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In this week’s episode of the /Filmcast, David Chen, Devindra Hardawar, and Adam Quigley discuss the virtues of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, delve into the evolving career of David Slade, and show some love to Fish Tank, 7 Days, and Gambit. Special guest Eric Vespe (AKA Quint) From Aint It Cool News joins us for this episode.
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Shownotes
Introduction
- (00:32) Eric Vespe from Ain’t It Cool News
What We’ve Been Watching
- David Chen (03:15): The Art of the Steal
- Eric Vespe (06:48): Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Gambit
- Devindra (25:40): Caprica, 7 Days
- Adam (32:29): Lost, Fish Tank, Misfits
News Discussion
Featured Review
- (1:01:35) Alice in Wonderland
Credits
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- Our music comes from Point 22 courtesy of the Podsafe Network, and Brad Sucks
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One of my most anticipated television events of the year is the arrival of Breaking Bad: Season 3. The AMC original series, created by Vince Gilligan, has gone from strength to strength and cemented itself as one of the best shows on television (and, I would argue, one of the best TV shows of all time).
That’s why I was really excited to learn that Rian Johnson (Brick, The Brothers Bloom) has directed an episode from the upcoming season. Hit the jump for a couple of quotes from Johnson and some maddeningly vague hints of what is to come.
Unsurprisingly, Johnson was complimentary of the show’s quality:
This was my first experience in television, and the first time I have directed anything that I haven’t written. I jumped at the opportunity, for one reason: Breaking Bad is, for my money, the best show on television.
How will season 3 compare to seasons 1 and 2? Johnson commented:
I feel like the show is still a bit of a cool secret, but I think its underground status will be short-lived. I’ve read the scripts up to episode 10 (the one I directed) and as amazing as season 2 was, as a fan of the show myself I can safely say that season 3 is going to blow folks away. Vince Gilligan would shoot me if I gave anything away, but I will say that it starts with a bang and ratchets all the existing elements way up. It was such an honor and a pleasure to be involved in it.
Breaking Bad: Season 2 was already almost unbearably tense, so I’m very curious to see how the show plans on one-upping itself. It will also be interesting to see how Johnson handles material that he hasn’t written. I’ve been a huge fan of his visual style in the past, and can’t wait to see how it translates onto one of my favorite properties.
Breaking Bad: Season 3 debuts on AMC on March 21, 2010.
Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers?
L’Immortel (22 Bullets) Trailer
I never really understood how pop stars that sing in English can be so revered in countries where English is not the primary language. Further, I am mystified at how these very same audiences sing back in perfect harmony. After watching this trailer, you see, I wouldn’t mind learning French.
You’ll have to excuse the fact I don’t speak the language of love, and you’ll further have to excuse the fact that this trailer isn’t translated, but this deserves a couple of minutes of your time, no question about it.
I mean, how can you not be at least giddy at the thought of Jean Reno and Luc Besson reuniting once more for a movie about hitmen, revenge, tender mercies of the heart, and violence of the bloodiest kind? I’ll answer that for you, you can’t feel anything less than hope.
The trailer opens with the most delicate soundtrack, a tune in the operatic vein that stands in stark contrast to the bloody bullets that sit in a metal pan. A mother and child lay in a bed. While I don’t know what’s being said, again, the contrast makes an impression on me. It’s all very serene and surreal.
It’s easy enough to infer what’s happening on the screen just by watching what’s being told through the pictures. Reno looks like he’s recovering from being riddled with gunfire while we also flash back to a simpler, quieter time of his life. What’s more is that even though I don’t speak French I do know enough that an interstitial that states this movie is “Inspire de faits reels” means that what we’ve got here is an inspired tale of realism and, for that, I love that Besson can’t get absolutely nutty with the story.
Wherever the truth lies I have to say it at least warrants hearing it out. How could you not be intrigued by a hitman who leaves killing behind, starts a new life, a few years later finding himself on the wrong end of a phalanx of bullets, and then living to tell about it? There is much talking going on in the middle of this thing which I obviously can’t infer, there is subtlety I wish I could understand, but all you need to know is that he had a kid, had a life, and had it all taken away at about the one minute, thirty second mark. It’s about here that we see a brilliant
Don McKay Trailer
This is a joke, right? A farce, perchance?
There is no way this could be anything else but a Tommy Wiseau inspired kind of film because the intended effect this trailer should have had, I believe, is supposed to make me think this is a sultry story of misdirection, misinformation, and the dark secrets we keep from one another.
Um, no.
I honestly don’t mean to be harsh but this trailer utterly fails to stoke the embers that a good, cerebral, Hitchcock-ian thriller ought to do. First time director/writer Jake Goldberger delivers on setting up a promising story but it simply collapses as every frame unfolds.
I sincerely love the beginning of this thing. I do. I was hoping to extol the thunderous powers of Thomas Haden Church, as he just has that presence about him, but as we see the twilight that’s falling on a sleepy hollow, him standing on a doorstop introducing himself, it’s the old sea hag who reiterates his name at the door (Melissa Leo) that just pushes this trailer in a downward direction, waterboarding it completely.
From the way it opens, I was hoping this was a story about a guy who has come back to slaughter a small family in a murderous rage, a prisoner who has come back to kill! Instead, I get Elizabeth Shue. Writhing, no less, on a bed in a negligee, asking whether he got her letter? Whaaa? What letter? Why are you twisting around in your underthings like that? It looks like these two were old boyfriend/girlfriend from high school but it’s all very weird in the way its executed.
In what sums up the oddity that is this trailer, at one point Church is standing behind Shue and he tells her, in a lecherous strangler voice, how beautiful she is…as she curls her hair. Then you get Leo putting on this affect of some strange school marm as she talks and it all comes off as trite.
Further, Shue can’t seem to be clothed in anything less than the back catalog of Fredrick’s of Hollywood and, in a pièce de résistance, you’ve just got to watch as Church says the line, “You’re lying to me.” Dare I say it tops, “You’re tearing me apart, Lisa!” but I honestly think it does.
I don’t care about this movie as not only does this trailer completely give away his hand, ensuring I really only need to watch the last ½ hour of it, but it just doesn’t inspire confidence or clarity. Pass.
A Film With Me In It Trailer
This is a classic example of when seemingly interesting movies get saddled with poor trailers.
What I enjoy most of director Ian Fitzgibbon’s, who is also bringing us this year’s Perrier’s Bounty, telling of a tale of a guy who just happens to be in the proximity of three people who randomly all die around him is the way the trailer just flows. I realize that it’s a lot to take in with a plot as complex as this as you watch it but the trailer paces itself appropriately and it comes off very, very funny.
The angles used, the shots that sort of linger on the decedents as the confusion and consternation grows within our protagonist Mark (played by writer of the film, Mark Doherty) and the comedic relief in his buddy Pierce (Dylan Moran) who does a smash up job laying out everything that we’re thinking and plays the fool to his role as serious straight man.; the two of them click in the grand tradition of comedic teams like Pegg/Frost. To wit, we see a chandelier fall on a guy, we see a man get a tool stuck in his jugular as he bleeds out on the kitchen floor, and a woman who eats it after falling on a sharp object on her way down from fainting at the sight of a dead man under a chandelier.
It’s all very amusing in how quick we get to this point, and how this trailer just zooms along in establishing the problem our heroes face, but the one and awful issue I have to take contention with is the wretched guitar music driving it all. Was there no one who could hear that what we are seeing on the screen doesn’t necessarily match up with the generic, stock a-chords wailing in the background? It’s obvious there wasn’t and the trailer merely ends with a whimper as it should have been energizing because of the restraint shown in keeping things vague to the viewer.
Overall, by the end of this I know generally what’s happening but it’s not really clear what is going to occur when people find out about these deaths. I think I could have been more excited for a movie that at least looks like it could be a rather funny yarn but, instead, I’m just thankful when it ends.
Salvage Trailer
I’ll state that this looks like genuine fun.
Not only does this trailer hit the right notes with what you ought to do in order to generate some interest in your movie but it tantalizes you with with its opaqueness, not revealing anything that might reveal too much, and has you guessing throughout its running time. That’s also its greatest strength: you have to keep watching to try and mentally put together a puzzle that seems to be right there in front of you.
Is this a zombie movie? Is this a Red Dawn kind of film? How can you have zombies in a Red Dawn kind of film? All these kinds of questions bubble up but it shows a complete sense of restraint on the filmmakers’ part in not just spilling everything in order to generate buzz and for that I am impressed.
How this trailer accomplishes greatness really is attributed to the first 25 seconds. It’s a microcosm, really, of how it ought to be done for all films where confusion and disorientation are at the crux for a film’s plot. Writer/director Lawrence Gough should be proud for slapping the wrist of any money man who wanted desperately for him to reveal what was going on.
You have a good score that instantly makes you feel on edge, uncomfortable; you have no voiceover, no interstitial, to spoon feed your mind about what you’re going to see; quotes from people who have seen it and liked it thoroughly; and just a hint, a smidge, of the plot. These four things at the outset of a trailer will work every single time in order to get people to stick with the trailer long enough to get you through the next 25 seconds and it does so with this trailer fantastically.
The next 25 are filled with guys armed with machine guns who are breaking down doors, people who are getting shot, bloody hands smearing across glass, women freaking out everywhere, and I have not one iota of insight into what’s ultimately happening here. I think it has more to do with an assault of a small community that anything else but since everyone is covered in gore I could care less. I’m in.
This trailer paints this as a movie that moves quick, has some good production values, and at least has the pull-quotes in order to stick it squarely on my radar as a movie I’d like to more about. Successful trailer any which way you look at it.
How I Ended This Summer
What I appreciate about this trailer is how it eases you into its world.
There is nothing wrong with being launched from a supine position straight into the air at a 100 miles an hour as you get detail after detail about what a movie is about but this one wants to put your slippers on, put a hand under your elbow, and assist you out of bed gently.
Director/writer Aleksei Popogrebsky evokes a sense of isolation and bareness with the opening shot of this trailer which, no doubt, will prove to be a theme explored later on as who shows a desolate land only to have a movie filled with cherubs and BJs.
Oddly, the tone is upbeat when we meet our headphone festooned interloper, star of the film, who is spending some time with the men who man a station that seems to track and report on weather patterns. Who knows what they report on but the mood is jaunty as we watch this guy milling around the site just exploring the area and kicking back. Somehow he messes with the natural order of things and really changes the mood.
The kid is smacked around a little bit and the whole trailer just devolves into a series of quick cuts. Cuts that don’t explain why the leader of these guys just has a mental collapse but his meltdown is my enjoyment because the way things are communicated in the last third of this trailer it compels you to watch. You don’t know what is going to happen, whether there will be a wholesale slaughter of everyone, and you sure don’t know how this kid is going to escape a madman who’s armed and ready to mow down a few people.
In all, this is a thrilling trailer that tantalizes you with the promise for something wicked and even gives you a little something to show you a load of seriousness is about to be delivered to the middle of nowhere.
In case you missed them, here are the other trailers we covered at /Film this week:
In Vanity Fair’s profile of the late writer/director John Hughes, it was revealed Hughes didn’t stop writing after leaving Hollywood in 1994. His sons found boxes of writings, more than 300 pocket notebooks, thick binders containing works in progress, and tons of computer files, including screenplays. Hughes also had a lot of screenplays that he sold but remain unproduced (I wrote about one of them here). I wondered at the time if any of these screenplays would ever end up on the big screen.
Word has been circling the tracking boards that Paramount Pictures has acquired Grisby’s Go Broke, a family comedy written by the late filmmaker. More details after the jump.
The story revolves around a “wealthy, yet dysfunctional suburban Chicago family” who lose all of their wealth because of bad investments and a bad economy (how timely?) and are forced “to move to the sticks losing their friends, all of the while becoming closer to one another.” The tone is said to be similar to Modern Family.I can’t seem to find out any more information about the unproduced screenplay. In fact, a google search of the screenplay’s title results with 0 entries, which is hard to get nowadays. If anyone has any more information, please e-mail me.
Rumor has it that Roth Films would be producing the project, and would be looking for a writer/director to rewrite Hughes script. But please, don’t rewrite too much of it — modernize the out of date references, locations, technology, but leave the rest alone. Past Hughest scripts have been completely rewritten and turned out horrible - for example, Drillbit Taylor (which Hughes even got story credit for under his pseudonym Edmond Dantes).
Hughes is best known for writing and/or directing some of our favorite films from the 1980’s - National Lampoon’s Vacation, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, European Vacation, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Planes Trains & Automobiles, Uncle Buck, Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone.
For now please just consider this a rumor. I have attempted to confirm this report with Roth Films and Joe Roth’s publicist, but have been unable to get a response.
Not too long ago there was word that Red Tails, the WWII movie produced by George Lucas and directed by The Wire’s Anthony Hemingway, would be undergoing extensive reshoots. At the time, the report was that Lucas and producer Rick McCallum were quite unhappy with Hemingway’s material. That seemed dubious, though the idea of reshoots was certainly credible.
Not long after, Lucas said that the report was inaccurate, but didn’t deny it outright. Now there’s more information, and yes, Lucas is directing the reshoots, making Red Tails the first non-Star Wars film to bear his directorial touch in quite some time. (Possibly since American Graffiti, but one has to suspect that he has essentially directed at least small portions of other films he’s produced since then.)
Clarification on the issue comes from this week’s print edition of EW, transcribed by The Playlist. Basically, when the time came for reshoots, Hemingway was already at work on Treme, the new David Simon show set in New Orleans, or at least had a commitment to that show. So Lucas stepped in to direct the new and revamped footage.
Some questions remain from when this story initially cropped up. Yes, reshoots are very often budgeted into a film, especially one that is action and setpiece-heavy. But if that was the case, why wasn’t Hemingway penciled in to handle that duty? And do some of the concerns based on early drafts of the script persist? I.e., does the film need more structure, and does it still feel resolutely old-fashioned? And if so, could that be part of the reshoot plan — make the film feel more current? Or are we just reading too much into this? It’s possible.
John Ridley wrote the shooting draft of Red Tails, which has been a planned Lucas project for twenty years. Lucas conceived the film in the late ’80s but set it aside to make the Star Wars prequels.
Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers?
American Grindhouse Trailer
A good documentary ought to be a blend of information and context with all the proper elements of good filmmaking. A trailer for a documentary, by default, ought to show whether there is something worth being educated about and whether you could be properly entertained by its message.
This trailer makes me wish I would’ve taken a class in Exploitation Cinema.
I am thrilled by the beats this takes right from the opening in that it deals with the subject matter from a proper baseline. It doesn’t care that some guy watching this knows all about Truffaut’s influence or what soviet bloc country put out the greatest minimalist, post-op tranny dramas in the late 60’s. The trailer just gives everyone a common starting point and, for that, I appreciate the quick lesson in what we’re about to see.
Watching the file footage of New York’s 42nd Street, lined with cinema after cinema, you get the vibe of the era in the 70’s. Interviews with guys like Joe Dante (his story pretty much sums it all up) and William Lustig buttress interview snippets from a whip smart film historian like Eric Schaefer. But, what’s more, I was intrigued by the explanation of the gradient difference between grindhouse and exploitation film. I didn’t know such a dichotomy existed but this trailer just establishes parameter upon parameter, without you even realizing, that what’s happening is they’re defining the boundaries of what’s going to be explored.
Great praise and exultation should be heaped on the trailer at about the two-minute, thirty second mark where all these elements of exploitation and grindhouse coalesce into a visual and auditory barrage of clips from this time. It goes on for a while in this regard and it’s brilliant. You get these small glimpses into the films that defined an age that not many who’ve spent time outside of a screening room who’ve consumed these works can fully appreciate.
Without question, this is one of the most anticipated documentaries I want to see this year. Director Elijah Drenner seems to have created a film that is not only going to be filled with teachable moment but looks like a wild ride to the dark side.
Cargo Trailer
A little Aliens, a little Sunshine, a little Hunt for Red October, and mix vigorously.
I like high concept films that want to push their ideas out as far as they can. Whether or not this actually results in something enjoyable remains to be seen but it is interesting, nonetheless, when the trailer jumps right out of the gate with information and not superfluous padding.
Right away we figure out that we’re following someone who applied for a job to spend eight years in space as a medic. Alone with six other people who seem to have an extreme sense of shift work, these people slog away for eight and a half months alone. Another observation: what is up with the dark conditions? Seriously, can no one afford fluorescent lighting in space films? I get it, you’re creating a mood but, come on, fire up a torch or two, would you please?
What this is all about, how these people are in suspended animation for long stretches, is kind of irrelevant because it seems like it’s going for something more dramatic. All textured to evoke a sense of mood and style that is not your typical sci-fi, the trailer does a great job in setting up what triggers the waking up of everyone in the ship so that they’re all huddled together. But it does feel like we’ve been here before.
It’s classic stranger on a (insert vessel) but there’s always room to push the genre and this looks like it does try and do just that. I mean, yes, all the common tropes for what makes these so much fun at the movies is on display here but while the idea isn’t fresh I do like that the use of confined space and a heightened sense of tension that this trailer communicates.
The last third of this trailer gives us the usual things you want to have with a movie that looks like it will have more twists and turns than a Shining garden maze: weaponry, yelling, fighting, screaming, close-ups, string instruments that slowly crescendo to nothing but quiet.
Cue a soft voice, speaking in hushed tones.
I mean , you can’t fault someone for making a trailer that does as well as can be expected for a genre movie like this. As it stands, I want to see this movie simply based on what I saw; not only do I not know what is happening, mind you, but I also don’t have a clue which people are going to be done for by the end of it. A little lack of information goes a long way with me.
Perrier’s Bounty Trailer
I’m not the only one who really enjoyed Intermission, right?
I realize no one really talks about it in retrospect as being anything special but I was a fan of the talent and of the story that it told. Kind of like a little girl who sees a pony under the tree on Christmas morning, I have to admit I was delighted to see that here was a movie that was written by the guy who penned that film, and starring some of the biggest names from the Emerald Isle.
The trailer, graciously, doesn’t dally a moment with its opening. There is no fumfering around, no wastes of anyone’s time. Cillian Murphy owes money to a gangster and has four hours to come up with a grand. That’s it. End of story. All that in under twenty seconds, too. Not only does this help understand what’s going on but it hits the right beats with introducing us to Murphy, his pretty neighbor who offers to help him out with this debt, and the two henchmen representing the gangster who look like unintended comedic relief. And they are funny.
I’ll also have to admit being utterly delighted upon seeing Brendan Gleeson pop up on the screen; say what you will about Colin Farrell but Gleeson helped make In Bruges such a good comedic romp. I lit up at the sight of Jim Broadbent slithering on the screen as Murphy’s crazy, disheveled old dad who believes that the next time he falls asleep he’ll die. He has a few moments in this trailer that show he knows what kind of role this ought to be and he’s playing it for all it’s worth. Pack on the moment when Gleeson declares a bounty on Murphy’s head and you pretty much guess where things are going to go after that. A cavalcade of oddballs who are no doubt going to be in the hunt for the guy all come out of the woodwork. It’s a little old hat but this looks like it has the promise of being something good.
The remaining third of the trailer does a solid job in doing what it ought to do: throw up a fistfuls of quick clips that have no context whatsoever.
We do get an insight into the snappy character of Gleeson who very well may match Brick Top from Snatch for sly witticisms while also possessing a furious sense of power. The end result for all of this is a movie that looks like it will be a fast paced film that will hopefully take us all over Dublin with strong performances all around if this trailer is any indication.
Give Me Your Hand Trailer
Now this is an interesting trailer.
Filled with a little bit of strangeness coupled with a storyline which defies normal standards with regards to the conventions of what a “road trip” movie is supposed to be, I am befuddled to try and wrap my head around what I think this movie actually is or is not. It’s just flat out weird.
I mean, we’ve got two brothers, twins, traversing the countryside. The soundtrack is just clutch, any way you slice it; a jaunty Parisian number with a little bit of jazz smokiness, as we try and understand why these two men are hitchhiking. I think they’re deaf mutes because none of these boys can utter a word yet one manages to pull a little bit of side action and impress a lady on this journey of discovery. How he does this is beyond my ken but the graphic imagery we get tossed in our faces just make you realize how open other countries are about nudity in general as this girl and dude just start pounding.
The twins seem to hate one another with no plans of being nice to one another. I mean, they don’t seem to be very in love with each other’s company as they look like miserable twits on a journey to nowhere. At one point they start beating on one another and I am screaming out in anguish, wanting to know what in the world is their problem.
I think one has a thing for guys, much to the disappointment of the other brother, and I believe this raises some concerns, perhaps, about the nature vs. nurture argument with regard to homosexuality. The other brother even pulls a prank on the other one, offering his brother’s backside to a stranger who thinks he’s in for a quick bathroom stall hump.
Overall, I’m confused, disoriented, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing when you consider that they’ve managed to reveal not one, simple plot detail.
A Somewhat Gentle Man Trailer
How would you feel about a trailer with Stellan Skarsgard, master of the morose, cut to a soundtrack with a beat so peppy you swear you could dance to it? If it’s nothing less than excitement you’re just not right.
I wouldn’t have thought it was possible for the man to even crack a smile in films, lest his face crack from the hard set marble it seems to be made out of, but this trailer was all kinds of funny in ways that translate quite well. Who knew Stellan could be such a nutty guy?
I appreciate very much that (and this is brilliant) we don’t go backwards to find out why Stellan is fresh out of the joint at the beginning of this thing. No narration lets us know why he was there or the circumstances surrounding his release. Instead, we get him standing in a diner, wondering why no one came to pick him up when he was let out. The way the camera is set up, and the way Stellan’s approach to playing this man who seems to have learned whatever lesson prison was supposed to teach him comes across, the mood is set perfectly. This looks like a trailer filled with rubes and characters of the silliest type but it works.
What’s more is that the story just goes forward, either you’re with it or against it, forsaking any oportunity to put into context what “score” needs settling as Stellan seems to be a heavy of some kind. It never says why he is sitting in a hotel room with a little person showcasing a bevy of guns but, at the minute mark, the funniest line of the trailer is said and it kills.
It’s all a rush and a blur from here.
We see Stellan try and get back in touch with his son, who knows how long they’ve been separated, see him pull the Kingpin trick in order to knock a few kronor off his monthly nut (literally), albeit in a much more graphic fashion, and watch as he gets back into the trouble that no doubt sent him to prison in the first place. The subplot of him wooing a lass from his workplace is a nice touch.
Now, are there any readers out there who can place this film within director’s Hans Petter Moland oeuvre as something he’s always done or this is a new direction from a director who looks worthy enough to go pillaging his back catalog? As far as I’m concerned, this guy had me laughing through the whole thing.
In case you missed them, here are the other trailers we covered at /Film this week:
The New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles is a great place to see a movie. Not because it is the most comfortable theater or the most state of the art, but because it is operated and attended by people who really love movies. I’ve only been there a few times, but the experiences have been great: seeing Wet Hot American Summer with David Wain in attendance, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 with Frank Darabont and Chuck Russell, and catching a marathon of three Friday the 13th flicks.
Quentin Tarantino bought the New Beverly when it fell on hard times, but his involvement with the theater has been known in detail only to some of the most dedicated friends and patrons of the business. Now Tarantino and the family that runs the theater are talking about the process of keeping it alive.
THR has a long report on the process that began when Quentin Tarantino offered financial help to Sherman Torgan, once the New Bev’s operator. He started giving the theater $5000 per month to keep it open. But when Sherman Torgan passed away in 2007, the theater faced closure, prompting Tarantino to buy the space outright. “I always considered the New Beverly my charity,” he says, “an investment I never wanted back.”
Tarantino said one thing of his ownership of the New Bev that really sums it up how grand his patronage of the long-running movie house really is:
As long as I’m alive, and as long as I’m rich, the New Beverly will be there, showing double features in 35mm.
Now this is the place where I have to lecture. Did you read this story and think, “wow, that’s awesome”? If so, and you have a local indie house that you don’t visit on a regular basis, what’s wrong with you?
I understand that a great many people don’t have a local theater like the New Beverly to visit, because most have closed. Many others are on the verge of closing. The Plaza in Atlanta has long been threatened with death. The Brattle in Cambridge, MA has had trouble over the years. These are great places. I finally saw Street Trash on the screen thanks to The Plaza, and met David Lynch thanks to The Brattle. Many other similar places provide great film experiences for their audiences, but still have troubles of their own.
I’m not really here to chastise people, but there isn’t a Quentin Tarantino to go around for all these theaters. And not all of them are the Alamo Drafthouse. Some are better than others about promoting their schedules, and some are more inviting than others. But if you knew the sheer amount of work that goes into operating a truly independent theater, you’d know that all are run by people with a deep love for movies. It’s impossible to do the job otherwise. It’s just too much work.
So, please, if you’ve got an indie theater nearby spend some time in the seats. Go once or twice a month, even to a matinee. DVD is great. Netflix and Hulu and On Demand are all wonderful. But movies still belong in theaters, where you can see them in the dark with a crowd. OK, lecture over.
Here are websites with scheduling info for the theaters I mentioned. Throw out the names of theaters in other cities and I’ll link them here, too.
The New Beverly Cinema (Los Angeles, CA) http://www.newbevcinema.com
The Plaza (Atlanta, GA) http://www.plazaatlanta.com
The Brattle (Cambridge, MA) http://www.brattlefilm.org
The Senator (Baltimore, MD) http://www.senator.com
The Esquire (Cincinnati, OH) http://www.esquiretheatre.com
The Music Box (Chicago, IL) http://www.musicboxtheatre.com
The Grand Illusion (Seattle, WA) http://www.grandillusioncinema.org
SIFF (Seattle, WA) http://www.siff.net
The Loft Cinema (Tucson, AZ) http://www.loftcinema.com
I love the Zatoichi movies. Love ‘em. One of my shelves has a pile of Zatoichi DVDs thirty cases high. The tale of a blind swordsman with amazing moves and a penchant for gambling certainly has no shortage of material for the dedicated fan: it spawned twenty-seven films and a one hundred and twelve-episode TV series. Zatoichi is remarkable for many reasons, but primarily because actor Shintaro Katsu played the character in every screen appearance but one.
Now, thanks to a deal between Criterion and Hulu, you can watch six of the films, the first chapters in the long series, for free. This looks to be the first of a series of Hulu offerings from Criterion, and it’s a great start.
Hulu is streaming the first six films in the series, beginning with the black and white films The Tale of Zatoichi and The Tale of Zatoichi Continues, and then moving on to the first four color films featuring the character. The best-looking one in this batch may be the sixth film, Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold, which boasts really eye-catching super-saturated color, some great sets and staging, and a beautiful fight sequence set amid a set of paper lanterns.
The Zatoichi movies were generally formulaic, and featured the blind masseur traveling from town to town, where he is often recognized as the famed swordsman Zatoichi and recruited to defend innocents against injustice or battle greedy gangs. But within that formula was a huge playground for Katsu to create various sides of Zatoichi’s persona and explore many different tales of revenge, crime, honor and family. One film unites Zatoichi with Toshiro Mifune, playing a riff on his Yojimbo character; sadly it isn’t one of the series’ best offerings.
The series has left a significant mark on other filmmakers. Among the most obvious references include Robert Rodriguez nodding to it in Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and a recent big studio movie (which I won’t name to avoid spoilers) that definitely took inspiration from the movies as well.
Oh, and that one Zatoichi appearance that doesn’t feature Shintaro Katsu? That’s Takeshi Kitano’s 2003 film, where he revived the character at the behest of one of Katsu’s closest friends. I think the film is fantastic — it is to samurai movies what Death Proof is to Grindhouse films — and a very worthy successor to Katsu’s collection.
I’ve embedded the first film below; sadly, as with all of Hulu’s content, it is probably limited to US viewers. I can’t do anything about that, but I’ll apologize anyway.
Hopefully you’ve read Esquire’s very moving and deeply detailed piece on Roger Ebert, which appeared online Tuesday morning. The article opened with a large photo of Ebert as he is today: his face slack after losing his lower jaw, but eyes vibrant and perceptive. Written by Chris Jones, the article peers into Ebert’s life as it is after his battle with cancer left him without the ability to eat or speak. But despite one line that has been taken too seriously by some (”Ebert is dying in increments, and he is aware of it.”) the focus of the article is on the renewed vigor with which Roger Ebert has approached his work in the last few years. It’s an inspiring story; Ebert’s response to the aftereffects of his illness seems to come from a deep love of life and creative energy.
Now Ebert has responded to the article, in a calm and rational blog post that commends Jones for his work, and adds detail to the portrait of the critic’s life.
Ebert’s latest blog is both a thoughtful response to the Esquire profile, and a behind the scenes look at the interview. More than anything else, however, Ebert wants us to know that he is not dying. Or, he isn’t dying any faster than the rest of us.
Well, we’re all dying in increments. I don’t mind people knowing what I look like, but I don’t want them thinking I’m dying. To be fair, Chris Jones never said I was. If he took a certain elegiac tone, you know what? I might have, too. And if he structured his elements into a story arc, that’s just good writing.
As I discussed the Esquire piece with friends who aren’t immersed in movie news on a daily basis, one thing kept coming up: few of them knew the extent to which cancer had marked Ebert physically. They knew his output was as regular as ever, if not more so — some of them follow Ebert on Twitter — and had never considered the fact that he might be physically impaired. Ebert has always lived through his words, and continues to do so with more energy than ever.
As he said of his recent output in the Esquire interview, “It is saving me,” before recounting a journal entry he wrote not too long ago: “When I am writing my problems become invisible and I am the same person I always was. All is well. I am as I should be.”
I love Christopher Guest, both as an actor as a director, so I was intrigued when I heard he’d be shooting a series of viral commercials to help promote the U.S. Census (Huh?). One of the ads aired last night during the Super Bowl, costing taxpayers $2.5 million (a fact which has caused some consternation). Hit the jump to see all the commercials.
The commercials follow the travails of director/auteur Payton Schlewitt, who is attempting to film a “Snapshot of America” featuring 300 million people. Shot in Guest’s typical style, with some talking heads interviews interspliced with behind-the-scenes footage, the ads feature a healthy dose of quirk, surrealism, and pathos.
CNN has a piece about the ads, in which certain pundits posit that they won’t be able to connect with everyday viewers. According to David Griner from Adfreak:
It’s a strange time to do a viral campaign, especially one that’s obviously got quite a bit of star power behind it, when the upper middle-class, white audience is going to be the usual core group that mostly finds the Christopher Guest mockumentary style really hilarious and really compelling…You have to wonder if that’s a group that didn’t understand the role of the census and would not have been active to take part in it.
However, Gary Resch, who helped develop the ads, responded to this argument, saying, “I think it’s a little bit presumptuous to think that only educated or sophisticated people get this type of comedy….This concept was developed before Christopher Guest came on board.” So, what say you readers? Will these ads reach Middle America? Will they cross racial and ethnic lines? And will they make people want to fill out their Census forms? You decide!
For my part, I can say that these spots sneak up on you, as do most of Guest’s films. What starts as an off-kilter talking-head interview can quickly generate some pretty big laughs. I’m a fan and I find them as good a combination of “Christopher Guest” and “U.S. Census Commercial” as we are likely to get.
Let us know what you think in the comments.
