Madonna's Pig

  I finally made it to a film @ the Indianapolis International Film Festival last night and saw Madonna's Pig. What a delightful, magical movie! This film is so clever on so many levels. Put this in your NetFlix queue!

Hell's Bloody Devils and Brain of Blood

This month's selection for Cult Movie Night @ Gary's -- Hell's Bloody Devils and Brain of Blood. Uh...don't the titles fool you, these are not really horror movies, so they at least get an "E" effort. This was such a fun film to watch riff track. A couple of really nice mustangs, a convertable pony and a silver Fastback (both sporting very stock wheels and tires) made for vintage car eye candy. A shoot out and explosion of an old abandoned car shows up in both of the films. And...yes, those scenes in the trailer really were in the movie.

B-O-R-I-N-G. Too many scenes of folks walking around in a daze, but enough inconsistencies and bad film making to induce commentary from the audience. In a supporting role, Regina Carrol, as the Amir's bimbo wife made Tammy Faye Baker look like Patti Smith (Btw,I really like PS)

The Big Blue and Bringing Up Baby

The Big Blue, directed by Luc Besson, was this month's selection @ Alex's. Staring Jean Reno and Jean-Marc Barr as life long friends who grow up to be competitive free divers. Rosanne Arquette's character is as limp and tastelss as boiled white spaghetti. The combination of under water scenes and camera work gave it a very hypnotic look. The Fiat 500, who seems to have a lot of personality for a car, is seen in quite a bit of the first half of the movie and I count it as an uncredited actor. Even the car gives a better performance than Arquette.

 I watched Bringing Up Baby staring Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn @ home. I love the way the dialogue just whizzes by. Everyone is  so dapper and the leopard is so beautiful...

Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life

If you are an artist, this is a must see movie. I love it when I think a movie is going to be good and it turns out to be better than I could have imagined: Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is one of those films. I knew Serge, sang, acted (yawn), but I had no idea he was, or rather wanted to be, an artist. A large portion of this movie covers Serge's life as a disillusioned artist. He carries a sketch book journal with pen, ink, and water color paints. There is a scene where he is messing with a large group of very well worn easels. Who must've painted on those? The movie even offers a glimpse into Salvidor Dali's house; I just squealed with delight! You'll know it when you see it! The director Joann Sfar is an artist and clearly the person to make this fabulous tribute. This goes on my really short of list of best movies I've seen so far in 2012. Warning: scenes from this movie will stick in your mind for days; that's a good thing

"Moonrise Kingdom" and "The Harder They Come"

It might have been at the beginning of year, can't remember....but when I heard Wes Anderson was ready to release a new movie, I was chomping at the bit; it finally made its way to Indy last month.  Wes took a different creative path with this one. He's utilizing a very muted color palate, like some faded Polaroid photo found in a shoe box, and he's toned down the quirky factor with the characters. MK is not "The Royal Tennenbaums" or "The Darjeeling Limited". Steering away from the art ascpect, Anderson is able to capture that pre-teen innocence in Suzy and Sam. This is not about sex, but about finding someone who "gets" you.  Coming from very different  backgrounds, and against all odds, they have found each other and they're not letting go. It's not a coming of age movie - it's the opposite. It's a movie about staying true to your beliefs and staying young and free.

Gary had a Cult Night Movie during the week and his choice: "The Harder They Come".  I'm a sucker for movie made in the early '70s anyway. I'm always calling out the names of cars, like some kind of Automobile Rainman. Really good story, sound track, and camera work. Just like the characters in "Moonrise Kingdom", Ivanhoe Martin hung on to his dreams, albeit, his story had a different sort of ending.

Cult Movie Night @ Gary's - King Kong + The Searchers

Since I hadn't been to a Cult Night @ Gary's in months; it was time to go. He was showing "King Kong" and "The Searchers".

Confession - I actually had never seen either of these films before. For me, "King Kong' stands the test of time. The scenes on the island with Kong fighting any number of pre-historic creatures were very realistic and gruesome; Fay Wray was simply beautiful. For me, Victor Wong as Charlie the Cook stole the show. Playing a stereotypical  Chinese ship's cook, he bestowed wisdom and insight to deaf White-man ears.  It's Charlie who quickly makes the connection between the Islander's bracelet he finds on deck and the whereabouts of Ann. The scenes of Kong on stage in New York looked pretty darn realistic to me too. His escape route through the city left a swath of destruction.  If this had happened in the present day, Carl Denham would've been sued by the City of New York for all the damage caused by Kong.

Movie #2 was "The Searchers". Filmed in VistaVision widescreen, you really get a sense of the vastness of the desert; lovely 50's postcard-like scenes. John Wayne can act. He plays Ethan, a civil war vet, who returns home to his brother's house. There's weird tension between Ethan and his sister-in-law. We joked about Ethan's quasi-flirting with the way-too-attractive Martin character, played by Jeffery Hunter, who interestingly enough, turns out to be the guy who decided not to film an additional pilot of Star Trek after playing Christopher Pike in "The Cage".  Ethan and the men folk respond to a neighbor's call for help when his cattle are stolen; it turned out to be a trap. People are killed, the house is burned, and a couple of the girls are kidnapped by Comanches. We later learn it's a revenge move by Scar. Ethan vows to find Debbie, the only one left to survive and spends the next several years, with the help of Martin, tracking her down.  Maybe there's a reason he won't give up looking for Debbie that had to do with the tension between his sister-in-law earlier?

This is not a Cowboys and Indian movie. I realize that's sort of what the movie poster would have you believe. There are very well developed, believable characters. John Wayne plays an asshole.  My fav character was Mose Harper, played by Hank Worden.

Both movies stand the test of time. Each is a classic in its own right and should be on everyone's Must See Movies Before You Die list.

I brought a hummus/bean dip concoction. I took a can of garbanzos and a can of white cannellini beans. I added tahini, lemon, garlic, olive oil and threw it in the food processor. I also added jalapeno sauce for some heat.

Rest In Peace, Sigmund

Master Sigmund, aka Muncher Man and my baby boy, passed on to the great scratching pad in the sky yesterday. No, he was not named after that famous Austrian neurologist; he was named after this guy:

I miss you, Sig Munch.