I met an Oscar-nominee today...
Yeah, you heard that right.
I ran into Todd Field... people never really seem to look the same in real life, so I wasn't quite sure at first. But sure enough, it was him. Nice guy too. So I guess he still lives in this state.... crazy.
So, along with John Waters, those are the famous people I've met. Good times.

Kurt Vonnegut
1922-2007

Bob Clark (director of A Christmas Story)
1941-2007

I was watching an interview with Spike Lee today, and he was talking about the best films to be released so far in this decade, since the year 2000. I was very happy to see on his list Requiem for a Dream, Brokeback Mountain, and, somewhat surprisingly, Roger Dodger. Not "surprisingly" because it's a bad film - it's a great one - but because it's a little movie that hardly anyone remembers. Spike was mentioning how the screenplay was so great, that it was fun even just to read it, like a good book. I searched on the net real quick and found the script, and, since I won't post the entire thing on here, here's an excerpt. Great dialogue...

******************************
INT. RESTAURANT – DAY
Roger and Nick sit across from each other at a table.

ROGER
So, Nick... You need some help with the ladies?

CUT TO:
EXT. STREET – MAGIC HOUR
Roger and Nick walk down the street.

ROGER
All right. Here we go. Get this straight. Sex is everywhere, okay? It is all around us. It's not some distant destination. It's not Everest. It is right here. You have to attune yourself to it.
You have to bring yourself into alignment. You have to find the zone, Nick. Okay? Do that, and I promise you a whole world will open up. Look at me. I walk around in a state of total receptivity. I'm like a fucking lightning rod.

NICK
All right. Fine. What do I do?

ROGER
For starters, let's get rid of that little meditation. The blue triangle. We don't block things out, Nicholas. We let them in.

NICK
Let what in?

ROGER
There are millions of women in this city, Nick. Millions. Most of them are blessedly unaware of the countless ways...
in which their bodies are exposed to our eyes. So, first, learn to read the sun, where it sits.
You'll notice... correlation between backlighting and transparency. They wear light-colored clothing, underwear shows right through. Bra straps, panty lines. No need to stretch or squint. It is there for us, okay? For example—

A WOMAN passes by. Roger skillfully, subtly checks her out. Nick, on the other hand, stands there staring at her as she walks by. Roger looks at him.

NICK
What?

ROGER
Are you blowing my cover? Are you blowing my cover like some... construction worker?

NICK
No. I was just—

ROGER
Jesus Christ, Nick. Use your head. Step back. Let her pass. Okay? Give it a few seconds. Watch this, and then camouflage the move. Pay attention.

Roger once again skillfully checks out a woman as she passes by.

ROGER
Checking of the watch is good. Or of the pager. Or looking for a street sign like you're lost.
Or just now you saw me do a combination. Whatever it is, don't get caught. Do you think women have a clue what goes on up here?
What do they think, it's just stock quotes, drill bit sizes?
They don't know shit! Let's keep it that way.

NICK
All right.

ROGER
What about your eyes?

NICK
What? My eyes?

ROGER
Your eyes. How's your vision?

NICK
No, it's good. It's 20-20.

ROGER
Okay. Peripheral?

NICK
I don't know. It's fine, I guess.

ROGER
Fine's not gonna cut it, Nick.
You gotta work your muscles like you're training for the fucking Olympics.

NICK
Yeah.

ROGER
Up, down, left, right, et cetera. Here. Follow my finger.

NICK
Okay.

ROGER
Tell me when it's gone.

NICK
All right.

Roger moves his finger only a couple of inches away from Nick’s field of vision.

NICK
Okay. Stop.

ROGER
That's it? Nick, you need a hundred, a hundred and ten degrees...
before you're ready for the street. I see behind me on a good day. You play video games?

NICK
Sure.

ROGER
Good. That stuff is training for the eyes. Registering images in a split second. It's invaluable. Oh. Right there. Blue sweater. Blue sweater. Median. Blue sweater. Blue sweater...

Nick searches frantically for who he’s pointing at. He finally sees her just as she stands up.

ROGER
That young lady just-- And you missed it.

NICK
I know.

ROGER
In just a fraction of a second.
That's all. But a trained eye can get in there for a look. You have to learn to anticipate your opportunities, okay? Getting out of a cab, wind from a subway grate... or as you so sadly missed there, bending over to pick something up. These are situations which require lightning reflexes.

NICK
I tell you, I can do that.

ROGER
You're a step slow right now, Nick.
Hey, no wonder. I remember what it's like out there. No interaction. No face time. Look at me. Every day I have the street, the subway, the ATM line... the office, the gym--
What have you got? Young people sitting in cars in Ohio. Wistful glances at the stoplight....

NICK
No, I go to school. That's interaction.

ROGER
Okay. Let's work with that.
The high school building is four stories, if memory serves.

NICK
It's five stories now.

ROGER
Whatever. It's multistory, and that means stairs, which is good.
Free yourself from the tyranny of eye level. Come here. Use the angles. High for cleavage. Low for the skirts.

NICK
All right.

ROGER
Remember, there's no shame in calling on an old standby, right?
Dropping of the pencil. Tying of the shoe. Just don't telegraph it.
What about reflective surfaces? Mirrors, windows?

NICK
What, in school? No, there's no mirrors.

ROGER
What about that ugly glass trophy case?

NICK
Yeah, that's there.

ROGER
Well, use it. It's perfect.
Go stand over there for a second. Keep going. Keep going. Stop.
If you can't stare directly, turn your back and use the glass.

He waves at Nick’s reflection in the window.

ROGER
Hi, gorgeous. Remember, angle of incidence equals angle of reflectives. In other words, if you can see them, they can see you. So be alert.

NICK
This is really complicated.

ROGER
It's rocket science. You were smart to ask for help.

NICK
I have a good one. When they're wearing short sleeves...
and they raise their arms to fix their hair, you can see in that gap there.

ROGER
Now, see? That shows me you're using your faculties.

NICK
Don't they know we can see in there?

ROGER
Of course they do. Breasts are very sensitive. They know when they're exposed to air. Are women gonna walk around with their hands clamped to their sides? No.
Their hair has to be dealt with eventually, Nick. And it is our job, it is our vocation to be ready.

NICK
All right. So all this looking is fine, but how do you take the next step? I need to meet someone.

ROGER
If you can't see how the two things are related, Nick, there's nothing I can do for you.

Roger begins to walk away.

NICK
Wait. Relax. Come on.

ROGER
You think we are kidding around here? Do you think this is a joke?

NICK
No. Why do you think I'm here?

ROGER
You have got to make sex a presence... in your mind, in your life... in your spirit.

NICK
All right. I'm sorry.

ROGER
All right.

This is crazy... I was watching TV just now, and they had an interview with this guy, he started his own website, called Justin.tv -- Apparently, for some reason this guy has decided to wear a small video camera, attached to his baseball cap, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and broadcast the video on his site. I guess The Truman Show is now reality...
So anyways, I logged on to his site as the interview was taking place (on a live tv show) and, sure enough, there he was, giving the interview (from his POV). The interview ended, he talked with people backstage, and then he walked outside to his car, to find a parking ticket on his windshield. I stopped watching as he was driving in his car (it's not too exciting watching someone drive - from their point of view), but I dunno, this whole thing just struck me as insane and I felt compelled to report it on here. Check out the site, at your own risk - I didn't see anything graphic, but apparently he wears the thing ALL the time, even going to the bathroom, so if that's something you don't want to see, you probably shouldn't take the chance. You might log on and see a little surprise someday, who knows...

I was right...it didn't take them (YouTube) long to delete the David O. Russell freakout video... here's the repost (for as long as it lasts) of the 2nd video from below:



Also, they deleted the short clip (2 minutes) I posted from Freaks and Geeks, and yet entire episodes still remain on YouTube... that site is going down in flames if they don't come up with some kind of compromise in terms of what kind of content is allowed...

Came across something really interesting today...
People that know about director David O. Russell know that he has a reputation for going absolutely insane on the movie set, even going so far as to scream at the actors and crew and throw things around and sometimes even physically assaulting people (there was an infamous incident back in 1999 where he and George Clooney almost got into a fistfight).
Well, things were apparently no different on the set of his 2004 film I ♥ Huckabees, where Russell repeatedly freaked out on-set. This brief explanation gives you the gist of it, but the real reason I'm posting this up is because of what lies below: Two video clips of the actual on-set craziness... This is really rare, I tell ya... you hear stories about this sort of stuff happening, but you never get to see it. Well, here's some leaked on-set production video... enjoy it before somebody's lawyers get pissed and take it down:





You get the feeling from the clips that Lili Tomlin may be marginally insane, but it's hard to tell how far Russell has actually pushed her before we see her on-camera outbursts. On the other hand, she was in 3 Altman movies, and he was known for not putting up with any shit (i.e. with Warren Beatty in McCabe & Mrs. Miller), so I get the feeling that Russell had just pushed her over the edge... But in any case, she had already been in a Russell film, 1996's Flirting with Disaster, and if he was that nuts, why would you work with him again? Maybe he's just become insane fairly recently?...

Freddie Francis
1917-2007

You don't want to "over-watch" something, so I sometimes purposefully refrain from watching certain things for months at a time, only to revisit it at a later date (often - however unintentional it may be - in marathon-like sittings of several hours at a time). Such as it was I decided to turn on Freaks and Geeks tonight... God damn, this show never gets old...

I downloaded Zodiac tonight, so I could watch it again, and I've got to say... it's really early to be saying this, as the movie year's just started (and movies released this early almost always get forgotten by December) but I'd like to put in an early (hopeful) prediction for Robert Downey Jr. as Best Supporting Actor for next year... he completely stole the show in this picture.

I found an old box the other day, and in it I discovered, on several videotapes, the entire series of American High. It was on TV in 2000 on Fox, canceled after 4 episodes, and then re-aired on PBS in its entirety later that year (which is how I was able to record the entire series). It was quite an interesting experience to watch it again, since I first saw it during my freshman year: It borders on the melodramatic at times, but, after all, that's quite a melodramatic point in your life. Overall, it's a great examination of high school life. While it bills itself as following 14 kids (for a year), it really concentrates on about 6 or 7 in detail (even that's a large task, for only thirteen 30-minute episodes). A large amount of then-current music was used in the show, so it's doubtful it will ever be released on DVD. Watch a 3.5 minute trailer here.

Just a quick word on the Oscars...
No real surprises (well, except for Best Picture... but a great surprise nonetheless...)
I briefly switched on the telecast for the Director award... and while it was great to see Scorsese win, I was a little surprised that, for all the years he's been waiting for this, he basically just read off a list of names...
And on a final note, we all like to see good, decent people receive something... enter Forest Whitaker. While a quick viewing of his acceptance speech shows he's a great guy, I'd like to relay this short story that quickly came to my mind when I saw that he won and frantically turned on the TV to view his speech: Amy Heckerling once told a story about Forest's audition for Fast Times at Ridgemont High - his first role, which was just one line. After he auditioned, he found out he got the role, and he left to go to his car. Heckerling watched him out the window... thinking that no one was watching, he happily skipped to his car, thrilled to have his first movie role. Now he has an Oscar. Doesn't that just put a smile on your face?

The best films of 2006, in order

(To qualify, the movie must have had its U.S. premiere sometime in 2006. If a movie premieres at a film festival in 2005, and then opens in the U.S. in 2006, it will be counted as a 2006 release).

1. United 93
2. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
3. A Prairie Home Companion
4. Babel
5. The Departed
6. Dave Chappelle's Block Party
7. The Pursuit of Happyness
8. Half Nelson
9. The Last King of Scotland
10. Notes on a Scandal
11. A Scanner Darkly
12. World Trade Center
13. The Illusionist
14. Little Children
15. The Queen
16. Little Miss Sunshine
17. Pan's Labyrinth
18. Borat
19. Idiocracy
20. Inside Man
21. Marie Antoinette
22. The Dead Girl
23. An Inconvenient Truth
24. Jesus Camp
25. Brick
26. Children of Men
27. Flags of Our Fathers
28. Letters from Iwo Jima
29. Hollywoodland

I finally sat down tonight and downloaded the entire Freaks and Geeks soundtrack... not the lame "official" 1-disc soundtrack available for purchase (which is mostly made up of score, not songs), but rather every single song that appeared in the show. It took me forever to do, but it stretches across 5 CDs, and it contains 86 songs - every song from the show (except for a couple of disco songs from the last episode, which I decided not to include), in roughly the order in which they appeared. Great music on that show - it has just about everything: great classic rock, cheesy pop, some country-rock, and even some punk near the end of the show's run. Complete list below:

1. Joan Jett - Bad Reputation
2. Van Halen - Running With the Devil
3. Kenny Loggins - I'm Alright
4. Styx - Renegade
5. Styx - Come Sail Away
6. Deep Purple - Hush
7. Doobie Brothers - Jesus is Just Alright
8. Rick Derringer - Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo
9. Santana - No One to Depend On
10. Van Halen - Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
11. Janis Joplin - Maybe
12. Kiss - Do You Love Me
13. Cheap Trick - Gonna Raise Hell
14. April Wine - Roller
15. Ted Nugent - Free For All
16. Van Halen - Jamie's Crying
17. Van Halen - Ice Cream Man
18. Little River Band - Reminiscing
19. BTO - Taking Care of Business
20. Curtis Mayfield - Superfly
21. Love Unlimited Orchestra - Love's Theme
22. Van Halen - Little Dreamer
23. The Faces - Debris
24. Rush - The Spirit of Radio
25. Cream - Sunshine of Your Love
26. Cream - Crossroads
27. Cream - White Room
28. Madness - One Step Beyond
29. Billy Joel - C'etait Toi (You Were The One)
30. Billy Joel - Rosalinda's Eyes
31. Billy Joel - Don't Ask Me Why
32. Brothers Johnson - Stomp
33. Alice Cooper - I'm Eighteen
34. Allman Brothers Band - Whipping Post
35. Journey - Loving, Touching, Squeezing
36. Moody Blues - Nights in White Satin
37. Styx - Lady
38. Kansas - Dust in the Wind
39. Queen - Keep Yourself Alive
40. Van Halen - Everybody Wants Some
41. Ted Nugent - Stranglehold
42. Joan Jett - Do Ya Wanna Touch Me
43. The Who - The Song is Over
44. Ted Nugent and Amboy Dukes - Journey to the Center of Your Mind
45. XTC - No Language in Our Lungs
46. Joe Jackson - I'm the Man
47. Joe Jackson - Look Sharp
48. The Who - Slip Kid
49. J. Geils Band - Flamethrower
50. Supertramp - Take The Long Way Home
51. Chicago - 25 or 6 to 4
52. Bob Seger - Beautiful Loser
53. The Cars - Let The Good Times Roll
54. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer - Karn Evil 9
55. Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down to Georgia
56. Pure Prairie League - Amie
57. Lynard Skynard - Free Bird
58. Boston - Smokin'
59. Queen - Fat Bottomed Girls
60. Blood, Sweat and Tears - Hi-De-Ho
61. Jethro Tull - Aqualung
62. George Baker Selection - Little Green Bag
63. Mac Davis - Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me
64. The Who - I'm Free
65. The Who - I'm One
66. The Who - Boris The Spider
67. The Who - Love Reign O'er Me
68. The Who - Squeeze Box
69. The Who - Going Mobile
70. The Who - Drowned
71. Seals And Crofts - Summer Breeze
72. Black Flag - Rise Above
73. Diesel Boy - Lime Green
74. Diesel Boy - Happy Street
75. Diesel Boy - Punk Rock 101
76. Dean Martin - You're Nobody 'Till Somebody Loves You
77. Rush - Tom Sawyer
78. Bob Seger - Katmandu
79. Bob Seger - You'll Accomp'ny Me
80. Warren Zevon - Poor Poor Pitiful Me
81. David Bowie - Fashion
82. Jackson Browne - The Road
83. Foxy - Hot Number
84. Heatwave - The Groove Line
85. Grateful Dead - Box of Rain
86. Grateful Dead - Ripple

I know I've posted this before, but it never gets old...

Baltimoreans Hope to Save The Senator Theater

I don't watch Oprah, but I was flipping through the channels today and caught like the last 10 seconds of it... and I noticed that John Travolta, William H. Macy, Tim Allen and Martin Lawrence were all sitting on the couch together... and my first thought, obviously, was "what the hell?"... Strange group of people to all be sitting together, for sure. A little internet research revealed that they're starring together in some lame upcoming movie called Wild Hogs. Who would really sign on to something like that?...

Eric Von Schmidt
1931-2007

Have I mentioned that Forest Whitaker is fucking scary in The Last King of Scotland?

The trailer for Judd Apatow's new movie, Knocked Up, in theaters June 1st: click here.

Wow, I guess I haven't really updated that much lately. Well, I've been watching a lot of movies recently, so that I can write my "Best Of" list for 2006... I have about 20 more movies to go, and then I will have seen every major release (and some minor releases, too) of 2006.

2007 Academy Award nominations

Well, the nominations were announced this morning... no big fuck-ups or surprises here, it's all very much as expected. To summarize:

Best Picture - nominees:

• Babel
• The Departed
• Letters from Iwo Jima
• Little Miss Sunshine
• The Queen

Basically the same line-up that we've seen at all the other awards shows this year... the one interesting change here is the addition of Iwo Jima in the Best Picture category instead of the Foreign Film category, which is where most other awards have been placing it. I personally like this choice (I'd rather have it omitted entirely, but oh well), as it seems to me pretty stupid to have a Best Foreign Film nominee from the USA (which I believe would've been a first). As I've stated before, put United 93 in Iwo Jima's place and you have a real list. But I must say: REALLY happy that Dreamgirls didn't get in there. In terms of the winner, well, Sunshine won the Producer's Guild and Babel won the Golden Globe...so it's really between those two.

Best Actor - nominees:

• Leonardo DiCaprio for Blood Diamond
• Ryan Gosling for Half Nelson
• Peter O'Toole for Venus
• Will Smith for The Pursuit of Happyness
• Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland

Once again, the same as every other list out there. Whitaker has won basically every single award out there, so he's pretty much a lock. And hey, it'll be fun to see the big guy in Fast Times that warned "Don't fuck with it!" win an Oscar. If you ask me, DiCaprio should have been nominated for The Departed instead. And lastly, my personal favorite performance of the bunch is Gosling in Half Nelson.

Best Actress - nominees:

• Penélope Cruz for Volver
• Judi Dench for Notes on a Scandal
• Helen Mirren for The Queen
• Meryl Streep for The Devil Wears Prada
• Kate Winslet for Little Children

Once again, no real surprises. Mirren has won, like Whitaker, basically every award under the sun this year, so she's virtually a lock. Dench (the most overrated actress of her generation working today) continues to get nominated for almost every little performance that comes vomiting out of her, and Streep has somehow gotten recognized for a quirky little performance in one of the worst movies of the year. On the other hand, both Cruz and Winslet were very good. Mirren has it in the bag, though.

Best Supporting Actor - nominees:

• Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine
• Jackie Earle Haley for Little Children
• Djimon Hounsou for Blood Diamond
• Eddie Murphy for Dreamgirls
• Mark Wahlberg for The Departed

While I like seeing Wahlberg's name on there, his role was admittedly too underdeveloped to accurately guage the quality of his performance. Hounsou is really a filler nominee in a year of mostly weak films. My personal favorite is Haley (remember him from The Bad News Bears?) who really is brilliant in Little Children. But it's really between the last two: Arkin turned in a solid, if unremarkable performance...the aging actor, however, just might pull a victory. The frontrunner right now, however - strange as it may seem - is actually Eddie Murphy, who's won this damn Supporting Actor award all over the place. It truly is a performance not even worthy of the nomination. Believe me, I love the guy, but he just didn't bring what it took to his performance in that movie.

Best Supporting Actress - nominees:

• Adriana Barraza for Babel
• Cate Blanchett for Notes on a Scandal
• Abigail Breslin for Little Miss Sunshine
• Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls
• Rinko Kikuchi for Babel

Well, this is the category I get angry at this year. Usually there's several - this year it's only this one. But it's a big one. Jennifer Hudson is the frontrunner this year, but I really can't imagine why. It's the kind of awards-season choice, the kind that seems to be unanimous among everybody, that makes you wonder if everybody has truly become retarded. Her performance is as bland as a TV dinner. With no dimension, and no sense of middle ground, her performance is either too low, or way over the top. Granted, she has a fiery presence, and the anger comes through in her singing, but whenever she opens her mouth to talk (which rarely happens in the movie) it comes out flat. I honestly don't see how she can, or will, make it as an actress, unless every single movie she does in the future is a musical. A sad and blasphemous misstep this year. As for the rest, Blanchett is solid as always, and it's nice to see the two Babel women - who stole the show away from everyone else - actually nominated. The young Breslin was very good, and it wouldn't be bad to see her win, but it's a long-shot.

Best Director - nominees:

• Clint Eastwood for Letters from Iwo Jima
• Stephen Frears for The Queen
• Paul Greengrass for United 93
• Alejandro González Iñárritu for Babel
• Martin Scorsese for The Departed

Finally, some goddamn recognition for Greengrass (after getting shut out of the Directors Guild nominees). Although technically, his was my favorite direction of the year, you really have to give it to Scorsese. I mean, come on, it's like a running joke now, he's been nominated so many times. He's the favorite right now, and I truly hope he finally gets the damn thing. I might even turn on the telecast (which I promised myself I wouldn't watch this year) near the end just to see his acceptance speech. Hopefully. You all know my hatred for Eastwood (besides Mystic River) so you don't have to guess what I thought of his nomination, and although Frears and Iñárritu were both exceptional this year, you have to give it to Scorsese. Finally. Please? Pretty please, with a cherry on top?

Best Original Screenplay - nominees:

• Guillermo Arriaga for Babel
• Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis for Letters from Iwo Jima
• Michael Arndt for Little Miss Sunshine
• Guillermo del Toro for Laberinto del Fauno, El
• Peter Morgan for The Queen

Basically, what you have here is this: It comes down to Sunshine and Babel - whoever wins Best Picture, the screenplay award will go to the other one (the Academy likes to award a little bit to everybody). If they especially fall in love with the movie, they might give it both. The only other movie capable of creeping up on the two is The Queen. Pan's Labyrinth's single award will probably be for Foreign Film. And let's just say this about the remaining film: if that hack Paul Haggis wins anything else, I will be very pissed.

Best Adapted Screenplay - nominees:

• Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer and Todd Phillips for Borat
• Alfonso Cuarón, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby for Children of Men
• William Monahan for The Departed
• Todd Field and Tom Perrotta for Little Children
• Patrick Marber for Notes on a Scandal

This might actually be the closest race of the night...a pretty sad year for movies when the closest race is in the Adapted Screenplay category. The Borat nomination is great, but it's a sympathy nomination, because it's a great movie, but not the sort of movie that the Academy recognizes. The Notes on a Scandal nomination makes sense, but probably won't see a win. The Departed was a great film, but the nomination is a hard call, since it's actually a remake of a (apparently superior) series of three Hong Kong films, combined into one for this American version. Children of Men was critically acclaimed this year, so the Academy may want to give it something....but it really isn't actually deserving of the nomination...the script is murky and vague and probably the weakest of the nominees (ironically, it's one of the top contenders to win it). I'd personally like to see Todd Field (who deserved something for In The Bedroom) win it this year. But this is basically wide open.

And that's about it. All the technical awards (cinematography, editing, music) are actually quite close this year, so we'll see.

Directors Guild of America nominees

Martin Scorsese for The Departed
Bill Condon for Dreamgirls
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Babel
Stephen Frears for The Queen
Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris for Little Miss Sunshine

Decent list, except... where is Paul Greengrass? Everyone on there is deserving, but Greengrass's direction on United 93 hovers way above the direction in Sunshine, and Condon did a servicable job on his picture, but it was mostly by-the-numbers. Replace either one of those with Greengrass, and you have a real list. The thing about the Directors Guild is this: the nominees here usually go on to be the Best Picture nominees... yet another reason why I'm not watching the Oscars this year.

Clip from Children of Men
(Warning: HUGE spoilers in this clip - although it occurs early in the film, it gives away an important plot point. Only view it if you've seen the movie or don't care about seeing the spoiler.)

So, is Children of Men as good as everyone's saying? Short answer: no. The film had five screenwriters, and this point is painfully obvious while watching the movie. I gotta say though, there are some great shots in this movie. Most of the movie is obviously inspired by I Am Cuba, as there's lots of one-shot, long, choreographed shots with a handheld camera. The shot from the clip above is awesome; it appears as if it was shot with a remote camera on a small motorized dolly track on the roof of the car... that's the only way I think it could've been done.

Clip from Idiocracy

Idiocracy

Wow, why was this movie buried? It's great. Sure, it's not perfect, and it gets a little hackneyed at the end, but it's better than most of what gets into the theaters these days. I feel really sorry for Mike Judge. Here he's created a daring, original film that really deserved an audience. Instead, it was buried by 20th Century Fox. Granted, Judge shouldn't have tried to work with Fox again (after the problems he had with the release of Office Space). He really should have seen it coming, but you can't blame the guy for trying. The movie, at least, hopefully will get an audience. He's so vicious with his satire here, that you really can't blame Fox for being scared of it: The movie takes place in a future world where Starbucks no longer sells coffee, but instead sex; one of the only phrases people know is "I like money"; and people can buy law degrees at Costco. True to Judge's other work, the satire is mixed with broad humor: The #1 television show in the country is called "Ow, my balls!" and features a guy getting kicked in the nuts for 30 minutes; the #1 movie in the country is a film entitled "Ass" and features a naked butt onscreen for 2 hours; pornography and newspapers have been blended into one simplified magazine; and the anchors on Fox News are portrayed as shirtless muscled men. Definitely not the kind of thing you can market to midwestern America. But for everyone else, my advice is to go see it. It's released on DVD January 9th.
Idiocracy

Random thought: What the hell happened to Little Children? This was one of my most-anticipated films in a while, ever since I heard about it back in 2004. It's director Todd Field's 2nd film after 2001's brilliant In The Bedroom (which was always, in my opinion, the best film of that year), but after a little buzz early on, it has gone virtually ignored. It never even opened in Maine (which is a little ironic, considering Field grew up there and Bedroom was filmed there). In fact, it never opened in more than 30 theaters. The only disappearing act this year that could be considered more bizarre was Mike Judge's Idiocracy...and that was because it was "controversial". New Line used to be one of the best in the 'biz, but judging by the blunder of Little Children, they can't market a movie for shit anymore (case in point: The New World).

Library of Congress Selects New Films for Preservation

Among the more notable of the 25 new entries in the National Film Registry:

• Blazing Saddles (1974)
• Fargo (1996)
• Groundhog Day (1993)
• Halloween (1978)
• Notorious (1946)
• Rocky (1976)
• Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989)

All in all, a good selection for this year. And I'm quite happy that they chose Sex, Lies and Videotape, as the NFR sometimes has trouble remembering to put independent films on their list. What should be next? Well, it's high time they put A Christmas Story (1983) on there, and more Cassavetes stuff would be nice, especially
Faces (1968), along with A Clockwork Orange (1971), 12 Angry Men (1957) and Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Lots of great films that still need to be preserved.

The list of films on the National Film Registry (sans this year's additions)

Odd news of the day: Gus Van Sant arrested for drunk driving.

Borat

"Most of the humor comes from the fact that Sacha Baron Cohen is using his character to show other people's faults. To be honest, while it is funny, most of the time it's simply a real eye-opener to how stupid and bigoted people in America can be."

Borat is still in theaters, and yet right now I have a DVD-quality copy. God bless the internet...

The nominees for the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards (one of the last film awards that really mean anything)

Funny story tonight... I was fucking around with my computers, and since I figured the problem with both of them was overheating, I downloaded a little program that tells you how hot the temperatures of your fan and processor are. Well, the laptop fan is completely dead and is no longer moving, because the program told me that the CPU no longer is aware that a fan is attached(!) and the laptop processor, which is supposed to be at a temp of about 123 degrees fahrenheit, was clocking in at over 200 degrees(!) so the processor is fried, because, obviously, the fan had stopped cooling the processor long ago, and once a processor gets that hot, it's over. So, I tried that program on the desktop, and both the processor and fan temperatures were also too high, meaning the fan wasn't doing its job either. Luckily, the processor wasn't so hot that it had fried yet, so I opened up the side of the computer case, and I have a little fan blowing in there, and now the program shows a normal CPU temperature... so I dunno. Maybe it will at least stay on a little longer than usual.

Well, Unaccompanied Minors bombed, opening at #7 last weekend, with $5.82 million... Told you so.

Most movies - good movies - have one great moment... if they're lucky. Just one. It might not be much more than a look, or the way a certain line was said, but most have at least one. This moment might make you laugh, or cry, or think about something in your life. Moments that you easily remember weeks, months, and years after you've seen them. Most movies have a couple. Magnolia has over two dozen, and I can name them off the top of my head: The opening prologue. The "wise-up" sequence. The Frogs. The music - every single note - and how it drives the story. Jason Robards' deathbed monologue. John C. Reilly after he's lost his gun. Donnie's speech in the bar. Frank Mackey's on-stage, double-meaning dialogue after he's found out his father is dying. The beautiful camerawork. Cruise's breakdown. Melora Walters - in basically every scene. The kid telling the father "you have to be nicer to me." Cruise walking down the hallway as the looping music plays. The subtext - all of it - the father/son stuff, the spiritual aspect, and most of all - hope. The frogs waking up Robards. The kid's speech on the gameshow. John C. in the car after asking for a date. John C. praying by himself in his bedroom. His date with Melora. Julianne Moore. The whole structure of the film itself. Aimee Mann's music. And I could go on and on. Rarely does someone have the audacity to attempt something like it, or, more importantly, the talent to ensure that not one note of performance or direction is off key. It's not really a movie, it's an experience. I once heard a story that when Darren Aronofsky watches Apocalypse Now (another great "experience" film) he gets the room completely black, going so far as to tape the cracks in the windows and doors and use black curtains. He then starts the movie from the beginning, and if for whatever reason he has to stop it, he can't continue, he has to start from the beginning again. He does this once a year - watching the movie like this. It sounds insane, but all of us film people have a movie that we treat like this. Before he goes to direct a new movie, Spielberg always watches Seven Samurai, Lawrence of Arabia, It's a Wonderful Life, and The Searchers, in that order, and without stopping. We all have one picture we treat like this. I guess mine's Magnolia. Yes, we're weird. But we're movie people.

Peter Boyle
1935-2006

The Gaslight District, Part 4

He continued looking out his window, down on the dark street below and the rows of brownstones that littered the block. The early-morning dog walkers started to emerge from their houses and sleepily made their way down the long flights of stairs leading to their doors. The street consisted of many of these old brownstone buildings – many of them hundreds of years old – and a single large apartment complex on the end. Each side of the street was lit with gaslights – a dozen on each side, leading all the way up to the other side of the street, to the chestnut tree on the other end. The street sat on a hill, enabling anyone at a high enough altitude and facing the west to look down upon the entire Gaslight District, and, further on in the distance, the rest of Boston.

As the old man stood staring out his window, he heard a sound from the kitchen. It seemed to be a slight rattling noise, although he could not pinpoint the source of it. At first he thought it might be an intruder, but he soon realized that was not the case, as his front door opened into his living room, and he would’ve heard someone enter the front door long before this. As he stepped into his kitchen, he spotted a mouse scurrying across the floor. Then, all of a sudden, it stopped in its tracks, and looked up at the old man, who continued walking into the kitchen. The mouse stood, frozen. Not one step. Not one hesitation. It was not out of fear – in fact, it stood there casually, making a chirping noise with its mouth. Even the mouse knew this man meant no harm.

Then, abruptly, the room went dark. He looked out his window, and noticed that one of the gaslights had gone out. Now all that remained was the moonlight. As his eyes slowly adjusted to the faint lighting in the room, he squinted behind his thick glasses and staggered over to the kitchen table, where he sat down at the rickety old chair near the window. He looked through the aged, scratched window glass and observed the stars fading one by one, and then the first rays of sunshine struggling to penetrate the thick morning fog. As he watched a young city worker trying to fix the broken gaslight outside, he turned his attention back inside, where he noticed his little rodent friend was how sitting on the table next to him. Years ago, he would have chased the little animal away, broom in hand, all around the apartment – as if he was reenacting some lost comic image from an old Charlie Chaplin film. But age had gotten to him – in more ways than one – and now he slowly raised himself from his chair and made his way to the cupboard. He rummaged through the boxes and cans, and victoriously arrived at a box of crackers, which he opened up and brought back to the table. He took one out of the box, breaking a piece of it off and carefully placing it down on the table. The mouse’s first instinct was to snatch it up as quickly as possible with its little paws and run back to its hiding place, but this was a different situation, and it knew this fact very well. It confidently strolled over to the cracker and ate it in that very spot, mere inches from the man’s hand. After it was done, the man broke off another small piece and placed it in the palm of his hand, laying the back side of his hand flat against the table. The mouse hesitated this time, but its little feet began to creep forward, until he was next to – and then in – the palm of his hand. Just then, a loud sound outside made the man jump, and the mouse went scurrying off into a corner. Looking outside the window, he noticed the worker who was fixing the gaslight had dropped his toolbox, which had sent dozens of wrenches and hammers onto the street and scattered across the sidewalk. The old man turned his attention back inside and began to look for the mouse.

The Gaslight District, Part 1
The Gaslight District, Part 2
The Gaslight District, Part 3

Oliver Stone talks about Bush (Edinburgh Film Festival 2003)

Dr. John - To Hell With Love

Woody Allen interviews Billy Graham (1969)

Two people who are definitely on opposite ends of the religious spectrum...
Interesting conversation.

Part 1


Part 2

Man, YouTube sucks now. It's too popular and too many people know about it now. All of the studios are freaking out about even just clips of movies and stuff being up there. My account got deleted... I can easily make another one, but why bother?

I was thinking about it, and it just hit me this morning: This has been a shitty year for movies. Sure, there's been a few decent ones, and one flat-out masterpiece (United 93), but I guess nothing could really compare to last year, and I don't think anything will for quite some time. Last year really was a terrific year for movies. I mean, just think about it: Brokeback Mountain. The Squid and the Whale. Syriana. Capote. Murderball. Cinderella Man. Good Night, and Good Luck. Broken Flowers. Match Point. Saraband. A History of Violence. The New World. Walk the Line. Grizzly Man. And that's not even everything. Last year will probably go down in history as one of the best, right down there with '94 (The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, Quiz Show, Ed Wood, etc.) and '95 (Apollo 13, Leaving Las Vegas, Dead Man Walking, Casino, The Usual Suspects, etc.) and only a handful of other years. Good times.

Claude Jade
1948-2006

Well, Paul Feig is back. The creator of Freaks and Geeks has a new movie coming out, Unaccompanied Minors. However, I fear he has a flop on his hands. The problem? The title. A terrible title. It's being called Grounded over in the UK, and it's obvious somebody over there has a little more brains. Warner Brothers (right now the last-place studio...with hair-brained decisions like this it's not hard to see why) has been marketing the movie towards small children, but they've given the movie a title that they can't even pronounce or understand. And I don't think they're playing up the cast enough, especially with the large fanbase that Wilmer Valderrama (That 70's Show) has. Even worse for Feig, I fear that there might actually be a good movie hidden under all of the marketing bullshit. It's based on a true story, which essayist Susan Burton recounted on NPR's "This American Life" a few years back, and the cast is great. Sadly, it looks like another flop for Feig, whose 2003 film I Am David bombed, grossing just $284,000 on a $25 million budget. Since then, he's gone back to TV-land, directing episodes of The Office and Arrested Development, which was a good fit for him and is probably where he should stay. Of course, we wouldn't even be having this conversation if Warners would just call the movie Grounded.

Kind of interesting stuff today: I got a cease-and-desist order from Vincent Gallo himself, requesting I take a clip down off of YouTube (the photo booth scene from Buffalo '66). I've gotten these before, but it's sort of odd that it came in the form of an e-mail from the actual guy instead of an e-mail from YouTube saying that a studio had requested it. Strange. Anyway, I took it down of course, but it's kind of fun to know that Gallo was strolling through the internet today and ended up e-mailing me for one reason or another.

Candles on Bay Street, a TV-movie, premieres tonight. Set in Maine, but was filmed (like almost everything else these days) in Canada. Boo...!
(Does this mean I spend too much time reading about random shit? Answer: yes)

Robert Altman
1925-2006

Art School Confidential - terrible goddamn movie... what happened to Terry Zwigoff?

The Gaslight District, part 3

As the day continued on, he retired to his bedroom, watching the sun’s descent on his ceiling. The bright white light of afternoon quickly turned orange, and then the dark amber hue of evening filled his window. He walked across the room and looked down on the street below. The last lingering signs of life remained: Several kids – remnants of the evening’s hide-and-seek game – hid behind cars and underneath bushes, desperate to escape the clutch of that night’s seeker; the old women – seated outside on their front stoops in lawn chairs – had given up on their afternoon sunshine, and instead headed inside to actually face their husbands for the night.

He lived across the street from a bar, and as the many groups of people entered on this Friday night, he made – as he often did – a little bet with himself as to which one of them would be the last to stumble out onto the sidewalk in a drunken stupor, waking him up from his deep sleep and signaling the arrival of the misty morning fog. As he drifted off to sleep, his thoughts quickly veered from the exploits across the street back to matters of more importance. The beach. The sand. The night. That long-lost memory, all those years ago. It was so clear and vivid in his mind, it could have happened yesterday: The crashing of waves against the shore; the distant sound of a cargo ship in the darkness; the faint scent of saltwater on his clothes the next morning. Fuck this. He hurriedly summoned up all of his energy and attempted to focus on something else. Something much less emotionally...brutal.

As he frantically searched his mind for a comforting image with which to numb his brain into submission, his thoughts wandered back to the little girl and the chestnut tree, and he quickly fell asleep. He was awoken by a loud crash, and he sleepily shuffled over to the window to locate the cause of the disturbance. He spotted Seymour, the 60-year-old town drunk, stumbling around outside. He had wandered outside – or, more likely, was kicked out – and tripped over a large metal trashcan, sending it tumbling into he street, and he along with it. As the owner of the bar retrieved him from the pavement and tried to silence the babbling, intoxicated old man, Seymour picked himself up, brushed himself off, and strolled into the early morning light. He stopped in front of the corner chestnut tree, picked a few of them up off the ground, and put them in his pocket. As several kids groggily walked to the bus stop, he handed a chestnut to a little girl, and kept on walking.

The Gaslight District, part 2

He struggled to open the heavy oak door, and once inside, he began his trek up the dimly-lit hallway. The old stairs creaked and groaned under his weight as he made his daily trek up to his fourth floor apartment. He had promised himself for years that he’d move into another building on the other side of town, where the then-new building codes required that there be an elevator, but years later, he remained in the same place. He walked through the quiet hallway, down to the end of the hall, and stopped in front of apartment 8A. He turned the key in the doorknob, and forced open his frequently-stuck door. I need to fix that. He knew he never would, of course, but it made him feel like he was accomplishing something by noticing that it needed to be done.

He walked over to his television, and retrieved the picture of his wife that was sitting on top of it. As part of his ritual, he kissed the picture, set it back down, and walked to his kitchen table. He looked out his window, over all of Beacon Hill, and watched the gaslights slowly being exterminated. Even the city had not yet adjusted to the autumn season. He turned his attention back inside his apartment. His hands searched the cluttered kitchen table for his journal. He found it and opened it, its old leather cover stretching and straining upon opening. He started writing, his rambling prose detailing all of the sights and scenes of the day. He wrote of how the young family had reminded him of himself when he was younger – minus the child, of course – for that little detail was never to occur. He wrote of the fluttering leaves and the busy waitress and the half-asleep assembly line of customers, and anything else that happened to enter his brain at that particular moment.

A cloud formed overhead, and the light inside his small apartment slowly began to dim. He walked across the room and switched on the light, and the overhead fluorescent bulbs flickered and buzzed as the room quickly brightened. Hours had passed, and he returned to the window, now watching the children returning home after their day at school. He watched as the fleet of yellow schoolbuses rolled over the hills, winding in and out of the streets, and marvelled at the ballet of little feet splashing in puddles and picking up fallen leaves in the street. A little girl paused and examined a chestnut tree, and upon obtaining some of its riches that were deposited on the ground, promptly skipped on down the street, making sure to jump in each and every puddle along the way. The cloud became thicker and more pronounced in the sky, and he was sure a storm was coming. Whether it would be rain or snow, he could not be sure. It was that time of year.

The Gaslight District, part 1

He looks about 30 years old, he thought, as he picked at his now-cold toast and sipped at his coffee. But she looks younger, maybe 25 or 26. I wonder if they live in the area. He glanced over across the coffee shop and noticed it was getting busy. Shit. He hated when it started to get noisy and crowded. I’ll give myself another ten minutes, and then I’m going home. He looked back out the window, and noticed that the couple had gone, replaced now by the emptiness of the autumn air. Defeated, he turned his attention back to the interior of the slightly drafty restaurant and tried to gauge with some actuality how crowded the place had become. Being close to nine o’clock, it was hard to tell, since most of the people who came in at this time in the morning took their orders to go. He sat there for a moment, amused at the sight of the line of people moving in a slightly-comatose, half-asleep fashion. Finding that the place was in no danger of being over-occupied, he turned his attention back to the window. Now there stood a family of three, a man and wife along with their young daughter. Suddenly a memory fluttered down into his head. It was nothing he could put his finger on; more a collection of images and feelings than anything else. He knew it had something to do with his past, but he elected not to allow it to enter his mind. Whether it was because he couldn’t remember the details or because he didn’t want to remember, he didn’t know, nor did he want to.

The young man outside the window had his arm around his wife, and his daughter held onto his other hand. He looked away from the couple and down at his wrinkled fingers, which were incessantly examining the handle of the coffee cup. He realized that his old hands had never held a child’s, and the enormity of that statement both scared and fascinated him. They were laughing, all three of them, and he couldn’t stand it a moment longer. He packed up his things and tried to get the waitress’ attention. She was the kind of waitress that almost obsessively asks you, repeatedly, if you need anything else. It was ironic that when he really wanted to go, she had become so busy that she couldn’t fulfill his request.

He looked back out the window. He figured that if he was going to punish himself, he might as well get it over with. That was me 50 years ago, he thought, as he looked at the couple again. He looked helplessly at the stream of people coming into the restaurant, and saw no end in sight. Fuck it. He looked back outside, and marveled at how much the young man resembled himself, all those years ago. The woman even resembled his wife. It was as if someone had planned and orchestrated this situation in order to make him face things he was determined not to face. It was impossible, of course, but he was paranoid by nature.

That same memory flooded into his head again, and instead of trying to force it out, he gave in. It was a time of happiness. The beach. The sand. The night. It was one of those experiences you struggle to remember at times, and struggle to forget at others. He probably thanked God for that moment 50 years ago, but he’d do anything to forget it now.

God. That was a funny word. It used to mean something to him years ago. It represented humanity and hope, wonderment and beauty. That was back when things made sense. Do you remember when things used to make sense? He posed the question to the invisible person who would understand. But none of those people were around anymore. Anyone who might have known his name had died years ago. He watched the traffic light cycle from green to red, and back again, and watched the family of three walk across the street. Off to their life, he thought.

The waitress returned and gave the old man his check. He had finally received his invitation to leave, but still he sat, watching the leaves blow amongst the now-dead trees, wandering into the gutters and alleys and onto the windshields of cars. He turned his attention back inside the restaurant, where a sudden click click click sound was grabbing his attention away from everything else. His eyes darted around the room as he searched for the source of the unrelenting noise. Just as he was growing more and more impatient, he spotted, out of the corner of his eye, a little girl outside. She was repeatedly kicking a lamp post, much to the dismay of her irritated mother. In that moment, for whatever reason, she made eye contact with him. She paused for a moment, and then, like it was the most natural thing in the world, she waved to him. The man smiled and waved back, almost on impulse. Then, the light changed, and they left. He had to get out of here.

He quickly picked up his belongings, and hurried out the door. There he stood, a mere six blocks from his apartment. I’ll be forever grateful, he thought, if I can just get back home without incident. He quickly walked the sidewalks, even stepping into the gutter if someone stepped too close. He peered down at the cracked pavement, examining the discarded band-aids and random plastic, picturing the warm, inviting home that awaited him. Four more blocks. He spotted a young man up ahead of him. He looked lost. Just as this person opened his mouth to ask directions, he let out a loud cough, and kept on going. He felt guilty for a moment, then he turned back, and spotted the man talking to someone else. That made him feel a bit better. He turned the corner and saw his front door.

John C. Reilly on Saturday Night Live tonight!!

Gillo Pontecorvo
1919-2006

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - wow, what a good movie...

"The Question Song"

This was on YouTube's front page the other day. You might've seen it, but if you haven't, it's too good to miss:
"The Question Song"

Movie Theater Goes Dark, Refusing to Show 'Lousy Material'

L.A. Times article

Sven Nykvist
1922-2006

What's on the flip side?

Well, CBS actually did end up showing the 9/11 documentary last night... around midnight. Shame on these guys for chickening out and not showing it at 8 PM.

Articles about this mess:
August 31: CBS To Air Controversial 9/11 Film Without Ads
September 4: Worried CBS Stations Drop 9/11 Film
September 8: CBS's 9/11 Documentary Gets All-Clear

More of that crazy WE channel shit... tonight The Last Seduction was on... I swear, all they'd have to do is stop with the shitty TV movies and it would be like the Sundance Channel or something.
EDIT: After The Last Seduction was Swimming. I think the key is to tune in late at night, and it suddenly becomes a great indie movie channel...

The continuing weirdness of that WE -Women's Entertainment channel:

Not only do they show re-runs of shitty Lifetime TV movies, but they also randomly show great movies once in a while; last month they showed All The Real Girls, and tonight Ghost World was on. This has to be one of the weirdest channels ever.

Ellen Burstyn gets Emmy-nominated for a 14-second performance

This happened a few weeks ago, but it's still fucking insane:

Ellen Burstyn (who is an amazing actress, by the way... Her performance in Requiem for a Dream is easily the best performance by an actress in at least a decade. If you haven't seen the movie, you're really missing out...) has somehow managed to be nominated for a role that is 14-seconds long.

You can watch her entire performance here
and read another article about the whole mess here.

200 Films to See Before You Die

Recently, FilmFour published a list of the "50 Films to See Before You Die" (you can read the article here). The problem with this list - and most of these "best" lists in general - is a combination of two things: First of all, it's much too short. A list of 50 films barely covers anything. Second of all, this list is a little suspect in what it chooses (Erin Brockovich?) and it relies much too heavily on recent films.
So, I took a good half hour and made this list. There's 200 films here, in no particular order. They're spit up into genres, in an attempt to give it some kind of structure. Keep in mind that there are, of course, many many more great films out there, this is just kind of a starting point.

Crime Drama
1. The Godfather Trilogy (1972, 1974, 1990)
2. Goodfellas (1990)
3. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
4. Mean Streets (1973)
5. Heat (1995)
6. High and Low (1963)
7. Badlands (1973)
8. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
9. Rashômon (1950)
10. Breathless (1960)
11. L.A. Confidential (1997)
12. The Usual Suspects (1995)
13. Serpico (1973)
14. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
15. Fargo (1996)

Film Noir
16. Chinatown (1974)
17. The Third Man (1949)
18. M (1931)
19. Double Indemnity (1944)
20. Touch of Evil (1958)
21. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
22. The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Coming-of-age films
23. The 400 Blows (1959)
24. Stolen Kisses (1968)
25. American Graffiti (1973)
26. Dazed and Confused (1993)
27. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
28. The Breakfast Club (1985)
29. Almost Famous (2000)
30. A Christmas Story (1983)
31. Dead Poets Society (1989)
32. My Life as a Dog (1985)
33. Rushmore (1998)
34. Stand By Me (1986)
35. Big (1988)
36. Diner (1982)
37. Ghost World (2000)
38. The Graduate (1967)
39. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

Action/Adventure
40. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
41. Die Hard (1988)
42. The Fugitive (1993)
43. Terminator 2 (1991)
44. Jurassic Park (1993)
45. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Documentaries
46. Hearts and Minds (1974)
47. Hoop Dreams (1994)
48. Roger & Me (1989)
49. The Thin Blue Line (1988)
50. Bowling for Columbine (2002)

Courtroom Dramas
51. 12 Angry Men (1957)
52. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
53. The Verdict (1982)
54. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

War/Holocaust films
55. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
56. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
57. Paths of Glory (1957)
58. Apocalypse Now (1979)
59. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
60. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
61. Das Boot (1981)
62. Coming Home (1978)
63. The Deer Hunter (1978)
64. Platoon (1986)
65. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
66. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
67. Schindler’s List (1993)
68. Life Is Beautiful (1997)
69. The Pianist (2002)

Drama
70. Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
71. Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
72. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
73. Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
74. Breaking the Waves (1996)
75. Dancer in the Dark (2000)
76. The Bicycle Thief (1948)
77. The Lost Weekend (1945)
78. Ordinary People (1980)
79. Taxi Driver (1976)
80. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
81. On the Waterfront (1954)
82. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
83. American Beauty (1999)
84. Seven Samurai (1954)
85. Fanny and Alexander (1982)
86. Wild Strawberries (1957)
87. The Seventh Seal (1957)
88. The Virgin Spring (1960)
89. Persona (1966)

Historical Drama
90. JFK (1991)
91. Apollo 13 (1995)
92. The Last Emperor (1987)
93. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
94. Barry Lyndon (1975)
95. Ran (1985)
96. Malcolm X (1992)

Sports Drama
97. Hoosiers (1986)
98. Rocky (1976)
99. Raging Bull (1980)
100. Rudy (1993)

Multiple-character stories
101. Short Cuts (1993)
102. Boogie Nights (1997)
103. Magnolia (1999)
104. Nashville (1975)

Westerns
105. The Magnificent Seven (1960)
106. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
107. The Searchers (1956)
108. The Wild Bunch (1969)
109. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

About Films/Filmmaking
110. 8½ (1963)
111. Cinema Paradiso (1989)
112. Day for Night (1973)
113. Living in Oblivion (1995)
114. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991)
115. Burden of Dreams (1982)
116. The Player (1992)
117. The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

Science Fiction/Fantasy
118. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
119. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
120. Back to the Future (1985)
121. E.T. (1982)
122. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
123. Ghostbusters (1984)
124. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003)

Horror/Thriller
125. Alien (1979)
126. Carrie (1976)
127. The Birds (1963)
128. Rear Window (1954)
129. Psycho (1960)
130. Vertigo (1958)
131. North By Northwest (1959)
132. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
133. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
134. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
135. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
136. Misery (1990)
137. Deliverance (1972)
138. Evil Dead 2 (1987)
139. The Exorcist (1973)
140. The Shining (1980)
141. Halloween (1978)
142. Jaws (1975)
143. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
144. The Conversation (1974)
145. Marathon Man (1976)

Romance
146. The Apartment (1960)
147. Casablanca (1942)
148. Gone With the Wind (1939)
149. The Goodbye Girl (1977)

Love/Relationships
150. Annie Hall (1977)
151. Manhattan (1979)
152. Before Sunrise (1995)
153. Before Sunset (2004)
154. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
155. High Fidelity (2000)
156. Jules and Jim (1961)

Screwball Comedy
157. The Bad News Bears (1976)
158. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
159. Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)
160. Some Like It Hot (1959)
161. Tootsie (1982)
162. Groundhog Day (1993)
163. My Cousin Vinny (1992)
164. Animal House (1978)
165. The Odd Couple (1968)
166. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

Dark Comedy
167. Fight Club (1999)
168. Welcome to the Dollhouse (1997)
169. Harold and Maude (1971)

REALLY Dark Comedy
170. Blue Velvet (1986)
171. Happiness (1998)
172. Heathers (1989)

Satire
173. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
174. M*A*S*H (1970)
175. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
176. Being There (1979)
177. Brazil (1985)
178. Network (1976)
179. Office Space (1999)
180. The Great Dictator (1940)

Groundbreaking/Controversial films
181. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
182. Do the Right Thing (1989)
183. Boyz N the Hood (1991)
184. Pulp Fiction (1994)
185. Philadelphia (1993)
186. Easy Rider (1969)
187. Citizen Kane (1941)
188. The Jazz Singer (1927)
189. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
190. Last Tango in Paris (1972)
191. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
192. Kids (1995)
193. Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

Experimental/Non-Narrative
194. Days of Heaven (1978)
195. The Thin Red Line (1998)
196. Slacker (1994)

Silent films
197. City Lights (1931)
198. Metropolis (1927)
199. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
200. Nosferatu (1922)

Well... recently, I've put up a whole bunch of new shit on YouTube, so instead of telling you about each thing, I will instead direct you here, where you can look at the new stuff all in one place. Have fun.

I was watching The Fresh Prince of Bel Air tonight...not a strange thing in and of itself... What was strange? Seeing Brad Garrett (pre-Raymond fame) as a burglar. Weird.

John C. Reilly was on Larry King tonight! He was on with Will Ferrell promoting that awful-looking new movie Talladega Nights...
But the best thing: they were both on the show, in character for the entire interview! John C. Reilly, playing a character, improvising, for like an hour... awesome.

Damn, I forgot how great Dancer in the Dark actually is...

Random thought:
Holy shit, Peter Jackson has lost a lot of weight...


1995



2006

Adam Carolla hangs up on Ann Coulter

Those of us who were fans of Loveline already know that Adam is a God... this just confirms it. The set-up is this: Ann Coulter - right-wing nut and Total Bitch - was supposed to call up Adam's morning radio show. Here's the results: Listen Here

The last dim light of hope was there
Although it wasn't really true
His thoughts must lie in deep despair
For now what lingers must be you

Thoughts that clutter, cloud and break
The Nothing Life that still goes on
The seed of spirit slowly takes
Roundabout, and now is gone

How bad, do you suggest, is it
That life has never showed you?
She never really has seemed fit
To admit a stunning view

New members of the Academy

Well, it's that time of year again... the time when the Academy selects some new members to join. As usual, there were some great choices that make total sense (Jake Gyllenhaal!! David Strathairn!! Werner Herzog!! Noah Baumbach!! Lance Acord!!). But as usual, there's more stuff here that doesn't make any sense at all (Mark Waters? The best thing he's done was Mean Girls... But the most insane one is... Dakota Fanning??? She's like 9. She's not even old enough to legally see most of the nominated movies; how is she supposed to vote? Most of the other stuff makes more sense than that, but falls victim to the old rule of: you're nominated, you're basically guaranteed to be invited to join. Most of the list consists of people who've had one or two good films, got nominated last year, and now are on.
Anyways, here's the whole list here. Now you can read it and also wonder what the hell is going on...

Anybody looking for a way to waste an hour or two?
This is one of my favorite sites ever... it's called "X-Entertainment", and I've known about it for around six months now. Basically, the site consists of this guy who talks about lots of different things from his youth: from movies and toys, to candy and food... you might as well call this thing Nostalgia Central. It's a really funny trip back in time for any kid that grew up in the 80's and early 90's. He's been doing this thing for years, so just type in your favorite movie or TV show or anything else from that time period into the search bar at the bottom, and you're bound to find something that you recognize from your childhood.
This guy seriously has all kinds of amazing shit on his site; he even has old commercials from the 80's on there, and all kinds of bad movie reviews (i.e. funny reviews of really bad movies), so you're likely to find something entertaining, no matter what age you are.
X-Entertainment.com

Random thought:
I was just listening to Brad Pitt on the Fight Club commentary track - he's actually a pretty intelligent guy...