Tim's Trailer Talk, Vol. 15.5

Rango



Chances of me seeing it: 50%. I saw this in front of True Grit a few days back and while I admit I cringed at first to see the orange Nickelodeon logo pop up followed by some cartoon lizard, the trailer wound up not being half bad. Outside of the talking animals it looks like a pretty decent stab at slipping a Western in past the kiddies. And am I crazy, or does it seem like the Western is back a little bit? I mean, we had a straight-up Western in True Grit and a Western with ninjas in The Warrior's Way in last month or so, and next year there's both a Western with aliens in Cowboys and Aliens and now a Western with talking animals in Rango. Pretty cool! All this being a longwinded way to say maybe I'll see this movie if it gets okay reviews as to voice my support for more Westerns down the road.

Chances of me liking it: 30%. It all depends on how kiddy it is, I guess.

Beyond the jump: not one but two movies about fighting robots. What the hell?

Tim's Trailer Talk, Vol. 15

Hey, what! It's been almost a month since I done the ol' Tim's Trailer Talk, and not unexpectedly a huge collection of unwatched trailers has accumulated. As to maintain my sanity, let's do this thing spread across two days.

A Somewhat Gentle Man



Chances of me seeing it: 20%. Looks really... foreign, and stuff. I dunno! I like Stellan Skarsgård as much as the next guy, so I guess I'll ponder it if the reviews seem strong. Hardly at the top of my list, though.

Chances of me liking it: 10%. I do like that it at least seems to have a lighthearted tone. I get tired of watching trailers for European movies that just have people crying set to piano music for two minutes.

Beyond the jump: pirates, aliens, and assassins!

NBC Sitcom Roundup — "Classy Christmas, "Christmas Attack Zone," & "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"

Yeah, these episode reviews are like two weeks late, but when better to review three Christmas specials than on the day before Christmas? Okay, okay, starting next year I'll try to get my sitcom roundups posted in a more timely fashion. I'm also pleased to say that via Netflix Watch Instantly I've caught up on Parks and Recreation, and the second season not only managed to find a voice beyond aping The Office but was franky terrific — better than the 30 Rock or Office seasons it was airing against, to be honest, behind only Community. So starting with the return of the NBC comedy block on January 20th I'll be adding Parks and Rec to the rotation and doing a four-show sitcom roundup. Will I survive such chaos? Probably not. Let's get this Christmas party started with a Christmas party episode:

The Office, Season 7 Episode 11/12 — "Classy Christmas"

My sincere kudos to writer Mindy Kaling, director Rainn Wilson, and all the producers: they brought out the big guns for their hourlong midseason finale. "Classy Christmas" was straight-up classic era Office greatness and the best episode of the seventh season by a mile. I loved basically every minute of it. Admittedly this may correlate to my (recently documented) love of Amy Ryan, who I think is one of the most effortlessly likable actors in the world on TV or otherwise, but even before she showed up I was laughin' and hootin' and havin' a great ol' time.

But let's come back around to Amy Ryan in a minute. Starting with the smaller plots and working our way up, while Pam's homemade superhero comic book, Darryl's semi-estranged daughter, and Angela's probably-gay state senator boyfriend may not have been overwhelmingly great A-plots to anchor their own episodes, they filled out the edges of this one nicely. I particularly liked Darryl being given some extra shading beyond being the droll, detached guy in the corner office. Between Pineapple Express and Hot Tub Time Machine Craig Robinson may be the actor outside of Carell and Helms whose extra-Office fame has increased the most since the show began, and he deserves (and, after Carell's impending departure, will no doubt get) increased prominence.

Jim and Dwight's snowball war (or, more accurately, Dwight's snowball terrorism) was a hysterical turning of the prank tables. Of course this is coming from someone who has always been iffy on Jim's pranks (and I do mean always, even in the generally sublime season two); they never bothered me on the original British Office as Tim Canterbury wasn't supposed to be as much of a lovable teddy bear as Jim, but in shifting all the characters three or four shades up on the likability scale the American version has always struggled with making Jim's pranks side look like anything more than juvenile bullying. But they were all worthwhile to build up to Dwight's retaliation in this episode. Jim's humiliation upon breaking the window and his terror at the snowman army at the end were both wonderful to behold. And kudos to Rainn Wilson the director for the way he shot Dwight's reveal at the end, looking down from upon the rooftop like the grim visage of Death. Hilarious.

And finally, of course, the return of Holly Flax. As I've said before and I'm sure I'll say again over the next several months, I love Holly and I love Amy Ryan in the role. Few times in the history of television has a new character entered an established series and won me over as quickly as Holly did in The Office's fourth season finale. She stirs up the chemistry of Dunder Mifflin in such an electric way and feels like such an integral part of the mythology that it's crazy to realize she's only appeared in 9 of the show's 138 episodes. Long story short, I'm a huge fan of the character.

And her return in "Classy Christmas" (which I didn't know was coming until the day the episode aired, making for a nice real-life Christmas gift) didn't disappoint! I loved Michael initially turning into a raging manchild but swallowing his anger and jealously and putting on a show of normalcy when A.J. arrived. The Woody doll confrontation scene between Holly and Michael with the rest of the office caught in the crossfire may be my favorite scene of the season so far. "But someday I think we will laugh about this... when we tell our kids." "Yikes."

However, much as I love Holly, I also love the fact that Erin irrationally dislikes her from the moment they meet. It feels like bizarro world Michael and Toby.

General midseason thoughts: The Office is past its prime. I don't think I'm offending anyone when I say that. I doubt even the writers and producers would disagree (in their minds, anyway). If you put aside the absolutely wonderful "Classy Christmas" and the pretty darn funny Halloween episode "Costume Contest" (and, to a lesser extent, "Andy's Play") it's been a shaky season that has pointed surprisingly little towards the endgame of Steve Carell's departure as a series regular in a few short months.

But still, I love The Office. However disappointed I may be by episodes like "Counseling," "The Sting," and especially "Christening," I still find myself looking forward to visiting Scranton every single week. It comes down to the characters, which may sound obvious but isn't really the case for all shows. Something like 24 I watched for the action, something like Lost or The Event mostly for the mysteries, even other sitcoms like Arrested Development or 30 Rock I really watched / watch for the jokes. But The Office has such a deep bench of talent (as of Amy Ryan being added to the main credited cast there are now nineteen people listed as "Starring," something I don't believe can be said for a single other scripted show on television) that even when the jokewriting feels stale there's always a freshness to who the show is focusing on any given week.

30 Rock has definitely been more consistent than The Office this season, but I find myself way more excited for the return of The Office for two big reasons: one, Holly. I'm sure she won't be getting only Michael-related "mythology" stories and will have her share of episodic sitcommy stuff to do between now and May, but even in that context getting to watch Amy Ryan will be a pleasure. And two, seeing what the big plan for Michael's departure is — something they've had a year to map out, so hopefully it'll be good. I absolutely dread what The Office season eight may look like without Carell, but at the same time there's probably no television happening of 2011 outside of Game of Thrones and the ending to Friday Night Lights I'm more curious about. Bring on January 20th.

30 Rock, Season 5 Episode 10 — "Christmas Attack Zone"

"Christmas Attack Zone" was pretty decent. Not on par with this season's extremely strong four-episode stretch between "Reaganing" and "College," but I had some laughs at the Jack Donaghy and Tracy Jordan stories. But first off I have a confession, one that I gather is blasphemous in 30 Rock fandom: I really don't give a shit about Elaine Stritch as Colleen Donaghy. Every TV forum and TV blog I read just goes fucking apeshit with praise for her every single time she shows up, and I just don't get it. Yeah, she was funny in her first appearance or two, but the hypercritical mom routine quickly became redundant and one-note. But I guess the rest of America is way more into Broadway shows than I am, because every time she makes her semiannual appearance I grimace in anticipation of reading novels worth of praise about the glory and the wonder of Elaine Stritch.

I preface with this because I want to make it clear that I'm actually saying something and not just shitting out prepackaged 30 Rock criticism when I say that I enjoyed the hell out of Colleen's story in this episode, largely due to bringing Alan Alda as Milton Greene, Jack's biological father, back into the mix. I would have liked actually seeing a bit more of the awkward dinner between the Donaghy clan and Liz, but the bits and pieces we did get were largely a joy that also made better use of Elizabeth Banks as Avery Jessup than any episode so far this season. Milton and Jack's exchange of "Listen to me, dammit, I'm a doctor!" "Of history! In what emergency would you be necessary, if someone wanted to know whether the 60s were awesome or not?!" "They were!" was my biggest laugh of the episode by far.

I'm not entirely sure whether Tracy's subplot was a tribute to or an unintentional knockoff of Sullivan's Travels, but I liked it for no other reason than that I largely agree with its thesis statement that critical society undervalues comedy as meaningful art while propping up manufactured "drama." As someone who believes Forgetting Sarah Marshall to be a greater film than The Reader in every meaningful metric, I appreciate 30 Rock for agreeing that sometimes comedy is just better. That, and the gag where Tracy's Kenneth voiceover was revealed to just be Kenneth standing off to the side. But Jenna and Paul's subplot again left me stony-faced (outside of the scene between Liz and Paul in the tranny restaurant, anyway). 30 Rock, I beg of you, stop, stop, stop trying to make me laugh with Jane Krakowski singing. I absolutely promise you it is never going to happen. Just let it go.

General midseason thoughts: 30 Rock is the TV equivalent of a warm and pleasant but somewhat stale long-term relationship at this point. There ain't much fire between us anymore and it hasn't been hot and heavy since 2007 or early 2008, but at the same time I have no interest in ending things — we still have good times and some regular laughs, so why would I?

I admit there was a point at the tail end of last season, when it seemed every other episode sunk half its time into the virtually-never-funny Jack / Nancy / Avery love triangle, where I briefly considered whether or not I even wanted to keep watching. It was a bleak era. But once Avery got pregnant and Jack committed to her the show felt like it had been let out of funniness prison and this season has been a stark, unmistakable improvement from the word go. I don't expect 30 Rock to start dazzling me on a week in, week out basis any time soon (or for the rest of its run), but there remains a lot of funny people behind the scenes coming up with a handful of great jokes every week, which is pretty much exactly what the show promised from the get go. I'm in it for the long haul.

There is an interesting elephant in the room, though, one that The Office is currently in the midst of confronting: Alec Baldwin recently stated his intention to give up acting in 2012, which would be at the end of 30 Rock's sixth season (which it has already been renewed for). There are three ways this can play out: one, he changes his mind, which is by no means out of the question if they flash him some fat green. Two, they end the show, which won't happen. Or three, they continue on for a seventh season without him. Although he may not be the protagonist, 30 Rock without Baldwin in my opinion leaves even more of a gaping hole in the show's heart than The Office without Steve Carell, so let's hope NBC offers him a raise, because the alternative would be hard to watch.

Community, Season 2 Episode 11 — "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"

In terms of pure laugh count it's true that "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" falls clearly short of last season's blisteringly brilliant Christmas episode "Comparative Religion" (as well as The Office's "Classy Christmas"). Too much of the show's comedy is contained in the actors' facial expressions, especially Donald Glover's, for it to truly cross over uncompromised into the claymation medium. But I still loved this episode for no other reason than that it showed once again how creative and how incredibly ambitious Community is compared to every other sitcom on television. Absolutely nothing else would have the brass balls to try something like this, or the zombie episode, or the Apollo 13 episode, or most of this season's episodes. Make no mistake, Dan Harmon and the rest of Community's writing staff are going balls to the wall with every out-there idea they've ever had, holding back nothing, and it's awesome.

In a way I think this episode was sort of the thematic sequel to the third episode of the series, "Introduction to Film." Both revolved around Abed's issues with his parents (although more specifically his mother in this case), filtering them through pop culture as Britta tries her best to help him and is largely brushed aside for her efforts. Difference being that the study group is much closer and much more a family by this point, and fittingly the entire crew is involved in Abed's crisis this time rather than just Britta and Jeff. In fact, I thought it was interesting that the episode dispensed with Community's official protagonist Jeff (plus Shirley) fairly quickly after they reached Planet Abed, with Pierce surprisingly being the only one to make it to the end of Abed's mindtrip.

The resolution went for a sort of gooey heartwarmingness that I admit I'd probably cringe at if they insisted on ending every episode in such an emotionally blunt fashion, but hey, it's Christmas, and it seems to be a one-time thing. I'll let it slide. Using the Lost DVD a metaphor to represent "lack of payoff" won my heart as well. "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" may not join Die Hard or Home Alone on my list of Christmas classics the way I felt "Epidemiology" was an instant classic work of horror-comedy able to stand with some of the best ever, but nonetheless, nice show, Community.

General midseason thoughts: Not only is Community still the best sitcom on television, it's reached the point where it's insane to me that anyone would argue otherwise. The ambition approaches Arrested Development and the unreal chemistry of the cast approaches Friends week by week. True, this semester saw what I feel is probably the worst episode of the series, "Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples," but almost every single other episode has been one degree or another of fantastic.

Yeah, there's been a lot of high concept pop culture parodies, with zombies, 70s conspiracy thrillers, Apollo 13, Mean Girls, The Secret Garden, and now Rankin/Bass claymation Christmas specials all getting riffed on, but most of these have been so terrific I couldn't possibly criticize the show for it. Not to mention that other episodes like "Anthropology 101," "Accounting for Lawyers," "Cooperative Calligraphy," and "Mixology Certification" have been parody-free and outstanding, with the lattermost being understated and sad in a way that I didn't know this show had it in itself to pull off.

To go on would just decline into me listing a bunch of favorite moments from the season thus far, so I'll just say that "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" cemented Annie as my favorite character, I'm feverishly anticipating the show's return next year, and leave it at that. It's one of my favorite shows of all time, and my heart can barely take the notion that low ratings could lead to its cancellation next spring, especially if $#*! My Dad Says and Mike & Molly continue to shamble on, mocking television with their existence.

Ranking Community Season 1

For years I went back and forth every other day on whether the best stretch of post-Arrested Development TV comedy was the first two seasons of 30 Rock or the second and third seasons of The Office. Try as I might, it was an impregnable quandary. But in fall of 2009 Dan Harmon and the Russo brothers came along and made an impossible decision very easy: the best post-Arrested Development TV comedy, and a very real contender for my second favorite sitcom of all time, is NBC's Community. I mean, I love The Office. I love 30 Rock. Never missed an episode of either, never plan to. But I'd see both of them and every other non-Community sitcom on TV canceled and yanked off the air today if it would guarantee Harmon a few more seasons to do his thing.

An insanely likable cast with massive chemistry, clever and ambitious storytelling, sly subversion of sitcom tropes, strong filmmaking, flat-out sublime joke writing and more make it clear that Community is operating on a level unrivaled by any other comedy on television (and only one or two dramas, to be honest). I never thought a half-hour college comedy would trump Judd Apatow's Undeclared, but Community does so within its first ten episodes and just keeps on improving. It's so good it's almost ruined the genre of comedy for me. I saw dozens of comedy films in theaters in 2010, and even liked some, but with the exceptions of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and possibly MacGruber I was always left thinking, "well, that had fewer laughs than any given twenty-two minutes of Community, and Community is free."

I recently picked up and rewatched the first season on DVD, seeing most of the episodes for the first time since they originally aired, and just had to talk about how much I love this show. But rather than doing a straight-up review I decided to go through the entire season and and rank each episode from #25 to #1, along with some brief discussion of and favorite moments from each. Keep in mind that unlike my best of the year movie lists, which I try to write as readable and coherent even if you haven't seen a single movie discussed, I'm writing this more for the already-iniated, because I want to highlight specific jokes. But enough foreplay, let's get streets ahead.

25. Episode 2 - "Spanish 101"

I'll say first thing that there's not a single episode of this season that I consider bad television (the only Community to date which I actively dislike is season two's "Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples"), but "Spanish 101" does, like several of the first six episodes, demonstrate some growing pains. It's somewhat fun to watch Senor Chang's intro and Jeff and Pierce's presentation, but Annie and Shirley's protest subplot is dead in the comedic water. I'm not saying any newbies should skip "Spanish 101" — it's still better than a solid half of 30 Rock season four — but I will say to power through and not think too hard about it.

Best Moment: "La Biblioteca," of course.

24. Episode 14 - "Interpretive Dance"

Again, not a bad episode by any means, but it seems like they were going for a "Debate 109" or "Comparative Religion"-level set piece with Britta and Troy's dance at the end, which it in no way measures up to. The exposure of Jeff and Slater's secret relationship is more entertaining.

Best Moment: Honestly, I'd have to go with Annie's gasp of shock and betrayal when Britta announces that she and Troy have something to tell everyone. Not because it's a particularly brilliant joke as written but because Alison Brie is the best.

23. Episode 5 - "Advanced Criminal Law"

The A-plot with the poolside trial is pretty good stuff and among the earliest hints at how bizarre and creative Community would eventually become, although I will say that Britta using a cheat sheet initially soured me on her character. Still, hard to deny the greatness of John Oliver. The subplot with Pierce's song is a bit flat and anticlimactic but fortunately Pierce's musical career would be put to much better use a mere three episodes later.

Best Moment: Probably Leonard getting "busted" for not wearing a bathing suit, because Leonard is hilarious.

22. Episode 11 - "The Politics of Human Sexuality"

I love Annie's entire "reverse Porky's" subplot, and although it stretches even Community's version of reality to have a TV nerd best the former high school quarterback, Abed and Troy's battle of athleticism is worth some chuckles. But while I appreciate Jeff coming to respect women (or at least Britta) as essential character development, I do think they could have found a way to make it a little funnier.

Best Moment: Either Annie's traumatic backstory about losing her virginity, the guidance counselor insisting that everyone say "penis," or any time the phrase "reverse Porky's" is uttered. Annie's whole subplot, really.

21. Episode 1 - "Pilot"

Sitcom pilots are the first dates of television — they're rough, awkward, mostly consist of feeling things out, and your chances of walking away satisfied are slim to nonexistent, but at the same time they're a necessary evil to get to the good stuff. Comedic rhythm between actors takes time to develop and it's almost never all there within one episode, and Community is no exception (neither is Arrested Development, for that matter, for which the pilot is probably one of the top five weakest episodes of the series). Annie and Troy are written slightly but noticeably differently than they would eventually become and Jeff's manipulative speech at the end runs a good half-minute long. However, it does a good job setting up the world of Greendale, Winger's character, and winning some laughs along the way, and I loved the John Hughes / Breakfast Club tributes.

Best Moment: "You know, I thought you were like Bill Murray in any of his films, but you're more like Michael Douglas in any of his films." "Yeah?" "Yeah." "Well you have Asperger's." "...what does that mean?" "Ass burger." "It's a serious disorder." "It really is." "If it's so serious why don't they call it... meningitis? Asperger's!" "Burger for yo' ass."

20. Episode 25 - "Pascal's Triangle Revisited"

This is a good episode but, I admit, a little bit disappointing as a season finale in that it isn't a great episode. It really is just a sitcom love triangle — one with characters I'm actually invested in and jokes that are actually funny (the Dean's dalmatian fetish, Troy's cookie, people at the Tranny Dance shouting which "team" they're on, anything with John Oliver, etc.) — but on the basic story level it really doesn't attempt to subvert, parody, or rise above the traditional sitcom love triangle in any way. It's almost like something out of latter-era Friends. I also thought Britta's desperate, lovesick characterization was off.

Best Moment: Either the closing credits tag, where we see a whole different side of Greendale who neither know nor like our heroes, or Troy angrily telling Abed that there was a Happy Days where a guy literally jumped over a shark, and it was the best one.

19. Episode 20 - "The Science of Illusion"

Now here's where we start getting into the unambiguously good stuff. Britta's April Fools prank gone awry has amusing slapstick value even if cadaver humor is a little tired these days, and the Dean bringing in the corpse's family one by one to talk to Chang's Spanish class about their memories of him is hilarious, but the true magic of "The Science of Illusion" is in Shirley and Annie's bad cop / badder cop routine, with Abed always watching and occasionally playing their no-nonsense African-American police chief who's too old for this shit.

Best Moment: Annie macing herself.

18. Episode 6 - "Football, Feminism, and You"

The ladies' room etiquette subplot is a bit hit-or-miss, but any episode with a big emphasis on Donald Glover can't really go wrong, not to mention the introduction of the Greendale Human Being.

Best Moment: Troy's politically conservative high school shamefully outdated fight rap.

17. Episode 24 - "English as a Second Language"

Kind of interesting how both of the final two episodes of the season have such heavy emphasis on Annie, but on the other hand Annie is one of my favorite characters on television so I can hardly complain. The revelation of how poorly-taught the class has been for an entire year is hysterical, and while Troy's Good Will Hunting subplot is bizarre and arbitrary even by Community standards (and peaks ten seconds in when he steals the chalk instead of solving the equation), it's still pretty funny in its absurdity. I also like that it's Pierce who saves the day in the end.

Best Moment: Either the class realizing how in over their heads they are after a minute of their new Spanish teacher, Chang destroying Jeff's car followed by Jeff and Chang being tased together, or Star-Burns leading everyone out in a show of support for "Hannah." Tough call.

16. Episode 15 - "Romantic Expressionism"

This is definitely an episode where the B-plot trumps the A-plot. Not that the A-plot is bad (indeed, both of my best moments below stem from it), but while Jeff and Britta trying to break up Annie and Vaughn may amuse, Pierce's attempts at winning bad movie night are classic. Watching him bomb during Kickpuncher is awkward comedy done right, his hiring of a community college sketch comedy troupe (played by Derrick Comedy) to write him a series of homophobic jokes is one of the funniest Pierce bits of the season, and capping things off with Troy and Abed's own homoerotic Kickpuncher sequel makes for a great episode.

Best Moment: Either Troy having the weirdest boner or Jeff and Leonard shouting at each other over the macaroni.

15. Episode 4 - "Social Psychology"

Another episode where I feel the B-plot dominates. "Social Psychology" does a good job developing Jeff and Shirley's friendship (and one thing I like about Community is that there's a lot more variety to the nature of the cast's relationships than in something like Friends; everyone isn't just equal-footing buddies) and no one can deny that Eric Christian Olsen throws himself into the role of tiny-nippled Vaughn. But the real highlight is the titular psych experiment with Annie, Abed, and Professor Ian. Everyone's freakouts as the experiment goes on are classic (especially Troy crawling out of the room like a wounded animal). Annie and Abed are my two favorites so any plot that puts them together I'm pretty much guaranteed to love.

Best Moment: Abed telling Annie that he "figured we were more like Chandler and Phoebe, they never really had stories together," explaining to her that he stayed because he thought they were friends, or her apologizing to him with a gift of Indiana Jones... any Abed and Annie moment, really. The ending tag is great too.

14. Episode 16 - "Communication Studies"

Minor classic territory now, and the first episode on this list I feel basically every aspect of works completely. The level to which the main drunk dial storyline digs into Jeff, Britta, and Abed is brilliant, making room for pathos, awkwardness, power plays, Britta looking incredibly sexy dressed up for the Valentine's dance, and an absurdist Breakfast Club-styled drinking montage. Mix with Troy and Pierce's humiliation in the B-plot and the Greendale Human Being's transformation into the Cupid Being and you have great fucking television.

Best Moment: Three-way tie between Jeff and Abed's drinking montage, Troy dancing full-heartedly with his body while crying with his face, and Jeff looking back at Britta as he and Slater leave the dance.

13. Episode 13 - "Investigative Journalism"

This one seemed a little controversial on forums I read due to the way Jack Black takes over the show, but as a television junkie I thought it was a kind of brilliant parody of unwelcome guest stars stepping into and taking over sitcoms (remember Brad Pitt and a million other Friends guest spots?). I mean, obviously the character he's playing is annoying and unwelcome. That's the point, and the way he sneaks into the group hug at the beginning makes me laugh every time. In a way, "Investigative Journalism" is as much a pop culture parody as "Modern Warfare" or season two's "Epidemiology," it's just a parody of something much more niche and specific. Factor in all the flavorful M*A*S*H references and I think this episode rules.

Best Moment: Senor Chang's fake death, resurrection, and rap (although the most classic line is "Annie's pretty young, we try not to sexualize her.").

12. Episode 18 - "Basic Genealogy"

Okay, I'll admit that neither Abed's dad and Shirley's kids or Jeff trying to sleep with Pierce's stepdaughter just blow the roof off of contemporary comedy, but, seriously, Britta getting spanked by Troy's grandma while Troy sobs in the background is one of the absolute funniest things to be broadcast on television in 2010. It's just so beautifully, sublimely absurdist, and I suspect no actor on earth cries funnier than Donald Glover. When I first saw "Basic Genealogy" I was still thinking back to the spanking scene and laughing a week later. I still laugh thinking about it today.

Best Moment: Britta's spanking, of course. (Although a solid silver for second has to go to Jeff sobbing to Pierce about how much he hates Glee.)

11. Episode 3 - "Introduction to Film"

After funny but not quite revelatory first and second episodes, this was the Community that startled me with how much more I enjoyed it than any recent Office or 30 Rock and assured the show a permanent place on my viewing schedule, and is easily the best of the first six. John Michael Higgins (Wayne Jarvis on Arrested Development... what a pro) is hilarious as the professor who challenges Jeff more than expected with his supposedly blow-off "seize the day" class, but the episode's heart and soul is unquestionably Abed and the film project he's made for his father. I don't know that I've ever seen a non-lead sitcom character take shape so quickly and distinctly.

Best Moment: Abed's film.

10. Episode 7 - "Introduction to Statistics"

If "Introduction to Film" is the episode where I truly became a Community fan, "Introduction to Statistics" is the episode where Community truly became Community: the characters have taken shape and the unique, self-aware tone and the pop culture references are charging full-speed ahead. Sure, drug trips are a little bit generic for college comedy, but this was where I really started feeling for Annie (way more than after her guilt trips in "Football, Feminism, and You"), and although Abed-Batman saving Jeff and Pierce from the collapsing chair fort may pale compared to "Modern Warfare" (from the same episode director as this one, Justin Lin of Better Luck Tomorrow fame), it was unexpected and absolutely hilarious at the time.

Best Moment: Either Abed saving Jeff and Pierce or his Batman monologue on the roof immediately after.

9. Episode 8 - "Home Economics"

Every element rocks. Annie's unrequited passion for Troy which comes to involve a visit to the school nurse played by Patton Oswalt, Jeff becoming homeless, moving in with Abed, and absorbing his lifestyle, and especially Pierce and Vaughn's musical collaboration and then rivalry with Britta caught in the crossfire. I just had a grin on my face after watching, which is what a sitcom episode should aspire to.

Best Moment: All three insult songs ("Getting Rid of Britta," "Pierce You're a B," and "Pierce's Rap") are hilarious, but the first is definitely the best. Pierce's nasal "She's a G.D.B.!" just can't be beat, especially coupled with Britta's expression at the end.

8. Episode 22 - "The Art of Discourse"

Jeff and Britta's plot to achieve vengeance against the high schoolers by having Jeff sleep with the ringleader's mom would be enough to hold up a really funny episode all on its own (some people didn't like the "DUH!" climax, but it made me laugh my ass off), but when you mix in Abed and Troy going on a mission to work through Abed's first year of college checklist, culminating with Animal House "where are they now?" subtitles, and especially Shirley and Pierce's feud, you have one of the funniest TV episodes of 2010. Definitely the best Shirley / Pierce story of the series to date.

Best Moment: Easily Pierce offering flowers and an apology to the wrong middle-aged black woman. Absolutely fucking hilarious.

7. Episode 17 - "Physical Education"

Another all-brilliant all-the-time piece of work and a particularly great episode for Jeff and Abed, with a revealing and spectacular climax. I like how this episode and "Beginner Pottery" show that Jeff isn't pure cool and has his own absurd, self-conscious side just waiting to be unleashed.

Best Moment: I really can't choose. Naked billiards is hysterical and a choice I'd be comfortable with, but Britta's mispronunciation of "bagel," the revelation of white Abed, and Abed doing "Don Draper from Mad Men" and nearly kissing Annie are also goddamn classic.

6. Episode 19 - "Beginner Pottery"

You'd think that Tony Hale of Arrested Development fame stepping in to teach a class at Greendale would easily dominate the episode comedically, and the way it sends Jeff into a Goldblumming psychosis is indeed really funny (I also like that Hale is playing a character who has nothing in common with Buster Bluth), but for my money Shirley, Pierce, Britta, and Troy's boating B-plot is even better. The tragedy, the drama, the triumph of it; simply sublime.

Best Moment: Shirley sending the ship across the parking lot to rescue Pierce scored to epic adventure music, but "the hilarious guy-on-guy" followed by Tony Hale pointing to and then defending his anti-Swayze poster comes damn close.

5. Episode 10 - "Environmental Science"

I absolutely love these top five episodes. "Environmental Science" unapologetically spends its entire duration building up to Troy and Abed's rat-luring song sequence which is used to underscore the resolution of every story, but good lord does it really, really work. It almost has a season finale feel to it, when it wasn't even the winter finale. Community don't fuck around.

Best Moment: "Somewhere Out There" is the moment that Community officially became one of my favorite shows.

4. Episode 12 - "Comparative Religion"

First off, Anthony Michael Hall's guest spot basically couldn't be any funnier. Every moment he spends onscreen as Greendale's resident bully is gold (not to mention that Hall and Chevy Chase together makes this a National Lampoon's Vacation reunion, even if they never interact). But I also think the way the episode approaches the topic of religion is deft and funny (especially Pierce labeling Jeff a "lazy man's atheist"), not preaching one way or another and having it all come down to a mass brawl in the quad anyway. Part of the reason I disliked season two's "Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples" so much is that it handled bluntly and awkwardly what "Comparative Religion" already had with subtlety and care, but it doesn't change this being one of my favorite sitcom Christmas specials of all time.

Best Moment: You'd think the final brawl, and it'd be a good guess, but in truth the moment that made me laugh hardest was Pierce kicking Troy in the shin followed by Troy spitting "WHY SHE HAFTA BE BLACK?!" I couldn't breathe.

3. Episode 9 - "Debate 109"

The B-plots with Abed's eerily accurate student films and Britta's hypnotherapy are extremely solid (especially Chevy Chase's slow, agonizing pratfall into the drums as he attempts to escape the music room), but the A-plot dominates here and I think it's definitely the strongest Annie episode of the entire series to date as well as the one where I decided she's my favorite character. Something about Greendale vs. City College just really lets the comedy flow (also seen in season two's "Basic Rocket Science") and my only disappointment is that antagonist Jeremy Simmons has yet to make a return appearance.

Best Moment: This is gonna seem like a very shipper thing to say, but Annie kissing Jeff and forcing him to drop Jeremy Simmons to win the debate was probably the most perfect imaginable climax for the episode.

2. Episode 21 - "Contemporary American Poultry"

I love Goodfellas and I love The Godfather and I love Abed — hell, I even love chicken fingers — so it should come as no surprise that I consider this episode a masterpiece and, as with "Debate 109" and Annie, Abed's all-time high. Every aspect of crime cinema, from the initial elimination of Star-Burns that allows them in the game, to the establishment of their chicken finger criminal empire, to the period of wealth and prosperity, followed by greed, betrayal, and finally downfall, is somehow squeezed into twenty-two perfect minutes (less, not counting the ending tag). How'd they do it? I dunno, but I think "Contemporary American Poultry" is one of my favorite sitcom episodes of all time, something that truly shows how ambitious Community is compared to every other comedy on television. I should note that Emily Cutler wrote both this and the next and final episode on this list, which in my opinion makes her one of the best comedy writers on the planet.

Best Moment: The Godfather homage when Troy closes the door on Jeff while Abed's hand is being kissed just fucking slays me. That's how you do a pop culture reference, Seth MacFarlane.

1. Episode 23 - "Modern Warfare"

This is such a cliché pick for favorite Community episode, yet impossible to escape from. My jaw was on the floor after I watched "Modern Warfare." It helps that Die Hard is one of my all-time top ten favorite films and I love 80s action in general, but I don't think the ambition and scale of something like "Modern Warfare" has ever been attempted in the sitcom medium prior to 2010. It's just brilliant, breathtaking, and hilarious, and I love, love, love that they upped the emotional stakes to match the apocalyptic settings by choosing this episode to have Jeff and Britta finally hook up. Honestly, other sitcom producers should look at "Modern Warfare," something Dan Harmon put together in his first goddamn year as a TV showrunner (with the help of Justin Lin and Emily Cutler), and feel profound shame. This episode raised the bar, and while I can't read the future and say that nothing will ever be the same, I hope it won't be. This is the shit television was invented for.

Best Moment: Senor Chang's entire John Woo-flavored scene in the library with Jeff and Britta should be studied by TV writers, directors, and producers for years to come, and I'm not kidding or exaggerating in the slightest when I say that. It's two minutes of perfection.

Ranking Fall 2010's New TV Series FINALE

Okay, time for the final update to my rankings of fall 2010's new TV shows in light of the season finales of Boardwalk Empire and The Walking Dead and what turned out to be the series finale of FX's now sadly canceled Terriers.

First off, Terriers, which was an original, compelling, dark, supremely well-acted and often unexpectedly hilarious mystery show through its first eleven episodes, abruptly became fucking incredible in its two-part series finale. Like, holding-your-breath, heart-thumping-as-it-goes-to-commercial, saying-"holy shit!"-right-out-loud incredible. I had ranked it #2 behind Boardwalk Empire through most of the season, considering the two shows more or less tied, but after the finale there was no longer any contest. I'll stop here because I wanna do a more elaborate full series review later, so let's just say Terriers was the greatest new show of 2010 and leave it at that.

That leaves Boardwalk Empire and The Walking Dead fighting it out for #2. It's no secret by this point that Boardwalk turned out not to be the Sopranos-in-the-1920s-style gangster show they marketed it as and most people wanted it to be, instead being a show about business and politics at a time when business and politics were slightly rougher and may have occasionally involved a murder or two. And hey, I love political shows — The West Wing is one of my all-time favorites — so that's basically okay with me. I said at the beginning of the season and I say again today that the gorgeous and wildly expensive production values are probably the show's highlight and I look forward to season two if only to spend more time in the Prohibition-era Atlantic City they've created.

The Walking Dead is a rawer, more visceral and immediate pleasure which delivers exactly on the promise of its advertising: zombies, zombies, and more zombies. I think it has the potential to become a greater show than Boardwalk if the second season evolves in interesting and unexpected directions, but I did find the first season finale to be filler-esque and not the highest note to end on. It would have been a perfectly good sixth episode of a twelve or thirteen-episode season, but as a season finale it definitely wasn't a pockmark on Terriers' ass. Still, I look forward to more Georgia zombie adventures. As I said last month about a different show, consider The Walking Dead and Boardwalk Empire for all practical purposes tied. Now if they combined them into The Boardwalking Dead Empire, we may have the greatest show of all time.

As for the shows in my watchable tier, The Event and No Ordinary Family are alike in that I've grown a bit warmer on the positive aspects of each but colder still on the negatives. I continue to admire The Event's extremely tight serialization and the big picture has taken shape a little with the revelation of Hal Holbrook as the main antagonist of the 24-style half of the show, but the alien pod people that provide the main narrative impetus for the Lost-style half of the show have grown silly and I no longer find them intimidating or particularly interesting. The Event's better than most of what premiered this fall but I could never, ever describe these first ten episodes as good television with a straight face.

Meanwhile, over on No Ordinary Family, the main story with the husband and wife has developed nicely as they've grown into their superpowers, fought some crime, and deepened their partnerships with their sidekicks while a villain has taken shape and there's even been an unexpected death or two among the supporting cast. Unfortunately every episode has its runtime clogged with useless, episodic storylines involving the son and the daughter where they use their powers to do high school stuff. One recent episode involved the mom and dad trying to catch a pyrokinetic supervillain and coping with accidentally killing him in self-defense while the son and daughter, I shit you not, tried to fix a statue they'd accidentally knocked off a table at home. It was like that episode of Saved by the Bell where they break the Elvis statue at Screech's parents' house had been spliced in by accident. Talk about your fucking mood whiplash.

I dropped Mitch Hurwitz's new and rapidly dying sitcom Running Wilde down below No Ordinary Family, because when Fox announced its soft cancellation (they aren't yanking it from the air and will let it play out the season, but it's definitely done and will not be be renewed) I didn't have the slightest reaction of disappointment. I just kind of shrugged and was like "welp, saw that coming." I think even No Ordinary Family's cancellation would provoke more of a response from me than that. Running Wilde gave me some chuckles and even a legitimate laugh or three, but we didn't exactly have a torrid love affair.

Lastly, no show below Running Wilde has changed ranks, because I haven't watched any more episodes of them, so how could they?

Recap:
Day 1: Outlaw, Boardwalk Empire, Chase, The Event, Lone Star
Day 2: Detroit 1-8-7, Raising Hope, Running Wilde, Better With You, Undercovers
Day 3: My Generation, Outsourced, No Ordinary Family, Law & Order: Los Angeles
Day 4: Blue Bloods, The Defenders, Hawaii Five-0, Mike & Molly, $#*! My Dad Says
Day 5: Hellcats, Terriers, Nikita, The Whole Truth
Day 6: The Walking Dead
October 16th Rankings
November 15th Rankings

Beyond the jump, the rankings!

NBC Sitcom Roundup — "China," "Chain Reaction of Mental Anguish," & "Mixology Certification"

Apologies for being rather late with and terse in my sitcom roundup this week, but with the midseason finales just around the corner I'm holding off to post more elaborate thoughts on the general status of all three shows sometime in the next few days. But in the interest of not missing a week lemme bust out some quick and dirty minireviews on last Thursday's new episodes.

The Office, Season 7 Episode 10 — "China"

Just as "WUPHF.com" seemingly served to wrap up Michael and Ryan's relationship, this episode seems to put a cap on Michael and Oscar by letting Michael intellectually one-up Oscar for the first and presumably only time ever. I was cringing when their storyline began with Michael's red scare paranoia, because one thing The Office is not deft in is broad sociopolitical issues, but once it softened into a mental duel between Michael and Oscar it became much more enjoyable. I wasn't exactly rolling with laughter, but it amused.

Far better was the other duel going on in the episode's B-plot between Dwight and Pam. Very funny, brought out the best in both characters, and ended on a legitimately sweet note (as opposed to the faux-sweetness of the Erin / Andy and Dwight / Angela romances I find tedious) by showing that at some level Dwight really does care about Pam. Mix in the ice cream pigeon credits sequence and Erin being well-written once again (this time as paranoid and possibly a little sociopathic) and you have the best Office since Halloween, as well as the first one since then to trump the 30 Rock it aired up against.

30 Rock, Season 5 Episode 9 — "Chain Reaction of Mental Anguish"

After four consecutive strong episodes, 30 Rock slipped up last Thursday. I had exactly one huge belly laugh in the episode, which ironically involved one of the characters I've grown most tired of: I of course refer to the flashback revealing that Kenneth was forced to eat the pig he regarded as a father (including its face). That was hilarious dark comedy and one of the biggest laughs I had all week.

Shame then that the rest of the episode was mostly dead air. Other than assigning already-trademarked names to his various cockamamie business schemes the subplot with Tracy's "son" was a bust, especially the odd comedic monologue by Jack involving proteins that was about 95% odd and only about 5% comedic. Liz's psychoanalysis felt like a poor man's version of her confessing her dark sexual history in "Reaganing" just a couple months back and the less said about Jenna and her cross-dressing boyfriend's desperately unfunny subplot the better. Arguably the weakest episode of the season outside of the premiere and the live show.

Community, Season 2 Episode 10 — "Mixology Certification"

Community has tried its hand at many genres in 2010 — action with "Modern Warfare," horror with "Epidemiology," and thriller with "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" just last week — so it only makes sense that they now take a shot at drama. A comedic drama, of course, just as "Modern Warfare" was comedic action, "Epidemiology" was comedic horror, and "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" was a comedic thriller, but drama nonetheless.

"Mixology Certification" was a quiet, understated, and vaguely sad episode by Community standards that cemented exactly why this show is so amazing: I genuinely like the characters. As people, I mean, not as sitcom types. That's something that can't really be said about The Office or 30 Rock or Arrested Development or Curb Your Enthusiasm or Always Sunny. It's part of what made Friends so popular back in the day and it's the reason that, even after all the recent high concept episodes raised the bar, we can still just watch the cast hang out in The Ballroom for twenty minutes and it's fairly riveting stuff. The scene with Annie and Troy in Annie's apartment at the end did not in any way look or feel like a scene from a broadcast sitcom; it felt like something from an indie film, a good indie film.

This episode also again proved that Annie, Abed, and Troy, while not the official protagonists, are the show's holy trinity and some of the most likable sitcom characters of all time. Have I mentioned lately that I love this show?

Tim's Trailer Talk, Vol. 14

African Cats



Chances of me seeing it: 60%. I love kitties!

Chances of me liking it: 40%. Looking at this very uplifting, feel-good, Disneyfied trailer I am curious to what extent the final film is actually going to acknowledge and show the fact that African cats have to commit daily cold-blooded murder — often against harmless, lovable herbivores — in order to stay alive. I mean, that would just make the whole thing so much less adorable, yet so much more badass. We shall see.

Beyond the jump: the return of Mel Gibson, Halle Berry, Hayden Christensen, and Mega Shark.

Top 11 Performance Academy Award Misfires of the 00s

December is upon us, but as the nights grow cold the Oscar race heats up day by day. The studios are now in full-speed-ahead campaign mode, The Social Network and 127 Hours and The Fighter and The King's Speech all up in our face, and in the blink of an eye 2010 will be over followed by the nominations and the big show, during which lots of the wrong people will win. Coming off a decade where Chicago and Crash won Best Picture it hardly needs be said that the Academy can fuck up and fuck up big time, but if I tried to call them out one award at a time I'd be here all week. So I've decided to specifically highlight eleven instances between 2000 and 2009 where the Academy gave Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, or Best Supporting Actress to the wrong damn person.

I'm not gonna get into all the deserving folks who weren't even nominated (and in a few cases, such as Sam Rockwell for Moon, should have been nominated and won); I considered doing such a post and even started making a list but once it ballooned past thirty people I shelved the topic for another day. So note that this list only includes cases where someone else in the existing pool of nominees should have had their name read from the envelope come Oscar night. Starting with the least egregious and counting down to the appalling and inexcusable:

11. Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) over Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler) for Best Supporting Actress, 2008


While Penelope Cruz and Marisa Tomei were both playing stereotypes — Cruz a fiery Spanish sex goddess and Tomei a stripper with a heart of gold — Tomei brought a soulfulness to her part that Cruz's entertaining but shallow lustiness never came within a mile of. I won't go so far as to say Tomei was playing on an even level with Mickey Rourke, but if you look at the bar scene where the two discuss their shared love of the 80s and hatred of the 90s you'll see that she more than holds her own, something I doubt Cruz could have pulled off. Had Rebecca Hall been nominated in Cruz's place for her subtle and understated work as Vicky Cristina Barcelona's titular Vicky it'd be a much tougher call.

10. Jim Broadbent (Iris) over Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring) for Best Supporting Actor, 2001


This is one of several cases on this list where the critical elite and Academy would pretend to blanch in horror at my mere suggestion to cover up the fact that they know I'm right. Of course McKellen was never going to win — he was in a genre movie for Christ's sake, a genre movie! — but while I respect Broadbent's work and acknowledge his talent (the only reason this misfire is ranked as low as it is), bringing sadness and oldness to your portrayal of a sad old man is nothing compared to dominating a beloved, iconic, half-century old literary character so perfectly that it's now hateful to imagine him being played by anyone else. Any jackass filmmaker and jackass actor can tell me and even show me that a character is powerful, but McKellen's booming, theatrical Gandalf is one of the few to truly convince me. "BILBO BAGGINS! DO NOT TAKE ME FOR SOME CONJURER OF CHEAP TRICKS."

9. Kate Winslet (The Reader) over Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married) for Best Actress, 2008


I've said a hundred times and I'll say a hundred more how much I hate The Reader. The cheapest, coldest, most soulless Oscar bait in years and the Academy fell for it hook, line, and sinker, shoving infinitely more worthy nominees out of five categories including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, and of course Best Actress. Yes Kate, you're a former Nazi struggling with illiteracy, a bloo bloo, a bloo bloo. Wake me when it's over. Anne Hathaway is one of the most likable and appealing people in the world so it's remarkable how, sans any Monster-esque makeup, she was able to make Rachel Getting Married's protagonist Kym the most awkward and repulsive screen character of 2008. It's that rare performance devoid of a shred of ego.

8. Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby) over Kate Winslet (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) for Best Actress, 2004


But don't get the wrong idea; I love Kate Winslet outside of shitty Oscar bait, particularly as Clementine Kruczynski in Charlie Kaufman's masterpiece Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I've endured so many soulless, artificial onscreen romances that it was a visceral thrill to watch an actress give a romantic movie a warm, beating heart while grabbing you by yours. I have nothing against Hilary Swank, but playing up a southern accent and getting punched is something a lot of actresses can pull off. Making the frame come truly alive takes something magic only a few people have. Winslet has it. Too bad she won her Oscar for such a calculated role rather than the one she really deserved it for.

7. Sean Penn (Mystic River) over Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean) for Best Actor, 2003


Here's another in the "critical blasphemy" category. I mean, c'mon, Sean Penn screamed in Mystic River. He screamed! No other actor on earth could hope to measure up to the brilliance of screaming! I guess Johnny Depp will just have to live with being arguably the only actor in the past ten years to create a truly iconic character directly for the screen, one he crafted the unique mannerisms and speech patterns of largely by himself. Someone should tell all young wannabe actors that their goal shouldn't be to create a legendary character that hundreds of millions of people want to see and is so immense a franchise is built entirely around him, but to shove a cop and go "IS THAATT MY DAUGHTER IN THHEEERRREE!!!!!"

6. Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine) over Mark Wahlberg (The Departed) for Best Supporting Actor, 2006


I really don't know what happened here. It's not that Arkin was bad. He was perfectly amusing. He earned some chuckles. But his junkie grandpa in Little Miss Sunshine was not in any way, shape, or form a performance that warranted Academy Award attention, which is why he's so high up on this list — the sheer power of my "what the fuck?!" when they read his name on February 25th, 2007. Wahlberg on the other hand was brilliant, absolutely hilarious and bursting with incredible energy that you see onscreen a few times a decade. I've had my problems with Wahlberg before and especially since (his performance in The Happening is one of the worst of all time), but Scorsese unlocked something magic in the man that he thoroughly deserved to take home a statue for.

5. Tim Robbins (Mystic River) over Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai) for Best Supporting Actor, 2003


Is The Last Samurai a movie that laughs maniacally while shitting all over history? Yes. Is is a movie that glorifies the exact same god worship of the Emperor of Japan that would contribute to the Japanese atrocities of WWII as being something heroic? Yes. Is it Dances with Wolves set in another country? Yes. Is it crazy entertaining despite all this? Oh yes. While Tom Cruise's name may be above the title the real stars are the gorgeous cinematography and Ken Watanabe as the samurai lord Katsumoto Moritsu, arguably the best interpretation of the wise-and-calm-until-he's-suddenly-badass warrior monk since Alec Guinness gave us Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1977. I saw Mystic River in theaters but I honestly don't remember much about Tim Robbins. He was serviceable and forgettable. Watanabe owned the screen, and his final scene is a thing of haunting beauty.

4. Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton) over Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) for Best Supporting Actress, 2007


I should clarify that me ranking Amy Ryan this high doesn't necessarily mean that I thought this performance was better than, say, Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow. What it does mean is that the gulf between the performance that should have won and the one that did in this case is immense. Tilda Swinton showed up in Michael Clayton, she hit her marks and said her lines and served the story, nothing more and nothing less, and I forgot everything about her part within a week of seeing the film. She no more deserved an Academy Award for it than Ben Kingsley does for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

But as Helene McCready, a Boston mother grieving for her kidnapped daughter, Amy Ryan stole Gone Baby Gone out from underneath actors like Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris and ran away with it. If you compare Helene McCready to Ryan's characters Beadie Russell from The Wire and Holly Flax from The Office it becomes clear how talented she is; the vastly different yet completely believable ways these characters walk, talk, interact, and carry themselves make it startling to realize they're all played by one person. Ryan's an absolute fucking chameleon, a brilliant actor who deserves more big screen work, and she should already have an Oscar on her shelf.

3. Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) over Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain) for Best Actor, 2005


Two things for the record: one, I'm a big Philip Seymour Hoffman fan. He's one of the best actors alive and had he been up against anyone other than Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh I would have been livid over him losing Best Supporting Actor for Charlie Wilson's War in 2007. And two, this is not some Johnny-come-lately "oh, Heath Ledger's dead, time to glorify him now!" kind of thing; I called bullshit over this award on Oscar night five years ago exactly as aggressively as I'm about to right now.

With that out of the way, bullshit, Academy! Brokeback Mountain is no great screenplay, but the power of the cinematography, the score, and especially Ledger's performance as Ennis Del Mar, a flawless portrait of American masculinity streaked with confusion and shame, lift it to the level of art. It's understandable — a shame, but understandable — that so many sexually uncomfortable Americans write off such a great film as "that gay cowboy movie," but if nothing else it should be acknowledged that no one else is likely to give a better gay cowboy performance in my lifetime. Philip Seymour Hoffman's Truman Capote impersonation may have been accurate but it had 1% of Ennis Del Mar's heart and soul.

2. Sean Penn (Milk) over Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) for Best Actor, 2008


Mickey Rourke was never gonna win. I denied it at the time, but in retrospect I was like a circa 2008 Republican pretending McCain had a shot. Rourke was playing a dim, brutish, Z-grade entertainer and up against an Oscar favorite playing a real gay rights hero who was tragically gunned down in his prime. The Best Actor race was over before it began. But if you put aside the politics and the "playing a real person" bonus it's clear to anyone who sits up and looks at the screen that there's no comparison. Sean Penn put on a gay lisp and got the job done. Mickey Rourke bared his soul and gave one of the best performances of all time, something rich and stirring and emotional, something unprecedented in sports cinema outside of Robert De Niro in Raging Bull. You only need to look at the trailer to see how good he is, but the kicker is that unlike most trailers they haven't sliced out the highlights; he's simply that amazing for two straight hours. I actually rank the performance very slightly above Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, but Day-Lewis still gets the last laugh of the 00s.

1. Adrien Brody (The Pianist) over Daniel Day-Lewis (Gangs of New York) for Best Actor, 2002


Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York is the greatest screen performance of all time. There's no "but" or "except for" or "of the decade" at the end of that sentence. The greatest. Better than anything Brando or Olivier or Welles ever did. Sweeps aside De Niro in Raging Bull as you or I might shoo a fly. Observe and weep for the inferiority of all other actors on earth.

I know that when you use phrases like "best ever" when it comes to film it's considered a major faux pas among the critical establishment to be referring to anything made after the 70s, with the 40s or 50s strongly preferred, but I don't give a shit and I will never again be caught reducing Bill the Butcher to being "one of" the best performances ever. The power, the terror, and the intensity of it is singular, has not been matched, and may never be matched. It's almost too good, devouring the movie it's part of and making every scene without the Butcher feel like an insufferable slog when they'd be perfectly good scenes in any other film. Is Gangs of New York a masterpiece? Not quite. It's great but falls just short of that plateau. But no movie since the advent of film has showcased superior acting.

Adrien Brody in The Pianist? He was okay, I guess. Comparing the two is like an arm wrestling match between 80s Schwarzenegger and a sickly toddler: it's cute to pretend there's a competition, but there isn't.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I proves that it's possible to both like and be disappointed in a movie at the same time. Reducing things to my base gut reaction, yes, it's a good film, very good at moments. One only needs look at the box office hauls for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen or Alice in Wonderland to see that the vast majority of the public doesn't even demand that much, so maybe taking Deathly Hallows to task is just looking a gift horse in the mouth. I mean, a non-Pixar, non-Christopher Nolan blockbuster is competently made! What does that happen, like, three, four times a year?

Still though, that damn two-movie split. I said when they first announced it that I didn't like it and nothing about actually seeing the first movie has changed my mind. Deathly Hallows as written by J.K. Rowling is a muscular and thrilling book, easily my favorite of the series (keep in mind this is coming from someone who was always iffy on the Hardy Boys-with-wizards style magical mysteries of the first several novels and generally prefers darker, more adventurous fantasy, so it should come as no surprise that the darkest, most adventurous Potter book is my favorite), and I think this could have been the first Harry Potter with legitimate potential at being one of the top ten films of its year if it were the complete story. As is, it's just pretty good.

Please note that I'm not talking about the fact that this first movie has an abrupt ending and we'll have to wait six months for the finale; I agree with Potter fanboys that that's a silly, bogus complaint that makes me roll my eyes every time I read it. There'll be half a movie for six months then there'll be a complete movie for the next trillion years. It doesn't matter. What does matter is that the this first film's pacing is slack, especially in the middle, and unless Part II is sincerely brilliant then we'll have sacrificed a gripping and propulsive finale for one that wears out its welcome. The Battle of Hogwarts should have come barreling down like a freight train, refusing to let you catch your breath; now I fear it's going to arrive accompanied by the sensation of "thank god, finally."

(As you can probably tell, I am in general not a fan of filler. I like that so many TV shows these days are turning to 12 or 13-episode seasons in lieu of the traditional 22-episode model. Less to watch per year, but I think it promotes stronger storytelling.)

But like I said, the better part of what's here is good, so I don't wanna sound like I'm taking a shit on Deathly Hallows: Part I. After the Death Eaters' assassination of Dumbledore and successful coup against the Ministry of Magic, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, now wanted dead or alive, are on the run to find the Horcruxes, the destruction of which will undo Voldemort's invincibility. This gives the movie a road trip vibe, a treasure hunt vibe, and a Fugitive-style "on the run" vibe which all blend into an entertaining whole giving room for plenty of character interaction and organic action scenes that don't feel embarrassingly shoehorned in like the attack on the Weasley house in Half-Blood Prince. It also doesn't hurt that the cinematography is fucking beautiful, warranting an Academy Award nomination.

The absence of Hogwarts and its star-studded faculty means that the movie is carried more by Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson than any in the series to date. I mean, they've always been first billed and they've always been the main characters, but they've been helped along for a decade now by the fact that more often than not they're sharing the screen with one or more of the best British actors alive. Think about it; what was the most boring part of Sorcerer's Stone? The climax, of course. And why was that? Because Harry, Ron, and Hermione were alone. But they've had nine years and seven movies to hone their craft and I'd say they've developed into pretty good actors. Radcliffe does a fine job bringing exhaustion and desperation to Harry Potter, making the rare moments of levity feel like enormous sighs of relief.

But still, there's no lack of background talent in Deathly Hallows — Ralph Fiennes, Bill Nighy, Brendan Gleeson, Alan Rickman, John Hurt, David Thewlis, Rhys Ifans, Imelda Staunton, Robbie Coltrane, Timothy Spall, Jason Isaacs, Helena Bonham Carter, Richard Griffiths, and Warwick Davis all put in appearances ranging from two to ten minutes apiece (although Maggie Smith's sublime Professor McGonagall is sadly missing in action) and they all do fine work. Rickman in particular has a terrific scene in the film's opening minutes where he says more with one stony, unyielding facial expression than most actors could with pages of monologues and shows why the fact that he's never received an Academy Award nomination is a fucking embarrassment.

All the Hogwarts students return too, albeit in tiny parts until the next film, most appearing in exactly one scene on the Hogwarts Express. Years from now looking back on the Potter series I think the most impressive thing will be the dozens upon dozens of cast members they've held onto for ten years and eight films, the only major recast being Albus Dumbledore after Richard Harris's death between Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban. I mean, Christopher Nolan couldn't even hang onto all of five recurring characters between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight; the Potter producers have hung onto somewhere close to a hundred. Words can't express how much emotional impact would be lost if Radcliffe or Grint or Watson had been swapped out at some point and we were forced to watch some unwelcome impostor (even one who was as good or better an actor), not to mention Rickman, or Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy.

The movie as a whole has an admirably oppressive and joyless air about it, featuring lots of Nazi allegory with its villains and, for a series that's ostensibly youth-oriented, a fairly brutal number of deaths of named heroes. There's blood and murder and implied genocide and dead animals and even one scene of something vaguely resembling nudity which caused parents in the theater to react with hilarious cringing discomfort, because in America it's just fine for little Billy to see torture and internment camps and political assassination but lord knows if he sees Hermione's naked shoulders and back for like three seconds his innocence will be lost forever.

But while I admired the overall vibe I found the threat factor of the non-Voldemort villains to be lacking. For example, there's one scene where (minor spoilers incoming, I guess) the trio breaks into the newly-fascist Ministry of Magic to steal something and winds up being chased by Yaxley, one of Voldemort's top lieutenants. Three kids who haven't even graduated from Hogwarts being run down by a feared enforcer for the most powerful wizard on earth should be terrifying; it should feel like a shark attack in Jaws. But it just kind of... doesn't. It has an almost Saturday morning cartoon chase feel to it. A scene where Voldemort talks to his henchmen is undermined by how terrified of him some of them look. I get that the filmmakers are trying to make Voldemort scary and I agree that he should demand respect and the promise of a threat must always linger, but if his underlings physically shake when he talks to him they just look like little babies.

But overall, despite some issues with the villains and bigger issues with the pacing as the heroes begin wandering aimlessly in the second act, this is a dark, compelling journey that legitimately pushes its protagonists to the breaking point in a way most adventure movies simply don't. It contains moments of genuine excitement and moments of genuine emotion from characters we've grown to care about, and in a purely visual sense it's a gorgeous-looking movie that I'd stack up against literally anything released in 2010. I would never go so far as to call it the Empire Strikes Back of Harry Potter like some critics have dared, but it's sure as hell not its Attack of the Clones either.


3 Stars out of 5
However, there is one more thing we must discuss, one for the initiated only. I'm talkin' about deaths, baby! Click beyond the jump for some very "deathly" spoilers.

Hereafter

I found Clint Eastwood's African sports drama Invictus to be stodgy, tedious Oscar bait, so news that his next movie was going to be a "supernatural thriller" starring Matt Damon showed promise and had me thinking that maybe he'd loosen up to recapture some of the spark and personality that made 2008's Gran Torino so much fun. What can I say? We all make mistakes. Hereafter is as much thriller as Schindler's List is a comedy; it's so bloodless and bone-dry that if a spark went off nearby I believe it would catch fire. Between this and Crash and Babel I'm pretty sure that if I have to watch one more turgid drama about the interconnectedness of humanity I'm gonna attempt to build a Death Star so that I can blow up the planet.

The film follows three primary characters in three mostly independent storylines. First we have Cécile de France (and yes, it is comically absurd for someone's last name to be the same as their country) as Marie LeLay, a French TV journalist who briefly dies during a tsunami and sees white light and human figures, but is resuscitated and begins a campaign to discover all she can about she afterlife she believes she glimpsed. Next up is Matt Damon as an American psychic named George Lonnegan who can touch people and commune with their deceased loved ones, an ability he once marketed but has left his personal life in disarray. And finally we have a young British kid named Marcus who's trying to contact a dead relative beyond the grave so that he can find peace.

You win absolutely nothing if you noticed the main thread linking these three souls: the afterlife, of course, something which Hereafter unambiguously posits exists seeing as Damon knows things via talking to the dead that he'd have no way of knowing otherwise. And that'd be fine and dandy, same as the straightforwardly-presented afterlife in The Sixth Sense was fine and dandy, except that Eastwood makes things bizarrely political with de France's story by having her initial attempts at researching the afterlife thwarted and defunded by anti-afterlife fanatics who think she's gone mad. I don't know how it is in France but here in the United States something like four out of five people believe in the afterlife, so it's pretty fucking insane to release an American film presenting believers as some kind of persecuted minority fighting the good fight. I try to leave my religious beliefs out of reviews but in this case they made me find the whole film to be an absurd farce.

But even stepping back from its metaphysical argument Hereafter remains a dull and plodding affair devoid of anyone to connect to. De France does nothing but babble on about the afterlife and the kid Marcus does nothing except sulk, steal money from his foster parents, and visit a series of phony psychics. Matt Damon is the only one of the three who comes close to emerging as an interesting, rounded character (which I don't just say because he's the biggest star) thanks to a thorough examination of the way being forced to speak to the dead has left him lonely and isolated. True, The Sixth Sense examined the exact same thing, but Hereafter does it in a much more dry and realistic way. If ghosts were sex, The Sixth Sense would be a porno; Hereafter would be a gynecological exam video made for med school.


1 Star out of 5

Tim's Trailer Talk: Game of Thrones Edition

In lieu of an ordinary Tim's Trailer Talk I thought this week I'd highlight the teaser for Game of Thrones, HBO's upcoming adaptation of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. I've been looking forward to this series since they first announced it a couple years back so it's exciting to finally see some footage. I'd also recommend the novels to any fantasy fans who haven't read them, with the important caveat that Martin seems to have some horrific writer's block and hasn't published a book in five years, leaving us stuck on a multitude of cliffhangers. But the books we do have are some of the finest pulp I've ever read, eschewing the evil overlord, heroic quest, and magical MacGuffins of traditional fantasy in favor of a lot of moral ambiguity, political intrigue, plot twists, sudden deaths, sex, and bloodshed.

I actually read the pilot script that was floating around Hollywood a couple years back, which shifts and truncates some dialogue but is an otherwise incredibly accurate scene-for-scene recreation of the first hundred or so pages of the first book. This teaser is equally reassuring, with almost every shot recognizable as a moment from the novel. Sure, nerds will nitpick over hair color and facial hair and exact wording of dialogue and other bullshit that isn't particularly important, but all that would be skirting the fact that this seems poised to become the most accurate book adaptation in the history of television. The city of King's Landing looks sunnier and less traditionally western European than I pictured it, but as long as the political intrigue and deaths that go on there remain intact that's no problem.

Sean Bean's performance looks predictably excellent (even if his politician character being all "I was trained to kill," while technically accurate coming from a former soldier, will gravely disappoint anyone who tunes in hoping for Boromir-brand badassery — there'll be plenty of violence, but Bean the instigator of very little of it), but the real X factor is the litany of unknowns playing the younger characters such as Arya, Robb, Bran, Sansa, Dany, Jon, and Joffrey, who are not window dressing but largely drive the plot. This other miniature promo seems to mostly highlight Sean Bean as Eddard Stark, Michelle Fairley as Catelyn Stark, Kit Harington as Jon Snow, Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, and Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen, which seems about right for the first season. Hopefully Harington and Clarke are up to the task.

I'm not gonna start counting chickens before they hatch because lord knows I've been let down by film and TV projects I've been excited about before, but the actors look spot-on and the production values gorgeous and expensive and if they stick to the text and keep the content harsh (which, seeing as this is HBO, should be no problem) then I think this teaser could be the prelude to an awesome series. Hey, last time they adapted a fantasy epic of this magnitude we got The Lord of the Rings, which I thought turned out pretty damn well.

NBC Sitcom Roundup — "WUPHF.com," "College," & "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design"

The Office, Season 7 Episode 9 — "WUPHF.com"

If you read too many TV blogs and forums like I do, this was among the most fascinating episodes of the season solely for the wide range of reactions it got. I read comments and reviews ranging from "best episode of the season, it felt like season two again!" to "this is fucking terrible, I'm done" and everything in between. I can't remember the last time I saw so little consensus. But I'm afraid I have no strong opinion one way or the other and must take the pussy middle-of-the-road stance of declaring it okay.

"WUPHF.com" was light on belly laughs, the only two I recall being Stanley sharing his lighthouse fantasy and the very clever "Washington University Public Health Fund" reveal. Kevin getting lost in the hay maze won a chuckle for the way Brian Baumgartner sold Kevin's panic, but there isn't a human being on earth who didn't know exactly what was going to happen the second he stepped into the maze. But what's actually interesting is that, outside of Michael and Toby's moment in "Counseling," this is the first episode that legitimately felt like part of Michael Scott's farewell tour.

Ryan Howard isn't really a character. Perhaps he was in the first three seasons as the temp filled with thinly-veiled contempt for Dunder Mifflin and all his coworkers, and maybe even in season four when he became Evil Ryan the VP, but since getting arrested and resurfacing as a bizarre hipster stereotype he's just a walking punchline who no longer has much of a place in the ensemble (and has fittingly had his office relocated to the closet). But the way Michael projects his need to be a mentor and father figure onto Ryan has always been a key part of Michael's character, and this episode put a small bow on this longrunning subplot by having Michael admit that Ryan is lazy and selfish and using everyone but saying he'll stand behind his employee nonetheless. I don't know if the show has any additional Michael-Ryan stories in store for Steve Carell's final seventeen episodes, but if this it I could live with that.

The main thing I hated? The sudden, out-of-nowhere subplot about the cap on sales commissions, which spat boldly in the face of the "sales is king" Sabre policy that shuffled Jim back down to his old position last season. I know this isn't a mythology show like Lost and loose continuity isn't a huge deal, but even as someone who only watched season six's episodes exactly once each I was immediately like "wait, what? Bullshit!" It led to a somewhat amusing moment at the end with Jim's prank on Gabe, but I'm going to be frustrated if this is a running subplot in coming weeks (and since Jim no longer has incentive to do his job, I don't see how it couldn't be).

But as a positive closing note, I thought there was a marked improvement in the character of Erin this week. I was getting fed up with them writing her as an absolute moron too dumb to convincingly breathe, let alone work as a secretary, and her protectiveness of the color ink is much more along the lines of what they should be doing with her; weird and neurotic, but not fucking retarded.

30 Rock, Season 5 Episode 8 — "College"

I said last week that season five is noticeably better than the fourth, and upon a little introspection the reason is clear and singular: we've finally moved beyond the turgid, seemingly endless love triangle between Jack Donaghy, Avery Jessup, and Nancy Donovan. I don't care that it was packed with famous actors, I absolutely loathed that subplot, and it seemed like it was all the show's greatest comedic weapon was stuck with for months on end.

But now corporate shark Jack is back, albeit a noticeably softened and humanized version from how he appeared at the beginning of the series. But that's okay; that's just character development, stemming less from Avery and his unborn daughter and more from his friendship with Liz. Watching him let go of the microwave division in this latest episode was a solid little Jack story (even if I could have done without the engineers explicitly noting the deliveryman was played by Alec Baldwin... thanks, I got it, 30 Rock), and I loved the way it collided with the pranking of Pete in a funny-yet-melancholy, pizza-shotgunning belated college party in Jack's office. It was great to see some writers room antics again too.

Liz's brief taste of popularity stood out less than the rest of the episode but was still amusing. Her threat to put her crewmember's dog down "with a smile" at the end was hilarious and ballsy in its willingness to make the show's protagonist aggressively unlikable. All in all, another pretty good 30 Rock joins a pretty good season.

Community, Season 2 Episode 9 — "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design"

Another Thursday, another outstanding Community. I'd be bored with the consistent goodness if it wasn't so goddamned good, but with "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" I have officially decided that Community has surpassed the peak years of both The Office and 30 Rock (as well as Curb Your Enthusiasm, Party Down, Always Sunny, and whatever Fox cartoons and laugh track CBS shows you care to name) as the best post-Arrested Development sitcom. It's simply brilliant and the current shining example of how film is lagging behind TV when it comes to comedy.

I won't bother going through everything I liked about this 70s conspiracy thriller spoof because that would just be summarizing the whole episode, but I'll note that it was interesting how half of the main cast either put in tiny cameos (Britta, Pierce, Shirley) or was entirely absent (Chang). Even Troy and Abed's role was pretty small in terms of screen time; this was really the Jeff, Annie, and Dean Pelton show, all the way from the hilarious "explosive" message to Annie to the Dean crying "would that this hoodie were a time hoodie!" in a scene that showcased exactly why Jim Rash should be added to the primary cast posthaste.

If the climactic scene featuring five subsequent fake shootings felt vaguely familiar to you, don't worry, that just means that you have good taste in sitcoms and were having flashbacks to "Pier Pressure" and "Making a Stand," the two Arrested Development episodes featuring J. Walter Weatherman using his missing arm to scare people. Both involved fake injuries to teach lessons and both were hilarious. But even more so than those Arrested episodes this demands a second viewing so you can see it knowing all the layers of conspiracy from the very beginning. It's just such an efficient and elegantly written 22 minutes of television even removed from the comedy that I can only applaud.

I was initially concerned that Abed and Troy's blanket fort was going to be superfluous and disconnected (not an entirely unfounded fear, if you look at recent Community episodes like "Aerodynamics of Gender" and "Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples" where the different stories seem to take place in different worlds), but the way the traditional 70s thriller chase involving Jeff, Annie, and Professor Professorson cut through it justified the whole damn thing. I was also impressed by how good it looked — after last week's bottle episode I assumed they were cutting back on costs, but these were some nice production values when it would have been easier and cheaper to just use vanilla dorms. I also kind of hope that Abed and Troy writing a screenplay together wasn't just a throwaway line and actually comes up again!

However, in spite of all that, the funniest part of the episode was near the beginning when Annie blew off walking, then blew off standing, then blew off talking language, then writhed on the floor of a busy school hallway shouting "BLEE BLOO BLUH BLOO BLOH BLEE BLUGH BLUGGHH" at Jeff as he walked away. Alison Brie is a national treasure.