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Greetings, dear readers! It has been too long. I wish I could blame technical difficulties as the only reason my columns haven't run lately, but that is only partly true. The truth is that, since this column runs on Sundays, I generally compose in Word and upload the column on the Friday or Saturday before it is to run. Well, it just so happened that those were the days that I was unable to get on matchflick. So, part technical difficulties, part procrastination. I apologize and I hope you're happy to have me back! And because I am at my local Atlanta Bread Company (it's a day for soup) and am having no problems accessing any websites, I'm thinking there's something going on with the wifi at my place.
So much has happened since we last chatted! Dr. Karma (see Wednesday's terrific column about Paul Rudd) and I have submitted the manuscript for the book we've written, tentatively called Schooled by The Simpsons. We have no idea when it will come out, but we are very excited about the book—it is a pedagogical text for teachers who would like to use The Simpsons in their classrooms.
Also in the recent past, a good friend of ours released a delightful, hilarious memoir called House of Cards: Love, Faith, and Other Social Expressions. David Ellis Dickerson started the PhD program at Florida State University in 1999, the same year I did. In fact, we were fast friends, thanks to his charming wit (and the alphabet that placed us next to each other in pedagogy classes). His book is about, among other things, his career as a greeting card writer at Hallmark in Kansas City. People way cooler than I are also praising the book, like Mike Reiss who compared David Dickerson to David Sedaris. Check out this book; you'll thank me! (And you might even learn a new sex term or two).
The Milwaukee Film Festival ended last week, and I got to see Robert Spiegel's BIG FAN. Spiegel (who wrote THE WRESTLER and was editor-in-chief of The Onion for four years, until 2003) was in attendance for a Q&A afterwards, and I was only embarrassed by some the audience's questions ("Why so many disses on the Packers?"). Luckily, most questions were related to filmmaking and permissions. While Patton Oswalt's character, Paul, is a huge New York Giants fan, it could have been any team, any hobby. The story is about a person who has an obsession that runs his life and how the people around him are affected. To the people who kept asking the director about football, I wanted to yell "Did we see the same movie just now?" I urge you to see BIG FAN if you have the chance! TINY SPOILER ALERT: 
Patton Oswalt as you've never seen him before. |
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It also made me second guess whether or not I really want to meet my heroes, because they might suck.
A couple weeks ago, a column by regular guest columnist Joe Vince was supposed to run (again, technical difficulties), so I'd like to share his Summer Movie Wrap Up column below. Please forgive me his vulgar sexual imagery. (But since it's regarding Michael Bay, I'm going to allow it).
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Although this was a record-breaking summer at the box office, 2009 struck me as a bland buffet of blockbusters in comparison to last year's fresh and tantalizing movie menu. Did a throaty Christian Bale and Sam Worthington deliver the same intensity as a throaty Christian Bale and Heath Ledger did in THE DARK KNIGHT? Was Chris Pine's turn as Kirk in the STAR TREK relaunch feel as sharp and clever as the performance Robert Downey, Jr. gave in IRON MAN? No, this summer was as lifeless and passionless as Michael Bay's anatomically improbable ability to self-fellate and anally pleasure himself on the big screen. (And thank you, U.S. military-industrial complex, for tongue-tickling his scrotum and perineum at the same time.)
But even in this morass of mediocrity, there were some delightful bright spots. Here are my picks for summer highlights you might've missed.
Best Movie I Saw This Summer: 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE
Yes, this film was released in 2002, but I didn't see it until recently. It's an electric film about the music scene in Manchester, England, from the late 1970s until the early 1990s, through the eyes of TV personality, band manager, club owner and musical bon vivant Tony Wilson (played by the brilliant Steve Coogan). Director Michael Winterbottom navigates a runaway train that pulls facts, archival concert footage (including clips of the Joy Division, New Order and the Happy Mondays, all bands Wilson had a hand in), urban legends and fictional flourishes along its narrative tracks. This isn't a documentary or a biopic or a piece of historical fiction. It's an entirely different beast that feels more like mythology or a musical fairy tale that's completely true.
Best Movie I Saw in a Theater: UP
In the first 15 minutes, the Pixar animators and screenwriters weave such a sensitive and heart-rending portrait of human emotion that you forget you're watching computer-generated performers. That UP can then switch gears to become a rousing action flick and turn a talking dog into comic relief without alienating the audience is a testament to the storytelling prowess of this animation studio. Yes, there are laughs, but ultimately the movie is 
Adorable couple |
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a meditation on loneliness and the price of chasing one's dreams. UP is the next step in Pixar's maturity, and I can't wait to see where the studio goes next.
Runners-up: THE BROTHERS BLOOM, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
Best Performance: Maya Rudolph, AWAY WE GO
Rudolph is one of the most underrated comedic actors around, largely because her strength is to get laughs by being restrained. Sure, she can play over the top, but she's much more devastating when she reins it in. That's the centerpiece of her performance as Verona in AWAY WE GO. Even with little dialogue, she creates a vibrant character who holds the film together. Just watch her eyes. They're expressive without being gaudy or pretentious. You see the thoughts and emotions of a strong, complex woman churning behind those eyes. And it's those eyes that finally reveal her character's vulnerabilities.
Best Performance By An Actress Who Speaks Only Once: Rinko Kikuchi, THE BROTHERS BLOOM
As explosives expert Bang Bang, she says two words. Yet she's the funniest part of a pretty funny movie. You might want to pick up some pointers, Dane Cook.
Best Chemistry Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, (500) DAYS OF SUMMER
(500) DAYS OF SUMMER gets an "A" for effort, but it has too many flaws to be a truly satisfying movie. But its biggest redeeming quality is the teaming of Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel. These performers embody everything you want in a screen couple: believable interactions, smoldering intimacy ... oh, and they're mighty easy on the eyes. These two aren't just great acting together, they can dance, too.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2009-08-04-zooey-joe-music-video_N.htm
This Was the Summer of ... : Second-rate nostalgia
G.I. JOE. TRANSFORMERS. LAND OF THE LOST. TERMINATOR. THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1-2-3. In 2009, Hollywood strip-mined intellectual properties from as far back as the 1970s, slapped some 21st century computer-generated shine on them and threw them out to the marketplace. It's an old movie studio strategy. But this summer, studios were pulling out old movies and TV shows that people didn't even equate with good memories. It's like bringing your childhood to the present day and having to relive the time you had explosive diarrhea in the middle of seventh grade English class, and they had to clear everyone out of the south corridor of the school because it smelled like the inside of a boar's ass and kids were throwing up on themselves, making it smell like the inside of a boar's ass after another boar threw up in it. Why would you want to sit through that again?
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Every other Sunday
Semi-wholesome Midwestern girl and certified Geek Magnet offers her suggestions - often new, sometimes classic - for DVDs that are definitely queue-worthy.
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