CineRobot

Doomsday 2012: Mad Max + Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

2012-01-29T06:53:00.000-08:00

Evidently, I'm not the only person celebrating the end of the world this year as American Cinematheque is having a monthly series focusing on the coming end times. Their first event was a triple feature of post-apocalyptic George Miller films with Mel Gibson as "Max" [I only stayed for parts one and two]. Gibson made an appearance for a lengthy Q and A that that I'll write a little bit about below. Future screenings in American Cinematheque's series will include such films as Planet of the Apes [the original first five will be screened!], Miracle Mile [which qualifies as a film for my Los Angeles Cinema AND Doomsday 2012!], A Boy and His Dog and many others. I have the sneaking suspicion I'll be at a fair amount of these.

Of the first two films in the four part series [a fourth film comes out in 2012 but it will not have Gibson as "Max," I'm not too sure of that myself], my favorite by a landslide is the second, dubbed The Road Warrior in America. I saw The Road Warrior before I saw Mad Max, and I bet that's pretty common in this country. In 1981, when the film came out, I was 12 and my father took me to see it at the Allred in Pryor, Oklahoma. From the first moment the action began to unfold, I was completely and utterly transfixed by the high-octane cars, the over-the-top mohawked and leather clad [with sun-burnt buttocks naked and exposed to extreme desert conditions] villains, the dark sense of humor, the violence, the nudity and pretty much everything about it. I loved this movie and watched it every couple of years throughout the 1980s. It's still one of my all-time favorite movies.

I saw Mad Max [1979] a year or two after I saw The Road Warrior and while it's a perfectly fine car-centric revenge film, it was just too silly, too low-budget and lacked the post-apocalyptic epic quality that I found in my beloved Road Warrior. I hadn't seen Mad Max since I was a kid before the screening at the Egyptian and after I watched them back to back, my opinion of the first one is the same. The Road Warrior is just a better movie in every regard--the cars are better, the action scenes are better, the villains are better, the story is better, you get the idea. It's better. Mad Max is just kind of goofy at times. While Road Warrior has some great bits of dark comedy and the villains are so deranged ["Wez" and "The Humongous" are two of the greatest movie villains to ever grace a screen], it was way more serious to me in the early 1980s and that feeling is the same as I watched the films back-to-back in 2012.

As I mentioned in the intro, Mel Gibson showed up between the two films for a thirty minute Q and A and lots of topics were covered. He's working with Randall Wallace [Braveheart screenwriter] on a new epic of violence connected to vikings called Berserker [when Gibson mentioned the title, there was rapturous moaning and applause in the audience]. He talked a lot about George Miller and said if the next Mad Max film was the same as the script he saw six years ago, it's going to be great [as I said earlier, I have my doubts]. He was asked about his troubled last few years and how he dealt with it. His response, and I'm paraphrasing here: "I'd wake up day after day and still be here, so after one morning just said to myself about getting back out there, 'what the f*ck.'" The crowd loved it. When Gibson was introduced and when he exited, roughly 70% of the crowd gave him a standing ovation, so he clearly still has his fans even after all the antics for the past few years. For the record, I clapped for him, but I did not stand up.

An added bonus to this event was the presence of a bunch of hard-core Mad Max fans, dressed in costume, wielding props and with appropriate haircuts. There was even a version of "The Interceptor" in the courtyard. Evidently, there is a yearly three-day event in the California desert that celebrates the post-apocalyptic vision of the film. Add Wasteland Weekend to the mix of oddball subcultures out there where people get together and geek out on their particular obsession. I love The Road Warrior and all, but I doubt I'll be heading out to the dessert, donning leather, a*s cheek baring chaps and getting into make believe fire fights and car chases with other fine people. Want to see some of the Wasteland Weekend? Check out the video below.

***If you are reading this post via e-mail, the imbedded video in this post might not work with your particular e-mail account. Click on the post title and you will be taken directly to CineRobot to view the video.***

Stephanie Huettner's tops in 2011

2012-01-26T05:50:00.000-08:00

Stephanie Huettner [aka Rumblefish in the comments section] gets to have last say when it comes to 2011's best moments in cinema. Regular readers have come to expect a great "tops" list as Stephanie has participated in this yearly event here and here and here. Now currently residing in Austin, Stephanie's a Tulsa native who has worked in a variety of roles in a bunch of independent productions and recently went to Taiwan as a producer of the upcoming short, Running Upside Down. Before we get to her favorites, there's the four question quiz to start us off.

1. If you could transport yourself into any movie in history and live the rest of your life in the film's story, what movie would it be? Oh boy, the eternal question for film lovers. I’d have to say Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Bobbing along, singing a song, on the bottom of the beautiful briiiiiiiny seaaaaa.

2. Can you recall the last movie that made you cry? What got you? Yes, I cried at the end of Hugo. Quite simply, Asa Butterfield’s amazing performance got me from the first minute to the last.

3. Can you recall the first movie you saw in a theatre as a kid? Who did you go with? I don’t remember if it was the first (my mom can probably tell you that), but I have strong, vivid memories of seeing both Pippi Longstalking (I don’t know where) and Back to the Future 2 (at the Admiral Twin Drive-In in Tulsa).

4. First movie star you had a crush on? What depths did you go to live out that crush in real life? [if applicable funny stories arise...] I had (and to some extent still have) a crush on Kevin Bacon since about age seven. Footloose, White Water Summer, The River Wild, Tremors, Quicksilver. What’s not to love? I don’t think I did anything in real life except watch his movies over and over again.

If you want to see Stephanie in a video, check out the following clip that includes not only some kick-a*s kung-fu action, but also a well-timed double take. The only thing that beats a double-take for me is an old-fashioned spit-take! Enjoy.

And now, onto Stephanie's list of 2011's best in the world of cinema.

Honorable Mentions:
Harold’s Going Stiff, In a Better World, X-Men First Class, Super, Jane Eyre, Midnight in Paris, Tabloid, Shame, 13 Assassins, Moneyball, Rango, Cold Weather, Meek's Cutoff, Buck, Bill Cunningham in New York

Haven’t Seen:
The Guard, We Need to Talk about Kevin, Project Nim, The Help, A Separation

12 – Hanna
Director Joe Wright leaves behind period pieces to take on this dramatic thriller about a young girl trained by her father to be an assassin. Saoirse Ronan is perfection in the titular role and Eric Bana is in top form as her father. Also splendid is Tom Hollander in a creepy, disturbing turn as a bounty hunter. As for Cate Blanchett, it would be just if she has as many Academy Award nominations as Meryl Streep one day. The story makes the most of its fairy tale allegory, some scenes occurring in a fairy tale theme park complete with a gingerbread house. What the script lacks in the third act the film makes up for in imagination and genuinely thrilling action scenes.

11 – Win Win
Thomas McCarthy’s third directorial effort is another satisfying drama. A tight ensemble cast works together flawlessly to create an array of nuanced characters. The story of a young runaway who becomes involved with a struggling social worker/wrestling coach is refreshingly free of cliches and engaging from beginning to end.

10 - The Trip
OK, I know that this one is actually a British TV series that was cut down for American audiences in to a 90-minute movie, (you know, we have those short attention spans blah blah blah) but I think it qualifies. I’ve seen it several times, and can’t wait to get my hands on the entire series, as I could easily take 4 ½ more hours of what was served up here. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon set off in to the countryside of northern England to dine at and review various restaurants. The plot is an excuse to get Coogan and Brydon in a car/room/restaurant with each other for long stretches, and that’s just fine with me, as all of their conversations are comedy gold. Michael Winterbottom’s film isn’t just meant to tap your funny bone, however. There is a through line of meditation about middle age, friendship, and what their careers mean to them at this point in their lives. Highlights include Brydon and Coogan’s Michael Caine impersonation contest; the two discussing which one of them makes a better Bond villain; and Coogan’s choice of Joy Division as their driving music. Don’t walk a-wwaaaaaay, in siiiiiiiilence.

9 – Page One: Inside the New York Times
The state of traditional news and the newspaper business in particular has been in a state of upheaval in recent years. Page One spends a year at one of the world’s most prestigious news outlets as it adapts to new methods of reporting. Media Desk Editor David Carr is the star of this documentary. His wry wit, journalistic integrity, and impatience for those who don’t shoot straight make him a fascinating character. One of the most rewarding scenes finds Carr rhetorically bitch-slapping an arrogant wanna-be journalist from Vice Magazine. The exploration of this brave new world of technology and how it effects the validity of the news we receive is a fascinating, tightly edited winner. Go to print!

8- Seamonsters
This British drama from first-time director Julian Kerridge made its debut at the 18th Annual Austin Film Festival in the Narrative Feature Competition. Adapted from the Royal Court play “Outside of Heaven,” the screenplay was adapted for the screen by Kerridge and Martin Sadofski (who wrote the play). The film gives a glimpse in to the daily lives of a group of young adults living in an English seaside town, none of whom have a clear direction in life. The screenplay manages a smooth transition from play to film, avoiding the overly staged feel that many such adaptations suffer. Where it truly triumphs is in its deft characterization of both the leads and supporting roles. At turns playful, melancholy, and captivating, the film effectively pulls the audience in and instantly makes it feel as though it has known this place and these people for many years. Those in the market for a solid drama that will make them both think and feel will not be disappointed by this import.

7-The Descendants
I didn’t expect to like this George Clooney drama as much as I did. I always like Alexander Payne’s films, but this one hit the mark for me in a way that his last few haven’t. Clooney is at the top of his game as Matt King, a descendant of the last royal family of Hawaii who is facing the possibility of being a single parent after his wife has a boating accident. He refers to himself in the voice-over as “the back-up parent,” who hasn’t picked his kids up from school for 7 years. When Matt gets several unexpected pieces of life-changing news, it takes his life, and that of his kids, in a whole new direction. Let’s talk about the kids. Shailene Woodley plays older daughter Alexandra and Amara Miller is 10-year-old Scottie. Both are excellent; Woodley in a studied and subtle way and Miller in a refreshingly awkward, naturalistic way. Nick Krause of Austin (yeah!) is along for the ride as Alexandra’s friend, Sid.

6– I Saw the Devil
Another ultraviolent film from South Korea that also happens to be one of the finest revenge films in years. Byung-hun Lee gives a stunning performance as a husband who goes beyond mere revenge tactics against his wife’s killer. The viewer is pulled in to a calculated series of attacks against the man and others in his circle, culminating in the final devastating shot of the film. The film recently won Best Foreign Language Film from the Austin Film Critics Association.

5 – The Artist
A traditional silent medium is used to tell the story of a silent film star at the end of the era. Sound is used occasionally to great effect. Jean Dujardin’s performance is the stuff on which old Hollywood careers were built. Personally, I could have used more Malcolm McDowell in black and white. John Goodman continues to move beautifully through this stage of his career as an agent who bellows most of his unheard lines. Full of heart, charm, and lots of good comedy with a dog (played by Uggie, who recently attended the Golden Globes in a bow tie). To paraphrase my old friend Vern Snackwell, “If you don’t like this movie, you may just not like movies.”

4 – Tree of Life
An ambitious, visually stunning film that employs Terrence Malick’s non-traditional storytelling method, which has been his weapon of choice since returning to the director’s chair in 1998. A mosaic of images from the beginning of time to the modern day, Tree of Life encompasses a lifetime of emotions through the experiences of one family. Bolstered by three brilliant new child actors (Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler and Tye Sheridan), Brad Pitt’s most mature performance to date, and a strong turn from Jessica Chastain, the film is a challenging and enriching experience. Fun fact: Sheridan, the youngest of the three boys, is the star of Jeff Nichols’s new film, Mud. If you don’t know who and what those last two things are, let me direct you to #3 on my list.

3 – Take Shelter
Jeff Nichols’s sophomore effort reunites him with Michael Shannon to create a haunting, heartbreaking, and deeply moving film. Shannon gives one of the best performances of the year as a man who becomes increasingly disturbed by visions and dreams of an apocalyptic storm. This performance combined with Nichols’s screenplay creates a character who remains sympathetic even as his actions become harder to justify. In personal news, I’m currently a Post Production Assistant (intern to the Assistant Editor) on Nichols’s third feature, Mud. I’ve even gotten to see a few deleted scenes! If you haven’t already, try to get your hands on his first film, Shotgun Stories (also starring Shannon), a tragedy of Shakespearian proportions. That plus Take Shelter have made Nichols one of my favorite new American directors. This film recently picked up a slew of awards from the Austin Film Critics Association including Best Actor (Shannon), Best Supporting Actress (Chastain), Austin Film Award (Nichols), and 3rd place for Best Film of the Year.

2 – Hugo
A brilliant adaptation of a beloved children’s book, Hugo is filled to the brim with brilliant performances, gorgeous set design, and the best use of 3D to grace the screen in the modern era. The perfectly cast Asa Butterfield plays the titular character, a young orphan who lives secretly inside the walls of a Parisian train station, winding all of the clocks as his uncle (who has since disappeared) taught him to do. You can read about the plot elsewhere if you like, but if you go in to the film not knowing anything (as I went in to the book), it’ll probably be a lot more fun. The cast, which includes Chloe Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Richard Griffiths, Ray Winstone, and Jude Law, are uniformly stellar. In fact, I’m quite surprised that with all of the acclaim Hugo has been given, it has yet to receive one nomination for Kingsley or the ensemble. While it doesn’t seem like it on the surface, Martin Scorsese’s love letter to cinema, Paris, literature, magic, and life is possibly his most personal work yet.

1 – Drive
Nicolas Winding Refn’s eighth feature film is a blistering tale of an enigmatic stunt driver who willingly walks in to a world of danger to help a man and his family. It is the most innovative and creative film of the year. Refn’s homage to 80′s action flicks combined with an elegant sensibility made this a visceral and beautiful experience. Gosling gives his finest performance since Half Nelson as "the Driver," and would get an Oscar nomination if there were any justice in this world. Ron Perlman is a nerd’s delight as "Nino," a Jewish gangster (!) who owns a pizzaria. Bryan Cranston (fresh off his three straight Emmy wins for Breaking Bad) is solid as a rock as "Driver"’s co-worker and the closest thing he has to a friend. He’s not really a father figure, more like a crappy uncle. Albert Brooks has become the front-runner for this year’s Best Supporting Actor for his on-the-money portrayal of quietly sadistic con man "Bernie Rose". Perhaps the most underrated performance in the film is Mulligan’s: subtle and quietly powerful. If anything, she’s more likely to get noticed for her loud and boisterous role in Steve McQueen’s Shame. But for my money, she and Drive itself deliver the goods while barely saying a word.

Best Supporting Actor:
-Ben Kingsley in Hugo
-My 1st movie star crush! Kevin Bacon for his combined work in X-Men First Class and Super.
-Albert Brooks in Drive

Best Supporting Actress:
-Shailene Woodley in The Descendants
-Cate Blanchett in Hanna
-Ellen Page in Super

Best Actor:
-Michael Shannon in Take Shelter
-Ryan Gosling in Drive
-Michael “Fassy” Fassbender in Shame, X-Men First Class, Jane Eyre and A Dangerous Method
-Jean Dujardin in The Artist

Best Actress:
-Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn

Best Director:
-Nicholas Winding Refn for Drive
-Martin Scorsese for Hugo
-Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist

***If you are reading this post via e-mail, the imbedded video in this post might not work with your particular e-mail account. Click on the post title and you will be taken directly to CineRobot to view the video.***

Joshua Blevins Peck's tops for 2011

2012-01-24T05:58:00.000-08:00

When I was compiling my list of favorite films, actors, writers and directors for the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle, I realized pretty quickly that a lot of the stuff I liked in 2011 was the more mainstream film releases. Odd how that happens sometimes. The serious, award garnering releases such as Shame, Melancholia, My Week with Marilyn, A Dangerous Method and others were either ones I couldn't stand [Shame] or films that didn't strike the same chord with me as they did with other filmgoers [Melancholia]. While I admired the heck out of The Tree of Life, it didn't make my top ten. There are some indies on my list, but only Pedro Almodovar's The Skin I Live In is considered really outside the box of the mainstream. Was it being in the midst of quitting my job and moving to Los Angeles that made me embrace comedies, fantasies and romances? Maybe. Here's the entire list of everything I was asked to vote on in the OFCC--including all my favorite acting, writing and directing performances ranked from 1-5.

Top fifteen films
#1 Hugo
#2 Drive
#3 Midnight in Paris
#4 The Artist
#5 Win Win
#6 Beginners
#7 The Guard
#8 The Trip
#9 Meek's Cutoff
#10 The Skin I Live In
#11 Moneyball
#12 Margin Call
#13 50/50
#14 Jane Eyre
#15 Bill Cunningham in New York

Five almosts: Cedar Rapids, The Descendants, Bridesmaids, Attack the Block and Carre Blanc.

Best first feature
#1 John Michael McDonagh [The Guard]
#2 JC Chandor [Margin Call]
#3 Joe Cornish [Attack the Block]
#4 Eli Craig [Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil]
#5 Jean-Baptiste Leonetti [Carre Blanc]

The Obviously Worst film
#1 Heart Specialist
#2 The Roommate
#3 I Am Number Four
#4 Something Borrowed
#5 Just Go With It

The Not So Obviously Worst film [Or, the most disappointing; or, the most overrated, etc etc]
#1 Tiny Furniture
#2 Shame
#3 The Conspirator
#4 My Week With Marilyn
#5 Larry Crowne

Best director
#1Terrence Malick [Tree of Life]
#2 Martin Scorsese [Hugo]
#3 Michel Hazanavicius [The Artist]
#4 Cary Fukunaga [Jane Eyre]
#5 Alexander Payne [The Descendants]

Best actor
#1 Jean Dujardin [The Artist]
#2 Brendan Gleeson [The Guard]
#3 Paul Giamatti [Win Win]
#4 George Clooney [The Descendants]
#5 Joseph Gordon-Levitt [50/50]

Best supporting actor
#1 Christopher Plummer [Beginners]
#2 Kevin Spacey [Margin Call]
#3 Albert Brooks [Drive]
#4 John Hawkes [Mary Martha May Marlene]
#5 Isiah Whitlock, Jr. [Cedar Rapids]

Best actress
#1 Tilda Swinton [We Need to Talk about Kevin]
#2 Glenn Close [Albert Nobbs]
#3 Viola Davis [The Help]
#4 Kristen Wiig [Bridesmaids]
#5 Kirsten Dunst [Melancholia]

Best supporting actress
#1 Octavia Spencer [The Help]
#2 Melissa McCarthy [Bridesmaids]
#3 Jessica Chastain [The Help]
#4 Berenice Bejo [The Artist]
#5 Melanie Laurent [Beginners]

Best original screenplay
#1 Woody Allen [Midnight in Paris]
#2 Michel Hazanavicius [The Artist]
#3 Kristen Wiig/Annie Mumolo [Bridesmaids]
#4 JC Chandor [Margin Call]
#5 Mike Mills [Beginners]

Best adapted screenplay
#1 Aaron Sorkin/Steven Zaillian [Moneyball]
#2 John Logan [Hugo]
#3 George Clooney/Grant Heslov/Beau Willimon [Ides of March]
#4 Moira Buffini [Jane Eyre]
#5 Alexander Payne/Nat Faxon/Jim Rash [The Descendants]

Best documentary
#1 Bill Cunningham in New York
#2 Corman's World
#3 Buck
#4 Page One: Inside the New York Times
#5 Conan O'Brien Can't Stop

Best foreign language film
#1 The Skin I Live In [Spain]
#2 Carre Blanc [France]
#3 13 Assassins [Japan]
#4 Point Blank [France]
#5 This was a light year for me watching foreign films, only choosing 1-4

Guilty pleasure
#1 Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil
#2 Source Code
#3 Rise of the Planet of the Apes
#4 The Beaver
#5 Limitless

* This list was compiled on January 21, 2012. At the time of making the list, the following films were not among the approximately ninety new releases that I watched in 2011: Take Shelter, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Carnage, Adventures of Tin Tin, War Horse, The Iron Lady and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.

Sarah Jesse's tops in 2011

2012-01-22T05:51:00.000-08:00

Originally from the mean suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, Sarah Jesse is Director of Community and School Programs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Sarah is especially fond of documentaries, dramas and good romantic comedies. Regular readers will recognize her name [often shortened to SJ] on CineRobot, as she watched 106 movies with me in 2011. Go here to read her picks from last year. Below is the movie related questionnaire that people have been answering.

If you could transport yourself into any movie in history and live the rest of your life in the story, what film would it be? Annie Hall

Name the last film you can remember that made you cry? Buck

First film you remember seeing in a theatre when you were a kid? The Land Before Time in 1988. I was 8.

First movie star you had a crush on? Christian Bale in Newsies in 1992. My twin sister Amanda and I both had it bad for Christian after seeing Newsies.

What % of the films you see in a theatre with Joshua does he make you worry he will get into a confrontation over noise, talking, texting or other bad behavior by fellow theatre goers? 90%

Here's Sarah's favorites for 2011 in alphabetical order.

Another Earth: Don’t be fooled by the sci-fi-heavy trailer. The story focuses much more on human aspects—the desperate need to maintain hope, loss of innocence, wasted potential and forgiveness. It is fascinating and thought provoking.

The Artist: This was nothing like the boring, silent films I endured in college. I was completely blown away by handsome Jean Dujardin, adorable Berenice Bejo and, of course, Uggie the dog. The film takes the best aspects of an films from the era—tap dancing, old-Hollywood glamour—and freshens them up in a delightful story.

Beginners: Such a sweet film. Ewan McGregor and Melanie Laurent have wonderful chemistry and one of the best “meet-cutes” I’ve seen in a long time. [I have to give CineRobot credit for that line in a past post.]

Bill Cunningham New York: Illuminating and slightly melancholic portrait of the eccentric recluse behind the street style and society sections of the New York Times.

Buck: A touching portrait of a real-life horse whisperer, Buck Brannaman. First time director Cindy Meehl sensitively captures the empathy Buck has for “horses with people problems” and makes an authentic, riveting film.

Corman’s World: I’ve never seen a Roger Corman film and don’t know that I ever will—yet I loved this documentary. I was cracking up over the hilarious stories about Corman recounted by now-famous actors and directors who worked on movies he produced. It’s not all jokes though, as Director Alex Stapleton [rightfully] pays homage to the prolific filmmaker too.

Drive: Sexy, cool, slick and stylish. Pure escapism.

Pariah: A brave story about a girl’s identity struggle in the glare of a conservative upbringing. There are no outright villains in this complex story though, and that’s what makes it good. I found myself feeling compassion for both the young girl and the mother who can’t accept her.

We Need To Talk About Kevin: Tilda Swinton is extraordinary in this film that will make anyone question the desire to have kids! It’s a slow burner that will affect you long after the closing credits.

50/50: Tricky subject matter adeptly handled with surprising levity and gravity.

Los Angeles Cinema: The Muppets + White Men Can't Jump

2012-01-20T06:21:00.000-08:00

The Muppets. I started the New Year off right by journeying into the tourist masses on Hollywood Boulevard and watching a matinee of The Muppets at the El Capitan theatre. It's a sweet little joy of a movie full of enough retro muppet action to satisfy any fans of the furry creatures. I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun I had with The Muppets. Naturally, I can see the hesitation of connecting a movie full of muppets to Los Angeles, but this movie had recognizable locations all around the theatre that even I recognized despite only living in Los Angeles for three months. The El Capitan itself is featured prominently, doubling as the film's actual "Muppet Theatre" for the telethon at the end of the movie. Hollywood Boulevard, in front of the theatre, is the spot for a elaborate dance number. Also seen are Pink's Hot Dogs, Mel's Diner and numerous streets and neighborhoods as Jason Segel and Amy Adams try to save "Muppet Studios" from the evil clutches of an muppet-hating oil baron [Chris Cooper].

In the late 1970s and early 1980s I watched The Muppet Show on television fairly often. Favorite muppets: Animal, Gonzo and Fozzie. The show was an odd mix of childlike silliness, adult humor, songs and sketches with the human guest host. In this CGI universe, the non-CGI pure puppetry of the muppets is pretty out of style. That's why I was excited about muppet fanatic Segal's attempt to revive the muppets in popular culture with this film. I've been a big fan of Segal since the Freaks and Geeks days [I watch the increasingly annoying How I Met Your Mother just because of him], but I can not think of more un-cool thing for him to write, star in and gushingly promote. His love of the muppets is no joke--this is a wide-eyed love project for him. Just take note of the look on his face during some of the scenes of The Muppets for proof. It looks like he is thinking, "I can't believe I'm standing next to Kermit" or some other character throughout the film. His love of this world is infectious and the entire film is non-stop muppet worship. Thankfully, it's a good movie too. It's funny, fast-paced, has catchy songs ["Man or Muppet" was my favorite] and made me have a tingly, I love life feeling as I excited onto a buzzing, neon lit Hollywood Boulevard when it ended. Rating ****

While I enjoyed the movie, I have to talk a little bit about the place I saw it: El Capitan. Owned by Disney, the El Capitan only screens Disney films, so I'm not sure how often I will come here, but this theatre really ties into the nostalgia of seeing a film in a movie palace. The El Capitan goes all out. When you enter the house, there is an organist on stage playing a large pipe-organ. Old school pre-show entertainment! When the organist finishes, they drop into the stage. I love that sort of thing. Then the theatre has two minutes of historic screens raised to music [see video of that below] and some trailers. Then, the house lights came up and a very chipper man with a microphone came on stage and introduced both Kermit and Miss Piggy and the audience were given a ten minute medley of holiday songs and jokes by the two lead muppets. To end the pre-show festivities, the theatre actually snowed down onto the theatre! Wow. You have to hand it to Disney and the El Capitan, they try to give you your money's worth for this screening of The Muppets.

White Men Can't Jump. This is an odd pairing of Los Angeles related movies! A few weeks ago SJ and I found ourselves on the Venice boardwalk, amidst the freaks, oddballs, weightlifters, tourists, skateboarders, gawkers and other members of the diverse population of Los Angeles. We made our way to the basketball courts and muscle beach where oiled up guys donning red speedos got their iron-pumping on. It reminded me of the 1992 film that begins at Venice Beach, White Men Can't Jump. So, we watched it a few days later.

White Men Can't Jump [which has a terrible poster on the left!] is a basketball comedy written and directed by Ron Shelton [Bull Durham] and stars Woody Harrelson, Wesley Snipes and Rosie Perez. Harrelson and Snipes play bickering hoops hustlers who take to some Los Angeles playgrounds and pull the cash out of the their socks, hats and shorts in trying to make some money playing street-styled pick-up games. There's lots of race humor in this one as you'd expect in a buddy comedy set mostly on inner city basketball courts where one of the main players is a caucasian. Some of it is still funny, some of it is a bit dated. I'm a long-time fan of Harrelson [go here to read an "I Heart WH" post I did way back in 2008], but this is one of my favorite Snipes films. Snipes is a guy who could have done more comedy [Major League is another sports film of his I'm fond of] as he's got some comedic chops he gets to unleash every so often. He goes full-on in this one and maybe comes on a bit too strong at times. Shelton never reigns him in though and that goes for the rest of the cast, as pretty much everyone in this goes a little over the top in their performances. White Men Can't Jump is still a fun basketball film with a lot of Los Angeles locations spread throughout. Rating: ***

Jeff Martin's tops in 2011

2012-01-18T06:30:00.000-08:00

Jeff Martin is from Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has written and edited My Dog Ate My Nobel Prize and The Customer Is Always Wrong and is the co-founder of the very popular Booksmart Tulsa. In 2010, he gave his tops for 2009 for CineRobot, go here to look at it. To get you in the mood for his favorites of 2011, here's a quick four question poll Jeff recently answered.

1/ If you could transport yourself into any movie in history and live the rest of your life in the film's story, what movie would it be? The Royal Tenenbaums
2/ Can you recall the last movie that made you cry? The Tree of Life
3/ Can you recall the first movie you saw in a theatre as a kid? The first two I remember are the theatrical re-release of Disney's Peter Pan or Return of the Jedi, not sure which came first.
4/ First movie star you had a crush on? Jessica Rabbit. Enough said.

1. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
2. The Tree of Life
3. Beginners
4. Midnight in Paris
5. Take Shelter
6. Martha Marcy May Marlene
7. Meek's Cutoff
8. Hugo
9. Another Earth
10. Contagion/Melancholia

Dylan Skolnick's tops for 2011

2012-01-16T06:19:00.000-08:00

Dylan Skolnick has been a contributor for the "tops" posts three years running. Go here for 2009 and here for his favorites in 2010. Dylan is the Co-Director of the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington, New York. Cinema Arts Centre opened in 1973 and it was the first movie theatre in Long Island that catered to foreign and independent cinema. There's a four part series on youtube about the history of the Cinema Arts Centre [it's about 12 minutes total if you want to watch the other parts] and below is part three, with Dylan talking about his series "Theater of the Wild".

Here is Dylan's ten choices of the not-to-be-missed in cinema for 2011.

A Dangerous Method. Smart and surprisingly funny, David Cronenberg’s latest forcefully captures the dramatic moment when Carl Jung [Michael Fassbender] and Sigmund Freud [Viggo Mortensen] first began to explore the unconscious. Keira Knightley is electric as Sabina Spielrein, whose journey from patient-to-lover-to-therapist shook Jung and Freud’s friendship and changed the direction of their work.

Shame. Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender, the director/star team behind the unforgettable Hunger [2008], re-team for this emotionally blistering drama about a sex-addicted executive. Fassbender’s stunning performance as a man driven by unquenchable demons is matched by Carey Mulligan’s brilliance as the sister whose visit shakes his obsessive life. And her haunting rendition of “New York, New York” is worth the price of admission all by itself.

Melancholia. Lars von Trier’s visually stunning portrait of two sisters [Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg] dealing with the possible destruction of Earth is wildly ambitious, totally intoxicating and extremely moving.

The Skin I Live In. Chilling, funny, and romantic, Pedro Almodovar’s latest fractured melodrama stars Antonio Banderas as a famed plastic surgeon who mysteriously keeps a woman imprisoned. Almodovar’s tale is filled with shocking twists and turns, but the Spanish master skillfully leads us to a heartbreaking finale.

Take Shelter. Mesmerizing performances by emerging stars Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain highlight Jeff Nichols’ quietly devastating drama about an ordinary family man whose life and marriage are turned upside down when he begins having apocalyptic visions.

Drive. Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn [The Pusher Trilogy] boldly comes to America with this gripping new thriller. With a restrained but dazzling style, Refn coolly tells the saga of a professional driver [Ryan Gosling] who allows romantic feelings towards his neighbor [Carey Mulligan] to undermine the precision of his life.

Le Havre. An aging shoeshine man transforms his life, and the lives of his neighbors, when he decides to help a young African refugee in Aki Kaurismaki’s magical new movie. With a gentle touch and an irresistible rockabilly score, the Finnish master weaves this seemingly simple story into an unforgettable saga of redemption.

The Tree of Life.With each successive work, Terrence Malick moves further from traditional storytelling and closer to a cinema of poetry. His latest movie is at once his most personal and his most grandiose. The heart of The Tree of Life is a lyrical vision of his youth in 1950s Texas, but Malick complicates this with cosmic journeys into the afterlife and the age of dinosaurs.

The Future. Acclaimed filmmaker and author Miranda July [Me and You and Everyone We Know] wonderfully returns with this whimsical tale of a thirty-something couple whose decision to adopt a cat throws their lives, and perhaps the entire universe, into a tailspin.

A Separation. In Asghar Farhadi’s powerful drama, an Iranian woman’s decision to leave her husband unwittingly causes two families to be caught in a shocking series of events that reveal both the frailty of human beings and the harshness of Iran’s legal system.

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Movie tickets #28

2012-01-14T06:21:00.000-08:00

Clinton McClung's tops for 2011

2012-01-12T06:14:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite regular series of posts on CineRobot is the January/February tradition of getting various people's "tops" for the previous year in cinema. Usually wildly eclectic, the people I've got making the lists include film lovers, theatre owners, programmers and dedicated readers of CineRobot. I'll be posting an exhaustive list as well at some point.

First up for the "tops" posts is Clinton McClung. Originally from Denver, Colorado, Clinton has programmed for theatres on the east and west coasts, but currently is a Cinema Programmer for the Seattle International Film Festival [a festival I know dearly as I've watched hundreds and hundreds of films at]. Clinton gets to do something and be paid for it that causes intense ravings of envy from many film nerds--he gets paid to watch movies, choose the ones he likes and thing bring them to a film festival. In short, he watches a lot of movies, so this list is a good beginning to restock your Netflix queue. Everyone's queues should be bulging with choices after all the guests reveal their tops for the year. I've already added some of these on Clinton's list for my own queue.

"I spent most of this year watching new American cinema, documentaries, cult movies and maybe shortchanged some great foreign films and larger art house titles--but I think I had a pretty full year, so no regrets. I have yet to see several films that would possibly have made my Top 10: The Artist, Hugo, Uncle Boonmee..., A Separation, Incendies, Senna, Outrage, The Skin I Live In, 13 Assassins, Margaret (which I am waiting to come to town). But they will have to go on the "catch up" list, as I am already diving into what 2012 has to offer."--Clinton, Seattle, January 2012

Hollywood Films

The Muppets

Bridesmaids

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

The Descendants [calling this Hollywood thanks to the Clooney presence]

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Indie

Melancholia

Another Earth

Attack the Block

Rubber

Hannah

The Whistleblower

Bellflower

Drive

Jane Eyre

Weekend

Natural Selection

Perfect Sense

Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil

Foreign Language

Elite Squad 2

Trollhunter

Le Havre

In a Better World

Norwegian Wood

Sound of Noise

Tilt

Documentary

How to Die in Oregon

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Page One: Inside the New York Times

Tabloid!

Life in a Day

Project Nim

Marathon Boy

Bobby Fischer Against the World

Undiscovered gem

Small Town Murder Songs

Best Performance in a not-great film

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Hesher

Foto novels from the 1970s

2012-01-10T06:03:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I was in the awesome cinema related bookstore Larry Edmunds Bookshop on Hollywood Boulevard when I came across something I had completely forgotten about: the foto novel. This was a late 1970s and early 1980s phenomenon that utilized actual screen shots from films and added film dialogue to tell the movie's story. Think of the form of a comic book or graphic novel, but with photos. I remember having a few of these as a kid including one of Close Encounters of the Third Kind that I looked at over and over again. Larry Edmunds Bookshop only had a few copies on the shelf. There was Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Ice Castles, Love at First Bite and The Champ in stock. If they would have had Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan or Alien in stock, I would have bought it right then and there. I did take a few quick photos of them if you want to catch a glimpse of teen heart-throb Robby Benson in his underwear in Ice Castles. Seeing these foto novels gave me an adrenaline rush of nostalgia. Does anyone else remember these? Did you own any?

2011 statistics!

2012-01-08T06:08:00.000-08:00

Here's the statistics for the year of 2011 in what I saw and where and who with and all of that kind of stuff. And yes, the yearly total for films with puking is in here too! It was a good year total wise with a healthy 256 amount. Spread amongst those was six different cities, nineteen people and involving movies from seventeen countries. Here's the full details.

By Month

January: 25
February: 19
March: 18
April: 16
May: 22
June: 24
July: 29
August: 19
September: 6
October: 15
November 23
December: 41

Total: 256

By Decade

1940-49: 2
1950-59: 5
1960-69: 8
1970-79: 20
1980-89: 33
1990-99: 6
2000-2009: 64
2010 +: 108

By Country

185--US and A!
17--England; France
6--Canada
5--Italy
4--Australia; Japan
3--Denmark; Germany; Mexico
2--Ireland
1--Austria; Greece; Hong Kong; South Korea; Spain; Sweden

Who I Saw 'Em With

106--Sarah Jesse
98--Loner style
30--David Nofire
7--Lillian Blevins
6--Peter Klein
5--Mandy Durham; Stephanie Huettner; Brandon Pleake
4--Tim Spindle
2--Scott Booker; Larry Terry
1--Mary Beth Babcock; Carissa Cummins; Jane Estus; Aaron Mankekar; Jeff Martin; Kent Martin; Randy Patton; Greg Younger

Where I Saw 'Em

170--Tulsa, Oklahoma
78--Los Angeles, California
3--On a jet
2--London, England; Santa Monica, California
1--Dallas, texas; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

In a theatre: 110
Documentaries: 60
Tearjerkers: 13
Puke-O-Meter: 27 [9.4% of all films I saw in 2011 had a vomit scene!]
Midnighters: 9
At Circle Cinema: 24
At New Beverly Cinema: 20

Best Canine Acting in 2011: Cosmo or Uggie?

2012-01-06T06:08:00.000-08:00

I'm not the first to mention the fact that there were a bunch of unusual, yet special, performances in supporting roles in 2011 as there are prominent Facebook and Twitter "consider" campaigns up and running for two of these actors. Human performers are used to getting their due when award season comes around, but more attention needs to go to non-human actors such as Cosmo and Uggie, two canine who were instrumental in the success of two of 2011's best films: Beginners and The Artist. I'm narrowing it down to two dogs, but could have added "Maximillion" in Hugo, "Dolce" from Young Adult, "Willie Nelson" from Our Idiot Brother or "Skeletor" in 50/50!

That's a lot of quality performances by canine actors in 2011. Anyone who has seen those two movies will remember Cosmo and Uggie as much as they will recall the other performers they shared screen time with. So, let's praise them both, but I'm going to pick a winner in the best supporting animal actor category for 2011's best in this post as I have a clear favorite. Here's a video of the pair of them [Cosmo is the larger dog] at a photo recent photo shoot if you want to see them "cuting" it up for the paparazzi.

I saw the performance of Cosmo first in Beginners. In the movie he plays a grieving pet who is forced to change residences after his caretaker dies. It's an emotional struggle for Cosmo on multiple levels. He has to express grief, the confusion of a new home and the struggle to communicate with his new roommate. Cosmo actually understands 150 words in the film and has the rare treat for an animal actor: subtitles! Usually, a canine performer gets the usual sort of screen time doing the double-take or the placing of paws over the face when they witness humans doing something stupid or dangerous. What makes Cosmo and Uggie's performances so groundbreaking is they both smash through the usual sort of canine cliche acting and take it to a higher level. Here's a short featurette where Cosmo gets praised by co-stars and director with plenty of examples of his work in Beginners.

While Cosmo delivers a sometimes sad, yet whimsical performance in Beginners, I have to go with Uggie in The Artist. Uggie has the more challenging role in two areas: he's making a silent movie and he plays multiple roles. There's no help of sound [it's odd that the dog starring in an actual silent movie is the one who doesn't get the subtitles; Cosmo gets them, not Uggie] for Uggie. He depends strictly on the physicality of his body and expressiveness of his face. There's no barking, even during the heroic scenes where Uggie is called on to summon the courage to risk his life to save another. Uggie must not only convey these emotions to the audience, he has to believibly make co-actors on-screen feel that too. Then there's the fact that Uggie plays multiple roles in movies within The Artist. When all is said in done, he's acted in at least four different roles by the end of the film. That's impressive range for any actor and combined with the silent nature of Uggie's performance [toss in the fact Uggie had another key role in 2011 in Water for Elephants], I've chosen Uggie as best supporting actor in 2011. If you don't think Uggie took his role in The Artist seriously, listen to lead-actor Jean Dujardin talk about the preparation the pair made before filming began in the video below.

***If you are reading this post via e-mail, the imbedded videos in this post might not work with your particular e-mail account. Click on the post title and you will be taken directly to CineRobot to view the videos.***

Doomsday 2012: Waterworld + The Postman

2012-01-04T09:20:00.000-08:00

As some of you surely know, the Mayan calendar ends on December 23, 2012. Will the earth suffer plagues and tribulations that will challenge the future existence of humans? Will the planet just explode, turning us all into space dust? Or, did the Mayans just get sick of updating their calendar? We might find out the answer to that question before we reach 2013. I've always had a soft spot for apocalyptic cinema. Blame it on my Southern Baptist upbringing with large doses of the rapture, end-times and plenty of fire and brimstone to keep your mind occupied. I expect there will be a lot of screenings of end-of-the-world or apocalyptic films in 2012, so I thought I'd watch a bunch of them to get in the spirit of what might come our way. I just bought a ticket to see a Mad Max triple feature [yes, triple feature!] at the Egyptian for the end of January. Expect that to be the second post in this new series I've dubbed Doomsday 2012. But, first up is two end-of-the-world epics from Kevin Costner that I had never seen despite their infamous reputation: Waterworld and The Postman.

Kevin Costner was clearly drinking some doomsday kool-aid in the 1990s because he was chiefly responsible for two of the biggest post-apocalyptic movie flops in the history of film in a three year span. In 1995 Costner starred [and helped directed without credit] an over-budgeted aqua disaster known as Waterworld. Hated by critics and avoided by ticket buyers, Waterworld turned into a punchline of many one-liners directed at Costner's inflated ego. Evidently, Costner is a stubborn ol' cuss, because two years later in 1997, he produced and directed another apocalyptic thesis known as The Postman. Deja vu? Yes. Lambasted by critics and rejected like the plague by audiences, Costner gave up on his vision to explore post-apocalyptic American water and landscapes for good. I'm kind of sad he didn't get the opportunity to make a trilogy, but no one in their right minds was going to give him money to make another of these colossal fiascos.

Let's get right to Waterworld, a movie I'd only known by its laughable reputation when it was released. The world is completely covered by water with people living on boats or floating metal communities while scouring the ocean floor for sustenance and tools for survival. Dirt is hard to find and treated like gold in trade. Like all post-apocalyptic tales in cinema, this is a harsh existence. No food, no water, bad hair, bad clothes, no dentists. Costner plays a loner who cruises around on his tricked out catamaran. It's got massive sails, low-tech weaponry and even a nifty water purifier that allows Costner to drink his own urine. Okay. So far, so good. That doesn't sound so bad.

I guess I should mention that Costner is sort of a mutant with gills and can swim like a fish. What? Now that's just absurd. The story gets convoluted in a hurry. There's a young girl with a map of land tattooed onto her back. There's a roving band of jet-ski riding psychos, led by the shaven-headed and sunburned Dennis Hopper. The villains want this map at any cost. Unfortunately, Costner's fish-man is thrown in water jail due to his status as a mutant, but escapes to take the tattooed girl and Jeanne Triplehorn onto his boat while being pursued by the nasties.

The script and the story of Waterworld is where the film goes deeply off the rails. If you just take it for a rip-off of The Road Warrior on water and watch the action scenes, it's not so horrible. It has possibly the most jet-ski action in it in movie history. There's water skiers all over the place too. They both jump in the air off ramps while firing weapons. It's kind of bizarre to watch. We're so programmed as viewers to see action scenes with land, to see nothing but water amid the boats, jet-skis, skiers and other people on water is a bit confusing. It's best to ignore the over-serious dialogue and attempts at drama by Costner and just go with the silly fun of the water stunt work. Costner's tone is deadly serious throughout the film. There's no sense of fun from him despite the fact he's playing a character with gills. Hopper hams it up accordingly, but not Costner. Waterworld is campy, cheesy, a serious waste of money and completely deserving of its reputation. It does have some terrific jet-ski action sequences though. Trailer below in case you don't remember this one. Rating: **1/2

The Postman. I can picture him pondering what went wrong with Waterworld and coming to the decision that it was obvious what the mistake was: water! So, he chose to make a second post-apocalyptic movie, taking out the offensive water element and making The Postman. The Postman is a truly horrible movie that makes Waterworld seem like the Citizen Kane of jet-ski, water-based action-adventure films it is so plodding, misguided and just plain old awful.

What are we to do as a species if we have no possibility of mail delivery? Are postal workers the first element of a democratic society? Can the deliverers of mail become symbols of freedom and provide the inspiration for revolution? Those are just some of the questions raised by director Kevin Costner as he plays the title character known simply as "The Postman". Early on, he's got nothing to do with the mail, he's a travelling actor who barters scenes for food. His acting partner? His mule. It's not what you'd call good theatre. Conscripted into a brutal military regime led by Will Patton, "The Postman" just wants to act with his mule, not fight and take tributes by force from local townships. Escape plans are hatched and accomplished. When "The Postman" comes across a mail truck on a rainy, cold night, the shelter it provides alters not only his destiny, but the destiny of the future of the United States of America.

What a mess The Postman is. Glacially slow, absurdly patriotic, silly story, no suspense and Tom Petty [!] combine to make one of the worst films I've seen in a long time. Terrible direction [the slow motions!], terrible script [jingoistic overload], you name it, this one is terrible. Did the US postal service have money invested in this one? If not, they should have as I've never seen a movie where people delivering the mail would be given such heroic screen time. The Postman should have been given a limited edition stamp as a promotional tie-in. Did I mention that the running time for The Postman is nearly three hours? Was Costner insane trying to release a movie this dull, this ridiculous and this lifeless into theatres and then making it three hours long? If he'd cut an hour off it, the film would have still been a lackluster failure, but it would have stood a fighting chance. As is, it's a complete and utter disaster.

Had I not been writing a post for CineRobot, I wouldn't have come close to finishing The Postman. It would have been stopped and returned to Netflix in less than an hour. But, I gutted it out. I suffered for CineRobot and for you dear readers for this one. Here's the trailer below if you want to get a quick glimpse of some of the more amusing speeches about the importance of the mail. Has anyone actually sat through this in its entirety? If you have, I respect your tolerance for cinematic pain that watching the full three hours of The Postman will deliver the viewer. Rating *

December movies

2012-01-01T06:49:00.000-08:00

I ended 2011 on a full-on rampage of movie watching. 41 movies. That's how you end the year in style. It helped that I had a film-loving visiter in from Tulsa and that Edgar Wright had an eight night run at the New Beverly that I went to on six of the nights. But, this was a month of solid film binging even without those nights. Highlight of the month: 2001: A Space Odyssey in 70mm battling it out with The Bad News Bears. Seriously, that's how much I love The Bad News Bears. Low lights of the new releases: Shame and Young Adult. Both are overhyped and I didn't like either of them for a variety of reasons. Here's the full breakdown of the month.

Diner---1982---usa ****
Albert Nobbs---2011---ireland ***1/2
Just One of the Guys---1985---usa ***
Margin Call---2011---usa ****
Potiche---2010---france ***
Last House on the Left---1972---usa ***1/2
House on the Edge of the Park---1980---italy **
Superman---1978---usa ***1/2
Corman's World---2011---usa ****
The Girl Can't Help It---1956---usa ***1/2
Get Crazy---1983---usa ***1/2
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World---2010---usa ****
2001: A Space Odyssey---1968---usa *****!
Christmas Evil---1980---usa **
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T---1953---usa ***1/2
Kwaidan---1964---japan ***
The Artist---2011---france ****
Shame---2011---england *1/2
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg---1964---france ***1/2
Chungking Express---1994---hong kong ****1/2
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance---1962---usa ****
Ride the High Country---1962---usa ***1/2
To Be or Not to Be---1942---usa ****
The Bad News Bears---1976---usa *****!
Hickey and Boggs---1972---usa ***1/2
Waterworld---1995---usa **1/2
We Need to Talk about Kevin---2011---scotland ****
Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil---2011---usa ***1/2
Bend It Like Beckham---2002---england ***1/2
Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator---2002---usa ***
Mafioso---1962---italy ***1/2
Heartbreaker---2010---france ***1/2
Bloods and Crips: Made in America---2008---usa ***
Summer in Genoa---2008---england **1/2
Catching Hell---2010---usa ***1/2
Midnight in Paris---2011---usa ****
Soul Kitchen---2009---germany ***1/2
Young Adult---2011---usa **
Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol---2011---usa ***1/2
A Dangerous Method---2011---usa ***1/2

2011's list of speakers

2011-12-28T06:29:00.000-08:00

Since moving to Los Angeles in October, I've hit the mother load regarding the opportunity to hear directors, actors, critics and other people connected to movies speak about cinema. Being prone to lists, I promptly began to jot down every person I saw do a Q & A, introduction or was involved in talking about a film. There are also some folks I'm putting on the list that I saw participate in a live script read---they are marked by a red * after their names. Here's the list in order of when I saw them speak and what they are most known for. Over 50 speakers in three months! The one I was most excited about? Clint Eastwood.

John Hawkes--Actor
Sean Dirkin--Director
Elizabeth Olsen--Actress
Elvis Mitchell--Critic
Jason Reitman--Director
JK Simmons*--Actor
Jennifer Garner*--Actress
Aaron Paul*--Actor
Patton Oswalt*--Actor/Comedian
Mindy Kaling*--Actress
Michael Chiklis*--Actor
James Van Der Beek*--Actor
Dick Smith--Make-up artist
Clint Eastwood--Actor/Director
Leonardo DiCaprio--Actor
Armie Hammer--Actor
Dustin Lance Black--Screenwriter
Woody Harrelson--Actor
Robin Wright--Actress
Owen Moverman--Director
Ben Foster--Actor
Brie Larson--Actress
Panos Cosmatos--Director
Jeffrey Bloom--Director
John Saxon--Actor
Roger Corman--Producer/Director
Alex Stapleton--Director
Julie Corman--Producer
Werner Herzog--Director
Natalie Portman*--Actress
Steve Carell*--Actor
Pierce Brosnan*--Actor
Ken Jeong*--Actor
Nick Kroll*--Actor
Jake Johnson*--Actor
Collette Wolfe*--Actress
Paul Feig--Director
Gavin O'Connor--Director
Fred Lincoln--Actor
Marc Sheffler--Actor
Martin Kove--Actor
Jack O'Halloran--Actor
Marc McClure--Actor
Joe Dante--Director
Allan Arkush--Director
Eli Roth--Director
Edgar Wright--Director
Mary Elizabeth Winstead--Actress
Clifton Collins, Jr--Actor
Thomas Jane--Actor
Bryan Lee O'Malley--Writer
Michael Bacall--Actor/Screenwriter
Lewis Jackson--Director
John Landis--Director
Matthew Weiner--Writer
James Gunn--Director
Doug Benson--Comedian
Larry Karaszewski--Screenwriter
Leonard Maltin--Critic
Walter Hill--Director/Screenwriter

Movie tickets #27

2011-12-26T07:24:00.000-08:00

Shame + The Artist

2011-12-24T07:19:00.000-08:00

Film: Shame [2011, england]
Where I saw it: DVD at home in Los Angeles
Who with: Loner style
Rating: *1/2

Shame. I hated this movie from English director Steve McQueen [Hunger] that is getting lauded for its unapologetic full frontal nudity [and performance] of lead actor Michael Fassbender, NC-17 rating and intense story. Shame is the most overrated, overwrought, overly-serious to-the-point-of-ridiculous movie I've seen all year. Shame is one of these kinds of films that likes to wallow in its misery and expects the audience to do the same as every single character is a self-loathing mess of various neurosis. At the forefront is the sex addiction of Fassbender's "Brandon Sullivan" which causes him to spend nights with pornography on his computer, call up prostitutes or troll the bars looking for anonymous alleyway sexual encounters with other desperate individuals.

For a film about sex, it's hard to think of something so unsexy as Shame. This is not an erotic movie, it's a tale about ugly people who live shallow lives despite having money and good jobs, and can't find anything to do except drag themselves down in the mire. It's never explained what screwed up this brother and sister [Carey Mulligan], but they are one messed up pair of siblings. "Brandon" cares only about trying to fill the bottomless hole of ache that sex is supposed to fill up. But, like every kind of addict, the hole can never be filled, no matter how many women [or men] he takes to bed [or to a bathroom, or alley, or wherever he can get them for sex]. I just found Shame to be uninteresting, unappealing and completely laughable in its bleakness. And the nudity of Fassbender? More hype. The full frontal stuff comes off as desperation by McQueen to garner attention for his film and nothing else. Fassbender wanders around his apartment with his business on full display a couple of times. It has nothing to do with the character's sex life, it's just a cheap tactic by McQueen that further cements the stench of phoniness and absolute tone of pretension that Shame has.

Film: The Artist [2011, france]
Where I saw it: Los Angeles at Landmark
Who with: Sarah and David
Rating: Joshua ****; Sarah *****!; David ?

The Artist. Now for one I really liked. The Artist is a much-buzzed about film from French director Michel Hazanavicius that is a straight-up silent movie and I was completely charmed by it from the first moment, all the way to the terrific ending. Set in the waning days of silent cinema, The Artist tells the story of what happens "George Valentin" [Jean Dujardin] when the arrival of the "talkies" destroys his career as a popular silent movie actor. We see his downfall and his struggle to come to grips with his new status in the city that he was once so beloved in: Hollywood. This actually happened quite a bit during this transitional period in movie history. As sound technology rapidly changed filmmaking and what audiences wanted--many star directors and performers could not survive the switch to sound and were lost to the obscurity of history. The Artist delves into that while also unleashing a tender, hard to resist love story between "Valentin" and "Peppy Miller" [Berenice Bejo] as the pair meet, separate and then find their lives intermingling despite their different professional and personal directions they are going to.

Hazanavicius' film is a complete surprise in terms of subject matter and attention. Silent movies in 2011 wouldn't be the first thing that would pop into your head as a must see of the year [although, there are actually two films with silent movies in their story this year when you count Hugo]. Toss in the fact that Hazanavicius is known in France for making a goofy series of comedies such as OSS 117 and The Artist is truly an out-of-the-blue phenomenon. It's been so many decades since a silent film has had this much attention. I can only think of Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times in 1936 to have so much attention in the post-talking era of films before this one. Am I missing anything since that? If true, that was 75 years ago. That's how out-of-fashion The Artist is and what makes it more remarkable that its found a place with both moviegoers and critics alike.

The Artist is a classy piece of movie making by Hazanavicius. Gorgeously shot in achingly lush black and white [obviously] by cinematographer Guillaume Schiffman, the film utilizes actual location shooting of Hollywood and Los Angeles as its backdrop for its story. I recognized the Bradbury Building, Orpheum Theatre and the Warner Brothers back lot during the film. The acting performances are also first rate with Dujardin and Bejo not only having undeniable chemistry, they both give wonderful performances. The same can be said for jack-of-all-trade actors John Goodman [what can't this man do as an actor?] and James Cromwell.

The Artist is only going to pick up more steam as word-of-mouth increases and nominations for awards get announced. It's 2011's surprise must-see for people wanting a sophisticated, old-fashioned [what's more old-fashioned than a silent melodrama?] romance. I'm a sucker for anything to do with this era of Hollywood, so I'm an easy target. What makes me especially happy that The Artist is picking up momentum with audiences is it might draw attention to an era of Hollywood that has been sort of forgotten by the masses: the era of silent films. There's a purity of cinema to silent films that was lost when sound took over and The Artist captures the era, style of filmmaking and tone perfectly while also being entertaining. Recommended.

I Heart John Candy

2011-12-22T06:30:00.000-08:00

The night before Thanksgiving, SJ and I saw Planes, Trains and Automobiles at the Nuart Theatre in Santa Monica. I hadn't seen this 1987 John Hughes film in a long, long time and was kind of blown away by how good it is. That movie is probably as good as it gets for John Candy fans. It's got everything about him that I love--the honest sweetness he had the ability to tap into, the gift of blessed comic timing, the act of physical comedy and the way he uses his girth in such a way that nearly makes it invisible while also drawing attention to it for humor.

I first noticed Candy in the late 1970s when I came across the madcap series SCTV that starred Candy, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara and a bunch of other people. While Saturday Night Live gets most of the credit for changing the face of comedy, SCTV deserves some attention for the outlandish sketch comedy of the show that was a peer to the more celebrated Saturday Night Live. Candy was an original cast member in 1976 for three years before leaving and going into films.

Right off the bat, he popped up in two movies that I loved as a kid: Blues Brothers [1980] and Stripes [1981]. I still like them actually. I re-watched Blues Brothers a few weeks ago and lamented the fact that Candy only had a couple of scenes. The first half of Stripes is still comedy gold to me [before it goes all action in the second half] and it is the film that led to my discovery of the late, great Warren Oates. While the roles were small, Candy used his character actor style to steal nearly every scene that he was in. This would be a recurring element when he provided support to bigger stars throughout his career. In these films, Splash [1983] for example, I think of them as much as Candy vehicles as the higher billed actors. He was in some decent to forgettable films in the 1980s, but due to the larger than life personality of Candy, I actually like a lot of those films. Brewster's Millions, Summer Rental, Armed and Dangerous, Spaceballs, The Great Outdoors and Uncle Buck are all films from that decade that I've got a soft spot for. Mostly, it's because John Candy was in the film.

Check out part one of Candy being interviewed by Bob Costas in 1989 for Later. Candy talks about Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Splash, dropping out of the Ghostbusters cast and other topics. Who knows what would have happened to Candy's career if he'd been in Ghostbusters. This is a three part interview on You Tube that I recommend for Candy fans as he discusses a myriad of topics related to his life and career up until 1989.

While I was happy to watch Candy in such low-aiming comedies, I always believed that he could do dramatic work if given the chance. In 1991, I was thrilled to see him in the cast of Oliver Stone's paranoid opus JFK as fast-talking, slang-tossing lawyer Dean Andrews. While his time on screen was brief, Candy nailed the smoking, sunglass wearing, hip, 1960s style of Andrews perfectly. A more unseen film also from 1991, Only the Lonely, saw Candy stretch out in the romantic comedy drama. I thought this was going to be the start of Candy's second act as a terrific character actor. That never happened. It was back to forgettable comedies until Candy died a few years later from a heart attack in his sleep. He was 43 years old. Check out Candy as Andrews in JFK in the video below.

More nights with Edgar Wright at the New Beverly

2011-12-20T06:23:00.000-08:00

I recently wrote about English director Edgar Wright's awesome eight night "take over" [his words] of the New Beverly cinema in a couple of earlier posts covering the epic binge of Los Angeles movies and movie related history a friend and I went on during his visit. Too fun a series to leave to just those posts, here's the details of the other four nights of the "Wright Stuff III" that I also attended. To refresh just what the "Wright Stuff III" is even though I wrote a description of it here, all eight nights of the series are double features that Wright has never seen. All shown with film prints and with guest speakers to announce and talk about the films with Edgar before and after they screen. It really was a terrific idea.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg/Chungking Express. The only bad thing about this double-bill was I forgot to get a photo of the marquee. Blame it on the rainy weather that inspired Sarah and I to head right to the ticket window instead of loitering outside. Having a crisp, rainy night was actually perfect weather for these two romance drenched films. First up was the 1964 French musical from director Jacques Demy The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Introduced by Mad Men writer/producer Matthew Wiener, the former Jeopardy contestant [something I didn't know until he mentioned it] talked eloquently about not only the film, but about culture, the 1960s, the French and the undeniable star power of the female lead, Catherine Deneuve. Edgar mentioned that his parents saw this film while on a date and then had the horrible vision of his parents "doing it" which wasn't as bad for the rest of the audience since we've never met his mom and dad. If you aren't familiar with The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, every line of dialogue is sung throughout the entire film. The moments where the movie is completely silent is so rare, when it happens, it is quite jarring on the viewer to have unexpected quiet in a film with non-stop music. The film is a celebration of romance and "French" essence and has a beautiful, bittersweet ending that rates up there with best endings in a French movie for me.

While I looked forward to seeing The Umbrellas of Cherbourg with a film print and an audience, it was Chungking Express, a 1994 picture from Hong Kong's Wong Kar Wei that really got me to the New Beverly on this night. The last time I saw this was in the mid-1990s on a crappy 18" television. It might have even been on VHS. Not tonight. Introduced by Super director James Gunn [on a previous night John Landis commented that Gunn called his film Super just so he could place the title and the word "director" before any introduction of himself. Landis said he was going to make a movie called Handsome Genius for his future introductions.] in one of the shorter intros of the festival, I was ready to just get to the over-the-top, kinetic visuals of Wong Kar Wei and see Chungking Express again. I love this movie. Dazzling, romantic, saturated colors, repeated use of music--all of Wong Kar Wei's trademarks are here with dashes of comedy thrown into the mix. Non-stop fun.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance/Ride the High Country. I'm a western lover. It is the quintessential genre for "American" storytelling that is completely unique to us as a nation and people. It's the one and only genre that is instantly recognizable as "American" and its popularity in the Golden Age of Hollywood cemented its popularity with the masses. I'm one of those people who gets kind of depressed that I don't get to see new westerns every single year. Luckily, there are so many from the past, but new ones would sure be great from time to time. This night saw two of the genres best directors in a double bill with releases from the same year of 1962: John Ford and Sam Peckinpah. When you think about westerns, the names Ford and Peckinpah should be the first ones to pop out of your mouth, so this double bill was highly anticipated by me.

Writer/director Peter Bogdanovich held court for about 40 minutes before The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Who better than Bogdanovich to talk about Ford since he knew him well and made a documentary and wrote a book about him. A born racanteur, Bogdanovich told stories [which included spot-on impressions] that included Ford, Orson Welles, Howard Hawks, James Cagney, John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart. I could have listened to more of those stories for another hour and still watched the two films that followed. Bogdanovich called The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Ford's last great western and it sure is that. I've seen it before, but with an packed house, this film plays incredible. Funny, tense and darkly heroic, the crowd really ate this movie up. Lee Marvin plays a wonderful villain, brimming with the threat of violence. If you want to see a bad guy in a movie played to full-tilt with raging menace, check out Marvin's performance in this. Incredible.

Ride the High Country is Sam Peckinpah's second film as a director and another one that gets a lot better when you watch it on the screen with other people. This is the second time I've seen Ride the High Country and the same two things stood out to me while I watched it: I sure love Warren Oates and Randolph Scott is awesome in a western setting playing a bad guy. It's hard not to watch Scott on the screen as he just has that "it" that certain movie stars have. That makes it all the more surprising that Ride the High Country is Scott's last film. Sadly, as he retired from acting at the age of 64. How I wish I could see more westerns!

To Be or Not to Be/The Bad News Bears. There were other nights I was happy to head over to the New Beverly to watch a double feature [when all was said and done, I was there for six of the eight nights], but this one was special for one reason: The Bad News Bears. While I enjoyed the screening of Ernst Lubitsch's 1942 comedy To Be or Not to Be [and Joe Donte and Leonard Maltin's serious introduction--see photo of Maltin, Dante and Wright on left], I was here to see the beloved 1976 comedy with a film print and an eager audience. It did not disappoint me at all. Comedian Doug Bensen, screenwriter Larry Karaszewski and Wright were responsible for the intro [with some help from an e-mail from the Coen Brothers who say this is one of the influential films responsible for them that inspired them to make movies]. I think The Bad News Bears has gotten better with every passing year. As pointed out by Karaszewski, this is an adult movie about kids--real kids--and is not afraid to show the darker elements of human nature on display. This is a 1970s PG film with cursing, drinking, smoking, racial epitaphs and all kinds of things that were sanitized out of the horrendous remake a few years ago. PG in 1976 is a lot better than PG in 2011, that's for sure. I skipped the LACMA live read of The Princess Bride to see The Bad News Bears again and it was worth it. In fact, there is not a place on earth I'd rather have been on this night than watching this movie, with this audience, in Los Angeles, such is my love for The Bad News Bears. I honestly think that Michael Ritchie's film should go down as not only one of the best comedies of all time, this is one of the best movies of all time and it should get its due!

Hickey and Boggs. Tonight was the last night of the "Wright Stuff III" and while I'm a little sad its ending, I could use the rest. I was actually under the weather and only watched the first film of the double bill due to that. It will be nice to catch up on my sleep and take a few days off from eating Junior Mints and Red Vines [my candy of choice at the New Beverly]. I'd never seen Hickey and Boggs, which is kind of nuts because I really love Walter Hill and 1970s movies, so this was a good one to start off the last night. Introducing this one was the film's writer, Walter Hill himself. I'm a long-time fan of Hill's tough, lean, no-bullsh*t directing style [The Long Riders, The Warriors, Southern Comfort, plus many others], so it was a real treat to hear him talk about his writing spare writing style and tell some stories about the 1972 film Hickey and Boggs. Hill as a speaker is kind of like the scripts he's penned--unflowery, speckled with curse words, tough. Hill's just a cinematic bad-ass even at the age of 69. He's got a movie coming out next year called Bullet to the Head just to prove how bad-ass he is.

Hickey and Boggs is a bleak neo-noir set in sunny Los Angeles [I could write about this in my "Los Angeles Cinema" series as this is a quintessential Los Angeles movie] that stars Robert Culp [he also directs] and Bill Cosby. I'm so ruined by the image of Cosby due to the fact of his TV show from the 1980s and his image since then. In 1972, he was a cigar chomping, wisecracking, skinny actor who belongs as much in the dark material of this film as he would later destroy all competition as a mainstream sitcom juggernaut. I like this side of Cosby more. Here's a blurry photo of Edgar and Mr. Walter Hill to end the festivities that was the "Wright Stuff III." Even though it just ended, I'm ready for part IV!

Save 35mm film petition

2011-12-17T06:36:00.000-08:00

Julia Marchese, an employee of the New Beverly, has started up an online petition for individuals to sign and I'm urging everyone who reads this to add their name to it. I have. Go here to sign it. Julia's trying to get 10,000 signatures that will be sent to the studios who are threatening to stop letting rep cinemas use prints to exhibit to the public. If that happens, places like New Beverly will have to change the way they do things [they are film only at this point]. Even theatres that only dabble in rep cinema will have the prints barred from use, forcing everyone into screening every older film they show into a digital presentation.

I wrote a few weeks ago about how the major studios are attempting [well, they aren't attempting, they are actually doing] to faze out film prints for new films, if the studios have their way, even the old movies will be shown digital only. These studio hacks, a collection of brain dead, bottom line whores, think that EVERYONE is okay with watching a DVD or Blu-Ray of a beloved movie instead of a lovingly warm 35mm print. Well, those people are idiots. Do your good deed of the day, please go to the link above and sign the petition.

***Photo by Julia Wallmuller***

When a film geek visits me in Los Angeles, part two

2011-12-14T06:46:00.000-08:00

Continuing my daily log of what David and I did on his recent visit to Los Angeles...

Day 4: We went into the hornet's nest of tourism: Hollywood Boulevard! If you don't know what this means, it is crowded sidewalks of gawkers from out of town, people trying to talk you into taking their half-rate tour of the city, people selling you their creative wares [I had a young hip hop guy try to sell me his self-made CD for $1. According to him, it had "nothin' but cussin'" on it, which is a selling point for some, but not me. I passed on it despite the fair price he offered.] and people dressed up as various famous characters from the world of cinema. I saw a sad looking Charlie Chaplin, Michael Jackson, Darth Vader and I even had a brief, hostile exchange with a surprisingly surly Spiderman. The actual stars of the Hollywood Walk of Fame don't do a lot for me, but I really like the signatures in cement with hands and feet [and in the case of the image of Harold Lloyd's plot, his trademark glasses].

A funny thing related to one of the people dressed up happened. I was trying to take a photo of the square of cement square related to Star Trek when Spiderman stepped onto the signatures and didn't move. I politely asked, "Please move, Mr. Spiderman" as the man stared at me through his semi-filthy mask for a couple of seconds. "No one cares about you or what you are doing," this Spiderman informed me as he walked away. I said to David, "Spiderman is kind of rude today." Spiderman stopped on the sidewalk and yelled back to us, "Spiderman can say whatever he wants to say" and walked off. I don't recommend having your photo taken with Spiderman if he's going to have a bad attitude like that and yell at people who are simply trying to take a photo of Leonard Nimoy's finger imprints on cement.

We walked down Hollywood Boulevard to the point that it loses its family friendly vibe and takes on a scuzzier, seedier feeling as there are plenty of skanky lingerie and sex shops in you are the mood to unleash your kinkier side. We found our way to Larry Edmunds Bookshop and was struck full in the face with the mother load when it comes to movie related books and magazines. I could have spent a few hours in there just browsing the floor to ceiling shelves, but we had to go to another place that is chock full of goodies, Amoeba Records. Needing to get some rest before dinner and the night's upcoming triple feature, we made our way back to the apartment to recover from our tourist injection that is Hollywood Boulevard.

Edgar Wright [Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim] is holding an eight day festival of films he's never seen at the New Beverly and tonight was night one. I wrote about it recently here. We started the "Wright Stuff III" strong with three music related movies in The Girl Can't Help It, Get Crazy and Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World. Yes, a triple feature that had us at the New Beverly for nearly eight hours. The screenings were chock full of special guests to talk about the film and one of them, Joe Dante, sat directly in front of us during The Girl Can't Help It. Other speakers for the films were Allen Arkush, Eli Roth, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clifton Collins, Jr., Thomas Jane and obviously Wright [photo on left with Wright, Collins, Jane, Winstead, Michael Bacall and Bryan Lee O'Malley]. Get Crazy, a little seen film from 1983, was a fun blast of 1980s zaniness from Arkush involving music and hijinks that was filmed entirely in Los Angeles' Wiltern Theatre. We arrived at New Beverly at 7pm, I got into bed at 3am and asleep sometime after that!

Day 5. It wasn't the best choice to get up from less than five hours sleep and head downtown for a three hour tour of the movie theatre district, but that's just what we did. The LA Conservancy offers a tremendous tour of the movie and theatre district every Saturday morning for only $10 [an amazing bargain for what you get to see/hear about on this tour--I should know as this is the second time I've taken it in three months]. You get to spend quality time inside multiple theatres in the tour [we were in both the Million Dollar Theatre and the amazing Orpheum Theatre the longest] and go in the Bradbury as well [Blade Runner!]. Included are a couple of photos of the Orpheum Theatre, an music and event theatre opened in 1926 as a vaudeville and movie theatre that is still going strong today. Wow, what a place.

After we had lunch in the Grand Central Market [I had a terrific carne asada torta], we walked around downtown and came across a film shoot for a commercial. Something I'm not close to being used to is coming across some various film shoot or having to bypass a street due to it being shut down for filming. It happens all the time. After a couple hours rest at the apartment getting caught up on Work of Art and Top Chef, David and I made our way to the Aero in Santa Monica for one of those special cinema experiences that anyone who likes movies should do once in their lives: 2001: A Space Odyssey in 70mm! Neither of us had seen it on a screen, much less 70mm, so when we started planning the films for David's visit, this one was circled in bright red from the moment we saw it. 2001 is the mind blowing science fiction epic from Stanley Kubrick that is just as jaw-droppingly magnificent today as it was when it was released 43 years ago in 1968. Seeing 2001 in 70mm is going to rank as one of the great moments of my life of film events, that's how special this film in this format is.

How overboard have we gone on this Los Angeles binge of movie sightseeing and film watching? Well, the answer was supplied on this night. We drove back from Santa Monica and went back to New Beverly to see a midnight screening of the 1980 horror/comedy Christmas Evil. Due to the second night of the "Wright Stuff III" festival it started late. How late? The film started around 1am. That means David and I stood outside in pretty cold weather for 45 minutes. Was it worth it? Probably not. I was so tired I dozed off a time or two for brief flashes and the film is kind of a below average oddball film about a guy obsessed with Christmas and Santa Claus. Had it started on time, maybe I would have liked it a little more, but Christmas Evil was still a stinker that is battling House on the Edge of the Park for the least enjoyable film of David's trip.

Day 6. After back-to-back nights of staying out until 3amish for films, we did not get an early jump on David's last day in Los Angeles. Thank goodness for that. We did catch a matinee screening of the 2011 French silent The Artist and it was the perfect film to watch for the trip as it is about the waning era of silent filmmaking in Hollywood. Shot in Los Angeles, we spotted numerous locations that we made it to in the past few days [Bradbury Building, Orpheum Theatre, Warner Brothers back lot]. The Artist is getting a lot of accolades at the moment and they are much deserved. It is a sweetly entertaining melodrama that revives the notion of silent films. Who would have thought that 2012 would have two releases [Hugo is the other] among my favorites of the year that include silent moviemaking as major plot points? Not me.

We made our way back to the New Beverly for our last double feature of director Edgar Wright's "Wright Stuff III" [not for me though--I have four more to go!]. This night was going to be a mad pairing of The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T and Kwaidan. I hadn't seen either of the films, but the guest speakers for the night might be the most entertaining of the entire eight night run: John Landis, Joe Dante and Patton Oswalt. It seems that Oswalt came ready to do some stand-up comedy, as he went on a couple of lengthy riffs about 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T that were raucously received by the sell-out crowd. Dante was forced into playing the straight man, which he said he was fine doing. Wright even called them the "new comedy team of Dante and Oswalt" when mentioning them later in the evening. Landis talked about both films, but the only one of the two he liked was Kwaidan, a 1964 movie with four ghost related stories. I was pretty tired during it, so Kwaidan seemed really slow as it unfolded. The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T was certainly not slow. Directed by Dr. Seuss himself [the only movie he made], it's a 1953 film that is a bizarre, technicolor musical fantasy involving a young boy and his mother in a piano instruction prison controlled by Dr. T. Unceasingly over-the-top, this was a kaleidoscope of color, song and weirdness that probably has messed with a lot of kid's minds over the decades.

As one last visual image to document our Los Angeles binge, here's a photo of us at the Warner Brothers studio as we come face to face with the world of Harry Potter. It's frightening as you can see by the look on my face. Also worth noting is the amazing handlebar mustache I'm sporting!

Hugo

2011-12-12T07:16:00.000-08:00

Film: Hugo [2011, usa]

Where I saw it: Los Angeles @ the Grove

Who with: loner style

Rating: ****1/2

I watch all of Martin Scorsese's movies because, come on, it's Martin Scorsese. If you aren't watching every movie that he directs, you are losing film geek street cred and I like to stay on top of that street cred if I can. As his films have gotten larger in every way [budget, scope, audience], I've actually liked his movies less. The personal element that made his films in the 1970s/1980s so raw is hard to find in recent films such as Shutter Island, The Departed and The Aviator. Yes, his films are still incredibly made by a man still in complete control of his craft, but they are lacking in an intimacy as Scorsese has gravitated to broader stories.

The only thing I knew about Hugo going in was it was based on a kid's book [The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick] and that Scorsese had made a 3D picture. That element was lost on my since I paid to see the 2D version. I've given up on watching films in 3D due to the massive migraines I get every time I see a 3D film. Combine the headaches with the annoyance of having to put glasses on over the glasses I already wear, and I'm done with the fad that is already dying off in popularity [strike three 3D!]. Enough 3D talk, there are so many facets to the story that I love, I just sat back and let the story about an orphan living in a clock tower in a 1930s Paris train station was over me. Hugo has clocks, magic, early film history, literature, childhood romance and adventure, suspense and humor among the things coursing through it. Hugo unleashes the viewer's imagination and then runs wild with the kinetic motion of the story. It reminds me of French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet due to its attention to detail and similar look and production design. I love Jeunet, so that's not a bad reference for Scorsese since he's setting the film in a Parisian train station.

Obviously, I loved the unexpected journey Scorsese takes the audience on regards to cinema history. The discussion of the early days [including an incredible scene inside a theatre as people watch a Harold Lloyd silent comedy] of filmmaking are sneakily subversive by Scorsese. The last thing I thought this film would have would be conversations about the importance of film preservation! Long a proponent of such a thing, he's just never snuck in dialogue about the topic into one of his movies. This aspect of the story could have probably used some trimming, but as someone who loves film history, I enjoyed these scenes as much as the hard-to-resist story of the orphan "Hugo" as he tries to desperately unravel a mystery spawned by the automaton that he is trying to fix.

Hugo is a very sweet movie. The story of an orphan surviving on his own wiles in a train station while being pursued by the station agent [Sasha Baren Cohen] provides plenty of adventure, but it is the heart and emotional heft of the film that gives it a weight that will make it appeal to adults and children alike. I would have liked just the mystery and adventure, but having all these "extras" in the story gives it a layered depth that a kid-orientated action film wouldn't have had. I was moved. Asa Butterfield and Chloe Grace Moretz are both terrific in the lead roles. Support by Cohen, Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Christopher Lee, Ray Winstone and others is also first-rate.

A love letter to many things--cinema, magic, dreams, family and love--Hugo is a wildly entertaining and completely unexpected. This is a favorite of mine in 2011. In fact, it is my favorite Martin Scorsese movie since Casino in 1995. The name Scorsese might not seem a natural fit for PG rated kids movie, but Hugo is a triumphant bit of storytelling and technique that makes living in a train clock tower look like a lot of fun. Recommended in 2D [and probably 3D too!].

When a film geek visits me in Los Angeles

2011-12-10T07:19:00.000-08:00

A variety of people will probably come visit us in Los Angeles. Each person will bring their own interests and things they want to do and see in the city while they are here. Certain individuals might be interested in food, architecture or museums. Yet, some, like my first visitor David, want to see movies. I can related to that. While I like doing other things when I'm in a large city, one of my favorite things to do is to watch movies. A lot of movies. Some people might think it strange to go to another city and watch movies when you can see them later on DVD, but that's one of the things I love to do when I go places. If I'm in a city where I can see things I wouldn't normally get a chance to see, I really go wild.

That just happened since my friend David is the same sort of person as me--he loves movie history, culture and film. He recently flew in from Tulsa for a visit and we went on an epic film geek binge that included film-related sightseeing during the day with nights were dedicated to the activity that film lovers like to do just about more than anything else: watch movies! Below is the detailed description of what we did on David's visit to Los Angeles.

Day 1: I picked David up at the LAX around 3pm and we make our way back to our apartment to rest and then go have a falafel at this Israeli place I like. Then it was off to see a double feature of The Last House on the Left and The House on the Edge of the Park at New Beverly as part of their Grindhouse film series. As we made our way past the line of people waiting to enter the theatre, David spotted Clu Gulager standing in line. Gulager, a character actor who got his start in 1950s television has a connection to us--he's from Oklahoma. David remembered selling him tickets to see movies at Eton Cinema when Gulager was living in Tulsa in the early 1990s. After we made our way through the lobby, we approached Gulager as fellow "Okies" and talked to him for about five minutes. David scored points with Gulager due to his being Cherokee as Gulager pointed out that "Clu" means "red bird" in Cherokee. I'm not sure if that is true or not. A very friendly man, he comes to the New Beverly a lot and sits in the center of the front row.

The reason these two films were chosen on the double bill was because both have David Hess as a menacing villain. Hess passed away recently and this night was a tribute to him. Before The Last House on the Left started, three actors from the film took the stage to tell stories of filming the movie and about Hess himself. Marc Sheffler, Martin Kove and Fred Lincoln talked about Hess in varying detail, with Sheffler being the closest to him through the years. Evidently, they remained very close. The film itself is a raw, violent, intense and infamous 1972 movie from Wes Craven [it was his first movie] notorious for its brutality on screen. I hadn't seen it since the early 1980s and it is indeed a nasty piece of work and is essential viewing for horror or genre fans. There was a remake recently, but I'm just guessing that the original is still the better.

The House on the Edge of the Park is a not-so-great 1980 Italian rip-off of The Last House on the Left with even more Hess screen time as he and a buddy go sadistic on some middle class party goers for no real reason other than its fun to rape, torture and abuse strangers. Filled with so much nudity and sexual violence, it was like those legendary Cinemax soft-core films they programmed in this era, except with way more sexual violence. Any male coming of age in the late 1970s and early 1980s know exactly what kind of Euro, sex-drenched movies that Cinemax put on the air late Friday and Saturday nights. This is that sort of movie. The House on the Edge of the Park isn't for the squeamish or easily offended and evidently had over ten minutes edited from it when it came out in the UK. We saw the unrated print with wall-to-wall nudity, grindhouse style.

Day 2: We got a fairly early start of it and drove to the Hollywood Forever cemetery that is only a few miles from my apartment. It's bigger than I expected and we didn't have a map of the graves so we just kind of wandered around on foot and in the car until we saw gravestones with names we recognized. I had a macabre photo taken standing next to the grave of Johnny Ramone, not because I'm a huge Ramones fan, but for the fact we were in a cemetery and thought I should have at least one photo of me and a tombstone. Douglas Fairbanks had one of the most amazing ones there with water, swans and his own private grounds [see photo on left]. Other people we came across: Fay Wray, Cecil B. DeMille [not as outlandish as we thought it might be considering the films DeMille produced] and Mel Blanc. Blanc had the best epitaph we saw with the simple and very appropriate: That's All Folks.

After a quick lunch at Village Pizzeria on Larchmont [where David spotted Nicholas Brendon ["Xander" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, two days of David's visit and we've spotted two actors. David spotted them both so he's eagle-eye out here!] sitting a couple of tables over, we made our way up the winding Mulholland Drive to look at the stellar views of the Los Angeles sprawl and the Hollywood sign. The lovely haze of smog thinly covers the city and the Hollywood Bowl can be seen in the lower right of the photo I snapped with my iPhone. After our drive we went to Burbank to see a taping of Conan O'Brien. Guests were Michael Moore and Ellie Kemper. We had perfect seats right in front of Conan's spot on the monologue and a direct shot to the interview desk and chairs. Cameras are prohibited, so no photos of our taping. It's great to see how fast-paced the actual taping is in the studio. What you see on TV is pretty much what happens on the soundstage. We did get to walk across the Warner Brothers lot and it is huge! We are thinking of heading back to Burbank for a lot tour on Day 3.

After Conan, we sat in traffic for awhile, making our way downtown to watch a film print of the 1978 Richard Donner movie Superman. The screening was at the amazing Million Dollar Theatre [built in 1918 by Sid Grauman] and that's the first time I've gotten to see a film there. I'd been in it before, but no movie. The heat was not on, so let me say that the Million Dollar Theatre gets extremely cold on a December Los Angeles night. I bet it was in upper 50s. Jack O'Halloran and Marc McClure from Superman ["Non" and "Jimmy Olsen"] were there for a fun Q and A and the gist of their talk was very pro-Richard Donner and not-so-much Richard Lester. O'Halloran called Lester a "cartoon director" at one point. Ouch. I haven't seen Superman since I was nine years old when the film came out. It is a fun movie, but seems a bit long in places. Maybe that was due to the fact we'd been gone from the apartment for coming on twelve hours and my ears and nose were frigid from the lack of heat in the theatre?

Day 3: We started the day with a morning hike up to Griffith Observatory. It's a steep incline, but offers some great views of the city and that old Hollywood sign that is one of the most recognizable images in American film lore. I'm not big on hiking, but it's not that long a climb and the views of the sign, observatory and the urban sprawl make up for any exertion. I haven't yet gone to the observatory when it was open, for either the exhibits or the telescope, as I always find myself going there in the morning.

After a lunch at a Thai place called Jitlada where I had a spicy lamb jungle curry, we made our way to Burbank for the second day in a row to take a 2 1/2 hour studio lot tour of Warner Brothers. We got to see filming of a show on their "Anytown, USA" lot that can be made to resemble any midwestern small town. They were wetting down the street for a scene on a show I've never watched called Heart of Dixie. The coolest things that the tour guide pointed out for that spot was a faux bank that was robbed in Bonnie and Clyde and the parking meters on the street were used for Cool Hand Luke when he was jailed and then sent to prison. Both David and I wanted more film references, but the guide liked to point out television connections since the Warners Brothers lot is 80% television production. We got to see the soundstage of Two and a Half Men and spotted Johnny Galecki and Simon Helberg hanging around outside stage 27 as they rehearsed Big Bang Theory. One of my favorite things about the tour was seeing the prop department and how they reserve various items. David and I both got excited to see a couple of items that will be used in the upcoming Django Unchained movie directed by Quentin Tarantino. Check out their label in photo below for a stuffed bird that they want to use.

Our only screening of the day was at the Cinefamily for the documentary Corman's World. I'd seen this before a few weeks ago at LACMA and wrote a review of it here if you want to refresh your memory. This is a highly entertaining documentary that looks at Corman's life and his body of work in low-budget and exploitation cinema. Director Alex Stapleton was there for a lengthy Q & A to top off this great free event. Free!

That's it for part one, stay tuned for part two of this day-by-day detailed description of what happens when a film geek visits another film geek in Los Angeles! We've got lots of films left to watch, tours to take and sights to see.

The Descendants + My Week with Marilyn

2011-12-08T07:13:00.000-08:00

The tail end of November means it's award bait time for the studios as they unload films they hope will garner trophies, press and box office. The ultimate prize? Oscar. Last week I saw a couple of acclaimed films, The Descendants and My Week with Marilyn, one of them I liked, one of them I didn't care for at all. Read on for short reviews of both.

The Descendants. Alexander Payne, it's wonderful to have you back. The writer/director of such films as Citizen Ruth, Election and About Schmidt has not helmed a movie since 2004's critical darling Sideways [one of my favorites that year]. Seven years is a long time for Payne to spend time producing rather than directing. If he's wasting his time executive producing on the HBO dud Hung instead of directing movies, someone needs to shake some sense into Payne to get him back onto movie sets that he's directing and off of not-so-great TV programs. Thankfully, The Descendants comes to us in 2011 and deliver Payne's usual mix of intelligence, dark humor, sympathetic and well-crafted characters.

George Clooney plays "Matt King", a lawyer who is a descendant of a 19th century queen of Hawaii, is head of the family trust that oversees 25,000 acres of gorgeous, pristine beachfront and forest property. Faced with the possibility of losing the land to the state, the large, extended family wants to sell the land for hundreds of millions of dollars. "King" grapples with whether or not the land should stay in the family while also dealing with his wife's coma. To further complicate his life, his angry 17 year-old daughter informs him that she's been having terrible arguments with her mom due to the affair that she was carrying on. Life should be great for him, but with all these complications, "King" goes on a quest with his daughters to locate the man his wife was having an affair with and to complicate his life in general.

There's a lot of good things in The Descendants. The script, the performances, the location of Hawaii. As usual with Payne, the script is sparkling. Co-written with Nat Faxon and Jim Rash [based on a novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings], the film is chock full of wise, adult dialogue that capable actors handle with aplomb. Even the kids in this get to deliver non-kid type dialogue as they banter with the adults around them. Clooney will be nominated for a best-actor award. You can mark that down in stone. I'm not sure he deserves it, but this is the kind of role that will be impossible for nominating committee to ignore. Clooney carries the film, but the supporting cast is deep--Robert Forster, Beau Brigdes [channeling younger brother Jeff's "The Dude" a little bit!] and Shailene Woodley as the headstrong, teenage daughter.

Clooney carries the film like the movie star he is. Weightlessly. That's a good word to describe the acting style and screen presence of George Clooney. He just belongs on the movie screen. He's an old-school movie star in a culture where there aren't that many of those working in Hollywood. While the film has a few blips here and there, The Descendants is the welcome return of Payne and features one of the few bonafide, undisputed, old-fashioned movie stars in cinema at the very top of his game. Rating ***1/2

My Week with Marilyn. As I mentioned above, it's award season so, like clockwork, we have to have at least one Harvey Weinstein produced historically based picture that is created with seemingly the sole intention to get Harvey a close seat to the stage during the Oscar telecast. It's kind of sickening to me that these kinds of movies have become cliches in themselves. Go here to read a rant I gave about Weinstein earlier this year when he came up with the idea to release a censured version of The King's Speech to rake in some more cash. This is still the most despicable thing to happen to a movie in 2011 to me.

And, if ol' Harvey didn't produce it, someone else will ape his formula to the point it feels like he was involved. Yet, people seem to love the faux-art house flavor of these films. It's a gateway kind of cinema that makes people too turned off by the more dour foreign movies [subtitles!] to feel they are experiencing a bit of class and sophistication when sitting in the safety of their local multiplex. In many ways, these award-bait movies are just as predictable, just as formulaic and just as shameless as the movies they believe they are better than. The whiff of the self-congratulatory, heightened self-importance just reeks from these kinds of movies so much you can almost smell the stench of it as you sit in the darkened theatre.

Make no mistake about it--I want to see good movies, regardless of producer, director or star. I just find these biopics connected to some historical person tiresome, dull and not that engaging most of the time. When I reviewed J. Edgar a few weeks ago, I touched on why I have issues with films like this. In the comment section of that post, a reader and I [Eva] bantered back and forth about maybe they are better if we get a movie of just a tiny piece of celebrity's life. Well, this one is another failure. My Week with Marilyn strikes me just as cold as most of these sorts of movies have recently. It's a shallow, superficial, phony bit of silliness based around a damaged icon of Hollywood lore [Marilyn Monroe] as she spends a tumultuous few weeks in England filming a movie with Lawrence Olivier. The only thing that makes this a tiny bit watchable is Michelle Williams as Monroe. I'm not going to take that away from her, but, other than that, My Week with Marilyn is a phony, manufactured, manipulative piece of dross from beginning to end. Thanks for that Harvey, I can hardly wait to see what you've got planned for 2012! Rating **

Ten images of Dead Cinema on display December 9-January 22

2011-12-06T07:00:00.000-08:00

For any readers who live in the Oklahoma City/Norman area that wanted to make it to my Dead Cinema photo exhibit in Tulsa and didn't get to see the show, you will have a chance to see ten images in Norman from December 9 until January 22, 2012 at a gallery closer to you. I am part of a group exhibit called "Emerging Artists of 2011" at Norman Arts Council's MAINSITE Gallery. Go here for their website and the details. Opening night is from 6-9 at 122 S. Main St on December 9th.

Here's a new image of a theatre in Los Angeles I photographed a few weeks ago and will not be on display at the "Emerging Artists" show. The Westlake Theatre is now a flea market [or, as the locals say, swap meet].

November movies

2011-12-03T07:05:00.000-08:00

Moving to Los Angeles has definitely been good for CineRobot. I think this has been the best two months on CineRobot since I started it in 2005. I've had some good months, but the sheer variety and amount of posts have come in a flurry. I have written about so many cool events and screenings with special guests [Clint! Werner!] that it is hard to keep up with the list of people in film I've heard talk or seen in person. I've started up a new, long-running series ["Los Angeles Cinema"] and have gotten to review films before they get wide releases in theatres across America [J. Edgar, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Rampart, Beyond the Black Rainbow, Carre Blanc, Corman's World, Into the Abyss]. I don't think this is an anomaly, I expect to have these kinds of posts coming non-stop as long as I'm living here.

I'd really like to up my readership list, so, I am asking you to help me spread the word! If you have film-loving friends who might enjoy reading about movies, please enter their e-mail on the home page and every post will come to their e-mail to read. Send them a note to let them know that they will have to accept CineRobot before getting the posts. It's an easy, non-evasive way to read the blog. Thanks dear readers!

Here's the list of what I saw in the month of November.

Ed Hardy: Tattoo the World---2010---usa ***1/2
Paranormal Activity 2---2010---usa ***
Valley Girl---1983---usa ***1/2
J. Edgar---2011---usa ***
Beyond the Black Rainbow---2010---canada ***1/2
Carre Blanc---2011---france ****
Rampart---2011---usa **
Blood Beach---1980---usa ***
A Better Life---2011---usa **1/2
The Other F Word---2011---usa ***
Corman's World---2011---usa ****
Into the Abyss---2011---usa ****
Blues Brothers---1980---usa ****
The Girl From Monaco---2008---france **1/2
If a Tree Falls---2011---usa ***1/2
Melancholia---2011---denmark ***
Visual Acoustics---2008---usa ****
Planes, Trains and Automobiles---1987---usa ****1/2
My Week with Marilyn---2011---england **
Woody Allen: A Documentary---2011---usa ****
Love the Beast---2009---australia ***
American Swing---2008---usa ***
Hugo---2011---usa ****1/2

Spending time with Edgar Wright at the New Beverly

2011-12-01T07:12:00.000-08:00

I've made no secret what my favorite movie theatre in Los Angeles is. It's the New Beverly. Repertory programming utilizing film prints in the format of double features for only $8. Let me say that again--double features on film for $8. In Los Angeles. How much do I love New Beverly? When SJ and I were on a whirlwind search for a new apartment, the main reason I wanted to live in the place we chose was because it was .4 miles from the New Beverly. How do I know it was .4 of a mile? I measured it in the car. Twice. I wasn't sure the math was correct on the first attempt, so, we repeated the route to make sure I was getting the accurate distance.

I've already seen some great things there, but starting on December 9th will be eight nights programmed by English director Edgar Wright. Dubbed "The Wright Stuff III", Wright [Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World] is choosing sixteen movies that he's never seen as the theme of this festival. Wright got suggestions from famous friends over what to show ranging from Quentin Tarantino [the New Beverly's landlord], Joe Dante, John Landis and even fellow Okie Bill Hader. Go here to read why he chose the scheduled films and who tipped him to watch them. All the movies will, of course, be film prints and Wright plus guests will appear each night to host the particular screening.

I'm going to seriously nerd out and go to see eight films over four nights. Actually, I might toss in a midnight movie in there too, but that's undecided. Plus, a film geek friend from Tulsa [David] will be visiting and we might go see something on one of the early nights [The Girl Can't Help It/Get Crazy?] Maybe!]. My double features: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg/Chungking Express, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance/Ride the High Country, To Be or Not to Be/The Bad News Bears, Hickey & Boggs/Cutter's Way. It's hard to choose which night I'm most excited about. At first glance, the pairing of John Ford and Sam Peckinpah westerns would clearly be the night I would have a quickening pulse for. But, for those of you who really know me see a beloved movie on that list that I can not miss: The Bad News Bears.

I had a real quandary on the night of December 15th. When I first saw the schedule, I was thinking of passing on The Bad News Bears, even though it is a favorite movie of all-time for me. I've wanted to see it in a theatre again since I saw it as a seven year old in Muskogee. Problem is, that same night is the third live script read at LACMA [The Princess Bride]. I've been writing about Jason Reitman's live read series on CineRobot and those posts have been generating a fair amount of traffic to the blog. Then the more I thought about how much I love The Bad News Bears and how I truly believe it is one of the greatest films ever made, I changed my mind and bought my ticket for that night too. I can not miss The Bad News Bears in that lively, festive atmosphere that will be in the New Beverly.

***Post-script: I did get tickets to see The Girl Can't Help It/Get Crazy with David. Midnight screenings look likely too.***

Los Angeles Cinema: A Better Life, Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Schulman

2011-11-29T07:05:00.000-08:00

A Better Life. This drama from 2011 is a flawed, but well-intentioned, film from director Chris Weitz [About A Boy, American Pie] that attempts to tell about a less-glamourous part of Los Angeles--the margins of society that illegal immigrants from Mexico exist in. Weitz tries his darndest to move us with the plight of his main characters, but the film lacks enough gritty desperation and dangerous choices that the father and son must face to truly move us as an audience.

The script from Eric Eason borrows heavily in story from the 1948 Italian neo-realistic classic Bicycle Thieves, as father and son band together to search for something they both need to make it the harsh city. Geez, guys, at least try not to steal from a far superior movie without giving it some kind of shout-out. I didn't sit through the end credits, so, maybe they give a nod to Vittorio De Sica? They should at least put in a "thank you" at the tail end as there were some major elements to A Better Life's story that was unmistakeable in their origin. I did enjoy the performance of Demian Bichir [Weeds, Che] as the hard-working father trying to do what he can to make his son's life better. He's an honest man who only wants his son to learn right from wrong, yet realizes the path to adulthood for his teenage son is fraught with dangers. A Better Life is just a little too earnest and a little too heartfelt for me. Those are things I generally don't respond to in a movie. Wietz is trying hard, but that's part of the problem--he's trying too hard. The film feels too forced, too fabricated to move me with their story.
Rating **1/2

Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Schulman. Los Angeles seems to be a never ending treasure trove for the architecture that I am most fond of. People who say that the city is an urban blight really are misguided when it comes to architecture. Sure, it's a sprawling metropolis of streets, concrete, congestion and people. There's also some lovely architecture if you want to find it. Spanish mission? Check. I'm living in a building from the 1920s in that particular style. Art Deco? Check. Los Angeles is rife with examples of Art Deco from the 1920s and 1930s. Modernism? Check. Many people feel that modern architecture best sums up the soul of Los Angeles culture.

The man who is chiefly responsible in capturing the look and feel of modernist architecture, in both Los Angeles and the world, is undoubtedly Julius Schulman. Not only is he considered the most well-known photographer for modern architecture, many consider him to be the pre-eminent architecture photographer of all-time. Being a photographer and a big fan of this style of architecture, it's needless to say how much I enjoyed this documentary. Visual Acoustics looks into Schulman's career, influence and importance during his nearly seven decades as a working photographer and makes me want to go take some city tours and see some of the houses and buildings that Schulman photographed.

I admire Schulman's photographs and anyone who has spent anytime with my work [go here to see my photo blog!] can see that his style relates to my own. I love to take photos of buildings and architecture and feel much more comfortable when that is my subject rather than humans. Schulman believes in the power of the simplicity of the image and that's something that I believe in as well. When photographing architecture, the structure is the most important element of the image, why try to jazz it up or make the image about something else? Beautiful, powerful architectural photography must have that simplicity to it that Schulman made a career of. It looks easy, but I can promise you, it is not. Achieving simplicity, or directness, in photography takes as much skill and thought as so-called "fine art" photography.

Visual Acoustics is appealing on many fronts. It has photography, architecture, design, modernism, Los Angeles and a host of other things that come up during the documentary. Pretty much all of those things are topics I like to learn about and watch. How wonderful are Schulman's photographs in Visual Acoustics? Even if you think you don't like modern architecture, after you see this, you might have a new appreciation for it. After watching Visual Acoustics, I want to get out my Hasselblad and walk in Schulman's footsteps and photograph some of these places for myself. Rating ****

Melancholia

2011-11-27T06:59:00.000-08:00

Film: Melancholia [2011, denmark]
Where I saw it: Los Angeles @ Nuart Theatre
Who with: SJ
Rating: ***
Rating for Los Angeles rainstorm during viewing: *****!

Los Angeles cooperated weather-wise as we drove to the Nuart to watch Melancholia, Danish director Lars von Trier's latest opus to depressing cinema. Black clouds crept over the city and a tremendous downpour began shortly before we made it to the theatre. Perfect. How can you be expected to watch a movie about a woman's battle with depression and the end of the world if the sky is blue and wisps of fluffy clouds hover above the theatre? You can't. Melancholia, an art film meditation on the hopelessness of life, needs gloomy storms to help drive home the point. A rainy, cold day provides the perfect backdrop to watch a movie such as this. Even the rain couldn't make me love the film though, but imagine my reaction to it if I'd walked out of the Nuart blinded by the bright as diamond-glare Southern California sun? That would have been a painful experience. I'll take those comforting grey skies any day, even if I wasn't watching a movie such as this.

Melancholia opens with a jaw-dropping, amazing sequence of various slow-motion and freeze frame images backed by a glorious, swelling score of strings from composer Richard Wagner [1865's "Tristan und Isolde"]. I wasn't expecting something so breathtaking, immediate, colorful and in-your-face stunning from von Trier. This opening salvo is the best moments in the film for me and it seems as if von Trier has watched Terrence Malick's Tree of Life and decided to one-up Malick in regards to filming beautiful shots of nature and the universe. It's a shame this uber-art style of the first sequence didn't carry over into the rest of the movie, as von Trier quickly reverts back to the style and look that comprises the majority of his films--hand-held cameras and photography with washed-out hue.

Kirsten Dunst plays "Justine" and we first meet her as she is sharing a limo with her new husband "Michael" [Alexander Skarskgard] as they head to the post-wedding shindig in a remote, gorgeous hotel owned by her sister and brother-in-law. "Justine" is all smiles and laughter when we first meet her, but things are going to change as we begin to see that the smiles are not authentic. The true "Justine" is lost in a haze of never-ending depression and this wedding? Just an attempt to knock her out of her crippling malaise. She's got a supportive sister in "Claire" [Charlotte Gainsbourg], a dashing groom, a good job, but it's not enough. She'd rather slump off to have a hot bath in private than mingle with the guests, or the sister, or the newly christened husband.

If we think that "Justine" is depressed in the first segment of Melancholia, just wait until we get to the second when we all know that the end of the world is nigh. There's a rogue planet dubbed Melancholia that's making a pass through our solar system and it is on a collision course with this little planet called Earth. Faced with only a few days to live, people react differently. For "Justine", it's time to sink further into the abyss of the quagmire of her depression and considering the ramifications of impending death, that depression is understandable. Who wouldn't be just a little down-in-the-dumps if there was a large planet about to crush the planet we all live on?

Lars von Trier has been a filmmaker that hasn't given a damn about the audience's discomfort since the mid-1980s with Element of Crime. He's repeatedly made films that challenge, punish, annoy and exasperate as much as they enthrall, move and intrigue. His films often explore heavy themes such as suffering and abuse, and while I would hesitate to label von Trier an entertaining director, I would call him an important filmmaker. He's probably the best example of what the term "auteur" means for well-known, global directors making movies in 2011. A controversial figure [his rant about Hitler and Nazis at the Cannes film festival earlier this year got him banned from Cannes and criminally charged by French authorities], but a talented one, whose films are hard to watch and then be passive about it when they are over.

Melancholia is another of those kinds of movies from Lars von Trier. Not a lot of fun to sit through, it dazzles, frustrates, irritates, enraptures and pulls you in while keeping you at an arm's length at the same time. I found the wedding segment of "Justine" kind of a pointless part of the film that pales to the intimate, emotional wrenching second part. Had the entire film been set among just the few characters that comprise the "Claire" portion of the film, I would have liked Melancholia more. There's genuine dread conjured up in the film's waning moments as a small group of people face certain death in different ways. The wedding sequence comes off as pale and inconsequential when paired with the raw sadness that is exposed as the film unfolds. Dunst is being lauded for awards and she is different than we've seen her as an adult. She gets to play happy [not often] and gets to play miserable. Those who hand out awards love this kind of role.

I'm certainly glad I saw Melancholia, but I couldn't help disappointed as I walked the wet Los Angeles streets. It is just the usual kind of film from von Trier: uneven, provocative for the sake of provocation, ponderous and, yes, thrilling. It's Lars von Trier. I'm not sure why I was expecting anything other than that when I bought my ticket.

The end of film is nigh

2011-11-25T07:20:00.000-08:00

If you haven't noticed, theatres have rapidly been converting to digital over the past few years. The recent overdose on 3D has only heightened exhibitors frenzy to go digital and foist the latest bloated blockbuster onto the gullible public for as much as they can fleece some sucker of. If you held out an assemblance of hope that film would somehow prevail in the end--think again, dear reader. As painful as it is for me to admit, it looks like the distribution of film prints in theatres will die sooner than I thought.

I believe movies will still be made using film, so that's not ending anytime soon. Maybe I'm being optimistically naive about this too? Digital just doesn't have the naturalistic warmth of tone that film has. Did you see Michael Mann's 2009 release Public Enemies? That should be the pinnacle of just how awful digital moviemaking looks, as that was truly one of the worst looking movies I've ever sat through. No, after a movie has been shot in film, it will be given washes of digital treatment and then projected digitally into your favorite cinema. There will be no more flickering light from a projector. There will be no more scratchy reel changes. The prints you see in the future will be sterilized of all its quirks and flaws and possibly its life.

To make sure that theatre owners get on board with studios cost-cutting ways [it's cheaper for all involved to not have those bulky film prints to ship out to thousands of theatres], a recent missive was sent out from Twentieth Century Fox with gentle reminders that exhibitors need to convert to digital sooner rather than later. It's a sad day reckoning for those of us who truly love the look of film. My question to Fox and all the movie theatres that will continue to raise prices even after the conversion to digital: Shouldn't prices be lowered since by going all digital you are saving millions of dollars by not transporting film prints to and from studios? I think we all know the answer to that question, don't we? Audiences will keep getting stiffed as the prices will continue to inflate. Read the letter from Fox yourself below.

Into the Abyss

2011-11-23T07:33:00.000-08:00

Film: Into the Abyss [2011, usa]
Where: Los Angeles @ Arclight Hollywood
Who with: SJ
In attendance: Werner Herzog
Rating when I saw it: ***
Rating after a few days of contemplation: ****

Werner Herzog. Just his name alone shoots rapture into the heart of any self-respecting film geek. Who would have thought when SJ and I drove into Hollywood to see Into the Abyss, I would soon find myself standing next to Mr. Herzog, carrying on a conversation with him? Not me. We knew he was going to make an appearance at the screening, but didn't know if it would be a quick intro or a Q and A or what. In classic, populist Werner fashion, he gave a 30 minute, unmoderated Q and A after the movie that was better than any of the post-screening Q and A sessions we've been watching that have been getting a lot more press. I think Werner would have answered questions all night long if there wasn't another film to show.

My first thoughts about Into the Abyss were that Werner has made just an average movie, but as the hours went by and I thought more and more about the film, it got more powerful to me. There is definitely a lot of philosophical ideas being broached on the screen and the conversations between Herzog and his subjects. Into the Abyss is something that stays with you long after it ends. The film is a meditation on violence and the after effects of the senseless, unexplainable acts that occur, based around a triple homicide in texas. The murders, perpetrated by a couple of teenagers for nothing more than so they could have a car for a few days, destroys everyone connected to the violent act. The guilty party are serving life in prison or about to be executed, family members have entered a waking state of never-ending emotional turmoil. Herzog talks to a death row chaplain and correction officer as well to further delve into the topic of violence, redemption, God and the death penalty. He tries to make sense of it.

Or does he? What gives Into the Abyss its power is that Herzog can't make sense of it. No one can. This crime, heinous and despicable, is so beyond figuring out guilt or innocence that Herzog dispenses of all that and just concentrates on the numbing after-effects of violence. There's a lot of psychological damage done to survivors of such mindless violence and Herzog hones in that with his usual individual style of questions and narration [in his usual thick, Bavarian accent that is the trademark for all his documentaries] as we get to view the collection of shattered lives on display. Below the surface is where the weight of Into the Abyss lies, all the small moments of torment and suffering being vocalized by person after person. Into the Abyss is an intense, sad, powerful exploration of the horror of violence.

After the film, Herzog handled his own Q and A without a moderator. He said that the film had played at some festivals, but that he doesn't "care about festivals, I care about real people watching my films." The funniest moment in the Q and A was Herzog's confession that bank robberies look like a lot of fun and if he could get away with it, Herzog claims he'd like to rob a few banks. Awesome.

When the Q and A was finished, SJ and I happened to be exiting the theatre near Herzog so I just told him who I was a programmer at Circle Cinema in Tulsa, Oklahoma and how I'd love to arrange a Skype interview with him when we show Into the Abyss. He politely said he was about to head off to Venezuela and where he was staying, there would be no electricity, it would have to be after he got back from that. Fine with me. After I mentioned Oklahoma, he told me, "I love Norman, Oklahoma and my daughter has been telling me how much she loves Omaha, Nebraska." Well, I went to OU so thought that was wonderful to hear. Werner likes Norman? Well, Boomer Sooner! This post-screening conversation certainly was more positive than the downer of a documentary that I had just seen. But, that's Werner Herzog for you--part weirdly comic, part seriously intense, all original.

I Heart Gene Wilder

2011-11-21T07:39:00.000-08:00

I recently listened to Gene Wilder's 2006 memoir Kiss Me Like a Stranger while driving around Los Angeles. This is not a traditional life story memoir, but a series of moments that Wilder has chosen that exemplify the lessons of his life that taught him about two specific subjects: acting and women. Wilder honestly depicts how these two things have criss-crossed that made him the actor and man that he is. I'm not a big memoir fan, so was kind of into the non-traditional set-up of this rather than if Wilder went through all the parts of his life in order of small to large. There is still a chronological bent to this, it's just done so in short little bursts.

As soon as I started listening to the book, which is read by Wilder in a gentle, warm tone, I quickly remembered just how much I loved him as a comic actor growing up. Like many people, I got my first taste of Wilder in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory [1971]. I am pretty sure I saw it before I turned ten and promptly went out and got the book. In my teens I discovered other classics starring Wilder in the 1970s. He had an amazing stretch in the 1970s: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex * but Were Afraid to Ask [1972], Blazing Saddles [1974], Young Frankenstein [1974], Silver Streak [1976], The Frisco Kid [1979] and Stir Crazy [1980]. Let's not forget Bonnie and Clyde in 1967 and The Producers in 1968 either. Not too shabby, huh?

When I was going over his IMDB resume, I was kind of shocked at how few movies he has actually done. I count only twenty-one films. While the quality of Wilder's work dipped as the 1980s wore on, it's hard to argue against his particular brand of comedic genius. By the time I saw Stir Crazy in a theatre in 1981, I was a bonafide fan, having seen him in most of the previously listed movies, even if some of the humor was way over my head or the sort of thing I needed to wait a few years to see to fully grasp. I thought Stir Crazy was the funniest movie I had ever seen for years after I saw it. Paired with Richard Pryor for a second time [Silver Streak was the first; he'd appear with Pryor in four films], the duo are mistakenly sent to prison and have to depend on their wits to survive the hostile situation. Gloriously low-brow and full of physical comedy, this was directed by Sidney Poitier [another surprise] and it has an unbelievably raucous, fast-paced and hilarious first hour before it becomes a completely different film in the prison escape sequence toward the end. Stir Crazy is still one of those films that I completely love even though I was only 11 when I first saw it. Here's an hilarious scene when the duo first get sentenced. Wilder's manic improv yelling is pure comic gold.

I consider myself a Wilder fan, but I knew very little about his upbringing or life. The most public element that I was aware of was his marriage to Gilda Radner when she died of cancer in 1989. I didn't know his original name was Jerome Silberman or that he was raised in Milwaukee. I had no clue that his early years as an actor he was dedicated to a more serious vein of theatre acting that involved membership into the Actor's Studio [when it was much, much more than a crappy TV interview show] and studying under Lee Strasberg. I had no clue how he met Mel Brooks and was cast in his big break in The Producers or that he wrote Young Frankenstein. I wish Wilder would have included even more movie stories from the production or from the set. It has stories, just not enough of them. Kiss Me Like a Stranger goes into the things I didn't know while also delving into his romantic life with a surprising level of intimacy and really gave me insight into the Wilder I knew and the Wilder I didn't know.

***If you are reading this post via e-mail, the imbedded video[s] in this post might not work with your particular e-mail account. Click on the post title and you will be taken directly to CineRobot to view the video.***

Live reading of The Apartment screenplay

2011-11-19T07:07:00.000-08:00

Last month I wrote about LACMA's new series of live script reads curated by director Jason Reitman, as a group of actors took on the script for the John Hughes '80s classic The Breakfast Club. Well, a couple of nights ago was the second installment as another group of actors climbed on stage to read something from writer/director Billy Wilder, The Apartment. In the 1960 original, the lead roles went to Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray. On this night in Los Angeles, those roles went to Steve Carell, Natalie Portman and Pierce Brosnan. Other actors were Ken Jeong, Mindy Kaling, Nick Kroll, Jake Johnson and Collette Wolfe.

As with the first live read, this isn't a performance of the script with the actors trying to recreate the physicality of the film on stage. No, the actors are seated, lined up in a row and do a basic table read, while incorporating their own style and quirks into the script. This is a fun little project, but I think it will have a very short shelf-life after seeing the read of The Apartment. There's something lacking in such a basic reading where there's only minimal "performance" involved among those on the stage. They are performing, but it's a dialed back performing taking place. Such a creative endeavor lacks the depth and power of the actual original film, or if it was a theatrical performance. It's still a fun way to re-visit a great piece of Hollywood's history, but how don't know if it will be as fun if it goes on month after month.

The Apartment highlights were Steve Carell, as the lead role was tailor made for his sweet, yet smart, style, Nick Kroll and Pierce Brosnan. Kroll repeatedly reaped big laughs despite having one of the lesser characters by giving perfectly timed lines. Ken Jeong got the biggest laugh of the night when he forgot he was up during the scene at the Chinese restaurant and then delivered some wicked stereotypical lines from the Asian waiter. Least up to the task? Natalie Portman. She basically flatlined the entire reading, almost never changing her tone, volume and emotion. Sorry, Natalie.

There's another reading in December and I'll post a report of that one too. The script? The Princess Bride.

***Left to right in photo: Jake Johnson, Mindy Kaling, Pierce Brosnan, Natalie Portman, Steve Carell, Nick Kroll and Collette Wolfe. Sorry the photo isn't better!***

Movie tickets #26

2011-11-17T07:23:00.000-08:00

Los Angeles Cinema: Los Angeles Plays Itself, Blood Beach, Straight Outta L.A.

2011-11-15T07:11:00.000-08:00

After my first "Los Angeles Cinema" post, a reader [Cassie] pointed out the documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself in the comments and I immediately regretted not mentioning it in my first post. The 2003 documentary from director Thom Anderson is the ultimate in uncovering the way that Los Angeles has been portrayed throughout movie history. It's an exhaustive, comprehensive, nearly three hour film that will likely not be surpassed on the subject. It's recommended if you really want to experience these films rather than just read about the ones I'm watching that will go into these posts. Since I'm just randomly watching Los Angeles films however the mood strikes me, Los Angeles Plays Itself is better if you want to see a larger, cohesive viewpoint of the city. I don't think it is available on DVD, so you might have to be on the lookout for it on TV. Below is a sequence of this essential essay documentary that looks at how mid-century modern homes have been used in a variety of films for the bad guys to live in.

Blood Beach. As I mentioned in my first post in my "Los Angeles Cinema" series, every single genre of film is represented in the geographic sub-genre. In this post, there are two documentaries and a B horror movie from 1980 that is kind of a cheeky Jaws rip-off that doesn't really fool with the ocean being dangerous. No, it's the beach's sand that you have to worry about in Blood Beach. Check the awesome tagline out in their poster. Pretty clever. John Saxon even gets to deliver the line in the film [and in the trailer below] to really hammer the point home.

Equal parts silly, scary and with a dirty edge, Blood Beach is the sort of film I loved when I was growing up. While my tastes changed as I got older, my enjoyment for low-budget, exploitation films is still there. I'm grateful for that as there is so much fun to be had in these kinds of films and I often find myself enjoying something like Blood Beach more as pure entertainment than the prestige pictures that get accolades. This is my roots as a film lover and to turn my back on films like this would be to reject film as a whole. It's kind of comforting to watch these kinds of films as it takes me back to when I was young and just watching everything I could even though I hadn't learned much about movie history. I pride myself on being culturally well-rounded, so why can't you love Blood Beach AND the serious stuff?

The plot of Blood Beach is absurd--an unknown creature is killing people who venture onto the Santa Monica beach. The kills are mostly bloodless, as the sand sort of just sucks the victim into it as they are screaming and thrashing about heedlessly. The script, from writer director Jeffrey Bloom, has its witty moments that were a little unexpected and the cast plays it serious, which makes these films more comical. How can you go wrong when John Saxon and Burt Young are two of the lead actors? The actual monster is ridiculous and Bloom admitted so in a lively post-screening Q & A [also in attendance was Saxon and the film's DP Steven Poster]. Bloom said that no one really even planned or thought out the creature and no one was happy with it. Producer Sidney Beckerman kept yelling out that the monster looked like a "giant shvanz" when it was revealed on the set. It did kind of resemble that part of the male anatomy. I loved seeing the old Santa Monica pier setting as it was in a decrepit state in 1980. SJ and I went there a few weeks ago and it is touristy and scrubbed clean now. I would loved to have gone there when it was empty and forgotten, ramshackle and falling down, a ghost of its former glory. Rating ***

Straight Outta L.A. We've been slowly going through ESPN's documentary series "30 for 30" and most have been worth watching, but Straight Outta L.A. fell flat for me, despite what should have been an entertaining topic: the Oakland Raiders' connection to the city of Los Angeles and its importance to early gangsta hip-hop culture. Directed by Ice Cube, a man who should know the topic back and front as a lifelong Raider fan, original member of NWA and early creator of the whole West coast gangsta rap aesthetic [who now does family movies!]. The problem is Cube might be less a documentarian than he is a storyteller and the film devolves into a disjointed collection of interviews, archival footage and a self-importance [regarding both the football and the hip-hop] that feels too much like a mish-mash of material. Only an hour in length, it felt longer and should have been cut to make it both more cohesive and entertaining. Even though I'm a lifelong Pittsburgh Steeler fan, I do love seeing footage from the rogue Raiders of the 1970s. That never gets old and that era was true football for me. Rough and tumble, full of characters, violent and raw, grass fields of mud and blood and amazing teams. Professional football now? Don't even get me started. Rating: **1/2

Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel

2011-11-13T07:04:00.000-08:00

Film: Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel [2011, usa]
Where I saw it: Los Angeles @ LACMA
Who with: SJ
In appearance: Roger Corman, Julie Corman, Alex Stapleton, Elvis Mitchell
Rating: ****

In a few days I write about Blood Beach in a "Los Angeles Cinema" post and will talk about how B films from my youth were so comforting and fun for me to watch. Well, Roger Corman is the undisputed king of the B film in modern cinema [although, he doesn't really want that title]. While Corman has made a long career out of B movies [and you can even go down a letter or two with some of the budgets he's dealt with], he's also been involved in the early development of some of the most important names in film over the past few decades by giving them chances to make movies before anyone else will. Do the names Peter Bogdanovich, James Cameron, Francis Ford Coppola, Jonathan Demme, Ron Howard, John Sayles and Martin Scorsese mean anything to you? All of them were given film projects of varying budgets very, very early in their careers. Corman's involvement with young filmmakers has been dubbed the "Corman Film School" because so many people have worked with Corman.

Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel is a new documentary that chronicles Corman's career and legacy in his six decades in the movie business. Corman has been involved in so many films it is hard to keep track of the number. It is roughly 400 movies as director and producer with a couple of my favorites, Cockfighter [1974] and Death Race 2000 from 1975. Pretty much everything Corman has ever been involved in has involved sensationalist titles, lurid posters and adult subject matter. Corman films aren't subtle, that's for sure. They are marketed to a particular kind of film fan that wants sex, violence, revenge, murder and monsters--often all in the same film!

The documentary has most of the previously mentioned names as well as Corman fans and friends such as Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Eli Roth and others as they recount what it was like to work on the Corman set. The early portions of Corman's World is pure fun, as we get a crash course in what it was like to make no-budget movies in the 1950s and 1960s. It looked like so much fun. The film moves into the 1970s when Corman's company, New World, unleashed primal exploitation cinema into the grindhouse and drive-in. Wow, a lot of those 1970s films I missed, but really need to watch now. Check out the trailer for 1972's The Hot Box to see what I'm talking about. This film has sex, lots of nudity, violence, shootouts, romance, revenge, torture, rape, and who knows what else, all in the trailer!

What's surprising about Corman is just how nice and professorial he comes across when he's talking about his films and life. He seems like the perfect gentleman, but he did produce some intense stuff over the years, so there must be a darker demon lurking beneath the surface. There's a rawness to the 1970s exploitation films that will never be re-created. Never. These filmmakers pushed the boundaries of the amount of sex, violence and cinematic mayhem they could film. In these years before mass-produced pornography, exploitation films titillated audiences who were interested in entertainment from the margins of society. Corman's New World was one of the key pervaders of this kind of cinema and Corman's World is the extremely entertaining documentary that looks at his career and legacy.

***Left to right: Roger Corman, Alex Stapleton, Julie Corman, Elvis Mitchell; Los Angeles, California @ LACMA; November 2011***

Beyond the Black Rainbow, Carre Blanc and Rampart at AFI Festival

2011-11-10T07:04:00.000-08:00

The American Film Institute [AFI] film festival hit Los Angeles this past week and they have something that is about as populist as it comes for a film festival: free tickets! Yes, all screenings are absolutely free. I couldn't believe it when I found out about that fact. I just wish I'd have known about it earlier, as I waited too long to reserve some screenings and couldn't get into to a bunch of films I wanted to see due to other people already snatching up available tickets. Here's some short reviews of the films I did get to see--two out of the mainstream, visually extravagant science-fiction films and Rampart, a dirty cop in Los Angeles film starring Woody Harrelson that I didn't like so much.

Beyond the Black Rainbow. I read about this mind-bending, dark, science-fiction film from Canada and director Panos Cosmatos a few months ago. The trailer is an indecipherable series of outlandish visuals and that pretty much sums up the entire film. There's not much of a plot to Beyond the Black Rainbow. It's set in 1983, in what feels like an alternate and futuristic world at the same time. There's a mad doctor type of guy who is keeping a young woman in an empty, start room and interegating her repeatedly. The woman can't talk, but can transfer her thoughts via telepathy. That's as much plot as you are going to get from this puzzling, uber-art film exorcise. I actually enjoyed the movie as a pure form of science-fiction in design, style, photography and all-out weirdness. I also really loved the score from Sinoia Caves [Jeremy Schmidt from Black Mountain], a collection of washes, pulses and throbs using analogue synthesizers circa the late 1970s and early 1980s. Incredibly out of the mainstream, Beyond the Black Rainbow is one of the most gloriously weirded-out movies I've seen in a long while. The programmer who introduced the film described it accurately as "an injection of cinema into your eyeballs." Then, Cosmatos gave a brief, cryptic hint at the mindset it takes to get into the movie by saying, "I hope you are as screwed up in the head as you watch this as I was when I made it." Check out the amazing poster and the trailer below for evidence of that. I'm going to try and book this for a midnight screening at the Circle in March or April when the film makes it to theatres. Rating ***1/2

Carre Blanc. After watching Beyond the Black Rainbow the previous night at midnight, I thought I was done with the edgy, not-so-commercial filmmaking. I was wrong. Carre Blanc, a French film from director Jean-Babtiste Leonetti, is an intense, uncompromising vision of an urban, dystopian future society, where the population is controlled by authorities and all facets of society is regulated. Work, leisure, socializing and even who can and when to have children for the state [the earlier the better!] is all tightly monitored by the unseen level in power. Thankfully, there's more of a plot to Carre Blanc than in Beyond the Black Rainbow [not a knock against Beyond the Black Rainbow, it's just nice to have a little bit of plot some of the time], but it is still a quagmire to mentally wade through as it unfolds. This is not an easy film to watch, with its overt brutality punishing the characters [and the audience as well], but there is a surprising layer of dark humor running through the film. Uneasy laughter could be softly heard from the crowd, unsure of they should be laughing at such material. I happen to really love dystopian set literature or cinema, so Carre Blanc is right in my sweet-spot. I loved the unrelenting shades of grey in the film's photography, the empty, artificially lit concrete buildings and streets and the never-explained series of "games" that selected citizens might be forced to endure that could literally kill them. Carre Blanc is relentlessly bleak, stylish and directed with a raw intensity by Leonetti and it's not for everyone, but this is my kind of hopeless, Orwellian style film that I love. Trailer below if your interest is piqued. Rating ****

Rampart. Oren Moverman's first directorial effort was 2009's much lauded drama The Messenger. I liked that film as it looked into the emotional destruction endured by a pair of Army officers tasked with notifying a soldier's families that someone has been killed in action. It was a simple, direct, spare, no-frills production that rightfully concentrated on the power in the story and the quality of the acting [Woody Harrelson, Ben Foster]. In the short span between The Messenger and Rampart, it seems someone has been whispering in Moverman's ear telling him he needs to be a "real director" and drastically change the style he employed. Maybe I'm completely remembering The Messenger wrong? Well, if you want to watch a movie that is unbelievably over-directed, is Rampart ever the movie for you. Moverman takes every opportunity to use unnessecary camera movement, distracting lengthy shots of reflections and even obscuring the actor's faces during scenes. I couldn't believe what I was watching as Moverman's horrible choices were invading scene after scene after scene. It's too bad as Harrelson gives an epic performance of self-loathing as a rogue Los Angeles cop whose life is spinning out-of-control in a downward spiral. The rest of the cast [Robin Wright, Ned Beatty, Steve Buscemi, Sigourney Weaver and others] are all people I want to see act, not keep getting distracted by flashy direction by Moverman. The script, penned by crime writer James Ellroy and Moverman, also feels overly-written all too often. Had Rampart utilized a spare hand, letting the story and actors carry the weight, it would have been light years better. The best thing about watching this film was I got to see it in the amazing Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Wow. Built in 1927 and one of the most famous movie theatres in the world, it's a glorious place to see a film! Even watching Rampart in such a setting couldn't save it from being a near total dud. Rating **

J. Edgar

2011-11-08T07:59:00.000-08:00

Film: J. Edgar [2011, usa]
Where I saw it: Los Angeles @ LACMA
Who I saw it with: SJ
Rating: **
Rating for being in the presence of Mr. Clint Eastwood: *****!

If I were to list my three least favorite film genres, it would go something like this: action films, drug-related films and the bio picture. I've kind of sworn off the drug movie as I have just had enough of seeing junkies and other addicts destroy their lives while they battle their weakness for whatever chemical they desire to have running through their veins. While I'll watch an action film every so often, I tend to avoid the vast majority of them, whether they are the endless releases connected to comic book heroes or straight up explosion fests. Michael Bay? I think you've heard me refer to him as the anti-christ of cinema at least once or twice. He's the devil!

J. Edgar is the sort of biographical history of a famous person that makes me loathe the genre so intensely. Directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and attempting to tell five decades in the life of J. Edgar Hoover, the film is a bloated, lifeless, dull and unfocused story of Hoover's life. How can any two hour movie tell the story of a man such as Hoover without feeling like a cribbed-note exercise? As I often do in these films, I just kind of sit and wait for all the key moments that I know about to make it to the screen. When that happens, I check that off and wait for the next big moment that is surely coming. J. Edgar, like others in the biopic genre, is so weighed down by the formulaic parameters of having to tell the "greatest hits" of a person's life that its lost in a predictable quagmire that never surprises, moves or pulls the viewer in.

Another problem with a biopic such as J. Edgar is the fact that actors have to play a character with a wide-range of ages. DiCaprio plays Hoover in the 1920s AND 1970s and had to endure 5-7 hours in a make-up chair for the varying ages he was playing. Co-stars Arnie Hammer and Naomi Watts also underwent extensive make-up work to give them appropriate ages. The older the characters get, the more make-up seems to be applied to give them jowls, wrinkles, sun spots or other characteristics of old age. Unfortunately, with each layer to the actors' faces, it seems to limit their ability to talk and move their faces naturally. By the time Hoover is near death, DiCaprio's face is a mess of prosthetics that allows pretty much just his lips to move as he says his dialogue. The same can be said for Hammer's scenes as an old man. It's distracting to say the least.

The only thing that made up for the fact I didn't like this movie very much was the post-screening Q & A with Clint Eastwood, Leonardo DiCaprio, Arnie Hammer and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. I could leave three of those folks, I was there to bask in the close proximity of Eastwood as he took the stage munching on a cookie picked up backstage. Eastwood is one of my all-time cinematic heroes, so even though I didn't like the film he just directed, I was happy to see the man from a fairly close distance. 81 years old and he's still a bad-ass.

Los Angeles Cinema: L.A. Story, The Cool School + Valley Girl

2011-11-06T08:32:00.000-08:00

Ever since SJ and I decided to move to Los Angeles, we've decided to try watching movies set in and around the city we now live in. Considering Los Angeles is home to the movie industry, and has been since the late 1910s, there's going to be a lot of choices for us. What's cool about watching these movies is they run the genre gamut from drama to horror to comedy. Every kind of movie has been made using Los Angeles as a backdrop and we're going to drown ourselves in some locational method viewing. There's the obvious choices that we'll watch [Chinatown, Blade Runner, Pee Wee's Big Adventure] and the not-so-obvious [documentaries]. This is the first installation of a series of posts that I'm cleverly dubbing: Los Angeles Cinema. Very creative, I know. Check out a couple of trailers below for two of the films in this post and you might have to consult a glossary when you read my Valley Girl review as I do the review in "valspeak"! If you leave comments about Valley Girl, please do so in the appropriate vernacular for all to read.

L.A. Story. We might as well start off with a real Los Angeles charmer from renaissance man Steve Martin [comedian, novelist, playwright, actor, art collector and banjoist] penned this gentle satire set in the city he's lived in his entire live. Since Martin has such a long-term relationship with Los Angeles, he's got a lot of material to put in regarding the quirks of local culture and people. Martin mainly mines the 1980s fads that are natural targets [explosion of popularity of plastic surgery, nightmarish traffic on the freeways, never being on time, fashionable foods] while telling his story of a zany weatherman [Martin] who meets two opposite romantic partners. There's the buzzing with youthful energy in SanDeE* [Sarah Jessica Parker; yes, that's how she spells her name in another jibe at the locals] and the quirky, English appeal of a woman closer to his age in Sara [Victoria Tennant; Martin's wife off-screen from 1986-1994]. While L.A. Story has conventional romantic comedy roots, it has elements of fantasy [a talking electric road sign!] and is chock full of so much clever satire that the romance is used many times just to knock the way Los Angeles residents live. I loved the combination of elements and probably enjoyed the movie more this time than when I originally saw it in Tulsa in 1991. I'm going to have to re-watch a lot of these "Los Angeles Cinema" series and hope the second viewing of other films will be as rewarding as this. L.A. Story is a delightful and enchanting movie. Rating: ****

The Cool School. Los Angeles has always been in the shadow of New York City when it comes to art. New York, as it often does with other topics, likes to inflate its importance as the epicenter of the cultural world. "If you aren't an artist in New York, you can't be a real artist," that kind of mindset. Well, a group of artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s rejected that idea and stayed in their hometown and made the same sort of work that would have greatly increased their stature had they been in NYC. The Cool School is an entertaining documentary that looks into this all-male group of artists, the era they created in and the groundbreaking gallery [Ferus] that exhibited their work. I've missed out on knowing who any of these guys are, I'd only heard of one of them: Ed Ruscha. I know who he is because he's a fellow Oklahoman. The rest of them I hadn't the foggiest who they were, yet the documentary does a terrific job blending their life story, their style and their personality with the larger focus of the collective. There's also a lot of archival footage of Los Angeles in the 1950s through the 1960s that give a flavor of the city at the time. It's a much different place now than then and I wish I could have been around it when it was less compact, less crowded and much more of a cultural wasteland. Being from Oklahoma has instilled in me an attraction to places that are off the grid, forgotten, ignored or seen better days, and Los Angeles in the 1950s/1960s had pockets of the city that were definitely connected to those elements. It wasn't all glamour, glitter, reality shows, wealth and Hollywood stars on every street corner. It's probably not like that now, but perceptions of the city are kind of overwhelming. The Cool School is recommended for art fans and people who want to see a different side of Los Angeles portrayed than what bombards current popular culture. Rating: ****

Valley Girl. Now here's one I haven't seen since the mid 1980s that is about as good example of what "80s culture" is all about: valley girls! Released in 1983 and directed by Martha Coolidge, Valley Girl capitalizes on the craze at the time regarding "valley girl" slang known as [like totally awesome you know?]. It was the first Hollywood release to tap into the world of "valspeak" and is the quintessential movie for this sort of thing. Valley Girl is more than a document of "valley" culture though, it's a molotov cocktail of pure '80s culture that sent me back to moments of my youth that I could not believe I was witnessing. The hair, the clothes, the accessaries, the music, the slang! This movie could be viewed as a documentary it nails the early 1980s teenage lifestyle so completely. Like, seriously, you know? Here's my short review, in appropriate language for the "vals" who read CineRobot religiously.

So, like, Nicholas Cage [like, before he got his teeth done. His teeth used to be so grody! Gag me!] plays the totally bitchin' punk rocker "Randy." He's a gnarly dude with a boffin' bod who meets "Julie" [Deborah Foreman] and they start a romance despite the fact that she's from the valley and he's, like, from Hollywood. I'm so sure. Anyways...this is an epic romantic culture clash that rates right up there with what it would happen if, like, a Jew dated a Muslim in Jerusalem, like, during an intifada, for sure, you know? Totally. "Julie" is torn, there's her ex mang "Tommy" all her ditzy friends [like, whatever!] want her to get back together with to be tre Mr. and Mrs. Popularity, or the totally radical "Randy"? What's a girl to do, you know? Oh my God! So, like, how could "Julie" stay with "Tommy" when "Randy" is around? Like, barf me out! As if! I'm, like, freakin' out just thinking about it. Seriously, so this is a way cool movie that shows a certain segment of '80s culture with awesome tunes, bitchin' slang, tubular fashions and it will make you feel, like, awesome when it ends. For sure? Totally. Rating: ***1/2

Valley Girl trailer

2011-11-06T08:29:00.000-08:00

The Cool School trailer

2011-11-06T08:28:00.000-08:00

The Tingler

2011-11-03T07:21:00.000-07:00

Film: The Tingler [1959, usa]
Where I saw it: Los Angeles @ Cinefamily
Who with: SJ
Rating for complete film experience: *****!

For film lovers, the name William Castle should conjure up visions of the B-movie era of the 1950s and 1960s when there were a glorious slew of low-budgeted films marketed toward the young-adult matinee audiences. I've been waiting to see a Castle movie the way they are meant to be seen for decades. I finally got to knock that small goal in life from my list of things I want to do before I die. Small victories! Castle was the master of what could be thought of as "gimmick" cinema. Interactive movie watching is in vogue right now with sing-a-longs, quote-a-thons and there's even the text-friendly program MUV Chat that let's the audience's texts appear on-screen as the film runs. Castle should be thought of as the godfather of interactive movie watching.

It helped Castle's Vincent Price starring The Tingler that it was being shown at Cinefamily on Halloween night. The house was stuffed with 175 people with at least half of them in costume which added to the festive atmosphere. I saw "Frank Booth" from Blue Velvet, lots of zombies, members of the SAMCRO motorcycle gang Sons of Anarchy, the Black Swan ballerina, a human beaver creature and an assortment of naughty costumes with [mostly] female flesh on display. A movie like The Tingler is going to be a lot more fun with a crowded theatre full of rambunctious people ready to have a good time, and this audience was ready to laugh, scream and enjoy the campiness of The Tingler.

The Tingler was one of Castle's early gimmick pictures known for being filmed in "Percepto". That pretty much means that the seats of the theatre were rigged with electric shocks that go off during specific moments of the film to really rile up the audience. It doesn't hurt, at least these at Cinefamily didn't. It's just a slight buzz of electricity vibrating from the seat. Had I not known it was going to come at some point and if I would have been a teenager in 1959, I can only imagine the sheer fun and delirium in the audience when the theatre is urged to scream together as the electric shocks are going off on the seat.

Some of Castle's other gimmicks he did to bring people to the theatre and whip them into a frenzy were taking out $1,000 life insurance policies from Lloyd's of London in case anyone died from watching the Macabre [1958]. He really ramped this one up as he'd have nurses in the lobby and even hearses outside the theatre to haul off the dead if someone died of fright during the screening. House on Haunted Hill [1959] was filmed in "Emergo," a glow-in-the-dark skeleton that floated over the audience on wires during key moments. "Illusion-O" made an appearance in 13 Ghosts [1960] and involved colored strips that could remove the ghosts if you were too frightened. 1961's Homicidal had Castle coming up with the "Coward's Corner," which was a series of public humiliations administered by bewildered theatre employees. Castle's movies might not have been actually "good" in the old-fashioned sense of the word, but you can not deny the fact that events such as these were tremendously fun.

At least I finally got to see a Castle movie, as I've longed dreamed of, and it was everything I expected and more. The Tingler is actually a very clever movie the way it engages the audience to pull them into the film with a twist that involves a projection booth, an on-screen movie theatre and theatre goers screaming their heads off. Cinefamily did this screening right by having an audience member go nuts during one key scene. The house lights come on as a old-school, dressed in white nurse comes running down the aisle to help this person to their feet so the film can start again. Castle was known for pulling stuff like this and encouraged it as the film goes black with a voice over urging the audience on in their shared frenzy.

The Tingler was such a fun experience, I wish that Cinefamily would try a few of Castle's other interactive films that I listed earlier. Check out Joe Dante's 1993 film Matinee if you want to see a semi-recent movie that uses Castle as inspiration as John Goodman plays a Castle-like film maker who has brought his film to Florida during the Cuban missile crisis. I had such a great time at this and loved the spirit of the event, I'm probably going to become a member of Cinefamily even though I'd need to go 2/3 times a month to screenings to make it worth it. They seem to have a bunch of interactive styled screenings and bring in a lot of guests and it's very close to where I live. Now, I'll have New Beverly and Cinefamily to tempt me regarding how I spend my time.

October movies

2011-11-01T07:15:00.000-07:00

October was more like it after seeing only six films in September. That was one of the all-time low total months since I started tracking my movie watching in 1998. Throw in the fact I got to see some unique movies or stuff with the cast present--Martha Marcy May Marlene or Ghost Story [make-up artist Dick Smith in attendance]--and the month was a fun one. I ended the month on a good note by getting to see William Castle's 1959 horror film The Tingler in "percepto"! Next post will be about what that means if you don't know Castle or some of his gimmicks. And, I'm not even counting the live script read of The Breakfast Club that was my favorite thing I did all month...not counting the Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark concert in downtown Los Angeles obviously!

Point Blank---2010---france ****
The Skin I Live In---2011---spain ****
Copyright Criminals---2009---usa ***1/2
Moneyball---2011---usa ***1/2
Martha Marcy May Marlene---2011---usa ***
Went the Day Well?---1942---england ****
Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields---2010---usa ***
Ides of March---2011---usa---***1/2 [$16?!]
The Falcon and the Snowman---1985---usa ***
The Cool School---2007---usa ***1/2
L.A. Story---1991---usa ****
Ghost Story---1981---usa ***
Straight Outta L.A.---2010---usa **1/2
50/50---2011---usa ****
The Tingler---1959---usa ****

I am not Josh Peck

2011-10-30T06:58:00.000-07:00

If you are familiar with the world of teen sitcoms you might have come across a show called Drake & Josh. It aired on Nickelodeon from 2004-2007, but can be seen in the re-run format somewhere I'm sure. It apparently was a popular little show although I've never had the pleasure of watching a single second of it. What brought it to my attention years ago is that the "Josh" in the title referred to a chubby teenage actor named Josh Peck. Same name as me, not me.

Having this other Josh Peck has never entered into my life, especially since that Josh Peck is more known for being a teen-actor who is now trying his hand in more serious fare after slimming down. So we have the same name, who cares. Since I've moved to Los Angeles though, evidently there is some kind of online celebrity information dispenser that has confused that Josh Peck with the Joshua Peck that I know as me. Maybe people see my name, number and city I reside in and think I am the other, famous Josh Peck who just happens to have a mobile phone listing? Then they call me.

The first time I got a phone call asking to speak to Josh Peck was before 7am. The number that came up on my phone was an international number and I thought it might by my good friend Scott who lives in London and will call me from time to time with the strange string of numbers from whatever location he is calling from. It wasn't Scott, although the person on the line seemed to be asking to speak to me.

"Is this Josh Peck?" A youthful voice with an slight accent asked me.
"Yes. Who is this?" I responded.
"This is Ocha. Is this Josh Peck?"
"Yes. What do you want?"

I loathe phone solicitors and am usually on the rude side to any stranger who phones me out of the blue until I find out this unknown person is not selling something.

"My name is Ocha and I am watching Drake & Josh and wanted to talk to you."
"Uhm, I'm not that Josh Peck. I didn't have anything to do with Drake & Josh. Sorry."
"Oh."

The phone line goes dead. I guess Ocha disconnected it with a sad obliteration of his dream to talk to the right Josh Peck, not some doppelganger with a drawl and brusque attitude at 6:50 in the morning.

Then I got another call wanting to speak to Josh Peck. It was a female voice this time and her name was Sandy. After she asked, "Is this really Josh Peck?" I realized we had another phone stalker at work and told her I was Josh Peck, just not the right Josh Peck. She too sounded a little crestfallen that she wasn't talking to the person she hoped to be talking to. Ocha and Sandy probably spent days mustering up the courage to call Josh Peck and talk to him and within a few seconds, those fantasies had been crushed.

A few minutes after I got off the phone with Sandy I realized I had an opportunity if and when this happens in the future. I have always loved pulling practical jokes and the opportunity to prank some random Josh Peck fan is impossible to pass up. Here's what will happen if I'm called again: I will pretend to be the Josh Peck that these people are calling and see what they have to say. I have read Josh Peck's Wikipedia file to familiarize myself with his career and background. If they ask why I sound different than on TV or in movies, I will say I'm preparing for a role and am trying to stay in character. You know, method acting. Our phone conversations might go into strange, unexpected places for the people calling me as Josh Peck might be getting up to some shenanigans that he might not be aware of.

Any suggestions of things I can tell the future callers? Any ideas for the movie I can claim to be working on? Any weird or off the wall topics that we should discuss? I'm hoping to get some more of these calls just to see if I can fool these fans of the other Josh Peck and entertain myself for a few minutes. Details of those conversations will be posted if it happens again.

Suspiria poster

2011-10-28T06:20:00.000-07:00

We used to have an alternate poster for Circle Cinema's midnight movie series designed by Dan Fritschie, but we stopped doing those last year due to both my busyness to put them up and Dan's time to create them. This month we have a new take on Suspiria done by Aaron Mankekar. Suspiria is a 1977 Italian horror movie from director Dario Argento and will play at midnight at Circle Cinema on October 28 and 29.

$16 matinee?

2011-10-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

Evidently that's the going rate to see a Sunday matinee at the Arclight Hollywood movie theatre in Los Angeles. Shocking, isn't it? I'd been to the Arclight before to see the recently reviewed on CineRobot Attack the Block and The Skin I Live In and was ready to fork over the usual $13.50 to see a 4:20 screening of The Ides of March. I informed the Arclight employee that we needed two tickets and when I was told it was going to be $32 thought there was some kind of confusion on his part.

"I want two tickets," I attempted again.
"It's going to be $32 for two tickets," he blankly responded. I'm sure this befuddlement on my part was nothing new to this person regarding ticket prices on a Sunday.

Basic math skills destroyed by sticker shock as if I was facing my own personal kryptonite, I still wasn't able to figure out that it was going to be $16 a ticket to see a matinee of this movie. Five seconds later, my brain was able to register the simple division of 32/2 = 16. Understanding the math didn't mean I liked what I was hearing.

"$16 a ticket? You have got to be kidding me. I paid $13.50 last time here. Do you not have a matinee price on weekends?"
"On Sundays, every screening is $16."

After a short debate with Sarah, we got two tickets. I'm not a cheap person and even though $13.50 is crazy high for a movie, I still would have paid it. But, $16 for a Sunday matinee? That is sheer lunacy. Did I mention the fact that we were going to have to pay $3 in parking costs? So, our 100 minute screening of The Ides of March cost us $35. Sarah wanted to get something at the concession stand, but resisted due to the fact that the tiniest purchase would have vaulted us over the $40 mark.

Among many things wrong with paying $16 to see a movie, at the forefront is the fact that there is a lot of pressure on that film to actually be good. Every five minutes during The Ides of March, I flashed back to the number of "16" in my head and began to think, "Is this movie worth $16?" That can't be a wise marketing element to the movie going experience and is just one more thing that the movie industry is doing wrong. If I was going to one movie every couple of months, I'd pony up the $16 whilst grousing to anyone within earshot of how I [or rather we, the movie going public] was being unfairly gouged, but I go to a lot of movies and the $16 per ticket amount that might require the selling of my plasma if I was to keep up my current pace of paying to see films in a theatre. I happen to be unemployed at the moment--I can't afford that! I guess I won't be seeing that many new releases with the $13.50 price being the lowest on offering in Los Angeles for a new release.

More Netflix and $7 double feature New Beverly screenings for me it looks like. It just doesn't make great business sense to me. You'd think the theatres [and the movie industry as a whole] would want as many repeat viewers to see a multitude of movies as possible, not feel cheated by paying an exorbitant price for a Sunday matinee. What makes more money? Ten screenings at $12 or five screenings at $16? Even my woeful basic math tells me that 120>80 every time. Granted, those numbers are just pulled out of the air by me, but there is no way I'll be going back to the Arclight and paying $16. They just lost a customer and that means they are losing money instead of making the large amount I might have paid to see films there with fair pricing.

To end this distressing post on a much brighter, happier place--here's a photo of me walking Mozi in our Los Angeles neighborhood! I think she's lost a couple of pounds due to the walks and the going up and down the stairs to the second floor apartment.

Live reading of Breakfast Club screenplay

2011-10-25T07:27:00.000-07:00

Well, this was an unexpected treat. Director Jason Reitman [Juno, Up in the Air, Thank You for Smoking] has come up with the idea of live readings of classic scripts with alternate castings. Genius. Pure genius. The first incarnation of this new series at LACMA? The Breakfast Club. The cast? J.K. Simmons, Patton Oswalt, Jennifer Garner, Aaron Paul, Mindy Kaling, James Van Der Beek and Michael Chiklis. Even though I sat toward the back, I was lucky to score tickets to experience a beloved film from my youth in a completely fresh and interesting new way.

It's no secret I have great admiration for John Hughes. It's hard for anyone who didn't come of age during the 1980s to not be permanently attached to multiple films he did. I wrote a small post when Hughes died here. I'm shocked that Hollywood hasn't pilfered the man's creative ashes in watered down, piece of sh*t cash-in remakes for the younger set, which kind of gives me reason to worry after watching the live read. Slimy Hollywood producers might have had a lightning bolt moment as the crowd lapped up the classic dialogue performed on stage with this alternate cast: "Hey, let's revisit The Breakfast Club and make it up to date for kids in 2012." Ugh. No, thank you.

I find the current onslaught of remakes disgusting. I've written about it before and will likely write about it in the future. But, the idea of a live, on-stage reading of a script is an exciting idea that combines elements of low-key theatre and the actual movie itself. The Breakfast Club script is so completely self-contained [most of the action takes place in a library with five major characters], that it is a great choice for this kind of exorcise. Plus, it's a wonderful script from Hughes, full of anger, humor, awkwardness and a heavy dose of '80s slang.

Among the actors who I felt did the best with the material were Patton Oswalt and Aaron Paul. I was kind of surprised by Oswalt as he's not someone that I've been a huge fan of, but he completely got the tender pain of the "geek" character and even executed a perfectly timed spit-take [I'm a huge lover of the old-school spit-take!] that seemed to be unplanned and unexpected by the rest of the cast. Paul, playing the flashiest role in the script as "Bender" [Judd Nelson's role in the original film] also delivered an edgy performance that combined the appropriate raging while literally slouching in his chair when apathy and disgust were needed.

There are five planned readings in this program curated by Reitman. I don't know what November's film will be, but I'll be in the theatre and we already have our tickets. I have heard a rumor of one of the hopefuls and if true, I might be more excited to see this one than I was to see The Breakfast Club. I don't want to spoil it in case it doesn't come to fruition, but it's another movie that is in my all-time top 100.

***Photo from left to right: Jason Reitman, JK Simmons, Patton Oswalt, Jennifer Garner, Aaron Paul, Mindy Kaling and James Van Der Beek. October 2011 @ LACMA, Los Angeles, California.

***Image credit: Vivien Killiles/Film Independent/WireImage.com

Went the Day Well?

2011-10-23T09:49:00.001-07:00

Film: Went the Day Well? [1942, england]
Where I saw it: Los Angeles at New Beverly
Who with: loner style
Rating: ****
Nazi killing gratification: ****1/2

My graduation thesis at the University of Oklahoma was a forty-page paper on the use of propaganda in Soviet Union cinema during the 1930s. I watched a bunch of highly slanted films that portrayed life in the Soviet Union as the best place on earth. I also watched a lot of propaganda films from WWII era Hollywood as the studios tried to up the sense of duty by inspiring the home front to join, work and support the war effort that existed on such an epic scale. An interesting thing about the American propaganda films during the war was how friendly they were regarding the Soviet Union. That would soon change when the war ended as comrades become the enemy.

Despite my binge in propaganda cinema from this era more than a decade ago, I'd never heard of the 1942 English film Went the Day Well? from director Alberto Cavalcanti. What a treasure this movie is! Went the Day Well? is one of the more rousing examples of propaganda cinema that you are likely to see due to the fact that it was filmed in England during an actual war. The plot of Went the Day Well? is something that the English people were truly worried about as a possibility: Germans invading. Although the threat of German invasion was lessoning in 1942, Nazi spies in villages or troops crossing the channel was still very much in the public consciousness. This adds a tremendous amount of heft to the unique viewpoint of Went the Day Well?.

Based on a story by Graham Greene, a group of English troops arrive in a sleepy village with claims they are training. They are lying. These are German soldiers who will knock out the communication for an upcoming larger invasion by more German troops. At first, the locals offer up their bedrooms, kitchens and give the soldiers every hospitality. When the Germans decide to make their true identity known, they herd the locals into a church at gun point and are brutal to anyone who attempts to escape or fight back. No one is safe from the evil Germans--not elderly ministers, not women and not children.

Of course, the people don't just sit in the church and do nothing. The entire town, men, women, elderly and children, rise up against the bastard Nazis and fight back with relish and deadly force. To see the English band together and take up arms is thrilling, exciting and very effective and propaganda at its finest. I can only imagine what it was like to see Went the Day Well? in an English movie theatre in 1942 as the townsfolk start killing the Germans in their midst. There were cheers at the New Beverly and we're nearly seventy years removed from the film's release.

The most surprising thing about Cavalcanti's film is just how it relishes the violence and extremity of both the German and English actions. Yes, the combat scenes are dated judged against today's standards, but the sheer evil of the Germans [they kill or will kill anyone in town without pause] and the pleasure the English take in striking back is a joy to witness. To see an elderly woman use a pick ax with the ferocious intention of killing a man without thought is a primal thing to witness. There's plenty of bayoneting, shooting, knifing, strangling and other on-screen deaths. Awesome stuff.

Went the Day Well? works not only a propaganda film about home-front resistance, it is a wonderful WWII movie that shows English paranoia manifesting in a cheeky, dark, violent little movie. There's a tinge of black comedy running throughout and the movie is just as subversive as it is rousing to get the English blood boiling against the no-good Germans. Highly recommended.

Went the Day Well? trailer

2011-10-23T09:49:00.000-07:00

Martha Marcy May Marlene

2011-10-20T07:09:00.000-07:00

Film: Martha Marcy May Marlene [2011, usa]
Where I saw it: Los Angeles @ LACMA
Who with: SJ
Rating: ***; SJ ?
Rating for post-screening Q & A: ****

This is why I was eager to move to Los Angeles right here. Free tickets [SJ works at LACMA now] to see an early screening of Martha Marcy May Marlene with the writer/director and a big chunk of the cast for a post-screening Q & A. Even if the movie didn't blow the doors off, just being able to do this kind of thing in the future really excites me. Between LACMA and some other places around town, I hope to see and hear a lot of people talk about their films and others. A cool thing for people who regularly read CineRobot is since I'm in LA, I might have early reviews of films just out that haven't gone wide yet, like Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Skin I Live In from a couple of days ago.

I'm not too fond of the title of this movie as it's a mouthful and a tongue-twister. Martha Marcy May Marlene made me think this was a drama about a disturbed young woman with multiple personalities when I saw the trailer. It's not that at all. It's a drama all right, but it's about a woman who gets entangled in sort of a rural cult. John Hawkes plays "Patrick," the charismatic leader of the cult, but in the post-screening Q & A, he pointed out that in his mind this wasn't a "cult" but a "community." I can see his rational for thinking that as an actor, but this was a cult, with people doing things against their will for the benefit of their leader to risk being ostracized in their new "family."

Elizabeth Olsen [yes, sister of the Olsen twins. I almost feel sorry for her since that is going to get mentioned in every single review of this movie. Including CineRobot!] plays the multiple-named title character who gets taken in by "Patrick" and his group of young followers. Very early in the film, she runs away through the woods to escape the group and is picked up by her older sister [Sarah Paulson] and the movie begins to jump back and forth between how "Martha" got into the cult, her day-to-day activities there and then her present life with sister, trying to forget all the psychological damage that was done to her from the cult.

Martha Marcy May Marlene is a mixed bag and a missed opportunity for something pretty good from first time director Sean Durkin. The story is powerful, the acting is excellent and the film has a strange quiet intensity to it that is to be applauded. I absolutely hated the disjointed non-linear aspect of how the film was edited between past and present. It felt clunky and even a bit of a gimmick to manipulate the audience's perceptions and feelings toward the characters. Less flashbacks would have helped, or just longer periods of time between the flashbacks might have increased my feelings for it greatly.

It's a shame that I didn't like this more as I have a long-held interest in cults from when I was nine year's old and Jim Jones' Peoples Temple mass suicide dominated the news in 1978. I was completely transfixed by the macabre story of these people in Guyana, Jones and the 1980 Powers Boothe starring TV movie Guyana Tragedy. I watched every second of that movie and sought out anything else I could find about cults. In the 1990s I was flying home from Seattle and had just purchased a copy of Time or Newsweek from 1978 that was an entire issue dedicated to the mass suicide. If you want to be left alone on a cross-country flight, whip out a cult-centric magazine and read it transfixed before and during the flight. Needless to say, no one spoke to me. Not sure I'd recommend that tactic in the post 9/11 world as you might get pulled aside by security after they notice your keen interest in doomsday death cults, ha.

I've actually put down "cult leader" on forms from time to time when someone is wanting to know about my private business when I've felt they didn't need to know. I might as well make a weird confession: I think I'd make a really good cult leader! I'd merge my fire and brimstone Southern Baptist roots with a luddite message that would definitely go the end times route. I don't see the point being a good cult leader if you aren't going to preach a message of the world ending.

Back to the movie. I was the prime audience member for Martha Marcy May Marlene due to my interest in cults. I did enjoy the scenes of "Martha" in the cult and the fact that it was just kind of a normal group, isolated from society, cut-off from the world, yet living this warped existence. The film would have been so much more powerful had it been primarily in one time period with less flashbacks though. Worth seeing and I'm curious to see what Dirkin does next, but a missed opportunity to deliver a scary bit of realism concerning what it would be like to live in a cult.

***Left to right in photo: Sean Dirkin, Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson and John Hawkes***

The Skin I Live In

2011-10-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

Film: The Skin I Live In [2011, spain]
Where I saw it: Los Angeles @ Arclight Cinema
Who with: loner style
Rating: ****
Rating for Pedro Almodovar's bad-assness at age 62: *****!
Rating for paying $13.50 for a matinee: *

You really have to hand it to Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar. He's been making feature length movies since the late 1970s and recently turned 62, yet, he's a complete and utter bad-ass who is still unleashing his vision on the audience, no matter how prickly the subject matter might be. His latest, The Skin I Live In, is an example of his bold, brave and twisted viewpoint. This movie is not one that the masses will probably enjoy. For example, if this played in my recently departed [and beloved] home state of Oklahoma and people had no clue they were watching an Almodovar movie, I bet that there would be much derision and hostility in the audience. It would be palpable in that darkened theatre. Heck, I sensed some of that at the screening I saw here in Los Angeles and these big-city folks are supposed to less prone to shock and controversy. But, people who love the craft of moviemaking and want to see something a little dangerous, a little bit out of bounds and unexpected, you will greatly enjoy The Skin I Live In as Almodovar delivers another intoxicating dose of Spanish cinema that will leave a strange nervousness in your stomach when the credits roll. And, yes, that's a good thing.

Antonio Banderas enters the world of Almodovar for the first time since 1990's Tie Me Up and Tie Me Down [which was one of the first ever nationally released NC-17 films] and there's an odd parallel between these two films for Banderas. In both movies, he plays a man who kidnaps someone. Yes, for entirely different reasons [love v. revenge] but a kidnapping is crucial to both plots. In The Skin I Live In Banderas plays Roberto, a prominent plastic surgeon who is dealing with the death of family members while trying to create a new kind of skin that will be superior than normal skin. For his experiments, he has imprisoned Vera [Elena Anaya, who was also in the recently reviewed Point Blank] as she lays around in a lush setting, but the doors and windows are still locked, it's still a prison for her. The film jumps back to tell Vera's story as it merges with Robert's painful memories of wife/daughter and just how we got to the present with this person held in the room. Vera's story is where the film gets kind of kinky and twisted.

The Skin I Live In works as a kind of low-burn "Frankensteinian" inspired horror film, but Almodovar is making some bigger statements with this one. The question of self-identity and the malleable form of the human body in this 21st century world of surgical procedures are two big issues for The Skin I Live In. Look at the poster. The two leads have a rubberized, overly processed look that almost makes them seem like artificial creations. That's intentional. Roberto is the "madman" looking to create the perfect woman by every sort of method that goes against the accepted ethical laws of science. He doesn't care, completely driven by his obsession that could cost him his career and possibly his life.

The Skin I Live In is one that will stick with you for a few days. I keep thinking about it in weird moments, such as when I'm doing the dishes or waiting at a stop light. It's one of those movies that invades your thoughts long after it is over. As I said in the introduction, that's a good thing. With The Skin I Live In, Pedro Almodovar proves once again that he's one of the most interesting, provocative directors working in cinema. And, luckily for us as movie lovers, he shows absolutely no sign of watering down his style or message. He's going to keep making "Almodovar" films, another very good thing in this climate of safe, mainstream moviemaking.

Movie tickets #25

2011-10-17T07:22:00.000-07:00

Point Blank

2011-10-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

Film: Point Blank [2010, france]
Where I saw it: Los Angeles at New Beverly
Who with: loner style
Rating: ****
Rating for watching movies at New Beverly with no talking/texting: a million stars!

I'm finally off the zero movies in Los Angeles mark. It took a recent French thriller and a theatre only a ten minute walk from my apartment to get me out of my drought, but I'm glad I ventured to the theatre as Point Blank is an adrenaline rush that doesn't let off the gas pedal the entire movie. In 2007, one of my favorites was another French thriller called Tell No One, and a few years later, the French have nailed this genre again with the gripping, edge of your seat Point Blank. It's not quite on the level that Tell No One is, but it's a fun blast of entertainment, offering up twists, chases, shootouts and violence. Everything you want in a good thriller.

The film has a simple premise that gets the full-throttle treatment form director Fred Caveye. A nurse witnesses an attempt on an unknown man's life during the night, he foils the attempt, but draws himself and his pregnant wife into the criminal lair. Wife gets kidnapped and the nurse must begin to desperately do what the kidnappers ask him to do if he wants to see his wife again. As he gets deeper into the mix of danger, violence and lack of knowledge of if his wife is alive, he gets more and more desperate and will cross the line if that's what it takes to rescue his wife.

Point Blank's opening seconds start with a chase through the darkened Parisian streets. This is a sign of what is to come as there are a lot of good chase scenes throughout the film. Don't expect any vehicle chases though, these are strictly of the variety of men running from pursuers through buildings, narrow alleys, hospitals and other urban environments. Like a lot of thrillers, there are some moments in Point Blank when you think--what?--as plot holes begin to appear in the story, but this is a genre that can survive plot holes if it is riveting enough. Point Blank is certainly that as I watched it with a quickened pulse. Maybe it was so effective due to the fact I haven't watched any movies lately? No, it is a good movie and recommended if you like gritty thrillers. I nearly posted the trailer, but thought, like most trailers, it gives away too much of the story. To not spoil the twists, Point Blank is best appreciated cold.

***Footnote. This is the second movie I've watched at New Beverly Cinema and in two screenings let me tell you how many times I saw someone text or heard someone talk during the movie: zero. That's right. Two entire films with neither of those abominations to the theatre going experience. How absolutely refreshing!

Movie watching drought

2011-10-13T08:10:00.000-07:00

There's a major drought in certain parts of the country--Oklahoma for one. So, it makes sense that my move to the west coast has created my own kind of drought when it comes to watching movies. I was going to do my usual post where I list all the films I've seen in the month of September, but when I consulted Kinetoscope realized quickly I'd seen very few movies. September was a frantic month that saw me coming to Los Angeles looking for a place to live, returning to Tulsa to deal with selling my house, a bunch of small/big projects related to work or finishing Dead Cinema or just boxing up everything we owned worth putting into the Pod. Two of my usual standbys, books and movies, took kind of a back seat to something called "life."

I haven't watched a movie in nearly two weeks! I know, highly unusual behavior for me. I've got to get my self back in order quick. The last thing I saw was a midnight movie at Circle on September 28. That was kind of fun, a text-friendly screening of Napoleon Dynamite where the audience could text their hearts out and they would appear on the screen. It was Oklahoma's first pro-texting screening. Basically, it was history being made in a small, small way. I saw only six films in September and one of those I saw two times [Drive]. That's actually one of my favorites for 2011 by the way. Loved it.

We're close to being completely unpacked and settling in now, so, my drought will not last much longer. I've got a few screenings at New Beverly and LACMA in the calendar as well as trying to catch up with some new releases. Although I will be dealing with "Welcome to LA" items such as a parking ticket on the FIRST day we got here! SJ got one too so lesson learned: do not screw with these Los Angeles meter maids as they will dish out a $68 dollar ticket.

Giving Jon Voight directions

2011-10-11T06:45:00.000-07:00

I'm back. Finally. We've been in Los Angeles a week now but haven't been able to do any posts due to the fact that our "Pods" shipment was four days late. What a disaster. We were staying in a completely empty apartment for three full days. Toss in the fact the city screwed up our gas order and that means we had no hot water either. Pretty miserable. But, onward! Here's my first post as a Los Angeles resident and my first encounter with a bonafide celebrity: Jon Voight!

We live near the Farmer's Market and spent a lot of time there the first few days since we couldn't cook food at our apartment. There's lots of small restaurants in there and has kind of a retro '50s vibe to me. I've already found a couple of places I really like--for example, Gill's Old Fashioned Ice Cream in the photo to the right. The guy makes a mean limeade! I was making my way to the exit in the early evening when this tall, older man walks right up to me and asks me, "Do you know where the Wood Ranch BBQ is?"

I kind of pride myself on giving strangers directions no matter what city I'm in and whether I really know what I'm talking about. I've dosed out directions to locations I wasn't entirely sure were accurate on more than one occasion. This time there was added pressure due to the fact I recognized the lost man in front of me as Mr. Jon Voight, best known for roles in Midnight Cowboy or Deliverance or that particular Seinfeld episode about George's used car or for being Angelina Jolie's father. I paused for a few seconds thinking of where I'd seen the Wood Ranch.

"I'm pretty sure I just saw it over in that direction," I told Voight and gave a vague point over my shoulder that might or might not be the correct area I saw it. I wanted to finish my sentence but was brusquely cut-off by Voight.

"I guess you don't really no where it is then?" He challenged me in kind of a curt tone.

Uhm, not really, but neither do you, I thought to myself a few minutes after the exchange. I couldn't waver on where I thought it was after Voight's confrontational tone and kept on talking to him.

"I'm pretty sure, but ask this man right here [referring to the guy selling keys at a kiosk who I happened to be talking to as he cut my keys] as he probably knows more certainly than I do."

Voight asked him and got the right directions. I was happy to find out it was in the exact spot I had told Voight it was at! Voight left to go have dinner and I was left with the key-cutter at his stall.

"Do you know who that was?" I asked him.
"No. Who was it?"
"That was Jon Voight. He's a famous actor, big in the 1970s. I bet you know who his daughter is though. Angelina Jolie."
"Oh, yes. I know Angelina Jolie," he replied.

Dead Cinema opening reception/hiatus

2011-09-24T08:10:00.000-07:00

A reminder to any area Tulsa readers that my photography exhibit, Dead Cinema, will have its opening reception on September 27 from 6-9. I hope to have a really good turnout and see a lot of people I know, so I hope to see you there. Just a reminder about what Dead Cinema is: twenty photographs of unused/abandoned movie theatres across the state of Oklahoma. I recently was asked to include a selection of Dead Cinema images for a group show at the Norman Arts Council's Mainsite gallery titled Emerging Artists of Oklahoma. So, I'm very excited that this project will get another showing in Norman from December 2011 to late January of 2012. I will possibly add some new theatres located in downtown Los Angeles as they've got some wonderful old palaces sitting empty.

I am so busy with my move to Los Angeles [all our earthly possessions worth taking are loaded onto a "pod" travelling west, so I have no computer at home] that CineRobot is going to take a brief hiatus until I can get settled, unpacked and re-wired in our new apartment in Los Angeles. Hopefully that will be some time in the first week of October.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

2011-09-18T07:54:00.001-07:00

Film: Rise of the Planet of the Apes [2011, usa]
Where I saw it: Jenks, Oklahoma
Who with: Greg and Randy
Rating: ***1/2
Banksy rip-off poster rating: ****

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a surprisingly fun piece of genre entertainment from director Rupert Wyatt [The Escapist]. Growing up male when I did [my childhood and teenage years are firmly steeped in 1970s and 1980s culture], I revered the original Planet of the Apes series. Repeated watchings revealed many levels in the landmark science fiction film from 1968. Of course, I even watched all the lackluster sequels such as Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the Planet of the Apes. Heck, I even read the novel by Pierre Boulle that came out in 1963.

One of my favorite memories of a kid connected to film was when I was home sick from school while in junior high, I watched all five films in a row from the couch. It was a great day to be ill when I could gorge myself on "ape" lore! Tim Burton's soulless, disastrous remake [aren't the vast majority of these cash-ins, ahem, remakes this way?] in 2001 made me think the impossible: hoping I'd never see the apes on screen again. Then comes Rise of the Planet of the Apes and changes that opinion I've held onto for a decade.

An origin film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the story of the genesis of the ape's rise up from being cage dwellers and at the mercy of the humans who controlled them, to being simian revolutionaries, fighting for their chimpanzian independence. These apes just want to be free! If you recall your ape lore you will remember that there's already been an origin film--Conquest of the Planet of the Apes--but I guess the filmmakers thought no one would remember that less-than-stellar film, so they just decided to redo it. So this new one is kind of a remake, kind of not a remake.

Obviously, primitive apes alone can't take down the entire earth population of humans so a nifty element of Rise of the Planet of the Apes tracks how a virus does the bulk of the serious labor for the apes. This is a believable story point as we are currently bombarded with paranoid missives from an assortment of disease control centers around the globe as they preach about nefarious strains that could wipe out human kind. Let's not forget movies either as Contagion just came out and it's about the same topic--rapid spreading disease and the vulnerability of the human species.

The movie follows the path of Caesar [a CGI/live action creation played by actor Andy Serkis] from a newborn to his childhood living in the attic of a genius scientist [James Franco]. Caesar shows remarkable cognitive ability and actually surpasses human kids much older than him. Franco's scientist is trying to find a cure for his father's debilitating alzheimers [dad is played by John Lithgow]. He might find out how to slow the disease, but through his research and experiments, he unleashes something devastating. You know, the virus that kills humans and turns apes into intelligent creatures looking to take over.

Caesar is kind of the Jesus figure among the apes, the chosen one you could say, and will eventually rule. The film does a terrific job of creating a bond between viewer and Caesar. How can you not fall in love with the adorable little guy when he's young? By the time the tone shifts to a darker shade, you are right there with Caesar and his simian army, rooting them on against the humans. Very effective how the humans become the villains in this world.

Full of top-notch special effects, a minimum of silly science talk by Franco, a lack of over-the-top action and a rooting interest for the fortunes of Caesar/apes, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a welcome addition to the "ape" universe. It's the kind of summer entertainment that I'd like to see more of in ultra-mainstream releases. This is probably better than the spawn of sequels I mentioned earlier and much better than the Burton embarrassment a decade ago.

The Guard

2011-09-16T07:51:00.000-07:00

Film: The Guard [2011, Ireland]
Where I saw it: London, England
Who with: Scott
Rating: ****
Brendan Gleeson rating: *****!

The Irish comedy The Guard comes oh-so-close to being an incredibly satisfying bit of dark humor. While it goes slightly off the rails a bit, it's still got enough moments of sheer lunacy, pure deadpan delight and originality to make it one of my favorites of the year. The Guard ends up being crackpot entertainment, delivering heaping slices of quirky Irishness while only being tinged slightly with a few spots of disappointment due to the fact it could have risen to "cult classic" status without the false steps.

Brendan Gleeson plays "Gerry Boyle," a small village cop who would rather be doing any number of things instead of doing police work. This includes drinking, drugging, ordering prostitutes from Dublin...that sort of thing. When a dead body shows up in his village, "Gerry" is sent for a briefing by an FBI agent "Wendell Everett" [Don Cheadle] on the gang of criminals in their midst. The pair become an unlikely team with "Everett" becoming increasingly baffled, amused and irritated by the outlandish, blustering, racist force of nature that is "Gerry Boyle."

By far the best thing about The Guard is this character of "Gerry Boyle" concocted by writer/director John Michael McDonagh and performed by Glesson. While Glesson has shined before, his performance in this is electric and nuanced and probably the best role he's ever done. The man can flat out act. Watching the interaction between Gleeson/Cheadle is pure pleasure for me. When character actors [of which both Gleeson and Cheadle are] get leading roles, they always play to their strengths and one of those attributes is to let fellow actors have space to move around in a scene. Such is the case with The Guard, as when these two people say their dialogue, the pauses, flourishes and spaces the duo fill in are magical. It's a joy to watch.

What holds The Guard back from elevating itself from being better than the really good? My first gripe is it gives the gang that Gleeson/Cheadle chase after too much screen time. These scenes take away from the best thing in the movie--Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle--and the gang conversations regarding philosophy is forced and overwritten. It just felt way to fake and written some of the things the gang talks about. Every second that Gleeson's "Gerry Boyle" was not on the screen is a waste of time in The Guard's story. It's too bad McDonagh got too cute and in love with writing about this absurd gang because it damages his film in the end.

The Guard, erased of these wrong choices by McDonagh and his insistence on showing us the uninteresting gang, could have risen to the top as possible favorite of 2011. It's still hovering in my top ten and definitely worth seeing for the comedic tour-de-force that is Brendan Gleeson, but it had the chance to be truly special.

The Guard trailer

2011-09-16T07:25:00.000-07:00

New Beverly Cinema

2011-09-12T09:04:00.000-07:00

Well, it didn't take me long to go to the New Beverly Cinema on our recent five day apartment search in Los Angeles. The day we signed our lease, we actually made it to see the 1987 Wim Wenders film Wings of Desire. I obviously plan on spending a lot of time at this place because our apartment is only a 1/2 mile walk from the New Beverly! I promise that wasn't on my "must-have" list when we started driving all over Los Angeles searching for an apartment. Lucky for me, it just worked out that way. $7 double features!

Photo is of New Beverly at sunset as SJ and I are standing in line to buy our ticket to Wings of Desire.

Attack The Block

2011-09-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

While I won't be "officially" a Los Angeles resident until October 1st, I'm
counting Attack the Block as the first movie I watched since I saw it after
an apartment lease was signed. I'd been longing to see this buzzed about
British film all summer and it lived up to the lofty expectations I'd built.
It's the most fun I've had with film all summer. Boundless energy, vibrant,
youthful performances, one-liners, action, pulsating score--Attack the
Block is a perfect summery concoction about a group of teenagers fighting
off aliens when they land on their particular council block estate in a rough
part of London.

What I wasn't into so much was the $13.50 charge to see it. It's a good thing
I liked it with those prices.

Movie tickets #24

2011-09-08T10:21:00.001-07:00

The Girl From Paris

2011-09-05T07:52:00.000-07:00

Film: The Girl From Paris [2001, france]
Where: Tulsa/at home/dvd
Who with: loner style
Rating: ***1/2

Every so often, I love to be transported to France via cinema. I've never even been to France properly [I'm not counting the times I've stopped in the airport for connecting flights], but based on the 15 to 20 films I see each year from there, think I'd get along swimmingly if I spent time there. The Girl From Paris, a low-key charmer only solidifies that opinion. Forget visiting though, after watching stuff like this, I'd like to pack up all my belongings and move there for a spell.

Sandrine [Mathilde Seigner] is in her late 20s or early 30s and is tired of the city life in Paris. Burned out by her technology based job, the endless traffic, noise and hustle of urban living, she enrolls in a two year program to learn how to become a farmer. She is paired up with a surly goat farmer in a gorgeous, but extremely remote, mountaintop region and begins to devote her time to the goats, the property and her quiet life. It's not easy, but Sandrine is fully dedicated until events lead her to question her resolve once the harsh winter comes sweeping in.

I'm a fan of movies set on farms. I've always loved seeing people work on the land, in barns, with animals. Documentaries or fiction, it doesn't matter. If the setting is rural, I'm interested. Toss in the French element and the stunning location and I'm an easy mark. Luckily, The Girl From Paris is a sweet, tender comedy/drama about simplifying your life. There's also the pleasant side-story about the deepening relationship between the cantankerous old goat farmer and this woman with newfangled ideas such as selling goat cheese online or opening up a small hotel for guests looking for a rural retreat. The Girl From Paris has a lot of heart and might make you want to move to France--or at least go for a visit.

August movies

2011-09-02T06:08:00.001-07:00

Highlight of the month [obviously, not counting a midnight screening of The Big Lebowski that saw quite a few dress-ups like the image to the left of "The Dude" and "Walter" done up Tulsa style] was watching the pitch-black Irish comedy The Guard with Scott while in London. Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle are the most unlikely of comic pairings in 2011. See this one if you get the chance. Gleeson fans in particular should run to the theatre and watch his dazzling performance as a small-time local cop with a taste for hard living, women and politically incorrect opinions.

Right before I met Scott, I killed some time in the nerd nirvana known as Forbidden Planet. Their science fiction book section downstairs is a mindblower for sci-fi fans in terms of sheer number of offerings. Lots of English sci-fi you don't see in America. I was disciplined and only got three books including Ready Player One with a much better cover than the edition that just came out in the USA. I like my sci-fi.

Finally saw Super 8. Pretty mediocre actually. I wish it had absolutely no aliens in the story. Had it just been about these kids trying to make a super 8 film in the early 1980s without all the action, aliens and that stuff, I would have liked it a lot more. Fun in spots, but nothing more than that.

High Ballin'---1978---usa **
30 Minutes or Less---2011---usa ***
The Infidel---2010---england **
The Help---2011---usa ***1/2
The Girl from Paris---2001---france ***1/2
Rise of the Planet of the Apes---2011---usa ***
Revanche---2008---austria ***
Paul---2011---usa ***
Unknown---2010---usa ***
The Guard---2011---ireland ****
Salt of Life---2011---italy ***1/2
Star Trek---2009---usa ****
The Band That Wouldn't Die---2010---usa ***
Chasing 3000---2007---usa **1/2
Our Idiot Brother---2011---usa ***1/2
The Big Lebowski---1998---usa *****!
Super 8---2011---usa ***
Hot Coffee---2011---usa ***1/2

1980s video game version of Zardoz

2011-08-31T11:17:00.000-07:00

Back in April of 2007 I wrote a review of the Sean Connery psych

freak-out known as Zardoz. It is one strange movie with Connery

running around in a red loin cloth [waxing be damned!] whilst

all kinds of weird stuff happens. Go here to read the review and

check out some images.

It seems someone has done an Atari 2600 style faux video game

for the film. This is awesome. I wish I could have played this on my

old 1980s era systems like the Atari 2600 or even my beloved

Colecovision. Zardoz! Zardoz!

All the Real Girls, postcard review, 2004

2011-08-29T10:25:00.000-07:00

CineRobot:::Los Angeles

2011-08-27T07:23:00.003-07:00

If I were to make a master list of all the cities that I would possibly move to anytime soon, Los Angeles would not have made the top ten. Or twenty. Or maybe even the top 30! But, here I sit, writing a post about how I will be moving to Los Angeles in early October with Sarah and Mozi. You can never forget about Mozi as she will be leaving the state of Oklahoma for the first time and moving west. We asked her about it and she's fairly calm about the move, but that's her regular disposition.

My first reaction when the possibility to move: a strange cocktail of fascination and revulsion. I don't know what the actual split was between the two, but it was in the neighborhood of 60/40 and I'm not sure which of the two was the 60%. Eight years ago I spent four days in Los Angeles and had a fun time. I was surprised just how much I liked that brief visit as it was happening as I had a lot of built-up preconceptions about the city. Visiting and living in a city such as LA are completely different animals. I don't particularly care for the sun and I love seasons, rain and other unpredictable weather. Tornados and thunderstorms I love, earthquakes and never ending sun? Not so much. I am not sure how I'm going to respond to 330 days of sunlight each year. I literally might explode.

Of course, this move will definitely be a boon to the diversity of my film watching. Los Angeles obliterates Tulsa in that regard and this is one of the most exciting things about the move for me. Not only will I have the chance to see obscure, indie, foreign films at the first opportunity, I'm probably more excited about repertory cinema and seeing older films via prints on the screen. New Beverly Cinema here I come! How could I not be excited about something like this? Click on the theatres after the jump to see the palaces that are showing movies. I get goosebumps over this kind of stuff. Seriously.

Another reason I'm really excited: food. But, this isn't a food blog, so I'll stick to cinema on here. Expect lots of Los Angeles creeping into the movie talk once those posts start coming.

Friends With Benefits poster

2011-08-25T07:07:00.000-07:00

While in London recently, I was bombarded with the poster for Friends with Benefits at virtually every subway station. I somehow missed this poster when the film came out in the USA, but was immediately struck at just how ridiculous, crass and absurd it is. With their individual hand gestures, Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis tell you the entire plot of the film: they are going to be doing it! Yes, fornication between these two attractive people will be a major point of the plot. I loathe this poster.

Side rant. Why is Timberlake getting to be in all these films? I gritted my teeth all through The Social Network and then was flabbergasted by all the positive attention he received. Really? He semi-whispered the entire performance in faux intensity. Now he's a leading man in films with this and multiple others on the docket. Am I missing something with him other than he's a popular singer who has been around since the halcyon days of the boy band? Every time I see him act I cringe a little, but here he is, making rude hand gestures on a movie poster [in case you forgot the plot of Friends with Benefits--they are gettin' it on!] for comedies or starring in upcoming thrillers [In Time]. Can we just find actors to act, singers to sing...this craze to be a "hyphenated" star doesn't make for better entertainment, it just means the same yahoo like Timberlake gets to make crappy music or movies with plots that require naughty hand gestures.

The Help

2011-08-23T01:04:00.001-07:00

Film: The Help [2011, usa]
Where I saw it: Tulsa/theatre
Who with: Sarah J.
Rating: Joshua ***1/2; SJ ??

The Help is one of those films that takes an historical event that was painful, frightening or fraught with danger for the real-life individuals who experienced it. Then the story gets the "Hollywood treatment" where everything is glossed in the feel-good qualities that will warm the corners of the viewer's heart. The Help is set amongst the backdrop of the early civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi as a young white reporter attempts to capture the stories of the city's female African-American maids as they battle race division in various houses they work at. It's perilous for these women to voice their opinions in their stories, yet many do, to empower or free themselves from the decades of weight the racism of their daily lives has built up.

The Help could have just as easily been called "The Whites" as it has more time devoted to the lives of the white characters as it does the black ones. Typical for Hollywood. It might be a movie about the struggle for equality amongst poor African-American women, but you have to get a whole section of the film devoted to the spunky white recent college graduate "Skeeter" [Emma Stone] and her dating troubles. This is always the way with mainstream films that attempt to tell this kind of story and I could see why some people might be irritated or frustrated by the amount of attention given to Skeeter's curly hair versus the bigger issues that could be shown on screen.

But, that's Hollywood for you and Hollywood has to sell as many tickets as they can. Loading the film with as many opportunities to laugh or cry [Skeeter's mom has cancer! A maid's son died young!] gives the creators to check as many boxes as they can to give the audience. These obvious qualities are less annoying due to the fact that The Help is such a wonderfully crafted film for what it is--a manipulative piece of entertainment that will make you sad, happy, angry and uplifted by its end. The cast is terrific, from Stone to Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer as maids, to Bryce Dallas Howard and Jessica Chastain as a couple of employers.

The Help pulled my strings as if I were a marionette and at the mercy of a professional puppeteer. I laughed, cried a few tears, I felt all the feelings I was supposed to feel despite my attempts to resist. You can't really hold it against The Help that it is so utterly manipulative as all films try to manipulate the audience, whether it is to quicken the pulse or let loose the waterworks. Part of the experience of the movies is to go emotionally where a well-done movie takes you, regardless if you want to go there or not. The Help is no different as it tells the story of this southern community's facing the racial divide that exists not only in the city's boundaries, but the walls of every house.

The Help trailer

2011-08-23T00:40:00.000-07:00

Greta Gerwig on the set of Lola Versus

2011-08-19T07:38:00.002-07:00

Back in June I was in New York City for a few days. As we were wondering down Houston street on our way to a couple of favorite places of mine [Russ & Daughters, Katz's Delicatessen] we came across a film set right on the sidewalk. Lo and behold we saw it was Greta Gerwig sitting on a bench in front of Russ & Daughters, surrounded by cameras, crew, extras, other assorted film-related people and gawkers like me trying to get to my pastrami sandwich at Katz's. My guess after consulting IMDB is that we watched Gerwig on the set of Lola Versus [go here for IMDB information]. We watched her film a few takes and I snapped a couple of photos with my non-paparazzi Minolta Hi-Matic G and have included one here for your pleasure. Greta on right in turquoise top.

Movie tickets #23

2011-08-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

The Infidel

2011-08-13T08:58:00.001-07:00

Film: The Infidel [england, 2010]
Where I saw it: home/streamer
Who with: Loner style
Rating: **

Last year one of my favorite films was the scathing black comedy Four Lions. It's an English film from director Christopher Morris and it was a relentless slice of subversive comedy based around a small group of bumbling jihadists who want to strike a blow against the oppressors. You know, blow up stuff and kill people. Four Lions is a brave film in this day and age. I don't know why in the world I thought The Infidel would be the same kind of edgy film [the poster is awful by the way], but I got sucked in by the plot: Muslim finds out he's adopted and horror of all horrors--he's Jewish! His family, friends, fellow Muslims and himself are all horrified at the turn of events and the film follows the struggle to come to acceptance of his strange Muslim/Jewish identity.

The Infidel tackles its subject matter with the lowest common denominator styled broad comedy. It's just not funny. It sticks in every stripe of religious stereotype about these two groups. If you want cardboard cutouts and characters with little depth, The Infidel has you covered. The lead character is played by Omid Djalili [who is also a popular stand-up comic] and I've never seen him in anything, but his performance [and the film in general] reminded me of something the low-bar setting Kevin James might attempt. James has perfected the comedy stylings where everything is exaggerated and everyone is trying so hard that it saps the film of life, laughs and charm. Or, that might be reading too much into it. Maybe it's just not funny and that is why it is a failure? That's probably it.

The Infidel trailer

2011-08-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

30 Minutes or Less

2011-08-11T05:58:00.000-07:00

Film: 30 Minutes or Less [2011, usa]
Date: August 3
Where: Tulsa/theatre/press screening
Who with: Loner style
Rating: ***
Rating for how similar Danny McBride is in every single role he does: ****1/2
Rating for how similar Jesse Eisenberg is in every single role he does: ****1/2

Note the date--I saw this at a press screening last week, but didn't want to post anything about it too early as the studios don't really like that. Not that any studios are ever perusing this lil' ol' blog in Tulsa, but just want to be a gentleman since I got to see the film for free. Plus, I'm about to say some negative things about it, which they definitely don't want to read about nine days before it gets released to the masses.

I knew absolutely nothing about 30 Minutes or Less other than its three lead characters, but realized very quickly into it that it is based on a real life event that I read about in a New Yorker, Wired or some other magazine awhile back. The story was pretty wild and concerned a pizza delivery guy who delivers a pizza only to be taken hostage, tied up and forced to rob a bank against his will. Oh, did I mention the kidnappers attach a bomb to his chest and will trigger it if he goes to the cops, attempts to take it off or fails to get them their cash. 30 Minutes or Less is the comedic version of that dark slice of true Americana crime.

The early portions of the film are just too manic as most of the characters act as if they'd just ingested a couple of Red Bulls right before their scenes started. The frenetic energy begins to work as the film progresses and the clock ticks down closer to when the bomb is supposed to go off, but the uneven, erratic elements never truly go away. There'll be some humorous moments, then some flat-out duds and this repeats for the entire movie.

I hate to say it, but Danny McBride's schtick is starting to wear thin for me. With every role he takes it's obvious how limited he is crafting a character as he plays pretty much the same foul-mouthed a-hole he revels in. It can still elicit laughs, he just doesn't have the same humor batting average as he once did. The same thing can be said for Jesse Eisenberg. I was openly critical of his Oscar nomination for The Social Network as I didn't see him do anything in that film he hasn't already done. Yes, the movie was more serious, but how different was Eisenberg's performance? So many performers just play variations of the same note and both Eisenberg and McBride are two of them. I did love seeing the awesome Fred Ward chewing up some dialogue as an ex-Marine though. Dang, I love Fred Ward!

Wildly erratic, uneven and forced, 30 Minutes or Less provides boundless energy and some laughs, but when it ends it just feels underwhelming.

30 Minutes or Less promo

2011-08-11T05:51:00.000-07:00

Slumber Party 3 video blog

2011-08-08T13:59:00.001-07:00

Check out this video blog that attendee Hunter did before, during and after the
recent Slumber Party 3: Payback. Best part of the video is near the end when he
tries to remember all five films in the order they played and can't get the memory
recall of what just played. That should tell you the kind of mental state that you
are in when Slumber Party ends, ha.

High Ballin'

2011-08-05T07:09:00.001-07:00

Film: High Ballin' [1978, usa]
Date: August 2
Where: Tulsa/at home/streamer
Who with: David
Ratings: Joshua **; David **
Rating for Jerry Reed's repeated use of the word "son" while talking to other characters: *****!

I kind of like the format of the short reviews I did in July with the who and where and when data...so I'm going to keep doing them while even adding some sweet bullet points, ha. Don't even try to tell me that the poster for High Ballin' doesn't make this look like a fun time full of truckers, hi-jinks, action and even Jerry Reed. Pure 1970s! I've been mentioning the 1970s a lot lately on CineRobot if you haven't noticed. I'm going to try to use the films title as much as I can in this short review as it pretty much is the perfect name for this sort of movie. High Ballin'. What else could High Ballin' be about if not semi-truckers? Although, it might make for a good title for a bit of pornography now that I think about it.

If there was one actor born to play a truck-driver it has got to be Jerry Reed. High Ballin' came about likely due to the fact that Reed played "Cledus" in the smash-hit 1977 comedy Smokey and the Bandit. Producers must have been scrambling to get Reed into another trucker film as quick as they could. Unfortunately, the great poster, trailer and Reed's presence can't really save High Ballin' from being a disappointment.

It's big problems are not enough action and a woeful script. It could have used much more of the one thing it promotes itself as being--a movie about truckers. While there are truckers in High Ballin', some of the best bits are the scenes where CB handles and slang are thrown back and forth with reckless abandon. Zingers like "I'll be crossin' those hills and poppin' those pills" is pure gold, but sadly a rare treat in High Ballin'. More CB talk and more action scenes involving semis would have done wonders for this. About 45 minutes in, the pace drags to a near stand-still as Reed disappears from the action and Peter Fonda takes over. I'd rather had Reed and his endless use of the word "son" as he talked to the other truckers. I wish I'd counted how many times Reed says "son" in High Ballin', but I'm guessing it was at least fifteen times and it got better every single time he said it.

High Ballin' trailer

2011-08-05T07:07:00.000-07:00

Too bad the actual movie wasn't as entertaining as this trailer makes it

appear. Terrific Jerry Reed narration, although he didn't say "son" a single

time.

July movies

2011-08-03T06:52:00.000-07:00

Any month where 29 movies are watched including two viewings of the definitive monster truck revenge saga Rolling Vengeance has to be considered a successful month of movie watching. Although I lapsed a bit on my goal to watch a single film every single day of the month, I think I made up for it with the all-night, five movie revenge festival known as Slumber Party 3: Payback. Saw other things in July that I enjoyed a lot--Conan O'Brien Can't Stop, Meek's Cutoff, Beginners to name a few. But, July was all about the end of the month Slumber Party 3: Payback for me. Photo of David and myself as we are about to begin the five film binge that we co-programmed. 65 people [out of 100 ticket buyers stayed the entire night for the $5 refund] and the five movies were Rolling Thunder, Death Wish 3, Rolling Vengeance [on VHS!], Savage Streets and Eye of the Tiger [VHS movie #2!].

Aryan Brotherhood---2007---usa ***
The Lincoln Lawyer---2011---usa ***
Prizzi's Honor---1985---usa ***1/2
Larry Crowne---2011---usa **1/2
Behind the Burly Q---2010---usa **1/2
Buck---2011---usa ****
Couples Retreat---2010---usa **
Conan O'Brien Can't Stop---2011---usa ****
Meek's Cutoff---2011---usa ****
Double Dare---2005---usa ***
Horrible Bosses---2011---usa ***
Lemmy---2010---usa ***1/2
I'm Reed Fish---2007---usa *1/2
The Bank Shot---1974---usa ***1/2
Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye---2003---france ***
Beginners---2011---usa ****
Rolling Vengeance---1987---canada ***1/2
Lynch---2007---usa ***1/2
Duck Season---2006---mexico ***
Heartlands---2002---england ***
Page One---2011---usa ***1/2
Switchblade Sisters---1975---usa ***1/2
Welcome to MacIntosh---2008---usa **1/2
Stupid, Crazy, Love---2011---usa ***1/2
Rolling Thunder---1977---usa ****
Death Wish 3---1985---usa ***1/2
Rolling Vengeance---1987---canada ***1/2
Savage Streets---1984---usa ***1/2
Eye of the Tiger---1986---usa ***

Day 27: Switchblade Sisters

2011-07-28T08:12:00.002-07:00

Date: July 27
Film: Switchblade Sisters [usa, 1975]
Where: Tulsa/at home/streamer
Who with: Loner style
Rating: ****

I took a few days off without a movie as I was too busy doing other stuff. A movie every day is tough! I really enjoyed the 1975 exploitation classic Switchblade Sisters. Great title and it has the perfect story for the drive-ins and grindhouse theatres of the day: a teenage gang of girls who are running wild in the streets as they battle rival gangs. This film is directed by Jack Hill, who is known for some of "blaxploitations" best known films in Coffee and Foxy Brown. Hill turns his attention to the exploits of teenage girls to full effect in Switchblade Sisters. There's knife fights, shootouts in urban wastelands AND in a roller rink, juvenile detention fist fights with guards, sex, bad acting and all kinds of 1970s wonderful. What makes this so good is its played with 100% seriousness. There's no wink-wink to the audience, it's gritty and offers no hope of escape for these girls all the way up to the terrific ending.

PS: Check out that poster!

Switchblade Sisters trailer

2011-07-28T07:57:00.000-07:00