Author: Michael

Yesterday, a friend asked me if I was going to see the new STAR WARS movie. I replied in the negative. She seemed surprised. She asked why not? I said THE PHANTOM MENACE convinced me that I didn’t need to go any further with this particular franchise. By all reports, the second film (whose name I can’t even remember) was abysmally worse. Why bother going back for more just because it’s the finale? My friend said she might go see it. I asked her if she’d seen the last two and she informed me that she hadn’t. I asked her why in God’s name would she want to go see this one if she hadn’t even bothered to see the last two. She replied, “It’s STAR WARS.”

Which seems to be the prevelant motivation for a lot of people to see STAR WARS, thereby making it the highest grossing opening day film in history (about $50 million.) Reviews have been generally positive, although all the ones I’ve read also talk about how it’s not really a great film, just much better than the last two… big accomplishment there. I suspect that reviewers, much like many viewers, are going to see this final installment, and enjoying it, because of their intricate memories/involvement with the entire series. So many of us grew up with the first three STAR WARS films, and they are so etched into our public consciousness that we have to keep heading back for more despite the infinitely inferior quality.

Hey, I should talk. In truth, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is the only one of the STAR WARS films that I really enjoyed.

Yep, I celebrate the 43rd anniversary of my birth today. I was talking with friends recently about internally, we all have a certain age that we reach, then remain there for the rest of our lives. My internal age is 30. I feel 30. So yesterday it hit me: I’m 13 years older than I think I am! Ironically, Scot, who’s going to be 37 in August, has an internal age of 25, so he’s going to be 12 years older than he thinks he is. So really, both internally and externally, we are a pretty good match agewise.

Here are a couple of pictures from a birthday celebration I had at The Red Fez recently. We had a lot of fun. On the left it’s me with the lovely Esme and Beth. On the right, it’s me and Scottie!

Anyway, Happy Birthday to me.

I heard a terrifying report on Christian Law Schools on NPR this morning. Not that I have any problem with the concept of a Christian Law School as being akin to a Christian prep school. If someone wants to go to a religiously affiliated school for certain standards of education, or an education tied to that religion, that’s fine. What terrified me about the report I heard was the frequent linking of the Church and State that was being espoused by the students and administrators being interviewed.

In general, there seems to be a strong movement toward the unification of Church and State… but it’s not just any church. It seems to be a decidedly Christian conservative church. Has anyone stopped to ask themselves, “What about all the people who are not Christian?” The State, or law, is a universal concept for anyone living in the United States. The law touches everyone, regardless of their religion people still get charged for breaking the law and get criminal charges, and that’s why people look for help from criminal lawyers from sites as criminalattorneylongislandny.com/areas-served/long-island/trial-attorney/ so they can at least get a defense for these accusations. How can people even think about bringing in religion… any religion… that will automatically alienate many, many people?

I can’t even coherently write about this issue. It is the single most frustrating and frightening concept in the world today, and there are a lot of those!

To read more about Christian Law Schools, visit the NPR website.

At the Brattle Theatre’s Oscar Party Gala in February, Scot and I dropped a few hundred bucks to support the Foundation at its Silent Auction. As we often do, the focus of our bidding comes in the form of theatre tickets. This year, one of the packages we won provided us with four passes to see some shows at the usually delightful Theater Offensive.

After reading a couple of great reviews, we decided to catch Mike Albo’s “My Price Point,” which wrapped its Boston run this past Sunday. I’ve seen lots of great one-person shows, and “My Price Point sounded intriguing and fun. Whoo boy… maybe Albo was just having an off-night, but I can’t for the life of me understand where those good reviews were coming from!

To be fair, Albo is a comfortable performer, relaxed on stage, and a good dancer. The material, on the other hand, was fairly unoriginal, boring, obvious, and unfunny. “My Price Point” is a satire… oops, I mean a lampoon (according to its press release), which is a “light, good-humored satire” (thank you dictionary.com, I thought there was a more clearly defined difference.) While “light” is certainly accurate, good-humored is less so… and satire? Hmmm… just what was he supposed to be satirizing? Consumerism? American society’s fascination with branding? Albo is clearly someone who is fascinated with consumerism and pop culture himself, and intends to lightly poke fun at the extremes of our culture, somewhat effectively, but not very originally. I felt as though I was watching a less-talented Jack-McFarland performance of “Just Jack!” (especially during the interminably long and lacking-in-laughs J-Lo skit.)

So, you missed the Boston run of “My Price Point.” Consider yourself lucky.

Oscar Nominations were announced yeserday morning, and more importantly, Chlotrudis Awards Nominations were set last Saturday (pre-Boston Blizzard) at the Chlotrudis Society’s Nominating Committee’s Annual meeting. While the quality of films honored at this year’s Academy Awards is arguably better than usual, what frustrates me is the fact that the Academy seems to think that there is a very small pool of award-worthy films released each year. The same films keep showing up in each category. By contrast, the Chlotrudis nominations boast a startling variety of films in different genres and styles, from an amazing array of countries, at so many different levels of “independent film.” To contrast, THE AVIATOR picked up the most Oscar nods at eleven. Chlotrudis’ Nominating Committee favored Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’ Thailand/Japan co-production LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE as the film with the most nods at a mere five.

Sure there were a couple of surprises over on the left coast. I know the slate of Best Actors was strong this year, but skipping over Paul Giamatti for his work in SIDEWAYS just seemed wrong especially since they acknowledged supporting performances from Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen. Surely Clint Eastwood, who is being much lauded for his direction of MILLION DOLLAR BABY, could have taken a pass in the Best Actor category.

On the more pleasant side of surprises, the Academy showed an uncommon boldness by going with crtically acclaimed Catalina Sandina Moreno from MARIA FULL OF GRACE in the Best Actress category. While her performance was lauded by critics nationwide, it’s still unusual that enough Academy members actually saw the film in order to nominate the first-time actress.

Of course, not even Chlotrudis is exempt from shutting out deserving films. As my pal over at lymejello pointed out, BEFORE SUNSET, which was appreciated by many Chlotrudis members, just didn’t have the weight to make it onto the ballot. A couple of films I saw late in the year that I would have liked to seen on the ballot somewhere include the quirky Australian film THE RAGE IN PLACID LAKE, and the haunting Turkish film, DISTANT. I know it caused some controversy, but I would have sworn that Lars von Trier’s DOGVILLE would have fared better with Chlotrudis voters (it did pick up a couple of nods.) I was particularly surprised that Nicole Kidman didn’t make the cut.

Still, I strongly feel that this is the year that the Chlotrudis Society really got it right with its’ nomiantions; lots of interesting foreign films, the mini-majors didn’t dominate. The Buried Treasure Award, Chlotrudis’ centerpiece award, is still under discussion. Expect an announcement by the weekend.

See you at the movies!