The Filmcake

November 29th – December 4th

Adventures in Babysitting — The first in our 80s Movies We Loved in Our Childhoods Marathon. This one starred Elizabeth Shue as the titular babysitter who leads her charges in a journey to the city. In somewhat typically 80s fashion, the babysitter and the kids under her watch are rich white kids from the suburbs (here, Oak Park). Their adventures lead them into the dark and seedy city (Chicago) where all non-white people are stereotypes (i.e. carousing at a blues club, car thieves, gang members). Despite that, the movie still sort of holds up. It’s a decent family-oriented adventure movie (or the one thing that director Chris Columbus does well). The film is also notable for featuring Bradley Whitford and Vincent D’Onofrio, as well as a cameo by blues guitarist Albert Collins.

Labyrinth — The second in our marathon, this one could also be somewhat classified as its own adventure in babysitting. Here the babysitter is played by a Jennifer Connelly who must brave her way through the labyrinth in order to recover her infant sibling. But, alas, David Bowie and a multitude of Jim Henson creatures have other ideas. Directed by Henson, this film is at its strongest when the Hensonian creatures are the forefront. The use of puppets and of costumes was quite amazing and created quite the dream world. It’s that nostalgia for those creature effects that make something like Spike Jonze’s recent Where The Wild Things Are so special today. Although Connelly’s Sarah seems a bit developmentally stunted, the movie is still a lot of fun.

November 15th – November 21st

Eden Lake — The last in our British horror marathon. This one starred Kelly Reilly and Michael Fassbender as a couple who hope for a relaxing lake-side retreat only to be terrorized by local youths. It was a very competent horror movie–nicely paced with the right amount of timely scares. A very solid first feature from director James Watkins. It’s kind of amazing how much this movie has to say about how evil kids can be. On one hand, they are pure evil. On the other hand, they are just more victims. Highly recommended.

The Ghost Writer — The latest from Roman Polanski. I thought this was very wonderful. A satire of the Anglo-American relationship leading to the invasion of Iraq, et al., disguised as a thriller, with a bit of autobiographical reference to Polanski’s own life thrown in for good measure. If Polanski is a criminal, perhaps he cannot ever be forgiven for his deeds. But, nevertheless, he remains a wonderful director of cinema.

Me and Orson Welles — A fun one from Richard Linklater. It’s pretty much just a Christian McKay show, as we revel in his portrayal of the great Welles. But it is a fun backstage tale as Zac Effron’s Richard competes for the love of a girl (played by Claire Danes). I even think Effron is wonderfully cast, if only because he excels at playing a kid whose dreams are bigger than his talents. This one also featured Kelly Reilly. It’s always weird when you see an actress for the first time and then suddenly start seeing them all over the place. She was in Eden Lake…and now two movies later she appears here.

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).

November 1st – November 7th

Dead Set (TV) — A five-episode British horror series that takes place in and around the Big Brother house. A zombie infection takes hold threatening the remaining contestants and production staff. Jaime Winstone as Kelly was very strong in the lead. Very fun and highly recommended.

Leaves of Grass — Wow. I believe this was some sort of iteration on Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (by way of the Coen brothers) but set in Oklahoma. with Richard Dreyfuss playing the part of the iguana. It was kind of so effed up that it was actually kind of awesome. Ed Norton playing both the Ivy League philosophy professor and his redneck, pot-growing brother. And Keri Russell as some sort of catfish noodling love interest. And Dreyfuss as some Rabbinical drug kingpin.

Also like Herzog’s film, I think one can just as easily come away from this film loving it as hating it. Norton’s double role is both cartoonish and brilliant (which brings to mind Nic Cage’s Terrence McDonagh). And still it manages to be philosophical (an Oklahoma version of A Serious Man, perhaps?). It certainly hits an autobiographical note for director Tim Blake Nelson. Born a Jew in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he graduated with a Classics major from Brown University. Nelson IS Brady/Bill. And I can certainly appreciate the dichotomy set up by the two brothers. Both smart, but one’s a redneck drug dealer while the other is an intellectual. Embodied by Norton, these two disparate types aren’t that much different from each other.

October 25th – October 31st

The Cottage — More British horror. And quite a surprise. It deftly transitions from a comedic crime thriller to a decent B movie splatter picture. I would highly recommend it to fans of the horror genre. It’s one I hadn’t even heard of until I started poking around the more recent horror offerings from the United Kingdom.

Last House on the Left (1972) – Truly one of my favorite horror movies of all time. The marauders, led by Krug (David Hess, who also provided the music), really creep me out. They’re junkies I want to have no part of. And the parental revenge is simply classic. At some point, I’ll get around to checking out the remake. Garret Dillahunt certainly has the potential to really creep me out as well.

Doctor Jekyll and Sister Hyde – Another British horror film. This one from Hammer Film Productions. This one tweaks the familiar Robert Louis Stevenson story with a bit of gender-twisting. The tale also mixes in the histories of Jack the Ripper and Burke & Hare. As Jekyll experiments towards immortality, he finds himself transformed into a woman. This necessarily evokes questions of gender and sexuality and creates a sort of love-triangle with the brother and sister who live upstairs. Because of the locations and Cockney accents, I half expected the characters to break into some Sweeney Todd songs. Perhaps that was just some hopefulness on my part after just recently catching an interview with Stephen Sondheim on Fresh Air. At the very least after Jekyll extracted his female hormones from his victims, he could’ve supplied the local meat pie proprietor with the remaining carcasses. A quite fun piece of horror indeed.

October 18th – October 24th

Mum & Dad – A creepy piece of British horror in the torture porn realm. It’s sort of the flip-side to Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly. That movie had the sister/brother duo bringing home victims to “play” with. This one has a sister/brother duo bringing home a victim for Mum & Dad to play with (and by play, I mean to drug and torture). I enjoyed it–as much as one can enjoy a movie like this. It’s disturbing, not great but still very watchable.

Wild Country – Another British horror movie. This one is purportedly a werewolf movie that takes place in the Scottish highlands. It had some promise…and then the monster showed up. Not only was the thing too CG-fake but it looked more like a tuskless wild boar than anything else. Because of that, it ends up being kind of fun. But I think it should have went one way or the other–creepy horror or silly monster movie. The split difference results in something disappointing.

October 4th – October 17th

The Lost Boys — My favorite movie from my childhood. This is one videotape that got worn down. One of my favorite soundtracks too. I even named one of my dogs after one in the movie (Nanook; my first dog was named Smokey after Smokey and the Bandit). So to catch it at the Alamo Drafthouse while we were down in Austin for the ACL festival was like kismet. I still love it. I think, for the most part, it still holds up. There are quite a bunch of 80′s quirks that are near cringe-worthy, but there’s enough to still have fun with. I mean, its got the Coreys!! And it’s the perfect Drafthouse movie–made better with a big group of people and with a pitcher of good Texas beer.

Rififi — Finally caught up to this classic heist film. It was directed by Jules Dassin, who had been exiled to France after being blacklisted by the HUAC goings-on. The best part of the film (and most famous) is the 30-plus minute heist section, which is very deliberate and almost completely silent. It sort of makes one want to become a jewel thief.

Temple Grandin — After catching some of her interviews with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross over the years, I was really looking forward to this Made for HBO movie. They did some interesting things to convey the obstacles that autism has created for Grandin, but ultimately I think they could have taken it further. It ended up being a little too predictably, bio-pic cliched. Not horrible, but not moving into some interesting visual territory that could have been explored. And I know it’s also a cliche, but I think Claire Danes performance was quite good.

Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly — Kind of delightful find in the British horror genre. The film was directed by Freddie Francis, who not only did some work for Hammer but also was the cinematographer of the films The Elephant Man, Dune, Glory, and Cape Fear. It was a creepy psycho-sexual horror movie in a which a young girl and boy capture “friends” from the local playground and bring them home to “play.” It’s kind of awesome. Vanessa Howard, as Girly, was very strong in the lead. A mixture between innocent and mischievous, naive and sexual, young and mature. It’s currently available on Netflix Instant Viewing under the title Girly.

September 27th – October 3rd

Mega Shark v. Giant Octopus — Need I say more?

The Social Network – There’s a bunch to say about this movie, but I’m going to keep it all too brief. First, I really loved this movie. Director David Fincher pulled one off here. A wonderful script from Aaron Sorkin. Great performances, especially from Jesse Eisenberg. (Take that Michael Cera!) And a very nice moody score from Trent Reznor.

I think it disheartening, although not altogether unsurprising, that some would dismiss this movie as just a movie “about” Facebook. It’s not that at all. It’s about that turbulent time when we merge into adulthood from adolescence. We don’t come out completely different, but certainly changed. And in some ways that are unrecognizable or even embarrassing to our current selves. I wouldn’t change anything about the person I was in college…but I’ve certainly matured A BUNCH since those days. And it also says something about the way we perceive ourselves and put ourselves on display. In each of us, there is us and then there is (to reference another Fincher film) our Tyler Durden.

September 13th – September 19th

Following — Christopher Nolan’s first film, released in 1998. A low-budget film shot in black and white that certainly shows what Nolan would become. It plays with time and perspective in what has become a hallmark of his work. And like his other films, this non-linear approach has the effect of commenting about authorship (and artistry) in general. There is no one truth. Truth is what we make it up to be. Artists wield immense power in creating their own truths for us. This somewhat confusing tale is held together by solid performances from the cast.

The Italian Job (1969) — Another classic heist film from the Filmspotting marathon. I quite liked this one a lot. The set-up and execution of the actual heist is spot-on. The Mini Cooper chase scenes are a beauty to behold. Classic. The whole thing is strongly directed and beautifully shot. And it’s pretty damn funny to boot. The anti-Italian, pro-English sentiment throughout is kind of hilarious.

Solaris — Finally got around to seeing this Andrei Tarkovsky directed film. What to say about it? For one, like Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, it’s a big, slow, wonderfully existential piece of science fiction. And, like 2001, I wouldn’t dream of coming to any sort of conclusion or interpretation after only one viewing (I hated 2001 the first time I saw it…I know think it’s a true masterpiece). It surely says something about Russian Communist rule. And it says something about the truths that we invent for ourselves (or have been invented for us).

September 6th – September 12th

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom — I came about this one after it was selected for a Listener’s Choice discussion on one of Filmspotting‘s After Hours podcasts. This controversial film, directed by Pier Paolo Pasilini, was supposedly banned in some countries. And one could certainly imagine stories, apocryphal or not, about audience members vomiting or fainting or running out of theater when it was first screened.  I imagine it’s also one of those movies that film geeks try to inflict on each other.

There is plenty of poop, blood, and rape. So family-friendly fare this is not. But it’s also not quite as bad as some might make it out to be. There is purpose and meaning behind the graphic depictions. This is not pornography. The graphic imagery serves a broader purpose, as a criticism of humanity and/or Fascism. One could certainly argue as to the effectiveness of that purpose, but I think one would be better off not dismissing it as nothing more than shock cinema. In that same tradition, Pasolini’s Salo seems like an antecedent to the work of several contemporary filmmakers, including Lars Von Trier, Michael Haneke, and especially Catherine Breillat.

Bound — I may have seen this one when it first came out, but if I did I sure don’t remember it much. But seeing it this time, nearly 15 years later, I’d say I was decently impressed with it. As the directorial debut for the Wachowskis, I’d say its an excellent installment in the film noir genre. It is entirely entertaining on just that level. It’s a fun noir crime thrill-ride with all of the inherent twists and turns. And on top of that, there’s a thick layer of lesbian sexuality that covers the film which is impressively not derisive. My main problem was with the score. It was just way too loud and intrusive. Unlike The Matrix, I didn’t think this movie was big enough to carry such a big score.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels — I’ve sort of actively avoided Guy Ritchie’s movies. They seemed too frantic and full of too many post-Tarantino affectations. But then again, I hadn’t actually seen any of his movies. Now that I’ve seen Lock, Stock, I can say that it was too frantic and full of too many post-Tarantino affectations. That being said, as Ritchies’s first feature, it wasn’t horrible. I could see some fun in there even if it wasn’t quite my cup of tea. Perhaps I’ll give Mr. Ritchie another chance. Sherlock Holmes has looked somewhat intriguing.

Le Cercle Rouge — One from Filmspotting’s Heist Marathon. This heist film was at the polar opposite of Lock, Stock. It was quiet and deliberate. This one was directed by Jean-Pierre Melville and starred Alain Delon.

The Killing — My favorite heist film from the weekend (also from Filmspotting’s Heist Marathon). This one was directed by Stanley Kubrick with a screenplay by Kubrick and Jim Thompson. Sterling Hayden is excellent in the lead. But it’s Kubrick who shines. You can see some of the visual comedy and documentary-style camera work that he’d use again to so much success a few years later in Dr. Strangelove. And with this heist film’s non-linear narrative you can’t help but think of it as a precursor to Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.