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Stuff I Dig, 2006: Movies

A rough year for flicks, and I can't even come up with a top ten list. Am I being picky? In a year when a record number of releases went unscreened by critics, when something called Borat is generating Oscar buzz, when a James Bond movie is topping best-of lists, I don't think so.

I'll come up with a real honest-to-God List in January, after I see all the "good" stuff they dump in late December, Children of Men, Pan's Labyrinth, all that. But for now, I offer a few great scenes from the few movies I actually loved so far this year:

• The first hour of United 93, in which nothing much happens, but the pacing and detail draw such tension, and menace, and horror from somewhere deep inside of me. The finest movie this year, and you're so totally and completely wrong if you think otherwise. And I respect that.
• Pretty much everything about The Departed. Every word out of Marky Mark's mouth. And Alec Baldwin's mouth. And Damon being such a great bad guy. And the utter pathos and clarity of the right-outta-Shakespeare finale.
• The Running of the Jew in Borat, especially the bit about the egg.
• Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta, the only great comic book movie in a year of mediocre comic book movies.
• The grace-at-dinner scene in Talladega Nights, in which Will Ferrell and family argue about their favorite Jesus. Too bad the rest of it isn't so inspired.
• That foot chase in Casino Royale. And, to a lesser extent, everything thing else in there, too.

THIS HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT, yes, but when I first saw this video of (very talented) director Michel Gondry "solving" a Rubik's Cube with monkey-like foot digits, I knew something was fishy. He's doing very little analysis of state of the Cube. He's just turning and turning and turning. He's not solving anything.

My first thought was that he messed it up in a pattern, which he memorized, and repeated it in reverse with his feet. My second thought was, what's for dinner, and I totally forgot about it. So, okay, now I learn I was I was wrong, but only a little bit wrong.

What he had done, according to this weirdly sober debunking of the video, was mess up a solved Cube with his feet, and then play the tape of that backward. So. Like. Take that, Michel.

Still, though. It doesn't make the original movie that much less interesting.

Mayrav Tuesdays: Nutjobs and Latkes

Another great Mayrav column today in the Register, on how completely people lose their minds this time of year:

The deli was closing at 2. It was 1. I thought for sure the guy was going to give her all the latkes he had just to get her aromatic self out of his shop. So I was thankful when he walked out from behind the counter, past the latkes lady, and presented me with an open tray of my fried potato goodness.

"Oh, those look good," the woman said. "Can I have a bite?"

"What?" I said.

"Just a little nibble. Just a corner," she said, reaching toward my tray.

"You're kidding."

"You're so funny. Why not? I'd let you."

The deli worker and I stood dumbstruck for a full three seconds before I finally stammered, "Um … it's cold and flu season."

It was a nice thing to say. A way for her to regain control of her faculties, realize that she had just crossed a line and back away politely.

Instead she shot back, "I'll wear a glove."

Plenty more of her here.

Mayrav on Britney, Mom and the Future of Journalism

A few great stories this week from Mayrav, in both major Southern California papers. A first? Maybe a first:

1. She returns to the pages of the Los Angeles Times with a very cool piece about a rise in "citizen journalism" and amateur publications like BrooWaha.
2. Her new column in the OC Register declares war on those long, typed-up family newsletters people stuff into holiday cards.
3. And I forgot to pimp her column last week, when she declared (correctly) that Britney Spears is turning my wife into her mother.

Bad Sweater Explosion

Our buddy Kevin (aka Bad Sweater Guy) is milking the season of dubious knit garments for all it's worth.

He's getting quoted by actual Big Media types as an "expert" on bad fashion (Men's Health, USA Today just in the past couple of week), and his site's been relaunched as a daily blog, now with an original comic strip, user-submitted bad sweater pics and more bad-sweater news than, well, anywhere.

What's next, his own screaming-head news hour on FOX? A book? A movie? Something. Something has to be next.

The Mini Has a Bad Day

3 STAR WARS Links People Sent Me Today, For Whatever Reason

1. My favorite, this story about Tunisian locals living in the desert-dweller sets from Tatooine, on the land that George Lucas turned into the worst-planet-in-the-galaxy.
2. Detailed instructions on how to make a giant subwoofer that looks like a Death Star. Because every family room needs a huge foam ball that looks like a Death Star making loud thumping sounds.
3. A not very funny PSA knock-off with Darth Vader chewing out his kid for using lightsabers.

3 Totally Unconnected Things I Like Today

1. The Christmas Episode episode of “Studio 60,” best hour of this so far, and maybe the first where the show-inside-the-show is funny, too. (The New Orleans musical number is posted here.)
   
   
2. A new Danielle segment, this time, posted to YouTube by some guy she interviewed, who refers to her as “the reporter lady who talked to me.”
   
   


3. Shooting rabbits with plungers in Rayman Raving Rabbids, on my Wii. So weird. Gives me jitters.

That's So 37 Years Ago

So NASA announces today they're planning a moonbase by 2020. Great. Way to get on that. Sort of expected that like three decades ago, but whatever. Do you thing. But if the furniture isn't all funky and modern, like what Kubrick had in mind, I'm not coming. I'm skipping that dead rock and heading to a place with a real future.