My Oscar Predictions

BEST PICTURE: Slumdog Millionaire
--Should Win: Milk
BEST DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
--Should Win: Gus Van Sant, Milk
BEST ACTOR: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
--Should Win: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
BEST ACTRESS: Kate Winslet, The Reader
--Should Win: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
--Should Win: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Viola Davis, Doubt
--Should Win: Viola Davis, Doubt
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Milk
--Should Win: In Bruges
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Slumdog Millionaire
--Should Win: Doubt
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Wall-E
--Should Win: Wall-E
BEST ANIMATED SHORT: Presto
BEST ART DIRECTION: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
--Should Win: The Dark Knight
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Slumdog Millionaire
--Should Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
BEST COSTUME DESIGN: The Duchess
--Should Win: Milk
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: Man on Wire
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306
BEST EDITING: Slumdog Millionaire
--Should Win: Milk
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: Waltz with Bashir (Israel)
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT: Toyland
BEST MAKEUP: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
--Should Win: The Dark Knight
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Slumdog Millionaire
--Should Win: Wall-E
BEST ORIGINAL SONG: "Jai Ho" - Slumdog Millionaire
--Should Win: "O Saya" - Slumdog Millionaire
BEST SOUND EDITING: Wall-E
--Should Win: Wall-E
BEST SOUND MIXING: Wall-E
--Should Win: Wall-E
BEST VISUAL FX: The Dark Knight
--Should Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Final Oscar Predictions (Updated with Actualities)

Yes, I realize I haven't blogged in forever and I have no idea when I'll come back (if ever), but I'm a completist through and through and I know I'll regret it later on if I don't post Oscar nominations this year. So here they are (all boring and formatted uncreatively...)

BEST PICTURE
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E

SNUBBED: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Doubt

3/5 (ouch!) missing lukewarm-received December fare Benjamin Button and The Reader in favour of critical/cultural zeitgeist pictures The Dark Knight and Wall-E

BEST DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight
Gus Van Sant, Milk

SNUBBED: Darren Aronofsky, Clint Eastwood

4/5 missing Stephen Daldry in favour of Christopher Nolan

BEST ACTOR
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

SNUBBED: Clint Eastwood, Leonardo DiCaprio

5/5 yay!

BEST ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

SNUBBED: Melissa Leo, Kristin Scott Thomas

4/5 missing Melissa Leo in favour of Sally Hawkins. More proof of Oscar's obsession with miserabilism. Also, Winslet was nomm'ed for The Reader instead of Road.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin, Milk
Robert Downey, Jr., Tropic Thunder
James Franco, Milk
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

SNUBBED: Dev Patel, Ralph Fiennes

4/5 missing Michael Shannon in favour of James Franco.... although I was right about that glorious Dev Patel snub!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, Doubt
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
Kate Winslet, The Reader

SNUBBED: Taraji P. Henson, Rosemarie DeWitt

4/5 missing Taraji P Henson in favour of Winslet (who ended up in the Lead Category)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Milk
Rachel Getting Married
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Wall-E
The Wrestler

SNUBBED: Happy-Go-Lucky, Burn After Reading

2/5 missing Frozen River (VERY unexpected), In Bruges and Happy-Go-Lucky in favour of Rachel Getting Married (booooo, Oscar!!), Vicky Cristina Barcelona and The Wrestler.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Dark Knight
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

SNUBBED: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Revolutionary Road

4/5 missing Benjamin Button in favour of The Dark Knight

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

3/5 missing Changeling and The Reader in favour of Australia and Rev Road

BEST FILM EDITING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

5/5 yay!

BEST ART DIRECTION
Australia
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Revolutionary Road
Synecdoche, New York

3/5 missing The Dark Knight and The Duchess in favour of Australia and Synecdoche, NY

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Milk
Revolutionary Road

5/5 yay!

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E

4/5 missing Defiance in favour of The Dark Knight

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E
The Wrestler

2/3 missing The Wrestler in favour of another Slumdog Millionaire. EWWW!! The Wrestler would have made such a great winner... :(

Bolt (if 5 nominees)
Hamlet 2 (if 5 nominees)

BEST SOUND EDITING
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Quantum of Solace
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E

4/5 missing Wanted in favour of Quantum of Solace

BEST SOUND MIXING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E

4/5 missing Wanted in favour of Iron Man

BEST MAKEUP
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Tropic Thunder
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

2/3 missing The Dark Knight in favour of Tropic Thunder

BEST VISUAL FX
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

3/3 yay!

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
At the Death House Door
Blessed is the Match
IOUSA
Man on Wire
Trouble the Water

2/5 missing The Betrayal, Encounters at the End of the World and The Garden in favour of At the Death House Door, Blessed is the Match and IOUSA.

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Bolt
Wall-E
Waltz with Bashir

2/3 missing Kung Fu Panda in favour of Waltz with Bashir

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Baader Meinhof Complex
The Class
Everlasting Moments
The Necessities of Life
Waltz with Bashir

3/5 missing Revanche and Departures in favour of Everlasting Moments and The Necessities of Life.

TALLY
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - 10 nominations
The Dark Knight - 10 nominations
Slumdog Millionaire - 9 nominations
Milk - 9 nominations
Wall-E - 7 nominations
Doubt - 5 nominations
Frost/Nixon - 5 nominations
Revolutionary Road - 4 nominations
The Wrestler - 4 nominations
Australia - 3 nominations
Iron Man - 3 nominations

My Prediction Score: 74% (72/97)

Long Live Actressexuality Though!

Good luck tonight at the Emmys, Glenn, Mary-Louise (or Tina), Laura (x2), Kristin, and Rachel! And even if none of you manage to win, take a look around. Look at all the other actors who lost out to the (what are sure to be much shittier) winners, and realize that you are in good company. And of course, be happy to know that at least I love you and am conscious of all your brilliance.

Sad Realization

I just don't have the time or energy to blog anymore, people. I'll check in every once in a while (I hope), but honestly, blogging just is not one of my top priorities at the moment. When I do have free time that isn't consumed by school-work, play practices, track and field, a social life and my part-time job, I'd really rather be spending it seeing movies, discussing movies, reading, and doing creative writing. Sorry.

Anyway:
Blindness: A; Julianne Moore in Blindness: A-
Happy-Go-Lucky: B-; Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky: B-
Hamlet 2: B; Steve Coogan in Hamlet 2: A-

Why can't you lose your good looks, Brick? Most drinkin' men lose theirs. Why can't you? I think you've even gotten better-lookin' since you went on the bottle. You were such a wonderful lover... You were so excitin' to be in love with. Mostly, I guess, 'cause you were... If I thought you'd never never make love to me again... why I'd find me the longest, sharpest knife I could and I'd stick it straight into my heart. I'd do that. Oh Brick, how long does this have to go on? This punishment? Haven't I served my term? Can't I apply for a pardon?

More Milk

If you've been living under a rock for the past couple of days, you may not be aware that there is now a trailer for Gus Van Sant's upcoming biopic of slain gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk. The clip, which I've now seen at least ten times, is really an extraordinary trailer -- elegantly put-together, edited crisply, with wonderful music and striking titles. Not to mention that the dialogue and performance clips are just right, and it seems to set the tone of the piece (epic but intimate, intensely emotional, vastly inspirational, etc.) up really well. I know it's not good of me to judge films before I've even seen them, but I can't even begin to express how much I'm rooting for this movie to be a huge to hit this year (both at the box office and with the Oscars.) Here's the trailer off of YouTube...



And isn't that moment the greatest when Josh Brolin as assassin Dan White asks Penn as Milk whether it's possible for two men to reproduce, and he just gives him a little smile and says, "No, but god knows we keep trying." Here's hoping that they stick Heath Ledger in the Best Supporting Actor race for The Dark Knight this season so that both of them can receive some gold come February.

Cinefest '08

From September 13th to September 21st, my life will be consumed by my city's local international film festival, the 20th annual edition of Cinéfest Sudbury. Last year, we had a lot of great films (Lust Caution, 4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, etc.) but I seemed to pick all the stinkers to go see (Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Reservation Road, Just Buried, The Walker, etc.) This year, the festival has garnered a number of high-profile foreign and North American films, as well as the usual array of documentaries, shorts and local independent films. This year, I'll hopefully be seeing eight movies (I know, eight seems like none at all, but I do have to go to school all week, after all.) My promise to myself and to you is that I will comment on my filmgoing every single night of the festival, no matter how tired or uninspired I may feel. I simply must start talking about film regularly again! Here's how the week of filmgoing will go down:

MONDAY
-Happy-Go-Lucky, dir. Mike Leigh

TUESDAY
Gomorra, dir. Matteo Garone

WEDNESDAY
-Blindness, dir. Fernando Meirelles

THURSDAY
-The Brothers Bloom, dir. Rian Johnson
OR
-Waltz with Bashir, dir. Ari Folman

FRIDAY
-Rachel Getting Married, dir. Jonathan Demme

SATURDAY
-Patrik Age 1.5, dir. Ella Lemhagen
AND
-Un conte de Noël, dir. Arnaud Despleschin

SUNDAY
-Il y a longtemps que je t'aime, dir. Philippe Claudel

Holy mother of Christ, that lineup looks pretty fabulous, doesn't it? As you may remember, Happy-Go-Lucky and Blindness are two of my absolute most anticipated films of the fall season. Waltz with Bashir and Gomorra were both huge hits at Cannes earlier this year, the latter even going on to win the Grand Prize of the Festival, so I couldn't be more thrilled to be getting a fairly early glimpse at them. Il y a longtemps que je t'aime has been getting really great ink lately, and Kristin Scott Thomas is getting buzzed for an Oscar nod, as is Anne Hathaway for Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married. Oddly enough though, I think that Un conte de Noël might just be the film I'm looking forward to the most. Centering around a wealthy French family and their various neuroses during a snowy Christmas season, it's directed by brilliant French auteur Arnaud Despleschin and features a dream cast including the divine Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Devos, Hippolyte Girardot et Melvil Poupaud. Any way you look at it though, this is going to be a fantastic week.

The only thing that I really have to decide at this point is whether to see The Brothers Bloom, the sophomore directorial effort from Brick's Rian Johnson which stars Mark Ruffalo, Rachel Weisz and Adrien Brody, or Waltz with Bashir on Thursday night. The two will unfortunately be playing at the exact same time, so it's going to be impossible for me to catch them both. So I may as well leave it up to my readers to decide for me. Tell me in the comments which film I'd be better off spending my time and money on...

The Cellar Door's Top Ten, 2007

Over at Valley Dreamin' today, JD managed to finally squeeze out his list of his ten favourite films of 2007, which prompted me to realize that I still hadn't done that either. It seems that when I took my unscheduled 2-or-so months of absence in May, I forgot all about continuing with my year-end wrap-up (which only had a couple categories to go.) So without further ado or much commentary, I present to you my official Top Ten List of 2007 (based on Canadian release dates, unlike the list at my Viewing Index Blog, where all my screenings pre-2008 are categorized by IMDb years.)

Runners-up: The Savages was really quite funny and really quite sad, and a great showcase for the delights of The Lovely Laura Linney. * Michael Clayton was a confident, well-constructed legal thriller (rescuing the genre and setting itself apart from the thousands of boring procedurals on TV.) * The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters was so ridiculous and hilarious that it was hard to believe that what I was watching was a documentary.

10. Hairspray (US)
Directed by Adam Shankman
...because I've watched it too many times now to count.

9. We Own the Night (US)
Directed by James Gray...because it's a miracle of a crime film - equally concerned with revealing emotional truth and being superbly-crafted.

8. Atonement (UK)
Directed by Joe Wright...because it's a beautiful, symbolic, structurally magnificent look at the way our lives are affected by lies and literature.

7. I'm Not There (US)
Directed by Todd Haynes...because I've never seen a music biopic so interested in examining its subject in such a profound, meaningful way.

6. Juno (US/Canada)
Directed by Jason Reitman...because, behind all the slang and Cody-isms, it's a sincere, hilarious, unpretentious gem.

5. Jindabyne (Australia)
Directed by Ray Lawrence...because it's such a raw, affecting close-up of a family and community in crisis.

4. Away From Her (Canada)
Directed by Sarah Polley...because it's at once the most hopeful and heartbreaking film my country has produced in many years.

3. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Romania)
Directed by Cristian Mungiu...because it's a masterclass in tension-building, acting, editing and using minimalism to maximum effect.

2. No Country for Old Men (US)
Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen...because Cormac McCarthy meets The Coen Brothers turned out to be the most perfect union of artistry this year.

1. Persepolis (France)
Directed by Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi...because sometimes the best way to get through pain is through laughter, and because apparently the best way to address the most serious and sensitive subjects is through the least expected mediums...

Box Office Trivialities

You know, as much as I enjoyed The Dark Knight when I saw it a couple weeks ago, I'm starting to get really tired of all the incessant media chatter that's been surrounding it. It seems like every time I listen to the radio or browse IMDb's news items, all anyone is talking about is how the new Batman movie is well on its way to becoming "the most popular movie of all time". Yes, it very well might end up surpassing Titanic's $600 million-plus record for being the film to rake in the most cash at the box office, but I wish people would mention its standing on the all-time list for biggest box office intakes with inflation adjusted. Gone With the Wind currently holds the title for the most tickets sold for a film ever, and if ticket prices cost as much then as they do now (if only!!) it would have grossed an astonishing $1.4 billion. What an interesting fact that the most popular movie of all time is a no-holds-barred romantic "women's picture" (to put it simplistically). Oh, how the times have changed (and I'm not talking about movie prices anymore.) Anyway, I highly doubt that any film, let alone all the comic-book adaptations and sequels that rule the 21st century's cineplexes, will ever match Gone With the Wind's popularity. So if people would just take a break from all their hyperbolic ravings about The Dark Knight (which is currently standing at #49 on the all-time box office list with inflation adjusted, just so you know), they would probably realize that it will never even come close to Gone With the Wind's title. So there!

< /crabby rant>

New Obsession

In case you weren't aware, the best thing on YouTube lately has indisputably been the VGL Gay Boys, Jeffery Self and Cole Escola. They're insightful, smart, cute, not annoying, creative and more than that, completely hysterical. Check out Jeffery's blog and YouTube channel, or just take a look at some of my favourite videos of theirs, which I've conveniently posted below:

VGL Gay Boys on Gay Marriage:



VGL Gay Boys with Bernadette Peters:



VGL Gay Boys on Brad and Angelina's Twins:



VGL Gay Boys, Meeting Meryl Streep:



VGL Gay Boys on Pinkberry:

I'm A-Itchin'

Now that the lovely month of August is upon us, it seems as if Oscar season is nearly here. Only a couple more months and all of the year's prestige pictures from the biggest directors and hottest actors will arrive. It's been said many times by better people that it's a damn shame that the studios have to annually dump all their "quality" pictures in the few months leading up to the Oscar deadline. But alas, this system will probably never change so I guess it's something we just all have to live with for now. (Plus, it leaves time during the rest of the year to catch up with older movies you'd been meaning to see forever.)

So, in anticipation of the fall movie roster, I thought I'd throw out a list of ten movies that have got me giddy with anticipation. We'll have to see if all of them (or any) manage to live up to the spectacular hype that surrounds them and the ideas of them that I've built up in my mind. I suppose all we can do now is hope (and keep watching their teaser trailers over and over and over again...)

Runners-up: Jim Sheridan's adaptation of Susanne Bier's best film to date Brothers starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman - very exciting; Rian Johnson's follow-up to his brilliant debut feature Brick, The Brothers Bloom; Burn After Reading, the Coen Bros' return to comedy with the coolest ensemble of the year; Angelina Jolie keeps getting better and better, here's hoping she lives up to the hype that's surrounding her latest, Changeling; and Doubt, because all you have to say are the words "Meryl Streep and Amy Adams" and I'm there.

10. Blindness
Anticipation for this flick has dissipated a bit after its lukewarm reception at the Cannes Film Festival, but I'm still looking forward to it. Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo are two of the absolute most skilled screen performers working right now, and I can't wait to see what they do in these roles. The book, which I started reading a while ago but had to put on hiatus because of other things, sure was bleak and I hope they don't try to soften up the film's tone or themes at all as they transfer it to the big screen. If Fernando Meirelles manages to make this work, then I think we could be in for a real treat.

9. Happy-Go-Lucky
Fact: I've never met a Mike Leigh film I didn't like, and furthermore, I've never met a Mike Leigh lead actress that wasn't completely revelatory. This movie, Mike Leigh's latest has been on my radar ever since relative-newcomer Sally Hawkins won Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. Could we have another Brenda Blethyn or Imelda Staunton on our hands here? The delightful trailer and the positive word of mouth from across the pond has just added to my excitement, even if I'm starting to lose confidence in my prediction of Hawkins getting an Oscar nomination.

8. Flight of the Red Balloon
I'll admit that I've never seen any of Hsiao-hsien Hou's filmography (including his much-heralded Three Times), but this film just seems right up my alley. The trailer looks fantastic, and I've heard some great things, especially about the performance of Juliette Binoche. I'm always a fan of her work, and I don't expect anything less than a wonderful performance from her anymore. And you know, sometimes it's just nice to see her face on a big screen...

7. Twilight
One of my guiltiest pleasures this year has been reading Stephenie Meyer's blockbuster teen vampire romance saga. The thing is, the books aren't even written that well (let's just hope that the filmmakers will be able to fix all those awkward structural problems) and yet, I'm consistently drawn into these stories and have read every one of the books in the span of a couple of days at most. The prospect of Catherine Hardwicke (thirteen) adapting the first book in the series for the big screen fills me with a lot of hope, and the casting of beautiful Robert Pattinson (a.k.a. Cedric Diggory) as Edward was a pitch-perfect decision if you ask me. So yes, I will be among all the rabid teenage fangirls standing in line on December 12th four hours before the show starts.

6. Hamlet 2
"Rock me, rock me, rock me, sexy Jesus/ All night lo-ooong". Enough said.

5. Revolutionary Road
Sadly there isn't a trailer for Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road yet, but that doesn't stop me from being off the charts with excitement for this one. Sure, the Kate and Leo reunion is a cute touch and will definitely make the movie an easy sell with audiences, but I'm more eager to see what they do with the source material - I read it earlier this year, and it's an incredibly sharp piece of work. I have faith that Sam Mendes will do a good job with this. After all, we all know how well he works with the subject of suburban angst.

4. The Road
Like Revolutionary Road, The Road earns its spot on this list solely because of its brilliant source material - the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by No Country for Old Men scribe Cormac McCarthy (who is apparently all the rage nowadays, even though he's been writing for decades.) The Road is the scariest, most harrowing reading experience I think I've ever had, and I'm eager to see what they do with it on film. And Viggo Mortensen is a really inspired choice for the lead character (unnamed in the book).

3. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
I've said this many times before, but Woody Allen is truly my favourite writer/director of all time. Sadly though, I haven't genuinely appreciated a Woody Allen picture since 1994's Bullets Over Broadway. (No, I didn't care for Match Point or Scoop.) This one seems different though. The cast looks perfect (especially Penelope Cruz - va-va-voom!), the trailer is really quite funny and the film just looks beautiful to boot. I've come to terms with the fact that Allen's best work is obviously behind him, so all I'm looking forward to is a nice engaging night at the movies with America's premier auteur.

2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Alright. This is the fucking trailer of the year. Kind of like Marie Antoinette's teaser a couple years ago, I actually have this on my iPod and I watch it more than is probably necessary. God. The music. The photography. That voice-over by Brad Pitt. Ugly old-man-baby. TILDA SWINTON. Brad Pitt as a really hot teenager. And then that last shot, probably the single most beautiful image I've seen in a long while. *Shudder*

1. Milk
Coming in at Numero Uno is Gus Van Sant's upcoming biopic of slain gay rights activist/politician Harvey Milk, aptly titled Milk. I have a funny feeling this could be one of the zeitgeist films during this year's awards season and I couldn't possibly be more thrilled about that. And in our post-Brokeback cultural landscape, I think it's silly to suspect that the homo subject matter will prevent the masses from accepting it as a truly great film (if that's what it turns out to be -- and I think it will.) And you never know: maybe the Academy will feel bad about 2006's Black Sunday, and feel like rewarding this one with Best Picture as a kind of apology... (I still don't think I could ever forgive them though.)

The Missing Links 5.0

--Stale Popcorn: Glenn has this really interesting new series going on over at his blog called "Black + White Friday", in which he takes screengrabs of various movies and converts them to - you guessed it - black and white. This week's installment features 2002 Best Picture winner and personal fave Chicago. So so pretty...

--Nick's Flick Picks: Speaking of Chicago... This week, Nick, Nathaniel and Goatdog take a look back at Chicago and Cavalcade (1933) as part of their "Best Picture From the Outside In" series, which has become a weekly can't-miss-it-event. I've never seen Cavalcade (and I'm not sure I want to) but I can't help agreeing with lots of the positive things the boys have to say about Chicago. I have to agree with Nathaniel though, in saying that Catherine Zeta-Jones is by far the most interesting and indispensable member of that cast.

--Rants of A Diva: Dame James waxes rhapsodic about Christina Hendricks on Mad Men. I too just got hooked to the first season of AMC's scorcher of a series, and can't help but agree that Joan Holloway is the most kick-ass character on the show. (And this is a series filled with a lot of kick-ass characters.) Cannot wait to finish all the first-season episodes so I can move along to the brand-new Season 2.

--Towleroad: Like it does every summer, CBS' Big Brother has completely taken me over and I'm hooked anew. There aren't a whole lot of people to love in this summer's cast, but of all the stupid brainless assholes in the house, the stupidest, most brainless, biggest asshole might just be "professional bodybuilder" Jessie Godderz. Towleroad has some strange footage of some of Jessie's homoerotic workout videos and a hilarious clip of his appearance on MTV's Next.

--Much Ado About Nothing: Hayden begins his Top 50 countdown with a shoutout to Beauty and the Beast, that first animated picture to ever snag a Best Picture Oscar nomination. I wish I had the energy to write in depth about all the films I love the most, but alas, I don't. Check this list out though -- there are a lot of really interesting, valuable choices.

The 12 Movie Meme

This tag has been brought to you by J.D., via Piper. Here's how it works:

1) Choose 12 Films to be featured. They could be random selections or part of a greater theme. Whatever you want.

2) Explain why you chose the films.

3) Link back to Lazy Eye Theatre so I can have hundreds of links and I can take those links and spread them all out on the bed and then roll around in them.

4) The people selected then have to turn around and select 5 more people.

For my film festival, lazily titled The Cellar Door Film Festival, I decided to go with six themed nights, all of them defining me as a movie-goer and as an individual in some way, shape or form. (And if this were a real film festival, I'd say that all the films would be completely free and would be screened at a drive-in movie theatre. Popcorn and Milk Duds would also be available for pickup on admission.) This is how the week-long festivities would go down:

NIGHT 1: CANADIANA


Obviously a big thing about me is the fact that I'm Canadian. (Yay!) And although my native country doesn't produce a whole lot of films every year, every once in a while a movie will be made up here in the Great White North that totally exemplifies the creative, artistic and political spirit of our country. Two great examples are Mon oncle Antoine, a delightful 1971 French-language film from Claude Jutra, and the beautiful, elegiac The Sweet Hereafter, which was somewhat of a hit outside the country in 1997. Some might be turned off by all the bleakness and wintry colour palettes, but finding good Canadian films that aren't like that can be a difficult task sometimes.

NIGHT 2: GENDER IDENTITY


These two choices aren't here to suggest that I have issues with my own gender (because I don't), but rather that I'm just a little fascinated with the subject - especially when there are films out there willing to tackle the subject in such a socially conscious, headstrong but sensitive way. Orlando is a rather beautiful film and an experience like no other, and Boys Don't Cry is one of the best films of the past 10 years, period. Hilary Swank's magnificent, should-be-legendary performance alone is worth it.

NIGHT 3: BEST ACTRESS-BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Another obsession of mine that's well-documented on this site (just scroll down the sidebar on the right) is the Oscars, specifically the categories of Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. To give a taste to my audiences of why these two categories inspire such attention and devotion in me, I would show them two of the very best instances of Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress wins. Liz Taylor and Sandy Dennis both picked up little golden statues for their gargantuan and subtle performances (respectively) in Mike Nichols' film version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. And Holly Hunter and little Anna Paquin both won big at the Oscars in 1993 for Jane Campion's gorgeous, amazing, beautiful, haunting, life-affirming, etc. film The Piano.

NIGHT 4: MINDFUCKERY

One of my friends once asked me what movies I would most want to watch while stoned, and these two came immediately to mind for some reason. So for the fourth night of my film festival, I would opt to go for a slightly different routine. Weed would be supplied to everyone on the way into the drive-in for the crazy-ass mindfucking double bill of Persona and Alice in Wonderland. Ingmar Bergman's seminal arthouse classic and Disney's least subtle film about the effects of drugs on little girls would make for a perfect evening of laidback fun.

NIGHT 5: WORLD CINEMA

The next night, World Cinema Night, would give a chance for my festival-goers to get a clear, unimpaired view of what an Ingmar Bergman experience would be like, with his beautiful, moving Fanny and Alexander. Accompanying that would be Joshua Marston's Maria Full of Grace, a film which I watched for the first time about a month ago. I can't believe I had waited that long, because it was a deeply rewarding experience and a spectacularly well-made film. Honest, eye-opening, ultimately hopeful.

NIGHT 6: MUSICALS

To cap off the festivities, Night 6 would be dedicated to my all-time favourite film genre: the movie musical. Bob Fosse's Cabaret and Disney's The Little Mermaid are two of the finest examples of song-and-dance films, both incredible exercises in spectacle and escapism, with depth, subtlety and emotional clarity to boot.

So there you have it: The Cellar Door Film Festival. Now it's your turn, to anyone who is reading this right now. Pretty much everyone I know has been tagged already, so the next five people who want to do this meme, consider yourself tagged!

The House of the Spirits

I just recently finished reading Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits and I was floored. It's a long, epic feast of a novel that draws obvious inspiration from stuff like Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude (another spectacular novel), but House is a little more blatantly political and earth-shatteringly romantic. I urge everyone to read it. It contains at once one of the most devastating evocations of a country in turmoil and some of the saddest romantic prose I've ever read. The trials of the Trueba women -- painful, funny, magical -- are some that I won't soon be forgetting. God, I just love it when a piece of art makes me feel so much. Sometimes there isn't much more to say than "This is beautiful". And that's what The House of the Spirits is.

You can imagine my shock, then, when I IMDb'ed "House of the Spirits" and discovered that a film version of the novel had been made in 1993, starring none other than Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Winona Ryder and Glenn Close in the lead roles. I honestly had to read through the entire page twice to make sure that I was understanding correctly. Streep, Irons, Ryder and Close, four extremely Caucasian actors, portraying Clara, Esteban, Blanca and Férula - four extremely South American characters whose lives are distinctly interwoven with the history of Chile? This makes absolutely no sense to me.

Maybe I should actually seek out the movie and watch it before I make rash judgments and scream Bloody Racial Insensitivity, but this just seems like the most boneheaded casting in the history of film. Why cast white actors in these roles when you're not going to at least change the setting to the States? Oh right, because the story would have no resonance and would lose all semblance of importance if that were to happen.

So my question to you, readers, is has anyone seen this film? And what are your thoughts? How is the elephant in the room addressed? Or is it? Do the actors speak Spanish? Or do they speak English with lame Spanish accents (like a Memoirs of A Geisha-type situation?) I'm curious and confused.

This Is the Sound of My Heart Breaking

Estelle Getty, who played Sophia Petrillo on the '80s sitcom The Golden Girls (also known as the funniest show in the history of broadcast television) died today at the age of 84. Rest in peace, Estelle. (And I'm loving how E!Online describes her as "cantankerous octogenarian". There really isn't a more apt description.)

The Dark Knight & Mamma Mia!

If you would have asked me a couple months ago which movie being released on July 18th I was most excited for, I very well might have been stumped. The latest Batman movie starring the late Heath Ledger in a potentially-fantastic role, or the latest summer musical starring none other than the great Meryl Streep. The superhero fanatic and the show queen in me duking it out in a battle for the ages. It could've been a toughie, but the last month or so of publicity, early reviews, trailers, etc. have made it pretty clear that The Dark Knight is the movie event of the season and that Mamma Mia! is just....well, Mamma Mia. Still, I'm a sucker for a musical (no matter how cheesy it looks), so I went for the double-bill option yesterday and saw both films. Here are some thoughts:

First of all, I'm not convinced at all that The Dark Knight is the best superhero movie ever made, as everyone seems to be claiming. That award still belongs to Spider-man 2, a movie that had a crystal-clear view of itself, knew when and where to pause, and had a cast that were all acting in the same movie. As much as Christopher Nolan maybe wants to believe that he's making the darkest, most disturbing action movie ever created with all those dark tones and sleek action sequences, I can't help but wish it was rated R. It needed some balls, some chest hair and less tacky one-liners.

I do commend Christopher Nolan for managing to keep things pretty interesting while The Joker is offscreen though. Because really, Heath Ledger pwns this movie. Everything you've heard about his performance is true, and then some. He's genius, completely immersing himself in the role. It's a shame we won't get to see him do it again (as I think the filmmakers were planning -- The Joker's ending doesn't really feel like an ending, so much as an invitation to the sequel.)

Gosh, I'm making it seem like I hated The Dark Knight, aren't I? In reality though, I concede that it's a pretty great movie - certainly not perfect, but it has some spectacular sequences and some beautiful moments of tension and drama, brought about by a pro technical crew and that gifted cast. The opening sequence in particular was kind of awe-inspiring; gritty, creepy, refreshingly uncharacteristic of the comic book movie genre.

As for Mamma Mia!, well, I wish I could say a whole bunch of nice things about it, considering how much I liked the cast, but really: I got nothing. It's poorly made. Simple as that. And the music is middling at best, really. Scratch that - everything that Amanda Seyfried sings turns to gold, but then again it's almost as if they don't give her enough to do. I'm usually all about the big ensemble casts, but for once I left the theatre wishing it would have been a one-woman show (or two-woman, if we throw Streep in the mix.)

The Dark Knight, dir. Christopher Nolan: B+
Mamma Mia!, dir. Phillippa Lloyd: C-

Well there's this passage I got memorized. Ezekiel 25:17. "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you." I been sayin' that shit for years. And if you ever heard it, it meant your ass. I never gave much thought what it meant. I just thought it was some cold-blooded shit to say to a motherfucker before I popped a cap in his ass. I saw some shit this mornin' made me think twice. See now I'm thinkin', maybe it means you're the evil man. And I'm the righteous man. And Mr. 9 Milimeter here, he's the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness. Or it could mean you're the righteous man and I'm the shepherd and it's the world that's evil and selfish. Now I'd like that. But that shit ain't the truth. The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be a shepherd.

Is it weird that I find John Slattery (Mad Men, Desperate Housewives) extremely attractive?

Surely I'm not the only one...

In Which I Look Back on the Half-Year: Part I

To kick things back into gear on my little blog here, I've decided that the most efficient way to do things would be to review every 2008 release I've seen so far this year -- but in 30 words, like the old series! (The only movies I'm not going to mention are those I've already reviewed in full or summed in 30 words (Stop-Loss, Charlie Bartlett, etc.) Sorry about the fact that I've only seen 18 films so far. I'm telling you, I haven't seen this few films in theatres after the year's half-way point since 2004, probably. Yikes. :S Anyway, here goes:

Baby Mama, dir. Michael Mullers
Shame that Fey and Poehler had to pick this inoffensive but unsatisfactory offering to prove to Hollywood that they're truly brilliant comediennes (and that they could be box-office draws, too.) C+

Cloverfield, dir. Matt Reeves
One of the absolute smartest, most arresting horror movies of recent years; love the update on the Blair-Witch visual style and the 9/11 parallels. I can't wait for the sequel. B+

Definitely, Maybe, dir. Adam Brooks
I'm a sucker for romantic comedies so I probably shouldn't even be reviewing them. This one was cute, interesting fun though - written and performed particularly well. Isla Fisher is ♥. B

Forgetting Sarah Marshall, dir. Nicholas Stoller
Funny, yes, but the treatment of Kristen Bell's character was a piss-off -- setting Sarah Marshall up for smart, nicely-played redemption, only to slap her (and the audience) in the face. B-

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, dir. Steven Spielberg
Maybe it's because I've never seen the other movies and thus the nostalgia aspect obviously didn't work, but this film did nothing for me. Shia was great though (as expected). C

Kung Fu Panda, dir. Mark Osborne & John Stevenson
Finally! More story than cultural references in a Dreamworks animated picture! I must say it's still a pretty average animated flick though (with great visuals and middling voice work). B/B-

Recount, dir. Jay Roach
HBO rarely fails to impress and Recount is another fine example. Laura Dern: ridiculously amazing; the score: incredibly effective in conveying the message, and the energy and tension: works marvelously despite the genre. B+

Reprise, dir. Joachim Trier
Gotta agree with Nathaniel: the year's best so far. A full review will follow but for now let's just blurb-whore and call it "the absolute definitive European film for today's young people." A/A-

Savage Grace, dir. Tom Kalin
Thank you infinitely Mr. Kalin for delivering unto us another spectacular Julianne Moore performance! The movie ain't too shabby either - delicious psychosexual drama, expressive photography, etc. (Full review later) A-

Sex and the City: The Movie, dir. Michael Patrick King
I'll admit to its flaws but honestly I could hardly be happier with this movie: one of my favourite shows losing little of its charm and relevance on the big screen. B/B+

The Strangers, dir. Bryan Bertino
Honestly, the trailer is better than the movie, but it's still decent: conceptually boring but executed pretty well. Liv Tyler is great; the movie's a lot scarier because of her. B

The Visitor, dir. Thomas McCarthy
Richard Jenkins makes a big splash graduating from supporting actor to leading man in this affecting, big-hearted political drama - delivering a great performance with nuance and a sneaky charm. B+

You Don't Mess With the Zohan, dir. Dennis Dugan
Adam Sandler is an idiot and a bad movie star and this brainless, unfunny turd of a movie didn't do anything to convince me otherwise. (I only saw it because I was forced.) D

The Blog is Back!

This morning, I woke up, strolled onto the computer, did my daily blog-browsing, and decided to take a glimpse at my own blog The Cellar Door to see how things were doing. Much to my shock, it seems I'd been absent for close to 2 months. 2 WHOLE MONTHS. Boy, I knew I had been neglecting things around these parts but 2 entire months sans The Cellar Door is a little ridiculous. It's been too long and I think I'm ready to come back now.

More than anything, I've felt bad for a while for letting down my readership, and not even letting you guys know the reasons behind my absence. So here goes: at the end of May, when I first took my absence, I was in the midst of intense rehearsals, then performances of my high school's production of Annie. Such a shitty play (and an even shittier movie) but I was happy with my part: Rooster may not have a lot of songs but I like to think that he at least has the best number in the show! (That number is "Easy Street" for those not well-versed in the songbook of that little orphan Annie.) When the musical wrapped up in the second week of June, I began to be plagued with the most intense homework I've experienced in my high school career yet, with French projects and World Lit papers and math assignments due every other day (or so it seemed.) And then, after all the homework was finished, it was exam time and there's never any time to do anything other than study during that time. Finally, the last leg of my blogger-holiday came about in the form of an actual vacation for about two weeks in Manitoba.

If I'm going to be completely honest with everyone though, the main reason I forced myself to stay away from The Cellar Door all this time was because of this: I really wasn't watching very many movies. So I thought to myself, What's the sense in writing about my passion when I'm not consuming films and thus, don't really have much to talk about?

But now that all this is behind me, I'm ready to come back and maybe breathe a bit of fresh air into The Cellar Door. My goal for the summer is to comment on nearly every movie I see -- whether it's old, new, crappy, spectacular, whatever -- and to focus overall on things that are inspiring me at the moment (i.e. regular doses of commentary on my favourite celebrities, Oscar commentary when it isn't necessary, bitching about the Emmys, etc.)

All I can hope for is that I haven't been gone so long as to have completely lost everyone's attention...

ALSO: I'm going back to my old template, even though the old one was so pretty, because it was causing me weird problems that I didn't feel like figuring out how to fix.