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Jon



Last Updated: 6/19/2008

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Gender: Male
Status: Single
Age: 25
Sign: Virgo

City: Brooklyn
State: New York
Country: US
Signup Date: 3/1/2006

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Thursday, February 28, 2008 
While this post is for the enjoyment of all my avid readers, Paul came to mind first when I watched this sketch. It seems the strike has brought out the best in the SNL writers. Be sure to catch the ending with Tina Fey as Juno.

Currently listening:
Spaced Out: The Best of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner
By Leonard Nimoy
Release date: 17 May, 1998
6:56 AM 
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Friday, February 22, 2008 
After months of toiling, going back and forth in my head, I've finally decided who and what will be taking home awards come Sunday evening. Some of them I'm still uncertain of, especially the Best Picture and Best Director, categories. But this is published on the internet now, so there's no way I can take it back. For those of you counting the noms I've posted, you'll notice three cateogries are missing: all of the short categories. Although there are other categories I have made decisions in where I haven't seen any of the films, I feel I am completely ill prepared to make any kind of guess on these short. Hopefully I'll see them tomorrow at the IFC, but who knows. In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that I chose Israel's Beaufort for Best Foreign Language Film simply because I love Israel and am proud that after 23 years of absence they've made it back onto the Oscar stage. I haven't seen any of the Foreign Language flicks this year so I'm going on blind faith here, but who cares, it's my predicition! Put your predicitions in the comments!

Best Picture - Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin; No Country for Old Men
Best Director - Paul Thomas Anderson; There Will Be Blood
Best Actor - Daniel Day-Lewis; There Will Be Blood
Best Actress - Ellen Page; Juno
Best Supporting Actor - Javier Bardem; No Country for Old Men
Best Supporting Actress - Cate Blanchett; I'm Not There
Best Original Screenplay - Diablo Cody; Juno
Best Adapted Screenplay - Ethan Coen, Joel Coen; No Country for Old Men
Best Cinematography - Robert Elswit; There Will Be Blood
Best Editing - Ethan Coen, Joel Coen; No Country for Old Men
Best Art Direction - Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer; Atonement
Best Costume Design - Jacqueline Durran; Atonement
Best Makeup - Didier Lavergne, Jan Archibald; La Môme
Best Original Score - James Newton Howard; Michael Clayton
Best Original Song - Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz; "That's How You Know"; Enchanted
Best Sound - Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, Peter F. Kurland; No Country for Old Men
Best Sound Editing - Skip Lievsay; No Country for Old Men
Best Visual Effects - Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl, John Frazier; Transformers
Best Animated Feature - Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi; Persepolis
Best Foreign Language Film - Joseph Cedar; Beaufort (Israel)
Best Documentary - Charles Ferguson, Audrey Marrs; No End in Sight

Currently reading:
The Final Solution: A Story of Detection (P.S.)
By Michael Chabon
Release date: 01 November, 2005
1:34 PM 
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Tuesday, February 19, 2008 
Come on, Michael Bay HAS to know he's a douchebag. He's gotten this far along by flaunting his douchiness I suppose, but you'd think he'd have even a little self respect. Wait, I forgot, it's Michael Bay. Just watch the proof:
10:54 AM 
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Monday, February 04, 2008 
Decision made by committee. This one beats them all, even the one where JT gets dragged around on his ass.
10:22 PM 
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Tuesday, January 22, 2008 
So in my free time I whipped up this handy table. Of the 50 possible nominations in the categories I guessed, I got 40 right. To be fair, I left a few off the list by accident, so I'm more in C+. Get pumped kids: It's strike-ridden Oscar Season!


..>..>

Poritsky Prediction

Reality

Best Motion
Picture of the Year

Atonement

Atonement

Juno

Juno

Michael Clayton

Michael Clayton

No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men

There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood

Best
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

George Clooney - Michael Clayton

George Clooney - Michael Clayton

Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood

Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood

Mathieu Amalric - Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon
(The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Johnny Depp - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of
Fleet Street

James MacAvoy - Atonement

Tommy Lee Jones - In the Valley of Elah

Denzel Washington - American Gangster

Viggo Mortensen - Eastern Promises

Best
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Julie Christie - Away From Her

Julie Christie - Away From Her

Amy Adams - Enchanted

Marion Cotillard - La Môme

Keira Knightly - Atonement

Laura Linney - The Savages

Ellen Page - Juno

Ellen Page - Juno

Best
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role


Casey Affleck - The Assassination of Jesse James
by the Coward Robert Ford

Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men

Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men

Paul Dano - There Will Be Blood

Philip Seymour Hoffman - Charlie Wilson's
War


Hal Holbrook - Into the Wild

Tom Wilkinson - Michael Clayton

Tom Wilkinson - Michael Clayton

Best
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There

Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There


Ruby Dee - American Gangster

Saoirse Ronana - Atonement

Saoirse Ronana - Atonement


Amy Ryan - Gone Baby Gone

Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton

Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton

Best
Achievement in Directing

Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood

Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood

Joel and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men

Joel and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men

Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton

Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton

Joe Wright - Atonement

Jason Reitman - Juno

Julian Schnabel - Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon
(The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Julian Schnabel - Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon
(The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Best
Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Diablo Cody - Juno

Diablo Cody - Juno

Judd Apatow - Knocked Up

Nancy Oliver - Lars and the Real Girl

Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton

Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton

Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco -
Ratatouille

Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco -
Ratatouille

Seth Rogen & Evan Golberg - Superbad

Tamara Jenkins - The Savages

Best
Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or
Published

Chistopher Hampton - Atonement

Chistopher Hampton - Atonement

Aaron Sorkin - Charlie Wilson's War

Sarah Polley - Away from Her

Ronald Harwood - Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon (The
Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Ronald Harwood - Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon (The
Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Joel and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men

Joel and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men

Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood

Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood

Best
Achievement in Cinematography


Roger Deakins - The Assassination of Jesse James
by the Coward Robert Ford

Seamus McGarvey - Atonement

Seamus McGarvey - Atonement

Roger Deakins - No Country for Old Men

Roger Deakins - No Country for Old Men

Janusz Kaminski - Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon
(The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Janusz Kaminski - Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon
(The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Robert Elswit - There Will Be Blood

Robert Elswit - There Will Be Blood

Best
Achievement in Editing

Christopher Rouse - The Bourne Ultimatum

Christopher Rouse - The Bourne Ultimatum

Juliette Welfling - Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon
(The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Juliette Welfling - Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon
(The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Chris Lebenzon - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of
Fleet Street

Jay Cassidy - Into the Wild

Joel and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men

Joel and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men

John Gilroy - Michael Clayton

Dylan Tichenor - There Will Be Blood

4:14 PM 
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Tuesday, January 22, 2008 
Okay, so I am yet to see every movie worth seeing from '07, and awards season has been overshadowed by the ongoing writers' strike. But hey, it's the friggin' Oscars so let's have a little fun. Here's to hoping that the strike ends soon (it just might!) so I can no longer fear for my job AND so no one is subjected to Billy Bush's rants and raves come red carpet night. The noms will be announced in about 10 minutes and this is all I was able to fill out. I've got most of the major awards covered, although I couldn't come up for five contenders in either Supporting Role category (out of forgetfulness, not lack of worthy performances). Let's see how close I am!

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Atonement

No Country for Old Men

There Will Be Blood

Michael Clayton

Juno


Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

George Clooney - Michael Clayton

Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood

James MacAvoy - Atonement

Mathieu Amalric - Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Denzel Washington - American Gangster


Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Julie Christie - Away From Her

Keira Knightly - Atonement

Amy Adams - Enchanted

Ellen Page - Juno

Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth: The Golden Age


Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men

Tom Wilkinson - Michael Clayton

Paul Dano - There Will Be Blood


Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There

Saoirse Ronan - Atonement

Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton


Best Achievement in Directing

Julian Schnabel - Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton

Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood

Joel and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men

Joe Wright - Atonement


Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Diablo Cody - Juno

Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton

Judd Apatow - Knocked Up

Brad Bird - Ratatouille

Seth Rogen & Evan Golberg - Superbad


Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood

Christopher Hampton - Atonement

Joel and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men

Aaron Sorkin - Charlie Wilson's War

Ronal Harwood - Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)


Best Achievement in Cinematography

Janusz Kaminski - Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Roger Deakins - No Country for Old Men

Robert Elswit - There Will Be Blood

Seamus McGarvey - Atonement


Best Achievement in Editing

Juliette Welfling - Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Chris Lebenzon - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Christopher Rouse - The Bourne Ultimatum

Joel and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men

John Gilroy - Michael Clayton


Currently listening:
St. Elsewhere
By Gnarls Barkley
Release date: 09 May, 2006
1:20 PM 
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Thursday, January 10, 2008 
You should buy The Kept Man by Jami Attenberg for many reasons. Let me list some:

  1. It's a really good book.
  2. The cover is yellow and orange, like all wonderful things.
  3. It's chock full of swear words, drugs, and sex, fer serious.
  4. I'll be done reading it soon and I need to talk to people about it who, ya know, didn't write it.
  5. She thinks I'm a funny and nice man, I have proof:
Jami Autograph
Need some more reasons? How about a convenient link to Amazon?
Currently reading:
The Kept Man
By Jami Attenberg
Release date: 27 December, 2007
7:02 AM 
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Monday, January 07, 2008 
It was little more than a decade ago that a young P.T. Anderson completed a video scene at the Sundance lab that showed not only promise, but genius. The resulting Sydney, which would be renamed Hard Eight gained Mr. Anderson enough recognition to be given relatively free reign at New Line Cinema to make Boogie Nights, all the while retaining and growing his talented cabal of creative geniuses. You know most of them: actors Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, and Philip Seymour Hoffman among others; director of photography Robert Elswit; and composer Jon Brion. There are others, but the previous list represents those whose careers skyrocketed in sync with this American auteur.

Why the history lesson? Because, save for Robert Elswit's gorgeous photography, all of the usual suspects are noticeably (and thankfully) missing from Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film, There Will Be Blood. Like so many younger American filmmakers, he has walked the line between being an artist and a rock star. It's not so hard to see why. His films all deal with Los Angeles, fame, drugs, violence, masculinity and that concoction of all that is good and evil, The American Dream. But ever since the gargantuan success of Boogie Nights, Mr. Anderson has retracted into his own thoughts for fear of making the wrong movie, and we as an audience have to suffer for it. It's been five years since he made Punch Drunk Love, which was four years after Magnolia. Who knows the next time we'll see his name in lights.

But anyway, let's deal with the film at hand.

From frame one, you may think you walked into the theater and ended up in a screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Much like that classic, this film starts at the beginning of time, at least for our hero, Daniel Day-Lewis, played with much gusto by oil magnate Daniel Plainview (not a typo, he's just that damn good!). We find Mr. Plainview silently searching for riches in the California desert much like our hairy ancestors did in Kubrick's classic. Immediately, tension is built in a way we haven't seen on screen in a long time. I'd like to make a Hitchcock reference, but this is something different. Between the stark photography, committed performance, tight editing, and mind-bendingly fitting score, the audiences expectations are immediately bent to exhaustion until they break. After this first scene, you can be sure that the title will deliver and there will, in fact, be blood.

We move on to follow the life of our enterprising Ahab as he continues to dig for oil across the Golden State, no longer the scrappy ape we first meet at the beginning. The story picks up when a boy shows up to tell of a town so full of oil that the stuff just comes up through the ground, and our hero decides he has found his white whale. You know the rest of the story already, for a man who lusts after riches will have trouble continuing to be a man. But of course, this film is not really about plot all that much. Mr. Anderson is known for his lengthy character studies, and this one is no exception. Based on the Upton Sinclair novel Oil! which I am yet to read, I can only assume that the original was similarly stewing the muck of masculine competition and that all-too-familiar anti-hero's journey. Here, on film, the result is an astounding way to spend two hours and forty minutes.

It always went without saying that an Anderson film, especially when pairing with the talented Mr. Elswit, would not only be technically proficient but painstakingly well developed conceptually. The photography is simply amazing, with the expected color palette of California at that time and a few surprises. Specifically, I noticed some blue fringing popping up in the blacks during certain scenes, as if the blacks were becoming milky but only around certain characters. Whatever they did, it looked pretty damn cool. For a real winner of a scene, and one that brings back memories of the first Gulf War, watch for the scene when they first strike oil in Little Boston. You'll know it when it happens. Photographically, it's as good as it gets, and all the other pieces fit into place. Like the score.

Jonny Greenwood, of Radiohead fame, creates a beautifully haunting score for the film which I will review separately because there is just too much to say about it. This is the largest leap of faith for PTA on this film. He has (almost) always relied on the 21st Century stylings of Jon Brion for his music, but one may notice that this wasn't always going to be a positive thing for the director's career. While Brion is one of the most creative producers in the music industry and a proven film composer at this point, there is no way that he could have taken on an epic of this magnitude. So Mr. Anderson, known for being the polished rock star from the hills with the heart of an auteur, pulled a rather interesting move by tapping one of the more innovative rock stars of the last two decades. Mr. Greenwood has only done one score before, and performed three songs in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but this is his first major theatrical soundtrack. Like I said, my full set of thoughts are coming, but I can say now that I hope Mr. Greenwood continues to make music for movies. It is one of the best scores I have heard in a long time.

The fact is this, if There Will Be Blood is not yet playing in your town, buy tickets for it now and see it when it does. If you wait for the DVD, though it will positively be chock full of special features, then you are a bigger idiot than those who didn't see Beowulf in the theaters. You have to see this movie, you must experience it. You don't really have to like it all that much. But, much like No Country For Old Men, it stands out as a true American achievement in cinema. Who knew that 2007, a year chock full of franchise sequels, the biggest year in the history of Hollywood ($9.62 billion B.O.), would also produce such masterpieces? Soak it up while the getting's good.
Currently listening:
In Rainbows
By Radiohead
Release date: 01 January, 2008
10:04 PM 
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Saturday, January 05, 2008 
As most of you already know, on Novemeber 5th, 2007 the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike after being unable to come to a contract agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Today, we are entering the third month of the strike. The consequences of the strike have already been noticeable to the public. As you know, late-night telelvision has been off the air until this week, and most scripted programs ran out of episodes leading up to the holidays. But while you may be able to live without a few choice programs as we enter the new year, I think it's important that you realize that there is a much more important loss in this strike.

Today, my office, a post production house based in Manhattan, laid off at least 20 employees. This was round 2 of strike layoffs, the first being 16 employees a month ago. Thankfully, I dodged a bullet and remain employed. By no means is this the worst casualty of the strike so far, nor is it even close to the kind of downsizing that has plagued many other industries, but of course, I can only speak for what is happening around me.

Since the strike began I have sided with the writers. I continue to stand with them as I truly believe that what they are fighting for is good for this business. Over the past few decades the entertainment industry has spun out of control for a number of reasons that are not the focus of this particular posting. Suffice it to say that for some time contracts have been stretched and bent, and now they have finally reached a breaking point. The problems are not exclusive to the writers, it just so happens that their contract was up before the other unions.

In any event, I am not a guild or union member.

In fact, no union covers what I do. So at the end of the day, employed or not, I will not see a benefit from this strike (unless of course I start selling screenplays, in which case my tune may change).

Around the country, countless numbers of my colleagues have been laid off since the strike began. We're talking thousands of people. It's a hard time right now, and a very emotional one at that. While the writers may be fighting the good fight the rest of us go to work each day and wonder if we'll have anything to do, or worse, if we'll be asked to come to work the next day. As long as this continues, there is no question that more people will be fired. You can only hold onto people for so long before the company as a whole begins to suffer. So do I want the writers to stick it out until they get what they need? Of course. Then again, when the axe bears down on me, I wonder how I will feel.

When I came into work at midnight tonight, the mood was that of jovial gloom. 20 of our coworkers, our friends, had been asked to leave effective immediately (there was no notice since we are employed at-will). The head of the company started pulling people into his office in the late afternoon and didn't leave until close to 10:30pm, during which time, I'm told, people shifted around in fear that they might be next. But once the dust settled, those who were still around when I got in couldn't help but share in relief that we remain employed in an industry that is caught in a dark time. For now, we can rest easy. But it only takes one look in our quiet machine room (usually teeming with people around the clock, all fighting to get into a deck so they can finish a particular job in time) to know that unless the work starts pouring in again that we will have to weather at least one more shit-storm.

Here's to hoping 2008 rocks and rolls. No matter what happens, we can make it a great one.

--Jon


P.S. I was going to post a review of Atonement, but believe it or not, writing about the strike was less depressing. Good thing awards season will be canceled to avoid this movie getting anything. What a snooze-fest!
Currently reading:
The Kept Man
By Jami Attenberg
Release date: 27 December, 2007
11:23 AM 
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Wednesday, January 02, 2008 
You can find this at Variety's Awards Central

Bird wants respect for toon scribes
'Ratatouille' writer chafes at misconceptions
By STEVEN GAYDOS
Posted: Fri., Dec. 28, 2007, 6:50pm PT

Since Brad Bird is writer-director of three of the best animated films of the past decade, "The Iron Giant," "The Incredibles" and "Ratatouille," it's no surprise to hear him extol the virtues of both Warner Bros. toon legend Michael Maltese and "Lawrence of Arabia" scribe Robert Bolt.
Bird, whose own name appears on that shortest of shortlists, that of writers who were Oscar-nominated for their screenwriting on animated features (for "Incredibles"), combines the whimsical genius of Maltese and lofty ambition of Bolt in this year's awards contender "Ratatouille." He chafes, however, at any discussion of the greats of animation writing that doesn't make clear his belief that "good writing is good writing."

"The whole question of writing for animation is skewed" says Bird, whose next project will be his live-action debut. "There isn't a giant difference between animation and live action. You need characters, stories, themes. It's called good storytelling."

Bird feels misconceptions about the writing of animated features emanate from both sides of the fence -- from those who can't imagine "serious" work from the makers of "cartoons" and from those inside the animated field who can't imagine that any writer who doesn't begin as an animator can ever fully embrace the medium.

Bird explains that although he did begin his career in animation, "I write scripts first, before the work gets to the storyboarding stage. But I write with the knowledge of what animation can do."

Once Bird has made clear that in his view there are no lines separating genres, he expands on the artists he admires in both the animation and live-action camps.

From the Disney canon, Bird cites "Lady and the Tramp" and "Pinocchio" as examples of storytelling with "strong story beats and well-delineated characters." He also admires Nick Park of "Wallace and Grommit" fame as "an artist with a singular point of view" and "Spirited Away's" Hayao Miyazaki as "a master of great storytelling."

And then there are his fellow artists at Pixar, which he calls "the home team." " 'Toy Story's' power comes from its talking about death under several layers of action," says Bird, who sees the film's "real message (as) 'Do you use your life or do you prolong it and become entombed?' "

And then there's Maltese. Bird calls him "the King of the Warner Bros. shorts" and says that "95% of the finest days in the Chuck Jones career had Maltese attached."

On the live-action writing front, Bird rhapsodizes about Bolt's "Lawrence of Arabia," which he recalls seeing as a youth and, "Though I didn't understand it, it overwhelmed me. It told me the world was a much more complex place than I ever imagined." He also cites Steve Zaillian, Alvin Sargent, Robert Towne and Billy Wilder as "heroes."

It's no surprise, however, given Bird's directorial accomplishments, that he reserves a special place in his pantheon of film talents for one of the directing greats.

"Alfred Hitchcock is the one who taught me that there are people making these movies. I kept seeing these movies that gave me chills, from 'Shadow of a Doubt' on through his more famous films, and I kept seeing his names. I thought, 'Aha, it's the same guy giving me these chills. And his name is Alfred Hitchcock.' "
10:28 PM 
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