Paul Clark, proprietor of Silly Hats Only, is busily spotlighting each category of his newly inaugurated Muriel Awards (I’ll let him explain the significance of the name). Modeled after the Village Voice and IndieFilm critics polls, this one is starting out small, but the results are definitely worth a read. I’d like to thank Paul for inviting me to participate. But there are lots of other sharp writers who contributed to the poll that you can familiarize yourself with or get reacquainted with, whatever the case may be— folks like:
Jason Alley
Kent M. Beeson
Andrew Bemis
Steve Carlson
Greg Dunlap
James Frazier
(James, I owe you an e-mail!)
Martin McClellan
Lucas McNelly
Mark Pfeiffer
Matt Riviera
Jenny Sekwa
and R. Presley Stephens
There were around 10 categories or so in which to vote, and Paul has spotlighted six so far:
Breakthrough Performance
Best First Feature (Director)
Best Ensemble
Best Cinematography
Best Screenplay
(Clicking on any of these will also lead you to a page where you can see the complete voting in each category. Keep checking daily for updates and new categories.)
Today he looks at the votes for the year’s Best DVD Release. The winner: Criterion’s spiffy edition of Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused. Paul highlights my own comments on the DVD, and here’s a taste of what I had to say:”"It’s becoming a bit of a DVD reviewer’s cliché to trumpet the latest spectacular Criterion release as the best thing the company’s ever done, or as a candidate for best DVD of the year. How much easier it would be to avoid using this burnished chestnut if the company would just stop creating DVD editions that could honestly be said to be the best of the year. And what Criterion has done with Richard Linklater’s superb evocation of high school life in small-town Texas in 1976, Dazed and Confused, will justify all enthusiastic descriptors, clichéd or not.”
Read the whole (short) piece here and begin, if you haven’t already, another excellent blogging relationship with Paul Clark’s Silly Hats Only and the 2006 Muriel Awards.
Wa-hey! There it is! Thanks for getting the word out, man.
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note, when is Prof. Jennings going to post the results of his exam?
Also, you should add the Dread Pirate Steven Carlson to your list, who not only contributed a cracking piece to accompany the Best Screenplay award, but also served as talent scout for the proceedings.
ReplyDeleteAs good as done! I can't believe I left Steve off, actually. But I have been the dotty one lately, so anything's possible!
ReplyDeleteAs for Professor Jennings, I intended that for a weekend project last weekend, and I'm approaching this weekend with a week-long Oscar special AND a piece for Jim Emerson's Contrarian Blog-a-Thon on my plate. So I don't know if Prof. Jennings will get his act together this weekend or not. If I can get ahead on the other two, then maybe. But Jennings is on deck, mainly because there's already another quiz in the pipeline for spring break. Wait till you see who's presiding over class this time!
I might've guessed Mark Harmon, but he wouldn't be on staff until summer anyway.
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ReplyDeleteI think there should also be Steven Carlson in the list. He is also good one. I always love to hear about him.
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