Back That Thing Up

Netflix, what say ye? So the streak of multiple disc TV shows has ended and we've gotten some movies in these past couple weeks. First and most recently:

Seconds -- I was a bit disappointed by this one. It'd been on the queue for ages along with another Frankenheimer flick Seven Days in May. I guess from what I'd read I was expecting a bit more of a mind fuck than what was delivered. The pitch is basically a feature length Twilight Zone episode where through a shady business deal an old guy gets to become young again and have a second shot at an ideal life doing whatever it is he really wanted to do with his life before he gave up on it all. Of course this is going to come back and bite him in the ass with regret and an evil twist at the end. There are good performances all around but Frankenheimer gets a little too experimental for his own good throughout much of it. It was interesting to see Spike Lee's actor-cam being used -- as far as I know it may be the first feature to use it (you know, where the camera is attached to the actor while he walks around leaving the guy in place and everything else in motion). There's also this laughable hippy freak-out scene in the middle that's like dates it rather badly -- but is mostly forgivable as the majority of the movie gives you this feeling that it's going to be a fun ride watching the second half of this guy's decent into what should be a disturbing end. But alas, the disturbing end isn't much more than a yeah, well, that sucks. But I still give it a 3 out of 5 for the performances and the effort and enthusiasm.

Errol Morris' First Person -- Okay, now you talk about your disturbing – some of these episodes that comprise Errol Morris’ short lived Bravo series are downright spooky. And all they basically are, as anyone familiar with Morris’ work, are interviews. You may remember Mr. Morris from such films as Mr. Death, The Thin Blue Line, Fast, Cheap & Out of Control, Fog of War, Vernon, Florida, Gates of Heaven, and A Brief History of Time (which sadly has yet to come to DVD). Now these individual 17 interviews are a bit spotty – there are a couple early on that fall a bit flat, but taken as a whole there are interesting themes that get woven from one subject to another. These are people that have nothing at all in common with each other and yet… do. Some of the standouts are: the woman who came home to find her son-in-law had killed himself in his bedroom and decided to become a professional crime scene cleaner, the man with the highest documented IQ (who happens to be a bar bouncer), the pen pal of the Unabomber, the seemingly insane lady who falls in love with a death row serial killer, and the pilot who got on the wrong plane home and helped “land” that DC-10 in Ohio. This is a great collection and a brilliant example (as all his films are) of how to make an interview interesting on film. Check this shit out. 5 out of 5

Battle Royal -- Now this is one that’d been on the queue for a long while, had heard much hype about, and did not fail to deliver the goods. Long story short, it’s Lord of the Flies on an amphetamine overdose. In Japan. Each year they take the rottenest group of high schoolers, send them to an island with a small bomb strapped to their necks, give each one of them a different weapon and treat the last one standing like the winner of American Idol. Meanwhile the disgruntled teacher (in this case the always watchable “Beat” Takeshi) cheers them on over an intercom in the island’s control center. We watch as friendships are tested, cliques get splintered apart, and bottled-up revenge is had with or without consequences. High school’s a bitch. 4 out of 5

Slaughterhouse 5 -- Another somewhat disappointment. Though this one didn’t have too much expectations going into it. I swear I’d watched this movie 7 or 8 years ago as I remember pulling it from the shelf of the Pleasant Street Video in Northampton, but I think I was completely stoned at the time of viewing so I couldn’t remember a single scene from the thing. And Filmbrain had recently posted about it’s values and I hadn’t been steered wrong by him yet so… I’m not saying it’s a bad movie by any means – just not a wholly enjoyable one. I’m not too up on my Kurt Vonnegut, I’ve only read two of his books, but I did enjoy those two. And I have to agree with both sides on this one – Slaughterhouse 5 is a bad book to try to make a movie and the movie that was made is as good an adaptation as there’s ever going to be. Michael Sacks does an award worthy performance in this as the main character Billy Pilgrim who lives his life constantly shuttling back (“unstuck in time” as it were) and forth from being a WWII POW and dealing with his unrewarding family life afterward, his institutionalized life in between and a somewhat parellel existence being observed in a bubble on a distant planet. Now, like I said, Sacks inhabits this role perfectly and George Roy Hill (coming into this after Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid and The Sting) films it beautifully… but at the same time you wish it was something else. It’s a movie where you know the book is much more enjoyable – and during the whole thing you’re only able to watch the characters and never really get to understand them at all so you feel that you’re being held at a distance that prevents you from getting involved in what’s going on. 3 out of 5

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Oh, and in case for some ungodly reason you haven't seen it --
40 Year Old Virgin -- Go now. See this movie, and cry the tears of joy I cried. The trailers and commercials are simply unable, through cetains laws that are in place in our society, to show you the greatness that lies with in this movie. I'm unable right now to even recall a movie that I've seen recently that has as much hilarity as this. [Oh yeah, and watch Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared while you're at it.]

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Thumbsucker

Okay, I know I've been pushing the book for the last couple months but now I know the website for the damn thing's out there. There's a different preview on the apple quicktime trailer thing -- as well as another one when you go into the Thumbsucker site. I'm sorry I'm a bit pissy but the Patriots just blew a gimme game -- I know it's preseason but what the hell? Anyway, the trailers are making me believe they might turn this beautiful book into a half decent movie. After watching these, I'm thinking the pot baby is going to be left out (I really never thought that such a disturbing thing would make it in anyway) as well as the gas station job, but I have a fondness for these actors and I'm liking the way the marketing is going -- it's not trying to turn it into somthing it's not (like that goddamn line that appears on imdb calling it the "next napoleon dynamite" -- I swear I'd give that person such a pinch). And I think these trailers give you enough to show you THIS HAS NOTHING IN COMMON WITH NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. Fuck, that took the rest of me out. So check out that first link -- the site is pretty cool and again, go read the book.

I Spent $300 on Curtains

It was a damn fine weekend for movies this year. Well, that's strictly speaking for Boston that is. We got The Aristocrats, Last Days, and Grizzly Man (Broken Flowers came out the week before). Though, of course, none of these movies even made a dent in the top 10 B.O. results, what with Duke's driving around and Mark Wahlberg taking no prisoners...

I managed to see two of them -- Broken Flowers and The Aristocrats.

I'll just say that I found myself crying with laughter more then a couple times during The Aristocrats. That doesn't happen very often. I will say it's the funniest movie that I've seen this year, but it's also a bit exhausting – as you may guess from a 90 minute movie about a joke. But in a larger sense it’s more about the art of comedy itself and I’m sure any budding comics out there will treat this like a tutorial.

Bob Saget and Gilbert Gottfried pretty much come off as the stars of the film and Saget does indeed kill the audience in this with by far the best version of the joke. He’s the most creatively obscene and that’s really what the success of this joke hinges upon – the most relentless and imaginatively degrading and filthy is the stuff that wins. Or else you find a creative alternate way to tell the joke like the card trick guy or the mime – both winners as well.

I recommend the movie – but it might go by a bit more smoothly if you’ve had a few before hand and aren’t going in with impossible expectations like I did.

For something completely different Broken Flowers is a superb Jim Jarmusch film. Bill Murray is pitch perfect and gives a beautifully subtle and muted performance that easily stands out and differentiates itself from his recent work in Rushmore, Translation and Zissou. But Jeffrey Wright nearly steals the show as Murray’s neighbor and instigator. I’ll still sit and watch Basquiat whenever it’s on and think his performance in that is amazing.

And to wrap this up I’ll mention a few things about 2046, Wong Kar Wai’s sequel to In the Mood For Love, which I was able to get a free pass to tonight. Now I won’t by any means say I was disappointed – it’s just that it’s kind of impossible to not to compare it to the first. Now, I’m not sure if I’d mentioned it here before but I only saw In the Mood For Love around February or so and was pretty much floored by it. I’d seen Wong’s Chungking Express and have much love for that one, but In the Mood is another kind of movie all together. The look, fetishistic eye for details is pretty breathtaking.

Anyway, 2041 keeps all of these elements going and is for the most part enjoyable. But you find youself enjoying the bits and parts of it moe than the story itself. The beauty of the shots and the art direction, the music, the acting – all top notch and worth the price of admission. But the story itself isn’t quite as engaging as it’s predecessor’s. Really though, the more I think of it, it may just be that it just doesn’t quite have the same impact the second time around. Not to say that this is just a retread of the first movie – it’s definitely it’s own thing, but just not quite as affecting this time. But again, it’s a damn fine film that’ll probably grow on me the next couple days, and I’m going to see what I can do about getting my hands on the soundtracks to the both of these movies…

Subtractions, Additions, Retractions...

Those ads, yeah, I figure if I can get 10 bucks a year -- hey, that'll be worth the ten minutes it took me to put them up there... Also, I find it funny seeing what parts of the blog the ads decide to focus upon to gear themselves towards. Anyway, the subtractions took place on my Netflix queue so that I could get that little sidebar feature back up and going again. There's a couple places there where you can click and see what 400+ movies made the cut and you can click on any of the movies to get their repective official page. And if you have a Netflix account feel free to send me an email if you want to do that whole Netflix Friends thing.

As far as retractions go, I must say I'm smelling bad things coming from Brothers Grimm. I'd been pretty psyched about this movie for a long time -- I mean, shit, it's a new Gilliam movie -- cause enough for celebration. But now more and more word is leaking out that this is a strictly for the $$$ endeavour on Terry's part and the Weinsteins have taken most of his personal touches off the thing. Criminy...

But you see the flip side to this thing is that now matter how sub-par the movie is I still want to see the thing do boffo box office. For if this happens it could bring about the things that should have happened years ago -- Terry can get together enough money to buy back the rights to the Don Quixote project, get Good Omens back on it's feet -- and maybe even enough good will in Hollywood to direct a Harry Potter movie like he always should have (though I hear the latter books are more his material anyway) which is sure way to get some of his personal projects off the ground.

So hear's hoping your oppertunity to cash in is successfull Terry -- even if it's not the movie you wanted to make in the first place -- so that you may be able to make the movies you 've always wanted to make in the first place.

Comedians of Comedy

So, of course, in my discourse of the past week, I completely omitted probably the best thing -- The Comedians of Comedy show at the Paradise.



I was going there to see Patton Oswalt, who has a brilliant CD out, but was staying to see the rest of the bunch -- Zach Galafianakis, Brian Poshen, Maria Bramford, and special guest Todd Barry. I was excited to see Todd Barry announced, his web site (that receipt museum kills me) and a Comedy Central show I’d downloaded as an mp3 a year or so ago has brought many laughs.

Patton opened up the show as a sort of warm up and reinforced my belief that he’s clearly the king of this road show. But then Zach Galifianakis came on (the guy on piano in the pic) and fucking killed. He is like a combo of Steven Wright and that comedian that played piano and Mitch Hedberg – because he has that a bit stoned feeling about him – and yet definitely has his own thing... oozing confidence. He did have his own talk show on VH1 for about half a season--I may be the only person who remembers that. He got the crowd to buy him a shot and played to the cameras more than anyone else. Anyway, if you ever see him playing in your town, catch him, he puts on a great show -- not just your regular stand up shit.

The entire show was being filmed for Comedy Central. Many jokes were made at their expense. Not just this show but part of the compiled 6 northeast shows making up this tour. They played Atlantic City before Boston and every one of them made a point of how abysmal that crowd was. We were up at the top of the stairs and right behind the sax player that showed up at the end of Zach’s set. So hey, I may be on basic cable tv.

Brian Poshen & Maria Bramford kept the crowd going (they were good, but I'm moving on). And Patton came on afterward to put the thing to bed. Obviously they’ve set him up as the star of the show – but he definitely proves it. He took requests (Robert Evans! Tom Carvel!) and pretty much made sure everyone went home happy. They whole lot of them gave signatures at the merch booth and I bought a t-shirt and Patton’s 222 album. (If anyone knows where my Mr. Show tour t-shirt is, let me know.)

Todd Barry was a bit off – maybe the whole special guest thing wasn’t working for the crowd. I was a bit jealous myself for NYC getting Eugene Mirman but like I said, I dig the guy’s material. He didn’t bomb by any means, but the crowd, I think, was pretty eager to get Patton back on the stage.

Anyway, I’ve gone on much too long and in too dry a way – so since the fucking tour thing’s over with already, go catch it censored up the fucking ass on Comedy Central and wish you were there.

I recommend buying Patton’s 222 album – I don’t give a shit if you’ve never heard of him before or whathaveyou – they don’t make comedy albums like this anymore and they most likely never will. I swear it’s a classic to have, and every person who ever liked a stand-up act not conducted by a southern gimmick or a prop-wielding idiot will love and cherish it. Goodnight.

What the Hell Have You Been Doing?

Good question... Let's play catch up. We'll start July 15th when the Dinosaur Jr. renuion tour drove into town. (thank you ttam elbanak for the photos)



Yes, that's Gandalf on guitar. A blur of swirling white hair and Lou Barlow created their trademarked wall of sound and for the first 20 minutes of this show I was blown away. I think they pretty much played Living All Over Me in it's entirety (with bits of Bug and their first album). I must say Lou is amazing. I'd seen Dinosouar Jr. in '95 or so and it's strange to think how different their playing styles are. Maybe I'm just ill informed but I've never seen a bass player strum his guitar and created as full a sound as Lou does. And J, well the man's a guitar god, there's no doubt about it. I know of know other 3 piece band that sound like a 6 member assault like these guys.

But as I said, after 20 or 30 minutes the old man in me says, where's the seats and/or when the hell will I be able to get back to my couch. I'm sorry, but I'm having many issues with going to shows these days. I was pleased to see the smashed college dude yelling, "Mascis for president!!" after every song -- I mean, you can't get that experience watching the DVD.

So then, if we're going in order we have the The Penguin Movie aka The March of the Penguins. Short story -- go see it. But, see it at the later showing. We made the mistake of seeing at the matinee and yes, this is a G rated movie, so there was plenty of restless youngsters at the show. But for the most part they were behaved and the best part was listening to them get all scared and worried and want to go home when the whole nature vs. baby penguins stuff starts happening. Like Winthrop says, there's cute and then there's super cute and then there's baby penguins.

But that documentary has nothing on Murderball.
This movie is a true kick in the ass and a well, it's really a treasure -- in that it feels like something you never would have watched but afterward you feel like a better person that's learned something. Do you know the real definition of a quadriplegic? I didn't -- shit, these guys are more active and better well adjusted then I am. Why? Because of wheelchair rugby -- once known as Murderball. But as the spokesman says -- it's hard to sell a sport known as Murderball. If for some reason you're wondering about what documentary to see -- no, nevermind, see this movie -- regardless of the cute penguins, this one will stick with you long after the cuteness and the trials of the penguins. Let me quote a bit from CHUD: "Mark Urman, head of the theatrical division of THINKFilm, who released the movie, says, "The only explanation is that people don't want to see something about handicapped people. There is some resistance."

He may well be right, and that's just tragic. See, Murderball's not interesting because it's about cripples, and it's not great because it's uplifting. It's interesting because it's about this weird, exciting sport you never heard, played by strange and awesome and fascinating people. And it's uplifting, if it is, because the people it's about are real people, not because they're in wheelchairs.

" Well put.

So then, today that is, I got to go to my first Fenway Park game. The things I learned today: the Fenway Franks are pretty gross -- go for the footlong. They play Sweet Caroline in the middle of the 8th inning, everyone sings along, it's kinda fun. Standing room only tickets aren't too bad at all. Don't try to start a chant when the pitching coach is on the mound. And the grandstand seats in the shade are a good place to be.