When Friends Share Phrases

Aaron: I feel like we are all getting sayings from one another all the time.
Kate: Like "Journey".
Aaron: Yeah. I got "Fact" from you, Maria.
Maria: And I got it from Lysol. Fact: 99.9% percent of the time I'm stealing from Lysol.
Kate: ...
Mark: ...
Aaron: ... I have no idea what that means.

The Lovely Bones

Wow. So bad. I mean, I had heard it was bad but I was not prepared for the ludicrousness: the weird combination of horror film, slapstick comedy, sentimental father/daughter movie, mystery, and thriller. The Lovely Bones makes almost no sense at all. And the stuff that does make sense is framed by this weirdo voice-over by a dead girl. We follow the dead girl's journey as she... comes to grips with being a little dead girl. I was aghast. Several times I turned to my companion in total exasperation. We were openly making fun of it by the time it ended. This film is almost completely incoherent. Avoid at all costs.

The Oregon Trail Ate My Girlfriend

My good friend Gregory Sherl is working on a series of poems called The Oregon Trail Ate My Girlfriend. I talk about his work all the time on this blog, so it should not surprise you that I love this series. The newest one is called "The Oregon Trail Is a Chinese Restaurant on Christmas Eve" and it's devastating. You can read it over at HTMLGIANT.

Hey, and if you're in publishing, you should contact Greg about publishing this series in chapbook form.

Best Actor 2009

My top choices in the order I would place them on my Academy ballot if I were allowed to vote:

ALGENIS PEREZ SOTO, Sugar


BEN FOSTER, The Messenger


VIGGO MORTENSEN, The Road


JEREMY RENNER, The Hurt Locker


COLIN FIRTH, A Single Man

Runner-up:

MORITZ BLEIBTREU, Der Baader Meinhof Komplex
(The Baader Meinhof Complex)

Related:
My Best Actor picks for 2008
My Best Actor picks for 2007

Best Actress 2009

My top choices in the order I would place them on my Academy ballot if I were allowed to vote:

MERYL STREEP, It's Complicated


MICHELLE PFEIFFER, Chéri


MARTINA GEDECK, Der Baader Meinhof Komplex
(The Baader Meinhof Complex)


GABOUREY SIDIBE, Precious


CAREY MULLIGAN, An Education

Related:
My Best Actress picks for 2008
My Best Actress picks for 2007

Best Supporting Actor 2009

My top choices in the order I would place them on my Academy ballot if I were allowed to vote. I have four favorites:

ANTHONY MACKIE, The Hurt Locker


ROBERT DUVALL, The Road


MICHAEL FASSBENDER, Inglourious Basterds


JAMES TUPPER, Me and Orson Welles

Related:
My Best Supporting Actor Picks for 2008
My Best Supporting Actor Picks for 2007

Best Supporting Actress 2009

My top choices in the order I would place them on my Academy ballot if I were allowed to vote. In other words, I acknowledge that this list is always already influenced by awards buzz, and the actresses who I think need the most votes are at the top. I have five with two runners-up:

JULIANNE MOORE, A Single Man


VERA FARMIGA, Up in the Air


ROSAMUND PIKE, An Education


ADRIANE LENOX, The Blind Side


Mo'NIQUE, Precious

Runners-up:

CHARLIZE THERON, The Road


OLIVIA WILLIAMS, An Education

Related:
My Best Supporting Actress Picks for 2008
My Best Supporting Actress Picks for 2007

When Practice Makes Perfect

Rae: Oh Sade. I wish he were my boyfriend. For like a weekend.
Aaron: Until he fucking killed you.
Rae: But more than that I'd get cut into pieces. And fucked by monks. Which I love.
Aaron: Ooo that Justine.
Rae: HAHAHAHA. JUSTINE WINS. 120 days of sodom, though... I mean... You can only have interesting sodomy for SO MANY DAYS.
Aaron: HAHAHA. I love this.
Rae: After day 34 you're just like... Seriously? 80-some days of sodomy to go?
Aaron: You go supine and boredly ask "can we just get this over with?"
Rae: HAHAHAHAHA.

From The Onion

GAY TEEN WORRIED HE MIGHT BE CHRISTIAN

2009 Movies

I have been holding off on posting my favorite performances of the year. The reason for this is that I still have 37 movies on my list that I want to see before I close 2009 down. That is obviously not going to happen. Particularly because school has started again and I am busy reading, teaching, and working on shows. But I did want to post the list of the 37 films I am eventually planning on seeing in addition to the ones on the list to the left. This list will, of course, be added to when the Oscar nominations come out on 2002 and I am required to see things like The Blind Side. I am posting the list, though, so that you can tell me if there is anything I have left off, anything I haven't seen that I really ought to see. The films are, in alphabetical order:

12
17 Again
35 Shots of Rum
Adoration
Afterschool
Antichrist
Away We Go
The Baader Meinhof Complex
The Big Gay Musical
The Burning Plain
Coco avant Chanel
The Country Teacher (Venkovský Ucitel)
Crazy Heart
Departures
Easy Virtue
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Julia
Life Is Hot in Cracktown
The Limits of Control
Little Ashes
The Lovely Bones
Máncora
The Messenger
Moon
Mother and Child
Outrage
Red Cliff
Revanche
Séraphine
Sin Nombre
Summer Hours (L'Heure d'Été)
Taking Woodstock
The Tree of Life
Trucker
The White Ribbon
The Young Victoria
Zombieland

When the Gossip Is Old

Mark: How did you not know that? I thought everyone knew. That is the oldest gossip in the world.
Aaron: There's no point in even pouring that. That tea is way cold, honey.
Mark: That is like iced tea at this point. It might not even be tea anymore. That might be a tea stain.

Azucar

I know you haven't seen Sugar but you really must. Sugar was released in indie theatres in April or so and is the new film from Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the duo who made the brilliant Half Nelson.

Sugar follows a young pitcher from the Dominican Republic as he moves from a baseball training camp in the DR to Houston TX to playing Double-A baseball in the middle of Iowa. When Sugar moves to Iowa he boards in the home of an older midwestern couple, attends their church with them, and eats meatloaf.

This film is superb. It is a fascinating exploration of the globalization of baseball, but also a moving story of a young man who dreams of "America." It also is an interesting new perspective on ever-present USAmerican issues like race and poverty.

It's also a baseball movie, but light years away from a film like The Natural. Sugar is about how hard baseball can be. It is about growing up and leaving home and following your dreams. It is also is really smart about the Nationalist/Patriotic sentiments which inhere in baseball fandom and how those sentiments square with supporting players who are not only from other countries but speak only Spanish. The Great (Pan-)American Pastime indeed.

At any rate, you really must see this movie. You will remember that Half Nelson was a very high #3 on my list for 2006. I loved that film and I love this one.

When God Blesses Threesomes

Liz: If Jesus is the center of a Christian marriage, doesn't that make it polygamy? And doesn't it make the husband gay?
Aaron: Yes and yes... And it also makes the woman a whore.
Liz: A woman is de facto a whore, no?
Aaron: Yes, but this would make her one of those special Salomé virgin-whores!
Liz: Oh, of courssssssssssssse. I forget that there are categories. Or, perhaps, (s)categories?
Aaron: Categ(wh)ories.

When My Friends Have Different Ideas About Drinking

Bobby: You drank Everclear, man. You're invincible.
Derek: I was nineteen. I felt like a car hit me.