Desert Island Discs, OR: How I Spent My Winter Vacation

The bride and I just returned home from a holiday in Phoenix where we saw Roger Waters perform "The Wall" (which was amazing) and the hotel we stayed in just happened to be across the street from an AMC theatre. Because of this (and because he had no car and cabs in Phoenix are absurdly expensive) we found ourselves in the (extremely comfortable) theatre on 3 of our 5 nights away! Here are some very quick thoughts about the three films we saw. I doubt I'll bother with full reviews of any of them (especially since everyone in the universe has already reviewed the one which ended up being the best of the three).




"Tangled" - Directed by Nathan Greno & Bryon Howard

Of all the films in the Disney Princesses catalogue, this is surely the most recent. It was fine. I would have preferred traditional 2D animation, but the CG animation was fairly good (though not Pixar good) the supporting cast was more entertaining than the main characters (which is usually the case in Disney fairy tales) and the jokes were pretty funny. Ok, some of them. Quite often a good way to gauge a Disney movie is by how good the music is. This one's music falls somewhere in the middle of the hierarchy of Disney's films. Which is what I'd say about the movie as well.







"Unstoppable" - Directed by Tony Scott

I usually like Tony Scott's movies but HATE the way he shoots and edits them. This movie is no exception. It is in fact better than the majority of Scott's output, but it features his trademark kinetic camera and uber-hip music video style editing. Of all of his films this one might suit that style the best (and it's the least distracting here.) Having said that, I still found myself frustrated sometimes by the way everything spun around and cut so insanely fast. If you like Tony Scott's style it won't bother you here, if you don't like his style it will probably still bother you here. Only real complaints I have are with an unnecessary subplot involving the hero's marriage (which is very tacked on and the stakes are high enough without it) and the overuse of "news reports", once was fine, twice was ok, 4007 times was overkill. But when Tony Scott likes something (like say spinning the camera around someone and then suddenly zooming in VERY VERY fast before cutting away to blurry speed lines like a Speed Racer cartoon) then overkill is usually what he seems to aim for.



"Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 1" - Directed by David Yates

This was my favorite of the three movies we saw and also the one about which I'll say the least. I thought Yates did an excellent job of setting the tone for the film (spoiler: It's DARK) and setting up for what I am sure will be a hell of a lot of payoff in the next. He does all this without having this film drag, which is surprising given it's 2 hr and 37 min run time. I felt it flew by! How very very lucky we are that these kids grew up to be pretty decent actors! This is definately the best Potter film in the series so far.





So that's it. I saw a few other things on HBO (we had EIGHT channels worth of HBO... it was what I imagine heaven would be like.) but they were all either things I'd seen before or things that came out a while ago so I doubt anyone wants to read about (but if you're curious what I thought of "Whip It" I thought it was alright but not nearly as good as I'd been led to believe. B- ) Tomorrow is the start of December which marks the beginning of my December marathon. I'll be posting about the films in it as I watch them. Feel free to follow along and leave your thoughts in the comments if you're so inclined.

Blind Spots Update

Earlier I posted 5 films that I was somewhat embarrassed to have never seen and I am happy to report I've since caught up with 2 of them. Federico Fellini's "8 and 1/2" and Fritz Lang's "Metropolis."

God I wish I was this cool

I have very little to say about "8 1/2" other than it was amazing I can't wait to see it again because I think there was so much incredible stuff going on that I didn't absorb a fraction of it. Also I found it very funny so I missed a lot because I was laughing. Especially the character of the mistress and all the scenes where a dozen production people are bombarding our hero with questions about the film they're making (and the launchpad for the spaceship which amused me no end.) I'm glad I finally saw it and can't wait to see it again. I encourage you if you've not seen it to do so.

There is no Metropolis, only Zuul

I had the chance to see the restored edition of "Metropolis" at the Uptown Stage and Screen with live accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra. I absolutely loved everything about the experience (except for the fact that I couldn't finish my popcorn. I foolishly ordered the large and Stefan refused to have some.) The Alloy Orchestra was outstanding and really brought the movie to life and I was blown away with a lot of the images in the film. I would love to see some more silent films in this kind of a setting. The design of everything in the movie was incredible (and since Brazil is one of my favorite films it was very cool to see something that so clearly was a huge visual influence on Gilliam's film.) The entire second half of the movie was more exciting than any hollywood blockbuster action movie I've seen in a very long time.

December Marathon: Lust for Glory

Quite often I decide to watch a movie and can not choose which one because there are so many classic films I've always wanted to see. Then I get flummoxed and just end up watching "Stripes." WELL NO MORE! (From now on I only watch "Stripes" once a month like a NORMAL person) for I have a cunning plan. Each month I'm going to program a little marathon of movies for myself so that when I want to watch a movie I have a shorter list to choose from. Plus coming up with cool themed lists of movies is WAY awesome... plus I do it anyway. Why? Because. I'm different.

Anyway, that leads me to my list for December. There is no real "theme" for this list. The only criteria was that I couldn't have seen it before and it had to come out before 1960. Ok, the truth is there was no criteria I just noticed once I completed the list that all of them came out before 1960.


The Wizard of Oz (1939) directed by Victor Fleming
Touch of Evil (1958) directed by Orson Welles
The Great Dictator (1940) directed by Charlie Chaplin
All About Eve (1950) directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Trouble in Paradise (1932) directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Stagecoach (1939) directed by John Ford
Cat People (1942) directed by Jacques Tourneur
Anatomy of a Murder (1959) directed by Otto Preminger
Throne of Blood (1957) directed by Akira Kurosawa
12 Angry Men (1957) directed by Sidney Lumet
On The Waterfront (1954) directed by Elia Kazan
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) directed by Vincente Minelli
The Paleface (1948) directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Rope (1948) directed by Alfred Hitchcock
The Lost Weekend (1945) directed by Billy Wilder

BOOM! So that's the plan. I'll update as I knock flicks off the list.

NOTE: In the interest of full disclosure I will point out that it's actually 14 movies I've never seen and 1 which I have. However I've not seen "The Wizard of Oz" since I was a wee gaffer (that's the guy who holds the boom mic that records the urine sound effects) so I remember very little of it.

"A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" (1982) - Directed By Woody Allen

I was looking through Allen's filmography recently and I discovered that A) the man has made an absurd number of films and B) there are a lot of them I haven't seen. So I plan to try and go through and fill in as many of the gaps as I can. My first stop (because it was on Netflix) is his 1982 ensemble comedy "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy."

The film takes place around the turn of the last century at a house in the country where 3 couples are staying for a weekend of fun and relaxation. One couple (the one that lives at the country house) is played by Mary Steenburgen and Woody Allen himself. They are having marital problems, more specifically problems in the bedroom. As a result of this, Andrew (Allen) has been throwing all his energy and attention into his inventions. He has designed a flying bicycle and a device which will supposedly bring us into contact with the astral plane? I think? Something like that, I don't think it is really supposed to make sense. Andrew and Adrian are joined by 2 other couples: Maxwell (played by Tony Roberst) and Dulcy (Julie Hagarty); a womanizing doctor and the nurse he picked up for the weekend; and Leopole (Jose Ferrer) and Ariel (Mia Farrow); a pompous but brilliant university professor and the woman he is marrying at the end of the weekend. It turns out Andrew and Ariel had an unfinished affair 20 years prior.

I'm not going to go into a lengthy plot recap because you should just watch it yourself, but basically there are a bunch of twists and trysts (never gotten to use the word tryst in something before!) and it all gets very farcical and silly but it always stays fun. There are a lot of very memorable and quotable lines and scenes and overall I enjoyed it quite a bit. He even manages to work in some interesting thematic stuff about how people and their perceptions of things can change so much over 20 years. Andrew and Ariel have been imagining "what if" scenarios about how their lives would be different if they'd gotten together when they were younger and had the chance and then 20 years later when they finally get the chance they discover that they're very disappointed with the whole thing and not very interested in each other after all. I thought that was the most effective part of the film.

I expect most Woody Allen fans probably don't rate this one among his greater works, but I think it was still worth seeing if only for those great scenes and bits of dialogue I mentioned. Also Allen, Farrar, and Hagarty are all very funny in the movie. So if you're looking for some light, funny Allen fun this is a good one to check out.

Brazil - Directed by Terry Gilliam

I was planning on posting a review of Terry Gilliam's 1985 masterpiece "Brazil" but I think that every clever thing that could be said about it has been said better by smarter people already. So instead I present a transcription of my conversation with my friend Michael about it. Pretty much sums up my feelings on one of my favorite films of all time.




Me: So, you liked Brazil?

Michael: yeah brah
shit was tight

Me: word.






So there you go. If you have seen Brazil and agree or disagree with this review post your thoughts in the comments. If you haven't seen Brazil just go watch it now and call your friends and have similar conversations.

Blind Spots or: Why I'm unqualified to have a blog writing about films.

Inspired by the most recent episode of the excellent IFC News Podcast wherein hosts Matthew Singer and Allison Willmore discussed 5 films each that they had only recently seen that not seeing them can be called "a gaping hole in one's film education" I've decided to get some stuff off my chest.

I'm going to talk about 5 films that I've never gotten around to watching that I really have no good excuse for why I haven't seen them. I'm hoping this public shaming will provide me with the motivation to finally watch these films.

The list of movies I'm drawing from is quite a bit longer than the 5 movies I'm going to talk about here and there are in fact even more embarrassing holes in my film education that I just wasn't comfortable admitting (mostly because I think there are some that I've pretended to have seen around people to look clever... what a douche eh?) but these are 5 renowned films that I've never seen and am going to try to get around to in the next few weeks. As I complete them I'll try to post a little bit about them here.

#1 - 8 1/2 - Directed By Federico Fellini




For shame. I'm pretty sure I've told people that I actually have seen this several times. I'm such a dick. I've started this film several times but for some reason always seem to choose to start watching it when I'm already falling asleep and seem to nod off in the first 10 minutes every time. Well no more lies, no more doucheyness. I even own the criterion edition of the DVD so there is NO good excuse for not having seen this. It is time.

#2 - Infernal Affairs - Directed By Wai-keung Lau & Alan Mak

The Departed was one of my favorite movies of 2006 and ever since I saw it I've been meaning to catch up with the original film that it was based on.













#3 - Barry Lyndon - Directed By Stanley Kubrick



I think Stanley Kubrick was one of the most amazing filmmakers of all time. I'm always blown away each time I watch one of his films. Visually stunning, thematically compelling and always entertaining. For some reason this is one of the few Kubrick films I've not acquired on DVD yet (possibly because of how long I know it is.)









#4 - Once Upon a Time in the West - Directed By Sergio Leone



The Dollars Trilogy are three of my favorite films and some of my favorite filmmaking. The visual style of those movies is just captivating. Once again, I think the length of this one is what has prevented me from catching up with it so far.











#5 - Metropolis - Directed By Fritz Lang




Going old-school for this pick. I did once see the anime adaptation of this film a long time ago before I knew of the original films existence. The Calgary Cinematheque is screening this film in November (with a recently discovered 20 minutes of footage that was missing until now) with live orchestra providing the music for this silent classic. Looking forward to getting a chance to finally see such a well-regarded classic movie.






So there are 5 blind-spots for me. Not sure exactly when or in what order I'll get to them, but I do plan to watch them all sooner rather than later.

What's the score here? (PUN!)

I was thinking more about the complaints I had about the score to "Let Me In" and how it was such cliche "OMGSCARY!" music that could have been in any horror movie. Got me thinking about what makes a film score good or bad and whether a good score can be used poorly etc. I thought I might do a top 5 film scores post here but it occurred to me that my list would be somewhat uninspired as I have done no preparation or research and would probably just end up throwing things on the list just so I'd have something there. Rather than doing that I'm just going to talk about one. It's one of my all-time favorites.


Spirited Away - Score by Joe Hisaishi


This is one of the greatest film scores I've ever heard, which is appropriate since it's also one of the greatest films of all time. I'd put it in my all-time top 5 without any hesitation. The music is at times energetic and celebratory, dark and sinister and always haunting beautiful, just like the film. For me the best film scores also work because when you listen to them they conjure up the memory of scene from the film they're used in. The images improve the music and certainly vice versa. There are times when I find the music in a lot of films pretty cliche and generic, like they could have been pumped out for any film. There's nothing generic about any of the music from Spirited Away (or indeed any of the other films Hisaishi has scored.) Every note is adds so much to the style and tone of the film.