Friday, December 21, 2012

We'll Meet Again...

With Christmas/New Years festivities and work schedules ramping up like whoa!, we here at This Cinematic Life have decided to go on hiatus until 2013. Don't worry, we will still post fun links on our Facebook as we see fit and when we come back it will be time for our Best of 2012 Reader Poll!

We've done a lot of growing in the past few months (guest contributors, reader polls, etc) and hopefully the new year will see this blog continue to flower. Thank you all for your loyal readership. Without you we're just a bunch of opinionated a-holes. May you and your loved ones all have a wonderful New Year and a happy holiday of your choosing!

Friday Quote: Miracle on 34th Street


"Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to. Don't you see? It's not just Kris that's on trial, it's everything he stands for. It's kindness and joy and love and all the other intangibles."
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Cruising Redux


So...back in the early 80s, William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist, etc.) directed a film called Cruising where Al Pacino plays a cop who goes undercover in the gay S&M scene to track down a serial killer. As this film was released in a post-Stonewall world enlightened by the lectures of the legendary Vito Russo, gay rights groups were up in arms over the fact that this film was yet another example of Hollywood demonizing homosexuality by associating it with deviance, violence and evil. Though Friedkin began his career with the film adaptation of the legendary gay play The Boys in the Band, some activists went so far as to ruin takes by creating loud noises while the film was shooting on public streets. When the film was completed, forty minutes of graphic S&M action had to be removed in order to secure an R rating. Apparently that footage has been lost to the ages. Or so we thought...

A lot has changed in thirty years and now Cruising has come to be seen as a sort of anthropological document of a time and place that no longer exists. And so, James Franco (yes THAT James Franco) and Travis Mathews have gone to great effort to recreate/reimagine that lost footage. A documentary of their effort  (which also seems to deal with some of the original film's exploration of the line between voyeurism and participation) will be premiering this coming January at Sundance. Check out the vaguely NSFW trailer after the cut...

Holy Motors (2012)

A mysterious man (Denis Lavant) is driven around in a white limo to various "appointments". Inside the limo he applies makeup and prosthetics to become different people.

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This film really reminded me of early (less misanthropic) Godard. From start to finish it is 100% a work of joyous provocation. In fact, it had me giggling and smiling more than most comedies. This may also have had something to do with the elderly couple I knew was a few rows behind me. You could hear a pin drop during the motion-capture scene. I think I would pay admission just to watch that couple for the film's entire run time.

While some parts went on a little too long or got a touch too maudlin, overall it was a wonderful experience. I appreciate when a filmmaker is able to make the medium do that which only it can. Holy Motors is a uniquely cinematic experience that could never exist as anything but as a film. In fact, it's so much a film that it is several films all at once. If this were a just universe, Denis Lavant would get an Oscar nomination for his chameleon-like performance. Too bad this universe is un-just. Perhaps Eva Mendes will get a supporting nod for being able to keep a straight face through that recreation of La Pietà. Vive la Cinema!

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2012)

Jeff (Jason Segel) is obsessed with the film Signs and sees connections everywhere and so, a simple trip to the store to get wood glue to fix a shutter slowly turns into an epic journey of self-discovery.

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As someone with a BA in screenwriting who has attempted several scripts, I can say with utmost authority that writing movies is hard. So many different elements are at play. If one of them is off, the whole thing can come crashing down. One of the most difficult aspects is hiding the seams where everything is stitched together. By focusing in on one or more characters at the most interesting part of their life/lives you will narratively be encountering lots of chance and coincidence. If you spread the narrative out over weeks, months or years, the seams will usually become less visible. Jeff, Who Lives at Home is set over the course of one single day. That is just asking for trouble. Yet by making chance and coincidence the title character's primary focus, it ends up working like gang busters. I almost wonder if the Duplass Brothers gave Jeff that character atribute as a means to stave off such criticism. Either way it results in a satisfying experience and I cannot wait to check out more of their filmography.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Last Minute Gift Idea: The Great Showdowns


Christmas is a week away! In case there are a few movie buffs in your life that you still need to shop for, here is a suggestion.  The Great Showdowns (released last October) features the art of Scott Campbell, best known for his "Great Showdowns" series, featuring simple and adorable illustrations of movie characters facing off! It's an unconventional and unique gift for the film fan who has everything! I personally love that there is no index for the confrontations depicted; you either get it or you don't. It's kind of a badge of honor to make your way through the book and see how many films you can identify!  I just gave this book as a Christmas present to This Cinematic Life contributors Colin and Rachel and they appeared to enjoy flipping through the book, identifying films, and laughing all the while.  So consider gifting this to your favorite nerd. It's at least good for a laugh, and isn't that what Christmas is all about?


Monday, December 17, 2012

The Deep Blue Sea (2012)

The wife of a British Judge (Rachel Weisz) is caught in a self-destructive love affair with a Royal Air Force pilot (Tom Hiddleston).

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Melodrama is a very challenging genre to attempt. When you couple everyday settings/situations with extremely heightened emotions, the scales can quite easily tip over into camp . Some filmmakers might be inclined to soft-pedal certain stylistic elements to ensure that this doesn't happen. Director Terence Davies is not "some filmmakers". Before a single frame of film is visible, you are already overwhelmed by Samuel Barber's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 14 which Davies has employed in lieu of score. And once there is something on your screen, boy is it LUSH. Cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister's soft, smeary  and saturated images ache like a bleeding heart and the blacks are so dense they will swallow you whole. Unlike the self-conscious homage/pastiche of Todd Hayne's Far From Heaven, this is the real deal. A perfect integration of style and substance.

Double-Bill: The Whistleblowers!

The Insider and The Informant!

Friday, December 14, 2012

Friday Quote: Joyeux Noël



"The country? What does it know of what we suffer here? Of what we do without complaint? Let me tell you, I felt closer to the Germans than those who cry, "Kill the Krauts!" before their stuffed turkey!"


Joyeux Noël (2005)

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

After his release from a mental facility, Pat (Bradley Cooper) moves back in with his parents (Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver) as he sets about trying to rekindle his relationship with his wife...who has a restraining order against him. Things get more interesting when Pat meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence),  a disturbed but intriguing young woman.

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In the early 1990s, Quentin Tarantino got a lot of attention for taking the gangster genre and moving it into the real world. We knew these characters already from countless slick 80s action flicks and John Woo shoot-em-ups, but through the miracle of Tarantino's writing and direction, we now saw them as real people we might run into on the street. Silver Linings Playbook accomplishes that same feat with the Will Ferrell/Danny McBride screwball comedy genre. So despite the fact that the film's climax centers on the results of a dance competition and an insanely large bet, you 100% believe that these are real people. It's pretty easy to do when you cast amazing actors like Robert De Niro and especially Jennifer Lawrence who is AMAZING! I also think the fact that director David O. Russell chose to apply his "realistic" (yet still stylized) aesthetic from The Fighter greatly helped as well. Unlike his other broad dysfunctional comedies (Flirting With Disaster and I ♥ Huckabees) with their bright images and simple staging, this film doesn't hold you at a distance. It brings you in for a nice warm hug. Excelsior!

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

10 Reasons to Watch Elf

Who doesn't love Elf? Starring Will Ferrell as the lovable Buddy, a man who was raised in the North Pole believing he's an elf, the film warmed hearts and put everybody in the Christmas spirit. Plus it's pretty damn funny! Here are 10 reasons to finally watch (or rewatch) this holiday classic.

10. The elf who assures Buddy that he's not a "cotton-headed ninnymuggins"? None other than Peter Billingsley, AKA Ralphie from The Christmas Story! If that doesn't give a film Christmas cred, I don't know what would.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Enlightened Monarchs


In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Francis Ford Coppola announced that he is at work on a decade-spanning epic set in New York between the 1920s and 1960s. Though his production offices are on the Paramount lot, they are not footing the bill. So where is the money coming from you ask? Coppola will only say, "I have a secret investor that has infinite money." This story is not unique.

This year alone will see four major films (Lawless, The Master, Killing Them Softly and Zero Dark Thirty) financed by heiress Megan Ellison through her company Annapurna Pictures. She was even able to outbid Lionsgate Films for the rights to the Terminator franchise. Her older brother David is no slouch either. Through his company Skydance, he has helped finance several films including the recent Tom Cruise vehicles Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and Jack Reacher. It's almost too perfect: a Marie Antoinette and Emperor Joseph for our new post-studio age.

Welcome to the new era of patronage. Is your vision is larger than your bank account? Time to find an enlightened monarch to dazzle. Or perhaps the Pope will take a liking to your latest photoplay!

Double-Bill: Western Eyes

The Thief of Bagdad and Arabian Nights

Friday, December 7, 2012

Friday Quote: The Man Who Came To Dinner


"I am not only walking out on this case, Mr. Whiteside, I am leaving the nursing profession. I became a nurse because all my life, ever since I was a little girl, I was filled with the idea of serving a suffering humanity. After one month with you , Mr. Whiteside, I am going to work in a munitions factory. From now on, anything I can do to help exterminate the human race will fill me with the greatest of pleasure. If Florence Nightingale had ever nursed YOU, Mr. Whiteside, she would have married Jack the Ripper instead of founding the Red Cross!"


The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Invasion of the Pod People!


As much as I love radio, I hardly listen to it anymore. Part of this has to do with the fact that since the demise of Indie 103, there aren't really any stations out there playing the type of stuff I want to listen to. But the chief reason for my abandonment of the airwaves, is the sheer number of podcasts I listen to on a regular basis. In any given week, I will listen to roughly five or six hours of podcasting. It's even come to the point where I will listen while I shower so as to not fall behind.

So that I don't have to be alone in my addiction, here are some great film-related podcasts for you to get hooked on!

If you're ever in Los Angeles, I highly recommend you attend one of weekly Doug Loves Movies recordings at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Host Doug Benson's guest list is always a surprise and always awesome. Ever want to meet Jon Hamm? This could be your chance! He might even pick your name-tag and play The Leonard Maltin Game on your behalf! Even if you can't make it to the city of Angels, audio evidence of this hilarity plops every Friday.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Let The Good Blogs Roll!


Though unceremoniously let go by The Village Voice earlier this year, J. Hoberman continues to be one of the most insightful film critics out there. Where does he continue to be so insightful you might ask? Why on his wonderful Movie Journal blog for Artinfo of course! It's so wonderful in fact that we just added it to our blog roll! Wait, you guys have a blog roll? YES! It's right over there on the right (you might have to scroll up or down a little) under the title, "The Good Stuff" because that is precisely what awaits you there. Stuff from highfalutin' film critics, stuff from fancy-pants filmmakers and even stuff from average Janes and Joes like you or I! Oh and don't forget the Tumblr of movie barcodes! The one at the top of this post is from the, "These go to 11" sequence in This Is Spinal Tap. You can thank us later.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)


I hadn't seen this movie since I was a kid, and I really only remembered the scene pictured above (who could forget?) so I thought I'd rewatch this one. And oh, it was so good!

The plot is simple: Neal Page (Steve Martin) is trying to get home for Thanksgiving. The problem? He can't seem to shake big-hearted but obnoxious Del Griffith (John Candy) as every possible obstacle prevents him from getting home. The two are fantastic together.  John Candy is especially brilliant and gives what could have been a standard goofy character real depth. There's a scene where Martin's character is berating him and he just has this devastated expression on his face...it's heartbreaking! What a talent John Candy was.

This film was written and directed by John Hughes, and that name brings with it a promise of quality (and usually hilarious) writing and memorable characters. This film delivers. Plus it's always fun seeing John Hughes regulars in little roles sprinkled throughout the film! Give this one a watch (or a rewatch!), you'll enjoy it.

PS - There's a minute long tirade in which the f-bomb is dropped 18 times and it's AMAZING. Worth a watch for that alone!


Monday, December 3, 2012

Boogie Nights (1997)


In the late 70's, a young kid from Torrance (Mark Wahlberg) falls in with a family of pornographers and  becomes a key "part" in the end of an era.

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Pornography is an industry of early adopters. Whenever a new technology comes along, it is the smut peddlers who first put it through its filthy paces. Sometimes they even blaze new trails like figuring out how to charge money for nudie pics and clips online. I personally feel safe in saying that without porn there would be no Amazon or eBay. But without a doubt the technology most synonymous with skin, is video. Today as Hollywood and film fans are in a tizzy over the end of celluloid and theatrical distribution, the San Fernando Valley just laughs. They went through all that shit three decades ago. Been there, done that. I find it interesting that Boogie Nights was released a mere two years after the Dogme 95 gang made shooting on video a viable option for commercial filmmakers. Was this film Paul Thomas Anderson's reaction to that phenomenon? Looking at it from a contemporary perspective, I can't help but see PTA as the Cassandra of our digital age.

Double-Bill: An Object In Motion...

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop and Shut Up And Play The Hits