Cinerant

Suite Date Night

Three times yesterday I ended up dwelling on “Date Night.”

Date Night was something that my suitemates and I did my Sophomore year in college.  All seven of us found dates (or at least those of us who weren’t dating anyone at the time).  All fourteen of us went out to dinner together at this little place in Harrisonburg that we actually ended up really enjoying.  If I remember, even Sads approved of it.  (That was probably before he became the restaurant Nazi.)

The plan for after dinner was a scavenger hunt.  Prior to that day, we had divided into three separate teams.  We were each responsible for coming up with the clues for one of the other teams.  And of course, I wasn’t about to be outdone.  The first clue we came up with for our designated team involved them going into the dressing room at Victoria’s Secret.  I don’t remember exactly what they had to do to get the clue, but I do remember that they had to leave dinner early because the mall was about to close, so they had to get to the lingerie store before it closed, or they were screwed for the night.  I remember that one of the clues lead them to the church building where I was attending at the time.  I think one of them led to the statue in the middle of downtown.  However, the best one required them to go to the campus police station and sing, “I Fought the Law.”  The problem is that sometime during the night, the males and females of that team had a rift and when it came time to that clue, only the guys got out of the car, went into the building and sang the song, expecting to be given the clue.  After they sang a verse, the police woman on duty stopped them, and asked where their dates were.  So they had to trudge back to the car, get their dates, and all four had to then go back in and sing before they were given the clue.  

After the scavenger hunt, we all ended up back in our suite and had a little dessert to cap off the evening.  

Oh, and somewhere in through this evening, apparently, I played “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by Deep Blue Something over and over and over.

How I miss college.  

posted by cinegod @ 12:13 AM 0 comments

Tres Cool

And here's the reason to watch the Screen Actors Guild Awards Sunday night on TNT/TBS:

"The cast of the landmark TV-newsroom comedy, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, including Mary Tyler Moore, Edward Asner, Georgia Engel, Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, Gavin MacLeod and Betty White, will reunite to present the [award] for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series at the 13th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards."


How cool is that?

posted by cinegod @ 10:40 AM 0 comments

Excellent FNL news

This is from today's column from Michael Ausellio at TV Guide:

"Well, after I personally relayed all of your testimonials to him, Reilly told me that there's a "good" chance the show will see a second season provided it holds steady in the ratings. "I just want it to maintain [its numbers], and then we'll figure out where to put it," he said. Reilly is such a huge FNL fan that he later joked promised to keep it going "until there are two people left watching this thing." And you better believe I plan on holding him to that."

You can be sure that more than two people are always going to be watching this show because I think--I hope--that there is at least one other person in the world who loves me enough to keep watching this show so that I don't commit suicide if it goes off the air. Heck, I've even almost convinced my dad to get a DVR so he won't have to miss this because of Bible study.

posted by cinegod @ 10:09 AM 1 comments

I Still Don't Care

Looking at the Oscar nominations this morning and really, all I can kinda do is shrug. There's just nothing there to get me really excited. I'm happy to see Ryan Gosling and Jackie Earle Haley nominated. I'm very delighted to see all the nominations for Pan's Labryinth, and pleased to see Paul Greengrass get nominated but at the end of the day, there isn't anything that makes me go--WOW! So, so cool.

Though the lack of a Best Picture nod for Dreamgirls is rather interesting. I'm curious to see what will be made of that.

posted by cinegod @ 7:55 AM 0 comments

The Oscar Nominations

BEST PICTURE
Babel
The Departed
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen


BEST DIRECTOR
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - Babel
Martin Scorsese - The Departed
Clint Eastwood - Letters From Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears - The Queen
Paul Greengrass - United 93



BEST ACTOR
Leonardo DiCaprio - Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling - Half Nelson
Peter O'Toole - Venus
Will Smith - The Pursuit of Happyness
Forrest Whitaker - Last King Of Scotland



BEST ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz - Volver
Judi Dench - Notes On A Scandal
Helen Mirren - The Queen
Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet - Little Children



BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley - Little Children
Djimon Hounsou - Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg - The Departed



BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Adriana Barraza - Babel
Abigail Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine
Cate Blanchett - Notes of a Scandal
Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi - Babel


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Babel
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
Pan's Labyrinth
The Queen



BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Borat
Children Of Men
The Departed
Little Children
Notes On A Scandal




FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
After The Wedding
Days Of Glory (Indigènes)
The Lives Of Others
Pan's Labyrinth
Water



DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Deliver Us From Evil
An Inconvenient Truth
Iraq In Fragments
Jesus Camp
My Country, My Country



ANIMATED FILM
Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House



ART DIRECTION
Dreamgirls
The Good Shepherd
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
The Prestige



CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Black Dahlia
Children Of Men
The Illusionist
Pan's Labyrinth
The Prestige



COSTUME DESIGN
Curse Of The Golden Flower
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Marie Antoinette
The Queen



DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
The Blood Of Yingzhou District
Recycled Life
Rehearsing A Dream
Two Hands



FILM EDITING
Babel
Blood Diamond
Children Of Men
The Departed
United 93



MAKEUP
Apocalypto
Click
Pan's Labyrinth



MUSIC (SCORE)
Babel
The Good German
Notes On A Scandal
Pan's Labyrinth
The Queen



MUSIC (SONG)
"I Need To Wake Up" - An Inconvenient Truth
"Listen" - Dreamgirls
"Love You I Do" - Dreamgirls
"Our Town" - Cars
"Patience" - Dreamgirls



SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
The Danish Poet
Lifted
The Little Matchgirl
Maestro
No Time For Nuts


SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
Binta And The Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea)
Éramos Pocos (One Too Many)
Helmer & Son
The Saviour
West Bank Story



SOUND EDITING
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Flags Of Our Fathers
Letters From Iwo Jima
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest



SOUND MIXING
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Dreamgirls
Flags Of Our Fathers
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest



VISUAL EFFECTS
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Poseidon
Superman Returns

posted by cinegod @ 7:52 AM 0 comments

I Just Don't Care

I used to get incredibly jazzed about Oscar nominations.  When I was on the East Coast, I’d make a big deal about getting up to watch the nominations live.  I’d do predictions about who and what was going to get nominated, I’d immediately do analysis about what all of it meant, etc.

This year, I just don’t care.

I think I had this problem last year, but it’s even more exacerbated this year.   I don’t even feel a need to see all the films that will be nominated for the major performances.  Granted, I will probably have seen all the films that will be nominated for Best Picture (with the possible exception of Letters from Iwo Jima), and I’ll have seen most of the acting nominees, but for those ones that I haven’t—Volver, The Last King of Scotland, Venus—the only potential major nominee I really want to see is Half-Nelson.  And of course, I have to wait for it to come out on DVD next month to rent it.  I just don’t care.  

I think the major reason for that is because of the sorry crop of movies this year.  I was talking to somebody the other day and said that really, I couldn’t even put together a top 10 list for the year.  At most, I could only come up with 5 movies that really impressed me this year:  Little Children, United 93, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Departed, and The Queen.  Sure, there were some that were good—Dreamgirls, Children of Men, Thank You For Smoking, The Devil Wears Prada, Notes on a Scandal.  There were some that were ok—Babel, Borat.  There were some that were way less than ok—yes Little Miss Sunshine, I’m talking about you.  But even the ones that were good weren’t great.  They had problems.  They didn’t completely work—which at the end of the day makes me say, I really don’t care.  

Even as performances go, there wasn’t a performance I saw this year that I was so blown away by that I wanted to root for it all the way to Oscar night.  The closest two were Phyllis Somerville and Jackie Earl Haley in Little Children, and she probably won’t get nominated for Best Supporting Actress and he’ll be a stretch to get nominated for Best Supporting Actor.  Loved Kate Winslet in the movie, but she’s not going to get nominated.  I’d love to root for Ryan Gosling because he’s so frickin’ talented at such a young age, but I’m not sure he’ll be nominated.  

Again, I just don’t care.  Maybe I should just sit at home and watch Friday Night Lights instead.  

posted by cinegod @ 12:29 PM 0 comments

24 Pt. 2

Holy crap!  I just got stuck in the middle of radiation poisoning fallout.  I’m probably going to die in less than 24 hours.  

Oh wait.  24’s not real.  Keep telling myself that.  24’s not real.    (But is it too early to think 9:00-10:00 AM should be the hour Keifer Sutherland submits for his Emmy this year?)

This has not been a good day for paranoid people.  24 convinced me I can’t stay in LA, but then I watched Snakes on a Plane, and do I really want to risk getting on a plane if the airline isn’t prepared for snakes jonesing from phermones?

Sheesh!  What a day!

posted by cinegod @ 10:00 PM 1 comments

24!

JACK BIT SOMEBODY TO DEATH!

Wow!  Wham bam!  (And that’s just about Chloe’s new svelte look!)

And why do these people not just say “In Jack We Trust!”  Let him do whatever he wants and give him the resources to do it.  I mean, I know that would sort of ruin the whole point of the show, though wouldn’t it?

And a Jack that is much more attune to torture is a really interesting character.  Pairing him up with someone who doesn’t it also really interesting.  I just hope he and Assad are with one another for a while.   Or at least find one another now that they’ve been separated.  

What’s Kal Penn supposed to be?  A college student?  Isn’t he a little old?  Maybe he’s in school with Berooz from however many seasons ago.  I’d love to just to know whatever happened to him.  

Do that many people seriously ride the subway in LA?  That little detail feels particularly fishy to me.  And they check tickets on the subway?  I don’t know anyone who’s ever been on the subway in Los Angeles, so I don’t know how to verify that information.  Maybe I can just take a ride one day and find out.  But I don’t even know where to find a subway stop.  But what kind of dopey terrorist would sit at the back of the subway instead of in the middle?  I mean, I don’t know a lot about bombs, but I would think being in the middle would allow for maximum blowing uppidiness.  

How cool is it to see William Miller move from writing about Stillwater for Rolling Stone to taking geometry lessons from a terrorist on 24! (Michael Angarano will always be the young kid in Almost Famous to me.)  It’s great to see some of these new cast members too.  Alexander Siddig made a big impression on me in Syriana, so it’s great to see him working on US TV.  Hopefully, he’ll last the whole season, though I wouldn’t count on it. And yeah!  Regina King!  Marisol Nichols is a really talented actress and Peter MacNicol’s great!  (Of course, I kept expecting him to start playing Barry White at any moment through the two hours.)  The only one I’m not convinced about is Eric Balfour.  (Though what is up with Harry Lennix’s accent?)  I don’t really get why so many Executive Producers continue to cast him in roles.  Maybe they just see something I don’t, but hey, the casting team of 24 has done wonders with their casting before, so maybe I’ll figure out where I’m wrong in the next 20 weeks.

I just want Chloe tasering people!  (Maybe she could do a guest spot on Veronica Mars and they could go to a class together.)  

So when does Jean Smart come back?

Bring it on.  

posted by cinegod @ 9:59 PM 1 comments

What a mom

I have a friend that just breezed into Los Angeles for one day yesterday because she got a last minute call to be on a talk show.  She hurriedly was flown out here and I was lucky enough to be able to spend the day with her.  I met her at her hotel and got to ride with her in the limo to the studio where the show taped.  She was excited and clearly having a great time.  We got to the studio, a member of the production team escorted us to our green room where she would be able to wait.  However, because they were taping two shows back to back, the guests from the first show were still hanging around and they had to kick them out of the green room.  They quickly disposed of the trash that was still lying around and went to go refresh the food.  As we got settled, my friend looked around and decided that the green room wasn’t clean enough.  She then asked me if I thought they’d have a vacuum cleaner available.  I tried to explain to her that if she asked for a vacuum cleaner, she’d probably come off as some overly demanding diva—or—she’d get some little Production Assistant in trouble for not keeping the room clean.  So instead, she grabs a napkin, drops to her knees and starts digging the little potato chip crumbs out of the carpet.  A couple hours later, after she’s gone through hair, makeup, and wardrobe, she opens up the bureau and sees that there’s more crumbs in that.  Did the fact she was about to go on television in less than 30 minutes stop here?  Nope!  She got on her hands and knees and cleaned that out too.  All I could do was watch, laugh, and ask her if she had time to come to my apartment before she flew back east!

posted by cinegod @ 9:36 AM 0 comments

I don't even know what to make of this

Here’s from today’s Variety:

Less than 24 hours after Variety announced that theatre director Phyllida Lloyd would be directing a movie based on the hit Broadway musical Mamma Mia!, they have broken the story that Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep is set to star in it. Lloyd, who directed the original "Mamma" in London as well as its Broadway incarnation, will make her feature directing debut on the pic, which will be shot in London and Greece.Streep will play the rebellious single mother of a bride-to-be who never met her father. The daughter invites three likely paternal candidates to her wedding, and the ensuing conflict triggers the performance of 22 Abba hits including "Dancing Queen," "Take a Chance on Me" and "The Winner Takes It All."

posted by cinegod @ 11:55 PM 0 comments

ARGH!

My lobster just bounced me back into the fish tank.
When it rains, it pours.

posted by cinegod @ 9:16 PM 1 comments

Isn't that the point?

That’s the I have a friend who seems to take exception with being referenced on this blog. He/she thinks that…actually I have no idea what he/she thinks. Yet, it never fails that whenever some remnant of a conversation, adventure, or anecdote we’ve shared pops up on here, he/she will inevitably call me and comment upon it. (Wanna take bets on how fast I get the call regarding this post?)

I’m also working on a script right now that includes a lot of observations I made watching people in some of my previous jobs. Okay, one of my previous jobs. One of the people who’s read it commented that the referenced parties will obviously recognize themselves in it, even though all their actions have been filtered through the prism of my imagination.

But isn’t that what a writer’s supposed to do? Observe, compose, and transfer? Part of what makes Friday Night Lights so brilliant (and yes, everything comes back to that show) is that is so keenly observed. The little moments that will sometimes be taken for granted are at the heart of this program. The writing staff has counted up all the little things that really make relationships significant (like Riggins’ surprise visit to hear Landry’s concert last week), no matter how small or large.

And honestly, I don’t know a writer is supposed to honestly transmit those moments if it is not by his/her observation of those people around him. So, if for some reason, you’re observed and object, sorry.

posted by cinegod @ 8:47 PM 1 comments

I've Been Delinquent

A conversation (or the jist of one) I had yesterday.

FRIEND:  I haven’t really seen any movies in the last couple of months.  

ME:  Don’t worry.  It’s not like there’s been anything that amazing.  I mean, Little Children is still the best thing I’ve seen all year.

FRIEND:  Little Children?  I don’t think I’ve even heard of that.

ME:  You have.  It’s the one with Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson by guy that directed In the Bedroom.  

FRIEND: Uh….  No.  

ME:  Really?  (Interior monologue:  What in the world have I not been doing if this guy that I talk to on a regular basis hasn’t even heard of this movie?  No wonder it’s not doing anything box-office-wise when people like me are so moved by its complexity, humor, delicate balance and deft acting that we keep the movie’s genius to ourselves.  Shame, Shame, Shame.)

FRIEND:  Nope.

ME:  Well, consider yourself notified.

And you too.  If you can still find this playing in your area, it’s definitely worth checking out.  It’s not an easy film to summarize because it has so much going on.  You could argue that the main plot is about an affair between a house husband and house wife with little children, but despite the spot on performances by Winslet and Wilson (Angels in America, The Phantom of the Opera), that doesn’t even touch on half of the movie and other brilliant performances by Phyllis Somerville, who’s going to be unfairly overlooked for an Oscar nomination, and Jackie Earl Haley, who also received a Screen Actor’s Guild nomination for his work in the film.

The film’s not perfect, but it’s what impressed me the most in 2006.  

posted by cinegod @ 9:01 AM 0 comments

TV Report Card Pt. 2

Sorry. I was delayed by a trip home for Christmas.

Nevertheless, if I were to put together my own TV All Star Team, here are the shows and actors I'd want on it based on their performances so far this season. Now let's see what happens during the rest of the year.

SHOWS
Friday Night Lights
Battlestar Galactica
Veronica Mars
Lost
Brothers and Sisters
Ugly Betty
Rescue Me

ACTORS
Rosanna Arquette What About Brian
Jamie Bamber Battlestar Galactica
Elizabeth Banks Scrubs
Kristen Bell Veronica Mars
Connie Britton Friday Night Lights
Kyle Chandler Friday Night Lights
Marcia Cross Desperate Housewives
Jason Dohring Veronica Mars
Michael Emerson Lost
America Ferrera Ugly Betty
Sally Field Brothers and Sisters
Calista Flockhart Brothers and Sisters
Matthew Fox Lost
Zach Gilford Friday Night Lights
Rachel Griffiths Brothers and Sisters
Anne Heche Men in Trees
Minka Kelly Friday Night Lights
Jonny Lee Miller Smith
Elizabeth Mitchell Lost
Becki Newton Ugly Betty
Katee Sackhoff Battlestar Galactica
Daniel Sunjata Rescue Me
Chandra Wilson Grey's Anatomy

posted by cinegod @ 10:21 PM 0 comments