Thursday, February 24, 2011

Day 37: If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out

HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971)
Directed by Hal Ashby
Starring: Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Vivian Pickles, Cyril Cusack, Charles Tyner

Harold Chassen (Cort) is twenty years old, wealthy, bored and obsessed with death.  He stages mock suicides and attends funerals of people he doesn't know.  While at one of these funerals, he meets 79-year-old Maude (Gordon), who is the freest of free spirits.  The two form an unlikely bond, as Maude shows Harold how to live life to its fullest.  Meanwhile, Harolds mother (Pickles) sets Harold up on three blind dates, whom he manages to alienate through his use of elaborate suicidal fakeries.  Maude's lust for life eventually takes Harold by storm, and he announces his plans to marry her.  Unfortunately, Maude has other plans...

It's a very poorly kept secret that I hate romantic comedies.  So I was really taken aback by Harold and Maude, which is the antithesis of the genre.  Their romance is so unlikely and the humor so dark that I immediately came to love it.  It takes the same "boy meets girl" trope and turns it on its head in a wonderful way.  In fact, there is nothing conventional about this film.  It's a product of it's time and counterculture in nearly every way.  And more that that, it is proud of its counterculture stance; it makes no apologies.  I have to say I dig that.

Bud Cort does very well in his role as the melancholy and somewhat demented Harold.  His innocent baby-faced look belies a much darker side to the character, which makes his fake suicides and fascination on death that much funnier.  But it is Ruth Gordon who absolutely shines as the free-wheeling Maude.  As the film progresses, we see that she too has a dark side that comes from what very likely was an extremely hard life, which is only hinted at.  On paper, it doesn't look like these two should have anything to do with one another.  But one of the rules of writing that I find works best is not to create scenes, but to create characters, and put them in a situation.  And it works wonderfully here.

There are those who, I'm sure, would rate this film lower, what with its dark comedy and quirky love story.  But I am a fan of any film that bends a genre and does it well.  If you're not careful, you can turn your film into a parody very quickly and without meaning to.  But this film is a beautiful portrait of an unlikely pair. 

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Day 36: He Got A Real Purty Mouth, Ain't He?

DELIVERANCE (1972)
Directed by John Boorman
Starring: John Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox

All men like to think they're tough.  There's something in our DNA that sometimes makes us want to run out in to the wilderness and live off the land.  We want to be providers, hunters and gatherers, like our forefathers.  This side of us lies in every male, whether they admit it or not.  So it stands to reason that the best way to scare the crap out of a man is to put him in a situation where he is at the mercy of his surroundings.

And thus we have Deliverance, a film about four city boys from Atlanta who want to ride the Cahulawassee river before it's dammed up and made into a lake.  The Alpha Male of the group is Lewis (Reynolds), who has the most experience in the woods.  His friend Ed (Voight) tags along out of boredom more than anything.  Their mutual friends Bobby (Beatty) and Drew (Cox) also come along, though they are clearly out of their element.  Their first stop is at a gas station where Drew picks his guitar along with an odd-looking banjo-playing boy.  It's a scene that's funny, cute and sort of off-putting all at the same time.  In fact, the whole first half of the movie, with it's gorgeous cinematography by veteran D.P. Vilmos Zsigmond, sort of lulls us into a false sense of security.  The scenery is beautiful and the boys are having a grand old time canoeing down the river and "getting back to nature."

Things take a sinister turn, however, when Bobby and Ed go off into the wood alone.  They come across a couple sodomite hillbillies who proceed to violate Bobby and start to work on Ed (the one with the "purty mouth").  But Lewis is there just in time, and shoots one of the offenders down with his bow and arrow.  The other bolts into the woods.  Now the boys are faced with a decision: go to the authorities or keep quiet and just bury the body.  Despite Drew's insistence on the former, they decide on the latter, and get on with their trip.  But there's still one deranged mountain man on the loose, and he's got revenge (and probably other things) on his mind.

This film starts off pretty peaceful and serene, but there are several instances where we get the feeling that this isn't going to be a peaceful journey.  Over shots of construction near the lake, we hear Lewis and his friends debate whether it's a good idea to dam the lake.  Lewis says no at first.  But through the gruelling course of this film, covering up what happened there seems like a pretty good idea.  As we progress, the terrain gets rougher and rougher, and by they time our boys find their way back to civilization (so to speak), they all have a hard time re-adjusting.  Especially when the cops start asking questions like "If you started with four guys, why are there only three of you?"

This is the film that is credited with making Burt Reynolds a household name, and rightfully so.  His combination of machismo and charisma make for a commanding performance.  Voight is pretty good too as a novice who soon - out of necessity - learns the meaning of survival.  This is actually the first film for Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox, who both came from theater backgrounds.  And having two novice film actors with two experienced ones adds to the realism of the film. 

Of course, there are parts that are pretty hard to sit through, especially for men.  I've actually seen this movie classified as a "horror film," and for those of us who like to think we're macho, I'd say that's right on the money.  It's especially interesting because most horror films are made to make women scream.  Men are supposed to sit there like the Rock of Gibraltar and say "There, there, honey.  It's only a movie."  Deliverance works in a different way, and will scare the living daylights out of any man who's never been camping.  And, as a result, will probably never go. 

Day 35: Women Cry For It - Men Die For It!

REEFER MADNESS (or: TELL YOUR CHILDREN) (1936)
Directed by Louis Gasnier
Starring: Dorothy Short, Kenneth Craig, Lillian Miles, Dave O'Brien, Thelma White, Norman McCollum, Carleton Young

Here we have a film that has had quite a life on the Midnight Movie circuit.  It's developed a solid cult following on college campuses and anywhere bad cinema is appreciated.  So I decided to find out what all the buzz (hahaha) was about.  And for the record, I was stone-cold sober while watching it.

The film begins with a disclaimer that what we are about to see is pretty intense.  But if it stops even one kid from getting hooked on marihuana (sic), it'll all be worth it.  So strap yourselves in folks, because the first thing we see is...a PTA meeting.  Scandalous!  We get about five minutes worth of debriefing as to what marihuana is, where it comes from and how it's distributed before we finally get to our story, which involves two dope peddlers, Mae (White) and Jack (Young).  Mae likes to sell to people her own age, while Jack and his associates, Ralph (O'Brien) and Blanche (Miles), think the future of the dope business lies with the high school crowd.  He targets young Bill Harper (Craig) and his buddy Jimmy Lane (McCollum), and brings them over to Mae's apartment for a reefer party.  But they just forgot one thing: the reefers.  So Jimmy offers to drive Jack downtown to get some.  On the way, Jimmy asks Jack for a perfectly harmless tobacco cigarette, but unbeknowst to him, he gets the Devil Weed.  This makes him extremely excited and on the way back, they run over a pedestrian, not really caring about it.  Once back at the flat, Bill takes his first toke from Blanche and is immediately hooked.  He's over at Mae's real regular now, man.  And his sister Mary (Short) goes looking for him when he doesn't come home from school one day.  He finds her at Mae's, involved in a tawdry affair with Blanche.  Ralph likes what he sees in Mary and tries to take advantage of her.  Bill comes out hallucinates that his sister is stripping for Ralph, which makes him spring into action against him.  Jack hears the commotion (even though he didn't hear Mary screaming, for some reason) and bursts in, gun at the ready.  During the scuffle, however, it goes off and Mary is killed.  Bill goes on trial for killing his own sister.  Ralph becomes paranoid and does nothing but smoke weed constantly.  Eventually, when Jack tries to kill Ralph, the police raid the apartment.  Blanche comes forward with the truth about what happened and Bill is exonerated.  After she signs a confession, she - for some reasons - leaps out of the window to her death.  Now, the tale having been told, we are back at the PTA meeting, where we are warned to TELL YOUR CHILDREN. 

All of this sounds like more fun than it really is.  The film is horribly and terribly made.  Even the supposedly salacious scenes of illicit drug use and wanton sex don't really help it.  It's like putting gourmet meat on moldy bread and calling it a sandwich.  The acting is terrible, the sound is so muddled you can't make out what anyone is saying half the time, and the story is too convoluted to be crammed into 67 minutes.  As such, it's not even entertaining as bad cinema.  About the only bright spot is Dave O'Brien as Ralph.  His scenes of dope-induced paranoia are pretty funny.  Other than that, it's a bore.  And badly made bore, at that.

Really, the only people who would appreciate this film are those who are long-time pot smokers.  The accusations about weed are pretty ludicrous, and obviously very little research was done.  I know pot smokers (and have even tried it myself a few times, though I gave it up), and not one of them acted as if they were on speed, or hallucinated.  In fact, if they ever watched this movie on a lark, they'd probably fall asleep.  The film might be appreciated as a curiosity, but not much else.  Tell your children to avoid it.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Day 34: Enough Is Enough!

SNAKES ON A PLANE (2006)
Directed by David R. Ellis
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Julianna Margulies, Nathan Phillips, Rachel Blanchard, Flex Alexander, Keenan Thompson, David Koechner

After a young surfer (Phillips) witnesses a murder in Hawaii, he is placed under the protection of FBI agent Neville Flynn (Jackson) and flown to Los Angeles to testify against the mobster responsible.  Of course, the mob needs to keep the kid quiet, so they decide to bring down the plane.  But since bombs can be detected, they go with a more organic solution.  They fill the plane with hundreds of poisonous snakes who wreak predictable (and disgusting) havoc on the unsuspecting passengers.

I’ll admit that this is an interesting twist on the disaster film, but when you get right down to it, it’s still a by-the-numbers action flick.  There’s plenty of the gratuitous sex, trashy violence and foul language that you’ve come to expect over the years.  But this time, there’s snakes.  And…that’s about it.  It sounds like more fun that it really is.

To tell the truth, I found this whole movie to be a complete waste of time.  There’s really nothing to look forward to in this film.  Besides, the most exciting part of the premise is already given to you in the title!  You know what you’re going to get before you even go in, so there’s really nothing scary or exciting.  The filmmakers have already shot themselves in the foot.  But they can still get something good out of it if they special effects knock everyone out.  But, unfortunately, they don’t.  Because of the violence, they used very few real snakes and opted for some of the cheesiest CGI effects I’ve ever seen.  And the way the snakes go about killing people – biting their nether-regions, strangling and eating entire people and the like – is completely ludicrous.

The only bright spot in this whole disaster is Samuel L. Jackson, who can make even the dumbest movie at least somewhat entertaining.  And he accomplishes that here.  Julianna Margulies as a flight attendant on her last mission (of course) is pretty good as well.  Among the others on the doomed flight are a dog loving fashionista (Blanchard), a germophobic rapper (Alexander) and his video game loving bodyguard (Thompson).  All are very stereotypical one-dimensional characters who really add nothing to the story.  But then again, the story isn’t the important thing here, is it?

Part of creating suspense and terror is having characters we care about.  And I didn’t care about any of these guys.  I was just waiting to see what kind of sick fate would befall them, which I would say was the whole point this movie was made.  Oh, and to have Samuel L. Jackson state, in no uncertain terms, his attitudes towards those snakes that happen to be on that plane.  But do yourself a favor; find that clip on YouTube and save yourself from having to sit through the other 106 minutes.  Besides, that joke’s not even funny anymore.

Day 33: Fetch Me My Diet Pills, Would You?

HAIRSPRAY (1988)
Directed by John Waters
Starring (in alphabetical order): Sonny Bono, Ruth Brown, Divine, Debbie Harry, Ricki Lake, Jerry Stiller

I’ve always wanted to see a John Waters movie.  I’ve heard whispers of his 70’s exercises in extremely bad taste Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble, but my local library doesn’t carry them.  So until I get my Netflix account back up and running (and actually work up the nerve to sit through one or both of them), I’ll have to start with something else.

And I’ve started with his tamest film, Hairspray.  A nostalgic romp through the early 60’s, it’s the story of Tracy Turnblad (Lake) a local teen who lives out her dream of dancing on the Corny Collins Show, where all the latest and greatest R&B records are played.  Despite the fact that she’s a bit on the chunky side, she still wows the crowd by her energetic dancing and winning personality.  Even her parents (Divine and Jerry Stiller), though reluctant at first, embrace Tracy’s newfound fame.  But she dethrones the current dancing beauty, who along with her parents (Bono and Harry) vows revenge.  They get their chance when Tracy urges the local TV station owner (also Divine, in a hilarious duel role) to let her black friends dance on the show.  But the station’s idea of forward thinking is to have “Negro Day” on the last Thursday of each month, hosted by Motormouth Maybelle (Brown), and featuring all black dancers.  Tracy and her friends become champions of integration, while her white-bread enemies plot their revenge.

This is an interesting film for a lot of reasons.  First of all, it’s the infamous John Waters in “PG” mode.  He said once of Hairspray that he “accidentally made a family film.”  Well, it may not be for all families, as there are a few gross out gags, twisted jokes and an especially demented psychiatrist (Waters himself) and bit of naughty language.  But there’s also plenty of great early rock and R&B and a good amount of heart along with it.  Ricki Lake is wonderful as Tracy.  She’s got just the right amount of effervescence to keep her hefty character light.  And she’s not a bad dancer, either.  Divine is a typically off-center choice as Edna Turnblad (and as the Station Manager), and steals every scene s/he’s in.* Also of note are Pia Zadora and Ric Ocasek as a couple of far-out beatniks

However, there is such an emphasis on the music that, if you look a bit closer, this is actually a pretty sloppily made film.  It’s not really told from any one character’s point of view and has a bit of a “fly on the wall” feel to it.  Also, the dance sequences are directed without much flair or style.  The whole film is made in a very straightforward way, which seems out of place for such a bubbly musical.  But you may be so busy dancing to the amazing repertoire of R&B standards and long-buried treasures that you won’t really care about the film’s flaws.  And for that, I can’t really blame anyone.

*Choose whichever pronoun you feel is appropriate.

Day 32: Klaatu Barada Nikto

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951)
Directed by Robert Wise
Starring: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Billy Gray, Sam Jaffe

The world waits with baited breath as a flying saucer lands in Washington D.C.  As its inhabitants emerge, we greet the space man in the traditional American fashion – we shoot him.  But don’t freak out, we just winged him!  He’ll be okay.  Remember, gun control is hitting what you aim at.

This svelte young space cadet is named Klaatu (Rennie), and he comes to earth to bring a message to all of earth’s nations.  However, he picked a bad time – the height of the Cold War.  He is kept under strict guard at a local hospital, but manages to escape and live among the ignorant earth slobs at a boarding house (under the name Mr. Carpenter), where he meets a young single mother named Helen (Neal) and her son Bobby (Gray).  While there, he sees the paranoia of the public in full swing, even though he develops a bond with Helen and Bobby.  But Helen’s jealous boyfriend (Marlowe) thinks there’s more to Mr. Carpenter than meets the eye. 

I had a really hard time sitting through this thoroughly boring and preachy film.  While many of you will take that to mean that I disagree with the film’s message – i.e., nuclear war is a bad thing – I actually don’t.  It’s a pretty screwed up world we live in, even today, and the fewer nutjobs with nuclear bombs we have traipsing around the world, the better.  But the film is used as a pulpit and the script as a sermon, which makes for a pretty bland movie.  Why not show us the effects of nuclear war?  Or have the aliens target our own nuclear enrichment facilities?  Or do something other than stand there and gloat about how superior your society is compared to ours? 

Also, the whole morality of the film is a bit flawed.  Klaatu’s ultimatum is this: live at peace with us, or we’ll wipe out your entire planet.  It’s not “We will defend ourselves,” or “We have the right to exist the same as you.”  No, it’s, “set one foot in our atmosphere and we’ll burn your planet to a crisp.”  Isn’t the same kind of thinking the film accuses us of having?  Thus, the moral of the film is, when confronted with violence, answer in kind.  Oh, and by the way, war is bad, m’kay?

There are a few fun and rather impressive (for the time) special effects at the beginning and end of the film, but we have to sit through an awfully boring second act.  About the only thing about the film I found to be interesting or entertaining was Bernard Hermann’s musical score.  Outside of that, the acting is flat (especially from Patricia Neal), the story is boring and the message is confusing.  And yet this is considered one of the classics science fiction cinema.  Maybe that’s because it’s the product of a different time.  And though it would be fair to argue that our current geopolitical situation isn’t all that different, there have been many better, more interesting and scarier movies that depict our fallen world.  Look those up instead. 

Day 31: That's The Way It Crumbles, Cookie-Wise

THE APARTMENT (1960)
Directed by Billy Wilder
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurry, Ray Walston

C.C. Baxter (Lemmon) is doing alright for himself.  He’s got a good job at a New York insurance company.  He’s got a bit of an undeserved reputation as a playboy.  And his superiors at the company do nothing but sing his praises.  It could be because of all his hard work and dedication.  Or it could be because they pay him money on the side to use his apartment for their extramarital activities.  But because of this bit of friendly give-and-take, the higher-ups are grooming Baxter for a promotion, which he’s only too happy to accept.  Soon though, he becomes enamored with an elevator girl named Fran (MacLaine).  When he finally works up the nerve to ask her out, it comes to light that she’s the main extramarital squeeze of the company’s big boss, Mr. Sheldrake (MacMurry). 

All the trappings for your typical romantic comedy are set up in the first act, but The Apartment takes a much more dramatic turn than you might expect.  Fran is unhappy being the latest of Mr. Sheldrake’s romantic conquests and, while in Baxter’s apartment, tries to kill herself with sleeping pills.  Baxter returns to find her and calls for his neighbor, Dr. Dreyfuss (Walston).  As it turns out, what with all the carryings-on at all hours of the night, everyone in the building thinks Baxter is a hard-living, hard-loving cad.  But as with most things, Baxter is too timid to tell anyone the truth about this, even if it means his neighbors think rather poorly of him.

This was a pretty daring film for its time, which is what I’ve come to expect from Billy Wilder.  He was always trying to push people’s buttons.  He’s tackled such taboo subjects as alcoholism (The Lost Weekend), Hollywood’s shoddy treatment of its former stars (Sunset Boulevard) and even featured Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as cross dressers (Some Like It Hot) long before most Hollywood directors dared.  And here, he deals with philandering corporate hot-shots and suicide.  Of course, the film is about much more than that, but to even mention such things (let alone, show them) in a film in the late 50’s/early 60’s must have made it hard for a studio to green-light the film, let alone get it released.  This film, like Wilder himself, has guts.

As for the performances, Lemmon is spectacular.  It’s especially funny to see him as his usual nebbish-y self when all his neighbors think he’s Don Juan reborn.  But he’s also quite touching in the more serious scenes, and it’s great to see him eventually grow a backbone.  MacLaine is good as well as the naïve small-town girl in the big city, but she underplays her part in a cast full of actors who are usually playing for laughs.  She does okay, but she seems out of place, which depending on your point of view, is a good thing.  MacMurry is wonderfully hateable as Sheldrake, who doesn’t give a damn whose toes he steps on to get what he wants.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen him play the villain before, which he does rather well.  And if he has, maybe I need to check out more of his movies.

This is yet another Oscar Winner for Best Picture, and it seems an odd choice.  But Oscar has been known to favor films that buck the system from time to time.  And in an odd turn of events, it just so happens that the movie Baxter watches when he gets home from work is Grand Hotel, which I just watched myself a few days ago.  CO-INCIDENCE!?  Yeah, probably.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Day 30: It Is Written

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (2008)
Directed by Danny Boyle
Starring: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittal, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan

The next time I start thinking I’ve got a rough life, I’m going to re-watch Slumdog Millionaire.  I haven’t got the first clue of what a “rough life” really is.

But Jamal Malik (Patel) does.  He’s an uneducated assistant in a Mumbai call center who just happens to be playing for the grand prize on India’s version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”  The question on everyone’s mind: How did this nobody from the slums get so far?  As it turns out, every question brings back a painful memory for Jamal, the most painful of which involve his brother Salim (Mittal) and his old flame Latika (Pinto).  But for every heart-breaking moment he relives, his memory for detail also gives him the correct answer.  For the most part, that is.  There are times where he just has to guess.  But he’s doing so well – a little too well – that the host of the show (Kapoor) thinks he may be cheating.

Director Danny Boyle pulls absolutely no punches in this gritty rags-to-riches story.  Life in the Mumbai slums is graphically depicted as the hardest of hard-knock lives.  Jamal and Salim literally go through hell together.  Their mother is killed by anti-Muslim rioters.  They are picked up by an orphanage that teaches them to beg (and blind the best singers among them to bring in more money).  Along the way, the meet an orphan girl named Latika, who Jamal insists tag along with them, but Salim forces him to leave behind.  They fight their way through life begging and working odd jobs, until Salim takes up with a local gangster (Khan), who also has Latika under his watch.  With a combination of documentary-style realism and slick, ultra-modern filmmaking, we get a view of a third-world country that is quickly becoming a major economic force in the world.  And we see it through the eyes of children who come up the hard way during this transition.  

Watching Jamal go through all of this isn’t pretty.  In fact, it’s pretty tough to watch at times.  But there’s something about seeing a character go through the fire come out the other side.  There are films in which the main character comes out bitter and angry.  Other films have them emerge without having learned anything.  But when Jamal comes out of the other side of the inferno, he is sadder but wiser.  Everything he had endured in life pays off.  But there is a certain amount of melancholy in his moment of joy.  Still, this harsh and oftentimes brutal story has one of the most satisfying endings of any film I’ve seen in a long time.  I’m sure you can guess the ending before you get there, but it’s the way the ending plays out that makes it so satisfying.

It really says something when I watch the climax of a film and start to clap.  And I don’t mean in an ironic, smart-alecky sort of way.  I actually applauded.  And I meant it.  That’s how you know you have a powerful film.  If people clap at the outcome of a fictional story, you did good.  

Day 29: People Come, People Go, Nothing Ever Happens

GRAND HOTEL (1932)
Directed by Edmund Goulding
Starring: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone

An aging prima ballerina (Garbo), A jewel thief posing as a dignitary (John Barrymore), an upwardly mobile stenographer (Crawford), A desperate German businessman (Beery) and a man dying of cancer (Lionel Barrymore) all have their lives intertwine at the Grand Hotel in Berlin, where they say “nothing ever happens.”  But if nothing ever happened, we wouldn’t have much of a story, would we?  What starts as casual encounters by our stars quickly turns into romance, intrigue and eventually murder.

It was almost unheard of at the time for a film to boast this many stars in one film.  Most star vehicles featured two at the most, but here we have five of MGM’s top stars in one of the greatest ensemble pieces in movie history.  

The film is melodramatic in the extreme, but it is the performances that set this apart from most other films of this type.  Garbo is captivating as the depressed ballerina.  John Barrymore is equally intense and sensitive as the jewel thief whose conscience eventually gets the best of him.  Crawford is surprisingly cute as the coquettish stenographer.  Beery plays a great bully who will do anything to save his business.  But it is Lionel Barrymore as the dying man who steals the show in almost every scene he’s in.  He is the sweetest, most loveable man who decides to live it up in his final days, taking in everything in life he’s missed out on by sitting behind a desk his whole life.  He is the one person in this piece that (almost) everyone likes.  More than that, he is the moral center of the story; a good man who wants nothing more than to enjoy himself and help his newfound friends at the same time.  

Grand Hotel is the only winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture that wasn’t even nominated for any other awards that year.  Which is odd, considering the power of Lionel Barrymore’s performance and the wonderful cinematography.  But it must be said that the film is greater than the sum of its parts.  It really was nothing more than a showcase of the best MGM had to offer; really more of an advertisement for the studio than anything else.  But the fact that it works as well as it does says something for director Edmund Goulding.  Putting up with all those conflicting egos on the same set had to have been a daunting task, to say the least.  

This film is certainly worth a look, especially for those who have a fondness for Old Hollywood in all its glory.  It has its flaws (specifically, it drags at times and is way too long), but for a glimpse of the star power that used to exist in the early days of cinema, it’s tough to top Grand Hotel.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Day 28: I Have the Money, Which is the Motive, and the Body Which is Dead!

IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967)
Directed by Norman Jewison
Starring Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant

When a wealthy white man turns up murdered in the small town of Sparta, Mississippi, the first suspect the police bring in is a well-dressed black man named Virgil Tibbs (Poitier).  Of course, being Mississippi in the late sixties, no one bothers to actually question Virgil about this – black man from out of town kills rich white man.  Case closed.   However, while being interrogated by Chief Gillespie (Steiger), it comes to light that Virgil is himself a police officer from Philadelphia, who was in town to visit his mother.  He also happens to be a homicide expert.  And seeing as how there’s an unsolved murder, Gillespie reluctantly asks for assistance from Mister Tibbs.  And Virgil is equally reluctant to help.

Everyone knows about the deep South in the late sixties.  The established order of segregation was slowly but surely being dismantled.  But many Southerners weren’t just reluctant to let go of this way of life; they were ready to fight to keep things the way they were.  It was as if a second Civil War was brewing, and in many ways, it was.  Several Civil Rights activits were murdered.  Lynchings were becoming more and more common.  A church in Alabama was bombed, leaving four little girls dead.  The South was a hotbed of violence and hatred, and anyone who supported Civil Rights for the black community – regardless of their race – was a target.

There are a lot of movies out there about injustice, but many of them become sermons; telling the audience what they need to do after they leave the theater.  In the Heat of the Night offers no solutions.  It simply shows things they way they were.  Here the emphasis is not on how to cure the ills of society, but how these ills affect the characters.  Here we have an outsider (and a black outsider, at that) who has further uspet the established order of a community with nothing more than his mere presence.  Virgil Tibbs tries to do his job to the best of his ability, even when no one in the town wants to let him.  Even Chief Gillespie would rather put Virgil on the first train out of town than have him working his town.  But the fact that a black man could be so good at his job is a foreign concept to all four cops on this tiny force.  Everyone else simply sees him as an uppity negro who’s just there to stir up trouble.  And Virgil is quite aware of this. 

Poitier’s performance is a thing of beauty.  Almost his entire performance is in his face, and he portrays an astonishingly wide array of emotions with merely a look – anger, annoyance, indignation – but never fear.  He rarely raises his voice, but speaks calmly and smoothly, and always with the utmost confidence.  Steiger, on the other hand, is the exact opposite.  He is loud, crude, and almost always on the defensive.  No one, especially not a black man, is going to tell him how to run his department!  Esepecially if it means admitting he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Not a lot of films from this era hold up well, but this one does.  Even if the look of small Southern towns have changed (and most haven’t), it still works as a slice of life from a bygone era.  But the fact that there are still those who hold onto their prejudices even to this day means that sadly, the film is just as timely as ever.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Day 27: Short Cuts, Disney Style

MAKE MINE MUSIC (1946)
Directed by Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronomi, others
Featuring music from: Nelson Eddy, Dinah Shore, Benny Goodman, The Andrews Sisters, Jerry Colonna, Sergei Prokofiev, others

During World War II, many of the Disney animators and story people went off to fight, and those who stayed home were drafted by the government to make propaganda and instructional films.  As such, the theatrical animation department was on shaky ground.  There were a ton of ideas floating around, but they didn't have the time or the money to fully develop them.  The solution was to do a series of "package films;" a collection of short subjects that could be produced on the cheap, cut together and sent out to theaters.  Make Mine Music was the third of six such films. 

Watching this film was a bit like listening to Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" for the first time.  I'd heard all the songs before, but never in their full context.  With Make Mine Music, I had seen many of these shorts - particularly "Peter and the Wolf" before - but never together with the others in the set. 

The film consists of ten shorts:

"The Martins and the Coys" - Actually, due to "graphic gunplay not suitable for children," this short was cut from the home video release.  As such, I didn't see it.  I'll look it up on You Tube sometime.

"Blue Bayou" - Beautiful animation of herons flying through the bayou at dusk.  No real story, but wonderful to look at.  The song, sung by the Ken Darby Singers, is pretty good, too.

"All The Cats Join In" - A group of fun-lovin' teens get together for a sock hop at the malted shop.  Inventive animation and a high energy song by Benny Goodman make this one a lot of fun.  Plus, it's good to remember a time when teens were only hopped up on sugar.

"Without You" - Dark, moody piece about lost love, with a melancholy song by Andy Russell.

"Casey At The Bat" - Jerry Colonna narrates - with music, of course - the famous baseball poem.  This one is more slapstick than the others and very funny. 

"Two Silhouettes" - Two real-life ballet dancers move in silhouette with their animated backgrounds.  A very arty piece, with Dinah Shore performing the song.

"Peter and the Wolf" - This is the one I remember from my childhood.  Sergei Prokofiev's piece is narrated by Sterling Holloway.  Still as good as I remember.  And the wolf is just as scary as I remember, too.

"After You've Gone" - Another Benny Goodman tune features anthropomorphized musical instruments dancing.  Very well done.

"Johnny Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet" - Probably the weakest piece in the film.  Sung by the Andrews Sisters, it's a story about how two hats fall in love.  The animation is nice, but it goes on way too long.  The song and the concept are both pretty silly.

"The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met" - Another one I remember from my childhood.  Nelson Eddy sings and narrates this story of a whale with an amazing talent.  The animation is fine, and the whale's various costumes (Pagliacci, Tristan, Mephistopheles) are great.  Has a rather downbeat ending, though.

This was a very interesting little time capsule to uncover.  I just wish they had left it completely intact.  I mean, was "The Martins and the Coys" really that offensive?  I'll have to track it down and find out. 

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Day 26: We Can Rebuild Him

ASTRO BOY (2009)
Directed by David Bowers
Starring the voices of: Freddie Highmore, Nicholas Cage, Donald Sutherland, Bill Nighy, Kristin Bell, Nathan Lane

I've been doing a lot of Disney and Dreamworks stuff lately, so let's look at what other studios are doing.

From Imagi Studios in Hong Kong comes Astro Boy, based on the enormously popular Japanese comic book by Osamu Tezuka.  A sort of 21st Century Pinocchio story, it involves a young boy named Toby (Highmore) who is killed when he interferes during an experement by his father Dr. Tenma (Cage).  Heartbroken, Dr. Tenma and his mentor Dr. Elefan (Nighy) create a robot that looks exactly like Toby.  And with a bit of DNA, he has all of Toby's memories.  However, his power source is also sought after by President Stone (Sutherland) to power his new war machine, aptly titled The Peacemaker. 

But Robo-Toby isn't as studious or serious-minded has the Real Toby was.  Sure, he can fly, has x-ray eyes and super-strength, but he's just not as interested in math as he used to be.  As such, Dr. Tenma regrets creating him and essentially disowns him.  Now on the run and hunted by the government, he runs into a group of orphans in a run-down heap of broken robots.  They take him to the seemingly kind-hearted Hamegg (Lane), who rebuilds old robots like some people fix up old cars.  But, like Toby, he's not what he appears to be.

Astro Boy could have been great.  There are enough emotional elements in the story to build upon, and the animation a lot better than I was expecting from an animation studio I'd never heard of.  But one of the problems with the film is its failure to capitilize on the more emotional moments.  It talks when it should be silent.  It forces scenes to play out rather than just letting them happen.  It tries to use President Stone's character as an indictment of Bush-era foreign policy.  Which is fine, but this really isn't the arena for that sort of thing.  The voice acting is very sub-par, with many performers who had never done cartoons before.  The only exception is Nathan Lane, and even he doesn't seem to be very into it.  And you know something's wrong when you can't get a good performance out of Donald Sutherland.

The animation is actually quite good, though.  It's not up to Pixar or Dreamworks' standards, but it's a treat to look at.  It also mixes a variety of styles.  At the beginning, there is an instructional film on the use of robots in society.  Made to mirror the industrial films of the 50s and 60s, it's done in a very flat, cardboard cutout style.  It also has some great action sequences, which are really the film's biggest strengths. 

All the ingredients for a great film were there.  But because they weren't all utilized, we have merely a good film.  Or even, simply, an OK film.  It's could have been worse, but it could have been a whole lot better.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Day 25: One Pig To Rule Them All

THE BLACK CAULDRON (1985)
Directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich
Starring the voices of: Grant Bardsley, Susan Sheridan, Freddie Jones, Nigel Hawthorne, Arthur Malet, John Hurt

For years, it was impossible to see The Black Cauldron.  It was something of a mystery.  It was Disney's most expensive feature to date, yet no one involved would talk about it.  It wasn't available on home video.  If you owned a bootleg copy of it, the Disney SWAT team would descend upon your house and you were never heard from again.  Or at least, that's how the urban legend goes.

Why all the secrecy?  This was Disney's biggest flop ever.  The loss was so substantial and the reaction so negative that Disney just started pretending it didn't exist.  There have been dozens of books released by Disney themselves that chronicle their history of theatrical animation, and you'd be lucky to find maybe ten whole pages that even mention this film. 

But a few years ago, they finally released The Black Cauldron on DVD.  And now...all the world can see why this film was such a fantastic flop.

First of all, let me say that the animation is pretty amazing.  They went all out here.  After years of doing things on the cheap, Disney (led at the time by Jefferey Katzenberg) opened up the purse strings and poured millions into creating elaborate and powerful effects animation.  When you're dealing with a story about an evil witch king raising a army of the undead, it had better look impressive.  And they don't disappoint here.

Unfortunately, the story is extremely weak.  It's little more than a rehashing of "Lord of the Rings" and pretty much every fantasy novel that has ever been written.  And this was in 1985; many years before the populace at large knew what a hobbit was.  And the first plot point involves a pig - a pig that can produce visions and see the future.  So instead of a ring, our "hero" named Taran (Bardsley) has to protect a pig.  Along the way, the pig is captured by the evil Horned King (Hurt) who uses it to find the location of the Black Cauldron, a magical device that can raise an army of undead warriors.  Along the way, the pig and her boy are separated, and Taran runs into the incredibly annoying Gurgi, a furry dog-thing that's sort of mix between Gollum and Jar-Jar Binks.  He also meets a princess (of what?  They never say) named Eilonwy and an old bard named Fflewddur Fflam.  None of these characters contribute anything to the story whatsoever.  They don't help Taran in his quest for the One Pig; they only stand around looking befuddled and making lame jokes.

And the other problem is the insistence on force-feeding whimsical, kid-friendly characters into a story about undead armies.  Not only is there Gurgi, but the Horned King has a squatty assistant named Creeper and an entire village of little fairy-sprite-things who rescue the Pig at one point, but contribute little else but whimsy.

The problem here is that the film makers were much more concerned with making the film look great than with the story, and the film suffers because of it.  No wonder Disney swept this one under the rug.  They were (and still are) rather good at visual storytelling.  But The Black Cauldron all style and no substance.  It plays more like one of Disney's direct-to-video sequels than a stand-alone feature, only with better animation.  I can only recommend this if you're a completest.  Otherwise, it's not worth it.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Day 24: Let's Not Lose Our Heads

CHICKEN RUN (2000)
Directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park
Starring the voices of: Mel Gibson, Julia Sawalha, Miranda Richardson, Jane Horrocks, Lynn Ferguson, Imelda Staunton, Timothy Spall

On a small English farm, a group of hens spend their days laying eggs and spend their nights plotting their escape.  It sounds like an easy job, but this particular farm is little more than a POW camp, complete with watchdogs and barbed wire.  And if a hen doesn’t meet their quota of eggs, they become dinner for the greedy Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy.  The mastermind behind every failed escape plan is Ginger (Sawalha), who never gives up the hope of someday being free, despite the fact that she is captured every time and sent to solitary.  Things begin to look up one day, as a cocky American rooster (hahaha) named Rocky (Gibson) literally flies into their coop (with the aid of a cannon).  This, Ginger thinks, is the answer – they’ll fly out.  Except no one, especially Rocky, bothered to tell the hens that chickens can’t fly. 

Chicken Run is the first feature film from Aardman Studios, the British animation team that gave us Wallace & Gromit.  All those years of doing short subjects and music videos (my favorite being Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer”) paid off, as this film looks and feels like it was done by seasoned pros.  And best of all, it doesn’t have the feel of a movie that was done specifically for kids. 

The animation is done in stop-motion, which, until Flushed Away years later, is Aardmans preferred method.  And they take full advantage of the medium, using it to give a full, three-dimensional look to not only the characters, but the world around them.  This is one of my  favorite methods of animation because it really forces the film makers to think about things cinematically.  This was near the beginning of the big 3D animation boom that is still dominating the business.  With a computer, it’s easy to move the “camera” around, pull a rack focus, do a dolly shot or simulate a Steadicam.  All of that can be done in stop-motion, too, but it’s nowhere near as easy, since there’s still an actual camera involved.  I have a soft spot in my heart for “the hard way,” especially when it’s done well. 

The story is very much inspired by classic POW films such as The Great Escape and Stalag 17 – in fact, there are several visual references to both.  It follows pretty much the same pattern as both of those films and several others.  But it never gets boring.  It’s genuinely funny and heartwarming without resorting to outright schmaltz.  The humor is very character-driven rather than gag-driven for the most part; there are a few cringe-worthy puns from a couple of crooked sales-rats, but besides that, everything works. 

Although it’s pretty standard animated fare, it’s done very well.  It may not change your life, but at least it’ll make you laugh.  

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Day 23: What The Cuss?

FANTASTIC MR. FOX (2009)
Directed by Wes Anderson
Starring the voices of: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Eric Anderson, Bill Murry, Wally Wolodarsky, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson

Fans of Wes Anderson's quirky films may have had their hearts skip a beat or two when they heard he was making an animated film.  But not to worry - this is a thoroughly Anderson-ian movie.  And I had to come with a new word just to describe it.

Based on the book by Roald Dahl, the film follows Mr. Fox (Clooney) and his wife (Streep), former chicken thieves who settle down into domestic life after the birth of their sullen son Ash (Schwartzman).  They are joined later by the soft-spoken cousin Kristofferson (Anderson), who Mr. Fox (and everyone else) dotes on, much to Ash's chagrin.  However, the quiet life is not for Mr. Fox, who longs to indulge his "inner animal," and with the help of his friend Kylie (Wolodarsky), begins stealing chickens again on the sly.  This brings all sorts of complications when the the farmers he's been stealing from decide to fight back.

The film deals with a lot of the themes you'll find in other Anderson movies, not the least of which being a dysfunctional family.  There is a ton of idiosyncratic dialogue and the same deadpan (and yet very human) readings that make something that's not so funny on the page something that brings out the laughs.  The problem is, animation is all about characature.  Even the performances need to be larger than life for the entire film to make sense.  Here, we just have a typical Wes Anderson movie.  But with anthropomorphic animals.

The film was done in stop-motion animation, which is normally utilized to give things a more three-dimensional look.  However, the animation here is decidedly flat - almost like a diorama come to life.  This isn't a problem necessarily, but if you're going to use a particular medium, why not use it to its utmost potential?  I feel like there was a lot wasted here. 

But that's not to say I didn't enjoy the film.  I thought it was funny, heartfelt and fun to watch.  But Wes Anderson is still a writer/director that polarizes people.  You either love him or you hate him.  And I've always enjoyed his films.  And if you've never given Wes Anderson a try, this is a good place to start. 

Day 22: Remember Your Name!

SPIRITED AWAY (2001)
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Starring the (English) voices of: Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleshette, Jason Marsden, Susan Egan, David Ogden Stiers, Lauren Holly, Michael Chiklis, John Ratzenberger, Tara Strong

I've mentioned before how much I dislike it when people hype a movie so much that my expectations of it can't possibly live up to the film itself.  Well, the hype was astronomically high for Spirited Away, the most praised film of famed Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki.  But this time around, I just popped the movie into my DVD player and said, "Forget with all the hype.  Let it speak for itself."  And I'm glad I did.  I think I enjoyed it better.

It's films like this that I regret not seeing on the Big Screen when I had the chance.  I would have even settled for someone's home theater system, because my tiny little portable DVD player just didn't do this film justice.  The scope of the film is so immense, the world so vast and the animation so exquisite that it demands to be seen on the largest screen you can find. 

The story is complex, as well.  After her parents are turned into pigs, a spoiled, bratty young girl named Chihiro sets off to find them.  But before she can, she stumbles upon an old-fashioned Japanese bath house that turns out to be a sauna for the spirits.  And in Japanese mythology, there are a ton of different spirits, so things are pretty busy.  Soon, this whiny little kid, who never had to work a day in her life, is put to work cleaning up after the many strange nether-beings who patronize the house.  And some of them are pretty disgusting - particularly the Stink Demon.  Chihiro adjusts as best she can with the help of her co-worker Lin and a strange boy named Haku, who is rumored to be the henchman for the wicked Yubaba, who runs the house.  But things get even stranger with the arrival of the mysterious "No-Face." 

It can be daunting for American viewers to get through all the Japanese mythology, strange (and sometimes disgusting) creatures and somewhat graphic violence of this film.  But I think this film has a lot more guts than most animated films released in the States.  Here, animation is more or less kid stuff, with few exceptions.  But it was one of American animation's leading figures - Pixar's John Lasseter - who was responsible for bringing this film to America.  And when I think about the films that American animation companies have released since - The Incredibles, Kung-Fu Panda, Up and How to Train your Dragon, I can't help but think that this film sort of spurred them on to creates something a bit more mature.  And by "mature," I don't mean bathroom humor and gratuitous swearing.  That's about as immature as you can get.  I'm talking about films that aren't afraid to tackle subjects animated films considered verboten even ten years ago.  In the first ten minutes of Up, we deal with love, marriage and death.  If you ever get the chance to build a time machine, go back to Disney in 1995 or so and try pitching that. 

Spirited Away is quite the emotional ride.  All movies are, in one way or another, about change.  The change we see in Chihiro from the beginning of this film to the end is also a change we can feel.  The world around her is so engrossing that the audience is sucked into it as well.  We are along for the ride.  Not only is this ride incredible, but it offers an awesome view.

Just make sure you watch it on a big screen.  You'll be glad you did.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Day 21: Dalmatian Plantation

ONE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIANS (1961)
Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske
Starring the voices of: Rod Taylor, Ben Wright, Lisa Davis, Betty Lou Gerson, Cate Bauer,  J. Pat O'Malley

Everyone knows the Disney formula - princess is in trouble, dashing white knight comes to the rescue, many happy songs throughout.  Stylistically, the animation is lush and vibrant, with many references to renaissance art.  It's a formula that did well for them.  Until Sleeping Beauty bombed at the box office.

So their next feature One Hundred and One Dalmatians marks a very visible departure from the formula of old.  Here, we have a style that is much more contemporary, a pace that is more deliberate, and a story that is decidedly darker in tone than previous Disney fairy tales.  And it all works to the films advantage.

The film wastes no time in laying this new style on us, as we have probably the most elaborate and energetic title sequences I've ever seen.  Gone are the lush, sweeping orchestrations and in their place is a jazzy new score, as the "dot" theme is used over and over.  The animators had a field day making the credits jump all across the screen.  Right away, we get the sense that this is something new and exciting.  As we begin the film, however, the pace slows down, but never drags.  Everything moves along just as it should.

The animation is first rate.  Just think - these were the days before computers, so not only did the picture have to be drawn by hand, but they also had to animate all those spots.  On 101 dogs.  In fact, a separate team of animators was brought in just for that reason.  Things were sped along by the new Xerox process - which painted the animation cels via photocopier instead of by hand.  The only drawback was that the lines around the characters became darker and sketchier, a big problem in later films, especially Robin Hood and The Jungle Book.  The process had evolved and softened by the time they got to The Rescuers.  But here, there's very little sketchiness, and the end result is a much cleaner look.

Of course, it would be impossible to talk about this film with talking at length about Cruella DeVil, one of the strangest and most charasmatic Disney villains of all time.  She works so well for a number of reasons: the excellent animation of Marc Davis, the cackling voice of Betty Lou Gerson.  But the thing about her is that she's so likeably evil.  She repels and attracts the viewer at the same time.  But she's no comic foil; she means business.  Her cronies, Jasper and Horace, are the ones who provide the laughs here, but they too have a genuine mean streak.  And none of them mince words about their intentions.  They're going to kill those puppies, and they're not afraid to say so. 

This tone of menace and genuine peril actually helps the film, though it doesn't wallow in it.  Things are kept light enough to entertain kids, but it's the earliest animated film I've seen (and there's a lot I haven't seen) that tries to entertain the adults as well.  Also, it's not a musical.  Oh sure, there are two pretty decent songs (three, if you count the Kanine Krunchies jingle), but they don't move the plot along.  Story and execution are the name of the game here.  And both are nearly flawless.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Day 20: I Am Done With Man

MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN (1994)
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
Starring: Robert De Niro, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hulce, Helena Bonham Carter, Ian Holm, Aidan Quinn, John Cleese

If I had to choose one word to describe this movie, it would be “big.”  Everything in this movie is big; the acting, the writing, the direction (I think this is the first movie I’ve ever seen with a love scene shot entirely with a Steadicam).  The problem is, it’s too big.  In fact, Branagh seems so preoccupied with making everything as big as possible, that he forgets the important little things, such as subtlety, nuance and most importantly, logic.  Actually, now that I think about it, “overblown” is probably a better word.

In the first ten minutes, a ship bound for the North Pole hits an iceberg.  Already, the logic is faulty, because instead of sinking like a rock, the ship simply sits there as if it’s run aground.  On this ice flow, the captain (Quinn) comes across a nearly frozen Victor Frankenstein (Branagh).  Victor starts to tell his rather unbelievable story and we flash back to Geneva, many years earlier.  As a boy, his father (Holm) takes in an orphaned girl, Elizabeth.  There is an instant connection between them, and as they grow, they fall in love.  Which is odd, considering they’re technically brother and sister.  They’re step-siblings, yes, but it’s still a bit upsetting.  After the death of his mother, Victor vows to overcome death my medical and scientific means.

All of this I just described could be a movie in itself, and yet it takes up just about ten minutes of screen time.  I give them points for moving the plot forward at a brisk pace, but there isn’t much in the way of character development.  It’s as if Branagh simply read the Cliffs Notes for the novel and decided to make a movie about it.

After Victor meets the mysterious Professor Waldman (Cleese), he begins his quest to build a man from the body parts of dead criminals and wanderers.  And we all know where this goes from here.  He reanimates the corpse, it goes crazy, kills a bunch of people, demands a mate, doesn’t get it and vows to pursue Victor to the ends of the earth.  Which is how he and the Creature end up in the frozen North Sea.

Robert De Niro plays the Creature this time out and, considering the ridiculous script, he does a pretty decent job of making it believable.  Unlike other Frankenstein films, this creature, as in the novel, is extremely verbose and well-read.  This has advantages and disadvantages.  The advantage is that there is one scene (probably the best one in the film) where the Creature confronts Victor.  He is the embodiment of Victor’s madness, and as such, has many questions that Victor simply cannot answer.  The disadvantage is that we sometimes here a distinct New York accent coming out of this supposedly European zombie.   

Everything in this movie is overdone.  The camera never sits still – there are several scenes that play out in 360-degree Steadicam, and the actors perform as if they’re on the stage.  Stage acting is a completely different animal than screen acting.  On stage, the closest person to you is about thirty feet away, so projection and movement have to be big in order to be seen.  In a film, the camera is right there so there’s no need for any stage theatrics.  It makes you look like you’re over-acting.  And everyone (except De Niro) is overacting here. 

Kenneth Branagh is a much better director than this.  His adaptations of Shakespeare are among the best ever made (his four-hour production of Hamlet is especially amazing).  But Frankenstein is a blotch on his otherwise brilliant record.  It’s campy, overdone and unbelievable.  It belongs dead.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Day 19: I'm Not Afraid of Death, But I Am Afraid of Murder

THE CONVERSATION (1974)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Frederic Forrest, Cindy Williams, Harrison Ford, Allen Garfield

When you see a character on screen, and they protray paranoia in a believeable way, that's good acting.

When you're watching the same scene and you can feel the paranoia, that's good directing.

Made between the two Godfather films, The Conversation was another exhibit in the case that, in the 1970's, Francis Ford Coppola could do no wrong.  It is a perfectly constructed film with a heavy dose of Hitchcock-ian suspense, but with his own personal twist on it. 

Gene Hackman plays Harry Caul, a surveillence man hired to record a conversation between a man and a woman.  And he is the best there is; or so he thinks.  A deeply secretive man, Harry tells no personal details to his co-worker Stan (Cazale), to his girlfriend or anybody but his priest.  Hackman plays the role to perfection, starting out first as a rigid, humorless man, then letting intense paranoia bubble to the surface when he finds out that he is being beaten at his own game.  Harrison Ford is especially creepy as Martin Stett, a mysterious assistant for the director who hires Caul.  Ford says little in the film, but everything he says has weight and menace behind it.  Allen Garfiled plays rival surveillence man Bernie Moran, whose diminutive size belies his more diabolical side.  The scenes beteween Hackman and Garfield are when the paranoia starts to really surface, as Moran shows Caul that even he can be bugged.

The film relies heavily on sound design, as we hear the same conversation over and over again.  But we can hear very little of it at first.  There is all kinds of distortion, but we gradually hear more.  And the seemingly benign (as Stan puts it "Stupid") conversation suddenly carries more and more weight.  Caul begins to question everything about the conversation, as everything becomes clearer.  But even so, not much is revealed until Caul finds out who he's working for and why. 

This film kept me guessing from beginning to end.  It starts out posing questions, but gives you few clues.  And every time I thought I had things figured out, there was another twist.  Even the ending poses a question - probably the biggest question of all - how can the man who never shared a secret and never took chances ever be bested in his own field?  Caul literally tears himself apart trying to answer that question.

This is a thriller that surprises and engages all the way through.  Even I felt paranoid as I watched it.  It's one thing to recognize what's going on, but it's quite another to be sucked in to the story to the point where we feel what the characters feel.  I'm still looking over my shoulder. 

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Day 18:You Could Stay Forever If You Want To

CORALINE (2009)
Directed by Henry Selick
Starring the voices of: Dakota Fanning, Terri Hatcher, Ian McShane, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French

What do you think of when you think of animated films?  Do you think of furry little woodland creatures singing bright, sappy songs?  Do you think of fairy tales about princesses on their quest for Prince Charming? 

Or do you think of giant mechanical spider-witches?  Or obese, half-naked former movie divas?  Or maybe replicants of your family members with buttons sewn over their eyeballs? 

If you prefer the latter to the former, then oh boy, have I got a movie for you.

Let me say this up front: this movie will more than likely scare the ever-loving crap out of your kids.  But that’s a good thing, since that’s exactly what it was intended to do.  Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman (who is known for his more grown-up horror stories), Coraline tells the story of a young girl (Fanning) who moves to a new town with her neglectful, workaholic parents.  The apartment is filled with strange neighbors, but most of them want nothing to do with Coraline.  They can’t even get her name right.  But one day, while exploring the house, she comes upon a small door that has been covered with wallpaper.  By day, it’s bricked up and impassible.  But by night, it leads to a wonderful alternate universe where everything is exponentially better than her normal life.  Her parents lavish attention on her.  Her neighbors are magical, mystical entertainers.  Sure, they all look a bit creepy, what with those button sewn over their eyes, but everyone is as happy as can be.  Because there’s trouble if anyone shows a noticeable lack of joviality…

The film was done in stop-motion animation by the same director who brought us The Nightmare Before Christmas.  But in the years since that first film, technology has progressed quite a bit, adding for several digital assists that add to the movie’s look.  And what a look it is.  This is one of the best designed films I have ever seen.  The filmmakers have created a world where their imaginations were allowed to run rampant.  However, there is a great deal of control, as nothing seems out of place.  All the visual and conceptual ideas flow into and out of one another. 

Coraline is interesting for another reason: it’s essentially a horror film for kids.  There’s no blood or guts or sex (except for a bit of comical partial nudity), but there is plenty of “nightmare fuel.”  The characters were designed in such a way that they could be pulled out of their usually comical forms and twisted into grotesque figures.  Over the course of the film, Coraline must find the eyes of a group of ghost children that the Other Mother (the aforementioned Giant Mechanical Spider Witch) had hidden from them.  True, there’s little in the way of violence here, but there’s enough to keep your kids up for a few nights.
The only weak spot with Coraline is the voice acting.  True, you’ve got a group of actors who don’t normally work in the voice-over realm, but I’ve got to believe they could have put more effort into it than they did.  The exceptions are Saunders and French who play so well off each other that they are the highlight of all the performances.  And wait till you see their musical review…
To tell you the truth, I have been waiting for a long time for animated films to break out of the “age ghetto.”  This happens all the time in Europe and Asia, where animation is looked at as a respected art form that can handle any genre.  Here in the States, it’s strictly kiddy fare.  But Coraline doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to intensity, which may upset many parents.  And that’s okay.  Animation can do whatever we want it to do.  For decades, it was used to baby-sit unruly kids.  Now people are starting to see the potential the medium has, and are using it to tell stories that couldn’t be told in live-action, regardless of whether somebody’s three-year-old may like it.  They’re doing it for the art of it, which is how it should be.  This is still filmmaking, after all.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Running Behind...

Hey all.  It's just starting to sink in that this may take longer than 100 actual calender days.  But if I get the chance, I'm going to play catch-up by making two posts a day.  Maybe even three, if I can.  But if it takes something closer to 111 Days, I hope that's okay.

Day 17: Reasonable Doubt

12 ANGRY MEN (1957)
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Starring: Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Jack Warden, Henry Fonda, Joseph Sweeney, Ed Begley, George Voskovec, Robert Webber

Here is a task that really determines what kind of filmmaker you are: make jury duty interesting.  And don't forget to make it entertaining and thought-provoking as well.  Oh, and while you're at it, make sure you make the sight of twelve guys sitting around a table for an hour and a half visually interesting. 

This would be a daunting task for any director.  But if you're a first-timer, like Sidney Lumet was, it must have been downright scary.  The script for 12 Angry Men is, essentially, a filmed play.  It all takes place (for the most part) in one room, on one set.  There is very little action and a lot of talking.  How do you keep an audience's interest?

Well, it doesn't hurt to hire the best actors you can find.  And they don't get much better than Henry Fonda (Juror #8) and Lee J. Cobb (Juror #3).  In the film, they continually oppose each other as Fonda tries to explain his reasonable doubt as to whether a young man has killed his own father.  Cobb has no doubts in his mind, even as the other ten jurors (all fine actors in their own right) change their verdicts.  The two play off each other superbly; as Fonda calmly tries to explain his position, Cobb vehemently defends his opinions and displays an amazing amount of realistic rage completely uncharacteristic of most actors of the day. 

Even with all the great acting, this film would not have been nearly as effective if everything were static and stagy.  And thankfully, it's not.  Lumet uses a variety of simple but effective camera techniques, all designed to convey the appropriate mood.  As the movie progresses, wide-angle lenses were used to make the room look smaller than normal, giving a real sense of claustrophobia.  Several key scenes are played out in extreme close-ups.  But contrary to this (and the most effective part of the film) was when Juror #10 (Begley) gives an impassioned speech, declaring the boy guilty simply because he's "one of them."  As his racist tirade goes on, the other jurors leave the table.  Consequently, so does the camera.  It backs slowly away from him until he stands completely alone, with no one to back him up.

This was a great little film, even if Fonda does get preachy at times. But it's also a hell of a debut from Sidney Lumet.  It's interesting to look back to the early films of certain directors to see how far they've come.  But Lumet seemed to be on top of his game from the get-go.  This is the kind of debut film most people only dream about.  And Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and Network were all still in his future.  This was the start of one of Hollywood's smartest filmmakers.