Friday Quote: Mean Girls

"Why should Caesar just get to stomp around like a giant while the rest of us try not to get smushed under his big feet? Brutus is just as cute as Caesar, right? Brutus is just as smart as Caesar, people totally like Brutus just as much as they like Caesar, and when did it become okay for one person to be the boss of everybody because that's not what Rome is about! We should totally just STAB CAESAR!"

Mean Girls (2004)

Listening to: Jaws (1975)

I love the theme from Jaws. It's one of the first John Williams scores to become instantly iconic and recognizable (is there anyone who *doesn't* know this music?) and foreshadowed the great career ahead of this amazing composer. His scores helped elevate films to greatness. In Jaws, just about everything went wrong. The shark was originally supposed to make multiple appearances in the film, but it kept malfunctioning. They had to go with the mere suggestion of the shark's presence, and that made the film so much better. All you need is a slight ripple in the water, or a POV shot underwater, combined with that music, and the imagination runs wild. Those two notes are like a heartbeat. Your pulse. Blood in the water. And the shark is coming. Not since those shrieking violins during the shower scene in Psycho has a relatively simple theme evoked such terror.

Take a listen...it never fails to give me goosebumps!

 
Maybe you want to rethink that trip to the beach this weekend...?

All The President's Men (1976)

Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein (Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman) doggedly pursue the most important news story of the 1970's - the Watergate break-in.

*      *      *

Since the early 1900's, filmmakers have been employing various techniques to better place audiences into the heads of their characters. Filmmaker Robert Montgomery went so far as to shoot the entire 1947 film Lady In The Lake through the "eyes" of his main character. In the modern era, Darren Aronofsky has implemented a whole battery of tricks in order to enhance narrative subjectivity in films like Pi and Requiem For A Dream. But does it really have to be that hard?

If you are at all familiar with American History, then you know how All The President's Men is going to end. Like Woodward and Bernstein, you know who the guilty parties are. It's just a matter of getting enough sources to back you up. As they drive all around town, knocking on door after door, you are right there with them. You're tired. You're worn out. You desperately want this next interview to be "the one". Even without the immense visual skill of director Alan J. Pakula and cinematographer Gordon Willis, this would have been riveting stuff. I guess that's why they gave William Goldman that Oscar...

Before Midnight (2013)

After finally seeing the first two "Before" films several months ago, I was eagerly anticipating the third film probably more than any other film this year. Could lightning really strike a third time? Could this film be as good as the first two? Thankfully I was not disappointed.

It's a big undertaking to revisit the same characters with nine years in between each time. It's amazing that none of the chemistry (as actors) is lost. And these characters are so relatable. Sure, maybe we don't all sit around discussing the human condition, but man, those fights feel real. Just about anybody in a long term relationship has heard those words before, felt those emotions. I couldn't believe how familiar it all was. Maybe I'm just speaking for myself. At any rate, it was great to see these characters again. They're still themselves, but their lives get more complicated with each film. It's no longer these two characters in an isolated universe. They have families and friends and they have to weather through the complications. Things feel different, but then they have a long walk-and-talk, and there they are again.

If you're a fan of the first two, I don't need to recommend the third because you're probably going to see it anyway. If you haven't seen them, get to it! This is what magic looks like.

Double-Bill: New Wave Sci-Fi

Alphaville and Fahrenheit 451

The Last Picture Show (1971)

A group of teenagers come of age in a small Texas town and learn a lot of hard truths.

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Up until the late 1960's, American Cinema was firmly under the thumb of some rather rigid and naive censorship laws. You couldn't use dirty words, you couldn't show graphic violence and of course nudity was a major no-no. As a result, films of the time were not a very accurate representation for how people were really living. Bathrooms in films didn't even have toilets because obviously people don't urinate or defecate. It was a fantasy world that allowed people to pretend that they were better and more moral than they really were. It has also allowed people to conveniently miss-remember the past as, "the good old days" no matter how paranoid and oppressive they really were. Made three years after the end of the production code, The Last Picture Show serves as a sort of antidote to that fantasy world by employing the style of Classical Hollywood Cinema to tell a story set in a real past populated by real humans. It lulls you in with the black and white photography, small town setting and all those fine character actors, only to ambush you with dirty words and pubic hair. And that's the kind of sneak attack I can get behind!

Gift Idea: 100 Ideas That Changed Film

I love early birthday presents, don't you? Craig gave me this book last weekend and it's a good read! The book takes you through the history of cinema one idea at a time, and it's amazing to go through and realize how much went into creating the movies that we know and love today. It has lots of pictures, concise text, and it serves as a good introduction to film history for those not in the know, and a good refresher to those of us who already have a pretty firm idea of these concepts. 

Definitely worth a look! Leave this one on the coffee table to entice curious visitors and create film fanatics out of them!

Friday Quote: Star Trek Into Darkness

"There will always be those who mean to do us harm. To stop them, we risk awakening the same evil within ourselves. Our first instinct is to seek revenge when those we love are taken from us. But that's not who we are..."

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

Alphaville (1965)

Detective Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) is sent to the distant space city of Alphaville where he must find a missing person and free the city from its tyrannical ruler.

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In my opinion, the undercurrent of Jean-Luc Godard's first fifteen features (produced within the span of a mere seven year) was the battle between the head and the heart. In the beginning, Godard still held strong ties to the traditional Hollywood cinema he had grown up on and devoured via the Cinémathèque Française. Sure there were lots of highfalutin references to philosophers and poets, but it was still possible for a mainstream audience to get invested in the characters and follow the plot-line. But as his marriage to actress Anna Karina fell apart and the politics of the 60s grew increasingly more radical, the balance started to shift in the opposite direction. By the time he made Weekend in 1967, his films had become little more than primary-colored polemics spoken directly at the viewer.

What makes this dramatic aesthetic turn all the more interesting/depressing is Godard's 9th feature Alphaville. Shot in black and white, on contemporary locations and using Bradbury, Vonnegut, Matheson-esque sci-fi as a model, this film comes down squarely on the side of emotion both stylistically and narratively. So much so in fact, that one would assume this film to be a turning point and signifier of the direction his career was to take from then on. The perfect balance between head and heart. Yet in his very next film Pierrot Le Fou, you can already start to see the balance tipping in the opposite direction as the war in Vietnam begins to weigh heavily upon the proceedings.

Oh well. At least he was able to give us this masterpiece and a few other classics before descending permanently down the rabbit hole into darkness. Le sigh.

Disney Tarts

Okay, I'll just say right off the bat that this post is kinda anti-feminist...maybe...? Perhaps I'll follow it up with an asskicking Disney girls post to even things out, but this one is dedicated to all the shameless flirts in our beloved childhood films. These girls are obviously looking to get some. You know who I mean! Let's look at some of my favorites...

Burlesque Mouse, The Great Mouse Detective

Okay, so she's technically only working, but she's also technically a stripper, right? In a Disney movie?? Maybe not a stripper, but she's definitely removing clothes on a stage in front of men. She's got a little garter and everything! Get it, girl!

Double-Bill: Secretly German Kid Flicks

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory and The Neverending Story

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

A chronicle of the last days in the life of Twin Peaks golden girl Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) before her brutal murder.

*      *      *

As much as I love a good, satisfying piece of art that is both beautiful and thoughtful, there's another part of me that really appreciates/respects when an artist chooses to be willfully different or provocative. Of course "Transformer" is my favorite Lou Reed album, but a close second is the hour of guitar-feedback that is "Metal Machine Music". This is also why I will always stand by Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot remake of Psycho as the perfect follow-up to Good Will Hunting. I respect an artist who is able to seize a moment and deliver something absolutely confounding.  This is why I love Fire Walk With Me.

After two seasons of TV-safe surreality, David Lynch decided to jettison everything that attracted middle-America (the Log Lady, Special Agent Dale Cooper, humor, etc) in favor of some truly twisted goings-on. It's the same impulse that lead Vladimir Nabokov to make his Lolita screenplay so different from the novel he'd written. Why tell the same story again in the exact same way? Why not try something a little different? This film literally opens with a television-set getting bashed in with a baseball bat and a woman screaming because she is likely next. How's that for a statement of intent? And by choosing to focus the film on the last week of Laura Palmer's life, Lynch is literally rubbing our face in the fact that at the heart of the the funny little show we were watching each week, was a dead girl who had been the victim of unspeakable abuse. Surely not something you want to watch often, but absolutely powerful cinema.

Friday Quote: Romy and Michele's High School Reunion

"What the hell is your problem, Christie? Why the hell are you always such a nasty bitch? I mean, okay, so Michele and I did make up some stupid lie. We only did it because we wanted you to treat us like human beings. But you know what I realized? I don't care if you like us, 'cause we don't like you. You're a bad person with an ugly heart, and we don't give a flying fuck what you think!"

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997)

Fargo (1996)

A car salesman (William H. Macy) who is strapped for cash hires two thugs (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap  his wife so that his wealthy father-in-law will shell out a nice ransom. Things get complicated from there...

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Though no real plot spoilers are contained within the following paragraph, reading said paragraph prior to seeing Fargo is likely to drastically alter the way in which you approach the film. Unless of course you don't care about that...

Like many people, I took the text at the opening of Fargo at face value. I watched it believing 100% that I was watching a, "true story" - wood-chipper and all. It wasn't until years later that I learned the truth. While elements and situations were taken from various "real stories", the characters and events depicted in Fargo are completely fictitious. A small part of me wishes that I could go back to square one and re-see this film for the fist time either knowing it to be fake or completely blind and assuming it to be fake. Would I respond to it differently? Does being told something is "true" make me (or anyone) more willing to accept the odd or unusual? And even more interesting: How would I react if I was then told that what I thought to be a fictional film, was really a true story? While I can theorize how I might react in these hypothetical situations, I can never really know the truth. Try as I might, it's impossible to ever re-see a film for the first time. You can't go home again. Once you've gone through that looking glass, there is no going back, etc. In the end I'm glad I saw the film the way I did because I find it to be brilliant. Perhaps if I had come to it another way I would have hated it. Who knows?

Did any readers out there get to experience this film in a way different from me? I'd love to hear about it in the comments section.

1920s Fever!

Are you, like the rest of the country, going through a Gatsby period? Does the thought of bobbed hair, bee-stung lips, pearls, and moonshine fill you with joy? Do you want more, more, more?? You could always watch some movies made in the 20s...anything with Clara Bow or Louise Brooks, for example. But if you want a sampling of more recent films set in the 1920s, look no further! There are a lot of fun ones out there!

The Cat's Meow (2001)

Partying, scandal, and murder on William Randolph Hearst's yacht, starring Kirsten Dunst as Marion Davies.

The Boy Friend (1971)

A stage director's assistant (Twiggy) must go on stage to understudy for the lead in an amateur stage production and impress a Hollywood director.

Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994)

The story of writer/critic Dorothy Parker and the Algonquin Round Table, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Midnight in Paris (2011)

A writer (Owen Wilson) finds himself magically transported to 1920s Paris, where he meets legends such as F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dali.

Chicago (2002)

Imprisoned for murder, Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) fight to keep their names in the paper and their necks out of the noose.

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Movie star Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) has trouble adjusting to the new developments in sound in the late 1920s.

Any other recommendations? Please share in a comment!

Burn After Reading (2008)

After stumbling upon what they believe to be secret "CIA shit", two vapid gym employees (Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt) set in motion a chain of events that is guaranteed not to end well for anyone.

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Many reviews of this film discuss how the Coen Brothers make two types of films. There are the serious ones like Blood Simple, Fargo and No Country For Old Men and then there are the wild and crazy cartoon ones like Raising Arizona, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Hudsucker Proxy.  Across the board critics seem intent to place this film in the latter category. I think it’s a bit more complex than that.

While the two types of Coen Films share a lot in common, there is always one element that distinguishes one from the other, and that element is menace. In The Big Lebowski nobody is afraid of the nihilists. “No Donny, these men are nihilists, there’s nothing to be afraid of.” On the flip side we have moments like the one in  Miller’s Crossing where John Turturro’s character Bernie Bernbaum pleads for his life in the woods. “Look in your heart!” 

This film is neither fish nor fowl. Just as Washington DC is a weird merger of urban city and national capital, Burn After Reading is a weird merger of the two Coen worlds. This film is a beast all its own and as a result, all bets are off and nobody is safe. Characters once thought of as buffoonish can suddenly become driven killing machines and cartoonish characters can die grisly deaths. Are the Coens' making a statement about the increasingly violent and chaotic world we inhabit? Perhaps. Will this movie leave a fair amount of people angry? Could. Is it funny as hell and worth you time? You bet your ass!

Double-Bill: New York In Heat

Do The Right Thing and Summer Of Sam

Friday Quote: The Great Gatsby

"He gives large parties and I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy."

The Great Gatsby (2013)

Summer Of Sam (1999)

Tensions build across New York in the Summer of '77. It's hot, there's a power-outage, disco is king, punk has just been born and a serial killer is stalking the streets.

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Auteurist critics love to look for recurring themes in a director's work. If you watch a lot of Hitchcock films you will find a lot of overbearing mothers and wrongly accused men, early Scorsese films feature a lot of men that are frightened by/can't deal with female sexuality and of course all Coen Brothers films exemplify their "much ado about nothing" worldview. In this way, a career is really one long film where particular philosophies and obsessions are continually addressed in (hopefully) different ways, from (hopefully) different angles and with (hopefully) varying emphasis. 

For example: In Do The Right Thing, Spike Lee chose to explore how warm weather was capable of exacerbating tensions and prejudices on one particular Brooklyn block on the hottest day of the year. Ten years later with Summer of Sam, Spike chose to examine this same phenomenon but from the perspective of an entire neighborhood (and city by extension) over the course of a whole summer. Though similar in some ways, the cinematography used to visually express the heat is different. Variations on a theme as they say. Summer of Sam is also notable for being a major work in Lee's continued anthropological examination of Italian-Americans that began with Do The Right Thing and Jungle Fever.

I'll take that over Michael Bay's recurring themes of hot women and loud noises any day of the week.

Iron Man 3 (2013)

Soooo, judging by the box office numbers, everybody saw Iron Man 3 last weekend, right? What a fun movie! I don't read the comics and I only saw the previous Iron Man movies once each, so I was coming into it ready for anything. I wasn't disappointed!

First of all, it was so much nicer actually seeing Robert Downey Jr. and not just hearing his voice coming out of the Iron Man suit. And secondly, Shane Black is such a good fit for Iron Man that it's not even funny. This movie reminded me a lot of the awesome-yet-underrated Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It's got razor sharp writing, funny henchmen, it's set at Christmas, it has industry jokes, and it's an all-around winner. Oh yeah, and RDJ is in both too, obvs.

I also have to give props to the cast. Rebecca Hall *coughgirlcrushcough*, Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce, and Ty Simpkins in particular all did a great job. And of course Robert Downey Jr. was really given a chance to shine.

I'm so glad these films aren't strictly catering to the comic book crowd and are accessible to everyone in the audience. In this film I didn't feel lost or like I should've rewatched the previous films to know what was going on. The film certainly references the previous Iron Man films and The Avengers, but it stands pretty well on its own. At least, most people should have known what was going on (I'm looking at you, girl who asked her boyfriend seven hundred questions in the middle of the movie!). At any rate, this is not to be missed, if only so you're not the ONLY person who didn't see it (says the girl who refuses to see Avatar). And enjoy!

Pleading – The “Slain At Lover’s Lane” Campaign

We don't normally do this type of thing with the blog, but since Colin asked so nicely...

Over the years, I have been ever so fortunate as to meet and keep an eclectic group of very creative friends. I know actors, musicians, directors, artists, bloggers, dancers, writers and so many more. Each of these unique individuals has produced equally unique pieces of art. Right now my friend Matt Kollar, who composed the score for Bobcat Goldthwait’s film God Bless America (2011), is trying to make a short horror film...but he needs your help.  We are lucky to live in an age where artists no longer need to seek out studios or other mainstream forces. Thanks to the ever-widening reach of the Internet and social media, independent artists such as Matt can see their unique visions become a reality.

Slain At Lover’s Lane is more than a horror film—it is a revenge story, an origin story (akin to those of most super-hero flicks), and a wonderful homage to some classic horror films, most notably the iconic Vincent Price film The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971). I’ve known Matt and many involved in this production for quite some time, and if one thing can be said about them it’s that they are determined...and damn talented. Okay, so that’s two things. Matt and his Space Barbarians Production Company have very little time left to try to meet their target goal for this project. As a writer and actor for Space Barbarian Productions, I am imploring you all, horror fans or not, to check out their Indiegogo campaign page and donate a little something to help out.

I believe in this film. I believe in Matt Kollar’s vision. I believe in the generosity of crowd-funding. Similar to Kickstarter, donors will be rewarded with prizes ranging from specially designed t-shirts, to DVDs and Blu-rays of the finished product, to even receiving producer credit. I thank you all for taking the time today to read this little plea and for following the bouncing link to join the cause. With your help, Slain At Lover’s Lane can become a reality. Thank you, and keep watching the screens.

-Colin

(the Devourer of Worlds)

Double-Bill: POWs

Stalag 17 and The Great Escape

Do The Right Thing (1989)

Racial tensions simmer on the hottest day in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn.

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First films are easy. Sure you have to get someone to pay for it and yes the learning curve is steep, but there is also the added benefit of the fact that your whole life has been building up to this moment.  Every second of your existence has been preparation and you pour it all out on the screen.The real challenge is the second film, and the third film, and the fourth film, etc. Did you waste it all on that first film? Do you have anything else to say? Or can you at least address the issues of your previous film in a different way? Perhaps with a different style? Audiences crave fresh ideas!

Luckily for the world of film, Spike Lee never runs out of ideas. Visual ideas, musical ideas, intellectual ideas. Even the worst Spike Lee Joint will leave you with a lot to talk about afterwards. It's insane that he was able to produce a film as bold and complex as Do The Right Thing on only his third outing as director. Some filmmakers can go a whole career without ever producing something so perfect. It's even more insane that The Academy chose to give Best Picture to Driving Miss Daisy! And that's the double truth, Ruth!

Friday Quote: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

"I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

A Movie Date to Remember

'Becca'lise & Craig, 2006

7 years ago today I got ready to go see a screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail in Costa Mesa.  I guess it was a date.  I had sent the guy in question a Myspace message along the lines of: "Hey, are you free this Wednesday and if so are you a Monty Python fan and if so would you be interested in seeing Monty Python and the Holy Grail with me and if not well screw you." So classy! He agreed.

It wasn't our first movie together. About a week before that we saw The Notorious Bettie Page...it was the first time we ever hung out. Singing along to "Paper Moon" in the theatre, I had a feeling we'd get along pretty well. Shortly after that first night, he had come over to watch The 40 Year Old Virgin. We didn't really "watch" that one, if you know what I mean. And here I was asking him to another movie, a little nervous like I thought he'd say no or something. I really liked this guy.

Monty Python was great, the audience was enthusiastic, and the place roared with laughter. After the movie he bought us a slice of cheesecake to share, we talked about life, and I asked The Question: 

"So...where is this going?"

That question kicked off a truly cinematic life together; a boy and a girl in love with each other and with the movies, a life filled with dates and discussions (and arguments about What To Watch). They say love is not just looking at each other but looking together in the same direction. With us, that direction happens to be towards a movie screen.

Happy "Date-A-Versary," love.

Dredd 3D (2012)

In a violent, futuristic city where the police have the authority to act as judge, jury and executioner, a cop (Karl Urban) teams with a trainee (Olivia Thurlby) to take down a gang that deals the reality-altering drug, SLO-MO.

*      *      *

Let me state up front that I've never read a single issue of 2000 AD. Though I grew up a comics kid, my knowledge of Judge Dredd prior to this film, was limited to a TV commercial I saw when I was 11 where Sylvester Stallone exclaimed that he was, "THE LAW!"...and then the, "making copies" guy mocked him. Even at such a young impressionable age, that commercial did nothing for me. But then again, I find machismo off-putting. Those gritted teeth and bulging biceps never did anything for me. I always favored Jim Lee and J. Scott Campbell over Rob Liefeld. So when I first heard of this latest cinematic incarnation of Dredd, my interest was less than zero. But then I took note of the people who brought this film to life: Alex Garland, Andrew Macdonald and Anthony Dod Mantle. The Danny Boyle Gang! Making a 3D film about a fascist super-cop? As intrigued as I was, it still wasn't enough to get me to actually go to a theater. Apparently the rest of America felt the same, which is a shame because THIS FILM IS FUCKING AWESOME!!! Do yourself a favor and either Netflix or Redbox this bad-boy so that you can get in near the ground-floor of a film cult while it's still in its infancy!