Posts published under “Brian’s Favorites”
Our Best of the Year: the 2010 SMLys!
On this last week of 2010, Year of the Franco, enjoy a trip down memory lane with SML. We’ve compiled some of our favorite films and posts of the year. Remember that movie? And that festival? Oh, how we laughed/cried/rolled our eyes! Anyhoo, here they are, in alphabetical order by editor. See you in 2011, and don’t forget to shake that thing!
Brian:
Totally Bitchin’ Dead Guys: Leo McCarey & Charles Laughton
Totally Bitchin’ Dead Guys: Leo McCarey & Bing Crosby
On Location: The Music Box Theater, Chicago
Picture Books: Who the Devil Made It
Ebertfest: 12th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival series
Kimberly:
“Be Yourself” (A Woman Under the Influence)
Let’s Talk About…Jennifer’s Body
Let’s Talk About…Morning Glory
Two Oscar Contenders Are the Bread for a Delicious Despair Sandwich (Rabbit Hole, The Fighter)
Let’s Talk About…What We Do Is Secret
Wasted Weekend: Underwater Makeout Session Edition
Rebecca:
A Single Man…Beautiful, Bittersweet Gem
Broken Embraces…Penelope Cruz Will Mesmerize You
Exit Through the Gift Shop…the Title May Say It All
Oscar Buzz for The Social Network
The Beat Generation in Court (Howl)
An Evening With Sam Shepard…Fabulous
Movies Under the Stars…Great Summer Fun! (Star Trek [2009])
Sarah:
We’ll Eat You Up We Love You So (Where the Wild Things Are)
Top Ten Favorites of the Decade!
Gofobo.com: The Full Scoop on Your New Best Friend, or Making Crappy Lives Sweeter One Free Movie at a Time
Bad movies suck way less when they're free.
Movie fans on a budget will appreciate the service provided by the good people of Gofobo.com, a movie info site known mostly for providing free sneak previews of upcoming Hollywood fare. While some similar sites offer screenings in only a few select cities, or in one particular region, Gofobo is pretty much nationwide, so be sure to check regularly for screenings in your area. After a few months using the site fairly regularly, I have amassed some choice intel for you lucky, freewheelin’ hippies, so sit tight and take notes.
Once you create a free Gofobo account, check the SCREENINGS page for upcoming events in your town. Occasionally you will click on an upcoming screening and they will automatically allow you to reserve passes, EASY PEASY, but more often it will ask for an RSVP code to be entered for that particular screening. If you have that RSVP code (obtainable through radio/TV stations and pretty much any business giving them away as a promotion of some sort; TIP: a well-chosen Google Alert will help you discover some of these as they pop up), just enter it on that screening’s page, or on the home page. BOOM. Then you’re on that particular screening’s processing page, where you request either one or two passes. Next, you’ll download a PDF file which contains two separate printable passes, one saying your name and one saying GUEST OF your name (although they give you an option to only reserve one pass, good news for the sad, lonely bastards out there). You’ll need to print them out—HELLO, printer at work—and that’s pretty much it. Just be sure to show up at least an hour before show time (usually scheduled for 7pm, but with the occasional 10am or 9pm screening), because free movies draw people like crazy, and as with all sneak previews these shows are overbooked to ensure the fullest possible house. Also good to know: most screenings start seating a full 40-45 minutes before show time. Read more »
Way Harder Than Sophie’s Choice (More Top Ten Faves of the Decade)
Continuing in our TOP TEN FAVE FILMS OF THE ‘00s series—inspired by similar lists announced by A.O. Scott and that other guy on the awesome new edition of At The Movies, even though their lists are kind of, uh, ridiculous—Brian chimes in with some absurd junk that will surely cause him no end of grief from the guy who cuts his hair.
Scariest/funniest guy in the west. Ian McShane in Deadwood.
10. DEADWOOD (2004-06/HBO DVD) & BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (2004-09/SCI-FI CHANNEL DVD) What! Am I crazy? Starting off my list with *sniff* cable TV junk instead of worthy efforts like Billion Dollar Barbie or Grandpa Torino? Hey, cool it, Keith! I know these are TV shows, which is a whole different thing than film, but frak, experiencing the compelling construction (and near destruction) of these two godsforsaken worlds was a more satisfying viewing experience than just about anything released on film. Whole sections of dialogue have taken residence inside my head. And it’s a MESS in there. (Shhh! It likes the bleak.) The dialogue in the opening scene of my fave Deadwood ep, season one’s “I Am Not The Fine Man You Take Me For,” is profoundly heartbreaking epic poetry.
9. O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? (2000) My favorite Coen bros. film since Raising Arizona (yeah, I hear ya, nerd, I also prefer the silly underrated Hudsucker Proxy over the way over-praised, merely OK Big Lebowski) rides squarely on the sturdy comic shoulders of George Clooney’s charming and hilariously verbose Ulysses Everett McGill, an ever cheerful Dapper Dan-slick depression-era convict that convinces his two slooooowww chained accomplices (played all slack-jawed to perfection by John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson) to escape their dusty chain gang and journey to his old homestead to collect a buried treasure that might or might not exist. If their extremely silly takes on old south draaawwwls and just plain dumb old southerners rubs you funny, that is indeed the point. This isn’t all silly accents and yokel jokes, though—the photography, Grammy winning soundtrack, and art direction combine with the material to create something transcendent here. While I do really do appreciate the serious side of what the Coen brothers do—their dark, brooding adaption of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country For Old Men is one of their best—I find it’s their lighter stuff that connects most deeply. Read more »
