Gotta tell you man, I loved Dave Cronenberg’s new one, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE.
Archive for September, 2005
9/23/05
Friday, September 23rd, 2005
LikeA History of Violence
Friday, September 23rd, 2005First of all Moriarty, to finish up that debate we were having over in your talkback, porn is not boring. At least not if you’re jerkin off to it. And if you’re not jerkin off to it you’re not giving the picture the respect it deserves. That’s like doing a crossword puzzle during a subtitled movie and then saying the movie didn’t make any sense. I know Alberto Gonzales recently declared a “war on porn” one of the administration’s highest priorities, but don’t write off the merits of hardcore porn without giving it a fair chance. Let’s show some class here, bud. That’s first of all. Second of all, I got a review of David (JASON X) Cronenberg’s excellent new picture A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE starring Viggo Mortensen.
This is basically a smart thriller, a simple one, nothing complicated, no crazy twists. It’s short and sweet although it moves at a somewhat deliberate pace (which is code for “some assholes will say it’s too slow but they’re wrong”). This is pretty much the most “normal” movie Dave Cronenberg has ever made. But it’s intense, intelligent and serious so it doesn’t feel like some kind of sellout movie. Just a rare moment where the guy is working on a wavelength that normal humans might be able to relate to. I’m sure his next movie will have vaginas growing out of people’s arms and machines made out of tongues and crap like that and you and I will enjoy it but I think it’s nice that once every ten or fifteen years he is willing to invite the rest of the neighborhood in for a show. Just tell them it’s the guy that did THE FLY and DEAD ZONE. But this one is less weird. Actually tell them it’s HIDALGO.
If you saw the trailer you pretty much know the first part of this movie: Viggo is Tom Stall, a family man in a small town, runs his own diner, beloved by the community, etc. Then one day some drifters try to rob him, he jumps over the counter and blows their fuckin heads off, etc. This makes him a local hero and media sensation, but you know, you don’t get moves like that from pouring coffee. That’s clear to Ed (KNIGHTRIDERS) Harris, a mobster from Philadelphia who shows up at the diner sporting a creepy fucked up eye and calling Tom “Joey.” I like Ed Harris, like in that Alex Cox movie WALKER. So I forgive him for stalking poor Tom and his family, seeking retribution on behalf of that fucked up left eye. (more…)
9/21/05
Wednesday, September 21st, 2005Oldboy
Wednesday, September 21st, 2005I’m not sure why but the other day I decided it was time to start The Great Asian Catch-Up Binge of 2005. You know how it is, some movie like HERO or something comes out in Asia, plays some big film festivals in the west, makes a big stir, comes out on region coded DVD and bootlegs, everybody goes nuts, I don’t get around to watching it, then it gets shelved by Miramax for a couple years, almost comes out cut and dubbed with a new soundtrack by R. Kelly, they change the title to MAXIMUM FORCE or something, then at the last second they change their mind and do an actual theatrical release, and a couple months later if it’s still playing that might be when I finally see it. But usually not.
Well people have been going ape shit for movies from pretty much every Asian country over these last couple years. I’m sure alot of them are good but I just can’t keep up. So what I have decided to do, I am going to try to watch some of the ones people just won’t shut their god damn yaps about. Get it over with so I know what they’re talking about. I’m planning to watch ICHI THE KILLER from Japan and the INFERNAL AFFAIRS trilogy from Hong Kong. But in honor of the six party talks with North Korea going on right now I’m going to start with Korea and that movie OLDBOY that everybody couldn’t stop talking about a year or two ago and then moved on leaving me in the dust. It finally came out on American DVD, so I rented the old region 3 import version.
No, this is not the red guy with the giant hand. THat’s Hellboy that’s a different movie. (more…)
9/18/05
Sunday, September 18th, 2005I had high hopes for LORD OF WAR starring Nicolas Cage. They were not met. I also have high hopes for geocities because I finally broke down and started to pay the $4.95 a month for “premium service” or whatever they call it. This got rid of that stupid ad box and supposedly will give me more “data transfer.” So we’ll see if the thing keeps crashing or not. How you could help me out is if you could get one of your sucker friends to buy my book. If just one (1) upstanding citizen buys the book each month this whole caper will almost pay for itself. I won’t mind tossing in the extra 41 cents, I will consider it even. However if nobody ever buys my book again it doesn’t even matter. It’s worth so much more than $4.95 a month to me to share my thoughts with all you ungrateful fucks.
just kidding I love you all for who you are
Lord of War
Sunday, September 18th, 2005Here’s a great idea for a movie: a comedy about gun running. A movie that asks what kind of a soul-less, inhuman bastard gets rich supplying weapons to warlords and “freedom fighters” they damn well know are gonna use them to massacre innocent people. A movie that is not shy about pointing out the US government’s participation in this horrible industry. But remember I said a comedy, not some depressing documentary or self righteous oscar bait picture. A dark satire with serious bite, so it gets to you, but you don’t feel like you’re drinking castor oil. It’s more like Flinstones vitamins.
Great idea, but not a great movie. And maybe I’m losing my touch, but like THE BROTHERS GRIMM, this is one where I couldn’t always put my finger on what exactly wasn’t working. It’s much more involving than BROTHERS GRIMM and doesn’t feel as muddled or sloppy. But it was another one that didn’t quite connect with me. It seemed like it should work, but it didn’t.
The main problem, and I’m at least sure of this one, is that it’s just not funny enough. There are some good lines, but most of them were in the trailer. One of them (when an ATF agent approaches Nic Cage and Cage says, “This isn’t about the alcohol and the tobacco, is it?”) isn’t even funny in context because it happens at a sad part in the story. I’ve seen some people describe it as a drama, so maybe not everybody thinks it’s supposed to be funny. But I mean come on. There is a scene where he tells the captain of a boat to go “slow… dead slow.” And then there is a shot of the captain pulling a lever to set the speed on “DEAD SLOW.” There’s not any other jokes like that but that does happen in this movie. Did HOTEL RWANDA ever have a joke like that? No. Not in the theatrical cut at least. There was the part where his wife held up the shower nozzle like it was a weapon. But still. That was a serious movie. This is not. (more…)
9/15/05
Thursday, September 15th, 2005ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW is this new “indie” movie they got. “indie” is another word for independent, but with a 50% savings of syllables. Why are you going around wasting your life away saying those 2 extra syllables? Especially when you’re dealing with a 9 syllable movie title you gotta say “indie movie,” not “independent movie.” In fact I’m gonna go with “indie flick.” Or “inflick”. This inflick is called MAYAEWK f.n.o. That stands for “for now on.” No time to elab.
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Thursday, September 15th, 2005Here on earth there are certain individuals blessed or cursed with a special knack for observing shit, noticing shit and looking at shit in different ways than you or I would. Picking up on things other people don’t or explaining things in ways nobody else would’ve thought of. This skill, this Gift, this power, can come in many forms and be used for many different things. You could become a philosopher or a great leader, like Jesus or Martin Luther King, Jr. Alot of people, if they had it real strong, would become an artist. Andy Warhol is the obvious best example. Unfortunately, most people born with The Gift use their power for evil: standup comedy mostly. Also some of them become characters in Richard Linklater’s non-studio movies.
Miranda July, who wrote and directed and starred in this picture, apparently uses The Gift for performance art. Or video installations. Or something like that, I guess. But also for this movie. It’s one of those movies where you can tell she had a journal full of random ideas and then figured out how to string them all together. Alot of times a movie like that can be really good, because it feels so packed full of inspiration. AMELIE was a movie like that, where a million little Jeunet ideas were glued all over the top of a love story. In this one the ideas are less integrated, it’s more like a list of the ideas in movie form.
Like for example two almost-strangers who are attracted to each other are walking down a block to their cars. Their cars are in different places so they’re gonna separate at the end of the block, that’s the end of their relationship. So the guy points out that the “Ice Land” sign up ahead is the middle of the block, and represents the point where they realize their relationship is doomed. They flirt back and forth about whether that means they have six months together, or years before they get a divorce. Finally she says that the end of the block represents when they die of old age together. And they split up. (When they see each other shortly after she refers to it as the afterlife.) (more…)
9/14/05
Wednesday, September 14th, 2005I got another film related documentary under my belt. This one is TELL THEM WHO YOU ARE, where the legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler’s son makes a documentary about his dad to try to reconnect with him. It’s actually not that much about movies but about fathers and sons and it’s real good shit if you ask me, which by coming to this web sight you pretty much did. sucker.
Tell Them Who You Are
Wednesday, September 14th, 2005This is a documentary about the legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler, only it’s directed by his son Mark, so instead of being about Wexler’s career and genius, it’s more about daddy doesn’t love me enough. The son rebelling against the father and then trying to make up before he kicks it (he’s in his ’80s).
The opening scene won me over right off the bat. Haskell is in a big store room in front of all kinds of camera equipment, talking about what he does. From behind the camera, Mark asks him to tell where he is.
Now, we the audience aren’t retards. We know he’s in some sort of room where he keeps his camera equipment, because he’s standing in front of a bunch of camera equipment. Mark is a grown man and has directed documentaries before, but he clearly doesn’t know about “cinema verite,” also known as “direct cinema” or “good documentaries.” Haskell tries to explain that he shouldn’t have to say where he is, the audience will know where he is by watching what he’s talking about, seeing his surroundings, watching what happens. But Mark isn’t having it. He keeps asking Haskell where he is, and Haskell flips out. Immediately I knew I liked the guy.
I wasn’t so sure about Mark, though. After this great opening, you are hyperaware of the cornball techniques Mark uses for his documentary. The old first person narration bit, lots of photos altered to look 3-D, etc. It’s like he’s purposely trying to use bullshit documentary techniques just to torture his dad. He doesn’t seem like he has the kind of charisma that makes you accept one of these documentaries about the act of making a documentary either. And then you find out he’s some kind of a republican. (more…)
