The Banal, the Blah, the Banausic:
1. The Trial Begins (2007) Dir. Vincenzo Marra - Italy
2. Cigarette Burns (2005) Dir. John Carpenter – US
3. Dreams in the Witch-House (2005) Dir. Stuart Gordon – US
Guilty Pleasure Cinema:
1. Pageant (2008) Dir. Ron Davis & Stewart Halpern-Fingerhut 0 US
Astounding Cinema:
4. Good Hair (2009) Dir. Jeff Stilson – US
3. Making Love (1982) Dir. Arthur Hiller – US
2. Key Largo (1948) Dir. John Huston - US
1. Cria Cuervos (1976) Dir. Carlos Saura - Spain
Theatrical Screenings:
4. Alice In Wonderland (2010) Dir. Tim Burton – US 4/10
3. Saint John of Las Vegas (2009) Dir. Hue Rhodes – US 7/10
2. The Ghost Writer (2010) Dir. Roman Polanski – UK 10/10
1. Mystery Team (2009) Dir. Dan Eckman – US 10/10
Rewatched Goodies:
1. The Room (2003) Dir. Tommy Wiseau – US 6/10
1. The Trial Begins (2007) Dir. Vincenzo Marra - Italy
2. Cigarette Burns (2005) Dir. John Carpenter – US
3. Dreams in the Witch-House (2005) Dir. Stuart Gordon – US
Guilty Pleasure Cinema:
1. Pageant (2008) Dir. Ron Davis & Stewart Halpern-Fingerhut 0 US
Astounding Cinema:
4. Good Hair (2009) Dir. Jeff Stilson – US
3. Making Love (1982) Dir. Arthur Hiller – US
2. Key Largo (1948) Dir. John Huston - US
1. Cria Cuervos (1976) Dir. Carlos Saura - Spain
Theatrical Screenings:
4. Alice In Wonderland (2010) Dir. Tim Burton – US 4/10
3. Saint John of Las Vegas (2009) Dir. Hue Rhodes – US 7/10
2. The Ghost Writer (2010) Dir. Roman Polanski – UK 10/10
1. Mystery Team (2009) Dir. Dan Eckman – US 10/10
Rewatched Goodies:
1. The Room (2003) Dir. Tommy Wiseau – US 6/10
The Trial Begins (2007): A huge fan of French legend Fanny Ardant, I was tickled pink to discover that her 2007 Italian film, The Trial Begins had received a DVD release. Apparently director Vincenzo Marra is attempting to criticize Italian society as it follows bland newcomer Michele Lastella as Filippo, a dirty tax official that quits his job to rises through the ranks of Italian society when he falls for a beautiful rich widow played by Ardant. Immediately relegated to a supporting role, at best, the rest of the film focuses on a vague rise and fall of Lastella as he cheats his own books, etc. A completely bland, boring, and uninteresting film, I was mostly pissed for it’s obvious exploitation of Ardant, who has nothing to do whatsoever (though she looks lovely). Lastella is not a charismatic presence, stalking around in his scenes like the Italian, subdued version of Christian Bale. Definitely a film to miss or forget entirely. If you want to see a hyper-realistic film about the underbelly of Italian culture, visit 2008’s Gomorrah.
Cigarette Burns (2005): John Carpenter’s first entry in the Master of Horror series, I finally watched it upon realizing that the wonderful Udo Kier starred in it. Udo is, of course, creepy and weird as a rich cinephile that hires Norman Reedus (giving an incredibly bad performance here) as a young theater owner in need of money, to find one of the most sought after lost (fictional) movies of all time, a notorious French film called “Le Fin Absolue du Monde” (The Absolute End). At the Cannes premiere it caused everyone that saw it to go insane and resort to acts of depravity and homicidal tendencies. Reedus searches for the film and finds it, but by the time we get there, the creepy concept has become silly, laughable, and a bit uncomfortable. At times a denouncement of desensitization and the limits we test to experience events that may be harmful or dangerous to out mental well being, Carpenter is attempting to revisit themes he depicted much more successfully in his Lovecraft homage In the Mouth of Madness (1994). Every year we have a film touted as more graphic, salacious and unbearable. In 2007 we had the excellent Inside; 2008 saw the silly and infamous Martyrs; 2009 gave us Lars Von Trier’s art house gore horror with Antichrist; and it looks like the film to beat for 2010 is the monstrous sounding Serbian Film. While Carpenter’s 2005 Cigarette Burns ends up being shlocky drek, he started out with an excellent commentary on shock cinema.
Dreams In the Witch-House (2005): And horror helmer Stuart Gordon’s first entry in the Masters of Horror series isn’t all that memorable or interesting either. A graduate student rents a dilapidated room in a house that used to or may still be inhabited by a 17th century witch. Well, you can guess what happens, psychosexual antics and all.
Pageant (2008): A documentary that depicts five men as they compete for the annual Miss Gay America pageant, the film is notable to those who are fans of “Ru Paul’s Drag Race” as Pork Chop from the first season is one of the five men whose trials and travails in the pageant are depicted here. At times poignant, the film is quite entertaining to those who enjoy drag queen related material, and it’s interesting to note that the Miss Gay American pageant is the world’s largest male crossdressing competition. For those looking for drama or catty, bitchy queens, you may not be amused---which makes me think the directors took pains to show these lovely ladies in their best light, so to speak.
Good Hair (2009): Chris Rock’s comic documentary offers an intriguing glimpse into one of the least talked about industries in this country---black women and their quest for straight or “good” hair. Watching Good Hair made me quite melancholy, actually. Since straight hair is the cultural signifier of beautiful, the amount of money invested in having straight hair seems ludicrous----something deep inside me wants to say, why can’t you be beautiful and happy naturally? But so says the bald headed white guy, and when has that ever been the case, to be focused on being naturally beautiful? I think I always appreciated being male because I despised the thought of having to put make-up on my face in order to be aesthetically pleasing----and add to that being additionally tasked with keeping your hair straight or weave on right when your natural hair isn’t considered attractive, well, hell, doesn’t that suck? I can understand, though, the need to be considered beautiful within our culture, so in reality I feel like I can’t completely weigh in on the subject---except for the fact that I think Chris Rock is expressing the right attitude on his young girls, that they should be able to feel beautiful as they are. I appreciate his light approach to what could actually be construed as heavy subject matter.
Making Love (1982): Arthur Hiller directed this film, touted as the first ‘mainstream’ film to positively depict homosexuality in US film. Starring early 80’s stars Michael Ontkean, Harry Hamlin, and ex Charlie’s Angel, Kate Jackson, the film tells the story of a seemingly happily married doctor that discovers he’s attracted to a patient, a successful author played by Harry Hamlin. The film was a huge flop upon release, unleashed on an American not ready to accept the subject matter. Looking back, the film is just a quiet little drama that really tells the story of certain generation of gays in America—the closeted married man. While it may be considered uneventful, I think that’s what I loved most about the film. Vito Russo denounced the film as pandering to heterosexual American by portraying protagonist Ontkean as “normal” and depicting him as relishing a “normal” homosexual relationship within a heteronormative paradigm---and how this circumvents an LGBT cry for equal rights. Here in 2010, I believe Making Love was decades ahead of its time. Yes, Harry Hamlin is a bit of a playboy and definitely wants to sleep around, living a free lifestyle---he disappears by the third act because Ontkean wants a partner. I’m a firm believer in the fact that straight or gay, different things make different people happy and marriage isn’t for everyone. I loved that Kate Jackson gives a wonderful, caring performance here and that the male stars are neither stereotypically effeminate or uber macho masculine---they could be anybody. Most of all, I love that both Jackson and Ontkean are happy by the end of the film. In this sense, Making Love is severely overlooked as being incredibly groundbreaking for 1982.
Key Largo (1948): John Huston’s tropical film noir happened to be the last pairing of Bogart and Bacall---but the real meat of Key Largo is Edward G. Robinson as a vicious and cruel gangster on the run and his alcoholic moll, in an Oscar winning performance from Claire Trevor (her character is actually based on Lucky Luciano’s girlfriend). Bogart plays a WWII vet, visiting Key Largo to meet the widow and father of his best friend and fallen comrade in the war. Lauren Bacall and Lionel Barrymore play the respective widow and father, but it’s really bad timing because the resort owned by Barrymore is quickly seized by Robinson’s goons and a hurricane is about to hold them all up together in the resort. Tensions ensure, and Bogart is tempted time and time again to strike against the gangsters (in a move to align him theatrically with the inaction of Hamlet-like proportions, I suppose) and is finally moved into action due to Robinson’s cruel treatment of the alcoholic Trevor. Based on the play by Maxwell Anderson, Key Largo sees every major player in top, sweaty, boozy, noir form---and Bacall is simply breathtaking to behold—as usual. Most of all, see it for Claire Trevor in an entertaining and quite touching performance as a gal who’s lost her guff and loves the bottle.
Cria Cuervos (1976): Considered to be Spanish director Carlos Saura’s most stunning achievement, Cria Cuervos (or Raise Ravens, so named for the Spanish proverb that reads “Raise ravens and they’ll peck out your eyes) is told through the eyes of a young girl (played by Ana Torrent). Filmed in a critical time in Spain’s history, 1975 was the year Franco lay dying, meaning 1976 was a political turning point for the country. And thus, more than a coming of age story, Cria Cuervos is also a political allegory with one family’s female lineage standing in for the state of the country. Geraldine Chaplin (who was involved with director Saura for many years) stars as the cancer stricken mother of the young Ana, involved in a loveless marriage with her fascist soldier husband, who cheats on her with many a woman, including making numerous passes at the family maid. Ana blames her rather ruthless and uncaring father for her mother’s painful and lonely demise and often conjures up ghostly conversations with her mother, fantasizing as narrator that she is the sister image of her mother. Hording a small bottle of baking soda that she is convinced is poison, Ana’s father dies one night while sleeping with his friend’s wife. Ana is convinced she is responsible for killing her father. Now an orphan both Ana and her two sisters fall under the care of their mother’s sister, a woman who means well but isn’t really equipped to take care of children correctly (hence an allegory for a new, unsteady but well meaning and less abusive leadership). On the surface the film is about one of the saddest little girls you’re apt to see in film, but upon further deliberation you’ll find so much going on in Cria Cuervos that your head will spin. And Ms. Chaplin is stunning and haunting as her turn as the dying/ghost mother.
Alice In Wonderland (2010): I’m sorry to say it, but Tim Burton, one of the best directors ever to grace American mainstream cinema, has dropped the worst bomb of his career on America---and it’s making a shit ton of money. I can see where he wanted to go all girl power with Alice, but the film comes off as forced, dull, and frankly, derivative of previous versions and Burton’s own work. In fact, give me Jan Svankmajer’s stop motion or Disney’s creepy opus any day over this dredge. I imagine that the Disney studio had quite a bit to do with the ‘lightening’ of tone of this film. I found newcomer Mia Wasikowska’s turn as Alice rather uninspiring. Johnny Depp, while queerly entertaining, is doing nothing new here---in fact, he has the most awful part of the film in a despicably awful dance sequence. Crispin Glover is horribly underutilized (and looks suspiciously like Edward Scissorhands), while voices of Christopher Lee, Alan Rickman and Michael Sheen are all rather forgettable as well. In fact, the only salvageable people in the film are the queens, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway. I don’t mind Burton attempting to put his signature on a classic, creepy tale. But this feels like somebody attempting to be Tim Burton and failing horribly. In fact, I think the CGI works against Burton and makes the film feel lazy and plodding.
Saint John of Las Vegas (2009): While I had a laugh or two watching this directorial debut by Hue Rhodes, I couldn’t help but feel like the Coen Bros. should have directed this (as Rhodes is attempting to make a version of Dante’s Inferno akin to how the Coen Bros. adapted Homer for O Brother Where Art Thou?, 2000). In the end, it’s a pretty forgettable film, with Steve Buscemi doing his thing (which seems much better in Coen Bros. films), Romany Malco trying a tad too hard, and Sarah Silverman, who adds a little fun but creepy spunk. Peter Dinklage and Tim Blake Nelson add some fun to their scenes, but their involvement only makes me feel more upset that a better script and a better director weren’t guiding this film. Basically, Buscemi is an ex-gambler lured back into Vegas by the insurance fraud firm he works for as an investigator. In trying to find out if a stripper was lying about her insurance claim, Buscemi finds that not everyone is really who they say they are (go figure) and makes me glad I don’t like to gamble.
The Ghost Writer (2010): Ahhh, Polanski’s latest semi-political thriller stars Pierce Brosnan as an ex Prime Minister on the verge of being charged with war crimes while dating back to his time in office, while Ewan McGregor plays the man that had been hired to be the ghost writer of his memoirs. McGregor’s character, of course, is never named, appropriately for a film that deals with someone that’s paid not to have a true identity or voice. James Belushi, Timothy Hutton, and Tom Wilkinson all pop up in supporting roles and Pierce Brosnan is smarmily entertaining as the very British official. However, the film’s main focus come from McGregor and the two female characters, the Prime Minister’s wife, played with brilliant bitchiness by Olivia Williams, and the film’s largest detractor (though I enjoyed her), Kim Cattrall, the Prime Minister’s personal secretary and mistress. The main problem with Cattrall is I can’t tell if she was trying for a British accent, or not, etc. She drifts in an out (though she looks pretty good). Nevertheless, the film is at its eeriest, strongest, and most Hitchcockian (yes, that bloody overused inference) at the Prime Minister’s Beach house, where the cinematography is sublime and the atmosphere intense, like in a scene where McGregor has a cryptic conversation about the washed up body of the previous Ghost Writer that supposedly committed suicide while working on a manuscript, with Eli Wallach, of all people (yes, he’s still alive and kicking). While the film dips into more political intrigue that one may either love or hate, I loved Polanski’s latest offering. I’ve never been more keen on watching McGregor maneuver his way through the film, and all the scenes between Williams and McGregor are excellent. Oh, and I loved that final shot, which is Polanski being reminiscent of Polanski.
Mystery Team (2009): I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to see this hilarious film on the big screen. Premiering at Sundance 2009, the film received a very limited release in summer 2009, and I privileged enough that two midnight screenings became available in Minneapolis. Directed by Dan Eckman, the film centers on three teenage senior boys in high school, still playing with Encyclopedia-Brown type adventures and personas. Needless to say, they’re complete nerds, naïve to the ways of the world. The film is obviously a showcase for the considerable talents of the leader of the group played by Donald Glover, who also gets partial screenplay credit. Basically a small girl asks the Mystery Team to find out who murdered her parents, resulting in a charming, funny, and yes, adult film. The film is clever and dirty, in an innocent sort of way and I hope it finds a devout following upon a DVD release.
Cigarette Burns (2005): John Carpenter’s first entry in the Master of Horror series, I finally watched it upon realizing that the wonderful Udo Kier starred in it. Udo is, of course, creepy and weird as a rich cinephile that hires Norman Reedus (giving an incredibly bad performance here) as a young theater owner in need of money, to find one of the most sought after lost (fictional) movies of all time, a notorious French film called “Le Fin Absolue du Monde” (The Absolute End). At the Cannes premiere it caused everyone that saw it to go insane and resort to acts of depravity and homicidal tendencies. Reedus searches for the film and finds it, but by the time we get there, the creepy concept has become silly, laughable, and a bit uncomfortable. At times a denouncement of desensitization and the limits we test to experience events that may be harmful or dangerous to out mental well being, Carpenter is attempting to revisit themes he depicted much more successfully in his Lovecraft homage In the Mouth of Madness (1994). Every year we have a film touted as more graphic, salacious and unbearable. In 2007 we had the excellent Inside; 2008 saw the silly and infamous Martyrs; 2009 gave us Lars Von Trier’s art house gore horror with Antichrist; and it looks like the film to beat for 2010 is the monstrous sounding Serbian Film. While Carpenter’s 2005 Cigarette Burns ends up being shlocky drek, he started out with an excellent commentary on shock cinema.
Dreams In the Witch-House (2005): And horror helmer Stuart Gordon’s first entry in the Masters of Horror series isn’t all that memorable or interesting either. A graduate student rents a dilapidated room in a house that used to or may still be inhabited by a 17th century witch. Well, you can guess what happens, psychosexual antics and all.
Pageant (2008): A documentary that depicts five men as they compete for the annual Miss Gay America pageant, the film is notable to those who are fans of “Ru Paul’s Drag Race” as Pork Chop from the first season is one of the five men whose trials and travails in the pageant are depicted here. At times poignant, the film is quite entertaining to those who enjoy drag queen related material, and it’s interesting to note that the Miss Gay American pageant is the world’s largest male crossdressing competition. For those looking for drama or catty, bitchy queens, you may not be amused---which makes me think the directors took pains to show these lovely ladies in their best light, so to speak.
Good Hair (2009): Chris Rock’s comic documentary offers an intriguing glimpse into one of the least talked about industries in this country---black women and their quest for straight or “good” hair. Watching Good Hair made me quite melancholy, actually. Since straight hair is the cultural signifier of beautiful, the amount of money invested in having straight hair seems ludicrous----something deep inside me wants to say, why can’t you be beautiful and happy naturally? But so says the bald headed white guy, and when has that ever been the case, to be focused on being naturally beautiful? I think I always appreciated being male because I despised the thought of having to put make-up on my face in order to be aesthetically pleasing----and add to that being additionally tasked with keeping your hair straight or weave on right when your natural hair isn’t considered attractive, well, hell, doesn’t that suck? I can understand, though, the need to be considered beautiful within our culture, so in reality I feel like I can’t completely weigh in on the subject---except for the fact that I think Chris Rock is expressing the right attitude on his young girls, that they should be able to feel beautiful as they are. I appreciate his light approach to what could actually be construed as heavy subject matter.
Making Love (1982): Arthur Hiller directed this film, touted as the first ‘mainstream’ film to positively depict homosexuality in US film. Starring early 80’s stars Michael Ontkean, Harry Hamlin, and ex Charlie’s Angel, Kate Jackson, the film tells the story of a seemingly happily married doctor that discovers he’s attracted to a patient, a successful author played by Harry Hamlin. The film was a huge flop upon release, unleashed on an American not ready to accept the subject matter. Looking back, the film is just a quiet little drama that really tells the story of certain generation of gays in America—the closeted married man. While it may be considered uneventful, I think that’s what I loved most about the film. Vito Russo denounced the film as pandering to heterosexual American by portraying protagonist Ontkean as “normal” and depicting him as relishing a “normal” homosexual relationship within a heteronormative paradigm---and how this circumvents an LGBT cry for equal rights. Here in 2010, I believe Making Love was decades ahead of its time. Yes, Harry Hamlin is a bit of a playboy and definitely wants to sleep around, living a free lifestyle---he disappears by the third act because Ontkean wants a partner. I’m a firm believer in the fact that straight or gay, different things make different people happy and marriage isn’t for everyone. I loved that Kate Jackson gives a wonderful, caring performance here and that the male stars are neither stereotypically effeminate or uber macho masculine---they could be anybody. Most of all, I love that both Jackson and Ontkean are happy by the end of the film. In this sense, Making Love is severely overlooked as being incredibly groundbreaking for 1982.
Key Largo (1948): John Huston’s tropical film noir happened to be the last pairing of Bogart and Bacall---but the real meat of Key Largo is Edward G. Robinson as a vicious and cruel gangster on the run and his alcoholic moll, in an Oscar winning performance from Claire Trevor (her character is actually based on Lucky Luciano’s girlfriend). Bogart plays a WWII vet, visiting Key Largo to meet the widow and father of his best friend and fallen comrade in the war. Lauren Bacall and Lionel Barrymore play the respective widow and father, but it’s really bad timing because the resort owned by Barrymore is quickly seized by Robinson’s goons and a hurricane is about to hold them all up together in the resort. Tensions ensure, and Bogart is tempted time and time again to strike against the gangsters (in a move to align him theatrically with the inaction of Hamlet-like proportions, I suppose) and is finally moved into action due to Robinson’s cruel treatment of the alcoholic Trevor. Based on the play by Maxwell Anderson, Key Largo sees every major player in top, sweaty, boozy, noir form---and Bacall is simply breathtaking to behold—as usual. Most of all, see it for Claire Trevor in an entertaining and quite touching performance as a gal who’s lost her guff and loves the bottle.
Cria Cuervos (1976): Considered to be Spanish director Carlos Saura’s most stunning achievement, Cria Cuervos (or Raise Ravens, so named for the Spanish proverb that reads “Raise ravens and they’ll peck out your eyes) is told through the eyes of a young girl (played by Ana Torrent). Filmed in a critical time in Spain’s history, 1975 was the year Franco lay dying, meaning 1976 was a political turning point for the country. And thus, more than a coming of age story, Cria Cuervos is also a political allegory with one family’s female lineage standing in for the state of the country. Geraldine Chaplin (who was involved with director Saura for many years) stars as the cancer stricken mother of the young Ana, involved in a loveless marriage with her fascist soldier husband, who cheats on her with many a woman, including making numerous passes at the family maid. Ana blames her rather ruthless and uncaring father for her mother’s painful and lonely demise and often conjures up ghostly conversations with her mother, fantasizing as narrator that she is the sister image of her mother. Hording a small bottle of baking soda that she is convinced is poison, Ana’s father dies one night while sleeping with his friend’s wife. Ana is convinced she is responsible for killing her father. Now an orphan both Ana and her two sisters fall under the care of their mother’s sister, a woman who means well but isn’t really equipped to take care of children correctly (hence an allegory for a new, unsteady but well meaning and less abusive leadership). On the surface the film is about one of the saddest little girls you’re apt to see in film, but upon further deliberation you’ll find so much going on in Cria Cuervos that your head will spin. And Ms. Chaplin is stunning and haunting as her turn as the dying/ghost mother.
Alice In Wonderland (2010): I’m sorry to say it, but Tim Burton, one of the best directors ever to grace American mainstream cinema, has dropped the worst bomb of his career on America---and it’s making a shit ton of money. I can see where he wanted to go all girl power with Alice, but the film comes off as forced, dull, and frankly, derivative of previous versions and Burton’s own work. In fact, give me Jan Svankmajer’s stop motion or Disney’s creepy opus any day over this dredge. I imagine that the Disney studio had quite a bit to do with the ‘lightening’ of tone of this film. I found newcomer Mia Wasikowska’s turn as Alice rather uninspiring. Johnny Depp, while queerly entertaining, is doing nothing new here---in fact, he has the most awful part of the film in a despicably awful dance sequence. Crispin Glover is horribly underutilized (and looks suspiciously like Edward Scissorhands), while voices of Christopher Lee, Alan Rickman and Michael Sheen are all rather forgettable as well. In fact, the only salvageable people in the film are the queens, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway. I don’t mind Burton attempting to put his signature on a classic, creepy tale. But this feels like somebody attempting to be Tim Burton and failing horribly. In fact, I think the CGI works against Burton and makes the film feel lazy and plodding.
Saint John of Las Vegas (2009): While I had a laugh or two watching this directorial debut by Hue Rhodes, I couldn’t help but feel like the Coen Bros. should have directed this (as Rhodes is attempting to make a version of Dante’s Inferno akin to how the Coen Bros. adapted Homer for O Brother Where Art Thou?, 2000). In the end, it’s a pretty forgettable film, with Steve Buscemi doing his thing (which seems much better in Coen Bros. films), Romany Malco trying a tad too hard, and Sarah Silverman, who adds a little fun but creepy spunk. Peter Dinklage and Tim Blake Nelson add some fun to their scenes, but their involvement only makes me feel more upset that a better script and a better director weren’t guiding this film. Basically, Buscemi is an ex-gambler lured back into Vegas by the insurance fraud firm he works for as an investigator. In trying to find out if a stripper was lying about her insurance claim, Buscemi finds that not everyone is really who they say they are (go figure) and makes me glad I don’t like to gamble.
The Ghost Writer (2010): Ahhh, Polanski’s latest semi-political thriller stars Pierce Brosnan as an ex Prime Minister on the verge of being charged with war crimes while dating back to his time in office, while Ewan McGregor plays the man that had been hired to be the ghost writer of his memoirs. McGregor’s character, of course, is never named, appropriately for a film that deals with someone that’s paid not to have a true identity or voice. James Belushi, Timothy Hutton, and Tom Wilkinson all pop up in supporting roles and Pierce Brosnan is smarmily entertaining as the very British official. However, the film’s main focus come from McGregor and the two female characters, the Prime Minister’s wife, played with brilliant bitchiness by Olivia Williams, and the film’s largest detractor (though I enjoyed her), Kim Cattrall, the Prime Minister’s personal secretary and mistress. The main problem with Cattrall is I can’t tell if she was trying for a British accent, or not, etc. She drifts in an out (though she looks pretty good). Nevertheless, the film is at its eeriest, strongest, and most Hitchcockian (yes, that bloody overused inference) at the Prime Minister’s Beach house, where the cinematography is sublime and the atmosphere intense, like in a scene where McGregor has a cryptic conversation about the washed up body of the previous Ghost Writer that supposedly committed suicide while working on a manuscript, with Eli Wallach, of all people (yes, he’s still alive and kicking). While the film dips into more political intrigue that one may either love or hate, I loved Polanski’s latest offering. I’ve never been more keen on watching McGregor maneuver his way through the film, and all the scenes between Williams and McGregor are excellent. Oh, and I loved that final shot, which is Polanski being reminiscent of Polanski.
Mystery Team (2009): I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to see this hilarious film on the big screen. Premiering at Sundance 2009, the film received a very limited release in summer 2009, and I privileged enough that two midnight screenings became available in Minneapolis. Directed by Dan Eckman, the film centers on three teenage senior boys in high school, still playing with Encyclopedia-Brown type adventures and personas. Needless to say, they’re complete nerds, naïve to the ways of the world. The film is obviously a showcase for the considerable talents of the leader of the group played by Donald Glover, who also gets partial screenplay credit. Basically a small girl asks the Mystery Team to find out who murdered her parents, resulting in a charming, funny, and yes, adult film. The film is clever and dirty, in an innocent sort of way and I hope it finds a devout following upon a DVD release.
The Room (2003): And what can I say about The Room except that you'll be seeing it in my re-watched goodies section for some time to come as I must show it to everyone I have the opportunity to show it to. Oh, these quirky American Black Comedies.
No comments:
Post a Comment