Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Funeral For A Friend


When the American Cinematheque decided to screen a digital print of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey at their Aero Theatre in Santa Monica a few weeks ago, I knew something was up. The coup de grace came when I saw that The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would be screening the same movie on film as part of their depressingly titled: Last 70mm Festival.  I should have seen the writing on the wall when Cal State Long Beach stopped holding their annual Widescreen Film Festival. Or when the shoe-box sized theater near my childhood home converted to digital projection. Having in my own lifetime seen digital imaging evolve from Chuck & Buck to Hugo, I knew deep-down that it was inevitable. The LA Weekly even told me so. I just didn't realize that when the end finally came, it would hurt this much. And while it's heartening to see filmmakers  like Christopher Nolan and Paul Thomas Anderson out there trying to keep the format alive, it can't help but feel like a bandaid on a bullet wound. Even Martin Scorsese has jumped ship. So why don't we just call it a day and say: Here lies film, 1895 - 2012. Rest In Peace old friend. You will not be soon forgotten.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Scarface (1983)


Observe the rapid rise of a Cuban immigrant named Tony Montana (Al Pacino) as he rises through the ranks of the Miami underworld. The world is his.

*      *      *

When I first saw this film I was absolutely ignorant of the politics at play. I simply just wanted to see a movie written by Oliver Stone and directed by Brian De Palma that people had told me was filled with crazy intense violence. 9th grade Craig was not disappointed. I plowed my way through that double cassette like it was nothing. It wasn't until 11th grade, when I became politically aware circa the 2000 Bush/Gore election, that I started to pay attention to that tagline on the poster: He loved the American Dream. With a vengeance. While it may look and sound like a gangster picture, Scarface is at heart, a vicious indictment of Ronald Reagan's America. A poison pen letter to laissez-faire. Tony Montana is the ultimate capitalist, Horatio Alger with a machine gun. Yet instead of inspiring political discourse, it inspired hip-hop videos. I guess there are more 9th grade Craigs out there than 11th grade ones. Le sigh....

Double-Bill: Tickled Pinko/Defective Commies

Ninotchka and One, Two, Three

Sunday, July 29, 2012

He Said/She Said: Comic-Con 2012


As we've said before, this blog is not about objectivity. There are countless other sites and blogs out there that will give you the latest casting news, box office returns, etc. We at This Cinematic Life, have neither the sources nor the resources to bring you guys any sort of scoops. And what's the point in being yet another site regurgitating Daily Variety and Hollywood Reporter stories? This is why we have instead chosen to traffic in the unabashedly personal and subjective. So in the interest of subjectivity, we present to you: Comic-Con 2012 through the unabashedly personal eyes of Tracie and John Carlos!


Thursday, July 26, 2012

Home School: Commentary Master Class


If you're reading this blog, I feel safe assuming that at some point in your life you've listened to a DVD or Blu-ray audio commentary track. As such, you are well aware that these tracks can range from the incredibly insightful (any Guillermo Del Toro film), to the incredibly boring (any Tim Burton film), to the incredibly hilarious (any Kevin Smith film). But for my money, the best commentary tracks are the ones where a highly respected filmmaker gets to interview one of their filmmaking buddies/heroes. Think of these as the  Master Class seminars your film school could never afford.

Steven Soderbergh is arguably the king of this type of commentary. He and Mike Nichols have done tracks for Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf?, The Graduate and Catch-22. Steven has also interviewed John Boorman about Point Blank as well as his friend Gary Ross for Seabiscuit. In a slight switch on the formula, writer/director Neil LaBute can be found interviewing Soderbergh about Sex, Lies and Videotape. And for a completely meta experience, listen to Soderbergh interview Soderbergh on the Criterion edition of Schizopolis.

Next up is Quentin Tarantino who refuses to do commentary on his own directorial efforts, yet loves talking to other filmmakers about their films (most of which he had some sort of hand in). Check him out on the discs for From Dusk 'til Dawn and Sin City (Robert Rodriguez), Switchblade Sisters (Jack Hill), Hostel and  Hostel Part II (Eli Roth) and Hot Fuzz (Edgar Wright).

Lastly there's the latest edition of Chinatown. This film has been released so many times before, but this edition is absolutely worth a re-buy  simply for the commentary track of David Fincher discussing his love of the film with screenwriter Robert Towne. Fincher's solo tracks for his own films aren't too shabby either. The Panic Room set even includes a discussion between the film's writer David Koepp and screenwriting legend William Goldman!

HONORABLE MENTIONS: The new Criterion disc for Being John Malkovich inexplicably features commentary on select scenes by Michel Gondry. Part of the way through the film Gondry runs out of things to say and calls up the film's director Spike Jonze to help him make it to the finish line. Also check out Allison Anders chit-chatting with Monte Hellman on the Criterion disc for Two-Lane Blacktop!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

What's Your Fantasy?


So you’ve decided to hold a Mystical 1980s Movie Night viewing party. Good for you. I don’t know why you’ve decided to throw caution to the wind and delve into an era of pure, unadulterated fantasy goodness, but this is your party, I’m only attending in the hopes of cleaning out your liquor cabinet and getting the chance to riff on some crazy, nostalgic 80s film goodness.

Anyway, now that we’ve got that out of the way, we need to decide which classic fantasy films you’ll be showing off at this little shindig of yours. Will you go straight for the jugular with the likes of Conan the Barbarian or Dragon Slayer? What about Excalibur? Of course you could toss those films in, but for the purposes of this list I’ve selected one film per year — a mix of the obvious with a few obscures thrown in for good measure. All right Johnny, take it away!

This 1980 beefcake-fest has it all: racist caricatures for villains, Brian Blessed as a freakin’ hawk-man, and a soundtrack by Queen. Did you hear me? I said a fucking soundtrack by Queen. ‘Nuff said.

Here is a film that manages to combine Greek mythology with a Norse monster, the Kraken, and make it look cool. The great cinematic icon Ray Harryhausen provided all the incredible stop-motion beasties before they were butchered by CGI in the remake. The best part, though, is Sir Laurence Olivier’s somber delivery of the infamous ‘Release the Kraken’ line that carries far more weight than Liam Neeson’s unnecessarily over-the-top delivery in the 2010 reimagining.

Not gonna lie, Jim Henson and Frank Oz’s 1982 film The Dark Crystal kinda freaked me out as a kid...but in a good way. There is some truly jaw-dropping work by Jim Henson and his Muppeteers in this film as well as some unforgettable imagery and ideas. Only Henson and his team could deliver a fantasy of this scope with just Muppets (even if it is just Lord of the Rings minus the ring).

No movie screams ‘This shit just got real!’ quite like Krull. This movie is one heck of a trip, it even costars a young Liam Neeson! If you see one movie in your life with a badass glaive in it, see Krull (not to be mistaken for the Kevin Sorbo film of a similar title, Kull the Conqueror). When evil aliens kidnap a princess, it’s up to one dude, his glaive, and a whole slew of expendable characters, to save her and the day. Oh and this film also features those red suits of armor worn by that high-pitched actor on the Warner Brothers lot in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. Go figure.

Saddle up your Luck Dragons kids (especially since your horse was weak and couldn’t make it through the Swamps of Sadness); it’s time for the German classic that is The Neverending Story! It’s 1984, and the world of Fantasia needs the help of an easily bullied kid whose fate is tied to a book that claims to be never-ending yet appears to be about the same length as a copy of The Dummies Guide to Colonoscopies. Lies about length aside, this film features Deep Roy who — surprise, surprise — is dubbed over. Don’t tell me you couldn’t see that coming.

Only Richard Donner, the man who made you believe a man could fly with Superman, could also make you believe that a man could be a wolf by night while his lady fair took the form of a hawk by day, never for the two to meet. Oh yeah, and a young Mathew Broderick is in this film too, constantly breaking the fourth wall and generally being a reluctant hero. Ladyhawke: it’s a lot like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off minus Ben Stein’s droll voice.

Script by Terry Jones of Monty Python, directed by Jim Henson, produced by George Lucas, starring Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie’s codpiece; yep, that’s Labyrinth.

After watching The Princess Bride as a child (and getting over Peter Faulk’s glass eye) I wanted nothing more than to be a young Fred Savage and to have the most awesome fantasy/love story ever told to me while sick in bed. Ladies, you can have Wesley. Give me Fezzik, and we will offer EVERYONE a peanut, even when death is on the line.

Before Frodo and Sam escorted the One Ring to Mordor, Willow and Madmartigan escorted a baby through a treacherous world of trolls, brownies (when you refuse to buy their cookies, they can be downright vicious), and rat-dogs. This film holds a special place in my heart, as it is one of the only films on this list that I was old enough to see in theaters when it first came out. I also have a bit of a soft spot for films that feature armies of soldiers transformed into pigs. I know, I have a real weakness. 

You have to have a heart of stone if you don’t find Hayao Miyazaki’s animated feature about a young witch in training, to be a charming delight. Kiki’s Delivery Service is downright adorable and, like everything Studio Ghibli releases, is extremely well done. While the Disney-produced release has some amazing American acting talent lending their voices to the dubbing, you simply can’t beat this film in the original Japanese with subtitles.

Well that’s it for this fantasy-fest. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a castle to storm and some wizards to ward off.

NOTE: Three of my all time favorite 80s fantasy films (Time BanditsBrazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen) were intentionally excluded from this list. Be not afraid, I intend to visit them in a later post. Yes, they’re just awesome enough to warrant their own essay. So until next time kids and cadets, keep watching the screen…

- Colin 
(the Devourer of Worlds)

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)


A massive asteroid is coming to Earth. All attempts to stop it have failed, and there are only three weeks before it hits and wipes out all human life.  What do you do with your last moments?

Dodge (Steve Carell) and Penny (Keira Knightley) find themselves becoming friends amidst all the chaos, riots, orgies and mad parties.  Are they an unlikely pair? Sure.  Is she every bit the "manic pixie dream girl" that seems to exist only in the movies and couldn't sustain a relationship in real life?  Maybe.  But with mere days before the end, it doesn't need to "work."  All bets are off.

Elements of this may sound familiar (lonely guy finds whimsical girl and she changes his life, giant meteor/asteroid/comet is coming to kill us all), but it feels different because it's so sincere, so heartfelt. Yes it's a about an asteroid, but there are no shots of the President looking pensive, no ominous shots of the sky, no montages of world wide panic.  This closest we get is a stoic news anchor, but this story is about Dodge and his new friend Penny.

Like life itself, this film is funny, it's devastatingly sad, it has questions and not always answers, and it has all types of people enriching the story.  At the end of it all, some people want sex, some want drugs, some want peace, family, even death on their own terms.  And some people just want a friend.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Design For Living


In Thom Andersen's often mentioned (on this blog) film-essay Los Angeles Plays Itself, there is a sequence discussing Hollywood's tendency to associate modern architecture with evil. This sequence always stuck with me. I'd never really given much thought to the subconscious effect the choice of venue has on an audience. Then last year I read this L.A. Times article which points out director Terrence Malick's use of modern architecture in The Tree of Life as a metaphor for alienation. Modern architecture just can't seem to catch a break. Or can it?


Thanks in part to Wes Anderson's early collaborations with designers David and Sandy Wasco, as well as the popularity of sites like Apartment Therapy, the current generation has become increasingly more design savvy. Terms like "mid-century modern" and "Eames era" are thrown around with great regularity. One need look no further than the recent films (500) Days of Summer and Beginners to see evidence of this. The latter film even saw fit to make the cold, sterile home of the villainous Pierce Patchett from L.A. Confidential, into a warm loving environment where real people actually live. Thesis, meet antithesis. But is this the end of the story?


Check out any message board regarding Anderson's newest film Moonrise Kingdom and you will see that there is currently a war on "quirk" where production design seems to be a key battleground. Here you will find people railing against, "lifeless props populating meticulously constructed dioramas which were designed to be admired from the outside". True there are films that get carried away with design for design's sake, but what if the filmmaker is trying to tell a story about someone who is attempting to present a composed exterior while underneath they are seething with anger and regret?

And in the end, that's really the only question anyone should be concerned with: Does the setting fit the story? Of course the fabulously wealthy evil billionaire is going to live in the Chemosphere, it makes no sense for a fabulously wealthy evil billionaire to be living in a Craftsman style home...unless it does! Wouldn't you love to see that movie? I would! Perhaps it's time for us to all just put aside our preconceptions, and let the best location win. That might be nice.

Double-Bill: Roads to Nowhere

Pierrot le Fou and Week End

Thursday, July 19, 2012

In Theaters September 14th

Home School: Troma


Yes you read that title right. I'm honestly saying that the schlockmeisters at Troma can teach you a thing or two about filmmaking. Actually they can teach you a LOT about filmmaking.

To begin with, there are the books written by Lloyd Kaufman and various co-writers. All I Need To Know About Filmmaking I Learned From the Toxic Avenger, Make Your Own Damn Movie, Direct Your Own Damn Movie, Produce Your Own Damn Movie, and Sell Your Own Damn Movie are all hilarious, easy to read and filled with tons of handy tips accumulated over 30+ years of truly independent filmmaking. These  useful tomes cover everything from how to write a script to how to ensure your lead actress won't back out of her topless scene. As a bonus, most of these books also feature added advice from Troma sympathetic filmmakers like Eli Roth and Whit Stillman!

And since there is always a drastic difference between theory and practice, there are several documentaries  available which allow you to watch the Troma gang in action! Farts of Darkness: The Making of Terror Firmer, Apocalypse Soon: The Making of Citizen Toxie and Poultry in Motion all succeed in capturing the unique chaos that is life on a film set. The fights, the food, the accidents, the waiting around. You go through the wringer right along with the cast and crew. And when it comes time to sell your movie, there is All The Love You Cannes which chronicles one of Troma's annual guerrilla marketing campaigns at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

All of these documentaries are feature-length and can be found through Netflix either on their own or as part of the bonus material to the film they are documenting. Oh and don't forget the commentary tracks too!

And so, as Lloyd would say...LET'S MAKE SOME ART!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Cameo


Ya know what I love? When actors play themselves in movies.

Most of the time it’s a humorous cameo where he or she is poking fun at him or herself, playing an exaggerated version of how the world imagines that person to behave. The first example that comes to mind is Topher Grace (and the other actors Brad Pitt’s character teaches poker) in Ocean’s 11 (2001). They’re slightly dim, they’re greedy, and they’re out to have a good time in a strip club.

Sometimes it happens as an over-the-top, ridiculous cameo that is so fictionalized it goes beyond the knowing nod and pushes into farcical territory. I would put Neil Patrick Harris in the Harold & Kumar movies in this category, although I’ve never seen any of them all the way through. But crazy Neil Patrick Harris is always a good idea. And in Harold & Kumar he’s especially off the walls because the first one was pre-out-of-the-closet and he just wants to get it on with women the whole time he’s tripping.

But on the rarest, and most wonderful, of occasions the actor is a major character. Of course the most famous example of this is Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich (1999), which features — you guessed it! — John Malkovich. I’m a terrible movie buff, and I have to confess I haven’t seen the entire film. What I saw of it intrigued me, though, mostly because of this actor-as-fictionalized-version-of-himself aspect and the fact that it’s the device that the plot of the film revolves around.

My favorite occurrence of this, however, is in Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire (Der Himmel Ãœber Berlin) (1987). It is quite revolting to think that the awful Nicholas Cage/Meg Ryan movie City of Angels (1998) was a remake of this gorgeous film. It’s like finding out they remade Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) as a comedy with Ashton Kutcher. And that would just be too ridiculous to fathom, amiright? Oh wait. Quick, let’s get back to Wim Wenders before I forget there’s still good in the world.

So, Wings of Desire. Peter Falk playing himself…as a fallen angel. Brilliant. In this beautiful scene he’s convincing another angel to take the leap, too. It’s not heavy-handed, it’s not saccharine, it’s just Peter Falk.
 

What are your favorite moments of an actor paying him or herself? Inquiring minds want to know.

-Rachel

Great Moments in Cinematic Swimwear

Ah, summer! Once it starts getting hot I like to dive into sparkling water in my modest one-piece and flowered bathing cap pretending I'm Esther Williams.

Okay, not really.

But Esther Williams brings to mind some of the great moments in swimwear that have graced the silver screen. Let's look at a few favorites, shall we?

Esther Williams in EVERYTHING

She made a bunch of movies featuring her as an underwater goddess, and now even has a line of swimwear. Well done!

Monday, July 16, 2012

A Small, Good Thing


Whenever I see a viciously negative review of a film, the following excerpt from Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five inevitably passes through my mind:
“You know what I say to people when I hear they’re writing anti-war books?” 
"No. What do you say, Harrison Starr?” 
“I say, ‘Why don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead?’”  (pg. 4)
Like wars and glaciers, there will always be bad films. There’s no way to stop them. You especially cannot stop a bad movie with a review. I don’t care how well written it is, or how well the author makes his or her point. The fact remains: there will always be bad films. 

This is why I only write positive reviews on this blog. I have no interested in stopping people from seeing bad movies. What I want is to cause people to watch good movies. If my writing can get even one person to try out a film that they normally wouldn’t even consider, that is a small, good thing.

Double-Bill: Fantastical French

Beauty and the Beast and Donkey Skin

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Devil's Advocate: The Cinema of Quentin Tarantino

In the cinema of Quentin Tarantino there are two distinctly different universes. First there is the "real world" where films like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs take place. These films tend to be shot rather simply in  long takes and on real locations. On the flip-side there is the "movie universe" which consists of movies characters in the "real world" would go see, stuff like Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds. These films are characterized by bravura camera moves and highly stylized sets. Up until Basterds, the scale was pretty balanced. Three films in the "real world", three films in the "movie universe". Yet as we can already see in the trailer for Django Unchained, that balance is about to shift in favor of the "movie universe". Is this a good thing?

When Quentin first made the changeover from Jackie Brown to Kill Bill it was like a revelation. We were granted a chance to see an artist spread his wings and soar. Suddenly the dialogue guy was doing action, and doing it well. And if you thought it was a fluke there was the car-chase in Death Proof to confirm it as the real deal. And then there was Inglorious Basterds... Now please don't get me wrong, Basterds is by no means a bad film (I actually saw it twice on opening weekend and own the blu-ray) but to me it feels a bit like Tarantino starting to crest. I don't care who you are, if you're constantly trying to out-do yourself, you are eventually going to find yourself running out of steam.
How do I out-do the House of Blue Leaves and that car chase? WORLD WAR II!
Three years later...
How do I out-do World War II? SLAVERY!
But where do you go after slavery? A Bible story? The story of creation? Is Tarantino going to become the next Tim Burton, hopping from genre to genre, putting his little spin on it (verbose dialogue, graphic violence and anachronistic music), and moving on to the next one? And at what point does style become self-parody? Orson Welles once explained style thusly:
A man goes to his doctor and says, 'I don't know what's the matter with me, Doc, but I just don't feel right.' So the doctor says, 'All right - well, tell me everything you do from the moment you wake up till you go to sleep.' The guys says, 'OK - well, I wake up, then I vomit, then I brush my...' 'Wait a second,' the doctor says, 'you mean right after you wake up every morning you vomit?' The man says, ' Yeah, doesn't everybody?' That's me and my supposedly strange way of seeing things. To me it all seems quite normal.
Has Quentin reached the point where he has to gag himself in order to vomit? Discuss!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

I Lost It At The Movies

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love movies. My childhood was a splendid mixture of Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, Woody Allen, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, The Last Starfighter, Willow, Raising Arizona, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, and a million other titles. Growing up in the 1980’s and 90’s my family had cable but my heart always beat for the massive collection of videocassettes and laserdiscs we owned (that’s right, we owned laserdiscs, what are you gonna do about it?). I can still remember how giddy I was just to watch the television commercials for movies like The Rocketeer. When Dick Tracy came out, I owned the wristwatch and had the movie practically memorized. 1989’s Batman was like a religion and The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were my saviors.

Weekends, while my mom was at work, my dad would babysit my sister and me. On those magical days, the three of us feasted on 7-11 hotdogs, Cheetos, Mountain Dew, and a steady stream of movies. Most kids my age grew up watching Stallone or Schwarzenegger blow people away, I grew up with America’s favorite neurotic Jew or the lads of Monty Python yucking it up. Hell, sex and nudity to my kid brain seemed to be the norm while ultra-violent action films came off as alien and forbidden; a cinematic fruit I would only later get to indulge in and enjoy.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Monday, July 9, 2012

He Said/She Said: The Amazing Spider-Man

Well since last month's addition of Colin and Rachel to the blog went so well, we've seen fit to add a few new faces this month. As those of you who have followed the blog since the beginning might have noticed, we don't often review films currently in theaters. Well that's about to change with these fun and insightful video reviews from our own geektastic Siskel & Ebert - ladies and gentlemen will you please put your hands together for John Carlos & Tracie!

As you can already tell from the title of this post, the film they will be addressing is The Amazing Spider-Man. Please do enjoy!

Double-Bill: Hill's Fables

The Warriors and Streets of Fire

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Home School: Professor Scorsese

When film schools first came about in the 1960s, they served three main functions:
  1. They gave students access to the expensive equipment necessary to make a film
  2. They routinely showed lots of movies
  3. They gave students a chance to meet each-other and form a community
Cut-to the Present: 
  1. Equipment is no longer expensive
  2. Nearly any movie is available for instant downloading right to your computer
  3. The internet is littered with numerous forums designed to bring like minded people together
So this begs the question - What is the point of film school in the new millennium? As someone who attended four years of film school in the early 2000s, I can authoritatively say, "Not much." Want to learn how to use a camera? Pick one up and start using it! Want to learn how to edit? Start cutting! Practically every computer these days has some sort of editing program built into it. Well what about the history and theory you say? Well that's where this (recurring?) column comes into play. I maintain that with nothing more than a Netflix subscription and a few used books from Amazon, you can be well on your way to revolutionizing the film world in no time!

I now leave you in the more than capable hands of our special guest professor...


I don't think anyone in this world is more passionate about film than Martin Scorsese. He lives and breathes cinema. It simply emanates from him. Need proof? Check out his documentaries A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies and My Voyage To Italy. As both titles indicate, the films covered in these docs are highly personal to him. Hearing him narrate clip after mesmerizing clip, you find yourself in a trance. It doesn't matter that you've probably never heard of most of the films he's discussing, his passion reaches through the screen, grabs you, and doesn't let go. I guarantee that after watching these two films, your queue will have doubled in size!