Another Food Writer Flick: Christmas In Connecticut

Julie & Julia isn't the only film about a food writer.

Christmas in Connecticut is a fictional film about a food columnist, Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck). Lane is incredibly popular with her readers as she writes about her husband, child, Connecticut home and hearth, were she cooks up elaborate home-style meals with recipes accompanying the article.


The only problem is it's all a lie, and when her editors boss Alexander Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet) gets a letter from a nurse who wants to send her sailor-fiance to get a home-style Christmas experience in Connecticut, everything begins spinning out of control, as only you'd expect in a 1945 Romantic-Comedy.


This is truly a delightful movie, while it's premise is certainly food-based, but really it's far more about maintaining the appearance of a lie then it is about the magic of food (think Mrs. Doubtfire more than Eat Drink, Man Woman).

My favorite scenes are the flap-jack scenes.

Yardly: "I'm hope I'm here in time to see you flip the flap jacks"
Elizabeth Lane: "I'm not in a flipping mood this morning Mr. Yardly, Nora will attend to breakfast. Nora, Mr. Yardly wants to watch you flap, I mean flip, the flap jacks."
Nora: "I don't flip them, I scoop them."
Yardly: "Won't you flip just one for me please?"
Nora: "I've Never flipped in me life, and I'm not going to start flippin' now for nobody."

The comic-antics of Uncle Felix (S.Z. Sacall) and Yardly (Greenstreet) are absolutely hilarious. I might just have to watch this again come Christmas time.

My 1 Year Old's Top 10 Favorite Books

So, I mentioned how my daughter Linden couldn't sit still through the 10 sentences of Maurice Sendak's popular book Where the Wild Things Are, soon to be released as a major motion picture.

Here's the honest top 10 books our daughter loves -- even though some (like Shapes in My House are far from engaging to me). She will read these or have them read to her over and over again.

I think it's interesting that so many of her favorites use photographs instead of illustrations.

1. Ten Little Ladybugs by Melanie Gerth and Laura Huliska-Beith
2. You and Me, Baby by Lynn Reiser and Penny Gentieu
3. You're My Little Love Bug by Heidi R. Weimer
4. Shapes in My House by Kristin Eck
5. Andy Warhol's Colors by Susan Goldman Rubin
6. Happy Baby: Colors by Roger Priddy
7. Hola! Jalapeno by Amy Wilson Sanger
8. Today Is Monday by Eric Carle
9. Star of the Circus by Michael Sampson and Mary Beth Sampson
10. Bee & Me by Elle J. Mcguinness

We'll see how her favorite's change as she grows older.

Simple Film, Difficult Reality, Complex Redemption

I wish there were more films like Rachel Getting Married.

Those who have seen this film, can surely attest that Rachel Getting Married is hardly your big Hollywood mega-production. It's hand-held camera style, and it's clear resolute to be unconventional is clearly intentional. This film could not be told so well with Hollywood finesse.

In fact, I think that many films that want to deal with interpersonal drama and situations are better told "small." Some how, by being small makes the film seem more real.

Another small film that has this appeal to me is the film Pieces of April or Frozen River. Perhaps you can think of other films like this as well.

This fly-on-the-wall-production-light style has great appeal in connecting you to these people as three dimensional characters. Neither Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) or Kym (Anne Hathaway), the two sisters in this film, are all victim or all victor, instead there a mixed bag of person that represents how people really are...complex.

And seeing Kym and Rachel and everyone else have low and high points also gives the film viewer to see how in real life there is opportunity for redemption, but it's not all fairies and rainbows.

There's complex redemption. Redemption that doesn't wipe away the past, redemption that doesn't offer future guarantees, but redemption that has hope. And this complex and true redemption is beautiful.

Obsessed with the Apocolypse

I'm pretty excited to read Paul Harris' article "Hollywood searches for escapism after the apocalypse" today.

I'm excited about the film The Road because I think Cormac McCarthy's book is incredible, and that the father-son relationship in the film is the beauty amidst the devestation.


Beyond The Road, I'm not too interested in the new Hollywood fascination with the Apocolypse in films like Wall-E, Book of Eli, 9, and 2012.


Harris in his article discusses this with University of Texas at Austin professor Professor Barry Brummett who chalks up the apocolyptic-fascination with anxiety over change.

I find this an interesting theory because the proliferation of apoclyptic films does not neccesarily show a wide-spread fascination, I imagine box-office figures will show relatively dismall interest in the apocolyptic genre as a whole. But perhaps I'm wrong.

But I do agree with the general theory, perhaps people do feel like the world is changing to quickly. Perhaps there is fear about the cumulitive effect of so many significant changes.

And perhaps when it comes to movies like 2012 it's really all about what the article terms "Apocalypse porn" were the trailer alone shows the distruction of Himilayas, Los Angeles, the White House, the Vatican, and a statue of Christ in Rio de Jeneiro.

I imagine all these different films if anything will spur some different thoughts on "the end of the world" and either spur some healthy curiousity by those who don't think beyond the now, as well as some fatalistic fascination by those who only live in the confines of a devestated planet.

I for one, can easily skip them all, with the exception of The Road, which I'm hoping will be an exceptional and uniquely beautiful film.

(pictures from top to bottom: The Road, Book of Eli, and 2012)

Similar Name, Not the Same: Up (in the air)

In continuing the "Similar Name, Not the Same" series...

I present...

Up & Up In the Air

Up: An old man's true love dies, leaving him all alone, and cranky. He decides to fulfill him and his wife's dream by moving their house (with balloons) to their dream destination where there is a crazy bird, a boy scout hitchhiker, and Christopher Plummer with crazy talking dogs.

Up in the Air: A divorced 35 year old man (George Clooney) travels the country firing employees of his large corporation for a living, with hopes of getting one million frequent traveler miles before leaving or being fired himself. Inbetween alchol and relations with women in Las Vegas he fears someone might be stealing his frequent flier miles.

Common theme: Men sometimes don't get a chance to travel if they're tied down by women.

Not the Same: Somehow, the animated kid's film is sad, sentimental, and serious; the live-action film for adults is more whimsical and will be less likely to make you cry.

Other movies in the Similar Name, Not the Same Series:
* Avatar & Avatar the Last Airbender
* 9 & Nine
* A Single Man & A Serious Man

Grant/Hepburn and New Thoughts on Romantic Comedy

It's been all about Classics in our house recently, and not just classics, but Cary Grant/Katherine Hepburn (and movies directed by Howard Hawks and George Cukor).

One of the things I've realized in watching these Grant/Hepburn films (Holiday, Bringing up Baby, and The Philidelphia Story) is that these early Romantic Comadies from 1938 & 1940 are a pure delight.

My wife's favorite was The Philidelphia Story and Holiday. I leaned more towards Bring Up Baby, but I think I enjoyed some of that Howard Hawk's slapstick, while she enjoyed the strong female Hepburn in the Cukor films.

All to say though, is that in the midst of all the other films coming out during this exceptional time period, it is these well crafted romantic comedies that rank up there as a favorite's from this film era.

It might seem odd that despite Cary Grant's incredible acting and on-screen persona that he wasn't recognized by the Academy at this time, and even in The Philidelphia Story was overlooked in favor of Jimmy Stewart.

All the same, it certainly makes one wonder what films will be favorites 60 years from now. It's hard for me to think that favorite films in 2070 would be films like 10 Things I Hate About You, 27 Dresses, Made of Honor, Music and Lyrics, Failure to Launch, or Sweet Home Alabama.

Maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps I'm missing out on seeing the genius behind the future's most beloved films? Or maybe the genre's lost that class that it had in the 30s and 40s and instead opted for sexual humor and a lack of attention to style and aesthetics.

If the romantic comedies of today are here to stay, might I recommend we skip movies like 17 Again and Ghost of Girlfriends Past, and find some writing talent and acting talent with chemistry that meets up the standards of Holiday, Bringing Up Baby, and The Philidelphia Story?

Similar Name, Not The Same: Nine

One's spelled out, and one's the numeric symbols. Hopefully Academy voters don't get confused when they are filling out their Oscar ballots.

In continuation of the series...I present:

9 & Nine

9: Animated cartoon produced by Tim Burton were a creepy looking puppet-thing, named 9 (voiced by Elijah wood) comes to life in a post-apocalyptic world, where he has to help other post-human creatures figure out to take on the machines that want to kill them.

Nine: In the style of a Chicago, Rob Marshall brings this musical to screen about a Director (Daniel Day-Lewis) has a midlife crisis and has to deal with all the complicated women in his life, including his wife, costume designer, protege, mistress, and muse.

Common theme: Life is hard, regardless of whether the world has ended and you're body is a zipped up zipper bag, or if you have to sing songs and deal with lots of women.

Not the same: 9 goes for cutesy with a 9/09/09 release date, while Nine goes for Awards-savy with a November 25, 2009 release date.

Other movies in the Similar Name, Not the Same Series:

* Avatar & Avatar the Last Airbender

* Up & Up in the Air

* A Single Man & A Serious Man

Similar Name, Not The Same: Avatar

Writing about Avatar: The Last Airbender has got me thinking about all the movies coming out with similar titles.

I'm not talking about movies about the same thing, or even with the same character...no, just movies with similar tiles.

And so, I begin the "Similar Name, Not the Same Series" with...

Avatar & Avatar: The Last Airbender

Avatar (2009): A military man goes to a lush rain forest with ten foot tall blue people. The man lives in a body suit that allows him to breathe and he falls in love with a blue woman.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (2010): Human civilization is divided into four kingdoms: Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water. The fire kingdom is bad, and only one human is left from the air kingdom can unite them all.

Common Theme: Even though they both have love stories, they still probably make bad date movies.

Not the same: James Cameron's Avatar will be viewed as a sci-fi success, M. Night Shymalan's The Last Airbender seems like it's positioned only to engage fans of the TV show.

Other movies in the Similar Name, Not the Same Series:
* 9 and Nine
* Up & Up in the Air
* A Single Man & A Serious Man

Why Food Movies?

I love food movies.

With the upcoming release of Julie & Julia, I can't help but think about my favorite culinary flicks.

My three favorite food movies...Babette's Feast, Ratatoille, & Chocolat.

All interestingly enough have a strange common theme of French food and spirituality...

Chef refugee from Paris has a chance to lavish extraordinarily decadent French to the simplistic, pious community.

French rat chooses fine dining and culinary skills over low quality scraps, and in the process redeems the art of French cooking and prepares a meal that effects not only the taste buds, but the heart of one of the most critical people in all of Paris.

Drifter and her daughter journey across France were they open a chocolaterie in a strictly controlled religious community during lent, where the woman uses the power of decadent treats to mystical influence the lives of the people in the town, and to challenge their perceptions on faith.

It's interesting, but as I see it, food films usually deal with certain themes that make me enjoy food films.

Why Food Films?

• Food is an equalizer, because we all eat food, it brings people together that might not normally come together.
• Food brings pleasure not just to the consumer of the food, but the preparation and giving nature of food also is a powerful experience
• Food is mysterious, you see it's presentation and taste it, but the best food has a mysterious quality that cannot be perfectly decomposed but deals with the unknown details of it's preparation.

The Last Airbender & My Wife

"That said, for some reason I want to give M.Night the benefit of the dobut (sic). I'm sure we will see The Last Airbender...and I'm sure I will have high hopes..." - ehome comment on The New M. Night Shyamalan: Can The Last Airbender Save Him?

So, when I did a post about M. Night Shymalan and his film version of the cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender, my wife (ehome) commented that she was interested in this film.

Now, this surprised me, partially because I didn't even know if I was interested in this film, and I knew it was a popular cartoon that some people might argue "is better than you'd expect." (Always a scary warning).

So I got a copy of the first disk of the first season from the library, with the hope of my wife and I giving it a shot.

First, she was so mad when she realized it was animation. She then went on to profess how she didn't like any animation, which I countered naming a few of her favorites.

Second, she did not like that it had an anime-style. The worst of worst animations in her book.

So I put it in the DVD player anyways, citing her blog comment posted above.

She protested by falling asleep three minutes in while I watched the first episode "The Boy in the Iceberg."

It was alright, but there are other things I'd prefer to watch, so one episode in, Aang and his waterbending friend went back at the library.

M. Night Shymalan's name might make her regain interest in this movie come 2010, but somehow I think the interest had wained since she the day she said she had hopes.

August Best Director Predictions

So, it seems like Oscar might want to "share the love" and I'm waiting for a picture to be the "it" picture but at this point, I have a hard time not seeing Clint Eastwood receiving his fifth best director nomination for the upcoming film Invictus.

Now beyond that the field is open to some different competition, and if some of these unseen films pan out it could be a great award season this year with lots of potential.

So with that said, and the build up of my past three director related post (Best director in a 10 Best picture world, women directors, and new vs. returning director noms) I present my August best director predictions.

The Predicted Five
1. Clint Eastwood, Invictus
2. Rob Marshall, Nine
3. Lee Daniels, Precious
4. Jane Campion, Bright Star
5. Martin Scorcese, Shutter Island

Where The Others Fall...
6. Lone Scherfig, An Education
7. Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
8. Peter Jackson, The Lovely Bones
9. James Cameron, Avatar
10. Spike Jonze, Where the Wild Things Are
11. Jason Reitman, Up in The Air
12. Mira Nair, Amelia
13. Pedro Almodovar, Broken Embraces
14. Steven Soderbergh, The Informant
15. Michael Moore, Capitalism: A Love Story

Pictured below: Martin Scorcese, Rob Marshall, Jane Campion, and Lee Daniels. If Lee Daniels is nominated he will be the second African-American nominated for the best director. John Singleton was nominated for his direction of Boyz N the Hood.

First Time Noms for Directors over the Past 10 Years

In thinking about this upcoming years Academy Awards, and specifically the directors race, I've wondered if over the past 10 years if the Academy Award nominations have skewed towards new directors or previously nominated directors.

Of course Steven Soderbergh's double nomination in 2001 as a first time nominee sort of throws off the numbers a little bit, but over the past 10 years, it is undeniable that over half the nominees were first time nominees, as represented by the blue bars on the chart above, while the red portion of the chart indicates return nominees.

Obviously, some years skewed towards return directors, like 2003 when Rob Marshall was the only first time director nod. But in general it seems like the directors guild is interested in bringing new directors in to the fold (Bennett Miller, Paul Greengrass, or Shephen Daldry the first time around), as well as recognizing those who have been around for awhile but never honored...like Ron Howard and the Coen Brothers.

Although it seems like the Oscars director race has skewed towards old favorites and new blood.

This information gives me some freedom in my best director predictions to mix previous nominees, but not feel pressured or fearful about including some new blood and first time nominees in the mix.

Below is the list of first time nominees from the past ten years. It's interesting list that defines some of the most interesting projects to hit the Academies radar over the past ten years.

2000 - Sam Mendes, Spike Jonze, Michael Mann, M. Night Shymalan
2001 - Steven Soderbergh (2 noms), Stephen Daldry, Ang Lee
2002 - Ron Howard, Peter Jackson
2003 - Rob Marshall
2004 - Fernando Meirelles, Sofia Coppola
2005 - Taylor Hackford, Alexander Payne,
2006 - Bennett Miller, Paul Haggis, George Clooney
2007 - Alejandro Gonzalez Inaratu, Paul Greengrass
2008 - Joel/Ethan Coen, Jason Reitman, Julian Schnabel, Tony Gilroy, Paul Thomas Anderson
2009 - Danny Boyle, David Fincher

Women "Best Directors" Past (and Present?)

In the history of the Academy Awards only three women have ever been nominated for best director.

The first wasn't until the 1977 Oscar ceremony when the foreign film from Italy, Seven Beauties (Pasqualino Settebellezze), was nominated for four awards, including two for Lina Wertmüller, for directing and original screenplay. It is at this moment the first woman is nominated for best director.

That year John G. Avildsen went onto to win for Rocky, but I'm sure Wertmüller did not go unnoticed.

17 years later, in 1994 New Zealand director Jane Campion was nominated for The Piano. While she did not win the Oscar for directing (Steven Spielberg won for Schindler's List) she did win for best original screenplay.

10 years later, in 2004 Sofia Coppola became the first American woman not be nominated for her direction of Lost in Translation. Like the women before, she did not win (Peter Jackson won for the final installment of The Lord of the Rings), but Sophia Coppola did win for best original screenplay.

**Trend Alert: All three women nominated directors also wrote the original screenplay for there film and were nominated for best screenplay, and in two of the three cases won.


This year four women directors' names are frequenting the mix of potential director nominees. Pictured directly above are Mira Nair (Amelia), Lone Scherfig (An Education), Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), and Jane Campion (Bright Star).

At this point I'd say Jane Campion has the best chance as a return nominee and also with a well buzzed about project, but I certainly am not counting out any of these women.

And if the original screenplay trend holds true, again, Jane Campion is the only contender as the only one of the women to have writter and directed her own original screenplay. In the case of the other three projects all are written or adapted by other writers, and two of the projects (Amelia and An Education) are adapted screenplays.

All that to say, the trend might not be broken, but as I look towards the Academy Awards and the best director race, the role these women play could be historic.

Best Director Nominations in a 10 Best Picture World

What do these three films have in common:

Wings (1926), Grand Hotel (1932), and Driving Miss Daisy (1989)?

Answer: The commonality between these three films is that they Oscar for best picture while their directors were not nominated for the best director Oscar.
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As I'm sure you know, this year there will be 10 Best Picture nominees instead of the usual 5. (There were 10 nominees for 11 years between 1933 and 1943, and this upcoming year, we will see 10 again).

So, it's hard to think that year end when the best picture nominees are announced the the nominees for Best Director will be very telling as to what films are "tier A" vs "tier B" nominations.

It's unfortunate, because the truth is, we won't really know how these films ranked in the nomination process and it could be easy to discount some nominations and say "that film wouldn't have been nominated if they hadn't expanded it to a 10 film race."

In fact, one has to wonder if it really will be a 10 film race, surely there will be two or three films that are clearly duking it out, and it would be my assumption that those two or three films will also have director nominations as well.

So, even though I am about ready to adjust my June predictions, you can believe, I am paying attention to to the directors of these films as well, because it's hard to imagine the eventual winning film not at least carrying it's director along as well.

With this in mind, expect to see best director predictions for the 2009 film year soon. Feel free to share yours as well.

(Note: The directors who were not nominated along with these three best picture winning films were William A. Wellman, Edmund Goulding, and Bruce Beresford.)