The Center Seat

OK, kiddies, I'm going to get right to it. Megamind is good. It's entertaining, witty, fast-paced, and it'll make you giggle. There. That's my review. Now, on to some not-so-reviewy thoughts I had while watching the thing (a few mild spoilers after the jump):

I posted an earlier version of this a while ago, but this is going to be my official Day Zero version. Task #15 on my list requires me to watch all the movies on the AFI Top 100 list; so here's where I'll keep track of my progress. So far I've seen 44 out of 100: not bad, but not nearly good enough. See the full list, after the jump.

I've been married for a little over two months to this great guy; we'll call him Mr. Nayana. I know I've mentioned him a few times over the past couple years, but this will serve as his official introduction.

Mr. Nayana was working late the other night, so I took the opportunity to curl up with Zoe the Putty Tat, a bottle of Door Peninsula American Riesling (a holdover from my kickass bachelorette party), and Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy.

I just got married. Whoo. :-)

So now I'm moving on with the REST of my life. Kind of a daunting task, as there's about a million things I want to accomplish.

Enter the Day Zero Project.

Hey Center Seat readers! I'm back from my much-needed hiatus. Wedding plans and work duties are back on track, so here I go again with this crazy film obsession of mine.

How is it that I've never reviewed Fargo before? After all, I am a Minnesotan... I've lived here for 12 years, I love it here, I probably will never move.

Minnesotans in general tend to have a love-hate relationship with the movie Fargo. For one thing, it drives us nuts that many assume Fargo to be a city in the good ol' Land of 10,000 Lakes. It so isn't. Go get yourself a map of North Dakota. For another thing, we don't all talk like that. I don't think I've ever in my life uttered the words, "Yah, you betcha." We do all say "Minne-soh-ta", but that's pretty much the extend of it. So to have folks from the coasts coming in, giggling at us, and asking us to say lines from the movie, can get a little grating.

But aside from all the "I'm annoyed because I'm a local" conceit, it's really freaking brilliant. I know I may skew a bit on the favorable side when it comes to movies from the Coen boys, but there's a good reason for that, folks. They're masters.

Have you ever looked out your window on a January day and thought to yourself, "Damn. There is no color out there. My life is a black-and-white movie"? OK, you smartasses in California and Arizona get a pass, but that is exactly what Minnesota looks like half the year. And the Coens captured it perfectly; the starkness, the colorless landscape. And the way that, even in the city, Minnesota in winter can start to resemble Siberia.


Beyond the setting, Fargo mixes comedy and violence more effectively than any other movie I can name*, without making the bloodshed seem trivial. The murders that happen in this story come about in a very matter-of-fact way, but the contrasts between the casually violent attitude of the criminals and the mournful viewpoint of Marge the pregnant cop can be quite jarring. You find yourself being grateful for Marge's frank perspective, while feeling a bit guilty that in the first half of the movie you were almost rooting for the bad guys.

Of course the cast is wonderful: I think the witless schemer Jerry Lundegaard is William H. Macy's best role; and the same could probably said for Frances McDormand's Marge. The script is great too, and the setting wouldn't be as powerful without the amazing cinematography. But when you're watching Fargo, you're not thinking about any of that. Setting, script, characters, and acting are all blended together homogeneously into one beautiful product, as though shoved through a wood chipper and sprayed onto the white snow of your screen.


*Except maybe another Coen brothers movie. ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.

OK, this is going to happen once in a while. I am currently buried at work, so you won't see anything earthshaking from me in at least a day, maybe two. I'll be back soon. Stay tuned for reviews of The Time Traveler's Wife, It's A Wonderful Life, and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

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.