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.

Hibernation

New at NightsAndWeekends.com Since Last Week:
The Golden Compass
Sleuth

As I’ve mentioned before, last December was pure insanity. Screenings day and night. We all lived on coffee and donuts. And then, after it was all over and I finally had the time to sit and relax, I got ridiculously sick.

This year, however, things are different—to the point that it’s a little bit creepy.

Believe it or not, I only went to one screening this week. Yeah, it’s December, and I only had one screening. It feels wrong.

Anyway…the one screening of the week was on Monday night. The whole thing was a bit of a scheduling disaster, since my knitting group meets from 4-6 and the screening was starting at 7 on the other side of town. I was also hoping to make it to my husband’s office to pick him up before I left for the screening. All of this is, technically, impossible. So I showed up for knitting at 4, hoping that nobody would show up. I know that’s probably mean of me, since I love the kids and all—but, well, sometimes I just don’t have time. Fortunately, though, the screening gods were smiling down upon me. I paced around for 25 minutes, and no one showed up—so I hit the road. I had just enough time to pick up my husband, drive him back home so he could change, heat up some leftovers, shovel down dinner, and hit the road.

By the time we got to the theater—at about 6:15—they were already letting people in. Normally, they wait until a half hour before the show—which gives the rest of us plenty of time to get in and get our seats before the general public starts showing up and ripping the “Reserved for Press” signs off the seats they want. Fortunately, though, Jason and Bill were already there, saving seats for the rest of us. We hadn’t seen Bill in forever, so it was nice that he decided to grace us with his presence again. Obviously, he’d been suffering from withdrawal—and, in his absence, his taste had suffered, since he spent the evening talking about how much he hated Juno.

As we were sitting around, waiting for The Golden Compass to begin, Jason and I discussed how very strange December was turning out to be. And, despite all the insanity of last December, we both admitted that we missed it. We missed those morning screenings at The Theater Everyone Loves. And even though they don’t give us free coffee, there was always someone willing to pick up donuts at Tim Horton’s before the show, and that made it fun. We hung out together pretty much every day, comparing notes on all the December movies that were supposed to be good but weren’t. We were all exhausted and strung out, but at least we had each other.

This year, however, we’re very, very alone. One reason is that there just aren’t that many movies coming out right now. Last weekend, only Awake was in wide release, and it didn’t even screen. This weekend, it’s just The Golden Compass, as well as a couple of others in limited release. The next three weeks, however, are when things start coming out (which means that the next couple of weeks will be a whole lot busier—though still nothing compared to last year). Another reason, though, is that we’ve been getting piles and piles of screener DVDs, which means that it’s not as necessary to drive out to the screening. In fact, if I hadn’t had so many screeners, I would have had to leave the house for three more screenings this week.

Just for the record, we all agreed that The Golden Compass wasn’t worth the hype. Jason and I kept giggling about the strange little discrepancies, and I pretty much stopped caring about the whole thing about a half hour in. My favorite part was the end, when, upon seeing the credits, one woman in the front of the theater shrieked, “WHAT?!” As we were making our way out, I did some eavesdropping on people who had read the book and were seriously pissed off about the movie. Basically, it looks neat, but it’s just a bunch of blah, blah, blah.

Though it was another slow week for screenings, this week was quite a week for award screeners. On Monday alone, I got six—half of which were for movies that I hadn’t already seen. Three more arrived on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we were hit with a snowstorm, which meant that I was overjoyed when another screener showed up—a screener for Atonement, which was scheduled to screen on the other side of town on Thursday morning.

On Thursday morning, after the snow had stopped, I made a point of spreading the front steps with ice melt. The UPS and FedEx guys have been stopping by so much lately that I wanted to be welcoming.

At 11:00—while some of my colleagues were, presumably, waiting for their screening of Atonement to begin—I began mine in the comfort of my own living room. I had a cup of coffee in hand, my notebook at my side, and my favorite blue afghan on my lap. Sure, there weren’t any scones, and I didn’t have the usual gang of yahoos to compare notes with after the screening. But it was pretty nice nonetheless. And I didn’t have to spend the extra time (and gas) driving to the other side of town. I even got to pause the screening at noon, long enough to make myself lunch.

I’m thinking, though, that I’ll have to spend the next year working on setting up a home theater in the basement. That way, I’ll be able to host my very own screenings next December. I’ll be able to enjoy screenings with my coffee and my afghan and all my favorite yahoos.

The strange thing about Thursday, though, was that I went a whole day without a single visit from a delivery guy. Despite the fact that I have a giant pile of screeners waiting to be watched—as well as a bunch of other screenings coming up—that made me sad. I felt lonely and neglected. I may have even pouted a bit as I watched the UPS guy and the FedEx guy speed past my window. I know it’s silly—especially since the last thing I need is another screener on top of the pile of nine that I still need to watch—but when you get used to running to the door once or twice a day to see what bounty the delivery guy has bestowed upon you, it sucks just a little bit when you have a day without a single delivery.

Fortunately, though, I got a visit from the UPS guy today, while I was grabbing some lunch. He didn’t deliver an award screener, mind you—but it was a DVD nonetheless. Add that to the pile….

Next week, things start to pick up a little bit. Everybody’s psyched for Tuesday, when we get to see I Am Legend—which we’ve pretty much been looking forward to seeing since September. We’re all pretty excited for There Will Be Blood, too, which screens later in the week. After that comes Sweeney Todd (which I’ve been looking forward to seeing since about March) and a pile of others. So I’m hoping we’ll have some good screenings between now and Christmas. Ho ho ho!

It’s All About the Kids

New at NightsAndWeekends.com Since Last Week:
Lars and the Real Girl
Wristcutters: A Love Story
The Darjeeling Limited
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

This week was reserved for movies about kids: one about a kid from another planet and one about a dead little boy (As David said, “Are there any movies anymore that don’t have dead little kids in them?”). But first things first: let’s talk about Dane Cook.

The Stop Dane Cook campaign is well under way. Kevin recently published an article on FilmSchoolRejects.com to discuss the campaign—and he’s gotten some hilarious response. Personally, I’ve been highly amused by the angry responses from people who have absolutely no sense of humor. But that’s just me. People with no sense of humor totally crack me up. In the article, though, Kevin also explains how you, too, can get your very own Stop Dane Cook ribbon. So drop him a line and start supporting the campaign—and tell him I sent you.

So…back to the week’s screenings.

After a couple of frantic, screening-packed weeks, the studios slammed on the brakes this week. I kept waiting for more screenings to show up on the schedule, but none did. So we only had three screenings scheduled for this week. And the first one wasn’t until Wednesday night.

Having spent practically every day and night with the gang for a couple of weeks, I actually felt lost without them this week. Three whole days without seeing the COFCA gang… I felt like something was missing—like that ever-present feeling of panic. I had three whole days in which I didn’t have to rush out of the office to a screening…before rushing back to write up the review before racing out that night to see another one. My to-do list got much shorter, and I was able to do a bunch of things that I’d been putting off for weeks. But, as it turns out, I get a lot more done when I’m totally stressed out and under pressure. Go figure.

So I was thrilled to head out on Wednesday night to see Martian Child. For one thing, I hadn’t seen most of the guys in over a week. For another thing, I was sponsoring the screening—so a bunch of the people there were there because of me. So that was pretty cool.

I got there at the usual time, and Jennifer, our good and faithful rep, let Bill and me in to save our usual seats. John was already there, so I got to catch up with him. He’d been to see his son in LA, and, as always, he had plenty of stories to tell. Then I headed up to get caught up with the rest of the posse. I was still running around, talking to random people throughout the theater when the lights went down, sending me racing back to my seat.

The problem with family-friendly movies is that, well, people bring their families. In general, I tend to like kids. Heck, I hang out and knit with them every week. But I don’t particularly like them when they’re sitting behind me in a movie theater—especially not when they have a severe case of ADHD, as was the case with the kid behind me for Martian Child. It started out before the movie even started—with the noises. And the tap-dancing. It then continued through the movie with the constant tap-dancing on the back of my seat. And the occasional grabbing at the back of my seat, pulling me back, and then letting go, sending me flying forward. I came painfully close to turning around and strangling the child. But, for the sake of the family movie and its spirit of love and patience, I refrained. But it was close.

Fortunately, though, there was booze after the movie, and I was able to drink that obnoxious child away. I headed to the restaurant next door with John, Neil, Kevin, Chris, and Chris’s new girlfriend-type-person for some junk food and drinks. Neil and I ordered a ginormous platter of fried food, for which John berated me—and I responded by forcing him to watch me take a big, huge bite of fried something-or-other. A good time was had by all. We also had a good view of the Red Sox game, and I was sure to keep everyone updated as to how badly the Rockies were getting trounced. (Go Sox!) The next thing I knew, it was 11:00, and it was well past my curfew. But it was a wonderful night. We haven’t gone out for drinks in ages—not since Bill got his new job—and we were long overdue.

Despite the fact that I got home late and went straight back to my computer to get a few things done before turning in, I still had to get up on time on Thursday morning—because I had a newsletter to send out before heading off to another screening. Thursday morning’s screening was Reservation Road, the aforementioned dead-little-boy movie, which was sure to brighten all of our spirits.

Perhaps I’m just turning into a bitter, cynical film critic, but Reservation Road didn’t actually depress me—or at least not for the reasons it should have. I didn’t cry through the movie—though I do realize that dead little boys are very sad things indeed. Just not in this movie. I couldn’t help but snicker through parts of the movie—the parts that were just that bad. My personal favorite moment in the whole movie is when a 10-year-old boy (one who’s still alive) announces that he called one of his school friends “a no-good coward.” This, for the record, was supposed to have been said in 2004. Not 1954. Whoever wrote that apparently hasn’t talked to a 10-year-old boy since the ‘50s.

I was supposed to go to another screening on Thursday night, since I’d missed all the earlier screenings of Dan in Real Life (to which I was going to wear my Stop Dane Cook ribbon), but then something came up. My dear husband called on Wednesday afternoon to check if skipping Thursday night’s screening—since he’d just gotten his hands on a pair of box seats for the Blue Jackets game. Hmmmm…let me think a minute…. Box seats for the Blue Jackets game…or a screening of a Dane Cook movie? Box seats it is.

I think I made the right choice. The game was incredible—the fourth shut-out of the season. Nash scored an amazing goal from between his legs, and the third goal…we’re still not entirely sure what happened with that. I can’t believe this season—I’m not used to watching the Blue Jackets win. This 5-3-1 record is unbelievable. It was a great game—and we had an incredible time.

Today David really wanted me to go see Saw IV with him—just so he wouldn’t have to sit through it by himself. I was tempted, but (a) I haven’t seen the other three, (b) if I were to actually pay to see it, wouldn’t that just be encouraging them to make more?, and (c) considering how behind I am in general, the last thing I needed was another movie that I’d have to review. So I regretfully declined. Instead, David and I grabbed lunch before the movie and talked about how very weird are jobs are (though David’s pretty sure that it’s even weirder to be the people who actually write the screenplays for some of the movies we have to see). And then I returned to the office, where I continued to find anything to do besides writing music reviews. And that’s where I am right now.

In other news this week, we were all surprised and somewhat amused to get a visit from the FedEx guy this week—requiring our signature for our for-your-consideration award-screener copy of Knocked Up. Now, I liked Knocked Up and all—but Best Picture material? I’m not so sure.

Then again, with all the bad award hopefuls coming out this year, Knocked Up could just have a fighting chance…

Next week is another eerily slow week (which makes us start to worry that we’re going to be bombarded once again come December—we should probably get extra sleep now, while we can). At this point, we only have two screenings scheduled—Tuesday and Thursday (since, of course, you can’t schedule screenings on Halloween—or all the critics in town would get their houses egged). Unfortunately, the screenings for Bee Movie and American Gangster are being held at the same time—which means that David will probably be all by himself at the Bee Movie screening. Sorry Jerry, but Russell and Denzel win.

Alone in the Dark with Strangers

New at NightsAndWeekends.com Since Last Week:
Gone Baby Gone
Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Before I begin with the usual, I’d like to note that NightsAndWeekends.com is sponsoring a screening of Martian Child this coming Wednesday (the 24th) at the AMC Lennox in Columbus—and we’ve got free passes. If you’re in the Columbus area and you want to see a movie for free, just visit N&W.com for details.

Okay…let’s get on with it then.

This week was one crazy week. Thanks to our ridiculously damp and musty hotel room in Dallas, I was one sick puppy by Friday afternoon. Fortunately, I did get some work done, but not a ton—and I probably wasn’t much fun on Saturday, our one day to wander around the city.

So when we got home on Sunday night, I was beat. Unfortunately, I had one crazy week ahead of me—and I didn’t have time to curl up in a ball and just be sick for a couple of days. I had stuff to do—the most important of which was preparing for another radio appearance on Wednesday morning, to fill in for Clay, who was recovering quite nicely from the surgery he’d had on Friday. As it turned out, the morning that I drove to the wrong theater for the Into the Wild screening came back to bite me in the butt. I also missed the Darjeeling Limited screening while I was in Dallas. So that meant I had some catch-up to play.

Despite the fact that I usually hate Monday morning screenings—especially on Monday mornings after I’ve just gotten back from being out of town—I was relieved to find out that there was a screening of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford scheduled for Monday morning. That meant that I could check out Jesse James in the morning—and come back to write up my review in the afternoon. Theoretically.

Of course, it didn’t occur to me at the time that Jesse James was a ridiculous two hours and forty minutes long (something that I’ve been generally bitching about all week—so I’ll refrain from continuing my rant here). Fortunately, I had some good drugs, which kept me from hacking up a lung during the movie. But, despite the fact that it was the Non-Drowsy variety, it didn’t really help all that much when it came to keeping me awake. I think I managed to stay awake through the whole thing, but it was a battle. Kevin admitted afterwards that he slept through parts. He also got up at one point to get his coat (because it was freezing in the theater—which probably helped to keep me awake). Then he wandered around for a while…stopped in the bathroom…wandered around the parking lot…and came back. Chris, who was sitting next to him, leaned over to try to tell him what he missed, and Kevin replied, “You know what? I don’t even care.”

At one point, David raced out to the bathroom, too. See? That’s the problem with movies like this one. You need the coffee to get through them, but they’re so long that you can’t have the coffee—or else you won’t get to see the whole thing. It’s a Catch-22. Anyway…David came back in and asked Jason and me if he’d missed anything, and we just sighed and said, “Nope.” Probably, he just missed more long, lingering shots of snow on the prairie.

After Jesse James, I had planned on catching screenings on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. But that didn’t happen. Monday night was Rendition. And, well, I just didn’t feel like sitting through it. And I had an excuse—I was sick. So I stayed home and went to bed early instead.

On Tuesday, I had three options: Into the Wild, Things We Lost in the Fire, and 30 Days of Night (which I’d been planning on seeing). But, once again, I skipped. I played the Sick card again—especially since I had to be up by 6:30 on Wednesday morning, so I could get to the studio by 8:30.

Fortunately, though, I was prepared on Wednesday morning. I managed to crank out some reviews, and I was heavily drugged. I couldn’t guarantee that I was going to make it cough-free through the whole recording, but I hoped I would. The last thing I needed was to sniffle through the show. I packed my bag with Kleenex and cough drops, just in case.

Despite the crazy rush-hour traffic, I made it to the station at 8:30—just before John. We walked in together, found our usual spot in the back of the building, and did a little rehearsing. At around 9, we hit the studio. We were eventually joined by Clay, our director, who had accidentally over-slept (but I’ll let it slide this time, since he just had surgery and all…).

Since the last time I was in the studio, there’s been a software change—so it took a little while to get everything set up. Then it was time for the recording to begin. After a couple of false starts, our final recording went rather smoothly—except for the part when John suddenly realized he’d lost some of his notes. It resulted in a little bit of paper-rustling (to be cut out later), during which time I was able to get in a few good, solid coughs. So I’m glad John lost his notes—because it helped me make it through the show.

Due to the whole new-software issue, this week’s recording session took longer than usual. Typically, we’re there from 8:30 to about 10. This time, it was closer to 11:30. During that time I found myself either squinting at the computer with John or laughing with Clay while John continued to squint at the computer by himself. But we finally get everything figured out—and we have a show: WCBE.org.

After we were finished in the studio, I went home and crashed on the couch for a while. But I couldn’t rest for too long—because I had a screening that night. Wednesday night was Lars and the Real Girl—and a flurry of emails in the afternoon showed that I was, most likely, the only one going. Not even my husband was joining me—since Wednesday is Hockey Night.

Despite the fact that it’s my job to watch movies—to go to the theater, take my seat, and take it all in with a critical eye, paying attention to writing and performances and things like that—it’s still strange to go to a movie alone. Before I started going to screenings, I used to do it every once in a while, when my husband was out of town. But it felt strange. And it still does. Even now, when I go to a screening, there’s always someone else there. My colleagues are my friends—and there are a bunch of them—so there’s always someone to sit with, someone to talk to before the movie starts, someone to whisper snide comments to during the movie, someone to share the experience with. But on Wednesday, it was just me. I hung out in the lobby by myself. I walked into the theater and took a seat near the back (so I could run out in case of one of those coughing fits I’d been having lately) by myself. As the crowd made their way in and climbed over me, the noise levels rose. And I pulled out my planner and wrote some notes, studied my schedule, copied my to-do list.

When you think about it, going to a movie shouldn’t really be a social thing. You sit there in the dark, paying attention to what’s going on on-screen. You’re not talking to the people around you. It should be something you do by yourself, don’t you think? But it isn’t, usually. People like to have friends around them as they wait. And people like to have someone to share the experience with. Even though we’re not conversing together in the dark, we’re communing.

This time, it was just me. Alone. In the dark. With strangers.

The screening was at the old theater in the rich part of town—the one with the chatty old moviegoers. Lots of pepperpots. And this time was no different from the others. Even when the movie started playing, the crowd chattered on, barely noticing. And there were frequent exclamations pop-corning up throughout the theater during the movie. And I didn’t have anyone to snicker about it with me. But, hey… Sometimes that just goes with the job. And though it was a little strange, don’t worry…I did okay. I didn’t feel sad or lonely. I didn’t cry. And I actually enjoyed the movie. So it was all good.

On Thursday morning, I was back to the theater for a last-minute morning screening of Wristcutters: A Love Story. We’d found out late on Wednesday afternoon. I almost didn’t go—but I figured it was my penance for skipping two evening screenings that week. And besides, it fit into my schedule. And, most importantly, it was short. So I went.

It was quiet at the theater on Thursday morning. I was the second one there, and only two showed up after I did. Oh, well. More cookies for me, I guess. Though it doesn’t feel quite as strange sitting by myself for morning screenings, I was glad to have Jason there with me. Because after Wednesday night, it was nice to have someone to talk shop with—and someone to giggle with during the movie. It made me feel better.

On Thursday night, it was another almost-lonely night at the movies. This time, my husband went along—but everyone else seemed to have some excuse. Most of them had already seen The Darjeeling Limited while we were in Dallas. And those who hadn’t were at home watching baseball. So it was another strange night. Usually, for evening screenings, we reserve our row. There are usually at least a few of us there. So showing up for a screening with just the two of us—and having to find seats for just the two of us—was weird. It’s not that I don’t like hanging out with my husband or anything, but I haven’t seen the rest of the guys in ages, and I actually kinda miss them a little bit.

Not only that, but I was also eager to wish the guys a Happy Awards Season. On Thursday afternoon, the first of the award screeners showed up in my mailbox—followed closely by another one today. This means that the insanity has officially begun. It’s time to set aside the remaining screeners from last awards season—the few that I didn’t get the time to see, though I really did intend to—to make way for this season’s screeners. Hopefully, something good is on its way—because our top-ten lists are still pretty sparse.