Cronenberg, Part 1

David Cronenberg occupies a weird space in the world of cinema. He's undeniably a unqiue, original auteur, but despite being well-known and generally respected, his films don't seem to attract a remarkable amount of respect themselves. Everyone knows of Cronenberg, but so far as his films go, they may have only heard of A History of Violence or Eastern Promises, his two most commercially successful. Everything else flies kind of under the radar, all cult-film like. As far as my own understanding goes, while I had heard of more of his films, I had only ever seen History and Promises. I could tell you he was this sort of creepy, gross filmmaker, but if you asked me what themes he liked to talk about, or to go more in-depth about his style, I couldn't tell you. I decided to remedy this. This is the first in a four-or-five-part series on David Cronenberg I'm writing as I watch his films. I want to know more about this man called "the most audacious and challenging narrative director in the English-speaking world."*

2012: The Year In Review

At one point in time, I dubbed 2012 "the best year for film in history." Now, I do have a bit of a tendency to be hyperbolic, and my colleague is often very quick to calm me down. We have conversed about subjects like this dozens of times, and I have come under the impression that there is actually nothing that we agree on. Of course, I am sure he would disagree with that. However, I digress. Was 2012 the best year in film history? Is there such a thing? Some will define how good a year is by how high its highs are, and others will define it by the sum of the highs.

On Some Recent Controversies

My colleague Nick Bergeman just wrote about the hullabaloo surrounding Django Unchained and its writer-director's continued feud with Spike Lee as a result. Django was really only one of several major cinematic controversies to come to the forefront this year, all based around criticisms with varying degrees of validity. Check after the jump for my thoughts (mild spoilers follow).

Concerning Quentin Tarantino's Latest Controversy

Many of you may be aware of the recent controversy of Spike Lee's comments directed at Tarantino, saying that he would not go to see the movie because he believed that it would be disrespectful to his ancestors. Spike has frequently been critical of Tarantino's use of the "n word," and has spoken out against Tarantino's undertaking of projects that Spike finds disrespectful to African-Americans. Tarantino has responded strongly to the comments, firing back at Spike, calling him racist and escalating their feud. Recently, an African-American friend of mine on Facebook posted a bit about this, and I felt moved to write him a letter about my thoughts on the matter. I have included below an excerpt from my letter with some of my thoughts on the subject. Know that I mean no disrespect to anyone in the comments that I make, and if I offend you, I hope you understand that I do not mean to. Feel free to comment and discuss.

The 2013 Bergy Awards

About four months ago, I told Andrew that I thought this would be the best year in film history. Well, now that we have come to the end of the year and awards season is beginning to wind down, I thought I should reflect about which films meant a lot to me, which ones I liked, and which ones I thought deserved special recognition. Well, for some odd reason, people seem to care what I think, and I have come to the understanding that I should share my thoughts with others. Without further ado, I present the 2013 Bergy Awards, honoring the best in film, not my favorite, but what I believe is the best.

Best Picture

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Skyfall

Just off the list:
Argo

The 2013 Gutty Awards

We've come to the end of a great year for cinema. We've seen great films by old masters and hopeful newcomers alike, films that have made us laugh, cry, or both. We've gone everywhere from the Bathtub to revolutionary France to the middle of the Pacific, we've traversed the full spectrum of human emotion. These films, nineteen nominated in all for twelve categories, demonstrate the best of what this year had to offer. Though many films that I enjoyed are not mentioned here (Killer Joe, End of Watch, and The Avengers, to name a few), they are no less a part of what contributed to 2012 being one of the best years in film of the past decade.

Now, here are the nominees for the 2013 Gutty Awards:

Best Picture

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Cloud Atlas
The Master

Moonrise Kingdom

Lincoln

Our Name and Purpose Explained

What many of you who have been kind enough to visit this page may be wondering is what exactly our name is meant to suggest about our page. We have decided not to go the typical route of naming our blog after something that "makes sense" like "BlogBuster." We approached it from a simple perspective where we wanted to combine two things that we like and appreciate a lot. I am a very huge fan of the classic 1962 desert epic Lawrence of Arabia, which has become a cornerstone of our relationship, and our discussion about film. I believe it to be the greatest film made thus far, and I have watched it several times, and my partner happens to enjoy teasing me about it. He also happens to be a very huge fan of actress Jennifer Lawrence (which I am as well), and we one say noticed the portmanteau created with my favorite film, and Andrew's favorite actress. Henceforth, we created Jennifer Lawrence of Arabia, which represents symbolically some aspects that we love about film.
Now that you know our name, and what it means to us, it may make sense to us to explain what we hope to do with this blog. We hope to discuss film in many ways, aspects, and methods. We will not only write reviews of current movies, but we hope to review older movies, discuss award chances, and different aspects of film. We are both great lovers of film, and we hope to share that love with as wide an audience as we can. I hope that you can enjoy our ramblings, and that you find something to enjoy on our blog. We welcome feedback, as long as it is civil, and we encourage discourse about film. Andrew and I look forward to this journey. As the great T. E. Lawrence said, "Nothing is written," that is, until we write it.