Someone Else - Pravada

Pravada is one of my fav local bands. Jesse Lee's singing/songwriting is quite Ray Davies-esc. Jesse's Bambi-eyed wife can be seen in the video peering through the bars on the jail cell and in the line up.

Hitchcock

I watched Hitchcock the other night, despite all the bad reviews I'd read about it. The movie is based on the non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. Fresh from the success of North by Northwest, the studios want more of the same. The movie follows Hitchcock (Sir Anthony Hopkins freakishly absorbs Hitchcock) and his wife Alma (Dame Helen Mirren shines) as they struggle to bring Psycho to life. They put up $800,000 of their own money and in order to further pinch pennies, they must use the crew who filmed the TV series. 

A very strong cast rounds out the rest of the film. Toni Collette is Peggy Robertson, Hitch's trusted assistant, Scarlett Johansson sizzles as Janet Leigh, and James D'Arcy is a dead ringer as a young Anthony Perkins. The only fly in the ointment is Jessica Biel as Vera Miles; she seemed asleep at the wheel most of the time.

My fav parts of the movie were the bits about their day to day life. I paused at the refrigerator scene. Oh my godz - what would Hitch (as he let his intimates call him) like to snack on? 

Another aspect of the film that really appealed to me was the the constant jealousy of associates this creative pair seemed to have with each other. I thought it was cute and refreshing. Instead of uber hottie jealously, you had real people jealous of their spouse's time spent with co-workers. Alma was jealous of Hitch's attention to leading ladies and Hitch was jealous of Alma's time spent with creative writing buddy Whitfield Cook. 

I want to read the book now; it's at the top of my required summer reading list.

Stray Dog and Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me

I've wanted to see Stray Dog for quite some time. I've always regretted missing the 35 mm film showing at IMA a couple of years ago. Akira Kurosawa's gorgeously shot film noir master piece staring two of his most esteemed actors: Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura. During a heat wave that envelops Tokyo (there are fans galore both manual and electric) rookie cop Murakami loses his gun (a Colt) on a trolley to a pickpocket. The gun turns up in a series of shootings and Murakami must find the gun before others are killed.

Guilt ridden Murakami teams up with detective Sato to canvas the city and thus the ultimate mismatched partners film noir is born. Toshiro and Takashi are magic together. I must say it is refreshing to see them both out of samurai clothing and in something contemporary.

Akira is a master film maker. Murakami and Sato pursue leads through the sweltering streets of Tokyo. 

Every scene is beautifully framed. 

And now for something completely different….

Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me is a documentary about a band from Memphis who never made it big; a  real life Almost Famous, if you will. These guys had it all - the looks and the hooks and the record deal, but fate was dealing for the house (yes, I am rolling my eyes on that one). You are no doubt familiar with lead singer Alex Chilton. At the ancient age of sixteen he was the blue eyed soul singer of "The Letter". Their first album titled #1 Record was a hit with the critics but due to legal problems at Stax Records the album did not make into stores.

This documentary left me feeling nothing for these guys, although it had all the ingredients I normally like: tormented creative song writer with mental issues, haunted by former self singer. I honestly could not care less about this band. While sitting in my NetFlix queue, I, for the longest time, thought this was a mocumentary. The songs remind of the could-have-been songs written for fictional rock films set in the late 60's early 70's. Speaking of songs, since I've watched this documentary, I've run across quite a few videos of various bands doing the song September Gurls. I'm sure I've heard this song in the past and wondered what the heck I was hearing. In an odd twist of fate, this song does tend to stick to the noodle.

I think Alex Chilton had Miley Cyrus syndrome (too famous too young) as he went on to front a punk band among other endeavors. Honestly, don't call yourselves Big Star and don't call your first album #1 Record - the Godz of Pride can see you a mile away.

On the other hand I cannot seem to get enough of the poster child for tormented creative artist Syd Barrett. He wrote and sang the bulk of the songs in the early days of Pink Floyd. When full blown madness set in and Syd had to go, the rest of band were at a loss; what do we do now? Ahh….yes….

Dallas Buyers Club

The Oscar buzz got me, and like a bunch of other folks, worked up to see Dallas Buyers Club. I took my cat to the vet a few weeks ago and we got on the subject of absolutely needing to watch DBC.

Wow. This film actually looks like it was filmed in 1985. Kudos to the sound guy. Little touches like hearing a train in distance and I remember hearing church bells at one point added to the realism. I get the Oscar thing now too. Pretty darn impressive acting; Matthew and Jared just gobbled up their roles.

For me it was a movie about being told your options and you deciding to make your own options.

I think this is an important film, least we forget how ignorant people were about AIDS and how it ultimately affected both the homosexual and non-homosexual communities.  Please don't forget Ryan White. Ryan, a life long hemophiliac,  was given a very short time to live after he was diagnosed with AIDS.  Ryan received weekly transfusions of Factor VIII which was contaminated. Nearly 90% of hemophiliacs who received transfusion using Factor VIII between 1979 and 1984 became infected.

It's also an important film because it clearly shows how our treatment of gay men has evolved. Back in the day, not only was it not acceptable to society to be gay, it wasn't acceptable to have gay friends. I remember people asking me, "How can you be friends with that queer?" Good point - if only his knuckles were closer to the ground he'd be the perfect beast. Times have changed. Everyone wants to have a gay friend. I belong to film buff group and the chicks practically cat fight over the gay couple in the group. "They're my gay friends, I go to their house." "They're my gay friends, I go to their house and watch movies."

Oddly enough, I was at Farm Aid April 7, 1990 @ the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis. Rumor had it that Elton John was visiting Ryan White and was going to make an appearance. This was pre-internet, so it was all speculation. When he appeared on stage, it became so surreal. I don't believe there was a dry eye in the house.

Finding Vivian Maier

I want to see this movie!

What riveting images!

Never Take Candy From a Stranger and These are the Damned.

OHohoh! Two more flicks from British studio Hammer Film Productions. Both movies came on one DVD. The first: Never Take Candy From a Stranger (British title: Never Take Sweets From a Stranger). Very well done! The acting is spot on. Unbelievably suspenseful. The trailer is quite clever too.

Interesting handling of subject matter ahead of its time. The Canadian court room scenes are so intense. 

This movie comes right out swinging. Nothing could be better than. The Carter family move to a new town to accept Mr. Carter's new position of school principal. The good times come to a screeching halt when Jean and her friend Lucille visit Mr. Olderberry Sr for "free" candy.  What seems like a slam dunk case against a pedophile, ends up with practically the entire town shunning the Carter family; the writing is on the wall - Drop the case. 

Even though Jean's parents are behind her on the case, the drop all charges. They don't really have a choice. As predicted by Mr. Olderberry Jr., the prosecuting attorney chews Jean up and spits her out. Jean's parents feel it is just too much for her and pull the plug. 

The entire town turns a blind eye and blames the girls, meanwhile Mr. Carter resigns and the family plans to move. But wait….there's more…

Don't let the movie post fool you; this film is a must see! Talk about an art house poster child! It's sci-fi lite, it's surreal, it's teen rebellion, it's a government conspiracy and it all comes together is a desperate escape attempt. Oh, and it has about the coolest opening theme song ever.

Hands down, this is one of my fav images from the movie. The ever dashing Oliver Reed stars as Teddy Boy King who uses his lovely sister Joan to lure tourist to back alley ways to be mugged. 

This film is loaded with fantastic camera work. Very interesting camera angles employed though out. 

To be quite honest, I'd rather watch a black and white film than today's digital gagas. Ugh. When I watch a film in a theater proper it just looks, well, too proper. Black and white seems to caress shadows and texture making them both seem slightly other worldly. 

There's no happy ending here. Again, I love a film that doesn't wrap everyone in a nice happy bow. 

A Clockwork Orange came 10 years or so years later, but there is clear influence from this film. King and his Teddy Boy cronies are a precursor to Alex and his Droogs. Both groups wear hats, King/Alex walk around with a cane/umbrella, and they aren't a nice lot. In both films there's a sculptress whose work is trashed. 

American Beauty

Based on conversations at work, I added American Beauty to my NetFlix DVD queue. I'd watched it when it came out in theaters back in the day. I loved the darkness about it but I wanted to see what my thoughts would be today. I remember reading a small paragraph announcing a new HBO show Six Feet Under which it first came out. I was intrigued by the description, but when I saw Alan Ball's name attached, it was a done deal.

I got tired of the use of red roses and I'm guessing that is part of the point. Something that's so beautiful can be ugly when it's over done or just too beautiful. Maybe that's part of the message; finding beauty where it's not obvious is much more real and lasting.

There has been a lot written about this movie. I find that fascinating when a film lives on while being dissected by the masses who are so clever at such things. Here's a link to a blog posting that focuses on the theory that in reality there wasn't just a lot of red, but there was a lot of red, white, and blue throughout the movie.

There are some opinions I don't agree with. I don't agree that Carolyn was materialistic. Wanting to live in a nice neighborhood, have lovely furniture, and wanting to succeed are not necessarily bad traits to have. Lester was just way too self-centered. I think Buddy broke off the affair because he was embarrassed that the cuckhold hubby was working at a burger joint. "If I work out, a sixteen year old girl will want me." Uh…..yeah…

I have to admit, though, if I'd met someone like Ricky when I was Jane's age, I would have just flipped!   He was mysterious, artistic, and he didn't worship someone Angela. HHm….that's another point I've just realized: things that seem beautiful maybe aren't so much in another light.

I've worked places where there was some hot chick (listen to me bashing beauty - seriously I would like to be beautiful for just 1 week and try it out) who  guys would just go ape over. They usually had the personalities of plastic bags (well, not really, I'm just having a mean streak today). I remember one chick who had really long straight blonde hair the guys were gaga over. There was a married guy in another department who made no bones about how hot he thought she was. One day, someone let out loudest scream that everyone in the tiny building heard. It turns out the guy who was flipping over her got brave and decided to touch her hair. Turns out she had a thing about having her hair touched. Somebody got in trouble.

I worked with another guy who talked about how he met his hot wife at a dirt bike race and got her to leave with him. We all told him to bring her in, we'll be the judge of how hot she is. Dennis was a nice enough guy, but he was no GQ model. His wife was a knock out! She was easily a foot taller than him. Her legs were longer than I am tall. She had what I would describe as mermaid hair.  After she left I had to tell him how frackin' smokin' she was. I will never forgot that he turned to me and said, "Two words; high maintenance."