Still Tangled Up...

The Fifty Best Films of the Decade - Number Forty-Four

44) Kill Bill Vol. 1

This anticipated film proves to be loads of fun, presenting an action film while sporting all sorts of stylish personality. Who can resist a delicious, jazzed-up jumble of Bruce Lee, Kurosawa, John Woo (the opening scene has a segment largely lifted from The Killer), and my man Sergio Leone? Alright, so it, like most revenge films, lacks emotional depth or subtlety, and, less forgivable, at times the humor is a bit forced. And I'll grant you that the opening scene is not entirely successful, but really, if this didn't have Tarantino's name on it, half the world would have wet themselves over this film. Any fears that the film split would be harmful are completely unfounded, especially since the film really get rolling towards the end and then bows with a twist that guarantees the audience will be back for the second installment. Uma fits QT's vision like a leather glove, and hardly anybody can match music to vision like Quentin. This crazed bloodbath ultimately proves a greater addiction than its more ambitious second half.

45) The Brothers Bloom
46) Closer
47) The Reader
48) Chop Shop
49) Finding Neverland
50) Tarnation

Current Music: Jane's Addiction - Jane Says

The Fifty Best Films of the Decade - Number Forty-Five

45) The Brothers Bloom

Like The Sting, this is all one big con, but what a fun twisty trick it is. This insane film buzzes by on sheer delight, eternally impressed with just what a crazy trip it continues being. The cast, from Rinko Kikuchi's explosive thrill addict to Adrien Brody' hangdog survivor, Mark Ruffalo' s charming grifter, and Rachel Weisz's twenty-first century take on Bringing Up Baby's Susan Vance, is custom-fitted for this fanciful film. Rian Johnson's directing turn cheers up Wes Anderson and pours some coffee down his throat, juicing this film with a verve that solidifies the director's status as most under-sung upstart of the decade. It's a lark, it's a farce, and it's a brilliant thrill ride. Forget the boring manufactured crap Hollywood squirts out under the excuse of, "Hey, it is just a fun movie." Those are cynical, uncreative shams; this is the real deal.

46) Closer
47) The Reader
48) Chop Shop
49) Finding Neverland
50) Tarnation

Current Music: The Raveonettes - Aly, Walk With Me

The Fifty Best Films of the Decade - Number Forty-Six

46) Closer

Grab a coat, cause this movie is cold. I suspect the frosty distance, symbolized by the constant reference to an aquarium, coupled with the cynical, painful portrayal of human sexuality and unfaithfulness will send many viewers running to the door. For the ones with the stomach to stay, Mike Nichols’ careful visuals, Patrick Marber’s incredible screenplay, and the good performances reward, if not with warm fuzzy feelings, then with chilly observations and excellent screencraft that elevate this nasty film as one of the best movies of its year. Just remember; you’ve been warned…

47) The Reader
48) Chop Shop
49) Finding Neverland
50) Tarnation

Current Music: Miles Davis - So What

The Fifty Best Films of the Decade - Number Forty-Seven

47) The Reader

Everybody agrees that Kate Winslet's complex, unglamorous, award-winning performance is incredible, but this film still received a quite tepid reception with the vanilla reviewers of 2008. Most of the critics who complain mention that it is cold and emotionally reserved in parts, a chilliness intentionally enforced by Roger Deakins' sterling cinematography. I'm somewhat shocked they believe a film that pushes the theme that, morally speaking, emotions don't matter should tug more obviously and blatantly on the heartstrings. Besides, where most movies swell the music and haze up that background rather cheaply, this one understands that knocking back any vulgar manipulation can lead to a far richer wallop after the credits. This study of an affair between a teenage boy and an older woman with a shameful secret raises ethical questions far beyond the obvious, and its troubled, indecisive conclusions stay with you far longer (and in much deeper ways) than the showtunes from the inferior Slumdog Millionaire that beat this on Oscar day.

48) Chop Shop
49) Finding Neverland
50) Tarnation

Current Music: Pavement - In the Mouth a Desert

The Fifty Best Films of the Decade - Number Forty-Eight

48) Chop Shop

It earned comparisons to The Bicycle Thieves with its realism, spare style, and budget that probably couldn't keep most folks in coffee for the month, and that sparse simplicity sets the perfect tone for this tale of a young boy and his sister living in the slums. The younger orphan is struggling in the shadow of Shea Stadium to raise money any way he can to buy a food van that he dreams will enable an easier, steady living and will keep him and his sister together. The slum conditions in the midst of America are shocking, the acting of the young unknowns is perfectly pitched, and the film itself quietly creeps up on you until you can't escape. This isn't for the crowd that needs films to provide cheap euphoria or a pleasant background to popcorn munching, true, but that doesn't make it any less affecting or great.

49) Finding Neverland
50) Tarnation

Current Music: The Cardigans - Rise & Shine

The Fifty Best Films of the Decade - Number Forty-Nine

49) Finding Neverland

There is every chance that film critics have a shelf life, an expiry date, and if that is true, perhaps everybody should simply start ignoring me now. I expected Finding Neverland to prove a clump of clotted cheese; instead, I discovered one of my favorite films of 2004. The film and I could have lived without a few scenes, but I found this simple drama about the life of the man who wrote Peter Pan to be incredibly moving, touching stuff. The acting is naturally superb, but the directing is just as impressive. Marc Forster knows when to sell the material and when to sit back and let the drama sell itself. Luckily, the screenplay provides marvelous material, touching upon the emotional life of several characters without overplaying the subtexts or simplifying complicated situations. What can I say? I really, really loved this film. Stick a fork in me; no doubt, I’m done...

50) Tarnation

Current Music: Lizz Wright - My Heart

The Fifty Best Films of the Decade - Number Fifty
This it the first entry in a new series I'm writing. Enjoy!

THE FIFTY BEST FILMS OF THE DECADE

50) Tarnation

Jonathan Caouette made this experimental film for around $200, so Michael Bay, this ain't. Good. This is the most experimental film on this list, but it is one chaotic ride worth buckling your seatbelt. Examining his troubled, creative childhood, Caouette fractures his life into chunks of telephone machine messages, short films, glam rock, and abstract art. The viewer is forced to put the puzzle pieces together, but for the brave who work it, this proves that straight-forward narrative isn't the only path to making a great film.

(PS - Trivia - Believe it or not, this actually showed in Tulsa, back during the Circle Cinema's glory days! Did anybody else catch it on the big screen?)

Current Music: Air - Once Upon a Time

Bullies Might Give You Black Eyes / And Buses Might Skid on Black Ice
Pulp Fiction is at the AMC!

I caved and caught Coco Before Chanel, but it really wasn't worth the time or money.

For the first time in over five years, my windshield has no full-length crack.

Enjoy your weekend. That's an order.

Current Music: Stereolab - Parsec

Scratch Your Own Head, Stupid
So, in the same election, Tulsa votes that a non-CPA cannot run for city auditor...

...AND votes a non-CPA to be city auditor.

Tulsa - We are indeed all idiots, and there's your proof.

Current Music: An Horse - Postcards

How I Love That Girl
iPod segue of the week.

Brian Wilson - Our Prayer / Gee ==> Belle and Sebastian - Stay Loose

Cool.

Shaun of the Dead > Zombieland

That is all...

Current Music: Belle and Sebastian - Stay Loose

You Love Gives Me a Thrill / But Your Love Won't Pay My Bills
I actually tend to believe capitalism is the best economic idea for most goods and services.

Capitalism, however, needs true, free competition.

In America, where most commodities are dominated by two or three companies, that just isn't happening.

Throw in inheritance, which is and always has been one of the deadliest foes to capitalism around, and you have a mucked up system that isn't really working as it should...

The funny thing? Most so-called free market conservatives encourage less competition and love inheritances...

Current Music: Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Blank Generation

In a Certain Light / He Looked Like Elvis / In a Certain Way / He Feels Like Jesus
My goodness, when did all these movies sneak into my town? You leave for another state for a mere weekend or so, and...

The coolest? Well, if you have already seen District 9, The Hurt Locker, and (500) Days of Summer...

...you can catch the late John Hughes' best film, Ferris Bueller's Day Off at the AMC!

I plan to catch 9 and Extract at the full-price theater, and I may see Public Enemies at the dollar joint.

I was really hoping Soul Power would hit the AMC (I saw the trailer for it there enough times!), but alas... Is this one good enough to qualify as my now only-occasional Circle Cinema venture? Probably not. We'll see... after I catch the other films listed above.

(If I do catch it, I promise you it won't be on a Wednesday night!)

I hope everybody has a great weekend, and if you haven't seen one of the films I listed in the second paragraph above, get on it! They're all terrific and still in town!

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So far, I'm favoring the Purple Chick editions to the official remastered Beatles CDs. Drats...

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The Costello concert was good, but not quite as great as his last Tulsa appearance. Double drats!

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The second episode of Glee was better than the first. Yay!

Current Music: Zero 7 - Destiny

All I Wanted was a Pepsi / Just One Pepsi / And She Wouldn't Give It to Me
I had a fantastic weekend, and I am now back at work. Everything that rises...

In the Loop is exactly the sort of film I once would catch at the Circle, but now, it doesn't quite clear the dam (Hello, NetFlix!).

Extract, however, will wiggle onto my must-do list.

I confess I'm quite interested in the season premiere of Glee tomorrow night.

Yeah, deal.

I also hope FlashForward, V, and at least one of the new comedies (maybe The Middle or Modern Family) prove tubegrooveworthy...

My beautiful, brilliant girlfriend has a birthday Thursday night!!! Now, what to get her...

Current Music: Lily Allen - LDN

Do I Have to Draw You a Diagram?
Forget Paul McCartney, I'm seeing Elvis Costello tonight!

Current Music: The Supremes - Love Child

I've Got Hate Mail Coming to My Door Via Federal Express
A weekend away approaches, now grown large enough to absorb Friday and Monday. Who could complain?

The cool damp grey weather is being too too kind to me.

I'm going to watch a friend sing at the library today during lunch.

I'm eating homemade pasta salad for dinner tonight.

I still have ten toes.

Amateur is still my favorite film, although I haven't seen it in a score of blue moons.

My girlfriend is so much more than your significant other.

Hillbilly elitism still annoys me when I forget to laugh at it.

What else could you possibly want to know about me?

Current Music: LaVern Baker - Tweedlee Dee

They Say I'm Walking on Freedom / This Is Freedom / Now I Know / Now I Know
I admit it. I am no longer a fan of Circle Cinema on Facebook, and I'm probably not going to be attending movies there quite so often.

First, it seems to be drowning in its own success. Ever since they started selling advanced tickets, cool events sell out long before the big day. Those of us who don't want to buy our tickets over the internet get the shaft.

From time to time, they have interviews with directors and actors. Now, though, every star fucker in Tulsa who never steps foot inside the place swarms the theater at the chance to see somebody famous. Again, events sell out. Us faithful few are shut out.

I don't even bother going to Skype interviews or midnight movies any more. Chances are too good I'll be turned away at the door, even if I show up early by my usual thirty minutes.

(I think they should save at least ten or so tickets at the box office for people who actually show up wanting to buy them, but what do I know?)

And, to top it off, the woman at the ticket counter Wednesday night was incredibly rude to me. Again. She's always mean to me. What have I done to her? Not a damn thing.

Seems the joint is doing well enough to not care about its original fans.

I still have the ticket stub from the very first film the place showed since it opened as an art theater.

So, I'll still go there for a movie now and again, but I think the place has gotten a little too cool for the likes of me, and they seem pretty happy with that.

Current Music: Paul Weller - Shadow of the Sun

I Got This Feeling / That It's Later Than It Seems
O'Horten was good, Beauty in Trouble was better, and (500) Days of Summer topped them all!

I woke up Saturday morning looking the lion from The Wizard of Oz or that boy from Mask. Pink Eye puffed half my face up and made me a freak!

So I bought some shades and went about my day.

I merely look bloodshot now, but my, the light in my office is killing my eyes!

During this summer season, I've been sampling True Blood and Battlestar Galactica and enjoying both. (No, I don't have cable...)

I think we're heading to Austin for the Labor Day weekend for no reason in particular but to relax and to explore... :)

Current Music: Gun Club - Sex Beat

Gonna Set My Watch Back to It / Cause You Know That I've Been Through It
I've rejoined the TulsaTime community. I left because of a pest, and that pest now seems to have flow off somewhere else. Damn bloodsucking mosquitoes...

I've some great news. It looks like Josh Kline has taken over movie duties at the Urban Tulsa from the borderline-illiterate movie moron Cory Cheney. This is terrific. Mr. Kline can write, knows about movies, and has taste.

When did they start allowing people like that to write for Urban Tulsa? Who cares? Let's hope he sticks around. Tulsa is in dire need of good movie critics.

(One minor quibble, though; never start off your position declaring a new film perfect...)

Food, Inc. was pure propaganda but still not bad. The information presented could be picked up in much better detail in any number of books, and the presentation itself wasn't very creative or well-organized. Still, the film was fairly good, hitting hard with the uncomfortable truth. It certainly made me happy to be somebody who doesn't eat meat.

Even better, though, was The Hurt Locker. This is probably the best movie showing in town at the moment. See it, even if it isn't quite perfect. :)

I've finally found some audio freeware that does what I desire, so I'm even more happy with our newish computer. Replacing a computer nearly a decade old with a super-fast new machine is a delight. How odd not to have programs crashing or out of memory errors. I'm starting to really love Apple. The company has moved beyond being a hype machine worthy of loathing to a great producer of great computers.

Apple and the movie page at Urban Tulsa getting my praise?

I love it when improving situations force me to change my tune...

Current Music: Interpol - Evil

I Get Tired of DJs / Why's It Always What He Plays?
Damn, I'm getting old.

The power went kaput last night, right after Sally Bowles screamed under the bridge, actually, so we chose to cool our heels over at Border's Books and Music. We browsed the mags on the first floor, and then we held hands while ascending the stairs, she to look at the craft books and I to browse the CDs.

Egads!

The music section is now all of four or five aisles. This is somewhere less than a tenth of its previous girth.

I know. People are downloading. CDs don't sell. Really, I know.

I knew the day was coming. I just wasn't ready for it to be last night.

And yes, I hate not being able to relive some of my favorite lazy teen nights flipping through music racks looking for that gem of a forgotten album or that obscure T Bone Burnett album, but that's not the worst of it. We noticed the entire bookstore had less stock that it once did. People aren't going to the bookstores much nowadays.

See, we're losing our social spaces.

People hate going to the movies; why deal with other people when you have a nice TV and a surround sound system at home? We don't hit up Tower stores to find fellow fans of our various cult medias. We don't even respect public spaces as much as we once did.

That nice patch of pedestrian-friendly benches and shade trees downtown Tulsa? It was yanked up and became a street again.

I've no wonder why we're all getting fat. We're quickly getting to where the only places we leave our homes to hang are where we shove our faces full of food and drink.

For those of us who try not to do either to excess, it hurts a bit.

Staring at the few aisles of CDs, I was surprised how sad I felt.

Damn, I'm getting old...

Current Music: Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2

There are Ten Commandments of Love! / When Will You Realize?
The good news always rolls in with some bad, eh?

The gospel?

The worst film critic in the nation, Urban Tulsa's very own Cory Cheney, is retiring from writing movie reviews. Glory, be!

The bad news?

The new G.I. Joe movie looks like a huge steaming pile of suck... :(

Current Music: Mazzy Star - Blue Light

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