Tuesday, April 29, 2014

A Fish Called Wanda (1988)



I try really hard to see as many movies as possible. Despite my best efforts, some great movies go unwatched for far too long. When The Dissolve selected A Fish Called Wanda for their Movie of the Week, Craig and I decided to finally watch this movie. Between bouts of laughter, I kept asking him "How did we wait this long to see this movie??" It's that good.

I'd write a brief summary of the plot, but it doesn't really matter. All you really need are the characters: John Cleese is Archie Leach, an uptight British lawyer. Michael Palin is Ken, an anxious and timid man obsessed with his fish. Kevin Kline is Otto, a hilariously insane (and violent) (and jealous) man who's a whiz at weaponry. And Jamie Lee Curtis is Wanda, the sexy woman manipulating all these men. This film has Marx Brothers levels of madness. It's raunchy and outrageous, and I couldn't stop laughing! You've never seen a love scene like Otto having his way with Wanda while pulling faces and yelling Italian nonsense at her. Basically everything Kevin Kline did was hilarious. Jamie Lee Curtis did a great job too, switching her personality depending on which guy she's dealing with. And the profanity! I've never heard profanity wielded with such hilarious results. It's the perfect movie for a vulgarian like me.

This is streaming on Netflix right now, so if you haven't seen it, hop to it! Don't wait forever and be lame like me! And whatever you do, DON'T CALL ME STUPID!


Monday, April 28, 2014

Double-Bill: Reevaluate

Sorcerer and Heaven's Gate

Sorcerer (1977)


With all due respect to Spike Lee, his Oldboy was nothing but a piss-poor facsimile of the original. It's never a good sign when the filmmaker has to point out all the subtle ways that they diverted from the source material. William Friedkin's Sorcerer on the other hand, is what a remake is supposed to look like. Other than the image of a woman on her knees washing the floor, hardly any visual cues from The Wages of Fear were carried over to this re-imagining. While Clouzot was content to simply make an intimate film about greed and desperation, Friedkin saw fit to open things up and add geopolitical implications on top of everything. To use music as an analogue, this is akin to when Issac Hayes took the wonderful three minute pop song "Walk on By" and turned it into an awesome twelve minute funk epic. And through some sort of cinematic alchemy, Friedkin was able to do all of this in a shorter run-time than the original! The resultant film is a compact yet epic adventure story filled with tension that also packs a bite.

Friday, April 25, 2014

The Spectacular Now (2013)


Wasn't 2013 a great movie year? The big Oscar winners were all excellent, and some of the smaller and overlooked movies that year were real gems as well. They struck a chord and really stuck with me. Enter The Spectacular Now.

Sutter (Miles Teller) is popular, the life of the party, and professes to all that he lives in the "now," that the past and future don't matter, even with his high school graduation looming on the horizon. After a breakup, he finds himself getting close to Aimee (Shailene Woodley), a bookish good girl from his school who he meets after waking up hungover on a stranger's front lawn. As their relationship progresses, it becomes apparent that Sutter's alcohol problem is quietly tearing his life apart.

This movie really spoke to me because I've known people who are self-destructive, who just can't will themselves to get their shit together. Misery loves company, so when Sutter starts bringing Aimee down with him, you want to shake him and say "Look at what you're doing to yourself! Leave her alone!" Some naysayers of this film complain that Sutter is unlikeable and douchey, and Aimee is a doormat. But that's real. Some people are a mess, and some people enable that mess to happen. Teller and Woodley are great in their roles, playing their parts with sincerity and raw openness. This film is a lot like life: people treat each other badly for no reason, people come together and drift apart, and questions go unanswered. It's a very special film with characters that you end up loving in spite of their flaws, and it definitely deserves a spot in your queue.




Friday Quote: American Psycho


"There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman; some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me: only an entity, something illusory. And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable... I simply am not there."

American Psycho (2000)

Thursday, April 24, 2014

La vie de bohème (1992)


It was interesting watching this film after seeing La Havre. There are so many echoes between the films. It sort of makes me wonder: Was the more recent film always intended as a follow-up to this one? Perhaps while developing the second script, the parallels just became so apparent that the only way to deflect cries of repetition, was to just own it. By simply saying that André Wilms is playing the same character in both films, you find yourself paying more attention to the differences than the similarities. All the same narrative and thematic sign posts are there (suburban French setting, lovable bohemian protagonist with money problems, long-suffering love interest with health problems, immigration issues, Jean-Pierre Léaud, a dog, etc.) yet the approach seems wholly different. I don't want to say it's as simple as the difference between black & white and color, but it almost kind of is.Dare I say that Aki Kaurismäki has become a more optimistic man in the last twenty years? Regardless of what order you watch them in, the dialogue between these films is wonderful and fascinating. 

Monday, April 21, 2014

Monuments Men: Cinematic Graves

In addition to being a film geek, I am also a comic book geek. As such, I follow comic book writer Matt Fraction's Tumblr. Recently he posted a photo of filmmaker Chris Marker's adorable grave and it started me down a Google hole of looking up the graves of famous filmmakers. Many were rather plain, others were quite opulent. Here are the Top-5 that I came across in my searching. It might cost a pretty penny, but I hope some day to visit all of these sacred cinematic shrines. Did I leave out any important ones?

Chris Marker

Double-Bill: Snatched

Slither and The World's End

Friday, April 18, 2014

After Midnight


Any film lovers out there remember the brief "Fake Criterion" craze? While most of these covers consisted of crappy MS Paint renditions of what a Criterion cover for Freddy Got Fingered might look like, some of them were downright beautiful. This is how I discovered Midnight Marauder. Among all the rest, his pieces for films like Mulholland Dr. and True Romance had an immediacy to them that grabbed your attention right away. His choice of images and treatments was always impeccable. Gradually his work has expanded into incorporating images other than film stills, and for his recent work on Midnight Cowboy and Point Blank he has even started including original drawings. His work is also featured on the posters for the Terrence Malick produced film The Better Angels! Getting to watch an artist's work evolve over time is a unique pleasure. I'm grateful to have witnessed this progression and am eager to see where it goes next.

If you love cinema and art (which you should if you're reading this blog) I highly encourage you to check out Midnight Marauder's online exhibition of posters for the films of Robert Altman entitled "It's Okay with Me". Beautiful images for beautiful films!

Friday Quote: Liberty Heights


"Life is made up of a few big moments, and a lot of little ones. I still remember the first time I kissed Sylvia, or the last time I hugged my father before he died. And I still remember that white-bread sandwich and that blonde dancing girl with the cigarette pack on her thigh. But a lot of images fade, and no matter how hard I try, I can't get them back. I had a relative once who said that if I knew things would no longer be, I would have tried to remember better."

Liberty Heights (1999)

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Nymphomaniac Vol. II (2013)


More than any other filmmaker I know, Lars Von Trier loves to work in trilogies. There's the Europa Trilogy (Element of Crime, Epidemic and Europa) The Golden Heart Trilogy (Breaking the Waves, The Idiots and Dancer in the Dark) and the incomplete USA: Land of Opportunities trilogy (Dogville, Manderlay and the un-produced Washington). Nyphomaniac has been described as the culmination of a Depression Trilogy following the director's 2007 breakdown. Yet, while the other films of this trilogy (Antichrist and Melancholia) are content to wallow in the morose muck of a depressed state, Nymphomaniac seems to be about emerging from that mire with perverse humor and playful provocations.

After his breakdown, Lars was quite literally Joe laying bruised and beaten in some forgotten alleyway. Fortunately audiences/critics were there to play Seligman and sympathetically listen to his tales of woe (ie: the other films in the trilogy). At first Lars/Joe was receptive to our kindness, but gradually he came to resent it and started to kick back against the compassion with tiny verbal barbs and cinematic provocation. By the end of Volume II we have a fully recuperated Lars Von Trier who is back in fighting form and itching to bite the hand that feeds...even if it kind of shoots his own film in the foot. So then why do it you ask? I guess the best way to describe that is with a Seligman-esque digression:
A scorpion asks a frog to carry him across a river. The frog is reluctant as he fears the scorpion will sting him during the trip. The scorpion argues that if it stung the frog, they would both sink and drown. Reluctantly the frog agrees, but midway across the river the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both. When the frog asks, "Why?" the scorpion can only reply, "It's my nature!"
Vol. II is running at The Frida Cinema through April 24th.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)


I think I saw this movie for the first time back in middle school. I know it was around the time that all my friends and I were “discovering” punk rock. We’d been blown away by Green Day’s Dookie album and instantly started plundering the genre’s back catalogue. Suddenly we were all taking a crash course in The Clash, The Exploited, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, and of course The Ramones and Sex Pistols. For some reason I’ve still never seen The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle, but boy oh boy have I seen Rock ‘n’ Roll High School. I distinctly remember my friends hating it for being cheesy and “not punk”, but I secretly loved it. It was funny, it had cute girls, a kicking soundtrack and was about rebellion. How is that NOT punk rock? THEY BLOW UP A SCHOOL! As I’ve learned more about the “Corman School” of low-budget filmmaking, my love for this film has only grown. The cast and crew is a who’s who of awesome: Allan Arkush, Joe Dante, Paul Bartel, Clint Howard, P.J. Soles, Mary Wornov, Dick Miller, Dean Cundey, Don Steele, and Rodney Bingenheimer! Though it might not be high art, this film is a load of fun and makes me feel young again. Do your parents know that you're Ramones? Hey ho, let’s go!

Double-Bill: Boys Will Be Boys

American Psycho and The Wolf of Wall Street

Friday, April 11, 2014

Friday Quote: The Ten Commandments


The city that he builds shall bear my name. The woman that he loves shall bear my child. So it shall be written. So it shall be done.

The Ten Commandments (1956)

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Nashville (1975)


Though Robert Altman certainly didn’t invent the idea of a large ensemble film with intersecting characters and plotlines (see: Grand Hotel), he certainly was its master. Off the top of my head there is MASH, Nashville, A Wedding, Short Cuts, Prêt-à-Porter, Gosford Park and A Prairie Home Companion. Sure some were more successful than others, but that’s to be expected with a career that spanned multiple decades and dozens of films. Yet even at their most mediocre, there was still always something special to be found there. Something rough and jagged that another filmmaker would have certainly smoothed out. Need proof? Just look at the poor facsimiles that Gary Marshall has attempted with Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve. Even the great imitations like Dazed and Confused or Magnolia miss the mark slightly by tying things up a little too nicely in the end. Altman wasn’t afraid to leave some threads dangling because - that’s life man. Life is messy and unpredictable. The good guys don’t always win, the bad guys don’t always lose and sometimes we’re not sure how we’re supposed to feel about an outcome. While this might fill some with anxiety and anger, Robert Altman calmly replied with, “It don’t worry me.”

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Favorite Drag Movies

Sooo I'm a little bit obsessed with "RuPaul's Drag Race" and I spent all the time I should have been writing a blog post watching the show instead.  My oh-so-smart husband suggested I do a post featuring men in drag, so here it is! And no, I'm not going into the whole drag queen vs transvestite vs transsexual vs everything. These are just movies featuring blokes dressed as women Whether playing actual female characters, drag queens, or disguising themselves as women for some other reason, they're all favorites of mine, and they're all fabulous.


Guy Pearce and Hugo Weaving in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)
What is there to say about this film? It's moving, the music is great, and it leaves you smiling. 




Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like it Hot (1959)
A comedy classic! These two are hilarious as men hiding in an all-female band to hide from mobsters who want them dead.




Tim Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
"I see you shiver with antici..........pation!"




Divine in Hairspray (1988)
Okay, okay...let's make that Divine in every movie he did with John Waters. R.I.P. you twisted fabulous individual!




Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
There's GOT to be a less creepy way to visit your kids, right? Right?? Oh well, without this movie we wouldn't have gotten this.





Nathan Lane (and shhh, spoiler alert, Gene Hackman) in The Birdcage (1996)
Nathan Lane is great as the drag queen Alfred/Starina, successfully convincing staunch Republicans that she was their future son-in-law's birth mother. And I'm surprised at how pretty Gene Hackman looks in drag too, I must say.




Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie (1982)
Can't get work as an actor? Try disguising yourself as the opposite sex! OK, that sounds crazy difficult, but Hoffman's performance is great and it led to this awesome interview where he gets emotional about his feelings making this film. We love you, Dustin Hoffman!





Remember, in the words of RuPaul, you're born naked and the rest is drag! 


Monday, April 7, 2014

Enough Said (2013)


Nicole Holofcener might be the most consistent filmmaker out there. Each of her (to date) five feature films has been an absolute joy to watch. She writes people that feel believable and is not afraid of depicting us at our worst. And despite the awful things some of her characters say or do, you still find yourself feeling for them at least a little bit because you see a little bit of yourself in there. Despite the duplicity of Julia Louis-Dreyfus' character, you still want things to work out for her because on a level you know you would likely have made some of the same choices. And despite all of Gandolfini's annoying habits, you let it slide because down inside you know that you can be just as difficult. Add to this the fact that both leads are charming as all get-out and the deal is sealed. It's a shame that we lost James Gandolfini so young because I would willingly sit through a whole second film, even if it was nothing but these two wonderfully human lovebirds just sitting across from each other.

Double-Bill: War Crazy

Catch-22 and M*A*S*H

Friday, April 4, 2014

Friday Quote: The Great Outdoors


"Good evening. How's it going? Listen, girls... uh... as your father, I feel it incumbent upon me to set the record straight on the validity of the tale which Uncle Chet shared with us this evening. I know that a terrifying story like that coming from the mouth of a recognized authority figure could be traumatizing for kids like yourselves; I know that, because I had a similar experience with my uncle Roy and a story he used to tell, about a family who went into the woods and was attacked by a band of escaped Army psychiatric patients who'd been subjected to violent, hellish, torturous behavior-modification experiments. It seems they escaped from the metal boxes the Army kept them in, found his family in the woods, fell upon them, slaughtered them and ate them. Now that story - phew - it gave me nightmares not to be believed. Well I thought that Uncle Chet's story upset you in the same way. I'm here to say that there actually is NO bear, and that all that Uncle Chet was saying was just a yarn... spinning for our... entertainment. And even if there were a bear out there, I'm in the house. To protect you. So uh... no more thinking about bears. Alright? No more thinking about unpleasant things. We're gonna close our eyes and dream about nice things. About cuddly, soft, fluffy things. Okay? Super. Good night. Sleep tight."

The Great Outdoors (1988)

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Seconds (1966)


I think what makes this film most interesting is the time in which it was released. 1966 was certainly not the Kennedy 60's, but it was also not quite yet the Summer of Love. The Nation was in great flux and it was beginning to show at the multiplexes. Here we have a film released by a major studio, with a major star and a respected director that is undeniably cynical and also features a large helping of nudity. Was this Paramount attempting to aim younger? Was this a major Hollywood studio attempting to start life anew? I'm not sure if the parallel is perfect but it's something I've been chewing on. I've been chewing on a lot since I watched this film. Ideas about identity and happiness, about the young versus the old, about death. Rather than just making the film interesting for the moment (like the empty implementation of "hot-button issues" Christopher Nolan uses in the Batman films) these ideas wedge into your brain and make you reflect on your own life and the world in general. What is the point in changing the external if the internal remains rotten, unfulfilled or depressed? Can one ever be truly happy? This movie doesn't have the answers, but then again who does?

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

April Fools: Fake Criterions

It's April Fools Day! In honor of this notoriously obnoxious holiday, I collected some of my favorite fake Criterion art from some not-so-stellar films, some cult favorites, and even a couple outright impostor films. All images from the now sadly inactive Fake Criterions tumblr. Let's all be happy that these aren't real Criterions! Enjoy!

















Any you'd secretly (or not-so-secretly) want to own?