Oscar Countdown

Our next Best Picture nominee is Good Night And Good Luck.



This movie takes us back to the 1950s, a time when right-wing demagogues used fear and intimidation to drive the nation's press agenda - in other words, just like now but in black and white. Fortunately for all of us, one man wasn't having it: the legendary CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow, who created such a high standard for TV journalism that no broadcaster since has dared live up to it out of respect to his memory. Murrow's lonely, courageous battle against "the Red Scare" is an example to us all, though not so much the part where he chain-smokes unfiltered cigarettes. Still, a generation will always remember his integrity as well as his legendary sign-off, "Seacrest out."

David Strathairn is excellent as Murrow. He is so dull, grey, dour and devoid of expression that we actually believe he has been dead for forty years. But the real find here is the actor who portrays Senator Joseph McCarthy. I didn't stick around long enough to catch his name in the credits and I don't see him on the Oscar ballot but whoever he is, he is really good. Scary good, in fact - I found everything he said very convincing. If this guy wants to get out of the movie biz and start a political career, it's his. Let's just hope he's one of the good guys and not another Schwarzenegger.

Good Night was directed and co-written by George Clooney, who also co-stars and bankrolled this modest production off his Facts of Life residual checks. While the film's message is entirely relevant to our time, the b&w cinematography and jazz soundtrack is a nice throwback to the age of Eisenhower, I Love Lucy and principled reporters.

So cheers to Good Night And Good Luck - the Best Picture of the Year!

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More Oscar Preview

If there's a frontrunner at this year's Awards, it has to be Brokeback Mountain.



Directed by Ang Lee and starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, this is easily the most talked-about motion picture of the year, if not the decade. With all the controversy, the criticism, the parodies, it's hard to imagine anyone visiting this blog not already familar with much of what takes place in this film. But out of respect for those who haven't seen it, my review contains absolutely no spoilers.

Brokeback tells the story of Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal), a pair of young ranch hands who over the course of an early '60s summer in Wyoming discover that they really enjoy doing things together. Things like swimming, fishing, horseback riding and just about anything else that might strike their fancy. But there's one catch: they really, really like doing things together. Like more than they've ever liked doing things with anyone else before. Herein lies the film's universality, as I think we all remember that one buddy from summer camp with whom we just could not part ways. Anyone who's been through that experience or anything similar will surely identify with the characters in this film, to some extent.

So Ennis and Jack promise to be Best Friends Forever while agreeing to keep it "on the downlow", so to speak, as they both get married and start their lives in earnest. But neither can escape the feeling that they'd really rather be doing things together. They agree to get together once a year and return to Brokeback Mountain - and who can blame them? The scenery is gorgeous. However, the wives (Anne Hathaway, Michelle Williams) get a little concerned, as wives tend to do when a husband is spending all his time horsing around with one of his close pals and ignoring the homefront. Again, this is a movie that nearly every American male will relate to, though perhaps some more than others.

As the film progresses, taking us further into the character's lives, it takes on tragic dimensions. We come to feel that Ennis and Jack were destined to do things together but their lives have been undone by society's tendency to frown upon certain people doing things together. Yes, it's a downer.

But Brokeback Mountain is also a very thought-provoking film. I thought about it an awful lot afterwards, which is odd since I've never been a fan of cowboy movies. Certain scenes replayed in my thoughts a lot - so much so that I had to mentally recast the film just to get it out of my head; my version of Brokeback stars Danny DeVito and Paul Giamatti. It's just as well-acted but a little less thought-provoking.

So cheers to Brokeback Mountain - the Best Picture of the Year!

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Oscar Preview

In just a few short days, the 78th Annual Academy Awards will kick off in Los Angeles. For us film fans, it's like the Olympics, the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500 all rolled into one but longer. This year's telecast may be the most interesting in years, with the expected dominance of Brokeback Mountain and the likelihood that afterwards Oscar will never again find solace in heterosexual drama. All this anticipation only served to remind me: I haven't seen any of the films nominated this year. So in the interest of providing a learned assessment of this year's ceremonies, I'm scrambling to catch all the Best Picture candidates before the red carpet - and Joan Rivers' wax remains - are officially rolled out on Sunday.

Last night I caught Capote starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman.



Naturally, the story of an ambitious eccentric who inserts himself into a major news event with seemingly little concern for the real people involved has great resonance with me. I probably haven't identified so strongly with a character on screen since PSH's earlier role in Happiness. Hoffman doesn't just play Truman Capote, he is Truman Capote, in a performance so convincing that even months after the film's release, Liza Minelli is still calling him up at 3:00 am and demanding to raid his Quaalude stash. The film also provides fascinating insight into the literary world of the 1960s; who knew that famed To Kill A Mockingbird author Harper Lee (played by the exquisite Catherine Keener) was also one of the world's first "fag hags"?

It's in the story of Capote's relationship with a convicted killer, Robert Blake, that we see what an innovator the man really was. We witness how he pioneered the "non-fiction novel", a concept which the likes of James Frey have recently picked up and taken to new heights. With that in mind, it's too bad that Truman largely operated before the age of crack and Oprah because he really could've been somebody. Instead he became a sad, wasted figure chatting it up with celebrities at drug-and-sex-infested parties at Studio 54 - ie. living the American dream. But what a talent that creepy manipulative bastard was. The whole film made me want to pull out my well-worn, yellowed-out copy of In Cold Blood and actually read it instead of wearing it and coloring it yellow.

So cheers to Capote - the Best Picture of the year!

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Classics On DVD

LF here, just back from two days at the annual Blogger Conference On Promoting Teen Abstinence. You know, some people attend these events to garner publicity, but I do it purely for the love of teens refraining from sex. The conference was a real eye-opener; you'd be surprised at the number of well-known bloggers that were and are abstinent. By the way, if you're an abstinent teen and you blog, a "Free Links for the Fornication-Free" certificate should be arriving in your inbox any minute now, courtesy Ben Shapiro.

Of course, when I'm on the road, I occasionally get bored and when I'm bored, I like to check out a movie or two. But unfortunately, most of today's films just leave me cold. They tend to be overloaded with sex and violence, and without the obscure symbolism that would make it all worthwhile. Luckily, some non-Lombaire classics have made their way to DVD and make great rentals for those idle moments:

Gone With The Wind

This Civil War epic, filmed in glorious Technicolor, is undoubtably one of the unparalleled classics of American cinema. The performances and characterizations are far better than any reenactment I've ever seen, or for that matter, anything recorded by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Everyone involved is at the top of their game, from the art directors (wow, imagine having to handpaint all those reels of footage) to the first black Oscar winner, Hattie McDaniel (eat your heart out, Holly Berry!).

If this set has a flaw, it's the lack of extras. I mean, no director audio track? At least Gable or Leigh or Olivia de Havilland could've sat down and chatted a bit with Leonard Maltin or some equally respected Hollywood historian. Are their schedules too busy for that? I'm sorry, French subtitles, as much I enjoy them, just aren't enough. [EDIT: Oops - talk about timeless. This film is apparently much older than I initially thought]

Still, this remains the quintessential "chick flick" for any woman who's dreamed of romance with a dashing soldier fighting to uphold Negro subjugation.

The Wizard of Oz

This is a classic that has just recently turned up on DVD. Of course, everyone is familiar with this film from the frequent TV broadcasts, but recently, there has been renewed interest because of an unusual ritual popular with fans of Pink Floyd. Supposedly if you watch the movie while listening to the Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album, the music actually synchs up with the action on screen. Now I don't have any Pink Floyd; they were a little bit before my time. But I did try this experiment with the The Fabulous Peggy Lee and the results were inconclusive. Oh well...my acid days are long over anyway.

Even without rock background, this is still a startling piece of work. Judy Garland performs beautifully as the lonely young Dorothy who, because of a freak tornado, finds herself a very long way from her home in Kansas and devoted gay following. Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr and Jack Haley are all equally brilliant as the three adult males who find what's missing from their lives while accompanying a pubescent girl through the woods. And of course, who could overlook the Munchkins? - or as they'd no doubt be known in today's PC climate, the "little squeaky people." I know "there's no place like home" but Oz was such a wonderful place, I couldn't bear the thought of not returning. I don't have cable so I haven't seen any of episodes yet but I'm glad I ordered copies of the HBO
TV series and sent a few on to my nieces and nephews as well.

Triumph Of The Will

This movie is a little more controversial than the other two. Directed by Leni Riefenstahl, this is a cinematic document of the 1934 rally at Nuremburg. Everyone who reviews the film says that, all politics aside, the artistry is breathtaking. And I agree: if you buy one piece of Nazi propaganda in your lifetime, you should definitely make it Triumph. But if you can, watch it on a double bill with Schindler's List or The Pianist so you know you're getting both sides of the story.

Though this is obviously very old footage, the DVD transfer of both the audio and visuals is astonishing in its clarity. In fact, it was so vivid, when the pizza man knocked on my door during the opening credits, I nearly hid in the basement.

Again, there's no denying the technical brilliance of this film, but a movie designed to promote the Hitler agenda will never get the gold star of excellence from me.

Happy viewing!