Defiance

Will Leitch wrote a pretty good review of the film that I think gives a decent overview of its strengths and weaknesses. As for me I found it to be a solidly done, solidly acted, entertaining film, but really its that word 'solid' that sums up my biggest problem with the movie: given the story the makers had to work with it should have been a great film not just a good one. The true story Bielski partisans, and their efforts to fight the Nazi's while building a community of Jews in the Polish woods is an amazing one, and would be compelling as a community theatre production, let alone a major Hollywood film. That's why its so frustrating that Defiance is merely adequate and not transcendent. When watching a film based on true events it shouldbe able to stand on its own regardless of the veracity of the story. I should care about its characters and be engaged on a high level even if it were fictional. Unfortunately in this case I think if I didn't know that the story was a true one the film would have just come off as an entertaining B-movie about Jews fighting Nazi's. Like leitch points out Ed Zwick shoots it completely uncynically, which while not necessarily a bad thing, leads to some cringe inducing moments (Daniel Craig really needs to give his big speech while riding a white stallion - really?). Also I would have liked more emphasis placed on the actual workings of the community they built up and not just have it rushed through a montage sequence and some postscript at the end of the film. Its this part of the story that was the most compelling, and not the action scenes that I'm sure were emphasized at the studio's request.

Looking at what I just wrote I sound more negative than I intended. This really isn't a bad film, and I'll probably go and read the book it was based on to learn more about the actual facts of the story. I just wish that it had been great instead of merely good. At the least it's the best of the WWII films I've seen over the past month or so, and I would recommend it over Valkyrie and most definitely the Reader (about which I'm becoming more annoyed by the day by the best picture nomination).

Dexter Season 2

Going into the season finale my two thoughts were:

1) Man this show is tremendously engaging
2) I have no idea how they can keep the momentum going

Happily I can say the finale didn't do anything to effect the first opinion, and slightly mitigated the second. The entire second season dealt Dexter avoiding capture as an investigation of his murders has been ongoing, and while its been incredibly well played out and generated a lot of tension, the fact that I'm aware of the third season means that I knew our intrepid anti hero would eventually pull through. The problem is that if the show continues to place prominent emphasis on Dexter just trying to keep from getting found out its eventually going to get tired, and they're going to run out of compelling ideas to keep Dexter out of jail (unless the show really wants to take an interesting turn and have him get caught, which I doubt). In contrast, what makes a show like Breaking Bad so engaging is that they don't really dwell the idea of whether the main character is going to get caught and just revolve the show around how he deals with his illegal activities (though I will admit it is easier to make a meth producer who's trying to help his family sympathetic than it is a serial killer). Thankfully this season ended with Dexter starting to embrace what he sees as his moral code and desire to optimize his skill set, rather than just exist to avoid capture and fulfill his primal urge to kill. I'll be interested to see how they actually play out this idea. I just hope they don't turn him into some kind of demented superman (though there have always been those overtones) and maintain the ambiguity, tension, and dark sense of humor that's marked the show so far.

One Tree Hill

And the goodness continues

-Full crowd for an NBDL game which is interesting since they usually attract 2000 on a good night, but hey it is Charleston maybe there really is nothing else going on.
-The point guard playing in front of Nathan is portrayed as the most self absorbed ego driven athelete this side of Barry Bonds (33 points and 1 assist that only came from a airball that was laid back in). When he refuses to pass on the last play Nathan goes in and of course feeds the winning basket.
-The show's treatment of hollywood is almost as good as their treatment of sports. Lucas and Julian keep trying to find a director to adapt his book (including a coke snorting James Van Der Beek) and this episode finds them in a junkyard with a stereotypical indie director (golf hat, elvis costello glasses) who gives them his vision of turning the book into a gang war set in a white trash neighborhood. Apparently they'd already turned down five others for not being quite right (including a guy who made an incest movie with sock puppets - which I need to see). When the studio head gives them a 24 hour ultimatum to pick one, Van Der Beek comes back to try and convince them to give him the job and is portrayed as how somebody from nebraska views hollywood directors (sample dialogue: "You guys are thinking about Fast Food, Beer, and getting laid', 'When we're done we'll all get more ass than a toilet seat at yankee stadium'). Van Der Beek then goes and steals Lucas' speech about the film and uses it to get the job from the money guys. I hope this means we'll be seeing a healthy dose of Rules of Attraction Van Der Beek in future episodes.
-The last couple of episodes have brought back one of my favorite running features of the show - opportunistic merchandising. Last season the show runners found some myspace singer named Kate Vogle, made her a character on the show and now have her premier songs and tour dates as the character. Plus since I've been watching the show online the CW helpfully puts a link to purchase the album underneath the player. This storyline is by far the most overt example of blatant commercialization on the show but my favorite is still the episode that used the video game 'Rock Band' to try and bring Nathan and Halie back together (you think I'm kidding). Its rare to find a show that so fully embraces the merchandising properties available to it. This thing must be a cash cow.

Guilty Displeasures

Inspired by a recent Onion AV Club post (and the fact that I don't feel like working at the moment) I've decided to list some things that the general culture have decided are great art (or entertainment) that I just wasn't able to get into. In no particular order:

-There Will Be Blood - the ridiculously written pastor character killed it for me
-No Country for Old Men - 1st hour great, the rest ridiculous
-Bruce Springsteen - don't hate him, but I've just never really been that amazed either
-Any 'CSI' type show
-Dave Matthews Band
-Outkast
-2001: A Space Odyssey
-Coldplay - I really tried with these guys but I just can't see why you wouldn't just listen to Radiohead and U2 instead of an inferior ripoff
-Dr. Strangelove - to steal from the Onion list
-No Doubt - The 'Hey baby' sing still haunts my dreams
-30 Rock - Again not horrible, and I've only seen four or five episodes, but I just can't seem to get into it.
-John Feinstein
-Your Mom

Academy Award Nominations

I'm try not to get too fired up by these since within I year I usually forget who won anyways, but really?

Best Picture

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"Frost/Nixon"
"Milk"
"The Reader"
"Slumdog Millionaire"

Substitute the Wrestler for Button, Dark Knight for the Reader, and I don't know In Bruges or Man on Wire for Slumdog (which I enjoyed, but best picture? The hype levels are getting to the point where I might end up feeling negatively about a film that I enjoyed upon first viewing. Something I like to call the 'Crash' effect) and then we might have something to talk about. I haven't seen Milk yet so that means there may still be a spot for Step -Brothers on the list.

Only By the Night - Kings of leon

So here's a what I'm listening to entry, deal with it, its my blog.

Rarely in today's media environment do I find something that catches me completely by surprise. There are just to many reviews and news articles floating around that its almost impossible to run into something that you haven't heard somebody's opinion about. This is particularly true of new music for me, since there is so much of it out there I generally have to use a review or somebody's recommendation as a filter before listening to an album, and in that case my listening is already colored. This King's of Leon disk was a pleasant exception. A friend of mine gave it to me and said they really enjoyed it, but since this friend's musical taste usually runs a little poppier (and eighties) than mine, I really didn't have any kind of expectations. However after I threw the disk on the way home I was pleasantly surprised. Overall this was a very solid disk that I thoroughly enjoyed. Most importantly the album passed three of my most important tests when deciding whether or not something is worth listening to:

1) The road test: Basically this one tests whether or not I would want to throw on the disc while driving. This isn't as insignificant as you would think. Given the nature of how I live, the car (or ipod, or some other travel device) tends to be how I end up listening to music at least 90% of the time so something's travel listenability is key. This isn't a deal breaker with an alblum since much of the world music and jazz that I listen to doesn't translate well to the car (Mingus I'm looking at you), but when it comes to rock or pop it's a necessity. Since I pounded throught the entire alblum in one drive home from Monteray I would say that that it definitely met this criteria.

2) Completeness Test: Too often I end up only likeing one or two songs from a disc and the rest of it is never listed to again (Dresden Dolls I'm looking at you). Even alblums I really love often have tracks that I find disposable (as much as I hate to say it Radiohead's Kid A, an alblum I completely love, falls under this category) so if I can get through the entire tracklist without thinking about hitting skip its an accomplishment. Again this alblum passes the test completely. I'm sure there will be certain tracks that I end up listening to more than others (cold desert and Closer being the early favorites), but (other than the stupid dance remix track stuck on the end of the 'deluxe' alblum I was given) the entire thing seems equally strong to me and at no time did I feel the urge to jump a track.

3) Relistenability Test - Self explanatory, but considering I pounded through the whole thing twice on the aforementioned drive home so far so good.

Look I'm not going to make any grand claims about how this is the greatest alblum of the year because I don't know. I also think a lot of my reaction had to with the enjoyment of being taken completely by surprise for once. But I will say I think this is a solid disc and its worth checking out.

The curious case of benjamin button

Lets just get right into this

The Good:

-The film is shot beautifully, and the makeup work is superb
-the Tilda Swinton storyline is well done

The Bad:
-Benjamin Button is not really that compelling as a lead character. I never really cared what was happening to him, and he spent the whole film with the same expression on his face - sort of like a stoned Forest Gump (which makes some sense since both films had the same writer)
-At the end of the film I was left asking "What's the point?" Yes I know there was something in there about the power of undying love, and how the world is filled with all types, and I couldn't have cared less. Not a good sign.
-The script was fairly heavy handed, overly expository, and desperately needed some humor. I'm not saying that it had to be Late Night in the Apollo, but this thing was so somber and serious and look at how important I am, that by the two hour mark I was considering skipping into Yes man. Even worse the film's one attempt at a running joke (involving an old man getting struck by lightning) became tiresome an heavy handed after the, I don't know, fourth time it was told.

I have nothing else to say, Go see The Wrestler instead.

And because I'm cheap here's this