A Blog Next Door

Weekend, or How I really don't care for this indie gay "romance"

2011-12-26T19:54:00.004-05:00

I usually try and keep a clear-head when I watch and critique films, but Weekend (Dir. Andrew Haigh, 2011) so clearly needs an audience that is invested in these characters and their situation (the cinematography and camera work privileges these lived-in, almost voyeuristic feelings in the audience: what are we, if not overhearing - and watching - the intimate moments of these two blokes?) that at some point I gave up. I was indifferent and while I keep trying to articulate why, the answer keeps eluding me and finds me either making claims about films that I rarely make: "I didn't identify with so-and-so!"/"I didn't buy it!" and which I don't think are useful or helpful in trying to get someone else to understand how you feel or responded to a specific film.

There's much to admire here. Haigh is clearly gifted director, who gets honest and affecting performances from his leads, but this was a weekend I wanted no part of by the time the credits rolled. As I'm still trying to wrap my head around my reaction (and because I ended up being asked to stop arguing my case last night during christmas dinner with a friend's friend who loved it - as have many people I respect and whose views I've read attentively with interest) I decided to put the feelings down on 'paper.' I started this blog as a way to a) free-write as much as I could as I started graduate school and b) nurture an interest which I initially thought would be much further away from my academic interests (ie. films) but as the dissertation began requiring more and more time, A Blog Next Door has become a quiet little corner. Every once in a while I come out of hiding (though I do spout off a lot on twitter!) and that's usually when I feel I need to vent, or work through something (a post on Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close may be in the works, but more on that later).

The film opens with a mundane scene. Glen (Tom Cullen) is getting ready. He bathes. He gets dressed. He ponders whether to break in his new Nike sneakers. Chooses not to. He takes a hit from his pipe. The day (and film) begins. What follows - a weekend in the life of two men as they share a sexual, emotional and intimate relationship. The conceit is a powerful one: by hewing to a mere weekend (which the plot easily and helpfully accounts for), Haigh is able to deliver a two-sided character study that allows him to open up questions about intimacy, relationships and sexuality that depend but (the film thinks) transcends the (homo)sexuality of its protagonists. Haigh's direction - and one can see this from this very first scene - aims for a lived-in naturalism: the stage (or screen, I guess) is set for a bare-bones, raw, 'authentic' exploration of the slice of life of these two characters as they (drunkenly) meet and spend precious hours with one another talking up their approach to love, life and sex (another structural and clever touch is the twinned desire of both these characters to chronicle their sexual exploits).

I've heard and read a lot of what people find fascinating, touching and altogether poignant about the film. It has been praised as a thoughtful exploration of modern relationships, of offering a lived-in characterization of two men whose sexuality is an aspect but not an identity (inasmuch as the film presents them, something which I welcomed), and while I understand and respect where those feelings are coming from, Weekend left me cold. I didn't care about this 'hook-up' or the way the film tried to frame it at once as unique but also pedestrian. I didn't much care about these characters which, though carefully fleshed out through gestures and self-reflecting anecdotes (also welcome, as I tend to hate needless expository 'backstory'), never ceased to be two talking heads for conversations that try to escape the settings and trappings of the 'gay scene' but can never quite go beyond them.

But if I had to air my one grievance with the film it'd be this: is it not troubling to anyone else that for a movie that values intimacy at both a formal and thematic level, this movie only features sex scenes where both men are either intoxicated, tweaked out or high? Arguments can be made that the film is less interested in the sex part of the equation; it is after all a 'romance', or so I am led to believe though it is hard to pinpoint what love or feelings or intimacy mean to these characters who so clearly are presented as at once lonely and isolated from those around them yet functionally social enough to meet available men at bars. The more I watched the film, the more I realized that this was a story I felt indifferent towards. At some point I decided that I didn't care about these characters despite the film's attempts at earnestly humanizing them and presenting them as the other's only 'true' (or intimate) connection in the film.

There are other, more personal things I didn't quite care for in the film: the (over)use of drugs, the needless philosophizing that aims to pit these characters as emblematic of... something in modern romance, the seeming inability of the characters to live in a contemporary setting (most egregious is the lack of cell phones or laptops as means to stay in touch, but I take the point that the film is more interested in the 'weekend' than in the prospect of a long-distance relationship: it needs to romanticize the 'now' by at once ignoring but also depending on Russel's departure). In essence, I found the film's goal a disingenuous one. This is a film that presents itself as a deconstruction of a regular hook up, framing itself as a look into the intimate connection between its leads, but ultimately that intimacy felt endlessly fabricated and mediated (by drugs, by the narrativized hookup-in-hindsight conceit, by alcohol...) and thus never gave their relationship any of the grandiose and romantic feelings the ending wanted me to experience. I'd say I'm due for a re-watch but, I don't think I can stomach it.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot, or How trust Nat & Belle to wake me from my slumber

2011-04-13T09:01:00.002-04:00

Over at The Film Experience, Nat has been hosting a weekly blogathon of sorts under the title 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot' wherein bloggers are invited to join in on a conversation about a given movie and choose their 'favorite shot' from said movie. Needless to say, it always yields interesting conversations. While I've let other films I would have loved to chat about pass (including Memento & Heavenly Creatures most recently), I knew I couldn't pass up piping in for the Beauty and the Beast evening.

This is one of the very first movies I was fixated on (I have it loaded on my iPhone for whenever I'm bored: read, whenever I'm waiting for transit, a doctor and/or my Starbucks coffee). It's a film I know by heart and thus any type of critical distance I would ever want to have from it is impossible. It's no surprise I've talked about it before (here and here - and oh! even my last post included a Gaston shot that could have easily made it as my Best Shot) and could go on talking about it forever, but for today, let's just focus on images (gorgeous, gorgeous images!)

One of the things I love most about Beauty and the Beast is its beautiful character animation. This is not surprising when you realize some of Disney's best animators were working on the main three characters. If nothing else, I want to spotlight the work of animators as a way to argue: look! you can make emotive characters out of thin air with no help from cutting edge motion capture technology. *Ed Note: no, there's nothing wrong with motion capture technology, but there's something endlessly fascinating to me about performances that come from mere paper and a pencil (and voicework!)

This is also another way of saying I'm going to cheat and give you 6 runner-up 'character animation' shots and then give you my fave shot:

Beast

Animator: Glen Keane

Glen gave us Ariel and would later give us Aladdin, Tarzan and Rapunzel

One of the challenges of a character like Beast is that he needs to at once look terrifying but at the same time elicit some sympathy/love from Belle/the audience. His entrance does great work for the first but I'm more interest in pivot moments like Beast and Belle's across-locked-doors conversation: Beast gives "grinding his teeth" a new name as he tries to 'woo' Belle out of her room with passive aggressive pleasantries.

Yet, his beastly exterior begins to crumble as 'something there' begins to emerge, showing us a softer side (even the birds wanna play with him!) [Ed Note: this if my mom's favorite moment in the film, I can't count the number of times she referred to it while I was growing up!]

Gaston

Animator: Andreas Deja

Andreas gave us Triton and would later give us Jafar, Scar, Hercules and Lilo

One of the joys of watching Gaston on screen is seeing him try to grasp simple concepts ("how can you reeeead, there are no pictures?") and grapple with harder ones ("Did you honestly think she loved you when she could have someone like me?"). The following comes right after Belle begins to advocate for Beast as a gentle creature. His amazement slowly grows to disgust in a matter of frames:

Few animated films have such an unabashedly vain and cruel villains (it's telling that most of the humor comes not from himself but from around him: "What's wrong with her? She's crazy! He's gorgeous!" whereas Ursula, Jafar and Scar have deliciously comedic roles) and this is particularly striking in his last battle with beast where his egomaniacal delusions get the best of him:

Belle

Animator: James Baxter

James would later give us Rafiki & Quasimodo

Ariel may have her voice, Rapunzel may have her hair, Jasmine may have her palace and Aurora may have her beauty sleep (and her ever-color-changing dress!) but Belle... Belle has her gorgeous eyes and her curiosity, the latter getting her in more trouble than she bargains for in the scene where she explores the 'West Wing' (not the Sorkin show, sadly) and finds Beast's portrait:

Keane nails Beast's rakish (read: beastly) good looks and charms despite his outer exterior while Deja milks Gaston's physique for all it's worth but my props always have to go to Baxter who makes Belle one of the most facially expressive characters in the Disney canon (it helps to Paige O'Hara's voice to work off of), especially in small moments where we see her self-doubt afflicting her as she finds herself attracted to a Beast:

But my all time favorite shot/sequence in the film comes right after Gaston has (unsuccessfully) proposed to Belle and she gets to sing her 'I Want' song (y'know, like Ariel's Part of Your World, Hercules's Going the Distance, etc.) in a beautifully lit 'hills-are-alive'-esque background where we see her yearning for so much more than this provincial life.

I want adventure in the great wide somewhere
I want it more than I can tell
And for once it might be grand
To have someone understand
I want so much more than they've got planned

Villains! or How Everything I know I Learnt From Animation

2010-12-10T16:47:00.005-05:00

It's been a while since I've done one of these, and what better way to celebrate Donna Murphy's induction into the Disney Villains Hall of Fame (with her deliciously scene-stealing Mother Gothel in Tangled) than by telling you what I've learnt from Disney's villains?

And so I give you, with my tongue clearly planted in my cheek,

The Top 10 Things I've Learned from Disney Villains

1. Mother knows best (Tangled).

Sure, she's overprotective and only has selfish reasons as to why Rapunzel should stay in her tower, but this kernel of wisdom need not be underestimated.

2. Don't ever underestimate the power of body language! (The Little Mermaid).

Who knew that the film that taught me the word 'reprimand' would also be the one to give me guiding when hitting up the clubs? That said, this works as advice for us that aren't also gifted with beautifully alluring voices (or sumptuous red hair!)

3. Good looks and impressive pecs won't get you the girl (Beauty and the Beast).

Someone had to break it to me (I mean, Belle chose the bear/beast for god's sakes!)

4. Be prepared (Lion King).

Some would say that boy scouts taught us this, but... I was never one to seek out old men to get a new badge, so it took an effeminate lion to teach me the basic tenet of Life: be prepared!

5. With infinite power comes responsibility (Aladdin).

Yeah, I didn't need Tobey to lecture me on this because Jafar had already taught me that if you get unlimited cosmic powers, you also get unfashionable Wonder Woman-like bracelets that imprison you.

6. Fashion comes at a price (101 Dalmatians).

One which is much too adorable to pay.

7. You can be cool and be flaming (Hercules).

Another gay-themed lesson from the greatest Disney soul-trader around.

8. There's always some hot new white thing ready to take your 'fairest of them all' crown. Also: apples/fruits are deadly (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves).

I've outgrown that last one, but that first lesson still sticks with me to this day.

9. Evening wear and swamps don't really mix (The Emperor's New Groove & The Rescuers).

Who knew Disney was so intent on teaching me what's appropriate to wear in swamps? [Oh Yzma, so full of wisdom (see more here)]

& of course, the takeaway:

10. Evil is sexy, alluring, seductive, stylish, witty, hip and hilarious, but sadly, it does not pay off and if you follow these villains' path you'll end up incarcerated, eaten alive by your cronies, dead or worse...

Black Swan, or How I'm obsessed, Nina Sayers-obsessed!

2010-12-03T19:02:00.005-05:00

Black Swan

Director: Darren Aronosfky

Written by: Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz & John McLaughlin.

Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Wynona Ryder.

If you've been following me on Twitter (and let's face it, you probably have since I've mostly abandoned the blog... real life and school has beckoned - I'll try my best to keep it pseudo-active, I promise!) you know I was obsessed with Aronosfky's Black Swan even before it came out. This would usually have led me to overhype the film to an absurd degree and in the end found it wanting. But quel surprise! The film lived up to my crazy (mark my word!) expectations and I'm probably MORE obsessed now, not least because the film combines so many things I adore both personally and academically.

I could probably go on for hours about how Natalie's performance is as bit an achievement as everyone has been saying (compare the scene where she calls her mom from the bathroom to the fight scene in the dressing room and not only do you notice this is a thespian in full control of her body, her voice and her performance, but someone fully committed to the part, even though it takes her from one extreme to another - usually in less than it takes the camera to blink and catch her on the mirror!). The supporting cast isn't far behind, giving us a complex Mommie Dearest, a doppelganger worthy of Nabokov, a sexy/ual choreographer and a drunken, broken and past-her-prime Wynona (which, you gotta admit, is a great casting coup in it of itself).

I could also go on for hours on the beautiful cinematography and on Aronosky and Libatique's choice to film with hand-held cameras, usually keeping us behind Nina's head, as if we were at once stalking, preying and encouraging her. This is particularly effective in the ballet sequences which forgo the usual fourth wall/from the audience POV and instead place us alongside Nina/Natalie, giving us a real sense of the physicality and intensely emotional ride that is dancing in front of an audience.

But instead I'll simply ask you to go watch it and experience it for yourself, and find yourself being plunged into a frenzied film that can only be described as a 'balletic horror film' (or would a 'horrific ballet film' be more appropriate? Clearly, in the world of doppelgangers and mirrors that Aronofsky creates, the distinction becomes mere semantics). A

Get Outta My Way!, or How Kylie gives me the first music video I've cared for in a while

2010-09-03T16:57:00.012-04:00

Sure, Lady GaGa has "reinvented" the music video genre (oh! you hadn't heard? yes, along with the wheel, smizing and FaceBook) but her videos (give or take a Bad Romance) rarely do what great music videos (like, say, Beyonce's "Imma lectchu finish Taylor!" Single Ladies) are supposed to do: get you excited about the song. Was anyone excited about Telephone because of its Tarantino inspired video? Did Alejandro's crazy Nazi/Catholic nun vogue spread ahem...video give the track any more traction? Eh, maybe. But not for me.

If I'm in love with Kylie's Get Outta My Way video (and here I'm probably biased since I love love love every one of her videos - Come Into My World is my all-time favorite video of all time: such simplicity and whimsy!) it's because it doesn't want to be a short film nor does it want to shock and awe and disgust you into tuning in. It's just... gorgeous to look at and enjoyable to watch.

Enjoy!

Inception Island or How I'm Seeing Double

2010-07-18T21:30:00.007-04:00

Leo is really perfecting his "grieved by his wife" role no? Despite the differences in style, tone and subject matter, at heart these two Leo DiCaprio films have an unstable man trying to keep his grasp of reality intact. I enjoyed both of them more than the critical community it seems, but then I'm a sucker for smarter-than-they-think-they-are screenplays and for well-executed plot twists that aren't really that twistey to begin with.

But really, who can blame DiCaprio's characters with these beauties at his side?

I don't even know if I could pick one over the other... Actually yeah: Marion's deep blue expressive eyes trump even waif-y Michelle's downcast eyes.

The Kids Are All Right, or How I kinda wanna drink with Annette Bening now

2010-07-12T10:42:00.011-04:00

Saw The Kids Are All Right and yes, all the praise is well-deserved. It is a hysterical film that treads difficult issues and doesn't shy away from being at once light and funny, while remaining serious and heavy. The cast is in top form of course:

Wasikowska, Hutcherson and Ruffalo provide solid support for the main couple, but clearly the film belongs to Julianne Moore and Annette Bening who give nuanced and funny performances. Moore plays the west coast hippie "good vibe"/fun mom while Bening plays the uptight, 'write thank you notes' mom. In my head, it's as if a gay Carolyn Burnham (American Beauty) had married a sunnier/hippier Laura Brown (The Hours).

But you know who in my head, did the best supporting work in the film?

Wine.

(props to @ClaytonArbo for the punchline)

Emmy nominations, or How here are my picks!

2010-07-10T14:34:00.001-04:00

Full list of nominees (sans technical awards, and sans TV Movies and Mini-series cause... I don't keep up with those) and my picks (in RED) with alternates (in BLUE) of who WILL win (not should, that's what the commentary is all about).

Outstanding Comedy Series

Curb Your Enthusiasm • HBO
Glee • FOX
Modern Family • ABC
Nurse Jackie • Showtime
The Office • NBC
30 Rock • NBC

30 Rock continues to be, for me, the greatest comedy on TV. This past season may not have been its strongest, but its best episodes still leave other comedies in the dust. Glee and Modern Family are clearly its greatest threats. The former riding a wave of "OMGITSTHEBESTTHINGINTHEWORLD" that somehow doesn't acknowledge that for all the pomp and innovation it is bringing to TV, it really has some flaws it needs to work on to become as pitch-perfect as the pilot suggested it would be. My alternate vote goes instead to the most "traditional" of the nominees (it's a family! they're funny!) but its ensemble is so spectacular that it really brings laughs home week after week (which Glee, give or take a one-liner, doesn't as consistently).

Dark Horse: Nurse Jackie (They love them some Falco and the show is strong, if a bit dramatic for this category)

Outstanding Drama Series

Breaking Bad • AMC
Dexter • Showtime
The Good Wife • CBS
Lost • ABC
Mad Men • AMC
True Blood • HBO

I really am a Comedy person when it comes to TV so here I'll root for the close to perfect third season of Matthew Wiener's period drama. Mad Men's third season completely changed up the rules of the game and ended in such a well-orchestrated re-jiggering of the series, that it's hard to root against it. My alternate vote goes for CBS's hit show with a slew of strong performances that quickly rose above its expectations.

Dark Horse: Lost (will they want to hug it good-bye despite its baffling ending?)

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series

The Big Bang Theory • CBS • Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper
Curb Your Enthusiasm • HBO • Larry David as Himself
Glee • FOX • Matthew Morrison as Will Schuester
Monk • USA • Shalhoub as Adrian Monk
The Office • NBC • Steve Carell as Michael Scott
30 Rock • NBC • Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy

Can anyone beat Baldwin? The latter half of the season relied heavily on his great on-screen chemistry with Elizabeth Banks and Julianne Moore and he did a great job with it. If there's one person to watch out for it's Jim Parsons who's been slowly but steadily building a strong comedic character.

Dark Horse: Tony Shalhoub (Monk) because inexplicably, they love love love love him.

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series

Breaking Bad • AMC • Bryan Cranston as Walter White
Dexter • Showtime • Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan
Friday Night Lights • DirecTV • Kyle Chandler as Eric Taylor
House • FOX • Hugh Laurie as Dr. Gregory House
Lost • ABC • Matthew Fox as Jack Shephard
Mad Men • AMC • Jon Hamm as Don Draper

I'm guessing Emmys (who love repeat winners) will go again where they've gone before and award a third Emmy to Bryan Cranston for his chilling performance in Breaking Bad. My alternate (and personal) vote goes to Jon Hamm's whose three season of Mad Men have been a master class in acting subtly and building a layered and troubled Don Draper.

Dark Horse(s): Hugh Laurie (House) and Michael C. Hall (Dexter), can either of these returning nominees break the spell and manage a well-deserved win?

Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series

Glee • FOX • Lea Michele as Rachel Berry
The New Adventures Of Old Christine • CBS • Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Christine Campbell
Nurse Jackie • Showtime • Edie Falco as Jackie Peyton
Parks And Recreation • NBC • Poehler as Leslie Knope
30 Rock • NBC • Tina Fey as Liz Lemon
United States Of Tara • Showtime • Toni Collette as Tara Gregson

I'd normally say they'll go with Colette again, but history in this category suggests they like to mix it up (they've awarded it to a different actress for the past 9 years). I give the edge to Falco who's superb (if not laugh out loud funny) in Nurse Jackie, though Fey and Colette will definitely be in the running (there, I give the edge to Fey as Colette's role this past season was again, more dramatic and less "alter-ful" than last season).

Dark Horse: Lea Michele (Glee), if they REALLY wanna go Glee-crazy.

Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series

The Closer • TNT • Kyra Sedgwick as Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson
Damages • FX Networks • Glenn Close as Patty Hewes
Friday Night Lights • DirecTV • Connie Britton as Tami Taylor
The Good Wife • CBS • Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit • NBC • Mariska Hargitay as Det. Olivia Benson
Mad Men • AMC • January Jones as Betty Draper

While I'd love to see January Jones picking up an Emmy, this is definitely a battle between Emmy favorite Marguiles and Emmy past champ Close. I'll give the edge to Marguiles since the Emmys tend to not award main trophies to cancelled shows (give or take a Cheno).

Dark Horse: January Jones (Mad Men)

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series

Glee • FOX • Chris Colfer as Kurt Hummel
How I Met Your Mother • CBS • Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson
Modern Family • ABC • Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Mitchell
Modern Family • ABC • Eric Stonestreet as Cameron Tucker
Modern Family • ABC • Ty Burrell as Phil Dunphy
Two And A Half Men • CBS • Jon Cryer as Alan Harper

Probably the hardest category to nail. Anyone of these guys could win, but I'm guessing they'll either finally embrace NPH or give it to one of the Modern Family boys. Right now I'm leaning for Eric Stonestreet since he has the showier role of the three (and the most huggable/lovable).

Dark Horse: Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men) since Emmys love repeat winners in this category coughPivencough.

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series

Breaking Bad • AMC • Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman
Damages • FX Networks • Martin Short as Leonard Winstone
Lost • ABC • Terry O’Quinn as John Locke
Lost • ABC • Michael Emerson as Ben Linus
Mad Men • AMC • Slattery as Roger Sterling
Men Of A Certain Age • TNT • Andre Braugher as Owen

Since I don't watch many of these shows, I'm gonna assume they'll want to throw LOST some love and this is where to do it, awarding Emerson again, or give Paul a matching Emmy for his work with Cranston on Breaking Bad.

Dark Horse: Martin Short (Damages) since the Emmys love actors playing against type.

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series

Glee • FOX • Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester
Modern Family • ABC • Bowen as Claire Dunphy
Modern Family • ABC • Sofia Vergara as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett
Saturday Night Live • NBC • Kristen Wiig as Various Characters
30 Rock • NBC • Jane Krakowski as Jenna Maroney
Two And A Half Men • CBS • Holland Taylor as Evelyn Harper

Is this even a contest? Lynch has this statuette already engraved. If anyone is a real threat, it is... I actually don't know: would they want to give Modern Family matching Supporting Actor/Actress statuettes or would they finally see what great work Jane and Kristin have been doing for their respective shows? I don't know.

Dark Horse: ... No idea.

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series

Burn Notice • USA • Sharon Gless as Madeline Westen
Damages • FX Networks • Rose Byrne as Ellen Parsons
The Good Wife • CBS • Archie Panjabi as Kalinda Sharma
The Good Wife • CBS • Christine Baranski as Diane Lockhart
Mad Men • AMC • Christina Hendricks as Joan Harris
Mad Men • AMC • Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson

Maybe this is wishful thinking, but Hendricks' work this past season was great (while Moss was given less to do, though she did it as aptly as ever). But maybe both Mad Men ladies will split the vote, as will The Good Wife gals, and pave the way for Rose Byrne to actually be recognized in what is arguably a lead role opposite Glenn Close in Damages.

Dark Horse: Christine Baranski (The Good Wife) if they do really love that show, and well, Baranski is great as always.

Outstanding Guest Actor In A Comedy Series

Glee • Wheels • Mike O’Malley as Burt Hummel
Glee • Dream On • FOX • Neil Patrick Harris as Bryan Ryan
Modern Family • Travels With Scout • Fred Willard as Frank Dunphy
Nurse Jackie • Chicken Soup • Eli Wallach as Bernard Zimberg
30 Rock • Emmanuelle Goes To Dinosaur Land • NBC • Jon Hamm as Dr. Drew Baird
30 Rock • Into The Crevasse • NBC • Will Arnett as Devin Banks

Great category overall. I'm giving it to Wallach as this category usually works as a "career" award and clearly shows what the mean age of the voting body is. If it doesn't go to Wallach, I'm hoping they'll finally reward Arnett for his devilish character, but I can see this one going to any of the nominees (perhaps not Hamm since he's only in... what: 2 minutes of the episode in question?)

Dark Horse: NPH (Glee) if they decide to reward him here and not where he deserves it more. (Which would be fine as Joss will have technically nabbed him an Emmy basically)

Outstanding Guest Actor In A Drama Series

The Closer • Make Over • TNT • Beau Bridges as Detective George Andrews
Damages • The Next One’s Gonna Go In Your Throat • Danson as Arthur Frobisher
Dexter • Road Kill • Showtime • John Lithgow as Arthur Mitchell
The Good Wife • Fleas • CBS • Alan Cumming as Eli Gold
The Good Wife • Bad • CBS • Dylan Baker as Colin Sweeney
Mad Men • Shut The Door. Have A Seat. • AMC • Robert Morse as Bertram Cooper
24 • 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM • FOX • Gregory Itzin as President Charles Logan

Never bet against John Lithgow at the Emmys. Also: never bet against Ted Danson at the Emmys.

Dark Horse: Robert Morse (Mad Men)

Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy Series

The Big Bang Theory • The Maternal Congruence • CBS • Christine Baranski as Beverly Hofstadter
Desperate Housewives • The Chase • ABC • Kathryn Joosten as Karen McCluskey
Glee • The Rhodes Not Taken • FOX • Kristin Chenoweth as April Rhodes
Saturday Night Live • Host: Tina Fey • NBC • Tina Fey as Host
Saturday Night Live • Host: Betty White • NBC • Betty White as Host
30 Rock • The Moms • NBC • Stritch as Colleen Donaghy
Two And A Half Men • 818-JKLPUZO • CBS • Jane Lynch as Dr. Linda Freeman

It's the SNL battle of the year, will Betty crush Tina or will Tina-Palin win yet again?

Dark Horse: Kathryn Joosten (Desperate Housewives)/ Elaine Stritch (30 Rock) if the category skews older as per usual.

Outstanding Guest Actress In A Drama Series

Big Love • The Might And The Strong • HBO • Mary Kay Place as Adaleen Grant
Big Love • End Of Days • HBO • Sissy Spacek as Marilyn Densham
The Cleaner • Does Everybody Have A Drink? • A&E • Shirley Jones as Lola Zellman
Damages • Your Secrets Are Safe • FX Networks • Lily Tomlin as Marilyn Tobin
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit • Bedtime • NBC • Ann-Margret as Rita Wills
Lost • The End • ABC • Elizabeth Mitchell as Juliet Burke

Voting blind here. But an Oscar never hurts your chances at the Emmys (sadly, the same does not work the other way around unless your name is Helen Hunt)

Dark Horse: Anyone's guess...

Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series

Glee • Pilot – Director’s Cut • FOX • Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Ian Brennan
Modern Family • Pilot • ABC • Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd
The Office • Niagara • NBC • Greg Daniels, Mindy Kaling
30 Rock • Anna Howard Shaw Day • NBC • Matt Hubbard
30 Rock • Lee Marvin Vs. Derek Jeter • NBC • Tina Fey, Kay Cannon

Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series

Friday Night Lights • The Son • Rolin Jones
The Good Wife • Pilot • Michelle King, Robert King
Lost • The End • ABC • Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse
Mad Men • Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency • AMC • Robin Veith, Matthew Weiner
Mad Men • Shut The Door. Have A Seat. • AMC • Matthew Weiner, Writer, Erin Levy, Writer

Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series

Glee • Pilot – Director’s Cut • FOX • Ryan Murphy
Glee • Wheels • FOX • Paris Barclay
Modern Family • Pilot • ABC • Jason Winer
Nurse Jackie • Pilot • Showtime • Allen Coulter
30 Rock • I Do Do • NBC • Don Scardino

Outstanding Directing For A Drama Series

Breaking Bad • One Minute • AMC • Michelle MacLaren
Dexter • The Getaway • Showtime • Steve Shill
Lost • The End • ABC • Jack Bender
Mad Men • Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency • AMC • Lesli Linka Glatter
Treme • Do You Know What It Means (Pilot) • HBO • Agnieszka Holland

15 Reasons you should be watching Web Therapy, or How look! Funny famous people!

2010-07-08T21:36:00.000-04:00

Are you watching and keeping up with Lisa Kudrow's hilarious web-improv series Web Therapy? Why the hell not? The premise ("50 minute therapy sessions are just too... much, I do 3 minute sessions via iChat") is hysterical and the guest stars alone should make you chuckle.

Don't believe me? Here:

15 Reasons you should be watching Web Therapy.

Tim Bagley

Rashida Jones & Dan Bucatinsky

Bob Balaban

Jane Lynch (playing an anger-prone exec = COMEDY GOLD!)

Julie Claire

Courtney Cox-Arquette (playing a psyhic!)

Steven Weber

Alan Cumming & Victor Garber

Michael McDonald

Julia Louis-Dreyfus (As Fiona's sister = DysFUNction!)

Selma Blair

Molly Shannon

Of course

Lisa Kudrow

5 Emmy Wishes, or How we'll see if the TV Academy has their wits about them

2010-07-07T20:53:00.006-04:00

Emmy nominations are tomorrow. You know what that means? Yes! We'll all be whining and complaining about Charlie Sheen's latest nomination, or the snub of a critically loved performer. Til then, we can dream. So, without further ado I give my 5 Dream Emmy Wishes, in order of most likely to happen to well... dreaming the impossible and imagining Emmy voters got some smart taste.

1. Best Supporting Actress nominations for Jane Krakowski and Sofia Vergara

Come on Emmys, don't you just wanna make this blonde one sing and smile?

30 Rock usually does great with the Emmys (they've broken the record amount of nominations for a Comedy two years in a row) but Jane is the one I fear might lose track with all the great supporting work being done by funny ladies (Vanessa Williams, Kristin Wiig, a certain Jane Lynch, who's likely to take the award anyways).

Look she rrrrreaaaaaallly wants it.

In terms of Vergara, I'm just worried the Modern Family ladies will split the vote and while I love Julie Bowen, Vergara is really the standout for me. I mean, out of the ladies I've singled she probably gave me more laugh out moments that anyone else this season. And yes, that includes Sue Sylvester's one-liners.

2. United States of Tara breaks out in more than just Best Comedy Actress Category.

Don't be shy, Kier, we all know you're the MVP of the show.

I have high hopes for the writing (though if they didn't nominate Oscar winner Diablo Cody last year for the pilot, I don't know what would make them nominate her this year, especially as they love to make that category a "Best 30 Rock episode" catch-all. If I am rooting for anyone else in the show it has to be Kier Gilchrist. Toni has all the showy parts (though this season they scaled it back and Ms Colette really showed what a great dramatic actress she can be), Gilchrist's storyline was handled with great depth by the young thespian.

3. The Emmy shows some love to Parks and Recreation.

I know Amy, I'd be hesitant about your show's prospects at the Emmys too.

What started as a pseudo-The Office spinoff that wasn't, has turned into a warm hearted workplace comedy with some great ensemble work. Poehler might break through to the Best Comedy Actress lineup (after scoring a Supporting bid last year for SNL), but can it go beyond that? I'd love to see some love thrown to the guest stars (Adam Scott, Rob Lowe and even Will Arnett).

4. Enver Gjokaj beats odds and manages some love for Emmys!

Aw, we know Enver. We're dreaming big for you even if it is unheard of for Emmy votes to warm up to a Whedon-performance (where's SMG's Emmy for god's sakes?!)

Okay this is dreaming in style... but was he not great on Dollhouse? He was definitely the most consistently awesome actor in that show (even if Olivia Williams and Fran Kanz played my favorite characters) and showed the least effort when juggling different "imprints."

5. The Emmy votes throw a bone to Starz and nominate anyone and/or anything from Party Down.

Will-they or won't-they cute couple (Sarcastic and witty edition courtesy of Party Down leads)

This recently cancelled comedy is perfection. What better way to send these critically loved and audience-deprived actors than with an acting nom for, say... Adam Scott? Liz Caplan? Megan Mullally? Jane Lynch? Am I just being delusional? Probably. Either way, watch this show ASAP if you haven't.

TiMER, or How this a good Sci-Fi Comedy!

2010-06-29T11:58:00.004-04:00

TiMER

Written & Directed by: Jac Schaeffer

Starring: Emma Caulfield, Michelle Borth, John Patrick Amedori, Desmond Harrington & JoBeth Williams.

Emma Caulfield + Quirky name = Awkward Comedy Gold

"So, what do you do?"

"Orthodontist"

"Far out. Like a dentist?"

"Yeah... Only... an orthodontist"

"Cool."

Of course exhibit A is Buffy's Anya (and/or Aud and/or Anyanka) but TiMER's Oona is no exception. The premise is an interesting one: what if you had the chance to implant a 'timer' into your wrist that'd tell you exactly when you'd meet your one true love?

You should really take a look at it (you can watch it on Netflix Watch Instantly).

Also: it features this hottie:

Also: it features a Halfrek/Anyanka reunion!

Welcome back!, or How Jackie & co. want you back

2010-06-26T00:27:00.004-04:00

"I swear to God Jacs the salespeople at Bergdorf's are so foul they almost make me regret spending $1200 on a scarf!"

It's been too long. Life sometimes gets in the way, y'know?

But to welcome me (you guys?) back, I figured I'd open with one of my newest favorite TV characters and an acid line reading. Has everyone been catching up with Nurse Jackie? Edie Falco is amazing, and I can't wait to finish watching Season 2.

NYT Great Performances, or How look: gorgeous pics!

2010-02-18T20:05:00.005-05:00

The entire NYT gallery "Great Performances" is gorgeous, but these three were my favorites (and that's not even going into the very ethereal "The Secret Lives of Girls" portraits which include 2009 it girls from Sidibe to Mulligan to Ronan).

Hunky "Brothers"

God! Julianne and Colin need to reunite ASAP (at least for another dance party, no?)

I don't know how I'm more jealous of.

Happy Valentine's Day, or How let's break it down by actors

2010-02-15T23:03:00.008-05:00

There's no way to really review Valentine's Day (C) other than to say that it's the American long lost dopey mopey American cousin to the (far oh so very far) superior Love, Actually, with even less narrative structure and character development. But let's face it, you didn't really come to this movie for its character arcs or even for its plot. You watch movies like Valentine's Day because of its cast, so... what better way to "review" this movie than to examine its players?

Listed from worst ("What the hell? Get him/her off my screen NOW!") to best ("What would I have done with this movie without you?!")

Taylor Lautner

Okay, I get it. He's hot. He's ripped. But why is Taylor Lautner such a boring actor? (And why is this a trend with those effing Twilight boys?). No chemistry, no on-screen persona, no timing, no nothing. Waste of screen space.

George Lopez

There are few things I hate more than "dark-skinned token sidekicks." And really, that's all Lopez is here. That and the center of a couple of really unfunny bits.

Patrick Dempsey

Oh McDreamy. Go back to Grey's. And stop playing doctors. That said, if you wanna keep playing jerks, that's fine by me. It makes it easier for me to hate your on-screen persona.

Jamie Foxx

I can't stand Jamie Foxx. Don't know what it is. So me disliking him (and his lame ass storyline - Sports Anchor hates Valentine's Day, falls for a publicist...snooze) this came as no surprise even as the film tried hard to make him lovable.

Taylor Swift

I'll admit it: I enjoyed Taylor Swift on SNL. But I'll also admit that here, she's useless. Also, seeing her trying to be "funny" next to Jen Garner in close quarters (an elevator) only exacerbated her inadequacy and lack of comedic timing (on the other hand, Jen did wonders with just a cellphone as a prop).

Jessica Alba

I have decided something upon watching Ms Alba in this: I don't want to watch her on screen again until she dyes her hair back to a darker tone. Seriously, how is this the same girl who knocked my socks off in Dark Angel? I blame the hair colour, so Jessica, if you're taking notes: dye it back! And contact the guy who gave you your break, I hear he's doing pretty good for himself with that blue people movie of his.

Eric Dane

Okay, so his storyline is a wee bit interesting to see on screen in a big Hollywood ensemble romantic comedy, but other than some gratuitous shirtless scenes, he has little to do (He's a football player whose career is about to "change!"). Thankfully, he's in great shape so I wasn't complaining.

Kathy Bates

Oh Kathy, if you knew it was such a throwaway role, why'd you take it? Seriously, she has like...2 lines. None of which are particularly good or funny.

Queen Latifah

Ms Latifah clearly just cashed her cheque. She has little to do and she does even less with it (except for a couple of bloopers at the end). Good thing she has great on-screen chemistry with the camera (because of course she gets an off-screen "lover").

Hector Elizondo

Playing Shirley MacLaine's husband can't be that hard - she's lovely! She wears crazy outfits! She's an actress! (Actually that scene in the cemetery is pretty hysterical). Reliable and adequate - nothing to write home about.

Jessica Biel

Oh Ms Biel, at least here you seem more at home than in our sojourns into "costume drama." Neurosis suits you, even if you can do very little with it in the storyline given to you (she finds love while hosting her anti-V Day party in the unlikeliest of Oscar winners!)

Ashton Kutcher

I'll say this now: I hate Kelso. And Ashton has done nothing to dispel that persona enough for me to take him seriously as an actor. But here (Ms Garner does wonders for her co-stars, I guess) he's adequate enough as a fumbling romantic. He's dopey enough to be annoying but not annoying enough to be grating.

Bradley Cooper

Oh Bradley! You're so dreamy (yes, my love for Alias and its alums continues!). His scenes with Julia are great and the reveal at the end (take note gay blogs: there's a REASON /other/ than homophobia for keeping Bradley's storyline under wraps!) is just lovely (take note gay blogs: maybe take issue with the fact that the reveal only goes so far: where's the gay PDA?).

Emma Roberts

It must be in the blood: in one of the more touching romantic storylines (revolving around teenage premarital sex), Roberts (and her hunky co-star) hit all the right notes (take notes Taylors!) - at once awkward but also sweet.

Topher Grace

Okay, when did Topher Grace get hot and why did no one tell me? He was so gangly and dorky and adorably awkward in That 70s Show I was a bit disconcerted (albeit pleasantly surprised) when I saw him shirtless in this. Damn. He's proven before he can act (P.S., In Good Company) so that and his chemistry with Anne help in fleshing out a nicely drawn out storyline (can he date a girl who does something questionable for a living?).

Shirley MacLaine

At this point, Ms McLaine can do this role in her sleep. But why should we hold that against her? She's great as a wife with a past secret that will test her long marriage (and in turn serve as a "teaching moment" to one of the younger couples). So much learning always happens in these movies!: "We must love everything about the other person... love them wholly!"

Anne Hathaway

It's no overstatement to say that Anne Hathaway has grown into one of the most charming of actresses out there, right? Here she gets a chance to go "dirtier" than usual (she moonlights as a phone adult entertainer) which works very well as it disrupts our vision of "Annie" as "that girl from the Princess Diaries" without needing her to play a privileged brat going to her sister's wedding. Her and Topher have great chemistry and offer one of the more interesting plot lines the film has to offer.

Bonus points: all her accents and her creative use of office props for her phone calls.

Jennifer Garner

I've loved Ms Garner since her Alias days, and to this day I think she is one of the most charismatic actresses out there. That she can pull off Sidney Bristow as well as carry a film like 13 Going on 30 should still wow you, even if you're not a fan. In a storyline that mirrors a gazillion rom-coms out there (best friends find out they love each other, after finding out she's been dating a jerk), her smile and star-quality make her character vulnerable, funny and real.

Bonus points: Her scene at the restaurant (and then her scene with the piñata) were master-classes in comedy acting.

Julia Roberts

Okay, it's no surprise Julia tops my list, right? But seriously Ms Roberts does in six minutes what half of this cast wishes they could accomplish in an entire film. She's funny, she's effortless... yes, she's Julia Roberts but it's genuine and in a sea of thankless plots, she's always a breath of fresh air.

Bonus points: she was the only actor in this film to make me shed a tear (hers is the story that while seemingly trite and what is apparently a glorified cameo ends up having the most gravitas)

The Ghost Writer, or How look! Ms DeWitt! Samantha! Bond! Christian!

2010-02-15T18:32:00.003-05:00

I rarely get excited over political thrillers (or thrillers or any kind) but something about Polanski's latest (The Ghost Writer) - namely, the cast (Olivia Williams, Ewan McGregor, Kim Cattral and Pierce Brosnan) has me giddy with anticipation.

Toy Story 3 or How I can't wait!

2010-02-10T14:47:00.003-05:00

Funny I was JUST talking about how much I can't wait for Toy Story 3 when the guys over at Vulture directed me to these new character posters from new toys "Peas in a Pod" and "Ken."

Adorable.

Can't. Wait.

The Dorys 2009, or How here's the best according to me!

2010-02-09T21:34:00.002-05:00

I started the Dorys (pronounced Door-ees, get it?) last year as a way to put in my two cents as to what the best films are in a given year (I mean, last year I just had to interject between all the SLUMDOG!! SLUMDOG IS THE ONLY FILM EVER MADE I LOVE IT OMG IT'S SO GOOD LET'S GIVE IT ALL THE AWARDS POSSIBLE! This year, with the guilds and the critics and the groups all relatively screaming the same names, I find it refreshing to throw my own thoughts out there (though as you'll see, there are names that crop up even here that have been seen elsewhere).

Remember, the Dorys include Oscar's Big 8 + Ensemble (I don't consider myself a great judge of tech stuff to make an informed decision). Enjoy!

Outstanding Motion Picture

Up in the Air

A Single Man

Mary and Max

In the Loop

(500) Days of Summer

Outstanding Direction

Tom Ford (A Single Man)

Pedro Almodovar (Broken Embraces)

Neil Blompkamp (District 9)

Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)

Jason Reitman (Up in the Air)

Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Colin Firth (A Single Man)

Sharlto Copley (District 9)

Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker)

Philip Seymour-Hoffman (Mary and Max)

George Clooney (Up in the Air)

Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Maya Rudolph (Away We Go)

Julia Roberts (Duplicity)

Tilda Swinton (Julia)

Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia)

Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones)

Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Alfred Molina (An Education)

Jake Gyllenhaal (Brothers)

Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds)

Alec Baldwin (It's Complicated)

Stanley Tucci (Julie & Julia)

Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Julianne Moore (A Single Man)

Melanie Laurent (Inglorious Basterds)

Marion Cotillard (Nine)

Monique (Precious)

Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air)

Outstanding Adapted Screenplay

Jason Reitman (Up in the Air)

Tom Ford & co (A Single Man)

Nick Hornby (An Education)

Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire)

Armando Iannucci & co. (In the Loop)

Outstanding Original Screenplay

Michael H Webber & Scoot Neustadter ((500) Days of Summer)

Pedro Almodovar (Broken Embraces)

Tony Gilroy (Duplicity)

Pete Docter & co. (Up)

Adam Elliot (Mary and Max)

Outstanding Ensemble in a Motion Picture

A Single Man

An Education

Duplicity

In the Loop

Nine

Tally of Nominations

A Single Man 6
Up in the Air 5
An Education 3
In The Loop 3
Duplicity 3
Mary and Max 3
(500) Days of Summer 2
The Hurt Locker 2
Nine 2
Broken Embraces 2
Precious 2
Inglorious Basterds 2
District 9 2
Julie & Julia 2
Up 1

It's Complicated 1

Brothers 1

Away We Go 1

Julia 1

The Lovely Bones 1

Julia Roberts, or How I wonder which Julia you are...

2010-02-03T18:38:00.003-05:00

This all started from me feeling too much like Julianne Potter lately, and then my friend saying he was just more of a "Pretty Woman"-type of guy. So I want to know, what kind of Julia Roberts you are.

Are you...

...just a girl in front of a guy?

...a hooker with a heart of gold?

...unable to commit because you don't know how you take your eggs?

...just trying to be the best (step)mom you can be?

...a heinous conniving bitch who just wants to be loved?

...a firecracker with political leanings?

...always falling for the wrong (sized) guys?

...committed to a great social cause?

...a romantic at heart with family dreams?

...a chronically depressed married woman?

...that girl who used to be overweight?

...on the wrong side of the border?

...always scheming and two-timing?

...an inspiration to young minds?

Top 50 Films of the 2000s part 3, or How the 'best of' continues

2010-01-13T09:04:00.003-05:00

TOP 50 FILMS OF THE 2000s

[Check out parts 1 and 2 here]

10. Pan's Labyrinth

Few directors could do the dazzling and gorgeous effects we see on screen in Pan's Labyrinth at the cost that Guillermo del Toro did them. Even fewer are able to seamlessly merge effects and good storytelling to great effect. This dark fairy-tale for adults (or really mature and violence-ready children) is one of those films I come back to time and time again. It works on so many different levels I'm always scared of flattening it: is it an allegory of Franco's regime? Is it an assault on storytelling in the face of cruelty? Is it a moratorium for fantasy or a redemption of it? Is it a great gothic story or an Alice in Wonderland for Franco's Spain?

9. Volver

The movie that turned Penelope Cruz from a beautiful Spanish actress making bad choices when it came to Hollywood movies to a gorgeous Spanish actress earning her first Oscar nomination for an Almodovar film and seeing her become an actress to be reckoned with. Almodovar's film is so sumptuous (no wonder it's obsessed with food!) and so funny and so heartwarming (that you forget it opens with an episode around child-molestation and murder!) it gets me every time.

8. Revolutionary Road

It's an unpopular film with some from a director that has polarized opinions about his work ever since he won the Oscar for (the still undervalued) American Beauty. And I'll say it now: Sam Mendes is a director that enthralls me. What others decry as his stylistic obsession (with perfectly calculated frames and shots that might feel stifling in their exactness) is what draws me most to his oeuvre. Adapting Richard Yates's bleak and unforgiving look at American suburbia in the 1950s, Mendes - reuniting a 'titanic' pair (Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio), creates what is to me a 50s tragic melodrama that stifles the viewer in order to mirror the claustrophobia April and Frank Wheeler experience.

7. Mullholland Dr.

Many of these films on my list I loved on first viewing. Not this one. But then, first-viewings rarely do David Lynch films any favours. The distorted, fractal, dream-like structure of Mullholland Dr is no difference. Here was a movie that captivated my thoughts and haunted me for weeks on end, demanding a reviewing - not for mere understanding (for how futile and thankless that would be) but for the joy of reliving the carefully calibrated experience of the film. Naomi Watts has never been better than here, embodying the fragile and yet cunning nature of her ephemeral character (what are Lynch's characters but mere shadows, mirrors and dream images?).

6. Amélie

Few films can pull off a suicide and milk it for laughs without seeming grotesque or unseemly. Yet this Jean Pierre Jeunet film strikes that fine balance between dark humour and light-hearted tone when it comes to things as death, sex, love and relationships. Amélie won many hearts upon its release (mine included) and there's no shortage of reasons why. Here was a visually stunning film with a truly magnetic lead whose 'fabulous destiny' (as the french title dubs it) is a joy to watch. The colours pop, the dialogue snaps and the blend of romance, humour and urban-fairy-tale style are hard to resist.

5. The Hours

The cast list alone would have secured this film's presence in this list, yet if films like Evening have taught us is that regardless of the strength of your cast, you need a good film behind them to make it work. Carefully adapting Michael Cunningham's novel of the same name, Daldry & co created a three-pronged meditation on writing, reading, living and breathing using Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway as both its center and end-goal. Meryl, Nicole and Julianne each command the screen and embody these characters with the pathos of womanhood - those close ups that Daldry privileges so much are only stunning because these three actresses can emote widely and subtly without succumbing to mere posture. That each is given juicy scenes (Nicole in the train station, Julianne and Toni's scene in the kitchen, Meryl's meltdown) with literate and awfully eloquent writing only helps elevate this great adaptation.

4. WALL-E

It's no surprise a PIXAR film made it to my Top 5. Six of their seven releases would have easily made it to a Top 25 list (Cars still ranks as my least-favorite PIXAR film and the only one I never saw in theaters) but to keep things fair, I restricted myself to only one in the Top 10. Andrew Stanton's Sci-Fi romantic 'green fable' film is not only gorgeous but a master-class in animation. To make the two protagonists as emotive as they are, able to convey as many emotions as they do without falling into the Dreamworks-like anthropomorphism we are so used to is a feat in itself. Part Buster Keaton, part Woody Allen and part Johnny 5, WALL-E is a character that became an endearing part of my life last year (just ask any of my friends how many times I use "EEEE-VAAH" in normal conversation). For showing how astounding PIXAR can be and bringing to fruition almost ten years of film-making, WALL-E deserves as spot in my Top 5.

3. Closer

I'm probably in the minority when it comes to my undying love for this Mike Nichols's film. But no other film has tapped into my feelings about relationships as well as this stage-to-film adaptation. It destroys me emotionally every time I watch it. You may deem it misanthropic (and I would agree) and you may claim its cold and unflinching in its portrayal of these mostly dysfunctional and mean-spirited characters (and I would agree) but there is something oddly familiar to me about Anna (the understated and undervalued Julia Roberts), Alice (the explosively sexy Natalie Portman), Dan (a meek and miserable Jude Law) and Larry (a frightening and cunning Clive Owen). That probably says more about me than about them, but I feel at home with these characters and Marber's script, with its stagey/Mamet-like dialogue punches me in the gut every time. And I love it for it.

2. Moulin Rouge!

This list is mostly about films who have stayed with me over the years. I still remember the first time I saw Baz Luhrmann's musical. I remember being rapt with awe in front of the TV (silly of me to have missed this in the big screen!) and knowing that I had found a film that I would never forget. From its sumptuous costume design and visual flair, to its modern re-working of vintage songs, to its by-the-numbers star-crossed-lovers plot, to its obsession with intertextuality and meta-drama, it felt like finding a cinematic soulmate. My love for Ms Kidman found its start here (I vaguely remembered her as 'that girl from Batman Forever, can you believe it?) and the Tango of Roxxane shot up to being my number one movie scene of all time (such choreography! such editing! such passion!) This is a movie I watch every couple of months and while it may have its flaws, it's a movie I know I could not live without.

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Picking my number one film of the decade was probably the easiest choice of the entire list. Michel Gondry's visually inventive and stunning film, working from an off-beat (and brilliant) Charlie Kauffman script is a wonder of a movie. Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey, as Clementine and Joel, give performances that feel real even when the situations around them are crazy (I particularly love the scene in Joel's childhood kitchen with Carrey making good use of his comedic chops playing a four year old version of Joel, while Clementine can't help but bask in the stylish 60s setting). This is most likely the greatest contemporary romantic comedy because dysfunction and the quotidian take front and center, eschewing rom-com staples like "platonic and idealized romance" as well as an unambiguously happy and hopeful ending. Joel and Clementine's relationship (and our experience of it) fractures and frames our viewing experience, so as to let us experience the highs as well as the lows without polishing or organizing them to make them feel cinematic.

Top 50 Films of the 2000s part 2, or How the 'best of' continues

2010-01-11T09:04:00.000-05:00

TOP 50 FILMS OF THE 2000s

[Check out part 1 here]

20. Minority Report

Was there a better Spielberg film this decade than Minority Report? Sure, the Academy gave a nod to the otherwise under-appreciated Munich (which should be rewatched if only to catch Daniel Craig in some snug jeans...) but I think that this Tom Cruise film (his best film in a decade that saw him go from bona fide movie star to laughing stock) is one for the ages. Taking a solid dystopian/futuristic premise (in the world of the film criminals are arrested before they commit the crime) and wonderful supporting performances, Spielberg creates a beautifully rendered film that looks as slick as it works.

19. Adapation

I love Charlie Kauffman soo much. I have yet to revisit Synecdoche, NY (which I really think I should) but for making me enjoy a Nicolas Cage this much, he deserves mad props. Also, I'm a sucker for metafiction so this film about a book being adapted into a film that turns out to be the same film we are watching being adapted... (see? I'm confused already) is a triumph for me on several different levels. Spike Jonze's direction grounds the crazy premise in a fully lived-in world and offers his actors (Cage, Streep and Oscar-winning Cooper, not to mention the lovely Swinton and the underrated Greer) the room to stretch their thespian muscles and give memorable performances in a film as funny as it is sad and as entertaining as it is smart.

18. Children of Men
Sometimes I love films for their actors (see above) or for their writers (see below) and sometimes, it is the director that takes center stage for me in why I love a film. There's no denying that Alfonso Cuaron is one of the greatest directors working today and not content with giving us the greatest Harry Potter film of them all (and don't even try to make an argument for any of the others), he went ahead and turned a dystopian novel based on a world where no can reproduce into a strikingly beautiful melancholic visual journey. Clive Owen as Theo (given the task to protect the only pregnant woman on the planet - see how easily that could have devolved into Michael Bay/Bruce Willis territory?)

17. Erin Brockovich
Lately I feel like the only Julia Roberts fan/apologist around (it is no surprise that two of her films make my Top 25 even in a decade that saw her relegated to smaller roles given her choice to raise her family, but it seems she's gearing up for a comeback with two films lined up for release next year). But I dare anyone, fan or not, to watch Erin Brockovich and not relish the delicious way in which Roberts takes this real-life role and utterly makes it an iconic Roberts-role. Soderbergh's direction allows her to breathe and in its seeming simplicity (especially compared to his more showy work that year in Traffic) manages to keep her performance front and center (quite a gamble if you think about it). Good thing Roberts has the goods (comedic, dramatic and physical) to deliver - her 'numbers' monologue alone makes me love this film more than I would have originally thought possible (I mean, the story itself isn't the stuff of good films, now is it?).

16. Gosford Park
This is one of the films from this past decade that gets better with every viewing and whose grip on me didn't come from my first viewing experience but which crept on me as I kept revisiting in. Altman's whodunnit film, framed within the confines of English High society yet from the point of view of those who serve them (it is no accident that we are only privy to scenes with servants present) is a great example of a successful use of an ensemble cast. While Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith are the clear standouts (the former for her restraint the latter for quite the opposite) every single actor shines throughout, and they do so because the improvisational nature of the script and the wandering camera never let this feel like a film but more like an experience. Throughout we are invited as guests to this party and come to know the secrets behind the death that opens the conflict in the same way that characters move through them.
15. Kill Bill (Vol 1 & 2)
It might be a cop out to place 'both' these films under one spot but they seem so organically paired (they were supposed to be, after all, just one film) that while I enjoy Vol 1 and its Japanese-tone/setting more than Vol 2's spaghetti Western style/frame, I can't sacrifice one for the other. Uma Thurman's Bride is a character for the ages - at once wounded and broken yet with a resilience and a strength usually reserved for much more testosterone-fuelled heroes of action films. Much like with other films on this list, Tarantino's double feature won my heart with the Crazy 88s sequence which swings from high camp (the spanking with the sword) to full out gore (anyone ever count how many limbs are lying around?) to beautifully stylized fight choreography without lowering the stakes or sacrificing the driving narrative.

14. Thank You For Smoking
As Part 1 made clear, Up in the Air won me over (unsurprisingly) and while Oscar went ga-ga (or I guess Dia-blo!) over Juno, it is this Aaron Eckhart vehicle that cracks me up everytime when it comes to Reitman's filmography. A scathing look at capitalism, individualism, modern families and American 'values', Thank You For Smoking manages to take on controversial issues with mordant bite and witty humour. Maria Bello and Eckhart bring the house down as cut-throat corporate bitches with (maybe a blackened) heart.

13. Atonement
That green dress! I mean, I know there are more reasons to love this Joe Wright directed film, but that library scene alone makes me swoon every time I watch it. It's not just the fact that the erotics of Kiera and James are framed in such an apropos location (what is Atonement if not an exploration of the intersection between texts and sex?) but that the sex appeal of the scene is done mostly by suggestion with little or no nudity required to entice (and excite!) its audience. A breathtaking performance by Saoirse Ronan makes the first act of this film a gem in itself, and while it meanders and loses me quite a bit when it becomes a war film, Garai and Redgrave manage to salvage the film and make it one of my all-time favorite failed romance films this decade gave us.

12. Ratatouille
How do you successfully blend a story of a rat who wants to be a world-class chef, sumptuous animation and still manage to hit notes of 'being/finding yourself', 'family' and vermin? I have no idea, but clearly Brad Bird and his team over at Pixar know something I don't about making heart-warming, beautifully rendered films with off-beat premises.

11. The Devil Wears Prada
This might seem like a 'light' inclusion (it is, after all a film about the fashion world told through mostly formulaic comedic cliches) but Meryl as editrix Miranda Priestly, Anne as the plucky Andrea, Stanley as the bitchy () and Emily as...well, Emily, lift this adaptation (from a mostly grudge-driven and mean-spirited albeit hilarious novel of the same name) to another realm. Patricia Field's costumes alone and Streep's cerulean monologue make this a rewatch-staple every couple of months.

Top 50 Films of the 2000s part 1, or How the 'best of' continues

2010-01-01T19:00:00.001-05:00

TOP 50 FILMS OF THE 2000s

This is obviously a biased list of titles that range from Oscar winners to animated gems, and the only criteria I used was: "movies that I have thought about, have rewatched over and over again and which have stayed with me in one way or another." It's a "best of" list only in the sense that that 'best' is utterly subjective. (Also, since these are my criteria, this explains why 2009 titles aren't as well represented - I need more time to digest and work through them).

25. Lilo & Stitch

What better way to kick off my list than with one of my all-time favorite Disney films? (Albeit one that didn't get the critical and box office love it deserved) It may not match the brilliance of the string of Pixar gems that peppered the 2000s or the buoyancy of the 90s renaissance of Disney musicals, but Chris Sanders's Lilo and Stitch has such an off-beat premise, such a gorgeous water-coloured palette and such an adorable pair at its center, that I can never refuse its charms as it blends sci-fi, Hawaii, Elvis and riffs on buddy-movies and advancing a beautiful theme surrounding "family" ("Ohanna means no one gets left behind").

24. 8 Women

It seems my idea of "Foreign Films" is restricted to French and Spanish language films (with the occasional Miyazaki thrown in). This is something I should work on, but I could do worse in finding two countries with a wider and more interesting filmic selection. Francois Ozon's 8 Women, while uproariously campy and unswervingly stylish (almost to its own detriment) it is such a joy to watch that I can't help but light up whenever the eponymous 8 women from the title (which include such French beauties as Isabelle Hupert, Catherine Deneuve and the luminous Ludivine Sagnier) burst into song and dance. Who knew there could be a whodunnit that could work just as well as a musical and as an actressexual dream?

23. A Single Man

In compiling this list I've realized how much respect and adoration I have for wonderfully aestheticized films. That's not to say that all "pretty" or "formally disciplined" films are good, but that when an attention to an aestheticized form is paired with the right tone and story, the results can be mesmerizing (just wait for my Top 5 - they all conform to this). Tom Ford's film - while recent in my memory, has been haunting me now for over two weeks. After watching it, I thought it was a good film with a heartbreaking performance by Colin Firth, if not the home run I wanted it to be (the film, not the performance). But the more I think about it, the more I fall in love with Ford's film: its European flavor, its gorgeous art direction, its meticulous shots, its obsession with the male body.

22. Up in the Air
In choosing another 2009 title, I didn't have to go far. It is not surprising any of Reitman's films would have finished in my Top 50: I love his style of storytelling and with this George Clooney vehicle he's hit all the right spots. Described as "Death of a Salesman starring Cary Grant" (by Roger Ebert, I believe), Reitman's film has us follow Ray Bingham as he finds the world as he knows it slowly ebbing away. If to travel is to live, as he believes, what happens when one is no longer in flight? With a pair of lovely supporting ladies (Farmiga and Kendrick), Clooney and Reitman's witty film is a joy to watch, even as its ending feels at once to hopeless and too hopeful.

21. Lord of the Rings Trilogy

I know it's a cop-out (see 15) but how can you really separate these three films that together they make one of the most daring cinematic achievements of all time, let alone the decade? Every time I talk about these films I feel I should re-watch them yet again (I've rewatched them here and there but never in a row, never in any systematic way) because every time I catch them on cable or at someone's house I am enraptured by the way Jackson & co. manage to make Middle Earth's conflict feel so epic and yet so grounded. If I had to choose one film to spotlight it would be Fellowship (Two Towers suffers from being the middle film and Return of the King for all its greatness feels too long and its multiple endings always feel less engaging than they should be). A great ensemble, enviable special effects, a gorgeous score and the lovely New Zealand canvas just add to the overall wonder that these films created over three years of my life (and for years to come, I'm sure).

Runners-up (in alphabetical order):

Batman Begins, Bring it On, Brokeback Mountain, Catch Me If You Can, Chicago, Duplicity, Frida, Finding Nemo, Hairspray, Legally Blonde, Mary and Max, Match Point, Mean Girls, Memento, Monsters, Inc., Notes on a Scandal, Once, Something's Gotta Give, Spiderman 2, Spirited Away, The Incredibles, There Will Be Blood, Transamerica, Unfaithful, X2.

TV in the 2000s or How Let's name ABND's Best Drama Actors/Actresses

2009-12-17T11:00:00.003-05:00

Best Performances (TV Drama)

Narrowing the performance/actor categories was HARD. But I went with two things:
1. Do I like the actor/actress?
2. Do I like the performance?
Okay, maybe that didn't help 'em narrow them down at all. But I do have a crazy math system in the back of my head. Just don't make me explain it to cause I'm sure it would blow you away with its awesome and accurateness.

Best Drama Actor

What is it about male actors that keeps me from being wholly invested in them and prevents me from giving great praise to their work? I was planning on writing these men up but maybe it's the end-of-year fatigue coupled with the amount of schoolwork I have but I think they'll speak for themselves.

Jon Hamm - Don Draper (Mad Men)

"You are the product. You feeling something. That's what sells. Not them. Not sex. They can't do what we do and they hate us for it."

Peter Krause - Nate Fisher (Six Feet Under)

"None of us know how long we've got. Which is why we have to make each day matter."

Michael C Hall - David Fisher (Six Feet Under)/ Dexter Morgan (Dexter)

"Yeah, I'll be the strong one, the stable one, the dependable one, because that's what I do. And everyone around me will fall apart. 'Cause that's what they do." - David
"Viva Miami" - Dexter

Hugh Laurie - Dr Gregory House (House)

"It's Never Lupus!"

Victor Garber - Jack Bristow (Alias)

"Sydney, get in. Get in now... you can be stubborn later."

Runners up:

What would Battlestar Galactica have been without Edward James Olmos' raspy, Bale-doing-Batman voice and stern command? What would Big Love have been without its center piece in the form of Bill Paxton? Or, what would Joss's Angel had been without its leading cast member (David Boreanaz, now a staple at Fox's Bones)? Answer: not as good a show as they were.

Best Drama Actress

The ladies though, I couldn't leave without some commentary. Brief as it may be:

Mary McDonnell - President Laura Roslin (Battlestar Galactica)

"I won't compromise the success of this operation or the safety of this fleet to indulge the neediness of 12 perpetually unhappy representatives. I can't."

What to say about one of the most complex female political figures to grace TV this past decade? The younger cast may have given us plenty of eye candy (Tricia, Katee, Tammoh, Jamie) but it was truly in the duo of Edward James-Olmos and Mary McDonnell, that BSG soared for me. In Laura Roslin - a minister of Education thrust into the role of president after humankind is annihilated, McDonnell gave us a towering presence from the miniseries all the way to the end, when we finally saw her experience pure happiness. Here was a woman who knew what was best for humanity and in many odd ways managed to make me support and believe in the powers of dictatorship, torture, as well as ruthless political strategy without ever making me blink or doubt her. That alone was a feat in itself. The fact that despite this resolute nature of her was still imbued with tenderness and vulnerability (not only in the form of her illness but in her romantic engagement with Adama), without ever seeming at odds, shows how carefully McDonnell (a past Oscar nominee, let us not forget) crafted this character.

Sarah Michelle Gellar - Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

"I'm the thing that monsters have nightmares about. And right now, you and me are gonna show 'em why."

Probably my pick for the bravest and most fully formed character this past decade, there's no denying that Buffy Summers wouldn't have been the pop cultural icon it became without the strength of Gellar's thespian skills. Few can straddle the line between high camp and deep melancholy which this part required. Here was a conflicted woman torn between triviality (prom, dating, hairstyles, boys) and the transcendent (death, grief, demons, boys). "The Body" - the episode where Buffy's mom passes away (beautifully directed sans accompanying score by Joss Whedon) is one of the most affecting episodes this show ever produced. To see Gellar's close ups is to see a great actress at work, showing so much grief and so much pain yet trying to remain in control and composed: but how does a slayer deal with death when 'death is her gift' as that season constantly reminded us? But it wasn't just the dramatic scenes that make Buffy a great character and Gellar a worthy candidate for this award: her comedic timing (whether she's playing a robot version of herself, going all "cave-girl" because of beer, or playing up her ditzy blonde routine) is flawless, never missing a beat and always willing to be butt of the joke should the occasion require it. For that, Gellar remains one of my all-time favorite actresses, even if her filmography leaves much to be desired.

January Jones - Betty Draper (Mad Men)

"Sally! Go Bang Your head against the wall"

There are many detractors when it comes to Betty Draper. But one thing that is hard to argue is that, regardless how you feel about Betty, you have to give January Jones props for unflinchingly making Betty the ice-cold Nordic frazzled and childish queen that she is. While her storyline this past season fell mostly on the grating side, her season 2 arc is one of the most interesting examinations of female (and feminine) desire in twentieth century America I've seen put on screen (and here's someone who loves Revolutionary Road, Far From Heaven, The Women, The Hours and Almodovar's films). Betty may seem like a spoiled child (and there's no denying she is) but rather than see her as merely promoting this ideal, Weiner's show is clearly more interested in examining her as a symptom of the culture that bred her. Her mood swings are no less a consequence of here-and-there plot twists but more of a portrayal of the conflicting discourses that rule her life and which she cannot seem to comprehend. I am still waiting to see what they have in store for her next season (I, for one don't want Betty to go away) but these past three seasons enamoured me and while she's anything but lovable, she's fascinated and most of this is because Jones plays her so beautifully (her melancholy gazes, her hysterical fits, even her eerie calm resolve are always magnetic).

Jeanne Tripplehorn - Barb Henrickson (Big Love)

"We're never too far apart when we're holding hands."

This show is pitch-perfect when it comes to complex women (any of the other two wives could have easily made this lineup) but for me it's all about Barb. Maybe it's because she's the one I can relate to the most (and the one that most reminds me of my mother) but it's also because she seems to be the most fully formed and conflicted when it comes to her make-shift "family" and still its most staunch supporter (as evidenced by last season's storyline). She always breaks my heart but what Tripplehorn manages is to achieve this without falling into a portrayal that plays up her victim-like position (which is rarely promoted by the writing itself) but by braving the attacks on her family and her lifestyle knowing full well how she will always stand for what is right (which is why I love the quote that I chose): she may not agree with Margie or Nikki all the time, but she loves them. Family, as they say, always comes first.

Amy Acker - Winifred Burkle (Angel)/Dr Saunders (Dollhouse)

"This has been the best night ever. First, there's you taking me to ice cream, then there's the ice cream, then that monster jumps out of the freezer and you're all brave and, "Fred, watch out!," and then we get to chase it down into the sewers, which are just so bleak, and oppressive and homey. I-I could build a condo down here." - Fred
"You can't be your best. Your best is past. Your past you can't even remember. You're ugly now. You're disgusting. All you can hope for now is pity. And for that, you're going to have to look somewhere else." - Dr Saunders

This is probably my only left-field entry but I have a soft-spot for Amy Acker and I truly believe that her 2 (well, 4 if we're being specific) Whedon characters speak very highly about this young Sci-Fi starlet (it's no surprise she has several Saturn Award nominations and one win under her belt). From the quirky and lovable Winifred ("Fred") to the ice-cold alien nature of Illyria to the touching pitiable Dr Saunders (and then her creepy and touching turn as Whiskey), Acker showed great range, while still nailing the vulnerable and wounded aspects of her characters. "A Hole in the World" (the episode where - spoilers alert! - Fred "dies") still ranks as one of my all-time favorite Whedon episodes and most of it is due to Acker's performance because even as it could have fallen into cliche (dying words, sickness), her tenderness and humour weren't completely gone and made the scene when she finally dies that much more heartbreaking.

Runners up:

The Six Feet Under gals (Lauren Ambrose, Rachel Griffiths & Frances Conroy) for carefully adding much needed estrogen to the boy-ruled household. Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) for making Six a more complex and interesting cylon than most human TV characters this decade. The Damages pair: this show really works Rose Byrne and Glenn Close for all their thespian power and in the process we get two lawyers with more characterization than a mere procedural would ever require.

A Walk on the Education, or How I'm Seeing Double

2009-12-14T23:09:00.003-05:00

I have no idea what this Diane/Viggo movie is about but while Netflix suggested I take a look at it, I couldn't help but think back to the An Education poster - don't they look alike?

TV in the 2000s, or How let's name ABND's Best Comedy Actress

2009-12-09T09:23:00.000-05:00

Best Performances (TV Comedy) Part 2

Narrowing the performance/actor categories was HARD. But I went with two things:

1. Do I like the actor/actress?

2. Do I like the performance?

Okay, maybe that didn't help 'em narrow them down at all. But I do have a crazy math system in the back of my head. Just don't make me explain it to cause I'm sure it would blow you away with its awesome and accurateness.

Best Performance by an Actress (Comedy)

Lauren Graham - Lorelai Gilmore (Gilmore Girls)

"How beautiful are we talking? Catherine Zeta-Jones or the weird looking Hilton sister?"

If there was ever a TV character that could convince me to have kids, it'd be Lauren Graham's Lorelai Gilmore. Here was a cool mom who (implausibly, maybe) had a great relationship with her teenage daughter built on pop culture, fast-paced dialogue and an almost obsessive will to eat. In the hands of Lauren Graham, Lorelai became for me the type of person I wanted to sound like: no one rambles and rants and raves and meanders better than Lorelai Sr and while her diatribes might have made for a flat, unrealistic character, Graham's warmth and likability (not to mention her hair!) made her endearing, flawed and relatable. I suffered through her relationships, her economic hardships and her family woes, but to me the moments where Graham shined was when she was at her comic best - rat-tat-tatting references from Paul Anka to Robert Downey Jr that few people other than Rory fully got.

Megan Mullally - Karen Walker (Will & Grace)

"I thought, finally. A man who can make a woman feel like a girl. And who can make that girl feel like a slut. And who can make that slut feel like a woman."

What can be said about Karen Walker (and Megan Mullally) that has not been said before? I mean, here is a gay icon for a generation: she's a powerful, drunk, pill-popping, bad-mouthed white rich woman with a great rack. What else have gay men ever needed? And while it might be the one-liners that everyone remembers ("I love Stan. Stan loves ham. Ham I am!") or the way she always put down Grace for her outfits ("Oh honey, I thought we had talked about that blouse..."), the reason Karen was such a strong character for me was because Mullally did such a good job of keeping her grounded. For every zinger she got, Mullally knocked a dramatic (or a musical, or a serious) scene out of the park (her episode where she's alone in a prison cell talking to a camera about Stan is brilliant on all these levels, for example). Karen, despite her offensive outlook on life (including poor worker benefits for her maid Rosario and a poor work ethic at Adler designs) remains a character that we like because of the vulnerability with which Mullally played her ???

Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Green (Friends)

"Oh my God. I've become my father. I've been trying so hard not to become my mother, I didn't see this coming."

Her character may be best known for her early season hairstyle, which took the world by storm, but Jen Aniston's breakout role of 'Rachel Green' is one of the funniest and most well-rounded female characters to grace television this past decade (and yes I know, that means only the latter part of Friends makes the cut, but I truly believe it is her work on Season 8 when she was pregnant that really showcased her comedic chops). Rachel may have started as a spoiled brat running away from a marriage that was bound for disaster (as the 'What If' episodes showed us) but the series saw her grow into a professional in the fashion world with a child and of course, an on and off relationship with Ross. Aniston's comedic timing was always perfect - whether she was being cranky over not having delivered Emma yet, or frustrated over her feelings for Joey (a storyline I never cared for). She made Rachel feel 'lived in' and while off-putting at times (I mean, every Friends character had their moments of "just stfu ok?") she made me laugh whenever she was onscreen, whether she was making a beef-infused Thanksgiving dessert, or hitting on her younger assistant, or having the 'we were on a break!' conversation with Ross, or - my favorite - bickering with her sister over who's more spoiled.

Kristen Wiig - Assorted characters (SNL)

"George Washington is my natural father. I'm on the dollar bill, too. That's my eye in the pyramid." (Penelope)

Suze Orman. Penelope. The Target Lady. Kathy-Lee. Gilly. Judy Grimes. These are just a couple of the uproariously hysterical characters Ms Wiig has been amassing during her past couple of years at SNL as MVP (this coming from someone who despises sports metaphors). She is the one person who, even when the skit is horrid (most of the ones this past season, for example) she'll make me smile and sometimes guffaw so much I spill my drink. Most of her staples are crazy people and to see Wiig let go - of her vanity, her composure, her body, is a feat in it of itself. Yet, for all the crazy shenanigans of her characters (Kathie-Lee's drinking, Gilly's violence, Grimes's nerves, Penelope's one-upping monologues) Wiig never feels like she's mugging for laughs (as most of her co-stars do from time to time ::coughAndySambergcough::). For making SNL a joy to watch (even in the non-Palin skits episodes) this past decade, I had to commend her with this inclusion.

Tina Fey - Liz Lemon (30 Rock)

"Hey nerds! Guess who's got two thumbs, speaks limited French, and hasn't cried once today?"

Tina Fey is a triple threat: she can write, she can act and she can make more sandwich-centered jokes than anyone else on television. Liz Lemon is probably a great character because it is based on Fey herself, but the exaggerations are so crazy (her Leia costume to get out of jury duty, her love for bull-semen enhanced snacks) that one can't simply say Fey is playing herself. Over the past four seasons, Fey has managed a good mixture of zaniness, physical comedy and a knack for churning out great catch-phrases ("I want to go to there" being everyone's favorite of course but "nards!" "What the what?" "by the hammer of Thor" are also classic). Lemon's helplessness and cluelessness of course wouldn't be anything if they were not paired with Baldwin's Jack. Here's one of the greatest comedic duos of the decade. Fey may have said that she felt like the hat rack to Baldwin's Astaire, but she has proven that she can dance right along, albeit in a way that gives Elaine's dance from Seinfeld a run for its money.

Runners up:

The Sex and the City girls (Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall & Kristin Davis) for making female archetypes the norm when deciding what kind of NYC gal you are (I'm a Carrie, if you must know). The Desperate Housewives gals (especially Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman) for humanizing what would otherwise be walking cliches in a soap-tastic show whose camp is only matched (and sometimes upped by): Vanessa Williams's 'Whilemina' in Ugly Betty - whose one-liners and eyebrow-raising have been a staple of the (albeit flailing) show. And last (but not least) the other SNL MVP that now has a brand new comedy on NBC: Ms Amy Poehler whose Palin rap will rank amongst the greatest SNL moments in the history of the show and whose Leslie Knope (Parks & Recreations) is slowly becoming a character to watch.

30 Rock, or How Hi-Def is HARSH

2009-12-04T14:18:00.002-05:00

Last night's 30 Rock might have given us the best sight gag since Kenneth/Jack/Tracy's view of the world.

Behold, the power of Hi-Def cameras:

Liz looks horrid.

Pete looks old (and shirtless?)

Kenneth looks like a muppet (!)

& of course Jack looks younger.

TV in the 2000s, or How let's name ABND's Best Comedy Actor

2009-11-29T12:14:00.005-05:00

Best Performances (TV Comedy) Part 1

Narrowing the performance/actor categories was HARD. But I went with two things:

1. Do I like the actor/actress?

2. Do I like the performance?

Best Performance by an Actor (Comedy)

Sean Hayes - Jack McFarland (Will & Grace)
"They say Jack is a wise man, Jack is a dangerous man, Jack is a great man, no. - Jack is just a man. A man who knows men who like men."

Sure, Will & Grace was about that eponymous dysfunctional gay man/straight woman couple but we all know the laughs belonged to Jack and (see below) Karen. Is 'Jack' the ultimate gay stereotype? I don't know, but if he straddles the line between stereotype and accurate depiction (Oh, the many 'Jack McFarlands' I've met!) it must have worked that this character never took itself too seriously. Emmy Winner Sean Hayes embodied this character to the extent that seeing him play a hick on 30 Rock jarred me in a good way. From 'Just Jack!' to 'Just Jack 2000!' to 'Student Nurse Jack' to OutTV executive who sing-ed his eyebrow (one of my favorite moments of the show in the season 8 premiere, and no he doesn't mean 'singed' he meant 'sang'), Jack was always an adorable gay man who for all his (alleged) gay sexual philandering, had his heart in the right place. Just be sure to not distract him with polysyllabic words or shiny objects.

Alec Baldwin - Jack Donaghy (30 Rock)
"You go to that house and work it like a Chinese gymnast: wear something tight, force a smile, and lie about your age."

Two-time Emmy winner Alec Baldwin is that rare thespian who turned a solid movie career (including an Oscar nomination) into a great comedic vehicle (okay, so maybe it's not so rare anymore now that the Sally Fields and the Glenn Closes of the world have their own TV show). To cast Baldwin against a rag-tag of crazy secondary characters on 30 Rock and to make Jack Donaghy as the political opposite of Baldwin himself makes for the greatest reasons why he shines so much in his role. He is at once playing an exaggerated foil of himself and playing it straight to an army of crazy though we all know how crazy a comic Baldwin can be (he has hosted SNL 14 times, only one short of the record held by upcoming co-Oscar host Steve Martin). From 'El Generalissimo' to his therapy sessions to Tracy, to his one-liners, to his incredible affairs with women as distinct as Phoebe (a feeble-boned Emily Mortimer), a crazy Bianca (Isabella Rossellinni), la viuda negra (Salma Hayek) and CC Cunningham (Edie Falco), Jack has a spot in the greatest 'bosses of comedy' Hall of Fame (suck it Michael Scott!).

Will Arnett - GOB (George Bluth) (Arrested Development) & Devon Banks (30 Rock)

"Dad asked me to do this on the day he pleads not guilty, as a spectacular protest. A protestacular!" (Bluth)
"Celebrity snuff. Reality content made exclusively for your mobile phone: Oh what's that? MC Lyte just murdered Danny Bonaduce? Thanks, PHONE!" (Banks)

Does anyone play odd-ball better than Emmy nominee Will Arnett (aka. Mr Amy Poehler)? He has given us two characters this decade that merit mention. The first (GOB Bluth in Arrested Development) showed an actor that could go wherever the writers took him (and they took him to very very wacky places - need we say more than "Franklin Delano Bluth"?) and whose physical chops for comedy (whether as a magician failing at an escape trying to help his father escape or attempting to hang himself with a belt) were always in service of the crazy world of the Bluth family.

With Devon Banks, Arnett created a character (some say based on Ben Silverman) who will go any length to get to the top of the GE chain of command and get back at Jack Donaghy (including hiding his sexuality, marrying a woman he doesn't even stand, attempt to clog Jack's arteries with beef and wine and charm the Obama girls). HIs Banks is sleazy and power-hungry but also hysterically overblown, especially when using his 'gruff voice' to intimidate employees or seduce Kenneth the page while wearing a tiny hotel robe.

Neil Patrick Harris - Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother)

"Legen - wait for it... hope you're not lactose intolerant cause the second half of that word is -dairy!"

It's not just the catch-phrases ("Self-five! Phone-five! High five!" "Have you ... met Ted?") and it's not just the suits ("Suit up!") or about the seemingly aimless womanizing of a certain Barney Stinson. It's how effortlessly multiple Emmy nominee (and 2009 Emmy host!) Neil Patrick Harris marries Barney's nonchalant approach to women (let us remember he keeps cameras in his bedroom, the recent 'Playbook') and his high-dork factor (he does after all love laser-tag, owns a Star Wars stormtrooper and makes scrapbooks of the girls' he's slept with). Barney is a character that can romance a girl while wearing old-man makeup - he's as corny as he is awesome. Barney - for all its blatant heterosexuality might be the queerest member of this NYC group of friends (not because NPH is gay) but because he becomes the stand-in character in a marriage-plot driven sitcom for anti-marriage, anti-monogamy and anti-family. As a character, Barney is a foil to Ted's marriage-driven plot/life (which might explain why the greatest tension of the character was his coming to terms with what he felt for Robin including several spastic and schizo moments of 'I love her!' 'I want women still!' we saw and enjoyed last season and why their getting together felt at once earned and yet unsatisfactory).

Runners-up:

The Friends boys (Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer) for making come back to Central Perk every week be it for their awkward humour, their adorable idiocy or their love for paleontology. Erick McKormack (Will & Grace) for giving me a gay NYC neurotic as a role model so early on. Bret & Jemaine (Flight of the Conchords) for making Kiwis so folksy cool and writing 'Leggy Blonde' for to hum along on random mornings. And Ricky Gervais (Extras) for making awkward so funny and stellar.

First! or How the image will speak for itself

2009-11-24T18:08:00.003-05:00

The following is an actual conversation via Adium with someone who I've no real contact (via blogs or otherwise) with and yet who thought giving feedback about this blog was his prerogative:

I appreciate constructive criticism as much as the next one (heck! the college writing course I teach basically depends on it) but this was... not quite what I have in mind. The internet, twitter, facebook, etc. have opened a world where everyone's opinion can be heard and distributed and that's great - but this (at least in my mind) went a bit far beyond mere "opinion." I don't even know why I'm posting this other than I found it an incredibly odd conversation to have had and thought I'd share it.

George & AJ, or How I love few things in life as much as PIXAR

2009-11-22T16:40:00.003-05:00

Seriously. Not joking. I love PIXAR with an obsession that could only be put on film by Glenn Close or Demi Moore on an 80s or 90s "female be crazy" plot. Without harming rabbits or Michael Douglas, of course.

Here is an extra short film from Up (recently released on DVD). I love that even in its simplicity (and without the CGI feel) the short feels purely PIXARIAN:

Rated GaGa or How I'm Seeing Double

2009-11-17T00:57:00.003-05:00

Young pop goddess tries to make lightning strike twice by having a black and white album cover where she sports a crazy hairstyle and only makes one of her eyes visible.

It's violent. It's scary. It's a throwback and overly stylized but in a minimalist way for full effect.

Spirited Lilo, or How I'm Seeing Double

2009-11-14T23:10:00.004-05:00

What do these two animated girls have in common?

Other than having very interesting friends, of course.

They were both voiced by Daveigh Chase

(the former in its original incarnation, the latter in its English dubbed version)

30 Rock, or How it's aboot time!

2009-11-13T09:25:00.005-05:00

Off to a slow start this a season (did they really have to spend so many episodes milking the 'Real America' jokes, funny as they were?) 30 Rock managed to crank out an episode that introduced the new guy (Jack/Danny Baker), saw Kenneth at his Emperor-worst, found Jenna and Tracy trying to solve problems and strengthened the (business) relationship between Jack and Liz. Basically: classic 30 Rock.

Things I loved about the episode:

dealbreaker. the books for you man no good by lesbian yellow-sour-fruit

Solvers. The Problem

Kenneth: Yes, embrace your anger.

Danny: WHAT? You know, of all the weirdos I have met around here you are the worst. With your creepy Don Knotts face. That ridiculous Hitler Youth haircut.

Kenneth: What about my chin?

Danny: What about your chin? I have seen bigger chins in premature babies!

And of course, Liz's sleeve on fire:

TV in the 2000s or How Let's name ABND's Best Drama Series

2009-11-08T16:43:00.001-05:00

Best Drama Series

To say I don't watch too many dramas is an understatement. Maybe this is in part due to the fact that networks rarely stray far away from doctors, lawyers and cops (notice only one of the 8 shows I am about to mention fall into one of those categories), so while everyone this decade was entranced by a mob family (which I hear I really should give it a chance), a plane crash (which I'm scolded for not having given it a chance), McDreamy, all the CSIs and all the Law and Orders, I found a couple of shows that struck a nerve: a blond girl, an AdMan, a rag-tag fleet and a shark-lady lawyer are for me the best drama series this past decade. Find out why:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Joss Whedon's gift to the world came in the figure of a slender blonde girl from California who was a regular misfit (and occasional cheerleader) by the day but who was the 'Chosen One' by night (and also sometimes during the day). "Into every generation a slayer is born" might have ticked off a lot of people who don't see genre as a valid way to make quality TV, but for us geeks every season of Buffy gave us a newfound respect for the writers and actors in this show who took a metaphorical premise (demons in high school) to a new level, making Sarah Michelle Gellar a star (and spawning, among others, current TV staples both in front of the screen: Bones's David Boreanaz, Robot Chicken's Seth Green, How I Met Your Mother's Alyson Hannigan and behind it: BSG/Caprica's Jane Espenson, Grey's/Mad Men's Marti Noxon) way before Twilight, True Blood and every other vampire franchise that paired a young girl with a vampire as her romantic interest was even being gestated. Buffy's mix of humour, pathos, camp and drama can best be summed up in the episodes that have cherished by fans years after the show went off the air: 'The Body' gave SMG a chance to show her acting chops as Buffy dealt with the death of her mother, 'Once More With Feeling' will always be the 'musical episode' every TV show who ever attempts one will be compared to, and the Emmy-nominated 'Hush' (an almost-silent episode) is a master-class in writing and acting. For blending all of these aspects together and breaking new ground in terms of what it means to have a strong female role and spawning a franchise that extended to a spin-off show, several comic book titles, novels and infinite amount of forums around the internets, Buffy should be considered one of the greatest achievements in TV of the decade.

Mad Men

Is there a show on the air more elegantly crafted than Matthew Weiner's two-time Emmy winner Best Drama Series Mad Men? It may be the time period (1960s NYC) but the allure of the show doesn't stop there. Following the elusive and mysterious Don Draper as an Madison Avenue advertising man, Mad Men feels at once like a look back to simpler times and a stern look at how nostalgia itself does wonders for hindsight. Tearing apart the American quaintness of the period (with scathing social commentary ranging from critiques on femininity, marriage and class), the show in the three seasons it has aired, has shown that the American dream might have been at its most nightmarish while it rode high on the Camelot myth. Punctuated by nation-shattering events (Marylin's death, the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK's assassination, the riots in the South after MLK's murder) the show has never lost track of its nuanced and well-paced style, favoring character studies over plot developments, creating simmering build ups rather than explosive melodrama. Emmy nominated thesps John Hamm, Elisabeth Moss and John Slattery, along with (sadly snubbed) January Jones and Christina Hendricks keep us entranced by these characters as they have been moving through the tumultuous decade of the 1960s, a time of change in America, not of course, without looking slicker and more glamorous than any other ensemble cast on television this past decade.

Battlestar Galactica

In a Hollywood world intent on remaking, rebooting and recharging failing and fading franchises, we should all look closer to Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Galactica to see how it can be done. Taking the premise of the 1970s show of the same name (where a group of cylons - self-aware and intelligent robots - annihilate the entire human race save for one Battlestar), Moore's show took the concept, tweaked it (cylons in this version have managed to look like humans) and carefully constructed an allegory of America in a post-9/11 world dealing with issues of terrorism, suicide-bombers, torture, faith and spirituality in a way that never seemed derivative or exploitative. While many took issue with how the series was resolved, there's no denying that for 4 seasons (and two made for TV movies), BSG was one of the most engaging television series to grace the screen. That it featured a great cast (including Oscar-nominated Mary McDonnell & Edward James Olmos, as well as Jamie Bamber, Tricia Helfer, Grace Park, Katee Sackhoff and Tammoh Penikket didn't hurt either as they each brought a visceral vulnerability to characters that, in hands of lesser writers and actors, might have been lost in between the cylon/human fights and all the spaceship stuff worthy of a good Sci Fi show.

Damages

Not since Ally McBeal had I cared more about lawyers and their crazy shenanigans. But while that David E. Kelley worked the whimsy into courtrooms, Damages takes a slightly more terrifying and electric look at what happens behind close doors (mostly, in random alleys and under tables). From the first frame of the pilot you're hooked. But you stay for the great writing, editing and acting. Close and Byrne play to their strengths as Patty Hewes and her new associate Ellen Parsons, the former evoking the great crazy-ladies of Close's Oscar-nominated past and the former playing the ingenue (though as season 2 showed, us - not for long). With only two seasons under its belt I considered not placing it so high up, but its first season was so perfectly crafted and gripping that I couldn't not think of it as one of the greatest pieces of television I have seen this past decade.

Runners up:
Six Feet Under (a great cast, pitch-perfect dialogue and a somber and macabre mood sprinkled with dry humour made this a gem of a show - I'm sure it'll rank higher once I finish the entire series - confession: I'm only on season 2), Big Love (because this is what families are: a mixed-bag of crazy held together by the common filial bond of marriage(s)), Skins (showing that the Brits do it better - and sexier and edgier - this show gives us a glimpse of high school life without sanitizing it), Alias (sorry Zoe, I know this isn't the JJ. Abrams show you wanted me to shout out, I never truly watched Felicity) (not only for giving us Jennifer Garner, but for creating a fast-paced female centered show that rarely sacrificed storytelling for big bangs).

New Banner, or How let's welcome the actressexual banner!

2009-11-04T23:43:00.004-05:00

Say goodbye Meg!

I didn't intend the new banner to turn out like it did (an Actress sandwich on a PIXAR bun), but as I kept thinking of what I wanted to showcase, I just kept coming back to actresses.

On either side, PIXAR's Ratatouillean Remy and Nemoan Dory & Marlin are horrified by what a world without actresses would look like while in the middle we have (from left to right) an enchanting Amy, an Almodovarian Penelope, a conniving Ms Roberts, an adorable Boo, a Baby-bringing Kate, a damaged/ing Rose, a gleeful Jane and a mad January. I love them all and they'll be keeping me company for the rest of the year.

Spangel! or How Joss gives us what we want

2009-11-04T19:17:00.000-05:00

How had I missed this? And how did the bf find it before I did and generously posted it on my Facebook wall? And how awesome is it? Too many questions.

Anyways, head to DarkHorsePresents to find what this Spike/Angel slash fiction is all about and how I am considering it canon since this was penned by Joss himself.

TV in the 2000s, or How let's name ABND's Best Comedy Series

2009-11-03T17:01:00.002-05:00

Best of the 2000s Next Door

The decade is coming to a close and we all know what that means: TOP [insert arbitrary number here] LISTS! Not one to be left out of the bandwagon (cause, really, what better way is there to travel than in a bandwagon with random people?) I have decided to count down my favorite (read: best) things from this decade.You'll see posts counting down my favorite TV shows (Comedy/Drama) as well as my favorite films and performances (TV/Film) from the decade. These are totally biased choices based on what I watch (I'm not aiming for an objective perspective - not just because I don't watch EVERYTHING on TV but because this is my blog and I cater to no "masses" (so if you were hoping that comedies centered around an overweight male and his hot wife or films based on bromantic situations with crass humour... this ain't the place for you).

Best TV (Comedy)

I've always been a comedy guy. Dramas (as you'll see when I count them down) are not my forte at all. But comedies - situational or otherwise - are what I grew up on: The Nanny, Seinfeld, Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, Mad About You, I Dream of Jenie, etc. all helped raise me to be who I am today. Comedies are where I learned about New York City (even though they were filmed in Los Angeles), where I learned what a family was (even if they were ten times crazier than my own) and where I learned that friends will there whether you cast a black man in your show, say someone else's name at a wedding, bring the love of your life back from the dead, decide to become a nurse on a whim or decide to go Yale instead of Harvard. And so, I give you my Top 5 Comedies from the 2000s:

30 Rock

This one is for the books (and not just because of its Emmy-nomination record) but because its absurd hijinks, its rat-tat-tat dialogue full of witty one-liners ("Lemon, it's after six-o'clock; what am I a farmer?"/ "I want to go there") and its great ensemble (including Emmy winners Alec Baldwin & Tina Fey as well as Emmy nominees Jane Krakowski, Tracy Morgan and Jack McBrayer) would usually relegate this comedy to cult-status (see Arrested Development) but 30 Rock, while not cranking out NCIS ratings numbers, manages to hit the zeitgeist in a way no comedy in recent memory has. From its scathing social commentary on celebrities ("If there were no actors, how would people know who to vote for?") to its political satire of neocons and the bailout, 30 Rock has carved a niche for itself as a quotable water cooler comedy that can easily swing from the asurd ("Werewolf Bar Mitzvah") to the topical ("Greenzo" and Al Gore) without losing a beat.

Friends

Probably 'the' sitcom of the last 20 years (sorry Frasier fans, and Seinfeld fans, if you're curious I'd brand that Larry David produced show as 'the' greatest anti-sitcom sitcom of well...ever), Friends managed to turn a dull-like premise (6 Friends in NYC!) and turn into a wonderful jumping board from soap-like storylines (it wasn't surprising that vaguely half of its season finale hinged on either marriages, births or relationship issues) to hysterical twists on those same ones ('We were on a break!'). Through 10 years we fell for Rachel's hair, Phoebe's 'smelly cat,' Monica's OCD, Chandler's jokes, Ross's 'dinasours,' and Joey's endearing/irritating idiocy. Was it a bit white-washed and representing a wholly implausible NYC life on their salaries? Maybe, but who wants 'reality' in their sitcoms? Friends focused on relationships and the strongest one was the one created between its character and its audience and even while working formulaic sitcomy situations, this series is still a gem when you consider how much we really cared about whether Ross and Rachel would end up together (hint: they did).

Pushing Daisies

If there was one series in my lineup that I wished had lasted longer, it'd be Pushing Daisies. Bryan Fuller's tale of a piemaker who can wake the dead was a brilliant blend of humour, schmaltz, candy-colored visuals and gum-shew plotting. With an impressive cast featuring Swoozie Kurtz, Ellen Greene, Chi McBride, Anna Friel, Lee Pace and Emmy winner Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies created 22 episodes in 2 seasons that offered a world that was as cloying as it was funny, as heartwarming as it was slick. It was a bit Tim Burton-ish, a bit Roal Dahl-esque, and in a sense reminded me of the 'magical realism' that marked my childhood: characters don't freak out or overanalyse Ned's power, and that in itself makes for a very magical world where symmetry, bright colours and fairy-tales are evoked, invoked and reworked into the very fabric of the world. As Chuck says in the pilot: "I guess dying is as good an excuse as any to start living." And despite not living long, they truly all did live very well.

Will & Grace

Is it overly sitcom-y? Does it straddle the line between LGBT visibility and gay stereotypes? Maybe, but in a TV landscape that so rarely presents LGBT characters as central to a show, we have to remember how groundbreaking (as well as funny) this show was. Featuring one of the strongest ensemble casts in recent memory (Sean Hayes, Megan Mullally, Eric McCormack and Debra Messing deserve all the hardware they picked up - from Emmys, to SAG Awards to Golden Globes, etc. etc.) Will & Grace took a tried and true formula (a sitcom about roommates!) and spun it into hysterical look at gay life, straight life and everything in between. But in particular, we have to reward a show that gave us Karen Walker - a pill-popping, alcohol-swigging, money-squandering, retort-ready 'secretary.' This is truly a character for the ages with a number of one-liners that put to shame much of what's on TV right now. I'm sure if she could hear the things the likes of Charlie Sheen, Jay Mohr or even Leno, she'd say "By your inflection, I can tell that you think what you're saying is funny, but...no." Amen.

Gilmore Girls

I remember watching the first episode of Gilmore Girls on the WB the day it aired and I realised I had watched something incredible. When I watched the series finale, I found it hard to say goodbye to Lauren Graham's Lorelai and Alexis Bledel's Rory whom I had shared so much with (boyfriends, college, marriages, hospital visits, you name it). This unlikely (and some would say implausible) mother-daughter relationship, grounded in an obsessive consumption and relentless re-quotation of popular culture ("You lost me at carrots, which was the first draft of 'you had me at hello'."), was everything I want in a 'family show' especially as every week it disavowed any schmaltz in favor of witty-one liners and the fastest-delivered dialogue in TV... ever. That Amy Sherman-Palladino surrounded her two protagonists with a wide array of amazing supporting characters (in particular Lorelai's mother Emily and all of Rory's suitors over the years, including a pre-Supernatural Jared Paladecki and a pre-Heroes Milo Ventimiglia) only served to heighten my desire to visit Stars Hollow every week.

Runners-up:

Sex & the City (for giving us Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, Samantha and a version of NYC we all wished existed!), How I Met Your Mother (for trying to resuscitate the sitcom through post-modern storytelling, in such a legen-waitforit-dary way!), Arrested Development (for making us feel a little bit saner by watching the crazy antics of the Bluth family), Desperate Housewives (for a first season which is almost flawless in its blend of intrigue, soap-opera-plotting, master comedic acting and sparkling dialogue), Flight of the Conchords (because Bret and Jemaine make for a odd Kiwi couple pairing whose hysterics are only matched by their crazy folk songs).

Nick Hoult, or How can I please watch A Single Man now?

2009-11-03T12:49:00.003-05:00

With talk of Colin Firth snagging an Oscar nomination for his role in Tom Ford's adaptation of Chirstopher Isherwood's A Single Man (following a win in Venice and an upcoming 'Performance of the Year Award' at Santa Barbara fest), it's great to see his co-stars getting some press.

In particular, Nicholas Hoult (that adorable kid from About A Boy, and that conniving teen from BBC's Skins) is having quite a week: he was spotlit by the New York Times as one of four 'Breakout Performances' and was featured in Variety as one of '10 Actors to Watch.' Which is all an excuse for me to keep amping the anticipation for this film and to post a pretty picture of Mr Hoult:

Penelope and Pedro, or How they're a great pair aren't they?

2009-11-01T20:16:00.004-05:00

While their latest collaboration (Broken Embraces) doesn't soar as high as their last outing (the beautifully and buoyantly effervescent Volver), there's no denying Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz make for a great cinematic pairing.

Their joint interview over at the New York Times is a joy to read. My favorite passage (mainly because it solidifies my idea of Penelope as coy and cunning, keenly aware of her disarming charm, but not without a sharp edge [in my head Penelope is part Maria Elena and part Raimunda]):

The chemistry Mr. Almodóvar, 60, and Ms. Cruz, 35, share would almost seem romantic if he were not one of the world’s best-known openly gay directors and she were not linked in the tabloids to the actor Javier Bardem. (Asked if a wedding is in the works, she said, with a pleasant smile and eyes of cold steel: “You are a writer for The New York Times, yes? I think maybe you are not supposed to ask that kind of question.”)

Modern Family, or How I (heart) this show

2009-10-29T19:05:00.006-04:00

Are you watching Modern Family? Cause you should be.

Here are a couple of reasons why:

Jay: What are you wearing?

Manny: A poncho.

Jay: It looks like an old christmas tree skirt!

"She is not Donna Summer. Clearly, she is Dianna Ross from the RCA years. Why can't daddy see that?"

(And here's Lily as Olivia Newton-John,

Madonna - "the early years,"

and Stevie Wonder)

Claire: Phil, put some pants on!

Phil: This covers up more than my bathing suit.

Claire: Don't remind me.

Did I mention those come only from the first 5 minutes of last night's episode?

And my favorite line from the entire episode:

"Batman doesn't get picked on and he wears a cape.

A poncho is just a cape that goes all the way around."

Mary and Max, or How 'Aspies for Freedom' should be sold as a shirt

2009-10-25T21:07:00.008-04:00

Mary and Max

Written, Directed and Designed by: Adam Elliot

Voiced by: Toni Collette & Philip Seymour-Hoffman

It wouldn't be a stretch to say that Mary and Max would make a great double feature alongside PIXAR's Up. After all, in their own ways, they paint a picture of 'living life anew' pairing an older character with a younger one both for contrast and for character development. But whereas Up gives us a candy-colored adventure, Mary and Max immerses us in a world as stark and monochromatic as its color palette.

You see, Max (Seymour-Hoffman doing amazing voice-work) is a jewish-raised older New Yorker suffering from Asperger's syndrome while Mary (as an adult voiced by Ms Toni Collette, a wonder as always) is a young Australian girl with distant and cold parents. They begin an unlikely pen friendship throughout the years and the film moves episodically with their correspondence through deaths, marriages and everything else the world throws at them.

To call the film's humor "dark" would be an understatement (see one of my favorite visual jokes of the film below), but this - alongside its no-nonsense trip through mental illness and depression and their consequences in the lives of Mary and Max- makes the film a pleasure to watch, especially given its visual beauty (the choice to make New York a mostly black and white environment while tinging Australia in brown hues makes for a simple yet inspiring move). At times absurdly hilarious (Mary, for example, believes that Aussie babies are found in beer glasses by their fathers, while Max informs her that in America babies are hatched: by Rabbis if you're Jewish, by Nuns if you're Catholic, and, by hookers if you're an atheist; both a result of their respective parenting) and at times harrowingly uncomfortable (Toni singing 'Que Sera Sera' in a pivotal scene in the film is heartbreakingly stunning), Mary and Max makes for a roller-coaster ride of a film (not just because of its quick shifts in tone, but for its lulls - an unfortunate side-effect of the structure of the film, based on the epistolary conversation between the two characters). A-

PS. I couldn't not share the following frame which seems to pay homage to Collette's breakout film (Muriel's Wedding for those of you wondering) as Mary finds herself crying over heartbreak after getting all dolled up for her neighbor Damien (Eric Bana):

Dollhouse, or How consent isn't a play-thing

2009-10-23T22:09:00.009-04:00

Not often can one drop the names of (feminist thinkers) Andrea Dworkin and Catharine McKinnon when discussing a network show, but that is exactly what Emily Nussbaum did over at her blog Surf when discussing last night's episode of Dollhouse "Belonging." And damn if it's not a great read!

Written by Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen and directed by Jonathan Frankes, this latest episode moved away from Eliza Dushku's Echo/Caroline plot (and even benched Tammoh Penikett's Paul Ballard!) and focused instead on the doll Sierra (played by Dichen Lachman) - her backstory which we had glimpsed at last season (namely, Priya-turned-Sierra was taken to the Dollhouse because she wouldn't comply with a valued 'higher-up' of the Rossum corporation which owns the Dollhouse). Discussing the main themes of Dollhouse and how they relate to the Whedon world, Nussbaum tells us that,

If you're a resentful Whedon nerd, you've got mind-control issues, a sexually charged situation his series tend to at once oppose in theory and play out in a cathartic way in practice. (As Dollhouse in particular demonstrates, it's awfully hard to distinguish these things when your sex slaves are mincing around in tiny tank tops.)
"Belonging" pushes that sex-slave theme to its limits. It bubbles over with unsettling insights into the Dollhouse's ethical status, fueled by brilliant performances by both Dachman as Sierra and Fran Kranz as Topher, whose status as Sierra's creator/brainwasher is given tremendous complexity (he's regretful, he's complicit, he's innocent, blood is on his hands).

As a quasi-fan of the show myself (during its first season it never quite grabbed me though those last episodes, and Epitaph One - the unaired mythic 13th episode, really pulled all the punches and got me back into the Whedon-bandwagon) I am thoroughly enjoying this new season (trust FOX to pull a Whedon and give us a good thing before killing it off!). This is mainly due to the fact that it has truly embraced its ethical ambiguity and exploited it to advance more (and more interesting) questions than any other broadcast show on TV. Through Sierra's storyline - clearly the one that most mirrors the slavery-motif of the Dollhouse, Whedon & co. crafted one of the most affecting episodes dealing with human trafficking and female consent I have ever seen on TV.

With "Belonging," Dollhouse breached new territory for the show, delving deep into the wounded conscience-addled Topher (played by Fran Kranz) - a character who began as a two-dimensional "nerd" stereotype, at once too smart for his own good and too disinterested to care about his dolls, but who has morphed into the character that most self-reflexibly shows us the limits of the Dollhouse's ethics. In one of the most chilling lines of the series, we hear Olivia Williams' DeWitt tell Topher that

"The cold reality is that everyone here was chosen because their morals have been compromised in some way. Everyone except you. You Topher were chosen because you have no morals. You have always thought of people as play-things. This is not a judgement; you alwasy take very good care of your toys. But you're simply going to have let this one go."

Topher's character arc (as Epipath One showed us) will be to deal with this newfound conscience as the searing revelation of what his technological prowess has done (and will do) to everyone inside and outside the Dollhouse becomes clearer and clearer. Is the Dollhouse simply a fancy prostitution agency which manages to disavow human consent by instilling/imprinting a 'real' desire out of nothing? Or is the question an even bigger one: what are the expectations of desire and consent in a world that is already so invested in performance and make-believe? Priya/Sierra may be able to go back to the Dollhouse as a clean slate (maintaining only her love for Victor) but Topher is left alone in his geek quad to live with what he has done and what he must do every day: 'help' these dolls. But at what price? At whose bidding?

If the last couple of episodes have shown us anything is that the better Dollhouse is as a series, the more uncomfortable are the ideas/questions it (re)presents. We have to wait til December 4 for the next couple of episodes, but I personally can't wait for what Whedon & co. have in store for us.

30 Rock or How :: laser shield ::

2009-10-23T09:55:00.005-04:00

There are few things I enjoy more on 30 Rock than seeing Will Arnett & Alec Baldwin go head to head. This week's episode didn't disappoint:

"Pewwwwww"

"What kind of gun was that?"

"A laser gun. It cuts through everything"

And then later,

"I'll make this company so profitable so fast the only headline will be...

'Donaghy saves G.E., comma, marries your mom'"

"See you in a couple of days Jack. Peewwww"

"Pffttt. Laser shield."

Where the Wild Things Are, or How I rant on ranting

2009-10-22T18:44:00.006-04:00

Rule number 1 of reviewing: don't assume anything.

If there's one thing I hate to read in a review is: people said A but...B!!

Reviews that attempt to position themselves in a conversation about outside expectations have a place in film discussions but I wonder how much are we really talking about say, Juno or The Dark Knight or Slumdog Millionaire when a review is insistent on how the 'buzz' is right/wrong/misguided/etc.

The latest case for this is Spike Jonze's adapation of Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. This is not only because Sendak's book is adored by a significant amount of people but also because the film went from 'it's delayed, suffering from bad test screenings' to 'hit viral sensation' after the Arcade Fire trailer debuted earlier this year. Mainly: there's no way you could enter into this film without a preconceived idea of what it'd be (or what you wanted it to be, or what Warner Bros. wanted you to think it'd be or what your childhood self wanted it to be or..well, you get the idea). Add to this that we live in a Twitter/instant reaction world and you've got a situation where seeing a film where you have no expectations of it is more the exception than the rule (I was flabbergasted the other day when I friend told me he had seen this film called 'Precious' and he thought it was really good. Yep, he caught it at the New York Film Featival and loved it and knew NOTHING about it beforehand. Crazy, I thought to myself, but it also showed the type of audience reaction that probably greeted the film at Sundance before Oprah and Tyler Perry and everyone in the blogosphere started telling us how great a movie this was - and before the backlash that may or may not be now pervading the film recently given the Gotham Awards snub). But I digress. Back to Where the Wild Things Are. I recently read James's "Rants on Where the Wild Things Are" and while I'd usually shrug off my dissension from James's view to his "Humbug" mood recently (I think he just needs a visit from La Tisdale - or Zac Efron - to cheer him up and make him love 'stuff' again). I'm not saying James is 'wrong' in not liking the film: we are, after all, allowed to have (and voice!) our own opinions. Yet, his review seemed to come from a place of 'can people stop saying how good this film is?' which in certain ways is a version of 'my opinion doesn't jibe with the consensus' yet morphs into 'my opinion should be the consensus' (which, ultimately is the reason we write about films for the blogosphere to read, no?). If it feels like harping on James, I'm not (I'm sure I've made similar comments on this soapbox of mine). I just think that there must be a place for healthy film discussion that doesn't take into account 'buzz' in order to frame an opinion about a film (look at the way An Education - for a more recent example - went from 'Amazing' to 'Meh, what was everyone talking about?' in a matter of blog-tinged seconds)

I could sit here and rile a couple of counter-arguments to James' review - it isn't after all, a perfect movie - (for example I think the first half hour of the film is a great glimpse into Max's world - which never seeks to explain Max's "misunderstood nature" nor does it attempt to advocate or endorse it, and the ensuing narrative works to fractally retell it over an over again) but instead I wanted to open up a discussion on the way recent technological (and marketing strategies) have made our appreciation of films a reactive (rather than an active) activity. Recently, Nat came up against the same problem when screening Precious:

Can you have a pure reaction to a movie if you've already heard a thousand opinions about it? Probably not, as the annual conversation cycles of awards season illustrate. It starts with "my god it's amazing!" which quickly turns to "it's everything you've heard it was and more!". Eventually the "I liked it but..." hedging and the angry "it ain't all that!" begins. Well, you know how it goes. You've probably joined in dozens of these conversations yourself.

So, I have to wonder: do we have to have these conversations? Is there no way to talk about Where the Wild Things Are in terms of its approach to Sendak's book: what does it mean to translate a slim children's book into a hipster Oz-like parable? What does it say about the American audience its aimed at? About its place in a studio/auteur-based economic model? About its place in Jonze's filmography (clearly, Keener isn't the only thing it shares with Adaptation and Being John Malcovich)? Just as I think too much is made of "Oscar" films conversations during the Fall ("Will/Should it be nominated?") I think there are plenty of more conversations to be had about films these days that move beyond "good/bad"/"was what I expected/not what I wanted/expected." Does An Education not spark more interesting conversations regarding May/November romances than about Mulligan's Oscar chances? Does Precious not raise more challenging discussions when framed in terms of its subject matter rather than its press backlash?

It seems the conversation is happening already. Over at Awards Daily Sasha Stone points to Roger Ebert's review of Amelia to showcase how a review can do both things I'm talking about without falling into certain traps. As she states,

Here’s the thing, though – when writing a review, why not make it a good read? Ebert’s recent review of Amelia isn’t just a think piece on himself and why he’s right that the movie sucked and where it doesn’t work and why it is going to bomb — most importantly, he doesn’t yarn on about how he would knew it would fail and how right he has now become – is there anything more annoying than that?

And really, we could all be doing worse than aiming to be as entertaining in writing reviews than Roger Ebert (who, even when he raves about a film I hate - see his adoration for Crash, he does so in a way that doesn't feel like he's trying to persuade me to think like him or join in whatever buzz he aligns with, but to make me watch the film itself).