Anticipation

Here is a peak into how the blog sausage is made here, I just spent a good 10-15 minutes trying to figure out if there was a song that used the word "Anticipation" in the chorus to start off this blog post. I don't think it exists, but if it happens to, and not the Carly Simon one, let me know. But it did lead me towards the Human League's "Fascination" which is never a bad thing. (And thank you, Erica, for trying to help me out, if she doesn't know the song it probably doesn't exist.) So enjoy that anyway:



Now, first a caveat: this entry is going to be very similar (some might say a ripoff) of a fellow blogger's post from a couple days ago Peter Swanson did pretty much the same post a couple of days ago and beat me to the punch on this one (and let's be honest, maybe my next post, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it) I don't think there is too much crossover in our readership, but you should read his stuff he's an actual, for real writer, and he's much more eloquent than I am (obviously). There is no way to prove this, of course, but I did have the idea to do a post about what I am looking forward to in the Fall, but it stayed as just an idea in my head, and then Peter beat me to it. But, and I am paraphrasing here, like Jesse Eisenberg said as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, "If I had idea the for a blog post, I would have written the blog post."  Or should have, but here I am riding on his shoulders. And some of the sentiment is the same:

For one: Fall

Fall, in general, is my favorite season bar none: football returns, pumpkin/cinnamon/spice goodies are around, Halloween, sunny but not super hot (it's hitting the 90's even today), hearty beers/hearty meals, oh man it's so great. And Halloween starts off that sweet spot of holidays that runs through Thanksgiving (also an amazing holiday) to New Years. Of course then there is the drudgery of Winter, but we'll just have to deal with that later.

I am not yet anticipating a lot of television shows and books, these things will have to totally take me by surprise. I mean I am looking forward to old favorites coming back ( some like 30 Rock, for their final season) but off the top of my head I can't say anything new that I am looking out for just yet. The same with books, but I hardly catch those early on anyway.

Music is going to be a surprise too, a lot of the albums for 2012 that I had been waiting for have come out, so I look forward to discover ones that I didn't realize were coming out or were new to me. I know how this is going to sound, but Animal Collective is releasing their new album next week and I have heard a couple songs, one being the one below, and it's not for every taste, but I am looking forward to it now (I skipped listening to the whole thing when it leaked so you never know)


Now, though, I have movies to look forward to. Here they are in order of release date:

The Master (9/21)

Paul Thomas Anderson's movies are amazing to look out and usually more than a little esoteric. I look forward to see exactly what he does with this story of a man behind a Scientology-like cult. It's not exactly going to be what we are expecting, I think. And I am not even sure exactly what I am expecting but it is always an experience, for sure.

Looper (9/28)

 Rian Johnson has tried his hand at hard boiled noir set in a high school  with Brick and a fascinating, take on the con man story with The Brothers Bloom. Here he takes on the action/sci-fi/time travel genre in what the principle actors are saying some of the best stuff they have been in. I just wonder if I am going to get used to whatever trick they used to make Joseph Gordon Leavitt's face look more like Bruce Willis'.

Argo (10/12)

Who would have thought that Ben Affleck could transform himself from an actor into a director whose movies people REALLY anticipate. He gets himself WAY outside of Boston for the first time in this supposedly true story about an attempt to free American Embassy workers from Iran. The cast is stacked and it looks like it could be really interesting.

Seven Psychopaths (10/12)

Could go either way, but I remember sleeping on Martin McDonagh's first movie In Bruges because the trailer made it look so terrible, and it turned out to be one of the best movies of the year. While this looks to be a bit more amped up, I am hoping for at least a good time, that the writing is just as sharp, and he already has an amazing cast to work with. He seems to love these underworld types, he even worked with them in his a play, A Behanding In Spokane.  So I look forward to seeing what he can do here.

The Man With The Iron Fists (11/2)

Hahaha the Wu Tang mastermind finally gets to put out his own Kung Fu flick-co-written by Eli Roth with (supposedly) Quentin Tarantino's blessing. The RZA has an encyclopedic knowledge of kung fu movies (which he has demonstrated on DVD commentary tracks) so it will be interesting to see what he does with his own. The soundtrack alone seems amazing. And he somehow got Russell Crowe to be in this thing. I am hoping for a bloody, good time here.

Skyfall (11/9)

I actually saw the second Bond with Daniel Craig, Quantum Of Solace, twice in the theaters and I gave it short shrift at the time. Later, I came home one night and it was on again, and while still not great I found it to be better than I originally thought (but I had also been drinking). But still not great. Casino Royale set the bar SO high so it is understandable to have a drop off in the second one, but here is hoping they return to some of those heights in the third. It will be cool to see a new, much younger, Q too.

Lincoln (11/16)

I am always wary of big budget biopics, but they are doing something here that I usually like a little better when it comes to these unwieldy things. They are focusing on the last four or five years of Lincoln's life instead of his ENTIRE life, so that's starting out on the right foot. Also having Daniel Day Lewis is another good thing. And I think it is always interesting seeing how Spielberg handles these things.

Zero Dark Thirty (12/19)

Another stacked cast (with Kyle Chandler!) and a director with a proven track record. Even if I only knew her from The Hurt Locker, which was amazing, I would be excited to see Kathryn Bigelow's take on the killing of Osama Bin Laden. If she can make things as tense as she did with The Hurt Locker, and I trust that she can, then it should be something not only timely but special. 

Let's face it though, even if she hadn't directed The Hurt Locker, she would have already reached GOAT status for this classic action movie (and no I am not being facetious):

This Is 40 (12/21)

 This one could be real tricky, I feel like with a different cast and a different director this could be really insufferable. But I am hoping for something funny and maybe heartwarming. Tip the scales too much and you have the last part of Funny People. But I am willing to give it a chance, especially with Apatow at the helm.

Django Unchained (12/25)

A new Quentin Tarantino movie is always an event. And also an excuse to get away from the family or bring them with you on Christmas Day to see it when it opens. This is sure to be controversial (it always is) and maybe he might be going to revenge well once too many times, but let Quentin be Quentin and let him follow his very particular muses. I am always fascinated by people that want him to change and, well, be someone else or do something different. Keep thinking outside of the box like you do and kept making fascinating hopefully interesting and fun movies is what I say. 

-Kevin