Shlubby, mulleted and goofy don't always equal hunky, but comedian Danny McBride is living proof that they can. With the stiffest of competition from charming pretty boy James Franco aka Daniel Desario (sigh) in Pineapple Express, I can't say McBride won in the chiseled good looks department, but he really stood out as a drug dealer with a wife in jail.

Even though I thought his demolitions expert was fairly forgettable in Tropic Thunder, I was intrigued enough to rent the movie that launched his rocket to semi-stardom, The Foot Fist Way. It's a flawed gem but one that grows on me the more I think about it. One thing that's certain is that his performance is fantastic, even if there's not quite enough buoying the rest of the film for me to make it my pick of the week (though, as I said, I just keep growing fonder of the thing). As an egocentric but frail Tae Kwon Do instructor with a slut for a wife and a jerk for a hero, McBride is in turns hilarious, cringe inducing, pathetic, sympathetic, and charming. What could have been nothing more than ninety minutes of “real American” ridicule are transformed by McBride's performance into something quietly remarkable.

I just don't know how to explain it, but the man is way attractive. Even in the worst kind of matching short outfits (in real life he's well put together) there's some sort of crazy charisma that I just can't dispel. Missing his new HBO comedy show is the only thing that's made regret our recent decision cancel our premium cable channels.

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Posted on March 9, 2009

We can start this discussion by all agreeing that Gary Glitter is a very bad man. Last that I heard, he was going to be executed by the Vietnamese government — but I get information wrong all the time and this time was no different, it turns out that he spent three years in jail and paid five million dollars to the families of his victims. Now that that's cleared up, we can move on to that other thing he most famous for: the stadium anthem, the heart pounding fist pumper, Rock and Roll parts 1 and 2.

Part 2 you know well, at least you know it well if you've ever been to a sports game or seen one on TV, or are a fan of D2: The Mighty Ducks. It's the kind of song that electrifies crowds but there's also something curious about the layering of the sounds, something that's prompted me to listen to this more and more on my recent subway rides without a thought of hockey goals in my head.

Despite his personal defects (and if you feel bad enjoying his music, it might make you feel better to know to profits go towards his victims), this is a really interesting and awesome and weird piece of music. And don't ignore Part 1! Everyone forgets that there really is a Part 1; it gets very little radio play, but I must have listened to it often as a kid because I remember singing/screaming, “Doctor Whoooo, hey Dr Who?quot; to the tune, possibly to torment my sister, who hated watching the sci fi show so much, she'd take a break outside when I watched it.

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Posted on March 9, 2009

Werner Herzog is a filmmaker who works on a grande scale. You can watch Jim's favorite documentary, Burden of Dreams to see what I mean, or just take the opening sequence of Aguirre: The Wrath of God. Working with the inherent drama of extreme natural environments to create awe inspiring images that must be demanding on all involved is Herzog's greatest feat and the film opens up with series of long shots tracking a party of conquistadors clad in heavy armor winding their way down a steep and majestic mountain path hauling massive canons and reluctant animals while slaves cautiously maneuver noble ladies in sedan chairs.

After the descent, it becomes clear to all involved that the journey towards the fabled city of El Dorado is not going well so forty particularly handy men are sent down-river to find food or information about the city's whereabouts, both of which, the mission commander explains with full confidence, are near at hand. A nobleman called Pedro de Ursua is chosen as the leader of this expedition and the crazed Aguirre is placed second in charge; against the commander's better judgement two women, Ursua's wife and Aguirre's daughter, will join them. Most amazingly, the commander's decision to create the scouting party is ratified through a crazily bureaucratic series of signatures and seals, a testament to the deluded Spaniards' mental state.

A classic piece of man versus nature (for all you high school English teachers out there) ensues and Herzog's favorite twin motifs, the callousness of nature and the cruelty man, become evident fast; to call the expedition a catastrophe might even be an understatement. The men are in a struggle to conquer. Not only in a traditional sense but through their strange insistence on paperwork, titles, and legal proceeding that carry no real meaning in the deepest, darkest jungles of Peru. Between the rapids, dangerous indigenous tribesmen, and hunger, an anarchic coup led by a maniac is just another hardship.

Klaus Kinski, in the first of several collaborations with the director, does what he was born to do: embodying a deluded and aggressive mad man more convincingly than any other screen actor ever has. Nothing however, even Kinski's crazy eyed performance is unrealistically over the top, this is a subtle and almost detached film with minimal dialogue that works wonderfully as a realistic portrayal of incidents that, though imagined, are the kind often only found in the dry pages of history books. Herzog makes the past feel genuinely alive, as if we're experiencing the events first hand. Water droplets are left on the lens and actors even stare at times directly into the camera as if they are looking at you.

The soundtrack, by Krautrock band Popol Vul, is effective and the costumes are fantastic. Designers could dive into the studding, high lace collars and the exquisite use of purple in the conquistadors' shirts and literally build an entire collection around them. Like all of Herzog's work, the film is visually arresting, and the final scene with the monkeys on the raft is particularly haunting.

Considered one of the best art films ever made, this masterpiece earned a cult following and a respected reputation upon its premiere. Jim's been intrigued since a very young age when he read a plot summary in a Leonard Maltin encyclopedia that told of a conquistador who, searching for El Dorado, instead decides to steal the entire continent – it was a concept that blew him away.

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Posted on March 9, 2009

This was my favorite little thing I purchased for myself while in Paris, well, next to the newest Playboy at half the imported price. It's from Bon Ton, an adorable kids store with the greatest colors, and it means “grouchy”. I found this out by asking the lady who worked there, and not knowing the English equivalent she pouted and scrunched up her face in a perfect facsimile of the emotion. It was super cute.

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Posted on March 2, 2009

French Word a Day is not an online version of a square gift calendar for someone trying half heartedly to learn the language of love. Instead it's a love letter to Provence complete with those achingly beautiful French country side images that makes you want to pack it all in and make like Diane Lane in Under the Tuscan Sun– only you, know in Provence, and hopefully without Rita Woo.

The writing can be a bit too heart on her sleeve for me (“..I learned a life-changing concept: one that returns to me this morning, as a flood of emotions float upward to the underbelly of my skin, electrifying the surface. When God created sensitivity, he gave an extra dose of it to me!”), but I don't hold it against the woman.

She seems very nice and she offers up lovely portraits of vineyards, sleepy towns boasting beautiful washed out colors and amazing roof tops, and moss covered courtyards.

According to the bio of author Kristin: “French Word-A-Day began in 1999 when a former desert rat from Phoenix decided to share a piece of Provence from her office in the various caf?s along the French Riviera.” She is the author of the book Words in a French Life.

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Posted on March 2, 2009