Ten Favorite Albums of the Year

Twenty Favorite Songs of the Year

An Animal In Your Care: Wolf Parade Live @ La Zona Rosa

My best friend from high school came to visit me down in the great state of Texas this past weekend. In between drinking some potent margaritas and munching on chips and queso we were able to take in a phenomenal performance from Montreal's Wolf Parade. Hot on the tracks of their latest album release (At Mount Zoomer -- go buy it, download it or hell give me your address and I will send it to you, it's that good) they put on one hell of a show. It was, according to the band, their first real show in Austin. They had played Austin City Limits before, but this was the first time playing a stand alone show. La Zona Rosa was the perfect place to see a band that prides itself on their raw energy and tense sound. As Spencer hunched over his keyboard primed to play "An Animal In Your Care," he stopped the show concerned that him sweating profusely on his equipment was casing it to malfunction. Not more than half way through the show each member of the band was drenched in sweat. Someone from the back of the venue shouted "Welcome to Texas!" but they really were welcomed by the hundreds of screaming fans who seemed to give the band enough encouragement to continue the show despite the technical and climate difficulties. Although the tracks of Mount Zoomer were exceptional, it was when playing the tracks off of their debut album Apologies to the Queen Mary that the crowd really went wild. If you have a chance to catch Wolf Parade, take it. It was one of the best shows I have seen in a long time.

SxSW In Review

I had the pleasure of attending Austin's very own hipster-fest, SxSW this past week. As one of the most affordable film and music festivals, SxSW coincides with UT's Spring Break allowing a number of college students to attend. The crowd and films and music that flood to Austin make for a very interesting and very fun fest. I attended the film portion, although I was able to catch a few musical acts or at least hear them while wandering up and down Sixth Street. The following are the top 10 films I saw at the festival, in no particular order.

10. "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"

9. "Choke"

8. "Lou Reed's Berlin"

7. "Bananaz"

6. "Super High Me"

5. "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay"

4. "American Teen"

3. "The Wackness"

2. "Assassination of a High School President"

1. "Dance of the Dead"

2007 In Film and TV

Favorite Films of 2007
20. Into the Wild
19. Live Free or Die Hard
18. American Gangster
17. Sunshine
16. Ratatouille
15. Lars and the Real Girl
14. Juno
13. The Lookout
12. King of Kong – A Fistful of Quarters
11. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
10. Knocked Up
9. Michael Clayton
8. Superbad
7. Grindhouse
6. Hot Fuzz
5. The Bourne Ultimatum
4. Zodiac
3. No Country for Old Men
2. There Will be Blood
1. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Best Actor - Daniel Day Lewis in "There Will be Blood"
Best Actress - Julie Christie in "Away From Her"
Best Supporting Actor - Casey Affleck in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
Best Supporting Actress - Amy Ryan in "Gone Baby Gone"
Best Director - David Fincher for "Zodiac"
Best Screenplay - Edgar Wright & Simon Pegg for "Hot Fuzz"
Best Cinematography - Roger Deakins for "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" and Janusz Kaminski for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
Best Original Song - "Falling Slowly" from Once
Best Original Score - Jonny Greenwood for "There Will be Blood"
Best Visual Effects - "Transformers"
Best Stunts - "The Bourne Ultimatum"
Best Performances in an Otherwise Awful Film - "Margot at the Wedding"
Worst Movie of the Year - "Across the Universe"

Favorite TV Shows of 2007

10. Rob & Big
9. Reaper
8. Big Brother
7. Gossip Girl
6. Mad Men
5. 30 Rock
4. The Sopranos
3. Veronica Mars
2. Lost
1. Friday Night Lights

Best Actor - Kyle Chandler for "Friday Night Lights"
Best Actress - Connie Britton for "Friday Night Lights"
Best Supporting Actor - Tracy Morgan for "30 Rock"
Best Supporting Actress - Elizabeth Mitchell for "Lost"
Best Direction - Jack Bender for "Through the Looking Glass" - "Lost"
Best Writing - Liz Heldens for "I Think We Should Have Sex" - "Friday Night Lights"

Screen Actor's Guild Award Predictions

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
Will Win: Glenn Close for "Damages"
Should Win: Edie Falco for "The Sopranos"
Should Have Been Nominated: Elizabeth Mitchell for "Lost"

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
Will Win: Hugh Laurie for "House M.D."
Should Win: Michael C. Hall for "Dexter"
Should Have Been Nominated: Kyle Chandler for "Friday Night Lights"

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
Will Win: Tina Fey for "30 Rock"
Should Win: Tina Fey for "30 Rock"
Should Have Been Nominated: Jenna Fischer for "The Office"

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
Will Win: Ricky Gervais for "Extras"
Should Win: Jeremy Piven for "Entourage"
Should Have Been Nominated: Larry David for "Curb Your Enthusiasm"

Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series
Will Win: "Mad Men"
Should Win: "The Sopranos"
Should Have Been Nominated: "Friday Night Lights"

Outstanding Ensemble in a Comedy Series
Will Win: "30 Rock"
Should Win: "30 Rock"
Should Have Been Nominated: "Reaper"

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Will Win: Cate Blanchett for "I'm Not There"
Should Win: Amy Ryan for "Gone Baby Gone"
Should Have Been Nominated: Leslie Mann for "Knocked Up"

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Will Win: Javier Bardem for "No Country for Old Men"
Should Win: Casey Affleck for "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
Should Have Been Nominated: Ben Foster for "3:10 to Yuma"

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Lead Role
Will Win: Julie Christie for "Away From Her"
Should Win: Ellen Page for "Juno"
Should Have Been Nominated: Laura Linney for "The Savages"

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Lead Role
Will Win: Daniel Day-Lewis for "There Will Be Blood"
Should Win: Daniel Day-Lewis for "There Will Be Blood"
Should Have Been Nominated: Christian Bale for "Rescue Dawn"

Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture
Will Win: "No Country for Old Men"
Should Win: "No Country for Old Men"
Should Have Been Nominated: "There Will Be Blood"

Six Seasons of The Sopranos or How I Spent My Winter Break

The Sopranos has been hailed for years as one of the greatest things to ever grace American television screens. While I don't think it is nearly as phenomenal or innovative as some people make it out to be, I must agree that it was a riveting series and will definitely stand the test of time in the annals of American popular media. I spent close to eighty five hours of the past few weeks watching the series from start to finish, seeing the trials and tribulations of the New Jersey crime family and the ups and downs of it's leaders actual family. A good number of people and critics have been quick to blast the ending of the series as the "easy way out." I couldn't disagree with them more. I absolutely loved the ending, and in spite of knowing how it was to end it still sent chills down my spine. Here we have a more accurate portrait of an American family than any other shows have been able to achieve. At the head of the family is Tony, a crime boss capable of running New Jersey but perhaps unable to run his own family. The truest presence for me throughout the series was Carmella, Tony's oft loving wife. Tracing her character from season one to season six, I have never seen such a wonderful piece of acting and extensive character development. But back to the end of the series that created such a whirlwind of criticism. Regardless of what you may have seen or heard from the ending, I still found my stomach in knots as the end approached. I thought for sure there would be some way of punishing viewers like me for cheering as Phil Leotardo's face is crushed by his daughter's SUV carrying his two grandkids. No way was David Chase going to let that slide. Although I knew that there was going to be a cut to black right as Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" kicked up, I still thought for sure either that guy in the USA cap, the guy wearing the Members Only jacket or the two thugs browsing the pastries were going to whack Tony. Alas, it is the viewer that gets punished but not by seeing our main character bite the dust. Instead it is the viewer himself that gets killed. We no longer have the privileged vantage point of watching these family dramas play out. A lot has been tossed around about whether or not Tony gets killed. Most people chalk this up to the creator's unwillingness to decide whether or not he would want to bring the series back in the form of a feature film. I personally believe that is bullshit. It is more than probable that Tony didn't survive the night and I'm basing this on the fact that Meadow can't park her car outside. She attempts to parallel park the car three times, the last time being successful. Likewise, two attempts have been made on Tony's life and he has had the chance to live on. Perhaps this time he will not. Either way, whether you think he lives or dies you can't argue with the inherent genius behind the ending. No it isn't a cop out, showing his death would have been a cop out. The only thing I'm truly disappointed in is that I'm going to have to find something else to occupy my time.

Oscar Nomination Predictions

The Oscar Nominations are announced on Tuesday and although the ceremony is up in the air, here is what I think we will hear announced.

Best Original Screenplay
Diablo Cody, Juno
Brad Bird, Ratatouille
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl
Steven Zailian, American Gangster

Best Adapted Screenplay
Christopher Hampton, Atonement
Joel & Ethan Cohen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will be Blood
Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Sean Penn, Into the Wild

Best Director
Joel and Ethan Cohen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will be Blood
Sean Penn, Into the Wild
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Tim Burton, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
Catherine Keener, Into the Wild
Ruby Dee, American Gangster

Best Supporting Actor
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Paul Dano, There Will be Blood
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War

Best Actress
Julie Christie, Away From Her
Ellen Page, Juno
Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose
Angelina Jolie, A Mighty Heart
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth The Golden Age

Best Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will be Blood
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises
Ryan Gosling, Lars and the Real Girl

Best Picture
No Country for Old Men
There Will be Blood
Juno
Into the Wild
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

An "Event Film" Worth Attending

I was at work the other day when a customer walked in and claimed that a fellow employee of mine is ridiculous for recommending they not rent the film Dragon Wars: D-Day. Having not seen this film I can't comment on the quality, although the title does suggest something I am less than interested in. Needless to say, this particular customer went on to insult the film The Host. The Host is a South Korean monster movie in the vein of Godzilla. One thing he said that made me laugh was that he couldn't believe he sat through thirty minutes of watching a family eat in The Host. I too found The Host to be tremendously disappointing. Of course this is coming from a red blooded American male who may be more interested in the death and destruction that play out in the first thirty minutes of The Host rather than the last hour and a half of family drama. Coming back from Matt Reeves' much talked about and much anticipated film Cloverfield, I was perusing the web reading other reviews and comments on the film and found one specific reviewer who rather snidely said the only thing Cloverfield inspired her to do was go home and watch the far superior film The Host. I don't really see Cloverfield necessarily entering the annals of American film, other than perhaps riding the merits of its impeccable ad campaign, but the audience reaction following the end of the movie was completely shocking to me. Never before had I heard an audience boo as much as they did when the credits began rolling, but I could only reckon that perhaps they are also not big fans of J.J. Abrams television show LOST which airs on ABC. Like with Lost, Cloverfield hooks you into the story of a group of twenty-something New Yorkers on the eve of one of their friends leaving for a job in Japan (the home of Godzilla...I'm sure no coincidence). Like with LOST we are clued in to some of the back story of several characters throughout the film. You see what makes this such an interesting take on monster movies is that it is completely handheld a la The Blair Witch Project, another film which had trouble breaking beyond the rather genius marketing campaign. Unfortunately for our main character the tape that his buddy is recording the events on was previously used to document a day he spent with the love of his life, a girl who has since moved on realizing that he wasn't ready to commit and was in fact headed overseas. Sure, this may sound rather typical, and I won't lie it definitely is, but at no point does it seem to be over the top or overly sentimental. Regardless of all the back story, at the top of everybody's priorities when it came to the movie was what exactly is this monster that rips the head of the Statue of Liberty off and sends it hurling across Manhattan. I will tell you, without revealing too much information, that some viewers questions will not be answered by watching the movie and that is undoubtedly what drove the viewers to harness such resentment at the closing. With effective enough effects, some pretty stellar performances, one rather amazing bit of B-movie gore, enough scares and playing off the paranoia and fear surrounded by the climate of recent terror attacks (something which seems to bother a lot of people, although I find it a highly interesting phenomenon to examine in genre films like this one) Cloverfield is definitely worth seeing. Even if you end up disliking the ending, or feeling less than satisfied with the way the story plays out, take comfort in the fact that the film clocks in shorter than almost any film in recent memory.

Golden Globe Predictions