August 29, 2010
Old Movies, Old Music, Real Film
You probably missed my outdoor screening of a one-hour program of musical cartoons, performance films, and musical shorts last night, because you were out watching Moonrise, instead of at the Bucktown Arts Fest. So here's most of it.
"Let's Sing with Popeye" (1934)
"Jammin' the Blues," featuring Lester Young (1944)
"Minnie the Moocher," featuring Cab Calloway and Betty Boop (1932)
"The Dover Boys of Pimento University" (1942)
"Ain't Misbehavin'," with Fats Waller (1941)
"Notes to You," featuring Porky Pig (1941) (the one I showed was in color)
"The Jumpin' Jive," from Stormy Weather (1943), featuring Cab Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers
That's all, folks.
August 16, 2010
Dear David, Please Stop Being Stupid, Love, Goatdog
The news surrounding Darren Aronofsky David Fincher's three-film adaptation of the three-film adaptation of Steig Larssen's three-book, unfinished, bloated The Girl... trilogy, currently in the hands of every Chicago commuter who carried around a copy of The Da Vinci Code a few years back (gosh, it's getting expensive to follow trends slavishly—last time you only had to buy one book!) ... where was I ... oh, right: the news is getting stupider and stupider.
First is making the damned films in the first place. There's not much to emulate in the hackish first film in the Swedish series, overstuffed as it is with unnecessary backstory and thriller tropes.
Then is a filmmaker as talented as Darren Aronofsky David Fincher, who shouldn't be within a mile of the disconcerting tendency of American film studios to remake foreign films on the assumption that American audiences won't read subtitles. Hey, geniuses—have you been on the CTA lately? American audiences can read, and they seem to want to read Steig Larssen. Just release the Swedish films a little wider and let people watch them.
Now there's the "I'm going to use English and American actors, but have them speak in Swedish accents" thing, which I spend a great deal of my free time hoping will die out. Because, you know, Swedish people speak Swedish to each other, not English, so if you're going to have them speaking English, there's already a bit of suspension of disbelief involved. Forcing your actors to sound like the Swedish Chef is going to detract from their performances and distract audiences, and it won't help verisimilitude one whit.
So just stop. If you must make these films, adapt the books to occur in the United States. Hire a good screenwriter and you'll be fine. (Q: But what about the Nazi thing? A: Shut up. The dark secret could be the KKK, for all I care.) And consider not making the entire trilogy, because it's a huge waste of time, money, and talent.
July 31, 2010
I'm Not Dead, Just Dreaming
Or dreaming about dreaming, or dreaming about dreaming about finding a perfect job, but being sad that they keep slipping through my fingers. Maybe if I dreamed someone else's dream, someone would pay me to write about movies. But in the interim, here's Inception.
July 1, 2010
CIMMfest Gives You Suck at Lincoln Hall
CIMMfest PRESENTS CHICAGO PREMIERE OF SUCK AT LINCOLN HALL
The First Vampire Rock ’n’ Roll Road Comedy, Director Rob Stefaniuk in Person
CHICAGO, IL.—The Chicago International Movies and Music Festival and The Onion AV Club present the Chicago premiere of Rob Stefaniuk’s Toronto International Film Festival and South By Southwest hit SUCK, at Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln Ave., on Thursday, July 15 at 8:00pm. Stefaniuk will be present for a Q&A, and The Royal We will perform after the film. Tickets for the event are $12.
SUCK follows the rise of a little-known band that hits the big time after their hot bassist Jennifer (Jessica Pare) becomes a vampire, exacerbating existing tensions with frontman Joey (Rob Stefaniuk) as the two jockey for position.
Featuring cameos by rock legends Alice Cooper, Henry Rollins, Iggy Pop, and Moby, and also starring Malcolm McDowell as a vampire hunter and Dave Foley as a sleazebag manager, SUCK is the first and best vampire rock ’n’ roll road comedy, and a welcome respite to tortured adolescent sparkly vampires who can’t act.
To buy tickets, please click here.
June 30, 2010
The Revenge of the Return of Bank of America Cinema
The Bank of America Cinema’s July-December 2010 schedule features some adventurous picks alongside the usual helping of classic Hollywood.
We’re getting with the spirit of several holiday weekends, including our opening film for Fourth of July weekend, Henry Koster’s Stars and Stripes Forever (1952), featuring Clifton Webb as John Phillip Sousa; the blacklisted film Salt of the Earth (1954) for Labor Day weekend; a double dose of Peter Lorre for Halloween, with Mad Love (1935) and The Face Behind the Mask (1941); a warmhearted Thanksgiving comedy in Norman Taurog’s Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1934); and the Laurel and Hardy operetta Babes in Toyland (1934) to close the season. There’s even a time-travel film for Daylight Savings Time.
We’re branching out a little from our modus operandi with our first ripped-from-the-headlines film in decades: as oil continues to pump into the Gulf of Mexico, the perils of oil exploration and putting too much trust in huge companies are on everyone's mind, so it's the perfect time to show Robert Flaherty’s Standard Oil-sponsored documentary Louisiana Story (1948). And although the French New Wave is light years away from our usual fare, Francois Truffaut named Morris Engel’s Little Fugitive (1953), screening in July, as one of the films that made it possible; on the other end of that little revolution is Arthur Penn’s New Wave-influenced Mickey One (1965), screening in December.
The latter two films would be not available without the addition of a second 35mm projector, which has opened the vaults for us: UCLA is loaning Frank Borzage’s Moonrise (1948) in August, and Sony Repertory is letting us borrow a half-dozen heretofore-off-limits archival prints.
The full schedule is as follows:
July 3: Stars and Stripes Forever (Henry Koster, 1952) 16mm
July 10: Louisiana Story (Robert Flaherty, 1948) 16mm
July 17: The Little Fugitive (Morris Engel, 1953) 35mm
July 24: Artists and Models (Frank Tashlin, 1955) 16mm
July 31: None Shall Escape (Andre de Toth, 1944) 35mm
August 7: The Sleeping Tiger (Joseph Losey, 1954) 35mm
August 14: Shirley Temple Double Feature
Poor Little Rich Girl (Irving Cummings, 1937) 35mm
The Littlest Rebel (David Butler, 1936) 35mm
August 21: The Baron of Arizona (Samuel Fuller, 1951) 16mm
August 28: Moonrise (Frank Borzage, 1948) 35mm
September 4: Salt of the Earth (Herbert Biberman, 1954) 16mm
September 11: Peter Pan (Herbert Brenon, 1924) 35mm with organ accompaniment
September 18: The Southerner (Jean Renoir, 1945) 16mm
September 25: Meet Me at the Fair (Douglas Sirk, 1953) 16mm
October 2: Little Big Horn (Charles Marquis Warren, 1951) 16mm
October 9: Lady on a Train (Charles David, 1945) 16mm
October 16: Washington Merry-Go-Round (James Cruze, 1932) 35mm
October 23: Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944) 16mm
October 30: Halloween Horror Show: Crazy Peter Lorre Double Feature
Mad Love (Karl Freund, 1935) 16mm
The Face Behind the Mask (Robert Florey, 1941) 35mm
November 6: Ali Baba Goes to Town (David Butler, 1937) 16mm
November 13: A Raisin in the Sun (Daniel Petrie, 1961) 35mm
November 20: The King Steps Out (Josef von Sternberg, 1936) 35mm
November 27: Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (Norman Taurog, 1934) 16mm
December 4: The Snake Pit (Anatole Litvak, 1948) 35mm
December 11: Mickey One (Arthur Penn, 1965) 35mm
December 18: Babes in Toyland (Gus Meins, Charley Rogers, 1934) 35mm
June 29, 2010
Dances with Pink Elephants
Nick, Nathaniel, and I are back with another episode of Best Pictures from the Outside In! Finally! And my site is officially no longer infected! It's a good day to be online.
June 25, 2010
Been Down So Long
You may have noticed that Google decided my website was an attack site. That's because evil hackers hacked it and made it evil, like themselves. It's all cleaned up now, although it's going to take a while for Google to trust it again. So I understand your reluctance to comment.
Not that there's been much to comment on anyway. I've been in a funk, reviewing-wise. I hope to start reviewing again by the end of the summer, with a full-bore attack on the fall movie season and the buildup to awards season. Stay tuned.
April 16, 2010
In Case the AFI's Relevance Was Ever in Doubt...
http://www.afi.com/events/Bruckheimer/default.aspx
After the thousandth "100 Years, 100 Blanks" (which, in essence, describes the cinema of Jerry Bruckheimer), the AFI is reasserting its relevance with a celebration of the cinema of Jerry Bruckheimer. All repetitiveness in this blog post is intentional, much like the repetitiveness of the cinema of Jerry Bruckheimer.
There's a slim chance this is actually the AFI's sneaky way of going all Goodfellas on the auteur behind Armageddon (which, incidentally, is in the much-worshipped Criterion Canon—er, Collection). After glad-handing the upper echelons of Hollywood royalty, he's escorted into a room lined with plastic sheeting and receives two in the back of the head. A cinephile can dream... while waiting in line to see Jake Gyllenhaal looking artificially implanted and uncomfortable in The Prince of Persia.
February 24, 2010
CIMMfest Is Pretty Much Unstoppable Now
The Chicago International Movies & Music Festival is starting just over a week from now, on Thursday, March 4. Ye gods. There's too much great stuff going on to explain here, so I'll summarize:
Robyn Hitchcock Jon Langford Grant Hart Tom Ze White Rappers From Montana Keith Phipps Seattle Soul Of Montreal Stradivarius Genesis Breyer P-Orridge Mucca Pazza Penny Arcade DJ Spooky Tinariwen Complaints Choir Polkaholics Trimpin Ngawang Choephel Sarah Weis El Sistema Stecher & Horowitz Bono Marie Losier Ivan Kral Madsen Minax Quincy Jones Snoop Dogg Nick Cave Iranian Rappers Naked Lunch Vacationeers King Pluto's Whispering Choir Todd Giglio Sissyboy Lawrence Peters Paul Stanley Serj Tankian Mogwai Mountain Goats Sigur Ros... and more.
February 10, 2010
Help the Best Fest in Chicago Happen
That's the Chicago International Movies & Music Festival (CIMMfest), and I'm not just saying that because I program the films. We have Robyn Hitchcock, Genesis P-Orridge, Jon Langford, Grant Hart, and DJ Spooky on the mic, and the Mountain Goats, Mogwai, the Complaints Choir, Stecher & Horowitz, Patti Smith, Paul Stanley, Basque separatists, transgendered musicians, white rappers from Montana, Serj Tankian, Tibetan political prisoners, and the inventor of reggae on the screen.
That said, we could use some cash. We have a matching grant, so every dollar you give means two dollars. From our director: "If you haven't heard of the program, it allows even the smallest on-line donation to be put towards our modest fundraising goal of $2500. It is term based, and if the goal is not reached in the term, NO ONE IS CHARGED A DIME!" Doesn't that sound nice? Wouldn't you like to throw in a few dimes?