Showing posts with label kathryn bigelow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kathryn bigelow. Show all posts
11 March 2021
The Loveless (1981)
25 February 2018
Detroit
The screenplay is just all over the place. It can't focus for long enough to do the work it needs to do. Then when it does focus (in its second act) it is far too focused on black suffering to get its point across. The whole thing winds up feeling exploitative after a while, as though it is attempting to take pleasure in the violence it shows. It seems to me that this was plainly not the goal of the film, and the way the film is set up, it appears to be trying to do something else, but as Detroit hones in on its second act torture-fest, it also leaves behind the very intelligent analysis it had been doing in act one. And this is a very serious flaw.
I want also to go on record that I am not sure I understand filmmakers' interest in John Boyega. He has yet to be interesting in a movie, as far as I can tell. He is incredibly boring in this movie. But Jacob Latimore, Algee Smith, and Anthony Mackie are all absolutely great. And I loved Jason Mitchell. He is superb in this.
24 January 2013
Oscar Nominees 2013: Part 3 of 13
5 Nominations
- Picture
- Actress: Jessica Chastain (The Help)
- Original Screenplay: Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker)
- Film Editing: William Goldenberg (Argo, Seabiscuit, The Insider) & Dylan Tichenor (There Will Be Blood)
- Sound Editing
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Cast: Chastain, Jason Clarke, Jennifer Ehle, Kyle Chandler, Reda Kateb, Harold Perrineau, Mark Strong, James Gandolfini, Chris Pratt, Joel Edgerton, Taylor Kinney
Good stuff. I loved it less than I probably ought to have because this movie is not The Hurt Locker. I know that it is unfair for me to expect it to be The Hurt Locker and even for me to want Bigelow to repeat herself, but, alas, that's sort of how I felt while watching Zero Dark Thirty. This movie is very good, has an excellent script, and was named by dozens of critics groups across the country as the best film of the year. Still, with the big surprise of Ben Affleck's Director snub on Oscar nomination morning came the same snub for Kathryn Bigelow. Their spots were taken by David O. Russell and Benh Zeitlin. However... I feel like ZDT is going to make a comeback by the time Oscar night comes around. I am predicting a Black Hawk Down style surge at the last minute. I expect ZDT to definitely win Actress, but I expect it also to take home Original Screenplay and Film Editing, with a possible fourth Oscar for Sound Editing.
Will Win: Actress, Original Screenplay, Film Editing
Could Win: Sound Editing
My Rating: #14 out of 61
Django Unchained
5 Nominations
- Picture
- Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds, Pulp Fiction)
- Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)
- Film Editing: William Goldenberg (Zero Dark Thirty, Seabiscuit, The Insider)
- Cinematography: Robert Richardson (Hugo, Inglourious Basterds, The Aviator, Snow Falling on Cedars, JFK, Born on the Fourth of July, Platoon)
- Sound Editing
Director: Tarantino
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington, Laura Cayouette
A fun but overly long picture. QT gets a bit carried away with himself and can't seem to stop himself from adding in sidebars that are delightfully fun but that his movie doesn't actually need. In this way (and forgive me for saying it, QT) Django Unchained is a lot like one of this year's other endless movies: The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey. My real feeling about all of this is that QT should be making films for HBO. Then he could make the six-hour epics he really wants to make, we could watch them an hour at a time, and we'd also get the pleasure of watching them (and talking about them) for weeks and weeks. I think this is a win-win plan. Whaddya think, QT? I have Django winning Supporting Actor in my predictions mostly because all of the nominees have already won an Oscar and Christoph Waltz is the least established among them, i.e. the most in need of the award (although he really isn't). I want to take this moment also to note that the Academy truly showed no imagination with its Supporting Actor nominees this year. Arkin, Jones, Hoffman, De Niro, and Waltz are all fine in their movies, but they aren't as exciting as these five guys or (to my mind) the other seven guys I've listed on the page.
A fun but overly long picture. QT gets a bit carried away with himself and can't seem to stop himself from adding in sidebars that are delightfully fun but that his movie doesn't actually need. In this way (and forgive me for saying it, QT) Django Unchained is a lot like one of this year's other endless movies: The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey. My real feeling about all of this is that QT should be making films for HBO. Then he could make the six-hour epics he really wants to make, we could watch them an hour at a time, and we'd also get the pleasure of watching them (and talking about them) for weeks and weeks. I think this is a win-win plan. Whaddya think, QT? I have Django winning Supporting Actor in my predictions mostly because all of the nominees have already won an Oscar and Christoph Waltz is the least established among them, i.e. the most in need of the award (although he really isn't). I want to take this moment also to note that the Academy truly showed no imagination with its Supporting Actor nominees this year. Arkin, Jones, Hoffman, De Niro, and Waltz are all fine in their movies, but they aren't as exciting as these five guys or (to my mind) the other seven guys I've listed on the page.
Will Win: Supporting Actor
Could Win: Original Screenplay, Sound Editing
My Rating: #15 out of 61
5 Nominations
- Cinematography: Roger Deakins (True Grit, The Reader, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, No Country for Old Men, The Man Who Wasn't There, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Kundun, Fargo, The Shawshank Redemption)
- Score: Thomas Newman (WALL·E, The Good German, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Finding Nemo, Road to Perdition, American Beauty, Unstrung Heroes, Little Women, The Shawshank Redemption)
- Sound Mixing
- Sound Editing
- Song: Adele Adkins & Paul Epworth
Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Albert Finney, Ben Whishaw, Bérénice Marlohe, Helen McCrory
The Academy decided it loved James Bond again! This is what happens when Sam Mendes directs your Bond movie instead of Lee Tamahori. These nominations are all well deserved, too. I was delighted by Adele's song – which she is performing at the Oscars and which will in all likelihood win – but the Academy will also be doing a tribute to "50 Years of Bond" at the Oscars, so the Song win will be icing on that particular cake, I think. Roger Deakins, who is one of our very best cinematographers, earned a very deserved tenth nomination here, but he will (again) not take home the Oscar. I am not sure when he will get to take home one, but I hope it is soon.
Will Win: Song
Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #17 out of 61
01 January 2013
Some Thoughts on Violence and Ethics in the 2012 Awards Season
Even all these years after his first, vicious movie, Quentin Tarantino's brand of violence still has the power to shock. His new film Django Unchained, which is an overly long re-writing of the history of the American South, has an inordinate amount of violence. Tarantino's films are known for their violence, of course, but to my mind, the nuance of Tarantino's representations makes them worth talking about and worth analyzing. Tarantino doesn't make shoot-em-up pictures. He doesn't make action films. The violence in his films does not look like that in the films of Martin McDonagh or Eli Roth or Michael Bay or Martin Scorsese or David Cronenberg. (Each of these directors has his own way of using violence that is interesting in its own right. I only mention them to give us all a little perspective on QT.)
Much of the violence in QT's films is fun to watch and is meant to be fun to watch. It can also be quite satisfying. Django, like Inglourious Basterds before it, is a revenge film: a kind of complex post-Jacobean revenge-comedy where the audience positively glories in the revenge taken by QT's protagonists. (I marveled at this in Kill Bill: Vol. 1, as the body count mounted and mounted, while at no point did I feel as though The Bride should stop killing people.) By the end of Django Unchained, when Jamie Foxx's Django finally has his revenge on all of the people who have wronged him – by which I mean basically any and every white Southerner – I was having a complete and total blast watching him blow all of these slave-owning motherfuckers to smithereens.
This violence at the end of the film is positively cartoony. QT films it like an homage to Sam Peckinpah, but his version of Peckinpah involves bodies exploding and emptying their liquid-filled contents everywhere, walls covered in blood, multiple gunshot wounds to every body part imaginable, and at the end: a crimson, bloody mess. It's funny. It's not to be taken with total seriousness, and there's even a moment when a single gunshot blows a woman six feet in a completely preposterous direction like something out of an episode of Wile E. Coyote. This is violence for the sake of pleasure. Django's revenge on the white slaveowners is simultaneously QT's revenge on the entire institution of American slavery (as Shosanna Dreyfus's revenge on Hans Landa is simultaneously QT's (delicious) revenge against Adolf Hitler). Revenge is sweet, and these acts of vengeance are shared with the audience: we also get to feel as though we have had revenge on Hitler, on American slavery, on the genocide of European Jews.
This is nonsense, of course: a total fantasy that allows audiences to feel really great about all that they've done to combat racism/slavery/oppression/history. Rooting for Jamie Foxx seems like it is the same thing as fighting racism. (I was at a screening populated by about 95% white people and I couldn't help but notice how much all of those white people were loving watching other white people get killed.) Vis-à-vis race I find Django sort of questionable and easy. Still, I loved its unabashed hatred of racism, its powerful black central characters, and most importantly its attention to the violence of slavery itself.
For while the violence committed against white people by Django and Dr. King Shultz (Dr. King?!) is treated in a chiefly cartoon manner, QT treats the violence committed against black people by white people during American slavery as absolutely horrific: like the attempted genocide it truly was. The audience watches, horrified, as dogs rip apart a middle-aged man. Django's wife Broomhilda is brutally whipped and subjected to other tortures. The camera shies away from none of this. Instead, QT asks his audience to sit with this violence, to pay attention to what happened. This is not The Help. Django Unchained presents the racist violence of slavery in an incredibly graphic fashion: the audience at the screening I attended squirmed and covered its eyes; the tension and sorrow in the theatre were palpable.
In other words, all violence onscreen is not created equal, as you probably already knew, but QT's ability to switch back and forth between certain techniques for representing violence strikes me as ethically responsible. For my money, Tarantino approaches screen violence with care, sensitivity, and a very clear political agenda.
Samuel L. Jackson, by the way, steals the entire film. Just let that be known. He has the wittiest, funniest dialogue, and he says motherfucker about ten thousand times. I was delighted.
Zero Dark Thirty – Kathryn Bigelow's film about the CIA's hunt to find and kill Osama bin Laden over the period of ten years following 11 September 2001 – also involves a good deal of violence. Like her previous film The Hurt Locker (which I loved), this violence is always presented in a realistic, almost banal fashion. It is a part of Bigelow's project to present violence as ubiquitous in the areas where USAmerican soldiers are stationed. These young people's bodies exist in a state of constant risk and ever-present tension; Bigelow's way of representing violence, therefore, tends to bombard the viewer with so much violence, that violence itself begins to feel normal. This is a reality on the ground for both civilians and military personnel in these regions invaded by the United States military.
There are at least three scenes of torture in Zero Dark Thirty, as well. These Bigelow handles expertly. The USAmericans who torture their unarmed prisoners are shown in an evenhanded manner: it is apparent that they feel that what they are doing is justified and necessary. But Bigelow's way of representing the victims of these tortures makes clear that what we are watching are acts of violation: excessive, reprehensible, and totally ineffective as tools for gathering actionable intelligence.
Zero Dark Thirty is a character study, really, a kind of window into the mind of someone who tracks down difficult-to-find enemies of the United States. Jessica Chastain's central performance is marvelous: at once steely and terrified and angrier than Howard Beale in Network. She will be winning the Best Actress Oscar come February. Make no mistake about it.
Still, though I liked it very much, I didn't love Zero Dark Thirty like I loved The Hurt Locker. There are sequences that look lifted directly from HBO's The Wire, and if ZDT is clear about torture as something wrong, the film asks no questions about USAmerican presence in Pakistan or Afghanistan or its black sites in other locations in the world. Not that the film needs to be more philosophical about the reasons for United States war efforts in the Middle East, but I would have liked it better had it taken USAmerican involvement in the Middle East a little less for granted.
This violence at the end of the film is positively cartoony. QT films it like an homage to Sam Peckinpah, but his version of Peckinpah involves bodies exploding and emptying their liquid-filled contents everywhere, walls covered in blood, multiple gunshot wounds to every body part imaginable, and at the end: a crimson, bloody mess. It's funny. It's not to be taken with total seriousness, and there's even a moment when a single gunshot blows a woman six feet in a completely preposterous direction like something out of an episode of Wile E. Coyote. This is violence for the sake of pleasure. Django's revenge on the white slaveowners is simultaneously QT's revenge on the entire institution of American slavery (as Shosanna Dreyfus's revenge on Hans Landa is simultaneously QT's (delicious) revenge against Adolf Hitler). Revenge is sweet, and these acts of vengeance are shared with the audience: we also get to feel as though we have had revenge on Hitler, on American slavery, on the genocide of European Jews.
This is nonsense, of course: a total fantasy that allows audiences to feel really great about all that they've done to combat racism/slavery/oppression/history. Rooting for Jamie Foxx seems like it is the same thing as fighting racism. (I was at a screening populated by about 95% white people and I couldn't help but notice how much all of those white people were loving watching other white people get killed.) Vis-à-vis race I find Django sort of questionable and easy. Still, I loved its unabashed hatred of racism, its powerful black central characters, and most importantly its attention to the violence of slavery itself.
For while the violence committed against white people by Django and Dr. King Shultz (Dr. King?!) is treated in a chiefly cartoon manner, QT treats the violence committed against black people by white people during American slavery as absolutely horrific: like the attempted genocide it truly was. The audience watches, horrified, as dogs rip apart a middle-aged man. Django's wife Broomhilda is brutally whipped and subjected to other tortures. The camera shies away from none of this. Instead, QT asks his audience to sit with this violence, to pay attention to what happened. This is not The Help. Django Unchained presents the racist violence of slavery in an incredibly graphic fashion: the audience at the screening I attended squirmed and covered its eyes; the tension and sorrow in the theatre were palpable.
In other words, all violence onscreen is not created equal, as you probably already knew, but QT's ability to switch back and forth between certain techniques for representing violence strikes me as ethically responsible. For my money, Tarantino approaches screen violence with care, sensitivity, and a very clear political agenda.
Samuel L. Jackson, by the way, steals the entire film. Just let that be known. He has the wittiest, funniest dialogue, and he says motherfucker about ten thousand times. I was delighted.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Zero Dark Thirty – Kathryn Bigelow's film about the CIA's hunt to find and kill Osama bin Laden over the period of ten years following 11 September 2001 – also involves a good deal of violence. Like her previous film The Hurt Locker (which I loved), this violence is always presented in a realistic, almost banal fashion. It is a part of Bigelow's project to present violence as ubiquitous in the areas where USAmerican soldiers are stationed. These young people's bodies exist in a state of constant risk and ever-present tension; Bigelow's way of representing violence, therefore, tends to bombard the viewer with so much violence, that violence itself begins to feel normal. This is a reality on the ground for both civilians and military personnel in these regions invaded by the United States military.
Zero Dark Thirty is a character study, really, a kind of window into the mind of someone who tracks down difficult-to-find enemies of the United States. Jessica Chastain's central performance is marvelous: at once steely and terrified and angrier than Howard Beale in Network. She will be winning the Best Actress Oscar come February. Make no mistake about it.
Still, though I liked it very much, I didn't love Zero Dark Thirty like I loved The Hurt Locker. There are sequences that look lifted directly from HBO's The Wire, and if ZDT is clear about torture as something wrong, the film asks no questions about USAmerican presence in Pakistan or Afghanistan or its black sites in other locations in the world. Not that the film needs to be more philosophical about the reasons for United States war efforts in the Middle East, but I would have liked it better had it taken USAmerican involvement in the Middle East a little less for granted.
07 December 2009
Summing Up 2009
1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Worked out every single day for several months.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I did. See above. And I will for next year too. I have a good feeling about 2010.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My nephew, Cruz Antonio Thomas, turns one year old on December 13th. That is not really answering the question, but I felt it was worth noting. I have pregnant friends, but no more nephews or nieces yet!
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Yes. My best friend from college took his own life in June. He was the love of my life. I don't know how else to put it. His death has really messed me up in a lot of ways. I miss him like crazy.
5. What countries did you visit?
None.
6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
A published article. Can somebody work that out for me? Thanks.
7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Saying goodbye to all of the graduates from my class at FSU in May was a rough, rough time. Those four or five days were killer.
The best day of 2009 was probably August 10th. I was in New York, and Ryan and I took the subway from midtown to the upper west side and met Vanya, Dave, Joe, Gretchen, Maria, Rick, Julie, Herman, Jaime, Kate, Rob, and Becky for dinner and drinks. We had THE BEST time. And I was with people I miss like a piece of my heart. New York was completely magical this year. I stayed with Wahima and Becca, Elizabeth visited while I was there, I ran into Brian at a random diner in Queens, I was reunited with my ATHE queers, I got to visit with Stinkylulu, I finally saw John again after 2 years, I went to the Stonewall Inn with Alison and Brent and Ryan and Liz and Cassidy, I saw a show and drank lots of beer with Julie. It was amazing.
I also spent a weekend in Seattle and a weekend in Lynchburg, Virginia this summer. Both were wonderful reunions with friends and fun road-trips.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Probably my production of Sarah Kane's Crave.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Keeping in better touch with my dearest friends.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Yes. I was completely depressed for the months of July, August, September, and October. It had probably been a long time coming. It has to do with my anxiety about my schooling and career, obviously, but I also think it had a lot to do with figuring out how to process Andy's death. I think I have moved out of that depression now, but I don't really have any idea how that happened.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
P90X.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My roommates Mark and Meghan; I am probably being oversentimental but they are just wonderful and I love living with them.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
The voters in Maine and the New York State Senate. I continue to be uninterested in fighting for gay marriage rights (it's just so bourgeois!), but whenever someone actually votes against gay marriage I get really pissed off. I continue to be baffled, interested, and confused by homophobia.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Books. And I am happy about that.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Crave. P90X. Dada (again).
16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
Iron & Wine's "The Trapeze Swinger." I also listened endlessly to Nico Muhly's score for The Reader, and Philip Glass's The Concerto Project. The obvious (and gay) answer to this question, however, is Whitney Houston's "Million Dollar Bill."
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Happier
b) thinner or fatter? Thinner
c) richer or poorer? Poorer, but two out of three ain't bad. Especially considering last year.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Watching movies. Traveling. Reading interesting theory.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Thinking about my work for Kris Salata. Reading theory about which I do not care.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
With my family in their new giant house in Monrovia CA, with my friends at Anna's new condo in Corona CA, with my friends at Linda and Matt's house in Culver City CA, and with my friends at Ashley and Danny's house in Echo Park CA.
21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
No way, man.
22. How many one-night stands?
Depending on the definition of the term, 2 or 3.
23. What was your favorite TV program?
The Wire. No question.
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Oh yes. But I get new students every year, and inevitably one of them pisses me off to a point beyond redemption.
25. What was the best book you read?
I have a bunch for this year:
Lee Edelman: No Future
Lauren Berlant: The Female Complaint
David Savran: Taking It Like a Man
Pat Califia: Public Sex
26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Is it weird that I don't really follow music at all? I guess I listened to a lot of Teddy Thompson this year. I am tentatively revisiting country music.
27. What was the best piece of theatre you saw?
A brilliant production of Pericles entitled Pericles Redux directed by John Farmanesh Bocca.
A genius reworking of ALW and Time Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar by Louis St. Louis and Darryl Jovan Williams entitled Jesus Christ Superstar GOSPEL, which played at the Alliance in Atlanta.
Also my friend Ryan did an adaptation/reimagining of Lear that I almost didn't have words for because it was so fucking good. (I found words, obviously, after a bit. But there was a while there where I could only just stare at people with my mouth open.)
28. What did you want and get?
A trip to Atlanta to see Kate and a trip to Virginia to see Michael and Natalie.
29. What did you want and not get?
A new car. Can someone get me one, please?
30. What was your favorite film of this year?
The year is far from over, but so far it is Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker. Have you seen it yet?
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Most everyone was out of town for Spring Break, but Liz and Ryan took me to Clusters & Hops and made sure that a whole bunch of my friends were there, and it was really fun. I also made my own birthday cake (always a good idea.) I turned 28.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Having more free time to spend with Jaime and John at their wedding.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
The only criterion for choosing a shirt is: Does it show off my new biceps?
34. What kept you sane?
Um, I didn't stay sane, so this question is not really applicable. But thank the Jesus for Pot Psychology. And David, Catie, John, Anthony, Ruth, Lane, and Andrés this summer.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Eli Roth. He is hot.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings.
37. Who did you miss?
Michael Fatica. Michael Stablein. Catie. Kate. Linda. Elizabeth. Ashley. Justin. Wahima. Danny. Rebecca. Jill. Jaime. Derek. Sarah. Anna. John. Joe. Julie. Ryan. Carrie Sandahl. Christina & Isaac. Greg.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
Courtney Ward and Jeff Paden.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009:
Hope doesn't always fulfill its promises; the future rarely falls out the way I see it in my head. But it doesn't matter, really. We must always choose hope. There is no point in living without it.
Worked out every single day for several months.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I did. See above. And I will for next year too. I have a good feeling about 2010.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My nephew, Cruz Antonio Thomas, turns one year old on December 13th. That is not really answering the question, but I felt it was worth noting. I have pregnant friends, but no more nephews or nieces yet!
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Yes. My best friend from college took his own life in June. He was the love of my life. I don't know how else to put it. His death has really messed me up in a lot of ways. I miss him like crazy.
5. What countries did you visit?
None.
6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
A published article. Can somebody work that out for me? Thanks.
7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Saying goodbye to all of the graduates from my class at FSU in May was a rough, rough time. Those four or five days were killer.
The best day of 2009 was probably August 10th. I was in New York, and Ryan and I took the subway from midtown to the upper west side and met Vanya, Dave, Joe, Gretchen, Maria, Rick, Julie, Herman, Jaime, Kate, Rob, and Becky for dinner and drinks. We had THE BEST time. And I was with people I miss like a piece of my heart. New York was completely magical this year. I stayed with Wahima and Becca, Elizabeth visited while I was there, I ran into Brian at a random diner in Queens, I was reunited with my ATHE queers, I got to visit with Stinkylulu, I finally saw John again after 2 years, I went to the Stonewall Inn with Alison and Brent and Ryan and Liz and Cassidy, I saw a show and drank lots of beer with Julie. It was amazing.I also spent a weekend in Seattle and a weekend in Lynchburg, Virginia this summer. Both were wonderful reunions with friends and fun road-trips.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Probably my production of Sarah Kane's Crave.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Keeping in better touch with my dearest friends.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Yes. I was completely depressed for the months of July, August, September, and October. It had probably been a long time coming. It has to do with my anxiety about my schooling and career, obviously, but I also think it had a lot to do with figuring out how to process Andy's death. I think I have moved out of that depression now, but I don't really have any idea how that happened.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
P90X.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My roommates Mark and Meghan; I am probably being oversentimental but they are just wonderful and I love living with them.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
The voters in Maine and the New York State Senate. I continue to be uninterested in fighting for gay marriage rights (it's just so bourgeois!), but whenever someone actually votes against gay marriage I get really pissed off. I continue to be baffled, interested, and confused by homophobia.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Books. And I am happy about that.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Crave. P90X. Dada (again).
16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
Iron & Wine's "The Trapeze Swinger." I also listened endlessly to Nico Muhly's score for The Reader, and Philip Glass's The Concerto Project. The obvious (and gay) answer to this question, however, is Whitney Houston's "Million Dollar Bill."
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Happier
b) thinner or fatter? Thinner
c) richer or poorer? Poorer, but two out of three ain't bad. Especially considering last year.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Watching movies. Traveling. Reading interesting theory.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Thinking about my work for Kris Salata. Reading theory about which I do not care.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
With my family in their new giant house in Monrovia CA, with my friends at Anna's new condo in Corona CA, with my friends at Linda and Matt's house in Culver City CA, and with my friends at Ashley and Danny's house in Echo Park CA.
21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
No way, man.
22. How many one-night stands?
Depending on the definition of the term, 2 or 3.
23. What was your favorite TV program?
The Wire. No question.
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Oh yes. But I get new students every year, and inevitably one of them pisses me off to a point beyond redemption.
25. What was the best book you read?
I have a bunch for this year:
Lee Edelman: No Future
Lauren Berlant: The Female Complaint
David Savran: Taking It Like a Man
Pat Califia: Public Sex
26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Is it weird that I don't really follow music at all? I guess I listened to a lot of Teddy Thompson this year. I am tentatively revisiting country music.
27. What was the best piece of theatre you saw?
A brilliant production of Pericles entitled Pericles Redux directed by John Farmanesh Bocca.
A genius reworking of ALW and Time Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar by Louis St. Louis and Darryl Jovan Williams entitled Jesus Christ Superstar GOSPEL, which played at the Alliance in Atlanta.
Also my friend Ryan did an adaptation/reimagining of Lear that I almost didn't have words for because it was so fucking good. (I found words, obviously, after a bit. But there was a while there where I could only just stare at people with my mouth open.)
28. What did you want and get?
A trip to Atlanta to see Kate and a trip to Virginia to see Michael and Natalie.
29. What did you want and not get?
A new car. Can someone get me one, please?
30. What was your favorite film of this year?
The year is far from over, but so far it is Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker. Have you seen it yet?
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Most everyone was out of town for Spring Break, but Liz and Ryan took me to Clusters & Hops and made sure that a whole bunch of my friends were there, and it was really fun. I also made my own birthday cake (always a good idea.) I turned 28.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Having more free time to spend with Jaime and John at their wedding.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
The only criterion for choosing a shirt is: Does it show off my new biceps?
34. What kept you sane?
Um, I didn't stay sane, so this question is not really applicable. But thank the Jesus for Pot Psychology. And David, Catie, John, Anthony, Ruth, Lane, and Andrés this summer.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Eli Roth. He is hot.36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings.
37. Who did you miss?
Michael Fatica. Michael Stablein. Catie. Kate. Linda. Elizabeth. Ashley. Justin. Wahima. Danny. Rebecca. Jill. Jaime. Derek. Sarah. Anna. John. Joe. Julie. Ryan. Carrie Sandahl. Christina & Isaac. Greg.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
Courtney Ward and Jeff Paden.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009:
Hope doesn't always fulfill its promises; the future rarely falls out the way I see it in my head. But it doesn't matter, really. We must always choose hope. There is no point in living without it.
15 July 2009
Some More 2009 Movies from July
Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is the best movie of 2009 so far. Easily. This movie is intense and moving and, well, just plain awesome. It's a movie about a bomb-defusing squad in Iraq (I know films about the Middle East are not popular with the USAmerican public, but there have been a couple of really good ones lately.) Bigelow's film is the most suspenseful movie I've seen in years, though. The bomb sequences are intense and crazy, and I found myself not breathing for pretty much the film's entire running time. At two points in the picture my jaw dropped at the The Hurt Locker's sheer audacity. This movie is incredible. Go see it. Unequivocally recommended.Brüno is, as it turns out, a lot like Borat. Except that it doesn't work as well. The film, in fact, doesn't really work at all. Still, Brüno is a really funny movie and has some cracking good jokes.
I laughed pretty much all the way through it. And I think the film is occasionally clever, too. It is certainly very clear about its stance on homophobia—Brüno is very scary in this respect, too: it shows just how unsafe it is to be queer in the mid-west United States. But Brüno also left me feeling empty. Its message isn't that interesting, and star Cohen and director Charles don't really uncover anything we didn't already know about middle America. I am not sure any of us realized how racist many people in the U.S. are, but we all know how homophobic everyone is, don't we? At any rate, Brüno is missing something. Perhaps that something is likable characters, or perhaps that something is a real narrative for which one can root. But whatever it is, Brüno doesn't have it.
I thought Todd Phillips' The Hangover was pretty funny. I also thought it was homophobic and racist. But, then, I am surprised when various cultural products are not homophobic and/or racist.The Hangover is also completely absurd. The stars of the film are less interesting than, say, the stars of Wedding Crashers or Dan in Real Life, but the situations in The Hangover are still pretty funny. Plus it's about Las Vegas. And, as you all know, I love me some Vegas.
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