Monthly Archives: November 2019
Music Video of the Day: Hallelujah by Haim (2019, dir by Paul Thomas Anderson)
Happy Thanksgiving!
“My Dog Ivy : A July Diary” — A Pure Distillation Of Everything Gabrielle Bell Does Best
Ryan C.'s Four Color Apocalypse

At this point, Gabrielle Bell’s July diary comics are as tried-and-true a ritual as the bonding process between people and animals — so combining the two really only makes sense, doesn’t it?
That being said, as the asterisk on the cover of My Dog Ivy : A July Diary, her latest single-issue “floppy” from Uncivilized Books, makes clear, the titular golden retriever isn’t hers, but belongs to the Twin Cities couple she’s house-sitting for — whose identities should be easy enough to suss out with my having to say so, I would think. Not that Ivy is the only pet she’s charged to take care of, given that two cats are also “on the scene,” and not that watching after all these animals is the only thing that she has on her plate, given that there’s a garden to be tended, as well.

In any case, Bell’s facility…
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Happy Birthday, Arleigh!
Today is a very special day as we celebrate the birthday of the founder of the Shattered Lens, the one and only …. ARLEIGH SANDOC!
Happy birthday, Arleigh!
Nearly 10 years ago, Arleigh founded the site that would eventually become the Shattered Lens. He recruited our initial crew of four writers. (We’ve obviously grown since those early days) and he asked me to come aboard as co-editor of the site. Tomorrow is thanksgiving but I can tell you what I’m thankful for today. I’m thankful that Arleigh took a chance and made me a part of this site. I have grown so much as a writer, due to the opportunities and the freedom that Arleigh offered to me and every other writer on this site.
Next year, we’ll be celebrating the TSL’s 10th birthday all year long. 2020 is going to be all about celebrating everything that this site is about and I hope we’ll see each and everyone of you there. Today, however, is all about celebrating Arleigh.
Happy birthday, Arleigh!
Artwork of the Day: G.I. Girls (by Raymond Johnson)
Music Video of the Day: Drinking Alone by Carrie Underwood (2019, dir by Randee St. Nicholas)
I have to say that I kind of got worried for Carrie while I was watching this video.
“You don’t know that man, Carrie!” I shouted, “Be careful!”
I’m not particularly a fan of country music but I’ve always liked Carrie Underwood, largely because she seems to be unpretentious and, all things considered, rather down-to-Earth. That said, when she was on American Idol, I was planning on voting for Bo Bice. But then Bo started singing songs acapella and I was like, “Uh, I don’t want to encourage that type of behavior.” I was legitimately torn between Carrie and Bo. In the end, if I remember correctly, I compromised by voting for Gary Johnson, instead.
Anyway, on a serious note, I don’t think Carrie Underwood could have pulled this song off 10 years ago. There’s a kind of sad “I’ve suffered real pain” feel to this song and it’s the type of thing that I imagine only comes with getting older and experiencing some real disillusion. That melancholy feel is there in the video, too. I mean, there’s a lot of quiet desperation going on here and it’s going to take more than a live performance of The Sound of Music to make everything okay again.
Enjoy!
Here Are The Hollywood Critics Association’s Nominations For The Best of 2019
The Hollywood Critics Association was, up until a few days ago, known as the Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society. Perhaps realizing that HCA just plans looks better than LAOFCS, they announced yesterday that they were changing their name.
They also announced their nominees for the best of films and performances of 2019! While the HCA may not be one of the major precursors of awards season, their nominations do give a fairly good picture of which films and performances are currently being touted as possible Oscar nominees.
And here they are:
BEST PICTURE
- “1917”
- “Booksmart”
- “The Farewell”
- “The Irishman”
- “Joker”
- “Jojo Rabbit”
- “Parasite”
- “Marriage Story”
- “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
- “Waves
BEST ACTOR
- Adam Driver, “Marriage Story”
- Eddie Murphy, “Dolemite Is My Name”
- Joaquin Phoenix, “Joker”
- Leonardo DiCaprio, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
- “Taron Egerton, “Rocketman”
BEST ACTRESS
- Awkwafina, “The Farewell”
- “Charlize Theron, “Bombshell”
- Lupita Nyong’o, “Us”
- Renée Zellweger, “Judy”
- Scarlett Johansson, “Marriage Story”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
- Brad Pitt, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
- Joe Pesci, “The Irishman”
- Shia LaBeouf, “Honey Boy”
- Sterling K. Brown, “Waves”
- Tom Hanks, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
- Jennifer Lopez, “Hustlers”
- Laura Dern, “Marriage Story”
- Margot Robbie, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
- Taylor Russell, “Waves”
- Zhao Shuzhen, “The Farewell”
BEST MALE DIRECTOR
- Bong Joon-ho, “Parasite”
- Martin Scorsese, “The Irishman”
- Noah Baumbach, “Marriage Story”
- Quentin Tarantino, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
- Taika Waititi, “Jojo Rabbit”
BEST FEMALE DIRECTOR
- Alma Har’el, “Honey Boy”
- Greta Gerwig, “Little Women”
- Lorene Scafaria, “Hustlers”
- Lulu Wang, “The Farewell”
- Olivia Wilde, “Booksmart”
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
- Bong Joon-ho & Han Jin-won, “Parasite”
- Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, & Katie Silberman, “Booksmart”
- Lulu Wang, “The Farewell”
- Noah Baumbach, “Marriage Story”
- Rian Johnson, “Knives Out”
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
- Anthony McCarten, “The Two Popes”
- Lorene Scafaria, “Hustlers”
- Scott Silver and Todd Phillips, “Joker”
- Steven Zailian, “The Irishman”
- Taika Waititi, “Jojo Rabbit”
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR OR ACTRESS 23 AND UNDER
- Kaitlyn Dever, “Booksmart”
- Julia Butters, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
- Noah Jupe, “Honey Boy”
- Roman Griffin Davis, “Jojo Rabbit”
- Thomasin McKenzie, “Jojo Rabbit”
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
- Jessie Buckley, “Wild Rose”
- Kelvin Harrison Jr., “Waves”
- Paul Walter Hauser, “Richard Jewell”
- Taylor Russell, “Waves”
- Zack Gottsagen, “The Peanut Butter Falcon”
BEST CAST
- “Avengers: Endgame”
- “The Irishman”
- “Knives Out”
- “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
- “Waves”
BEST FIRST FEATURE
- “Brittany Runs a Marathon”
- “Booksmart”
- “Honey Boy”
- “The Peanut Butter Falcon”
- “Queen & Slim”
BEST INDEPENDENT FILM
- “Booksmart”
- “The Farewell”
- “Honey Boy”
- “Luce”
- “Waves”
BEST ACTION/WAR FILM
- “1917”
- “Avengers: Endgame”
- “Captain Marvel”
- “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw”
- “John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum”
BEST ANIMATED FILM
- “Abominable”
- “Frozen II”
- “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World”
- “Missing Link”
- “Toy Story 4”
BEST BLOCKBUSTER
- “Avengers: Endgame”
- “Captain Marvel”
- “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
- “Shazam!”
- “Spider-Man: Far from Home”
BEST COMEDY/MUSICAL
- “Booksmart”
- “Blinded by the Light”
- Dolemite Is My Name”
- “Long Shot”
- “Rocketman”
BEST DOCUMENTARY
- “American Factory”
- “Apollo 11”
- “Hail Satan?”
- “The Kingmaker”
- “Love, Antosha”
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
- “The Farewell”
- “Monos”
- “Pain & Glory”
- “Parasite”
- “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”
BEST HORROR FILM
- “Crawl”
- “Doctor Sleep”
- “Midsommar”
- “Ready or Not”
- “Us”
BEST ANIMATED OR VFX PERFORMANCE
- Josh Brolin, “Avengers: Endgame”
- Robert De Niro, “The Irishman”
- Rosa Salazar, “Alita: Battle Angel”
- Ryan Reynolds, “Detective Pikachu”
- Tom Hanks, “Toy Story 4”
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
- Drew Daniel, “Waves”
- Jarin Blaschke, “The Lighthouse”
- Lawrence Sher, “Joker”
- Robert Richardson, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
- Roger Deakins, “1917”
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
- Arianne Phillips, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
- Julian Day, “Rocketman”
- Jacqueline Durran, “Little Women”
- Ruth E. Carter, “Dolemite Is My Name”
- Mark Bridges, “Joker”
BEST EDITING
- Fred Raskin, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
- Lee Smith, “1917”
- Michael McCusker, “Ford v Ferrari”
- Thelma Schoonmaker, ‘The Irishman”
- Yang Jin-mo, “Parasite”
BEST HAIR AND MAKEUP
- “Bombshell”
- “Joker”
- “Judy”
- “Rocketman”
- “The Irishman”
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
- “Catchy Song” from “The Lego Movie: The Second Part”
- “Glasgow” from “Wild Rose”
- “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from “Rocketman”
- “Into the Unknown” from “Frozen II”
- “Speechless” from “Aladdin”
BEST SCORE
- Alexandre Desplat, “Little Women”
- Hildur Guðnadóttir, “Joker”
- Michael Abels, “Us”
- Thomas Newman, “1917”
- Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, “Waves”
BEST STUNT WORK
- “1917”
- “Avengers: Endgame”
- “Captain Marvel”
- “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw”
- “John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum”
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
- “1917”
- “Ad Astra”
- “Avengers: Endgame”
- “Alita: Battle Angel”
- “The Irishman”
The winners will announced in December!
Artwork of the Day: Untamed Darling (Artist Unknown)
Music Video of the Day: Yellow Is The Color Of Her Eyes by Soccer Mommy (2019, dir by Alex Ross Perry)
I like this video. It’s a little bit long, or at least it is for me. (You should keep in mind that I have an 88-second attention span.) But it’s a lovely song and there’s a haunting strain of melancholy running through this entire video. Hopefully, she returned to shore.
Enjoy!
Lisa Marie’s Oscar Predictions For November
Well, here we are!
We’re on the verge of the official start of Oscar season. The Spirit Nominations have been announced. The National Board of Review will be announcing their picks on December 3rd (I believe). In just about a week from now, we’re going to be flooded by hundreds of different guilds and critics groups handing out awards and it will be a struggle to keep up. With so many strong contenders this year, it’ll be interesting to see who actually emerges with the momentum.
(For instance, I don’t think anyone really took Mad Max: Fury Road seriously as an Oscar contender until it started sweeping all the critics groups in December. And then we were all like, “Well, of course it’s going to be nominated for best picture….”)
With all that in mind, I’m going to go out on a limb with a few of my predictions below. I mean, why not? At this point, anything could happen.
To see how my thinking has evolved over time, be sure to check out my predictions for January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, and October!
Without further ado, here are my predictions for November:
Best Picture
1917
Bombshell
The Irishman
Joker
Little Women
Marriage Story
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
Parasite
Richard Jewell
Uncut Gems
Best Director
Noah Baumbach for Marriage Story
Joon-Ho Bong for Parasite
Clint Eastwood for Richard Jewell
Jay Roach for Bombshell
Martin Scorsese for The Irishman
Best Actor
Paul Walter Hauser in Richard Jewell
Eddie Murphy in Dolemite is My Name
Joaquin Phoenix in Joker
Jonathan Pryce in The Two Popes
Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems
Best Actress
Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story
Saoirse Ronan in Little Women
Charlize Theron in Bombshell
Alfre Woodard in Clemency
Renee Zellweger in Judy
Best Supporting Actor
Jamie Foxx in Just Mercy
Anthony Hopkins in The Two Popes
Al Pacino in The Irishman
Joe Pesci in The Irishman
Brad Pitt in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
Best Supporting Actress
Kathy Bates in Richard Jewell
Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers
Thomasin McKenzie in JoJo Rabbit
Margot Robbie in Bombshell
Zhao Shuzhen in The Farewell





