What do you watch in a year?

Now that the Academy buzz has subsided a bit, I feel obligated to alleviate some of the post-awards backlash by posting a list of honors based on movies/television that I've watched in the past year. Since part of my proper day job deals with what I watch, I find it helpful to keep a little log - title, year, director/creator, and a basic rating. When I say basic I mean a three star system:

Three*** = I would own it
One* = I'm so violently angry at this particular movie that I spend the next five days rehabbing with non-stop German New Wave films while mainlining peanut butter.

You might think this is a pretty simple system, and I wouldn't disagree; I'm a simple kind of guy. Easy to please you might say. Forgiving. Stupid. Whatever. I justify the simplicity by the fact that I refuse to watch 'anything'. I hate, hate, hate to have my time wasted watching something lame when I could be watching something I know I'll enjoy (see therapy for one-star films). Therefore, I tend to know beforehand a bit about the film, be it history, context, people, etc. and many titles on the list are repeats (yes, I had seen, among others, Back to the Future, Night of the Hunter, and Big Trouble in Little China before). Basically, I know what I like and what I don't. Now that doesn't mean that I don't like to be challenged or surprised - I do. Hence... the variation in the ratings.

[this is the part where your brow furrows as you contemplate the profundity while simultaneously questioning your life's direction and purpose without Boast]

Since this list isn't limited to what was released (and forgotten - Zodiac!) in the past year, it can serve as a ready reference when you need something new (or old) to watch. And, in an effort to achieve our goal of being the coolest, I have also highlighted a few titles that stood out over the course of the year. Think of this as the Oscars minus the annoying bits. Plus you can print yourself a personal copy of the list for free. Now that's what I call the bomb-diggity.

* * * * *
And the Winners are...

Overall Favorite- West Wing (1999-2006)

Aside from being one of the most prophetic shows on television, Aaron Sorkin's blend of drama and comedy is remarkable. A refreshing polar opposite to the current administration.

Weirdest/Coolest - American Astronaut (2001, Cory McAbee)
It's like indie sci-fi New Wave expressionist rock musical noir. The universe that McAbee creates is like Isaac Asimov meets Joss Whedon. Rocks much?

Best movie that I wouldn't watch with my grandmother - Tipping the Velvet (2002, Geoffrey Sax)
Adapted from the novel by Sarah Waters, this BBC drama is a raunchy, dramatic, and hilarious trip through a side of Victorian England that would cause your grandmammy to blush and then slap you silly. Waters' novel Affinity was also one of my favorite reads from last year.

Strangest run of back-to-back movies - Gabbeh (1996, Mohsen Makhmalbaf), Blade (1998, Stephen Norrington), The wind will carry us (1999, Abbas Kiarostami)
OK. So, I was doing a bunch of research and prep for an Iranian Film Festival that I was organizing and presenting at our public library. That is where Gabbeh and The wind will carry us come in. And honestly, I can't think of a better group to sandwich a bloody vampire flick between. Can you?

Most Misunderstood - Barbarella (1968, Roger Vadim)
That is, "Most Misunderstood" by adolescent boys as well as middle-aged city council members. I'll just say that Vadim's brilliant sex-lib satire does more to illustrate the merits of film as a political tool than anything in the mainstream media. If there is any question, Barbarella holds the power people. Barbarella holds the power. And if any of you feel the need to pour on the Hate, I've got an arsenal of yet unpublished material to make you weep like an impotent man-angel.

The Goods:

Three Star Rating System
The List

Buffy Season 8... er, Comics

There is much to be disappointed about in the world (especially with regards to arts & entertainment), like the fact that Joss Whedon is no longer writing and directing the big screen adaptation of Wonder Woman. However, there is still reason to have hope. A comic version of what is being referred to as, Buffy Season 8 is to be released next month. This is good news. What is even better? The Reviews: "It's Great."

[Link]



Tagged under:
Buffy, News, Comics

Twin Peaks, Season 2 on DVD

This might just be the best DVD-release news I've heard since Criterion re-released Jacques Tati's Playtime; The second season of David Lynch's Twin Peaks will be released on DVD [in America] on April 3rd. For all of us who have been suffering from over-worked tracking ticks and watching a cast whose VHS-induced complexion looks like they just spent the last decade in a tanning bed, we can finally put those faithful tapes to rest (who am I kidding - we'll still hang on to them and periodically pull them out for parties and odd conversation starters).

Party carefully, lovelies, because the owls will definitely be watching.


Tagged under:
Entertainment, Twin Peaks

Wonderfalls

I just finished watching a TV series on DVD called Wonderfalls that aired in 2004 and was cancelled after only 4 episodes. It follows Jaye Tyler, a recent graduate from Brown University, as she enters post-university life… by moving home (Niagara Falls), buying a trailer, and working as a sales clerk in a touristy souvenir shop. Normal enough? In her dry, self-deprecating way, she thinks so… until inanimate toy animals start talking to her. Talking wax lions and pink lawn flamingos aren’t without their own brand of weirdness as their cryptic counsel encourages Jaye to reach beyond her standard (and quite hilarious) routine of cynicism and doubt.

Wonderfalls is (minus the talking animal bit) like a mash-up of Arrested Development and Veronica Mars and, like both of these shows, runs the risk of being too clever for its own good. All of this said, it’s not difficult to see why this show was cancelled, given the track record for cancelling great series by US networks.

I would normally consider it a comedy, but for the pointed social critique. Good poppy fun with bite that will make you laugh out loud.
Bing!

Tagged under:
TV, Entertainment

Slayage Conference Report - pt. II

What people consider sin, I consider human characterstics - Joss Whedon

[In Serenity] a world without sin is a world of death - Rhonda Wilcox

Another great panel that I attended was by the convenor of the conference, Rhonda Wilcox. The title of her paper was, '"I Do Not Hold to That": Joss Whedon and Original Sin' and I'll briefly outline some of the points she made.

In Serenity, the character of River and the Operative are basically weapons (of mass destruction, as others have noted) and are both products of the Alliance's manipulation. The connection between the Operative/River and the Alliance's meddling is first illustrated in the opening flahsback-within-recording where the frame is paused while showing Simon rescuing his sister River from the Alliance. While focusing on the frozen picture of River and the Operative passes through the holographic image, his face replaces hers.



Wilcox made the point of how the film suggests that knowledge and consciousness can be seen as forms of original sin. The Operative asks each of his victims, 'Do you know what your sin is?', and according to his philosophy, the punishment for sin is death. This suggests an encouragement of choice and agency (which he himself hasn't even been allowed), but is undercut by how he physically disables them so that they make the sacrifice/restitution by falling to their death on a sword (his, not their own). It is also worth noting that the name of the Captain of the starship Serenity is Malcom ('Mal') Reynolds, and that the word 'mal' in Spanish means sin, bad, hurt, injury.

The Operative: Do you know what your sin is?

Capt. Malcom Reynolds: Aw, Hell, I'm a fan of all seven... but right now, I'm gonna have to go with Wrath.

The scene where River first goes berserk after viewing the video screen has allusions to Orson Welles's Citizen Kane, and 'Rosebud'. The close-up shot of River whispering 'Miranda' and the lips of Charles Foster Kane uttering 'Rosebud' both suggest a loss of innocence and downward spiral toward destruction - as is certainly seen when the Serenity crew discover the nature and origins of Miranda and associations with the Reavers. These two terms are also used as the focus of a mystery that drives the plot and challenges the viewer to decipher. The manipulation of the people on Miranda by the Alliance also suggests that compelling people toward Paradise only results in apathy and loss of humanity. By deconstructing Paradise, ala John Milton, Whedon's film is resistant to the notion of an 'ideal' society, favoring instead one that is governed by choice, but includes the inevitable flaws and mistakes resulting from personal agency. From this perspective it also seems to oppose the colonial visions of manifest destiny that is so often supported in science fiction.


**Note: This is an extremely truncated account of Wilcox's excellent talk. I'll keep my eyes out for an online version of it to link to in the future.

[Link to an abstract of Rhonda Wilcox's talk]


Tagged under:
TV, Film, Entertainment

Slayage Conference Report - pt. I

Last weekend I attended the Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses at Gordon College in Barnesville, Georgia. I must say that it was an incredible experience for me, although I felt way out of my league presenting among such a prestigious scholarly crowd. The lectures focused on the works of writer, director, creator, Joss Whedon such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Serenity, as well as the comics The Astonishing X-Men and Fray. Since there were over 100 presentations and I attended probably around 25, there is loads to cover here. So, for the sake of time and attention span, I'll mainly cover the lectures that I really enjoyed and have a ton of notes from. Reductive much? Totally.

Day 1 opened with Dr. Michael Adams, a philologist and author of (among several others) Slayer Slang, presented 'The Matrix of Motives in Slayer Style.' He discussed the language in the Buffyverse and the use of 'clipped' versus 'full phrasal' idioms, such as 'wig' versus 'wig out'. He proposed that the determining factors for why a character would use one rather than the other were mainly dependent on familiarity and social distinction as opposed to just being jargony hipsters. He also suggested that this use of dialog could also be seen as a form of socio-linguistic competition as shown clearly in the scene where Faith is prodding Buffy about her past with Angel,

Buffy: What do you know about Angel?
Faith: (faces her, copping an attitude) Just what your friends tell me: big love, big loss. You oughta deal and move on, but you're not.
Buffy: (steps closer) I got an idea: how about from now on, we don't hear from you on Angel or anything else in my life. Which, by the way, is my life.
Faith: What are you getting so strung out for, B?

Faith challenges Buffy by using the clipped phrase, 'you oughta deal' (rather than a full phrasal line like 'you oughta deal with it'), which raises Buffy's hackles since they are not on familiar terms with this subject and Faith is getting pushy. Buffy then starts to get in her face about it and Faith feigns submission by backing off a bit and then calling her 'B' rather than Buffy.



Another point that Adams touched on was the fact that theory is basically a shortened or condensed form of the artistic knowledge and information. Theory becomes problematic and redundant when it approaches the extent of the art in that it is no longer shorter than the piece it is explaining. (It's like reading a synopsis that is longer than the actual piece allegedly being summarized) He also argued that 'Good Art' tends to resist theory because to theorize it properly, you would tend to exceed the length of the source.
And Buffy the Vampire Slayer is like this of course.

More to come!

[Link to Big Monkey, Helpy Chalk's blog post on this presentation]



Tagged under:
Buffy, Criticism, Television

SC2: The Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses

My contributions to Boast may take on a Buffy-esque theme for the next while as I will be presenting a paper at SC2: The Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses at Gordon College, Barnesville Georgia this week. The title of my paper is, "Do I Have Mom Hair?": Progressive Parenting in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I will be discussing how Buffy Summers represents a successful figure of parenting that borrows from an expansive tradition of maternal and paternal roles to ultimately embody a hybridized version of parenting. It may sound a bit intense, but let me reassure you, it's not. Just a bunch of academics getting together to talk about the cool stuff Joss Whedon creates.

I'll try and post summaries from the lectures I attend.

[Note: It's an academic conference, not a fan club gathering. So there won't be any special appearances by James Marsters, and no one will be dressing up like the straight-jacket monkeys from 'Hush'... although I wanted to]




Link to the Slayage web site


Tagged under:
Television, Entertainment, Pop Culture

I Know I Always Go On About The BBC But...

This BBC Drama project truly does sound interesting. And it could possibly be great:

Decades

I only hope it compares to the excellent Our Friends In The North...(which was so good it featured a future Dr Who AND James Bond)

I have missed watching a big contemporary epic coming-of-age series: the only excuse I can give is that I've been watching it in minature all the time -namely through the American family dramatised: I've gladly accepted my social history via The Simpsons, Friends, even Malcolm in the Middle, and, most importantly, by watching Tony Soprano and his various 'families'....So despite me going on about the BBC, it is nice to see them attempt something this ambitious and contemporary once more...

P.S. For a truly ‘alternative’ version of history, the BBC should consult my favourite conspiracy theorist, Mohammed Al Fayed, the owner of Harrods, and Britain’s resident eccentric billionaire (a Ross Perot-type with more humour). Mo claims Prince Phillip, the Queen, and MI6 all conspired to kill his son and Lady Di, and recently called for Prince Phillip's beheading…..

Tagged under:
BBC, Entertainment