Some stuff I like in September.

You know what? I’m about ready for this month to end. It’s true. August and September are the worst. They both go by slower than any other month. Regardless of my hostility towards this time of year, I’ve compiled this list of things that are awesome.

1. I love ABC’s new half-hour comedy Modern Family. It follows three exceedingly abnormal families trying to live, as the title implies, modern lives. The pilot episode aired on Wednesday, and has got to be one of the funniest pilots I’ve seen. I look forward to seeing where they take the show with such sharp, intelligent writing.

2. One of ABC’s other new fall shows is FlashForward. If you’ve been watching the network at all in the last two months, you know that ABC is putting all their eggs in this strange, sci-fi basket. I had huge expectations going in, and the first episode really delivered. The direction and writing, courtesy of Dark Knight co-writer David Goyer, are both on a cinematic scale that rarely sees the light of primetime. It’s more than enough to hold me over until Lost returns in January.

3. Go buy an I am Birmingham shirt HERE. Seriously, just go get one.

4. In 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby, the editor of French Elle magazine, had a stroke which resulted in locked-in syndrome, a condition in which a person is fully functional mentally, but physically paralyzed. Bauby was totally paralyzed save for his left eyelid. Using a painstaking system with an assisstant, Bauby blinked out a 139-page memoir of his inner thoughts called The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The book was adapted into a film by Julian Schnabel in 2007. The movie is a unique portrait of a man whose true feelings aren’t expressed until a near-death experience jolts them out of him. It’s inspiring, funny, devastating, and hypnotic. Netflix it.

5. Greg Holden, the English musician who opened for Ingrid Michaelson the other night at Workplay, has been on rotation on my iPod since. Check out Thinking of You and The Chase.

Favorite things in July.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Simply the best film of the series. It took five movies, but the filmmakers have FINALLY made a movie mature and emotional enough to do justice to the books. I’ve been talking about this movie too much. I’m stopping after I post this. Just go see it.

Newton Faulkner Brilliant singer-songwriter from across the pond. Watch this.

Coraline on Blu-ray and DVD One of my favorite movies I’ve seen this year is being released for home media this Tuesday. What’s especially remarkable is that both the DVD and the Blu-ray disc sets come with 4 pairs of 3D glasses. I’m curious to see how the spectacular cinema 3D translates to the small screen, but I imagine it will look stunning on Blu-ray.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins I woke up in the middle of the night last week with an intense craving for lemon poppy seed muffins. They are grossly under-appreciated.

Public Enemies.

released 7/1/9 by Universal Pictures
dir. by Michael Mann
grade: B-

In the opening scene of Public Enemies, John Dillinger [Johnny Depp] stages a daring prison break complete with accomplices, getaway cars, and near incessant gunfire. Throughout the film, he and his buddies rob banks with expert technique and snappy dialogue. His many escapes, however close, are genius.

John Dillinger was shot and killed. We all know that. Everyone watching the film knows that. We all know it’s coming. And yet, the filmmakers seem to just accept that and abandon any tension or emotion in Dillinger’s story. There doesn’t seem to be any effort to surprise the audience. The bank robberies aren’t thrilling, but dutiful. The escapes aren’t suspenseful, but dull.

Johnny Depp gives a commendable performance. He delivers Dillinger’s zingers with dead pan humor and puts what little emotion can fit into such a factual movie. As Dillinger’s girlfriend, Billie Frechette, Marion Cotillard is wonderful. In all of her scenes she brings a sense of urgency that the film so desperately needs. For his part, Christian Bale attempts a South Carolinian accent. So he gets an A for effort.

The art direction and costume design are flawless. They more than anything else create the mood of the movie. More disappointing is director Michael Mann’s decision to film with handheld digital cameras. Such methods have been used on movies like Children of Men, but there it added to the story. Here it’s just distracting. Imagine some of the most aesthetically beautiful period films of recent years, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for example. Now imagine them filmed as though they were The Blair Witch Project.

Bryan Burrough first approached HBO in 2002 about a miniseries about John Dillinger. When he found writing a script difficult, he ended up writing the book Public Enemies, a piece of nonfiction. In many ways, I guess Public Enemies is the best film that could be adapted from a nonfiction account of the story. But this painstaking accuracy is the film’s greatest weakness. It produces people and events, but no characters or conflict.

For his adaptation of The Last of the Mohicans, Michael Mann diverted from historical fact to craft a more romanticized story for the film. The result was engaging and thrilling. Perhaps a less factual adaptation would have yielded the same results for Public Enemies.

Noah’s Fail-Proof A-OK We Love America Oscar Predictions®!

Okay. Here we go. I’m so on my game this year.

BEST PICTURE
Should win: Slumdog Millionaire
Will win: Slumdog Millionaire
Should’ve been nominated: Wall-E

Total lock. Slumdog Millionaire will win on Sunday night. Tell your friends.

DIRECTOR
Should win: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Will win: Danny Boyle
Should’ve been nominated: Andrew Stanton, Wall-E

See above.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Should win: Wall-E
Will win: Milk
Should’ve been nominated: The Visitor, Tom McCarthy

Milk is the only Best Picture nominee in this category, so it will probably win. But I was so incredibly tempted to put Wall-E. If it wins and Milk doesn’t I will punish myself for ever doubting that little robot.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Should win: Slumdog Millionaire
Will win: Slumdog Millionaire
Should’ve been nominated: Iron Man

Once again, Slumdog Millionaire will win.

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Should win: Anyone but Brad Pitt
Will win: Mickey Rourke
Should’ve been nominated: Ummmmmmm…

Sean Penn has the Critic’s Choice and the SAG. Mickey Rourke has the Golden Globe and the BAFTA. I’m going with Mickey, since the BAFTAS have proved a better indicator of acting winners in recent years.

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Should win: Either Sally Hawkins or Kristin Scott Thomas [neither of whom were nominated]
Will win: Kate Winslet
Should’ve been nominated: Sally Hawkins and Kristin Scott Thomas

The Academy really screwed up here. Sally Hawkins and Kristin Scott Thomas, in Happy-Go-Lucky and I’ve Loved You So Long, respectively, gave the two best leading female performances of the year. Sucks for them. Kate Winslet takes it, with a weird upset possible with Meryl Streep.

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Blah blah blah Heath Ledger wins yay.

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Should win: Amy Adams or Viola Davis for Doubt
Will win: Penelope Cruz
Should’ve been nominated: Elsa Zylberstein [I've Loved You So Long]

Weird category. Kate Winslet has won almost every award in this category for The Reader, which she’s nominated for in the lead category. Penelope Cruz, however, won the BAFTA, plus several critics awards. Upset possible with Viola Davis.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Will win: Waltz With Bashir
Weird upset: The Class

ANIMATED FEATURE
Will/Should win: Wall-E

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Will win: Man on Wire
Weird upset: Trouble the Water

DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Will win: The Witness from the Balcony of Room 306

SHORT FILM – ANIMATED
Will/Should win: Presto! Because it was awesome. And people actually saw it.

SHORT FILM – LIVE ACTION
Will win: Toyland
Upset: The Pig

ORIGINAL SCORE
Will/Should win: AR Rahman for Slumdog Millionaire
Weird upset: Alexandre Desplat for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button [yuck!]

ORIGINAL SONG
Will win: Jai Ho from Slumdog
Should win: O… Saya from Slumdog
Upset: Down to Earth from Wall-E

ART DIRECTION
Will/Should win: Curious Case…

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Will/Should win: Slumdog Millionaire

COSTUME DESIGN
Will win: The Duchess

MAKEUP
Will win: Curious Case…

SOUND MIXING
Will win: The Dark Knight

SOUND EDITING
Will win: Wall-E

VISUAL EFFECTS
Will win: Curious Case…

FILM EDITING
Will/Should win: Slumdog Millionaire

Just watch me get every category wrong…

The Best Films of 2008.

Storytime: I started writing this on December 26. I’ve been waiting to see more movies before posting it, but now, almost two months later, I’ve given up. I saw a lot of films since December, but none of them were all that good. The end.

So, here are a few great films from last year. There weren’t many. Let’s begin.

The Best Films of 2008 – in alphabetical order, except for my number one choice

Doubt
There’s nothing particularly remarkable about Doubt’s direction or design. The film’s strength lies in its writing [by John Patrick Shanley, who directed and adapted the movie from his 2004 play] and four outstanding performances from Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis. In particular, Davis has the ability to convey countless emotions with a single glance. She takes 10 minutes of screen time and embodies a character so believable and full-blooded, it’s astonishing to watch.

Once
[Yes. this was released in 2006. But it was only given limited released in the US in 2007. And was only available to the common folk in 2008. So sue me.] The unnamed protagonists of Once are credited as just ‘Guy’ and ‘Girl.’ And so it should be in a story this simple. Two struggling Irish musicians meet and fall in love. That’s about it in terms of plot. What makes Once special is the music, which really is the main character of the film, and the chemistry between the two leads. The result is something beautifully simple and moving.

The Visitor
Tom McCarthy’s quiet drama is almost deceivingly melancholy. The film revolves around Walter Vale [Richard Jenkins], a professor at a Connecticut university. His life has been reduced to routine emptiness since the death of his wife. When he visits his apartment in New York, however, he meets two immigrants, one of whom teaches him to play the djembe. It’s a plot that could take any number of cliché paths, but it never does. It’s a surprising movie with wonderful performances.

WALL·E
Pixar’s best work to date is also their grimmest. WALL·E is perhaps the only post-apocalyptic animated family film. The script isn’t afraid of addressing these aspects of the story, nor does it shy away from a pretty obvious political message. But these are merely undertones in a story of great beauty and emotion. At WALL·E’s core is the love story between WALL·E and EVE. Dancing in space with a fire extinguisher was never this romantic. WALL·E sets a new standard for animated film.

And the best film of the year…

Slumdog Millionaire
When Jamal Malik [Dev Patel], a kid from the slums of Mumbai, does well on the Hindi version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, he is arrested and interrogated on suspicions of cheating. The story behind the correct answers is a thrilling, emotional journey we take with the protagonist. The cinematography is stunning and the music, by AR Rahman, is flawless. Expertly directed by Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire is a contemporary fairy tale that resonated with me weeks and weeks after seeing it. And it’s actually playing in Birmingham. Woo hoo.

Honorable Mention…

Australia – Boy, did people hate this one. It’s not Moulin Rouge!, but it’s a thoroughly entertaining epic that looks amazing.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Incredible visuals and Tilda Swinton make up for some problems with the script, which eerily similar to Forrest Gump.

Happy-Go-Lucky – Worth seeing solely for Sally Hawkins. She is charming and funny as Poppy, a cheerful woman with hidden depth.

Iron Man – Fun, exciting, and intelligent, with a solid performance from Robert Downey, Jr.

Kung Fu Panda – Dreamworks Animation’s first film to truly rival Pixar. Has the unfortunate distinction of being released shortly before Wall·E.

Coraline.

released 2/6/9 by Focus Features
dir. by Henry Selick
grade: A

Coraline is the first movie I’ve seen in a while which I wanted to watch again immediately after the credits were done. It takes the film medium to a place it’s never been and [hopefully] will revive the art of stop-motion filmmaking. Directed by Henry Selick [The Nightmare Before Christmas], the animation in Coraline is astounding. I have no idea how the animators pulled off half of the scenes. It’s just amazing.

The film follows Coraline Jones [Dakota Fanning], a girl who finds a small door in the living room of her new home. She goes through the door one night to discover an alternate version of the house, complete with her ‘Other Mother’ [Teri Hatcher] and ‘Other Father’ [John Hodgman]. The Other world is much more exciting than Coraline’s dull, monotonous life in the real world. Soon, though, the Other world seems too good to be true. And therein lies the plot.

I’m a big fan of Neil Gaiman’s novella upon which the film is based. [I hate that last sentence so much. Oh, well. Moving on.] I wish all of Gaiman’s stories could be adapted with such beautiful stop-motion. The film is a wonderful companion to the book. The only questionable change is the addition of Wybie, a boy Coraline’s age, who was reportedly added so Coraline wouldn’t be talking to herself throughout the film. I understand that logic, but this also means that Wybie serves little purpose other than nodding when Coraline talks.

Overall, this is a visually beautiful movie with a suspenseful story and haunting music [performed by the Nice Children's Choir]. It’s the best stop-motion film I’ve ever seen.

[NOTE: This really should be seen in 3D. I'm sure it's fine in standard theatres, but check to see if a theatre's showing it in 3D in your area.]

Blog Maintenance Fail

Okay. I definitely fail at keeping up with this blog. It’s just hard to post regularly with my bustling social life. So here come the bullet point mini-posts.

- Autumn! My favourite season has somewhat arrived in Birmingham. Leaves are somewhat less green than they were. Autumn is by far the most colourful, best smelling, and tastiest of the seasons. And Halowe’en [note the apostrophe] is just around the corner. I’ll be handing out candy to local children this year. I’m still deciding whether to dress up as Nuclear Warfare or the Large Hadron Collider.

- Homecoming was last week at school. As someone who’s never been to a ‘normal school’ before, I still don’t really know what Homecoming is. No one’s been able to give me a definite answer. All I know is that it involves dress-up days [people didn't seem to know what Prep Day meant], a football game, a dance, and a day off from school. I did not participate in 3 out of 4 of these.

- Dracula Colon The Musical Question Mark opened last week. It’s been going quite well. I’m happy with the way the show’s turned out. There are two more performances: Wednesday and Thursday at 7 o’clock at Homewood High School. Tickets are 5 dollars. You should come.

- I went to a really good concert last week at WorkPlay. The Hotel Cafe Tour stopped in Birmingham with Ingrid Michaelson, Meiko, and Priscilla Ahn, among others. I really went to see Ingrid, who mysteriously only played about seven songs. I did have a nice little chat with her afterwards though. Katie Herzig also played, and I really enjoyed her music

- Short rant: Why doesn’t Birmingham get limited release movies? We’re not miniscule or anything. I mean we’re an international city. Larry Langford said so. So why is it that we NEVER get any good limited release films? I’ve been wanting to see Rachel Getting Married or Happy-Go-Lucky forEVER. And they’re playing in Nashville and Atlanta and a few places in Texas. But not Birmingham.

Fin.

Recently Digested Media

Film

I’m Reed Fish [dir. Reed Fish] – Interesting indie film within an indie film about [that's right] Reed Fish, who hosts a daily radio show in his miniscule hometown. Very creative, but can sometimes get a little confusing, particularly towards the end. Still quite charming and endearing. 76/100

In America [dir. Jim Sheridan] – Powerful film about an Irish family’s struggles in New York. Amazing performances by Sarah Bolger, Djimon Honsou, and Samantha Morton. 92/100

Baby Mama [dir. by Michael McCullers] – Okay so it’s not a really good movie. Or a really funny movie. But Tina Fey’s in it. 64/100

Literature

Breaking Through [Francisco Jimenez] – I hate summer reading. I particularly hate reading bad books for summer reading. That just really bums me out. 43/100

Watchmen [Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore] – Graphic novels don’t generally count as literature in my book, but this one does. And I don’t like graphic novels. But this book is incredible. It’s thought-provoking and emotional and sheds light on complex political issues. And, yes, it’s about super heroes. 94/100

Twilight must die!

I don’t want to be “that guy” that writes about this kind of stuff on his personal blog, but I’m kind of pissed so n’importe quoi.

Warner Brothers is pushing the release of the sixth Harry Potter film back from 21 November 2008 to 19 July 2009. Eight months. Eight. They’re doing this essentially to make money. Because they have no big films scheduled for the summer of ‘09. That is total bull. Harry Potter fans have put up with so much crap from Warner Brothers.

And the HP franchise was just getting kind of good with movie 5. And now they’re slapping us in the face to make their shareholders happy. As you can imagine, the HP fanboys [and fangirls] were not amused. Thousands sent angry words and signed petitions [all in less than 24 hours] against the push back, but to no avail as of yet.

Now that HP fans are down, our enemies, the Twilight fans, are kicking us in the face. After the HP movie was pushed back, the Twilight movie, originally to be released in December, was pushed forward to 21 November. That’s like someone you hate stealing your birthday and spitting on your cake.

Now I won’t care about any of this nonsense in two hours, so I thought I’d vent while I still care.

Only on the interweb…

The following bizarreness appeared this morning on the IMDb Top 250 Movies of All Time list.

Yes, The Dark Knight [TDK] is, according to over 20,000 IMDb votes, the best movie… of all time. Better than The Godfather. Better than Citizen Kane or Casablanca or The Wizard of Oz. Wall-E, meanwhile, is hanging out in the number 22 spot.

In case you had any doubts, I loved Wall-E. And I don’t know if TDK was exactly lovable, but I thought it was an amazing movie. But seriously? The number one movie… ever? This seems like quite a superlative.