Sunset Gun

Happiness is a Warm Lars--Metallica: Some Kind of Monster on DVD

I’ve never been a big fan of Metallica. I never got why anyone would pick up a Metallica record when Slayer is right there, evil, perfectly angry, freakishly scary. Heated aggressive metal should not go halfway—sorry. And I don’t want to rock out to positive speed metal.

That saying, during High School, I did see Metallica and was impressed by the voracity of their fans and the energy of their show. In a drunken stupor and desire to look at James Hetfield, I dared enter their pit where I promptly lost both my shoes and a chunk of my hair was pulled out by a hormone crazed 14-year old. When the concert was over my feet were bleeding. It was sick, sick fun. For a band with such a “positive” message of aggression, I’ve never been felt up and fucked with more than at that show. And I’ve seen The Mentors.

So it was with rock curiosity that I checked out the documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, made by filmmakers Bruce Sinofsky and Joe Berlinger, the men who brought us the masterful Brothers Keeper and both Paradise Lost documentaries. Chiefly, I wanted to see how one of the most '80s (underscore 1980's) innovative yet, currently hated bands in rock (thanks to the whole naming names Napster situation) would be treated by guys who had to deal with the very real life problems of the incarcerated Damien Echols. I mean, Metallica was supposed to be in therapy. What the fuck? Surely their lives can’t be that bad. Right? Well, if you think rich rehab or turning that corner in your life where you feel its time to sell a 5 million dollar Basquiat painting accounts for problems then, I guess you’ve got troubles.

OK, I’m not being fair. As revealed the band, are indeed, on the verge of breaking up which, in rock cliché, is tantamount to the dissolution of a marriage. Really, it’s much worse. We can stand another single dad on the loose, but a Van Halen without David Lee Roth? No, that should not be tolerated. Can you imagine if Metallica lead James Hetfield walked out of the band for good? We’d be left with the savvy businessman, Napoleon complex (and sucky title maker) Lars Ulrich and the easygoing (unless he doesn’t get his guitar solo), inner peace advocate Kirk Hammett searching for their Sammy Hagar. After Dave Mustaine was kicked out and bassist Cliff Burton died, the RAWK of Metallica was left squarely on Hetfield’s studly, Dionysian shoulders. Lars is a talented drummer for sure and he’s got good taste in home décor, but Hetfield always had the macho balls. By appearance anyway.

You see, while watching Some Kind of Monster, you’ll witness Rock God Hetfield smack dab in the middle of a 40-something crisis. It’s not terribly sad; the band is too successful to be deemed tragic, it’s just fascinating and surprisingly poignant. You like this guy—a lot (I do anyway, and not just for the weird, big teeth he shares with me). He looks like your best friend’s uncle you had a crush on in High School. You know the guy—the one who talked you down while you were in the middle of a bad acid trip. And though you wanted him to, he resisted the temptation of making a pass. A party animal, but a decent one nonetheless. The kind who looks back sadly on the mornings he wakes up with a stranger next to him.

And you’ll view the newly coifed (short hair) Hetfield even more touching while observing ever youthful Lars (does Lars age?) running around with relatively few demons. Maybe it’s all that tennis. Or art. Or his fantastic dad—a guy who looks like a figure from Norse Mythology, long father-time beard, stick walking cane and all. When pops tells Lars their new record sucks (he’s right) his son handles it with a laugh. See, healthy. Why does he need a therapist?

That therapist, a creepy 40,000-dollar-a-month doctor and "performance coach" named Phil Towle comes in after bassist Jason Newsted has exited the band (he’s interviewed stating how ridiculous the shrink idea is) just as Metallica is set to begin recording their new album “St. Anger.” Towle is the third party refereeing the bitter fights, fears and (oh god…) feelings of the band. Saying things like, anger is something you need to face; you wonder how these intelligent, thrash, emo-lyric metal guys could fall for this crap. Really, you can get that nugget of wisdom while flipping through a Dr. Phil book in the checkout line at the grocery store.

No wonder Hetfield, after a very Spinal Tap-ian argument with Lars walks out, enters rehab and doesn’t return nearly a year later. Poor guy. It’s more rock to buy more hot rods and enter Betty Ford than sit with some touchy feely interloper. A man, who (oh surprise!) gets overly involved enough to begin suggesting lyrics for the band. He even decides to sell his house in order to move where Metallica is (he states that’s not the reason but…yeah sure, he knows a paycheck when he sees one). The band becomes understandably suspicious. We’re just waiting for the doctor to break out astrological characters to represent different characteristics of band members.

The nervous discussion concerning the necessity of the doctor is a terrific moment where, you’ll like Lars. He snaps back at the guy for dragging “trust issues” to manipulate their own decisions. Lars is no dummy. Hetfield has, at this point, finally come back; ready to start again but set with recovery rules (he can only be in the recording studio from 12-4) which Lars has some logical problems meeting. But dammit, these filthy rich survivors are gonna get through this thing, even if it means more fights (my favorite being Hammett finally raising his voice over Lars' objection to a guitar solo—Hammett, who says he tries very hard to not be an egoist, makes a very good point here).

I also loved the clearly, haunted Hetfield, trying so hard to be well, square, a good dad (you’ll see his little daughter in ballet class) but you just know he’s going to fall off the wagon once the tour starts. Even with those eyeglasses that make him look like a crazy Swedish butcher (which is a good thing by the way—Hetfield never loses his craggy sex appeal--he's looking more and more like Tom Waites), he’s not fooling anyone. And why should he? Metallica hasn’t made a decent record in well over ten years (though I can’t help but embarrasingly enjoy the song "Enter Sandman"—the opening riffs anyway) maybe they need some more drugs and sex and booze.

So we’ve got a rock doc not about sex and drugs, but self absorbed feelings and sharing. The film’s pinnacle comes when ousted member Dave Mustaine (who would form Megadeath) drops by group session, facing off Lars (his “little Danish friend”) with the teary-eyed question “How do you think I feel?” Honestly, it’s pretty heartfelt, though not exactly rockin. Still, I had to hand it to Mustaine for being brave enough to allow this on screen. I’m a girl and I would never allow someone to film me emoting so nakedly. But I digress.

There is much to admire in Some Kind of Monster. Not only do you witness a recording process by rock dinosaurs hanging on to any discernable edge, you observe blowouts, a freaky doctor, band members slamming doors, new ones entering them (Suicidal Tendencies bassist Robert Trujillo who hits the jackpot with a million dollar advance) and yes, a Christies auction of Lars’ art collection. You have never seen, and probably will never see, anything like this. In terms of rock docs, its closest counterpart really is Spinal Tap (Lars even uses, quite blatantly, the term “shit sandwich” at one point). Which is what makes this documentary so wonderfully, sometimes hilariously enjoyable and incredibly endearing. It’s not down and dirty rock--its not, you know, Slayer, but a great, frequently masterful entertainment nonetheless.

TV--Some Things Are Funny

Wow...I actually like some stuff on TV. This, tweaked slightly, is from my MSN Entertainment piece on the Funniest Folks on TV:

In compiling a list of the funniest people on TV, a recurring phrase kept popping into my mind: Pushing the envelope. In normal TV-land, where nervous execs constantly tow the line with reassuring family shows and so-called wacky relationship sitcoms, it's hardly a surprise that the funniest folks on have little to do with playing it safe.

Comedy has continually been funnier in situations, or with deliveries, that shake and wake people up. Plus, comedies have been so bad for so many years (Everybody Loves Raymond? According to Jim? P-U), the wasteland was ready for an awakening. Individuals like Larry David, Sasha Baron Cohen and Dave Chappelle raise the bar with their nervous, sometimes incendiary humor. With a terrific combination of comic style, show concept and social satire, these talents (and the others who grace this list) prove that it is, in fact, television and not cinema where you'll discover most of comedy's gifted, offbeat voices right now. So check out these contenders and, to quote both Rodney Dangerfield and Ali G, give them much "respec."

10. Ellen DeGeneres (The Ellen DeGeneres Show) When Ellen DeGeneres decided to do a daytime talk show a la Oprah and Rosie and Roseanne, I was worried. A talk show? Though DeGeneres is a stellar standup comedian, I didn't want her to go the way of Whoopi (remember Goldberg's gab fest? Think hard now... ). But thanks to her amusing monologues, unbridled dancing and tentative charm, she's not only a comforting presence, but a frequently hilarious one. And she gets the guests. Probably knowing that Ellen isn't going to delve into their personal lives (Lord knows that hers' was put under a microscope) or bawl them out for political views (like Rosie did to Tom Selleck), Ellen's show feels more like a hang than a publicity requirement... and a funny one.

9. Jason Bateman (Arrested Development) Two years ago, nobody would have thought Jason Bateman would make this list. Not even Bateman. Well, that's not entirely fair: The actor is a TV veteran of such middling fair as Little House on the Prairie, Silver Spoons, Valerie and The Hogan Family. He always had that sarcastic wit and exasperated delivery; he just wasn't allowed to place it anywhere worthwhile. With Arrested Development, the quirky, critically acclaimed sitcom traversing the comical dramas of the Bluth family and their imprisoned father (played by another hilarious TV presence, Jeffery Tambor) he's able to inject his straight-man humor with a wonderfully timed perfection that essentially, anchors the entire show. His brother Gob (Will Arnett) may be wild-eyed guy with the catch phrases ("Come on!"), while his closeted step-brother Tobias paints himself blue to join the Blue Man group (David Cross), but Bateman gets the most laughs with silence. He can stare quietly, eyebrow arched at the insanity around him and bring down the house. Bateman just won a Golden Globe for best actor in a comedy series, so probably, no more Hart to Hart: Secrets of the Hart for him.

8. Dave Chappelle (Chappelle's Show) After struggling through some funny parts in mediocre movies (Half Baked and Con-Air, a movie I love may be the funniest) and a failed 1996 sitcom called Buddies, comedian Dave Chappelle decided he would do things his way. With Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show that meant one of the edgiest, politically pointed shows to ever air on television. The gifted standup comedian, and his writing partner Neal Brennan, put together a sketch comedy show that typically pokes fun (viciously) at racial stereotypes, while being sometimes, knowingly, lamely, silly. But it's both Chappelle's mirthful improvisational skills and unrelenting subversion that stand out as often, hilariously incendiary. Only a brilliant button-pusher would kick off their show with a sketch about a blind, African American white supremacist. Again, Chappelle is definitely doing things his way. Thank God.

7. David Letterman (Late Night with David Letterman) There are those who've criticized Dave for losing his edge. They say the man Cher called an asshole has mellowed with time. But Dave's still got it -- albeit in a more fires-burning-within sort of way. Like his mentor, the recently departed Johnny Carson, Dave's adroitness with the short, celebrity interview and ability to deliver a bad joke has gone unsurpassed in the late night talk show game. Even Conan O'Brien, a disciple of Letterman, can't corral his guests with the guarded ease of Dave. Used to seeing the guy in their bedrooms since the 1980's, people often forget what an innovator the unconventional and acerbic Letterman was and still is (must I list all of his bits and famed Andy Kaufman, Drew Barrymore episodes?). And yes, he is still mean. Think of anytime Richard Simmons has bravely dropped in.

6. Amy Poehler (Saturday Night Live) In the current lineup of Saturday Night Live talent, cast member Amy Poehler is hands down the funniest. And, in fact, with the absence of Strangers with Candy's Amy Sedaris from television, I'm anointing Poehler as the funniest woman on TV (sorry, Tina Fey). The multi ranged Upright Citizen's Brigade alum, who has done memorable impressions of Kelly Ripa, Avril Lavigne, Sharon Osbourne and Tonya Harding, has her own slightly psychotic brand of humor that frequently (and hilariously) runs over the deep end. Whether playing a cop-calling trailer park wife to Chris Kattan's science loving mullet head, or a one-legged contestant on DisMissed ("jealous?") or the co-anchor with Tina Fey on Weekend Update, Poehler is an unique, almost unnerving comedienne who really ought to get more work -- on and off TV.

5. Jon Stewart (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) A collective feeling of "yes, that makes perfect sense" greeted viewers when self-effacing funnyman Jon Stewart took over for the smirking Craig Kilborn on Comedy Central's The Daily Show in 1999. Since then, the sharp-suited, quick-witted Stewart has anchored this news show parody, clashing wits with frequently hilarious correspondents (Lewis Black, Dave Attell and Stephen Colbert) and political guests (Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton and John Kerry, to name a few). Stewart has transformed the show into a whip-smart critique of how frequently ridiculous TV news really is. No one is safe from his biting criticism. Last year's election furthered Stewart's bite, both on and off the show, especially when exchanging verbal blows with recently-fired conservative commentator Tucker Carlson on CNN's Crossfire. His satirical mock-textbook bestseller (written with his writing team at The Daily Show) "America (The Book)" has prompted Publisher's Weekly to announce it "the book of 2004." The Nation media critic Eric Alterman wrote that The Daily Show offers "a truer picture than ... the Sunday-morning gabfests and cable food fights." Stewart has been taken so seriously that he was even rumored to be courted for CBS News after the departure of Dan Rather. What's next? Stewart for President?

4. Trey Parker and Matt Stone (South Park) Nearly a decade after it first aired, Trey Parker and Matt Stone's crudely-animated series South Park remains a show that elicits gasps and laughter and, finally, the mouth-gaping thought: How do they get away with this stuff? The shenanigans of four Colorado kids -- Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman (voiced by Parker and Stone) -- and their teachers and parents are marathon-sized condemnations of political correctness. With episodes riffing on everything from hate crimes to Sadam Hussein to obesity to pedophilia to the ridiculous pervasiveness of pop culture (watch the recent Paris Hilton slut episode), Parker and Stone are tireless in their efforts to skewer the sacred, the sensitive, and the stupid. They extended the show into a 1999 feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, and last year, they turned their talents to puppetry with the controversial Team America: World Police, a movie that angered many liberals. With both, the duo was brave enough to alienate a section of their forward-thinking fan base in doing what they always do -- make fun of everyone. If they can make AIDS jokes about Subway's Jarrod, I don't see why they can't blow Susan Sarandon (as a puppet) out of window.

3. Sasha Baron Cohen (Da Ali G Show) If you think English chameleon Sasha Baron Cohen's syntax-riddled, wanna-be-gangsta character Ali G is just a running gag of rap, you haven't been paying attention. Cohen brought his Ali G Show over to HBO from England, where it was a smash hit. He runs the show as not one, but three characters -- including Borat, an overly-friendly TV reporter from Kazakstan and Bruno, an effete Austrian fashion maven. The outrageous Cohen is much, much smarter than he appears. Whether through his asinine Ali G interviews with straight-faced power figures (like former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali or astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who he calls Buzz Lightyear) or his ruthlessly revealing Bruno correspondences from the fashion forefront, or Borat's bizarre and inappropriate looks at American culture (just watch the episode with the naked picture of his wife), Cohen is both playing a big practical joke on his guests and being a trenchant cultural satirist. The fact that many aren't in on the joke, that they actually believe this man is representing the youth culture, shows both the great cultural divide between 18 year olds and the luminaries he interviews (James Baker and C. Everett Coop, for example) and how moronic popular culture actually is. More than Tom Green or Jackass, Cambridge graduate Cohen is refreshingly, cleverly subversive. Just ask Harvard University -- they invited him to give the 2004 commencement address in character as Ali G.

2. Ricky Gervais (The Office) When the cast members for the critically acclaimed, BBC television series "The Office" accepted a 2004 Golden Globe for Best Comedy Series, they were as equally surprised as the somewhat stunned American audience. But Ricky Gervais, co-creator and star of the show, never missed a beat. Standing at the podium he uttered, "I'm not from these parts. I'm from a little place called England -- we used to run the world before you lot." As The Office's obnoxious, attention-starved, delusional, and finally, sympathetic boss David Brent, the stout Gervais, with the hobgoblin laugh, carried the show with a genius mixture of nasty observational humor and heartbreaking pathos. His look at office life was as painfully accurate and uncomfortable, as it was painfully hilarious. Though offered to continue the series, Gervais declined, wisely knowing that the magic in the two seasons (and The Office Special) should be preserved. Since then, he's created a new BBC series called EXTRA, which will feature him as an aging movie extra (the show has slated both Kate Winslet and Jude Law to appear) and, at the invitation of Matt Groening, has written one of his dream projects, an episode of "The Simpsons," to which he'll also lend his voice. Of this venture, Gervais has said, "This is the most intimidating project of my career. 'The Simpsons' is the greatest TV show of all time." Maybe, but many of us would say that about The Office, Ricky.

1. Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm) Is it a surprise that television's most neurotic anti-hero created that other milestone of un-affability, Seinfeld? Larry David, the balding, curmudgeonly, socially maladjusted misfit whose indignation isn't always righteous, tops the list as the funniest guy on TV. While the other Seinfeld players (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards) created disappointing follow-ups to their "Seinfeld" days, it was the guy behind the masterpiece who crafted one of TV's most brilliant sitcoms -- a mostly improvised, mean little slice of life called Curb Your Enthusiasm. Playing himself, the bitching Hollywood millionaire with the unfortunate talent of finding trouble wherever he goes, the show is nerve rattling, a hilarious feast of social embarrassment. Whether humming a Mahler tune at a movie premiere, or cutting the hair off a little girl's doll at a friend's party, David's days usually spiral into shouting matches of invective aimed at him; each episode snowballs from a tiny social snafu into an epic bout of infuriation. How David manages to make a filthy rich guy with a pretty, patient wife (wonderfully talented Cheryl Hines) watchable, even occasionally sympathetic, every week is truly (I'm not exaggerating) a testament to the man's genius.

If I Had an Oscar...Predictions, Deserved and Snubs

Since I’m not a sports fan, The Academy Awards are my Superbowl. That saying, the Academy's nominations simultaneously never fail to disappoint or really, surprise me. I am so used to being annoyed that I end up looking forward to, not the winners or losers, but the dresses and hair and general opulence (or not) and of course, the chance of an off color acceptance speech. There are no more David Niven's at the Oscars but at least, we've got Chris Rock hosting this year.

Nevertheless, I must read, predict, report and watch the damn broadcast every year where occasionally, occasionally I am shocked (like when the deserving Roman Polanksi won for The Pianist) and frequently, I am irritated (like when Gene Hackman wasn’t nominated for The Royal Tenenbaums). This year’s nominations offer little surprises but, nonetheless, I’m giving my ten cents. And to make it more exciting, you can send in wagers. Some random thoughts:

Best Picture:

The Aviator (Miramax) Finding Neverland (Miramax) Million Dollar Baby (Warner Bros.) Ray (Universal Pictures) Sideways (Fox Searchlight)

Prediction: The Aviator—just too many nominations. And Hollywood loves a sweeping saga about their town.

Deserves to win: Sideways. But, I know, its too damn small for those big Academy voters. And who wants to look at neurotic people drinking wine?

Snubbed: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Closer, I Heart Huckabees (like that’s a surprise), The Passion of the Christ (again, like we expected that), Kill Bill Volume 2.

Best Director:

Martin Scorsese for The Aviator (Miramax) Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby (Warner Bros.) Taylor Hackford for Ray (Universal Pictures) Alexander Payne for Sideways (Fox Searchlight) Mike Leigh for Vera Drake (Fine Line Features)

Prediction: Clint Eastwood—though this is a toughie. Eastwood is a favorite because I have a feeling The Aviator will get top prize. But then…Scorsese, politically speaking, is long overdue. So I could be wrong here.

Deserves to win: Martin Scorsese. I would say Alexander Payne but an unseen force is stopping me.

Snubbed: Michel Gondry for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, David O Russell of Huckabees, Mike Nichols for Closer, Mel Gibson for The Passion, Quentin Tarantino for KB2.

Best Actor in a Leading Role:

Don Cheadle for Hotel Rwanda (United Artists) Johnny Depp for Finding Neverland (Miramax) Leonardo DiCaprio for The Aviator (Miramax) Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby (Warner Bros.) Jamie Foxx for Ray (Universal Pictures)

Prediction: Jamie Foxx—Yeah, that’s not too tough…like they’re going to give it to Johnny Depp…he should have gotten one for Ed Wood.

Deserves to win: Jamie Foxx—He raised the movie beyond it’s sometimes, overly sentimental direction. If an actor carries the entire movie, they deserve it. And sure, it may be easy playing a drug addict, but a blind musical genius on top of it?

Snubbed: Paul Giamatti—Come on! I love Johnny Depp but I thought he was better in Secret Window (can you imagine if he’d been nominated for that?). And Eastwood has been much, much better in other pictures. Paul Giamatti made a tough performance look so easy. Hilarious, poignant, borderline unlikable and pitch perfect timing. Also, Jim Carrey, as usual…what is with the academy and Carrey? And then there's Adam Sandler for Spanglish but as I've said numerous times, he deserved the statue for Punch-Drunk Love.

Best Supporting Actor:

Alan Alda for The Aviator (Miramax) Thomas Haden Church for Sideways (Fox Searchlight) Jamie Foxx for Collateral (Dreamworks SKG) Morgan Freeman for Million Dollar Baby (Warner Bros.) Clive Owen for Closer (Columbia Pictures)

Prediction: Clive Owen. It’s a race between between Owen and Morgan Freeman but I’ve got a feeling voters want to give Closer some kudos. And…

Deserves to win: Though I love Thomas Haden Church in Sideways, Clive Owen gave a blistering performance. That saying, this may be a tie for me.

Snubbed: Mark Wahlberg in Huckabees (like he would ever get a nomination) but he should have been nominated and won.

Best Actress in a Leading Role:

Annette Bening – Being Julia (Sony Pictures Classics) Catalina Sandino Moreno – Maria Full of Grace (Fine Line Features) Imelda Staunton – Vera Drake (Fine Line Features) Hilary Swank for Million Dollar Baby (Warner Bros.) Kate Winslet for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Focus Features)

Prediction: Annette Bening—Hollywood loves veterans. Especially in films about veterans.

Deserves to win: Kate Winslet.

Snubbed: Nicole Kidman in Birth. And I really wish she could have been nominated for Dogville but it wasn’t technically the right year. Also, Uma Thurman in Kill Bill Volume 2.

Best Supporting Actress:

Cate Blanchett for The Aviator (Miramax) Laura Linney for Kinsey (Fox Searchlight Pictures) Virginia Madsen for Sideways (Fox Searchlight) Sophie Okonedo for Hotel Rwanda (United Artists) Natalie Portman for Closer (Columbia Pictures)

Prediction: Cate Blanchett—Though I’m struggling with this one since Natalie Portman nabbed the Golden Globe, I have a feeling the youngster may be upstaged by the gal who played Kate Hepburn.

Deserves to Win: Little, not so little anymore Natalie Portman…but then, playing Hepburn without going over the top would be a Herculean task…OK, tie again for supporting.

Snubbed: Here I go again with my Huckabees love but…Naomi Watts.

Best Original Screenplay:

The Aviator (Miramax) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Focus Features) Hotel Rwanda (United Artists) The Incredibles (Disney/Pixar) Vera Drake (Fine Line Features)

Prediction: The Aviator. Just because.

Deserves to win: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Nothing else is like this…

Snubbed: Huckabees. Really, truly nothing like this film.

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Before Sunset (Warner Independent Pictures) Finding Neverland (Miramax) Million Dollar Baby (Warner Bros.) The Motorcycle Diaries (Focus Features) Sideways (Fox Searchlight)

Prediction: Million Dollar Baby. They wanna heap more on Clint.

Deserves to win: Sideways. Maybe it’ll nab one, but I doubt it.

Best Foreign Language Film:

As it is in Heaven- Sweden The Chorus - France Downfall - Germany The Sea Inside- Spain Yesterday- South Africa

Prediction: The Sea Inside—it’s the only one Academy voters probably saw.

Deserves to win: The Sea Inside—but only because it’s the one film I saw on this list. So really, I should not make any judgment call here. But I can say...

Snubbed: House of Flying Daggers. The one I reckon really deserves to win.

Best Animated Feature Film:

The Incredibles (Disney/Pixar) Shark Tale (Dreamworks SKG) Shrek 2 (Dreamworks SKG)

Prediction: Well, that’s a no brainer—The Incredibles.

Deserves to win: It's certainly not Shark Tale. Again, a no brainer—The Incredibles.

Achievement in Cinematography:

The Aviator (Miramax) House of Flying Daggers (Sony Pictures Classics) The Passion of the Christ (Newmarket Film Group) The Phantom of the Opera (Warner Bros.) A Very Long Engagement (Warner Independent Pictures)

Prediction: The Aviator

Deserves to win: House of Flying Daggers or The Passion. What if they give it to The Passion? It’s possible since the guy walking up to the podium would not be Mel Gibson but Caleb Deschanel—and he worked with Hal Ashby in Being There.

Snubbed: Collateral, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

Best Documentary Feature:

Born into Brothels (ThinkFilm) The Story of the Weeping Camel (ThinkFilm) Super Size Me(Roadside Attractions / Samuel Goldwyn Films) Tupac: Resurrection (Paramount Pictures) Twist of Faith

Prediction: Born Into Brothels. Calcutta kids in peril of the sex trade? I think so.

Deserves to win: Born Into Brothels—I love that this film is not only about the plight of children in the red light district of Calcutta but about photography as well. Some of these children are incredibly gifted making their stories all the more heartbreaking.

Snubbed, but not technically: Fahrenheit 9/11—yeah…well, he did go up for Best Picture and all.

Also snubbed for real: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster--why? This was so much better than Tupac: Resurrection. I mean, Metallica in therapy? It's too priceless. I loved this movie.

Best Film Editing:

The Aviator (Miramax) Collateral (Dreamworks SKG) Finding Neverland (Miramax) Million Dollar Baby (Warner Bros.) Ray (Universal Pictures)

Prediction: The Aviator

Deserves to Win: Collateral—should have also been nominated for cinematography with its gorgeous, icy, noirish vision of Los Angeles (and on digital).

Snubbed: Kill Bill Volume 2

Best Original Song:

"Accidentally In Love" - Shrek 2 (Dreamworks SKG) "Al Otro Lado Del Río" – The Motorcycle Diaries (Focus Features) "Believe" – The Polar Express (Warner Bros.) "Learn To Be Lonely" – The Phantom of the Opera (Warner Bros.) "Look To Your Path (Vois Sur Ton Chemin)" – The Chorus (Miramax)

Prediction: “Learn to Be Lonely”—This song sucks but, its Andrew Lloyd Weber and people think that’s classy or something.

Deserves to win: No idea. I am sure all of these songs are terrible. Ever since Elliot Smith lost to Celine Dion, I give up.

Snubbed: Jon Brion’s “Knock Yourself Out” from I Heart Huckabees. But did you think they’d actually nominate a bonafide great song by a brilliant musician?

Kim Morgan on The Screen Savers, Shield 2, Rage and Runaways

Tuesday I was on The Screen Savers discussing the merits of Napoleon Dynamite, Shaun of the Dead (DVD commentary during which the star and director discuss, among other films, Battle Royale, Goodfellas and Suspiria? Have to love them) and Catwoman which is terrible but terribly fun. Check me out next Tuesday at 4 PM.

As for now, watch my appearance here:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/video/ssavers011805.asx

And, three current obsessions:

1. The Shield: The Complete Second Season: The second season of one of TV’s greatest cops shows becomes even more over the top, highlighting how Mackie (Chiklis) is overwhelmed by his job, personal life and that dirty money train he and his crew continually discuss (it ends up providing a great moment of silent recognition by series end—that’s all I will say about that). The Shield has been heralded as gritty, real-life entertainment but I think and, even more so in the second season, it takes on comic book levels darkness. There’s even an episode called “Co-Pilot” that, like the unveiling of comic book origins later in a series, explains some of the show’s foundation. Any show that WORKS while featuring a mastermind gang leader/drug dealer who hands out free heroin to elementary school children for future customers (that’s bordering on Christian Pamphlet propaganda) is on the edge of brilliance.

2. Emails from a female friend (one of three sadly) who shall remain anonymous:

I want to do a research project in praise of rage. I want to come up with some people who did great things because they were pissed off. I am so annoyed by over nurtured pussies. I started thinking about it after we spoke of Michael Moore last night. Like, what are you really mad about buddy? And then I thought about John Kerry. Where is the anger? Why you aren’t completely pissed off? Did you ever have rage or was this whole serving your country to help the little guy just a choice you made one day? You have to deeply hate the corrupt rich people to be able to beat them. It has to be in your gut. I think something has happened in this country because people have been overly parented or something. A little overboard on the anger management thing. Totally wussified. Makes me want to hang out with Tanya Harding. She could do the triple axle because I’m sure she was pissed off.

3. The Runaways: Cherie Curie, Joan Jett, Lita Ford and Jackie Fox. "Cherry Bomb." Real teenagers who look like they’d drag you into a back room for either a good time or a crack on the skull. The Live in Japan concert. And, uh…Cherie Curie in garter belt. You’ll never listen to The Donna’s again.

Can't stay at home can't stay in school...

Kim Morgan on The Screen Savers--Shield, Elektra and Lolita

Yesterday I was on The Screen Savers discussing newly released DVD’s. Briefly: The Village is bad; The Fifth Element is fun and Leon: The Professional  is a classic.

You can watch my appearance here: http://www.dvdtalk.com/video/screensavers011105.asx

Check me out next Tuesday, again at 4 PM, again talking DVD’s.

As of now, my three current obsessions:

1. The Shield: The Complete First Season OK—I am so incredibly late on this one but…my God this show is so damn good! I’ve been watching nonstop, bowled over by the (honestly) shaded characters, super violence, corruption and yes, heart, as twisted as that heart is often presented. Michael Chiklis not only represents an imperfect man but a highly, highly imperfect system. I wonder how the LAPD feel about this show. I have a feeling they secretly enjoy it. Even as a bully, baddie, the soulful yet amoral Chiklis is just too damn cool.

2. Disliking the movie Elektra. Or rather, disliking Jennifer Garner as Elektra. Frank Miller’s marvelously dark, libidinous killer-for hire is rendered, yet again, unforgivably wooden and witless on screen. The movie is bad enough but Garner’s lackluster performance only further proves (sorry Alias fans) how miscast she is. Though fit and convincing with a blade, Garner lacks the feral intensity that an Angelina Jolie or a Milla Jovovich would naturally bring to the role. And if a movie makes you wish you were watching Halle Berry in Catwoman, then something is, most definitely wrong.

3. Lolita—The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack It’s alluring enough to have the iconic poster image of Sue Lyon sucking the lollipop with the heart shaped glasses but this CD booklet also shows her in her bikini, her party dress and her bathrobe—the one she wears while James Mason’s Humbert Humbert paints her toenails. The soundtrack (from Stanley Kubrick's Lolita lest you be confused), mostly scored by Nelson Riddle offers some choice tracks like “Love Theme from Lolita” (by Bob Harris) the gorgeous, melancholy ode to doomed love, “Quilty’s Caper” the music Peter Sellers coolly dances to at the school party and my favorite, “Lolita Ya-Ya” that little girl song Dolores Haze is listening to when her mother brags about her “cherry pies.”

Because you took advantange...

Days of Being Wild--My LA Weekly Review

Like some New-Wave Proust, Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai has managed, over a 20-year career, to make the concept of time almost tangible. "Almost" because in all his films, memory is both garishly lucid and seductively elusive — a combination as maddening as it is voluptuous. Just like the romance and heartbreak so minutely observed in all of Wong’s movies, the obsession with time (his, ours and the characters’) always goes unrequited. Memories overtake you, please or even teach you, but with reverie come the depressing reminders that time marches on.

You will lose that era, you will lose that youth, and you will lose that boy. Or girl.

This is the cinematic power of Wong Kar-Wai, a director who is able to make you tear up over a single glance or a stolen moment. And, forgive the mention of Proust again, but like that madeleine unleashing a flood of reminiscences, Wong works the elements of his aesthetic -- music, beautiful people and emotion -- into a mood that so overtakes you it’s nearly impossible to emerge from his pictures without feeling slightly drunk.

Wong turns me dipso with his 1991 Days of Being Wild, a period piece set in 1960 that not only toys with time and memories, but causes the viewer to do the very same. It has been over a decade, after all, since the picture first played, briefly, on a few U.S. screens, and Wong’s actors  -- Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Andy Lau and Carina Lau -- are older now. One, even is dead. Pop star Leslie Cheung committed suicide in April 2003. Not surprisingly, his death gives the picture an extra twinge of transitory poignancy.

It’s stirring to see Leslie Cheung so handsome, so alive, so cinematic, as the rootless bad boy and philanderer Yuddy, adopted in his infancy by a powdered and spangled courtesan (Tita Muñoz), searching for both the freedom of flight and the stability he hopes will come after finding his real mother. His cynical attitude toward amour will, over the course of the movie, leave two women brokenhearted. One of them, Su Lizhen, a shy cashier at a sports-stadium snack bar (Maggie Cheung), at first resists Yuddy’s advances, but inevitably falls for him after he proclaims that she will see him that night in her dreams. When she informs him the next day, "I didn’t see you in my dreams last night," his cocksure reply is "Of course not. You didn’t sleep."

A short time later, and just as suddenly (Su Lizhen has started making noises about wanting to get married...not for him), the union dissolves, and Yuddy impulsively takes up with the more outspoken, though just as susceptible and possessive, cooch dancer Leung Fung-Ying (Carina Lau). But as Yuddy stated to Su Lizhen, there will be many women in his life --  how can he settle for just one? Don't stay with Yuddy. As he tells both women, you’ll only ruin your life. And yet, while Yuddy is no typical romantic, he's certainly quixotic. He wants him mother. And his search for her suggests that he is, in fact, looking for love -- the love of one woman.

The first film to be shot for Wong by ace Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Days of Being Wild is a mélange of vibrant colors set against deep, noirish shadows and claustrophobic locales. Told achronologically, the story flashes back through lush jungles, small, humid apartments, rain-soaked streets and unoccupied telephone booths. As in Wong’s peerless 2000 film In the Mood for Love (a picture that, along with Wong’s 2046, works as a companion piece to Days), its ’60s setting is nostalgic, but not in conventional terms. Though Wong denotes a sentimental longing for the past, his films are almost fetishistic in their fixation on time. Days feels exciting, in part, because you are watching an auteur lay the groundwork --  with an assortment of clocks, watches and meticulously detailed moments -- for ideas and moods he will obsessively follow in later films.

At one point, Yuddy tells Su Lizhen that they will become "60-second friends," and those 60 seconds remind us of how we can feel most alive in the moment, when the time is now, and we are living out our youth and love with a kind of urgency. The Wild characters move like the haunting Django Reinhardt music piping through the celluloid, beautifully but mournfully, and with ghostlike delicacy. With Wong’s creations, as with anything truly precious (time passing, love passing), comes the fear of evaporation.

You can hang on to the "maybe" (maybe it will last) or, as in Nat King Cole’s plaintive musical refrain to In the Mood for Love, a more fragile "Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps."

2005: Time to Watch Underrated Cronenberg--eXistenZ

David Cronenberg is an artist of such rare and unparalleled vision that, one would be hard pressed to find many modern director's as worthy of the term pure auteur. Throughout his fascinating career, he has prophesied the specters of AIDS and bourgeois, controlled-environment living (Shivers), postulated on bizarre off-shoots of psychology (The Brood), studied gynecology with lurid fetishism (Dead Ringers) and revealed the honest darkness behind beautiful, schizophrenic minds (Spider). Cronenberg also created brilliant cinematic versions of two novels that some thought unfilmable: William S. Burroughs' drug-induced Naked Lunch and an adaptation of one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, J.G. Ballard's Crash.

Cronenberg claims to have no real cinematic influences, and this appears to be true. His films create no sense that he is hearkening back to old masters. Yet it seems obvious that the director has a literary influence, and that is J.G. Ballard. The writer and director work in an almost symbiotic aesthetic, sharing a vision of the future that has been far ahead of its time for almost three decades. Like Ballard, Cronenberg creates futures we can easily visualize. He's not messing around with simplistic warning-call movies about "The Future." Instead, he shows that the coming time is cold, diseased and dangerous but also alternative, erotic and creative. Like anything new, it is remote, alienating and unsettling, but not necessarily negative. Again like Ballard, he doesn't moralize on this new future; he is instead fascinated by change.

In the 1977 essay "The Future of the Future" Ballard wrote: "In the dream house of the year 2000, Mrs. Tomorrow will find herself living happily inside her own head. Wall, floors and ceilings will be huge unbroken screens on which will be projected a continuous sound and visual display of her pulse and respiration, her brain-waves and blood pressure. The delicate quick-silver loom of her nervous system...the sudden flush of adrenaline...the warm, arterial tides of emotion...all these will surround her with a continuous light show."

Ballard could easily be talking about Cronenberg's underrated picture eXistenZ, in which heroine Allegra Gellar (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is the creator of such futuristic dream houses. Allegra, a virtual-reality game goddess worshipped by the millions who blissfully plug into her products, is the genius behind a new entertainment system called eXistenZ. The game's hardware is a pod made of flesh that resembles a human kidney and is turned on by the tweaking of a nipple-like knob. Made from amphibian eggs and filled with synthetic DNA, the pod is a living animal that is susceptible to disease. To hook up, one must be fitted with a bioport that links the pod to one's spinal cord. Once downloaded, the game charges itself off of the human nervous system, metabolism and energy, transporting players to their own movie-like dreamscapes that feel and work like reality. This "reality" has seriously upset some people, and they're bent on destroying Allegra. She runs away from imminent assassination with a security guard named Ted (Jude Law), a bioport virgin who is assigned to protect her.

Though Allegra's flight fuels the movie's plot, Cronenberg doesn't focus solely on the danger at hand. Instead he takes the viewer into eXistenZ's game world, a place we are itching to visit. It is there that Ted and Allegra take refuge, but also where they explore the reality they create. The nebbish Ted becomes more authoritative; the nerdy, computer-obsessed Allegra becomes sexier; and both become more and more excited by the illusions they are creating.

Like all Cronenberg films, eXistenZ carries a super-sexual charge that doesn't translate easily into typical male-female relations. Yes, there is an ultra-hot make-out scene between Ted and Allegra. But in true Cronenberg alienation style, it is snuffed just when it appears the pair may actually get it on--the overheated game immediately takes Ted to a scenario where he's slapping a fish onto an assembly line. And it is Ted who is afraid of being "plugged"; before being fitted with a port he says, "I have a fear of penetration." When Allegra finally gets to hook him up, she licks her cord sensually before sliding it into his hole.

But there is much more to eXistenZ than science fiction and eroticism. Just as the late, great Helmut Newton (another aesthetic sibling of Ballard and Cronenberg) cannot be easily compartmentalized with the label "fashion photographer," Cronenberg is more than a genre filmmaker. eXistenZ is a funny, splendidly acted, tension-filled picture. It is also a rich, evocative conceptual-art piece full of futuristic dread, psychosexual intensity and potent hallucinatory imagery. It is Cronenberg's aesthetic--one no other filmmaker can emulate--and it's just as modern in '05 as it was in '99. Welcome to the new year. We shall see (with A History of Violence) what present or future (or both) Cronenberg presents next.