a surprisingly engaging doc about the cutthroat world of 'staredown'.

Heh. Emmett was having a staring contest with Matilda this morning.

"Blink, damn you!" he said in his most James T. Kirk manner.

(Not to be confused with his moist James T. Kirk manner.)

(Charlie Hunter used to be in a SF band called James T. Kirk. They only played covers by James Brown, Thelonius Monk and Roland Rasheed Kirk.)

(Charlie Hunter used to be in a SF band called James T. Kirk. They only played covers by James Brown, Thelonius Monk and Roland Rasheed Kirk.)

That is awesome on several levels.

That is awesome on several levels.

Then they got a cease and desist from Paramount so they changed it to TJ Hooker: Thelonius Monk, James Brown and John Hooker.

That's even more awesome.

I'm in awe.

I have seen The Prestige, and though it's been out for eons, I feel the need to whitefont:

OK, first off, the performances were excellent, and so many great actors. This, in fact, was my first problem. After having about eight "Holy crap, it's that guy!" moments (including Andy Serkis, bless him), I found myself suspicious of Borden's assistant. After the second or third time I saw him on screen, I thought to myself, "Why can't I tell who the actor is? You can see everyone's eyes but this guy, why don't they want us to... oh, hell." So that was my first reveal.

So then I found myself thinking, well, why are there two of him? And here comes the second part, which I admit is some kind of timeline confusion on my part, but... so we see Angier going to see Tesla, to get a "machine like he built before." So, Tesla builds the machine, we see what it does, badda bing. So here's the thing.... I come to the conclusion that Borden had already used the machine! That's why there was two of them! In hindsight, WTFF?!? Apparently, I smoked the good crack before going into the theater. Anyway, so then it was very clear to me what Angiers was doing. I admit I didn't see the house of horrors in the basement coming, but there you are.

So, the "prestige" at the end? Yeah, saw right through it. I actually left the movie feeling a little bit angry. Not because I saw through it (though on a technical issue? really? bad suspension of disbelief, no biscuit), but angry because I didn't end up siding with either of them. Yeah, ok, neither of them were great guys, but even when there's two antagonists in a story, you end up protagonizing one of them. But no! And Jackman as the bad guy! I mean, sure, playing against type, that's great, but damnit Hugh!

I just don't think it was the movie I was expecting. That's not a bad thing, by any stretch, but I'll need to see it again to know if I love it, and I'm not sure I can actually watch it again. Now, off to go back and read the whitefont.

eta: btw, how is it that even in the manliest of men's clothes, Bowie looks like a drag king?!?

Wow, that's a lot of hate.

Oh, you have NO idea! My hate is so freakin' pure.

Golden Globes over. My movie of choice (Pan's Labyrinth) did not win the Best Drama award. Of course, it wasn't nominated, so that wasn't too surprising. I WAS surprised to see that no Clint Eastwood movie was nominated for Best Drama, even though he made two - I thought that was illegal for US film awards - but then I saw that Letters From Iwo Jima is under best foreign-language film. Naturally. Because they always have to pair the Eastwood flicks against movies I strongly want to win things. (I haven't seen Letters and it may very well be fantastic, but I heartily dislked both Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby so I'm not holding my breath.)

Does anybody else think it's silly that Musicals are paired with Comedies by default? I mean, sure, Singin' in the Rain belonged with the comedies (if they had Golden Globes back then), and Chicago probably did as well. But Ray? Walk the Line? Dreamgirls? Last I checked, these were pretty dramatic. Seems unfair to pit them with the Little Miss Sunshines and Borats, thus basically removing the one big-name award comedies ever have a real shot at. (Though Ray didn't win, apparently, so perhaps my argument is less water-holdy than I thought, Sideways definitely falling under "comedy" in my head)

Of course, I'm still wondering why Lost in Translation was in the Comedy/Musical category all those years ago, so what do I know?

I don't understand why all the Running With Scissors noms were in the musical/comedy category either. The movie has a funny title, but other than that, it's straight melodrama.

Does anybody else think it's silly that Musicals are paired with Comedies by default?

I suppose, but I'm still more concerned with the fact that the Globes have followed in the lame footsteps of the Oscars in giving animated films a separate category. If it's hard to field five nominees, give the category a rest, especially at the GG where there is the Comedy/Musical category so that they don't have to compete with "serious" films.