Classics in short: The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music -

After all the references made to the musical classic in pop culture, from a wide variety of sources (from Family Guy to every 5th grade music class), I wasn't sure if I needed to watch this the whole way through, which I never had. I knew most of it, right? Well, I bought it for my wife for the holiday, and I was surprised to see how enjoyable a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical from 40 years ago remains today. I get why it's so famous - it's probably the best musical ever, at least classically. Plus, it's fun to see Christopher Plummer in his hunk days, not grizzly and old and telling people to send a car, you imbecile.

films in brief

The OH! in Ohio -

I remember people really looking forward to this indie debut and then it disappearing quickly. I hadn't heard much good about it, which was disappointing, because the duo of Parker Posey and OMCK (official man-crush king) Paul Rudd tantalized me. But honestly? It's not so bad. It goes in weird directions, but this is a solid quirky indie story about love and sex. And Rudd is hilarious in his grouch-slacker mode. You could watch it just for him. Posey lets loose as a sexually frustrated woman seeking answers. It's funny with some nice acting by these two faves. I don't see why it died down. It's worth a shot for all us Rudd admirers.

Fifty Pills -

We caught this late on cable primarily for the involvement of Kristen Bell. She's cute, but she can't save this half-arsed college tale about a kid who needs to sell 50 ecstasy tablets in one day to pay his tuition. The people who wrote this probably THOUGHT they were hilarious and had another Rules of Attraction / Go / Igby Goes Down on their hands, but, well, they failed. It's annoying at best.

[We also caught another late-night cable movie, Deepwater, for the same reason. Wasn't any better, and she only had two brief scenes. Alas.]

Don't Look Now -

We saw a primer for this 70's thriller on Halloween Random Scary Movie List week and it looked cool. I have to say, scary movies from this time are usually good. This one is interesting, but it gets weird. I love the zippy 70's style, and Donald Sutherland in his fro, but it almost dragged. The action doesn't really come in until late, but it is captivating and well shot. It was directed by Nicholas Roeg, who had a weird career but was a cinematographer for some great directors. It's a weird but interesting take for fans of horror and films of this era.

Films of the decade: an introduction

As we get closer to the end of the decade, I've been thinking about movie best-of lists. Many various outlets have been putting together lists of the best and the worst movies of the decade. My friend Paul is working on his list and I know we will have a lot of similar ones. I want to do this, to get myself writing about film more, and because it's really one of the few things I can claim to know anything about anymore.

As I've said before, I never really know what exactly a top film list means. Is it made up of the ones I enjoyed the most or is it the ones that I think are the best artistically? Are those two the same thing? I don't think they are; I can admit to loving horrible films and being bored by ones that I know are great. Bill Simmons, ESPN's Sports Guy, is having people vote for the most memorable films of the decade, which is a nice way to narrow down things.... but I can remember lots of movies and that can take things in another direction. (I.E. I'll never forget The Wicker Man remake, just for the sheer anger I felt at Nicolas Cage.)

I guess I'd like to do something that has my favorites that I truly believe are great and fit this decade. These are the films I will remember - for being good - and films that influenced me into going to LA and trying to work on/with movies and such.

As I do this, I've been thinking about the state of film and how it has maybe gown downhill a little. Has television surpassed it? I think so. Patton Oswalt recently said that the most memorable movies of today are TV shows, and that television has reversed from movies. He said that some channels are acting like movie studios in the 70's, where they let the rules go and tried to be different, while the big studios (owned by big companies) only want to bank on sure things, so they take on Transformers-like crap or name stars, while the indie movies try to fit some kind of pattern (quirky for no reason, road trip, misfits that get girls, etc.). I've heard this from other people, and from my experiences at work, it seems to be the case. No studio wants to take chances, but there are so many networks, some of them have to experiment to get ahead.

It is interesting, looking over my rough list, that most of my favorites are in the early part of the decade. Were movies really better then? Does it take longer for them to seem important to me? Am I remembering things wrong? It seems skewed. But while I have very few entries in 2005, 2006, and 2008, I have a ton from 2007. I don't know what that means.

I'm hoping to post one everyday for the rest of the year. I probably can't match that exactly, but I will have 50, maybe 100 if I can't cut enough. I invite everyone to get involved, debate, ridicule. This is a major project that I will be working hard on for the next few weeks / months and I hope to inspire... something.

Here's a few notable ones that did not make my list:

Lord of the Rings (any of them) - I know, I know, they were all well made. I just don't care about Tolkien.

Star Wars (either of them) - ....or Lucas.

Paul Haggis' Academy Award Winner Crash - everyone realizes this was a horrible mistake, right?

Freddy Got Fingered - I love it, it's one of my favorite comedies of the decade, it has brought joy to a lot of people, but is it truly a good movie? I still say no. It's lovable in its deranged state, but I can't argue its value to everyone.

Pootie Tang - same as above. It would be even weirder and better if the studio let Louis C.K. alone.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story - one of the funniest of the Apatow collection, but not a lot of story.

Super High Me - Doug Benson's doc is funny with some decent stand up parts, and surprisingly insightful on the weird process of legalized marijuana in this state.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - too silly, and too abrupt of an ending, but a nice way to get people interested in Douglas Adams. Sam Rockwell, Zooey Deschanel, and Martin Freeman were still relatively unknown, and this helped out.

Southland Tales - you laugh, but this is one of the movies I'll always remember for this decade. It's weird, the jokes don't land, and the acting is mostly bad, even disastrous in some points, but it captures some of the zeitgeist for the post-9/11 Patriot Act era. If Richard Kelly had made this right after Darko, it wouldn't seem so ridiculous. I mean, it would still be so, but not as much. Maybe if he hadn't set it in the very immediate feature and used some real names and events mixed in with false ones, it would come off better. But he did, and when it finally came out in 2007, it was already dated. This is spastic, but it fits the times. You'll never find a better assortment of pop culture icons for this decade. This is a movie for the oughts if there ever was one.



WOW! So much to think about. I'm hoping I can come up with a list soon.

Python'd!

I like Chinese.

College classics: Donnie Darko

Another film I think most current college students know, and should know, is Donnie Darko. This mind-bending thriller has been a cult classic for a few years. I once had an entire Philosophy club session devoted to it. We'll ignore the bizarre world of Southland Tales for now and go back to this great dark movie, which should be a hit with students for years to come.

From the shadows of obscurity comes one of the most fascinating films of our time. Donnie Darko appears at first to be a demented horror film, but as it progresses, it touches on all sorts of subjects, from social commentary to metaphysics. This unheralded film tells an amazing story about love, fate, and more.

The film revolves around the life of Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal), a troubled high schooler in Northern Virginia. Donnie has had problems, and his current delusions include seeing a giant rabbit called Frank (James Duval). His mother (Mary McDonnell) wants to help him, but his troubles are deep and hard to solve. Donnie’s psychiatrist (Katharine Ross) tries all sorts of methods to help him.

Strange things happen after Donnie’s first encounter with the rabbit. His vision prompts him to sleepwalk out of the house, and while he is gone, a plane engine crashes into his room. No one is hurt, but if he would not have been led outside, he would have died. Authorities have no answer for how the plane crash happened.

Donnie’s troubled state worsens. Frank begins to visit him more and more often. At school, Donnie must deal with an annoying teacher (Beth Grant), who uses her class time to promote infomercials for local motivational speaker Jim Cunningham (Patrick Swayze). Donnie finds a love interest in Gretchen Ross (Jena Malone), a girl who has moved to escape her psychotic father.

Frank instructs Donnie to perform several acts of vandalism, all of which lead to bad things happening. Donnie has two positive teachers in school, aptly portrayed by Drew Barrymore (one of the film’s executive producers) and Noah Wyle. Donnie continues to get in trouble for talking back, and his actions lead to Barrymore’s dismissal. His life crumbles, along with his mental state.

Frank’s original message to Donnie is that the world will end in about a month. As the date gets closer, Donnie tries to figure out what this means. He begins to experience other delusions besides seeing Frank, which he discovers relate to Stephen Hawking’s theories of time travel. This is where the film broaches such subjects as time, fate, and predestination.

Without giving away too much, the ending is amazing and a shocking conclusion to the film. Audiences may not understand it at first, and this film may require several viewings, but it says a lot about the deep subject the film touches on.

Jake Gyllenhaal shines as the title character. He pulls off the demented side of Donnie well, along with his more average, teenage moments. Malone and McDonnell perform well as the women who care about him. The real acting treat of this movie, however, comes with all the minor characters, mostly hilarious chariciatures. Holmes Osborne plays Donnie’s aloof dad, Grant is extra annoying as his teacher, and Swayze makes his first appearance in a worthwhile film in a long time.

Writer and director Richard Kelly makes a stunning debut in a major film. Just a few years removed from film school, Kelly fits sci-fi special effects into a relatively low-budget film. He manages to capture the dread that Donnie feels, the ignorance of the community and the school leadership, and the unique relationship Donnie has with both his mother and his girlfriend. It is astounding that a young filmmaker could create a film that breaks so many different genre molds, but Kelly makes it look easy. His film is not only one of the best of 2001, but one for the ages.

The Player: an academic reading

Robert Altman’s film The Player shows the inside dealings of Hollywood- what goes on behind the camera. Altman’s film is very ironic in that it really makes fun of the Hollywood system, while being a product of it. Altman teases the idea of having big stars in movies, only to get many famous stars to cameo as themselves in this 1992 film. It is a movie about movies, in short. Altman has a strong directorial voice in this; his shot selection definitely affects how the story is told.
The most obvious example of directorial voice comes early on in the movie. Altman shows the parking lot of the studio office where Griffin Mill works. With a very long take, he moves around different areas to show what’s going on. He shows Griffin, the young producer, listening to stories from writers. He then moves over to show tours going on inside the movie lot. He then shows some person stopping Martin Scorsese to tell him how much he liked Cape Fear. In all, this take lasts minutes before it is over and shows about 4 or 5 different events going on.
This long take shows that there’s always something happening in Hollywood. Everyday, people are denied (except for a few per year), tourists come, and a multi-million dollar business goes on. So many things happen at once, and this scene captures that feeling with its rambling style from one situation to the next. This appears to be a signature shot for Altman, and there are some scenes later that are similar.
One example of a recurring idea in mise-en-scene and framing is Altman’s shot from outside. Altman chooses several times in the movie to shoot people in a building from outside, leaving the audience with an obstructed view. He does this in the long take with Griffin talking to writers. The audience can hear them talking perfectly but the view remains from outside the window. This also happens when Griffin is talking to Kahane’s foreign girlfriend on the phone outside her house. The audience has the same view that he does: restricted and through the windows.
This is a strong directorial voice because Altman could have easily shot the characters from inside in both cases. He chooses not too because it keeps the characters somewhat mysterious. In the first scene, the audience cannot see Griffin’s face very well, even thought hey know what is going on. They know what his job is like before they can really see him. In the second scene, the audience sees as much as he can, leaving their attention to what the girl looks like. Griffin is intrigued by her, and by not showing her completely, Altman creates intrigue in the audience. This also reflects a change in Griffin: he has been faithful (or so it’s assumed) to Bonnie so far, but he begins to fall for the foreign girl.
Altman also likes to use the various close-up shots to show emotion. He often shows Tim Robbins’ face in detail to convey Griffin’s feelings and anxiety. Griffin becomes more irritable after killing Kahane, and Altman tries to show this with Griffin’s actions and different shots of him. One moving scene comes in the police station where (I forget their characters’ names) Whoopi Goldberg and Lyle Lovett interrogate him to the point of making him explode. Altman starts with a close-up of Griffin’s head and zooms in as he gets more and more irritated. This makes a dramatic, emotional scene.
Altman’s shots at the end show a happy couple with a beautiful house and seem so romantic. Yet the audience knows that Griffin has killed his wife’s former lover, and that if he hadn’t, this happy scene would not have happened. The shot, though very beautiful and typical of a classic happy-ending movie, seems tainted. Altman keeps that in the audience’s mind as he drifts away to the close.
The ending of the movie is very ironic and reflexive. After all their talk about making a real and truthfully dark movie, the writers in the mock-movie Habeas Corpus fall to temptation, hiring big stars Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis, and giving in to the classical Hollywood happy ending. This is a great movie-within-a-movie ploy because The Player is definitely not a true happy ending: Griffin has cheated on his wife, killed a guy, gotten away with it, and now is married to the dead guy’s old girl. Of course, for Griffin, it is a happy ending, so does that it make it good? Is it acceptable?
The last sign of reflexivity comes when a writer tells Griffin about a movie called The Player that basically is about what happened in this movie (hence the name). Altman does this to leave a hint of doubt in the audience: is this movie for real? He tries to make it look that way. Few would believe so, but the scene gives a sense of uncertainty to the movie (it also shows that Kahane may not be the threat Griffin thought he was). This is a dark scene, and what is worse is that Griffin knows very well what’s going on-and he doesn’t care. This is somewhat reflexive because he has admitted to himself the truth and will use his own murder story to make money- in the movie we are currently watching. Altman’s dark comedy can admit to the audience that it is indeed funny and disturbing. His satirical picture of Hollywood dealings is not Classic Hollywood Styled, and yet it makes for a good movie. He proved his own characters wrong.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Judd Apatow was on fire. I just caught this on cable, and think I might have laughed more at this one than the other two (much more successful) Apatow films of that year, Superbad and Knocked Up. It's silly and more of a straight up, winking at the camera parody than a perfect mirror image like Hot Fuzz, but it has some great moments. And some really ridic cameos.... maybe the most random cameos of various people portraying famous musicians ever. After being heavily disappointed with Ray and Walk the Line (in structure and over-melodrama, not performances), this was a great send-up. Every biopic cliche, every Behind the Music episode structure was made into comedy. It was about time John C. Reilly, one of the best supporting character actors ever, got to be the lead guy. He's great, as always.

Pirates of the Caribbean 2

I caught this on cable. The subtitle should be At World's Very, Very Long End.

I think we should force Diznee to use that title in all packaging of this movie now. They ended their big franchise with so many drawn-out fights and tough posturing, that I was just bored during the last two. How can you make an action film geared mostly for children and teenagers that last three hours and puts you to sleep? I could sit through Barry Lyndon easier than this.

Look, I was pleasantly surprised like the rest of you with the first one, despite my hatred of uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer and my total apathy towards the whole pirate fad. They got me. Then they wasted their good graces by going way over the top with the next two and making it a world-wide battle and having too many fight scenes and effects and melodrama and JUST END THE F-----G MOVIE ALREADY! You see why I hate him? And why I can never trust the mouse again?

Of course, there will be a third.

Futurama: Bender's Big Score (direct to DVD)

To break from all this serious-ness, I turned to a very unheralded comeback. Futurama was granted a new life through a straight-to-DVD release, which isn't perfect, but enough to satisfy all us nerds who grew to love it too late. This 90 minute journey is like three episodes stitched together, but it helped me feel better. They did go the Family Guy route of bringing back things from the series as nostalgia (Fry's dog, Al Gore, owls, the Harlem Globetrotter science team) but they also made some nice jokes. It's something. Not enough Branigan, though. Also, watch on the DVD for the extras, as you can see how just how huge nerds they are, and us for loving them.