2009: A Year in Film

My movie-watching experience in 2009 was fruitful. With the help of Movieweb's list of films released in 2009, I was able to look back at all the good- and bad- films I've invested or wasted my time on this year.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Watchmen
I Love You, Man
Sunshine Cleaning
Adventureland
State of Play
Monsters Vs Aliens
Star Trek
The Hangover
Year One
Public Enemies
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
G-Force
Bruno
Up
District 9
Julie and Julia
Inglourious Basterds
9
Extract
Zombieland
Surrogates
The Informant!
It Might Get Loud
The Men Who Stare At Goats
Capitalism: A Love Story
Avatar
Sherlock Holmes

Oh my god! I saw that many films?! I don't know why I'm surprised. It's probably because many of them were marginally good, and were quickly forgotten (State of Play). A likelier case is that many of them were horrible (ie: Paul Blart, Year One, even though I love Jack Black). A few of these films, however, have earned spots on my favorites list.

Watchmen: Oh, how I nerd-raged when this film was released. I am a fan of vigilante justice, and Watchmen really hit the spot. Its graphic novel-to-screen adaptation was brilliant; I liked the film ending better than the original.

Inglourious Basterds: This film was hands-down my favorite of the year. It was a departure (almost) from the fluffy dialogue and maniacal violence of Tarantino's other films, and I respected the heavy use of native languages and subtitles to make the film feel more authentic (especially considering the alternate ending to World War II). The film isn't all serious though- the voiceovers by Samuel L. Jackson; Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) and his desire for "Natzi scalps" add a touch of comedy, albeit dark, to an otherwise dark subject.

Avatar: Plot= Fern Gully, a ripoff at best. Special effects= completely astounding! This movie can only be truly enjoyed in 3D.

The Hangover: One of the most ridiculous films I've ever seen. The on-screen shenanigans were hilarious (such as everything that came out of Zach Galafinakis' mouth, the naked asian man, the tiger in the bathroom, etc). This replaces Anchorman as my favorite movie of the "completely-and-totally-ridiculousness-comedy" genre.

Other favorites (that I don't feel like discussing but are definitely worth checking out :P): The Informant!, Zombieland, 9, The Men Who Stare At Goats (love Jeff Bridges!)

All-in-all, 2009 was lackluster at best for film, even though there were a couple homeruns. Let's hope 2010 brings us some true gems!

"Bitches can be tricky!" - 30 Rock, "Sun Tea"

After several issues with the NBC website not loading the 30 Rock season 4 episode 2, "Into the Crevasse", and not being able to find it elsewhere on the interwebs, I gave in and watched "Sun Tea", the episode prior to the first that we watched for class. I am starting to see how the narrative of the series runs from episode to episode; in this case, where Tracy gets the idea that he wants to have a baby girl (see 30 Rock, from a newbie's perspective). I am also starting to become more familiar with the idiosyncrasies of each character, and perhaps I am becoming... quite attached! It has been a slow transition, but I'm finally getting interested in watching the show beyond this class.

This episode sets up several digressions:
1) Liz's apartment complex is slated to be "condoized", so she tries to figure out how she can continue living there and create her dream apartment. This means she has to figure out how to get her upstairs neighbor, Brian, to move out. The two decide to move into his apartment together to band together against the "yuppie bottomfeeders" that also share in Liz's dream. After several techniques offered by Jack, Jenna, and Tracy fail at scaring Brian off (including drama and scary black boyfriends), a surprising technique takes the kitty.

2) NBC wants to start a green initiative within the network, and asks its respective shows to reduce their eco-footprint by 5%. Jack gives Kenneth the task of enforcing the new "go green" rules, and typical shenanigans ensue, ending with a cameo by the Green Father himself, Al Gore. The disagreement between Liz and Frank about "sun tea" and the grossness of the boys is also a sub-digression of the green initiative.

3) Jack sees the demise of his hero Don Geiss, at the hands of his son, being played out in the New York news media, and decides that he is glad he never had a family, and never wants to. Both he and Tracy decide they need to get vasectomies (but Tracy's is for different reasons- "The Cosby show lied to me, and I can't tell an amazing strip club story [with his son around]!"). Just as they are to go through with them, both men have a change of heart, and Tracy hallucinates that he needs a baby girl in his life.

Watching the show in terms of segment analysis proves interesting. The first segment sets up the first 2 digressions and switches between their development, in the order of 1-2-1-2-2-1-1. The second follows with 3-2-3-1; the second segment is shorter than both the first and third. The third segment, also the longest of the three, ties the loose ends and rounds out the story with a 1-3-2-1-3-2-3-1-2-2 pattern. The first and second segments provide enough suspense as to where the digressions are headed to motivate the viewer to continue watching through the commercial break, just as each episode provides a hint of suspense to keep viewers wanting to move on to the next. With this in mind, each segment seems to stand alone as a mini-episode.

I was thinking about the field of the show, and from the "Series and Serials" reading I found this line to be most pertinent to my understanding of the first degree (between the producer and illocutionary or projected audience) and second degree (the interpretation of the show's narrative by the actual viewer) tenors and fields: "... TV only gives the illusion of discourse (we don't see the real source and it isn't real conversation)". The characters on the screen mediate the values of the network to the viewer (but the illocutionary audience), which the actual audience then interprets individually, much like a conversation, but it is of course merely an illusion. The mode is the organization of this supposed "discourse", ie, the patterns in which the digressions are relayed to the viewer. Perhaps a deeper analysis of the patterns which the digressions occur will reveal a greater message from the network to the viewer.

Television Without Pity: the good, the better, and the best!

I have mentioned several times that I am a n00b when it comes to watching and enjoying television. With that in mind, Television Without Pity is an amazing resource, for both the novice and expert fans or critics. After playing around on the site for several days, I have picked out some of my favorite features of the site.

The coolest feature award goes to...
Going Through Channels! Looking for something to watch on TV tonight? Then look no further than this blog! Going Through Channels is an excellent way to find something new or interesting to watch; it seems to point out when specific (and oft-hyped) specials, season finales, or show premieres are set to air, along with a short description.

The funniest feature award goes to...
Brilliant but Cancelled! Snarky and full of contempt for the networks that have thrown out some perfectly viable/laughable/cliched shows, this feature will certainly provide hours of entertainment. For example, Clone High! Why did you have to grace our tubes for such a short time... you were so brilliant! A jocky JFK? A love-obsessed Joan of Arc? GHETTO GHANDI?! Pure genius! Also, why a show based off Twitter user @shitmydadsays won't work, Fox cancelling yet another hit show, and teen angst in the 90s. Roflcopter down!

The most informative award goes to...
Recaps! (Or for 30 Rock, "Weecaps".) This is a wonderfully handy tool - you can find recaps for most shows on specific show pages. From what I've read so far, most of the recaps are extremely involved and an excellent way to refresh your memory, to catch elements of the show that you missed, or for a good chuckle.

30 Rock Throwback - Season 4

Season 4 is here! The cast and crew are back together to start working, and Jack, Liz, Tracy, and Jenna are at an upscale restaurant, getting ready to dig into some "cheesy blasters" (a cheese and pizza-wrapped hot dog). Jack feels that they have lost touch with their "roots", and lost their appeal with middle America. Jenna offers to "go country" for the show... and Jack pulls Liz aside after the restaurant and tells her he wants her to hire a new actor, much to her dismay.

Liz tells Pete about this endeavor, and he is just as enthusiastic about it as she is (read: not at all), so the two decide to sneak out to comedy bars to audition without any of the crew- and especially the actors- knowing. Shenanigans ensue.

Kenneth feels that the no-overtime policy for pages isn't right and refuses to lie on his time card, so he talks to Jack. Jack insists that he makes sacrifices, due to the current economic turmoil, and Kenneth complies. But, he accidentally sees Jack's bonus paycheck, and wants Jack to sign a piece of paper saying, "I'm a big ol' liar". Jack, of course, refuses, and Kenneth decides to go on strike with the other pages. The strike grows to include mall santas and bucket drummers.

Tracy wants to reconnect with his roots, and after unsuccessfully doing so with a janitor, he decides to go out into the real world. He finally escapes the building, and after approaching many strangers, he is yet friendless. That is, until he hears the bucket drummers from Kenneth's strike. Previously a subway bucket drummer, Tracy joins the strike.

Liz and Pete continue to keep their actor auditions a secret, until Frank calls them out. They cover and say that they are having an affair, just as Pete's wife walks in. After some extremely awkward sexual admissions are made, Liz tells the truth, and all the writers are mad. Actor-writer Josh has had enough, and leaves the show.

Jenna is working on her image as a country girl by recording an NBC Tennis country promo music video. Liz ends up telling her that she's been told to hire another cast member; Jenna freaks out, and goes to join Kenneth's strike.

Jack plans on nipping Kenneth's strike in the bud, so he goes to his house to speak with him. After asking for "the bar" and Kenneth pointing toward the bathroom, Jack pours himself a shot of cold medicine and tells Kenneth to call off the strike or the page program will be shut down. Kenneth, however, outsmarts him, when the next day the strike is still on, and he explains that without pages, Jack will have to hire regular employees, pay them more, and give them benefits. Jack concedes, and signs the "I'm a big ol' liar" statement for Kenneth.

Again, I find this episode not nearly as entertaining as the last I saw- the christmas episode. There were many chuckle-worthy moments, such as Tracy attempting to make friends on the streets of NYC, Liz singing the Cheesy Blaster jingle, and Pete's wife's sexual deviance, but nothing truly laugh-out-loud funny. Dammit NBC! You mislead me again!

Alas, I shall continue watching, in the hopes that I shall find the holy grail of 30 Rock episodes!

Long live live music!

You'd be hard-pressed to get me to admit that my musical love affair began with Dave Matthews Band. But to a 13-year-old with bubblegum pop obsessions like Savage Garden, Dream Street, and Backstreet Boys, DMB was as different as any music I'd ever heard in my tiny life. Dave was my stepping out, my realization that good music existed, despite the current culture of manufactured pop hits. And although DMB is polarizing in college circles, there will always be a fondness in my heart for Under The Table And Dreaming. From there I became a music fiend- I have devoured any and all music I've come into contact with for the last 8 years, and the ways in which I've done so are continually changing.

Perhaps the roots of my musical interest are genetic- both my parents are gargantuan music fans. Dad likes jazz, blues, and alt-rock; Mom listens to classic rock and pop from the 60's and 70's. When I was 8, we moved to the house where my parents still live, and Dad installed an intercom system, upon which he would blast NPR's Blue Collar Sunday, the weekend blues-dedicated public radio show. These were summer days; all the windows in the house open, my sister and I lounging around the pool (or terrorizing the cat), Mom and Dad preparing to grill out. This radio ritual is perhaps more suited for a time before television, but was my first foray into the communal experience that is music.

After I discovered DMB, I tried to get my hands on music any way I could. I raided my parents music collection, I checked out albums (on CD) from the library. I learned how to burn CDs, and would carry around bags full of music-laden plastic discs to use on my Discman, which I used until my senior year of high school. When I was at home, I blasted music from my portable stereo, or from my parents' system while they were gone.

Of course, in the last decade the methods in which music is delivered have changed almost completely. We are now in a world of iPods, satellite radio and internet streaming, digital downloads and pirating. I can load my 4gb iPod with various mp3s from different artists- I no longer have to carry around my entire music collection with me. I still listen to local radio while in the car, but my boyfriend has used satellite radio in the past, and currently listens to Pandora through his cell phone. And many websites allow music fans to buy singles, not necessarily the whole album; there are many debates on the impact this has has on the art of the album format. Of course, pirating will always exist and evolve right along with the music industry.

However, my most life-affirming music experience, in which I saw my life flash before my eyes, was my first real concert at age 15- of course, none other than the Dave Matthews Band. In June of 2004 my friend and I drove sans-parents across Columbus to Polaris Ampitheater, to sit on the dewy grass and absorb the sound of DMB and their opener O.A.R., to smell the illicit substances wafting around us for the first time, to watch the drunken college students and a few Dead-heads dance with each other in the spirit of happiness and love, and to really and truly experience music, free from the constraints of studio processors and compressors and auto-tuning. I laid back on the grass and stared at the sky, reveling in the fact that I'd never been happier in my 15 years. It was out-of-body, an experience akin to watching a film in theater, but so much bigger.

I feel, in the same way as AO Scott, that there are some aspects of media consumption that will never die out. Indeed, like the cinema experience is to the evolving film industry, the live performance is the music industry's counterpart. Fans will always pay for those few hours where they can escape their reality, where they will leave their homes to be enveloped in a world of sound, where the artist will reach out and touch them (literally and figuratively), and where they can be whomever they want to be.

Personal delivery methods may change, but the live experience is one that will never be replaced. Even DMB says, "You pay for what you get".

The rise and fall of Verducchianism

This week's episode of 30 Rock had me laughing out loud much more than last weeks. Dare I say it, I might actually be enamored by the cuteness of the show. I once again find the jingly music, the character names, and the subject material absolutely whimsical.

This week's episode poked fun at popular forms of internet networking, as well as religion; let's call this episode "Win" in my book.

One major thing I noticed- does Liz have a crush on Jack? Wow! How depressingly sweet and futile! If what I saw proves correct, then 30 Rock actually has substance! A heart even!

So what happened? Jack reconnects with an old high school crush Nancy through a networking website called YouFace (read: Facebook). His and Liz's olbliviousness to textual cues hinted at by the site (and picked up by Liz's assistant) highlight the generational differences in technology use. Nancy and her sons visit NYC, Jack and Nancy go on a date, and ... love interest? Perhaps. The two share a "high-school style" no-tongue kiss, like "old times".

Liz and Jack decide to exchange gifts this year, and Liz comes to find out that Jack is an expert gift-giver and wants to one-up him. Shenanigans ensue, and they put a monetary limit on their gifts - $0. More shenanigans, ending up with Jack getting a framed ticket from The Crucible, the "gender-blind" play Liz performed in in high school, framed with wood from the stage. And Liz calls a bomb threat in to the train station, allowing Jack to spend more time with Nancy.

The writers try to escape the wrath of the studio Christmas gift exchange by saying it is against their religion - Verducchianism (yes, found the spelling on TWOP). They trick Kenneth into believing it is a legitimate religion, and he is only brought to the truth by Tracy, who also accidentally talks him out of believing in any God. He feels that if God truly did exist, the writers would receive retribution for their actions; at the end of the episode they are taken into custody for a "bomb threat" at the train station.

As it turns out, Canadian new-guy Danny might not be able to detect sarcasm (although he is getting better!) but he sure has some pipes! And he was set to sing with Jenna on the holiday show, but being the spotlight hog that she is, she is angry. She eventually feeds him a sob story about how "she's never had a good Christmas" and that singing was her only happiness (the truth of which may be debatable, from a newbie's standpoint at least), so Danny ends up botching his part for her benefit. All is well at 30 Rock.

I hope I find the next episode even more enjoyable!

The resurrection of Scrubs... really?!

I had made up my mind, before watching the new episodes of the newly reincarnated ABC series Scrubs, that the show would be painful to watch. I wasn't a devoted follower in the past, but I've seen a handful of shows in syndication on Comedy Central, so I became attached to the main characters and the story itself. When I had originally heard that Scrubs would not be renewed after its 7th season, I wasn't too distraught. But it was picked back up, and subsequently dropped after the 8th season. The goodbyes and tied loose ends were for naught...

Here we go, season 9! Let's beat this dead horse a little bit more!

Believe it or not, I wasn't displeased with the first two episodes of the latest iteration of the series. Only a handful of the original cast members remain, while incorporating fresh meat; it is on a trajectory to evolve into a different show. The hospital has been torn down and rebuilt (in the span of a year?!) on the campus of Winston University, and many of the doctors from the original Sacred Heart are back to teach at "Med School", thus explaining the show's new title. JD is still actualizing alternate perceptions of reality through his inner monologue/narrative voice, but now he is not alone: newbie med student Lucy is following in his footsteps, as both his student and his sister in digressive fantasies.

Purist Scrubs fans - and myself - will not appreciate the fact that JD is only set to appear on 6 episodes of season 9. We've become attached to his cutesy narrations, his lessons-learned attitudes about compromising being both a person and a doctor, although in separate worlds... we don't want him to grow up yet! That means we'll have to grow up too, and we don't want that! Parting is such sweet sorrow...

I feel that this new season's resurrection is not an attempt to get the Scrubs fans of yesterday to remain loyal to the enterprise. Rather, it is a hypothetical "passing of the torch", a shot at getting newer/younger fans to jump on the bandwagon, to cheer on and relate to the fresh med students. And after seeing the ratings for the first 2 episodes on Futon Critic, I think they might have succeeded, but only time will tell.

30 Rock, from a newbie's perspective.

My first impression of 30 Rock is one word: whimsical. Not extraordinarily funny, but not displeasing to watch... simply whimsical. I chuckled a few times for the ironic gestures and plot twists, but I was not blown away as many of my friends had led me to believe I would be.

From this episode I've gathered that the main players are:
Liz Lemon: played by Tina Fey, Liz is a writer for a production company; a mediocre beauty with a lot of heart and more talent on paper than in front of a camera.
Jack: played by Alec Baldwin, Jack is a businessman, the company's producer.
Tracy Jordan: (played by Tracy Morgan- subtle irony!?) I could not figure out what Tracy's role on the show was. It's probably something I would need to view prior episodes to understand. However, he seems to be the loveable-despite-not-wanting-to, mistake-making-but-learning-lessons-in-a-roundabout-way-without-actually-learning-lessons character.
Will Arnett: I can't recall his character's name, but he seems to be the antagonist.

Three main plot lines surfaced in this particular episode:
1) Liz's "need" to look more presentable for the debut of her new show called Dealbreakers ultimately changes how she acts and who she is; before long, the other writers and Jack want the "old Liz" back.
2) Tracy feels incomplete without a "baby girl", a daughter, and wants to have another child with his wife. She feels that he is irresponsible and refuses him until he can prove it. He decides the best way to do this is to become further absorbed by his career (irony) by attempting to "EGOT"- that is, to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony award. His wife complies.
3)The character played by Judah Friedlander (I was happy to see he was on this show) is given responsibility for the writing team and essentially takes over Liz's job while she is working on Dealbreakers. He at first underestimates the work load, but he begins feeling the stress of the job and starts picking up Liz's idiosyncrasies, even down to the similar mousy hair and black cardigan.

Overall, I liked the episode. The subtle irony infused in the plot makes me want to watch more (Tracy locked Liz to the bookshelf; he and his wife are discussing her going to the hairdresser; Liz said "Can we please 'undid' these handcuffs?"; Tracy calls her a "racist", even though it was a play on what Tracy and his wife were talking about) . I feel that I need to go back and watch some other 30 Rock episodes to gauge context a little more; right now I feel lost as to who some characters are, and that makes for a difficult analysis besides surface issues.