Now I know why no one saw The Weather Man in theatres. It was just awful. Michael Caine and Nicolas Cage looked absolutely miserable onscreen, and the movie was disjointed and pointless. 

 

What on earth was Hope Davis (About Schmidt) doing in this film? When great indie actresses appear in big budget pictures, they always seem out of place and uncomfortable (i.e. Catherine Keener in The 40 Year Old Virgin and Parker Posey in You’ve Got Mail). And conversely, when less talented but more popular stars show up in independent films (like Jennifer Aniston in The Good Girl), the performances usually fall flat and seem to scream out ‘look at me, I’ve got range!”  Very few actresses achieve success and acclaim in both small and large scale movies, with the exception of women like Julianne Moore and Laura Linney. It will be interesting to see Maggie Glyllenhaal (Secretary) and Maria Bello in Oliver Stone’s controversial World Trade Center, which is scheduled to come out in August of this year.

 

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Tomorrow night I am attending a sneak preview of Thank You For Smoking, which I am looking forward to because of the serious buzz it has already generated. I aim to post a review of it by Wednesday evening.

Also on the docket this week is V For Vendetta. Across the board, friends have given it high marks, and I will see anything written and produced by the Wachowski Brothers.

In case you missed it, Natalie Portman’s rap spoof on SNL was hilarious, an instant classic: http://www.nbc.com/Video/videos/snl_1439_natalieraps.shtml

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Holy moly. The Sopranos are back in a big way. You might as well hand the Emmy for Best Actress in a Drama Series to Edie Falco right now. Her work is unparalleled, layered and inspiring. There are very few actors I enjoy watching more than her, in this role. Carmela is one of the best characters on television. Ever.

 

Even though I was among the peanut gallery lamenting about the long layoff between seasons of The Sopranos, it was worth the wait. Each episode is like a movie; a well-produced, well-written short film with a superb ensemble cast.

 

Do I believe that Adriana is dead? No. First of all, although we see Silvio shoot at her during last season’s finale, we are never shown the actual body. Of course a man of his experience wouldn’t miss, but my gut feeling was that she somehow escaped or Silvio just couldn’t bring himself to do the deed. Also, it’s no secret that Joey is failing miserably and is about to be cancelled, which would free up Drea de Matteo to reappear on The Sopranos as more than a ghost.  

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I am constantly updating my iPod. Here are the current obsessions populating my FAVORITES playlist:

 

Albums

Hymns of the 49th Parallel (kd lang)

Hauntingly beautiful cover songs of other Canadian artists.

 

Recurring Dream: The Very Best of Crowded House (Crowded House)

For songs like “Weather With You” and “Four Seasons in One Day.”

 

To the 5 Buroughs (Beastie Boys)

I didn’t love it at first, but it’s growing on me.

 

Violator (Depeche Mode)

One of my all-time favorites. I never grow tired of it.  

 

Songs

“Back to Me” (Kathleen Edwards)

Talk about channeling Lucinda Williams…

 

“The Blower’s Daughter” (Damien Rice)

This is a guilty pleasure. I love it because it is the perfect first song in a film; it opens Closer with Natalie Portman in slo-mo.

 

“Bust a Move” (Young MC)

Makes me want to don the knee pads and hit the cardboard for a spin.

 

“Catch My Disease (Ben Lee)

I blame Grey’s Anatomy, because that’s where I first heard it. Not many people know about Ben Lee outside of the fact that he used to date Claire Danes.

 

“Corduroy” (Pearl Jam)

Just because.

 

“Feelin’ Good” (Nina Simone)

Reminds me of Six Feet Under and how much I miss it (the song played in the background of the trailer for the last season of the show, featuring the cast in a supermarket).

 

“Golden” (Jill Scott)

If ever there was a ‘you go, girl’ song, this is it. Uplifting and positive.

 

“It’s My Life” (Bon Jovi)

Great road trip tune.

 

“Numb/Encore” (Jay-Z & Linkin Park)

I don’t own songs by either artist, but together I love this one.

 

“Scared” (Liz Phair)

Listen to the lyrics. We’ve all been there.

 

“Soul Meets Body” & “The Sound of Settling” (Death Cab for Cutie)

Try as I might, I just can’t avoid the emo pop. I guess that makes me trendy.

 

“Spoonman” (Soundgarden)

It makes no sense and it hasn’t since 1994 but I’m addicted to it.

 

“They” (Jem)

It sounds like it belongs in a Tim Burton film.

 

“We Run This” (Missy Elliott)

Infectious beats, catchy as hell, stays in my head for days.

 

“You’ll Think of Me” (Keith Urban)

Is he the next Mr. Nicole Kidman? Who cares. This song is as pretty as he is. I can’t believe I like some of this crossover country music.

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I am bummed that Darren Aronofsky isn’t going to be directing an episode of Lost after all (he and fiancé/Oscar winner Rachel Weisz are having a baby any moment now).

 

Because Lost has been a repeat for two weeks in a row, I’ve had plenty of time to ponder the lingering questions that go unanswered from episode to episode, as well as speculate about possible plot points. Here are the first of many, in no particular order:

• Why don’t the castaways ever seem to tell one another about what they discover in the jungle, in the hatches, etc.? There doesn’t seem to be much information sharing going on out there on the island, which seems odd, given that there isn’t much else to do when stranded.

• In the beginning of the first season, Hurley checked the survivors names against the flight manifest to account for all passengers. Why is it that he didn’t do so when they discovered the tail-end survivors weeks later?

• Why did flight attendant Cindy disappear and where did she go? She doesn’t seem like someone the ‘Others’ would be interested in.

• When Sayid first went exploring by himself in season one, he came across a thick black cord running buried in the sand. He tracked it into the jungle, where he first met Rousseau, but never questioned where the other end led. My theory is that there is an underwater hatch, and that cord is somehow providing electricity or power to it.

• Isn’t it a tad coincidental that Hurley would be attracted to a clinical psychologist when he used to be institutionalized? He even comments to Libby that she seems familiar. I’m sure we’ll find out that she worked where he was a patient. Libby is a mystery; perhaps an ‘Other,’ or perhaps just an odd bird.

• When Jack came across his father’s coffin, it was broken but empty. Is his dad still alive and on the island? Is he an ‘Other’ or somehow involved with the Dharma Initiative? Or did the airline send the coffin without the body, because Jack was told at the ticket counter that they couldn’t transport it?

• Clearly Jack’s wife was cheating on him with someone we know. Could it have been Desmond? She used to go running in the morning, just as Jack was returning from working all night at the hospital. And we know how Desmond liked to run…

• Is Claire’s dad involved with Dharma? This is convoluted but try to follow my logic…her dad used to sing “Catch a Falling Star” to her as a child, and she asked the potential adoptive parents to sing it to her baby after they adopt him. That very song played on the airplane mobile above the crib in the medical hatch during the last episode.

• Are Claire’s psychic and the adoptive parents in LA also involved with Dharma?

• Did you notice that the airplanes on the mobile above the crib had Oceanic Air logos on them? Dharma is obviously involved with Oceanic – do they own Oceanic Airlines?

• The guy talking to Ethan outside the baby’s room in the hatch was indeed the supposed leader of the ‘Others,’ Zeke… without the fake beard. But now we know that there is another “Him” in charge, thanks to what Zeke said to Ethan: ‘You were supposed to make the list and then bring her in… Well, what I am I supposed to tell HIM? Do you know what HE’s gonna do when HE finds out?’ Could the HIM they’re referring to be the stranger held captive in the survivor’s hatch, Henry Gale?  

• Was the medical hatch cleared out and abandoned as a result of Claire’s escape, Ethan’s failure to kidnap the right people from the ‘list,’ or an overall fear of ‘HIM?’

• While under Ethan’s care (and drugged at the time), Claire told him she was on her way to LA, as if the plane crash never happened. Perhaps it didn’t, and the whole thing is some kind of Dharma-controlled experiment. Did what occur in Claire’s memory actually happen on the island? Did it happen before she got on the plane? We never actually see how she escapes; we only see her lying in the jungle before the French woman discovers here there.

• Claire took a drink from Ethan’s canteen, much like Jack did from Desmond’s canteen in his flashback. She mentioned that it tasted sour. Is water one of the methods the Dharma folks use to poison and/or drug folks?

• Isn’t it strange that Desmond was injecting himself with the same looking stuff that Ethan was drugging Claire with? Is it medicine to ward off the infection everyone keeps talking about? And if so, why didn’t he seem hazy and discombobulated like her?

• Henry Gale, the captive in the survivors hatch, seems to have super hearing powers, able to overhear Jack and Locke talking through that door (which he said was thin but must be thick enough to keep a man from breaking it down and also support a deadbolt lock). Remember that Ethan also exhibited superhuman qualities when he lifted Charlie with one arm and held him in mid air…

• Henry Gale was the name of Dorothy’s uncle in The Wizard of Oz. And the Wizard himself arrived in Oz via hot air balloon, the very method of transport that this Gale is claiming to have crashed on the island.  Keep in mind that the Wizard also departed Oz in a hot air balloon, so we’ll see what happens with Lost’s Gale.

• Another Wizard of Oz detail relating to Lost…Zeke was the real name of the Cowardly Lion.   

• Is Sun really pregnant, or is she feeling the effects of the “sickness” or “infection?” She was holding the baby while Claire led Kate and Danielle into the jungle. Was Sun was exposed to the sickness/infection by babysitting Aaron? I doubt the producers would add another baby to the mix, although if they stick to their timeline, the baby wouldn’t be due for another few seasons. And why on earth would Sawyer have a pregnancy test among his hoarded supplies? And if a female passenger had packed one…does that mean that one of the other survivors thought they were pregnant or may be pregnant right now?

• Is Mr. Eko building a church? He borrowed a saw and is chopping down trees.

• Wasn’t that the same room where Claire met with her attorney to sign the adoption papers before leaving Australia and Michael met with his attorney to sign over Walt to his ex? That can’t be a coincidence – the same place where 2 survivors essentially gave up their children. And we do know that Dharma collects children…

• The survivors hatch has a magnetic field below – did it have something to do with bringing the plane down? Or why the Black Rock ship is in the middle of the jungle? Does it have something to do with Locke’s ability to walk?

• Locke’s biological father talked about how everyone gets conned. And who is our favorite con man? Sawyer. I hear that there is indeed connection between those two, but I have no idea what it is.

• When Jack confronted Zeke and the ‘Others’ in the torch circle in the jungle, Zeke quoted a line from the Dharma video: “Since the dawn of our species, man’s been blessed with curiosity.”

• Why have only Kate’s parents appeared in other survivors’ flashbacks? Her mom was the waitress at the diner who served Sawyer and his fellow con man, and her dad was an officer on the military truck transporting Sayid after he tortured his former friend to help the U.S.

• And what is it with Kate and car crashes? She caused the farmer’s truck to swerve off the road and saved him, even though he turned her in. She was in the car when her doctor ex boyfriend was killed trying to help her escape. And she was also in the car with the Marshall when he crashed into the tree. 

SPOILER ALERT

Here are some rumors I’ve read online about upcoming episodes.

 

The March 22^nd episode is about Jin and Sun. 

 

The March 29^th episode is about Locke.

 

The April 5^th episode is about Hurley. Evan Handler (Charlotte’s second husband on Sex & the City) guest stars.

 

There is a rumor that Locke will be on crutches for the rest of this season.

 

And Michael will be reappearing soon.

All of this information is exhausting just to ponder. I will continue to post random Lost theories from time to time.

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