Potentially great things coming to TV with Sam Raimi and Darren Aronofsky

In case you need to know, the above photo of Tom Cruise comes from a 2012 movie called "Rock Of Ages," but it's really so funny that it speaks for itself with no further explanation from me.

And before we get into the TV stuff today, let's start with movie news about one of my very favorite directors, who has inactive for a while now. If you missed it, Anton Corbijn's thriller of sorts, "The American," starring one George Clooney, is easily one of my favorite movies of the past few years. The tale of a hitman (Clooney) on his final assignment in Italy admittedly moves a bit slow, but it's a good story well told and beautifully photographed, and there are few rentals I can recommend higher.

Before that, the former music video director Corbijn made the movie "Control" about Joy Division's Ian Curtis, which is also wickedly entertaining, so he's definitely a director to keep your eyes on. And now comes word that he's landed a follow-up to "The American" that sounds perfect for his style.

"Let the Right One In" director Tomas Alfredson will beat him to theaters with a John Le Carre adaptation, "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," and Corbijn will follow that with a much more contemporary Le Carre thriller, "A Most Wanted Man."

The book, published in 2008, tells the story of a Chechian Muslim who illegally immigrates to Hamburg, where he gets caught up in the international war on terror. The tale is loosely based on the real-life story of Murat Kurnaz, a Turkish citizen and legal German resident who was seized by American authorities, with knowledge of the German government, and taken to Guantanamo Bay. He was kept there for several years before being released, without charge, in 2006.

For a better idea of what the book is and movie presumably will be about, here's a trailer that was made for the release of the book. Enjoy, and then stick around for the promised TV news, and then a couple of clips just for fun (with Muppets!).



On my own TV, with very little new on and at the urging of my fellow cubicle slave Renee Martinez, I've been catching up with a home run of a show that I'm embarrassed to admit I had simply skipped until now, "Torchwood." If you've never seen it, the BBC-produced spinoff of "Doctor Who" is tailor-made for fans of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," with much of the same wit and scarier creatures to boot.

The show will come to Starz for its fourth season beginning July 8, and now comes word that the network has bought into something potentially thoroughly fun from Sam Raimi and "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" creator Rob Tapert.

What they're cooking up is a live-action version of an anime show I've never seen titled "Noir," about a pair of rival female assassins who team to take on a secret society to learn more about their own mysterious origins. I'm hooked on that already, and for just a taste of what the anime original was about, here's its opening:



The big event in TV tonight, of course, is the season one finale of "Game of Thrones," and having read book one of George R.R. Martin's fantasy series, what's amazed me most about this perfectly entertaining series is how its managed to stick so strictly to its excellent source material and yet still deliver fun surprises each week. It's somehow gotten better week after week, and tonight's doozy of a finale should continue that trend.

After that, there will be "True Blood," returning next week, and then Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" later this summer, and after that, HBO, never one to rest on its laurels, has enlisted one Darren Aronofsky to direct at least the pilot for a series that sounds like nothing but big fun, "Hobgoblin."

The show, about con men and magicians who conspire to bring down Hitler, has a pilot script co-written by novelist Michael Chabon, and that's all I know so far, but definitely stay tuned ...

OK, to close, on to the videos. The Muppets have teased us pretty good for a few weeks with spoofs on first "The Hangover Part II" and then "The Green Lantern." While those were indeed pretty funny, and probably better than the movies they lampooned, they were really just small-bite appetizers for this first real trailer for "The Muppets," set to come out around Thanksgiving. It looks and sounds exactly like the silly fun I'd expect from a Muppets movie, so move this one starring Jason Segel and Amy Adams right up near the top of the list of movies I most want to see for the rest of this year. Enjoy.



And finally today, I wasn't much impressed at all with the first trailer for Ruben Fleischer's upcoming comedy "30 Minutes or Less," but this second, red-band clip definitely delivers the funny. His follow-up to the sublime "Zombieland," starring Jesse Eisenberg, Aziz Ansari and Danny McBride, is set to come out Aug. 12. Enjoy this rather foul trailer, and have a great rest of the weekend. Peace out.


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A short Wednesday report, with "Sons of Anarchy," Darren Aranofsky and Sarah Palin

Just a very short report today because I'm soon to head off to Minneapolis/St.Paul to see mi hermano and my parents for a few days, and frankly my mind is already there, but since there's almost nothing on TV right now, why not start with a great development for what's coming this fall.

In its continuing quest to employ every single actor who has ever appeared on HBO's "Deadwood," it seems that FX will next be featuring Georgia actor Ray McKinnon in a season-long arc on "Sons of Anarchy," which has quickly risen to be one of my favorite TV dramas.

As for McKinnon, he may still be best known as the Rev. H.W. Smith on the first season of "Deadwood," but his other great roles have included playing one ornery bastard in "That Evening Sun" and even playing Vernon T. Waldrip in my favorite Coen brothers' movie, "O Brother Where Art Thou." In short, he's just a great actor, and bringing on him to play an unconventional prosecutor who will be on the trail of SAMCRO on the upcoming season will make an already pretty darn good show even better.

And in a bit of movie news before two funny videos that caught my eye this morning, having wisely dropped any plans to make yet another "Wolverine" movie, it seems that Darren Aronofsky is finally closing in on something much more suited to his vision.

He's currently seeking backers for his epic take on the biblical story of Noah and his ark. Take a second to picture how great, or at least epicly bizarre, that could be. No idea if this will actually be his next movie project, but with the script currently undergoing a rewrite by John Logan, who among other things wrote the screenplay for Martin Scorsese's upcoming "Hugo Cabret," things do seem to be moving forward. Stay tuned ...

OK, moving quickly on to the videos today, I had never heard of this movie, "The Guard," until I saw this rather seriously funny trailer this morning. In the movie, best as I can tell, the great Brendan Gleeson plays a rather racially insensitive Irish cop who joins forces with an American FBI agent (Don Cheadle, welcome back) to track some unsavory characters, including Mark Strong. As you'll see from the trailer, it looks like nothing but funny, and Gleeson has proven, best in "In Bruges," that he's a natural comedian. I know this played Sundance this year, but no idea when it will get any other kind of release in the U.S. Keep an eye out for it, and enjoy the trailer.



And to close today, if there's been a sillier season in American politics, I can't remember it. I'm not one to stay up much beyond 11 p.m. on school nights, but if the late night guys aren't just having a field day with the fact that a dude named Weiner is waving his genitals all around, I'd be sorely disappointed. And then there's Sarah Palin, the gift that just keeps on giving. I'd be willing to just let this go, but since her forces have taken to Wikipedia to try and rewrite history in her favor, she's certainly fair game, and this Stephen Colbert Paul Revere clip, though a bit long, is just a hoot. Enjoy, and have a great weekend. As for me, I'm off until next Tuesday, to visit the land of however many lakes there actually are in Minnesota. Peace out.

The Colbert Report
Tags: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Is it time for NBC to shut down "The Office"?

Actually, before we get into that, if I had to put money on what David O. Russell will direct next, I'd say it will actually be a sequel to "The Fighter," simply because that movie was so good and because the next chapter in the life of Micky Ward - his epic trilogy of fights with Arturo Gatti - is a gold mine of source material. However, if that doesn't happen, Fox Searchlight is eyeing him for something that could be almost as fun.

Deadline is reporting that the studio has offered to buy for him a biopic based on the life of B-movie king Russ Meyer. Take a second to think about the melding of those two personalities. "Temple Grandin" (and man did I like that movie) scribe Merritt Johnson will write the script. Who knows which path Russell will take next, but here's hoping he just chooses something very soon.

After that today, at least before we get to a trio of fun clips, it's all about TV, and why it's really time for NBC to close "The Office." Now, as a fan of the show from the beginning, it brings me no joy to say that, but even the best of things on TV have a shelf life, and it just seems like the workplace comedy's time has come.

What got me thinking about all that was the news that NBC has just renewed "The Office," "Community" and "Parks and Recreation" for next season. Not found in that news release were two other good things: "30 Rock," which as last night's Queen Jordan episode proved is still sublimely funny, was renewed long ago, and as of yet at least, "Outsourced" has not yet been picked up. Please, please, please keep it that way.

"Community," while losing a bit of the comic edge it had in season one, is still consistently good from week to week, but the best of the bunch this season has been "Parks and Recreation," which, according to NBC at least, is up 17 percent over last season in the 18-49 bracket. The dry humor and near-perfect ensemble that make "Parks and Recreation" work so well are exactly the same ingredients that worked for "The Office" until fairly recently.

The problem with "The Office," along with a simple dropoff in the overall level of funny, is that the characters, through no fault of the people who play them, are just way too familiar by now, and no matter how hard they try, there's just nothing surprising any more.

That will change, of course, at the end of this season as a new Dunder-Mifflin manager is named to replace the departing Michael Scott (Steve Carell). Carell is clearly far from a dumb guy, and if he knows its over, everyone else will probably figure that out by the end of next season, by my guess.

OK, enough about that. It's not only Friday morning, but one beginning a weekend with two theater movies I actually want to see, the comedies "Paul" and "Cedar Rapids" (the latter of which just opened a half hour down the road in Centerville), so let's move on to something more fun with videos. First up comes a genuinely crazy clip from James Gunn's "Super," set to open in at least a couple of theaters - and hopefully on IFC On Demand on cable nearly simultaneously - April 1. In it, you'll see where exactly Rainn Wilson's character gets his inspiration to become a demented superhero of sorts, and if anything, this just proves that, thankfully, the movie should be just nuts. Enjoy.



OK, next up, and this really needs very few words from me, is a behind-the-scenes look at part two of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," which will finally bring the boy wizard's saga to an end starting July 15. I loved the first half, so this should just rule. Enjoy.



And, clearly saving the best for last, Funny or Die has really been on a roll of late, and this Darren Aronofsky clip is among its best. In it, Aronofsky talks about his original idea for "Black Swan," which started out as "The Deli Manager," about the character played by comedian Todd Barry in Aronofsky's "The Wrestler." Even better, at the end, Barry acts out some of his scenes from the early version. Priceless. Enjoy, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

Todd Barry and Darren Aronofsky: The Original Black Swan from Darren Aronofsky

Men of the year: My favorite male movie performances of 2010

I waited to compile this list until seeing "Black Swan" and "The Fighter" as a truly odd double feature last Saturday, and that day yielded one entry here I expected and one that caught me by surprise.

It's still dangerous to do it before The Dude surely abides this week in "True Grit" and without having seen the performance of Oscar favorite (if I'm reading the cards right) Colin Firth in "The King's Speech," but I'm fairly confident that with those two exceptions I've seen most of the best movies of 2010, so here goes: My favorite male performances of 2010, in order only of release date until the very end, for which I've saved my vote for the best.

Leonardo DiCaprio, "Shutter Island": Sure, Leo played pretty much the same constantly stressed out character in both this and "Inception" this year, but he was better here as FBI agent Teddy Daniels in this flick based on the Dennis Lehane novel, which is so good that it will likely end up on my overall best movies of 2010 list, too.

Ricardo Darin, "The Secret in Their Eyes": In this Argentinian film noir, Darin's character undergoes a rather epic journey, returning to both the scene of a brutal crime from his career as a legal inspector and reuniting with an unrequited but still smoldering love, and his performance carries us every step along the way.

John Hawkes, "Winter's Bone": The key to this Debra Granik movie, another film noir of sorts and, like "The Secret in Their Eyes," also shown this year by the Macon Film Guild, is the mysterious motivations of all the characters Jennifer Lawrence's Rhee Dolly encounters while searching for her missing father - and the most important of those is Hawkes' Teardrop (yes, really), who plays his cards close until the end and makes this my vote for the best movie of 2010.

Steve Carell, "Despicable Me": Can a voice-only performance really be one of the best of the year? When it's as good as Carell's as the criminal mastermind with a heart Gru, absolutely, and besides, even though "Toy Story 3" will rightly get most of the animated kudos this year, this was just a thoroughly charming flick.

Kevin Kline, "The Extra Man": I was expecting the worst from Kline in this, and so was that much more pleasantly surprised by how restrained he was as the "gentleman" Henry Harrison, whose sole job is squiring wealthy widows around NYC. Both Kline's performance and the movie overall, out now on DVD, are winning portraits of the kind of eccentric New York that's now all too rare.

Kieran Culkin, "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World": Comedy rarely gets is just due in awards season, and for my money, no one was funnier this year than Culkin as Scott Pilgrim's gay roommate who constantly pops up to provide a snarky commentary of sorts in the best movie that virtually no one saw in 2010.

Kodi Smit-McPhee, "Let Me In": Matt Reeves' "Let Me in" would have been a completely soulless remake of the clearly superior vampire movie "Let the Right One In" if it weren't for the performances of the two kids at the story's core. McPhee and Chloe Moretz draw us deep into the doomed world of young Owen and Abby and, against steep odds, improve on the performances of the kids in the original movie.

Vincent Cassel, "Black Swan": The two things that surprised me about Darren Aronofsky's movie is just how much of a B-movie schlockfest it really is (albeit about the ballet, of course), and just how good Vincent Cassel is as the ballet director who expertly manipulates his young dancers, never with overt menace but an equally dangerous charm.

Christian Bale, "The Fighter": Bale's extreme measures - and weight fluctuation - to get into his roles would be easy to mock if there clearly weren't more than madness to his method. Here, he's on the very gaunt side as Dicky Eklund, the crack-addicted brother of Mark Wahlberg's titular "Fighter" and the main thing that helps David O. Russell's movie rise above the pack of standard sports underdog flicks.

James Franco, "127 Hours": As I said, the best for last, and this year it's by a pretty wide margin. As Sam Rockwell did last year in the seriously smart sci-fi flick "Moon," Franco dominated almost every frame of Danny Boyle's movie, and never once lets the viewer get bored of watching him. From the exuberance of the beginning of Aron Ralston's perfect day to the extreme desperation of being trapped under a rock for the titular "127 Hours," Franco takes us along every inch of this often very hard to watch journey, making the payoff all the more rewarding at the finish. Just an all-around excellent performance.

And there you have it. Please feel free to let me know of any I may have snubbed (in the honorable mention, I've already got Christopher Plummer in "The Last Station", Michael Nyqvist in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"/"The Girl Who Played With Fire" and George Clooney in "The American"), and have a perfectly endurable Monday. Peace out.

What's up next for Gus Van Sant?

Though he's made many movies I love, Gus Van Sant really is just about the most maddening of moviemakers.

For every "Elephant," "Paranoid Park" or "Drugstore Cowboy," there's crap like his shot-for-shot remake of "Psycho" (which, yes, I really did sit through just to see if he really did it that way and, yes, he did) or "Good Will Hunting" (I know almost everyone loves that movie, but I guess I'm just a cynical kind of dude - I really can't stand it.)

And it's really hard to tell from the trailer below where his next flick, "Restless," set to come out Jan. 25, will fall. As you'll see, "Restless" tells the story of a 16-year-old girl (Mia Wasikowska) who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and falls in love with an off-beat boy (Henry Hopper) who likes to attend funerals and is suffering from the death of his family — which somehow produces the ghost of a young, Japanese kamikaze pilot from World War II.

Got all that? Like I said, this really could go in just about any direction, but I go see everything Gus Van Sant makes, and Mia Wasikowska has yet to pick a movie I haven't at least liked, so I'll definitely be there assuming this opens wide enough to reach my little corner of the world. And if you haven't seen "Elephant," probably my favorite Van Sant movie, do yourself a favor and rent it. Enjoy the trailer.



And coming before that, Dec. 3 (I believe, but it keeps changing), will be a more guaranteed mind freakout, Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan." The movie stars Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis as two young ballerinas who take their competition to an extreme level. Four beautiful posters for the flick have just come out, and just by looking at them, you can tell there will be a whole lot more going on than you find in that brief description. I've added my favorite here below, but to see them all, click here to visit Empire Online.


And finally, what's better to wrap up a short Saturday report than bee hive tether ball? In case you couldn't tell already, this clip comes from "Jackass 3D," which I'm not sure I'll have time to catch this weekend but I certainly support in spirit, and will certainly catch before it leaves the theaters. I do know that I'll be going to see "Red" this afternoon, and am really looking forward to it. Enjoy the clip, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Only you can right a serious wrong to Ricky Gervais

I suppose there have to be more important injustices to battle in the world than what happened to one movie, but the treatment of Ricky Gervais' "Cemetery Junction" has been particularly appalling.

Never heard of it? None too surprising, I suppose. If someone told you this was a tale about young insurance salesman in England in the 1970s written by Gervais and partner in comedy Stephen Merchant (co-creators of both "The Office" and "Extras"), you'd probably want to see it, right? Well, I certainly would, and you'd think that unless this were somehow just utterly awful (which I find really hard to believe, though I'll surely find out soon), it would at least get a limited U.S. release, right?

Nope. This somehow went straight to DVD in this country, and the only good news in all of this is that it has finally come out this week. I've added it to my Netflix at the top of the queue, but it's threatening me with a "short wait," so I may try to redbox it instead. However you get your DVD fix, surely give this one a try.

And speaking of Gervais and Merchant, they're developing a series for BBC2 with legendary littleman Warwick Davis called "Life's Too Short." It's apparently about Davis' daily life, but Gervais and Merchant star in it somehow too, so keep an eye out for it on this side of the pond (and if you see it, surely let me know when and where.)

OK, after that, all I have today is a cache of clips which, I promise, just get odder as you go along. First up comes the first trailer I know of for Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan," which surely would have made the fall preview I penned yesterday except, in my mind at least, in movie terms December is winter. Anyways, as you'll see, it's gonna be a really weird but hopefully also wonderful flick. Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis star as rival ballerinas who, as best as I can tell, get consumed by their competition and one particular role. It looks more than a little too "Single White Female"-ish to me, but surely Aronofsky has a lot more going on than that. Enjoy. (P.S.: There is, unfortunately, an ad that runs before this, but I promise that a) I don't make any money off it and b) if you sit through that, this particular clip looks great full screen.)



Next up, and thanks to a heads up from Amy Frazier Maclean, a good friend of mine from my UGA days and still one of my favorite people in the world, here's the first trailer for Casey Affleck's documentary about buddy Joaquin Phoenix. As I'm sure everyone remembers, Phoenix had some kind of meltdown a few years ago and (for real? who knows?) became some kind of rapper who looks like a Hasidic Jew. It all smacked of little more than a stunt, but as far as filmmaking goes, stunts often work well as none-too-long (here's hoping, at least) docu- (or mocku-) mentaries. Enjoy the clip, and if you live in a big American city, keep an eye out for the flick Sept. 10.



OK, I did warn that things would just get weirder, right? One of my many tasks at work is picking out the movie reviews that run in our weekly entertainment tab, and it's becoming increasingly hard to find reviews written by Tuesday afternoon, when we really have to put the thing together. For example, this week, there are a rather amazing six movies opening in Macon this week (including, yes, really, some kind of Christian movie called "What If" starring Hercules himself, Kevin Sorbo), but I could only find a review for one, Christy LeMire of the AP's cruel dissection of "The Switch." I digress with all that to tell you this: Of all the movies opening this week, the one I was most certain we wouldn't get a review of was "Piranha 3D" (well, that and "Vampires Suck," too, actually.) And besides, why submit to critics when you can just make your own pitch for not only plaudits, but a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars? I'm certain I won't go see the movie, but this Funny or Die clip featuring stars Adam Scott, Jerry O'Connell and others is certainly made in the right spirit. Enjoy.

Piranha 3D: For Your Consideration from Piranha 3D

And finally, saving the oddest for last, Zhang Yimou really has made a Chinese remake of the Coen brothers' "Blood Simple" (just let that sink in for a second.) It's described as a broad comedy, and below is the first Western trailer. Called "A Woman, A Gun and a Noodle Shop" (I'm laughing at that already), it's set for a limited U.S. release in September, and yes, I think that, given the chance, I certainly would go see this. Enjoy the trailer and have a perfectly harmless Wednesday. Peace out.

"Se7en" creators back together again, and lots of other good news

OK, there's a lot of news out there today about movie people I really like, so let's just get right into it. Well, actually, it starts with the director of one of my favorite documentaries jumping into something I'll never see, but it's all gravy after that, I promise.

If you haven't seen "Man on Wire," which I had the pleasure of seeing at the 2008 Rehoboth Independent Film Festival, you're really missing out on a magical documentary. Director James Marsh mixed live footage from tightrope artist Philippe Petit's several stunts with "Cops" style re-enactments that certainly would have been disastrous in lesser hands to make something truly magical. Rent it immediately if you haven't seen it.

Now, however, it seems that Marsh is jumping into fictional features with something I'll never see, both because I have little time for the "found footage" subgenre of horror flicks and also because just as a rule I never see movies that take the rather simple step of demonizing the Vatican. "The Vatican Tapes" will center on a series of events that unfold after a tape gets leaked from the Vatican that displays an exorcism that goes wrong.

Like I said, all that just makes me say a resounding meh, but I've been wrong at least once before, and probably already today.

OK, enough of that, now onto the good stuff ...

"Se7en" team to reunite

You know, when I first heard David Fincher was gonna take on something as crazy as "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," I was sure he'd make it just delightfully twisted, but it was just so banal that it has to qualify as one of my biggest movie disappointments of the last five years or so.

And I should probably keep that in mind before I get too geeked up about this new news, but I just can't help it. It seems that Fincher and "Se7en" screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker are teaming up to take on the Max Ehrlich novel "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud," which is apparently about a college professor who begins having recurring dreams and nightmares and, realizing they are images of a past life, decides to search out the source of his visions.

Sounds just as intriguing as "Benjamin Button" did on paper, but I've decided to put most of the blame for that disaster on screenwriter Eric Roth for making it way too "Gump"-like, and keep the faith that Fincher and Walker can come up with something much better.

And Fincher is about to start shooting a movie based on the creation of "Facebook" (which I'm somehow on), "The Social Network," which was penned by Aaron Sorkin. Yeah, I'll watch that.

"Black Swan" assembling stellar cast

When I first heard that Darren Aronofsky's fifth feature film was going to be something called "Black Swan," a supernatural drama set in the competitive world of New York City ballet and starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, you could already count me as at least curious. And now the news about it just keeps getting better.

According to the always very reliable /film, Winona Ryder, Vincent Cassel and Barbara Hershey have all now joined the cast. Ryder will play a rival ballerina who has been getting all the lead parts but is now nearing the end of her career. Cassell will play the director of the ballet school's new production, "Swan Lake," and Hershey will play Portman's character's mother. All sounds great to me, and this apparently is about to starting in NYC very soon (if not now.)

Duncan Jones picks his next project

Duncan Jones' "Moon," which I had the pleasure of seeing at this year's Atlanta Film Festival 365, is easily one of the best movies of 2009, featuring a remarkable performance from Sam Rockwell. If you haven't seen it, rent it as soon as it comes out Jan. 12 and I guarantee that if you like smart science fiction, you'll like this one.

And now it seems that Jones has picked his next project, something called "Source Code." All I really know about that is that it's apparently about "a soldier who wakes up in the body of a commuter who must solve the mystery of a train explosion," and Jake Gyllenhaal is set to play the soldier. Sounds more than a little meh to me, but with Mr. Jones in charge, I'm sure I'll come along for the ride. This is set to go into production early next year.

"Mad Men" creator Weiner hitting big screen

If you watch "Mad Men" (and if you don't, why the heck not?), then you know the season three finale was a real doozy, featuring the simultaneous demise of Don and Bertie's marriage and rise of Sterling, Cooper, Draper and Price. I can't wait to see what will happen next summer, but now it seems that "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner has set up his first feature film from a script he wrote during his "Sopranos" days.

The romantic comedy "You Are Here" will apparently star Jennifer Aniston, Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis, and, because Mr. Weiner clearly has his priorities straight, won't start filming until after Weiner and co. shoot the fourth season of "Mad Men," which was predestined to run for five seasons.

OK, anyone who actually stuck around through all that today certainly deserves a reward, and here's the best I've got. Broken Lizard's "Super Troopers" remains one of my very favorite silly comedies, and one I like to watch once a month or so, but the guys really haven't come close to being even nearly that funny since. Here's hoping their new feature, "Slammin' Salmon," will be a return to form, but I can't say I have terribly high hopes. As you can see from the trailer below, it somehow stars both Michael Clarke Duncan and Cobie Smulders of "How I Met Your Mother." Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Tuesday. Peace out.

The best movie of 2009 (so far, at least) .... flippin' sweet!

Before I get into all that, it's hard to tell who's the bigger winner with what's clearly the news of the day, Darren Aronofsky or us.

If I had to pick one, I'd say us, because along with being news that he's onto what should be a fascinating project, it hopefully means he's NOT making a remake of "Robocop." And if that's the first you're ever hearing of that, just pretend you never did, because hopefully now it will never happen.

Instead, the director of "The Wrestler" (one of my five favorite movies of 2008, along with "Let the Right One In," "Tell No One," "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Milk") is turning to competition of a different sort with something appropriately twisted called "Black Swan."

Actually, as I type this, it doesn't seem real, which seems just right: Natalie Portman is (almost) set to star in "a supernatural thriller set in the world of New York City ballet." Specifically, she'll play a veteran ballerina who finds herself locked in an intense rivalry with a fellow dancer who may or may not be just a figment of her imagination. Bring it on!

Here today, however, it's all about what I can firmly call, after stewing with it for a day or so, the best movie of 2009 (so far, at least.) Sure, "Star Trek" was as thoroughly fun as it was refreshing, and unlike many people, I thought "Watchmen" was a nearly flawless adaptation of Alan Moore's oddly great graphic novel, but the best flick I've seen so far is something on a far different scale, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's sublime baseball movie "Sugar."

Actually, what makes "Sugar" work so well is that it starts with baseball as a backdrop but then tackles something much more compelling: Life in modern America, and what it must look like to someone who's just arrived in our often bizarro world.

"Sugar" tells the story of Miguel "Sugar" Santos, a 19- (I think, but with Dominican players, of course, who knows?) year-old Dominican pitching prospect who's owned by a fictional Kansas City team and toiling with other prospects at what seems alternately like a summer camp or a prison yard - or maybe something in between, a summer camp that just happens to have guard towers.

From the outset, you get a strong sense of the movie's two strongest suits, it's natural - I'd go so far as to say "organic" - pacing, and the equally natural banter of the ballplayers and everyone they encounter in their new world.

Sugar, played with raw charm by Algeniz Perez Soto, catches the eye of a scout and eventually gets promoted all the way to AA minor league ball in Bridgeport, Iowa, which might as well have been Mars. At this point, the flick easily could have succumbed to either of two predictable and familiar courses, the fish-out-of-water story or the rah-rah sports flick, but instead it takes the best elements of each and pretty much turns them upside down.

Sugar is taken in by an elderly couple who are freakishly but never quite cartoonishly devoted to minor league baseball, which I sorely wish we still had here in Macon. During this stretch, the movie often finds it grace in quiet moments as Sugar adapts to his odd new world, and the best scene of all comes when he simply learns how to order breakfast in a restaurant.

And the games themselves, while they will seem real to anyone whose had the joy of watching minor league ball, are never pitched as anything more than that. Sure, they're important, but only as we see it through the eyes of Sugar and his fellow ballplayers in how they can advance their fledgling careers.

This game-by-game stretch can get a bit too methodical, but it deftly sets up the knuckle curve that is the third act, when Sugar's tale becomes one of the immigrant experience in America and, more importantly, of the power of rational adults to simply change their minds. I certainly won't spoil it by telling you how, but Sugar eventually ends up at the home of Yankee Stadium, and it just makes a cycle that perfectly fits this movie about baseball and much more.

With "Under the Same Moon," "Frozen River," "Sin Nombre," "The Visitor" and now "Sugar," immigration has quickly become my favorite sub-subject for movies, and it's not hard to see why. No other subject better invokes the peril of the human condition, and Boden and Fleck have captured this just right in a movie that I can't recommend you see soon enough (as to when that might be, however, who knows, because I think it's finished its theatrical run and I can't find a DVD release date in sight yet.)

And with that, I have to get ready for the job that still pays me just enough to get by in this odd place called America. Peace out.

Who got the bigger Oscar shaft, The Boss, Batman or Dirty Harry?

Before I dive into anything about the Oscar nominations, the coolest thing I found this morning was actually casting news for what should be a rather wickedly good movie from Alfonso Cuaron.

The "Children of Men" director's next flick will probably be what the IMDB still calls an "Untitled Alfonso Cuaron Project," a small film about a family living in Mexico City in 1971, but I'm talking about what should come next.

"A Boy and His Shoe" is described as a road movie about young folks traveling throughout England, Scotland and France, and if you've seen "Y Tu Mama Tambien" (and if you haven't, why not?), you know the man knows a thing or two about road movies. And, even better, according to the Froggy film site Cinempire (if I have my rusty French right), he's recruited French everyman Daniel Auteil and Charlotte Gainsbourg to star in it.

Still best known so far as the daughter of iconic French crooner Serge Gainsbourg, Charlotte is turning into a fine actress herself. I've liked her ever since Claude Miller's "The Little Thief," and she and Heath Ledger together were easily the best thing about Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There," Cate Blanchett notwithstanding.

Anyways, enough about that. On to the Oscars ...

I was asked by my boss to write something handicapping the Oscars for the actual Telegraph newspaper, and I will about a week before the show or so, but for now just a few gripes, starting with the shoddy treatment of "The Dark Knight."

Now, I didn't put it in my top five for the year ("Milk," "Slumdog Millionaire," "The Wrestler," "Tell No One" and "Let the Right One In"), so I wasn't terribly surprised or upset to see it didn't get a Best Picture nomination, but I really would have liked to see a Best Director nomination for Christopher Nolan's accomplishment.

According to some fun facts compiled by Variety, this is rather amazingly only the fifth time that all five directors of the Best Picture nominees also got a Best Director nod, and I would usually say huzzah to that. It just seems to make sense.

This year, however, can you really tell me that Stephen Daldry, who has now received Best Director nominations for each of his first three films ("Billy Elliott, "The Hours" and now "The Reader"), is deserving of yet another nomination while Nolan is shut out for creating something as epically entertaining as "The Dark Knight"? Now, I haven't seen "The Reader," and I realize that makes my argument rather ludicrous, but this is my rant, so deal with it.

One of the two people who might have a bigger beef than Mr. Nolan would have to be Clint Eastwood, who I just assumed was entitled to a Best Picture nomination every time he sat in the director's chair, but this time got a big bucket of nothing for "Gran Torino."

Now, I would normally celebrate the death of this sense of entitlement, but I found "Gran Torino" to be more entertaining than any Eastwood-directed movie I've seen since "Bird." It took a while to grow on me, but for a reason that probably reflects poorly on me: I found myself laughing at the saltier of Walt Kowalski's racial slurs, and it just me extremely uncomfortable for a good portion of the flick.

That said, once I've had time to think about it, Eastwood's tale about his friendship with a Hmong family that moves in next door is a naturally entertaining tale, even if he is still a mortal enemy of subtlety (examples: Did they really have to play the military music every time he pointed a gun or, AND IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FLICK YET, PLEASE SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH, have him lying in the shape of a cross at the end of the flick?)

Those are small quibbles about a flick that while, again shouldn't have gotten a Best Picture nomination, should have at least garnered either a Best Actor nod for him, an Adapted Screenplay nomination for Nick Schenk or, at the very least, a Best Song nomination for his graceful theme song that plays at the movie's finish.

And, to wrap this up with the biggest head-scratcher of all, how in the world did they end up only nominating three songs in the Best Original Song category, "Jai Ho" and "O Saya" from "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Down to Earth" from "Wall-E"? The double nod for A.R. Rahman's "Slumdog" work (he's also, rightfully, nominated for Best Original Score) probably means they will cancel each other out for a "Wall-E" victory (actually, the "Wall-E" nomination that just made me smile was Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter and Jim Reardon with Best Original Screenplay for a movie that mainly features robot dialogue. Priceless.)

But, getting back to the songs, did they just get tired after picking three and stop? Along with snubbing Clint Eastwood's jazzy piano tune, they also ignored Bruce Springsteen's soulful theme song for "The Wrestler," which also closes out Darren Aronofsky's movie and is one of the Boss's best songs in years.

OK, enough about that. If I had to handicap it, I'd say the Best Picture race will be a three-way heat between "Slumdog Millionaire," "Milk" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," and I guess you could do worse than that (though I've expressed here before my distaste for "Benjamin Button.") In closing, here's a video montage from the flick set to Springsteen's tune, since, amazingly, "The Wrestler" is STILL not playing wide enough to reach into my little corner of the world this week (though we do finally get "Frost/Nixon," "Rachel Getting Married" and "Slumdog Millionaire," so I should probably just be thankful.) Enjoy the song, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend. Peace out.

A New York five minutes or so: The three winners

This is, of course, supposed to be all about movies, but if you'll indulge me for a second I just have to say goodbye to one of my favorite New York night clubs, which I thought would never die.

When my brother and I were planning our musical nights out, I picked the "End of the Weak" hip-hop showcase at the Pyramid club (a very fun way to kill a few hours if you like rap music, which I do), and he picked the "Three Floors of Ska" night at the Knitting Factory. I love ska too, so I was certainly down with that.

Throughout the night, the bands (the best of which was easily New Jersey's Hub City Stompers) kept lamenting the fact that this would be the last "Three Floors of Ska" event at the Knitting Factory. We just assumed the event was simply moving to another venue, but the truth was much worse: The Knitting Factory is closing its Tribeca spot and moving to a much smaller space in Brooklyn.

Now, this obviously means nothing to you if you've never been there, but as much as I love New York (and I really, really do), the gentrification of neighborhoods can just be sickening. I wish the Knitting Factory the best of luck in its new home, and sincerely hope the club keeps bringing its eclectic mix of music to Brooklyn until it inevitably wears out its welcome there too.

OK, enough bile for now. It is indeed all about movies from here on out, and specifically the best three (out of a fairly amazing seven) I saw while I was there. So here goes:

Milk:
Although I won't unveil my top 10 for the year until tomorrow morning (so please check back!), I can safely say now that this gem from Gus Van Sant is my favorite movie of 2008. It's so clearly a labor of love for Van Sant, and even though this looks nothing like his recent output ("Elephant" being my favorite of those uniformly dark flicks), you can tell it's the movie he was meant to make (though there will hopefully be many more.)

It's anchored, of course, by Sean Penn's performance as the slain San Francisco pol Harvey Milk (I assume I'm not really giving away too much there), and even if you don't normally like Sean Penn, don't let that scare you. He plays Milk as a driven pol, but also an impish character with a wicked sense of humor, and his scenes with James Franco and Emile Hirsch give the movie such a feeling of joy that it makes the end we know is coming all that much more stunning.

The biggest accomplishment of "Milk" is that it leaves unstated but perfectly implied the greater tragedy of Milk's life: That even as he won his biggest victory for gay rights in California, AIDS was only a few years away to bring it crashing down. And if you simply can't bring yourself to watch two men kissing, I would indeed stay away from this one (and, frankly, please keep it to yourself.)

"The Wrestler"
Given both the subject matter and the fact that "Milk" is simply a sensational film guarantees that Penn will win the Oscar for Best Actor this year, but if I had a vote it would go without question to Mickey Rourke.

For me, it's a simple test: When you see someone in a role, do they play it so well that they disappear into it, to the point that you couldn't possibly see any other actor or actress playing that part? Rourke certainly does that here in Darren Aronofsky's flick, in his perfect portrayal of a "professional" (in as much as that's his only paying job, at least) wrestler who is consumed by vanity even as his career is clearly coming to an end.

But that's only one level on which Aronofsky's movie excels. As a glimpse into the sordid world of semi-pro wrestling, not a place you want to be for too long, it's achingly funny, especially when a staple gun gets involved (I won't spoil it for you any more than that.) The humor, strongest between Rourke and Marisa Tomei as a stripper who befriends him (as a paying client, of course), was the real surprise here. I won't spoil too much, but the line about how his daughter's personal life might influence her choice in clothes is priceless. And, just to put it on the completely piggish level of pro wrestling, this second consecutive flick in which Marisa Tomei spends much of the proceedings topless is much better than the last one, "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead."

One last word of praise for Aronofsky to wrap it up (hopefully as well as he did.) It seems like very few directors have any idea how to end a movie any more. Unable or unwilling to simply choose one ending, they throw four or five at us, and can spend up to 20 minutes doing it. The final shot of "The Wrestler" is a simple but iconic one, and just wraps up the movie's spirit perfectly. I was pleasantly surprised to see the trailer for this great flick Friday afternoon in Macon, so hopefully it's finally going to play everywhere - as it certainly should - very soon.

"Happy Go Lucky"
It came as no surprise at all that Mike Leigh's flick was the oddest one I saw this week, but also one of the best. A word of warning before you enter: Even if you think you have a sunny disposition, prepare to be thoroughly annoyed by Poppy, the central character brought to all-too-cheerful life by Sally Hawkins, who I couldn't remember ever having seen on the big screen before.

She will, at at least one point, make you want to reach out and choke her, but that's clearly Leigh's point here. To give you a sample of what I mean, she's the kind of person who has to answer every thing she hears around her. For example (as my dad explained it to my mom, who didn't come with us to this one), if you say "the door is open," she'll have to say "come in" even if no one is there or repeat several times what you just said. All, of course, with an ever-present smile.

It's when Poppy begins to see the effect she has on the people around her that Leigh's movie really gets interesting. And again, if I had an Academy vote, I might give the Supporting Actor nod to the late Heath Ledger for his unforgettable turn as The Joker, but Eddie Marsan's performance as Poppy's driving instructor here would probably edge him out. He perfectly plays a character just consumed with inner and outer rage, and when the two of them come together in that tight space it's very funny until it's not, at which point it takes a truly terrifying turn.

Leigh's movie isn't perfect (there's a completely nonsensical scene between Poppy and a homeless man that just goes on way too long), but it is - as his movies almost always are - like nothing else you can see on the big screen. He specializes in truths that can make you laugh until they turn into a dagger, and the scene in "Happy Go Lucky" when Poppy and her friends go to visit her supposedly happily married sister is just perfectly uncomfortable. See this one if you can.

And there you have it. Just for the record, along with those three great flicks, I also saw three good ones - "Synecdoche, NY," "Waltz with Bashir" and "Gran Torino" - but I'll have to beg out of reviewing them at least for now because I am very sick (just a sore throat and runny nose, actually, but still none too pleasant.)

Starting Monday I will roll out my best of 2008 set, which will be incomplete since I have yet to see "Frost/Nixon" or "Frozen River," but it seems the time is as right as it's ever gonna be (and just as a teaser, it will contain at least two comedies, one French flick and one Swedish one.) Monday will feature the top 10 (or more if I can't make up my mind) movies of 2008, Tuesday will feature the best female performances of the year and Wednesday the men will get their turn. On Thursday, if you care to come back, I plan to tear into Steven Soderbergh's thoroughly tedious "Che" (whenever I think of the word "overkill," which this clearly is by at least half, I always think of that "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" joke, "no, it's just enough kill." Not the case here, but still one of my very favorite Buffy lines.) If you have any suggestions for other best of categories I should dig into, please feel free to let me know, and I'll certainly consider them, since that's what I love to do. Peace out.

Merry Christmas to all, and movies for me!

I'm obviously far from alone in declaring the Christmas week to be my favorite time of year, but I may be the only person who says that but still has to work on both Christmas Eve day and Christmas. Not a complaint, mind you, because come Boxing Day I'm off to NYC, which means spending five days with my parents and brother and, of course, a heck of a lot of movies.

There are bound to be some surprises that I'm not aware of yet, especially since we're arriving on the last opening Friday of the year, but here are the seven movies I most want to see, assuming they're still playing somewhere in the city (and, on a side note, how in the world did Rian Johnson's "Brothers Bloom" get pushed back to the end of May? I was really looking forward to seeing that one right about now.) Here goes:

"Happy-Go-Lucky"
On paper this sounds about as appealing as a Tony Robbins seminar, but I'll trust Mike Leigh to turn it into something twistedly appealing. Sally Hawkins plays a schoolteacher whose constant optimism irks everyone around her, which actually sounds right up my alley.

"Synecdoche, NY"
I have a feeling this will be the one I see first, since my parents are arriving before mi hermano (who has already seen it), and I'm really looking forward to it. Oddly enough, Philip Seymour Hoffman's other cheerful holiday flick, "Doubt," is surprisingly opening Friday at a multiplex down in my little corner of the world, so that one will definitely be off the NY menu. For a great read on Mr. Hoffman, check out the profile from last Sunday's New York Times Magazine (which I tried and failed to link to, but you can easily find yourself.)

"Milk"
I was having a discussion with a co-worker and fellow movie devotee yesterday, and I was surprised to hear him say he just can't stand Sean Penn. He compared him to Al Pacino in that they each shout and over emote a lot, but while I can see it with Mr. Pacino, I can't go there with Sean Penn. He just has tremendous range, and you can tell from the trailer for "Milk" that he and director Gus Van Sant found the joy in Harvey Milk's life that came before the tragedy, and I can't wait to see what they came up with here.

"Frost/Nixon"
Apparently wide doesn't mean wide at all, or this one would be entering the fray even in my little corner of the world with the other 10 million flicks opening everywhere on Christmas day. Since it's not, I'll probably catch it in NYC for Frank Langella's performance as tricky Dick and because I have full faith in Peter Morgan and Michael Sheen. By the way, I rented "The Deal," a k a their other Tony Blair flick, the other day, and it's almost as good as "The Queen." Check it out.

"Che"
Despite the certain numbness it will bring to my posterior, I'm hoping that the entire five hours of Steven Soderbergh's "Che" will be playing somewhere while I'm there, and hopefully WITH AN INTERMISSION. From what I've heard it's far from an objective tale, but I really wouldn't have expected it to be, and it's been far too long since I've seen Benicio del Toro on the big screen.

"The Wrestler"
The same friend who was impugning the good name of Sean Penn has already seen this Darren Aronofsky flick, and can't believe it's not playing everywhere. Especially down here, where we may not know much about movies, but we do love our wrestling. I don't see any way this one won't be fun, even if it is a bit depressing.

"Frozen River"
Seeing as this opened way back in like June, I suppose it's a long shot that it would be playing anywhere, but I'm hoping the Melissa Leo Oscar train brings it back for one more run. Immigration, by the way, has turned into the great Hollywood (if not great box office) subject that the Iraq war never became. Already this year has come Patricia Riggen's "La Misma Luna" (Under the Same Moon) and Thomas McCarthy's "The Visitor," both of which are superior to just about any of the recent war flicks, and I'm sure "Frozen River" will be fine fare to complete the set.

So, there you have it. Please, if you think of any that I might be able to catch but haven't thought of, let me know, and have a happy, happy holidays! I'm signing off until at least Jan. 2 or so, but I'm fairly certain the world will continue just fine without me. Peace out.