December movies

In a few days I'll post one of my favorites of the year--the 2010 statistics! That will have the complete list of who, what, when and where (but no why will be given). Until then, be happy with the rather mundane monthly list of what I saw and my 1-5 ratings. As December usually is, this was a busy month with me watching 32 films that saw a couple of 5 stars (including the first time I have ever watched the pretty amazing The Treasure of Sierra Madre) and a bunch of films poised to get nominations come award time.

Taxi Driver---1976---usa   *****!
Heartbreaker---2010---france   ***1/2
Hannie Caulder---1971---usa   ***
Last Train Home---2010---china   ***
Red Riding 1974---2009---england   ***
Mr. Death---1999---usa   ***1/2
Frozen River---2008---usa   ***1/2
The Tourist---2010---usa   ***
Triangle---2007---hong kong   ***
Black Swan---2010---usa   ****
Humpday---2009---usa   **1/2
True Grit---2010---usa   ****
The Legend of Jimmy the Greek---2010---usa   ***
Red Riding 1980---2009---england   ***
A Prophet---2009---france    ****
The Fighter---2010---usa    ****
The Pursuit of Happiness---1971---usa   **1/2
The King's Speech---2010---england   ***1/2
Four Lions---2010---england   ***1/2
Bomb It---2007---usa   ***1/2
How Do You Know---2010---usa   **
The Furies---1950---usa   ***
Whatever Works---2009---usa   **
It's Kind of a Funny Story---2010---usa   ***
The Treasure of Sierra Madre---1948---usa   *****!
A Solitary Man---2009---usa   ***
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison---1957---usa   ***1/2
The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector---2009---usa   **
I Love You Phillip Morris---2010---usa   ***
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale---2010---finland   ***
Tron: Legacy---2010---usa   **1/2
Scott Walker: 30th Century Man---2006---usa   ***1/2

Baghead + The Other Boleyn Girl

Baghead. I liked this more than I was expecting to considering it's a horror film (sort of) based around a villain who wears a brown paper bag on his head. Not exactly Michael Myers creepy. It's a standard, run of the mill brown paper bag and its normalcy might be the key for it causing fear or uneasiness as Baghead unfolds. The story, done up in as much comedy as fright by brothers Mark and Jay Duplass, concerns two women and two males heading out to a remote cabin for the weekend to work on a screenplay they can all be in. When there, drink is consumed, lusts are born and strange things begin to occur. You know, unknown types with a bag on the head emerging from the darkness or appearing in rooms.

I enjoyed another Duplass brother film a few years back called The Puffy Chair. Baghead has the same low-budget, improvised feel and mood. There's a casual spontaneity among the four cast members as they banter back and forth about films, what is happening to them or drunkenly make romantic passes at each other. It's a very flimsy premise, but the likable group of actors and some weirdness toward the end with Mr. Baghead make it funny in an awkward way and kind of eerie in a silly way. Nothing says terror like a killer with a bag on their heads, right?

The Other Boleyn Girl. Take my advice on this very, very subpar monarchy set melodrama from 2008: avoid it. Granted, films set among royal families of any nation are not something that interests me. Ever. Add The Other Boleyn Girl to the list. It's not that I just don't like these sorts of king/queen films (although I don't!), this is just a bad film and would be hard-pressed to please people into this world or time in history. It's a failure at everything it tries to be. Romance, historical drama, suspense--all of these do not work. The Other Boleyn Girl is dull, poorly written, poorly acted and full of characters I didn't care if they lived, loved or had their heads chopped off by the king.

Set in 16th century England during the reign of Henry VIII (played stiffly by Eric Bana), two sisters vie for the king's attention. Desperate for a male heir, the randy king takes sister Mary (Scarlett Johansson in heaving bosom mode) as a mistress, but then takes sister Anne (Natalie Portman) as a wife. It's complicated in the king's bedchambers. One sister will end up without a head. There's a decent cast in this, but it's ruined by a heavy handed script and direction, The Other Boleyn Girl confirms my long-held thoughts about the monarchy that will make me pass on the next film set in this period among this or that king/queen.

Metropolis poster

Metropolis, one of my favorite silent films of all-time recently played here in Tulsa with all the added footage that has made it a must-see for the film geek in 2010. The 1927 dystopian science fiction film directed by Fritz Lang while he was working at UFA (Germany's major film studio from 1917-1945) also has one of my favorite film posters. In fact, variations of this poster I've seen are also pretty mind-blowing as well. I so loved this female robot that when Dan Fritschie created the CineRobot propaganda poster in 2009, I asked him to channel his inner foxy robot--see CineRobot poster below for comparison.

UTW review of The Tourist

Go here if you want to read my review of The Tourist in a recent Urban Tulsa Weekly. It's a blatant star-vehicle kind of picture with real, honest to goodness movie stars Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie doing what they do best in the thriller/action genre that this exists in--be movie stars. To know if I liked it or not, you'll have to click the link and read on...

I Heart Melissa Leo

In the opening moments of the 2008 drama Frozen River, the camera lingers on the face of its lead character played by Melissa Leo. In this brief, intimate moment we come to an understanding about this person--she is tired, worn-down, frightened, worried, emotional and angry. No words are said as none are needed, Leo tells us everything we need to know simply by showing us her face. And what a glorious face it is too--the face of a 50 year old woman who is also a great actress. What a novel concept!

In this day and age of surgeries, chemical injections and other medical attacks on aging that turns people into deformed mutants rather than making them look younger, Leo appears to have have rejected that path. Who ever truly knows though, unless the person has gone full-freakshow with their faces? The best thing about this for Leo--and other actors who are worried about the tolling bell of getting older--is that her career has never been better. She got a deserved best actress nod for Frozen River and has been a busy, busy performer of late among the cast of recent films such as Conviction, The Fighter and a prominent place on the acclaimed HBO series Treme.

I first became a fan of Leo's in 1993 when she took on the role of Kay Howard, a tough-talking detective in an all-male world on the wonderful television series Homicide: Life on the Street. There were some powerhouse actors on Homicide (Andre Braugher, Ned Beatty, Yaphet Kotto among others) and Leo more than held her own as Howard was a feisty, independent, complicated, well-thought out character. After the show ended, Leo went into bit-part purgatory before emerging from the wilderness with the gritty, low-budget Frozen River. I hope Leo keeps getting these good roles too for evidence that not every woman (or man) of a certain age doesn't have to carve up their face into some kind of mysterious plasticine version of the way they think they look.

I sometimes wish I was living in New York City again

I'm going to try to not knock on Tulsa or Oklahoma on this post as I'm happy to be living in the area where I was born, raised, have most of my family, went to school, have friends I've known for 30+ years and feel both comfortable and inspired most of the time. But, sometimes I read about cultural events happening in other cities and dig deep into that area of my heart populated by wanderlust. It gives me serious pause. I ask myself: why am I not living in New York City, the absolute mecca for all the cultural things that I love?

For example, MoMA just opened this massive exhibit related to German films called Weimar Cinema, 1919-1933: Daydreams and Nightmares. It absolutely sickens me that I can't go experience the most comprehensive exhibit on German cinema in American history. There's posters, film stills, material and more than anything--films. 75 feature length movies from this vibrant period including such legends as Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau and G.W. Pabst. Many films will have their first screening in decades or are restored film prints that were "discovered" post-German reunification. It makes my heart ache in longing!

But, I'll stay with Tulsa with sadness in my bones when I read about events such as this. It's not so bad, right? I have my Netflix queue with nearly 200 films ready to be shipped to me. I have my beloved Circle Cinema, where it takes a while for films to get here, but at least they get here.  It could be a lot worse for me film wise, I could be living in the godforsaken movie town of Oklahoma City after all. Now that would be truly depressing.

Image from 1925 film Variety.

UTW review of Tamara Drewe

Go here if you want to read my review of the English pastoral sex farce Tamara Drewe. Directed by Stephen Frears and starring the lovely Gemma Arterton, this is kind of a hit and miss comedy with lots of pretty views of the countryside (and of Arterton!).

Taxi Driver + Heartbreaker

Taxi Driver. It's a very difficult proposition to list my favorite Martin Scorsese films, but if I had to make one (anyone who knows me knows I love a good list so this isn't exactly torture) Taxi Driver would be a solid number three. The sad thing for it, no matter how many times I watch it, chances are it will stay at number three. No way I will ever move it ahead of my two favorites Raging Bull and Good Fellas. Those two are as good as it gets for cinema as a whole, no matter the director. Future Scorsese movies? No hope they will eclipse these three.

Released in 1976, Taxi Driver still packs a tremendous punch as a visceral look at urban isolation, decay and seediness as a socially inept war veteran (Travis Bickle) goes off the deep end whilst coming up with ways to clean the streets of the "scum" he encounters while driving his taxi. Robert De Niro's first post-Godfather II (1974) role is as Bickle and it's a legendary performance with lots of classic scenes ("You talkin' to me?" being the most well known). The only thing about it that never stops bugging me is why De Niro wore a skullcap rather than shaving an actual mohawk on his head. I don't care about sequence filming or any of that. He should have taken razor to skull. How is that method acting, Mr. De Niro? Taxi Driver has a relentless script from Paul Schrader and it's just as dark today as when it originally came out. Great supporting roles by Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Cybill Shepherd, Jodie Foster and a brief, wonderful scene by Stephen Prince as a gun salesman named Easy Andy that kills me every time I watch it. Taxi Driver belongs in the category of must see over and over cinema.

Heartbreaker. Now for something different--French farce! I love French cinema and there's nothing more enjoyable from there than witnessing their version of the American romantic comedy. If I had to choose between something similar between France and America regarding romantic comedies--it's France. Sorry patriotic Americans but Hollywood has dumbed down this genre so much they are increasingly painful to watch. The French know how to deliver chemistry, physical comedy, intelligence and more edge than the parade of blander than bland movies Hollywood creates. Let's add Heartbreaker to that list of how the French do it better than the Americans.

Starring the charismatic (and desperate for a cheeseburger and fries skinny) Romain Duris as a lover-for-hire, paid to break up relationships by seducing unhappy females by concerned loved ones. He works in a team of three (more comedy fodder obviously) and he takes the job very seriously, doing research, creating elaborate ruses to further woo his target. Trouble ensues when he meets Juliette Van Der Becq (Johnny Depp's l'amour Vanessa Paradis), an extremely wealthy, independent and not interested since she's about to be married. Or is she?  Of course she is! It wouldn't be a farcical French romantic comedy if she isn't tempted by Duris' charms. Light as a feather, Heartbreaker delivers laughs and romance as it beguiles the characters on the screen and the audience as well.

UTW review of 127 Hours

Go here if you want to read my review of 127 Hours in a recent Urban Tulsa Weekly. Based on real events, it's Danny Boyle's follow-up to Slumdog Millionaire and stars James Franco as a young man trapped in a Utah canyon who'll do something desperate to survive. It's pretty good too.

Movie tickets #21

UTW review of The Tillman Story

Go here if you want to read my review of The Tillman Story in a recent Urban Tulsa Weekly. It's a documentary that tells the story of professional football player Pat Tillman's journey from the NFL to the mountains of Afghanistan, where he was killed in action as a member of the Army Rangers. It's one of my favorite documentaries of the year and will likely get your blood boiling as the government lies, bullies and tries to trick the family and public all in the name of a jingoistic patriotism. Recommended. 

The Runaways, Atonement + Spirit of the Beehive

The Runaways. I'm pretty critical on films about rock bands or rock music. I just can't tolerate all the mistakes in story, tone and detail errors these kinds of films continuously have. Very rarely do I see a rock music related film where I think the subject matter and the music were captured correctly. Control, a 2007 English film about Joy Division from director Anton Corbijn is an example of a film I loved that got everything right. The Runaways is another of the long-list of rock n roll movies that irritate much more than they satisfy me. Something that I couldn't overlook for the entire film is just how little to do with the story Lita Ford was given. I guess she didn't sell her life rights to the producers so her participation in the band (and movie) was miniscule. I could not let her invisibility go. 

The Runaways were an all-girl teenage rock band that played in the 1970s.  Kristen Stewart actually does a surprisingly good job playing the young Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning takes on singer Cherie Currie [check out the awesome poster I dug up online].  As mentioned, there is virtually no Lita Ford in this film version of The Runaways. I liked some of the early scenes of the band learning how to play, write songs and go on tour, but by the end it's devolved into an after-school special about the dangers of too many drugs and too much rock n roll lifestyle. That's original. The Runaways is just another Hollywood misfire in the world of rock music. It did make me get out Joan Jett's first two records and re-listen to them so that's something. 

Atonement. In preparation for a Tulsa City-County Library panel event I was a speaker on, I read Ian McEwan's novel Atonement and watched the film version. As usual, book defeats movie. There's really no comparing the two worlds as the novel is such an intimate experience. The movie is just a watered down taste of what the world McEwan creates on the written page. When I saw Atonement in 2007, it never quite felt right to me in tone. After this avalanche of it in my life and thoughts--it still doesn't. I just can't buy the entire Briony escapade by what we get delivered to us on the screen. In the novel, yes, but not the film version. The book makes it clear to me that there's too much WW2 stuff and not enough of the early portion of the story, but I imagine that was what helped get the film funded and director Joe Wright gets to show-off with an epic long-shot on the beaches that deliver the madness of war. That particular shot, while impressive, is actually rather distracting. I spent the entire time wondering when it was going to end rather than pay attention to what Wright was trying to film. Go with the novel. 

Spirit of the Beehive.  I have to admit, I'm including this 1973 Spanish film Spirit of the Beehive because I absolutely love this poster. Amazing! The film itself is slow, dreamy, plotless, haunting, contemplative and open-ended. If this makes it sound like a foreign film that's because it reeks of its European heritage. The story is about a girl whose family is fractured and after she watches James Whale's 1931 film Frankenstein, she loses herself more and more to the inner world of a child. You have to be in the right kind of mood to watch Spirit of the Beehive, but if you stay with it long enough, it will reward you. What can be enjoyed year round though is that poster on the left. There's something about a hexagon that I'm really drawn to. I love hexagons! 

November movies

There Was a Crooked Man---1970---usa   ***
Cairo Time---2010---canada   ***
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu---2006---romania   ***1/2
Nowhere Boy---2010---england   ***
The Runaways---2009---usa   **1/2
Object and Memory---2009---usa   **1/2
Atonement---2007---england   ***
Sweetgrass---2010---usa   ***
The Best That Never Was---2010---usa   ****
Tamara Drewe---2010---england   ***
Morning Glory---2010---usa   **
Spirit of the Beehive---1973---spain   ***1/2
The Tillman Story---2010---usa    ****
Xanadu---1980---usa   **1/2
Whip It---2009---usa   **1/2
127 Hours---2010---england   ****
Baghead---2009---usa   ***1/2
Love & Other Drugs---2010---usa   **1/2
The Other Boleyn Girl---2008---usa   **
The Girl Who Played With Fire---2009---sweden   ***1/2

UTW review of Morning Glory

Here's my review of Morning Glory that appeared in a recent Urban Tulsa Weekly. I didn't like it all that much and in fact, worried that my critique of morning television programming might have been a little too scathing. But, too late now. Go here to read it.

Xanadu, Whip It and Sweetgrass

Xanadu. Each November at Circle Cinema, I try to pick something for the midnight movie that fits the following sentence: come watch a turkey before you eat turkey. For 2010 it was the 1980 musical/science fiction romance Xanadu. I'd actually never seen it, but knew about it and even owned the soundtrack thanks to my love of Electric Light Orchestra. So, Saturday night at midnight I watched it and think it's deserving of his reputation as a kitschy, campy smorgasbord of silliness in the late '70s/early '80s vibe. The film is way more serious than I expected. Sure, the story about a romance between an artist and the roller skating muse (Olivia Newton John) from another world is absurd. The dialogue is terrible. The effects are laughable. But, the songs are super melodic and catchy. There's something kind of wrong watching Gene Kelly skating around to a pounding disco beat (which would be his last appearance in film).  Xanadu's a train wreck, but it's charming in just enough ways to make it worth watching late in the middle of the night in true cult cinema fashion.

Whip It. I didn't see Whip It when it came out in 2009, but I didn't miss much. Drew Barrymore's directorial debut is set in the roller derby world of Austin, texas, as a bunch of tattooed women skate, beat the crap out of each other in the name of sports and find some kind of elusive female empowerment via the shared bond regarding these things. At least that's what Ellan Page's 17 year old character "Babe Ruthless" discovers on her journey of self-discovery, all because of roller derby. The coming of age elements to Whip It are pretty mediocre and covers all the usual bases--fights with Mom/Dad, boy trouble and feuds with the best friend. That leaves the roller derby action to save the film and while it was crisp, fast paced and full of action, unless you actually know what the heck is going on in a roller derby match, these scenes lacked suspense. I'm out of the loop on this re-birth of the sport I watched before professional wrestling as a kid. Now, it's serious business from those involved. That doesn't make Whip It any better than it is--a predictable, lightweight, coming of age story.

Sweetgrass. If you like your documentaries no-frills then I've got just the one for you: Sweetgrass. It's so no-frills that a little bit of explanation would have greatly added to the viewing experience as I watched its story unfold. We see a huge of herd of sheep being driven over a mountain range by two sheepherders. It appears to be a dangerous trek with one of the herders visibly shaking by the event, calling his mother and complaining about what has happened. The men have to fight off bears, predators, personal injury and extreme isolation as they move the sheep. But, a big mark against the film is we never know why these men are doing this. Have the animals been sold? Do they drive them over this mountain range every year?  We never know how long that the trip is taking them either. It could be one month, could be six, who knows. Any little bit of text or voiceover at the start of the film would have simply answered these questions and made the rest of the film more enjoyable. Watching sheep roam the countryside for 90+ minutes isn't the most thrilling of topics either, so a little help from the filmmakers sure would have been appreciated. There are some beautiful scenes of nature in this documentary though. The sheep are driven through fields and mountains that are gorgeous, awe-inspiring and wonderful to see. It felt as if you are on the drive, but you aren't really welcomed in to understand why this is happening. You are just watching. Sweetgrass could have been even better had the directors chosen to teach us a little bit as the film unfolded.

Hiroshi Sugimoto theatre photographs

I've been photographing historic movie theatres for a long time. I'm drawn to the architecture, the colors, the glowing neon marquees and the sadness of an empty, unused theatre. I've been compiling photos of run down, abandoned theatres for a project I've dubbed "Dead Cinema" (some of these might appear on Blevins Fotografic from time to time). I have taken interior photographs, but the bulk of what I've done has been exteriors due mainly to the fact that I've been unable to go inside if I'm just driving around towns and cities hunting for that marquee that pulls me in like a magnet.

Recently I stumbled across the work of Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto and have been blown away by his large-format, extremely long exposures that capture an entire movie in a single frame. The expertise to be able to craft these long exposures on 8x10 cameras, as Sugimoto does, is the work of a master technician in complete control of his craft. Folks, if you are a digital photography person, bow down and admit the error of your ways, as these remarkable images could only be made by someone working within the world of film.

Sugimoto, born in 1948 in Tokyo--we actually share February 23rd as a birthday,  has been taking movie theatre photographs since 1978 and they range from famous palaces, lesser known palaces, regular theatres and even the drive-ins that dot the American landscape. How it works for Sugimoto is he sets up his camera, prepares and formulates light, space and the room, opens the shutter and records the entire film in a single frame. What is left is a magical, glowing white screen and every small detail of the theatre/drive-in captured. There are no people which leaves an eerie, surreal element to the images. It's as if time has forgotten to exist in these Sugimoto photographs.

Here's Sugimoto describing where the idea for the photographs came from.

One night I had an idea while I was at the movies: to photograph the film itself. I tried to imagine photographing an entire feature film with my camera. I could already picture the projection screen making itself visible as a white rectangle. In my imagination, this would appear as a glowing, white rectangle; it would come forward from the projection surface and illuminate the entire theater. This idea struck me as being very interesting, mysterious, and even religious. [Time Exposed, 1995]

I've been looking at a bunch of these images online, but it's not enough, I want to be able to see prints, up close and personal, to soak in all the minute details captured in these images. Since they are drawn from large-format cameras I can only dream about the details a giant print would unveil.

All images on this post are by Hiroshi Sugimoto.

UTW review of Nowhere Boy

Go here if you want to read my recent review in Urban Tulsa Weekly of the English film Nowhere Boy. It's about the early years of John Lennon, before the Beatles, when he was just a troublemaking teenager in Liverpool. I wasn't blown away by it.

UTW review of Conviction

Sorry for the time away, dear readers, been kind of swamped with outside commitments. I will try to be more punctual for those of you who expect better of me. Go here to read my review of Conviction. It's one of those "true" story inspirational films that come out like clockwork. I'm lukewarm on it.

October movies

October was a light month, but did have some NY, NY screenings--always a good thing. Plus, I re-watched a couple of films I absolutely love, love, love (high scores below should give it away).

The Social Network---2010---usa   ****
Blood Simple---1984---usa    ****1/2
A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop---2010---china   **
Inside Job---2010---usa   ***
Waiting for a "Superman"---2010---usa   ***
A Fish Called Wanda---1988---england   *****!
Marwencol---2010---usa   ***1/2
Red---2010---usa   ***
Repulsion---1965---england   ***1/2
Hereafter---2010---usa   ***1/2
The Town---2010---usa   ***1/2
Conviction---2010---usa   ***

Halloween festivities

Here's some photos of the White City Halloween Spectacle a group of us engaged in last night in lieu of a film article--I've been lazy lately with inspiration for posts! There's a group shot of the entire cast going for kind of a Victorian era mish-mash of characters ranging from hunchback, gravedigger, mad scientist, zombies, witch, gatekeeper of souls and two sisters in an eternal slumber.

I was Dr. Florian von Herzog (a nod to both Kraftwerk AND Werner!), a scientist lost in the grips of mathematic insanity looking for the bones of young children to use in his laboratory. You can gaze at Dr. Herzog in a lucid moment in the photo to the right. SJ played Rachel, one of the pair of Rothschild sisters who were in some kind of unexplained sleep-state who were dangerous and hungry for flesh if woken. Photo below is Rachel in some kind of Salemesque graveyard setting. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and this is why...