A House of Lies

Rihanna feat. Chris Brown- “Birthday Cake (Remix)”As...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:37:41 -0600

Rihanna feat. Chris Brown- “Birthday Cake (Remix)”

As you probably know, before the 2009 Grammy Awards, Chris Brown physically abused his then-girlfriend Rihanna. In the intervening years, people have divided themselves into two camps. My self-selected Tumblr and twitter universe (what I suspect is a vocal minority) has sided with Rihanna and spewed vitriol at Brown. These people suggest that beating up a woman is an unforgivable act, not to mention an act for which Brown has not even attempted to atone.

The other group will admit (I hope) that there’s no excuse for such violence, but they “love” Chris Brown enough to overlook, excuse, or forgive his actions. They claim that, while Brown was wrong, he does seem repentant and has suffered in his own way, even if he didn’t suffer as much as Rihanna. Time heals all wounds. Some of these people are idiots, but they can’t all be. #TeamBreezy is less morally defensible but probably more realistic in their view of human nature.

The debate intensified in the past week after Brown won a Grammy, which seemed like a public validation and embrace of him. He went on to wish Ri-Ri a happy birthday on twitter. (Insert comment on what counts as news in our Information Age.) To top it all off, the erstwhile couple collaborated on and released not one, but two, songs together, the better of which is posted above. The Brown haters have more fuel for their fire, and the Brown apologists can point to Rihanna’s reconciliation with Brown as a sign that we should forgive him as well.

Here’s why all of those people are wrong.

As his fans would note, Chris Brown has completed all of his court-ordered community service and counseling, and he issued several apologies* in the wake of the beating. It’s also true that he undoes any goodwill he earns by being, by all accounts, an egotistical jerk. He threw a tantrum on Good Morning America when they brought up the incident, and he pissed on the opportunity presented by the recent Grammy with a tweet that it was “the ultimate FUCK OFF.”

So while the letter of Chris Brown’s rehabilitation has been met, the spirit of it definitely hasn’t. His opponents would argue that he isn’t really sorry for what he did, which seems true. People who are torn up with guilt don’t look like this on a jetski a few days later. He also never really stopped releasing music or trying to gain people’s sympathy. In fact, most of his language repurposes himself as the victim.

Brown’s supporters might then argue that his music should be evaluated on its own merits, that Chris Brown the singer should be separated from Chris Brown the guy who sent a young woman to the hospital. What I would say to them is that it is impossible to do that in 2012: The public lives of pop stars are always already part of their artistic personas. That’s the game they agree to and often profit from. For example, it is impossible to listen to Rihanna’s revenge-tinged, aggrieved Rated R album without the context that it was made as a response to the beating. For his part, Chris Brown keeps trying to stage every public event as a comeback, and he wants the benefit of that narrative without an acknowledgment of what caused it in the first place.

Actually, the very fact that people care about this issue shows how much the public and private cannot be separated. I’d like to think people would be this outraged if Chris Brown had beaten up some nondescript hoodrat, but I know they’re outraged because he beat up America’s Sweetheart. Sadly, it’s not as if Chris Brown is the first male singer to assault a woman; he is, however, the first male singer to assault one of the most famous women in the world.

But the Brown haters aren’t off the hook. At the same time, believing that Chris Brown “isn’t sorry enough” is a childish and ridiculous stance with no endgame. Someone’s repentance for a crime is always subjective, which is why we have an objective court system in the first place. It’s not up to you. And, even if it bothers you, can you really blame him for wanting to put the biggest mistake of his life behind him? Can you blame him for having trouble adjusting to being loved by everyone in the media (except people against lip-syncing) to being hated by everyone in the media overnight? Even if you deserve it, that has to be weird, right?

There’s also a whiff of “the lady doth protest too much” with the most vocal of the Brown haters. There’s something incredibly self-serving about posts like this one that attempt to define how everyone should respond to traumatic events. Most of these posts also condemn the collaborations as a cynical cash-grab (Again, you don’t know that.) and end up slut-shaming Rihanna by pointing out how sexually-aggressive the collaborations are, when that’s the kind of music each artist has always made. What were they going to remix? A nursery rhyme?

In the end, Browns’ supporters and detractors both suffer from sketching a caricature from a complex portrait.

Brown’s supporters want to divorce his despicable actions from who he is, which is always a dangerous game. A condition of his fame and fortune is his status as a role model, and he proved to be a terrible example to impressionable fans everywhere. Sure, no one’s perfect, but no one’s quite as wrong as a man who beats up women.

Brown’s opponents believe that he should have known better, even though he was, at the time, a nineteen-year-old without a high school diploma, who had been a victim of domestic violence himself. Rather than asking why this violence happened and how acts like it might be prevented, they have simplified it to a degree that no one can learn from.

Worse, by implying that his actions are unforgivable, they are taking agency away from the real victim. Whether or not Rihanna forgives Brown is her choice, and every victim of a traumatic event responds to it in a different way. How do you know singing “I’mma make you my bitch” to Chris Brown isn’t her way of reasserting her dominance and seizing power back? You have the right to document if Rihanna embraces Chris Brown or not, but you don’t have the right to shame her into never doing so. By stamping your own values on this story, you have backed her into a corner and ensured that she can’t dictate how or when a reconciliation could happen. After all, people have forgiven their exes for much worse in the real world.

And maybe that’s the real lesson to take away: that they are in the real world. These people aren’t talking points or totems for twitter teams. They are growing up in a real world that is messy, complicated, and difficult to navigate. They are living in public with consequences they can’t predict.

Right after the abuse was reported, Brown was fond of insisting that only two people were there and knew the whole story. He claimed that the police report and all subsequent news reports got important details wrong. That might be true, and it might be a cowardly way of excusing his actions. I don’t know. But what I do know is that, if we can’t be sure how this whole story began, then we certainly have to stop pretending to have all the answers to how it will end.

*- My favorite, although it’s weird to have a favorite apology for domestic violence, was one from what appears to be Bow Wow’s home bowling alley. It totally reminded me of the last scene of There Will Be Blood.

"Embarrassment Rock"- Nitsuh Abebe- Why We Fight- Pitchfork

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:10:12 -0600

"Embarrassment Rock"- Nitsuh Abebe- Why We Fight- Pitchfork:

“One of the more subtle casualties of rockism is the ability to articulate what’s actually good about a piece of rock music. So when a few exciting new rock bands come around the corner, like they did 10 years ago, they’re immediately bathed in clichés: This is what rock’n’roll is all about! Now that’s real rock’n’roll attitude! Rock is back! These guys are its saviors! And so on until the end of time. You could spend 24 hours straight reading praise for the White Stripes without ever coming across much talk about what made them valuable— just appeals to the existence of rock itself. The idea is always that rock is self-evidently good and true, in ways we all understand and value highly and would probably be a little bit embarrassed to try and explain to one another (explaining rock’n’roll is totally not rock’n’roll, right?), and so all that is really needed is to identify it: Here it is, firing on all cylinders, valiantly trouncing everything in its path. The weirdest aspect of this muteness was that you’d consistently see rock bands praised in the negative: At least they’re not Britney Spears (who, recall the tragedy, isn’t a composer), at least they’re not dance music, at least they’re not hip-hop, at least they’re not pop. But, you know… what are they, specifically?”

Meek Mill feat. Young Chris- “House Party”From his...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:31:04 -0600

Meek Mill feat. Young Chris- “House Party”
From his mixtape Dreamchaser

Oh. I get it. I guess everyone’s going to know who Meek Mill is now.

"Phasing Out the Skit: How Hip-Hop Outgrew One of Its Most Frustrating Traditions"- Evan Rytlewski- A.V. Club

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:59:38 -0600

"Phasing Out the Skit: How Hip-Hop Outgrew One of Its Most Frustrating Traditions"- Evan Rytlewski- A.V. Club

Back by popular demand:THE QUEST FOR THE MOST ’90s FILM OF ALL...

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:09:58 -0600

Back by popular demand:

THE QUEST FOR THE MOST ’90s FILM OF ALL TIME
Mallrats

The film world has largely turned on Kevin Smith. Legend—his own preening, self-aggrandizing legend—has it that he’s shooting his final film, then taking his ball and going home, where he will lead a podcast network that preaches to the converted. He finds that preferable to facing the critics who question him and resent the wasting of his promise. Before the circus surrounding Red State’s Sundance premiere, the biggest news he had made in a decade was related to getting kicked off a plane for being fat. So it’s hard to flash back to 1995, when major publications mentioned him in the same sentence as Woody Allen. But it did happen.

Smith enjoys painting himself as the youngest son of Miramax, a pioneer of the ’90s independent cinema boom. And, granted, he did make a black-and-white movie with lots of talking and no conflict for $30,000. But as soon as he could, he jumped ship to Universal, who gave him $6 million to make a movie with lots of talking and no conflict—this time in color. That movie is Mallrats, and, to a thirteen-year-old who wanted the cachet of independent film but wasn’t quite ready for actual experimental art, it seemed like a welcome compromise.

STARS/PERFORMANCES
- Actors Who Are Unquestionably Tied to the Decade- Shannen Doherty [+10]
Although she’s the third lead, Doherty was prominently featured in the advertising and, hot off Beverly Hills 90210, was probably the reason the movie got made. Again, hard to believe.

The whole movie takes place in one day, but Doherty’s character changes clothes four or five times. Judging from her reputation as “difficult,” I’m guessing there was a clause in her contract that said she got to keep her wardrobe from the film, and she pushed for as many Silverstone boots as she could. What can I say though? I was always more of a Jennie Garth fan.*

- Other Notable Actors- Michael Rooker, Jason Lee, Jeremy London, Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Mewes, Ethan Suplee [+15- Max]
Mallrats is a true ensemble. Lee and London are two spurned lovers who spend a day at the mall trying to arrange for a reconciliation with their girls. But it’s way more convoluted than that sounds.

Here’s an example: The butt-cutted [+1] London plays T.S.—named such so that Kevin Smith can prove he knows about books and stuff. T.S.’s girlfriend broke up with him because her dad didn’t like him. Her dad didn’t like him because T.S. messed up the dating TV show he produces. (And it was a very special live episode shot at the mall!) T.S. messed up the dating TV show because the girl who was going to be a contestant died because she exercised too much. She exercised too much because T.S. implied she was fat. All of this information is conveyed in the first two minutes of the film, and it’s as exhausting as it sounds. Mallrats is one of those films in which a lot happens…but really nothing happens.

To keep down on costs, none of the stores are name-brand [+5]. As you can see, Smith tries to have a lot of fun with this. (Homosexual panic points: [+5])

True to form, lots of characters and hijinx keep our star-crossed lovers from being together. The mall is crowded because of a Stan Lee signing at the comic book shop [+3]. Mall security is breathing down T.S. and Brodie’s necks, knowing that they plan on crashing the dating show. Shannen Doherty seems to be hooking up with the manager of Fashionable Male, played by a brilliant, oily, straight-out-of-Boston Ben Affleck. Claire Forlani is struggling with an American accent. One character’s entire subplot revolves around HIS INABILITY TO SEE THE IMAGE IN A MAGIC-EYE POSTER [+10,000].

And, when we talk about Kevin Smith, we have to talk about his casting of people who are not actors. Sometimes it works. This is Jason Lee’s first speaking part, and he’s a natural. All of Brodie’s lines require shouting, but, as something like a proto-Charlie Day, Lee makes it work. Sometimes, as with Jay and Silent Bob, however, Smith’s instincts fail him. It’s always a power move to cast yourself, but casting yourself in a non-speaking but featured role? That’s kind of like e.e. cummings lower-casing his name and paradoxically drawing more attention to it. But there I go again, proving I know about books and stuff. Jay and Silent Bob are there for catch-phrase mongering purposes [+5] and not much more.

Stop trying to make “snootchie bootchies” happen. “Snootchie bootchies” is never going to happen.

TECHNOLOGY/CULTURAL RELICS
- Could the Plot Reasonably Occur with Current Technology?
I suppose [-10], but these characters would be even more insufferable if they were documenting their loitering on twitter.

- Hacking/Computers
No, but in Brodie’s first scene, he is playing with the Hartford Whalers on a Sega NHL game. That’s not only an outmoded game console, but a team that is now defunct [+5].

- Other Technological Notes
A few mentions of VHS and video stores [+2]. Other than that, there aren’t many cultural artifacts to speak of. If you want to count wood-paneled station wagons and air guitar, I’ll go along with it [+2]. I’d also like to mention the soundtrack, which includes Silverchair, Bush, and sweet Weezer B-side “Suzanne” [+3]. The soundtrack album cover? You guessed it: a Magic Eye poster [+5].

“Stay away from her…or else.” [+3]

FASHION
Now we’re talking. Every character in Mallrats seems to occupy a different subset of ’90s Jersey couture. Doherty has the Silverstone boots and babydoll t’s. Silent Bob pairs snapbacks and Doc Martens with shorts. Jeremy London is usually wearing more than one pattern at once, sometimes with deep flannel tied around his waist. Affleck wears baggy suits with henley-collar shirts. Even extras have lady blazers and double-breasted suits. [+15- Max]

’90s FILM CONVENTIONS
Wording Unfunny Things in a Joke Structure [+1]
People Getting Hit in the Nuts [+1]

The “Where Are They Now” Coda Lifted from Fast Times at Ridgemont High [+5]

Men and Women Can Be Just Friends [+10]- The relationship between T.S. and the Joey Lauren Adams character is the best thing the movie has going for it. (Other than the brief shot of Joey Lauren Adams’ breasts.) They used to be an item, and now they have a rich friendship without any lingering bullshit. This is a revelatory concept that the ’90s loved to expound upon, but it’s handled pretty gracefully here.

OTHER
I didn’t hate Mallrats, but it’s not the same movie now that it was when I owned it on video. It’s a bit contrived and forced. Parts of it (stink-hands?) feel like a first draft. But it does have an undeniable energy and captures a weird man-child period of your early twenties—a period that Smith, sadly, has never really moved on from.

Really, it’s just hard to believe that a studio would make this movie and assume it would be a success. It’s clearly a case of some executive going, “The kids love him!”

Mallrats scored a robust 96. If you have a suggestion for the next movie in The Quest, leave it in the comments.

*- In a joke, true. In real life, false. I liked Garth’s paleness, but I’m generally not a fan of blondes.

pushinghoopswithsticks: The long-awaited fourth and final...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:06:15 -0600

pushinghoopswithsticks:

The long-awaited fourth and final installment in Kirby Ferguson’s fascinating series on how “everything is a remix.” In the last chapter, Ferguson looks at the failure of the law system to “acknowledge the derivative nature of creativity.” By the way, Ferguson is already hard at work on his next project, This is Not a Conspiracy Theory. Learn more here. [e.i.a.r.] Earlier: Part 1; Part 2; Part 2: One Last Thing; Part 3. [thedailywhat]

Watch them all in order. Fantastic stuff.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:25:20 -0600

Happy Valentine’s Day!

[The A.V. Club]

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:24:25 -0600

[The A.V. Club]

I was a scared kid. Although I loved my grandmother’s...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:57:00 -0600

I was a scared kid. Although I loved my grandmother’s house,* it was haunted with unforgiving horrors at every turn. In the kitchen, the wood of the cabinets was stained so that it reminded me of a snarling elf. A lamp in her guest room put off a shadow that recalled Freddy Krueger’s outstretched hand. When the door to Ma-Maw’s room was half-closed, it looked like the silhouette of Anjelica Huston in The Witches, a film whose trailer so irrationally scared me that my mother almost put me into therapy. And in my mind, the air vents of my grandma’s house housed an entire network of toothy Gremlins waiting for me to go to sleep.

No one seemed to understand this. I was seven. Couldn’t I differentiate between fact and fiction? Didn’t I know that none of this was real? When we went to the mall, why wouldn’t I leave my parents’ side? How could I possibly remember that snatch of news footage about a shooting there?

How could I be so well-adjusted in other ways, only to collapse into tears when the next-door neighbor dressed like Pumpkinhead for Halloween? I had a preternatural memory (still do, apparently), I read way beyond my grade level, I could “talk like an adult.” So why was I so paranoid and afraid? What was wrong with me?

I went to a summer camp that same year, and I spent most of the week dreading an event titled: “VIDEO- GREMLINS.” I broached the subject with the only person I knew there, a boy called Casper whom I introduced to my mom as “my Black friend.” He had already seen it and told me there was nothing to be afraid of. There were even some Gremlins who were good guys. But I was unconvinced.

Part of me knew that a summer camp for kids wouldn’t program inappropriate entertainment. After all, they had already showed both Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which, at the time, I saw as the epitome of all artistic progress. I should have just trusted them. I should have played Tecmo Bowl on coach mode for as long as they would let me, then bravely sit in front of the video and close my eyes if I had to.

But, knowing that, to an imaginative kid, closed eyes are the Gremlins’ playground, I chickened out. The camp was split into Group A and Group B. When Group A was swimming, Group B was ushered into the movie room, and vice-versa. Hatching an unassailable plot, I convinced a camp counselor to let me go swimming twice. Perhaps he knew that, rather than wanting to enjoy a beautiful day, I was really just scared of the Gremlins. Either way, I put my ability to talk like an adult to good use. To this day, whenever I get sunburned, I’m reminded of 1984 Joe Dante holiday action-comedies.

Eventually, I grew out of a fear of Gremlins and moved on to a crippling fear of failure and death. It happened naturally. But no one seemed to understand where those fears came from, especially after I had been raised in such a sheltered existence. They didn’t understand that what helps a child to entertain himself is what also helps to terrify him. When people are adults, we talk about their difficulties as “their demons,” personifying the things that keep them up at night. We dramatize the same “overactive imaginations” we patronize children for having. We easily forget that intelligence is a two-way street toward light and darkness.

*- When my parents came to pick me up, I would often hide from them in hopes of staying at Ma-Maw’s.

"A Voice of Triumph, the Queen of Pain"- Jon Caramanica- New York Times

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:38:30 -0600

"A Voice of Triumph, the Queen of Pain"- Jon Caramanica- New York Times:

“Whitney Houston died a cautionary tale, but all cautionary tales were heroes once.

That is how she arrived in the mid-1980s, a flawless vocalist singing impeccable songs and singlehandedly inserting gospel and classic-soul theatrics into mainstream pop. She was a sunbeam—radiant, perspective-altering, impossible to touch.

After her greatest years were behind her, she remained in the public eye as something thornier—a drug addict, and a casualty of the tabloid and reality-TV era, ill-equipped for ever-increasing levels of scrutiny. Ms. Houston’s fall attracted so much notice because she had so far to go, down from the clouds into an abyss.”

thedailywhat: Movie Trailer of the Day: First official trailer...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:20:16 -0600

thedailywhat:

Movie Trailer of the Day: First official trailer for Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist screenwriter Lorene Scafaria’s apocalyptic romcom Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.

A release date has been set for June 22nd.

[movieclip.]

"Oscarmetrics: Viola Davis, The Help, and Hollywood's Ongoing Issue with Race"- Mark Harris- Grantland

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:53:00 -0600

"Oscarmetrics: Viola Davis, The Help, and Hollywood's Ongoing Issue with Race"- Mark Harris- Grantland:

“With her deep voice, her gravity, and her gift for restrained sorrow and quiet moral authority, Davis often gets cast as responsible people — detectives, doctors, social workers, cops. Once she was a mayor; once she was the head of the CIA. Either she hasn’t been asked to play a maid very often, or she has declined those roles; before The Help, her one memorable stint as a housekeeper was in Todd Haynes’ brilliant Far From Heaven, in which she and Haynes seemed to collaborate on an onscreen deconstruction of the qualities of a 1950s film domestic. The Help was different: At 45, Davis was finally given the opportunity to play the lead in a studio movie. (Are we really still not going to talk about race, and how much sooner that opportunity might have come otherwise?) But it meant wearing that uniform and holding a little blonde white girl in her lap while saying, ‘You is kind. You is smart. You is important.’

I don’t know what it cost Davis emotionally to go there for her first high-stakes starring role, or what argument, if any, she had with herself beforehand. I’ve talked to tough, smart black actresses who say that a great part is a great part, and other equally tough, smart black actresses who simply, categorically, do not want to play maids or slaves, just as I’ve met Arab-American actors who felt they had to turn down the golden opportunity to be killed by Kiefer Sutherland on 24. You don’t get to call them prima donnas unless you yourself have spent years facing the hard knowledge that regardless of your talent and training, a huge percentage of what you’re going to get offered is the chance to play an ethnic cliché. Yes, Hattie McDaniel elevated a caricature by dint of sheer talent. It was 72 years ago. In 2012, we should be further than we are past the sentimentality of Mammy’s ‘I done raise that chile from a baby.’ The Help’s racial politics aren’t Gone With the Wind’s, but, as I wrote when the movie opened, it’s far too comfortable trafficking in cliches about super-maternal black women whose compassion and capacity to nurture always trumps their anger.”

gifparty: It’s a shame that it’s only February, and we already have the best music...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:42:02 -0600

gifparty:

It’s a shame that it’s only February, and we already have the best music video of the year.

criterioncollection: Behind the scenes of THE 400 BLOWS:

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:39:44 -0600

criterioncollection:

Behind the scenes of THE 400 BLOWS:

The Best Films of 2011: Part V- Great Movies/Instant Classics

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:48:44 -0600

GREAT MOVIES/UNQUALIFIED RECOMMENDATIONS

15. Margin Call (J.C. Chandor)- I don’t know anything about finance, so I don’t know if the perils of Margin Call’s investment bank are complete hogwash. But the suspense mined from the bank’s day-from-hell is palpably real. The performances, especially Kevin Spacey’s, demand use of the word “gravitas,” with each actor showing up the titan who came before him. Besides all of the economic “movie of the moment” mumbo-jumbo, it’s just a perfectly-structured piece of old school adult drama.

14. Weekend (Andrew Haigh)- Weekend was produced on such a micro- scale, in budget, cast, and scope, that the viewer is inevitably blindsided by how profound its emotions and central relationship end up being. The dialogue is so realistic and the actors so natural that the whole thing feels improvised, but that’s usually just a sign of how finely-tuned a film actually is.

13. Beginners (Mike Mills)- For me, Mike Mills’ second feature deftly combined heartfelt autobiography with stylized drama. Every scene has stakes and an essential tension, and every scene is delivered with a whimsical, exhilarating style that never wears out its welcome or becomes too cute for its own good. As if that wasn’t enough, it’s anchored by an unforgettable Christopher Plummer performance.

12. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)- When people point out that this is an Iranian film, they aren’t just showing off that they watch Iranian films. (Iranian cinema is so ten years ago anyway.) What they mean is that you can’t divorce what happens in this film from the culture and identity of 21st century Iran, and that’s what makes it so compelling. For example, an elderly man with Alzheimer’s is being watched by a female caretaker when he soils himself, and the minder has to call someone at her mosque to ask if she, as a woman, can change him. And within that byzantine gray area, we get a glimpse into an issue that would be a moral dilemma anywhere. A Separation resists any easy answers, and it refuses to make caricatures of people who seem undeniably real.

11. Like Crazy (Drake Doremus)- This is a pure and gut-wrenching love story, featuring two committed, subtle lead performances, but it’s actually just as much about being in your twenties and not knowing where you belong. These characters would get married—if they were the right age to get married—and they would sacrifice for each other—if they hadn’t just started their careers—and they would know where to live—if it didn’t seem as if they had one foot in their parents’ house and one foot in their own. It’s a romance about how unromantic real life can be.

10. The Trip (Michael Winterbottom)- Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon trying to comedically outdo each other is going to be funny. That’s a given. But all of what makes this film poignant (and a lot of what makes it funny) is beneath the surface. The way the relationship on-screen comments on their friendship in real life. The way it contextualizes modern masculinity and depicts middle-aged competition. It’s chopped up from six episodes of a British TV series that I still haven’t seen. I can’t imagine it being any better than what’s here.

9. Shame (Steve McQueen)- The plot summary of Shame is usually one sentence long. The film doesn’t pretend to be about twists and turns. Its strength instead lies in its ability to both minutely document the interior life of a sex addict and, at the same time, never tidily explain itself. Every time it feels as if it’s on the verge of a confession or revelation, it inches backwards and gropes back at mystery. We get details about why Michael Fassbender’s Brandon is who he is, but we’re left to fear the worst and fill in our own details. McQueen’s long takes—one shot is about ten minutes without a cut—force us to face this character in as unflinching a way as the film presents him.

8. Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols)- What impressed me about Take Shelter was how full of consequences it was. Our protagonist is going mad. But if he goes mad, he loses his job. And if he loses his job, he doesn’t have health insurance. And if he doesn’t have health insurance, he can’t get a coclear implant for his hearing-impaired daughter. All of these consequences are connected, but they never have to be spelled out. They just slowly overwhelm us in the same way they overwhelm Michael Shannon’s character in the film, with a realism that slowly explodes into a harried nightmare. Nichols depicts small-town America with a warm dignity, but also with a claustrophobia that informs this year’s best paranoid thriller not named Martha Marcy May Marlene.

7. I Saw the Devil (Kim Ji-Woon)- For a film that is shockingly violent, I Saw the Devil is pretty graceful. Without much dialogue, Kim establishes the story we expect, then vaults past it, with unexpected depth and breathtaking composition, into a savage exploration of vengeance. It’s not always clear if the film is a legitimate representative of the Korean revenge genre, or if it is a satire of those films. What’s amazing is that it works as both, inviting us to take pleasure in its retribution, then chastising us for the same thing.

6. The Interrupters (Steve James)- Among the small circle of people who care, a lot has been made about the Academy’s damning failure to consider The Interrupters for their Best Documentary category. It seems as if they (and many others in the field) have an idea of who deserves to have a film made about them. Horse whisperers? Sure. Political refugees? Of course. Marginally-appreciated artists? Always. But people who are genuinely making a difference when no one makes them, in a world where they’re desperately needed? That’s apparently not what wins awards. But it is what creates moments of such devastating, heartbreaking truth that I’ll never forget them.

5. Bridesmaids (Paul Feig)- In many ways, Bridesmaids is the culmination of the Judd Apatow repertory’s improvisational, anything-goes, neverending rough draft system. It feels finely-tuned to be harder, better, faster, stronger than the gross-out comedies that it eclipsed in popularity and relevance. No matter how broad it gets, however, it never forgets to supply intimate character moments, and it always stays true to the human relationships that are the foundations of all the laughs.

4. Martha Marcy May Marlene (Sean Durkin)- No 2011 film has stuck with me after its final reel like Martha Marcy May Marlene. Long after I finished watching it, its images and ideas kept resurfacing and challenging me. In a performance that is haunting (and disturbingly fetishized by the camera), Elizabeth Olsen embodies a character so confused and stunted that she is almost frustrating to the viewer at times. The film alternates between sequences from her past at a cult-like commune and sequences from her recovery in the present, and it elegantly slides back and forth, just out-of-focus, putting the viewer in her mistrusting shoes. Then it concludes on a moment perfect in its ambiguity.

3. Poetry (Lee Chang-Dong)- Poetry is never really the film you expect, and—in a refreshing, satisfying way—it’s not even the film you want. It rejects the immediate thrills of its rape subplot in favor of the slow burn of an elderly woman who is taking a poetry class to firm up her slipping memory. In that choice, it underlines the importance of searching for beauty in a world full of ugliness. This woman never really belongs, either in the class or in charge of a rape bribery, but she insists upon a desperate dignity.

INSTANT CLASSICS

2. Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami)- Is costume jewelry, say, fake pearls, better than real jewelry? Some would say that it is—it’s cheaper, looks the same, and requires less worry over it. Some would say that the wearer would always know the difference and could never equal the cachet of the real thing. But does that mean that costume jewelry is the same as real jewelry? That’s the more complex question posed by Certified Copy, and the film has an elegant, graceful way of posing it. It follows a meeting between a woman and the author of a book on the value of duplicates. As their day-long interview unspools, we begin to wonder if they really are meeting each other for the first time, if they are a married couple copying barely knowing each other as a game, or if they’re something in between. This verbal dance the pair goes on is so meticulously planned, and the ambiguous language creates a space that is both realistic and dream-like at the same time. No matter which interpretation you believe, the film’s alluring tone and exhaustive character development will satisfy you and leave you wanting more.

1. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)- When I saw Malick’s gorgeous meditation on memory and family in the theater, I was inspired and moved by it. Before writing this list, I watched it again, eagerly but with suspicion. I feared that it had overwhelmed me when it should have seduced me. I wondered if I responded more with my heart than with my head.

I watched it yesterday, and I was right all along. This is an achievement that won’t be met for years. At the same time, I completely understand if you didn’t like it because the Brad Pitt character was not your father or grandfather, or because you don’t view God with the sideways deist mindset that Malick and I apparently do. I’ve tried to write about The Tree of Life more concretely—and even then I used words like “spiritual” and “Heidegerrian”—but it’s just one of those movies. It’s a deeply personal film by a veritable artist, and I hope it hits you in as personal a way as it hit me.

That’s it for 2011 stuff. Thanks for indulging me.

The Best Films of 2011: Best Performances

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:06:37 -0600

I’m never going to finish this, am I? It’s February.

Honorable Mention: Dominic Cooper in The Devil’s Double, Hunter McCracken in The Tree of Life, Will Ferrell in Everything Must Go, Shailene Woodley in The Descendants, Brad Pitt in The Tree of Life, Kristen Wiig in Bridesmaids, Tom Cullen and Chris New in Weekend.

10. Stanley Tucci- Margin Call- By now, any supporting performance honored by The Academy is debatably a lead performance. This started sometime around Sean Connery’s win for The Untouchables and Whoopi Goldberg’s win for Ghost. But in the ’70s, you could get recognized for a few scenes: Ned Beatty is barely in Network, Jane Alexander has one scene in All the President’s Men, Chris Sarandon shows up sparsely in the last third of Dog Day Afternoon. In that way, Tucci’s performance in the first ten minutes of Margin Call is a throwback. He’s a formerly powerful man being fired, and the only emotion he has to project is the one associated with that experience. But it’s a complex emotion that doesn’t even really have a name. He’s dejected and fearful, but he’s also offended, self-righteous, and prideful. He wears it all on his face, sets the tone for the movie, and leaves for an hour, only to steal the movie back near the end.

9. Elle Fanning- Super 8- The heart of Super 8 disappears when the sci-fi elements are introduced, so it makes sense that Fanning, the heart of that first, better half, is missing in action for the third act. Besides the two scenes of hers that everyone will remember from the film—“makeup before the train crash” and “how to play a zombie”—you have to factor in degree of difficulty. Elle Fanning isn’t just playing Alice Dainard: She’s playing everyone’s first love.

8. Melissa McCarthy- Bridesmaids- Have you ever gone on vacation and done something you wouldn’t normally do, thinking, “Who cares? I don’t live here. I’ll never see these people again”? Melissa McCarthy played that idea for two hours.

7. Evan Rachel Wood- The Ides of March- For most of The Ides of March, actors are making cool speeches about what the American people want and how their candidate is up or down in whatever county. It’s fine, but it doesn’t invest the viewer in anything emotionally. The force that does that is Evan Rachel Wood’s forlorn eyes and crooked smile. In scenes like the wordless one in which she walks home from an abortion clinic by herself, she adds all of the gravity to the film and shows up some of the best actors on the planet in the process.

6. Michael Fassbender- Shame- When an actress appears nude in a film, the code critics use is that it was a “fearless performance.” If that’s the case, Fassbender’s performance in Shame is quite fearless. But it’s fearless and naked in more than just that way. Fassbender has one of those faces that is certainly handsome but also indistinct. Perfect in a boring way. And what it allows him to do is sink into any role—four great ones in 2011—and let us forget who he is. He’s great at what he does, so I guess I hope he becomes famous if that’s what he wants; but I want him to retain his anonymity too.

5. Michelle Williams- My Week with Marilyn- Marilyn Monore is one of the easiest people to imitate. There’s a reason there are still lots of Monroe impersonators fifty years after her death. So this is that rarest of performances to portray effectively: It seems easy but is ridiculously difficult. Because if there was any note of artifice or contrivance, we would have noticed. If it were just an impression instead of an interpretation, an emodiment, the movie would have fallen flat on its face. Michelle Williams makes sure that’s never the case.

4. Michael Shannon- Take Shelter- Had Michael Shannon’s paranoid, tortured performance in Take Shelter been nominated for an Oscar, the show’s producers no doubt would have played the one scene in which he freaks out and flips a table over. But that’s the only scene of release in a performance marked by restraint. Instead of acting out, he lets you see the gears in his head turning, and he shows, in his craggy face that looks too old for him, what it looks like to be overwhelmed by everything you see.

3. Yun Jeong-hie- Poetry- Although sometimes my favorite performances are the balls-out, wicked showmanship of, say, late Pacino, this is another subtle one. What makes Yun’s character in Poetry captivating is that she’s never in her own element, never comfortable in any setting. In the poetry class she’s taking to expand her world view, she seems provincial and simple. Among the men negotiating the payoff for the rape her grandson participates in, she seems naive. In her daily life, she seems lost because of early-onset Alzheimer’s. Rather than making those seem like separate people, however, Yun is a portrait of consistency.

2. Christopher Plummer- Beginners- You would think that a man who has lied to people his whole life about his sexuality would be sorrowful, but Plummer plays a man who comes out in his seventies as playful and vivacious. In any of his scenes, he injects warmth and joy, and that only makes it more powerful when the character’s cancer takes hold, and he has to show strength (and sometimes ignorance) through that disease’s challenges.

1. Elizabeth Olsen- Martha Marcy May Marlene- Olsen is the find of the year. As an appreciated cult member, she is hopeful, assertive, and protective. As the escaped, recovering version of that same character, she is doubtful, lonely, and resigned. As the film jumps back and forth between those two versions of her, she conveys the differences with a deepening of her voice here, with a wider smile there, with almost imperceptible levels of difference. But over the course of the movie, they add up. With someone even ten percent less talented in the same role, Martha Marcy May Marlene would have been a disaster. With someone as prodigious as Olsen, it’s a triumph.

The Best Films of 2011: Best Movies I Saw for the First Time Last Year

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:29:27 -0600

1. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre- John Huston (1948)
2. Black Narcissus- Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger (1947)
3. Repulsion- Roman Polanski (1965)
4. Wild Strawberries- Ingmar Bergman (1957)
5. Straw Dogs- Sam Peckinpah (1971)
6. Double Indemnity- Billy Wilder (1944)
7. Marathon Man- John Schlesinger (1976)
8. All That Jazz- Bob Fosse (1979)
9. The General- Buster Keaton (1926)
10. Something Wild- Jonathan Demme (1986)

The Best Films of 2011: Part IV- Good Movies

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:17:00 -0600

37. Project Nim (James Marsh)- Through recreations, talking heads, and found footage, Marsh throws a lot onto the screen, and most of it sticks. It’s as much about the idealism and wonder of the ’70s as it is about the titular chimp, and Marsh excels at getting the subjects to expose their most human foibles.

36. Bellflower (Evan Glodell)- Bellflower is a surprisingly endearing romance for its first half, then it melts into something much more idiosyncratic and deranged. Even if some of the acting is amateurish, I can confidently say that Bellflower is like nothing else this year. In the most complimentary way, it feels homemade.

35. My Week with Marilyn (Simon Curtis)- This is being billed as, first and foremost, an acting clinic from one of the best actors on the planet. It is that—and I don’t mean to discount how brilliant Michelle Williams’ take on Marilyn Monroe is—but the picture worked for me overall. I felt as if Curtis and screenwriter Adrian Hodges went to great lengths to ground the story in the protagonist’s point of view, restraining themselves from any scenes in which he wouldn’t have been present. That approach, along with the reverence for a specific, powerful time in cinematic history, won me over.

34. Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (Morgan Spurlock)- Morgan Spurlock can be grating, especially when he’s trying to convince you of the world-changing import of what he’s trying to do. So the lowered stakes of The Greatest Movie Ever Sold actually work in his favor. Even if it won’t live on like Super Size-Me, it moves briskly and captures the knowing absurdity of modern marketing with creativity and irreverent verve.

33. Film Socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard)- Is this movie pretentious? Yes. Pretension is the air it breathes. It’s pretentiousness is not something you have to overcome; it’s something you have to accept. But at its best, Film Socialisme presents some images that you won’t be able to shake, and, though its director is eighty-one years old, it seems so modern in the way it demands the viewer to address the barriers we place over our own communication.

32. Tuesday, After Christmas (Radu Muntean)- This Romanian infidelity drama takes an hour to get going—there are only about fifteen scenes in the whole film, and they’re so long and unbroken that they’re supposed to make you uncomfortable—but, once it does settle in, it’s devastating. To those in the know: Are there any Romanian films that aren’t painstakingly realistic? Is there a Romanian Tim Burton or something? Where’s the whimsy?

31. Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen)- While it is Allen’s most accessible film in years, the adorable Midnight in Paris seems to mean more to a real Woody Allen fan. Endlessly romantic and mischievous, it still has, at times, the weight of a significant statement from the director, and the film’s final judgment on the usefulness of nostalgia seems at odds with his other late period works. Had the shrew of the Rachel McAdams character been written more carefully, I would have liked it even more.

30. Trust (David Schwimmer)- Trust deals with the aftermath of a teenage girl’s chat room manipulation and eventual rape by an older man. And that act, though it feels inevitable, doesn’t happen until about forty minutes in, which is what makes it even more chilling. Trust is one of those rare films in which every character’s actions—the affected family, not, you know, the rapist—make complete sense, even when you disagree with them. In its complex moral world, there are no good guys or bad guys.

29. Hanna (Joe Wright)- Bolstered by a propulsive Chemical Brothers score that plays into the film’s fairy tale allegory, Hanna is overwhelmingly visceral. I didn’t completely buy the ending, but I got lost in the breathless style of the film’s action.

28. Page One: Inside the New York Times (Andrew Rossi)- On a technical level, Page One is edited effectively and balances many oversized subjects. Its real power, however, lies in its elegiac stance toward journalism. It captures a specific moment in time, the dying world of newspapers, with a steady, unflinching eye, and it can be both heartbreaking and encouraging to watch people so invested in that limited world.

27. The Descendants (Alexander Payne)- On one hand, this is minor Payne—especially the dependence on voiceover in the beginning—but minor Payne is better than most other filmmakers’ masterpieces. Clooney does fine work, but it’s Shailene Woodley who does the heavy lifting in what was the most surprising performance of the year for me. The Descendants has an emotional formalism that few other pictures of its type do: The characters have to be redeemed and forgiven through one another and themselves, and that process does not come easily.

26. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II (David Yates)- On a grand scale, the Harry Potter series goes out with a two hour climax. Every character gets his moment, and a complicated story meets a simple, powerful ending. The sense of foreboding is met only by the sense of relief that follows it.

25. Submarine (Richard Ayoade)- Submarine borders on being twee and precious, but it is certain of itself in all the right ways. “World-building” is a term usually associated with sci-fi: how well an alternate universe is explained and how consistent the film is with the terms it has set. Submarine is a spare, intimate coming-of-age story, but it has fantastic world-building. As weird as the characters are, they make sense within the context of this setting, and we’re so tied to the protagonist’s point of view that we’ll go on any tangent he wants.

24. We Bought a Zoo (Cameron Crowe)- This makes so much sense. Why didn’t we figure out earlier that all of Cameron Crowe’s hackneyed sins could be absolved through the conventions of a family film? We Bought a Zoo stays just on the right side of maudlin and rides a perfect structure and an ebullient Jonsi score to triumph. Matt Damon is getting dangerously likeable, in the sense that, no matter how skilled an actor he is, no one would believe him as something like a Bond villain. I hope he sticks with roles like these.

23. The Skin I Live In (Pedro Almodovar)- In an above average year for cinema, a sneakily seductive Almodovar film got lost in the shuffle. He’s back to all of his old tricks: gender politics, hidden pasts, thorny questions of identity, the fine line of sexual perversity. But this time it’s wrapped into a superbly-plotted genre piece. The fun he’s having by playing with the mad scientist archetype is intoxicating.

22. Crazy Stupid Love (John Requa and Glenn Ficarra)- I’ll grant that there are way too many stories going on at once, but I thought Crazy Stupid Love had a certain noble sweetness, and it gives every character a moment to shine. There are some real surprises that reward a viewer willing to go where the movie takes you.

21. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (Brad Bird)- There’s a moment in Ghost Protocol, maybe forty minutes in, in which Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt scribbles a perfect pen-and-ink portrait on his hand in less than two seconds to get a positive ID on someone. It’s completely absurd—almost satirical—but the viewer goes along with it because it make sense within the frenetic, explosive universe of the film. It’s hard for me to choose my favorite action setpiece because the whole damned thing is an action setpiece. I dare someone to not have fun watching this movie.

20. 13 Assassins (Takashi Miike)- 13 Assassins’ greatest strength is that it doesn’t try to create a villain we can understand or relate to. In our quest for authenticity, we often forget how much we want to root against someone who is truly bad. And that’s exactly what the evil lord of 13 Assassins is. It’s what makes us active participants in this men-on-a-mission samurai movie. Layering the events upon a fully realized sense of honor, Miike builds and builds and builds toward a bloody battle without any missteps.

19. The Ides of March (George Clooney)- Clooney’s fourth directorial effort is self-important, but it retains the intimate conflict of its stage beginnings while expanding the scope. Ryan Gosling is volatile, but it’s Evan Rachel Wood who shines as the Ophelia to his Hamlet. I can’t believe this crackly portrait of ambition didn’t get more attention.

18. Terri (Azazel Jacobs)- On paper, this sounds lame: A high school student with low self-esteem spends his days wearing pajamas, lamenting his weight, and caring for his demented uncle, until his principal takes an interest in him, striking up a relationship that changes them both. That is what happens, but Terri dances with such a precarious tone and stamps such rich emotions and memorable moments that what happens is besides the point.

17. Contagion (Steven Soderbergh)- Some of Soderbergh’s films feel like minor experiments, but this is a splashy, multi-continent event, even as it mines an unnerving paranoia that is anything but mainstream. Tonally, the film feels detached, which is the most compelling storytelling choice of all. There are plenty of screams in this film, but Soderbergh knows that the world probably ends with a shrug.

16. Everything Must Go (Dan Rush)- Everything Must Go only would have gone as far as Will Ferrell’s lead performance, so it lucked out that he’s able to be so subdued and weary and defeated. More importantly though, Everything Must Go, which is based on an underwhelming Raymond Carver story, works like great short stories do, in the sense that we feel as if this movie can’t be contained by its own length. Its characters have backstories that are complicated but not resolved by the narrative, and we get the sense that they have a long way to go by the movie’s end.

The Best Films of 2011: The Essentials

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:06:00 -0600

I always chuckle at the promotional cliche “If you see only one movie this year…” because it seems to place undue pressure on the consumer. Why not see any movie that looks interesting to you? Why are you limiting yourself?

But I get it. Not everyone has the cinematic appetite I do. Some people might prefer thinking about seeing only one movie a year, then branching out from there. At a funeral recently, a distant relative asked me for film recommendations, then tempered it with “I normally see only movies nominated for Academy Awards.” A younger version of myself would have argued with her about how flawed that approach is, how films that are exceptional are, by definition, not going to be included in the nominations. I would have been condescending, and I would have used the word “middlebrow” at some point. But I get it now. Some people (like my brother) can’t remember the last time they went to the theater. Some people (like my wife) don’t seek movies out and are patient enough to wait for them to come to TV. Some people just want to be able to contribute to a conversation at a party and be done with it. That’s why a charade like the Academy Awards is still important. These people want to cross movies off their list. Of course, this doesn’t make them dumb—their process is much more logical than watching hundreds of terrible movies. No, this isn’t a list for dumb people (that would be a different list): It’s a list for people who still sort of care but have priorities different from mine.

So this list is for them, but it might be instructive for all of us. Subjective taste aside, there are really only ten movies in any given year that will be truly remembered by our society—for better or worse. Even for a great year such as 1995*, we only have enough room in the collective conscious for about ten movies. So here is a list of the movies that have penetrated the culture, that, in some ways, you will be expected to have seen, that you probably should have an opinion on. In order. I’ve tried to be honest about what you can skip, even if I was tempted to be clever and pick Attack the Block just to prepare you for the inevitable American big budget remake. You could argue that something like Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows, Part II or Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is so big that you should be aware of it, but, by now, you’ve already decided whether or not those franchises are essential. You don’t need my help.

And, look, it’s a handy list of ten. You can watch one or two a month!

10. Super 8 (JJ Abrams)- Abrams will continue to be a force in mainstream film and TV, so you should probably be able to reference one of his most significant works. Super 8 is also derivative of E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, so, even if you don’t see a lot of movies, you’ve probably seen those and can appreciate the movie on that level. It’s an easy film to watch, and, while not everyone will love it, no one will hate it.

9. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)- I’m kind of cheating already. If you don’t see a lot of movies, you won’t like this. Period. If you expect a traditional narrative, obvious external conflict, and a tidy resolution, you will not be satisfied. That being said, this is easily the most divisive film of the year, so it might come up in conversation. And now that it has the legitimacy of a Best Picture nominee, a lot more casual viewers will see it, and you can complain about it with them. Plus, I love it and would recommend it to people anyway.

8. The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)- I’m pretty sure The Artist will win all of the important Oscars, so that makes it required viewing for the audience that would need this list. It’s cute, and it doesn’t require much of the viewer. Still, if you’re a casual filmgoer, I don’t suspect you would have seen a lot of the Old Hollywood and silent era films being referenced here, so that would impact your experience negatively.

7. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Rupert Wyatt)- One of the biggest box office surprises of the summer, Rise of the Planet of the Apes will undoubtedly have a sequel that people will be talking about in two years. So if you watch this one, which is actually a pretty cool movie, you’ll be prepared.

6. The Descendants (Alexander Payne)- If you need this list, you’re probably a George Clooney fan, even if he burned you on that hitman movie with no talking. His latest is nominated for a bunch of Academy Awards, and, by the time the Oscars roll around, enough people will have seen this movie that it will be acknowledged as popular. It’s got some laughs. You’ll probably feel pretty good about yourself after watching it.

5. Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn)- Especially if you’re in your twenties, a lot of your friends will have strong opinions about this movie. It’s another love-it-or-hate-it entry, but I have a feeling it will stand the test of time and grow cultishly. Freshmen bros will have its poster on their dorm walls in two years. On one hand, it isn’t immediately satifying—there isn’t a lot of dialogue, and it’s ultra-violent. On the other hand, it’s so archetypal that I think someone could enjoy it as a pure genre piece, artistic trappings aside. At any rate, it’s a fun movie to talk about, and the director and star are positioning themselves as some of the most important of the next generation.

4. Moneyball (Bennett Miller)- Moneyball crossed the $75 million barrier at the box office, which seems to be the threshold for whether or not the average person has seen a movie. It has Brad Pitt doing Brad Pitt things in it. It’s being nominated for awards. And it’s just smart enough: It gives you something to chew on, but it doesn’t feel like homework.

3. Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen)-These nerds who watch movies all the time are always talking about Woody Allen. All you know is that he stammers and married his daughter or something. And those glasses. Well here’s one of his more accessible films, and almost anyone would like it. This is your in. It has stars you know, and it’s whimsical, good-natured, romantic, and witty.

2. Bridesmaids (Paul Feig)- This movie’s making a lot of people famous, and it was an unequivocal hit. No matter what anyone is saying right now, there will be a sequel. And if you don’t think it’s funny, you’re a grouch. It’s a no-brainer for this list.

1. The Help (Tate Taylor)- The Help is the perfect storm for an essentials list. It was one of the highest-grossing movies of the year, it’s a Best Picture nominee, and lots of people have lots of opinions on it. Since Emma Stone is going to be the most popular actress of the next decade, you should be familiar with her work as well. Plus, you’re getting a lot of plot for your money.

*- Just to prove my point, the 1995 list would look something like this: Braveheart, The Usual Suspects, Seven, Toy Story, Apollo 13, Heat, Bad Boys, Clueless, Friday, Showgirls. While I would also recommend Casino, Get Shorty, GoldenEye, and Tommy Boy, those are the only ones that, if you were to tell me you hadn’t seen them, I would be sort of shocked.

Since this is sort of fun, here’s the essentials list for 1999, which is the best cinematic year of my lifetime: The Sixth Sense, The Matrix, The Blair Witch Project, Fight Club, American Beauty, American Pie, Being John Malkovich, Varsity Blues, Magnolia, Office Space. If you haven’t seen Eyes Wide Shut or Election or Three Kings or Dogma or South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, you’re a lesser person, sure. But I understand.

"The Return of Young Jeezy"- Amos Barshad- Grantland

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:49:20 -0600

"The Return of Young Jeezy"- Amos Barshad- Grantland:

“The cameras roll, and ‘OJ’ kicks in. I know I technically shouldn’t, but I can’t help but be impressed by Jeezy’s ability to — in a room full of people, and early, on a weeknight — immediately begin to act like he’s starring in a rap video. Heather’s also clearly been to the rodeo before: Propped behind Jeezy, she starts rubbing his back, popping her butt, making angry-kissy faces at the camera. She’s being just a bit difficult, though. Between shots she complains that Jeezy is ‘locking’ her in — apparently, while she’s doing the rubbing from behind, he’s bringing his arms down, trapping her underneath his armpits. Jeezy’s advice for the situation: ‘That’s swag, baby. You gotta turn it up.’ A few shots later, Torres tells Heather to stop crouching. But she’s worried that, in her heels, she’ll be taller than Jeezy. ‘It’s all good,’ Jeezy barks out. ‘I’m standing on the money.’