La Lohan

I'm worried about Lindsay Lohan. I know this is completely delusional but somehow I had myself convinced a few weeks back that a Golden Globe comedy nomination would get through to her. It would shake her up --like a collective "we value you as an ACTRESS! Quit partying and try to nab some talent stretching supporting roles in more mature films" She needs to know that she got where she is on talent. She seems to be desperate to prove herself in all the wrong ways when she's already proven herself in the only way that matters for longevity in acting (actual talent)

Imagine, the Golden Globes with the power to rescue a young movie star's mental health!?! hee.

Oscar Ballots Out...

It's now crunch time for campaigners. The ballots are either en route or arriving in mailboxes -I plan to write an FYC article for the site but it will be an expansion of this idea (as per usual) THE YEAR IS 12 MONTHS LONG. Rather than tell Oscar voters how to vote, I'd just like to remind them that movies came out in January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, and September. Not just the last three months of the year.

I think primarily of the Academy's 1000 voting actors. You don't have to vote for them but anybody that isn't willing to at least consider the stars of Eternal Sunshine, Before Sunset, Kill Bill Volume 2, The Door in the Floor, Dogville, etc... for acting prizes doesn't really have any business filling out "best of the YEAR" ballots.

You don't win the Academy Award for Best Performance of December. You supposedly win it for Best Performance of 2004.

Phantom of the Top Ten Lists...

OK. one more note on this top ten business. The BFCA, a group I am commonly known as being an un-fan of listed Phantom as one of their top ten films of the year. But you have to ask: HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

If you look at the critics lists pouring in on the geninn site (linked above) or on the moviecitynews.com site (which has at least one critic as part of the BFCA) it doesn't seem to be factoring in much at all to end of the year lists. So, how, pray tell did it make the final cut at the expense of something, like, oh say Closer or Before Sunrise or The Motorcycle Diaries...

Again. It just goes to raise your eyebrows at the possibility that the BFCA don't really like any movie as much as they like predicting Oscars and they maybe thought around the time they were voting (as many did) that it might factor into the Oscar race. So, why not vote for it? I'll tell you why not. Because if you're trying to predict the Oscars, write a prediction column. If you're giving out awards, do the right thing and say what YOU think is best. Not what you think others will think is best.

That's the only explanation I can think of as to how it could make their list when it's not making their individual lists... Or maybe someone out there has another explanation? I'd like to hear it. Because that's a cheese fest and a half of a movie and why is it on a consensus ten best list if no one loves it enough to put it on their individual list? Unless I don't understand the word consensus.

Groupthink and Top Tens

you know. Normally I wouldn't call someone to the table for this because it's rude and what have you but as I was researching my slowly growing online top ten list chart I keep referring to the far more extensive chart at geninn.net and some lists really perplex me.

Take Susan Granger for instance. Her top ten list is:

The Aviator
Collateral
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Finding Neverland
Hotel Rwanda
Kinsey
Million Dollar Baby
The Motorcycle Diaries
The Phantom of the Opera
Ray

Can it get any more generic? It's the exact same as the [b]BFCA[/b] list with ONE exception -the absence of Sideways and inclusion of The Motorcycle Diaries. Granger is a free thinker ! (hee) Sometimes I wonder if there are too many voices out there and if the collective "best of" thing is just too disturbing. I much prefer lists that show some semblance of sanity (obviously Eternal Sunshine belongs on every list) combined with the individual's own unique aesthetic sense. If you have no opinion of your own --what's the point? For the record my own personal top ten will have some of the usual suspects. But as always, I hope to maintain my own voice.

I'm not trying to knock Susan Granger or praise myself. I'm more thinking out loud about the problem of homogeny in these things. I know why this happens. I am affected by it myself. Would I have watched Sideways a second time were it not for the abundant "best of the year" kudos which made me revisit it and boosted it from "very good" in my book to "near great" It would probably have made my top ten list either way but its placement did rise. Critical consensus does affect people for good (Sideways) and ill (Million Dollar Baby for instance. Good film...but critical consensus has it as a masterpiece and it just ain't so).

I wonder how less generic things would be if we were all required to make our top ten lists on the same day of the year? How cool would it be to have a year when all major awards nominations take place on the very same day with none influencing the next? Where would the Oscars, for instance, go without the guidance from the guilds, the Globes, and critics?

If you look at the geninn.net's current top ten list you'll find the following films appearing on the most top ten lists:

01 SIDEWAYS 102 lists with 30 #1 placements
02 ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND on 91 lists with 17 #1s
03 BEFORE SUNSET 75/14
04 MILLION DOLLAR BABY 63/12
05 THE AVIATOR 53/4
06 THE INCREDIBLES 53/2
07 KILL BILL, VOL.2 48/1
08 KINSEY 40/2
09 BAD EDUCATION 39/4
10 HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS 37/6

Half of those are also on my top ten list. shrug

Welcome for the 11th time

OK... so, I am a scattered person. I keep changing it up. But the truth is my website is too too too big. Think Julianne Moore's coke-fueled stream of thought in BOOGIE NIGHTS "too many things. too many things"

You may have noticed that this blog died for a month or so. I just hadn't figured out how to use it in the context of my unwieldy site. So --since this blog is so convenient, try and think of this as the replacement for FILMBITCHWEEKLY which had died due to maintenance issues and those pesky weekly deadlines. This will be a quicker and easier way for those non-review, non-awards, non list, thoughts on the movies. The movies. The movies. God how I love the movies.

And who knows. For ease of use and quick tidbits rather than full essays or what have you. Perhaps you'll be able to think of it as FiLMBiTCH Daily. Okay. Not really. I'm not that masochistic.

So, I promise to post herein more regularly.

Theraflu

A Haiku for Theraflu.


Theraflu loves you
it's hot goodness reduces
shivery snifflling

Addiction

Thank god my internet service is working again because a blog is not enough for an addict like myself. I need to update my site regularly. And, I'm out of the habit of posting to this blog.

the site is working again. Whew

DC...even the movie awards bow to politics

When I first heard the good news that the Washington DC Film Critics had finally given "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" the BEST PICTURE crown that it has deserved all along I wanted to cheer.

But then the rest of the list shut me up immediately. So much for discernment or a change in the precursor wave.

It's the same old same old with Jamie Foxx as best actor for his outstanding mimicry in Ray, Imelda Staunton as Vera Drake, and --wait, what's this??? JAMIE FOXX again (!!!) as supporting actor in Collateral...

pardon my french but FUCK. THAT.

I like Jamie Foxx. I loved his performance in Collateral but there is no possible reading of that film which makes him the supporting actor. The film begins and ends with him --and wow, look at that --the middle is also entirely about him. We see the story through his eyes. He's never off the screen for more than a minute or two.

It's obvious that the DC critics are just bending over and letting the studios plow them with category fraud. Which would be fine if they were, I don't know, the National Board of Review or the Golden Globes both of which are clearly, in one way or another, playing the studio's whore. But critics are, theoretically, supposed to be removed from all of that. Critics are supposed to comment on, analyze, critique, and remain objective. They aren't supposed to be PR hacks for the studios.

If 1939 were 2005 we would see "FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION... Vivien Leigh, Best Supporting Actress for Gone with the Wind" If 1991 were 2005 we's see "FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION... Geena Davis for Best Supporting Actress "Thelma & Louise" --See, how ridiculous that sounds? With the Globes I'm like "whatever. they're silly sometimes" with the BFCA I was furious. They continue to call themselves "critics choice" and are clearly not made up of critics but of various columnists, gossip columnists, junket whores, and entertainment news reporters, etc... and they went there too. And now DC critics...who to my understanding actually are critics.

Nobody has any integrity. And here's another thing. If everyone agrees why are there so many groups? If you don't have your own opinion... and you can't untangle yourself from Dreamworks campaign wishes, why are you a critic? And why do you have awards?

All that said as a reminder: I loved Jamie Foxx in Collateral. This is not about him.

People say I'm taking this too seriously but my opinion is that if it's not meant to be taken seriously we should all just watch "The People's Choice Awards" and call it a day. If they're giving awards that are called "best" and have other defining words like "original" (screenplay) or "supporting" (actor) than they ought to follow the definitions of the words. The best part I realize is subjective. But the "supporting" part is rather definitive. This is not a gray area in Collateral's case.

If the award was called "Movie Star Whose Ass We Most Want to Kiss Because He's Hot Hot Hot This Year" than by all means, shower Jamie Foxx with that prize.

I love my cat. I love my cat. I love my cat.

I'm going to keep chanting this:

I love my cat. I love my cat. I love my cat.

As many of you frequent readers know... this time of year my site gets the heaviest traffic and I post the most. But much to my dismay, just as the BFCA was announcing their awards my internet service to my home computer, which houses my website mysteriously stopped working.

Nothing. Nada.

Everything appears to be in order. The only possible explanation to the sudden collapse of any connection to my beloved internet and ability to update my site frequently are tiny bite marks to all major electrical cords in the house. These are familiar to me from six years of living with Montgomery my darling kitten.

There's no mistaking his handiwork. I shudder to think how much this will possibly cost me if the problem is on the main cable wiring as that will require someone visiting me from Time Warner etc... and rewiring.
ouch ---$$$.

I love my cat. I love my cat. I love my cat.

So, if you're wishing to see updates to my site... you'll have to pop in here for the time being to pick my brain of awards season related thoughts.

Any cat owners who would like to share hints about how to wean my baby from his favorite chew toy... please comment.