I stayed out of the multiplex this weekend, but I’ve been keeping up with movies behind the scenes. Movie Summer is officially over and already there are some good indie and foreign films on the immediate horizon I can vouch for. You’ll want to keep an eye out for A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop, Zhang Yimou’s remake of Joel and Ethan Coen’s Blood Simple (9/3); Sean Baker’s fantastic Prince of Broadway (9/3); The Romantics (9/10) and Catfish (9/17).
In anticipation of Oliver Stone’s upcoming sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, I rewatched the original and I have to say it hasn’t held up all that well. It’s simplistic message that greed is not good is as true as ever, but I’m wondering why we need to revisit it other than for a chance for Stone to recapture some of his long lost glory. The current economic mess we find ourselves in only proves that the game board changes, but the same players end up with all the money. Anyway, every time I see the trailer in theaters it gets a very enthusiastic reaction so clearly there’s excitement out there for the continuing adventures of Gordon Gekko.
In other news, for the first time I’m catching up to Lars Von Trier’s creepy Danish miniseries The Kingdom which originally aired in the mid ’90s and is now available for streaming on Netflix. It reminds me of Twin Peaks in a lot of good ways, but it’s also uniquely Von Trier. Good stuff. You should check it out especially if you’re a fan of the director.
That’s all I’ve got. Your turn.
Filed under: The Watercooler
No movie theater this weekend. The weather is too nice and there are only two pool weekends left. :-)
However, I did continue to catch some of TCM’s Summer under the Stars series. On Friday I revisited The Heiress and To Each His Own for Olivia de Havilland day. And last night I revisited Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, which I hope will come to the big screen at one of the revival houses soon – that’s the way to see that movie.
Good Olivias there Alison, and a great Lawrence.
A torrid weekend schedule at the theatres again occupied the lion’s share of waking time in these parts, but the new festival at the Film Forum, The Return of William Castle (which opened Friday night) is the culprit, as my family was taken along for a quartet of films of the 50′s horror gimmick master, including a fully-rigged theatre (which included a “Cowards Corner” chair in the lobby) and a personal appearance from the director’s daughter Terry, who flew in with her husband from San Francisco for the festivities and a re-carpet treatment from Film Forum head honcho, Program Director Bruce Goldstein. Sunday’s showing of House on Haunted Hill included a moving skeleton moving across the ceiling of the theatre at the film’s climax, in the same way it was done back in 1958. For Mr. Sardonicus it was a “punishment poll” introduced before the end of the film by Castle himself, and the audience results on Sunday were overseen by Film Forum employees. I will have a full mega-post on William Castle in two weeks at WitD, relating my experience with this festival. Meanwhile, on Wednesday evening, on the next to last day of the 3D Festival, a sold-out crowd (many were turned away too) gave the theatre one of its biggest nights with Roy Ward Baker’s rarely-seen 3D vehicle (with Robert Ryan) of Inferno. Lucille and I managed three recent films on top of the festival stuff (which included the latest weekend Ozu)
I also managed three recent films on top of the festival stuff (which included the latest weekend Ozu) With school starting on Wednesday, there can be only one more week of this “drop-everything else” kind of insanity, but that will be enough to manage most of the Castle offerings, including the vital Castle noir, When Strangers Marry (1944).
We watched:
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World ** (Tuesday night) Edgewater multiplex
The Milk of Sorrow **** (Saturday night) Cinema Village
Animal Kingdom **** 1/2 (Saturday night) Landmark Cinemas
Inferno **** (Wednesday night) 3D Fest at Film Forum
Homicidal *** (Friday night) William Castle Fest at Film Forum
Straight-Jacket *** (Friday night) William Castle Fest at Film Forum
Mr. Sardonicus *** (Sunday) William Castle Fest at Film Forum
House on Haunted Hill **** (Sunday) William Castle Fest at Film Forum
Early Summer ***** (Sunday morning) Ozu Festival at IFC Film Center
The allegorical, intoxicating THE MILK OF SORROW has an abstract narrative, and the painstaking compositions are not enough in and of themselves to hold you enraptured, but there’s no denying the film’s bizarre premise and the sociological fascination makes the film essential viewing for any serious cineaste. (I do recall that ‘Just Another Film Buff’ wrote a magnificent favorable account at The Seventh Art, but I am unable to access it at his site.) ANIMAL KINGDOM uses Melbourne settings superlatively to tell its tale of crime and betrayal, and the haunting score is a compelling underpinning. Some buffo sequence, a stunning conclusion and some great performances all add up to an excellent Australian feature, in spite of the difficulty at times in negotiating the dialect. And then there’s SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD. The less I say here about that, the better. At some point I’ll elaborate, but for now I’ll just issue a curt dismissal.
The greatest film I saw this week then? Ozu’s ravishing EARLY SUMMER. No surprises.
Caught up with a bunch of films on DVD. Despite fine performances by their respective leads I didn’t find either The Road or Cherie particularly strong. The former judgement is likely an unfair consequence of specific expectations I brought to the film after loving the book. Much more to my liking was Samson & Delilah’s powerful (and often heartbreaking) story delivered with minimum flourish and sentimentality. I also got a kick out of Imaginarium’s looney imaginative journey, though for obvious reasons the experience is tinged with sadness. Finally, Zombieland started promising enough but then rapidly ran out of steam and even the Bill Murray segment was strangely flat and uninspired.
Nearly forgot that I also finally watched Two Lovers.
I liked the film’s elegant (and at times elegiac) rhythms and the score, and most of all a wonderful performance by Joaquin Phoenix. The script was strong too, even if the ending was a little neat and for me unconvincing.
*****SPOILERS*****
I’m not sure what we’re supposed to feel about the ending – I can’t imagine they’re simply saying he found happiness by finally and genuinely recognizing feelings more grounded in reality. What I took from it, though I’m not sure the filmmaker wanted me too, is that the main character has moved from one fantasy to another. The woman who choses him might be more grounded in the world (and a better fit with his family and culture) but we were given no real indication of sustainable emotional substance between them – she seems to love him regardless of the obvious warning signs he throws out that he is often not emotionally present inside their relationship and he ultimately commits to what appears a still relatively new relationship despite having obsessed about someone else through much of their courtship. What worked much better for me was how the film captured the kind of desperate/needy intoxicating romantic love that someone still grieving an earlier lost love can bring to a new attraction, particuarly one that initially seemed unattainable. I would have liked seeing a deeper exploration of this, but that is a quibble. A surprisingly adult American relationship film that was artfully made and performed.
The highlight for me was introducing people to Billy Wilder’s The Apartment. at our weekly movie night. Definitely one of his best films.
Alison, you did well in watching films by two very strong performers — de Havilland & O’Toole. Speaking of the former, I caught TCM’s screening of The Light in the Piazza, an early 60s adult drama that was surprisingly good and even featured a young George Hamilton displaying clear talent — something we tend to forget — in playing an Italian romantic.
Finally I caught up with The Secret in Their Eyes. While it was good, I can only speculate why it took home the foreign film Oscar over Un Prophet — lots of images in my mind of Academy voters such as the Reel Geezers in their den, hitting pause intermittently so as to freshen their drinks between chuckles.
I see that Sam, as usual, is moving with the speed and thrust of a train locomotive. I’ve yet to see Two Lovers but wish to do so.
That locomotive is getting ready to crash Pierre! Ha!
UN PROPHET may well be the best film of 2010 still at this late date.
(yes I do count it as 2010 as it opened in USA theatres in February.) I am enjoying the blu-ray now.
There’s no bad way to see Lawrence Alison, but yeah. Big screen is the way to go. Back in the early ’90s I took my mom to see the then-recently restored version at the Cinerama in Seattle with its mongo sized screen. She LOVED Peter O’Toole so it was 31 flavors of awesome.
Sorry Sam, you’re totally off your nut regarding Scott Pilgrim. Best wide release movie of the summer!
Juliano vs. Kennedy: FIGHT!!!
Sartre, I never read the book but I was quite taken with Hillcoat’s movie version of The Road. It was so terribly grim but left a ray of hope that wasn’t overstated. Plus Viggo was fantastic. Cherie on the other hand, we’re pretty much in agreement. I barely remember it except for Pfeiffer’s performance which was actually very good and that it was an improvement over the dreadful looking trailer. Stephen Frears’ Tamara Drewe isn’t much to get too excited about either, but it’s likable and well acted.
As for Two Lovers, for me it was perfect. It implied that things were wrapped in a neat bow – it was the typical romance ending that audiences are led by the nose to expect – but everything we’d learned about Phoenix’s character implied that it was going to be a complete disaster because the two characters were so clearly wrong for each other. Kind of brilliant, I think. It gives you the frisson of a happy ending until you really think about how it’s likely to turn out. And I think Gray is precisely smart enough to have had that be the intention.
Joseph, I love Shirley MacLaine in Apartment, but my fav Billy Wilder is Double Indemnity.
Pierre, my feeling is that Secret was the most easily digested of a difficult bunch of relatively challenging films. I still think it’s better than its reputation and had it never been nominated it would be held in higher regard. I thought it was an entertaining genre mash-up.
My favorite Wilder is a toss-up between The Apartment and Sunset Boulevard. Hard to choose. I’ve never taken to Double Indemnity. Bought the deluxe edition sight unseen and it just left me flat.
Agreed on Two Lovers, Craig. Great little film. Wish more people had seen it.
I finished watching season 4 of The Wire, which was terrific. The only film I managed to see was The Art of the Steal. It was excellent! I went into it feeling one way about the controversy, having read a little about it, and then another way completely after watching the film. The main thing that changed for me was actually seeing the art and the organic, atypical arrangement of it in the Barnes Collection’s original home. Something about it moved me profoundly, even from fleeting images of it in a documentary. I got it, what Barnes was doing, and I think it was genius. I certainly get the appeal of the art for the City of Philadelphia–I work with cultural tourism marketing and you don’t have to sell me on the draw of such a collection or economic impact–but it’s just plain wrong. Special art may belong in museums where everyone can see it, but the Barnes Collection was extra-special partly because of the way it wasn’t in circulation in the major museums. It was extraordinary art displayed in a unique way, in a setting that was special, set apart from every other Important Painting seen in every other museum in the world.
I thought the filmmakers also did a good job making the documentary visually interesting, well-paced and energetic, despite essentially being a talking heads documentary of legal battles. Highly recommended.
You’re probably right Craig that the dissonance evoked by the ending was precisely calculated.
*****SPOILERS*****
I’m only cause for pause was the fact of the “romantic” ending being so completely free of irony – the glove falls from the suicidal character’s coat into the water’s edge, he picks it up and makes the connection, rushes back to the party and then presents her with the ring. This felt wrong to me as it played out.
I love Billy Wilder. The Apartment and Sunset Boulevard are definitely among his top works, and I have to add in Double Indemnity to that. Brilliant stuff.
As for Two Lovers, for me it was perfect. It implied that things were wrapped in a neat bow – it was the typical romance ending that audiences are led by the nose to expect – but everything we’d learned about Phoenix’s character implied that it was going to be a complete disaster because the two characters were so clearly wrong for each other.
Exactly, although I didn’t walk away with the impression at all that it was a neat bow. It was obvious that Phoenix’s character was settling for his second preference and that in the long run it wasn’t going to work. And that was the theme of the movie – fucked up relationships and the things that people do to one another when they’re in them. Great movie though, and he was wonderful. A very overlooked performance that year, and an overlooked and underrated film.
Craig, that sounds like a wonderful experience with your mom. Lawrence of Arabia is fantastic and definitely enjoyable to watch, even on a TV screen. And of course Peter O’Toole is always worth watching. I just couldn’t help but think as I was watching it that the big screen would do much more justice to the sweep and scope of that luscious cinematography.
My top 3 Billy Wilder films:
Sunset Boulevard
The Apartment
Double Indemnity
I love what Wilder did for/to Fred Macmurray.
I agree Alison and Joseph that those three Wilder films are fantastic. But I would rank Some Like It Wild with them. And One, Two, Three is another favorite of mine.
You mean Some Like It Hot? :-)
Yes, that is one of the funniest movies ever. I love Jack Lemmon in everything.
And One, Two, Three has moments of true hilarity.
No question, Wilder was a superb writer.
“Sorry Sam, you’re totally off your nut regarding Scott Pilgrim. Best wide release movie of the summer!
Juliano vs. Kennedy: FIGHT!!!”
en garde!!!!
Wilderwise, I’d like to point out Witness for the Prosecution and The Fortune Cookie, each one a gem in its own right. The former had an engaging plot, charming performance from Laughton, and Dietrich and Tyrone Power have never been better. The latter film had a great performance by Matthau and featured a rare (at the time) good role for a black actor (Ron Rich). My two faves, of course, are Sunset Blvd and Some Like it Wild (aka Some Like it Hot).
I can’t wait for the fisticuffs featuring Craig & Sam. How much will tickets cost, and will there be popcorn?
I brought the popcorn, Pierre, and I’ve already got my feet up on the seat in front of me. The people there love me.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve really only seen the often lauded Wilder films. I’ll have to hit up NetFlix and watch his other work.
Oops, I meant Some Like it Hot. That darn Something Wild was pushing its way into my thoughts.
After weeks of having movie-less weekends and busy weeks, I finally got out and saw a new release last night (sure it was Tuesday, so sue me). Animal Kingdom was a surprisingly taunt crime thriller. It hit some predictable turns narratively and I saw a few things coming, but overall it was well-constructed, tense, and well-acted. I didn’t particularly care for the ending, but I enjoyed the film overall.
Worth checking out if Aussie crime thrillers are your sort of thing.
I second the Animal Kingdom emotion.
I went into it a bit begrudgingly assuming it would be yet another in a long tiresome line of crime-thrillers (Gamorrah etc.) about a bunch of uninteresting thugs.
Turns out it kind of was that, but I liked the perspective the story approached. I liked being drawn into this world by an imperfect, but relatively innocent kid.
And Smurf was great.
Just bought tickets to see On Her Majesty’s Secret Service at the Aero with George Lazenby in attendance.
If I have to tell you how awesome that is, you won’t believe me anyway.