Californication is a sexy, wild, and fun ride. David Duchovny stars as Hank Moody, a writer suffering from a crisis faith with an inability to write. He’s got an ex-wife (Natascha McElhone) and a daughter (Madeleine Martin) and the busiest sex life an unemployed, unmotivated, fucked up guy can have (and that’s A LOT of sex). He’s a perpetually self-loathing smart ass who can’t seem to move on from his split with his wife and after his soul-searching, dark novel was turned into a happy romantic comedy.

But Duchovny’s pitch-perfect performance adds intelligence and depth to Hank and a longing for something greater. What he is searching for, he cannot find, and the salacious situations he finds himself continually buried under make this a jilarios time. McElhone is not to be taken lightly either; she is Hank’s core and brings the right about of sexiness and nurturing quality to her character to nicely counterbalance Hank’s imbalance.

Some good twists and continuing storylines are well established in the pilot and certainly will play out in the future. The writing is strong, even though a little suprising from a writer whose only other credit that I can find is for Dawson’s Creek. Series directors, however, have a good pedigree and this may be a good instance of fresh scripts working well with established directors to make a fantastic episode. I think I’ll stick around for a while to see what Hank’s future holds.

6 outta 7.

As I read the article, I noticed this passage:

Something with that tickled the back of my mind, but it was early, so I let it go. I continued reading and crossed this passage:

Then I realized why that earlier passage bothered me. World War I ended in 1918, about five years before Bear Stearns was founded. But then, I thought, how did something that is pretty basic like this slip through? I mean, I am not a professional and I noticed it, and this story had two writers plus (I’m guessing) an editor go over it, right?

Oh, two other reporters contributed to the story. Think back to May of 2003. There was a lot of controversy going on in the newspaper business because people were doing reporting for other reporters and were not being given credit. New York Times contributer and Pulitzer winner Rick Bragg lost his job over it. It was a common practice, I think. I’ve seen reporters huddle together to flesh out a story because each reporter has sources the other needs. I’ve seen more senior reporters help a tyro journo rewrite their story, too. The question is how much do other reporters need to contribute before they get credit for writing some of the story.

At any rate, did one of these two helper journalists add in the inaccurate statement? There really isn’t any way for us to know, but there are at least four AP writers who need a basic 20th century history class or at least an internet connection to Wikipedia.

It’s been a while since I read a Spider-man comic.

It isn’t that I don’t enjoy the character or comics in general, I just haven’t been that interested. With the Spider-man Reboot of 2007, where 20 years worth of material was jettisoned, I thought I might sample the new old status quo.

This issue features the writing of Back to the Future writer Bob Gale and the art of Phil Jimenez. It’s mostly a setup issue for their multipart story, which is fine, but while I read the issue, I had a nagging feeling I read it somewhere before. As I finished it, I realized why. This story reads just like a Spidey comic from the 70s, the kinds I read reprinted in Marvel Tales as a wee lad.

Mostly there isn’t anything really wrong with it. The art is top notch. Jimenez has strong George Perez/Neal Adams influences, though, and that makes the art feel classic, if a bit dated. There wasn’t as much energy to the linework as I expect from a Spider-man book.

As I said, Gale’s script is mostly set up. The Daily Bugle has a new editor in chief. A crook robs the soup kitchen Aunt May works at and gets chased by Spidey. Later, said crook, named Freak gets hopped up on stolen drugs and has problems.

Marvel’s editor in chief, Joe Quesada, stated the reason for rebooting Spider-man is there are stories you can’t tell when your hero is married. He also stated this very weekend that “life is more interesting when you’re single.” These are both understandable comments, but if this is the sort of story you needed Peter to be single to tell, call me perplexed. The only thing out of the ordinary from your standard 70s comic is Aunt May has a job. Everything else is the same…some cops think Spider-man is a bad guy…Peter hates doing laundry…Peter needs money. Before this arc is over, I expect Peter to run out of web fluid and wax philosophical about what he’s doing with his life.

I rate this book one star out of four. It’s certainly a passable story, but this issue might well have been recreated from clipouts of old issues. Points are lost, too, for abandoning modern comic book storytelling conventions. If you are 50 and haven’t read a book in 30 years, here’s your chance to jump right back in. For anyone younger or those of us wanting something a little more substantial, ignore this issue, excepting the fine artwork.

I thought it was time then to take a look at the quality of the nominated films, block out the buzz, and really get into them. I make my Oscar picks and then I’ll tell you what I think will actually win. It’s a game I play with myself every year and I’ve been pretty accurate the past three years.

Without further delay, the nominees are…

Atonement

Honestly, I can’t think why this film was nominated. Set in the interwar and Second World War eras, a love story unfolds between an upper-crust pixie, Cecilia Tallis (Keira Knightly), and a lower-class up-and-comer, Robbie (James McAvoy), in a picturesque English manor. War is on the horizon but the characters, wholly sequestered from the outside world, don’t seem to be aware of it. Their love is unrequited until Robbie accidentally gives Cecilia a dirty letter and their passions flare in a library tryst. However, they are torn apart when Cecilia’s younger sister, Briony, who separately witnesses a rape, mistakenly accuses Robbie. Robbie is carted off to jail and Cecelia promises never to stop loving him. We are left to believe they are to reunite at some point.

What follows is none such thing, but rather an aimless story with all of the wan looks and hand-wringing of Pride & Prejudice, but none of the impetus, passion or focus (what A.O. Scott describes as “literal-minded irrelevance.”) We follow the lives of Robbie, Cecelia, and Briony several years after this fissure. Robbie has joined the military to escape prison, Cecelia and Briony have both become nurses, though in separate parts of London, as Cecilia still blames Briony for her situation. There are long, sweeping shots to give the semblance of an epic but the film is more a facsimile than the real thing. The filmmakers seem to have taken the blithe prose of Ian McEwan’s novel and written a book report. To their credit (and detriment) the film followed the plot points of the novel quite closely and translation from one to the other did not work.

This film falls short like so many other adaptations because it is not the job of the filmmaker to make a good adaptation, it is the job of the filmmaker to make a good film. In the end, little of the second half of the film matters and thus the story suffers greatly. This kind of film gets nominated all the time but this one should be seen for what it is: not great.

Prediction—
Best Picture: No.
Best Director: Not Nominated.
Best Adapted Screenplay: No.
Best Actor: Not nominated.
Best Actress: Not Nominated.

Juno

I have not seen this film so my judgments are based off of what I have seen, heard, and read about this film. My initial reaction is that it is the Little Miss Sunshine darling of last year, only, not quite as good. Witty, sardonic, self-reflexive it’s the story of a 16-year old girl and dealing with pregnancy. I’ve also heard it’s odd, decent, and worth seeing. Best picture? Probably not.

Prediction–
Best Picture: No.
Best Director: Not Nominated.
Best Original Screenplay: No.
Best Actor: Not nominated.
Best Actress: No.

No Country For Old Men

This, very possibly, could be the hardest movie to review this Oscar season. The film is unsettling in many ways and is exactly how I feel about the film. No Country For Old Men features an almost instantly iconic villain played by Javier Bardem (of The Sea Inside fame and whose character’s inner life is as deep) finds the most efficient method of killing his victims is either with a silenced shotgun or the device they use to kill cattle before slaughter. The film is about failure, the brutality of life before death, and misery.

By no means is this an easy film to watch–I found myself cringing and not liking the experience of watching the film. With few exceptions, when Anton Chigurh Javier Bardem shared a scene with another character, he would inevitably murder them. In most films, coupled with the spectacle of violence is a grain of mystery, suspense, or (in some cases) humor. One is lead to the impression that the murderer will get his comeuppance or at least there is some specter that the killer will be caught or captured. While it is understood that No Country is different, it was conspicuously devoid of tension in this regard. One was forced to endure violence (graphic violence at that) with apparently no reason other than a framework of a plot. For this reason, I left the theater highly critical of the film.

Here, strangely enough, is where the film gains some ground back. It was only after I started thinking about the film that some of the gaps started filling in. It is exactly this senselessness and brutality that Joel and Ethan Coen intended. The tapestry of the film–where the plot, setting, characters, and theme all intersect–is finely detailed with the subtleties the Coen Brothers are so able to incorporate. The craft hallmark of the Coen Brothers exhibited in this film is extremely strong and should be recognized for it. Chigurh is less human and more a vehicle of death, a grim reaper, traveling the land taking lives with no more reason than a flip of a coin or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. What seemed to be senseless violence was, in fact, not and this is even alluded to in the script. Chigurh has his own logic, to which we are never privy. As in most films, killers have a reason, here Chigurh does not.

This alienation we feel from the story is certainly in line with the themes of the film. As viewers, we flock to a character we can follow and care for and it seems Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is it. I will not say what happens but it is safe to say we cannot identify with him at some point and run fleeing to Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) but it is too late. Bell is an old man, tired, and a failure. The ending is as anticlimactic as growing old is. We are just left with what is.

Prediction–
Best Picture: Probably.
Best Director:No, because of the Director Guild’s ongoing disagreement with listing two directors on their films. Do they deserve it? Probably more than Best Picture.
Best Original Screenplay: Yes.
Best Actor: No.
Best Supporting Actor: Yes.
Best Actress: Not nominated.

Michael Clayton

Of the best picture nominees, Michael Clayton is probably the most traditional of the choices. The perennial star vehicle, it casts George Clooney as a smart, world-savvy lawyer who gets caught up in big business cover-up, which leads to the murder to his long time partner and friend. This role isn’t a stretch for Clooney nor is it original but he plays it well. This is perhaps why the film came and went in the theaters without a huge blip. Those who did see it must’ve thought, “this is better than I though it was going to be.” And indeed they were right. It was only when the film was nominated for Best Picture did it leap back into people’s consciousness. For those who didn’t see it, suddenly thought, “where did this film come from.” A lot of people must’ve voted for it… however, I’m sure it was a lot of people’s second choice film.

Director/Screenwriter Tony Gilroy employs a very classic structure to the film peppered with very strong performances from (especially) Tilda Swinton and Tom Wilkinson. There is enough misdirection in the film that it maintains a good level of intrigue. The main character must make the decision to either the right thing or that which will benefit him. There are several stand-out scenes that certainly influenced Academy members in favor of this film and it does deserve the Best Picture Nomination.

Unfortunately, not the best picture award.

Prediction–
Best Picture: No.
Best Director: No.
Best Original Screenplay: No.
Best Actor: No.
Best Supporting Actor: Yes.
Best Actress: No.
Best Supporting Actress: Yes.

There Will Be Blood

In terms of sheer filmmaker craft, There Will Be Blood is the only film that rivals No Country For Old Men. Based on Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel “Oil!”, P.T. Anderson takes us back to just before the turn of the 20th Century and the rise of the oil industry in southern California. It centers on Daniel Plainview, an oilman whose grit and sheer determination allow him to build an oil empire. Like other Anderson films, it also tracks the rise and fall of a central male figure whose own success breeds corruption, misery and disassociation from the world as representative of the larger societal shift. Namely Boogie Nights, which follows the development and evolution of the porn industry in the 70s, There Will Be Blood delves into the oil industry (and to some extent religion). In a way few directors can, Anderson mixes the thematic with the personal to create a rich texture to his films.

This is all to say, however, that this film has its faults. A very strong first half develops into a meandering, somewhat listless second half, buttoned by a powerful final scene. It is these faults that I think hurt it’s eventual chances.

It is Daniel Day-Lewis, however, that steals the show. Dark, brooding and utterly convincing, Lewis finds the nuances of the character. Anderson can be credited as an actor’s director and Lewis is the consummate actor. The collaboration is electric. Paul Dano also puts in a stellar performance and it is a shame he was not nominated. The film is definitely worth watching for these two performances.

It is also around these two characters that the dizzying relationship of industry and religion to Capitalism swirls (yes the capitalization is intended). Both men are forced to compromise that which he holds to be true and yet, while one gains monetary wealth, the struggle of personalities and points of view strip them by the film’s end. It turns cultured and religious men into animals (or merely strips the facade of socialization away) and reveals true greed. Anderson does an admirable job of juxtaposing the two and setting each of them in continual conflict with on another. Overall, it is a powerful film and deserves the accolades it has received.

Prediction–
Best Picture: No.
Best Director: Yes.
Best Original Screenplay: No.
Best Actor: Yes.

He’s played a similar role in the HD DVD/Blu-ray role. This time, the role appears to be different, though. He started writing for a Blu-ray owned site. He stopped taking advertising for HD DVDs. He will tell you his role was the same in both the Divx and HD DVD deaths, except there are notable differences.

Divx was launched by Circuit City. There were legitimate concerns as to how you’d play your discs long term like “What happens if the player’s modem died?” or “If the servers that unlocked the discs shut down?” HD DVD was a product that was ready for the market. It’s only disadvantage in the face of Blu-ray is that the maximum for disc storage space was 60% that of Blu-ray’s (which, incidentally, is why I am writing this on a laptop with a Blu-ray burner).

HD DVD had advantages, though, like price. The format was an outgrowth of standard dvd and authoring was cheaper because current dvd fabbing plants could upgrade, whereas for Blu-ray it was a new set of equipment that needed to be purchased. Another HD DVD advantage was that it had a complete format specification. Their format was complete at launch, whereas the Blu-ray spec wasn’t finalized until a few months after they started selling players, and all players don’t have to match the final spec until fall of 2008. That’s right, even today, on the eve of HD DVDs death, you can go buy a Blu-ray player that won’t play some of the content on discs on shelves right now. Hunt hasn’t rallied against this. He’s said comments that suggest this is an ok tactic to take…releasing a product before it’s ready. He points out that some HD DVD players have trouble, too. What he doesn’t mention is that every HD DVD player, because it’s spec-final, has an ethernet port so you can patch the firmware of your player.

He did have a column that was critical of the Blu-ray firmware update system by a columnist, but that column did not mention that the problem didn’t exist for HD DVD.

He readily criticized HD DVD releases for any fault he could find, but never offered similar criticisms of Blu-ray releases. If there was a release that HD DVD had the better release of, you simply find no mention of that title on his site, save for when the title was announced for release. The latest Harry Potter film featured an entirely new feature: The ability to sync HD DVD players over the internet where multiple people watched the movie as a screening. HD DVD offered live commentaries, too. Blu-ray can’t offer such until that final spec is in place, though.

The worst, in my opinion, though is that there is one Blu-ray player on the market that will play every disc: The Playstation 3. He mentions other players people can buy, but never suggests people buy the full featured one.

On Sunday, the 17th, he responded to people saying it sounded as though he was paid off with comments that there had been a lot of accusations of that in this format war. He also said that he only did what he thought was best. What he didn’t do was suggest he wasn’t paid by the Blu-ray backers.

I don’t think it would have mattered in this electronics fight. Nearly twice as much storage is a huge advantage, and Toshiba, to their benefit, didn’t force an update for HD DVD out that would have fixed this and left people holding the bag on non format compliant players.

This situation does call into question Hunt’s ability to be objective while reporting. Hopefully he will say whether he did or didn’t accept payments from Blu-ray backers to work against HD DVD. Until he does, there will be a cloud hanging over him that prohibits him from being considered a journalist.

Journalists work too hard to protect their reputations to have someone who doesn’t take the commitment to objectivity seriously damage everyone’s credibility.

Knowing that I would have an ideal chance to clear off some of the things lingering on that dusty shelf with my new adventure, I loaded my computer with the games I had bought from Steam, Valve Software’s online gaming store. I had bought the complete Valve collection when Half-life 2 was released, but never played passed the boat level. With time being short, but knowing I would want to play some games, I loaded all the Source Engine powered games I had, Half-life: Source, Half-life 2 and Half Life 2: The Lost Coast. I also rebought The Longest Journey with its sequel Dreamfall at the same time.

Having nothing to do and being sick over the Christmas/New Year’s holiday combo, I started Half-life: Source. I had bought the game when it was originally released and liked it, but never played very far into it. I was immediately impressed how great the game looked, even using it’s original late-90′s textures. Things were fluid and smooth. My Vaio laptop and its Nvidia 8400 GT were wholey up to the task of running the game. The only problem I encountered was late in the game, a storm drain that was supposed to be open was locked. I hunted around desperately online and finally had to use no_clip. It was unfortunate, but didn’t mar the gaming experience for me. Overall, I rate Half-life: Source a solid 9. The game is a classic, and I am happy to see Valve treat it as such.

When I finished it, I immediately launched into Half-life 2. The game was equally smooth and at times, down right frightening. Given the modern rise of survival horror, I liked seeing Valve’s take on the genre. After playing many hours with textures from the 1990′s, it was a breath of fresh air to see everything textured in fancy moderness. Given that even now, Half-life 2 is not a new game, I was impressed with just how cutting edge it still looked.

With the sequel, Valve mixes it up a bit including a few vehicle levels. I didn’t mind them much at all since there were a great deal fewer jumping puzzles to deal with. Basically with Half-life 2, everything that was in the original only got better. I’m tempted to rate it higher than the original, but the fact that it’s a sequel takes away a smidge. I finally settled on rating it exactly the same as the original, which is about as high an honor as I can bestow upon it.

Squeezing the last bit of Half-life goodness out of my Steam account, I ran through Half-life 2: The Lost Coast. It’s mostly a tech demo, but an amazingly beautiful one at that. I enjoyed their commentary bits, and the peak inside the making of games it gave. I also liked running the test program. While The Lost Coast warned me I only had a 2ghz processor in my laptop (a Core 2 Duo T7300), the test ran at 55fps. While the game as mentioned above isn’t new, it was still nice to see that a notebook had the horsepower to run the game properly. Given it’s demo nature, I give The Lost Coast an 8. It’s pretty, short and informative.

Now all I need to do is find a Wifi hotspot so I can download Episodes 1 and 2! That’s right, I bought The Orange Box. That also means I have a copy of Half-life 2 I can gift to anyone who is interested that doesn’t mind installing Steam to get it. If you’re interested, post in the comment section. Let us know why you are deserving of something valued at dozens of dollars! We’ll make a decision in the next week or two.

Next: The Longest Journey!

Driving around in February handing out resumes, I heard a track that immediately annoyed me. That’s certainly not the best way to start one of these things, but bear with me. Writhaus music guru Dave and I were driving around L.A. and Sirius’s Left of Center played this strange song that just kept repeating, “Can you feel it?” over and over. Immediately after, the next song was by the same band. It’s the first song of 2007 that popped for me. It’s “Energy” by The apples in stereo. These guys had a really great year and have been featured on a lot of these lists. All the attention they are getting is deserved. The album (New Magnetic Wonder) is great and “Can You Feel It” actually did grow on me.

Another in the group of songs that didn’t immediately grab me was Survivalism by NiN. The song didn’t really click for me until I bought the album and listened to Year Zero in its entirety. After that I had a new appreciation for that song, but my favorite track from the album is still “Capital G.”

I tried very hard to get the most out of the L.A. music scene. One of the bands I saw was Nick Black. The title track from their album “Hollow” is haunting and beautiful and stands out from the more traditional rock tracks. The album is really well crafted and worth the download on iTunes.

A band I tried to see but always failed is Moonrats. Their song “FLM” infected my mind instantly when I heard it, with it’s raw feel putting me in mind of Archers of Loaf. Here’s hoping they are still together when I finish doing my gig here in Ukraine so I can finally see them perform.

From Against Me!s sellout album “New Wave“, “Thrash Unreal” currently is the most played song in my iTunes library. It has great lyrics and a well put together sound. The album doesn’t feel like a sellout, so you are pretty safe buying it.

William Tell‘s album You Can’t Hold Me Down holds two songs for this list, “Fairfax” and “Slipping Under.” Both songs have been in heavy rotation on my iPod. Tell’s musical resume is very strong, and the album leaves you wishing there were a few more songs on it.

Two bands that had label problems hit back in a big way this year with strong debut singles. Jimmy Eat World‘s “Big Casino” and The Starting Line‘s “Island” are both worth mentioning.

Brad Paisley, about the only good country music singer to come about in the last 15 years, had a great album hit this year. 5th Gear added two songs to my 2007 playlist: “Ticks” and “Online“. You wouldn’t think a song about blood-sucking arachnids would be much fun, but the idea of a superhero named The Tick probably didn’t sound awesome the first time you heard about it, either. How can a blogger not like “Online” since it pokes good-natured fun at those of us in the nerdery.

In July, for a week, Matt Pinfield took over Sirius’s Left of Center. One of the tracks I got to hear him spin was “I Wish” by Brinkman. Just how do you tell a girl you’re sorry for that one night stand and let her know it’s not her, it’s you? Give the song a listen.

Test Your Reflex is a band I had never heard of before 2007, but I absolutely love their single “Pieces of the Sun.” Sure, it’s a ballad, but those aren’t inherently bad, are they?

The Dallas, TX band The Vanished popped up with a song on my list: “Chemical Reaction.”

Studying Russian, I managed to find a Russian-language pop song I enjoyed a good bit. Рыжая translates to “Red Haired Girl” and feels like a great summer song. I only have a basic idea what the lyrics Aviator are singing are about, but still, it’s a fun song.

That’s my list for 2007. As always, the year started slow, but there were plenty of songs I loved in the end. There are quite a few more, too, like that new album from The Bravery, Arcade Fire and others, but they get enough press as it is, anyway. Do these bands a favor. Track down their music. You’ll be happy you did.

We also vote Charley Pride – Christmas in My Hometown as the greatest Christmas album ever produced, if you were wondering.

“Fairfax (You’re Still the Same” talks about how some lovers stay the same even as we grow and change. It’s up tempo which helps cut the bittersweet of the lyrics. Tell’s former bandmate Andrew McMahon worked on the song with him. Fortunately, it has its own feel and not that of a Something Corporate single.

Maybe I am just a sucker for songs that mention the power of music, but among the best of the album is “Slipping Under (Sing Along to Your Favorite Song).” The song is about feeling pressure to change who you are. Tell’s lyrics suggest, “Just sing along to your favorite song, Takes you back to where you come from, Time and place, you cant erase When innocence is your only shame.” Again, the tempo is upbeat. It has a lightness that will keep you singing along while your brain processes the lyrics.

With “You Can Hold Me Down,” former Something Corporate guitarist William Tell comes into his own as a solo artist. This 10-song album (depending where you buy it) is filled with emotive songs and thoughtful lyrics. This album opens the door for Tell. Here’s to hoping his career continues fill our lives with music like this. Writhaus gives it a 4 and recommends Tell as an artist to watch over the next few years.

Scale:
0. Shoot yourself
1. Poor
2. So-So
3. Good
4. Excellent
5. Instant classic

But then you wonder, “Why? Am I not supposed to be embracing the people around me?” Then, revitalized, you dig back in and see what your new surroundings have to offer.

It was with that in mind that I picked up the 2006 release by Russian pop act Авиатор titled Мания (that’s Aviator – Mania for the non Cyrillic readers). When in Rome, right?

The lead single gives the album its title. In all honesty, it isn’t bad. It’s kind of rhythmic without having music that interferes with the repeating of key lyrics. Sadly, as the album progresses, the sound stays the same. I’d like to see the band take some chances. You know, mix it up a little. It’s not like Nickelback, but it could be one day with more studio polish…and that’s a bad thing.

Overall the album wasn’t a waste. It’s enjoyable. It doesn’t offend. It’s sure to drive teenage Ukrainian girls crazy. I think that’s all it’s designed to do. If my Russian was better, I might give a better or worse rating, but as it stands, this disc is a solid C+.

With that said, I did see a fun video by these guys with attractive women on a beach. If I can that cd, maybe it would get a higher rating. Only time will tell, I suppose.