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