Daniel Day-Lewis only did “Lincoln” because he wasn’t offered part in “The Expendables 2”
“Lincoln” was a film I saw with my grandma and father. I knew that it was going to be good when I walked in. The question was: how good was it really? I had heard varying things, some opinions were positive but some were fairly negative. Some historians scoffed at some historical accuracies (no historical piece is without it’s factual critics) while others criticized a lack of character development and following through with certain more supporting characters. Obviously this film isn’t perfect, and I’m not even sure if it should win it’s seemingly preordained Academy Award for Best Picture, but it’s one of the best films of the year without a doubt.
Director of Photography, Janusz Kaminski
“Lincoln” stars Daniel Day-Lewis as the titular President of the United States. Day-Lewis nails the performance and is sure to win an Oscar for it, he’s just an elite actor with few equals in peers. He has a magnetic draw and handles some of the more difficult scenes with ease, he disappears into role. Helped in part by the stellar make up and costuming. Academy Award winner Sally Field stars as Mary Todd Lincoln and does a solid job, but at times I must admit it felt more like Sally Fields playing Mary Todd than the first lady. There are too many stars in this film to name, all doing splendid work. A testament to their pedigree and director Steven Spielberg’s honed craft. It was nice to see Lee Pace (“Pushing Daisies”,”The Good Shepherd”) and Walton Goggins (“Justified”, “Django Unchained”) getting some good parts in. Tommy Lee Jones was terrific as always as was Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but the scene stealer was James Spader (“Boston Legal”, “Stargate”) as Bilbo a behind the scenes wheeler and dealer employed by Abraham Lincoln. He’s hilarious throughout the entire film and was for me one of the premiere highlights of the performances.
“Lincoln” focuses primarily on the President’s push in getting congress to pass an amendment abolishing slavery. Instead of focusing on the civil war or even the atmosphere of the country Spielberg wisely keeps it for the most part contained in the politics of it all. Showcasing how little American politics has really changed. That can be enlightening or perhaps depressing depending on your viewpoint. John Williams of course places a beautiful score into the film that mixes beautifully with the images. “Lincoln” is a great film no doubt, it at times lacks a bit in completeness and benefits from a grand historical perspective in some of it’s more “look how good these people are and look how bad these guys were” scenes. But why not take advantage of having history be on your side?
It is a near masterpiece by default, arguably a straight up masterpiece. The acting is one of the best ensembles you’ll find this year and Spielberg continues to rack up the amazing resume he’s worked so hard to create. While it might leave you with a bit of a longing for something more to be executed you will most likely be satisfied with what you get, and that’s a different perspective on how slavery ended in America. It was not the war on the battlefield it was the grimy war in the halls of congress. Final Grade: 90/100
I finally did it! I know have 1,000+ subscribers on youtube. It was a long journey with many ups and downs and failed experiments. (Anybody remember when I did stand-up to a laugh track and fake applause?) But in the end I think I hit my groove and eventually reached the milestone of 1,000 subscribers. Something I’m very happy and proud of. To celebrate this accomplishment I’ve compiled a list of my top 5 favorite vlogs and sketches for a combined top 10 list of my personal favorite videos on my youtube channel Iconmatthew1 (click it if you haven’t been.)
Now to say that everything is all rosy would be a lie. I still want to become a youtube partner and to do that I need to be able to guarantee 1,000 views per video. I roughly average about 500 views per video I make so I’ll probably need another thousand or so to become a youtube partner. Which is fine, the quest goes on and honestly its just fun making videos regardless. So without further ado here are my top 5 vlogs and sketches from my YouTube channel:
Top 5 Vlogs
Re: Reelz Generation – This is actually the first ever episode of “The DreadHead Chronicles” which at that point was an unnamed show. I never really thought I’d be a guy who was going to make tons and tons of videos on youtube. Up until this point I had only posted one video and that was “Chess by Mail”. I had created my youtube channel purely to post the videos I worked on, but after this video I was hooked. The Reelz Generation WAS a segment aired on the Reelz Channel Show “Dailies” then hosted by Mike Richards. I made this rant and actually a few weeks later Reelz Generation was cut from the program. I’m not sure if my vlog had anything to do with it, but I’d like to think it did. Sorry to those kids who I potentially helped cut off of television but if there is one thing I hate its Movie Snobs!
“The Dark Knight” Movie Review – This was my first ever movie review and it was for Christopher Nolan’s epic “The Dark Knight.” At this time I didnt do DreadHead Rankings I just more discussed the movie. (If I redid the review today I would give it a 96/100) Still this video caught on fire and made me realize doing movie reviews was a consistent and solid way to get views and subscribers while I still got to talk about something I cared about. Before then I had learned the hard way that discussing politics can lead to losing a lot of subscribers. (A video I made on Sarah Palin where actually I wasn’t very critical of her lost me 35 subscribers. I guess even the GOP love DreadHeads.) I should also note in this video I mention that if “The Dark Knight” wasn’t nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars I would riot….
Re: Bathroom How to Keep Your Hands Clean – Done as an indirect video response to Spricket24 in this video I explore the remnants of my mild OCD and my still rampant germophobia. There isn’t much more to say about this video except that thanks to piggybacking off of Spricket this video has nearly 3,000 views which is well above average for me. Its just one of my favorites.
Hayden Panettiere Hot Lesbian Scene? – I’m guessing the words “hot and lesbian” got me the traffic on this video. It is by far the most watched video on my channel with about 24,000 views. I still to this day will get lingering comments on it, and it had new life when NBC’s “Heroes” was canceled. Something I had predicted in previous vlogs would happen. I wish I could make more videos with cheap title hooks to trap people into watching the videos. But that’d be too easy, I’m not sxephil. (No hate)
My Single Experience – Made as a chain video where youtubers were asked to share their single experience this video still gets me comments and private messages. As does my interracial video series (which will not make the list sorry folks). People really like this video and it is one of my most vulnerable videos in any format. I’ve had a youth pastor ask me to use this at a youth retreat and get comments from women saying they wish more men were like me. (Let’s not kid ourselves though, women go for the bad boys 9/10 times.) Still it was a very personal video for me and this list would not be complete without it.
Honorable Mention: Shake Dem Locks – I know I’m cheating posting an honorable mention but I have to post this. This video was some of the most fun I had making a vlog and it got me possibly the most subscribers per view out of all my videos. So please watch and enjoy me shaking my locks and dancing to no music.
Top 5 Sketches
Chess by Mail – This could possibly be my favorite video on my youtube channel period. It was one of the first big sketches I made. It was shown at the Corral Show 2007 and has been nominated for a few awards. Originally a 8 minute video it was edited down for Corral Show use. Somewhere buried in my basement is the original and not as funny uncut version. Which includes my character passing up big universities like Duke to pursue his new found passion. It is also inexplicably the only video I’ve made that features my dog or my dad.
The Dark Knight Get Snubbed Time to Riot! – After promising to riot if “The Dark Knight” didnt get nominated for Best Picture I made good on it and in this vlog/sketch hybrid I go on a rant, riot on the streets of Pepperdine University and then cry in the shower. It may be the longest video to get 1,000+ views and it is obviously one of my favorites. And a video that has been referenced many times by myself and even other youtube users. I also gained a lot of female subscribers after posting it.
Hard Plastic – My most award winning video to date. “Hard Plastic” was created by me and my film buds for a class project my sophomore year of high school. It took us 2 months to create due to only working on it during class hours but in the end it was worth it as we have won; sound, editing and writing awards. At one point we were working on a sequel but to this day no further plans on that endeavor. Hopefully one day we will continue the saga of Joe Steel.
Kyle Watches Roots – One of the first sketches I made for “The Randumb Show” “Kyle Watches Roots” for me was just a lot of fun. Actually inspired by a joke that occurred after the premiere party for “The Randumb Show” from both Jeff Thompson and Loveness I created a sheltered white man who never even knew slavery existed. A favorite among my family members here is part one of the 3 part series. all 3 parts can be found on my channel.
Hip-Hop Babysitter – Actually done at the last minute with only 5 takes “Hip-Hop Babysitter” may be one of the best sketch videos I’ve ever created. It frustrates me that this video actually hasn’t done better as far as views go. In fact most of my sketches never do very well in terms of views. I only have one sketch above the 2,000 view mark and I was really hoping that this video could gain some momentum. But at the time of this post it has yet to cross the 200 view mark. Maybe one day someone will discover this and it will somehow spread like wildfire but until then it’ll just be in my opinion a hidden gem.
Honorable Mention: Wayne Grogan’s Icon: There were so many other sketches I could have highlighted but I had to give a shout to Wayne Grogan in some format. I plan on making at least 2 more Grogan sketches before I graduate from Pepperdine possibly even 3 and I feel like “Icon” is the best format for the character. Bad clip followed by interview with Salum followed by bad clip followed by arrogance of Grogan showcased once again to the ever tormented Todd Salum. Also look for another appearance of “Owl Hunter” in 2010-11
There are of course a lot of great sketches I’ve left out and because I couldnt categorize them as either vlogs or sketches my profile video and “Let’s Make a Luther” were not on the list either. I’ll be sure to post those later. Looking back at my youtube career thus far I realize that there has been a progression in my style both with vlogs and with sketches. So hopefully in the near future I’ll have 2,000 subscribers and hopefully I can get the next 1,000 much faster than it took me to get the first.
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