...In which our heroine presents 2008 in Film.

I still feel pretty terrible, and thus why the lack of updates. So far, mono is like a hangover (because I saw what that was like in a movie once)--exhausted, headaches, periods of nausea. 

I should've written this post a long time ago, earlier in the month but I had a couple more films that needed seeing. So, without further ado, here are my favorite films of the year, in some kind of order.

10/9. Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express

My two favorite comedies of the summer share a spot because while they were both hilarious, there were certainly flaws to each as well. Thunder is a lovely send-up of Hollywood conventions, and Express made stoners look, dare I say it, just a little bit smart. Nothing serious here, but lots of fun.

8. Burn After Reading

This is admittedly, not the best Coen Brothers film, or even close to the brilliance of last year's No Country for Old Men but it's still a whole lot of fun. Mix the typical Coen Brothers hijinks with the CIA, sex, murder, and gym rats, along with excellent performances by Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand especially, and this is certainly an enjoyable film.

7. Iron Man

Any other year and this would have been tops in the comic genre. (We'll be getting to that in a moment.) But still, Downey Jr. does great service to the role of Tony Stark and takes a totally believable plot and makes it thrilling, funny, and visually compelling. It was hard to buy El Duderino as a super villain, but I am quite looking forward to Iron Man 2.

6. Milk

There is not a damn thing wrong with this film--well-acted, well-shot, and well-scripted. But that's the problem, it is simply too typical for my tastes. I kept waiting for the convention to lessen and it didn't. But otherwise, this is a very good, topical film. Much is being made about Sean Penn's performance, but I think that he's overshadowed by the wonderful supporting cast. 

5. Revolutionary Road 

My, how this one stung. This was a tough watch, but Kate and Leo were absolutely outstanding. She deserves the Oscar for this, and I don't know why Leo's name isn't being thrown out more in all the awards talk. The sense of entrapment in 1950s life is palpable with Roger Deakins' cinematography and use of color. A really, really good character study of relationships, just don't watch it with your significant other.

4. Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father

Okay, so this is a documentary and probably shouldn't be on the list, but no film affected me so profoundly emotionally this year. I absolutely sobbed at several points throughout and the end. I won't spoil the plot much because the less you know, the better. This is a wonderful documentary, an amazing assemblage of footage and editing. Basically, filmmaker Kurt Kuenne's childhood friend gets murdered by his girlfriend--who happens to be pregnant with his child. Kuenne then decides to make a film for the child, Zachary, about his father. Find this film and watch it. 

3. The Dark Knight

I got nothin.' Reinvention of the superhero mythology. Pitch black. Heath Ledger's Joker is beyond good. It's all been said. I love my Batman, and this is the best form I've ever seen him in. You better complete the trilogy, Nolan. 

2. The Wrestler 

I'll be rooting hard for Mickey Rourke on Oscar night. Robert Downey Jr. had a sizable comeback this year, but it was nothing compared to the pain that Rourke brings to Randy "The Ram" Robinson. I certainly don't care about the world of professional wrestling, but the character study of Randy created by Darren Aronofsky must be seen. Pathetically glorious is how I like to think of it. Rourke will absolutely break your heart.

And finally...

1. Slumdog Millionaire 

After seeing this film a second time, the choice was clear. In terms of overall filmmaking--from script to score to editing to performance, this is the best film of the year. I fell in love with Danny Boyle's vision of modern India, and the story is very Dickens. Most of the other films on this list are depressing, but Slumdog is inspiring and uplifting. It makes me cry to, but out of sheer joy. My favorite aspect of the film is the beautifully written script by Simon Beaufoy, and thus everything else falls into place. I'm really hoping that the Oscar buzz stays for this all the way to Best Picture, and just maybe even rewards Danny Boyle for his ever-improving body of work.

The honorable mentions: Wall-E (too preachy), Let the Right One In (too cheesy at times), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (too nice).

...In which our heroine is sick.

Sick indeed. I'm finally going to the doctor tomorrow but am pretty much 100% sure it is mono. Which fucking sucks, and thus the lack of updates.

No more work, no going to see Ben on Tuesday. I'm pissed to say the least. I feel so bad that he's stuck in Chicago all by himself and now I can't even go see him. 

I hate being sick. I'm apparently in it for the long haul too, so awesome. 

Ugh.

...In which our heroine sinks another...link.

I either have the flu or mono, which is pretty awesome. But it's given me lots of time to peruse the internets today and find lots of useless stuff to share.

• Den of Geek's List of Lists has hours of entertainment, from 10 Most Depressing Movie Endings Ever to 50 Greatest Effects Shots in Film. Check it out.
• Any child of the 90s, or otherwise has got to enjoy this compilation of cartoon intros from the decade. Gargoyles and Captain Planet...my day is made.
• Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell as villains in Iron Man 2?!?!?! :)
• Chuck Close did a lovely set of photos of Brad Pitt for W Magazine. Who is that old man? He's still gorgeous.
• Harry Potter does not smoke. He can't. Oh but he does. 
• Arcade Fire is scoring the new Richard Kelly film. I, like the rest of my pseudo-emo brethren, used to worship Donnie Darko but anymore I don't think it's so great. I couldn't make it through more than an hour of Southland Tales, and the new film, The Box has Cameron Diaz, so while this should make me excited, it just gets an "ehh." 
• Dita Von Teese dresses so casually for pilates class. She is so fierce, and high on my list of girl crushes. 
• The latest in Watchmen news. I just want to see the damn movie. But the Japanese trailer has lots of new footage:

...In which our heroine has a new toy.

A toy on which I am typing this as we speak.

It was essential for school, and I thought I might as well get it while I was home and utilize my scholarship from Princeton as well as Ohio sales tax. I really like it so far, but left my external hard drive in Chicago, so it's going to take a while to convert everything over. 

In other news, I am sucked back into the vortex of Nip/Tuck. It is so amazingly ridiculous and over the top, but I kind of love it. Within tonight's new episode, Sean got paralyzed, Christian got breast cancer, and Matt decided to be a doctor. Ben asked me last night why we watch so much trash television, and I don't know, but damn, I love this crappy soap opera. From an aesthetic point of view, the sets and costuming are so exaggerated and goregous--I love it.

...In which our heroine celebrates 100 posts.

Aww, my very first blogging milestone, how precious.

In honor of 100 posts, I had to drop some cute on the interwebs. Ben ridicules me endlessly about my love for Cute Overload, and despite the love for guy movies and comic books, I die a little bit everytime I see a baby animal.

With that in mind, here's a video from CBS Sunday Morning, which my parents have watched every Sunday since they've been married. It deals with an elephant sancuary in Tennessee and the unlikely friends within.



Back to Katydid's original philosophy: put kindness out into the world and it will come back to you.

...In which our heroine hits it once.

Someone else I know was talking about shifting musical tastes and it got me thinking about the way I listen to music. Ben and Lane ridicule me endlessly about not listening to whole albums and often having only one song by an artist on iTunes.

I think a lot of how people listen to music has to do with the form it came it when they first began listening to it. My dad talks about side one of Black Sabbath's Paranoid being a life changing musical moment, whereas its Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy by Elton John for mom. Well I don't have a single album that shaped my musical tastes because my earliest musical obsessions came from my WOXY tapes from the Modern Rock 500. The tapes included only single songs by artists and I think that's a major reason that I don't have an issue with being a singular kind of gal.

Perusing my iTunes library today, there are a ton of single or double or triple songs from an artist and that's it. I have few whole albums that I listen to on a consistent basis. I guess this is an odd phenomenon, but it works for me.

So here's a few of Katydid's favorite one hits from the library, enjoy:

Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, "Dodge Veg-O-Matic"


Neneh Cherry, "Buffalo Stance"


Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, "Still...You Turn Me On"


The Chameleons UK, "Swamp Thing"


Jon Astley, "Jane's Getting Serious"


The Moody Blues, "Nights in White Satin"


Clannad, "In a Lifetime"


Lo Fidelity All-Stars, "Battle Flag"


Buffalo Tom, "Taillights Fade"


Godley and Creme, "Cry"


Kirsty MacColl, "Can't Stop Killing You"


Morcheeba, "Trigger Hippie"


Primitive Radio Gods, "Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand"

...In which our heroine reflects on a year.

I'm late, I know. But it is with good reason. I should have posted all of my banter about New Years on the day of, but I was a little busy.

Ben had gotten his shift covered Wednesday morning and so he and Lane were able to leave Chicago much earlier than expected. And those cheeky bastards just decided to pull up in my driveway without warning. It had only been seventeen days...but my god, was I glad to see him.

The boys got to meet my parents and my dad didn't terrify Ben totally. But it was weird, seeing as I've never really brought a boy home, let alone a boy who came to visit me from Chicago on New Years and stayed at our house for two days. Lane got lucky, he only had to deal with Emily's mom.

We ate at the majestic El Rancho Grande, marking my fourth time of eating there since being home. The boys really enjoyed it, and I was glad to see the restaurant so busy. Then, seeing as the copious amount of Mexican food wasn't enough, we got three pints of Graeter's to amaze Ben and Lane with--Buckeye Blitz and black raspberry chip were the favorites.

The 'rents went bowling (I told them to avoid pomeranians and big men with aviators) so we hung out here. The evening was pretty uneventful--Wii, The Dark Knight, ice cream, and ridicule of Hannah Montana's lip synching, but I think we were all just glad to be with each other, bullshitting as usual. It was all kind of surreal, Ben in my house, in my kitchen, in my bedroom, looking at my books. If you would have told me last New Years that this one would be spent with my Iowa-via-Chicago boyfriend coming to visit me, I would have told you to stop with the crack.

Yesterday was equally uneventful, but I was just fine with getting to sleep in with Ben and then laying on my couch for most of the day, watching our mutual favorite No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. Tasting more of Cincinnati's limited culinary landscape, Ben and I enjoyed some LaRosa's for dinner. (He refused to eat Skyline, which was a good choice. I hate their chili.) Then of course we napped before Lane and Emily came over. Besides watching UC lose, it was more of the same.

They left early this morning and now I just have to look forward to the ten days before I get to see him again. It was a lovely visit, and one of the first New Years to not turn into a total disaster.

2008 is over. I don't make resolutions, so I have nothing on that front. I can say that this past year has far and away been the most life-changing on my life. Graduating high school and starting college was only the half of it.

I am so different than the girl I was at the beginning of 2008. I've changed--become more independent, more thrifty, more passionate about my writing, and more detirmined to succeed. In some ways I feel that once I go back to school, I get to start 2009 with a completely clean slate. I've shed some of the skin that kept me trapped and unhappy throughout high school. I'm still me, just a happier, more honest me.

Hope you all had a fantastic New Years as well. And if you didn't, well, there's always next year.