The 2010 Short Oscars: Animated!

I got to see the Animated nominees a little earlier than I thought I would. As usual, fantastic storytelling and a wide palette ranging from nasty humor to dark melodrama is here. The 3D thing has almost completely overtaken the program, and good old fashioned cell animation or even Flash is seeming almost a thing of nostalgia these days. The blazing exception, and hands down my favorite, is "Logorama", a dizzying nightmare in rotoscope told entirely in corporate logos and mascots. Yes, you read that right. An urban nightmare and apocalyptic specter is rendered using a homicidal Ronald McDonald, lecherous Pringles characters, and the fall of planet Pepsi. Of course this is France's entry, as an American animator would be hung up by his packaging for making a movie like this, and it's our loss. I haven't seen animation this nasty and subversive since the coke damaged 80s era of "Ren And Stimpy" or "Jack Mac and Rad Boy", which is saying something.
On a completely different tip is the latest from Wallace And Gromit representing Britain in "A Matter Of Loaf And Death", involving true love for Wallace and Gromit too amidst a murder spree affecting bakers like our heroes. Even funnier is Spain's "The Lady And The Reaper", which turns a little old lady's acceptance of death into a Tex Avery-esque battle between the Grim Reaper and a vain surgeon. There are many other entries in the current program scoring Noteworthy status - whatever that means - including Canada's "Runaway", about a runaway train and the nebbish assistant driver who tries desperately to save the day. It's the other 2D entry and it's a beaut, simply drawn and full of great sight gags.

So that's both programs. Watch them online right now!
BTW Anyone want to explain why shorts are not shown before movies anymore but commercials are?

2007 Schoolin' at the Movies

Ladies and Gentlepeoples, lock up your scotch and talk to your daughters-it's the 2007 year at the movies, through my entirely opinionated view. Away we go:
MOVIE OF THE YEAR: No Country for Old Men
RUNNER UP(S-a tie!): Eastern Promises, Inland Empire
A: Black Gold
A: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
A-: The Lives of Others
A-: Grindhouse (Theatrical Presentation)
A-: The Darjeeling Limited
B+: Michael Clayton
B: Planet Terror (Grindhouse Feature)
B-: A Sidewalk Astronomer
B-: Plagues and Pleasures of the Salton Sea
B-: Rescue Dawn
B-: Hot Fuzz

C+: Paris, Je T'Aime
C+: The Simpsons: Movie
C+: Sicko
C: Sunshine
C: 28 Weeks Later
C-: Evan Almighty
C-: Death Proof (Grindhouse Feature)
DUNCE CAP: Pan's Labyrinth
COOL REVIVALS: The Big Lebowski, Planet of the Apes, Duck Soup, Jaws, Psycho, Mafioso, The Birds

Links going up at DVDTalk.com and highlighted at TriggersTreet.com, right away! A year where even the stinker of the year, wasn't horrible, is a good year.
Maybe my standards, and need to compete, are waning in my middle age.

Oscar blahg time

My weird Oscar theory: it has to do with the old saw about "selling your soul", assuming such a thing exists, to get what you want in life-like an Oscar. Is it just a coincidence Oscar is shaped like a little person? Maybe it's how these people get their souls back. Shrunken, embalmed in pure gold, but a soul nonetheless. That would explain all the crying. Now how Jack Nicholson got three of them I don't know, but hey, it's only a theory.
Ribbing aside, it's looking to be a good contest this year. The good: go Forrest and Penelope! And Scorsese too! The bad: why do people like "Pan's Labyrinth"? Special FX prize, fine, but Best Foreign Film? Personally, it gets my prize for Fastest I ever walked out on a film I paid for. Full price - well, it's Norwalk's only art house, so...
And for ugly, this years Screwed by Oscar list: Darwin's Nightmare for best Doc, and Who Killed the Electric Car? or Street Fight for fifth Nominee (you know, the one with no chance of winning that we love anyway). V for Vendetta, not one tech award? Thank You For Smoking, starting with Sam Elliott or Lee Tergesen for supporting acting. And how about A Scanner Darkly for Animated Feature? Consider that. And enjoy.