Best Flicks 2008

As always a day late and a dollar short but. Oh well.

Here are the 5 flicks I dug the most from last year:

Other films worth giving a look-see:

The Wrestler
Che

Iron Man
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Gran Torino
Mother of Tears (US release)

Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead
Burn After Reading
Wall-E
Be Kind Rewind

Paper Heart

Last night my fiance and I got to see a test screening of Paper Heart staring comedian/musician Charlyne Yi (the awkward Asian girl from Knocked Up). The film is a faux-documentary which follows Yi across the country as she interviews people about love. Along the way she strikes up a romanitc relationship with Michael Cera. The result is Borat mixed with When Harry Met Sally...

This film is definitely not for everyone. If you are already predisposed to dislike cute/awkward hipster kids then there is no way that you will like this film. The audience is very niche. I hope that they don't try to market it to the Knocked Up and Superbad crowd. I heard many pissed off bros as I left the theatre. This is much more for the Napoleon Dynamite and Juno crowd.

What really holds this film together is Charlyne. She successfully takes a character (or is that really her?) that most people would categorize as asexual, and makes you see the yearning for connection which lies underneath. She wears her paper heart on her sleeve. Even in completely contrived situations you cannot help but feel for her.

Oh and those kids in Atlanta are priceless.

Let It Bleed

Randy “The Ram” Robinson is a professional wrestler way past his prime, living in a trailer, estranged from his daughter and enamored with a local stripper. Oh and did I mention that he has a weak heart that could kill him if he ever enters the ring again? On paper The Wrestler should so not work. It reeks of 1,001 crappy films you’ve seen before – yet miraculously it soars right over the ropes.

Mickey Rourke’s performance as Randy is the perfect melding of actor and role. When Randy bluntly states that the “90s sucked” you are acutely aware that they also sucked for Rourke who in 1991 left Hollywood for the boxing ring. After five years of floundering, Rourke finally returned to acting only to find that a lot had changed. What was once beefcake had turned into a slab of beef. Rourke’s road back to the limelight has been long and hard and it shows in every frame. He bleeds both emotion and the red stuff. Combine this with Marissa Tomei’s stellar turn as past her prime stripper Cassidy, and you get a portrait of truly heartbreaking humanity.

With such stellar acting on display some directors might opt to stand back and just let things run on autopilot. Fortunately Darren Aronofsky is not that type of director. If it seems as though he has ditched all of the stylish flourishes he’s famous for in favor of a documentary approach you aren’t looking close enough. No documentarian could ever be this lucky. Whether it’s following behind Ram as he enters the ring or zeroing in on Cassidy as she has a personal revelation, the camera is always in precisely the right spot for maximum subjectivity. Aronofsky makes the intensely planned look effortless. He is the real deal and so is this film.

Cloudy With A Chance Of WTF?

So the Oscar nominations were announced this morning. This has been a so-so year for films and as a result the nominees have been pretty easy to pick. That's not to say that there weren't some pretty shocking omissions. OK let's move forward. I promise this won't be as tedious as my Golden Globes overview. I'll skip categories about which I don't have anything interesting to say.

Best Actor

Haven't seen The Visitor but I love Richard Jenkins so it's nice to see him on here. Though I would have liked to see Benicio for his great work in Che and WHERE THE FUCK IS CLINT!

Best Supporting Actor

Downey Jr actually did it! He got a nom for being the dude playing a dude disguised as another dude! Didn't care much for the film but that performance was awesome. This is one of the best categories in terms of quality. It's going to Heath though and deservedly so.

Best Actress

Who will win? Hathaway or Winslet? Or will they split votes and someone else wins? Hopefully not Angelina. Ooh the suspense!

Best Animated Feature

Some people thought Wall-E would follow in Beauty and the Beast's footsteps and get a best picture nomination. It's consolation prize will be winning this category.

Best Director

I love Fincher, Boyle and Van Sant though I don't know how I would feel about David winning for work that I found to be a little sub-par. What I do know is that Ron Howard doesn't need another Oscar (though he's a very nice guy and a capable picture maker). And what's the deal with Stephen Daldry? How did he squeak in over Christopher Nolan who's vision for The Dark Knight allowed it to soar above all other comic book films?

Best Foreign Language Film

Though I didn't see hardly any foreign films this year I do have an opinion on this category. Gommora, which many considered a front runner for the category, was passed over. I'm really looking forward to this film's American release. Was it too "genre" to make the cut? Speaking of genre...Sweden didn't even submit Let The Right One In so it had no chance. Why do we leave that up to a bunch of guys who are most inclined to pick the easy and sure thing? Risky stuff will never get a chance that way.  CORRECTION: apparently Sweden did not submit Let The Right One In because it wasn't eligable.  Since the film wasn't released in Sweden before October, it is ineligable for THIS year's Oscars, but could be eligable next year.  I'm leaving my original comments here because I think the points I make about bias against genre are still valid.

Best Makeup

I'm happy to see creature makeup finally getting some love! They passed up Hellboy the first time around. I guess the troll market forced them to take notice. This is an extremely tough category to pick. All the work here was phenomenal.

Best Cinematography

As much as I love Roger Deakins' photography I don't want him to win this year.  He deserves to have his first Oscar be for a film that he was on from start to finish.

Best Original Song

This is the first BIG "what the fuck?" category. Only three nominees? Has this ever been done before? I mean I'm glad I won't have to hear some Miley Cyrus song or something. And I'm totally stoked to see M.I.A up for a Golden Boy. But to pass up The Boss? Especially when he just won the Golden Globe? This stinks just as bad as that year when they passed up Mick Jagger. In some ways they're so old fashioned (Disney movies) yet also forward thinking (Eminem, Issac Hayes). I think this category will always be a mystery.

Best Picture

And now for the second BIG "what the fuck?"...The producers' guild, the directors' guild and the editors' guild ALL picked the same five nominees. One would think a phenomenon like that would result in those five films being the Oscar nominees. You just thought wrong. The Reader wasn't even supposed to be released until next year but Harvey Weinstein insisted on moving it to this year. This created all sorts of shock waves in the Hollywood community and prompted one of the film's producers to remove his name from it. And now it's up for best picture AND director? Something smells rotten in Denmark. Harvey is notorious for heavy handed campaigning. Did it finally pay off? Or maybe it has to do with the Oscar's continuing love affair with the Holocaust. I had some fairly serious misgivings about The Dark Knight but all in all it was a very ambitious and well executed film. I think this will be one of those hotly contested categories people discuss for years to come.

Best Sound Mixing & Editing

Winning these will be like giving Ben Burt a best actor award. His twitters and squeaks are what gave Wall-E it's heart and soul.

AND EVEN THOUGH IT WAS KNOWN WELL IN ADVANCE - NO HONORARY OSCAR FOR ROGER CORMAN...THIS YEAR AT LEAST

OK. Sorry.  No mroe rage.  For now. I'm really excited for Milk and Slumdog.

Catch you guys on the flip side.

INNOCENT!?!

I know star witness Don Haidl is a piece of shit just like his gang-rapist son...

BUT THAT'S NO REASON TO COMPLETELY IGNORE THESE DAMMING AUDIO RECORDINGS THAT HE MADE!

All that and all you could pin on him was one count of witness tampering?

I DEMAND A RE-TRIAL!

UPDATE!

EVEN MORE FURIOUS MAKING

Thanks For Listening

I read the news today oh boy. Indie 103 is going off the air.

Of course they'll still be online, but the days of picking up their shitty signal in the car are over and done with. Unlike some of your heartless bastards I can't help but shead a tear.

Sure they weren't truly "indie". But where else could I hear both Frank Sinatra and Public Enemy without having to turn the dial? Where else could I get DJs like Steve Jones & Henry Rollins? And most importantly, who else would let an asshole like me on the air for an hour?

It was the perfect station for a late night drive when you didn't have your iPod with you. Unfortunately I can't get my computer to go 55mph. le sigh.

Thank you Indie 103. You will be missed.

Commentary + Dissent = Dysentery

First off - the above photo has absolutely nothing to do with this post. I did a google image search for "george w bush portrait" and this is one of the images that came up: Miles Davis holding a white baby. Will the wonders of the internet ever cease?

Anyhow. I just got done watching Bush's farewell address. Was it just me or did he look downright creepy when he was talking about Obama and his family. He had that look he gets when he thinks he's being funny. Or maybe that's just the only look he has aside from his "serious" face.

The speech was pretty standard. Just humping the ghosts of his limited accomplishments. I mean I guess the absence of a negative (additional terrorism on American soil) is a positive. But let's not forget that 9/11 itself happened on his watch. We're supposed to remember him as a great president because only ONE massive terrorist attack happened on his watch? And what about Katrina? And torture?

In the end, this speech felt aptly like the end of a horror movie. You know when the killer or whatever comes back for one last scare. Remember there are evil evil people out there in the world and we all need to be afraid. Of all the things I won't miss about the Bush administration, constant use of scare tactics ranks numero uno.

I'm not saying that everything will be rainbow fountains and roller-disco dance parties with Obama. Shit's gonna be pretty tough especially over the next few financial quarters. But at least we have a president who signed up for the job knowing how difficult it would be, rather than one who slid in at the tail end of good times and had to continually play catch-up as things got worse and worse (usually as a result of his own doing or lack there of). For this we can be thankful.

Farewell you faux cowboy ass-hat!

Things Are Tough All Over

Over the past few weeks this whole recession mentality has really started to kick in. I've tried to write something profound on it but it all comes out so depressing when I want it to come out recessing. Since the election we've been sitting in this holding pattern. Shit seems futile. This picture really sums up how I'm feeling inside:

Times like this call for the world's greatest, "getting out of a funk song". I hope this helps.

Pubescent Vampire Angst

Want to play a game? Let’s say you’re at the mall, and someone approaches you about attending an advanced screening of a film. They cannot tell you the title but they describe it as: an adaptation of a popular book about a relationship between an adolescent and a vampire. What do you do? If you say yes you might have just condemned yourself to 2 hours of allegorical abstinence schmaltz. Say no and you could be missing out on a highly nuanced film about love and loneliness. What do you do?

Like most great genre films Let The Right One In is about much more than blood sucking. This restrained creep-fest could also be at home on a shelf next to Harold and Maude. Two characters, both decidedly out of step with “normal” society, coming together as an off-beat couple for the ages. No matter how weird or unlovable you might think you are, there is someone out there for you. Did I mention the title comes from a Morrissey song? Who would have guessed?

So what about the scares? Is this just touchy-feely stuff about lost souls finding each other? Oh no no no. This film delivers the chills too. Shot in a very objective and utilitarian manner, this film allows the scares to really creep up on you. Many of the most gruesome moments occur either out of frame or in wide shots with cleverly placed shadows and branches. Mood and sound provide a starting point from which your imagination can run wild.

Sadly this film was overlooked by the Golden Globes and The Academy will likely do the same. Genre always has to battle a hard road for acceptance. But trust me, it is no fluke that this film has already won 18 awards worldwide. A film like this is something to be treasured. So the next time someone invites you to go see a vampire movie - agree without reservation. It could be shit but it could also be gold.

No Fun

Ron Asheton, founding member of and guitarist for The Stooges, was found dead yesterday from an apparent heart attack. He was only 60. Without him there would be no punk rock. OK maybe there would be punk rock. But having him gone is definitely -

They said I was gonna die soon but, maybe not.

Traditionally music video directors do not make great filmmakers. While they have an extremely strong sense of image, they often come up short in story sense. Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. One notable exception to this rule is David Fincher.

With films like Se7en and Fight Club, Mr. Fincher has distinguished himself as a filmmaker who in has a strong aesthetic AND something to say about the darkness in man's soul. His newest film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, makes a noble effort at augmenting that worldview with something a little bit more hopeful.

On this outing, darkness is relegated almost exclusively to the gorgeous cinematography. For the first time ever, a David Fincher film is able to illicit both tears and heartwarming laughter. The quirky characters Benjamin comes across on his journeys are a hoot and watching him and Daisy drift apart is heart wrenching. Fincher ably proves his ability to direct scenes about real humans. So then what's the problem?

While the film's effects are stunning and will surely rack up a few awards, they also provide a sort of hindrance. Though a good majority of these technical miracles serve to tell the story, some only succeed in distracting the viewer. If you're busy trying to figure out how an effect was achieved, you're not paying attention to the story.

The other problem is a bit larger and comes in the form of a framing device that never really clicks. What was the purpose of setting these scenes during Hurricane Katrina? Was it simply because the film is set in New Orleans? Or is it meant to enhance the film's 'death theme'? Juxtaposing an individual's death with that of a city? Whatever the reason, it does not come across. Maybe we'll eventually get a director's cut that will make more sense.

In the end The Curious Case of Benjamin Button belongs to a proud line of flawed masterpieces. Movies with great potential and a lot to love, that for one reason or another come up short. Yet even in its' flawed state, this film has more to offer than 80% of the dreck out there. A very commendable effort. Who knows - maybe it will get better with age.