Two PBS shows, and one non-PBS show

IFL Battleground -- 3/10

This show sucks. At least during the first week, it had a train-wreck-quality to it. This week was technically better, I suppose, but none of the fights were all that good (I tuned out after the first hour) and I didn't care what happened at all. Also, their controversy sucks... he clearly didn't tap out. They were just highlighting the fact that their referees suck.

Hijacked! -- 8/10

This was a really good documentary about the first Palestinian hijackings. If you get 4 different PBS stations like I do here in Rochester, you should try to catch one of the showings... They replay things constantly.

Through Deaf Eyes -- x/10

This, on the other hand, was horrible. I turned away after 30 minutes and I was sorry that it took me that long. I can summarize this in 6 words: 'Deaf people are real people too.' Wow. I never knew that. I thought that they led empty, shallow, non-fulfilling lives, spending all of their time wishing that they had hearing. Man, am I a moron.

Becky Connor's Blog

The first actress who played Becky on Roseanne, Alicia Goranson, has a blog. Between the actually-pretty-good poetry to the strange schizophrenic arguments with herself, it is pretty fascinating. It's a shame that she hasn't posted in 6 months or so.

Classics II

Irreversible - 92 (Gasper Noë, 2002)

This film literally made my girlfriend sick. The form, not the content. It is still the last great movie that I have seen.

The Princess Bride - no rating (Carl Reiner, 1986?)

I saw too much of this over the years on TV and such, so I am not going to try and rate it. I cannot believe that no one seeing this film didn't try to put a film together starring Wallace Shawn and Andre The Giant as mismatched cops or something. They are hilarious together, and Andre really couldn't wrestle anymore by that point anyway.

My Oscar predictions, or I miss Alex Fung.

In no particular order:

Visual Effects- POTC: Dead Man's Chest
Sound Editing- POTC: Dead Man's Chest
Sound Mixing- Dreamgirls

The pirate film may take all 3 of these, but I think that, having had the good taste not to nominate Dreamgirls for best picture, the academy will make it up to them by giving them Sound Mixing.

Makeup- Pan's Labyrinth
Art Direction- Pan's Labyrinth
Costume Design- The Curse Of The Golden Flower

I don't really know anyone who liked Marie Antoinette, and the other costume nominees don't have much of a chance, so really, The Curse wins almost by default.

Song- "Listen" - Dreamgirls
Score- Pan's Labyrinth

These are total guesses.

Animated Short- Lifted
Live Action Short- Éramos Pocos
Documentary Short- The Blood Of Yingzhou District

There is a lot of wishful thinking in my picks this year, and it starts in the Live Action Short category. I picked Documentary Short just based on the title.

Adapted Screenplay- The Departed
Original Screenplay- Little Miss Sunshine

Or maybe Borat and Pan's Labyrinth. It is easy to narrow down these and each of the rest of the categories to two nominees.

Supporting Actor- Alan Arkin
Supporting Actress- Jennifer Hudson

My theory is that the voters have been inundated with ads for Norbit, and they will say to themselves, "We're voting for THIS guy?????" and then change their votes. Sadly, neither of those performances were any good. If Jennifer Hudson doesn't win, I would guess that Abigail Breslin will take it. It wouldn't make any sense, but neither did her nomination.

Editing- The Departed
Cinematography- Children Of Men

If Babel wins editing, then it will also win best picture, and film lovers everywhere will cry. The nominees for cinematography are really depressing... All 5 movies were of no interest to me at all, although The Prestige turned out to be pretty good.

Animated- Cars
Documentary- An Inconvenient Truth
Foreign Language- Pan's Labyrinth

Cars is more wishful thinking. I'm just completely sick of penguins. Deliver Us From Evil has a very good chance, as it is anti-Catholic. The Lives Of Others would be the other choice for Foreign Film, but there have been some odd choices in that category in the past.

Actor- Forest Whitaker
Actress- Helen Mirren

Obviously, the other choice for Actor would be Peter O'Toole. If Helen Mirren gets disqualified for steroid use or something, then my surprise pick for actress would be Kate Winslet. Why? 1) She's the only viable young candidate. 2) She has been nominated many times before without winning. 3) I just like her more than the others. Wishful thinking, remember.

Director- Martin Scorsese
Picture- The Departed

Part of me would like to see Clint Eastwood win again, just so I can listen to everyone's OUTRAGE at how horrible the Oscars are. Best Picture is a mess. Only The Queen has no chance of winning. Both these categories are wishful thinking for me again, as after Crash last year, I have no confidence in the academy picking the film that is clearly head and shoulders above the other nominees.

Wish me luck!

Animated Oscar Shorts

The Danish Poet - 72 (Torill Kove, Canada/Norway)

This was warm and touching and pretty wonderful. And as an added bonus, the narration is by Liv Ullman. 72 may be a little bit low. Chance Of Winning: 33%

Lifted - no rating (Gary Rydstrom)

Pixar would not allow this to be shown with the other short films. Boo! Chance Of Winning: 33%

The Little Matchgirl - 40 (Roger Allers and Don Hahn)

If you know the story, then you know what happens. Nothing special at all. And Disney people will vote for Lifted, so Chance Of Winning: 0%

Maestro - 49 (Geza M. Toth, Hungary)

This was mostly very boring, but the ending pretty well brought the house down. I think that they were just happy that something finally happened.

No Time For Nuts - 52 (Chris Renaud and Michael Thurmeier)

My least favorite parts of Ice Age were the parts with the stupid squirrel, so of course, I have been tortured with short after short featuring that damn thing. This was probably the best one of those, but that isn't saying much. The title sucks. Chance Of Winning: 33%

SPECIAL UPDATE:
OK, I have now seen both EW and that dweeb Tom O'Neil have picked The Little Matchgirl. I don't see how that could happen, but they have watched them too and have somehow come to that conclusion. So maybe it has more than a 0% chance of winning.


Coming Soon:
Classics II
My Oscar Predictions

Live Action Oscar Shorts

Binta Y La Gran Idea - 15 (Javier Fesser and Luis Manso, Spain/Senegal)

This was absolute crap. I don't know how to begin to explain how this got nominated. Perhaps being a film about African peoples is enough, but this was extremely poorly done, and maybe even a little bit borderline racist. Chance Of Winning: 32%

Éramos Pocos - 68 (Borja Cobeaga, Spain)

Is Kaurismäki-ish a word? Alright, I have only seen one film by him, but this reminded of it quite a bit. Even better, my girlfriend liked this too, so I think it actually has a real shot at winning. Chance Of Winning: 42%

Helmer & Son - 55 (Soren Pilmark and Kim Magnusson, Denmark)

This was OK. A little sitcom-y, but decent enough. A nice of amount of elderly nudity, too! Chance Of Winning: 10%

The Saviour - 59 (Peter Templeman and Stuart Parkyn, Australia)

Another good one, but I don't think that it stands any chance at all. I think that, if fleshed out, it would make the best feature length film. Chance Of Winning: 5%

West Bank Story - 47 (Ari Sandel)

A musical comedy about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They completely wasted this premise. And this music was horrific. But it was funny in a Miramax kind of way... Chance Of Winning: 10%

Hablo español. Y tu?

Volver - 64 (Pedro Almodóvar)

I took Spanish in high school, and could understand about 5% of the lines or so. Seriously, I spent some 5-6 years taking courses in Spanish (from good teachers, too) and my retention rate is pathetic.

Anyway, this was quite good. Although I thought Lola Dueñas was better than both Penélope Cruz and Carmen Maura, who seem to be getting all of the accolades. Why do I usually find unheralded performances to be more fascinating?

Babbling, or Let's Build A Tower

Babel - 39 (Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu)

This wasn't nearly as bad as I feared. However, it wasn't really any good either. Adrianna Barraza was quite good, but not really extraordinary or anything. As for the points that this movie was allegedly trying to make, I couldn't make heads or tails of them. I assume, judging from the title, that it was some tripe about having different languages making it harder for peoples to 'connect'. I didn't see anything in the movie that would suppport that theory though. Lots of unnecessary Local Color, too.

I suck

at predicting the Grammys now. I guess I underestimated the political aspects. I honestly don't care, but in 5 or 10 years it is going to look really stupid that The Dixie Chicks beat out Crazy for Record of the Year.

Highlights for me: Bob Dylan's wins, Donald Fagen's win (shouldn't Steely Dan or its members be the only ones that ever win Best Engineered Album?), Randy Newman's win... And I got the opera category again!

Grammy predictions

I used to be really good at these, but that power has seemed to fade over the past few years. So, I will only do the big 4 categories, and also the category which I have predicted 9 years in a row, despite never hearing the nominees.

Record of the Year -- Crazy by Gnarls Barkley

Album of the Year -- Continuum by John Mayer

Song of the Year -- You're Beautiful by James Blunt, Amanda Ghost, and Sacha Scarbeck

Those 3 seem to be the safest choices, but I wouldn't be surprised if The Dixie Chicks won one of them.

Best New Artist -- James Blunt

That is the one I am least sure of. I would be shocked if Imogen Heap won... Happy, but shocked. Any of the others have a chance.

Best Opera Recording -- Golijov: Ainadamar: Fountain Of Tears

I am going out on a limb with this one. Ordinarily, I would pick the Mozart, but... I don't know. This will probably be the year in which by streak ends.

3 too many song nominations

Dreamgirls - 42 (Bill Condon)

I have never seen more ham-fisted, heavy-handed direction. There is actually a shot, during a montage where one of the girl's singles is tanking, of the record being thrown in the trash. Just a one second shot, put in the movie just so that everyone in every theater, no matter how stupid they are, can figure out what is going on. Basically, this whole movie is just Bill Condon saying, "Subtext! Subtext!! Look at all my subtext!!." I'm surprised that he didn't just didn't put it into subtitles. The dialogue is partly ridiculous too... Worst line of the year, and this is the only appearance of the mom in the movie:

Girl's mom: "You make her sound like she is product."
Shady agent: "Product... I like that."

There are also way too many songs, and they all sound exactly the same. If you haven't figured out the reason that the Pat Boone parody is way too exaggeratedly white, it is because the original of the song is completely white. There is almost no soul to any of the music at all.

The only good thing about this were (some of) the performances. Eddie Murphy is great for the 50 seconds or so that he is allowed to act. Jaime Foxx is pretty good in a horrible role. When Jennifer Hudson is singing, she is a great actress, but the rest of the time Beyonce outshines her. And Hinton Battle is great, even though he has nothing at all to do.

Fuck!

Fuck!: A Documentary - 10 (Steve Anderson)

I agree with the basic premise, but this was completely incompetent. They tried to make everyone who disagreed with them look horrible by editing their interviews out of context. That didn't even completely work, because Alan Keyes always comes off more intelligent than everyone else no matter what, and Pat Boone was by far the funniest person in the movie, way funnier than the same old tired clips of George Carlin and Lenny Bruce. (By the way, George Carlin got so much better at stand-up as he got older.) This movie was constructed horribly, too. No flow at all. This is about to make me give up on local movies/directors, although my girlfriend wants to see Cherry Crush, which has somewhat known actors, but was made here. I will miss The Painted Vail, thankfully.

Uganda!

The Last King Of Scotland - 73 (Kevin MacDonald)

This was a lot better than I thought it would be. Forest Whitaker is good of course, but the best thing about this movie is Anthony Dod Mantle. I had forgotten that the Entebbe incident happened in Uganda.

Problems with the movie: The stupid title cards at the end, which I hate in almost every movie that they are in. Not only are they unnecessary and patronizing here, but they are incorrect. They state that all but one of the Israeli hostages was rescued. Actually, it was four: one was killed by the Israeli commandos, two were killed by Ugandan soldiers, and one (an old lady, who was taken to the hospital before the rescue) was killed under orders from Amin after the rest of the hostages were saved.

I am trying to find a place where I can rent General Idi Amin Dada, a movie that I have wanted to see for quite some time, but have failed so far.

Best Doc Nominee

Jesus Camp - no rating (Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady)

How dare these people pass try to pass on their beliefs to their children?! And how dare they vote for people who believe the same things that they do??!! Don't they know that the 'seperation of church and state' applies to your own private thoughts too?

Here is why no one should be worried about these 'endoctrinated' kids: They will become teenagers. Some of them will go to college. They will smoke pot. And get drunk. Some of them will be gay. They will all lead the normal lives that their non-endoctrinated brethern will lead. Seriously, how many people turn out to think exactly the same way that their parents do?

I gave no rating because I mentally abandoned this movie about 10 minutes in. I don't think I missed much, though.

Red hair = good odor.

Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer - 59 (Tom Tykwer)

Where was all the dark humor I was promised? Dustin Hoffman was not at his best here. I thought Alan Rickman was pretty good, though. There is not really all that much to say about this movie. It was just there.

Oscars!! Oh My God!! Oscars!!

Best Picture: 4/5. I thought that there was a good chance that Letters From Iwo Jima would get nominated, but I thought that The Queen would be the movie bumped, not Dreamgirls. Fine with me, though.

Best Director: 4/5. I figured that the Sunshine directors would not get a nom. And Bill Condon would have been next on my list to go, but I would have never expected Paul Greengrass. I thought maybe Almodovar.

Best Actor & Actress: I nailed these! 10/10. And animated film, too! 3/3

Supporting Actor: 4/5. I had picked Jack Nicholson for The Departed, instead of Mark Wahlberg for The Departed. He has no chance, but I am rooting for him, mainly because of I [heart] Huckabees.

Supporting Actress: 3/5. This was my worst category. My top 3 got nominated... Hudson, Blanchett, and Kikuchi. Then I picked Emily Blunt and Vanessa Redgrave, with Toni Collette as my first alternate. I think this may have been wishful thinking more than anything. It's bad enough that Ms. Breslin got nominated, but if she wins, I may just stop watching at that point.

Documentary: 4/5... I missed My Country, My Country. I figured since The Dixie Chicks are taking over the world, that they would get a nom.

Original Screenplay: 4/5. Pan's Labyrinth got the foreign film spot that I thought would go to Volver. (By the way, my interest in seeing Pan's Labyrinth has dropped to zero or less, based entirely on listening to Guillermo del Toro on Fresh Air earlier this week, where he used the words 'Freudian' and 'Jungian' to describe his film.)

Adapted Sceenplay: 3/5. How was I supposed to know that crap like Children Of Men would get nominated? I had picked The Devil Wears Prada and Thank You For Smoking, and I am glad that they didn't get nominated.

Foreign Film: Ouch! 2/5. Volver, Black Book, and Vitus did not get picked.

Classics

Boys Don't Cry - 97 or 93 (Kimberly Peirce, 1999)

-The last hour of this movie is almost perfect.

-When I saw this movie originally, I thought that Chloe Sevingy gave the best performance by far, but watching it again, Hilary Swank is also great.

- I did not like it quite as much this time, although I think it has more to do with watching it on DVD instead of the big screen. So, I guess I'll go with the 97.


Crimes And Misdemeanors - 69 (Woody Allen, 1989)

I love the parts with Mia and Woody and Alan Alda here, but the other half of the movie leaves me a little cold... I seem to prefer Funny Woody to Deadly Serious Woody. Although I did like Match Point, and I love Another Woman, so maybe that's not it.

Not masked, not anonymous.

Borat: Pretend I Remembered The Long Broken English Subtitle - 59 (Larry Charles)

This was, in parts, funny.

Rocky Balboa - 59 (Sylvester Stallone)

Can someone tell me why John Williams gets hired for about 10 movies a year, and Mr. Conti is lucky to get one. That is the completely backwards ratio. Anyway, the movie seemed like it had random scenes chopped out of it. For instance, there is this one look between Rocky's son and Rocky's son-by-proxy, but nothing leads up to it, and nothing comes out of it either. The crowd noise during the big 'dream' match was pathetic... It was more like they were watching a JV high school amateur wrestling match.

Stupid virus!!!!

Damn, I missed Old Joy at the Dryden. I didn't go on Saturday because I thought that I was getting better, and Sunday I would feel OK, but then on Sunday I felt many times worse. Damn! Damn! Damn!

I suppose that there is a small chance that I can see it when it's at Cornell next month. It is unlikely though. Damn!

On a Monday morning, you see them all there

Little Children - 61 (Todd Field)

What was with the narration? Seriously, when it first started, I thought that it was going to suck, then it was actually pretty funny, then it disappeared. Then it came back later on, before leaving for good soon after that. That was odd. Is this Todd Field the same Todd Field that was in a truly horrible movie I saw called Beyond The City Limits (or Rip It Off, it was so bad it needed 2 titles)? In The Bedroom was maybe slightly better, but it has been a long time since I saw it, and I have bad memories of the last third of that movie.

Top 5 albums of 2006

1: Surprise -- Paul Simon
2: Morph The Cat -- Donald Fagen
3: Living With War -- Neil Young
4: Modern Times -- Bob Dylan
5: Live At Town Hall -- Eels

Wow... That is a lot of old white men. In my defense, I haven't been able to buy as much music as I would have liked to this year. Nellie McKay's second album, for example, from what little I have heard, sounds at least 10 times better than her first one was. (So, I may update this list later on.)Surprise was surprising, I would have thought that the best would have been Dylan at the start of the year.

Most Disappointing:

A Mother's Gift -- Carnie Wilson

One song on this, Heaven, is one of the best records of the last ten years. The rest is crap. Such a waste of talent.

Hotel Lights -- Hotel Lights

This is the solo project of Darren Jessee, who was the drummer in Ben Folds Five, and thus, technically, counts as 1.67 people. He wrote Magic and co-wrote Brick, so he is much more capable than this.

The penultimate post of 2006

Apocalypto - 60 (Mel Gibson)

I was in a very bad mood when this movie started, and for a while, this was looking like it was going to be the worst film ever made. But then, slowly, it turned around. I think the turning point for me was when the tree fell down. My friends, who thought that this looked 'weird', all loved the movie, just like I have been telling them they would for about a year now.

Fun with Myspace

The remnants of Huffamoose, one of my favorite bands:

http://www.myspace.com/thefractalstunes

My high school buddy, Jason Ritter, is in a Steely Dan cover band. I am only a little bit jealous. They are based in Athens, GA:

http://www.myspace.com/countdowntoecstasy

Tina Majorino, the weird girl from Napoleon Dynamite and Mac from Veronica Mars, has a band. It may or may not be named after her initials. They are not that bad:

http://www.myspace.com/amproject

Christmas movies, not good ones...

...but not bad ones either.

Unaccompanied Minors - 47 (Paul Feig)

After this get past the first half hour or so, it is actually pretty decent. And if you do get bored, you can pass the time by looking for cameos from actors from Freaks And Geeks, The Office (USA), and Arrested Development, much better projects that Paul Feig has been involved with.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - 48 (Jeremiah S. Chechik, 1989)

Well, the choice was between this and The Muppet Christmas Carol. My girlfriend chose this. It may have been funnier back in 1989. (Look!! What a snob!! She's drinking bottled water!!) Oddly enough, there is another Freaks And Geeks actor in this one, Sam McMurray.

What the hell is this crap?

The Holiday - 36 (Nancy Myers)

I am so glad that I don't live in the same world that Nancy Myers does. After some 20 minutes of these conversations, I would kill myself. Those 36 points are almost entirely for Kate Winslet's charisma. The only good part about this was that my girlfriend liked it less than I did.

Adaptation.

Running With Scissors - 38 (Ryan Murphy)

Scissors isn't a word usually used in movie titles. Judging from this movie, it would probably be best to avoid it in the future.

Best In Show was horrible!

For Your Consideration - 50 (Christopher Guest)

At least this was better than that.

I didn't know they spoke English in France.

Flags Of Our Fathers - 50 (Clint Eastwood)

According to the film's credits, it was filmed in Iwo Jima, Japan, USA, and Iceland. Iceland? Anyway, the middle was quite good, but the beginning and the end were quite horrible... Honestly, I was getting ready to walk out after about 15 minutes or so. It was a double feature, though, so I stuck it out.

Marie Antoinette - 62 (Sofia Coppola)

The music was a mistake, as was the very last shot. Rip Torn seemed slightly off. Jason Schwartzmann was perfect. Until I saw this movie, I never realized how much it would suck to have an angry mob outside of your house.

The theater I went to spelled this movie "Marie Antionette" on the marquee.

Catalina Sandino Moreno~!

Fast Food Nation - 65 (Richard Linklater)

This would have been better if it made more than the obvious points. Also, CSM deserves a role where she doesn't play an illegal alien.

Adventures in Poker (with no expletives)

But only because it has been a few hours.

21 people entered, with a $30 buy-in, the top 4 are paid, and the blinds go up ludicrously fast. I made a great call on the first hand that I played... all 5 cards were out and I had bottom pair. The other person in with me made a fairly large bet, but I called and he was bluffing. I made a few other good plays too, but I ran into bad luck once. On the river, someone made a larger full house than the one I had made, and it cost me most of the chips I had earned up to that point. Then my chips got less and less and less until I go to the final table. I started the final table $1000 worth of chips, by far the lowest stack. But I doubled up on the first hand, and picked my spots very well until I had about $7000 or so, putting me well into the middle of the pack. Some of the people dropped out, and then another one doubled up, which put me back in last place, and with the blinds still going up ludicrously fast, I was still in some trouble. So I went all in with K-7 of spades... it was completely justified, and I would do it 500 more times if I had to. Sadly though, someone callled, and he had As-Kh. The flop came with two spades, and the turn gave me one more for a flush, but you can probably already guess that the river brought yet another spade, and my unfortunate demise, one spot away from being in the money. Man, that was painful.