My new favorite show

Last night was the season finale of "The Americans". I couldn't believe how swiftly the season passed and how much I enjoyed every minute of every episode. I knew I was missing Keri Russell from my tv screen, but I truly didn't realize how much.
F/X has quickly become a channel that I can count on for quality programming, airing two of my top 5 television shows from the last decade (the other being Justified).

Anyway, if you missed The Americans, there's still time to catch up online or on-demand. I recommend Justified as well, but the fourth season just ended, and it's kind of important to start from at least sesaon 2 with that show in order for it to make sense. But it's worth the trouble!

And this year's Oscar nominations go to...NOT Ben Affleck?!

The 2013 Academy Award nominations came out today. And I'm in a bit of a daze. Not because of the films that got nominations, like the 12 for "Lincoln" and the 11 for "Life of Pi", but for the individuals that didn't get a nomination in categories that they have dominated over these past months in other award nomination fields like the Golden Globes, SAG, DGA, and Critic's Association.

So while there were nominations that were not surprising at all, - I easily predicted 8 out of the 9 Best Picture nominees - like the Academy's continued love over nominating Steven Spielberg and his works, or their aversion to nominate action films (sorry "Skyfall"!), there were far more nominations this morning that knocked me out. Let's analyze those surprises, both good and bad.

Ben Affleck didn't get a Best Director nomination -
Hello? Did Academy members see "Argo"? Well they must have, they did give it well-deserved Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay nominations. But still, Affleck's brilliant direction is what gave this movie its energy and suspense. Anytime I'm on the edge of my seat, biting my knuckles, when I not only know what happened to the real people, but also read the autobiography that was the source material? That's a well directed film that deserves a nomination. Whom among the Direction nominees would I have eliminated instead? Probably David O. Russell. Silver Linings Playbook is great, but not necessarily because of the way it was directed.

Zero Dark Thirty got kind of shafted -
Okay, no it didn't, I'm being dramatic. It got 5 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Jessica Chastain. But still, it feels very strange and very wrong that Kathryn Bigelow didn't get a Best Director nomination. Is it because she already won an Oscar for directing a war film and the Academy voters decided that one was enough? Bigelow should've had the nomination that was given to Ang Lee, or dare I say it, Steven Spielberg.

Silver Linings Playbook locked up ALL 4 acting nominations -
A feat that hadn't happened in over 30 years; the last time being Reds in 1981. Both supporting and both lead acting categories have nominees from this quirky movie. Listen, I loved this film and think that Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence both earned their Best Acting noms. But DeNiro and Weaver? Not so much. I like both of these actors and thought they were very good in their roles, but they weren't Oscar-worthy performances. I mean damn, compare Jackie Weaver's other supporting actress Oscar nominated performance in "Animal Kingdom" to her character work in "Silver Linings Playbook". It's no contest! She was sooo flat in "Playbook". Her nomination should've gone to Nicole Kidman or Samantha Barks.

The Academy didn't neglect Quvenzhané Wallis or “Beasts of the Southern Wild” -
Because I saw this movie way back in early June 2012 at SIFF, it feels so strange to me to be talking about award nominations for it. I just figured that anyone who cared about this movie had blown their trumpets about it months ago and it was largely forgotten by now. But instead it was rewarded with not only a Best Picture nomination, but also a Best Actress nod for Wallis (will I ever be able to pronounce or spell her first name without looking it up 45 times?), and a surprising and yet worthy Best Direction nomination for Benh Zeitlin. Yay!

Amour wasn't too depressing for the Academy members after all -
I have yet to see this movie (doesn't open in Seattle until January 25), but everything I've read about it seemed to be summed up thusly - an amazing film, but depressing as hell, and not in a "moving" way. I thought for sure Amour would get snubbed by the nominators, except for the inevitable Best Foreign Film nod. But surprisingly, not only did Emmanuelle Riva get nominated for Best Actress, Michael Haneke got a nom for direction, and "Amour" was also nominated for Best Picture. Speaking of...why does it irk me so much when films are nominated in both the "Best Picture" and "Foreign" categories? I don't know, it just does!! It's annoying to hog both film categories - The Artist I'm looking at you. Grrrrr

Roundup of 2012 Cheesy Xmas Holiday Movie-a-thon

2012 has been a banner year for the awful/amazing holiday tv-movie genre. The Hallmark Channel and Lifetime Network own this market quite handedly, and this year both channels offered dozens of brand new saccharine, craptastic fare; which was good because I was running out of ones that I hadn't seen.
I really went overboard in my holiday cheeseball movie viewing this season. I recorded and watched over 40 hours of this crap. I'm very ashamed. Yet also a little proud?

I wanted to highlight a couple of gems from this year's crop:

Christmas With Holly - This was the Hallmark's Hall of Fame entry this year. You know the ones that air on CBS with limited commercial interruption, and even the commercials are for Hallmark cards?
Anyway, this gem starred Sean Farris (yum) as a guy with gross, weird shoulder-length hair (not yum), who owns a fair-trade coffee shop in Friday Harbor (woo hoo Pacific NW reference!) who ends up with custody of his 6-yr old niece Holly after his single mom sister dies some unexplained death in Seattle. Seriously, they never mention how the woman died; cancer? car accident? drug overdose? It was so annoying.
The film begins 4 months after the sister's death and Sean has been living with his niece in Seattle in his sister's cute-ass craftsman bungalow, while he sublets his place on the island. He also has some bitch Seattle girlfriend that isn't at all important so I won't even bother with their small dumb storyline.
The little niece is emotionally messed up from her mother's death and has stopped speaking. The bastard principal at Holly's Seattle public school wants her either put on anti-depressants or sent to a "special" school because her muteness is not working for him. Sean basically calls the guy a prick and decides to move Holly up to Friday Harbor and put her in the public elementary where Sean and his siblings went. What's that? Did I say siblings?
Yeah, once Sean gets to Friday Harbor you find out that he has two older brothers - Alex (cute biologist), and Scott (SMOKIN' HOT carpenter). The sister I guess didn't trust either of them with her kid? Not important. What is important is that these 3 hot brothers all decide to live with Holly in Scott's gorgeous, giant Victorian mansion that he's renovating; they all bond as a loving family and Holly starts talking again and blooms into a well-adjusted great kid.
Oh yeah, there's some boring nonsense romantic storyline between Sean and this dumb klutz who moved from Seattle to Friday Harbor to open a toy store, but believe me the best part of this movie are the 3 gorgeous brothers and the beautiful house they live in. And cute basset hound alert!     HIGHLY RECOMMENDED VIEWING

Holiday Spin - This piece of port wine cheddar premiered last Christmas, when Ralph Macchio was still trying to capitalize on his success from his stint on "Dancing With the Stars". I didn't watch it last year, but gave it a go this time around and boy was it bad...and AWESOME.
This 17yr old kid lives in North Carolina with his dance teacher mom. He's a promising UFC fighter, but it's clear that he's also a talented dancer even though he hates dancing (this is an important detail later!) The kid, Drew or Scott or Drake..whatever, we'll say Drew. Anyway Drew and his mom are in a serious car accident on Thanksgiving and she dies.
Dead loved ones by the way are a very important element of many of these holiday smarmy movies.
So Drew wakes in the hospital to find out about his dead mom from his estranged father Reuben (Macchio) whom he's never known. Reuben is a ballroom dance former legend who now teaches in Miami and he takes Drew to live with him and his new wife and the young dancer protégé that is his ward.
This young dancer is named Amelia and her partner (hilariously played by SYTYCD winner Benji Schwimmer) and she are practicing to perform in a big Xmas ballroom comp called, can you guess?,  the Holiday Spin. Benji breaks up with her because Amelia won't fuck him (which is insanely funny considering Schwimmer doesn't even try to hide his real-life homosexuality in this movie). So of course at the last minute, Drew surprises his dad and step-mom by displaying an amazing ballroom talent and agrees to partner Amelia in the contest. Would you believe that they win, Amelia and Drew fall in love, and Drew and Reuben repair their relationship? Come on, this is a Lifetime holiday movie!     ONLY WATCH IF YOU LOVE BALLROOM DANCING TO A FAULT

Speaking of washed-up 80s stars in cheesy ballroom dancing holiday movies, yes, there's another one, this time a Hallmark Channel offering new this year starring Andrew McCarthy.
Come Dance With Me - about an executive (McCarthy) who is engaged to his boss' daughter and because she's a bouncy, flirty, whore young lady who likes to go out dancing, he decides to take ballroom dancing lessons to impress her, and thus his boss, at her Christmas party.
This movie was only enjoyable because it was funny to watch McCarthy make a fool of himself dancing.    ONLY WATCH IF YOU'RE DRUNK

Trading Christmas - From the mind and pen of cheesy romance writer (and author of 100s of Xmas themed books) Debbie Macomber comes this fluffy nonsense, that was actually pretty enjoyable.
I think ol' Debbie watched the film "The Holiday" one too many times and decided to write a rip-off book. Hallmark and Lifetime effin' love making movies of her horribly cheesy novels. There's at least 8 of them in rotation each year. "Trading" was 2012's entry.
This is another movie that takes place in Washington state (I take perverse pleasure in these details); this time in a made up small town called Woodburn that's supposed to be near Stevens pass I think. Anyway, Faith Ford is a widowed school teacher who lives in Woodburn (has actually never left). Her 21yr old daughter is a college senior in Boston. When Faith's daughter informs her that she's not coming home for Christmas, Faith decides to surprise her daughter and show up in Boston for Christmas. She takes her best friend's (who lives in San Francisco) advice and does a house swap with a novelist who lives in Boston.
The novelist (played by Tom Cavanaugh) has a deadline and writer's block and takes his brother (Gil Bellows) advice and does the swap thing to get away to a small town where no one will bother him.
Of course, Faith and Tom decide on this house swap thing a couple of days before Christmas and don't tell anyone that they've actually gone through with it.
So Tom shows up at Faith's quaint Victorian that's drowning in cabbage roses and Christmas decorations; while Faith is treated to Tom's ultra modern loft condo in trendy Cambridge where she's befuddled by all of his electronics and his fancy alarm system. Faith finds out when she arrives in Boston that her daughter lied about staying in Boston to "study" and is instead in Arizona with her boyfriend for some alone time.
So Faith is stuck in Boston with nothing to do but be sad that she's a lonely widow whose daughter hates her. She accidentally sets off the alarm and the company alerts Gil that someone's breaking into his bro's apartment. Thus Faith and Gil have a "meet cute" and he asks her out for dinner.
Back in Woodburn, Tom finds that all of Faith's neighbors are extra annoying and nosy and keep bothering him bringing cookies etc. At the same time, Faith's friend (San Frannie) decides to surprise her friend for Xmas but instead finds Tom staying at her friend's house. Of COURSE, there are no buses, rental cars, or hotels in the area available because it's Christmas so Frannie is forced to stay with Tom. But agrees to stat out of his way and actually cook for him and act as basically his secretary and keeps all of the neighbors at bay.
You can see where this is all headed right? Yes, both of these couples get together. It's cute.      WATCH IF YOU DON'T MIND PREDICTABLE WELL-TRODDEN CHEESE

NYC Marathon - Conflicted, and feeling awful about it

I am so torn over this argument about whether the NYC Marathon should be run on Sunday or not. I'm WAY more grossed out by the hundreds of people that waited in line outside the Apple store for the new iPad mini. Ugh.

On the one hand, the New York City Marathon is one of the largest money-making annual events that brings in millions of dollars into NY; dollars that go to small businesses and dollars that can be used for repairs and rehabilitation of the city.

Supposedly all of the peripheral Marathon events have been cancelled, so that it’s just the race happening; a race that thousands of people, including my friends Kathy and Nick, have worked their ASSES off to qualify for and deserve a chance to run.

If it’s just a few thousand dedicated people running down some streets, what’s the harm?

And maybe all of the visitors that are coming into the city for the race can bring needed resources and exposure to the plight of those still devastated by Sandy.

But on the other hand, since Tuesday I’ve been glued to the news and can’t stop looking at the pictures of the three hardest hit boroughs – Staten Island, Queens, and Brooklyn – and the destruction is depressing as hell. I have a lot of friends and family in New York that are still without power, or if they have power are still having to do 3 hour commutes on foot to get into Manhattan for work because the subways are still closed in many areas. And the death and destruction in Staten Island and Rockaway Beach cannot and should not be ignored. And there’s something gross about holding the marathon when there are still this many people suffering. Especially given the fact that the marathon begins in Staten Island; I just don't know if I could do it.

I keep comparing this to Katrina, which was much worse in regards to lives lost and disaster response time. If the Mardi Gras parade was scheduled to happen a few days after Katrina would I have been mad? The answer is yes. And yeah, I get that Mardi Gras, with its drunken debauchery and ridiculous is not at all the same thing as an athletic race; maybe I should’ve used the Superbowl as a better analogy.

Regardless, I’m left with this icky conflicted feeling about the whole thing. Whatever happens, marathon or no marathon, I really hope that the runners that worked so hard to get to participate in this event aren’t criticized, chastised, or left to bear the brunt of people’s anger.

Say "Hi" to my Mom...

My mother had a special friendship with Russell Means in the early 1970s, working with the American Indian Movement (AIM). I know they're having one hell of a beautiful reunion up in heaven.