The falsetto stylings of Lou Christie.
Also is Lou Christie that stubby or is that just a bad lens combo?

Sixties Montage time!

You know, I work film fests and I used to work at Facets, but mostly I have been watching movies on my Roku instant watch device this past year. I don’t know if it has to do with my adjustment to life after graduating from a soul sucking art school or what.

But this Spring 2010 Music Box schedule is pretty awesome.

The Red Riding Trilogy. — James Marsh is one of my favorite directors. He is the perfect mix of narrative and documentary as seen from Wisconsin Death Trip. The directors of the other two films have done a thing or two that I like, Brideshead Revisited, Hilary and Jackie, and Leap Year. Oh, wait. Whatever. I’m glad I can buy a pass for the 3 films for $21 and not pay $16 per film like they were asking at Chicago International. I’m also interested in how a British television 3 part series translates on the screen. And I’m happy to say I am going to see this in the theaters instead of downloading it on my special British television private torrenting site.

Chloe — Atom Egoyan. Do I need to say more. Plus, Amanda Seyfried, Liam Neeson, and Julianne Moore. That cast is pure gold!

My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done — I love Werner, I love Lynch, but I love love love Michael Shannon. He’s the man. I think he may be in every post on this shitty blog of mine. I’ve waited for this film and I’m a bit upset that it isn’t getting a full blown release. But whatever, it’s like a little treasure chest I get to open and other people have to wait until the DVD. (BTW, Whenever I see the drawing for Mid-August Lunch I think it’s Lynch)

Chicago — featuring the smooth stylings of my bro, Dennis Scott, from the Portage.

Then some stuff from Sundance, some stuff with Oscar nods, some more stuff, and Mommie Dearest.

Plus, Music Box Films is distributing Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, eller Man som Hatar Kvinnor.

(men jag tror jag skulle lasa helt boken innan jag se filmen)

Kudos, Music Box!

Here are my should win predictions, not my who will win predictions.

Performance by an actor in a leading role
Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”

I know if Matthew Goode was my partner and he died I’d be all messed up too. I also hook up with Nic Hoult. Tom Ford, you got some good taste. But in all seriousness, Firth’s performance was painstakingly full of sorrow and agony, it left me stunned. Crazy Heart did nothing for me.

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Matt Damon in “Invictus”
Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

I actually haven’t seen The Messenger, or Invictus, or the Lovely Bones. But from the core of my being Woody seems like the best choice.

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”

Gabourey is a first time actress and she loves herself some Justin Timberlake. She oozes awesomeness.

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Mo’Nique is the only one in the running as far as I’m concerned.

Best animated feature film of the year
“Coraline” (Focus Features)
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” (20th Century Fox)
“The Princess and the Frog” (Walt Disney)
“The Secret of Kells” (GKIDS)
“Up” (Walt Disney)

I didn’t see any of these. And I don’t think anything has a chance, but Up and Fox. But Up is up for best pic, so whatever.

Achievement in cinematography
“Avatar” Mauro Fiore
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” Bruno Delbonnel
“The Hurt Locker” Barry Ackroyd
“Inglourious Basterds” Robert Richardson
“The White Ribbon” Christian Berger

Black and white beautiful photography. If something as ugly as the Hurt Locker wins, I give up on ever having good cinematography.

Achievement in costume design
“Bright Star” Janet Patterson
“Coco before Chanel” Catherine Leterrier
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Monique Prudhomme
“Nine” Colleen Atwood
“The Young Victoria” Sandy Powell

I’ve seen all these except Coco. OMG who am I? Anyways, The Young Victoria wins by far. Loved Rupert Friend’s plaid pants.

Achievement in directing
“Avatar” James Cameron
“The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow
“Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels
“Up in the Air” Jason Reitman

That lady is going to beat up all those boys and steal the trophy if she doesn’t win like she so rightly deserves. Even though she is shattering my dreams, I give her props. She had relations with James Cameron, eeewww.

Best documentary feature
“Burma VJ” (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
“The Cove” (Roadside Attractions)
“Food, Inc.” (Magnolia Pictures)
“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” A Kovno Communications Production
“Which Way Home” A Mr. Mudd Production

As a doc editor and a projectionist at a doc festival I haven’t seen ANY of these. I just picked one I heard lots about. Hehehe, just like the Academy members.

Achievement in film editing
“Avatar” Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
“District 9″ Julian Clarke
“The Hurt Locker” Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
“Inglourious Basterds” Sally Menke
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Joe Klotz

As an editor I think these selections are balls. But I pick Hurt Locker, because it was edited by a CalArts alum, one of my prospective grad schools.

Best foreign language film of the year
“Ajami” Israel
“El Secreto de Sus Ojos” Argentina
“The Milk of Sorrow” Peru
“Un Prophète” France
“The White Ribbon” Germany

JUST GIVE IT THE OSCAR, if i see this trailer one more time! At least, I didn’t have to build the 9 reel film for Sundance.

Best motion picture of the year
“Avatar” (20th Century Fox)
“The Blind Side” (Warner Bros.)
“District 9″ (Sony Pictures Releasing)
“An Education” (Sony Pictures Classics)
“The Hurt Locker” (Summit Entertainment)
“Inglourious Basterds” (The Weinstein Company)
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” (Lionsgate)
“A Serious Man” (Focus Features)
“Up” (Walt Disney)
“Up in the Air” (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)

Sure, I only saw 4 of the films this year. BUT JESUS, if it were still at 5 nominees I would’ve only missed one. This is utter b-s. As for my choice on best film. I saw A Serious Man alone on a Wednesday night. Skipping my swedish lesson to see it. The print was all scratched up and there were 4 of us in the theater. I walked out of there astounded. Hurt Locker didn’t do that to me. Plus, I see A Serious Man as a new breed of Race Film. Bring back the Jewish film tradition, Coens!

Torah Torah Torah!

Last week I returned from my first year as a revisionist at Sundance.
We inspect every single film and hdcam to make sure the festival will run smoothly.
I loved it.
I also got to see a few films in full:
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Hesher
Blue Valentine
Nowhere Boy
Cane Toads 3D
His and Hers
Night Catches Us
Cyrus
The Runaways
Daddy Long Legs
….
there must have been more but I am blanking.

I saw Joan Jett in concert and chatted with Michael Shannon.

The 24 days I was there in Park City was beautiful and awesome, I can’t wait to do it again.

Most of the photos I was able to take.

I just put two papier mache-d balloons outside to dry, it’s raining but hopefully the porch will provide shelter. The balloons are going to be used to make a bat pinata for my birthday, a la Martha Stewart.

I’ve been enjoying making Halloween craft making but it tires me out.

One of my favorites so far is the homemade cameo silhouettes

Exal, Peek, and myself

I will frame them tomorrow at work with tiny mats and tiny frames.

Happy Haunting

Halloween is my favorite holiday. So every year I extensively research what to do in Chicagoland to have the best Halloween, here’s this years list:

CHICAGOWEEN 2009

Friday September 25th – 10pm – Chicago Hauntings Ghost Tour – Meet at 600 N Clark. – Supposedly Chicago’s best ghost tour. Scheduled in Sept. before October tours jump to $36 per tour. Tour lasts 2.5 hours. $28

Sunday September 27th – Sometime between 10am-6pm – Apple and Pumpkin picking at Kuipers Family Farm – 1N318 Watson Road
Maple Park, IL 60151 – Other than the picking have a fun farm with petting zoo and Haunted Forest. $16.25 for Pumpkin Farm and picking.

Saturday October 3rd – 7-11pm – Eleventh Hour Haunted House - 434 E Devon Elk Grove Village, IL – A top rated haunted house from hauntedillinois.com – $19.50 for 4 Houses! But must buy online.

Sunday October 18th – 10am-8pm – Six Flags Great America’s FrightFest – In Gurnee – $35
Directly followed by – The Dungeon of Doom – 30 mins north of Gurnee, closes at 10pm – Last year voted the Scariest Haunted House by Haunted Illinois. Now in a better location. $18 for access to 2 floors and Buried Dead or Alive

Sunday October 25th – 1pm – Graceland Cemetery Tour from the Chicago History Museum - Graceland’s entrance is at 4001 N Clark – Tour Chicago’s most famous cemetery! – $15 (tickets are selling out fast!)

Thursday October 29th – 7pm-9.30pm – Trails of Terror at Peterson Park – 5801 N Pulaski Rd # J, Chicago – A fun family type haunted trail in one of my favorite parts of the city, right across from Bohemian National Cemetery. – $10

Friday October 30th – Suggest between 7-Midnight – Haunted Trails Amusement Park and Frightmare Haunted House – 7759 S. Harlem Ave Burbank, IL 60459 – Chicago is the only place that has a year around Haunted Amusement Park, I’m hankering to go and play mini-golf then to a haunted house on the grounds! – $10 for Frightmare, amusement park admission is free, games are extra.

Sunday November 1st – 7-11pm – Chronicles of the Cursed Haunted House – 560 W Grand Ave Chicago, IL 60654 – I think this is their first year, so it will be excited to see – $15

Saturday November 7th – 10pm - Weird Chicago Tour – Meet at 63 W Ontario St Chicago, IL 60654 – Another very good tour – $30

Friday November 20th – 12am – Twilight: New Moon – Not yet decided where. Will be fun and funny. Join us!

More things will come along and this list will be updated. But as for now it’s pretty solid. These events are a bit pricey, but totally worth it. Each of these I have extensively researched, none of these will suck. Other than Twilight. Harhar.

Spooky time!

I was getting upset at Netflix because you can’t search a cinematographer’s name to find a list of their filmography and it was making it difficult for me to add all of Tim Orr’s work into my queue.

Then somehow I went from Tim Orr to looking at Robby Muller to looking at Tak Fujimoto and all of the cinematographers of any Terrence Malick film (finding out I quite admire Emmanuel Lubezki, his first film was Imamura’s Vengeance is Mine, geez). From there I saw this article about who is releasing the new Malick The Tree of Life.

Within the article it spoke of the new Jane Campion film Bright Star. I don’t know how I miss things like this sometimes, but finally through a web of clicks I find something I can become really intrigued by (Paul Schneider is in it, might I add). The film is about the poet Keats and is one of those period pieces I can’t get enough of. It makes me hope that Campion may be able to break down the boys club known as the Best Director’s Oscars category, but that is probably not gonna happen.

Now I am extremely excited for this film that comes out September 18.

As for The Tree of Life it is tentatively set to be released Christmas Day, let’s hope so.

The Bright Star trailer:

Here in Chicago we love Michael Shannon, he’s our hometown boy that never betrays us.

So it sure is exciting that he is in Werner Herzog’s film My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done. I’m a huge Werner fan, from his escapdes of walking across Europe and Africa, his films, his accent, that fact he got shot and it didn’t phase him, and that he saves people’s lives.

Well, anyways it’s also produced by David Lynch, nuff said.

The trailer looks pretty suspenseful, yet bad voiceover. I’m still super pumped for this film.

As for Michael Shannon, 2010 is gonna be a big year for him. Other than My Son releasing in 2010 is 13, The Runaways, and Jonah Hex. That’s a lot of stuff there.

My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done trailer

Oh did I mention Udo Kier is in it? Yeah, I love him.

Dexter

Dexter having a baby, he’s crazy.

Parks and Recreation

We love Paul Schneider, yay!

Eastbound and Down

Why didn’t I go to North Carolina School of the Arts?

Also, heard John Hawkes was gonna be in Lost this season. That’s nice, but he is so good in Eastbound and Down and was great in Deadwood.

Southland

Ben McKenzie