The latest writing from all your favorite Screengrab refugees
My favorite reads of the year (some of which actually came out in 2011)!
1. The War For Late Night by Bill Carter
Like a movie sequel, this follow-up to The Late Shift is a super-size version of the original, featuring just about every player in the post-Carson late night firmament. The politics and personalities are fascinating, and I actually came away with a little (or maybe even a lot) more sympathy for Jay Leno in his notorious dust-up with Team Coco.
Click Here for Scott Von Doviak’s Top TV list…
…or Click Here for the full Best of 2011 list he wrote with the rest of The Onion’s A.V. (TV) Club!
Yesterday, the former Screengrab commenter par excellence Iris Steensma (a.k.a. Amy Jeglinski-Osborne) posted her Top Ten Movies of 2011, and Nerve recently published a Top 15 featuring contributions from myself and fellow Exiler Phil Nugent. But for my own personal assessment of the Best of 2011…read on!
As always, my finger is far from the pulse of modern music, but the following albums and songs made up much of my soundtrack this past year…
by Amy Osborne (a.k.a. Screengrab’s “Iris Steensma”)
10. Bridesmaids
Finally a movie featuring smart, funny chicks that we (I?) can get behind. One of the most accurate depictions of the competitive, sad, crazy, tenuous, weird world of female friendships. Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig are brilliant and hilarious, with lots of good dick and poop jokes for the fellas.
by Leonard Pierce
Gotham’s Crown Point Currency Exchange is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That is why Julian Gregory Day is there.
“I don’t sleep much anymore,” he explains to the man in line behind him, an army-coated Croatian with a bandage on his ear through which fresh blood can be seen. The next time the Croatian sleeps, he will not wake up. An elderly Latino woman at the front of the line is buying fifteen lottery tickets, each one with a different set of numbers based on an arcane calculus derived from the ages of all of her grandchildren.
by Andrew Osborne
Yes, everyone experienced a severe case of douche chills when he jumped up and down on Oprah’s couch. Plus, he seemed like an egomaniac (emphasis on the maniac) in that creepy Scientology video, and most people suspect he’s done something terrible to Katie Holmes. But I’m still seeing Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Because however exhausting he may be to deal with in real life, Tom Cruise is still a fascinating screen presence, for the following reasons.
I’ve come to rarely expect the unexpected from Burn Notice, so this season finale deserves kudos for delivering an ending that took me by surprise, even as it left me somewhat unsatisfied. I fully expected “Fail Safe” to wrap up the Anson arc, perhaps introducing a new threat in its closing minutes, and that’s not what happened at all. I’ll get to my qualms about the episode later, but first let’s take a look at what Burn Notice did right in closing out its fifth season.
