The Small Back Room (1949)

A rare black and white film for this late in the Powell/Pressburger cycle, The Small Back Room is based on Nigel Balchin’s well regarded, and obviously rather internal novel. The story concerns Sammy Rice (David Farrar in a deceptively well balanced performance), an explosives expert working in one of those “small back room” scientist outfits in World War II. Suffering from immense pain as the result of an artificial tin foot he forces himself to wear, Sammy is working to suppress a latent alcoholism with the support of his apparently live-in girlfriend Susan (played by the elegantly beautiful Kathleen Byron). The film is so intriguing as a character study that you hardly feel it needs the lose plot about booby trapped Nazi bombs until the end of the film, when the need to defuse one serves as the catalyst for Sammy dealing with a lot of self confidence issues. I love the lighting in the film its beautiful, the visuals a match for The Archers better known Technicolor films. The sense of place is also remarkable, as is often the case in Powell/Pressberger films England herself is a character of sorts. The movie is also quite dark and racy for the time, giveb issues of alcoholism, psychological fetishes (Sammy insisting on keeping his painful artificial foot on, even when alone with his girlfriend), and the sexuality of Sammy’s relationship with Susan, telegraphed rather boldly for the time. I’ve watched this movie three times already and it just gets better with each viewing, simply more first rate work from Britons fabled Archers. Thumbs Up.

Avatar (2009)

Somehow James Cameron has pulled it off again. Like Titanic, Avatar suffered some bad early press, excessive cost, mishandled early advertising, relatively untried leads, and a general sense that the project was too grandiose, the director a little delusional. Though the writing is not to much above George Lucas, the truly breakthrough special effects, imaginative conceptualization, likeable leads, and untaxing story make Avatar work (not unlike the better, early George Lucas movies). This is one of those event movies that actually deserves to be an event movie, see it in 3D its worth the extra money, in fact I’m having a hard time imaging seeing it without the glasses. I think this film may cement Cameron as the De Mille of our time, he knows how to do spectacle that people want to see, and I think word of mouth is going to do wonders for this picture at the box office. Not a perfect movie, but enveloping in its fantastic sense of place, and boasting of some genuine old fashioned excitement. A bit of a pleasure. Thumbs Up.

Note: Plot felt like an odd cross between The Mission and Silent Running.

Christmas in July (1940)

This rather short Preston Sturges film (running time 67 minutes) plays like a cliff notes version of every other Preston Sturges film: Misunderstanding or con propels pretty girl and (in this case rather bland) lead into ever escalating comic situations, thusly exasperating various scene stealing character actors, and also William Demarest has to be in it. Not his best, but pleasant enough Sturges film succeeds in its brevity. Mild thumbs up.

Darwins Nightmare (2004)

Documentary about how *&%#- up Tanzania is. The films title is a reference to how the introduction of foreign fish into Lake Victoria threatens to destroy the natural eco-system, and how the precious fish based economy has saddled that nation with all sorts of unintended human fall-out as well. The major fishing companies are run by Indians, who pay Russians to fly out the fish. The Russians and others sleep with the prostitutes, many of whom become prostitutes after their husbands die in the dangerous fishing industry. The prostitutes get AIDS and die and many of there children turn to drugs. Preachers come and try to save the children, but their opposition to condemns helps spread the AIDS that kill the mothers. It’s all a very sad tale, rendered more so by the rather human portraits we get of various business men, pilots, prostitutes, orphans, and even a rather intriguing former solder turned security guard. We may now never get to see an anti-creationist documentary by this title, but the shear relevance of this Darwin’s Nightmare more then makes up for it. Thumbs Up.

Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

Spike Jonez dared to make a “children’s” film around the concepts of emotional pain, frustration, and disappointment in family & relationships, it worked and I want to thank him for it. Based (loosely) on Maurice Sendak’s beloved 1963 children’s book of the same name, Where the Wild Things Are is not a conventional children’s movie. I think the film provides an access point for children to rougher emotional issues, kind of ‘your child’s first existentialist movie’ (if you don’t count WALL-E). There has been some debate about how suitable this movie is for young children, if they can take it (as it is a little intense at parts). The two children I saw come into the theater with their mother (ages about 4-6 or so) seemed to sit through it fine, rarely talking, however its hard to even guess at an emotional reaction (though I suspect if I’d seen it at that age I would have been profoundly affected).

The Wild Things, big CG enhanced Muppets our protagonist Max (Max Records, who’s so natural he hardly seems to be acting) meets and is briefly king over in the ‘fantasy’ run-away sequence that constitutes the bulk of the movie, are complicated balls of fuzz and abandonment issues. It is through the Wild Things, whose larger then life qualities, and tendencies to wear their emotional insecurities close to the surface, that Max is able to gain a deeper sense of empathy and a better understanding of the emotional dynamics of others in his own ‘broken home’ (Max’s dad, divorced from his mother, is an unseen presence throughout the film). The film has a wonderfully mature and honest way of speaking to children on an emotional level, and that is to be appreciated when so much of kids entertainment is entirely surfacy. But the movies other accomplishment is how it can bring that child’s perspective home to adult viewers, and mabye even serve as a sort of emotional catharsis. I expected this to be great, and because of those standards perhaps wasn’t quite as emotional affected as I wanted to be, but it was affecting and moving in a reflective way, and combining that with its visual triumphs you have something defiantly worth experiencing in a theater. See it.

Also, good to hear Lauren Ambrose's voice again, under-used, under-used.

The More the Merrier (1943)

My viewing the other week of Talk of the Town reminded me just how great a director Geroge Stevens is, and prompted me to want to see another of his comedies (I’m more versed in his later, post war dramas). I had heard in a documentary that Frank Capra was a tremendous admirer of Steven’s 1943 film The More the Merrier, which took the war time housing shortage in the Washington D.C. area and used it as the conceit upon which to build a romantic comedy. Government employee Jean Arthur is forced to take in two male boarders at her apartment, retired millionaire (Charles Coburn) and a solder/engineer (Joel McCrea) on special assignment. The former boarder decides he’d like to see the latter boarder hitched to their landlady as he’s not a big fan of her bland fiancée (Richard Gains). The film takes awhile to get going but later has its moments, however the picture remains uneven and a little awkward throughout. I felt they had about 70% of a movie here but largely botched the remainder, leaving those scenes either to slow, undeveloped, or even kind of uncomfortable (Arthur and McCrea’s shotgun marriage). It’s not a bad film per say, but I can’t bring myself to recommend it when you can see the aforementioned and superior Talk of the Town, which has something of a similar underlying premise anyway. Not recommended.

Blowup (1966)

In many way’s a good companion piece for A Serious Man. Director Michelangelo Antonioni’s first English language (and second color) feature is (among other things) a rumination on swinging 60’s London (this is a very Mod film) and the callowness of youth. The story concerns an unnamed young photographer (David Hemmings, giving off something of an Oskar Warner type vibe) who photographs vapid and emaciated looking models for the money while holding to a pretentious dream of being of being an important, artistic photographer. One day Hemmings follows a May-December couple in a park hopping to get some slice of life shots, and ends up witnesses to something he doesn’t fully understand. Later blowing up (hence the title) segments from the pictures he took he begins to piece together that he may have been a witness to an attempted, or even actual murder.

The film however dose not really focus on this vaguely mainstream thriller sounding premise, rather it’s a character study, chiefly of Hemmings, and a fascinating encounter with the youth culture of London at that time. The film takes you places you haven’t really been before, even if you think you have, and judging by the critical notices the film got at the time (lots of accolades) it wowed many a professional movie watcher. The film is still well thought of now, I chose to see it simply for further building of film literacy and didn’t expect to like it much, but I was really impressed. It’s a pleasurable film to look at, something about Antonioni’s obvious talent for composition is overwhelming, and brings an incredible sense of life, time and place to what he shoots. Look at the sheer greenness of the park, marvel at the juxtaposing of ugly beautiful modern housing complexes, and beautiful ugly old stone shops. Notice how the parade of overly thin plastic women we see early in the film makes the pleasantly pretty Sarah Miles stand out as the films most pleasant and arguable redeemable female character (or character of either sex for that matter). Also marvel at the documentary quality of the film, that its about swinging 60’s London yet Antonioni clearly has mixed feelings about his subject matter, and he isn’t afraid to present this fact to us. Marvel at Hemmings amoral reaction when he realizes what he saw in the park that day, then watch with mixed frustration and expectation as he proceeds to dither about it. A most impressive work of art, not quite like anything else I’ve seen. Thumbs Up.

A Serious Man (2009)

Early in the film physics professor Larry Gopnik (the unknown Micheal Stuhlbarg in a career making performance) explains to one of his less gifted students that the illustrative stories he tells in class are not really ‘physics’, just parables designed to illuminate principles that even he doesn’t always fully comprehend. That brief moment helps explain a lot about A Serious Man, the Coen brothers most recent film, and their most satisfying and philosophical ‘comedy’ since The Man Who Wasn’t There.

Set among Jews in suburban 1967 Minnesota, the Coen’s for really the first time (with the arguable exception of Fargo) mine their formative environment for story setting. It’s a marvelous recreation, free from the overbearing, forced sense of history present in many films set in the past, the film is not so much nostalgic as it is an incredibly detailed rendering of a time and place, largely free from sentimentality or value judgments of any kind. The story line bares obvious and intentional similarity to the Book of Job, as ’everyman’ Gopnik is subjected to an unremitting stream of every possible hard ship: At home his wife wants to leave him for his best friend, his son’s smoking pot, his daughter emotionally distant, his brother who is living with them suffers from an unremitting neck cyst and appears to be involved in some illegal activity. On top of that one of his students is trying to extort him, he gets into an auto accident, and on the eve of his review for tenure his department keeps receiving unsigned disparaging letters about him.

Gopnik tries to take solace in family, friends, religion, and legal and medical professionals, but all are found wanting. The possibility exists of starting an affair with the sultry neighbor whose husband is always away on business, but being a moral man Larry will not try, and even his dreams give him little respit. In fact its his innocence that most troubles Larry about his situation, he could understand it if he were a bad man and deserved to be punished, but as he keeps protesting throughout the film, “I didn’t do anything!” This I think is what the film is about, the unfair ordeal, the constant stream of seeming punishments that is life, and in so being is consistent with the Coen’s generally dark world view. Smart, subtle, satirical, stylized, and near Talmudicly layered and dense, this is one of the best and most literate of the brothers work, surpisingly funny, and one of the best films of the year. Thumbs Up.

Hollywood Ballyhoo (1982)

Presumably made in the early days of the home video market as a kind of sampler and general introduction to the films and stars of Hollywood’s golden era, this loosely styled documentary places an emphasis on the ‘ballyhoo’ school of movie publicity (film premiers, stars birthday parties, promotional material). Hosted by David Steinberg the films highlight is several minutes worth of outtakes from 1940’s Warner Brothers pictures featuring the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, and Betty Davis swearing. Just the enjoyable kind of slip shod curio I find oddly comforting. Thumbs Up.

Talk of the Town (1942)

School teacher Jean Arthur must hide wrongly accused arsonist Cary Grant in the attic of the home she’s renting to law professor Ronald Colman. Smart, satisfying screwball comedy is wonderfully well constructed and bears obvious tonal similarities to the work of Frank Capra. Grant and Colman’s friendly sparing a real treat. Movie very effective at keeping you guessing which of the two leading men Arthur will wind up with, though I personally would have liked to see her end up with the other man. Still, very satisfying. Thumbs Up.

Mary of Scotland (1936)

Historical drama suffers from the worst excesses of the genre, especially those made in this period, its over talky, thin and boring. Hepburn’s good but doesn’t feel quite right in this setting, where as March is playing below himself as a sort of low cardio Errol Flynn. Surpasses Drums Along the Mohawk as John Fords most disappointing film, save Wagon Master. Thumbs Down.

Surveillance (2008)

This is a bloody, violent, often unpleasant indi suspense thriller co-written and directed by Jennifer Lynch, daughter of David. Jennifer may well be more twisted then her father, she's certainly bloodier and even less interested in reassuring endings then dad. While David tends to the surreal in his horror, Jennifer seems to emphasis the real. This film about the investigation of a string of serial murders in a small Nebraska town indicts its victims while humanizing its killers, no one escapes clean. At first I thought the whole thing excessive, but then came to realize that there is more subtlety here then I thought, and was impressed as well with the unexpected intricacy of the film making, as well as how riveting Lynch could make some rather unpleasant scenes. Better and more provocative then I had expected, it managed to win me over through pure artful mendacity. I Approve.

Meet the Robinsons (2007)

Disney (non-Pixar) animated film about an orphan boy with a talent for inventing, who travels into the future and befriends a family of eccentrics. I thought this film was just too hyper-active and slim on story, it also seemed oddley dated and remincenst of Frank Capra's Oscar winning 1938 film You Can't Take It With You. Ultimetly Saturday morning cartoon material that does not warrent a motion picture. I disapprove.

Gates of Heaven (1978)

Errol Morris’s documentary about one failed and one successful pet cemetery is extremely well thought of in some critical circles. This is not a flashy documentary, while the subject matter may seem gimmicky the movie is really about the people, proprietors, employees, former owners of the interred, and even neighbors of the subject facilities. Morris spends a lot time just showing you his interviews of these people, talking heads with very limited use of other visuals (yet the film has a stylistic rhythm you catch onto after awhile). Notice the sequence were he intercuts between interviews of the three members of the Harberts family, and it takes a while before you realize that their all talking about their respective dreams, and how different, and kind of desperate those dreams are. A little slow, especially at first, but intriguing on the whole. Grade: A-

Fallen Agnel (1945)

Fallen Angel (1945)

Largely small town film noir not overly impressive plot wise, but possesses some good acting with Charles Bickford and Alice Faye (in what would be her last film for 17 years) offering this pictures most intriguing characterizations. Grade: B-

2012 (2009)

Watching 2012 was like being a pig rolling around in Roland Emmrich excrement, you know its crap but it feels so good. Actually this is probably the directors best film since Independence Day ,though I think the only two of his movies I’ve seen since then are Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow, so maybe that’s not saying much. Emmrich likes to blow stuff up, and it looks neat, plus his ability to craft the sort of characters that work in disaster films is probably the best this side of the 1970's. It’s a crowd pleaser that makes up in scope for what is lacks in depth. I kind of wanted to dislike this film, but I’m having a hard time doing that because I really enjoy it, though I’m under no illusions, art it ain’t but as spectacle, the most satisfying disaster film in some time. Grade: B-.

Portrait of a "60% Perfect Man": Billy Wilder (1980)

Documentary (really more of an extended interview) of Director Billy Wilder by film critic Michel Ciment. I found this one a lot more enjoyable then the similar Billy Wilder Speaks filmed during the 1990's. In this earlier film Wilder is more vibrant, he’s younger (in his mid 70's at the time), still working (his last film, Buddy, Buddy would be released this same year), you see him walk around, gesture wildly, his wit in full form. Wilder was an excellent story teller, both on screen and in person, and his personality one that makes him just a joy to watch being himself. I already knew most of the information in this film, but it felt like spending time with the man which is what made it so enjoyable. Grade: B. Title is a reference to the classic closing line from Wilder’s 1959 film Some Like It Hot: “Nobody’s Perfect”.

Broken Blossoms (1919)

Now considered a classic of silent cinema, this film pushed many envelopes for its time in its deprecations of child abuse and inter-racial love. The story concerns an immigrant Chinese shop keeper (Richard Barthelmess), who takes in an abused 15 year old (Lillian Gish) in then contemporary London. The film has a maturity and subtlety you don’t always associate with American silent cinema, particularly this early in the art forms history. Knowing what I know about its director D.W. Griffith, and his Victorianism and Confederate sympathy in politics, I was surprised by the handling of a number of elements in the film. Take Bartholomew’s affections for Gish, I think its strongly implied that he’s sexually attracted to her, but despite his disillusionment and opium addiction, the character still posses a very strict moral code and is unable to act on his baser desires. This is set up well in the short prolog to the film, where we see that Bartholomew’s character was a very committed Buddhist back in China, and in fact left that country for Europe in the hopes of being something of a ‘missionary’ to the ‘savage Anglo-Saxons’, a delightful inversion of period expectations, and one that I’d be very curious to know what Griffith meant to convey by. Grade: B+.

Virginia Davis (1918-2009)

Disney’s little known first star. I actually had a conversation with her once four years ago, she was a very animated grandmotherly sort, seemed to keep her youthful enthusiasm her whole life.

Lou Jacobi (1913-2009)

Some actors only need one role to be memorable, and he was so funny as Moustache in Irma La Douce (1963), that that alone warrants him mention here.

Henry Gibson (1935-2009)

Like Jacobi, Gibson had a long and successful career as a character actor, but when the folks at Boston Legal brought him on as Judge Clark Brown, did they know what a treasure they had, I think so.

Lou Albano (1933-2009)

Super Mario himself.

Ertuğrul Osman (1912-2009)

The last claimant to the throne of the Ottoman Empire.

Irving Kristol (1920-2009)

One of the least known but mostly politically influential Americans of the 20th century, his son continues the family’s neo-conservative tradition but isn’t as impressive.

William Safire (1929-2009)

Journalist, political figure, “libertarian conservative”.

The Informant! (2009)

This is a film that really exceeded my expectations. There’s a lot going on here, there’s of course the quirky style, and Damon’s great performance, along with a whose who of under used character actors, but there’s also a surprisingly intricate tapestry running beneath everything that I didn’t fully start to piece together until after I left the theater (though I can’t say to much about that with out spoiling it). Suffice it to say this film didn’t take me where I expected to go, and while I felt a little trepidation at first, I now embrace it. One of the most enjoyable part of the film are Matt Damon’s little internal monologues as Mark Whitacre. Here is a guy in the middle of some high stress, intense stuff, price fixing, working as a mole for the FBI, yet like most of us he often spends his time thinking about stupid stuff, like where he should go to get his ties, an idea for a television show, and South American butterflies, these moments are often hilarious. One of my favorite films of the year so far. Grade: A-.

Manufacturing Dissent (2007)

Another film about Michael Moore, though this one feels more journalistic then most. Moore still comes off badly, or at least as complicated, which he assuredly is. I think when we learn more about his past, especially around the time of Roger & Me, we see that he had always been an egoist, practically incapable of admitting when he was wrong (I don’t ever think I’ve heard him say he was wrong), and someone who clearly doesn’t think it wrong to manipulate the truth when he thinks he’s right (which again appears to be basically all the time). I don’t hate Michael Moore, I still kind of like him, but I think he’s a man more motivated by an unhealthy psychology then by principle or anything else. Grade: B-

Films title is a play on the Noam Chomsky documentary Manufacturing Consent.

Mad Men:Season 2 (2008)

What can I say, the show gets even better, even deeper. Grade: A. My favorite episode from the season: Three Sundays.

Zombieland (2009)

You already know if you’ll like this or not. Not as quirky as the cult-classic Shaun of the Dead, it still does a wonderful job of balancing its zombie film and coming-of-age-movie sensibilities. The small cast really clicks and the film boasts probably the most memorable cameo of the year. Grade: B. Enjoy the trailer.

The Hasty Heart (1949)

Adapted from the stage play of the same name, The Hasty Heart is a one note cliche, filled with period conventions, unexceptional acting, and bland staging, it became almost instantly tiresome to watch. The story is about a mostly off putting Scottish stereotype of a solder ( Richard Todd) injured fatally on the final day of the war, only he doesn’t know it. Destined to die of kidney failure within weeks, the commanding officer of this international MASH unit decides to keep the Scotsman around and in the dark until his death, he does however enlist a pretty nurse (Patricia Neal) and five recuperating solders of various nationalities to befriend him and make him ‘happy and comfortable’ in his last days. Mostly the Scotsman (who pines for a kilt and is named Laughlin McLaughlin, lest we risk once taking the emphasis of his being Scottish) is gruff, self righteous, and unlikable. Eventually he comes to believe that this gang of six are his friends, and then he just becomes over needy and annoying. Then he figures out he’s dying and his ‘friends’ knew about it, and he becomes a jerk again (want to wager if he has yet another change of heart before the ending). Movie notable mostly as Neal’s first after beginning her affair with Gary Cooper on the seat of The Fountainhead, and that Ronald Regan (who plays the groups requisite Yank) was reportedly very depressed while shooting this movie having recently been divorced by his wife Jane Wymen. But mostly, its just a bad movie. Grade: D.

I Love You, Man (2009)

Likable comedy aims for just the right level of ambition and humor. I’m a big fan of Jason Segel and Paul Rudd is perfect as the lead (I’m liking this Rashida Jones as well). Impressive supporting cast. Grade: B.

Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut is a Talmudicly dense mediation on what it is to live life. Philip Seymour Hoffman is Caden Cotard, a hypochondriac, obsessive and romantically self defeating New York state theater director, who spends the last 40 years of his life working on a never-to-be completed autobiographical stage play, conducted inside a near life-sized replica of New York City housed in a massive warehouse. Incredibly cast the film has so many riches of performance, writing, subtext and set design that I dare not even start. Surface it to say that this movie comes about as close as I’ve seen to being a religious document on screen. Grade: A+

Mad Men: Season 1 (2007)

Sometimes I come across a movie or a show that I’m reluctant to review because it can’t be either quickly summarized, or if I tried to go in depth it would seem too daunting, Mad Men is one such show. Series creator and head writer Matthew Weiner wanted to capture the early 60’s, its ethos, social norms, popular culture, everything and then simultaneity deconstruct and pay tribute to an era of incredible transition. It’s about the mythology of the time, how we view it now and how it was lived then. The characters are complicated internally, and often act a role on the outside. The role is dictated by the circumstances of their lives, their aspirations, social expectations, psychological needs. Like other period pieces, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, The Apartment, Revolutionary Road, it’s a show about the cynicism of a supposedly innocent time. One can relate to the characters because (to mine the Kennedy vs. Nixon motif that permeates the entire first season) its about the battle between who we really are and what we aspire to be, and how often we fall short. Grade: A.

I think this little montage from episode 4 captures the essence of the series.

Ponyo (2008)

My first Miyazaki film in a theater (to my surprise I found that my sister-in-law was attending the same showing with two of her brothers). Ponyo is the story of a magical goldfish (daughter of a once human ‘evil’ wizard and ‘The Goddess of Mercy’) who is saved from ocean refuse by a five year old Japanese boy and subsequently wills her self to become human. As Ken Jennings has said of the work of Miyazaki, one of the beauties of his films is that they don’t often make sense. It’s that dream logic thing again, an original mythology and a childlike sense of wonder which are the directors two biggest strengths. This is a lovely movie, less ambitious then some of his most recent works, but it ties in nicely to the ethos of My Neighbor Totoro, which still my favorite of the directors films. The movie boasts the requisite A-list voice cast and beautiful animation, as well as a soft handed lesson about the balance of nature. The boys mother voiced by Tina Fay is quite exceptionally realized, a complete human being is rare to see in a ‘parent character’ in an animated movie. Grade: B+

Eli Stone: Season 2 (2009)

Again, this has got to be one of the most tragic televison cancellations of the decade. A smart, clever show that boasts a narrative freeness you seldom see, a cast that completely works, and genuine character development. Season 2 is better then season 1, a logical continuation of all that came before it with a few minor twists. I really would have enjoyed seeing where this show could have ended up, if only it had been on basic cable were it belonged, and not one of the too often fickle networks. Grade: A-.

Bonhoeffer (2003)

Documentary on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German protestant theologian who took bold stances against the Nazi’s, could have fled the county but didn’t, and was ultimately executed for his involvement in a resistance plot to kill Hitler. I think I would have rather gotten this information in the form of a magazine article, I really grew bored with this too thorough film (where even the 20+ minute shorter Truth and Conviction was still almost pushing it) . Grade: D+

Thought: Christian Clemenson could play Bonhoeffer on stage, they look a lot alike.

The Shining (1980)

I had seen the later, Steven Weber TV mini-series adaptation of this Stephan King classic, but it is the original Kubrick adaptation that is iconic. King had the mini-series made because he felt Stanley Kubrick’s film strayed from his vision of the story, I’m sure it did, I trust King and Kubrick was notorious for the looseness of some of his adaptations, he’d seize on a basic story premise and go his own way from there (A Clockwork Orange is suppose to be the best example of this tendency). But what Kubrick would make of any material was always fascinating, and here we have the directors cool and innovative visual sense (tracking the big wheel down the hotel corridors, genius), hypnotic pacing, deceptively simple yet reveling dialogue, and a heck of a performance from Jack Nicholson. While the basic plot is pretty well known there are a few brief moments of haunting weirdness that stayed with me (one in particular) that hint at something wider, crazier and more mysterious going on. High brow horror, if can call it that, which maintains lasting popular appeal and is a true touchstone of its genera. Grade: A.

I'm also a big fan of this inspired Shinning spoof trailer.

To Catch a Thief (1954)

Hey a well known Hitchcock film I hadn’t seen. As all Hitchcock movies are suspense/mystery films perhaps its best to unpack them by there subgeneras, and in this case its defiantly a romance. Grace Kelly (this is the film that brought her to the south of France, ultimately a mixed blessing in her life) and Cary Grant are our couple, a first generation American heiress and a reformed former cat burglar trying to prove his innocence in a recent rash of jewel heists (and hence the tentative plot). One of Hitchcock’s subtler, less ambitious films, its not as spectacular or exciting as many of the directors 50's outings, but if you accept it on its own terms you’ll have a good low key time. Loved Jessie Royce Landis as Kelly's mother. Grade: B.

The Lost Room (2006)

A mysterious event in May of 1961 seemingly obliterates a New Mexico motel room from existence, and endows all the objects that were in said room with indestructibility and other mysterious powers that range from the mundane (a wrist watch that will hard-boil any egg placed within the watch band), to the potentially world changing (a glass eye that can “destroy or heal all flesh”). One of the more significant objects is a key that can (with a few restrictions) transport you to nearly any doorway in the world. A Pittsburgh homicide detective (Peter Krause) investigating a truly odd double murder (the victims were fried to death but their clothes remained unsinged) comes into possession of this key, eventually resulting in his 8 year old daughters being trapped in another dimension, and the fathers desperate struggle to get her back.

Krause’s character becomes immersed in the world of those individuals who are aware of ‘the objects’ existence, and forms many temporary alliances in his efforts to find an object capable of restoring his daughter to ‘this’ reality. The objects and there powers are fun and often inspired in there silliness, and the different factions and their approaches to and beliefs about the objects intriguing. Indeed I must say this mini-series seems to have struck upon a truly original and entertaining idea, and although the beginning and to a lesser extent the end are weak, the middle is an enjoyable romp. However this all felt less like a mini-series, and more like the first season of a TV series, the ending left so much unresolved I almost immediately started thinking up plot lines for season 2. Baring the unlikely event of getting Peter Krause back, surely this could be an entertaining series of novels. Grade: B.

The Mission (1986)

A Beautiful story of sin, redemption and compromise in 18th Century South America. Jesuit missionaries sincerely sought to bring Christianity to the native peoples, but their work was compromised by a political situation involving Spain, Portugal, and the Church, one that sapped official Catholicism's moral leadership in regards to the rights, and very lives of the American Indians. Strong cast, memorable score and beautiful location footage. Director Joffe concisely evokes Vietnam and his earlier The Killing Fields in scenes of native slaughter. Grade: B+

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007)

The story of the wrongs committed against the Sioux Indians by the American government from The Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876 to Wounded Knee in 1890. Told through the stories of several real life figures including an Indian doctor (Adam Beach) a U.S. Senator (Aiden Quinn) and Chief Sitting Bull (August Schellenberg). Tragic tale delivered with some poignancy. Also featuring Anna Paquin and then soon to be presidential aspirant Fred Thompson in a cameo role as President Ulysses S. Grant. Grade: B+

Point of Order (1964)

Emile de Antonio’s documentary of the Army McCarthy hearings of 1954 consists of just that, footage of the Army McCarthy hearings of 1954, with the aid only of simple editing, and the briefest of scene setting narration at the start of the film. In its minimalism as regards construction and narrative voice it was stylistically revolutionary for a documentary of its time, and (more importantly) the perfect format in which to engage arguably the most gripping drama ever played out before the United States Senate. You couldn’t ask for better heros and villains then Joseph N. Welch and Joe McCarthy respectively, colorful, forceful characters who draw you in, though the supporting players cover a fascinating spectrum as well. A triumph of bringing immediacy and intimacy to real and important history. One of the 10 best documentaries of all time. Grade: A+

Boston Legal: Season 5 (2008)

A little delayed given the rapid succession in which I watched seasons 1-4, but season 5 served as a lovely reunion with some great characters. Finishing the series also brings me back to where I started it, as my first exposer of any real length to the program was the roughly 60% I watched of the series final last December (was it really only December?). I just really hope that David E. Kelly finds a way to bring the Alan Shore character back in some future project. Season Grade: B+, Series Grade: A.

The Godmakers II (1993)

I admit I've always been morbidley curious to see one of these films, and this one was avilable for free on the interwebs. Anyway mostly a rehash of materials from the first Godmakers film (so I've read), you know Mormons have to much power, is a cult, ect. The one new addition is charges that long time Church leader Gordon B. Hinckley had a series of orgies with under aged males and prostatues in a Salt Lake City apartment, or so says a dying AIDS patient. Film maker Ed Decker makes the point that the Church is so powerfull that it supressed virtual all news of this story, thus citing a lack of evidence as evidence, neat trick. Such overreaching at lest in part is what caused the more reputable 'anti-Mormons' the Tanners of Utah Light House Ministry to break with Decker and his group. I don't know how to rate this one.

Truth & Conviction: The Helmuth Hubener Story (2002)

Helmuth Hubener was a teenaged German Latter-day Saint from Hamburg, who with the assistance of two fellow young Mormons from his branch, was a surprisingly accomplished anti-Nazi pamphleteer. Though once an apparently contended Hitler Youth, Hubener became convinced of the evils of Naziism by observing their treatment of the Jews and listening to forbidden British radio broadcasts. Recruiting two of his friends to assist him, Hubener composed dozens of anti-Nazi pamphlets which they distributed in fair numbers throughout the Hamburg area. Hubener and his friends were eventually captured by the Nazi’s and Hubener executed, though his compatriots lived to tell his tale.

I admit to being somewhat ill disposed to this story at first, feeling Hubener's tale to have been overplayed within LDS circles in recent years. I can’t help but feel hyping Hubeners story is a way some Latter-day Saints have come to retroactively insert themselves, and their faith into the understandably popular historical narrative of anti-Nazi resistance (in other words, we want in on the righteous indignation too). Truth is most of the relatively small group of Mormons in Germany at that time, like their fellow country men, made no active attempts to resist the Nazi movement. Also some Mormons were Nazi’s themselves, and I’m glade that this documentary addressed that issue. This being said I found Helmuth’s story more interesting that I thought I would, and found him to be a truly impressive individual who showed an unusual amount of courage and conviction, especially given his age. Helmuth’s is not a story of a particularly ‘Mormon’ kind of resistance, but rather of a kind of courage that sets apart valiant individuals from all backgrounds and creeds. Grade: B.

Soon to be a 'major motion picture' with Haley Joel Osment.

Pandora's Box (1929)

A series of G.W. Pabst references that I’ve encountered recently (notably in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds) prompted me to see this, the Austrian directors signature film. American actress and sex symbol Louise Brooks plays Lulu, a character that comes from a series of plays on which the film is based. Lulu is ‘Pandora’s box’, without meaning to she unleashes chaos among the men (and one women in an early lesbian sub-plot) in her orbit, ultimately resulting in much suffering and death. Despite the significance of the film, and its strong statements about female sexuality and social dynamics in Germany between the wars, I find that I don’t have a lot to say about it, the two dulling film scholars who provide the Criterion collections audio commentary say it all (and then some). Still I recognize solid film making when I see it, and it was on the whole an interesting film to watch. So, grade: B.

Criterion release includes 1998 TCM documentary Louise Brooks: Looking for LuLu (Grade: B-)

The Unit: Season 1 (2006)

David Mamet created this bifocaled look at army life and all that is coveret. In essence it is two shows, one about an elite, officially nameless army ‘unit’ tasked with high risk, officially off the record operations around the globe; the other the home lives of the army wives back on base, and all the sacrifice and domestic drama that entails. The balance is kept remarkable well, very taught story telling, satisfying as both action adventure and melodrama. As much as I appreciated and enjoyed the show, and recognize its arguable greatness, I just felt a little held back from the proceedings, there’s not a character there I completely connect with, which I’m afraid takes what should have been an A- down to a B+ (which may be just a little harsh). The surprise ‘twist’ at the end of the season final however, couldn’t have been done better.

Yet More Recent Deaths

Ted Kennedy (1932-2009)

You can’t deny his iconic statues, one of a very small numbers of senators who will be remembered a hundred years from now.

Army Archerd (1919-2009)

Legendary Hollywood columnist, great name too.

Frank Batten (1927-2009)

Founder of The Weather Channel, I enjoyed his guest appearance on the Dennis Miller Show a few months back.

Larry Gelbart (1928-2009)

That guy in the M*A*S*H credits who you may have confused with a local weatherman.

Patrick Swayze (1952-2009)

I admit I was never much of a fan as I’ve seen very little of his work, but his unique supporting part in Donnie Darko legitimizes him for me.

Mary Travers (1936-2009)

Some Recent Deaths

Budd Schulberg (1914-2009)

Son of Paramount Studio head B. P. Schulberg, as a service man in WWII Budd was tasked with arresting Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl. Bud became involved in far left politics including the Communist Party, and later ‘named names to HUAC’. He collaborated with director Elia Kazan on the screen plays to A Face in the Crowd (my favorite Kazan movie) and On the Waterfront, the latter story meant to glamorize the ‘stole pigeons’ that Kazan and Shulberg effectively were.

Dallas McKennon (1919-2009)

The voice of Gumby.

Henry Allingham (1896-2009)

The last British vetern of the first World War.

John Hughes (1950-2009)

Underapricated, a genious at what he did. Uncle Buck is pretty close to a perfectly executed comedy.

Les Lye (1924-2009)

Mr. Barths burger himself.

The Taco Bell chihuahua (1994-2009)

Hey Jackson, "Yo quiero auto bargins."

Marley & Me (2008)

Warm film based on author John Grogan’s memoir of his beloved lug of a dog Marley. One must admire the straight forward simplicity, and good natured sentimental honesty of this movie. While it breaks no new ground, it does tell a simple story well, and seems to purposively evoke memories of any viewers own beloved pets of yesteryear; for me that was an expectationly kind Shetland sheep dog named Kirby (1995-2007). Grade: B.

Fun short little movie reviews

War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death (2007)

Straight forward documentary on media manipulation in support of American military conflicts abroad since World War II. Nothing new, adequte presentation. Grade: D +

Dexter: Season 3 (2008)

Still a very solid show, but not addicting in the way seasons 1 & 2 where. Show settling into a little bit of a formula, Dexter thinks the seasons main guest star could finally be the one to really understand his serial killing ways, only to have said guest star turn out to be more nuts then he is. This season that role is filled by Jimmy Smits, in a powerhouse performance as an ambitious Cuban born assistant district attorney, with a propensity for anger and cutting corners. This is the first season not based on one of the Dexter novels, and I give the writers kudos for doing as well as they did (particularly liked the episodes concerning the lung cancer of Margo Martindale's character), but am hopping for just a little more out of next season. Still even a weaker season of Dexter rates a laudable A-.

Public Enemies (2009)

Michael Mann is always a reliable source of ‘cops & robbers’ action, and this film about famed gangster John Dillinger is no exception. Several vintage Mann action sequences are complimented by the subtle performances of Johnny Depp as Dillinger and Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis, the G-man personally tasked by FBI director Hoover to bring the famed gangster down. Depp has said in interviews that he views Dillinger as a man of the people, and the idea of the gangster as a sympathetic 'Robin Hood figure' has been around since Cagney. Though Dillinger largely tried to avoid the taking of innocent life, and only took money from banks never directly from average citizens, he did use people as human shields, and while not a crazy bastard like Baby Face Nelson, he hardly counts as a hero. Dillinger is however (in this film at lest) largely likable, and one can understand how he came to be what he was (he tells us briefly, and in such a way that if your not paying attention you might not catch it). The lovely Marion Cotillard plays Johnny’s half Indian love interest. Grade: B. Film shows us an unusually long sequence of clips from Manhattan Melodrama (1934), the movie which the gangster finished just minutes before he died.

Jackie Brown (1997)

I complete my viewing of Quentin Tarentino’s entire directorial cannon with his third film Jackie Brown, so far the autor’s only film adapted from a pre-existing source (in this case a Elmore Leonard novel). It’s a caper film, elegantly handled, and in the forum of bail bondsman Max Cherry ( a great performance by Robert Forster) boasts probably my favorite character from any Tarentino film. The title character is essayed by Pam Greer, the star of many 70's blacksplotation film and source of inspiration to the director, she here proves still quite the force on screen. Sid Haig, who menaced Ms. Greer as a tough in a number of her 1970's films, here has an amusing (and ironic) cameo as a judge. Fine work by Samuel L. Jackson, Robert De Niro, and an unexpectedly cast Micheal Keyton. Fun and quite engaging. I love it when there’s so many con’s and double deals going on at the same time that anything can happen, lends a great deal of excitement and anticipation to the goings on. Extremely well executed. Grade: A

Earthquake 7.9 (1980)

aka Megaforce 7.9

From the Grindhouse set. A Japanese geologist is confident that a major earthquake is going to strike Tokyo, only various bureaucracies won’t listen until its too late. The disaster strikes just as our geologist hero is grappling with a major ‘shakeup’ in his own personal life, and must chose between his semi-estranged wife and the co-worker who loves him. A lot is made of Japanese concepts of family loyalty and ‘the right way to do things’ against which an individual with vision is nearly as powerless as he is against nature itself. The earthquake in my opinion seems far in excess of the 7.9 richter rating in the amount of damage it does. The movie actually compares fairly well to the disaster films of the time from which it takes its inspiration. In fact towards the end of the film, when the storyline splits in two, you have homages to Irwin Allen classics The Poseidon Adventure (the group trapped in the flooding subway tunnel), and The Towering Inferno (reporter attempts to save love interest from her burning and collapsing building). The very last few shots of the film may even be taken from the end of San Francisco (1936), only without the payoff of seeing the whole of the city in ruin. This grew on me. Grade: C

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Quinton Tarantino’s first film quickly establishes his unique style. The dialogue, the music selection, the performances, the subject matter, the editing and story structure, they all bear the autours imprint. It’s a heist film, where we never see the heist. But we don’t need to see the heist, because even though it’s a heist film, its not about the heist. I couldn’t fully encapsulate what it was about until I learned what is meant by the term ‘reservoir dog’. As Pam Greer describes it in a bounce feature, they are the junk yard dogs, the street dogs, the ones who really appreciate every scrap of food, the ones who have had a hard life. It is the story of desperate people in a desperate situation, and it doesn’t matter so much how they got into the situation, but how they react when they are in it. It’s a character study of half a dozen men we learn about but never really know, we are constantly surprised by them, and that’s what resonates. A triumphal beginning to Tarantino’s now already storied career. Grade: A.

Waiting for God: Season 2 (1991)

Series about the more eccentric denizens of the Bayview Retirment Home is still one of my favorite britcoms. Bonus features include a short retrospective on the work of actress Stephanie Cole (the series contrarian Diana Trent), I had no idea how diverse her performances where and how consistently she’s stared on British television. Grade: B.

The Atheism Tapes (2004)

A brief ‘supplementary series’ to Jonathan Miller’s multi-part televison documentary, Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief (which I wish I could find on DVD because I’d like to see it). Simply put this six part series consists of interview footage with prominent Atheists that had to be cut from the original documentary. As Miller says in his introduction for this series, the BBC agreed with him that much of this cut material was interesting enough to warrant broadcast, and the conversations presented here must at the very least be considered informative and well reasoned ones, even if you are a staunch theist.Interview subjects include the playwright Arthur Miller (who actually spends the bulk of his interview talking about anti-Semitism), Nobel Prize winning physicist Steven Weinberg (who I didn’t think I was going to like but did), and others like Cambridge Theologian Denys Turner (yes an atheist theologian), and philosopher/ Darwin expert Daniel Dennett. Richard Dawkins the distinguished biologist and writer is probably the most famous of the group as far as being an atheist goes. My favorite of the interview subjects however was the philosopher Colin McGinn, who has now got me interested in learning more about his work. Intellectually stimulating, and something of a novelty as this is material something I have seldom encountered outside of books. Hard to score, but I’ll give it an A for the material and interview subjects (and for Atheism I suppose) and a B for presentation.

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Sometimes one get’s just overwhelmed with the prospect of writing a review for something like Inglourious Basterds. This was the move I was looking forward to all summer, and indeed my very high expectations for the film left me feeling just a little detached for probably over half the movie. What I was seeing was excellent, but how could it compare with expectations. In addition to this, Tarantino’s style is so stylized and idiosyntric, that it almost necessitates an extra layer of internal processing to transcend the gap between his aesthetic and the stories emotional core or thematic essence. I sound like I’m being critical here but I don’t mean to me, I loved this movie, I’m telling you right now it gets Grade A. But I do feel overwhelmed at the prospect of trying to encapsulate my many thoughts about the film, and though the same could be said about The Night of the Hunter (which I also only recently saw) and any number of other films that I’d love to have long conversations about, when it comes to a Tarantino’s film this desire almost always seems a more urgent one.

I saw the film with my sister, it was her first Tarantino’s film, and though I had some trepidation about bringing her to see the movie (she was the one who brought up her desire to see it) I’m glade I did. It is fun to watch someone watch their first Tarantino film, especially the moments when you can see that they’ve caught on and are getting it. My only regret was not seeing the movie with a larger audience, because Tarantino films seem as though they’d resonate with large crowds very well.

The film can be analyzed many ways, as indeed I’m sure its meant to. This may not make a lot of since if you haven’t seen the movie, but this is a film about film. It’s about how we relate to film, the conventions of film, the study of film, how it can filter perception, and its role as a vehicle for both dreams and disillusionment (and its all rather overt about this). It’s a revisionist World War II film, in the truest sense. It is a revenge fantasy. It is an acting show case. It is a loud meditation. Tarantino thinks it might be his masterpiece, and its certainly his biggest smash on all fronts since Pulp Fiction. Anyway I’d love to talk about it more, but I wouldn’t now where to begin. But if you’d like to start a conversation about it, just feel free to leave a comment.

Night of the Hunter (1955)

The only film directed by actor Charles Laughton, Night of the Hunter (based on the novel by Davis Grub) is set amid the water front towns of the Ohio River during the Great Depression. Robert Mitchum is a traveling preacher of sorts, but really an abominable monster, a cruel and manipulative blue beard and living metaphor for spiritual abuse. In prison for stealing a car Mitchum is cell mates with a man (Peter Graves) who killed two people and stole $10,000 dollars which was never recovered. Gathering that the money was stashed secretly among the man’s family, Mitchum seeks them out after his release, ingratiates himself with the local community as ‘a man of God’ and gains a spiritual control over the mans wife (Shelly Winters). Her husband having been executed for his crime Mitchum and the widow marry, but when she figures out the real reason he married her (to get the money) the Reverend slashes her throat, ties her up to her model T, and lets it go into the river. The two children (Billy Chapin and Sally Jane Bruce are Tim Burtonish and memorable) escape from their step father on a little boat they take down the river, at this point all are aware that the $10,000 is stashed in the girls doll. The pair now travel by night, desperate to escape the unrelenting pursuit of their wicked stepfather, 'the Hunter'.

Often surreal, vaguely dream-like, this is an unusual horror story, replete with animal and biblical metaphors. Mitchum anticipates his later performance in Cape Fear and is at his terrifying best (1). The films visual style (mega-kudos to Stanley Cortez) is remarkably strong, even overwrought, and heavily influenced by silent cinema (as if to drive the latter point home Lillian Gish is cast). Stylistically this is almost the nexus of film, Muranu is here, as well Hawks, Ford and any number of lesser studio system directors, the influence on David Lynch is heavily evident throughout, and it also reminds of the rather cinematic late HBO program Carnivale. All together though a singular entry in the cannon of film, tense action plus a semesters worth of film school. Grade: A

1. Interestingly Shelly Winters role also prefigures her later performance as a desperate widow turned obsessive bride in Lolita.

Why Be Good? (2008)

Documentary examines early Hollywood sexual mores in light of their relationship to the broader American sexual culture. Film focuses mostly on a series of early sex symbols (like Clara Bow, Louise Brooks, and Joan Crawford) as well as the development of film censorship. Film more documentary then analysis but has a few interesting things to say, such as the contention that an American public just exiting the Victorian age felt a psychological need to have cinematic depictions of sexuality come from a mythic ‘outside’ in order to enjoy them. Thusly early sex symbols were often foreigners, Garbo, Valintino, and sensuality was often depicted on screen in an exotic or fantasy context. Not an exceptional presentation but fairly interesting none-the-less. grade: C

Note: Documentarys title comes from (besides the obvious) a 1929 film starting Colleen Moore.

Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009)

Sequel to the 2006 film is as entertaining as the original though the two pictures are surpassingly distinct, they don’t parrot each other, which is good. The original Night at the Museum had more of a sense wonder, it reminded me, and others, strongly of the family fantasy films we grew up on in the 80's (from The Never Ending Story to Explorers, even Back to the Future), where as this Night at the Museum is more like a series of witty comics riff’s strung together in a family friendly format. Ben Stiller anchors the proceedings, and Amy Adams is fetching, but it is Hank Azaira’s performance as Kahmunrah(the chief villain) that steels the show (that voice, what combination of things was he channeling). A fair number of comic cameo appearances, notably Jonah Hill (who should have had more screen time) and Bill Hader (likewise). Grade: B

All Passion Spent (1986)

British mini-series based on the book by Vita Sackville-West. Wendy Hiller(so delightful in supporting roles in the films Separate Tables (1957) and The Elephant Man (1980), and here more then up to the task of a lead (I just made the realization that that was her in I Know Where I'm Going, so of course she is up to the lead)), is Lady Slain, the recently window spouse of a highly admired former Prime Minister and Viceroy of India. It is 1930 and Mrs. Slain, at the age of 85, is for the first time in her life free of the duties and responsibilities that defined her existence. As a youth she had wanted to be an artist, but she had married as was expected of her, and although it was to a man she dearly loved, she can’t help but feel she missed something in life. She traveled the world with her husband, watched his career sore although they never made a great deal of money, and raised five children. Now all Lady Slain desires out of what’s left of her life is to retire to a small house in the country, associate with good people her own age, and reflect on her life, though this meets with the disapproval of her three most tiresome children.

Having seen this adaptation I feel a desire, much stronger then is typical for me, to read the book on which it is based. There is an awareness, a perception in the story, as well as a subtlety about human character that is masterful. It is a deceptively simple tale, on that surface, not all that much really seems to happen, but there is volumes spoken here about family relationships, expectations versus dreams, societal changes over time, love and duty. I marvel at this thing, and though it has its limitations as cinema, I expect it is a force as a novel, and might even make a good play if rendered in several parts. You may enjoy this if you watch it, but you’d probably be even better served to find the book and read it, I orderd my copy today. Grade: B+

Peeping Tom (1960)

I’ve heard that Billy Wilder felt the audacity of this picture about a disturbed young man who kills women with his camera, is what ensured no one would bother to feel offended by his little adultery comedy The Apartment, which went on to win that years best picture Oscar. Released earlier the same year as Psycho, Peeping Tom scandalized audiences, earned the almost universal condemnation of critics, and effectively ended the career of director Michael Powell. Re-discovered by a later generation of film enthusiasts, including Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppala, Peeping Tom has had its reputation rehabilitated to that of a minor classic, and now has something of a cult following.

The story was the brain child of Leo Marks, once a code breaker for MI-5 and an associate of director Powell. The two had originally intended to make a film about the work of Sigmund Freud, but when it became known that John Houston was planning a similar project, the original idea was shelved. Powell reportedly took instantly to Marks rather thematically daring script idea, and having now seen the film I am forced into something of a re-examination of how I had viewed the great British director.

One should not make the mistake of circumscribing a man by his films, though I suppose its easy to do. Watching the films Powell directed during his fifteen-plus year partnership with Emrich Pressberger, one might be shocked that he would even consider such a project. The Powell/Pressberger films where noted for a certain tempered sentimentality, a companionate idealism combined with a playful sense of humor and often bold visual sense. From Peeping Tom one can see the Powell had the boldness and creativity to spare, even I dare say some of the compassion, but it was Pressberger (who was in charge of the scripts in the partnership) who held the string on his kite and allowed their films to fly with distributers and the general public. In a documentary on P & P included as a special feature on The 49th Parallel DVD, you can see Pressberger occasionally give Powell a look of ‘sometimes you go to far’. Indeed as Powell would insist that his two young sons sit in on the filming of Peeping Tom’s brief nude scene (one so briefly on screen that I didn’t even notice it the first time through), that the director was a complicated son of a gun is plain to be seen.

However I don’t find Peeping Tom to have been a mean spirted film, many of those who panned it on its first release have since acknowledged this (that its not mean spirted, not my assessment that its not, though the latter would be nice). There is much to examen and consider in the film, it’s very intricately constructed, and hints at much more then it spells out. Sexual obsession, castration complex, and camera as fetish object/substitute phallic (thematic left overs from the original Freud project) (1). An examination of British social class roles, witness were the killer lives versus where he takes his victims, as well as exposer of the wide spread presence of porn underneath the bland exterior of contemporary British life (the Miles Malleson scene). Then there’s the films examination of film: the murderer is a camera man/aspiring film director, the parody of English cinema in the films film-within-the film ‘The Walls are Closing In’,and references to Fritz Lang’s M (in Carl Boehm’s characterization of the killer), and Moira Shearer’s dancing number echoing those in the other two Micheal Powell films in which she was cast (The Red Shoes and The Tales of Hoffman). All this and the father son dynamic, with Powell in flashback playing the murder’s psychologically tortuous father, opposite his own real life son Columba. This is a thinking mans horror picture, though rendered in the same color tones as the schlocky shock films of the time (2).

Peeping Tom is a fascinating film of intriguing density and multiple layers of meaning. I wonder if this is what Scorsese himself will be going for in his forthcoming horror thriller Shutter Island. A reveling examination of the psychology of both its characters, and (with a pinch of salt) its makers. Grade: A

1) Notice also director Powell’s career long cinematic fetish for red-heads (Deborah Kerr, Moira Shearer), there are three, arguably four who play significant roles in this film alone.

2) Though a Dali like surrealism is also evident in the films first two shoots.

Haxan (1922)

About a year or so ago I checked out a book from the library titled something like, '1001 Movies You Should See Before You Die'. One of these movies was Haxan, a silent documentary-style examination of witchcraft by Danish director Benjamin Christensen. I remember thinking, ‘well sure, that may be one of the 1001 movies to see before you die, but how am I ever going to get a hold of a copy’. Well a short time ago, while leafing through the Criterion Collection section at a local Barns & Noble, I discovered that the film had a high quality DVD release. So, it was not long until I netflixed it. I can tell you that Haxan deserved to be on the books list, it’s unlike any film I’ve seen, and is one of the few silent films that could likely hold the attention of a decently educated modern audience.

While often described as a documentary, I think film-essay (a description Orson Wells used for his also rather unique film F for Fake) better fits. The start of the film is very much like a college lecture, with a pencil being used to point out aspects of images obviously taken from books. This is the grounding part of the film where Christensen reviews various ancient cosmologies, religious and folk beliefs that propertied the existence of devils and witches. The rest of the film is re-enactment style, consisting mostly of a dramatization of a how a witch hunt hysteria might begin in a typical mediaeval town (this is the most effective part of the film), but also other vignettes such as an outbreak of religious frenzy inspired madness at a nunnery. Christensen ties this all together with a series of psychological and medical explanations for phenomena earlier generations, and even some today (1920's, but I’m sure 2009 too) might have interpreted as ‘witch like’ or ‘demonic’, such as sleep walking or Parkinson’s disease. Clever and engaging, with a memorable and varied visual style (from text book prints to make-up jobs on some ‘devils’ that would hold up even today).Grade: A

An English language sound edition with jazz score was released by The Rank Organization in 1968, and is also available on the DVD for the completest as well as the silent film averse.

Defiance (2008)

True story about a group of Belarusian Jews (at its peak numbering 1,200) who lived out in the woods for years evading Nazi’s during World War II. The movie starts out unspectacularly, we’ve all heard the valiant Jews escape the Nazi’s stories so many time’s any consistent movie goer is in danger of becoming numbed (and to this something we really shouldn’t become numbed too). Anyway, I’d have even described this movie as bad in its first 20-30 minutes, but it steadily improves. There are the almost unavoidable clichés yes, and while the story is a true one the dynamic of brothers Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber (there falling out and reconciliation) feels like a script device. But then you do get to like this group of people, feel for them, even though there are no outstanding characterizations in the film. You get a few things you haven’t seen before, the building of the settlements in the woods, the German Shepard attacking a women on a ‘food mission’, the communal beating of a captured Nazi solder by the frustrated refuge’s, the dynamics of Jewish solders in the Red Army. In short all the forms there, but the emotional impact still felt a little short for me, and what there was dissipated kind of quickly. B-.

District 9 (2009)

Peter Jackson produced this quasi-documentary formatted, science fiction, action bloodbath come racial metaphor. In the 1980's a large alien spacecraft becomes stranded, hovering helplessly over the city of Johannesburg. A million or so alien refugees, nicknamed by the humans “Prawns” on account of there appearance and bottom feeder ways, are re-located to a ghetto like facility called District 9. Clashes with humans and a general dis-like of the ‘Newcomers’ (reference intentional), prompts the government to employ a large Haliburton-esq military contractor to forcibly re-locate the Prawns to a new facility 200 miles away. This movie is set amidst the relocation effort, and has as its protagonist that efforts poorly chosen, not particularly capable, duffus of an Afrikaner project manager Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley). The movie starts out kind of dry, heavily documentary and back story focused, then our awkward lead character bumbles himself into potential mutation into a ‘Prawn’, his employers try to kill him, and the whole thing leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth. Fortunately a CG Prawn with an anglicized name (Christopher) manages to fill enough of the central void of ‘humanity’ in the film, and there-by galvanize the reluctant Wikus into something of a hero, so the picture works reasonably well enough in the second half. Neat idea, but better explored in the 1980's by both the afore-referenced Alien Nation and V. Grade: C+ The similarly adverstised Cloverfield was a better theater experience.

Eli Stone: Season 1 (2008)

Quirky dramady from ABC has San Francisco lawyer Stone (Jonny Lee Miller) experiencing elaborate musical numbers in visions that que him to charitable under-dog court cases that either his subconscience, or God, or both, want him to take. All this steams from a hereditary aneurism recently discovered by Stone's doctor brother Nate, and which our hero’s acupuncturist/spiritual guide believes makes him a prophet. Likable, very good hearted show could have been episodic, but instead follows a surprisingly well developed arc. George Michael songs and the aechingly cute Julie Gonzalo abound. To bad this series was canceled after season 2, I’d have liked to see it grow into a real institution of a program. Grade: B+

The 49th Parallel (1941)

This Michael Powell film was widely seen as a propaganda effort to encourage America to become involved in the war by appealing to a cultural and democratic kinship with Canada. The film concerns six survivors of a German U-boat that had been torpedoing shipping out of the Gulf ot St. Lawrence. Stranded in Canada, the Nazi’s attempted to make their way west to Vancouver and a rendevous with a Japanese submarine, along the way they are gradually picked off and encounter various upright Canadian citizens, played by such name stars of the UK and Commonwealth as Laurence Olivier, Anton Walbrook, Leslie Howard, and Raymond Massey. Feels like a kind of inverted version of Hitchcock’s Saboteur, though that wasn’t released untill the following year. This film is made by its ‘guest stars’, who represent a cross section of diverse Canadian types, meant in turn to be symbolically representative of a diverse United States. Eskimo, French Canadian, Germanic emigre, and American Indian, all show a decency that the ideologically blinded Lt. Hirth (Eric Portman gives a committed performance in this effective Nazi villain role) can’t even understand, while some of his cohorts are allowed more human emotions, one even tries to defect. This could have been merely a gimmicky piece of propaganda, which I admit it technically is, but its so well done and has such a good spirit about it, probably the best patriotic movie ever about Canada, though I can’t rightly think of a single other one. Grade: A-

Funny People (2009)

Director Judd Apatow’s latest serio-comedy is the most serio-one yet. Apatow has a gift for balancing the humorous with the poinet, but this film is constructed to lay more emphasis on the latter then any of his previous work excepting Freaks & Geeks. The Dramatist in Apatow is on full display here, and he elicits strong performances form his cast, including Seth Rogan’s subtlest and Adam Sandler’s most reveling since Punch Drunk Love. Apatows real-life wife Leslie Mann gets a chance to shine on screen (as well as their two daughters) and one is reminded how stunning and under used this women really is. The occasional crudity will drive some off (though its tame by the standards of the directors previous two films) but its got to be on the most reflect movies so far this year, and that’s even more of an accomplishment for a big summer release. Lets hope its appreciated. Grade: B+

Angels and Demons (2009)

While superior to its predecessor 2006's The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons has the ludicrous plot of ‘the Illumaniti’ planning to blow up the Vatican with an anti-matter bomb during a papal conclave as revenge for 17th century Church persecution of scientists. This talky and at times obtuse adventure flick is better executed and more engaging story-wise then the first of Ron Howard’s adaptations of Dan Brown novels, and has at lest one generally memorable moment. Hanks is good but not stretching himself, and the best things about this series continue to be its villains and the lovely dark haired European girls who assist our ‘symbiologist’ hero. The film does have some generally intriguing things to say about the manufacture of religious myth, which I think are much more relevant then those made in The Da Vinci Code. Grade: C+ Look for director Howard’s father Rance as one of the Cardinals.

The Edge of the World (1937)

Probably the only movie ever filmed and set in the Shetland Islands. Director Michael Powell’s highly personal early film was shot on a limited budget, it was essentially an independent production which probably only ever got made because it was needed to fill the quota of domestically produced films British movie houses were required to screen at the time (part of a government effort to keep the Anglo film industry going despite heavy and generally better financed American competition). Inspired by a true story Powell had read in a newspaper back in 1930, The Edge of the World is the story of the death of an island community. The hard Shetlander life style was becoming increasingly untenable as more and more of the island young people left for the greater opportunity to be found in Scotland and elsewhere, and as economic and technical changes made the modest fishing, wool and farming economy of the islands obsolete. Though many tradition bound natives clung to their old ways and fought ‘progress’ as best as they could, in the end it was a losing battle and many of the Shetland islands would become abandoned by man, left to wild birds and the occasional flock of sheep left tended alone for months at a time by the chains famed small Collies (full disclosure: I had one of those wonderful Shelties growing up).

The movies actual story is relatively light, and there mostly as a metaphor for what was happening in the island society at that time. In other words the plot is a skeleton, a necessary excuse upon which to graft a near documentary real portrait of a dying way of life. Powell is a visual director, and his extraordinary eye captures all the stark beauty of the subject island and its inhabitants. The black and white images suit this story better then color ever cold, they reflect the beauty and sadness, and simplicity and isolation of these northern colonies. The film is almost entirely a reflective piece (two cliff climbing scenes and a storm sequence constituting the pictures only real physical action), and has even been described as a visual poem, which is probably the best summation you could give to it. A lovely little piece of obscure British film making. Grade: B

Gran Torino (2008)

It is fitting that Clint Eastwood has announced that this will be the last film in which he will appear (though if we’re lucky his directing career still has many years ahead of it), as it seems a perfect summation to the Eastwoodian ethos and the actors near mythic quality. Here is Harry Calihan in old age, inhabiting a contemporary Unforgiven tale. Korean war vet and ex- auto-assemble worker Walt Kowalski has just lost his wife (the classic Eastwood character is always spouse less) and feels largely alienated from the world around him. His long-time neighborhood has become largely populated with members of the south Asian ethnic group known as Hmong, and since Walt is a racist of an easily provoked (though not mean spirited) sort, and because he still nurses ghosts from his actions in Korea, he is withdrawn from his neighbors. Of course he is withdrawn from his family to, a distance whose cultivation grows from those same wounds of 50 years ago, and which is only exacerbated by the generation gap and how spoiled and superficial his children and grandchildren are (some think this is over played in the film, which it is, but its not hard to understand the point Eastwood is trying to make). Circumstances collide, in a typically well handled way, to provide for a variant redemption tale, a character sketch come emotional journey of self discovery, the pathos of this silent generation Archie Bunker. In some ways Eastwood’s performance and character arc is not unreminiscent of Rod Steiger’s in In the Heat of the Night (1967); of course we couldn’t have had Stieger’s journey without the imposition of Sydney Poiter, whose figurative role and story purpose is divided between two young Hmong performers (Bee Vang and Ahney Her) who each have a respectable screen presence and bring unique and vital elements to the proceedings. The film is tonely right for all that is has to do and say, and is a fulfilling and satisfactorily deep benediction to its stars acting career. Grade: A

Homicide: The Movie (2000)

As a friend of mine said, “I’m so glade they made this movie.” The true ending to the series this follow-up tele-pic wraps up many of the unresolved story lines, and boasts appearances by every series regular. There was something just wonderful about seeing all of the characters intermix, including some that never had before because they were on during different seasons. The story takes some interesting turns and continued the Homicide tradition of pushing the envelope, who’d have ever thought the whole thing would end the way it did. Audacious, thought provoking. If you’ve never seen the series before you’d probably have trouble making heads or tails of the thing, but if you’re a devoted fan it will be a significant eighty-nine minutes. My grade: A.

Homicide: Season 7 (1998-1999)

Final season of the series good, but just not the same without Pembleton. I liked Mike Giardello and his arc, and they did some interesting with Gerety, and all of the characters really. I liked the bookend quality of the ending with Bayliss. Anyway this is a great series, and it feels very satisfying to have been able to finish it. The Series: Grade A+. Season 7: Grade B.

Some Links

• Warner Brothers has embarked on the ambitious project of releasing their entire catalog on DVD, check out the website.
• The Auteurs, where you can watch a film of the month for free, and otherwise become acquainted with the hard to find work of some of the worlds great directors. Martin Scorsese is involved.
• MediaShift: 5 Places to Watch Movies Online Legally -- and Free
• The Internet Archive Moving Image Archive: an odd assortment of free stuff
• Star Trek: Phase II: Superfans create surprisingly ambitous new episodes of the original Star Trek.

The Simpson's: Season One (1989-1990)

I have no intention of going through all the seasons of The Simpson’s, lord knows the show had past its prime by the turn of the millennium, I haven’t made any effort to watch new episodes I think since before the start of the Iraq War. However that first year was something different, and I chose to view it again for the nostalgia kick. I was just the right age for this show when it first came on the air, I was 9 and fortunately for me my folks weren’t like many in our Mormon world who barred their children from watching the program. The show was an original, and could swing through genera’s and tones with great ease, and because it was animated youngsters like myself could be exposed to some not unsophisticated satire and ‘life lessons’. What I remember about the early show was that it actually had heart beneath its critique of modern family life, and I’m sure the series still does. What it may lack now that it had before however was a sense of the existential, I didn’t have a word for it then but I knew some of the episodes actually affected me. In Life on the Fast Lane, the seasons Emmy winner, you have perhaps the most true feeling depiction in television of a child’s terror at their parents martial difficulties. That episode was long an emotional point of reference for me when I heard about friends parents getting a divorce. While the series has now long passed it’s relevance, I can’t give the revolutionary first season anything less then a grade A.

OutFoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (2004)

You know what this is about, it’s the counter argument to Fox News and its effects on media culture. While political shifts since the documentary first came out have lessened, even voided some of the criticisms in the documentary (for example the current liberal statues of much of MSNBC shows that counter programming to Fox has taken root), there’s still relevant information here. I would encourage Fox News viewers to watch this documentary and see the other side, though I can’t help but point out that the talking heads in this film must be as disproportionately left as Fox News is right. Though I largely agree with the film, I do have to be fair and balanced after all. Grade: B

Karl Malden: 1912-2009

I first knew him as the likable General Bradley in Patton, one of my favorite films during my high school years. Yet Malden was an extremely versatile actor, not blessed with movie star good looks he channeled his talent into a large variety of character rolls. He could be a strong authority figure like in Bird Man of Alcatraz, he could be great moral figures like Bradley or the crusading priest he played in On The Waterfront, one of his many collaborations with director Elia Kazan. Yet he could also play pathetic figures, characters hypnotic in their desperate grasp for dignity, like his Harold 'Mitch' Mitchell in A Streetcar Named Desire. I personally keep thinking about his loathsome Archie Lee Meighan in the Tennessee Williams scripted Baby Doll. Here is a character we should despise, he set fire to his competitors mill, he openly lusts for an underage girl, but Malden finds true pathos in this character who has grand dreams beyond his ability, and is thusly doomed to inevatable failure. There was little it seems that was beyond Malden as an actor though, he also gave back to his field as a President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Of the recent rash of celebrity deaths Malden’s was in many ways the lest tragic given his advanced age, but to me his was perhaps the greatest lost, as I greatly respect and have long loved the work of this talented man.

Clerks (1994)

Some what similar territory to Spaced actually. One of the defining movies of the 1990's, boasts fairly clever Kevin Smith dialogue, and the genesis for the writer/directors ‘view askew universe’. Carpenters on the second Death Star digression a classic. Grade: B

The Late Shift (1995)

HBO tele-film about the particularly bitter fight over who would replace Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Show. With actors made up to look like Leno and Letterman you know it can’t help but be campy, and because the movie is really about business deals you might think it’d be a snooze, but actually I found it a surprisingly interesting character study of the two hosts (though Letterman is reported to hate the film and the book its based on, I don’t think he comes off that badly, though certainly Leno comes off rather saintly). An amusing curio, Kathy Bates gives a heck of a performance as Leno’s agent. Grade: B-

Spaced: The Complete Series: Season 1 (1999), Season 2 (2001), Skip to the End (2004)

I figured this sitcom featuring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Jessica Stevenson would be some kind of play on science fiction films, instead it proved to be the best (in my opinion) of the twenty- something slacker genera, and loaded with pop culture references galore. Its amazing how quickly you come to love these characters, and how resonate the show is with that time in life just out of college, were you can hardly believe how unaccomplished you are. The show is brit, witty, warm, quirky and satiric, very well written and full of characters you’d love as friends. I watched the first season in one sitting and I think that’s really the best way to consume the show, the tone is so casual that the integrity of the arc is kind of astounding. Anyway loved this show, I’m going to have to get my own copy. Grade: A

Enjoy the First Episode

Gunga Din (1939)

In color this would be about the perfect film for my five year old nephew. Loosely adapted from the poem of the same name by Rupert Kipling, this is classic Hollywood adventure film making at its finest. It has everything, an exiting local, brave solders, creepy villains, elephants, ancient temples, and even the lovely Joan Fontaine (6th billed!). Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. are three British officers and best friends serving the Queens army in 19th Century India. This fun loving trio of good hearted troublemakers are a lot like 12 year old boys, and when one of their number (Fairbanks) starts thinking about leaving his friends behind to marry Fontaine and go into the tea business, well the other two don’t like it at all. McLaglen and Grant scheme to keep Fairbanks in the service, with Grant simultaneity on the constant lookout for treasure with his friend Gunga Din (Sam Jaffe). In pursing the latter goal the group winds up in the hands of a murder cult that worships the Blood Goddess Kali, and who by the way have some good points to make about Indian self determination. Anyway it’s a ‘rousing’ good time, and you can see why young Anglo boys were so taken by stories like this. Grade: A

Bruno (2009)

I’d never seen Borat, and maybe I’d have been well advised to before viewing Bruno, a largely improvised comedy about a disgraced gay Austrian fashion reporter (Sasha Baron Cohen), who travels to L.A. in the hopes of becoming a celebrity. The film crosses the lines of traditional decency many times in order to elicit authentic shocked reactions from both the audience, and the real life people Bruno interacts with who not in on the joke (such as a rather put off Congressman Ron Paul, whom Bruno comes onto in what the Texas Republican expected to be a regular interview). Indeed that kind of ‘gotcha’ entertainment is something nobody wants to get trapped in, but it can be rather fascinating to watch. The film is at its best when exposing our Bruno like shallowness and short comings, such as the parents who take their infant children to audition for a Bruno financed photo shoot, and will seemingly agree to any tasteless or dangerous conditions to land the gig, (this was truly the most horrifying moment of the film for me, though many moments were grosser). Gratuitous in the extreme, I covered my eyes several times and nearly walked out early in the film, but Cohen is such a master at what he does, and the audacity of the thing so surreal, you almost can’t help but watch. Like a ghastly car wreck, simultaneity repugnant and fascinating. I have no idea how to rate this movie.

The Poseidon Explosion (1975)

Finally I make it back to the Grindhouse film set. A vessel of Panamanian registry, in an Italian canal, is loaded with fertilizer, diesel fuel and air canisters, and also happens to be on fire. This of course presents an obvious problem, and naval officers, dock workers, and members of a wedding party (seriously) must do their best to prevent the inevitable explosion from leveling a nearby town. The movie spends so much time following city officials reacting to the crises and debating wether or not to evacuate the town, that the story started to feel like it would be more interesting as an episode of Frontline, then the not-quite suspense movie about crises management it ultimately is. In fact you could make an episode of Frontline out of this I suppose, because it turns out (thank you end credits roll) that this story actually happened, only they changed the name of the explosive boat to Poseidon, presumably to capitalize off the popularity of the far superior 1972 adventure film from producer Irwin Allen. This flick is so dry and uncompeling (it really shouldn’t be, I mean a huge boat could explode at any moment) that I read through most of it, a failure as entertainment. Grade: F.