The Filmcake

November 8th – November 14th

Kick-Ass — Uneven, but certainly better than the book. The movie is not nearly as homophobic and racist as the book. Aaron Johnson is serviceable as the title character, but it is really Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl and Nicolas Cage as Big Daddy who shine. Of course I knew of the violence and foul language that Hit Girl spews, but I was most worried going into the film about how she would be sexualized. Moretz was 11 at the time. And her sexualization seemed more a problem than bad words or stylized violence. I was happy with the results in that she still managed to come across as a little girl and not some pint-sized version of an adult woman. Her costumes are fairly tame and appropriate (i.e. not too revealing or suggestive). So in the end she comes off as a little girl who happens to be a little bit of a bad ass.

Jimi Hendrix — A documentary from 1973. I was in the mood for some good rock guitar…and this is what I found browsing through Netflix Instant Viewing on the Roku. Not particularly ground-breaking or anything–some performance excerpts and interviews. But I hadn’t seen it before, so some of the contemporary interviews were quite interesting. Twenty-seven years old. Too, too early.

The Lair of the White Worm — More British horror. This one based on a Bram Stoker novel, directed by Ken Russell and starring Hugh Grant and Peter Capaldi early in their careers. Roger Ebert says it best in his review: “It has a lair, it has a worm, the worm is white and there is a sufficient number of screaming victims to be dragged down into the lair by the worm.” The movie is even included in his anthology I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie. It’s not so much that it’s bad for what it is, but Ebert seems somewhat offended that Ken Russell had made it. With Russell, Ebert expected even more excess. I didn’t care much for it. The Na’vi vampire was interesting and the special effects were mostly laughable. At any rate, the theme song was quite good (probably the best thing about the movie).

The man has directed three great feature films–Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Where The Wild Things Are. That work alone makes him a directorial powerhouse. But there is perhaps no other director with such a long list of amazing music videos under his belt. Spike Jonze, who got started making skateboarding videos, is the Dean of the Music Video.

Sabotage, Praise You, and now Drunk Girls. It’s not even fair.

And the list goes on. Cannonball. If I Only Had a Brain. Buddy Holly. California. Da Funk. Sky’s The Limit. Weapon of Choice. It’s ridiculous, really. And on top of that, one of his very first music videos was for Norman’s own Chainsaw Kittens for their High in High School video.

Jonze’s music videos demonstrate a visual wizardry that’s unparalleled and often copied.  These wonderful visuals that show up in his videos also manage to maintain a rough sheen to them. They’re just like big skateboarding videos. You sit there in awe of the amazing tricks being laid down and it doesn’t matter that they’re being captured with a lowly video camera. You are seeing magic. And someone has captured it for you. That is Spike Jonze. It’s what he does with music videos and what he has brought to his feature films. 

Oh, and it just so happens that Spike Jonze is going to be in Oklahoma City. TONIGHT. At the deadCENTER Kick-Off. He’ll be here with the documentary he co-produced about Mat Hoffman, who will also be in attendance. The Birth of Big Air is an outdoor, free-for-everyone public screening on Broadway between 4th & 5th at around 9:30 p.m.  Where else would you want to be?

It was fitting that a trailer for Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles ran before the US premiere of The White Stripes tour documentary Under Great White Northern Lights last night at Noble Theatre in the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. The Third Man and C.F. Kane are both referenced in The White Stripes universe. Jack White’s label Third Man Records presents the film and we are also treated in the documentary with a segment from the band’s “The Union Forever” (which lyrically is comprised entirely of dialogue from Citizen Kane).

Jack says in the film that his favorite thing anyone has written about The White Stripes is that they are “simultaneously the most fake band…and the most real band in the world.” To me, that very Dylan-esque dichotomy really does sum up what the band is all about. They are the rawest, bluesiest form of cabaret. They are ultimate intensity in red, white, and black.

Thankfully, director Emmett Malloy crafts his tour documentary of the band with that aesthetic in mind. It is no Behind the Music attempt at biography or explanation. Jack and Meg White aren’t concerned with rehashing the past. It doesn’t matter whether or not they are brother and sister, or husband and wife. What matters is putting on a great show.

The film, shot mostly in black and white (and red) on 16mm, follows the band as they undertake their first Canadian tour. As they traverse all the provinces of Canada putting on shows, Jack & Meg surprise the locals with unique daytime shows. There’s a One Note Show. There’s a sing-a-long on a city bus. There’s a show in a bowling alley. There are short shows in town squares and in community centers. The quirky daytime locations provide the film and the tour with a bit of levity, while the footage from the regular shows leave this White Stripes fan wanting even more. Malloy captures the performances nicely–the grainy 16mm fitting perfectly with the band’s aesthetic–even if the sound in the theatre wasn’t perfectly balanced.

Meg & Jack -- http://whitestripes.bside.com/press-materials/

Amidst the levity of the daytime shows and the intensity of the nighttime performances, the documentary also presents an emotional side. Meg, who is the quieter and shyer of the duo (and given subtitles in the documentary), is seated on a piano bench as Jack plays and sings “White Moon.” As tears begin to slide down her cheeks, it is evident that the pressures of touring and fame may finally be too much to bear. A couple of months later, the band would cancel the remainder of the tour citing Meg’s acute anxiety. Whether or not The White Stripes tour again remains a mystery.

I love lists. I know as soon as they’re written they’ve lost any utility they may have fleetingly possessed. And I know they’re always inevitably incomplete. But they’re still kinda fun to come up with. So here’s my Top 10 Movies of 2008 (so far). I’ve still got a bunch more to watch. I plan on coming up with a more finalized list (along with Oscar predictions) sometime before the Oscar ceremony. That’ll give me time to see a few more contenders.

Dwight’s Top 10 Movies of 2008
1. A Christmas Tale
2. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
3. Wall-E
4. Man on Wire
5. Paranoid Park
6. The Dark Knight
7. Son of Rambow
8. Chop Shop
9. Milk
10. Trouble the Water

Still haven’t seen: Wendy and Lucy, Ballast, Happy Go-Lucky, Let the Right One In, Synechdoche, NY, My Winnipeg, Waltz With Bashir, Flight of the Red Balloon, Doubt, Revolutionary Road, The Reader, Slumdog Millionaire.

Even though this blog is primarily focused on movies, I can’t resist including my music lists. While I did a piss-poor job at listening to music in ’08 (and came to it late at that), I did manage to come up with lists for my best albums and songs of the year.

Dwight’s Top 10 Albums of 2008
1. She & Him – Volume One
2. Fleet Foxes – s/t
3. Frightened Rabbit — The Midnight Organ Fight
4. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
5. Jolie Holland – The Living and the Dead
6. TV on the Radio – Dear Science
7. Conor Oberst — s/t
8. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
9. Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs
10. (3-way tie) Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers — The Confiscation EP, The Decemberists — Always the Bridesmaid Singles, The Mountain Goats — Satanic Messiah EP

Dwight’s Top 10 Songs of 2008
1. “Mexico City/Corrido Por Buddy/Palmyra” – Jolie Holland (OK, it’s 3 songs. But it’s what I consider to be the best 13 minutes of music in ’08.)
2. “Valerie Plame” — The Decemberists
3. “Sentimental Heart” – She & Him
4. “I Will Possess Your Heart” – Death Cab for Cutie
5. “Skinny Love” — Bon Iver
6. “See Fernando” — Jenny Lewis
7. “We Call Upon The Author” — Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
8. “White Winter Hymnal” – Fleet Foxes
9. “Dancing Choose” – TV on the Radio
10. “Head Rolls Off” — Frightened Rabbit