Electric Shadow

Critical Path 71: Max Headroom

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Hit the site for links to the stories we discuss in the show.

I love hearing Horace tear bad analysis a new one. He was initially reluctant to even bring up our opening topic. I told him in our pre-show prep that the audience needed to hear his precise process of dismantling this "supplier checks" speculation. It's not just that it's stupid, it's important to know why this is an "all hat, no cattle" situation for the Wall Street Journal.

We get a tiny tease of TV and media consumption disruption talk at the end. It's going to be an interesting year.

Giant Size 9: Across from Android's Dungeon

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Jennifer de Guzman is Marketing & PR Coordinator for Image Comics.

She was EIC of Slave Labor Graphics for over 10 years, and has written some great editorials and gotten into some outstanding internet debates over gender equality and acceptance in the comics industry (linked on the 5by5 show page).

We finally catch back up with Brandon at Austin Books & Comics, looking back at 2012 and forward to the insanity of 2013. 

Comic Shack 24: Dark and Weird

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We talk about Superior Spider-Man #1, taking a moment to breathe as fans, and what is and is not "Peter Parker" as a known quantity.

The current end to 5by5's ongoing arc of shows obsessed with Spider-Man. Reading Order:

Ihnatko Almanac 48: Massage the Octopus

The Incomparable 119: The Guilt-Trip Superhero

Comic Shack 22: Heaven Looks a Lot Like Queens

Comic Shack 24: Dark and Weird

[think of this as a Point One issue] Back to Work 102: Hunter Ready to Write

 

Guest Panelist: Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun-Times joins us this week.

The Daily Grab 36: Slo-Mo

Dredd is one of the best comic book adaptions I've ever seen. I saw it twice in 3D, and it looked outstanding. It perfectly matches the tone of the original 2000 AD comics, down to Judge Dredd never taking his helmet off and Judge Anderson never putting hers on. The Stallone version has nothing on this one. It would have to do insanely, impossibly well on home video to help nudge a sequel into existence.

The Daily Grab 35b: Moon-a, June-a, Spring-a

The first animated short I remember seeing (and repeatedly so) is the Vitaphone classic "I Love to Singa", which is included in full HD on the new Jazz Singer Blu-ray. Did I see it on a VHS tape of the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons? I have no idea, but the two feel jointly connected in my memory. "I love-a to, I love-a to sing."

The Daily Grab 35a: There's a Lotta Bergs

This movie is known as the first American feature with sound (albeit only sequences, not throughout). It's a major plot point in Singin in the Rain, but is likely much, much less seen than Singin. Part of that is due to the regresive racial attitudes presented here, where star Al Jolson performs in blackface. For some time, it was less than fashionable for this movie to be seen at all as a result, but that makes it no less culturally significant. The blackface makes it embarassing, but if anything, it makes the cultural significance that much greater. A full review is coming soon.

 

The Daily Grab 34: Steampunk Tai Chi

Stephen Fung merged steampunk, the "Wuxia" genre of Chinese martial arts movies, flairs of homage to Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and a pile of cameos into one of the most fun martial arts movies I've seen in a while. Tai Chi Zero hits Blu-ray on 22 January, with behind the scenes featurette, music videos, and trailers as extras. I'm including multiple grabs after the cut to show how nuts this thing is.

Our hero, "The Freak"

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85th Academy Award Nominees: A Few Thoughts

There's no massive outright travesty this year, though a few big surprises.

Here are some assorted facts and opinions. The full list of nominees is pasted further down.

GENERAL NOTES

Lincoln leads overall nominations with 12 total, making it a heavy favorite for Best Picture and Director.

Life of Pi, which got written off by many for some time (but I called as a mega-multi-category likely nominee in April), follows Lincoln very closely at 11 total nominations.

There are 9 Best Picture nominees.

Skyfall is now one of, if not the most multi-nominated James Bond movie in Oscar history, but didn't pick up a Picture nomination (here's hoping for Song).

Let's congratulate Academy Award nominees Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman, Hitchcock, and Seth McFarlane (Best Song for Ted).

Looks like The Weinstein Company spent most of their money on Silver Linings Playbook instead of movies like The Intouchables and others. How unsurprising.

Superhero movies were shut out of tech categories, where they're often heavily favored. No nominations for The Amazing Spider-Man or The Dark Knight Rises, and just one for The Avengers (Visual Effects).

Cloud Atlas got completely shut out, including tech categories like Makeup, Visual Effects, and others that one would think it appropriate for.

 

DIRECTING

Benh Zeitlin being nominated for Best Director (Beasts of the Southern Wild) over Kathryn Bigelow and Ben Affleck, who were both heavy nominee favorites, was an enormous surprise.

Michael Haneke (Amour) was not picked for nomination by most Oscar handicappers. Seth McFarlane making a Nazi joke when his movie was nominated in the Foreign Film category will probably be a big scandal...in Europe.

Bradley Cooper said on morning TV today "I gotta say, Ben Affleck got robbed".

David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook) was not a solid lock to get nominated, it's good he made it in.

The Master got a few acting nominations here and there, but got snubbed in Picture and Director. Maybe it peaked too early.

It's official: Christopher Nolan never got nominated for Best Director for making a Batman movie.

 

BEST ACTOR

A solid field, but don't know any of them have a prayer against Daniel Day-Lewis.

Bill Murray didn't get that "gold watch" nomination for Hyde Park on the Hudson.

 

BEST ACTRESS

Emmanuelle Riva (Amour) is now the oldest ever nominee in this category at 85.

Q Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) is now the youngest ever nominee in this category at 9.

 

ANIMATION

3 of the 5 nominees are Disney-company movies: Brave, Wreck-It Ralph, and Frankenweenie.

Both Studio Ghibli (From Up on Poppy Hill) and Dreamworks Animation (Madagascar 3, Rise of the Guardians) were completely shut out of Best Animated Feature.

Aardman Animation, whose early success was helped by an Animated short win, has now been nominated for their first Animated Feature, The Pirates! Band of Misfits.

The Simpsons has now been nominated for an Oscar (Animated Short).

 

SUPPORTING ACTOR

All nominated actors have previously won Oscars.

Samuel L. Jackson and Leonardo DiCaprio were both snubbed for Django Unchained (in favor of Christoph Waltz), even though the movie is good enough for Best Picture.

 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook) was a big surprise in this category, but she's really good.

 

EDITING

One guy (William Goldenberg) is nominated twice this year (for Argo and with Dylan Tichenor for Zero Dark Thirty).

Only one nominee has previously won: Lincoln's Michael Kahn, who got Oscars for Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler's List, and Saving Private Ryan.

 

SCREENPLAY

Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom got its only nomination here (in Original). At least it got the one.

I'm disappointed that Looper didn't get nominated for Original Screenplay (caveat: the writer/director is a friend of mine).

 

CINEMATOGRAPHY

The Master, which will probably be the last major release completely shot on 70mm film, did not get nominated.

Wally Pfister (The Dark Knight Rises) got snubbed. Maybe you hated the movie, but that doesn't change the quality of work on display.

If Roger Deakins hadn't gotten nominated for Skyfall, I'd have thrown something at the wall. He's been nominated 9 times and never won.

 

SOUND

Both Brave and The Hobbit, whose sound editing and mixing was done in the new Dolby Atmos surround format, were snubbed in both audio tech categories.

 

SONG

There was a new song by Paul Williams ("Still Alive") that didn't get nominated. Huh.

 

FOREIGN FILM

The Intouchables (from France) was a heavy favorite for nomination, and not just because the Weinstein Company picked it up.

 

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Chasing Ice got a Song nomination, but not Doc Feature. Weird.

 

MAKEUP

Hitchcock was nominated over Lincoln, Looper, Men in Black 3 (Rick "American Werewolf in London" Baker), and Snow White and the Huntsman.

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The Daily Grab 33: Eyes Meet

Among many favorite Wes Anderson movies, Moonrise Kingdom shot up on the chart in its opening frames, but especially so once it hit this moment. Simple cuts and gorgeous shot composition combined with the precise moments of action make this another great film among many he's made.

I haven't bothered with the extras on the Blu-ray, but the movie has played around four times since I received it.

The Daily Grab 32: Dry Goods

The third season of Downton Abbey just started airing on PBS in the US. I've already watched the whole thing, thanks to readily-available import DVDs. I'm watching it as it airs regardless, not just because it's really well-done. Knowing what I know about some ENORMOUS twists that were planned from the beginning of the season, I can't emphasize enough that no fan of the program should allow Season 3 to be spoiled for them.

This still from the tail-end of Season 2, where footman/valet/soldier/valet Thomas gets a massive comeuppance and humbling, which he so deserves. As Patton Oswalt put it so eloquently live-tweeting last night's premiere (which combined the first two UK episodes) "even eats oatmeal like an asshole".

As much as I hate Thomas, his development through Season 3 is very interesting. Season 3 is available on Amazon UK , and if you get it, you have to buy the 2012 Christmas Special "Journey to the Highlands" (13.99GBP/~$23 USD), which ends up fundamentally changing the dynamic of the show going forward.

The Daily Grab 31: Beautiful Weeds

Eureka/Masters of Cinema released Floating Weeds on Region B Blu-ray back in mid-December. It was Ozu's big color breakthrough. He'd done color previously at this point, but this is where the shot composition really used it most effectively for the first time.

The disc is locked for UK-region Blu-ray players, but it's readily available on Amazon UK (13.99 GBP or ~$23 USD).

The transfer is absolutely gorgeous, and the essay in the booklet by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky is very well-researched and written. If Region-B locking doesn't cause you problems and you don't care about the lack of disc-based extras, it's well worth your money (as it has been mine).

The movie is a reworking and remake of A Story of Floating Weeds, one of his big hits back in the silent days. This was one of the very rare times he made a movie at a different studio than Shochiku, which served as his home base for most of his career.

I'll be covering the silent original soon in Discovering Ozu, and will then double back on it (as I will with all his self-remakes) when I make it up to the color classic.