Community - "Critical Film Studies" Review

“As I fell to the floor...I pooped my pants. I did.” -Abed

Community often walks a fine line between comedy and culture. What I mean by that is that some times Community plays for laughs by putting interesting people in interesting situations and we get laughs. Other times, like tonight, it references moments and images from our pop culture history. It pays respect to certain things that shape creative minds. I don’t believe I ever laughed once during tonight’s Community, but that isn’t to say it wasn’t bad or poorly executed. As I watched the opening scene I thought, “ I’m sure that this Community episode is a nod to something, but I don’t know what it is. That being said, I still applaud the show for its creativity. Everyone is dressed in Pulp Fiction clothing. This is where my lack of knowledge about that movie may haunt me. That and Cougar Town.” Community is so clever, but it can really alienate an audience. If I was a casual viewer or someone who had never seen an episode and I saw that one, I’m not sure if I’d watch another one.

Lot’s of TV viewers crave consistency. This is the reason procedurals and cop dramas are big hits. You know exactly `what you’re going to get from CSI and NCIS every single time out. I’ll admit, I was lost during this whole episode tonight. I kept trying to figure out all the references and it left me not really able to enjoy some of the fine acting that was going on. I had never heard of My Dinner With Andre before tonight, but I did look it up. It stars Wallace Shawn who is the “Inconceivable” guy from Princess Bride and the voice of Rex on Toy Story. It wasn’t until about 5 minutes left that I just decided to stop worrying about the uniqueness of the episode and pay attention to the characters I love,

This was an especially strong episode for Danny Pudi as Abed. That monologue he gave will be stuff of legends in Theatre Arts 1 classes in high schools for years to come. He revealed a lot of flexibility about himself, the actor. I don’t watch Cougar Town, but I understand enough that it’s totally in Abed’s personality to like that show. I bet he also loves Chuck and Fringe. Jeff had another strong episode. If Amy Poehler can get Emmy love for Parks and Rec last season, I see no reason Joel McHale can’t the same love this season. I couldn’t help but notice that Chang fit in particularly well this episode. Aside from the fact that Jeff would never invite him to Abed’s surprise party, he really seemed like a member of the group. However, he was just filling the role of Pierce as someone who antagonized and instigated. Pierce’s only purpose was to make a “balls” and “gay” joke. I’m beginning to really think the show needs to move on without him. Anything that will get Alison Brie more air time I’m favor for. She, again, played a very minor role this episode.

I still absolutely love Community as a show. I love that they DO do episodes like this, but I’m beginning to see why it doesn’t appeal to massive numbers. I know it’s been picked up for a third season already, so let’s hope NBC keeps ignoring its numbers and let us lucky few who watch this show enjoy it for what it is.

ApeDonkey Power Rankings - 1/31/11

Oscar nominations came out last week. Barry put together a great breakdown of the field last Tuesday. This week I'm dedicating the Power Rankings to Oscar's best and worst of the last 20 years. I spent most of the day trying to come up with the five best Oscar moments and I barely made it. On the other hand, I probably could have listed forty terrible Oscar moments.

Top 5

1. 1994 - Go back and look at the 67th Academy Awards; Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, Quiz Show, The Shawshank Redemption, Four Weddings and a Funeral (possibly the last decent romantic comedy ever made). That's a Murder's Row of Best Picture nominees and that list doesn't include Ed Wood, The Madness of King George, Bullets Over Broadway and Heavenly Creatures. Don't believe me? Turn your TV to TBS. There's a 93% chance one of those movies is playing right now.

1994 was a renaissance year for film making at least it was for my generation. We had buried the 80's musically and were now ready to discard the action movies of the previous decade and return to a grittier, more cerebral and independent form of film making. Young directors Like Kevin Smith and Wes Anderson were putting out soon to be favorites Clerks and Bottle Rocket. We were ready to take the baton and if the previous generation wasn't ready to pass to us, we were going to take it.

2. Daniel Day-Lewis - He doesn't make many movies but when he does, he goes all in. Time and again Day-Lewis has proven to be one of the finest actors of this generation. I don't think I've ever seen a bigger slam dunk for Best Actor than Day-Lewis was for his portrayal of Daniel Plainview in the movie There Will Be Blood. Unless you count when he was nominated but inexplicably didn't win for Bill "The Butcher" Cutting for which he may have given a better performance than he did as Plainview. He has two Best Actor Oscars already and I'm going to go ahead and call my shot that he wins a third as Abraham Lincoln in 2012.

Where da coke & hookers?

3. Platoon - Platoon was the first "R" rated movie I was able to see in the theater. My parents took me to see the movie on my 15th birthday. My dad was a Vietnam Vet but I didn't really understand what that meant until I saw this movie. This was the first time I saw how profoundly a movie could affect someone. There were several vets in the theater that day and the great majority of them sat there in silence as the closing credits rolled; many with tear running down their cheeks. I remember the theater was completely silent until finally one vet said "that was a great movie until that Jane Fonda shit at the end." I'll never forget that day or what it taught me about the power of film.

4. In Memoriam - I'm a sucker for this presentation every year. It's by far my favorite part of the show every year. Even last year when I couldn't watch it live and then lost interest when I hear that no talent Sandra Bullock had won Best Actress, I still fast forwarded to this segment to have my one Oscar moment. I don't remember who died this year but damn, I can't wait to find out.

5. Streisand Snub? - Does anyone else remember in 1992 when Hollywood was up in arms over Barbra Streisand not being nominated in the Best Director category for Prince of Tides? Well the truth is it wasn't a snub. The movie just wasn't that good. Yeah it had some of the things the academy loves like a tear jerking story, mental illness and child abuse but the movie kind of sucked. Thank God the academy didn't fall prey to their sentimental tendencies. Instead they kept reserved those tendencies for the supporting acting categories.



Bottom 5

1. 1994 - As I've discussed, 1994 was a great year for movies. However, it was also a year the academy got nearly everything wrong. Apparently, The Shawshank Redemption directed itself because Frank Durabont didn't sniff a Best Director nomination. Johnny Depp (Ed Wood), Ralph Fiennes (Quiz Show) and Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption) not being nominated almost seems criminal looking back. By the way, Tom Hanks' one note performance as Forrest Gump was at best the fifth best that year.

The most egregious of all academy oversights, possibly in its history, neither Crumb nor Hoop Dreams were nominated for Best Documentary. If you've never seen them, first of all, what's wrong with you but secondly they are two of the best documentaries ever made. Forget Best Documentary, Hoop Dreams should have been nominated for Best Picture. The high school basketball documentary won more awards outside of the academy than any other film made that year and topped Gene Siskel's movies of the year list. If you have the time google Roger Ebert's story on how those movies were overlooked. It's appalling and ultimately led to the academy changing its selection process.

2. Best Picture - There have been several terrible choices for Best Picture; Crash, The English Patient, A Beautiful Mind and Titantic all come to mind. However, the biggest travesty in the Best Picture category happened at the 71st Academy Awards when Shakespeare in Love took home the award over Saving Private Ryan. Shakespeare was a good movie, a great movie even but Saving Private Ryan was a transcendent historical epic that had all the elements of a Best Picture. I was pissed for weeks about this selection. For years, anytime someone would bring up either movie I would go off on a vitriol filled rant against the academy. Hell, I'm getting pissed right now thinking about it. Let's just move on.

3. Best Actress - Best Actress is one of those categories where the academy consistently makes terrible choices. I've come to the conclusion that the voters are more swayed by media hype in this category than any other. I also don't think they're smart enough to discern between the way an actress looks and how she acts.

True story (maybe), Katherine Hepburn was such a strong, spirited woman, her doctors believe she would live to be about 110 years old. However in 2001 when she saw Julia Roberts beat out Ellen Burstyn in the Best Actress category, she told a confidant her life's work had lost all meaning. Two years later she was dead.

Flash forward nine years to the 82nd Academy Awards. I don't know if you remember but they had to abruptly cut to a commercial towards the end of Sandra Bullock's thank you speech. Why? Well rumor has it as Bullock was wrapping up her speech, Katherine Hepburn's zombie burst through the floor attacking Bullock and shouting "YOU WILL NOT DESECRATE MY LEGACY!" Moments later security gunned down the undead Kate and the show continued as if nothing happened. I believe if you really want to see the footage, it's on Faces of Death vol. 37.

Bullocks performance wasn't even worthy of a nomination much less a win. Of the other nominees, I would have placed her behind Streep's Julia Child and I thought that performance sucked. Any number of actresses could have pulled off that part with little difficulty. Ugh, this may be a bigger travesty than Shakespeare in Love and Hoop Dreams combined.

4. Supporting Actor/Actress - If Best Actress has been driven by media hype, then the supporting category(s) have been ruled by sentiment and buffoonery. Whoopi (Ghost) over Annette Bening (Grifters), Jack Palance (City Slickers), Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny) and Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire) were all terrible winners. The worst though was Tommy Lee Jones (The Fugitive) walking away with the award in a category loaded with some of the best performances of any year. Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goth in Schindler's List would have been my choice but any of the other three nominees, Leonardo DiCaprio (What's Eating Gilbert Grape), Pete Postlethwaite (In the Name of the Father), John Malkovich (In the Line of Fire) would have been a more deserving winner than Jones.

5. Lord of the Rings - Don't be fooled by the title, I don't LOTR doesn't belong in the bottom 5 but the academy waiting until the last movie was released to finally present them with the accolades they so richly deserved is a bottom 5er. A Beautiful Mind and Ron Howard better than Fellowship? Ridiculous. Peter Jackson who was nominated for Best Director for Fellowship of the Ring and Return of the King wasn't nominated for the middle movie The Two Towers. The movies were shot all at the same time. Did he forget how to direct midway through then rediscover his mojo? Whatever. The most disconcerting part is that all the awards were heaped on Return of the King which in my opinion is the least effective of all the films.