Welcome! Let's Start with the Oscars and 2007's Top Films

Kicking off a blog can be a lonely experience. There aren't any readers, yet, because the blog's new. You feel like you're writing to yourself (the adage about unheard trees falling in forests making no sound might as well apply to unread blogs in cyberspace being invisible).

So, I decided to recruit a photo of me having a good time in one of loudest places in the world (both aurally and visually), Times Square, with a few of my national fellowship buddies to keep me company. I'm the one on the far right with his arms folded and pretending it's not cold--it was about 55 when we took this picture a year ago last October and the wind was howling. But, damn, if we don't look like we're having fun!

From the title you probably surmised this blog will be an ongoing narrative about film, and you're right. But it's also about any, of what I term, "narratives," whether they be films, novels, short stories, essays, TV programs, stage productions, or any other media forms communicated through the telling of stories. "Narratives on Narratives" sounds a bit redundant to be catchy. I chose "film" instead because my favorite narrative form is films.

And, in fact, I do a lot of film writing, reviewing, features, and reporting for KFAI Radio (90.3 FM, Minneapolis and 106.7 FM, St. Paul) and elsewhere, some of which you can access on my film and creative writing website, http://www.paulrevered.com/ (yes, I'm encouraging you to visit) and the now dormant weekly tabloid pub, Pulse of the Twin Cities.

The 80th Annual Academy Awards

My topic for the day, other than kicking off the blog, is the Oscars and how surprised I am by the nominations for 2007 (broadcast later this month). In most years, I disagree mightily with a number of choices (and never more so than with the multiple Oscar noms and Best Picture win by the overwrought, "Crash," in 2005) and not so mightily with about a third of the others.

But this year, I have no mighty grievances and much fewer minor ones (okay, I love Hal Holbrook, but how did he land a nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for only a few scenes of screen time in "Into the Wild"? Ditto Rubie Dee in "American Gangster"?). In fact, all five Best Picture nominees were quality films. Four of the five appear in my 2007 top-ten list and the other, "Atonement," was a good-enough, if not great, film.

I'm excited to see the Oscar broadcast and the winners, so long as the WGA and Hollywood can work out a temporary or permanent agreement to allow the broadcast to air in full form. I might actually be able to cheer this year.

Later blogs will have more on the Oscars and last year's top films and performances. But feel free to read a list of my top 10 films of 2007 (below) and/or the KFAI feature that accompanies it.

Top 10 List
1. No Country for Old Men
2. There Will Be Blood
3. Michael Clayton
4. Into the Wild
5. Before the Devil Knows Your Dead
6. Juno
7. Ratatouille
8. Lust, Caution
9. American Gangster
10. Zodiac