Cinemascope

What, we’re crude, noisy rude and have awful accents? Naaah. But this Borat-ish view of Israel made me laugh out-loud. Sacha Baron Cohen, flexing his Hebrew again, is the Israeli tour guide. All the Israeli and Jewish cliches are there - no, not camels again! Get over it (and hey, Lawrence of Arabia takes place in Jordan, our next door neighbor) -but it’s all very funny. This is the perfect episode to watch as Jews all over the world celebrate Passover tonight, and just before Easter:

A Spanish TV report exposes first images from Ari Folman’s “The Congress”, his half-and-half Live Action/Animation adaptation to Stanislaw Lem’s sci-fi novel. Robin Wright-Penn is playing herself, sort-of. And fans of “Waltz With Bashir” will recognize Boaz popping up in “Congress” as well. Folman presented a clip with several scenes from “The Congress” in a co-production forum for animated films in Belgium earlier this month. “The Congress” is still in production.

Here are some screen shots from the movie and the embedded video of the Spanish report:

When it comes to the Best Song category at the upcoming Oscars, general consensus is that “The Weary Kind”, from “Crazy Heart” (performed by Ryan Binghan, written by Bingham and T-Bone Burnett), will win the Oscar. And you know, I wouldn’t cross out Randy Newman’s “Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog”. Disney used to rule this category when hand-drawn animation was king, but Randy Newman seems to be the almost-constant-anti-winner. So, who will it be? Dixieland or country? “Crazy” or “Frog”? Listen to both of them:

“Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog.
Written by Randy Newman. Performed by Anika Noni Rose

“The Weary Kind” (Theme From “Crazy Heart”)
Performed by Ryan Bingham. Written by Bingham and T-Bone Burnett.