Friday, August 19, 2011

Some Diamonds in the Rough (including Dancing De Niro

One of these days I'm going to continue my States Series and finally finish the Top Films from Each Year of My Life (I can't even remember where I left off!). Until then, here's another Netflix recap (re-Capp?).

Dead and Buried -- Gary Sherman
I kept seeing this movie in my recommendations, but it wasn't until watching Guillermo del Toro's commentary on Trailers From Hell that I added it to my queue. It was kind of late one night and I was up alone wanting to watch a scary movie not much longer than 90 minutes on Instant View and Dead and Buried fit the bill. The first thing that perked me up to the experience that night was that it's written by Dan O'Bannon (Dark Star, Alien, Return of the Living Dead). That dude rules! Dead and Buried starts out super-cheesy but that doesn't last long. I'm not going to give much about my experience watching it because there was a turn that really surprised me and hooked me for the rest of the movie.

Tangent: Contrary to want recent research claims, I believe that spoilers can (not will) ruin the experience of reading a book or watching a movie. Firstly, there's a reason the author constructed the narrative in the way they did. Leaving out certain information, shrouding things in mystery, etc. If the author really thought it would be more enjoyable for the audience to know this information, they'd include it. Secondly, how does one quantify the experience? Knowing the ending changes the way one interacts with the story. The experience between someone who knows the ending and one who doesn't aren't comparable. There's no control. The former may say the experience was more enjoyable because they didn't have to work to figure out where the story was going. Additionally, when there's a really great plot development or twist, it sends tingles through my body. Something I didn't see coming. People who know that information don't have that visceral reaction. Finally, what's overlooked in all of this: what's the harm in watching a movie or reading a book twice? Don't people do that anymore? That way you can experience the thrill of discovery and the joy of the structure. End tangent.

Anyway, Dead and Buried is a ton of fun. One to watch with a crowd. The ending doesn't completely makes sense, but the ride is pretty awesome. Keep an eye out for pre-Freddy Robert Englund.


Ginger Snaps -- John Fawcett

The Last House on the Left -- Wes Craven
I was really surprised by Last House. I know people who love it and revere it as a classic and those who hate it and talk about how overrated it was. All I really knew was that it was pretty brutal and intense. What I didn't know and the main reason why I liked it (and am liking even more the more I think about it) is how it bounces between genres. Yes it's brutal and that's all anyone talks about, but it's also bizarrely comic. There are bumbling cops who can share the blame for everything bad that happens to the girls and the parents. The psychotics, when not demeaning and murdering teenage girls, are kind of an amusing band of misfits. David Hess is incredibly charismatic whether tormenting or just being a macho ass (he basically reprises this role in The House at the Edge of the Park). Hess makes for a good seque to the music, which he also composed. There's no menacing score. It's almost all ragtime-influenced ditties that, if my ears detected correctly, recount the events of the film. There's so many disperate elements working that I couldn't help but be endeared to The Last House on the Left (as far as one can be endeared to a movie in which a man makes a woman pee herself).

Bang the Drum Slowly -- John D. Hancock
This movie is a piece of shit. And I promise it's not because the featured team, the New York Mammoths, strongly resemble the Yankees. Michael Moriarty is an utter bore and he's the narrator! He's got not charisma and he's stiff as a board. There are some good performances, most notably Vincent Gardenia, but there's not much going for this film. The baseball scenes are a travesty and I noticed at least one time where they reused footage of De Niro running to first base (if, in fact, it was him). De Niro isn't given too much to do except play dumb, though, as hard as I'm being on Band the Drum Slowly, it may feature De Niro's most riveting performance in a scene ever.

The Case of the Bloody Iris -- Giuliano Carnimeo
This is basically like every other giallo I've seen I had to reread the synopsis just to remember what it was about and I just watched it. There's very little to set it apart from other efforts in the genre. I'm still not sure why the two women moved into an apartment where, from all I could tell, a colleague of theirs had just been murdered. But you don't watch these films for sensical narratives and it does deliver boobs and blood. So there's that...

Following -- Christopher Nolan
I don't know if I have an anti-fanboy reaction to Christopher Nolan or what. His films are good. I've never regretted watching one, but I rarely have a desire to return to them let alone tout them as great (right now, the IMDB Top 250 has The Dark Knight and Inception at the nine and ten spot, respectively, though that could change by the time you look). Given his current crop of (admittedly) visually and technically stunning films, it's interesting to go back to his first movie. There's more Memento in Following than any of his other works and I enjoyed the time jumping and slow reveals. It's purpose is more to keep thing audience in the dark as opposed to any narrative reason (like in Memento), but the film is brisk and the performances entertaining. Nolan is very good at delineating moments in time visually without having to resort to titles. Definitely worth checking out.

Small Change -- Francois Truffaut

Red Riding 1980 -- James Marsh
I just learned that Marsh directed Man on Wire, which makes me excited in retrospect that he's getting work, but also because I'm fascinated by people who can bounce between documentary and fiction filmmaking (using "fiction" for lack of a better term). There weren't the odd "artistic" flourishes the plagued Red Riding 1974 and I thought it was interesting how the two tied together, but I think I need to adjust my thinking about this trilogy before I get to the third. I'm expecting the investigation of the murders to play a bigger part, but the films appear to be more about the roadblocks in the way to the truth. There's an X-Files level of paranoia and conspiracy, just without the aliens. I may have to watch these again sometime with my new found perspective. As it stands, I like 1980. It's beautifully shot. I love Paddy Considine (though I can't see him anymore without him saying "Murder, murder, murder!"). But didn't get what I thought I was getting. Right now, I'll say the deficiency is on my end.

99 Women -- Jess Franco
Oh, Franco. I'm almost done with you. I've been saying that for a while, but there's only one more film of yours on my queue. Soon, this self-flagellation can stop. I think we all have these perverse curiosities about things. A coworker of mine just watched the entire Twilight saga (the ones on DVD at least) knowing full-well that he'd hate them (he does claim the third as the best, for what it's worth). What can I say? 99 Women sucks. First of all, it should be called Woman 99, since she's the focus and it has little to do with all 99 women imprisoned. I couldn't help but think Franco took the idea of people as numbers from The Prisoner, which aired a year or so prior, but I'm not going to put any effort into finding out. It's not Franco's worst, but it's not his "best" (in quotes because, as far as I can tell, none of his films are really worth watching. My mind reels at the fact that he worked with Orson Welles and assembled a cut of Welles' Don Quixote.

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