Mailbox Film Festival #3: The American (Corbijn, 2010)

Typically when the word “American” appears in the title of a Hollywood movie, it’s an indication a certain set of values, a certain upward striving, that has come to be identified with American culture.  The word’s appearance in these titles may conjure this idea earnestly (American Graffiti), ironically (American Psycho) or accusatorially (American History X), but they all tap into the audience’s shared perception of what America stands for as a concept.  But the title of Anton Corbijn’s 2010 film The American signals something different – the protagonist’s status as a stranger, and not a very welcome one.

The American may be the most European movie ever made with Hollywood money.  The only actor most American viewers would recognize is George Clooney, and even he spends much of his time at his Italian villa.  But beyond the Dutch director and the Italian locations, the film is intensely European in its style and attitudes.  Sex and nudity are explicit; violence is subdued.  Clooney plays an assassin, but The American is more interested in how this occupation provides him with a high-stakes secret, rather than an excuse to fetishize violence.  The killings, when they do happen, are swift and silent, a consequence of the narrative rather than its raison d’être.  Corbijn seems to care more about Jack’s (Clooney) quest to assemble the perfect gun than its ultimate use – as does Jack, for that matter.

Certainly The American could be interpreted as a protest against the spread of American influence across Europe and the rest the world. Throughout the film, there are subtle reminders  – Jack’s order of a caffé Americano; the Renato Carosone song “Tu vuò fa l’americano” piped in over a restaurant’s speakers; two villagers attending an American movie to improve their English – of just how casually American culture has pervaded Italy, and the Italians’ simultaneous fascination with and contempt for it. In one scene, Jack visits a bar where Once Upon a Time in the West is playing on TV.  But despite its American stars and Old West setting, the bartender is quick to reclaim it, growling, “Sergio Leone: Italiano,” almost as a threat.  Even The American’s plotline of an American assassin losing his edge can be read as an allegory for the US’s slipping position as the world’s foremost power.

But the film seems equally as interested in how people who don’t fit in get defined by their differences.  The villagers of Castel del Monte almost exclusively refer to Jack as “L’Americano” rather than by his alias, “Edward.” Whether their use the term is affectionate or hostile, it stills marks Jack as someone who stands out in the town where he’s supposed to be hiding. Jack’s choice of career has condemned him to a life of solitude, but seldom has he been so often reminded that he’s so alone.  Perhaps this is why he so often seeks to connect with other characters who also live on society’s fringes: a priest (Paolo Bonacelli), a prostitute (Violante Placido) and a fellow assassin (Thekla Reuten).

The priest’s conversations with Jack act as The American’s philosophical center.  Jack discovers that Father Benedetto betrayed his solitary calling by fathering an illegitimate son with a villager.  The priest, for his part, criticizes Jack’s lack of interest in his supposed career as guidebook photographer.  “You’re an American.  You think you can escape history.  You live for the present,” the priest tells him.  Jack replies, “I try to, father.”

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Mailbox Film Festival #2: Animal Kingdom (Michôd, 2010)

Animal Kingdom has been described by more than one critic as “the Australian Goodfellas,” a comparison even director David Michôd dismisses.  Really, the film Animal Kingdom resembles most closely is Ben Affleck’s The Town, both of which came out in the US last fall.  Unlike Goodfellas‘s Henry Hill, an outsider who ingratiates himself with the Mafia, the protagonists of Animal Kingdom and The Town are born into crime and ambivalent about getting out.  Instead of the glamour and grudging respect afforded members of the Family, their mom-and-pop armed robbery and drugs rackets are coated in grime and desperation.

After his mother takes a fatal overdose of heroin, teenager J (James Frecheville) moves in with his grandmother Smurf (Jacki Weaver) and uncles Pope (Ben Mendelsohn), Craig (Sullivan Stapleton) and Darren (Luke Ford).  J more or less gets swept along on their capers, never showing any enthusiasm for crime but not protesting either.  Detective Nathan Leckie (Guy Pearce) seizes on J’s youth and newbie status and tries to persuade him to testify against the Codys, thus setting up the film’s central conflict: should J betray the only family he has, or should he latch onto what may be his only chance out?

For most of its running time, Animal Kingdom paints its themes in broad strokes common to the genre.  There’s the bad guy who vows to go straight, only to get gunned down moments later by a corrupt cop.  There’s the good guy who we know is good because he’s happily married and has a daughter with Down syndrome.  Then there’s the truly evil guy, who coldly murders a teenage girl on the off chance she’d rat him out to the police.  Add to the mix a transparently metaphorical monologue, in which the detective equates J’s place in the Cody family to life in the Australian bush, that indirectly gives the film its title. “Some creatures are weak,” Leckie tells J. “They survive because they’re being protected by the strong. … But they’re not strong anymore.”

Where Michôd tries to distinguish himself is through style, to mixed results.  He films in slow motion so often it loses its impact, and the music he chooses sits flatly on top of the scene rather than integrating into or commenting on the action.  There’s even an unnecessary sequence that seems to exist for the sole purpose of quasi-sincerely reviving Air Supply’s “All Out of Love.”  His casting of the protagonist as a blank slate also makes the film feel less urgent than it should.  J is supposed to be the audience’s surrogate, but his detachment verges on catatonia.  It’s difficult to sympathize with a character who doesn’t bat an eyelid when his mother dies sitting next to him.

But in the third act of the movie, a switch flips.  J shows signs of being human.  When he realizes that Pope killed his girlfriend, J breaks down in her parents’ bathroom and decides to testify.  Of course, since Pope is off to kill him next, this change isn’t entirely internal.  But it mirrors a shift in Michôd’s filmmaking, where he stops trying to craft a style and just creates one.  There’s also a welcome bit of pitch-black humor in these final scenes, from a low-speed car crash to an intimidation meeting in an art museum (chosen because it’s “somewhere no one we know would go”).  Even this reel’s obligatory slow motion sequence, when Pope and Darren are arrested, works.  Perhaps the most affecting image in the film shows Smurf, in the thick of it but not legally culpable, vacantly dunking her tea bag in and out of her mug as her sons are carted away.  I won’t spoil what happens next.  Suffice it to say that it’s in the last 20 minutes or so that Animal Kingdom finds its voice and finally becomes worthy of its buzz.

(SPECIAL OSCAR® UPDATE: In light of Jacki Weaver’s Best Supporting Actress nomination, I thought I’d add a few extra words about her performance in the film.  She’s perfectly fine in it, but it’s the kind of role that attracts awards.  In fact, Weaver just lost the Golden Globe to Melissa Leo for playing a slightly less sinister version of the character in The Fighter.  Weaver does, however, get a wonderfully creepy scene opposite Guy Pearce toward the movie’s end.  I’d wager she got the nod for her Cheshire Cat grin during the line “But I do, Nathan.”)

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Mailbox Film Festival #1: Cyrus (Duplass & Duplass, 2010)

In “Mailbox Film Festival,” I’ll write about every movie I get sent through my new Netflix account.  I’m signed up for the one-at-a-time plan, so if I’m disciplined enough (and the postal service cooperates), I should be writing about two of these a week.  First up: Cyrus, a semi-big-budget mumblecore dramedy by fellow Louisiana natives Jay and Mark Duplass.  

No one wants to be part of a movement called “mumblecore.” To fans, the term is a reductivist insult ghettoizing a nonexistent film genre.  To everyone else, it’s a signpost warning “BEWARE: poor lighting and blunted affects.” I admit, I lean more toward the latter view.  To me, mumblecore represents some of the most tiresome aspects of modern American independent film, from the navel-gazing preciousness of Hannah Takes the Stairs and Tiny Furniture to Old Joy‘s half-hearted politics and commitment to dullness.  But the two previous films by Jay and Mark Duplass (the road picture The Puffy Chair and the non-horror horror movie Baghead) hinted at an ability to transcend the limitations of their tiny budgets and aggressively indie aesthetic. Each time I’ve seen a Duplass Brothers movie, I’ve entered with my guard up.  And each time, I’ve been won over by the humanity of the characters.  Where so many of their peers’ films revolve around hipness signifiers disguised as humans, the Duplasses’ characters talk and act like real people.

It’s no surprise, then, that the Duplasses were the first of the movement granted a larger budget to make a major studio motion picture.  The brothers’ relationship with Fox Searchlight gives Cyrus two major advantages over their previous films: first, a more focused (if more conventional) narrative, and second, a really solid cast.  The term “mumblecore” derives from the flat line readings of many of the genre’s players who mistake underacting for naturalism.  But Cyrus features such reliable talents as John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei and Catherine Keener, all of whom successfully create fully believable characters.  Even a smaller role like the ex-wife’s new fiancé is cast with Matt Walsh of the Upright Citizens Brigade, whose inherent funniness adds some nice shading to what could have been a one-note part.  But the biggest surprise here is Jonah Hill as the title character.  Hill’s career so far has found him typecast as the most pathetic of the pathetic losers, and his role as Cyrus doesn’t stray too far from this niche.  With his doughy face and watery eyes, he resembles an overgrown baby yet to be weaned (at least figuratively) from his mother.  But beyond appearance, Hill also demonstrates a grasp of nuance first hinted at in the more emotional sequences in Superbad.   When Cyrus deadpans “It’s great to finally have a new dad,” Hill ably conveys both the pseudo-seriousness of the joke and Cyrus’s genuine fear of being abandoned.

A worse film would play the situation broadly, making Cyrus into Problem Child: The Post-Adolescent Years or exploiting the close relationship between him and his mother (Tomei) for incest jokes.  But the Duplasses understand the ironclad bonds that develop between two family members who have no one else to rely on but each other.  When John (Reilly) threatens to penetrate this bond, Cyrus strikes back not out of malevolence, but out of an instinct is to defend the only life he knows and the only person who loves him.   What seems like overindulgence on Molly’s part is her attempt to compensate for everything she was unable to give Cyrus while he was growing up.  She doesn’t recognize her son as acting out at first because, like anyone else, she’s too close to her family to see them as they really are. But when John forces her to reexamine Cyrus’s behavior, she’s smart enough to accept that she may have some blind spots about her son.

There are a few overly familiar beats and too-easy jokes, most of which naturally made their way into the film’s trailers.   But even at its most conventional, Cyrus maintains a commitment to treat its characters as real people.   The film ends not with a comedy-of-errors reveal and a happily-ever-after, but with a quiet understanding among the three main characters.  (The mysterious final scene, however, puts a question mark on whether any progress has actually been made.)

There’s a nice scene in middle of the film, when John and his ex-wife Jamie (Keener) not-so-accidentally run into Molly and Cyrus taking nature photographs in the park.  It’s early enough that John thinks Cyrus may be acting weird toward him (specifically, he suspects Cyrus stole his shoes), so he contrives a way for Jamie to meet him and offer her opinion.  Afterward, John and Jamie are surprised by how much they enjoyed their time with Molly and Cyrus, even despite the latter’s somewhat strange behavior.  “What about the wrestling? Was that weird?” John asks Jamie. “Yeah, it was weird,” she responds, “but weird in a good way.”

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Jeopardy!, Part Three: Aftermath

I had three wishes/goals for my Jeopardy! appearance.  First, to score a true Daily Double.  Second, to win at least one game.  Third, to not completely embarrass myself with a stupid answer.  As I managed all three, I have no regrets.

I have been overwhelmed by the unexpected number of people who have contacted me over the past few days.  I thought a half dozen or so people might try to google my music blog.  I certainly wasn’t expecting the dozens of emails and Facebook messages and hundreds of extra blog hits. I am moved by all the positive comments I have received, especially given the internet’s reputation for snark.  I am still wading through some of these, but do know I appreciate them!  I thought I’d use this last installment to address a few questions that have come up repeatedly.

First: what was up with Wednesday’s Final Jeopardy wager?

As I mentioned before, I went into Jeopardy! with almost no strategy in place.  I was lucky enough on Tuesday that I could use the four-fifths rule, making betting a no-brainer (especially since I felt comfortable with the category).  On Wednesday, though, I had only a slim $400 lead.  Worse, I was facing a non-wheelhouse category.*  I had been 90-95% confident I could correctly guess a “20^th Century Artists” clue, but only about 50-60% sure I’d get “Computer Science” right.  I decided I had two options: either bet nothing, in which case I would certainly be wiped out if Tom or Elisabeth got it right, or bet some absurdly large amount to cover whatever they wagered.  Obviously, I chose the latter option.  I decided I would rather risk coming in third with an incorrect answer than bet nothing and lose with the correct answer.   (This is an easier stance to live with since I’d already won once, of course.)

(*You know what is in my wheelhouse? Media law.  You know, like copyright? Ahem.)

As for the precise amount of the wager? Well, if I had gotten the answer right, I would have ended up with the exact same score I had finished with on Tuesday:

Tuesday: $19,000 + $14,601 = $33,601
Wednesday: $20,000 + $13,601 = $33,601

That’s it.  Nothing mathematical or strategic about it.  Alex Trebek actually remarked on this symmetry during the taping, but his comments were edited out for broadcast. Really though, since I was already betting enough to make me lose if I missed, I should have wagered $19,201 to lock out Tom completely if he bet it all and won – but I choked.  (I also rightly guessed that Tom wouldn’t bet it all anyway.)

Second, to clarify: I don’t currently have a television, but I do love TV! Otherwise I would never have watched Jeopardy!.  Currently I can’t afford cable or high-speed internet, and I have no space in my tiny apartment (= nun’s cell) for a TV set.  Still, most of my favorite shows are online (either on Hulu or the Comedy Central website) and I watch those whenever I can pick up a strong enough internet connection.  The rest I watch on DVD or when visiting my mom.  I also read The A.V. Club every day, which helps fill in gaps about programs I wouldn’t otherwise know about.

Third, I have no broadcast experience.  I was, however, a drama kid in high school.  As a result, I don’t have any problem with public speaking.

Finally, while I live in a woman’s residence run by nuns, I have no plans to become a nun myself!

I would like to encourage everyone with even a passing interest to take the online test the next time it is offered.  I had a wonderful time from start to finish.  Unfortunately, it was literally a once-in-a-lifetime experience  – that is, unless the Jeopardy! staff changes the rules or Alex retires. In the meantime, I’m considering trying out for another game show once I’m legally eligible.  If I do, though, it’ll just be lagniappe.  After all, I’ve already played the only game show that matters.

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Jeopardy!, Part Two: Day of Reckoning

Taping day starts bright and early, so I made sure to get plenty of sleep the night before.  At 8am, a shuttle is sent to the Culver City hotel where the contestants are staying to transport us to the Sony Pictures Studio.  There, we sign loads of legal documents, get our makeup done and work with the contestant coordinators on our anecdotes.  The anecdotes were the part of the experience I dreaded most of all.  First of all, you have to submit three pages’ worth of one-line stories.  Then there was all the struggle of putting down good stories: i.e., nothing too self-aggrandizing, nothing that required too much detail, nothing too lame.  No matter how many awesome life experiences you’ve had, getting a nice pithy story suitable for television is still difficult!  The coordinators narrowed each person’s anecdotes down to three, wrote them on an index card, and passed them along to Alex Trebek for him to choose.

After getting these basics settled, it was on to the practice round.  Jeopardy! tapes five episodes in one day, back to back to back. During the practice round, all of the week’s contestants rotate in and out every few questions.  The idea is to get used to the buzzer and to answering questions loudly and clearly. (The practice round is also where I decided to write my name and my Final Jeopardy answer in all caps – lowercase looked too messy in my handwriting.)

The recurring theme of most Jeopardy! contestants’ complaints is those buzzers.  Quiz Bowl had gotten me accustomed to using them, but it also meant I was in the habit of buzzing in as soon as I was confident in my answer.  On Jeopardy!, however, there’s a very precise moment when you are allowed to buzz in.  After Trebek finishes reading the question, lights flash on either side of the game board to indicate that contestants can buzz in now.  Buzz before those lights come on – even a split second before – and you’re locked out for a fraction of a second.  That doesn’t sound like much time, but it means everything when your two competitors also know the answer.  So during the practice round, I obediently waited until I saw the lights flash.  But by the time your brain registers the flashing lights and signals your thumb to press the buzzer, you’ve already missed the boat.  The only solution is to get into the rhythm of game, at which point you instinctively know when to buzz in without even looking at the board.

In addition to giving you a chance to learn the buzzer system, the practice round also gives your potential competitors a chance to size you up before the big game.  As a result of my buzzer trouble, I hardly answered any questions (or questioned any answers, to be more precise) during the practice round.  In fact, the only one I remember answering is one I got wrong.  There were some definite sympathy vibes aimed in my direction. I can truthfully say I played the practice game sincerely, but I’d be lying if I didn’t add that it had crossed my mind to throw the practice round to psych out my potential opponents.  As it ended up, my nerves ended up doing the work of under-representing myself for me.

All of the contestants were then seated together in an audience section to wait to be called for a particular taping.  Our friends and family members attending the show (in my case, my mom and grandmother) were seated in the section next to us, but we were instructed to not so much as look at them to prevent cheating.  The studio audience – people who had gotten free tickets to attend the day’s showing – sat on the other side of the audience section.  We watched a short video on the history of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune (the other big Sony Picture Studios game show) and waited for our names to be called.  I wasn’t drawn for Monday’s show, so I got to sit and watch it as an audience member. The game goes by in real time and most of the editing is done live in studio as the game plays out.  During commercial breaks, Trebek answered audience questions and redubbed flubbed clue readings.  The contestants sipped water and had their makeup touched up.

Finally, Monday’s game wrapped up with Dan winning his third game in a row.  The coordinators called Justin and I to the stage for Tuesday’s game.  Both Justin and Dan had killed it during the practice round, while I had struggled. “I have no hope of winning,” I thought, “so I may as well relax and have fun.”  My fears were confirmed with the first category Dan selected: hockey.  I know nothing about sports and less than nothing about hockey. I didn’t even have a semi-related guess for any of the clues.

Luckily, my fortunes improved from there.  (If I don’t know anything else, I know music and food.)  In addition to having more favorable clues, though, I think the biggest advantage was being able to focus and not let my nerves best me.  I also benefited from a successful true Daily Double, which helped boost both my score and my confidence level.  I was still having some trouble with the buzzer – there were several clues that I must have been the only one to buzz in on, or I surely would have been locked out – but I had settled into a groove.

One last great hurdle still remained: Final Jeopardy. I always hated this segment because it relies at least as much on strategy as on knowledge.  I’d seen many episodes with strong players choking at the end because they didn’t know the answer to this one question, or because they had failed to make a suitable wager. My only real strategy the whole game came from a Slate article my dad had forwarded me on how to bet during Final Jeopardy.  Fortunately, the Heteronyms round boosted me into a big enough lead that I could use the formula that the article outlined.  If Justin (in second place) bet it all, my wager would cover his with an extra dollar to break the tie.  In the process, I had to bet $14,601 out of the $19,000 I had netted so far.  A terrifyingly hefty wager, to be sure, but one made easier when paired with a subject I actually knew something about (“20^th Century Artists”).  I double-checked my calculations, entered my wager and waited for the clue to be revealed.

As soon as I saw “1950” and “no chaos damn it,” I let out a sigh of relief.  Jackson Pollock! Of course! The game was immediately over for me.  I knew I had won.  All three of us had the right answer, but I had the extra advantage of going into Final Jeopardy with enough of a lead to guarantee winning.  I stayed stoic until my wager was revealed.  Then all three of us contestants were directed to the middle of the stage to talk with Trebek over the closing credits.  I then quickly filmed a rambling interview with a Jeopardy! crew member for the show’s “Winner’s Circle” page.  After that, I ran to the dressing room to change blouses and ran back to the stage to claim the defending champion’s far-left lectern.

How did I do on my second day? Tune into your local Jeopardy! affiliate to find out! And check back here in tomorrow for Part Three!)

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Jeopardy!, Part One: Preparations

If you follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr, then you probably already know that I’m appearing as a contestant on today’s (1/11/11) episode of the quiz show Jeopardy!. It wouldn’t be entirely accurate to say that it was my dream to be on the show.  It’s more like something I always knew I’d do eventually, like going to grad school or moving to New York.  I’ve always been a trivia collector and have a pretty good memory.  I was also on the Quiz Bowl teams at LSU and UT, so I had some experience with quickly pulling out random facts.  The hard part would just be convincing the show that I was worth having on.

I first took the online test in 2009.  Immediately I knew that I had only done so-so – there were too many answers I guessed on or just didn’t know.  But when I retook the online test in January 2010, I felt much more confident.  There were still a few I didn’t know – science is my weak spot, and I know next to nothing about sports – but I was impressed by how much easier it was the second time around.  I hadn’t studied in the interim; I was just lucky to have more questions I actually knew.  So I was thrilled to get an email in April inviting me to an audition.  I had listed New York as my city of choice because I hoped to be living there by then.  I was still in Baton Rouge at the time, but luckily I had also been invited to an interview at the Chelsea residence where I now live.  Time was on my side.  I packed a suitcase and a backpack, booked a one-way flight into JFK and landed a bed at the HI New York Hostel.

Two days later, I hopped the 1 train to a hotel in Midtown for my audition.  There were around two or three dozen other potential contestants trying out at the same time, but appointments had been going on all day.  The try-outs consisted of two main parts: a 50-question written test and a practice round against your fellow contestants.  The practice round, the contestant coordinators said, was mainly to get you used to the buzzers and playing the board.  It also gave them a chance to question us about personal anecdotes for the post-commercial “getting to know you” segment with Alex Trebek.  When the audition ended an hour or so later, I felt relieved.  I had gotten nearly all of the test questions right (I only remember missing one about sports), had run the category on ’80s movies during the practice game and got some laughs during the anecdote segment.    (I was also one of the few people who didn’t say I’d use my prize money to travel, which might have helped me stand out as well.)  We were all told that our names would be on file for the next 18 months.  The next step was to wait.

I was working night reception at a temp job in early-to-mid September when I got a call from the contestant coordinator.  Would I be available to come to a taping at the end of the month? Well, I had a trip to Chicago planned, but nothing I couldn’t rearrange.  After all, you don’t say “no” to Jeopardy!.  The next couple of weeks were a flurry of travel plans and studying.  I decided against trying to cram new material, as I knew from Quiz Bowl that it would only backfire.  Instead, I focused on refreshing myself on material I learned in high school and college.  I memorized the US presidents, world capitals and the periodic table of elements.  I took geography quizzes and pored through the Stanford Archive for old high school Quiz Bowl tournament questions (college-level being a bit too arcane ).  Most useful was the J! Archive, a site containing nearly every clue from nearly every episode of Jeopardy! ever aired. Appearing on the show is a once-in-a-lifetime chance.  I was going to do this right.

Truthfully, though, the questions weren’t the thing that worried me the most.  Everyone who appears on the show has a similar level of general knowledge – otherwise, they wouldn’t have made it past the online test or the audition.  What wins or loses the game are all of the unknown quantities: how well you operate the buzzer, how nervous you get in a big studio when taping an internationally broadcast game show, and the big scary “if” that is “Final Jeopardy.”  How well did I juggle these unknowns? Watch to find out! (And please check back tomorrow for Part Two.)

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Listomania: 2010 in Review

Oh, wasn’t it just two posts ago that I was writing Listomania for 2009? How quickly the year progresses.  “Twenty-ten” sadly lost out to the clunky “two-thousand-and-ten,” but hope springs eternal for “twenty-eleven.”

As always, these are favorites, not big mountain-top pronouncements of THE BEST THING EVER. I have to actually pay for all my music and movie tickets, you know. I don’t get any advance CDs or screeners sent to my house – not that I wouldn’t greedily devour any that were sent my way, if one were so inclined, hint hint.  Of course, then I’d have to post more than twice a year.

Top Books of 2010
Ahem, er.  Moving on.

Top Album of 2010
So remember back a month ago, when everyone proclaimed Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album of the year? And then there was all this backlash where everyone else griped that it only got praised because of Kanye’s backstory/personality and not for the music? Is it time yet for the backlash of the backlash? Because I really liked that album.  Even more than Spoon, which is really saying something.  (I loved 808s and Heartbreak, too, for that matter.)

Top 10 Movies of 2010

I watched 47 films released this year, a huge chunk (20!) of which were crammed into the last two weeks of the year.  (Of that batch, only Black Swan and A Prophet made the list.)  I’m planning to go see True Grit tomorrow.  My new year’s resolution for 2011? Try to stay current with my movie watching.

01) Carlos
I was lucky to catch this in the special roadshow edition that screened the original 5.5 hour cut in one go.  I doubt the progression (1. youthful idealism; 2. terrorism; 3. profit!) would have had the same demented rollercoaster impact as a TV miniseries.  Édgar Ramírez is equally convincing as charismatic young turk and bloated sell-out.
02) The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector
A trip into Spector’s ego, as the producer expounds on how important he is (Scorsese wouldn’t have a career without him!), how he couldn’t possibly have killed Lana Clarkson (except, maybe, you know, he really did), and how his Jewfro’d trial appearance was just a big misunderstanding aggravated by the media.  Oh, and don’t mention Tony Bennett.
03) Toy Story 3
04) Black Swan
05) A Prophet
06) The Social Network
07) Inception
08) The Killer Inside Me
This got a bad rap, mainly (as far as I can tell) for the disturbing amount of violence.  I say it’s better to have a movie that doesn’t glamorize murder and that shows the depravity of killing someone.  Casey Affleck gives my third-favorite performance of the year (behind James Franco and Édgar Ramírez) as a more sinister but equally creepy version of Robert Ford.
09) Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno
One part documentary on how a major film production can fail; one part attempt to reconstruct the lost film from scraps of test footage; and one part meditation on how the quest for perfection can be crippling.
10) The Kids Are All Right

Top 20 Tracks of 2010

I usually do 25 tracks, but I’m feeling lazy so I’ve copied and pasted my year-end ballot for Poptimists.  I ended up excluding a few tracks that were iffy on the year: “Got Nuffin” (Spoon) and “Every Little Bit Hurts” (Title Tracks) were both originally released on EPs in 2009.  FM Belfast’s album just came out in the US but has been kicking around internationally since 2008, so no “Par Avion” or “Synthia.”  I wasn’t going to do a mix, but I’m spending the evening watching Boardwalk Empire so I have plenty of time of my hands.

01) Kanye West – “Power”
02) The Walkmen – “Angela Surf City”
03) Janelle Monae ft Big Boi – “Tightrope”
04) Yeasayer – “Madder Red”
05) Lady Gaga ft Beyonce – “Telephone”
06) Rihanna – “Only Girl (In the World)”
07) Caribou – “Odessa”
08) LCD Soundsystem – “I Can Change”
09) Kanye West – “All of the Lights”
10) Marion Cotillard + Franz Ferdinand – “The Eyes of Mars”
11) The Dead Weather – “The Difference Between Us”
12) Spoon – “I Saw the Light”
13) David Byrne & Fatboy Slim ft Santigold – “Please Don’t”
14) Aloe Blacc – “I Need a Dollar”
15) Belle & Sebastian – “I Want the World to Stop”
16) Joanna Newsom – “’81”
17) Broken Bells – “The Ghost Inside”
18) Let’s Wrestle – “I Won’t Lie to You”
19) Ra Ra Riot – “Boy”
20) The New Pornographers – “Crash Years”

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Nearly had Arcade Fire (“Modern Man”) and Gorillaz (“Stylo”), but realized I was adding them half-heartedly.  On the other hand, I’ve never had three minutes for Ra Ra Riot before but somehow fell for “Boy” – it sounds like early Cure crossed with Vampire Weekend but GOOD.  I still have fond feelings for Belle & Sebastian, even though the only good tracks on the new album are the two singles and the three sung by Sarah and Stevie.  Everyone loves “Good Intentions Paving Company,” but I was attached to the more intimate (i.e., sounds more like The Milk-Eyed Mender or Ys) “’81.”  Apparently Here Lies Love wasn’t a very good album – I never listened to it – but I don’t think another 2010 song entrenched itself as firmly in my internal Muzak loop as “Please Don’t,” except maybe “Power.”  I was going to describe Let’s Wrestle as “Art Brut, but more sincere,” but I don’t think anyone is more sincere than Eddie Argos.  In the Court of the Wrestling Let’s is still the album title of the year – and, neat as a bow, it ties back into “Power” via King Crimson.  The Walkmen once again convinced me to buy one of their albums based on a stellar single, even though I still haven’t warmed to Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone.  “Crash Years” was this year’s unexpected last-minute addition, especially since I usually just download the Dan Bejar tracks off each New Pornographers album (still haven’t grabbed the ones from Together yet, though).  “The Difference Between Us” is evidently Jack White’s attempt at a Lady Gaga song and makes me yearn for an actual collaboration – then again, I really liked “Another Way to Die,” but no one else seemed to.  Speaking of collaborations: when will “The Eyes of Mars” get a proper release? Or is it destined to remain only a Lady Dior commercial?  I would buy a whole album of Marion Cotillard singing with Franz Ferdinand. And when did “I Can Change” become the This is Happening track of note? When everyone else was talking about “Drunk Girls” or “Dance Yrself Clean” or “Pow Pow” or “All I Want” or “You Wanted a Hit,” “I Can Change” was the one I loved – then suddenly it’s the one that makes everyone’s end-of-year lists.

I don’t usually do a television section, but I’d just like to note that Parenthood is the only new 2010 show I like that’s going to continue into 2011*. RIP Terriers, The Good Guys and Undercovers.  On the plus side – Parks and Recreation will be back! Just one more of the great and wondrous things to look forward to in the coming year.  See you again to wrap up 2011 in two posts or one year from now, whichever comes later (hopefully one year from now).

*I’m only halfway into Boardwalk Empire.  I like it, but every time I write the title it comes out as Boredwalk Empire. EDIT: I also totally forgot about Justified and Louie!  This is why I don’t make TV lists.

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