Best Picture: The Social Network

You probably know by now that I think The Social Network should have won the Academy Award for Best Picture this year. Or maybe you do. You might assume I would say that about Inception, especially if you've read either this or this. But the film I personally loved the best, and the one that I strongly believe ought to have won the Oscar for being the best, don't have to be the same film.

I'll try not to belabor this point, but Network was the RIGHT film, at the RIGHT time, made by the RIGHT people, and in the RIGHT way. It was, I will argue, a vastly more important film, culturally speaking, than was Inception. This isn't a conversation about Inception, though, so that's all I'll say about it.

I should admit right now that I haven't seen The King's Speech. I want to. I plan to. I'm certain (read: no doubt) I'll love it. But the fact is that it doesn't matter how good it was, how perfectly crafted, how brilliantly acted, how expertly written and directed--it can't even approach the broad significance of the film that should have won. It could be reasonably postulated that Facebook has reached the pinnacle of its pertinence. Facebook matters more right now than it ever has, and possibly more than it ever will. That's why The Social Network's timing was perfect.

Here's an interesting fact: Aaron Sorkin (one of the best writers living) didn't have a Facebook account until he started writing a movie about Facebook. What might we then surmise about the Academy? We should at least wonder how many of them have Facebook accounts. The Academy is, demographically speaking, a bit older. A bit less wowed by things like computers and "the Twitter."

Certainly this isn't true for all of them, or maybe even most, but it's true for enough of them to have skewed the collective opinion of Fincher's nearly perfect film negatively--think dismissive, uneasy, uncomprehending. The film that got picked? The safer choice. I'm not cutting it down--like I said before, I'm sure it's wonderful. But it CANNOT be as important, or as perfect (all things considered) as the Facebook movie.

I haven't said much about the film specifically. That's because you can read my review of it here. And I'll be sure to publicly record my thoughts somewhere when I finally get around to seeing the film that did win.

Do you agree with any of what I'm saying? Disagree? How much do you even care? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

To-do lists

Man I love lists. I think human brains work in lists. Think about it. You're making a list of things you make lists for aren't you?

Last night I made a reasonably long list of things I need to get done within the next day or so. I went over it and figured out which things I wanted to get done TODAY, and which things could wait till later. Cutting edge stuff.

Then I left the list at home.

So here I am, sitting at work, trying to remember some of the things I wrote down, and getting trapped into doing incidental things that feel productive, but probably aren't nearly as urgent as the things I wrote down last night, only a tiny handful of which I can actually remember right now.

In other news, the Oscars were cool. Talk about lists.

First, the list of nominees. I don't think this list is representative of ALL the worthwhile films of the year, but it's a good start. And certainly there are some stinkers on there, but at least we won't see any stupid, boring, hackneyed animated cartoon bears among them. So some things are still right with the world.

And then there's the list of winners. In every invested person's mind, this particular list is actually a composite of several lists: the wins that make us happy; the wins that we can live with; and the wins that are actually losses in the long run. I won't go into great detail, but here are some of my thoughts.

First of all, I haven't seen The King's Speech. I plan to, certainly, since everything I've heard seems to indicate that it deserved its recognition.

According to my Top Ten list on Rhombus, I guess I should be upset that Inception didn't win, but I feel the same way this year that I feel every year. The Academy Award for Best Picture, and the highest (or one of) grossing film shouldn't necessarily be the same film. Sometimes they are, but I tend to think it's fair to spread the love a bit. Inception didn't need a Best Picture win. It was almost everyone's favorite film (or one of) anyway. King's Speech was a smaller film, and had a whole lot more to gain from a win like that.

I haven't seen Inside Job, but I wanted to strangle the life out of Charles Ferguson for being a smug, sniveling, finger-pointing piece of poop. His was the only acceptance "speech" that inspired thoughts of violent regurgitation.

At the risk of giving the impression that I simply didn't watch any films last year, I'll admit that I have not seen, nor do I have any intention of seeing, Black Swan. I respect the amount of attention it's getting, and I am quite comfortable admitting that Aronofsky is a virtuosic filmmaker, but it's not my kind of film, owing to some of the content to which I'd prefer not to be exposed. However, there would have been an outcry if Natalie Portman hadn't won Best Actress, and her acceptance was gracious and sincere. I also whole-heartedly support her succinct description of motherhood as her "most important role."

The most bitter disappointment for me was 127 Hours total lockout. It didn't win anything. Not even Best Editing, which it deserved so far above any of the other nominations it was almost a joke. But oh well.


Overall, I would say last year was more exciting. But I still love the Oscars. I'll continue to watch them every year, given the opportunity. It's like the Superbowl of the arts. It's possibly the most important award show in the world (at least according to the Academy.) And despite what any embittered film-enthusiast/wannabe says, they are still incredibly relevant. Pay attention to those nominations, if nothing else. Those lists aren't shabby.

Quiet Dignity

For the past four years (ish), I've been wanting to start a comedy group. Not an improv group or any kind of performance thing--more of a YouTube comedy thing, though that specificity didn't float to the top until the desire had been incubating in my soul for a few years.

I tried, a couple of times, to pull a few people together. But the effort was always drowned in more important things. And of course laziness gets in the way. And procrastination. Looking back, starting something like that when I first thought of it would have been impossible for me, at my then-levels of experience, work-ethic, and social connections. But still I dreamed.

I was about to continue this story, and then I realized how boring it was getting. So fast forward to a few months ago, when I finally sent the fateful email to a select number of people, and we got to work. I realized that if I didn't put some serious effort into this dream of mine, surrounded as I am by incredibly funny and talented people, and resources everywhere...well, I'd kill myself. Because what a waste. 

The name "Quiet Dignity" was John Forbyn's lasting contribution to the group, before he left due to a crippling shortage of time. I still think the name of the group is perfect. We've lost a couple people, gained a few others. We're trying to film stuff as often as every weekend, but that ends up being every other week if we're lucky. 

Anyway, we went live with the YouTube channel almost two weeks ago. We'll be updating it regularly. Go us. 

Here's the weird part (you didn't know there was a weird part, but now you do)--once you really try to start something like this, you become very familiar with the "industry" you're getting into. One of the MVPs of our group is also involved in another, very similar group, and they're better organized, better connected, and have a little bit more time for it. We're trying not to compete, and we shouldn't REALLY need to, but...c'mon. It's a little weird. It feels a little like a competition. What will differentiate between the two channels? Will either suffer because of the other? 

It won't matter much in the long run. Mostly I think it's awesome to find out I'm surrounded by like-minded people. It's SO awesome that stuff like this (and this, and this) is coming out of Provo, Utah. 

There's a joke in this post, by the way. The joke is that it is quite dull, and it's all about a really bizarre comedy channel on YouTube. 

Ha. 

26

25 was a good year. I worried about it a little at first. No longer, I thought, could I claim to be in my early twenties. What horror. But then an attractive girl said to me, "25 is hot." And then it was OK.

26, though? What's special about turning 26? Nothing. It's just older than 25, and fast approaching late-twenties. And in Provo, unmarried, 26 starts to feel downright deviant. I apologize, Provo, for not being married. Trust that I find myself feeling a modicum of guilt for taking 19 to 22-yr-old girls on dates. I confess that I do my best not to think about how old they were when I was graduating from high school. Or how recently they graduated from high school. Let's just not think about high school.

Anyway. 26.

To soften the blow, I've managed to prolong my birthday celebrations to last a whole week. My birthday was on the 20th, which fell on a Sunday this year. So, the day before, I rounded up a few of my closest friends--people I've known for at least a couple of years--and went out to dinner. Then a few of us headed back to my place to watch Star Trek (a fantastically entertaining movie that holds up surprisingly well under multiple rewatchings).

The next day, my dear mother had organized a little get-together up at her place in Midvale. Again, close friends, some relatives, some of my mom's neighbors and church-folk. Cupcakes. It was pleasant to perfection. Exactly what a Sunday birthday ought to be.

In the meantime, an astounding number of people engaged in birthday well-wishing on my Facebook wall. I even got a few longer form emails. If you were one of the people who contributed to that veritable deluge of digital love, let me say, formally, Thank You. Way to make a guy feel special.

And now it's today. Over a week ago, I created a Facebook event dedicated to the fact that one of my best friends and current roommate, Daniel Ray Atwood, has his birthday on the 26th. Since this is likely the last opportunity we'll have to do so, throwing a combined birthday party seemed like a grand idea. I guess we'll find out soon if we were right. I should say that I expect it to be a fantastic party. Our current apartment has a pretty good track record for this sort of thing.

But regardless, it's become clear over the past week that I've got nothing to worry about. I'm living through the best years of my life up to this point. I'm surrounded by some of the best people I've ever met. I have a wonderful family and more wonderful friends than I know what to do with. My day-to-day endeavors are almost always exciting and satisfying. My future is, if not totally clear, certainly bright.

So when people start showing up to party tonight, I won't be trying to distract myself from the prospect of arriving at a less comfortable age, I'll be celebrating the myriad of phenomenal individuals that make my life as joyful as it is.

407 Days

I see at least two possible perspectives:

1. I have successfully avoided blogging for four hundred and seven days, thereby curing myself of a terrible habit, and now I'm coming back to the activity on my own terms in a healthy, sustained way.
2. Like so many "bloggers," I simply gave up on blogging for over a year. Mostly due to laziness.

Adopting the first one seems dishonest, so why not split the difference? If you ask "how" I'll tell you not to bother me with the details.

Moving on.

Why am I back, then, blogging? Blogging. What a word. Is there a person alive who isn't a little (at least just a little) embarrassed by that term, by it's connotation? There are work-arounds, of course: "I'm updating my website" ... "I'm working with social media" ... "I'm tailoring my online image" ... "I'm trying to stay connected to my friends and family" ...

Well, I'm not doing any of those things. I'm blogging. I'm here to blog. I'm conscious of the fact that much of my motivation for this is a sincere belief that there are people out there who actually want to hear what I have to say more often than they see me in real life. I'm aware of the narcissistic nature of this whole enterprise.

It doesn't bother me. At least not right now. Once in a while I want to ramble with a keyboard, and this is the perfect way to do it. And once in a while people tell me, "Hey, I read your blog," and guess what? That feels awesome.

I'll try to at least be consistent about updating. I promise never more than once a day, because that can be incredibly irritating.

And one last thing: please comment. Anything really. Just type out a thing and hit "comment." It's just so cool to have comments. You know.

SFA Presents...

This Friday marks our first big push into the world. Watch this:



We'll be hosting our first "big deal" screening in the Wilk on BYU campus at 7pm. I'm a little bit excited for it, because it represents the sum of our efforts up to now to try and become legitimized as an organization. This is a long and arduous process, as anyone knows who has tried to start up a club or business of any kind.

A little while ago, I published an article on Rhombus discussing the way I feel about the beginnings of this organization, and my involvement therein. We might see the first real fruit of what we're trying to do this Friday night. We all (the other people I'm working with) have our fingers crossed pretty tightly.

I think it'll go well. I think we'll pack the room we reserved, which only seats about a hundred and twenty people. And I think we'll move on to bigger spaces and fill them in the future as well.

I'm passionate about this stuff. I'm not getting paid, and I'm not getting any kind of academic credit. Neither is anyone else who is working with me. But we all care quite a lot about screening student films--about getting the hard, quality work of our peers out to the general public. Films need to be seen to matter. And we want the films the talented students in our program make to matter.

If you've got half a second, check out the SFA's official blog (updated weekly by Lauren Laws, bless her): byuSFA.blogspot.com - you can keep up with what we're doing by following that blog. That's an important note, considering how infrequently I post here (SORRY! ...sort of.)

***OH! And if you have any films that you want the SFA to screen in the future, upload them onto Vimeo, and send the link here: sfa.council@gmail.com

Frustration^3

I get frustrated when people get frustrated over the things I'm frustrated about.

Let me explain.

I say I don't like something, or something bothers me, and then someone else is upset or offended that I feel that way. That sucks. I'll dislike what I want to dislike. And I'll be as convinced as I want to be that I'm right.

I'm thinking mainly of the fact that certain people (who I love, but sometimes frustrate me--if you're reading this, you know who you are) are offended that I openly and rigidly state that New Moon is a bad movie. It's not well-acted, designed, shot, directed, edited, or written. Those things are true. You can disagree all you want, and that's fine. But don't be offended when I won't concede that this film might be "good" by some other definition. I don't think that it's good in any way, and I will not be upset if you disagree. I promise.

The thing is, it's at least possible that those who take offense at my opinions are more or less acting, ironically, defensively. They know it's a bad film, and they're ashamed to like it. I say, DON'T BE ASHAMED. I like some bad movies, and I don't care if people think I have poor taste because of it. You can still be a good, useful, intelligent human being and like a really terrible movie here and there. It's OK. But don't be upset when I frankly state that the movie you love sucks, because I'm certainly not upset about it.

In other news...

...well, no. That's actually all I really wanted to say.

Oh, but before I go, I need to mention how awesome and cool YNAB is. I've never used any other budgeting software because everything else I've seen looks too complicated and expensive. Yes, both. But since I've started using YNAB, I'm at least a little bit smarter with my money. And I found out that a little bit smarter goes a long way with cash. I'm mainly writing this for a chance to get the newest version for free, I'll be honest. But it's also a product I feel like I can honestly and enthusiastically endorse. Here, again (in case you missed it) is the link: YNAB (You Need a Budget)