Friday Quote: A Single Man

"A few times in my life I've had moments of absolute clarity, when for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think, and things seem so sharp. And the world seems so fresh as though it had all just come into existence. I can never make these moments last. I cling to them, but like everything, they fade. I have lived my life on these moments. They pull me back to the present, and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be."

A Single Man (2009)

The Best Film You've Never Seen

All lovers of cinema should purchase Robert K. Elder's newest book The Best Film You've Never Seen: 35 Directors Champion The Forgotten Or Critically Savaged Movies They Love right this second! Featuring interviews with filmmakers like John Waters, Edgar Wright and Peter Bogdanovich expounding on forgotten classics like Boom!, The Super Cops and Trouble In Paradise this book is an invaluable resource. It even features a chapter on the camp classic Can't Stop The Music which Craig long ago wrote about on this very site!

Here are some other rarely seen gems that we've championed on this site over the years!

Craig

Bamboozled

Morvern Callar

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession

The Specials

The Black Cat

'Becca'lise

City Of The Dead (aka Horror Hotel)
The Adventures Of Prince Achmed
The Unknown
Libeled Lady
Death At A Funeral

What are some of your favorite forgotten films? Let us know in the comments!

Double-Bill: Film Life

Contempt and Day For Night

Upstream Color (2013)

I'm not even going to attempt to describe this one. Just check it out on Netflix Instant.

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While it is never quite able to match the power and paranoia of the opening third, Shane Carruth's Upsteam Color is a cinematic force to be reckoned with. Filmmaking doesn't get much more pure than this. There is hardly any dialogue and absolutely no exposition, yet if you watch closely you will understand. Everything comes from the images and the ways in which they are juxtaposed with each other. It's Soviet montage at it's most basic: Thesis + Antithesis = Synthesis. A simple cut can bring together two disparate elements in a way that clunky dialogue never could. What might have been laughable in prose, becomes poetry in motion. Only cinema can do this. Shane Carruth should be commended for habitually refusing to take the easy way out and for putting the medium through it's paces. What he has achieved is a work that could literally not exist in any other medium. What could have simply been so-so or overwrought science-fiction, instead became high art.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

A ton of scaly mischief making creatures run wild in a giant corporate building in downtonw Manhattan.

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Growing up in the 1980's was a weird time. After the runaway success of Star Wars, literally every film became a cartoon and/or was marketed to children in the form of coloring books, action figures, fruit snacks, etc. So what if the film was rated PG-13 (or in some cases R)? Though I didn't end up seeing this film until I was probably fifteen, six-year-old Craig was very familiar with this film thanks to the book section at the local Pic 'N' Save. I particularly remember the spider-Gremlin. And boy was the marketing effective. Oh how I desperately wanted to see this film, but alas my parents didn't want to waste a Friday night with such "childish" fare.

Having watched this film again recently, I guess my parents were partially right in labeling this film "childish" as it is the cinematic equivalent of Mad Magazine. Yet the satire going on inside is aimed squarely at adults. Released in 1990, this film is a poison pen letter to the excess and corporatism of the Reagan-80's. So vicious is some of the satire, that I don't even think it would be out of line to see this film on a double-bill with Fight Club.

And so in the interest of sequelism and capitalism, this wild little film was marketed to children all over the world. God bless Joe Dante for taking a blank check from Warner Brothers and choosing to use it as a means of corrupting young minds and inspiring cinematic irreverence for generations to come!

Stand By Me (1986)

I always get nostalgic when the weather starts warming up. Summer reminds me of being a kid, playing outside, and getting into various amounts of mischief. Naturally I try to watch all of my favorite classic coming-of-age movies this time of year, and Stand By Me is definitely one of the best.

Four friends (played by River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell) go on a journey in search of the body of a boy their age who went missing. These aren't your usual cinematic ragamuffins. They smoke, they curse, and their lives are anything but simple. Gordie Lachance (Wheaton) is still reeling from the death of his older brother, Chris Chambers (Phoenix) and Teddy Duchamp (Feldman) come from dysfunctional families, and real happiness for them is fleeting. They laugh and kid around and act like your typical teen boys, but they know what the world is like out there. It's ugly, and their dreams and aspirations will probably forever remain just out of reach. They know they won't be "best friends forever," but in this moment, they are here. They are alive. They're covered in leeches and running for their lives on railroad tracks, and laughing and crying, and that's what it's all about.

God I love the movies.

Double-Bill: Bite The Hand That Feeds

Gremlins 2: The New Batch and Fight Club

Revenge of the 80's!

As children of the 80s (which all of us regular blog contributors are) it's sometimes hard to find love for the films of our birth decade because no decade in film is more reviled than the 1980's. It's the epilogue to every narrative of 1970's filmmaking. It's viewed as the decade when all of the auteurs were put in their place for getting too indulgent and the money-men took over and started churning out empty prestige films, gory slasher flicks, fascist action pics and sequels upon sequels.

While at first blush this might seem to be an accurate description of the decade in question, it ignores the fact that filmmakers like David Lynch, Spike Lee, The Coen Brothers and Jim Jarmusch were all coming into their own during this decade. It also ignores the great World Cinema being made around the globe. And lastly it ignores the fact that a fair number of those slasher pics and teen flicks are pretty damn fulfilling and enjoyable.

So in the interest of kicking against the picks, we're doing yet another one of our polls! All you need to do to participate is to send us a list of your personal Top-10 favorite films released in the 1980s. You can leave it as a comment on this post, you can message us on our Facebook or you can e-mail us at cinemanerds@gmail.com. The deadline is 10pm PST on Sunday, July 7th and the results will be announced the on Wednesday the 10th . Can't wait to see what you all come up with!

Friday Quote: Father of the Bride

"You have a little girl. An adorable little girl who looks up to you and adores you in a way you could never have imagined. I remember how her little hand used to fit inside mine. Then comes the day when she wants to get her ears pierced, and wants you to drop her off a block before the movie theater. From that moment on you're in a constant panic. You worry about her meeting the wrong kind of guy, the kind of guy who only wants one thing, and you know exactly what that one thing is, because it's the same thing you wanted when you were their age. Then, you stop worrying about her meeting the wrong guy, and you worry about her meeting the right guy. That's the greatest fear of all, because, then you lose her."

Father of the Bride (1991)

The French Connection (1971)

A pair of NYC Narcotics Officers (Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider) are hot on the trail of an international drug smuggling ring based out of France.

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I can't speak for international audiences, but I can firmly say without a doubt that American audiences LOVE procedurals. Just look at prime-time television. Off the top of my head there's CSI, NCIS, Law & Order and Criminal Minds, not to mention all of their imitators and spin-offs. There's just something addicting about following a case beat by beat, letting the evidence pile up until it's just the right time to take down the bad guy. It speaks to a deep part of all of us. A hunger for justice? A desire to see wrongs righted? Or maybe it's something deeper than that. 

Just as a horror film allows us the thrill of being pursued/chased from the safety of a darkened theater, the procedural allows us to be the hunter. It's this primal desire that is propelling Popeye Doyle through The French Connection's narrative. And in the hands of screenwriter Ernest Tidyman and director William Friedkin we are allowed to see our love of the chase for what it truly is. We can delude ourselves with talk of justice and duty, but there really is no moral justification for any of this. This a blood-lust pure and simple. The chase will continue forever and God help anyone who gets in our way.

"Living In" on Design*Sponge

Design and lifestyle blog Design*Sponge has a regular series called "Living In..." that takes beloved films and finds clothes and products that you can buy for a taste of that film's style in your own life. Check some of them out in the links below! I absolutely adore this series!

That Thing You Do!
Behind the Candelabra
Now and Then
Volver
Funny Face
Mary Poppins
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Tuck Everlasting
Mona Lisa Smile
Monsoon Wedding
Best in Show
Leap Year
Bill Cunningham New York
2 Days in Paris
Coffee & Cigarettes
Harriet the Spy
Vertigo
Grease
The Talented Mr. Ripley

Such a creative idea...wish I'd thought of it first!
(Image credit to Design*Sponge)

Double-Bill: Faux Bands Of The 60's

Grace of My Heart and That Thing You Do!

We Own The Night (2007)

A New York nightclub manager (Joaquin Phoenix) finds himself caught between the vicious Russian Mafia and his police officer family (Mark Wahlberg and Robert Duvall).

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I went into this film prepared not to like it. My first experience with the work of James Gray had not been a particularly great cinematic experience. Back in February I watched Gray's 2000 film, The Yards and found it to be insanely maudlin and self-serious. Yes the performances and cinematography were great, but it seemed to think that it was The Godfather and On The Waterfront when it was clearly just an average melodrama. So why did I even attempt this film? One word: Cannes.

Of the five films James Gray has directed, four have been in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Of course bad/mediocre films slip into Cannes all the time, but four times? That's serious Jim Jarmusch/Coen Brothers/Lars Von Trier territory right there. The Festival loves to play favorites and this guy Gray is clearly one. Perhaps I missed something on the first go-around? And so in the interest of fairness, I decided to give Mr. Gray a second try, and boy am I glad I did.

Going in with the bias that I had, the film really had to finesse me. This took a bit of time as the cast, the fashions, the decor, the color pallet all brought to mind The Yards. The somewhat clunky, semi-predictable set-up was no help either. But by the time  things get "personal" for Bobby, I was completely on board. Once all the pieces are in place, nothing seems forced and both cast and crew are firing on all cylinders. Bobby's journey just sucks you right in. And though this is much more of a drama than an action film, I must say that the set-pieces are both beautiful and exciting. A great job all around.

But could this viewing experience be the exception and sub-par The Yards be the rule? Possibly. Guess I'll have to check out Two Lovers and The Immigrant to find out. I think I can skip Little Odessa though.

Friday Quote: Blade Runner

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."

Blade Runner (1982)

A Band Called Death (2013)

The unbelievable true story of three brothers from Detroit who were doing punk before anyone else and how after 35 years their music finally found an audience.

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Man is this a great story! If you strip away the interviews with Henry Rollins and Jello Biafra, if you lose all the fancy editing and fish-eye lenses, what you're left with is one hell of a yarn. Unlike a fiction film, no nuance or subtext is necessary to make this story profound. It has everything: familial love, familial loss, passion, rejection and triumph. The story of how the music was rediscovered is unbelievable enough on its own. But when you bracket that story within the story of three brothers who marched to their own beat no matter what anyone said? Suddenly you have a tale for the ages. Without a doubt, this is this year's Searching For Sugarman.

So how do you see this little gem? For the price of an average theater ticket this baby can either be streamed right to your computer or downloaded onto your hard drive where it can live for forever. Then all you have to do is invite some friends over, turn on the good speakers, and prepare to rock out. I know I didn't mention it, but it should go without saying that the soundtrack is pretty kickin' too...

Frances Ha (2013)

The story of Frances (Greta Gerwig) is the story of many twenty-somethings. She has a best friend that she loves and a sort-of-job that she enjoys. But her friend starts to grow apart from her, and she's not as vital in her job as she thought. She finds herself aimless, adrift. She makes decisions that probably aren't the best for her, and her life quietly falls apart. There is no earth-shattering revelation, no hard rock-bottom that makes her realize that things aren't working. She just has to learn to shift her focus away from other people (namely her best friend Sophie) and focus on making good decisions for herself and her own life. It's not high drama, but it feels real.

The black and white photography is absolutely wonderful. It adds a timeless quality to a film that some could say is just about this generation's problems. Greta Gerwig takes a character whose behavior can be downright frustrating and gives her an irresistible charm, even when making you cringe from her awkwardness. You want her to succeed. She gives this story life.

Try to catch this one if you can! Frances is a character that will either delight you or aggravate you, but you definitely won't forget her.

Double-Bill: Baltimore

Hairspray and Liberty Heights

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2011)

A former assassin (Uma Thurman) seeks vengeance upon her former co-workers who left her for dead in a massacre at her wedding.

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Boy do I love genre films. So what if they hardly ever get love at The Oscars? Just because a large percentage of genre films deservedly belong in the discount bin at RiteAid, doesn't mean that the tree itself is rotten. A Western is just as capable of imparting insight into the human condition as some melodrama and a horror film can reach parts of your brain that some arty foreign film could never dream of stimulating. It's all just a matter of where the filmmaker chooses to take the genre and what subtext they choose to imbue within its confines. At the surface, Kill Bill is a revenge story: woman done wrong wreaks vengeance upon a series of people responsible for her misery. But when you really think about it and take away all of the blood and samurai swords, Kill Bill is a film about how tough it can be to leave behind a wild and reckless life in favor of the simple yet enriching joys of motherhood. Had this film starred Meryl Streep and been set in Manhattan with cutting remarks in place of actual cutting, it would have received all of the Oscars. When you really stop and think about it, the line between Kill Bill and Kramer vs. Kramer is pretty thin. There's even a Vs. in the title! Just sayin...

PS: Doesn't the end credit sequence kick serious ass?