Fever Pitch

I've still got a mean cough I can't shake, but I'm feeling better and I've watched a few films while resting, even making it out to the Art Mission and to this week's Harpur screening.

First, a few DVD impressions:

The Grand really entertained. I normally dislike mockumentaries, but The Grand gave me the giggles. The entire cast rocks this one and Herzog has an awesome cameo.

Hancock is goofy and really doesn't work as anything more than a dumb laugh vehicle, but Will Smith's charms are not to be trifled with.

Blindness may be the most sickeningly irresponsible film I've seen this year, worse in its social malevolence (at least in scale) and pointless tortures than Stuck tried to be, which had up to now held this honor in the halls of my heart labeled 2009.


The Oscar Nominated Shorts are a mixed bag, as should probably be expected. I was pleased that some "honorable mentions" were included in the screening as I found all of these honorables more worthy than most of the nominees.

The Nominees
Lavatory-Lovestory - Meh.
La Maison en Petits Cubes - Really bad. Flashbacks don't do much for me, especially when the emotional resonance is so contrived.
Oktapodi - Earned its last moment chuckle. Quite fun.
Presto - Pixar is magic.
This Way Up - Serviceable vaudeville act.

The Honorable Mentions
Varmints - Wow! This really made me wish for a world in which I could take my children to a cinema to see something this magical, instead of having to avoid going to the movies because our options include Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Madagascar 2. Of course, I could take them to this shorts screening, but that's not what I mean. I wish that Varmints had gotten the kind of release that Kung Fu Panda got. Maybe not with all of the hype and fast food toy tie-ins, but at least the national recognition that a great new animated film was coming out. The story has flaws, but the atmosphere is overpoweringly awe-inspiring.
John and Karen - Cute.
Gopher Broke - Nice gags.
Skhizein - Easily my favorite. It really got to me with its simple visual metaphor. Seriously, it may be silly, but I was near tears by the end.
Hot Dog - Classic Plympton. As good as ever.


In Search of a Midnight Kiss wooed me. I was set to hate it. I was resistant to its charms, but, by Midnight, there I was, ready for a kiss. And then, the morning after, I felt like I had lived something and learned something. It may seem inconsistent for me to fall for this film after thrashing out at Apatow and Smith. It does feature some excessively crude humor, but it also has a beating heart beneath the surface, grounding its humor in a reality of crassness disguising tenderness and raw pain. Smith and Apatow pretend to have heart, but they're really too cool to ever let their guard completely down. There's always still a veneer of hipster winking laying on top of the sweetness that they do let show through. But, in In Search of a Midnight Kiss, besides some moments when our two "misanthropes" first meet, the dialogue feels refreshingly real and the story earns every one of its emotional highs and lows. Go figure. Sometimes I'm really surprised.