Gypsy, In the Heights, The Little Mermaid, South Pacific and Young Frankenstein: The Musical
I can vouch for the bolded choices, and I've listened to all five. Read between the bold. I've been a bad Broadway enthusiast this year, so I should have five or six things that have better albums than Mermaid. I'll work on including that in the will-never-be-finished piece I've been working on
By the numbers:
2 revivals
2 movie adaptations
1 Disney
1 Mel Brooks
1 Patti Lupone show
1 completely original show
17 is how many times iTunes says I've listened to the South Pacific album, the only recording of it I've listened to more than once or all the way through
Read MoreElectric Shadow
Butt Numb A Thon 10: 10 days out
My first Butt Numb a Thon experience was last year. My first Fantastic Fest was this year. From all indications, this year's BNAT will be the unholy combination of the two, and there are few other things that I find myself anticipating or thinking about in my idle time. I'm hoping the full-course Che is in the mix, since I know the Roadshow thing is NY/LA only (which is ridiculous).
Read MoreHellboy 2: The Golden Army
The pedigree of Guillermo del Toro's DVDs continues unabated with this past summer's Hellboy 2. Like others including Jeff, I'm a more ravenous fan of Guillermo's "art" films from Cronos to Espinazo del Diablo to Pan's Labyrinth, but I enjoy his "studio" movies much more than their counterparts from other directors and studios. If his "art" films are filet mignon and fine wine, the studio stuff is high-end pizza and my favorite beer, and there's not a goddamn thing wrong with that.
The aspect unique to Hellboy 2 as compared to the first installment and Blade II is that it's still pizza, but it's this brilliant, eclectic mix mix of ingredients that is wholly unlike what he and others have done before. Others have done "anti" superhero films that pose the question of how far is too far in the name of survival and justice and at what cost, but the components surrounding the narrative from design to plotting is more Guillermo del Arte than Guillermo del Estudio and it's a brilliant new strain of his work. I like to think of it again with the pizza analogy. Having Pineapple on a pizza is exotic to some, but de rigeur for most these days, but it's still something of an eye-opener to have goat cheese, artichokes, or sirloin involved in pie.
I paid as little attention as possible to the pre-release images, releases, leaks and so on as possible because I knew I'd go see it, so a lot hit me by surprise, including the Troll Market and the Elemental sequences, and all for the better. If you're a viewer who gave subtitles a chance last year and saw Pan's Labyrinth, but also love action movies in English, Hellboy 2 delivers a brilliant bastard child of the two. Money is tight this time of the year, and especially so in the middle of an unpredictable recession. Investing in the deluxe 3-disc version of this movie is worth it for fans of the franchise, filmmaker, or action movies and special features all round. The gift version with extra goodies is excellent as well.
As for what's in there and why I think it's worth the X dollars you find either version for, this isn't a case of a bunch of extras padding out the back of a box, but there's something new and worth looking at in every nook of the set. For the love of god, don't watch/listen to any of this stuff before watching the movie.
Disc 1
Commentary Tracks: Director & Cast tracks
I listened to the cast track first while doing some cleaning around the house and kept taking 5-10 minute "watching" breaks, getting far less laundry done than I would have otherwise. Selma Blair, Jeffrey Tambor, and Luke Goss keep it funny and informative the whole way through. Guillermo's track begins with him implying that you're about to suffer through listening to his "terrible voice" but don't let the self-effacing artiste or his humble nature put you off. Call me a freak or a sadist, but I like the idea of watching a del Toro movie and having him talking through the whole thing with me. Guillermo's signature talent on his tracks is consciousness of all the other stuff you have to pore over and not duplicating info.
Easter Egg: Gag Reel
On the Special Features menu, if you press Right on your remote , it'll highlight an idol on the screen and pressing Enter then treats you to outtakes. This was the last thing I watched and I recommend you do the same on your journey through the laberinto of features. Bookmark for later for sure, they're more funny in context to what you learn in other corners. A good cap to all the other stuff.
Set Visits
Real-time behind the scenes as they're filming certain pieces of the sequences listed. Those with no patience for the filmmaking process will not care, but for those of you who read film industry blogs and really care about the craft, it's a link to being on-set right along with everyone as the magic happens.
Troll Market Tour
Guillermo spends his lunch break showing you corners and features of the Troll Market you won't see no matter how many times you re-watch that sequence. If you like production design porn, go no further than this featurette. Anyone interested in practical effects will probably re-watch this more than anything else, don't let the 12 or 13 minute runtime deceive you.
Epilogue
An animated setup for the third movie, I should think. I hope this means the clockwork head-only helicopter Kroenen that Guillermo mentioned way back at the first screening of Hellboy in 2004 in Austin is still in the cards. I can only imagine how much more insane the third movie can be once Hobbit gives Guillermo even more "fuck you" cred than he has from Pan's.
Deleted Scenes
6 or so scenes that were trimmed out or shaved down are here, with optional commentary. Nothing crazy here, so you're probably fine listening to the commentary with Guillermo the first way through, but it's only five minutes or so of footage, so it's not a gigantic investment to watch them both ways.
Miscellaneous (trailers, language tracks)
I laughed almost as hard at the trailer for Slap Shot 3 as I did the Can't Live Without You sequence in the actual movie.
I love watching movies with the Spanish and French dub tracks. Abe Sapien, telenovela actor, is highly recommended for hispanohablantes and english speakers who've seen the movie alike.
Disc 2
Hellboy: In Service of the Demon feature making-of
All the above stuff is great on the standard one-disc edition, but this doc on its own is worth moving up to the 3-disc. It's two and a half hours long, which is longer than the movie itself, and every minute is worth it. Interspersed are plenty more on-set Behind the Scenes moments that really ring home how much patience and care is taken in building a film of this scope. The other thing that comes to mind is that they did all this for 85 mill, and it makes you really question what these other comic book movies are doing with all that filthy money.
The Production Workshop: Professor Broom's Puppet Theatre
A multi-angle view of the opening stop-motion sequence with optional del Toro chat track. Since the regular audio is no different than it is in the movie and there's no new "scenes" so to speak, just alternate views of the storyboards, solistening to it with Guillermo loses you absolutely nothing.
Pre-Production Vault: Director's Notebook & Photo Gallery/Marketing Campaign
They scanned in Guillermo's Hellboynomicon and also included design sketches, photos, and posters. The Notebook del Toro is the real highlight along with the Mignola sketches. There's a little for everyone in the stills here.
The DVD-ROM Script is included too, for script-o-philes.
Disc 3
Digital Copy of the Movie
I'd never encountered one of these "Digital Copy" discs myself, and David Lynch has gone on record eviscerating the very idea of watching a movie on an iPhone/iPod/whatever, but I dig the idea. I've already bought the movie, and this makes it easier to take it on the go whether on a computer or a handheld device. I'm also a nut for gadgets that fit in the palm of your hand, so this is a nice "throw in" that they're putting on about every damn movie special edition these days. Some movies it makes no sense whatsoever to watch on a three inch screen, but I can at least see dialing up the Elemental sequence when waiting in line at the Drafthouse.
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I'm sure the Blu-ray release looks as gorgeous as Blu-ray always does, but I can't claim to have seen it since I'm still a standard-def guy for the foreseeable future. If you have a Blu-ray player, the choice is clear: DVD isn't as good an investment if you're buying this bad boy.
Of recent releases that aren't multidisc box sets or Criterion discs, this and WALL-E (which I'm working on getting reviewed soon) are the clear standouts when it comes to where to strategically buy your deluxe DVDs this time of year for yourself and the ones you love (hopefully you fall into both categories, if not, get a therapist). You will actually get your money's worth in terms of extras in addition to an excellent movie. Even if I didn't see myself watching the movie multiple times a year, I'd pay full price for the extras alone on Hellboy 2.
Read MoreSlumdogs and Underdogs
Doc Derby Thoughts: The Big 15
It's difficult for anyone outside of festival programmers and the hardest of hardcore festival-going writers to have seen all of the movies that end up on the Oscar shortlist, posted by Indiewire and everyone in creation by the time you read this. This year I've seen more of them than usual for me, a full one-third of them. I should be seeing a couple of them soon since they're still showing in town.
The one movie that's missing that I presume will be everyone's "it got robbed" this year is Kurt Kuenne's Dear Zachary, which I couldn't get into at SXSW and haven't had another shot at since. I trust the buzz on it, and recommend you do the same and see it before it airs on TV (if you're near an upcoming screening). I'm not shocked that Religulous didn't make the cut in the same way I didn't expect Borat to be a Best Picture nominee. Having seen five of the fifteen on the list, I can definitively say that they're all better than Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, and that's not to say I am not fond of the movie. It's very interesting and engaging, but it's the kind of movie I could put on pause, leave the room for twenty minutes and return. I can't say the same about the five I've seen that are on this list.
Below are the ones I've seen and then underneath is the rest of the list.
"Encounters at the End of the World"
Wonderful work from Herzog soon to be available on Bluray for those (unlike me) who have a big pioneer plasma set and top-notch player
"In a Dream"
An absolutely deserving first feature doc that I reviewed back in March at SXSW. I had a feeling that this one would sneak up behind long-held favorites like Man on Wire, Encounters, and Standard Operating Procedure
"Man on Wire"
No one should be surprised on this one. Lots of ads, lots of screenings, an excellent film that got pimped perfectly.
"Standard Operating Procedure"
Anyone wonder what Errol Morris would do if one of his (extremely deserving) films didn't get nominated?
"They Killed Sister Dorothy"
Another excellent SXSW flick that I can't find my writeup for, which means it's lost somewhere on my jump drive that all my backups were on. Really excellent, deserving contender with one of my favorite doc-god-voices, President Jed Bartlett-Estevez-Sheen. Enraged me almost as much as Who Killed the Electric Car?
"At the Death House Door"
"The Betrayal" (Nerakhoon)
"Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh"
"Fuel"
"The Garden"
"Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts"
"I.O.U.S.A."
"Made in America"
"Pray the Devil Back to Hell"
"Trouble the Water"
If I were to make an educated guess of what the final 5 will look like, I'd actually posit that the five I've seen could be it. It's a good mix that I.O.U.S.A. might invade thanks to the current and worsening financial crisis. I'm not guessing it's these five just because I've seen them (no hubris here, that's a trademark of Movie City News...oh, there I go again), but it really is a pretty diverse, high quality spread honestly. I've been lucky. I should have something else on this general subject later in the week.
Read MoreSlumdog Millionaire
There are already a lot of reviews of this one out there, so I'll keep this brief. I think director Danny Boyle put it best when he introduced the film at this year's Austin Film Festival saying "I never expected to be this thrilled by a script about Who Wants to be a Millionaire." The truth is, it is and is not about that show that has long become passe in the States. What it is really designed to get at is the very real diametric difference between classes that is so invisible to people worldwide in so-called industrial nations. The movie's plot follows a nobody guy named Jamal who gets to the next to last question in the Indian Who Wants to be a Millionaire and is accused of fraud.
The idea of human beings no longer being considered a commodity, or "property" is a joke. Some of the outright depraved things that happen to Jamal and those around him are just brutal on the senses, but things lighten up as you go along. I've spoken to friends (all Americans) who've seen it and their opinion of this guy's rough childhood is that "it's a bit much, you know. Hard to believe, lays it on thick, etc." with a twinge of high thread-counting, liberal elitism in their voice every time. Here's the thing: shit like this happens in India and other countries all the time. Even though it was half a century ago, my dad can tell comparable stories from his childhood in Cuba. Unlike the States, things haven't changed to a great degree in terms of human conditions since Castro took power.
To some extent, what happens to Jamal in the course of the film's full-meal 120 minutes is heightened-reality, once in a century stuff, but through the new lens a lot of people have after the election of Barack Obama, it's now much less of a stretch to consider this movie about long-shot hope completely plausible. No one knew who Jamal was, and now he's the hope of a nation. Sound familiar?
I fell pretty hard for the movie when I saw it in mid-October, and I've grown more fond of it since then. This is a movie people should take a gang of ten friends to, and catch Quantum of Solace a couple weeks from now when the crowds die down. This is the kind of movie people will purchase on DVD so that every once in a while they can show it to friends.
One of the interesting things that came out of the post-show Q&A however many weeks ago was that originally Warner Independent Pictures (WIP) had picked it up, and then all of a sudden there was no WIP anymore. I lament the fact that this movie may have stalled on its way to release, and am very glad it's beginning to open across the coutry this week. This is Danny Boyle's best work both cinematically and socio-politically. If the "on for me, one for you" formula stays true to Boyle, we'll get one of his "Slumdog" movies and one of his genre movies one after the other for some time to come.
Read MoreAlaska: "Oops, we forgot to count 30% of our ballots"
Sleeping Beauty Platinum Edition
This movie has never looked this good. I didn't even watch the Blu-ray release as I am still stuck in the land of standard-def, but I'll be damned if this transfer isn't amazing. Had I not been interested in the special features, I considered the brilliant cross-platform release that is the Blu-ray (they packed the movie-only standard def DVD in as a third disc). I'm going to spend a good deal of time with the feature itself before getting to the spread of special features.
One of the greatest sequences in animated history
One of the more striking features of the restored movie is the fact it's back in its originally-intended aspect ratio of 2.55:1, first available to the public exclusively in this new home release. As soon as I saw the comparison shots, I immediately wondered just how it could be that so much of the frame had been sliced out for so long from this undeniable animated classic.
The "tapestry" design of the whole film that was mandated by Walt himself and implemented by Eyvind Earle (more on him later) lends itself so perfectly to this ultra-wide ratio, I spent one time through watching the movie and the next trying to visualize what was lost in previous transfers. Below I've chopped a sample from the big fight with the Dragon (not very precisely, I apologize):
As seen in 2.35:1
As restored in full 2.55:1
The above examples contrast best when the sequence is seen in motion, but the below frame is really the true exemplification of why the wider aspect ratio is infinitely better. The sense of depth and the fundamental composition in this shot is completely betrayed by chopping the frame:
As seen in 2.35:1
As restored in full 2.55:1, to proper grand scale
This is like shaving a couple inches on the sides of a great work of portraiture because smaller frames were cheaper. Thank god this has been rectified. I never knew anything was wrong with it as a kid, but now I know I could sense those missing inches off the frame. I can only imagine how glorious this looks in 1080p, but my father-in-law assures me it "looks pretty damn amazing."
The restoration of the film is covered in one of the docs on disc 2 which I'll dig into soon enough further down), but for the real nitty gritty, I'll direct you to a recently-posted Yellow Layer Failure column put together by restoration king Robert A. Harris over at The Digital Bits.
As for the Movie
The storytelling shows its age, especially in the wake of Enchanted, which I find even more chuckle-worthy having re-watched Sleeping Beauty. While Prince Phillip stalks behind Briar Rose/Aurora in the forest, creeping up to take her in an embrace from behind, Ashley and I had a back and forth exchange that kept escalating more and more along the lines of "don't go in there" or "he's going to get you!" as one would warn while watching a slasher movie.
Just sing and play with animals and wait for a complete stranger to ambush you. Then, fight him off but then invite him over to your house that night. What could go wrong, right? The story is an artifact, but the aesthetic design holds up admirably 50 years later, especially thanks to the extensive restoration work. The dated plot mechanics and stereotypes aside, the fight with the Dragon is still one of the most compelling animated action scenes in the realm of traditional animation, and with the plethora of cheap CGI garbage churned out these days, the movie is a great family-friendly choice in a sea of talking animal crap.
Beyond the Movie: Disc 1
Feature Commentary
One of the last extras I looked at is in retrospect one I wish I'd looked at first: the Feature Commentary with Pixar chief John Lasseter, Leonard Maltin, and animator Andreas Deja. Any chance to listen to Lasseter talk about classic animation is a can't-miss, and his Pixar movie yack-tracks have always been good. Maltin is a guy many either love or hate, and I'm pretty ambivalent on him. If you dislike him at all, his presence here won't turn you off. As is often the case with Disney history, Maltin really knows his stuff and he doesn't overload you with unnecessary info.
Back to Lasseter for a moment, because a couple places in this track reminded me of a doc I saw last year called The Pixar Story (included in next week's WALL-E deluxe set) where he served as one of the primary talking heads. Any chance you ever have to hear this guy talk about animation is an absolute privilege. I don't listen to as many comment tracks as I used to, but any of them with John are worth listening to, sometimes twice.
The piece of this triumverate you may not be familiar with is Andreas Deja, who has worked for Disney as an animator since 1980's The Black Cauldron, and has been supervising animator for many of Disney's major villains since then including Gaston, Jafar, and Scar, in addition to creating Roger Rabbit. He most recently supervised animation of Queen Nerissa in last year's Enchanted, so his inclusion here is more of an insider's than you would assume just knowing he works for Disney. Very informative and quiet in places where the three guys get wrapped up (understandably so) in watching this masterpiece unfold.
Music Video: Emily Osment singing Once Upon a Dream
Look, I'm not the target market for this extra or a few of the others, so why did I watch it? Out of the same morbid curiosity my wife has in scrutinizing Disney DVD covers that employ radically different style than the actual movie, like the rerelease of Peter Pan. This is probably on there to support the Hannah Montana Generation of new Disneyphiles who'll learn the junk-rock version of this song because Hannah Montana's sidekick/friend is singing it. Not to get too off-topic, but if Miley Cyrus "retires" Hannah, will Osment take up the reins with the same character name/identity, or will she become "Morrigan Oregon" or "Rhoda Minnesota"?
Song Selection
Lets you jump to any "song" you want in this song-sparse movie.
Princess Fun Facts
Again, not aimed at me, this is what my wife calls "Pop-Up Video" for Disney movies. Assorted trivia and facts and so on.
Grand Canyon
The entire Grand Canyon suite set to a 29-minute video of the Grand Canyon. Lovely music, but I remember them showing this to us in elementary school music class and it put us all to sleep. The '58 Oscar winner for Short Subject, this may be used as background when I'm making dinner on the odd night. Lovely photography if you have a kid who's never seen the million and one docs/specials on The Canyon.
The Peter Tchaikovsky Story
My wife laughed at me when I put this on, but it turned out to be phenomenally entertaining. Thanks to current TV movie trends, I joked, it sounded like a Lifetime TV movie about "noted wife-abuser and philanderer Peter Tchaikovsky, that son-of-a-bitch." The first TV show broadcast in "stereophonic" sound and theatrical widescreen (it's only taken us 50 years to get aspect ratio right), it tells the story of young Tchaikovsky being haunted by melodies and being reprimanded for being an "artist" in the face of a lucrative career as a government official like his father. Plenty of 1950's TV acting is on display, which in and of itself is hilarious. Walt Disney himself introduces the piece as well as the "special preview" of Sleeping Beauty, and as much as we see movies spoiled in trailers these days, the two near-full sequences he shows are the climatic Dragon fight at the end and Sequence 8 ("Once Upon a Dream" in the forest).
Alternate Languages
Most people gloss over this, but I love being able to watch these Disney classics with the Spanish ad French voice tracks. Great way to start your kids early on foreign language comprehension.
Disc 2: The Real Meat
Games and other Kiddy Stuff
Again, these were not designed for me, but I don't see how they could be entertaining to the target audience. The games themselves are better played with cards and the narrating voice is so condescending I wanted to take a sleeping pill.
Picture Perfect
Ahh, now this is the stuff. A comprehensive documentary of the production, history, and problems on Sleeping Beauty. Not too long, not too short, and just right. Disney's DVD production team does a masterful job of differentiating featurette content from "The Making of" and separating those out to their own little segments. Contributors range from Briar Rose herself, Mary Costa, to filmmakers and historians.
Eyvind Earle: The Man and His Art
This glimpse intot eh life of Earle is a fascinating eight or nine minutes with a genius. With a life history so interesting, I'm surprised no one has fashioned a capable biopic or bio-musical about this guy. A rough childhood that lead to greatness in this film. Worth re-watching it's so interesting.
Sequence 8
Most would refer to this as "Once Upon a Dream" when the two leads first meet. A notoriously complex sequence that Walt demanded be more and more unique, it almost sundered the entire production, let alone the studio.
Deleted Scenes/Storyboards
The wisely-trimmed opening song and additional stuff with the kings. Disney really does cut the fat before they get to cooking. Three songs total and a couple of storyboards, introduced by Andreas Deja. The Storyboards are a comparison to the finished footage and worth watching.
Live Action Reference
They filmed live actors in costumes in front of stock sets for reference when drawing back in the days before mo-cap. Nice to see a peek into just how precisely they captured the physical nature of hair, fabric, and facial expressions.
Production Galleries
This is probably my favorite, sure-to-be unsung feature of this set. Through a copious amount of stills, you get to see the evolution of various character and location designs. Take my word for it and spend a few minutes with these and you'll find yourself spending the better part of a half hour or full hour poring over these.
Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough and Attraction
This was particularly engaging for me since as a kid or an adult, I've never been to either Disney theme park in the US. Disney Imagineers walk us through the attraction that's been unviewable to the public for something like 40 years. They show us the magicians' tricks that make everything possible, and the changes that it went through until its closing. There's a not-so-hidden easter egg toward the end of the guided tour in addition to the news that the Castle Attraction is going to have a grand re-opening next year, which reminds me of Lasseter's passionate dedication to the Disney parks. Not only is his presence at Disney revitalizing their feature animation division, but their parks and DVD releases are really truly getting those Pixaresque bits of extra loving care.
4 Artists Paint 1 Tree
An old Walt goodie featuring how four artists interpret one task. This should be shown in school art classes. Eyvind Earle is one of the artists.
Trailers
The teaser, and full trailers from 1959 are here as well as the 1995 re-release one. I realized I hadn't watched these yet, so I just popped the disc back in and...my god. The 1995 trailer is in 1.85:1.
The Last Word
From a guy who used to buy DVDs all the time but has been tamed from that habit by a very practical wife, this would have gone to the top of my "weekly stack" in those days. As it stands, the pedigree of recent Disney DVD releases under John Lasseter have vastly improved over the nigh-perfect ones from before his tenure. This one is a blind buy unless you hate animation, classic films, or Disney. Note that I left out "family-friendly" there. The frightening "get seduced by strangers vibe" in the forest glen makes this one difficult to recommend as totally ok for young girls...but then again I have to compare it to other "family friendly" movies out there. The Bolt trailer has a hamster talking about snapping someone's neck, for cryin' out loud.
A splendid addition to anyone's collection, and I'm sure the Blu-ray is just as worth it. There is one (or five) people close to you that will enjoy this arriving in a stocking or as a present of any sort this year.
Read MoreOne of the greatest sequences in animated history
As seen in 2.35:1
As restored in full 2.55:1
As seen in 2.35:1
As restored in full 2.55:1, to proper grand scale
Back and (Reasonably) Healthy
I thought I'd disappear and pop back up around election day. I worked on a piece about the transforming Texan electoral map and everything. Then I got struck down by appendicitis and am only now out of the hospital. Expect a flurry of posts this week, as I'm on a week of bed rest that will be spent entirely in catching up on backlogged pieces, writeups, and reviews. I'm also going to write a followup to a review I did earlier this year of a doc (the only one out) about President-elect Obama, so watch for that.
Read MoreElection2008: Mandate Balancing Act
Change has been a big word this year just like re-form was in O Brother Where Art Thou's election bits. The greatest concern I have going forward is that the polls will bite us in the ass and no one will show up out of complacency. The next greatest concern I have for us as a country is who all of our Democratic candidates being swept in on this mandate really are.
I wonder who some of these "Democratic" candidates on down-ticket races really are, because at least in Texas, we have plenty of Republicans, Libertarians, and Ron Paul supporters who beat actual Democrats in the Democratic primaries in March. Record turnout of people unfamiliar with anyone on the ballot other than Clinton or Obama combined with Republicans voting in the Dem primary to throw things off results in some outlying weirdos popping up. Our state party is only getting warmed up for how much sheer mass they have now in terms of participants, and it will be some time before they really build out the infrastructure to support the coming return to majority the Democrats will have in Texas.
In Williamson County, here in Texas, we have a re-formed Bush Republican (Gregory Windham) running as a Democrat against the incumbent 3rd Precinct County Commissioner. He said to me once that "George Bush Sr. brought me into the Republican Party, and George Bush Jr. pulled me out." He's a very forthright, aggressive kind of guy...rough around the edges. He's the old-school country-fried, homegrown, salt of the earth Dixiecrat that ruled Texas for decades. I'm not really worried about him. There are people running in East Texas (and other areas) on the Dem ticket who are avowed "Ron Paul Republicans" who are Fair Tax supporting, anarchistic-leaning Libertarians who wanted "a real shot".
The worst outcome I can see aside from a complacency-induced McCain win is a bunch of weirdos who wound up the "Democratic candidate" across the country making the party and by extension, the Obama Mandate, look like the doom-bringing prophecy the right-wingers are pitching hard at this point.
Assuming my fears are ill-founded (and I hope they are), the optimism I have at present for my home state is based on the Texas ballot I saw and cast last week.*
The Texas ballot exclusively gives you the options of John McCain, Barack Obama, and Bob Barr. No Nader, no McKinney, none of the other parties that all show up on the Colorado ballot among others. As always you can write-in, but I don't expect to see many Dem votes bleed off there this year in Texas.
There are Good Ol' Boys who won't vote for Barack Obama because he's black and they believe the socialist bullshit flying around...but they don't want to vote for John McCain either. If their "Perot vote" for Barr helps the state go to Obama, as extremely unlikely as that may be, they'll not blink and blame it on Obama's African voodoo socialist brainwashing.
Mark my words, this is the year that will change people's minds about whether Democrats can win in Texas, for better or even worse. Texans are tired of inefficient leadership handing money, land, and roads to corporations... "Republicans" and Democrats alike. By 2012, the electoral map could be even more lopsided than people are predicting it'll be on 4 November, especially if Sarah Palin really guns for the top job, truly ending her career outside of Alaska.
* I must note here that I cast it on a touch-screen machine, which makes the fact that I "cast a vote" tenuous at best, depending on who you are. The big 2010 ballot initiative in Texas will be mandating optical scan ballots, I bet.
Read MoreFive Better Ways to Spend Money This Weekend Than Saw 5
I'm not a gigantic horror fan, but I just couldn't get behind Saw 5 even if I were. Here are five better ways to spend your hard-earned cash on something scary this weekend.
1) Let the Right One In
(NY & LA only)
I reviewed this one at Fantastic Fest. A Swedish vampire movie so good, everyone I know who has seen it has already decried the remake not only as unnecessary, but impossible to do anything at all better than the original did. Keep an eye on it as it expands out to those of us not in the Capitol of Fake America (NY) and the Gateway to Hell (LA).
2) Fear(s) of the Dark
(NY & LA only)
I reviewed this one at Fantastic Fest as well. I didn't dig every single part of it, but worth it for the three sequences I loved most: the bug, the break in, and the monster in the marshes. Do you want to see something new and striking, or Saw 6: Episode One?
3) The Order of Myths
(Austin only)
Not exactly the horror movie you'd find elsewhere on the list, but and interesting look at continued social segregation in Mobile, Alabama that continues to the present during Mardi Gras. I loved it back in March at SXSW, and since then it's even more interesting to look at in these closing days of the election. I'll try to get more of an idea as to what's going on with this movie's future past its Austin showings and follow up.
4) Dance of the Dead
Available now on DVD (US Region 1)
The prom. The undead. It's been done, but never is it usually re-done this well. If you don't take my word for it, take Quint's at AICN. This movie killed at SXSW, and I'm amazed they didn't release it during Prom season. The Dark Knight hadn't hit yet, and as I recall, Iron Man was cooling off. This reminds me of the boneheaded decision Warnes Bros. made to not release Trick R Treat theatrically this Halloween season (more on that gripe soon).
5) The Substitute
Available now on DVD (US Region 1)
Another Fantastic Fest flick that deserves a full review I've yet to complete. An evil demented substitute teacher is a threat to everyone and the kids know it. From Denmark with scares. I'll do my best to get a real review up before next weekend.
I'd like to follow this up throughout next week with more suggestions of things to do other than see the new Saw movie. Hit me up with suggestions: moiseschiu {at} g mail.
Read MoreAFF08: Synecdoche, New York
The best film I saw at this year's Austin Film Festival turns out to be one of the best movies I've seen all year. Synecdoche, New York is a cinematic experience that I expect to stick with me for some time to come. During a post-show Q&A with director Charlie Kaufman, only one question really stuck out to me, because it hit at what I think this film does well. It was a pretty closed-ended question about whether he had ever considered making a time travel movie. Kaufman answered that he had seriously intended as a child to build a time machine and use it to solve the world's problems and things that scared him, like death. He said (perhaps jokingly) that he still intends to build that time machine.
What I found most fascinating about Charlie at this moment was that without intending to, he very profoundly articulated the purpose of his script and the movie that resulted.
I approached him afterward as people were shoving DVDs and photocopies of the Malkovich script in his hands to autograph, which he was generously plowing through. I told him I didn't have anything to guilt him into signing, but that perhaps he's built the time machine and just adding parts as he goes from film to film. He seemed momentarily taken out of the moment and said, "I hadn't thought of that."
There are those who would say that Synecdoche, New York is nothing but a gloom ride that is oppressively depressing, but I think that may be too simple of an analysis. It's easy to feel boxed-in by a movie ostensibly about death and the futility of one man's quest for closure and peace. I honestly feel boxed-in and utterly worthless trying to write about it. Kaufman's scripts have often had "meta" attached to them in the manner of "oh dude that is so meta." The "Malkovich Malkovich" scene from Being John Malkovich being one of many examples. I suppose I feel metafutile in trying to articulate what I feel about the movie in the form of a review.
Especially in the realm of writing online about the movie business, movies themselves, and theoretical movies that have not yet been (or will be) made, you hit those points when you just outright ask yourself "what the fuck is the point?" and throw your hands up in frustration, crawl back into bed, or just take the dog for a walk. It's like that for anyone with a job or creative pursuit. In particular, a strand of the movie I could particularly grasp on from personal experience was the theatre production featured in the first bit.
Caden Cotard (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is a theatre director putting on a production of Death of a Salesman wherein he has intentionally cast younger actors as Willy and Linda Loman as an "artistic choice." He's anguishing over the fact that everything, according to him, is going terribly and the show will be a massive failure. Anyone who has ever done theatre (community, educational, or Equity) will tell you that's how it always goes. It's always horrible right before it gets better. You just keep hoping the "better" part eventually comes.
You meet Caden as he believes he is beginning to die (aren't we all, once we've been born?) and you watch Caden go all the way to the zenith of his life. Spoilers are available elsewhere, but suffice to say that his concept and execution of what a production is grows impossibly grand in scale. This is an absolute must-see for anyone involved in any creative trade, from the ticket-tearing fan to the "real life" engineer who finds a way to make the impossibly complex community theatre stage design work to the visionary at the top commanding the ship.
The experience of watching the movie itself was extremely cathartic for me, and though it steeped in the "what's the point" stuff for a while, I made my peace with it. There are those films that truly fill you with the "feelings of doom" that doctors ask about when trying to shove depression pills in your hand and then leave you with an unfilled bottle of pills by the end of the movie. This movie, it seems, took Kaufman's time machine into the future and found the cure for all those shitty feelings, came to find me in the present, and re-arranged some synapses.
I felt confused once it was all over, not for lack of comprehension, but rather due to some indignation toward myself. "Why do I have those days where I just sit around?" I demanded of myself, fists shaking with rage. The funeral scene mentioned in Jeff and others' reviews came across to me as "here's your funeral, Mr./Mrs/The Viewer. Okay, now it's over, so get on living your life and doing what makes you happy."
Aside from all of the deeper infused meaning, the movie is hilarious in regular doses thanks to an expertly-cast group of actors. If I were to pick one out at random to heap praise on it would be Hope Davis as Caden's shrink. Now that I've gotten myself into this mess of picking favorites by writing that last sentence, I'd be remiss to not mention all of the excellent performances in here, so now consider me remiss.
I do have to mention Tom Noonan for a second though, risking the careless reputation I've just established for myself. I was clicking around on IMdB listings and found an interesting quotation of his:
"I don't think you go to a play to forget, or to a movie to be distracted. I think life generally is a distraction and that going to a movie is a way to get back, not go away."
Make of that what you will.
In closing, I'd like to take a moment to mourn the utterly dreadful state of our national level of education here in the old US of A, specifically as it applies to the title of the film. They introduced the film beforehand as so appropriate for a festival that focuses on the writer, and what an understatement to be made. Unfortunately, I find it amazing that so many people I meet at these things or friends from college finish with some sort of degree in writing and don't know what "synecdoche" itself is, including the "like totally aspiring writer" sitting near me who asked Kaufman "like did you really ghostwrite Identity, dude?" Should there be a standardized test for writing awards, fellowships, and grants to prevent that guy from ever getting any money for writing? I think there should be, and I'll go on record saying that's the only standardized test I'm in favor of. Well, that's for me and the poet shirt-wearing Twilight fans to argue about next time we eat Arrugula and Goat Cheese while toasting social elitism.
Also...no, the word "synecdoche" doesn't do you any favors with the people who aren't interested in examining their lives for missed opportunities or faults, nor does the plot of the movie lend itself to these people who pal around with idiots. The film as it plays isn't one you want to trick Joe the Max Payne-Worshipper into walking in to see. He won't like it in the first place. He'll walk out, ask for a refund, and go down the hall to watch Max Payne again, writhing in ecstasy at all the gunfire and exploding furniture. This is an arthouse movie people will seek out thanks to the extraordinary pedigree of its writer/director and cast as well as the strong critical acclaim. The road is very bright ahead for a smart, introspective film among the spread of dumbed-down crap that's out there. Know many people who, at its time of release, would have argued that The Adventure and The Eclipse sound any better than L'avventura or L'eclisse because the latter have too many syllables and/or vowels?
Watch your local arthouse listings with bated breath for this one to pop up. It's well worth the admission and emotional investment.
Read MoreSlow Days and Sick Days
Today's been monumentally unproductive thanks to the fact that nearly back-to-back festivals and the changing of the weather have teamed up on me and knocked me out for a day or two. Tomorrow looks to be more of a long-nap-day rather than a sleep-all-day, so the bits of progress I've made on a number of pieces will finally culminate in their completion as well as the furious pounding-out of others sitting on a to-do list.
I'm going to be caught up to the present on AFF, almost finish off Fantastic Fest, and get started on some Home Front reviews. It'll be like Christmas in October...just like it is at Target as of late last month.
Read MoreAFF08: Wendy and Lucy
I have to admit a soft spot for "dog movies" (good ones), especially ones featuring a dog named Lucy (the name of my wonderful Beagle). Setting that aside as much as I'm able, I thoroughly enjoyed Sunday night's screening of Wendy and Lucy, a rare indie that rewards a patient viewer with a soaked-in emotional journey without much (if any) pretense or indulgent, inefficient filmmaking.
My Beagle, Lucy
During the Q&A for Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire the other night, he mentioned something Godard once said, which roughly paraphrased is that all you need for a movie is money, a girl, and a gun. Wendy and Lucy gives you two out of three, and though I enjoyed it a great deal myself and others have been effusively lauding the movie since Cannes, I felt like I'd been shorted some change once the movie was over. I won't spoil the ending, but as "French" as I like my movies, the finale will leave something to be desired for some, just as the movie as a whole will. This is not a slog by any estimation, but a deeply moving evocation of the tragedy of modern life.
The true reason to watch is Michelle Williams' performance, which in execution does far more than is required on paper. She gives such a naturalistic, lived-in picture of Wendy here that the movie becomes more of a nature film studying her character as an animal in the wilderness of "civilization" than anything else, which I assume was the point.
Michelle gives us a young woman who is on her way from Indiana to Alaska (the You Betcha State) on a search (we assume) for gainful employment with her faithful and only companion, Lucy the Golden Retriever mix. We join the action as her resources are finally disintegrating in her grasp as she gets to northern Oregon. Wendy is a fiercely independent person, the "leave me alone, I can do it" type, who has finally come toward the end of a rope. Precisely how far from the frayed end she is, we don't know, but she's losing her grip on her circumstances.
This performance is substantive, no bullshit stuff and deserves recognition irrespective of her gender. On the one hand, it's a tragic but endearing snapshot of the young, modern American Woman left to her own devices but at once, it's allegorically a picture of where my generation (and hers) is at this point. Our forebears have built up all this "civilization" and we're no better off necessarily than if we were just lost in the woods. At one point, someone mentions, "can't get a job without an address, can't get an address without a job, can't get a job without a phone," again paraphrased. I couldn't put what they're getting at here any better myself.
Michelle Williams carries the whole thing, and I have to say for Best Lead Actress. As people see the shows starring those that are being put in the Oscar pool assumptively, I hope one or two sift out of the mix and Williams gets in, because she really deserves recognition here. Nothing against the front-runners no one has seen yet or anything.
I repeat my favorite refrain, which is that the film is absolutely worth seeing, and you should avoid reading other reviews. I find many telegraph the entire plot, which ruins this movie more than others.
More AFF writeups to come, because as one does during a festival, I've gotten profoundly overloaded.
Read MoreMy Beagle, Lucy
The true reason to watch is Michelle Williams' performance, which in execution does far more than is required on paper. She gives such a naturalistic, lived-in picture of Wendy here that the movie becomes more of a nature film studying her character as an animal in the wilderness of "civilization" than anything else, which I assume was the point.
Michelle gives us a young woman who is on her way from Indiana to Alaska (the You Betcha State) on a search (we assume) for gainful employment with her faithful and only companion, Lucy the Golden Retriever mix. We join the action as her resources are finally disintegrating in her grasp as she gets to northern Oregon. Wendy is a fiercely independent person, the "leave me alone, I can do it" type, who has finally come toward the end of a rope. Precisely how far from the frayed end she is, we don't know, but she's losing her grip on her circumstances.
This performance is substantive, no bullshit stuff and deserves recognition irrespective of her gender. On the one hand, it's a tragic but endearing snapshot of the young, modern American Woman left to her own devices but at once, it's allegorically a picture of where my generation (and hers) is at this point. Our forebears have built up all this "civilization" and we're no better off necessarily than if we were just lost in the woods. At one point, someone mentions, "can't get a job without an address, can't get an address without a job, can't get a job without a phone," again paraphrased. I couldn't put what they're getting at here any better myself.
Michelle Williams carries the whole thing, and I have to say for Best Lead Actress. As people see the shows starring those that are being put in the Oscar pool assumptively, I hope one or two sift out of the mix and Williams gets in, because she really deserves recognition here. Nothing against the front-runners no one has seen yet or anything.
I repeat my favorite refrain, which is that the film is absolutely worth seeing, and you should avoid reading other reviews. I find many telegraph the entire plot, which ruins this movie more than others.
More AFF writeups to come, because as one does during a festival, I've gotten profoundly overloaded.Election2008: Early Voting in Texas & Florida
Early voting started yesterday in Texas and Florida, and according to the Austin American Statesman, the TX Secretary of State's office is vastly underprepared for Election Day. There were denials on KUT (local NPR affiliate) as early as this morning from the Sec. State's office, but if the vastly under-estimated number of ballots during the Democratic Primary in March is any indicator, 4 November will be...interesting.
Everyone vote early, especially in Florida.
Read MoreAustinFF08: Chatting with James Cromwell, Part 1
I have to race back downtown to catch Slumdog Millionaire, so this will be posted in two parts. Enjoy.
--------------------------
H-E: One of the things that struck me the most last night in your introduction was about the paternal relationship and how that's something that the two of you connected with, you and Josh. How do you think it is that it comes off to people who aren't really addressing that relationship or have avoided that--
James Cromwell: The father and the son relationship? Very few people I know have not addressed it at some point. For some it's more difficult than others...it depends on what's happened. I still have issues in my life about my father, I've internalized them. Of course it's never the other person. [In the film] it's not so much Poppy [George Sr.]. Poppy is the creation of W., and that creation contains within it the limitations of the child's ability to understand the circumstances the father has found himself in, and interpret the behavior of the father in a way to express the love that the father has for the son rather than his judgment and condemnation. So Poppy represents, it's interesting--
H-E: He's less a person than a construct.
JC: Exactly, that's right. The construct that he, that W. has created inside, so ultimately you begin to jettison that as you get a little older through your empathy and understanding begin to understand that they have lives and they have motivation that maybe you don't understand. As I said last night those three processes of [1] confronting the father when the father makes demands that you can't live up to, basically to stand your ground as a man. Then the second one is to exceed them in whatever you do, you know with gentleness of course but not to hold back. I held back from directing I think even subconsciously, and I've loved to direct, I've always enjoyed directing. It's funny. You know, I see young people, you know, ones who aren't even very good sometimes who are making a living doing it, and I still hold back from doing it and I give myself all these excuses for why I shouldn't be doing it.
It's basically because that was his arena and not mine and I don't wanna go there. Maybe that changes at some point, it's getting a little late, but that's all right.
Then the last one is to be the father to the father, forgive him. We all go through that.
H-E: In terms of the production of the film itself, at what point were you folded into the mix. Who had been put on the film by the time you came on?
JC: I don't think there was anybody attached other than Josh at that point. [Stone] knew there were two thematic lines, and that's the relationship between the father, the formative part of W, and then the political machinations which would involve a variety of people filling smaller parts that would amplify the character of W.
H-E: So you were involved extremely early on.
JC: I was the second one. I think he had offered it to a number of people, you know. Always try to attach somebody ho helps you raise the financing. If it had been Warren Beatty or Harrison Ford, it would have been much easier for him.
H-E: [laughs] I think it would have been a much...more strange movie.
JC: Yeah, and whether he was serious about that or not, Josh chose me and said to him, "you should look at Jamie Cromwell" and [Stone] went "ehhh" and [Josh] said "nonono, see him." I saw him and he wanted to see me again and I refused to go see him again. I thought you saw me the one time, you're not gonna get anything different from me, it's not gonna change--
H-E: You don't get two first dates.
JC: Nah, you don't get two first dates, and you know, I'm glad it worked out the way it did, really.
H-E: Like I said to you before, it's a really fascinating film that if people give it a chance, and I think that they will, they'll be quite pleased. One of the important things I think you brought up last night is that the studios seem to be absolutely convinced that "no one wants to see a movie about politics or world events" these days. I think there's some credence to the idea people don't want to go see them the way they're advertised, the way they're promoting them. This film is the crossover point, I think.
JC: Yeah, there are two dilemmas I think. One is the conservatism and cowardice of the industry as a whole or any industry, which of course, because they're beholden to large multinational corporations to make a return on the product they produce. So, the bean-counters and the analysts look at the marketplace and see what's working and what doesn't and extrapolate what you should and should not invest in. On the other hand, I'm not sure America is really ready to take a very probing look at its responsibility and culpability for what has happened, especially in the War in Iraq. I mean it's fine to blame it on Bush, we don't wanna look at why that war was created as a necessity to maintain the lifestyle that we take for granted...that we would be highly unwilling to give up, that as a people, we may be forced to give up. They're conservative and at the same time, whoever makes the film. Elah, In the Valley of Elah--
H-E: The Tommy Lee Jones film.
JC: Yeah, Josh was in that too. Winderful film, and I thought what's not to like about this film, it's accurate. he took it from actual cases and he combined them together. Horrible things were happening on bases, marital violence, murders, guys cting out, guys who didn't know about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder...we're now seeing this happening on all over, and it's going to get increasingly worse. It had a wonderful lead performance, got an Academy award nomination, a great script...why didn't it make it? Why didn't they push the film? When you read the review today in the paper, and it says "Josh Brolin gives a credible performance, this film breaks no new ground, those who've come to see--" shit no. Is that a liberal writing about the condemnation he wished he'd seen in the film. Is this a guy on the right who really wants to condemn the film but can't do it with faint praise? Hopefully, that will not dissuade anyone from seeing it.
--------------------------
Part 2 is on its way as we delve into the transforming landscape of distribution, politics, and various other things. Stay tuned.
Read MoreJames Cromwell & W. in Austin
I've disappeared for a couple days ramping up for the 15th annual Austin Film Festival, and last night kicked it off with a bang. The opening night film, Oliver Stone's W., played like gangbusters and the followup at the historic Paramount Theatre (Max Payne) left even the fanboys in the audience wanting. I'll have more on Max Payne shortly. James Cromwell introduced the film last night and in so doing announced a just-added "Conversation with" Q&A for this morning.
Shortly after the Q&A concluded, I got the chance to interview the actor and activist whose work in both respects I admire very much. I would simply upload the audio, but I can't for the life of me find my auxiliary cable so the transcript will appear shortly.
As for the film itself, the screening was truly an interesting study of the atmosphere of the city of Austin as well as the generation my esteemed editor refers to as The Generation of Shame (I prefer Doom myself). The film had some key location shoots around downtown easily picked out by any Austinite, some just down Congress Avenue from the Paramount Theatre where we were watching the movie. I overheard some hilarious things in line and afterward that I'll put in a Talking at the Movies piece today or tomorrow.
After reading the plethora of advance reviews out there, I most categorically disagree with two things right off: anyone referring to Josh Brolin's performance as "credible" or some other innocuous adjective isn't worth their salt, and calling Thandie Newton's performance as "Condi" Rice a caricature is trying too hard to look like a critic. Look, I'm an actor and (theatre) director first and a critical writer second, and would never pretend to use the "J" word to describe who I am or what I do for Hollywood Elsewhere.
I don't have a degree or commendation or fame to back me up as a critic, but I've done enough acting and watching to get what's going on with a highly technical performance. The technique Thandie employs here is one of approximation and the necessary degree of imitation, and yes, it absolutely splits your sides quite often. People instinctively laugh at the "dead-on" inhabitation of an impersonation for good reason. The laughter came in so many places, especially for Brolin throughout, but also for Toby Jones' perfect Rove and especially when Dreyfuss flashed Cheney's famous crooked underbite (you'll know when you see it). What's most important, and what makes the performances work across the board is the balance. No one treads the line so dangerously as to come off as Saturday Night Live making a feature film version of Dubya's great struggle.
Cromwell (in concert with Stone's direction) wisely does not choose the route of impersonation and instead inhabits the construct of what Dubya has turned his father into in the film's narrative. To mimic the real-life Herbert Dubya's mannerisms and manner of speech would defeat the purpose of Weiser's script summarily.
Cromwell related before the film began last night that he felt one of the genuine underlying strengths of the film was the real father-son issues both he and Josh brought to the proceedings themselves. The vulnerabilities they expose from their personal lives in how they bring The Two Georges to the screen is what elevates this film from left-leaning social commentary or satire to a complex narrative deservingly compared to Greek tragedy.
It's no secret where I stand politically. According to the plethora of Bush-faitful that have weighed in, I'm in the tank for this movie. What's telling for me is that when talking to a dyed-in-the-wool Republican friend very recently and explaining the tack W. takes, he said something he'd never admit to the set he generally hangs around:
"That's the life I think my dad got pushed into, and it's the mistake of his that I'm repeating. It's who I am and I don't really have a choice."
W. is no mere stunt film, and the 4-6% of truly conflicted, undecided voters who see the movie may find it to sway their feelings about the election. They're the 4-6% that will actually decide this election in some states, and when they think about this story and who John McCain is fundamentally, their eyes might actually open all the way up.
My interview with James Cromwell is yet to come, since transcription will take a bit longer than expected. Might be delayed until tomorrow.
Read More
Shortly after the Q&A concluded, I got the chance to interview the actor and activist whose work in both respects I admire very much. I would simply upload the audio, but I can't for the life of me find my auxiliary cable so the transcript will appear shortly.
As for the film itself, the screening was truly an interesting study of the atmosphere of the city of Austin as well as the generation my esteemed editor refers to as The Generation of Shame (I prefer Doom myself). The film had some key location shoots around downtown easily picked out by any Austinite, some just down Congress Avenue from the Paramount Theatre where we were watching the movie. I overheard some hilarious things in line and afterward that I'll put in a Talking at the Movies piece today or tomorrow.
After reading the plethora of advance reviews out there, I most categorically disagree with two things right off: anyone referring to Josh Brolin's performance as "credible" or some other innocuous adjective isn't worth their salt, and calling Thandie Newton's performance as "Condi" Rice a caricature is trying too hard to look like a critic. Look, I'm an actor and (theatre) director first and a critical writer second, and would never pretend to use the "J" word to describe who I am or what I do for Hollywood Elsewhere.
I don't have a degree or commendation or fame to back me up as a critic, but I've done enough acting and watching to get what's going on with a highly technical performance. The technique Thandie employs here is one of approximation and the necessary degree of imitation, and yes, it absolutely splits your sides quite often. People instinctively laugh at the "dead-on" inhabitation of an impersonation for good reason. The laughter came in so many places, especially for Brolin throughout, but also for Toby Jones' perfect Rove and especially when Dreyfuss flashed Cheney's famous crooked underbite (you'll know when you see it). What's most important, and what makes the performances work across the board is the balance. No one treads the line so dangerously as to come off as Saturday Night Live making a feature film version of Dubya's great struggle.
Cromwell (in concert with Stone's direction) wisely does not choose the route of impersonation and instead inhabits the construct of what Dubya has turned his father into in the film's narrative. To mimic the real-life Herbert Dubya's mannerisms and manner of speech would defeat the purpose of Weiser's script summarily.
Cromwell related before the film began last night that he felt one of the genuine underlying strengths of the film was the real father-son issues both he and Josh brought to the proceedings themselves. The vulnerabilities they expose from their personal lives in how they bring The Two Georges to the screen is what elevates this film from left-leaning social commentary or satire to a complex narrative deservingly compared to Greek tragedy.
It's no secret where I stand politically. According to the plethora of Bush-faitful that have weighed in, I'm in the tank for this movie. What's telling for me is that when talking to a dyed-in-the-wool Republican friend very recently and explaining the tack W. takes, he said something he'd never admit to the set he generally hangs around:
"That's the life I think my dad got pushed into, and it's the mistake of his that I'm repeating. It's who I am and I don't really have a choice."
W. is no mere stunt film, and the 4-6% of truly conflicted, undecided voters who see the movie may find it to sway their feelings about the election. They're the 4-6% that will actually decide this election in some states, and when they think about this story and who John McCain is fundamentally, their eyes might actually open all the way up.
My interview with James Cromwell is yet to come, since transcription will take a bit longer than expected. Might be delayed until tomorrow.The Fall of Ember
This morning's box office returns are discouraging not because Body of Lies came in where it did, but because Jeff's Chihuahua Theory was proven true by people wanting to plow in and see "The Chihuahua Movie" they missed the week before, or, god forbid, decided they needed to see twice theatrically.
The not-screened-for-critics Quarantine came in a respectable second. The movie was directed by Eric Dowdle, who made The Poughkeepsie Tapes, which neither my wife nor I could sit through during last year's Butt-Numb-a-Thon and is still floating in release purgatory.
The real loss is the fact City of Ember's 10th place standing translates in studio terms to "no sequel, no way." I have read a couple bloggers' stories mentioning "movie jail" potential for director Gil Kenan or otherwise dismiss the movie as "pretty design, nothing for me." Speaking to the first point, you guys can fuck right off. As for the latter, I can't count on my hands and feet how many absolutely terrible, no-redeeming-value kid/tweener movies come out every year. That the same folks who brush this movie off as they would one of those don't go after the throat of the Chihuahua movie astounds me.
I'm honestly more disheartened at the prospect we won't see this series completed cinematically. Though something of a negative at the end of this "first" flick for myself and others, the fact you want more isn't entirely a bad thing. What I constantly remind myself of is that as a "general public" viewer, I don't see movies in press screening audiences of less than five, and it's more of a "happening." I think the gorging nature of the industry these days, plowing from buffet to buffet of junkets and press screenings is too often leading to writers who act as advocates for this medium the undoers or "shitters-upon" of the medium they love so much.
This isn't to say I think the movie is perfect, please do not misunderstand me. One of the themes of Hellboy comes to mind in that often what you truly love about someone (or some thing) is its inherent flaws.
Read MoreBranagh confirmed for Thor
What a few weeks ago would have come across as the strangest coupling in a while, Playbill Online of all places provides confirmation that Kenneth Branagh is locked-in to direct The Mighty Thor for Marvel Studios.
Branagh had been attached to direct a 2009-bowing production of Hamlet starring Jude Law with the Donmar Warehouse in England, but "has had to step aside because of his commitments to the forthcoming feature film 'Thor' - a project he has recently undertaken". It was already reported that he was circling it, but he's full-on attached and in knee-deep. I've always been a great admirer of his 4-hour Hamlet and various other things Branagh's done (and just as often a detractor on things like Frankenstein), but this is the first time I've been outright fascinated by one of his upcoming projects. I'd love to see the script for this character that got this director attached.
I'd be very surprised to see him playing Thor himself, but his involvement could help attract A-list talent that'd otherwise scoff at the idea of playing Iron Man's pal who has a winged helmet. I'd personally love to see a grade-A talent like Kevin McKidd (TV's Rome and Journeyman) get a big break out of a part like this. Marvel may actually make this whole crossover/team thing work.
Read MoreThe Future of Arthouse Cowboy
I've almost fully rebuilt the archives from mis-formatted and lost entries that were worse for wear after the server changeover. They're being re-posted on a somewhat regular basis. Expect them to keep popping into the archives on a rolling basis throughout the month as I have time to attend to them.
The main purpose for this post is to announce new recurring features and plans for Arthouse Cowboy that'll keep this column its own distinct animal. As life has gotten somewhat more predictable and manageable for me, I'm launching some long-planned regular items, the first of which have already started appearing. Below you'll find the new recurring features I'm posting and what kind of content to expect out of them.
Culture of Demand (revived and revamped)
I threw a couple of these out there back in 2005 under the banner of Culture on Demand. The prepositional change is in keeping with how the atmosphere and market have changed in the last three years. These pieces are less review-y and more along the lines of critical essays and (occasionally) raging screeds. I'm applying my Cultural Anthropology studies to looking at the nature of how people are evolving their tastes in terms of media consumption. The moviegoing landscape has been changing big-time to the point that we're immersed in the tidal wave resulting from what Jeff called "The Big Fade":
"Certain industry-watchers are in denial about this (and you know who I mean), but there's no hiding from this any longer: we're experiencing a seismic shift in attitudes about how, when and where to get our entertainment fix.
"It's not a welcome thing to consider, but the hard fact is that the good old "let's go to the movies so we can have fun and have something to talk about later over drinks" option is starting to slip down the pole a bit.
"Seeing movies in theatres is being slowly de-popularized and retired by different demos for different reasons. I'm calling it the Big Fade.
"The fade is on because the movie-going experience costs too much, which is happening because greedy actors and their agents have pushed their fees into the upper stratosphere. The higher the fees, the bigger the budgets...which in turn has forced studio-based producers to back away from making adult-friendly middlebrow movies and concentrate more and more on theme-park movies, which has pushed away the adults."
The Home Front (brand new)
An extension of Culture of Demand pieces, Home Front is going to be more review-focused. Since so many people are now seeing movies almost exclusively at home or on other small screens, I wanted to focus on everything from regular DVD to Blu-ray to the 31 flavors of digital downloads and streaming. Straight to Video (STV), an oft-ignored category that horrifies and entertains me in equal measure will also be covered here, especially low-rent STV sequels. I promise to focus equally on high-quality, low-awareness releases that deserve more attention.
Region0 (read: Region Zero, brand new)
This is my space to advocate movies and TV shows that, for whatever reason, you can't find in the States or isn't getting a fair shake with its move to American shores. Asian movies (live action and animated), older US movies that are inexplicably not on DVD in Region 1, and British TV shows that make US cable channels look absurd are all the tip of the iceberg here. As with Access Denied! (below), I'll include the country of origin, original year of release, and where/how to find it (legally) if you can.
Access Denied! (brand new)
The spiritual sibling of Region0 jumps to the perspective of people in other countries who have trouble seeing movies for one reason or another, whether foreign (US) or domestic. Whether they're amazing and great and have something to say...or really preachy for the sake of controversy, movies banned in their native countries deserve special attention. I'm Chinese and Cuban, so out of the gate I have a lot to work with on those fronts alone. As a long-term goal, I also want to do some investigative research on how people are seeing all this stuff that's allegedly banned. There are apparently a few ten millions of Daily Show fans in China.
Western Evangelism (brand new)
This has nothing to do with proselytizing evangelical Christians. Since I started writing for Hollywood Elsewhere off and on, I've wanted to write a monthly (if not more frequent) piece to promote good westerns people haven't seen in a while, aren't on DVD or are simply not available.
To give you a feeling for where my Western tastes lie: I'll try anything competent once. That's why I watched a lot of John Wayne's lesser work that involves "let's ride up another ridge and kill another 7 minutes with a riding montage and find those Injuns." There's been a rash of STV westerns recently that will probably not be covered here unless they surprise my face off.
I'm going to also use this feature as an excuse to cover good "Horse Movies" like Into the West and others that in my mind are Westerns thematically but aren't all-out oaters. Expect some weird non-American gunslinger product in here too.
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