spectacle

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couple other best of movie cato's,


best old style epic film - dr. zhivago

best christmas movie ever - die hard

fave musical - singing in the rain, with honorable mentions to once, the magical mystery tour, and the vaudville films of marx brothers/mae west etc.
best cheesy movie ever - uhf/cabin boy

best of the year so far - star trek, sugar, julie and julia, whatever works, taking woodstock, the hangover, i love you man, in the loop, angels and demons and harry potter and the half blood prince.



still have high hopes for (in order that i'll likely see them) avatar, district 9, capitalism a love story, 500 days of summer, it might get loud, knowing, the dammed united, anvil, new moon, up in the air, precious, really most of the 'oscar movies' .



book of the year – the family by jeff sharlet

i'll go with mad men/curb your enthusiasm/dog whisperer/ninja warrior/spectacle with elvis costello for tv drama/comedy/reality/game/talk show of the year with mm tops overall. didn't see a mini series all year.



on facebook a while ago, i did a list of best tv show of the last like 25 years with northern exposure tops followed by larry sanders, sopranos, the wire, seinfeld, mad men, weeds, arrested development, sports night, 30 rock/the office with close seconds to battlestar gallatica, my so called life, the cosby show, the dog whisperer, love monkey and i forgot to mention in that list, get a life, which would get me banned from the 'union' perhaps both for omission and inclusion. the only one i'm having second thoughts on is weeds though i enjoyed much of last season, there were too many throwaway episodes and as often pointed out by critics, a strange lack of jokes in what used to be a comedy but the first point is more worrisome. i also might move mad men up to number 3 if they keep up the quality in a couple more seasons and really seinfeld gets points for still, still being funny so maybe them 3 mm 4 and the wire DOWN to 6th? again i might be risking union membership for such a list. but really you just have to think about the finale of the sopranos, the creative pop culture moment of the decade and compare it to the end of the wire where a main character just gets hammered at the same old bar. the wire's a great show but there are a handful of recent shows that are better.



a note on the music list, not really into bright eye's recent stuff as much but between his own and his labels output(they put out, rabbit fur coat, my fave album of the decade) and mixed with his persona in the biz, i feel good about him being artist of the decade, which is a vague title to begin with.

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so by news years i'm going to start doing a daily blog here where i review one a day of my, i'm guessing,  thousand vinyl records. should be awesome, i have an idea of the first album and and a couple photos to add. most the records are rock and roll from the 60's to 80's but also a hundred or so classical some jazz and hip hop and in 'rock' i'm using a wide definition of the label. unless it's by a group i'm unfamiliar with, i'll live blog it and be sort of be gathering album cover images/lyrics/other info at the same time but just if i'm busy that day.

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so my director of the decade split some reviewers and that's putting it nicely for him. Guillermo Arriaga if both of you readers remember is more of a writer than director but did finally direct one of his scripts in 09, called the burning plan starring charlize theron. yeah so I haven't seen it and it would take a lot for it to be better than three burials of mel. q. which he wrote and tommy lee jones stars and directs. anyway the burning plan got one of the most wicked recent bad reviews by ny times' a.o. scott on like the revamped siskel and ebert tv show, it also ended up on the worst of list by the onion. i remain unchanged. also in the ny times, one reviewer is calling there will be blood the finest american film the last 50 years. hmm, where to start...I couldn't get to sleep till after 2 last night kinda sorta thinking about this and I thought yeah 5 hours sleep for no reason, that's a good idea....ohh i've got a good one about t.w.b.blood., just watch gummo right? or just mention gummo and duchamp in the same sentence. and gummo-mania peeked a few years ago. why not start there in yet a further explanation of the best films of the decade.



to start with it's my list, of course so you know feel free to not agree. i came up with a most notable films of the decade cato which includes, t.w.b.b., gummo, and the da vinci code. it's kinda like a trends cato but without the need for a slew of copycats or what not. da vinci is most notable as it made a butt load of money everywhere and it's about literally the son of the son of god, which wasn't exactly a big topic in like 70's cinema so it's notable for it's mass pop., fresh topic and like far reaching topic. gummo was made in 1998 but it was only in this decade that it became the specter haunting american filmmakers. even more than just dada cinema it was anarchist cinema, made in the south(nashville), with a french cinematographer, co-starring chole sevengity!!! in the midst of her 'it girl', the greatest since like hepburn, myth!!! roger ebert and entertainment weekly hated it with a passion and still when it was on ifc the other day the tv info description of it called it garbage. reviews don't get that bad barely ever. but by 2002 it was hands down the fave movie of all time in private universities philosophy and art departments and was making waves in the film schools as well in part cause it was a dogma 95 film, a notable manifesto about a new way to make films with very strict rules about like not using special effects or being a genre movie. dogma 95 was popular with mostly only the baddest of the bad boy directors from around the world. in a way gummo even came to represent the attitude of the anti-globalization protestors at least way more than like more literal parallel films like fight club. harmony korine, the writer/director had by then made an iconic sonic youth video starring the kid from home alone and then got one of the greatest living directors by most everyone's agreement, w. herzog, to star along with wearing a gas mask in his next film. then chole did a something like a porn film mixed with race cars which roger ebert also hated with a passion. now at the end of this decade, korine is made a movie about some of the bands that play in dive bars around town here in nashville and looking forward  it's hard to see gummo still being the specter haunting american cinema in the same way that the anti glob protestors kinda sorta not such much cachet these days. anti-glob protestors- it's a bad name, sounds like your a protectionist and busting up starbucks windows and then hearing about your lover's other and possibly more preferred, lovers doesn't really seem like that's going to catch on. but i bet the history books will have gummo as the anti establishment film of the late 90's, which could possibly be seen as a enabling factor to 9/11 happening. it was like, you want to trash any kinda hipster entertainment, be it, the new pornographers, the strokes, al gore speeches, matthew barney, the royal tenebaums, almost famous, six feet under, hip hop singles, etc., all you had to do was play the gummo card and you won even if it meant explaining the real rules to people:) it was the end of cinema just like (foretold by) godard's film, weekend in ‘68. get it, week or weak end; the frequent title screen shots help explain it and more during the film.



which then leaves, there will be blood, as the last of the most notable films of the decade but in a way there needs to be more said about these other best of lists that are coming from middle to upper class intellectuals. i think my fave is the one from the new yorker that went with in praise of love number one and wes anderson does india number two. allow me to get all up in there and explain what's going on with that list. first you've got godard's sort of comeback film as number one. it might seem like that's a daring choice but not really, he's the old master so you put him one and then you put your new master number 2. as a side note it seems like that was quite the trend even in like studio execs the new generation didn't want the number one spot or something like they felt like they had much to learn from the older gen which of course is the opposite of the 1980's blueprint of 30 and 40(if you're a white male) somethings and a couple infant terribles:) ruling hollywood. now i do think that was still the plan at the start of the decade as things where lined up well for the next gen to rule this decade the way lucas/speilberg did in the 80's.



1999 is even still considered one of the greatest years of american cinema ever led by being john malkovich(which i even have as best movie of the 90's) magnolia, american beauty, fight club, the matrix, the sixth sense, the virgin suicides, election, eyes wide shut, straight story, and sweet and lowdown, three kings, go, run lola run, the limely, the blair witch project and a few others like the talented mr. ripley, bowfinger, which would in some years be serious oscar contenders. rushmore was also finally being seen and some of course had also found gummo though both films were released in 98. so you have all the players, spike jonze, c. kaufman, pt anderson, wes anderson, sofia coppola, sam mendes, alexander payne, m. night, david fincher, david lynch, steve soderbergh, and the guy who directed run lola run all of who were the bright stars of tomorrow the (mainly) boy genius' that would not only replace the old timers and the slacker-dom of the early 90's but also edit out the naive peace, love and happiness values or at least place those values firmly in the 'ironic'. it was a bold new world and there were/are many flag carriers.



so flash forward to the guy doing the new yorker best of this decade list.  he's seen the general failure of the sure fire future 'seen' in 99 encapsulated by pt anderson's there will be blood, bankrupting paramount vintage, which is a company like no before, or at least not since the founding of united artists by charlie chaplin etc., one with studio resources and a mandate to make only films that didn't 'sell out'. so then there's wes anderson does india, the Darjeeling limited, a rather meandering movie that since it's in india could be taken as meditative though i'd say it's more or less lifeless or just lost, but to someone whose 'bleed' for the lost future  of 1999, it could be a rather moving, if kinda unintentional, experience for that crowd. for reference, natalie portman does some nudity in the short that sets up the feature, though it's all the same movie but sure I believe people when they tell you and seem to mean it, and anderson did say something like that about the 'short' and anyway portman later came out and at the very least, felt unsure that she made the right choice in baring it all for the movies.



ok there was enough to latch onto, it was a return to his rushmore style, again it's set in india, but the ny-er still needs something better than darjeeing cause it just doesn't compute, the lack of oscars, much other prestige, or you know box office(for a reference on that, consider that where the wild things are is set to lose 25 million on the 100 million investment and mr fox is set to lose 20 million of it's 40 million investment though maybe over the span of decade they'll break even with home sales and rentals but you know maybe not and those are the hit movies by the 'class of 99'. the flop of flops from this year, land of the lost, lost 35 million on it's like 150 investment again with the video caveat) ok so you still need a number one, enter the old man, godard, like adama in battlestar gallatica all of sudden he's the man all over after almost half a century since his time in the spotlight with his written crit., alphaville and weekend the film i see the best of the 1960s. in praise of love did get a fairly wide release for a godard movie and many artists world wide were using the "in praise of" type phrasing for titles circa 2002 so it fit in with that. the ny-er's list is an odd one but prob my fave of all the ones i've read because it captures the attitude of critics better than any other and then most or rather none that i've read include my number one film of the decade, what the bleep do we know.



so then finally about the trashing, the burning plain, a movie by my, sort of 'filmmaker of the decade',  has taken. ok it's a non-linear plot which we've all seen done before if you've made this far in the blog. non-linear storytelling, it's an artistic choice, i mean sure some films have the internal logic that demands such a style:) and of course if you spend half the time trying to figure out what's going on it's either too opaque storytelling and/or somebody's trying to hide prob their emotions or attitude. or you know you may not be really giving the movie a chance. now it could be overly melodramatic with characters a mother couldn't love or want to talk with and it could also have a silly or unbelievable plot, i've only seen clips but geez these critics loved amos perros which i think is good but too Scorsese or tarantino esq and by the time babel comes out some 6 years later with really at most it's altman esq which you know when others go that route it's still lauded but the critics had begun to tire. along the way, 21 grams generally got great reviews and there's a nice if small group of people like me who think three burials was a top highlight of the decade, and of course G.A. is the writer of all these films. when thinking about critics you need to keep in mind sites like metacritic or rotten tomatoes, sites that compile averages of reviews of films and according to metacritic, pans labyrinth was the best film of the decade based on reviews and ratoluiie or whatever the pixar movie about rats was like 3rd best. and i enjoy both those films but you got to recognize they're both family films which are like action films i.e. people love em critics tend not to so when they find one they like they might be prone to exaggerate since the bar for the genre is low. i haven't seen rats on one list and i prob just haven't read enough lists to find pans lab on a list but i've read close to 20 best of decade lists and can fill in the blanks on some old reliables and it tends to rank if at all, as a honorable mention. it just shows how personal criticism is (or at least tribe-ish it is). that still doesn't just state my psych 101 on the widespread disapproval of the burning plan. i think there's something about middle class people being emotional that rubs critics wrong. to use a sports metaphor, it's not like the guy forgot how to coach or in this case, write movies. now in sports sometimes the other teams figure out your ins and outs and you take a step back and in the arts that would be like a comedian that needs new jokes. but outside of open mic nights to get heckled means you know you've been booked for the gig. in movies as in other entertainment the worst response they say is indifference. and really most of the worsties of the year tend to be like, the ugly truth, or something that isn't oscar bait but i guess you could say they're like a sub cato of like an unintentionally b-movie that fits in with the cheap date films etc. that tend to end up on worst of lists. all i can do is watch but there's plenty of examples through recent history of elites not 'getting' the drama of even lower-middle class life. it's like only poor and rich folks live story worthy lives.

here's a link to the best of list that at least in the top 10 is closest to mine,

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6902642.ece?token=null&offset=96&page=9



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I bet avatar ala new moon gets blind sided by a couple movies in box office race and gets about or just under 350 million domestic box office. I can’t see why people who aren’t in the biz or sci-fi die hards are gonna be into seeing the same old story that it is, just to see how far mixing humans with cgi has come since the last star wars trilogy. The most notable thing seems to be that actors all wore cameras on their heads during shooting and really mainly that the hype machine strikes again. I’ve seen it since I started typing this blog entry, not a big fan. with everyone wearing those 3d glasses it reminds me of the old cover of society of the spectacle buy gee de-bore, where everyone's got the 3d glasses on in the theater but we can't see what's playing. the lasting aspects of their's, the situationists, for me is their official religion, pataphysics( a science of science:), pataphysics rests "on the truth of contradictions and exceptions. just make sure the doctor doesn't laugh too much), the idea of the psychological map of the city, the big catch phrases, society of the spec., revolution of everyday life, and their thrashing of godard. i suppose they get credit for like adbusting or what not though the way i see it, that idea was just furthered or done particularly well by them. from the like reporting aspect of them, the film that showed before debor's sticks out, i forget the lady's name who made it, it's in the popular anthologies of the situationists if you just gotta know it, because the film was all black the whole way through without sound except for the sound of the projector. it strikes me as wonderfully subversive. how's that? avatar and the film that preceded a debor premiere all in one paragraph without much grammar. here's a link to my fave discussion of avatar
 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/12/26/notes122609.DTL  it's called, please mount my hot blue alien

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it's always a great time to express gratitude for the life you be livin. it's so great that i've got the opportunity to live with a certain degree of comfort, pursue what i want, all the joy in my life, and the wonderful people in my life. it's prob been the funnest year of my life so far, all the travel, art, etc. that I experienced.

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so i watched knowing, kinda an odd choice for a christmas day movie but not wanting to be left behind um wait. well yeah it's like big budget version of the left behind movies or books but with a twist that puts me much closer to their target audience than i figured. no spoilers, i don't feel like it's like of course you've seen that movie, i mean i'll break the news micheal coreleon kills the head cop mid way through the godfather. the problem with knowing is too many endings, too many filler scenes, and not enough common sense by the main character towards his kid who by the way is the one that really knows the secret duh! i say this as someone familiar with the idea of the challenges faced by trying to play in the mainstream with views that are edgy. it left way too much time for people to remember that they aren't really doomsday is around the corner christians. a movie like close encounters or e.t. is paced so well( at least comparatively) that it makes belief in the films' worldview easy to take, as saying goes, it's just a movie right. and of course i am prob a bit 'spoiled' by the euro greats of the 50-70's like antonioni, bergman etc. to be really into the 'intense' character studies in knowing or god even sometimes like in mad men, i just feel like if i haven't already 'seen it' before in another film it's just kinda sorta lightweight dialogue. even today euro filmmakers have a certain tendency to be against easy stereotypes in characterizations. thanks for reading