Spread the Word | My Home Is Happy, 10 Minutes You Have to See Before You Die and a Poll

B Brittani Burham has a different opinion on How I Live Now than me - which I'm cool with.
L Hashtag Chicago; here are 10 Great Films by Not-So-Great Directors.
O Gaja Gamini reviews 3 Deewarein, a Hindi-film blindspot that's been haunting me for years.
G Dan Heaton writes about Nebraska and the American Dream.
S Ryan McNeil saw digested a movie I'm dying to see, The Grand Budapest Hotel.

V The Ninth Doctor: A Tribute celebrates one of the most underrated Doctors.
I There's a Happy video from my own home town - We are happy from Flensburg.
D My darling Nawazuddin Siddiqui is starring in a weird looking movie called Lateef.
S I stumbled upon the curious French Toast Sunday youtube channel.

N The new Maze Runner images look kind of intriguing.
E A LEGO movie video game has been released - not that I have time to play.
W Black Widow might be getting her own movie!
S Jonathan Keogh worked for a year on compiling all 1001+ Movies You Have to See Before You Die in to one video - and it's amazing.

M I was a guest on the Matineecast, Episode 107 - The Blindspot Series.
E Please vote for The Elements Trilogy for Movie of the Month on the LAMB Page sidebar!

Spread the word!

Nineteen Candles

By the time you read this, I will be recovering from my massive hangover by eating massive amounts of birthday cake. Okay, maybe I'll try and lessen the massive, but you don't turn your last year of -teen every year, do you?

Last year, I celebrated my 18th birthday with 18 lists. This year, I have neither the time nor the energy to do so - instead, I will give you one list that is good enough to make up for the lack of 18 more. Initially, I wanted to make a list of my 19 favorite films from 1995. It turns out, however, that I have seen only 18 (!) films from the year I was born! That's less than a third of the 2013 films I've seen. So my list is easy; it's all the films of 1995 that I've seen (from worst to best) and then 19 more that I want to see until the 9th of March 2015. Cheers!

WHAT I'VE SEEN

BATMAN FOREVER

A great cast, especially with Jim Carrey as The Joker. How sad that the plot just doesn't hold up. I watched this last year as preparation for Man of Steel (because my knowledge of the superhero movie genre was as big as Leonardo DiCaprio's Oscar) and was very disappointed after the previous two Burton Batman films.

RAM JAANE

This is one of my 90s Shahrukh Khan Bollywood guilty pleasure films... but I don't have the guts to rank it higher. It's very colourful and bloody and unrealistic but I sort of enjoyed it.

KARAN ARJUN

Another 90s Bollywood Shahrukh Khan film - but this one also stars now-superstar Salman Khan. Well, it's a weird movie and a very bad example of the lost-and-found genre.

GUNDARAJ

90s Bollywood had it in it, right? This was the first on-screen pairing of now married Ajay Devgn and Kajol and they really don't have that much chemistry. However, the soundtrack is pretty nice in a trashy kind of way.

WATERWORLD

Having grown up on a ship myself, I was very fascinated with the concept of this film. Kevin Costner is always a safe choice for me too. Some of the effects were a bit heavy and the whole story was quite far-fetched but I generally liked this film.

BAD BOYS

Yeah, I remember close to nothing about this one.

POCAHONTAS

Never one of my favorites but I still liked it more than some others. I guess I just never thought Pocahontas was that beautiful... sorry. I'm not racist like that anymore.

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY

In my big Austen phase (right in the middle of my teenage, actually), this movie was a very pleasant discovery. Need I say more than Alan Rickman?

THE USUAL SUSPECTS

I wasn't as blown away by this film than many others, although perhaps I just wasn't paying it enough attention. The twist is very surprising and cool though.

BRAVEHEART

Again; I remember next to nothing about this and what I do remember may come from clips I've seen at the Oscars. I really should give this one a re-watch.

BALTO

So I like animated films about sledge dogs. And I cry when I watch them. Well, actually I haven't seen this film since I was a child so maybe it's very bad.

BABE
One of my favourite films as a child, however I don't feel that compelled to re-watch it before I have my own kids.

WALLACE AND GROMIT: A CLOSE SHAVE

Who doesn't love Wallace and Gromit? The inventiveness and humour of the films are astonishing and they're the perfect mixture of things that will please adults and those that will please children.

CLUELESS

I'm overly happy I watched Clueless while I was still in high school. Not that Danish high schools are anything like American ones but there's a special feeling about this film for me now. And by the way, Paul Rudd - how does he do it? He still looks the same as in this film!

TOY STORY

Even though I practically grew up in the time of these films, I didn't watch them until last year or so. The fact that I love them shows how great they are indeed. All I want for my 19th birthday is a Buzz Lightyear!

BUMBAI

One of my teenage favourites that I have never rewatched - I do own the DVD though. It's not one I'm afraid to re-watch either, after all it stars my once favourite actress and is directed by one of my favourite directors. And it's not one of those cheesy, typical 90s Bollywood films (that I do love but... you know).

DILWALE DULHANIA LE JAYENGE

Yes, the cheesy, perfectly romantic and in part bizarre 90 Bollywood love story still rules. Almost. My nr. 2 of the year I was born in introduced a whole new style into the world of Hindi cinema and sky-rocketed the careers of most people involved. I wish Shahrukh would go back to making such fun movies with actresses his age.

BEFORE SUNRISE

The mixture of almost unrealistically magical love and bittersweet realism is what makes Before Sunrise my true favourite of 1995. It is heart-wrenching, -warming and anything in between and I wish it would go on for much longer than it does. Basically, I want to stay in that music room scene forever.

WHAT I WANT TO SEE

APOLLO 13

Only Best Picture nominee I haven't seen, space, Tom Hanks - what's not to like?

LEAVING LAS VEGAS

I just desperately need to get a different impression of Nicolas Cage.

DEAD MAN WALKING

Susan Sarandon rocks and I need to catch up on famous female performances anyway.

MIGHTY APHRODITE

One of the many Woody Allen films I've never heard of - perfect!

ANTONIA'S LINE

What a better place to start watching Dutch films than this acclaimed film with a weird poster?

ANNE FRANK REMEMBERED

Granted; I'm just going through the Oscars of 1995 right now. But this one does sounds interesting; Anne Frank is kind of a big deal in high school here.

THE FOUR CORNERS OF NOWHERE

Stephen Chbosky wrote a wonderful novel and directed a wonderful film with The Perks of Being a Wallflower, so let's see what else he put out.

RANGEELA

Absolute 90s Bollywood classic that I am yet to see. I do know the title song pretty well though. Happens a lot to me with Indian films, most often I never see the movies themselves.

LA HAINE

I have heard so much about this movie that I almost feel like I've seen it already.

SE7EN

I'm going to watch it for BlindSpots anyway, so that's neat.

HEAT

I quite like Michael Mann and this could be a nice double feature with The Heat.

CASINO

Martin Scorcese is the #1 of the directors whose filmography I need to crack anyway.

AKELE HUM AKELE TUM

This movie has been mentioned in so many other films that I feel my horizon is going to expand instantly while I watch it.

BAASHA

I can handle a Rajnikanth movie a year, right? I mean, this is the first year I'm trying it.

TWELVE MONKEYS

This just somehow looks and sounds absolutely intriguing.

THE BASKETBALL DIARIES

Whatever Leo says does.

DESERET

I need to watch more docs and WOW how does this have such bad ratings yet is in the 1001 bible?

ZERO KELVIN

Norwegian cinema rocks - and this particular specimen looks very fascinating.

I know; KEEP CALM is probably so-18-years-old by Sunday. By today, I mean. Happy birthday to present me from past me! And have a nice Sunday, everyone.

GUEST POST | Are film critics an endangered species in the new digital media ecosystem?

by Brandon Engel

Even though it’s a lucrative field for some, let’s face it -- there have always been but a few paid film critics in the world at any given time. In some ways, the internet is helping to propel professional film criticism closer to obsolescence. While the major studios used to pander to critics in the hopes of optimizing their presence in mass media outlets, social media has complicated this arena considerably.

While it would be foolish to suggest that critical opinion and popular opinion are always divided, it does seem fair to assert that when it comes to populist fare, the major studios are going to benefit the most from word-of-mouth spread by the general public, and not by film scholars.

Social media, and the ever expanding blogosphere itself, shares an interesting relationship with the film industry. Social media is helping to create a situation where members of the general public inadvertently serve as surrogate brand ambassadors for major corporate entities, and provide unofficial endorsements through their Tweets and status updates. This is as true of film distribution as it is anything else. And the studios love it! They’re saving money by cutting down the number of critic screenings held (and screener disks dispersed). All this boosts the value of focus-group driven pop cinema by devaluing the role of academics who have traditionally helped shape public discourse.

The major studios always held private screenings for critics, and in even more desperate situations, the studios would host press junkets, wherein the most influential members of the press are wined, dined, and maybe even put up for a night in a resort as part of the promotional campaign for the film. It was all glorified bribery.

However, if the studios were to further reduce their PR tours, it’s the student press that might be harmed the most significantly. Students in commercially vibrant, urban areas have historically had the distinct advantage of milking student publication connections to attend screenings and other press events for newly released films. This writer proudly recalls attending a Chicago screening of what was, at the time, the latest Sam Mendes film with maybe three other patrons present for the screening -- one of them was Rogert Ebert himself. Future generations of students may not be able to take full advantage of such opportunities in the future.

But this isn’t to say that social media hasn’t also provided film critics and scholars with an outlet. Roger Ebert tweeted fervently right up until his death, and now, his widow Chaz, who would frequently accompany him to screenings, and is herself something of an important figure in the contemporary film criticism world. A.O. Scott from the New York Times also uses his account to discuss everything from the films he’s reviewing, to other items circulating amongst critics.

And there are situations where the critics and the public do seem to see eye-to-eye. The social media monitoring tool ViralHeat reveals both the dissonance and the harmony between what the critics say versus what the general public says about new releases via their Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram feeds. For instance, opinion was clearly divided on Baz Luhrmann’s interpretation of The Great Gatsby. The social media data largely echoes the “freshness ratings” posted on RottenTomatoes -- 49 percent of critics liked it, as compared to 68 percent of the general viewing audience who liked it. For example, among the countless Twitter users who had nothing but praise for Luhrmann’s Gatsby was user @ShazGhaF, who tweeted:

This was obviously a sharp contrast from what countless other critics and public intellectuals said, including author Bret Easton Ellis who tweeted:

One film where we can easily see a smaller disparity is The Lego Movie. In this case, the Rotten Tomatoes “freshness meter” shows that the critical response was actually more favorable than the audience response, with 96 percent of critics liking the film as compared to 91 percent of general viewing audiences. User @Cynicbats tweeted:

The film also received warm praise from Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times, who even went as far as to tweet a picture of himself wearing 3D glasses at a screening, and wrote:

The implications for mainstream cinema seem quite clear, but the real question now is: can the independents figure out how to harness social media in a way that gives greater visibility to independent cinema, or will the independants nestle into their own little echo chambers in the far corners of the internet? It will be interesting to see what the true long term consequences of social media are, not merely in terms of film criticism, but filmmaking itself.

Across the Universe Podcast, Eps 21: Make 'Em Laugh

Remember that podcast I started with my fellow blogging chicks Sofia and Nikhat, called Across the Universe? Well, we're still here and very sorry for the delay of our latest episode. It has finally been edited now, a week too late, and is all ready for you to listen and enjoy. With us this time is TheVern from The Vern's Video Vortex, and it is to him that most of our apologies go. Sorry for being so unorganized Vern, you were an awesome and hilarious guest!

00:00 - 03:25: Chick-Chatter
03:25 - 03:42: Trailer
03:42 - 15:44: Interview with our guest Vern
15:44 - 1:30:48: The chicks and Vern discuss their favorite comedies
1:30:48 - 1:39:07: Plugs and Goodbyes

Soundtrack
Across the Universe Podcast (by Vern)
Make 'Em Laugh (by Donald O'Connor)

Across the Universe (by Rufus Wainright)




Please give us your feedback on facebook, write us an email at acrosstheuniversepodcast@gmail.com or follow us and write a review on iTunes, stitcher or podomatic. You can find all of our previous episodes on dropbox.

HAPPY NEW MONTH! Wrapping Up February 2014

Where did February go???

Slam, back to reality. So the Oscars are over  now. Even though they were held this first weekend of March, to me it feels like the new month didn't start before today. I had a great time visiting friends in West Germany (not South, as one of them pointed out) and watching the award show in cinema with them - after a screening of the amazing Her. The post-Oscar depression isn't as big as I had expected because the show itself wasn't as mind-blowing as expected but still, I have to choose my own films now and not just watch what the Academy searched out for me. Anyway, that's a whole other (Oscar) post. I caught up with the last Best Picture noms and some indies of 2013 in February and almost (not really) reached my goal of watching one movie from each decade each month. You may also have noticed that this place looks a bit different - redesigning cost me a couple of sleepless nights but I'm pretty content with the way it looks now. Some other changes include updating my 100 FAVORITE FILMS list and a new social feature called SPREAD THE WORD. I also accepted that this is a movie blog and that I can live out my other passions in a different place (well, those not-at-all movie related ones at least). It's more of a mind thing, probably won't change anything for you. This monthly wrap-up is going to be a tad different than it was before too, but nothing big.