FisterRoboto

Blake has his own show on Howl now, which is pretty cool.

Dude. So this is Wakaliwood, and they are awesome as fuck. Their movie Who Killed Captain Alex? is available on YouTube in its entirety. This guy Alan (if you watch any of their movies, he's the only white dude) brought their movie Bad Black to Fantastic Fest last year, where it won the Audience Award. It's really funny and awesome. They have a VJ that narrates the entire movie, which is something that came out of the Ugandan slums. They used to hold public screenings of American movies in the 80s and 90s, but they were in English because nobody was subtitling or dubbing movies into Ugandan. So they would watch the movies in Englihs, but no one understood them. So they would have a VJ (Video Joker) that would narrate the movies and it became this weird kind of improv performance thing. Alan said he had seen Air Force One about 10 times in Wakaliga, and it had a completely different story each time. So when Isaac (the dude who founded Wakaliwood) started making movies, the VJ was just part of the experience of the movie to him, so he included them in the movies. Also, VJ Emmy is fucking hilarious.

Well, aside from when Judas just kind of casually jaunts away from some random tanks.

It's not totally abnormal for a passion play (which is pretty clearly the inspiration for the musical) to not include the resurrection. Many do, but they just as often depict the suffering of Jesus - the idea being to show what he went through to redeem humanity. Or maybe he took one and turned it into three just like the loaves and fishes.

Okay. Here's the thing: if I can't get into the music, I can't get into the musical. And this movie's music is awful. And Jesus' singing is even worse. I had hoped that the Mr Show sketch (Jeepers Creepers Semistar) was overly exaggerated. It is not. At all. It's just generic 70s bullshit rock that REALLY wants to have that experimental sound but just comes off sounding like it's what's causing the cast members to have what are clearly seizures that the producers are trying to pass off as dancing. There is ONE song that had potential, which was King Herod's song. But for some reason, they decided to let Zero Mostel's son sing-talk through it. And that's to say nothing of his shitty, half-assed dancing. I also couldn't really stand Jesus. I did like how sympathetic they made Judas, because after about five minutes, I was like, "I'd sell this uninteresting, dead-eyed piece of shit out to the Romans, too." And, for real, where did the other two crosses come from?

LMM looks so weird clean-shaven. Please grow the goatee back, buddy.

Why did they bring the cross with them on the bus? And why did they only bring one?

She also basically yelled, "I FUCKING LOVE MOONLIGHT!" The whole La La Land team (except maybe Chazelle, who seemed really pissed off...which is hard to blame him for) was really graceful about the whole thing, but Emma was the one who seemed legit happy about Moonlight's win. As if I needed more reasons to absolutely love her.

In case anyone is curious, there was an article last week that talked about how PWC handles the envelopes, which explains how Emma could have been holding the Best Actress one while Warren and Faye read it (hint: it involves a shitty system with two envelopes): https://medium.com/art-science/what-it-feels-like-to-count-oscar-votes-f89a38efdf1c#.7yk8l153e TL;DR - There are two briefcases, and each of them have a full set of all 24 envelopes. The PWC people are on either side of the stage with the envelopes. Leo came out of one side, so they gave him the Best Actress envelope. Faye and Warren came out of the other side, which STILL had a Best Actress envelope, and the PWC rep gave them that one instead of the Best Picture one.

WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW That ending, though.

They haven't gotten to the acting awards LLL was nominated yet for, though...

I thought this week's mini-ep sounded like it was recorded in Bitch Sesh's recording studio bath tub.

I think people largely misunderstand Sebastian's role in the film. I don't want to get too much into it because I know it's going to picked once it's available to stream. But I'll just say this: Gosling isn't the hero of the film. But, then again, I also think Moonlight is a flimsy mess of an anything-but-cohesive narrative that doesn't really deserve most of its praise (except for Mahershala Ali and Janelle Monae, who are both exceptional in it). So maybe I'm just a terrible person full of shitty hot takes.

I honestly thought it was going to be garbage, but for me, it turned out to be the third best film Shyamalan's made (and granted, the bar isn't that high after you get past those top three, but still). It was one of the secret screenings at Fantastic Fest, and the response was pretty divided, though, and it largely hinged on how people felt about the ending. I should also note that all of the people I know from that fest kept the ending a secret for almost four months...only to have stories drop the day it came out that spoiled it

I'm going to have to DVR the Indie Spirit Awards because I'm spending all day tomorrow catching up on the last few Oscar movies I haven't seen. I missed them completely last year because I thought they were later in the day, and it turned out that my friend's brother ended up as one of the Cassavetes Award recipients. So that was awkward when my friend texted me and was like, "Did you see him?!" and I was like, "Where?" But also, I'm REALLY excited about Mulaney and Kroll hosting. They're so fantastic. Oh, but I think Isabelle will win that one. Everyone is fawning over her and that thoroughly problematic rape fantasy movie this year.

I did change my title for a reason...

Yeah, that trailer was the most 90s thing ever. Also, on an unrelated note, I kind of wish the "Hey this movie kind of like this other movie so they share a universe and wouldn't it be HILARIOUS if I pitched this as a crossover" bit and the "Here's how this is Jacob's Ladder" bit would die. They were both amusing, but at this point, they have both been run so far into the ground, and I'm just like, "Let's stop reading either of those as C&Os."

Foreign Language Film: I haven't seen The Salesman, but I saw Toni Erdmann and really loved it. So that would be my personal preference. But I think you're right that the buzz and politics around The Salesman will likely carry it to win. (Honestly, the only thing I cared about was that Elle lost because fuck. that. movie. It wasn't nominated, so I'm kind of okay with whatever) Feature-Length Documentary: I think OJ is going to take this one. I haven't seen it, but it has all the momentum right now. I wish it were going to 13th, but I just don't see that happening. Also, I seriously doubt Academy voters see most of these movies, so I don't think the 8 hr runtime will dissuade that many votes. (Side note: I'm rooting for Life, Animated as a dark horse because I absolutely loved that movie) Costume Design: I'm thinking La La Land will probably take this one, too. There was nothing this year that was a major standout in terms of costume/production design like Mad Max was last year. And when there's not a standout, the Oscar usually goes to the overall favorite (almost every movie podcast I listen to has predicted it's going to be a night of "When it doubt, La La Land.")

I have a feeling I'm going to be the one person that doesn't love it.

That's a bummer! Lego Batman is a real delight, but the vocal performances are one of the major things I love in it. Zack Galifianakis is the only non-Hamill animated Joker I will ever allow now. Jenny Slate is no Tara Strong or Arleen Sorkin, but I love her so much that it 100% doesn't matter. I could go on, but then I'd just be listing literally every cast member (Ralph Fiennes!!!) and saying that I love them...and I think you get the idea already

Both. Honestly, though, it depends on how often you go to the movies and what your personal preferences are. If you go every few weeks or so, I'd see Split because it's more likely to be out of theaters by the next time you have a chance to see it and it's pretty goddamn good (especially if you don't read a lot of movie news that might have ruined it for you). It's a pretty straightforward thriller that shows that Shyamalan might actually have some decent sensibilities left. But if you go less often or if you prefer an action movie over a thriller, I'd see JW2. We've already talked about it a lot this week in this thread, but it's a lot of fun, and I personally think it's better than the first (at least, once you get past the incredibly slow first act).

Yeah, definitely Doug Benson. And not to mention... Jeanne Tripplehorn, David "Gruber" Allen, Blaine Capatch, and Mary-Lynn Rajskub. Rajskub was a cast member of the show at the time (as were Posehn and Aukerman) but I only mention her because on the commentary of that episode, David talks about how she was the only one with any kind of musical theater experience, and she has the absolute most over-the-top ridiculous dancing in the sketch. OH NOOOOOO! I WAS ON THE 18TH HOOOOOOLE! This and "The Joke: The Musical" are two of my favorite Mr Show sketches. They're just downright brilliant.

Wait wait wait...was that the name of the band? That's amazing.