I was late in catching up with the horrible Green Street Hooligans, and it felt like time wasted. Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist wasn't nearly as good as I'd hoped, but it's still the week's best release. First runner up would be Lodge Kerrigan's Keane. The Jessica Alba diving movie Into the Blue and The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio weren't too bad, but nothing to write home about either. Paul Reiser's The Thing About My Folks is a true labor of love, but ruined by a piece of bad directing.
In DVDs, the wretched remake of The Amityville Horror comes out this week, and I finally got a chance to skim through last spring's box set of the 1970s and 1980s MGM originals. The Muppet Show: Season One wasn't quite as good as I remember it, and The Muppet's Wizard of Oz isn't good at all. Then we have the definitive, deluxe version of To Kill a Mockingbird, an excellent edition of the Japanese nunsploitation classic School of the Holy Beast, and three new discs in the Shirley Temple Collection (but where's John Ford's Wee Willie Winkie?).
:: posted by Jeffrey M. Anderson, 9/30/2005 | Comments (8) Links to this post |
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
:: posted by Donald Melanson, 9/27/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
Monday, September 26, 2005
:: posted by Donald Melanson, 9/26/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
Friday, September 23, 2005
But it makes you wonder: who will replace some of the other aging masters? Ingmar Bergman released an extraordinary new film this year, Saraband, that barely anyone bothered to see. Will anyone care when he passes on? Who else can do icy angst like he can? (Woody Allen has attempted it, but that's another story...) Who will be the next Martin Scorsese? Jean-Luc Godard? Clint Eastwood? Hayao Miyazaki?
Ultimately, I guess, replacing the masters isn't really the point. That's why they're masters in the first place -- because there's no one else quite like them. Sitting through Allen's Interiors instead of one of Bergman's classics is example enough. Anderson may have channelled Altman for his first few films, but it was just long enough to get his footing. Punch-Drunk Love revealed a whole new side to him, and I suspect that, Altman-esque or not, Anderson may have quite a bit of his own mastery to offer.
By the way, I always have to add the disclaimer that I am not related to Paul, nor am I related to Wes, Pamela, Anthony, Gillian or Brad. (Nor am I that guy who was in Clerks.)
:: posted by Jeffrey M. Anderson, 9/23/2005 | Comments (3) Links to this post |
I also recently got to speak with Scrheiber about his new movie, and an interview with Cronenberg is pending, since the director has been sick in bed.
The new DVDs keep rolling in. I recently received two giant box sets, one containing ten Greta Garbo films and one containing 15 Alfred Hitchcock films, plus documentaries and extras. I guess I'll be sequestered in front of my TV this weekend. Meanwhile, I checked out Sony's spectacular restoration of Sam Peckinpah's Major Dundee, surely one of the year's best discs, plus Jia Zhang-ke's excellent Platform -- which never had a U.S. theatrical release -- and a new, extended version of Brian Helgeland's underrated A Knight's Tale. Also The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl came out this week, complete with four pairs of 3D glasses, as well as David Zucker's Scary Movie 3.5, extended by about one minute from the theatrical release.
:: posted by Jeffrey M. Anderson, 9/23/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
We'll have a complete review of the new Book of the Dead edition of Evil Dead 2 shortly.
:: posted by Donald Melanson, 9/21/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
In other Tarantino news, the director still says that his next project after Grind House will be his World War II epic Inglorious Bastards but, contrary to previous rumors, it apparently won't unite Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
[Via AICN]
:: posted by Donald Melanson, 9/21/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Steamboy was one of the most anticipated anime films in recent memory -- it was, after all, the first feature film by Katsuhiro Otomo since his legendary Akira (1988). But as with many other wildly anticipated follow-ups, it's nearly impossible to live up to everyone's expectations, and Steamboy is a bit of a letdown when compared to Otomo's previous work. But if you can forget that movie for a minute (I know, not an easy thing), Steamboy is still quite a good film, although one with its fair share of faults.
Continue Reading >>
:: posted by Donald Melanson, 9/20/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
Monday, September 19, 2005
For the past two weeks, The Nomi Song has been haunting me. It's not just the figure of Klaus Nomi, the doomed singer whose story this documentary tells that's been the cause of the haunting. It's something more basic than that. It's a great story, well told. Cinema shouldn't be (and isn't) completely and exclusively about great stories told well, but there is room in the medium for it, and it certainly shouldn't matter if that story is told through a conventional dramatic narrative or a documentary.
The Nomi Song is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. That isn't an insult, nor is it a minimization of the film's narrative accomplishments. It's a beautiful, compelling examination of a character that floats through his story in the way all great characters do. It's filled with compelling and original music, real emotion, ups and downs, triumphs and challenges, original, creative storytelling and visual stylization - everything we go to the movies to see. So, when I say that it's a great documentary, what I really mean is that it's a great film.
:: posted by Donald Melanson, 9/19/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
Sunday, September 18, 2005
:: posted by Matt, 9/18/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
Friday, September 16, 2005
In new DVDs, I'm excited about the new Greta Garbo box set, and I updated my reviews of Queen Christina and Ninotchka accordingly. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy happiliy stood up to a second viewing at home, but The Longest Yard remake is better suited for the cut-out bins. In other classics, I added reviews of Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be and Werner Herzog's incredible directorial debut Signs of Life. Two non-fiction films make their DVD debut as well, both disappointing outings from famous comedians: Sam Kinison: Outlaws of Comedy and the lightweight, likeable John Cleese:Wine for the Confused.
Have a great weekend!
:: posted by Jeffrey M. Anderson, 9/16/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
The veteran filmmaker passed away in Los Angeles this week at the age of 91.
Wise landed his first job in the shipping room at RKO studios, where his older brother was an accountant. He lugged film cans up to projection rooms, spliced films together, etc. He soon got a shot at an assistant sound editor, working on Fred and Ginger musicals and John Ford's The Informer (1935). He then worked his way up to assistant film editor with films like Fred and Ginger's The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), then a full fledged editor with his own assistant.
Fate knocked on his door when Orson Welles fired the studio-appointed editor on Citizen Kane, and Wise got the job because of his youth. He was hired again for Welles' second film The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), but when disaster struck for Welles, the young Wise got his first big break. After Welles flew off to South America to begin filming his would-be third film It's All True, The Magnificent Ambersons began to receive disastrous test notices and the studio ordered it cut. Wise cut some 25 minutes out of the film, and was forced to direct several new "bridge" scenes for continuity's sake.
Two years later, the legendary B-movie producer Val Lewton was working on The Curse of the Cat People (1944) and found that he needed to fire the first director for moving too slow. Wise got the job and finished the picture quickly, going on to direct two more outstanding films for Lewton, Mademoiselle Fifi (1944) and The Body Snatcher (1945).
Wise was nominated for seven Oscars; winning four of them (two for Best Director and two for Best Picture for West Side Story and The Sound of Music) plus the special Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1967.
I had the honor of interviewing Mr. Wise in 2001, and he was a kind soul, quick to laugh, and a great storyteller. He will be missed.
:: posted by Jeffrey M. Anderson, 9/16/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
:: posted by Donald Melanson, 9/13/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
Monday, September 12, 2005
:: posted by Ian Dawe, 9/12/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
Sunday, September 11, 2005
:: posted by Donald Melanson, 9/11/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
Saturday, September 10, 2005
:: posted by Matt, 9/10/2005 | Comments (51) Links to this post |
Friday, September 09, 2005
Because, trust me, it's just not worth the money or the time to sit through: The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Man, A Sound of Thunder, Underclassman or An Unfinished Life.
In new DVDs, I thoroughly enjoyed the simple pleasures of Disney's Vintage Mickey as well as the more difficult pleasures of Jean Luc Godard's Weekend (New Yorker). I finally finished Warner's Film Noir box set with Robert Wise's nasty Born to Kill, and Strand released one of the year's most satisfying foreign film experiences, Head-On. I also checked out the very likeable documentary EXPO: Magic of the White City. Fox issued The Transporter: Special Delivery Edition to help cash in on its new sequel, and I very much enjoyed seeing it again. I can't say the same for Mindhunters, however.
Enjoy!
:: posted by Jeffrey M. Anderson, 9/09/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Continue Reading >>
:: posted by Donald Melanson, 9/07/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
Monday, September 05, 2005
I couldn't help asking myself as I watched this sweet, charming southern tale - are there really people this medieval and superstitious still living in the world today? Sadly, I think there are, but that shouldn't prevent anyone from enjoying Screen Door Jesus on its own terms.
Against a rich backdrop of quirky characters and southern culture, this film tells a series of interconnected stories set in one small Texas town around the topic of faith and religion. One thread involves a white hypocritical Bank manager and his treatment of a black fellow churchgoer. Another explores the romantic entanglements of the mayor with a sexually aggressive, manipulative woman. Another follows the story of two seedy characters who invade the town drilling for oil beneath the lake. Still another tells the story of two boys, one black and one white, and their changing relationship with regards to religion. The central event in the film, though, is the appearance of a vision of Jesus on an old black woman's screen door, which rapidly becomes a place of pilgrimage.
Continue Reading >>:: posted by Donald Melanson, 9/05/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
Friday, September 02, 2005
In new DVDs, I love the new The Bela Lugosi Collection from Universal, featuring five Bela Lugosi movies -- including my favorite, The Black Cat. I'm still picking my way through Warner Home Video's excellent Film Noir Collection from earlier in the summer, and it's time for Dillinger, a nasty little "B" film with lots of energy. Otherwise, the week finishes off with stuff like: The Suckling, Arthur Penn's Target and Wonder Woman: The Complete Third Season. Enjoy!
:: posted by Jeffrey M. Anderson, 9/02/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
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