Hey folks, Harry here a tad late. The four days leading up to the column had me traveling, and I didn’t get back home till about 1am last night. I stayed up writing til about 5:30am, but just couldn’t quite get through the list. So here it is. Some pretty great titles this week, as usual the pics and titles link over to AMAZON where you could learn more about the title or purchase them, which would go to help support this column, for which y’all have my thanks. Here ya go…
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
AVATAR
Ya know. The film is still playing, I hear it will be returning to IMAX screens, there’s always persistent rumors of a longer cut being issued into theaters – and there’s definitely strong rumors of a robust badass edition coming out later this holiday season. SO. The question is put to you. Do you wish to have a 1080p print of AVATAR for home use? That is essentially what you’ll get. It is gorgeous, and I think the film actually works better in 2D. So, do you need it now?
CRAZY HEART
I just kinda hate that of all the brilliant Jeff Bridges performances – this is the one that got him the paper weight. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with the film or the role – it is just… ya know. THE DUDE, STARMAN, JAGGED EDGE, TRON, what’s your fave? The whole film feels like an Oscar push – but as cynical as that sounds… Maggie Gyllenhaal rules every frame she is in. Her eyes are some of the most purely soulful, whimsical and good eyes I’ve seen in film. Her face sells this movie in a less showy way than Jeff, but without her, he wouldn’t have that Award. I’m completely serious.
THE YOUNG VICTORIA
I’m not sure what it was about this film that just didn’t work quite right for me with this film, but it feels hollow and too brief. Everyone and everything was done as well as could be expected, but the film just didn’t hold my interest in the least. This is not ELIZABETH. Nor should it have been, but there’s just something not quite about it. But I do know plenty of folks that do like it, so there seems to be something that clicks for those folks that isn’t for me. So it could work for you. Me, I won’t bother again.
THE LOVELY BONES
And yet on this film, I’m on the otherside. The side that loves it. Although I am a bit befuddled as to the genre that I would place it in. I mean, it is definitely FICTION. There is a horrific supernatural mystery adventure biopic from the beyondish quality to it. The quote on the cover says “A Thrilling Adventure” – but there’s a side of me that would prefer the quote, “The Film Shirley Temple Was Made For!” This was the teenage role that Shirley Temple never had. She played immensely sad and tragic tales in her career, but for Saoirise Ronan – this is a role that pretty much guarantees an adult actress career later on. I don’t believe Saoirise is going anywhere, we’re going to continue to see her grow up on camera – playing roles that continually surprise us. She reminds me of a young Jodie Foster. Stanley Tucci is amazingly creepy in this film. And I love his makeup and hair. He disappears in the role and that’s amazing to watch. I love films like these. WHAT DREAMS MAY COME, HEAVEN CAN WAIT, TIME BANDITS, WINGS OF DESIRE… you know… that kind of stuff. I just find filmmakers’ struggle to cinematically define the afterlife, be it Romero or Ingmar Bergman – there is quite a bit of the soul of the filmmaker at play in the films. From LOVELY BONES, you can see the romantic in Peter Jackson. There’s a belief in Karma, quite a bit of whimsy, an attention to detail and ultimately a tender view of the harshness of reality. Not every filmmaker is so forgiving. But I feel all of these films are hopeful films, hopeful in their dedication to the conception of an afterlife. An ever endangered belief it would seem, but one I’m still quite fond of. The BLU RAY is beautiful.
MINORITY REPORT (Blu Ray)
As a vision of the future, it is a jaw-dropping science fiction spectacle. As a film, it doesn’t work for me. I tend to despise films that put a companion with the main character that has been specifically created with the express purpose of being exactly the convenient device that is Absolutely necessary for the main character to do incredible things devoid of all tension and threat, thus making those actions seem pedestrian, no matter their complexity.
Film complaints aside, this is a tremendous Blu Ray. The disc is loaded with extras:
The Future According to Steven Spielberg HD
Inside The World of Precrime HD
Phillip K. Dick, Steven Speilberg and Minority Report HD
Minority Report: Future Realized HD
Minority Report: Props of the Future HD
Highlights from Minority Report: From the Set
Minority Report: Commercials of the Future HD
Previz Sequences
From Story to Screen
Deconstructing Minority Report
The Stunts of Minority Report
ILM and Minority Report
Final Report
Production Concepts
Storyboard Sequences
Trailers
Which is a damn fine selection. I love a peek in Spielberg’s process and never resist a moment to have a peek. How about you?
FIST OF LEGEND (Blu Ray)
Jet Li and Yuen Woo Ping combine to take on one of the great BRUCE LEE films and succeed wildly. This is one of those films that I just live to watch. When I met Jet Li on The Expendables it was with a degree of awe. This and the ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA series are why. This is Jet Li at the absolute height of his fighting prowess. It is something to behold. One of those gifts that cinema gives us from time to time, that is then left for us to show everyone we know till there is nobody anywhere that hasn’t. This is an excellent Blu Ray!
VIVRE SA VIE (Criterion Blu)
A brilliant Godard film and one of the greatest performances ever put out by Anna Karina, who is a whole lot of dreaming in every frame. This is an amazing film about a girl that dreamt of being an actress, but instead found herself on the street and between the sheets for profit. There is a rollerskating scene involving a pool table and some men drinking that comes off as one of the most simply erotic and hot scenes in the history of cinema. It is magic and she is an intoxicant. The extras on this Blu Ray are truly amazing:
New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack •
Audio commentary featuring film scholar Adrian Martin •
Video interview with film scholar Jean Narboni, conducted by historian Noël Simsolo •
Television interview from 1962 with actress Anna Karina •
Excerpts from a 1961 French television exposé on prostitution •
Illustrated essay on La prostitution, the book that served as inspiration for the film •
Stills gallery •
Director Jean-Luc Godard’s original theatrical trailer •
New and improved English subtitle translation •
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Michael Atkinson, interviews with Godard, a reprint by critic Jean Collet on the film’s soundtrack, and Godard’s original scenario
A must see!
BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (Blu Ray)
It is hard to imagine that a film basically once helped to create the very language of cinema itself, but that is exactly what Sergei Eisenstein’s brilliant BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN did. This is a film that I would legitimately love to see a remake of. Sure, I know it is as Communist as it ever gets – but I’d love to see a modern Russian remake from a less outright propagandistic way, but a tad more personal take. Because no matter what, nobody will top what this movie did. It influenced the entirety of modern cinema. The style of editing, of many of your very favorite filmmakers – it came out of this amazing film, which essentially provided a Rosetta Stone to how to make visceral and exciting cinema. KINO has done another fantastic job on Blu Ray – with a stunning transfer, score, documentary and more. History that still thrills. I love it!
THE WHITE BUFFALO
I haven’t seen this. Yet. But I want you to click that Amazon link and I want you to watch the Trailer on the other end. Dino De Laurentis made a film about a giant white buffalo that wiped people out in the mountainmen days. Charles Bronson plays Wild Bill Hickox, who is apparently all Ahab about this thing. It just. It truly looks like the sort of genius that must be had. Look at the Buffalo sculpt – the shit will make you shit giggling. “THE WHITE BUFFALO!” be afraid! Lol. Behold and order! You may regret it, but you’ll love doing so!
HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS
I haven’t seen this film in years, but it is one of those films that anyone that loves the trifecta of terror, namely Vincent Price, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. It is hokey, hammy and haybales of fun. I love the movie like a thing of favorites. I like it because it felt like reading Famous Monsters of Filmland and seeing it come to life in an odd, eccentric, hilarious manner all its own.
BEGINNING OF THE END
I’ve always thought of this film as THE GRASSHOPPERS THAT ATE CHICAGO – but that’s just been my Dad’s nickname for this film – my entire life. They literally placed Grasshoppers upon photographs of the Chicago Skyline – and that’s how they did the effects. It is wonderfully old school. Peter Graves really sells the horror of the film and the heroism. Big fan of this fifties giant bug classic!
THE BASKETBALL DIARIES (Blu Ray)
The film that launched Leo really high on to everybody’s radar. And deservedly so. I find the story less captivating than Leo’s performance which is pretty damn electric. If you’re a DiCaprio fan and have somehow missed this – you definitely need to check it out.
44 INCH CHEST
A man flick of the highest caliber. I would love more movies centered in and around this generation of actors – Essentially a story about a man that finds out his wife no longer loves him and is leaving him for another man – and he – and his friends all go a bit nuts. Essentially, these are the types of men, whose wives you do not fuck with. Winstone is amazing, but then – so is every other actor in this. Could be a stage play, very few locations, overall a tight awesome little flick. Really love this film.
TALES FROM THE SCRIPT
If you want to be a screenwriter, if you want to know about the life, the frustration, the horror, the elation, the marginalization, the anger and the happiness of getting it perfect… TALES FROM THE SCRIPT is absolutely for you. This is a doc about Screenwriters… folks like Paul Schrader and William Goldman, John Carpenter & Shane Black with a dash of Frank Darabont. This is for everyone that ever wanted to pursue the life, understand the life or just plain avoid the life… Best doc on screenwriting ever made.
THE HONEY POT
Now here’s a mostly forgotten jewel from the career of Joseph L Mankiewicz starring the ham of hams, Rex Harrison as the ludicrously wealthy and ungodly eccentric Cecil Fox. He has a desire for his ex’s, which include Edie Adams, Susan Hayward and the lovely Cappucine. Hell, this movie even has a hot Professor McGonagall aka Hard Castle McCormick. Giggle. There’s murder and high theatricality at play in THE HONEY POT – but it is filled with talent, all of whom were doing their best. Definitely one to see.
Ok, that’s it for this week – next we look at TOMBSTONE (Blu), THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS (Blu), ARMAGEDDON (Blu), OUT OF AFRICA (Blu), IT’S COMPLICATED (Blu), DUNE (Blu), FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN, THE GALLANT HOURS, THE DESCENT Part 2, ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE (Blu), ELIZABETH (Blu), THE BARARA STANWYCK Collection, RIDE WITH THE DEVIL (Criterion Blu), THE JACKAL (Blu), DISTRICT 13: ULTIMATUM, TRAFFIC (Blu), COLD TURKEY, TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE 3rd Season, FUGITIVE KIND (Criterion), TOYS IN THE ATTIC, THUNDER IN CAROLINA, HONG KONG GODFATHER, THE TENTH MAN, VANISHING FIANCEE, ORSON WELLES: THE PARIS INTERVIEW and tons more!
