Fresh Loaf

ONE EPISODE LEFT: Some much to say, so little time

There’s a theory regarding the pleasures of delayed gratification via online shopping. It starts with the small thrill of buying something over the internet. It’s not yet tactile, but you know it’s coming. Depending on your shipping methods, you’re either waiting at the mailbox every day or have semi-forget about the package altogether. Either way, when that box comes, it’s a little bit birthday and a little bit Christmas. Online videos have even been posted of people carefully and deliberately opening their packages, savoring each moment before their present to themselves is revealed.

Richard Alpert is this week’s wrapping paper for Darlton’s gift that’s been carefully unveiled in small parts for several seasons now. Though “Follow the Leader” was initially rumored to be the Richard backstory episode Lostphiles have been waiting at the proverbial mailbox for, it wasn’t quite so obvious. We did see Richard (looking like a true GQ gentlemen in all spaces and places) throughout time, but it was time we’re already familiar with. The episode was Richard-centric insofar as his (never-aging) presence coherently linked our two Lostie camps.

I have to say, for being some kind of “adviser” who’s had the job for “a very, very, very long time,” Richard appears constantly perplexed. Does the island tell him anything? And who are all those Others anyway? Where did they come from? Next week’s episode appears to promise answers to some of these questions — after all, Darlton said this was going to be the last season of sci-fi business. If so, there’s a lot of island mythology that will need to be sewn up before we delve head first into the Quadrangle. (The Quadrangle is the current preferred term for the Jack-Kate-Sawyer-Juliet mess.) Though Faraday’s death last week shocked and appalled, rumor has it that wasn’t the “major” death this season. Will one of the Quad-dwellers die off?

Continue reading “The Televangelist: ‘Lost’ episode 15″

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That’s right a brand new and improved Movies & TV page! We combined all the best parts of our other sections into a comprehensive one-stop-shop for all things Movies & TV. There’s a blog feed with all of the latest Movies & TV content from Culture Surfing (”Lost,” “24,” etc.), a search engine for movie showtimes, recent reviews, links to interesting stories around the web, Film Clips, movie trailers, and a whole section dedicated to those Hollywood Products that you love!

Check it out at clatl.com/movies_tv and leave any comments you have over on our A&E blog Culture Surfing.

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YOU CAN CHANGE: Your own diaper

Ah yes, the long awaited Miles episode! I usually complain about needless backstory episodes (cough, Jack’s tattoos, cough) that don’t push the narrative forward enough, but “Some Like it Hoth” was a crowd pleaser, and I thereby refuse to judge it harshly. Miles the Swindler Ghost Whisperer held court this week as we sprinted through his life story: toddler Miles in a single-parent low-rent household; punk Miles uneasy with his gifts and searching for answers; and adult Miles, exploiting the grieving for cash and about to be recruited by Widmore. Finally, we learned that Dr. “Douchebag” Chang is Miles’ “Douchebag” Dad. Fellow watchers inform me that the rumor of Chang as Miles’ father has been around for some time, but since I apparently missed that boat my mouth was suitably agape at the thought. Of course, Miles has had three years to get used to the idea since, “on the third day here I was in line in the cafeteria and my mom got into the line behind me. That was my first clue.”

At first gander, “Some Like it Hoth” feels chock full of island lore, but for most “Lost” devotees the reveals weren’t anything new. Hey, there’s the Hatch! Hey, Kate’s messing something up! Hey, everyone on the island has Daddy issues! We saw the beginnings of study regarding the island’s electromagnetism (thanks to an unfortunate Dharma Denizen’s filling being yanked through his brain. It’s not a plane but … it will be). We don’t know what Chang is learning from the bodies (or what he’s doing with them when he’s done), but we do know something even stranger: he loves country music.

Continue reading “The Televangelist: ‘Lost’ episode 13″

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FILL 'ER UP: This mug ain't for coffee.

We left off last week down one U.S. senator, one paid assassin, and a whole lotta Jack’s cred. This week, Larry Moss was on site at Sen. Mayer’s house, “investigating” the politico’s murder and playing effortlessly into the bad guys’ hands. Moss truly is this season’s answer to the blindly bureaucratic impediment to progress (formerly held by such brown-nosers as Miles Papazian (Stephen Spinella) in previous seasons). Jack brings Tony up to speed on evildoers and bio-weapons and whatnot via cell, while Moss unleashes the sass on Chief of Staff Ethan Kanin, telling him he advised against allowing Jack to interrogate Burnett a second time. Ethan takes a second, takes a seat and takes his resignation to President Taylor. As Ethan justifies his resignation to the president, he explains his complicity in Bauer’s alleged killing spree. The president responds with, “It doesn’t make any sense!”

Hello??!!! Anyone listening? At least one of season seven’s one-dimensional characters was drawn with a slightly thicker Sharpie. Does this mean that they call off the hounds? Not so much.

Continue reading “‘24:’ Episode 15, 10-11 p.m.”

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YOU HEARD RIGHT: I'm in charge now.

Namaste, recruits! After a long two weeks “Lost” was back last night in an episode lacking in focus but full of small, fan-pleasing moments. To begin at the beginning: We returned to the plane crash, this time from the point of view of the other Others (Planies?), who mysteriously include Sun. After not quite crash-landing on the island, Lapidus gives a half-hearted attempt to organize the passengers, but allows Caesar to play that role as he follows Sun who’s following a shifty Ben.

Turns out, the plane landed on one of the satellite islands — one where our Losties were held hostage in season three. Ben, Lapidus and a newly badass Sun take a boat to the island proper, which is not in 1977 where the Oceanic Four landed, but in present day. After a cameo appearance by Old Smokey, Christian Shepherd emerges from the shadows to reveal that the folks they seek are actually in the past.

One plot down, several to go. As mentioned, last night’s episode didn’t set its sights on one character arc in particular, instead keeping a wide scope on all the new groupings. Whereas the Sun-Ben-Lapidus plot might have taken up an entire episode of its own in seasons past, last night it was barely a footnote in this filler-sode. I say filler not in a “Jack’s Tattoos” way, but in that it literally filled in some gaps in island mythology (specifically Dharma-related). In doing so, it also uncovered the further significance of characters from the past (including Radinsky and, holy horrors, Ethan!), tying it in with our main characters’ present. As the cinematography showcased the island’s dramatic and varied scenery, so too did the plot take us to all all the hills and valleys of our characters new situations.

Continue reading “The Televangelist: ‘Lost’ episode 9″

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I WILL REMEMBER YOU: Will you remember me?

Everyone else is leaving Dillon, so why not us? Street and Riggins headed for the Big Apple so Street can pursue his dreams. The trip came fully equipped with a fish-out-of-water sequence that had some surprising laughs. Of course, The City is not what MTV has trained the boys to expect (What did they expect? How old is Street now, 19?  And he doesn’t even have a college degree?). Plus, Jason’s sudden desire to become a sports agent was quickly snuffed out.

As the agent points out, this isn’t Dillon, where knowing the boosters is enough to get you a job. But it’s a small world after all, and Jason’s former Panthers teammate-gone-pro ends up being the wedge that opens the door for him after Jason pulls his sweet, terribly sincere, linguistic magic on him. Even though “the applicants for the entry level positions are all Harvard alum,” Jason Street is special. He does have a gift, and since the first episode of “Friday Night Lights” we’ve watched him struggle to find himself and his new identity beyond Jason-Street-high-school-star, and it looks like he’s finally succeeded.

Of course, the Riggins-Street bromance is tested as Tim contemplates the reality of Street’s east coast move. With Riggins’ pain comes much comedy gold, until the heartstring-tugging last scene. But as Riggins himself says, “OK … drop the violin.” There was plenty of other Dillon action this week, however, that actually took place in Dillon.

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THAT’LL TEACH ’EM: François Bégaudeau (center) as the Teacher

The Oscar-nominated French film The Class could qualify as a remedial course for audiences who believe that “inspirational teacher” films like Dangerous Minds or Stand and Deliver impart all the lessons you need about the educational system.

In The Class, teacher and award-winning novelist François Bégaudeau plays a fictionalized version of himself, a middle-school French instructor who tries to explain the imperfect subjunctive to rebellious 13- to 15-year-olds from an inner-city Parisian neighborhood. Rather than earn Hollywood-style standing ovations from his students, François faces insolent challenges and constant low-level chatter. At times he seems more like a comedian talking over hecklers on open-mic night.

Director Laurent Cantet, whose previous films include the mournful white-collar drama Time Out, restricts the action entirely to the classroom and various faculty offices, so we never glimpse the home lives of François or his students (played with impeccable realism by actual students). Instead, the classes prove to be scenes of near-constant conflict, including one outburst of violence. The audience easily sympathizes with François’ attempts to keep order and stay on message, giving The Class more real tension, in its soft-spoken way, than your average heist thriller.

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NO SHIRT, NO SHOES: At your service

What if the Dharma years of “Lost” had its own spin-off? The U.S. version of “Life on Mars” may not have worked out, but the ’70s were so far out man why not try again, can you dig? This week’s episode felt so out of time and so far removed from where we’ve been the past few weeks (with the Last Days of Bentham and the O6 Reunion Tour), it was nice that the episode was still peppered with familiar tidbits from the future past: the sonic fence, Horace, Richard, Dharma Merlot.

Three years forward and 30 years back, the island has stopped skipping and those on it find themselves in the land of Dharma. As Faraday explains, “The record is spinning again, we’re just not on the song we want.” The Misfits (Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, the Ghost Whisperer Miles, Faraday) immediately cause trouble by offing two Hostiles in the midst of an afternoon picnic that ends up as a mini-massacre. Though James “I used to lie for a living” Sawyer/LaFleur schmoozes his way into Dharma’s good graces (and also Horace’s … remember him?), Richard comes back to ask about his lost men, assuming Horace and company have broken the truce. Sawyer, using his time-traveling knowledge of Locke and the Jughead, convinces Richard that he’s not his enemy … but also not his friend. One would think Richard would be a little more interested in these revelations, but as far as we know, all he wants is slain Dharma employee Paul’s body to do who knows what with. OK then.

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LOVE IS DA BOMB: Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman, left) and Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson)

Upon its publication in the mid-1980s, the 12-issue graphic novel Watchmen earned a reputation for being “the Citizen Kane of comic books.” That’s not just hyperbole: Both works feature multiple narrators trying to piece together an enigmatic death, although in Watchmen, the ensemble happens to be former masked heroes, sleuthing against a backdrop of impending nuclear war.

Like Orson Welles, Watchmen writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons drew on seemingly every stylistic innovation in their respective media and shot them with lightning, raising the bar for a popular but increasingly sophisticated art form.

Zack Snyder’s long-awaited film adaptation of Watchmen is not a classic worthy of Citizen Kane. Thankfully, it’s not a bomb on a par with Howard the Duck, either. It comes close to being something like A Clockwork Orange for superhero movies — a dystopian satire marked by meticulous craftsmanship and sluggish pacing, of incongruous music and horrific violence, of heavy-handed sermonizing and astonishing imagery.

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PEEP HOLE: Jaclyn Jose as Nayda in 'Serbis'

A Golden Palm nominee at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Serbis is like no multi-generational slice-of-life film you’ve ever seen. Philippine director Brillante Mendoza sets his bumptious drama at a failing adult movie house in the sprawling Philippine city of Angeles. The Pineda family not only manages the porn theater, but they also live under its roof, just a few flights of stairs away from films such as Bedmates and Young Screwpine.

Serbis’ first scene sets a tone of exhibitionism and voyeurism, as a teenage daughter vamps in the nude before a mirror while her schoolboy nephew peeps at her. The ironically named Family movie theater practically simmers with surging libidos. A young would-be painter lances a boil on his buttock in an early close-up, which interferes with his girlfriend’s subsequent visit. The Pinedas presumably turn a blind eye to the down-low prostitution that accompanies the screenings, as young rent boys and she-males ask “Serbis?” to prowling movie patrons. Serbis resembles the bawdiest work of novelist John Irving, or perhaps trash filmmaker John Waters most serious moments.

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STEP RIGHT UP: To be continually disappointed

Twists! Turns! Shocks! Drama! Until this season, “The Bachelor” train had blissfully passed me by without note.  Sure I knew one or two girls who’d been on the show in the past, but not well enough to really care deeply about how it turned out. On a whim I flipped to the show a few months ago and — unfortunately for my pretentious television taste — never looked back.  The show’s high drama is addicting, and like the early rounds of “American Idol,” (another show I avoid) is full of crazies for the first few episodes. But what made this season of “The Bachelor” stand out was the Bachelor himself. Seattle resident Jason Mesnick may not be the most handsome or amazing guy in the world, but he’s divorced with a young son to whom he’s devoted, which gives the show a new and very genuine twist. The gimmick worked for ABC: The show’s drawn unexpectedly high ratings. As families in America become more complex, perhaps Mesnick’s situation resonated with viewers in a way that past boy-meets-girl romance shows have not.

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Anyone else see Jon Stewart “shake his fist” at Twitter last night? It’s a painfully funny look at how the media’s scrambling to get in front of more, younger eyeballs. Stewart and “Daily Show” correspondent Sam Bee manage to put a bit of self-deprecating perspective on all of the by-the-second hysteria. Oh, hey, while we’re on the subject, make sure you’re following CL on Twitter!

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LET'S MAKE MEMORIES: As only Tim Riggins can

As “Friday Night Lights” reaches mid-season, it becomes clear that most of the show’s narrative arcs and resolutions this time around are contained and resolved within a mere episode or two. There were always side stories and longing glances and relationship talks in earlier seasons, but they were overshadowed by something bigger, overarching: the aftermath of Jason Street, the state playoffs, whether or not Coach Eric Taylor can make it in Dillon. Perhaps it’s the knowledge that this season may be the show’s last that has the writers tying up lose ends and saying bon voyage to past characters by way of college or careers. (Smash is gone; Street’s gearing up to go; and it looks like even Tyra and Riggins will be making it to a post-high school education on their own terms.) Regardless, the relationships among our core Dillon denizens remain compelling and often unlike anything else on TV, no matter how small the scale.

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KID 'N PLAY: Azur (top) and Asmar as boys

The French fairy tale Azur and Asmar uses cutting-edge digital animation to replicate centuries-old artistic styles. For his fourth cartoon feature, awesomely named French director Michel Ocelot crafts backgrounds that evoke medieval tapestries or illuminated manuscripts. You can imagine seeing images from Azur and Asmar hanging in a museum, only the figures within them move and talk.

Like one of Scheherezade’s tales from the Arabian Nights, Azur and Asmar presents a classic storybook quest. Beginning in an unidentified European country, the film depicts two boys: blue-eyed, privileged Azur and dusky Asmar, the son of Azur’s nursemaid. Azur and Asmar grow up literally suckling at the same breast and hearing the nanny’s tales of her homeland’s mythic Djinn Fairy, a magic princess held in an impregnable prison. They become close friends, despite comically frequent arguments, until Azur’s father callously sends his son off to a distant tutor and casts out Asmar and the nursemaid.

Entranced by his nanny’s stories of the Djinn Fairy, Azur travels as an adult to Asmar’s home country, where the Muslim natives treat him as an outcast because of his blue eyes. Azur undergoes sharp reversals of fortune before reuniting with Asmar, and the two become rivals who each seek to find, free and wed the Djinn Fairy.

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TRUST ME: I haven't even tried to kill you.

In the first season of “Lost” I was absolutely on Team Jack. I would have followed him to the caves and lived there as Adam and Eve no problem. Locke, on the other hand, I despised. “Lost” has always been keen at creating divisions and factions and then subverting them.  Over the course of the show, Jack grew less and less likable whereas the once creepy John Locke became an unlikely hero and possibly (if fan theories are to be believed) the very soul of the island.

Last night we were treated to a Locke-centric episode written by Darlton and helmed by frequent lost director Jack Bender. The premise was a game of catch-up in the form of a whirlwind journey through “Jeremy Benthem’s” experiences that were teased last season. Locke is back in the dreaded wheelchair after finding himself in sunny Tunisia, home of island refugees courtesy of Frozen Donkey Wheel Tours, where Charles Widmore is on hand to offer his services and make us believe, once again, that he’s somehow the good guy and Ben is more or less Shiva. If that’s true, then why does Widmore have an assistant named Abaddon (a Hebrew word which translates loosely to “Satan”)?

Lt Daniels Abaddon (played by “Wire” alum Lance Reddick) has been a fan favorite minor character for years.  His name, unexplained presence, and connection to the island have provided him a short but frequently visited Lostpedia page. Given all that, his treatment in this episode seemed particularly unfair and infuriating. First he’s relegated to Driving Mr. Locke and is later unceremoniously executed before we get any deeper sense of his importance. R.I.P. Abaddon. We hardly knew ye.

The main thrust of the episode came in the form of a chess match of manipulation between Charles Widmore and Ben, with Locke as the pawn. We got an Oceanic Six roll call (minus Sun), and saw Locke’s failed (for the nonce) attempts at convincing them to go back to the island, where it appears Locke will eventually be resurrected.

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BLOND AMBITION: Leonard (Joaquin Phoenix, right) eyes Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow, center).

Most of the downbeat romantic drama Two Lovers transpires in the timeless corners of Brooklyn, at mom-and-pop dry cleaners or the kind of blocky apartments where neighbors call to each other from opposite windows while jazz music plays from an unseen source. When we first notice cell phones or DVDs in Two Lovers, they almost seem like contemporary anachronisms that snuck into a period piece set a half-century ago.

Director and co-writer James Gray places Two Lovers very much in the present, but gives the film the black-and-white shadings of an old fashioned social realist script, pitched somewhere between the 1950s plays of Arthur Miller and Ernest Borgnine’s love-among-the-losers film Marty. Gray deserves credit for trying to give his class-conscious romantic triangle a grounding in character and real-world texture, and the cast clearly takes its work seriously. But Two Lovers ultimately seems stuck in a bygone decade.

In Brighton Beach, unmarried Leonard Kraditor (Joaquin Phoenix) lives in the clutch of his Jewish immigrant parents (Isabella Rossellini and Moni Moshonov). He works at his father’s dry cleaners while vacillating between his dream of being a photographer and his suicidal tendencies following his canceled wedding engagement. (more…)

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MILLION DOLLAR BABY: 'Slumdog Millionaire' took home eight awards, including Best Picture

Another Oscars telecast has come and gone. High points included Ben Stiller as an aloof, contrary and disheveled Joaquin Phoenix, the James Franco/Seth Rogen bit, and, of course, Sean Penn calling the Academy a “bunch of commie, liberal, homo-loving sons of guns” during his Best Actor acceptance speech. (Thank goodness he didn’t say bitch there, right? That would’ve been pushing it.) Oh! How could I forget the acceptance speech for Best Animated Short, where the Japanese director of “La maison en petits cubes” actually said, “Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto!” I kid you not. Low points included Hugh Jackman’s declaration that “Musicals are back!” and Sophia Loren’s rise from the dead. Slumdog Millionaire kicked ass and took names, to no one’s surprise. Here’s a recap of the top categories next to the predictions from last week’s CL reader’s poll. P.S. Thanks to all who participated in last night’s live-blog.

Actor in a supporting role: Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight (CL readers’ prediction: Heath Ledger)

Actress in a supporting role: Penélope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona (CL readers’ prediction: Marisa Tomei for The Wrestler)

Actor in a leading role: Sean Penn for Milk (CL readers’ prediction: Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler)

Actress in a leading role: Kate Winslet for The Reader (CL readers’ prediction: Kate Winslet)

Directing: Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire (CL readers’ prediction: Danny Boyle)

Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire (CL readers’ prediction: Slumdog Millionaire)

Check out Oscar.com for the complete list.

(Photo by Ishika Mohan)

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BED BUGGIN': Marcela (Ana Geislerová, left) and Jarda (Roman Luknár)

A paperback copy of a Milan Kundera novel, held in the hands of a Czech expat, briefly appears in Beauty In Trouble. It’s a fleeting moment (and easy to miss), but it’s also an important gesture of respect from director Jan Hrebejk. Like the best of Kundera’s fiction, Beauty In Trouble explores the ways that politics, history, and economics can meet in the bedrooms of Prague.

The title’s Beauty is Marcela (Ana Geislerová), a down-on-her-luck mother of two. The Trouble is her husband Jarda (Roman Luknár), an unlikable brute who’s resorted to stealing and chopping cars as a full time profession. Cynical and thick-skinned, they’re scraping by in a world diminished by the Soviet Union’s failure and a disastrous flood. When Jarda lands in jail for a stolen Volvo, Marcela gets mixed up with the car’s owner, the wealthy and intellectual Evzen Benes (Josef Abrhám).

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The CL Readers’ Choice Oscar polls that is. Cast your vote here for best supporting actress/actor, lead actress/actor, directing and best picture. Polls close at 5 p.m., when we’ll tally the votes and see who wins. Not sure who to vote for? Check out our cheat sheet here, and Curt Holman’s Oscar picks here.

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I CAN READ: Because my mother taught me

Merry Lostnesday! Thanks again to Curt Holman for filling in for me last week when I actually happened to be on a remote island without TV or internet but plenty of crazy. I caught up with the latest episode only hours before this one, and boy howdy, I rejoiced. This has to be my favorite season so far, if only because of the payoffs to theories and setups from the past. I might even go so far as to declare last week’s episode the best one since the Constant (gasp!)

In a recent Entertainment Weekly article, producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof (known as Darlton from here on out) said our current season 5 was going to be an all-out sci-fi fest (holler!), but that the final season would go back to focusing on the relationships among the characters, a la season 1 (so enjoy this while you can). They also promised the long-awaited Richard back story, a resolution to the “what-the?” regarding the freaky four-toed statue, and of course, more Smokey. For now though, we travel back to L.A. with the Oceanic 6 (minus Aaron) leaving on a jet plane.

After about 20 episodes of dallying (or so it felt), the O6 finally made its way to the island. At the episode’s onset we learned a little bit about the island’s movements and some of its rules. (Why did they all have to go back? To recreate the original plane trip as best as possible to crash again, of course). Sayid is now a fugitive. Hurley shows up out of federal prison, (one would assume, yet with Charlie’s guitar?) and has no trouble getting through airport security. Kate was moody (shouting at Jack, “Don’t ever ask me about Aaron again!” Where is that tyke? And don’t worry Kate, this is “Lost”— no one asks obvious questions). Even Ben shows up at the last possible moment, looking worse for wear, facing no inquiring about his copious injuries (courtesy of Sayid?). The Oceanic Six and Friends are far from the only passengers on the plane, but as far as what’s going to happen to “the others” when the plane crashes, as Ben puts it, “who cares?” The show finally got around to killing off Frogurt and the remaining Red Shirts. The last thing we need is for this plane to be carrying some more Nikkis and Paulos or Tailies 2.0.

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Sometimes I forget my own mother’s birthday. In fact, it would be a serious problem if I didn’t write it down. So, don’t feel bad if you can’t remember which movies you saw this year or what they were about because we’ve been keeping track the whole time. For example, if you think Revolutionary Road was that really long movie about Che Guevera, you’re just wrong and need to read Curt Holman’s review to jog your memory. Check out this list of the top nominees after the jump:

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It’s T-5 days ’til the Oscars and we’ve got a smorgasbord of coverage planned. Who cares, you say? The Oscars are fixed!, you bemoan. I saw Madea Goes to Jail instead of Milk last Friday, you admit.

Well, we hear ya, so we’re bringing you options. Tomorrow, Curt Holman discusses the nominees, the snubs and the sure things in a podcast with Atlanta Film Festival executive director Gabe Wardell. They’ll also chat about the upcoming AFF (April 16-25) and the Spirit Awards (Sat., Feb. 21).

For those of you who’ve heard of the Best Picture nominees, but have failed to actually see any of them, CL blogger Allison Keene and I will undertake the heroic effort of watching all five films in one afternoon at the AMC Best Picture Showcase this Sat., Feb. 21, and will blog about the flicks. The event is open to the public, but I warn you: Our jobs, which entail sitting and staring at screens for eight-plus hours at a time, have us conditioned for the experience in a way the average moviegoer is not.

We know the rest of you are only here for the booze (lushes). Our Events page will have all the goods on local Oscar parties later this week, or you could stay in and play Curt’s Academy Awards drinking game, Oscar the Souse, and comment on our Oscar night live-blog. There’s always room for more bitchy fashion commentary.

Check back to our A&E page throughout the week for more Oscar swag including Curt’s 2009 version of Oscar the Souse and his picks to win, an online CL reader’s poll, and a nominee cheat sheet of CL reviews.

(Photo courtesy EW.com/AP/Wide World)

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NUMBER TWO: Somehow doesn't quite have the same ring to it

One thing I’ve always respected “Friday Night Lights” for is the character of Jason Street. In the pilot, which was based on a true-life situation witnessed by producer Peter Berg, star quarterback Jason Street takes a bad hit in a big game and ends up paralyzed. But the show never ignored him or cast him into the wings (or had him miraculously walk again, egads). As the show’s grown, Street has naturally drifted to the sidelines, as it were, as he becomes less and less a part of Dillon. But “FNL” never shied away from telling the story of a young man who lost his only considered path in life, and the resulting struggles.

Street makes his first appearance of the season this week taking care of the baby he fathered with the waitress Erin. It seems he, his crotchety roommate, and his baby-mama all have an amicable relationship, although Jason yearns for more. It feels like ages since Street was involved with Lyla and the Riggins love triangle, and like Smash, he’s likely to use his greater talents to get out of Dillon pretty soon. Unlike Smash, however, (who was still able to rely on his athletics in the end), Street is an excellent example of what hard work and a passion for life can give you even when you think you’ve lost it all.

OK, enough of the mushy stuff. It was good to see some football action this week. According to Saracen later in the episode, the Dillon Panthers are 3-1. It’s doubtful they’ll play all the games necessary in reality to go to the state playoffs (and we know they will, especially behind JD-Peyton-Manning-McCoy), but I still applaud the effort in at least keeping up the pretense that there’s a football team around which the show is supposed to revolve.

Speaking of defense, some of our other Dillon residents learned this week of the good that can come out of letting down one’s defenses.

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GUIDING LIGHT: Andy Ditzler and one of his beloved projectors (Photo by Joeff Davis)

Film Love curator Andy Ditzler treats old short films, and even film projectors, with the care and attention most people reserve for their children.

Before screening “Movies of Local People: Kannapolis” in the basement studio of his Grant Park home, he uses a cotton swab to clean his 16-mm projector. “You should always do this. There’s a lot of motion of the film inside the gate, where the buildup of emulsion takes place. That’s how film starts to get scratches. I love film, but it’s stressful to work with it.”

After threading the film onto the reels, Ditzler dims the lights, switches on the projector and soaks up “Kannapolis’” vision of a segregated North Carolina town in 1941. Throughout the Great Depression, photographer H. Lee Waters traveled the South, filming people on the streets and then showing the images at the towns’ movie theaters so they could see themselves on the big screen. (It’s a far cry from the online exhibition of snapshots on, say, today’s Flickr photo sites.) Selected for the prestigious National Film Registry, “Kannapolis” first shows the blue-collar white neighborhoods, then the more impoverished African-American ones. The film serves as a kind of silent slide show of faces, the vivacious and the dignified, the camera-shy and the camera-hogs, and how one community lived in the Jim Crow South.

“What a beautiful print!” Ditzler says when he first sees the crisp, sepia hues of “Kannapolis.” In part he’s relieved because he programmed the film, sight unseen, as one of the introductory subjects of this month’s installment of his 6-year-old film series, Film Love. For February, Ditzler curates four evenings of Civil Rights on Film: Rare Films on African-American Life, 1941-1967, which offer richer and more complex glimpses of the civil rights era than we get from history books.

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ACTING SHMACTING: Tommy Wiseau shows how overrated talent can be in 'The Room.'

The Room arguably qualifies as one of the worst films ever made, but I’m not sorry I saw it. I’m only sorry I witnessed its shlocky attempt at eroticism on DVD instead of with a group, like the Plaza Theatre’s upcoming screening Tues., Feb. 17 at 9:30 p.m. Barely noticed upon its original release in 2003, The Room has inspired a fanatical cult following that includes Hollywood cool kids such as Paul Rudd and David Cross. The Room invites joyous ridicule at midnight screenings like The Rocky Horror Picture Show for a new generation.

Most cult films involve loopy subject matter, such as Rocky Horror’s alien transvestite musical or Plan 9 From Outer Space’s extraterrestrial grave robbers. The Room’s plot proves utterly mundane as it follows a San Francisco love triangle between a theoretically lovable banker named Johnny (auteur Tommy Wiseau), his bored, gold-digging fiancée Lisa (Juliette Danielle), and Johnny’s best friend Mark (Greg Sestero).

The Room’s fascination comes in large part from Wiseau’s bizarre screen presence. Overly pumped up, dressed in black, and with long black tresses framing his half-closed eyes, Wiseau looks like the kind of mob henchman Jean-Claude Van Damme would kick in the face in the first reel. His slurry European accent and challenges with emotional intonation make simple statements sound otherworldly. His would-be anguished exclamation “You are tearing me apart, Lisa!” has become the film’s de facto catchphrase. (Fittingly, Wiseau will appear on an upcoming episode of Adult Swim’s surreal “Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!”)

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