Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Beating the Holiday Slump?

Apparently, December is a terrible month for me to blog. I know where some of my time went, but surely there was time to write more than I did, right? October was so good to me. Why couldn't that continue? Obviously, I blame a combination of the economy and the Socialist agenda in this county. So with that, I present the last of my Netflix Roundup's for the year (perhaps even my last post?). This may be one of my most diverse collections of films yet for this feature (at least in terms of genre).

Red State -- Kevin Smith
I never really cared for Kevin Smith as a director. I really like Chasing Amy and somehow accrued Clerks, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back but those all leave me pretty cold. Kevin Smith the man always seemed affable enough and you have to respect someone who makes personal movies. Somewhere along the line, though, he became kind of a dick. Maybe he was always a dick and his sense of humor and charisma glossed it over, but he got mixed up in various controversies and hasn't recovered. His actions regarding the sale of Red State are a mix of P.T. Barnum and being a straight up ass, weighing more heavily to one side depending on how you feel about the man. Of course, maybe he was insecure about the sale of his movie because it fucking sucks! Smith never had much of a visual style, but the lack of one in a genre movie has the ability to crush the impact. Instead, he gets really crappy footage from the RED camera (aside from looking terrible, every time there is a fast camera move, the image is choppy) and sacrifices suspense for surprise and deus ex machina while half of the movie is told via Special Agent Exposition (played by John Goodman). Several plot points make no sense and the dialogue is ridiculously overwrought while saying very little (the only other writer more in love with his words is Tarantino). It's like Smith got so wrapped up in making a "brutal" horror movie that he forgot to include anything else but the "brutal" elements. This is an out-and-out terrible movie.

Tyson -- James Toback
I don't want to take the comparison too far, but I can't help but think of this movie as The Fog of War, except featuring Mike Tyson. It's largely Tyson, sitting on a couch, telling his life's story. Obviously, with a structure like this, we're only getting one side of the events, but that's all the movie (and, hopefully, the viewers) is interested in. It's easy to see why he became a joke, but to hear him recount these events (Robin Givens, the ear biting) is near heartbreaking. His lisping, high-pitched, nasally voice makes him sound dumb, but clearly he's not. As someone who never saw him in his prime (aside from as the ultimate fight in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out), the movie gave me a lot of respect for the man. As with any of these "rise and fall" type of lives, it's easy to forget that, in many cases, the person is insanely young during the rise and some people simply aren't equipped to handle that. It's nice to see Tyson portrayed as something other than a joke.

Caged Women -- Bruno Mattei
It's rare that I don't watch every movie that comes to me via Netflix. In this case, the DVD was a double feature of Caged Women and Women's Prison Massacre. After watching the former, I didn't have the stomach for the latter. Not because I was disturbed, but it was too... damn... BORING. Holy christ! How can people watch this stuff? Once again, there's tons of nudity, but who cares when everything else is so bad. The women-in-prison genre basically remakes the same movie every time, so my hopes for WPM dashed. There are a few more produced by Roger Corman that I want to check out and Jonathan Demme directed possibly the definitive film (plus there's the one with Linda Blair), but my enthusiasm is waining. On the plus side, Black Mama, White Mama was pretty good and Pam Grier is in a few more, so... optimism?

Pontypool -- Bruce McDonald
Pontypool is a movie I think everyone should see just so I can talk to them about it. I'm not sure it makes sense or that I like the execution, but I like the set-up, it's single locale and insular perspective, and the take on zombie conventions (though I'd never call it a zombie movie. NEVER!). It's one of those movies that you don't want to know too much about going into it. Let the movie take you where it goes and then contact me so we can chat about it.

Casualties of War -- Brian de Palma
My love of Brian de Palma grows. With the exception of Scarface, from '74 to '89, the man doesn't really have a misstep in my eyes (I've yet to see Obsession, Wise Guys, and all of The Untouchables in that timespan). Michael J. Fox' performance is terrific hurt only by the fact that you never really believe there is a risk of him backing off of his belief and raping the kidnapped girl (oh... the movie's about a group of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam who kidnap and rape a Vietnamese woman). I mean... it's Michael J. Fox! Alex Keaton! Marty McFly! So there's a bit of missing drama in that the we don't think the peer pressure will get to him. But the real flaw of the movie is Sean Penn. I don't know where he got his accent for this role, but it's terrible. He sounds like a cartoon character (I would love for someone to make a montage of the various voices Sean Penn performs with in his movies. It would be hilarious. I'd do it myself, but I can't spend that much time watching Penn or I'll go insane). The film also illustrates the difficulties to be a dissenting voice in such a strict institution. You want to talk about personal responsibility vs. people acting under orders? It's not always as easy as it sounds. Casualties of War is awesome and even overcomes the cheesy flashback "dream/remembering" structure.

One, Two, Three -- Billy Wilder
This is about as madcap and screwball as a relatively modest story can get. The setup is pretty deliberate, but the payoff is tons of fun. A Coca-Cola exec in Germany is supposed to watch over his boss' daughter, but she goes off and marries a Communist and her parents are flying in. There's lots of fun mockery of Communism and Capitalism and playful back and forth. James Cagney rules as Mac MacNamara, carrying much of the movie and delivering an impossible amount of dialogue. It's neat to see him in a comedy role and doing so comfortably. It's amazing to me that people can write dialogue so witty and fast-paced.

Who Is Harry Nilsson (and Why's Everybody Talking About Him)? -- John Scheinfeld
Basically, if you like Harry Nilsson, this is interesting because it reveals a lot about the man and his struggles/troubles (particularly fun feeling about his night out with John Lennon and the Smothers Brothers show). If you don't know who the man is, you should watch this to get a sampling of him music, because the man was amazing. Most people know him for Everybody's Talkin' from Midnight Cowboy or Put the Lime in the Coconut, but he's so much more (as my cousin pointed out, he beat "Fuck You" by nearly 40 years).

In the end, everyone could use a little more Nilsson in their lives, so you might as well watch this.

Insidious -- James Wan
Better than you'd think. The film probably met a lot of resistance because it's from the creators or Saw and while it suffers from a lot of modern horror conventions in addition to being just a little bit too flashy, Insidious is fairly affective. There are some conveniently knowledgeable characters who, while they don't know things for sure, are surprisingly accurate in their assertions, but basically, the movie is a good creepy time and bucks a few of the old haunted house tropes without being openly aware (read: meta) about it. In some ways, maybe that's why Insidious plays so well. At it's core, it's got an old-fashioned feel mixed in to the modern look. Double bonus: a lack of obnoxious, irrational characters.

Walker -- Alex Cox
All I can say is, "Damn you, Alex Cox." I spend an hour and ten minutes watching your movie and think of it as one thing, then during the last half hour, you reveal to me that it's something else entirely. Now I have to watch the damned thing again because I'm more than certain I didn't "get" it the first time. There are hints along the way, but it's not exactly easy to put it all together until the end. Fortunately, of all of Cox' films, Walker is my favorite, so watching it again won't exactly be a chore (though I'm finding that Ed Harris is a little tiresome to watch. He's always playing the same disposition). This is definitely a movie you don't want to read too much about before seeing it. In fact, I'll add it as the second movie I've ever seen that I felt the need to watch it again right away to better digest it (the first was Mulholland Drive).

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