Who Can Explain This?

I should probably leave this alone - EW's 25 Greatest Active Film Directors. (The Obenson Report, for instance, provides a handy list version; Anne Thompson annotates, for some reason.)

I can't exactly say I'm offended by their choices. It's different. It's like - they are using words I recognize ("greatest" - "film" - "directors"), but they are using them in ways that are completely alien to me. It's not even just that they're just talking about Hollywood, or American, or whatever it is - because they have Almodovar on the list (and Del Toro, and Ang Lee, who split time...) So foreign languages are allowed... so - what? I can't imagine any definition of greatest, film, or director that involves Zach Snyder in any capacity. Judd Apatow? he's a director? Even "active" is a bit dubious when you look for James Cameron's last film... All of them ahead of Clint Eastwood! who at least made the list, which gives him the ups on David Lynch or Woody Allen or Spike Lee. I'm not going to pretend they're supposed to care about Godard or Wong Kar-wei or Manoel de Oliveira, aged 100 and going strong, or even Werner Herzog, who has became a fairly mainstream documentary director these days...

So I don't know. I can't do anything with it but marvel. I'd have to add that I don't think I could muster a very good version of the list for myself - because it's harder than it looks to find ways to combine "greatest" and "active" in a meaningful way - how do you balance lifetime achievement, recent achievement, etc? Not to mention, how do you balance influence, maybe success, with the quality of the films (over the career or now.) All very difficult, unless you pile on the qualifiers....

The list, in case anyone wonders:

1. Steven Spielberg
2. Peter Jackson
3. Martin Scorsese
4. Christopher Nolan
5. Steven Soderbergh
6. Ridley Scott
7. Quentin Tarantino
8. Michael Mann
9. James Cameron
10. Joel and Ethan Coen
11. Guillermo del Toro
12. David Fincher
13. Tim Burton
14. Judd Apatow
15. Sam Raimi
16. Zack Snyder
17. Darren Aronofsky
18. Danny Boyle
19. Clint Eastwood
20. Ron Howard
21. Ang Lee
22. Paul Thomas Anderson
23. Paul Greengrass
24. Pedro Almodóvar
25. Jon Favreau

Top 10 of 2008 and Assorted Miscellany

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's the top 10 list that you may have been interested in a month ago. I like to take my time, but I've either seen or waited too long to see all the films I wanted to last year, so let's do this thing.

As film years go, 2008 was, well, decent. Not bad, by any stretch, and with some interesting highs, just with some dry patches. It was, for whatever reason, a year when the blockbusters aimed for artistic glory and occasionally achieved it, but the holiday season was kind of anticlimactic and short on cheer. This was also a year in which we got two well-made dark comedies, which may tragically be a record. So here's how things shook out for me in the year of change, crisis, and I’ll try to think of something else starting with “C”:

1. WALL-E. Let’s stack this all up, shall we? Brilliant evocation of character through minimal dialogue and faces with limited expression, expert animation loaded with detail, a decidedly chipper take on dystopian sci-fi, an environmental message that isn’t the least bit judgemental or scolding, an affirmation of willingness to change, all topped with ultracute robots. Also, Fred Willard. We have a winner.

2. THE DARK KNIGHT. A well-oiled engine of a crime thriller with the framing of the superhero genre and the spectacle of an action movie, managing to be a great example of all three. Heath Ledger reinterprets the Joker as a ragged genius who won’t be happy until everyone is as savage and destructive as he is, creating one of the most weirdly compelling villains seen in a long while. The story moves in unpredictable ways and defies obvious structures, the characters are never sure of themselves, the visuals are pristine, and the action isn’t nearly as confusing as it’s been made out to be. A triumph.

3. SPEED RACER. Okay, show of hands, who anticipated this being half as good as it was? The Wachowskis take on a vintage Japanese cartoon known mostly for inspiring parodies on every animated show known to man, and create a visually dazzling and surprisingly heartfelt story of a family fighting the system. This is one of those fantasy films that wraps you in an inviting and tantalizing world which promises more awesome things than you can pick up at once, eschewing any kind of restraint in favor of ninja fighting and random appearances by Shaft. On top of that, it’s a nice reminder to modern filmmakers that it’s okay to have multiple colors on screen at one time.

4. MILK. The energy, the dedication, and the urgency of the Seventies pro-gay movement all course through this film, placing the viewer at the center of a civil rights struggle that’s rarely given its proper place in history. Sean Penn captures Harvey Milk’s charisma and political acumen, while a splendid supporting cast help bring his world to life. Not quite up to THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK, but another take on the material is welcome.

5. THE WRESTLER. This one has grown in my estimation since I first saw it, a sign of just how subtly effective the movie is. Mickey Rourke is a powerhouse, Marisa Tomei is beautifully conflicted, and the world of small ticket pro wrestling is rendered with brutal honesty and admiration. The more conventional parts of the story are made believable by Darren Aronofsky’s deliberate eschewing of obvious movie trickery and slow development of emotional intensity.

6. IN BRUGES. Part black comedy, part morality play, part throwback to Hieronymous Bosch; this unique crime picture defies categorization but never ceases to entertain. It’s got a story that’s better constructed than it looks, actors who are putting in more effort than they seem to, and characters who may or may not be as damned as they think they are. Moving and hilarious in equal parts.

7. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. The grimiest and most stylish of heartwarming indie crowd-pleasers; part of me wanted to declare the whole thing overrated and overhyped, but it’s simply too well-made to dismiss. The story may be simplistic, its portrayal of India inaccurate, and some of its elements underdeveloped, but it is the story being told and the filmmakers do a damn fine job telling it. And I really hope more films start doing closing dance numbers.

8. BURN AFTER READING. The Coens follow up Oscar-winning respectable bleakness with an almost deliberately offputting farce that’s just as nihilistic, but has the courtesy to have a sense of humor about it. Like FARGO it focuses on people’s ability to let short term compulsions and a lack of critical thinking foil their ambition and make things very messy very quickly. As comedy it’s an unusual taste, but I couldn’t but laugh.

9. PINEAPPLE EXPRESS. As overexploited as the “dumb white guys face the long-delayed onset of maturity” subgenre of comedy is becoming, I can’t help but appreciate the blending of this material with nostalgic callbacks to stoner comedies and 80s buddy pictures, complete with excessive gunplay and a theme song by Huey Lewis. The revelation that James Franco is a great comic performer helps catapult this onto higher ground, no pun intended.

10. TROPIC THUNDER. Feels weird to put these two movies right next to each other, but there you go. A fun satire of the Hollywood movie machine and the actors caught in its gears, not pointing in any one direction but still funny and possessed of a manic energy. Inspired and strangely uplifting.

Films I missed: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Waltz With Bashir, Doubt, Let The Right One In

Most Underrated Film of the Year: SPEED RACER. There’s really no contest here; the Wachowskis labored to bring us a bouquet of sheer Technicolor joy, and it was tossed to the ground because... I don’t know. The dialogue scenes are kind of longish. The editing style takes some getting used to. Um, it’s based on an old cartoon. In the end it amounts to looking at Michaelangelo’s David and bitching about imperfections in the marble. You’d expect either the critics or the public to miss the point but both at once requires some spectacular bad fortune.

Slight runner up though this one actually made some money and wasn’t slated that badly at first but Internet flaming reached really annoying proportions: INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. I realize that suspension of disbelief has its limits but if your major point of contention with this film is that silly and implausible things happen in it, I wonder what genre you thought this picture was. (Also: CGI is not your enemy.)

Saul Bass Honorary Award for Best Opening Credits Sequence: QUANTUM OF SOLACE. Thank God for the Bond series, otherwise I may not have bothered to give this out. (THE WRESTLER had a nice one too, though.)

Worst Title of the Year: NICK AND NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST. I know that was what the book was called, but seriously guys.

Performances that impressed me (a forever incomplete list):

Elissa Knight, WALL-E
Macintalk, WALL-E
Heath Ledger, THE DARK KNIGHT
Aaron Eckhart, THE DARK KNIGHT
Michael Caine, THE DARK KNIGHT
John Goodman, SPEED RACER
Dev Patel, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Anil Kapoor, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Sean Penn, MILK
Emile Hirsch, MILK
James Franco, MILK
James Franco, PINEAPPLE EXPRESS
Mickey Rourke, THE WRESTLER
Marissa Tomei, THE WRESTLER
Colin Farrell, IN BRUGES
Brendan Gleeson, IN BRUGES
Ralph Fiennes, IN BRUGES
Robert Downey, Jr., IRON MAN
Gwyneth Paltrow, IRON MAN
Jeff Bridges, IRON MAN (in a cave with a box of scraps)
Frances McDormand, BURN AFTER READING
John Malkovich, BURN AFTER READING
George Clooney, BURN AFTER READING
J. K. Simmons, BURN AFTER READING
Frank Langella, FROST/NIXON
Michael Sheen, FROST/NIXON
Tina Fey, BABY MAMA
Amy Poehler, BABY MAMA
Robert Downey, Jr., TROPIC THUNDER
Daniel Craig, QUANTUM OF SOLACE
Gemma Arterton, QUANTUM OF SOLACE

... “crashes!” That’s it!

What was I trying to do that for again?

Read More...

New Year's Resolutions, Only Two Weeks in

Back at the beginning of the year, Adam Ross at DVD Panache made up a meme - nine movie related resolutions for 2009. Ah yes. Our very own Moviezzz got tagged, and actually did it - which is certainly more than I can say about the last couple times I've been tagged for things. Meanwhile, Evan did his own resolution post - last week now... we're two weeks into the freaking year... I have stopped writing 2008 EVERY time I write the year...

Anyway: I am a resolution maker, of sorts - though most years it amounts to, spend less money, eat more greens, see more movies and post more often... no exceptions this year I guess. But - in the spirit of film, discussion, Making a Clean Start to the Year, and the End of the Decade (ooh! lists!), I shall now undertake this very meme for your reading and perhaps discussing pleasure!

Nine film (and blogging) resolutions:

1. As every year - aim to watch at least 250 movies. That's a good number.
2. Turn over a Netflix film every week. MOre if possible. This is a bad habit - letting them sit there for a month at a time... this would not be so bad except for the next resolution -
3. Watch the DVDs I buy. Just found a used copy of Centre Stage! Maggie Cheung! at her youthful finest! Will I ever watch it? will I at least attach a screen cap to this post?
4. Take a film class - I miss writing about films where there's something at stake - I need the discipline now and then. With luck, the discipline translates to more general writing - and more posting - with luck...
5. Speaking of which - post 3 times a week - make at least one of them substantive. This should be such an easy target - yet I go ages without posting anything worth the trouble. Alas! The brain is a muscle - if you do not use it, it becomes flabby and weak! etc.
6. Comment 3 times a week - or something like that. Enter conversations! post, comment, whatnot, here! and elsewhere! [I have not, contrary to appearances, resolved to use more exclamation points. There may be spiritual influences at work, however.]
7. Make things - films or videos maybe - whether this means vlogs or animations or home videos or swedes, make them, post them. Before the the Lawyers arrive en masse especially if there's sweding involved.
8. do Piper's dinner with X meme he tagged me with sometime back in the 90s, I think it was. In an ideal world, this would combine with #7. More likely, this will be part of my 46 resolutions for 2046 post....
9. Rather than another blogging resolution (which might get me to 46, before I'm done) - try this: go to an out of town film festival. NY - Toronto - something. Takes some planning, and some money, but - something like that. This or leave the country. For a while anyway. On principal.

I guess that's it. If anyone want to feel tagged - go for it! For Maggie's sake...

Holy Grail List

There's a meme going round - Joseph has done it, I just managed a post - and - well - tagged YOU! Us, Whatever. Basically, the idea is this: name 12 films you 1) have not seen; 2) are not available through Netflix.

A list of participants, so far, can be found here.

Anyway - my post is rather long and inefficient - here is the condensed version: 12 films.... heavy on the Japanophilia, but that shouldn't surprise anyone...

1. Anything (besides Yi Yi and Mahjong) by Edward Yang - soon to be rectified.

2. Humanity and Paper Balloons, by Sadao Yamanaka.

3. Chikamatsu Monogatari - Mizoguchi.

4. Ishtar - Elaine May. (Yes, it's listed on Netflix; no, it's not "available" on Netflix.)

5. Out One: Noli me Tangere - Rivette - the 13 hour version.

6. La Cicatrice Interieure - Philippe Garrel.

7. Keep cool - Zhang Yimou.

8. Timeless Bottomless Bad Movie - Jang Sun-woo

9. Bigger than Life - Nicholas Ray. (I'm not alone.)

10. Histoires du Cinema - Godard. (This either... but I've been hearing about these films forever. Where are they?)

11. Fantomas - Louis Feuillade. Thanks to David Bordwell.

12. Souls on the Road or the Red Bat - a very early Japanese film, and a well known Chambara.... blame Noel Burch.

And - anyone interested - hop in! create your own post, add to this one, put it in comments, here or at The Listening Ear.

Movies About Movies

This is too good not to post about - Andrew Osborne at Screengrab runs through a five part series on Movies about Movies. Great series.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five

And - since I have to contribute something - all of Osborne's top 20 in one place:

American Movie
State and Main
The Stunt Man
The Big Picture
Day For Night
Hearts of Darkness
The Player
Contempt
Sunset Boulevard
Singin' in the Rain
Mulholland Drive
Barton Fink
Living in Oblivion
Davd Holzman's Diary
BAADASSSSS
Demon Lover Diary
Ed Wood
Gods and Monsters
Bombshell
Los Angeles Plays Itself

Not had to come up with more - someone in comments started in with 8 1/2 - oh yeah, that... I'm inclined, quickly, to think of Sherlock Jr. or Never Give a Sucker and Even Break - or any of the host of films made about the early days of cinema, from Forgotten Silver (which definitely has to be pretty close to any best 20 films about films, I'd think), or Of Freaks and Men, or - going really obscure - Tren de Sombras (or Innisfree, for that matter). There are plenty more - what do you guys think?

New Classics

To celebrate their 25th anniversary, Entertainment Weekly has posted several lists of "New Classics" -- that is, the best of everything that's debuted within the last 25 years.

Obviously, the movie list doesn't dare to be different. It's full of titles most people have seen and chatted about, and 94 out of 100 are English language films. Clearly, it's a list of broad popular tastes, and I'm not gonna waste energy criticizing EW for doing exactly what it always does. But I think we can do better.

There are nine contributors to this blog, so let's each list nine of our own New Classics. The only guidelines are: feature-length films released in 1983 and after. No need to create a new post, simply edit this one to add your titles.

As with any list, mine could completely change tomorrow depending on my mood. Here's what I feel the need to add right now:


MIKE DOC'S LIST

After Hours (Martin Scorsese, 1985)
Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000)
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu, 2005)
The Double Life of Veronique (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1991)
Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou hsiao-hsien, 2007)
Flirting with Disaster (David O. Russell, 1996)
The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan, 1997)
Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2006)
The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 1988)

EVAN WATERS' LIST

Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985)
Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)
Ed Wood (Tim Burton, 1994)
Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 1998)
Requiem For A Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000)
Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron, 2006)
The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Peter Jackson, 2001-2003)
The Aviator (Martin Scorcese, 2004)
Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2002)

Weepingsam's List (promoted from comments)
City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1989)
Inland Empire (David Lynch, 2006)
Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-wei, 1995)
Yi Yi (Edwards Yang, 2000)
Satantango (Bela Tarr, 1994)
Vanda's Room (Pedro Costa, 2000)
Peking Opera Blues (Tsui Hark, 1986)
Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985)
O Brother Where Art Thou? (Les Freres Coens, 2000)

Erik's list
Russian Ark (Alexander Sokurov, 2002)
The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan, 1997)
Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)
Gosford Park (Robert Altman, 2001)
Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002)
GoodFellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami, 1997)
Lost in Translation (Sophia Coppola, 2003)
9/11 (Gedeon & Jules Naudet, James Hanlon, 2002)


Joseph B's List

(if nothing more than personal favorites.. I have such a damn hard time seperating 'favorite' from the abstract idea of 'important')

1. Casino
2. Magnolia
3. Heat
4. Laws of Gravity
5. The Big Lebowski
6. Goodfellas
7. The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford
8. The Double Life of Veronique
9. The Thin Red Line

Four Fathers

I Was Born, But... (Yasujiro Ozu, 1932)


The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)


A Christmas Story (Bob Clark, 1983)


The Squid and the Whale (Noah Baumbach, 2005)

Shared Items

This is an experiment. I don't know if anyone else cares about my Google Shared Items page - but I think it might be interesting to have a post with a bunch of these. So - if anyone else wants to link to shared posts - it looks like you just have to add the script here.

Indiana Jones and the Umpteenth Jokey Title

Spoilers? Probably...

The glowing review that Keith Uhlich posted on Sunday at The House Next Door for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is still generating comments. As I type this, the latest are focused on the scene in which Marion drives herself, Indy, Mutt and Dr. Oxley off a high cliff and onto a sturdy tree branch, which bends far enough to allow the jeep/boat hybrid a safe landing into the river below.

Commenter Chris P, reacting to the assertion that this scene is equivalent to Indy’s leap of faith towards the end of Last Crusade, says:

“Before his leap of faith, Indy's scared. He's nervous and not sure it'll work. And when it does, he's even more amazed than the audience. He feels for us. We feel more a part of the adventure because of his emotional reaction to it.

By contrast, Marion has it all planned out, it works exactly as she expected -- nothing goes wrong, there's not even a moment where she thinks "uh oh, maybe this was a bad idea" -- and we don't get a woop of unmitigated joy, or even a sense that maybe her feigned bravura was just that, when something so amazing does work.

Simply: that short scene sums up everything that was wrong with the movie.”

Uhlich later responded:

“To which I say that we do get that sense of unmitigated joy in Karen Allen's smile after the stunt works, a visual cue that rhymes with her beatific reaction to Indy's "none of them [the other women in my life] were you" and with her mad "are we still alive?" laughter after they go over the three waterfalls.”

What this exchange boils down to is a round of “No it’s not!”/”Yes it is!”, and I suppose we can simplistically say that either the film worked for you or it didn’t. Though Uhlich is a good enough writer to make me wonder if I might be wrong, I do side with the camp that’s emphatically anti-Crystal Skull. And I think Chris P is on to something.

That particular scene makes use of the dreaded three letters: CGI. Though Karen Allen’s smile is winning, it’s not precisely enough to convince me of the adrenaline rush likely to accompany such a daredevil stunt. I wonder if Allen was ever shown the equivalent of the cliff in question, or the waterfalls she survived. Some highly-skilled digital artists created a nice-looking picture of a large tree whipping itself against the cliff, knocking several Russian digi-soldiers to their deaths. But Spielberg never provides a shot to convince, nor do the flesh-and-blood actors react in a way that suggests such a spectacle really happened. Mayhaps this wouldn’t be so jarring a letdown if Spielberg hadn’t already pulled off a virtuoso cliffside sequence in Temple of Doom, where none of the problems I mentioned exist. Because there was no CGI. That was a real, flimsy bridge over a really frigging high drop.

I get the supporters’ argument that it’s unfair to judge the movie based on what you expected, rather than what was presented -- though plenty that’s presented is worthy of derision, but this post isn’t about reaction shots of gophers and Shia LaBeouf’s injured testicles, so I’ll move on. Isn’t it fair for longtime fans who’ve invested in a franchise that employed innovative camerawork, on-site special effects and stuntmen (plus, as one commenter at HND put it, “a crisper, more ‘analog’ look”) in three previous installments to expect the same of the fourth? Rather than cartoonish, unconvincing CGI to cover up for most every daring feat? The excitement of the narrow escape doesn’t exist in this movie. The characters simply disappear behind the computer graphics, then appear again, safe and sound.

I appreciate Uhlich’s analysis of Spielberg’s imagery and the thematic content, but he expounds on it far more elegantly than the film ever does. After the movie, I told my friends, “I want to weep, it was so bad.” I grew up watching the Indy movies with my father, wondering at the movie magic on display. What do kids today have to wonder about? It’s all computers. I take my entertainment seriously, and Crystal Skull felt mostly like a bunch of clowning around.

Cannes Results

This year's Cannes film festival is done: winners are up - Greencine has them all, competition and otherwise Un Certain Regard ; Critics Week; FIPRESCHI.

And now we wait for distribution. I've put up a poll - which of the award winners are you looking forward to seeing most? Or are you looking forward to films that didn't win awards - A Christmas Tale (Desplechins)? The Headless Woman (Lucretia Martel)? 24 Cty (Jia Jiang-ke)? Tokyo! (Michel Gondry, Leos Carax & Bong Joon-ho)? Kung Fu Panda?

Let me update with a link to Glenn Kenny's roundup of award winners.

Three for the Dance

Solo

Not so long ago, I attended a screening at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art of Powell and Pressburger's The Tales of Hoffman. Overall, the experience was a disappointment. I failed to note beforehand that they'd being showing the film on video. The picture and sound quality left much to be desired, but that couldn't detract from the work of Moira Shearer, screen goddess. The woman is impossible to look away from, the very definition of poise and grace. At the end of her "Doll's Song" performance, the audience burst into applause:



Duet

I suppose I love an underdog, so all due respect to the very worthy Fred and Ginger, but my heart belongs to Fred and Kay.

Fred Astaire was pushing 60 and Kay Thompson was just under 50 when they co-starred in Funny Face. It's not every movie musical romance that lets its superstar ingenue (Audrey Hepburn) disappear for a bit while the two middle-aged pros hoof it in a showstopper. The Gap recently revived interest in Hepburn's easily lovable beatnik bar dance number, but I go for the admittedly not-so-innovative-but-a-helluva-lotta fun "Clap Yo' Hands":



Pas de trois

Fuck Baby Mama! The real female buddy comedy to watch and learn from came out in 1997, and it's called Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion. The women here are just as foul-mouthed as any Judd Apatow slacker ("Why don't you go fuck a sheep, or your sister, or yourself?!"), their situation is true to life, and they get away with some blessedly weird moments. Observe the climactic three-way dance scene:

Dancing Poll

I'm experimenting with the polls: I've never been too good at coming up with quizzes and polls and the like, but, hey... this time around - let's acknowledge another neat blogathon - this one, the Invitation to the Dance from Ferdy on Film. I shall go straight to the top: for all my rather well documented love of Busby Berkeley film, and less documented love of Gene Kelly films, there is no one like Fred Astaire - and no Astaire movies like the ones he made with Ginger Rogers. And so I ask you: which is your favorite? I believe I have answered that question somewhere online - notably, my favorite Fred and Ginger movie is NOT the one that contains the Greatest 5 minutes of Film Ever Made! Vote! comment! sing along!

Poll!

Being a lazy so and so, I have not yet written anything related to Film at 11's Andrew Sarris blogathon. But it's a neat idea - to put the internet hive mind to work classifying directors since 1968 - analyzing them, describing them... It gets me thinking about directors - where do they belong? Some I'm pretty clear about - the Pantheon types: Altman, Lynch, Cassavetes, Scorsese, the Coens and - if it isn't too soon - Wes Anderson; some of the others - Spielberg, Demme, Spike Lee, say, all seem Far Side of Paradise; Ang Lee seems like a good vote for Strained Seriousnes; doesn't Christopher Guest belong in Make Way for the Clowns? Paul Morrissey as Expressive Esoterica... But others, I'm not sure. Or - I have my thoughts, but I'm not sure how pther people see them. And that is a segue to the poll I just added on the side.

What do people think of Woody Allen these days? There were a couple Woody Allen posts on a blog I read (because I got into a fight with one of them last year) that made me realize, to my surprise, really, that I have seen 2 Woody Allen films from the last 20 years. This is more surprising because I had seen almost everything he made in the 80s when it came out - some of them (Zelig and Broadway Danny Rose) more than once, and happy to do it. He was, it occurs to me, the first filmmaker I probably learned to recognize and seek out. But now - who cares? How did that happen? Once I got geeky about films, I didn't give a crap about Woody Allen anymore...

But what do other people think? I don't remember seeing a lot of talk about Allen - not as a filmmaker anyway. What do you think? Answer the poll! Express an opinion! try to talk me into renting something other than Sleeper or Zelig again! Help explain why I couldn't' care less about Woody Allen yet like very much (to love) the likes of Whit Stillman, Noah Baumbach, Hal Hartley, etc.

Andrew Sarris Blogathon

I posted this at my blog, but it belongs here too - if you're looking for film discussion: there should be quite a bit coming out of Film at 11's blogathon in honor of the 40th anniversary of the publication of Andrew Sarris' The America Cinema.

Opening Credits: Beetlejuice

Hey, if it's a video war y'all want, I'm game!

Hands down, my favorite opening credits sequence is from Beetlejuice. The blaring, completely awesome Danny Elfman score suggests macabre things going on in this sleepy little town we're flying over, and...what's that? A spider on the...? Heeeeey!

Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston has died. Many links and tributes can be found through Greencine. He was every bit the movie star.

I will commemorate him with some clips from the best film he was ever in. His performance isn't always given its due - he's stiff and strange and about as Mexican as I am, but I still think he came pretty close to nailing it. He gets across a mix of heroism and high rectitude that defines the character perfectly. Watching that last confrontation, tailing Quinlan and Pete under a bridge, then facing Quinlan alone in the garbage - it might be Welles' finest hour, but it's hard to imagine it working as well without Heston. He plays off Welles' tragic decay, emotionally, Vargas all business, cutting through Quinlan's excuses and guilt and defeat, and physically, with his sleek athleticism, and almost complete control. Welles gives him just enough to do, physically, to make the point. It's good stuff.



Maybe I should leave Heston's politics out of it - but looking at a Touch of Evil, can I? The end of his life, devoting his authority and reputation to dubious ideas (at least, dubious extensions of ambiguous ideas), has a bit more in common with Hank Quinlan than it should. We shouldn't let it obscure what he did on screen.

Especially when he had a director who knew how to put pictures together....



Cross-posted at my blog.

Upcoming Greatness: Red Balloons and Walking Toasters

This weekend in New York, two weeks from now in Los Angeles, and whenever wherever else, the best film I saw last year is getting its general release in theaters: Hou hsiao-hsien's Flight of the Red Balloon. Do not miss this one.



Hou was commissioned by Paris' Musee d'Orsay to make the film, which is loosely modeled after Albert Lamorisse's 1956 short film The Red Balloon. Apparently, everyone in these United States except me was shown that film at some point during their childhood; I had to wait for a college screenwriting professor to grace our class with it. I vividly remember looking in shocked disbelief at a classmate who labelled it "dumb" -- I thought the dialogue-free story of a little boy befriended by an independently mobile red balloon was among the most joyful, bittersweet things I'd ever seen.

Those warm-and-fuzzies came back tenfold watching Hou's film, which alters the balloon's function in his story. No longer a constant companion to the boy, the balloon just drifts in and out of young Simon's story from time to time -- it even disappears for long stretches. Hou focuses on the relationship between Simon, his frazzled mother (an electrifying Juliette Binoche) and his new nanny, a Chinese film student played by newcomer Fang Song. All three are artists of various experience: Binoche stages carefully crafted children's puppet shows (yes, there are shades of Hou's wonderful The Puppetmaster), Song is planning a film based on the Lamorisse work, and Simon is a budding piano player. There's little drama between the three -- the loveliest part of the film is watching them get along. What tension there is comes from Binoche's contentious relationship with a tenant in her building, and the prolonged absence of her husband. It's not a movie about big dramatic confrontations, but about little moments of kindness between the three leads.

The film unfolds in beautiful long takes, the acting is subtle and naturalistic -- some might think these are code words for "boring", but I found it to be pretty damn riveting. If virtuoso camera work and small moments of delight aren't enough to entice you, at least go to see Binoche deliver the best work of her career. I could not have loved this film more. Gush gush gush!

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Also, let me quickly add my voice to the chorus telling you to tune in, set the DVR, or whatever for the fourth season premiere of Battlestar Galactica tonight on the Sci Fi channel. Those who find every movie on the Iraq war lacking might just find what they're looking for here. It's a show refreshingly free of absolutes -- no character is all good or all bad, cathartic moments in one episode can easily be erased in the next episode's opening minutes. There's no other show on television operating at this level. Get caught up!

Richard Widmark

More bad news: Richard Widmark has died, aged 93. He left a couple iconic roles - Tommy Udo, one of the screen's great villains; Skip McCoy, the pickpocket caught in international espionage, in Sam Fuller's great Pickup on South Street... and he was good everywhere, livening the screen when he appeared on it.

It reminds me of the last I saw him in - a reel of Two Rode Together - a John Ford western featuring Widmark and Jimmy Stewart rescuing white captives from Comanche.... it was shown as part of a program of "pink films" - color films gone bad.... this film had washed out to pink, but left patches of other colors - a green lamp; the yellow in Widmark's lieutenant bars - that pushed those objects out of the screen - it looked like an Ozu film! Anyway - I don't now if the film itself is any good - it looked like there was going to be a lot of forced banter and conflict between the leads, with no one believing a word of it... but I wish I had seen the rest, just to watch Widmark and Stewart together in a John Ford film.

Wolfman's Got Nards!

In his recent round-up of L.A.'s current glut of fantastic revival screenings, Dennis Cozzalio covered just about everything going on in the Southland that could make a film lover drool. But he missed one very special double feature that made my heart leap.

Last night, at the New Beverly Cinema, the marquee looked like this:

When I was a young lad in the Philadelphia suburbs, the local cable service included a channel called Prism. It carried all the Philly sports games, concerts recorded at Philly venues and just about every movie I recall fondly from childhood. (Remind me to tell you one day of the epic arguments my childhood friends and I still have to this day about which Mannequin movie is better. It's the first one, just so you know.)

My sister and I recorded The Monster Squad from Prism, and probably wore out the VHS tape watching it so much. Here was a movie where little kids cussed, read Stephen King, and fought monsters by kicking 'em "in the nards". It seemed designed specifically for me.

Before last night, I hadn't seen the film in a good fifteen years. I was worried. I didn't want to end up realizing this fond childhood memory is actually a terrible, terrible piece of shit.

Thank God, it's not. That feeling when I was ten years old -- that the movie was designed specifically for me -- came about because it was designed specifically for me, and all the wide-eyed, movie-loving youngsters like me. For those who don't know, the movie's about a group of monster-obsessed grade-schoolers who are somehow pitted against the "forces of evil", embodied by just about every famous movie monster ever:

I'm embarrassed to admit that I got a little choked up at some of the film's sentimental shots. The best among them involves one character watching a drive-in horror movie through binoculars from the roof of his house, munching on popcorn with his father. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a screen grab of that one, but I did find this one, which illustrates every young boy's wildest dream:

I wasn't the only one looking for a trip down memory lane. The show was sold out, something I've never seen before at the New Beverly, though it's easy to see why: not only were they showing the only 35mm print of the film known to exist (loaned by a private collector, they said), but the director of both films on the bill, Fred Dekker, was in attendance for a Q&A between screenings. Dekker was good-humored and friendly, and provided an interesting look at someone who didn't have great success in the industry. After making the two films from last night, he directed Robocop 3, which he described as "a film everyone hated." Though the audience clearly had great affection for The Monster Squad, the reality is it was a box office flop. "If these movies had done bettter," said Dekker, "you would've seen a lot more from me."

Then, as if someone had scripted a scene illustrating the tenuous nature of Hollywood relationships for our amusement, the moderator announced that the co-writer of The Monster Squad, Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), was in the theater. He waved to the crowd and to Dekker, who proceeded to give Black shit (in a jocular way) for not returning calls about appearing on the DVD of The Monster Squad. He told Black that Sony wanted to do a Blu-Ray of the film, which would include an extra where a box appears in the bottom corner of the screen, in which one sees Dekker and Black discussing the film. "I'll talk to you about it after this," said Dekker. The moderator asked for questions from the audience, at which point Black walked down the aisle and said to Dekker, "I've got a question: what's your goddamned phone number? I have to leave." Dekker said he'd give it to him after the Q&A. Later, Dekker called out to Black for help answering a question. Someone from the back of the theater shouted: "He took off!" Awkward!

After all this mayhem, it was time for Night of the Creeps, which I'd never seen before. It's missing the nostalgia and sentiment of The Monster Squad, but it's still a funny little zombie B-movie with intentionally corny dialogue. During the Q&A, many audience members made pointed references to James Gunn's movie Slither being a rip-off of Creeps. It's possible -- the alien slugs slithering along the ground and leaping into humans' mouths did seem awfully familiar -- but Dekker tried to be kinder about it, mentioning that there was a TV show in the 70s called The Monster Squad that featured Dracula, Wolfman and Frankenstein's monster that he'd never seen.

I think it's ideal to see Night of the Creeps in an environment like last night's -- 300 rowdy movie lovers wildly applauding every inane moment, such as a gold-hearted sorority girl strapping on a flamethrower to battle a swarm of undead fraternity boys.

Last night was a reminder of the giddiness that comes about from the shared experience of movies that are just plain fun. I know we all love films that aspire to be more than just a good time, but out with it: what are some movies that make you feel like a kid again?

Some Discussion

I got nothing for content - maybe some links?

Should I have an opinion on Elliot Spitzer? He's in NY, I'm not, so maybe I shouldn't care. Though I'm inclined to this opinion: prosecutors who rise to power don't do it by doing anything admirable - they play to the cameras, and woe to anyone who crosses them. I someone like that screws up like this, they deserve what they get. And they do seem to screw up a lot - Giuliani was just as bad...

Still, there's not much point in caring. I't not a NY voter. Though if I were, I 'd have to vote Kant - his argment against Nietzsche (helpfully posted at Pilgrim Akimbo is all too appropriate: he's not a whore-mongering atheist...

While over there - check out the personal libraries post. If a personal library says anything about you - what it says about me is, You Have Too Many Books! I've been rearranging things chez moi - creates some ugly in between points:



All right. Let's end with a couple film related links. As always, when in doubt, head to Girish - right now, you'll find a discussion of experimental cinema (and Pedro Costa, in the comments). Lots more Pedro Costa at Unspoken Cinema and The Evening Class. And Bordwell, of course: the whole front page is good, especially the Minding Movies and Bob Clampett posts.

And - I've been monkeying around with the template, to get that shot from Robin Hood up there. I'll close with a shot from another DVD I recently picked up:



Isn't that gorgeous?

UPDATE: I want to add: there are more Robin Hood pictures and an appreciation at my blog. I'm not sure yet how they should interact - that might be the sort of thing to cross post. Also, I changed the size of the pictures here, to get them to look a bit better. And here's another one, to see how scope looks: