Best in Film 2011 Tracker, Part 4

Since the last Tracker (11/1/11), I’ve seen Tower Heist, Martha Marcy May Marlene, In Time, Footloose, Like Crazy, My Week with Marilyn, The Muppets, Immortals, J. Edgar, The Descendants, Hugo, Arthur Christmas, Young Adult, and Melancholia in the theatre and The Lincoln Lawyer, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, Attack the Block, Everything Must Go, Life in a Day, and The Beaver on DVD. There has been a lot of moving and shaking – I still haven’t sorted it all out yet. A little over a week in the year left, and still at least 15 movies to go.

Best Film
Bridesmaids
Moneyball
Crazy, Stupid, Love.
The Muppets
The Descendants
Hugo
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Midnight in Paris
Young Adult

Director
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorcese, Hugo
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life
Rupert Wyatt, Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Paul Feig, Bridesmaids
Bennett Miller, Moneyball
Glen Ficarra and John Requa, Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Lead Actor
Tom Hardy, Warrior
Brad Pitt, Moneyball
George Clooney, The Descendants
Brad Pitt, The Tree of Life
James McAvoy, X-Men: First Class
Michael Fassbender, X-Men: First Class

Lead Actress
Charlize Theron, Young Adult
Viola Davis, The Help
Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids
Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia
Emma Stone, The Help
Saoirse Ronan, Hanna

Supporting Actor
Corey Stoll, Midnight in Paris
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Ryan Gosling, Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Patton Oswalt, Young Adult
Kevin Bacon, X-Men: First Class
Bruno Ganz, Unknown
Peter Sarsgaard, Green Lantern
Nick Nolte, Warrior

Supporting Actress
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Octavia Spencer, The Help
Judy Greer, The Descendants
Analeigh Tipton, Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Bryce Dallas Howard, The Help
Jessica Chastain, The Tree of Life
Lin Shaye, Insidious

Adapted Screenplay
Stan Chervin, Aaron Sorkin, and Steven Zaillian, Moneyball
Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller, The Muppets
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash, The Descendants
John Logan, Hugo

Original Screenplay
Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, Bridesmaids
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Dan Fogelman, Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Diablo Cody, Young Adult

Editing
Christopher Tellefsen, Moneyball

Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki, The Tree of Life
Manuel Alberto Claro, Melancholia
Robert Richardson, Hugo
Brendan Galvin, Immortals

Animated Film
Arthur Christmas

Score
Cliff Martinez, Drive
Michael Andrews, Bad Teacher
The Chemical Brothers, Hanna
Cliff Martinez, Contagion

Original Song
“Man or Muppet,” written by Bret McKenzie, The Muppets

Visual Effects
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Hugo

Remembrance of SNL Cast Members Past

The folks at TopOnlineColleges.com are up to it again: posting articles about Saturday Night Live (that have some tangential relation to online colleges?).  Their latest list is “10 Saturday Night Live Cast Members You Forgot.”  Their choices are a mix of folks that you forgot were ever even on SNL, and those that you may have remembered from their time on the show, but have since not had much of a career.
Here’s who they picked:

1. Colin Quinn
2. Victoria Jackson
3. Charles Rocket
4. Pamela Stephenson
5. Chris Parnell
6. Julia Louis-Dreyfus
7. Tim Kazurinsky
8. Joan Cusack
9. Robert Downey, Jr.
10. Melanie Hutsell

Anybody know what Ellen Cleghorne is up to?

SNL Video Recap December 17, 2011 Jimmy Fallon/Michael Bublé

SNL Recap December 17, 2011: Jimmy Fallon/Michael Bublé

Cold Opening – Sully and Denise
I’ve never been a fan of Sully and Denise, but I’ve never hated them either.  It was fun to see them several years graduated from their old stomping grounds.  Amy’s character saying that her “case of mono” is now 15 years old was the most clever moment of the sketch. B-

Jimmy Fallon’s Monologue
When Jimmy sang some of his jokes, the volume of the music seemed to throw off the laughter cues, which affected the rhythm of this routine a bit. But his interactions with everybody were fun and gratifying, which was no surprise, as monologues in which the host traipses around backstage doing a musical number almost always work. B

Today
Even considering the standards of Today Show sketches, hardly anything happened in this sketch.  It felt oddly tossed-off for a lead-off sketch.  Most of the jabs at Hoda did stick, though (the “like your boyfriend” zingers particularly stood out).  They could have joked how Hoda used to look Jewish, and then hipster, and now Iranian. B-

Michael Bublé Christmas Duets
Yet another impression showcase!  Well, why not?  SNL generally has a more than 50 percent success rate with them.  And how about letting Jimmy have 3 (three!) of the impressions?  The balance of the sketch was thrown off a bit by that, but Jimmy does seem to have widely expanded his repertoire of impressions since hosting Late Night.  What really made this sketch off-kilter was that there were two partners for Bublé who didn’t say anything (Bieber and Taylor Swift).  Fred’s Thom Yorke was the highlight. B

Jimmy Fallon and His Reflection
This concept has been overdone a bit, and it would have helped if Andy’s Jimmy impression were better.  Self-aware references to the sketches that we expected to see kept us in a positive mood. C+

1920′s Holiday Party
What an odd sketch to bring back.  Jimmy’s character was an odd addition.  Fred, Abby, and Bill’s expressions captured a perfect reaction to all this oddness.  Ending this sketch with puppet animals made as little sense as it did the first time.  Still, there is something about the way Kristin says, “Don’t make me sing,” as well as how Jimmy says, “Don’t make me dance.” B-

Half Jewish Half Italian Completely Neurotic
That is so Fred.  I was disappointed that this sketch was more about the low production values than it was about Fred’s portrayal of a multi-ethnic person.  Not that the low production values weren’t funny, it’s just that I would have liked more lines like “Hey, God, it’s little Tommy Palmese from 81st St.  If I’m half-Jewish and half-Catholic, where do I go when I die?”  Getting right in the face of the audience member played by Bill and messing around with the video provided plenty of chuckles. B

Season’s Greetings from Saturday Night Live
But of course.  Tracy looked like he really did not want to be there (was that a bit?), Kattan looked out of it (which seemed to be throwing Jimmy off), and Horatio looked like he was having the time of his life, even more so than usual. B+

Michael Bublé performs “A Holly Jolly Christmas”
Bublé is the first Christmas episode musical guest since Pavarotti and Vanessa Williams in 1998 who was actually booked to sing Christmas songs.  (Interestingly enough, that 1998 Christmas episode was the one in which the Ghost of SNL Past showed Alec Baldwin a glimpse of Jimmy Fallon hosting in 2011.)  You don’t hear this Christmas tune as often as some others, and of course Bublé sang it well.  It was fun. B

Weekend Update
-The Jokes: Is Seth getting better?  Perhaps he was sure to be doing his best, since his colleagues were stopping by.  Both Trump punchlines stuck the landing and served as his best jokes. B+
-The Segments: -Get in the Cage with Jude Law:  There are only so many ways Andy’s Nic Cage can describe who he is, what attracts him to particular films, and his harebrained schemes (impregnating the Statue of Liberty was a good one, but it wasn’t quite killing the ghost of Osama bin Laden),  and saying that he is attracted to a film because “it exists” may have been the apex (or nadir) of such descriptions.  The reveal that Cage was currently shooting a film during the segment was a well-executed new element, though. B+
-Weekend Update Joke Off: Yes, Jimmy and Tina won that round.  In fact, it seemed like Amy and Seth let them win.  Amy seemed to have bad punchlines on purpose, so that she could have goofy reactions to her bad jokes, while Seth just had bad punchlines.  The “pro boner” punchline was the first (or second, depending on how you look at it), and, I say, the best. B

Beethoven’s Orchestra
Here is the Jimmy Fallon energy put to good use with a well though-out concept.  Not every line was particularly funny, but this sketch did capture the feel of a bandleader introducing his members at the end of a show, and it allowed the funny moments to come when they would.  Triangle Sally was an effective change of pace, and Kenan’s B.B. King came from absolutely out of nowhere. B

War Horse
A low-concept, low-tech, lowest common denominator sketch, with low-concept, low-tech, lowest common denominator laughs.  It was as it presented itself, and it was pretty funny for such a throwaway sketch. B-

Michael Bublé performs “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
Bublé didn’t do too much to his rendition of “Merry Little Christmas” other than lending it his great voice. B-

Broncos Locker Room
An obvious, but well-executed joke.  Jason’s laid-back, straight-talking Jesus was just about the perfect vehicle for telling Tebow and the Broncos what’s what. B

Overall
Some classic Jimmy Fallon bits were revisited, though perhaps not as many as expected, and there were several cameos, perhaps more than expected.  Jimmy basically dominated the proceedings, except in two sketches (Tommy Palmese, Broncos locker room) in which he was inexplicably absent.  No all-time classic sketches, but an overall strong episode, in the vein of an overall mostly strong season.

VH1 Top 40 Music Videos of 2011

Quality-wise, 2011 was one of the best years for music this century.  I guess what that means is, I was continually satisfied and surprised by the new entries in the musical areas that I listen to (and I listen to a lot of musical areas).  Even when you just look at the Top 40, my impression is that the year was better than average.  But you wouldn’t know it from this countdown.  While I found about 30 songs on the list to be at least bearable (about the same as last year), this year’s bottom feeders are even more plainly awful than last year’s.  Nickelback (worse-than-average Nickelback, that is) and Daughtry both had new tunes, so that tells you something right there.

I am not sure how VH1 could reasonably manage to ignore LMFAO this year.  “Party Rock Anthem” would easily have been the most ubiquitous song of the year if there hadn’t been a song this year that was unfathomably ubiquitous.

Wasn’t there a law enacted in 2007 saying that Rihanna must appear on year-end countdowns like this one each and every year?  VH1, you are in violation of the law.

Remember, my revision is not my interpretation of how big these hits were, it is my judgment of the quality of the songs.  But I am alo interested in discussing whether or not VH1 accurately represented the bigness of the hits, and thus I point out in the margins what songs were ranked too high or too low.

Original Version
1. Adele – “Rolling in the Deep” (should be higher)
2. Bruno Mars – “Grenade”
3. Katy Perry ft. Kanye West – “E.T.”
4. P!nk – “F****** Perfect”
5. Foo Fighters – “Rope”
6. Mumford & Sons – “The Cave” (should be lower)
7. The Script – “For the First Time” (should be lower)
8. Cee-Lo Green – “F*** You” (should be higher)
9. Foster the People – “Pumped Up Kicks”
10. OneRepublic – “Good Life”
11. Gym Class Heroes ft. Adam Levine – “Stereo Hearts”
12. Adele – “Someone Like You” (could be higher)
13. Bruno Mars – “The Lazy Song”
14. Katy Perry – “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)”
15. Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera – “Moves Like Jagger”
16. Britney Spears – “Hold It Against Me”
17. Lady GaGa – “Born This Way”
18. Ke$ha – “Blow”
19. Coldplay – “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall”
20. Kelly Clarkson – “Mr. Know It All”
21. Christina Perri – “Arms” (should be lower)
22. Hot Chelle Rae – “Tonight Tonight” (could be higher)
23. Pitbull ft. Ne-Yo, Afrojack, and Nayer – “Give Me Everything” (should be higher)
24. The Band Perry – “If I Die Young”
25. Gavin DeGraw – “Not Over You” (should be lower)
26. Beyoncé ft. J. Cole – “Party” (has no business being anywhere near this list)
27. Train – “Save Me San Francisco”
28. Jason Derülo – “It Girl”
29. Andy Grammer – “Keep Your Head Up”
30. Red Hot Chili Peppers – “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie”
31. David Guetta ft. Usher – “Without You”
32. Nicki Minaj – “Super Bass”
33. Colbie Caillat – “Brighter Than the Sun”
34. Nickelback – “When We Stand Together”
35. Britney Spears – “Criminal”
36. Grace Potter & the Nocturnals – “Paris (Ooh La La)”
37. Demi Lovato – “Skyscraper”
38. The Civil Wars – “Barton Hollow”
39. Jessie J – “Domino”
40. Daughtry – “Crawling Back to You”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Rolling in the Deep
2. Pumped Up Kicks
3. Someone Like You
4. Paris (Ooh La La)
5. Rope
6. E.T.
7. Super Bass
8. Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)
9. Blow
10. F*** You
11. Every Teardrop is a Waterfall
12. The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie
13. Without You
14. The Cave
15. Barton Hollow
16. Mr. Know It All
17. Domino
18. Good Life
19. Give Me Everything
20. Born This Way
21. Moves Like Jagger
22. Brighter Than the Sun
23. Grenade
24. Hold It Against Me
25. Criminal
26. Tonight Tonight
27. Skyscraper
28. Keep Your Head Up
29. F****** Perfect
30. If I Die Young
31. Save Me San Francisco
32. Stereo Hearts
33. For the First Time
34. Arms
35. Party
36. When We Stand Together
37. The Lazy Song
38. Not Over You
39. Crawling Back to You
40. It Girl

SNL Video Recap December 10, 2011 Katy Perry/Robyn

SNL Recap December 10, 2011: Katy Perry/Robyn

We have a clip.

Cold Opening – On the Record with Greta van Susteren
This was a distressingly bad cold open.  Kristen’s Greta van Susteren has never really been that amusing, but Darrell’s Donald always has been.  The Donald may be one of his three best impressions, but this time it hardly was.  He seemed out of practice.  He couldn’t even consistently say “hyuge” in that patented Donald style. C

Katy Perry’s Monologue
There were a few “jokes” about Katy Perry’s persona, but no real premise built around them.  This monologue was a mess, but a hot mess. C+

J-Pop America Fun Time Now
I never would have expected this to be a post-monologue leadoff sketch.  Here’s the deal: adding a bunch of r, d, and n sounds to the end of words is not Japanese, nor is it good comedy.  I guess this was meant to make fun of faux-Japanese, but, uh, yeesh. C-

The Apocalypse
Before this trailer parody revealed its full premise, it was amusing enough in how it accurately captured how Drew Barrymore, Ashton Kutcher, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Kirsten Dunst would act in one of these star-studded romantic comedies.  Then this went to a list of absurd items, which SNL relies upon a lot these days, and with good reason, because it is perhaps their most consistently successful current strategy. B+

Kalle
Here’s what I would like to congratulate “Kalle” for: I knew exactly where it was going, but it still managed to make me laugh, thanks to its adept execution.  When Katy surmised that Kalle would go home to a depressing cat-filled apartment, I said out loud, “We have a clip,” and then when Kalle said it, it was still brilliant. B+

Digital Short: Best Friends
I did not recognize Matt Damon.  I knew that the drug addict was someone that I knew, but Matt did not quite look like himself.  Anyway, jolly good. B

Doggie Duty
SNL has been trying to recapture that “Bunny Business” magic, with diminishing returns each time.  This one was a little half-assed.  Amazingly, Katy (as Florence Welch!) provided the best impression. B-

Robyn performs “Call Your Girlfriend”
As far as SNL musical guests go, Robyn is the best dancer since at least Chris Brown, and her dancing is much quirkier than Chris’s.  She also has the perfect voice for dance-pop. A-

Weekend Update
-The Jokes: At least decent efforts from Seth two weeks in a row.  That’s gotta be some sort of record.  Rick Perry appearing on next season’s Apprentice was the best joke, and the Contagion coming true punchline also made me laugh. B
-The Segments: -Rebecca Larue: Another Weekend Update, another new Kristen Wiig character.  I’ve got to admire her for always trying out new material, which seemed to be the main point of this bit. B-
-Captain Steve Rogers/Alec Baldwin: I’m not really sure how to grade this segment.  Baldwin wasn’t exactly being playful in poking fun at American Airlines, and judging by the facts of the incident, I’m not so sure that he shouldn’t have been apologetic.  He did get some clever jibes in there, and it seemed to mean to be all in good fun, but it reeked of self-indulgence.  As far as comedy goes, B-
-Stefon: And Stefon remains as classic as ever by sticking in a few surprising details within the standard framework.  The reference of the Republican candidates was unexpected, and I believe the mention of “Spicy” was the first callback to a club that Stefon had introduced in an earlier episode.  And who would have thought Spud Webb (pulling double duty, that is) would be the stimulus for Bill to corpse? A

Royal Pregnancy
There we go again with the Queen and Prince Philip as gangsters – painfully nonsensical, but occasionally amusing.  Katy as Pippa was actually the best part of this sketch.  Her English accent actually sounded pretty good, probably because she was basically doing an impression of her husband. B-

Politics Nation
I have trouble believing that Al Sharpton is completely inept at talking and recognizing which camera is being used on his TV show.  I can, though, believe that he is often enough inept in these areas, and Kenan was just having a hell of a time being allowed to say his lines however he wanted to.  Taran as Jim VandeHei seemed slightly amused, as opposed to annoyed, that Sharpton kept screwing up his name, which was a nice touch. B+

Robyn performs “Dancing on My Own”
If you want a female empowerment anthem that is fun and danceable – but still actually empowering – then Robyn is your gal. B+

One Magical Night
This is the type of role that Katy should have been playing all night: someone who seems basically normal, but turns out to have very specific oddities.  The timing was perfect.  Hurray for rehearsal!  The ending was a bit too disturbing, but at least there was an ending. B+

Overall
This episode featured this, that, and the other thing.  There was no one defining characteristic, which was surprising, because usually when the host  is not primarily an actor or comedian, the episode is mostly built around the persona of the host, for better or worse.  But Katy seemed to be fine with playing whatever roles were available for her.  Therefore, this episode lived and died by its material, and some of the material was quite strong, and some of it was quite bad.

And a big Vanda-hi back at you!

VH1 Top 20 Countdown – 12/10/11

Katy Perry has accomplished so much, I bet she’s not even that excited to be hosting SNL.

Original Version
1. Katy Perry – “The One That Got Away”
2. Kelly Clarkson – “Mr. Know It All”
3. Daughtry – “Crawling Back to You”
4. Bruno Mars – “It Will Rain”
5. David Guetta ft. Usher – “Without You”
6. Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris – “We Found Love”
7. Coldplay – “Paradise”
8. Safetysuit – “Let Go”
9. Adele – “Someone Like You”
10. The Fray – “Heartbeat”
11. Jessie J – “Domino”
12. Outasight – “Tonight is the Night”
13. Kid Rock ft. Angaleena Presley and T.I. – “Care”
14. Mary J. Blige – “25/8″
15. Bush – “The Sound of Winter”
16. Avril Lavigne – “Wish You Were Here”
17. Nickelback – “When We Stand Together”
18. Florence + the Machine – “Shake It Out”
19. Jason Derülo – “It Girl”
20. The Black Keys – “Lonely Boy”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Someone Like You
2. Shake It Out
3. Paradise
4. We Found Love
5. Lonely Boy
6. The Sound of Winter
7. Tonight is the Night
8. Let Go
9. The One That Got Away
10. Without You
11. It Will Rain
12. Domino
13. Mr. Know It All
14. 25/8
15. Wish You Were Here
16. Heartbeat
17. Care
18. When We Stand Together
19. Crawling Back to You
20. It Girl

Addendum to Jmunney’s Very Early Oscar Predicitions

In my very early Oscar predictions, I chose not to include anyone or anything from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.  But then I realized who is directing: Stephen Daldry.  And it must be said that Daldry has been nominated for Best Director at the Oscars for all of his previous feature films (Billy Elliot, The Hours, and The Reader).  So I think he might be a contender this year.

Something About Christmas?

Sometimes, you’ve got plenty of things to say about something, but the only thing you should say, at least initially, is repetition of the original:

Teach me how to understand Christmas
Show me how to open a box
It hurts my little head, when I’m lying in my bed
With visions of sugarplum socks?
(Is this a bit?)

Teach me how to understand Christmas
Do I trim the tree or the deer?
I can’t keep it straight, and now it’s getting late
Where does the stocking go? Here? I can’t see!
What’s a Christmas Eve? Is that Santa’s lady?
Are snowmen cold or hot?
Won’t you be my daddy, I’m a silly Christmas baby
Tell me what to deck, a-heh, cause I forgot

Bwain hurty understandy Cwismas
Mistletoe for eaty taste good?
You smarty, me dumb
Help pwetty have fun
Boopy doopy doop boop sex!

Look, eventually you hit a point of diminishing returns on the sexiness.
What’s a dimini-ni-ni-ruh?