a wintry mix.

Margaret...

2012-01-11T19:58:00.000-05:00

It's staggering to me just how much Fox Searchlight hates this film. They seem to have reluctantly sent out Academy Award screeners after the #teammargaret movement started on Twitter. They seem to have reluctantly put the film back into one theater in New York (the Cinema Village) after they pulled the film a week into its' initial release. The print at the Cinema Village looks like they rolled it down a flight of stairs before handing it over. I have never seen a studio so unwilling to acknowledge great work. Fox Searchlight should be launching a huge Oscar push for Anna Paquin, J. Smith-Cameron, and Jeannie Berlin. There are simply no performances this year that come close. Instead, Fox Searchlight is pushing for the unbelievably uninteresting Jessica Chastain in the completely vacant Tree of Life. Anyway, I'm just posting this because Margaret keeps getting held over at the Cinema Village and if you live in New York, you really must see it. It is a remarkably frustrating experience. It's a movie that is two and a half hours, but feels short and like it needs more room to breathe. I hope we can see Kenneth Lonergan's cut of the film someday, but given how much Fox Searchlight is out of their minds with this, I don't think it'll happen. I do hope when the DVD release comes along that there's also a blu-ray copy because, like I said, the print at the Cinema Village looks like it's been run over by a car. I also want a commentary track, but I don't think Fox Searchlight is going to spring for that. One day they'll be a book about the whole debacle and I can't wait to read it. You can read a little bit about it here and here.

Best Music of 2011...

2012-01-01T15:44:00.000-05:00

Admittedly much less interesting than my film list. I find myself less and less interested in finding new music. I'm content with the music I have. If I can't find something I want to listen to, I put on Bloc Party or Talkdemonic or Hood and that's all I need. Anyway, these aren't in any sort of order. I can't pick a favorite, but it's probably between EDM, Fredrik, and Metronomy. And Metronomy probably wins. I also compiled a playlist of some of my favorite songs from the below album. You can get that here.

EDM (Early Day Miners) - Night People

Metronomy - The English Riviera

Fredrik - Flora

Milkymee - To All the Ladies in the Place, with Style & Grace

Astronautalis - This is Our Science

13 & God - Own Your Ghost

Natalia Kills - Perfectionist

Class Actress - Rapprocher

Silver Swans - Realize the Ghost

The Deer Tracks - The Archer Trilogy Pt. 2

Martin John Henry - The Other Half of Everything

Worm is Green - Sunday Session 5.0

Nomad - No Magic

The Non-Comissionned Officers - Make-Out with Violence OST

Mirah (feat. Tender Forever) - Low Self Control

Low Roar - S/T

Human Don't Be Angry - Live in Leeds

When Saints Go Machine - Konkylie

M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

Adele - 21

Malcolm Middleton - A Quarter Past Shite

Datarock - Catcher in the Rye

Milkymee - Domaine OST

Carter Tanton - Free Clouds

Desert Hearts - Hotsy Totsy Nagasaki

Best Films of 2011...

2011-12-19T23:48:00.004-05:00

So here's my 2011 list. Some of them came out earlier. Some of them will come out later. Both Shit Year (on DVD early next year) and 3 Backyards (on DVD now) were on my 2010 list but were released this year. They are still just as amazing as they were last year. I still have not seen a few movies from this year, but I'm not expecting them to make my list (except maybe Margaret).

#1. Lotus Eaters

Bright young things behaving badly. Not sure when it'll get a release, but you can watch the trailer now.

#2. Silver Tongues

Absolutely devastating with two of the most horrifying performances you'll ever see. It's the cruelest movie ever made. This should be on DVD in March 2012. Watch the trailer now.

#3. Burning Bright

This is the actual plot description: A thriller centered on a young woman and her autistic little brother who are trapped in a house with a ravenous tiger during a hurricane. Somehow Carlos Brooks (also director of Quid Pro Quo) turns this comically terrible idea into something special.

#4. Kaboom

After the unwatchable Smiley Face, it's good to see Gregg Araki back in fine form. My mouth hurt from grinning the entire time.

#5. Last Night

Another movie where pretty people do things to hurt each other. It's my favorite genre.

#6. Dirty Girl

Very funny with incredible performances all around. Juno Temple owns.

#7. The Trip

There really aren't any words to describe this. It's a masterpiece.

#8. Bridesmaids

Impressive not only because it's incredibly funny, but also incredibly sad and true.

And in no particular order...

Beginners

Ceremony

Good Neighbors

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Martyrs

Shame

Source Code

The Myth of the American Sleepover

We Need To Talk About Kevin

Another Happy Day

Jess + Moss

Mildred Pierce

Scream 4

Sleeping Beauty

The Perfect Host

Turn Me On, Godammit!

Domaine

Man at Bath

The Roommate

Hanna

Road To Nowhere

No Strings Attached

Red State

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

The Adjustment Bureau

The Muppets

Love and Other Impossible Pursuits (The Other Woman)

Insidious

Bad Teacher

Hugo

Midnight in Paris

Drive

Contagion

Windows

Stuck Between Stations

Looking for Mr. Goodbar

Daydream Nation

L'Avventura

Immortals

Jade

Submarine

Another Earth

The Entitled

The Green

Tabloid

The Woman

The Innkeepers

The Last of Sheila

Trespass

Undocumented

Wendigo

The Resident

X-Men: First Class

Worst of the Year:

Sucker Punch or Battle: Los Angeles or You Again or Apollo 18

All of these films are incoherent. Sucker Punch has some really messed up views on women. Battle: Los Angeles is just dull. You Again is annoying and I couldn't get through 5 minutes and I really wish we'd stop trying to make Kristen Bell happen. It's not happening. Apollo 18 was surprisingly gorgeous at times. I liked the premise. It probably would've made a great short film. It made a terrible feature.

Most Disappointing:

Weekend

I'm genuinely baffled by the praise. I love Andrew Haigh's first film (Greek Pete), but this just did nothing for me. My only guess is that the praise is more about a positive not-completely-disgusting gay characters rather than the two-dimensional stereotypes we usually see in film. But two dull gay men do not a movie make. It's a gorgeous film and it means well, but I couldn't wait for it to end so I could clean my room.

2011-10-13T19:26:00.001-04:00

click to make big.

I feel like the characters in Woody Allen's Interiors are looking into the characters in Richard Ayoade's Submarine. The shot from Submarine stood out on my initial viewing, but I could figure out why. Now I know. Am I crazy or are these two shots speaking to each other?

2011-09-04T14:22:00.000-04:00

The best film I saw last year was Cam Archer's Shit Year. It's finally getting a theatrical release in New York on September 21st. You owe it to yourself to see it in the theater. Here's the just released trailer:

SHIT YEAR trailer from Mike Plante on Vimeo.

And check out the Cinemad website for more about Shit Year.

Best Films of 2010...

2010-12-15T17:28:00.011-05:00

Some came out years ago. Others come out next year. Either way, they all made an impression this year. It's also impossible to number them. But I will say 3 Backyards, Black Swan, and Shit Year are the three that have completely killed me. And there were apparently a ton of great horror films. Anyway, here we go in alphabetical order...

3 Backyards

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

All About Evil

Amer

Applaus

Away We Go

Best Worst Movie

Black Swan

Blessed

Bunny and the Bull

Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever

Chatroom

Cherrybomb

Chloe

City Island

Cracks

Dogtooth

Don't Look Back

Easy A

Enter the Void

Femme Fatale

Fish Tank

Gentlemen Broncos

I Am Love

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

Kick-Ass

Lake Mungo

Let Me In

Machete

Make-Out With Violence

Making Plans For Lena

Monogamy

My Soul To Take

Never Sleep Again

Piranha 3D

Please Give

Pontypool

Red Riding Trilogy

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Shit Year

Shutter Island

Snap

Someone's Knocking at the Door

Splice

Splinter

Temple Grandin

The American

The Babysitters

The Devils

The Extra Man

The Joneses

The Kids Are All Right

The Killer Inside Me

The Last Exorcism

The Social Network

The Squid and the Whale

The Substitute

The Wolfman

Triangle

Where The Truth Lies

You Don't Know Jack

Your Highness

Youth in Revolt

WORST:

Alice in Wonderland

(and not just the worst of this year. the. worst. i mean, explain this image. why is this happening? it's the saddest movie i've ever seen.)

Best Films of 2009...

2009-12-11T12:37:00.004-05:00

Tetro

Marie And Bruce

Sorority Row

Unmade Beds

Inglourious Basterds

The Immaculate Conception Of Little Dizzle

A Perfect Getaway

Adoration

Drag Me To Hell

Orphan

Where The Wild Things Are

Quarantine

World’s Greatest Dad

We Live In Public

Trick ‘R Treat

Two Lovers

The Uninvited

Franklyn

Deadgirl

Assassination Of A High School President

Bronson

Love Songs

A Single Man

Homecoming

Life During Wartime

Honorable Mentions:

A Christmas Carol

Adventureland

Bigger Than Life

Blind Date

Borderline

Breaking Upwards

Cat Dancers

Coraline

Downloading Nancy

Grace

Humpday

In The Loop

Just Another Love Story

La Belle Personne

Lymelife

Moon

Precious: Based On A Novel Push By Sapphire

Spread

Spring Breakdown

Stay Cool

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

The Girlfriend Experience

The House Of The Devil

The Last House On The Left

The Living Wake

Trash Humpers

Visioneers

Watchmen

Witch Hunt

WHOOPS. ADDING TWO:

JULIA

AVATAR

Julia actually should be #3 on the list. Right after Sorority Row. Avatar should go toward the end of the best of list.

The Uninvited review...

2009-01-28T22:59:00.001-05:00

January is when movie studios like to dump films they shouldn't have made (read: Inkheart, The Unborn, Bride Wars, Paul Bart: Mall Cop, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans). There's usually some poor attempts at remaking already poor J/K-Horror films. Last January it was One Missed Call, which has a whopping 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This year it's a remake of the Korean film, A Tale of Two Sisters. Apparently that title doesn't work for Americans, so it's now called The Uninvited. Expectations were low, but I figured that Elizabeth Banks would be good enough to make it worthwhile. She was. And the film is actually pretty excellent on a bunch of different levels. For a PG-13 horror film, it's exceedingly well-written. The film opens with the main character making out with a guy on the beach. He says, "I love you. I have a condom." In case you didn't know, that's amazing. Elizabeth Banks is turned up to eleven. Ms. Banks seems to be channeling Jamie Lee Curtis in Mother's Boys, which is a good thing. The whole movie is pretty much played out like a late 80s/early 90s piece of schlock. It reminded me of The Good Son and The Tie That Binds. They don't make movies like this anymore. Anyway, then there's the horror stuff. Not since Pet Sematary have I seen such incredible images of abject horror in a mainstream film. And a PG-13 one! There's a lot of bodies doing things that bodies should not be doing. Backs breaking, necks twisting, spines bending. And then there's the mother's "illness." I don't recall if they actually say that the mother has cancer, but it's clearly hinted at. The way her diseased body is presented is incredible. I'm not sure if any of this was intentional. I don't know what the movie was trying to be. What it ends up as is a satisfying B movie with some incredible scenes of abjection and an over-the-top performance by Elizabeth Banks. It's probably going to be one of my favorite films of the year. See it.

Long Island DUI Wall of Shame...

2009-01-11T12:08:00.001-05:00

This isn't film related, but it's too good to ignore. Long Island ~~rag~~ newspaper, Newsday, has a done a very good thing. They publish the mugshots of people that have been arrested for drunk driving. I can spend hours looking through the mugshots of mostly Long Island house fraus. Here are some of my favorites...

The Spirit...

2008-12-31T16:45:00.001-05:00

You know that list of my favorite films? Ignore it. The best film of the year is The Spirit. I love it so much, I may actually write a full review. I can't even handle it.

Best Films of 2008...

2008-12-18T14:35:00.001-05:00

I can't even try to number these. Some of them came out last year. Some of them haven't come out at all. Whatever the case, these are the best films I saw in 2008.

What We Do Is Secret

American Teen

Australia

Blindness

Blue State

Burn After Reading

Dark City: Director's Cut

Enduring Love

Expired

Good Dick

Hallam Foe

Hamlet 2

The Toe Tactic

Lakeview Terrace

Afterschool

Married Life

The Onion Movie

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Pineapple Express

Quid Pro Quo

Remember The Daze

Role Models

Spiral

Stuck

Synecdoche, New York

Teeth

The Go-Getter

The Ruins

The Wrestler

The Lost Coast

Towelhead

You, The Living

Zack And Miri Make A Porno

Cloverfield

Happy-Go-Lucky

Top 20 Albums of 2008...

2008-12-13T01:39:00.004-05:00

1. Metronomy - Nights Out

2. The B-52's - Funplex

3. Johnny Berlin - Find What You Love And Let It Kill You

4. Why? - Alopecia

5. Subtle - ExitingARM

6. Britney Spears - Circus

7. Ladyhawke - S/T

8. Kings Of Leon - Only By The Night

9. Malcolm Middleton - Sleight of Heart

10. Zucchini Drive - Goodbye Television Payback

11. Tilly and the Wall - O

12. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

13. TV On The Radio - Dear Science

14. Alanis Morissette - Flavors of Entanglement

15. Bloc Party - Intimacy

16. The Cure - 4:13 Dream

17. The-Dream - Love Hate

18. Alaska in Winter - Holiday

19. Quitzow - Art College

20. Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III

NOTE: I screwed up. Bad. I didn't realize the We Are Scientists album came out this year. It's high on my list. So this is now my Top 21 Albums of 2008

+ We Are Scientists - Brain Thrust Mastery

With all due respect, Faye Dunaway is a lunatic...

2008-10-08T10:20:00.006-04:00

It's hard to tell if Faye Dunaway has actually become crazier than Joan Crawford. I think she actually is. I mean, Joan drank. A lot. She had an excuse to act the way she did. I'm pretty sure Faye is sober. This leads me to believe that she is a raving lunatic. Xan Brooks of The Guardian recently had the privilege of interviewing her. He can confirm she's a lunatic. He also spread the word that Ms. Dunaway is in a new film.... a horror film.... as a one-armed cop! How has this even happened? I don't know. I was able to find a trailer for this film, Flick. It looks simultaneously horrendous and amazing.

I think I'm sort of digging it because it stars Hugh O'Connor, who I have had a man crush on since The Young Poisoner's Handbook. Back to the issue at hand.... WTF? This Faye Dunway in this film, running around with a prosthetic wooden arm is the same woman that left this humorless voicemail message for the producer of Dunaway biography...

I love that she feels a need to bring up the Maroln Brando and Johnny Depp film numerous times. I love even more that it seems like she's either too ashamed or can't remember the name of Don Juan Demarco, "which [she] was wonderful in," as she'll have you know. I also think it's great that she blames 1981's Mommie Dearest as ending her career. I think she should cite 1978's Eyes of Laura Mars for ending her career. Hell, throw a stone at any film she made in the 80's and you'll hit a horrible movie (read: Supergirl).

Anyway, this post is mostly an excuse to find wacky pictures of Faye Dunway, so that's what I've done. It's excuse to post the incredible voicemail message that isn't as widely circulated as it should be. And it's an excuse to reprint this incredibly well written article by Xan Brooks in which he learns not to ask Faye Dunway if she ever threw a cup of urine at Roman Polanski...

Rebels, robbers - and rages

She was the face of 70s Hollywood, alongside Nicholson, Beatty and McQueen. Just don't ask Faye Dunaway about Roman Polanski.
By Xan Brooks

Actor Faye Dunaway. Photograph: Felix Clay

Before being led upstairs to meet Faye Dunaway, I sit in the bar with the British director of her latest film. David Howard kindly runs me through the things I am absolutely not to ask her. Firstly, there must be no mention of Mommie Dearest, the Joan Crawford biopic credited with destroying Dunaway's career. Nor must I ask her about Andrew Lloyd Webber, who bumped her from the Los Angeles production of Sunset Boulevard in 1994; or about her adult son, who may or may not be adopted; or about the cosmetic surgery that she may or may not have undergone. Is that it? "Yes," says Howard. "I think that's the lot." He turns out to be wrong.

Faye Dunaway's reputation precedes her. One of the most compelling actors of her generation and a powerful emblem of 1970s American cinema, she came to fame as a cornfed killer in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), played the doomed Evelyn Mulwray in Chinatown (1974), and won an Oscar for her turn as a rapacious TV executive in Network (1976). But her reputation as a performer has gone hand-in-hand with a reputation as a diva. She has been called difficult and temperamental; after working with her on Chinatown, Roman Polanski said she was unhinged. Maybe this reputation is justified, maybe it's not. All I know is that, despite the warnings, I wind up blundering across another of those Questions That Must Not Be Asked - and after that, all hell breaks loose.

Matters begin brightly enough. This is Dunaway's first British press interview in nearly 20 years and she comes wafting into the hotel suite, every inch the solicitous southern hostess (she was born in Florida). She is wearing a floating lilac dress, her blonde hair lifted as if by a gentle breeze, Dunaway arranges herself on the couch and then finds it is not to her liking. I am sitting with my back to the window and the light is in her eyes. "Now I can't see you," she says and gets up to close the curtains.

Dunaway is in London to talk about her role in Flick, a cheap and cheerful horror movie screening at the Raindance film festival. It features a game performance from Dunaway as a one-armed Memphis cop on the trail of a zombie Teddy boy. Howard explains that, in casting Dunaway, he was taking his lead from Roger Corman, the B-movie producer who made a habit of hiring older Hollywood legends such as Ray Milland to appear in his movies.

"Oh yeah," says Dunaway when I mention this. "I heard that he said that. I think he was going for - not old Hollywood, let's not say that. But maybe a little of the old-style glamour."

The shoe fits. It seems no accident that Dunaway's two most indelible roles (in Bonnie and Clyde, and Chinatown) came in Depression-era period movies. Even as a young actor, she looked a creature out of time: a burnished throwback to the era of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, all sharp angles and radioactive glamour. Her contemporaries Jane Fonda, Ellen Burstyn and Julie Christie seemed to belong more to the rough-and-tumble 1970s. But Dunaway ("as quick and vivid as a flame", in the words of critic David Thomson) always held herself differently - aloof and apart. She never played the ingenue; even as a young actor, there was something formidable about her.

Dunaway frowns. "I don't know if I was formidable. Maybe some of the later roles veered in that direction. But you can't say Bonnie and Clyde was formidable, or even Chinatown - maybe a little bit. Network was formidable in the sense that I was playing a strong, avant-garde woman." She weighs up the adjective, trying to work out whether or not it's a slight. "Maybe formidable is OK."

The daughter of an army sergeant, Dunaway spent an itinerant childhood travelling between bases in Texas, Utah and Germany. Six decades on, she claims she still feels like the rootless kid from the wrong side of the tracks, and retains an affinity for Bonnie Parker, that gum-chewing waitress turned superstar bank-robber. "It's the role that's closest to me," she says. "I was a southern girl and so was Bonnie. We share the frustrations of living in that small, limited environment - dying to get out and move forward in the world. That was part of my makeup as a girl."

Life was good in the wake of that film's success. Alongside Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty and Ellen Burstyn, Dunaway became a mainstay of what is now regarded as a classic period in American movies that ran from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s - starting with Bonnie and Clyde and ending with Star Wars. Did it feel that way at the time? No, she says, of course it didn't.

"You only know it in hindsight. Most of those movies were made within the studio system, which was innovative and rare. Now those movies have to fight really hard to be made and get seen, and it's all because of Mr George Lucas and Star Wars. Everything changed, and since then Hollywood has wanted to make blockbusters, which is why we're into these comic-book movies." She smiles. "I don't think my films would even get made today. Certainly not within the studio system.

Since she won the best actress Oscar in 1976, Dunaway's successes have been more fitful. She was given a Golden Raspberry award, or Razzie, for her wild-eyed Crawford impersonation in 1981's Mommie Dearest. ("It was meant to be a window into a tortured soul," she said at the time. "But it was made into camp.") She sued Lloyd Webber after she was dropped from the cast days before Sunset Boulevard was set to open in LA. Added to this were reports about her behaviour: after directing her on the set of Chinatown, Polanski described Dunaway as "a gigantic pain in the ass" and said that she "demonstrated certifiable proof of insanity". This view seemed to gain traction as the leading-lady roles grew scarcer.

Does the whole thing come down to a case of Hollywood sexism, I ask her. After all, nobody ever complained about her former co-stars Jack Nicholson, Steve McQueen or Marlon Brando being a little bit wild or rebellious.

But Dunaway doesn't bite: she can't think what I mean. "Has Jack been rebellious? He does things on his own terms and accepts that things have meaning. Too often we are asked to aim lower. I think that maybe what I have in common with some of the men you've mentioned is that we question things, and think how we can make them better and truer. But I don't ever remember being rebellious."

Most of the stories, I prompt her, stemmed from the set of Chinatown. Dunaway shoots me a look. "Oh," she says. "The Roman thing. Well, he's an auteur, and at the time he had his own pressures, and I don't really want to go into it. But you really want there to be collaboration and you really want there to be kindness, and sometimes that was impossible. The pressures of the moment mean that we all lost our patience a little bit - even Jack."

In his bestselling book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Peter Biskind paints a grisly picture of life on the Chinatown set. Dunaway and Nicholson were both accustomed to a looser, more creative way of working, and here they were acting for a European director who regarded himself as the boss and his players as staff. Tempers flared on both sides. Biskind reports that Polanski once forcibly plucked a stray hair from Dunaway's head, because he thought it was catching the light and spoiling his shot. He also claims that Dunaway later took her revenge by throwing a cup of urine in the director's face after she was refused a bathroom break.

Is this true, that she once threw a cup of urine over Roman Polanski?

It is as if an electric current has gone through her. "I won't respond to that," she blurts. "That doesn't even deserve the dignity of a response. I don't know the details of that. It is absolutely ridiculous."

OK, so the story is untrue. "This from the Guardian?" she explodes. "I don't believe it! It is insulting that you would even bring it up!" Abruptly, the outrage seems to lift her from her seat. "I can't go on with this," she announces to the far wall. "I think you've brought up something that is so distasteful." She can barely get the words out. "You know very well," she says. "I am a lady and you were completely insulting."

It dawns on me that I am being thrown out. I am not sure this has ever happened before, and it is a peculiarly horrible feeling. By now Dunaway is at the far side of the room. She says she is going to ring down to the film-makers. She is incandescent with rage.

"Look," I say. "I'm very sorry. I didn't intend to insult you."

She rounds on me with the phone in one hand. "Yes, you did! Yes, you did! You don't speak of that unless you had an intention." We stare at each other for a second. "My God," she says, as though clobbered by a fresh revelation. "I turned down the Mail to do this!"

Outside, the sky is clouding over. I run into Flick's director and producer. We are all a little shaken, ashen-faced. We stare at the ground. "OK," I tell them. "Turns out I couldn't ask about Polanski either."

Before I finish up, it's important to note that Faye Dunway is an amazing actress. I highly recommend you check out Puzzle of a Downfall Child, where Faye plays a fashion model that suffers from a mental breakdown. It's amazing. It's unavailable pretty much anywhere but here. That link will get you a DVD copy of a VHS transfer of the film... letterboxed.... with French subtitles at the bottom. It sucks, but it's the only way to see it. Now, onto more wackiness...

Get Smart review....

2008-10-06T22:26:00.000-04:00

Hello. I've been absent and I apologize. I bring you my review of the a very bad movie based on a very good television show. It goes something like this: ABBA joke, fat joke, fat joke, "terrorist" joke, deaf joke, fat joke, gay joke, fat joke, George Bush joke, random fat joke, George Bush joke, gay joke, the end. With all that said, the movie is surprisingly well directed considering the director's past work (read: Nutty Professor II: The Klumps). Alan Arkin and Bill Murray come out of the disaster relatively unscathed. I can't say the rest for anyone else in this. It's awful.

Mother's Boys...

2008-06-03T10:54:00.004-04:00

A DVD store in downtown Brooklyn was closing. I took the opportunity to spend about $200 in there on Sunday. By far, the best DVD purchase was the bootleg VHS transfer of the 1994 sexy Jamie Lee Curtis debacle, Mother's Boys. I saw this staring at me and I had to have it. I've selected one of the film's finer moments for you to enjoy:

Less Than Zero and me...

2008-05-13T16:15:00.006-04:00

I had the privilege of seeing a pristine 35mm print of Less Than Zero at BAM. What I didn't know was that the film's cinematographer, Ed Lachman, was going to be there for a Q&A. And when I heard this, I actually gasped and wasn't sure what to do with myself. He took the mic and was effortlessly cool and mentioned how the film was completely butchered by producer, Jon Avnet (who he wouldn't mention by name). He explained how the producers actually took Marek Kanievska's cut of the film away from him and made their own. They removed tons of drugs and sex and tacked on things to make the characters more likable. He mentioned that he shot an amazing scene with Clay fingering Blair under the table at the Christmas eve dinner. After he mentioned it, I actually noticed some hand movements going on in the long shot during that scene. It was a cheap thrill. He mentioned that he shot a really long scene with the Red Hot Chili Peppers performing. And that was completely cut. He mentioned that Clay was originally more like the Clay in the book. He mentioned that the film score, which he hates, was completely different and more "European." Okay. So he doesn't seem to like the movie very much. He finishes his introduction and sits down. And I nearly orgasm once I see this fucking print. I really have no words. Less Than Zero is a beautiful film, but I really wasn't ready for seeing it like this. What shocked me most was Andrew McCarthy's ass shot at the beginning. It seems so fleeting on the DVD, but it's totes in your face in 35mm. Anyway, blah blah blah. I start feeling tense as the film is coming to an end. And then, the shot comes. And as expected, I lost it. I stupidly sat in the middle of the theater and realized the back would have been easier to hide in. I cover my face as best I can as I slouch into my seat and just cry and cry and cry and cry. And I felt so fucking stupid. But whatever. The film ends. Hipster #1 asks (the cinematographer!?!) a question about Robert Downey Jr. and what he was like. And then an okay guy asked a good question about what his favorite shot was. And then Ed Lachman went on about how everyone talks about Robert Downey Jr. and his drug problems, but he thought Andrew McCarthy had a much bigger problem that most people weren't aware of. I thought that was weird. And then he went off on how Jamie Gertz never really acted after the film, but that's not true at all. Bitch was in Sibling Rivalry, The Boyfriend School, Twister, Keeping Up With The Steins, and some CBS sitcom. He said how she left Hollywood and moved back to Chicago and got married and was real religious and her father was a rabbi or cantor. I didn't care to correct him. And then I actually raised my hand and asked a question that I've wanted the answer to for years. I profess my love for the shot in question and ask how it was done. Because it's unlike any shot I've ever seen. And in 1987, to create a shot like this... I just can't even imagine. He said it was done with a helicopter around the time that the gyro stabilizer thing was invented. And I thought that's what it was, but I think because the technology was in it's infancy, the end result is one of the most unusual and perfect moments ever captured on film. And then he continued to explain that the shot was even better than what's in the final cut. The shot actually continues into the car and then pulls back out far enough that eventually the car disappears. But instead, Jon Avnet FORCED Marek Kanievska to tack on that awful ending that's completely random and poorly written. This makes me want to kill Jon Avnet, who has since gone on to become a terrible director. I mean, I seriously need this shot, but it will most likely never exist because the director's cut is gone and this is such a terrible thing. Anyway, it's now been a bunch of hours since I left the theater and I can't shake the entire experience. I feel like the nerdiest film fuck on the planet right now. Ed Lachman is such a genius, and here I am focusing on a film that I don't think he likes very much. He did mention his favorite shot in the movie. And I hadn't noticed it until I saw it this evening, but it's absolutely beautiful. But again, sadly, the shot was cut short and it's only on screen for a fraction of a second. It's really unbelievable to me that all the tampering that went on during the production isn't a well known story. I think everyone just assumed that Hollywood made a sucky version of a good book. And that would be true, but there's a good movie lost in the "sucky" version, which I don't think is so much "sucky" as it is completely removed from the source material. Anyway....

best films of 2007...

2007-12-11T23:42:00.001-05:00

there will be blood.

no country for old men.

i know who killed me.

on the road with judas.

silence becomes you.

control.

elizabeth: the golden age.

everything's gone green.

hot fuzz.

juno.

bug.

snow angels.

stardust.

sunshine.

the ten.

vacancy.

who loves the sun.

wind chill.

youth without youth.

zoo.

the savages.

rocket science.

normal adolescent behavior.

the mist.

hostel: part II.

eagle vs. shark.

death proof.

cashback.

beowulf.

28 weeks later...

ira and abby.

fay grim.

broken english.

just buried.

swedish auto.

bugcrush.

wristcutters: a love story.

wild tigers i have known.

knocked up.

i could never be your woman.

superbad.

300.

black snake moan.

the tv set.

zodiac.

my plans for kid nation...

2007-12-07T14:47:00.000-05:00

so kid nation. if you're not watching it, you're missing out. this week, they sent the town council off on a vision quest where they found real life native american actors! anyway, whenever the kids have to make some big decision, the show is edited so we get reaction shots of all the kid's faces. and last night, i thought it would be really great if the producers would insert a quick shot of hitler looking pensive. so anyway, when i have some time, i'm going to edit hitler into the show. it will make a great show even better. this is what i wish to do with my free time. i'm clearly not well.

night of the white pants review...

2007-12-07T12:34:00.000-05:00

i walked out of night of the white pants because it was atrocious. it was the "punk" equivalent to meet the parents. people laughed. nothing was funny. i didn't crack a smile once. rather, i nearly cried during "humorous" cocaine scene. and felt sick during most of the film. and making fun of a woman who's deaf and has cerebral palsy is not funny. and using the famous rod stewart line, "'i'm never gonna get married again... i'm just gonna find a woman who hates me and buy her a house," without crediting rod stewart is fucked up. and this line got the biggest laugh in the audience i was in. amy talkington sucks as a writer. and as a director. boo. hiss. i can't believe i walked out of a movie that selma blair was in. i should've known it would be bad... her part was originally intended for amanda peet.

clerks II review...

2007-12-07T12:29:00.000-05:00

the negro theater manager walks into the theater as "porch monkeys 4 life" appears on the screen. his body language suggests that he is not happy. i slouch down in my seat. i do not want to be seen. my father says "uh oh" when dante's fiance walks in on him kissing rosario dawson. we were the only two people in the theater. i didn't like clerks II. i'm so conflicted. the main problem is that it's clerks II only because it's trying so hard to be clerks II. when that's stripped, we're left with a very good film about thirty-somethings. and it's a very good film. one with rosario dawson. and trevor fehrman, who is seriously the hottest most amazing human being i've ever laid eyes on. unfortunately, the majority of the time, the film is just forcing it's stale humor on us. even worse, brian o'halloran and jeff anderson seemed to have aged twenty years. they look terrible. distractingly so. in fact, they are two people who should have never been seen in color. it's just the whole clerks thing; it's so done. for me, at least. and i think it's done for kevin smith, too. hence the confused film. because half of this movie... half of it is stunning. like truly well directed. and meaningful. and great. there's a shot of rosario dawson dancing on the roof of mooby's that gave me chills and nearly made me cry. there's some dialogue that's truly sharp and spectacular. and this is sandwiched in between a man named kelly blowing a donkey. it just is... boring. and dull. in his defense, kevin smith always talked about how mallrats was supposed to be a throwback to wacky 80's high school comedies. well, if i were him, i'd start saying similar things about this film. because it would make it more forgivable. if his goal was to make an updated male version of modern girls, hooray! he did it. but it is very far removed from clerks. and i think it was ill conceived to make a fake sequel to a film that didn't need a sequel. because... for real... had he named this something else, ditched dante and randall, kept rosario dawson, added ryan gosling and jason biggs, held back on trying to shock us into laughter and kept the basic idea... he would have had gold. i did enjoy the movie. but i didn't like it. and just as i expected, my father liked it more than i did. oh, and i finally saw wanda sykes be funny. i have always wondered who she was and why she was in my life. she just always seemed like the token black woman. and the joke is... she's black. i was beginning to think she was the modern day isabel sanford, but without the talent. but i was wrong. she owns the two minutes she's on screen in clerks II. and finally, probably my favorite part of clerks II is the musical montage set to the jackson five's abc, complete with dancers and a crane shot. the crane shot is the reason the movie cost five million to make. and that crane shot was fucking worth it. i admire kevin smith for shooting something completely unnecessary just because he could get the money. like, that's a dream of mine. to get my hand on a crane. mmm mmmm. done.

united artists farmingdale/little children review...

2007-12-07T12:24:00.001-05:00

united artists farmingdale:
the man pushes the "purchase tickets" button on the ticket machine. he hits the button. once. twice. three times. four times. this goes on for minutes. we question how it's possible that it hasn't occurred to him that it's broken. has he not noticed the long line waiting for the other ticket machine and the no line formed in front of the broken one? his wife suggests that perhaps the machine is broken. good call. the woman in front of us is panicked that the film will be sold out. she's making me and her husband nervous. i see that she purchases the ticket to the film we're seeing and wonder if i can get a seat next to her. i'm sure any movie seen with her is a thriller. tickets are purchased. we enter auditorium six and find a seat up top next to a nerdy looking couple. luckily, we miss the majority of "the twenty" or whatever it's called now. secretly, i'm upset by this. and wonder how many times dwayne "the rock" johnson can be forced upon me. and secretly, i like that, too. as much as i want to see stranger than fiction, if i see the trailer on more time, i'll implode. this is similar to the feeling i have every time i see the catch a fire trailer. seriously, i can't handle it anymore. release this fucking movie. it's the longest trailer for the most uninteresting looking film i've ever seen. and what is tim robbins voice? the perfume trailer settled me down. just before the nativity story trailer revved me up again. did catherine hardwicke do something wrong? was she forced to make this movie? a movie about mary and joseph from the writer of... radio and the rookie? it comes out december 1st. i'm busy that day. the feature film starts. and that's when the real fun begins. the woman behind me seemed to be eating popcorn out of an magical endless popcorn bag. and she must have ham hands, because she couldn't reach in this bag without hitting the sides. eating popcorn never felt so much like a game of operation. i would have rather she played uncle wiggily. gosh, was this woman a sleuth. she predicted everything. every second of the movie, she was right there with us to make sure we understood what was going on. sure, she needed help occasionally. her eyesight wasn't too good. if i never hear, "what does that say?" again, it will be too soon. and her hearing isn't too great either. i came to this conclusion after she asked, "what did he/she say?" for the fifth time. and she also has an issue with human sexuality, which i realized when she didn't understand that the man was masturbating. i figured this one out when she said, "what is he doing? what is he doing? what is he doing? . . . . . . . . he's masturbating?!?" in fact, a lot of people were confused by that. in fact, like bruce said, the whole audience was similar to an audience of children watching a cartoon for the first time. i wasn't too sure these people has ever left their house prior to this evening. when i think back to the sold out, pg13 audience of the ring, i'm pretty sure i recall those kids having more common sense than the thirty/forty/fifty-somethings i saw this film with tonight. and to give you an idea of how scary that is, after the ring was over, a girl turned to bruce and myself and asked us if her hair looked scared. the answer was yes. but we said no. funny enough, if someone had asked us that same question this evening, the answer would have been yes. and we would have said yes. as we're leaving the parking lot, a guy who looked just like the villain in police academy 5: assignment: miami beach got out of his car, stepped in front of my car, held his hand out as if he was re-enacting diana ross and the supremes singing stop in the name of love, had his wife get out and step into the driver's sear so that they could pull out. bruce questioned why i obeyed his wishes. and i explained to bruce that if this guy looked at me one more time, i was going to throw up and i just wanted it to go away as fast as it could. the man's wife is unsuccessful in pulling the car out. she says, "i can't move it." he frustratingly gets back in the car and i drive away before i have to deal with him again. i leave the parking lot adding "saturday" to the list of days i can't leave the house.

little children:
three/fourths of this film is one of the finest films of the year. one/fourth is not very good at all. the cast was uniformly excellent. kate winslet summoned a bit of toni collette. and that was a good move. patrick wilson is the best looking man alive (right after tygh runyan). and seeing trini alvarado and jane adams pop up was really quite appreciated. but last last quarter of this film becomes needless. pointless. and feels too similar to in the bedroom, which i didn't like. now, this film can sort of be put along with in the bedroom, we don't live here anymore and the house of sand and fog. they're all in someway connected either through writers or directors of blood relations. the house of sand and fog is an atrocious movie that somewhat works right up until it's ludicrous finale. in the bedroom starts well and goes nowhere. and we don't live here anymore is decent, but lacks a punch until its incredible ending. if you replaced the last quarter of little children with the last quarter of we don't live here anymore, you'd have a perfect movie. it's a shame it didn't turn out that way. little children moves with such perfect flow that when it falls apart, it's simply jarring. it sucked me right out of the whole thing and it made me wonder why it didn't end at the hour and forty minute mark rather than stretching to two hours and ten minutes. for everything the film does wrong, it's worth seeing for one scene in particular. the recently released sex offender takes a trip to the public pool. he puts on his flippers and snorkel and begins to dive under the water to swim with the children's crotches. soon, the mothers at the pool realize who this man is and, like a chain reaction, all start running to the pool to get their children away from this sexual predator. this. scene. is. stunning. period. like i couldn't handle it. it's worth seeing just for this.

twister...

2007-12-07T12:18:00.000-05:00

the amazing typo on the new twister dvd packaging really made me happy...

the ten teaser trailer released....

2007-02-20T11:25:00.000-05:00

what is it: the ten. directed by david wain.

who in it: everyone. jessica alba, zak orth, adam brody, rob corddry, paul rudd, famke janssen, kerri kenney, joe lo truglio, ken marino, a.d. miles, gretchen mol, oliver platt, winona ryder, liev schreiber, ron silver, justin theroux, kevin allison, janeane garofalo, michael ian black, ben garant, nina hellman, seth herzog, thomas lennon, michael showalter, and david wain.

why you should care: go to the website and watch the teaser trailer. and then you will know why you should care.

blood and chocolate...

2007-01-30T22:38:00.000-05:00

blood and chocolate. was a complete disaster. even more nonsensical than demi moore flying in charlie's angels: full throttle. and nearly as incoherent as ultraviolet. after sitting through the whole film, i have no idea what happened. i don't know what the plot was. i don't remember any names. i actually barely remember the movie. i know there's a lot of running. and a lot of jumping. like pointless jumping. like agnes bruckner will randomly jump onto a wall and then back onto her feet... for no reason. i know that there was a generic "blossoming romance" montage complete with sappy music and a roll around in a fountain. there's this annoying slow motion blurring effect that is overused and makes the film look cheap. and most of the budget seemed to be spent on the big explosion at the end of the film. i know that oliver martinez, who was so lovely in unfaithful, has completely hit the wall. he now looks like his own grandfather. i know that agnes bruckner and hugh dancy are terrific and try their hardest to make something good, or at least campy, out of this mess. but they fail. and the result is an hour and a half of agnes and hugh's paid bucharest vacation. i took a look at the trailer when i got home and only then did i realize what the plot was. they should show the trailer before the movie because otherwise it don't make no sense. ehren kruger keeps reminding me how much i hate him. he's responsible for the brilliant arlington road. and since then, he's been responsible for some of the worst films imaginable (read: scream 3, reindeer games, imposter, the ring, the skeleton key, the brothers grimm). but in nearly all of those cases, the director of each film was talented enough to make something decent out of the shit material. i thought katja von garnier was talented enough to make something good out of this mess. i loved her 1997 film, bandits. but she failed. and that's the name of that tune. but golly, agnes bruckner and hugh dancy are mighty attractive.

wild tigers i have known...

2007-01-30T15:15:00.000-05:00

wild tigers i have known. was simply astounding. pitch perfect. every line. every shot. it captured the middle school experience in a way that i didn't think possible. the awkward teen angst. every shot was like a painting. every character was cast to perfection. fairuza balk gives the best performance of her career (read: i can actually understand what she's saying). anyway, this is how it goes: logan is a boy who develops a crush on rodeo, the chief loner at school. in an attempt to get rodeo's attention, logan creates a character named leah. leah's goal is to lure rodeo into some sex. and i don't want to say i related to this... but i did. and lines like, "sometimes girls make me want to sleep." are simply beyond perfection. cam archer is going to be an incredibly important filmmaker very soon. i love this movie.

death by milk truck/murder by meat...

2006-07-21T10:09:00.000-04:00

so if you're in new york, this is what you're going to do. on thursday, july 27th, the film expiration date is playing at the stony brook film festival. this is going to be a spectacular film. i'm positive. so you really should try and see it.

and this week at the pioneer theater is gregory hatanaka's mad cowgirl. i'm not sure what i can say about this film. watch the trailer. it features a killer roxette cover. and it stars sarah lassez and james duvall. and any movie with egg is okay by me.

the woods gets a release date (sort of)...

2006-06-28T10:37:00.000-04:00

after nearly three years of waiting, lucky mckee's the woods is finally seeing some sort of release... in germany... on dvd. which is great news for anyone with an all region dvd player. the film will go direct to dvd on august 31st. amazon.de does not seem to have it listed yet, but when they do, i'd suggest buying it from them. sony has treated this film terribly and doesn't seem to have any interest in releasing it in the states; they pulled it from their 2005 schedule, and more recently, from their 2006 schedule. i am ecstatic. agnes bruckner + patricia clarkson + bruce campbell + lucky mckee = good times. the cover art and (pulled) trailer are posted below.

satellite gets a release date...

2006-06-22T16:14:00.000-04:00

one of the best films i saw at last year's tribeca film festival was jeff winner's satellite. the film will finally see a proper release this august at the pioneer theater in manhattan. tickets are on sale now. make sure you see this movie.

four eyed monsters...

2006-06-19T14:44:00.000-04:00

hello. i apologize for the absence. i have many reviews to write. and many things to say. i'll start with this. next tuesday, indiewire is doing another one of their "unreleased gems" screenings. and on this evening, you'll finally get to see four eyed monsters. and there will be a q&a after. and then there will be a party after that's open to anyone that attends the screening. it's at 7:30pm. it's at the cinema village at 22 east 12th street. i think tickets will go on sale friday. and that's when i'm buying mine. so yeah. join me.

New York, NY - Cinema Village

Tuesday June 27th @ 7:30pm | Wednesday June 28th @ 7:30pm
Print B&W flyer | Directions | Who is attending
Trailer | Video Podcast

the quiet release date...

2006-05-08T22:25:00.000-04:00

after thursday, i'll be able to post my reviews for all of the tribeca film festival films i saw. pictures will be posted, as well. but that's not important right now. what's important right now is the quiet. i was lucky enough to see this in toronto. it's jamie babbit's incredible follow-up to but i'm a cheerleader. the release date for the film has been unknown... until now. this is from imdb.com. it's important, so make note of it...

The Quiet [LA/NY]
Director: Jamie Babbit
Stars: Camilla Belle, Elisha Cuthbert, Edie Falco (Full Cast)
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

The Plot: Dot (Bell), a young deaf woman, is sent to live with the Deer family after her widower father passes on. Now living with a lecherous father (Donovan), pill-addicted mother (Falco), and vengeful sister (Cuthbert), Dot's presence begins to coax out the Deer's dirty secrets.

The Buzz: The second film from Jamie Babbit (But I'm a Cheerleader) is also the first film from the production company Burnt Orange, a University of Texas organization designed to let students work alongside pro filmmakers. Totally cool. What's cooler is most advance reviews indicate Babbit has stepped up her game since the wildly uneven Cheerleader didn't live up to its hype back in 1999. Reportedly as broody as it is tongue-in-cheek, look for co-stars Cuthbert and Bell to pack in people of all persuasions as they get their suburban angst out. Watch out for that piano wire, though ..

the notorious bettie page...

2006-04-23T00:04:00.000-04:00

the notorious bettie page (2005).
written by mary harron and guinevere turner.
directed by mary harron.

i just got back from the notorious bettie page. and boy, are my arms tired. this is a terrific film. it's also a film that i find very difficult to describe in detail. it should already be clear to you that the film is about pin-up queen bettie page. and that's pretty much it. i remember there was talk about making a bettie page movie for many years prior to this film's release. i remember hearing people saying no one could play bettie page properly. and when gretchen mol was cast, i, like most people, had no idea how that was going to work out. how could this actress possibly play this woman? a worse choice didn't seem possible. but i was very very wrong. gretchen mol owns this movie. she is bettie page. there's so much life in her performance. it's just indescribable. she's incredible. on a technical level, i have to say that it's mary harron's best work to date. the fifties actually look like the fifties. the color shots are punchy as if displayed in amazing technicolor®. all of the performances are top notch. and if you're a nerd like me, you'll enjoy (briefly) seeing norman reedus, cara seymour, and tara subkoff in the film. the entire movie just put a smile on my face. it's a hard film for me to review. but it's one that i highly recommended.

after the film was the q&a with mary harron and cinematographer, mott hupfel. as expected of any q&a at the cinema arts centre, the questions were inane. and i learned nothing. well that's not true. i came away with the knowledge that the cinematographer was inspired by old samuel fuller films (in particular, pickup on south street). and a former classmate of mine made a very interesting point. he noticed that bettie page (in this film) and patrick bateman (from american psycho) are two stagnant characters that don't really change much (or even at all) throughout the course of their respective films. mary harron agreed and doesn't understand why films always follow that basic structure. her first film, i shot andy warhol also features a stagnant protagonist. i enjoy this very much. and i like that it's something she strives for. oh, and she also revealed that she's working on getting funding to make a film version of the book, please kill me: the uncensored oral history of punk. this is very good news, indeed.

finally, at the reception that followed the q&a, i briefly spoke to mary harron. she informed me that she just received a $7 residual check for the recent airing of pasadena on soap net. she was seemingly unaware that they had aired and to my surprise, didn't even know the (forced) conclusion to the show. she was responsible for directing one of the series' finest episodes and also had a cameo in said episode. she's incredibly nice. incredibly beautiful. and she just so gosh darn talented. for those unaware of this show, it aired four times on fox back in 2001 before it was cancelled. thirteen episodes were completed. they were all recently aired for the first time on soap net. you should check that out and see if it's scheduled to re-air anytime soon. (right alongside cop rock) it's one of the best shows you've never seen.

saturday. april 22nd...

2006-04-21T14:27:00.000-04:00

tomorrow is all about options. you could go see bif naked at rothko. you could go see islands and why? at avalon. you could see the dresden dolls at webster hall. but my recommendation is that you ditch the city and come to the huntington cinema arts centre to see the notorious bettie page at 7pm. why should you pick this option? because director, mary harron, will be there in person, along with the film's cinematographer, mott hupfel. mary harron is quite a talented lady. she's responsible for american psycho, i shot andy warhol, and one of the best episodes of mike white's pasadena. it should be a good time. i'll be back to write my thoughts on the film on sunday.

an introduction of sorts...

2006-04-20T12:05:00.000-04:00

no. this isn't an attempt at becoming the next joblo or aintitcoolnews. this cannot be that. this is something way more special. for years, i've been told that i have rather good taste in films and music. for years, i've been asked to start a website dedicated to just film and music recommendations. and that's what this is; an entire blog dedicated to film and music that you will most definitely like and that you may not already know about. i'll weed out the shitty stuff and bring you only what i pick out as the finest in entertainment. is this elitist of me? yes. but at least i'm an elitist with good taste. now if you don't know me, you're probably asking yourself, "self, is this blog of any value to me?" to find out the answer, take a second to read the below questions:

did you find crash (2004) to be a manipulative, moronic, racist piece of shit?
do you not understand why so many people claim that braveheart is their favorite movie?
do you not understand why meet the parents is funny?
are you of the opinion that amanda peet and dakota fanning were sent to earth to destroy cinema?
are you baffled at the praise that brokeback mountain received?
do you believe in "style as substance"?
have you seen pumpkin and liked it?

if you answered yes to any of the above questions, i congratulate you. you have good taste. and you are exactly who this blog is aimed at. so please, come back early and often. you'll learn lots.