Backlog Update

There will be some new reviews coming shortly.

A collection of one sentence reviews

I've got a little backlog of films going on. Instead of laboring through reviews of each, I've decided to give just a few thoughts on each of them.

Momma's Man (Azazel Jacobs, 2008) [7]
A man at mid-life crisis decides to skirt all responsibilities and move back home. It's certainly more interesting when your parents are avant-garde luminaries like Ken Jacobs. Still, the younger Jacobs has some nice moments when dealing with how being a child never really leaves us at all.

Wilco: Ashes of American Flags (Brendan Canty, 2008) [6]
The live performances show a unit operating at peak potential. Beyond being a serviceable concert film, there's little intrigue or anything of interest.

Hollywoodland (Allen Coulter, 2006) [5]
A good noir story about the possibilities of the death of George Reeves gets bogged down with a similar story involving a down on his luck P.I. (Adrien Brody). The most interesting elements of the film revolve not so much in the characters' stories but in the subtle examinations of how classic Hollywood worked.

Fillmore: The Last Days (I can't remember, 1972) [6]
A clear knock-off in style from Woodstock, the performances by the likes of the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and a band called Lamb are good. The negative is that it's basically a puff piece for Bill Graham and his ego. Graham is a great guy in terms of building a musical empire but there's always been something about the guy that I've never really liked.

On Not Going to Bonnaroo and the Redemptive Qualities of the Hold Steady

This past weekend I was supposed to be at Bonnaroo. I had a ticket, had a flight booked and had all my stuff ready to go. Then I looked at the weather for the weekend and had a massive anxiety attack. The threat of being stuck in just a tent with the threat of severe thunderstorms did me in. So, in a nutshell, instead of enjoying the relatively nice weekend in Tennessee, I threw away a couple of hundred dollars over basically nothing.

The whole weekend wasn't lost however, as the Hold Steady came to Ithaca last night. One of the only regrets I had about going to Bonnaroo was that I was going to miss this show. I'm kind of glad things worked out the way they did because seeing the Hold Steady in a small, intimate venue is one of the great concert experiences I've ever had. This is a band that is meant to be seen in a cramped, sweaty space with as many people as possible crammed into the place. Simply put, it was a great show. Both times I have seem them, there's no lack of enthusiasm in what The Hold Steady does and it clearly rubs off on the audience. It was rowdy, there was a lot of beer, a lot of fist pumping, a lot of singing along: all what a great rock & roll show should do. While the Hold Steady may not be the most popular band out there, I'm hard pressed to find a band that has such a intense, die hard following among the people that really care about them. They're a band with no real middle ground, either you really love them or you don't care for them. And from I saw in Ithaca, just about everybody there was there because they really love the music and not just there because a somewhat well-known band was in town.

There are certain groups or bands that make you believe that rock & roll means something more than just simple entertainment. For me, The Hold Steady is band that is all in and believe in what they do, that maybe rock & roll can save your soul. I want to thank them for making my weekend.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (David Fincher, 2008) [7]

I have no real reason to like this film but ultimately, I do. It's a visually exceptional piece of work, proving that David Fincher is a fantastic technical director. The pristine cinematography and seamless, lifelike special effects give the film a visual flair that is impressive. I have found that while Fincher' films are stylistically accomplished, they still manage to come off sterile and a little cold. It works in something like Zodiac, where a stringent mathematical obsession is a main theme of the film. In TCCoBB, story definitely lags behind visuals. A lot of comparisons to Benjamin's story have been made to Forrest Gump and they're true. The screenplay deals a lot with the generalities of life and death, living and loving, without anything really exceptional or interesting to say about them. Benjamin Button(Brad Pitt) was born an old man, he ages backwardly, he meets Daisy (Cate Blanchett), they drift apart and meet again over the years, time drags on, and they both die: that's about the entire story. There's nothing really meaningful to get out of Benjamin's experiences or his relationship with Daisy. He, Gumplike, weaves in and out of situations in life, and the viewer is expected to believe all of his highly implausible life experiences as uplifting and life-affirming. It's a way of extracting emotions at the benefit of any actual real character or story development.

The question is, if why can I see through the film's glaring holes, why do I still like it? A lot of this has to do with Fincher's visual mastery. There are so many finely crafted moments, from the little lightning vignettes down to the way New Orleans streets look, that make the world surrounding these characters so vibrant and believable despite what the characters make you believe. The other main attribute to the film are the performances. I may not like how they're drawn but the charisma in the performances of Pitt, Blanchett, and especially Taraji P. Henson as Benjamin's mother sucker me in. Pitt really achieves something more than I expected as he gives Benjamin a melancholy that permeates his flashy adventures. He is a much better actor than what I had given him credit for. I may not agree on the meaning of the story but the performance of those characters makes up for it. After all, I have many of the same issues with Forrest Gump, yet it still sucks me in and I enjoy watching it. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button works on me for the same inexplicable reasons.

Let the Right One In

Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008) [5]

I really don't like horror movies. You've got to something extra ordinary to get me to really get over this. Let the Right One In almost does this in regards to atmosphere but ends up failing in the plot department. Alfredson blends genres here, a vampire film that could also be about pubescent outcasts with enough gore to give the people who frequent Dark Horizons a kick. Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) is a lonely 12 year old, bullied at school and a fractious home life in dismal early 80s Sweden. He meets Eli (Lina Leandersson), another social outcast with a good reason for her isolation, she's a vampire. The two actually a fairly good job in their performances and their relationship story is fairly well done. The problem here comes from the other genre playing against Oskar and Eli's relationship. The horror/vampire aspect of the story falls into a such a standard (or absurd depending how you look at it) plotline that it really kills the film for me. It's a shame because the film is much more an examination of how terrible being a kid can be. But for me, the gore and the vampire angle don't mean much. The film could have been just as good if Eli was a regular girl and not a vampire. Alfredson does a good job in the first half of the film injecting it with a dark moodiness that exploits the white, expressionless landscape Oskar inhabits. The second half of the film moves away from those visual strengths and more into a standard narrative that wrecks the atmospheric flourishes that made the film seem somewhat promising. Let the Right One In may a nice horror film but I am someone who wouldn't really care if that was the case.

Frost/Nixon

Frost/Nixon (Ron Howard, 2008) [5]

Having just read Rick Perlstein's sprawling yet engrossing Nixonland, it's really hard to garner any sympathy for Richard Nixon. So, seeing a film that paints a conflicting, humanizing picture of Nixon is not going to work for me. Frost/Nixon more problems than just it's portrayal of Richard Nixon. It hamstrung by Ron Howard's pedestrian direction and a story that add no more insight than history has already told. The film attempts to dramatize the events that led to the David Frost/Richard Nixon to a point that almost makes them ridiculous. Frost is portrayed a lightweight celebrity that also has to somehow overcome all this adversity just to get the interviews. Then, in the only way he becomes serious about it is when Nixon yanks him around for entire first interview session. It's all meant to create drama and tension to the big payoff, when Frost gets some sort of mild apology out of Nixon for his role in Watergate. It all may have been interesting but the way its framed and the way Howard film it give it nothing more than the feel of the standard Hollywood prestige picture. This bleeds into the phone conversation sequence between the two men in between interviews. A lot of the emotion in the scene seems honest, as one of the key points of Perlstein's book was Nixon's constant inferiority/hatred towards those he deemed more fortunate or privileged than him. The problem with it filmically is that it is too much of a plot manipulation piece, a scene there just to give Frost an opportunity to find an opening in Nixon. As a examination of Nixon's character it fits but it's too stagy for a film. Aside from that scene, Frank Langella's performance is the only aspect that I could mildly recommend out of this film. And there hasn't been a more overrated director maybe in history than Ron Howard. If you want maudlin portrayals of history, he's your guy.

Wendy and Lucy

Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt, 2008) [8]

Once again, Reichardt has created another insightful, minimalist neo-realist film full of subtle moments that tell a lot more than they show. Instead of the male bonding metapyshics of Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy is on the surface a simpler tale of a woman and her dog. Michelle Williams plays Wendy, a young woman on her way to a cannery job in Alaska on a shoestring budget, travelling only with her dog Lucy. While in Oregon, a series of events occur to her that push her to her breaking point: getting arrested for shoplifting, having her car break down, and losing her dog. Williams handles all this is in a supremely subtle yet affecting way. The increasing complications of her predicament seem to put her in a state of a near breakdown but Williams plays Wendy with a inward stoicism that won't allow her. It creates a performance that allows the viewer to empathize while never being emotionally manipulative. This is especially true of the ending, which is emotional but never pulls emotional strings the way a Hollywood film would have. It's the strength of Williams's performance as well as the film's simple yet effective scenes that make this a profound film.

Some reviews have brought up the sociopolicial commentary of the film and just who Wendy is. The only questionable point I have with the film is this. Much is never told of who exactly Wendy is and why she is going to Alaska. On the surface, it appears that Wendy is a drifter, attempting to scrape by on her way to a better job, sleeping in her car with her dog and getting every penny out of her meager funds. The film has an undercurrent of showing a different side of America, of people at the bottom end of the economic ladder. The film is full of moments with other characters barely scraping by, especially the moments with Wendy and the security guard (Walter Dalton), a guy doing a thankless job because it's all he can get. And yet there are points of Wendy's character that don't fit this paradigm. From her wardrobe to her meticulous planning to the phone conversation with her family back home, there's this idea within me that makes Wendy a dropout more than a drifter. More than being stuck on the bottom rung of the ladder, Wendy seems to have placed herself there by choice. I'm not sure if that's completely clear, but it creates this conflict of authenticity in her character. I guess the point would be does this hamstring the film? When all's said and done, not that much. Wendy and Lucy's strengths far outnumber one somewhat minor point of contention.

They Were What I Thought They Were

Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle, 2008) [3]/ The Reader (Stephen Daldrey, 2008) [4]

It's been a while since I've posted anything any reviews, mostly on the account of my trip to Las Vegas. My feelings on both of these are about the same: I had an inkling before viewing them that I wasn't going to care for them much and I was pretty much correct.

I don't get all the hype surrounding Slumdog Millionaire. I don't care for Boyle's directing style, so strike one. As for the story, it is a series of contrivances that are in complete service to the game show element of the plot. Jamal's backstory is there for no other reason to be able to use the story of a slum kid overcoming his past for success. The film has no real insight or critique of poverty in India. The film is shot and seen through a postcard, touristy prism of India. For me, there seems to be a disconnect from the portrayal of Jamal's impoverished upbringing and the fairy-tale nature of the story. The film has the disguise of a social drama but it never really wants to dwell on the bad stuff. And that the film falls back into its pre-destined, feel good ending, bread and butter for a mainstream American audience, completely turns me off.

The Reader isn't that much better as it takes its important issues and smooths the edges out for the audience. The problem here is that the film is about a lot of issues: the Holocaust, sexuality, German guilt, power are mentioned but never really examined that deeply. There is the issue of believability, not in the story, but in the characters, who never create any empathy with the audience. They're fairly wooden performances actually, even for stoic German characters. Daldry keeps the chronology moving on a consistent basis but in doing so, he ends up sweeping moments away that could have benefited from closer examination. The film would have worked much better as a deeper examination of German guilt. The film tries to be too many films for too many people to have an effective impact. That, and it really ended up being a boring film.

A Few Words About Scrubs

As I've said before, I don't watch much t.v. but one of the shows I've never missed is Scrubs, which had its possible series finale last night. During its first season, I accidentally stumbled into the show and it has become my favorite program over its last eight seasons. The show was completely mistreated by NBC with changing days, time slots, or take off the schedule altogether. Thankfully, ABC stepped in for this season and with constant play in syndication or Comedy Central, it earned a respectful finale.

No matter how much I like the show, it's been obvious over the past two or three seasons that the show is struggling to stay consistent. First it fell into the standard sitcom traps of babies and marriage, one of the main reasons why I hate most sitcoms. Plots also got to ridiculous or fantastical (the season finale from season 7) or characters that really made no sense (Hooch) or ones that I simply hated (Lloyd the delivery guy). The first part of this season saw a return to past strengths, blending smarter jokes and the pathos of everyday reality in a hospital, what endeared me to the show in the first place. The past few episodes, aside of Neil Flynn's riffs as the Janitor (he has been unbelievable), it seemed the right time to end the show.

Last night's finale was what I've come to expect out of latter-day Scrubs: some good janitor moments and jokes but overall underwhelming as a whole (and a great song selection, "Book of Love", a Magnetic Fields cover by Peter Gabriel). The end treads into sentimental remembrances and bringing back old characters, traditional television finale territory. And yet the actors and creator Bill Lawrence don't make it feel schmaltzy even though it followed all the standard Scrubs cues. It was a finale that never really finalized that much. These characters will still be moving on in their lives. The show just happens to be stopping in a certain point in the timeline. There were no weddings, no twists, no more new babies, no feeling of clear resolution. Now some of this leaves the door open to the show coming back next year in a modified form, something ABC hasn't ruled out. But I think it's best to allow Scrubs to go out now, to keep it in my mind a show that was well worth my time.

Happy-Go-Lucky

Happy Go Lucky (Mike Leigh, 2008) [5]

I guess there are two ways to look at Happy Go Lucky. One would be to look at the film and its main character, Poppy, as a refreshing breath of cheerful optimism in a world overrun with dour, depressing news. The other way, in which I see the film, is that Poppy is such a grating character that it overrides any other feelings I have about the film. Her constant jabbering and bubbly persona aren't quite my favorite qualities in people or characters. My unlike for her hangs over everything that it's all that remains after the film is over. It's a bit of a shame because Sally Hawkins really does a great job, and her character is a nuanced character, not just a one-dimensional chatterbox that my earlier statements make it sound like. The other issue that plagues the film is Leigh rigs the film to create a conflict of characters. As Poppy is cheerful and talkative, Scott the driving instructor is dark, conspiratorial, and prone to fits of range. He role as a right-wing fanatical nut job who misunderstands the entirety of his relationship with Poppy is the crux of the film. I find it too highly contrived and constructed to meet the purpose it does. Again, it's a shame because there are plenty of moments where Leigh takes his time to examine these characters' lives. It those quieter moments, in that they don't revolve around Poppy and Scott's conversations, that work best. They just aren't enough to make the film any more tolerable for me.

Listening Post - April 2009

This will kind of serve as an updated listening post/live music review section of the month. Some interesting new releases so let's get them out of the way:

The Felice Brothers - Yonder is the Clock
Bonnie Prince Billy - Beware
Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels
Gomez - A New Tide
Woods - Songs of Shame

Even with the demise of Binghamton's only major music venue, The Magic City Music Hall, there has still been a surprising amount of good shows in the vicinity in the past few months. One of the highlights of the past month was the Gomez/Josh Ritter show in Ithaca. This may be biased since I'm a big Josh Ritter fan, but his set was one of the most enjoyable live music experiences I've had in a while. The show was switched to a smaller venue in Ithaca, The Haunt, and all I can say is thank you Upstate New York for the lack of general interest. All that resulted was an enthusiastic crowd in an intimate venue that made the night. Gomez, while formidable, really lacked in punch compared to the enthusiastic Ritter. Here's hoping Josh makes a stop in Ithaca or someplace nearby sometime soon.

The next week or so brings a slew of interesting shows to the area back to back to back. April 20 has Neko Case in Ithaca, the 21st has the Felice Brothers in Ithaca, and the 22nd has the Dead bringing it to Wilkes-Barre. Probably won't be heading to Ithaca but early word and listening on the Dead tour shows some promise. More on that later...

Pineapple Express

Pineapple Express (David Gordon Green, 2008) [4]

If this was just a little bit tongue in cheek in regards to its action sequences, I might be able to get behind it. Instead, what starts out as a fairly funny film tuns into a big, violent, pointless mess that wouldn't seem out of place in something produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Clearly, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are using the spectacular action feature as their basis but adding nothing more than having pothead protagonists. If there was some bite behind their structure, something that Trey Parker & Matt Stone do so well, it would actually be a good film instead of some funny moments in a forgettable waste. This is not to say this is a total waste however. The two strongest elements of the film are David Gordon Green's direction, which has some sly allusions to B-movie production and James Franco's performance. Franco plays a character with nuance and vulnerability, a drug dealer who loves his bubbe and wants to be a civil engineer. Rogen's character, on the other hand, is just another in the long line of loud man-children with type A personalities that I've had enough of in Apatow productions. I mean, there are laughs with these two in straightforward pot humor (look how high these morons are) but I almost feel ashamed that I would actually laugh at some of these antics. When the film moves towards its cataclysmic orgy of violence at the end, it would be hard to believe this was actually a comedy at some point. Considering who was involved, Pineapple Express comes as a disappointment. But after looking back, there isn't much here that makes me think I was going to like it very much in the first place.

Role Models

Role Models (David Wain, 2008) [7]
Despite its predictable story structure and ending, Role Models more than makes up for its deficiencies in laughs. And as I've said many times before in regards to comedies, all I really am asking for is to laugh, so this film more than meets my expectations. Yet, there is something about Role Models that goes a little deeper in that it really seems to care about its characters and not just using their idiosyncrasies to get laughs. The film has more than its share of crude, juvenile moments but in the end, it's never using its story or its characters for cheap laughs at their expense. In a film world where comedy is all to eager to have us laugh at losers or misanthropes at the expense of them being actually characters, it's nice to see a film actually think. Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott play two energy drink salesmen who are required to mentor some unusual kids as a result of Rudd's character having a meltdown. It's not so much Scott's character or his little person, a hilarious yet somewhat hollow Bobb'e Thompson as an obscenely foulmouthed child. It is Rudd as a coldly cynical adult whose dreams have been shattered and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as a totally insular geek that make the film worth its while. Rudd's character is actually tethered to reality, as someone who realizes what a shit hole life can be while Scott, playing the same exact character he almost always manges to play, the horny party boy, is uses as a counterpoint. But it is Rudd as Danny that actually gives the laughs some sting, as being in a dead end in a job and relationship isn't something that might not be that fun personally. The crux of the film is Mintz-Plasse as Augie, a loner lost in the fantasy world that plays a key role in the film. Never once do I think that the film uses Augie or this world for cheap laughs but instead actually takes the time to know about and care about a character such as this. It makes the film enjoyable instead of having cringe-worthy moments. Points shouldn't be taken away because the film follows such a predictable structure but it is surprising for someone like David Wain to make such a film seeing how Wet Hot American Summer was so all over. It may be all worth it.

Synecdoche, New York

Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008) [9]

Dense, confounding, mesmerizing, and fantastical could all be used to describe Synecdoche, New York. Yet through all of its meandering is a film that on the surface seems narcissistic and dour but in fact does some interesting ideas on love, death, creativity, and longing. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Caden Cotard, a local theater director in Schenectady, New York with a none too successful career and a failing marriage to his artist wife (Catherine Keener). When Caden's wife leaves him, it sets off a spiral of physical ailments and psychological loathing in Caden. These series of ailments sends Caden off into a creative fervor, moving to New York and creating an intensely personal theatre project about his life. It's from there that Kaufman's script weaves in an out of a series of events that have no definition as reality or fabrication, of a filmic world where characters and setting merge from the two worlds. Caden becomes involved with two more women (Michelle Williams and Samantha Morton in nice supporting roles) and eventually ages as his project grows and grows to worlds upon worlds. Characters in the film become characters in the play, and all in all, it leaves a product that's difficult to absorb on first viewing. But underneath all its miasma of ideas, the film really does have something to say about the creative process, as well as life and death, love and loss. It may seem like a confusing mess to some, but don't look for them in narrative. The film works in moments and seen like that, those ideas show through.

NCAA Tournament Picks Sure to go Wrong

This year's NCAA tournament means a little bit more because for the first time, my alma mater, Binghamton University, will be in the tournament. The picture above was one of the best of the championship game this past weekend, as fellow alumnus and PTI host Tony Kornheiser has mentioned the school numerous times on the program. It hasn't been all good news for the program, as a hatchet job story in the New York Times on the school cutting academic standards for basketball players in exchange for a winning program. However the situation may look and may be, there's no doubt Binghamton is the only school that has sacrificed some academic reputation for athletic success. As for my two cents, any good making the tournament gives is worth as much as any of the other allegations brought up in the Times. It's about time to realize that collegiate sports have nothing to do with the academic nature of a university and should be seen for the separate entity that they are.

Besides Binghamton, the other team in this part of the country, Syracuse, is back after a two year absence. The Orange are on a roll after the epic 6 OT game vs. UConn but their last two appearances in the tournament have seen them out in the first round. Hopefully, this year brings a change. Here are my picks:

East Region

Final: Pitt over Villanova

Duke vs. Binghamton: I hope Binghamton can just keep it close. The only way they'll have a chance of beating Duke is if they make everything and Duke mysteriously can't shoot threes.

Upset Special: None unless you count Villanova over Duke

South Region

Final: North Carolina over Syracuse

Upset Special: Western Kentucky over Illinois, Clemson over Oklahoma

West Region

Final: Memphis over UConn

Upset Special: Utah State over Marquette and Missouri

Midwest Region

Final: Michigan State over Louisville

Upset Special: USC over Boston College, West Virginia over Kansas

Watchmen

Watchmen (Zack Snyder, 2009) [7]

All that I really asked of Watchmen is that it stay close to its source material and Snyder delivers, sticking almost religiously close, with the exception of a missing subplot and a modified ending. For the most part, I would recommend the film; it's not perfect but for those who know the graphic novel, it will suffice. For those who go in completely blank, will it work? I really don't think so. The film is just as pessimistic and uncompromising as it could have been, which scores it some points. But it is the film's complete devotion to the world it occupies which give critics an opening to call it closed-off or hermetic, a product of its own reputation. Those who know nothing going in may find it dark and unspectacular. For someone like myself, who wanted a faithful adaptation, it mostly works out.

Snyder's style isn't really my personal favorite but it doesn't overpower the elements of the film. The opening credit sequence is a phenomenal piece of filmmaking. The sometimes overly gruesome fight sequences, not so much. The film has its manic moments which could be toned down but Snyder does keep the film on a steady progression. The film is able to move through its dense web of flashbacks, back story, and alternative history to make every little element relevant to the murder mystery which operates as its central story. The character's stories weave in and out, some better than others. Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach and Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan give the strongest performances. Their characters should as they both have central roles in the structure and storytelling in the graphic novel. On film, the other Watchmen come off as much weaker, either by lax characterization (The Comedian) or flat performances (Malin Akerman basically stinks as Silk Spectre). But as before, they're close enough to the source material that it as good as a representation that a fan could have asked for.

So even though I liked Watchmen, was it really worth it? I don't think the film hurts but it certainly doesn't approve on the graphic novel, which is a great piece of literature. What did I expect of the film? What I really wanted out of it is what I saw of the novel, a complete deconstructionist piece of work. How could you take comic books serious after reading Watchmen? I wanted the film to be something a la The Wild Bunch, a film taken to a place that a film of its sort would never seem relevant again. That film essentially killed the Western. I wanted Watchmen to kill the superhero movie. I didn't expect it out of someone like Snyder and I didn't expect the film to do what I wanted. When all is said and done, Watchmen is not exceptional, nor is it horrible. It's pretty much what I expected.

Monthly Listening Post - February/March 2009

Or whatever month it is. I really can't keep track anymore. Here's what I'm listening to:

Mark Olson & Gary Louris - Ready For the Flood (the long lost almost Jayhawks album I've been waiting for)
Phosphorescent - To Willie
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
Miranda Lee Richards - Light of X
Ben Kweller - Changing Horses
M. Ward - Hold Time

Also some individual tracks worth seeking out: 'Aeon' - Antony & the Johnsons
'Take My Love With You' - Eli "Paperboy" Reed & the True Loves
'Are You Ready' - Catfish Haven
'So Far Around the Bend' - The National

A surprisingly busy and interestingly concert front is on the way for spring here in Upstate NY/NE PA, at least every place but Binghamton apparently. Ithaca has Josh Ritter & Gomez on April 1, Rhett Miller on April 11, and Neko Case April 20. Then there's The Dead reunion show in Wilkes-Barre on April. That will followed by the Snob's annual drinking and gambling binge in Las Vegas, just in time for the Kentucky Derby. Add in March Madness, Hunter Mountain's Summer Jam at the end of May and Bonnaroo, and the next couple months are full of enough diversions to keep my mind off my crappy job and the general destruction of our nation. Happy listening.

Casablanca

Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) [10]

Casablanca is more than likely the greatest film of the classic Hollywood studio system. What more can be said about a film that has so many moments and lines that have become iconic in the history of American film? It is perhaps all the fawning over it that has kept me from seeing it over all these years. Casablanca lives up to its reputation because all of its elements work so well together. The old studio system didn't always create a product as smooth as this, where everything from the casting of the stars to the screenplay perfectly fit together. Of course there's Bogart and Bergman but the supporting performances are just as memorable, especially Claude Rains as Captain Renault. The screenplay, which has received the status over the years as one of the greatest ever written, is great because it contains a little bit of everything. Adventure, exotic locales, romance, noir, and the memorable quotes make it something more than just the standard Hollywood product of the era. That the film has such an anti-Nazi overtone was a little bit surprising since that's very rarely mentioned when discussing the film. It's more the political and noir elements that make the screenplay work, above the romance between Bogart and Bergman. Bogart plays typical Bogart and Bergman isn't that great. If this had just been a romance about Rick and Ilsa, Casablanca would have been another forgettable feature from the 40s. It's well rounded nature has helped it thrive over the years and it stands as a gem from a bygone era.

Still Life

Still Life (Zhang Ke Jia, 2008) [8]

I wasn't overly impressed with Zhang's last feature, The World, but did find great moments within it. Here, with Still Life, he has created a poignant character piece as well as a greater story about the changing landscape of China. A man and a woman have both come to the the city of Fengjie, mostly submerged by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, to find lost spouses. Zhang creates this dichotomy of telling personal stories against a visually impressive and imposing landscape as the Dam project and the demolition of the surrounding villages. These characters move through a constantly changing landscape, of boats and people coming and going, buildings being demolished, of people coming and going. There are some gorgeous images captured in the film that wouldn't be out of place in someone like Terrence Malick's work. Perhaps that's why I like it so much; instead of a film with a driven narrative, Zhang offers up moments of observation and insight into these characters, their attempt to find others and themselves in a vast, constantly changing visual landscape. The Three Gorges Dam is a massive project that has uprooted millions in the name of the greater good of the Chinese people, but mostly for the good of capitalism. Part of these character's existence is to rectify that their memories or nostalgia of the past are going the way of Fengjie, submerged in the name of progress. It's this meditative nature of the landscape, of the character's actions in this vastly shifting world, and the film's ability to subtly say all it needs about its setting.

Some thoughts on Watchmen

I've never been a fan of comic books or films based on comic books. I find the whole idea of "fan boys" as seriously depressing. Yes, I'm just as much of a loser as some would say these people are, but I have found other ways to express my obsessive tendencies. I have nothing against comic fans but I can think of many more other areas to be interested in than super heroes.

This is all meant to be a lead-in to how I actually read and really liked Watchmen. I was taking a class at Binghamton University called Crime Fiction, taught by a professor I much admired, Michael Sharp (he has a crossword blog here). Watchmen was on the curriculum, I had no idea what it was, and when I found out it was a comic book , I was less than enthused. But I gave Professor Sharp the benefit of the doubt and I was rewarded. Watchmen is a work that transcends the pulpy history of comics and deserves to be mentioned as a work of literature. Perhaps the reason I liked it so much was that it was meant to deconstruct the super hero narrative, to make these characters egotists, self-important, and perhaps even delusional. It broke down the myth of super heroes as Puritanical servants of the public good. Alan Moore created a world that infinitely more interesting than any Captain America or Superman story could possibly be, a work meant to confront the comfortable ideals of good vs. evil that comics have come to be seen. It might even be seen to question if super heroes are even necessary.

The same thoughts that I had upon having to read Watchmen, I have now in regards to the upcoming film. To some extent, the book is unfilmable in its structure. That Moore is adamantly opposed to filmic adaptations of his work and that previous efforts (From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) have been lackluster show no real track record for this to be a success. Add on top of that that the Zach Snyder of 300 fame is the director and you couldn't have picked a set of circumstances that inspire less hope in me. Granted I haven't seen any of Snyder's films but he's already made an unnecessary remake of one of my favorite films (Dawn of the Dead) and 300 seemed to be all eye candy without any substance. But I'm willing to cut him some slack, seeing as articles have repeatedly stated how close to the source the film is staying, less one major subplot. I'm only hoping that Snyder doesn't try to cater too much to mainstream audiences by glossing over the film's social commentary. I'm really hoping the film succeeds, not in terms of box office or popular opinion, but in terms that it does the book proud. I won't be out to see it this coming weekend (you know, to avoid the fan boys), but a review will be in before the first week is out. And I secretly hope the mainstream going film person, not the serious fans of the book, really don't like it.