For Shame, Los Angeles Public Library

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Kill Slumdog Millionaire

Tarantino is one odd duck, and I often find that watching him, or listening to him, or looking at him somewhat diminishes the value of his movies (though on the teensiest level, and only momentarily). For example, take his recent interview with Conan O'Brien [Part 1, Part 2]. Even Conan, a skilled interviewer (and especially skilled at making himself out to be the buffoon) can't rescue Tarantino from his awkwardness. We're not talking Jaoquin Pheonix awkward, but awkward.

But then there are times when Tarantino isn't promoting himself, like in the video below, when he once again reveals himself as a total badass. He's well spoken, and incredibly insightful. Unlike the Conan interview, this introduction for Danny Boyle's Sunshine is scripted, but there's no reason to doubt Tarantino's authorship, and you can see how incredibly intelligent he really is, that his movies really are a reflection of his substance, and not that he's just getting lucky every time.

And now a word on the clip itself. This is from a series of Tarantino's favorite movies since he directed Reservoir Dogs. Here, he introduces and discusses Sunshine, directed by Danny Boyle, the same Danny Boyle that directed Slumdog Millionaire.

Now is Slumdog Millionaire a terrible movie? Not really. In fact, I believe Boyle deserved his Best Director Oscar very much. The other 10 or so that movie won, it probably didn't deserve. [Full Disclosure: I am employed by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences {Fuller Disclosure: There was no reason for me to disclose that, I just think it's cool.}]

This is the problem with Slumdog Millionaire (and the same goes for Juno/Little Miss Sunshine): not that it is a feel-good movie, but that people think that because it made them feel good, it's a good movie, which is not the case. Furthermore (and this is going to sound like the most dickish statement in the history of film criticism), and this goes moreso for Juno and Little Miss Sunshine, it's a movie that makes people with poor/fair taste in movies feel like they have good taste in movies. It's kind of like being able to afford a dress shirt from Abercrombie and Fitch and thinking that means you have good fashion sense. (It doesn't.)

Tarantino instead highlights some classic Boyle (everything before Slumdog) and gives my thoughts exactly on Sunshine. In truth, it's probably not as good a movie as Slumdog Millionaire, but anyone who liked that should definitely check this one out. You'll probably hate it, but your opinions on Slumdog will be worth a lot more.


Found via Slashfilm.com

Suck it, LA!

I hope Summer from (500) Days of Summer fell down the hole.

There, that's better.

Let No One Say Oklahomans Are Disrespectful

I was lucky enough to visit the land of my birth recently, and naturally, many more differences between LA and OK were revealed to me, and shall be revealed to you in due time.

But for now, please enjoy this video of Borat, also visiting OKC. There's really only one joke in the clip, but it's a damn good one. Watch the first three minutes and then you're dismissed.

LA is not Oklahoma

Now I wouldn't consider Oklahoma to be the South per se, and one of the things--no, the thing I get asked most about Oklahoma is, "Where is Oklahoma? Like is it the Midwest?"

No, I don't believe it is. But it's also not the South, and it's also not the West. In my grade school social studies books it was usually grouped with Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona as the Southwest, but there's no way. We don't even have any desert. Texans like to think they're Southerners, but they're not. Pride and racism alone does not a Southerner make. Go to the grits section in your grocery store. If it's bigger than your oatmeal section, you're probably in the South.

Still, I spent my share of time growing up in the Dirty, and after a year here, it seems all the flyover states elicit nostalgia.

Here's a duet from Johnny Cash and Phil "Baloo" Harris singing "That's What I Like About the South." They just don't make television like they used to.

LA is Okay

Because you can meet celebrities.

Rob Huebel is kind of my boy ever since I was called up to have my facebook page scrutinized at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater here in LA. Though he would probably say something about wanting to punch a guy that said "he's my boy" on his twitter page, @RobHuebel.

Later that night we pre-stalked him by waiting at the bar next door, where the Facebook Show performers hangout. I was able to meet him, and even though he claimed not to be famous, he is, and he was still totally approachable. So here's to Rob Huebel, and this really funny video he posted.

LA is not Okay

Because people honk too much.

There are an amalgam of sounds that come in through my window, drunk people yelling in the PM, leaf blowers and lawn aerators in the AM. But throughout the day and the night, the incessant honking.

Agreed, sometimes you have to honk. I once cleared a traffic jam with a single honk. (Trust me.) But never do you have to honk for ten seconds. Oh, the long honkers. The only thing worse than the long honk is the honk back. YOU DON'T GET TO HONK BACK. I'm honking at you! You're in the wrong or I wouldn't have honked in the first place.

This is why the system of communication from one car to another desperately needs an upgrade. For too long have we been limited to facial expressions, hand gestures, and klaxons. The closest I've come to a feasible solution is a voice-to-text scrolling LCD display mounted on the front and back windshields, so that whatever you have to say can be read (or easily ignored) by offending drivers. I'm sure, however, that the CA DOT would take exception to the idea, and it is rather early 2000's.

Perhaps the simplest solution is a really loud megaphone, or failing that, a variety of coded honks. In example, one honk to say, "Don't change lanes, you'll hit me!" another to express, "I would appreciate it if you would go, instead of texting at this stop sign," which sounds just a little more vindictive than, "You have failed to notice that the light has turned green."

But for the able-bodied woman that starts to walk across the street when there are only two seconds left, then, when she's walking in front of the cars waiting to go, and the light turns green, yet she continues along at her casual pace, you really need a special horn, one that says, "WHAT ARE YOU, SOME KIND OF BITCH?"