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[ Comments Off ]Posted on December 12, 2008 by admin in Popular Media
Friday, December 12th, 2008
Pushing Daisies Soon To Be Six Feet Under
The entertainment industry in general (music, film, television) seems to me to have made some secret suicide pact with itself. The RIAA constantly suing its customer base, the film industry’s vain and annoying attempts at copy protection, and the television industy’s gift for cancelling top-rated shows with rabidly loyal viewers all suggest a weird death-wish. Which (because of the show’s name) is ironic in the case of ABC’s cancellation of Pushing Daisies
, one of the better (and critically acclaimed) programs on TV in a while. I must confess to possibly over-identifying with the show because of the fact that when I was seven I threw the Frisbee that made my first dog get hit by a car (I’m serious. His name was Snoopy), but viewer’s and critic’s reactions seem to validate my surprise at the show’s early demise. Put Pushing Daisies prematurely six feet under with shows like Firefly, Deadwood, Arrested Development, Enterprise, and Freaks & Geeks. If you haven’t seen the Tim Burtonesque genius of Pushing Daisies, it is available on DVD. But since ABC doesn’t seem to care what we think, why should we care what they think? Go ahead and Bittorrent it. On the bright side of all of this, maybe now Anna Friel will have time to notice that I exist…
[ 5 Comments ]Posted on December 2, 2008 by admin in Popular Media
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
The Vagina Dentata Club Is Members Only…
 
Giving “noodles al-dente”
an entirely new meaning. |
After seeing writer/director Mitchell Lichtenstein’s Teeth, I’m convinced that director David Cronenberg can peacefully retire, resting comfortably with the knowledge that someone has picked up the torch he dropped a while back. I make the comparison only because in Teeth, Lichtenstein masterfully does something Cronenberg honed to a science: take an implausible premise, and present it so implausibly that the viewer is forced into suspending disbelief against their wishes, almost in the manner of a stage play. In this case, the implausible premise is a virtuous and virginal high school girl who manifests the mythological phenomena Vagina Dentata. Teeth is brilliant because it so artfully misses every mark, and creates its own along the way. It’s a graphic horror film. It’s a coming of age story. It’s a comedy. It’s a cautionary tale about respecting your sexuality. If the film weren’t crafted with such clear intentions to be what it is, it would be one of the worst films ever made. And that’s part of the beauty of what this film does; it feels like it’s somehow self-aware that at any moment it might become incredibly bad, and thereby somehow ends up being quite good. If you hate Cronenberg, you might not care for this film. It’s also briefly rather graphic at points, so if you’re not into seeing the occasional “John Bobbit“, steer clear as well. But if you enjoyed, for instance, the stylish over-the-top-ness of Crash (no, the one based on J.G. Ballard’s novel, not this one) then give it a go. It’s worth it, if only to see the gynecologist screaming “Vagina Dentata! Vagina Dentataha-ha-haaghh!” View the trailer on YouTube or in HD at Apple.
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 25, 2008 by admin in Popular Media
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
Who didn’t see this on their Lt. Gaydar?
Before anyone starts identifying me as some smellibate, basement-dwelling gamer for talking about Battlestar Galactica, get with the program. Even if you’re not a fan of Sci-Fi, you owe it to yourself to check out one of the highest quality productions on television in a long time. The production values are theater-worthy, the acting is mostly very solid, the story arc is well developed, and, well, it’s kind of saucy, too. Start with the pilot and move forward until it almost jumps the shark in season three with the contrived boxing match episode, then skip a few episodes and pick back up at the beginning of season four. Which will bring you up to speed enough to watch the upcoming webisodes in which they reveal which of the long-running characters is gay. Yes, partly a cheap marketing plan, but also a pretty hip and daring move for a show whose fan-base is probably the homophobic smellibate type I mentioned earlier. Existing viewers, this may be a spoiler so read on at risk: in spite of the fact that many are dreaming that it’s Apollo, rumor has it that it’s Lt. Felix Gaeta, otherwise already known by fan boys as “Lt. Gaydar”.Why wasn’t it a bigger deal when they did the lesbian thing?
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on November 23, 2008 by admin in Holidays, Popular Media
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
To me, the quintessential holiday films are Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and A Charlie Brown Christmas (although a friend just rabidly recommended The Hebrew Hammer, so I’ll be checking that out.) Rudolph is a fave partly because of its at times almost macabre vibe, but mostly because I’m essentially a misfit toy myself. Charlie Brown [...]
To me, the quintessential holiday films are Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and A Charlie Brown Christmas (although a friend just rabidly recommended The Hebrew Hammer, so I’ll be checking that out.) Rudolph is a fave partly because of its at times almost macabre vibe, but mostly because I’m essentially a misfit toy myself. Charlie Brown is on my list partly because I’m such a depressive git sometimes around the holidays but mostly because of the weird Vince Guaraldi music, like the catatonia-inspiring tune the kids sing when they’re skating (Christmas Time is Here, mp3). I’m sick of seeing lists of “10 Whatever” holiday films; any suggestions?
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on November 10, 2008 by admin in Popular Media
Monday, November 10th, 2008
No, not THAT red vs. blue. The one that knows it’s funny.
Our quadrennial fascination with red vs blue (here’s an interesting NYTimes map, by the way) reminded me of the brilliant machinima web series Red vs. Blue that debuted back in 2003. After taking a look back at a few episodes (many clock in at around 2-3 minutes) I realized they hold up pretty well, in spite of the media used to create the series. I’m no machinima fan (please, if you know of other machinima this clever, let me know) but the almost existential humor the creators utilized was actually perfectly suited to the stiff, personality-less medium of the Halo game engine. There are episodes that still make me laugh out loud. I recommend starting at Episode 1, as the feel and characters evolve over time. Jumping into later episodes would probably feel like tuning into a fan-driven TV series at the end of its run. This really isn’t just nerd stuff; the Lincoln Center’s film society for instance, described Red vs. Blue as “truly as sophisticated as Samuel Beckett.” As a Beckett fan I might not go that far, but it is pretty damn clever. Although most episodes can be found on YouTube, they look and sound much better in the Windows Media or Quicktime formats found at the Red vs. Blue web site.
