Happy Oscar Day! - The Live Blog

This is one of my favorite nights of the year.  It's all meaningless and full of self-congratulatory wealthy people but I still love it.

6:00pm - Well hello, E!  Doing filler polls already, are we?

6:02 and Giuliana's dress is interesting.  It's kind of an old 20s Hollywood glamour kind of dress.

6:06 and Wolfgang Puck is showing Ryan the "grazing menu" for the night.  Yum.

6:09 and what the heck is up with Kelly Osbourne's hair?  I don't like her dress either.

6:10 and Ryan's talking to Rose Byrne.  I'm still disappointed that Bridesmaids didn't get more nominations.  The camera cuts to Melissa McCarthy who is wearing a lovely rose colored dress.  Then Wendy McClendwhatever joins Ryan and Rose and she looks nice but in nude-ish color dress.  I'm tired of non-colors.

6:12 and Ellie Kemper's dress matches her hair.  It's kinda cool.  I love her dress.  She's adorable.

6:14 and Ryan's talking to Berenice Bejo.  I'm not thrilled with her hair style or the dress.  I like the mint color but not really the style.

6:20ish (I had to pause the telecast to step away) and George Clooney g/f looks like an Oscar statuette.

6:22ish and Ryan's talking to Melissa McCarthy.  Apparently Brian Atwood wrote a special message to her on the shoes he made for her.  I AM JEALOUS!!!

6:22ish, still and the camera cuts to Jessica Chastain in a very cool gold and black dress.  She looks great!

6:23ish and Ryan is talking to an incredibly covered up Shailene Woodley.  Her dress is white and different but still kind of cool.  It's Valentine couture and she loves it.

6:25 and Giuliana and Kelly are talking about Chastain's dress.  They agree with me.  So there.

6:26ish and Jessica Chastain adorably introduced herself to Ryan because they've never met.  I love that she shook his hand and introduced herself.  Then she introduces her adorable grandma who is wearing the coolest geode necklace.  Her dress is great but looks like it's poking her a lot.

6:29ish and Michelle Williams brought Busy Phillips.  I LOVE THAT THEY'RE BESTIES AND GO EVERYWHERE TOGETHER.

6:33ish and Ryan and George are kinda funny together.  George doesn't like the question, "Who are you wearing?" because it's more like "Who are you carrying on your back?"  Heh.  I'm so very tired of the side hairstyle.

6:37 and Jonah Hill has arrived.  He's in an all black tux.  I'm not a fan.  Of the tux.  I think he's great.

6:40ish and Ryan's talking to viola Davis in a lovely green dress with lovely green earrings.  It's Vera Wang is it's cool looking.  I like the reddish hair with the green.

6:44ish and a still severe looking Rooney Mara has arrived.  The camera is on Glenn Close in an odd green suit-looking outfit and behind her is some chick in a blue w/ black lace skintight jump suit.  Weird.

6:46ish and the camera cuts to Octavia Spencer who is there with the director of The Help.   I love her dates to these things.

6:47ish and while Ryan talks to the Apatow's the camera cuts to P. Diddy and his assistant who is busy using one of those lint picker upper things on his suit.

6:53 and Ryan's talking to Michelle Williams who is wearing a red (coral?) Louis Vuitton dress which is nice but the pink bag needs to go away.  Rooney Mara is waiting in the wings to talk to Ryan and also back there is Kate Mara, Rooney's sister who is talking to Busy.  Nice.

6:55 and Rooney joins Ryan.  She's in a white Givenchy that she picked out this morning.  It's intricate but meh. 

6:58 and we finally get to see Octavia Spencer's dress.  I like it a lot.  It's kind of nude with tons of silver beading and is incredibly flattering.  It's Tadashi Shoji and I really, really like it.  Giuliana and Kelly agree with me about Octavia but not about Rooney.

7:02 and Jonah is talking to Ryan. I like his mom's jewelry.  The camera cuts to Jean Dujardin.

7:05 and my TV flipped over to ABC's red carpet.  They're talking to Octavia and I really love that dress.  Have I mentioned that?  I like her earrings too.

7:06 and Ryan's talking to Jean Dujardin who says "Yes. John from the garden."  HE'S ADORABLE!!!

7:11 and The Dictator has arrived.  Now Ryan is talking to Bridesmaids scribes and stars Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo.  Kristen is wearing a nude dress.  Boring.

7:47 and apparently I'm not meant for live blogging.  I've stepped away for quite a while now to make my spinach and cheese Moneyballs and my War Hors d'oeuvres. While I was gone we saw Emma Stone in red, Penelope Cruz looking lovely in lavendar and some other folks I can't remember.  Also the spinach cheese Moneyballs burned me.

8:00 and I'm way behind and completely out of order.  Tim Gunn is talking to Cameron Diaz.  She looks nice.  I'm still not used to this hair length though.  Some Brit on ABC is talking to Gwynneth in white.  Her dress, Tom Ford, has a removable coat.  Clever.  I still don't like her.  I also don't believe that she and Cameron are friends.  I can't picture it.  Also Jennifer Lopez's dress is the same idea as Octavia's but kinda trashy.  Sandra Bullock's dress is interesting.  Angelina is in a veeeerrrrry dramatic black (no surprise there) dress.

8:22ish and Robin is inside talking to Natalie Portman.  She looks very classy.  I think those are polka dots so I immediately love it.

8:24ish and ABC's random Brit is talking to Brian Grazer.  His hair will always look like that.

If you like red carpet photos, IMDB already has them posted.

8:26 and Robin is talking to Chris Rock who looks younger than ever.  He's shorter than I thought or Robin is wearing big heels.


Ok, I'm done for the night.  If I live blog the show I'll miss stuff.

"Eternity" (Angel 1.17): The one before Faith shows up

Spoiler alert. As far as I'm concerned, these episodes are just biding time until Faith arrives for some tough love from a vamp who's been there before. And by "there," I mean "a killer of the innocent." But I suppose we need to earn our way to "Five by Five," so here's the Angel guide to dealing with actresses.

DO realize they're all vain and ambitious. If I were feeling more engaged, my feminista hackles might rise a little at the portrayals of both Cordy and Rebecca, the actress whose life he saves at the beginning of the episode. But since I'm not, and since Cordelia's performance in A Doll's House was so hilariously bad, and since the show was savvy enough to quote a scene from A Doll's House without then congratulating themselves on the reference, and since Cordelia redeems herself later, I'm going to let it go.

The performance is precisely as bad as this still might suggest.

Anyway, while Angel and Wesley are trying to figure out how to simultaneously a) tell Cordelia the truth and b) not tell Cordelia how wretched she was in the play, Angel saves Rebecca (because that's what he does), and once she finds out he's immortal, she wants a little of that for her rapidly aging face and body.

Would she have only "acted" like a person who could get out of the way of a car, speeding towards her, from a block away, all this could have been avoided.

DO be prepared for the public life. I'm mainly just including this point for an excuse to feature Angel's premiere hair.

It's unfortunate.

DON'T leave your drink unattended around Hollywood types. Which doubles with the maxim "DON'T ever slip a vamp a mickey." After clumsily getting Angel to drink a drugged flute of champagne, (which, as my intrepid co-watcher Jenn points out is both ridiculous and unnecessary),

This isn't a thing.

Angelus wakes up, and so does the episode. Whereas I would have gone with a roofie, Rebecca apparently went with X or the like, leaving Angel so relaxed, and so close to "true happiness," that Angelus comes out to play.

Mess with Angelus? That's one blood bag in the face . . .

and one champagne-flute shard to the throat.

DON'T underestimate the talent. Though Rebecca is instantly and lethally out of her league, Cordy shows her Sunnydale cred and takes Angelus out with an assist from Wes.

The face of a girl who knows what's up, re: vamps.

And, as Jenn notes, we all should know have known that Angelus wasn't going to take, as Angel would never find true happiness with a brunette, no matter what she dosed him with. And speaking of brunettes . . .


I do appreciate Angelus's appearance in this episode (and in "The Prodigal"), if for no other reason than his blood-soaked past will be precisely what best qualifies him to peer-mentor our favorite Slayer to be Named Later. See you next week!

"Superstar" (Buffy 4.17): Hits me where I live

So, as a former (totally former) writer of fan fiction, I really appreciate the genius of this episode. It's got some razor-sharp writing, a delightful performance by Danny Strong's Jonathan, and I think some true insight into intertextuality. But before the boring litcrit stuff, on to the Buffy guide to writing really satisfying fanfic.

DO be a completist. No detail is left unnoticed by Jonathan's spell, which alters the Sunnydale 'verse to make him, well, a superstar.

Including the friggin' credits.

There are posters bearing Jonathan's face everywhere, including one on the back of Riley's dorm room door, replacing the baffling "Balls" wall art that usually resides there.

Which begs a few questions I've been pondering all season. Why does Riley have a poster in his dorm of various balls? Why am I not emotionally mature enough to refrain from snickering every time I see it? And what's the deal with that lighting sconce? Oh, and sorry about the shirtless Riley shot.

This should take the edge off.

DO know your characters, and be better than all of them.  Jonathan's spell is a literalization of Mary Sue fanfic in particular, where an avatar for the author interacts with the fictional world, and owns it as an utter rock star. In Jonathan's case, literally. He's also a best-selling author, famous athlete, movie idol, special ops consultant and swimsuit model, who's shacking up with blonde twins. But what makes the script particularly relevant to Mary Sue fanfic is that he outclasses all the Scoobies. He:

out-punches (and out-puns) Buffy,

out-hacks Willow,

out-chesses Giles,

and out-badasses Spike.

Though he still can't quite out-tall Riley.

Which brings me to . . .

DO keep your storyline as seamless as possible. Even in Jonathan's version of Sunnydale, Buffy and Riley are having problems related to the Faith sex from last week (that he solves), and Adam is still the Big Bad. He even posits a fan theory for how Adam is powered! Crucially, though, Adam isn't snookered by the spell. Watching Jonathan's exploits on surveillance monitors,

Kind of like we are.

he recognizes, and denigrates, televised fiction. I think this is more than just a throwaway moment. Adam is anti-TV texts, and therefore, at his mechanized core, anti-Buffy.

DON'T forget that whenever you write, you create a monster. In Jonathan's case, a literal one that attacks Tara.

Not cool.

But I think this works metaphorically as well. Intertextuality, when done right and read carefully, always alters the source text by default. After reading "The Company of Wolves," you'll never think about "Little Red Riding Hood" the same way again. Retellings cut a swath through foundational texts much like Jonathan's monster.

Though I prefer to imagine the embodiment of fanfic being a little bit less disgusting.

As my intrepid co-watcher Jenn points out, Jonathan's decision to "sacrifice his coolness" for the greater good is very much in keeping with the kid we got to know in seasons 2 & 3, and veritably unrecognizable from the Nerd of Doom we will meet in season 6. Not looking forward to it. Know what else neither of us is looking forward to? The Riley and Buffy bang-fest in "Where the Wild Things Are." Just the thought of it makes me bequeased.

A harbinger of horrible, horrible things to come.

Adaptation Angst: The Fault in Our Stars

I'd been hearing a lot of good buzz about the YA novel The Fault in Our Stars even before it got optioned this month, so I decided to pick it up last night. When I put it down, finished, early this morning, I was terrified.

The novel, though sharing key plot points with not a few Lifetime movies and at least one Cameron Diaz flick, does not surrender to the easy cliches of a "kids with cancer" love story. Though you might see the resolution coming from about halfway through, the book's strengths (and they are formidable) come from the way it gets there.

The book's star-crossed lovers, teenagers Hazel and Augustus, are stricken with thyroid cancer and osteosarcoma, respectively. The two engaging and fully realized characters are simultaneously constantly consumed with, and utterly disinterested in, their diseases. You will like them before you pity them, which all sounds well and good for a movie adaptation. Except . . .

The ravages of illness on both of their bodies are veritable plot points in and of themselves. Hazel has a steroid-swollen face, hair still growing in from chemo, and an ever-present oxygen tank. Augustus lost a leg to his bone cancer prior to the action of the novel. The film will have to cast, especially in Hazel's case, an actor who is not conventionally healthy-looking, let alone beautiful.

Also, the two speak in the sort of hyper-educated and quirky patois that reads like a dream but can turn precious and cloying in film (see the dialogue of the eponymous heroine of Juno, which I quite liked but others felt was too contrived). However, dialing down the idiosyncratic smarts of either character means losing a crucial part of their backstory. Hazel and Augustus have both spent a lot of time out of school, reading in bed. Pretending that didn't affect what they know and how they speak would be a betrayal not only of the source material but also the integrity of the characters.

I would love to see this film done right, but I have nightmares of Dakota Fanning and Peeta/Gayle dancing through my head.

Adaptation Angst: 9.5

Suburgatory, Modern Family and Happy Endings - Didja watch?

Didja watch Suburgatory "Fire with Fire?"

-Apparently Chatswain is the silly trend capital of the world.  They had the male nanny trend, the spotted owl trend (which translated to people walking around with owls on their shoulders), and the British Royal Hat trend (I fell prey to this one).  Thanks to Dallas’s divorce from Jay Mohr, the ‘leaving your husband and getting plastic surgery’ trend is the next one to spread.

-Noah hasn’t fixed the shower head as he was asked, so it falls and hits his wife on the head.  She bleeds and everything!  The next shower she falls and breaks her nose.  When she runs into Dallas (who has just had a list of elective procedures) at the hospital, Noah’s wife elects to have everything she had.  Then she leaves Noah.

-Dalia uses Lisa to get back at Tessa for “stealing Scott.”  Lisa doesn’t mind it one bit and even gets a Dalia make-over (straightened hair and too much eyeliner). 

-Dallas has a new lover and GAH! It’s Fez!

-There’s a hilarious but bossy kid (AJ) at the country club who tries to give Noah advice on dealing with the ladies. I really hope he's on the show more often.

-There’s a school dance and the Situation is the DJ.  Ew.He does get them all to fist-pump.

-Noah wins back his wife by a) riding up on a white horse and b) fixing the shower head. Really all he needed to do was fix the shower head.

Didja watch Modern Family “Virgin Territory”

-Cam is convinced that Claire never returned a Tupperware container she borrowed.

-Luke and Manny are pissed that Lily is the cute one and gets all the laughs now and are going to put a stop to it.  They set up a Rube Goldberg trap and instead Cam ends up slipping in spilled milk (which would have been blamed on Lily) and hurting his back. 

-Lily’s doll gets hurt in the kitchen incident so Cam and Mitchell suggest the doll get taken to the doll hospital at the mall where there’s an on-call doctor.  Yep. 

-On the way to the hospital, Phil says “Haley’s aversion” but Alex heard “Haley’s a virgin” and laughs heartily at the notion.  Poor Phil spends the rest of the episode dealing with his daughter being, uh, less innocent than before.

 - Turns out Cam is faking his back injury and sends everyone away so he can search Claire’s kitchen for his missing container.  Luke and Manny return home so he sends them out, with his car keys, to wash his car.  They clean it but then also decide to do the slowest joy ride known to man just to get a girl’s attention.  It’s pretty cute.

-Oh and Cam finds the container but falls and hurts his back again in the process. 

Didja watch Happy Endings “The Butterfly Effect Effect”

-It’s time for Brad and Other Blonde’s annual spring fight.  When they have this fight the guys have a douche week which gets Max out of his bear hibernation.  Other Blonde goes to Penny for guy advice which is the only time of the year Penny is better off than Other Blonde.  Brad and OB don’t fight as expected so whatever will they do?  David and Penny decide they need to urge the fight which will ensure douche week, Max out of hibernation and Penny’s one week to feel good about herself. 

-One thing that really cracked me up was Blonde’s Renee Zellweger impression, which is just a variation of her drunk chipmunk impression.  Heh.

 -Also funny was Max in hibernation mode.  He even ended up looking JUST LIKE Winnie the Pooh, right down to the hand in the honey jar.

-Brad and OB fake a fight which doesn’t do the trick until they get into a real fight.  All the things fall into place and they get Max out of hibernation mode.  Too bad.  I liked Max the Bear.

Survivor: One World "Total Dysfunction"

Seriously, that's the episode's title.  We catch up with the girls who are rehashing the events of tribal council.  We spend lots of time with Camp Estrogen and a lot less time with Camp Testosterone.  That's never a good sign.  So what do the men do this episode?  Well they win both the reward and immunity challenges.  Let's see how our 'survivors' are progressing, shall we?

Salani:
Alicia - still a beeyotch; won't accept Christina's attempt at mending fences though...
Christina - didn't actually apologize but rather said she wanted to explain her side of it
Sabrina - continues to be my hope for the future of the women's camp; other women recognize her leadership skills and ask her to be their leader or "airhead manager" as she puts it.  Poor thing. This will go terribly wrong and it won't be at all her fault but they'll make her suffer.
Monica - still under the radar but getting a bit more attention
Nina - was under the radar until she spoke up about...
Kat- she TOTALLY screwed up the immunity challenge*
Chelsea and Kim - they reluctantly agree with Nina that Kat is a waste of space on the show (my words, not theirs), which goes against the alliance set with Alicia, Sabrina and Kat.

Manono:
Tarzan - in a speedo (ick) for most of the episode.  He even does a dance around the campfire while the guys chant.  It's a very geriatric Lord of the Flies moment.
Jay - still has an an annoying voice.
Colton - mainly the only guy they focus on this episode; kinda useless at his camp; still wants to hang around with the girls but they don't really want him.  He tells a few of the guys that he has the immunity idol so that actually puts him in a power role.

*Immunity challenge:

A balance challenge should have been theirs to lose.  Traditionally women are much better at balancing and puzzles.  The producers are trying to keep things even-ish but it won't work if the girls continue to be dumb about it.  The deal was they had to, one at a time, walk around each person but could only touch that person.  You couldn't touch a second person or you'd have to jump in the water and start over again.  Kat went first and took FOREVER (apparently boobs were getting in her way, which is why above she's going behind people).  Plus she jumped in the water twice when she didn't need to.  It was frustrating to watch.

Tribal council:
less bickery than last time and Jeff gets on them to get their sh!t together.

"Nina, the tribe has spoken."  BYE!

Yep.  That's pretty accurate.

Trailer Park!

The trailer park is being moved to Thursdays.  Now maybe I can actually post one every week.


We've got a lot this week so buckle up!

A trailer close to my geeky heart!

A clip from Pixar's Brave. To say I'm excited about this movie would be an understatement.

There is something pretentiously wonderful about a Whit Stillman film. 

This one looks sweet.  Plus...NERDY EWAN MCGREGOR!

This has been making the rounds but looks terribly fun so I thought I'd include it. 

What would you do with your last three weeks on earth?  Road trip with Keira Knightley?

Hmmm...this reminds me of another movie but I can't think of what it is...

Dirrrrty!

I saw this before Safe House.  I wasn't sure at first but Renner is so great.  It's got potential.

Glee and Cougar Town - Didja watch?

 Didja watch Glee "On My Way?"  If you had you woulda seen:

 - Glee’s tryin’ to kill people, y’all!  Don’t read this if you haven’t seen the show and plan to. 

*** SPOILERS AHEAD. SERIOUSLY.  YOU'VE BEEN WARNED***

- Icky Sebastian is back and threatens Rachel with a naked, obviously photoshopped picture of Finn, which he will publish on the interwebs if Rachel chooses to perform at Regionals.  There’s lots of talk in the music room at McKinley about threats made by other teams, by-laws, etc.  Apparently the headmaster at Dalton doesn’t care just like he didn’t care when they (temporarily) blinded Blaine.  Uh, what happened to Dalton being a zero-tolerance school?

- Sue is in the family way and shares her news with Quinn who is shocked and happy for Sue.  No word on who the dad is but I’m guessing they’ll save that for a later reveal.  Quinn takes the opportunity to ask Sue to be let back onto the Cheerios.

- Karofsky, who I now officially feel very sorry for, gets outed with an ugly slur on his locker.  While Blaine sings “Cough Syrup” (which I download before he’s finished), we see Karofsky struggling.  He’s online and there’s tons written about him there too.  He’s broken and life seems hopeless enough that he sets out his best suit and stares up at the rafters.  Thankfully it didn’t work and his father found him in time.  It still greatly affects the glee kids and most especially Kurt.  He feels responsible because he’s ignored Karofsky since his declaration of love and interest on Valentine’s Day.

- Rachel, realizing life should be cherished, wants to get married on Saturday, after they win at Regionals of course.  Finn’s all for it.

- Icky Sebastian seems to have had a change of heart too but Kurt is wary (for good reason).  Karofsky’s decision had an effect on him too because Icky Sebastian was mean to him.  Shocking.

- Schue talks to the kids about all the experiences they have ahead of them and gets each one to name something they’re looking forward to.  Brittany’s goes by unintelligibly even though I rewound it twice.  Something about getting someone off their addiction to ecstasy?  Anywhoodle, Schue also shares his suicide attempt story and why he’s so glad he didn’t go through with it.

I'm not a fan of the outfits

- Regionals time and the Warblers are up first with “Stand” and “Glad You Came.”  Even though both songs are good I download neither (partially for my dislike of Icky Sebastian).  Next up is the Golden Goblets from Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow who sing about 15 seconds of a madrigal.  Then it’s the New Directions turn with a mash-up of “Fly/I Believe I Can Fly,” “What Doesn’t Kill You,” and “Here’s to Us” which Rachel mostly sings to Finn.  They get the whole crowd going and win Regionals.  Duh.

- Quinn goes to see Sue after the performance and is blessed with a Cheerios uniform.  Sue has really chilled out.  Quinn has a change of heart about the Rachel/Finn nuptials and tells Rachel she’ll be there on Saturday.  Then Sue tells Schue her good news and even offers to help them win Nationals.  Wow. 

- Kurt goes to see Karovsky in the hospital and they have a very nice talk.  Kurt even gets Karovsky to envision a happy future and that helps. 

- Wedding day and the parents have a plan to stop the wedding, which involves Rachel’s dads kidnapping her and driving her to Broadway.  Yeah, that’s a good plan.  Quinn is running late but, while driving, texts Rachel that she’ll be there ASAP.  Rachel keeps texting her back prompting Quinn to reply and totally not see the big truck that t-bones her.  WHAAAAAAT?!?!?!?

And now for a funny show...

Didja watch Cougar Town "A Mind with a Heart of It's Own?"  If you had you woulda seen:

- Bobby's gift to Jules and Grayson of a zipline from her house to his.  I think it's a fun idea!  Jules does not.

- The wedding plans have begun and silly Grayson thinks what he wants matters.  Ha.  Men.  What Jules wants is for Grayson to go officially ask for her hand in marriage from her father, Chick.  

- Jules asks Ellie to be her Maid-of-Honor and of course she says yes.  Not long after, Jules is about to break the M-o-H news to Laurie who beats her to the punch by suggesting she have co-Maids-of-Honor, or CoMoHs if you will.  Jules, wanting everyone to be happy agrees.  Laurie even makes them tee-shirts! 

- Grayson and Travis go to visit Chick who decides to have a little fun with Grayson.  Chick's favorite horse is sick and he asks Grayson to put her down for him.  Chick even hands him a shotgun fully knowing Grayson won't be able to do it.  It's funny until Grayson heads back into the barn to prove he's a man capable of putting a horse out of its misery. I'm guessing they stopped him in time.  It isn't Glee, y'all.  They don't kill people on shows like Cougar Town.

- Also worthy of note: when Ellie and Andy have a fun way of working out the times when she wants to kill him.  Instead of actually killing him, they pose in a situation where it looks like she has and take a picture of it.  They have a wall full of framed pictures of Ellie killing Andy.  So twisted and so dang funny. 

(I wasn't able to watch New Girl and Raising Hope last night but may get to it tonight so keep a look out)

Chronicle

Chronicle

Stars: Vince from Friday Night Lights, and a couple of other guys.

So I'm finally posting something about Chronicle.  I saw it two weekends ago and enjoyed it but just never got around to putting anything in writing.  It's gotten pretty decent reviews and I get it.  It was well done, well acted, and interesting.  My biggest problem with it was the whole (sort of) found footage aspect of it.  Actually it isn't "found" footage so much as just edited together footage.  But they never address who put it all together.  At least in some of the found footage horror movies they give us a little paragraph at the beginning or end explaining where the footage came from.  This movie never does that and the footage is put together too well.  Not to mention the fact that whoever did it somehow had access to footage shot by police and news cameras.  Ooookay.

The story is: three high school boys go down a hole in the ground, see some glowy light and come back out of the hole with super powers.  Mostly it's telekinesis type stuff and if they use too much too fast they get nose bleeds.  They get more and more powerful, especially Andrew the loner guy, and things are fun until they aren't. 

Prior to the glowy light cave, Andrew had decided to put his life on tape, which includes getting beat up by his dad and some bullies from school.  It's because of this camera that he gets invited in the hole with cousin Matt and popular guy, Steve.  So that establishes how we have access to the guys and their journey through the first 2/3 of the movie.  The last section though, the section where things go very wrong -the rules they set get ignored- has footage from various other cameras.  If you don't ask questions about where that footage comes from then this is a pretty cool movie.  The guys have some good talks, they explore their powers in interesting ways (like playing catch in the sky), and generally have a good time.  But as I mentioned, things go south for the boys and they end up on police and news cameras. 

If you are interested in seeing this, don't feel compelled to rush to the theater.  This would make an excellent rental.  Also, if possible, don't over-think things like I do.  For example, I'm still pissed about Rosebud and Citizen Kane.

WTF, Academy?: A Review of Take Shelter

Want to see the best horror movie of 2011, and a film that is, at the very least, stronger than The Help, Midnight in Paris, and Moneyball? Visit your local Redbox or Neflix queue and check out Take Shelter. Please. I'm seriously begging. I need to talk to someone about this compelling, terrifying, moving, and masterful film.

Writer/director Jeff Nichols has taken the concept of pathetic fallacy and pushed it to its very limits. His movie follows Curtis (Michael Shannon in a brilliant, sophisticated, complicated performance that takes Brad Pitt's Billy Beane and eats it for breakfast) as he descends into delusional paranoia. Maybe. Curtis's persistent and unsettling dreams about coming storms literalize how the subconscious speaks to us in code. Whether a real natural disaster is looming or not, Curtis's fears about a devastating tornado are symbolic for the way life can deliver catastrophes with very little warning. His daughter, Hannah, is now deaf but wasn't always, giving credence to his psyche's realization that there are some disasters you cannot prepare for.

Shannon's totemic face is this film's anchor as the audience becomes more and more uncertain as to what is dream and what is waking life, what is fantasy and what is reality. In a movie season where psychological disorders have become shorthand for social commentary (Melancholia, The Beaver, It's Kind of a Funny Story), Take Shelter explores and explodes the way a human mind can reflect and distort its environment in order to conform to expectations both reasonable and not. Curtis knows he must protect and provide for his family (daughter Hannah and wife Sam, played by Jessica Chastain, of course) in a way his distant father and mentally ill mother never could. For him, that means bankrupting himself in order to finance a tornado shelter that could withstand an apocalypse or two, and brushing aside his fears that he might be going crazy. Up until the last, brilliant, scene of this film, I had no idea whether his bunker would be a) necessary; b) a mark of his madness; or c) a tomb. I'm still not entirely sure. In the way the film interrogates the modern relationship between the sociopolitical and the individual, I'm reminded of both Jonathan Franzen and The Social Network, another, to my mind, unconventional horror flick.

Take Shelter is a cinematic cousin to my other favorite movie of 2011, The Tree of Life. Both films show a natural world beautiful in (and because of) its awesome power and disinterested cruelty. However the former takes seriously the implications of this world on individual human minds. Shelter is something, therefore, that is not a given, but a privilege that must be seized--violently if necessary.

I'm still shaken by this movie, and especially by Michael Shannon's tour de force performance, and not just because I have recurrent nightmares about tornadoes too. They nominated Shannon for Revolutionary Road and overlooked him for this? For real?