Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Thanksgiving Movies

Anyone who knows me knows how much I enjoy my seasonal movie watching. There's just something so nice about revisiting the same movies during certain times of year. While there may not be a ton of Thanksgiving themed movies , here are a few I enjoy and recommend.


The Ice Storm
Okay, this one is actually kind of depressing. Worth a watch for Christina Ricci's Thanksgiving prayer, though!

Best in Show
Everything Thanksgiving the National Dog Show airs after the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. I used to start watching the dog show, then realized I'd rather be watching Best in Show, so there you go. This movie is gold.


A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
I secretly want to host Thanksgiving one year and serve toast, popcorn, jellybeans, and pretzels. My family might kill me.


Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
John Candy is wonderful in this. Funny, moving, and seasonally perfect!

Hannah and Her Sisters
A story of a dysfunctional family sandwiched between two Thanksgivings. Woody Allen? Yes please!

Addams Family Values
Two words: Thanksgiving play. It's PERFECT. I have to watch this every year; it's hilarious!

Do you have any favorites?

Monday, November 25, 2013

Drug War (2013)


In China, the manufacture and distribution of drugs is a capital offense. When you're caught there are only two options, either you turn informant, or shoot your way out and pray for the best.

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I’ve never been able to understand the algebra of how/when a great film talent suddenly gets “discovered” by the larger film world. I mean I get it when a hot new director suddenly bursts onto the scene and grabs everyone’s attention with their first film, but what about when an older master suddenly gets his or her moment in the spotlight after years of churning out numerous high quality productions?

Among Hong Kong Cinema Cultists, Johnnie To has always been a revered name. Over the course of his thirty year career he has produced more than fifty films ranging from romantic comedies to triad shoot-em-ups. But it wasn’t until the mid-2000’s that his name started to gain any cache within the broader, world-wide film community. What changed? Certainly his cinema hasn’t changed. Maybe it has to do with the internet making it easier for people to discover exciting talents? Or maybe it’s just chance?

Whatever it is, I’m glad that Johnnie To is finally getting the attention he deserves. Though some of his films are more successful than others, they are all of a consistent high quality and most importantly, they always strive for something more than just cheap thrills. The final act of Drug War is absolutely brutal and leaves you with so many conflicted thoughts and emotions. As much as I enjoy the action cinema of someone like John McTiernan, Predator and Die Hard have never been able to elicit anything from me other than sheer joy. Of course there’s not thing wrong with that, but a cinephile cannot live on explosions alone.

Double-Bill: Citizen Soldiers

Stripes and Full Metal Jacket

Friday, November 22, 2013

Friday Quote: The Ice Storm


"Dear Lord, thank you for this Thanksgiving holiday. And for all the material possessions we have and enjoy. And for letting us white people kill all the Indians and steal their tribal lands. And stuff ourselves like pigs, even though children in Asia are being napalmed."

The Ice Storm (1997)

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Salute These Shorts

While I will agree with you that the "shorts" section of The Academy Awards' telecast can be pretty boring, some short films can be pretty awesome. The following is a list of Craig's 15 favorite short films. They span a wide range of genres, styles, countries and even mediums. They are also not in any particular order. Where possible I have included a link to somewhere to view each film online. What are some of your favorite short films? Let us know in the comments!

Scorpio Rising (dir. Kenneth Anger)

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

How To Marry a Millionaire (1953)


Schatze (Lauren Bacall), Pola (Marilyn Monroe), and Loco (Betty Grable) are three models on the prowl for millionaire husbands! They shack up together in a swank apartment in New York and get busy looking. Will they be able to meet the men of their financial dreams?

This film is pure fluff, but it's still fun. It opens with an orchestra playing "Street Scene" for no reason, so you already know it's going to be over the top and very, hmm, cinematic. The leads are all beautiful, the scenarios highly unlikely, and the costumes faaaabulous. Watch it to see William Powell being suave as always, Marilyn Monroe in glasses (and trip on her own feet without them), and Betty Grable dreaming of sandwiches! No, really. This is a fun little escape of a movie, and definitely worth checking out if you're into the glamour of the 50s, or a fan of any of these three lovely ladies. Just remember: wealthy men are never old!

Monday, November 18, 2013

Double-Bill: Things Fall Apart

Lost In La Mancha and Jodorowky's Dune

Hard Eight (1996)


A mysterious older man named Sydney (Philip Baker Hall) takes a young man (John C. Reilly) under his wing and helps him to get on his feet. Why is he doing this? You'll have to watch to find out.

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Stories don’t have endings. Fades to black, curtain calls and last pages may give us a sense of closure, but the story does not stop there. That’s just the moment where the author decided to stop following those particular characters. When Superman and Zod knock down a building, it is filled with people who have lives and families. Actions have consequences and the best films have consequences that continue to echo long after the screen has read, “The End”. Though not preceded by any particular film, Paul Thomas Anderson’s feature debut is a story about what happens after that final reel. It’s a sequel without a prequel.

While nowhere near as flashy as Anderson’s later films, Sydney (the director's preferred title) ably casts a spell on you with its floating camera and dreamlike score as it unravels its haunting yarn about guilt, family, secrets and the awful things one will do to keep those secrets. Things that cannot be simply erased by a cut to black. A cut to black merely sweeps bad things under the rug for a while where they can lie in wait. As many characters in one of Anderson’s later films state: "We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us."

Friday, November 15, 2013

Friday Quote: Before Midnight


"I am giving you my whole life ok? I got nothing larger to give, I'm not giving it to anybody else. If you're looking for permission to disqualify me, I'm not gonna give it to you. Ok? I love you. And I'm not in conflict about it. Okay?"

Before Midnight (2013)

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Henri Langlois: The Phantom Of The Cinematheque (2004)


A documentary about the most important film collector of all time - Henri Langlois.

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I know this might sound like sacrilege to documentary enthusiasts but: How has this doc not been adapted yet? The resultant film would surely win all of the Oscars. It's based on a true story, set in World War II, with Nazis, tensions and a happy ending. Extra bonus points for the fact that it glorifies the importance of the medium which it exists in. And while I'm sure George Clooney's upcoming Monuments Men is going to be a fine film, this story could totally beat the pants off of it! Henri Langlois single-handedly saved SO MANY FILMS from being destroyed by the Nazis! And then he inspired The French New Wave! And then filmmakers the world over rallied to his support after he was unceremoniously fired! They even shut down the Cannes Film Festival over this! Seriously, this film writes itself! You start near the end with the protests over his firing and then flash-back to the war, then come back to him being reinstated. Maybe even end with a little bit of documentary footage showing the Cinematheque as it still stands today for emphasis? Someone get me the number to the Mayor of Hollywood!

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Under the Mexican Sky: Gabriel Figueroa - Art and Film (at LACMA)


Live in or near Los Angeles? We recently caught an exhibit at LACMA that featured the work of Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa. He had quite the career with over 200 film credits, including such classics as The Night of the Iguana, The Exterminating Angel, Kelly's Heroes, and countless Mexican films. The exhibit has film posters, blown up stills, and clips of some of his work (added lots and lots of movies to my "To See" list!). His images are startling, moving, and unforgettable. If you are a film fan (obviously), a photography fan, a proud Mexican, or all three (right here!) I highly recommend you check out this exhibit.

More info HERE!


Monday, November 11, 2013

Double-Bill: Fight The Power!

This Is Not A Film and Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

12 Years A Slave (2013)

Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) lives comfortably with his family as a free man in upstate New York until one day he is abducted and sold into slavery.

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Though I have great admiration for both of Steve McQueen's previous films, neither quite works for me entirely. Hunger and Shame both feel like this odd collision between experimental art film and traditional narrative cinema where the static dialogue scenes stick out like sore thumbs among all the beautiful, free-flowing images that come before and after. I get that this is a great tool for making your audience really focus on the words that are being said, but in terms of pacing it brings everything to a grinding halt. Fortunately he did not employ this technique for 12 Years A Slave.

To watch this film is to watch a great artist finally hit his stride. Everything works. The images are unforgettable both in their beauty and their brutality, the performances are impeccable and despite the importance of the subject matter, it is never resorts to cheap sentimentality. Every moment is earned. Even the text at the end of the film packs a wallop.

Allegedly President Wilson once described The Birth Of A Nation as, "History written with lightning." Well 12 Years A Slave has it beat because it is history written with blood, sweat, tears AND lightning. Believe the hype.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Best Of The Millennium


In slightly over a century of existence, the cinema has already developed a rather rigid canon of classics. Whenever the American Film Institute or someone puts together their list of "The Greatest Films of All Time", it usually amounts to little more than a case of rounding up the usual suspects. Sure the order might change from time to time, but it's still the same movies. Back in 1962, Sight and Sound shook up the film world by placing 1960's L'Avventura second only to Citizen Kane on their once-a-decade poll. Last year when when their most recent poll was unveiled, only two films from the new millennium (In The Mood For Love and Mulholland Dr.) were able to even crack the top 50. We don't mean to demean the quality of the films commonly on these lists, but from the perspective of history this feels akin to making a list of the greatest paintings of all time where 98 of them are cave drawings and the Mona Lisa and Guernica get thrown in for good measure. How is a newer film ever supposed to get a fair shake when it has to go up against Battleship Potemkin and Tokyo Story every time out of the gate?

Don't worry. We aren't arguing that all of the accepted classics should be thrown out and abandoned. If you're a regular reader of this blog you know well how much we love classic film. What we are proposing is to just for a moment set aside the established canon so that we might see which films from the modern era have the potential to join that pantheon. In a mere 13 years the industry has changed radically: digital has moved from the arthouses to the multiplexes, 3D has given us new, immersive experiences and the web has allowed once-fringe voices to be heard by a worldwide audience. Even film financing and distributed have changed drastically. It's a whole new world, so why don't we try a whole new canon? Once again don't worry, the old one will still be there waiting for you.

If you're interested in participating in this little experiment, please reply to this post and tell us which ten modern films you think deserve to stand side by side with the old classics? You can also e-mail us or write to us on Facebook. The deadline to submit will be New Years Eve Saturday January 11th and the results will be announced early in 2014 Monday January 13th. Can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

The Breakfast Club (1985)


I remember watching The Breakfast Club a lot on TV when I was a kid. Yeah, it was heavily edited, and a bit of it went over my head, but I'll always remember how it made me feel. Growing up is sad and scary. Writer/director John Hughes had a gift for giving a voice to young people, and giving a face to that teenage anxiety so many of us have felt.  From afar these characters look like stereotypes ("a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal"), but when they open up to each other, they find they have more in common than they ever imagined. They're all afraid. They're unsure of themselves. They have no idea what they're doing. And these feelings were so familiar to me as a teenager and even still as an adult. Allison (Ally Sheedy) says in the film, "When you grow up, your heart dies." I think we could all use a reminder of how it feels to be young, wild, and scared. We don't have to be numb adults with dead hearts. The raw performances in this film, the silliness and the sadness, and that defiant fist-pump into the sky wake us up as adults, remind us that we are alive, and make this film definitely worth revisiting.

Monday, November 4, 2013

Double-Bill: Environmental Illness

Safe and Red Desert

Seduced and Abandoned (2013)


Every year around mid-April I start to get Cannes Fever. Though I’ve never been and probably will never get the chance to go, it’s still fun to follow the festival from trying to predict which films will screen all the way to the awards ceremony. While Venice, Berlin and Toronto are important festivals as well, Cannes is still “The Big One” and can significantly shape a cinephile’s viewing habits for the year. But let’s not forget that there is a flipside to that coin, and that Cannes is also a marketplace where some of the most crass and commercial films are bought and sold by people who only care about their bottom line. Alec Baldwin and James Toback’s decision to seize upon this duality as a microcosm for the current state of the industry is brilliant…and also heartbreaking.

The opening quote from Orson Welles says it all: "I look back on my life and its 95% running around trying to raise money to make movies and 5% actually making them.” No matter how great the artist, all must eventually beg, bow and compromise at the feet of those with the purse strings. Gotta have the right star, gotta set it in a place with great tax breaks, gotta make sure that it will not offend anyone. So many hoops to jump through. The fact that great film art continues to be produced in this day and age feels like a miracle. Ever watched a movie and wondered if something like it could get made today? Seduced and Abandoned answers that question definitively and with a resounding, "No!" Yet despite all of that, the real-deal filmmakers keep coming back for more. God bless the artists who continue to go through this increasingly futile dance so that we might have something beautiful, enlightening, and exciting to watch on that screen.