Movie Review: Eagle Eye
Posted on September 27th, 2008 by Matt
Praise Blog!
Posted on September 22nd, 2008 by Matt
Who knew that my blog would be an asset and not a liability? I did. That’s why I keep it and write under my own name.
Today I went in for a job interview (a real one!*) and the interviewers both said they had read my blog and and enjoyed it! I don’t know if that’s enough to hire me (that would be totally awesome if it were), but it did help boost my writing self-esteem. Lately I’ve felt like I’ve been in a bit of a writing slump. I’ve been turning in a steady stream of articles for Collider but I felt they were lacking the pop I was once providing. I wasn’t playing with words like I used to or including fun asides. It was rote analysis of movie news with not enough of the snark that I was hired to write in the first place. And I love writing snark. How many people get paid to be snarky? Thankfully, not many. But I’m one of them!
Anyway, if anyone ever tells you that keeping a blog may be detrimental to your job prospects, feel free to use this instance as anecdotal evidence. You will surely win the argument.
*At some point I’ll have to chronicle how CareerBuilder led me into a den of thieves.
Diablo Cody vs. The Haters
Posted on September 19th, 2008 by Matt
While I know this news is a couple of days old, I felt I had to share some thoughts about Diablo Cody’s recent missive where she fires back at all those who have retaliated against her for being successful. It’s a very strong statement and one I encourage you to read.
However, it seems to slightly dodge one important issue. While Cody seems to be retaliating against the obvious jealousy of the “Film_Fan78″ variety of internet fanboys, she doesn’t seem to really go into the amount of sexism she’s facing and then kicking in the face with one of her patented kung-fu kicks.
Sexism, for those that are wondering, is NOT disagreeing with women or even disliking a woman. I feel like I have to clarify this point because our news media and political campaigns seem to fail on daily basis on the definition of “sexism”. Here’s a very simple test for determining sexism: if the circumstances were the same except the subject in question was a man and not a woman, how would you react?
And the truth with Diablo Cody is that she would be the new geek god. If Juno had been written by a man and from the perspective of Bleeker’s character, Juno would probably be hailed as one of the current crop of classic geek films and fanboys would be drooling at her next projects rather than leaving us mature people to do the heavy lifting and get excited for Jennifer’s Body and The United States of Tara.
But there is a flip-side to this article and it’s going to be odd because I’m criticising a criticism of a person’s critics. We are truly through the looking glass.
Sometimes, you just have to let your critics go. Her entire article, for me, is the very reason, you don’t respond to the haters. Even if they were legitimate critics (and I have no doubt that there are about half of them with the words “sophmore slump” already macro’d into their Microsoft Word simply because God forbid anyone be as successful as Cody on their debut film), you have to let them go.
I once received an e-mail from a gentleman who was upset about my negative review of his independent film. It was a straight-to-DVD film, I reviewed it for one of the sites I was working for at the time, and thought that was the end of it. But this gentleman felt the need to seek me out and explain how hard he had worked and that I was reviewing a bastardization of his vision, and so on and so forth.
And I simply explained to him and as I will explain to Ms. Cody right now, don’t waste your breath. The way you rise above your critics is by leaving them behind. You can accept their criticism, study it, use it, or discard it, but if you engage it, then you’re lending it credence. Cody is clearly a million times more successful than those who try to diminish her accomplishments, but this isn’t a case of throwing one good punch against a schoolyard bully and he’ll leave you alone. This is one of those instances where she should have written all this out and then never published it, not for her privacy but so that it doesn’t give the pricks the satisfaction of knowing they got under her skin.
Cody just needs to keep doing her thing and eventually the haters will shut up because success speaks for itself. I’m greatly looking forward to Cody’s upcoming projects and hope that she’ll remain above the fray in the future since she’s already above most of us already.
Tina Fey IS Sarah Palin
Posted on September 14th, 2008 by Matt
Watch one of the best comedians working today nail the impersonation in SNL’s season premiere:
Movie Review: Burn After Reading
Posted on September 12th, 2008 by Matt
This is what you’re going to go see this weekend. Enjoy.
Burn After Reading (8.7 out of 10)
Passing Judgment on McCain’s Judgment
Posted on August 30th, 2008 by Matt
Well, John McCain certainly surprised us all on Friday morning when he announced that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin would be his running mate. Other unexpected choices with about as much experience: Jesse “The Body” Ventura, Geena Davis, and Kermit the Frog. Oh yes, it was a “maverick move” in the same way that going for first down on 4th and 30 in football is a “maverick move”. I have yet to hear anyone describe this choice as “brilliant” or “wise”. I’ve heard “desperate”, “shocking”, and “idiotic”, but while this choice may have won McCain the news cycle, it may wreck the remainder of his campaign.
Next week is the Republican National Convention and instead of having the news focus on the speakers and the Republican platform and trying to dismiss the already conventional wisdom that the Republicans are going to lose big in November as far as congress is concerned (and that isn’t me being a liberal cheerleader; that sentiment is from Republican insiders), the media will be trying to answer “Who is Sarah Palin and why should she be Vice President?” The DNC had it organized: heal the party rift by the time Joe Biden got up to speak and then let Obama bring it home.
It wasn’t even that McCain picked someone only slightly more experienced than your server at Denny’s; it’s that the media had no time to prep. There’s been the comparison of Palin to Virginia governor Tim Kaine, who was on Obama’s short-list for VP, since they’re both first-time governors. Aside from the fact that Obama didn’t pick Kaine, here are some notable differences:
- Virginia has a population of almost eight million while Alaska has less than 700,000
- Kaine’s name had long been circulating on the short-list so the media had time to research him and get his credentials
- Virginia has thirteen electoral votes and has the possibility of going blue in November; Alaska has three votes and has only gone blue once since it’s been a state
- Kaine had been a co-chair on Obama’s election committee since February 2007; McCain spoke to Palin twice before selecting her as his running mate
And let’s be frank: McCain is old. The guy turned 72 on Friday and if the male life expectancy for a person living in the United States is 75.2 years old, then should McCain survive his first term, he’ll be living on borrowed time. That’s cruel and understand that I don’t wish the man ill. As much as I disgree with his policies, I wouldn’t wish death on him, especially now that Sarah Palin would be his vice president and seems about as ready for the job as Michael Phelps (note: if McCain had put Michael Phelps on the ticket, he’d win every state; America loves that guy).
Yes, it would be neat if we had a female president. If we don’t have have a female president within the next twenty years, I’d be shocked. But the “wow” factor is going to wear off real fast when you realize that it doesn’t matter if the President is a man, woman, or transsexual: if they don’t know what they’re doing, that’s bad news for the country. One month ago, Palin didn’t even know what the VP did and to be fair, one month ago, she probably didn’t think she’d ever have to know.
Did John McCain forget that while he has to win an election, he also has to govern? That a choice of a running-mate is more than just picking up votes but a serious choice for who you want first in the order of succession? In a campaign marked by a desire to do anything to win, this is “The Maverick’s” most asinine decision yet. Sure, Palin’s got cred as a woman who’s a social conservative, but so do Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin (note: if McCain picked Michelle Malkin, it would be the funniest thing ever because it would mean that Oberlin College, one of the most liberal colleges in the nation, produced the running mate for the Republican ticket).
The choice of a running mate varies from ticket to ticket. What Obama needed was not the same as what McCain needed. And McCain didn’t have a great field to choose from just as Republicans didn’t have an ideal choice for their Presidential candidate. Pawlenty was a safe choice but one that wouldn’t gather a lot of excitement. Romeny could have provided economic support and vigor but he’s a Mormon so he’s out. McCain agreed with Lieberman 100% on foreign policy but they would always disagree on social issues. Tom Ridge would have been a safe choice but he believes that women should control their utereuses so he’s out. The decision not to select Tom Ridge strikes me as particularly humorous because it means that the narrow issue of Roe v. Wade, which is such a hot-button topic yet miniscule in its significance when compared to larger issues of national security and the economy, could mean that the right wing’s lunatic fringe has set up the party for failure. The selection of Sarah Palin certainly doesn’t set them up for success.
Maybe Cain Was On To Something
Posted on August 8th, 2008 by Matt
Everyone knows the story of Cain and Abel: Adam and Eve do a less-than-stellar parenting job (granted, their only parental figure kicked them out of paradise for eating fruit) and one their sons ends up killing the other out of jealousy. The lesson: love your brother. However, I take away a different moral from this story: brotherhood is about balance. If Abel hadn’t gone and tried to impress God, Cain wouldn’t have had to unleash some fratricide.
Balance is important between brothers and I have done my best to maintain it with mine. I’m really into movies and he’s really into sports. We’re both really into American History and give disturbingly similar (sometimes identical) answers when playing Loaded Questions, much to our mutual embarassment. I get to be hilarious and he gets to be physically fit. While his high school graduation speech caused me great consternation with its brilliant combination of wry observation, impersonations, and wearing a baseball hat with a suit, I managed to dismiss the incident as a fluke. I was still the funniest. I don’t have to kill him. He just needs to go on his merry way and leave the laughs to me.
But today he posted the best commentary on the Brett Favre saga that I’ve heard in all its many weeks. There’s a line involving Outback Steakhouse and John Madden that made me laugh till I cried and then I just cried. He had gotten…funny. Funny was my territory. He got to be physically fit. That’s balance. And since I’m getting winded just typing this, I’m afraid he’ll have to be…dealt with. By someone else of course. Lifting a club and beating him to death would be exhausting. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to take a nap and dream of my brother being dull and/or overweight.
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I Like Traffic
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I Like Stuff
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I Like XBOX 360
