Patrick Cambre '12 talks about why L.A. should get the love it deserves

The best movies of 2011, as chosen by the Sun Arts staff. 

Harvey Weinstein, a titan of the silver screen, the man behind many of the greatest films of the last decade, convincingly stated, “Hollywood has the best moral compass.” Come again, Harvey? Celebrities might protest the Iraq war with their Oscar speeches; they might dedicate time to charitable causes and maybe every single member of the Screen Actors Guild drives a Prius and eats organically grown legumes for lunch, but that definitely does not make Mel Gibson my Mother Theresa. Case and point: Hollywood’s reaction to the arrest of longtime fugitive and film director Roman Polanski.

Tony Phelan wanted to be a professional actor. Unfortunately, one of his acting professors at Yale, where he was getting his undergraduate degree in theater and medieval history, told him, “You will never be an actor. You’re just not good enough.”

It is probably safe to say that at Cornell, a majority of the study body has probably felt as though they weren’t good enough. But how many students have actually had a professor say it to their faces — maybe I’ve just had nice professors — but I’m guessing not that many. It’s gotta hurt. Thankfully, all was not lost for Phelan. His professor suggested the possibility of directing, and then he landed the job as the co-executive producer, writer and director of the hit television show Grey’s Anatomy.

Hello Cornellians — the few of you who are still lingering in the corners of campus, clutching Daily Suns and awaiting the burning of the Dragon while all your friends fly for warmer climes. I hope you are doing well. And that you are being artsy. I had quite an artsy week this week. First, I got all my music back! External hard drive: working. 70 gigs: accessible once more. Then on Sunday, I spent two hours wandering the Johnson Museum, from where I headed directly to Barnes Hall for the iO String Quartet concert (the seven or eight of you who regularly read the Arts section may have seen my review on Monday — the concert was amazing!). I also saw one of the best worst movies I’ve ever seen. And I got into some awesome new music.

I’m going through a TV crisis right now and I blame it all on Scrubs. Well, not really just on Scrubs, but on the prevailing belief that the longer a television show runs, the better the show. Think about it. Friends, for instance, will be forever known as the sitcom that ran for ten seasons. But really, Friends could have ended after its eighth season. It would have been remembered just as fondly, perhaps more so.

“He’s just not that into you.” For desperate romantics clinging on to a relationship that’s lost all hope, it’s a painful line to hear. The movie He’s Just Not That Into You attempts to instill this very idea into your head by showing the relationship tribulations of various 30-year-olds. Based on Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo's best-selling relationship advice book, the movie focuses on the large gender difference in perspectives regarding burgeoning relationships. Separate “chapters” of the movie focus on potential problematic issues that can arise, leaving viewers hopeful that they will acquire the goldmine of relationship advice by the end of the film.

When we think of vampires, a negative image usually tends to form in our minds. We imagine creatures of the night, surviving off the blood of humans and killing indiscriminately, without emotion. In the past year, with the release of Twilight, many (mostly adolescent girls and young women) saw this stereotype change. In fact, it seemed that vampires, non mortal creatures, could actually have the potential to garner characteristics that only humans are known to possess. These included empathy, compassion, and in the case of Edward Cullen from Twilight, romantic love.

Boy, are they remaking every horror movie classic or what? First The Hills Have Eyes and its pointless sequel, then Rob Zombie’s (re)take on Halloween, then Prom Night (ugh), and Black Christmas (blarf) and now the unholy goalie Jason Voorhees gets the treatment. What next? Elm Street again? Last House on the Left? Wait they are remaking those? Really? Why? Why?!

WESTPORT, Conn. (AP) — Paul Newman, the Oscar-winning superstar who personified cool as the anti-hero of such films as "Hud," ''Cool Hand Luke" and "The Color of Money" — followed by a second act as an activist, race car driver and popcorn impresario — has died. He was 83.

Newman died Friday at his farmhouse near Westport following a long battle with cancer, publicist Jeff Sanderson said. He was surrounded by his family and close friends.