Month: September 2005

Best use of song

Okay, sitting here recovering my Mott the Hoople fixation from years bygone (and ignoring student papers), I throw out: What is the best use of a song in a non-musical film?

Some nominees:
Mott the Hoople, “All the Way From Memphis” — Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
the Ronettes, “Be My Baby” — Mean Streets
Peggy Lee, “Is That All There Is?” — After Hours
Donovan, “Atlantis” — Goodfellas (…sensing a pattern?)
Rolling Stones, “2000-year Man” — Bottle Rocket
the Stranglers, “Peaches” — Sexy Beast
Aimee Mann, “Wise Up” — Magnolia

Oh, I also saw a dandy little independent film called Assisted Living, apparently only available on Netflix. The director shot on-site in an eldercare facility in Louisville, employing many of the residents as “actors,” merging “fact and fiction” in his own brief description. I don’t care so much about that–but you may. What I found quite remarkable was its attention to aging, its cool-eyed compassion, and its wit. Plus, it was shot with a very nice, impressionistic edge…. kind of reminded me of David Gordon Green, but more interested in narrative. Recommended.

And, Howell–I really want to hear what you think of OldBoy. That film really sticks with me….

My Name Is Earl

Around 15 million people tuned in last night for this new NBC comedy. I liked its Coen Brothers-lite charm and Jason Lee makes an engaging lead character. With 246 people to cross of his list, the network certainly has a long run on its hand if America keeps watching. Nothing remarkable but amusing nonetheless. The second season of The Office was also fun to watch (if a little bit more mainstream than the first few eps) though it lost 6 million of Earl’s viewers.

Terrorism movies

OK, so best (and worst) terrorism movies? If ‘Blown Away’ anchors one end of the spectrum, are there good movie treatments? Is it possible to make a good movie on this subject in the current period? I’d certainly put in a plug for ‘Battle of Algiers’ as the simply the best, and probably unrepeatable, because it is impossible to make an intelligent movie on the subject in America today.

But what do people think of ‘The Siege’ which came under sustained attack for its use of stereotypes, but which (I must admit) I found pretty compelling. Fine performances by Denzel Washington, Tony Shalhoub, Annette Bening and even (before his “slide from greatness”) Bruce Willis. And at least some sense of the sources/causes of terrorism and the dangers of Patriot Act-type reaction.

the motorcycle diaries

has this not been discussed here yet? we finally got around to watching it this weekend. our expectations were high–partly based on the recommendations of others, but mostly on just how much we’d both liked central station. however, i found the motorcycle diaries to be curiously uninvolving. perhaps it is a built-in problem with any biopic of an iconic figure, especially of the “early life of” sub-genre that the film’s present can’t help but serve as background material for the spectacular myth–providing a series of aha! moments: “so, that’s when he began to think about oppression” etc.. it is also a problem if the “early life of” doesn’t complicate the myth: it turns out che was always a noble sort. without this narrative tension what you have is a lovely travel advertisement for the andes. and maybe that advertisement looks so much better on the big screen that these other issues pale–i don’t know. central station was also visually stunning, but went over similar political ground far more dialectically (oooh!) and movingly.

but i sense disagreement in the ranks (and i don’t know yet what sunhee thought of it–i’ll try to get her to post).

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’ opened in France this week (it is pretty rare for an American film to open abroad before it does in the US; I don’t what that says about the marketing strategy). I saw a dubbed version rather than a subtitled one, so it is possible that the dialogue sparkled in ways that my French was not able to appreciate. With that caveat, I found the movie disappointing though definitely watchable.

First the good. Robert Downey Jr. And Val Kilmer were a pleasure to watch, and Kilmer really seems to be happier not trying to carry the movie on his own. His Gay Perry has a nice deadpan quality, and he avoids playing up the arch homosexual. What with this and ‘Spartan’ Kilmer may finally have lived down his role in ‘The Saint,’ probably the worst film of the post-Watergate era. Downey is always fun to watch, and here he has a charm that he just about pulls off without looking too goofy. There are lots of nice touches to the movie, involving urination, severed fingers, dogs, coffins and corpses falling into, or onto, dumpsters. They just depart enough from convention to offer a little jerk of surprise and pleasure.
Continue reading Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Palindromes

OK, here’s a truly dangerous work of indie filmmaking. I have very fond memories of Todd Solondz’s Welcome to the Dollhouse, but I absolutely hated Happiness and was mostly indifferent to Storytelling. Palindromes, however, is a wholly original, viscerally discomforting film which incisively interrogates our cultural obsession with childhood and innocence, family and individuality, self and other, normals and deviants, faith and hypocrisy, the grotesque and the sublime. It comes at the pro-life/pro-choice debate from such a skewed angle, but, in the end, I think it to be a deeply human film and worth the effort.

Childstar

I was very curious to see this film about a twelve-year-old American superstar who goes AWOL on the set of an absurdly over-the-top action flick being shot in Toronto (the boy plays the incorrigible son of the US President who must save America after his father is captured by terrorists), but it’s fairly derivative. I’m thinking Don McKellar hoped to make a satiric, cinematic indictment of a culture obsessed with erotic innocence (think Paddy Chayefsky filtered through James Kincaid), but such plans are tricky. How can you capture such a subject without falling pray to the very impulses you hope to critique? Indeed, though Taylor Brandon Burns is a petulant, spoiled brat—spurned on by a mother always looking for a bigger paycheck—what he really wants to be is a normal boy (what that exactly means is up for grabs). I guess the film never felt dangerous enough. Sure, the kid is an ugly American who—chastely—loses his virginity to a quasi-prostitute (on the set in a replica of the Oval Office), but McKellar and co-writer Michael Goldbach offer up little more than a pastiche of coming-of-age clichés masquerading as a character. And McKellar’s character—a former film studies professor now indie filmmaker who drives the rich and famous to work to put food on the table—is also problematic. Is he the voice of reason/father figure Taylor’s been looking for or is he simply looking for a star to hitch himself to (or does he just want to fuck Taylor’s mom)? Anyway . . . Dave Foley is a lot of fun. Kincaid acolytes will be sad to learn there are no bottoms on display, but there is a running joke concerning a Hollywood rumor involving goldfish and the boy’s ass, so I guess that will suffice.

light, frothy fun

keeping the topic title general so that others can add to it as well, but what i really want to plug is a bollywood blockbuster from this summer: bunty aur babli. a wonderful piece of entertainment about a young man and a young woman from two small towns somewhere in north india who decide that they want the kind of exciting life that they read about happening elsewhere in the country. so they run away, meet each other and begin a life of cons and scams. the plot (or the film’s view of the small town/big city divide) doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny but the film is so giddy it doesn’t matter. the actors–abhishek bachchan and rani mukherjee–are perfect, the writing is good (and the subtitles mostly adequate), and the direction and music are also excellent. the movie does sag for the last 25 minutes (it is about 2 hours 40 long) but moves pretty quickly until then. i think it should be pretty accessible to non-indian audiences, though some of the nuances of accent and demeanour (which are codes for issues of class etc.) will probably get lost. netflix has it, so if you’re interested in mostly mindless fun or in seeing what’s big in india these days, rent it. it also features a blockbuster “item” song (featuring aishwarya rai) that’s been all the rage in the country for some months now.

Off the Map

A small little film, directed by Campbell Scott, that very occasionally slips into a precious recalling-my-young-girlhood-and-becoming-an-adult ramble (mainly through a precariously balanced voiceover, that sometimes prances into convention), but… BUT I really liked this film.

A family lives in rural New Mexico, avoiding jobs and most commodity traffic–and taxes; a tax man (Jim True-Frost, late of The Wire, and almost a revelation in this role) shows up, falls in love, stays on. The father (Sam Elliott) suffers from an undefined, pervasive depression; the mother (an astounding Joan Allen, unlike I’ve ever seen her before) remains almost unflappable yet utterly grounded; the taciturn family friend (J. K. Simmons) seems quiet out of sheer bewilderment at the family he so clearly loves.

It’s funny, occasionally moving, almost always just that perfect small distance from conventional in its approach to dialogue and narrative. It’s full of marvelous images, ‘though sometimes the director seems a bit too intent on wondering at the environment, the camera rushing around to take it all in.

Great acting, but don’t expect a rush of narrative energy or even grandstanding actorly moments–it’s a small film.

I haven’t got much to say beyond see it.