Finding joy at the movies again: Seeing The Wolverine (2013)

Last night I did something I haven't done in a very very long time, I went to the movies with not even the remotest thought of Unseen Films. Those of you who don't know me are wondering what that means. What it means is that as much as I love movies, as much as I would watch movies all day long because I just like the stories, because Unseen Films is essentially my wife, everything I see is potential fodder for the site. Not only that I frequently make decisions of what to see because I think a film may or may not fit into Unseen some how.

It's been a long time since I've gone and seen a movie just for the hell of it. That happened last night, I ended up going to see THE WOLVERINE just for the hell of it.

Of course it didn't start out that way. I was going to see THE LONE RANGER because everyone was arguing if it was good or bad, I figured to put my two cents in, but then the theater I thought it was in was doing early screenings of Planes so I was SOL. Anyway with a night at the movies planned and no other choice I decided to just up and see Hugh Jackman.

The experience was a bit strange since it was the first time I had been in that particular multiplex in ten or fifteen years. I stopped going to it because the theater has tough parking rules and was always run down, however last night I found the parking easier and the theater had recently been refurbished. It was also really cool to just be sitting in a seat and not have to do anything, not notes, not deadlines, not need to write the film up. I just was there... I even didn't mind when a bunch of ten kids came in and were rowdy. I was, for the first time in almost four years at the movies for me and only me so I didn't care.

Sitting in the theater I realized a couple of things, first, I really miss going to the movie for the hell of it. It never happens any more and I really just miss being a fan and not a writer. Yes I know I can stop doing Unseen any time I want, I don't get paid for this, but at the same time I've agreed to do certain things and to be responsible for other things and if I just stop it will complicate other peoples lives. I need to get things past a few hurdles before stopping... Sitting in the theater it was made clear that once the fourth anniversary comes in February there are going to be a few changes.

Seeing the film for no reason, I reconnected with the sense of why I love movies, which is something I haven't much felt the past couple of months. I realized that at the movies I can, for two hours, completely lose myself... movies should be fun and not work.

Anyway- personal revelations aside you maybe wondering how was the movie?

I thought 3/4ths of it was great.

The plot of the film picks up after the third X-Men movie. Logan is living alone in the woods. He's been there for at least a year essentially communing with the spirit of Jean Grey and waiting to die. When he goes to town to get revenge for a giant bear some nimrod hunters failed to kill, he is met by a young Japanese woman who said that an old friend in Japan wishes to say good bye before passing on, Logan agrees to go to Japan where his friend offers to make him mortal in exchange for his healing power. Logan refuses and his friend dies...This then sets in motion a series of events as Logan's healing power is compromised and his friends grand daughter is hunted by the Yakuza. Where it goes is the film.

While the film does have action set pieces, it's largely concerned with character and plot. There is so much character development that the rowdy kids left the theater by the time the film was half over because it was too low key. From my perspective the character and plot development was like manna from heaven and I was doing a quiet happy dance. To me the film is closer to the best comic stories, such as the Frank Miller tale that serves as the inspiration for the story, than most Hollywood summer blockbusters. This film isn't sound and fury signifying nothing, instead we have meditation on loss and the place of heroes in the world. Its clear that this is a movie with a great deal on it's mind.

Until the final half hour or twenty minutes the film is an absolute joy. And it's that final bit with the completely fake Silver Samurai that keeps the film from going on my best of the year list (can you tell I liked the film?) The problem with the final bit is that where everything that had gone before was plot over action, the Samurai sequence is action over plot. Things stop making sense, visual effects falter and what was for most of the running time a graphic NOVEL on the big screen instead became a comic book. To me it seemed like the screenwriters didn't know how to end it, and while it annoyed me I groaned and went with it.

That said I had a blast. One of the better summer films of the year and a great comics film. Consider it an action film for those who want more than action.

My two cents on Pacific RIm (2013)

Yes I, the giant monster nut, saw Pacific Rim. I ponied up and paid the extra cash for the IMAX3D screening (actually I paid it because it was the first showing at 10am). I got my 47 gallons of Coke and my 55 gallons of popcorn and hunkered down in the front for some monster bashing.

How was it?

The five year old I me loved the fights. The adult in me liked the few character development scenes. Mostly I just couldn’t believe that Guillermo Del Toro made it. I mean there is no weight to much of it. Mostly it’s monsters smash. After the first fight I was ready for something more.

It was either a great script dumbed way down, or a dumb script that had a few great scenes slipped in.

My problem is that the film is in its way the ultimate summer movie. It reduces all the action to bare basics and has just enough character scenes to keep things moving.

I’m not going to point out all of the plot holes and WTF bits (we aren’t given enough to know if they are really problems) instead I’m going to simply complain that all of the fights are at night and in the rain. Why? I was told that there is some reference as to why and I’d believe it except that we see fights not in the rain nor at night- for example the whole thing with -Mako as a child.

In all honesty it’s a great big screen special event film, but as a movie beyond that it really stinks.

See the K-pop documentary I AM Tuesday for free at the Tribeca Cinema

The Korean Cultural Service has a really amazing screening coming up on Tuesday the 13th as part of their "Free Movie Nights" series, they're going to be hosting a special screening of I AM, a fantastically fun documentary about the band SM Town, and their struggles and triumphs to set up a 2012 show at NYC's Madison Square Garden.

Korean Movie Night
August 13th, 2013
courtesy of the Korean Cultural Service
7:00PM
Tribeca Cinemas
(54 Varick Street, on the corner of Canal Street, one block from the A, C, E and 1 train Canal Street stops)
Price: FREE All seating is first-come, first served.
Doors open at 6:30pm.


For additional information, trailers, and more, please like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/KoreanMovieNY and follow us on Twitter at Twitter.com/KoreanMovieNY

AUGUST 13 – I AM. (2012)
The music documentary I Am. follows the chart-topping K-pop band SM TOWN as they prepare for a live performance at one of the world’s most prestigious venues: New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Shining light on what defines the performers and the intense effort that goes into their meticulously-staged concerts, this touching coming-of-age story is just as much about the growing pains and glory of the young artists as it is about their music. Featuring tons of incredible music and amazing K-pop cameos, this is the inside look into Korea’s popular music scene.

Meet the Small Potatoes (2013) NYICFF 2013

Expanding the TV series, which runs on Disney Jr in the US, way past the typical 3 minute episodes, Meet the Small Potatoes is a mocumentary that imagines the group as British super group that started on a farm and then managed to become bigger than the Beatles. The story is told primarily by a super fan in New York and by their manager (voiced by Malcolm McDowell) and it follows the group from their founding, first success, the infighting, breakup and eventual reunion.

I had only seen one episode of the show before seeing the film and I was kind of perplexed as to how a show that was barely three minutes long and being screened as an occasional bumper could actually go anywhere. Amazingly the creators are much more clever than I had thought.

The film is a charming film that will entertain most kids of a certain ages…and I suspect that their parents will enjoy it even more since they will get all of the references to their favorite rock bands over the last half century. The parents are also going to be the ones catching the written puns, jokes and gags that are hiding in plain sight throughout the backgrounds. It’s a blast, and I know I have to see the film a second time before I give it to my niece so I can be sure I caught everything.

The film exists in two cuts. There is a short version running about 50 minutes that has played Disney. The film premiered in that form on Disney just before it was supposed to world premiere at the New York International Children’s Film Festival. The Film Festival premiered the longer 72 minute version, which is the one that I saw. Honestly other than one shot of the Malcolm McDowell's  character with a cigar in his mouth, I don’t know what you would cut out of the film and have it work. Nothing in the film feels extraneous or draggy. It all works.

Is this the best children’s film? Absolutely not, but considering the number of crappy kids films being churned out these days it’s nice to see one that not only will entertain kids and their parents as well. Or to put it another way if your kids want to watch this it won’t kill you to watch it with them.

A few positive words on Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem (2012)

With Lords of Salem Rob Zombie positions himself as the greatest horror director working today. This riff on Euro horror manages to take the old world stylings and create something new.

Sherri Moon Zombie stars as Heidi, a DJ on the local radio station on the late night shift. Receiving a strange vinyl record from The Lords. Listening to the record wells up “repressed” memories within her. And when the record is played on the air similar reactions occur in all who hear it. At the same time weird things begin to happen to Heidi, which unbeknownst to her is merely the precursor to the return of The Lords.

You’ll forgive the brevity of the plot description but things are much more complicated than I can really explain. Additionally the film shifts into a dream like logic in the second half of the film. Events transpire but they are not completely understandable on an intellectual level, however on the emotional or visceral level the film is in disturbing territory. I can’t explain what happens because it will sound like gibberish and it will require that I explain things according to the way I see it which may not be the way you do.

It’s the shift into the dream or the shift beyond reason that is what sets the film apart. Operating in the same realm as say some of Dario Argento’s films, say Suspiria or the other “mothers” films, the film is intent on creating a mood, or perhaps a headspace where the evil and ideas that Zombie is presenting can fester and grow. Zombie's film isn’t scary in the sense that there are monsters leaping out of the landscape screaming Boo!, its scary because its creating a world that replaces our own. Zombie and his evil worm their way into our psyche so that when the film ends we’re emotionally broken and fully believe that just outside the theater door these things are transpiring. It’s a weirdly bloodless affair, yes there are things we don’t want to see but it’s not because blood is splashed everywhere.

I admire Zombie’s bold choices. In an interview in Fangoria Zombie states that in making the film he went against his instincts and locked the camera down. He dropped the wicked humor and did things that were counter intuitive for him. To me it’s a bold brilliant change of pace since it forced him not to take the easy way out. It forced him to find new ways to frighten us. Ultimately it made for a better film…and it made it ten times more scary since we couldn’t lean on any Zombie-isms we are I virgin territory with no way to know who is good bad or anything else.

The Lords of Salem is one the finds of the year. It’s a must see for anyone who loves good horror, especially horror that is more than just blood and gut sprayed across the screen.

On Further Review Much Ado About Nothing (2013)

I suspect I'll be joing her once fans of the film read my say

Josh Whedon’s small scale assault on Shakespeare is one of the more over hyped films of the year. Receiving some of the best reviews I’ve seen and receiving gushing word of mouth from acquaintances who’ve seen it, one would think that the film were the start of the second coming of the bard. Back in June, with the thought of seeing something special I headed off to see the film in between persoanl appearances of Jackie Chan.

Boy was I disappointed…

For those that don’t know, the plot of the film/play involves several sets of lovers who are manipulated by another set of lovers in order to cause all sorts of mischief. It’s an amusing romp that is incredibly light and entertaining when it has a cast that can create the right light touch, which is the case here. Frankly Joss Whedon has brought a cast together that knocks the play out of the park. They are great and wonderful and if this were on stage I’d pay to see it…

…and now you’re going to ask-what’s the problem beyond that?

The simply the film is at best low grade TV but more often than not it’s little more than a home movie.

Oh I know sacriledge but it’s true. This is a bunch of people staggering around a house drinking wine and reciting Shakespeare. Don’t get me wrong the recitation is wonderful, the problem there is no reason for how the action is staged or where the film is set. Yes, I know it’s the directors home, and I know it’s being done on the cheap (I think the cast was paid in wine) but this is supposed to be a grand manor instead we get a slightly larger than usual suburban house. Scenes take place in rooms for no clear cut reason- a children’s bed room with stuffed animals? People in the pool? No clue. The sequences look cool but are dramatically empty.

Frankly I got to a point where I stopped watching and just listened to the sound of people reciting with my eyes closed.

As an audio book its one of the best. as a film its dull as dirt.

Fantasia capsules- VESSEL, ANTISOCIAL, DEAD EXPERIMENT,GO DOWN DEATH, RETURN TO NUKEM HIGH, LOVE ETERNAL and VEGETARIAN CANNIBAL

A bunch of reviews from Fantasia that I didn't feel warranted  their own review slot but which I wanted note as having been seen

VESSEL (2013)
Low key science fiction filmabout Ash, a young man living on the fringes of society. Gifted or cursed with the ability to connect with aliens who came to earth near the time of Roswell.  As his disconnection with humanity grows he has to choose be between saving the world or himself.

Talky low key film seems more lke a regular inde-mumblecore filme about a loner trying to get by. I'm not saying that as a knock, rather to simply say that the film doesn't look or feel like a science fiction film except in the passing references and odd moments. Its a good solid film that I know is destined to fall between the cracks because it isn't overtly what its advertsied to be.

As with many films at this years Fantasia I'm looking forward to seeing it again away from the crush of the films where I can rightly give the film the attention it deserves.

DEAD EXPERIMENT (2012)
Its the old story of a man coming home after a long abscence only to be told he died weeks before. He was a brilliant scientist working on a regeneration formula which actually worked.

Good but too similar to other better variations on the theme is a good time passer but nothing I would hunt out except on a slow night.

ANTISOCIAL (2012)
As a bunch of friends get ready for a New Years Eve party the world suddenly goes mad as an outbreak of violence strikes turning the infected into hoicidal maniacs.

By the numbers story is of interest mainly because the method of infection involves social media. While the film is well done with some truly icky acts of violence there really isn't anything new except that everyone is on smart phones tablets or computers. If you don't mind a well done well worn path give it ago, but if you want something new look elsewhere

GO DOWN DEATH
Mix FORBIDDEN ZONE with Guy Maddin stir in a pretentious black and white grain, garnish with a hipster sense of humor and knowingness then flush the whole thing down the toilet. This is a strange film that is trying to be... I don't know what. It seems more like a send up of any number of things rather than actually being about something. To be honest I was willing to go with the strangeness and knowing attitude for a while but then after ten or fifteen minutes I began to lose my patience, especially when I realized this nonsense ran for another seventy five minutes. Its a clever way to do an avant garde short but as a feature its way too long especially if you're not in on the joke,

RETURN TO NUKE EM HIGH VOLUME  1

They've built a farm over the bull dozed nuclear reator in Tromaville, what could go wrong.

Celebrity and bare breast filled restart of the NUKE'EM HIGH movies is knowing and silly and exactly the sort of thing that the fans of Troma have been waiting for. All others need not apply.

LOVE ETERNAL
Dark romance about a young man who's life is forever connected with death. After the death of his mother he decides to kill himself, only to discover a dead girl in his car. facinated and thrilled by how he feels he decides to advertise for suicidal women let him accompany them on their trip into the after life. However there are complications...

Dark romance is not for all tastes. A decidedly different take on life and love the film refuses to take the easy way out or be quirky. If you're in the mood for a little romance with some blackness on the side give it a go

VETETARIAN CANNIBAL

Portrait of the doctor as a sociopath.

Horrible title hides a dark little confection showing the corruption in the Croatian health care system as hard partying doctor manages to make money and survive questionable connections by paying off the right people and smoozing others. A solidly bleak walk on the wild side of life.

Worth tracking down.

There are only hours left to help ULTIMATE CHRISTIAN WRESTLING get finished

There is about 12 hours left for the Kickstarter for ULTIMATE CHRISTIAN WRESTING. Director Jae-Ho Chang asked me to try and get them over the top.Here's the email he sent me:

We have a day left and are still a little short from our goal. But our faith is strong that we will make it!

Please help us with ONE LAST PUSH by sharing our campaign. And if you will like to donate, click on the link below for more information.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/77163275/ultimate-christian-wrestling-a-feature-documentary

Thank you everyone again for all your love and support.

WE CAN DO IT!!!

Unless you want the wrestlers to come to your house and explain the errors of your ways I suggest you donate.

And if you need better reasons to give here's what we at Unseen have said about the film.

Give...and get me a t-shirt 


ADDENDUM:
YOU GOT ME MY T-SHIRT!

love and other drugs (2010)

It seemed that when Love and Other Drugs opened it received some of the best reviews of 2010, it made some money and then kind of disappeared. Yea it’s on home video and it’s crisscrossed on cable but largely the film seems to have disappeared. It’s a shame. After watching the film recently I mentioned it to the people in my office and they looked at me with a vague recollection and the realization that they never saw the film despite having it on their list as something they wanted to see.

The film is the romance between Jake Gyllenhaal's Jamie, a hot shot salesman who is unsure of his life, especially in light of his brother becoming a dot com millionaire. Drifting into a job as a drug salesman for Pfizer Jamie begins to climb up the corporate ladder, helped by his easy style with the ladies. As far as he’s concerned life is skittles and beer, that is until he meets Anne Hathaway, who despite feigning indifference is smitten as well. What follows is a dance of hearts as the pair maneuver around each other and find unexpected feelings with in themselves and each other.

A decided adult and strangely real romance from all all places, Hollywood. If the film occasionally dips into Hollywoodisms the film manages to get the joy and wonder and need of a real romance dead on right. There is something palpable about the feelings between the two leads that is rare in even the best recent romances. There is a real feeling here, so much in fact that when the final scenes occur it’s almost as if one is submerging in it and its weight and made somehow weightless.

To be quite honest I was shocked at how emotional and how good the film is.

Watching the film I was rather confused that the film is not more well known. This is a great romance. Why are films like say The Notebook considered chick flicks while this infitiely better film is in the shadows? I’m guessing the reason is that women want more fantasy and less reality. I guess they want the “princess” factor in it all as opposed to any hint of reality. Me give me the reality, especially when its done this well.

Definitely one to track down.

Yes-THE DECELERATORS is that good

I know some people think I’m daft for having fallen in love with the short Decelerators but I really do think it’s a stunning piece of filmmaking. I will concede that on a technical level there isn’t anything special, but frankly there doesn’t have to be, rather it’s the story and the script that shine.

Now at this point I’m going to discuss the film, all five minutes of it, with spoilers and that sort of thing, as well as the plot of the off Broadway musical Happiness which is a blood brother of it. If you don’t want to know what happens don’t read what follows.

The story of Decelerators concerns a group of friends who are unhappy that time is slipping away. They want to stretch time and enjoy life more. After various attempts at slowing time they come up with a decelerator, a device which will effectively stop time and allow them to remain literally in one moment. Each member of the group then goes about creating perfect moments in which to slip for what is implied to be eternity. The film talks about how everyone was struggling not to be the last person left. The film ends with all but one of the decelerators removed from time. The last woman standing then chooses to go normally through time.

I was moved by the end of the film. Something about people trying to find the perfect moment to stretch into infinity touched me and made me think. What is it about the desire to have a moment last forever that is so universal?

I love that from a philosophical stand point the film makes you reflect on what is life all about. Is life simply a search for that one moment of bliss or is it something more? The split in the film at the end- of all of the people finding their one moment of bliss and staying there and the one woman left behind continuing on to the end is a perfect reflection of life- it shows the quest of those who are truly living every moment of life, those trying to find something greater and it shows those who live in the past- since at the end of the film everyone but one is living in the past.

Who is more alive? Could it be that the one person left is experiencing bliss simply by living? After all she smashes her decelerator and walks off from a lonely alley into the life of the street. What of those people now stuck in the past, doomed to repeat one moment over and over again forever? Is that truly bliss?

After seeing the film I was struck by the similarity, after a fashion, to the Off Broadway musical Happiness. That show had a bunch of people on a subway discovering that they are dead and that their afterlife was to be the best experience of their lives replayed for eternity- a baseball game with dad or meeting a lover for the first time. They could choose any moment and that was where they would stay.

Given the choice I would rather take the moment of bliss in Happiness over the one in The Decelerators since I’d be able to choose from a life time of moments. I mean with Decelerators I’d have to hope that there was no better moment or that this moment was really better than some past moment-what if I chose wrong? (and aren't the best moments the unplanned ones?)

The mind boggles. The possibilities of what would I do, or what should we do spin out...it's amazing how a five minute film can get you thinking.

Why is The Decelerators a great film? Because the film gets you going. It forces you to ponder what choice would you make or alternately where would you have stopped time in the past. This wondrous five minute film forces you to re-examine your life and ponder what you want from it. The Decelerators is a great film because it forces you to do more than just watch and go that is nice before going on to the next thing… it forces you to ponder, even for a moment the question of what would you choose? The Decelerators is great because it forces your life not to be unexamined, which in this day and age is a very rare thing to find anywhere let alone at the movies.

A couple or three paragraphs on Les 4 soldats (2013) Fantasia Film Festival

Set in an alternate(?) future where a civil war erupts over economics, the rich have all the money, the poor have none so the poor form militia to fight the military that is controlled by the rich. With many parents dead and society destabilized, many teens fall into the militias because they create a sense of belonging. The narrator of our story Dominique fell into the militia for just such a reason. Along the way she forms close ties to four young men (the title group)...

Great performances and a realistic feel to the militia army on the march highlight this little gem of a film.  Not so much a war film (the few war sequences are for the most part just okay) so much as a character study about people trying to find a place, this is one of those neat little films I probably never would have paid any attention to outside of a film festival. Yea I know that's bad of me, but with so many films fliting across my radar some times one needs a festival like Fantasia to preselect my viewing choices.

A solid  little character study that I really want to revisit when I can see it away from the crush of the festival and I can truly enjoy it's treats on its own terms. My advice is get a ticket when this plays tomorrow at the festival.

Flying Saucers Over Hollywood: The 'Plan 9' Companion

This 1992 documentary is included on one of Image Entertainments releases of Plan 9.

Covering not only the making of the film it also deals with the life and times of Ed Wood. Containing a good number of interviews with the surviving cast we get a good idea what it was like to know and work with Ed. There are also interviews with critics and directors (Sam Raimi and Joe Dante) who talk about Ed and his film in the usual contexts of their lives and influence of others.

Running close to two hours this film is 35 to 40 minutes longer than the movie it documents. While for the most part this is a breezy and informative documentary its simply too long a film for the subject it covers (hell its ten minutes shorter than Tim Burton's Ed Wood and that covered more material).

Almost an hour in an I found my attention started to drift. While I did make to the end I found I ended up using it more as radio on the TV rather than as a documentary to watch. To be fair I'm not sure if the disinterest was do to the film itself or simply knowing a good deal about Ed Wood and the movie already.

Worth a look if you run across it (actually one of the Starz movie channels does run it from time to time), but not worth searching out unless you've never seen anything on the film or Ed Wood.

A brief review of Tiger Mask (2013) Fantasia FIlm Festival

Based on a manga, TV show and anime Tiger Mask concerns a teenage boy in an orphanage who is forced to leave it when it closes. Taken away to the Tiger's Pit where he trains to be super strong by a man known as Mr X. Trained to be a wrestler he is given a tiger mask which will enhance his abilities for a short time. Years pass and loyaty is tested...

I'm the wrong audience for this film. I am neither a fan of the original manga, nor am I six nor, am I particularly fond of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Sure the violence is a bit more graphic and the suits kind of look cool but at the same time there really isn't much here beyond the kiddie level. There is nothing wrong with that but I was really hoping for a bit more

Worth a shot if you're a fan of the source or really need something not particularly taxing.

Imaginaerum (2012) Fantasia Film Festival

Strange rock and roll tinged fantasy about a dying composer is in the throws of dementia, drifting in and out of a fantasy world occupied by dreams and memories. As his daughter comes to take care of his affairs she must try to unlock his mind and bring him back to reality before it's too late...

I’m going to have to ask you to bear with me concerning this film because in trying to describe I want to use analogies that may fit a moment in the film, but are not adequate to describe the film as a whole. Yes the film has moments that remind me of the work of Tim Burton, Neil Gaiman, a 38 Special or Heart music video, some moments of David Lynch, Peter Pan, Raymond Briggs’ Snowman, Dream One, Tarsem Singh’s The Fall, and a few other films but to use them as a blanket statement would be wrong, completely wrong and unfair. (I do love the Fantasia Film Festival website but their write of this film is slightly misleading because they use blanket statements). Perhaps the one thing that the film is like is Winsor McKay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland since more than once I had a feeling that what I was seeing could have come from McKay’s classic strips.

A unique adult (ie. It’s not aimed fully at the family audience) fantasy the film deals with matters of life and death while telling a good story about a man trying to come back to sanity. While the film feels familiar (see above) it’s also a film that carves out a unique path for itself, it’s a film that may travel near familiar territory but isn’t in it. (and no this is not like a Tarantino film that repurposes bits without shame, daring you to figure out the steals, rather this is like your brain which weaves bits of existence together into what we call memory)

I really do like this film a great deal but at the same time I don’t know what I completely think of it. The problem is that between the festival write up and the above picture I was expecting something else. I’m not sure what I was expecting but it wasn’t what I got – which is why trying to compare the film to something that went before is completely unfair. For me reading about all the things the film was like worked against it since I was not ready to take the film head on. I think the best way to explain it is it was kind of like seeing the work of someone who repurposes items into new works of art. I was seeing the pieces in their original context and not the new. In an art gallery I can go out and walk around for a bit and then come back into the room with the questionable art and see it with the eyes that it deserves. With a movie it’s a little trickier since I have to go out of the theater and then clear my head and try again. With a festival screening it’s even harder since it because of limited opportunities to see it again even after you’ve cleared your head.

My need to see the film again aside I think you should definitely give the film a shot. It’s a film that really has a unique vision of the world and of the mind. I don’t think it would be stretch to say that within a year or two the film will have attracted a group of people who really love the film and will vocally stand up for it.

Go see this film.

Lugosi documentaries

LUGOSI HOLLYWOODS DRACULA
Lugosi Hollywood’s Dracula is a very good but very uneven look at the man his life and his films.

The film released at the time of a US Postal  stamp covers Lugosi’s entire life and career. Filled with tons of pictures and clips the films odds are you are going to see something you’ve never seen before, say pictures of Lugosi as a boy or a clip of one of his Hungarian films from 1918. For me the best part of the film is it filled in a good deal of the personal stuff about his early and mid life that I never knew about. Sure everyone concentrates on his decline and his Ed Wood years but no one talks about the early days, this film does it in spades. Filled with interviews with many of the people who knew Lugosi the film paints a charming portrait of the actor as a nice man. Sure he was a womanizer (they say he fought at least 11 duels over women) but he was a charming man.

I really liked the film, I just wish it was longer. Seriously there are these little clips and bits in the extras on the DVD that make me wonder how this would have played had the film actually been say twice it’s 52 minute length. Lugosi’s life needs a full length look.

BELA LUGOSI THE FORGOTTEN KING OF HORROR
Made before the larger resurgence after Tim Burton's Ed Wood, this short documentary is narrated by long time editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland Forrest J Ackerman.  The film is a fast paced and informative look at the life and times of Bela Lugosi.

The film is one of the best biographies (the best?) of Lugosi out there. While the film's use of clips is limited to footage from either trailers (Dracula, Murders in the Rue Morgue), public domain films (White Zombie, Mystery Marie Celeste) or promotional films, it is filled out with photographs, and interviews with people like Caroll Borland, Ralph Bellamy and John Carradine. This is key  because it allows for people who knew him when to tell the stories that they were there to experience (I love Borland's story about getting the role in Mark of the Vampire.)

The best thing I can say is this is if you've never seen a documentaary on Lugosi see this one. Once you see this film you'll never need to see another.

A few words on RESURRECTION OF A BASTARD (2013) Fantasia FIlm Festival

A knowing dry witted tale is a kind of existential gangster film that follows a bad ass guy who begins to have a change of heart or a change of point of view.

How knowing is it? Our hero’s boss is named James Joyce.

I’m not sure what I think of this film. It’s not a bad film but it’s a bit too knowing than I really liked. It’s a kind of self-aware film that knows it’s about more than its characters which adds a level of distance that really shouldn’t be there…unless the filmmakers wanted me to relate to the film as fable rather than as a real story.

Before seeing the film I had been warned by someone by someone I trust of something that happens at the start. It’s mentioned in the Fantasia write up so it’s not giving anything away. The person I was talking to told me how you react to the film will be determined by the bit where our hero is standing in the woods with a neck brace peeing and musing about blisters on his penis. I was told that if the scene clicked with me then I would love the rest of the film, if not I’d be in for a long haul. The film didn’t click with me and I was in for the long haul...well not really a long haul but it seemed more like a film trying to be much cleverer than it really was.

I’m guessing your reaction to the film will probably be determined the same way.

They Came to Blow Up America (1943)

English man George Saunders stars as the son of German immigrants to the US (and you thought Hollywood typecast) who returns from his mining job in South Africa to help the German American Bund movement in the US. His father is furious and drives his son out. What Saunders’ father is unaware of is that his son is actually an undercover FBI agent tasked with infiltrating a the Bunds and the Nazi sabotage ring. Taking the identity of a Nazi agent that was killed Saunders finds his way into the sabotage school, and running afoul of the Nazi’s when he makes the acquaintance of a beautiful young woman who is in the underground… (and it gets worse)

Old school Hollywood propaganda walks the fine line between grand adventure and silly preach-ifying. It’s the sort of old school film that don’t make any more, partly because we are not fighting that sort of a war, but also because we simply aren’t making that sort of a film. You know the film where the hero does the right thing, takes down the bad guys with flippant remarks and manages not to even get a speck of dirt on him. None of it is believable, but at the same time you get carried away because the actors sell the nonsense so well you actually fear for Saunders. Actually one of the things that works in the films favor is that it is a war time film. Because the film comes from the war it means all bets are off, characters could possibly die. Sure any death will be heroic, but no one is safe.

Far from a great film, it is a damn good one. It’s a sweet little war time drama with a wicked sense of humor. That the film works as well as it does is thanks in large part to George Saunders who manages to be a strapping hero and to be vulnerable. His dalliance with the underground agent puts him in to danger and he looks tense. He also manages to handle some of the odd twists that come his way (the man he is impersonating has a wife) and while we can be sure he’ll be some form of okay, he still makes us feel he’s still afraid that what he’s doing isn’t going to work.

A solid little war time thriller.

Two David Bowie rarities at Lincoln Center

As part of Lincoln Center’s look at David Bowie the actor they are running two programs from the BBC vaults that have not been screened in the US previously.

BAAL is an hour long adaption of Betolt Brecht’s first play which concerns a rather vile man named Baal who charm everyone with his poetry and songs, but leaves a trail of broken souls in his wake. Covering the events of 8 years as Baal seduces women, spends money he doesn’t have and is generally nasty to everyone we watch as he slides down to the point where he is left alone.

Bowie is a revelation as Baal and anyone who has any reservations about his ability to act should see this since Bowie is perfectly capable of playing a man people love and hate.

The production, which I’m told chops out about half the play, is hampered by the source material which like several of Brecht’s plays is too artfully constructed to be anything more than something you admire (characters are one thing, people don’t speak naturally but make mini speeches or basically ideas take precedence over the drama). I can’t imagine this at two hours (The original Film Society material lists this as running two hours but the program is only an hour)

Reservations with the source aside the film is definitely worth seeing because of Bowie’s performance if nothing else.

CRACKED ACTOR is a BBC documentary filmed during the Diamond Dogs Tour in the US. Following Bowie as he travels to LA to perform we get a look at the man on the edge. Bowie commented 15 years later that he was close to destroying himself at the time the film was made and its clear that the well-spoken performer of later years wasn’t always there. There are times, such as the opening news interview where Bowie is clearly stoned. His ultra-thin frame looks incredibly fragile and one wonders if he fell if he would snap into several pieces.

When Bowie is serious he becomes an interesting subject as he talks about performing, his music, his clothes, his fans and his psyche. It’s a look inside his mind before he became more controlling of image.

We also get to see the performance of several songs on the tour which makes me wonder what the whole show was like. To be quite honest that if the film has any lasting value it’s the recording of these live performances

More time capsule than anything else the film is a portrait of the man at one moment and place in time and as such it’s a neat little film to see. Worth seeing when the film plays one of its multiple screenings at Lincoln Center with Ziggy Stardust or the Bowie Music Video Collections

Cockneys vs Zombies (2012)

Zombies are the new Vampires. In other news, water is wet & the sky is blue. Now that I've cleared the obvious out of the way, unless you've been living inside a bomb shelter since the Y2K scare, you've been witness to the resurgence of the Zombie genre. I could blame The Walking Dead for this, since that has caught on like wild fire over the past few years, but that show is bloody brilliant. As good as that series might be, I can't give all the credit to it. Films such as Shaun of the Dead & Zombieland certainly play a role in this. Both took a comedic look behind the undead, which is certainly nothing new, but it clearly spoke to a new generation of fans.

Cockneys vs Zombies is the latest in what seems like a never ending cycle of the zombie comedy aka "zom-com" (ugh). What I can tell you is, while it's far from perfect, it does manage to stand on it's own against other recent films of the genre. Two brothers and their gang of cohorts decide that they are going to rob a bank, so they can save their grandfather's retirement home from being torn down by developers. On another site location some works dig up an old tomb, in a scene that seemed vaguely familiar from Return of the Living Dead, and this happens to unleash the undead, leading to a chain reaction of events. After the bank robbery goes awry, our main players must get back to the retirement home to save their grandfather & his elderly friends.

Now it's time to address the elephant in the room. This film borrows heavily from the aforementioned Shaun of the Dead. But honestly, is that such a bad thing? Maybe not. The quick witted British actors and it's overall silly premise add the comedy element. While the blood keeps pumping, limbs are blown off, heads crushed, etc.. throughout the movie. It is predictable and the final act perhaps goes just a tad over the top, but it's an overall fun ride. Nothing groundbreaking here, just some laughs & gore.

Unfortunately, my main problem with Cockneys vs Zombies lies not with the film itself. I'm sorry to say but I'm just a bit burnt out on this sub-genre. I always preferred the more serious zombie films, the original Romero Trilogy, Fulci's Zombie, the list goes on. But I feel as though it's just on overkill now. Too much of one thing is never a good idea. IMO it's only a matter of time before the rest of the country catches up, and finds something new to latch onto.

I do hope years from now, we can look back on this current Zombie invasion of entertainment, as a nation we will stand united and say.. at least it was better than Vampires that sparkle.

Tron Legacy

Any rational person would never have expected a sequel to Tron some twenty years after the fact. Sure the film has a vocal fan following. Sure the film ended up influencing not only films but how we deal with computers and technology, but 20 years on would anyone would crazy enough to make a sequel?

Disney was and they did.

The film takes place many years after Jeff bridges has disappeared. No one knows to where. His son ever hopeful manages to find him, living with in the computer world that Bridges had discovered in the first time. There are additional twists and turns as father and son and beautiful computer program must fight the evil over lord of the world who wants to get out of the digital world and into the real world. It’s a rip roaring adventure that builds on the first film and updates it for today’s world.

As complex as the film is, and it is deeply more complex with themes and echoes that one doesn’t expect from what was billed as a science fiction action film (actually it’s the sort of film you could do a doctoral thesis on), the reason I want to talk about the film is the music from Daft Punk, it’s amazing.

If the film works, it’s because the music is so good. Not to put too fine a point on it, it’s probably one of the best score for a film I’ve ever heard.

What makes the music so special is that not only does it set the mood and it also drives the action, but it also acts as another major character, a kind of story teller that pulls you in and drags you along. Yes I know that’s what music can do, but no film has ever done it like this. If you changed the music the whole film would play completely differently.

I’ve seen the movie probably a dozen times now thanks to the cable rotation and it blows me away every time. Sure I notice the story and the effects, but mostly I notice the music. The music is vital to this film since if you turn it off, as I have when I’ve muted the TV to take a phone call, the film stumbles. The film simply doesn’t work as well without it.

How important is the music to the film? If you listen to the score on it’s own it changes the world aroud you. It’s a weird sensation when you put on the music- you kind of disconnect from the here and now and go to a world somewhere else. The building themes and soundscapes alter you emotionally.

I know you think I’m nuts, but I’m not. Watch the film and then but on the music and you’ll see I’m right.