It didn't take much persuasion by a friend of mine to get me to see Paper Heart last week. "What's the movie called? Paper Heart? ...Wait it has that crazy awkward Asian girl (CharlyneYi) from Knocked Up in it along with George-Michael Bluth himself, THE Michael Cera? I'm in!" The very notion of these two nebbish characters joining their forces within a single film, much less one recounting the story of their true-life courtship, is brilliant. As you may imagine, the film stars Yi as a charming, quirky yet lovable up and coming comedienne/actress opposite of Jake Johnson, playing the film's director and Yi's friend Nick Jasenovec. Their mission is simple: Yi, who claims to not believe in love, will put her convictions to the test as she and Nick film a documentary and interview subjects all across the country. Her assumptions about love are put to the test when she meets Cera (playing the same character he plays in every film/TV show...at least this will hold me over until more Arrested Development) and a delicate romance begins to blossom between the two, all while the cameras are rolling in the background.
What unfolds is a very clever "mockumentary" that deftly blurs the line between reality and fiction. The film's most touching moments are its When Harry Met Sally style recounts of how various people met and fell in love. We hear the stories as shared by the couples themselves and view them not as a pure dramatizations, but rather in the form of playful dioramas that Yi seemingly created herself (see above picture for an example). One of the film's most laugh out loud moments came on a playground in the deep South, where 7 year olds quite literally lectured and interviewed Yi about love and dating ("...best date you ask? Hot wings at Applebees!"), exposing at least one child that is destined to be television's next Bob Eubanks or Bob Barker. Yi also interviews some of her celebrity friends regarding their views on true love, namely the hilarious Seth Rogen and Demetri Martin.
Coming off of seeing (500) Days of Summer just one week prior, I may have become a little indie'd out, but that said the movie's tone of quirky optimism makes you leave the theater beaming no matter how much you try to the contrary. Unlike (500) Days, which impressed with both its complex writing and cinematography, Paper Heart benefits from Yi and Jasenovec's simple structure and premise, a serene soundtrack (mostly penned by Yi and Cera), and its charming naivete. Paper Heart makes for a compassionate and hilarious summer diversion in which Yi and Cera take you along for the ride of their lives, documenting (or mockumenting?) the very roots of their budding relationship.
To all (now apparently 5) of my loyal readers, an explanation for my absence. Well, there was that whole "passing med school thing" from April through May, in which every week we had a final or midterm every week. Then there was that job I got telecommuting/tutoring this kid in prep school in Massachusetts (btw, best $45/hour I'll ever earn, love multitasking on YouTube). There was that awesome Spring Break in PuntaCana, where I won $5 at Blackjack (coming out ahead $305 in total compared to where I expected to be), read Pride and Prejudice for the first time, and witnessed a classmate of mine wearing a terrible banana hammock. Then there was the epic Scrubs farewell post that I had planned for, oh I don't know, ONE YEAR, and then I find out that they're bringing back the show without Zach Braff next year, come on! I had my closure and then they just yanked it away. But my greatest hurdle over the past few months has been my epic failure to compile my Unified Theory of Nazis in Film whereby I am able to predict, with stark accuracy, the box office potential and critical reception of a film based on the number of Nazis that die in the film. You see, I first postulated Price's First Hypothesis on Nazis about a year ago. I made the observation that the two Indiana Jones flicks in which Nazis were the main protagonists (just check out these scenes from Raiders and Last Crusade) both outperformed at the box office and boded better with critics than Temple of Doom (the new one, which grossed some ungodly amount of money, I will not even legitimize in this discussion as it was so awful). Then I thought about other films in which Nazis make a nefarious appearance: there are my beloved Sherlock Holmes movies, American History X (ok...neo-Nazis too), Enemy at the Gates, Downfall, American History X, Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, Cabaret, Defiance, The Great Dictator, and Casablanca.
According to this logic, you could have understood my rabid appetite for Quentin Tarantino's upcoming Inglorious Basterds, in which a band of Jewish soldiers exact blood-thirsty revenge upon hundreds of Nazis in WWII France. Similarly, now I could understand why (besides that whole Tom Cruise as the lead actor thing) why Valkyriewas doomed to failure from the start, not only did they not kill enough Nazis, but they failed to kill THE Nazi in charge.
As sound as I believed my hypothesis was however, I was troubled by another startling observation that I made, dubbed Price's Second Nazi Hypothesis, whereby I noticed that despite the failure of Nazis to die in certain films (The Pianist, Schindler's List, and Sophie's Choice being prime examples), the emotional impact of the pain that they cause seems to be correlated with their success. I was therefore forced to attempt to reconcile my two conflicting theories, and I squandered for months, until I gave up at the end of classes, approximately 4 weeks ago. It seems that I was doomed to fail to create my Grand Unified Theory of Nazis in Film just as Einstein failed to devise his Grand Unified Theory reconciling electromagnetism with his theory of general relativity.
In any event, many apologies for the absence, and as a sign of my regret, please accept these ten Scrubs clips as a sign of my regret. They should have been posted in ABC knew to just let sleeping dogs lie and not renew the show.
"This is not a love story. This is a story about love." Each of the many times that I have been prodded by a friend to describe (500) Days of Summer, I found myself resorting to this simple, albeit wholly accurate, synopsis of the film's themes and plot. This is not a love story so much as it is the story of Tom's (portrayed by 10 Things'/3rd Rock's Joseph Gordon-Levitt) agonizing journey from love at first site with Summer (get it? played by Zooey Deschanel) to post-relationship existential crisis to his ultimate recovery while along the way learning about the reality of love and relationships. The story unfolds in an Annie Hall-like, non-linear fashion, jumping between early "days" and late "days" (marked by screen placards) in his relationship with Summer, showing both the good and the bad, the shaky legs upon which the relationship first stood and then how easily they were cut out from beneath it. But to come away from that brief description with the assumption that the film as at all depressing, you would be quite wrong. In fact, you leave the film with a effervescent sense of happiness, pure and simple, as Tom finally gets his break.
(500) Days was brilliantly directed by feature film newcomer Marc Webb. As it turns out, Webb made his name in the film industry by directing music videos for a variety of major musical acts, everything from Daniel Powter to Diddy to Backstreet Boys (check out the video section of his website), and this background shines time and time again throughout the film. Whether it be a Disney style dance number with an animated robin, a Take On Me-esque pencil sketch sequence, a sequence showing Tom post-breakout that was highly reminiscent of Powter's Bad Day video, and a truly heart wrenching sequence showing side by side Tom's "Expectation" and "Reality" play out at a party. Webb also uses several techniques that harks back to the French New Wave, including a sequence with a French narrator in which Tom watches his story unfold before his eyes, and by splicing scenes from The Graduate into specific parts of the film to add emotional urgency. The inclusion of scenes from The Graduate immediately brought to mind not just Dustin Hoffman and Mrs. Robinson, but also Garden State, another film that not as overtly referenced the classic and a film to which (500) Dayshas already drawn much comparison.
In addition to Webb's playful, yet emotional, direction were the strong performances by JGL and ZD. JGL has quite noticeably matured a ways since his 10 Things past, and he has also lightened up his act since the teen-neo-noir Brick. He played both dimensions of his character with ease, as both the awkward, idealistic lover searching for excuses to talk to his crush and the cynical, misanthropic shell of a character that was left raw immediately following their breakup. As for ZD, I am convinced that the whole palette of the film may have been chosen to match her eyes and a particular sun dress that she wore to a scene set in Ikea of all places. We quickly find, however, that her disarming beauty conceals a very complicated, maybe selfish, maybe manipulative, maybe confused, but certainly emotionally walled off Summer. See what your opinion of her character is and how it changes as more and more days unfold, I think that the development, while subtle, is implicit in understanding why Tom fell for Summer in the first place.
Complemented by a stellar soundtrack featuring songs by Regina Spektor and The Smiths, (500) Days is the most beautiful film I've seen in quite a while, and the first to capture the same emotional sentiment evoked by Garden State five years ago now. Speaking of GState, be sure to look out for two legendary supporting roles played by Geoffrey Arend (GState's Karl, the pyramid scheme guy) and Matthew Gubler (an intern in The Life Aquatic). (500) Days will be a pleasure to watch, from the "sunny" optimism of Day 1 to the ending conceit of Day 500.
No your eyes are not deceiving you. Robert Downey Jr. is set to play the most bad ass, abdominal rippling, super stylized re-imagining of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary Sherlock Holmes since the misanthropic and crippled Gregory House. I've had the idea for this post percolating for quite a while so I am taking advantage of my brief respite from exams to make the most of it. The upcoming film, set for release next November, will be directed by former Madonna Flame and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels director Guy Ritchie and will feature Jude Law as sidekick Dr. Watson and Rachel McAdams as "The Woman" aka Irene Adler. What's the plot? Well I have no idea but just look at Downey Jr! Knowing that Irene Adler, Holme's only potential love interest in the canonical literature, is set to be a character, maybe things start to get personal and Holmes has to lay down the law old school style with his fists as well as his brains. Either way, with such a strong cast and cult-favored director, I have high expectations for this film.
That said, however, the new Holmes flick represents a radical departure from the Sherlock Holmes films of yore, helmed by such legendary actors as Sir Basil Rathbone in a string of films in the 1930s-1940s. No longer, perhaps, will Holmes so elegantly and demurely puff at his Calabash and explain his "elementary" logic to his adoring fans as he apprehends Britain's most ruthless criminals. As much as recent revamps such as the Batman franchise have turned darker and more ominous, in a sense all Christopher Nolan had to do was to update the grim Gotham universe that Tim Burton conceived 16 years ago for a new generation of movie-goers. As much as I would love to see the notion of genius stylized on film, I can't help but worry that the incorporation of a literal ass-kicking Holmes may somehow taint the charm that the character had always had for me.
Not only that, but in my mind I will always miss the Sherlock Holmes who I grew up with on film, as my family had all of the Rathbone-Bruce films on VHS at home. I loved the films growing up as an extension of my love for all of the Conan Doyle short stories I had read even earlier, for Rathbone's now prototypical portrayal of the iconic character, and most of all for Bruce's comic relief as an inaccurately bumbling Dr. Watson. As I grew older however, particularly once I began studying diplomatic history in college, I grew to love the films for a new reason. You see, although the first two films in the series were set in Victorian England, as were the original novels and serials, the remainder of the series was itself "revamped" to take place in contemporary (read 1939-1945, WWII ravaged) Great Britain. Once I began actually learning about the history of the era, I noticed all of the references not just to the war as a backdrop to the films' setting, but I noticed the blatant propaganda that the producers must have injected into the films against Germany and for the UK, US, and Canada.
Take, for example, this clip (skip to 4:00) from the end of The Voice of Terror, a film based heavily upon the experience of Nazi radio propagandist Lord Haw-Haw. Not only does Holmes refer to the recent Battle of Britain, but at the end there is even an advertisement for war bonds to help subsidize the effort against the Nazis. Similarly, in the later Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon, Holmes defeats a now Nazi-sympathizing Professor Moriarty to again save Britain in the face of annihilation (skip to 8:30). In another film set in Washington DC, Holmes also goes on to quote PM Churchill's oratory delivered to the US Congress stressing the need for the world's great democracies to protect the freedom of the world (skip to 8:45).
Even those who don't have an unhealthy obsession with ancient Sherlock Holmes movies have likely seen similar overtly propagandistic scenes in classic film. The most famous film I can think of is Casablanca, released in late 1942 at the height of German expansion in Europe. Not only does the film plainly depict the freedom fighter Victor Laszlo as a hero, but the film also takes some below the belt jibes at the Nazis while they're at it. There's that time when Laszloinstructs Rick's orchestra to drown out the Nazi national anthem with the Marseillaise. And how about when Captain Renault throws out the bottle of Vichy water at the very end (skip to 5:00)?
During WWII, in fact, the US commissioned some of the era's greatest directors to produce military indoctrination and propaganda videos for the nation. The most famous of whom, Frank Capra, produced a slew of films and shorts that have become textbook examples of propaganda, namely Why We Fight (clip here), Know Your Enemy: Japan, and Your Job in Germany. Even children's cartoons of the era made vicious fun of the Japanese enemies at the time and likely played into some of the most egregious (yet also so bad they're good) examples of racial stereotyping in film: Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's and the infamous Long Duk Dong of Sixteen Candles fame.
So what has become of propaganda in mass market film in America? Well the US agency in charge of placing propaganda was dissolved in 1999 (great timing right?) and by no means did Watergate or the Vietnam War experience help matters. In fact, throughout the course of the war there was only one film that positively portrayed the struggle in Vietnam, John Wayne's The Green Berets (the closing song, which is worth a listen, was even a hit single). Contrasting with The Green Berets is a whole genre of films representing America's national catharsis with respect to the Vietnam War, some of the most famous of which may be Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, Born on the 4th of July, and Platoon. This trend continues today even, as movie executives have learned the hard way that, just as one should never get involved in a land war in Asia, you should never set a film in the Middle East lest it suffer at the box office. Case in point? See The Kingdom, Jarhead, and Body of Lies just for a few. Just imagine though what the impact on public opinion could have been during the Bush administration if there were a centralized force disseminating pro-war material to all outlets of the media. Would we have accepted it? Would our views on the war have changed? Well I don't know about that, but I can tell you for a fact that Israel is milking its propaganda for all its worth, and I can promise you that young men the world over are all about the what Israeli Defense Forces are doing for its nation and for democracy and freedom in Middle East...or at least they're really into the women of the IDF.
I figured that I would just embed that video as a reward for any men that made it to the end of this beast of a post. Women, I'll keep my eye out for a men of the IDF calendar for you.
PS. Seriously!? The week after I say how wholesome guests on Sesame Street are Chris Brown had to go and beat the living daylights out of Rihanna before the Emmys? Come on!
I have to admit that, not counting the important stuff, and second to getting onto Jeopardy! of course, one of my greatest life goals is to be asked to make a guest appearance on Sesame Street. Why? Well I figure that to get onto Sesame Street you've got to be pretty famous and the producers must think you're wholesome enough to be a role model for millions of kids that watch the show everyday. Now that I think of it, maybe I could parlay an epic 76 episode win streak on Jeopardy! into an appearance on the show....(insert Scrubs style daydream here)...
Back to the point though, being a guest on Sesame Street is really about a lot of different factors. More than any other children's show in history, Sesame Street always sought not only to engage its "target" audience of pre-kindergartners at home that still need to learn their letters and numbers, Street's producers have also always sought to engage parents as well. Before Shrek made telling adult jokes in children's media popular, Sesame Street had long played off of pop culture icons and parodies in order to make the show appealing for parents as well. Why bother? Well producers figured that by engaging parents and siblings in their children's educational process that they would be able to amplify the educational goals of the show. Besides, do 4 year-olds really know who "bookaneer" Tina Fey is? Do they realize that that is actually Feistteaching you how to count to the number 4? And my lord, do they realize that the world's greatest magician is teaching them tricks...I mean illusions! In the same manner that pioneered ways to get kids to actually watch their half hour long program (they tested if targeted audiences were interested by playing a video of a squirrel dancing on the corner of the screen, how cool?), producers also realized that the pop-culture cameo can do the same to hold parents' attention spans as well.
A long time ago, while I attended a high school not so far away, there was once an existence without The OC. Then I remember being in the mall (yes, remember when that's all we had to do with ourselves?) and seeing a gigantic billboard with nothing but a beach sunset, a surfer, and a tag line emblazoned across the wall opposite the movie theater. Little did I know that that show would ultimately redefine the prime time-soap genre and make being a smart, nerdy, indy-music loving, pop-culture laden Jew cool again (or maybe for the first time, either way I'm all for it). And I'll even go so far as to say that season 1 of The OC was genius; I dare you to defy me (Annabiotics? Genius!). The fact of the matter is that, for at least one season, The OC had some of the wittiest banter on television and a semi-believable premise with well-written characters. But I digress... it appears that I am not alone in my respect for The OC, for Andy Samberg has now proven to me in multiple ways that a little part of him too died when the show jumped the shark/nuked the fridge. Thanks to my ravenous love of Scrubs I couldn't help but notice that a particular web series on Andy's Lonely Island website featured none other than Sarah Chalke/Dr. Eliot Reid herself. The show? Why The 'Bu of course. You see, that's what young kids call Malibu now...or so says the series' tag line at least. The series is funny mostly for all of the tropes of teen soaps, dramas, and comedies of which it spoofs, in addition to some hilarious gags, most notably Frazzles the Squirrel's use of 3D glasses in episode 1 (trust me on that one).
As good as The 'Buis, however, I was even more surprised to see that it is not alone among his OC riffing repertoire. Last season on SNL, Shia LaBoeuf guest starred in one of the greatest digital shorts of all time, Dear Sister, submitted for your approval below.
For comparison, the original source material is online here. The main gags here of course are just the farcical nature of the clip itself paired with its apt parody of the above-referenced love for indy artists (here Imogen Heap, also of Garden State soundtrack fame, though you may know here there as Frou Frou) by shows such as TheOC.
Thankfully, we will not be running out of source material to parody any time soon either. Though The OC may have gone the way of the VCR, its spawn certainly have not. Not to get all "nodal" on you again, but let's think of what The OC and its creator, Josh Schwartz, have given us. There is it-show of the moment Gossip Girl, quirky spy-spoof Chuck, the Laguna Beach-Newport Harbor-The Hills-The City mega complex that airs on MTV, and even Baldwin Hills on BET (who knew?). The OC also popularized Death Cab for Cutie, Rooney, and countless other indy rock acts and enabled many to become mainstream successes (I mean come on, they dedicated an entire episode to attending a Rooney concert!). So enjoy all that The OC has given you and be thankful. And while you're at it, maybe watch The 'Bu also, it's pretty sweet.
PS- Sorry for the delay in posting, but I still do have to pass all of my classes here...And if you like Arrested Development skip to 4:00 in the following episode, love it.
Unfortunately I think the episode is rather pedestrian with rather unspectacular songs. But if this is what it take to get Mel and Murray back after the Crazy Dogs...well I'll take it. Enjoy, hopefully.
First off, apologies for the lack of posts for the past few weeks. Anatomy finals and tropical vacations have a way of cutting into your free computer time.
Now to the real business, which I have been planning to address for some time now. Over the past few years there have been two consistent trends in television. These are 1) Soaring cable ratings, and 2) Withering network ratings. Paired with the screen writer's strike last television season the net outcome has been devastating to network television as we all know and love it. For the most part, cable networks, with their repeat (CSI or Law and Order Marathons anybody?) and reality (Real Housewives of [name your city], The Laguna Hills City or whatever MTV airs, etc) weathered the storm well with ratings soaring and ad revenues continuing to flow in, many even showing record growth this past year. This is juxtaposed, however, by the catastrophic effects on the creative engines of network television. Not only did the writer's strike halt new episodes of already popular shows, but it prevented new series from ever being able to develop a fan base, and, quite noticeably this season, prevented new pilots and creative outlets to be developed.
The net result of these combined factors have been mixed. Okay, besides enabling Scrubs to be picked up for another season due to the fact that ABC cannot come up with a single halfway decent comedy show on its own, they're actually all bad. The most telling of all these signs, however, is Jay Leno's reassignment by NBC to the 10PM time slot, 5 days a week, in prime-time. What this means, in short, is that NBC has conceded the fact that it is unable to afford to develop or fund original programming for fully 1/3 of its weekly primetime schedule. The 10PM time slot has not yielded a bonafide hit since ER 14 years ago now and it's worth it to them to just pay Leno a fraction of the money it costs to otherwise operate that time (but still, $30M isn't too shabby for Leno) and to just rake in the ad revenue from whatever audience happens to tune in. No more "Must See TV", no more programming blocks, no more relying on a lead-in or lead-out show to anchor an entire night's worth of programming. NBC is acknowledging that the old model of network television simply does not work anymore. With the advent of DVR, internet, Hulu, torrents, and DVDs people watch shows because they are good, not because they're on after Friends.
This is one reason that explains precisely why cable networks have been so successful in capturing new audiences and develop ping shows. First, they invest intelligently in well-written, well budgeted dramas or comedies, such as Mad Men in the case of AMC or Monk in the case of USA. Second, they rerun them like it's their job to keep you watching and abreast of what is happening in the showsstory lines so that new viewers can actually pick up mid-season. Third, they can focus on specific niches, for example TBS as the center for comedy and TNT for drama. It is this type of specialization that initially allowed cable channels to compete with network programming and now, thanks to the rapid proliferation of original programming on cable, has finally begun to cannibalize the audience of the big network channels. By trying to play a little bit to all audiences but completely to none, network television has effectively completed itself out of the business that it created. Leno at 10PM means network television finally can read the writing on the wall.
Of course we'll still have Lost and American Idol and all of the other shows people currently love on the big channels. But the hits will likely become fewer and far between as less money is available to finance expensive pilots and as networks begin to re-brand themselves within the context of their mini-cable empires (for example the NBC-Bravo-USA family or CBS-Viacom or ABC-ESPN-Disney), more equally sharing original programming between the existing channels. This does not mean the end of quality television. Only the end of television as we knew it growing up.
Okay, I take it back...I don't wish that I became a food critic when I was 12. At least not if it meant I would come off like this kid does. And really, a critic talking directly to the owner/chef of the restaurant he is reviewing? Come on.
is, quite simply put, a critical node in the development of the action genre. I bring this film up in particular because I was just discussing it with some friends with reference to the films of some other "greats" such as Jean-Claude Van Damme. So how exactly is this 1986 Hong-Kong film at the root of some of today's most influential and popular films?
Well for starters, up until the release of ABT Chinese-imported films were on the map pretty much because of one man and the genre he defined: Bruce Lee and the kung-fu flick. Outside of that genre however, America (probably for good reason) had little interest in anything else from across the ocean. That is, until director John Woo came along. Woo drew from and updated diverse influences, be they the hardboiled detectives of film noir such as Sam Spade, classic Chinese tropes such as heroic bloodshed, the gangster flicks of Martin Scorsese, or the kung-fu film itself. By switching out physcial prowess for pistols and explosions, however, Woo founded a new genre of film, gun fu, and a modern age of action films was born.
So where would we be without ABT? Well, there would be no international moviestarChow Yun Fat and who knows if Crouching Tigercould have been the same otherwise. Woo's career wouldn't have taken off either, as he went on the make several other HK classics such as Hardboiledand The Killer, and also American hits such as Face-Off and Mission Impossible-II. The revenge genre would not have arisen, meaning no Oldboy for Park Chan-wook or Mexico Trilogy (or breakthrough) for Roberto Rodriguez. Without the bullet flying and gun-toting antics of Fat and his costars, the inspirations behind the fight choreography behind pivotal films such as The Matrix would be absent as well (let's add the careers of Keanu Reeves and Larry and Andy Wachowski for good measure too). The film once again made HK and Chinese film cool and paved the way for the re-emergence of classical kung fun films such as Jet Li's Once Upon a Time in China and Jackie Chan's Rumble in the Bronx. As the film no doubt opened the way for other HK gangster flick's such as Infernal Affairs, without ABT we also would never have had The Departed, or for that matter Marty still would be Oscar-less.
I could go on, really, but I think enough is enough. Watch the clip below to see the scene that in my opinion redefined a generation of action films.
The Beets: A rock band, composed of Monroe Yoder; Wendy Nespott; Chap Lippman; and Flounder, clearly based on both The Beatles (in name and somewhat Scouse accents) and The Ramones (in appearance and sound) with bits of The Smashing Pumpkins as well (in outlook and contemporariness), that Doug and Skeeter are big fans of, later breaks up, and go solo in the Disney version. The band's last album was titled Let It Beet, with an album cover parodying both the Beatles' Let It Be and The Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed. Songs The Beets produced include: "Killer Tofu", "I Need Mo' Allowance", "Where's My Sock?", and "You Gotta Shout Your Lungs Out". Numerous episodes involve Doug and Skeeter pursuing tickets to the band's concerts, or the band members themselves. The band's original name was "The Pickled Beets", a possible reference to the Beatles originally being known as "The Silver Beetles". Their first #1 single was "I Sneezed On My Face". The band has developed a cult following with original viewers of the show. The band's popularity reached an all-time high with "Beet Mania" (clearly a reference to Beatlemania). In addition, Doug once won tickets to a Beets concert through a radio contest, after Skeeter absent-mindedly named (correctly) one of the Beets' albums ( in witch a Tiny image of Chap lipman's gall bladder surgery is hidden ), Beets Me.
And now, the anthology:
And just for fun, Doug's premier single: Banging on a Trashcan
-After the initial shock wore off and I successfully fought the urge to vomit, I realized that Andy Samberg's latest digital short is actually pretty funny, if extremely lewd. Mostly though I just love the cameos from Jamie Lynn Siegler (currently dating Entourage's Turtle of all people), Molly Sims, and JT (!?, as the cleanup in aisle 3 guy).
-With only a month and a half to go, the premiere of Lost Season 5 is imminent. How better to rejoice than with a 2 minute promo segment from the 1st episode, "Because You Left". If you must there are also plenty of spoiler videos surfacing with plenty of predictions for the season as well.
-When I was in college I had an arch-nemesis. My nemesis was one of my closest friend's best friend. She enjoyed making fun of me in languages, namely Hindi, that I could not understand and generally made me look like an idiot at every potential opportunity. Though she certainly got on my nerves, the title of nemesis was honorific and playful, I just don't have the heart to actually dislike anybody that much. So please understand what I mean when I say I hate Bobby Flay. Nothing against his food, or probably even his real life personality. But the man's on-air ego I just cannot stand. Flay bases all of his shows (Iron Chef, Throwdown!) on the premise that he is G-d's gift to mankind and a culinary superstar. Not just that, but his ego even prompted a cross cultural hubbub after he finally succeeded in beating Iron Chef Morimoto on the original Japanese Iron Chef. So hopefully you can understand why I was so tickled to see that I am not alone in my sentiments. I'm just waiting for the day that I bump into Flay on the street and challenge him to a throwdown...
PS: Be on the lookout for a Full House re-vamp helmed by John Stamos. Somebody must be nearing bankruptcy...lucky for him though poor is in this season.
Three weeks ago I wrote about my anticipation and the buzz surrounding the newly released Slumdog Millionaire. Through a series of flashbacks evoked by a tortuous police interrogation surrounding his alleged cheating, the film recounts the story of Jamal, a Muslim orphan hustling for a living in the slums of Bombay, and how he came to be just one question away from the 20 million rupee prize on India's most popular game show. To say that all of my expectations were met would be an understatement. Director Danny Boyle weaves an intricate narrative that ties together the most poignant scenes from Jamal's life and plays out as a type of modern day fairy tale about the power of true love and determination. That said, however, do not confuse this movie for a candy-sweet Disneyesque fable. Rather, interspersed among the film's most touching moments are glimpses of man at his worst and most desperate. These roles in the film are assumed by Jamal's older brother Salim, a tenacious, though arrogant and corrupt teen that robs Jamal of one prize after the next, a deranged orphanage leader, and even Millionaire's host, an envious former-slumdog loathe to see another pauper rise to fame and fortune himself. Boyle puts the viewer on the edge of his seat at multiple points throughout the movie as the sheer dramatic force of the movie draws you in and makes you cringe at the disaster possibly awaiting the protagonists.
The film is also stunningly shot, with beautiful panormas of the emerging Bombay skyline, the Taj Mahal, and the Indian countryside shot with gorgeously filtered cinematography to highlight the full pallete of India's diversity. The acting is all top notch, I even read that Boyle bestowed co-director status to his Indian casting director for her invaluable contribution to the film. In addition, actress Freida Pinto plays Jamal's love interest Latika with an effortless grace, not to mention beauty. Current events aside, the film plays out as a symbol of the promise that Bombay holds for all its people, slumdogs included, not to mention as a postcard trying to draw foreigners to the country. Slumdog is certainly the best film I've seen in theaters (excluding Dark Knight...a very different beast indeed) for a few years at the least. See Slumdog for yourself and see for yourself how Jamal won the millions, if he cheated, if fate can bring true lovers together, and to see what a quality film looks like. Expect best director and film nods at the least, not to mention casting.
-So while I was home for Thanksgiving break my dad asked me to help him out in the kitchen. What was my job? "Help me flip the bird would you? It's gotta cook on the other side." My dad and I stared at each other for a few seconds and then gave each other the finger and laughed. It was touching, really.
-Also while I was home my brother expounded the virtues of Mr. Kanye West to me. A while back I commented on how I was skeptical of his use of autotune, a criticism that I do not feel was unwarranted, though it does certainly seem like everybody and their mother is utilizing the technique these days. That said? 808s and Heartbreaks actually sounded pretty decent, mostly because it is such a departure from Kanye's other material. More beat versus hook oriented, more spoken than sung. Not to mention the fact that the two videos released thus far are both very impressive (though I still think of Richard Linklater when I see rotoscoped film) -Love Lockdown -Heartless
-Everybody! Now that Thanksgiving is over we are on the dawn of America's next great holiday! Get out your Santa yarmulkas!
-In my long running commentary against "urban loneliness", I can now claim the support on NY Magazine, owing to a very detailed investigative piece they recently completed. Though NYC may have the highest number of people living alone and isolated in other supposed ways, all indicators regarding true emotional isolation point to our being pretty sane after all.
-And one more thing. Can we just talk about Plaxico Burres for a second? I saw a headline yesterday: Burres Shoots Himself in the Foot. "Okay," I figure. The Giants must be 10-2 and lost another game thanks to some dropped catches of his. When my friend told me that, no, Burres did not drop any catches, but instead just shot himself in the thigh...I walked away in embarrassment for Burres. To shame...
Not that there have already been years of speculation about an upcoming movie (and it's certainly not as if we were promised one in its last episode), but is an Arrested Development movie finally upon us? I'm hoping so, but still very skeptical. The fan base is too devoted, I'm hoping at least, for them to trot out some sorry script and just try and make money off of it (though, ironically, this would be a reason to just make the movie regardless). If the quality of writing per episode is any indication of how smart the movie will be though, I plan on being able to watch at least 6 times before I catch all the jokes in there.
As a bonus, look for Turk from Scrubs and Buster from Arrested in this sweet Fall Out Boy video. I bet Buster learned those moves in Army Hero Training!
If somebody had turned me onto being a food critic as early as this kid, it's very possible that this blog would be on the NY Times web page and medical school would have been solely an afterthought in my mind. I'm impressed by such a young kid eating tripe! I didn't eat offal until I was 21 at least. Also, as reported earlier here, "Milkofuku" is supposed to be a huge hit, so I will be making my pilgrimage there soon...
In today's nostalgia series, I give you The Sandlot. Never has there been a better sports/growing up movie to which we all could relate any better. Who hasn't gotten into a pickle before anyways? And who remembers when the worst insult you could actually get was being told you can't play ball? And who didn't want to buy some PF Fliers just so they could run like Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez? And who can make smores ever again without laughing and thinking of Ham Porter (well I can't at the least). Wendy Peffercorn, we salute you. (that's what she said?)
-New in Oscar buzz this week is a film that I initially wrote off because I thought the title was ridiculous. Slumdog Millionaire? But as it turns out, I was very wrong, and I could not be happier. In a season where I've yet to see a standout, potential Best Picture nominee film (excluding Wall-e of course) I am intrigued by and anxious to see the plot of the film unfold. In short, Slumdog is about an Indian slum resident that makes it onto India's Who Wants to be a Millionaire equivalent, cheats, wins big, and is caught. In the process of his interrogation, director Danny Boyle weaves the intricate story of the main character's life in the slums of crime ridden, corruption addled Mumbai. Not only are initial reviews for both the film and director stellar, but the plot and narrative devices evoke Fernando Mereilles'sCidadedeDeus. Cidaderecounts a very similar narrative of an aspiring photographer reflecting on his own upbringing in the slums of Rio De Janiero and was itself a highly praised film. Keep your eye out on this film, and I'll be trying to see it myself asap.
-In terms of laughs at least, Thursday's Office was relatively low key. For all that Jim/Pam tension, it all resolved very quickly, something is up with that. But...Michael confronting the CFO over Holly shows continued growth for his character AND Holly is still signed for one more episode. Let's hope she'll be back for at least that episode. Classic line of the night though was Ryan, now unhappily back with Kelly, laments, "I realized that for whatever reason, I just can't do better than Kelly," as Kelly beamed giddily next to him. Also, keep your eye out for this season's online exclusivewebisode series, The Outburst. -I am disappointed, though certainly not surprised, to be hearing from friends and reading reviews left and right about the failure of Quantum of Solace to live up to Casino Royale'sreinvigoration of the Bond franchise. The problem actually seems to be stemming from what I thought the solution to the farcical nature of the latter Brosnan Bond flick's was, which is to say, make Bond more like Bourne. Without a doubt all three of the Matt Damon films trumped the three pre-Royale Bond films in action, cinematography, writing, and acting and they reminded us what a taught spy thriller was supposed to be like. Then Casino Royale came along, drew from the dark aspects of the Bournefranchise (not to mention Batman Begins) and sucked us all back into the world of 007. From these reviews, however, it seems they've taken to this tactic too far, depriving Bond of some of the kitsch and campiness it was known for. You know, asking for his martini, picking up chicks with funny names, all those double entendres. I've yet to see the film for myself (and I will see it) but I am hoping that this new Bond universe, complete with interconnected, plot driven story lines will more thoroughly endear itself to fans in the next installment.
It didn't take much persuasion by a friend of mine to get me to see Paper Heart last week. "What's the movie called? Paper Heart? ...Wait it has that crazy awkward Asian girl (Charlyne Yi) from Knocked Up in it along with George-Michael Bluth himself, THE Michael Cera? I'm in!" The very notion of these two nebbish characters joining their forces within a single film, much less one recounting the story of their true-life courtship, is brilliant. As you may imagine, the film stars Yi as a charming, quirky yet lovable up and coming comedienne/actress opposite of Jake Johnson, playing the film's director and Yi's friend Nick Jasenovec. Their mission is simple: Yi, who claims to not believe in love, will put her convictions to the test as she and Nick film a documentary and interview subjects all across the country. Her assumptions about love are put to the test when she meets Cera (playing the same character he plays in every film/TV show...at least this will hold me over until more Arrested Development) and a delicate romance begins to blossom between the two, all while the cameras are rolling in the background. 
