TALKING MOVIES

Due to a perfect storm of participant inattention and scheduling conflicts at the venue, our annual pre-Oscar film critics' smackdown at the Nickelodeon will not go on this year.

This is the event in which, in days of yore, our fearless leader, Morton Marcus, used to lead guest critics Bruce Bratton, Wallace Baine, and myself in a roundhouse brawl—oops, I mean civil, intellectual discourse about the year's best movies, along with our views on the Academy Award nominees. Even after Mort moved on the the Great Screening Room in the sky, the three of us kept the event going in his honor.

This year, the show will still go on, but in a different format. Although we won't be making a personal appearance at the Nick, we'll be talking movies on Bruce Bratton's radio show, Universal Grapevine, on KZSC, Tuesday, February 12, at 7:30 pm.

Wallace has had to leave our merry band, since he's so busy covering the rest of the entertainment scene in Santa Cruz, he rarely has time to see movies any more.  But longtime local filmie Christina Waters, of the SC Weekly, has graciously agreed to step into the breach.

We'll be discussing our favorite films of 2012, likely Oscar winners (and losers), and anything else that pops into our brains on the subject. Tune into KZSC, 88.1 on your FM dial, and check it out!

PROS POETRY

Veteran stars worth the ride in entertaining 'Stand Up Guys'

You can't teach an old dog new tricks, and why should you, when the old tricks work as well as they do in Stand Up Guys? The pleasure of watching three veteran actors do what they do best is its own reward in this wistful crime comedy from director Fisher Stevens.

Plotwise, it may look like nothing special, but the combined one-two-three punch of co-stars Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, and Alan Arkin turn it into an entertaining, funny, and surprisingly moving morality play on aging, friendship, and what it means to do the right thing.

Scripted by rookie Noah Haidle, Stand Up Guys begins at the end of a 28-year prison term for small-time crook Valentine (Pacino). Val went up the river for his part in a robbery organized by a mob boss called Claphands, whose son was killed in the resulting shootout. Val is proud of the fact that throughout his incarceration, he never ratted on the organization he was working for.

On the day he's released, Val is met by his oldest (and only) friend, Doc (Walken), who takes him home to his small, cluttered apartment in a shabby part of town. Doc claims he's retired; he gets up early to paint sunrises (his little canvases cover the walls), and watches cable TV at night. But we soon discover there's one more job Doc has to do—he's been ordered by Claphands to kill Val by 10 o'clock the next morning. And it doesn't take long for Val to figure it out too.

What follows is a picaresque, all-night odyssey. (Read the complete review in this week's Good Times.)

IT'S A BOOK!

As any writer will tell you, there is nothing like seeing the words you've written bound in book form for the first time!

This advance copy of my novel, Alias Hook, arrived last week from my publisher, Snowbooks, in the UK. It's only an uncorrected proof, which means it does not reflect the two weeks last November that my editor and I spent painstakingly fixing typos, restoring scene breaks and cleaning up the language.

But who cares? It's a book!

I'm told this moment is analogous to holding your newborn child in your arms for the very first time. Except, in my case, the labor took close to nine years, not months. And I do mean labor, not gestation: the minute your brain becomes pregnant with that one, fertile Idea, that's when the work begins!

For midwives, I had a couple of New York agents who subsequently fell by the wayside, and two terrific women, my editor and publisher at Snowbooks, who "fell in love with" my little book.

Of course, to paraphrase Neil Gaiman in his great commencement address last May, I am hourly expecting the Fraud Police to show up and tell me it's all been a terrible mistake, and that it's time to go quietly and get a real job.

But until that happens—it's a book!

To read more about it, check out my Alias Hook Facebook page, or my recent post "The Next Big Thing," about the inspiration for the story. To get in the mood, don't miss my illustrated History of Captain Hook on stage, page, and screen.

FIRST FRIDAY HEARTS TOUR

Remember Hearts for the Arts? (Here's a brief recap for those of you who came in late.)

An annual fundraiser for the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County, it was a combined silent and live art auction formerly held at the SC Civic on Valentine's Day weekend. With hundreds of local artists participating, along with hundreds more of their collectors madly bidding away, it was also the single biggest social event of the year for artists.

Sadly, the event finally became too massive to stage. But its spirit lives on at the Artisan's Gallery downtown, which hosts an annual mini Hearts for the Arts exhibit and art auction every year around this time.

 The show opens to the public today, with an artist's reception tonight, 6 to 8 pm, as part of the First Friday Art Tour for February.

To accommodate the smaller space, Artisan's owner Linnea Holgers James invited  artists to contribute a 10" x 10" square piece of original "love-inspired" art, which she displays like a giant quilt on the back wall of the shop.

From now through February 14, a silent auction will be in progress; if you can't make the reception tonight, drop in any time to bid on your favorites!

Among the 30+ local artists participating this year are printmaker Liz Lyons Friedman (that's her "Crazy Hearts," up top), painter Isobel George ("Heart & Soul,"  above right), and mixed media artist James Aschbacher, aka Art Boy ("Love Song," left).

On Valentine's Day, the auction closes and the artworks go home with some lucky bidders. All proceeds go the the CCSCC's Art Education programs for children and youth, including the  SPECTRA and Mariposa's Art programs.

And while you're out on the First Friday tour tonight, plan a stop at The Tannery. The new show at the new Santa Cruz Institute of Contemporary Art (SCICA) gallery is called "Alter Eco: Exploring the Landscape of Change," in which participating artists are invited to reconsider the idea of landscape in a changing natural world.

The slate of local and regional artists includes  multi-media artist Stan Welsh, book artist Jody Alexander, photographer Steve Laufer, and installation artist Ryan Jones, among others.

 Fanne Fernow is showing a selection of her way cool 3D encaustic sculpture series, "Enchanted Broccoli Forest." There's nothing like seeing these playful yet mysterious pieces in person!
 

And before you leave The Tannery, stop by Stephanie Schriver's clay sculpture studio (#122).

In addition to Schriver's own whimsical clay pieces, take a fortifying look at the nutrageous watercolor animal paintings of John McKinley.

Check out  his "7 Shades of  Grey," and tell me you're not smiling already!

THE LONG GOODBYE

Iconic stars, fearless performances, in brave aging drama "Amour'

You don't go to a Michael Haneke film for comfort and joy. His is a chilly, clear-eyed worldview of human nature and consequences that turns an apparent genre thriller like Cache into a study of moral imperatives, or a historical drama like The White Ribbon into a haunted horror movie of deep-seated psychoses. As usual, Haneke's excellent new film, Amour, is not for the faint-hearted; it may look like a domestic drama about a long-married couple rattling around their tiny Paris apartment, but it packs a wallop as Haneke confronts his most ferocious and devastating themes to date—the inevitability of aging, and the nature of commitment.

Two icons of French cinema, 82-year-old Jean-Louis Trintignant and 85-year-old Emmanuelle Riva, fearlessly act their age in a pair of mesmerizing, award-worthy performances. You rarely see people their age in movies at all these days, let alone as lead characters in a film with such a freighted title as "Amour." And true to form, Haneke doesn't fritter away their talents in some faux-inspirational tale about finding courage and dignity in old age. Rather, he portrays the end of life—much like the rest of life—as a minefield of choices, in which the struggle to understand and define oneself continues right up to the last breath.

Old age is not for sissies, as the joke goes, and neither is this movie. But while it's not exactly upbeat, it strikes a resonant chord of humanity that is both fascinating and rewarding; it's not always easy to watch but it is never less than honest. And the lovely exit Haneke orchestrates for his characters after all their trials is a fitting finale to this brave, affecting film. (Read more in this week's Good Times)

"MAKE GOOD ART"

Drop whatever you're doing and listen up!

If you labor in any capacity in the creative arts, you owe it to yourself to watch this video. It's the one and only Neil Gaiman delivering the most inspiring commencement speech ever at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia last May.

In his first ever commencement address, the original and ridiculously talented author of the Sandman graphic novels, "Coraline," "Mirror Mask," "Stardust," "Neverwhere," and oh, so many other fabulous works explains it all for you: how to get and keep a job in the arts, how to keep your attitude fresh and your spirit adventurous, how to say 'no,' and why. Not to mention revealing the best piece of advice he never took.

Gaiman's sensible outlook and droll humor delight throughout, even as his strategies often surprise. Best of all, he shares the best possible Mantra for a life in the creative arts: "Make good art." Come what may, despite all obstacles, the solution to any challenges life throws in your path—"Make good art."

Seriously, the most inspirational 20 minutes you will ever spend. Watch it now!

(PS: Not that anyone asked me, but here's the one thing I would add to Gaiman's glorious litany of good advice, something I wish I'd done more often myself: don't wait around until someone gives you the slightest encouragement before you make your art. It might never happen. Do it because you have to. Do it right now.)

CAPE FEARLESS

French-born filmmaker Jacques Audiard is best known for his stylish thrillers. His last film was the Oscar nominee A Prophet, a jazzy, yet often brutal crime melodrama about a young Muslim man coming of age inside a French prison. But Audiard's engrossing new film, Rust and Bone, is a departure. While it percolates with suspense, even dread, it's not exactly a thriller, and the love story that slowly wends its way to the surface avoids the trappings of conventional romance for something darker, deeper, and ultimately more satisfying.

Its protagonist, Ali (the excellent Matthias Schoenaerts), is a man on the run from his home in Belgium with his five-year-old son. Hitchhiking, then taking a train, scavenging food that other passengers have left behind, or stealing from a busy MacDonald's, they are on their way to Ali's sister and her truck-driver husband in the French beachfront resort town of Cap d'Antibes. Some mention is made in passing that Ali's wife was using their little boy in a drug-smuggling enterprise, so he's come to France to get a new start.

We get the feeling that, like most of his impulses, Ali's move to France has not been well thought-out. While working as a bouncer, Ali meets Stephanie (Marion Cotillard), who trains killer whales at the local Marineland park.

Cotillard's wonderful portrait of a woman who decides to be fearless is well partnered by Schoenaerts' tough-tender Ali; theirs is an intricate, delicate mating dance that fuels this dynamic film. (Read complete review in this week's Good Times.)

TALKING PICTURES

As a onetime cartoonist, and someone who often storyboards a scene I'm writing so I can see what's going on, I was irresistibly drawn (ahem) to "The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel." Scripted by Diana Gabaldon, it's a compacted version of roughly the first third of her popular historical novel, "Outlander" (one of my favorites), illustrated by Hoang Nguyen in hardcover graphic novel format. Except, just to liven things up, this time Gabaldon tells the story from Jamie's viewpoint.

Gabaldon assumes you already know the story, so wastes little time or ink on Claire's backstory, or how she comes to be the woman who fell to Earth in the middle of the 18th Century Scottish Highlands.  The focus is on Jamie, delivered back to Scotland in the dead of night with a price on his head, accosted by a rough-hewn guard of Highlanders, attempting to navigate rugged terrain and dicey clan politics while pursued by his sinister English nemesis, Captain Jack Randall.

But more important than plot here is the seductive invitation to actually see Claire and Jamie's world. (In addition to the gigantic IMAX, 3D, sensurround visuals readers create in our heads while reading, of course.) Marvel and Dark Horse veteran artist Nguyen contributes mood- and mist-drenched images of eerie Highland landscapes and moonlit standing stones, plenty of two-fisted action, pageantry, and character-bonding. And, seriously, who doesn't want a ringside seat for one of Claire and Jamie's epic love scenes?

(Although the blood-spewing brawling, knife fights and shoot-outs get a wee bit over-the-top, in the manner of comic book violence.)

Still, Nguyen manages to infuse a high degree of personality into the main characters' faces. (Although I can't say the same for the other random clansmen in the story, most of whom look alike to me. Even the pivotal Murtagh, Jamie's godfather, isn't always grizzled enough to distinguish him from the pack.)

In this, Nguyen had the benefit of Gabaldon's input, as revealed in the enlightening "Making Of..." section in the back of the book; not surprisingly, the author has very clear ideas of what her characters look like, right down to Jamie's cowlick, and wasn't shy about suggesting subtle changes until the artist "saw" them correctly, too.

In this section too, the editor thoughtfully includes a link to DG's website where you can see the unexpurgated version of that infamous love scene panel. Pretty entertaining all around for seasoned "Outlander" fans.

Btw, I found my copy remaindered at Logos right around Christmastime. There may still be some left!

TERRIFIC TENS

The philosophy behind the Santa Cruz Actors' Theatre's annual short play festival, 8 Tens @ Eight, has always been what I call the Bus Theory: if one play doesn't get you where you want to go, there'll be another one along in 10 minutes. What's great about this year's festival is that the quality of the plays overall is so high. Not one of this year's eight ten-minute plays ever runs completely out of gas; all are well-written, well-acted, and cleverly staged, and most have a story arc that delivers the viewer to a valid destination.

This year's Double-Threat award goes to Ian McRae. He's very funny as Phineas P. Japester, a cigar-chomping drill instructor in Dan Borengasser's Clown Camp, directed with pizzazz by Marcus Cato; in his red nose, fright wig, and fatigues, Japester trains a platoon of raw recruits in the art of being a bozo. ("No irony!" he warns them. "No satire! No bon-mots!")

McRae also scores as the author of Dudes Like Us, a funny, wistful, wholly engaging meditation on surfing, aging, life, and even language as a couple of veteran surf buddies (the wonderful Steven Capasso and Rick Kuhn) trying out paddleboards for the first time. Bill Peters' inventive staging places the actors on pedestals, painted to suggest boards, on an empty stage. It works beautifully (right down to the water they occasionally splash over their heads). (Read more)

Only two more weekends to go, so click here for ticket info.

CHOC-O-DELIC

And speaking of persons of the female persuasion (as I was last post), ladies, this is the weekend to grab a girlfriend and make a made dash to the 6th Annual Santa Cruz Chocolate Festival.

Staged by the UCSC Women's Club, it's a fundraising event to provide scholarships for re-entry students. And what better way to support a worthy cause than by sampling chocolate—dark, milk, bitter, spicy, sweet, organic, and every variety in between—from some 28 vendors, from Santa Cruz and far beyond? It's all happening upstairs at the festive Cocoanut Grove ballroom this Sunday, January 20, from 1—4 pm.

My friend and I had way fun at this event last year. It's a psychedelic experience, staggering from table to table, tasting every kind of cacao-based goodie you can imagine, from candy, ganache, truffles and cupcakes to ice cream, toffee, and Mexican molé. Last year, the trendy flavor of choice was salty caramel and chocolate; this year, other spicy combinations are being dreamed up as we speak.

New this year will be wine vendors peddling their wares to those in need of liquid refreshment between chocolate hits. (Everyone says red wine and chocolate is a match made in Decadence Heaven, although I prefer chocolate and champagne, myself.)  To this end, Festival wine glasses can be purchased for $5 in advance or at the event. The $15 admission buys you six tastings of your choice (wine or chocolate), but you have to buy the glass to sip the vino.

Here's all the info, including online advance ticket purchases. And check this list of vendors to get you salivating!

Remember, friends don't let friends eat chocolate alone, so grab a buddy and go!

(Above: two suspicious characters sample the goods at last years Chocolate Festival. Photo by Stephanie Nielsen, for the UCSC Women's Club.)

GIRLS NIGHT OUT

It was women on top Sunday night at the Golden Globe Awards.

From the savvy and wicked funny co-hosting of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to some of the evening's most interesting speeches and victories, the 70th Annual Hollywood Foreign Press Association's celebrity clambake serves as an indicator (albeit a teensy one) that women are finding more to do in Hollywood than look great on the red carpet.

(Although they are still required to do that, too. One of my favorite moments came when Adele—looking splendidly, unapologetically Rubenesque—collected her Best Song award for "Skyfall," thanked the foreign press, then paused to note, "I never thought I'd hear myself say that"—a reference to the way she's been hounded by the press for not dieting herself down to waif-size.)

Adele: unapologetic

(Er, weighing in on the same subject, Fey referred to The Hunger Games as "what I call the six weeks it took me to get into this dress," to which Poehler riposted that Life of Pi is "what I'm going to call the next six weeks after I take this dress off!")

Best Supporting Actress winner Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables) gave a shout-out to fellow nominee Sally Field, citing her range of roles from The Flying Nun to Mary Todd Lincoln an inspiration for every actress hoping to have a diverse career.

Jodie Foster, winner of the Cecile B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award (at the tender age of 50) made a few wry remarks in which she seemed to be coming out as a lesbian—as if we didn't know—followed by an eloquent meditation on the lost art of privacy.

Even the outgoing president of the HFPA, Dr. Aida Takia-O'Reilly got into the act with a short, zesty comic speech, musing "I know (producer) Jeffrey Katzenberg will never forget my name—because he never knew it in the first place."

Brenda Chapman: unsung heroine of Brave

Lena Dunham won for Best Actress in a TV comedy in her edgy series, "Girls," which also won for Best TV Comedy.

But while it was also great to see the girl-centric Brave win in the Best Animated Film category, it was kind of a disgrace that co-director Mark Andrews got to do all the gushing while Brenda Chapman—who wrote, developed, and directed most of the film before Pixar unceremoniously replaced her with Andrews—wasn't even invited to the party. Since they received co-director credit on Brave, I would have liked to see her on the podium too.

For awhile, I thought that was Chapman up there standing silently next to Andrews (turns out it was producer Katherine Sarafian). The sound was so wretched all night, you couldn't hear what was going on, from the director audibly counting down in the booth at the start of the show, to the roar of ambient noise in the room during every presentation, to an unbalanced audio mix in which the announcer's introductions were constantly drowned out by the orchestra.

One for the boys: Daniel Day-Lewis

Speaking of female directors, Kathryn Bigelow did not win for Zero Dark Thirty, but at least she was nominated. So was Ben Affleck, who astonished everyone—including himself—when he won for Argo. Which went on to win Best Picture in the drama category. Neither Affleck nor Bigelow is nominated for a directing Oscar, although both their films are in contention. Go figure.

My favorite non-female speech of the night came from Best Actor/Drama winner Daniel Day-Lewis (astonishing no one), who thanked—of all people!—the writer of Lincoln, Tony Kushner. Said Day-Lewis, "Every day I have to live without the gift of your words, which reminds me of the impoverishment of my own."

Still, I think the night belonged to Fey and Poehler. In their best introduction, Fey told the audience, "This guy makes the younger George Clooney look like garbage" —then proceeded to bring out "Older George Clooney!" Hmmm...point taken!

OSCAR UPDATE

Well, shut my mouth.

It's going to be an even more exclusive—and male—old boys' club for the Best Picture category at this year's Academy Awards than even I imagined in my last pre-Oscar post.

Kathryn Bigelow didn't even get nominated for directing Zero Dark Thirty—which pretty much puts the kibosh on that film's Best Picture chances.

Ditto Ben Affleck for directing the much-liked and very well-received Argo. (Maybe Oscar just isn't in the mood for CIA procedurals this year.)

The last Director's Guild nominee to NOT receive an Oscar nomination is Tom Hooper, for Les Miserables. It's not unheard of for a film to win the Best Picture award even though its director is not nominated, but it's statistically rare.

Who did the Academy nominate instead of the above in the Best Director category? Michael Haneke, for the highly-buzzed French film, Amour, David O. Russell, for Silver Linings Playbook, and Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild.

All of their films are also nominated in the crowded category of Best Picture. What they don't have is the blessing of a Director's Guild nomination, without which an Oscar nominee rarely wins an Academy Award.

So who does that leave in serious contention for Best Picture?  Life of Pi, whose director, Ang Lee, is nominated by both the DGA and the Academy, and Lincoln (ditto Steven Spielberg). And personally, I cant imagine any scenario in which a movie about a boy and a tiger on a boat (no matter how gorgeous) could possibly lose to a well-crafted drama about one of the most iconic figures in American history at the moment of his greatest triumph.

What concerns me most this year are the Best Actress nominees. Not a single one in historical costume—what fun is that?

Besides which, one nominee is a woman in her 80s (veteran French actress Emmanuelle Riva, in Amour, who is, btw, very well-positioned to take the gold), and another is a 6-year-old girl (the delightful Quvenzhané Wallis for Beasts of the Southern Wild). 

How on earth am I going to dress my Oscar Barbies???

Stay tuned...

In the meantime, check out all the 2013 Oscar nominees, and let me know what you think!

WATER WORLD

'The Impossible' an intense drama of tsunami survival

If you've ever had a hankering to find out what it's like to be swept up in a tsunami—without, you know, the life-threatening peril—look no further than The Impossible.

Spanish filmmaker Juan Antonio Bayona's intense drama is based on a true story of survival in the wake of the ferocious Asian Pacific tsunami of December, 2004; it plunges the viewer smack in the middle of utter chaos when a rogue wall of water rises up and devastates everything in its path for miles around in a matter of minutes.

Bayona made the stylish and brilliantly creepy Gothic thriller The Orphanage (El Orfanato) a few years back, and he knows a little something about building and sustaining suspense.

 But while that film was all about the dread of the unknown, this one is fueled entirely on the adrenalin rush of coping with the unthinkable. There's no time to dread anything here; the suddenness of the tsunami as it pounds a completely unprepared human world is its most terrifying aspect.

Bayona, working again with Orphanage scriptwriter Sergio G. Sanchez, takes as his inspiration the true story of the Belón family, a Spanish couple and their three young sons who were vacationing on the coast of Thailand when the tsunami struck. In the film, the family is British.

Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts (in an incredibly physically demanding performance) star as Henry and Maria; he's a young entrepreneur and she's a trained medical doctor who's given up her practice to raise their family.

Adolescent son Lucas (Tom Holland) is their eldest. Thomas (Samuel Joslin) and little Simon (Oaklee Pendergast) are his younger brothers. (Read more)

AND the NOMINEES ARE...

It's not exactly rocket science. Want to know what films will be serious contenders for the Oscar this year? Well, start with the ten films nominated for the Producer's Guild award last week, then subtract the five films on the list NOT nominated for the Director's Guild award yesterday.

Voila!

Presenting the likeliest Final Five for Academy Award contention (those nominated by both Producers and Directors Guilds):

Zero Dark Thirty
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Argo

There will still be up to ten Best Picture nominations (although in 2012, I believe there were only nine), and they will probably reflect pretty closely the Producer's Guild nominations, meaning you can add Django Unchained, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Moonrise Kingdom, Silver Linings Playbook, and Skyfall to the list above.

But only the five films nominated by both guilds have a prayer of actually winning. And who will that winner be? Right now, my money's on Lincoln, along with a Directing Oscar for Steven Spielberg (who hasn't won since Schindler's List). In addition, of course, to a big fat Best Actor award for Daniel Day-Lewis.




True, I haven't seen Zero Dark Thirty yet, which is getting plenty of gigantic buzz. But the Academy finally broke down and anointed director Kathryn Bigelow with its first directing Oscar ever awarded to a woman in the history of movies just a couple of years ago, in 2010 (for The Hurt Locker). So it probably doesn't want to, you know, get carried away.

The 85th Academy Award nominations will be announced tomorrow morning at some ungodly hour. Meanwhile, as of Friday, all of the top five will be playing on local screens, with the wide opening of Zero Dark Thirty, and the return engagement of Argo joining Lincoln and Les Miz at the Nick and Del Mar, and Life of Pi at the 9.

See em all! See 'em big!

MIZ-MASH

Can the new filmed musical version of Les Miserables really be as awful—or as great—as everybody says? Your intrepid reporter decided to find out!

Most of what I dislike about the movie has to do with the property itself (which I come to as a virgin, having never seen it onstage). I'm not a big fan of the nouveau-operetta format, revived in the spectacle era of Les Miz and Phantom of the Opera, etc. I prefer spoken dialogue between separate (hopefully catchy) songs; too much exposition written into the music makes it that much more difficult to sing, or for the audience to remember.

Director Tom Hooper had the audacious idea to film his actors singing live on-camera in the moment, not lip-synching to their own pre-recorded songs. This is largely to replicate the experience of live theater (where there are no retakes), and it does bring a sense of immediacy to certain scenes. (I think it also necessitates all the close-ups some viewers are complaining about; in the theater, an actor can prowl the stage, but a film actor—especially singing live—better stay put if he wants to remain properly lit and in focus.) But at other times, the demands of the music run away with the storytelling.

The opening scenes, for instance, feature two gigantic, en masse singing numbers— the convicts hauling a ship on their ropes, and the factory women at their tables—that are impossible to understand, the lyrics as muddy as the bottom of the Seine. In the latter case, since I couldn't hear the words, I really never got why all the factory women suddenly turn against Fantine, which is sort of a key plot point.

(For that matter, women in general fare poorly as characters in this decidedly male world of cons, cops, and idealistic student protestors. Yes, Fantine is an angel, but her grown daughter, Cosette (Amanda Seyfried), is a a bland, blonde confection with no personality at all, whose love at first sight (yawn) with a man she's never even spoken to is supposed to fuel the entire final third of the plot. And let's not even discuss the innkeeper's wife played by Helena Bonham Carter as a comic-relief grotesque.)

(As a group, females are either shrewish factory workers, cruel prostitutes, or cowardly citizens who turn their backs and bar their shutters to the stalwart young male revolutionaries when the gendarmes arrive. The only other femme character with any grit and chutzpah at all is Samantha Barks' Eponine—and look what happens to her!)

On the plus side, here are my three favorite things about the movie.

One: Hugh Jackman. He gives a towering, exhaustive performance as Jean Valjean. The muddied, exposition-heavy music doesn't always show his voice off to best advantage (and musical theater veteran Jackman has a great singing voice), but he sings with clarity and gusto throughout, delivers the goods emotionally, and gives the movie a pulse from its very first scene to its last.

Two: Anne Hathaway's raw, heartbreaking performance as displaced factory worker and unwed mother, Fantine. The devastating power of her ragged "I Dreamed A Dream," not only shows how Hooper's live-singing device is supposed to work, but provides the film with its one memorable song/theme—not to mention its dramatic highlight.

Three: Russell Crowe as Inspector Javert. Shut up! He's perfectly cast as the implacable lawman, and his no-frills, serviceable, workmanlike singing voice is exactly the right shape and color you'd expect from rough-hewn Javert .

Eddie Redmayne also sings well as Marius, scion of a wealthy Parisian family swept up in the events of the June Rebellion, but, as noted above, his ad hoc love story with Cosette is probably the least interesting aspect of the entire 157-minute enterprise. Oh, and did I mention that it's realllllly long?

There are moments when various characters are singing in counterpoint to each other onscreen where it all falls into place—music, resonant emotion and spirit. ("One Day More" is genuinely thrilling.) But for all Hooper's clever filming tricks and techniques, he can't sustain that level of engagement for as long as it takes the entire lumbering beast to unspool.

TREASURE HUNT

10 gems worth seeking out from the 2012 movie year

After the bounty of 2011, 2012 was a relatively disappointing movie year; I didn't give one single film a 4-star rating. Still, here are a few (in some cases, undiscovered) gems from the year worth putting in your Netflix queue:

THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD The best film of 2012 that never actually opened (at least not in Santa Cruz), this is a moving coming-of-age drama, a cogent look at Old World values in a changing new world, and an elegant and scathing allegory about warfare and justice, directed by American filmmaker Joshua Marston and set in modern-day Albania. As complacent old men convene to dictate the archaic "rules" of a neighborhood blood feud, the frustration of modern young people watching their futures die is devastating.


CHICKEN WITH PLUMS  
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD  
FIRST POSITION  
THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL  

PINA (Okay, this was technically released in 2011, but we didn't see it in Santa Cruz until this year.) 
LINCOLN  
SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN
CHICO & RITA  
SKYFALL

GUILTY PLEASURE:
THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS

HONORABLE MENTION:.)
Brave, Looper, Argo, Cloud Atlas, Life of Pi

OVERRATED and UNDERPERFORMING:
THE MASTER

(Read the whole story in this week's Good Times, or watch this space for a link.)

12 (ALTERNATIVE) DAYS of CHRISTMAS

It's Boxing Day, and the first wave of holiday madness is behind us—the shopping, wrapping, prepping, cooking, eating (and, hopefully, cleaning up) part. Whew! Thank heavens that's over! Take a deep breath, and congratulate yourself for making it this far.

Now: who's ready to jump back into the fray and hit the post-Christmas sales? Not me!

Seriously? Fighting traffic and crowds to elbow strangers out of the way over faux bargains (60% off our normally exorbitant prices!) is NOT the way I want to spend the rest of my holiday. My plan is to avoid the crowds, unplug from the Electronic Overlord (fill in your social media of choice), and do something to replenish the soul and renew the spirit as the old years winds down.

There are 12 Days of Christmas left. Here are 12 alternative ways to enjoy them that don't involve a trip to  the mall.

Play with your Pets It's been a fraught few weeks for the fur-bearing members of your household, what with you running around like a lunatic trying to "do" the holidays. Take some time to cuddle the kitties and romp with the dog.

Read a Book You've earned some down time. What better way to spend it than attacking that TBR pile? Heather McDougal's "Songs for a Machine Age" is  next up for me!

Make Art Indulge in the luxury of time between now and the New Year and make that painting, drawing, assemblage, carving, or collage idea that's been haunting your inner artiste. It doesn't have to be perfect; it doesn't even have to be good. No one will judge it. No one else even has to see it. This is something to do just for yourself.

(Art Boy usually takes the week "off" between Christmas and New Year's Day to do an art experiment that's not for public consumption. One year, he made this nifty chess board, which he and his chess buddy now use for their weekly games.)

Play a Game Grab a chess (or scrabble) buddy for some serious face time. Or rally the troops for a spirited game of Charades, Mad Libs, or Trivia. (Hint: it's even more fun if you don't keep score.)

Get Out of the House Not recommended if the weather outside is frightful. But if you're getting partly sunny skies, scattered showers, and rainbows (like we've had all day here in Santa Cruz), consider slipping out for a pilgrimage to your favorite neighborhood park, hiking trail, or beach. Nature is putting on a show; don't miss it!

Build an Altar Every religion, culture, nationality and/or tribe has some sort of rites and celebration for the midwinter festival and the end of the old year. I've been know to make a Nativity scene of Troll dolls in years past, or recruit one of my vintage Barbies to stand in for Mother Christmas, in long robes with a Yule wreath crown on her head and a cornucopia full of goodies.

This year I built a mini Solstice altar to celebrate the return on the Sun/Son. Forest greenery (clipped from our Christmas tree), dried rose petals, and animal figures  are there to honor the natural world that depends on the cycles of the sun.

Share your Pics Whether you keep your picture archive the old-fashioned way, stashed in photo albums, or store them on your iPhone, now is the time to share them with family and friends. You may not even remember, let alone believe all the stuff you and yours have done in the prelude to Now.

Visit a Friend Now that the rush of holiday deadlines is over, and family obligations have been met, pick a buddy or two you haven't had time for lately and hang out.

Write a Letter If your best friends and/or family members are far-flung, sit yourself down with pen and paper to compose a letter to someone you love. The extra time it takes to organize your thoughts before committing them to ink (no "delete" button here!) will not only help cleanse your own mind, Grasshopper, but bring you closer in spirit to your absent friend, as well.

Try a New Recipe The big holiday feast is over. Now that no one's looking (and they're too stuffed to care, anyway), break out that recipe you clipped out of a newspaper three years ago and give it a whirl!

Last year about this time, Art Boy uncorked his first batch of Limoncello, made from our own Sorrento lemons—which has proven to be not only a smooth after-dinner liqueur and a handy gift for friends, but (as we've just discovered in this season of rampant germs) a delightful cough remedy!

Make a Joyful Noise Play music. Sing songs. The most spirited Yuletide carols don't come out of a speaker.

Pause and Reflect Give thanks for the bounties of the Old Year, forgive the mistakes of others (and yourself), keep your loved ones close, and think about the best way to live the life you want in the world you want in the New Year.


(Top: Boxing Day, 2000. Me and the Cats of Christmas Past, Zoe and Sheena.)

SPREAD THE JOY

Look at the cool Yule card we received from my sister-in-law in the Virgin Islands! It was handcrafted in Haiti; the applied material spelling out NOEL is banana bark (which is shed naturally from the trees, according to the back of the card).

Gathering and prepping  the bark provides a source of income for impoverished families in one of the oldest and least wealthy of Caribbean Island republics.

I don't know where the image of the Wise Men comes from, but I love it! Notice how all the faces and beards are slightly different. And look at their wizard robes! This reminds us that "Magi" is the plural of "mage," as in magician, or a wise person.

(Although it's a bit surprising that they're all white. Traditional representations generally show at least one of the magi as a man of color, as befits a story set in the Middle East.)

What makes this card extra special to us is that came with a donation to the Heifer International organization in our name. This is an outfit that supplies vital livestock, like milk cows or goats, to rural village families worldwide. Helping to spread peace on earth, one cow and/or one card at a time!

Speaking of which, here is another of my favorite 2012 holiday images. Our friend, Liz Lyons Friedman made this card from her recent linocut print, simply called "Peace." Simple, elegant, and to-the-point!

Noel (from the French word for Christmas carol, or song) and Peace. May you enjoy plenty of both this holiday season!

ON THEIR MARX

If a person had never seen a Marx Brother movie before, it's hard to imagine what she might think of A Night At The Nutcracker, Cabrillo Stage's merrily Marxist new holiday musical. But for the initiated, those of us who revel in the gleeful anarchy perpetrated by Groucho, Chico, and Harpo in a series of classic movie comedies in the 1930s and '40s, this new Nutcracker is a welcome holiday treat.

Scripted by Billy Van Zandt and Jane Milmore, with original music by Ed Alton, the play (this production is its West Coast premiere) is an entertaining pastiche of one-liners, sight-gags and silliness that follows the plotline of a typical Marx Bros movie: three goofballs are turned loose in some sector of normal society—in this case, a staging of the holiday ballet, The Nutcracker. Mayhem ensues.

Company stalwart Max Bennett-Parker makes with the Italianate jokes and even plays piano as Chico surrogate, Pepponi; Matt Dunn is sweetly nutty as the scene-stealing Harpo character, Pinchie, the silent clown with his arsenal of horns. Both are somehow installed in the household of the Margaret Dumont character, frosty society dame Mrs. Stuffington (a formidable Lizz Hodgin), who is funding a holiday production of The Nutcracker ballet starring egotistical Russian dancer Rasputin (a funny Kevin Johnston).

There are young lovers (David Jackson and the ever-winsome Ariel Buck) singing schmaltzy love ballads, a con-man called Ratchette (well-played by Adam J. Saucedo) angling for Mrs. S's fortune, and his blonde, sexpot accomplice (a spirited Eleanor Hunter).

Best of all, there's Nicholas Ceglio as Groucho surrogate Felix T. Filibuster, private eye. Ceglio has Groucho's eyebrow-wiggling, cigar-flicking, hip-swiveling mannerisms down to the proverbial T, and he's great fun wisecracking his way through a Groucho-like repertoire of one-liners. ("These steps were given to me by Nijinsky—and, boy, was he glad to get rid of 'em!")

If the production lacks a little of the zing and snap of the original Marxes, it's not surprising; after all, they had decades together on the vaudeville circuit and Broadway perfecting their routines before they ever even made their first film.  The cool thing is how well Andrew Ceglio's production (he directed and choreographed) stays true to the irreverent spirit of the Marx Brothers.

Inspired too are the snippets of the ballet itself we see at the end of the second act, when all the elements come together. Performed by the characters in the story (after the professional dancers have walked out), Ceglio and company offer some very funny takes on the familiar music we all know—from the hilarious dancing of Dunn's Pinchie (on his knees, arms in pant legs) in the overture, to the staging of the Russian Dance as a duel between Groucho and Ratchette, each crescendo of the music accompanying a punch or kick.

The only drawback to the ballet finale is we don't get to hear any more of Groucho's jokes Otherwise, it's an upbeat finish to a refreshingly non-traditional holiday show.

(A Night At The Nutcaracker plays through Dec. 30. Click here for tickets and info.)

Btw, here are the real Marx Bros in action in Duck Soup (1933), possibly the funniest movie ever made, and probably in my Top 5 films of all time!

HITCH-CRAFT

Hopkins' entertaining performance fuels larky 'Hitchcock'

It takes a certain amount of gutsiness for an actor to try to transform himself onscreen into one of the most famous and recognizable icons in the history of film. But Anthony Hopkins has guts to spare—as it were—in Hitchcock, stepping into the familiar persona and famed portly silhouette of the movies' grand master of the macabre, Alfred Hitchcock.

Well, it's not exactly a transformation; from the lugubrious voice and eccentric diction to the baleful bloodhound gaze, there's not a second when we're not watching Hopkins play Hitch.

But the entertaining spectacle of Hopkins' performance is its own reward in a film that never takes itself too seriously. Although the film is inspired by Stephen Rebello's non-fiction book, "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho," don't expect a doc-like piece of investigative research, or even a typical showbiz bio.

The real Hitch on the "Psycho" set

Instead, director Sacha Gervasi adopts a larky approach in this pastiche of backstage Hollywood maneuvering built around the peculiar personal dynamic between the mercurial Hitch and his long-suffering, but briskly loyal wife and longtime creative partner, Alma Reville, played with sense and sensibility by the ever-wonderful Helen Mirren.

Scripted by John J. McLaughlin, Hitchcock begins and ends like an episode of the old Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV series, with the maestro appearing onscreen to deliver a wry introduction and epilogue directly to the audience. (A reference that might be lost on viewers unfamiliar with the show.)

Then the story kicks in. In 1960, searching for a new property to fulfill his contract with Paramount, Hitch discovers the novel, "Psycho," by Robert Bloch. Inspired by the crime spree of notorious real-life Wisconsin serial killer, Ed Gein, the book has everything Hitch's prurient soul delights in—deviant and/or illicit sexuality, voyeurism, unhealthy obsessions, a blonde in jeopardy, and, of course, murder. (Read more)

STAGE STUCK

Theatrical setting, cardboard star, drain life out of luscious 'Anna Karenina'

All the world may be a stage, but filmmaker Joe Wright takes this notion a bit too literally in his luscious, epic misfire of a movie, Anna Karenina. Leo Tolstoy's classic novel about an illicit love affair and its consequences in glittering Imperial Russian society has been filmed innumerable times, but Wright and scriptwriter Tom Stoppard have a truly audacious and imaginative idea for putting the old warhorse through its paces one more time: staging almost the entire drama within the confines of an enormous theater set.

The reasoning behind this seems clever enough. It recalls medieval Morality Plays, where traveling troupes would enact edifying moral stories from their wagon stages. For another, it highlights the idea that St. Petersburg high society is itself a kind of grand, public stage, its players on display before an audience of unforgiving viewers ready to pounce on anyone who doesn't act his or her assigned role to perfection.

But the constant artifice of everything—movement, stage settings, the weird, fussy little hand gestures they all use in the waltz—only serves to leech the essential emotion, out of the story. It's all about the presentation of the material, not the material itself, so the drama feels as counterfeit, unreal, as everything else. The figures trapped in Wright's grand design are like cardboard cut-outs in a Victorian toy theatre; they might as well be run in and out of the action on sticks.

This is certainly true of Keira Knightley in the title role. Anna is a woman of immense social standing married to successful government bureaucrat, Karenin (Jude Law), who chooses to risk—and lose—everything for a carnal affair with the proverbial dashing young cavalry officer, Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). But Knightley feels too young, shallow, and modern in the role; her entire arsenal of pouts and nervous grins never suggest the depth of feeling Anna must experience. (Read more)

TRY YOUR LUCK

Feeling lucky?

If Dame Fortune is with you, amble on down to the Santa Cruz Art League this weekend and enter their annual Luck of the Draw art event for a chance to purchase an original work by the local artist of your choice for a mere—get this—$65.

Here's how it works:

First, buy a ticket to the event for $65. Then hie thee down to the Art League any time between now and Sunday, December 9, to peruse the dozens of pieces of original artwork donated by area artists for the show. Make a shortlist of your favorites.

On the day of the event, Sunday, December 9, at 2:45 pm, the drawing begins! (This is where the luck come in.) All ticket stubs are put in a hat; in the order that each stub is drawn, that person gets to pick out the piece of art he or she wants to take home.

Obviously, those whose ticket stubs are selected earliest get the biggest selection of artwork to choose from. But with some 80 participating artists, there is plenty of great work to go around! 

2D and 3D art, textiles, glass, and jewelry are included in the show, by such renowned local artists as Barbara Downs, Ron Cook, Cher Roberts, T. Mike Walker, Sandra Cherk, Jane Gregorius, and James Aschbacher (right), to name just a few. (That's Jody Bare's gorgeous black and gold "Mist Dragons" scarf, up top.)

Check out the Luck of the Draw Facebook page to get an idea what awaits you at the show. (Make sure you open all three Luck of the Draw albums.)

Gallery hours are Wednesday-Saturday, 12 noon-5 pm, Sunday 12 noon-4 pm, and First Friday, 12 noon to 9 pm. All proceeds go to the Art League for the support of art and artists in Santa Cruz County, so Bonne Chance, Buona Fortuna, Suerte, and may the Force be with you!

ART FOR BOOKS

This is just about the best story ever! It's art, books, and guerrilla theater all rolled into one!

Feast your eyes on the handiwork of Scotland's "secret book sculptor."  This anonymous female artisan crafts intricate art pieces out of books and their pages and leaves them hidden away in public places to be discovered.

Last year, she caused a mini media sensation leaving her book sculptures in neglected corners of literary places like the Scottish Poetry Library, the National Library of Scotland, the Scottish Storytelling Centre, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Each piece was found with a hand-written tag reading in part: "A gift for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas..." (Here's a great article on the story so far, with pics.)

This past week, in honor of Scotland Book Week, the mystery artist created five new pieces inspired by the masterworks of famous Scots authors, and clandestinely placed them in appropriate venues around the country. Then she tweeted hints about their whereabouts on the Twitter account of each venue. This wonderful tribute to Peter Pan, with Peter and Wendy rising up out of the book and racing toward the moon, was found in the J. M. Barrie Birthplace in Kirriemuir. (Photo by Chris Scott.)

Here's Long John Silver and a montage of piratical iconography celebrating Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. This one was discovered at  the Scottish Seabird Centre, North Berwick. (Photo by Sasha DeBuyl/Scottish Book Trust.)

Other tribute pieces are devoted to Robert Burns' narrative poem, Tam o' Shanter (found at the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway), Compton MacKenzie's beloved  shipwrecked spirits story, Whiskey Galore (which turned up at a pub on the island of Eriskay, in the Western Isles, where the story takes place), and Alisdair Gray's modern semi-dystopian classic Lanark (placed in the Glasgow School of Art's Mackintosh Library). (Here's a slideshow of the new pieces.)

With each sculpture, the artist also leaves a note, referencing a quote from the book in question, each note ending with the same mantra: "...Because reading matters..."

What I love about this project, besides the glorious artwork, is the recycling and repurposing of old books (while retaining the emphasis on reading), and the clandestine nature of the operation, creating what now amounts to a national treasure hunt in Scotland as new pieces are announced.

If the artist had just started making these pieces, as marvelous as they are, and then tried to promote them through normal channels, I bet she would have had a hard slog of it. She'd have to find a gallery who thought the work might interest their particular clientele, then wait through the process of shows, reviews, and (hopefully) sales to establish her name. Or she might have opened an Etsy shop or tried to sell the work on eBay, but I bet they wouldn't have nearly the same cachet.

What's great about this story is the artist's anti-celebrity stance, her insistence on anonymity. She doesn't care about making her name; she's too busy making art! Of course, it's also a brilliant marketing tool—even if her name is unknown, everybody in Scotland now knows her work.  But the fact remains that all her pieces so far have been given away, in support of books, literacy, and culture in general. And how cool is that!