Category: (by verdict)

The first of a three-part series which detail intersecting characters selling drugs on the streets of Denmark. At least I’m pretty sure it’s from Denmark. (They make fun of Swedes.) We follow Frank, a generally unlikable low-level thug with hints that he might have some residual humanity, as he moves through one week–and follow at the most literal level, at times the camera jostling along right over his shoulder as he pushes his way through rave crowds, into bars, and in physical confrontations. (By confrontation I mean something a bit more extravagantly, ‘though never exuberantly, violent.)

I was impressed. The film can be quite funny but never self-consciously, ironically, never with the kind of smart-ass wit playing at tough guy patter–but real nasty guy patter. And its bleak, fairly vicious tone resembles Richard Stark’s Parker novels (captured in the great Point Blank) more than Elmore Leonard or Tarantino. Reviews claim parts 2 and 3 get even better, and the cumulative effect is even stronger. I’ll let you know.

By the by, the new Bond villain (Mads Mikkelsen) turns up as Tonny, a cheese-eating bald punk hanger-on, who takes some vicious beatings here (and, I hear, in the next film). He’s damn good. Hell, everyone is very good.

i watched gimme shelter last night. i was pretty sure it had been talked about on the blog, but i couldn’t find a reference and there’s nothing here in the “rock documentaries” topic where you’d expect it to have been discussed. it is a really interesting film though i am not sure what exactly it is a document of. the first half, which largely has pre-altamont footage from a show in new york showcases jagger’s unbelievable charisma and the band’s power live–though the one brief clip of ike and tina turner blows the stones’ performances away.

(i remember reading stanley booth, the true adventures of the rolling stones way back in the late 80s at the american center library in delhi–i don’t know if anyone else here has read it, it is a chronicle of this tour, and is a riproaring read–and he notes that the stones were terrified of ike.)
Continue reading gimme shelter

I saw Borat with Arnab and Jeff, so I know there’s stuff to say about the movie, based on our initial post-film discussion, and many I’ve had with students and friends since. I guess I’ve been waiting, hoping that others would say it. In a nutshell, the movie will make you laugh. It’s often very, very, very funny. And often a bit tamer and somewhat padded and not as exciting as we’d been hoping. . . but then again part of me is plain excited to see a mainstream(ish) comedy with such transgressive energy, with a sly sharp political edge, with a fat man and a skinny man wrestling nude. So complaining seems like whining (like my dessert was pie, and I’m crying for ice cream), and yet trumpeting seems mere repetition of arguments we’ve made before. I would be curious if someone hates it, then I could pull out my enthusiasm for a defense. I do recommend it, just can’t muster up enough sense of conflict to “make a case” for it.