The Filmcake

August 9th – August 15th

The Wire (Season 2) — I love this show. After following the Barksdale crew, the Baltimore detail moves on to the docks. Such a wonderfully written show with fabulous characters. My favorite character this season would have to be Ziggy. I could never quite figure him out. He made me angry, he made me laugh, he made me sad. Also, I now know what a stevedore is.

Romance — Another one from Catherine Breillat. While she makes great films, I’m getting a little tired of the formula. Still, this one is shocking not only for its explicit and unsimulated sex (featuring porn star Rocco Siffredi), but for the fact that the film concerns itself with the sexual life of a woman. If these Breillat films have taught me anything, it’s how one-sided film and social norms (and pop culture) are in their portrayal of the sexual life. The bias assumes an active role for the male and a passive one for the female, even if only implicitly. Breillat seems to turn that idea on its head.

Jackie Brown — My least favorite Tarantino film. It’s a solid film, no doubt. Pam Grier and Robert Forster really anchor the film, in that career resurrection Tarantino way. Whereas I think I can say I love Tarantino’s other movies, I can only say that I quite like this one.

The White Ribbon — Michael Haneke’s beautifully photographed take on what went wrong in pre-war Germany. One could say the movie is simply about how Nazis became Nazis. But it is more than that for sure. Simply its about the dangers of authoritarianism of any sort, political, religious, or familial. The film shows how authoritarianism destroys people, how it reproduces itself, and how it manages to survive. In this movie, the perpetrators of evil are never clearly identified. And the one person who has the gall to investigate and make an identification (the teacher, possibly Jewish) is essentially forced out of the village. Better to keep quiet–and let the authoritarian power structures roll over you–than to stand up and fight against it. Same as it ever was.

The Big Lebowski — The Dude. Because after watching Haneke’s film, one must go for lighter fare or else risk falling into a dark depression. And for some reason, this movie was much more hilarious that I had remembered.

July 25th – August 1st

The Runaways – I like Kristen Stewart. She seems to be improving. And if that brooding, biting her lip thing is the only thing she can do, then I truly like that thing she does. And whereas Dakota Fanning has been wonderful since she started this whole acting thing (at age 7 with 2001′s I Am Sam), it has taken me a while to come around to seeing her as a genuine actor rather than some precocious brat. And, of course, Michael Shannon impresses as always. But performances aside, the movie was just too musical biopic meets after-school special cliche. Even with some tame drug use and too obvious bisexual curiosity, the story seemed sanitized. I wanted gritty. I wanted something crafted with handmade stencils, black spray paint, ripped t-shirts, and safety pins (or a chainsaw, at the very least). This movie is too pretty and neat. It was like some faux-vintage The Runaways t-shirt for sale at Hot Topic passed off for authentic. Getting at the right idea while kind of completely missing the point.

The Wire (Season 1) — Oh. My. God. This show is wonderful. I gave up on it too soon when it first aired. It just wasn’t doing it for me. But all the critical praise and love for it made me reconsider it. And boy am I impressed. I can bet that I dismissed it too early the first time through for being another police procedural. Whereas I was into the character drama of something like Six Feet Under, this didn’t do it for me. But now…after making it thru the first season…I am in love. It’s so beautifully dense and feels terribly authentic. And the performances–from the leads to the street soldiers–are amazing. I can’t wait to start up on season 2.

January 4th – January 10th

Kill Bill Vols. 1 & 2 – While the second volume drags a little bit at times, this Tarantino epic is SO, SO, SO much fun. Sure, much like Inglourious Basterds it is self-indulgent. But it’s self-indulgence with a great deal of taste, an eye for the bad-ass, and a reverence for his women. Whenever I have some time, I’d like to delve into some of the films that inspired this one and Basterds.

Arrested Development (TV) First Season — I’m only about six years late, but I have finally seen the first season of the critically lauded Arrested Development. My problem with watching stuff (TV or movies) is that I MUST watch it in its entirety. Unless I watch something from the beginning all the way to the end, it hasn’t been watched. So, I can’t start watching a TV series unless I start with the first episode and commit to it for the long haul. A friend recently loaned us the entire series on DVD, so we leaped in and watched the entire first season this past week.

The show is absolutely hilarious. I doubt that any previous TV series has made me laugh out loud quite as much as this one. The cast is wonderful. Will Arnett certainly now has one more devoted fan. And, Portia de Rossi has one more male admirer. And, yes, I’m aware that she’s a lesbian. Why is it that all the good ones are gay?

I’d say the first quarter of the season started out a bit frantic. There was so much going on–so many asides and little gags–that it was starting to get a little exhausting (a little too Family Guy at times). But, the last three-quarters of the season were solidly paced.

Up in the Air – I’m still a little undecided on this one. It’s a solid, polished movie from Jason Reitman that maintains some ambiguity by refraining from answering all the questions it poses and by refusing to tie up all its loose ends. I love that about a movie. The possibility of multiple interpretations is usually a certain asset. Nevertheless, there was something about this movie that seemed incomplete. I’m not sure if it was me wanting more Ryan Bingham, or less Ryan Bingham but more Alex and/or Natalie. Clooney, Vera Farmiga, and Anna Kendrick were all great…as was the screenplay. I haven’t put my hand on it, but I left this movie wanting just a little more. I’ll have to come back to it on DVD to see how well it holds up on a second viewing.

Jack Frost – The 1996 movie featuring a killer snowman, NOT the Michael Keaton family film from two years later. This one isn’t quite a cult classic, although it may be a Christmas cult classic (for us at least). It’s bizarrely funny, knowingly campy, and a good amount of fun. The special effects aren’t so much primitive as they are nearly non-existent (e.g. puddles of water). This movie is pretty bad, but I don’t think I’d be going out on a limb by saying that I’d guess it’s a lot more watchable than the Michael Keaton film.

July 21st – July 27th

“Mad Men – Season 1″ (AMC) – As the Season 2 premiere approached, the critical esteem coalesced and the Emmy nominations were announced, I felt lost not having seen a single episode of this series. And the “very long wait” warning on Netflix wasn’t very promising. Luckily, the entire first season was available OnDemand. So we watched the 13 episodes of the first season over the course of the week.

I’m hooked. It continues the tradition of the HBO dramas, like “The Sopranos”. It’s full of the deep themes and complicated characters. But the thing that has impressed me most are the details. There are little details in the set dressing, in the costumes, the hair, that really pull you into the period. I love it.

The Werewolf of Washington – Dean Stockwell as a Werewolf in Watergate era Washington. This movie is perhaps only watchable because of its sure awfulness. There are some things that certain cheaply made horror movies have that lift them into the realm of camp or even cult status. This movie lacked most of those things. The film made a few failed attempts at parodying the then timely Nixon presidency and Watergate scandal. And there wasn’t much else–acting, special effects, cinematography–to redeem those failures. Most strikingly, this film was the polar opposite of the next film I would watch.

Bad Taste – Where Werewolf of Washington was a jumbled mess of awfulness, Bad Taste was clearly the work of a talented filmmaker (Peter Jackson’s first film). While it was obviously cheaply made in terms of cost, this movie had the eye of someone who could make something out of nothing. It was so much better than Werewolf. The special effects were infinitely better. The cinematography was infinitely better. The direction was infinitely better. What a surprise.

For me, watching Bad Taste right after Werewolf of Washington was a symbol of a lot of the amateur art you see whether it be writing, music, or film. You don’t need Final Draft to write a screenplay. You don’t need a Les Paul and your own PA system to make music. And you don’t need a big budget to make a movie. You really just need passion and talent. If you don’t have that to begin with, you’re really just wasting your time & money. I saw plenty of passion and talent in Bad Taste…not a whole lot of it in Werewolf of Washington.

Batman Begins – Had to watch this one again in preparation for The Dark Knight. Man, I must’ve been drunk or asleep the first time I watched this. There was so much of it that I didn’t remember. What I was really watching for most of all was the Joker card reveal at the end.

Control – Rock photographer and music video director Anton Corbijn’s bio-pic of Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis. This is no Ray or Walk The Line. This one was very nicely directed without the tired bio-pic cliches, excellently photographed in black & white, and stellarly acted by Sam Riley in the lead role.

The legendary Sex Pistols gig of June 4, 1976 was supposedly only attended by about 30-40 people. But that handful of people would shape the Manchester music scene. Morrissey was there. Members of the Buzzcocks and The Fall were there. And of course, members of Joy Division attended the show separately and are said to have become a band as a result. That’s enough right there for a good movie. Watching this one with the very enjoyable 24 Hour Party People would make for a great double-feature.

This film traces Curtis’ life from a kid listening to records in his room through a miscalculated marriage and to his final struggle with epilepsy. To see Riley transform this character…to see Riley/Curtis’ stage dancing evolve into a commentary on his own ailment…and to see where fear and uncertainty can finally lead someone. Man. The performance was certainly convincingly heartbreaking if it wasn’t entirely sympathetic.

The Dark Knight – I have to admit that this one lived up to the hype that I had created for myself. I’m not a huge superhero fan. I am a fan of good movies though. And this one was pretty damn good. The greatest compliment I can give it is that as I’ve talked about it and thought about it, I realize that I must see it again. I’ve created so many questions that can only be answered through a second screening. Heath Ledger’s performance is certainly Oscar worthy. And his makeup was perfect. That seems weird for me to say. But the simple detail of seeing the pores on his nose through the makeup added this weird level of realism that made him all the more creepy. This one will have to be one that I come back to later. And thanks to just finishing Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, I’m seeing her philosophy in lots of other stuff…including Batman (and, more overtly, in “Mad Men”). More on that later…