Childhood Fear

On this week's IFC News Podcast, Matt and Allison discussed movies targeted towards children that are actually very frightening and also other things that scared them as children. It got me thinking about what I saw when I was young that freaked me out. It was this music video:



Around 1998, I was probably 8 years old and a latchkey kid. I would come home from school to an empty house and watch music videos. I loved MTV back then. They played Eagle Eye Cherry (anyone remember him?) and Green Day and (since I lived in Europe) lots of Aqua. Sometimes however, they would play the Massive Attack "Teardrop" music video. At the time, I didn't know what the song was because I was to frightened to watch the video. The plastic baby singing in the womb and the fluids surrounding it and the close ups of its eyes and small moving mouth. Ahhhhh! It scared me so much. Watching it now, it's totally harmless, but it was emotionally scarring for me at the age of 8.

Interestingly, only a few months ago did I find out that it was the music video for "Teardrop." The House theme song? A song I actually really enjoy and was even my ringtone for a while? Wow.

81st Academy Awards Nominations

[List of Nominations]

The Academy has released its list of nominations for the films of 2008. Their choices, frankly, are disappointing. It's hard to expect much from the people who gave an Oscar to "honest to blog" and they are continuing to disappoint.

Firstly, Rachel Getting Married received the biggest snub this year. When the film was first released there was talk of it potentially being nominated for Best Picture and it almost certainly getting a nomination for Best Screenplay. What happened between now and then? There is no Best Picture nomination nor one for Best Screenplay. Jenny Lumet, the writer of this film, deserves an award. The dialogue is sharp and natural. There were few cliches lines and some moments cut so close to the bone for anyone with a family. The more I read about this film the more I realize that nothing is a coincidence in its script. The bi-racial Lumet's inclusion of an interracial couple was no coincidence and I'm starting to think that maybe the relationship between the two sister resembles her relationship with her older sister, Amy. At the very least, Anne Hathaway was recognized (even if Rosemarie Dewitt has better).

Secondly, isn't Slumdog Millionaire getting just a little too much love? The film is entertaining and totally watchable but also shallow and sentimental. It played to me like Disney film. The heroes are always good and the villains are very evil. The love story is very cliched. Why exactly are these two destined to be together? It's never quite explained. When watching this at parts I felt like I was seeing a watered down City of God. Thinking back on it, there's very little there in terms of subtext or depth of the script. A movie doesn't deserve such recognition for being entertaining and visually appealing.

P.S. The Wrestler received little attention here either. It should have been a candidate for Best Picture.

Here are my (totally biased) picks for who should win in each major category.

Performance by an actor in a leading role

• Richard Jenkins in “The Visitor” (Overture Films)
• Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon” (Universal)
• Sean Penn in “Milk” (Focus Features)
• Brad Pitt in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
• Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler” (Fox Searchlight)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

• Josh Brolin in “Milk” (Focus Features)
• Robert Downey Jr. in “Tropic Thunder” (DreamWorks, Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
• Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Doubt” (Miramax)
• Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.)
• Michael Shannon in “Revolutionary Road” (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

• Anne Hathaway in “Rachel Getting Married” (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Angelina Jolie in “Changeling” (Universal)
• Melissa Leo in “Frozen River” (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Meryl Streep in “Doubt” (Miramax)
• Kate Winslet in “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company)

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

• Amy Adams in “Doubt” (Miramax)
• Penélope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (The Weinstein Company)
• Viola Davis in “Doubt” (Miramax)
• Taraji P. Henson in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
• Marisa Tomei in “The Wrestler” (Fox Searchlight)

Achievement in directing

• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), David Fincher
• “Frost/Nixon” (Universal), Ron Howard
• “Milk” (Focus Features), Gus Van Sant
• “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company), Stephen Daldry
• “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Danny Boyle

Best documentary feature

• “The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)” (Cinema Guild), A Pandinlao Films Production, Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
• “Encounters at the End of the World” (THINKFilm and Image Entertainment), A Creative Differences Production, Werner Herzog and Henry Kaiser
• “The Garden” A Black Valley Films Production, Scott Hamilton Kennedy
• “Man on Wire” (Magnolia Pictures), A Wall to Wall Production, James Marsh and Simon Chinn
• “Trouble the Water” (Zeitgeist Films), An Elsewhere Films Production, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal

Best motion picture of the year

• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), A Kennedy/Marshall Production, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
• “Frost/Nixon” (Universal), A Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment and Working Title Production, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Eric Fellner, Producers
• “Milk” (Focus Features), A Groundswell and Jinks/Cohen Company Production, Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, Producers
• “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company), A Mirage Enterprises and Neunte Babelsberg Film GmbH Production, Nominees to be determined
• “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), A Celador Films Production, Christian Colson, Producer

I don't feel much passion about most of these picks, however. The selection was pretty terrible.

Wendy and Lucy (2008)

Thank God for Kelly Reichardt. A kind of female director that comes by rarely. She has crafted a story that features an interesting female lead in a universally relatable story. Wendy and Lucy is the story of a girl (Michelle Williams) traveling to Alaska for work in a fishery with her dog Lucy. Along the way she makes a stop in a small Oregonian town finding that her car will no longer start. Noticing that Lucy is hungry, she attempts to shoplift some dog food and gets caught and arrested. During her time in the store she had left Lucy tied up out in the front and she disappears by the time Wendy has returned from her stint in the jail.

Reichardt has only so far had one other major feature, the film Old Joy. Admittedly, I haven't seen it but I added it to my netflix queue as soon as I finished with Wendy and Lucy. Recihardt's minimalistic style is good enough to rival Van Sant's modern minimalism for the spot of my favorite modern film style.

During a period of economic crisis, this film is wholly relevant. Wendy leaves her small Indiana town to find work in Alaska because she has to. During her stop in Oregon she asks a small time security guard about the number of jobs in town and he reaffirms her beliefs by saying that there are few. Even if few are in the state that Wendy is in, many have been losing jobs and others have been finding it harder to find work. Small business are putting the brake on hiring new employees and the big business are having major layoffs. As a statement on the current economic state, Reichardt's film is very 2008. Even if this year had no big break out hits, Wendy and Lucy is the quintessential 2008 film.

Michelle Williams is in the position to carry the whole movie and she does it well. Reichardt reportedly thought that Williams was too pretty to play this role so she asked her to not wear make-up or shower for two weeks. She looks the part of a vagabond. She has hardly anything in common here with her previous role. Her performance is subtle and she has few lines of dialogue which she delivers superbly. Nothing grand happens in the film plot-wise but the importance of all the seemingly minisclue things that happen can be seen in Williams' face throughout the whole film.

Reichardt's choice of imagery is beautiful. It's beautiful in its modesty. It shows you simple images of American life and American wilderness that create a perfect backdrop for Wendy and Lucy's story. I was moved by what I saw.

If you have a chance to see Wendy and Lucy, I would highly recommend that you take it (especially if you're one of those that is convinced that 2008 was a crap year for film.)

[The Auteurs]

Criterion has stepped up their game. Criterion Collection, the company that is best known for releasing very well restored versions of classics and modern classics on DVD with many awesome extras is now online. I'm not surprised that Criterion decided to upload a couple of films online. The success of Hulu.com has proven that watching film and TV online is what so many people are moving to. Their film viewing medium comes in the form of a site called The Auteurs. There is a feature called "Festival" which has some obscure films to be viewed for free and some others which you can view for $5. My favorite feature on the site is the forums. Many great discussions on film happen on the message boards. Arguably it's the only place to read some great film debate and criticism in which you can also join in.

Daily Hate

I'm sick of hearing about Twilight. This book is the bane of being a high school aged female in 2008. The movie adaptation was released yesterday and all of these annoying giddy girls in my English class saw it at midnight on Thursday night and gushed about it all through class. Then I came home and, of course, all of my favorite movie critics had reviewed it and hated it. They all did realize though that it doesn't matter what they have to say since fangirls will think this is the OMG BEST MOVIE EVER MADE. Here are the reasons I will never see or read the Twilight series:

1. It's a huge metaphor for conservative values -
There is a protagonist named Bella and a vampire named Edward. He really wants to drink her blood or something and so he can't get close to her because the temptation is just too much, and in the heat of the moment, it's really hard to stop. Teenage abstinence? Check. Then I read that in a later book, after the couple has married, Bella is carrying a demon child but won't abort and will probably die giving birth. Anti-abortion? Check. I guess the conservative crowd has started pushing it on girls at a young age. I would be a very disappointed mother if this is what my kids were reading.

2. The fans are psychotic - The guy who plays the vampire in this movie did some mall appearance or something and teenage girls with bleeding scratches on their neck would come up to him and say "Look, I did this for you." Oh, and there's this video.

3. It's just fucking ridiculous and gives girls the wrong idea about what love actually is causing many males and females of my generation to live in unhappy marriages.

Inauguration Challenge

Jezebel published an article today about The Daily Beast challenge to Project Runway designers. They each had to craft a dress for the First Lady to wear on Inauguration Day using these materials: "Laura Bush’s 2005 Inaugural Ball dress, an American flag, burlap potato sacks and $10 worth of trims of their choice." At the time of the challenge they didn't know that Michelle Obama would be the First Lady to wear their design.

My favorite would definitely be Leanne Marshall's (Season 5 winner) dress.



It's classy and elegant, it reminds me of classic Americana. It recalls the early 60's and would be suiting for Ms. Obama, after all she's the closest will come to another Jackie O.

Check out all the rest and tell which is your favorite.

Thursday Meme

My girlfriend tagged me to do a meme ages go and I finally got around to it.

1. Were you named after anyone? My paternal grandmother.

2. Do you still have your tonsils? I do. They have yet to give me problems.

3. Would you bungee jump? Never. I don't like heights.

4. What is your favorite cereal? Anything with low sugar and cinnamon flavor. I'm not a huge cereal fan.

5. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Nope. I usually wear my converse that are well worn in that untying isn't necessary.

6. What is your favorite ice cream? Vanilla bean.

7. What is the first thing you notice about people? Their face and hair, I think.

8. What is your least favorite thing about yourself? I can't communicate effectively.

9. What was the last thing you ate? A blackberry cereal bar and a glass of milk.

10. What are you listening to right now? Bob Dylan - Tangled up in Blue

11. Last movie you watched? Hamlet. I had to see it for school. It was boring.

12. What did you dream about last night? I didn't have any dreams that I remember.

13. What book are you reading? I'm reading Hamlet for school and Swann's Way by Proust for myself.

14. Summer or winter? Winter.

15. Do you have any special talents? I retain useless information like no other.