Mon, January 26

One to Watch: Hayley McFarland

Ignore for a moment everything you normally think about when I mention a young actress – in this case, I'm talking only of her acting chops. (Read more.)

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Tue, January 20

How to Waste an Oscar

In which we examine some films that are shoo-ins for Academy Award nominations, and why they shouldn't (necessarily) be. (Read more.)

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Mon, January 19

Hypothetical Research Dept.—9:48 PM

This probably already exists somewhere but I don't feel like looking it up, and I'm not even entirely sure how I'd go about it if I did. (Someone be a dear.)

I keep thinking about the effects of modern communications technology (Internet, e-mail, cell phones) on narrative forms. For example, in The World According to Garp, there's a rather pivotal scene that simply would not happen in a world where cell phones exist. In this example, Irving could probably rewrite it so the same action happens in a different way, but the point is, when he wrote it, he didn't have to. Double Indemnity had a similar dependence on land line phones, and there's a running gag in Play It Again, Sam that wouldn't work today.

I'm wondering if anyone has written this up. I'm sure there are certain stories that simply cannot work in a world of instant information and communication over any distance. On the other hand, there are stories we can do now that we couldn't before. I've just been thinking about it, especially when I watch old movies. (Intriguingly, last night I watched Wolf, which was right at the cusp, in 1994. Michelle Pfeiffer, playing the rich bitch daughter of Christopher Plummer, had one of those military-grade cell phones, but Jack Nicholson and the other characters had none.)

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Things—12:07 AM

Just now, I was looking around my living room and had a thought: "Someday this will all be in a landfill."

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Fri, January 16

Bear With Me—10:19 AM

This phase is almost over, I promise. I have some long-form stuff in the works. For one thing, AMPAS is getting ready to bestow a Best Picture statuette on a sweet, amusing little trifle that's heartfelt but at times plays like a music video – which, good for them and all, but where were they last year when Juno was nominated in this category?! So, that's good for a thousand words or so right there. (The fuckers!)

-In traffic yesterday, I noticed an unfamiliar bumper sticker up ahead on a car I was about to pass. As I drew nearer, I realized I was actually bracing myself for what it might say. When it turned out to be in support of a local high school sports team, I sighed aloud, "Thank God it's sports and not somebody's fucking BELIEFS." I don't know what this means, but I assume it is not good.

-TNT is about to premiere a new show called Trust Me, about two friends who run an advertising firm. (Could they also dress as ladies at night to rent a room at a women's hotel? Please?) This is notable for two reasons: One, because any cable series is worth checking out these days, since the networks seem to be locked in a race to see who can insult the concept of broadcast television the most. Also, it stars Eric McCormack and Tom Cavanagh. If you plotted these two guys on a graph that goes from -100 (maximum hate) to +100 (maximum love), the average would be exactly zero. I like it when that happens. I would name the phenomenon after Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys, because Bruce Willis and Madeline Stowe are another pair that zero each other out, but Brad Pitt is also in that movie – in a performance that is the best he's ever done, and likely the best he'll ever do – so the actual average of 12 Monkeys is closer to 3 billion.

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Sun, January 4

Also...—11:05 AM

-Where the hell did the name Cromartie come from, with all this momentum all of a sudden? There's a robot named Cromartie on The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but I figure Hollywood writers spend all their time hopped up on "the pot," so I dismissed that. But I'm not sure I want to live in a world where Googling "Cromartie NFL" only gets you half of the way there. (Or even "Cromartie NFL wild card Saturday!")

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