And The Link Goes To...

Oscar Stuff
Movie City News collects some nominee reaction quotes
Carpetbagger looks at the green (box office) of the gold (nominees)
Nashville Film Festival "I was Slumdog when Slumdog wasn't cool"
AWFJ thinks the two best female performances weren't nominated at all
In Contention Tapley thinks that The Reader's nomination is a tragedy and that the movie is pornographic. Who knew that he'd never seen a porno before? ;)


In Contention also shares a typical egotist quote from Harvey Weinstein. He's aiming for a win for The Reader. We all know it won't but the clever strategy thing about this sort of 'we can beat Slumdog!' cock waving is that it really does damage Slumdog Millionaire which Fox Searchlight has always been positioning as the "little film that could" In order to maintain its scrappy underdog charms they need the illusion that it's not the 300 pound gorilla of Oscar season. Which it is. Anyone think its vulnerable at all?
Time on the Best Actor race. Preference: Penn
Welcome to LA on those 2 nominations for Wanted
The Playlist on the web reactions to The Dark Knight snub including some homophobic ones of course (figures since Milk made it. How would the world spin without scapegoats?). Sigh. Would that moviegoers understand the history of Oscar better. Eight nominations is A LOT. I realize it's not in best picture but that is a huge haul as movies go. I keep hearing words like "shut out" which is a laughable description of what happened. 8 nominations is a ringing endorsement. Only Best Pictures and just-miss Best Picture hopefuls ever reach nominations numbers that high.

Off Oscar (in case you need the break. you need the break)
Low Resolution makes a funny with Pfeiff
Fabulon "art appreciation with Julianne Moore"
Lazy Eye Theater come back Billy Bob!
Club Silencio picks its five favorite films of 2008. There's only 3 Oscar noms among them
i09 on the Watchmen's rape scene. I really loved the remake of Dawn of the Dead but after 300 I do not trust the base panderings of this Zach Snyder fellow
Coosa Creek Cinema a review of Gran Torino that actually helped me understand why people love the movie

Off Cinema altogether. (Whaaaa?)
<-- two badass blonde chicks 2 love: P¡nk & Katee Sackhoff

The Post Game Show 80s pop music vs. 00s pop music. Funny
Braniac shares conservative anger (and sour grapes) over Starbuck and Battlestar Galactica. Apparently women should only be birthin' babies! Ugh. Serious question: How do such rabidly anti-woman right-wingers end up finding women to marry and impregnate, anyway?

Year in Review & the Music Video

Next year @ the film experience I hope to look at shorts and DVDs more on account of easy access for all of you -- this year was so discouraging in how hard it was for anyone outside of NY & LA to see the new releases I wanted keep talking about. Maybe next year we shoot for more accessibility.

[soapbox] I can't be the only one that's concerned that the movies --particularly the awards hopefuls -- are veering further and further away from the direction of general pop culture which is all about instant access. Why do the movies keep withholding? --no wonder Oscar ratings keep sinking. I think it's a far more complex problem than "the public doesn't like serious films". I think it's more a problem of "the public likes these movies less and it's really hard to see them even if you're interested in them". After all, who cultivates interest in something they have extremely little access too? Not many people, that's who. Anyway.... [/soapbox]

Here's a look back at the best of music video (everyone's favorite short film genre) for 2008... the form was once dying but the web has started to resuscitate it. Like my best of television list this is hardly comprehensive... I'm sure I missed some goodies. But here's 10 I loved from the year (in fluid but vaguely preferential order)

10 Matt & Kim "DAYLIGHT" and 09 P!NK "So What"
Because music videos should understand how to be fun. Is it just my imagination or is P!NK too modest what with the "I'm still a rock star" bit. Isn't she more than "still"... doesn't she get better all the damn time?

Pink - So What (HQ)
Uploaded by wonderful-life1989

08 She & Him "WHY DO YOU LET ME STAY HERE" and 07 Janet Jackson "ROCK WITH U"
Zooey Deschanel sings. She makes an adorable rock pixie even if her film career is getting fairly one note --I love this bit from a Yes Man review @ Tractor Facts

Blessed with those wide, striking, chocolate eyes, Deschanel's performance still feels out of sorts, as if she's staring into the abyss of her limited range.

Hee. And in other news Janet Jackson returns (even if it wasn't quite a "comeback") with a nifty one take video. I love that one take gimmick (see also Hitchcock's Rope)



06 Grace Jones "CORPORATE CANNIBAL" and 05 Madonna "4 MINUTES"
I've featured both of these videos before and wrote about Madonna's extensively. I went a little crazy but she does that to me. The reaction to Grace Jones has been memorably divisive. Some people think this video is 'creepy and subpar' and others 'utterly astonishing'. But I think we can all agree that it's a good thing Grace is back to haunt us.



04 Radiohead "HOUSE OF CARDS" and 03 Gnarls Barkley "WHO'S GONNA SAVE MY SOUL"
I used to occasionally be annoyed with videos that relied heavily on trippy visual effects or conceptual gimmicks (I'm not a fan, for example, of one of the most favored videos of all time "Sledgehammer" but now that so many mainstream artists view video-making as a toss off optional ad for their cds --even Madonna has gotten relatively haphazard about when she'll make them and how much effort gets put in -- conceptual and f/x videos are more thrilling... at least they still seem interested in the form.


Gnarls Barkley - Who's Gonna Save My Soul? from Toolshed Media on Vimeo.

02 The BPA "TOE JAM" and 01 Beyoncé SINGLE LADIES
Choreography is still king (or queen as the case may be) to the music video. The Toe Jam video feels like a fun-loving lark but you know it was intricately planned work and it's a pleasure to watch. I'm not even a fan of Beyoncé (too disturbingly retrograde in her gender politics for me) but this video deserved all the mainstream attention it got --even as I wished they'd have been more upfront about their debt to Bob Fosse (maybe a "dedicated to" note at the end of the video, single lady?)




And yes I was killing time.

I know why you're here: le cinéma. The Year in Review proper begins tonight (or tomorrow morning?). It's always such a daunting task. Bear with me.

Red Carpet Rendezvous

Checking in with a random sampling of stars @ events this past week or so, all of them sized to represent their actual heights. Because I'm anal like that. I like to keep you (and myself) guessing about who I might include.

individual images

Remember when Chlöe Sevigny was like the "it" fashion girl. What happened to that? And what happened to her acting --is it just me or has she been a little dull lately onscreen. I'm thinking of Zodiac and Manderlay? Angelica Huston still goes to things... but apparently only Wes Anderson remembers that's she's quite a great actress. I'm including Brooke Smith because now that she's been unceremoniously dumped from Grey's Anatomy... maybe filmmakers can remember that she's been all kinds of terrific in movies like Vanya on 42nd Street and Silence of the Lambs and Series 7: The Contenders and maybe without a television contract bogging her down, they ought to throw some interesting supporting roles her way. I'm just saying. Lukas Haas still looks like a little boy, albeit a 6' 1" 30 year-old boy. We'll always have Witness (1985). Pink! I know she's not a film person but so what... she's still a rock star (plus I love her so I must include). And finally Regina King. Remember how hard she worked her big moment in Ray? Remember how sweetly funny she was in The Year of the Dog? Apparently casting directors do not. What's wrong with them?
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