Summer Movies 2013 Pt. IV

Summer Movie #31 – The Fast and the Furious (Rob Cohen, 2001): Although I watch the action movie and eat of the beef (Buffy reference) I’ve never seen any of these, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Also, I’ve been playing a game called Sleeping Dogs that has lots of driving elements and was partly inspired by the franchise, so there is that. This movie is fine for what it is, and what it is would be Point Break with cars in place of surf boards. The lack of Keanu gives this movie a real plus over Point Break, but the lack of Gary Busey is a problem and Vin Diesel is no Patrick Swayze.

Summer Live Movie #4 – The Guns of Navarone (J. Lee Thompson, 1961): What is there to say? One of the great classic war films. Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn starring in a major Hollywood movie that took time to ask questions about whether it is moral for good men to do bad things in a good cause.

Summer Movie #32 – Fury (Fritz Lang, 1936): Thanks to Jon Foster for this one – both letting me know about it and borrowing his dvd. This is a great film about mob violence and the destructive power of revenge. It stars a young Spencer Tracy who gives a typically great performance. It is a 1936 Hollywood film, and shows it (a deeply flawed – from a legal standpoint – trial dominates the second half; there is an important visual moment centering on a bedroom set for newlyweds which features two twin beds, etc…) but the quality shows through the studio trappings. I still need to watch the commentary track, though.

Summer Movie #33 – The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941): Again, what is there to say? One of the great film noir, Huston’s directorial debut, another iconic role for Bogart, and great supporting performances – especially from Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet. Put those two with Bogart and you just get classic films. Also notable is Elisha Cook as the young thug, Wilmer. I just finished reading the novel a couple days ago and this carries so much of the same feel – even with the restrictions of the Production Code (they really couldn’t make it so clear that Cairo was gay as in the novel and the scene from the book where Spade makes Brigid O’Shaughnessey strip naked in front of him just wasn’t going to happen).

Summer Movie #34 – The Big Lebowski (Joel & Ethan Coen, 1998):
The Dude abides.

Summer Movie #35 – The African Queen (John Huston, 1951): This is one of the great romance and adventure films of all time and, deservedly, gets a spot on many a “100 greatest” list. This film gave Bogart his only Oscar, which I find odd. He is good in this, but he had better roles, and better roles working with Huston such as the one I watched earlier this week – Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon. Still, that is the Academy in action.

Summer Movie #36 – Dance, Girl, Dance (Dorothy Arzner, 1940): This movie was mentioned in the documentary “Those Amazing Shadows” which I watched a week or so back. On the surface it looks like a fairly conventional film about a chorus girl finding her big break. There are, however, a few things that set it apart. First, it was directed by Dorothy Arzner, the only female director who worked in Hollywood during the height of the studio system. It also has a couple of fascinating women involved in the writing (Tess Slesinger co-wrote the screenplay which was based on a story by Vicki Baum – look them up, they are both intriguing). The story is notable for centering on strong (for 1940) female characters – and includes some criticism of the exploitation of women’s sexuality (again, this is a Hollywood film made in 1940). It also features good performances by Maureen O’Hara as the serious dancer and Lucille Ball as a sexy burlesque star (this is a point in her life when she was not far removed from a career as a model and when she was becoming the “Queen of the B’s” at RKO). This is not a great film, but it is a damned interesting one.

Summer Movie #37 – Jiro Dreams of Sushi (David Gelb, 2011): Thanks to Jon Foster for suggesting this one. This is a documentary about the 85-year-old chef and founder of a prestigious sushi restaurant. It is also about fathers and sons, about being an artisan (even if you are a tuna merchant), and even about environmentalism – like any great documentary, this takes a subject and then shows many different and often unexpected connections. The interviews are well-executed and interspersed with beautiful bits of cinematography. If you are a “foodie” you’ll love it. If you appreciate watching dedicated people at work, you’ll love it. If you like seeing film penetrate and illuminate human lives, you’ll love it. Check it out.

Summer Movie #38 – Blitz (Elliot Lester, 2011): This is a Jason Statham vehicle that features him as a “cop on the edge” (well within his range) and some decent performances by a familiar supporting cast, such as Paddy Considine, who has done several films (Hot Fuzz, The Bourne Ultimatum); Aidan Gillen from Game of Thrones and The Wire; and David Morrissey from The Walking Dead. The movie itself is a bit of a mish-mash – a psychological drama, a standard serial-killer thriller, a cop “buddy film”, and a vigilante-themed action film – and none of the pieces were very interesting. It isn’t bad, just a bit unfocused and very ordinary save for a few decent performances. Oh, well, they can’t all be winners.

Summer Movie #39 – Hard Boiled (John Woo, 1992): This was Woo’s last Hong Kong film before heading to Hollywood. It has all of the elements of his prior work – highly-stylized, very violent (if you’ve not seen any of these, think Michael Mann meets Sam Peckinpah), and starring Chow Yun-Fat. This film has cops rather than gangsters as the heroes, which was a departure for Woo. The story is a bit uneven, but the action sequences are just great. I’m pretty sure the big climactic battle, which takes place in a crowded hospital which explodes in the end, had to have inspired Nolan in The Dark Knight. This is just a fun action movie.

Summer Movie #40 – Les Miserables (Tom Hooper, 2012): This is a really good, but not perfect, movie. The pacing is off at times – especially early in the movie – and it sometimes feels like Hooper loses control of his own movie and it becomes a bit bombastic. Still, the cinematography is lush and beautiful, the music is extraordinary (for the most part), and the performances really make up for any weaknesses. When everything works the results are phenomenal. Hugh Jackman was great – as one would expect. Anne Hathaway’s performance, both acting and acting, of “I Dreamed A Dream” is just shattering. She isn’t on-screen for very long, but when she is, she just takes it over. Russell Crowe deserves more credit than he has gotten. His voice is just not of the caliber of some of the others, but his acting in this is some of the best he has done. His facial expression and body language while he sings one particular line tells you everything you need to know about Javert. With so many bravura performances by A-list stars, I think some of the lesser stars also didn’t get the attention they deserved, particularly Eddie Redmayne as Marius, Aaron Tveit as Enjolras, and Samantha Barks as Eponine. I have to end with a criticism, though. The ending is rather anticlimactic. Having built to this powerful moment of death and redemption, the film cuts to this final number that just felt false to me. Still, despite its flaws, this is a beautiful and stirring film.

Summer Movies 2013 Pt. III

Summer Movie #21 – District 13: Ultimatum (Patrick Alessandrin, 2009): This is a sequel to the 2004 film, District 13. The films are set in Paris in the near future where all of the poor and “undesirable” elements in the city are walled into a ghetto (District 13, or Banlieue 13 – hence the title B13 is sometimes used) .Both films were written and produced by French action filmmaker Luc Besson. Both films feature a buddy pair made up of Damien, a dedicated but rogue cop, and Leito, a sort of Robin Hood gangster, played by parkour artists David Belle and Cyril Rafaelli. Both films have a plot centered on rogue elements in the government who have evil designs on the people of the district (in this one abetted by a company called “Harriburton”) while also featuring gangsters, corrupt cops, etc… Both feature cool stunt-work, particularly by the two stars, and car chases. Both are mindless fun, but you do need to read the sub-titles if you want to watch them.

Summer Movie #22 – Hugo (Martin Scorsese, 2011): A sweet fable using some beautiful CGI. The account of George Melies given here is a bit romanticized and more than a bit simplified, but still largely correct in spirit and mostly correct in detail. Ben Kingsley gives a great performance as the legendary filmmaker. A nicely uplifting film. Tomorrow I’ll get back to the soul-crushing darkness or empty violence I normally prefer.

Summer Movie #23 – Eight Men Out (John Sayles, 1988): Here is another film my friend Dana has been mentioning to me forever – and I’m glad he did. This film recounts the 1919 “Black Socks Scandal” and features great performances by David Straithern, John Cusack, and D. B. Sweeney, among many others. I’m not versed enough in the actual scandal to have an opinion on the accuracy of any of this, but the depiction of human emotion here – how greed, resentment, and fear can undermine idealism – is powerful and real. Kevin Tighe has a nice turn in the movie as one of the gamblers involved in the plot, which I found notable because the first role I really noticed him in as a film actor ( of course, I knew him first from Adam-12) was in a favorite of mine that was also written and directed by John Sayles, Matewan.

Summer Movie #24 – City of Life and Death (Chuan Lu, 2009): Wow. If the mark of a great film is to find truths that make us feel things we might not want to feel (and I think it is) this is a great movie. The experience of it is a lot like Schindler’s List, a film that pretty obviously influenced this one quite heavily. The movie deals with the Rape of Nanking in 1937, when Japanese troops engaged in a six-week orgy of mass killings and raped thousands of Chinese women (exact figures do not exist – the official Chinese numbers are 300,000 killed and 20-30,000 raped but these are very controversial). The movie, much like Schindler’s List, deals with these events on a human level from the perspectives of Japanese soldiers and Chinese soldiers and civilians. It shows demonic acts being committed by human men. It also has very graphic depictions of rape and of the functioning of the “comfort stations” of the Imperial military. None of this is gratuitous. I have way more to say about this movie than I can fit into a status update, but this film should be seen, for all the reasons Schindler’s List should be seen. It is a masterful and harrowing account of a horrible moment.

Summer Movie #25 – Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963): I preordered the 50th Anniversary blu-ray release of this several months ago, and had completely forgotten until the UPS guy knocked on my door this afternoon. This is not a great movie, but it is a movie I feel a sense of connection with. Somehow this symbolizes the big 1950s and 1960s Hollywood epics for me in a way that much better movies, such as Ben-Hur, just don’t. Maybe it is because this is such a great example of everything that was right and wrong with those movies – it is huge, lavish, spectacular, ambitious, lumbering, bloated, and pretentious; all at the same time. Also, I love Rex Harrison’s turn as Julius Caesar. It isn’t the one I’d consider the most accurate, that would go to Ciaran Hinds in HBO’s Rome, but it is fun to watch. This, rather than Dr. Doolittle or My Fair Lady (one of my mom’s favorites), is the film from my childhood that I remember him for. Also, I think that a few of Richard Burton’s scenes as Mark Antony are among the best in his remarkable career.

Summer Movie #26 – I Huckabees (David O Russell, 2004): Here is another film I’ve been hearing about for years and am only now getting around to watching. This movie walks a line between quirky originality on the one hand and being too cute for its own good on the other. It occasionally wanders onto both sides of that divide. It is funny and features some great performances, especially by Lily Tomlin and Naomi Watts. It is also a bit tiresome in spots and the story seems a little unfocused to me. Still, the good certainly outweighs the bad and it is worth checking out.

Summer Movie #27 – End of Watch (David Ayer, 2012): This is a “cop film” with a decent narrative and some very good performances. The action sequences are good and fairly economical. On the down side, the film adheres closely to genre conventions, right down to the good times at the wedding and the bag-pipe wailing police funeral. Also, the movie strives for a pseudo-documentary feel by incorporating hand-held camera work with a “found-footage” conceit that doesn’t really work, and isn’t really necessary. Still, the movie’s strengths outweigh its weaknesses and it is worth a look if you like this sort of movie.

Summer Movie #28 – Crips and Bloods: Made in America (Stacy Peralta, 2008): This documentary is less a history of these gangs than an examination of where the L.A. gangs fit into American history and society. The movie is at its strongest when it links the rise of the gangs to the destruction of the 1960s and 1970s era social justice movements and the beginnings of de-industrialization. We easily forget that the destruction of the American working middle-class began with the African-American community. Overall, the film doesn’t really say much that hasn’t been said before, but what it says is valid and important. Unfortunately, its attempt to deal with the rise of the Gang Intervention movement at the end is edited in a way that seems like the happy ending part of a VH-1 Behind the Music episode – montage of images of dedicated people and smiling children with tinkling piano music in the background. Yes, this is a stylistic point, but style goes a long way toward determining rhetorical power. Still, this was a weak ending to a good documentary – well worth checking out.

Summer Movie #29 – Gangster Squad (Ruben Fleischer, 2013): The trailers worried me and the reviews confirmed those worries, so I didn’t see this in the theater. Still, I love this genre, so I put it in the Netflix queue. Everything I was worried about has just been confirmed. The film is worse than bad, it is dull. You’ve seen all of these characters before and there isn’t a surprise in any of them. Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, and everyone, except the unfathomably over-rated Ryan Gosling, were completely wasted here. Everything ends exactly the way you know it is going to end, and so the “uplifting” ending is drained of any real emotion. The film also manages to lionize two icons of racial tension, L.A.P.D. Chiefs William Parker and Daryl Gates. These are two hours I could have spend playing Bioshock Infinite, or picking my nose, and I’ll never get them back. If you want a movie about L.A. in the Cohen era, watch L.A. Confidential. If you want a stylish gangster action film, watch The Untouchables. Pass this one by.

Summer Movie #30 – These Amazing Shadows: The Movies That Make America (Paul Mariano & Kurt Norton, 2011): This is a decent documentary about the National Film Registry, film preservation, and the movies. There is nothing particularly new or revelatory here, but the interviews are good and the film clips are fun to watch. The film’s rhetorical purpose seems to be to convince the viewer that films are important but I’m not sure it would convince anyone who wasn’t already part of the choir. Still, if you do like movies it is worth a look. One interesting thing it did for me was make me aware of Dorothy Arzner and “Dance, Girl, Dance”, which I’ve just put at the head of my Netflix disc queue.

Summer Movies 2013 Pt. II

Summer Movie #11 – On the Edge (Herman Yau, 2006): This was not the action film I expected, but was much more of a drama. No big action sequences or stylistic camera work, this is more about realism. A Hong Kong cop who had been undercover in the Triads for eight years finishes his operation and then leaves the life he had built behind and comes back to a police force where he isn’t known or trusted. Most of the film is about his trying to find his way. This isn’t a flawless movie, but it deals with issues of the confusion of personal identity – both to ourselves and to others and with the weight of our past decisions. It was really good.

Summer Live Movie #2 – Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, 1975): What is there to say but “Ni”? Had a good time with Julie, Jo, and Philippe. I think maybe the pre-movie meal for shows at the Carolina needs to be moved to McCouls. It is just so much more conveniently placed.

Summer Live Movie #3 – No (Pablo Larrain, 2012): An excellent film that deals with a 1988 plebiscite in Chile over the continued rule of the dictator Pinochet; focusing on the shaping of the television campaign to get out the “no” vote by a young ad executive played by Gael Garcia Bernal. It is filmed in a very documentary style that fits well with some archival footage integrated into the whole. It moves between a personal story and the story of the campaign quite seamlessly. It also raises the question of what it means to present political ideas as advertising and just how much difference there really is – or can be – between the two.

Summer Movie #12 – Election (Johnnie To, 2005): Another excellent Hong Kong crime drama. Quentin Tarantino christened this “the best film of the year” and it was quite good. It deals with a power struggle over leadership of one of the Hong Kong Triads, but also delves into the place the Triads have in that community. It also addresses their own sense of their role and how true that may be. Frankly, I was constantly thinking about The Godfather, although the story is very different. This was much more slick and action oriented than the last Hong Kong film I watched but still had some real human moments in it. I’ve really been surprised by the quality of these films. They aren’t the cheap “chop-socky” films many might be imagining.

Summer Movie #13 – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Shane Black, 2005): Another movie I’ve been meaning to watch for years and could now kick myself for not having watched earlier. This was the first film directed by Shane Black (director of Iron Man 3) who wrote several 80s action films like Lethal Weapon (he was the screenwriter for this film as well). The movie is a sort of film noir comedy and managed to mash together several genres (action film, detective film, buddy film, etc…) into a fun movie with a few really affecting moments of drama. Robert Downy Jr., Val Kilmer, and Michelle Monaghan all turn in fine performances. This movie deserved a lot more attention than it received.

Summer Movie #14 – Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944): I continued my current run of films with a heavy noir influence by going right to the source. I really can’t add anything to the heaps of praise this movie has gotten ever since its release. It goes with movies like Citizen Kane (with which it shares a visual similarity) in being every bit as good as it is cracked up to be. Also, like all of Wilder’s classic films, it is just fun to watch. Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck are both great, but this is another movie where you see just how much of an actor Edward G. Robinson was and how his being remembered only for his gangster roles is a real mistake.

Summer Movie #15- Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger, 1959): Today has turned into a Dana approved film festival thus far. He has given me two copies of this movie (both thoroughly legal, to which I am prepared to swear on the Bible) so it was about time I watched it. A great courtroom drama with fine performances by too many great actors to name and frank examination of the complexities of sex, marriage, human relationships, and the truth. I also couldn’t help but compare the characters and the marriage of Ben Gazzara and Lee Remick with those of Kirk Douglas and Barbara Bouchet in my favorite Otto Preminger film, In Harm’s Way – both booze-soaked and dysfunctional marriages with a young and rather wild beautiful wife and an intense and jealous husband in the military; and both with unfortunate outcomes.

Summer Movie #16 – The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Peter Yates, 1973): Today’s third Dana Hatcher approved film is an unsentimental look at a small-time crook surrounded by other small-time crooks and moving in a world of larger crooks and cops who share a similar ruthlessness. In other words, it is a 1970s crime drama. The photography is all bare-bones and realistic. Robert Mitchum is great as an okay guy who is at the end of his rope. Anyone looking for a big fake emotional payoff, happy ending, or a moral to the story should look elsewhere. This is a story of bigger fish eating littler fish. Peter Yates is interesting. This guy seemed to resist being pigeon-holed. He went on to make Mother, Juggs, and Speed, Breaking Away, and Krull – among many other films. Before making this he had already made Bullitt.

Summer Movie #17 – L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1997): Modern noir for breakfast – this is not a new one for me, but one of my favorite movies ever. Several A-list stars give some of their best (in my opinion, anyway) performances ever here – Spacey, Crowe, and Cromwell, for example – so I think the excellent performance by Ron Rifkin as the D.A. is easy to overlook but shouldn’t be. He mixes being charming, menacing, repellant, and weak in equal measures.

Summer Movie #18 – Tales from the Script (Peter Hanson, 2009): This is a well-constructed documentary made up of interviews with screenwriters. It has some excellent moments, especially in the second half. My favorite bit comes from Guinevere Turner, who wrote the screenplays for American Psycho and The Notorious Bettie Page (among many others), when she tells the story about writing the screenplay for Bloodrayne. That vignette says a lot about how good writers can be part of bad movies.

Summer Movie #19 – The Eye of Vichy (Claude Chabrol, 1993): This documentary examines the World War II era Vichy Regime in France through its own propaganda. The majority of the film is simply excerpts from Vichy newsreels with only a minimum of narration. This is fascinating both as a document of its time and also for the insight it provides into the modern ultra-right in France.

Summer Movie #20 – The Bourne Legacy (Tony Gilroy, 2012): I really liked the first three Bourne films. I enjoy this style of adventure thriller. I also liked that all three are complete movies – they tell a whole story and have a definite ending. In each case, there was room for more story, but none was required. This movie doesn’t do that. It has franchise disease in that it is obviously just an opening chapter, not a complete story. Still, this movie was fun. I think that the story arc finished in The Bourne Ultimatum called for a new character and Jeremy Renner was a solid choice to be that guy. I liked the story and the way they carried on with what they’ve done since The Bourne Supremacy by weaving the opening part of this story into the earlier films. Solid action and a very cool chase scene of the sort we’ve seen in the earlier film are also pluses. Finally, this movie also allowed me to look at Rachel Weisz for a couple hours and that is always a good thing.

Summer Movies 2013

I thought I’d transfer my movie posts from Facebook here, for various reasons.  I’ll post several at once.

Summer Netflix Queue movie #1 – The Brothers Bloom (Rian Johnson, 2008): I really enjoyed this movie, it made me happy – especially Rachel Weisz. I know the critics were lukewarm about it, and maybe it is a bit twee. Still, if you’re not happy at the end of this movie, well, to quote Weisz’s character, Penelope: “I think you’re constipated, in your fucking soul… I think you might have a really big load of grumpy petrified poop up your soul’s ass.”

Summer Netflix queue movie #2 – Le Samourai (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967): I’ve been meaning to watch this for years, ever since I heard of it as an inspiration for John Woo’s The Killer. It is a minimalist film noir – all long silences and deliberately unresolved plot elements. Bleak realism without a hint of sentimentality – the stuff I love in some 70s American films, and which got there from French New Wave, was inspired, at least in part by Melville. Very good – and very different from the hyper-stylized The Brothers Bloom which I watched, and enjoyed, earlier tonight.

Summer Netflix queue movie #3 – Red Cliff (John Woo, 2008): I saw the “International Version” which is a two and a half hour long single film rather than the original four hours in two parts, but I do want to see the whole thing. Epic, lavish, and sentimental, I loved it.

Summer Netflix queue movie #4 – Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1994): Another film I’ve meant to watch for years, which has sort of been the theme across the last two days. Visually great and morally blank, this movie doesn’t try to create a false narrative of either forgiveness or redemption, but instead embraces the idea that some experiences can only make sense from within. Excellent.

Summer Netflix queue movie #5 – Le Professionnel (Georges Lautner, 1981): A French action thriller starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and featuring a score by Ennio Moriconne. It is all rather bleak with odd moments of humor. Add in the score and it feels a lot like a spaghetti western set in 1981 Paris. I give it a solid “meh”.

Summer Netflix queue movie #6 – Flash Point (Wilson Yip. 2007): This was a straight-up Hong Kong action flick, and I loved it. Donnie Yen, who also produced, stars as the-cop-who-can’t-be-bound-by-the-rules as he and his partner (played by Louis Koo) go after three Vietnamese immigrants Triad types. If you’ve ever seen a Hong Kong crime film, you’ve seen all of this before and if you’ve ever seen any cop film you’ve seen most of it before – but it was a well-executed trip over familiar territory and loads of fun.

I’m thinking Chinese cinema might be my “sub-theme” for this summer’s movies.

Summer Netflix movie #7 – Last Train Home (Lixin Fan, 2009): This is a documentary following the annual trips home of Chinese migrant workers during the New Year period over several years. It is also about family, generational changes and struggles, and the costs of China’s rapid social and economic change. It is beautifully filmed and fascinating.

Summer Netflix queue movie #8 – Dredd (Pete Travis, 2012): A much superior adaptation of the comics to the 1995 Stallone POS, this film features the under-appreciated Karl Urban in the lead role and a good take on the “trapped with the bad guys” story (see Assault on Precinct 13 – original, not re-make). Also good here is Lena Headey as the head of the evil block-gang – demented but not scenery chewing. There were some definite “let’s film it this way for 3D” moments and it was a bit excessively bloody, but still fun. A “B” movie – but a good solid “B”.

Summer movie #9 – Exiled (Johnnie To, 2006): Another Hong Kong action film that successfully integrates elements of spaghetti westerns to tell a story about the endurance of friendship against the backdrop of the Triads. If you can appreciate the genre conventions of those two types of films, this is very good. If you go in looking for an American style action film, you’ll hate it. Visually, the film is lovely – all beautiful use of color and lighting and varying camera angles. The story is fairly cliche, but that is the point.

Summer Movie Live #1 – Iron Man (Shane Black, 2013): Lots of fun, especially with the company. I think this one was better than the second. I loved Ben Kingsley, even though the Marvel purists are unhappy about what the film did with the Mandarin. Stray thought during the closing credits: Back as CGI was becoming more common I heard many film folks grumbling about how “they won’t even need people to make movies anymore.” Look at the number of names in those credits. More people are being employed on these films than ever were before – its just that most of them work during post-production rather than on the actual shoot.

Summer Movie #10 – The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012): Great acting, beautifully shot, and unwilling to give any easy answers to the difficult questions it raises; this was a great movie. There is a lot here about American culture, cult behavior, the whole run of human relationships, and more, but the thing that stood out to me was one of my good friend Steven Kapica‘s favorite questions – what does it mean to be human? Like another excellent piece of art that asked that question, this movie doesn’t give you the viewer an answer, but does provide another way to frame the question.

Once more unto the blog, dear friends

It has been nearly a year since I wrote anything here.  My film review project just fell flat – I was getting less and less interested in anything I had to say about those films and the whole thing started feeling like a job, so I just kept not doing it.  Still, I kept feeling like I wanted to get back to writing regularly.  This has also been a period in which I’ve been doing many things I’ve intended to do for a long time. So, I’m back once again, but this time with no agenda save to keep a journal that others may read if they choose.  The plan is to post once a week, and more if the spirit moves.  Now, I’ve said I was going to do this before, and failed, but I’ve also said before I was going to eat better and exercise regularly and failed at that too – but now I’ve lost 70 pounds and I’ve kept up with my health regimen for six months, so I’m a little optimistic about keeping it up.

Do, or do not, there is no try.

Okay, the big event in my life this week was the death of Ginger, my dog of some 13 years.  I really don’t know how old she was, since she was a rescue dog my mom adopted years ago.  She was at least 14 and might have been a couple years older than that.  She had really slowed down over March and then just crawled in a corner and died last Friday night.  This is a new avenue of personal loss that I’m exploring, and I’m still processing it.  I don’t have much to say at this point except that the house is really empty now.  I do want to add thanks to all of my friends who expressed their concern.  Seeing twenty-seven responses to my Facebook post about this was very touching.  I especially want to thank Steve and Mandy Kapica and Julie Dixon Grimes.

On a much less dismal subject, I made a decision this week.  I’ve been experimenting with playing MMORPGs (Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Games) for about three years.  I started with EVE Online, then Star Trek Online, and finally a short foray into Star Wars: The Old Republic (which just launched).  What I’ve decided is to leave these behind.  I really don’t like the online multi-player format.  This was brought home to me last week when I joined some other players in TOR (short for Star Wars: The Old Republic) to run a multi-player “flashpoint”.  I was new to the game, which I told these guys, and I screwed something up.  I then found myself being called vile crap (“fucking idiot” was the mildest term).  While I’ve met some cool people in these games, most of what I’ve run into was more like this.  Add to this unnecessary static in my life the problems of having to coordinate my computer gaming with other people and this was quickly becoming too much like an extra chore – and I’ve got enough real ones.

I’m really not blaming the game or the fans – it just isn’t for me.  I still love, and will play, single-player games like Skyrim or Fallout.  Ultimately, I think that this isn’t something I want to do with other people.  Computer games provide an entertaining way for me to escape others.

The big exception is Star Trek Online.  First, the game is free to play, so no money lost.  Second, you really can play most of the content alone if you want.  Third – its Star Trek.  I’m maintaining my account there.  I’ve cancelled my other ones and the big thing here is that I’m not going to try any new ones unless I know people in real life who want to play with me.

Other notes for the week:

I started reading James Garner’s autobiography.  My friend Dana Hatcher loaned it to me awhile ago.  It isn’t a great piece of biographical writing, but it is fine if, like me, you’re a big fan.

I also started watching the new adaptation of Great Expectations on Masterpiece Classics.  No opinion so far beyond planning to keep watching it.

My friend Jon Foster recommended a documentary called “Shut Up Little Man” which I just finished before writing this.  It is interesting.  It details two guys who made audio recordings of their drunken neighbors fighting and the results went viral.  What makes this interesting is that all of this happened between 1987 and 1989 – no internet.  It was disseminated through people who traded cassette tapes of found audio across the country.  It then takes an interesting twist with the coming of money into the story.  Finally, the film-makers address the whole question of the ethics and exploitation inherent in all of this.  It was very good.

That is it for this week – probably.  Talk to you next week.

Filmsite Post: Catching Up for Spring 2011 Part 2 (Movies #7, #8, and #9)

#7 Psycho (1960):  Another film that I can’t believe I hadn’t watched before.  In this case it is likely because I’d seen so much about it, and I’d seen the infamous shower sequence so many times, it felt like I already had seen it and I just kept putting it off.  That it motivated me to watch this movie at last justifies this entire project for me.  I generally love the inversion of standard tropes, and this film is full of that.  Throughout watching it I kept thinking about what it must have been like seeing it before it became such a common part of the culture.  Almost anyone who knows anything about film has seen the shower sequence and knows Norman Bates is the killer.  It must have been quite an experience to see this film without knowing these things.  At first, it would have seemed like a heist drama – but then why is it entitled “Psycho”?  Then the shower scene – a transition within a transition (genius) - and you are in a new film about a murder.  Even then, it would have seemed like the audience could see what was coming – Arbograst, the private eye, will solve the murder.  Then he dies.  Neither Sam nor Lila are traditional film heroes at all.  Where the hell is this thing going?  The tension and menace of the movie itself is magnified by a sense of the unfamiliar in the style of the movie.  Add to this all of the brilliant film-making – camera work, the way the shower scene was shot, the music.  Brilliant.

#8 The Graduate (1967): I thought parts of this film were brilliant and parts of it not so much.  There are some very familiar – one might say “well-worn” comic tropes in this movie.  I’d also argue it is uneven in tone in a way that isn’t so much unique as off-putting.  The sequence with the diving suit was funny (I couldn’t help but think of Ralphie and the pink bunny suit in “A Christmas Story”).  It was also on-point in that it emphasized the idea that Benjamin was insulated from his own life.  Still, it felt awkward to me – like a good idea that belonged in a different movie.  Still, the parts that are brilliant just shine.  The montage of Benjamin floating through his life by alternating between cuts of him floating on the pool and having sex with Mrs. Robinson was brilliant.  The camera work and editing made that effective.  Another piece of camera work I was really impressed by was the confrontation between Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson outside of Elaine’s bedroom, where she is shot small and hunched in a corner against this large white angled wall and ceiling – emphasizing the idea of her vulnerability and the notion of a dangerous and cornered animal at the same time.  Finally that last shot – the young lovers ride away on the bus – but the shot doesn’t just end, it lingers… and lingers.  They never speak.  Is this really a happy ending?  Is there such a thing?  It is so deliciously uncertain.

#9 Singin’ in the Rain (1952): A Post-modernist classic, in the same sense that “Green Acres” was an Absurdist classic.  Here we have a film about the story behind the making of the film we just watched.  It features musical sequences as delightfully unconnected to the narrative flow of the rest of the movie as anything produced in Bollywood.  Beautiful.  Seriously, what’s not to love?  Gene Kelly doing his most iconic work.  Donald O’Connor at his best.  A young Debbie Reynolds holding her own on the screen with them both.  Romance, comedy, a loving mirror held up to itself – everything Hollywood was best at when it was at its best.  I just felt better after I watched it.

I’m going to save “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” for later.

Filmsite Post: Catching Up for Spring 2011 Part 1 (Movies #4, #5, and #6)

Like an old dog to an old bone, I return to gnaw at this blog some more.  I’m hoping to make major inroads on this list over the summer so I can make my goal of watching them all this year).

Just for my own ego, I’m going to mention that I’m starting here with the twenty-some movies on this top 100 list I’ve never seen (although I’ve violated that with the first two, ”Casablanca” and “Citizen Kane”) and then am going to move on to about ten more that I’ve seen already but, for various reason, retain little impression of or saw so long ago I need to view them afresh (“The Apartment” is a good example of the former and “Taxi Driver” a good example of the latter.)  After that it is going to be a process of re-watching films I’m more or less familiar with.

Oh, and the numbers are just the order I’m watching them in.

So, onwards.  I’ve watched five more from the list since I last posted.  I’m going to be a bit brief with them in the interests of getting caught up.

First, two Billy Wilder films: #4 “Some Like It Hot” and #5 “Sunset Boulevard”

#4 “Some Like it Hot” (1959): I really enjoyed it, but I don’t have much to say about it.  It is funny (although I’ve never really been bowled over by the who mainstream drag-humor thing – I always found Milton Berle funnier in a tux than in a dress).  I think this is a movie where you can see that “Marilyn Monroe thing.”  Her character should be an instantly forgettable Hollywood stereotype blonde bimbo, but there is something more there.  Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis were hysterical.  Wilder is at his best dealing with showbiz.  It is kind of like “Stagecoach” in that it uses but also invents a genre of films we’ve all seen a hundred times since.  Therefore it is simultaneously epochal and a bit familiar.

#5 “Sunset Boulevard” (1950): Where to start?  You have here a movie that manages to be both a loving tribute and a savage parody of Hollywood at the same time.  Gloria Swanson is funny, poignant, pathetic, and towering.  William Holden is playing that tarnished rogue he perfected and that no one has ever done quite as well since.  Erich von Stroheim, Jack Webb, cameos by half of Golden-Age Hollywood – including Cecil B. DeMille, and a dead chimp – all in a brilliant mishmash of film noir, romance, and Hollywood.  I loved it.

#6 “To Kill a Mockingbird”  (1962): Ever since my father’s death, I’ve become incredibly weepy at stories about fathers and children.  When the reverend tells Jem and Scout to stand as their father leaves the courtroom, I just lost it.  Cynics can call this manipulative, I call it moving.  This is a signature role for one of the greatest actors in American film (or anywhere – let’s face it) – Gregory Peck.  It has Robert Duvall’s first film role.  It combines a great courtroom drama with a great study of American racism, adds in an exploration of what it means to be ethical, what heroism is, and what it means to be a father – and the movie does them all well.  This is one of the greatest movies I’ve ever seen. 

It is late, so I’m closing this here.  I’ll try to finish the catch-up post tomorrow with #7 Psycho, #8 The Graduate, #9 Singing in the Rain, and #10 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (another I’ve seen many times, but happened to watch again a couple of weeks ago).