The History Boys, or How hadn't I seen this sooner?

Why hadn't I seen The History Boys before?

Following a friend's suggestion, I Netflixed it and I couldn't explain to myself why I hadn't seeked this out earlier. Adapted by Alan Bennet from his own Olivier and Tony Award winning play, the film follows a group of boys studying for their Oxbridge exams under the tutelage of two different teachers: Irwin and Hector. But, of course the film elevates the simple plot to create a biting and quite bleak commentary on current (even if it was set in the 80s!) academic and institutional system; homosexuality and the value of history and literature. But more importantly, it is a thoroughly enjoyable movie and like I said, I can't believe it had flown under my radar for so long. I remember wanting to watch it back when it came out, but it somehow hadn't caught my attention since. Thankfully: friends don't let friends go on with life without having watched this movie. I mean, it's got everything I love in a movie:

- Men with accents.
- Homosexuals.
- A theatrical source.
- Boys in Grammar School uniforms.
- A literary context.
- Hot guys.
- A smart script.
- A good soundtrack.
- A homoerotic musical number.
- Brazen attitude towards sexuality.
- Life questioning dialogue.
- History, academics and life seamlessly interwoven.
- Beautiful (historical) scenery.
- A Rufus Wainwright credits song.
- A locker room scene.
- Memorable quotes.
- Inspired performances.
- Music montages.
- A tragic denouement.
- A scene in French.
- Good use of a biker jacket.
& - A crushing last scene.

Do yourself a favour and rent it now.

Miami Pop Cultural Geography, or How TV puts things on MY map!

As a little ongoing project, I have decided to spend a couple of posts thinking of the different places TV has put on my imaginary global (but mostly North American) map. We'll do the big ones first (NYC, Miami, LA, Chicago, San Fran, etc) but I also want to add smaller (and/or imaginary) places that I wouldn't have even cared for, if it hadn't been for people like Rory (Stars Hollow, CN), Dawson (Capeside, MA), and Buffy (Sunnydale, CA).

Last time we looked at NYC. This time, we're going South to the capital of Latin Americ... I mean, Florida.

MIAMI
- This is the city of Vice (and pastel suits).
- It houses a steamy serial killer, a pair of sizzling plastic surgeons and a sassy set of Golden Girls.
- Just like NYC, Miami seems to attract cops: here's where David Caruso looks cool in sunglasses as he CSI's, where Carla Gugino deluded herself into thinking she was J-Lo... er Karen Sisco I mean, and where Jeffrey Donovan burns notices.
- C'mon! It's the home of several variety shows: Sabado Gigante and Despierta America for the Latinos and Good Morning Miami for the fictional white viewers of that guilty-pleasure prone sitcom.
- And while we're spotlighting the Latino-centered shows in Miami, we have to remember South Beach is where the Latina Charmed ones lived.
- It's where Hogan knows best... apparently, and where Eve got an eponymous sitcom (who knew?!)
- I probably shouldn't be revealing this, but my favourite Miami TV Show (that I actually hadn't thought about in years and years) is Silk Stalkings. Anyone remember that? Good times.
- And, of course it's where Flipper swims around!
- While we're plotting the greater Miami area, let's expand a bit and add in Orlando (for all those crazy sitcom Disney arcs!) and Boca Raton (for all the NYC sitcoms we cited last time and the elderly parental couples who live there):

View Larger Map

Ah yes. Sunny Miami - not as impressive as NYC, but it did give us Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia; that adorable dolphin and rolled-up pastel sleeves. And if that wasn't enough, Miami-set shows are always good for some gratuitous male nudity (see: Nip/Tuck).

And now, let's put s'more pins on that map:

View Larger Map

The Dark Knight, or How in just 10 Days...!

Yes, I suck.
Yes, I won't be able to watch TDK on opening night. But I blame the fanboys who beat me to EVERY IMAX showing of TDK in NYC before I got a chance to Fandango 'em!
Still, a Sunday screening isn't that bad. Better than trying to get to a 6am showing, no?

Can't Hardly Wait, or How let's play Who's Who?

So I indulged in some amazing 90s teen comedies the other day (Oh Clueless - so timeless!) and while watching Can't Hardly Wait, I couldn't help but gasp at every single person on screen. When it ended I realized I had to do a write-up of it or else I would never remember everyone who's in it who's since made a name for themselves. I mean, seriously - who was the genius behind the casting of this movie? If I were of the tally-making kind, I could tell you that just counting the people featuring in the poster, the actors of CHW have garnered 3 Emmy nominations, 1 Annie award, 2 Saturn Award nomination (+1 win), 5 SAG award noms (+2 wins).. and countless other awards. Impressive, considering that doesn't include the awards from some of the supporting cast post-CHW: 2 BET Award noms, 1 more Saturn Award, 4 Golden Globe noms (+1 win), 4 Emmy noms (+1 win) and of course one of the most infamous Best Kiss MTV Movie Awards in the history of the planet.

Ethan Embry: Okay, so I would only include Sweet Home Alabama in 'movies he made after CHW' that made an impact. He seems to have realised that, as a CHW alum his fate depended on a small screen career. Does anyone know anything of this Brotherhood show that lists him as a 7 episode guest star in the 06-07 season? I didn't think so.

Jennifer Love-Hewitt: Yeah, remember when she was all the craze? Well, neither do I, but after her MTV Movie Award nomination for her turn here, she went on to Party of Five - realizing that TV is where she's at: I mean, do we really need to talk about The Tuxedo or Garfield? Right now she's relishing her Saturn Award winning role in The Ghost Whisperer. Good times.

Seth Green: It's OZ! Before Buffy, of course. And he brilliantly showcased the comedic chops that would become a signature of his. True, just like everyone here his movie career never really took off (I mean, we all enjoyed his portrayal of Scott Evil, but did anyone suffer through Without a Paddle, or Rat Race?). Good thing he settled in the small screen where his Chris Griffin voice, his Emmy-nominated Robot Chicken show and of course his Buffyverse character have put him in the Geek Pantheon.

Lauren Ambrose: Claire herself. It seems the entire cast took to TV - I guess a Teen Comedy rarely leads you elsewhere (unless you're Mena Suvari and followup American Pie with American Beauty, but where is she now? Exactly). The spritzy redhead took her time before shining in Six Feet Under (including 5 episodes in Party of Five, I wonder if J-Lo-Hew got her the gig?) and garnering Emmy and SAG noms, but now she seems like a mainstay in Shakespeare in the Park - here's hoping a good TV role is coming her way.

Peter Facinelli: Again, embracing TV over the silver screen (save some Indie films and the upcoming "high profile" Twilight coming up) he has been (according to imdb) offering some good supporting work on the small screen: in Six Feet Under and Damages most prominently. Such a stretch from that moronic jock he played here.



And as for Charlie Korsmo, he seems to have changed the Thesp-gear for Republican politics crap. According to imdb he currently serves as Deputy Domestic Policy Analyst for the House Republican Policy Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Oh well. We can't win 'em all can we?


But even the smaller roles were sizing themselves up for better things to come:

Count 'em, you have a future Save the Last Dance star, Betty's sandwich guy, the lovable Dharma, a Turk in the making, a Carpooler O'Donnel, a Robot Chicken Meyer, a Hellboy sidekick who sizzles, a teenage witch, a Less than Perfect girl, a Popular Cherry, Earl's spouse and a certain Ms DuVall.

Harry Potter and the Bloody Princely Pictures, or How I can't wait!

So, even if the producers of the Harry Potter movies didn't take heed to my advice (when will studio moguls learn?!) to give the remaining movies to the only director who has helmed a truly inspired and Potter-worthy film experience (*ahem* Cuaron *ahem*), I am still excited to see what David Yates et al. have in store for us when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens later this year. If nothing else, the film will be pretty (Art Direction and Cinematography have always been a strength in the franchise):

[Via /Film]

Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, or How I'm Seeing Double

You've heard about it. You've seen the teaser (here). But to create more hype about his upcoming webisode/musical... thing, Joss Whedon has unveiled a prequel comic of sorts via Dark Horse Present over at myspace (while you're at it, check the new Gerard Way/Gabriel Ba Umbrella Academy comic!). Titled Captain Hammer - Be Like Me! - Nemesis of Dr Horrible, the comic follows Captain Hammer as he teaches you how to help him save the world, snitching on your soon-to-be-villain friends and such.

Check out the Zack Whedon-penned and Eric Canete-drawn comic to see how Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion look like in comics!

So, sure, NPH is a bit less geeky looking than his comic-counterpart, and Nathan's not quite as Man of Steel-esque as his graphic doppelganger, but you can see the resemblance, right?

Disney's Hercules, or How Everything I Know I Learnt from Animation

Continuing my love for animation (okay... some may call it obsession, I call it a "calling") I present to you the most recent entry for the Everything I Know I Learnt from Animation series. Joining us today is an adorably hunky Greek Hero (even if the Disney name is actually Roman... but really, who here cares about such petty details. And also, how much would it have sucked to market a movie called Herakles?): Hercules!

Hercules (1997)
Dir. John Musker & Ron Clements

Top 10 Things I learnt from Disney's Hercules:

1. Calling men WonderBoy does wonders to get them interested.
2. Girls are better are zinging (and singing!) than men ("So, do they give you a name along with all those rippling pectorals?")
3. I can go the distance. Now if only I knew exactly what that meant... or if I could frame it in a non-sports-oriented way...
4. Villains are/should be flaming! (More on that here)
5. Everything is cuter in baby-form. See Hercules and Pegasus.
6. Merchandising, celebrity culture and even Gospel singing (!) date back to Greek times. ("You give me a word, any word and I show you that the root of that word is Greek!")
7. D.I.D. stands for Damsel in distress. And not, of course Direct Inward Dialing.
8. The easiest way to get friends, fans and fame is to buff up and sound like Tate Donovan. Wait... no, was I supposed to get something else out of that?
9. The way to get your characters to look cool is to hire Gerald Scarfe (yeah, that guy who did the animation bits for the Pink Floyd movie The Wall!)
10. Disney is not to be taken as a reliable source when it comes to Greek Mythology (or Chinese folk stories, or Shakespeare, or Native American history, or Victor Hugo novels...)

Check out past "Everything I Know..."

Pixar Edition
Lilo & Sticth
The Smurfs
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Wall E, or How ::cute robot noises::!

Wall-E

Dir and Written by: Andrew Stanton (of Finding Nemo fame)
Voices provided by: Ben Burtt (WALL-E and M-O), Elissa Knight (EVE), Jeff Garlin (Captain), Sigourney Weaver (Ship's Computer) and Fred Willard (BnL CEO).

There are few things in life I anticipate more than a new PIXAR movie. Anything penned by Joss Whedon maybe (Buffy Season 8 and Dollhouse for example); anything with Kate Winslet in it (Revolutionary Road and The Reader I'm looking at you!); but little else. Just think: I have been looking forward to Wall-E months before you even know it was coming out (don't believe me? I'm already looking forward to the next couple of PIXAR releases: Pete Docter's Up! (2009), Rydstrom's newt (2011), Chapman's The Bear and the Bow (2011) and of course Toy Story 3 (2010) - so sue me, I'm kind of a PIXAR geek, like you didn't know that already!).

But first things first, Wall-E was preceded by Doug Sweetland's Presto (now available on iTunes). If you have been following the PIXAR shorts since Geri's Game, you probably know that you can usually depend on them being hysterical (think For the Birds, Lifted), beautifully crafted (think One Man Band) and full of cuddly characters (think Boundin'). Presto doesn't disappoint. The premise: a magician - famous for his magic hat trick (his top hat and a wizard's hat are magically connected!) forgets to feed his rabbit Alec before that night's performance and Alec decides that he won't collaborate until he is feed. Hilarity ensues. What's great about this short is that Alec is very expressive and mischievous (think of him as PIXAR's Bugs Bunny) and just to see him miming "give me my carrot or else I won't go into the hat" is a laugh-out loud moment that is only matched by the way the magician's trick ends to roaring applause from the audience. A-

Feature Presentation
I know you might think I'm just going to say that PIXAR can do no wrong (I mean, when you're 'worst' movie is still as visually exciting and enjoyable as Cars, you know you can expect a level of quality that other franchise/superhero/blockbuster studios may not even recognize) because I am an animation junkie. But I'm also going to say it because it's true. I grew up with PIXAR's films - and learnt a thing or two on the way and have found something(s) I loved in each and every one of them: Mr Potato Head and the toy-story in Toy Story, the colour palette and Kevin Spacey's scary voice in A Bug's Life, Randy Newman's music and the traffic cone sequence in Toy Story 2, Boo and the character designs in Monsters, Inc., Dory and the visuals in Finding Nemo, Edna and the action sequences in The Incredibles, Luigi and Guido in Cars, and Remy and Michael Giacchino's music in Ratatouille. Of course there are more things, but what's amazing about PIXAR's productions is the way that in listing things you love about their movies, you can never really match the totality of the films at hand: how to explain to someone the seagull scenes in Finding Nemo or the bond Boo and her 'Kitty' share in Monsters, Inc. without somehow doing the films a disservice?

Which is why even if I were to list the things I loved about Wall-E: the sound design - only the guy who gave us R2D2 would have been able to bring Wall-E to life!; the cinematography - oh Roger Deakins, thank you!, the amazing opening sequence, the curious personality of the eponymous robot, the fact that EVE kicks ass, the heartbreaking moment at the end that had me at the verge of tears, the Hello Dolly! clips, the eclectic and lovable nature of the supporting cast (I love M-O), the expressiveness of the robots, Thomas Newman's music... I don't think I'd be able to convey the love I felt for the movie once I left the movie theater (after an amazing end-credits sequence - PIXAR doesn't even allow you to be bored when you're supposed to be trashing your XL popcorn receptacle and leaving!).

Stanton and his team (because I really believe animation is first and foremost a cooperative art medium) have crafted a beautiful film that moves from slapstick (Wall-E running from shopping carts, Wall-E and umbrellas during thunderstorms) to romance (has any other character in film history wanted to hold someone's hand so badly?) to Sci-Fi (how cool are the ships and robots?) to eco-friendly and anti-corporate messages (Buy-n-Large who?) to animation wizardry (Stanton has done to space what Brad Bird did to Paris last year - making it beautiful, romantic , animated and still realistic)... I could go on. But I would be wasting your time, because seriously: you just need to watch this animation-classic in the making. A+

The Dark Knight, or How I can't wait! Pt 2

[Via Vulture]

Wall E and Beauty & the Beast, or How I'm Seeing Double

Vulture has started the 'Best Picture Nomination' campaign for the adorable robot, In Contention is wary, but hasn't seen it yet, Awards Daily is offering some great theories about the film and its Oscar prospects. And of course, we have to wonder: can Wall E pull off a Beauty and the Beast? 

Well, turns out they have more in common than we might think:

Unlikely couple. Check!

"There must be more than this provincial/trash-addled life!" Check!

Dancing sequence. Check!

Group of mish-mash secondary characters (+ a fight involving said mish-mash of secondary characters). Check!

Wooing involving wowing with stuff. Check!

A plant is at the center of it all. Check!

And to top it all off:

True Love's Kiss prevails. Check!

The 39 Steps, or How it's Hitch-c(h)ock-full of funny.

The 39 Steps

Who?
Arnie Burton, Charles Edwards, Jennifer Ferrin and Cliff Saunders.

Why?
Because it's a hilarious comedic re-working of Hitchcock's film using a minimal stage, wondrous use of props and a laugh-out-loud four-person cast.

Highlights
- "But! It's a four person cast!" - when all four actors are on stage and yet a mysterious gun-toting hand appears to wreak havoc!
- Ferrin's turn as the mysterious woman at the theater (along with her mysterious death early on = priceless!)
- Charles Edwards facial expressions. Seriously, they are hysterical and pretty much elevate every single line he's given.

- Any scene in/on the train.

- The lighting and sound design are flawless, keeping it to a minimum and still managing to speak volumes. My favourite bit? The shadow chase which leads to a very familiar silhouette.



You'll elle oh elle your way through this show. Added bonus: if you're a Hitchcock fan you can play "Spot the visual/aural reference!" [if only you could make it into a drinking game!] A-