The 51st annual Filmfare Awards, “India’s Oscars”, just concluded and I normally abhor these- goes back to 1996 when Raja Hindustani inexplicably beat out the brilliant Rangeela.

This year, however, they have regained my respect, with one of my favorite films of the year winning almost every major award. Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s incomparable Black won:

• Best Actor- Amitabh Bachchan
• Best Actress- Rani Mukherjee
• Best Director- Sanjay Leela Bhansali
• Best Film- Black
• Best Supporting Actress- Ayesha Kapoor

So put your little hand in mine…

Today was Groundhog Day in the United States, which is too silly to explain; unless of course you are a film fan, in which case the film by the same name is much more silly, fun and deep. And it stars Bill Murray.

Radio Open Source, which is a Boston-area public radio program and web podcast that is fantastic, had an episode on the film today. TRO assembles their programs based on suggestions on the blog, and one of my comments was brought up on the show today. On today’s Groundhog Day episode my comment comparing Groundhog Day to Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha was brought up (at about 11:10 into the show) and discussed. Very cool stuff. Read More »

Terrible idea. Terrible, terrible, terrible… terrible idea.
Let me elaborate. The story is that certain groups (read: theatre owners), with the intention of rescuing the film industry from the depths it has descended to, are pushing the FCC to block rude behavior by jamming cell phone signals in movie theatres.

What? In the first place, I was under the impression that jamming may be illegal, so what they really may be talking about is permission to circumvent the law in order to “rescue the ailing film industry”. I have two issues with this logic: —>

UPDATE: The script/program to get your Netflix Ratings is now ready for others to use. It is still in very early stages of development, but it has worked for a lot of people. Enjoy!

One of the things I love about my Netflix account is my ratings. As of now, I have 1323 DVDs (not all DVDs are films, but most are) rated there. This is a tremendous resource about my preferences that Netflix (and I) have. The trouble is that the only way I can get at them is by going to the website, logging in to my account, clicking through 2 pages to get to my ratings page. —>

An uneven year, to say the least- but after watching the Oscars last night I thought I had to say what I thought. Before I get into my Oscar-bashing, here’s what I thought of the year. In no particular order:

• The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• The Aviator
• The Passion of the Christ
• Farenheit 9/11
• Kill Bill v.2
• Closer

• Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban
• Hotel Rwanda
• Finding Neverland
• Hero
• The Incredibles