My Essentials: 3:10 to Yuma

"There is a lonely train,
Called the 3:10 to Yuma.
The pounding of the wheels,
Is more like a mournful sigh."

Some movies are so perfect and so perfectly suited to a specific viewer that they're nearly impossible to write about.

I feel myself overwhelmed by 3:10 to Yuma. It is so easily watchable. That beautiful theme, sung by Frankie Laine over the opening credits, is a haunting little song. It recurs throughout the film. Sometimes, as a strand of the score. Sometimes, as a wistful whistle from the characters acting out a drama larger than themselves, the whistle an acknowledgment that all are caught up in stories and forces and functions that are far beyond their control. All of this to highlight and underscore that each moment is within our control as far as every choice we make matters.

"There's a legend and there's a rumour.
When you take the 3:10 to Yuma,
You can see the ghosts,
Of outlaws go riding by, (riding by)
In the sky (in the sky),
'Way up high."

This is a movie that one needs to submit to immediately. If the Lane song doesn't transport you into a realm of legends and rumours, then you're not in the right frame of mind to watch this movie. At the same time that the movie approaches tall tale territory, it is rooted in an insistently grim realism, the tale of a family farmer at the mercy of the elements. Everything he has worked for in his life could be lost because of something out of his control. Taking ahold of what one can control and seeing it through is one key theme of the film.

"The buzzards keep circling the train,
While below the cattle are thirsting for rain.
It's also true they say,
On the 3:10 to Yuma,
A man can meet his fate.
For fate travels everywhere."

The family farmer is given choices. He's given opportunities. And he acts on them regardless of the difficulty and the danger. This is a simple and a straightforward message, but it's one that inspires me every time.

"'Though you've got no reason to go there,
And there ain't a soul that you know there.
When the 3:10 to Yuma whistles its sad refrain.
Take that train (take that train)
Take that train."

http://youtu.be/nkXDLNRVMxY

Six Star Salute

On Letterboxd, I wrote that Cosmopolis is Cronenberg's best film since Videodrome. To be clear, I'm no Cronenberg expert. What films of his I've seen have mostly been seen long ago. I have a love/hate relationship with Cronenberg. His films seem to me to be oppressively uncomfortable and unpleasant. I'd have to re-watch them all to explore whatever I mean and defend that nebulous feeling I'm having a hard time properly identifying. Regardless, Cosmopolis resonates as a prophetic commentary on present hopes/fears related to our media environment in the same way that Videodrome probed into hopes/fears related to the media environment of its time. I don't know.

Rebel Without a Cause is a smart film. It's a shame that the parents who needed to watch this film and repent of their loveless keeping up of appearances were probably the same ones that led crusades to keep this film out of their small towns.

Following Chris

I've added a few Oscar categories that Chris omitted. Otherwise, I'm just following his lead.

FILM

Best Film: John Carter

Best Director: Andrew Stanton, John Carter

Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

Best Actress: Greta Gerwig, Damsels in Distress

Best Supporting Actor: Michael Shannon, Premium Rush

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, The Master

Best Original Screenplay: Whit Stillman, Damsels in Distress

Best Adapted Screenplay: Andrew Stanton & Mark Andrews & Michael Chabon, John Carter

Best Original Score: Jonny Greenwood, The Master

Best Soundtrack: Moonrise Kingdom

Best Animated Feature: Brave

Best Foreign Film: Amour

Best Cinematography: Mihai Malaimare, Jr., The Master

Best Costume Design: Kasia Walicka Maimone, Moonrise Kingdom

Best Film Editing: Leslie Jones & Peter McNulty, The Master

Best Sound Editing: The Master

Best Sound Mixing: The Master

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Premium Rush

Best Original Song: “The Sambola! International Dance Craze” from Damsels in Distress

Best Production Design: Adam Stockhausen, Moonrise Kingdom

Best Visual Effects: LOOK! Effects, Moonrise Kingdom

TELEVISION

Best Drama Series: Breaking Bad

Best Comedy or Musical: Parks & Recreation

Best Miniseries or TV Movie: Sherlock

Actor, Drama Series: Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad

Actress, Drama Series: Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad

Actor, Comedy or Musical: Nick Offerman, Parks & Recreation

Actress, Comedy or Musical: Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

Actor, Miniseries or TV Movie: Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock

Supporting Actor, series, miniseries, movie: Andrew Scott, Sherlock

Supporting Actress, series, miniseries, movie: Lena Headey, Game of Thrones (I'm just going with Chris here)

Quick List Response to Brandon's Recent Post

My Completely Objective and Totally Correct for Everyone Top Ten Best Picture Winners

1. On the Waterfront
2. No Country for Old Men
3. It Happened One Night
4. A Man for All Seasons
5. Braveheart
6. Unforgiven
7. Lawrence of Arabia
8. Casablanca
9. The Godfather
10. The Deer Hunter

Numbes 1-4 (maybe 5, too) are all 5-star films in my book and could get My Essentials posts written about them in the future. 6-10 are all solid pics that I respect, but don’t love. Overall, I’m not all that impressed looking over the history of Best Picture winners.

I'm still the winner, winner, winner.

Writing three sentences to beef up your post count is so lame.

Brandon is Psychopath #8

"but like you guys I found it funny and entertaining. I don’t know when or why but there was a point in which these two pivotal attributes got tossed aside in FC."

This is just silly, Brandon. How have these "two pivotal attributes" been "tossed aside"?

I'm the one who championed John Carter. I've been itching to re-watch it recently. It will rank high on my 2012 list. I'm the dude who ranked Rise of the Planet of the Apes higher than Tree of Life. I think that Do-Deca-Pentathlon is "funny and entertaining" enough to forgive some very annoying visual tics. Besides those, though, I also found Godard's 2 or 3 Things to be both funny and entertaining. I've also been itching to re-watch that one.

You're just annoyed that Jeff and I don't find 7 Psychopaths to be as funny and entertaining as you do. I thought it was fun. I never thought it was great fun. I never laughed riotously and didn't smile through the whole film like you did. I just didn't connect with the material like you did.

Unrelated, I really enjoyed watching the documentary Side by Side. It's a great survey of the different perspectives involved in the film vs. digital conversation. There is just enough technical detail balanced with the right amount of talking heads. It'd be a five-star film if it didn't have an annoying score. Lucas and Nolan are also both annoying, but this is balanced out by good content from Scorsese and Lynch and cinematographers whose names I can't remember. Finally, what the heck is Gerwig doing in this? I guess it's a young actor's perspective (from someone who started in an all digital environment), but her presence seemed odd amidst all of the directors/cinematographers.

NO SHOOTING

Jeff's posts today have spurred me into posting again. I can't let that brittle-boned woodyite outpost me!

February was the month I bought a Wii. I blame it on Mike getting me all excited about video games. I couldn't quite justify a PS3 purchase so I settled for the family-friendly option. Wii boxing also burns more calories than catching up on Criterion titles.

I've been on a contemporary streak so far this month. All 80s+ films.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off, like all of Hughes' high school films, highlights the best part of public schooling, the friendships that make such a hellish place tolerable. FBDO perfectly captures the dreamlike intensity of just hanging out with friends. It is an ode to the triumph of liberty and liberal self-education over against the dreariness of bells and hall passes.

The Hole has many trademark Dante-isms. What should have been an excellent Eerie, Indiana film plays out too often like an episode of Goosebumps. All of it resolves too tidily. For all of the well-crafted scares, there's little depth to a movie that's supposedly making us face the abyss in our own basements.

Sleepwalk with Me is an honest portrayal of a guy who chooses a career in comedy over a stable relationship. This is all well and good as long as Birgiblia's failures at connecting with a romantic partner aren't taken as normative. I don't think they're presented as such, but I do think that his story is a fair microcosm of a larger generational story being played out in the broader culture right now.

The Do-Deca-Pentathlon wins lots of points for being 2012's best film featuring an arm wrestling match. As Jeff knows, these gems are too few in number. The Duplass zooms that Brandon hates are worse here than in JWLAH. I hope you all can forgive the zooms and give this one a chance. I've slowly become a Duplass fan.

Like Jeff, I'm a Martin McDonagh fan. I saw one of his plays (Lonesome West) performed in Binghamton last year. Seven Psychopaths has all of the wild moral and verbal flourishes of a McDonagh script and McDonagh direction. The interweaving of meta-narrative conceits and semi-aware characters living out a story of their own making as they search for material for a proper script is all deftly handled. It's certainly a lot of fun to watch. I'm just not sure that it adds up to all that much in the end and I don't feel a burning need to re-watch it any time soon. I watched In Bruges three times in a row a few years ago. I was hoping to be enamored like that again, but it didn't happen. Also, in my imaginary Oscars world, Sam Rockwell has already won best supporting actor.

P.S. Brandon, I don't think there are any libertarians in CR5FC.

"An effort of imagination for the study of real objects."

Dang it. I'm behind again.

Here are some lame Letterboxd "reviews" to catch up. Now I know how dirty Jason feels when he takes a Flixster dump.

Blonde Ice 1948 ★★★

Watched Jan 19, 2013

trawlerman’s review:

A B- noir in every way. Second rate actors. Everything occurs in a few limited indoor locations. A hokey script with a really bad psychoanalytic ending.

But there are also charms. Most notably, Leslie Brooks. She makes it easy to believe that all of the men around her are completely powerless in her presence.

Besides the final act, the film is convincing (and a lot of fun) in its portrayal of a woman with ice in her veins. This is the worst sort of femme fatale, the kind who will do all the dirty work herself, then pin it on you in the end with nothing pointing toward her.

Compliance 2012 ★★

Watched Jan 20, 2013

trawlerman’s review:

I remain non-compliant.

2 or 3 Things I Know About Her 1967 ★★★★

Watched Jan 21, 2013

trawlerman’s review:

I'm waffling on whether or not I really like this one and how much, if so. It's unquestionably an ambitious film. Maybe Godard's best. What do I know?

Moonrise Kingdom 2012 ★★★★

Rewatched Jan 21, 2013

trawlerman’s review:

I agree with everything I've already written: chasingpictures.blogspot.com/2012/07/great-shall-be-peace-of-thy-children.html

I'm also still troubled by the adolescent sexuality. I imagine Anderson directing the young boy to feel the young girl's chest and I can't come to any reason at all why that is justified.

But, I can't argue with the power of the film. This is definitely Anderson's best film yet.

21 Days 1940 ★★★

Watched Jan 25, 2013

trawlerman’s review:

There's a lot to like here, but it doesn't all hang together like it should.

A Colt is My Passport 1967 ★★★★

Watched Jan 26, 2013

trawlerman’s review:

A fantastic mash-up of Western/SpaghettiWestern/Gangster/Yakuza/Noir/Hitman/SNAFU/BuddyBadGuy film styles and substances. With a lovely score.

Tears on the Lion’s Mane 1962 ★★★

Watched Jan 27, 2013

trawlerman’s review:

Japan's On the Waterfront? There are a few great moments (a thrown dog, a rockabilly outburst) and a few tender moments, but the film dragged for much of its not-all-that-long running time.

January 2013 Recap

January 2013

15 Features
The Wild One (1953) ****
Amour (2012) **
New Jerusalem (2011) ****
Total Recall (2012) **
Ruby Sparks (2012) **
The Loneliest Planet (2011) **
Dark Horse (2011) **
Killer Joe (2011) **
Blonde Ice (1948) ***
Compliance (2012) **
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967) ****
Moonrise Kingdom (2012) ****
21 Days (1940) ***
A Colt is My Passport (1967) ****
A Flame at the Pier (1962) ***

20 Shorts
Silly Symphony - The Three Little Pigs (1933) ****
Flotsam/Jetsam (2005) ***
Wandering Willies (1926) ****
Butter Fingers (1925) ***
One Week (1920) ****
The Boat (1921) ****
Cops (1922) ****
At Bear Track Gulch (1913) ***
Two-Gun Gussie (1918) ***
The Adventures of Dollie (1908) ***
A Corner in Wheat (1908) ***
Those Awful Hats (1908) ****
A Trap for Santa (1909) ***
Patterns 1 (2005) ***
Patterns 2 (2006) ***
Robbie (2012) ****
Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (2011) ***
A Day in the Country (1936) ***
A Day's Pleasure (1919) ***
Patterns 3 (2006) ****

TV
1600 Penn
-"Meet the Parent" ***
Fawlty Towers
-"A Touch of Class" *****
My Little Pony
-"Friendship is Magic, Part 1" ***
-"Friendship is Magic, Part 2" ***
The Office
-"Customer Loyalty" ****
Robin Hood
-"Brother Battle" ****
-"My Brother's Keeper" ***
-"An Apple for the Archer" ****
-"The Angry Village" ***
The Simpsons
-"Simpson and Delilah" ***
-"Treehouse of Horror" ****
-"Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish" ****
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
-"The Emissary" ***
-"Past Prologue" ***
-"A Man Alone" ***
The Twilight Zone
-"Where is Everybody?" ****
-"One for the Angels" ****
-"Mr. Denton on Doomsday" ****
-"Sixteen Millimeter Shrine" ***
-"Walking Distance" **

A Few Cards Short of a Full House

What Brandon failed to mention in his post is that I caught him, once again, watching Full House at work. This time, it's fully understandable. Who wouldn't need an Uncle Jesse palate cleanser after watching the grotesque Killer Joe?

You summed up our conversation very well.

My disappointment in Killer Joe is that it is not a noir film. Except that it is. It's a sort of hybrid comedy-noir. Contract killer. Double deceptions. Weakness for wily women. Really bad money troubles. A one-time job. Guys who are in over their heads.

Yesterday, I said that what I love about classic noir films is that they make me FEEL the depths of depravity and it doesn't feel good. It is, as you say, a hit in the gut. To immediately contradict myself, I'll say that it does feel good when it's all over. There's a moral clarity often achieved that makes sense of the darkness. It's good to be beat up in this way because it makes you understand how much you've taken for granted and how much every little choice matters.

In Killer Joe, the darkness is simply reveled in. You're right about the characters and the world they populate. This is low-income low-intelligence lowlife land. Instead of getting an honest portrayal of this life, we're given broad caricatures that fit into "redneck" "trailer trash" stereotypes. Again, this is a broad comedy masquerading as a noir film.

Young Chris can't pay his debts. He'll be killed if he can't pay up. So, he concocts a plan to kill his mother for her life insurance plan. This is a classic set-up. Can't pay because you've made a bad decision. Make an even worse decision in a desperate attempt to get out of the six-foot hole you've dug for yourself. Then, there's even the moment when Chris repents of his actions only to find out that it's all too late. A turning of the noir screw.

The most upsetting part of the film is the Sister Dottie subplot. Dottie is sold by her father and brother into a role as sex slave to a deranged killer. This could have been the basis of a very dark and disturbing twist, but instead we see that Dottie really likes the arrangement and is happy to find a lover. This is the darkest humor in the film. And I think that, in the end, as this relationship is the one that survives, it is winked at and given approval. It's a sly wink and a dark approval, but it's there. This girl who exists as nothing other than sexual fantasy fulfilled is happy to fulfill her role. That's the final lesson of Killer Joe.

You wrote, "Instead it rubs your face in its foulness, incessantly and without even a few moments to catch your breath." Right. But, not quite. There's also a bounciness to the whole affair. The humorous touches that you appreciate keep things light enough to mask the foulness, or at least to make it all digestible. The film wants us to laugh at all of this dishonor and indecency instead of confronting it. Throughout and in the end, we're left in a position of feeling superior: haha, that could never happen to me like it happened to those freakin' idiots. Compare this to the best noir, in which we are implicated in the crime, throughout and in the end understanding that it's only a thin line between where we're at now and the deep well of heinous actions that we could fall into at any moment.

There are positive things that I could say about Killer Joe. But, this is supposed to be a black and white rock em sock em debate. I think I just knocked your head off your shoulders.

Maybe Ben will weigh in. I can't remember if any other clubbers have seen it.

Slow Conversations

I haven't been watching much lately. Only 1 feature since my last post.

Dark Horse. I wanted to see what all the Solondz fuss was all about. I saw Welcome to the Dollhouse back in '95 (I probably saw it in '96). I remember seeing it at a house out in Southampton, with some Center Moriches Catholic school girls, one of whom was the daughter of a man who owned a baseball card shop. I don't remember the names of those girls or how I met them. I sure don't remember anything about the movie. I already wish that I could forget Dark Horse.

I watched a handful of silent shorts with the girls today. That was fun, reminding me that I love silents and that I love movies that I can watch with the girls. I already logged all those views on Letterboxd. Since they're shorts, I won't repeat the process here.

I've been enjoying Twilight Zone club lately. I've especially been happy that my friend Mike has joined us. Both of his posts have been superb.

Brandon, your last couple of posts have been great. I really appreciated your 2012 in review. You know I love you and love your writing. Let's keep on doing this.

Your Bergman/Bresson/Dredd comparison post may have outdone my Green Lantern/Winnie the Pooh/Melancholia posts. Well done.

Jeff, I'm not sure if you really broke your arm or not, but that'd certainly explain why you're falling behind on blog posts. I was waiting for you to respond to Brody's Amour takedown, but I guess I won't get it. I still respect Amour, but I also really hate it. Anyhow, maybe we'll get some more Boos out of you during the healing time? :)

Ben, let's get a proper blog post about all of those indie films you've been watching. I hope to catch up on a few of them in the next month or so. Joining Fandor, though, has me excited about silents again at the moment. I'll have to wait until this temporary silents infatuation dies down.

Chris, your 2010 and 2011 lists reminded me that I still need to catch up on a few films: Certified Copy, Another Year, 13 Assassins, A Separation, The Kid with the Bike, The Skin I Live In, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. That's a lot of movies that I still haven't seen yet.

Jason, Alex, Lisa. What can I say? I miss you guys. Put up new posts. Please?

Adrienne, it was good to read that you had seen and enjoyed Strangers on a Train. Now, you really need to watch Throw Momma from the Train. It's one of my favorite comedies of all time.

More Reasons Why I'm Not Reading Infinite Jest

Early Tuesday morning, I watched New Jerusalem, a film which I may write more about. I sent Factory 25 an email asking about a DVD release. I haven't heard back yet. I don't want to buy a "digital download." I could maybe think about doing that if it didn't mean DRM download. New Jerusalem is a quiet character study of two friends slinging tires and talking weariness. I liked it a lot.

Tuesday afternoon, I went upstairs to take a nap with Zeke. I got distracted by boxes that needed sorting and furniture that needed moving. I watched Total Recall and Ruby Sparks while sorting and moving, so half-distractedly. Total Recall is a disappointment only because it's such a generic action movie; built on really strong and interesting ideas that never get any more than minor lip service. The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was a much better Total Recall re-make. Ruby Sparks also starts with a fantastic idea and it even runs wild with it for about 10-20 minutes. Then, it settles down into a tame "learning the lessons of life and love with other real people" lecture. Bleh.

Finally, this morning. The Loneliest Planet.

Now I know that Brandon and Ben have jumped off the jagged edge of crappy indie mountain together. What a piece of crap. Long stretches of landscape with a terrible score serve to highlight why no one would ever want to visit this place. Sorry, Georgie.

Two uninteresting people do uninteresting things with a third uninteresting guide. They walk for a long ways. Then, IT happens. Local farmers show up! Things change. In a quiet way, of course. The intrusion of (the threat of) violence, its reactions, and how it brings all else into focus is an interesting idea. I guess the way that it plays out is all too obvious. Of course, the gal starts gravitating toward the alpha male that acts strong (in a quiet way, of course, because this is a quiet movie). Of course, something else happens (another little burst of quiet violence) that once again illustrates the puppy's inability to protect his bitch while the alpha dog rushes in. This was all done much better in Appaloosa, which had better gunfights in it, too. :)

I'm not interested in this side of world-traveling. What is the purpose of this trip? And why is it such a grim trip? After the opening with the children, where is the joyous eating together? Where is the focus on Georgian cheese and beer? Where are the Georgian bookstores? Who wants to go to Georgia anyways? But if you did (which you wouldn't), then why go out in the middle of nowhere with a complete stranger? This movie is really about people who have flown halfway around the world in a giant magical flying transportation machine in order to hike through random rocky hills? Things can't end well for crazies like that. At least they get to hear a moderately funny Chinese castration joke.

Not ready for a 2012 list.

So, instead, here are updated 2010 and 2011 lists.

Top Ten 2010

1. True Grit
2. Meek's Cutoff
3. Cold Weather
4. The Secret World of Arrietty
5. Shutter Island
6. Small Town Murder Songs
7. The Way Back
8. Black Death
9. Toy Story 3
10. Blue Valentine

Top Ten 2011

1. The Mill and the Cross
2. Take Shelter
3. Damsels in Distress
4. New Jerusalem
5. Le Havre
6. The Guard
7. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
8. Tree of Life
9. Melancholia
10. Winnie the Pooh

-----------------------------------

Keep in mind that I still haven't seen many favored films from these two years, including many favorites of others in CR5FC.

Better Loxd

I tease Jason about Flixster, but Letterboxd really does remind me of Flixster c. 2008, the year that I think Jason and I both joined Flixster.

I got tired of Flixster because I'd have to add older titles to the db if I wanted to log them. It wasn't instant either. I had to wait for some monkey to approve them. At that time at least, it was a user-generated db exactly like Letterboxd is now. Also, I was sick of the years being wrong. Again, exactly like Letterboxd now. I know it's not a big deal to many, but it really irks me. Flixster and Letterboxd kick IMDb's butt on the social side, but they're both lacking on the info-side.

So, Letterboxd is essentially the same thing as Flixster. It just as a nicer interface and looks cooler. It also doesn't have all of the commercial baggage that Flixster has developed. At least not yet.

Also, for a long time, there was no RSS capability via Flixster. I see that that has changed now. I guess it's not a big deal if you're following reviews from within the established ecosystem, but getting updates outside of visiting a site is always a perk for me.

I started Flixster at about the same time I started blogging. If Brandon and I hadn't started this thing, then I probably would have just kept on logging films on Flixster like Jason has. I did log films and star ratings on Flixster for a while, maybe through 2009. Brandon wasn't interested then. I guess he's ready for it now that a certified cool site like Letterboxd exists for the real cinephiles.

Oh yeah. I think that Flixster also originally had a character cap on posts. I'm not sure if they still do. I know this because I had to tighten up my Burn After Reading review to fit the character count limitations.

This wasn't quite a rant.

Not quite sure what this was.

Maybe a hat tip to Jason.

Because Brandon falling so hard for Letterboxd and stars in his eyes and all that must look amusing to faithful Flixster user Jason Poole. Because that's all Letterboxd is, Flixster dressed up in skinny pants and horn-rimmed glasses.

I'm just poking fun as usual.

I'm also enjoying Letterboxd. I like it a lot and I'm glad that Brandon found it in time for the new year. I'm really hoping, like Brandon is, that we can draw in more friends to use Letterboxd who would never go so far geek to start bloggety-blogging along with us.

The real reason that I stopped using Flixster is that it wasn't the social experience it was promised to be. None of my friends (besides Jason) were actively using the site. Letterboxd is already better from the very start for that very simple reason.

I'll never use Flixster again (suck it, Jason. 2013 is the time to migrate to Letterboxd). I'll definitely continue to use IMDb for listing movies seen during the year. As seen in my previous stats post, it really is the easiest way (outside of a personal spreadsheet or database) to see at a glance what you've watched in the previous year, with the ability to sort out by year and even by genre.

It'll be interesting to see if Jason does migrate completely to Letterboxd. I know that a large part of what he liked about Flixster was its integration with Facebook and being able to get comments on his reviews on FB from FB users who would never spend time on a site devoted entirely to film. Jason, are you currently posting to both sites?

I'm especially glad that Letterboxd might be the vehicle through which Film Club gets to see regular Arthur reviews. I sure hope so.

In case anyone needs links:

My Flixster profile: http://www.flixster.com/user/trawlerman
My Letterboxd profile: http://letterboxd.com/trawlerman/

See you on Letterboxd.

Can you believe I'm getting paid to be in Bryan Cranston's Total Recall?

More 2012 Stats

Viewing Stats.

The nice thing about keeping an IMDb list of every feature I watched in 2012 is that it's simple for me to do things like this...

A breakdown of what I watched in 2012, by decade:

173 Features

1910-1919: 2
1920-1929: 7
1930-1939: 36
1940-1949: 18
1950-1959: 17
1960-1969: 6
1970-1979: 4
1980-1989: 7
1990-1999: 3
2000-2009: 20
2010-2012: 53

Letterboxd Post

Amour 2012
★★★½ Watched 06 Jan, 2013

This review reportedly contains spoilers.

The entire film was ruined for me by the sentimental sludge of an ending. We get a murder (assisted suicide, if you must), followed by some bird-brained symbolism, then a long-awaited reunion. Up until the ending, I'm mostly in agreement with Jeffrey's evaluation of the film.

The Wild One 1953
★★★★ Watched 06 Jan, 2013

Brandon gave this to me on DVD way back when. Maybe 2009. I just got around to watching it.
Brando's "What've ya got?" is one of the greatest lines delivered in cinema history.
Mary Murphy, an actress I'd never heard of, is wonderful to behold as the good small town girl that trips up Brando's bad boy. There's a bizarre garden scene in which Murphy strokes Brando's motorcycle in the best Code fashion, expressing a barely contained lust for life that needs an outlet beyond the squares she serves at the local cafe.

More Stats

173 Feature Films Watched in 2012: http://imdb.com/list/YQ4pxenxsEU

Monthly Viewing Average: 14.4 films

Weekly Viewing Average: 3.33 films

Daily Viewing Average: .47 films

The above excludes documentaries, shorts, and television shows.

Total blog posts: 128
Avg: about 2.5/week

Offense Unchained

I guess I don't have a Mandingo in this Django fight.

Like many other 2012 films, I've just been unable to fully connect with the material and how it is presented.

But, I liked Django Unchained. I mostly had a good time with it. I'd see it again, but it's never going to be a favorite that I repeatedly return to or think of often.

It seems that you guys mostly want to talk about three things:

1) The "KKK" scene.

I do side with those who think this was funny. The moment when the man rides away because these other guys have been ribbing him about his wife's work on the masks is just a nice little touch.

What I'm not sure any of you mentioned (though maybe Jeff did in his first post) is how nice the payoff is on the bouncing tooth gag. In what has to be a nod to The Paleface, Scultz's dentist's wagon is a real delight. I smiled each time I saw that tooth bounce in the first parts of the film.

2) The finale.

It wasn't too long ago that I watched Bava's Roy Colt and Winchester Jack. I'll remind everyone that this is my only experience with genuine spaghetti westerns. But generalizing from that specific movie, it seems like spaghetti westerns are absolutely gonzo nuts. After the capture of Django by Stephen and the Candie henchmen, it felt like Tarantino went full on spaghetti.

The end particularly reminded me of Bava's film because of the gleeful use of dynamite. The horse dance and the dream-like fairy tale feeling also felt like a heaping pile of spaghetti. There are crazy moments prior to this finale, but I think that this is the primary place where QT stops being serious, really lets out his inner fanboy, and works some spaghetti-style exploitation magic.

But, spaghetti westerns are the anti-message pictures. Hollywood got all serious with its Westerns in the 70s. Italy got silly. Tarantino's mash-up of these two major 70s Western strands never quite ties together in a satisfying way.

Maybe the point of this final act is to show how movie magic is stronger than historical fact. Maybe. I can't help but think that it would be a stronger film if it ended with Django neutered and then tortured to death. Or maybe a montage of the next five years of his life broken down in a work camp before he dies alone under a fallen rock. Instead, Tarantino gives us an uneven mix of satire and social conscience picture.

In the end, he chooses to go full spaghetti in an attempt to please the audience (primarily himself). In doing so, he undercuts the power of some of the more horrific moments by giving the audience an easy out.

3) The movie causing offense.

I think that Brandon is too callous in turning on his friend here.

The use of the word 'nigger' 1,000+ times (whatever, I didn't count) is enough to cause offense.

To try to get at this from another angle: It'd be like a movie about Willowbrook in which every other sentence included the word 'retard'. I've heard persons medically diagnosed as being mentally retarded describing others as "retards." That doesn't mean I can write a spaghetti western about 'retards' being 'retards' on horses because some 'retards' have a sense of humor about being 'retards' or are inconsistent in their relationships to others, using language that would be hurtful if directed at them. Now, exchange the word 'retard' above with the word 'nigger' and you have Django.

I don't think that's okay.

The Vandal guys argued that we need more slavery movies. Sure. I guess. But, what about more movies about slaveholders and KKK activities? Why not realistic portrayals of these realities? They are complicated historical realities. I'm sure the word 'nigger' was used loud and often.

I've heard black men describing other black men as "niggers." I've seen Chris Rock acts on TV.

This word "nigger" was once a common descriptive term, akin to a medical diagnosis. Saying, "That man's a nigger" was like saying, "That man's black." That doesn't mean it's an okay descriptive word today. But, Tarantino seems to be very comfortable with the word (in a playful context). I'm not so sure that it's continued use is beneficial to anyone. At one point, it meant "black." At another time, it meant "inferior sub-human." What does it mean today? And why does Tarantino make it sound so fun?

I'm sympathetic to Tarantino's use of historical realism within a highly stylized western revenge fantasy. But, I can see how others might dismiss Tarantino's "realism" as an excuse to use one of his favorite words.

Beyond the word 'nigger', there's clearly offense in the depiction of violence. For a moment there, I really thought we were going to get an onscreen practical effects castration. But prior to that, we'd already had a bloodbath, emotional violence, both calculated and casual killings from our heroes, a man killing another man with his bare hands, and a man being ripped apart by dogs. The most giddy glee is present at the end, but it's also there in almost every other moment of violence. Tarantino loves pretend violence. And he wants others to love it, too.

Maybe the offense lies elsewhere. I haven't been reading anything about the film besides what you guys have written and linked to.

Finally, I leave y'all with something special.

An exhibit of the guns of Django Unchained:
http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Django_Unchained

2012 Posting Numbers

Film Clubbers, Ranked by Number of Posts in 2012

151 - Brandon
147 - Jeff
128 - John
63 - Ben
62 - Chris
53 - Jason
32 - Adrienne
8 - Lisa
8 - Alex

December 2012 Recap

December 2012

7 Features
Mind Game (2004) ****
A Single Man (2009) ***
Men in Black 3 (2012) ***
Premium Rush (2012) ***
The Campaign (2012) *
Django Unchained (2012) ***
Rio Rita (1942) ****

Docs
Collision

TV
Adventure Time pilot
The Daily Show
The Colbert Report
Arrow 2eps
Robin Hood 4eps
The Big Bang Theory 1ep
Star Trek:TNG 2eps
Doctor Who "The Snow Men"

Scraps

More pathetic than usual, here's a lame little post so that I can finish out the year with nothing hanging over my head.

Django Unchained was a good experience. Seeing it with an old friend after a few winter lagers was about the best way to see it. I'm with you guys, though, on the problems of the final act. I'm also troubled by Tarantino's gleeful commitment to exacting one's own revenge.

And I ended the year with one of Brandon's favorites, Rio Rita. Smartly written and perfectly executed, this is definitely one of the better Abbott and Costello films that I've seen. I'd rank it just below Meet Frankenstein. It might even surpass Meet Frank if I watch it a few more times.

Goodbye, 2012.

Let's take up the chase again in 2013.

CR5FC Year in Review: 2012

It's been another fantastic year for Film Club.

While it's true that we all slowed down from last year, it's also true that last year we posted a ton. Who knows if we'll ever reach those heights again?

I'll probably post quantity stats after the new year. Right now, I want to focus on the highlights of 2012 as experienced by Film Club.

Specifics:

Arthur stepped up participation in CR5FC-FB. I hold out secret hope that we'll get him blogging in 2013.

Jerzy's biggest contribution to Film Club was starting Book Club, which has re-directed many of the hours that I would have spent watching films. Thanks for almost ruining Film Club for me, Jerzy.

Lisa gets credit for hanging around. Every once in a while, we'd get a shout from the gorge. Hopefully, this continues. I'm still waiting on a Wreck-It Ralph review. :)

Alex is a most welcome new addition. Just when I thought that we'd stalled out on new members, Alex showed up to give us a fresh voice. I've been bad at "conversations" posts this year so I haven't interacted with Alex's posts like I should have. Nevertheless, I've enjoyed each one and hope that we get many more in the new year.

I've said this before, I think, but I'll confess again that it took me a while to fully accept Adrienne in Film Club. Jason had been mentioning her repeatedly before she became an official member, but I didn't pay much attention. All of that non-film talk on her blog clogged up what could have been a great pure film blog! Fortunately for me, I've gotten over this silly hang-up. I can even make a second confession. Sometimes, I like Adrienne's non-film posts better than her film posts. My favorite post of hers from all of last year, though, is the short post in which she puzzles through why her husband loved Three Kings. Here, the personal and the film talk is indistinguishable. It's exactly the sort of personal film writing that I love. In which it is acknowledged that what we're doing in Film Club (by this, I mean both watching movies and writing about them, but primarily the watching part) is so much more than any so-called objective viewing. Three Kings is given more importance than it can possibly bear and a viewing of it becomes a wrestling match with the present understanding of the past instead of a trifling entertainment that is easily dismissed. Film watching becomes an exercise in imagined habitation of someone else's perspective. Besides that post I singled out, Adrienne wins the prize for being a lot nicer than the rest of us dirtbags in Film Club.

I'm pretty sure that it was Ben that instigated the mandatory viewing last year. I'm giving him credit for it so I hope I'm right. It was a great idea while it lasted and is Ben's top contribution to Film Club even if Ink did kill my computer. Ben's worst contribution to the Club? Introducing his girlfriends to CR5FC. One of my new year's resolutions will be to stop spending any time thinking about Lena Dunham. I also want to blame Ben for the hipster debacle, but I think that one was started by Brandon before I made it into something ridiculous.

I probably ought to give Ben credit for luring some of us over to Twitter. The credit goes to Chris, though, for keeping up the funny on Twitter. Not that it's always movie related, but it's almost always been fun. Chris's real top contribution of the year was the unveiling of his previous life as a professional reviewer. I wish I had a book of collected essays by Chris H on the films of Chris Rock. Of course, I could also always count on Chris to keep the focus on Breaking Bad when things got too filmy around the Clubhouse. I only wish that I could keep up with all of the TV that he watches so that we could have more TV Club interaction. The Twilight Zone blog (starting soon!) is going to be fun.

Jason's big contribution to Film Club was the opening of his optometry office. Ever since he diagnosed all of the eye problems in the Club, we've all been wearing glasses all the time. Swapping certain glasses for other glasses. Stomping on glasses. Wearing two pairs of glasses at the same time. Wearing glasses upside down. Wearing tinted glasses. Trading glasses with one another. Glasses, glasses, glasses. I've enjoyed all of Jason's posts, but I'm still waiting for him to wean himself off of Flixster and become more healthy and regular with his dumps.

Finally, Jeff and Brandon. Even without a final count, it's clear that these two are the reigning posting kings of Film Club this year. Jeff deserves praise for completing his 30s-50s project. Of course, Brandon has to one-up him by being ahead by an entire decade, successfully completing his 60s project. Between the two of them, the less prodigious of us have been kept stimulated by their steady flow of content. Well done, gents!

There were lots of great discussions throughout the year. Plenty of films got run through the Club mill. We brought up the old dead horses. We looked for new dead horses. As usual, there were repeated outbreaks of that perennial plague which is arguing about horror films and more generally about film content and where to draw the imaginary line in the imaginary sand.

Film Club successfully completed two major projects collectively over the year. I think that Brandon led the way on both. I am, of course, speaking of the All-time Top Ten and the Top 30 Aughts Lists. Really fantastic output from everyone during the times in which these lists were percolating.

And the stupidest, silliest group project of the year? One which I hope will stay active throughout 2013? You guessed it. BOO!

Boxing on the Feast of St. Stephen

It's been another slow month.

I haven't gotten out to see a movie all month and my home viewing was pretty minimal until this past week.

First, TV Club.

I watched every Colbert and Stewart episode for the first two weeks of December. Always entertaining, I'm still not sure that the time spent watching it is worth it any more than watching "real" news is worth it.

I tried getting into Arrow as a Smallville replacement. It's got the right ridiculous soap operatic attitude, but is lacking a big something. It's got no Wall of Weird. I gave up after two episodes.

Robin Hood continues to entertain. We watched the episode "Christmas Goose" last night, in which Friar Tuck defends a goose in court and Robin tricks a noble into mercy by fake beating a boy to death. Really great, as usual.

And I watched the "Gift" episode of Big Bang Theory that Ben tweet-recommended to me. The first twenty minutes or so, I started getting angry at Ben because the jokes weren't funny, the story wasn't interesting, and the canned laugh track was really irritating me. The last couple of minutes, though, redeemed the whole episode, revealing that all of those little unfunny jokes were elaborate scaffolding in an episode-long joke with a fantastic punchline. I laughed out loud.

Doc Club

I watched two documentaries this month. I fell asleep halfway through Little Dieter Needs to Fly. I need to return to that one.

The other doc was Collision, a documentary about Douglas Wilson and Christopher Hitchens on a debate tour. It gets my highest recommendation. Pending further viewings, Five Stars. My favorite moment is when the two men can't stop giggling as they trade Wodehouse quotes. I'll write more if I watch it again sometime soon.

And finally, narrative features. I've watched a few.

The Campaign is stupid. I laughed exactly two times, when the baby was punched and when the dog was punched. Otherwise, there's nothing worthwhile here. There's no insight on the political process. It's message of "tell the truth" is undermined by its goofiness. Movies like this help to maintain the status quo, as people laugh at it all and throw their hands up in the air. Not once does this film tell the truth.

Premium Rush was such a joy to watch. It reminded me of a cross between the best 80s action comedies and 80s sports triumph movies. Everyone in it is great, but Michael Shannon is over-the-top perfect in his commitment to his role. The movie's irresponsible follow-your-death-wish-talents-dream is as charming as it is unrealistic. But if you're watching Premium Rush for its realism, then you've already lost the race.

Men in Black III is the best time travel movie of the year (even if Looper is cooler and SNG is more emotionally satisfying). It's a lot of fun. The time travel is silly and stupid in a BttF kind of way. Also, Josh Brolin is perfect as a young Tommy Lee Jones.

Finally, A Single Man. I watched this one because both of the Howards ranked it high on their 30 Aughts lists. I respect the film. It is mostly successful as a study in grief and as a snapshot of a specific time and place. But I also think that the film undercuts its own power by the frequent use of flashbacks and short dream sequences. These moments are meant to reinforce the loss and strengthen our union with the primary character's perspective. They did the opposite for me, pulling me out of the narrative and weakening the cohesion of the whole, revealing the primary plot as rather thin. I was also put off a bit by the Ganymedan rescue at the end, when a naked young lad convinces this man that life is worth living. I guess this sort of thing may happen (whatever the sex involved), but it does lessen the impact of the grief that has been developed when all it takes is one flirtatious night to convince that all is right with the world.

I'm sure I'll watch some TCM while on LI. So, all y'all will get at least one more post before the CR5FC Year in Review festivities begin.

Brando's Soft Objections

It's about time that Brandon and I mostly agreed on something. And we are mostly in agreement. I won't argue that Softly is a masterpiece or that everyone should see it or that everyone will love it. I understand that the tone and the content will grate on some people. The socio-political subtext is so barely sub that it irritated many. I get that. But let me quibble with Brandon's quibbles...

"He chooses not to trust his audience's intelligence."

I disagree pretty strongly here. Dominick makes stylistic choices that may be obvious, but I don't think he ever talks down to the audience or leads them through any of the film by the hand. There's a difference between speaking plainly to an audience and speaking down to an audience.

"First, the soundtrack bothered me from time to time."

I'll grant that the soundtrack is too on the nose sometimes. It's closer to Bringing Out the Dead Scorsese than Goodfellas Scorsese. Still, it's a fine line and the music choices worked for me.

"Why (other than being obvious) does he announce Jackie’s arrival to Johnny Cash’s rendition of WHEN THE MAN COMES AROUND?"

I actually thought this one was really clever. Dominick purposefully chooses a portion of the song about judgment. On the nose. But, if you know the song, you know that "The Man" referred to is Jesus and the song is about justice in judgment. Cogan is identified as someone outside and above the current situation, brought in to be a fair arbiter of things. There is also irony in that he is not here to sort the righteous from the unrighteous. Everything's been leveled out and Cogan is there only for himself. For "business." There's also a hint that Cogan himself will be judged.

"Why are we hearing The Velvet Underground’s HEROINE as two characters get high? Why does the film end with Barret Strong’s MONEY (THAT’S WHAT I WANT) right after that killer punch line?"

Again, so much of the film is in this obvious vein. You either go with it or you don't. Each of these songs work perfectly. Your problem with them is that you've heard them before and you've seen them used before. That doesn't mean that they don't work here. I left the film smiling. I also think that the songs may reflect the characters' simple motivations.

"Also, why did he decide to kill Markie in super stylish slow-mo when the rest of the film is clearly using the same type of violence with an intentional/grim sobriety to match the film’s larger/loftier intentions?"

I think that the "stylish" slo-mo is a POV choice like the Heroin one. We're seeing a "beautiful" and "orchestrated" ballet of "soft" violence instead of the messy brutality of the thugs on the street.

We're agreed on the last scene. I think that the writing is great, but it definitely all hangs on the astounding performances of Pitt and Jenkins.

Mind Time

I'm not sure that I fully understood Mind Game. I left it a bit confused about a moment near the end that echoes a moment at the beginning. Regardless, this is the sort of "roller coaster" experience that I can get behind. It's zany in the best sense, exploiting (in a good way) the uniqueness of animation's ability to present the impossible. This film could not exist as a live-action film. Maybe it could, but the director would have to hire a whale.

Surprisingly, my favorite moment in Mind Game is a delightfully obscene moment of a young man squeezing a gun barrel with his butt cheeks. That this moment is astonishingly life-affirming is a testament to the ridiculous greatness which this film often achieves. I could quibble about other moments which I disliked, but I won't. For the most part, I was thoroughly caught up in the game.

I'm glad that Arthur brought this one to our attention.

I also watched the original pilot for Adventure Time, but don't have anything to say about it except that Jake downloading something from the Internet with his mind made Abigail giggle.

Mo Vember, Mo Movies

I guess I have to apologize to everyone for becoming a Kevin James troll on CR5FC-FB for a couple of days. Everyone was being all serious about Lincoln and all I had seen in a week was Here Comes the Boom. I decided to embrace the online identity of a hardcore Kevin James fanatic. Sorry.

So, what about Here Comes the Boom?

It's about what you'd expect. If you liked Paul Blart: Mall Cop, then you're going to like this one. Every Kevin James movie I've seen, I've seen during work hours. It's hard to get too upset about the guy when I'm being paid to watch him. I could rant about all of the problems with Boom, but what's the point? It's a very easy target. I will say briefly that I almost, for a moment, really did fall in love with this picture. There's a moment in which the James character reveals his game plan: he's going to save the school music program by LOSING repeatedly. His plan is to win by losing. My heart soared for a moment at this piece of cruciform logic. Of course, the character ends up winning by winning. He's cooler than everyone else and can win any fight because he can and he gets the girls because he's shown that he cares and all the immigrants get their U.S. citizenship because, damn it, this is Kevin James's America.

Dark Shadows was a fun watch. I'm still not sure what you guys have against Alice. There's just as much CGI in the Shadows and the story is much worse, just campy soap. But, I guess if you're in the mood for campy soap, then this is about the best you could ask for.

Saraband, Bergman's last film, proved to be tiresome for me to watch. I guess I'm tired of Bergman's schtick. I'm a little bit disappointed that this is the best he had to offer at the end. There's a resigned fatalism that Bergman has developed that I completely reject and detest.

Killing Them Softly walks a thin line in nearly overwhelming its crime narrative with ham-handed cultural commentary. A television or radio is often playing a political speech or talking head commentary throughout the film, which is set in 2008. TARP almost becomes a character in the film. "Troubled assets" is the air these men breathe. All of this set-up is rewarded by the end, just barely hanging together for a wonderful payoff.

There are no "good guys" in Softly. Everyone (and everything) is corrupt. The film shifts between the two primary perspectives of Jackie (Pitt) and Frankie (McNairy). Both know that they are alone. Both know that there is going to be no bailout for them. Frankie is the common man caught up in a general economic collapse that he can't escape. When he takes a chance in a criminal act, it's obvious that he's reached further than he can grasp. Jackie, on the other hand, rides the collapse, profiting from the meltdown of morals and money. The final scene might be my favorite moment in any 2012 film I've seen so far.

There are so many great moments. The film is often surprisingly funny (funny in surprising ways) and the script is grand. The abundant use of pop music is immediately reminiscent of Scorsese. The editing also has that musical Scorsese rhythm. Throw in Ray Liotta and it's hard to shrug off the Scorsese vibe. There are other discernible influences and I'm not at all saying that Dominick's film is merely derivative (it's not). Softly can hold its own and deserves a place on the shelf next to Goodfellas and Mean Streets.

I liked Softly a lot. Now, I'm just waiting for Brandon to see it and agree with me. :)

November 2012 Recap

November 2012

14 Features
Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) ****
The Sea Wolf (1941) ****
Deer Woman (2005) **
Cigarette Burns (2005) **
The Sound of My Voice (2011) ***
Out of the Past (1947) ***
Charlotte's Web (2006) ***
The Prestige (2006) ***
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) ***
Catch Me If You Can (2002) ****
Dark Shadows (2012) ***
Here Comes the Boom (2012) ***
Saraband (2003) ***
Killing Them Softly (2012) ****

TV
Colbert Report
Daily Show
Shatner Roast
Parks & Recreation
Robin Hood

Catching Up (If I Can)

I've been enjoying watching movies again.

Here are some mini-capsules:

The Sea Wolf (1941) was even better than I had hoped. There are some interesting parallels to The Master here and I wouldn't be at all surprised if PTA is a fan. My favorite moment is the romantic not-kiss between John Garfield and Ida Lupino. It's one of the greatest non-kisses in cinema history. The entire struggle between Everywildman Garfield and JeffHowardianSuperman Robinson is appropriately epic, sprinkled with the appropriate self-sacrificial efforts of a WriterMan Knox and increasingly passive worrying of Lovely Lupino.

Sound of My Voice (2011) is a waffle, wavering to and fro, cashing in on a vogue for ambiguity. It finds its own voice successfully about halfway through the film and becomes an almost interesting suspense thriller. I may be spoiling it to even say that twists follow twists, but I saw the end coming and it was unsatisfying because it played out as a "thought piece" instead of a satisfying resolution.

Out of the Past (1947) remains the representative perfect Noir film despite my ambivalence toward it. I keep watching it every few years, trying to understand why THIS film is the one that so many point out as The Perfect Noir Film. I can't fully get behind it. Part of it may be the flashback frame. Part of it may be how it shifts focus mid-film from a gritty romance to a sort-of revenge one last job get out of the business con the world film. I don't know. I like the film. I want to love it and I don't.

I've already written about Safety Not Guaranteed and The Prestige.

I watched two movies with the family: Charlotte's Web (2006) and Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). I fell asleep during both. Any excuse to catch a nap. I watched the majority of both, though, and both are pleasant and fun movies.

Catch Me If You Can (2002) is one of Brandon's picks for Best Film of the Decade. It's really high on his list. Brandon's Appaloosa, if you will. Brandon and I used to talk about movies A LOT when we worked together every day. I remember his devotion to this film from back then. I probably saw Catch Me back in 2003 or 2004 on DVD. I liked it, but didn't think that it was a Great Movie. I'll say now that I was wrong. It is easily one of Spielberg's best and I'm okay with putting it up there with the best films of the decade. Its strengths are many, including the jaunty fun of watching a too-smart trickster character surviving on his own as he's lost in the world. The key, though, is that being lost in the world. Frank is running from he knows not what and heading toward he knows not where with he knows not what goal, except maybe to please his Father and win back his Mother. But, dang, he's doing it all in top style. DiCaprio had already proven his acting chops many times by 2002. He's great here. Hanks is also a tremendous presence. The Christmas Eve calls are beautiful. The strategic use of the one PG-13 f-bomb is probably the best PG-13 f-bomb ever. Knock Knock. My favorite comedy moment, though, in a movie filled with good ones, is the "Lutheran" prayer: There were two mice. A funny moment, but also the most revealing moment in the film, that Frank has no grounding except for what he's received from his father. It's become his unceasing lived prayer to keep afloat no matter what. Great pick, Brandon.

Finally, back to Mehsters of Horror. The last two Mehsters films that I've watched were both better than all of the other ones that had come before.

The Deer Woman
Directed by John Landis
Written by Max Landis, John Landis

Cigarette Burns
Directed by John Carpenter
Written by Drew McWeeny, Scott Swan

The Deer Woman is genuinely funny at times. Men are found trampled to death after walking off with a woman. This provides for humorous situations as characters discuss what kind of creature could be causing these deaths. It's still a stupid horror film, but I was surprised by how often it worked as a comedy. Landis delivers. Cigarette Burns, though, is an attempt at a self-referential cinematic pure horror. A film collector seeks out a film that has caused chaos and madness in each audience that has seen the film. Things end about as badly as they can as everyone gets what they want. This is close to what I like in horror. No one is happy and everyone is dead. Carpenter delivers. While I'm not really recommending either of these, they both stand out as better installments in what has been a disappointing series.

Soul Club

“I mean, abortion debates with John don’t seem that productive if one of us believes in souls and the other doesn’t.”

Hmm.. I’m not sure, based on that sentence, which one of us believes in souls and which one doesn’t. Even if I could tell, I’d still have no idea what that sentence above means.
What are you even talking about, Jeffrey?
That you don't believe in souls and that's why it's okay to kill babies? Because you don't have a soul or because the baby doesn't have a soul? I mostly want to know if it's okay to kill Chris because he doesn't have a soul? Is that what you're getting at? Or is it that I don't believe in souls and that's why I'd protect the life of the innocent soulless because I have sympathy with anything else that doesn't have a soul? Like rocks? That I don't have a soul and that's why I'd dare question anyone's "reproductive rights?" Or are you merely trying to say that we can't argue about anything unless we first settle this soul question? I tend to agree. Because if you're just a pile of meat and I'm just a pile of meat, then all we're doing is using our randomly produced chemically charged meat minds to flap our meat mouths at one another and why does it really matter anyhow? I've got other meat parts that I could be sticking in meat places. It's tough being sentient meat. Sometimes, I almost think I'm more than meat. Then, I think that meat doesn't think. I think.

That sentence of yours makes no sense to me.
Maybe I'm being deliberately thick, but I don't think so.

Also, the sentence was obviously partially there to bait me. I'm biting the bait and asking you, What are you talking about? And why did you even go there?

Also, for the record, I'd tear your freakin' arm off.

Also, for the record, I've always assumed that conversation is a good thing, on any subject. My objection to politics on the blogs has always been that our focus here is on moving images and only ever tangentially on anything else. I don't like responding to this crap here. I just can't resist responding to something that has my name attached to it. At least Brandon had the decency to rant while pretending that he wasn't ranting at anyone in Film Club.

I wanted pretzels, I got The Prestige.

We need a word for this elvish craft, but all the words that have been applied to it have been blurred and confused with other things. Magic is ready to hand, and I have used it above, but I should not have done so: Magic should be reserved for the operations of the Magician. Art is the human process that produces by the way (it is not its only or ultimate object) Secondary Belief. Art of the same sort, if more skilled and effortless, the elves can also use, or so the reports seem to show; but the more potent and specially elvish craft I will, for lack of a less debatable word, call Enchantment. Enchantment produces a Secondary World into which both designer and spectator can enter, to the satisfaction of their senses while they are inside; but in its purity it is artistic in desire and purpose. Magic produces, or pretends to produce, an alteration in the Primary World. It does not matter by whom it is said to be practised, fay or mortal, it remains distinct from the other two; it is not an art but a technique; its desire is power in this world, domination of things and wills.
 -J.R.R. Tolkien

The Prestige is Nolan's best/worst film. In it, Nolan is absolutely clear about his aims as a filmmaker and about his techniques for achieving these aims.

Nolan sees his art as the art of lying. Misdirection, reversals, gimmicks, whatever it takes. According to Nolan, the audience enjoys being lied to; that's why they come to the movies. They want to be dominated by a greater will. That's why he makes movies.

Nolan never successfully produces a Secondary World for the audience to enter. That would involve worldbuilding rooted in truth and flourishing in truth. Nolan doesn't believe that his audience wants truth (and I suppose they don't). Nolan's audience wants to be fooled, then let in on the trick so that they can feel oh so smart.

What about The Prestige? It's all technique. It's one big elaborate magic trick. Mechanical and lifeless. Do the fans of this movie really care about any of the deaths that occur? I didn't. There is no emotional truth in this film. There are shifting degrees of allegiance that the audience is asked to give to each magician character, but we're never dared to love either one, any more than these characters love anything else besides the great reveal. The audience is slowly prepared, throughout the film, to be properly stunned by each twist and turn, settling in to that happy "aha!" moment. It's as deterministic and boring as any roller coaster ride, which we've long ago established that I hate.

Not only is there no emotional truth, there is no further demand of any kind of truth. In a terrific sleight of hand trick, Nolan unfolds the story in a specific time and place, distracting us with set design and costumes. The appearance of a place and time does not necessarily make for a place and time. Instead of a rich background that seems alive of its own, we're given all of these tidbits as one more mechanistic piece in service to the trick, the lie. Like the magician who leaves out his makeup to disguise the fact that he's not using makeup, except for when he is.

Nolan lies to his audience with a broad wink. This is all good fun.

Well, it's all immensely clever, I concede.

As usual, though, Nolan shouts his cleverness as the chiefest of virtues. Doing so, he avoids wrestling with anything more substantial. He's content to exert his dominance over his audience, leading them by the nose. And his audience is pleased to be so led.

It should be obvious why I've included these Tolkien quotes. Tolkien is addressing Fairy stories specifically, but his descriptions of "sub-creation" and Secondary Worlds" is applicable to any fiction and not just Fairy Stories. The day before watching The Prestige, I had listened to a lecture on Tolkien's essay "On Fairy-Stories" (which essay I've read many times). Yes, I'm harder on The Prestige than I probably would have been if I hadn't had these words fresh in my mind.

To the elvish craft, Enchantment, Fantasy aspires, and when it is successful of all forms of human art most nearly approaches. At the heart of many man-made stories of the elves lies, open or concealed, pure or alloyed, the desire for a living, realized sub-creative art, which (however much it may outwardly resemble it) is inwardly wholly different from the greed for self-centred power which is the mark of the mere Magician. Of this desire the elves, in their better (but still perilous) part, are largely made; and it is from them that we may learn what is the central desire and aspiration of human Fantasy—even if the elves are, all the more in so far as they are, only a product of Fantasy itself. That creative desire is only cheated by counterfeits, whether the innocent but clumsy devices of the human dramatist, or the malevolent frauds of the magicians. In this world it is for men unsatisfiable, and so imperishable. Uncorrupted, it does not seek delusion nor bewitchment and domination; it seeks shared enrichment, partners in making and delight, not slaves.
-J.R.R. Tolkien

Top 30 Thirties

1. The Adventures of Robin Hood
2. The Lady Vanishes
3. Modern Times
4. Frankenstein
5. City Lights
6. M.
7. It Happened One Night
8. Grand Illusion
9. Destry Rides Again
10. A Farewell to Arms
11. Scarface
12. King Kong
13. The Thin Man
14. Stagecoach
15. Only Angels Have Wings
16. Port of Shadows
17. Trade Winds
18. The Texas Rangers
19. My Man Godfrey
20. Way Out West
21. Make Way For Tomorrow
22. The Rules of the Game
23. You Only Live Once
24. Duck Soup
25. Ninotchka
26. Frontier Marshall
27. China Seas
28. G Men
29. Fury
30. Rhythm on the Range

Top 30 Forties

1. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
2. The Shop Around the Corner
3. Christmas in July
4. I Love You Again
5. You Were Never Lovelier
6. The Maltese Falcon
7. Force of Evil
8. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
9. Four Faces West
10. Colorado Territory
11. Passport to Pimlico
12. Rope
13. My Favorite Wife
14. Rome, Open City
15. The Paleface
16. Foreign Correspondent
17. The Great Dictator
18. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
19. Suspicion
20. Citizen Kane
21. Hail the Conquering Hero
22. Sullivan's Travels
23. The Set-Up
24. Meet Me in St. Louis
25. Hangmen Also Die
26. The Big Sleep
27. Red River
28. Bicycle Thieves
29. The Wolf Man
30. Whiskey Galore!

Top 30 Fifties

1. In a Lonely Place
2. The Flowers of St. Francis
3. Roman Holiday
4. On the Waterfront
5. The Ladykillers
6. The Seventh Seal
7. The Narrow Margin
8. Terror in a Texas Town
9. 3:10 to Yuma
10. Diary of a Country Priest
11. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
12. Throne of Blood
13. A Face in the Crowd
14. Decision at Sundown
15. Rawhide
16. Touch of Evil
17. The Hidden Fortress
18. Seven Samurai
19. The Searchers
20. The 400 Blows
21. A Man Escaped
22. The Tall T
23. I Confess
24. Rashomon
25. The Asphalt Jungle
26. Strangers on a Train
27. Gun Crazy
28. Tribute to a Bad Man
29. The Thing From Another World
30. The Court Jester

Top 30 Sixties

1. Samurai Rebellion
2. Andrei Rublev
3. Blast of Silence
4. The Hustler
5. America, America
6. Faces
7. The Carabineers
8. The Naked Prey
9. Cleo from 5 to 7
10. Once Upon a Time in the West
11. Winter's Light
12. A Man for All Seasons
13. Au Hasard Balthazar
14. 2001: A Space Odyssey
15. Shoot the Piano Player
16. 101 Dalmations
17. Through a Glass Darkly
18. Ivan's Childhood
19. La Collectioneuse
20. Band of Outsiders
21. Woman in the Dunes
22. Psycho
23. The Trial of Joan of Arc
24. The Killers
25. My Night at Maud's
26. Pierrot le Fou
27. Fahrenheit 451
28. Umbrellas of Cherbourg
29. The Steamroller and the Violin
30. Lonely Are the Brave