December 2011
50 posts
Oscar Statistic of the Day
“Only one star over 50 (Helen Mirren) has won the Best Actress prize in the past 20 years.”
source
5 tags
The Second Time Around
Been lucky enough to have the time to see a lot of the seriousy year-end movies multiple times this year and it has been interesting what has improved on repeated viewings, and what hasn’t.
I saw Melancholia twice. I loved it the first time and was completely bowled over by it the second. But it’s a daunting experience, watching the film. It requires a lot and takes a lot out of...
1 tag
The Takeaways of 2011
But when I sit down to reason, think to take my stand nor swerve, While I triumph o’er a secret wrung from nature’s close reserve, In you come with your cold music till I creep thro’ every nerve.
- Robert Browning
In 2010 it seemed like things couldn’t get any worse, that we’d reached the apotheosis of awful. Then 2011 came along and showed us we had not yet begun...
4 tags
GET YO TICKETS TO THE JAN 14th UCB LA show...... →
This is likely to be your only chance in 2011 to hear me tell the tale of how my American Idol derangement led to my permanently defacing my body.
3 tags
1 tag
ninety9 replied to your photo: Remember journalism?
Bananas or GTFO.
Excuse me.
“the idea of “No one wants to pay money to see” is the backbone of...”
– Molly Lambert, Grantland
3 tags
2 tags
The Artist Revisited
When I first saw The Artist, my reaction was largely reaction to the reaction, to the people who were declaring it an instant masterpiece and Oscar frontrunner. While I enjoyed it, the idea that familiar and two-dimensional plot merited it the Best Picture prize seemed insane.
Saw it again last night and I’m feeling a bit kinder to it this time. The plot is still two-dimensional and has...
1 tag
2 tags
2 tags
The 15 Most Delightful Internet Films of 2011 →
spiegelman:
I want you all to know I take my year-end list duties very seriously, that it is actually a year-long effort involving a Google Doc with a title that’s search-optimized so I can always find it. But I do this because I am always touched that The Awl would even consider posting something I write, since the talent of their editors and contributors and every other writer in The Awl’s...
Hellogiggles/UCB LA show
tumblaire:
hellogiggles:
HelloGiggles Presents: The Real on Reality
HellogGiggles presents The Real on Reality — Real Stories about the relationships we all have with Reality Television. Diamonds aren’t a girl’s best friend, Reality T.V. is. Presented by the writers and correspondents of hellogiggles.com. Hosted by Popular Columnist, Writer, and Premiere Realogist, Edward Hansen....
2 tags
Game of Thrones Book 3: Wedding Scene (No...
If anyone is up at this hour who has read this, please contact me at once. My world is in turmoil. Night is day and day is night I don’t understand who we are anymore. What is happening here?! Will no soul in the darkness take my hand?
1 tag
NikkiLeaks: Smaller than Waxman?
Could the Arab Spring be spreading to entertainment industry websites? Back in September we warned that the Hollywood’s Crazy Aunt in the Attic and Self-proclaimed most powerful person ever to live in the history of the world Nikki Finke’s traffic was on track to actually fall below that of much belittled rival Sharon Waxman’s site, The Wrap. This despite the fact that The...
6 tags
“What is wrong with many of the critics out there and most SAG members, etc.? Do...”
– Wells
4 tags
The Golden Globes Just Almost Stopped Being Funny
I was always a supporter of the Golden Globe awards, not because they are smart, or interesting or insightful or have anything worthwhile to say about arts or entertainment. I supported them because in the strange shadowland of people who have strong opinions about awards shows that I inhabit, people who are against the Globes always try to claim they are not a “real” awards show...
Top Ten Words and Phrases That Made Me Glad I Was...
1. Caturday 2. TLDR
I wrote this thing about the sad post-Friends... →
The Top Ten Phrases That Made Me Long for Death in...
1.Toldja
2.Um, no
3. Not so much
4. Gosling
5. Adorkable
6. Adore
7. Hot Trailer
8. Just saying
9. Meme
10. Fail
4 tags
The Top Ten Things I've Complained About In 2011
1.Drive
2. People who come to Venice on weekends
3. People who text in movies
4. Everyplace I’ve ever worked
5. Twitter
6. The traffic on Venice Blvd between the 405 and Robertson and how it is only so bad because people drive at 15 miles per hour in the left lane.
7. Vitamins (fraudulence of)
8. Idiot kids/young bloggers
9. Acid Reflux
10. Don’t people have anything beter to do than...
2 tags
The Best and Worst Depictions of Gen X in Film
Best (In Chronological Order)
Bad New Bears Fast Times at Ridgemont High Risky Business Repo Man The Breakfast Club River’s Edge Heathers Say Anything Singles My So Called Life (not a film but still counts) Office Space Fight Club Trainspotting Adventureland Young Adult
Worst Xploitations of the X Generation In Film (in no order
Every other John Hughes film Rules of...
4 tags
3 tags
“I wish I could tell you something romantic, like De Niro says he would go...”
– Patton Oswalt on prepping for his heartbreaking role in the fantastic, deceptively complex Young Adult in my conversation with him up today at the Daily Beast.
1 tag
WatchThe end of tonight’s episode of X Factor was the most dramatic ten minutes of television I’ve ever seen. Nothing can compare to this. It was human conflict at its most desperate and hubristic, raw and retarded. Absolutely gripping unbelievable drama. If you are not watching this, get that smug look off your face and take in the noblest battle between gladiators of song our...
1 tag
1 tag
4 tags
A Serious Filmmaker
Went to a lunch thrown by Focus Features for the cast and some crew of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and the director, perhaps my favorite director working today Tomas Alfredson who also did Let The Right One In. (Very big thumbs up review to follow.)
The film’s DP Hoyte Van Hoytema told that Alfredson’s primary instruction to the T2S2 team was that the film should “smell like...
3 tags
2 tags
2 tags
4 tags
“The fact that she took this character which could so easily be a caricature,...”
– Jason Reitman on Charlize Theron’s performance in Young Adult. Were there any justice at all, the Best Actress race would be a two way showdown between Charlize for this and Kirsten Dunst.
All other actresses this year would be ashamed to even step on a field with them.
3 tags
Getting The Descendants Wrong
At Grantland, the sagacious Mark Harris seems to have ignited the nascent Descendants backlash. He admits that his objections may come off as arrogant and pissy, raining on others parade. And he sets a very decent rule for one and all in a season of overstatements and a time when every movie either has to be AMAZING or HORRIBLE. He pledges to, “ try to be arrogant about movies that I...
3 tags
3 tags
3 tags
