Cronenberg Blogathon and a New SLIFR Quiz!

Happy Labor Day, folks.  Lots of interesting things going on (though you'd wouldn't think it based on how long I've been away from this site).  Lots of films seen, lots of good ideas to write about.

First off, over at Cinema Viewfinder Tony Dayoub is hosting a Labor Day blogathon examining the works of legendary filmmaker David Cronenberg.  He's already posted two excellent pieces: a wonderful video essay from Jim Emerson over at Scanners, and an in-depth examination of Cronenberg's adaptation of NAKED LUNCH courtesy of J.D. Lafrance from Radiator Heaven.  I submitted a piece revisiting 1996's controversial CRASH, a film that's only grown in my estimation over the years which (hopefully) will be up sometime during the week, and then will find its home here.  If this year's batch of articles and reviews is anything like last year's Brian de Palma blogathon, we're all in for a great week, regardless of your interest in the subject.

-----------------------------------

An awesome blogathon carried out by a slew of top-notch writers (I'm not so arrogant or bold to include myself in that clause, BTW) during any other time would be cause enough for celebration, but couple that with another fantastic Labor Day Movie Quiz from everyone's favorite Movie Blog Dean, Dennis Cozzalio and Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule.  This year Dennis has brought in Professor David Huxley (pictured, right) to present Professor David Huxley's Laborious, Licentious Spotted-Leopard Labor Day Film Quiz. The only thing more enjoyable that spending ridiculous amounts of time figuring out my answers to the questions is reading everyone else's.

My answers to the quiz will be up here later today.  In the meantime, check out what everyone else is writing.  Comment, contribute, get engaged and have a great holiday no matter what you do!

Snippets: Black Narcissus and Armond White

The films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger have been a blind spot in my film watching for years, so when my local Best Buy slipped up and put both THE RED SHOES and BLACK NARCISSUS on the Blu-ray shelf for sale a week early, I had to indulge myself in the name of furthering my film education.

I'm still reeling from my viewing of BLACK NARCISSUS, which will be written up over the next week as a quasi-Binder Challenge (I cheated and bought something new, but it's too damn good to review in a quick write-up), but I wanted get out there that the new print courtesy of Criterion (which, btw, is having a 50% sale over at Barnes & Noble) is absolutely stunning: as much as is discussed about the erotic overtones of the film and the lush visuals, I think there's so much there that addresses the old saying, "you might be through with the past, but the past's not through with you."  Just all around a great film, and one you should check out if you're unfamiliar with Powell and Pressburger's work*.

----------------------------------

I wonder how many people are familiar with Armond White's actions and controversies as a film critic without actually having read any of his reviews?  Over the past few weeks I've been catching up on his work to better understand his point of view.  At this point I'm no closer to understanding the man, although I did laugh out loud to see him favorably compare the Adam Sandler comedy GROWN UPS to Jean Renoir and Paul Mazursky.  I do think, however, that he shouldn't be as easily dismissed as I often see him him be in comments and posts online.  I'll be writing a little more clearly about him in the next couple of weeks, but first I'll be listening in as he's tentatively scheduled to be on the /Filmcast tonight to discuss INCEPTION.  Knowing the tone of Dave Chen and the gang over at /Film (which I love), this might be the closest we get to a direct confrontation between White and those typically aligned against him.

*A lot of people might be inclined to recommend a different P&P film as a good starting place - please do so.  I chose BLACK NARCISSUS for the simple reason that unlike THE RED SHOES or THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP, it's reasonably short - so if you don't like it (although how could you not), you won't feel like your day's been wasted

And Here is Why

My earliest memories of the movies don't take place in a drive-in or a crowded theater.  They're not filled with lightsabers and light-cycles, they don't have explosions, stereo sound, or even color.

My earliest memories of the movies all start with a small, brown, corduroy pillow just a little larger than my head.  If I close my eyes and focus I can still smell the combination of dust and sweat that does more to remind me of my childhood than photographs I can't recall being taken, than toys I can't remember playing with.

We lived in a raised ranch in upstate New York, which means the lower level of the house was partially underground.  It was split between my bedroom, the laundry room and the den, where we had an enormous television built into a cabinet that never worked except as a make-believe computer for me when I was pretending to be an astronaut or a scientist.  Its other function was to hold up the smaller television that actually worked.  And it was that television, and that pillow, nestled up against my father in the darkness of the den, that I recall my earliest memories of movies.

My father wasn't around very much during my childhood. His job required a lot of travel, and when he was back in town he tended to hang out at the local bar more than the house. But when he was around, there was little he liked doing more than settling down in the dark of the den and watch movies. We watched everything, my father P.T. Barnum, masterminding my exposure to all of his (and consequently) my heroes.  The curtains would part, and with a wave of his whip (or beercan in this case), we both became the same age, reveling to the exploits of Bogart (our favorite), Wayne, Flynn, and Grant. I fell in love with the cool cynicism of Sam Spade, the "true grit" of Rooster Cogburn, the merriment of Robin Hood, and the suave sophistication that was the trademark of so many of Cary Grant's characters.

But more than the larger than life characters and witty rejoinders, it was the shine in my father's eyes as he watched the screen, explaining to his nine year old son who everyone was, what was going on. And all the while I soaked this in, I nestled my head in that brown pillow, that tiny pillow that was always at my father's side.

Last week after a short and sudden illness my father died. I flew to Florida to see him and say my goodbyes.  When I got to the hospital they told me he couldn't really respond to me other than with some twitches in his fingers, but that he could hear me.  For reasons which in retrospect seem monumentally stupid I hadn't seen or spoken to my father in about two years, and the time I had to say goodbye, to say all the things that should have been said but weren't, was simply too short.  But I did the best I could, and one of the last things we talked about, or I talked about, was the movies I grew up loving because of him, and how it won't be the same seeing anything now.

Over the years my taste in films have been informed, expanded, and enlightened my many sources, some of which I'll point out in the next few weeks.  But none had even a tenth of the impact my father had on me, and now that he's gone it's almost painful to sit in front of a screen and feel the light on my face, my head falling back onto a small brown pillow that's no longer there.

Greeting 2010, and the Binder Challenge

Yeah so, um, I've been away from this site for a while.

I could list off a hundred different reasons, but the biggest was the constant indecision as to where to spend the majority of my time - over at my personal blog or here. In the end I kind of chose neither, and the last few months have been quite nice, as I shrugged off the self-imposed responsibility of writing and focused on the holidays, my family, my (new) job, and just reading and watching for the sheer joy of doing it, as opposed to having to don the "critical cap" every time I sat down to see something, not to mention the hassle of always carrying a notebook to theaters or pausing a DVD to jot down one thought or another.

I HAVE seen a bunch of films new and old, and even more, have collected a bunch of films new and old. This poses somewhat of a problem for me.

I know: "No shit, Dr. Jones," those of you that know me are mouthing to your monitors right now. "You have a lot of problems. That's why we tend to stay at least 50 yards away from you and carry pepper spray."

Ha ha...thanks. Now stop talking to your monitors and let's get back to the one I'm talking about.

I've talked before about the slowly growing pile of unwatched DVDs I have at the house. Despite being near a library, despite access to thousands of films online and a Netflix subscription since 2001, I can't help the impulse to actually go to a store and buy a film. New movies, old movies...a double-dip or two when a Special or Limited edition comes out...it's an addiction. And it's only gotten worse since I got a Blu-Ray player over Christmas. To save space I started buying thick leather binders and getting rid of all the plastic, space-wasting cases.

Unfortunately now I have a massive pile of thick leather binders taking up even more space than the plastic cases were.

I've got to do something about it. I've been thinking a lot about the lack of writing on the site, and about the fact that I'm wasting more money that I should feel comfortable with, especially when most of it's going to something that just sits there like a lump, unwatched and unloved. So I'm setting myself a challenge that should take care of my spending, my lack of content here on Celluloid Moon, and that ominous stack of binders glowering at me in the corner of our den. Thus is born the Binder Challenge:

1. Starting today, I will go through each binder and watch every unwatched film in the order they appear in the binder (the binders have zero order or structure to them).
2. After watching each film, I'll do some kind of write-up on Celluloid Moon (or Geek Monkey, but I'll cross-post if that's the case). More often than not this will take the form of a review, except when it doesn't.
3. When I'm finished with a one binder I'll move on to the next one (*duh*)

Pretty simple, right? Here are the two conditions:

1. Every single film needs a write-up; I can't watch another movie until I've written up the one I've just watched.
2. I cannot purchase another film until all the films in the binders have been watched.

There. Nice, structured...I'll force myself to save money, see a lot of films that have been neglected for far too long, and I'll be writing a lot more on the site. It occurs to me that if these are my biggest problems, life must be pretty good. And it is. I don't mean to belittle all the other things that are going on, both in the world at large and in my own personal existence. But my hope (glancing as it may be) is that doing something like this will allow me to express some things that have been, for whatever reason, reluctant to come out. Movies - perhaps even more than books - have always been a defining force in my life, and this might provide some sort of outlet for what I want to express.

If nothing else, you'll get a nice look at the type of movies that interest me. So here's to the start of a new journey, one that will echo other paths I'm taking in my life. Hope you hang in there with me and comment, share, predict, agree, argue...whatever your fancy.

Strange Comforts

It's odd how things work out.

I knew I was going to be a few days late getting to Hail Horror 4; my business trip to Texas turned out to be a lot more draining than I thought, and every day I was home turned into something that needed to be addressed with the family, whether it was my wife's grandmother's 90th birthday party, my son's first day of nursery school, and a lot of prep work for a job I'm currently pursuing that's far outside the type of work I do now. Nevertheless, I was finally at a place where I was ready to go, I had in fact ditched the first movie I saw (Werner Herzog's remake of NOSFERATU, which I liked but couldn't generate enough of a reaction to write about) and settled on another to kick things off.

When I got the call from my brother, who lives down in Florida a few minutes away from my father, he explained that my father was in the hospital. In the middle of the night he suffered a mild heart attack. He thought nothing of it, and went back to bed. He had his second a few hours later and, rather than do the smart thing and wake his wife, or call 9-1-1, he decided to drive himself to the airport.

Leaving his car he collapsed in the parking lot, his third heart attack in 12 hours. The hospital staff found him and rushed him into the emergency room.

That was Monday. Now it's Wednesday, and things are the same. He flat-lined yesterday, and was resuscitated. Today they're going in to see what's going on. And I've had a little time to come to grips with what's going on, and the weird thing I found myself going to the stack of horror movies sitting on top of the television cabinet.

This isn't the first time I've found horror to be a comfort. When my wife was pregnant with our son, she went into labor eight weeks early, and was forced to stay in the hospital for four weeks. It was early May outside, the sun shining through the growing buds on the trees, but inside it was FRIDAY THE 13TH, HALLOWEEN, and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET.

Maybe the real draw of horror is that at times we're compelled to wipe away the pain and terror in our lives, and one way to do that is to expose ourselves to something even more gruesome and terrifying. Maybe it's a chance to escape, to see someone handle the unknown and unexplainable so that we can better cope with our own hurdles.

At any rate, it looks like the first entry will be up tonight, with more to come by week's end.

Prepare For...Hail Horror Year 4!

The skies are beginning to darken, and the fog has settled on the ground. Everything is colder, shades of black and red, and what light there is comes not from the sun, but from eyes that burn with an unnatural glow behind every tree, eyes that look up between the clouds to a moon whose full face betrays a howling laughter as it see what's creeping up behind you...

HAIL HORROR YEAR 4!

That's right, October's a few weeks away, which means I'm diving back into the horror pool, watching dozens of horror films both old and new, and failing (as is now Hail Horror Tradition) to review at least half of them. Last year I finally came to the conclusion that any goal I was going to set for myself simply wasn't going to happen - and that realization freed me to have a lot more fun during the month.

Funny thing about last year's marathon, though - it didn't get posted here.

So in order to set the tone and gets things ramped up for the slew of GOOD, BAD, and GREAT titles I have lined up to talk about this year, I'll be posting last year's reviews every couple days. To take a line from NBC's great re-run marketing strategy, "If you haven't read 'em...they're new to you!"

And as always, if you have any requests, let me know! I'm always on the lookout for a great recommendation. Two guidelines:

1. It can't be a movie I've already reviewed.
2. It has to be readily available - either at the local theater, store, rental house, or Netflix. I'm not adverse to spending a few bucks to see, rent, or purchase a film, but I'm not going to shell out $39.99 for an obscure Asian import with no subtitles.

For those curious, here's where we left off after the first two three years (click the title to read ):

THE SHINING / MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN / BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA / C.H.U.D. / HATCHET / RE-CYCLE / DANCE OF THE DEAD / THE SIGNAL / KAIRO / PHENOMENA / THE HOWLING / NOSFERATU (1922) / PHANTASM / THE HAPPENING / [REC] / THE WOODS / DIARY OF THE DEAD / THE MONSTER SQUAD / FROM BEYOND / RE-VISTING PLANET TERROR / THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974) / MAD LOVE / 28 WEEKS LATER / SUBLIME / RE-VISTING DEATH PROOF / NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1990) / DEAD SILENCE / SEVERANCE / RESIDENT EVIL 3: EXTINCTION / SCANNERS / THE DESCENT / GRINDHOUSE / THE EVIL DEAD / BROKEN LIZARD'S CLUB DREAD / THE MASK OF FU MANCHU / RINGU / FEAST / HALLOWEEN (1978) / HELLRAISER / A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET / DEAD AND BREAKFAST / FRIDAY THE 13TH / THE HILLS HAVE EYES (2005) / DAY OF THE DEAD / CAT PEOPLE (1942) / HOUSE OF WAX

This Must be an Alternate Dimension...

...How else to explain the fact that I was named-checked by Carrie Rickey, film critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, in the same sentence as Glenn Kenny, an amazing writer and film critic, and someone I've been reading for years?

I'm sure there are a lot of reasons why my name was listed that have nothing to do with my skills (or lack thereof) as a writer: my submission was posted early on in the blog-a-thon, I was the only one who wrote a negative review of a Brian De Palma film, I have a short name that's easy to spell...

You know what? Doesn't matter...I'm pleased as punch, both to have my name listed in the article, but more importantly to have been part of such a great series of articles for Cinema Viewfinder's Brian De Palma Blog-a-thon. Special shout of thank to Tony, whose name should really have been up there.

De Palma Blog-a-thon is ON!

Tony over at Cinema Viewfinder officially launched his De Palma Blog-a-thon. There are two great articles up already, one exploring the De Palma oeuvre and one focusing in on RAISING CAIN. I have one piece submitted (on MISSION TO MARS) which should rear its head in the next couple of days, and there's a possibility I may jump in with a second piece (on BLOW OUT), time permitting. All great stuff - check it out.

"Basterds" Mania & the Old Film Preference

Everywhere you look the reviews, discussions, and images are flowing in for Quentin Tarantino's latest opus, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS. I have every intention of checking out the film Friday when it opens, and hopefully will write about here, too.

But that's in no way a given.

It's not that I don't expect to like INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS. On the contrary, I'll probably love it. But for whatever reason - maybe it's the copious amounts of great reviews out there, maybe it's my own innate laziness - I've had little to no desire to write up any of the new films I've seen in the past few weeks.

A lot of it comes from discussions already had - the other day I had what would have constituted an hour's worth of conversation with a friend who disagreed with me concerning DISTRICT 9 (he loved it, I thought it was good but missed out on being great). I loved FUNNY PEOPLE, UP, and THE HURT LOCKER, and really enjoyed STAR TREK, but didn't really feel like I had anything to contribute to the conversations already taking place all over the Internet - I was happy to sit back and read it all, seeing what jibed with my thoughts, what didn't, and what was noticed that I missed from my own viewing.

(truth be told, I had started a review of DISTRICT 9, but lost it and didn't feel too much like recreating it)

But another reason, and this brings to to the second part of the post title, is that one of the things I love about movies is the sense of personal discovery - the finding of a treasure years after its discovery by everyone else. That, coupled with my natural "push-back" attitude whenever someone tells me I HAVE to like such-and-such because it's genius and I can't call myself a movie geek or other nonsense unless I've met the criteria of seeing this film or that film. That might be one of the reasons it took me so long to see RAGING BULL or why, to this day, I own but have yet to watch DO THE RIGHT THING. I don't doubt their genius (I was blown out of my chair (figuratively speaking since I was in bed) when I saw RAGING BULL finally last year), but I have my own timetable for discovering things, and my own mind to make up when I do.

So when it comes to the full-blown reviews, I'll most likely keep at my growing stack of DVDs, with some briefer comments about the newer films, unless one happens to get at me so much I'm forced to throw my two cents in.

New Look!! New Dedication?

Hi! Sorry for the lack of love over here - I've been spending a lot of time over at Geek Monkey, and the movie stuff I've been posting was getting lost in the shuffle between there and here. So I decided to make some changes, as you can see by the new look of the site.

Over the next few weeks this site will be seeing a lot more content, as I plow through the massive stack of Criterion DVDs purchased during what will be known throughout history as "the day Barnes & Noble lost their minds and gave us two weeks of 50% off all Criterion discs." You can see the front seat of my car after the first day's excursion:

I also have some articles coming, my entry for the Brian de Palma Blog-A-Thon for Cinema Viewfinder, and other assorted goodies. All this to stay: if you've visited the site and despaired for lack of content, be strong! Have hope! We're coming back!!

Thanks!

Back to the Drawing Board

Way back in February I wrote a post called "Filling in the Blind Spots" that you can read it in its entirety here, but the following excerpt pretty much tells the story:

I mentioned in my first post that I had two over-arching goals:

1. Improve my overall writing with regards to film criticism
2. Expand the breadth and scope of the films I see... and try my damnedest to erase the enormous stockpile of DVDs I have lying around the house.

Embedded in the second item is catching up on those movies that seem to be required viewing for anyone who wants to claim to be a "cinephile" or even a "film buff" in like company. The problem is I've always been pretty resistant to people pushing stuff on me, especially when it comes with the tag of:

"You're not a real ________ unless you've seen ________."

(fill in your preferred term/film)

Time to "Man up" and admit it: There's a gaping hole in my film vocabulary that can't be completely explained away by things like scarcity or disinterest. I've been plugging those holes a few at a time, usually late at night so as to not cause a stir in the hen house that is my circle of friends/acquaintances I can discuss movies with. But in the interest of full disclosure I think I'll turn my education process into a monthly (to start) feature here at Celluloid Moon. Every month I'll take one movie and go into a little more detail than the general reviews that are posted, and talk about the film's impact both on the world of cinema and me personally.

And of course I left it at that.

Oh, I watched a lot of film. Even had a small schedule of which films I wanted to hit, beginning with RAGING BULL, a particular sore spot considering how much I revere Martin Scorsese as both a director and a film historian. Watched it, let a couple of days pass, and forgot about it.

In April I picked up the Criterion edition of Spike Lee's DO THE RIGHT THING, meaning for that to be the second in the series. Still haven't watched it.

Things were looking pretty grim. I was watching movies, sure, but the desire to really watch them, pick them apart and see what makes them tick couldn't have been further away. Maybe it didn't help that most of what I was watching was on a similar level to TERMINATOR SALVATION, but this wasn't something I could lay at the feet of Christian Bale.

A few weeks ago, however, a biography of 70s film icon Hal Ashby came out. Ashby was a director I knew nothing about. I had heard his name before, and years ago I had seen THE LAST DETAIL during a Jack Nicholson marathon, but his filmography and influence as a whole had escaped me. It didn't escape the people I read, though: everywhere there was talk about the incredible run of films he had in the 70s, topped only by his downfall and early death in the 80s. The more I got to reading, the more surprised I was that I was so unfamiliar with any of his films.

So, to kick things off again, I'm starting with a look at some of his films, beginning with the cult classic HAROLD AND MAUDE, moving to BOUND FOR GLORY and finally settling on a film I have been meaning to see for years, BEING THERE.

When that's done I'll circle around back to RAGING BULL and finally get to DO THE RIGHT THING. In the meantime, to keep my chops up I'm going back to writing short, quickie reviews for everything I watch in between. Don't know if I'll post everything over at Celluloid Moon and refer to it here or go hog wild and post it everywhere, but hopefully this time the 2009 movie goal will stick.

As they pop up feel free to leave your thoughts, agreements, disagreements, or suggestions for films I can see to "shore up the cracks" so to speak.

Does It Hold Up?

During the course of the weekend the conversation steered itself in such a direction that my wife admitted with a reluctant smile that she had, in fact, never seen THE BIG LEBOWSKI.

“Never seen it? But it’s brilliant! Hysterical!” My eyes widened with each exclamation of greatness. “We must rectify the situation immediately!”

She settled into her preferred corner of the couch as I went about opening the various leather albums we’ve been transferring our DVDs into in an effort to save space. I flipped through the pages and considered something I hadn’t though of when I previously combusted with enthusiasm at the thought of introducing her to THE BIG LEBOWSKI:

Was it really as good as I remembered it?

I originally saw it in the theater, its viewing remarkable because it was the first time I recalled taking my younger brother along with my friends. He loved it, and it cemented now long-standing ritual of checking out at least one movie every time we get together. Past that, I maybe saw the film in its entirety once more when I bought original DVD, and some snippets here and there on cable.

I needn’t have worried; if anything THE BIG LEBOWSKI got even better 11 years later. Particularly John Goodman’s performance. I’m sure it was always there, but watching this time I was able to catch a lot of the cracks in his hardcore shell: the wincing pain when his ex-wife comes up, the flare-ups at poor Donny (a wonderfully understated Steve Buscemi) that mask deeper insecurities. If Jeff Bridges’ “Dude” is the unwavering constant, then Goodman’s Walter is the journeyman in the film: the close on him hugging the Dude after Donny’s ashes are haphazardly flung into the ocean (and the Dude’s face) is hilarious and poignant, we feel Walter may have turned a corner in his life, even as “the Dude abides,” as Sam Elliot points out in the final scene.

The point is, the damn thing not only held up, but improved in my eyes years later.

Over the next few days, I started thinking about other films I loved upon initial viewing but haven’t seen in years…would they hold up to scrutiny? And is the opposite true - would films I didn’t like age like a fine cheese with the appropriate distance? I’m guessing the latter is probably more true than not: there are a lot of films that take time, knowledge, and experience to appreciate. L’AVVENTURA is up front in the list of films I just didn’t enjoy or “get” the first time around. Admittedly it’s been well over a dozen years since I tried, those years filled with a lot more amateur experience in watching and writing about movies. So maybe next time it’ll work out, who know?

If there’s a question anywhere in this post, I suppose it’s this: what films out there did you love, only to find out it wasn’t the film you remember upon seeing it again? Conversely, what films got better with time, not only moving up in an already favorable estimation, but actually changing your mind about it?

Back and Tweaking

You know what I realized?

I really have no desire to log and review every single film I see.

There. It's out there now. I feel better for having admitting it. And it's not because I didn't see any good films - sometimes the best reviews come from the ones you didn't like. It's a combination of things: films had taken a bit of a back-seat after WATCHMEN, making room for some family things and some hobbies long-neglected but recently taken back up. Films are still wonderful, but the rush to have a review up for every single thing I've watched plus articles and essays about film-related matter didn't give me the time to really focus on improving my film writing, which was one of the main goals in breaking out and creating this site.

So there's going to be some adjustments - the main one being the reviews. There will be fewer, but hopefully they'll begin to take a more definite shape. Additionally, the chances of the reviewed film being new or current releases is going to be slim - I'm just not getting out there as much as I want to, and I have a slew of DVDs that frankly are more interesting to me right now than whatever happens to be playing in the local mainstream theaters (except for OBSERVE AND REPORT, which has me very interested).

The look of the site will change as well - I'm not happy with the bleak, grey look - so we'll see what we can do about that as well.

In the meantime, check out some of the great writing going on from the list on the right side of this site. One and all they're all worthy of your time. I'll be back soon with a review of Dario Argento's "lost" giallo FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET.

Oscar Pre-Game, and a Revised Top 10

The awards start in a few hours, Swedish death/punk metal band Entombed is playing in my headphones, and instead of finally sitting down and watching THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON I'm here writing this up. Because, frankly, I'm tired of the catch-up, the drive to sit through BUTTON has pretty much evaporated. I'm sure I'll catch up with it in the next few weeks, but for now I'm content with being a few movies short.

Before getting to my revised list, here are my lame-o predictions, for what they're worth (you can see how I did last year over here):

Best Actor: For weeks the odds have been on either Mickey Rourke or Sean Penn, with the difference being who gets Best Picture. The thinking is if SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE trounces like everything believes, then Penn will get best actor to make up for MILK's losses. I have no idea if this kind of thinking goes into the decisioning, but for my money Rourke was galvanizing in THE WRESTLER, and deserves the award. Will not being nominated for anything else hurt it? Who knows.

Best Supporting Actor: I don't see how anyone has a chance against Heath Ledger this year. They're already re-writing the rule so that his daughter can have the statue held in trust until she's 18. His Joker was without a doubt the highlight of THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, and I think all the other (supposed) snubs the film's received will make this a shoo-in. All that being said, how frickin' great was Robert Downey jr. in TROPIC THUNDER? And how frickin' cool to be recognized for it? My heart goes out, though, to James Franco who was equally amazing in PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, but get no nod here. One day the Academy will wise up to the acting intricacies of comedy. But this year just be glad a comic book character is getting the award.

Best Actress: I think they give it to Kate Winslet, even though my worship of her beauty didn't blind me to the fact that THE READER was merely an okay movie that didn't offer anything special in its execution. In a perfect world? Michelle Williams would have been nominated for the incredible WENDY AND LUCY, and we'd be seeing either her or Anne Hathaway up at the podium tonight. Nice to see Melissa Leo get a nod for FROZEN RIVER, but who are we fooling with the Angelina Jolie nomination? The old fashioned acting apparent in CHANGELING doesn't hold up with the rest of the nominated company.

Best Supporting Actress: Always a hard category, and I'd be happy with Viola Davis or Penelope Cruz - both are so draw-dropping you can't take your eyes off of them in their all-too-brief performances in DOUBT and VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA, respectively. I did love Marisa Tomei in THE WRESTLER, but I think her role as Pam/Cassidy didn't turn the movie on its head the way the other two performances did.

Best Director: Is this where the SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE train starts a-rollin'? I don't have nearly the ill will for this movie that a lot of others seem to. And Danny Boyle may have a flashy, LCD visual style in many of his films, but I think he uses every trick to propel the story forward. Not having seen BUTTON I can't comment on David Fincher's further (wonderful) Kubrickain spiral, but he and Gus Van Sant seem to be the only other contenders here. This may be the rare year where we see a different Director and Best Picture win.

Best Picture: The money seems to be on SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, and I'd be hard pressed to go against it. Out of the nominated films, I was most affected by MILK, and I would love to see that get the win. But I wouldn't be overly upset at a SLUMDOG win: to be honest I'm more upset at a film like THE READER taking a slot where (IMHO) a more deserving film like DOUBT or IN BRUGES could have been placed. FROST / NIXON was really good, but over time seems to have faded as more and more better movies kept jumping up in its place. And although I had plenty of reservations about THE DARK KNIGHT as a "perfect" film, it's record numbers (not something I'd normally consider as indicative of quality) and generally high praise does seem conspicuously absent this year.

A few others, sans the pithy comments:

• Best Screenplay (Original): WALL-E or MILK, although I wish it would go to IN BRUGES
• Best Screenplay (Adapted): DOUBT, though it will probably go to either MILK or SLUMDOG
• Best Music - Original Song: "O Saya" By A.R. Rahman and M.I.A., although I think there was a real snub in not nominating either "Dracula's Lament" or "Inside Of You" from FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL
  
• Best Music - Original Score: WALL-E

And now, without any comments (hooray) after watching about another 20 films from 2008 after the initial was made (you can see that here), here is my new Top 10 for 2008, in no real discernible order:

1. MILK
2. IN BRUGES
3. DOUBT
4. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
5. WALL-E
6. THE WRESTLER
7. IRON MAN
8. THE FALL
9. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
10. PINEAPPLE EXPRESS/FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL
    

Filling in the Blind Spots

We've all got 'em: those skeletons in the the cinephile's closet (and using the term cinephile makes me feel more than a little unsavory), those teeny little films we keep meaning to get to, but never do.

Things like GONE WITH THE WIND, which I didn't see until just a few years ago. You know, the obscure films.

I was thinking about that after reading Drew McWeeny's ruminations concerning the purpose of his blog over at Motion / Captured at HitFlix (for those not in the know, Drew was the great Moriarty over at Ain't It Cool News until he left for brighter waters). A couple of his thoughts seemed to dove-tail nicely into my own thoughts about how I want this blog to evolve. I mentioned in my first post that I had two over-arching goals:

1. Improve my overall writing with regards to film criticism.
2. Expand the breadth and scope of the films I see. I made a promise that for 2009 I would make every attempt to see as broad a range of films as possible, and try my damnedest to erase the enormous stockpile of DVDs I have lying around the house.

Embedded in the second item is catching up on those movies that seem to be required viewing for anyone who wants to claim to be a "cinephile" or even a "film buff" in like company. The problem is I've always been pretty resistant to people pushing stuff on me, especially when it comes with the tag of:

"You're not a real ________ unless you've seen ________."

(fill in your preferred term/film)

Time to "Man up" and admit it: There's a gaping hole in my film vocabulary that can't be completely explained away by things like scarcity or disinterest. I've been plugging those holes a few at a time, usually late at night so as to not cause a stir in the hen house that is my circle of friends/acquaintances I can discuss movies with. But in the interest of full disclosure I think I'll turn my education process into a monthly (to start) feature here at Celluloid Moon. Every month I'll take one movie and go into a little more detail than the general reviews that are posted, and talk about the film's impact both on the world of cinema and me personally.

Which, all things considered, is probably what every review should be like.

Looking back in January I think Jean-Luc Godard's BREATHLESS certainly fits the bill if not the overall format. I've already picked this month's choice, and I just wanted to add before you pass out at the fact that it's positively outrageous that I've never seen this, that if you have any suggestions or recommendations you'd like to see on this blog, whether it's a film to review or a discussion related however tangentially to film, let me know.

Okay. Enough procrastinating. This month's film: RAGING BULL

Re-Evaluating 2008

Before I officially started this blog, I was posting all of my film-related items over on Geek Monkey, my general purpose little corner of the Interwebs. I posted two articles near the end of the year: my (Almost) and (Actual) Top 10 Movies of 2008. Now, I realize I don't yet have the cultivation or experience of many of the online critics (you probably won't hear me bemoan the lack of MY WINNIPEG on lists, because I haven't seen it, and that's not even considered much of an obscure film), but I feel pretty happy about what I pick, and won't back down on liking something because the critical consensus is against it.

However, the past month I've been trying to catch up on all films I've missed (a substantial amount), and it looks like the Top 10 list is going to have to be revised. For the record, here are my lists as they stood back at the end of the year.

The (Almost) Top Ten (crossed off films have subsequently been watched)

1. THE WRESTLER
2. DOUBT SHOTGUN STORIES
3. THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
4. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN GRAN TORINO
5. JCVD
6. VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA
7. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
8. MAN ON WIRE ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD
9. SYNECDOCHE, NY
10. A CHRISTMAS TALE

I have BENJAMIN BUTTON, SLUMDOG, and VICKY CHRISTINA at the house queued up and ready to go, which means that more films will hopefully be scratched out and replaced before the Independent Spirit Awards and the Oscars rear their head at month's end.

I'll save my final list for when I've satisfied myself that I've seen everything I can to make a proper evaluation, but for the record, here's the list as it stood back in December (nothing reviewed on this site had been seen at the time of the list). Explanations are in the original post:

The (Actual) Top Ten (in alphabetical order excepting the top)

1. WALL-E and MILK (tie)
2. THE DARK KNIGHT
3. THE FALL
4. FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL
5. FROST / NIXON
6. IN BRUGES
7. IRON MAN
8. THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES
9. THE VISITOR

I'm backlogged three movies right now (only one of which is nominated for anything), but hope to have at least a dozen more films up and ready to go by the time we hit the awards. I realize this may appear slightly incongruous coming shortly on the heels of my remarks concerning Oscar Ennui, but if the various lists and award shows are good for anything, they're certainly great chances to become more exposed to films and experiences I otherwise wouldn't.

Your Homework: Watch one film from anyone's Best Of List you normally wouldn't have seen. What did you think?

Short and Punchy

That's the tract I'm trying to take with the next batch of reviews, of which there are several. I really want to keep the majority of these short and to the point, with the rule of one poster of DVD cover image and one larger image at the end of the review, unless it's something (like I did with BREATHLESS) where I purposefully want to take a deeper view.

Also: the essay about the Oscar nominations is long, rambling, and seems to change direction. I know: I originally had something entirely different there that was about 4,000 words, which was way too long. I ripped out huge chunks of it, added new stuff actually related to the nominations, and that's why the piece feels rudderless and largely devoid of any style. I'm probably going to clean it up in the next few days when I have some time.

In the meantime,distract yourself with some of fine writing courtesy of the people listed over to the right. Great stuff.

Oscar Ennui

It wouldn't be much of a film blog if I didn't take a moment to talk about today's announcement of the Academy Award nominations.

In a word...meh.

Okay...that was the short version. Allow me to elaborate.

Was anyone really that surprised by what was nominated? Did you really think THE DARK KNIGHT had a chance? Understand: I really liked it a lot, but it wasn't a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination, and how could it have possibly stood up against the lure of the obvious Oscar bait that came out on late November and December?

To be honest I'm more bored than anything else. When the nominations were announced there was very little in the way of genuine surprise. On the good side Richard Jenkins and Robert Downey jr. both got nominations for outstanding work, but nothing for Michelle Williams in WENDY AND LUCY or anything for HAPPY-GO-LUCKY. Hooray for a screenwriting nod to IN BRUGES, but sadly the Coen Brothers get shut out. For every cheer there's a roar of rage.

But wait a minute. Isn't this how it's always been?

When I was younger it was a point of pride that I would quietly tip-toe out to the den in the early morning to sit in the blue glow of my television set, pad and paper in hand, an orange juice or coffee (when I was older) within easy reach, eagerly awaiting the nominations. Every announcement was a cause for celebration or dismissal, and if nothing it was a chance to argue endlessly with friends over what got left out, what would win and what should win.

Maybe a part of this was attributable to my youthful innocence and fairly narrow scope of film. Unless it was at my local multiplex or Blockbuster the chance I would be aware of many smaller or (God forbid) foreign films was practically nonexistent. I was content with what was presented to me as the cream of the crop, the choicest morsels in cinema.

But then this thing called "the Internet" happened. Lines of communication effectively shrunk the physical planet almost as fast as it expanded the film world I had previously taken for granted. Not only did I begin to hear about films of every size from every corner of the world, but for the first time it was becoming economically feasible to actually see them. And not only see them, but find others who also saw it, and talk to them about it. The workload doubled: not only was I compelled to partake of this celluloid cornucopia, but I had to wade through the limitless sea of opinion that accompanied it.

I had been steadily expanding my film palette for a few years, and I began to realize how that, as large as the world of film was, even domestic film, the platter from which the Oscar nominations were derived was of an equally impressive if opposite size.

Does this mean that the nominated films are bad? Or that the choices are completely at odds with what should be awarded? Not necessarily, and despite my utter lack of interest anymore that the Academy will reach out a little further and 1) embrace a wider range of films, and 2) acknowledge that there is no set "type" of film worthy of recognition, I'm still interested in all the nominated films. So far I've see three of the Best Picture films (MILK, FROST/NIXON and THE READER), and this weekend hope to catch a few more movies that have been nominated.

I love movies - big, small...the deal I made when I was a child still stood. Amaze me, make me feel, don't cheat me and I'm yours.

That's all I ask. So let's leave the ire and rancor that this or that wasn't nominated and just do that much more to see the things that are worth seeing.