up on this one; I think I probably saw it for the first time in third or fourth grade, and then I think we came close to wearing out the VHS. My parents would close their eyes reverently when Isaac Stern would get going on his solo during the title credits, we'd all sing along with all the songs. And as part of his extraordinary parenting philosophy, Dad would spout Fiddler wisdom at really random times ("why, you ask? I'll tell you. I don't know"). It went well with his Rolling Stones wisdom ("you can't always get what you want") and his Pink Floyd wisdom ("if you can't eat your meat...")

Anywho.

For me, Fiddler is one of those classic movies, like The Princess Bride and The Wizard of Oz, that never fail to entertain and thrill me, even if I think I know the whole thing by heart. Of course it's got its classic moments: the parents singing "Sunrise, Sunset" at the wedding; the freakishly awesome bottle dancers (does anyone know if those bottles were somehow affixed to those hats? Mr. N and I had a bit of a disagreement about that); and my favorite part, the drunken inter-cultural dancing at the tavern.

What really sets Fiddler on the Roof apart, though, is its lush versatility. In one cinematic breath, it showcases the mundane life of a Russian turn-of-the-century peasant, and then knocks you over the head with huge issues like revolution and bigotry. This movie goes in a heartbeat from light comedic banter, to poignant longing for a simpler time, to plain awe at what makes life beautiful.

Most of all, I love to watch Tevye as he navigates the precarious tight space between his long-held beliefs and his love for his daughters. It mirrors what I've figured out in the past few years: just because you've believed something as long as you can remember, don't be surprised when you learn it's worthless in the face of real life.
...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.

I didn't want to see The Proposal. I even (briefly) considered featuring it as a FWLFS. From the moment I saw that first trailer, the whole thing just felt... icky. The premise--a put-upon gopher is forced to get engaged to his abusive female boss so that she can stay in the U.S.--is classic, egregious sexual harassment. Would we laugh, I opined, if the genders were reversed, and a lecherous male boss did the same to his female subordinate? Of course not. Because it's awful.

With my air of progressive hipster superiority fully satisfied, I happily shunned all opportunities (including a free preview) to see The Proposal. It was beneath me, don't you know.

But then some writers whom I actually respect (I'm looking at you, Jess!) had to go and say it wasn't that bad. So on my inaugural Wednesday night movie, I headed down to the Riverview and saw it for $3.

OK, seriously. The premise is awful. But looking past that for a second--can I just say how much I've missed Sandra Bullock? She hasn't been this yummy in a rom-com for at least nine years. And her chemistry with Ryan Reynolds was muy caliente.

So, really, this movie was saved for me by two things: first, the delicious cast (Mary Steenburgen! Betty White! Coach! Oscar from "The Office" doing a lap dance!); and, secondly, the hilarious script*. I have not laughed this much since Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Yes, The Proposal was a run-of-the-mill romantic comedy, and yes, it followed a formula. You always knew what was going to happen next. But--it didn't suck. I was smiling as I walked out of the theater; and that, in itself, transcended my best expectations.

*"You know I can't swim!" "Hence, the boat." If you saw it, you know what I'm talking about. ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.

Relationship Nayana has been beating the crap out of Movie Nayana. So last week that whole thing came to a head, I got upset, decisions were made. Relationship Nayana is still in charge, but she has to let Movie Nayana out once in a while. So...

Wednesday night is movie night! I'm gonna go, every week, by myself, to a movie in the theater. But here's the rub... I have no idea what I should see this week. I've been unplugged for far too long. I need your guidance, my bloggy friends.

Here are some of my options. Suggestions, please!

1. Food, Inc.
2. The Proposal
3. Public Enemies
4. 9
5. Extract
6. The Informant!
7. Inglorious Basterds
8. Julie & Julia

OK, lemme have it.
...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.

I've had quite the struggle lately between the movie-lover me and the relationship me. It's not that Mr. Nayana actively keeps me from going to the movies per se... it's just that it hasn't occurred to me to get my ass to the theater when I could just hang with my best bud at home. Does that make any sense?

Anyway, this whole "I never go to the movies anymore" thing came to a head this week. More on that tomorrow. But Mr. Nayana, in his infinite sweetness, saw that I was upset and promptly decided to take me on a date. We saw (500) Days of Summer, which I had been itching for since I first read about it months ago.

First of all, it's definitely not your standard romantic comedy (which, honestly, was a huge part of its appeal for me). Secondly, it stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, both of whom I looooove.

The coolest thing about this movie is that it doesn't give us the normal crap we get about love from your standard commercial film:

Step 1. You meet someone of the opposite sex whom you immediately despise.
Step 2. Your quirky best friend helps you realize you actually are in love with aforementioned despised person.
Step 3. An unfortunate misunderstanding will drive the two of you apart.
Step 4. It all comes right in the end (thanks again to your quirky best friend).

This, as we should all know, is complete shit. And (500) Days of Summer--blessedly--doesn't do that. We are taken on a journey through a realistic relationship... the highs, the lows, the initial blush, the later disillusionment. And guess what? They don't like each other exactly the same amount! Sound familiar?

This movie was a beautiful, refreshing look at the real stuff we go through when we make the rash decision to allow another human being to become intimately close to us. It's not always pretty, but it's real life, not fantasy. And as for me, I'd much rather my film (or music, or art) reflect the life I actually lead.
...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.

So, yeah. I haven't blogged in about a million years. (Five months is about a million years in bloggy time, isn't it?)

I think that may have a lot to do with the fact that my life has changed dramatically in the last year... but I do miss y'all. So I'm going to give The Center Seat a face lift and we're going to get going with a second wind. Hopefully this week, but I make no hard and fast promises.

Biggest change: remember Nuevo Man? We have to change his handle, I think. On September 7 he asked me to marry him.... so maybe "Mr. Nayana", a la "Mrs. Fletch"?

I've had three Netflix movies sitting on top of my TV for the last two or three months... I'm in that weird Netflixian stage in which you never really feel like seeing what you've got, but you feel guilty returning them, so you're in Netflix limbo. Who knows how long this would have lasted if Nuevo Man hadn't sat down last night and watched one with me?

Our selection was, as my oh-so-brilliant readers have probably figured out by now, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It's always been in that category of classic movies that I've wanted to get around to, but never did. And now I have. Yay me.

Anyway.

If you are in the tiniest minority of film geeks who don't know this, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest centers on the population of a ward at a state mental hospital, circa 1963. The head nurse, Ms. Ratched, pretty much runs the show, though she chooses to accomplish that through intimidation and humiliation. Let's face it: her charges are easy victims. A monkey wrench is thrown in the proverbial works when Randle McMurphy (a young Jack Nicholson... mmmmm) comes to live on the ward. He's an habitual trouble-maker, but his playful needling of Nurse Ratched becomes personal when he recognizes the tyrant behind her calm, sunny disposition.

As some of you know, in my real life I've worked in the human services field for about a decade, specifically with people with developmental disabilities. The story of Nurse Ratched and her ward sounds horrific, and in many ways unbelievable, but I was struck with how much I recognized a lot of the behavior in this film. Often, it happens when someone has worked with the population for too long (everyone tends to burn out eventually), but not everyone can see themselves doing it. It is so easy, especially after several years of dealing with troublesome personalities or irritating behaviors, to become passive aggressive and controlling.

Now don't get me wrong... I've never actually met a real-life Nurse Ratched. That's what prison cells are for. And I certainly don't condone it; emotional abuse is still abuse. But I was astounded at how well this aspect of institutional life was captured in this film.

On a lighter note, I really enjoyed:

1. young Christopher Lloyd
2. young Danny DeVito
3. the aforementioned young Jack Nicholson (he used to be a great actor!)

So now I'm hoping to get to my final two Netflix movies. On top of the TV set at the moment are The Proposition and The Deer Hunter. Any suggestions? ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.

Last weekend I discovered that one of my dreadlocks is shaped like the "crooked road" in Joe vs. the Volcano. Even my dreads are film geeks. I wonder if any of the other ones have a favorite film...

Will somebody please explain to me what is the big flippin' deal about Twitter? The media can't seem to shut up about it. I tried it long ago, and never got anything out of it. Truth be told, I am much more Facebooky. But seriously, if there's a reason I should care about this Twitter thing, would you please let me know?

So it's March 18. I'm not sure what March is like where you live, but in Minnesota it's like picking up the weather, rolling it up into a little ball, and throwing it on a giant cosmic roulette wheel.

Last Wednesday... March 11. I stayed home sick. Good thing, too, because the temperature didn't spend more than an hour or two above zero. That's air temperature. I think the windchill stayed at scary-below* all day.

Two days ago... Monday, March 16. I did not wear a coat. We hit the mid-to-upper sixties. I drove home with both car windows all the way down. I opened the windows at home... Zoe the Putty Tat finally got to breathe fresh air for the first time in six months. You know, you really forget how great ambient outside noises are until they're filling your apartment after a season of silence.

Today we're back to a normal March temperature... if there is such a thing in Minnesota. I guess it must be somewhere in the forties... all I know is that my insides seem to be thawing. And the big winter coat is still at home.

OK, I know it's a movie blog... and I'm essentially talking about the weather. It's really not meant to be bloggy small talk though. This is really the stuff that's guiding my psyche about now. In Minnesota it's ALL about the weather. We experience some pretty incredible extremes; actually, that's one of the things I love about living here. You see, it's really impossible to appreciate the hazy sweetness of the first spring rain if you didn't first go through an Arctic-ish winter. And the sound of a lawnmower... or a robin chirping outside your window. Or best of all... driving to work through a canopy of multicolored blossoms.

Now let's not get all crazy here. It is only March 18. That first rain hasn't quite happened... no lawnmowers yet, and only a few really brave robins. And those blossoms won't arrive till May. But I'm looking out the window onto a bare (read: no ice) road under a bright (not pale) blue sky. So all that other springy stuff can't be too far behind, right?

*scary-below: (adj) a blanket term Nayana uses to describe frigid, below-zero temperatures that are literally life-threatening (to any form of life stupid enough to be outside). ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.

There are currently three projects on the way that fuse Pride & Prejudice (one of my most sacred cows) with sci-fi... basically zombies or aliens wreaking havoc on Jane Austen's most beloved cast of characters.

Do me a favor: read one or two (or all) of the following articles, then let me know what you think by answering the poll on the right.

• io9: THREE Jane Austen Science Fiction Movies in the Pipeline?
• EW PopWatch: 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' author talks about his literary monster mash-up
• EW PopWatch: Elton John to exec produce 'Pride and Predator'

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.