You're gonna be bothered by how cool I am.

Another great year, with great movies, great friends, and slightly less dramatic travel travails.



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11

It was a relatively slow night at work (following two days that were very busy indeed, so I was grateful). I spent the down time loading songs onto my iPhone for the plane ride and for general cruising around Austin (Kill Bill soundtrack is still a go-to). I watched The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in a few fitting pieces, watching right up to "I’m going on an adventure!" before leaving work.

( Read more... )

The lineup was pretty amazing this year. I've already posted the simple list on Facebook, but here's a *bit* more info before I crash. Bold titles are premieres.

1. Hooper (1978) - HOW had we never seen a Burt Reynolds movie at BNAT before???
2. Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015) - Colin Firth kicking so much ass it's unreal. (Q&A beforehand with SAMUEL L. JACKSON AND I DIED Y'ALL)
3. The King and the Mockingbird (1980) - Beautiful vintage French animation.
4. Inherent Vice (2014) - Oh, 1970s. (Video intro from director P.T. Anderson)
5. The Interview (2014) - And the phrase "honey dick" entered all our lives. (Intro and Q&A with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg)
6. 1941 (1979) - Spielberg schmaltz; I'm sad to say this is the one I missed the most of due to sleepiness.
7. Captains Courageous (1937) - Spencer Tracy, Freddie Bartholomew and FEELS.
8. Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) - Esther Williams in a biopic of Annette Kellerman.
9. Santiago Violenta (2014) - Chilean homage to American crime movies.
10. A Christmas Horror Story (2015) - Santa vs. Krampus showdown!
11. Son of Kong (1933) - Like the original Kong, but ... less.
12. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) - God bless Martin Freeman is all I can say.

There were lots of connecting themes this year. Almost every single movie had an adorable dog. There were several boats. And then there was "Dark Town After Dark," which gave us maybe everyone's most memorable moment of this or any year.

Now that it's in Harry's inbox, here's my application. It was over 3000 words (including the text of the questions) -- that's longer than most of the papers I wrote in college!

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After filling out the extensive application, having someone film me singing "The Good Ship Lollipop" while straddling a replica of the Strangelove bomb, and sweating whether I'd be spending another BNAT away from Austin, I made it on the list. And last week I made my way to Austin for the greatest film geek event of the year (and one of the strongest line-ups in many years).



( On the Good Ship Lollipop, it's a sweet trip to the candy shop. )

I intend to do a full write-up of my own experiences, but here are two Short Lists. The first is the actual BNAT list and, since neither the application process nor standby worked out for me this year, the second is what I screened for myself at Me-NAT.

( BNAT List )

aaaaaaaaand…

( Me-NAT List )

I've been doing okay, since ... you know. The hurricane didn't do much damage up my way, but further downtown is a mess, and the public transit means I haven't been able to work the past two nights. Haven't received a call today, so I assume I'm back on again tonight.

- Went to a Halloween party this weekend, with my horror movie meetup group. It's been a while since I did a costume, and I *thought* I'd chosen something easy - Alice from Alice, Sweet Alice (and, with a few extra props, the killer from the same movie). But you wouldn't believe how hard it was to find a yellow rain slicker. I finally had to ask one of my BNAT pals who's an Amazon Prime member to order me one. I think it turned out pretty good, and one person did actually recognize what I was dressed as, which considering that the movie is not that well-known, I considered a success.

( Cut for image. )

- I saw a film called Holy Motors a couple weeks ago, which was fabulously trippy and French. It's kind of hard to describe, but it basically follows a man whose job it is to dress up as different characters and participate in various scenarios throughout the day - he's a businessman, he's an old lady begging for change on the street, he's a crazy imp-like man who eats flowers and kidnaps a fashion model, he's an unloving father, he's a dying man... It's one of those movies that you have to just let wash over you, and if you try too hard to make everything fit, you're going to miss it.

- I also saw Cloud Atlas this past weekend, which is AMAZING. I haven't read the book, but now I want to. It's six different stories woven together, with several of the actors playing as many as six or seven different characters - characters that they'd never get to play in another movie. Some stories are heartbreaking, some inspiring, and at least one is wonderfully hilarious (I really, really want to read "The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish"!). I'm not committed to this being my favorite of the year yet, but it's in the running. Simply beautiful.

- BNAT time is upon us again. I finished my application this morning, which may be the latest I've ever submitted. I'll probably post it here after the list goes up, which is some time tomorrow night. I always think bigger than my actual skills can accomplish for the picture and video, and it's wicked difficult to do that stuff by myself. As usual there are standouts among the other applicants - one guy made his video an homage to Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, which then morphed into a rendition of the "Trololo" song. Oooh, also themorningstarr and her husband are applying this year, since they live pretty near Austin. So spare some good luck wishes for them. :-)

- In LJ news, I took a peek at the new flist view, and NO THANK YOU. It's like they're really trying to drive away the last of us old-schoolers who were hanging on for sentimentality. I'd like to hope this is not going to be something we're forced to adopt, but I'm not that optimistic. Ugh, frickin' LJ. Ever since they sold out to SixApart eight years ago... (*hikes up pants and complains like an old person*)

What - you think I'm going to let not going this year stop me from doing this? :P If you're curious what I would have seen if I'd been there, here's the list. Premieres in bold, as usual.

1. Hugo (2011) - Well, technically this isn't a premiere, but it's not vintage either. Unprecedented screening of movie currently in theaters. Methinks this is at the top of Harry's Top 10 list this year.

2. Trip to the Moon (1902) - Very fitting follow-up to Hugo, for reasons I won't divulge, in case you haven't seen it. Live organ score by Graham Reynolds, who did a similar performance for Faust in 2009.

3. Just Imagine (1930) - Sci-fi musical set in THE FUTURE. 1980, that is. Have seen a couple of clips from this. Looks cracktastic.

4. Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy (2011) - Opened in NY/LA on Friday, and I am seeing this tomorrow. Would have seen it Friday before I left town, but there wasn't an early enough show. UK MANDOM!

5. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) - Someone commented that it was weird seeing this version of Holmes right after a movie featuring the actor who plays the definitive modern version. :P

6. The Beast With Five Fingers (1946) - Rather jealous of this screening, actually. A horror film starring Peter Lorre, about a possessed severed hand.

*** At this point, they saw The Hobbit trailer. Three times in a row. A suitable prelude to the next film, which was produced by Jackson and which the Hobbit trailer is supposed to be attached to when it comes out in a couple of weeks.

7. The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

8. Porco Rosso (1992) - Early-ish film by Hayao Miyazaki.

9. [SECRET FILM] (2011) - There's a weird protocol about who can talk about this film and where. It's a horror film produced by Joss Whedon, directed by Drew Goddard, and written by the two of them. Google will lead you to the title from there, if you desire. I've seen the trailer once; I don't want to see it again. I want it to rock my face off when it comes out in April. Very jealous of the screening with that audience. I'll bet it was amazing.

10. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011)

11. The Grey (2011) - Liam Neeson vs. some scary wolves. Putting the wolf in ThirTEEN WOLF, I suppose.

12. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011) - Another trip to the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum for an IMAX viewing. This is apparently amazing. Brad Bird's (The Incredibles, Iron Giant) live action debut.

***

There's a long version coming, but it's not what you think. ;-)

Well, the streak had to end sometime, I guess. I'm not 100% positive, because the list hasn't gone up yet, but several others have gotten emails that they're in, and I haven't. Holding out a sliver of hope that he just hasn't sent them all yet, but it's a very small sliver.

It won't feel right not to make that trip. And as much as I'd like to go to Austin "just 'cause" and hang out and hope for luck in the standby line, I can't justify the expense of the trip for that small a chance.

Trying not to let what is ultimately a small disappointment "big picture wise" lead to my forcing myself to reevaluate life and whatnot, which is something I tend to do. I'll have more wiggle room for my holiday trip, at any rate.

I was telling someone Saturday afternoon that, although my contract is up and I'm eligible for a new cell phone, I didn't need to spend the money for it right now (because I'm trying to save liek woah for December happenings). Wouldn't you know, twelve hours later, I'm walking out of a movie theater, take my phone out of my pocket, and have a spaz moment and drop it on the sidewalk. Now, ordinarily this would be no big deal; I can't tell you how many times I've dropped this thing and it's nothing. This time? One drop too many, it seems - my screen basically shattered. Nothing fell out, thank goodness, though I wasn't taking chances and just held on to it all the way home, and it STILL WORKS (iPhones - take a licking and keep on ticking!), but I have now slapped a piece of packing tape on the screen (which feels like a sacrilege) so that none of the pieces fall out and I can drag my finger across it and not cut myself. I actually went to the Apple store to make sure this would work and wouldn't interfere with the touch screen mojo. The sales guy predictably tried to sell me a screen protector, which seemed like the silliest investment ever, since I was only going to use it for a few days.

So now I *have* to get a new phone. Well, I probably could take this one somewhere and get the screen repaired or replaced, but who knows how much that would cost and eh, I've been eyeing the new iPhone (which handily comes out this Friday). What's gone out the window now, though, is my trip to Sleepy Hollow (AGAIN!). I've got to cut something out to help make up for the added expense, though, and it's not going to be BNAT or Christmas. This won't totally make up for it, but it will be a good chunk.

Speaking of BNAT, I ... may or may not have used my Final Draft A/V screenwriting software to write a script for my Enjoli video. Looking forward to giving my new phone's supposedly spectacular HD camera a whirl. That's assuming I can get one Friday. Yes, I know it's ridiculously stupid to line up at the store on release day when I can pre-order online, but then I have to wait even longer and there's no nice, helpful Apple geek that comes to your house and helps you set everything up like they do in the store. I don't think there's any danger of them running out at the Fifth Avenue store.

In other news, my annual cold has come to town. Bleargh.