Predictions From 2019

A year ago I made some predictions for 2019.  Overall, I think I did pretty well.

Domestic Politics:

Trump's popularity will not go above 50%

Yep.  Not even close.  He stays safely in the low 40s (averaging the polls).  Makes you wonder how he can be reelected.

There will be a vote to impeach Trump.

Pretty good guess.  No one even knew a year ago what the impeachment would be about, but I had confidence the Dems would find something.

Trump will get another Supreme Court pick.  And the nominee will get through.

Nope

No major bills will pass.

It depends what you think is major, but I can't give myself this one.

There will be no major construction on The Wall.

Yep

The Mueller investigation will not find any major Russian collusion in the Trump campaign.

Yep

Chief Justice Roberts will be the new swing vote on the Court.

This is arguably true.

International Politics:
 

Brexit will finally go through.

Looks like it's going to happen soon, so I guess I just missed.

 

Immigration into the U.S. will not slow down.

Hard to measure but I think I got this right.

 

There will be major electoral upsets in Europe.

I would say so.

The Economy:

By the end of the year, the Dow will be higher than where it is now.

Yep

 

Unemployment will be up by the end of the year.

Nope

 

Polling will show Trump is blamed for bad economic times.

We haven't quite had bad economic times, so I guess I got this wrong. (While we're at it, Trump doesn't seem to get too much credit for any economic good news.)

Sports: 

Alabama will beat Clemson in the BCS. (So Notre Dame will not be in the game.)

Clemson destroyed Alabama.  At least I got the two teams right.

The Wolverines will lose no more than two regular season games.

So close, so close.

The Rams will be in the Super Bowl (because that would be fun for me).

I was right, though they lost to New England.

Tom Brady will have his worst season in years.

I think I called this.


Popular Culture:

Movies:

Avengers: Endgame will be the biggest hit of the year.  Captain Marvel will not disappoint.  People will get sick of Disney live-action remakes.  Once Upon A Time In Hollywood will be a comeback for Tarantino after The Hateful Eight.

Right about Endgame.  Right about Captain Marvel.  Wrong (mostly) about Disney remakes.  Right about Tarantino.

Oscars:  Tough to call--few clear front-runners and I'm guessing way too early, but...Roma will surprise by getting nominated--and winning--Best Picture.  Viggo Mortensen will surprise by winning Best Actor (if only his film had made more money), because they just can't give it to Bradley Cooper, don't care enough about Cheney enough to give it to Christian Bale and no one saw Ethan Hawke. Lady Gaga will be nominated but lose to Olivia Colman for Best Actress.  Richard E. Grant will surprise by winning Supporting Actor because they're not ready to give yet another to Mahershala Ali.  Let's say Regina King for Supporting Actress, and it won't be Emma Stone or Rachel Weisz because they'll cancel each other out.

Roma did get nominated, but lost to Green Book. (I'm guessing it finished second.) Viggo was nominated, and so were Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale, but Rami Malek won.  Lady Gaga was nominated, but, as predicted, Olivia Colman won. Grant lost to Ali--guess they didn't mind giving him two Oscars.  King won, beating former winners Stone and Weisz.

TV:

Game Of Thrones finale will get gigantic ratings (even if the rest of the season may not be the highest).  As the season commences, they've still got Cersei, Jaime, Tyrion, Daenerys, Jon Snow, Davos, Sansa, Arya, Brienne, Samwell, Jorah, Theon, Melisandre, Varys, Bronn, Gilly, Missandei, Grey Worm, The Hound, the Night King and two living dragons.  By the time it ends, at least eight will be dead (or in the case of the Night King, destroyed).  The invaders from beyond the Wall will have been repelled, but the Throne won't be what it was.

Game Of Thrones got huge ratings in general.  More than eight of those listed died--in fact, it was eleven: Cersei, Jaime, Daenerys, Jorah, Theon, Melisandre, Varys, Missandei, the Hound, the Night King and one of the dragons.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine will get at least one more season on NBC (I sure hope).  So will The Good Place.

Right on both.  And it's now known this is the last season of The Good Place.

Modern Family will get another season.

It did, and this is its last.

The Walking Dead ratings will be down yet again.

Yep

NI

Sad news. Neil Innes has died.  I met him years ago at some tribute to Monty Python at the Directors Guild--I asked him about one of his songs, "When Does A Dream Begin?"

Innes was a founder of the Bonzo Dog Band, who had some success in the 60s--particularly with the song "I'm The Urban Spaceman"--and make an appearance in the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour film.



He also worked with future members of Monty Python, so when Python became a thing, he contributed to both their show and their movies.



In addition, he worked with Python member Eric Idle on Rutland Weekend Television where they created The Rutles.

The Damage Done

It's 1959.  Hollywood has been fighting a losing battle against television for a decade.  Widescreen, Technicolor, stereo sound, 3-D--none of it can change the fact that people now stay at home and watch entertainment for free.  The audience has been cut in half and the situation will never recover.

But that doesn't mean film is dead.  Over in Europe, they're starting to do new things, and Hollywood is even opening up a bit as well.

The blockbuster of the year, as well as Oscar winner, is Ben-Hur.  But what does Jesse Walker think of 1959 in film?

Here's his top ten:

1. The Four Hundred Blows
2. North by Northwest
3. Some Like it Hot
4. Rio Bravo
5. Warlock
6. Nazarin
7. Ride Lonesome
8. Jazz on a Summer's Day
9. The World of Apu
10. Anatomy of a Murder

Quite a list, and I agree with most of it.

The Four Hundred Blows is one of the great debuts in film history.  North By Northwest may be Hitchcock's greatest.  Some Like It Hot is maybe Wilder's greatest. While Rio Bravo is not Hawks' greatest (not even his best Western), it deserves its modern reputation as a pretty special Western (as opposed to its reputation back then as just another John Wayne film).

I haven't seen Warlock, though I'd like to.  Nazarin is Bunuel in fine form.  Ride Lonesome is another enjoyable Boetticher Western, but no classic.  Jazz On A Summer's Day is one of the greatest concert films (with amazing color).  The World Of Apu may be the best film of the Apu trilogy.  Anatomy Of A Murder I find a bit overrated. As much as I love something set in the U. P. featuring Duke Ellington, its innovations in style and content aren't a big deal today.

Honorable mentions:

11. I'm All Right Jack
12. A Bucket of Blood
13. Fires on the Plain
14. Odds Against Tomorrow
15. A Midsummer Night's Dream
16. Science Friction
17. Floating Weeds
18. Shadows
19. Cat's Cradle
20. Suddenly, Last Summer



11 is a classic for Peter Sellers alone.  A bucket of blood is great Corman (if you believe in that sort of thing).  Haven't seen 13, 15 or 16.  14 is pretty good, with fine location shooting.  17 is good.  18 was groundbreaking but was also (and remains) kind of dull.  19 is a short.  20 is the sort of florid melodrama that you get so often in the 50s.

Other films that would make my top ten or twenty:

Pickpocket

The Mouse That Roared


Other films I like:

Li'l Abner, Sleeping Beauty, -30-, Pillow Talk, The Beat Generation, Expresso Bongo, Les Cousins, Imitation Of Life, Our Man In Havana, The Defiant Ones, Plan 9 From Outer Space, But Not For Me, The Devil's Disciple (Olivier only), Operation Petticoat (for Cary Grant), Don't Give Up The Ship (sort of)


Other films of 1959:

The Crimson Kimono, The Gene Krupa Story, It Happened to Jane, Gidget, The Mating Game, Sampo, Black Orpheus, Compulsion, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Fugitive Kind, Hiroshima Mon Amour, Libel, The Nun's Story, On the Beach, Pork Chop Hill, Room at the Top, Ben-Hur, The Shaggy Dog, Porgy And Bess, Career, Orders To Kill, The 30 Foot Bride Of Candy Rock, The 39 Steps, Al Capone, Alias Jesse James, The Bat, Battle In Outer Space, The Battle Of The Sexes, The Best Of Everything, The Big Circus, The Big Operator, Career, Carry On Nurse, Carry On Teacher, Come Dance With Me, Darby O'Gill And The Little People, The FBI, Face Of A Fugitive, The Five Pennies, The Gazebo, The Giant Behemoth, Girls Town, Good Morning, The Gunfight At Dodge City, The Hanging Tree, The Hangman, Hannibal, A Hold In The Head,

Holiday For Lovers, Honeymoon, The Horse Soldiers, The Hound Of The Baskervilles, House On Haunted Hill, It Started With A Kiss, John Paul Jones, The Journey, Journey To The Center Of The Earth, The Last Angry Man, Last Train From Gun Hill, Le Signe Du Lion, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Libel, Look Back In Anger, The Man In The Net, The Mummy, Pork Chop Hill, The Roots Of Heaven, Say One For Me, The Scapegoat, Shake Hands With The Devil, Solomon And Sheba, A Stranger In My Arms, A Summer Place, That Kind Of Woman, They Came To Cordura, Tiger Bay, The Tingler, Too Many Crooks, The Trap, Up Periscope, Violent Summer, The Wasp Woman, Westbound, Woman Obsessed, The Wonderful Country, The World The Flesh And The Devil, The Wreck Of The Mary Deare, The Young Philadelphians

2019 Awards

The envelopes, please...

Story Of The Year:  The relentless attack on Trump.  You might have thought when the Mueller Report crapped out that would be it.  But the Dems, now in charge of the House, didn't give up and managed to find a new reason to impeach him.  Imagine a world where we simply attacked Trump because we disagreed with his policies--wouldn't that be something?

Person Of The Year: Boris Johnson.  I'm not sure exactly what he did, but he sure did it.

Winner Of The Year:  Nancy Pelosi.  Even if impeachment ends up not being a great strategy, her base wanted it and she delivered.

Loser Of The Year:  Kamala Harris.  You might think she'd be the perfect candidate, but her campaign never took off and she was finished before the race even began.

Biggest Future Story:  The next Supreme Court pick.

Biggest Non-Story Story:  The race to pick the Democratic presidential nominee. Yes, it matters, but for all its domination of the news, nothing has happened yet.  Once the voting starts, then it'll be real.

Joke Of The Year:  Rudy Giuliani seems to have become everyone's favorite punch line.

Ol' Man River Award:  Joe Biden. He just keeps rolling along.  Runner Up: Tom Brady.

The Neverending Story:  Brexit (though maybe we'll find a way out in 2020)

Stealth Story Of The Year:  The economy seems to be doing pretty well, yet doesn't seem to get that much attention (except when politicians say things are going bad).

Fifteen Minutes Award:  Remember when Beto O'Rourke was the Great White Hope of the Democrats?  Ultimately he was just a bright, shiny object his party lost interest in.

Best Fake News Story:  Jussie Smollett.  What fascinated me most was how many people initially believed such a fantastic tale.  If it hadn't collapsed they'd still believe it today.

Weirdest Story:  Fights break out across the nation over Popeyes new chicken sandwich.  Is it that good?  And that hard to get?

Silliest Controversy:  I'm going to go with this Peloton ad, which for some reason drove everyone crazy:



Worst Trend (still):  Over the last few years, the average American lifespan seems to be going down slightly. There are a number of possible reasons for this, but no matter how you slice it, it's not good.  Runner Up: People who say the wrong things politically fear for their safety and jobs.

Phrase Of The Year:  A late entry takes the ribbon--"wine cave."

Biggest Pop Culture Disappointment:  The final season of Game Of Thrones destroyed its legacy by making one wrong move after another.  The previous two seasons had shown signs of weakness, but there was still hope a strong finale would make it all come together.  Runner Up: The final Star Wars film of the third trilogy.

Top Child:  Runner Up--Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.  Winner--Baby Yoda.

Give It The Old College Try Award:  Celebrities and others get caught in the college admissions scam. (And prosecutors are ready to overcharge them because it's high profile?)

Celebrity Meltdown Of The Year: Kanye West for just about everything he did.

Scariest Moment Award:  The trailer of  Cats (followed by its release).

We Need A Little Jerry Herman

Jerry Herman, one of the most successful Broadway composers of our time, has died.

He didn't just write hits, he wrote blockbusters: Hello, Dolly! (2844 performances), Mame (1508 performances) and La Cage aux Folles (1761 performances), to name his biggest shows.  But hit or flop, he wrote many beautiful, memorable songs--both the words and music.

The Change

1969.  If it wasn't clear already, everyone could now see Hollywood was changing.  Censorship was gone and a film like Easy Rider could be a hit (and Hollywood could go broke trying to duplicate it). An X-rated film, Midnight Cowboy, won the Best Picture Oscar.

What does Jesse Walker think of 1969?  Here's his top ten list:

1.  The Wild Bunch
2.  The Passion Of Anna
3.  Goyokin
4.  The Milky Way
5.  Take The Money And Run
6.  Army Of Shadows
7.  The Sorrow And The Pity
8.  The Rain People
9.  Burn!
10. Z

The Wild Bunch is considered a classic, though I've never understood why.  It certainly was a new sort of Western, but that doesn't mean it's good.

I haven't seen 2 and 3.

The Milky Way doesn't get as much attention as films Bunuel was making before (Belle De Jour) and after (The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie), but this surreal contemplation on religion holds up with his best.

Take The Money And Run is the start of a decade's worth of classic Woody Allen comedies.

Army Of Shadows stands up with Melville's gangster films.

It's kind of hard to compare documentaries to fictional films, but certainly The Sorrow And The Pity is a classic of its type.

I wouldn't call The Rain People a classic, but it is a fascinating early low-budget road picture from Coppola.

I've never quite gotten into Burn! or Z (and it's not because of the politics). I haven't seen them in years, so maybe I should check them out again.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11.  La Femme Infidele
12.  Downhill Racer
13.  My Night At Maud's
14.  Easy Rider
15.  Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
16.  The Sun's Gonna Shine
17.  Salesman
18.  The Adding Machine
19.  Invocation Of My Demon Brother
20.  Bambi Meets Godzilla

I haven't seen 11 or 18 (though I've had plenty of chances to see the Chabrol, and would be fascinated to see an adaptation of the Elmer Rice play--I don't see how it could work as a film). 16, 19 and 20 are shorts (the first two are obscure but everyone's seen the last one) which I don't think should be compared to features.

12 is one of those anti-hero downer films that New Hollywood loved, and isn't bad.  13 should be top ten.  14 is a very significant title in film history, and is the kind of thing that reminds you how bad so much hippie art was.  15 is fun if a little glib.  17 is a classic doc--maybe should be top ten.

Other films that would make my top ten or twenty:

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Alice's Restaurant

Goodbye, Columbus

The Bed-Sitting Room

The Italian Job


Other films I like:

Midnight Cowboy, Last Summer, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Hello Dolly! (parts of it), Popi, The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, Return Of The One-Armed Swordsman, Sweet Charity (mostly dull but amazing choreography), Support Your Local Sheriff!, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, If It's Tuesday It Must Be Belgium


Other films of the year:

Medium Cool, The Magic Christian, The Guru, John And Mary, Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe And Find True Happiness, The Comic, Anne of the Thousand Days, Cactus Flower, Marooned, Oh! What a Lovely War, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, Putney Swope, The Reivers, Satyricon, The Sterile Cuckoo, Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, True Grit, Winning, Women in Love, Goodbye Mr. Chips, The Wrecking Crew,

The Assassination Bureau, Where Eagles Dare, Charro!, The Illustrated Man, Sam Whiskey, Hook Line And Sinker, Where It's At, Mackenna's Gold, The Gold Of The Magnificent Seven, Che!, The Chairman, Hello Down There, How To Commit Marriage, Castle Keep, The Learning Tree, Whatever Happened To Aunt Alice?,  Number One, The Gypsy Moths, The Trouble With Girls, The Madwoman Of Chaillot, Paint Your Wagon, Marlowe, Change Of Habit, The Arrangement, The Undefeated, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, Topaz, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes

Accentuate The Positive

As far as I'm concerned, if you're making a movie you should hire the best person available for each part.  But I have heard American actors complain about those from overseas taking American roles. (It's more serious on Broadway where Actors' Equity has restrictions on foreign actors.) So I wonder how they feel right now, looking at two high profile films featuring a lot of assignments for actresses.

There's Bombshell.  The director is Jay Roach, an American, but for the three lead roles he's hired Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie--a South African and two Australians. They've gotten great reviews, so Roach must know what he's doing. But think about it--two of them are performing their very American roles by putting on accents (which, admittedly, they've done throughout their careers).

Then there's Little Women, an American classic about the four March sisters.  There have been a number of film adaptations--starring American actresses--but this time around, director Greta Gerwig (an American) has hired Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh and Eliza Scanlen.  Ronan is Irish, Scanlen is Australian and the other two are British.

Once again, Gerwig's film is getting good reviews.  But what about all those starving American actors?  She couldn't even find one?

PS

Phil Spector turns 80 today.  The classic story is a young man makes some mistakes, spends some time in prison, but comes out and goes straight, becoming a star.  Phil did it the opposite way. As a teenager, he was a successful singer-songwriter.  By the time he was twenty, he was a producer with his own special sound.

It can be tough when you start out on top.  By his late 20s he was kind of finished in the record business, though he did make a comeback to produce The Beatles and later the Ramones.  Then in 2009 he was convicted of murder. He'll be eligible for parole in 2025.

End Of The Seventies

Jesse it back to 1979.  I think that was a great year for movies, and he agrees. But are we talking about the same movies?

Here's his top ten:

1.  Being There
2.  Life Of Brian
3.  Manhattan
4.  Apocalypse Now
5.  Wise Blood
6.  The Third Generation
7.  Winter Kills
8.  Escape From Alcatraz
9.  Murder By Decree
10.  All That Jazz

Being There is a rarity--a slow-paced classic comedy.  Would make my top ten list.  So would Life Of Brian.

Manhattan is the beginning of Woody moving away from comedy--not a good trend (and why the pretentious black and white?)--but it's still good enough to be top twenty.

Apocalypse Now is another 70s classic from Coppola (has he made one since?).

I'm not much of a fan of Wise Blood.  I haven't seen The Third Generation--Fassbinder made a lot of films in his short time on earth--still, I'm surprised to see it and not The Marriage Of Maria Braun.

Winter Kills is fun, though a little too silly.  Jesse knows I'm not a big fan of Clint Eastwood but Escape From Alcatraz is one of his best.

Murder By Decree--from the director of Porky's!--is fun but minor.  All That Jazz is Fosse's best film and a classic.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11.  The Great Santini
12.  Me Vang Nha
13.  Noseferatu The Vampyre
14.  The Tin Drum
15.  Alien
16.  The Brood
17.  The Muppet Movie
18.  Scum
19.  A Perfect Couple
20.  The Castle Of Cagliostro

11, 14 and maybe 20 would make my top ten.

Haven't seen 12 or 18. I like 13, 17 and 19.

I don't think much of 16 and have always thought 15, though it has fine design work, is dopey.


Other films that would make my top ten or twenty:

Breaking Away

The In-Laws

Rock 'n' Roll High School

Kramer vs. Kramer

Hair (even with some weak musical arrangements)

The Kids Are Alright

Real Life

Richard Pryor: Live In Concert

Other films of 1979 I liked:

Meatballs, Over The Edge, The Onion Field, Quadrophenia, The Electric Horseman, Soldier Of Orange, The Warriors, Hot Stuff, Time After Time, Fast Break, ffolkes, Stalker, The Rose, The Wanderers, 1941, The Frisco Kid


Other notable films of the year:

The Black Stallion, Caligula, The China Syndrome, Dragon Fist, Gal Young 'Un, Heartland, Mad Max, Meetings With Remarkable Men, Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears, Norma Rae, Starting Over, Tess, Woyzeck, Americathon (nice to see Elvis Costello video back then), ...And Justice For All, 10, Buck Rogers In The 25th Century, Hardcore, The Jerk, Love At First Bite, Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (originally a shelved TV project), The Amityville Horror, Rocky II, Moonraker, Agatha, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, Ashanti, Baby Snakes, Bear Island, The Bell Jar, Best Boy,

Beyond The Poseidon Adventure, The Black Hole, Boulevard Nights, Butch And Sundance: The Early Years, C.H.O.M.P.S., The Cat And The Canary, Champ, Cuba, Chapter Two, The Concorde...Airport '79, Dracula, Dreamer, The Europeans, A Force Of One, The First Great Train Robbery, French Postcards, Goldengirl, Going In Style, Hanover Street, Hurricane, Just You And Me Kid, The Lady Vanishes, A Little Romance, Love And Bullets, Love On The Run, La Luna, The Magician Of Lublin, The Main Event, A Man A Woman And A Bank, More American Graffiti, My Brilliant Career, Night Wing, The North Avenue Irregulars, The Passage, Phantasm, The Prisoner Of Zenda, The Prize Fighter, Prophecy, Running, Saint Jack, Scavenger Hunt, The Seduction Of Joe Tynan, Siberiade, Skatetown U.S.A., Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Tim, The Villain, The Visitor, Wanda Nevada, When A Stranger Calls, Yanks, Zulu Dawn

The Days Are Cold, The Jazz Is Warm

Merry Christmas, everyone. Or as they say in England, Happy Christmas.

Here's a couple hours of Christmas jazz to keep you calm during this exciting day.

Eighties, Maties

Jesse Walker is now looking at movies from 1989.  It was a different film world then. Or was it?

Here's his top ten:

1.  The Decalogue
2.  Drugstore Cowboy
3.  Motel
4.  Santa Sangre
5.  Do The Right Thing
6.  Monsieur Hire
7.  Life And Nothing But
8.  Kiki's Delivery Service
9.  Near Death
10. Crimes And Misdemeanors

Haven't seen all of The Decalogue, so really can't comment.  And I haven't seen any of Motel, Santa Sanger, Monsieur Hire and Near Death.  Pretty embarrassing. (Actually, I might have seen a bit of Monsieur Hire, but I don't remember enough for it to count.)

As for the those I have seen, Drugstore Cowboy is definitely a top ten film.  For that matter, so is Kiki's Delivery Service and perhaps Life And Nothing But.

Do The Right Thing may be one of Spike Lee's more memorable films, but it shouldn't be top ten or even twenty (And that's even ignoring the science fiction scene at the end where Mookie demands Sal pay him for destroying his business.)

Crimes And Misdemeanors is a pretty good Woody Allen film for the era, but not good enough for the top ten.

Honorable Mention:

11.  Say Anything...
12.  Creature Comforts
13.  Mystery Train
14.  Isle Of Flowers
15.  The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, And Her Lover
16.  Jesus Of Montreal
17.  Ile Aiye
18.  Kitchen Sink
19.  Leningrad Cowboys Go America
20.  The Greatest Show In The Galaxy

I don't think much of Say Anything... (I'm not trailing off, the ellipses are in the title).

Creature Comforts is a fine film, but a short, and Jesse knows I don't think they should be compared to features.  Same thing goes for Isle Of Flowers and Kitchen Sink.

Mystery Train should be top ten.  The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, And Her Lover may be top ten (and a rare case of Peter Greenaway's style working).  Leningrad Cowboys also may be top ten.

Haven't seen Jesus Of Montreal or Ile Aiye.

The Greatest Show In The Galaxy appears to be television, so also shouldn't be on the list.

Other films that would make my top ten (or twenty):

Parenthood

The Little Mermaid

Heathers

When Harry Met Sally...

Other films I like:

Back To The Future Part II, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Cousins, Dead Calm, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Field Of Dreams, Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, Penn & Teller Get Killed, Road House (quite a year for Kelly Lynch, with this and Drugstore Cowboy), Uncle Buck, Driving Miss Daisy, The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen, Earth Girls Are Easy, Weekend At Bernie's (sort of), The Big Picture (sort of)


Other films of the year:

Batman, Look Who's Talking, Dead Poets Society, Lethal Weapon 2, Ghostbusters 2, Born On The Fourth Of July, Camille Claudel, Casualties Of War, Cinema Paradiso, Enemies A Love Story, Glory, Henry V, My Left Foot, Roger & Me, Sex Lies And Videotape, The War Of The Roses, Gleaming The Cub, The January Man, Three Fugitives, Her Alibi, Who's Harry Crumb?, The Fly II, Tap, The 'Burbs, The Mighty Quinn, True Believer, Bert Rigby You're A Fool, Dream A Little Dream, Farewell To The King, Lean On Me, Skin Deep (which did have one of the most memorable scenes of the year), Chances Are,

Jacknife, New York Stories, Police Academy 6, Fletch Lives, Leviathan, Dead Bang, Troop Beverly Hills, Cyborg, The Dream Team, Major League, She's Out Of Control, Winter People, Kick Boxer, Pet Sematary, Red Scorpion, See You In The Morning, Criminal Law, K-9, Turner & Hooch, Loverboy, Miss Firecracker, Scandal, Signs Of Life, Fright Night Part 2, How I Got Into College (with some shout outs to University of Michigan), Pink Cadillac, Renegades,

Scenes From The Class Struggle In Beverly Hills, Vampires Kiss, Star Trek V, Great Balls Of Fire!, The Karate Kid Part III, License To Kill, UHF, Friday The 13th Part VIII, Miracle Mile (set in an area not far outside my door), Lock Up, The Abyss, A Nightmare On Elm Street 5, Cookie, Eddie And The Cruisers II, The Adventures Of Milo And Otis, The Package (with a scene from my old haunts in Hyde Park), Relentless, Sea Of Love, Black Rain, In Country, Johnny Handsome, An Innocent Man, Old Gringo, Breaking In, Halloween 5, Fat Man And Little Boy, Gross Anatomy, Next Of Kin, The Bear, Dad, Worth Winning, Bloodhounds Of Broadway, The Phantom Of The Opera, Best Of The Best, Communion, All Dogs Go To Heaven, Harlem Nights, Prancer, Steel Magnolias, She-Devil, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Triumph Of The Spirit, New Year's Day, Blaze, We're No Angels, Always, Tango & Cash

Creek Peek

Over the past couple months I've managed to finish all five seasons and 66 episodes of Schitt's Creek--just in time for its final season in January.   Each episode is only 22 minutes so it wasn't hard to burn through them.

The concept is the superrich Rose family--two parents and two adult children--lose all their money so are forced to live in a cheap motel in a town that they own, a town considered so worthless they're allowed to keep it. (A concept I don't get, but no matter.)

In the first season they spend a lot of time plotting to unload the place and move out.  The show improves quite a bit in later seasons when the family settles in and stops trying to leave.  The father (Eugene Levy) helps run the motel, the mother (Catherine O'Hara) gets on the town council and returns to her acting career, the son (Daniel Levy, who created the show with father Eugene) opens up a store in town and finds a business and romantic partner, and the daughter (Annie Murphy) has a relationship with a local veterinarian.

Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara were great working together on SCTV and in Christopher Guest movies, but here they take a back seat to the kids.  Levy is fine as the father, which he plays fairly straight, though O'Hara is a bit too much of a caricature as the affected wife.

The daughter, with her cutesy, singsongy way, and the son, with his overdramatic manner, steal the show.  At the beginning they threaten to be one-note, forever complaining about losing their old lifestyle, but eventually they go native and develop into full-blown characters.

The supporting cast isn't bad, though I found the various hunky guys who date the Rose kids the least interesting.  And Chris Elliott as the town's crude mayor never quite finds his comic footing.  But the women in the cast do pretty well.

There's Sarah Levy as Twyla, the waitress as the local diner who's a bit of a sad sack.  There's Karen Robinson as the sardonic Ronnie.  There's Jenn Robertson as the mayor's put-upon wife.  And best of all is Emily Hampshire as Stevie, the motel clerk amused by all the goings-on.

The show is no classic, and while diverting is rarely laugh-out-loud funny. But it's worth checking out.

End Of The Century

Jesse Walker has now taken a look back at 1999 in film. I agree with him that it was a fine year.  But what about the particulars?

He didn't think much of that year's Oscar winner American Beauty after a second viewing. Here's how I felt after a second viewing.  In any case, it didn't make the list.  Here's what did:

1.  Election
2.  The Limey
3.  Being John Malkovich
4.  Mr. Death
5.  Toy Story 2
6.  Belfast, Maine
7.  Magnolia
8.  South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
9.  Fight Club
10. Limbo

I like Election, though I think it's overrated (on this list and in general)--it's good, but not that good.

Both The Limey and Being John Malkovich would make my top ten.  Probably Mr. Death as well.

Toy Story 2 is pretty good, but like all the sequels, doesn't match the original.

Haven't seen Belfast, Maine, though it sounds like my cup of tea.

Magnolia is a pretentious mess, like most P.T. Anderson films after Boogie Nights.

The South Park film is a lot of fun--should be at least top twenty.

Fight Club is a problem film.  There's much that's brilliant about it, yet much that's stupid.  For what it's worth, it does seem to have gotten better over time.

Limbo is a passable John Sayles film--far from his best. And I hate the ending.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11.  Three Kings
12.  All About My Mother
13.  Felicia's Journey
14.  The Sopranos
15.  Ghost Dog
16.  Time Regained
17.  Oz 3
18.  The Matrix
19.  Boys Don't Cry
20.  Titus

I'm usually a fan of David O. Russell, but 11 was a huge disappointment (and the scene where he reveals the secret of trouble in the Middle East--it's all about oil!--was the worst movie moment of 1999). 12 is one of Almodovar's better films.  Haven't seen 13, 16 or 20.  14 and 17 are TV shows so shouldn't be on the list.  15 might make my top ten.  18 is pretty good (though silly) and the sequels only remind you how hard it is to pull off this stuff. 19 is also good, though I haven't seen it since it opened--I wonder if it plays differently today.

Other films from 1999 that would make my top ten or twenty:

Princess Mononoke

Go

Run Lola Run

Galaxy Quest

Topsy-Turvy 

Other films from 1999 that I like:

Audition, Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels (though the title is a false play on words), Office Space (especially the first half), The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Green Mile (minus the awful framing device), 10 Things I Hate About You, eXistenZ, Dick, Bowfinger, The Muse (sort of)

Other films of the year:

The Sixth Sense, Man On The Moon, Cider House Rules, Eyes Wide Shut, The Thin Red Line, The Blair Witch Project, The Insider, The Iron Giant, The Straight Story, Tumbleweeds, The End Of The Affair, Music Of The Heart, Sweet And Lowdown, The Hurricane, Girl Interrupted, Under The Sun, Buena Vista Social Club, One Day In September, Genghis Blues, The Red Violin, Angela's Ashes, The Mummy, Star Wars: Phantom Menace, Anna And The King, Sleepy Hollow, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Snow Falling On Cedars, The End Of The Affair, Life, Bicentennial Man, Stuart Little, Notting Hill, The World Is Not Enough, Varsity Blues, At First Sight,

She's All That, Gloria, Payback, Blast From The Past, October Sky, Jawbreaker, My Favorite Martian, 20 Dates, 8mm, The Other Sister, Cruel Intentions, Baby Geniuses, The Deep And Of The Ocean, Forces Of Nature, True Crime, Ravenous, EDtv, Cookie's Fortune, The Out-Of-Towners, Never Been Kissed, Foolish, Lost & Found, Pushing Tin, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Thirteenth Floor, Instinct, Tarzan, The General's Daughter, An Ideal Husband, Big Daddy,

Wild Wild West, Summer Of Sam, Arlington Road, American Pie, Muppets From Space, Lake Placid, Inspector Gadget, Deep Blue Sea, Runaway Bride, Twin Falls Idaho, The Adventures Of Sebastian Cole, The Thomas Crown Affair, Mystery Men, Brokedown Palace, Detroit Rock City, Mickey Blue Eyes, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, The Astronaut's Wife, The 13th Warrior, Dudley Do-Right, Outside Providence, Love Stinks, Blue Streak, Breakfast Of Champions, Mumford, The Minus Man, Jakob The Liar, Double Jeopardy, For The Love Of The Game, Drive Me Crazy, Mystery Alaska, Random Hearts, Superstar, The Omega Code, The Story Of Us, The Best Man, Bringing Out The Dead, The Bachelor, The Bone Collector, Anywhere But Here, Dogma, End Of Days, Flawless, Mansfield Park, The End Of The Affair, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Ride With The Devil, Any Given Sunday

Secret Santa

I was walking through a mall recently and saw kids standing in line to get a photo with Santa.  Nothing unusual there--a seasonal occurrence.

But it got me thinking. If you're a little kid, and you doubt Santa Claus exists, there sure is a lot of evidence going against you.  Everywhere you go you see proof.  Santa is on your corner or at your mall.  There are tons of TV shows and movies where he does his magic.  Then there's Christmas Day, where the evidence is right in front of you.

Not having grown up believing in Santa, I don't know what it's like when you realize the truth.  But I was wondering how it may affect some people. Because what you've got amounts to a massive conspiracy of adults putting one over on kids.

Do some of these kids grow up to believe in conspiracy theories because of this?  I mean, if millions and millions of people could be part of this plot, who knows what other vast conspiracies are going on out there designed to keep us blissfully unaware.

Every Year Around This Time

My friend Jesse Walker has started his top ten movie lists.  Not for 2019--he doesn't have enough perspective.  But he'll look back at every year that ends in 9.  In fact, he's been doing this list thing long enough enough that this isn't the first time we'll be seeing some of these years.

Starting, in reverse chronological order, with the best of 2009.  Hardly seems like a decade ago.

1.  Up
2.  Inglourious Basterds
3.  A Prophet
4.  Coraline
5.  A Serious Man
6.  Jennifer's Body
7.  Broken Embraces
8.  Funny People
9.  Four.Five.Three.Six.Five
10. Daddy Longlegs

I liked Up, but maybe top twenty. It had some great moments, but the second half bogged down with some story problems. (You'll see below there were other animated features I preferred.)

Inglourious Basterds is QT's best since Pulp Fiction, and deserves a spot on the list.

Coraline I liked a lot (a rare film worth seeing in 3-D) but, once again, top twenty.

Like every Coen Brothers' film, A Serious Man has some fascinating moments, and it's aged well, but I don't think it's great, or even especially good.

Broken Embraces is decent Almodovar--not top ten or even twenty.

Funny People throws a lot at you.  Judd Apatow has defended its length, but I'm sorry, two and a half hours is too long for a comedy. (Don't tell me that people binge watch sitcoms for hours--a series of sprints is not the same as a marathon.) There's a decent 90 minute comedy in here. Too bad he didn't go for it.

The rest I haven't seen, though, except for #9, I had plenty of chances.

Here are the honorable mentions:

11.  Ajami
12.  The Fantastic Mr. Fox
13.  Cropsey
14.  Moon
15.  The White Ribbon
16.  Life During Wartime
17.  The Thick Of It 3
18.  Universal Soldier: Regeneration
19.  Sherlock Holmes
20.  Teclopolis

Haven't seen 11, 13, 17 or 20.

12 was a lot of fun--makes my top ten. (I'm not in the habit of correcting Jesse, who's usually meticulous, but there's no "The" in the title.)  14 was a curio. Worth watching, though I'm not sure what to make of it.  15 was overrated, like so much of Haneke.  16 was a weird sequel/non-sequel (to a superior film).  Solondz' films are often better on second viewings because the characters disappoint you so much the first time around it can be hard to take.  18 and 19 were, to varying degrees, disappointing commercial efforts.

Here are some films that would have made my top ten or twenty

Anvil! The Story Of Anvil

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs

The Hangover

In The Loop

Ponyo

Star Trek

Up In The Air

World's Greatest Dad 

Here are other films I liked

An Education, Every Little Step, (500) Days Of Summer, Taken, Two Lovers, Monsters vs Aliens, Zombieland, Paranormal Activity, Good Hair, The Princess And The Frog, The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, Big Fan, Julie & Julia (liked half of it)

Here are some other notable films of the year:

2012, Sunshine Cleaning, Gomorra, I Love You Man, The Class, Adventureland, Duplicity, Terminator Salvation, Year One, Public Enemies, Bruno, District 9, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, Whatever Works, Surrogates, Whip It, Law Abiding Citizen, The Messenger, A Single Man, An American Affair, He's Just Not That Into You, Bride Wars, The International, New In Town, State Of Play, Angels & Demons, Couples Retreat, Planet 51, Invictus, Confessions Of A Shopaholic, Old Dogs, It's Complicated, Tyson, The Boys, Pressure Cooker, The Damned United, Brothers, Defiance, The Brothers Bloom, The Great Buck Howard, White On Rice, The September Issue, 2012,

Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans, The White Ribbon, Me And Orson Welles, Land Of The Lost, The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3, Watchmen, Fanboys, Taking Woodstock, Extract, The Informant!, Where The Wild Things Are, The Men Who Stare At Goats, Pirate Radio, Creation, The Road, Observe And Report, Cold Souls, The Baader Meinhoff Complex, The Invention Of Lying, Antichrist, The Misfortunates, Avatar, Precious, Police Adjective, The Blind Side, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Crazy Heart, 17 Again, Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Previous, Crazy Heart, The Last Station, The Messenger, Nine, The Lovely Bones, The Secret Of Kells, The Secret In Their Eyes, The Milk Of Sorrow, Food Inc. The Most Dangerous Man In America, Coco Before Chanel, The Cove, The Young Victoria, Bright Star,

Here's A Suggestion

For many years I've been fighting against improv.  Perhaps that's a bit much.  Let's just say I haven't been a strong supporter.

I recognize its uses.  It can be helpful training for actors, and, in its proper place, can be used to develop sketches and other things.  But it's not great art.  It's a tightrope act--you're watching people make something up that, if it works, isn't completely awful.  Compared to a properly written script and a well-prepared cast--you know, what you generally need for art--it's not much.

In fact, I wouldn't mind it so much if so many didn't praise it to the skies.  As live entertainment, it's usually atrocious.  And even when done well, all I can think is "this would be awful if I thought someone had written this." But for many years, all I could hear was positive things about improv.  If people wanted to hate some art form, they chose mime.

But I think things may be starting to turn.  More than once, on sitcoms, I've noticed anti-improv sentiments. (I've got to fight autocorrect, which keeps turning improv into improve--which is what improv needs to do.)  On both Modern Family and Schitt's Creek one character, to show he cared for another, was willing to make the sacrifice of watching some improv.  Modern Family went so far as to show a little of it, and it wasn't good (which was the point, of course).

Is improv becoming a punch line?  It may be.  And if I played any small part in this, that would make me happy.

Mortyfied

The first half of the fourth season of Rick And Morty just ended.  The second half won't air until next year.  Rick And Morty is the best comedy on TV at present, and each season keeps getting better. Until now.  Don't get me wrong, it's still a great show, but none of the first five episodes of season four would make the top five of last season.

Maybe I'll change my mind after several viewings--Rick And Morty can hold up to repeated viewings--but my first impression is the stories don't quite compare to the best of the past.  They're often more complex, but that doesn't make them better.

The end of episode one warned us that this season would be about anything they wanted, even trivial, one-off stuff, which turned out to be true.  I'm not saying every episode needs to be part of an arc, or has to have a strong emotional core, but still you don't want the surface effects to be so clever that there's nothing going on underneath.

This leads to stuff like the third episode, which is a parody of all the heist movies where every plot point is a trick to fool you into thinking something else is happening.  The episode is clever, but ultimately tiring.  And something similar can be said for the fifth episode, where Rick unleashes a time travel bomb that gets a snake planet in trouble.

I'm looking forward to the second half of the season. But I hope they've had their fun and are ready to be a little less clever and a little (or lot) more funny.

Try Hodder

Last week I sent birthday wishes to two members of the original five-piece Steely Dan band who weren't named Becker or Fagen.  Today, we celebrate the other one, drummer Jim Hodder.  (They must have had a wild time if they were on the road, with three birthdays falling inside six days.)

In the early 1970s, Hodder was invited to join just as Steely Dan was about to record its first album.  He'd been in The Bead Game, a psychedelic band that got some attention, but didn't make it.

Hodder sang as well as drummed. In fact, he sang lead on "Dallas," the Dan's now forgotten first single. It's sort of country, and fairly conventional for Becker and Fagen.  You can see why they left it off their first album, Can't Buy A Thrill.  Hodder also got to sing lead on one of the cuts on that album, "Midnite Cruiser." By the second album Fagen would take over all lead vocals.



Hodder's main contribution was as a drummer on their first two albums.



With Becker and Fagen relying on session musicians, by Steely Dan's third album, Hodder was gone as drummer. But he worked with others.  For instance, he played on Linda Ronstadt's #1 hit version of "You're No Good."



Unfortunately, Hodder is no longer with us.  He drowned in a pool in 1990, age 42.

Did You Watch, Man?

So the first (and perhaps only) season of HBO's Watchmen just ended.  Overall, quite good, though it had a few significant flaws.  Let's discuss them first.

Above all, there's the lunkheaded decision to make white nationalists central to the plot. I would guess that series creator Damon Lindelof thought he had something to say on race today. (The series is set, for the most part, in the present.)  Instead, he offers us a vision, even in an alternate universe, that doesn't ring true, that cheats, featuring crude caricatures and tone-deaf dialogue.  Occasionally the show hinted at something deeper, but in the end this part of the plot didn't work, getting in the way of Watchmen's many positive aspects.

The other problem, more minor, was central character Angela Abar/Sister Night.  Though Regina King is a fine actress, Abar was maybe the least interesting of the main characters.  In the finale (spoiler, I guess), we got all of them in one place--Abar, Doctor Manhattan, Adrian Veidt, Laurie Blake, Looking Glass and Lady Trieu, and I realized that though all the action revolves around Abar, I prefer the parts where others get more attention.

But even with all that, the show is fun.  It features great dialogue, surprising characters and intriguing plots--the kind of stuff Lindelof is know for at his best (not to give him all the credit--he did write the show with a staff).  It also cheated a bit, if you want to call it that--much of the fun was how the facts were slowly revealed, even though the characters were well aware of most things from the start (another thing Lindelof is known for).

Also, it didn't ruin the memory of the original, as I worried it was doing at first.  Instead of a weird take on Watchmen using some of the original characters and some new ones, it was a continuation of the story decades later.  There are plenty of references to what happened earlier, as explained in the comic, and so a lot of the fun is seeing how that world got to be where it is in 2019.

I guess I'd like to see another season, though the way it ended, with a big reveal regarding Sister Night, didn't look that promising.  Still, it'd be better than more Westworld.

Does It Register?

It's the end of the year, with all the critical bests and award nominations coming out, but the list I like most comes from the National Film Registry.

Each year 25 titles are chosen because of their cultural, historical or aesthetical significance in American cinema.  Let's look at what they've given us this year.

1.  Amadeus (1984)
2.  Becky Sharp (1935)
3.  Before Stonewall (1984)
4.  Body And Soul  (1925)
5.  Boys Don't Cry (1999)
6.  Clerks  (1994)
7.  Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)
8.  Emigrants Landing at Ellis Island (1903)
9.  Employees Entrance (1933)
10.  Fog of War (2003)
11.  Gaslight (1944)
12.  George Washington Carver at Tuskegee Institute (1937)
13.  Girlfriends (1978)

14.  I Am Somebody (1970)
15.  The Last Waltz (1978)
16.  My Name Is Oona (1969)
17.  A New Leaf (1971)
18.  Old Yeller (1957)
19.  The Phenix City Story (1955)
20.  Platoon (1986)
21.  Purple Rain (1984)
22.  Real Women Have Curves (2002)
23.  She's Gotta Have It (1986)
24.  Sleeping Beauty (1959)
25.  Zoot Suit (1981)

Overall, a pretty solid list.

Some are clearly here for historical interest, such as 8 and 12, and there's nothing wrong with that.  There are movies that were meant to appeal to kids, such as 18 and 24.  And some are here as much for cultural reason as aesthetic ones.

There are a lot of movies that won Oscars and the Film Registry is finally getting around to honoring them, such as Amadeus or Platoon or Coal Miner's Daughter or Gaslight.

What intrigues me more are the lesser-known films that didn't get as much attention but have held up surprisingly well--particularly Employees Entrance and A New Leaf (and, to a lesser extent, The Phenix City Story).

Then there's Becky Sharp--not a great film, but the first feature in Technicolor.

There are a couple of titles representing musical acts.  The Last Waltz is a testament to The Band, and Purple Rain, a huge hit in its day, caught the magic of Prince at his height.

There are also a few films that show filmmakers near the beginning of their careers, when no one knew what would come next--Girlfriends, She's Gotta Have It and Clerks and.  Whether these filmmakers fulfilled their early promise is up to the viewer.

If I have a complaint, the list is a bit short on classic comedies and classic Hollywood directors.  Maybe that's because they've done such a good job honoring them in the past they're running out of titles.