linker like me

Did you see last night's Glee "Original Song"? I always feel so melancholy at Regionals episodes because I know that means no Glee for awhile. For a show I often actively dislike on account of lazy writing, wasted opportunities and ridiculously unnecessary pandering (People loved the show before it started pandering to them! Why bend over backwards to worry about what people might like now?), sometimes the show makes it really hard for me to pretend that I don't just love it, warts and all. So many highlights in this one, from Brittany's always dependable split second deadpan "favorite song: my headband" to a rare Mercedes showcase "Hell to the No" to a gay kiss played emphatically and without apology, to the return of undergirding themes (Rachel's future completely obvious stardom versus small town limitations) to that killer joyous finale "Loser Like Me" in which the kids learn the age old oppressed minority trick of turning insults into empowering F-you pride. Anyway, loved it. I still wish that show I loved last year about small town Broadway geeks trying to find their voices would come back but the new now old Glee is still great cathartic fun when it remembers to be.

Gold Derby on Mark Wahlberg's dreams of The Fighter Mickey Ward 2. Some sound-Oscar-reasoning from Wahlberg's Fighter alter ego Mickey Ward.
Awards Daily Natural Selection (feature) and Dragonslayer (documentary) win jury hearts at SXSW
Just Jared Seann William Scott taking care of personal and health matters in treatment. Best wishes. I think he's adorable even if he has way too many consonants in his name.
Movie|Line Ewwwww. They're rebooting Daredevil now?
Playbill Kathleen Turner (nearly back on Broadway in High) will be interviewed in the Times Talk series in May. Tickets available.
Movie|Line bizarre lengthy Tarzan audition tape
Gordon and the Whale Hey, if Alessadro Nivola gets Michael Fassbender's cast offs, maybe Fassbender should say no a little more often? I love them both but Nivola has been way too neglected and I don't want Fassy to burn out.

Beatrice Dalle and Jean-Hugues Anglade in BETTY BLUE

Acidemic "Beatrice Dalle My What Big Teeth You Have." Beatrice is on my mind as I just watched this newish french flick Domain where she is typically vivid and dangerous feeling, even while simply strolling through a park or ordering a glass of wine.  Have you ever seen Betty Blue? Still one of the craziest movies ever to snag a Best Foreign Film Oscar nom.
Towleroad Remember that story about Jake Gyllenhaal being photographed in a men's room at SXSW. It's been animated. (The transformation into Jack Twist is a funny touch.)
Serious Film revisits Viggo Mortensen's Oscar worthy work in A History of Violence.

First and Last

the first and last images from a motion picture.

The first and last lines of dialogue

first: and so while the New York Stock Exchange showed signs of restlessness...
last: Yes darling, yes.

can you guess the movie?

The answer is after the jump

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Tues Top Ten: Toy Story

I'm in a toon'ful mood. What can I say? After some time with Disney's dogs, how about Pixar's toys?

2011 is the 25th anniversary of Pixar Animation Studios (they opened their doors in February 1986!) so I wanted to look back a bit at their marvelous output. I enlisted some other people from around the web to chime in too, so we'll have the results of an informal poll later on. But to start, let's look at the ten best moments from their first full length feature, TOY STORY (1995). Do these choices line up with yours?

TOP TEN MOMENTS IN TOY STORY (1995)

Hey Etch, Draw!

10. I almost went with Mr Potato Head's "Hey look I'm Picasso" bit but Woody's showdown with Etch-a-Sketch is the best visual gag during the movie's extended opening scene. It's a perfect illustration (nyuck nyuck) of Pixar multiple joke approach. It's three gags in one: visual, verbal, cinematic.

09 INSIDE BUZZ'S VISOR.
Pixar's always been adept at endearing you to their stable of characters. But one of the most confident things about Toy Story -- remarkably confident given that it was their first feature -- is that both Buzz and Woody are pitched as hero and villain at some point. Woody is selfish and bossy (especially in the first half) and they don't really soften that and your first moment "inside" Buzz's persona, a great point of view shot, is from inside his bubble where he's breathing like he's Darth Vader. It's a fun reference but it also sets up the possibility that he's the antagonist that Woody's protagonist believes him to be.

08 YOU'RE A TOY.
Buzz Lightyear seeing himself on TV. A shock to his senses (of self.)

Buzz is greater than Woody and here's why. Woody is a dog; he's desperate for Andy's love and affection 100% of the time, content to follow. Buzz is a cat; he enjoys Andy but his sense of self worth comes from his actual sense of self.

07 "MRS NESBITT"

Poor Buzz. He's never been able to roll with improv like the other toys. My other favorite part of this scene is the headless dolls "Marie Antoinette and her sister"

06 CODE RED
The opening birthday party reconaissance mission. The monkeys and the green aliens have since replaced them as this franchises' favorite multiple character gag, but The Bucket of Soldiers are so endearing in their complete lack of humor. They have some weird old school pull, don't they? The're not brightly colored or showy of personality or funny looking. The mission is everything!

05  Sid performing 'double bypass head surgery.' Buzz's indignant response is so hilariously straight-faced.

I don't believe that man has ever been to medical school.

04 "WILL ANDY PICK ME?"

Sometimes Woody's three film flipflopping between "favorite toy" confidence and disabling insecurity annoys, but this scene, is so beautifully lit (the magic hour) and it makes so much of such a tiny thing (who will Andy take to dinner at the Pizza Palace?) that it sends you right back to any childhood or adolescent (or vulnerable adult) moment where some minor thing was THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERED, LIFE OR DEATH. But it's really the use of the Magic 8 Ball that sends the scene to movie perfection. "Don't Count On It."

Goddamn it that Magic 8 Ball is a bitch.

03 The repeated shot of "ANDY" written on Woody and Buzz's shoes. In permanent ink!  Aren't you jealous of every boy named Andy who can watch these movies and pretend it's literally their toys that the movie is about?

02 SID'S COMEUPPANCE

We toys see everything...

...SO PLAY NICE.

The follow up shot of him terrified of his sister's doll is the perfect capper. "Don't you wanna play with Sally?"

01 "THE CLAW"
Subsequent Toy Story's have regurgitated the joke too often, dulling its neon bright genius, but I still had to give this absurdly clever Pizza Planet flourish the top spot. Everything about the sequence works wondrously starting with Buzz Lightyear's entrance, which is the best kind of pop culture comedy. It plays off universally understood genre tropes -- in this case sci-fi -- rather than referencing one specific property and therefore dating itself.

I come in peace.

And then it soars ever higher. "The claw!!!!" Pixar's process must allow for a lot of brainstorming because you rarely feel they haven't explored every comic possibility of a scene or a character or an environment.

One of the unsurpassable joys of moviegoing (and live theater) is the communal rush you can feel when a piece of art is connecting with everyone in the room. I saw Toy Story on opening night at a huge packed theater in Utah with my brother. Had the theater been empty I'm sure we would have laughed heartily. But would the mad euphoria have set in? We were giggling so hard, we couldn't stop; the laughs were ricocheting back and forth like they were made of rubber. (It wasn't until I saw the film a second time that I remembered anything about the next couple of scenes.)  It's not only one of my single favorite moviegoing memories, it's one of my single favorite memories of my brother.

Do you remember the first time you saw Toy Story?

The Facts:

The Film Experience's popular series "HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT" returns tomorrow night for a new season, every Wednesday @ 10 PM EST. To play along you just post your favorite shot from that week's movie (write up suggested but not mandatory) and we link up. The more the merrier.

Wed March 16th MEMENTO (10th Anniversary)
Wed March 23rd A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)
Wed March 30th PSYCHO (1960)
Wed April 6th: HEAVENLY CREATURES (1994)
more TBA

Will you be joining us?

Last season on Hit Me: Requiem for a Dream (2000), Se7en (1995), Black Narcissus (1947), Pandora's Box (1929), Bring it On (2000), A Face in the Crowd (1957), Showgirls (1995),  Mean Girls (2004),  Night of the Hunter (1955), X-Men (2000) and Angels in America (2003).

Curio: Paper Doll Art

Alexa here.  When I played with paper dolls as a child, the hours passed like minutes.  The same is true of watching a great film, so the marriage of the two thrills me more than it probably should. I've posted on some great cinematic paper dolls before (Alex Kittle's Some Like It Hot doll was a particularly strong example), and lately I've come upon even more.  Here are some of my new favorites.

Claudia Varosio, whose film poster prints I've heralded before, has started creating paper doll prints.  Here's her Margot Tenenbaum, along with Vincent Gallo from Buffalo 66 (complete with bowling ball).

And in another celebration of the dishy Colin Firth, here's MellyMo fridge magnet set.

More paper dolls including HEDWIG & WOODY after the jump

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