Out of the Past: The Week In Film 7/29/11-8/4/11

The Banal, the Blah, the Banausic:

Winter In Wartime (2008) Dir. Martin Koolhoven - Netherlands

Conan the Destroyer (1984) Dir. Richard Fleischer - US

Guilty Pleasures:
Passion Play (2010) Dir. Mitch Glazer - US

Recommended:
Shadows (1959) Dir. John Cassavetes - US
An Englishman In New York (2009) Dir. Richard Laxton - US
Wigstock: The Movie (1995) Dir. Barry Shils - US

Essential Cinema:
Down Terrace (2009) Dir. Ben Wheatley - UK
The Last Circus (2010) Dir. Alex de la Iglesia - Spain
In a Glass Cage (1987) Dir. Agusti Villaronga - Spain

Theatrical Screenings:
Point Blank (2010) Dir. Fred Cavaye - France

Winter In Wartime (2008): Please click here for my review of this film for http://www.ioncinema.com/news/id/6509/review-winter-in-wartime-blu-ray.


Conan the Destroyer (1984): What a boring movie. Truth be told, I haven't seen the original film, and really have only wanted to see this one because I love Grace Jones. Poor Grace doesn't get a lot to do except spit and snarl, but she looks like she's having a great time. While the special effects are dated, the rest of the film is even worse. Arnold's acting is damn wooden and cheesy, the plot is as inventive as peeling a banana, and then there's the horrendous teenage Olivia d'Abo as a spoiled, virginal princess (her virginity to be protected by none other than Wilt Chamberlain---and I'm not kidding). At the point where Arnie and the princess spy bandit Grace Jones defending herself from a village of men, d'Abo cried out "Conan, help her, she is defending herself from six men." Arnie counts "One, Two, Three...I think you're right." Yeah. Bleh. Hack director Richard Fleischer (responsible for Amityville 3D, 1983 and Soylent Green, 1973) gets credit for this steamer.

Passion Play (2010): Okay, so this is a really BAD and TERRIBLY made film---but in a real hot-mess, train wreck sort of way. It serves as the directorial debut of Mitch Glazer (he wrote Scrooged, 1991, hence Bill Murray replaced someone else as Happy the gangster), who is married to Kelly Lynch, also starring. So, the gist is this: Mickey Rourke plays a down and out trumpet player who sleeps with a ruthless gangster's wife and gets dragged out to the desert to be murdered by a hit man. Some gun toting ninjas wandering through the desert save him from the hit man....and then Rourke stumbles on a sideshow circus run by Rhys Ifans, where he finds a beautiful winged woman played by Megan Fox. Rourke and Fox fall in love and run away from the circus and the possessive Ifans. An interlude shows Fox fleeing for a plastic surgeon's office to have her wings removed. "I want to be like the normal girls," she pouts at Rourke. He stops her from cutting off her money makers and tries to convince Murray that they could make money off her as an attraction. Murray falls in love with her too, and cuts a deal with Fox that he won't kill Rourke if she becomes his private winged slave. To find her again, Rourke pawns his prized trumpet, a scene where sad music is played as Rourke sits in a diner with the trumpet in a briefcase....clutching at it as someone, perhaps the pawnbroker?? yanks it away from him, opening the case quickly to finger the mouthpiece one last time.......and then there's the scene where Megan Fox tries to fly....and then there's the fucking terrible cornball ending. This movie is one hot, dumb mess. I almost saw this at Toronto last year, but thankfully did not buy a ticket at the last minute. But, boy, this is a turkey for the ages.


Shadows (1959): The directorial debut of American auteur is this improvisational film from John Cassavetes. It breathes like a NYC late 50's beat picture, focusing on three siblings, Hugh, a struggling singer, Benny, an aimless sister, and Lelia, whose light skin causes conflict when the man she falls in love with discovers she's not white. The real stand out here is the extremely beautiful Lelia Goldoni as the lovelorn young lady.


An Englishman In New York (2009): While it's not as good as it's 1975 predecessor The Naked Civil Servant, this 2009 effort that documents Quentin Crisp's later years in 1980's NYC is pretty damn good, mostly for John Hurt's phenomenal portrayal of Crisp. Watching both films is an excellent trajectory of the rise of gay visibility and gay history. Jonathan Tucker and Denis O'Hare are pretty good in supporting roles, while Swoosie Kurtz and Cynthia Nixon tend to feel a bit distracting. Highly recommended.

Wigstock: The Movie (1995): Perhaps the best thing about this documentary is the time-capsule sort of feel it has, documenting the 1993 and 1994 Wigstock celebrations put on by Lady Bunny in NYC. You get to see drag queen alums Jackie Beat, Alexis Arquette, Candis Cayne, Lypsinka, and, of course, the incomparable Ru Paul. However, the real highlight is a creepy number by Leigh Bowery who gives birth to a red painted nude woman on stage. Terrifying.


Down Terrace (2009): The best little British kitchen-sink drama/gangster comedy you'll ever see, this unpredicatble and vicious little comedy about a father/son gansgter duo recently released from prison. Quibbling over this, that, and the other, most of the action takes place in their dirty hovel of a kitchen, with a washed out bitch of a mother who's way more savvy than she appears to be. Enter the son's very pregnant girlfriend and weird familial issues start busting out all over. And then father and son want to find out who it was in the business that narced on them...and then things start to get violent. Excellent little nasty comedy---I am pumped that director Ben Wheatley's next film, Kill List has been announced as part of the Midnight Madness lineup for Toronto Film Festival, 2011. Can't wait!


The Last Circus (2010): For my review of The Last Circus click here.

In a Glass Cage (1987): I've been meaning to watch this flick for years and I was not disappointed when I finally sat down to do so. Like a sick, twisted little nightmare, this perverse little arthouse shocker is about an ex-Nazi pedophile living in exile with his wife (Marisa Paredes) and daughter in Spain. After molesting and killing a young boy, Klaus (Gunter Meisner) attempts to kill himself jumping off a cliff. He survives, but is paralyzed and requires an iron lung to live. A young boy that witnessed his torture and suicide attempt pilfered his diary documenting his war crimes and blackmails Gunter into letting him be his nurse. And then, of course, things start to spiral out of control as Gunter sits helplessly inside his "glass cage." If Apt Pupil (1998) had huevos and dientes, it would be like In a Glass Cage, a beautiful nightmarish flick---and goshdarnit, who doesn't love to see Marisa Paredes??

Point Blank (2010): I just got my Region 2 copy of Fred Cavaye's 2008 film Anything For Her, which was remade by Paul Haggis in 2010 as The Next Three Days. Anyhow, I just caught his next flick, which has American remake starring Liam Neeson written all over it. It's a bit vanilla, a bit by the books, but a pretty good action flick as well. Lead Gilles Lellouche does nothing for me here, and his scenes with pregnant wife Elena Anaya (in a thankless role) are pretty bleh, but I do like Roschdy Zem, in a decent role here. So the plot is, Lellouche is an intern at a hospital who saves a patient from assassination (Zem). Because of this, his wife is kidnapped and he is directed to get the man out of the hospital alive. So yeah, it becomes a political thing that's, of course, conveniently wrapped up. It feels like The Fugitive (1993) mixed with various other popular flicks---so I won't be surprised it will be remade sometime soon. Except the American female cops won't be as hardbitten and realistic as they are here---at least it's got that going for it.

Out of the Past: The Week In Film 7/22/11-7/28/11

Cess Pool Cinema:

Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2008) Dir. James Nguyen - US

Of Interest:

The Killer Is Loose (1956) Dir. Budd Boetticher - US

Guilty Pleasures:

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) Dir. Robert Fuest - US/UK

Norbit (2007) Dir. Brian Robbins - US

Essential Cinema:

The Battleship Potemkin (1925) Dir. Sergei Eisenstein - Soviet Union

The Naked Civil Servant (1975) Dir. Jack Gold - UK

Theatrical Screenings:

Melancholia (2011) Dir. Lars Von Trier - Denmark 10/10

Another Earth (2011) Dir. Mike Cahill - US 9/10

Sarah's Key (2010) Dir. Gilles Pacquet-Brenner - France 6/10

Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2008): Director James Nguyen's offering of one of the worst films ever made is truly that....but not one worthy of a cult following. Obviously self-aware of its utter badness, the film is a ribald, desperate demand for the love of a cult following, which, sadly, it has. You can't set out to make an awful film on purpose; one must aim for greatness and fail miserably, the earmark of a great "so-bad-it's-good" cult classic like Showgirls (1995) or Tommy Wisseau's The Room (2003). Birdemic is straight up remake of The Birds (1963) as if filmed by a handicapped child. There's nothing funny or remotely entertaining. Of course, a sequel is being filmed.

The Killer Is Loose (1956): I seem to be flying through Joseph Cotten's filmography, for some reason, but here he is in this rather B-ish noir as a clueless copper. Well, turns out ex-cop Wendell Corey (I've said it before, and I'll say it again---this man looks like a creepy ventriloquist dummy) took a job at a bank to be an inside man in a heist. Dummy gets caught and his lady friend gets riddled with bullets when the coppers come for him. Corey is so upset, that at his trial, he vows to take Cotten's girl away from him when he spies Rhonda Fleming (who reminds me just a tad of Priscilla Presley). Yes, he escapes from prison (title) and yes, comes for Rhonda....and along the way everyone just acts so horribly dopey about the whole thing, especially Cotten, who has to be convinced that Corey really has murderous intentions for his wife. Fools. All in all, a decent half-baked noir, but really only worth it if you like any of the three leads, especially Corey, who makes good with the blade of a garden hoe.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971): A weird, wacky little period thriller featuring Joseph Cotten as a top notch surgeon and Vincent Price as a maniacal surgeon thought to be dead was very successful and spawned a sequel. The, errr, plot, is strangely similar to abovementioned The Killer Is Loose, in that, years earlier, Cotten headed up a surgical team that operated on Price's wife that accidentally caused her untimely death. Upon hearing the news, Dr. Phibes took a nosedive off a cliff and was thought to have burned to death. Wrong! He lived! And has surgically reconstructed a make-shift face (though why anyone would make a Vincent Price face to remain inconspicuous is beyond me) finds a mansion in London, from which he plays a creepy organ, and also, a beautiful, oddly dressed in feathers lady assistant named Vulnavia. And, oh yeah, he has to talk via one of those creepy sounding voiceboxes and must take liquids through an apparatus or aperture of some sort in his back. Yes, delightfully strange! To get vengeance on the surgical team for takin' away his baby, he devises an incomprehensible and ludicrous plot to kill them one by one via the plagues of Egypt----yes, locusts, hail, blood, first born child, bats, yada yada. While there's definitely some nifty set pieces, it is all a bit silly. I do have a mini poster for this film, currently hanging in my kitchen, which sports an awesome riff on that ridiculous line from Love Story (1970): "Love means never having to say you're ugly." Indeed.

Norbit (2007): True---it's not a well made film, and it's extremely sloppy, especially concerning plot and any supporting characters not played by Eddie Murphy. I don't know who told Thandie Newton that she should play her character like a twit-brained pill popper with severe self-esteem issues, but here she is, doing just that. While this is basically another Eddie Murphy drag-show extravaganza, there is something eerily entertaining about his fat black lady bitch Rasputia. The voice, the body, the horrible things she does---this film should have been named for her and not the boring, snivelling, Norbit, a characterizaion Murphy has done before and to better effect (Bowfinger, 1999). While it seems dressing leading men up as women strikes comedy gold box office with heterosexuals in cinema history (Some Like It Hot, 1959; Tootsie, 1982; Mrs. Doubtfire, 1993--not unlike straight people's predilection to play songs by The Village People at weddings) it's interesting to narrow the field to black leading men doing drag performance in mainstream American cinema in the past decade or so. For the sake of comparison, please recall Martin Lawrence in Big Momma's House (2000), which spawned two miserable sequels, in 2006 and 2011. True, he's an undercover cop, so perhaps more in line with his white counterparts, simply doing drag. But then, there's Tyler Perry's Madea, a vicious, ridiculous, angry stereotype. She is an older black grandma character, toting a gun and the scriptures, sometimes in one sentence. This insanely successful character is Perry's cash cow....and this character is supposed to be a female. Placed in this realm of pop cultural awareness, Eddie Murphy's embodiment of Rasputia is actually kind of refreshing....and funny....and pretty damn good. Yeah, the rest of the film is pretty blah, but this is nowhere near the turkey it's made out to be. If you want a good laugh, I recommend watching Eddie Murphy do it up right.

The Battleship Potemkin (1925): Sergei Eisentein's contribution to cinema is extraordinary....and it's sad to say that this is the first film I've actually watched of his, in its entirety, that is. Certainly, this is a propaganda film in the guise of historical reenactment, but any of those quibbles aside, that sequence on the Odessa Steps is still amazing to watch. While you might forget that this is about a Russian mutiny and a street demonstration that ends in severe police brutality, you'll remember that scene, and the mother, holding her trampled son as she moves up the Odessa Steps.

The Naked Civil Servant (1975): This film is an extraordinary portrayal of trailblazing of a flamboyant and fantastic homosexual named Quentin Crisp. It's sad to me that many of today's gay youth has never heard his name. If I could make certain films required viewing for people, this certainly would be one of them. Portrayed by John Hurt in an awesome, I mean, just fucking awesome performance, The Naked Civil Servant takes us from Crisp's childhood to 1975. What was so extraordinary about him? Well, he insisted on being himself, an effeminate, flamboyant homo, making it his point to imbue the world around him with the knowledge that we exist. And at the point where, near the very end, Crisp recounts his happiest moment, and at the moment I realized that I was just so very, very moved by his story. And thankful. In 2009, Hurt reprised his role as Quentin Crisp An Englishman in New York....which recounts Crisp's later years in NYC...I can't wait to see it.

Melancholia (2011): All that I can really say is wow---beautiful, thought provoking, and depressing. Lars Von Trier understands depression like no other filmmaker I can recall. Boiled down, the world is about to end as a planet called Melancholia hurtles towards it. There seems to be a chance that it could pass us by...but what would you do to prepare? The first half of the film shows off a great performance from Kirsten Dunst, celebrating her wedding day at her sister (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her brother-in-law's (Kiefer Sutherland) pretentious, lavish mansion. Hints of dysfunction glitter across the screen, furthered beautifully by Charlotte Rampling their bitter, bitchy mother. It becomes immediately apparent that Dunst's character is suffering from some major depression issues as well. The second half of the film focuses on Gainsbourg, and here we discover that she is the inverse of her sister (perhaps this is why Von Trier also found it appropriate to cast her, French accent and all as Dunst's sister). Dunst has become nearly comatose with depression and is being nursed at Gainsbourg's secluded home. It becomes evident that, as doom looms in the near future, one of them, ironically, has an easier time coping with the inevitable. And that's a very watered down synopsis, but what a beautiful, moving, and excellent piece of work from Von Trier. While I enjoyed The Tree of Life (2011) as a major cinematic work, I must say, I am a little sad Melancholia did not take the top prize at Cannes this year---while it's a simpler film in scope, it certainly questions existence and the nature of it just as exquisitely. And yes, both lead actresses are pretty damn good....and I love that Von Trier always uses Udo Kier. Definitely one of the best films I've seen this year.

Another Earth (2011): An interesting double feature this made, as I watched this a day after Melancholia. It seems another planet exactly identical to Earth, coined Earth 2, looming dangerously in plain sight. Like an old black and white sci-fi cheapie, it doesn't bother going into any real effects a planet this close to the Earth would have on the atmosphere, etc. Instead, the film is really a study on grief and redemption, with sort of a little sci-fi layer (like Never Let Me Go, 2010). On the night of its discovery, a drunk driving teenager (an excellent Brit Marling, who also co-wrote) crashes into a composer (William Mapother) killing his wife and children. Locked away for four years, she is released upon the world an adult. Living with her parents, she takes a job as a janitor in a high school and enters a contest to be on the first flight to Earth 2. And then, visiting the accident site one day, she sees the composer. Looking him up, she ends up on his doorstep to apologize one day, but instead, says she is a maid with a service giving out complimentary cleanings. The composer is obviously depressed and floundering, his residence a disgusting stye. Well, as you can imagine, a relationship is developed, one of those ones where you watch the screen murmuring, girl, I don't think that's a good idea. But it's the quiet moments between Marling and Mapother that are really moving, distressing, and worthy of attention. Meanwhile, it seems like Earth 2 is in conjunction with Earth 1---meaning, it's identical to us and that there's another one of everybody there. The film's scope is too narrow to really delve into the implications of this. Another Earth is really about another chance to do something....while Von Trier's film would say, "What's the point?" In the end, I felt some of that about Another Earth, but Brit Marling is captivating and worth the watch. Directed by Mike Cahill.

Sarah's Key (2010): While I truly believe in the importance of stories revolving around atrocities of WWII, I seem to get very impatient with stories that end up being exploitative. I'm a huge fan of Kristin Scott-Thomas, and love her recent output of French cinema. I mean, she has to have some of the most haunting eyes in cinema. But she can't save this flick. Based on a very popular novel, Sarah's Key highlights the little known piece of history referred to as the Vel' d'Hiv, when, in July of 1942, the French police arrested thousands of Jews on their own accord. One such family in this tale was the Starzynski family. Upon being rounded up, Sarah, a young girl of perhaps 10, has her younger brother hide in a closet. Locking him in, the family is whisked away and it quickly dawns on them that they will not be back anytime soon. As the family gets ripped apart and sent to separate internment camps, the film is unabashedly moving---but, who isn't bothered by seeing children ripped away from their screaming mothers? Or as the Jews are rounded up in a large stadium and people start jumping to their death or starting to lose their sanity, who isn't moved? So yes, the film follows the horrific path of many Nazi themed tales, but falters immediately with its present day juxtaposition of journalist Kristin Scott Thomas, doing a major story on the Vel' d'Hiv. All of her scenes with her fellow writers and her boss are screechingly flat and terribly acted (and it's not her, it's everyone around her). Moving into an apartment that's been in her husband's family for generations, she coincidentally learns that her in-laws took this apartment because it had belonged to the deported Starzynskis. At the same time, literally, she finds out she has a miraculous middle aged pregnancy, which her husband staunchly opposes keeping. We see the rest of Sarah's story in flashback as Kristin globe trots to NYC and Rome (and we get to see veteran French actors Niels Arestrup and Dominique Frot, always a plus!) before finally arriving at some scene-chewing, fast paced resolutions that involved Aidan Quinn....and, boy, let me tell you, there is one scene towards the end where Aidan Quinn is moved by something so horrifically corny and he covers his face in his hands and....well, I just had to laugh. Poorly, poorly constructed material that ends up exploiting anything of depth or purpose that it may have had the possibility to say. But Kristin looks good.

Out of the Past: The Week In Film 7/13/11-7/21/11

The Banal, the Blah, the Banausic:

Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971) Dir. Roger Vadim - US

Shafted! (2000) Dir. Tom Putnam - US

Guilty Pleasures:
The Man With The Screaming Brain (2005) Dir. Bruce Campbell - US

Of Interest:

Cousin Bette (1998) Dir. Des McAnuff - US

Recommended:

A Delicate Balance (1973) Dir. Tony Richardson - US/UK/Canada

Momma's Man (2008) Dir. Azazel Jacobs - US

Essential Cinema:

The Night of the Hunter (1955) Dir. Charles Laughton - US

Theatrical Screenings:

Horrible Bosses (2011) Dir. Seth Gordon - US 6/10

Terri (2011) Dir. Azazel Jacobs - US 8/10

Tabloid (2010) Dir. Errol Morris - US 10/10

Rewatched:

Role Models (2008) Dir. David Wain - US

The Night of the Hunter (1955) Dir. Charles Laughton - US

Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971): I was delighted to see Warner Bros. Archive brought this cult classic to light and snatched it up for my own collection. It's a bit of a creaky turkey, but then I wasn't expecting fine filmmaking from the American debut of Roger Vadim, sexual auteur responsible for Euro-trash sex babe sci-fi like Barbarella (1968) or softcore bisexual vampiric piece, Blood and Roses (1960). While I've yet to see his signature work, And God Created Woman(1956) which birthed the sensation of Brigitte Bardot, Maids is nothing but a sex-crazed carciature of heterosexuality, its sensibilities entrenched in teenage melodramatics. While it's entertaining to see Rock Hudson as the playboy gym coach bedding female students left and right in his office, his presence now provides a homosexual subtext underneath all this heteronormative posturing (and paired with Roddy McDowell, also starring in the film, well, we have the whole spectrum). But the whole affair is further undermined by a hackneyed plot and the distraction of sexy substitute teacher, Angie Dickinson, given no agency whatsoever as she is instructed by football coach Hudson to seduce and teach a virginal young student in the art of heterosexual sex. Whatever.

Shafted! (2000): Well, my darling husband is going into podiatric medicine, and this film (along with the 2003 re-make The In-Laws, a terrible, awful film which stars Albert Brooks as a podiatrist) came up on his radar because the main character is released from the Herve Villechaize School of Podiatry and Institute for the Criminally Insane. And then the fun and the reference tries to stop there. A very homely white man obsessed with blaxploitation, and the Shaft films in particular, names himself John Shaft and enters into a series of not so much and nothing of interest in modern day Los Angeles. Kudos to the film actually looking like one of those grainy cheapies from the 70's, but it's a but flat and extremely dull after 90 min. Angelle Brooks does her best to vamp it up in homage to Pam Grier, but it's too little and infrequent to really register.

The Man With the Screaming Brain (2005): I do enjoy Bruce Campbell, and his directorial debut set in Bulgaria isn't half bad---but I feel like it could have been a lot better. In fact, his next effort, 2008's My Name Is Bruce is much more entertaining and polished in comparison. However, Brain has a few little fun moments, including a reanimated robot sporting the implanted brain of his murdered wife, but it's a bit forgettable and extremely cheap looking. Campbell is a bit stiff for the first half, playing a first rate American asshole. He gets a little better after the brain of a Russian cab driver gets sown into his skull, but the film relies way too heavily on sight gags. Bruce Campbell has a lot of charm and a lot of ideas, but this particular outing is a tad weak. Stacy Keach and an entertaining Ted Raimi provide some much needed steam.

A Delicate Balance (1973): A very difficult and depressing Edward Albee play gets the star treatment with Tony Richardson at the helm. Paul Scofield and Katharine Hepburn star as the main characters, an aging, rich, married couple that seem to get along, well, kind of fine. However, Hepburn's sister is living with them, a raging alcoholic hysteric (a nice performance from Kate Reid, though this is the flashiest character) and the claws come out. Along with the claws come skeletons in the closet---it turns out Hepburn and Scofield's daughter is on her way home to prepare for her fourth divorce (the beautiful Lee Remick)---she just can't ever choose the right man. On top of that, Joseph Cotten and Betsy Blair stop by, a couple that has been friends with them for decades. Well, they need a place to stay. They suddenly had a feeling of impending doom and needed to get out of their house. While it's never quite explained what this impending doom really is (it's referred to as a plague and a terror), my interpretation after watching the film (I read the play in High School and didn't quite understand) is that the terror/plague was just the realization that they were alone together, and that was it. It was their life, time was and is passing and they would soon die, without, perhaps, much ado. To me, this is one example of upsetting a delicate balance---the balance of living day-to-day and either being frightened by the inevitable, or being happy with what you have in front of you for the day. Of course, this is a rather terse and albeit positive spin on what's going on (perhaps a little naieve, too), but the understanding I was able to grasp at this point in my life was that every day we have the ability to walk a fine line between contentedness or despair. I once read a critic that stated Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) should be revisited once every few years, especially by married couples. I would argue that you could throw A Delicate Balance in there, too.

Momma's Man (2008): Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture (2010) drew a lot of comparison with this much hailed film from Azazel Jacobs. I can see why, but they are both distinct. Casting his own parents (like Dunham) and set in their Manhattan apartment. Matt Boren stars as their son, currently living in Los Angeles. But on one cold, winter visit, he decides he does not want to leave, lying profusely to both his wife in California (taking care of their newborn) and his parents. After a few days, his parents realize that something is wrong. Momma's Man touches on that desire to go back to times of less responsibility, obviously, and the human tendency or, attraction, rather, to nostalgia. Flo Jacobs stands out as mom, a beacon of empathy for her son. And while there's much empathy and understanding to be had for what the main character is going through, I often felt myself feeling worse for his beleauguered wife and his confused parents. But it's quite a well made, excellent independent film.

The Night of the Hunter (1955): Wow. I watched this film years and years ago as a kid, and always thought that I never fully appreciated it. Upon re-watching it, I was blown away at how damn good it is. The cinematography is perfect, just amazingly beautiful and weird, while the performances of Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, and Evelyn Varden are just deliciously great. Actor Charles Laughton directed this and apparently, since it was poorly received in 1955, he vowed never to direct again, and he never did. Which is a bummer, because this is one of the best, weirdest, and bizarre film noirs ever made. Mitchum stars as a "preacher" with some intense sexual repression issues. A serial killer, he is imprisoned for stealing a car. His cell mate is Peter Graves, about to be hanged for stealing 10,000 dollars, which no one, mysteriously can find. Believing that Graves' family must know the whereabouts of the money, Mitchum cons the simpleminded Winters into marriage, but meets his match when the small children, who know where the money is hidden, evade him. There's more, but if you happen to read this, just watch it. It's intense, and scary, and also funny as hell. Laughton, a known homosexual (yet married to Elsa Lanchester) is obviously criticizing religion, how it corrupts and blinds, but beyond that, this is one dark and strange little tale more scary than many a horror film. And Mitchum's fists, upon which is tattooed, LOVE and HATE....damn, it's so good!

Horrible Bosses (2011): Well, this film is sort of a disappointment because it could have been so much better. The three buddies are a little far-fetched as is the whole plot device about killing bosses. It's predictable and a bit mediocre, however, I will say that Jennifer Aniston is very entertaining as a foul-mouthed, sex-crazed dentist. And Kevin Spacey, playing a bitter old queen here...oh wait, he's supposed to be straight and married to Julie Bowen....right...just a little too campy to gel with the rest of the comedic underpinnings of the feature.

Terri (2011): John C. Reilly stars as an enigmatic high school principal in this, for lack of a better phrase, coming of age tale, about an overweight high-school student, Terri (newcomer Jacob Wysocki) struggling to adjust to life, living with and caring for his overly medicated and somewhat disturbed uncle. While there's nothing new or exceptionally extraordinary about Jacobs' latest film, Reilly and Wysocki give some great, heartfelt performances.

Tabloid (2010): One of the world's most famous documentarians is Errol Morris. Sadly, I have only previously seen his first film, the intriguing Gates of Heaven (1978), about pet cemeteries. His latest centers on Joyce McKinney, a woman, who, in the late '70s, became obsessed with a Mormon. Right before they were about to be married, he was sent to England for his mission, but, according to Joyce, he was abducted by the Mormons in order to avoid his marriage to a non-Moromon. She hired a PI, tracked him down to England, hires a private plane and some bodygaurds, kidnaps her beau and chains him to a bed so she can repeatedly have sex with him and get pregnant. A scandalous sensation in the tabloids at the time, Morris' doc centers on McKinney, who narrates in present time her side of the story, as well as some of the other participants from the time. A documentary that has to be seen to be believed, McKinney is an urban legend to the Mormon community, and if you have ever heard reference to a "manacled Mormon," this is what that's referring to. An excellent and intriguing doc, I highly recommend it.

Role Models (2008): Upon a rewatch, David Wain's Role Models is a little slim on plot, and it does dip unabashedly into cornball territory every now and then. However, Jane Lynch and Sean William Scott are still damn funny in this slight yet extremely watchable comedy. And perhaps we will get to see more of the funny kid actor Bobb'e J. Thompson eventually. However, I've been over the one note nerdiness of Christopher Mintz-Plasse for quite some time now. I'm all about challenging the deconstruction of masculinity, but between Jesse Eisenberg, Michael Cera and Mintz-Plasse, I'm just a little bored with nerdy teenagers that never grow up.

Out of the Past: May & June 2011 In Film

Well, here is a comprehensive list of cinema experience in my last two months in Minnesota. I already miss a lot of things about Minneapolis, but I am thrilled to be in California. Now settling in nicely to West Hollywood with my lovely husband, I am looking forward to getting back in the habit of running weekly lists highlighting excellent (and sometimes not so hot) cinema to share!

Cess Pool Cinema:
Rites of Passage (1999) Dir. Victor Salva - US
Vanishing on 7th Street (2010) Dir. Brad Anderson - US
Gigli (2003) Dir. Martin Brest - US
Drive Angry (2011) Dir. Patrick Lussier - US
White Chicks (2004) Dir. Keenen Ivory Wayans - US
The In-Laws (2003) Dir. Andrew Fleming - US

The Banal, the Blah, the Banausic:
Panther (1995) Dir. Mario Van Peebles - US
Steam of Life (2010) Dir. Joonas Berghall & Mika Hotakainen - Finland
Tron: Legacy (2010) Dir. Joseph Kosinski - US
The Bengali Detective (2010) Dir. 2011 - India
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) Dir. Fritz Lang - US
Seven Pounds (2008) Dir. Gabriele Muccino - US
Microphone (2010) Dir. Ahmad Abdalla - Egypt
The Rainbow Thief (1990) Dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky - UK
Rubber (2010) Dir. Quentin Dupieux - France
The Monkey Hustle (1976) Dir. Arthur Marks - US

Guilty Pleasures:
Swamp Thing (1982) Dir. Wes Craven - US
All the Little Animals (1998) Dir. Jeremy Thomas - UK
Goodbye, My Fancy (1950) Dir. Vincent Sherman - US
Blind Beast (1969) Dir. Yasuzo Masumura - Japan
Cobra Woman (1944) Dir. Robert Siodmak - US
Revenge of the Nerds (1984) Dir. Jeff Kanew - US
Cleopatra Jones (1973) Dir. Jack Starrett - US
MST3k: Swamp Diamonds (1956) Dir. Roger Corman - US

Of Interest:
The Beautiful Person (2008) Dir. Christophe Honore - France
Bebe's Kids (1992) Dir. Bruce W. Smith - US
The Human Resources Manager (2010) Dir. Eran Riklis - Israel
The Tenants (2009) Dir. Sergio Bianchi - Brazil
The Light Thief (2010) Dir. Aktan Abdykalykov - Kyrgyzstan

Recommended:
Lord of the Flies (1963) Dir. Peter Brook - UK
Chinaman (2005) Dir. Henrik Ruben Genz - Denmark
Sheer Madness (1983) Dir. Margarethe Von Trotta - West Germany
Jo Jo Dancer: Your Life Is Calling (1986) Dir. Richard Pryor - US
Black Death (2010) Dir. Christopher Smith - UK
Secret Beyond the Door (1947) Dir. Fritz Lang - US
Come Undone (2000) Dir. Sebastien Lifshitz - France
The Sticky Fingers of Time (1997) Dir. Hilary Brougher - US
Chawz (2009) Dir. Shin Jeong-won - South Korea

Essential Cinema:
If These Walls Could Talk (1996) Dir(s): Nancy Savoca; Cher - US
Graveyard of Honor (2002) Dir. Takashi Miike - Japan
Road House (1948) Dir. Jean Negulesco - US
No Orchids For Miss Blandish (1948) Dir. St. John Legh Clows - UK
Grey Gardens (2009) Dir. Muchael Sucsy - US
Mary & Max (2009) Dir. Adam Elliott - Australia
A Nos Amours (1983) Dir. Maurice Pialat - France
Ratcatcher (1999) Dir. Lynne Ramsay - UK
Grey Gardens (1975) Dir(s): Albert & David Maysles; Ellen Hovde; Muffie Meyer - US
Crooklyn (1994) Dir. Spike Lee - US
Woman of Straw (1964) Dir. Basil Dearden - UK
Street of Shame (1956) Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
Gone With the Wind (1939) Dir. Victor Fleming - US

Theatrical Screenings:
Circo (2010) Dir. Aaron Schock - Mexico/US 7/10
Attack the Block (2011) Dir. Joe Cornish - UK 8/10
Midnight In Paris (2011) Dir. Woody Allen - US 8/10
The Hangover: Part II (2011) Dir. Todd Phillips - US 3/10
Queen to Play (2009) Dir. Caroline Bottaro - France 9/10
The Tree of Life (2011) Dir. Terrence Malick - US 8/10
Super 8 (2011) Dir. J.J. Abrams - US 9/10
The Double Hour (2009) Dir. Giuseppe Capotondi - Italy 9/10
Submarine (2010) Dir. Richard Ayoade - UK 9/10
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) Dir. Werner Herzog - US/Canada/France 8/10
X Men: First Class (2011) Dir. Matthew Vaughn - US 5/10

Rewatched:
The Emporer's New Groove (2000) Dir. Mark Dindal - US
Poetic Justice (1993) Dir. John Singlteon - US
Alien (1979) Dir. Ridley Scott - US
Fargo (1996) Dir. Coen Bros. US

Au Revoir Les Enfants Terribles! - The Last Picture Show at the Bell Theater

It is with a sad yet joyous heart that both Joseph and I invite you to one final grand movie night in our cinema haven. As most of you are already aware, Joseph and I will be moving to Los Angeles shortly after July 4th, and we hope that you are able to stop by and celebrate with us on Saturday, June 25th, 2011. We understand that this is Pride weekend and some of you may have other engagements, but we hope you can drop in for one or both films, or just to say hello. We would like to attempt to walk down the street to the 19 bar for libations and commiserations after our cinematic exploits. Therefore, we would like to begin early on this final movie night by starting at 4:oo PM. Parking may be difficult, so we would be willing to come pick you up at your car if it is necessary to park an astronomical distance from the premises.

In celebration of our departure, we would like to screen the immortal, iconic screen debuts of our favorite leading ladies: Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice (1993) and Sigourney Weaver in Alien (1979). We will be providing Papa Murphy's pizza and some hard liquors for your enjoyment, as well as a dessert or two. If you have received this invitation, we sincerely hope to see you on this last night of cinematic dissemination so we can enjoy some drinks, some time together, and, of course, Janet and Siggy.

We hope that we can remain in contact (in more ways than checking facebook updates) and stay abreast of each other's lives. While it has been a long term goal at last realized for us to move to California, we will miss you all very much. And we hope that you come visit us!

And when we finally say goodbye, I hope it feels a lot like this clip from Ghost, but without the sucking face.

In the words of darling Emily Dickinson, "Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need to know of hell."

Out of the Past: The Week(s) in Film 4/16-5/19

Cess Pool Cinema:
Steam (2007) Dir. Kyle Schickner – US
Streets of Blood (2009) Dir. Charles Winkler – US
The Horde (2009) Dir. Yannick Dahan & Benjamin Rocher – France

The Banal, the Blah, the Banausic:
Hussy (1980) Dir. Matthew Chapman – UK
Tribute to a Bad Man (1956) Dir. Robert Wise – US
Crash&Burn (2010) Dir. R.E. Rodgers – US
The Baby’s Room (2006) Dir. Alex de la Iglesia – Spain
Don’t Let Me Die on a Sunday (1998) Dir. Didier Le Pecheur – France
Seize the Day (1986) Dir. Fielder Cook – US
Tron (1982) Dir. Steven Lisberger – US
Skyline (2010) Dir. Strause Bros. - US

Of Interest:
A Boy & His Dog (1975) Dir. L.Q. Jones – US
The Mirror Crack’d (1980) Dir. Guy Hamilton – UK
To Let (2006) Dir. Jaume Balaguero – Spain
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) Dir. Nathan Juran – US
Barn Burning (1980) Dir. Peter Werner – US
Louder Than a Bomb (2010) Dir. Greg Jacons & Jon Siskel - US

Recommended:
Ricky (2009) Dir. Francois Ozon – France
A Summer In Genoa (2008) Dir. Michael Winterbottom – UK
My Last Round (2011) Dir. Julio Jorquera Arriagada – Chile
Rabies (2010) Dir. Aharon Keshales & Navot Papushado – Israel
Wet Hot American Summer (2001) Dir. David Wain – US
La Cravate (1957) Dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky – France
Who Am I This Time? (1982) Dir. Jonathan Demme – US

Essential Cinema:
Victor/Victoria (1982) Dir. Blake Edwards – UK
Tess (1979) Dir. Roman Polanski – France/UK
Blow Out (1981) Dir. Brian De Palma – US
A Wedding (1978) Dir. Robert Altman – US

Theatrical Screenings:
The Princess of Montpensier (2010) Dir. Bertrand Tavernier – France
Super (2010) Dir. James Gunn – US
Meek’s Cutoff (2010) Dir. Kelly Reichardt – US
Everything Must Go (2010) Dir. Dan Rush – US
Days of Heaven (1978) Dir. Terrence Malick – US
Bridesmaids (2011) Dir. Paul Feig - US


Rewatched:
Willard (2003) Dir. Glen Morgan – US
The Changeling (1980) Dir. Peter Medak – CanadaShe Devil (1989) Dir. Susan Seidelman – US

Minneapolis/Saint Paul Film Fest, 2011

Best of Minneapolis/Saint Paul Film Festival, 2011

Top 10:

1. The Hedgehog – France
2. We Are What We Are - Mexico
3. Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil - Canada
4. The Queen of Hearts – France
5. Bellflower – US
6. The Actresses – South Korea
7. Nostalgia For the Light - Chile
8. My Joy – Russia
9. Tyrannosaur – UK
10. Happy, Happy - Norway

And the Rest of the Best:

Home For Christmas - Norway
A Screaming Man – Chad
Le Quattro Volte – Italy
The Mill and the Cross - Poland
The Arbor – UK
Small Town Murder Songs – Canada
13 Assassins – Japan

Of Interest:
Mad Bastards – Australia
The White Meadows - Iran
Sound of Noise – Sweden
Hesher – US
Gigola - France
Twelve Thirty – US

Dull and Disappointing:
The Tree – Australia/France
Cracks – US
Au Pair, Kansas - US
On The Ice – US
The Myth of the American Sleepover - US
Troll Hunter - Norway
Dossier K – Belgium
Stake Land – US
Amigo – US

Seen at Other Festivals:
Applause – TIFF 2009
The Sleeping Beauty – TIFF 2010
Film Socialism – TIFF 2010
Beginners – TIFF 2010