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Being John Malkovich |
Spike Jonze |
Right away, even before anything trippy arrives, you can tell that Being John Malkovich movie is going to be odd. John Cusak is Craig Schwartz, a puppeteer who sets out to look for a job at the behest of his wife, Lotte (a well hidden Cameron Diaz); a woman with a pet collection that includes a monkey, parrot, and ferret. Craig ends up at an office on the 7th and a half floor with 5 foot high ceilings and a secretary whom can't seem to understand anyone. He quickly falls in love with his egotistical office mate Maxine (Catherine Keener).
It's only then that the movie turns into a modern fantasy story. Schwartz find a portal to actor John Malkovich's mind hidden behind a cabinet. After he tells Maxine she devises a way to make money off of it. Lotte, on the other hand, becomes obsessed with it.
It's clear that Being John Malkovich is on the odd side. What was less clear to me - and I think this is my deficiency - was what, if any, deeper meaning there was. The best theory I can come up with is that Schwartz does his best work when he acts vicariously through others, whether they be puppets or famous actors. Maybe the story is about different forms of transformation. Lotte comes to crave the transformation into Malcovich so much that she contemplates changing her own body. We know Craig does better as someone else. Maxine never gets into Malcovich's mind but her personality changes more than anyone. Later in the movie we find others using Malcovich to transform their age into youth. |
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112 minutes |
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This product was released around November 1999
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I consumed this around April 2010 |
| More:
Being John Malkovich |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 4/26/2010 8:46:06 PM |
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Big Fan |
Robert D. Siegel |
Paul Aufiero (Patton Oswalt) and his buddy Sal (Kevin Corrigan) are a sad lot. Their lives revolve around the New York Giants. Paul builds up an anonymous reputation on a call-in talk show as a defender of the realm. Sal adores him for it but doesn't realize it takes Paul hours of writing and practicing his speech before he can call in to rip apart nemesis "Philadelphia Phil" (Michael Rapaport's voice). For every home game the duo rides out to the Meadowlands to watch the game...in the parking lot. The two follow Paul's favorite player, Quantrell Bishop, to a strip club one night. After meeting him, things turn sour and Bishop beats Paul into a three day coma.
This is the part of the movie where our protagonist takes stock of his life and re-prioritizes the important things. Life isn't like a movie though. People don't change. They rationalize cognitive dissonance. In Paul's case, the Giants are all he has. The situation says something about sports fan-hood. He can't disown them because he has built his adult life around the franchise. That means when they're up, he's up; when they're down, he's down. |
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86 minutes |
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This product was released around 2009
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I consumed this around March 2010 |
| More:
Big Fan |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 4/26/2010 5:30:10 PM |
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Downfall |
Oliver Hirschbiegel |
Downfall is a dispiriting movie until you remember that you're watching the fall of the most evil empire of the 20th century. Still, watching a proud
civilization crumble before you is depressing. Once majestic buildings are riddled with holes. Families scramble for cover through rubble. High ranking
military officers relax their dress and take to the bottle. The vast records of an empire are set to fire. Again though, these are the Nazis.
It is not the simple fact that it's all coming down that is depressing. It's the fact that these people were so deluded. Not only did they buy into a heinous
ideology but they convinced themselves of their leader's infallibility. As the Soviets drive into the heart of the Reich the military leadership continues to follow its
maniacal leader. These are the leaders of one of the strongest militaries in the history of the world failing to see the writing on the wall. Downfall
is a lesson about how group-think saps people of their abilities.
Hitler's ego is what destroyed Germany. In the scene made famous by a thousand internet parodies, Hitler learns from his generals that Steiner, the general
he was resting his last hopes on, has failed to mount an attack. As he comes to the realization that all is lost Hitler scapegoats his generals.
Our generals are just a bunch of contemptible, disloyal cowards.
He believes everything Germany has gained was the result of his actions.
I never attended an academy, and yet I have conquered Europe all by myself
Only to have it taken away by others.
I've been betrayed and deceived from the very beginning
When generals come to him worried about the plight of the German people in Berlin Hitler treats them with scorn. The people failed him. They deserve
whatever happens to them when the Soviets come rumbling through. He will let them suffer rather than surrender. Referencing 1918:
I went through that before and once is enough
The generals who are with Hitler in those last days are portrayed as sycophants, unable to break Hitler's psychological hold even though they know their forces are done for. Up to the very end most of them
maintain their oath to the Fuhrer rather than to the German people - even after he has abandoned them with his suicide. As Berlin falls some Germans are smart
enough to run for cover rather than stand as fodder during the vicious urban warfare. Bands of SS roam the city rounding up and executing those "traitors"
and "deserters". At dinner Hitler speaks of the strong defeating the weak as natural. His ideology does not allow compassion for his people. The front lines are becoming younger but lack basic
weaponry to put up a fight. To the certain death these new recruits are facing Hitler says "that's what young men are for". It is amazing that he can even
muster platitudes about "the Reich" when it is clear his own legacy is all that matters to him. Hitler cares more about what will happen to his body when the
Russians find it. He kills his dog, Blondi, with the same poison he takes his own life with. Goebbels, ever the coward, follows Hitler's example but lets his
wife kill his children.
The main characters are like part of a World War II lesson plan. There are the truest of the true believers, Adolph Hitler and the black eyed Joseph
Goebbels. Some of the leadership who somewhat disobyed Hitler are given better treatment (Albert Speer, Wilhelm Mohnke, Eva Braun's brother-in-law Hermann Fegelein, and the doctor
Ernst-Günther Schenck). The generals Keitel, Jodl, Krebs, and Burgdorf barely leave the bunker. Goering and Himmler, who have escaped Berlin, draw Hitler's scorn for attempting to act
without his permission. Otto Günsche is Hitler's aide to the end. The odd duo of Robert Ritter von Greim and Hanna Reitsch, who defy death to get back to
the bunker.
Hitler oscillates between grim realization and absolute delusion. He actually finds out about Steiner pretty early in the film. At this point he knows it's
over. Later on though, he conceives a plan for Karl Dönitz to retake oilfields in the same conversation in which he admits defeat. He simply doesn't
understand how many troops he has, the Soviet position to the east, and, though the film doesn't go into this, the American response to any talk of anything
but unconditional surrender. In a final episode of self deception Hitler walks out of the most dire briefing from General Weidling, a man almost executed for
retreating against the Soviets but now the leader of the Berlin defense. Weidling informs Hitler and his generals that German forces can hold out for maybe a
day. Hitler walks out of the room in a daze muttering "Wenck will come", in reference to a general who in no way could save the doomed city. Watching his
shaking, twitching left hand it's clear that even before the revelation about Steiner he knew it was over. His ego keeps the truth down.
As it all collapses around them, the Germans in the bunker walk shell shocked through some of the most surreal scenes. Hitler, Eva Braun, and secretary
Traudl Junge have a polite conversation about suicide. Hitler gives Junge, who seems to be the only person shown compassion by the Fuhrer, a poison capsule
stating, "I'm so sorry I can't give you a better present" with no sense of irony. Later, as Junge walks through the bunker, we see dozens of officers openly
discussing the best way to commit suicide. Earlier, Eva rounds up people in the bunker for an impromptu ball. In the large opulent hall of a government
building women and officers dance. Earlier still, government documents rain down from buildings as the SS erases the regime's records. Forget your hatred of
the Nazis, think about what it must have been like. The sense of doom as everything is crashing down. Not only everything they built but everything they had
been taught, their ideology, their heroes, all gone. These people were seriously brainwashed. |
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156 minutes |
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This product was released around September 2004
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I consumed this around April 2010 |
| More:
Downfall |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 4/25/2010 8:25:26 PM |
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Clerks |
Kevin Smith |
I don't know what I expected out of Clerks. It's the film that made the world aware of Kevin Smith. It's an icon of the 90s. I liked the idea of such a small venue (a convenience store and a movie rental store) in a shortened time frame (one day), low-key, and black and white. It just didn't work for me though. The dialog felt ornate and excessive. While watching I realized that I may have found the father of years of Dawson's Creek conversations. Dante (Brian O'Halloran) was a little too quick to exasperation; Randal (Jeff Anderson) knew a little too much about everything. They weren't terrible and maybe if I had watched Clerks when it came out I would have found it new and interesting. It was cool to see the origins of Jay, who never shut up, and Silent Bob, with his one line. |
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92 minutes |
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This product was released around October 1994
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I consumed this around April 2010 |
| More:
Clerks |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 4/25/2010 10:08:55 AM |
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Crips and Bloods: Made in America |
Stacy Peralta |
It wouldn't have been hard to create a documentary about the Bloods and Crips that focused on turf wars and gun battles. Stacy Peralta and Sam George weren't looking to make a real life gangsta movie though. They wanted to trace the violence that plagues modern South Central, Los Angeles back to its inception.
The move out west for many African Americans came in the decades after the end of slavery. Away from the officially segregated and dangerously violent southeast blacks encountered a less racist and more economically viable existence. As the automotive industry - Ford, GM, Firestone - built up large plants in southern California blacks attained living standards that none had seen before. When the automotive industry fell on hard times and pulled out conditions worsened. Racism was less severe but it still existed. Segregation wasn't official policy but neighborhoods were still separated by race. Police used force and intimidation to keep blacks within their proscribed areas. Anger seethed because of racist cops until it bubbled over in the Watts Race Riots of 1965.
This race riot was different from normal race riots because it was the African Americans doing the rioting instead of whites attacking blacks. One of the people the filmmakers interviewed a lot was Kumasi, an original member of the Slausons, a street gang that preceded the Bloods and Crips. Kamusi got into gangs at a time when gangs in the area were smaller and less violent, fighting with fists rather than guns. Kumasi powerfully describes the riot after the National Guard was summoned:
We were opportunistic fighters. We didn't need stockpiles. We got dilapidated buildings. There's a brick pile just waiting to be thrown at your ass. There's a dilapidated building. Ain't nobody living there. You didn't fix it. You didn't remove it. OK it ain't nothing but a pile of bricks any how. That's coming at you. That whole building, brick by brick. That's coming at your ass. That's what we're throwing at you. The building. The bullshit. The rubble. The rubbish that we live in. That's what coming at your ass. Those are our weapons. The filth. The funk. The shit you can't stand. That you defend. That you put a barrier between us and yourself. That's coming at you. That's coming at you.
As I was looking for a transcription of the quote I came across a description of it by Cynthia Fuchs as "the literal becoming metaphoric". The neighborhood's infrastructure was as decrepit as the system that created it.
As African Americans took action and became radicalized throughout the country, their leaders were taken down. Civil rights leaders were killed. Radicals were imprisoned. Kumasi asks, what filled the void? In a tone of revelation he claims that it was the Crips, founded by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams. As the gangs grew so did the War on Drugs. Imprisonment of black men skyrocketed. The film claims 28% of black men have been in jail at one time in their lives.
The discouraging part about this film is the interviews with gang members. These men understand what's going on. They may be thugs in one sense of the word but they're in no way dumb. In the shoddy system they live in you can fight to live in poverty or you can turn to a life of crime. Getting beat up by gang members, harassed by police, and barely getting by didn't appeal to them. They very simply and clearly present the rules that exist in their world. It is disheartening to see the discord between a nation that teaches children that they can do anything and a city where children grow up with no hope.
Most surprising was the candor with which many of the gang members described how they felt about not having a father around. It may strike some as looking for an excuse but I have a hard time believing a hardcore gang member cares about garnering sympathy from documentary viewers. If 28% of black men are in jail at one point in their lives then that's a lot of male role models out of the picture. It speaks to the tactics of anti-gang and anti-drug police actions. Locking up fathers, according to the filmmakers, really does stimulate a cycle of crime and despair.
Crips and Bloods: Made in America was narrated by Forest Whitaker. |
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93 minutes |
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This product was released around January 2009
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I consumed this around April 2010 |
| More:
Crips and Bloods: Made in America |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 4/25/2010 9:48:00 AM |
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Burn After Reading |
Ethan Coen & Joel Coen |
Burn After Reading has half a dozen great actors filling out the script and, as a result, is a character driven film. One of the interesting things about Burn After Reading is that George Clooney play an untypical role. Clooney is Harry Pfarrer, a twitchy ex-air marshal. Yes, he's a philanderer with a certain level of self-confidence due to his good looks but his self esteem is fleeting. He picks up women through internet dating and doesn't hold up under stress. We're so used to seeing Clooney owning a movie with great acting supplemented by an overwhelming presence. That cool Clooney demeanor is exchanged for a Coenesque oddness. Brad Pitt does the same as Chad Feldheimer. He's a dorky, water bottle slurping, pretty boy riding his bicycle and wearing a gym-employee maroon polo shirt. Tilda Swinton is good as Katie Cox, Pfarrer's cold lover who is divorcing Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich).
Frances McDormand and John Malkovich are the best though characters in life crisis mode. McDormand is Linda Litzke, a woman trying to recoup her youth through plastic surgery. Malkovich is Osbourne Cox, a recently reassigned CIA analyst who quits his job in order to write his memoirs. I've admired McDormand's acting since I saw Fargo and she doesn't disappoint here. Malkovich brings the same level of intensity he seems to bring to everything he does. No one will pay for Linda's unnecessary surgeries and no one wants Cox's stories of pedestrian goings on within the CIA. Their similarly adrift lives collide as they both attempt to right the ship. Everyone seems to want to be on another boat. Harry is cheating on his wife with Katie and still looking for more on the internet. Osbourne wants to write as his wife jumps ship. Linda is also searching the internet while her boss Ted Treffon (Richard Jenkins) longs after her.
J.K. Simmons (Oz, Law & Order) and David Rasche (of Sledge Hammer! fame) play a couple of CIA officers who get to watch the pathetic lives of the cast. "What did we learn from this?", Simmons' character asks Rasche's at the end of the fiasco that unfolds throughout the film. Both agree that they can find no discernible lesson. Simmons' character doesn't really seem to care. Taking the path of least resistance he green lights payoffs and other extrajudicial remedies to clean up the plot. In the end you have to wonder what anything amounted to. It's a sad little play. Whether it's a drama, a tragedy, or a black comedy is up for interpretation. The actors do a lot of spinning until they stop and then get swept away and pretty much forgotten before the Coens on zoom out |
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96 minutes |
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This product was released around September 2008
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I consumed this around April 2010 |
| More:
Burn After Reading |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 4/22/2010 8:39:55 PM |
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Be Kind Rewind |
Michel Gondry |
Mike (Mos Def) is tasked with watching Elroy Fletcher's (Danny Glover) decrepit video store. Thought to be the birth place of famous jazz musician Fats Waller, Fletcher's store is on the brink of financial destitution. Jerry Gerber (Jack Black), a paranoid eccentric who lives in a junk yard, kick starts the shenanigans by erasing every video (Fletcher doesn't sell DVDs) in the store after a failed attempt to sabotage the power plant (why?) magnetizes his whole body. Afraid word will get back to Fletcher, Mike and Jerry quickly make a 20 minute rendition of Ghostbusters. The film is a success, starting the duo - and later Alma (Melonie Diaz), an employee from the dry cleaner's down the street - on a movie making spree. It looks like Mike and Jerry have saved the store. Unfortunately that's portrayed in a montage, capping off a weak, somewhat slow first half of the movie.
The movie is an oddball comedy that manages to say something about community. "Be Kind Rewind" is getting pressure to close from a developer who, with good intentions, wants to demolish the building to make way for a brand new complex. Mike and Jerry find a way to build support for their store by making their customers a part of their venture. While the new building may improve the area's look, the old one represents a piece of the community's past. |
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102 minutes |
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This product was released around February 2008
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I consumed this around April 2010 |
| More:
Be Kind Rewind |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 4/21/2010 6:53:49 PM |
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Harlan Country, USA |
Barbara Kopple |
The footage of this coal miner strike felt like it came straight out of a time before the National Labor Relations Board. It was 1973 though when Duke Power Company hired "gun thugs" to intimidate and take pot shots at the miners of Harlan County, Kentucky. State police were brought in to protect the road for imported scab workers but none were sent to stop attacks on the strikers. The state cops (the local sheriff was more ambivalent), the courts, and even United Mine Workers of America president Tony Boyle (who would later be convicted of ordering the murder of union challenger Joseph "Jock" Yablonski and his family) sided with the employer.
Barbara Kopple's documentary starts off portraying the claustrophobic working conditions of a coal miner. Workers emerging out of a void in the Earth have black soot under their noses, underlying the poor air quality that often led to "black lung". Only five years earlier an explosion at an explosion at a Farmington, West Virginia mine killed 78 miners. The strikers joined a union and are fighting for a contract as a way to redress these conditions. A contract, one worker says after one of their colleagues is shot to death by a scab, is "what Lawrence Jones died for".
The movie is in no way a two-sided endeavor. It dignifies the miners and vilifies the employers. The former are the epitome of working class. With bluegrass songs coursing through scenes of rundown houses and unpolished country folk, the film takes on the character of rural Appalachia. Lest you think the long fight was endured and taken on just by the miners, Kopple shows some pretty intense, bad-ass wives standing not only behind but in front of their men. It takes the miner months of striking, of civil disobedience, and eventually of arming themselves to win the fight for their livelihoods. |
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103 minutes |
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This product was released around 1976
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I consumed this around April 2010 |
| More:
Harlan Country, USA |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 4/14/2010 7:18:27 PM |
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Killer Klowns from Outer Space |
Stephen Chiodo |
Killer Klowns from Outer Space is a B-movie spectacular. The acting is awful, the dialog is corny, and the plot, in all of its absurdity, is summed up by the title. Beside the 1980s haircuts and attire there are some other hallmarks of bad 80s movies. John Vernon plays the cop - the overbearing authority figure - who hates the kids of the college town the alien clowns are hunting. In classic horror movie fashion, making out and having fun leads to the demise of the first kids we see.
This movie scared the crap out of me as a kid, in large part because the clowns are immensely creepy. Most of them are taller than the humans. Their faces are ugly, with evil eyes and gross teeth. Accompanying any attack is a heavy metal guitar riff. Every time they capture or kill a human they let out an insidious laugh.
If you think about it logically killer klowns from outer space would obviously just be evil representations of our beloved circus clowns from Earth. As a result the klowns cleverly use clown tools of humor as instruments of death. The main source of destruction is a gun that wraps humans in a cotton candy cocoon. The pink substance decomposes its victim into an edible liquid - apparently the reason the klowns have landed on Earth to begin with. Popcorn guns send out seeds
that grow into hideous biting klown sprouts. My
favorite was the shadow puppets that can actually attack people. A clown car transports an army of klowns. A parade acts as mop up duty through the town. Pies to the face melt human skin. A ball pit captures intruders. The klowns entice the old and young to walk into their demise with their clown-like actions. The only thing that can kill them - including the dinosaur like "end guy" - is a blow to their big red noses.
I remembered a lot of the scenes from when I was a kid. The prison scene where the klown cocoons a couple of prisoners and kills the guard really creeped me out. This may be the most enjoyable "bad movie" I've ever seen. It in no way tries to mask its corniness yet somehow doesn't try to play it up either. It's just the right level of bad to be humorous and fun. |
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88 minutes |
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This product was released around May 1988
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I consumed this around April 2010 |
| More:
Killer Klowns from Outer Space |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 4/13/2010 6:03:24 PM |
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Food, Inc. |
Robert Kenner |
I haven't read Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation but I did read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. Food, Inc. strikes me as the movie version of the combination of the two. It touches on the big themes of each book.
* There's the uncleanly conditions and inhumane treatment of animals that that the meat industry engages in.
* Michael Pollan's theme in the first third of Omnivore's Dilemma was that, rather than a cornucopia, many of the products we eat are actually corn based or corn fed.
* As far back as the 1950s Fast food chains like McDonald's, with its emphasis on efficiency, has driven the industrialization of the food industry.
* Introduced in Pollan's book, uber-organic farmer Joel Salatin makes an appearance to preach against the industrial system.
* The film also looks at the poor treatment of food industry workers, from undocumented manual laborers with few rights in bad working conditions to the owners of farms that sell food to the large companies.
* Like Pollan's book, the film gives a mixed treatment of the organic industry.
Food, Inc. reminded me a lot Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices. At their hearts both are criticisms of the corporate industrial system. One of the things that disappointed me with Walmart was the breadth of topics it touched on. Food Inc didn't feel that cluttered but it did go beyond the topic of food production. Looking at them both now, I see that that was the point. While each filmmaker has his hobby horse - retail, food - what they are attacking is the entire process. You can't attack low prices that drive out competition (or any of the other issues) without tracing the entire chain back to the production lines. You can't talk about unhealthy food without finding out why that's what is produced. This is what it means to be a large company in America. This is how you have to play. Carelessness at one part of the process seems to indicate a propensity to carelessness in general.
Let's look at what the film provides as evidence against the corporate food industry, "from seed to supermarket". All of the companies talked about in this movie - Monsanto Company, Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods, Perdue Farms - declined to be interviewed according to the film makers so we don't get to hear an opposing view.
The industry uses its size and power to influence government policy, regulations, and court decisions. In many cases regulators are former industry men. Major policy favors large producers. Corn subsidies have helped increase corn yields and lead to corn being used as the baseline product in everything from soda to cattle feed to diapers. A cheap, mass-produced all-purpose product fits the industrial system perfectly. Kevin's Law was a bill designed to give the FDA authority to shut down producers who don't meet the FDA's own standards. It was brought to congress after a mother lost her young son to an e coli infection. It never got to a vote thanks to strong lobbying by the industry.
Intellectual property and patent law give larger corporations an advantage over growers. Monsanto owns the patent to a soybean (that alone is something that would perplex many) that is resistant to its own brand of Roundup herbicide. The seed now accounts for 90% of soybeans grown according to the film. Growers, in order to use this seed, must agree not to save the seeds. Monsanto sends out investigators to check on farms and takes legal action against people like Moe Parr, who runs a "seed cleaning" business. Start up legal fees are enormous.
The companies have fought against giving customers more information about their food via labeling standards for things like health content, genetically modified content, and organic production. This is another one of the main themes of the film. The corporate system is hiding information - the food production process, food content - from the customer in order to better control the system. Food is not grown on a farm by a farmer, it is manufactured in a factory (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs)with help from a lab under the direction of a board room. Monsanto controls 90% of the soybean seeds in America. Four companies today control the majority of the beef industry, chicken industry, more and more of the pork industry. Even the crunchier organic industry has become suspect. Once a smaller industry run by idealists, it is now being bought up by large food conglomerates. How much longer can previously organic companies sustain good environmental practices when they are run by large corporations trying to get their products into Walmart stores?
One of the scariest parts of the movie was when the film makers described so called "veggie libel laws" or "cheeseburger rules" that make it easier to sue for "disparaging food". Oprah Winfrey was sued under such laws by Texas cattle ranchers. According to the film, in some states laws have been proposed to make it illegal to take photos of a CAFO.
Workers have little control over their work. Manual laborers work in poor conditions often because they are illegal immigrants. They cannot complain or
unionize because they have no rights in this country. Farmers who sell to the large companies are in deep debt as they try to meet requirements for
growers. If they don't meet demands they get dropped.
Of course with any industrial system it all comes back to petroleum. "We eat a lot of oil", states one interviewee.
The end is a call to action. The two major regulatory agencies that control the food industry, the FDA and the USDA, work for you. Most importantly, you have a vote in what you buy. |
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94 minutes |
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This product was released around June 2008
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I consumed this around April 2010 |
| More:
Food, Inc. |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 4/10/2010 11:18:26 AM |
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The Darjeeling Unlimited |
Wes Anderson |
Anyone who has watched one of Wes Anderson's films
knows he has a distinctive style. Most of his films
(maybe not Bottlerocket) have the same
brightly colored, ornate style. This story is a
vehicle to apply his style in India rather than the
United States. The scenery is, as always, beautiful
even if its style is familiar. Unfortunately I think the scenery does too much heavy lifting in this somewhat slow, maybe meandering, film.
Francis (Owen Wilson) ropes his brothers, Peter
(Adrien Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman), into a
cross country train trip through India in an attempt
to regain a past - or maybe build - kinship with
them. He tries to control everything, going so far
as to have an assistant create a daily itinerary for
the group. We learn later that his actions -
ordering food for his brothers at a table, making
everyone agree on tasks and rules - mirror those of
his mother (Anjelica Huston). I have to think his
quest is a way to get past emotional scars from his
father. It's tough not to see the dual nature of
Francis' statement "I guess I still have some more
healing to do" while he's looking at the literal
scars on his skull that are bandaged over for most
of the film. "The past is over", his mother pleads,
to which he replies "Not for us." Until that point
Peter probably doesn't realize what he is holding
onto. He's the one toting dad's glasses, car keys,
and razor - few of those possessions hold any value
on his trip. It is not until the end when they toss
their literal and figurative baggage to the side can
they embark on a new, again, literal and figurative
journey.
Francis bills it as a spiritual journey, treating
India as some sort of magical land. Anderson
employs a kind of hipster spiritualism. There is
heart in it but when taken too seriously - by the
audience or Anderson - it comes off as phony. The
trio encounters many minor Indian characters along
the way. "I love these people", Francis remarks.
Like the crowded Indian city or the sparse country,
the people are just another piece of scenery in
Anderson's movie. They fit in well with the
background he has created but have little depth. This is a story about three brothers on an adventure. Everything else - the women, the train staff - is part of the background.
Schwartzman and Wilson are veterans of Anderson's
films. So is Bill Murray, who makes a brief
inside-joke like appearance. |
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91 minutes |
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This product was released around October 2007
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I consumed this around April 2010 |
| More:
The Darjeeling Unlimited |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 4/1/2010 7:37:29 PM |
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Monsters vs Aliens |
Rob Letterman |
Monsters vs Aliens tried a little too hard. The animated film alternated between action scene and attempted jokes, often melding the two. The computer representations were a little less clean than predecessors like The Incredibles or Monsters, Inc.. The human eyes were way too big and the movements were just off enough to be noticeable. Behind the somewhat odd animations was some serious acting talent - Reese Witherspoon as the recently transformed monster, Ginormica; Seth Rogan as B.O.B. the big blob; Hugh Laurie as mad scientist Dr. Cockroach Ph.D.; Will Arnett as The Missing Link; Kiefer Sutherland as General W.R. Monger (get it, War Monger); Rainn Wilson as the evil alien Gallaxhar; and Stephen Colbert kind of self indulgently as President Hathaway.
There was a lot of action so the movie was visually pleasing and the jokes weren't so much bad as they were excessive. There wasn't any let up. You didn't get a chance to know the characters because every line was a joke followed by an action scene. Sure it's a cartoon but what has made this genre so good is that there's good writing behind stellar animation. Monsters vs Aliens doesn't really have that. |
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94 minutes |
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This product was released around March 2009
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I consumed this around March 2010 |
| More:
Monsters vs Aliens |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 3/21/2010 5:56:40 PM |
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MST3K - The Starfighters |
Will Zens |
This movie falls into the category of a movie so bad that it becomes hard to riff on. Manos: The Hands of Fate comes to mind. There's a low density of riffs early in the movie. Extensive and painful scenes showing take offs, refueling, and training pervade the movie. Mike and the bots exhaust all possible sexual innuendo riffs on the refueling, and then have extra refueling scenes to discuss their exhausting of the jokes. "Welcome to minute six of the refueling scene", sums up that aspect of the movie. Overall, "We're at the point where something's got to happen", sums up the entire movie. One riffer remarks that they've seen more nothing than in any other movie.
A water survival suit is called a "poopie suit" in the movie (this isn't a made up term, by the way). The crew has an easy time with that for the rest of the movie.
The best riff of the movie is when an instructor shows a model of a starfighter. Mike or a bot quips "get in". In The Simpsons Monty Burns made this same joke in "$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)".
Segments:
- Crow fails to get onto the information superhighway.
- Crow is waiting for tech support. Mike and the bots introduce "red hot ricochet barbeque sauce" while the bosses invent ports that connect their minds.
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Servo refuels Crow like the aircraft in the movie. Crow misses tech support picking up the phone.
- Servo and Crow "debrief" Mike.
- Servo directs the United Servo Academy Men's Chorus.
- Crow finally logs onto the internet. Mike reads a letter.
(model) this is the starfigher...get in
This movie falls into the category of a movie so bad that it becomes hard to riff on. Manos: The Hands of Fate comes to mind. There's a low density of riffs early in the movie. Extensive and painful scenes showing take offs, refueling, and training pervade the movie. Mike and the bots exhaust all possible sexual innuendo riffs on the refueling, and then have extra refueling scenes to discuss their exhausting of the jokes. "Welcome to minute six of the refueling scene", sums up that aspect of the movie. Overall, "We're at the point where something's got to happen", sums up the entire movie. One riffer remarks that they've seen more nothing than in any other movie.
A water survival suit is called a "poopie suit" in the movie (this isn't a made up term, by the way). The crew has an easy time with that for the rest of the movie.
The best riff of the movie is when an instructor shows a model of a starfighter. Mike or a bot quips "get in". In The Simpsons Monty Burns made this same joke in "$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)".
Segments:
- Crow fails to get onto the information superhighway.
- Crow is waiting for tech support. Mike and the bots introduce "red hot ricochet barbeque sauce" while the bosses invent ports that connect their minds.
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Servo refuels Crow like the aircraft in the movie. Crow misses tech support picking up the phone.
- Servo and Crow "debrief" Mike.
- Servo directs the United Servo Academy Men's Chorus.
- Crow finally logs onto the internet. Mike reads a letter.
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2 hours |
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This product was released around 1964
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I consumed this around January 2010 |
| More:
MST3K - The Starfighters |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 2/3/2010 5:43:42 PM |
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MST3K - Monster A-Go Go |
Herschell Gordon Lewis |
It must be the voice overs that are so easy for the crew to mock but shorts are always the best parts of MST3K episodes. This one had "Circus on Ice". Just to start off they claim the skaters will haunt their dreams, compare them to Satan, call them "sexist male fantasies on ice". Then there's the line "there's nothing sadder than a gut shot fawn" when the skaters are chasing a "fawn". Ferries and a dragon round out a very enjoyable short.
In the movie, a space capsule crashes to Earth and the astronaut is presumed dead. A government official avoids telling the family.
The sound is bad; often we have to guess what is being said. Bad lighting ranges from too much light that obscures faces to too little light obscuring characters. The terrible flow is typified by a long boring walk through a field. We barely see the monster. Scientists and army soldiers are easy fodder. They sneak in a Wings joke. They riff on "the worst dramatic asbestos suit ever" and workers bumbling about with nuclear radiation.
And, of course, the ending is just dumb.
Segments:
- The bots are making cheese.
- The bosses declare the invention exchange to be a contest to determine what the next movie will be. The bosses develop a component kit for actions figures (in order to make more money). Joel and the bots come up with non-violent actions figures. Gypsy's is Wilma Rudolph, Crow's is a tapeworm.
- Gypsy doesn't understand Crow. Then she doesn't understand Servo.
- Joel and Servo play keep away from Crow.
- Joel explains the pina colada song.
- In order to boost spirits after a terrible movie Joel crowns Servo the Happy King and crow Sir Giggles. It doesn't work.
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2 hours |
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This product was released around 1965
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I consumed this around January 2010 |
| More:
MST3K - Monster A-Go Go |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 2/2/2010 6:32:03 PM |
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MST3K - Secret Agent Super Dragon |
Giorgio Ferroni |
There's no real discernible plot in this movie until about an hour into it.
The opening credit riffs were good as they usually are on MST3K. The protagonist's deep voice is a consistent source of ridicule. Chewing gum is a running gag. At one point there is an extremely bad cut that is easily demolished. The super agent's sidekick is likened to a "white trash Q", referencing Bond flicks. Joel and the bots note that no one knows when to stop decorating the rooms in the movie. "Gotta drain the super dragon" when Super Dragon goes to the men's room. Part of the movie takes place in Holland and, of course, the scenes overdo the local culture to the delight of the crew. After seeing windmills someone riffs "we are so incredibly in Holland". There's a Sonny Corleone reference at a toll booth that comes right after "do you have any talent to declare". "Dead side manner" was an excellent pun. A character uses the phrase "teach him some manners" and the crew then lists off some manners.
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The bots build a robot that only utters one phrase.
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Invention exchange:
Bosses: Virtual reality stand up comedy by
Frank. Dr. Forrestor returns and throws a wrench
in his bit.
Joel and the bots: Micro-golf you play with a microscope. This was one of the best inventions I've seen on MST3K.
- Secret agent Super Dragon Jazz. Joel improvises.
- Crow develops a spy movie to reflect 90s sensibilities. It's all feelings; Servo hates it.
- Joel explains to crow how the cool spies in spy movies learn their puns.
- The bosses are on a super villain conference call discussing why the movie's super villain failed.
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2 hours |
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This product was released around 1966
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I consumed this around January 2010 |
| More:
MST3K - Secret Agent Super Dragon |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 2/2/2010 6:26:46 PM |
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The Rebel Set |
Gene Fowler Jr. |
The bosses start Joel and the bots off with a short, "Johnny at the Fair" (a new band from Seattle, one of the riffers quips). Shorts are always a lot of fun. The voice over is almost constantly a source for hilarious riffs. In the short there is a missing kid and lame exhibits that are easy targets. I wonder if producers of these short knew that they were making them for the enjoyment of future generations.
The protagonist from "Giant Gila Monster" is one of the three struggling actors enlisted by a criminal mastermind to steal a million dollars from an armored truck. There are lots of good beatnik jokes. There is a Merritt Stone running gag that I didn't really get. One of the criminals' wife is pretty dimwitted giving the crew another good target in the few scenes she was in. There's also a pretty goofy chase scene between that same criminal and the mastermind of the heist. I was a little disappointed that Joel and the bots did not demolish the fact that a fake suicide note was typewritten.
Segments:
Joel is reading horror bedtime stories.
In the invention exchange the bosses create an on the go self grooming kit (that you hang around the neck of the person in front of you at the line for the movies) while Joel and the bots come up with an abstract art paint by numbers kit (there example has only one number for the single color painting).
Joel and the bots get acting lessons on record via the mail.
Later Joel and the bots ponder what they would do in Chicago. Servo would rob a bank. Crow bores everyone with his plan.
In the final segment they read letters while Tom imitates a great detective trying to find out the mystery of Merritt Stone. The mystery then confounds TV's Frank. |
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2 hours |
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This product was released around 1959
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I consumed this around January 2010 |
| More:
The Rebel Set |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/6/2010 5:34:39 PM |
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MST3K - The Giant Gila Monster |
Ray Kellogg |
Early on there were a lot of references I didn't get. The riffing got better in the last half hour when you saw more of the monster, a giant gila monster. There's ton of bad acting and special effects. The protagonist is a little too perfect. He's buddy buddy with the sherif, takes care of his mom and disabled sister, and he's apparently a great singer/banjo player worthy of a record deal. There's an overacted drunk and a barn dance which are worthy of solid riffs.
The bad special effects revolve around the giant gila monster. A good MST3K episode almost always needs a good monster. Shots of the gila monster are obviously a live gila monster, meaning it's obvious that it's really small. The scenes that cut to the lizard have no relation to where the characters are. But we love the monster (who the bots voice in a gruff New Yorker accent). The best riff of the show is "they killed off the only likable character" when the gila monster dies. He's the only non-actor. He didn't ask to be in the movie and he puts forth the best acting of anyone.
Other solid riffs include an Ed McMahon joke, a "phoning in his lines" joke when someone was on the phone, riffing on the opening fonts, an Abbott & Costello gag, "Hava Na Giant gila monster" song, a Pace salsa reference, and annoyance at unintelligible English.
Segments:
Crow and Tom Servo are heads on the same
body. They decide they are the "Odd
Couple".
Invention exchange: The bosses show their Renaissance Fair punching bags. Joel and the bots have a radio that only plays old movies.
Joel has set up a teen dance place type thing like the movie. The bots make fun of it.
Joel and the bots create drinks based on famous drunks.
Servo, in his segment "Servo on Cinema", explains director Ray Kellogg's poor use of "blocking" (position actor's bodies) in the movie. They put together a hilarious mashup of "knee up" scenes.
Joel and the bots are in a lizard themed band. They realize it's the same thing they did in a previous show. Then they read letters. |
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2 hours |
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This product was released around 1992
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I consumed this around January 2010 |
| More:
MST3K - The Giant Gila Monster |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/5/2010 6:29:31 PM |
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Solaris |
Steven Soderbergh |
Steven Soderbergh's 2002 adaptation of Stanislaw Lem's Solaris breaks from both the novel as well as Andrei Tarkovsky's 1972 remake in several respects. From a plot perspective, yes, the movie stays on course. Other aspects such as the details of the plot, the characters, their interactions, motives, and even names and are updated. Because Soderbergh didn't indulge in too much revision I don't think it had a negative effect on the book as it related to the novel.
In terms of style it is clear that this version is a sharp departure from its predecessor. Right from the beginning with its quick camera cuts you know you're in for something different. The mood is darker with less of a curious feel. George Clooney as Kelvin doesn't seem to be wandering around the ship. Though the ship is all stainless steel it still feels more familiar. Above all there is an abundance of dialog that, while not rapid fire, is volleyed at a healthy clip. The reactions of the characters are similar, though they depart in some ways and feel much more real and immediate than both precursors. Gordon (Viola Davis), Snow (Jeremy Davies), and Gibarian (Ulrich Tukur) added much more to this film than their counterparts did in 1972. We also get more from Rheya (Natascha McElhone). She understands her situation better. There's more interaction with her character from Kelvin as well. In the novel and in 1972 she is almost a prop. Though the interpretation has its own upside of adding a well acted part to the movie it was probably necessary to beef up her part for a modern American audience anyway. She needed to be more than a puppet even though that's what she really is.
The 2002 version focuses a lot more on Kelvin trying to make up for his mistakes with Rheya. "Everything we've done is forgiven", Rheya eerily tells Kelvin in one of the final scenes. That's what makes it so hard for Kelvin to handle Solaris. The novel is mostly about the communication with alien life because it's a science fiction novel. The 1972 film deals more with Kelvin's personal struggle but in that case Kelvin isn't trying to set things right as much as Kelvin is in 2002.
Like the 1972 film there is a twist ending. An added bonus is a kind of added twist on top of that. I liked both plot developments. |
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99 minutes |
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This product was released around 2002
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I consumed this around November 2009 |
| More:
Solaris |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/1/2010 7:35:48 PM |
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Solaris |
Andrei Tarkovsky |
More than Lem's novel Andrei Tarkovsky's adaptation of Solaris focuses on the personal story of Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis). Kelvin's struggles with the memories of his wife's (Natalya Bondarchuk) suicide are the main aspect of the film rather than the living ocean of the planet Solaris that is causing Hari's manifestation.
The movie is slow and long. It's clearly a different style of movie than an American audience is accustomed to. The dialog, in Russian with English subtitles, is sparse. A lot of time is spent on things like reaction or travel, things that have long ago been cut out of American film.
It's a tough movie to watch though it does have its merits from an artistic standpoint. At nearly three hours it's debatable whether the somewhat freaky twist ending is worth the wait. |
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165 minutes |
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This product was released around 1972
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I consumed this around November 2009 |
| More:
Solaris |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/1/2010 7:10:37 PM |
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Network |
Sidney Lumet |
Not having been alive in 1976 I don't know whether Network was prescient or just hitching onto a rising tide. The film is a harangue about the
television industry. Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) is the personification of the shallow drive for profit that runs - ruins - the industry. She uses
Howard Beale (Peter Finch), a washed out newscaster, for ratings. The issues involved, Beale's cause, are nothing to the network though. They are using his
rage - and a fine rage it is. It is some of the best incoherent indignation that has ever been written. When Beale comes in out of the rain and starts his
classic speech I realized that this was the moment I had heard bits and pieces of throughout the years though had never heard it all. I could feel it build,
knowing it was a classic piece of film but also - and more importantly - feeling how powerful it was.
I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar
buys a nickel's worth. Banks are going bust. Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there’s no one anywhere that
seems to know what to do with us. Now into it. We know the air is unfit to breathe, our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local
newscaster tells us that today we had 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad. Worse than bad.
They're crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy so we don’t go out anymore. We sit in a house as slowly the world we’re living in is getting
smaller and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster, and TV, and my steel belted radials and I won't say
anything." Well I'm not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad. I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don’t want you to write to
your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the
crying in the streets. All I know is first you’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to say, "I'm a human being. God Dammit, my life has value." So, I want you to
get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out, and yell,
"I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!" I want you to get up right now. Get up. Go to your windows, open your windows, and stick your
head out, and yell, "I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!" Things have got to change my friends. You’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to
say, "I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!" Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis.
But first get up out of your chairs, open your window, stick your head out and yell, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!
It's all over the place. It's terribly illogical. When it comes to a crisis Beale is the guy who would lead you to the worst possible solution. Still, the
speech is fixating.
Eventually they can't control Beale. They can't because they're not really in on what he's preaching. Since they are just using him they really have no idea
where he's going. Eventually he turns on them in another great speech. Beale, since his initial conversion from newsman to pundit, strattles the intersection
between mad man, a con man who knew his time was up if he didn't pull off a scam, and a man legitimately fed up with the system.
Edward George Ruddy died today! Edward George Ruddy was the Chairman of the Board of the Union Broadcasting Systems, and he died at eleven o'clock this
morning of a heart condition, and woe is us! We're in a lot of trouble!
So. A rich little man with white hair died. What has that got to do with the price of rice, right? And *why* is that woe to us? Because you people, and
sixty-two million other Americans, are listening to me right now. Because less than three percent of you people read books! Because less than fifteen percent
of you read newspapers! Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube. Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew
anything that didn't come out of this tube! This tube is the Gospel, the ultimate revelation. This tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers…
This tube is the most awesome God-damned force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls in to the hands of the wrong people, and that's why
woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. Because this company is now in the hands of CCA — the Communication Corporation of America. There's a new Chairman
of the Board, a man called Frank Hackett, sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the twentieth floor. And when the twelfth largest company in the world controls
the most awesome God-damned propoganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this network?
So, you listen to me. Listen to me: Television is not the truth! Television is a God-damned amusement park! Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling
troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, side-show freaks, lion tamers, and football players. We're in the boredom-killing business! So
if you want the truth… Go to God! Go to your gurus! Go to yourselves! Because that's the only place you're ever going to find any real truth.
Howard Beale: [laughing to himself] But, man, you're never going to get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you want to hear; we lie like hell. We'll
tell you that, uh, Kojak always gets the killer, or that nobody ever gets cancer at Archie Bunker's house, and no matter how much trouble the hero is in,
don't worry, just look at your watch; at the end of the hour he's going to win. We'll tell you any shit you want to hear. We deal in *illusions*, man! None
of it is true! But you people sit there, day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds… We're all you know. You're beginning to believe the
illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to think that the tube is reality, and that your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you!
You dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even *think* like the tube! This is mass madness, you maniacs! In
God's name, you people are the real thing! *WE* are the illusion! So turn off your television sets. Turn them off now. Turn them off right now. Turn them off
and leave them off! Turn them off right in the middle of the sentence I'm speaking to you now! TURN THEM OFF…
That in itself doesn't stop the network from riding his anger. Beale is just a springboard for Christensen to go a little further with a whole suite of
extreme programming. Next she starts using a violent Communist terrorist group for more ratings. The politics of anger and violence sell so they get air
time. Integrity doesn't. The news department never made money. It was always subsidized. The large conglomerate that owns the "UBS" network cares not about
journalistic integrity and the public good that comes out of reporting. It doesn't even care that Beale is trashing the medium of television. It wants money.
As CEO Arthur Jensen (in a "hey, isn't that Ned Beatty" role) puts it in the final rivetting movie monologue in Network:
You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it!! Is that clear?! You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is
not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is
ecological balance!
You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There
are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate,
multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels.
It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the
atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!
Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?
You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT
and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.
What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision
theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.
We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of
business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect
world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality -- one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common
profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.
And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel.
In the end the network can't really control Howard Beale or the "Ecumenical Liberation Army" so they turn them against each other. Destruction begets
destruction which is eventually controlled with more destruction. When watched today it obviously works better as a specific attack on cable "news" stations
that play hours and hours of angry editorializing pundits. |
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121 minutes |
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This product was released around January 1977
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I consumed this around November 2009 |
| More:
Network |
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Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 11/30/2009 7:54:43 PM |
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