Not Coming to a Theater Near You

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory / USA / 2005

I’m rather heartened to hear that a lot of people (myself included) enjoyed this movie immensely, even with a thorough and probably greater appreciation of Mel Stuart’s 1971 version. Sure, parts of the film are terrible (has Danny Elfman totally lost it?), but Burton gets a sufficient number of things right, even if the film is ultimately unnecessary. For Charlie, he casts the most adorable little English boy imaginable; for Grampa Joe, the most adorable little Irish old man. (David Kelly has an interesting career that stretches back about 50 years. He played Stephen Dedalus’ boss in Joseph Strick’s remarkable adaptation of Ulysses, was featured as the incompetent [read: Irish] builder O’Reilly in a classic episode of Fawlty Towers, and appeared in a 2002 adaptation of Spike Milligan’s novel, Puckoon, that I had no idea existed.)

It’s no surprise, however, that the film belongs to Depp, whose Willy Wonka is infinitely fascinating, if only for the total confusion it engenders. Yes, everyone “gets” the evocation of Michael Jackson … but what the hell is this man doing? And in a children’s movie? Thank god that Hollywood has an actor like Depp around, who is seemingly willing to sabotage his entire career — repeatedly — with performances that are totally off-the-wall, but never seem to prompt concern for his mental health (as was the case for someone like Peter Sellers … or, indeed, Spike Milligan). And the great miracle is that they somehow inadvertently spell box-office gold.

The other great thing about Depp’s performance is that it doesn’t eclipse Gene Wilder’s earlier rendition. If anything — and in spite of Wilder’s vocal objections to Burton’s film — the two performances complement each other by contrast. It astounds me that the imagination of Roald Dahl (to say nothing of these actors) can foster not one, but two brilliantly perverse characters.

Jason’s thoughts | Matt’s thoughts | Rumsey’s thoughts

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Cable OnDemand
31 Aug 2006 4:06 PM | Comments (2)

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Trust the Man / USA / 2006

Lame retread of ground covered by Woody Allen two decades ago.

by Beth Gilligan | Source: Fox Searchlight 35mm print
29 Aug 2006 10:43 AM | Submit Comment

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Velvet Goldmine / UK/ USA / 1998

Very few films have managed to capture the force and sheer joy of music quite like this. True, it’s absurdly pretentious (and well aware of it), but it’s also wildly imaginative, stylish, perfectly cast, flawlessly directed and hugely entertaining, the precise midpoint between the twisted kitsch psychodrama of Superstar and the poised historical (hysterical) elegance of Far From Heaven. Those who criticised Haynes for overdramatising actual events and using thinly disguised echoes of real people as his characters were missing the point- there is no reality here, this is to all intents and purposes science fiction, and should be viewed as such. You’d have thought the spaceships would give it away.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
28 Aug 2006 11:34 AM | Submit Comment

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Lethal Weapon 3 / USA / 1992

Everyone’s favourite self- flagellatin’, fag bashin’, Jew botherin’, God worshippin’, cop lecherin’, drunk driverin’ antipodean onophiliac homunculus returns to save the world by cackling and hitting people. Nothing remains of Shane Black’s original, this is cosy and lacklustre, rambling from one tedious setpiece to another. I’ll admit, I didn’t make it to the end.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: Channel 5
28 Aug 2006 11:32 AM | Comments (2)

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The Fountainhead / USA / 1949

Strange that Gary Cooper, whose performance in High Noon came to symbolise the struggle against McCarthyite tyranny, should also have starred in this, the most deeply fascist of all Hollywood epics. As in Ayn Rand’s novel, character and subtlety are sacrificed at the altar of political point scoring, her utter, blackhearted contempt for humanity (the mob, the man in the street, the demon ‘public’) seeping through in every frame. Strange, too, that a woman should construct such a wildly phallic fantasy, with Cooper competing with the ‘mediocrities’ of architecture to see who can construct the biggest, shiniest erection, while Patricia Neal lies all but subservient to the visionary men in her life. It doesn’t even work as a film- the dialogue is trite and pompous, and Max Steiner’s score is ludicrously intrusive, exploding to crescendo at the least provocation. But Rand’s ideas are apparently still taken seriously in the US- witness the fruition of her vision in the likes of Ann Coulter.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
27 Aug 2006 9:45 AM | Comments (4)

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The Thief Of Bagdad / UK / 1940

Six directors famously contributed to this richest of British fantasy epics, looting the One Thousand And One Nights for it’s most populist elements- genies, flying carpets, beautiful princesses and dastardly black magicians with unsettling facial hair. And the film was itself looted over the years, most recently for Disney’s retelling of the Aladdin story. But it has rarely been bettered- the effects and performances may have dated, but the sense of sheer verve and adventure is timeless.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: FilmFour
27 Aug 2006 9:43 AM | Submit Comment

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Invasion Of The Thunderbolt Pagoda / USA / 1968

At the Green Man Festival in south Wales, Sunburned Hand Of The Man treated a tentful of lucky devotees to an improvised performance of their soundtrack to this wild experimental classic, rarely seen since it’s initial release. The film itself is indescribable, a nightmarish opiate underworld of Eastern mystical imagery and floating skulls jostling with delirious acid- fuelled floral frolics. The final sequence, a series of Mylar reflections moving like icebergs across the screen, is unlike anything else in cinema. At 20 minutes the whole experience was frustratingly short but extraordinarily vivid- a psychedelic rollercoaster.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
27 Aug 2006 9:42 AM | Submit Comment

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Twelve And Holding / USA / 2005

Achieving a belated release here in the UK, Michael Cuesta’s sophomore effort builds effortlessly on his impressive debut L.I.E., further exploring the struggle and tragedy of teenage life in modern American suburbia. Zoe Weizenbaum gives the best child performance since Henry Thomas, hands down.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm Print
27 Aug 2006 9:40 AM | Submit Comment

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Idlewild / USA / 2006

The American musical has suffered greatly over the last few decades, something attributable (at least in my opinion) to the rise and reign of MTV. Now, because of our video-thinned attention spans, no one seems willing to tolerate hours of interconnected song without a remote control. Even with a Best Picture win for Chicago four years ago, one I continue to feel was undeserved, musical cinema isn’t what it used to be. Not even OutKast can ressurect the heyday of Kelly, Astaire and Rogers.

Directed by Bryan Barber, Idlewild is built on a great soundtrack by OutKast (the anachronisms didn’t bother me one bit) and some incredible choreography by Hinton Battle, all contained perfectly by Pascal Rabaud’s cinematography. But the casting is backwards; stars Andre Benjamin and Big Boi are noticeable acting amateurs, and their inexperience shows. At the same time, great performers like Cicely Tyson and Ben Vereen are given barely anything worthwhile. Too much focus and responsibility is given to Macy Gray, while Patti LaBelle, portraying a famed and uptight songstress, isn’t given a single song.

While many may dismiss the film for its quirks—a talking flask, a magic Bible, a choir of cuckoo clocks—others may find them refreshing. When the story becomes inevitably dull and all your favorite characters, for one reason or another, disappear, you can marvel at how the filmmakers embrace imagination in a film that has very little.

by Adam Balz | Source: 35MM Theatrical Print
26 Aug 2006 10:04 PM | Submit Comment

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Willard / USA / 2003

In an old television interview, Stephen King commented on the Creepshow segment “They’re Creeping Up On You,” in which the sanitary and self-isolated Upson Pratt (E.G. Marshall) must fend off a sudden roach invasion. According to King, the roaches symbolize minorities invading Pratt’s “sterile” environment, in essence invalidating his attempts at eschewing diversity and change.

Glen Morgan’s 2003 remake of Willard has the same emblematic feel. Willard’s mother, frightened by outsiders, lives in a home with bar-enclosed windows and forces her son to do the same; thus the very shy, very meek Willard befriends a horde of rodents (note the difference between Socrates and Ben) and descends into a paranoid, vengeful madness.

Though entertaining at times, the film reeks of social allegory, from commentary on race to how we live our daily lives (the “rat race” speech, delivered by R. Lee Ermy’s character, is deserving of the jeers it elicited). Though the cinematography is near brilliant at times, and the acting from Ermy and Crispin Glover is admirably contrasted, the film feels too self-enclosed and whimsically dark. When I wasn’t being deluged by obvious visual metaphors, I was torn between feelings of dread and childish amusement.

by Adam Balz | Source: IFC
25 Aug 2006 12:51 PM | Comments (1)

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Le Samouraï / France / Italy / 1967

Paramount among the many charms of Le Samouraï is how Alain Delon is like the King Midas of cool. He lives in a shit hole of an apartment, with only a pet bird and virtually no furniture, and midway through the film you see how this Spartan manner of living is to his advantage, once the bird alerts him to the presence of a surveillance microphone immediately upon his arrival home one night. (At least, at this point in the film I considered not only how useful a pet bird may be, but that I may have way too much furniture.) Imagine how tedious this scene may have been had he had to rummage through a couch or rug or closet—which brings me to another point: he’s a killer for hire but not chameleonic, what with his wardrobe essentially consisting of a wool suit, a trench coat belted up tightly, and a fedora that he positions meticulously parallel to the floor. He may be easy to spot, but he has the best poker face in the world and a masterpiece of an alibi. It is his charm of indifference and resolute lack of any fear that renders him among film’s most able assassins, and this charm wouldn’t be diminished one iota had he used a pogo stick to depart the scene of the crime.

Full review | Screening log

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: The Criterion Collection DVD
25 Aug 2006 10:12 AM | Submit Comment

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Punch-Drunk Love / USA / 2002

In an early scene novelty prop entrepreneur Barry Egan exits his warehouse and looks toward a rising sun in the early morning. A steadicam closely in tow, the sunlight pours in to the frame, refracting in a kaleidoscope of pastels that introduce a rich palette—in a later scene in a grocery store, even, the colors are vibrant and ethereal. Aesthetically, this renders Paul Thomas Anderson’s fourth film a fantasy in its carefully designed artifice. And, by this measure, its romantic trajectory is somewhat traditional, but this all obscures the gravity, desperation, and brimming hostility available in almost each of the principle characters: Barry and his sporadic bursts of violence, his sisters’ incessant abuse, the brothers who steal his money (for an indecent sum), or the phone-sex operator who blackmails him. The entire film is summated in a brilliant scene in which Barry and his romantic pursuer, Lena, engage in indescribably violent pillow talk—that it is also totally adorable is Punch-Drunk Love’s defining idiosyncrasy.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Sony Pictures DVD
24 Aug 2006 9:45 AM | Comments (1)

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Strangers With Candy / USA / 2005

A fan of the original Comedy Central series, I was skeptical of whether or not a film studio could preserve the off-center humor and demented purity of the characters, even with the same writers and actors (and now David Letterman). Though my skepticism was soon banished, I couldn’t help but feel let down. Yes, the humor was well-written and delivered with trained perfection, especially from stars Amy Sedaris and Stephen Colbert, but there wasn’t enough. For me, this felt like an episode stretched into 90 minutes. Still, if you don’t laugh at Kristen Johnston’s Coach Divers, you don’t have a pulse.

by Adam Balz | Source: 35MM Theatrical Print
19 Aug 2006 9:24 PM | Submit Comment

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Snakes on a Plane / USA / 2006

Snakes on a Plane is precisely what you’re expecting it to be, a film so calculatedly derivative of fans’ expectations that it contains no surprises, but thrills in the delivery of completely predicted moments: snakes slithering around the bare feet of an oblivious potential victim; the two pilots expended, the moment at which the jetliner is just about to crash into the Pacific; and virtually every single demand expelled by Sam Jackson that renders each survivor an acolyte in his mission to save them all. Each of these actions was met with deafening applause. Sure, it’s wholly derivative, but it is a testament that film is nothing without an audience to respond to it.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: New Line Cinema 35mm print
18 Aug 2006 9:20 AM | Submit Comment

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Lucifer Rising / USA / UK / West Germany / 1981

The full film can be viewed, in three parts and with regrettable resolution, here.

Sumptuous, iconographic, and obtuse, Kenneth Anger’s last major film, the product of eleven years of traveling, filming, editing, re-editing, scoring, and re-scoring, is an astonishing summation of his cinema of ritual, magick, and fetishism. Anger’s conception of cinema as a rite — as an act to be performed by the film and by the spectator — finds perhaps its fullest expression here, with an epic, timeless, and spaceless mythos of rebirth, featuring volcanoes and pyramids, ancient Egyptian and pagan iconography, Donald Cammell and Marianne Faithful, Stonehenge and the Sphynx. The filmmaker’s forceful use of cinema to blend the animate and the inanimate, to give body and life to the inert and the symbolic, is matched only by Jodorowsky and Matthew Barney at their most extreme.

Technically, the film is also among Anger’s most accomplished, with innumerable moments of inspired cutting and a barrage of visual effects that teeter on the edge of conventional psychedelia without losing their mystery or unsettling aspects. (This is no doubt enhanced by star Bobby Beausoleil’s excellent, almost krautrock-like score, which he completed while incarcerated for his participation in the Manson murders.) Unlike others of his generation, but appropriate to the author of Hollywood Babylon, Anger was not so much interested in tearing down the conventions of narrative filmmaking as raising them to a new, metaphysical level. As a result, Anger luxuriates in lurid, symbolic color, star-closeups, and graceful tracking shots (similar to those that caressed the bodies of motorcycles in Scorpio Rising and the bodies of men in Fireworks), giving birth to his own pantheistic Hollywood as Lucifer, the God of Light, rises.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Internet download
17 Aug 2006 6:25 PM | Comments (8)

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Inside Man / USA / 2006

Lee’s latest effort is further proof that “very serious” directors should take a crack at lighter genre projects every so often. While the various characters within Lee’s film could certainly be classified as caricatures at times, he somehow manages to make them exceedingly natural and utterly believable within his Manhattan atmosphere, which he seems to fluently comprehend and effortlessly construct. Featuring Clive Owen’s most charismatic performance in a rather undemanding character, this is easily the most entertaining Lee film that I’ve watched since He Got Game (which had possibly one of the worst endings I’ve ever witnessed) simply because he isn’t attempting to overload his audience with his own urgent appeals and instead weaves his interest in social tensions into a clever heist plot. Then again, I’m usually a sucker for subtext … and Jodie Foster (it’s downright disturbing how attractive I find her this role).

by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Universal Pictures DVD
16 Aug 2006 4:59 PM | Comments (1)

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Airplane 2:The Sequel / USA / 1982

Funnier than I remembered it, but still not funny enough.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: Channel 5
16 Aug 2006 10:18 AM | Submit Comment

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Husbands And Wives / USA / 1992

Forget the 70’s: the ‘90’s, from Crimes And Misdemeanors to Sweet and Lowdown, was Woody’s real purple patch. Sure, there are a few clunkers (Shadows And Fog, Celebrity) but just look at the high points: Bullets Over Broadway, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Deconstructing Harry and this, for my money one of his few genuine dramatic successes. The casting is perfect, the dialogue wise and not too dour, the parallels with real life fascinating and disconcerting in equal measure. His characters manage to be monstrous without losing our sympathy, although Woody does tend to let himself off the hook slightly when it comes to his own character, Gabe, resisting the teenage charms of Juliette Lewis but still ending up alone.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
16 Aug 2006 10:17 AM | Submit Comment

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Lady In The Water / USA / 2006

The end of a glittering career? This is one of those movies where you kind of know what he’s trying to do, he’s even doing it pretty well, but you have to ask whether or not it was worth doing in the first place. The film tries to present itself as a serious examination of the role of folklore in modern society, but ends up feeling like a hopelessly complex and deeply silly update of those sub- Spielberg ‘80’s movies where ‘ordinary’ middle American folks came up against magical alien forces and learned a bunch of valuable life lessons, like Batteries Not Included or Cocoon. As a film critic I suppose I ought to be offended by Night’s hamfisted swipes at my profession, but as a lifelong Bob Balaban devotee and self- hater it actually made sense to me. But he’ll have to pull something pretty commercial out of the bag to make up for this one. Bruce Willis should wait by the phone.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm Print
16 Aug 2006 10:17 AM | Submit Comment

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World Trade Center / WTC / USA / 2006

Moviegoers have had a love-hate relationship with Oliver Stone for some time. Many of his films have been heralded as ingenious glimpses into the world of the Average American socially and morally displaced by war, culture, tragedy, or biting independence…or as exploitative self-aggrandizements weighed down by a dangerous and all-too-obvious liberal bias. His last few films, including a suspiciously exalting documentary about Fidel Castro, led fans and critics alike to begin heralding his decline.

A gut-wrenching and emotionally draining film that explores, as we’re told in the end, the goodness and solidarity of the American people, Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center is unrestrained in its depiction of September 11. Though there’s been a serious discussion as to whether or not Stone’s film is appropriate—is this for preservation, acclaim, glorification, ego?—it will nevertheless leave you shaken.

Much of the film’s wonder comes from the reinvention of its cast and crew. World Trade Center assumes almost no similarities to Stone’s other films, both in style and substance; there isn’t a single controversial moment. Nicolas Cage disappears into John McLoughlin rather than imbuing an authentic character with his customary traits. And while Cage, Michael Pena, and Maria Bello are brilliant, the crowning performance is Viola Davis’ fleeting role as a grief-stricken mother. Though her character has no name, her one-minute performance embodies every hard sentiment and expectant sensation associated with 9/11.

Though the film has its flaws—the flashbacks are at times a bit overdone, and some of the graphics are erroneous—Stone hasn’t offered a work this genuine for years.

by Adam Balz | Source: 35MM Theatrical Print
16 Aug 2006 12:03 AM | Submit Comment

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Scotch Tape / USA / 1962

Jack Smith’s first film, shot in 1959 on a trash-heap at the future site of Lincoln Center, is of a piece with his later work, featuring various costumed figures cavorting indiscriminately. Nonsensical in the extreme, the film is rather affectionately named after the dirty piece of adhesive that got stuck in the film gate and appears in the lower right-hand corner of the frame.

This film, along with much else, can be seen online at UbuWeb and YouTube.com.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Internet download
15 Aug 2006 2:13 PM | Submit Comment

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Collateral / USA / 2004

Here are some comments from my last viewing.

This is still an immensely enjoyable film, but one that I don’t rate as highly as other Manniacs seem to. Surely, it is the perfect marriage of the near-abstract visual style and the prevalence of smooth guys in suits that makes this film work so well, but its plot persistently tests the bounds of plausibility.

Mind you, I’m capable of superhuman suspension of disbelief and even massive self-delusion in films as well as reality, but films that hinge upon coincidence as a structuring device tend to fall flat with me. This is perhaps because they often seem to be making big, quasi-mystical stinks about fate and kismet and so. And this always annoys me, as it more often strikes me as the vain (in both senses) attemps of a filmmaker to find order in the universe through unlikely concordances of varying degrees of cleverness (hence my ardent hatred of Magnolia). Coincidence works far better in black comedy (as on television series like Curb Your Enthusiasm and One Foot in the Grave), where these fated mishaps take on the aspect of cruel, moral punishments.

Fortunately, while fate is a continuing theme of Mann’s films, coincidence is not, and one can still discern the notion that men (real men, that is) are destined to certain ends because of their characters, as they are in other Mann films, and not necessarily because of a series of wiry, wouldn’t-ya-know-it circumstances, which is the implication here.

But this minor auteuristic anomaly aside, the film falls squarely in line with Mann’s other films, almost parodying them. (Which raises the question of what Michael Mann films are not self-parody.) In particular, the film’s final sequence is essentially a retread of the matching scene in Heat, the principal difference being that having a girlfriend can be a good thing and that anal professionalism is not all it’s cracked up to be. This heartening indication of maturity (or, dare I say, “humanism”?) partly survives in Miami Vice, albeit with the parallel assertion that good guys and bad guys can’t live together.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Dreamworks SKG DVD
14 Aug 2006 2:51 PM | Comments (1)

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8 ½ / Otto e mezzo / Italy / 1963

Full review.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: The Criterion Collection DVD
14 Aug 2006 11:43 AM | Submit Comment

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Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! / USA / 1965

Full review.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: RM Films DVD
14 Aug 2006 11:29 AM | Submit Comment

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Heat / USA / 1995

An intense movie peopled by intense men doing intense things intensely. I am still hoarse from yelling Pacino’s lines back at the TV. (“Don’t waste my motherfucking time!”) From now on, “rat motherfucker” will be my go-to epithet and I’ll be bossing people around — “Let it bleed,” “Give me your shirt,” “Clean up. Go home.” — à la DeNiro.

But seriously, how did this film ever get cast? Pacino, DeNiro, Kilmer (oh, Kilmer), Voight (looking awful), Ashley Judd (looking awfuller), Wes Studi, Tom Sizemore, Natalie Portman, Hank Azaria, Jeremy Piven (better when bald), Bud Cort, Tom Noonan, Henry Rollins, and Tone Loc. Rat motherfucker, that’s a great cast.

But of course, as a star text, the film is most fascinating for its pairing of Al and Bobby. And their limited shared screen-time, for which the film is usually maligned, is the film’s secret weapon. The film is a prolonged tease that lends their flirtatious bromance the titillating air of hypermasculine scopophilia, culminating when both men reject their women, chase each other around, face off, and hold hands.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Warner Bros. DVD
11 Aug 2006 1:20 PM | Comments (3)

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Gloria / USA / 1980

I adore Gena Rowlands. Between her balls out performance and the gritty landscape of late 70s/early 80s New York (effortlessly captured by Mr. Cassavetes), this is great stuff.

by Jenny Jediny | Source: Sony Pictures DVD
11 Aug 2006 12:09 PM | Comments (2)

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In Her Shoes / USA / 2005

Unexpectedly sincere and thoughtful (although I admit, I should give more credit to director Curtis Hanson). A scene late in the film, between sisters Collette and Diaz, along with Grandmother MacLaine, is quite moving, as the trio seamlessly unravel childhood misconception and mutal pain involving the loss of their mother/daughter. The film is also very funny – the dialogue involving “My Marsha”(Oh, well my Marsha’s vagina is so perfect, it should be put in a museum!) is endlessly amusing.

by Jenny Jediny | Source: 20th Century Fox DVD
11 Aug 2006 11:58 AM | Submit Comment

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My Blue Heaven / USA / 1990

Where is Rick Moranis these days?

by Jenny Jediny | Source: VHS
11 Aug 2006 11:36 AM | Comments (1)

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InnerSpace / USA / 1987

Another effortless genre piece from Joe Dante, with Martin Short managing to be temporarily likeable, and Dennis Quaid essentially replaying Gordo Cooper from The Right Stuff. There’s too much slapstick and too little tension, but it all goes off with an appropriately loud bang.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: ITV2
10 Aug 2006 9:39 AM | Submit Comment

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Gimme Shelter / USA / 1970

A moment that sums up a generation: a man is brutally beaten by Hell’s Angels, a girl screams for a doctor, her cries largely ignored by the crowd. Losing interest, the girl looks away, laughs, forgets her worries and begins to play the penny whistle.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: BBC4
10 Aug 2006 9:38 AM | Submit Comment

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Buffy The Vampire Slayer / USA / 1992

Another Whedon screenplay that bit the dust (see X- Men and Alien Ressurection), there are brief flashes of his customary wit but overall this is dull and inappropriately bloodless stuff. Rutger Hauer and Paul Reubens look like ageing German prostitutes, Kristy Swanson looks about 35, Donald Sutherland’s accent seems to jet back and forth across the Atlantic, and the less said about Luke Perry the better. Overall, thank God for TV.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: BBC1
10 Aug 2006 9:35 AM | Comments (1)

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Under Siege / USA / 1992

“I also cook…” Steven Seagal stretches his acting muscles, playing a man with a sense of humour in this, the undoubted high point of a deservedly DTV career.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: BBC1
10 Aug 2006 9:32 AM | Submit Comment

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Tron / USA / 1982

It’s odd, but Tron’s incredible visual style, the monochrome and neon of the computer world, actually looks more impressive and influential as the years go by. The action sequences are terrific, particularly the celebrated light cycle chase. It’s just a shame the characterisation is so perfunctory.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: ITV
10 Aug 2006 9:29 AM | Submit Comment

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The ‘Burbs / USA / 1989

Red rover, red rover… A solid- gold lowbrow classic, I’ll go out on a limb and say that, with the possible exceptions of Carrie Fisher and Corey Feldman this was a career high for all involved. Tom Hanks has never been funnier or more likeable (he’s rarely either nowadays), Rick Ducommun essays the archetypal fat nerd best friend, and the whole film is steeped in painfully acute, beautifully observed ‘what’s he building in there’ suburban paranoia. Dante, like Rob Reiner, Robert Zemeckis, Sam Raimi and to a lesser extent Spielberg, was one of those directors who thrived under the strict commercial and generic restrictions of mainstream 80’s cinema, but found themselves at a loss when financial success afforded actual artistic freedom. Thankfully most of those directors have found their way back to the box office.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: ITV
10 Aug 2006 9:28 AM | Comments (6)

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The Night Listener / USA / 2006

At the risk of alienating myself further, I’d like to express my utter enjoyment with The Night Listener (sorry, Tom). Beginning with the simplistic yet eerie title sequence, the film weaves an underlying web of tension and uncertainty. The performances—Robin Williams’ being modest and sparse, Toni Collette’s being acutely haunting—drive the film, strengthened along the way by its minimalist cinematography and lingering soundtrack.

I will, however, concede that the film is too dependent on us making connections between Gabriel and Donna, connections highlighted with an air of ta-da superiority in the closing scene. The beginning could have been shorter—my friends and I spent much of the first fifteen minutes counting boom appearances (five, in case you’re curious). And, as someone who lives in the nowheres of Wisconsin, I was put off by the depiction of the secluded and sadistically loyal town-folk. Boo!

by Adam Balz | Source: 35MM Theatrical Print
08 Aug 2006 11:24 PM | Submit Comment

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The Wicker Man / UK / 1973

Full review.

I’ve been meaning to catch up with this film for years now, and I’m glad I finally did. Not only is it a fascinating film in light of contemporary Hammer horror films (and therefore much of the rest of Christopher Lee’s career), it’s also another fine screenplay from Anthony Shaffer, whose Sleuth and Frenzy both comparably excellent British thrillers.

distinguishes this film, of course, is Robin Hardy’s full immersion in the arcane rites of ancient British paganism, a study so utterly credible that the film approaches ethnography. (Its treatment of Catholicism and of British law might be a bit more hurried, but by the time one notices, the film has already entered into allegory.) Perhaps for this reason (and because of its jaunty folk soundtrack), The Wicker Man is never more than a little creepy, but its emphasis on the natural world, humanity’s natural urges, and the astounding beauty of the film’s setting lend the film a most peculiarly British sensibility that is the province of Beatrix Potter, Kenneth Grahame, and A. A. Milne obviously, but also of Ken Russell, Aleister Crowley, and Myra Hindley and Ian Brady.

With that in mind, here’s an article on the forthcoming remake of the film, starring Nic Cage. Not wishing to be one of the preemptive naysayers that LaBute bemoans, but I have to wonder what benefit can be derived from transporting the film to a wholly imaginary matriarchal commune in the Pacific Northwest.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Anchor Bay Entertainment DVD
08 Aug 2006 4:44 PM | Comments (1)

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Tristram Shandy / A Cock and Bull Story / UK / 2005

The lesser of Michael Winterbottom’s recent exercises in slapstick metaphysics, but an excellent film nonetheless, even if reprisals Nino Rota’s cherubic score had me thirsting for a vintage entertainment.

Full review.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: HBO Home Video DVD
08 Aug 2006 10:52 AM | Submit Comment

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A History of Violence / USA / 2005

And speaking of perfect thrillers, there is not a single superfluous frame in this film. My only gripe is that it’s an anomaly in Cronenberg’s career: commercial, comparatively unobscene, and formulaic. Had Tom Stall given birth to a fleshy hand gun and killed people with it, it would reside in his oeuvre nicely.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: New Line DVD
08 Aug 2006 10:43 AM | Comments (1)

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Bad Boys II / USA / 2003

This is perhaps the most indulgent action film ever made.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
08 Aug 2006 10:28 AM | Comments (1)

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subUrbi@ / USA / 1996

Dazed and Confused 2 feels nowhere near organic as its precursor, but as that film was characterized by an if it feels good do it naïveté, this is a film brimming with spite and self-loathing. Its hostility and racism is a bit contrived, but — having come from strip-mall country myself — it’s otherwise spot-on.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
08 Aug 2006 10:15 AM | Comments (2)

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The Descent / UK / 2005

Originally released overseas, this horror film from the UK has been cleansed and given a “happy” new ending for American audiences. Led to believe this was more psychological than visceral, I was disappointed when the possibility of an all-female mental breakdown, psychotic paranoia and all, was dashed by the usual horde of carnivorous, cave-dwelling monsters. There’s violence, gore, and frantic brawls that hover on ridiculousness, plus enough dyed corn syrup to transform actress Shauna Macdonald into Stephen King’s blood-soaked prom queen. The allusions to animalistic cavemen are sometimes overdone (a shot of Macdonald crouching, a bone in her hand, reeks of transparency), though those scenes tend to be the most beautiful. The Descent is enjoyable, with an ending that’s actually good, but not very scary.

Nonetheless, my mother loved it.

by Adam Balz | Source: 35MM Print
06 Aug 2006 8:10 PM | Submit Comment

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Elevator to the Gallows / Ascenseur pour l’échafaud / France / 1958

While the ironic circumstances of its thin, wiry plot may not quite add up, Malle’s feature debut will no doubt place highly on any list of the coolest films ever made. And with Jeanne Moreau moping around Paris streets in the rain to the gentle cries of Miles Davis’ trumpet, who really cares about the plot? The writing may not be as smart as the visuals (or Moreau’s cute little outfits), but it functions to propel the audience into not one, but two intertwined, ultra-tragic, and slightly pathetic stories of careless love. Sleek cars, buildings, and drizzly Paris streets match the sensual splendor of Miles’ score, as poor Jeanne strolls langorously to aching, lovelorn conclusion.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: The Criterion Collection DVD
04 Aug 2006 11:31 AM | Submit Comment

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The Dreamers / Les Innocents / France/Italy/UK / 2003

Incendiary!

by Adam Balz | Source: IFC
03 Aug 2006 4:15 PM | Submit Comment

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Unfaithfully Yours / USA / 1948

Full review.

by Jenny Jediny | Source: Criterion Collection DVD
03 Aug 2006 3:30 PM | Submit Comment

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Miami Vice / USA / 2006

If you know the TV series, you’re not going to recognize the movie…. Essentially the characters have been lifted from the series and it’s set in Miami but it’s very contemporary — more in the vein of Collateral.

- Director of Photography Dion Beebe

The last thing I would have been interested in was just doing a remake…. We’re doing Miami Vice as if there never had been a television series, doing it real.

- Michael Mann

I’m not exactly the world’s greatest detector of bullshit, but even I caught a whiff of fertilizer when Mann & co. were trying to politick their way out of an unsavory association with TV Land in the lead-up to their new film’s release. Amid an enduring fascination with the 1980’s, a slew of TV remakes with questionable popular interest, and a complete DVD and TV-syndication rerelease of the original series, why would Mann, a “serious” enough director in his own right, bother to revive his once wildly popular brainchild in name only?

And, thank Brandon Tartikoff (wherever he is), I was right.

Miami Vice is pure Miami Vice. It’s pure Michael Mann. Keening electric guitars and coolly romantic synths; palm trees and shiny skyscrapers; fast cars, boats, and planes; gratuitous, lengthy, and largely unmotivated love scenes (including not one, but two shower sequences); sinister Colombian drug-lords, oily stool pigeons, and foxy femmes fatales: it’s all here. And most importantly of all, Colin Farrell is pure Don Johnson, right down to the gruff voice, greasy hair, dirty Sanchez, and endless suit-and-wifebeater wardrobe.

I wasn’t a huge fan of Collateral, but it nonetheless revived a long-dormant fascination with the great/”great” action films of the 1980’s, when men were men, mostly hung out with other men, drove fast cars, shot each other without much thought, but nonetheless maintained an oblique code of honor. It’s not hard to attribute at least part of this fascination to a time in my life when 10 o’clock was past my bedtime and Don Johnson was an unsuitable role model.

Fortunately, for all the smoke and mirrors of modern movie marketing, Mann does very little to update his original formula. We can immediately tell the good guys from the bad guys, even if they mostly do the same types of things. Barry Shabaka Henley is just as intense a Castillo as Edward James Olmos, even if he’s unlikely to appear in a ninja outfit. The novelties are few: succinct violence; anal professionalism; no pet alligator; and an inevitably updated soundtrack.

This last point is my one bone to pick with the film (aside from the lack of flamingoes). The music is mostly fine, even great (one can hardly argue with the casting of Mogwai as Jan Hammer), but Mann all too frequently falls back on mid-tempo, mid-volume Rob Thomasesque cheeserock, especially in the clinches. (Is there no modern equivalent of hot sax?) Of course, no Miami Vice film would be complete without Phil Collins, but the payoff is sadly indirect, via a downright blasphemous cover of “In the Air Tonight” over the end credits. Say what you will about the once illustrious Brother Bear composer — Collins was at the top of his game in the ‘80’s, and the original “In the Air Tonight” epitomizes the world of Sonny and Rico, then and now: tense, chilly, violent, and dated in just the right way.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Universal Pictures 35mm print
03 Aug 2006 12:52 PM | Comments (2)

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The Village / USA / 2004

I learn my Shyamalan lesson, part deux. But it isn’t terrible, certainly nowhere near the debacle of Lady in the Water. The Village essentially felt like an extended episode of The Twilight Zone (although a work colleague compared it to Teenage Cave Man, a Corman film I am unfamiliar with). The film looks gorgeous, and I’m intrigued at the idea of a thriller set during the Colonial (?) era, but, in the Shyamalan style of late, it ultimately disappoints.

by Jenny Jediny | Source: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone DVD
02 Aug 2006 4:50 PM | Comments (10)

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Lady in the Water / USA / 2006

Terrible. I offer no sympathy to M. Night, who not only expects his audience to accept this drivel ridden fantasy, but also his self-serving performance in the film. Portraying a troubled writer, Night is told his “novel” will cause debate, but also greatly influence future generations…gee, what could he be insinuating here…this transparent, uninspired, and rather pathetic metaphor was only one of the numerous things wrong with this film. I found his pretension most insulting, along with his cliched and semi-racist supporting characters. Actually I do have sympathy, but only for his children, who suffered through this as a bedtime story. Good grief.

by Jenny Jediny | Source: 35MM Theatrical Print
02 Aug 2006 4:32 PM | Comments (1)

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Pumping Iron II: The Women / USA / 1985

Sure, it lacks a central character as compelling as Schwarzenegger (most films do), but Pumping Iron’s feminine counterpart makes up for it with funky music, George Plimpton, and head-spinning gender quandaries. A meditation on the nature of femininity amongst a group of fully expanded female bodybuilders, the film is, depending on how you look at it, an immensely campy product of the 1980’s or a sly commentary on them.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Central Park Media VHS
02 Aug 2006 4:31 PM | Submit Comment

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Louisiana Story / USA / 1948

One can hardly say it better than Matt Bailey: “Louisiana Story is, strangely enough, Flaherty’s most beautiful work and yet his most awful.”

The shimmering bayou images, shot by a young Ricky Leacock and scored with some epic Americana by Virgil Thomson, are enough to recommend this film very highly, but the ludicrous dialogue scenes and the film’s more than dubious status as a PSA for Standard Oil make the film a chore to watch. Still, with your scan button at the ready, this is among the most beautiful films ever made. And it would make a hell of a double feature with Bambi.

Full Review.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Home Video Entertainment DVD
02 Aug 2006 4:21 PM | Submit Comment

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Caché / Hidden / France / Austria / Germany / Italy / 2005

Every time I watch this film it has me physically and mentally reeling for days. But oddly I never have much that I want to vocalize or write about it. On the one hand, this is because I’m loathe to reveal even the slightest detail to those who haven’t seen the film (so stop reading, you); and on the other hand, it’s because I find the film so perfect, almost clinically so, in its form, philosophy, and ontology that it barely needs commentary. This won’t stop others from endless (and largely pointless, in my opinion) whodunit conjecture, attempting to find a physically or psychologically realist interpretation of the film, or attempts to extrapolate an anti-American moral from the film’s more contemporary subject matter. But this is the mark of a film, like the very best of Hitchcock, that marries both high- and low-brows in the compulsively watchable format of the thriller, complete with pitch-black humor and a playful back-and-forth between empathy and the deepest cynicism.

What’s most surprising from the DVD release is that Haneke, who answered one out of every five questions at last year’s New York Film Festival, is positively chatty in the DVD extras. Of course, most of what he explains is that there is nothing to explain.

Full review.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Sony Pictures DVD
02 Aug 2006 4:07 PM | Submit Comment

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Miami Vice / USA / 2006

Zero chemistry between Gong Li and Colin Farrell (this does matter – as their relationship is central to the film’s plot), but otherwise an impeccable Michael Mann thriller.

by Beth Gilligan | Source: Digital Projection
02 Aug 2006 1:51 PM | Comments (1)

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A Scanner Darkly / USA / 2006

Though I’m not familiar with Dick’s novel, based on the few of his stories I have read, I assume Linklater’s film is far more cohesive than the author originally intended his narrative to be. However, sacrifices must be made for adaptation and – as its own work – the film faultlessly captures the casual paranoia and everyday logic of drug-addiction, aided considerably by Linklater’s advancement in rotoscoping imagery. Linklater is often labelled as a pretentious or immature filmmaker, but his latest examination of the politics of addiction is quite mature in its scope, intimacy, and familiarity (partially due to the cast he has assembled). The most lasting image for me is of Fred’s fatigued face slumped over while in the scramble suit after his realization that his concept of reality can no longer be trusted as he has been sacrificed by bureaucracy. While his expression remains fixed, his visage constantly shifts between numerous faces of seemingly ordinary people. It’s a marvellous method to capture the various faces of addiction and the dehumanizing effects of both political and corporate administration, which shows no mercy in achieving their goals. However, I’m pretty sure I’m alone in thinking that Robert Downey Jr. is getting far too much credit for essentially repeating the same performance in a multitude of films. He’s certainly excellent at what he does, but Downey Jr. isn’t exactly displaying his acting range in this performance.

by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Warner Independent Pictures 35mm Print
01 Aug 2006 2:15 PM | Submit Comment

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Miami Vice / USA / 2006

I have a feeling that reaction to Michael Mann’s latest film is going to be fairly severe in both directions and will somewhat polarize his fan-base. The film doesn’t feature Mann’s characteristic disquieting existential queries, but it still exudes his fascination with masculine performance. If nothing else, the film is a prototype of the professional execution that Mann constantly attempts to capture. A few audience members became very restless at Mann’s decision to delay his action (apparently they were unfamiliar with Mann’s previous work), but as is the case with a Mann film when the breaking-point comes the action-scenes are flawless, proficient, and efficient. While Foxx is always natural under Mann’s watch, the director is also able to make Farrell’s personality finally feel comfortable within his film, which appears to be difficult for many other filmmakers, and he assembles an equally adept supporting cast, including John Hawkes, Domenick Lombardozzi, Justin Theroux, John Ortiz, and Elizabeth Rodriguez (who might have the best piece of dialogue I’ve heard this summer). The one thing that seems certain is that Gong Li is just as gorgeous in digital as she is on film.

by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Universal Pictures 35mm Print
01 Aug 2006 1:31 PM | Comments (5)

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Dave Chappelle’s Block Party / USA / 2005

Full review.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
01 Aug 2006 10:13 AM | Submit Comment

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The Movie Movie (An Excerpt) / USA / 2006

This is Donald Trump’s astute evaluation of Citizen Kane, drawn from his own experience as millionaire. Excerpted from Errol Morris’ incomplete The Movie Movie, and may be viewed in full here.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Wholphin No. 2
01 Aug 2006 10:12 AM | Comments (3)

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Building No. 7 / USA / 2006

This four-minute, sporadically coherent contribution from Stephen Soderbergh delayed the publication of Wholphin’s second issue by over a month.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Wholphin No. 2
01 Aug 2006 10:10 AM | Submit Comment

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Born Like Stars / USA / 2006

Rather hypnotic footage of squids being born.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Wholphin No. 2
01 Aug 2006 10:10 AM | Submit Comment

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More / USA / 1998

A popular favorite on iFilm, More is an epic stop-motion short film, available for purchase — and viewable — here.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Wholphin No. 2
01 Aug 2006 10:08 AM | Submit Comment

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Sleepaway Camp / USA / 1983

I am scolded for my persistence in deeming the ending of Sleepaway Camp one of the most durably frightening images in film. Granted, the entire enterprise is predictable, and the acting is often so poor that the film may not be endearingly campy to some, but this is still the best slasher film I’ve ever seen, and a unique one in its characterization and how deftly it ballasts adolescent hijinks with the increasingly sinister actions of its killer.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: 35mm print
01 Aug 2006 10:06 AM | Submit Comment

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The Hills Have Eyes / USA / 2006

The Hills Have Eyes is a celebration of violence, and to this end it’s an entertaining venture, at least in predicting how each subsequent victim is offed. But I find it subversively offensive in how casually the survivalists are transformed into killers—they seem not only eager, but excited to bestow violence upon the hillbillys that have harmed their family. There’s lots of bloodshed, but no trepidation or regret on either side of the conflict.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
01 Aug 2006 10:04 AM | Submit Comment

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The Thin Red Line / USA / 1998

Time has not been kind to Terrence Malick’s third film, which, upon seeing it the weekend it opened, I had considered one of the best films I’d seen since his second film. It now feels like an overdone showcase of A-list talent, specifically Nick Nolte’s voracious impression of Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now. And there’s an air of tragic romance that feels forced in comparison to the more organic and ethereal The New World.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
01 Aug 2006 9:59 AM | Submit Comment

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