Why The Haters are WRONG about Avatar

If there has been one thing this Oscar season that has been driving me absolutely crazy it's the vehement hatred being thrown Avatar's way by, in many cases, people who haven't even seen the film or just don't "get it". You would be amazed how many arguments I have gotten into over Avatar and the funny thing is it's not even one of my favorite films of the year. I mean I respect it and think James Cameron's directorial achievement is staggering along with it numerous technical breakthroughs. That being said, the story is full of archetypes that border on cliche, the dialogue is only a step above Lucas's "best" banal and sappy writing, and the lead character we are supposed to care about leaves a lot to be desired. There is a lot to criticize about Avatar and many of the criticisms are valid, but they are missing the point altogether. The art and beauty of film from the beginning has been about transporting an audience to another place. It provides an escape from their everyday lives. Film lets human beings wildest dreams come true on screen. I cannot think of a film in recent memory that has accomplished this in such a daring and mind blowing way as Avatar. It is a film that displays the power of human imagination and the modern limits of cinema in a way that is staggering. If Avatar is nothing else it is a grand vision come true and what a vision it is. The world of Pandora is lush and rich and visually stunning. It pops with colors, light, atmosphere and inventive and at times even scary creatures. It is a fully realized world and Cameron sucks you directly into it through the technological breakthroughs that he spent years researching and perfecting. The 3D in Avatar is all about fully immersing you into the experience and not throwing random objects in your face. It creates such a depth of field that has never been accomplished before on screen that you can clearly see where every single blade of grass fits into the geography. You feel as if you are standing there with these people in this story. But where Avatar really shines is in its performance capture. It takes what WETA Digital did with their work on Lord of the Rings and expands upon it to create photo realistic characters that act, breathe, speak, and look like they are giving a true performance. Much has been questioned about whether performance capture really counts as acting - the answer if you know anything about the technique is a resounding yes. Cameron and his team spent painstaking hours making sure that the original performances of his actors were preserved from the smallest details to the biggest gestures. And then yes they were enhanced. Performance capture isn't about replacing acting, it's about enhancing it for films where fantastical elements are very much in the foreground, such is the case with Avatar.



And while all these technical breakthroughs would be impressive by themselves it all wouldn't matter very much if the movie wasn't any good. But that's just the thing - Avatar is a good movie. No it's not great, but my god it is thrilling and at times even overwhelming. Cameron is in such control of his medium and you can feel his presence in every frame of this film. His action sequences are the best in the business and with Avatars final battle he proves that no one can direct action quite like him (further proof see Aliens, Terminator 2, True Lies, and the last hour of Titanic). And how could you possibly forget the first Banshee flight sequence, or when the floating mountains are first revealed, or the night time tour through Pandora on the way to the village? These are all images that have burned themselves into my memory. They are unforgettable.

And while Cameron's story may have been cliche, he is telling it in a way that hasn't been done before - that's right in space on a new world with wonderful creatures and IDEAS. Cameron packs a lot of IDEAS into Avatar, some of them obvious and some of them more subdued. There is a reason why Avatar has been connecting with audiences all over the world and it's not because of the 3D. Many countries do not even have 3D theaters, in fact over half the people in the United States that have seen Avatar have seen it in traditional theaters not in 3D or IMAX. No, the reason why people all over the world are spending their hard earned money again and AGAIN to see this film is because of its universal themes, which include but are not limited to pro-environment, anti-war, human rights, anti-capitalism, and the bond between humans and nature. For many Avatar has been a semi-religious experience. People have reported depression because they can't live on Pandora. If that isn't a wonderful display of the power of cinema then I don't know what is. Avatar is hated because of all the money it has made and all of the hype behind it. And in many ways it was over hyped, but in other ways it lived up to A LOT of that hype which is more than I can say for most big budget Hollywood product. And what a lot of people seem to forget is that Cameron and Fox were taking a huge risk on Avatar. This was in no way a sure thing. The film cost upwards of 500 million dollars because of the technology being developed for something that had never been attempted on this large of a scale before. Cameron and his crew have earned every cent they have poured into this project, which was obviously a project of passion and love. Avatar is really good filmmaking even if it isn't great storytelling and people need to start realizing this and quickly. There is a good chance that Avatar WILL WIN the Oscar next Sunday. My money is still on the Hurt Locker but it would not surprise me if Avatar pulls through at the last minute. There is nothing that Hollywood loves more than a genuine risk that pays off with popularity and most importantly of all tons and tons of money. But I have a feeling Cameron could care less about all of this. He already has his Oscars from Titanic, which also suffered from inevitable backlash due to it being "the king of the world". But you know what even if Cameron is not the King of the World he certainly can lay his claim to being the King of Modern Hollywood Cinema. And you know what? That's not a bad place to be and he's laughing all the way to the bank.

Song of the Day: Moving Uptown

I went to go see the Columbia College production of The Wild Party yesterday and was extremely impressed. It's been a while since they've done a show there that was THAT WELL SUNG. If nothing else it sounded fantastic, but of course there are many many other qualities about it that make it worth seeing. One performance that I particularly loved came from the talented young actress playing Dolores. The role was written specifically for Eartha Kitt so I wasn't sure that anyone was going to be able to live up to that. I mean Kitt is a legend and it was written for that type of personality. Not only did this young actress pull it off she completely blew me away and she is definitely one of the highlights of the show. I will be going to see the opening night performance on Saturday so perhaps I will report more then (last nights performance was the invited final dress rehearsal). In the meantime here is a clip of Eartha Kitt singing one of her big songs from the show - Moving Uptown. Fantastic stuff, enjoy!

After seeing this version live I am DYING to do this show. The score is one of the best written in a long long time, even if LaChiusa can't help but want to be Sondheim much of the time. Great great stuff.

Song of the Day: Listen to the Music

Today's song of the day is actually a clip of me performing in a student directed production of Hello Again at Columbia College. It was the last show I ever did in school. Interestingly enough I will be doing the show at the BOHO Theater Company here in Chicago, but this time I will be playing the College Boy instead of the Husband. It's a role that's a bit more age appropriate for me I suppose. In fact I will be performing in the show exactly one year after the Columbia production.... strange, but exciting. My scene partner here is the young and talented Andrew Swan who I'm sure you will be seeing a lot of around the Chicago theater scene. It was directed by up and comer Kyle Trent and Musical Directed by the brilliant Kory Danielson. I know this blog hasn't been updated in months and I'm not going to promise that it will be frequently, but it was one of my New Years resolutions to actually do something with this thing. Let's see if I can make it happen. Enjoy!

Shocking Academy Awards News

It looks like The Academy is trying to atone for their sins, especially after last years debacle when both The Dark Knight and Wall-E, two audience and critical favorites, failed to be nominated for best picture.  It has just been announced that starting this coming Oscars there will be 10 nominees in the Best Picture category.  Yep you read that right, 10!  Basically what this comes down to is that the Academy is desperately trying to appeal to the current generation of film goers and I'm guessing it hopes that by having ten best pic nominees, we will end up with more box office hits in the mix.  So does this mean that something like Star Trek could make it into the mix?  Or better yet could Pixar finally receive a best picture nomination for their deserving Up?  The answer is... well maybe.  I can see that this decision by the Academy could go one of two ways.  We could end up with more films that people genuinely like and actually go see... or we could end up with more "prestige" pictures that Academy voters already like, but aren't quite good enough in their eyes to merit Best Pic consideration.  That means last year films like Doubt and possibly even Australia could have made it in for a Best Pic nomination.  That is a very scary thought.  I don't think this will do anything for the independent market as if the film is really well loved it will make it in the final five.  I don't think The Wrestler or Rachel Getting Married had nearly enough votes last year to get any where near the final five, let alone the final 10.  And as for Blockbuster, I'm assuming this may only really help one or two a year.  I think possibly The Dark Knight would have made it in last year had we had this 10 nominees rule in place then... but even that seems iffy.  The Academy simply can't be trusted to nominate the films that deserve recognition because they go for the same types of movies over and over again.  And god forbid a Foreign film end up in the final 10, all hell may just break loose.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out come years end.  I think we will either end up with what will equate to a very interesting top 10 list, or a glorified prestige picture list that no one will really care about.  If the Academy truly uses this opportunity to shake things up and make the race more interesting than I am all for it.  But part of me is very scared of what the outcome will be.

So now I'm going to make a prediction and we shall see how close I am come years end.  I'm going to be optimistic about it for now and my predictions shall reflect that.  THIS YEARS BEST PICTURE NOMINEES WILL BE -

 

AVATAR

BRIGHT STAR

INVICTUS

THE HURT LOCKER

THE LOVELY BONES

NINE

PRECIOUS

SHUTTER ISLAND

STAR TREK

UP

Keep in mind nobody knows anything and this is both an optimistic and safe set of predictions.  We shall just have to see how the year pans out.  Click Here to read the press release.  One thing is for sure - The Oscar race just got really interesting.

Song of the Day: The Harry Potter Musical

Today's song of the day is simply just for fun.  I'm not going to post the whole musical on here but you can certainly head over to youtube and check it all out.  But here is the first part of the absolutely ridiculous Harry Potter musical created by a bunch of Michigan University students.  It's stupid, but also fun as long as you understand all the in-jokes and quick aside Potter references.  I cant say I've made it all the way through it yet, but I've been watching off and on today, hope you all enjoy.

Note of Interest:  Scarily enough they are working on a real Harry Potter musical for The West End and I'm sure Broadway will follow soon after.  Frankly it's surprising that it took them this long to come up with one.

The Sopranos Retrospective Part I Continued: Season 1 The Pilot

The first episode of The Sopranos, known simply as The Pilot, aired on Sunday January 10th, 1999.  No one knew it at the time, but this mafia show would soon become one of the most critically lauded and beloved TV shows of all time.  The Sopranos single handily caused HBO's subscriptions to sky rocket and their ratings to follow right along.  Few knew it at the time, but The Sopranos was almost the show that wasn't.  It had been shopped around to various networks including the likes of Fox and ABC.  Nobody had any faith in what creator David Chase was trying to pull off.  But one cable network was interested - HBO.  HBO had recently gotten into heavy drama with their prison series OZ and were also profiting nicely off of their groundbreaking sitcom - Sex and the City.  They commissioned a Pilot to be made for The Sopranos and then they would decide if they wanted to give the show a full season.  The Pilot episode sat on the shelf for nearly two years before HBO decided that they wanted to put their dollars into David Chase's risky proposition.  As a  result of this The Pilot of the Sopranos is interesting in that it's format is much different from episodes later in the series and that many characters are obviously younger than they are a full episode later, this is especially evident in Tony Soprano's children AJ and Meadow.  Many locations changed as well before they got around to filming the rest of the season.  But regardless of all of this The Pilot episode of The Sopranos is considered to be one of the best because up until that time no one had seen anything like it on television.  It was a show that was destined to break all the rules.

From the very opening titles sequence of The Pilot viewers knew they were in for something a little different.  From The Pilot on each episode would open with the now infamous song by Alabama 3 titled "Woke Up This Morning".  The camera's first person view from inside Tony Sopranos car documented his trip from New York, into New Jersey all the way into his home.  It was a way of inviting the viewer in and letting them know that this would not be a New York mob story and that we would get to see much more than just the inner workings of the mob, but also maybe even a hint of family life.  As the show progressed viewers began to realize that they were seeing a lot of the family life and that in a way The Sopranos is much more of a "family" saga with mafia overtones than it is a gangster story.  In that respect it shares much in common with The Godfather.

The Pilot's structure is different than that of following episodes.  It opens with Tony Soprano in the waiting room of a psychiatrists office staring at a naked statue.  He is there because he has been passing out from anxiety attacks and his doctor believes that a shrink could help him with his problems.  Suddenly the door opens and the viewer is introduced to Dr. Jennifer Melfi who will eventually become one of the most complex characters in The Sopranos.  Tony sits on the chair and the audience is given plot and character development through flashbacks based on what Tony is describing to his shrink.  In later episodes the show ditches the flashback formula and has a much more in the now hands on approach, but viewers will still become very familiar with that psychiatrists office and the multiple breakdowns Tony will have there.  The first twenty minutes of The Pilot is ingeniously structured and it introduces us to almost every single important character that the viewer will be focusing on throughout the length of the first season and beyond.  And while the first episode shows us the inner workings of Tony's mob life and his personal family home, it also introduces us to the main antagonist of the first season - Tony's own mother Livia Soprano.  Their dynamic is what makes much of the show so fascinating and it serves as the jumping point for most if not all of Tony's problems.  Throughout the season Tony will have to deal with his mother refusing to enter a nursing home, blaming him for her problems, potentially faking Alzheimer's and a stroke, and the most horrible offense - collaborating with her brother in law to have her own son whacked.   Livia is brilliantly portrayed by Nancy Marchand.

What makes the dynamic between Tony and Livia so interesting is that Livia is noticeably opposite from the stereotype of most Italian mothers.  She isn't the loving mother who wants nothing more than to see her son married and make him eat.  On the contrary she gets her kicks from torturing him with her own misery.  She is a woman incapable of feeling joy (according to Dr. Melfi) and as a result she is willing to go to great lengths to make others suffer.  But the thing that makes her more than just a one dimensional villain is that underneath it all she really does believe that she loves her family.  Livia is a complicated person and as the season progresses the viewer begins to realize that Livia may not be aware of exactly what she is capable of.  

But Tony has his plenty of problems within his own house as well.  His wife Carmella is a loyal wife, but is also incredibly jealous of the Russian mistress that Tony keeps on the side.  Tony's daughter Meadow is busy working trying to get into the best college possible, while his son AJ is experiencing the beginning of adolescence and all that goes with it.  There is plenty of love in that house, but there are also a lot of secrets and family dysfunction.

The Sopranos makes a point of focusing a great deal of its time and attention to psychiatry and the inner workings of the mind.  Tony's anxiety attacks begin when a group of mallards that have been living in his pool for several months raising their babies suddenly fly away.  A great deal of his time in the chair is spent talking about these ducks and what exactly they mean to him and how they relate to his work and family problems.  The idea of a psychiatrist treating a mobster is an intriguing one and The Sopranos doesn't just use the idea as a gimmick, but rather as a full fledged and essential part of almost every single episode.  The Pilot ends with a shot of the swimming pool that the mallards abandoned as a family BBQ is taking place.  It's a poetic ending to a great beginning and  foreshadows both the comedy and the tragedy that is sure to come.

Song of the Day: The Glamorous Life

I just recently finished a production of A Little Night Music at Light Opera Works here in Chicago. I played Bertrand (a servant) and also understudied the role of Henrik. It was a good experience and it marked my first professional show in Chicago post graduation. I will be doing The Pirates of Penzance with them at the end of the year and I look forward to working with the company once again. It's no secret that Sondheim is my favorite composer and his work on A Little Night Music is some of his best (I think it would be impossible for me to rank his scores). But strangely enough one of the best songs from the show was cut early in the process. It was titled The Glamorous Life and was to be sung by Fredrika, Desiree's somewhat abandoned daughter. The song is a pretty emotional one expressing feelings of abandonment and depression, laced with sympathy and Sondheim's characteristic wit. The song was obviously cut for pacing purposes, as it doesn’t fit with the flow of the show. It also would have given Fredrika and Desiree's relationship a much darker edge that would not have necessarily fit with the broad comedic strokes already at play. Regardless of that though, the song is a beauty and lucky for everyone that Audra McDonald has made it a staple of her concert career singing it quite frequently. Here is her beautiful rendition of the song that she sang at a concert on New Years Eve a couple years ago. Enjoy.

Note of Interest:  The song WAS included in the dreadful 1977 film version of A Little Night Music.

The Sopranos Retrospective Part I: An Introduction

I have never been a fan of television.  I cannot name one sitcom or drama show on regular networks that I have ever even considered mildly amusing.  For a long time when I was younger I considered TV to be a wasteland of bad people pleasing commercial crap.  The biggest problem with television (and this still exists to a large extent) is that I was never able to identify with anyone on TV because they were all caricatures.  There was no such thing as character development on TV for a very long time.  Most shows were either about one liners or plot procedural.  Even acclaimed dramas such as Law and Order never really explored the people trying to solve the case or the victims.  It was all just a bunch of situations with no real drama and you knew that everything would be solved by the end of the episode.  There were no carry over plots from previous episodes.  In short there was never much to care about on standard television.  Shows were made to be pleasing in short little segments that you would soon forget about by the following episode and be amused by the situations anew again.  This all still goes on, but to a lesser extant than in the past.  TV is still playing it safe, but there are some cable networks like FX, Showtime, and even TNT that are taking chances and refusing to play it safe.  But there is still one cable network that reigns above the rest and has been consistently taking chances since the moment it decided to produce original material for television - HBO.  HBO has had such huge hits such as Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, Deadwood, Big Love, and now True Blood.  Each of these shows has been daring in their own right and broken new ground for television.  But there is one show that broke all the rules and in my mind changed television forever - The Sopranos.

The Sopranos premiered in January of 1999.  I was 13 years old and going through the second half of eighth grade when the show came out.  I remember seeing the previews on HBO for The Sopranos and thinking to myself that I absolutely had to see this show the very first night.  I already had a thing for mob movies.  My dad had introduced me to The Godfather a few years earlier and I had stayed up late and watched Goodfellas by myself one night.  The Sopranos looked to be covering similar ground so of course I was interested.  I will never forget watching that first episode on January 10th 1999.  My parents were already in bed watching the news.  I was upstairs in my loft curled up in a blanket with the sound down low awaiting what I knew would be an interesting and fun night of television.  I wasn't prepared for just how good the show would be though.  I found myself laughing hysterically through the pilot, but at times being completely silent and astonished by what I was watching.  The productions values, the plot, the acting, the writing, and the direction were all Hollywood level.  I was floored.  I had never seen anything like this on TV.  And not only that but the amount of profanity and violence was definitely shocking.  But what kept me hooked from that first episode and on was the sense of character and family.  I could connect with these people.  I would watch Tony Soprano fight with his wife and joke with his kids and yell and get depressed.  And it was then that I realized that I wasn't just watching a mob show.  I was watching the life of a family and even for all their differences they were a lot like me.

My boyfriend recently bought me the complete series of The Sopranos on DVD as a graduation gift.  I've wanted to have the series for a while now, but could never manage to scrap together to cash to obtain it.  Now that I have it I can't stop watching again.  I'm like that thirteen year old boy sitting under a blanket upstairs in his loft sneaking episodes all over again.  And now that I am older I can appreciate what exactly the show accomplished even more than when I was that age.  I've always known how groundbreaking and important it was.  I watched from day one all the way up until the controversial series finale in the summer of 2007.  The Sopranos has been a big part of my life and now I am getting the opportunity to relive it all over again.  It's an exhilarating experience and because of this I have decided to put together a retrospective that will cover all of the seasons.  What you are reading is the first part of that retrospective.  And introduction if you will.  I plan on talking about the shape of the show, the different directions it took from season to season, not to mention specific episodes and characters.  It's going to be a rather large project, but I figure what better way to get this blog up and running again?  So sit back, read, and enjoy.  There will be much more to follow shortly.

SEASON I: CAST OF MAJOR CHARACTERS

Tony Soprano - James Gandolfini 

Carmella Soprano - Edie Falco

Meadow Soprano - Jamie-Lynn Sigler

Anthony Soprano Jr. - Robert Iler

Corrado Junior Soprano - Dominic Chianese

Livia Soprano - Nancy Marchand

Dr. Jennifer Melfi - Lorraine Bracco 

Christopher Moltisanti - Michael Imperioli 

Paulie Walnuts Gualtieri - Tony Sirico

Steve Van Zandt - Silvio Dante

Big Pussy Bonpensiero - Vincent Pastore

Artie Bucco - John Ventimiglia

Adriana Le Cerva - Drea De Matteo

SEASON I: EPISODE GUIDE

(source: http://www.sopranosseason.com/sopranos_season_1_episode_guide.htm)

January 10, 1999: Sopranos: Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) sees a therapist (Lorraine Bracco) about panic attacks, and tries to move his mom (Nancy Marchand) to a retirement home; and Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese) plans to conduct business in a restaurant owned by Tony's friend. Meanwhile, Carmela (Edie Falco) and her daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) butt heads.

January 17, 1999: 46 Long: Christopher (Michael Imperioli) and Brendan hijack a truck owned by a company Uncle Junior is paid to protect; Livia nearly loses her home to fire, but still refuses to move into a retirement facility; Tony's pals search for a car once owned by Anthony Jr.'s (Robert Iler) teacher.

January 24, 1999: Denial, Anger, Acceptance: Hesh (Jerry Adler) helps Tony convince a Hasidic man to sign divorce papers; and Meadow and Hunter (Michele DeCesare) ask Christopher for drugs to help them study. Also: Arty (John Ventimiglia) has trouble getting insurance money for the fire; and Charmaine (Kathrine Narducci) has surprising news for Carmela.

January 31, 1999: Meadowlands: In an attempt to ease his fears about seeing a shrink Tony looks into Dr. Melfi's personal life. After some comments made at school Anthony Jr. discovers his father's other family. Also: Mob boss Jackie Aprile (Michael Rispoli) dies and Tony helps put Uncle Junior in charge.

Feb 7, 1999: College: When Tony and Meadow visit colleges in Maine, they discuss his business; and he runs into a former colleague. Also: Father Phil (Paul Schulze) keeps an ill Carmela company, and she confesses her guilt about Tony's line of work after learning his therapist is a woman.

February 14, 1999: Pax Soprana: Carmela's jealousy of Dr. Melfi continues — and with good reason — despite Tony's decreased libido; and Uncle Junior flexes his muscle and makes some changes, including taxing Hesh's business and disposing of one captain's biggest earners.

February 21, 1999: Down Neck: After Anthony Jr. misbehaves and is tested for attention deficit disorder, Tony recalls his own childhood — and wonders how much the boy is affected by his line of work. Also: Livia learns that Tony's in therapy.

February 28, 1999: The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti: The gang does some "spring cleaning" in preparation for indictments that are expected to fall on everyone; Christopher is haunted by one of his victims; Dr. Melfi's family worries about her association with a mobster.

March 7, 1999: Boca: Tony and other dads try to strong-arm a lame-duck soccer coach (Kevin O'Rourke) to stay, but plot to get rid of him after they learn he's been having an affair with a player. Also: news of Junior's sex life spreads after a trip with his lover (Robyn Peterson).

March 14, 1999: A Hit Is a Hit: A rapper (Bokeem Woodbine) whose aunt is owed music royalties by Hesh asks Christopher to arrange a sit-down, and he does — in exchange for a career opportunity for Adriana (Drea de Matteo). Also: Tony and Carmela hobnob with country-club types, who later grill Tony about mob life.

March 21, 1999: Nobody Knows Anything: Tony considers taking grave measures when Vin (John Heard) tells him Pussy (Vincent Pastore) is wearing a wire for the Feds; and Junior learns Tony's crew has meetings in Livia's retirement community. Also: personal problems take their toll on Vin; and Carmela confronts Livia.

March 28, 1999: Isabella: A deeply depressed Tony finds it hard to get out of bed, but when he does he's targeted by Junior's hired guns. Also: Tony fantasizes about his neighbor's exchange student (Maria Grazia Cucinotta); and Dr. Melfi increases his medication.

April 4, 1999: I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano: Dr. Melfi suggests Livia was involved in the hit on Tony, but he doesn't believe it until he hears the Feds' tapes of conversations between Livia and Junior. Meanwhile, Livia tells Artie about the restaurant fire; and Carmela learns she's not Father Phil's only close friend.