Category: Film

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Predicting the Oscar Nominations, or How to Lose a Competition in Six Categories

Dan Seeger

This morning I watched Roger Federer win the Australian Open for the fourth time, his sixteenth Grand Slam title overall. And it made me think of the Oscars. Specifically, it made me think of a yearly wager I’ve been participating in for around twenty years. The radio show The Reel Thing began on 90FM-WWSP in the fall of 1990. It was a movie news and review program, and this time of the year a remarkable amount of time was devoted to the Academy Awards, including attempts on the part of both myself and my on-air colleague to predict the films, … Continue reading Predicting the Oscar Nominations, or How to Lose a Competition in Six Categories

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Capra, Kubrick, Morel, Peli, Reed

Dan Seeger

Taken (Pierre Morel, 2009). An entirely unimaginative action film poured into the form of a parental nightmare turned revenge fantasy. Liam Neeson plays a retired CIA operative who calls upon his formidable combat skills when his teenage daughter is kidnapped by sex slave traders on a trip to France. It lurches from violence-saturated scene to violence-saturated scene with a little bit of empty seediness thrown in for variety. It’s hard to develop emotional investment in the characters when the actors shuffling through it and even the movie itself seem to have already given up on the notion of being anything … Continue reading Capra, Kubrick, Morel, Peli, Reed

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Assayas, Berg, Cassavetes, Chressanthis, Derrickson

Dan Seeger

Deliver Us From Evil (Amy Berg, 2006). Amy Berg’s challenging, often painful documentary tracks the damage done by a Catholic priest who was quietly shuttled to different churches in the same general region of California whenever accusations of sexual assault emerged, an occurrence that was tragically commonplace from the late nineteen-seventies through to the early nineties. With a methodical, thoughtful approach, Berg illustrates the ways in which the priest exploited the automatic trust his parishioners gave him, and, more damningly, the craven indifference the church leadership had to confronting the problem in any meaningful way. Berg’s portrait of the priest, … Continue reading Assayas, Berg, Cassavetes, Chressanthis, Derrickson

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Like a thief in the night see the world by candlelight

Dan Seeger

This time of year, I wind up devoting an awful lot of time to bloated awards shows, often shows that I’m not even interested in except for their suspected influence on the ceremony I can’t resist. Turns out I should just learn to wait, because some enterprising soul is bound to come up with a more compact version. (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading Like a thief in the night see the world by candlelight

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When you’re golden, I’m your beast

Dan Seeger

Things I learned about this year’s Oscar race from tonight’s Golden Globes awards: –Any meager lingering doubts that the Best Supporting Actress is done are now gone as Mo’Nique handled her Globes victory the same way she handled her big scene in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. She, to lean on a pertinent cliche, knocked it out of the park. –Any meager lingering doubts that the Best Actor race is done are wiped out by some simple awards ceremony arithmetic. If my count is correct, there were three standing ovations tonight. One was for Martin Scorsese when … Continue reading When you’re golden, I’m your beast

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Fox in the snow, where do you go to find something you can eat?

Dan Seeger

I suspect I’ve already tipped my hand about my pick for the best animated film of 2009, but if the Oscars let Wes Anderson accept a trophy in the same fashion that he employed for the National Board of Review awards ceremony, I may have to shift my rooting interest in the the relevant category to Fantastic Mr. Fox. They undoubtedly won’t, so I’ll be able to bypass those conflicting emotions. (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading Fox in the snow, where do you go to find something you can eat?