Weekly Film Rec: Hatchet

Sorry about missing out on my "Weekly" features, but I've been relatively busy/lazy. Anyway, I picked this week's film based on discussing it briefly last night and realizing some very hardcore genre fans hadn't seen it yet. And no, it's not based on a kids book.



I'm certain I've talked about Hatchet on this site before. For a while, I was making everyone I knew watch the film. I've probably seen it myself more than any other film since 2007 because of this and it never gets old. A big reason for this is Hatchet has amazing practical gore effects. The reactions it gets in a room full of people cannot be matched generally because people don't know exactly what to expect (well... until the first scene at least). There is nothing cheesy about the effects either. How they achieved what they did on such a low budget is pretty astounding.

Hatchet is a throwback to 80s slasher movies. A group of people are alone and lost in a Louisiana swamp and a massive killer is after them. It's been seen a million times before. What sets Hatchet apart (aside from the amazing effects) is the characters. Most of them are incredibly likable, even if they're a bit sleazy, and all are entertaining. Best of all, they can all act (well, there may be one exception). Joel David Moore has been in a ton of TV shows and was in Avatar so everyone on the planet can pretty much recognize him. Deon Richmond is a name no one has any reason to know, but when you find out where you recognize him from...

...you'll be happy to discover he's still hilarious. Moore and Richmond have great chemistry and I found that their friendship was much like a lot of mine, especially in the way they talk. There are many other recognizable faces, if not names: Robert Englund, Tony Todd, Kane Hodder, Joel Murray (Bill's brother), Joshua Leonard, Richard Riehle, and Partika Darbo (and an amazing tidbit I just learned: Mercedes McNab is the Girl Scout selling cookies in The Addams Family!).

Something that the above trailer doesn't even try to get across, which is surprising given the work of much of the cast, is how freaking funny the movie is. I tend to like my horror with a sense of humor, so this is perfect for me. Even in the tensest of situations, writer/director Adam Green takes time out for a funny line or situation. This helps to lighten the mood to where the audience lets their guard down and can really be surprised. (In addition to the normal funny, there is a great joke about how a character didn't actually go to NYU, but to Hofstra. Maybe it's not great to you, but my old roommate and I had just seen a douche from Hofstra give an "inspirational" speech as part of a student award his brother won at BU and it was nice to see is institution taken down a notch [the only other time I've heard Hofstra mentioned was in Bill Cosby's stand-up act]).

Unfortunately, Green's other films, Spiral and Frozen, haven't lived up to his first feature, though they both have their moments (Spiral was film in Portland, incidentally, though Frozen is the better picture [those are unrelated thoughts in the same parenthetical. In no way to I believe that because a film is shot in Portland that it should therefore be the better film]), but Hatchet is just filled with unbridled joy, even if it is about innocent people being massacred by some mutant reincarnate. I've yet to see Hatchet 2, but am looking forward to it. Hopefully Green will catch the same magic.

As a final note, Hatchet was the last film to shoot in a pre-Katrina New Orleans.

Weekly Film Rec: Rock 'n' Roll High School

People who know me are well aware of my massive dislike of musicals. I can probably count the musicals I enjoy on one hand (let's give it a shot! Little Shop of Horrors, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Forbidden Zone [the Danny Elfman factor, I guess... I am listening to Oingo Boingo right now], Singin' in the Rain... and now I start to struggle). My issue with the genre is largely the same as my issue with most action movies: all forward momentum of the story consistently stops for five or so minutes for some spectacle in which I have no interest (special exception for awesome car chases). Even Singin' in the Rain has a fairly useless and unrealistic (in the context of the film) scene in the Gotta Dance sequence. It feels like it goes on for fifteen minutes, though I'm (mostly) certain that that's not the case.

However, Rock 'n' Roll High School has a lot going for it. P.J. Soles (who is one of my top three all-time film crushes), the involvement of Joe Dante (you'll learn a lot about my love of him in 2011), and awesome soundtrack even if you aren't a Ramones super-fan, and Clint Howard. What really helps is that the narrative lends itself to becoming a musical pretty effortlessly. Riff Randell (Soles) wants to write songs for the Ramones. Why wouldn't there be singing?

One of the great strengths of Rock 'n' Rolls High School is that it feels no need to take itself seriously. In fact, it almost revels in its silliness. In what must have inspired Nelson Muntz, Clint Howard has an alternative guidance counselor's office in a men's room stall. Mice experimentation has... unexpected... consequences (with an assist from eventual The Thing creature designer/make-up effects maestro, Rob Bottin). Dialogue is both hilarious and punnerific (though, admittedly, most of the puns are on the walls) :

Kate: Look at your algebra book; it looks like it's never even been opened!
Riff: I only use it on special equations

Miss Togar: [holding phone to radio broadcasting live Ramones concert] That, Mrs. Rambeau, is where your daughter is.
Mrs. Rambeau: [over phone] My daughter? Kate? I thought she was in the basement splitting photons.

Kate: I don't wanna have fun! I wanna be with Tom!

Miss Togar: Those Ramones are peculiar.
Police Chief Klein: They're ugly. Ugly, ugly people.

I'd only seen the trailer before checking Rock 'n' Roll High School. Perhaps it was preordained that I'd like it. It was released on my birthday, August 24 (three years before I was born). I went to see it mostly because the Hollywood Theatre was screening it and I got to see it for free (though it had been on my "I'll get to it eventually" list). The experience was such a complete surprise and utterly joyous. I want to share it with the world.

Weekly Film Rec: Radioland Murders

I've gotten out of the habit of writing here and as a result, I missed last week's film recommendation. Well, I apologize. I know that all of you were left with nothing to do for your entire weekend and we all know there isn't much going on this weekend...

I initially thought I'd go seasonal, but everyone does top Christmas movie lists this time of year, so there isn't really anything flying under the radar (most of the lists are about "under-seen" Christmas movies).

Instead, I've got Radioland Murders. It's a screwball comedy of the highest order in which a radio station is going national and is putting on its first big show. Of course, things can't go off without a hitch and people start dying. The cops show up. The wrong man is accused. Wackiness ensues.

I don't typically like madcap comedies like this too much, but the murder plot helps Radioland Murders a lot. In many screwball comedies, everything could be settled if people would just shut up and listen to each other (one of the reasons I can't stand Bringing Up Baby). However, with the police chasing a would-be suspect around the station who is trying to find the real killer, there isn't time to slow down. The zaniness is all pretty organic.

Another asset is the setting, in which everyone is just trying to put on a good show, but live radio is naturally hectic. Most of the characters are still trying to retain a modicum of professionalism as chaos envelops the studio. The combination of the broad comedy and the subtler, situational comedy finds a nice balance.

The real reason to watch Radioland Murders is to become awesome at Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Seemingly every great character and comic actor is in this film. Ned Beatty, Michael Lerner, Michael McKean, Jeffrey Tambor, Stephen Tobolowsky, Christopher Lloyd, Larry Miller, Dylan Baker, Peter MacNicol (I'm sorry that list is all men, but there's mostly men in the film and I'm not too familiar with Mary Stuart Masterson's work). Then there are the people that will link you to the past like George Burns and Rosemary Clooney. And I just want to mention that Joey Lawrence is in the film, too. And I thought Apollo 13 and A Few Good Men had a lot of links (they do, however, both have Kevin Bacon).

What's weird to me is that it stars Brian Benben who, much like Mary Stuart Masterson, I don't know much about (aside from wanting to spell his name BenBen or Ben Ben). The only other thing I've seen him in is John Landis' contribution to Masters of Horror, Deer Woman, and he's awesome in that. He's really good here, too, and I can't believe he hasn't had a bigger career that he has. I guess he's been on lots of TV shows, but the man is charismatic and funny.

George Lucas was supposed to direct the after Star Wars and, for reasons he hasn't told me, that didn't happen. That's a little disappointing because I love American Graffiti (and Masterson and Benben's characters are supposedly Richard Dreyfuss' character's parents) and had Lucas directed this, maybe he wouldn't have fallen into Star Wars Forever! mode. That's not to speak ill of Mel Smith (the albino in The Princess Bride), who did a great job of capturing the chaos on screen.

Radioland Murders is on Netflix Instant View and well worth your time. It's a lot of fun.

Weekly Film Rec: The Films of Joon-ho Bong

Sorry that I skipped over last week's Weekly Film Rec. I hope most of you were still in a food coma and failed to notice. I haven't posted in a while and I blame Thanksgiving and my parents (who visited over Thanksgiving), but in the best possible ways. As a penance for not recommending something last week, I give you three this week! Joon-ho Bong is a Korean filmmaker who, as far as a can tell, only makes awesomely interesting movies. I've yet to see his first film, Barking Dogs Never Bite, but it's on my Netflix queue and may end up in this space in the future.

Memories of Murder
I remember seeing a poster for this film in the lobby of the Carlisle Theatre in Carlisle, PA when I went to see 2046. This was before my eyes were opened to the greatness of Korean cinema. Obviously, it left some kind of impression on me since I remember it, but it took five years to finally catch up with Memories of Murder. The film takes place in the mid-80's and follows two detectives as they try to solve Korea's first serial killer case without benefit of proper forensics procedure. The particulars of the murders are pretty horrific and it's a testament to Bong that he is able to throw in quite a lot humor without sacrificing the tone of the film (something, you'll find, he is quite adept at). It helps when you have a lead actor as likable as Kang-ho Song (Thirst, The Good, The Bad, and the Weird, among many other great films) who has an air of imbecilic aloofness about him even though all evidence is to the contrary. My enduring thought after watching Memories of Murder was that I need to have a double feature of this and Zodiac, as they explore similar themes and subjects. Keep an eye out for an epic instance of background action that I missed the first time around.


The Host
I feel like I'm tracking my life via Bong's films since I saw this one at the Brattle Theater in Boston (OK... Cambridge). The Host received a lot of attention upon it's release, probably because there hadn't been a really good monster movie in a while. Once again, Kang-ho Song stars and, once again, he is amazing. I don't know what it is about him, but you simultaneously can't take him seriously and must take him seriously. I love him! Anyway, The Host is basically an anti-pollution monster movie in which a family is being pursued by the authorities while trying to locate their daughter/niece/granddaughter. What was most surprising to me the first time I saw the film is that the tone goes all over the map early. The early monster scene is amazing (and totally ignores the "don't show the monster until the end"conceit), but right when you think the film is going to have a somber, emotional moment, that moment is played as a farce. It's so over-the-top that it's funny. As I mentioned above, Park is somehow able to balance these extremes so as not to harm the film (it helps that the subject matter of The Host is so outlandish to begin with that it's easier to get away with these stylistic leaps). The Host is just a great monster movie with an ecological message which, in the tradition of Gojira, is blamed on the Americans.


Mother
Once again, tracking my life, Mother showed during the Portland International Film Festival (which I worked) and got great reviews. Bong returns to the murder mystery genre with Mother but instead of the cops trying to solve the crime, the accused mother is trying to prove his innocence (which, given the unfamiliarity with protocol of the detectives in Memories of Murder, is essentially the same plot as said film). Mother can be frustrating to watch simply because it's hard to see someone work so hard for the one they love yet meet an endless succession of roadblocks. However, Bong (as always) makes it worth your while in visuals, content, acting, and an unexpected ending. Perhaps the most impressive thing about Bong's films is that they never end up where I expect them to. And Hye-ja Kim as the eponymous mother gives a hell of a performance. The opening scene really sets the tone for the rest of the film. It's slightly slower paced than his other films, but no less awesome.

Weekly Film Rec: Runaway Train

I've been thinking about films that take place on trains a lot lately. Maybe it's because I just watched Strangers on a Train again. The realization just hit me that, by and large, I love movies that take place on trains. The General, Silver Streak, The Lady Vanishes (Hitchcock really loved trains), The Taking of Pelham 123 (the original), Murder on the Orient Express, The Darjeeling Limited. Perhaps it's a deep-seated yearn to have a train set. Regardless, these films can be like rolling chamber pieces (limited sets/characters) or be travelogues.

Upon one of my ruminations about train films, a coworker suggested Runaway Train (not to be confused with the song, which greatly differs in subject matter). Jon Voight plays Manny (using the voice Michael Scott used for "Prison Mike" in The Office) and Eric Roberts plays Buck (doing his best Lenny from Of Mice and Men). They just escaped from an Alaskan prison and hopped a train heading... somewhere, but the conductor has a heart attack and various train malfunctions result in a, you guessed it, Runaway Train! Oh, and somewhere along the way, Rebecca De Mornay pops up.


The great thing about Runaway Train is that you not only get a film about a runaway train, but it starts out with a prison break! How many movies have you seen that have some huge event like a heist happen before the movie starts and the characters just talk about it? Prison Mike apparently made it a hobby breaking out of this prison, so it comes pretty easily to him, but Lenny just had to tag along, who is really pushing the limits on how much irritation one can take and is probably the least enjoyable part of the film.

Aside from the train, you've got the control booth where they are trying to figure out how to stop the train. The best part of these scenes is seeing Nauls from The Thing (T.K. Carter) pop up dressed very much like he would fit into the Portland scene today. Also, the head of prison security is trying to track down Prison Mike as they have a long standing feud.

I have to give the film a lot of credit. Once you establish that a train is careening down the tracks, it seems pretty limited as to what all of the option to stop it will be, but Runaway Train defied a lot of my expectations. Sometimes the results of this defiance weren't as spectacular as I imagined they'd be, but it's nice to be kept guessing.

Probably the most interesting tidbit about the film is that it's based on a screenplay by Akira Kurasawa and was apparently going to start Henry Fonda and Peter Falk. Now that I have that knowledge, I can't help but feel sad and a little bit empty inside that that film doesn't exist.

Weekly Film Rec: Clue

The entire concept of movies based on boardgames seems horrible. Battleship. Monopoly. Ouija Board. Magic 8 Ball (which can only be some horrible romantic comedy). Candyland. It all reeks of an idea bankrupt industry looking for a quick buck based on name recognition and nostalgia (so the status quo, then). There are so many people trying to write original material or adapt something from and interesting source struggling to find a place in Hollywood, why do we even need to cull the board game shelf for ideas? If you went into a pitch meeting and said something like, "warring ships" or, "a ball that tells the future," you'd be thrown out immediately. There's no story inherent in these games. It's just vague ideas with a goal to win. Totally ridiculous.

However, aside from the names involved, are these such bad ideas? Pretty great movies could (and have) been made about war at sea. The battle for economic supremacy could be interesting. Ouija boards are already a staple in the horror genre (more specifically, haunted house movies). Even Candyland could be fun for a child (just look what it did for Homer):

The fact that they are blatantly using the name of a successful brand seems to be what sets most people (including myself) off. Incidentally, I can make no excuses for Magic 8 Ball.

Perhaps the reason I'm feeling rather lenient towards the people making these board game adaptations is because I'm already in love with one. Inspired by the recent The New Cult Cannon article at A.V. Club, I've got to recommend a perennial favorite of mine: Clue.


We were well underway into the world of the Blockbuster and massive corporatization/commodification/synergization of the film industry by 1985 (not to suggest it didn't exist before, it just wasn't as whorish-seeming before), but compared to today, it seems like an intellectually vibrant era. I can only imagine what people would have thought about turning a board game into a film (as I was only 3). The poor box office receipts surely put a halt to any other designs of board game adaptations. However, adapting Clue seems like an obvious place to start. There's already a literary and filmic history of murder mysteries, not to mention sketch comedy's contribution to the subject:


Of course, it helps to have any amazing cast of character actors and comedians at your disposal when making said adaptation. Martin Mull. Michael McKean. Madeline Kahn. Tim Curry Lesley Ann Warren. Eileen Brennan. Christopher Lloyd. Plus based on a story buy John Landis. That's a line-up I can get behind.

I'm not really sure why people didn't connect with the film. The dialogue is hilarious (personal favorite, "I was in the hall... I know because I was there) and the way the actors play off of each other is perfect. I first saw Clue as a child. For some reason, my family had taped it off the TV (though I'm pretty sure no one had seen it) and my older sister and I watched it constantly. Only upon viewing it in my adult years did I realize that I didn't get half of the jokes (pretty much anything related to Communism). It's a film that rewards rewatching because of it's lightning fast pace, which becomes absolutely manic in Tim Curry's performance summing up the events of the entire night.

Maybe by that time people were expecting "the Christopher Lloyd show" since he'd just been in Back to the Future. I have no idea. I'm just glad it's been a part of my life for so long and that I've had the chance to share it with others.

Weekly Film Rec: Hausu

I feel like all I've been doing this past week is Halloween recommendations and really, I have (you can see for yourself here). This will be my last horror recommendation in this space for a while just to give you all a break. Fortunately, I saw Hausu before the end of October so I can squeeze it in before the self-imposed moratorium.

Without question, this is the most insane, off-the-wall, bonkers, nusto film I've ever seen and I took a whole semester on avant garde filmmaking (ok... so most of that stuff is just boring). It's a hallucinatory haunted house movie with an identity crisis. It's almost too wacky to be scary and too crazy to be funny. The effects are ridiculous but do their job completely.

The plot sends a group of girls (all named for their dominant feature or personality trait) to a friend's aunt's house which happens to be haunted. There's some ghostly back story about her aunt and an old love the doesn't really make too much sense, but nothing here really does. Eventually, the girls go missing through increasingly bizarre circumstances. My favorite has to be Kung Fu, who fights off an attacking horde of flaming logs, among other things, with her awesome kung fu skills. Also, there's an evil cat (aren't they all?).

Words can't do this film justice. You simply need to look at the DVD cover art to find out all you need to know. I'm kicking myself for not checking it out when a local theater showed a 35mm print. This will become a regular in the scary film rotation. And if you don't watch it on your own, I will eventually make you watch it. Thank you Criterion for bring this movie into my life!

Weekly Film Rec: The Innocents

I apologize for that absence of posts the past week or so (though not about the lack of recommendations because the Romero stuff should've kept you more than a little busy). Things got crazy what with a special guest for a week where awesome times were more important than awesome blogging, then getting back into the swing of things (plus, my garbage disposal broke while we simultaneously had a clock in the drain that spilled water all over. That set my day back a bit).

Anyway, none of that matters because I've only got two more weeks of recommending solely horror films (as opposed to doing it every other week). Most people seem to regard The Haunting as the eminent haunted house movie, at least in terms of classic films. For my money, that honor has to go to The Innocents. Released two years before The Haunting, The Innocents offers up more scares and suspense than almost any other film of the era (and I'd argue ever, even with the changing aesthetics of horror films). Don't get me wrong. I love The Haunting (and watched it last Halloween alone before I knew anyone here in Portland), but it's time for The Innocents to get some recognition.

Perhaps most striking about the film is the cinematography. Black and white rarely looks this good and apparently, jokes flew about the set and Shepperton Studios the D.P. Freddie Francis was trying to burn the place down with all of his lights (another anecdote states that star, Deborah Kerr had to where sunglasses between takes). Francis directed several Hammer Horror films, which could use their own Film Rec feature, but I'll lay off those for now. Interestingly, Francis would later shoot The Elephant Man for David Lynch. I can't help but think this film had an enormous influence on that decision.

Director, Jack Clayton, wanted to distance the film from the Hammer films that were being shot concurrently in England and did so with great success. The Innocents avoids some of the more exploitative tendencies of the Hammer Films and creates an incredible sense of foreboding. The audience really gets into the head of the governess, Miss Giddens (Kerr, who had quite an impressive career). Her dread and paranoia becomes ours.

The film is based on the story "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James (something I remember being told not to read unless I wanted to be terrified by some high school English teacher. I'll show her! I just bought it from Goodwill for two bucks!) and was co-written by Truman Capote, who becomes more fascinating the more I encounter him. Definitely check this movie out for Halloween. Hell, a The Innocents and The Haunting double feature would be just about perfect.

Weekly Film Rec: Romero Non-Zombie Films

Seeing as how I missed last week due to a Florida excursion, I wanted to make it up to you all somehow. And given that it's October (my favorite month, incidentally, and should be the real name of August [and I know the history as to why, or at least the apocryphal story]), I want to stick with horror films.

I never really watched much of Romero's films outside of the Living Dead stuff until recently. My earliest excursion was Martin about two years ago and I remember being terrified by images of Creepshow when I was really young, but I never watched them the whole way through (or even through one segment). Having explored his work deeper, it saddens me that he seems to feel that he can only make zombie movies anymore (his last three films have been Land, Diary, and Survival of the Dead). Apparently, he's working on a remake of Argento's Deep Red, so it's good that he's moving away from the zombies, but he's heading into remakes (to be fair, much like most of Argento's work, Deep Red deeply flawed even if it has moments of gruesome elegance).

I'm just going to tackle this in chronological order from earliest to most recent. Obviously, I can't recommend stuff I haven't seen, so there will be a few gaps in the chronology, though not too many. Plus, I've seen most of his "big" works. On with it!

The Crazies (1973)
The Crazies was recently remade into a film that I will probably never see. It's actually very similar to zombie films, just with less viscera. I'd call it a precursor to 28 Days Later (which throws the viscera back in, thus making people think it is a zombie film). A town where people have been going crazy becomes the subject of a quarantine and a small group of people are trying to escape. Men in HAZMAT suits with guns are around every corner and a cure is quickly trying to be found before the entire town has to be eliminated (kind of like what the government wanted to do in The Simpsons Movie: the New Grand Canyon). Of course, people in the small group on the run become infected and troubles brew inside and out. There's a overwhelming sense of hopelessness, much like the end of Night of the Living Dead.


Martin (1977)
Apparently, this is George Romero's favorite film of his and marks the first collaboration of Romero and special effects icon, Tom Savini. It's a vampire story unlike any other because it's so rooted in reality. There's no turning into bats, no sprouting fangs, daylight doesn't kill Martin. Pretty much, the film does away with all of the classic vampire lore except the one thing that matters: Martin drinks blood. The pacing is pretty deliberate, but then, so are many horror films of the '70s (and before). Unlike with most vampire films, the stakes (I assure you, pun not intended) feel much greater for Martin since he doesn't have the benefit of being supernatural.


Knightriders (1981)
This is one of the more bizarre films I've ever seen and, no, not a horror movie. I'm not exactly sure how Romero came up with the concept. It's like he mashed up the Hell's Angels and Renaissance Faires. A group of artists ride around the country staging motorcycle jousts for country folk. They are poor, but largely happy. That is until they realize that there's money to be made. The group divides and there is a power struggle. The only thing that prevents Knightriders from being truly great is its length. It's 2.5 hours long, but in that time, there is a great journey. Ed Harris and Tom Savini are the main headbutters, with Harris the "king" of the troup and Savini desirous of the throne. Nearly the entire community is well-drawn and have there own story arcs, which is one benefit of the running time, I suppose. This helps the movie come to an inevitably melancholy, but joyous end. Definitely a movie that gets better the more I think about it.


Creepshow (1982)
Born out of a love of EC Comics and written by Stephen King, Creepshow is five tales of the macabre. While not every vignette is created equally, Creepshow is tons of fun. Everytime I go to the beach, I can't help but think, "I can hold my breath for a loooooooong time!" Incidentally, the tale that quote comes from is also the one responsible for some of my nightmares as a kid. Damn the presence of Leslie Nielson snookering me into thinking it might be funny (the young me was too overwhelmed by the horror to notice the funny)! Also appearing are Ted Danson, Hal Holbrook, Ed Harris, Tom Atkins, and Adrienne Barbeau. There's also a Creepshow 2 written by Romero (again based on King stories), but it's not nearly as good, aside from the excellent The Raft segment. I'm including the trailer simply because it's awesome.



Monkey Shines (1988)
After my recent "monkey with a knife vs. octopus" discussions, I'm more convinced than ever that an octopus would win after seeing Monkey Shines. A quadriplegic, Alan Mann, gets a helper monkey that was donated to be trained by his scientist brother. What starts off as a cute, handy little house helper starts getting into Mann's mind and runs about killing people. It seems there are only two ways to go with helper monkeys: murderous rampage or this...

What could be a completely silly concept is actually incredibly tense. It helps that the main character is nearly incapable of defending himself. It's kind of like the end of Rear Window when the killer comes over to L.B. Jeffries' apartment. A final note on the film: the monkey sounds were provided by none other than Frank Welker, the go to man for all your animal noise needs

Weekly Film Rec: The Exterminating Angel

I'm not really a Luis Bunuel fan. I actively enjoyed only one of his films I'd seen before The Exterminating Angel (which marks the 6th Bunuel film I've seen). That film, should you be curious, is That Obscure Object of Desire. Quite frankly, I think his films are a bit over my head. The culture he is often lampooning is foreign to me in country, era, and class. I'm a big fan of surrealism, but Bunuel's particular brand is somewhat mystifying. None of that has stopped me from watching Bunuel's other films. I'm curious about nearly anything that gets the Criterion treatment and he is considered a master of surrealist filmmaking. Since I already enjoy one of his films, it's safe to assume I'll enjoy another.

Two things struck me about title, The Exterminating Angel. The first is that it sounds like it should be a Kurosawa film (and even after seeing it, I still picture Toshiro Mifune as the eponymous angel). The second, and last, came in relation to the film being (generally) about a dinner party. The Exterminating Angel + dinner party =


Well, the title is a bit of a non sequitur. A number of upper class twits (to keep with the Monty Python references) get together for a dinner party but find that they can't leave. Some mysterious force is keeping them in and everyone else out. As the days pass, hunger and desperation sets in. These well-to-do gentle folk devolve. Tempers flare. Arguments break out. Hunger and thirst take control. Some die. Some lose reason. The most "civilized" of us turn to animals. Of course, all of this happens after the servants leave.

I wouldn't really call it a comedy, though it's very amusing. It's too absurd to be a drama. The Exterminating Angel is pitched at just the right level to be realistic and surrealistic. Bunuel (apparently) considers it a failure of sorts and wishes he'd been able to push it a bit further (I definitely expected some cannibalism, implied at the least), but I feel the film still works. Keep your ears and eyes open for the many instances of repetition (which will be much easier with the subtitles this trailer lacks, unless you speak Spanish).

Weekly Film Rec: McCabe and Mrs. Miller

I've finally decided to class this place up. There's another film I had in mind for this spot, but it shall wait for another day. This week, I'm going with Robert Altman's revisionist (if there is such a thing) western, McCabe and Mrs. Miller.



Before I get started, I feel like I'm in the minority of people who neither loves nor loathes the works of Altman. I've been on all points of the spectrum, but it seems most fall on one side or the other. He's done films I'll never see (A Prairie Home Companion, mainly because I don't like the radio show), films I hate (Nashville. I know, it's a crime) and films I love (MASH).

McCabe and Mrs. Miller started out in the Nashville category, rambling and rather dull. The only thing of note was the excellent use of Leonard Cohen's music. At about the halfway point, the McCabe started hooking me in. A plot began to form and a started noticing the performances, particularly Warren Beatty's. I kind of admire him for taking his fair share of leading man roles where he has a fairly large and emasculating character trait. His "I've got poetry in me" soliloquy is pretty fantastic, too.

Altman does little to make the West look appealing. I put a sweatshirt on while watching looking at all of those people bundled up in giant fur coats walking around 3 foot high drifts of snow (OK, my house was pretty chilly, too). The mud practically cakes on the screen and one wonders why anyone bothered dressing nicely back then. And, of course, you've got the crazy people just itching to shoot you for any reason (there's one particularly gut-wrenching moment in mind, both for it's cruelty and I was sad to see the actor go).

The ending is perfect. Emotions run high and low. Altman's old West isn't about good guys and bad guys. It's about a town that goes on regardless of anyone's big plans. He hints at a hundred different stories that could've been told in this same town (OK, maybe a bit less than a hundred), but he told about McCabe and Mrs. Miller. And it's a bittersweet tale.

Weekly Film Rec: From Beyond

I was going to apologize for yet another horror film, but A) one should never have to apologize for recommending horror films and B) I haven't really recommended that many. So while The Bad Sleep Well would have looked good for diversity and done much for my film geek street cred, I'm going to go with Stuart Gordon's From Beyond (though The Bad Sleep Well is pretty awesome).

Taken from a story by H.P. Lovecraft (much like Gordon's Re-Animator), From Beyond is about scientists who unlock access to a sixth sense by using a machine to stimulate the pineal gland thereby gaining access to a new plane of existence (and allowing those things within this plane access to you). I'm not entirely sure about the science of all of this (or the existence of a "pineal gland"), but if this is what it takes to play with some fantastic practical effects, then I'm more than willing to go for the ride.

Mainstay of Gordon's films, Jeffrey Combs, is the lead and even though he can sometimes be a bit too over-the-top (I'm looking at you, The Frighteners), I always love watching him. He's got this great manic energy that's perfect for a mad scientist type. Of course, he's not the mad scientist in this one, or at least not the maddest. There's at least two other that are more insane than he. One who gets to turn into a wicked beasty and Barbara Crampton, most notable because she was in Chopping Mall the same year.

I'd be completely remiss if I didn't mention genre all-star Ken Foree. He plays the comic relief here and does it quite well. It does feel a bit cliched having the sole black person being the funny one, but dammit, it's Ken Foree! Dawn of the Dead!

The film is by no means great, but it's a bit of fun with some disturbing effects. Great for a night of high quality cheese.

Weekly Film Rec: Scott Pilgrim vs The World

It seems a bit too soon to be recommending this since it's only been out for a few weeks, but dammit, no one is seeing it! The only people I know who have seen it are the group that went with me. It's Edgar Wright! When has he ever gone wrong? Spaced? Shaun of the Dead? Hot Fuzz? Don't? All classics!

OK, so maybe Wright is still floating around the fringes of the mainstream as he deals in esoterica. While his films stand on their own, there are so many references geared to a specific audience that it'd be easy to feel left out (hell, the Spaced DVD comes with an "Homage-O-Meter" option that is sort of a Pop-Up Video for the pop culture references).

I don't want to get into why people aren't seeing Scott Pilgrim (I could right a few thousand words defending Michael Cera alone). The fact is, the movie was made and the only people who should care about the money are the ones who have money to lose in it. It's a bit disheartening to see Vampires Suck reaching more viewers, but that, too, is a discussion for another time.

The biggest reason I have to give for everyone to see it is that I can't remember ever leaving the theater thinking that I've legitimately seen something different. From the fights to the integration of the comic and references, Scott Pilgrim simply feels new (while paying homage to an earlier time). I wanted to applaud twice in the first five minutes. Once when the Universal logo came up in 8-bit graphics with an appropriate 8-bit Universal fanfare and immediately after the amazing opening credits. That the movie is funny as hell is a bonus (seriously, Chris Evans and Brandon Routh are unbelievable).

Despite any reservations you might have, trust in Edgar Wright. He is your friend in cinema.

Weekly Film Rec: The Serpent and the Rainbow

Three to four years ago, I rented about seven horror movies to binge on over a weekend (for some reason, even though I was renting DVDs, I picture myself carrying a pile of those thick VHS Blockbuster boxes). Off the top of my head, I can only remember three of them for vastly different reasons. One was Eli Roth's Hostel, which I hated pretty passionately (and which wasn't nearly as gruesome as I'd expected [I'd expected some pretty intense gruesome-osity], so that was nice). Another was The Hitcher, which I didn't know much about aside from the fact that Roger Ebert hated it, genre fans loved it, and it starred C. Thomas Howell who I didn't have much of an opinion about aside from thinking of him painted black in Soul Man. That film blew me away from all angles. The third film in this memory trilogy was The Serpent and the Rainbow.

The reason The Serpent and the Rainbow sticks in my mind is because I never got to watch it. The weekend ran out and my roommate copied and burnt the DVD for me to watch, but I never got around to it and the disc got beat to hell and thrown out (it's not illegal to copy DVDs if no one ever watches them, right?). Finally, after years of anticipation (and prompting from a season 2 X-Files episode), I moved the film to the top of my Netflix queue.

Even after all these years, I still didn't know what the film was about aside from a powder that paralyzes people temporarily and nearly shuts down the body so it's impossible to tell if they are living or not. This leads to premature burial and the old voodoo-style zombie. The Serpent and the Rainbow is pretty clunky at times and has a few fairly jarring transitions, but damned if it isn't an effective horror film.

If there is one thing Wes Craven excels at, it's blurring line between the real world and the dream world. This could easily be The Nightmare on Elm Street 3.5: Freddy Goes to Haiti. The dream imagery is absolutely terrifying (I'm surprised I didn't have nightmares of that corpse bride). But as terrifying as the dreams are, the villain, played by Zakes Mokae, is even more intense. I barely felt safe watching him (and given his power, he probably knew I was watching).

It's rare that a horror film gets under my skin anymore and The Serpent and the Rainbow definitely achieved that. For that alone, I have to make it this week's film rec.

Weekly Film Rec: Hoop Dreams

The Weekly Film Rec hasn't been so weekly of late and I apologize for that. I've been missing in action for a few weeks, but now I'm back and armed to the teeth with good stuff!

The prospect of a three hour film is pretty daunting to begin with. The prospect of a three hour documentary can be even moreso (that is, if it's not in a serialized form). It's a lot of time to set aside in a day. Fortunately, I lucked into a significant chunk of free time after my trip back East and utilized Netflix' Instant View for this purpose.
I only knew vagaries about Hoop Dreams: that if followed the lives of two high schoolers hoping to play professional basketball. I don't really care for basketball and I know many people who don't care for sports in general, so there is a certain amount of trepidation regarding the subject matter. However, the Hoop Dreams, like any great documentary, offers so much more than what it's about on the surface.

It follows Willam Gates and Arthur Agee through four years of high school. The former at a revered Catholic powerhouse and the latter at an inner city school (although he was briefly at the powerhouse). There are a lot of ups and downs with each of the boys and their families and Hoop Dreams comments quite a bit on how the system does or does not work for struggling families. The most striking aspect of the film for me, though, is how much luck acts as a driving force in all of our lives.

Hoop Dreams is absolutely enthralling throughout, though oddly, the basketball scenes are generally pretty dull. You can attribute that mostly to the narrator who narrates with a dry monotone, but it actually doesn't harm the action on screen because you are so invested in these kids.

I really want to get the Criterion DVD because it has a commentary featuring Gates and Agee and I would love to hear what they have to say and how their lives panned out. It's not often one gets to relive a huge chunk of one's life like this and it'd be interesting to hear their perspective on their former outlook on life (I suspect not working harder in school is one regret).

Finally, Hoop Dreams gave me a much greater appreciation for the following Mr. Show sketch:

Weekly Film Rec: Hell in the Pacific

I haven't seen much in the past week that really jumped out at me, so my recommendation isn't based so much on how much I loved or even liked the film, but on how the film gets more interesting the more I think about it.

About two weeks ago, I was digging through a box of VHS at the Hollywood Theatre (where we have oodles of VHS for sale). The box contained a considerable amount of appalling dreck (and all of the Amy Grant video collections you could ask for!), but one film stood out. Aside from a colorful title, the film starred Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune. Two of the bad-assed-est bad-asses to ever walk the earth (or at least appear in movies). Add to that the recommendation of a co-worker and onto the Netflix queue it went!

The film takes place during WWII and Marvin and Mifune play soldiers washed up on a deserted island. Neither understands the other's language and tension is high from the start. While Marvin and Mifune are great (Marvin has some wonderfully bizarre mannerisms), for me, it fails to live up to the premise. There's a lot of area to be explored, which the film does, but it breezes through most of it and ultimately loses the thread.

However, the film has been sitting well with me. Partially because it is entertaining, but mostly because, much like Marvin, I don't speak Japanese and there are no subtitles. I'm as lost as he is and have to work to put together what Mifune is trying to communicate. The opposite holds true for those that only speak Japanese. There are two different experiences going on at the same time! It's a very cool idea. Perhaps most impressive, though, is that even if you didn't understand a single word either of them were saying, you would know exactly what is going on in the film. The dialogue is essentially inessential. Everything can be garnered from tone and action.

On top of that, the film is directed by John Boorman (Deliverance) and shot by the great Conrad Hall (Hall + tropical island = gorgeous). Definitely worth checking out.