I'm not a gigantic horror fan, but I just couldn't get behind Saw 5 even if I were. Here are five better ways to spend your hard-earned cash on something scary this weekend.
1) Let the Right One In
(NY & LA only)
I reviewed this one at Fantastic Fest. A Swedish vampire movie so good, everyone I know who has seen it has already decried the remake not only as unnecessary, but impossible to do anything at all better than the original did. Keep an eye on it as it expands out to those of us not in the Capitol of Fake America (NY) and the Gateway to Hell (LA).
2) Fear(s) of the Dark
(NY & LA only)
I reviewed this one at Fantastic Fest as well. I didn't dig every single part of it, but worth it for the three sequences I loved most: the bug, the break in, and the monster in the marshes. Do you want to see something new and striking, or Saw 6: Episode One?
3) The Order of Myths
(Austin only)
Not exactly the horror movie you'd find elsewhere on the list, but and interesting look at continued social segregation in Mobile, Alabama that continues to the present during Mardi Gras. I loved it back in March at SXSW, and since then it's even more interesting to look at in these closing days of the election. I'll try to get more of an idea as to what's going on with this movie's future past its Austin showings and follow up.
4) Dance of the Dead
Available now on DVD (US Region 1)
The prom. The undead. It's been done, but never is it usually re-done this well. If you don't take my word for it, take Quint's at AICN. This movie killed at SXSW, and I'm amazed they didn't release it during Prom season. The Dark Knight hadn't hit yet, and as I recall, Iron Man was cooling off. This reminds me of the boneheaded decision Warnes Bros. made to not release Trick R Treat theatrically this Halloween season (more on that gripe soon).
5) The Substitute
Available now on DVD (US Region 1)
Another Fantastic Fest flick that deserves a full review I've yet to complete. An evil demented substitute teacher is a threat to everyone and the kids know it. From Denmark with scares. I'll do my best to get a real review up before next weekend.
I'd like to follow this up throughout next week with more suggestions of things to do other than see the new Saw movie. Hit me up with suggestions: moiseschiu {at} g mail.
Read MoreElectric Shadow
AFF08: Synecdoche, New York
The best film I saw at this year's Austin Film Festival turns out to be one of the best movies I've seen all year. Synecdoche, New York is a cinematic experience that I expect to stick with me for some time to come. During a post-show Q&A with director Charlie Kaufman, only one question really stuck out to me, because it hit at what I think this film does well. It was a pretty closed-ended question about whether he had ever considered making a time travel movie. Kaufman answered that he had seriously intended as a child to build a time machine and use it to solve the world's problems and things that scared him, like death. He said (perhaps jokingly) that he still intends to build that time machine.
What I found most fascinating about Charlie at this moment was that without intending to, he very profoundly articulated the purpose of his script and the movie that resulted.
I approached him afterward as people were shoving DVDs and photocopies of the Malkovich script in his hands to autograph, which he was generously plowing through. I told him I didn't have anything to guilt him into signing, but that perhaps he's built the time machine and just adding parts as he goes from film to film. He seemed momentarily taken out of the moment and said, "I hadn't thought of that."
There are those who would say that Synecdoche, New York is nothing but a gloom ride that is oppressively depressing, but I think that may be too simple of an analysis. It's easy to feel boxed-in by a movie ostensibly about death and the futility of one man's quest for closure and peace. I honestly feel boxed-in and utterly worthless trying to write about it. Kaufman's scripts have often had "meta" attached to them in the manner of "oh dude that is so meta." The "Malkovich Malkovich" scene from Being John Malkovich being one of many examples. I suppose I feel metafutile in trying to articulate what I feel about the movie in the form of a review.
Especially in the realm of writing online about the movie business, movies themselves, and theoretical movies that have not yet been (or will be) made, you hit those points when you just outright ask yourself "what the fuck is the point?" and throw your hands up in frustration, crawl back into bed, or just take the dog for a walk. It's like that for anyone with a job or creative pursuit. In particular, a strand of the movie I could particularly grasp on from personal experience was the theatre production featured in the first bit.
Caden Cotard (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is a theatre director putting on a production of Death of a Salesman wherein he has intentionally cast younger actors as Willy and Linda Loman as an "artistic choice." He's anguishing over the fact that everything, according to him, is going terribly and the show will be a massive failure. Anyone who has ever done theatre (community, educational, or Equity) will tell you that's how it always goes. It's always horrible right before it gets better. You just keep hoping the "better" part eventually comes.
You meet Caden as he believes he is beginning to die (aren't we all, once we've been born?) and you watch Caden go all the way to the zenith of his life. Spoilers are available elsewhere, but suffice to say that his concept and execution of what a production is grows impossibly grand in scale. This is an absolute must-see for anyone involved in any creative trade, from the ticket-tearing fan to the "real life" engineer who finds a way to make the impossibly complex community theatre stage design work to the visionary at the top commanding the ship.
The experience of watching the movie itself was extremely cathartic for me, and though it steeped in the "what's the point" stuff for a while, I made my peace with it. There are those films that truly fill you with the "feelings of doom" that doctors ask about when trying to shove depression pills in your hand and then leave you with an unfilled bottle of pills by the end of the movie. This movie, it seems, took Kaufman's time machine into the future and found the cure for all those shitty feelings, came to find me in the present, and re-arranged some synapses.
I felt confused once it was all over, not for lack of comprehension, but rather due to some indignation toward myself. "Why do I have those days where I just sit around?" I demanded of myself, fists shaking with rage. The funeral scene mentioned in Jeff and others' reviews came across to me as "here's your funeral, Mr./Mrs/The Viewer. Okay, now it's over, so get on living your life and doing what makes you happy."
Aside from all of the deeper infused meaning, the movie is hilarious in regular doses thanks to an expertly-cast group of actors. If I were to pick one out at random to heap praise on it would be Hope Davis as Caden's shrink. Now that I've gotten myself into this mess of picking favorites by writing that last sentence, I'd be remiss to not mention all of the excellent performances in here, so now consider me remiss.
I do have to mention Tom Noonan for a second though, risking the careless reputation I've just established for myself. I was clicking around on IMdB listings and found an interesting quotation of his:
"I don't think you go to a play to forget, or to a movie to be distracted. I think life generally is a distraction and that going to a movie is a way to get back, not go away."
Make of that what you will.
In closing, I'd like to take a moment to mourn the utterly dreadful state of our national level of education here in the old US of A, specifically as it applies to the title of the film. They introduced the film beforehand as so appropriate for a festival that focuses on the writer, and what an understatement to be made. Unfortunately, I find it amazing that so many people I meet at these things or friends from college finish with some sort of degree in writing and don't know what "synecdoche" itself is, including the "like totally aspiring writer" sitting near me who asked Kaufman "like did you really ghostwrite Identity, dude?" Should there be a standardized test for writing awards, fellowships, and grants to prevent that guy from ever getting any money for writing? I think there should be, and I'll go on record saying that's the only standardized test I'm in favor of. Well, that's for me and the poet shirt-wearing Twilight fans to argue about next time we eat Arrugula and Goat Cheese while toasting social elitism.
Also...no, the word "synecdoche" doesn't do you any favors with the people who aren't interested in examining their lives for missed opportunities or faults, nor does the plot of the movie lend itself to these people who pal around with idiots. The film as it plays isn't one you want to trick Joe the Max Payne-Worshipper into walking in to see. He won't like it in the first place. He'll walk out, ask for a refund, and go down the hall to watch Max Payne again, writhing in ecstasy at all the gunfire and exploding furniture. This is an arthouse movie people will seek out thanks to the extraordinary pedigree of its writer/director and cast as well as the strong critical acclaim. The road is very bright ahead for a smart, introspective film among the spread of dumbed-down crap that's out there. Know many people who, at its time of release, would have argued that The Adventure and The Eclipse sound any better than L'avventura or L'eclisse because the latter have too many syllables and/or vowels?
Watch your local arthouse listings with bated breath for this one to pop up. It's well worth the admission and emotional investment.
Read MoreSlow Days and Sick Days
Today's been monumentally unproductive thanks to the fact that nearly back-to-back festivals and the changing of the weather have teamed up on me and knocked me out for a day or two. Tomorrow looks to be more of a long-nap-day rather than a sleep-all-day, so the bits of progress I've made on a number of pieces will finally culminate in their completion as well as the furious pounding-out of others sitting on a to-do list.
I'm going to be caught up to the present on AFF, almost finish off Fantastic Fest, and get started on some Home Front reviews. It'll be like Christmas in October...just like it is at Target as of late last month.
Read MoreAFF08: Wendy and Lucy
I have to admit a soft spot for "dog movies" (good ones), especially ones featuring a dog named Lucy (the name of my wonderful Beagle). Setting that aside as much as I'm able, I thoroughly enjoyed Sunday night's screening of Wendy and Lucy, a rare indie that rewards a patient viewer with a soaked-in emotional journey without much (if any) pretense or indulgent, inefficient filmmaking.
My Beagle, Lucy
During the Q&A for Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire the other night, he mentioned something Godard once said, which roughly paraphrased is that all you need for a movie is money, a girl, and a gun. Wendy and Lucy gives you two out of three, and though I enjoyed it a great deal myself and others have been effusively lauding the movie since Cannes, I felt like I'd been shorted some change once the movie was over. I won't spoil the ending, but as "French" as I like my movies, the finale will leave something to be desired for some, just as the movie as a whole will. This is not a slog by any estimation, but a deeply moving evocation of the tragedy of modern life.
The true reason to watch is Michelle Williams' performance, which in execution does far more than is required on paper. She gives such a naturalistic, lived-in picture of Wendy here that the movie becomes more of a nature film studying her character as an animal in the wilderness of "civilization" than anything else, which I assume was the point.
Michelle gives us a young woman who is on her way from Indiana to Alaska (the You Betcha State) on a search (we assume) for gainful employment with her faithful and only companion, Lucy the Golden Retriever mix. We join the action as her resources are finally disintegrating in her grasp as she gets to northern Oregon. Wendy is a fiercely independent person, the "leave me alone, I can do it" type, who has finally come toward the end of a rope. Precisely how far from the frayed end she is, we don't know, but she's losing her grip on her circumstances.
This performance is substantive, no bullshit stuff and deserves recognition irrespective of her gender. On the one hand, it's a tragic but endearing snapshot of the young, modern American Woman left to her own devices but at once, it's allegorically a picture of where my generation (and hers) is at this point. Our forebears have built up all this "civilization" and we're no better off necessarily than if we were just lost in the woods. At one point, someone mentions, "can't get a job without an address, can't get an address without a job, can't get a job without a phone," again paraphrased. I couldn't put what they're getting at here any better myself.
Michelle Williams carries the whole thing, and I have to say for Best Lead Actress. As people see the shows starring those that are being put in the Oscar pool assumptively, I hope one or two sift out of the mix and Williams gets in, because she really deserves recognition here. Nothing against the front-runners no one has seen yet or anything.
I repeat my favorite refrain, which is that the film is absolutely worth seeing, and you should avoid reading other reviews. I find many telegraph the entire plot, which ruins this movie more than others.
More AFF writeups to come, because as one does during a festival, I've gotten profoundly overloaded.
Read MoreMy Beagle, Lucy
The true reason to watch is Michelle Williams' performance, which in execution does far more than is required on paper. She gives such a naturalistic, lived-in picture of Wendy here that the movie becomes more of a nature film studying her character as an animal in the wilderness of "civilization" than anything else, which I assume was the point.
Michelle gives us a young woman who is on her way from Indiana to Alaska (the You Betcha State) on a search (we assume) for gainful employment with her faithful and only companion, Lucy the Golden Retriever mix. We join the action as her resources are finally disintegrating in her grasp as she gets to northern Oregon. Wendy is a fiercely independent person, the "leave me alone, I can do it" type, who has finally come toward the end of a rope. Precisely how far from the frayed end she is, we don't know, but she's losing her grip on her circumstances.
This performance is substantive, no bullshit stuff and deserves recognition irrespective of her gender. On the one hand, it's a tragic but endearing snapshot of the young, modern American Woman left to her own devices but at once, it's allegorically a picture of where my generation (and hers) is at this point. Our forebears have built up all this "civilization" and we're no better off necessarily than if we were just lost in the woods. At one point, someone mentions, "can't get a job without an address, can't get an address without a job, can't get a job without a phone," again paraphrased. I couldn't put what they're getting at here any better myself.
Michelle Williams carries the whole thing, and I have to say for Best Lead Actress. As people see the shows starring those that are being put in the Oscar pool assumptively, I hope one or two sift out of the mix and Williams gets in, because she really deserves recognition here. Nothing against the front-runners no one has seen yet or anything.
I repeat my favorite refrain, which is that the film is absolutely worth seeing, and you should avoid reading other reviews. I find many telegraph the entire plot, which ruins this movie more than others.
More AFF writeups to come, because as one does during a festival, I've gotten profoundly overloaded.Election2008: Early Voting in Texas & Florida
Early voting started yesterday in Texas and Florida, and according to the Austin American Statesman, the TX Secretary of State's office is vastly underprepared for Election Day. There were denials on KUT (local NPR affiliate) as early as this morning from the Sec. State's office, but if the vastly under-estimated number of ballots during the Democratic Primary in March is any indicator, 4 November will be...interesting.
Everyone vote early, especially in Florida.
Read MoreAustinFF08: Chatting with James Cromwell, Part 1
I have to race back downtown to catch Slumdog Millionaire, so this will be posted in two parts. Enjoy.
--------------------------
H-E: One of the things that struck me the most last night in your introduction was about the paternal relationship and how that's something that the two of you connected with, you and Josh. How do you think it is that it comes off to people who aren't really addressing that relationship or have avoided that--
James Cromwell: The father and the son relationship? Very few people I know have not addressed it at some point. For some it's more difficult than others...it depends on what's happened. I still have issues in my life about my father, I've internalized them. Of course it's never the other person. [In the film] it's not so much Poppy [George Sr.]. Poppy is the creation of W., and that creation contains within it the limitations of the child's ability to understand the circumstances the father has found himself in, and interpret the behavior of the father in a way to express the love that the father has for the son rather than his judgment and condemnation. So Poppy represents, it's interesting--
H-E: He's less a person than a construct.
JC: Exactly, that's right. The construct that he, that W. has created inside, so ultimately you begin to jettison that as you get a little older through your empathy and understanding begin to understand that they have lives and they have motivation that maybe you don't understand. As I said last night those three processes of [1] confronting the father when the father makes demands that you can't live up to, basically to stand your ground as a man. Then the second one is to exceed them in whatever you do, you know with gentleness of course but not to hold back. I held back from directing I think even subconsciously, and I've loved to direct, I've always enjoyed directing. It's funny. You know, I see young people, you know, ones who aren't even very good sometimes who are making a living doing it, and I still hold back from doing it and I give myself all these excuses for why I shouldn't be doing it.
It's basically because that was his arena and not mine and I don't wanna go there. Maybe that changes at some point, it's getting a little late, but that's all right.
Then the last one is to be the father to the father, forgive him. We all go through that.
H-E: In terms of the production of the film itself, at what point were you folded into the mix. Who had been put on the film by the time you came on?
JC: I don't think there was anybody attached other than Josh at that point. [Stone] knew there were two thematic lines, and that's the relationship between the father, the formative part of W, and then the political machinations which would involve a variety of people filling smaller parts that would amplify the character of W.
H-E: So you were involved extremely early on.
JC: I was the second one. I think he had offered it to a number of people, you know. Always try to attach somebody ho helps you raise the financing. If it had been Warren Beatty or Harrison Ford, it would have been much easier for him.
H-E: [laughs] I think it would have been a much...more strange movie.
JC: Yeah, and whether he was serious about that or not, Josh chose me and said to him, "you should look at Jamie Cromwell" and [Stone] went "ehhh" and [Josh] said "nonono, see him." I saw him and he wanted to see me again and I refused to go see him again. I thought you saw me the one time, you're not gonna get anything different from me, it's not gonna change--
H-E: You don't get two first dates.
JC: Nah, you don't get two first dates, and you know, I'm glad it worked out the way it did, really.
H-E: Like I said to you before, it's a really fascinating film that if people give it a chance, and I think that they will, they'll be quite pleased. One of the important things I think you brought up last night is that the studios seem to be absolutely convinced that "no one wants to see a movie about politics or world events" these days. I think there's some credence to the idea people don't want to go see them the way they're advertised, the way they're promoting them. This film is the crossover point, I think.
JC: Yeah, there are two dilemmas I think. One is the conservatism and cowardice of the industry as a whole or any industry, which of course, because they're beholden to large multinational corporations to make a return on the product they produce. So, the bean-counters and the analysts look at the marketplace and see what's working and what doesn't and extrapolate what you should and should not invest in. On the other hand, I'm not sure America is really ready to take a very probing look at its responsibility and culpability for what has happened, especially in the War in Iraq. I mean it's fine to blame it on Bush, we don't wanna look at why that war was created as a necessity to maintain the lifestyle that we take for granted...that we would be highly unwilling to give up, that as a people, we may be forced to give up. They're conservative and at the same time, whoever makes the film. Elah, In the Valley of Elah--
H-E: The Tommy Lee Jones film.
JC: Yeah, Josh was in that too. Winderful film, and I thought what's not to like about this film, it's accurate. he took it from actual cases and he combined them together. Horrible things were happening on bases, marital violence, murders, guys cting out, guys who didn't know about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder...we're now seeing this happening on all over, and it's going to get increasingly worse. It had a wonderful lead performance, got an Academy award nomination, a great script...why didn't it make it? Why didn't they push the film? When you read the review today in the paper, and it says "Josh Brolin gives a credible performance, this film breaks no new ground, those who've come to see--" shit no. Is that a liberal writing about the condemnation he wished he'd seen in the film. Is this a guy on the right who really wants to condemn the film but can't do it with faint praise? Hopefully, that will not dissuade anyone from seeing it.
--------------------------
Part 2 is on its way as we delve into the transforming landscape of distribution, politics, and various other things. Stay tuned.
Read MoreJames Cromwell & W. in Austin
I've disappeared for a couple days ramping up for the 15th annual Austin Film Festival, and last night kicked it off with a bang. The opening night film, Oliver Stone's W., played like gangbusters and the followup at the historic Paramount Theatre (Max Payne) left even the fanboys in the audience wanting. I'll have more on Max Payne shortly. James Cromwell introduced the film last night and in so doing announced a just-added "Conversation with" Q&A for this morning.
Shortly after the Q&A concluded, I got the chance to interview the actor and activist whose work in both respects I admire very much. I would simply upload the audio, but I can't for the life of me find my auxiliary cable so the transcript will appear shortly.
As for the film itself, the screening was truly an interesting study of the atmosphere of the city of Austin as well as the generation my esteemed editor refers to as The Generation of Shame (I prefer Doom myself). The film had some key location shoots around downtown easily picked out by any Austinite, some just down Congress Avenue from the Paramount Theatre where we were watching the movie. I overheard some hilarious things in line and afterward that I'll put in a Talking at the Movies piece today or tomorrow.
After reading the plethora of advance reviews out there, I most categorically disagree with two things right off: anyone referring to Josh Brolin's performance as "credible" or some other innocuous adjective isn't worth their salt, and calling Thandie Newton's performance as "Condi" Rice a caricature is trying too hard to look like a critic. Look, I'm an actor and (theatre) director first and a critical writer second, and would never pretend to use the "J" word to describe who I am or what I do for Hollywood Elsewhere.
I don't have a degree or commendation or fame to back me up as a critic, but I've done enough acting and watching to get what's going on with a highly technical performance. The technique Thandie employs here is one of approximation and the necessary degree of imitation, and yes, it absolutely splits your sides quite often. People instinctively laugh at the "dead-on" inhabitation of an impersonation for good reason. The laughter came in so many places, especially for Brolin throughout, but also for Toby Jones' perfect Rove and especially when Dreyfuss flashed Cheney's famous crooked underbite (you'll know when you see it). What's most important, and what makes the performances work across the board is the balance. No one treads the line so dangerously as to come off as Saturday Night Live making a feature film version of Dubya's great struggle.
Cromwell (in concert with Stone's direction) wisely does not choose the route of impersonation and instead inhabits the construct of what Dubya has turned his father into in the film's narrative. To mimic the real-life Herbert Dubya's mannerisms and manner of speech would defeat the purpose of Weiser's script summarily.
Cromwell related before the film began last night that he felt one of the genuine underlying strengths of the film was the real father-son issues both he and Josh brought to the proceedings themselves. The vulnerabilities they expose from their personal lives in how they bring The Two Georges to the screen is what elevates this film from left-leaning social commentary or satire to a complex narrative deservingly compared to Greek tragedy.
It's no secret where I stand politically. According to the plethora of Bush-faitful that have weighed in, I'm in the tank for this movie. What's telling for me is that when talking to a dyed-in-the-wool Republican friend very recently and explaining the tack W. takes, he said something he'd never admit to the set he generally hangs around:
"That's the life I think my dad got pushed into, and it's the mistake of his that I'm repeating. It's who I am and I don't really have a choice."
W. is no mere stunt film, and the 4-6% of truly conflicted, undecided voters who see the movie may find it to sway their feelings about the election. They're the 4-6% that will actually decide this election in some states, and when they think about this story and who John McCain is fundamentally, their eyes might actually open all the way up.
My interview with James Cromwell is yet to come, since transcription will take a bit longer than expected. Might be delayed until tomorrow.
Read More
Shortly after the Q&A concluded, I got the chance to interview the actor and activist whose work in both respects I admire very much. I would simply upload the audio, but I can't for the life of me find my auxiliary cable so the transcript will appear shortly.
As for the film itself, the screening was truly an interesting study of the atmosphere of the city of Austin as well as the generation my esteemed editor refers to as The Generation of Shame (I prefer Doom myself). The film had some key location shoots around downtown easily picked out by any Austinite, some just down Congress Avenue from the Paramount Theatre where we were watching the movie. I overheard some hilarious things in line and afterward that I'll put in a Talking at the Movies piece today or tomorrow.
After reading the plethora of advance reviews out there, I most categorically disagree with two things right off: anyone referring to Josh Brolin's performance as "credible" or some other innocuous adjective isn't worth their salt, and calling Thandie Newton's performance as "Condi" Rice a caricature is trying too hard to look like a critic. Look, I'm an actor and (theatre) director first and a critical writer second, and would never pretend to use the "J" word to describe who I am or what I do for Hollywood Elsewhere.
I don't have a degree or commendation or fame to back me up as a critic, but I've done enough acting and watching to get what's going on with a highly technical performance. The technique Thandie employs here is one of approximation and the necessary degree of imitation, and yes, it absolutely splits your sides quite often. People instinctively laugh at the "dead-on" inhabitation of an impersonation for good reason. The laughter came in so many places, especially for Brolin throughout, but also for Toby Jones' perfect Rove and especially when Dreyfuss flashed Cheney's famous crooked underbite (you'll know when you see it). What's most important, and what makes the performances work across the board is the balance. No one treads the line so dangerously as to come off as Saturday Night Live making a feature film version of Dubya's great struggle.
Cromwell (in concert with Stone's direction) wisely does not choose the route of impersonation and instead inhabits the construct of what Dubya has turned his father into in the film's narrative. To mimic the real-life Herbert Dubya's mannerisms and manner of speech would defeat the purpose of Weiser's script summarily.
Cromwell related before the film began last night that he felt one of the genuine underlying strengths of the film was the real father-son issues both he and Josh brought to the proceedings themselves. The vulnerabilities they expose from their personal lives in how they bring The Two Georges to the screen is what elevates this film from left-leaning social commentary or satire to a complex narrative deservingly compared to Greek tragedy.
It's no secret where I stand politically. According to the plethora of Bush-faitful that have weighed in, I'm in the tank for this movie. What's telling for me is that when talking to a dyed-in-the-wool Republican friend very recently and explaining the tack W. takes, he said something he'd never admit to the set he generally hangs around:
"That's the life I think my dad got pushed into, and it's the mistake of his that I'm repeating. It's who I am and I don't really have a choice."
W. is no mere stunt film, and the 4-6% of truly conflicted, undecided voters who see the movie may find it to sway their feelings about the election. They're the 4-6% that will actually decide this election in some states, and when they think about this story and who John McCain is fundamentally, their eyes might actually open all the way up.
My interview with James Cromwell is yet to come, since transcription will take a bit longer than expected. Might be delayed until tomorrow.The Fall of Ember
This morning's box office returns are discouraging not because Body of Lies came in where it did, but because Jeff's Chihuahua Theory was proven true by people wanting to plow in and see "The Chihuahua Movie" they missed the week before, or, god forbid, decided they needed to see twice theatrically.
The not-screened-for-critics Quarantine came in a respectable second. The movie was directed by Eric Dowdle, who made The Poughkeepsie Tapes, which neither my wife nor I could sit through during last year's Butt-Numb-a-Thon and is still floating in release purgatory.
The real loss is the fact City of Ember's 10th place standing translates in studio terms to "no sequel, no way." I have read a couple bloggers' stories mentioning "movie jail" potential for director Gil Kenan or otherwise dismiss the movie as "pretty design, nothing for me." Speaking to the first point, you guys can fuck right off. As for the latter, I can't count on my hands and feet how many absolutely terrible, no-redeeming-value kid/tweener movies come out every year. That the same folks who brush this movie off as they would one of those don't go after the throat of the Chihuahua movie astounds me.
I'm honestly more disheartened at the prospect we won't see this series completed cinematically. Though something of a negative at the end of this "first" flick for myself and others, the fact you want more isn't entirely a bad thing. What I constantly remind myself of is that as a "general public" viewer, I don't see movies in press screening audiences of less than five, and it's more of a "happening." I think the gorging nature of the industry these days, plowing from buffet to buffet of junkets and press screenings is too often leading to writers who act as advocates for this medium the undoers or "shitters-upon" of the medium they love so much.
This isn't to say I think the movie is perfect, please do not misunderstand me. One of the themes of Hellboy comes to mind in that often what you truly love about someone (or some thing) is its inherent flaws.
Read MoreBranagh confirmed for Thor
What a few weeks ago would have come across as the strangest coupling in a while, Playbill Online of all places provides confirmation that Kenneth Branagh is locked-in to direct The Mighty Thor for Marvel Studios.
Branagh had been attached to direct a 2009-bowing production of Hamlet starring Jude Law with the Donmar Warehouse in England, but "has had to step aside because of his commitments to the forthcoming feature film 'Thor' - a project he has recently undertaken". It was already reported that he was circling it, but he's full-on attached and in knee-deep. I've always been a great admirer of his 4-hour Hamlet and various other things Branagh's done (and just as often a detractor on things like Frankenstein), but this is the first time I've been outright fascinated by one of his upcoming projects. I'd love to see the script for this character that got this director attached.
I'd be very surprised to see him playing Thor himself, but his involvement could help attract A-list talent that'd otherwise scoff at the idea of playing Iron Man's pal who has a winged helmet. I'd personally love to see a grade-A talent like Kevin McKidd (TV's Rome and Journeyman) get a big break out of a part like this. Marvel may actually make this whole crossover/team thing work.
Read MoreThe Future of Arthouse Cowboy
I've almost fully rebuilt the archives from mis-formatted and lost entries that were worse for wear after the server changeover. They're being re-posted on a somewhat regular basis. Expect them to keep popping into the archives on a rolling basis throughout the month as I have time to attend to them.
The main purpose for this post is to announce new recurring features and plans for Arthouse Cowboy that'll keep this column its own distinct animal. As life has gotten somewhat more predictable and manageable for me, I'm launching some long-planned regular items, the first of which have already started appearing. Below you'll find the new recurring features I'm posting and what kind of content to expect out of them.
Culture of Demand (revived and revamped)
I threw a couple of these out there back in 2005 under the banner of Culture on Demand. The prepositional change is in keeping with how the atmosphere and market have changed in the last three years. These pieces are less review-y and more along the lines of critical essays and (occasionally) raging screeds. I'm applying my Cultural Anthropology studies to looking at the nature of how people are evolving their tastes in terms of media consumption. The moviegoing landscape has been changing big-time to the point that we're immersed in the tidal wave resulting from what Jeff called "The Big Fade":
"Certain industry-watchers are in denial about this (and you know who I mean), but there's no hiding from this any longer: we're experiencing a seismic shift in attitudes about how, when and where to get our entertainment fix.
"It's not a welcome thing to consider, but the hard fact is that the good old "let's go to the movies so we can have fun and have something to talk about later over drinks" option is starting to slip down the pole a bit.
"Seeing movies in theatres is being slowly de-popularized and retired by different demos for different reasons. I'm calling it the Big Fade.
"The fade is on because the movie-going experience costs too much, which is happening because greedy actors and their agents have pushed their fees into the upper stratosphere. The higher the fees, the bigger the budgets...which in turn has forced studio-based producers to back away from making adult-friendly middlebrow movies and concentrate more and more on theme-park movies, which has pushed away the adults."
The Home Front (brand new)
An extension of Culture of Demand pieces, Home Front is going to be more review-focused. Since so many people are now seeing movies almost exclusively at home or on other small screens, I wanted to focus on everything from regular DVD to Blu-ray to the 31 flavors of digital downloads and streaming. Straight to Video (STV), an oft-ignored category that horrifies and entertains me in equal measure will also be covered here, especially low-rent STV sequels. I promise to focus equally on high-quality, low-awareness releases that deserve more attention.
Region0 (read: Region Zero, brand new)
This is my space to advocate movies and TV shows that, for whatever reason, you can't find in the States or isn't getting a fair shake with its move to American shores. Asian movies (live action and animated), older US movies that are inexplicably not on DVD in Region 1, and British TV shows that make US cable channels look absurd are all the tip of the iceberg here. As with Access Denied! (below), I'll include the country of origin, original year of release, and where/how to find it (legally) if you can.
Access Denied! (brand new)
The spiritual sibling of Region0 jumps to the perspective of people in other countries who have trouble seeing movies for one reason or another, whether foreign (US) or domestic. Whether they're amazing and great and have something to say...or really preachy for the sake of controversy, movies banned in their native countries deserve special attention. I'm Chinese and Cuban, so out of the gate I have a lot to work with on those fronts alone. As a long-term goal, I also want to do some investigative research on how people are seeing all this stuff that's allegedly banned. There are apparently a few ten millions of Daily Show fans in China.
Western Evangelism (brand new)
This has nothing to do with proselytizing evangelical Christians. Since I started writing for Hollywood Elsewhere off and on, I've wanted to write a monthly (if not more frequent) piece to promote good westerns people haven't seen in a while, aren't on DVD or are simply not available.
To give you a feeling for where my Western tastes lie: I'll try anything competent once. That's why I watched a lot of John Wayne's lesser work that involves "let's ride up another ridge and kill another 7 minutes with a riding montage and find those Injuns." There's been a rash of STV westerns recently that will probably not be covered here unless they surprise my face off.
I'm going to also use this feature as an excuse to cover good "Horse Movies" like Into the West and others that in my mind are Westerns thematically but aren't all-out oaters. Expect some weird non-American gunslinger product in here too.
Read MoreCultureOfDemand: Shopaholicism
"Shop therapy" is something more Americans than not have become addicted to over the last few decades in particular. They engage in indulgent overspending to make themselves feel better in the face of all sorts of adversities. At the end of the day, they're more in debt and have more crap they don't need. They avoid hard work and skate by on credit. All of these values are spotlit by an upcoming film, but shown through a very troubling lens indeed.
The most galling part of the trailer for Confessions of a Shopaholic is that it says it's ok to act like an idiot about debt and consumerism now more than ever; however, as much as I decry it, I've been as much part of the problem as everyone else.
Tuesday used to be a weekly holiday for me called "DVD Tuesday" when I was in college. I had a gold Discount Card sold by the Lacrosse team that got you 10% off all purchases excluding TVs & computers at Best Buy. That coupled with the standard release week discounting made my bang-for-buck extremely high when it came to loading up on DVDs. This was great for my film education and in the same stroke, horrible for my credit rating. The lousy credit education I got in high school combined with the easy availability of Student Credit Cards and my lack of interest in learning about what I was getting myself into plunged me into debt I'm still getting rid of years later, no longer buffered by cheap student living and financial aid.
Over the last three or four years, I've become a fervent anti-credit activist, with close friends and relatives sometimes yelling at me about how vehemently I pour hate on lending as a concept. Even at this point, people have such a lack of knowledgeability about credit debt, financing, and the US economy that they are dismissing the "cratering" world markets as something that doesn't and won't affect them. If you want a good look at predatory lending and financing practices that doesn't pull any punches, take a look at Maxed Out, a doc I covered from the 2006 South by Southwest Film Festival that Magnolia released on DVD a while back. Rent it via Amazon VOD here, buy the DVD from Amazon here, or Rent/Buy on iTunes.
I've been shaking my head at what Shopaholic represents since I heard it was announced. Especially in this climate, where things are going to get worse before they get better due to the nature of our economy, I am now anticipating the release of Confessions of a Shopaholic for a couple reasons. I wonder if it will open-and-close thanks to a public who doesn't want to be reminded of the reason we've destroyed our economy, or will the B.H. Chihuahua crowd go in droves, still deluded that "Happy days are here again"?
Culture of Demand is a recurring feature of Arthouse Cowboy focusing on the growing on-demand nature of how people think of and consume media from an anthropological perspective. If I miss a "digital" option of how to watch something, please let me know.
Read MoreCultureOfDemand: HSM3 versus Broadway
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/122138.html
http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_hill/archive/2008/09/25/will-senior-year-re-energize-disney-s-high-school-musical-franchise.aspx
Read MoreImportance of Ember
As I wrote a couple weeks ago about the hooks Gil Kenan's City of Ember has to the current state-of-the-game in the US election and the (now global) economic crisis, here are some select graphs that remain prescient:
"This is not an "adult" post-apocalyptic thriller or anything, but it isn't "kiddy" either. This is not a reinvention of the post-apocalyptic sci-fi/fantasy film, but it is a vitally important cautionary tale for the climate we currently live in, especially in the US.
"Fundamentally, the thematic thrust of the movie involves paying attention when things don't sound or feel right, pulling your head out of the sand, and doing the right thing.
"There was no ever-present danger-danger in the "someone's out to get us", traditional sense, but instead I felt rather claustrophobic, like the city was caving in on the kids (and me by extension) just as the economy and the country seems to be crumbling at the moment. It reminds me of what my dad has told me has happened to Havana over the last five decades, complete with government-assigned professions "for the greater good" of a crumbling society."
I'll add here that I think the trailers are slightly overdoing expectations for the amount of "action-packed thrill-riding" in the movie proper. Kenan has exceptionally translated fast-paced cognitive discovery into physical action, so you should expect this is more of a discovery adventure than a "look out here comes the monster/army, get out the bazooka/power ring" thing.
"Swing-voter parents taking their kids to City of Ember will watch a crumbling civilization as a result of inaction coupled with empty The People Come First promises. They'll see a leader refuse to address how he's going to fix things other than say he's on the job and focused on no one but them all while he's only intent on deflecting concern and covering his own ass."
Post-apocalyptic fairy tale City of Ember starts pulling heads out of the sand today.
Read MoreCultureOfDemand: Che for kids
Re: Jeff's Che post about something Karina Longworth wrote about Che appeal to the 20something generation...
As a member of the Generation of Doom, I'm an anomaly in my unrepentant eagerness to see Che for a couple reasons: I was reared on movies like Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia and not only tolerate but expect 3-hour plus running times and vague moral perspective from great films, and on top of that, my father's direct immersion (I'm gonna withhold using the word 'involvement') in the Cuban revolution of '59 makes me more interested in El Che than the average 25 year-old who thinks they know a lot about movies. When I worked on a campus programming board when I was an undergrad, there was always great resistance to anything that ran over TWO hours, let alone 3. Well, unless there were hobbits in it.
The anecdote that a reader passed along a while back about some idiot in Best Buy not knowing what Citizen Kane was reminded me of these meetings where I would be alone in the room when I brought up Antonioni or Bresson, and any time I would mention Lawrence or Zhivago, one person or another would pipe in with "my dad likes it a lot, but isn't it, like, 60 years old or something?" At a certain point, it was like the High School Student Council was deciding that The Little Mermaid or Hackers made a better "Midnight Movie" than El Topo or Pink Flamingos.
Culture of Demand is a recurring feature of Arthouse Cowboy focusing on the growing on-demand nature of how people think of and consume media from an anthropological perspective. If I miss a "digital" option of how to watch something, please let me know.
Read MoreElection2008: Obama crushes McCain
I wasn't trained in the finest English schools like Andrew Sullivan, but I've won my fair share of parliamentary and Lincoln-Douglas debates. I've "flowed" (ask a debate nerd to explain that one) plenty as well. I'm far from objective, but there is no way you could score last night as a win for McCain or even a "keeping afloat."
The best move Obama made was dropping the "AIG went on a spa trip on taxpayer money" reference early on and letting it stew in viewers' minds the rest of the debate. Here's the invoice.
Even though things got off in the standard Presidential Debate style with candidates sidelining questions in favor of talking points, once they asked about Healthcare, it was over from there. While Barack Obama talked about his mom dying of cancer, McCain reacted as detatched and indifferent as possible, echoing Sarah Palin jumping in all perky yippy-skippy after Joe Biden talked about his dead wife and daughter. It's all grin grin, sneer sneer.
I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go through this a bit more chronologically:
McCain lead off and establish the precedent by breaking the debate rules and ignoring the format and time limitations. Great.
McCain's leadoff statement that it's nice to see Obama "at a Town Hall meeting" calls back to his insistence on weekly Town Hall debates that would have severely cut down Obama's time to go out and campaign and let battleground states actually get to know him.
McCain's bitter tone started here and permeated his answers, talking points, catchphrases, and "jokes" that went over like a fleet of lead balloons.
He then proceeded to drop his big new policy position that makes no practical sense: he wants the US to buy all the bad mortgage debt and refinance all of those subprime loans at the now-depreciated value and at better rates. Not only is that outright socialism if you ask the moderate Republi-Libertarians, but McCain is only using it as a ploy to sucker "those dumb poor people" into voting for him.
McCain then segued into talking about how he did the selfless thing, suspended his campaign (though he didn't stop campaigning or interviewing with Katie Couric) and flew to Washington to logjam the bailout plan until it had enough pork in it to satisfy him and his lobbyist campaign minders. Immediately after that, he all but told the first black questioner "not that 'you people' know who Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are." Depending on which station you were watching when McCain later called Obama That One, you may have seen this same guy wince. This isn't the angle I'm talking about, but here's the gaffe heard round the world:
After some good ol' fashioned bickering between the candidates, McCain then refused to prioritize a basic list of how he'd tackle Energy Reform, Healthcare, and Entitlement Programs. In the same breath as saying we'd do them all at once, he played the Reagan card, which he and Sarah Palin love pulling out when they feel overwhelmed. At this point, very early on, he began repeating Reagan, My Friends, Lieberman, Jobs, and My Record with such frequency, anything he did say that was of any substance got muffled. I'm glad I stayed home from my regular Debate Watch Party, because I would've been hammered about fifteen seconds in to this thing.
McCain entirely avoided a real answer to the Healthcare question (Right, Responsibility, or Privelige?) and Barack Obama finally went for the jugular. All McCain could do was keep spinning on and on about a fine he's invented. Everything really went downhill for him from that point. McCain repeatedly refused to acknowledge the topic presented in favor of his talking points that were tangentially related to the question.
I'm not giving Obama a complete pass here, because there were points where he prefaced his answer with a lengthy talking point and that drives me nuts. He did this more than once, and he eventually got back around to either setting the paradigm for the back and forth he had with McCain on the subject or redirecting the topic to what Obama thought was worth talking about. He really hit a groove later in the debate, but at first it came off as aloof, as if saying, "that's an interesting question, I'm going to answer it as if I'd asked it in this way." He's getting better at not coming off as Captain Arrugula, but there are still places where he slips. He turned it around, but I was really worried early on.
The most telling part of the whole night came at the end of the debate. After a clear and relaxed Obama answer to the "zen" question, McCain sounded rattled and jumpy...outright nervous. His strategy of teaching himself to hate his opponent in all his races is evident now more than ever. That sneer on his face is what seals it.
True undecided voters are becoming afraid of what this impulsive, cranky guy is going to do if he wins. He pops in juvenile "oh yeah but did you know?" comebacks and tries to shroud his own dirty politics in his military service and the fact he calls everyone his friend. The deal closer was what happened after Tom Brokaw asked the doddering old man to get the hell out of the way of his teleprompter.
McCain and Cindy Lou Oxycontin shook a couple hands and waved at a couple of the poor people and bolted. They probably couldn't stand to look at or smell them for too long.
Barack and Michelle stuck around for almost an hour. It seemed like as soon as McCain left, someone yelled "we're clear!!!" and everyone pulled out their disposable cameras and started smiling. McCain had earlier shook a Navy vet's hand who now seemed more pleased to meet the actual next President of the United States. There are tons of veterans out there who were watching last night who McCain completely lost, just like this guy.
The subject neither one of them wanted to be completely honest about or touch with a ten foot pole was the set of real facts about the mortgage crisis and the realistic (vague) expectation of "when it'll all be fixed," which this guy does a much better job of explaining than I do. The most prescient point I want to point out here is the erroneous holdover Boomer notion that everyone needs to own a home.
The pressure from parents to hurry up and buy a house or peer pressure of other twentysomething couples who have one is absolutely poisonous for young couples getting started. Unless you're phenomenally well-off, that's the most crippling financial decision you can make depending on your situation. The bar for "you are successful" is set at "get into as much debt as you can lock yourself into." Lock the lending industry's shackles on your wrists and pile on a bunch of debt, everything will be fine.
That's exactly the Reaganesque mindset and policy from 20 years ago that started moving us toward this rapidly worsening recession, specifically with thanks to trickle-down economics. That's the system where as long as we lessen the tax burden on the rich, the American public is to expect it'll all filter down and keep everyone in good shape. De-regulate and those companies can spread the wealth better, just trust them.
It turns out that instead of the spring waterfall it was advertised as, it's turned into a piss storm that's spreading across the globe. McCain can keep name-dropping Reagan all he wants, but it's not going to help when everyone is in the process of seeing how terrible Reagan's economic policy has been over the long term.
Oh, there I go again, playing the Reagan card.
Presidential Debates are equally one part what those of us who obsessively watch all this stuff see in the moment and what gets picked up the next day that Joe SixPack, Esq. took away from it.
What seems to have come through from last night is the following:
1) McCain called the black guy he snickered at all night That One
2) the Bo-ring debate was full of numbers and bo-ring crap
3) John McCain wants to make my shitty mortgage less shitty but not lower my taxes more any than the other guy
4) Barack Obama acts Presidential if that means calm and collected
5) John McCain acts Presidential if that means he carries himself like a cranky uncle who hasn't taken his pills
And now on a lighter note, FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver on The Colbert Report last night where he refers to Barack Obama as the Tampa Bay Rays of the 2008 election:
Especially after this debate, alternate contender Paris Hilton has a chance to surge in the polls during "the greatest depression since The Notebook":
Read MoreSee more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die
Let the Right One In not playing Austin???
Thanks to the intrepid Scott Weinberg at Cinematical, here's a list of play dates and cities for Let the Right One In. Notably absent is Austin, Texas. It played here for Fantastic Fest, but how is it completely missing from the first run release schedule? The entire arthouse-going population of Austin didn't see it the three times it screened here last month.
Read MoreCrawford free on Hulu tomorrow
Fire up Hulu tomorrow to watch their first feature film premiere, David Modigliani's Crawford, which I raved about back in March when I saw it at SXSW. I can't find more concrete details than that and the fact the DVD is to be released immediately afterward.
"The beginning of the Bush years in Crawford begins a local economic boom: every storefront on the main street is rented, and the town's former glory many recall comes back. As the years wear on, we approach the point where the country began to implode, and once it does, it's kind of surprising how bad things turn out until you remind yourself that George W. Bush invaded Crawford before Afghanistan or Iraq."
Let the Right One back and forth
Devin at CHUD has recently decried the American remaking of Let the Right One In, and I couldn't agree more. From reporting the director attached as Cloverfield's Matt Reeves to the major objection of the original film's director to the idea of the remake, Devin's been covering this thing better than anyone else, in true CHUD form.
He brings up an important distinction in one article or another about how he doesn't want to see a remake of Nacho Vigalondo's Timecrimes go through but at the least that remake has the original visionary's blessing. I'm very conditional with remakes, but as we all know well, most of them are worthless. Then again, proportionately, the vast majority of movies completed around the world are worthless when you think about it. I believe in remakes like The Beat That My Heart Skipped, culled from James Toback's Fingers. I will defend Jonathan Demme's remake of The Manchurian Candidate to the end of my days.
Touching various elements of Let The Right One In ruins the delicate construction of the entire piece.
Title
Change the title to Let Me In (one of the approximated translations of the book's title) or My New Neighbor or The New Girl Next Door or Can I Borrow a Liter of Plasma or any other focus-grouped, marketing agency-reworked version of the title makes no sense. The title as it stands is poetic.
Age
When you augment the age of the leads, the movie becomes one of two things:
1) Twilighterrific
2) a dork meets goth girl stereotyporama where the casting agency posts a notice looking for "Rainn Wilson but 16"
Violence
Did we learn nothing from the tanking of Hostel 2 and other gorefests? Adding gore for effect is something the American public is over, big-time. The fact this movie
Read MoreFantasticFest08 Secret Screening: RocknRolla
People derided Revolver as being one of the worst things they'd ever seen. I never saw it myself. People have been digging at Guy Ritchie about RocknRolla being "a lazy return to his comfort zone", and I want to know what's so wrong about doing what you do well? Hey Michael Jordan, you suck at Baseball, don't come back to Basketball, that'd be the easy choice.
Read MoreElection2008: Stay on Target
As my esteemed and occasionally reviled editor has pointed out, now is not the time to get lazy. I know people here in Texas who are plowing through registering voters all weekend in advance of the cutoff on Monday. Everyone in every other state should be doing every little bit. If early voting has begun for you, encourage your registered friends to get it done. If you haven't gotten involved at the grassroots level, getting your next-door neighbor to register helps more than you may think. It's the only pyramid scheme I'm behind 100%.
I've stolen the current expected electoral map from Electoral Vote explicitly to prod people to not just sit back and see a day dawn with President of the Walking Dead and VP PageantSarah SquareGlasses having won out of your, mine or our complacency. Looking at this map and the current trends, it could be magnificently easy to sit back and forget to vote or register or be active.
If the above map holds, it's thanks to people who've registered not sitting back and assuming Obama-Biden doesn't need your vote. If the above map holds, the Democratic ticket could have the election called for them before results start coming in from the West Coast, taking for granted California is a solid Obama state. By my math, the states pencilled blue from the East Coast through the Central Time Zone at the moment (which include Florida, Ohio, and Virginia) come out to a little over 220 electoral votes, with California's solid 55 a lock putting Obama over 270 handily.
I want that to actually happen. If anything, the chance McCain will go down in a resounding defeat means a lot, like the fact we could see revisions to the Electoral College and FEC that make it easier for people to vote and feel like that vote matters in "the most Democratic country in the world." There are plenty of people in Texas and other "Solid Red" states who choose not to vote because the Electoral Map exists as it does. The Civil War is the ancient past now, and States' Rights are no longer an issue related to which state wins the pissing match and gets a more disproportionate influence on who leads the country.
John McCain is employing the people who W. used to smear him in 2000 and they still can't manage to proof web ads before they run. First the "McCain Wins Debate" banner ad running before the first Presidential Debate happened, and now the towering opinion of famed celebrity Famous Person has called the VP debate for Palin. He's decided to pull out of Michigan to his running mate's chagrin, and if the Obama grassroots ops can keep him on the run in Florida and Ohio, it's over.
Sarah Palin did a catch-up interview with some guy from Fox News where she slipped in the answers to the Couric questions she avoided a few days ago regarding papers she reads and Supreme Court cases. Even the Fox News guy called her on treating it like an open-book test. On top of that, she's about to have the Troopergate thing finally explode in her face when the investigation findings are made public, which she currently has people trying to block as "unconstitutional."
On top of that, the GOP is picking up on the fact that all the poor people out there who vote go colorblind and turn on their "protectors" when things finally crash down all around them.
Where was all of this sense-talking Mainstream Media in 2004?
The above-cited details are grains of sand compared to the precipitous downslide the McCain campaign has begun, but again, don't underestimate him with a month left to go under any circumstances.
To get back to laughs, here's a clip of Brian Williams, former SNL guest host, Daily Show regular and apparent anchor of the NBC Nightly News. It never been a secret to me that Brian is an ardent Democrat, having on a long-ago school trip read his letter to LBJ that's prominently featured here in Austin at his Presidential Library. He articulates "what happened" on Thursday night.
Read More
I've stolen the current expected electoral map from Electoral Vote explicitly to prod people to not just sit back and see a day dawn with President of the Walking Dead and VP PageantSarah SquareGlasses having won out of your, mine or our complacency. Looking at this map and the current trends, it could be magnificently easy to sit back and forget to vote or register or be active.
If the above map holds, it's thanks to people who've registered not sitting back and assuming Obama-Biden doesn't need your vote. If the above map holds, the Democratic ticket could have the election called for them before results start coming in from the West Coast, taking for granted California is a solid Obama state. By my math, the states pencilled blue from the East Coast through the Central Time Zone at the moment (which include Florida, Ohio, and Virginia) come out to a little over 220 electoral votes, with California's solid 55 a lock putting Obama over 270 handily.
I want that to actually happen. If anything, the chance McCain will go down in a resounding defeat means a lot, like the fact we could see revisions to the Electoral College and FEC that make it easier for people to vote and feel like that vote matters in "the most Democratic country in the world." There are plenty of people in Texas and other "Solid Red" states who choose not to vote because the Electoral Map exists as it does. The Civil War is the ancient past now, and States' Rights are no longer an issue related to which state wins the pissing match and gets a more disproportionate influence on who leads the country.
John McCain is employing the people who W. used to smear him in 2000 and they still can't manage to proof web ads before they run. First the "McCain Wins Debate" banner ad running before the first Presidential Debate happened, and now the towering opinion of famed celebrity Famous Person has called the VP debate for Palin. He's decided to pull out of Michigan to his running mate's chagrin, and if the Obama grassroots ops can keep him on the run in Florida and Ohio, it's over.
Sarah Palin did a catch-up interview with some guy from Fox News where she slipped in the answers to the Couric questions she avoided a few days ago regarding papers she reads and Supreme Court cases. Even the Fox News guy called her on treating it like an open-book test. On top of that, she's about to have the Troopergate thing finally explode in her face when the investigation findings are made public, which she currently has people trying to block as "unconstitutional."
On top of that, the GOP is picking up on the fact that all the poor people out there who vote go colorblind and turn on their "protectors" when things finally crash down all around them.
Where was all of this sense-talking Mainstream Media in 2004?
The above-cited details are grains of sand compared to the precipitous downslide the McCain campaign has begun, but again, don't underestimate him with a month left to go under any circumstances.
To get back to laughs, here's a clip of Brian Williams, former SNL guest host, Daily Show regular and apparent anchor of the NBC Nightly News. It never been a secret to me that Brian is an ardent Democrat, having on a long-ago school trip read his letter to LBJ that's prominently featured here in Austin at his Presidential Library. He articulates "what happened" on Thursday night.