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2010 Academy Awards recap

March 8th, 2010 by Scott Marks

Warning: To avoid danger of suffocation, keep plastic bags away from babies, children and Oscar.

The red carpet “Frankenstein” shot (start on the feet and pan up) of Gabby Sidibe was worthy of Whale.

Oddest married couple’s hair of the evening: Sarah Jessica Parker has a challah growing on the back of her head and Matthew Broderick’s hair seems to have been done by the same stylist who aged James Dean in “Giant.”

Christoph Waltz looks naked without an armband.

Everyone on the red carpet kept asking Gabby Sidibe what her next role will be. If she doesn’t win the Oscar it’s straight to Jenny Craig commercials.

Did Kathy Ireland say that Miley Cyrus has “mastered comedy” and Gabby Sidibe “turned your genius into a dream come true?” I need to study her every thought.

“Drop the soap” and Dolly Parton jokes in Neil Patrick Harris’ opening number. It’s going to be a long night.

Meryl Streep’s Hitler memorabilia? A “Precious” video game? Putting on 3-D glasses to see James Cameron? Encouraging Christoph Waltz to ethnically cleanse the audience? Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin’s starstruck opening monologue was one of the funniest in Oscar history.

What’s with the effing 1.85 and/or full frame clips from ‘Scope movies?

George Harvey is a piker compared to Col. Hans Landa. We salute the Academy for honoring Oberführer Waltz!!! A brilliantly crafted acceptance speech. None of that “I want to thank…” nonsense. He told a story.

I know that times are tough, but who knew that Harvey Weinstein couldn’t afford a razor.

Was Ryan Reynolds doing his Rod Serling impression?

The new footage created for the Best Animated Feature segment was uniformly terrific.

No more suffering through the endless Best Song nominees. So far the streamlining is paying off.

“The Hurt Locker” is a better screenplay for a war movie than “Inglourious Basterds?”

Time to take a dump. It’s a tribute to John Hughes. In life, the Academy wouldn’t give Hughes the time of day. I didn’t see a tribute to Russ Meyer when he kicked. What effing hypocrites! The clip reel, particularly the pathos-laden section, brought it all back.

“Logorama” beat out Wallace & Gromit? Now that’s a major upset.

Douche Chills Central: Roger Ross Williams not waiting for Elinor Burkett to get to the stage to mutually accept the award for “Music for Prudence.” She looks like she’d be a delight to work with on the set.

Ben Stiller is a ja*off.

I forgot that “Il Divo” received a nomination. Lot of good it did the film.

Forget the dry look. Michael Stuhlbarg looks better in character.

Kudos to the genius who decided to include a clip from the fried chicken sequence in “Precious.”

Uh-oh. “Precious” won best screenplay.

Roger Corman, Gordon Willis and Lauren Bacall (you can keep John Calley) don’t get to speak at the ceremony, but they waste time honoring John Hughes!??!

I’m still shocked that Mo’Nique beat out Anna Kendrick.

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The 50 Best Films of the Decade: No. 21-30

January 1st, 2010 by Scott Marks

21. “Wendy and Lucy” / Kelly Reichardt (2008)
The camera first spots Wendy Carroll (Michelle Williams) traipsing through a forest and playing fetch with her dog Lucy. Wendy could be just another pet lover exercising her pooch, but she’s not. Without once calling the monster by name, Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy paints a damning portrait of hopelessness and despair in George Bush’s America. It’s the type of story we haven’t seen much of since Warner Bros. in the 1930s. Budgeted at somewhere around $300,000 and shot in natural light, “Wendy and Lucy” joins “In this World” as the closest modern day movies come to neorealism. The story is slight, but the emotions and storytelling anything but. Watching the way in which characters react to Lucy’s plight is nothing short of miraculous. Critics complained that is not given much in the way of backstory. Apart from a phone call to her sister and brother-in-law, we know nothing of how Wendy hit rock bottom. It’s not important. She did and no matter how much we root for her, nothing in the film gives any sign of a brighter tomorrow.

22. “Il Divo” / Paolo Sorrentino (2008)
A colleague who first saw “Il Divo” at the Palm Springs Film Festival looked as though he’d been fed strychnine when asked his thoughts on the film. “It’s too damn hard to follow,” he said through contorted lips. “You’ll probably love it.” It’s obvious why this film never caught on. It presumes that audiences are both eager and willing to pay attention. “Il Divo” clocks in at less than 2 hours, and one had best be wide awake and alert for every second it’s on screen. Writer, director Paolo Sorrentino hits you with a lot of Italian politics that he takes for granted audiences worldwide are familiar with. There is also a slew of colorful ancillary characters some of whom are barely on screen long enough to be identified. Was this assault of names, many of which are emblazoned in red across the screen, intended to give the audience the same overwhelming feeling Sorrentino had while researching the material? I saw the film three times the week it played, always to empty houses, and found a DVD copy in my Christmas stocking. (Thanks, Ethel!) While I’ll never tire of watching Sorrentino’s camera, it remains unclear whether complete comprehension is a goal worth setting. Sorrentino’s stylistic profusions and references to past forms were instantly absorbed, but the film’s infrastructure will always be impenetrable for this apolitical soul.

23. “Tony Manero” / Pablo Larrain (2008)
I must confess to never having seen “Tony Manero” in a theater. It played for one week as part of the San Diego Latino Film Festival’s “Cinema en tu Idioma” series. The screener they sent sat in my stacks until a  little over a month ago. It was just after Thanksgiving. I had a bad case of the flu and to make matters worse, a week had passed without one movie. I desperately combed my collection for something new to watch and it was then that I first met Tony. Actually, I first met Tony Manero in 1977 when “Saturday Night Fever” premiered. It was also around the same time Raúl Peralta (Alfredo Castro) met Tony. You think that I have a Jerry Lewis fixation? It pales in comparison to Raúl’s devotion to TM. Raúl owns a white suit (shades of Gene Siskel), competes as Tony in a celebrity lookalike reality TV show and is putting the finishing touches on a dinner theater adaptation of the movie. All this and he still has time to visit his local cinema every day to watch his beloved peon paean. Raúl is also a serial killer and you don’t want to be working either booth the day “Grease” replaces SNF. An original, dare I say visionary picture that spoke to me on too many levels.

24. “Grizzly Man” / Werner Herzog (2005)
I don’t mean to speak ill of the dead, but on the annoying scale Timothy Treadwell ranked just slightly above Andy Dick. Obsessive German filmmaker Werner Herzog found a kindred spirit in self-appointed grizzly bear advocate Treadwell who, along with partner Amie Huguenard, was mauled to death in 2003. Herzog’s presentation of Treadwell’s video diaries, including some off-camera sounds of the murder, is a haunting examination of misapplied obsession.

25. “Mysterious Skin” / Greg Araki (2005)
Two 8-year old boys are molested by the same little league coach. Ten years later finds one swearing it was an alien abduction while the other is a teen prostitute out hustling more daddies. Difficult subject matter that pedophilia is and its made even more problematic when filmmakers insist on introducing pathos and made-for-TV histrionics. There is no room for cheap sentiment or hysteria in this picture. If anything, I was surprised to find a wealth of dark humor. And welcome Joseph Gordon-Leavitt! Sure liked him in kidpics like “Angels in the Outfield” and “10 Things I Hate About You.” With “Mysterious Skin” JGL exfoliates a few of his more boyish, well-scrubbed layers to reveal a complex, risk-taking actor. And don’t begrudge the kid his “G.I. Joe” money. This year he also starred in two terrific indie productions, “Uncertainty” and “(500) Days of Summer.” Put his name at the top of the “Superstars of Tomorrow” list.

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