[Every now and again, when we are on the verge of vomiting up the crap Hollywood is shoveling down our throats, this weekly series by Matthew Belinkie reminds us to keep things in perspective. —Ed.]
The Movie: Cliffhanger
Why It Strains Credulity:
Lithgow looks precisely like the Harvard-educated Fullbright scholar that he is. And Stallone looks exactly like the HGH-abetted manimal that he is. Bottom line: if Ivan Drago couldn’t do it, there’s no way the bad guy from Footloose is going to defeat the Italian Stallion. more »
Part 2 of Podcast Episode 2 features a discussion of the 2008 Academy Awards between Pete Fenzel, Ryan Sheely, Matt Wrather, and—for reasons passing understanding—the same anonymous political operative as Part 1.
[Director P. T.] Anderson concedes that he’s puzzled by the phenomenon — particularly because the lines came straight from a transcript he found of the 1924 congressional hearings over the Teapot Dome scandal, in which Sen. Albert Fall was convicted of accepting bribes for oil-drilling rights to public lands in Wyoming and California.
In explaining oil drainage, Fall’s “way of describing it was to say ‘Sir, if you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake and my straw reaches across the room, I’ll end up drinking your milkshake,’ ” Anderson says. “I just took this insane concept and used it.”
By the way, it’s now kind of painfully obvious this milkshake thing has gone from inside joke to appallingly mainstream, and really is no longer cool. We need to find a more obscure line from an even indier movie. [Honest to blog. —Ed.]
Now that Oscar season is over, so is the battle for my favorite filmic facepalm, and it belongs to generally competent New York Times movie reviewer and easy target*A.O. Scott. In his piece bemoaning the influence of the Oscars on Hollywood, he wrote:
“Releasing ambitious, serious films into theaters has become a brutal blood sport.”
It isn’t that outlandish on its face, because it’s the kind of thing we’re used to hearing at this point, but maybe we should question why we’re used to hearing it, because it really is very silly. more »
Le Mozart Des Pickpockets won Best Live Action Short!
I am shocked. I mean, when Forest Gump beat Shawshank, you could at least feel like, “Well, Forest Gump was just too popular.” But in this case, no one knew any of these shorts, so there shouldn’t have been any preconceptions.
There’s really only one explanation: Academy voters really love cute kids. You want to win an Oscar for Best Live Action Short? Get her.
I know this isn’t news: Anyone who really pays attention to hip-hop probably knows about the new Clipse mixtape already. But hey, we all have busy schedules. So just consider this a friendly reminder to download We Got It 4 Cheap III (via the always-worth-reading Sasha Frere-Jones).
You might also enjoy reading the review at Pitchfork, which would have you believe that the crown jewel in Clipse’s impressive list of achievements is their ability to entertain “indie kids.” Pitchfork is always good for touching off a bout of hipster-self-loathing. (Apparently it’s hyphen day here on over-thinking-it-dot-com. Just roll with it.)
Belinkie
Cobbling is apparently amazing acting training.
Also, there will be mustache wax.
Best bowling alley scene since Lebowski.
Damn right, it’s better than yours.
Stokes
There Will Be Blood. No, really.
The Oscar® goes to: Daniel Day-Lewis.
Fenzel
Sorry, the milkshake is only metaphorical.
No blood for oil? No thanks!
Citizen Kane, rugged, deranged and sledless.
The struggle of man vs. dirt.
There will not be female characters.
Sheely
Spoiler Alert: He’s not his son!?!
Wait, Paul Dano plays two characters? Boogie Nights, but with real drilling.
Real profits beat false prophets. Literally.
Okay, sorry for my time away sports fans. Let’s pick up where we left off.
In the last twoposts, I’ve discussed the inversion at the heart of sports movies — how the screen serves as a window and a mirror, telling a story in opposition to a viewer’s expectations and perspective. Rookie of the Year is about a kid who’s bad at baseball, Major League is about how serious our National Pastime is, and Necessary Roughness, it turns out, is a fairly frivolous movie intended for leisure that’s pleasant and easy to watch—that is, neither Necessary, nor Rough (nor an Empire, which if you ask me is a damned shame).
And there’s my segue. Guys in green shirts. more »
Finally, presumptive 
