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.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Easily the best Harry Potter movie so far, and its wonderful to be able to say that after each new entry in the series, they just keep getting better. I was surprised though that in addition to the arc significance, the character development, and an ending that completely changes the direction of the series, this was also the funniest Potter film. You’ll come for the end of Dumbledore and the secrets about Tom Riddle, but it’s the well handled interplay of the love lorn adolescents that seems to be the high point for audiences. I must also complement Jim Broadbent's portal of another fascinatingly eccentric J.K. Rowing character, Horace Slughorn. Grade A.

Farrah Fawcett (1947-2009)

Model turned 1970’s sex symbol, turned the abused women of 1980’s TV movies, turned famous for being famous. One can not deny Fawcett had a strange, kind of low key staying power. I can’t help but look at the relationship she had with Ryan O’Neil as the jock and the cheerleader in declining years. O’Neil was an odd lug, he kind of preened, made inappropriate comments about her condition, but clearly loved her. It was sad seeing her go like that, as an over reported media spectacle. I have no real cultural attachment to Fawcett, but she seemed like a nice enough lady, and she handled the end bravely, speaking out about her condition, not hiding from the public until it was pretty much not an option to do otherwise. Her end was a sad thing.

Michael Jackson: 1958-2009

You may not have heard of this given all the media coverage surrounding the death of beloved 1950’s television personality Gale Storm. Seriously though this is sad, and I think its gotten sadder as the weeks have passed. While of course Jackson’s many eccentricities, and the various charges leveled against him over the years have come up, it is the image of Jackson as ‘King of Pop’ that I think has resonated most with people. A perhaps surprising rehabilitation that may well have only been achievable in death.

Shortly after Jackson’s passing my sister lent me a copy of the 25th anniversary re-relapses of Thriller. Along with the CD (which I’ve listen to several times already) there is including a DVD of Jackson’s music video’s from the album, and his performance on the Motown anniversary special where he introduced the moonwalk. It is that Jackson, circa 1983 that I prefer to remember. Who can deny his talent then, and the sense of universality his music and life radiated, and which he perhaps took to far in the end (his physical changes which seemed to blur racial and gender distinctions). Jackson’s is the most significant death in the music world since John Lennon’s, and in many ways parallels Elvis Presley’s. Like those two Jackson is destined to never be forgotten.

Ed McMahon (1923-2009)

The greatest second banana of a generation, McMahon was a constantly smiling jovial presence for the better part of half a century. Though his film work was limited (the only film I can recall seeing him in is 1967’s The Incident with a young Martin Sheen), his television output was enormous, nearly 30 years on The Tonight Show, Star Search, TV’s Bloopers and Practical Jokes (the show I remember him from as a kid), and even those Publishers Clearinghouse commercials. Though towards the end of his life he got more attention from a sad financial situation then anything else, McMahon is bound to remembered as someone millions of people could feel almost unnaturally at ease with, not a bad legacy.

Written on the Wind (1956)

My recent emphasis on the films of Michael Powell and Hayao Miyazaki have lead me away from Douglas Sirk movies, but I go back there to with Written on the Wind, a favorite of many of the directors fans. If films like Magnificent Obsession and All that Heaven Allows didn’t cross that boundary into the deliberately over the top, I defy you to watch this movies gloriously camptastic and overwrought opening teaser/title sequence, and not agree that that line has been crossed. Second generation Texas oil millionaire Kyle Hadley sets the wheels in motion in this plot, and while I just can’t really buy Robert Stack as the playboy type, his inferiority complex to ancestorly poor best friend Rock Hudson is certainly fascinating. In fact the whole Hadley clan is a bundle of psychosis, they’re pretty quick to draw pistols when they feel slighted. In many ways this is a forerunner to Dallas, but the psychiatry is Sirkian, its meant to be indictment not vicarious naughty fun. While the story falls a little short, and there are uneven moments (the ending felt to quick, and the twist (if you can call it that) flawed in both set up and execution), this is a movie to watch for the directorial style, a cinematography that anticipates Blue Velvet, and Sirks ringing of pathos (mildly effective) and subtext (rather effective) from pulp. 4 out of 5. Dorthy Malone won the best supporting actress Oscar as Kyle’s conniving and sexually aggressive sister.

Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

I’m really getting into Miyazaki, the man creates some of the most original and fascinating fantasy worlds I’ve seen. In this outing the director strays from the Japanese into a fantasy world inspired by World War I era Europe, only here you’ve got cars that sport smokestacks, flying kyacks, wizard run apothecary shops, fire daemons and moving castles. The story concerns a young girl turned into an old women by a disgruntled witch, and the reclusive wizard she falls in love with. One of the things that is so great about these Miyazaki movies is that the characters seldom fall into easy ‘good’ and ‘bad’ categories, they are typically flawed individuals, each with their own agendas, strengths and weaknesses. In Moving Castle alone you have a jealous witch, once beautiful but now in denial about her age, a fire demon who has a good heart but makes a great show of being put upon, a talented wizard not willing to face up to potently threatening obligations, and his old teacher, somewhat bitter over a sense of abandonment. This is good stuff, well executed, and with something operatic about it. Excellent A list voice cast. 5 out of 5.

Mr. Skeffington (1944)

Only my second Vincent Sherman film, I am quite impressed with the directors ability and sense of social consciences, no wonder he was later blacklisted. Essentially the story of a doomed marriage, the film features Bette Davis as Fanny Trellis, a pretty but flawed young thing from an established but now broke New York family, and Claude Rains as Job Skeffington, her self-made, older Jewish husband. Set across a scope of years starting in 1914 and ending around 1940, anti-Semitism is a subject of obvious relevance to the characters in the story, but not something typically handled in films of the period (even the then groundbreaking semi-exploration of the subject in Gentleman’s Agreement now seems largely tepid). To me the key scene in the film is the dinner the recently divorced Mr. Skeffington has with his 10 year old daughter just before departing for a business venture in Europe (this scene would be set in the mid-1920's). The daughter, who is much more comfortable with her father then with her well meaning but often flighty mother, is desperate to go with him to Germany, but he fears that taking her with him will expose her to the evils of anti-Semitism so prevalent in Europe at the time. The way Rains so tenderly tries to explain this concept, one practically undecipherable to a little girl is heart breaking, the honesty of that scene speaks volumes. Davis is also quite excellent as Fanny, she has nice arc, though it becomes a little heavy handed in the denouncement. The dialog in the film is memorably strong and often witty, especially in the drawing- room- farce heavy first half. Really an excellent film that deserves to be better known, a 5 out of 5 in its first 2 hours it drops a bit in its last half hour, but I feel the overall impression and enjoyablity of the film make it deserve the full 5 out of 5 rather then 4 1/2.

David Carradine: 1936-2009

I was once in a room with David Carradine, at a 2005 movie memorabilia and b-list celebrity convention in Burbank (which I quite enjoyed). I swear Carradine had an intense aura about him, highly focused on signing fans autographs he gave off kind of an intimidating vibe, I purposely stayed away from his booth, finding Patty McCormack (though she’s most famous for playing a murderous child) to be much less threatening. I’ve not seen much of his work, though he was perfect for his part in Kill Bill. I’m more familiar with the work of David’s father, golden era character actor John Carradine, or his brother Keith’s intriguing FBI profiler character on the second season of Dexter. David’s was certainly one of the more unusual celebrity deaths of recent years.

Obviously I’ve got some obits to catch up on.