E:
Some of my favorite moobies were Palme d'Or Winners at the Cannes Film Festival: Black Orpheus, The Conversation, Blow-Up, Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now, The Piano, Pulp Fiction, Dancer in the Dark, Elephant. But in the past few years, the jury hasn't picked so well. Is it the lack of films to choose from? Is it merely a reflection of the ebb and flow of films out there? Every decade has an amazing selection of winners - Black Orpheus won in 1959, even the 80s had The Mission and Wild at Heart. And the 00s started with the brutal Dancer in the Dark.
But The Child - it was ah-ight. 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days - it was ah-ight. And The Class - it was ah-ight.
It's about a teacher putting up with the adolescent madness of a room full of punk-ass kids. If you want to endure that for a couple hours - watch this film.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Some Like It Hot
E:
OK. Here's the deal. When it comes down to it, classics tend to be classics because they're really good. Some Like It Hot is really, REALLY good! Marilyn Monroe's second film with one of my all-time favorite directors Billy Wilder (after The Seven Year Itch four years earlier), she really gets to stretch her comedic chops in a film that's filled to the brim with slapstick comedy, great one liners and awesome performances by Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. Lemmon was nominated for an academy award for this - that''s how good he was. An Oscar nom for a comedy!
The film follows two down-on-their-luck musicians during the depression. After escaping from a mob boss, they pose as women to join an all women's band on the way to perform in Florida. As a side note, much of the Florida resort scenes were shot at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego where I grew up. I saw frames pictures of behind-the-scenes lining the halls years before I ever saw the moobie.
Among the women in the band, they meet the voluptuous singer/ukulele player Kandy Kane (Kowalczyk) played by Monroe to a tee. Curtis' Joe disguised as Josephine takes on yet another disguise to woo Kandy Kane under false pretenses. And Lemmon's Jerry disguised as Daphne takes one for the team and ends up spending some one-on-one time with an old timer to give Joe/Josephine/Junior the opportunity to get Kandy.
Madcap, screwball, slapstick at it's best - this moobie deserves to be on everyone's list.
OK. Here's the deal. When it comes down to it, classics tend to be classics because they're really good. Some Like It Hot is really, REALLY good! Marilyn Monroe's second film with one of my all-time favorite directors Billy Wilder (after The Seven Year Itch four years earlier), she really gets to stretch her comedic chops in a film that's filled to the brim with slapstick comedy, great one liners and awesome performances by Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. Lemmon was nominated for an academy award for this - that''s how good he was. An Oscar nom for a comedy!
The film follows two down-on-their-luck musicians during the depression. After escaping from a mob boss, they pose as women to join an all women's band on the way to perform in Florida. As a side note, much of the Florida resort scenes were shot at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego where I grew up. I saw frames pictures of behind-the-scenes lining the halls years before I ever saw the moobie.
Among the women in the band, they meet the voluptuous singer/ukulele player Kandy Kane (Kowalczyk) played by Monroe to a tee. Curtis' Joe disguised as Josephine takes on yet another disguise to woo Kandy Kane under false pretenses. And Lemmon's Jerry disguised as Daphne takes one for the team and ends up spending some one-on-one time with an old timer to give Joe/Josephine/Junior the opportunity to get Kandy.
Madcap, screwball, slapstick at it's best - this moobie deserves to be on everyone's list.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance
E:
After making the highly successful Joint Security Area, Chan-wook Park gained some financial and creative freedom. Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance is the result. The first of his so-called Revenge Trilogy (Oldboy being the best of the three), it's about two men who need to take revenge - on each other.
The first act is hard to follow, perhaps because I don't speak Korean. Some time jumping. Some events hard to attach to which characters. But if you stick with it, this hard-hitting moobie pays off in spades.
I can't really give away too much, except that the young man with the green hair is deaf and he has a sister and a girlfriend. At first I thought it was only one girl. Maybe this one bit of information will help you get through the first act a little easier.
Regardless...watch it! Watch the whole trilogy! (saving Oldboy as the finale)
After making the highly successful Joint Security Area, Chan-wook Park gained some financial and creative freedom. Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance is the result. The first of his so-called Revenge Trilogy (Oldboy being the best of the three), it's about two men who need to take revenge - on each other.
The first act is hard to follow, perhaps because I don't speak Korean. Some time jumping. Some events hard to attach to which characters. But if you stick with it, this hard-hitting moobie pays off in spades.
I can't really give away too much, except that the young man with the green hair is deaf and he has a sister and a girlfriend. At first I thought it was only one girl. Maybe this one bit of information will help you get through the first act a little easier.
Regardless...watch it! Watch the whole trilogy! (saving Oldboy as the finale)
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
I Love You, Man
E:
That crew of people all making comedies together need some new blood. That's not to say I didn't like this film. Paul Rudd plays the main character Peter who, upon engagement realizes he has no one to stand up as his best man...so he goes out looking for one. He finds the rascally ne'er do well Sydney Fife and hilarity ensues. Sydney helps Peter find the inner guy and fiance Zooey (the gorgeous Rashida Jones, Harvard graduated daughter of Quincy Jones & Peggy Lipton) learns to share him.
Like, I said - it was enjoyable, mild-mannered comedy. Nothing laugh-out-loud gut busting...even with Lou Ferigno in the moobie. We all know, when Lou's in the mix they're gunning for laughs.
As much as I like the entire crew I just wonder whether ALL the comedies have to include Rudd, or Segal or Rogen or Hill?
The Hangover - for which I DID gut-bust - proves that the answer is no.
That crew of people all making comedies together need some new blood. That's not to say I didn't like this film. Paul Rudd plays the main character Peter who, upon engagement realizes he has no one to stand up as his best man...so he goes out looking for one. He finds the rascally ne'er do well Sydney Fife and hilarity ensues. Sydney helps Peter find the inner guy and fiance Zooey (the gorgeous Rashida Jones, Harvard graduated daughter of Quincy Jones & Peggy Lipton) learns to share him.
Like, I said - it was enjoyable, mild-mannered comedy. Nothing laugh-out-loud gut busting...even with Lou Ferigno in the moobie. We all know, when Lou's in the mix they're gunning for laughs.
As much as I like the entire crew I just wonder whether ALL the comedies have to include Rudd, or Segal or Rogen or Hill?
The Hangover - for which I DID gut-bust - proves that the answer is no.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Shadow Of A Doubt
E:
A wartime film noir, Hitchcock's favorite of his own moobies, Joseph Cotten...what could go wrong?
Sigh. I wasn't that into it.
I'm a huge fan of film noir. I've always loved the chiarascuro lighting, the suits, the hard-boiled attitudes, the femme fatale. This film turns all that on its head and sets the drama in the suburbs. A dangerous man on the run - he runs to his family. They don't know what he's really about - but his favorite niece is starting to get the clue.
Supposedly Hitch loved this one because he liked the idea that there's no place to hide, not even in the mild-mannered suburbs. Surprisingly this moobie doesn't stand the test of time as well as so many of his others. I know that a lot of the cinematic story tricks we today find cliche were once innovative, and I know that Hitch was one of the best innovators around. But the tricks in Shadow Of A Doubt have been used so often since 1943, they're impossible to overlook.
If you're going to choose a Hitchcock film, there are plenty of others to choose from. It's important to know his stuff, but this one is no longer one of his best.
A wartime film noir, Hitchcock's favorite of his own moobies, Joseph Cotten...what could go wrong?
Sigh. I wasn't that into it.
I'm a huge fan of film noir. I've always loved the chiarascuro lighting, the suits, the hard-boiled attitudes, the femme fatale. This film turns all that on its head and sets the drama in the suburbs. A dangerous man on the run - he runs to his family. They don't know what he's really about - but his favorite niece is starting to get the clue.
Supposedly Hitch loved this one because he liked the idea that there's no place to hide, not even in the mild-mannered suburbs. Surprisingly this moobie doesn't stand the test of time as well as so many of his others. I know that a lot of the cinematic story tricks we today find cliche were once innovative, and I know that Hitch was one of the best innovators around. But the tricks in Shadow Of A Doubt have been used so often since 1943, they're impossible to overlook.
If you're going to choose a Hitchcock film, there are plenty of others to choose from. It's important to know his stuff, but this one is no longer one of his best.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
New In Town
E:
I can't believe I let G talk me into watching this...
cliche city/country conflict, predictable storyline, Harry Connick, Jr. can't act, Renee Zellweger's character was too much of a bitch to care whether or not she accomplishes anything...
They spent how much money making and marketing this thing?
And...why?
I can't believe I let G talk me into watching this...
cliche city/country conflict, predictable storyline, Harry Connick, Jr. can't act, Renee Zellweger's character was too much of a bitch to care whether or not she accomplishes anything...
They spent how much money making and marketing this thing?
And...why?
Saturday, August 1, 2009
In The Heat Of The Night
E:
The Oscar race 1967. The turn of the tide. Moobies were different before then; they weren't the same after. 5 moobies from 5 different corners of the cinematic world. A collection that signaled the end of an era.
Arthur Penn's Bonnie And Clyde was so fresh, so hard hitting, so...cool! The Graduate - satirizing the bourgeoisie. Doctor Dolittle - a tepid studio musical, the lone holdover. Guess Who's Coming To Dinner - a soft approach to America's bubbling racial turmoil (also starring Sidney by the way). And In The Heat Of The Night - a much harder take.
A man is found murdered in a small Mississippi town. The white sheriff and his deputies arrest a black man only because he's unfamiliar and he's at the train station. They figure he's looking to escape. Turns out he's a big city detective and he's much better equipped to handle the murder case than the rest of them combined. Of course none of these white men want to admit that a black man could be better than any of them, but the sheriff has to swallow his pride and begrudgingly acccept his help.
It's a great moobie.
First of all, Sidney Poitier was amazing. He should have been nominated for his work and the fact that he wasn't speaks to the fact that although the academy was ready to address the issue of racial tension, it wasn't ready to embrace it. Sidney portrayed Mister Tibbs with such subtlety and fire and cool all at the same time, and Rod Steiger's Sheriff Gillespie was the perfect counterpoint. Conflicted and proud, he finally comes to respect Tibbs as they work together to solve the murder.
The Academy Award Ceremony was postponed that year due to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination.
G:
I finally saw the scene where he says "They call me MR. TIBBS" whooo hoo! nice. Oh, and when he slapped the rich white man, guuuuuuurl. This one is worth watching.
The Oscar race 1967. The turn of the tide. Moobies were different before then; they weren't the same after. 5 moobies from 5 different corners of the cinematic world. A collection that signaled the end of an era.
Arthur Penn's Bonnie And Clyde was so fresh, so hard hitting, so...cool! The Graduate - satirizing the bourgeoisie. Doctor Dolittle - a tepid studio musical, the lone holdover. Guess Who's Coming To Dinner - a soft approach to America's bubbling racial turmoil (also starring Sidney by the way). And In The Heat Of The Night - a much harder take.
A man is found murdered in a small Mississippi town. The white sheriff and his deputies arrest a black man only because he's unfamiliar and he's at the train station. They figure he's looking to escape. Turns out he's a big city detective and he's much better equipped to handle the murder case than the rest of them combined. Of course none of these white men want to admit that a black man could be better than any of them, but the sheriff has to swallow his pride and begrudgingly acccept his help.
It's a great moobie.
First of all, Sidney Poitier was amazing. He should have been nominated for his work and the fact that he wasn't speaks to the fact that although the academy was ready to address the issue of racial tension, it wasn't ready to embrace it. Sidney portrayed Mister Tibbs with such subtlety and fire and cool all at the same time, and Rod Steiger's Sheriff Gillespie was the perfect counterpoint. Conflicted and proud, he finally comes to respect Tibbs as they work together to solve the murder.
The Academy Award Ceremony was postponed that year due to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination.
G:
I finally saw the scene where he says "They call me MR. TIBBS" whooo hoo! nice. Oh, and when he slapped the rich white man, guuuuuuurl. This one is worth watching.
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