October 2010

The Beast With a Billion Backs (2008)

The weakest of the three Futurama movies I've watched so far. It's a very strange story in the context of the show, completely ignoring the sort of single-minded devotion Fry had been showing to Leela toward the end of the series and in the first movie. This movie seemed to be trying quite hard to stay unified on theme--relationships, jealousy, love--but it left the characters mostly hollow (with the exception of Bender, actually; he was the emotional center of the movie, but it's a hard role for that character to sustain).

The religious satire was pretty great, though. And at least Kif got a very satisfying moment.

Bender's Game (2008)

The third Futurama movie. This one starts out strong but begins seriously floundering in the last twenty minutes or so, when the extended Lord of the Rings spoof starts. I like Lord of the Rings as much as anyone, but very specific parodies are actually tiresome at this point.

The rest of the movie is pretty funny, though. The HAL Institute for Criminally Insane Robots is always a treat.

Peeping Tom (1960)

Took a break from the Futurama movies to go see this suspense film about voyeurism and murder. It plays on the "it's always the quiet ones" trope, sort of like Psycho, and that wasn't the only thing that reminded me of Hitchcock. The whole style, the innovative, claustrophobic way the film was shot, the pacing and storytelling--at the very least, I think this film's director and Hitchcock shared some influences.

Though it's frequently very tense, it's also funny. The authentic awkwardness of the main character is part of this--it is rare to see a movie or television character so accurately mirror that kind of awkwardness.

Character is really the main thing I pay attention to in most films, especially ones I haven't seen before, and I was intrigued with how the protagonist was handled. His character is an insane murderer who gets off on seeing his victims' expressions of terror as they die (don't worry, that's not a spoiler), but the narrative truly treats him as the protagonist. He's a pathetic character who certainly has the capacity for redemption--we glimpse it, but then it fades. That choice may have been a matter of drama or a matter of censorship--the idea that crime should never go unpunished in entertainment was a strong one at the time this film was made.

Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009)

The fourth and final Futurama movie. I really enjoyed this one. Like the first movie, Bender's Big Score (reviewed last week), Into the Wild Green Yonder maintains a near-perfect balance of comedy, story and character, with a little political and social comedy thrown into the mix. It's rare that a comedy can make a joke about feminists without seeming stale and misogynist (though I think part of how this one circumvents that is by turning it around and making it about misogyny).

The film actually goes out on a sweet note, and clearly was meant as the end of the Futurama series. We could stop there and everything would seem right.

Pumpkinhead (1988)

A surprisingly enjoyable horror flick--not really all that scary, though, since it makes the mistake of showing us the well-crafted monster effects early on. It's also terribly predictable (I figured out how to destroy Pumpkinhead within moments of its first kill). And yet I certainly enjoyed it. It manages to build tension nicely, despite the monster being a known entity with known intent. The victims are, by and large, completely innocent, guilty only by association with the person who had wronged the monster's summoner, and that injustice works to give the viewer an interest in the otherwise flat characters staying alive. It's kind of a corny movie, really, but it's fun.

Eraserhead (1976)

Only the second David Lynch movie I've ever seen. The first was Inland Empire, and that movie was so unbelievably terrible that for years afterward, I wasn't really interested in ever seeing anything else by Lynch. People have been telling me to see Eraserhead for years, though, and now, having seen it, I can testify that I enjoyed it. It's basically "Men's Sexual and Familial Anxieties: The Movie." Though I expect men will generally identify with it more than women will, anyone who was not already terrified of having a baby will be after watching this.

Night of the Living Dead (1990)

Went into the theater expecting to see the 1968 original, and was a little disappointed when it turned out to be the remake. I had never seen either before, but I've heard that the original was a commentary on race, on Vietnam, on other tumultuous issues of the 1960s. The 1990 remake misses out on that. There's minor acknowledgement of the continued existence of racism (generally present more in the tone of what a couple people say to Ben, the only black character, than in the actual words), and a single scene presents the parallel between zombies and drug addicts (a major fear in the 1980s), but otherwise it's pretty low on social commentary, instead presenting the standard "but we're the real monsters" creature movie plotline.

If you just want to see an unsettling zombie picture, it's solid. The gruesome special effects look quite good--some are genuinely upsetting. The acting is okay, sometimes a little hammy. Barbara is the hero of this incarnation of the story, and she plays out the popular "final girl" trope perfectly: the traumatized woman becomes a real badass over the course of the movie, and of course is the sole survivor of her group by the very end.

Soon:

• Waiting for Superman (2010)
• You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)
• The Sacrifice (1986)
• The Magnificent Seven (1960)
• I Love You Phillip Morris (2009)
• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2010)

The Maybe List:

• happythankyoumoreplease (2010)
• If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle (2010)
• Helena From the Wedding (2009)
• Conviction (2010)
• Secretariat (2010)

Behold, the hipster chicken. It's an obscure breed, you probably haven't heard of it.*

This was my costume for a little party at work earlier this week--I'm probably not going out tonight because I have to go to work tomorrow, alas.

* Blame jgarfink for this one.

A little something to get you into the Halloween spirit for tonight.

Metropolis (1927)

I had seen this once before, on DVD, on a mid-sized TV in a friend's basement, and I have to tell you, the way to watch Metropolis is on a large screen in a crowded theater. It was like seeing an entirely different movie--which it may have actually been to an extent, because the one now touring theatrically is the most complete and restored print available, using lost footage rediscovered in 2008. This longer version makes a lot more sense than the one I saw on DVD. And of course the fantastic imagery is even more beautiful on the big screen.

It has a very strange message, though--it starts out with the appearance of being a socialist film about the injustice of capitalism, but when it comes time for the workers to rebel violently, it turns out to be a terrible mistake. In the end the movie is quite soft on capitalism, with Freder, son of the wealthy leader of Metropolis, interceding with his father on behalf of the workers as a kind of messiah (an intentional parallel, given the raw quantity of religious imagery throughout). The movie puts a lot of emphasis on the violent rebellion being a bad idea, but frankly, if I lived the life of a worker as shown in the film, I would have resorted to violence much earlier. They are horribly oppressed. It's only by virtue of luck that anyone above ground becomes interested in their plight at all. Consequently, it's a little unsatisfying in a way how things turn out. It's certainly a happy and idealistic ending, with hope for a new era of mutual respect between the social classes, but it's hard to mesh that with the dystopian images seen throughout the film.

Howl (2010)

Part Allen Ginsberg biopic, part study of the "Howl" obscenity trials, and part recitation of "Howl" itself. James Franco creates an excellent portrayal of Ginsberg himself, partly in interviews between his character and an unseen person in his apartment, and partly on stage in a poetry club reading "Howl." The courtroom scenes do not include Ginsberg's character, but are quite funny and satisfying on their own for those among us strongly opposed to censoring works of art for being offensive. The weakest part of the movie is the animation, which plays during Ginsberg's reading of "Howl." The art is beautiful in some scenes, a little unpolished in others, but a disappointingly literal interpretation of the poem throughout.

Pull My Daisy (1959)

A thirty-minute short film written and narrated by Jack Kerouac, starring Ginsberg and some other famous beat poets. It is definitely for people who like Kerouac already (good thing I'm one of them). He employs the same kind of stream-of-consciousness narration that he uses in his novels, which I imagine could be alienating for some viewers, and it maintains the impression that I had gotten from his novels, which is that most of his friends are kind of jerks, though funny ones.

Bender's Big Score (2007)

The first of four direct-to-DVD Futurama movies made in the last few years. I only started really watching Futurama recently--borrowing a friend's Netflix Instant Watch subscription on my Xbox 360--and I've been sort of stunned by how compelling it is. It's a comedy show where the characters are all jerks and nitwits, but they're multi-dimensional jerks and nitwits that the show successfully gets you to care about. And it periodically acknowledges the darkness of the initial premise--a guy gets cryogenically frozen on New Year's Eve 1999 and wakes up a thousand years later, long after everyone he knew and loved had died.

This particular movie is like an extended episode of the TV show. It starts out with a goofy concept that acts as an absurdist parody of modern life, then manages to weave threads of character development and backstory into that ridiculous premise. There is a twist, which I probably should have seen coming but didn't, and the twist is genuinely heartbreaking. I'm really looking forward to watching the rest of the movies in the series.

Nowhere Boy (2009)

John Lennon biopic focusing on his troubled teenage years. There is a general problem with making movies about John Lennon, which is that he's effectively a modern saint--nearly everything written or made about him is a loving tribute to him, which is sweet and natural when we're discussing a man who created art that has touched many people's lives. But tributes are not necessarily honest. Nowhere Boy falls into the hero-worship trap a little bit, specifically at the very beginning and the very end, but most of it is solid. It does take some liberties with his biography, but in general they work.

This movie tries to let us know him and think of him as a human being, not as that abstract celebrity Other, by taking us back to a time before he was famous and letting his blooming musical interest and skill take a back seat to his difficult family life. Like his music, the film takes his story and makes it something universal--about the tumultuousness of adolescence, and the precious brevity of life that most of us just start to notice as teenagers.

Soonish:

• Peeping Tom (1960)
• Waiting for Superman (2010)
• Pumpkinhead (1988)
• Eraserhead (1976)

The Maybe List

• It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)
• You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)

8 1/2 (1963)

A film about making a film, about creating art. Specifically, about creating art under pressure. The only other Fellini film I've seen is La Dolce Vita, made a few years before this one, and there are definite stylistic similarities despite the differences in theme and subject matter. If I hadn't known Fellini had made both of them, I could have guessed it from watching them.

There's a lot of beautiful surreal imagery in 8 1/2, as much of the film is a mash of dream sequences blending in and out of reality.

The main character, a director, is in the midst of making a film, except he has writer's block and has no idea what his film is even about. He has to juggle his producer, his actors, his wife and his mistress as he tries to figure out exactly what he's doing, which, for the time being, is mostly a lot of desperate flailing in an attempt to create a film while simultaneously keeping his life from falling apart. The tone is sort of sad and funny at the same time--hard to pull off, but Fellini manages it.

Valhalla Rising (2009)

Strangely reminiscent of, in particular, Lars von Trier's and Werner Herzog's work, yet it doesn't quite carry their mastery of the medium. It is surreal and grimly straight-faced, and occasionally upsetting in a very visceral way. The violence is brutal. None of these is a detriment to the film. Where it struggles is in its hamfisted handling of the religious themes. When your work takes a negative view of a popular religion, you need to tread carefully to avoid looking foolish, and this movie doesn't quite make it.

Tarantula (1955)

A 1950s B-movie about, you guessed it, a giant tarantula. Probably better-suited for a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode than for straight viewing. I don't regret seeing it, and I had fun watching it, but it's about as good as you might expect--that is, not very.

As in most movies of this kind, there is an awful lot of talking and half-baked character development that has nothing to do at all with the monster that the audience has come to see. Not to say that there's no entertainment value! Admittedly much of it comes from unintentional comedy in the plot points and dialogue (which is often uncomfortably sexist, a product of its time). The rare shots of the giant spider, created by superimposing images of a real tarantula over houses and fields, are admittedly quite impressive given the obviously tiny budget, most of which was probably spent on the scene of the creature's demise. If you want to see Clint Eastwood in an uncredited role in which he drops napalm on a spider the size of a football stadium, this is the film for you.

Soon:

• Metropolis (1927)
• Howl (2010)
• Nowhere Boy (2009)
• Waiting for Superman (2010)
• It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)
• You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)

So I didn't go see Breathless this week, for reasons previously outlined, and some of the stuff that was expected to come out this week didn't end up here. But here's the stuff I did see.

The Social Network (2010)

A fictionalized account of the founding of Facebook. The script takes some liberties with the precise facts to make the story fit into the themes the writer and director wanted to include, and overall it's quite successful. It does assume that the audience has some grasp on the idea of narrative point of view and understands that just because the protagonist is the main character doesn't mean he's supposed to be likable or considered admirable. Mark Zuckerberg has not been a very nice person in real life, especially in the early days of Facebook. He's not a very nice person in this movie, either, but Fincher succeeds in making him, if not sympathetic, then pathetic enough to be pitiable.

The Zuckerberg of the film is driven to succeed by desire to be important, to impress people who snubbed him (particularly an ex-girlfriend who dumps him at the start of the film). Money is not a driving force for him, except as a metric of his success. This movie is essentially a geek's wet dream shattered--the guy ends up with all the money in the world, but he loses his only friend and fails to get the girl he really wants. He gets recognition, sure, but not the kind he wants, nor from the people he wants it from.

You might wonder how a person can enjoy a movie where all the male characters are scumbags to varying extents (Eduardo Saverin, Zuckerberg's best friend, being the least scumbaggy among them), and the females are mostly relegated to the background. But it's a compelling story, a deconstruction of that long-held fantasy of so many underdogs that "you'll be sorry when I'm rich and successful."

Life During Wartime (2009)

About two Jewish sisters who have uncommon amounts of trouble with the men in their lives. Kind of an odd movie, and went to places I did not expect based on the trailer. There are no explicit scenes, but dealing with the effects of child molestation on a family is a major theme. What kinds of diabolical things should people be willing to forgive? It's a good question, and a central one to this film.

Never Let Me Go (2010)

I really like science fiction that doesn't really seem like science fiction, and I like stories about dystopian alternate universes of the sort in this film. Set in an alternate timeline in which the technology for human cloning was established in the 1950s, the film follows a group of three children who grew up in an isolated boarding school called Hailsham, and their relationships to each other as they move toward adulthood and their inevitable "donations." This is a movie that is concerned about the ethics of human cloning, but at its core it is about the earnestness and brevity of all human life. Astute viewers will have figured this out by the end of the film and won't need the final voiceover, which is terribly trite and unnecessary in the wake of what we have just seen. That voiceover is the only real problem I had with this film. Otherwise it is quite beautiful, well-made and well-acted.

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

I had seen this one before and been profoundly affected by it, but this time it was a bit harder on me--I guess because I had been reading about war atrocities recently.

Suspiria (1977)

Surreal Italian horror film about a teenage girl attending a dance school that's run by a coven of witches. It reminded me a lot of Hausu, except much less funny and much more brutal. The aesthetic is very similar, and, like Hausu, the dreaminess is sort of the point--the plot is really sort of an afterthought, a reason for the spooky, atmospheric setpieces with amazing visuals and jarring background music. The use of light and color specifically is beautiful all the way through. It's really more of an experience than a movie.

Hopefully soon:

• Buried
• Nowhere Boy
• 8 1/2
• Valhalla Rising
• It's Kind of a Funny Story

The Maybe List:

• Secretariat

So, on Wednesday I was supposed to go see the Godard film Breathless at the International Film Series on CU campus. I was really excited about it. But traffic was bad on the way down and I got to the movie a little late, so I decided to wait around on campus for a couple hours until the second showing.

This turned out to be a lot of fine coincidence, because while I was wandering around on the Hill, I noticed a line forming under the Fox Theatre marquee, which said, in large letters, "OK GO." It turns out they were in town to kick off their new tour, and having missed them last time they were in Colorado, I bought a ticket. After all, Breathless is on DVD, right?

I do not regret my decision.

I had heard OK Go puts on a great show, and they did not disappoint. And it was a special show that night, too, not only because it was the kickoff of their tour, but also because it was frontman Damian Kulash's birthday. The rest of the band had special plans for him. Creepy plans. Plans that involved us holding printouts of his photograph in front of our faces so it looked to him like a sea of grayscale clones was singing him happy birthday--which is perhaps the best gift one friend can give to another.

The crowd was a little obnoxious--I was fairly early in line, got into the pit and thought I had a good vantage point until a number of people taller than me took the liberty of squeezing in front of me and inviting their similarly tall friends to do likewise. Poor etiquette. Just so you know. If you're short, you might get away with it, maybe, if there is only one or two of you, but if you're tall? Never do that. I had to move around to get a good view, and I ended up dead center four or five rows back from the stage, which worked well enough.

The show itself was amazing. The opening bands ranged from decent to good, but OK Go was stunning. Those guys can rock a house. Even in this digital age, people will always go crazy for confetti cannons and awesome costumes.

Damian likes making the show seem personal, like he's our friend and he's only doing this for us. The dude has no fear of his audience. He waded through the crowd twice in the show--once to have a "hippy moment" playing a song in the middle of the crowd back behind the first railing, and once during "This Too Shall Pass," the last song in the encore, he came down into the pit and jumped up and down with us. This is the moment where I get to brag, because he was actually right next to me in the pit. Like he was physically pressed against me. Which was awesome.

So I went home with feet aching and coated with sweat, but very, very satisfied. If you ever get a chance to see these guys in concert, do it without question. And if you're not yet familiar with their excellent music, you should check out their YouTube channel, where you can experience the tunes along with some ace visuals. Their homemade videos are world famous.

A few good movies came out this weekend, and the International Film Series is in full swing, too. It was hard to prioritize what was coming out, since I am mad crazy to see The Social Network, but of all the non-IFS options, it's the one likely to stick around the longest.

By pure coincidence, this week ended up being documentary-heavy.

Sans Soleil (1983)

A collection of gorgeous documentary footage from around the world, with heavy focus on Japan and the African nation of Guinea-Bissau. The imagery is accompanied by the voice of a female narrator, reading letters sent to her by the cameraman (a fiction, I read later). Most documentaries have a narrative, some kind of story to tell, but this film has none. The narration reads like a journal--thoughts, small anecdotes and curious customs encountered in the course of traveling and filming. This probably sounds boring to most of you, but the movie as a whole is both beautiful and very soothing.

Catfish (2010)

Let me begin by saying that this film is good. Very good. Let me continue that by saying you should read as little as possible about it before seeing it. The Wikipedia page will absolutely ruin the film for you.

Catfish is positioned as a documentary about a New York photographer's growing friendship with a rural Michigan family over Facebook, though the story falls into place so well, it's hard to believe it's 100% non-fiction. It's hard for me to say much more without ruining a part of the experience, as it is, at its core, a kind of mystery. If Catfish is playing near you, see it. And if you like it, tell your friends to see it without telling them too much about the story.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010)

Joan Rivers's career has not been going so well lately. This movie covers a year of her life during which her career was at a serious low point. She was willing to do anything. Even in the worst of circumstances--maybe especially in the worst of circumstances--Joan can't help but be very funny. Some of the things she herself says when faced with desperation for work are profoundly sad, though.

Let Me In (2010)

An American remake of the recent Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In. Very competently directed and acted, but for those who have seen the original film, it doesn't bring anything new to the table. It leaves out or changes some things that didn't work well in the original, but adds flaws of its own. The hamfisted musical score was out-of-place in almost every scene, and is easily the biggest problem in the movie. I noticed one scene in which the score was silent, and the impact was stunning--like watching an entirely different film. If they had kept the music out of it, it could have been on par with the Swedish version. As it is, it's a decent movie, and decent substitute for those unwilling to read subtitles. For anyone else, watch the original, unless you're really eager to see how the two compare (as I was).

The Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole (2010)

Otherwise known as "that movie about the creepy smiling owls." A typical kids' animal fantasy movie. It's often over-serious to the point of being silly, but the scenes involving the baddies (called "the Pure Ones") are appropriately threatening. The pacing is a little odd, too (I expected the quest to take up more time--apparently the Guardians aren't all that far away after all). I have to admit, I got into it and enjoyed watching it, but it's a little clunky and goofy. Probably a DVD rental unless you really dig kids' fantasy movies or owls that have mysteriously acquired metalworking technology.

In the next couple weeks:

• The Social Network (2010)
• Breathless (1960) (a Godard picture, really looking forward to this one)
• Life During Wartime (2009)
• Buried (2010)
• Nowhere Boy (2009)

The Maybe List:

• Lebanon (2009)
• Jack Goes Boating (2010)
• Secretariat (2010)