The Filmcake

November 9th – November 15th

In The Company of Men & Your Friends and Neighbors - Re-watching two from Neil Labute on the heels of catching the Ghostlight Theatre Club’s production of LaBute’s Fat Pig. As Scott Tobias said in his latest The New Cult Canon column, In The Company of Men ”isn’t a misogynistic film, it’s a misanthropic film. Big difference.” I think that is exactly right. I certainly mistook it for misogynistic upon its release and only came around with time. Things became a little clearer upon the release of Your Friends and Neighbors. But even then, it can sometimes take a bit of work and some level of caution when it comes to differentiating between a writer/director is misogynistic or misanthropic and a writer/director who is commenting on misogyny and misanthropy. That caution was admittedly still in place when I went to see a local production of Labute’s Fat Pig. It was truly only after seeing that play that I realized that Labute was, in fact, not the monster that he’d been portrayed as.

Election & Sideways - Two from Alexander Payne. Election is imminently quotable. And Sideways is in some ways a love letter to pretentiousness. Sometimes ALL we have are our idiosyncratic interests.

Ghost World - At this point, this movie just makes me feel a bit awkward. On the one hand, I’m totally infatuated with Enid. On the other hand, with age, I’m beginning to see myself more and more like Seymour. This Enid Problem conjures up sage wisdom proffered by one Matthew McConaughey: “I get older, they stay the same age.” Thus, the awkwardness.

Friday the 13th – It was after Halloween, but I did still manage to catch this one on a Friday the 13th. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this but never before have I noticed how well crafted a horror movie it really is. Truly good stuff.

Up - This will likely be in my year-end Top 10. I’m also a little embarrassed that I’ve yet to see either of the Toy Story movies, Finding Nemo, or Cars. I’m a bad Pixar fan.

The Shape of Things – This was the most play-like of the three, especially in the performances. Apparently, the cast that premiered the play was the same for the movie. What it says about art (or what may be considered art) would blow the mind of Enid’s (from Ghost World) summer school art teacher. It does, quite interestingly, explore how far we go for love and sex (and how those lengths might change depending on how closely those things are shaped like Rachel Weisz’s ass). Interestingly, a production of this will play this weekend at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center.

June 1st – June 7th

Martyrs – I am troubled by this one. I didn’t enjoy it, but I think I quite liked it. Thankfully, I watched it first without seeing the director’s introduction where he basically apologizes to the viewer in advance for what they are about to see. In many ways, it seemed a messier take on violence/voyeurism in the manner of Haneke’s Funny Games.

The movie, like Funny Games, sort of hinges on whether or not the viewer is willing to play along to the end. The first 45-minutes are high-thrill horror. But then the film shifts into a test of endurance. This either works for you or it doesn’t. I thought it worked, but I could certainly understand the contrary. It is surely divisive. Whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not, film is manipulative. And there’s not a damn thing you can do about it…aside from never pressing play (and life’s too short for that).

Paris, Je T’Aime – A nice set of short films with the city of Paris at its center. In high-def on Blu Ray, the city looks absolutely gorgeous (I especially like the films by the Coens, Cuaron, Tykwer, and Payne). Unfortunately, I neither speak nor understand French so I had to rely on the English subtitles. But for some idiotic reason, First Look Studios did not include proper subtitles on the disc. Instead, they included the English SDH subtitles (for the deaf and hard-of-hearing). The SDH subtitles were too large, obstructive, and what I could only assume to be poorly translated (or at least translated for someone at a 5th grade reading level). In the first segment, the subtitles indicate the main character calling a passerby a “buttface.” Really? The subtitles also included non-dialog audio and character identification, which is annoying at best and absolutely horrendous when mimes end up subtitled.

Magnolia – I still love this one SO much. Inspired by some new friends who also love it, I (finally) revisited it over the weekend. In the very near future, I plan on writing up a longer piece analyzing the movie (especially concerning the frogs) from my perspective.

Up – Pixar didn’t top Wall-E with this one for me. I really, really liked it though. The Carl and Ellie segment was as about as good as it gets (it got a little dusty in there). And the translating dog collars were genius (not quite as awesome as Pullman’s daemons when it comes to anthropomorphizing animals…but pretty close). Pixar’s up may very well have inspired me to renew my own spirit of adventure. And, I guess I should get around to actually seeing Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., and Toy Story at some point (now that I’ve been given ample evidence that Pixar isn’t just making mindless kid flicks).