The Year in Paul: 2001

What I’ve Seen

A Beautiful Mind

A Knight’s Tale

American Pie 2

Amelie

Atlantis: The Lost Empire

A Beautiful Mind

Black Hawk Down

Black Knight

Cats & Dogs

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

Donnie Darko

Dr. Doolittle 2

Enemy at the Gates

Evolution

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

Legally Blonde

Millennium Actress

Monsters, Inc.

Not Another Tean Movie

Ocean’s 11

Pearl Harbor

Planet of the Ape

Recess: School’s Out

Rush Hour 2

Shrek

Spirited Away

Spy Kids

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

The Mark of Cain

The One

The Princess Diaries

The Royal Tenenbaums

Zoolander

34 Total

Movie Reviews: Chronicle, Men in Black III, Cars 2

Chronicle

With very few exceptions, I don’t watch horror movies. I don’t like the sensation of being scared, and so I have little interest in spending time and/or money watching something that is primarily interested in scaring me. One of the consequences of this avoidance, however, is that I have no real experience with the increasingly popular “found footage” genre, which (other than Cloverfield and a few other minor films that I have not seen) is mostly contained to the horror genre. As a result, this approach—especially in the context of a superhero origin story—seemed fresh and interesting.

Chronicle is the story of how three relatively normal teenage boys gain superpowers. Andrew, played by Dane DeHaan, is shy and introverted, frequently bullied both at school and by his unemployed, alcoholic father. His cousin Matt (Alex Russell) is a stoner with a fondness for pretentious philosophy, but is still able to fit in much better than Andrew. Matt’s friend Stephen (Michael B. Jordan, of The Wire and Friday Night Lights) is an extroverted golden boy, good at seemingly anything he tries and an aspiring politician. One night at a rave that Matt convinces Andrew to attend, the three find a mysterious meteorite (or something….) that grants them the power of telekinesis. As the boys use their powers, they grow stronger and stronger, eventually allowing the boys to fly, lift cars, and more. But although the three become fast friends, all is not well with Andrew, who remains lonely and isolated.

The Year in Paul: 2000

What I’ve Seen

Almost Famous

American Psycho

Battle Royale

Beautiful

Best in Show

Chicken Run

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Dinosaur

Dungeons & Dragons

Gladiator

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Memento

Miss Congeniality

Mission: Impossible II

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Pitch Black

Remember the Titans

Requiem for a Dream

Rugrats in Paris

Scary Movie

Snatch

The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle

The Emperor’s New Groove

The Endurance

The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas

Titan A.E.
Traffic

Unbreakable

X-Men

29 Total

The 2012 I'm Right Awards

Welcome to the second annual I’m Right awards, we’re so delighted to have you! There are going to be a few changes from last year. For one, I’m abandoning the whole “random order” gimmick, on account of the fact that it was dumb. Instead, I’m replacing it with a new, better gimmick—original categories! I’ve dispensed with some categories, and will be replacing them with new and better ones. The eliminated categories: the three Shorts categories*, Best Documentary (I might have an opinion on this one in a few years, but I have yet to see any 2011 documentaries), Best Foreign Language Film (ditto), Best Original Song (stupid category), and Best Makeup (ditto). That’s seven eliminated categories, so I need to come up with seven new ones. We’ll see how I do.

*Although I actually did see the live-action shorts this year, I just don’t think they belong in the show with the feature films. For the record, my pick would be The Shore.

Also, this year I’m going to ignore what the Academy did altogether, and instead present my nominees in each category and the winner. That should make the presentation less messy. A few categories might have less than five nominees, if I just haven’t seen enough films that qualify. In roughly descending order of importance (interspersed with my new categories), as determined by Wikipedia:

The Year in Paul: 1999

The long-delayed cinema chronology is back. In honor of the fact that we've finally reached the point where it makes sense to go year-by-year, the series will continue under a new name.

What I’ve Seen

10 Things I Hate About You

All About My Mother

American Beauty

American Pie

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

Baby Geniuses

Bicentennial Man

Dogma

Election

Fantasia 2000

Fight Club

Galaxy Quest

Inspector Gadget

The Iron Gian

The Matrix

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

My Favorite Martian

Mystery Men

October Sky

Office Space

Pokemon: The First Movie

The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc

The Simple Life of Noah Dearborne

The Sixth Sense

The Virgin Suicides

South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut

Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace

Stuart Little

The Talented Mr. Ripley

Tarzan

Toy Story 2

Wakko’s Wish

The War Zone

32 Total

Film Reviews: The Ides of March, Barry Lyndon, The Road

The Ides of March

The days of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is long past. Cynicism is in for political movies, and George Clooney’s newest movie (directed, that is) reflects that. While the system isn’t presented quite as darkly as in something like Syriana (also featuring Clooney), it certainly fits into the mold.

The Ides of March stars Ryan Gosling as Stephen Myers, the idealistic but ambitious young deputy campaign manager for the charismatic and talented Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania Mike Morris (Clooney), who is the favorite to win the Democratic nomination for president. While Morris is the favorite, and leads in the polls, the election is hardly decided, and may hinge on the upcoming Ohio primary. Former candidate Senator Thompson of Ohio (Jeffrey Wright) still hasn’t endorsed anyone, and his support (and his delegates) could be key to victory, but how much will his support cost? As the day of the primary grows closer, Myers gets a call from the rival campaign manager (Paul Giamatti), who insists that there are things Myers doesn’t know. Other plots involve a tenacious reporter (Marisa Tomei), Myers’ semi-paranoid boss (P.S. Hoffman), and a pretty young intern (Evan Rachel Wood).

TV Roundup: Breaking Bad

While its more famous and popular older brother Mad Men* gets most of the attention from AMC’s crop of original programming, Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad is quietly putting an astonishingly high-quality. In fact, I’m going to make a bold claim: Breaking Bad is the best thing I’ve seen on television since The Wire ended its run in 2008.** Having seen up through the third season of this amazing show, I want to talk a little about it. Hard as it’s going to be, I will refrain from spoilers.