'holy rollers' review

The crime drama Holy Rollers stars Jesse Eisenberg as an Hasidic Jew who turns to a life of crime. My review is up at Screen International.

'waste land' review

If my screening was any indication, Waste Land is a documentary that will work well with audiences. I just wished I liked the movie better.

'blue valentine' review

One of the best things I've seen at this year's Sundance film festival has been the romantic drama Blue Valentine, which stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. My review is up at Screen International.

'sympathy for delicious' review

There's no getting around it: Mark Ruffalo's directorial debut, Sympathy for Delicious, is a complete train wreck. I survey the damage at Screen International.

'cyrus' review

The Puffy Chair remains the Duplass brothers' best film, but Cyrus is a fun (and funny) mixture of mumblecore and mainstream sensibilities. Plus, it boasts a great performance from Marisa Tomei.

'jack goes boating' review

Philip Seymour Hoffman goes behind the camera for the first time with Jack Goes Boating, a melancholy romantic drama that's too muted for its own good. I explain why over at Screen International.

'hesher' review

Hesher is a very odd beast -- part black comedy, part coming-of-age story, part grieving-family drama. Some people here at Sundance have dismissed it as a mess, which I think is part of its appeal. My review is here.

'happythankyoumoreplease' review

How do you know you're no longer in your 20s? When a zeitgeist-y romantic comedy like happythankyoumoreplease comes along and you think, "Good god are these people annoying." My review of Josh Radnor's feature directorial debut is up at Screen International.

'the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford'

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford will be screening at the Billy Wilder Theater on January 31. I say a few words in honor of the film, particularly Brad Pitt's performance, at L.A. Weekly.

(Update: This piece is now archived here.) 

'please give' review

Writer-director Nicole Holofcener's Please Give is a real treat. Catherine Keener and the whole cast are just great. You can read my review from Sundance here.

'the company men' review

The feature debut of TV producer John Wells, The Company Men, tackles the current economic crisis from the perspective of three white-collar employees in danger of getting downsized. It's not nearly as penetrating as it should be. My review is up at Screen International.

jay-z - "on to the next one"

Jay-Z's "99 Problems" might have been my favorite song of the '00s. Welcome to the '10s.

fringe: what lies below

Killer viruses were the big story of last night's Fringe. Blegh, I say: I'm more interested in talking about the evolving friendship between Walter and Astrid. My recap is up at Vulture.

'howl' review

Sundance 2010 kicked off last night with HOWL, an unconventional, I'm Not There-style biopic of Allen Ginsberg and his controversial, acclaimed poem "Howl." My review is up at Screen International.

'tooth fairy' review

I really think Dwayne Johnson could be a movie star. But if he keeps starring in crap like Tooth Fairy, well .... oh, just read my review.

mariah carey - 'memoirs of an imperfect angel'

I find Mariah Carey fascinating, and I don't mean that in a snarky way. Anybody who's been as successful for as long as she has must be doing something right -- you'd have to be to constantly stay in the good graces of the general public. So I gave a listen to her most recent album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, and wrote up my thoughts for the Metro Times.

2009 pazz & jop

I didn't say it out loud, so you'll just have to take my word for it, but I correctly predicted that Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion would win this year's Pazz & Jop music poll. I don't love the record as much as my colleagues do, clearly, but looking back on my review of the album from almost a year ago, I see that even I could tell that it was a step up for a band I think is generally overrated but admirable in its ambitions.

As for the singles chart, I never bothered making a prediction. But I still say that "Empire State of Mind" is a great Alicia Keys chorus weighed down by a so-so Jay-Z rap. (His "On to the Next One" off the same album is a far superior single.)

And what about my ballot? You can see it here. It follows my usual pattern of being more closely aligned with the consensus on the albums side. My favorite songs tend not to be a lot of other people's favorite songs -- I suspect that may be somewhat intentional. I love songs that feel personal rather than shared. In fact, three of my singles picks didn't show up on a single other critic's ballot: an Eels tune, a dance remix of Christian Bale's Terminator Salvation on-set freak out, and (to my mind) the standout track on Neko Case's acclaimed album. I think anybody with an open mind would enjoy the hell out of all three. But it don't worry me if you disagree.

raphael saadiq - 100 yard dash

Among all the other things old-school R&B did so well, it could make you positively happy, even if the song was about despairing subject matter. Raphael Saadiq's "100 Yard Dash" is a good recent example of the old Motown template.

fringe: johari window

Yes, last night's Fringe wasn't a mythology episode -- even worse, it was yet another standalone, freak-of-the-week installment. Still, I liked it quite a lot. My recap is up at Vulture.

los angeles film critics pick films of the decade

In preparation for our annual awards banquet, which is being held this Saturday, LAFCA members voted for their films of the decade. You can see the full results, including individual ballots, here. It's been more than eight years since I saw our winner -- it may be time for a fresh viewing.

fringe: unearthed

Last night, Fringe without warning pulled out an old, never-before-aired episode and tried to pawn it off as a new one. Boo, says me, but that wasn't the only reason it was a terrible episode. My Vulture recap is here.

'amadeus: the director's cut' at the new beverly

Amadeus won a ton of Oscars in its time, and 25 years later the film still holds up quite well, thank you very much. I sing its praises in L.A. Weekly on the occasion of the New Beverly's screening of the film's director's cut.

megadeth's 'endgame' and revolver's top 20 albums of 2009

Revolver polled its writers for their picks for the best hard rock/metal albums of 2009. My No. 1 also was the consensus pick: Alice in Chains' Black Gives Way to Blue. (My review is here.) In the issue, which is on newsstands now and looks like this, I say a few words about another album that made the Top 20, Megadeth's Endgame.

mountain goats - this year

My favorite Mountain Goats album remains Tallahassee, but I know everyone else would pick The Sunset Tree. We can agree to disagree about that, but does anyone question that this is their most beloved song? Kinda appropriate for a new year, too, don't you think?

"hey, that's no way to say goodbye"

I don't know if anyone else experiences this, but sometimes when I wake up I have a random song inexplicably stuck in my head. So, I've decided to start an infrequent column about this phenomenon called The Song in My Head, in which I'll write about that song. Maybe it'll be a critique. Maybe it'll be an association I have with the song. We'll see how it goes.

Leonard Cohen's "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" was in my head this morning when I woke up. My only explanation was last night I went to my friends' comedy show called The Drinking Game, and during the event it came out that one of the game's contestants actually received a popsicle from Mr. Cohen. The guy worked in computers, and one of his clients turned out to be the singer-songwriter, and apparently Cohen was very appreciative and offered him a popsicle.

Checking my iTunes, I see I have two versions of the song -- the original studio recording and the live version from last year's Live in London. I know a lot of people adore the live album, and while I definitely enjoy it, the original version was in my head when I woke up. I've always liked the song's acknowledgment that love usually doesn't end with a bang but rather a whimper. It falls apart piece by piece, little by little, until one day you realize that something that once was so strong and so present is just ... gone. Part of what makes the song so sad is that Cohen doesn't oversell the sadness -- as always, he plays the dignified gentleman, which makes the tune all the more heartbreaking.

'leap year' review

I like Amy Adams. I like Matthew Goode. And I like director Anand Tucker's Shopgirl. So why isn't Leap Year any better than it is? I try to explain in my review here.

youth group - two sides

Their name is Youth Group. They're from Australia. They've barely made a dent on U.S. radio. But I really dig this song. As for the video, low-budget awesomeness.



Happy 2010, people.

'the lovely bones' review, plus a catch-up on other December films

December got away from me a bit, so I'm behind on publishing Consumables. My latest column rounds up my reviews of The Lovely Bones, Invictus, The Blind Side, A Single Man and The Headless Woman. And in case you missed my Avatar review, that's right here. (And my thoughts on Sherlock Holmes are here.)

my top 10 albums of 2009

Over at the Metro Times, the music staff has made their picks for the best albums of the year. You can find my list there (scroll down).

saturday night live - christmas for the jews

Incredible to believe that the same episode of Saturday Night Live that gave us "Lazy Sunday" also birthed this excellent Darlene Love-sung tune. Merry Christmas, everybody.

'iron cross' review

Actor Roy Scheider died in early 2008, but his final film, Iron Cross, is just now making its way to select theaters. I wish it was a more fitting farewell for the man. My review is up at L.A. Weekly.

the police - darkness

Fan-made video for the Police's grossly underrated "Darkness"? Hell yeah.

'sherlock holmes' review

As was done already with the Batman and James Bond franchises, the famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes has been remade on the big screen as a dark, mega-action superhero. I like Robert Downey Jr. as much as the next guy, but this Sherlock Holmes didn't work for me. My review explains why.

'the hurt locker' wins best picture from LAFCA

The member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association met today to pick the best films and performances of 2009. Here's what we came up with. And here's my review of The Hurt Locker from over the summer.

weezer - we are all on drugs

In case you hadn't heard, Rivers Cuomo hasn't had the best of weeks. But he seems to be on the mend, which is good news. To be honest, I got turned off of Weezer quite some time ago -- their music is so "ironic" sincere that it annoys me on contact. But they're good for at least one dynamite track per album. "We Are All on Drugs" springs to mind as one recent case.

avatar review

Saw Avatar last night. What did I think? My full review is here.

fringe: grey matters

Pretty darn good episode of Fringe last night. I go into the nitty-gritty details over at Vulture.

jay-z - girls, girls, girls

Happy 40th birthday, Jay-Z. I'll never forget hearing "Girls, Girls, Girls" at the House of Blues in Anaheim the night the Diamondbacks beat the Yankees to win the 2001 World Series. I was there to interview De La Soul prior to a gig they were doing there, and "Girls, Girls, Girls" came over the speakers before their set. Crowd went nuts. Great memory.

'brothers' and 'the last station' reviews

My latest Consumables column rolls up its sleeves and reviews Brothers, The Last Station, The Road, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Me and Orson Welles.

You may be wondering, "Hey, Tim, how come you didn't review Up in the Air and Everybody's Fine?" Ah, but I did! Check out my Up in the Air review from Toronto, and my Everybody's Fine write-up from AFI Fest.

fringe: snakehead

Last night's episode of Fringe was a battle between two separate emotions: awwww (Walter Bishop's struggle for independence) and ewwww (all those slithering parasitic worms). My recap of "Snakehead" is up at Vulture.

'breaking point' review

Breaking Point is a crime-thriller that stars Tom Berenger as a disgraced former assistant district attorney looking for a shot at redemption. It also has Armand Assante in it. Oh yeah, it's one of those types of movies -- it's also got Busta Rhymes as a low-life thug. My review is up at The Village Voice.

band of horses - the great salt lake

Ben Bridwell, the main man in Band of Horses, has always given off a regular-dude vibe, but in case there was any doubt, check out this video for "The Great Salt Lake." He's sitting in the back of a truck! He's playing softball! He's just hangin' with his buds! This video makes me very happy ... how much longer must we wait for his band's next album?

fringe: august

Everybody on Fringe is either dealing with loss or trying hard not to lose someone. All of that came to a head in last night's episode, "August." My recap is up at Vulture.

yo la tengo - periodically double or triple

Do you know that Yo La Tengo have a new(ish) album out? It's called Popular Songs and, big surprise, it's pretty great. "Periodically Double Or Triple" isn't even the best thing on it, but it'll do for a Friday. Funky, nerdy, happy -- god, I love these guys.

'red cliff' review

John Woo's five-hours-condensed-to-two-and-a-half-hours epic Red Cliff leads the latest installment of Consumables. Also reviewed, La Danse, Broken Embraces and the ghastly Planet 51. And if you missed my take on Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, you can read it here.

'blood equity' review

Blood Equity has noble intentions but shoddy execution. Among other honorable goals, this documentary means to expose the serious long-term damage (both physical and mental) that awaits football players after their careers are over. But after Malcolm Gladwell's great New Yorker piece on the subject, there's not much new to say. My full review is at L.A. Weekly.

'bad lieutenant: port of call new orleans': can't you take a joke?

Glenn Kenny touches on something in his mixed review of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans that I think is worth discussing further:

For all of its strengths and weaknesses, Werner Herzog's movie, from a script by William M. Finkelstein, is best appreciated as a comedy.

[skip]

[Nicolas Cage's] performance is a piece of virtuosic slapstick rather than the exhibition (exhibitionism?) of raw-nerve emotional torment that Harvey Keitel essayed in [Abel] Ferrara's [original] film. If you're not in on the joke by the time Cage's character gets the run of the property room from whence he filches a lot of his dope, whereupon his eyes go wider than Klaus Kinski's Nosferatu did at the sight of Jonathan Harker's blood, then you'll never get it.

This notion of "getting the joke" is odd to me when it comes to this movie. Taken as a crime drama, Port of Call is almost woefully inept. First off, it looks cheap. And its plot, as Kenny mentions, doesn't really build or evolve -- stuff just happens. As for Cage's performance, it's not that different than his turn in something like Bangkok Dangerous, although it's admittedly several notches zanier. And the film lacks the smarts of Herzog's last attempt to make a "studio movie," Rescue Dawn. But we're not supposed to let any of that bother us. In fact, if you point these things out, it's as if you didn't even get what the movie was supposed to be about. "Geez, lighten up! It's a comedy, OK?"

But is it? Are we supposed to take Cage's character's depraved, sometimes dangerous behavior as a big joke? But why? What's the object of satire? Crime dramas? Are we supposed to be impressed that Herzog made as chintzy a police procedural as some anonymous hack could?

There's something about New Orleans that brings out the loopy in major auteurs. Or maybe I'm just thinking of Robert Altman, who took a John Grisham story and turned it into The Gingerbread Man. (As opposed to Port of Call, though, that movie's a failure because it doesn't keep winking at us. Or something.) Now comes Herzog, who (I've been told) has delivered a stirring portrait of poverty in America by, uh, including shots of rundown houses. But whereas with Rescue Dawn, where he guided Christian Bale through one of his most restrained performances, Herzog seems to have let Nic be Nic here.

At this stage of his career, Cage is probably as un-direct-able as Jack Nicholson -- you cast him not despite his indulgences but because of them. But the "brilliance" of his performance in Port of Call reminds me of my film-school days when my classmates and I (knee-deep in fashionable college irony) would proclaim certain terrible films "amazing" and "genius" because, well, we got the joke. We knew they were awful, but, you see, we were hip enough to enjoy them for their awfulness. Or something. Eventually, I grew out of that mindset -- proclaiming terrible films "amazing" to random strangers is a good way to never make new friends. But when I watched Port of Call, I was reminded of how easy it is to fall into that trap. So, yes, I suppose I'm "in on the joke." I just don't think it's that funny.

'idiocracy' at the New Beverly

Next Saturday night, November 21, the New Beverly will be hosting a midnight screening of Mike Judge's Idiocracy. Is it a great movie? No. But it is a very correct movie. I explain why at L.A. Weekly.

chicago - if you leave me now

I blame my dad for passing along the gene that makes me susceptible to liking the band Chicago. Most days, I can resist. But today, screw it.

fringe: of human action

Peter does battle with the Most Obnoxious Teenager of All Time on last night's Fringe. My recap/review is up at Vulture.

'collapse' review

The unsettling, alarmist documentary Collapse leads my latest Consumables column. If that isn't your thing, maybe you'd be more interested in my reviews of Pirate Radio, The Messenger, A Christmas Carol and Treeless Mountain, which are also included.

them crooked vultures album review

After my initial skepticism, I admit that I've been won over by the self-titled debut from Them Crooked Vultures, the supergroup made up of Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme, Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones. My full review.

the avett brothers - "i and love and you"

"I and Love and You" first caught my ear thanks to KEXP months ago -- I'd be lost without that station. I hadn't heard the track in a bit, and then it stumbled back into my life this week. Yeah, this is a damn pretty song.

fringe: earthling

My recap of last night's pretty-good episode of Fringe is up at Vulture. I have to be honest with you people: I wish I had come up with the article's headline. Pure genius.

'the men who stare at goats' and 'precious' reviews

For my latest Consumables column, I take a look at The Men Who Stare at Goats, Precious and Paranormal Activity. Plus, I heap praise on an album that came out in March that I'm still loving, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' It's Blitz!

the yankees win the world series, and that's a good thing

Sports Illustrated writer Tom Verducci says what I've been thinking since the New York Yankees won the World Series last night:

After years of seeing upstarts, hot teams and cursebreakers win the World Series and playoff baseball reduced to "a crapshoot," we got an old fashioned, the-best-team-won World Series. In most every winning clubhouse players blather about how "no one expected us to be here" and "we had to overcome a lot of adversity to be here," but it was kind of refreshing to see the favored horse bring a win home by a comfortable margin.

My St. Louis Cardinals are one of those teams to which he's referring -- in 2006, they were just barely over .500 during the regular season (partly due to injuries) but got hot just in time for the playoffs to win the Fall Classic. But I think the fact that that Cardinals team were the champions says something about how difficult it is to win the World Series. St. Louis had better teams this decade, but none of them snagged the big prize. Likewise, the Yankees have had consistently great, deep teams in the '00s, but they couldn't win it all. And now that they're on top again, there's a popular grumbling around baseball (especially among Boston Red Sox fans) that it's boring or depressing when the Yankees win because there's nothing exciting or inspiring about it.

But I'd argue the exact opposite: I think there's so much pressure on the Yankees that when they do win it's a testament to being focused and to ignoring all the expectations thrown at you. You can have the biggest payroll and the best regular-season record, but you've got to deliver in the postseason. The Yankees are the only team that if they don't win the whole thing, it's a failure. Why? Because they are supposed to win. They've got all the riches and all the best players. If they don't win, there's no excuse they can point to -- if they lose, it must be because of some deep character flaw within their collective makeup. If you're a sensitive soul, that sort of psychological toil can really mess with you.

I know people hate the Yankees for lots of reasons. I've torn into those arguments before, but I'll say again that I really do love this franchise. Having a significant payroll is absolutely a factor in winning the World Series, but it's not the only one -- as Verducci says, a lot of unlikely teams have pulled it off in recent years. So it has to be more than just money that makes a winner. CC Sabathia could have tanked this season, and Mark Teixeira could have blown out his knee in April. Money certainly puts you in position to be successful, but it doesn't guarantee anything. It takes more than that to win the World Series and, this season, the Yankees had enough of whatever that is to do it.

'everybody's fine' review

Last night I was at the world premiere of Everybody's Fine, the comedy-drama starring Robert De Niro as a retired widower who decides to reconnect with his adult children after his wife's death. De Niro is pretty good in it, but the movie's no About Schmidt. My review is at Screen International.

'city of life and death'

City of Life and Death from Chinese filmmaker Lu Chuan will open next year. I got a chance to see it Sunday during the AFI Film Festival. It's a remarkable, extraordinary film. I can't even wrap my head around it yet, so in the meantime here are some words from Scott Foundas:

Written and directed by Lu Chuan, The City of Life and Death is a startling historical epic, as brilliantly well-made as it is sociologically astute, set during the 1937 Japanese occupation of the walled Chinese city of Nanking. Latterly exposed in books and documentary films as China’s “forgotten holocaust,” the siege of Nanking brought with it a series of unspeakable (if all too common) atrocities committed by the occupiers against the occupied: the murder of hundreds of thousands of civilians; the rape of tens of thousands of women and underage girls; and, in one of the film’s most bloodcurdling scenes, the point-blank assassination of wounded Chinese soldiers in a convalescent hospital.

Shooting in black-and-white wide screen, Lu opens with a bravura combat sequence styled after Saving Private Ryan, but the moral ambiguity of what follows owes more to Clint Eastwood’s Iwo Jima diptych, with its unblinking depiction of heroism and barbarism, compromise and betrayal on all sides.

That covers it pretty nicely. For those of us who have become numb to Holocaust movies because there have simply been so many of them, City of Life and Death is a revelation, taking another human atrocity from history and making it fresh and vital.

If the film's opening recalls Saving Private Ryan, then much of what happens afterward is closer to Spielberg's Schindler's List: one startling black-and-white passage after another, with each sequence revealing people's best and worst instincts in poetic, understated images. But unlike Schindler's List, City of Life and Death is almost completely devoid of sentimental moments. There's no straightforward narrative to speak of -- the movie simply unfolds, and characters come in and out of the story like an expert ensemble drama.

One way to measure that a movie is working on me is when I start to lose sense of time and place -- I forget I'm in a theater, and I can't quite figure out how long I've been immersed in the film. That happened pretty quickly in City of Life and Death. I can't say enough about this amazing movie. If you can, see it, and try to see it in a theater -- the bigger the screen, the better.

Nirvana - "Aneurysm"

The Nirvana Live at Reading CD/DVD comes out on Tuesday. Folks, it's great. And it got me thinking about all the Nirvana songs that are less known because they weren't featured on the studio albums. Like "Aneurysm."

afi fest 2009 reviews

As usual, L.A. Weekly is all over this year's AFI Fest, which kicks off tomorrow. The four films I reviewed for the Weekly were each quite good -- you can read all about Moscow, Reporter, The Secret in Their Eyes and Woman Without Piano here.

chuck klosterman speaks

I interviewed Chuck Klosterman about his new essay collection, Eating the Dinosaur, for Vulture. Here's a sample:

"There’s a really strange moment that happens for guys when you’re about 14 years old, and all of a sudden you find yourself thinking, 'I would rather be David Lee Roth than Larry Bird.'"

He also talks about his interest in the Unabomber. The whole piece is here.

peter weir and me

.... OK, maybe not quite. But this Wednesday, I'll be speaking at the Palm Springs International Film Society as part of its "Daring Debuts" series, which celebrates the first films of esteemed directors. My film will be The Cars That Ate Paris, from director Peter Weir. If you only know him from Witness or Dead Poets Society or The Truman Show, it's a real shock to experience this early grungy dark comedy of his. I think it'll make for a fun discussion.

tony jaa of 'ong bak 2' speaks

Via email, actor (and now director) Tony Jaa answered some questions about his latest martial-arts flick, Ong Bak 2: The Beginning. The piece is up at Vulture. I loved his answer to how the Ong Bak films reflect his own personality.

In case you're wondering, I saw the film at Toronto and my review from back then is at Screen International.

michael jackson - I can't help it

With This Is It hitting theaters next week, I was thinking about Michael Jackson. You know his big smashes, but do you know his album cuts? For instance, do you know "I Can't Help It"? You should ... here it is.

'antichrist' review

Once you've read Roger Ebert's dead-on-the-money take on Lars von Trier's Antichrist, perhaps you'd like to head over to my Consumables column, where I review Antichrist, Where the Wild Things Are, A Serious Man, (Untitled), and 35 Shots of Rum.

'A Woman Under the Influence' at MoMA

Starting Saturday, New York's Museum of Modern Art will be screening the newly restored print of John Cassavetes's 1974 film, A Woman Under the Influence. Star Gena Rowlands will be there for Saturday's screening -- if you can make it that night, please give her a standing ovation for me. I discuss the film's impact over at The Village Voice.

'astro boy' review

If you can see the new animated film Astro Boy in digital projection, by all means do it. (And as my colleague Michael Rechtshaffen mentions, you also don't have to put on some annoying 3-D glasses to enjoy it.) Alas, I think the film's story is merely so-so. My review is at Screen International.

fringe: dream logic

Last night's Fringe wasn't one of the season's best, but, hey, at least the team took a little road trip to Seattle. My recap is at Vulture.

alice in chains - check my brain

I don't think I've mentioned how much I love Alice in Chains' new album, Black Gives Way to Blue. It's a really impressive piece of work. Quick story: I interviewed the band for Kerrang as they were finishing up the record in the studio. When my time was nearly over, they invited my to hear a couple cuts off the album. So, we all got into a big station wagon and Jerry Cantrell popped in a disc.

Now, I've listened to yet-to-be-released material in a band's presence before, and it can be a little worrisome. I mean, if you don't like what you hear, what do you say? That didn't happen here. The first song he played had this near-demonic guitar riff that blew my mind from the first second. I don't think I stopped smiling the whole time we listened to it.

That song sounds just as fantastic on the album. It's called "Check My Brain." Here it is.

'opa!' review

Four years after playing at the Toronto Film Festival, Opa! gets a theatrical run in Los Angeles starting Friday. The movie stars Matthew Modine, who, incidentally, I've been told I look like. (I don't see it.) My review is up at L.A. Weekly.

fringe: momentum deferred

You needed a scorecard to keep up with everything that happened on last night's Fringe. Or you can just read my recap over at Vulture.

the velvet underground - sunday morning

Maybe I just heard it at the right time in my younger years, but this song always does feel like Sunday morning to me. And if you love this Velvet Underground track, the good news is that it plays twice in this YouTube clip.

'the damned united' and 'an education'

Two movies coming out today are based on true stories. But while An Education can't fully escape conventionality, The Damned United totally rethinks the sports movie. Both movies are featured in my latest Consumables column, which also includes reviews of The Informant!, Still Walking, Beeswax, and the criminally underrated Julia.

'nashville' at the new beverly

Robert Altman's Nashville will be playing Oct. 14-15 at the New Beverly. You know why it's a great movie, but if for some reason you don't, I take a fresh crack at it over at L.A. Weekly.

fringe: fracture

Last night's episode incorporated one of my favorite recurring bits of goofiness in the Fringe universe: the notion that Peter has a litany of "underground" contacts that he can utilize to make the seemingly impossible possible. I go into detail about this in today's recap at Vulture.

David Letterman - First Show After 9/11

Last night's Late Show will go down as one of the handful of truly unforgettable episodes David Letterman has filmed over his now-27-year career. Not because it was an exceptionally great episode -- it's just that Letterman talked to his audience about an extortion attempt regarding sexual encounters he's had with female staff members. That means it was big, juicy news, which means lots of people who usually don't care about David Letterman suddenly started caring about him a whole hell of a lot.

Last night was riveting television, and for those of us who love the man, it demonstrated yet again what makes him a fantastic talk-show host: his charm, his integrity, his wit. The argument can be made that if he had more integrity he wouldn't sleep with underlings, but I think if one is going to acknowledge past failings, you couldn't have done it much better than he did last night.

This got me thinking of his most memorable Late Show moment, which has to be his first show after the 9/11 attacks. Forgive the mediocre video quality of the below clip, but I think the essence of the man's decency comes through regardless. Again, the argument could be made that to draw comparisons between one man's romantic infidelity and a nation's great sadness is perverse and a bit of a stretch. But I think that Late Show is at its best when Letterman talks straight with us. Last night, he did that. And eight years ago, he did it as well.

'new york, I love you' review

New York, I Love You is from the same people who brought us Paris, Je T'Aime. It's not as great, but enough of the short films work to make the experience worthwhile. My review is up at Screen International.

my new job title

Now that it's on the website for all to see, I can formally acknowledge that, yes, I'm the new vice president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. It's a real honor for me. The membership of LAFCA are a passionate, terrific bunch, and I just hope I do them proud.

The other three officers I'll be working with are people I like and respect a lot, and I'm looking forward to being part of the gang. (They've all been officers before, which makes me the New Guy, I suppose.) The business of film criticism is in dire straits these days, but I have to say I always feel better about things when I'm at LAFCA meetings. Being around such opinionated men and women, one can't help but think that this profession won't go down without a fight.

dollhouse: vows

Along with Fringe, I'll also be doing recaps of Dollhouse this season for the fine folks at Vulture. My first Dollhouse breakdown is up now.

fringe: night of desirable objects

Yup, I'm back doing Overnights of Fringe for Vulture. Last night's episode was a stand-alone one that was pretty entertaining. You can read my full rundown here.

al green - call me (come back home)

Sure, nothing beats the studio version, but hearing That Voice coming out of that body is a pretty amazing sight.

Also, Fun Fact: annoying concertgoers who don't shut up during performances existed in the 1970s, too. No doubt if I was at this show, I'd be sitting right next to this idiot.

moby - wait for me

As Moby tours the U.S., I take a moment to reflect on his fine new album, Wait for Me. Can it really be 10 years since he released Play?

ranking the best and worst of the toronto film festival

Now that the Toronto Film Festival is over, it's a time for quiet reflection -- and list-making. From worst to best, here are the films I saw (including ones I screened prior to the festival):

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Leaves of Grass
Cole
Triage
Jennifer's Body
Youth in Revolt
Solomon Kane
Ong Bak 2
The Dirty Saints
Daybreakers
Leaving (Partir)
Whip It
The Disappearance of Alice Creed
An Education
The Loved Ones
Fish Tank
The Invention of Lying
Farewell (L'Affaire Farewell)
The White Ribbon
Mother and Child
Antichrist
Up in the Air
Lebanon
The Damned United
The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights
I Am Love

What does this list suggest? That I still have a lot of films to catch up on. It never ends.

white stripes - dead leaves and the dirty ground

Heading home today from Toronto. My happiest discovery here was the excellent White Stripes concert documentary Under Great White Northern Lights. I hope it gets a theatrical release. (Note to self: finally get around to seeing It Might Get Loud, will ya?) Anyway, I've been a little Jack White obsessed since seeing the movie the other day. So here's this ....

'the disappearance of alice creed' review

The Disappearance of Alice Creed isn't up to the level of Shallow Grave, but its who's-zooming-who thriller plot is comparably fun. And Eddie Marsan rules. My review is up at Screen International.

'youth in revolt' review

I'm not as high on Michael Cera's latest film, Youth in Revolt, as others are. While watching it, all I could think was, Haven't I seen all this before? My review is up at Screen International.

'mother and child' review

Four years ago, I interviewed writer-director Rodrigo Garcia about his film, Nine Lives. He's back at the Toronto Film Festival with Mother and Child, starring Naomi Watts and Annette Bening. I think it's his best film yet. My review is over at Screen International.

'whip it' review

Caught Whip It last night during the festival. Drew Barrymore's directorial debut is a very likable film with likable performances and a likable spirit. Will that be enough for audiences? I think so. My review is up at Screen International.

'triage' review

Triage is a war film that's so glum it barely registers. That's a shame since it comes from Danis Tanovic, the director of the Oscar-winning No Man's Land. I break down Triage's flaws at Screen International.

'solomon kane' review

If you like sword-and-sorcerer films, may I suggest Solomon Kane. The Kane character was created by the same man who gave us Conan the Barbarian. Yeah, you know what I'm talkin' about. My review is up at Screen International.

'daybreakers' review

I thought the Spierig brothers' first film, the zombie-horror flick Undead, was pretty mediocre. They step up their game significantly with Daybreakers. I saw it in Toronto, and here's my review.

'Ong Bak 2' Review

The first Ong Bak was absolutely tremendous -- one of the great martial-arts films of the last 10 years. How's the sequel? My review of Ong Bak 2: The Beginning is up at Screen International.

'up in the air' review

I've never been wild about director Jason Reitman's films in the past. That changed with Up in the Air, which I think is easily the best thing he's done. It's not perfect, but it's charming and thoughtful. My review is up at Screen International.

the beatles - you've got to hide your love away

Thanks to, of all people, Chris Cornell for bringing this video to my attention.

jennifer's body review

Greetings from the Toronto Film Festival. Here's my review of Jennifer's Body, which is premiering at the festival before it haunts regular theaters in a couple weeks. (Yes, I just made a pun. Har har.)

'gimme shelter' at the cinefamily

If you haven't seen Gimme Shelter in a theater, you owe it to yourself -- forget best music documentary of all time, it's just a fantastic film. And lucky you if you live in Los Angeles -- it'll be playing at the Cinefamily on September 17. I sing the film's praises at L.A. Weekly.

'Smother' on DVD; or, Who Called It "Hilarious"?

Killing some time at CineFile the other evening, I came upon the DVD of Smother, the not-so-funny Diane Keaton movie I panned last year for The Village Voice. Imagine my surprise, then, when I noticed the blurb "Hilarious" on the DVD's cover attributed to the Voice. "Wait a second," I thought. "I remember thinking that Keaton was kinda funny in it, but did I ever use the word hilarious?"

I went home and looked up my review. Here's the opening of the piece:

Noah (Dax Shepard) has just gotten fired, faces pressure from his wife (Liv Tyler) to have a baby, and must contend with her socially inept cousin (Mike White), who wants to stay with them for a few days while he finishes his screenplay. That’s when Marilyn (Diane Keaton), Noah’s high-maintenance mother, announces that she’s moving in, turning Noah’s bad day into a presumably hilarious and awful one.

Yeah, that's what I thought. For future reference, it's important to read all the words in a sentence before determining if something's being used in a positive way or not.

rob base and dj e-z rock - it takes two

As immortalized by that romantic-comedy classic, The Proposal ....

scott foundas on lacma's film series -- and on los angeles moviegoers

My editor and friend Scott Foundas gets it all correct in his terrific piece about LACMA's decision to end its 40-year film series, but this section is particularly important because it correctly puts part of the blame on us, the audience:

Los Angeles moviegoers, it must be said, have their work cut out for them too. When friends and colleagues have written and called over the past few weeks expressing their dismay about the LACMA situation, a typical refrain has been: “How could something like this happen in L.A., of all places?” You know, Tinseltown. The nerve center of the entire worldwide film industry. To which my response has been: “How could it not?” What I mean is that while L.A. certainly doesn’t lack for a community of passionate, informed, dedicated film buffs who value the programming at LACMA and the city’s other specialized film venues, even the best of us have a tendency to take this cornucopia of cinematic offerings for granted in a way that audiences in other major cities don’t. It’s almost as if, this being the company town, we feel we have free license to embrace movies when we want to and ignore them whenever it’s convenient, certain that they will always be there. Oh, another world-famous auteur is doing a Q&A at the Egyptian tonight? Yawn, I’ll catch the next one.

Part of the reason Los Angeles seemed so appealing in my youth was its access to the best of everything -- movies, music, what have you. It's why I still love living here. But Scott's right -- to use a personal example, how many times have I missed a screening of Playtime figuring, "Eh, it'll come back again soon enough"? But that's the thing -- there is no guarantee. We are extraordinarily lucky to be filmgoers in this great city. And we should never take it for granted. And that means supporting the institutions we care about as much as we can.

thinking about the jim thome trade

Kevin Roderick of LA Observed is with me on the Dodgers' trade that brought in slugger Jim Thome. He tips his hand by titling his post "Dodgers trade for a DH":

Thome has played the field four times since leaving the National League in 2005, including not once this year or last. Tells you about his glove. So he give them a power left-handed bat off the bench and theoretically could fill in precariously for James Loney when offense takes precedence.

This decision seems to be built almost entirely on the possibility that the Dodgers will use him every game if they get to the World Series. But that's a long way off, isn't it? Is he really going to be happy just pinch-hitting in the interim?

For the record, I think the deal for pitcher Jon Garland makes more sense.