bitten tongue.

America, this is why we can’t have nice health care....

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:46:02 -0800

America, this is why we can’t have nice health care. (via hunk-o-mass : n-e-way)

Film is the art of light - of vision - of what and how we see....

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:49:15 -0800

Film is the art of light - of vision - of what and how we see. Jacques Audiard opens Un Prophéte through an obstructed view of our protagonist - perhaps a Diving Bell And The Butterfly-esque through-the-eyelids shot, perhaps a close-shot past a number of people. He never answers the question, instead rushing headlong into a dense yet familiar narrative about a street rat French-Arab rising to Godfather heights. Audiard elevates his material with keen observations of French race relations, immigration, Islamic tensions, and the (de-?)evolution of mob culture from the old Italian mafiosos to the gangs of corner kids. If The Godfather found that you cannot escape your heritage, Un Prophéte concludes that the old world can fight for only so long against the inevitable tide of racial and cultural change.

The film gets its title, and thematic heft, from the vision of our main character Malik. Yes, he sees the ghost of the first man he has killed, a man who becomes a martyr for Malik’s survival and rise. And yes, he has a prophetic dream of hitting a deer, again saving his own life. But his real vision comes from understanding his unique place in the criminal hierarchy - French enough to serve as the Corsicans lapdog, learning at their feet, yet Arab enough to command power and respect from the rising class.

Malik starts out an illiterate common ne’er-do-well; he uses the prison system to better himself through the inmate education program and by watching the ruling Corsican, César. All of his power and knowledge comes from observation, seeing how others interact, how power works. He learns that all men, when stripped of the illusion of control, will “think with their balls” (in César’s words), no matter their ethnicity.

As he walks towards us at the end of the film, Malik has the power of sight, the ability to look behind him - at the brute force - and ahead - beyond the screen, at the family and criminal life awaiting - while everyone else (including us the audience) just looks at him.

Ian Malcolm discusses Alice in Wonderland 3D Thankfully for us,...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:40:50 -0800

Ian Malcolm discusses Alice in Wonderland 3D

Thankfully for us, nothing gets Craig’s juices flowing more than Tim Burton remaking another movie.

Edward Asner takes a controversial Pro-Puzzles stance.

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:37:29 -0800

Edward Asner takes a controversial Pro-Puzzles stance.

Sure When In Rome ranks as the most incompetent movie ever made, but Cop Out may be worse. The...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:21:39 -0800

Sure When In Rome ranks as the most incompetent movie ever made, but Cop Out may be worse. The fleeting seconds of enjoyability (i.e. Tracy Morgan’s occasionally funny bits) make the surrounding two hours even more excruciating. Both movies are great testaments to the number of ways a movie can fail.

Honestly, replacing all the guns in Cop Out with bananas would have only helped the whole affair.

And Seann William Scott, stay in the body bag.

According to Edge of Darkness and Taken, grieving fathers dream of their daughters only in grainy...

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:17:50 -0800

According to Edge of Darkness and Taken, grieving fathers dream of their daughters only in grainy DV.

Happy Birthday, Adam! I think this is a bit closer to the truth.

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:02:37 -0800

Happy Birthday, Adam!

I think this is a bit closer to the truth.

Don’t Call It a Comeback Aside from sharing a release...

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:48:15 -0800

Don’t Call It a Comeback

Aside from sharing a release date, Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer and Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island bear a remarkable resemblance to one another. Paranoid thrillers adapted from popular books, both films open on shots from afar of a boat cutting through (Polanski’s) night and (Scorsese’s) fog (not to be confused with Night and Fog, though that film should be remembered during Shutter Island especially).

Polanski’s composition - the camera sitting on the waiting dock, framing the boat between two pillars as it slowly cuts through the dark waters and lightless night - and the length of the shot recall his great works. He sets mood, pace, and point of view with a strong image that also connotes his larger themes. Scorsese’s grey fog (pictured above) hangs menacingly until finally the boat carrying our protagonist begins to cut its way through. The dreamlike image (and the following cut to DiCaprio vomiting in the Hostel-like bathroom aboard the vessel) again sets mood, but the haze also visualizes the subjective, placing us in the mindset of DiCaprio’s Teddy before placing us with him, obscuring the truth and the horrors within.

Both films also have climactic shots of papers floating through the air, in both instances documents of truth sent flying to obfuscate what we have learned. The wind-blown papers create yet another haze of white blocking the audience’s view of the truth.

Polanski and Scorsese both use these genre pieces as lenses to play with point of view and knowledge, how we construct and determine both, how hard it is to change either. If the creation of the medium of film allowed us the audience to see - wars, faraway lands, each other - it also allowed others to obscure our vision. Polanski has toyed with this idea from his first film, Knife in the Water, and it continues with his delightful trademark wit in The Ghost Writer. The more Polanski’s protagonists see, the more they are seen by others. The search for truth always leads to paranoia, usually of the self-destructive variety.

A devoted cinephile, Scorsese toys with the conventions and definitions of the film lexicon, constantly pumping in adrenaline and a manic verve. Shutter Island sits apart from his gangster genre work though. Gone are the Rolling Stones, replaced with the hard (and incredible) menace of Robbie Robertson’s bass-heavy score. The overblown flashes of ’30s era bulbs are replaced by the flashes of DiCaprio’s migraines, the past searing his haggard face and disturbing his sleep. The harsh cutting style only further drives us into the island’s fractured psyche.

The fractured psyche originates, in some ways, from wars (both II and Cold). Strangely, Shutter Island is Scorsese’s Holocaust picture, an examination of the extreme depravities man can enact upon one another. If man can commit atrocities so extreme as to attempt the extermination of an entire race, what does killing one’s children or wife really matter? What guilt is too much to bear?

Neither film may crack the top echelon of either directors’ oeuvres, but both are high-water marks for the past decade (or two?). The Ghost Writer and Shutter Island are fun and play great in a packed house. Two directors (one returning to the genre of his heyday, the other playing in a new sandbox) expertly flex their muscles, almost nonchalantly succeeding where so many others would have made limp and staid “entertainments.”

But there’s darkness lingering under both, perhaps best voiced in the last line of Shutter Island: “Would you rather die a good man, or live a monster?”

Really, LA Times, that seems like a kicking a man when...

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:59:01 -0800

Really, LA Times, that seems like a kicking a man when he’s down and can’t get up because he fell on his back and can’t roll over.

Does this mean I’m an X-Man? Or a faith healer?

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:59:06 -0800

Does this mean I’m an X-Man? Or a faith healer?

Why does a restroom for one require a stool?

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:19:32 -0800

Why does a restroom for one require a stool?

ROUTINE - “One man tries to reach the girl of his...

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:58:00 -0800

ROUTINE - “One man tries to reach the girl of his dreams.”

For Valentine’s Day, a short I made with Dave, Samantha, Adam B., Evan B., Craig, Morgan, and Dan. Hope you enjoy it, and have a great holiday weekend.

YouTube Link

The new trailer for Toy Story 3 amazes for a lot of...

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:30:46 -0800

The new trailer for Toy Story 3 amazes for a lot of reasons. The film really looks to bring back the sense of fun and adventure that makes this such a classic franchise.

But look at the texture on that bear! That’s incredible. That anthropomorphized bear looks more lifelike than any blue alien. (via Dan)

All hail Ice Cream Kid!

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:31:52 -0800

All hail Ice Cream Kid!

Man, this guy just can’t win. (via Tribune)

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:36:27 -0800

Man, this guy just can’t win. (via Tribune)

In other news: Well before the federal government bailed out...

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:44:28 -0800

In other news:

Well before the federal government bailed out A.I.G. in September 2008, Goldman’s demands for billions of dollars from the insurer helped put it in a precarious financial position by bleeding much-needed cash. That ultimately provoked the government to step in.

What was I saying about self-awareness? (via NYT & Yahoo)

You have to appreciate the utterly unironic and non-self-aware...

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:41:24 -0800

You have to appreciate the utterly unironic and non-self-aware nature of the tea-party movement. (via NYT)

For such cynical comedians, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant...

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:45:17 -0800

For such cynical comedians, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant love schmaltz. Sometimes it works (The Office Christmas Special may be the most romantic piece of pop art from the last decade); sometimes it doesn’t (The Extras Christmas Special drowns in unwarranted and unwanted syrup). There’s a lot of syrupy nostalgia and worn-out “coming-of-ageness” in this trailer for the duo’s writing/directing debut, Cemetery Junction. Judging by the trailer, the guy gets the girl, the friend gets his hand cut off at the mill, and River Phoenix gets run over by a train.

Then again, An Education also has the most shopworn of premises but really works (until the last ten minutes). (via CHUD)

In perfect summation, the internet:

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:21:05 -0800

“Who cares about the past?” suggested another, prompting the angry riposte, “Are you for real? WHO CARES ABOUT THE PAST????? Are you sane???? The past is a VITAL PART of what we are, who we are.” Then the discussion turned to the demerits of slavery, as these things do, and all hope of a consensus was lost.

A discussion of Avatar’s grosses and what records they are. (via Vulture)

If these were the only five Best Picture nominees, 2009 would be...

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:11:57 -0800

If these were the only five Best Picture nominees, 2009 would be a banner Oscar year.

Still, five solid to great to classic contenders out of 10 would win the batting crown any year. Not a lot of surprises, aside from Cinematography, where Avatar and Harry Potter nabbed some spots that could have gone to the more deserving A Single/Serious Man. Interesting as well that two of the Best Score nominees are animated features, and that Up and Fantastic Mr. Fox may have the best scores of the year. (Full list)