Bret Easton Ellis profiles Quentin Tarantino
That's all.
Inside the bizarre world of Terence Trent D'Arby
Remember that guy who sang Wishing Well, that late-80s earworm with the whistling chorus? That's Terence Trent D'Arby. He died when he was 27. And he's alive. And his new name is Sananda Maitreya. And his new record is called Rise of the Zugebrian Time Lords. He also says things like “I’m very confident that my first son is my biological father and it
gives me the chance to finally have a relationship with him. My first
son is also a continuation of the life that I left behind.”
HELLO WEEKEND! Get pumped up by watching this high-octane live version of MC5's "Kick Out the Jams".
Then contrast with this sludgy version
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Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Saturday, October 17, 2015
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Why Hollywood is Struggling
"Let's look ahead to what's on the menu for [Hollywood] this year: four adaptations of comic books. One prequel to an adaptation of a comic book. One sequel to a sequel to a movie based on a toy. One sequel to a sequel to a sequel to a movie based on an amusement-park ride. One prequel to a remake. Two sequels to cartoons. One sequel to a comedy. An adaptation of a children's book. An adaptation of a Saturday-morning cartoon. One sequel with a 4 in the title. Two sequels with a 5 in the title. One sequel that, if it were inclined to use numbers, would have to have a 7 1/2 in the title.
...Now, to be fair, in modern Hollywood, it usually takes two years, not one, for an idea [like the breakaway sleeper hit Inception] to make its way through the alimentary canal of the system and onto multiplex screens, so we should really be looking at summer 2012 to see the fruit of [Inception director Christopher] Nolan's success. So here's what's on tap two summers from now: an adaptation of a comic book. A reboot of an adaptation of a comic book. A sequel to a sequel to an adaptation of a comic book. A sequel to a reboot of an adaptation of a TV show. A sequel to a sequel to a reboot of an adaptation of a comic book. A sequel to a cartoon. A sequel to a sequel to a cartoon. A sequel to a sequel to a sequel to a cartoon. A sequel to a sequel to a sequel to a sequel to a movie based on a young-adult novel. And soon after: Stretch Armstrong.
Read the entire article here. (and find a list of all the movies described above)
...Now, to be fair, in modern Hollywood, it usually takes two years, not one, for an idea [like the breakaway sleeper hit Inception] to make its way through the alimentary canal of the system and onto multiplex screens, so we should really be looking at summer 2012 to see the fruit of [Inception director Christopher] Nolan's success. So here's what's on tap two summers from now: an adaptation of a comic book. A reboot of an adaptation of a comic book. A sequel to a sequel to an adaptation of a comic book. A sequel to a reboot of an adaptation of a TV show. A sequel to a sequel to a reboot of an adaptation of a comic book. A sequel to a cartoon. A sequel to a sequel to a cartoon. A sequel to a sequel to a sequel to a cartoon. A sequel to a sequel to a sequel to a sequel to a movie based on a young-adult novel. And soon after: Stretch Armstrong.
Read the entire article here. (and find a list of all the movies described above)
Monday, February 14, 2011
Romantic Comedies are Warping Children's Minds
Hollywood’s romantic comedies aren’t just innocuous cinematic tripe. They’re actually warping children’s minds (pdf), according to new research from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. The films, including Notting Hill and You’ve Got Mail are skewed portrayals of relationships with “both highly idealistic and undesirable qualities,” the researchers write, where romantic problems or transgressions “have no real negative long-term impact on relationship functioning.” The films tend to focus on the early stages of relationships, but the characters displayed emotions that generally develop over time, including deep feelings of love and emotional support. Adolescents sometimes use these films as models for their own relationships, which could lead to unrealistic expectations and disappointment.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
From Ace Ventura to Desmond Tutu
Once the most celebrated comedy director in the business, having made a fortune with hits like “The Nutty Professor,” “Liar Liar” and “Bruce Almighty,” [Tom] Shadyac is now a Hollywood dropout.
Now 51, he hasn’t made a feature film since “Evan Almighty” in 2007. He sold a 17,000-square-foot mansion in Pasadena and moved into a trailer park in north Malibu. He’s been giving away most of his money and was well on his way to shedding his possessions several years ago when he took a serious fall while bicycling in Virginia, breaking his hand and suffering a concussion.
The hand healed, but Shadyac ended up with a nasty case of post-concussion syndrome, an ailment common among professional athletes that can cause depression, disorientation and has even prompted some victims to commit suicide.
It took Shadyac months to recover. When I visited him Friday at his trailer park home, he pointed to a closet in his tiny bedroom. “That’s where I would sleep a lot of the time,” he says. “Everything felt too loud and too bright because my brain had lost the ability to filter things out.”
When Shadyac finally returned to health, he decided that he needed to make a film that could explore why today’s culture is so obsessed with competition and separation instead of community and cooperation. Due in theaters early next year, “I Am” features interviews with all sorts of wise men and women, including well-known cultural figures such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the late historian Howard Zinn as well as lesser-known scientists, poets and evolutionary biologists.
They all grapple with Shadyac’s central theme, puzzling over why man is often more competitive than cooperative, more aggressive than empathetic — in other words more like Donald Trump than like Gandhi.
Read the entire LA Times article here.
Now 51, he hasn’t made a feature film since “Evan Almighty” in 2007. He sold a 17,000-square-foot mansion in Pasadena and moved into a trailer park in north Malibu. He’s been giving away most of his money and was well on his way to shedding his possessions several years ago when he took a serious fall while bicycling in Virginia, breaking his hand and suffering a concussion.
The hand healed, but Shadyac ended up with a nasty case of post-concussion syndrome, an ailment common among professional athletes that can cause depression, disorientation and has even prompted some victims to commit suicide.
It took Shadyac months to recover. When I visited him Friday at his trailer park home, he pointed to a closet in his tiny bedroom. “That’s where I would sleep a lot of the time,” he says. “Everything felt too loud and too bright because my brain had lost the ability to filter things out.”
When Shadyac finally returned to health, he decided that he needed to make a film that could explore why today’s culture is so obsessed with competition and separation instead of community and cooperation. Due in theaters early next year, “I Am” features interviews with all sorts of wise men and women, including well-known cultural figures such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the late historian Howard Zinn as well as lesser-known scientists, poets and evolutionary biologists.
They all grapple with Shadyac’s central theme, puzzling over why man is often more competitive than cooperative, more aggressive than empathetic — in other words more like Donald Trump than like Gandhi.
Read the entire LA Times article here.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Review of "Scott Walker: 30th Century Man"
The trailer for the documentary Scott Walker: 30 Century Man
makes it look like a mystery: why did Scott Walker stop making records at the height of his fame? Watch the trailer to see for yourself:
But that's only a small part of the movie. Much of the second half shows Walker's output since 1984, which is a slow procession of progressively more avant-garde music. You know, the type where percussionists punch a side of beef. Where a producer says, "Much of the last year has been taken up looking for the perfect donkey sound."
While I'm no fan of this music, or of this type of music, many people are, and this can be seen by the film's interviews, which have a decidedly English focus: David Bowie (who is also executive producer of the film), Sting, Radiohead, Brian Eno, Jarvis Cocker, Johnny Marr, and others lavish praise on Walker and his music.
As a film it's mediocre. Most of the visuals are talking heads (in one montage, it shows his famous fans' faces while they listen to Walker's records), including many interviews with Walker himself in the modern day, which was a big surprise because, again, this movie was supposed to be about a mysterious recluse. The film also includes much of his music. The early clips show Walker as a young crooning mod, but the visuals accompanying the later experimental songs look like the visualization function on Windows Media Player.
I didn't know about Walker before the film, but I have a pretty good grasp of his career now, so in that sense, the film is a success. However, unlike the way I felt after watching Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)?
, I can't say I'm a fan now of either his early pop output or his later atonal output. But I do feel a little more respect for the modern "noise" music purveyed by the likes of Eno.
makes it look like a mystery: why did Scott Walker stop making records at the height of his fame? Watch the trailer to see for yourself:But that's only a small part of the movie. Much of the second half shows Walker's output since 1984, which is a slow procession of progressively more avant-garde music. You know, the type where percussionists punch a side of beef. Where a producer says, "Much of the last year has been taken up looking for the perfect donkey sound."
While I'm no fan of this music, or of this type of music, many people are, and this can be seen by the film's interviews, which have a decidedly English focus: David Bowie (who is also executive producer of the film), Sting, Radiohead, Brian Eno, Jarvis Cocker, Johnny Marr, and others lavish praise on Walker and his music.
As a film it's mediocre. Most of the visuals are talking heads (in one montage, it shows his famous fans' faces while they listen to Walker's records), including many interviews with Walker himself in the modern day, which was a big surprise because, again, this movie was supposed to be about a mysterious recluse. The film also includes much of his music. The early clips show Walker as a young crooning mod, but the visuals accompanying the later experimental songs look like the visualization function on Windows Media Player.
I didn't know about Walker before the film, but I have a pretty good grasp of his career now, so in that sense, the film is a success. However, unlike the way I felt after watching Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)?
, I can't say I'm a fan now of either his early pop output or his later atonal output. But I do feel a little more respect for the modern "noise" music purveyed by the likes of Eno.
Saturday, December 04, 2010
Amazing Final Shot
I have always been curious how Mike Leigh got this amazing final shot in Happy-Go-Lucky. The filmmakers appear to have used a boat for a tracking shot, then somehow, in the middle of the lake, moved the camera onto a crane. It's pretty amazing. I have looked for it all over the web and never found it, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I checked out the DVD from the library today and uploaded it here so you can all share in its excellence. Enjoy.
I highly recommend Happy-Go-Lucky
.
I highly recommend Happy-Go-Lucky
.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Groundhog Day gets its due
I consider Groundhog Day a classic movie (I have its movie poster on my TV room wall), and most people to whom I say that look at me like I'm crazy. However, author and professor Stanley Fish agrees with me, and he summarizes my reasons eloquently. He put Groundhog Day in his top ten American movies of all time. It's great to see this movie getting the due I've always thought it deserves.
Groundhog Day (1993), directed by Harold Ramis. Another Pygmalion story, but this time the material the sculptor works on is himself. Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is a jaded, dyspeptic, arrogant, cynical and obnoxious TV weatherman who on Feb. 2 finds himself covering the emergence of the groundhog in Puxatawney, Pa. When he wakes up the next morning, he finds that it is not the next morning, but Groundhog Day all over again and all over again and all over again. (His own spring will be late.)
His responses to being trapped eternally in the same day include disbelief, despair, excess and hedonism before he settles down to make the best of the situation, which, it turns out, means making the best of himself — a self-help project that takes forever, but forever is what he has. (It is as if he were at once the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future and the object of their tutelary attention.). By bits and pieces, fits and starts, he makes himself into the most popular fellow in town and wins the love of his producer, the beautiful Rita (a perfectly cast Andie MacDowell). The miracle is that as the movie becomes more serious, it becomes funnier. The comedy and the philosophy (how shall one live?) do not sit side by side, but inhabit each other in a unity that is incredibly satisfying. This is a “feel-good” movie in at least two senses of the word “good.”
See the other nine movies here.
Friday, January 02, 2009
Religulous online
FYI, the full Bill Maher documentary "Religulous" can be found on the Google video site, either for streaming or for download to an iPod. I watched it last night. It has its moments, but it gets a little bogged down at the end. It's good for some great laughs, though.
The link can be found here.
The link can be found here.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Best Movies of the Year (sort of)
This is a list of the best movies I watched this year. That does not mean these films were released in 2008; it just means I saw them for the first time in 2008. Obviously I had a hard time narrowing the list down, so I created a criterion in my head. I asked myself, "What movies I watched this year am I most eager to watch again?" Here's the list, with a link to each movie's page at Rotten Tomatoes, and its "freshness" score in parentheses...
1. Synecdoche, New York: (rated 63% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes) I was explaining to someone that this movie is the opposite of what most classically created dramas are. A classical drama is not over, as Chekov once famously said, until the gun hanging over the mantel in the first act is fired in the third. That is to say, everything connects in the plot, nothing is extraneous, and everything is sort of symmetrical. SNY is the opposite. It has "guns" hanging in hidden corners in every scene. Sometimes they get fired, sometimes they turn into other guns, sometimes they're not real guns. Confusing, I know, but this film deals in possibilities, shooting out ideas that might not ever go anywhere, so it ends up being an untidy mess that embodies essentially what it means to grow old. It is a hard movie to like, especially as you watch it, because it induces so many cringes, but it tried to say something difficult and true.
Another way I explained it to a student is this: There are three types of movies. The first, and by far the most common, is one that shows the world as we wish it were. These are movies with unrealistic heroes, implausibly coincidental love stories--pure escapism. The second is one that shows the way the world is--gritty reality like "Traffic" and "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days." These movies serve a sort of social purpose, like the realist's novels at the turn of the last century. The last type, and my favorite type, is the one that shows the way we fear the world might be. Dystopian. Depressing. Empty. Movies like "Requiem for a Dream" and "Welcome to the Dollhouse." These movies are rare, because they are hard to watch. I don't know why, but I love them, and SNY might be the best of this type of movie. Writer-director Charlie Kaufman plumbed the depths of his fears and neuroses, and made a movie that dared us to tell ourselves we are not like him.
2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: (93%) I saw this movie at the Magic Lantern with my friend Mark, and I loved it so much I couldn't wait to watch it again on DVD with my family. It is the best kind of inspirational movie. The inspiration is real, and it is earned. It does not tell us that "life is what you make it"--that's something for the Hallmark channel to tell us. It tells us that "when life makes you a shit sandwich, you don't have to choke on it when you eat it." That's true inspiration in my book. It tells the story of a lout who has a stroke and wakes up to find he can only move his left eye. After self pity and anger, he takes pains to learn a type of Morse code to dictate messages and, eventually, a book. It's based on a true story, and the inspiration, though not complete, is earned.
3. Lawrence of Arabia: (98%)This movie is almost four hours long, so I can be somewhat forgiven if it took me so long to finally watch it. I figured that I had to take my medicine and watch this "classic" (defined by Mark Twain as a work that everybody praises and nobody reads [or in this case, watches]), and was suprised by how clear and compelling the story is. The highlight of the film, though, is the beautiful cinematography. It might be the best visual film in history, and it's fun to watch too.
4. The Visitor: (92%) A student of mine suggested this film to me, and it sounded pretty cheesy. But something in the way he insistently said I needed to watch it made me look it up on Netflix. In an odd coincidence, the first thing that came up on the screen was a recommendation that I watch..."The Visitor". Then I saw it was directed by the same guy who directed "The Station Agent," a great movie, so I moved it to the top of my queue. The story of a college professor who learns to feel again almost tips over to melodrama at times, but the savvy editing and the masterful performance by Richard Jenkins make this a complex film with emotional depth.
5. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days: (97%) The story itself is pretty simple--a Romanian woman tries to get an abortion--but the complexity of the characters, and the boldness of the filmmaking, elevate this movie. The director has learned from Jim Jarmusch how to hold a shot for a long time, but he has done Jim one better: while the camera lingers, characters change, grow and, in one memorable shot, almost go insane. Like all the movies listed above, this is one I need to see again to get its full genius.
6. Lake of Fire: (94%) It's a coincidence that this film, like the last one, is about abortion, but this one is a documentary. It is shot in silvery black and white by the director of "American History X," and it tries to clearly illuminate both sides of the abortion debate. It shows wackos, but it also shows families of slain abortion doctors. Just when viewers think that abortion is a matter of choice, it shows a tiny arm in a steel pail as a doctor cleans up after an abortion. The final 20 minutes, following a woman from the time she enters an abortion clinic until she leaves, is some of the most compelling cinema in history. It's hard to watch, but it should be required viewing for anyone who thinks they have this debate figured out.
7. The Celebration: (91%) This film is odd and vibrant and funny and ultimately sad, but it is one of the most interesting films to come out of the Dogme 95 movement. It was one of those films Karyn and I started late at night, thinking we'd watch an hour, go to bed, then finish later, but the film was so good we had to finish (to the detriment of a good night's sleep). BTW, the last movie to do that to us was Zodiac.
8. The Darjeeling Limited: (67%) I have been unimpressed by every Wes Anderson movie except Rushmore and Tenenbaums, but this movie was the real deal. It was beautifully shot, as are all Anderson movies, but this time the story about three brothers on a quest to find their mother had heart.
9. Eat Drink Man Woman: (95%) Ang Lee has become such a great director, I had to go back to find this movie he directed in his native tongue, Chinese. It was a delightful and lighthearted film about a father and his three daughters. Touching and sweet, the film also sported some of the most wonderful scenes of eating and cooking in the history of cinema. If the opening scene doesn't make you hungry, you just ate.
10. King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters: (97%) I didn't appreciate this film the first time I saw it, but I showed it again for my film class, and I came to appreciate the oldschool good guy/bad guy storyline. Rarely in a documentary will you find a villian like Billy Mitchell or a hero like Steve Wiebe. It's as much fun as a movie can be.
Pleasant Surprises: Movies I liked more than I expected to.
In Bruges (81%)
Ghost Town (84%)
Once (97%)
Sweeney Todd (86%)
1. Synecdoche, New York: (rated 63% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes) I was explaining to someone that this movie is the opposite of what most classically created dramas are. A classical drama is not over, as Chekov once famously said, until the gun hanging over the mantel in the first act is fired in the third. That is to say, everything connects in the plot, nothing is extraneous, and everything is sort of symmetrical. SNY is the opposite. It has "guns" hanging in hidden corners in every scene. Sometimes they get fired, sometimes they turn into other guns, sometimes they're not real guns. Confusing, I know, but this film deals in possibilities, shooting out ideas that might not ever go anywhere, so it ends up being an untidy mess that embodies essentially what it means to grow old. It is a hard movie to like, especially as you watch it, because it induces so many cringes, but it tried to say something difficult and true.
Another way I explained it to a student is this: There are three types of movies. The first, and by far the most common, is one that shows the world as we wish it were. These are movies with unrealistic heroes, implausibly coincidental love stories--pure escapism. The second is one that shows the way the world is--gritty reality like "Traffic" and "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days." These movies serve a sort of social purpose, like the realist's novels at the turn of the last century. The last type, and my favorite type, is the one that shows the way we fear the world might be. Dystopian. Depressing. Empty. Movies like "Requiem for a Dream" and "Welcome to the Dollhouse." These movies are rare, because they are hard to watch. I don't know why, but I love them, and SNY might be the best of this type of movie. Writer-director Charlie Kaufman plumbed the depths of his fears and neuroses, and made a movie that dared us to tell ourselves we are not like him.
2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: (93%) I saw this movie at the Magic Lantern with my friend Mark, and I loved it so much I couldn't wait to watch it again on DVD with my family. It is the best kind of inspirational movie. The inspiration is real, and it is earned. It does not tell us that "life is what you make it"--that's something for the Hallmark channel to tell us. It tells us that "when life makes you a shit sandwich, you don't have to choke on it when you eat it." That's true inspiration in my book. It tells the story of a lout who has a stroke and wakes up to find he can only move his left eye. After self pity and anger, he takes pains to learn a type of Morse code to dictate messages and, eventually, a book. It's based on a true story, and the inspiration, though not complete, is earned.
3. Lawrence of Arabia: (98%)This movie is almost four hours long, so I can be somewhat forgiven if it took me so long to finally watch it. I figured that I had to take my medicine and watch this "classic" (defined by Mark Twain as a work that everybody praises and nobody reads [or in this case, watches]), and was suprised by how clear and compelling the story is. The highlight of the film, though, is the beautiful cinematography. It might be the best visual film in history, and it's fun to watch too.
4. The Visitor: (92%) A student of mine suggested this film to me, and it sounded pretty cheesy. But something in the way he insistently said I needed to watch it made me look it up on Netflix. In an odd coincidence, the first thing that came up on the screen was a recommendation that I watch..."The Visitor". Then I saw it was directed by the same guy who directed "The Station Agent," a great movie, so I moved it to the top of my queue. The story of a college professor who learns to feel again almost tips over to melodrama at times, but the savvy editing and the masterful performance by Richard Jenkins make this a complex film with emotional depth.
5. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days: (97%) The story itself is pretty simple--a Romanian woman tries to get an abortion--but the complexity of the characters, and the boldness of the filmmaking, elevate this movie. The director has learned from Jim Jarmusch how to hold a shot for a long time, but he has done Jim one better: while the camera lingers, characters change, grow and, in one memorable shot, almost go insane. Like all the movies listed above, this is one I need to see again to get its full genius.
6. Lake of Fire: (94%) It's a coincidence that this film, like the last one, is about abortion, but this one is a documentary. It is shot in silvery black and white by the director of "American History X," and it tries to clearly illuminate both sides of the abortion debate. It shows wackos, but it also shows families of slain abortion doctors. Just when viewers think that abortion is a matter of choice, it shows a tiny arm in a steel pail as a doctor cleans up after an abortion. The final 20 minutes, following a woman from the time she enters an abortion clinic until she leaves, is some of the most compelling cinema in history. It's hard to watch, but it should be required viewing for anyone who thinks they have this debate figured out.
7. The Celebration: (91%) This film is odd and vibrant and funny and ultimately sad, but it is one of the most interesting films to come out of the Dogme 95 movement. It was one of those films Karyn and I started late at night, thinking we'd watch an hour, go to bed, then finish later, but the film was so good we had to finish (to the detriment of a good night's sleep). BTW, the last movie to do that to us was Zodiac.
8. The Darjeeling Limited: (67%) I have been unimpressed by every Wes Anderson movie except Rushmore and Tenenbaums, but this movie was the real deal. It was beautifully shot, as are all Anderson movies, but this time the story about three brothers on a quest to find their mother had heart.
9. Eat Drink Man Woman: (95%) Ang Lee has become such a great director, I had to go back to find this movie he directed in his native tongue, Chinese. It was a delightful and lighthearted film about a father and his three daughters. Touching and sweet, the film also sported some of the most wonderful scenes of eating and cooking in the history of cinema. If the opening scene doesn't make you hungry, you just ate.
10. King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters: (97%) I didn't appreciate this film the first time I saw it, but I showed it again for my film class, and I came to appreciate the oldschool good guy/bad guy storyline. Rarely in a documentary will you find a villian like Billy Mitchell or a hero like Steve Wiebe. It's as much fun as a movie can be.
Pleasant Surprises: Movies I liked more than I expected to.
In Bruges (81%)
Ghost Town (84%)
Once (97%)
Sweeney Todd (86%)
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
New York Magazine's David Edelstein's Best Films of 2008
Edelstein is one of the most well-respected critics in the country, and his list is unlike many other year-end lists.
1. Rachel Getting Married: OK, OK, I'll see this movie...gosh...
2. Wall-E: yawn...
3. Happy-Go-Lucky: a happy movie from Mike Leigh...who knew?
4. Cadillac Records: starring the always good Jeffrey Wright as the bluesman Muddy Waters.
5. The Class: a film about a French high school, filmed in a realistic style. It did very well at Cannes.
6. Kit Kittredge: An American Girl: a film based on the American Girl doll series...but Ebert liked it too. I think I'll pass.
7. Waltz With Bashir: an animated film (for adults) about Israel's war in Lebanon.
8. Shotgun Stories: a small independent film that seems to split viewers--the detractors say it is sssslllllooooowwww.
9. Doubt: previews look a little overwrought, but reviews have been good.
10. Trouble the Water: a doc about Hurricane Katrina
See a slideshow of these movies here.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Everything I Needed to Know About Foreign Policy, I Learned from "The Godfather"
IT IS ONE of the most well-known scenes in cinematic history. Don Vito Corleone, head of the most powerful of New York’s organized-crime families, walks alone across the street from his office to buy some oranges from the fruit stand. He mumbles pleasantly to the Chinese owner, then turns his attention to the task at hand. However, his peaceful idyll is shattered by the sounds of running feet and multiple gunshots—and he is left bleeding to death in the street, as his son Fredo cradles his body.
By a miracle, he is not dead, only gravely wounded. His two other sons, Santino (Sonny) and Michael, as well as his consigliere, Tom Hagen, an adopted son himself, gather in an atmosphere of shock and panic to try to decide what to do next—and how to respond to the attempted assassination of the don by Virgil “the Turk” Sollozzo. This, of course, is the hinge of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, one of the greatest movies ever produced by American cinema. However, given the present changes in the world’s power structure, the movie also becomes a startlingly useful metaphor for the strategic problems of our times.
The aging Vito Corleone, emblematic of cold-war American power, is struck down suddenly and violently by forces he did not expect and does not understand, much as America was on September 11. Even more intriguingly, each of his three “heirs” embraces a very different vision of how the family should move forward following this wrenching moment. Tom Hagen, Sonny and Michael approximate the three American foreign-policy schools of thought—liberal institutionalism, neoconservatism and realism—vying for control in today’s disarranged world order.
Read here how following Michael Corleone's example can lead America back to world prominence (if not dominance).
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Art Cannot Be Factored Out
I was listening to a podcast discussing Harold Pinter’s plays (none of which I’ve never seen) and the author of an article on Pinter noted that, when Pinter was an actor, he got tired of all the stories where everything “factored out” at the end. The author used this term twice, and the second time he used it, I started thinking about what that meant.
In context, it seemed to be a mathematical statement. For instance, let’s take the algebraic equation 2x + 4=6x. We can solve for x. X equals 1. We have taken a somewhat complex equation and made it simple. No loose ends. No complexity. Simplicity. An answer. I think the author is referring to this type of process when he refers to a story being factored out at the end.
What has occurred in these processes, both dramatical and mathematical, is taking complexity and reducing it to simplicity. This is an apt metaphor for the type of “drama” I am accused of being snobbish about. When people accuse me of being a movie snob, it is because I am not entertained by or interested in films that factor out the complexity of life. Can we truly resolve every dramatic situation with an answer and a lesson?
I love art that highlights complexities. A favorite example is the film “In the Bedroom.” In this movie, in sum, a young man is killed by his girlfriend’s ex-husband, and the parents of the slain man attempt to live with the sorrow, even while the murderer roams free in the town after being released from jail. As the parents’ marriage unravels, the wife convinces the husband to kill the murderer. He does so. In the final scene, as he comes home after the murder in the blue light of dawn, he lays down in bed. His wife, showing a peace she hasn’t shown since before the murder, offers to get him a cup of coffee and gets up to make it. As she leaves, he lays in bed, staring at the ceiling, his life changed forever.
This is complex. The final murder has given the wife peace that it has not given the husband. The story is not over. All we have done is closed one chapter, and we can assume that more problems come in the future. We do not have a happily ever after. We do not have a full resolution. We only have a partial resolution that may lead to greater understanding of real complexities. That is life. And that is what drama should illuminate. All the rest, all that can be factored out to x=1, is fairy tale.
In context, it seemed to be a mathematical statement. For instance, let’s take the algebraic equation 2x + 4=6x. We can solve for x. X equals 1. We have taken a somewhat complex equation and made it simple. No loose ends. No complexity. Simplicity. An answer. I think the author is referring to this type of process when he refers to a story being factored out at the end.
What has occurred in these processes, both dramatical and mathematical, is taking complexity and reducing it to simplicity. This is an apt metaphor for the type of “drama” I am accused of being snobbish about. When people accuse me of being a movie snob, it is because I am not entertained by or interested in films that factor out the complexity of life. Can we truly resolve every dramatic situation with an answer and a lesson?
I love art that highlights complexities. A favorite example is the film “In the Bedroom.” In this movie, in sum, a young man is killed by his girlfriend’s ex-husband, and the parents of the slain man attempt to live with the sorrow, even while the murderer roams free in the town after being released from jail. As the parents’ marriage unravels, the wife convinces the husband to kill the murderer. He does so. In the final scene, as he comes home after the murder in the blue light of dawn, he lays down in bed. His wife, showing a peace she hasn’t shown since before the murder, offers to get him a cup of coffee and gets up to make it. As she leaves, he lays in bed, staring at the ceiling, his life changed forever.
This is complex. The final murder has given the wife peace that it has not given the husband. The story is not over. All we have done is closed one chapter, and we can assume that more problems come in the future. We do not have a happily ever after. We do not have a full resolution. We only have a partial resolution that may lead to greater understanding of real complexities. That is life. And that is what drama should illuminate. All the rest, all that can be factored out to x=1, is fairy tale.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Movies about teenagers
I teach a high school film class, and I am toying with the idea of organizing fall semester around movies depicting teens, all the way from the 50s to the present.
My theory will be to examine the concept of adolescence as it has evolved in film depictions over the last 60 years, and also to attempt to encompass many sides of the adolescent experience: love, school, home, drugs, achievement, race, gender, sexuality, popularity, etc.
I have compiled a list of films that deal with adolescence in an interesting way, but I am hoping to get some more good ones. Look at this list and add any suggestions in the comments. The list is in chronological order.
The Wild One 54
Rebel Without a Cause 55
The Blackboard Jungle 55
Splendor in the Grass 61
To Sir With Love 67
High School 68
The Last Picture Show 71
American Graffiti 73
Carrie 76
Grease 78
The Warriors 79
Over the Edge 79
The Outsiders 83
Sixteen Candles 84
Repo Man 84
The Breakfast Club 85
Back to the Future 85
Peggy Sue Got Married 86
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 86
River’s Edge 86
Heathers 89
Election 89
Say Anything 89
Boyz n the Hood 91
Hoop Dreams 94
Kids 95
Clueless 95
Welcome to the Dollhouse 96
Scream 96
Rushmore 98
Donnie Darko 01
Mean Girls 04
The Education of Shelby Knox 05
Brick 06
Juno 07
American Teen 08
My theory will be to examine the concept of adolescence as it has evolved in film depictions over the last 60 years, and also to attempt to encompass many sides of the adolescent experience: love, school, home, drugs, achievement, race, gender, sexuality, popularity, etc.
I have compiled a list of films that deal with adolescence in an interesting way, but I am hoping to get some more good ones. Look at this list and add any suggestions in the comments. The list is in chronological order.
The Wild One 54
Rebel Without a Cause 55
The Blackboard Jungle 55
Splendor in the Grass 61
To Sir With Love 67
High School 68
The Last Picture Show 71
American Graffiti 73
Carrie 76
Grease 78
The Warriors 79
Over the Edge 79
The Outsiders 83
Sixteen Candles 84
Repo Man 84
The Breakfast Club 85
Back to the Future 85
Peggy Sue Got Married 86
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 86
River’s Edge 86
Heathers 89
Election 89
Say Anything 89
Boyz n the Hood 91
Hoop Dreams 94
Kids 95
Clueless 95
Welcome to the Dollhouse 96
Scream 96
Rushmore 98
Donnie Darko 01
Mean Girls 04
The Education of Shelby Knox 05
Brick 06
Juno 07
American Teen 08
Sunday, February 24, 2008
In Honor of Oscar Night
Six movie formulas that must be stopped
6. Ultra-masculine action star gets stuck with small child/children
5. Psychotic little kids terrorize adults
4. Young, hip (read: black) guy invades typically white world
3. Brilliant musician rises, falls, finds redemption
2. Father is wronged by gang, kills entire planet
1. Put Robin Williams in a comedy, sit back and let him work his magic
Find an annotation of the list here.
6. Ultra-masculine action star gets stuck with small child/children
5. Psychotic little kids terrorize adults
4. Young, hip (read: black) guy invades typically white world
3. Brilliant musician rises, falls, finds redemption
2. Father is wronged by gang, kills entire planet
1. Put Robin Williams in a comedy, sit back and let him work his magic
Find an annotation of the list here.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Oscar picks
Picture: No Country For Old Men
Director: Joel & Ethan Coen
Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis
Actress: Julie Christie
Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem
Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett
Screenplay: Juno
Adapted Screenplay: No Country For Old Men
I am going against my inclinations--while the Academy often chooses some pretty lackluster fare, I think they're going to pretty much get it right this year.
Post your picks before Sunday night. Anybody who beats me, I'll buy 'em a beer.
See the nominees here.
Director: Joel & Ethan Coen
Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis
Actress: Julie Christie
Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem
Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett
Screenplay: Juno
Adapted Screenplay: No Country For Old Men
I am going against my inclinations--while the Academy often chooses some pretty lackluster fare, I think they're going to pretty much get it right this year.
Post your picks before Sunday night. Anybody who beats me, I'll buy 'em a beer.
See the nominees here.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Another Five Star Gem
Ang Lee has emerged as one of my favorite directors. He has previously made three films I consider five-star gems: The Ice Storm, Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I had read many times that one of his first films, Eat Drink Man Woman, was a classic, but the descriptions I had read made it sound like a chick flick. To wit:
Cheesy plot synopsis aside, I watched it anyway this morning, and it's the first film I've seen since Children of Men that made me want to watch it again right after I was done the first time. It has sumptuous cinematography, the setting is a fascinating modern Taiwan, the script is at turns funny and affecting, and most importantly of all it is fun to watch.
This movie reminds me of a story. A friend of mine was discussing the movie The Hours with her mother-in-law, I think it was, who expressed that she didn't like the movie. My friend blurted out, "You didn't like that movie? Are you dead inside?" I feel the same way about this movie. Anyone who doesn't like Eat Drink Man Woman is dead inside.
Every Sunday, venerable chef Chu (Sihung Lung) prepares an elaborate dinner for
his three lovely daughters. Despite Chu's exotic dishes, the family barely
nibbles at the food. The listless mealtime ritual mirrors the foursome's general
lack of appetite for life: Chu has lost his sense of taste, and his daughters
just want to go on with their separate, lonely lives. But something new is
cooking that is about to spice up everyone's existence, and three marriages and
a funeral later, the Chu family will learn to embrace life's unpredictabilty.
Cheesy plot synopsis aside, I watched it anyway this morning, and it's the first film I've seen since Children of Men that made me want to watch it again right after I was done the first time. It has sumptuous cinematography, the setting is a fascinating modern Taiwan, the script is at turns funny and affecting, and most importantly of all it is fun to watch.
This movie reminds me of a story. A friend of mine was discussing the movie The Hours with her mother-in-law, I think it was, who expressed that she didn't like the movie. My friend blurted out, "You didn't like that movie? Are you dead inside?" I feel the same way about this movie. Anyone who doesn't like Eat Drink Man Woman is dead inside.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Least-Deserved Oscars
Somehow, Sean Nelson crawled inside my brain. I agree with him on everything. Everything.
Read his rundown of ten worst Oscars here.
Read his rundown of ten worst Oscars here.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
The Lives of Others
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others, now available on DVD, is the best feature film debut by a director since Orson Welles's Citizen Kane. Coming it seemed out of nowhere and defying all the conventional wisdom of the motion picture industry, Donnersmarck achieved a remarkable commercial and critical success with his first full-length film, culminating when it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Picture of 2006.Read the rest here.
Raising Arizona, by Rob and Eric
My friend Rob and I have talked in the last year about setting up a microphone and doing our own commentary track while watching a movie. Well, we finally did it. Last week, we pushed play on "Raising Arizona" and riffed on film criticism, the Chicago Cubs, Trey Parker...you name it.
We listened to it afterwards wondering if it would be entertaining to listen to even if you A) weren't familiar with the movie or B) weren't watching the movie with us. I think it is. If you would like to take a listen, click here. Let me know what you think--constructive criticism is certainly welcome.
We listened to it afterwards wondering if it would be entertaining to listen to even if you A) weren't familiar with the movie or B) weren't watching the movie with us. I think it is. If you would like to take a listen, click here. Let me know what you think--constructive criticism is certainly welcome.
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