Rapid Reviews: Gotta Get Caught Up!

Time to get this thing back on track, don't you think?

We're about to hit Oscar season once again and I've been incredibly remiss in updating this blog. Despite multiple promises to update more this summer, I failed miserably at my task. So hopefully (cross your fingers), this Rapid Reviews post is the beginning of a new, strong season.


I know. If I cry "wolf" one more time, you readers are just gonna stop coming back. But without further ado, let's check out what I saw at the movies this summer.

Oscar Predictions: They're Alive! So Am I!

I know, I've promised that this blog has come off hiatus like three times now, so this promise will probably turn empty anyway. But we're back! And we've got new Oscar predictions ready for you! Check out the reviews page for some new ratings, too (I probably won't get around to reviewing X-Men or its prequel, but I will try to review the fantastic Midnight in Paris). And since we're at mid-year, a quick look at what's topping my list of the year is probably forthcoming.

Stick with us! You guys have boosted us above 15,000 hits and it's much appreciated!

MVM: You Belong with Taylor Swift

Music Video Mondays comes back from its hiatus with possibly the blandest, most inoffensive video to ever become controversial. The controversy behind "You Belong With Me" is, of course, more due to Kanye West than anyone else, but for that reason alone, this video's likely to become the one remembered among all the Beyoncé and Lady Gaga videos of the era.

Really, there's not much plot to this one--girl likes boy, boy has girlfriend--but it poses the same blonde vs. brunette questions that Gwen Stefani's "Cool" did, and like Gwen, Taylor is playing both sides of the coin here. Let's take a closer look and see some of the drama behind the façade.

I'm An Awful Blogger.

...I have no excuse. It's summer. I should have started both Music Video Mondays and Netflix Pix this week. They'll come next week, I promise. (The piece on The Good Wife, however, might forever languish in development issues.)

Revised Oscar predictions post-Cannes will also be up sometime this week.

Wild Speculation: Emmy Edition

I'm stalling out on my attempt to write a piece about The Good Wife, so what better time to attempt to predict what will be nominated for the top Emmy awards come...whenever the Emmy nominations are announced? (I think it's July--I really have no idea. This is as random as projects come on Awkward is What We Aim For.) Be forewarned that I suck pretty hard at predicting the Emmys simply because unlike the Oscars, where the pool is fairly small and narrowed down by a bunch of precursors, the Emmys are a bigger pool with more populist swing at times that have only a couple precursors that happen six months before the Emmys even nominate. So this is a bit of a wild goose chase, really. Come take it with me!

Glum

The image above is the perfect encapsulation of why this season of FOX's Glee has gone so far off the rails: it has sacrificed everything important about itself to find a happy ending for the character who best represents showrunner Ryan Murphy himself: Kurt Hummel, once a brilliant supporting character with fantastic lines and solo numbers now nothing but a shell, a pariah and martyr who can be almost painful to watch.

Harsh? Maybe. But Glee needs someone to be harsh who isn't a professional critic and isn't a rabid fan who thinks characters are being "mistreated" by the show. It needs a voice of reason. It needs someone to say that this creature, this phenomenon that the little show about a show choir has become isn't beautiful or wonderful. It's ugly, the very essence of glum.

Brilliant Bridesmaids

This one isn't gonna take too much waxing poetic: Bridesmaids is brilliant. A sure-to-be-iconic film that translates all the greatest bits of Apatow-style humor and mixes them with the subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) bitchery of Mean Girls. Incredibly quotable and boasting magnificent performances from all six central ladies, from the scene-stealing antics of Melissa McCarthy (thank GOD for this breakout--long time coming since Gilmore Girls) to the sublime divahood of Rose Byrne (her Helen is truly a goddess for bitches-in-training everywhere) to the truly marvelous anchor performances of Saturday Night Live veterans Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph, with strong performances from Ellie Kemper (The Office) and Wendi McLendon-Covey (Reno 911!) that have fantastic moments when you're probably too busy laughing over whatever just happened.

The movie is emotional while still being hilarious. It's moving while not getting bogged down by the shmaltz. It's well-written with varying types of humor but doesn't pander. Bridesmaids is here for you to love it and if you don't, it doesn't give a shit. Trust me, there's a million more people laughing out there for every one who doesn't. Truly a fantastic film and one I can't wait to see again.

I honestly have nothing else to write. It was that great. A

Have you seen Bridesmaids? Do you have anything else to say to supplement my breathless, wordless review? Take it to the comments!

The Voice: I Don't Love This Cheesy Show

Welcome to The Voice, the latest (yep, arriving to this trend pretty late) and greatest (eh, not so much) talent show brought to you by NBC. The show features country singer Blake Shelton, big-belter diva Christina Aguilera, "Fuck You"-singing phenomenon Cee-Lo Green and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine as "coaches," the friendly alternative to judges, trying to find . In this aspect, it's ripping off The X Factor before it even reaches U.S. shores as well as ripping off American Idol. The Voice was obviously meant to take down the original at its weakest point. (Of course, that didn't work out as expected.)

In all, the show is kind of a big ball of cheese that is saved by the great judges coaches and how much chemistry the panel shares. But is a show that's all about the ju coaches going to work in the long run?

American Idol: Haley and the Rest

 
Here are words I never thought I'd type: Season 10, the first without Simon Cowell as judge, is the best season of American Idol ever.

Take a moment to spit out your arguments. "The judges suck," "The contestants aren't that good," "They're being a bitch to poor Haley Reinhart," etc.

Well, the judges may be inaccurate, but they most certainly do not suck. They're strong enough personalities to sell whatever crap they're offering well--and it's honestly not their mission to provide criticism, it's to be entertaining. Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler have been and continue to be truly entertaining. (We'll forget Randy Jackson exists.)

And yes, they are probably really screwing with poor Haley, but they've also (intentionally or unintentionally) given her the chance of a lifetime, as all the manipulation has led to a final three finish for the Illinois songbird.

But let's talk about those contestants and how "not good" they are. Because let me tell you--they're actually the best bunch this show has seen since Season 5 and possibly the best bunch ever. (Yes, they even beat Season 8!)

The State of the Blog

Hi, blog. It's good to be writing to you again. Or on you, more specifically.

I know it's been a while. I'm sorry I had to take that hiatus from writing, but school is more important than passion projects. But I'm back! Did you miss me?

Oh, don't be so cruel, blog. I didn't leave you completely alone! I was doing some work behind the scenes, and hey, I wrote that review! I'm here to stay this time...until school forces me to leave you again. Sorry. I know you're a little like the narrator in that Sugarland song but you know what? It's great when we're together. (And no, that video won't be my next Music Video Mondays entry. It's a blonde bitch on a black background. It's no fun to rip apart.)

Speaking of that series, it'll be starting up again come next week. Unlike other series on the site, I'm not gonna formally announce a schedule or even how much it'll come around, but you can expect entries fairly frequently (every other week is sounding reasonable right now, but don't hold me to that) and some great videos are gonna be ripped apart soon. (I'm thinking of doing a weeklong series devoted to Lady Gaga videos, but I don't know if that's not too ambitious...TBD on that one.)

Netflix Pix is gonna start its summer season, though, and I'll have a schedule to follow out soon. Our season premiere is gonna be next Tuesday and we're gonna feature two performances by an underrated, underused actress: Rachel Weisz. (She's also undermarried: poor Darren Aronofsky!)

But blog, since all this is coming next week, along with updated Oscar predictions and more announcements, what will we be doing this week?

Hopefully, we'll have a couple more movie reviews up this week (Bridesmaids and Thor are on tap), but expect an analysis of the current season of American Idol up before Wednesday's performance show.

I'll also get up pieces on the current season of Glee and why I think it's such a failure (this will relate and reference back to my last piece expressing dissatisfaction with Glee, so read up!) as well as on the second season of The Good Wife after the finale on Tuesday. Finally, keeping in the spirit of writing about television, I'll try to get pieces up about The Voice and Happy Endings (one's my new favorite show and the other, um, is not) in the next couple of weeks.

And we're gonna try and start a new series featuring guests called "Awkward Conversations" that could be stellar or could be disastrous--we're gonna take that journey on the tightrope together.

So, blog, I'm really back, and in a big way. I'm here for the long haul, too. So, "why don't you stay?"

The Lincoln Loser

There are movies that you want to be good with all your heart. Maybe they've got a great cast. Maybe they feature the comeback performance from a familiar star who's ventured off their strong career path after early promise. Maybe the source material is strong. And maybe they've got all these things and they still fail, disappointingly.

Sorry, Ryan. This review's gonna be a hard one for you.

The Lincoln Lawyer is exactly that: a sad, disappointing failure.

An Absolute Scream

There are some movies that you appreciate for their artistic value but don't really enjoy (though I really did like Jane Eyre, I can understand why others might have an "it's good but I wouldn't watch it again" response). Then there are some films which are utter guilty pleasures with no real artistic value (The House Bunny comes to mind--though talking from experience, it is the perfect movie to watch while sick). When a great movie is completely enjoyable from beginning to end, however, you know you've hit the jackpot. This year's greatest jackpot so far is Scream 4.

High Ate Us

A sad bear for a sad occasion: I'm here to announce a bit of a hiatus for Awkward is What We Aim For. The end of my first semester at university has just about killed me (and it's not even done killing me yet!), which has made this blog more of a chore than a joy. Obviously, readership has gone up immensely since things started amping up for the Oscars, and I'm truly appreciative for everyone who reads this as much as they do. But it's time for me to take a break, at least for a month or two.

This means that with very few exceptions, everything's going to be delayed--including Netflix Pix and Music Video Mondays. Chances are I'll do MVM entries every once in a while, but I'm going to end this season of Netflix Pix early and bring it back for a summer mini-season. Movie reviews, however, will still be posted fairly frequently.

But the blog will stay up and running--you can always read any of the entries we have up, including the massively popular premiere of Music Video Mondays, featuring Rebecca Black's "Friday" (viewed almost a thousand times since mid-March), my write-up of Winona Ryder's performance in Black Swan for StinkyLulu's Supporting Actress Blog-a-thon 2010, our coverage of Melissa Leo's fabulously bad FYC ads, my send-up of those ads, the Live Blog Bonanza for the Oscars this year (Part I, Part II and Part III), and my favorite piece I've ever written, my review of Black Swan. And of course, I'll be updating the Oscar Predictions regularly with Andrew assisting me throughout the summer and next fall.

Keep your eye here for when we do update (and trust me, I will update--I can't just quit cold turkey!), and keep aiming for awkward!

Inspiringly Insidious

With few exceptions, I am not a fan of the horror genre. Oftentimes it seems to be going for cheap thrills rather than truly entertaining an audience and keeping them on their toes. (For every The Exorcist or the original Nightmare on Elm Street, you get a Final Destination or remake of Nightmare on Elm Street.) So color me totally surprised when I tell you that I loved Insidious not just as a great movie-going experience (though the truly fantastic crowd did make it better), but as a movie individually. One of the best horror films I've ever seen, and I don't give out such hyperbolic praise lightly.

Almost Theyre

More than a few readers have likely read the novel Jane Eyre in school or for pleasure, but film adaptations of the book are hit-and-miss. As a result, I wasn't expecting much of this horror/prestige hybrid telling of the now-classic story of love between the titular Jane and Mr. Rochester. Imagine my surprise when I found myself charmed and fully riveted by this version starring the gorgeous Mia Wasikowska and the drop dead beautiful/talented Michael Fassbender.

The choices made by director Cary Fukunaga are effective ones, from the in media res story structure to the twinges of terror that keep the audience on their toes. The writing is an effective adaptation, though the language sometimes flies over the audience's heads. Large blocks of dialogue are slightly muddled when the actors (Wasikowska specifically) don't deliver them with any real understanding or punch. (One of the reasons True Grit worked so well was because young star Hailee Steinfeld had a dexterity with the wordy dialogue.)

However, the film more than overcomes its shortcomings. It's a captivating tale told with aplomb. The art direction and costume design are particular highlights--look for one or both to be recognized come next year at the Academy Awards. The supporting cast was absolutely phenomenal, from the understated Judi Dench to the fabulously bitchy Sally Hawkins, who I have officially thrown my allegiance behind (all it takes is one bitchy performance...right, Winona Ryder?)

The entire film is effective in ways you'd never expect. Truly a pleasure to watch, if not as effortless as it could have been. You can see the cracks, but you happily ignore them. B+

Netflix Pix: Funny Girls and Serious Boys

It seems like Netflix Pix features come far too quickly every week--each time I'm done with one it's onto the other. It'll probably go every-other-week in Season Two so I won't feel so drained by it to the point where I miss deadlines by a mile. But I digress.

This week we have two vastly different movies, and that's where this series makes its bread and butter. We'll be taking a look at the film that earned Tommy Lee Jones his last Oscar nomination, In the Valley of Elah, a film I've always considered underrated. Then we'll look at Funny Girl, the Barbra Streisand-starring musical that made popular such anthems as "Funny Girl" and "Don't Rain On My Parade." The theme this week is weak (no pun intended), but it's essentially this: boys are serious and talk about war, girls are divas and sing about things. Sexism! Now available in fantastic films.

MVM: I Know We're Cool

Another installment of Music Video Mondays for you guys! We premiered this series in 2011 with Rebecca Black's magnum opus 'Friday', then took a trip back a decade to talk about a girl named Lucky. Let's land somewhere in the middle this week to talk about our favorite Aughts-era platinum blonde: Gwen Stefani. After breaking up with No Doubt, Stefani released her solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. in 2004, and launched an incredible five hit singles before finally crashing (on its sixth single, ironically called "Crash").

Preceded by "What You Waiting For?" and "Rich Girl," as well as the massively successful "Hollaback Girl," the song and video this week, "Cool," was the fourth of these singles and the slowest. Truly a shift in tone from the other fast-paced singles, "Cool" was actually quite lovely, a beautifully-performed song with an equally lovely video to accompany it. The whole point is that Stefani and her supposed ex-lover are now 'cool,' but really, you can feel the awkwardness bubbling throughout the video. Let's check it out!

Netflix Pix: Vicky, Cristina, Maria Elena, Hannah and Her Sisters

Apologies for the delay on the new episodes of Netflix Pix! The good news is that the next six weeks will (theoretically, hopefully, God willing) bring an uninterrupted stretch of episodes until the end of the season.

This week, we're taking a quick look at some of the most fabulous women ever to grace Woody Allen's oeuvre. That's right, this week we're looking at the my number one film of 2008, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, starring Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johanssen, Patricia Clarkson and the fiery Oscar winner Penelope Cruz. We'll also take a look at Hannah and Her Sisters, Allen's 1986 box office success that stars Mia Farrow, Barbara Hershey, Allen himself, and two Oscar winners, Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest.

MVM: She's So Lucky

It's time for the next installment of our new series Music Video Mondays! While I don't think this will be nearly as popular as the premiere of the segment, an analysis of Rebecca Black's "Friday" (thanks to everyone who pushed it to over 500 page views!), we're gonna appeal to early Aughts' nostalgia with a look at a Britney Spears video most college students should remember fondly.

This is a story about a girl named Lucky.

American Idol 10: Why It's Working (Even Though It Shouldn't)

This really shouldn't have worked. Why is it working?!

America is currently experiencing the closest thing to a television miracle. A ten year-old reality show that saw its ratings hemorrhage in its last season is healing itself by making changes and running a tight ship. It overhauled its judging panel and got great talent to fill the ranks of the final rounds. It reinstated its former executive producer and its host suddenly learned how to host a reality show.

This... is the new American Idol!