Pauly's Best Films of 2009

Divided into my Top 9(take that Top 10 and Top 5 lists!) and some other films I though were great, but not worthy of "Top" status. No list is in any particular order.

Top 9:

Big Fan - This film reminds us that sad, obsessed fans existed before the interwebs. Great film in the tradition of Scorsese's King of Comedy and Taxi Driver.
The Box - This film stirred up a lot of deep, meaning of life, questioning everything thoughts in me. A film that will benefit from many repeat viewings.

A Serious Man - The Book of Job via the Coen Brothers. My jaw dropped after the last two scenes.

Up - Holy crap. Beautiful, beautiful film. Anyone who doesn't love this should expect a punch in the face from me.

Moon - Sam Rockwell, acting opposite Sam Rockwell. Kevin Spacey doing non-shitty work! Multiplicity on the moon.(Not really, but that's how I picture a quote from some TV film critic on the poster if this film was released wider...and if it was a comedy.)

Inglourious Basterds - For years, Hollywood has entertained audiences by killing Nazis on screen. But never like this. Every scene that Colonel Landa is in is simply amazing.

The House of the Devil - Wonderfully tense film. You will never have more fun waiting for something to happen.

Zombieland - I saw this 3 times in the theaters. That is a personal first. Not the greatest zombie movie ever, nor the most faithful to zombiology, yet one of the most fun. Plus, Bill Murray kills in his cameo. (If you haven't seen it yet, fuck you)

Star Trek - A fun popcorn version of Star Trek. Good move on filling the cast with character actors and semi-unknowns.

Other films of note:

Observe and Report - A great riff on Taxi Driver.

Coraline - Beautifully animated, though it dragged a little.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox - This close to making the top 9 into a top ten...this close.

Drag Me To Hell - A slapstick fight with an old woman that also manages to be a little scary. It is strange to see a Sam Raimi horror comedy without Bruce Campbell, though.

The Road - Definitely worth seeing, but not a "great" film.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - Nic Cage. Bat. Shit. Crazy. Also, a fairly subdued and chubby Val Kilmer.

District 9 - The allusions to Apartheid kinda fall apart when the aliens are fucking disgusting and fairly violent right? But an enjoyable sci-fi flick nonetheless.

MTV's Jersey Shore OR This Show Makes Me Too Depressed To Think Of A Clever Title For This Post

I am not sure what I can really say about MTV's new show Jersey Shore that hasn't already been covered by other commentators or the no doubt forthcoming indictment from a U.N. war crimes tribunal.

That being said, I think the most depressing fact about this show is that it is reality television in the strictest sense. Its terrible and exploitative, except the people being exploited don't seem to really care about it beyond the fact that they get to live in a sweet house all summer. These are not young wannabe media products, these are actual human beings who, to the best I can determine, are not exaggerating their behaviors for the cameras. I have been to the Jersey shore (LBI, Sea Isle and a few other locales but not the Seaside Heights featured on the show) and witnessed first hand the horrors that these people inflict upon humanity, indeed, upon the very concept of human civilization. Every time I see a fist being pumped, a little part of me dies.

The horror, the horror. Exterminate the brutes.

Review: Momofuku by David Cheng (with Peter Meehan)

I rarely have use for cookbooks. Traditionally, I prefer to crowdsource a recipe via a Google search and then alter that information as suites my own personal preferences, derived from seven years as a short order cook nee frustrated chef and the de facto Japanese fusion cuisine my grandmother cooked for me as a child. I've long harbored a dream of opening a Japanese/pan-southeast Asian noodle bar in Philly that would not seem out of place in some crowded Singapore alleyway and David Cheng, owner of Noodle Bar (and others) in NYC, has come closest to implementing my dream stateside & so I thought to give his cookbook a try. (Also notable: Thai Singha To Go, here in Philly, but the owner has not yet revealed his secrets to me.) So far, I'm only a few recipes deep but the results are very promising.

DISH ONE - PICKLES

Pre-Momofuku cookbook, and inspired by Q.T. Vietnamese in Philly's Chinatown, I've been running through a bunch of different concepts for banh mi's--basically, Vietnamese ingredients on a French baguette, hoagie-style. (My Indian mango chutney-based one was a particular success.) However, until now I have been unable to find a good pickle recipe and have had to settle for raw vegetables, sauteed or none at all. Chang's quick recipe--hot tap water, rice vinegar, salt and sugar--along with my own addition of peppercorns, ginger and sesame seeds is off the chain.

DISH TWO - XO SAUCE

The recipe said "pungent" and "lasts for months, if not years." Sold. I had no idea what this was before reading about, and even until the very end of the cooking process, wasn't sure what it would turn out like. Made from dried shrimp, dried scallops, Chinese sausage, red chile, ginger and garlic, it is indeed pungent (my apartment reeks despite numerous measures intended to lessen its effects) but delicious. As far as uses, I've come up with quite few: mix it with mayonnaise for ghetto pate, with day old rice and veggies for pseudo-fried rice, with tofu and string beans for an entree & et cetera. It took two and half hours over two days (plus a trip to Chinatown) to make but I think it was worth the effort.

DISH(ES) THREE & FOUR - DASHI STOCK & RAMEN BROTH

This is the only minor let-down I've had so far, but I think that may be my fault. I generally use easy dashi stock as a base for miso soup but the recipe looked simple enough, just seaweed and bonito (dried fish flakes) in hot water, so I gave it a try. I also added some dried shiitake and Chinese straw mushrooms to deepen the flavor profile (umami!). The result came out kind of bland and I think its because I mis-measured amount of bonito, depriving it of its appropriate smokiness. Still, dashi is just stock. I guess I was mostly pissed off that I had spent an hour to get an underwhelming result.

I glanced at Cheng's ramen broth recipes, both of which called for several hours of work and tons of meat. I was in the mood for more of a veggie-based ramen experience, so I mainly took those recipes as inspiration. Starting with the dashi, I added red miso, fresh ginger, tamari, soy sauce and sesame oil for the broth. Then for toppings, egg noodles, bean sprouts, julienne'd carrots and scallions. For my first attempt, I was pretty satisfied but in the future I will probably make some adjustments to the broth (a cube of beef or pork fat would deepen the flavor) and maybe add a fried egg to the toppings.

CONCLUSION

I could not be more satisfied with the Momofuku cookbook. It is well written and entertaining, even if it leaves off information about preparation techniques (which you should know anyway or can Google). The recipes range from the simple--what I've detailed above is representative--to the advance, i.e. molecular gastronomy. I think even with my very basic skill set, it has helped me pull off a few very cool things. I look forward to where it might take me in the future. If you have any interest in pan-Asian cuisine, you would do well to check out this cookbook.

2009: Notable Artistic Achievements

So, some arbitrary preferences I would like to express. I will probably forget some very notable things and be ridiculed for it, as I should.

COMICS
I've had some scarce comic habits this year. I'd like to say I'm getting cooler but it really just that a lot of the writers and artists I enjoyed in the past are taking on commercial gigs that don't interest me. Whence Casanova, Matt Fraction? Like that writer, Grant Morrison has also migrated from exciting projects (The Filth, All Star Superman) to ones slightly less inspiring (Batman & Robin). We did manage a Seaguy follow-up, which is pretty great.

Even Brian K. Vaughn & Tony Harris' otherwise enjoyable series Ex Machina was barely published this year; still, its wrapping up and I like where's its headed.

Also finished: Warren Ellis & John Cassiday's Planetary, which inspired awe to the very end. I am looking forward to the second volume of the Absolute Edition.

Elsewhere, the recent Muppets comics have been really fun. I didn't read many, but what I did captured the manic spirit of the television series perfectly.

BOOKS
My book habits are also problematic. I tend to read a spate of good reviews, pick up the book, and then, let it marinate on the shelf. Still, we're seeing a couple Haroki Murakami translations every year now; After Dark was published in softcover this year and I loved it, so maybe I can fairly include that here. Another paperback cheat or two I can include: Henri Bernard Levi's The Left in Dark Times and Christopher Hitchens' God Is Not Great, which give me hope for the continuing tradition of public intellectuals.

Books published is 2009 I would like to have read but have not yet had the opportunity: 2666, Fareed Zakaria's The Post-American Century, Dambisa Moyo's Dead Aid. (Excerpts from the latter two in Foreign Affairs and the like have given me hope for the new generation of public intellectual, too.) I also look forward to trying out a few recipes from the Momofuku cookbook; xo sauce, here I come.

Books published in previous years which I have read this year: I will not bore you with this list. Let us keep things relevant, yes?

MUSIC
Apple is brilliant. Their iTunes program is the perfect means of generating conspicuous musical consumption. The algorithms they use to generate music recommendations for me have been better than Netflix (movies) or Amazon (everything) at the same task.

So, what are the great releases I've stumbled across? My top eleven, in no particular order:

Them Crooked Vultures, Them Crooked Vultures (John Paul Jones + Josh Homme + Dave Grohl)

*Langhorne Slim, Be Set Free (not even close to tired of the shtick yet... and he's a local boy!)

*The Mountain Goats, The Life of the World to Come (contains some of the best song writing of his career)

Jay Farrar & Ben Gibbard, One Fast Move Or I'm Gone (evokes Kerouac perfectly)

*Beirut, March of the Zapotec (more interesting musical explorations)

Avett Brothers, I And Love And You (the first time I heard the title track on WXPN I sat in my car until the very end)

*Blk Jks, After Robots (thanks for "discovering" these guys Diplo!)

*A.A. Bondy, When The Devil's Loose (bad ass wordsmith in the mold of Tom Waits/Leonard Cohen/etc.)

Kanye West, Welcome to Heartbreak (you're just tired of Kanye's antics, don't dis the album, too)

Mos Def, The Ecstatic (we're agreed that Mos is a legitimate hip hop genius, right?)

TV on the Radio, Dear Science (ditto these guys for, what might you call this, prog rock?)

The Flaming Lips, Embryonic (nearly as good as Yoshimi and with some individual tracks I like even better than anything on that earlier album)

Honorable mention for re-releases:

Death, ...For The Whole World To See (MC5-esque hotness)
Fela Kuti, The Best of the Black President (best Fela Kuti compilation I've come across)

(* Denotes live performance seen in this calendar year.)

MOVIES
I will definitely forget many that merit a mention but I will make an effort.

Big Fan (Patton Oswalt acted the shit out of this Taxi Driver-riff)
Antichrist (see below)
Bronson (see below)
Where the Wild Things Are (see below)
Inglorious Basterds (Tarantino's best movie yet--the Platonic ideal of one of his films)
Ong Bak 2 (see below)
The Road (bleak and beautiful)
The Box (better than Donnie Darko and very promising for Richard Kelly's filmmaking future)

That was eight. Pauly will no doubt have a few to supplement this poor showing.

Some movies I have seen recently...

So, Pauly goes and promises to THE WHOLE DAMN INTERNETS that we'll be posting every day this month then the bastard goes and gets married--like being knee-deep in hot, hot marital bliss will give him time to contribute. I've been slowly dying inside at my job, so I haven't had much time to construct a series of themed entries like last year. Instead, I will be presenting you with the following hastily-compiled reviews of films I have seen recently.

ANTICHRIST (dir. Lars von Triers)

This is my first von Triers film, so I cannot comment on how it contributes to themes of misogyny or whatever it is the intelligentsia have decided the talking points on this should be. I do know, however, that I saw something terrible and beautiful and revolting and thought-provoking, often all at once.

BRONSON (dir. Nicholas Refn)

I think I first heard about this from the trailer, which does not promise anything the film cannot deliver. If you enjoy a little of the ol' unltraviolence, this is a film for you. Brutal, hilarious and a great "that was awesome!" film to sit back and enjoy. I'll definitely be seeking out the director's Pusher trilogy after seeing this.

GOOD HAIR (dir. Jeff Stilson, produced by Chris Rock)

I went to see this with my girlfriend. I've long known about some of the issues surrounding black hair--I remember being struck in college by the knowledge that the first African-American millionaire was a woman selling hair product & the passage in The Autobiography of Malcolm X about the first time he relaxes his hair is rather memorable-- but this goes well beyond that. Still, I basically agree with the criticisms that far too much time was spent at the hair show in Atlanta, which is mostly spectacle, and that time could have been better spent exploring some of the issues in detail.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (dir. Spike Jonze)

Again, I think I will agree with the majority of the critics. While I loved the film--the acting, the production design, the story were all near perfect--I'm not sure its a film for kids as much as a film about being a kid, which is a pretty big difference. E.g. the little girl, 6 or 7 or so, sitting down the row from me who was bored senseless by it while her early-30s yippie mom ate it all up.

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS (dir. Grant Heslov)

Amusing but complete fluff. On the continuum of ironic, self-aware modern war films this is a lot closer to something like Lord Of War than it is to Three Kings in terms of re-watchability. I'm not sure what the underlying message is meant to be but you get a few amusing set-pieces here and there. Unless you're dead set on seeing it immediately, you can probably wait to see this on HBO.

TOWELHEAD (dir. Alan Ball)

I thought this was a very strong film, which could have been better if it dealt with its themes less heavy-handedly. But, Ball always has a tendency to be a bit on the nose. Expect exactly what you're expecting from him: the sexualization of young women; men with odd, affectless voices; & undermining the existence of the "American dream."

ONG BAK 2 (dir. Tony Jaa)

If you've seen the original Ong Bak, The Protector or Chocolate you know that you're in for some really awesome fight sequences. (Also, elephants.) But, what you don't know, is that Tony Jaa also directs this one and he is completely out of his gourd. Its all very Sam-Raimi-directs-a-Thai-martial-arts-film. The story is borderline indecipherable but pay no mind to that fact; the fights will explode your head with their sheer awesomeness.

Review: ZOMBIELAND

Zombieland is an incredibly fun zombie comedy, or "zom com" if you will. I had the opportunity to catch an advance screening this past Tuesday, and it was well worth the hour and a half wait in line.

First off, its worth noting that these are not zombies in the traditional sense. For one thing, they run. Yes, this has been done in other films, but there is a distinction made here. It's stated by the narrator that the virus that creates the zombies is an "advanced strain of Mad Cow disease that leaves victims with a swollen brain, insane, and with an intense hunger." Not once is it stated or shown in the film that anyone has risen from the dead. Therefore, we are dealing with infected people, not zombies in the Romero/Brooks sense.*

However, it must be said that in a real world situation, if one is faced with creatures that display most if not all characteristics of a monster in the popular culture lexicon, then you might name said creature after a popular monster. Thus, the infected in this film are referred to as zombies. This is actually a strength in Zombieland, in that the survivors have come to terms with their new world. By naming these creatures "zombies", they're actually establishing a sort of dominance over them, in the way that man has named all animals that he has found. Zombieland also stands out amongst other zombie/infected movies in that the "Zed word" is actually said.

This is also the first upbeat zombie film. While a comedy, like Shaun of the Dead, this film doesn't play with the same stakes. Its a bit more cartoony and doesn't have to deal with the issues of shooting your zombie mother, or leaving your best friend to die. Zombieland takes place after all of that. As I mentioned earlier, most of these characters have come to terms with the world they live in. They know that just about everyone else is dead. In the end, it celebrates the fact that these four characters have found each other, and maybe that's enough in their world.

* The risen dead that crave flesh although they have no scientific need for it, as defined by George A. Romero and Max Brooks. While straying from Romero/Brooks zombies may discourage, and even enrage my colleague in zombiology, Dr. Giacomo Kmet, I encourage him to check out this film.

Horror of Dracula/Dracula Has Risen From the Grave/Taste the Blood of Dracula/Dracula A.D. 1972

A year ago, things were much better for horror fans. Not all horror fans, mind you, but those who had cable providers that carried MONSTERS HD? They were living the sweet life*, brother.

Monsters HD gave you 24 hours, 7 days a week of uncensored, uncut, no commercial interruptions classic horror and sci-fi. Through this glorious channel, I caught up on some Friday the 13th, a little bit of Nightmare on Elm Street, and most importantly, I was exposed to the glory of the Hammer Horror films. Sadly, Monsters HD is no longer with us, so I now have to supply my own horror programming via DVD. It was so much easier when I could just turn to channel 777 and know that something great would be on, but oh well.

Anyway, craving some Christopher Lee/Peter Cushing showdowns, I picked up a DVD set from Amazon that features four of Hammer's Dracula films: Horror of Dracula, Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, Taste the Blood of Dracula, and Dracula A.D. 1972.

Chris reviewed Horror of Dracula last year, so I'll touch upon it briefly to note that it sets up a pattern that these other films follow: Someone wrongs Dracula, Dracula pursues his revenge, Dracula achieves reasonable revenge but wants more, Dracula gets taken the fuck out. This is the cycle that repeats itself just about every time and Dracula never learns. In fact, he almost never seems to remember that any of this has happened before. He just wakes up pissed off, seduces some broads, offs some stuffy old guy, then meets his end by the hand of the handsome young fiancee.(Or Van Helsing, who is rather spry in their first battle in Horror of Dracula. Check out the scene where he jumps and pulls down the curtains.)

Lee's Dracula isn't particularly charming. He can hypnotize the ladies, but isn't interested in the vampire stable of hoes like most Draculas. Again, there is a pattern. He usually will get a brunette or redhead and then a blonde. He quickly uses and murders the brunette/redhead because the blonde is his ultimate goal. The only other Dracula that gets this close to monogamy is Gary Oldman in Coppola's Dracula, but that is a deep Dracula. This Dracula is just trying to get into the blonde's panties for revenge, usually against some old guy who looked at him the wrong way.

When taking his revenge, he's a bit of a dick, and when attacked, he's a red-eyed wild animal. This is a Dracula who in almost every final battle, throws shit. He throws shit. He goes from Dracula to the Hulk the first second shit don't go his way.

I haven't seen all of the Hammer Dracula films, but I'd like to know how he got so focused on the constant revenge seeking. The next time he comes back, he needs some time to reflect, cause Christopher Lee's Dracula is one miserable fuck.

* As in things were good, sweet life, not "Suite Life of Zack and Cody" sweet life.