2010 Wrap-Up: 5 Things I'm Grateful For

By late November I'd already called 2010 a wash. It's time to bring on the new year! I'm ready. But first, I’ll pause and admit that this year did yield some impressive entertainment. So here are five books/media/live and un-live pieces of storytelling that I am extremely grateful to have encountered in 2010. 



5. American Buffalo, Steppenwolf Theater Company, Chicago   


I'm fortunate enough to have reasons to visit Chicago, because right now I'm convinced that it produces the best theater in the world. I hadn't seen Mamet done professionally since a Glengarry Glen Ross a decade ago in San Francisco, and I'm not a particularly big fan of his. But this flawless production at the Steppenwolf reminded me of why this guy is such a prolific writer. The first act seamlessly set up things without your realizing - things that were slipped into innocuous character-y conversations only to come back with huge consequences later. I started to think about Mamet's advice to those who want to write screenplays: Just read Aristotle's Poetics. Over, and over, and over. The second act was all tragic reversals, all payoff, as each character has his beliefs about life pulled out from under him. The play offered a trio of terrific performances, but the standout was - expectedly - Tracy Letts, who bulldozed onto the stage with a hilarious portrayal of Teach, a bottom-feeding crook who is cocky, fierce, deluded and ultimately very lonely. Insert audible audience gasps. Commence late-in-play trashing of many, many props.



another production: this spot could also easily go to the amazing OSF production of Hamlet that I saw, if I hadn't already blabbed about it so much in this other post.




4. Noah Baumbach's Greenberg (2010)




Nobody saw this movie. Even Baumbach's fan base steered clear. People found the trailer annoying. And people find Ben Stiller annoying. A friend of mine wanted to start a twitter handle called "That'sSoGreenberg" and tweet about moments of faux-epiphany and "not connecting" around Los Angeles. But I was still interested in seeing it. I've always been impressed by Baumbach's acidic, richly character'd little comedies (adore Kicking and Screaming, admire Squid and the Whale and Margot at the Wedding). When I entered the theater last Spring, I was not disappointed. Greenberg was such a gratifying viewing experience that I never want to watch it again - the first time was so complete.
 I've long had the idea of writing a parody of the precious indie-romantic comedy, a sort of anti-(500) Days of All the Garden State Real Girls. In Greenberg, Baumbach has begun that deconstruction process. His sad sack "romantic lead" is an aggressively unpleasant former-musician-turned-carpenter. Unlikable protagonists have been popping up a lot lately, from Daniel Plainview to Mark Zuckerberg. But Roger Greenberg, scene by scene, must find something to complain about. There's bravery in Baumbach's writing such a vivid pill for a main character. The film's would be "dream girl," who manages to connect with Greenberg in a demented way, is much more glum, lost and prone to making large life mistakes than any Zooey Deschanel character. (Also, The A.V. Club has just named it their 11th best film of 2010). What will I say the next time I encounter a moody grown-up comedy that undercuts my expectations again and again? That's So Greenberg!




another movie: Mike Leigh's Naked (1993)


3. Wake Up, Sir! by Jonathan Ames 

Ames' writing has edged into the spotlight this year. The diverting, ramshackle HBO series Bored to Death was created by him (from a short story of his that has an entirely different tone). His other novel The Extra Man (I'm just starting it now) was turned into a movie with Kevin Kline. But Wake Up, Sir! has me assured of Ames' neurotic genius. A hybrid P.G. Wodehouse comedy of manners--New-Jersey-dysfunctional-alcoholic tale, this novel had me laughing out loud on every single page, which instantly places it up there with Catch-22 and A Confederacy of Dunces as one of the funniest books I've ever read. Furthermore, this is the first novel I've read while getting to follow the author on twitter - a kind of real-time footnotes. (Bonus: There's an extended sex scene late in the story that Ames used to refute the NY Times' Book Review's assertion that male novelists these days are much more squeamish about creating sex scenes than their counterparts a generation ago. Ames' is a writer fascinated by fetishes, and this scene will certainly have you think twice about who you lend this book to.) 

another novel: Homeland by Sam Lipsyte 

2. AMC's Breaking Bad

Technically I started this series via Netflix during the summer of 2009, lured to AMC programming by Mad Men. But after three episodes, I wasn't impressed. The early story line involving Marie's kleptomania was underwritten and the show seemed uneven. Some time later, I gave the second disc of episodes a try, which contained episode 6: "Crazy Handful of Nothin.'" This episode hooked me. In it's pre-credits sequence, Walter White admonishes his partner-in-meth-dealing Jesse Pinkman: "No more bloodshed, no more violence" and then the hour ends with Walt using exactly that to strike a business deal with the loose-canon drug lord, Tuco. Along the way, Walt symbolically shaves his head. There have been episodes of Breaking Bad since that have stunned me - the drawn-out desert shack showdown with Tuco and his enfeebled, bell-ringing old man, the "Peek-a-boo" episode with the red-headed boy and the nerve-wrenching ATM incident, season three's stunning bottle episode "The Fly," in which a sleep-drugged Walt laments the "perfect moment" when his life should have ended. But Breaking Bad began for me in the final moments of "Crazy Handful of Nothin'," with Walt's declaration to Tuco "THIS is not meth" and the surprise that follows. To refer to the Poetics again (which I was reading by this point in the year, thanks to American Buffalo), a reversal, which produces a cathartic "ah-ha!" in the audience, comes about when you've built a surprise that makes perfect sense. Not an easy thing to build. But the finale of this episode creates just that, by exploiting the one thing we know about Walt: He's a chemist. While Breaking Bad is very adept with action sequences, spectacle, and music montage, it's never afraid to showcase it's biggest strength: Great writing.  

another show: HBO's Deadwood.

1. Hot Chip's "I Feel Better" music video

With the overwhelming availability of viral content, I never lack for a funny online sketch or an impressive music video. And this video is both. For me, it completes a cycle started when I found The Lonely Island's brilliant "Bing Bong Brothers" video back in 2006. Like that one, this video gratifies me on so many levels. I feel like there's plenty to discuss in terms of its aesthetic choices and anthropological meaning (yeah, I went there). But, suffice it to say, no single piece of media I encountered in 2010 makes me happier... 

Hot Chip - I Feel Better

Hot Chip | Myspace Music Videos

another viral video: Book Club II "Eat, Pray, Love." 
another another! viral video: "Sex" on the Street! Billy Eichner: Summer Movies 2010!