MOVIE REVIEW: YEAR OF THE DOG


I couldn’t get a ticket to see it at Sundance in January, so when Year of the Dog was finally released locally, I made sure to see it.

Molly Shannon is quite good in a very unglamorous and emotional role, but outside of a few cute dog moments, it’s actually quite dark. The film is similar in spirit to two other movies that Year of the Dog  writer/director Mike White wrote,The Good Girl and Chuck & Buck. But he also wrote School of Rock and Nacho Libre, so I suppose I was hoping for a bit more in the broad comedy department.

As for the supporting cast of Year of the Dog, Peter Sarsgaard and John C. Reilly are both miscast, but Laura Dern and Regina King provide much-needed comic relief.

A rental. End of story.

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LOVE HER MADLY: LOST, EPISODE 3.18 – “D.O.C.”


Do I think that Penny Widmore sent Naomi to find Desmond? Yes. Is she aware that Desmond is now hanging on the island with the real survivors of Flight 815? No. I believe that Penny sent Naomi (the parachutist) to find him after her team at the listening station (see photo above) discovered the electromagnetic anomaly. I believe that she knew where to look and funded that listening station after finding out that Daddy Widmore was a major financial contributor to Dharma…and probably had something to do with Desmond’s disappearance three years ago.

Naomi said “I am not alone,” which Mikhail translated as “thank you.” Did someone else parachute in with her? Were there others in the (alleged) helicopter that crashed? OR…is Penny actually there somewhere as well? Why else would Desmond have seen her in his last future flash?

Of course, this is Lost. So Naomi is probably a liar and an Other. She might have told Hurley about the real Flight 815 just to add to the collection of psychological games tormenting the Losties in this crazy experiment.

Mikhail obviously saw the flare that Hurley accidentally shot up in the air. He literally ran to find where it came from and looked quite surprised to come upon Desmond and the Losties…because he was looking for Naomi.

How did Mikhail survive the sonic barrier? Kate checked his pulse and said his heart had stopped. Was Mikhail prepared for just such a situation…did he carry an emergency Dharma pill to pop so that he could pretend to play dead when necessary (you know, the foam-at-the-mouth-heartbeat-stopper kind)? OR, as Mikhail indicated when referring to Naomi’s wounds…did the island heal his injuries rather quickly? And if so, does that mean we’ll be seeing dead Others again (Ethan, Goodwin, Ms. Klugh, Pickett, Colleen, etc.)?

Did Jack tell Juliet about Sun’s pregnancy? Does he really trust her that much? He probably thought it was very convenient and helpful to bring a fertility doctor to the beach where one of his friends was pregnant. Dumbass.

But if the Others had information about each passenger, their info would have shown that Jin and Sun were unable to conceive. Juliet should have been surprised to hear that she was pregnant, but I don’t think she was. She also wasn’t surprised to hear that Sun had an affair with another man; I’m sure that the Others knew that already.

Does Sun believe Juliet? Her lingering pose outside of the Staff Hatch after her ultrasound was telling. Did Sun follow her back into the Hatch and hear what she recorded for Ben? We’ve certainly learned that Sun is much smarter and more conniving than she appeared to be in the first season…

I am convinced that when Ben told Kate she was going to have a very difficult two weeks right after they were captured (see photo above) at the beginning of this season, he told her she would have to sleep with either Jack or Sawyer. That’s why they made her shower and put on a pretty dress. The Others were forcing her to get pregnant under the threat of death (either her, Jack or Sawyer). Last night we learned that Juliet was going to get Austen’s sample next (Kate’s last name is Austen). This theory might explain why Kate was acting elusive and uncomfortable when talking to Sun about Juliet’s island baby bad news.

QUESTIONS

If women who conceive on the island die, would they live if they terminated the pregnancy?

Why would the Others drag dying pregnant women all the way over to the Staff Hatch from their safe village inside the barracks?

If pregnant women and their babies die on the island, how is it that Ben was born there? Oh yeah…he wasn’t. Liar pants.

Who, besides Kate, are the other women that Juliet referred to for getting samples? There aren’t many viable candidates among the Losties that we’ve been introduced to. Watch out Naomi, you might be next!

Why does Naomi speak so many languages? Is it a coincidence that Mikhail and Ms. Klugh also seem(ed) to be multilingual?

How did Sun find Jin’s father, and so quickly?

Why would Jin’s mom ask for blackmail money in American dollars?

MY OVERALL (CONSPIRACY) THEORY ABOUT THE SHOW

From the beginning, I have theorized that the Losties were never actually on Flight 815. There was a real Flight 815, which was purposefully crashed…probably by Dharma. But the Losties boarded a simulated flight. They were specifically chosen. The flight and turbulence were fabricated, and they were all drugged by the oxygen masks. Before being removed from the plane, each passenger was injected with some type of memory chip or implant, causing what we see as flashbacks. And yes, some of them died; they had to in order to make it seem real. The deceased are the ones that didn’t fit the Dharma criteria for the island experiment. The “survivors” were placed in very specific locations on the beach, in the jungle and in the water with the wreckage.

Obviously, it would have taken a tremendous financial and logistical effort to organize and pull off this kind of scheme. But we’ve been introduced to several very wealthy flashback characters that are less than thrilled with or have been abandoned by the people who are on that island: Mr. Paik, who is disappointed that she married a fisherman’s son. Charles Widmore, who disapproved of Desmond dating his daughter. Sabrina Carlyle, Shannon’s stepmom who cut her off from the family inheritance. David Reyes, who Hurley refused to give lottery money to.  One or all of these people has more than likely contributed generously to the funding of the Dharma Initiative. And the heretofore unseen Jacob is the puppet master overseeing this entire experiment.

Major Hole in My Theory: How/why were the Others able to see the plane break apart above them if it was a pseudo crash?

Is this theory absolutely implausible? Yes. Do I need to sleep more and blog/obsess about Lost less? Perhaps. Will I? Doubtful.

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JOHN KRASINSKI & EDWARD NORTON: INTERESTING RUMORS ABOUT BOTH


I very rarely delve into celebrity gossip and speculation, but…

File under: Oh no.

I hope the rumor that John Krasinski (The Office) and Renee Zellweger are dating is another instance of the ‘working together on a film, spotted having coffee’ variety. Right now they’re filming Leatherheads, which is written, directed by and co-starring George Clooney. I am happy to see Krasinski hit the big time, with this film and the upcoming License to Wed with Mandy Moore and Robin Williams. AND yes, I realize that Zellweger is an Oscar-winning actress. But I am looking at her famous ex-boyfriend track record (see: Kenny Chesney, Jack White, Jim Carrey), and I have the right to be protective of my favorite Office man.

File under: Oh no, part 2.

Apparently, Edward Norton has signed on to play Bruce Banner in the new Incredible Hulk (which, thankfully, will be entirely unrelated to Ang Lee’s aberration adaptation in 2003). It’s not that I can’t picture Norton in the role; after all, he certainly proved his physical adaptability in the incredible American History X.

I’m just hoping that as talented as he is, he’ll reinvigorate the big screen adpatation of the comic; more of Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins than Tobey Maguire’s lifeless Peter Parker in Spider-Man.


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BLOGGING AND BASEBALL


Even if it is just a paragraph or two, you are going to see more entries from me. Right now I’m writing and posting about two times per week, including a weekly blog dedicated just to Lost. I have a day job, so daily blog entries would be challenging. After all, I’m not this guy, who posts on weekends and even while on vacation!

My regular readers have been shy thus far; I’ve asked for feedback but only received a handful of comments from friends and family. So I’ll put it out there again:

What do you want to read about when you visit this site?
Which pop culture topics are you interested in?
What are your favorite shows, and do you have any to recommend?
What criteria would make this site one you’d bookmark and visit daily?

A few people have inquired why I rarely address baseball, which is my favorite sport to watch and attend. Honestly, I am not sure how many readers would be interested in that topic. Also, I feel like I jinx my team when I write about them.

That being said, I have a letter…

Dear Baseball Fans Who Aren’t From the West Coast:

As of tonight, the starting pitchers of the Oakland A’s have the lowest ERA of any team in baseball. I know the season is only 20 games in and none of these guys are named Zito, but you should fear them. Oh, and all of them have held opponents to less than 3 runs in each of their starts. Again, that leads both leagues. And yet, can you name the A’s starting rotation?

There are teams besides the Yankees and Red Sox, despite what the nice scheduling folks from MLB and ESPN might lead you to believe. The A’s may not be as dramatic (on and off the field), but you really should keep your eyes on the boys in green and gold. Especially a quiet second baseman named Mark Ellis, who led the American League last year with .997 fielding percentage and yet lost the Gold Glove…to a guy on the Royals with less impressive numbers. Am I bitter? Yes. Why? Because I am outraged that A’s third baseman Eric Chavez has won a Gold Glove SIX years in a row, and has yet to make the All Star team. Perhaps this will finally be his year, especially given that the All Star Game is just one Bay Bridge away in July.

Sigh.

Your friend and future season ticket holder for the Oakland A’s of Fremont,
Jo



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PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS: LOST, EPISODE 3.17 – “CATCH 22″


I do not have as many theories as usual for this week’s episode, “Catch-22.” But here are a few thoughts…

Do people really parachute out of helicopters? Seems kind of dangerous, with the blades and all…unless of course the parachutist has military training. I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that it was a helicopter that crashed into the ocean, even though the Losties thought it was. Also, helicopter fuel tanks don’t hold very much, so it must have taken off from a location close to the island…

Did Naomi, the parachutist, jump before the helicopter (or whatever) started to crash, or during? She certainly drifted and landed quite far from the helicopter crash site.

Now we know for sure that Penny has discovered the whereabouts of Desmond. She sent Naomi to the island after her team saw the electromagnetic anomaly blip on their radar in the arctic listening station (which occurred when Locke imploded the Swan Hatch two to three weeks ago in Lost time).

The book in Naomi’s backpack was Catch-22 in Portuguese. Penny’s listening station team was speaking Portuguese.

Let’s pretend for a moment that you’ve been searching for your long lost love for years. You finally locate where he disappeared to, and you send in…one woman to find him. Penny either knows about the dangers of the island (probably because Daddy Widmore helped finance Dharma) or she has a tremendous amount of faith in Naomi, who must be quite a friend/savior/superhero to take on that job.

The cable on the beach leads into the ocean. Is it connected to the sonar which directs the sub to and from the island?

How/why are there so many copies of that Desmond/Penny photo?!

When Desmond visited Ruth, his ex-fiancé, and tried to explain why he left her for the monastery, she said it was a good thing that a “shepherd” hadn’t found him lying in the street, because then he would have joined the sheep. Yeah, but he’s with a (Jack) Shephard now.

Did you catch that Ms. Hawking, the old woman from the ring shop in Desmond’s last flashback, was in the photo with Brother Campbell on his desk?? So she IS real. Although the picture looked like quite the PhotoShop hack job.

In Desmond’s flash, he saw all three guys holding the parachute to catch the parachutist, including Charlie. So…was he meant to save him after all? As the events took place in real time, had Charlie been shot with the arrow, he wouldn’t have been able to help hold the parachute with Jin and Hurley.

FILE UNDER: RANDOM

I had to look this up because I am not at all familiar with anything Biblical…there was reference to the sacrifice of Isaac. In the Bible, Isaac is the father of Jacob (the Others’ leader with the list that we haven’t met yet) and grandfather of Benjamin (as in Ben Linus, the Others’ 2nd in command under Jacob). ALSO, Naomi (the parachutist) is a Biblical name that appears in the book of Ruth (Desmond’s ex-fiancé).

Desmond has future FLASHES, and Charlie & Hurley were arguing about Superman and the Flash. Does that make Hurley Superman?  

There was another use of the phrase, One of Us. Brother Campbell told Desmond that he was “one of us” at the monastery.

How is it that no one else on the island also heard the helicopter and/or saw the beacon?

So Flight 815, the real Henry Gale’s hot air balloon, Rousseau’s boat and now the parachutist’s helicopter have all crashed above and/or into the island, marooning them. And yet the sub is able to travel back and forth without issue (except perhaps when it enters through the invisible barrier around the island, which would explain Ethan’s statement to Juliet that ‘the last leg of the trip can be rough.’) So whatever protective barrier (which I like to think of as the Truman Show Dome) surrounds that island must allow underwater and/or subterranean access and also have some kind of trap door that opens up top (to let the Dharma food drops through).

** SPOILER ALERT **
Here is the schedule for the rest of the season.

4/18/07
Episode 3.18
“D.O.C.” (Date of Conception)
Jin & Sun-centric
Looks like we’ll finally find out who Sun’s baby-daddy is.

5/2/07
Episode 3.19
“The Brig”
Locke-centric
Apparently, the flashbacks will show us recent events on the island, including what happened after Locke discovered that Cooper (his Dad) was being held captive by the Others. Something tells me that we’ll finally find out that Cooper is the real Sawyer, and hopefully Mr. James Ford (island Sawyer) will as well.

5/9/07
Episode 3.20
“The Man Behind the Curtain”
Ben-centric
Rumor has it that we’ll see if Ben really was born on the island and we’ll learn more about Dharma and the DeGroots.

5/16/07
Episode 3.21
“Greatest Hits”
Charlie-centric
I haven’t heard much about this one yet, but it does not bode well for Dominic Monaghan…flashbacks can lead to death (see: Boone & Shannon, Ana Lucia, Libby, and Nikki & Paulo).

5/23/07 (2-hour Season Finale)
Episodes 3.22 & 3.23
“Through the Looking Glass”
Jack-centric
There will be a showdown between Jack and Locke.

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POUR YOURSELF A GLASS OF AMY WINEHOUSE


Close your eyes and imagine a mix of Sarah Vaughan, Macy Gray, Fiona Apple and Joss Stone…with the sass and tattoos of Pink.

Her voice is quite unique and her look is also very original; goth meets Jersey. It would be difficult to classify her genre, but it is a mix of jazz and R&B with a hint of hip hop.

Meet Amy Winehouse, the latest and greatest UK import. Go buy her CD on iTunes right now, because it is the most refreshing sound of the year so far.

Favorite tracks: Rehab, Tears Dry On Their Own, Back to Black.


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INJECTION REJECTION: LOST, EPISODE 3.16 – “ONE OF US”

In his last flashback, it was revealed that Jack’s tattoo translates as: he walks among us, but he is not one of us. In that same episode, Ben told Jack that regardless of what he thought of Juliet, she is still “one of us.” Juliet’s flashback episode last night was called…One of Us.  And then Jack told Juliet that because she also wanted off of the island, that she was “one of us.”

Did Juliet actually arrive on the island via sub? Why was she the only one strapped in if the last leg of the trip was supposedly so bumpy? And truly, is it possible to have a bumpy submarine ride? Aren’t they pretty smooth vehicles?

Refresher: Mittelos, Juliet’s new employer, is an anagram for LOST TIME.

And, at the Mittelos airport, there was a sign for Herarat Aviation. HER A RAT. Subtle! Also, Herarat is an anagram for Earhart…as in famous female pilot Amelia Earhart, who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean under mysterious circumstances.

The infamous Jacob was referenced again. He must also be some kind of doctor or scientist, as Ben promised Juliet that he would cure her sister Rachel’s cancer and it appears as if he was successful. Then again, anyone can PhotoShop a newspaper headline and the Others are certainly capable of coercion; perhaps Rachel was forced to appear in that video. That may not be her child either.  

Was Rachel’s cancer controlled by the Others? Did they cause it to return by activating an implant, similar to the one used to cause Claire’s “crisis?” Leave it to the Others to use and manipulate someone’s illness in order to blackmail one of their own to remain on the island.

And I’m no doctor, but when Ben hands Juliet her sister’s chart, the paperwork appears to be for a male patient with heart problems who weighs almost 200 pounds. WTF?

Ben said no one on the island has ever had cancer. If he has information about all of the passengers from Flight 815, he must know that Rose has cancer. Rather, she did before crashing on that island. Does he know that she’s been cured, much like Locke?

Has Juliet ever expressed how she felt about the death of her Other lover, Goodwin? Does she even know that he was killed by Ana Lucia after she found out he wasn’t a passenger? When Ben dispatched Goodwin to the tail section immediately after the crash, Juliet didn’t even register a response. How close could they have been?

Last season, Locke discovered that the Pearl Station had video surveillance of the Swan Hatch, where Desmond was stationed for years before the Losties found him. And we’ve seen that Ben and Juliet have visited the Pearl Station to view that monitor. So wouldn’t Juliet would recognize Desmond from the Swan Hatch, and also know that he wasn’t on the plane? Is she aware of his precognitive powers? Will that throw a wrench in her master plan?

When Juliet went to recover the medical supplies, there was a tree with a symbol carved into it. It seems to be the same symbol that was branded on her lower back after she was put on trial for killing Picket back on other island.

Juliet says that she can “fix” Claire’s medical emergency. Just like Dr. Jack, who is obsessed with fixing everyone and everything.

After showing Juliet video of Rachel and her nephew on screen in the Flame Hatch, Ben told Richard Alpert to get back to the island soon because of new visitors (meaning the Losties who survived the crash). Really and truly, we have no idea where this island is, but it certainly isn’t a quick jaunt from Miami via sub. Had Richard been back to the island more than once, or did he only return recently (with Locke’s dad)? If Mikhail was able to gather information about all of the passengers, Ben would have known about their history and may have instructed Richard to bring Locke’s dad to the island to use as bait to lure Locke in…

Even if Mikhail had gathered specific personal details about the Losties, how did they know that Sawyer shot the wrong man before boarding that flight the very next day? It’s not like the local authorities were after Sawyer for the murder. 

Did Ethan really improvise when the Losties found out he wasn’t really a passenger, or was kidnapping Claire yet another aspect of the Others’ master plan?

Did Claire survive her pregnancy because Aaron was conceived off of the island, or because of the injections that Ethan had given her?

Didn’t Rousseau deliver Alex while on the island? And if Ben was born on the island, then obviously the pregnancy death thing was a fairly recent phenomenon (post-Dharma?). Ben and Alex were born way before Juliet and her miracle fertility drugs arrived…

Why put an implant in Claire if you think she isn’t going to survive her pregnancy? They must have known that she would, and put the implant in her to use at a future date.

Back when the Others had Sawyer captured, they pretended to insert a heart monitor into his chest. But did they actually place an implant similar to Claire’s in him, in order to activate at a later date?

Also, when Kate had that infamous breakfast on the beach with Ben at the beginning of the season and he told her that the next two weeks were going to be very difficult, did they inject her with some kind of fertility drug and then threaten to kill either Jack or Sawyer unless she slept with one of them? Desperate times call for desperate measures when you’re living like the Children of Men

The very last scene of Juliet tying the rope to secure her shelter should have been accompanied by Austin Powers over-the-top evil laughter. Double crossing…get it?! Oh and look, her knot forms one of Hurley’s letters, an 8.

CRAZY THEORY OF THE WEEK
The Others found out that Sun was pregnant, which was a pleasant surprise to them. Their intel from Mikhail’s research would have indicated that Sun and Jin were not able to have kids, but now Ben knows about the island’s healing powers. So, he sent Juliet to integrate herself among the Losties in order to get closer to Sun and perhaps inject her with the serum or implant.  You might be asking yourselves, how would the Others find out about Sun? Remember that they had video cameras and audio on Jack, Kate and Sawyer the entire time that they were in being held captive.

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