My best-of-year list for 2008 films.

Best in no particular order: THE READER, CHANGELING, IN BRUGES, DOUBT, I'VE LOVED YOU SO LONG, FROZEN RIVER, RACHEL GETTING MARRIED, IRON MAN, HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, THE BANK JOB, WENDY AND LUCY, THE FALL, SNOW ANGELS, THE DARK KNIGHT, WALL*E, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, THE WRESTLER
Honorable mentions: THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, FROST/NIXON, THE DUCHESS, TROPIC THUNDER, ROLE MODELS, DEATH-DEFYING ACTS, TELL NO ONE, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA, MILK, DEFIANCE, MAN ON WIRE, GONZO, TRAITOR, AUSTRALIA, BRIDESHEAD REVISITED, PARANOID PARK
Ensemble cast of the year: BURN AFTER READING
Underachievers of the year (spotlighting films/filmmakers/actors who ought to be doing better work): MAMMA MIA!, GRAN TORINO, DEATH RACE, CASSANDRA'S DREAM, RIGHTEOUS KILL, DECEPTION, PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, HAMLET 2, HANCOCK, SEVEN POUNDS, STEP BROTHERS
Sort-of-guilty pleasures of the year: RAMBO, HELL RIDE
Best performance likely to be overlooked this year--Vera Farmiga in Rod Lurie's NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH (a film whose distributor--Yari Film Group--went into bankruptcy; perhaps it will still find some sort of theatrical distribution before going to DVD/pay cable).
DVD releases of the year: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE FABULOUS STAINS, Universal/MGM's Alfred Hitchcock reissues, Criterion's TWO LANE BLACKTOP and BOTTLE ROCKET

Feel free to comment with agreements or dissenting views.

Two interesting POVs on recent Beatles news.

1. John Lennon recently joined the list of celebrities doing posthumous commercials. Steve Marinucci, who runs the website www.abbeyrd.net, has a take on this development:
http://www.examiner.com/x-2082-Beatles-Examiner~y2008m12d28-Is-it-live-or-is-it-Lennon

2. Allan Koznin, who has covered The Fab Four in the past (as well as having written a book about them), recently wrote an op-ed piece for THE NEW YORK TIMES on the snail's-pace (or sometimes wrongheaded) business decisions made by Apple Corps--namely the procrastinating on CD remasters/mp3 releases of Beatles albums: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/arts/music/27beat.html?_r=1

My favorite revelation of the Koznin article: Apple passed on a 40th anniversary reissue of THE WHITE ALBUM, but agreed to issue an expensive "White Album" commemorative ballpoint pen instead.

SALON's Glenn Greenwald on David Gregory's brand of "tough" journalism.

No need to comment. Just read Glenn Greenwald's SALON column on David Gregory, MEET THE PRESS and the current fighting between Israel and Palestine's Hamas:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/12/29/gregory/index.html

Ben Lyons--is he the superstupid future of film criticism?

Searching my distant memory, there are a couple of things I recall from Pauline Kael's "The Current Cinema" columns of THE NEW YORKER.

One--She wrote about a NY PBS station's shoddy treatment of silent films broadcast (i.e. not showing them at the proper speed). Ms. Kael talked to station management and received an answer like "So we'll do this for you and the three people that care."

Two--Ms. Kael quoted Frank Yablans (a producer who was an ace marketer of not-always-classic films like SILVER STREAK, CONGO and the legendary MOMMIE DEAREST) as saying that film critics needed to be replaced every few years. Presumably Yablans meant that critics/reviewers who stay on the job too long wouldn't be as receptive to below-average current product as the go-along/get-along types who need to write favorable copy and get those Movie Star interviews for their employers.

Yablans probably would have loved someone like Ben Lyons in the 70s/80s.

Ben Lyons, son of the famed mediocrite Jeffrey Lyons (who once co-hosted a post-Siskel/Ebert SNEAK PREVIEWS with Michael Medved), cheerfully gives Disney/ABC the kind of knowledge-challenged down-with-all-things-current-as-long-as-they're-mainstream wet kisses each week on AT THE MOVIES.

Thanks to Jeffrey Wells of HOLLYWOOD-ELSEWHERE for posting this link to a LOS ANGELES TIMES article critical of Lyons the younger: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-lyons28-2008dec28,0,5374132,full.story

If one were to actually complain to a Disney exec about the hiring of woefully underqualified Ben Lyons (in terms of glib careerism, Lyons outpaces even Richard Roeper), what would the response be?

Perhaps this: "So what? You're one of the ten people who cares."

Bruce Springsteen and Jon Landau to release yet another Greatest Hits album--through Wal-Mart.

This probably won't get the MSNBC coverage that Barack Obama's invitation of Rick Warren to give the January 20th invocational prayer did, but here it is--Bruce Springsteen and ubermanager Jon Landau (likely with some prodding from Sony Music) will release a BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE E STREET BAND GREATEST HITS 12-song collection exclusively through Wal-Mart on January 13th [this compilation has different songs than the mid-90s GREATEST HITS]. Two weeks after that, Springsteen's new studio album WORKING ON A DREAM will "drop" in physical and online outlets everywhere.

Here's the announcement as printed on ROLLING STONE's website:
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/12/22/bruce-springsteen-plans-wal-mart-only-greatest-hits/

Is this merely a cold-blooded business decision (i.e. Sony giving Wal-Mart exclusivity over AC/DC's BLACK ICE) or an ostensibly Obama-like attempt to have dialogue with tightfisted reactionaries in hopes of a millimeter of change in their business practices? Or a blend of both?

Sidebar: For those who have long memories, about a year ago Don Henley was justifying the Wal-Mart exclusive release of the last Eagles album THE LONG ROAD OUT OF EDEN by claiming that Wal-Mart was beginning to "go green."

What will Bruce and Jon say, if anything, about this deal with Wal-Mart?

Nothing personal--just business?

Or nothing at all?

UPDATE (1/13/09): THE BOSTON HERALD has an article about the release of the Wal-Mart only GREATEST HITS: http://news.bostonherald.com/entertainment/music/general/view.bg?&articleid=1144901&format=&page=1&listingType=musi#articleFull

UPDATE (1/23/09): In this BILLBOARD article about the in-progress DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN deluxe reissue, Jon Landau finally addresses/justifies the Wal-Mart only GREATEST HITS album: http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/bruce-springsteen-prepping-darkness-reissue-1003933970.story

UPDATE (1/29/09): In a Jon Pareles profile piece set to be published in Sunday's NEW YORK TIMES, Bruce himself reconsiders the decision to release the album through Wal-Mart--and actually thanks fans for their disagreement/discussion: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/arts/music/01pare.html?_r=1&adxnnl=...

Los Angeles poet E.C. "Carlye" Archibeque explains "definable" poetry for you.

Though currently inactive on the scene, veteran L.A. poet Carlye Archibeque speaks for a fair portion of today's Los Angeles poetry "community."
Here's a portion of an essay she wrote for POETIC DIVERSITY a few years back:
It is my opinion that poetry is definable and that good poetry is not created in a void. I think there are good poets and bad poets. I know this can be an unpopular opinion, but anyone who knows me knows I really don’t care about being popular. If it’s any consolation to those who find my opinion harsh, I am guilty of writing bad poetry and things I consider “not poetry” too, I just have the good sense not to send it away to publishers or read it to my audience because poetry you read for an audience and seek to have published should not be about your therapy issues, unless of course you have crafted your issues into poetry. Poetry is two-fold for me: on one hand it is a way to put your feelings and thoughts into words that sound good to you or may help you work thorough a difficult time in your life; on the other it is a carefully thought out and constructed set of words that relate your thoughts and feelings on a universal level and while one is for public consumption, the other is certainly not. Just my opinion. So the $64 poetry question is why do you write poetry? Do you write because you have things you want to say and are looking for an audience and poetry is generally free to read and write? Or, do you write because you consider it a craft in which you strive discuss feelings, thoughts and opinions in a way that transcends self-indulgence and becomes something universal? Are you a poet or a poet wanna be? I’m not saying that journaling thoughts and feelings is bad or that a little self-indulgence isn’t called for sometimes. I do believe that the state of poetry is threatened on a daily basis by mediocrity. By that I don’t mean threatened by styles of poetry like slam, page, performance and the like, I mean by works within these styles that are not striving to be the best they can be made by poets who don’t have enough respect for the craft of poetry. I wish more people would start believing that poetry matters, that it is an art form and that it needs skill to create.

If you want to read the essay in its entirety, here's the link:
http://www.poeticdiversity.org/main/columns.php?recordID=401&date=2005-02-01

My take on the above is that certain poets in Los Angeles desire at the very least to be arbiters/gatekeepers of notions of "quality" that tend to be received from others (workshopping, MFA programs) rather than thought-out for themselves. It's a valuable balm that salves the egowounds resulting from local, state or national rejection and/or underrecognition.

Sometimes, these self-appointed arbiters get some local attention and a few followers. Then, for one reason or another, they fade from the scene.

And there will always be someone to replace them. And there will always be people who will follow them like sheep, with little thought as to testing or questioning the soundness of the arbiters' holy opinions.

VP-elect Joe Biden protects a member of the political brotherhood.

Found the following note about Joe Biden's LARRY KING LIVE appearance on HOLLYWOOD-ELSEWHERE: http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2008/12/hold_up_there_3.php

Of course, Biden thinks throwing shoes at soon-to-be-ex President George Butch Jr. is "uncalled for"; Biden helped make the Iraq War possible.

Nikki Finke on delay of SAG strike authorization vote.

Whether or not the Screen Actors Guild "vote yes for strike authorization re the AMPTP contract" contingent or the actor/producer contingent (including George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Danny DeVito--thinking more of their production deals than of rank-and-file actors) urging members to vote no (and wait three years for the next negotiating period) wins out is an open question at this time.

Here's Nikki Finke with her opinion of the delay in the strike authorization vote--and why she thinks it may be a good thing: http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/dhd-to-sag-forget-strike-authorization-ballot-vote-on-contract-proposal/

Regardless of who wins or doesn't win the issue of the current SAG contract, the switch of TV episode reruns to websites (aka New Media) from over-the-airwaves broadcasts is a big deal and actors deserve proper residual compensation. To my mind, regardless of the AMPTP propaganda (sometimes transmitted by Patrick Goldstein of THE LOS ANGELES TIMES), it's a lot better that SAG and the producers get this worked out now than waiting another three years--when there will be other AMPTP-created reasons not to deal with the New Media issue.