Check out my new column, This Week In Trailers, at SlashFilm.com and follow me on TWITTER under the name: Stipp
The Basketball Diaries – Blu-ray Review
I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t believe it but this is without question the best film Leonardo DiCaprio has ever done.
A story about the young life of Jim Carroll, the film is an abrasive, dark, evocative portrait that showcases DiCaprio as an actor that seamlessly blends into the background of a story that is nothing short of compelling. Now in Blu-ray this is a wonderful chance to revisit a movie that helped Leo be known as an actor to contend with but, I think, the real joy in re-watching this movie is its dealing with drug culture that wasn’t proselytizing in nature but exposed it for what it was.
There was no joy in addiction other than the satisfaction we get in seeing DiCaprio bang on the door of his mother’s home begging for money in order to score another fix. It’s a moment that is not only jolting but it still manages to get underneath your skin over a decade and a half later. It was years before Trainspotting peeled back the top layer of drug addiction and it was certainly long before Darren Aronofsky made the quintessential tale of the depraved depths that addiction will push you to. What’s more about this film is that the narrative blends fantasy and reality in a way that reflects Carroll’s poetic sensitivities. Looking at it now, the sequences showing DiCaprio finding strength in his writing, trying to exert a level of control and coolness to a life clearly out of control, are this film’s strength. This would be just another coming of age film, drugs being the only real stand-out, had there not been a blending in of Carroll’s perception.
I could not recommend checking out this classic any more than I am now, a movie starring a kid who was perfectly suited for a role of a lifetime. It’s that boyish look that prevents me from seeing him as anything but a young Jim Carroll who was bound by the demons that would never ever let him go.
About the film:
Based on the autobiographical journals of poet Jim Carroll, BASKETBALL DIARIES follows the descent of a Catholic high school student from star basketball player to drug addict. Jim (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his friends roam the streets of New York City as goof-offs, petty thieves, and junkies. Expelled from school for using drugs before a game, Jim is also thrown out of his house and takes up street hustling. A pre-superstardom DiCaprio gives a strong performance in this gritty and uncompromising look at being young and streetwise.
Mammoth – DVD Review
Gael Garcia Bernal is an actor who blurs the line between what is supposed to be real and what is fiction. His delivery is so effortless and so smooth that you half wonder where he ends and where Leo, the protagonist of this film, begins. It’s almost like one of those singers who you swear is just speaking the lyrics, but, as Leo, Bernal embodies the role of a distant parent with a power that audiences need to see.
Left to wither in the multiplex the movie is now on video and it very easily could become the best movie you’ll see this month if people open themselves to a movie that deals with divergent plot lines in a story that never stagnates and is always moving. With a mom who is trying her best but isn’t trying hard enough in her personal life, to a nanny raising her kid who pines for the sons she left behind in the Philippines, and to a father who comes face to face with the very real problem of the sex trade you have a movie that won’t earn a place on any US Weekly Best Of lists for the ladies anytime soon.
Rather, this is a movie that demands your open mind as you watch a family in freefall on their way to a collision course when decisions, the right ones anyway, aren’t made. Michelle Williams shines just as brightly as Bernal but what’s shocking about this movie is that more people don’t know about it. Just as provocative as anything Michael Haneke has put out what’s special about filmmaker Lukas Moodysson’s vision is that, unlike Funny Games, there is a point here. Hopefully you see it by the time you make it to the end.
About the film:
Thanks to the Internet and cell phones, we live in a state of virtually complete, global connectedness ““ but in his latest film, writer-director Lukas Moodysson reveals that true human connection may be more fragile than ever.
Mammoth revolves around successful New York couple Leo (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Ellen (Michelle Williams). Leo is the creator of a booming website, and has stumbled into a world of money and big decisions. Ellen is a dedicated emergency surgeon who devotes her long shifts to saving lives. Their 8-year old daughter Jackie (Sophie Nyweide) spends most of her time with her Filipino nanny Gloria (Marife Necesito), a situation that is making Ellen start to question her priorities. When Leo travels to Thailand on business, he unwittingly sets off a chain of events that will have dramatic consequences for everyone.
MAMMOTH is the first English-language film from the award-winning Swedish director Lukas Moodysson
The Baader Meinhof Complex – DVD Review
I’ll admit that I was intrigued by the lilting pronouncing of this movie’s title.
After getting past the superficiality, however, this movie is explosive in the way it deconstructs what it means to be agents of terror. It turns the black and white lines between terrorist and agent of meaningful change into shades of gray. Dealing with individuals operating in West Germany in the early part of the 1970s, those who were allowed the kinds of freedoms that their oppressed neighbors to the east were still dealing with, the movie looks at the group who saw American involvement in Vietnam and virtually every government movement as a step closer to what they saw as fascism. How could you not be sympathetic for those who were raised out of the ashes of World War II, the dead leader of their country responsible for millions of innocent lives lost, and were overly sensitive to prevent the very same thing from happening again.
The irony of this hyper vigilance, however, is that this group comes off the rails and employs the very same tactics they ostensibly eschewed as the basis for their very reason of being. The film takes a hard and difficult look at a group that had a great initial idea but who were consumed by their own paranoia and propaganda. It hopefully will find a new life on DVD where you can see how even those who are looking to create a peaceful society will turn to violence as a means to their ends.
The story is chilling but the film is a wonderful document to that period in time and place.
About the film:
In the early 1970s, West Germany began to see the foundations of its still-young postwar democracy shaken by a group of self-described Communists and urban guerrillas who called themselves the Red Army Faction. These children of the World War II generation lashed out at what they deemed to be the new face of fascism: American imperialism supported by the German establishment, many of whom had a Nazi past. Through a series of kidnappings, assassinations and bombings, the RAF ““ called the Baader-Meinhof Group in the media, after the names of two of its leaders ““ kept West Germany in a state of terror for years.
Director Uli Edel (“Last Exit to Brooklyn,” “The Mists of Avalon”) has adapted Der Spiegel Chief Editor Stefan Aust’s award-winning book about the group in THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX, whose cast features many leading German stars: Moritz Bleibtrau (“Speed Racer,” “Munich”) as Andreas Baader, Martina Gedeck (“The Good Shepherd”) as Ulrich Meinhof, Johanna Wokalek (“North Face) as Gudrun Ensslin and Nadja Uhl (“What to Do in Case of Fire”) as Brigitte Monhaupt. Edel brings to life a group who, while claiming to want to create a more human society, employ inhuman means by which they not only spread terror and bloodshed, they also lose their own humanity. The man who understands them best is also their hunter: the head of the German police force, Horst Herold (Bruno Ganz, “Downfall,” “Wings of Desire”).
Acclaim for THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX has been universal. “Electrifying” (The Austin Chronicle), “gripping” (The Washington Post) and “fascinating” (The Los Angeles Times) are just some of the critical superlatives bestowed on the film. Mick LaSalle of The San Francisco Chronicle said it’s “a rare epic that deserves every minute of its length.” The New York Times’ Manohla Dargis called it “a taut, unnerving, forcefully unromantic film.” The Times also listed it as Honorable Mention in its Top 10 movies of 2009.
Among its many industry accolades, THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX was nominated for Best Foreign-Language Film at the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes and the BAFTA awards, and won the top prize at the Bavarian Film Awards.
The distinctive DVD/Blu-ray cover art is by Shepard Fairey, whose Barack Obama “Hope” poster has become an icon of our times.
Uncertainty – DVD Review
I didn’t know what to make out of a film that had a clever idea: explore two different storylines and see both of them to their cinematic end.
While it initially sounds gimmicky, and it might have led people away from it when it came out last year, just see how Sliding Doors fared at the box office when you incorporate multiple “What If” scenarios into a movie, the end product makes for a genuinely good time in the secondary market. It’s the kind of film that was designed for DVD as it does deliver on the promise for a good night at home.
Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt ((500) Days of Summer) and Lynn Collins (Wolverine) the movie does play a game of “What if…” with the film’s protagonists as decisions drag them down two different paths, having us follow in its wake to see how these things turn out. The filmmaking gimmick works for me, though, as I was unsure whether it would when it was out in the theaters and actually kept me from looking into it further but I like that I had the chance to give it another opportunity because the result is two short stories, separated by only a coin toss that started all of this fuss in the first place.
It would be too much to explain what kind of wackiness ensues with both stories but the key here is that they are short stories and should be enjoyed as little vignettes that, by themselves, wouldn’t have made for much of a film but, condensed, they are perfectly suited in a movie like this. From a found cell phone to a found dog there is no limit to the inventiveness, if not unbelievable, that screenwriters/directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel are able to infuse into the production of this movie.
On the whole, be it the dramatic yarn or the more thriller-ish story that has these kids running all around the film stacks up well against some of the ligher fare that has been passing for entertainment as of late. Put this one on your list and see if a little Sliding Doors 2.0 is right for you.
About the film:
Responsibility clashes with freedom as a young New York City couple experiences two decidedly different holidays in this drama from filmmaking duo David Siegel and Scott McGehee (SUTURE, THE DEEP END). It’s the Fourth of July, and Kate and Bobby are struggling to make a decision: do they stick with tradition and spend the weekend with Kate’s family, or do they set out on their own for a spontaneous adventure?
After making their initial decision, an alternate narrative emerges to show just what would have happened had they chosen to do otherwise. While the decision-making process may seem mundane, the implications of each choice are profound. Sure, a holiday with the family doesn’t seem nearly as exciting as an impromptu romantic trip, but that doesn’t mean it will be any less dramatic.
As the stories diverge and a “what if” scenario becomes reality, it soon becomes apparent how much one seemingly minor decision can ultimately affect the rest of our lives.
KICK-ASS – Review
How I wish this could have been solely Nicolas Cage and Chloe Moretz’ film.
In effect, Kick-Ass, the latest from writer/director Matthew Vaughn, doesn’t suffer so much from a marginally interesting protagonist in Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) who plays the titular superhero, taking on crime without powers of his own, it’s the story of how a father can devolve into pathos that is the real fuel to this film’s power. It’s certainly the most interesting story in this movie as the role of murderous vigilante is played with a kind of joie de vivre by Nicolas Cage as Big Daddy. Seeing him dispatching thugs and Mafioso types, each and every one oozing the uninspired sameness of archetypes that have been done better years before it’s become such a standard, Cage absolutely steals this movie away from Johnson as does Chloe Moretz who plays Hit-Girl and thankfully so. Moretz, in comparison, schools an ignorant and ostensibly innocent everyman who radiates nothing but a juvenile charm in the ways of street justice that are not only hilariously concocted but they drive the best parts of this film. Moretz and Cage: the real dynamic duo.
It’s not that Johnson doesn’t have a lot to do. When we come upon this small town he’s not liked by many of his peers, where girls ignore his every advance, and where mugging a comic book nerd seems to be commonplace. There’s nothing really extraordinary about him and even the meager scraps we’re given about his life don’t add up to anything interesting. So, as the ridiculous blandness of his life becomes too much it all seems to coalesce into a teenage fantasy of wish fulfillment as he sets his thoughts and misguided ambitions into becoming a vigilante of justice. Armed with only a couple of night sticks and a green wetsuit we find he isn’t very good at becoming the defender of the law, he can’t even defend himself. The boy is pummeled, stabbed and hit by a speeding bus the first day into the job and is taken to the hospital after failing to administer a little street justice but what makes this movie fail to live up to the promise of showing what would really happen if a kid took matters into his own hands and fulfilled his superhero dreams is that the plebe was unmasked and identified by medical professionals who had to in order to help save his life. Thus making his secret identity moot. The story ought to have stopped there with him yet he is able to keep not only the ambulance technicians hush about this incident when he gets in the news for performing great acts of bravery, this information is somehow lost to the ephemera. It’s disingenuous and only slightly insulting to the other characters, Big Daddy and Hit Girl, who actually value their secrecy.
No matter, however, as it’s Cage and Moretz who provide a richer comic book tale that I only wish could have been delved into with greater detail. Detail only because you have a father/daughter relationship predicated on violence and the application of that violence in order to reach a certain end. Cage was once a decorated officer of the police department who is wrongly accused of a crime he didn’t commit, not anything real original about that, but, on his release, becomes something dark and sinister that knows no regard for the law he once served. And this is where the real thrill of Kick-Ass comes in. It’s in the application of the skills that Cage has passed down to his daughter without any regard to the insanity of doing such a thing, a 11 year-old girl delivering pain, death, and misery with a macabre sense of humor to those she murders that is the genuine thrill of this movie. Vaughn clearly loves this pair as the moments we share where these two are allowed to showcase their skills in well used slo-mo, and where Cage is able to stammer through his verbal cadence which has a delectable piquancy, are priceless.
Sure, we could talk about how Aaron Johnson uses his newly found glory as a masked super hero who takes to walking the streets to fight crime and launches a mania within the city for people to embrace this character with the kind of merchandising campaign usually reserved for Mickey Mouse but why bother? He’s a frustrated geek who wants more out of his existence and genuinely wants to effect change in his life and the lives of others who might have otherwise suffered at the hands of generic thugs committing petty crimes. It’s not a completely wasted storyline but it’s not the reason the right people will appreciate this film. It may be for Christopher Mintz-Plasse’s turn as Red Mist who is equal parts toadie and hilariously inept human being, reminding me a lot of Teddy Beckersted from One Crazy Summer, but he too becomes a perfunctory part of the story.
Again, it’s Cage’s efforts to get to mafia boss Frank D’Amico (played adequately by Mark Strong) which provide the best shotgun bang for your buck. It’s not Dave Lizewski who causes such a stir within the D’Amico organization, it is Big Daddy and Hit-Girl who are the catalysts for much of what makes this movie so thrilling to experience. When Daddy and Kick-Ass find themselves in a lurch with no way out it is the actions and exciting quick moves of Hit-Girl where the movie dynamically shifts from wondering whether Kick-Ass survives this chance encounter to the audience being concerned for the fate of Daddy. It is this sequence, awful digital squibs aside which plagues every moment when a weapon is used on another human being whether for effect or for economy, a distraction either way that you can’t help but noticing, that perfectly captures the essence of Vaughn’s vision. In this moment, I would assert, it’s not Kick-Ass that is of any concern to the viewer. The events that are set into motion after this help lead us to the film’s dénouement and lets us finally fully experience Hit-Girl doing what she does best.
As a rhetorical statement, where is Kick-Ass in all of this? Relegated to a final token moment and a half-assed, if you will, fist fight that succinctly shows that the real appeal is Moretz’ own development as a character and how she can come through the other side a changed person is the real draw. It’s fantastic, the action is vibrant, and there is a real sense of accomplishment in allowing the viewer to see how ordinary people react when put into extraordinary situations is far less thrilling to see how extraordinary people, like Big Daddy and Hit-Girl, thrive in extraordinary situations.
Cage and Moretz push the boundaries of what’s acceptable in the superhero genre, out sociopathing even Bruce Wayne, and it’s these two who deserve the dollops of praise that will be heaped on the film. The foul language, the bad jokes, the twisted family life, the little nuances that are both funny and frightening, it all adds up to exactly the kind of film that feels like a comic book come to life.
This has been a wild couple of weeks with the number of documentaries I’ve been watching about musicians as of late.
CHRISTOPHER STIPP: Hey, Tom. How are you doing?
CS: And I think he comes off ““ I was surprised to see he was quite erudite and scholarly as a young man ““ completely different than public perception of what people “thought” he was.
CHRISTOPHER STIPP: Ray, I don’t know if I should start out with Your Highness, Your Holiness, I don’t know which one you would prefer”¦
MANZAREK: Well, that moment was Moonlight Drive. He sang Moonlight Drive to me. I heard the lyrics, and I heard his rephrasing and his singing and he was right on pitch and he had a good sense of timing and a good sense of space and I said “You know what, I can play all kinds of funky Ray Charles kind of stuff and Jimmy Smith organ behind that” and Jim said, “That’s cool man, that’s what I hear too. If you can do that that would be fabulous.”
MANZAREK: Yes. Oliver Stone movie”¦.no good. It makes Jim Morrison an alcoholic and a wino, a drunkard, a crazy man. He was actually very intelligent, very sophisticated, very funny. He was a funny guy. It’s entirely the wrong portrait. That’s what so much fun doing When You’re Strange. You are going to get the real Jim Morrison being Jim Morrison and you will see the real Doors. It’s nothing but Jim Morrison as Jim Morrison and that’s what’s so great about When You’re Strange.
MICHEL GONDRY: Hi Christopher. How are you doing?
CS: And that strikes to a point I was going to ask, Suzette at times seems hesitant to answer your questions that become too personal but you keep prodding her and keep poking her and you stay persistent with it. Did you feel you knew there was something there and you had to get it out of her?
A movie that speaks to the short story lover in me, what you have here is a great film starring Juliette Binoche and a multitude of other Parsian luminaries who act in a multiple narrative that delivers on being interesting, insightful and a passionate ride through the city of lovers.
Watching this movie made me frightened when the truth was too much to bear and in love when the moment hit too close to reality.
Run, do not walk to your local DVD purveyor and buy yourself this season of The Real Housewives. You could not pick a better “reality show”, next to Jersey Shore, which captures the infantile goings on of women who have way too much time, and money, on their hands.
There is obviously no way the movie could live up to the advertising fire hose that has been turned on the unsuspecting public that has been drenched with television spots and trailers for a movie about a pack of schlubs (John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Clarke Duke) who are transported from our time back to 1986.
This week I have another contest for you readers out there. This week it’s all about Milla Jovovich.
CHRISTOPHER STIPP: Explain to me how you balance being both a show runner and executive producer”¦
ERIN CUMMINGS: I love that you brought that up actually because if ever nepotism was going to work in the favor of anybody, it would have been me because Steven DeKnight, the show runner, had directed me in Dollhouse. Rick Jacobson, the director of the pilot, had directed me in Bitch Slap. Lucy Lawless, who’s staring in the series, had a cameo in my film Bitch Slap. Michael Hurst who has directed episodes, as well, was fourth lead in Bitch Slap. Rob Tapert, the executive producer of Spartacus was really good friends with the executive producer of Bitch Slap”¦If there’s ever nepotism would work in the favor of anyone, it would have been me but in reality it wasn’t like that. It wasn’t like, “Oh yeah, just cast her and get it done.”
DEKNIGHT: The great thing about working with Starz is that they asked for 13. They didn’t ask for a pilot, they said go straight to 13″¦and that was season one. So with the Spartacus legend it’s also great because historically we have touchstones we can figure out and we’ve always figured a 5 to 6 year plan to tell a story. Because it’s based on history, we know where we’re headed.
DEKNIGHT: For me, honestly, no because it all comes back to character. It’s all trying to stay true to what the characters would express, say and do. Have we gone down blind alleys? For a day or two in a room breaking stories, sure, we’ve gone down some blind alleys but it always pulls back to that doesn’t make any sense or I don’t think that character would do that, or it just doesn’t feel right for the show. We’ve never gone down a really bad path. It’s been pretty smooth sailing I have to say. I’m a little surprised at how smooth it’s been.
CUMMINGS: I see a trend in the roles I’ve been playing. They seem to be all bad ass bitches and not going to take any shit. They are strong and I love that. I love this character. It’s my favorite character to play. It’s important as a woman to recognize that part of being strong is being able to be soft. One of my challenges as an actor is maybe revealing a little too much. It’s difficult for me to relinquish control to be soft and vulnerable and let someone take charge. What I loved about the role of Sura is that she’s an independent woman. Her decisions she makes benefit her husband first and her second and I think there is something very strong about that. There’s this sense of wanting to do what’s best for my family and there is nothing servant about that in anyway. He respects her opinion and asks her opinion. Whether he agrees or not he wants to know.
I just loved Comic Strip Live with John Mulrooney when I was a kid.
Why go on about the Oscar telecast? Why beat a dead horse? Well, one should not – the dead horse deserves more respect than the big “O” telecast. Every year it seems the Academy tweaks its dog and pony show and every year we, who love the entertainment industry, hope against hope that it will get better. Unfortunately, the powers that be always seem to find a way to muck it up. Was this year no different? In some ways it showed improvement, but with a glaring marketing ploy of nominating ten best pictures there was bound to be some abysmal failure to follow, and boy there was!
Ten minutes into Martin Scorsese’s new magnificent opus, “Shutter Island” I realized where the story was going and wanted to reveal it to my 16 year-old son, but I dared not. What if I was wrong? After another fifteen minutes I was captivated by Scorsese’s handiwork as a master of cinema and dismissed my knowing the outcome and enjoyed the creepy ride provided. This is not the personal voice of Scorsese that brought us such captivating cinematic landmarks as “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull”. This is a more commercial venture that demonstrates not only his love of film past and present, but his prowess as one of the great directors of his generation managing to deliver an icy shudder (pun intended) to a powerful story.
There’s a moment in WE LIVE IN PUBLIC (Now out on DVD) in which Josh Harris, an Internet wunderkind who saw the convergence of our online and everyday lives meshing long before any of us delighted in the joy of broadband service, makes an underground lair. Now, as founder of Pseudo.com, one of the very first sites to ever make video on the Internet available in the late 90’s, he wanted to push the sociological and psychological boundaries of what we would consider voyeuristic. He built a bunker, for lack of a better word, underground in New York where dozens upon dozens of people, artists mostly, had to submit not only applications for the chance to have their lives taped 24/7 but were put through rigorous examinations to determine their willingness to be completely exposed to those around them in ways we hadn’t yet been exposed to. One of the things you learn quickly about the cultural mores of artists, I think, is that through this selection process you notice that these people are open to the idea of things, the idea of a good artistic endeavor, in a way that I don’t think Ma and Pa Kettle would, as the general looseness of those who agreed to be filmed bathing, fornicating, and doing whatever they wanted while the cameras rolled is apparent in their giddiness to take part in this experiment.
I’ll admit it: I’m dumb.
As Maurice Sendak tells it, life growing up was sweet with his older brother and older sister.
The Academy Awards is either just around the corner or has been announced depending on when or if this gets posted. It’s been awhile since I’ve delivered my input on what’s out there. Thinking back I do not have a good enough reason not to have delivered Mr. Stipp a review or two a month. I could use the excuse that I have been traversing through a labyrinth of pain while in and out of a drug haze that impedes my writing, but I just don’t think that is acceptable. I will not continue on with my condition in fear of falling into maudlin territory and depressing you, the reader, and myself. So, in my humble opinion it’s unfortunate that the Academy has reduced itself to a cheap marketing ploy rather than get more creative to capture a television audience with the announcement of 10 “best picture nominees” rather than the streamline 5. Pardon me; did I use the word “creative” conjunctively with the Academy?
Yes, United 93 made me a little ill. With all that shaky-cam movements he’s known for Paul Greengrass has tempered his need to put his cameras on paint shakers. Thank the heavens for that as I was able to enjoy the last Bourne film with much more interest.
CHRISTOPHER STIPP:Â In preparing for this interview I thought it was interesting of how, as you were coming through the ranks, you had a Timex that was set to go off on a set schedule as a reminder, to you, to think about where your career was going.
CS: One of the things I was reminded of when I saw the film was that I’m constantly amazed at what you are able to do. You’re definitely a working man’s actor and you are not comfortable doing one thing here and one thing there ““ you constantly surround yourself with different projects. One of the most famous character, at least in my eyes, was Tappy Tibbons from Requiem For A Dream. What you did with Darren utterly blew me away. How do you find ways to reinvent a character or try to look at a character a different way and give it a life you haven’t before given because obviously looking your resume it’s filled up with all parts but they each feel different.
CS: I find it very curious that you are out here stumping for a film that is now available on DVD. Why are you out here, again, stumping for a movie that has played and that now people might get the chance to see in the secondary market?
Now you have a camcorder, tell a story, and cut it on your Mac and put music on it and you have a showcase. Fantastic. So that technology part is fantastic. The cable world is where I live when I watch television because I think they are breaking new ground.
You have to look at a performance by Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds in order to fully comprehend why Jakob Cedergren, who plays town cop Robert Hansen in Terribly Happy, deserves his own spot on the world stage.
$9.99 – DVD REVIEW
DEAD SNOW – DVD REVIEW
BRAVE NEW FILMS 5TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION – REVIEW
I did not have the chance to see this film while it was playing in the theaters but it made a decent amount of coin at the box office and I now have a few copies to give away for a few people who would like a chance to win one.
I deeply regret having to drag Robert Altman into this.
There’s no denying that this movie has had its setbacks. From delays to reshoots to the replacement of the editor, and original director, this film ought to have been a multi-million dollar, direct-to-DVD dud. Instead, what we have been given by director Joe Johnson is a movie that is paced quickly, has more than a few quality kills, has a story that isn’t completely insulting to the viewer, and is pure fun.
I firmly believe that nostalgia is wasted on the old.
Roger Ebert recently 
You’ve just got to put yourself back into the frame of mind in order for this to work.
I am a man of simple pleasures.
What made a movie like this so unique when compared to seeing Ti West’s House of the Devil in the same week is that here are two movies that get it right. While one is a distillation of everything that made old school horror such a hoot Pontypool proves that you can fast forward your time machine, Doc Brown, and enjoy the stylings of an artist that knows how to make 21st century horror cool again.
The long-awaited release of Universal Studios’ 2010 version of The Wolfman conjures the history of the men who made the original horror films at the studio in the 1920s through the 1940s. Not only was the original 1941 film The Wolf Man key among them, but the rich history of the other films is directly tied into both why and how that film was created.
For the Waggner Wolf Man film, slated as a B-picture by the Universal brass, Pierce and Fulton knew that they had an opportunity to create a unique project that would harken back to the old Laemmle years at the studio. In Chaney, they had the hulking physical actor who could be used to realize their ideas. With The Wolf Man, Kent, along with major contributions by studio mainstays Pierce and Fulton, created the film’s showpiece “transformation” sequences which became standard fare in the many spin-offs that followed. Witness the lap dissolves that Kent and Fulton implemented for transformations from man to wolf, and especially, in the film’s tragic climax, from wolf back to man. Kent also cleverly orchestrated the noted end of the film where Claude Rains unknowingly beats his own son with a silver-tipped cane, later realizing that it was his own flesh that he killed. In their tussle, an especially marked cut to a close shot of Chaney, Jr. as the Wolf Man struggling with Rains makes for one of the film’s most fascinating moments.
LEVI: So it was right around the corner from where the convention was and Adam and I had a panel on Saturday. We already talked about Chuck and we were supposed to have another panel with another actor who didn’t end up making the convention so it was just going to be me. And I said I didn’t want to just sit up there and say the same things so I said, “Hey, instead of me just talking, who wants to go walk over to Subway and have some sandwiches?”
LEVI: I think that A) it is the element that Chuck is one of them and I feel partly that like Josh and I, we are Chuck and Morgan, not entirely, but when we say we’re gamers, we are genuine gamers. And I think that there is an honesty that comes through in that and that’s not a pat on our back by any means but certainly I feel like the audience feels less duped. I feel like they get to watch the characters and feel like that these guys are like that too. They are on Xbox and like comic books ““ so on a personal level I think they are invested in us too which I think is a really awesome thing. But then on top of that I think it’s an entertaining show and speaks to the fanboy and fangirl. We nod to and allude to, not rip off”¦
LEVI: We’ve already seen some changes and those changes have all been kind of monetary, budget restricting changes which is across the board, really. Some shows didn’t come back at all because they just couldn’t work it on with the budget or they were already on season 7 and it’s like…look, Without a Trace for example was in the top 10 shows or something and it didn’t come back. That was making huge numbers and far bigger numbers than us. So across the board, studios, networks, everybody feels it so I, as tough as it is sometimes, would be like, “Come on, give us a little bit of love.”
I am a huge fan of Lost. And when they hit ““ I thought second season was fantastic. The first half of the third season, had maybe writer changes, but you are not getting the mythology, not getting questions answered, just more and more questions, but not questions at all, just day to day living and I’m like, “Come on, what’s going on?’ And then they went on hiatus and came back and the second half of the third season was some of the best television I ever saw in my entire life. I was like, “YES, here’s my show.” And I felt good because I didn’t give up, I could have, but I didn’t and you feel good that you stayed and it’s still to me the best show on TV. I love Lost. I can’t wait to find out what’s going to happen. I’m dying.
Bitch Slap – Giveaway
One insult after another with nary a punchline to be found.
Youth In Revolt, in contrast, only suffers from being too well-written.
CS: One of the things that marked this year, this season, for Chuck was the number of people who came out wanting to be sure the show was saved from the network chopping block. What was your take on how that swell started? I know a lot of people in your position would say “There’s nothing we can do about it” but what was it like to have all those people come out and say, “Please save the show?”
The rubber has got to meet the road somewhere. And so that, mixed with a couple other variables, allowed us to come back for a 3rd season. I think it’s really kind of blazed a trail and I think if network television is going to survive in this new DVR, internet, downloadable world, why not like that? Why not just have one main sponsor and harken back to what TV used to be? How about Borax? I don’t know. But as long as it’s an easily consumable product. Unfortunately for car makers, you can’t be a Toyota and hope that people will go buy a Civic, or a Celica, I mean. All of that combined to create a perfect storm of this is really happening. It was weird because at first your pride takes a hold a little bit. You think, “Why aren’t we picked up? We are a good show and critics like us, a lot of critics love us, our fans love us, and yes, we only do 7 million live but there’s a number 5 if you count all the DVRs and download and DVD purchases. That’s a lot of people. Right?”
Sita Sings the Blues – Quick Review
With no hesitation or hyperbole I can state that Inglorious Basterds was in my top 5 films of 2009. This movie could have been released on DVD without so much as any promotion as it certainly doesn’t need my help in saying how utterly brilliant it was.
Ok, I am not going to posture and say that Angel is my favorite magician of all time.
So, I don’t know much about this film and won’t purport to know different so whether it’s a decent direct to DVD film or if it’s another tired entry into this series. But, I do know Eugene Levy is back again so that has to count for something, right?
CHRISTOPHER STIPP:Â Dave?
CS: That’s what’s amazing that these guys, most of the people you were in with, do have long resumes. They’ve done one shot here, one shot there but they’ve done a lot of productions but like you said, they are not household names but they are good at what they do.
Shoot me a message at Christopher_Stipp@yahoo.com to be entered to win one of a few copies I have to give away.
JASON REITMAN: I was in the bookstore and at the time I was looking for something to read. I liked the cover and started reading it and it completely spoke to me.
QUESTION: How tough was it for you to make George kind of detached, kind of a propagandistic? He’s kind of hard to like in the beginning but obviously at the end we feel great, he warms by the end of it. Creating this character he’s very cold and very standoffish. It was a rift I would think to take a character like him and make him not so likeable in the beginning and then shift that towards the end.
QUESTION: I was just going to ask you about Twitter. I see you tweet quite a bit.
QUESTION: I flew back from LA this morning and I used my Southwest Avis card to cut in line. What kinds of cards to you have that you feel powerful ““ cards with points?
QUESTION: The fashion design, you had the uniformity of the hotel rooms you had the sparseness of Ryan’s apartment and then cue up to the sequence in Milwaukee where you had that arcane, older chalet type hotel. Can you elaborate more on that?
REITMAN: No, I’m not that rude. It was crazy to see that. The Arizona state flag / Ghostbusters patch where this ghost picks up this symbol of the cross that was made out of the Arizona state flag.
CHRISTOPHER STIPP:Â Hello, Tao.
RUSPOLI: It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Two weeks before we started shooting she got the role on House, and of course I couldn’t ask her not to do that. As much as she loves me I said, OK, we will change the whole schedule around hers. The producer nearly had a heart attack but then what we ended up doing is shooting the film in order and then edited it during the week and could see how it was coming together and because of that and our style, we got to really learn as we went and learned what worked and how we could get the best of both worlds doing like the documentary film but in a dramatic, visceral style.
Now with HD you have the best of both worlds. You have the immediacy of the documentary and you also have this rich color and cinematic quality that is so wonderful that you can achieve now with these high quality digital cameras. So I really thought it was a great way to move from documentary into narrative. It was a smooth transition into it.
CS: Well, sir, I have one more question and that would be, just looking at the path this has taken, it wasn’t done just six months ago, it was a long road for this film. You mentioned the process was very fulfilling, the length, the ups and the downs, what did you take away from making this film?
CHRISTOPHER STIPP:Â Hi, Olivia.
For instance, the scene that happens in Watts is entirely made up of non actors except for the main characters. I think you have a sense for that. A sense that you are capturing real life. I think that’s what makes it all so interesting and unique.
CS: That’s a curious thing you bring up to. You obviously shot a metric ton worth of footage, when you got into the editing room, did Tao, did they see what movie they ended up with and were they surprised at what they eventually came up with?
CS:Â And speaking of experience, I have to at least ask the question because I was there in July when you were there at Comi-Con.
MICHAEL SHANNON: Hey Chris.
SHANNON: Right.
CS: But it’s not one we’ve seen in a long time. At least if you were to open up the paper and look at the movie listings it’s not something that’s really in vogue to do.
The Massie Twins: How are you enjoying Arizona? You came here for the one day out of the year when it’s cold.
That probably has a lot to do with the way it was shot ““ very dingy, very overcast. The first film is a cult film and when it was finished I had an idea of what I needed to do ““ take that forward and be this Demetri guy. New Moon is very much a Hollywood blockbuster movie and an action film. It should bring a whole new demographic to the Twilight world. I don’t think anyone really understands how big this is going to be. After a week you’re going to get some spare seats in theaters and they’re going to get filled up with guys looking for a good action movie.
CB: I think if it weren’t for the fact that this is such a huge, phenomenal success and everyone wants to be a vampire right now, then there might be cause for going, “okay, I’m a vampire. This is weird.” But I never got to that stage. I’m a badass vampire! I call my friends at home and say, “Guess what! I’m a vampire!” When I go out onto the street I don’t act like an actor ““ I think it’s the same for vampires. They are badass vampires, so they don’t have to go out and act like it. These are real people with superhuman abilities and idiosyncrasies that come with being a vampire. Yes I eat human flesh, yes this, yes that. We don’t carry it around like some sort of a tag. Especially the Cullens, they’re real people ““ that’s why so many people can get into it. When the primal urges come out, you have to act vicious and aggressive. That’s when you can show the vampire side. I’m looking forward to that because it’s a massive contrast to the charming Demetri that I’ve played in this one.
DC: (laughs) I don’t see myself like that!
There is such a need to become famous nowadays.
I love this kind of thing.
I’m not a huge fan of Ronald Emmerich.
CHRISTOPHER STIPP:Â Peter, nice to talk to you.
RODGER: I think the only way that we are going to co-exist under one is if we have a common enemy. That common enemy could be aliens invading the planet (laugh) or it could be global warming. It is about time that we human beings learned how to unite. We are not a barbaric society anymore. We’ve got education to dispel those differences. We’ve had amazing advancements in technology in the last 100 years. It’s growing at an exponential rate. We really need to get over our little club bigotry ideologies. We’ve got to learn to be extremely generous to other human beings and learn to live together. I think the economic crisis in the last year, 18 months, has made people rethink that themselves and not take life for granted. That we do have responsibilities on every single level and that mom and dad losing their IRA’s and ponzi schemes and people being worried about their jobs, desperate to hold on to something, means we’ve got to work at this together instead of saying that my club is better than yours and if you don’t believe in what I believe in you are not worthy, goodbye. In fact, I’m going to punch you in the nose. I think it’s just terrible. To unite, we need to discuss. We need to sit around the table and graciously talk about what we feel and I think out of that argument, out of that discussion, one, if they are open to it, can realize that we are all the same.
CS: There is and your movie gives that hope. I think it was everything I was hoping Religulous was going to be a couple of years ago and failed to live up to that idea. I think you do what a documentary should do and that’s to be as objective as possible and let the subjects be the focus of the piece and I think you do that effortlessly.
The Israelis and the Palestinians conflict into this because we have to. And then it sort of gelled from there. And then it didn’t work and changed it a bit and stuff stayed the same and then once we had that structure down we started cutting. Finding images that told the story underneath what the people were saying so that you’re not looking at faces all the time. There was something going on visually that supported. When you look at the film again, no body has the time to look at it in slow motion or whatever, or just look at it again, every time somebody is talking about something there is subliminal presentation about what they are saying in the shots. And that is something that is not meant to be conscious in the first viewing but it just creeps up throughout the movie. And that’s how we did it.
Because you animals are so ravenous for free stuff, I’ve got another free screening here in Phoenix.
Here is the curious thing about watching and reviewing things that come into my home: I give everything a fair shot. Everything.
Now, for better or worse, I can’t get Nickelback’s radio hits out of my head. When you have to share a radio in the car with someone else it is just inevitable that there are going to be songs you will be exposed to. Nickelback is that band, for some reason, and while I know they get bagged on in circles where it’s cool to make fun of guys who can draw a crowd you won’t get that from me. Nickelback: Live At Sturgis is just a fun romp down the path of guys who know what the audience wants and is giving it to them night after night if this show is any indication. No, they’re not singing about changing the world like Bono and they’re not talking about the pain of being alive like Tool is, these guys just want to drive their Camaro really fast and keep the windows down so their mullet can flap in the wind.
Has anyone read the short story Billy Budd by Herman Melville? In it, the story has a moment where a razor across the throat has a lot more significance than it does with just a guy getting a shave. It’s a sinister moment in the story’s progression and in this film, IL DIVO, the movie opens up with the titular character, Giulio Andreotti, getting a straight razor shave. The implications of what this means with regard to what will come after is rife with subtext.
One of the things that hits you about the midway point when watching this set is that this has to be one of the greatest live “Best Of” compilations ever put to DVD. The luminaries of rock and roll that appear within this presentation is enough to make it a worthwhile purchase for yourself but certainly is something that ought to be considered a solid gift for anyone who appreciates a wide spectrum of music.
My introduction to sketch comedy came with the discovery of The Kids in the Hall.
I love being able to give these kinds of things out.
I was surprised by how much I liked this film.
BLACK DYNAMITE is now playing…
CS:Â Growing up, did you have a special affinity for these movies? These actors?
WHITE: We were really critical on that. We both felt like you cannot let the contemporary world slip through in any way in this movie. And that’s also with the acting. Sometimes some of the actors who are actually comedians may 10-1 go for the joke in fact to really do it right, these people were not kidding, they were dead serious. They came from a spirit of revolution and they were changing the world at that time. It’s quite funny when you look at it now.
WHITE: So, it slips by and it’s so appreciated when people get it because it’s just delivered in such a way, they take it serious. So when people back up more and look at it another time there will be more times for them to enjoy it and catch on.
CS: What kind of surprises? I’m almost thinking when writing of this film there might have been a few moments like thinking if this is too over the top, is this too overt, need to pull it back a little. What things were you changing on the fly?
I appreciate this film as a quiet examination into the lives of two people who are surrounded by chaos.
I have to implore you, for those who haven’t seen it, to check out the Orson Welles’ narrated The Man Who Saw Tomorrow. Released in 1981, I remember seeing this as a young lad and being mystified at this purported sage of the future. Of course I believed everything I saw and I ate this whole thing up. I was amazed and intrigued by the premise of who this guy was and I will never forget the ending of this movie: Nostradamus predicts the rise of a man who is armed with nuculear weapons and living in the middle east. I don’t know about you but in 1981 the only threat to us was the USSR and even then, with movies like The Day After in 1983 scaring the ever loving hell out of people, the middle east never occurred to a lot of people as being capable of much.
I don’t want to creep a whole lot of you out but I do think about decomposition every now and then.
I loved this film.
CHRISTOPHER STIPP:Â I’ve seen a couple of the shorts that you did and this obviously represents something of a larger scale for you. How was it making the transition from short form to long form? What did you find when the rubber hit the road?
Something I grapple with in my own life is finding the strength within myself ““ finding the drums within my self ““ and not sure what it’s about. So, yea, that was always on my mind and everyday working with the actors, I treated it, I don’t want to say I treated it as a drama, but I wanted everyone to take the story seriously and let the absurdity of what’s actually happening be funny and yet the emotions that are driving everyone real.
CS: I have to commend Lisa Wiegand’s cinematography. It’s just gorgeous to look at and it’s such an un-comedy because of the technical elements that just aren’t there in “comedy” nowadays. 
GOLD: That one was ““ most of the dance sequences were written in ““ that was one I wrote in and kept in every other draft it was in and out and in and out and I couldn’t decide. I wondered if I could get that absurd in that section of the movie and then I decided that I had to go that absurd right there. And I’m very happy with the way it turned out. It’s a strange thing because it was such a long period of time and shot it in sections, almost like five short films. I was constantly trying to make sure that the new sections that I shot would fit in tonally with the sections I shot 6, 7, 8, or 9 months before. And that was one of the last things I shot but that’s exactly what I wanted. That musical comedy thing to happen.
Live in the southwest? Want to see the latest Cohen yarn? Don’t want to pay a dime to see it? You’re in luck as I have passes to giveaway to see A SERIOUS MAN, the Cohen’s latest, this upcoming Tuesday night, 7 p.m., at the Harkins Fashion Square theater.
Buy this disc now!
NICOLAS WINDING REFN: Hello Chris.
REFN: They did make a big film in Denmark about Hans Christian Andersen and I was set to play the lead as Hans Christian Andersen. But then the director decided on somebody younger who I think they were trying to get for a long time and the film turned out to be complete crap. And I think that’s because they didn’t choose me.
REFN: Yes. Every time I make a movie I try to conceive it as a piece of music because that gives me ideas when I write it or conceive it. So every time I make a film I try to say what if this was a piece of music and that gives me ideas. Just like taking drugs, but I don’t take drugs anymore because my wife won’t let me. They are not good for me. So I use music as a way to enhance emotions ““ that’s what music does it enhances your emotions. Let’s take Pusher Trilogy”¦the first one is early 80’s, late 70’s, tie dye and rock and roll, Johnny Thunder and the Heartbreakers, kind of late post punk nihilistic sound, everything had to be destroyed, everyone’s dying from drugs, Part II was very much Iron Maiden, that whole kind of feel, Part III was very Neil Diamond-ish. Bronson was originally composed for me to Pet Shop Boys. But I also wanted to make a very feminine movie that music was very much made me always aware of feminine. When it was time in editing I felt that Pet Shop Boys didn’t really add anything anymore. Kind of out done itself. And kind of opera and classical slipped in because I felt I could add to the movie a new character. Like Charlie Bronson’s life was larger than life. Like an opera. It was an operatic experience and classical music would help to enhance that.
REFN: No, because there is nothing to understand. He’s an enigma. There is no reason for the way he is except interpretation because there is nothing in his childhood. That’s what made the film interesting for me to make because it was an enigma. It was like traveling to the unknown. In my own transformation and Bronson being a movie about that, Valhalla Rising which is a movie that was just completed and picked up by IFC for the states to be released next year, is the first canvass in my mind after completing Bronson. It’s very much like life into kind of art Bronson/Nicolas Refn will create.