As part of my effort to make 2010 the year I post more blog entries that absolutely nobody cares about, here are my Oscar predictions! Whether you care about them or not, I must post them, so that if I am 100% right, I have the proof in a public forum. Also, the Midtown Cinema in Harrisburg is hosting an Oscar party (telecast on the big screen, hors d’oeuvres, beverages, BYOB). 8 bucks to get in. Anyone wanna go? I want to go but only if someone else wants to. I think they’re starting at 7pm. So anyway. I’m putting my pick for who will win in bold and my pick for who I want to win in italics, and of course on the occasion that they overlap, it will be in bold italics, though I will list all nominees in each category.
Art Direction
Avatar The Imaginiarium of Doctor Parnassus Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria
Costume Design
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Nine The Young Victoria
Original Score
Avatar Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up
Film Editing
Avatar
District 9 The Hurt Locker Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Makeup
Il Divo Star Trek
The Young Victoria
Sound Editing
Avatar The Hurt Locker Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up
Sound Mixing
Avatar The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds Star Trek Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Visual Effects
Avatar District 9 Star Trek
Cinematography
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Something Something Something The Hurt Locker Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon
Adapted Screenplay
District 9
An Education In the Loop Precious Up in the Air
Original Screenplay
The Hurt Locker Inglourious Basterds The Messenger
A Serious Man
Up
Documentary Feature
Burma VJ The Cove Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America
Which Way Home
Supporting Actor
Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) Matt Damon (Invictus)
Woody Harrelson (The Messenger)
Christopher Plummer (The Last Station)
Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones)
*really, I will be thrilled with any of these guys winning. Good category this year.
Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz (Nine)
Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air) Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart) Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air) Mo’Nique (Precious)
*I’d like to see Gyllenhaal win just because I love her, but Mo’Nique deserves it, and any trophy for “Up in the Air” would be fine. I haven’t seen “Nine” but I generally dislike Penelope Cruz.
Best Actor
Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) George Clooney (Up in the Air)
Colin Firth (A Single Man)
Morgan Freeman (Invictus) Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) *I haven’t seen “A Single Man”
Best Actress
Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) Helen Mirren (The Last Station) Carey Mulligan (An Education)
Gabourey Sabide (Precious)
Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia)
*I haven’t seen “The Last Station”
Best Director
James Cameron (Avatar) Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
Lee Daniels (Precious)
Jason Reitman (Up in the Air)
*a win by anyone other than Cameron would be a great win, esp Tarantino, but my main desire is for Bigelow to win
Best Picture
The Hurt Locker Avatar
Inglourious Basterds
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air
From the end of the liner notes in the Hey Rosetta! album Plan Your Escape:
and thanks to michael pittman and his talent and diligence and even temper, and thanks to you! you and your fantastic decision to purchase this recording. you are obviously an excellent person. seriously, take a moment and rejoice! quietly, if you should feel embarrassed. surely you can allow yourself that. have a beer, have a cup of tea. the sincerest of people are thanking you from the dark, bloody bottom of their hearts.
The young swallows are learning grace this morning
by failing. I mean their rough, difficult flight,
the way they flap too much,
not trusting the thin air to hold them,
the way they refuse to use the wind.
Easy flight isn’t natural.
The knack of a barnswallow’s quick and accurate,
almost-to-falling glide is not, as I had thought,
inborn intelligence (a sort of ether that fills
a barnswallow’s hollow bones).
Simplicity is the achievement.
Consider the elegant parent swallows that skim out low
across the lake—the mist rising, the reeds jutting,
their glassy mirror image—in effortless,
unerring flight. They are willing to ride the air,
but like their young, when they were young,
they must have flapped, toiled, flustered,
have failed, too. Every muscle resisting the pull
of what pulled them. How did they learn
that graceful giving-in, that belief in invisible air?
It must have been exigency—fatigue,
gravity, hunger, sheer desperate hunger.
I was thinking this morning that almost no matter where you live , there seems to be that one, larger, more exciting place that you routinely “go into” or talk about going to, or hear others talk about going to. For instance, I grew up in Newville, a very very small town. When we needed to get out of Newville, we’d usually “go into Carlisle”, an only slightly-larger town. Now that I live in Carlisle, when I need out of Carlisle, I often go into Harrisburg. And nowadays, I know plenty of people who have lived their whole lives in Harrisburg. Since they’ve never known travel from one small town into another, slightly-larger small town, they frequently talk about going into Philadelphia. I suppose this cycle can only end at large cities, where life-time residents probably do the inverse, and talk frequently about “getting out” of the city. What is your experience with this phenomenon?
Whenever I’m shopping anywhere—but especially at Wal-Mart—I like to be conscious of how they are “trying to get me”. Mind you, I usually don’t care if they get me—I just like to know about it. I’m down with “loss leaders” (pricing certain items, like DVDs, so low that the store actually takes a loss—but have you ever left a Wal-Mart with JUST a DVD? They get you in, then you buy a chair or Windex) and sequential pricing tricks (the cheapest microwaves are super low, and almost at a loss for the store, but then the upper half of microwaves are actually more expensive than at other retailers—but because the low end is so low, you assume you can’t find any of these microwaves cheaper, anywhere else, so you buy a 200 microwave when in fact Target sells it for $150). And the way they rearrange things every so often so you get lost. And how the entrance-way floors are always tiles, so you can’t hear the people you’re walking with overtop of the cart noise, so you have trouble making shopping plans, so you enter the store mildly disoriented. And I can usually tell how they’re getting me. But last night, as I was in the market for plastic cups (that’s right—I consider myself an environmentally concerned liberal, and I still use plastic cups. All I can say is, I’m not perfect, so fuck you) I was a little baffled. I think they got me, but I can’t quite parse how. First, I see the generic plastic cups:
As you can see, the generic plastic cups are $2.66. Then I looked to the brand name cups:
Now, you can see the brand name cups are $3, even. I figured, hey, the brand name is only 30-some cents more, and they are probably much sturdier, so I bought them. You can also see there is an “AS ADVERTISED” tab sticking out from the shelf by the brand name cups. At first I’m thinking, of course they got me, I spent more money. But normally I would think the generic would be a better deal for Wal-Mart—I’m sure they get a bigger cut and they cost less to begin with. So, help me figure this one out. Did they get me, or did I get them?
Posted in My Poetry with tags dread, poetry on February 4, 2010 by sethdellinger
You might like to live in one of these smallish
houses that start to climb a hill, then fumble
back to the beginning as though nothing had happened.
You might enjoy a dinner of sandwiches
with the neighbor who makes concessions. Everything will all be over in a minute anyway, you said.
We both believed that, and the clock is ticking.
Just for the record, on December 26th, I posted these guesses to the nominations for the documentary Oscar:
–The Cove
–Food, Inc.
–The Beaches of Agnes
–Burma VJ
–Which Way Home
The actual nominations are:
–The Cove
–Food, Inc.
–The Most Dangerous Man in America
–Burma VJ
–Which Way Home
I was ONE off—no “Beaches of Agnes” but “Most Dangerous Man” instead. Frankly, I am pretty friggen proud of that. You may think that was easy but it was not!
Well, it is finally time to announce my favorite movies of 2009. I have to do it today, because the Oscar nominations get announced tomorrow and I don’t want to be affected by that.
There are alot of movies I wish I’d gotten to see before making this list. They include: “Crazy Heart”, “A Single Man”, “The Last Station”, “The Messenger” and “The Lovely Bones”, among others. Even without having seen those, I still was unable to narrow my list down to 10 (I don’t know how those real critics do it!)—and remember, this is without any documentaries!
Stay tuned after the list for a brief list of I don’t understand why everyone loved these movies movies, as well as a run-down of every movie I saw in theaters this year. Without further ado, my list:
15. Lymelife
A nice melding of Ang Lee’s “The Ice Storm” and David Green’s “Snow Angels”, it would be easy to dismiss “Lymelife” as just another tart exploration of the American Dream gone bad. And that’s what it is, but I really am a sucker for this sub-genre.
14. Sunshine Cleaning
Three cheers for great roles for women, please! Funny, heartbreaking, multi-faceted, important roles for women!
13. Precious
I’ll tell ya, you gotta work really hard to make me identify with an obese, inner-city illiterate black girl. But “Precious” manages it. Quite a few times throughout the movie, I thought to myself–I’ve been there. Quite an accomplishment considering, in the literal sense, I’d been nowhere near there at all. Major kudos for using the micro to show the macro.
12. An Education
A lot of attention is being heaped on Carey Mulligan’s performance—and it IS great—but being mostly ignored is Peter Sarsgaard, who has the ungratifying role of the conflicted rogue. Unexpectedly, I ended up feeling as bad for him as I did for Mulligan. Here’s a good Sarsgaard clip. Watch how he acts with his face:
11. Up in the Air
George Clooney. Jason Reitman. Jason Bateman. Sam Eliot. Zack Galifinakis. Vera Farmiga. Danny McBride. Anna Kendrick. OK?
It would be possible to watch “Away We Go” and think that nothing much happens. And, to an extent, you’d be right. It’s a quiet little movie about the simple complexities of a romance—and part of the fun of watching it quietly unfold is the knowledge that the people behind the film are not who you’d have expected to make “Away We Go” (Sam Mendes and Dave Eggers), and that makes it all the more surprising in it’s simplicity.
8. Inglourious Basterds
Tarantino. Nazis. Fake history. Long dialogue patches followed by bursts of action and violence. Tasty.
7. Drag me to Hell
I know, I know—not exactly typical year-end best-of list material. But I can’t remember the last time I saw a horror movie that so perfectly balanced it’s tone, and knew precisely what it wanted to be. And the final scene—and the look on Justin Long’s face—won’t be leaving me any time soon. Harrowing, yet slightly…funny. (on purpose)
6. The Road
I read the book. I loved it. Then Mary read the book and hated it (for stylistic purposes, not plot). She convinced me. Now the book annoys me, too. But I still had great affection for the plot (plus Nick Cave did the soundtrack!), so I still eagerly attended the film. And it is amazing. Visually, aurally, emotionally, performancely. (<—haha) A tender, sweeping mini-epic. Watch some clips.
5. A Serious Man
The Coen brothers’ latest effort had me on unsure footing for most of the film. Was this good? What was this about? Was this a rejected episode of Freaks and Geeks? Then, the final two sequences (about 4 minutes of film) happened, the credits rolled, and I was left, jaw agape, until the theater lights came up. Those two sequences retroactively inform the entire film preceeding it in a way that is the indie drama equivalent to the twist ending of The Sixth Sense. Spellbinding.
As far as I’m concerned, this is the overlooked movie of the year. No one famous is attached to it, and not much happens—though what does happen, I really shouldn’t say. The main conceit of the film is, of itself, a considerable spoiler (and yes, this film has a release date in 2008, but it didn’t commercially release until 2009). If I were a member of the Academy (why aren’t I?), Red West and Souleymane Sy Savane would both be up for Best Actor awards. I implore you to watch it if the opportunity ever presents itself.
2. (500) Days of Summer
I avoided this one for quite some time. I thought it looked like Garden State but even quirkier (note: I like Garden State). When I finally Netflixed it after it’s DVD release, I was blown away. This is pretty much the ultimate “relationship” movie. It’s not cynical, but it is realistic; Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson, this is not. And yet, it is a romantic comedy, just not for idiots. I felt, in turns, uplifted, dispirited, entertained, joyous, reassured, and knowing. It’s still an idealized version of a real romance, which is a lot better than an unreal version of an idealized romance. Once of the first movies I felt compelled to buy on BluRay at full price.
1. Where the Wild Things Are
Pretty much a game-changer for me. Now definitely my favorite movie, period. I really didn’t know movies could be like this, could affect me like this, could be so many different things all at the same time. It’s a polarizing movie—lots of people feel just like me, while an equal amount are just kinda like…”Meh.” Of course, it’s got to be that way. Nothing can hit everyone the same way (and thank goodness, or the world would have stopped the week WtWA was released, for I was a damned mess.) Also, please note that novelist Dave Eggers also wrote this screenplay (in addition to “Away We Go”), so he’d damn well better get recognized for something at this year’s Oscars. Watch the clip:
I Don’t Understand Why Everyone Loved These Movies
1. District 9—seriously, what are you guys watching? This movie is baaaad. It even has a serious—SERIOUS and GLARING—problem with it’s narrative style (switches from first to third person). And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Bad.
2. Avatar—it’s not horrible, but then again, it’s really nothing special. The story is a mish-mash rehash of countless other movies (I could predict the plot without trying, and it hit it’s action beats so predictably, 10 people got up to pee at the same time in the theater I was in), the special effects really aren’t that great, and all the alien-language subtitles are in puke yellow Papyrus font.
3. Julie and Julia—everyone is just loving the shit out of Meryl Streep’s portrayal of Julia Childs, but I found it so impressionist and comical I took the DVD out after 45 minutes.
Movies I Saw in the Theater
My buddy Kyle has been doing this thing for the past few years where he keeps track of every movie he sees in the theater, what the date was, where he saw it, and whether he give sit a thumb up or a thumb down. See Kyle’s 2009 theater movies here. This is another exercise like my 100 Favorite Bands where, you’re right—you have no compelling reason to care about this list, but I, naturally, find it quite compelling, and if you are a heavy theater-goer as I am, I think you’d find doing this quite interesting (and I’d love to read yours next year!) It’s interesting to see the trends (time periods where I favored certain theaters), and you ‘ll even see I go through times when I like to go see movies I know will be bad. Sometimes, I just like being in a movie theater!! These are just for calendar year 2009, so some of my above 15 Favorite movies, which I saw in early 2010, won’t see light of day until next year’s list. In a few instances, I forgot to record the date, so I left it blank rather than hazard a guess. Here it is:
1. Slumdog Millionaire, Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs up
2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
3. Happy-Go-Lucky, Carlisle Independent, thumbs down
4. Valkyrie, Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
5. Defiance, Carlisle Regal, thumbs…eh…down, if I have to make a decision
5. Let the Right One In, (1/28), Carlisle Independent, thumbs up
6. Milk, (2/1), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs up
7. Frost/Nixon, (2/1), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs down
8. The Reader, (2/2), Harrisburg Midtown, thumbs up
9. The Wrestler, (2/8) Harrisburg Regal (Hoyts), thumbs up
10. Friday the 13th (2009 version), (2/16), Carlisle Regal, thumbs down
11. The International, (2/26), Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
12. Watchmen, Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
13. Wolverine, Colonial Park 4, thumbs up
14. Star Trek, (5/12), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs up
15. Terminator Salvation, (5/28), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs down
16. Forbidden Lie$, (5/28), Carlisle Independent, thumbs up
17. Night at the Museum 2, (6/1), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs down
18. Drag me to Hell, (6/4), Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
19. Land of the Lost, (6/14), Colonial Park 4, thumbs down
20. Bruno, (6/24), Colonial Park 4, thumbs down initially, recently changed to thumbs up
21. Year One, (7/20), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs down
22. Public Enemies, (7/27), Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
23. Funny People, (8/13), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs down
24. GI Joe, (8/16), Carlisle Regal, thumbs waaay down
25. Inglourious Basterds, (8/24), Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
26. The Hurt Locker, (9/17), Carlisle Independent, thumbs up
27. Zombieland, (10/3), Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
28. Il Divo, (10/4), Carlisle Independent, thumbs up
29. In the Loop, (10/10), Carlisle Independent, thumbs up
30. Surrogates, (10/13), Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
31. Where the Wild Things Are, (10/19), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs up
32. Where the Wild Things Are, (10/20), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs up
33. Capitalism: A Love Story, (10/25), Harrisburg Midtown, thumbs up
34. Where the Wild Things Are, (10/26), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs up
35. The Stepfather, (10/26), Carlisle Regal, thumbs down
36. Where the Wild Things Are, (10/28), Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
37. Paranormal Activity, (10/28), Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
38. The Fourth Kind, (11/9), Flagship Cinemas Mechanicsburg, thumbs down
39. The Box, (11/9), Flagship Cinemas Mechanicsburg, thumbs down
40. A Serious Man, (11/10), Harrisburg Midtown, thumbs up
41. Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, (11/13), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs up
42. Old Dogs, (12/8), Carlisle Regal, thumbs down
43. Invictus, (12/19), Carlisle Regal, thumbs down
44. The Road, (12/24), Harrisburg Regal (Hoyts), thumbs up
45. Avatar (12/25), Carlisle Regal, thumbs down
and thanks to michael pittman and his talent and diligence and even temper, and thanks to you! you and your fantastic decision to purchase this recording. you are obviously an excellent person. seriously, take a moment and rejoice! quietly, if you should feel embarrassed. surely you can allow yourself that. have a beer, have a cup of tea. the sincerest of people are thanking you from the dark, bloody bottom of their hearts.
I’ll tell ya, you gotta work really hard to make me identify with an obese, inner-city illiterate black girl. But “Precious” manages it. Quite a few times throughout the movie, I thought to myself–I’ve been there. Quite an accomplishment considering, in the literal sense, I’d been nowhere near there at all. Major kudos for using the micro to show the macro.
The main conceit of the film is, of itself, a considerable spoiler (and yes, this film has a release date in 2008, but it didn’t commercially release until 2009). If I were a member of the Academy (why aren’t I?), Red West and Souleymane Sy Savane would both be up for Best Actor awards. I implore you to watch it if the opportunity ever presents itself.
Notes From the Fire 
