Intriguing Preview Corner: Boardwalk Empire

If HBO is anything, it is a guaranteed place for some quality original television. The Wire, The Sopranos, Sex and the City (stay tuned to this site for a comprehensive analysis of this show coming soon!), Deadwood, etc. Now we have a new show, Boardwalk Empire, and it looks quite intriguing. Major talent from The Sopranos and Scorcese directing. It also has Gretchen Mol, a personal fave, starring.

Plus there's Omar! So many reasons to check this show out.

Links I Like: More Hating on the Dreaded Rom-Com

Oh NPR, you always bring me such snarky movie analysis. Like this piece laying out several of the ways romantic comedies degrade women and insult the viewer's intelligence. High box office numbers be damned, these movies piss me off!

Intriguing Preview Corner: Parallel Lines

Boing Boing brought this film to my attention. In it five filmmakers make five radially different films using the same dialogue. What does this say about movies? Is the script that inconsequential or that open to interpretation? This contest, for which I am currently working on a submission, raises the same questions. The only stipulation, other than the time limit, is that the script remain the same. How should one analyze this idea that the script is such an incidental part of movie-making? Or are these just gimmicks?

Lindsay Lohan and Personality Rights

This isn't exactly the normal push of this blog, but I just wrote this piece in preparation for an interview with a legal blog. I was asked to "find a current events topic related to the "Entertainment Law" practice area; research the legal perspective to that topic (this can be accessibly explaining a complex legal term or providing some useful tips for our consumer audience); and write an engaging blog entry that's no more than one page." I honestly enjoyed this writing exercise and figured I might as well put it on here and get some feedback. Enjoy!

Don't worry, there's more>>>

2010 Academy Awards: The Live-blog

12:10 OK, time to continue drinking and finish storyboarding my scene for the contest. That's right, I'm not just a critic, I'm also a creator. Thanks for reading! Stumble me, spread the word, and be sure to become an official follower!
12:01 I don't want to make it seem I hated the other movies, particular Avatar, but I just truly feel that a Best Picture is more than just pretty or revolutionary. It needs to resonate with the present and remind us of the past. The Hurt Locker does all of that. It is so much better than you think it is. I really hope all this Academy praise brings new people to this film.
11:59 So so so so so so pleased. I still was secretly pulling for District 9, but this was my little indie-that-could.
11:59 There are movie gods!

Don't worry, there's more>>>

Pop Culture News: Interactive Movies?

Software has been developed that enables an audience member in a theatre to interact with the protagonist on the screen. This video demonstrates the technology in action. This is an interesting technological development, but it's just Choose Your Adventures for the 21st century. Will making movies interactive strip them of the art and leave only the thrills? Is this a good thing for the form?

Rat-brains and Man-animals Unite: Nominating Battlefield Earth As The Comedy of The Decade

When terrible movies become B classics it is usually because they are so ill-conceived and wrongly presented they transcend their genre and become comedy classics. These movies are not supposed to make us laugh. Usually they hope to frighten and terrify us. The worst ones are those that try to make us think. A “deep” movie that fails miserably can be the funniest movie of the year. Battlefield Earth is best remembered as “the scientology movie” that is also terrible. The moviemakers hoped to take a best-selling science fiction novel and offer it up as insight into a little understood system of faith. What they created is instead a comic masterpiece. This movie is arguably the greatest comedy of the last decade not simply because it makes us laugh at its preposterousness. Battlefield Earth is a classic comedy and should be treated as such.

Don't worry, there's more>>>

Links I Like: Proper Hating on The Phantom Menance

Like all movie fans, I despise The Phantom Menace. But my rage has generally been relegated to "Jar Jar Binks sucks" and "Mitachlorines?" with the occasional "Did Lucas even watch the originals?" Finally though, in a mere 70 minutes, the true stupidity and lack of plot and character development has been fully articulated. This guy lays out fully, and quite cleverly, exactly why Lucas is a fucktard. Watch and enjoy!

And share! Apparently this has been around for a while and I'm a little late to the game. (Credit goes to Spencer's wife's comment on Paul's Facebook link.)

Links I Like: Film and Sound Editing Explained

Earlier I complained about not knowing how to judge some of the more technical categories. Well, Slate has a couple of great videos about those very things. If you want some criteria for judging explained by folks in the field, I highly recommend checking them out.

There's one for film editing.

And there's one for sound editing.

Enjoy!

Announcement: Live-blogging the 2010 Academy Awards

I felt the Golden Globe live-blogging went so swimmingly I am doing it again, only this time with the Academy Awards. The Oscars start at 8pm EST this Sunday so look online for me around 7 dissing the fancy dresses and frou-frou hair. Richmond friends should feel free to join me at home for this; drinking and the Oscars go hand in hand. Be sure to check out my predictions so we can figure out how good I am at this game.

See you Sunday night!