January Throws a Curveball

New at NightsAndWeekends.com Since Last Week:
Cloverfield

It was another slow January week in Critic Land. There were three screenings scheduled for this week—one was Mad Money, which I’d already seen (yech!), one was cancelled due to bad weather, and the other was Cloverfield.

For months, Cloverfield has been one of those movies that frequently popped up in pre-screening conversations (along with the most anticipated movie of the year, Midnight Meat Train). Ever since that brilliant teaser showed up before Transformers last summer, there’s been a steady stream of Cloverfield buzz. But the closer we got to the release date, the more skeptical we were.

First of all, we’re talking about a January release here. It’s just one of those unspoken rules that you don’t release anything of value in January (thus…Mad Money and First Sunday). As I’ve mentioned before, January is not a good month to be a film critic. Just to emphasize my point, at the beginning of this week, my average January grade was somewhere between a D and a D+.

Secondly, Cloverfield was filmed using hand-held cameras. Now, I realize that the quality of hand-held cameras has gone way up since I was a kid. That’s great and all. But until someone figures out how to use hand-held cameras in a way that doesn’t make me sick, I’m going to be a little skeptical here. I still haven’t gotten over the nausea I suffered while watching The Blair Witch Project—and just hearing the name “Paul Greengrass” makes my head start spinning.

Then there were the rumors. Some suggested that the whole thing was just some kind of a cheap ploy—that it would somehow tie into Lost (since the screenwriter, Drew Goddard, is also one of the writers of Lost). There were all kinds of ideas floating around—and none of them made me all that eager to see the movie. Mostly, I was just curious.

Since the screening was going to be on campus, the usual gang of misfits decided to meet for happy hour on Wednesday before the screening. It was a tough call, really: would drinking before a shaky movie make it better or worse? As it turned out, I was too drugged on Wednesday to drink anyway. I wasn’t quite sure of the dangers of mixing booze and DayQuil, so I chose to refrain.

Despite the fact that I already made it through my post-holiday illness, I somehow managed to pick up another one. I’m going to blame it on Neil, who was sick for about three weeks (which means that he missed seeing things like, oh, Mad Money). But we went to a hockey game over the weekend (Go Jackets!), and I think I might have caught his SARS in the midst of all the screaming and cheering and the plotting for total world domination. Fortunately, though, the SARS was kind to me, and it didn’t come out in full force until Monday night. That gave me Monday morning to head into the studio and record this year’s It’s Movie Time awards season special (which airs a week from today).

But anyway…back to Wednesday…. After dinner, we all headed over to the theater. They had already started letting the public in, but, fortunately, Matt was the rep of the evening, and Matt knew to save a whole bunch of seats for press. And that’s why we love Matt.

But enough about Matt. Let’s talk Cloverfield.

Now, I’m not going to lie to you. Cloverfield is a shaky movie. Even if you have a strong stomach, you will most likely feel dizzy—and perhaps a little bit sick. I, however, didn’t. Perhaps it has something to do with the mix of DayQuil and Pepsi that I consumed before the movie, but I’m thinking it was mostly because I was prepared. I knew it was coming. I knew it was going to be bad. I knew there was a chance I’d end up throwing up in my brand new COCFA Mafia stocking cap. So I planned ahead.

The beginning of Cloverfield is just about the characters. It tells their story and follows them around while they hang out together and throw a surprise going-away party for Rob (Michael Stahl-David), who’s moving to Japan. The whole thing is shot like a home movie—shakes and all. But there isn’t really anything critical going on here—not much that you really need to see. So that’s when I closed my eyes. I watched every once in a while—so I could see who the characters were and what was going on—but I knew that I didn’t necessarily have to watch the guy with the camera wander around the apartment and film people’s limbs. I could hear what was going on, so I knew when to pay attention. If there was a conversation, I’d watch. But for the other stuff, I just closed my eyes. Had I not done that, I’m pretty sure I would have been sick before the really cool stuff started. Instead, I was free to watch those shaky monster shots—and I felt fine.

And, as it turns out, I was highly impressed by Cloverfield. Yeah, it’s shaky—and that’s definitely something I could do without. I’d much prefer to be able to watch the entire movie and know that I’m not going to get sick. But the idea is so good that I’ll let it go. It’s so creative and so clever that I couldn’t help but like it. In fact, the more I thought about it the next day, the more impressed I was. Cloverfield is, without a doubt, the best movie of the year so far. Gimmicky, yes. But still pretty cool.

Go figure—a January movie that’s actually pretty good. Huh.

Next week is another slow week. Looks like I’ll have another one-screening week—followed by our group outing on Friday morning to see Rambo, since it’s not going to be screened for press (Hmmm…a January release, and they’re not showing it to press? Can’t be a good sign.). Until things pick up a bit next month, I’ll be camped out on the couch, catching up on DVDs. Maybe I’ll even watch a few more of those screeners that I didn’t get to see in December….

January Continues: Nominations and Awards and Parties and Bad Movies

New at NightsAndWeekends.com Since Last Week:
First Sunday
The Kite Runner

Last night was the annual COFCA awards dinner, which unofficially marks the end of the awards insanity for another 10 months or so. If you want to check out the results, I posted the press release below.

I tend to forget that my busy season doesn’t really end with the last screening before the holidays. Over the holidays, I try to catch up on screeners and start making my lists. That continues right up until COFCA nominations are due (this year, I got mine in a whole 25 hours early, sending them in at 11 p.m. last Friday). Then comes voting (which ended on Wednesday night), followed by the awards party.

It wasn’t over then, either. I’d been so busy agonizing over my picks for the best of everything that I procrastinated on my picks for the worst of everything. But GAG award nominations are due today—so I sat down this morning and flipped through my lists until my nomination ballot was filled in. I got my GAG nominations sent in a whole eight hours before the deadline. Voting for that starts next week—so I guess I’m not completely out of the awards season fog yet, after all.

I have, however, made my picks. It was another tough one this year—even tougher than last year. As I trudged through the lists, checking and rechecking my notes from the year, my despair led me to create these T-shirts—because, after a while, I felt like I was just a cranky critic, unsatisfied with everything. If you share my despair, order a shirt. If you’d like to check out my thoughts on the movies of 2007, check out this year’s movie recap: “Movies 2007: Did I Miss Something?”

Meanwhile, the January Blahs continue—and I’ve already begun creating a list of possible nominations for next year’s GAG awards.

On Tuesday, we gathered at the usual theater for a screening of 27 Dresses. Though it was supposed to be released this weekend, it was postponed a week, for some strange reason, putting it up against Mad Money and Cloverfield next weekend. But since I’m a week ahead of the release date, I can’t really say too much about the movie. The whole screening experience in general was pretty subdued, too—other than the post-screening re-hashing of our award nominations. At this time of year, critics tend to get a little feisty, taking sides and making bold statements. On Tuesday night, Bill remained solo in his I Hate Juno Club. Jason gave another “Why I Totally Hated Into the Wild” speech (which are always highly entertaining). And Bill and I are both proud members of the The Orphanage Scared the Crap Out of Me Club.

The real excitement of the week, however, came on Wednesday, when we headed to The Theater With the Balcony for a screening of First Sunday. It takes a very strong critic to tackle both an Ice Cube/Tracy Morgan movie and the Balcony Brigade—and only a few of us were up for the challenge.

As it turned out, getting there was part of the challenge. That night, the Dancing with the Stars tour was in town, and the worst drivers in the state were out in full force, making left turns from the right lane, making right turns from the left lane, and generally having no clue where they were going. But, fortunately, I did eventually make it. When I got there, the crowd was already lined up around the corner, and Bill and Kevin were waiting inside. We headed straight for the balcony, where a security guard did a very good job of trying to keep us out—until he found out that it really was okay. I was pretty proud of the security guard, though—sticking to his guns and all. Perhaps that would mean that he’d also throw people out for playing with their cell phones and blinding people during the movie.

Once we made it to the balcony, we chose the front row—where we figured that at least we wouldn’t have to deal with loud, obnoxious Balcony Brigade members in front of us. Shortly thereafter, the crowd started filling in. As usual, it was a crazy crowd—so crazy that we had to yell at each other in order to have a conversation. And when the giveaways began, it got even worse. Once again, Team Balcony backed one another up—and the demands for equal treatment/prizing eventually turned into personal attacks on the poor guy who was half-heartedly acting as host. There was much yelling. If there’s one thing that can be said for the Balcony Brigade, it’s that they’re loud. So loud, in fact, that nobody paid any attention to the poor security guy’s warnings. So loud that when the first trailer started—and it was totally blurry—the whole place erupted in shouts and boos. Really. It was crazy.

What’s crazier, though, is that the movie was even more obnoxious than the crowd. After listening to the crowd bickering for 45 minutes before the movie started, the last thing I wanted was an hour and a half of characters bickering on-screen. But that’s what I got.

As we walked out of the theater, Kevin just turned to us and said, “Well, welcome to January.”

Next week marks the release of the highly-anticipated, over-hyped geek-fest, Cloverfield. The closer it gets, the more concerned I get. But we’ll all be there to see it—and we’ll most likely be there early for a few preparatory happy hour drinks. Of course, the whole hand-held-camera thing mixed with alcohol probably isn’t the best idea, but I’m willing to give it a shot. I’ll have to remember to bring my barf bag.