The Smarmy Carny

This week's picture is a fun little forum picture that has been passed around.

With membership numbers decreasing due to the bad publicity in the Star Wars movies, it seems that the Dark Side has a new marketing strategy. Now, it seems that they are attempting to foster a more positive image amongst preschool children.

An innocent marketing strategy, or preying on the youth of this country? You decide.

John Hawkins over at Right Wing News posted an interesting review of the recent Natalie Portman movie V for Vendetta. V for Vendetta takes place in a totalitarian future-Great Britain and involves a masked vigilante (known only as "V") and Evey (known only as "Natalie Portman"), who conduct terrorism against the "Conservative" Party government.

Hawkins complains that the Conservative Party characters are "cartoonishly" evil. This is one point I really don't have a problem with, since the movie is based on Alan Moore's graphic novel ::wikipedia("V for Vendetta"):: (and originally a ten-issue comic book limited series). In fact, Moore very publicly dissociated himself from the film, calling it "imbecilic." Moore's original story used anarchy and fascism as the two forces at play for his stories. Heidi MacDonald interviewed Alan Moore in November, and he spoke to the political themes of his original work compared with the movie:

It seemed to me the two more absolute extremes were anarchy and fascism. This was one of the things I objected to in the recent film, where it seems to be, from the script that I read, sort of recasting it as current American neo-conservatism vs. current American liberalism. There wasn't a mention of anarchy as far as I could see. The fascism had been completely defanged.

Hawkins submits that this movie goes further than most Hollywood movies and is directly pointed at current American events, despite the changes in location:

The movie isn't subtle. It uses a jackhammer to thunder home its political points. At one point it shows a "Coalition of the Willing" poster with a swastika on it. It blames the current troubles in Britain on, "America's war." The whole movie is built over top of the lunatic vision that wild eyed liberals have of America.

Should this really come as any surprise? Hollywood continues to use their powers of entertainment to push their agenda and influence the impressionable youth of the country. It's going to be a long time before that changes in Hollywood.

Liv Tyler

I stumbled across the Lonesome Jim trailer. If it gets a wide release (or at least a limited release including your city), this might be worth seeing in the movie theater.

I wasn't sure what to think of the film when I saw that Casey Affleck was involved, but then I noticed that Lonesome Jim is directed by Steve Buscemi. I enjoyed Buscemi's Trees Lounge (ten years ago already!) quite a bit. Unfortunately, Buscemi doesn't direct for the big screen that often.

Jim begrudgingly returns to his hometown in rural Indiana after failing to make it on his own in New York. He soon remembers why he left: a doting but overbearing mother, a distant father, and a depressed older brother whose "accidents" seem suspect at best.

I truly enjoy films like The Myth of Fingerprints, Garden State, and Beautiful Girls. These movies all deal with people returning to their hometowns and quickly noticing that you can't ever really go back home. Of course, the main characters of these movies all quickly realize that old friends and the subtle inherent familiarities all bring plenty of comfort. I'm hoping that Lonesome Jim brings this same quality to the screen.

Check out the Lonesome Jim webpage.

Back in November, I posted about Darren Aronofsky's deal to direct an episode of Lost. Unfortunately, Aronofsky had to back out of the agreement.

According to Aronofsky, the breaking off of the contract was amicable, as he is expecting a child with his wife, recent Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz.

Read more details over at EW's Popwatch.

According to EW, Aronofsky is also finishing up his long-awaited movie The Fountain as well as starting work on a new movie called Flicker.

Here at The Smarmy Carny, I like to have theme days such as Movie Monday and Thilly Thursday. Theme days help keep me focused when I'm drooling on myself, trying to figure out what topic to post on.

After some thought, Movie Monday and Trailer Tuesday were just too repetetive and too close together to work out well. Trailers can be posted just as well on Movie Monday, so I'm making room by merging the two. Besides, I don't have a day set aside for television.

While I would prefer to have my television day on Thursday (after Lost has aired), Tuesday was the best choice. Besides, Thursday starts with "th" and Tuesday starts with a hard "t" sound.

I hope the change is amicable to all. If not, you'll just have to deal with it, or pay me $100 to change it back. Your call.

Feel free to comment with your thoughts, suggestions, or $100+ offers.

LolliLove is an independent film that might be worth a look. The DVD release is tomorrow, and if you're interested, buy LolliLove at Amazon.com.

James Gunn and Jenna Fischer play a wealthy couple looking to give back to the homeless community through their new charity, LolliLove. LolliLove gives out lollipops to homeless people with inspirational artwork and cheery slogans on the wrapper. They believe this will eradicate homelessness by transforming homeless people into happy people.

You will recognize Jenna Fischer as Pam from NBC's The Office. You might recognize James Gunn as Minute Man from The Specials. If not, you'll still probably have seen his writing work for the Scooby Doo movies as well as Dawn of the Dead and The Specials. James and Jenna are married both in real life as well as in this film.

For more about LolliLove, head over to the film's page on MySpace Film, where you can watch the trailer and get plenty of other updates on the movie.

Jenna Fischer received the Tromadance Kodak Independent Soul Award for feature directorial debut. She was the first femal to receive this award.

And the winners are . . .

I made my annual Oscars predictions again. For the second year, I am opening myself up and showing exactly how horribly I do on these predictions. Last year, I went 13 of 24. This year, I improved my record by one: 14 of 24!

I missed many of the odd categories, as do most people. I also missed the huge upsets that many, many others missed. I missed on my upset predictions, too, which didn't help much.

1. Best Picture
   Winner: Crash
   My Pick: Brokeback Mountain
2. Best Actor
   Winner: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
3. Best Actress
   My Pick: Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line
4. Best Supporting Actor
   Winner: George Clooney, Syriana
   My Pick: Paul Giamatti, Cinderella Man
5. Best Supporting Actress
   My Pick: Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener
6. Best Director
   Winner: Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
7. Best Original Screenplay
   My Pick: Crash
8. Best Adapted Screenplay
   My Pick: Brokeback Mountain
9. Animated Feature
   My Pick: Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit
10. Art Direction
    My Pick: Memoirs of a Geisha
11. Cinematography
    Winner: Memoirs of a Geisha
    My Pick: Brokeback Mountain
12. Costume
    My Pick: Memoirs of a Geisha
13. Documentary Feature
    My Pick: March of the Penguins
14. Documentary Short Subject
    Winner: A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin
    My Pick: God Sleeps in Rwanda
15. Film Editing
    My Pick: Crash
16. Foreign Language Film
    My Pick: Tsotsi
17. Makeup
    My Pick: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
18. Original Score
    Winner: Brokeback Mountain
    My Pick: Memoirs of a Geisha
19. Original Song
    Winner: "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," Hustle & Flow
    My Pick: "Travelin' Thru," Transamerica
20. Short Film, Animated
    Winner: The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation
    My Pick: The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello
21. Short Film, Live Action
    Winner: Six Shooter
    My Pick: Ausreisser
22. Sound Editing
    My Pick: King Kong
23. Sound Mixing
    Winner: King Kong
    My Pick: Walk the Line
24. Visual Effects
    Winner: King Kong
    My Pick: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

I would also like to report that I was able to (intentionally) incorrectly guess 22 of the 24 categories. I accidentally picked the winners for Original Song and Animated Short Film.