Things on the internet: Mr Oizo the director

One of the things on the internet is the knowledge that Mr Oizo is an electronic performer. His latest album, Lambs Anger, is fun experimental house music, or maybe something simpler than that, like bloghouse. There is an abstract making of for this record, the Making of Lambs Anger, and here it is presented, via youtube. [note: Mr Oizo is not a woman, IRL]

Movies I saw recently and a picture of a dude who has nothing to do with it

-The Thing: as in the old John Carpenter one, finally. It was good--I didn't know the plot going in, but that probably helped.

-I Love You, Man: The Paul Rudd buttsex movie (right?). It was funny enough for the kind of movie it is, which is a guy-powered chick flick. (I saw it with a dude).

-The Breakfast Club: Yes, I'd seen it before, but not since I was too young to know what I was watching, and I refused to watch it on basic cable, with the edits. Anyway, it's good, all the kids are good actos, though Ally Sheedy's character was a little retarded and almost aggressively creepy and I hated her more after the makeover (what is the message here??), Anthony Michael Hall was good though, and Emelio Estevez was buff, the end.

-Memento: seen it before, but not in forever, and so forgot what it was about (it's about a story-framing device, right?). Good as well.

-Sauna: Good, but slow. Haunting vibe, though? Can I say that?

-Dark Floors: this movie kinda sucked. To paraphrase an IMDB commenter: This movie was okay until Lordi showed up acting like monsters.

-Sommusturm: this wasn't bad. I kinda liked it, but maybe the precise end wasn't my favorite. If they had all broken into a choreographed dance on the beach, like Slumdog, I would be singing another tune however.

-Charlie Bartlett: it was okay.

-Savage Grace: ugh

Le Temps Qui Reste: It was okay. I have seen worse.

-Broken English: very pleasant story about wanting to settle down but having yet to do so? That make sense?

News and a trailer

Today, instead of a topless dude, we will present the trailer for the upcoming film Where the Wild Things Are, which looks good. [if it doesn't work, it's not for lack of trying, and here's the link anyway] Following, some less-depressing-than-usual news involving current events and gay people:

-New York senator formerly opposed to marriage betwixt the similarly-genitaled, has changed his mind. [ap]

-Barney Frank says Antonin Scalia is a hater. [bostonglobe]

-I will stop hating on John McCain's daughter for the time being. [towleroad]

-NBC is loving the attention having gay characters on your show affords you. It's a spoiler though. [afterelton]

-More gay confusion in college. [posttribune]

-Ugh. This dude is suing Microsoft for what is essentially taunting due to sexuality. Read it, y'all. (Warning: he looks like Jim Dangle). [telegraph]

more shirtless dudes later

On the screens: The Fall

The most recent movie I have seen is called the Fall. This comes right after having watching Synechdoche New York and Inland Empire, two movies whose logic you have to wade through. This film is fantastical (or whatever) but is presented in a pretty straightforward manner. The little girl in it is very good, as is Pace Lee, the dude, who I was unfamiliar with upon sitting down for the movie, but who it turns out is on that show Pushing Daisies that I've never seen because I liked Six Feet Under too much, the end.

In the news: Does seeing shirtless people make you feel uncomfies? Cuz you're probly gay, bro

What the fuck is this guy's name again? Seriously, it's bugging the shit outta me.

BUT SERIOUSLY Sometimes I consider posting the news about homophobia in the US of Earth, but without all the pictures of shirtless guys all the time. But then, like, I wonder what's the point? News is informative so you have something to talk about with your progressive friends--shirtless dudes are informative to your nervous system, becuse the sight gives you a bit of a jolt, or, at least, that's the idea. You're supposed to release like endorphins or whatever that make you happy, even in small doses. This is the same theory as to why one might eat chocolate, I think. Anyway, this is a picture of Channing Tatum from that movie about fighting that's comin out. It's got stupid-ass Terrence Howard in it. News:

-The army recently fired a bunch of soldiers because they told people how awesome Les Miz was. [ap]

-That Harlow Cuadra, Brent Corrigan-related murder trial is supposed to see closing arguments today. [msnbc] UPDATE: guilty.

-There's a gay guy on American Idol (breathe...can I go on now?) and he might end up the winner, even though America basically hates fggts. They like being entertained, however. [dallas voice]

-In relation to the other news bit, people want Obama to end Don't Ask [via Don't Tell] already. [fox]

Greatest art house film of the last five years

It's a seriodramatic comedy called Never Back Down, and it is discusses themes of things not being what they appear, and tackles the different layers behind our understanding of the world and language--this is all implied, but it serves as an unspoken explanation for the events in the film. The main character, Jake, is a troublemaker and moves to Florida or whatever, where he soon meets the love of his life, a streetfighter named Ryan, played by ripped thespian Cam Gigandet. When the two first lock eyes, it's seriously one of the most heart-pounding moments I've ever experienced in my living room. This will probably get nominated for a Spirit Award this year (IF THERE'S ANY JUSTICE).

The two fight at a house party, a sweaty row that is supposed to be symbolic of these two making love for the first time, except the limitations of societal mores makes it so that these two young men cannot express, and so therefore must subvert, their sexual desires. This is presented in the abstract in the form of street fights. Jake loses, which represents him being the bottom. This is meant to portray societies ostracization of 'people like that' and so Jake goes on a journey to both win Ryan's love and prove to the world that he is as much a man, if not more than, his peers.

Seriously, the poetic beauty of the training montages (matched with tasteful radio rock selections) will bring tears to your eyes. The way the filmmakers use a constant barrage of shirtless, smooth-chested cover shots to convey the isolation and almost desperate state of the main character is perhaps one of the boldest artistic choices I've witnessed since Charlie Kaufman chose to put himself as a character in his film Adaptation. I won't spoil the ending, although you'll be able to see it coming. I'll just say this is going to be A HIT among the artsy crowd and might sweep the Oscars this year. I'm calling it now.

In the brain: Movies

Did I really watch Never Back Down? Not yet.

---------------------------------

Movies I have watched lately:

Synecdoche, New York: Rocked me gentle. I don't want to say this movie is amazing, but it's kind of effing genius. As in, you will probably not be exposed to something like this, done with this much inspiration, many more times maybe ever? If it speaks to you. If it doesn't, Starz has Never Back Down available on demand, which I'm gonna watch too, so don't feel bad.

Teeth: the vagina with teeth movie. It was very good, darkly entertains, bros.

Diary of the Dead: hokey as hell. Worth it for telegenic cast and violence; not much else goin for it.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall: funny. Mila Kunis is extraordinarily pretty, really, you guys.

Religulous: Good if you're into that kinda thing. Athiests probably need to grow some balls, is my conclusion.

Rec: Already talked about it. Is good.

Step Up 2 the Streets, Bro: already talked about. Good dancing, by the numbers everything else.

Rachel Getting Married: Good. Only a couple boring scenes, but features the most fun wedding after-party you will ever see, this year.

I got the pictures above from here.

In the movies: Viddy games as storytelling

Here is Ms. Witherspoon-Ledger-Gyllenhal on the set of her new movie, The Persian Twink Master: Rise of the Twinks.

picture via Kotaku

Getting your ass owned: [rec]

No, not in the GAY WAY. I mean, by an awesome movie. It is called [Rec], y'all, and it's good.

Recommending movies with SCCL

I saw the movie Shelter. I don't really like talking about what movies are about, per se, because I don't really think that matters. But it's essentially about a dude whose life is unfulfilling until he meets and falls in love with someone it's impossible for him to be with, at least within his current circumstances. Or, in other words, a ghey movie. It's probably one of the better LGBT (whatever) movies I've seen; no one plays a stereotype, and, the kicker, it's emotionally honest. I pretty much recognized 80% of the situations here, and it'll probably be the case for most other people as well.

 The next one I saw was Transamerica, I know I know, late to the party, but I liked it. It was funny. Felicity Huffman was really good and delivered her zingers well, and pulled off her crying bits authentically (with drool and everything). For the pervs, there's also the eye candy of the kid who plays her son, Kevin Zegers, and his character is very sexually charged (not in the annoying LGBT movie tradition, it's truly 'part of the character'), so there's also that. It's a solid drama, whatever.

Lastly, and the least gayly, is Be Kind Rewind, which is better than I feel some critics wanted my ass to think it was when it came out. People kind of slammed Michel Gondry, via 'he's a crappy writer only a good director', and I don't know the level to which the film was improvised, but the dialogue wasn't bad. Maybe they meant the emotional arc was lacking, which I suppose I could see, but I wasn't offended by it or anything. I laughed aloud a few times, and tend to not even like Jack Black, almost at all sometimes, so that was a feat for the picture. If you want a low-key comedy to kill a little of 90 minutes, then go for this.

On the shelf: The Ruins [so spoilery]

Yeah, so I saw Bugcrush like everybody else, and, like everybody else, I thought it was good. Carter Smith, director of that, got his first studio gig because of it, that gig being Ruins the Movie Experience. Whatever, I just saw the movie, literally, like two seconds ago. What I did before that was slog through the novel. Slog, because it was sitting in my room untouched, me only having read maybe the first quarter of the thing. About a month ago I picked it back up and sort of steadily got through it, until there was about a third left, at which point all I did was read this fucking book. I swear, it was born and raised in Awesometown (Isreal). 

Basically some young kids with lots to live for and very believable personalities go on vacay, meet a Greek and a German, then go on a trizzle to find the German's brother at some the Ruins or whatever. They get there and its all kinds of fucked up. Essentially, Scott Smith, the author, kicked my ass for about 500 hundred pages of mass market paperback (300 or so for trade). This novel is brutal. I usually don't read straight-up horror novels, not in years (I used to covet Bentley Little, Stevey Kingface, and House of Leaves was my favorite up until recently too), but Mr. Smith is an excellent character developer and scenarist. He had me by the balls the entire time. I don't wish I'd written this, but I'm glad that someone has taken horror seriously enough to have done so. Seriously, even if you think you're too good for a scary book, you will be pleased with this, I promise. He makes you feel for these people, and he makes you hope, as they do, that it's going to be okay in some way--maybe it won't be perfect, yeah, life won't be the same, but IT JUST HAS TO BE OKAY in SOME WAY, because that's the it works. That's the way it HAS to work, in life and in a novel with so much dedication obviously put into it. Why would somebody write a book just to slowly allow their characters (who they must live with basically forever) to slowly detiorate, mentally and physically, until they are gone, gone, gone? I guess the answer is 'because he can', because he does it here.

The movie is okay. Kinda weaksauce maybe? It has some gory imagery, but it's pretty flimsy and needless compared to the steady suspense and muscle of the novel. Whatever--it's what happens when you assume your audience will be made up of retards, I guess. STOP PANDERING. That is all.

Pandering to gays is OK because it is an underutilized pander.

I saw Speed Racer

Just because it felt like an appropriate thing to do on a Sunday. I watched football the night before, so, in order to acheive balance in the Force (a combination of wine and migraine medication), I decided to align myself with the Watchowski Bros and get down with their pretend kids movie, the Speed Racers.

I enjoyed it. It was silly but that's not a big deal, because who really cares that much about Speed Racer as a franchise anyway? This is probably the best possible movie someone could have made out of that material. Or, the best any of us could expect in 2k8, the time of its release. Basically it's hokey dailogue + Emile Hirsche 'playing it straight' + Christina Ricci totally playing a cartoon character + Susan Surandon-Roth and Dad From Roseanne representing those archetypes, lightheartedly in her case + crazy green screen streaks of light and car sounds + stupid kid stuff that's only marginally annoying + a ten y/o giving the middle finger, Speed saying "get that shit off my track," people saying ass a lot + stylized Kung Fu and FAMILY VALUES. Not better than Iron Man, though, which was it's comp in theaters.

 

Oscar Bait Corner: Button and the Wrestler

Okay, so I saw Bennie Buttonz' Curious Cases and The Wrastler. Benjamin Button is a cute movie, Brad Pitt does a good job, and the special effects are convincing and you don't really think twice about them. I liked Tilda Swinton in this too, but everybody loves her, and she's kind of expected to do a good job anyway, now isn't she? Cate Blanchett (I'm not spell-checking any of these names, sadly) was good too, but she's kind of whatever to me. Overall though, I didn't think the movie was all that amazing--it was good, obviously, well-done, but it didn't, like, grab me and refuse to let go or anything. Of all the Oscar Bait films I've seen this season, this was probably the least exciting experience I had. I didn't realize the Roth dude (the screenwriter) had also written Forrest Gump, but it was all I could think about while watching this--when I found out that he had, it solidified David Fincher's film as something I'll only ever want to watch again for the FX

------------------------------

The Wrestler, on the other hand, was quite awesome. I wasn't 10o% on board with the Fountian, but I love Mr. Darren Aranofsky to no end, and his assured touch (so gay sounding) was all over this movie. Mickey Rourke was awesome, as expected--Marisa Tomei's exposed breasts also did a good job. I'm not that into Evan Rachel Wood, and, although she seemed to be giving her all, I was kind of glad when he character went away.

The 'documentary style' approach was used loosely, but the non-actors (and there were a lot) were very natural, making it clear that a lot what they were doing was improvised. This movie didn't overwhelm me with sadness like something in a Brokeback Mtn. But it had a reality-based seriousness, sense of humor, dreariness, hope and melancholy that permeated throughout, and that stuck with me long after Springsteen's song washed over the credits. I wanted Sean Penn to win best actor, but I think Rourke should get it now. I'm stuck on Best Picture, but I wouldn't be upset if this took it. The end.

Oscar Bait corner with SCCL

Did you see Slumdog Millionaire? Did it get into your soul and make a home there, set a fire of love? Here are some things I thought while watching the movie:




="I don't think this is going to live up to the hype, even though I didn't read reviews, so don't know 'what I'm supposed to think' or anything."




="This structure is going to get old..."

="Jeez, there's, like, another hour and a half left!"

="I'm not crying, I'm not crying, I'm not crying..."

="That was fucked up."

="I guess this is awesome?"


="Ooohh, a Bollywood dance number!"


="That was awesome!"

Breifly: Gran Torino, Wendy, Lucy

I saw Gran Torino. It's not mindblowingly innovative (and might be robbing others if its too much an Oscar presence) but it was a good movie, and Eastwood was good, and the non-actor young actors were endearing too. If someone offers to take you to see it, say yes. Clint Eastwood directing (at this stage of the game) is not a bad thing, ok? Stop acting like it is. Okay, I love you, later days.

==

Wait, wait, don't go. I also saw Wendy & Lucy, and it was touching, and understated, and Michelle Williams being so good made me miss Ledger even more. So, see that too, I guess.

She holds a stick at some point. It's pretty poignant. Seriously tho, I dug.

HAPPY XMASSS

The 25th is my best friend's birthday. Maybe you've met? He is Jesus and I didn't get him a gift, because of the recession and being gay. Amen.

===

That's the dude from MGMT up there. I don't really listen to them because I'm trying to cut back on people telling me to put bands on my iPod or they won't like me, so I only listen to "Electric Feel" because I don't feel like spending cash pounds just to find out that I don't like their record (old argument, yea, we know). The picture is from Hipster Runoffz, and what I learn reading Carles is that it's okay to like Justice more than other musical band groups, because it's just okay to like things that make life fit into functional 4/4 time groupings with cool bass solos dubbed in the center of the mix, toward the end of the track. It's okay, because you say it is, and it's your life.

That said, I finally saw A Cross the Universe and it made me feel, in NPO:

-alone

-happy

-pumped

-excited for the future

-more interested in Justice

-that Kavinsky maybe doesnt have so many songs cuz maybe he parties too hard?

-that SebastiAn doesn't do interviews because he's shy, not cuz ppl don't ask

-scared

-jealous

-like being there for my friends

-sober

-like I'm wasting my life

Smiles are contagious.

Unrelated to Gays: Baghead, bro

I saw the movie Baghead recently. It was my first foray into mumblecore, but I didn't know that going in. I just knew it was supposed to be horror-y, and it was called Baghead. I ended up enjoying it a pretty great deal--I literally knew nothing about who made it or what the point was supposed to be, so everything that happened was a surprise. Good acting, a surprise. A plot, a surprise. THE plot, a surprise. It was basically a dramedy, driven by engaging characters, shot handheld for that feeling of real life being captured. Then there were the horror elements, which were handled far better than I thought--the stalking, tension-filled scenes are framed absolutely perfectly. Whatever, I liked it, it wasn't the DARK KNIGHT, because not even your god is equal to those heights, but it got me through the night, so fuck it. On DVD on the 30th Dec.

Notes on Milk

Okay, so I saw Milk, sue me. Here are some things that I would right next to asterisks, in no particular order, in regards to Milk or my viewing of it, if I were inclined to do such a thing:

*It was a good movie.

*James Franco and Sean Penn have pretty natural chemistry, maybe not at first (this is me not knowing in what order the movie was filmed, and also me just having to get used to them being in love almost immediately, at least in screen time), but eventually yes, they convince they are in love.

*It's not even like Paranoid Park on the How Artsy Is It? scale, but I don't think it's all that far from the one with Keanu Reeves and River Pheonix (I know what it's called, I was just tired of typing titles).

*Emile Hirsch seems like he's doing a bad impression at first, then is pretty good from then on. That means we liked him.

*It is VERY timely. Everybody likes looking at historical movies and drawing the parallels to Real Life (people like doing this with any kind of movie maybe) and they will have a field day with this, because it seems sometimes like nothing has changed. You hope that people who may not feel this way (inolerant peoples) will actually sit through the movie to at least get the sense of this, for all that would be worth. Nobody, though, is really presented with a judgement attached--not even the bad guys get treated like all bad, even when they are scary. *Things have changed, though, but you see it's been the same thing over and over. Hopefully, people will start noticing how stupid some of these arguments are.*

*Sean Penn is very good, if I didn't already say that. He's earned whatever award they link him to, whether he actually gets them or not.

*Josh Brolin is good. His character has a drunk moment that could be seen as funny if it were in another movie, but it works good here.

*There's a lot of making out, maybe too much. If you hung out with this much making out, and you weren't involved in it, you'd be kind of annoyed.

*It's whatever. You should probably go see it. Bring a date!

On Mt. Olympus: Golden Globe Nominations

Okay, so the Golden Glurb nominations were released (or what have you) today, and two things: Well actually three: One, I'm not even pissed about cool movies being skipped over in favor of movies that tuck in their dress shirts when grandma comes over, because who really gives a shit about these things? 2)To contradict that, I'm happy about True Blood getting recognized, even if they invited Entourage even though we asked them not to, and we're also happy our pretend fake lover James Franco got nominated even if it's sort of a joke (did they like him so much, and HATE Milk so much, that they had to do this?).

And THREE: the actors might have to go on strike before this shit even goes down. THE THING IS, if I was an actor, the last thing I would want to do, for me, or for my fans, is go on strike during the the Economic Doomsday Crisis of the Aughts. It would be shitty, but THEN if I screwed my financial situtation down the road because of this temporary, albeit years long, crisis, then I would be pissed down the road, since my lifestyle would be based on this millionaire sitch I'd be in, and I'd be needing that money, y'know? So I would kinda have to go on strike, becase it would affect my future, not just my right now. So who knows what they'll do, but if they don't strike, it would be kind of stupid of them. I would respect them, and totally understand, and it would very much suck, but they would be dumb if they didn't. Okay fin

In the Movies: Punisher - War Zone

For some reason, I read a bunch of reviews for this movie, mostly because I was rooting for its director, Lexi Alexander. They were entertaining, these reviews were. This one is probably the best, and likely sums up the movie better than most other options on the lines. Obviously, most people are not at all concerned with such a farce as this, until they remember how important entertainment is, then they're totally on that shit.