The Disaster Artist (2017)

Much like James Franco, this film wants to be taken seriously. It’s about a silly movie and centered around a silly (real life) character, but it wants to treat it all seriously. The Disaster Artist wants to be about friendship, relationships, art, insanity, etc. This is what Tommy was striving for too. If you ask him what The Room is about, he will tell you that it is about everything.

While Franco’s endeavor was much more successful than Tommy's, it is also similarly hamstrung by its ambition. It's about so many things that it ends up being about very little. It has thoughts and ideas and things to say, but they don’t add up to anything too profound. They are all truisms that we have heard before. I know Franco has a mind for meta, but I don't think even he was aware of this subtextual level. Like Tommy, he just stumbled into success.

Viva (2007)

With its leisurely pace, it's impossible to miss how much work went into this film. To match the specific look Anna Biller and her collaborators were going for, all these period props and costumes had to be found or made. The same goes for the sets and locations. The result is gorgeous to look at and filled with bare flesh, but thanks to the presentational acting and blatant sloganeering, it's much closer to Jean-Luc Godard than Russ Meyer. Biller wants us to take something away from this film. Like Guy Maddin, she's using the form of vintage media to deconstruct the artificiality of both the past and the present. You become hyper-aware of the sexism and hypocrisy that was just underneath the surface of the "free love" movement and America in general. With a Trump presidency looming, a film like Viva provides as an uneasy reminder of the "good times" red hats want to get back to.

Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman (2009)

It wasn't until this most recent viewing (my third) that I really made the connection between architectural photography and film criticism. How did I miss it? Those are my two greatest passions! And it's all right there! At their most basic, both are creative endeavors that rely on someone else's creativity for a starting point. They're both about finding what is unique in a work and bringing attention to it in the most artful way possible. Both professions allow the artist to advocate for new talent as well as the old masters. Is it merely coincidence that a common term for having a particular "take" on a film, is to say that you have "an angle" on it? Julius Shulman was an amazing advocate for modernism and was able to transform that advocacy into masterful works that are able stand on  their own. We should all strive to be that good at what we do.

Only Lovers Left Alive (2014)

Jim Jarmusch has been cool since forever. Though he's never been huge, he's also never been passé. And most importantly he's always been, "cool". While other flavors have come and gone over the last thirty years, Jim has remained. He's never followed trends (or set them) he's just been himself and done his own thing. Wikipedia says that he's 61, but his hair has been white since forever. I guess what I'm really saying is that Jim is eternal. Which is precisely why Only Lovers Left Alive was a perfect choice of project for him. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he outlived us all. And though his films have always been clear expressions of his interests and obsessions, I feel certain that this is the first Jarmusch film one could truly describe as, "personal". He has seen eras come and go. He has lost numerous friends and contemporaries. He has also consumed culture voraciously. This film might not be a masterpiece, but it sure is a great hang. I could spend all night with these learned bloodsuckers because they know all the coolest shit. Just gotta steer clear of the ones that choose to live in LA apparently...

10 Movie Paintings I'd Love to Own

When you watch the same beloved movies over and over, you sometimes find yourself obsessing about details, coveting random objects, and wishing you could spend a day or two living on a movie set. I've been thinking lately about paintings from films that I'd like to own, and after seeing The Grand Budapest Hotel over the weekend, I thought I'd do a little post about it. So here's a list of some movie portraits I wouldn't mind seeing up on my walls.

Amadeus (1984), portrait of Leopold Mozart (played by Roy Dotrice)

This portrait is based on a painting of the real Leopold Mozart, redone to resemble the actor. The painting appears in a scene where Wolfgang Mozart is drunk, laughing, mocking the painting of his father, when who should show up at the door but a mysterious stranger wearing the same mask his father wore...! 

Bronson (2008)

According to pop psychology, a child raised with poor social skills is more likely to express him or herself through violence. When something is troubling them, rather than express their frustration verbally, they are more likely to resort to physical means to "get it out". If you ask me, this isn't too far removed from the impetus that moves an artist to create. Hans Christian Andersen is even credited as saying, "When words fail, music speaks." The same goes for dance, painting, filmmaking and all the other arts. In the case of Charlie Bronson, his art is violence. This is how he expresses himself. And unlike others that might dabble here and there, Bronson is a master at his craft.

Red Desert (1964)

After a car accident and a brief stay in a clinic, a woman (Monica Vitti) has become increasingly sensitive to the environment of the industrial town that she lives in.

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Long ago humankind had to adapt to its environment. Nature was harsh and cruel and we as a species evolved to survive. Eventually we gained the ability to adapt our environment to us. Thanks to scientific advancement we can now literally pave paradise and put up a parking lot, or a strip mall, or a nuclear power plant. We are now the masters! Or are we? What does being surrounded by all this artificiality do to a person? All this noise and pollution has to have an effect doesn't it? Like white moths who turn grey to match the trees stained with ash from a local factory, are we too are changing in subtle ways to match our increasingly sick and contaminated environment?

Call Michelangelo Antonioni boring all you want, this film is a subjective masterpiece. Through careful use of sound, composition and color, he is able to put us right in Giuliana’s stylish shoes. This film works a spell on you. When it’s over, you cannot help but feel uneasy about the world you live in. Green Peace should use it as a recruitment film.

Our Movie Art Collection

If there's one thing I love almost as much as movies, it's decorating my home with things I love. Since cinema is so important to us, we've always had movie art in our home, whether it be movie posters or original art. I though I'd give you a peek at some of our favorite pieces!

"Portrait of an Iron Giant as a Young Vin Diesel" by Mike Mitchell, purchased at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles

CQ (2001)

A young American filmmaker (Jeremy Davies) in 1960s Paris must juggle directing a cheesy sci-fi film with directing his own personal art film.

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No matter how serious your cinematic tastes are, there have to be at least a couple films you love purely because they are fun. You cannot convince me that you grew up watching Ingmar Bergman films exclusively. And if this is the case, you're not someone I care to associate with. You can't eat broccoli for every meal, sometimes you need a scoop of ice cream. While it may be the smallest part of the food pyramid, it's there for a reason. And just as it is important to have a well-rounded meal, it is also important to have a well-rounded viewing regimen  God bless Roman Coppola for reconciling the two halves of his brain into a film that is both tasty and nutritious! CQ is the perfect synthesis of the commercial and experimental currents that were running through that turbulent and bi-polar decade we call The 60s! Only here will you find references to something as silly as Danger: Dialbolik commingling with references to something as avant-garde as David Holzman's Diary. Oh and that Angela Lindvall gal is pretty easy on the eyes too... Do yourself a favor and seek out this movie. It's good for your health!

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!

Blow-Up (1966)

Young fashion photographer Thomas (David Hemmings) may have inadvertently photographed a murder.

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By the middle of the 1960s it was undeniable that the baby-boomers were on the rise and the World War II generation was on the decline. While many in the older generation responded to this phenomenon with fear and aggression, others found it fascinating. Having already completed a trilogy of films (L'avventura, La Notte and L'eclisse) in  effort to understand his own generation's ennui, 54 year-old Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni decided it was now time to see what gave the younger generation angst. The resultant film is a beautiful synthesis of plot and theme. The character of Thomas has a hole inside himself which he desperately wants to fill. He tries with women, he tries with antiques, he tries with smashed guitars. At first-blush, each of these seems to be the answer to his prayers. Yet on closer inspection, they're just diversions. The hole is still there. The hole will always be there. Happiness can only be found by sticking close to the surface. If you choose to go deeper and keep blowing-up the photo of life, it will all eventually become just meaningless noise and emptiness. If you want to play the game, you have to buy in and live the lie.