The delicate art of documentaries

As a consumer of media, my tastes tend to lean towards fiction over nonfiction. I find this is true for both literature and film. If Freud were not deceased and somehow a buddy of mine, I'm sure he would have some psychological explanation for my preferences. This is not to say that I do not like documentaries or nonfiction novels at all. Quite the contrary, I believe they require a high amount of skill and precision in order to maintain my attention throughout.


For example, I finally dusted off Man on Wire from my Netflix cue as per the recommendation of my former professor and friend, Amy. The film looks back at the life of high-wire walker Phillipe Petit leading up to his illegal tight rope walk across the Twin Towers in 1974. Unlike most documentaries, the reenactments are extremely well-executed and despite knowing Phillipe survives, filmmakers are still able create tension throughout the entirety of the film.

Two other stunning examples come from HBO's Summer Documentary series. The first is Love, Marilyn. If you know me personally, you would know I admire, love and am a tiny bit obsessed with Marilyn Monroe. In my Stardom class in college, I wrote my thesis paper on her career trajectory and my favorite piece of writing throughout my time at AU. Therefore, after wading through copious amounts of research on the woman, I can say with some authority that this film gives the most authentic and robust portrayal of Marilyn/Norma Rae. I like the format of the doc, too; famous actresses read aloud her personal notes and letters along side interviews from friends.

The second HBO documentary was The Crash Reel, fifteen years of verite footage before and after professional snowboarder Kevin Pearce's half-pipe crash that left him with a traumatic brain injury only weeks prior to competing in the Vancouver Olympics. You expect the documentary to be a typical sports comeback tale; instead, its filled with familial complexities and discussions around the dangerous nature of extreme sports. The final photography, shot at night on the half-pipe with Shaun White is gorgeous, reminding the viewer why we enjoy watching the sport in the first place, despite the risks.

 Most importantly, what has helped re-spark my interest in great docs is learning about the fascinating people who have shaped history. I would be remiss if I did not end this post with a plea to help a Kickstarter project very close to my heart. Be Natural is the untold story of Alice Guy-Blache, the first female director. She wrote, directed or produced more than 1,000 films in the course of her 20 year film career and yet, you never hear of her in film classes. The campaign has four days left and still needs about $100k in order to hit their funding goal. I believe its imperative these filmmakers spread Alice's life story for both women's and film history. Even if you can only donate $1, do it and then tell your friends to do the same.

An ode to Sam Rockwell

Three month and a half months later...

The moral of my blogging story seems to be that I am a semi-unreliable narrator. Life caught up to me over the past three and a half months. I moved back to DC from New York, started a new job and have been settling down in my new apartment. It seems ironic and appropriate that my previous post ended with excitement over a Sam Rockwell film and I can open this one with excitement over another.

First, I am going to rewind to the Tribeca Film Festival and tell the funny tale of how I ended up at the North American premiere of A Single Shot. When I bought my tickets, I was blissfully unaware the screening I was attending would be any different from the two others I attended earlier in that week. The first sign I was not in Kansas any more was the line around the corner. The second were the people dressed in suits compared to my casual Friday wear and finally was the entrance:

I literally walked a red carpet, and the story only gets better. In the huge auditorium, I end up sitting four rows behind David Rosenthal, Sam Rockwell, Jeffrey Wright and Kelly Reilly. Needless to say, I totally geeked out. The film itself was also excellent and I highly recommend it. An Appalachian noir with amazing story structure and acting skills throughout. Unfortunately, about the fifth question in the Q&A following the film was about gun control which wasn't even important to the narrative. I really dislike anyone's want/need to be THAT GUY.

Returning to the present, I recently saw The Way, Way Back, written by Academy Award-winning screenwriters Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. The WWB is the right balance of comedy and drama, but the best part of the film is, as I have coyly been hinting, Sam Rockwell. My favorite scene shows young Duncan on his first day at the water park. Sam plays Owen with an energy that is both maniac and infectious. The only downside to the film is Sam's energy seemed to be restrained the rest of the film and you really, really wish it wasn't.

I'll close out this post a little differently than usual, with a Sam Rockwell retrospective. A few of my favorites for your Netflix/Amazon Prime/etc. cues include Moon, Choke, Matchstick Men and I'll throw in some Charlie's Angels, just to get a little bad boy Sam Rockwell in there. Which films do you like from Sam?

Saying goodbye to a legend

I slowly crawl my way back to movie-dom with a few very important happenings over the past few weeks helping me. First, I would be quite remiss as a film/pop culture fanatic if I did not mention the passing of film critic, Roger Ebert. While most great writers of his generation would have been overwhelmed by the social world, Ebert welcomed both the long and short forms with undeniable enthusiasm. In his last year, Ebert wrote 306 reviews at the Chicago Sun-Times, the most in his career, still ran his annual Ebertfest at the University of Illinois and filmed a bio-documentary about his life. I think Mia Farrow said it best this past week when she said on Twitter, "If cancer came to take me piece by piece, I hope I could summon even a fraction of the grace Roger Ebert showed us, in such abundance." If you are interested in reading more about his life and love of film, I highly suggest you read his memoir Life Itself.

Transitioning to Oscar-land, the Academy set the date for next year's ceremony, March 2nd. "Quite late!" you say. What an astute reader, you are! Due to the 2014 Winter Olympics, the Academy pushed back both the ceremony and nominations, to be announced on January 16th. This means 45 days of movie watching between nominations and ceremony, or one whole extra week. Does this make you super excited for January?! Me too!

In the meantime, it's festival season! More exclamation points!! Those of you in the NYC area would know this, but for those who do not, today marks the first day of the Tribeca Film Festival! I cannot express how excited, ecstatic and any other enthusiastic adjective you can fathom. I bought tickets to three different movies, three different nights at the end of next week. The first is Teenage, a documentary about the rise of teenage culture, with my now infamous blog reference, Kerry. The second is The Pretty One, a narrative fiction piece about a young woman who takes on her twin sister's personality after her death, with Stephanie, and the final is A Single Shot, another narrative fiction about a hunter who accidentally shoots a woman and the consequences when he tries to cover it up, by my lonesome. If Telluride Film Fest taught me anything, though, it was how to make friends while standing in film festival lines. I promise, fo' realz this time, to follow up this post on the weekend immediately following to give you my opinions on the films and overall scene at Tribeca.

Now, I bid you adieu with the usual fun: two versions of Hey Ho - the first from Jimmy Fallon with Nick Offerman, Blake Shelton and a random fourth person and the second by Lennon and Maisy Stella, the two little girls from Nashville. Bonus: check out their version of "Call Your Girlfriend." Not sure how I didn't know about this, but one of my favorite novels was adapted last year into an addictive web series called "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries", thank you PCHH! And finally, an obligatory Buzzfeed.

Update: Cannes Film Fest announced their lineup for 2013, including the 19 contenders for the Palme d'Or. I'm excited to hear reactions to the new Coen Brothers' film Inside Llewyn Davis and Iran's Asghar Farhadi's new film The Past. What do you think of the lineup, loyal readers?

"Flat? Just as God made me."

For the past few weeks/month, I've been going through a massive film detox. After so many movies, over so short a period of time, I needed a change of pace or should I say medium. At the suggestion of my coworker Sara, I tried out podcasts. I have to admit, I was skeptical at first. Listening to people talk sounded terribly boring and it can be if you don't find the great ones. Case and point: NPR's "Pop Culture Happy Hour", roundtable discussion on books, movies, television and obviously, whatever fabulous moment is happening in pop culture. The four main hosts have great chemistry and the producers do wonders in editing which make the show flow well and endlessly entertaining. The opposite is true, I am sad to say, for Entertainment Weekly's "Entertainment Geekly".

I've also gone through my detox by watching more television, made easy by the yearly tradition of studios dumping their horrible/unmarketable films into the month of March. I've started on old episodes of The West Wing, encouraged by both Netflix and my friend Kerry. Kerry has also pushed me to start on Friday Night Lights, not a hard sell given my love for Connie Britton. Then the Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign happened.

Let me start my analysis by saying this: I am a massive fan of the show and am, in fact, one of over 64,000 contributors to the campaign. My first reaction to the campaign, utter glee. What could be better than having the power to help bring one of my favorite television shows and characters back? Then I kept hearing more about how other shows could do this: Firefly? Freaks and Geeks? While I wouldn't exactly be opposed to Freaks, what worries me most is that this will now be what studios expect. On top of $12 per ticket, am I now paying to produce the movie as well? Sure, having the power to choose is spectacular but at the same time, I eloquently add, what the hell? And what about decreasing potential for fresh ideas? Not the ones reproduced from previous decades or fairy tales, I'm looking directly at you, Jack the Giant Slayer.

The Veronica Mars model also calls into question, as many have posited over the past few weeks, where Rob Thomas' dedication to the fan-base will lead the film. Does that really matter? Should it matter? Will there be legal ramifications if the film does not please fans? Only 2014 can tell.

To close out my post/unanswered questions on VM, I'll leave you as always with a little Buzzfeed love, a little retrospective on The Real World from Vulture and something to make you sob giant tears for the end of good taste. To be fair, I should have most likely given up when they greenlit The Expendables 3.

"Close only counts in horse grenades"

It turns out I majorly jinxed myself yesterday. After being able to find and download all of the foreign nominated pictures, I thought I was golden for the remainder of my films. Of course, never underestimate the obscure nature of documentaries. I was unable to find Chasing Ice (nominated for Best Original Song) and The Gatekeepers (Best Documentary Feature). According to my friend Kerry though, if I listen to the nominated song for two hours straight, I am fine. Therefore, I am going to be one film short (but really two). A little bit of a let down since I am so close but I can't believe how close I actually got this year! Oh well, on with the festivities!

During the four hours of fashion, inevitable musical numbers and awards, I would suggest the always entertaining drinking games for those 21 and up. You can also see who is the most insightful Swami with their Oscar ballots or who has the best dumb luck with bingo.

Now for the food. I'll provide you with as many recipes as I actually have. Some I just come up with off the top of my head.

• For drinks, I'll be making Prosecco with a splash of pomegranate-blueberry juice and a few fresh blueberries tossed in as well. 
• Appetizers will consist of healthy spinach dip, brie and apple crescent rolls, Parmesan-tossed popcorn (self-explanatory), Lemon Sabra hummus with mini-pita rounds and prosciutto, goat cheese and honey crostinis (making this one up as I go). 
• Dessert will be my most pathetic effort: berry-topped, box-made brownies. I had all intentions of making tuxedo strawberries but according to my local grocery man, this week's batch of strawberries were no good due to the cold weather. 

I'll be sure to post pictures tomorrow to let everyone know how this turned out.

In the interest of space and your attention span, you can check out my final ballot here. This is based on who I think the academy will vote for but not necessarily my favorites. For anyone interested, I will also be live tweeting again, @paigehowarth, including snarky retweets from my friend Kerry and updates on the winners.

Thanks again for reading along with my this year. Fingers crossed for better luck next year!

Final score: 50 watched, 2 unwatched

The Final Countdown

It's been a while since I've post which you most likely thought that I had given up on my lofty quest. ALAS! You are quite mistaken. I actually only have nine films left as of this morning but haven't had the time/have been watching the movies/been too lazy to post. Mea culpa. Here are some of predictions for the categories that I've finished including how I think the Academy will vote and what I personally think should win:

Best Actor:
Academy and Myself - Is this really a question any more? Daniel Day Lewis will and should trot off the stage on Sunday night with his third statue for Lincoln, a first in Oscar history. Bradley Cooper was great in Silver Linings Playbook and I deeply encourage further non-fratboy acting on his part but DDL was perfection.

Best Supporting Actor:
Academy - This is a tough category but I think that it will go to Tommy Lee Jones for Lincoln. Christoph has won more recently so I think they'll hand it to Jones.
Myself - Doesn't mean I agree with that sentiment. I would choose Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained. The role was tailor-made for him and suits him very well. Plus Tommy Lee is a grumpy cat:

Best Documentary Short:
Academy - Inocente is the front-runner in this category. For those who don't feel like reading the synopsis, it deals with a young female artist who is homeless but keeps a generally optimistic outlook on life. The Academy loves their can-do attitudes!
Myself - While I did really like Inocente, I hysterically cried my way through Mondays at Racine, centered around two Long Island women who open up their beauty parlor one day a week to women going through chemotherapy.

Best Animated Short:
Academy and Myself - I would say that Pixar's Paperman has this one in the bag. If you still haven't seen this retro love story, it's still available on Hulu. The only other film that might sneak up on is Adam and Eve, a hand-drawn beauty about Adam's first pet and was made as a side projector from a Disney animator.

Best Live Action Short:
Academy and Myself - Let me start by saying that I think this is the toughest shorts category aka my guess could be completely off base. I've read several articles and I think that everyone has different feelings about the frontrunner. When I first watched the films, I thought Death of a Shadow not only had a unique story but amazing cinematography. That being said, Asad was made with all Somalian refugee cast (which reads as Oscar bait) and Curfew is both lighthearted but deals with extremely complex emotions. Definitely a rough category!

If you would like to completely immerse yourself in Oscar mania, here is Nate Silver's statistical analysis, complements of my lovely math-geek boyfriend, or a supercut of every Best Picture winner in 4 minutes.. Or you can also giggle by checking out which animals the nominees look like. Or the Between Two Ferns: Oscar Buzz Edition Part 1 and Part 2. Or my favorite activity in the whole wide world, make fun of Anne Hathaway.

Be back tomorrow with my final predictions for all the categories and hosting ideas for your party!

43 down, 9 to go!!

Can Twitter predict the Oscars?

I was going to do a Golden Globes recap but I had a crazy work week and moved into NYC! If you want some quick and dirty recaps, see here for how AMAZING Tina and Amy did, here for how awkwardly awesome Jennifer Lawrence is and here for the overall fashion of the night (my favs were Michelle Dockery and Claire Danes).

  

 

While I haven't completed any categories to guess the winners yet, my wonderful boyfriend Ben sent me a very interesting social media find. Topsy's Twitter Oscar Index is using social analytics to predict the winners of the five major categories. You can see the impact of specific days such as the Golden Globes or the Oscar nominations themselves through the timeline and sort by specific films. Looking at the current predictions though, I'm not necessarily sure its accurate but it is an intriguing idea.

18 down, 34 to go!