Movies Of The Week: The Miserables and other random movie thoughts

I'm working on my list of top ten movies of 2012, which is especially tough because there were an unusually high number of movies that I loved this year. In fact, I may have to cheat and do a top 12 or something. While I figure out which ones to sacrifice from my list, and while I'm still on a sugar high from seeing DJANGO UNCHAINED this morning, I decided to jot down thoughts on a couple of the many, many movies I've seen during the past few weeks in an effort to see as many 2012 movies before the end of the year.

First, let's talk about LES MISERABLES, which, if you'd asked me at the beginning of 2012, was one of my three most-anticipated movies of the year, probably behind only THE AVENGERS and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. And now that I've seen it, it's not even anywhere close to being in my list of top fifty movies of 2012. And this is despite the fact that I think that almost every element in the movie works. I liked the acting, particularly Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Samantha Barks, and Eddie Redmayne (whom I hated in MY WEEK WITH MARILYN). I liked the singing; I was even fine with Russell Crowe's much-maligned singing even though he's clearly out of his league (to anyone who thinks his singing is an atrocity, I'll just reply, "Pierce Brosnan, 'S.O.S.,' MAMMA MIA!"). The movie looks great, with nice production design, costumes, and visual effects. I even thought the screenplay by William Nicholson was very good. All of these elements could have come together to make a masterpiece... if it weren't for Tom Hooper's truly lousy and disastrous direction.

Now I understand that Tom Hooper won the Best Director Oscar for THE KING'S SPEECH, which I loved even though I thought that THE SOCIAL NETWORK and David Fincher were much more deserving. And I also greatly admired Hooper's direction in the JOHN ADAMS and ELIZABETH I mini-series. The problem is that he directs a lot of LES MISERABLES as if it were a television movie. All of the musical numbers are shot the same way: with the singer's face in tight close-up and the background out of focus. This approach works for exactly one song: Anne Hathaway's stunning single-take performance of "I Dreamed A Dream." But then Hooper proceeds to use that same camera set-up for every number after that. By the time Samantha Barks sings "On My Own" (quite wonderfully, I must admit), I found myself unable to focus on anything except why the camera is so close to her face as she walks through the rain. Even in big musical numbers with many actors singing, the scene often just cuts from close-up to close-up to close-up of each actors' face. There's no sense of geography or choreography. Most of the time, we can't even see the character's environment because it's out of focus in the background.

It feels like half of the shots in the movie are this:

I wonder if Hooper's thinking was that with the stage version, it's a shame that the audience is so far away from the actors and can't see their faces, so perhaps for the movie he should really show the audience the actors' faces. If that's the case, then he over-compensated big-time, and it's ruinous to the movie.

But the movie isn't just all big musical numbers, and when it isn't, the directorial choices are even more baffling, since Hooper chooses to shoot a lot of those scenes with bizarre Dutch angles and shaky hand-held camera... which I suppose is meant the make it seem more gritty and real? This is LES MISERABLES the musical. It's not cinema verite. It's a big, bold, passionate epic. Give me sweeping crane shots and graceful dolly shots. Even throw in a gliding Steadicam shot. Don't give me BLACK HAWK DOWN.

So who should have directed LES MISERABLES? I joked on Twitter after seeing the movie yesterday that I would've preferred a version of the movie directed by FOOTLOOSE director Craig Brewer. And even though that movie's musical numbers are all dancing and no singing, and LES MISERABLES features almost no dancing, the more I think about it, perhaps what the movie needed was a more dynamic director like Brewer.

Of course, now that I've said all this, watch Tom Hooper get another Best Director Oscar nomination.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how another director's baffling choice nearly ruined a movie experience I should have cherished... Peter Jackson's decision to shoot THE HOBBIT in 48 frames per second HFR, which just ended up looking all weird and video-gamey. You can go back and read what I wrote about it here:

Movies Of The Week: Thoughts on THE HOBBIT and 48 fps HFR

As promised, I went back and watched THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY in regular old 2D 24 frames per second. And you know what? The movie looks great in 24 fps, like THE LORD OF THE RINGS movies did, maybe even better because it's a little brighter and clearer. Since I wasn't distracted by the weirdly over-digital look of HFR, I was able to sit back and just enjoy the movie, and I did really enjoy it this time. It still doesn't reach those heights of THE LORD OF THE RINGS movies, but it comes close in a few scenes, and I'm so damn excited about seeing Smaug the dragon, I feel like the second HOBBIT movie could end up being as good as THE LORD OF THE RINGS movies.

I only wonder that when the movie comes out on Blu-ray, it'll look all weird again, like it did in that hi-def video clip on THE COLBERT REPORT a few weeks ago.

My list of top movies of 2012 will be coming in a few days!


#MoviesOfTheWeek #LesMiserables #TheHobbit #HFR

Favorited: My Favorite Songs Of 2012 - The Top 10

Get ready, because here's my list of my 10 favorite songs of 2012, accompanied by videos. These are definitely songs I can listen to all day and not get tired of them.


10. Django Django - Default

I continue to be surprised by how many people have never even heard of this band. Their album has been popping up on many end-of-year lists, and the band was nominated for the Mercury Prize, yet when I went to see them a couple of months ago at the Echo, one of the smallest venues in town, the show wasn't even sold out. Don't people like to have fun, anymore?

9. Frightened Rabbit - Boxing Night

Depressed, boozy, funny and foul-mouthed... To me, Frightened Rabbit is the quintessential Scottish indie rock band, not to mention one of my favorite bands, period. I cannot wait for their new album. Sure, I just saw them a couple of months ago, but I already have a ticket to see them again in March.

8. Fiona Apple - Anything We Want

Thank god she's back. She was away for so long, but her new album was definitely worth the long wait. I just hope we don't have to wait another seven years for new music.

7. The Shins - It's Only Life

Another band I regret missing at Coachella this year, but they were on at the same time as Jeff freakin' Mangum, and sorry, but Mangum > Mercer. Fun note: I've been told that James Mercer's daughter goes to the same Montessori School as my nephew up in Portland. Anyway, I loooooove this song.

6. Kelly Hogan - Dusty Groove

I've seen Kelly Hogan sing back-up for Neko Case, but after listening to her solo album, I think she should be having a solo career just as big as Neko's. Just gorgeous.

5. Hot Chip - Night And Day

Yeah, I probably should've gone to see Hot Chip headline the Hollywood Bowl, but tickets were damn expensive, and I was holding out hope that they might come back and play a theater show at the Wiltern or something. Oh, well. They still gave us one of the weirdest, most homoerotic and brain-melting music videos of the year (with Terence Stamp and Reggie Watts, no less), directed by Peter Serafinowicz (and only rivaled by their music video for "Don't Deny Your Heart").

4. Metric - Speed The Collapse

I'm continually surprised by how hugely popular Metric have gotten in just the past couple of years after toiling for years as a cult Canadian indie rock band. It helps that Emily Haines is perhaps the sexiest frontwomen in rock today, I guess.

3. The Magnetic Fields - Andrew In Drag

Oh, Stephin Merritt, the Eeyore of indie pop. I still chuckle at these lyrics every time I hear them.

2. Spector - What You Wanted

Like the Of Monsters And Men song, this actually came out in 2011, but I didn't hear it until I was prepping for Coachella this past April, and then it wasn't officially available in the US until it appeared on Spector's debut album this past fall. The band seems to garner a lot of comparisons to The Vaccines, but this song sounds like a better Killers song than anything on The Killers' last album.

1. Rufus Wainwright - Jericho

After his last dreary album (understandable, since it was recorded just after the death of his mother), Rufus came back this year with a sunnier disposition and a pure pop album produced by Mark Ronson. Rufus has written some of my favorite songs of all time, and this one joins the ranks.

Bonus: Azealia Banks - 212

I really didn't know whether to include this song on my list because I thought I actually first heard it in 2011 and probably should've put it on last year's list. Perhaps I should make a separate list of favorite 2011 songs that didn't become favorites until 2012 (I could add The Black Keys' "Gold On The Ceiling" to that list). In any case, Azealia Banks is awesome, this song is awesome, and if I were to include it on this year's list, it'd probably go somewhere in my top 10. Enjoy! (Warning: delightfully and hilariously foul language ahead!)

#Favorited #Music #ConcertReport

Favorited: My Favorite Songs Of 2012 - #11 to #25

All right, time to begin my annual countdown of favorite songs of the year. I've decided to split my list into two blog posts so you aren't overwhelmed. Here are numbers 25 to 11 on my list. There's only one song per artist on this list, even if some artists had more than one song that I loved this year. And I've linked to videos so you can hear the songs!


25. Sleigh Bells - Comeback Kid

You may remember that after their first album came out two years ago, I saw Sleigh Bells perform the exact same set twice in 3 nights. It was worth it. Fun note: When I saw Sleigh Bells at FYF Fest a couple of months ago, some dude at the front of the crowd lost his finger. His finger got caught between two railings and was sliced clean off. They made the crowd move back afterwards so they could retrieve the finger and get him to the hospital.

24. Band Of Skulls - Bruises

I have to admit, even though I liked their first album 3 years ago, I didn't really think much of their second album upon first listen... that is, until I heard the new songs played live at Coachella. I've been listening to the new album constantly ever since. And I'm seeing them open for Muse next month.

23. The Big Pink - Hit The Ground (Superman)

Yeah, their second album is a big step down from their fabulous first album, but even so, the new album contains a handful of great songs. This is the best.

22. Cat Power - 3,6,9

Cat Power is back with her catchiest and most fun album in many, many years. I really regret missing her show at the Palladium this year.

21. Spiritualized - So Long You Pretty Thing

Jason Pierce is back after years of health issues that nearly killed him, and his music is as gorgeous and soul-stirring as ever.

20. A.C. Newman - Encyclopedia Of Classic Takedowns

Any time Carl Newman or The New Pornographers come out with any new material, you can bet it'll end up in my list of favorites of the year. Really, why isn't he a pop music superstar?

19. Imperial Teen - Out From Inside

Another band that should be pop superstars instead of being seen by most people as one-hit wonders ("Yoohoo" from 15 years ago, in case you were wondering). I was bummed that they didn't even play this song when I saw them last summer.

18. Garbage - Blood For Poppies

On hiatus for seven years, and I got to see them at their first official show after their hiatus! Let me tell you, they sound as incredible in concert as they ever have.

17. Of Monsters And Men - Little Talks

Okay, technically this song came out in 2011, but I didn't hear it until their album came out in the US this year. I regret missing their show at the Troubadour last winter; it was probably my last opportunity to see them in an intimate venue ever again.

16. M.I.A. - Bad Girls

I saw her at one of her earliest live US performances at Coachella in 2005, and like everyone else, I've worried about her sanity in recent years. But with her "Vicki Leekz" mixtape and this subsequent song, I have high hopes for her upcoming new album. It helps that this is my favorite music video of the year:

15. Frank Ocean - Bad Religion

"Channel Orange" is topping many music critics' end-of-year lists, and for good reason. If you missed his tear-inducing performance of this song on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, you missed out on something extraordinary. Another one of my regrets: missing Frank Ocean's set at Coachella.

14. Dan Deacon - True Thrush

Here's a photo of Baltimore's own Dan Deacon I took at the Jimmy Kimmel Live taping I attended a couple of months ago:

Oh, and this is my second favorite music video of the year:

13. Scissor Sisters - Keep Your Shoes

Has it really been nearly 10 years since I started listening to Scissor Sisters religiously? Yes. Yes, it has.

"Keep Your Shoes" is the second half of this video:

12. Adele - Skyfall

The moment we heard that Adele was doing this, we all knew it would be the greatest Bond theme in decades, didn't we?

11. Icona Pop - I Love It

A couple of months ago, I went to the free Culture Collide Festival Block Party to see of Montreal and some other bands, but Swedish duo Icona Pop were the first band to play on the main stage. All it took was hearing this fantastically catchy break-up song once, and I became a fan. I'm seeing them again in February at the Troubadour.

Stay tuned for my top ten favorite songs of 2012!

#Favorited #Music #ConcertReport

Favorited: My Favorite Songs Of 2012 - The Runners-Up

In a few days I'll be posting my annual list of favorite songs of the year. This year will there will be 25 songs on the list, and the list will contain only one song per band or artist. As usual, there were a number of songs I love that didn't find their way into my top 25, so I thought I would highlight them in this post. Here are my 10 runners-up, in alphabetical order by band name.


The 2 Bears - Work

Aimee Mann - Labrador

Bloc Party - Octopus

Blur - Under The Westway

Bruce Springsteen - Death To My Hometown

Mika - Stardust

Redd Kross - Stay Away From Downtown

Santigold - GO!

The Ting Tings - Hang It Up

Titus Andronicus - Still Life With Hot Deuce On Silver Platter

This video contains both "Ecce Homo" and "Still Life":

#Favorited #Music #ConcertReport

Movies Of The Week: Thoughts on THE HOBBIT and 48 fps HFR

A couple of weeks ago, Andy Serkis was on THE COLBERT REPORT to promote the release of THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, and they showed the scene of Bilbo and Gollum's first meeting:

Andy Serkis on THE COLBERT REPORT (watch the movie clip at 2:45)

On your computer screen, the scene probably looks like any normal movie clip. But when I watched the episode on my 40-inch hi-def LCD TV, I thought it looked a bit odd, like the image was too bright, crisp, smooth, and computer-generated. In other words, it looked too much like video.

As you've may have heard, Peter Jackson shot THE HOBBIT in with hi-def cameras at a much-touted 48 frames per second frame rate (being marketed as "HFR") as opposed to the usual 24 frames per second. Supposedly, the higher frame better approximates the way the human eye actually sees; lacking the motion blur that occurs with moving images shot at 24 frames per second. I'm not going to go into the science of it all, because Movieline already published an excellent analysis:

The Science of High Frame Rates, Or: Why 'The Hobbit' Looks Bad At 48 FPS

All I can say is that I went to see THE HOBBIT yesterday in HFR IMAX 3D, and my overall reaction was that it looked downright weird. There were moments, especially during static shots, where I thought that the image looked lovely, obviously digital, but so clear and vivid. And then you get to the action scenes, with the big sweeping camera moves and digital armies of thousands battling... and it looks like the most expensive PlayStation game ever made. It doesn't look like any movie I've ever seen, and I'm not sure I like it.

The contrast is jarring. On the one hand, it looks so much like video. But on the other hand, you're thinking of how much money and work went into making an image that looks like something that was made to be broadcast on TV.

I plan on seeing THE HOBBIT again next week, but this time in 24 fps 2D, and I wonder if I'll be able to even see any signs of its 48 fps origins. I wonder if the frame rate alone is enough to make the difference between looking "filmic" and looking like video.

I know one thing for sure: I'm wary of AVATAR 2, which James Cameron plans on shooting at 60 frames per second HFR.

As for THE HOBBIT itself, I liked it. It feels like THE LORD OF THE RINGS, even if it never quite reaches the heights and urgency of any of the LOTR films. It's nearly 3 hours long, and I can honestly say that it didn't feel like it. When the movie ended, I was actually surprised; I thought that we maybe only at the 2 hour mark. And I'll be there on opening weekend for part two, THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG.


#TheHobbit #48fps #HFR

Sightseeing: A Pictorial Tour Of LACMA's Stanley Kubrick Exhibition

It should come as no surprise to anybody that I idolize Stanley Kubrick... me and just about every other living film geek. I own all but one (FEAR AND DESIRE) of his available films on Blu-ray. And among my most prized possessions are these two immense volumes:

I've had a membership to the Los Angeles County Museum Of Art (LACMA) for several years, and it has been well worth the money, if only for the occasional fascinating movie-related special exhibitions, such as their exhibition on Salvador Dali's film work a few years ago and last year's huge Tim Burton exhibition.

Today I got the chance to see the current Stanley Kubrick exhibition, and I want to go back and look at it all over again. One time isn't enough for a Kubrick fan, as you'll see in this pictures.

Upon entering the exhibition, you're immediately greeted by the director's chair that Kubrick used while shooting FULL METAL JACKET.

And then you enter the exhibition itself, and you find yourself in room after room of props, costumes, scripts, stills, research, camera equipment, and more.

Everything is arranged in roughly chronological order if you go through the rooms in a clockwise direction. The room in the last picture above is dedicated to Kubrick's early films, his film noirs KILLER'S KISS and THE KILLING, PATHS OF GLORY, and SPARTACUS. Here's a matte painting of ancient Rome by Peter Ellenshaw that was used for SPARTACUS.

Unfortunately, there's isn't that much on LOLITA, but here are a couple of interesting items related to DR. STRANGELOVE, a model of the War Room set and an actual survival pack prop from the movie.

Then comes two rooms dedicated to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. I could've taken dozens of more pictures of the items they had on display, but here are a few to feast your eyes on.

Most of the room devoted to A CLOCKWORK ORANGE is about the controversy surrounding the film's released and subsequent banning in England, but there are a few keep costumes and props to drool over.

Next up is a section about Kubrick's unproduced epic NAPOLEON biopic. See that huge green book in the first picture at the top? That's an entire Taschen book devoted to this project. For this exhibition, they decided to display a bookcase containing all of the books that Kubrick collected for research. Next to that, they placed his famous file card cabinet, where he organized index cards detailing Napoleon's life almost down to the day.

Kubrick was unable to get financing for NAPOLEON, so instead he made BARRY LYNDON using many of the same techniques he had been planning to use on NAPOLEON, such as lighting scenes with candlelight. Here's one of the cameras he used on BARRY LYNDON.

And here are Kubrick's personal copy of the novel THE LUCK OF BARRY LYNDON, a script with handwritten notes, and one of Ryan O'Neal's costumes from the movie.

Now you take a detour through a small room displaying several pieces of conceptual art from A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, which Kubrick started developing in 1980 (when he optioned Brian Aldiss' short story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long") and continued working on until he handed the project over to Steven Spielberg shortly before his death in 1999. As you can see in these drawings by Chris Baker, mostly from the mid-1990s, just about everything in Spielberg's final film released in 2001 was part of Kubrick's vision for the movie.

For me, the most fascinating part of the exhibition was the large room devoted to THE SHINING. To begin with, you are treated to Kubrick's copy of Stephen King's novel and an early manuscript when it was still called THE SHINE, both covered with Kubrick's handwritten notes.

Here are some poster designs by Saul Bass along with letters between Kubrick and Bass discussing them.

And then come the props. Just let these wash over you like an wave of blood pouring out of an elevator.

The sections about FULL METAL JACKET and EYES WIDE SHUT are relatively small, though there are some iconic props on display from both films.

The final part of the exhibition is of personal interest to me, since it's about Kubrick's unproduced project ARYAN PAPERS, a Holocaust drama based on the novel WARTIME LIES by Louis Begley, the author of ABOUT SCHMIDT (a film I worked on). Kubrick had scripted and cast the film, but he abandoned the project when SCHINDLER'S LIST went into production. The exhibition has Kubrick's copies of the manuscript and novel of WARTIME LIES.

This is really just a small fraction of the items on display in the exhibition. And these are really only about a quarter of the photos I took today. For now, I'll just leave you with this:

#Sightseeing #StanleyKubrick #LACMA

Movies Of The Week: Random Musings

Before KILLING THEM SOFTLY yesterday, the theater showed the trailers for MAMA and ZERO DARK THIRTY back-to-back, and I bet I was the only one in the audience who knew that that's the awesome Jessica Chastain in both movies, especially since she's unrecognizable with her goth-y black hair in MAMA.

I don't know why neither trailer even mentions her name, as if being a recent Oscar-nominated actress in a hit movie wouldn't be a reason for anyone to want to see those movies. Hell, she's the only reason I'm even the slightest bit interested in MAMA, even with Guillermo del Toro's name tacked onto the marketing materials.

It's been a while, but I've never mentioned how much I loved THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER, and I'm clearly not the only one who feels this way. However, it just occurred to me that even though my Twitter feed has been filled with praise for the movie, I've only seen one reference (from a horror movie director, natch) to the hilarious and sublime casting of horror make-up genius Tom Savini as the woodshop teacher. He's seriously great in the role.

Similarly, I've read a lot of praise for the astounding use of 3-D in LIFE OF PI, but no one I know has brought up the most striking and innovative 3-D gag that Ang Lee throws into the movie. During the flying fish sequence, he changes the aspect ratio of the movie from 1.85:1 to a narrower 2:35:1, adding black bars to the top and bottom of the screen so that the most dynamic 3-D elements flying towards the camera, the flying fish, fly out the top and bottom of the movie frame! They look like they're flying right off the screen. It's a startling effect, and I'm not sure how many people notice it, but it just blew my mind.


#MoviesOfTheWeek #JessicaChastain #Mama #ZeroDarkThirty #TomSavini #PerksOfBeingAWallFlower #LifeOfPi #AngLee

Movies Of The Week: I give Cinemascore an F

So... the movie blogs seem to be abuzz with the news that Andrew Dominik's KILLING THEM SOFTLY got a very rare Cinemascore of F (although two other movies this year, THE DEVIL INSIDE and SILENT HOUSE, both horror movies, also got Fs). Cinemascore calculates their grades by surveying American moviegoers on opening night. The same American moviegoers who awarded an A Cinemascore to ALEX CROSS and TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON.

I just saw KILLING THEM SOFTLY, and though I didn't love it, I'd give an A to Brad Pitt's final lines of dialogue, and that's gotta be worth something.

Other movies that got an F from Cinemascore? Steven Soderbergh's SOLARIS, Richard Kelly's THE BOX, and William Friedkin's BUG. And let's run down a list of movies that got a C+ or lower: DRIVE, HANNA, LET ME IN, HIGH FIDELTY, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, WONDER BOYS, and SHUTTER ISLAND.

Oh, and BOOGIE NIGHTS, which got a C.

#Cinemascore #KillingThemSoftly