Posts tagged Film
The Acacian
Art Is The View From Somewhere Else, Nothing More, Nothing Less
10/20/2011: List: Top Cold Weather Horror Movies
I watched the prequele (excellently titled “The Thing”) of John Carpenter’s “The Thing” this weekend and I didn’t hate it. I think I really enjoy horror movies that are in the cold or the winter so I made a list.
Honorable mentions: Dead Snow, Let the Right One In, The Last Winter (Only Because I haven’t seen any of them)
5. Dreamcatcher
Not a great movie, but a fun movie. It is winter though. I expect this to be replaced by Let The Right One In after I watch it this weekend.
4. Ravenous
It’s scary, it’s funny, it’s a bitting commentary on America and imperialism. What else could you want?
3. The Shining
(Not to be confused with The Shinning) The ultimate cabin fever movie. Atmospheric, slow, nagging, creepy. It hits all the right notes. Great performance by Nicholson.
2. The Thing (1982)
This isn’t the scariest movie on this list, but it might be the best. John Carpenter directs a taught suspenseful thriller with plenty of gore and shocks. The ending is fantastic. Plus, Kurt Russel’s amazing hat. (If you’ve seen the movie, CLICK HERE, major spoilers)
1. 30 Days of Night
This movie scared the crap out of me. The setting is perfect for this list (at least the sun comes out in The Thing). The Vampires are monstrous and brutal, and while that isn’t traditional I find it invigorating. The music is phenomenal. Bonus points for Being a comic book.
10/19/2011: Lists: Top 10 Music Moments in Film by Cameron Crowe - The Uncool
2.”She Smiled Sweetly / Ruby Tuesday” (The Rolling Stones)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2002)
It’s said that Jackson Browne, watching The Royal Tenenbaums, was so transported watching the “These Days” sequence that he thought wistfully, “this guy plays like I used to play.” And then he realized – it is me. Wes Anderson’s brilliant use of the Nico original galvanized and reinvented the song even for Jackson Browne, who now plays the song in its original mode at his live performances. All this, because Anderson picked the right song, the right camera speed and the perfect actors to play Margot and Richie Tenenbaum. It aches. And there is another stunning music-in-movies moment just around the corner in Tenenbaums, when Anderson busts out The Rolling Stones.
Margot and Richie have finally escaped to be alone under a tent with a record player. Their music choice is a vinyl (hooray) copy of Between The Buttons. Anderson lets the album track in the long unrequited love scene between the two. (Sadly, they’re adoptive siblings) When “She Smiled Sweetly” flows into “Ruby Tuesday,” even though Wes is re-sequencing the album, the result is an left-hook of deeper emotion. Now this already wonderful scene takes off into true greatness. Many a director has tried to use “Ruby Tuesday,” the evocative Brian Jones/Stones classic, and failed. Wes solves the problem by letting you hear it the way the way you’d hear it in life… devastating and random in the way it pops up, innocently requiring you to remember the moment forever.
(Click HERE for his full list)
Enough cannot be said for this scene in particular and this film in general.
Cameron Crowe does not restrain himself to 10 on this list, it really is fascinating.
![10/14/2011: Film: Modern Horror Defined by Edgy Realism of the 1970s - NPR
Roman Polanski’s film Rosemary’s Baby was a huge step forward for modern horror films. It became an icon in part because a major studio was producing a film about the devil, but also because the film was one of first to bring that element of realism to the horror genre, Zinoman says.
“[Polanski] took this supernatural story and shot it on location in New York, and he made it about things people could relate to,” he says.
Zinoman says Polanski also addressed what he calls “the monster problem,” where the monster we often see in horror films is never as terrifying as we imagine. In Rosemary’s Baby the audience catches only a glimpse of the monster (in this case the baby), leaving the real horror in the mind’s eye. - Robert Smith
(Read/listen to the whole story HERE)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsxvlni9gU1qbedn2o1_1280.jpg)
10/14/2011: Film: Modern Horror Defined by Edgy Realism of the 1970s - NPR
Roman Polanski’s film Rosemary’s Baby was a huge step forward for modern horror films. It became an icon in part because a major studio was producing a film about the devil, but also because the film was one of first to bring that element of realism to the horror genre, Zinoman says. “[Polanski] took this supernatural story and shot it on location in New York, and he made it about things people could relate to,” he says. Zinoman says Polanski also addressed what he calls “the monster problem,” where the monster we often see in horror films is never as terrifying as we imagine. In Rosemary’s Baby the audience catches only a glimpse of the monster (in this case the baby), leaving the real horror in the mind’s eye. - Robert Smith
10/11/2011: Film: Eyes Wide Shut
“Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut is a movie out of time—or to put it another way, it’s timeless. It was released in the middle of 1999’s summer-movie season, preceded by Wild Wild West and American Pie, and followed the next week by an abysmal remake of The Haunting. In retrospect, it seems absurd that Kubrick’s enigmatic final film could be a part of blockbuster season, even though it starred Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, who at the time were Hollywood’s biggest power couple. But it’s a good example of what happens when films of genuine ambition and artistry are caught up in the swells of studio mass marketing and hype. (See also: Brokeback Mountain, an intimate drama that was instantly snapped up as a political talking point and viral-video parody fodder.) Fortunately, the guardians of film history (cultists, you might call them) are more than patient enough to wait out the culture’s short attention span, but I can’t think of a film that needs rescuing more than Eyes Wide Shut, which was greeted in many circles with disdain, disrespect, and willful misinterpretation.” - Scott Tobias
(Read the full AV CLUB article HERE)
I love this movie, I consider it to be one of Kubrick’s finest. Interestingly, I ran into an article that sees all kinds of occult symbolism in Eyes Wide Shut, specifically of the Illuminati. It seems kind of a stretch to me but google that if your interested.
Anyways, Eye’s Wide Shut is well worth the watch. The performances are subdued for sure but they are by no means bad performances, especially Pollack. Cruise has a couple of great scenes but the best of his is later in the movie and I wont say much other than his performance right before and right after he gets some really bad news.
The music is great too.
10/8/2011: Film: Meryl Streep & Glenn Close; The Oscars and the State of American Actresses - Awards Daily
If you came of age in the 1980s, you lived through a time when American actresses did not depend on conventional, youthful good looks, or hotness, to get on the A list. The good parts went to those who took the craft seriously. A lot has changed since then. If you look at the Best Actress race of the 1970s, 1980s and even into the 1990s, the Best Actress race was dominated by strong roles, with established, respected actresses, many of them homegrown here in America, with well-earned clout in Hollywood — clout that was built on their talent, not just how much money they brought in. Their Oscar nominations bolstered their dominance. But something shifted. Was it the moment the young, fresh, charismatic but untrained Julia Roberts became a box office sensation, thus rendering actresses who couldn’t “open” movies obsolete? Was it the general globalization of the film industry overall? Was it the rise of the target demographic aimed at young boys? - Sasha Stone
(Read the rest of the editorial HERE)
Awards Daily is a great site, not just for Oscar watching, but for exciting news about upcoming films, great commentary on those films as well as the Festival circuit, and in depth criticism of the way the Oscars work (or don’t work) now. But the best part of Sasha’s commentary is her pragmatic view of the awards season and her celebration of films based on their merits not their ability to win. Awards Daily is an Oscar watching site that sees films outside of the scope of the Academy Awards or the weekend gross.
10/4/2011: Film: Drive
“Drive is a genre movie. So watch for comparisons, especially to films of the Seventies and Eighties that pulsate with a synth score. Think early Michael Mann (Thief) and William Friedkin’s To Live and Die in L.A. Driver is a loner, suggesting Alain Delon in Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï. Like Alan Ladd in George Stevens’ classic Western Shane, the loner meets a woman, Irene (Carey Mulligan), with a young son (Kaden Leos). She also has an ex-con husband (Oscar Isaac), so Driver must hold in his urges until, well, he can’t.” - Peter Travers (Travers ave Drive one of his rare perfect scores Read the Review Here)
Three things I want to talk about Drive.
1. What Travers says about him holding in his urges until he can’t doesn’t just apply to his lust. Ryan Gosling plays a terrifyingly violent man wrapped tightly in coolness, quiet and sex appeal. His outer calm ripples with rage like the Hulk straining against the inside of Bruce Banner’s skin. And like with his green counterpart, once the rage erupts, it’s hard to put the ‘clothes’ back on. This is a man that doesn’t go anywhere until he goes too far. In another world there is a film where The Driver is the bad guy. Watching Gosling play this part is breathtaking.
2. Albert Brooks is amazing. I can’t say much more than that, and Travers says more than me, but Brooks is chilling and magnificent. Equally breathtaking. Just go watch it.
3. This might be the best possible hipster movie. The pink lettering, the synth music, the satin jacket, the throwback feel, the violence. Except nothing feels ironic in this movie. So I don’t know. This movie could be one of those ‘voice of a generation’ films like Fight Club. We’ll see.
Also the music is neat. Check it:
10/3/2011: Film: Get On The Bus - Spike Lee
This movie was on yesterday. I caught some of it on IFC (I think). It was really engaging and provoking, but I didn’t have time to watch it all.
(This isn’t the part I saw, just the beginning)
11/30/2010: Film: Black Swan by Darren Aronofsky - NPR
Portman’s character, Nina, pleads with her artistic director for the leading role in Swan Lake, but he’s not convinced she is up to the task. He sees the discipline, the dedication, the desire for perfection; he doesn’t see the instincts for passion and poetry. Nina lands the part nonetheless, only to struggle with her interpretation while a rival dancer schemes to steal the role. The pressure eventually leads to a mental breakdown; throughout Black Swan, Nina literally tears away at her own skin. - Alex Cohen Read/Listen to the story here. I’m really excited about this and more of that is because of Vincent Cassel than you would think.
11/19/2010: Multimedia: Adventures of A Sexual Miscreant by Andrew Hevia & Jessica Gross
Episode 1 of this enormously humorous Webseries:
Click Here for the other Episodes (2 Seasons!).
Hevia and Gross have also been profiled recently in the Miami New Times.
What’s your next big project?
Right now I’m gearing up for the next edition of the Borscht Film Festival. I’m overseeing the production of our slate of movies, actively producing at least three shorts and directing my own film, about the blood feud between a 500 year old Conquistador and an equally wizened Miccosukee warrior.
List five things that inspire you.
-Adult Halloween costumes that are just slutty versions of kid costumes
-Old ladies who wear men’s perfume
-Social improprieties
-The thrill of performing
-Oh, and Vodka. I draw a lot of inspiration from vodka
Just look at these crazy kids! Adorable and talented!
11/18/2010: Film: Cowboys and Aliens - EW
“When I was a kid, I pretty much only watched sci-fi movies and Westerns. So believe me: I really, really, really want Cowboys & Aliens to be good. Genre mash-ups are tricky to pull off, but based on the teaser trailer, it looks like director Jon Favreau is gamely trying to merge the windswept frontier world of High Noon with CGI alien-invasion action.”
Me too.
11/17/2010: Film Review: 127 Hours by Danny Boyle - The Guardian
I have never before seen something yucky on screen make an entire cinema audience suddenly hunch forward and bury their heads in their laps at the same time, as if in some secular mosque for wimps. But that’s what we all did during Danny Boyle’s new movie, 127 Hours, the gruelling true-life story of Aron Ralston, a twentysomething guy who in 2003 went hiking and climbing in the breathtakingly beautiful Blue John Canyon in Utah and got his arm immovably trapped under a boulder. After days of frantic screaming, futile tugging and fruitless shoving, with food and water close to zero, Ralston looked at the knife he’d brought with him and began to weigh up what our politicians call the “hard choices” about what he now had to leave behind. - Peter Bradshaw
Click here for the rest of the review.
I’m really really excited for this movie, and maybe too excited. The problem is, I’m not excited because I’m a Danny Boyle fan (which I am, mostly), but because I’m a fan of the book, the genre, and very intrigued by Franco. I really enjoy Boyle’s style when it’s appropriate, but detest it at other times. Or maybe a good story makes the style enjoyable. Eitherway, I hated Millions, so I was understandably nervous about Slumdog Millionaire, and I really enjoyed Slumdog. I disagree that it was a better picture than Benjamin Button, but I wasn’t incensed by the choice. What I wonder is how much of my surprise/enjoyment of Slumdog was from diminished expectations because of Millions, and how much was because nothing I saw/read made me think it was going to be so gritty and realistic and visceral.
It was really my reaction to SM that made me aware of the affect, or potential affect my expectations can have on movies I see. I was already aware of how having read the book can affect a viewing (my friends all hated every Harry Potter movie that came out after they read the books) but I started to get apprehensive, worrying that my excitement would lead to disappointment.
Let’s use Christopher Nolan as an example. I’ve immensely enjoyed all of his films. Let me examine this particular sequence: Batman Begins - The Prestige - The Dark Knight - Inception. Batman Begins: I was really excited by this because I love Batman so much and had dreamed of a gritty realistic Batman movie from such a young age, I was curious to see how ‘the guy that did Memento’ would do a Superhero film (which is how I feel about Darren Arnofsky’s The Wolverine) and then when I saw it, I really liked it, there were parts I was less than thrilled about, but I really liked it. The Prestige: My dad rented it and made me watch it, my mind was blown, it’s incredible in every way and still one of my favorite movies. The Dark Knight: The confluence of events that drove my expectations for this film up are unprecedented, The Prestige, Heath Ledger, etc, but it never occurred to me that I was hyping it too much, annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd it was amazing, as you all know. Inception: Really exciting cast + my favorite director + really vague plot = being the movie I anticipated most in my entire life, but I did worry about hyping it too much, that, after all Nolan is human and bound to make an ordinary movie again, I tried to prepare myself for it to be good-not-great, but probably only succeeded in preparing myself for it to be great-not-amazing, it was transcendent, I literally could not stop talking/thinking about that movie for weeks. Weeks. So there is no way of definitively knowing what might affect a movie experience, no way to test it.
Anyways, I think I’d rather be a little more reserved, I rather it when things exceed my expectations and I’d rather be the guy that generally likes things and who you take seriously when he hates something, than the guy who dislikes everything and wants to be taken seriously when he loves something. Because nobody trusts that guy anyways and he sucks.
So, I hope I like 127 Hours so I’ll temper my expectations as much as I can.
11/16/2010: That’s So Meta! 19 Films - The AV Club
Interesting and refreshing films that also are an example of film criticism themselves. Some are obvious, some are not. Some I’ve seen, many I’ve wanted to see.
Here’s one I’ve never even heard of:
3. Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)
Film professor and longtime Los Angeles resident Thom Andersen channeled his fascination with the quirks and character of his home city, and his frustration with how the American movie industry has often misused the very place where it lives, into the documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself. Andersen has some fun with the way Hollywood returns over and over to a few landmarks—often to destroy them—and with the way L.A.’s downtown areas easily double for post-apocalyptic wastelands. But he also chides filmmakers for ignoring the urban poor, and for turning the work of some of our most innovative, idealistic 20th-century architects into shorthand representations of moneyed decadence. Los Angeles Plays Itself rambles off-track at times, and Andersen’s take on what certain directors were up to often presumes too much. But he also performs some necessary alchemy, turning Hollywood sets back into real places with histories of their own.
Clip on the Bradbury Building. Awesome.
11/12/2010: Film: Year’s Best Moments in Film (So Far) - Awards Daily
Don’t get me wrong, I know the Academy Awards are a joke. Even compared to the Emmy’s or the Grammy’s, being better or best usually has nothing to do with who wins. However, great movies still get nominated, and it’s fun to predict the winners (and why), it’s fun to compare who won with who should have won, and it’s fun to bitch about. Bitching about the Oscars is probably the most guilt-free way to be elitist (other than eating arugula).
Anyways, AwardsDaily is a pretty good site, and especially useful if you want to know which movies to see before January, so that you can pretend to have an educated opinion.
I found this really interesting article, but I didn’t read very much of it, because I’m a slacker and haven’t seen many of the movies yet. But read it! Click here.
I’m not sure there is enough talk on the web, although there has been some, about Christopher Nolan’s unique story being told that well, making that much money, and being released by a major Hollywood studio. This just doesn’t happen. Or, it doesn’t happen very often. As we’re pulled out of the layers of dreams, we are also watching a doomed love affair finally end. We are hoping our hero gets out alive in time to see his kids. We are hoping they pull off their dream heist. Kick. Kick. Kick. Eventually, we are brought back to what we think is real time – but even that isn’t something reliable. The iconic image of the spinning top reminds us that this, too, could be a dream.
Inception made me think about my life more than any other film so far this year, the reason being I don’t think much about my primal fears, motivations, subconscious manifestations. What makes Inception stand out is that Christopher Nolan cut this thing from whole cloth. It has to be one of the best original stories of the year on imagination alone. It requires a good deal of filling in and imagination on the part of the viewer. It isn’t a passive experience by any means. It isn’t just a visual marvel, it is a mind-bender that could lead you down some strange paths if you think about it too long. - Sasha Stone
11/11/2010: Film: American Psycho - NYTimes Critic’s Picks
Here is a quick video (click here!) about Mary Harron’s adaption of Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho. It’s a worthwhile, if shallow review. The movie is definitely worthwhile.
I’ve heard that a lot of film critics don’t read the books of the movies they review, and I don’t blame them, but I find it strange that A.O.Scott makes it sound like the novel isn’t a satire like the movie.
5/27/2010: Film: The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
So, Yesterday was Peter Cushing’s birthday and today is Christopher Lee’s, and I thought, what better way to celebrate than With some Frankenstein action.
(P.S. That lady, Hazel Court I think, is showing a ton of cleavage for 1957)
