Sgt. Angle Reporting for Duty!

By now you’ve read, analyzed, rationalized, and determined who the winners will be for the most important film awards show of the year: The Oscars.

Of the most popular awards, only Aaron Sorkin remains the only sure-thing, in my book, for Best Adapted Screenplay (The Social Network). As great as the other nominees are (127 Hours, Toy Story 3, True Grit, Winter’s Bone) Sorkin is long overdue for this kind of recognition, and he’s won just about every award available for writing this season. The only possible upset here would be if the Academy decides that a screenplay award is the one way they can honor the Coen Brothers in an otherwise difficult year.

Actor and Actress races seem poised to go to the favorites — Colin Firth and Natalie Portman, respectively (The King’s Speech and Black Swan). Firth is now the frontrunner — the Academy won’t think highly enough of Jeff Bridges to honor him two years in a row, Javier Bardem’s role is too obscure, and Eisenberg and Franco are too young to come away with this — Eisenberg is the youngest person to be nominated for Best Actor. Portman’s competition is really only Annette Bening for The Kids are All Right. She’s seen as overdue and under-appreciated, she’s older, and the role was always seen as juicy enough. Nicole Kidman has already got her golden man, Jennifer Lawrence has plenty of good years ahead of her — the same could be said for Michelle Williams.

The Supporting Actor/Actress categories are highly competitive, as is par for the course. Christian Bale certainly deserves his statue for The Fighter, but Geoffrey Rush’s role is classier, contains humor and sentimentality, and isn’t as showy. Likewise, Melissa Leo is the meat of The Fighter’s conflict, but Hailee Steinfeld led and carried True Grit. She’s just too young to come away with the little man this time around.

SAG winners, which matched perfectly last year in all the actor races with the Oscars, were Colin Firth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, and Melissa Leo. Count on these four to take home the big gold guy at the end of the day.

The bigger news lately, however, is the PGA and DGA wins for The King’s Speech. So far this season, The Social Network has dominated just about every major critics award across the board, including the Golden Globes. But these two wins certainly spell, well, uncertainty, for Network’s chances on Oscar night. For one thing, there have only been six DGA winners who have not eventually gone on to win the Oscar. In the past 10 years, the PGA winner has gone on to win the Best Picture Oscar 60% of the time. This bodes well for Tom Hooper’s 12-nomination movie, not so well for Network’s 8 nominations.

David Fincher deserves the win this year, not only because The Social Network is an all-around great movie, but because it is not traditional. There are nearly invisible CG moments that you rarely see used with subtlety; dialogue is hammered out faster than Sorkin types (definitely faster than he actually speaks), and all of the actors put forth more than worthy efforts to remain unapologetic and true to their characters throughout. The movie is a whole piece, one made with care and meticulous dedication — not only to the facts of the depositions and history of facebook, but also a tribute to the present tense, to the message and nature of the technology expounded upon within. Hooper’s direction, on the other hand, is very traditional — moving though it is, his scenes unfold like a well-made play. There is nothing wrong with a good play, or with traditional camera angles and storytelling. But the actors carried the film, whereas The Social Network is a full collaboration.

Moving on.

Chris Nolan was ignored for Best Director. Get over it. His time will come. Inception has 8 nominations, same as The Social Network. Remember, the movie is the movie, not the director.

Read it here first: The winners according to the Sgt.

Picture: The King’s Speech

Director: David Fincher

Screenplay adapted: The Social Network

Screenplay original: The King’s Speech

Actor: Colin Firth

Actress: Natalie Portman

Supp. Actor: Christian Bale

Supp. Actress: Hailee Steinfeld (I’m pulling for her)

Original Score: The Social Network (Where’s Tron: Legacy?)

Visual Effects: Inception (unique blend of CG and Practical you rarely see these days. If Alice in Wonderland comes away with this, I will sound the alarm)

Cinematography: While Black Swan should win, I believe this is Roger Deakins’ year, finally, for True Grit.

Enjoy the show, folks. This is the last island of prestigious awards that is not (currently) ruled by pandering and money, at least, not as publicly as nearly every other award on the planet. Seriously, even the changeover to ten Best Picture nominees is such a clear grasp for more viewers and ratings and dollars it makes me want to run through the halls of my high school and scream at the top of my lungs. And then punch John Mayer.

You are dismissed.

Sgt. Angle

Sgt. Angle reporting for duty!

Forget what you know or don’t know about “memes.” Today you’re going to look at a few of them, then do some exploring for yourself.

Your Sgt. is on assignment, and will be drawing up several reports over the next few weeks — some of them ongoing investigations — that require more research and prep time. Got to get you the right information before handing it off, otherwise you may not follow orders.

In the meantime, enjoy the images below.

Using a candid photo of Leo strutting…put him where you want him to be.

A classic, for the font in all of us.

I show you these because I laughed at these, and you should laugh, too. Also, my actual report turned out to be full of typos and insufficient data — much like Julie Taymor’s upcoming version of The Tempest contain awful music and overproduced melodramatic bearings, despite the meaty acting at the heart of it all. If you’re shooting on a private Hawaiian island for free, at least have the decency to dedicate more of your budget to the final CG work you burden unto Shakespeare.

Guess that does not bode well for her Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark musical. Good luck with Swiss Miss!

Who wants an Inception musical? With a scene like this, you couldn’t go wrong.

You are dismissed from this article, which serves as nothing more than a drill for your fine attention and reading skills.

Sgt. Angle.

With the movie Inception having come out, and the question of dreams and reality hot on the minds of the common populace, I figured I’d go ahead and write about lucid dreaming this week. As usual, my first move in looking at lucid dreaming is to look at the definition from the OED: “a dream in which the sleeper is aware that he or she is dreaming and is sometimes able to control or influence the course of the dream.” The movie Inception plays off this idea of control in a dream. Typically, we associate dreams with the part of our subconscious that is trying to play out problems or scenarios in our mind. Dreams tend to be actions that are done to us, as opposed to our having direct control over the dreamscape. Questions about reality are bound to come up when you talk about being able to act freely and openly in the dreamscape; namely, how do you differentiate a dream from reality. The same question was asked in the film The Matrix; the scene in which Neo is being liberated by Morpheus begins with the question: “Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream?” The question is a good one when discussing lucid dreaming or the confusion that can occur for some people between their dreams and reality. The question that I like to ask is: which thread of reality are we holding on to tightly? Do we look for a representation of reality that is up to our par? Is reality as firm as we’d like to believe? Are we just the dreamscape of some powerful knowing God? Anyone who has had a philosophy class has heard these questions asked, and I love it. I’m reminded of a story about one of Alexander the Great’s advisors. He was a Yogi, and he was trying to convince some soldiers about the dreaminess of life; he believed something like, “As sure as I woke from my dream this morning, I will wake from this life as well.” The soldiers laughed at him, so he threw himself into the fire without a sound. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if he actually did wake up from our collective dream.

So how do you dream lucidly? There are several methods that are available from the traditional Tibetan techniques to the ultra modern technological solutions. That being said, there are also a lot of people out there that want to sell you books about lucid dreaming. I’m going to share links of sites that I’ve found that give you free tips on how to enter a lucid dreaming state. Conversely, I’m also going to show you sites that I feel are trying to make a buck on something that probably should be common knowledge. But before I go about teaching the world how to dream lucidly, what are the benefits of lucid dreaming? Essentially, the biggest benefit that people have reported when dreaming lucidly is the ability to experience and recall their dreams fairly accurately. This is different from dream control which is all about directing the mind toward a particular area. I feel that lucid dreaming is an attempt to understand why you are having a particular dream in the first place; in other words, I’m more prone to go along with lucid dreaming because it seems to be a meditative attempt to understand one’s own subconscious. Let us say that you are disturbed about the loss of a loved one that you may have had unresolved issues with; in a dream, you have a conversation with that person. With lucid dreaming techniques, you could remember fairly vividly what was said and probably even work out some of those unresolved issues instead of waking up terrified with some half-remembered dream memories (dreamories?) about being visited by dead people in your sleep. Dream control, on the other hand, seems to be more about satisfying one’s waking needs at the cost of one’s subconscious. One of the articles I came across (http://lucidity.com/LucidDreamingFAQ2.html#harmful) argues that one of the primary reasons that people yearn to dream lucidly revolves around the ability to live out fantasies. The most common fantasy, according to the article, is that of flight. The second greatest fantasy that people report deals with sex (shocking to us all, I’m sure). The main benefit of lucid dreaming is that you are in a hypothetical arena that is filled and populated entirely by your consciousness. Or is it? As I’m writing this several questions keep going through my mind: Is lucid dreaming selfish and self-centered? Is it an escape from reality? Or is it quite the opposite? Is lucid dreaming getting closer to the stage we enter after death? Is lucid dreaming entering part way into the kingdom of heaven or hell or whatever? While you ponder those questions, I’ll move on to a list of sites about lucid dreaming on the internet.

Here are some of the sites that I think are pretty open and honest. They don’t really seem to want to sell you some swampland in the dream-world, they genuinely seem interested in sharing knowledge on this topic which so many people find interesting:

http://lucidity.com/LucidDreamingFAQ2.html#harmful

http://www.consciousdreaming.com/lucid-dreaming/how-to-lucid-dream.htm

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1759

Here’s a list of sites that I would avoid. They are either heavy with trying to sell you books that are typically recycled information from someone else’s sites or books (on information that is readily available for free), or they seem to suggest that you will develop some kind of mutant powers with which to save or destroy the world. Most of these sites like to use the word, “Institute,” because I guess they feel that that word makes them sound professional. From what I’ve researched, lucid dreaming is more about getting in touch with yourself and your own subconscious than it is about getting information out of people’s heads or trying to control your subconscious.

http://lucidity.com/

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art10584.asp

http://altered-states.net/barry/newsletter237/index.htm

As I mentioned earlier, there are also devices that can give you a cue when it detects REM such as a sound or a flashing light which can help you to realize that you are dreaming and put you in a lucid state. Do they work? Some of the research seems to suggest that it can really help induce a lucid state of mind during dreaming, but it is not one hundred percent reliable. Here is an example of one of these devices:

http://lucidity.com/novadreamer.html

Finally, I will end with a video from a man who covers some of these “dream devices.” Enjoy, and I will see you in your dreams.

Sgt. Angle Reporting for Duty!

At ease, film soldiers. This week, we’re going to talk about one current great young American actor and his quest to further the artistry of filmmaking: Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

This young whipper-snapper had a few co-starring and starring roles on television before taking a hiatus to “go to college,” thereupon returning to the land of Hollywood Dreams as an indie-darling and eventual star of one of the surprise hits of 2009, (500) Days of Summer.

Ahh, the young man who will soon be king of “classic” Hollywood, in his younger days under the towering John Goodman. And before that, he was already a star for young kids who dig chocolate cereal:

By the end of the 90s, Levitt had made his feature film debut in Robert Redford’s A River Runs Through It, had fought alongside Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween: H20, and earned a SAG nomination along with the rest of the cast of TV show “3rd Rock From the Sun”.

After a hiatus from acting to attend Columbia University, Levitt returned in some indie favorites: Manic, where he plays an angry young man sent to a juvenile mental institution. Brick, a high-school-noir in which Levitt is the new generation of Sam Spade; and then as a gay hustler haunted by his sexually abused past in  Mysterious Skin.

Darker, brooding characters seem to attract to Levitt’s sensibilities, as one of his stronger roles is the lead in The Lookout, screenwriter Scott Frank’s directorial debut about a high school athlete’s life as a janitor after a horrific accident causes memory loss and damages his senses and perception. He gets involved in a heist, and his battle with his own personal demons, as well as the thieves who’ve coerced him into the crime, are heightened to extraordinary levels of suspense.

Recently, audiences the world over grew to love JGL in the best film ever made, GI Joe: Rise of Cobra, in which he starred as Cobra.

Of course, no one loves this film more than your Sergeant. Everyone else in the world was enamored and still might be, but Levitt’s hopeless romantic lead in (500) Days of Summer. He starred opposite Zooey Deschanel, who was easy to love and hate through and through. He would listen to Zooey’s debut as a singer/songwriter, She & Him, in the mornings to prep for their scenes together. How can you not fall in love with Zooey after hearing her tunes?! They even made this video with director Marc Webb ((500) director and also taking over Spider-Man’s reboot):

Since 2004, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has run a website called hitrecord.org. This is a great place for folks in the filmmaking and multi-media creatives to get together and collaborate using each others’ materials, videos, songs, and creative talents to create and create and create. As JGL says in the website’s New Deal Video: “The media that used to be a monologue is becoming a dialogue.”

This concept of collaboration is nothing new in the land of cinema, and could even be a lesson learned for some of the heavyweights of Hollywood — just read up on the sudden war of words between Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige and Incredible Hulk star Ed Norton over Marvel’s search for a new actor to play the Mean Green Avenger. Their reason was “rooted in the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members. The Avengers demands players who thrive working as part of an ensemble.”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt worked well in the ensemble for 3rd Rock, and even better as a lead in Brick, and finally was pitch-perfect in (500) Days. In just four days, he’ll be returning opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Christopher Nolan’s apparent masterpiece Inception. Will JGL top himself once again? Will he hold his own opposite Leo DiCaps? Or will he steal the show again and show Hollywood and the world over just how “collaborative” and “creative” he can be?

Sound back on your Inception experience below!

You are dismissed!

Sgt. Angle

(The following was devised and hand-written on an 11 X 17 original drawing of a porpoise wearing camouflage dipping below the surface to catch the tail of a mutant fish. Since I returned from the 2010 WonderCon alive, I have had the recollection transcribed. With the exception of some grammar issues, and a very obscene fourth paragraph involving a dark smudge and much cursing, all of the verbiage is accurate and necessary.)

Greetings from San Fran WonderCon!

Sgt. Angle here, on duty but at ease. I’m giving my barking dogs a break to bring you a spot of movie-related recollections regarding this glorious multi-media event.

First up, TRON LEGACY’s faux protest on Friday night revolving around a “rare press conference” from Encom, the fictional technology development company featured in Tron.

The event has been mysteriously hinted at through viral marketing for months, with fans ordering badges and preparing homemade signs. Friday morning, while sipping coffee slowly and observing the absurdity of Starbucks sandwiches (tasteless, compared to The Undergrounds), I glanced at all of the “FLYNN LIVES” posters in store windows, advertising a meet-up to happen before the official conference at 8 PM. These posters held true vintage font and feel, with the look of weathered wear and much overexposure.

The meet-up took place in the ballroom at the Hyatt Regency, where fans, geeks, nerds, and organizers gathered, passing out posters and T-shirts. Then, the leaders told us what was to happen, how we were to “infiltrate” Encom’s press conference and turn to focus to Kevin Flynn’s unknown whereabouts since leaving Encom 20 years ago.

At the outdoor stage (quite bothersome, considering the amount of icy wind and a near-hour’s wait in the cold), Encom’s logo floated ominously as Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) took to the stage, in full character, and gave us all a history of Encom, while waxing nostalgic about Flynn. He announced that a new version of Space Paranoids would be debuting soon (will we see it for real, or did he just mean Tron Legacy?), and awkwardly left the stage.

Timing failed in the stunt, needless to say a very well-painted helicopter buzzed by twice, until finally hovering and…releasing a parachutist into the night winds. Spinning in circles, this man tumbled into a barricade in a plaza, clearly off his intended target. He was whisked away fast, and our protest group spouted a few more chants of “Flynn Lives! Where is Flynn?” before the crowd dispersed, posters, t-shirts, and pins in hand.

Saturday, I made my way to the Lionsgate booth with Ben to collect a free pass to the night’s Kick-Ass screening. It was a sign that the day would be filled with goodness, and good the day was, until the night.

After many laps around the floor, watching artists shake hands with artists, fans snap photos of…other fans in costume, the Semantink team took a moment to enjoy pot pies at The Cravery. They were delish and pristine.

The film panels were in process as I entered the Ballroom, watching as Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, and Paul W.S. “What Shit” Anderson spoke about yet another Resident Evil movie. The most revealing moment came when Anderson confessed that his next movie would be The Three Musketeers in 3D, not necessarily news, since it’s been around since September of 09.

Next up was the swell Warner Brothers Panel. We got a look at some sizzles out of The Losers, and the entire case was present — save for the ferociously funny Idris Elba — and Zoe Saldana caressed my all desires confessed that she’s “turned on by violence”. She and Jeffrey Dean Morgan flirted on stage like a couple of sex addicts old friends. Chris Evans (soon to be seen as Captain America) bulked up his arms for this Q & A, and the audience respectfully accepted the fact that this was a LOSERS panel, not a CA panel. He did go on to say that he accepts a lot of comic book roles because, well, that’s what’s being made. Also, the characters are rich and always interesting.

WB next showed us a thrilling scene out of the new Nightmare on Elm Street reboot (awesomely produced by Awesome Michael Bay), and the young cast of semi-unknowns answered a couple questions about “how great the script was” as Jackie Earle Haley wiped the floor with his articulate and thoughtful answers. After being asked about how he accepted the role, he said he had heard of the online campaign to get him the part before even being approached, and that “some of you must think I’m a little creepy or something.”

It’s also great to hear that, while Haley took much time to research serial killers for the role, he soon stopped when he re-watched the original movie and realized he’s in an absurd version of reality, playing a not-so-serious killer. He goes dark, but not real.

We then were shown an awkwardly paced clip of Splice, which is produced by Guillermo Del Toro. The director, Vincenzo Natali (Cube), provided insight into the making of the film, claiming he shot it entirely independently, it took 12 years to make, and that he was lucky to have Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley in it. The film looks alright, a creature feature with some stars, but I’m on the fence about it. The scene they showed was incredibly stilted and rather bland.

Finally in the WB panel was a “surprise guest,” Christopher Nolan. He took the stage to a thunder of applause and introduced a four-minute clip reel of his next film, Inception. The footage looks fantastic, and the story is going to be a mind-bender in the truest sense. Plus, the cast — DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Ellen Page, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Tom Hardy, Lukas Haas, etc.etc.etc…

Nolan was very direct in his answers, saying he approached the film’s story eight years ago as more of a heist film than science fiction, hearkening back to the genre’s better days, and declaring his influence to be more Blade Runner than Star Wars. He wouldn’t go into too many more plot details, but it’s safe to say that DiCaprio plays some sort of dream extractor, who specializes in security for the unconscious.

At this point, I was joined by the suddenly solid Ash, who erupted in furious hilarity when the entire ballroom BOOED the Twilight Eclipse trailer that somehow snaked its’ way into the trailer park feature of the day.

Finally, the last panel of the day — Kick-Ass. If you haven’t heard of Kick-Ass as of right this second, then go on and board a boat, next stop Not Here. Panel had the entire cast — save for Mark Strong — and also a surfer dude..wait, that was Nicholas Cage, with a voice like a “black blues singer on tour” (his words).

Panel was funny and everyone handled crowd questions with grace — especially Cage, who appeared shocked that he was even here, yet answered each question seriously even when audience members became antsy. When asked what superheroes they would be for a day, co-producer and artist John Romita, Jr., said he would be Superman, so he could go around and kick everyone’s ass who deserved it. Cage chose Silver Surfer, so he could kick Superman’s ass and fly around the galaxy, feeding Galactus planets. Christopher “Don’t Call Me McLovin’” Mintz-Plasse chose Galactus.

Nick Cage Kick Ass WC2010

Some spoilers were revealed — by no less than Nick Cage — but overall the panel was fun and built up steam for the flick. Quote of the day: “I didn’t know how I was going to get around shooting a 12 year old girl in the chest. It made me really uncomfortable.” — Nick Cage.

Speaking of which, why give out Admit One passes for a sneak peak as “WonderCon exclusives”, but then hand out way too many passes? You make people line up at 5 PM for an 8 PM movie, DURING WONDERCON, as a way to “Thank fans?” No, no, marketing department. That’s not an exclusive. That’s a standard sneak preview, with no bells and whistles, so go back to your Alma Mater: F.U.

In the end, our feets was hurtin’ and our minds were racing with goodness to recollect — especially when watching Vinyl Addiction at the finest after party one can wish for.

So long San Francisco, see you again soon.

You are dismissed!

Sgt. Angle