The Best Media of 2011 (Version .75)

Another month, another revision...  

The Descendants (2011)

Alexander Payne's first film in seven years (yes, it has been that long since the wine infused, lovable snobbery of Sideways), The Descendants (2011), would be a great film if it wasn't for its familiarity.  That is not to say that the plot or the casting is necessarily stereotypical, just that it feels like Payne, despite his absence, is still drawn into the same comfort zone:  middle aged men dealing with an existential crisis.  In Election (1999), Payne gave us a portrait of a school teacher (Matthew Broderick) fraying at the edges thanks to troubles at home and his obnoxious star pupil (Reese Witherspoon).  His follow up, About Schmidt (2002), focused on a recently widowed man (Jack Nicholson) who, after discovering that his wife had cheated on him, goes on a road trip to try to protect his daughter (Hope Davis) from following in his footsteps.  Sideways (2004) continued the trend by giving us another school teacher (Paul Giamatti), this one a lovesick and struggling novelist, who quotes Bukowski.  

Three Colors: Blue (1993)

It has been almost a decade since I first gazed upon Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors trilogy (1993-1994).  After re-watching his first entry, Blue (1993, on the newly issued Criterion Blu-Ray), I chastised myself for having taken so long.  While I remember being moved by Blue - Kieslowski's work as a whole affects me - and loving the trilogy as a whole, I failed to account for my own evolving position as a subjective viewer. Obviously, Kieslowski's films, like those of Robert Bresson, do not objectively change over time.  However, our impressions of the films are changed, charged, and altered by our own life experiences.  For instance, my personal impressions of the losses that Julie (Juliette Binoche) experiences in the opening moments of Blue were compounded the second time around.  The films haven't changed but I have gone from being an single teenager to a married twenty-something.  

American Comic Book Syllabus 2.0

I hadn't been on my Academia.edu account in a long time.  Recently, I started receiving e-mails that people had been googling "American Comic Book Syllabus" and had been coming across my page.  I thought that was pretty great, as I was really happy with the last draft of the syllabus I had created.  However, when I checked my Academia profile, I realized I had made an error:  the first draft, which was VERY superhero heavy, was posted...not the second, far improved draft.  

365 Days of Comics: Week One Recap

For those keeping up with my 365 Days of Comics Challenge, my week one reading list is below.  Have any recommendations?  Reviews to share?  

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer Reaction

According to the game play counter located in the Call of Duty:  Modern Warfare 3 (2011) Multiplayer Barracks, I have played the game for roughly twelve hours...despite devoting sixteen hours of my life to the title thus far.  Here are my gut reactions to the Playstation 3 version of the multiplayer play and my favorite kits and maps.  

Hugo (2011)

Martin Scorsese's Hugo (2011), based off of Brian Selznick's children's novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007), is a memorable oddity in the filmmaker's always watchable filmography.  A PG rated film that does not feature an once of bloodshed or a single curse word, Hugo lacks the most superficial of Scorsese identifiers.  Delving deeper into the production, it is also the first film that Scorsese has shot digitally and in 3D.  In other words, it's a change of direction that looks unlike anything the filmmaker has produced before.  Considering Scorsese's age and the longevity of his career, one of the accomplishments of Hugo is that it showcases the talents of a filmmaker willing to take risks...while also chronicling the career of a filmmaker who took risks and lost.