jim jarmusch... music festival curator?

the stars have aligned! last night i finally put the finishing touch my jim jarmusch experience, having finally watched the very excellent mystery train, and i wake up this morning to find that not only is criterion putting their inimitable stamp on that film this summer, but that JJ will be curating a night of music for the all tomorrows parties (ATP to the cool kids) festival this fall.

in case you were wondering, here's the line up of acts he's chosen:

the brian jonestown massacre, raekwon, girls, vivian girls, the black angels, wooden shjips and fucked up with more to be confirmed.

looks like a night of psych rock book-ended with potential insanity... and raekwon the chef? isn't he like, the only wu dude to not make it into a jarmusch flick so far?

doug loves movies!

you might know doug benson from his stand-up, or maybe you were introduced to him through super-high me, his morgan spurlock aping documentary which replaces fast food with weed. or, maybe you've never heard of him. i don't know who you know...

anyway, doug loves movies, and has a ton of funny friends who you're likely to have heard of (sarah silverman, david cross, patton owalt, even that dreamy don draper guy from mad men). a few times a month, they get together and talk funny about movies in front of an LA audience, and those chats get podcasted out into the world via the interwebs.

if you've ever wanted to know what bob odenkirk from mr. show thinks about james cameron's titanic (trust me, you do), then hook this thing up to your itunes, and don't look back.

oscar tabulational stuff

the new yorker has a pretty decent if brief run down of some oscar hustle and bustle in their latest issue, but the real neat part of hendrik hertzberg's talk of the town article is the differences in the way that the votes are tabulated.

we're all aware that the best picture category got expanded from 5 to 10 (all the better to include the blind side!), but did you know that this year people are ranking their votes hierarchically, as opposed to the previous method of simply marking only their choice for best picture?

read the article and adjust your oscar pool decisions accordingly.

A good release week from Criterion

There are two brand new movies coming out via the Criterion Collection, something they've moved into recently with their deal with IFC, and both are highly recommended. Steve McQueen's 'Hunger' was a devastating yet beautiful depiction of the no wash and inevitable hunger protests the IRA staged in response to the British Governments refusal to treat them as political prisoners rather than terrorists. McQueen's history with video art is apparent but I disagree that this is a bad thing, his attention to detail and eye made for a gorgeous and entirely distressing film. 'Revanche' was the first film Criterion stepped up to release theatrically and played at last years Wisconsin Film Fest and made for a gorgeous & brilliantly executed neo-noir following the act of calculating revenge and the possibility for forgiveness.

But if you only have time to rent one movie this week let it be Max Ophuls 'Lola Montes' out on DVD for the first time from Criterion. In my opinion Max Ophuls is the best director of all time and I don't take that sort of status lightly. His movies, such as 'Earrings of Madame De...' are absolute perfection and 'Lola Montes' is another example. It's unfortunate it turned out to be his last film after the studio ruined the film upon release in '55 and it only reached the directors originally intended cut in 2008.

you're my tenderoni

the NSFW red-band trailer to the new kevin smith flick looks pretty awesome, but i'm basing my feelings mainly on the nut-shot to a 10 year old. bruce and tracy morgan look pretty good, even if this is undoubtedly tracy's flick. this'll be the first of kevin's movies to be based on a script he didn't write, and i'm still unsure if that's gonna be a good thing or a bad thing.

as much as i love kevin smith, i keep wondering more and more why, especially after re-watching zach and miri, but regardless, i got high hopes for this one.

final note: there's something to be said for a trailer that neither tips its hand plot wise, nor shows you every one of the funniest parts.

make way for tomorrow

orson welles has said that leo mccarey's 1937 film make way for tomorrow was the saddest movie ever made.

if this is indeed true, then criterion tapping cartoonist seth to do the design work was a stroke of genius.

be sure to look for it on the new release wall on feb 23d.

little birds out hitchhiking

this has absolutely made my weekend i think, even though it's not even 9:00 on saturday morning. i snagged this from the current, the criterion collection's blog of all things arty and awesome.

not sure if i like the godard or the herzog more... the grizzly man narration was a genius move on the part of whoever put this together.

most awesomest 2009 posters

in addition to richard's list, and with few alternate version duplications, here's my list of posters that went above and beyond the call of duty to serve their films.

happily, i can report that almost all of these films ended up ranging from pretty good to straight-up incredible...

but fanboys on the other hand...

Richard's 10, I Mean 15, Favorite Movie Posters From 2009

A movie poster is supposed to tell you a small part of the story, should grab your attention and engage you to question what this particular story is about. It should not rely on Bruce Willis's scowl.

Rather than explain each poster or try to rank them I'll group them all together and let each speak for itself.

I have a feeling some of my picks will be echoed by the other contributers on this blog but I hope they are not considered entirely obvious choices.

I GOT OSCAR FEVER!!

Quick note: The posters don't reflect the stuff i think is gonna win, they're just there to gussy the post up. Jus' Sayin.

Best Picture



* Avatar
* The Blind Side
* District 9
* An Education
* The Hurt Locker
* Inglourious Basterds
* A Serious Man
* Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
* Up
* Up in the Air

Best Director



* Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
* James Cameron – Avatar
* Lee Daniels – Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
* Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
* Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds

Best Actor



* Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
* George Clooney – Up in the Air
* Colin Firth – A Single Man
* Morgan Freeman – Invictus
* Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker

Best Actress



* Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
* Helen Mirren – The Last Station
* Carey Mulligan – An Education
* Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
* Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

Best Supporting Actor



* Matt Damon – Invictus
* Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
* Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
* Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
* Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress



* Penélope Cruz – Nine
* Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
* Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
* Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
* Mo'Nique – Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire

Best Original Screenplay



* The Hurt Locker – Mark Boal
* Inglourious Basterds – Quentin Tarantino
* The Messenger – Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman
* A Serious Man – Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
* Up – Bob Peterson and Pete Docter

Best Adapted Screenplay



* District 9 – Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
* An Education – Nick Hornby
* In the Loop – Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Ianucci and Tony Roche
* Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire – Geoffrey Fletcher
* Up in the Air – Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Best Animated Feature



* Coraline – Henry Selick
* Fantastic Mr. Fox – Wes Anderson
* The Princess and the Frog – Ron Clements and John Musker
* The Secret of Kells – Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey
* Up – Bob Peterson and Pete Docter

Best Foreign Language Film



* Ajami (Israel) in Hebrew – Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani
* El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina) in Spanish – Juan José Campanella
* The Milk of Sorrow (Peru) in Spanish – Claudia Llosa
* A Prophet (France) in French – Jacques Audiard
* The White Ribbon (Germany) in German – Michael Haneke

Ong Bak 3: Tony Jaa may never be free from Ong Bak

As silly as 'Ong Bak 2' was I admit that I enjoyed most of it's choreography and ridiculous fight scenes. The sequel is sure to be more of the same and this time around it is indeed a straight sequel. One intriguing idea is that Jaa will fight at some point while boneless. Yes, boneless.

Ong Bak 3 Tien's legs and arms will be damaged by torture and require Jaa's character to "fight with some sort of boneless action. This is homework for Panna Rittikrai and Tony Jaa to create the action for us to see what it will look like to fight in the state of boneless condition."

Razzie Nominees 2010

There is some justice left in the world. Sandra Bullock, who just picked up a best actress win from both the SAG & Golden Globe awards, has been nominated for WORST ACTRESS. And rightfully so. I can only hope you, Michael Bay, will take away the worst director award.

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WORST PICTURE of 2009
All About Steve
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Land of the Lost
Old Dogs
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

WORST ACTOR of 2009
All Three Jonas Brothers (Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience)
Will Ferrell (Land of the Lost)
Steve Martin (Pink Panther 2)
Eddie Murphy (Imagine That)
John Travolta (Old Dogs)

WORST ACTRESS of 2009
Beyonce (Obsessed)
Sandra Bullock (All About Steve
Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana: The Movie)
Megan Fox (Jennifer's Body and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen)
Sarah Jessica Parker (Did You Hear About the Morgans?)

WORST SCREEN COUPLE of 2009
Any Two (or More) Jonas Brothers (Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience)
Sandra Bullock & Bradley Cooper (All About Steve)
Will Ferrell & Any Co-Star, Creature or "Comic Riff" (Land of the Lost)
Shia LeBouf & EITHER Megan Fox OR Any Transformer (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen)
Kristin Stewart & EITHER Robert Pattinson OR Taylor Whatz-His-Fang (Twilight Saga: New Moon)

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS of 2009
Candice Bergen (Bride Wars)
Ali Larter (Obsessed)
Sienna Miller (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra)
Kelly Preston (Old Dogs)
Julie White (as Mom) (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, or "Trannies, Too")

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR of 2009
Billy Ray Cyrus (Hannah Montana: The Movie)
Hugh Heffner (as Himself) (Miss March)
Robert Pattinson (Twilight Saga: New Moon)
Jorma Taccone (as Cha-Ka) (Land of the Lost)
Marlon Wayans (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra)

WORST REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL
(Combined Category for 2009)
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Land of the Lost
Pink Panther 2 (A Rip-Off of a Sequel to a Remake)
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Twilight Saga: New Moon

WORST DIRECTOR of 2009
Michael Bay ("Trannies, Too")
Walt Becker (Old Dogs)
Brad Silberling (Land of the Lost)
Stephen Sommers (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra)
Phil Traill (All About Steve)

WORST SCREENPLAY of 2009
All About Steve, Screenplay by Kim Barker
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Screenplay by Stuart Beattie and David Elliot & Paul Lovett, Based on Hasbro's G.I. JOE® Characters.
Land of the Lost, Written by Chris Henchy & Dennis McNicholas, Based on Sid & Marty Krofft's TV Series
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Written by Ehren Kruger & Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman, Based on Hasbro's Transformers Action Figures
Twilight Saga: New Moon, Screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, Based on the Novel by Stephenie Meyer


WORST PICTURE of the DECADE
(3 Special 30th RAZZIE-versary Awardz)
Battlefield Earth - Nominated for 10 RAZZIES® / "Winner" of 8 (Including Worst Drama of Our First 25 Yrs)
Freddy Got Fingered - Nominated for 9 RAZZIES® / "Winner" of 5
Gigli - Nominated for 10 RAZZIES® / "Winner" of 7 (Including Worst Comedy of Our First 25 Yrs)
I Know Who Killed Me - Nominated for 9 RAZZIES® / "Winner" of 8
Swept Away - Nominated for 9 RAZZIES® / "Winner" of 5

WORST ACTOR of the DECADE
Ben Affleck (Nominated for 9 "Achievements," "Winner" of 2 RAZZIES®)
Eddie Murphy (Nominated for 12 "Achievements," "Winner" of 3 RAZZIES®)
Mike Myers (Nominated for 4 "Achievements," "Winner" of 2 RAZZIES®)
Rob Schneider (Nominated for 6 "Achievements," "Winner" of 1 RAZZIE®)
John Travolta (Nominated for 6 "Achievements," "Winner" of 3 RAZZIES®)

WORST ACTRESS of the DECADE
Mariah Carey (The Single Biggest Individual Vote Getter of the Decade: 70+% of ALL Votes for Worst Actress of 2001)
Paris Hilton (Nominated for 5 "Achievements," "Winner" of 4 RAZZIES®)
Lindsay Lohan (Nominated for 5 "Achievements," "Winner" of 3 RAZZIES®)
Jennifer Lopez (Nominated for 9 "Achievements," "Winner" of 2 RAZZIES®)
Madonna (Nominated for 6 "Achievements,""Winner" of 4 RAZZIES®)

his soul is still dancing

maybe i live a somewhat movie glutted life, but the press surrounding the distribution troubles of films like antichrist, big fan, and terry gillaim's imaginarium of doctor parnassus was pretty ubiquitous.

the two biggest casualties of this studio nearsightedness though are werner herzog's my son my son, what have ye done, and the "i's not a sequel or a remake" bad lieutenant: port of call new orleans.

these are both art house fare for the most part, but bad lieutenant potentially had some legs on it, what with the ridiculous amount of free press that the ever-quotable herzog tends to drum up, and the CRAZY trailer that didn't end up running in front of anything i saw in a theater this year:



i'm optimistically skeptical (skeptically optimistic?) about whether or not this is going to be awesome, but how can i make that determination without it even screening anywhere around here? did everyone think it was going to be as bad as the poster made it look? where you at, sundance cinemas?

the other herzog flick to come out last year looks just as interesting, but lacks the "nicholas cage be CRAZY" angle promised by port of call NO.



here's to hoping these get some screen time here in madison. i'd like to use the four star new release wall as a means of seeing these a second time instead of a first.

An interesting back-and-forth between Tarantino, Bigelow, Daniels & Reitman.

Click here to read article

I especially appreciated how Tarantino opened up a little about Harvey Weinstein but the entire conversation is very insightful.

"When the devil comes to you, he doesn't come to you with horns. You like the devil. You want the devil to like you. You want the devil to think you're a reasonable person. So, the thing is Harvey's coming as this wonderful papa who is offering me the world. "

I Despise The Weinstein's: Reason no.2028

I understand that the movie business is indeed that. A business. And businesses have to make money in order to be successful. But I really hate the suits that run the movie industry and the Weinstein's are two of the worst offenders. Here for your viewing pleasure is a letter in which Harvey Weinstein blasts Errol Morris for being too boring. I can understand feeling the need to coach someone on how to deal with publicity but there are somewhat more tactful ways of doing it.

" If you continue to be boring, I will hire an actor in New York to pretend that he's Errol Morris. If you have any casting suggestions, I'd appreciate that. "

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/01/youre-boring.html

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