Space City Movie Glutton

2006-11-22T07:36:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #111

KISS meets the Phantom of the Park in, well, KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park.

Wow, this is really, really bad. And therefore awesome. You know, nothing quite says "rock and roll" like having your band star in a movie where you'll fight an evil scientist and his furry robot minions against the backdrop of an amusement park, complete with Six Million Dollar Man-style slo-mo fight choreography and logic problems that wouldn't even pass muster on Saturday Morning cartoons. I want to attribute such decisions to drugs or alochol problems, but Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons are famous teetotalers. My best guess is some producer had a dump truck of cash delivered to their lawns one morning, along with the movie script.

Anyways, enjoy the world's first superhero rock and roll band in all their glory. The sound is way off synch in this clip, but I really don't think it matters.

2006-11-21T10:26:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #110

With Robert Altman's passing today, here's the first ten minutes of one of my favorite of his films, California Split starring George Segal and Elliot Gould.

Enjoy.

Robert Altman: 1925-2006

2006-11-21T09:13:00.000-08:00

Robert Altman, one of the true greats of film, has died. If you haven't seen many of his movies, you just don't really know movies yet. While other 70s-era filmmakers broke box-office records, garnered Oscars, and pushed the envelope in terms cinematic depictions of sex and violence, Altman still stood apart by creating a cinematic style all his own: long takes, huge casts, a crowded, busy mise-en-scene that filled the frame with subtle nuances and behaviors, and, of course, all that overlapping dialogue that made viewers feel more like eavesdroppers than observers of a "performance." Given his body of work, it's amazing how Altman could take on a vast array of subjects, time periods, and moods, yet one only needed to watch a few minutes to know immediately it was an Altman film.

Ever the iconoclast, Altman's career had a number of ups and downs. Though he never repeated the smash success of his first film, M*A*S*H*, he remains all the more admirable for a steady output that regularly pushed the envelope while his peers went on to more "conventional" fare. Maybe I'll elaborate on this later, but if you're wondering where to start, or what else is wortwhile in Altman's canon, here are a few suggestions:

Nashville: I don't know if it's the country music, or the three hour running time, but far too many of my friends have still put off watching what is arguably Altman's best film, and one of the best films of the Seventies. Don't be a wuss; find out what the fuss is all about. I've probably seen it 7 or 8 times, and I always discover something new.

California Split: Just great fun. Elliot Gould rules in this movie.

3 Women: Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek, and a lot of weirdness that quickly becomes very unsettling. I like to call this The First David Lynch Movie Before David Lynch.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, songs by Leonard Cohen, and one of the best depictions of a growing community ever in an early example of the "anti-Western." Just beautiful.

Gosford Park: Most people have probably seen this, but it's another great example of a film that reward repeat viewings. As usual, Altman starts off with a simple idea "Agatha Christie-type Murder in the Manor," quickly tosses out the initial game plan, and discovers all sorts of interesting ideas floating around in the corners of what should be a stale scenario.

Altman was 81 years old. He will be missed.

For a full obit, click here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061121/ap_on_en_mo/obit_altman

2006-11-20T06:54:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #109

Here's a clip from American Movie, a documentary which chronicles what I believe is a version of every creative person's nightmare: what if you set out to create something great, invest all of your time and energy in it, and it adds up to .... not much?

People ask me all the time why I don't ever try to do something involving film production, and I point to American Movie as my answer: I just picture every day, every hour, every minute of trying to make a film being like the moment we see in the clip above. I think you have to be a certain kind of crazy to embark on making a film, and I'm certainly glad those people are out there. I'll just stick with typing prose on my computer and having it all under my own control, thankyouverymuch.

In the meantime, enjoy the misadventures of Mark Borchardt and Mike Shank. Mike Shank rules.

"It made sense to him..."

2006-11-19T11:35:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #108

Otis Redding shows all those dirty hippie kids how it's done with "Shake!" and "I've Been Loving You Too Long" in The Monterey Pop Festival.

"Do it just one more time!"

2006-11-17T06:48:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #107

I've recently been accused -- repeatedly -- of being a curmudgeon at the movie theater, and here's a clip from Woody Allen's Annie Hall that might perfectly illustrate my mood, especially the first thirty seconds or so -- only in my case, imagine this happening in the movie theater while movie is playing.

"Boy, if life were only like this..."

2006-11-16T07:19:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #107

Charles Bronson jams on his harmonica and shows three hired killers what's what in Sergio Leone's hugely epic and oh-so-mythic Once Upon A Time in the West.

Seriously, does anyone give their heroes an entrance quite as grandly as Sergio Leone?

"You brought two too many."

2006-11-15T07:09:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #106

A medieval knight returning from the Crusades encounters Death, a bargains for more time by challenging him to a game of chess in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal.

I'm sorry there are no subtitles for this clip, but here's a loose translation:

Max Von Sydow: Who are you?

Death: I am Death.

MVS: Damn! What are you doing here?

Death: It's time.

MVS: No fucking way! I was just about to find out the answer to one of the great questions that plagues mankind! Namely, how can God exist if there is so much suffering in the world? And if God does not exist, what gives life meaning?

Death: Too late. Maybe you'll find out on the other side. Come on...

MVS: Step off, man! I'm telling you, I've gotta find this shit out for myself. I'll tell you what. I hear you've got mad skillz on the chess board -- what do you say we play a game, and in the meantime, I'll roam the countryside, pick up some travelling performers and other wayward souls, we'll maybe witness a burning at the stake, take in the carnage of the Plague terrorizing my country, and I'll search for answers to the questions I already outlined to you before.

Death: Okay. But I get to be black.

MVS: Cool. Prepare to get your ass handed to you!

At least, that's how I remember it. The subtitles might have a few subtle differences.

2006-11-14T18:21:00.000-08:00

(Sort of) Daily Movie Clip #105

An army of stuntmen race, swoosh, and crash their way through a ski resort while Roger Moore smiles for his close-up in front of a rear projection screen in For Your Eyes Only.

I got the idea for this clip, of course, because the James Bond franchise has been given a new, supposedly grittier, back-to-basics update (or, as the kids like to call it these days, a "reboot") in Casino Royale, starring a new James Bond (Daniel Craig) and opening this Friday.

I only want to point out that in the pantheon of James Bond films, For Your Eyes Only was also an attempt to make Roger Moore more "tough" and "back-to-basics" after camp-fests like The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. I'll let you be the judge of their success at such an attempt with the clip above. In the meantime, here's hoping that Casino Royale is more successful with with this transition. If early reviews are any indication, maybe there's still some life in the franchise after all.

I'll also point out that For Your Eyes Only was the first James Bond movie I ever saw, on HBO at a family friend's house, probably around the age of eight. As hard as it might be to believe, I remember at the time thinking I was watching something really sophisticated and adult. Weird.

2006-11-09T07:50:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #104

I wish I'd found this last week before Halloween: here someone with a lot of time on their hands has compiled a collection of clips that feature every single "kill" from all ten Friday the 13th movies. Notice I didn't say every "kill" from Jason Voorhees -- that would be inaccurate, given the fact Jason's mom was responsible for all the mayhem in the original Friday the 13th.

Anyhoo, now you can enjoy all 160 (!) death scenes from all ten movies in the Friday the 13th franchise, reduced down to 7 minutes and complete with a running tally in the lower right corner for your viewing pleasure.

Trivia Note: Kill #5 is Kevin Bacon, and #37 is Crispin Glover.

Personally, I'm kind of partial to Kill #88.

2006-11-08T08:31:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #103

Colin pointed this out to me last weekend, and I just have to share it with everyone: Greg the Bunny, a show from the Independent Film Channel that features puppet parodies of famous films.

Here we have a takeoff of Woody Allen's Annie Hall that's both dead-on and quite demented.

Just press play. You'll see what I mean.

2006-11-07T17:15:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #102

You can't beat this: here's a bit from the final scene of everyone's favorite film romance, Michael Curtiz's Casablanca.

Who else could pull of a speech like Humphrey Bogart gives to Ingrid Bergman here? The answer: no one.

2006-11-06T07:03:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #101

Jimmy Cliff sings "The Harder They Come" in, well, The Harder They Come, directed by Perry Henzell.

2006-11-05T06:31:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #100

Wow, I can't believe I've posted 100 of these things now. To mark the occasion, here's a little-known clip from some obscure little art film called Star Wars. I hear some evil movie mogul guy screwed up this movie by re-editing the film and inserting a bunch of silly, gratuitous special effects because, you know, the original version was only the biggest box-office sensation of all time, and a generational cinematic touchstone to boot. So you know: lots of room for improvement, as also further evidenced by the subsequent prequel trilogy that thankfully drew to a close with a whimper last year.

Maybe George Lucas should have taken Han Solo's advice from this clip:

"Don't get cocky!"

2006-11-04T11:06:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #99

Two con artists reveal their true selves and find love in one of my favorite screwball comedies, Ernst Lubitsch's Trouble in Paradise.

I've heard the story more than once that Billy Wilder (Some Like It Hot, Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, etc.) kep a sign in his office as inspiration while writing. Its message was simple: "What would Lubitsch do?"

"My darling shoplifter. My sweet little pickpocket."

2006-11-03T08:34:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #98

I'm hoping to see Borat this weekend, and here's a clip of Sasha Baron Cohen showing his commitment to the character during a promotional appearance on CBS This Morning.

Enjoy.

2006-11-02T06:28:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #97

Jack and Meg open the show with a bang by performing "Black Math" in The White Stripes: Live Under Black Pool Lights.

The Fountain: For Once, A Sci-Fi Film with No CGI

2006-11-01T20:25:00.000-08:00

There's an excellent interview with director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem For a Dream, and now The Fountain) in Wired Magazine which you can read here but what really struck me was the way many of the supposedly mind-blowing visuals were created by deciding early on not to go the CGI route but instead something called the "microzoom optical bench":

Bristling with digital and film cameras, lenses, and Victorian prisms, their contraption can magnify a microliter of water up to 500,000 times or fill an Imax screen with the period at the end of this sentence. Into water they sprinkle yeast, dyes, solvents, and baby oil, along with other ingredients they decline to divulge. The secret of Parks' technique is an odd law of fluid dynamics: The less fluid you have, the more it behaves like a solid. The upshot is that Parks can make a dash of curry powder cascading toward the lens look like an onslaught of flaming meteorites. "When these images are projected on a big screen, you feel like you're looking at infinity," he says. "That's because the same forces at work in the water – gravitational effects, settlement, refractive indices – are happening in outer space."

The microzoom optical bench furnished Aronofsky's film with something neither a computer nor an old-fashioned matte painter could deliver – chaos, in all its ultra high-definition fractal glory.

Sounds intriguing, no? I'm really hoping Aronofsky pulled off something special with The Fountain (you can see my previous thoughts and a link to the trailer here) though word has it that reactions at festivals and screenings has been sharply divided. But, this can be a good thing: will Aronofsky soon join the ranks of directors like Terry Gilliam, Spike Lee, and Francis Ford Coppola, David Fincher and everyone's idol Stanley Kubrick and deliver another initially-scorned-but-ahead-of-its-time masterpiece? I guess we'll find out soon. The Fountain opens later this month.

2006-11-01T17:47:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #96

Charlie Chaplin woos the ladies the best way he knows how in The Gold Rush.

As another sign of getting old, watching this scene again, I'm amazed at how young Chaplin looks now. He had to have been in his twenties, early thirties tops. And beyond the amazing dexterity and timing he has with two forks and a couple pieces of bread, the thing that makes it work is how he stays so straight-faced throughout the routine, only breaking into a smile once the women applaud.

2006-10-31T05:32:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #95

For October 31st, here's an extra-special (and gory) collage of horror movie moments.

Enjoy, and Happy Halloween!

2006-10-30T05:45:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #94

Bruce Lee gets revenge on the thug responsible for his sister's death in Enter the Dragon.

Enjoy.

2006-10-29T06:10:00.000-08:00

Daily Movie Clip #93

Sandra Bernhard does her best in Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy to outdo Robert De Niro's Rupert Pupkin in the "batshit crazy" department, and largely suceeds.

I'd never seen this movie before until recently -- I'd always known it had a cult following, but I'd also heard a lot of mixed things, and I knew it bombed when it first came out. I can understand why: it's way ahead of its time in dealing with the subject of our celebrity-obsessed culture. Now, it actually seems kind of mild, but it's still very funny and well-written, with a lot of scenes that make you wince and feel uneasy years before, say, The Office.

Plus, De Niro and Bernhard are really amazing together as a pair of outcasts who can only relate to each other by fighting over who loves, respects, and "understands" talkshow host Jerry Lewis better than anyone else on the planet. I'd always wondered what the big deal was about Bernhard, but now I know: she was probably something like twenty at the time, but she holds her own against a post-Raging Bull De Niro in every scene.

Enjoy.

Fried Coke: Only In Texas Would They Come Up With This....

2006-10-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

Um, this really leaves me speechless. From Yahoo! News:

"Abel Gonzales, 36, a computer analyst from Dallas, tried about 15 different varieties before coming up with his perfect recipe -- a batter mix made with Coca-Cola syrup, a drizzle of strawberry syrup, and some strawberries.

Balls of the batter are then deep-fried, ending up like ping-pong ball sized doughnuts which are then served in a cup, topped with Coca-Cola syrup, whipped cream, cinnamon sugar and a cherry on the top.

"It tastes great," said Sue Gooding, a spokeswoman for the State Fair of Texas where Gonzales' fried Coke made its debut this fall. "It was a huge success."
Gonzales ran two stands at the State Fair of Texas and sold up to 35,000 fried Cokes over 24 days for $4.50 each -- and won a prize for coming up with "most creative" new fair food."

How long do you think it'll be before they're charging $8 for this at your favorite megaplex?

Here's the full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061027/od_nm/life_coke1_dc

2006-10-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #92

I can't let Halloween go by without posting a clip featuring Vincent Price. Here, we have a scene from Roger Corman's take on Edgar Allan Poe's Masque of the Red Death. As you'll see, it's filled with all sort of 1960s hedonism and even psychedelia as the film goes on. Fans of A Clockwork Orange might also recognize the actor who gets a goblet of wine thrown in his face: he also got a lot of abuse from Alex and his Droogs before giving Alex his just desserts from a wheelchair.

"How like a pig you are. Be one!"

Rambo IV: Because Rocky VI Wasn't A Bad Enough Idea...

2006-10-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

Yes! It looks like Stallone will be tying on the headband and combining explosives with archery one more time. From Yahoo! News:

"Sylvester Stallone will spend several weeks in Thailand early next year, shooting "Rambo IV: In the Serpent's Eye" in the country's lush, mountainous northern provinces, said Wanasiri Morakul, director of the Thailand Film Office. In the latest sequel, John Rambo is pulled out of retirement in Bangkok to help find missionary aid workers who disappear as they're delivering supplies to ethnic minorities in neighboring Myanmar."

Awesome.

You can read more here.

2006-10-26T06:23:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #91

Here's another Halloween-themed clip for your enjoyment: Alice Cooper performing "Welcome to My Nightmare" on (gulp!) The Muppet Show.

Can you imagine anything like this today on so-called "kids programming"? I mean, I don't know what's cooler: that The Muppet Show asked Alice Cooper to perform on their show, or that Alice Cooper risked his "dangerous" image to dance around with a bunch of Muppets?

You decide....

2006-10-25T06:59:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #90

Here we have an example of spot-on-perfect casting: Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl in Robert Altman's Popeye, singing Harry Nillson's "He Needs Me."

Robert Altman directing a big-screen, live action version of Popeye: How bizarre is that? I remember being very weirded out by this movie as a kid, and more than a little bored; let's face it, the Altman style of long takes, overlapping dialogue, and improvisation is not exactly kid-friendly. Now, watching it as an adult, I can't help but imagine there was an awful lot of cocaine on the set as well. This movie has its defenders, and it does have its moments (the set design is quite inspired, with a whole dilapidated seaside town constructed at the cost of who knows how many millions of dollars) but in the end I still think it's one big, somewhat-fascinating mess.

Fans of Punch-Drunk Love will also notice here that Paul Thomas Anderson appropriated "He Needs Me" to nice effect in the scene where Adam Sandler races to Hawaii to hook up with Emily Watson.

2006-10-24T06:49:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #89

I was hoping to find a clip of the Hammer Horror classic Horror of Dracula starring Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing as Professor Van Helsing, but the video quality was pretty bad. So instead, here's a far more campy and cheesy film from Hammer Studios, Dracula A.D. 1972 where, you guessed it, Dracula wakes up in Swinging Early 70s London. I'm embarassed to admit I've actually seen this, but there you go. This also stars a much older Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, along with some woman's breasts and a quite-funky musical score. Dig it! And, you've gotta love the 70s era blood-splatter that look like nothing more than thick, orange paint.

2006-10-23T06:23:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #88

Here we have some amazing time capsule material from Penelope Spheeris's The Decline of Western Civilization: The Metal Years. This clip deals with the now largely-forgotten band Faster Pussycat, and the actually-still-going L.A. club Cathouse. Stick around for the end and you'll see a brief clip of a newly-sober Steven Tyler and Joe Perry just before Aerosmith made their big comeback.

I soooo want this movie to come out on DVD, but I suspect it never will because of issues with music rights, etc. (This is also why a number of old TV shows, like, say WKRP in Cincinatti haven't been released -- who can afford to pony up royalties for all those songs playing in the background?) Maybe someone will post the whole thing on YouTube, though.

Penelope Spheeris, of course, went on to direct the Wayne's World movies, but this is way more fascinating because its metalheads minus the irony. Awesome.

"You wanna come here dressed really nice, that's okay, but you'll get in the club faster if you dress sleazy."

2006-10-22T06:55:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #87

I managed to finally see Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep last night, and was pleasantly surprised. I'd been hearing mixed things, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially Gael Garcia Bernal's lead performance. This is a movie that could have easily tipped into overly whimsical and precious navel-gazing (and I'm sure some people still believe it did) but to me Bernal kept the proceedings firmly grounded, allowing for a lot of unflattering comedy and even some hints of surprising darkness to come through. And just when I started to think the proceedings might be getting a little wearing or repetitive, the film wrapped itself up well under a two hour running time.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet (and the fact The Science of Sleep has already been released months ago in other countries) there are already plenty of clips available for viewing. Here's one of my favorite scenes, involving Stephane's invention of a "one-second time machine."

Enjoy.

2006-10-20T07:45:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #86

So last night I decided to sit down and watch the universally acclaimed film masterpiece... uh... TRON. Yeah, that's the one. Anyways, it was quite a trip down memory lane, another reminder that I was not once the man of sophisticated tastes and skilled critiques that I am today. As a nine-year-old, it was all about big flashing lights, an instantly-indentifiable bad guy, and.... anthropomorphized computer programs running around in computer circuits, killing each other in video games and riding around in bitchin' "light cycles" (I think that's what they were called).

As you watch this scene, though, you might notice some oh-so-adult, quite sophisticated ruminations on God's responsibility to Man, and Man's responsiblity to God. Or something like that. Maybe.

Enjoy.

2006-10-19T06:15:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #85

Here's the wonderfully ominous and foreboding opening that gets the ball rolling for all sorts of zombie mayhem in George Romero's Night of the Living Dead.

Apologies for the low quality of the video here, but it still gets the job done.

"They're coming to get you, Barbara!"

2006-10-18T19:27:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #84

Anna Karina and Eddie Constantine take a moment to try and figure out what love is in Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville.

Those crazy French. I know this is sacrilege, but I can't help entertaining myself with visions of an American remake version of a scene like this, say, with Jennifer Aniston and Sean Connery. Wouldn't that be a riot?

In the meantime, enjoy this Godardian take on sci-fi films, with barely anything resembling a special effect, but plenty of inventiveness, charm, and even poetry in its minimal mise-en-scene.

2006-10-17T06:25:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #83

David Cronenberg joins the long list of foolish people who die at the hands of Jason Voorhees in Jason X, or Jason 10 for the non-Romans out there, or, unofficially, Friday the 13th Part 10: Jason Goes to Space.

And yes, it's THAT David Cronenberg in this clip, director of horror classics like Videodrome, The Fly, and Scanners, among others. I have no idea what's he doing in such a clearly junk film like this, but my guess is that a friend of his was a producer, director, or something else on Jason X.

Enjoy.

2006-10-16T06:56:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #82

Amidst all the kung-fu, exploitation, grindhouse, redneck goodness that is Kill Bill Volume One (amongst other genres) Quentin Tarantino takes a moment to pay homage to the early-70s, split-screen-happy, Hitchcock-influenced films of Brian DePalma.

Enjoy. And by the way, the song is called "Twisted Nerve," by probably the great film composer ever, Bernard Hermann.

2006-10-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #81

Here's a wonderful bit from what I personally feel is Woody Allen's best movie, 1989's Crimes and Misdemeanors. Many people claim to only like "funny" Woody Allen, and of course throughout his career Allen has chafed against this and at times made more "serious" fare like Interiors, Husbands and Wives, or last year's Match Point. However, with Crimes and Misdemeanors I think Allen strikes a perfect balance. As I said before, if you haven't seen it, you still haven't seen Allen at his best.

Trailer: Grind House

2006-10-11T07:50:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: I see the link above no longer works at YouTube, so here click here and try that out instead.

One of the more geekily anticipated films of the next several months has to be the Robert Rodriguez / Quentin Tarantino collaboration Grind House, and a trailer has just hit the net for your viewing pleasure.

I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure this only covers the Robert Rodriguez half of the feature, entitled Planet Terror, which, as you can see, involves lots of zombies, exploding bodies, car crashes, and busty women. For those not in the know, Grind House is supposed to recreate the experience of watching an ultra-cheesy, violent, balls-to-the-wall double feature in some shitty midnight movie theater, complete with fictional "trailers" between the features -- which we get a glimpse of with Danny Trejo as "Machete."

This looks like it could be fun, but three-plus hours of this could be quite grueling. I love the "dirtied up" look to the film stock, and while I'm sure Rodriguez will be all about the second-unit-heavy stunts and explosions, I'm hoping Tarantino will add some heavy doses of wild-but-nuanced characterizations and memorable dialogue. Otherwise, this might just be an empty, gets-old-real-quick exercise. But here's hoping....

Here's also hoping Tarantino works his career resusciation magic on Kurt Russell, who's starring as "Stuntman Mike" in the as-yet-unseen Tarantino-directed portion of Grind House called Death Proof.

Also, how cool is it to see Michael Biehn (of Terminator and Aliens fame) back on the big screen?

2006-10-11T07:31:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #80

Gene Wilder gets in touch with his roots as Young Frankenstein in Mel Brooks's, well, Young Frankenstein.

I know a lot of people prefer Blazing Saddles, but I think Young Frankenstein is so much better. The mimicry of 1930's Universal Horror films is spot-on, the pace is much tighter than the rather bloated Blazing Saddles, and every cast member here is just inspired. Gene Wilder, in particular, is just on a whole other plane of hysterical behavior.

Enjoy.

2006-10-10T07:03:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #79

Here, of course, we have a clip from Amy Heckerling's Fast Times at Ridgemont High, featuring Ray Walston as Mr. Hand and Sean Penn as the immortal Jeff Spicoli.

Am I the only person who wishes Sean Penn would do comedy more often? Remember how good he was in Sweet and Lowdown, too? Come on, Mr. Penn! Why so serious all the time?

"Aloha, Mr. Hand!"

2006-10-09T06:53:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #78

Boris Karloff instantly cements his place in history as he makes his first appearance as The Monster in James Whale's 1931 Frankenstein.

As Halloween approaches, I'm sure I'll be posting more and more horror clips. While many will be goofy and campy, I do think that even after all the parodies, Halloween masks, and later adaptations of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, this take by James Whale and Boris Karloff still posseses a strange, raw, almost primal power. Just look at that shot of The Monster straining to touch the sunlight! Who would think to include a moment like that today?

2006-10-08T09:29:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #77

How about something a little more serious this morning?

This is a clip from Hercules, Samson, and Ulysses. I really have no idea what this movie's about, except it involves, well, Hercules, Samson, and Ulyssess beating the crap out of each other.

Enjoy.

2006-10-07T07:06:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #76

Frank Vincent makes the mistake of joking about painful childhood memories with Joe Pesci in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas.

Given my feelings about The Departed below, and a lot of people's ridiculous statements that that movie is anywhere near as good as Goodfellas, I defy anyone to point out even one scene in that film that even comes within shouting distance of the way the raw tension, hilarity, violence, and oddly moving soundtrack come together in this masterful scene.

The Departed (Disappointed Sigh)

2006-10-07T06:33:00.000-07:00

I guess this is what I get for hoping....

So I checked out Martin Scorsese's The Departed yesterday, and I'm completely confounded by its near-universal praise. I can understand why a lot of internet "journalists" are raving -- to them, having good actors act tough, beat each other at the drop of a hat, and hurl around curses and racial epithets all while acting morally conflicted just has to mean they're watching a "deep" movie -- but has film criticism gotten this bad that everyone's just willing to go along with the hype machine? I know we all want another great Scorsese film, but folks, this is not it.

To be sure, it's not a terrible movie. It's got its strong points -- it's well-shot (of course), both Damon and DiCaprio are quite good, the soundtrack mostly rocks, and Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin make the most of their small roles to hilarious effect, though they also seem to quite-knowingly be parodying the notion of a "tough guy" cop. Funny and over the top, yes, but their scenes often seem to be stitched in from an entirely different movie.

But there are just too many strikes against this movie for anyone to credibly call this "pretty good," let alone "great." I don't want to give anything away, and I might revisit this topic further, but here's a taste. First, the whole "love triangle" thing between DiCaprio, Damon, and some new-on-the-scene actress is not only completely preposterous, but about as boring as can be -- and it takes up a substantial amount of the bloated 2 1/2 hour running time (that's about 10-15 minutes longer than both Goodfellas and Raging Bull, for those keeping score). The only way the filmmakers seem to try to make it not-so-preposterous that this female psychiatrist would be involved with both these characters is by making her seemingly the only female character under the age of 35 in all of Boston -- except, I guess, for Jack Nicholson's girlfriend, who always confused me whenever she showed up. I'm guessing more substantial scenes with her were left on the cutting room floor.

Also, whatever happened to the envelope DiCaprio gave the psychiatrist? Why didn't she do anything with it?

And speaking of plot holes, where the hell was Mark Wahlberg's character when he said he'd show up?

I don't want to go much further, but I do want to now proclaim Jack Nicholson as the new heir to the "I'm just going to be wacky and everyone will think I'm great" school of Old Marlon Brando acting. I know everyone loves to see Jack be all crazy and leering on magazine covers and in the front row of the Oscars, but this is a sad state of affairs compared to the man who once played Jake Gittes and R.P. MacMurphy, et al. Early on, I had my hopes up -- oh my God, Jack's really creating a character rather than a persona this time! -- but soon enough, other characters are proclaiming "The old man's going crazy!" yet this isn't really a character going crazy in any believable sense. It's Jack Nicholson on the set saying, "Hey, I'm Jack Nicholson! How's about if I walk into this scene with blood all over my clothes, and nobody'll say anything! Then I'll set these pieces of paper on fire! Then I'll walk into this scene wearing a big giant strap-on dildo! Then I'll pretend I just swatted a fly and I'll eat it!"

Seriously, someone explain to me how this is any different from Brando showing up on the set of Island of Dr. Moreau with kabuki facepaint and a lampshade on his head.

To top it all off, there's absolutely nothing in the script to provide any sort of motivation or explanation for why Nicholson's character starts behaving this way -- except, of course, Jack wanted to. The character doesn't seem particularly obsessed with finding "the rat," and why should he be? His plans never get messed up because of DiCaprio's "rat." Instead, his "rat" Damon for all intents and purposes is letting him emerge unscathed -- see the whole, confused "microprocessors" sting -- whenever the cops try to take him down.

Lastly, while I'm not going to proclaim Infernal Affairs (the Hong Kong film on which The Departed is based) to be a great masterpiece, it's also a great deal more entertaining and better paced. If you've see Infernal Affairs, you should also expected just about every twist/reversal from that film to either be exactly the same, or presented with considerably less suspense.

So anyways.... um.... happy moviegoing!!!

2006-10-06T06:37:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #75

I recently rewatched Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for the first time in at least 5 years, and the thing still definitely holds up. I won't bore you with how beautiful this film is, how amazing the fight choreography is, etc. Instead, I'll just point out that even though plenty of American films of course have ass-kicking women, very few pull off both action and drama as well as Zhang Ziyi and Michelle have done here and in subsequent films. Also, if they ever (stupidly) remade this film specifically with an American cast, you just know that in a scene like this one these two women would be fighting over the Chow Yun Fat character.

Also, while everyone (or everyone with fully functioning eyes and ears) has been disappointed with the way George Lucas handled the Star Wars prequels, I'd like to point out that in a lot of ways, Zhang Ziyi's character is everything a young Darth Vader should be -- talented, temperamental, often out of control, but still sympathetic even while she's the source of a lot of destruction. At least Ang Lee got it right; who'd have thought a tiny little Chinese girl would make a far better Vader-figure than anyone George Lucas could cast?

2006-10-04T23:41:00.000-07:00

(Hopefully) Daily Movie Clip #74

Hey, so it looks like clips are available again! Hopefully things will stay this way. For today, here's a nice piece of film history: a number of clips that employ what is known as the "Wilhelm Scream," an overdubbed, distinct-sounding cry of pain that you'll probably recognize once you hear it over and over again. As you'll see, George Lucas was quite a fan of it.

The Departed? I'm There....

2006-10-02T17:44:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago, I wrote here about having some difficulty working up any enthusiasm about Martin Scorsese's latest film The Departed, a remake of the already-quite-good Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. Well, against my better judgement, I'm starting to get excited: the reviews I've read so far have been pretty superlative (in fact, at Rotten Tomatoes it is currently still at 100%) with the common refrain being "Scorsese's best since Goodfellas."

Do I dare set my hopes so high? Of course not. Still, this is encouraging, especially when the usual critical reaction to new Scorsese is a shrugging, "Well, it's no Goodfellas, but it's still okay..." I've also read that, despite the trailer showing no signs of it whatsoever, The Departed is actually quite funny, something else that Scorsese has not allowed in a movie since.... hey! Goodfellas!

Kick ass! For weeks I've been shocking my friends by admitting to having not been to a first-run movie (or even multiplex) since the 4th of July, when I subjected myself to The Pirates of the Caribbean 2. This has to be a record for me, but it looks like I'll be venturing back if the buzz on The Departed stays this good. Here's hoping....

It's Been A While, I Know...

2006-10-02T17:36:00.000-07:00

So yesterday my mom called me and said, "I noticed you hadn't posted anything on your blog in a week! Are you okay?" Along with Murray's previous concern in the comments to my Vertigo clip, I'll just say, rest assured, I'm fine. Busy, but fine.

Apparently YouTube is having some copyright controversy, and is currently not allowing clips to be posted to blogs. This is what I hear, but I'm not sure if this is true since they still have the "Post to Blog" button, and whenever I try to do this, a window pops up saying the clip should appear here shortly. Only it never does.

Maybe someone can enlighten me on this?

Anyways, hopefully this will be resolved so I can continue to put up clips on a daily basis again. Otherwise, I'll try to post when I can -- and when there's some new movie news or info worth discussing. So please keep checking in!

2006-09-25T06:26:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #73

Jimmy Stewart fixes his oh-so-voyeuristic, more-than-a-little-fetishistic male gaze on Kim Novak, and all bets are off in Alfred Hitchock's Vertigo.

This has to be one of the best cinematic exploration of male anxiety ever. And thought Bernard Hermann has had a number of memorable, classic scores -- for everything from Psycho to The Day the Earth Stood Still to Taxi Driver to Citizen Kane -- I still think his lush score for Vertigo remains his best.

For a good double-feature, try pairing this up with Hitchock's underrated Marnie, where a freaked-out Tippi Hedren gets some serious, uh, "therapy" from a young Sean Connery. Watching these two movies, it's pretty stunning that Hitch was apparently quite happily married to his wife (and collaborator/muse/best critic) Alma for some fifty years.

2006-09-24T07:53:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #72

The Coen Brothers had of course already made strong impressions with Blood Simple and Raising Arizona, but I think it was their third film Miller's Crossing that really sealed the deal they'd make some of the most distinctly skewed and original films of the next several years.

Here's hoping the Coens get back to making films soon. They used to be so prolific, but I don't think they've put anything out in three or four years. Let's also hope they stop doing weirdly "for hire" projects at Disney like the disappointing Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers and start following their own muses again. In the meantime, enjoy Albert Finney and his tommygun in Miller's Crossing.

2006-09-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #71

Ever wonder how HBO's Deadwood would play in front of a live studio audience? Here's your chance to find out.

Plug for Another Blog: "How To Write Screenplays. Badly."

2006-09-22T13:32:00.000-07:00

I just thought I'd pass on the link to a very, very funny blog:

http://jerslater.blogspot.com/

Ever wanted to try your own hand at writing the next hot screenplay that will have executives foaming at the mouth and competing to kiss your ass? Look no further. Here's a sample of the advice you'll get from writers Jeremy Slater and Dan Whitehead:

On Remakes

"So we liked your spec script," the studio executive announces. "Not enough to actually make it, of course, but you showed real potential. Have you figured out what you'd like to write next?"

"Actually, I've got an idea for an original movie," you tell him excitedly. "It's something fresh that's never been done before."

And then you both collapse into fits of hysterical laughter as tears of mirth go streaming down your cheeks. Oh, how you'll laugh and laugh and laugh!

And at last the executive will dry his eyes and say, "No, seriously, what movie are you going to remake next?"I

It's no secret that Hollywood fears originality the way monkeys fear wolves, or the way bats fear vampire bats, or some other fear-based analogy that we can't be bothered to come up with at the moment. You have to understand that most studio executives operate in a state of perpetual terror and panic, and any day that doesn't involve getting fired is viewed in retrospect as a thundering success that merits a celebratory jaunt down to the old Spearmint Rhino. So perhaps their timid nature can be forgiven. After all, you'd be jittery too if you knew that Bob Iger was one poorly-mixed cappuccino away from firing every motherfucker on the Disney lot.

What this means is that if you want to get your club-shaped foot in the door, you'd better be prepared to tell the executives exactly what they want...nay, what they need to hear. For example...

BAD PITCH: "My story is a heartbreaking and hilarious Charlie Kaufman-esque mindbender that examines love, loss, and everything in between."

GOOD PITCH: "The world is ready for a new Major Payne."

It's also important to make your remake as contemporary as possible. Let's face it, if people wanted eloquent dialogue, nuanced characterization and a tit-free climax, they'd just rent the original When Harry Met Sally. Keep things modern, snappy and, if at all possible, try to write Ludacris in there somewhere. The kids, they love their Ludacris!

Great stuff. Check it out when you have the chance.

2006-09-22T07:04:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #70

I know the title Texas Chainsaw Massacre has entered our culture in ways that imply comic disdain, but if you go back to Tobe Hooper's original film, this is one creepy, effective, and yes, even artfully made flick -- in fact, the Museum of Modern Art even acquired a print of the film for its collection.

Just this opening alone demonstrates very effectively that you're about to go to some places Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers would never take you. Taking the Ed Gein murders as its starting point, and then tossing in slaughterhouses, roadside barbecue, creepy hitchikers, and, yes, a chainsaw into the mix, this may be one of the more unrelenting horror movies I've ever seen -- there's just no relief offered at all. And the use of sound here is fantastic -- I still have a pavlovian reaction to that "flashbulb whine" noise that makes me think, "Christ! Why am I watching this?! Bad, bad things are about to happen!!"

Trivia note: the ominous-voiceover guy is actually a young John Laroquette of Night Court fame.

2006-09-21T16:37:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #69

This one's for David.

Goonies may never say die, but boy, that Cyndi Lauper song hasn't aged well, huh?

2006-09-20T23:07:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #68

This is the utterly iconic and badass climax of Sam Peckinpah's troubling masterpiece The Wild Bunch.

I've seen this movie I don't know how many times, and this final gunfight still always blows me away -- somehow I always forget the sheer amount of carnage that takes place. And the buildup here is just superb. If you ask me, The Wild Bunch is like America's own Seven Samurai, or plays like The Seven Samurai-meets-20th Century American Corruption -- far more ugly and disturbing than Kurosawa's film, but also still layered with a weary romanticism and somewhat-honor-bound killers nonetheless.

Sven Nykvist 1922-2006

2006-09-20T15:36:00.000-07:00

One of the true giants of the art of cinematography has died: Sven Nykvist, at the age of 83.

Nykvist of course is most often associated with Ingmar Bergman (pictured above peering into the camera next to a standing Nykvist) and lensed such Bergman masterpieces as The Seventh Seal, Cries and Whispers, Persona, The Virgin Spring, and Fanny and Alexander, among others. Bergman-fan Woody Allen also made use of Nykvist's talents in some of his later films, including what I believe is his best film, Crimes and Misdemeanors. Nykvist's work could also been seen in titles as varied as The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Sleepless in Seattle, and What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

Known best for austere, autumnal images that looked beautifully lived-in and never too artificially polished or "pretty," his decades of work, especially those Bergman films, had an incalculable influence on filmmakers and cinematographers that followed.

Read more here.

RIP, Mr. Nykvist.

Poster: Shortbus

2006-09-19T07:50:00.000-07:00

Umm..... Wow. Quite the poster, huh? If you look at it real close, you might pick up on a subtle, almost subliminal sexual connotation. I think. Or maybe that's just me.

2006-09-18T06:18:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #67

I've been enjoying watching the new (and very promising) season of The Wire on HBO, so here's a look back at a clip from season one, featuring everyone's favorite homosexual, profanity-avoiding, non-gangsta-affiliated, self-perjuring stone-cold-killer Omar.

"Y'all need to open this door up before I huff and puff!"

There's also a nice write-up here from Slate that makes the case The Wire is great not because of any sort of "true-to-life" gritty realism, but because of it's broad social, economic, and geographical canvas that owes more to Charles Dickens than any documentary or verite style.

2006-09-17T07:06:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #66

Here's an excerpt from Gilo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers.

Again, as with my previous clip for Three Kings, I'd just like to point out that it's so nice to be able to view such a film with the distance of time, and see it obviously has no relevance to today.

I'm being sarcastic, of course. Seriously, for anyone interested in political films, The Battle of Algiers is essential viewing, especially in our "War on Terror" era. It's rumored that this film has been screened at the Pentagon numerous times over the years, though you'd think if this was true that our foreign policy might change at least somewhat.

Beyond the historical contexts, though, this simply remains a riveting film. Many credit The Battle of Algiers with establishing the "docudrama" style that's now taken for granted in films like Traffic and Syriana. Also, though Pontecorvo insists every shot in the film was staged, much of it looks incredibly real and spontaneous, especially scenes of rioting crowds and the bombing scenes you'll see in this clip.

Oh, and that's once again the great Ennio Morricone's music playing over some shots.

Amazing stuff.

2006-09-16T06:43:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #65

Here's one of the still-most infamous scenes -- from Scanners -- in the career of David Cronenberg, which is really saying something since Cronenberg of course went on to direct such bizarre and disturbing fare as Videodrome, The Fly, Dead Ringers, Crash (no, not that one), Naked Lunch, and, most recently, A History of Violence.

You've been warned.

2006-09-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #64

Let's see... Clip #64.... This should be easy. How about The Beatles singing "When I'm Sixty-Four" in Yellow Submarine?

This is a really underrated movie: it's great for kids, but the animation is clever enough to dazzle adults as well. Roger Ebert even did a review of Yellow Submarine for his Great Movies essay series, and you can read it here.

Except for the songs, The Beatles really had nothing to do with this movie (it's not even their voices in the dialogue scenes) but I've seen them claim in later interviews it's still a highlight of their career. It also looks fantastic on DVD.

Enjoy.

The Band's Last Waltz on DVD

2006-09-14T19:21:00.000-07:00

It’s a sad fact, but I don’t think the The Band is quite as well known as they once were. Though they played with, recorded with, and influenced countless major superstar acts from the 1960s and 1970s, in comparison to peers like Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, and numerous others, sometimes even people my own age respond with a blank stare if I mention The Band. Maybe it's the admittedly anonymous-sounding name. Maybe it's the fact that classic-rock radio only plays a couple of their hits regularly, with "The Weight" and "Up on Cripple Creek" being tunes plenty of people can sing along to, even if they have no idea who's performing it. Or maybe it's just another testament to the fact that mainstream rock music has been sucking the big one for longer than I care to remember.

Whatever the case, The Last Waltz still stands as a towering example of The Band's power and influence, a document of how truly great rock and roll can be. Maybe The Band was more anonymous than other acts, but a mere glance at the guest stars who showed up to pay tribute to them during their farewell performance serves as fitting testimony to the respect they had garnered from their peers: Bob Dylan. Eric Clapton. Neil Young. Joni Mitchell. Muddy Waters. Van Morrison. Emmylou Harris. These are some of the most venerable and enduring performers of the last few decades, true giants American music, and when The Band decided to call it quits, these musicians made it a point to give them a spectacular send-off. And on Thanksgiving Day, 1976, all of these performers and many more performed a marathon concert with The Band both playing their own hits and serving as The World's Greatest Backing Band for their guest performers as well. In the end, the concert went on for a staggering seven hours, becoming a landmark day in rock and roll. The amazing thing is, The Last Waltz opens with The Band's final encore performance at the end of the show, and they show just as much fire, energy, and joy here as they do in footage from seven hours before at the opening of the show.

And thank The Maker a director like Martin Scorsese was there to capture it all. As the supplementary materials on this DVD reveal, initially The Band was just planning on a simple, solo, farewell show, but once they started inviting friends and realized how many great people would be sharing the stage, they figured they ought to document it somehow. Initially, only video cameras were going to be used, then 16mm film, but then Band member Robbie Robertson hit upon an inspired idea. Why not get a real film director to man the camera, one who not only loved rock and roll, but who knew how to film it well, too? Scorsese was in the middle of his hectic shoot for New York, New York, but also knew this was an opportunity he couldn't pass up. Soon enough, Scorsese had upgraded the film stock to 35 mm, and with six cameras and world-class cinematographers like Michael Chapman, László Kovács, and Vilmos Zsigmond at his disposal, he was determined to capture all the magic he could.

And what magic! While Scorsese's direction is wonderfully suited to the concert, using certain angles and lighting cues to accent elements of songs or the performances, all of the window-dressing in the world would not matter if the music was not great. Thankfully, though, the music and the performances are always clearly the stars here. This isn't just a "greatest hits" collection (indeed, none of the guest performers play any of their obvious hits), nor is it merely a recreation of the ways songs sounded on record. Instead, The Last Waltz is that rare concert film in which the joy of performance and the transcendent potential of rock and roll comes through loud and clear. There's Band drummer Levon Helm's rip-roaring interpretations of songs like "Up On Cripple Creek" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," bringing far more fire and urgency to his vocals than he did on the already-classic records. There's Band bassist Rick Danko's exuberant vocals in "Stagefright," or, in probably my favorite Band-only moment in the film, the way Danko's plaintive reading of the ballad "It Makes No Difference" gets taken to new heights by multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson's sudden appearance from the shadows with a saxophone. There's Van Morrison tearing the roof off the place, Neil Young's stoned-out-but soaring version of "Helpless," or the moment when Robbie Robertson and Eric Clapton's dueling guitar visibly stokes the audience to their feet, bouncing up and down. Or, there's the quite-rare sight of Bob Dylan actually rocking out onstage, pushed like all the other performers to greater heights thanks to The Band's able backing.

And it should be noted that The Last Waltz is not simply a mere concert film. Between performances, and number of insightful interviews are done with Band members both alone and together, giving insight not only into the legacy of The Band, but also some wonderful historical and cultural insight into the history of rock and roll as an American art form. Lastly, Scorsese himself supervised the filming of three performances staged after The Last Waltz on one of the old MGM musical soundstages, and the results still remain some of the best examples of "music video" performance footage ever put on film.

There's no way around it: if you consider yourself a serious, true fan of rock and roll -- not just rock music from the last few years, but rock and roll as an art form, an American tradition, and a form of music in which the best work is both timeless and universal -- you owe it to yourself to watch The Last Waltz. Many call this event the signal of the end of an era, and if true, we should consider ourselves to fortunate to have such an event available to be experienced again and again in such a beautiful form.

Still not convinced? Well, here's a clip of Rick Danko and the rest of The Band playing "It Makes No Difference," complete with karaoke lyrics! Enjoy.

Projected Gross of Borat Movie Doubles.....

2006-09-14T18:49:00.000-07:00

I'm sure most people have already heard that Sasha Baron Cohen of Ali G fame has a movie starring another of his alter egos, the wonderfully-titled Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. What you may not have heard is that this silly little movie is causing an international incident. In a nutshell, Kazahkstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev is not happy with this movie, and George Bush has even deigned to meet with him to "discuss" the matter. Presumably, the first order of business will be to figure out what concepts like "satire" and "irony" mean.

In the meantime, of course, Cohen and Co. could not buy this kind of publicity, and I'm sure more and more people will be curious to check this movie out. Already a master of playing up controversies, "Borat" even issued the following statement in response to the fracas:

"In response to Mr. Ashykbayev's comments, I'd like to state I have no connection with Mr. Cohen and fully support my Government's decision to sue this Jew.

"Since the 2003 Tuleyakiv reforms, Kazakhstan is as civilized as any other country in the world.

"Women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hats, and age of consent has been raised to eight years old."

It'll be fun to see if this continues to play out in the coming weeks. A full article discussing the controversy can be found here. In the meantime, enjoy one of Borat's "cultural learnings" about America in the clip below:

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is scheduled to open November 3.

2006-09-14T06:45:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #63

Sylvester Stallone plays a renegade cop fluent in the language of potential movie poster slogans in 1986's Cobra.

This is about as bad as it gets, folks. Thankfully, Stallone has moved on to more sophisticated fare, like Rocky VI.

Weird trivia note: Cobra was edited by Don Zimmerman, the same guy who worked as Hal Ashby's editor for such gentle fare as Harold and Maude and Being There.

2006-09-13T07:06:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #62

Now that the heat has gone away in Houston, I feel much better about watching Spike Lee's still-best movie, 1989's Do the Right Thing.

My students always love this scene, with good reason.

"Fuck you, fuck your fucking pizza, and fuck Frank Sinatra."

"Yeah? Well fuck you too, and fuck Michael Jackson."

2006-09-12T06:44:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #61

Martin Scorsese pulls off one of the greatest extended tracking shots ever in Goodfellas.

This is such an amazing example of economical storytelling -- the music, the swooping, swooning camera, the constant tipping, and the unspoken displays of power and access all completely convince you in one shot that the young, sheltered Lorraine Bracco will be willing to look the other way as she realizes more and more that her soon-to-be-husband Ray Liotta is a violent criminal.

2006-09-11T06:45:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #60

The great Takasi Shimura plays a dying old man who makes everyone stop and think in Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece Ikiru ("To Live").

2006-09-10T07:34:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #59

Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson take time out from fighting baddies to sing a song with an assist from Walter Brennan on harmonica in the Howard Hawks film Rio Bravo, starring some guy named John Wayne.

I remember seeing an interview with Quentin Tarantino where he called this the all-time best "hanging out" movie, which I think is an excellent description -- maybe it's not the most tightly plotted or action packed film, but the pleasure comes from watching the leads just hanging out, giving each other a hard time, and even singing a song or two. Perfect Sunday morning fare.

2006-09-09T08:16:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #58

I just read that yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of the first television broadcast of the original Star Trek, so to mark the occasion, here's a vintage clip of Captain Kirk duking it out with some guy in a rubber suit.

I think the most obvious conclusion to draw from this "action-packed" clip is that audiences forty years ago had a much more durable attention span. (Or, maybe not: after all, Trek was never a ratings powerhouse.) Still, if one thing will live on forever, it's the William Shatner Style of Fisticuffs: dig that two-handed-fist blow to the kidneys!

2006-09-08T10:23:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #57

Here's the famous closing scene from Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard.

Billy Wilder had one of the best runs of classic films in Hollywood history -- Double Indemnity, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Stalag 17, and, The Seven Year Itch, and Ace in the Hole, to name a few -- but I think Sunset Boulevard might still be his best film. I can't imagine how strange, eerie it must have seemed in 1951, especially Gloria Swanson's for-the-ages depiction of Norma Desmond in all her pathetic glory.

It's also notable how prescient this film was about celebrity worship and our fame-addicted culture -- just look at the way Norma Desmond's face lights up when she hears the cameras have arrived, or the way Billy Wilder masterfully implicates the audience in that closing shot.

2006-09-07T06:34:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #56

Though I wasn't the world's biggest fan of James Mangold's Walk the Line -- it was all right, enjoyable enough, but got stuck in a lot of standard biopic limitations -- I will say I was suprisingly taken with many of the performance scenes. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon had a nice chemistry onstage, and those scenes between them said far more than any scene of dialogue would. And I know some people consider it sacrilege that Phoenix and Witherspoon did their own singing, but I find this far less distracting than blatantly obvious lipsynching to recordings I've already heard a million times before.

Here we have them both taking on Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe."

And Playing the Role of Bob Dylan Will Be ..... Cate Blanchett?!

2006-09-06T17:39:00.000-07:00

Well, at least it won't be your usual by-the-numbers biopic, I guess.

In case you haven't heard, Todd Haynes -- best known for Far From Heaven, but also the director of the deeply-weird Julianne Moore vehicle Safe, the underrated glam-rock epic Velvet Goldmine, and even a widely bootlegged Karen Carpenter biopic-short-film told with Barbie Dolls -- is currently shooting a biopic about the life and career of some obscure musician by the name of Bob Dylan. And word has it that to emphasize Sir Bob's "chameleonic" nature, Haynes has cast seven different actors to play the inconoclast. Further proof is above: yes, that is Cate Blanchett, apparently getting ready to lip-synch "Maggie's Farm" circa 1965.

As for who else will be seen blowing Dylan's harmonica, details are vague, though the cast notes also list Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Julianne Moore, David Cross, and Christian Bale in as-yet unnamed roles.

Obviously, this is somewhat intriguing, but I have to say I'm skeptical. First of all, is Bob Dylan really all that "chameleonic"? He changed his singing voice for Nashville Skyline, I guess, and I suppose there might still be people that wish Dylan never plugged a guitar into an amp. Still, these don't exactly seem like Bowie-level or Madonna-like transformations, and have little to do with visual representations that will serve a big-screen treatment. I guess we'll see for ourselves sometime in 2007....

Besides, the real, burning question is: who'd they find to play Soy Bomb? Remember him?

My money's on Steve-O from Jackass.

2006-09-06T07:04:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #55

"Aw, man! I shot Marvin in the face."

How have I managed to go this long without posting a clip from Quentin Tarantino?

It goes without saying that the chemistry between John Travolta and and Samuel Jackson in this movie is pitch-perfect. Now they're doing junk like Snakes on a Plane and .... hell, I don't even know what Travolta's doing anymore. But we'll always have Pulp Fiction.

2006-09-05T06:32:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #54

Robert Mitchum realizes he's being set up for a fall in Jacques Tourneur's film noir classic Out of the Past.

In most stories of hard-boiled detectives, our lead character keeps his distance from women, lest they turn out to be one of those pesky femme fatales and ruin your life. (See Bogart at the end of The Maltese Falcon, sending his love interest to the clink while proclaiming, "I won't play the sap for you!") Here's an example of what happens when the detective succumbs to the charms of a femme fatale. During their first kiss on the beach, Mitchum says (as only Mitchum can), "Baby, I don't care." Believe me, he cares later.

"That's one way to be clever -- look like an idiot."

2006-09-04T06:50:00.001-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #53

Don Vito Corleone gets gunned down, with no one having any idea how much this event will ultimately change the life of Al Pacino's Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather.

I'll just point out two things: first, while Brando is of course great in this role, to me it's John Cazale as perennial fuck-up Fredo who is the most affecting part of this scene. John Cazale was so great in the first two Godfathers, Dog Day Afternoon, The Deer Hunter. Such a shame he died so young. Also, did you know he was engaged to Meryl Streep when he died?

Lastly, I want to point out the fact that Vito's buying oranges before the gunmen shoot him down. This is a basic rule in the Godfather movies: if anyone's buying/eating/picking oranges, bad things are about to happen. Remember, Vito dies of natural causes later on with orange peels in his mouth while entertaining his grandson. And when Michael Corleone dies at the end of Godfather III, he slumps in his chair and an orange drops from his hand.

2006-09-03T06:58:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #52

Harold shows his mother in his own special way that he's not interested in the girl she's trying to set him up with in Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude.

I recently watched this again on DVD, and I was struck by how beautifully shot and edited it was -- especially the scenes between Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon alone together. I'd only seen this on tape before, where it looked quite drab, but the DVD was something of a revelation. It's still very "70s brown" but also quite lovely -- just check out the scene in the military cemetery, or the final scenes that cut back and forth in time to the tune of the Cat Stevens song "Trouble."

It's also obvious this film was a major, major influence on Wes Anderson, especially with Rushmore. Harold's wardrobe is a dead giveaway, but also watch for the little look Harold gives the camera once the Cat Stevens music kicks in with this clip -- Wes Anderson would kill for a moment like that.

2006-09-02T07:23:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #51

Elvis Presley faces the daunting task of trying to keep our attention directed his way while sharing the screen with Ann-Margaret in 1964's Viva Las Vegas.

Woody Allen's Zelig

2006-09-02T07:08:00.000-07:00

Think This Is Spinal Tap invented the "mockumentary" genre for film comedies? Well, kids, it's time for a history lesson, because the truth is, in 1983, one full year before Spinal Tap's release, Woody Allen made Zelig, and a new sub-genre of film comedy was born.

It's often easy to forget the stylistic and structural chances Woody Allen actually takes in some of his films. For instance, when we think of Annie Hall, we mainly remember the great chemistry between Allen and Diane Keaton, the witty dialogue, and the bittersweet ending. What we often forget, though, is the way the film follows no strict chronology, the numerous split screen sequences, Allen breaking through the "fourth wall" to address viewers, the animated sequence, flights of imagination (remember the Hall family looking at Allen and imagining him in full Hasidic regalia at the dinner table?), and, of course, the hilarious use of subtitles in one scene to indicate what Allen and Keaton are thinking during their first-date conversation. Not exactly your standard romantic comedy trappings, no?

Similarly, in Zelig, one of Allen's more overlooked but also most original films, Allen uses the documentary format and conventions to tell the story of the fictional Leonard Zelig, a sort of innocent fool who, from the 1920s through the Great Depression, becomes a kind of cause celebré in pop culture for his chameleon-like tendencies outlined in the synopsis above. As we learn via old "newsreel footage," photographs, and even present-day interviews with such intellectual figures as Susan Sontag, Saul Bellow, Bruno Bettelheim, and Irving Howe (and yes, it's really them) Zelig is "the ultimate conformist," who wants only to fit in with those around him, and has a special talent for doing so, literally transforming his physical self to resemble those who surround him. If he is put in a room with fat men, he suddenly gains weight. If people from another race speak with him long enough, Zelig's skin darkens or lightens accordingly, until he could be mistaken for a member of the same race, and so on. Newspapers and camera crews soon make Zelig a national celebrity, dubbing him the "Human Chameleon," and soon movie deals, merchandise, and even a hit song contribute to the so-called (and fictional) "Chameleon Craze" of the 1930s.

In the meantime, as Zelig's celebrity grows, and young psychiatrist named Eudora Fletcher attempts to cure Zelig of his transformative tendencies. As the old footage of Zelig's hypnosis sessions reveal, when asked why he constantly changes himself, Zelig replies, "It's safe ...... I want to be liked." Unfortunately, the great irony here is that the more Zelig attempts to fit in and remain anonymous, the more his celebrity grows, and the more he becomes the center of attention. Can Dr. Fletcher cure Zelig of his fears, and encourage him to be himself? At first it appears so, some rather inconvenient setbacks occur, with Zelig overcompensating for his conformist tendencies by challenging and even brawling with anyone who disagrees with him. Then a few nasty scandals pop up, and Zelig disappears from public sight altogether. "Whatever happened to Leonard Zelig?" the documentary narrator asks, and soon this question is answered for the viewer, and Allen gets to reveal the answer with a comical scene at a Nazi rally in Germany which I wouldn't dare reveal further here.

Part of the appeal of Zelig is in the simplicity of its concept, but much of the charm and humor lies in Allen's confident and adept parodies of the documentary form to tell Zelig's story. There's the often amusing newsreel-style narration, of course, and the use of real-life figures looking back on Zelig as if he was truly a known figure from history, but best of all is the lengths to which Allen goes to mimic the old newsreel and interview footage from the time period. Shot in black and white, Allen has many scenes and shots featuring Zelig interacting with numerous real-life celebrities and historical figures via some seamless superimposing techniques, as well as some clever editing, so that a full decade before Forrest Gump we get to treated to the comical sights of Allen-as-Zelig rubbing shoulders with the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Babe Ruth, Charlie Chaplin, Jack Dempsey, Josephine Baker, and, in the climax, Adolph Hitler(!). What's more, to make many shots indistinguishable from real newsreel footage of the time, Allen also had his newly-shot film "dirtied-up" considerably in the editing room, creating intentional scratches, scars, blemishes, and smudges. The result is a "historical comedy" in which you often can't tell what was real, and what was faked, but where half the fun is in trying to tell the difference anyways.

For a full feature film, this style or conceit might have grown a bit tiresome or old, but with a running time of only one hour and nineteen minutes, Zelig never wears out its welcome, and has charm and inspiration to spare. By being atypical of Allen's better-known comedies dealing with contemporary upper-class Manhattanites, Zelig is often overlooked in the Wood-man's canon, but in actuality is one of his better films from the last twenty-odd years. If you're a Woody Allen fan, you probably already know this, and if you're not, Zelig still might surprise you with its inventiveness and charm.

2006-09-01T07:04:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #50

The military brass decides to finally bring the President of the United States up to speed on the fact that the entire planet is about to be reduced to a cinder due to human folly in Stanley Kubrick's Cold War masterpiece Dr. Strangelove: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

Everyone always talks about Peter Sellers in his multiple roles with this film, and he is great, but to me George C. Scott as General Tergesen is the film's real secret weapon. Every line, every little tic and gesture by him is off-kilter and even over the top, yet always wholly believable. I just love how he keeps trying to put a good spin on the impending apocalyptic shitstorm while everyone around him sits stonefaced and impotent. Remind you of any current international situations?

"Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops -- depending on the breaks."

2006-08-31T06:11:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #49

Pee Wee Herman shows he knows how to talk to the ladies in Tim Burton's Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

2006-08-30T07:20:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #48

Hedwig sings about the origins of love with an assist from Plato's Symposium and animation by Emily Hubley in John Cameron Mitchell's Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

2006-08-29T07:08:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #47

Rowdy Roddy Piper and the always-great Keith David are actually allies in John Carpenter's They Live, but they just don't know it yet. Instead, rather than talk things out, they'd rather fight.... and fight.... and fight.... and fight.....

Seriously, this has to be the longest, most over-the-top, ridiculous fistfight ever filmed. I swear there was a time I watched They Live on TV, and they actually took a commercial break in the middle of this because it went on so long.

Oh yeah, and Rowdy Roddy Piper's mullet is a thing of beauty.

"I'm giving you a choice: either put on these glasses, or start eating that trash can!"

Trailer: Shortbus

2006-08-29T06:22:00.000-07:00

For the last several months I've been bemoaning the lack of interesting or surprising films out there -- not only with the summer blockbusters, but also what's been playing at the arthouses. For example, while I haven't seen Little Miss Sunshine yet, would anyone really argue that it's doing anything unconventional?

One upcoming film that will certainly buck this trend is John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus. Many sexually- themed arthouse flicks flirt with an NC-17 rating by lingering on some grinding buttocks or a few extra thrusts here and there, but supposedly Shortbus will feature numerous full-on, XXX-type sex scenes that normally only get made with actors named Bunny LaJoya or Karl Hungus. Yet much as he did with 2001's Hedwig and the Angry Inch, John Cameron Mitchell seems to be taking an initially gimmicky, almost Jerry-Springer-sounding conceit (a botched sex-change operation in Hedwig, an "orgy salon" with Shortbus) and aiming to turn it into something genuinely funny and moving. Since Hedwig and the Angry Inch is one of my favorite movies of the last five years, I'm defintely curious to check out Shortbus.

Of course, it's very likely Shortbus will get a quite-limited theatrical release, but once again I feel lucky to be living in major city. Watching this trailer, Shortbus looks tailor-made to play in the heart of the "Be Gay" Montrose section of Houston.

I also find the opening of this trailer to be interesting from a marketing point of view. Most sexually-themed films -- even good ones -- are marketed in either a "YOU'LL BE SHOCKED!!!" way, or in one of those ludicrous, whispered-moaning-voiceover, "Come inside and see what the DIRTY people are doing!" ways. Here, though, John Cameron Mitchell seems to be making a point of saying, "Hi, look at me, I'm this nice, non-threatening, charming guy who made this little movie that people really like at legitimate film festivals, and that you shouldn't be afraid of." Will this non-courting of controversy actually put more butts in the seats? I guess we'll see....

In the meantime, enjoy the trailer to Shortbus.

2006-08-28T06:42:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #46

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies just make me smile. I just love how everybody's living a ridiculously glamorous and opulent lifestyle in Top Hat, yet no one is too self-conscious to act utterly goofy. Many people wonder why old-fashioned musicals never get made anymore, but to me the answer is simple: A movie like Top Hat was clearly made before any concept of "cool" ever existed.

Here's a couple of oft-mentioned anecdotes:

First, legend has it that a casting director auditioned a then-unkmown Fred Astaire and simply wrote in his notes, "Too old. Balding. Can't act. Can't sing. Dances a little."

There's also the debate over who was better dancer, Fred or Ginger? I can't remember who said this, but the answer was obviously Ginger -- after all, she had to do everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in heels.

So How'd You Like Deadwood?

2006-08-27T21:14:00.000-07:00

I suppose I could have just emailed this query to Murray, but just in case anyone else wants to join in, we'll be in the comments sections of this post -- beware of spoilers inside. I'll just say right off the bat, though, that this had to be one of the more brilliantly dispiriting seasons finales I've ever seen. Puzzling, too. Hence my desire for Murray (and anyone else) to elaborate....

More in the comments section.

2006-08-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #45

In Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, Clint Eastwood plays a roaming gunslinger who is so calculating that he even puts extra effort into making a memorable entrance when facing down bad guys.

This is the perfect kind of movie to watch on a lazy Sunday morning. And it goes without saying that Ennio Morricone's musical score totally rules.

Trailer: Little Children

2006-08-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

Tom Perrotta's novels -- including Bad Haircut, Election, The Wishbones, and Little Children -- are some of the more sheerly enjoyable reads around when it comes to contemporary literature: full of charm, sharp characterizations, and compassionate renderings young adulthood without ever descending into navel-gazing or whining.

Which makes the trailer for the upcoming adaptation of Little Children all the more puzzling: it's certainly a well-made trailer, riveting even -- yet it also looks about as humorous as most Ingmar Bergman movies. This has to be the most deadly-serious trailer I've seen in some time, which is odd since I spent so much time laughing out loud as I read Little Children. It's also directed by Todd Field, who last adapted Andre Dubus with In the Bedroom, which wasn't exactly a laugh-fest either.

Still, the film's definitely on my radar as something of interest. When I think about it, I guess Alexander Payne's adaptation of Election in 1999 serves as a useful, similar example. Payne took the storyline of the Perrotta book in a far more farcical and satirical direction, making both the book and film distinct from one another and individually successful on different merits. Todd Field seems to be going in the opposite direction with Little Children: hopefully, even if its tone differs from the novel it will still be something worth seeing. It certainly has a good cast -- especially the always-great Kate Winslet -- and the visual style so far looks arresting.

Anyways, you can watch the trailer yourself at the Official Film Site.

2006-08-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #44

The less you know about Chan-Wook Park's masterful Oldboy before seeing it, the better. Still, I'm going to be a bit of a spoilsport and show one of its more unnerving scenes. Bascially, in the first twenty minutes or so our protagonist has been kidnapped and imprisoned in a motel room for fifteen(!) years, living the kind of existence that would even give David Lynch nightmares, never knowing why he is imprisoned, never even seeing or hearing from his captors.

When he gets out, he's determined to get revenge and find out why fifteen years of his life were taken from him. First, though, he walks into a restaurant and celebrates being alive and free again in the scene that follows. There aren't any subtitles in this clip, and the sound's also a little out of synch, but I think you'll get the general idea.

Trust me, this is still early in the film, with much more supremely fucked-up, disturbing, beautiful, visceral, and poetic imagery to come. Seriously, this has to be one of the most daring, original, and haunting movies I've seen in years. It's easily one of the best movies of this new decade (City of God also comes to mind) and I can't recommend it enough.

2006-08-25T08:44:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #43

Charlton Heston and Planet of the Apes. What a winning combination: both Ham and Cheese coming together for a tasty treat.

2006-08-24T06:20:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #42

"You really want to know what love is? Well... it's really quite simple..."

I remember hearing Will Ferrell being interviewed on NPR and he claimed this bit was thrown together on the Anchorman set almost on a whim, and they didn't spend more than an hour on it.

"The HUMAN Torch was DENIED a BANK loan...."

Now We're Talking...

2006-08-23T17:46:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be very, very busy this September, with twenty (count'em!) movies by master filmmaker Federico Fellini to be shown at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston over the next five weeks of what they're calling Tutto Fellini. Here's more:

A feast for movie lovers, this touring retrospective salutes one of cinema´s greatest visionaries: Federico Fellini (1920—1993). Fellini films are a delight for the mind, heart, and senses, typically featuring autobiographical elements and distorted memories embellished by poetic license. This showcase has it all: satires from Fellini´s early career, undisputed classics, and postmodern masterpieces.

A complete listing and schedule can be found here. Meanwhile, why don't you put a little more dolce in your vita by enjoying some vintage Fellini posters of movies I recommend heartily?

This is probably my personal favorite Fellini film: Nights of Cabiria. I know La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2 are considered his masterpieces (rightly so), but Giulietta Masina is just so damned winning as a post-war streetwalker who refuses to let the world grind her down. The ending has to be one of the most uplifting ever put on film. What's more, if you keep track of many of Cabiria's misadventures, you'll notice the scenarios of many of them are actually repeated from a different point of view (of sorts) in La Dolce Vita. And Masina in this film is one of the few screen crushes I'll actually admit to.

If big-screen aesthetics are what matter most to you, I'd recommend La Dolce Vita. It's epic, widescreen, and it's just plain essential viewing. It's also easily Fellini's hippest film. Nobody does jaded cool like Marcello Mastoianni in this flick.

I know a lot of people have the impression that all of Fellini's movies are these whacked-out psychedelic movies full of clowns and crazy camera angles. This is of course far from true, and I Vitelloni is a perfect example. Following four young Italian men who refuse to grow up, this early Fellini effort has far more in common with something like Barry Levinson's Diner or George Lucas's American Graffiti than any preconceived notions of what you might have of a "foreign film."

Anyways, I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Once again, when it comes to being a movie-lover, I'm glad I live in a major city that offers opportunities to see films this way. But don't fret, non-Houstonites! You can always play along at home. Many of these titles are available on DVD in beautiful editions, especially those from The Criterion Collection.

2006-08-23T07:11:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #41

The pressure of shooting the epic Fitzcarraldo in a remote South American jungle starts to get to Werner Herzog in Les Blank's behind-the-scenes documentary Burden of Dreams.

Herzog has to be one of the true mad geniuses of cinema, and it pleases me to no end that audiences discovered (and re-discovered) him last year with his documentary Grizzly Man. I hear he's recently been shooting a Vietnam POW drama with Christian Bale, a fictionalized take on Herzog's previous documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly.

In the meantime, enjoy Herzog's ruminations on the harmony of nature, "the harmony of overwhelming and collective murder."

Come on, you've gotta love a guy that tosses off statements like that so casually. Burden of Dreams was recently released as a Criterion Collection DVD, and it's a great companion piece to Fitzcarraldo, full of all sorts of backstage craziness, politics, and the logistical problems that probably plague just about every film, along with that distinct brand of Werner Herzog-Klaus Kinski tension thrown in for good measure -- oh yeah, and Herzog's determination to have a full steamboat pulled by rope over a mountainside without the aid of special effects or even electric motors.

2006-08-22T06:41:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #40

I just watched David's Lynch's Eraserhead on DVD again last weekend, and oh man, this guy did not waste any time finding his voice in this debut. Seriously weird and freaky stuff -- like you didn't know that already. And does anyone use sound to greater effect than Lynch?

The more I watch Eraserhead, the more I think it's one of the great windows into male anxiety ever committed to film -- right up there with Vertigo. I also hear Stanley Kubrick was obsessed with this movie. And isn't it amazing to think Mel Brooks watched this and said, "We've found our director for The Elephant Man!"

"Sure, just cut them up like regular chickens!"

Good or Bad? You Decide....

2006-08-22T06:06:00.000-07:00

I imagine plenty of people are curious about Wes Anderson's just-announced new project, The Darjeeling Unlimited. I don't know a lot, other than that it concerns some sort of journey to India (duh) and is set to star Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, and Adrien Brody .... and I'm assuming also Anderson regular Kumar Pallana.

I hope it's great, but my first warning flag is that like the ultimately disappointing Life Aquatic, Owen Wilson apparently had no hand in this screenplay, which was instead written by Anderson, Schwartzman, and Roman Coppola (yes, that Coppola). This is pure speculation, but my theory is that Wilson somehow serves as a nice balancing, grounding force when he collaborates with Anderson's obviously more fanciful and overly-quirky interests -- if Life Aquatic is any indication.

For instance, when Miss Cross tells Max in Rushmore that her dirty language doesn't sound so dirty if you've ever really "been fucked," this is a great example of Max's carefully-constructed fantasy being demolished, even if only momentarily. Or, despite the hilarity of Bottle Rocket, there are a number of sobering moments with Owen Wilson's Dignan -- his attacking Luke Wilson with a screwdriver, or that strangely haunting image of him in prison at the end.

In contrast, over time, I worry that Anderson's films have become beautifully constructed but also insular and precious, rather than bumping up against the real world -- more and more so especially as Owen Wilson's star as an actor rose, and, I'm assuming, Wilson had all kinds of distractions from such a comparitively-meager-paying job as screenwriting.

Anyways, that's just a theory, but then I came across this description from David Poland at Movie City News:

What first caught my eye were his co-writers - Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman – and the retro tone of the whole enterprise. Then, it smacked me in the face was that this trio of characters was oddly familiar. The three brothers…

Francis… Ford Coppola..............Peter... Bogdanovich........ Jack… Nicholson

The trio all worked for Roger Corman in the early 60s.

The script reads like either a story about a trip the Coppola boys heard as kids and are fictionalizing in their heads or just a pure fiction developed after a late night of binging on whatever, when someone said, “You know what would be really cool? Can you imagine is Francis and his appetites and Bogdanovich, before the cravats, and Nicholson were actually brothers? They’d be cooler than the Marxes, the Howards, and the Ritzes combined. So we put them on a train all together, forced to be together.” “Cool.” “Cool.”

You can read more about this here.

Anyways, the movie geek in me (especially the 70s movie geek) loves this idea. At the same time, though, I worry this is going for a too-fanciful, self-contained, self-referential type of scenario that I think Wes Anderson exhibits a definite weakness for. I don't know; he might still pull it off and make me look totally stupid for worrying about this. I guess we'll find out when The Darjeeling Unlimited gets released in 2008.

Maybe this is a good time to voice another baseless-but-fun theory about Wes Anderson. Remember when he looked like this?

That's how he looked when he made what I think are still easily his best films, Bottle Rocket and Rushmore. Then, by the time he began filming The Life Aquatic, he somehow morphed into this:

I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

2006-08-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #39

As the fall semester starts today and I go back to work, I can watch this clip from Glengarry Glen Ross and thank my lucky stars I don't work in sales. Teaching has its own aggravations, of course, but I'll stick to academia, thank you very much.

My students in Intro to Drama certainly loved this scene. They had a really hard time reading David Mamet's script, what with the stilted syntax, everybody cutting everyone off, etc. But once they see these great actors bring it to life, all bets are off. This scene, of course, was written specifically for the film, and many argue it's the best one of all.

David Mamet's been quoted as saying American capitalism can be summed up in two phrases: "Hooray for me," and "Fuck You." Nice, huh? Alec Baldwin certainly embodies that here.

"Nice guy? I don't give a shit. Good father? Fuck you! Go home and play with your kids!"

2006-08-20T07:09:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #38

Since it's Sunday morning, how about a little sermon from Robert Mitchum's homicidal preacher in Charles Laughton's Night of the Hunter?

I'm not sure if it's clear in the clip, but Mitchum's character has "LOVE" and "HATE" tattooed on the knuckles of each hand -- pretty nice conversation starter, no? Spike Lee of course paid homage to this "little story of right-hand-left-hand" in Do the Right Thing in 1989. This is that rare type of film: a lyrical horror movie, one that of course contain none of the gore modern films have, but you can bet the images of Robert Mitchum stalking the two children in this film has haunted many a kid's dreams over the years.

2006-08-19T07:08:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #37

How on earth did I manage to post some three dozen movie clips so far and not manage yet to include a Burt Reynolds car chase?

Let's rectify this case of gross negligence right now. Here we have Burt at the beginning of Robert Aldrich's The Longest Yard, playing a washed-up football player who attempts to regain his sense of manhood by stealing his sugar mama's sports car, getting in a high speed police chase that nearly mows down a number of pedestrians, then sending said sports car into the river, all to the tune of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Mr. Saturday Night Special."

This scene may very well be the apex of Redneck Cinema. To me the best part is when Burt spots the cops in his rearview, somehow looks surprised, then tosses his drink over his shoulder into the backseat and floors it. And that suit! I now know what my costume will be next Halloween. Just have to work on the 'stache and sideburns and I'll be set.

Thanks to All Comment Posters....

2006-08-18T18:47:00.000-07:00

I was looking over old posts around here and was surprised to see a number of comments that had popped up that I had not noticed before. Some of it was spam, of course, but I was pleased to see so many compliments and encouraging words. And not a single snarky or "You Suck!" comment in the bunch! If you wonder why I didn't respond, consider this to be my thanks, and hopefully you'll keep visiting. It's nice to know people are reading, and tell your friends...

Beyond that, I also want to point out Murray's great addendum to a discussion of Bottle Rocket that went on some weeks ago. You can check it out here. Given the level of detail he took time to provide, I feel bad I hadn't noticed it before, but more of Murray is always a good thing.

This might also be a good time to direct Bottle Rocket fans to the The Unofficial Bottle Rocket Website, especially the full transcript of Dignan's hallowed Seventy Five Year Plan.

Enjoy.

2006-08-18T07:14:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #37

Mark Wahlberg learns why Michael Jackson is pop king of sick fucking country in David O. Russell's Three Kings.

You know, it's so nice and comforting that we can look back on this film and know now that it has no relevance whatsoever to the present. After all, Three Kings was made at the end of the twentieth century. We're in the twenty-first century now, where freedom's on the march! Evildoers and freedom haters beware!

"You are the blind bullshit, my main man!"

David Lynch Returns!!

2006-08-17T20:49:00.000-07:00

So I was just reading an announcement concerning films slated to appear at the upcoming New York Film Festival when lo and behold I see David Lynch has a new movie coming out. Kick-ass! I remember hearing vague stuff about this two or three years ago, and had all but forgotten about it. But, it looks like this crushingly dull year of movies will at least get a shot in the arm when Inland Empire is released this Fall. In my opinion, Lynch has one of the better track records amongst his contemporaries -- even his missteps are at least interesting failures and nonetheless create plenty of discussion.

Little is known about Inland Empire, but here's the official description thus far:

A Polish woman looks, intently, into someone or something ... an actress (Laura Dern) is warned that her new movie is cursed ... a rabbit-headed family perform sit-com actions on a stage set as if engaged in a solemn ritual ... Such are just a few of the elements and recurrent motifs of The Inland Empire, a mesmerizing surge through countless looking glasses that lands us on the far side of the land of nightmares. Lynch’s first foray into high-definition video is just as visually stunning as his work in 35mm, but the long gestation period of his new film (he shot on and off over two years, and wrote as he went) has allowed him to give his own uniquely epic form to many of his primary concerns: the exploitation of young women, the mutability of identity, the omnivorousness of Hollywood.

Vague but tantalizing. I can tell you that Inland Empire also features the always-cool (and apparently immortal) Harry Dean Stanton, as well as Jeremy Irons, who I can just see fitting perfectly in David Lynch Land.

Inland Empire has no official release date yet, but I hope it's sooner rather than later.

Thanks to Devin at CHUD for first pointing this out.

2006-08-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

Daily Movie Clip #36

Technically this isn't from a movie, but who cares? Ricky Gervais as David Brent in The Office is better than just about any current Hollywood notions of "funny."

I'm not a fan of sitcoms -- people regularly look aggravated with me when they make a Seinfeld reference and I respond with a blank look -- but to me The Office is the rare perfect sitcom. If you haven't seen it yet, you only have yourself to blame.