Crazy Horse (2011)

Jack and I really liked this documentary about the home of "chic nude dancing" in Paris, where the girls bare all, swinging and swaying. Noted documentarian Frederick Wiseman brings us these young women, all with lovely faces and homogeneous symmetric bodies, putting on quite a show, and some of the behind-the-scenes folks talk (and talk and talk--we would have been quite happy with at least 20 minutes of talking removed--at 134 minutes, it should be shorter). I've enjoyed watching my yoga teacher perform with her belly dancing troupe, and the girls of Le Crazy are first rate at gyrating their hips and "buttocks" as they are subtitled. Now in its 61st year, Crazy Horse is a popular tourist attraction just off the river Seine on Avenue George V, catering to both men and women. At age 82 Wiseman has made 41 documentaries, and I must admit I haven't seen any, though I remember hearing about Meat in 1976.

It's an interesting follow-up to Pina (which was playing in the same room an hour later this evening), and, like that one, recommended for lovers of the dance, and anyone else who would like to see nearly naked girls (I suppose 20-somethings should really be called women, but no one in the movie does so) executing complicated choreography.

Golden Raspberry Awards 2011

You thought I would write about the Oscars? Everyone who reads this blog already watched them. Here are the nominees for the worst movies of last year (winners to be announced April Fools Day). Adam Sandler is the big, er, loser here with 11 nominations, a record. The two that I saw are linked.

Worst Picture
Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star
Jack & Jill
New Year's Eve
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part I

Worst Director (ditto, except Dugan has a second credit)
Michael Bay, Transformers
Tom Brady, Bucky Larson
Bill Condon, Twilight
Dennis Dugan, (2) Jack & Jill and Just Go with It
Garry Marshall, New Year's Eve

Worst Actor
Russell Brand, Arthur
Nicolas Cage, (3 movies) Drive Angry 3D, Season of the Witch, and Trespass
Taylor Lautner, (2) Abduction and Twilight
Adam Sandler, (2) Jack & Jill and Just Go with It
Nick Swardson, Bucky Larson

Worst Actress:
Martin Lawrence, Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin: The Undefeated
Sarah Jessica Parker, (2) I Don't Know How She Does It and New Year's Eve
Adam Sandler, Jack & Jill
Kristen Stewart, Twilight

Worst Supporting Actor
Patrick Dempsey, Transformers
James Franco, Your Highness
Ken Jeong, (4) Big Mommas, Hangover II, Transformers, Zookeeper
Al Pacino, Jack & Jill
Swardson, (2) Jack & Jill and Just Go with It

Worst Supporting Actress
Katie Holmes, Jack & Jill
Brandon T. Jackson, Big Mommas
Nicole Kidman, Just Go with It
David Spade, Jack & Jill
The Underwear Model (aka Rosie Huntington-Whiteley), Transformers (I'm guessing you had to be there to get it)

Worst Screen Ensemble (exactly the same as Worst Picture)
Bucky Larson
Jack & Jill
New Year's Eve
Transformers
Twilight

Worst Screenplay (exactly the same as Worst Picture)
Bucky Larson
Jack & Jill
New Year's Eve
Transformers
Twilight

Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off, or Sequel
Arthur (remake)
Bucky Larson (rip-off of Boogie Nights and A Star is Born)
The Hangover II (both a sequel and a remake)
Jack & Jill (remake/rip-off of Ed Woods' Glen or Glenda)
Twilight (sequel)

Worst Screen Couple
Nicolas Cage & anyone sharing the screen with him in any of his three 2011 movies
Shia LeBoeuf & the Underwear Model, Transformers
Sandler & either Jennifer Aniston or Brooklyn Decker, Just Go with It
Sandler & either Holmes, Pacino, or Sandler, Jack & Jill
Stewart & either Lautner or Robert Pattinson, Twilight

You, too, can vote for the worst movies of the year by joining up at the Razzies website. For those hiding under rocks, look at Oscar.com for the list of winners and other fun stuff and then check out this video of Sacha Baron Cohen in character on the red carpet promoting his next movie The Dictator.

Independent Spirit Award winners 2012

I love the Independent Spirit Awards. Tonight's show had Seth Rogen as host, some movies too cool for the Oscars, and others familiar to all of us. Here are the winners.

Best Feature: The Artist

Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Best Female Lead: Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
Best Lead Actor: Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Best Supporting Actress: Shailene Woodley, The Descendants

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Best Screenplay: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, The Descendents

Best First Film: Margin Call

Best First Screenplay: Will Reiser, 50/50
Best Cinematography: Guillaume Schiffman, The Artist
John Cassavetes Award (film made for under $500,000): Pariah

Best International Film: A Separation, Iran
Robert Altman Award (ensemble acting): Margin Call
Best Documentary: The Interrupters

The Oscars are in 17 hours. Here's a look at all the nominees and winners so far.

The Secret World of Arrietty (Kari-gurashi no Arietti - 2010)

As a fan of The Borrowers books I loved this Japanese animé feature dubbed into English (Jack liked it too). The Borrowers are 4-inch-tall people who live under the floorboards of houses and subsist on what they can borrow from their human "bean" hosts. With pictures like Impressionist paintings, ethereal music, and a plot a little short (ha!) on humor but true to the spirit of the children's storybooks by Mary Norton (I read and still have the first two), it's quite entertaining. Our version is at least the third of this marketing coup: released first in Japanese (the title literally translates to The Borrower Arrietty), then dubbed with famous British voice actors for release over there, and again here with voices by Bridgit Mendler (19) as Arrietty, David Hendrie (22) as the human Sean who befriends her, Amy Poehler and Will Arnett (married in real life) as Arrietty's parents, and Carol Burnett as the mean housekeeper. Poehler's voice is the hardest to pin down, as she has affected an accent worlds away from her voice on Parks & Recreation and Saturday Night Live. Arnett's baritone is unmistakeable, as is Burnett's nasal delivery. Disney had a hand in the English version.

There was a live action version, The Borrowers (1997), a raucous comedy with John Goodman and Jim Broadbent as the mean real estate developer and the Borrower dad. I liked that, too, but this is very different, with a Japanese style similar to Sprited Away (2001) and Howl's Moving Castle (2004), on which director Hiromasa Yonebayashi worked as an animator. Co-writer Hayao Miyazaki won an Oscar for Spirited Away and also adapted the novel for Howl's Moving Castle, among his many credits. Co-writer Keiko Niwa has collaborated with Miyazaki on two other animated features.

The music, by Frenchwoman Cécile Corbel (her film debut), whose Celtic-influenced style contributes much to the mood, is lovely. Here's a short suite. The track Arrietty's Song has been re-recorded into many languages which you can find on youtube. For a change, the entire song listing is on imdb, and the album and DVD are available on amazon in the U.K. Over here, one can only buy an imported CD, and the DVD hasn't been released for netflix yet. You're better off seeing it on the big screen while it's in your neighborhood!

Oscar favorites 2012

Instead of reprising the Oscar picking panel for the 7th time, our local newspaper chose not to do it. Another member of the panel asked us to submit our choices of who we like, rather than who we predict will win in the 6 top categories, with hopes that the paper will print it Sunday. Jack didn't write one this year, but here's my ballot, with one link each to my posts on babetteflix (of course, I have seen every one). My fellow picker informed us today our newspaper won't print her article either, so she submitted it to the editorial staff. I doubt it will get in, so here's my ballot anyway.

BEST PICTURE--Midnight in Paris
Let’s stay up late with Owen Wilson and fall in love in the old City of Lights. There are so many historical and comical details that I could watch it again and again, enjoying Allen’s trademarks in this new setting each time.

BEST DIRECTOR--Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Tied with The Cave of Forgotten Dreams for best 3D movie I’ve ever seen, Scorsese’s masterpiece is exhilarating, with magnificent photography, luscious sets, gadgets galore, a heart-warming story, and outstanding performances. It’s the other nominee I could watch many times more.

LEAD ACTOR--Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Although his character’s paramour jokes that she’s tired of silent actors’ mugging their exaggerated expressions and gestures, this is exactly what earns Dujardin my vote for his performance. Larger than life, this star of the 21st century silent movie leaves little to the imagination. And he can dance, too!

LEAD ACTRESS--Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
The magnificent chameleon gets my vote, despite formidable competition from her fellow nominees. With the help of her trusty makeup artist, she is completely believable as the doddering old Thatcher and the vibrant 40-something Prime Minister.

SUPPORTING ACTOR--Christopher Plummer, Beginners
As the ebullient 75-year-old discovering the joys of true love with a same-sex partner, Plummer brought smiles to our faces and tears to our eyes as his illness caught up with him.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS--Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Because her character still makes me laugh out loud and because I know how different it is from her own demure personality, I am choosing McCarthy’s pushy, boyish, heterosexual Megan.

There were 25 of us on the panel in 2006, Jack joined in 2009, and last year we were up to 50. 19 of those submitted ballots this year, and here are the statistics:

BEST PICTURE
Hugo 6, The Descendants 4, The Artist 3, Midnight in Paris 3, The Help 1, Moneyball 1, War Horse 1, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close 0, Tree of Life 0

DIRECTOR
Martin Scorsese (Hugo) 6, Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris) 4, Alexander Payne (The Descendants) 4, Terrence Malick (Tree of Life) 3, Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) 2

LEAD ACTOR
George Clooney (The Descendants) 7, Jean Dujardin (The Artist) 7, Demian Bichir (A Better Life) 2, Brad Pitt (Moneyball) 2, Gary Oldman (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) 1

LEAD ACTRESS
Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) 7, Viola Davis (The Help) 5, Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) 3, Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn) 3, Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs) 1

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christopher Plummer (Beginners) 10, Max von Sydow (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close) 5, Jonah Hill (Moneyball) 2, Nick Nolte (Warrior) 2, Kenneth Branagh (My Week with Marilyn) 0

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) 10, Octavia Spencer (The Help) 5, Jessica Chastain (The Help) 2. Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs) 2, Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) 0

Here is the complete list of Oscar nominees, and take a look at my OCD and up-to-date list of nominations and wins sorted by title.

If you like awards shows, I also recommend the Independent Spirit Awards, Oscar's little brother, included every year in my list of nominees and winners. It will be airing live on the IFC channel tonight, Saturday 2/25/12 at 10pm Eastern Time, repeated at 10pm Pacific Time, and streaming live on yahoo movies, starting at 11am Pacific/2pm Eastern for the arrivals (I can't tell if the show will stream live but it's possible).

Pina (2011)

This mesmerizing Oscar-nominated documentary about iconic choreographer Pina Bausch features performance art and fascinating dance moves (from playful joy to apparent panic attacks) on a stage and in unlikely settings clearly staged expressly for the camera, performed by braless women in shimmery gowns as well as hunky men occasionally in street clothes (two of the men don dresses and two strip down to their underpants). All this interspersed with documentary footage of Bausch and the dancers speaking in their many native languages about their late hero (1940-2009). Directed with precision by Wim Wenders (pronounced Vim Venders because he's German like Bausch; my favorites include Hammett (1982), Paris, Texas (1984), and Wings of Desire (1987); there are a number of others on his resumé I'd like to see) and shot with love by Hélène Louvart (whose resumé is longer, though nothing looks familiar), the 3D is good (though not essential) and the dancing spectacular. Here are head shots and names of the dancers.

Lately I've taken to counting the music tracks listed during the credits because the songs are rarely listed on imdb, and often are hard to find, especially in a case such as this, where a shorter soundtrack has been released. There were 31 songs listed on the screen, but the soundtrack, for sale here at amazon, has only 15. The song featured in the trailer is on youtube, and, while I write this, I've been following the links to other tracks with the same photo.

If the idea of watching a modern dance performance makes you long for a root canal, pass this one up. For everyone else, it's sheer delight. Make a point of seeing it.

Warrior (2011)

Jack and I watched this DVD because it got Nick Nolte a nomination in this year's geezer race (more on that later) and it's good but he doesn't have a big scene that we could pinpoint for the nomination. He plays the 1000-days-sober dad of two men who return to mixed martial arts for various reasons and have to reunite with their father and each other after long estrangements. Nolte is convincing, and perhaps the academy thought it was his time (nominated twice before for The Prince of Tides (1991) and Affliction (1997), he was also great in (here are my favorites) Heart Beat (1980), Cannery Row (1982), 48 Hrs. (1982), Down & Out in Beverly Hills (1986), Cape Fear (1991), Mulholland Falls (1996), After Glow (1997), Trixie (2000), Hulk (2003 - the Eric Bana one), and Hotel Rwanda (2004)), though I suspect Christopher Plummer will get the Oscar. I call it the geezer race because, while Jonah Hill (29) and Kenneth Branagh (51) are among the Supporting Actor nominees, the others are Nolte (71 yesterday), Plummer (82), and Max von Sydow (82). Nolte was also nominated for this role by the Screen Actors' Guild and Critics' Choice Awards.

The sons are played with much intensity by Joel Edgerton (he's been in a lot of things, most of which I haven't seen, but my favorite is the hilarious Kinky Boots (2005)) and Tom Hardy (known best in this country for Inception, plus he was in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy). Hardy is British and his American accent is a little off, but Edgerton, who's Australian, has his down pat. I also like Jennifer Morrison (Dr. Cameron in House on Fox and Emma in Once Upon a Time on ABC) who plays Edgerton's wife.

Director Gavin O'Connor (I meant to see his Tumbleweeds (1999)) worked with Cliff Dorfman (worked on some episodes of Entourage) on the story and screenplay as well as Anthony Tambakis (a writing professor and novelist, he makes his feature debut with this). O'Connor is also in a few scenes as the promotor of the big match at the end--you knew there had to be a big fight at the end, right?

The wonderful composer Mark Isham (I last covered him in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans) gives us suspenseful tunes (listen here and continue with anything with the same picture), many with a Beethoven theme, because one of the trainers believes it helps his fighters.

If you want to catch up to all the nominated movies, check this out, but be forewarned, there's fighting and blood. Rottentomatoes' critics gave it 83% and audiences 92%.

Le Havre (2011)

Jack and I liked this story of an old shoe-shiner taking in a young African refugee in the French coastal town of the title. Finnish director/writer Aki Kaurismäki (I loved The Man Without a Past (2002) and would like to see more after reading this) combines droll wit and drama as 60-something Marcel, played by André Wilms (a Frenchman with 61 titles to his credit, he has worked with Kaurismäki five times before) hides ten-year-old Idrissa (Blondin Miguel, in his film debut) from the authorities. Finnish actress Kati Outinen (as soon as she spoke her first sentence I could tell that French wasn't her first language) is another Kaurismäki regular, and her deadpan delivery is quite good.

In a sly nod to French cinema, Jean-Pierre Léaud, best known as Antoine Doinel in The 400 Blows (1959) and five other movies also directed by the iconic François Truffaut, has a cameo. Since we saw this movie two and a half weeks ago, it has grown on me. As usual imdb hasn't provided any soundtrack info, nor does the press kit, but what I do remember of the music is the appearance of a blues musician named "Little Bob" (AKA Roberto Piazza), who apparently is famous around Le Havre. This was Finland's official submission for the Foreign-Language Oscars, but it didn't make it, though the National Board of Review named it one of their top five Foreign Language Films and it was nominated for a Critics' Choice Award. It has a 98% fresh rating from critics on rottentomatoes, with 75% from audiences. The DVD release isn't set yet, but it will be good for a giggle whenever you can see it.

Shame (2011)

Jack and I were carded twice last week, to buy our (senior) tickets and again to have them torn. Plus someone was stationed outside the door to keep kids out of this well-done explicit movie about a sex addict. Michael Fassbender (most recently here in A Dangerous Method) bares all and gives a great performance as the tightly wound Brandon, trying to keep his professional life and his mania going simultaneously. When his loose-cannon sister Sissy, played by Carey Mulligan (Drive), appears unexpectedly, he begins to unwind, and not in a good way. Surprisingly snubbed by the Oscars, this has a number of noteworthy nominations (see my list here) and won Fassbender Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival last year, as well as the Spotlight Award from the National Board of Review (the latter also for his work in A Dangerous Method, Haywire, Jane Eyre, and X Men: First Class, all 2011 releases).

British director Steve McQueen, who bears zero physical resemblance to the iconic American actor, also racked up awards and nominations for his first feature, Hunger (2008), and this is his second (a third is in pre-production and it looks interesting). He wrote the script with Abi Morgan (covered in The Iron Lady).

The moody music by Harry Escott complements the moodiness onscreen (helped along by the creativity of production designer Judy Becker (Garden State (2004), Thumbsucker (2005), Brokeback Mountain (2005), I'm Not There. (2007), and The Fighter, among others) who dressed those tony apartments beautifully). Here are some tracks (one, two, three) and Mulligan actually sings her song. There's a fun bit of trivia that imdb considers a spoiler, so I won't give it away either. In my opinion, the items before have more spoilers than the last one, so read them here after seeing this movie, preferably not on a first date. And have I mentioned we were carded twice because it's rated NC-17?

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Jack and I were not entranced by this mystery of a retired MI5 agent working to uncover a mole amongst his former co-workers. We saw it almost four weeks ago and I've put off writing for a number of reasons, including my support for the place down the street that screened it. I don't read reviews in advance, because I don't like the buzzkill nor the spoilers, but perhaps I could have benefited from knowing that the clues were going to be hard to find. Then again, maybe not.

Oscar-nominated for Best Actor for Gary Oldman, Best Adapted Screenplay for Bridget O'Connor & Peter Straughan (from the novel by John le Carré), and Best Original Score for Alberto Iglesias, as well as Best Art Direction in a Period Film for Maria Djurkovic by the Art Directors' Guild, and Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography for Hoyte Van Hoytema by the American Society of Cinematographers, it has much going for it, and we don't have a problem with any of the nominations except the confusing screenplay (this is the sixth feature for Straughan, including two funny ones How to Lose Friends & Alienate People and The Men Who Stare at Goats, and the serious The Debt; his wife O'Connor, who died in 2010, worked with him on only the other two). Or was it the director, Tomas Alfredson (I skipped his other hit, the horror movie Let the Right One In (2008), as well as the American remake)? I didn't read the book, or any mysteries I can name off the top of my head. On rottentomatoes 84% of critics and 68% of audiences liked it, which does make me feel slightly more validated (not that that's important to me).

Here's what we did like: the aforementioned production design is gorgeous (Djurkovic was also nominated by her peers for Billy Elliott (2000) and The Hours (2002), by the Satellite Awards for Vanity Fair (2004), and won several other awards for this project); the photography (van Hoytema also shot The Fighter, among others); the music (more on that in a moment); and the cast is outstanding. I do agree that Oldman (my favorites are Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991), True Romance (1993), The Professional (1994), Basquiat (1996), The Fifth Element (1997), The Contender (2000), and Jim Gordon in Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises; and I don't care about Sirius Black in the Harry Potter series) is due for some recognition. The diminutive  Toby Jones (last in these pages in Creation, because I accidentally left him out of Captain America: The First Avenger and My Week with Marilyn) is very good. Ciarán Hinds (The Debt), not at all diminutive, is swarthy and scary. Benedict Cumberbatch (War Horse) looks great in his 60s wardrobe and hair, Mark Strong (The Guard) is also handsome, John Hurt (Oscar-nominated for Midnight Express (1978) and The Elephant Man (1980), and I also liked Scandal (1989), Contact (1997), and Love and Death on Long Island (1997), plus he was good in two movies I didn't like: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993) and Melancholia) is authoritative, and everyone likes Colin Firth (The King's Speech).

Iglesias' (The Skin I Live In) music is beautiful and suspenseful, and you can listen to all of it on youtube, starting with the first track. I talked with someone today who said she didn't understand this movie but loved it. I heard someone else say it needs to be seen again to get it. You go right ahead and let me know.

Rule #13 for movies and television

As an ex-smoker I can tell when someone has actually inhaled and when they're faking. And then, 19 times out of twenty, when an onscreen smoker stubs a cigarette into an ashtray, s/he doesn't finish the job, leaving it smoldering. Another reason to be grateful we don't have smell-o-vision. See the complete list of rules here.

Pariah (2011)

Jack and I loved this moving coming-of-age story of a black 15 year old lesbian in Brooklyn, the feature debut of director/writer Dee Rees, whose 2007 short film of the same name and topic won six festival awards. Adepero Oduye stars as Alike (a-LEE-kay) who is trying to reconcile a home life with a beloved but clueless father, a bratty sister, and a controlling, frankly horrible mother with her nascent sexuality and her openly gay best friend. Oduye, Pernell Walker, and Sahra Mellesse transitioned from the short film to the feature as Alike, the friend Laura, and the sister Sharonda, while Charles Parnell and Kim Wayans (best known as sister to Damon, Keenen Ivory, Marlon, and all those other Wayanses) step in as the parents this time around.

The music is important, as so many teenagers love their personal soundtracks, and this movie has no composer, just songs. We counted 24 tunes in the credits, but no comprehensive list is apparently online, other than the 11 songs included on the soundtrack (for sale here, and a compilation available here).

The whole package is first rate: writing, directing, acting, cinematography (nominations listed here). We highly recommend it, with one caveat: those susceptible to Motion Picture Motion Sickness (see my running list of MPMS warnings) should sit as far back as possible, due to a lot of handheld camera work.

A Dangerous Method (2011)

Beautiful and fascinating, this story of Carl Jung, Jung's first patient, and Sigmund Freud is surprisingly not Oscar-nominated, despite a steady hand from director David Cronenberg, amazing production design, luscious cinematography, and good performances from Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley, and Viggo Mortensen. The "method" is the "talking cure," introduced by Freud and employed by Jung in treating Sabina Spielrein, a Russian (the characters are supposed to be speaking German, and Spielrein German with a Russian accent; all speak English, and kudos to Knightley for her Russian-accented English). Frequently young and/or attractive actresses are deemed "brave" for appearing unpretty in movies, so Knightly (her last appearance in these pages was Never Let Me Go) could have earned that with her grimaces and extra jutting of her already prodigious jaw as the literally hysterical Spielrein, but her top billing is erroneous, as it is clearly Jung's story. Fassbender (last in X-Men: First Class, next in Shame, which we saw a few days ago, and I completely forgot to mention him in Inglourious Basterds) lends Jung the requisite intelligence, passion, and inquiring mind. Mortensen (to me he'll always be the sexy Blouse Man in A Walk on the Moon (1999), but here he is, third from the right, in his first role in Witness (1985), and I liked him in 28 Days (2000), A History of Violence (2005), and Eastern Promises (2007) which did earn him an Oscar nod), aged to perfection with a balding wig and facial hair, gives us a wonderful, controlling Freud, stuck in his oral phase, as he is never without a cigar in his mouth.

I've long been a big Cronenberg fan, beginning with The Dead Zone (1983) which was in my 1980s top five list, moving on to The Fly (1986), Dead Ringers (1988), Crash (the 1996 one with James Spader and Holly Hunter, not the 2004 ensemble movie of the same name), A History of Violence, and Eastern Promises. This one has plenty of perversion, as do the others, but much less blood. Cinematographer Peter Suschitzky (shot the latter four Cronenberg pictures and many others) provides the glorious images. Christopher Hampton (I covered him in Chéri) adapted his play The Talking Cure, which was in turn adapted from John Kerr's book A Most Dangerous Method.

Jack and I admired the magnificent sailboat, the pens, gadgets, and all sorts of doo-hickeys appropriate for the first two decades of the twentieth century setting. Spielrein's and Mrs. Jung's wardrobes are also spectacular. I covered composer Howard Shore in Hugo and here is the first track of the lovely score, but I have a new anecdote. I got to speak with author Alan Zweibel, one of the original Saturday Night Live writers, recently. I mentioned his "Spud beer" spot (sorry, video isn't readily available), from that 1975 season, Howard Shore and his All-Nurse Band (they were all men, wearing nurse dresses and caps for the bit) performed the song St. James Infirmary and Zweibel played a patient in a hospital gown. Zweibel told us was his very first appearance on TV, and he was impressed that I remembered. Jack said, "That's just what she does."

Anyway, this is definitely worth seeing, so trundle on down to your local art house and give it a look, but leave the children at home.

Milestone! This is movie number 450 summarized on the blog. And, since September 3, 2008, I have seen and written up 431 distinct pictures, an average of 10.5 per month. But who's counting?

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)

Extremely sad & incredibly hard to watch, this has its merits, as Thomas Horn earns his Best Young Actor Critics' Choice Award as 9-year-old Oskar, a multi-phobic boy searching for a mystery left by his father who died in the twin towers on 9/11. The movie is Oscar-nominated for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Max von Sydow, whose character doesn't speak. Horn also won two awards from the Phoenix Film Critics Society for this role. I complained in my post on War Horse that I hate war movies. I'm also disturbed by photographic reminders of 9/11, which Oskar refers to as, "The Worst Day," and am not sure I would have seen this one either had it not gotten that Best Picture nod. Tom Hanks (last in these pages in Larry Crowne) plays the departed father and Sandra Bullock (after I wrote about her in The Proposal she was in The Blind Side) the patient grieving mother. Oskar's relationship with his grandmother (Zoe Caldwell, four-time Tony winner, she played the Countess, one of the on-screen people, in The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), among others) is particularly sweet--they keep walkie-talkies close at hand to communicate privately and frequently across the street from one another. Oskar meets dozens of people in his pursuit of the mystery, most notably von Sydow (Shutter Island) and Viola Davis (The Help).

Stephen Daldry (profiled in The Reader) directs and Eric Roth (covered in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) adapted Jonathan Safran Foer's 2005 novel of the same name (with "and" instead of "&"). I loved the 2005 movie made from his 2002 novel Everything is Illuminated (I haven't read either book). This plot is quite rich, although Jack and I and others I've talked with wanted it to go on just a little longer to answer one question.

The score by the prolific Alexandre Desplat (last in Carnage) has been posted on youtube for our enjoyment. Jack was with me when I saw it last Friday, but we mostly talked about what we didn't like, and he's long asleep now, so I can't vouch for him. Bring your hankies. I first needed mine when Oskar began shouting all the things that scared him. As one who was born in New York, as were a number of my relatives, I had a hard time reliving the horror of The Worst Day, but I guess I'm glad I saw it.