The Filmcake

I finally made it through American Movie Critics–the anthology edited by Phillip Lopate. It seemed to be a great compilation and historical review of American film criticism. I was struck by the thoughtfulness of criticism even back when film was just emerging. For some reason, that was a revelation to me. Sometimes criticism (and film, for that matter) seems so ephemeral, so “of the day”. I sort of assumed that there was a time that movies were just movies. Sheer entertainment, nothing more. But the tradition goes back to the beginning. It heartens me to know that people have always been thinking critically about movies.

The other pleasant surprise was the discussion of those movies which aren’t exactly considered high art. From Manny Farber’s “White Elephant Art vs. Termite Art” to Pauline Kael’s “Trash, Art, and the Movies” to J. Hoberman’s “Bad Movies,” they all instilled in me a wider appreciation of what movies are and can be. One of my faults is putting too much emphasis on the quest for high art in film while neglecting what is great about not-so-great movies.

On a related note, in a recent interview in the AV club, Bruce Campbell described what makes a movie a cult classic:

…one that has been fully embraced by an alternative audience, not the popular audience. There are two different audiences. One is a very specific sci-fi lover or a horror lover. The difference between my fans and Tom Cruise’s fans is that no one is tattooing Risky Business on their back. Yet I’ve seen the poster for Army Of Darkness on a guy’s back—his whole back. It was beautiful.

I still think tattooing the Army of Darkness poster onto your back is really creepy and kinda sad, but I certainly take his point. I once briefly considered getting a tattoo of Alfred Hitchcock’s silhouette.

Anyways…I’ll certainly be returning to the Lopate book in the future, especially to those three pieces mentioned above. The book also inspires me to begin writing better about movies. While I’ve been writing my short Week In Review blurbs for the movies I see, the quality of analysis and writing is well short of my desired intentions. To this point, it has been mostly thoughtless. Hopefully in the near future I can begin to take my writing more seriously and start writing thoughtful stuff in the form of proper reviews, academic articles, or critical essays.

I just need to carve out some time and energy to do it. And if it’s something I really want to do, it shouldn’t be so hard to find the extra time and energy for it.

February 9th – February 15th

I Am Legend - I needed something for a late Monday morning that found me ill on the living room couch. Unfortunately, the OnDemand HBO channel in my area is not available in HD. More than the higher definition, I like the HD TV programming because the movies are in the correct (or at least more correct) aspect ratios.

The Order of Myths - A very nice documentary about the racially segregated Mardi Gras celebrations in Mobile, Alabama. I want it to be the last vestige of pre-Obama America even when I know that it cannot be. What lingers in my mind are those shots of the white celebrations and festivities and how all the servers and attendants seemed to be black.

Young @ Heart - The Young at Heart chorus as well as this documentary both say something about vitality in old age (if somewhat ironically). You can’t beat a bunch of septuagenarians singing The Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated.” There is something so perfect about it. The movie has a touching immediacy with its anticipation and resolution of impending death among the group. At once, you feel both the joy of life and the crush of inevitable death. Like everyone else, I really liked Fred Knittle’s take on Coldplay’s “Fix You.” But still, something left me cold. Maybe my discomfort of old people extends to film. Maybe it felt a little exploitative. Or maybe it’s just my innate assumption that all documentaries narrated with a British accent are nature documentaries. And to my befuddlement, there were no cute penguins to ooh and aah over.

February 2nd – February 8th

Children of Men - A slow week for film. In fact, it took me three days (amidst Sarah’s birthday festivities) to watch this one again. I was almost not even going to consider it is having been watched. I’m very anal about my movie viewing habits. I rarely enjoy venturing out to the theatre. And when I do watch a movie at home, there can be no talking and it has to be viewed in a single sitting from beginning to end (except in special circumstances). But because I’ve seen this one several times, I guess I gave this one a pass. And I still love it so much. There is some great cinematography in it. And the dystopian world Clive Owen inhabits is grungily beautiful.

While there are still a bunch of movies from 2008 that I still need to see (Wendy & Lucy and Slumdog Millionaire are but two),  I’m going ahead with my “final” Best of 2008 list. Without further ado:

1. Rachel Getting Married
2. Wall-E
3. Ballast
4. A Christmas Tale
5. Let The Right One In
6. Man on Wire
7. Paranoid Park/Milk (a Gus van Sant tie)
8. Flight of the Red Balloon
9. The Dark Knight
10. Happy Go-Lucky

Honorable Mention: 4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days, Son of Rambow, Chop Shop, The Fall, Encounters at the End of the World

January 26th – February 1st

Operation Filmmaker, Helvetica – A pair of documentaries caught on the PBS series Independent Lens. The first tells the story of an Iraqi film student who gets the opportunity to work on a Hollywood film. The confluence of liberal guilt and the inability to to appreciate and take advantage of the good things that come one’s way make for a maddening but ultimately satisfying documentary. I wanted to strangle equally producer Peter Saraf and the Iraqi film student Muthana. I hope Liev Schreiber delivered a huge apology to director Nina Davenport. The second documentary somehow made 80 minutes of talk about a typeface quite interesting. I am now both appalled and enamored by Helvetica.

Sunshine – Another time through with this one. Something to fight the cabin fever of being stuck at home during the ice/sleet storm.

The Fall – What a delightful surprise. It was sort of a longer, more complex, multi-colored version of The Red Balloon. With a little bit of The Princess Bride thrown in. And however director Tarsem coaxed out the performance from Catinca Untaru as Alexandria, he and she both deserve great praise.

Sundance 2009 Short Films on iTunes – Ten short films from the festival that were available for free download: Acting for the Camera, Countertransference, Field Notes From Dimension X: Oasis, From Burger it Came, Hug, I Live in the Woods, Instead of Abracadabra, James, Magnetic Movie, This Way Up. My favorites were Countertransference, I Live in the Woods (Honorable Mention in Short Filmmaking – Sundance Film Festival), Instead of Abracadabra, and This Way Up (Oscar nominee).

The Trials of Ted Haggard – I have to admit that after seeing this I kind of feel sorry for Mr. Haggard. He actually seems sort of human. Unlike his successors. I do wish there was a little more to the documentary though. It almost seems that Alexandra Pelosi relies too much on her ability to develop repertoire with her subjects instead of delving deeper into the story at hand. How has Haggard really dealt with his sexuality? And what does he really feel about those who were once his friends and supporters?

Let The Right One In – I loved this one. Vampires have been done every which way on film. But this film seemed to bring something fresh, even if it isn’t really a vampire movie. The cold and dreary Swedish landscape, with the occassional touch of color, was beautifully shot. Warm red blood on cold white snow. That’s what this movie was all about. Complementary. Life complementing death. Warmth complementing coldness. Laughter complementing terror. Love complementing misery. This movie, more so than perhaps any other from 2008, is one that I can’t wait for its DVD release so I can watch it again and again.