23 Feb 2012

Silence Is (Gonna Be) Golden: 2012 Oscar Predictions - "Pencils Down!" Edition

By Mike Schulz

Uggie and Jean Dujardin in The Artist

[Author's note: Well, considering that these original Oscar predictions are in print, I guess I'm stuck with them, right? Au contraire! Over the 13 days since this article was originally published online, Hollywood's arts & crafts guilds announced their winners, the British Academy of Film & Television Awards (BAFTA) were handed out, and numerous prognosticators far more in-the-loop than I am have weighed in. And so I'm finally prepared to offer my absolute, final, turn-in-your-Oscar-pool-guesses-now choices, having changed my original guesses on a full seven of the 24 categories. My final picks, along with some commentary, follow the originally published predictions. And don't forget to follow my reactions to the ceremony at Twitter.com/MikeSchulzNow. Let's see how awful my spelling gets as the night rolls on and I get more and more dru- ... ! Um-m-m ... . More and more excited, I mean!]

After tying my personal best two years ago, when I guessed correctly in 18 of the 24 individual Academy Award races, I experienced a rather sizable setback in 2011, amassing only 13 right. How am I feeling about my predictions this year?

Well ... I've certainly felt worse.

19 Feb 2012

Mr. and Mr. Smith: "This Means War," "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance," and "The Secret World of Arrietty"

By Mike Schulz

Tom Hardy, Chris Pine, and Reese Witherspoon in This Means WarTHIS MEANS WAR

The latest instantly disposable, cinematic-junk-food entertainment by Charlie's Angels and Terminator Salvation director McG is the romantic-comedy action thriller This Means War, and it should be said that the first half of the movie isn't bad. It's closer to excruciating.

14 Feb 2012

What's Happenin': Thursday, February 16, through Wednesday, February 29

By Mike Schulz
Maggie BrownMusic

Maggie Brown

River Music Experience

Sunday, February 19, and Monday, February 20

 

The late, great Duke Ellington was quoted as saying, "By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with." Let's be thankful, then, that this sentiment wasn't adopted by legendary composer Oscar Brown Jr., or the modern jazz scene - as River Music Experience patrons will soon realize - would've been deprived of one awfully gifted daughter.

12 Feb 2012

The Time-Traveler Wife: "The Vow," "Safe House," and "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island"

By Mike Schulz

Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum in The VowTHE VOW

Even though I'm frequently annoyed, if not downright appalled, by them, I really don't ask a lot from traditional romantic weepies. If the actors involved share more-than-sufficient chemistry, and the film provides at least a decent amount of legitimate passion and pathos - with a few good jokes thrown in to keep the proceedings human - I'll generally feel that I've gotten my money's worth. And happily, I got my money's worth at The Vow. I'd hardly argue that director Michael Sucsy's love-among-the-mental-ruins effort is a good movie, but despite never being as interesting as it keeps threatening to be, this audience-friendly drama fulfills its basic requirements with the utmost sincerity and even something approaching wit.

05 Feb 2012

"Dude, Where's My Conscience?": "Chronicle," "The Woman in Black," "Big Miracle," and "The Last Reef"

By Mike Schulz

Dane DeHaan in ChronicleCHRONICLE

Part superhero (and -villain) origin fable and part teen-angst melodrama, Chronicle concerns three high-schoolers who venture down a mysterious hole in the Earth and emerge with telekinetic powers, and the best thing about the movie is that its leads subsequently behave just as high-schoolers likely would in such a situation.

31 Jan 2012

What's Happenin': Thursday, February 2, through Wednesday, February 15

By Mike Schulz

Chucho ValdesMusic

Chucho Valdés & the Afro-Cuban Messengers

Englert Theatre

Friday, February 10, 7:30 p.m.

 

The latest guests in Hancher Auditorium's Visiting Artists series are the renowned Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés and his Afro-Cuban Messengers ensemble, who bring their exuberant Latin stylings to Iowa City's Englert Theatre on February 10. I should tell you, though, that if you visit Valdés' Web site (at ValdesChucho.com) wanting to learn more about the man yet don't know any languages beyond English, you may be slightly disconcerted by Valdés' biography, which begins: "Nacido en 1941, el pianista, compositor, profesor de música, arreglista y director de grupa inició su formación musical a temprana edad ... ."

But fear not! I've taken the trouble of running every phrase from the site through an online Spanish-to-English translator and have now learned everything you need to know about this artist whom All About Jazz calls "among the most accomplished jazz pianists from Cuba or anywhere else."

29 Jan 2012

Northern Exposure: "The Grey," "Man on a Ledge," and "One for the Money"

By Mike Schulz

Liam Neeson in The GreyTHE GREY

Whenever I watch a movie such as Alive or The Thing or director Joe Carnahan's The Grey - especially in January - I ask myself the same question: Is it worth it? I know about cinematic sleight-of-hand, of course, and that the performers and crew aren't enduring anywhere near the nightmarish conditions suffered by the characters on-screen. I also presume that a fat Hollywood paycheck instantly makes any location shooting, including The Grey's outdoor shoot in wintry British Columbia, a lot more bearable. But still, all that ice and wind and trudging through thigh-deep snow ... . Is any movie experience worth spending three months in fear of losing your digits to frostbite?

24 Jan 2012

The 2012 Academy Award Nominees

By Mike Schulz

HugoWell, I have to hand it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences: For all of the widespread grousing about its changing the rules regarding the Oscars' Best Picture race for the second time in three years, they did manage to make this morning's announcement of the 2012 Best Picture contenders exciting. And surprising. Very surprising.

23 Jan 2012

Black and White and Rad All Over: "The Artist"

By Mike Schulz

Jean Dujardin and Uggie in The ArtistTHE ARTIST

In the spirit of Michel Hazanavicius' extraordinary silent-film celebration The Artist, I considered offering a review that, likewise, didn't offer much in the way of verbal language - just a smiley-face emoticon in the biggest font possible. And after two viewings (so far) of this intimate yet grandly ambitious comedy, I'm still not sure that a review filled with actual words will offer a more thorough expression of the rapturous pleasure it fills me with; upon leaving Hazanavicius' exhilarating experiment in black and white, both times, I haven't felt the urge to talk about it so much as sit back and reflect on it with a huge grin plastered to my face.

23 Jan 2012

Ground Zero Offense: "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," "Red Tails," and "Haywire"

By Mike Schulz

Tom Hanks and Thomas Horn in Extremely Loud & Incredibly CloseEXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE

The protagonist of director Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - based on Jonathan Safran Foer's famed 9/11/01-themed novel and adapted by screenwriter Eric Roth - is Oskar Schell, an 11-year-old Manhattanite who tells a new acquaintance that he was once tested for Asperger's syndrome, but that "the results weren't definitive." My first thought upon hearing that admission was that Oskar's folks really should've sought a second opinion, because with young actor Thomas Horn tearing through breathless reams of stream-of-consciousness dialogue, his condition seemed definitive as all-get-out. My second thought, which I only fully composed during the end credits, and which I apologize for in advance, was that watching Extremely Loud was like watching a movie while an 11-year-old with Asperger's yammers in your ear for 130 minutes.

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