Dork Art: Mondo Celebrates The Oscars Again!

Similar to last year, Mondo will be launching three posters in conjunction with The Academy Awards.  My favorite is the mesmerizing Laurent Durieux print for The Master.  Stare into the abyss of Phillip Seymore Hoffman and it stares back - he's a Lovecraftian nightmare come to life!  It measures 24 x 36 and will set you back $55.  I'm guessing it will go on sale at some point during the Best Supporting Actor or Best Actor category Sunday night.  Follow Twitter closely.

 
The Paranorman print is the work of the artist DKNG.  It's limited to 245 copies and will run you $45.  Glad to see Mondo endorsing what is clearly the best film in the Animated Feature category.  Really got my fingers crossed for this Should-Be-Classic.

I most certainly cannot claim to be a fan of the film, but Olly Moss' Les Miserables print seems like a revelatory departure for the artist.  Not your typical simplistic beauty, it has much more of an illustrative flair.  ITMOD approved.  24 x 36 and running $50.  I'm guessing it goes on sale during the Best Original Song category.

--Brad

The Oscars 2013 - Predictions & Desires

The Oscars are a joke.  We all know this.  But let's just set that aside - like we do every year.  What I love about the Academy Awards is that it gives us a moment where we can just ramble on about movies with the regular people.  You know, those nice folks out there that don't devote hours & hours upon a nerd blog, obsessing over every frame and hidden reference of the latest Quentin Tarantino flick.  It's the Super Bowl of Cinema - and as is, they usually get all the nominations wrong and it's mostly just a fashion parade for US Weekly then it is an exploration of art.  That being said, I think the nominations are much stronger than they have been in year's past which I find rather amusing since I felt that 2012 was one of cinema's weakest.

BEST PICTURE:

AMOUR
ARGO
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
DJANGO UNCHAINED
LES MISERABLES
LIFE OF PI
LINCOLN
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
ZERO DARK THIRTY

This is the second year in a row where my Favorite Film of the Year got a Best Picture nomination, but like last year, my pick doesn't have a chance in snowy hell of taking home the little gold guy.  Django Unchained is not Quentin Tarantino's best film (that's Jackie Brown), but it is most certainly my favorite.  The pacing is choppy; some claim the lack of editor Sally Menke is to blame, but I think Tarantino is just doing what he does best - elevation through mimicry.  The Spaghetti Western is a genre defined through false starts & endings, and it's an aspect I cherish when done properly.  Django pulls the rug from under you multiple times and what feels sloppy to some feels like perfection to me.  We will never know what this film would look like if cut by Menke, but I genuinely feel like it wouldn't appear to be much different.  But Django Unchained is the film with the least likely chance to win.  It's genre, B Movie territory.  Strike One.  It's an extremely angry film.  Not the revenge drama some make it out to be.  This is not Kill Bill.  It's a Campbellian Hero's Journey.  The revenge aspect is on us, Django Unchained transforms the audience into Khan.  Strike two.  Finally, it's a Tarantino movie.  He's the new Hitchcock and he'll never take home a statue.  Strike three.

So, who gets it.  There are only two films of the nine nominations that I absolutely destested: Life of Pi & Les Miserables.  Their nominations are not surprising, especially when considering last year's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, but Life of Pi is confusing mumbo jumbo & Les Miserables is a musical embarrassment.  Lincoln is my second favorite flick in the pack, sharp tight narrative highlighted by an outstanding lead performance.  Silver Linings Playbook is fun, sweet, romantic and a complete fantasy.  Amour is a beast of emotion.  No other film tortured me quite like that movie.  Beasts of the Southern Wild is beautifully odd world building with a firm backbone supplied by a six year old actress.  Zero Dark Thirty is CSI: Bin Laden.  An intense procedural deepened by our own 9/11 memories.  Argo seems to be the frontrunner at this point.  Fascinating, given Ben Affleck's lack of nomination in the Best Director category.  The last time a film took home Best Picture without even a director nomination was 1990's Driving Miss Daisy.  Argo is a solid flick.  I just don't love it.  The first half is intense as hell, and I love all the Hollywood craziness but I just can't get behind the final ten minutes.  The airport chase nonsense.  Yes, both Lincoln & Zero Dark Thirty have they're way with history, but this feels the most Hollywoody.  Still, far worse films have taken home the gold.

Prediction: Argo

Desire:  Django Unchained

BEST DIRECTOR

ANG LEE (Life of Pi)
BENH ZEITLIN (Beasts of the Southern Wild)
MICHAEL HANEKE (Amour)
STEVEN SPIELBERG (Lincoln)
DAVID O. RUSSELL (Silver Linings Playbook)

This is a tough category.  I'm gonna immediately dismiss Ang Lee cuz as stated above, I hated his movie.  But if I'm going to be fair it was fun to watch him play with technology - taking on James Cameron's 3D, David Fincher's digital zooms, and playfully experimenting in a similar fashion to his Hulk adaptation...and we all saw how well that went down (Screw it - I Love HULK!).  Silver Linings Playbook is a lot of quirky fun, but I found David O Russell continues push-in closeups to be rather annoying.  Steven Spielberg has an obvious mastery over his craft, but Lincoln's success mostly comes from Tony Kushner's screenplay and Daniel Day-Lewis' deep diving performance.  Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of a Southern Wild has the feel of a young man's camera - eagerness mixed with blunt whimsy.  He could be great someday, but he ain't there yet.  Michael Haneke is a mad man.  Sitting down to one of his films, you know your psyche is in danger.  Whether he's documenting a home invasion (Funny Games), the hidden violence of a pre-WWI village (The White Ribbon), or the slow death of a loved one (Amour), Haneke has been accused of relishing in human horror.  Maybe.  But what impresses me so much about Amour is its claustrophobia.  We're stuck in this tiny Parisian apartment.  One character is slowly deteriorating in front of us.  The other character is struggling to maintain his wife's last moments.  Haneke never lets the room become tiresome.  He finds new ways to shoot it, and concentrates the lens on the humanity of the structure.  It's a daunting screenplay for a director to tackle, but Heneke as both writer & director was obviously up to the task.

The question becomes though, with Ben Affleck out of the running, where do the Academy voters cast their ballot?  Zeitlen is too new to the game.  Haneke's an outsider and in their eyes its enough that the film will most likely take home Best Foreign Film.  Ang Lee certainly offers the visual feast and Life of Pi apes a lot of its praise from the novel's pre-owned enthusiasm.  So could Spielberg take Oscar home?  His last nomination was in 2007 for Munich, and he won in '99 for Saving Private Ryan & '94 for Schindler's List.  No.  I think Lincoln is not a significant enough departure from the Spielberg norm to land him back at the podium.  David O Russell lost to Tom Hooper in 2011; I think we make up for that now.  Silver Linings Playbook is not a showy picture, but neither was Hooper's The King's Speech, and performance can carry this category.  Plus, Hollywood mogul Harvey Wienstein knows how capture Oscars via politics.

Prediction:  David O. Russell

Desire:  Michael Haneke

BEST ACTOR

BRADLEY COOPER (Silver Linings Playbook)
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS (Lincoln)
HUGH JACKMAN (Les Miserables)
JOAQUIN PHOENIX (The Master)
DENZEL WASHINGTON (Flight)

Well, lets just yank Hugh Jackman out of this category immediately.  I thought he was atrocious.  The man can sing, he's proven that before, but the man is no Jean Valjean.  Especially when you have Colm Wilkinson, the real deal, putting him to shame in the Bishop cameo.  I guess Denzel Washington does a decent job as the alcoholic cokehead pilot in Flight, but the movie is so run-of-the-mill that to grant him any acknowledgement would give Zemeckis' live action pap too much credit.  Bradley Cooper has never been better than he is in Silver Linings Playbook, and I could see him winning if Harvey Weinstein manufactures a clean sweep for that movie.  Definitely possible.  I'd love to see Joaquin Phoenix take it; his turn as the sex starved madman in Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master is a masterpiece of anxiety, and makes Bradley Cooper's kooky nutjob look absolutely adorable.  But there is no question who's taking home Oscar this Sunday.  Daniel Day-Lewis puts in another one of his method absorption pieces as Abraham Lincoln.  I appreciated his choice of accent, going for realism and dropping the iconic stature we're used to seeing on the five dollar bill.  There is more humanity in his portrayal of Lincoln than we've yet experienced, he showcases the badass bravado we want from the great emancipator but I love the little moments with his bickering wife, and his war-thirsty son.  And if we weren't allowed to give it to him for Bill The Butcher than we most certainly give it to him for the 16th president.

Prediction:  Daniel Day-Lewis

Desire:  Daniel Day-Lewis

BEST ACTRESS

JESSICA CHASTAIN (Zero Dark Thirty)
JENNIFER LAWRENCE (Silver Linings Playbook)
EMMANUELLE RIVA (Amour)
QUVENZHANE WALLIS (Beasts of the Southern Wild)
NAOMI WATTS (The Impossible)

This category is even tougher than Best Director.  I don't know if you remember or care, but as 2012 was winding down and I had to put together my Dorkies, I could not list five female roles to save my life.  Since then I've managed to watch all the above flicks and I think that each of these nominees turned in killer performances.  As Hushpuppy, the adventurous orphan wandering the bayou wastelands of The Beasts of the Southern Wild, Quvenzhane Wallis delivers the most naturalistic realization.  Jessica Chastain is all macho bravado, a little too on the nose, but solid.  Naomi Watts is a tattered mess - flesh ripped, torn, and bleeding for nearly 90 minutes.  Jennifer Lawrence is the It Girl of the moment, and as much as I was unimpressed with her previous nomination for Winter's Bone, her dullfaced turn in The Hunger Games, and her sourdough smirk in X-Men First Class, I have to admit that I was captivated by her mentally unbalanced love interest.  And I think she might have this locked - and part of me wants to bet on all the Silver Linings Playbook nominations.  But Sunday is also Emmanuelle Riva's 86th Birthday.  Wouldn't it be a wonderful gift to win the big prize?  And her slow decay on screen is pure Oscar bait gold.  Utterly heartbreaking even if I think her partner, Jean-Louis Trintignant has the real winning role.

Prediction:  Jennifer Lawrence

Desire:  Emmanuelle Riva


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

ALAN ARKIN (Argo)
ROBERT DE NIRO (Silver Linings Playbook)
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN (The Master)
TOMMY LEE JONES (Lincoln)
CHRISTOPH WALTZ (Django Unchained)

Why is Alan Arkin on this list?  I mean, he did a fine job in Argo but there was absolutely nothing special about his character.  A Best Actor nomination for Ben Affleck would make more sense.  Robert De Niro is a lot of fun as the gambling addict father struggling to understand his son's crazy.  He manages to be sympathetic one moment, and infuriatingly obtuse the next.  It's been a long time since he's won the hearts of the Academy but I'm just not sure this role is showy enough to make them care again.  Phillip Seymore Hoffman is the internet critic's pick.  And he's darn good, but not a standout like his partner Joaquin.  Christoph Waltz gets my vote.  As the Obi Wan to Django's Luke Skywalker, King Schultz has all the happy mannerisms of the villainous Hans Landa (the role Waltz won for just a few years back) but pacts the film with warmth and understanding.  The Landa/Schultz coin is a showcase for Waltz's incredible talent.  Put him in every movie, I say.  Tommy Lee Jones, though?  He's grumpy, adorable, and powerful.  He's a miserable old bastard of righteousness in Lincoln, and the emotional wallop of the climax is delivered through his character.  I'd be perfectly happy to see him win.

Prediction:  Tommy Lee Jones

Desire:  Christoph Waltz


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

AMY ADAMS (The Master)
SALLY FIELD (Lincoln)
ANNE HATHAWAY (Les Miserables)
HELEN HUNT (The Sessions)
JACKI WEAVER (Silver Linings Playbook)

This is a less exciting race.  Jacki Weaver is perfectly fine as the delicate wife to Robert De Niro's bull in a china shop.  And it's lightyears away from the psychotic matriarch of Animal Kingdom, her previous nomination in 2011.  Another loser from that year was Amy Adams (The Fighter), and she's going down this year as well.  She's perfectly troubled as the wife of Hoffman's cult leader, but her best scene involves an epic handjob which of course makes it hard to showcase during the sizzle reel.  Sally Field is good in Lincoln.  But the character is a touch annoying.  The tight focus of Lincoln's screenplay doesn't allow for Mary Todd showboating, but there are one or two moments in the film that might land her on top.  I think Anne Hathaway is the winner though.  She's the only good thing in Les Miserables, and her snotty/teary rendition of "I Dreamed A Dream" will get her the win.  My pick, though, is Helen Hunt.  The Sessions is the type of indie darling that stormed Hollywood during the early 90s, but despite its twee narrative centered around John Hawkes' quadriplegic virgin, I found myself suckered by its sweetness.  And a lot of that has to do with her welcoming, forgiving, and accepting smile.  Not to mention her sexual sincerity.

Prediction:  Anne Hathaway

Desire:  Helen Hunt


ANIMATED FEATURE

BRAVE
FRANKENWEENIE
PARANORMAN
THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS
WRECK-IT-RALPH

There is no denying that Brave is a lesser Pixar.  It's perfectly suitable, but the mother/daughter story is less interesting than the female empowerment quest that the trailer promised.  The Pirates! Band of Misfits is a ton of fun.  It's winky, jokey, and very British.  Wreck-It-Ralph is gleeful, but I was kinda hoping for a Who Framed Roger Rabit reference-a-palooza and I found the Candyland setting a bit claustrophobic.  Still, this seems to be the film that gets the most attention.  Frankenweenie has no business here.  It doesn't celebrate the oddity of youth, it mocks it.  And Tim Burton just needs to take a break from filmmaking for a while.  His ideas are played out.  Old.  Tired.  Boring.  Paranorman is everything that Burton was trying to do, but done successfully.  It celebrates the strange of youth, it tells kids that it's your weird, unique talents that make you special.  To ride ahead of the pack and not with the herd.  And it's properly spooky the way Halloween stories should be.

Prediction:  Wreck-It-Ralph

Desire:  Paranorman

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

5 BROKEN CAMERAS
THE GATEKEEPERS
HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE
THE INVISIBLE WAR
SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN

As usual, the Best Documentary category is loaded with a lot of downers.   In 5 Broken Cameras, a Palestinian farmer records the Israeli occupation of his backyard.  Protests inevitably turn to violence.  Friends & family loose their lives.  The Invisible War is almost unfathomable with its nearly endless interviews of women raped while serving in the military.  I never managed to catch The Gatekeepers.  Can't comment on it.  How To Survive A Plague left me a weeping mess.  Following two bands of protest groups in late 80s New York while the Aids epidemic spread and politicians sat quiet.  Searching For Sugar Man is the frothiest story depicting the mysterious rise of a Detroit castoff in the music scene of South Africa.  While incredibly engaging it doesn't quite hold the terrifying punch of the other nominations.  For it to win over How To Survive A Plague seems as insulting as Driving Miss Daisy taken the big prize from the nominationless Do The Right Thing.

Prediction:  Searching For Sugar Man

Desire:  How To Survive A Plague

CINEMATOGRAPHY

SEAMUS MCGARVEY (Anna Karenina)
RALPH RICHARDSON (Django Unchained)
CLAUDIO MIRANDA (Life of Pi)
JANUS KAMINSKI (Lincoln)
ROGER DEAKINS (Skyfall)

Based on the trailers, Anna Karenina sure does look artificially pretty.  Spielberg's longtime collaborator Janus Kaminski knows how to fill a room full of light.  I think Life of Pi has the most attention for its animated beauty, but how much of that is Miranda's skill and how much is it the FX company?  Ralph Richardson would normally take home the glory for me and if this was Kill Bill in the hot seat than he most surly would.  However, Roger Deakins delivers the most beautiful Bond film in the franchise, and with it he proves that digital photography is the future.  Seriously, can you tell me that this does not look like film?  No.  The fiery Scottish moors.  Shanghai's neon assassination.  The gray windy skies of London.  An absolutely stunning action film.

Prediction:  Claudio Miranda

Desire:  Roger Deakins


ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

AMOUR (Michael Haneke)
DJANGO UNCHAINED (Quentin Tarantino)
FLIGHT (John Gatins)
MOONRISE KINGDOM (Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola)
ZERO DARK THIRTY (Mark Boal)

I won't drone on and on here.  You already read my Django Unchained rant.  I still feel it.  And I'm fighting myself from diving back into the theater for a fourth go around, the blu ray will be here soon.  I thought Flight was barely above an After School Special.  Amour is more about the performances than the screenplay, but the life brought into that tiny apartment started here on the page.  I'm happy to see Moonrise Kingdom get some love, but no one really seems to care.  I loved it.  But compared to previous efforts I think it's lesser Anderson.  Zero Dark Thirty is not going to be taking home any of the top awards, so if the Academy wants to throw it a bone it'll happen here.

Prediction:  Zero Dark Thirty

Desire:  Django Unchained

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

ARGO (Chris Terrio)
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin)
LIFE OF PI (David Magee)
LINCOLN (Tony Kushner)
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (David O. Russell)

Another tough selection.  Argo will take home the Best Picture, but as stated above, I felt that the screenplay took one too many liberties with the event.  Life of Pi might nab this with its confounding, muddy morals.   No one has read the source material for Beasts of the Southern Wild, so that's out.  Silver Linings Playbook might have a shot, but I think it suffers the same problems as Beasts.  Lincoln is the obvious winner here.  Adapting Doris Kerns Goodwins' Team of Rivals was a beastly challenge, but Tony Kushner's choice to focus solely on the passing of 13th amendment was inspired.  Taking what could have been another blathering, sweeping biopic and transforming it into a taught, political thriller.  In that one month of January you get all the greatness & humanity of Lincoln boiled down to its essence.

Prediction:  Lincoln

Desire:  Lincoln

Olly Moss' 85 Years of Oscars

--Brad

Brad's Week in Dork! (8/19/12-8/25/12)

This was a damn fun Week in Dork.  Well...besides coming down with a nasty case of the retail plague.  But the plague allowed for some serious downtime in the apartment where I consumed a crap ton of movies, TV, and comics.  Win!  I finally jumped into the reverse Coen Brothers marathon I'd been planning for the last couple of months and I'm having a blast going back in time with these twisted siblings.  And if push came to shove, I would have to go with the Coens as my favorite directors on the planet, and so far I can only think of one film of theirs that I really just have no time for...scroll down to find out which one.

Doing the marathon in reverse order has been a blast too.  After The Man Who Wasn't There in 2001 there was this period in time where people thought (me included) that The Coens were winding down.  Then 2007 brought No Country For Old Men, their most unique film to date, and a new era in Coen cinema was born.  Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, True Grit.  I love every damn one of these movies; each one has made my Top Ten lists for their prospective years.  I managed to pack in the last 12 years this week, and I'm racing to get to Blood Simple.

And thanks to Matt and cineAWESOME! (their Jesse Stone eps, actually), I'm a full blown Magnum PI addict.  I whipped through the first season in record time and I'm stunned that The Wife & I still managed to conclude the second season of Deep Space Nine as well.  People ask me how I consume all this dorkery and sometimes I'm flabbergasted by my ability to do so as well.  Seriously, what the hell?  Did I create more hours in the day this week.  Certainly appears so.

TV OF THE WEEK!

Magnum PI - Season One:  I grew up with this show.  Magnum PI, The A Team, Knight Rider, and Simon & Simon.  You want to understand the 1980s than you watch these shows.  Tom Selleck is so damn charismatic as the Vietnam Vet turned Hawaiian Private Dick Playboy.  Five minutes into this show and I was mancrushing all over the place.  I'm not afraid to admit it.  Men want to be Tom Magnum and women want to be with Tom Magnum.  He's the king of mustache cool.  Sure, there's not much to the show.  Magnum gets a case.  There's a guest star (Ian McShane!  Ted Danson!).  He solves the case.  But it's soooooooooo much goofy fun.  We're having a Halloween party this year and I definitely have my costume already picked out...just need to find a Detroit Tigers ballcap.

Star Trek - Deep Space Nine Season Two:  The show is still finding its ground in the second season, but the Cardassian/Bajor relations get more interesting thanks to Andy Robinson's devious Garak and Nurse Ratchet's heinous Vedak vile.  The series also gets a couple of highlights thanks to an Odo flashback, Bernie Casey's Marquis baddie, and the re-introduction of the Mirror, Mirror universe.  And season 2 climaxes with the introduction of the Dominion foot soldiers, The Jem'Hadar and the promise of greater future conflicts.  Season 3 is where the show really finds its legs and I cannot wait for Sisko to loose his hair.

MOVIES OF THE WEEK!

Red:  Had to follow up last week's Expendables birthday bash with more nostalgic gunplay.  Red is a joyous PG-13 Audience Approved Action picture with the added bonus cast of adorable Grumpy Old Men. Seriously, I just wanted to snatch up John Malkovich's LSD burn-out machine gun enthusiast like a weepy eyed puppy and squeeze him to death! "Poop On That!" indeed. But besides big boys like Malkovich, Willis, Freeman, and Miran you've got great little turns from classics like Ernest Borgnine, Richard Dryfuss, Brian Cox, and even James Remar (for about 3 seconds). And yes, the sanitized not-R violence was handled well providing a surprisingly intense MTV-cutty roustabout between Willis and Karl Urban. So, if you can handle the cuteness and the silly than you will have plenty of fun with Red.  I'm ready for the sequel.

The Sitter:  "Make Love To The Night!" Damn. I laughed too much at this raunchy Adventures in Babysitting remake. Jonah Hill is left in charge of three psychotic pre teens who do their darndest to prevent the oversexed loser from scoring coke from Sam Rockwell's muscle enthusiast and bagging skanky Ari Graynor. The Sitter is probably primed to leave my mind thirty seconds after writing this paragraph but it produced several good bellylaughs during its hour and twenty minutes of time killer.

True Grit:  Forget the original, the Coen Brothers have delivered an instant Western classic in their adaptation of the Charlie Portis novel. Jeff Bridges is a nasty, disgusting beast of a marshal and if his lack of sobriety gives young, vengeful Mattie Ross any pause, his wicked trigger finger sates her bloodlust. Matt Damon is the real surprise as cock-of-the-walk Texas Ranger LaBoeuf and his teethy bickerings with Bridges' Rooster Cogburn provide many of the films quotable guffaws. Rounding out the cast are a plethora of ugly brutes, most notably troglodyte Josh Brolin and the spitty Barry Pepper. But let's not forget the gorgeous cinematography from Roger Deakins or the mythic score from Carter Burwell.  True Grit belongs right to the top of the Coen's masterful CV.

A Serious Man:  "This Man Bothering You?" A brutally hilarious modernization of the destruction of Job, Michael Stuhlbarg delivers one of the great modern performances as the doomed physics professor suffering life's hateful treasures. Few films have had me aching with laughter like A Serious Man and I don't know if I should feel ashamed or commended for being in on The Coen Brothers' beautiful joke. Strangely (or maybe not), I think this would make a perfect companion film to The Big Lebowski--that other visual feast detailing a Dante-esque decent into the hell of stupidity and frustration.

Burn After Reading:  "I thought you might be worried about the security of your shit." This is kinda the demented cousin to Ocean's 11. Just like A Serious Man, Burn After Reading chronicles the horrors of humanity but with a more vulgar Marx Brothers kind of lunacy. Frances McDormand's plastic surgery obsessed hardbody gets in way over her head after she discovers the unpublished memoirs of John Malkovich's blathering memoir. She and the ipod jacked Brad Pitt might see money to be made, but there's nothing to be found in this scheme but eye popping dildos and axe chopped foreheads. Burn After Reading seemed to be quickly forgotten but if yer as twisted as I am than you might discover the most quotable film in The Coen Brothers cannon.  "I KNOW WHO YOU ARE FUCKER!"

No Country For Old Men:  A deeply dark and depressing Western Noir that brilliantly and frustratingly thumbs it's nose at the conventions of both genres; No Country For Old Men only gets better with multiple viewings. A chase picture that sees Javier Bardem's demonic hitman tracking Josh Brolin's happenstance cowboy with an exhausted Tommy Lee Jones trailing behind their bloody wake--it's not gonna end well. No Country is both like and unlike any other Coen Brothers flick. It has the darkness of Miller's Crossing and Fargo, but lacks their wink. Whatever the case, great cinema.  Putting together the best films of the last ten years, No Country For Old Men falls near the top.

The Ladykillers:  "Gimme That Donut Money!" I'm a fan. So much so that I claim Tom Hanks' performance as the Foghorn Leghorn Professor Dorr to be his absolute best, and his snooty, vile criminal mastermind is one of the great screen villains. Yes, yes, yes--how dare I say anything good about a film that would dare remake the Alec Guinness classic but the way The Coens mix the presence of a vengeful God into the fray along with the ghost painting of Otho heightens this black comedy silly into magical mondo madness. And Irma P Hall is a force unto herself, the poor thieving saps never stood a chance against her righteousness. Even the normally abysmal Marlon Waynes is a treat with his profane proclamations and his hatred of Mountain Girl. So, hater, take that chip off your shoulder and try to appreciate the absurdity of one of cinema's best remakes. Otherwise, I'll sic The General on your nostrils.

Paranorman:  This stop-motion monster mash is gory gobs of kiddie fun that's very much in the same vein of 80s classics like The Monster Squad, Explorers, and The Goonies. A group of disparate misfits are forced together to battle a cluster of terrified zombies and one hateful witch. Paranorman is quick and clever, and quite the relief in the sea of modern happy-happy family friendly kid fare--this is the film for your outsider child, and they're all outsiders.

Intolerable Cruelty:  This is really the only Coen Brothers film that I find to be completely unappealing. Clooney is pretty much perfect as the teeth obsessed lawyer trapped inside this wannabe Tracy/Hepburn comedy, but the jokes feel incredibly staged and fall flat rather than achieving cleverness. There's a falsity to the film, and not in that charming Wes Anderson artificial beauty kinda way but just a runofthemill romcom situation. I did apprecieate the change of character for Billy Bob Thorton, this chitter chatter attacker following the slowmo thoughtful gazes of the far superior...

The Man Who Wasn't There:  "Me, I don't talk much. I just cut the hair." Billy Bob Thorton's Ed Crane is another classic Coen character. He barely says a word. He smokes like a chimney. He's a barber who wants to be a dry cleaner. And when that desire leads him to the film noir nightmare that is this film we are treated with the most amazing barrage of narration ever put to screen. I would put this right up there with Miller's Crossing, The Big Lebowski, and No Country For Old Men as the absolute peak of Coen artistry.  Flying Saucers and never ending hair...what's it all mean?  Not sure.  Just pay the lawyer and accept your fate.

COMICS OF THE WEEK!

Saga #6:  Yep, yep, yep. Definitely one of my favorite books on the stands right now. Marko & Family reach the Rocketship Forest and the universe of the book immediately expands. As does the Family itself. After the shocking final pages of last issue, it’s good to see this fresh book has plenty of surprises to drop on us. One helluva cliffhanger after another.  And yeah, The Will is gonna destroy Prince Robot.

Bloodshot #2:  Issue two does a better job of detailing the crazy that is Bloodshot’s brain and it goes a long way in increasing my interest in the title. Conspiracies within conspiracies wrapped in great gobs of soupy blood. And Bloodshot loves his steak. Gross.

Daredevil #17:  It seems like I can’t walk into a comic shop or listen to a podcast without being hassled by a dozen nerds telling me how genius Mark Waid’s run on Daredevil has been. So when I saw Madman artist Mike Allred pop on for a one shot, I decided to give the book a go. I don’t know if this is the revelation some people are claiming it to be, but Waid writes a fun Matt Murdock. Which is definiltey a change from the brooding tragic hero I’m used to…but I like my Daredevil tragic. And I guess it’s unfair to judge a book on one issue but I much much much prefer Bendis & Maleeve’s crime opera to this horse play. Still, Allred is soooooo much fun to read. And I’m really looking forward to his take on Matt Fraction’s FF.

The Victories #1:  Here’s another book people seem really excited about. The Next Watchmen! Uh…yeah, I don’t think so. Sure, it’s set in an “adult” comic book universe where super heroes and villains say "fuck" a lot and shit down the throats of district judges but Greatness that does not make. And I’ve enjoyed Michael Avon Oeming’s art better in a dozen other books. It’s fun, but I’ll just wait for trade if I bother picking it up at all.

Fatale #7:  Still my favorite book currently on the stands. Issue 6 read almost like a first issue, but #7 reveals how this Hollywood Cult plot will play into the overall horror of Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips’ epic. B Movie star (?) Miles is definitely much more of the sadsack than Nicholas Lash or his uncle, I can see this junkie reaching a horrible and probably gory end.  And the second I turned the last page I was aching for the next.

The Rocketeer - Cargo of Doom:  I love the movie. I really like Dave Stevens original batch of comics. And The Rocketeer deserves a place next to the other typical comic super heroes. Written by Daredevil’s Mark Waid, Cargo of Doom is another light, fun frolic through the pulps with a mysterious shipment of scaly creatures on their way to rassel with goodboy pilot Cliff Secord. But how will this affect his relationship with bombshell Betty? And who is that creeper lurking in the bushes? I’m hoping for Rondo Hatton.

Batman Incorporated #3:  Well, I had to wait an extra month but issue three was worth the wait. Easily my favorite of the New 52 relaunch books, Grant Morrison introduces Bruce Wayne’s gangster counterpart Matches Malone into the universe, and he is appropriately goofy cool. Wayne is obviously thrilled playing the mustached part with his Hollywood lingo and abrasive chauvinism.  Plus, BAT COW LIVES!!!!! Damn right.

Archer & Armstrong #1:  Unlike Bloodshot and X-O Manowar, I never read Archer & Armstrong during its initial run and I only have the tiniest of memories of its original plot.  The relaunch is pretty interesting.   Starts off in Ancient Mesopotamia with a sci-fi cataclysm and quickly jumps into present day with Creationland amusement parks and whackjob religious zealots.  Archer leaves the cult for New York City and the Beast of the Apocalypse or something, and Armstrong bounces his way into the action with his ancient knowledge.  Definitely curious to see where this book goes but I’m not aching for the next issue…but I guess that could be said for all the Valiant books.  They haven’t reached the status of Must Reads…yet.

Fatima - The Blood Spinners #3:  Just when I think this book can’t gross me out any further, I’m shocked into revulsion as a I watch a couple of Blood Spinner agents get impregnated by big black slimy maggots. Fatima can’t trust her friends after she jumps seven years into the future, but she doesn’t have time for doubt as she’s blasting junkies in the face and escaping the gullets of roving slug beasts. Just a fun, gross, and weird book.

Lobster Johnson - The Prayer of Neferu:  I really want to love these Lobster Johnson books but they have yet to amaze me in the same fashion as Hellboy or BPRD. That being said, this latest one shot is a fun pulp adventure with the Lobster’s claw brandishing justice on a bunch of Mummy worshipers. Artist Wilfredo Torres should definitely stick around the Mignolaverse—his cartoony style is reminiscent of Jonathan Case’s crisp heroic characters and with Dave Stewarts colors Lobster Johnson seems to pop off the page.  Disposable, but good.

American Barbarian:  Tom Scioli channels the architecture of Jack Kirby's New Gods for this riotous homage to the sci-fi action of yesteryear.  But this is not just drab imitation, Scioli drenches American Barbarian with uproarious vulgarity that ignites plenty of chuckles as you watch the youngest son of Yoosaman slash & bash the armies of the Two-Tank Omen.  Imagine the post apocalypse of Mad Max populated with the goofy grandeur of the Silver Age and you'll get some idea for this colorful book.  It's not quite the genius of Scioli's Godland, but there's plenty of crazy to enjoy.

THE ULTIMATE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY BOOK CLUB!

Habibi by Craig Thompson:  Our first two meetings were centered on a couple of very Super Heroy comic books (Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men and Batman - The Long Halloween).  For our next effort, the group wanted to tackle something a bit more "serious."  Sigh, yes, yes, I treat X-Men & Batman very seriously but it was time to expand the minds of the group-show folks that this medium is not just for capes & cowls.  But maybe Habibi was too far into the deep end of the pool, and they might not have been properly prepared for the horrors that the book puts its main characters through.

The story of a nine year old girl sold into marriage; she must navigate a life of slavery as a revered member of the Sultan's harem...well, that's where the sexual horror comes into play and Craig Thompson does not shy from revealing the torture of these characters.  But Habibi is also the story of two damaged children surviving their lives using the stories of the Bible, the Torah, and the Qu'arn.  And somewhere in all this horror they find each other, loose each other, and find each other again.  SPOILERS.....some in the Book Club were dreading a horrible end to this Epic, but I could see the light on the horizon.  Unlike most of the others, I read Habibi is two quick bursts over the course of 24 hours and as I blitzed through its pages I just knew this was a book of hope.  And I found myself uplifted by the endeavors of these lost kids.

I'm not sure if Habibi is the Best Graphic Novel of the last ten years, but it is a pretty damn fantastic book.  Turns out, it's not for everybody-no shock there-but if you can handle frank depictions of both sex and violence while being interconnected with stories of faith than you will find this tome to be quite rewarding.

And the art!!!  Yowza, Craig Thompson is a fine storyteller but his cartooning is some of the absolute best.  There are pages in this book that totally floored me.  The way he transforms arabic into not just the borders of the panels, but the rain, the rivers, the animals of Habibi--it's stunning.  You can tear out any page in this book and hang it right on your wall.  It's art.

--Brad