Sometimes we find ourselves in a tough spot - in a position where we find ourselves saying "I don't want to, but I will if I have to." Usually when this happens, it's because we're doing it for people we love...people who might not be able to take care of themselves. This is the crux of the dark tale of WINTER'S BONE.
Our story is set in The Ozarks, where 17-year-old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) lives. Her father has left, and her mother is incapacitated. Ree is all alone trying to look after her young brother and sister and keep everybody's head above water. They have next to no money, even less food. They live the sort of life where you hang your laundry out to dry even in the dead of winter. Indeed, they have next to nothing, and they're about to lose a big portion of what they do have.
Their father - charged with cooking crank and out on bail - has slipped off the map. This sends a bondsman to the house calling on Ree, and he informs her that her father put his house up as his bond. If he can't be found within a week to appear before a judge, their meagre home and everything in it, will be seized.
This sends Ree on a quest through her gutter of a community, looking for her father. The problem is that everyone she talks to knows exactly what he was into (no stretch, since many of them are into it too), and they aren't talking. Not even her closest relative, her uncle "Teardrop" (John Hawkes) will help her.
Unfortunately, Ree isn't the sort of girl to take "no" for an answer. Thus she keeps asking questions, getting no answers, but getting a lot of threats. In the face of very palpable danger, she continues searching for what she believes is a very ugly truth. She and her family have very little...but there's no way she's losing what little they have left without a fight.
WINTER'S BONE is a slow walk through the valley of the shadow of death. We can tell that Ree doesn't really want to keep going...keep asking questions...keep pressing her luck. Thing is, she has to. She and her family have been left with as close to nothing as one family can get. It's unsettling to see her press the sort of people I wouldn't ask for a match from, but her lack of alternatives leaves her with little options.
Jennifer Lawrence carries this film, with precious little of the story happening without her there. She taps into a delicate mix of desperation, frustration, delicacy, and anger. She has taken over the role of matriarch in her family, and we can sense a reluctant pride in the way she tries to care for her siblings, and teach them to fend all at once.
In a particularly telling moment, she catches a glimpse of her neighbours with a bounty of fresh meat, and if her eyes could salivate, they would. Seconds later, her younger brother seems to express what she's thinking and suggests they go ask for a portion. Lawrence does an amazing about-face at this moment, and teaches her brother about asking and offering. It's subtle moments like this that really make the performance.
Ree's journey for truth has been called by some as "Hillbilly Noir". I like the term, since indeed all the hallmarks are there. The hero is a loser, the story is one of betrayal, and there are more than one ambivalent bystanders. the film isn't in black and white, but given the grim, dreary colour palette it damned well could be. It's noir! The only thing missing is a femme fatale...but in a town like this, I'm a little afraid to see their excuse for a femme fatale.
While this film was difficult to watch, it was fascinating as it takes a very particular breed of community and shows how even though they don't have much more than each other, they draw lines and decide for themselves who is worth helping and who is not. It's a sad state of affairs that I'd like to believe is complete fiction, but I fear isn't the case. An engaging, if upsetting film, and easily one of the best this year.
What did you think? Feel free to leave comments with any thoughts or reactions on WINTER'S BONE.
Hey Toronto - Wanna see a free movie? Well this this week is your lucky week.
For starters, this week starts The Safecracker Series at Dundas Square, with their free screening of GRAND SLAM. Along with that, this week celebrates the return of a Toronto movie-going landmark with the return of The Carlton Cinema. To celebrate their return, Magic Lantern, the company who bought the joint is offering two nights worth of free movies.
What better way to kick off the long weekend than to check out a free showing of something like THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, or THE HURT LOCKER? These are just three of the thirteen flicks they'll be showing for free on Wednesday 6/30 and Thursday 7/1. For complete listings, check the theatre's website here.
Free screenings are always a good thing, and I for one couldn't be happier that this theatre has returned. See ya there!
This is a movie blog...but every now and then, movies have to take a back seat to real life.
Today, in the shadow of a G20 summit, a few hundred cowardly anarchists decided that they needed to rip the shit out of my city to make a point against capitalism. The area they tore up, took over, broke and burned was where I work, live, and play. It's where my friends and family work, live and play.
Admittedly, at first I was grumpy that I couldn't make a movie I was hoping to see...but as this has gone on, I feel increasingly angry and disgusted.
I don't care what you stand for...if you even stand for something. The minute you start throwing stones at cops and setting cruisers on fire, I've stopped listening to your cause.
Where were we?
It's been an odd two weeks around here. Between my NXNE coverage, and then taking a week to play catch up and post everything else that's had my attention, it feels like it's been ages since I was able to just riff. If you'll permit me one last song before last call, there is a particular tune that's been going through my head for the last two weeks:
It's called The Lammys.
In case you non-LAMB folk didn't hear, my fellow LAMBS called my name for three awards: Best Film Festival Coverage, Best Podcast, and The Brainiac Award. All three of these really did surprise me, and I very much appreciate everyone who voted for me. When you're doing something like this...just for the passion of film...moments like this really do give you a boost. There have been a lot of days over the three years I've been blogging here when I've thought about shutting it down, so to say this is a shot in the arm would be putting it mildly.
The categories I was awarded really gave me a smile, as I shared them with a bakers' dozen worth of my very favorite blogs out there. Hell, one of the podcasts is a professional radio show! Even the two categories where I finished as runner-up were ones where I couldn't have asked to finish second to nicer or better bloggers.
So once again - thank you. For voting, for supporting, and for continuing to read. Now that I've thanked you, allow me to remind you of those other amazing bloggers out there that keep me hungry, and keep me going.
For your reading fulfillment, I give you...
Meredith, who scored The Lammy for Best Blog, has posted a review of a Hitchcock Classic.
Aiden, who scored The Lammy for Best Reviewer, has seen one of this summer's indie darlings. Check out his thoughts on CYRUS.
Fletch, who scored The Lammy for Most Prolific Blogger, takes a moment to talk about a guy who was once my favorite actor.
Encore, who has done an awesomely detailed breakdown of a key scene in ATONEMENT.
Another new podcast for your listening enjoyment. Rachel and Jess have started up Reel Insight. Check it out here on Jess' blog, which I don't know why I wasn't following before now.
Darren at The M0vie Blog wonders if it can in fact be wrong for a film critic to state a contrary opinion.
And finally there's the webslinger himself who is having none of this Jaden Smith horse apple, and instead wants to point out ten reasons why the original KARATE KID rules.
Enjoy!
There's a line I love in an R.E.M. song that says It's easier to leave than to be left behind. It's a quintessential truth in so many parts of life, and it's what makes TOY STORY 3 work so well.
Very briefly, TOY STORY 3 brings us back into Andy's room eleven years after we left. Young Andy is 17 now, and getting ready to go to college. Of course this means letting go of childhood tokens; namely his toys. While Woody, Buzz Lightyear, The Potatoheads, Rex, Hamm and the gang knew this day was coming, they're still uneasy with the prospect of being put in the attic and not being played with.
Through a series of mishaps, they all end up at Sunnyside Daycare Centre where they meet enough friends to stock an F.A.O. Schwartz. Leading the pack is a teddy bear named Lots-O-Huggin. While he is at first very warm and iviting to Andy's old brood, they soon understand that the daycare centre has a hierarchy, and they are at the wrong end of the class system.
Thus, they begin one more mission to put things right. They turn to each other to reclaim their place in Andy's life. They do everything they can to avoid Lots-O's tyrrany, to avoid the daycare children's wrath, and to avoid being sent to the dumpster once and for all.
As time passes and things change, life causes unavoidable ripple effects. For Andy, his growing up and moving on is an inevitability - and an undeniably good one at that. Unfortunately, while he will move on to bigger and better things, his toys have to stay behind and figure out what to do with themselves. In many ways, they are like the boyfriend unceremoniously dumped by a girl he loves. One party goes on with their life, carrying with them an edge in confidence since they were the one in control of the decision. The other party is left to lick their wounds, pick up the pieces, and try to figure out what to do next.
This position of being the one standing on the platform and waving as the train pulls away, happens often in life. Lovers break up. Friends move away. Co-workers find other jobs. In some ways, the void and restlessness that we are left can leave us making some bad decisions, such as the fate of the toys. They have taken Andy's figurative "It's not you - it's me" and decided that running with the first bad boy they can find is better than being home alone on a Friday with ice cream and THE NOTEBOOK on dvd.
Of course, as in life, it's just the first domino, and that first bad decision eventually leads to a horrible situation. So what do they do then? These loyal spirits that never stopped caring about the one who left them behind? They do what we all do - they turn to the others still left standing and increase their faith and trust in one-another. By doing this, they avoid the fate of Lots-O. By leaning on each other and putting their efforts into moving forward, they stay positive. The world can be a lonely place, and sometimes it's only with the help of your friends that one can avoid becoming jaded, lonely, and angry.
This is the theme that I latched on to the most with TOY STORY 3, though it's nods to abandonment, loyalty, and friendship certainly worked to make it a stand-out movie as well. It's true that some of these themes have been dealt with in the first two films, however it's also very clear that these characters have learned from what they've already been though. Even though they seem to forget it at the beginning of the film, they know that they can only endure if they believe in one another. It's a lesson in community, that I believe is a good one for children to learn.
The end of this film has been mentioned quite a bit. If you're reading this far, I assume you know what it is, but just in case you don't I will avoid specifics. As it has for many others, the end did indeed move me to tears. It wasn't what we were witnessing exactly that was moving me, so much as it was the situation itself. We go through our lives interacting with so many people. Some might not care, but for the rest of us, the knowledge that we made a difference...left an impression...is tantamount. Hearing someone articulate just such an impression is always a beautiful thing, and I believe that inside of all of us is the wish to know that we had such an impression on even one person in life.
So yes. Take all of what I've just described; wrap it up in some beautiful animation, throw in some absurdity, some silliness, and some sweetness, and you'll understand why I loved TOY STORY 3. It's a movie, and a series, that wants to teach our children some very grown up lessons. It does so very well and very gracefully.
All of that alone is like getting an ice cream cone for being good. The fact that we get all of that with such enduring and charming characters is like spoiling us with whipped cream, a cherry and nuts.
What did you think? Feel free to leave comments with any thoughts or reactions on TOY STORY 3.
Sometimes I hate rating and ranking the films I see. Mainly because giving something score makes it an easy target for argument without reading any further. Take for instance the headline of this article that declares good and well what I thought of this adaptation of 80's silliness. Y'all probably saw those stars and thought I'd been wearing my hat too tight, right?
Well read on dear friends, and allow me to explain.
One fateful day in the Mexican desert, circumstance brings three Army Rangers together. John "Hannibal" Smith and Templeton "Faceman" Peck (Liam Neeson and Bradley Cooper) are already working together on an operation to bring down corrupt Mexican officers. Just when it seems their mission might be lost, Hannibal happens across fellow Ranger Bosco "B.A." Baracus (Quinton Jackson). He enlists him into the mission, somewhat to B.A.'s hesitation, just in time to save Faceman's life.
When the three go for medical attention at a nearby military hospital, Hannibal adds a fourth member to the team - pilot H.M. "Howlin' Mad" Murdock (Sharlto Copely). Murdock is as nutty as a fruitcake, be he comes with an inheritent courage and unpredictability that Hannibal wants. Uneasy as B.A. and Face are with Murdock's craziness, they can't argue with results. Thus, The A-Team is born.
Eight years later, the team is stationed in Iraq. They are approached by DCIS agent Charissa Sosa (Jessica Biel) and CIA agent Lynch (Patrick Wilson) to retrieve stolen plates that can be used to print counterfeit US money. During the mission, the team gets set-up and ultimately convicted of working off the playbook. Disgraced and disavowed, the team must try to break out of incarceration, and clear their names...all without getting caught by their own government.
To be crystal clear, THE A-TEAM is not intelligent action, nor is it trying to be anything more than silly thrills...and that is what makes it work. Many of the stunts defy logic, intelligence, and at least a few properties of physics. What makes them work is that we're never supposed to take any of them seriously. The movie takes the cards it is dealt and lays down the "yeah, sure" hand right off the first ante. It's not trying to excuse itself - it's quite clearly showing us the type of game it intends to play.
Once that's established, it allows us in the audience to laugh and cheer with its absurdity. It remembers that TV show that many loved years ago, and wants to honour it on a grander scale. Between multiple jailbreaks, multiple aerial dogfights, one building-rapelling shoot-out, and one dropped tank, the movie takes every cockamamy plan that original show ever could have thought of and pumps it with enough HGH to make Mark McGwire look like a pussy. And you know what? That's OK - it's the summertime, and this is why we go to movies in the summertime.
Acting wise, most of the team demonstrates inspired casting. The guys have a constant-smirk chemistry, and play off each other like true cowboys. Thinking about the one who rises above, it's difficult to believe that up until two years ago he was just a TV director and producer. Indeed, as Murdock, Copley is...well...a howl. He demonstrates the sort of lunacy and annoyance that alternately leaves the audience cringing and waiting for more.
The way Copley, Cooper, Jackson and Neeson make their plans come together is what charms and entertains. More so than the aforementioned wild stunts, and far more than a plot built around a MacGuffin. You see them soaking up the sun, enjoying beer and barbecue, and you find yourself wanting to hang out with them. That really is how I had to judge this film.
Its merit is not in its innovation, and it sure as hell isn't in its originality. this film won't make any top ten lists, not even mine, and it won't even change the way old properties are adapted into feature films. However, it earns a high score from me, and works on the whole because of one simple reason...
...it's just so. much. fun.
What did you think? Feel free to leave comments with any thoughts or reactions on THE A-TEAM.
If you please, allow me one more moment of music and movies coming together. I've been watching a lot of films like this lately with my NXNE immersion, and in that light perhaps its fitting that I cap them off with the grandaddy of them all. This was my selection for 1001 Series, please take a look at my musings on this classic after the jump.
For some, A HARD DAY'S NIGHT might seem like little more than The Beatles getting chased by screaming girls, horsing around, and singing the odd song. This might be how the film plays now, but labelling it as such comes with a lack of perspective.
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT is very interested in the price of fame - especially the other worldly fame The Beatles achieved. The frenetic running around is an obvious nod to this, but so too is the restlessness Paul's grandfather exhibits. At first he seems like he's nothing but a troublemaker. However, as he points out, he was brought along for a change of scenery...and what he got was "a train, then a room, then a car, then a room, then a room, and finally another room".
The hitch of course is that we've already seen what happens when they leave these rooms for the scenery grandfather so badly wants. We'd all give our right arm to be a rock star, but we forget that the cost of admission is public bedlam and private boredom.
It's fair to say that this film doesn't have the same appeal to people who aren't fans of The Beatles, but the movie is more than just an extended music video. While it's true that the overall story isn't exactly earth-shattering (mostly just an excuse for The Beatles to lob witticisms around), it has a look and a rhythm that fuses French New Wave and The Keystone Cops. When the lads perform, the camera is never content to hang back for a group shot, nor to zoom in for a mug.
Instead, we watch close cropped detail shots that isolate every single component of their chemistry, and likewise watch them interact and play off each other, exemplifying true camaraderie. What we are watching are some of the artier music videos, decades before arty music videos would even be thought of.
What I think works best about this film, is the handful of moments The Beatles are given to be themselves. For instance, there's a wonderful moment in a cramped corridor where John Lennon meets a woman unsure if he is who she thinks he is. In a scene composed like something out of THE THIRD MAN, Lennon is at his witty best convincing the woman that rumours of she and "him" abound, and likewise that he is not "him". The genius of the scene is the way he ultimately convinces her yet walks away grumpy.
The scene is yet another wink at the nature of fame, and the way we can worship celebrity and not really know them. Traces of this phenomenon can be found in moments where George talks with a trend-setting PR group who seem to want his opinion, and then argue with him about what his opinion should be. Forget about the fact that he's famous - he's the target demo, and yet when he contradicts them, they seem incredulous.
It's these cheeky scenes that elevate the film and allow it to endure. Were it merely a 'get them to the gig' romp, perhaps with a love story thrown in, it wouldn't have any merit beyond the fan base. However, by allowing four clever guys have fun and be mischevious, it feels more natural. That their antics are captured in glorious black and white takes what could have been silliness and turns it into something sublime.
Musically speaking, this film could make a case for having the greatest original soundtrack of all time. We forget these many years later, that many (though not all) of the songs we hear in the film were written for the film. I can't help but think that if a similar film was created for one of today's biggest acts, they might write one or two new tracks...not an entire album's worth. Of course, The Beatles being as gifted as they were, that original soundtrack album was what introduced the world to "I Should Have Known Better", "If I Fell", "And I Love Her", and of course the classic title track which is one of the few songs in music history most can identify needing only one note.
To say "they don't make 'em like this anymore" is cliché, but true. It's difficult to think that a film made about any of today's biggest acts could have this sort of subtlety, class, or charm. Even the best descendants of A HARD DAY'S NIGHT couldn't equal it's artistic merit. Often it's because they are too concerned with shoehorning musicians into a heavy story; other times there just isn't enough story. The way this film gives its actors just enough to work with, and leans on capturing it in a beautiful manner is a formula never again attempted, and ultimately what makes it stand up nearly forty years on.
But Hatter, Is it List-Worthy?... If you know what you're getting into, yes. Don't expect a life-changing story. Instead concentrate on the visuals that almost beg to be seen on mute...and the music that would make even looking at the mute button a punishable offence.
Get ready for the briefest Matineecast yet. To explain, I had mapped out the episode thinking I would actually be talking to two guests, thus I believed every segment would take twice as long. As it happened, a medical emergency precluded my dynamic duo from making it to the mic. So while I still fired off a fun little episode - including netting the first ever return guest on The Matineecast - it runs a tad short.
So to celebrate my Lammy win, I offer up something short and sweet. Here's the Thurman Munson episode...
Here's what's in store in episode fifteen...
Runtime
39 minutes
Up for Discussion
1. A special introduction
2. KNOW YOUR ENEMY - A different Q & A with this episode's guest, Susie Q (2:30)
3. COME TALK TO ME - Listener suggestions for The Matineecast. (6:53)
4. WHAT'S GOIN' ON - DC greenlights more movies, Les Grossman gets his day, and THE GOONIES turn 25. (10:20)
5. THE NEW SLANG - Review and reaction of THE A-TEAM (19:02)
Comments and feedback are welcome, and thank-you very much for listening.
Enjoy!
In rock & roll, there are stories, and there are legends. Then there are the details surrounding The Rolling Stones' recording of "Exile On Main Street"...which deserves a whole category all its own. This year has brought a remastered version of the album, and with it, a well-executed documentary, STONES IN EXILE.
The songs of Exile On Main Street are the musical equivalent of trying to jog through a muddy field. They are tough. They are laboured. They're a dirty, dirty grind. The visuals of STONES IN EXILE compliments that sound perfectly, as they too are very rough, raw, and grimy.
Much of those dingy images are actually outtakes from Robert Frank's unauthorized 1972 film COCKSUCKER BLUES, and here they have been cobbled together to evoke the musty, sweaty, debauchery that led to one of rock's greatest albums. However, that footage alone wouldn't do this story justice. The added element that adds an outlaw elegance is the inclusion of still photographs captured by Dominique Tarle. At first glance, these images evoke true rock & roll decadence - making it easy to understand how so many beggars and hangers on were drawn to the place as the album was being made.
The lofty ceilings and elegant fixtures of the mansion captured by Tarle are the yin; The humid basement and omnipresent debauchery of the basement captured by Frank are the yang. The way they have been brought together is what makes this film work. We hear story after story from the likes of Anita Pallenburg, Bobby Keys, Mick Taylor, Bill Wyman, and of course Mick & Keith. However, we only hear their stories as we watch those fantastic visuals. The fact that the 'talking heads' are kept off-camera allows us to drown that much deeper in the stunning visuals.
The visuals and anecdotes are of course heightened by the omnipresent score provided by the eighteen legendary tracks that make up "Exile on Main Street". They might be legendary now, but as the film points out, the fact that they ever saw the light of day is a minor miracle. To call the "Exile" sessions haphazard would be generous. To quote saxophonist Bobby Keys: "Those songs were as unrehearsed as a hiccup."
However, in one of the film's best moments, engineer Andy Johns points out that The Stones have something deeper in them that they seem to be able to let out at will...and it all starts with a look. The math of this phenomenon is explained as the piano intro for "Loving Cup" chimes out; an atypical Stones track that exemplifies them at their very best.
The drawback for me watching STONES IN EXILE was my fandom. The Rolling Stones have been one of my very favorite bands for close to twenty years now, and in that time I've consumed as much information about them as I could get my hands on. What I'm saying, is that a lot of the tales told in this film were ones I could recite. That doesn't hold it back at all as a film, just my experience watching it.
STONES IN EXILE played at NXNE on Saturday, June 19th. It is available on dvd on Tuesday, June 21st.
At the risk of being ex-communicated from my hometown, I have a confession: I've never been a fan of Broken Social Scene.
It's hard to explain precisely why, except to say that I just didn't get them. Their sound is sprawling, spiralling, and non-linear. They couldn't care less about hooks or singles. Quite honestly, they always seemed to want to pulverize me using a wall of sound coming through my own headphones. However, around eight-thirty tonight, it all clicked. Where once I was deaf, now I can hear. I throw my hands up - I am a believer in Broken Social Scene! Effin' hallelujah!
The catalyst to my musical transubstantiation is THIS MOVIE IS BROKEN. The film is Bruce McDonald's documentary about a BSS concert from last summer. The show already has a few elements of lore ingrained into it. For starters, many friends of the band were on hand to play along with, including Evan Cranley and Amy Milan from Stars, Emily Haines and James Shaw from Metric, Jason Collett and Feist. Added to that is the fact that the show was a free gig – a last minute make-up for a show cancelled for reasons beyond the band’s control.
Capturing such a unique musical experience would have been achievement enough, however McDonald had other ideas. Together with writer/director Don McKellar, McDonald used the concert as a backdrop for a fictional story. The show becomes the centerpiece for the story of Bruno and Caroline (Greg Calderone and Georgina Reilly). The couple are childhood friends, whose friendship has turned into something more, if only for one day.
What makes the marriage of the story and the show such a unique one is the very way those tracks echo the moment Bruno and Caroline find themselves in. Caroline is only in town for a day, so whatever it is that’s going on between her and Bruno has a very short lifespan…the immediacy of which is evoked beautifully in the urgent opening chords of the film’s opening track “Major Label Debut”.
The film’s most beautiful marriage of sight and sound comes during a performance of guitarist Brendan Canning’s “Chameleon”. The song with its long, leisurely, introspective intro seems like it was written for moments of contention on a summer evening. As it were, it’s very particular summer, and the scene will immediately take any Torontonian back to that specific night.
The song becomes the backdrop for a sequence where our heroes make their way to the show doubled up on a bicycle. As the melody lifts and optimism abounds, we watch the couple weave along the empty Honda Indy Track, with glimpses of the kids they once where visible in their expressions. As the setting sun soaks them, their feelings are echoed with the song’s lyrics “You can throw your arms up/ you can be at ease/ stick to things that remind you/ of where you used to be."
When they, and likewise we, get to the show - the show we’ve only been seeing in glimpses up until now – the experience is grounded in the way we keep coming back to Bruno and Caroline. Knowing how much they love the band, we can share in their excitement when Kevin Drew and Feist sing “Past In Present” together, eventually hearing it give way to “I Feel It All”.
What makes the film work so well might be what helped me to see the light where Broken Social Scene is concerned: context. A big fan of theirs always told me “You have to see them live”, a suggestion I always shrugged off. Watching the band (and all their friends) play off each other on stage gives the music a thread of community I never understood. Much like we are apt to do around the people we love, their songs often take the scenic route, and tell you a few stories on the way. Some are able to hear this idea just by pushing ‘play’.
I on the other hand had to see it to understand it...perhaps even to believe it.
THIS MOVIE IS BROKEN premiered at NXNE on Thursday, June 17th. It is now playing an exclusive run at The Scotiabank Theatre.
Despite playing things straight down the middle, SEARCH AND DESTROY is a pretty interesting watch. The reason for this is to hear how Iggy Pop can effortlessly deconstruct the tracks on The Stooges' landmark album "Raw Power". The music might seem like four guys making a fast-paced racket, but the fact that the racket is so melodic is no accident. As he listens back to the master tapes, Iggy smirks and drops everything but the backing claps and additional vocals.
As we listen to what seems like the most basic added touch, Iggy points out just how important they are. "I was searching for a higher frequency" he says. And just like that, we hear it: that little nudge that takes the track past a dive band shredding, and into something that combines aggression and melody. Iggy proves to be quite adept at articulating what makes the songs work, noting for instance that 'I Need Somebody' sounds like a whorehouse.
Perhaps its this ear for detail that caused such tension between Iggy and David Bowie when time came to mix the album. Bowie was as big as they came in '73, and was brought in to put his touch on the final album. While Bowie (completely absent in this film) likened what he was hearing to an African expedition, he failed to tap into what the band was trying to achieve. Thus, The Stooges' dissatisfaction with the end result is still palatable...as is the blame.
Amusingly, the film gets a lot of notable names of rock to weigh in on the iconic record. Chrissie Hynde, Johnny Marr, Henry Rollins and many more all have their say before the credits roll. I say "amusingly" because I wonder if any of them bought this record when it first hit shelves in 1973.
Remember that scene in ALMOST FAMOUS when Lester bangs pulls 'Raw Power' off the shelf at the radio station, and after exalting an "Amen!", utters to the DJ that the album isn't on her playlist? He wasn't kidding. Its the difficult part about being ahead of your time. You might eventually be hailed as genius, but for now you better be content to sleep in the van.
The film feels a tad short at 45 minutes, though by punk measures, that's 42 minutes too long. Likewise, due to a gargantuan absence of archival Stooges footage, the audience is subjected to some pretty unimaginative stock imagery. However, it's all worth it to listen to a rock legend explain the architecture of an essential album. This movie is best considered an appetizer, for The Stooges' free show at Dundas Square later on Saturday night.
SEARCH AND DESTROY: IGGY AND THE STOOGES' RAW POWER plays North by Northeast on Saturday June 19th - 5:00pm at Toronto Underground (186 Spadina).
Rock & roll is both vicious and ridiculous.
It's vicious in its dark undertones that permeate through the chord changes and vile words that have long been called The Devil's Music. This darkness doesn't just get prophesied to thousands of worshipping fans, it becomes ingrained into the very musicians chiming it out from their instruments. They have tasted the promise of a better life, and might certainly sell their souls for more fame, more money more hits.
As for its ridiculousness...well, have you seen what they wear on stage? if you're still unconvinced, ask yourself this: Just what is a "Baba O'Riley" anyway?
One movie that brings together the violence and humour of rock & roll quite nicely is SUCK, a comedy by Rob Stefaniuk playing NXNE this week. And if you just have to be trendy, it's also about vampires. The story is that of The Winners, a low level band on the wrong side of their best-before-date still searching for their big break. Their break seems to arrive without reflection as their bassist Jennifer (Jessica Paré) is sired as a vampire one night.
This increases their popularity, but the band leader Joey (Stefaniuk) wonders if they are succeeding at too high of a cost. He sees himself at a crossroads - literally. Jennifer's allure over the crowd might be their ticket to the big show, but it raises the notion of "selling out" to a whole new level. He wants to lead his band down another road, but can't seem to turn his back once and for all on this devil's bargain - a bargain he doesn't even entirely understand.
When the band makes a stop at a studio to cut a few new songs, Joey is called out by his producer Victor (Iggy Pop). In a moment that questions the very nature of rock & roll, Victor wonders aloud whether the band has gone too far in its quest for fame. Joey responds that dancing with The Devil isn't about fame, but likewise that he doesn't know what it is about. "You don't know...but you're willing to go to hell for it." Victor sums up.
When Iggy Pop is your moral compass, you know you've gone wrong.
SUCK has a lot of truly funny moments, including casting über-vegan Moby as a shock rocker named Beef Bellows who entices his rowdy fans to throw raw meat at him and his band. Likewise, it wouldn't be rock & roll without the requisite drummer joke. These moments of cleverness dot a pretty clever parable of striving for notoriety while sacrificing one's integrity.
SUCK isn't about to go down as one of the greatest rock movies ever made, nor will it rank high on lists of the greatest vampire movies ever made. However, like a zippo held aloft during a power ballad, SUCK recognizes that what it honours is both silly and profound, and that self-awareness is ultimately what makes this movie a lot of fun.
SUCK plays North by Northeast on Friday June 18th - 9:45pm at The Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor Street West).
It's amazing to see what happens to rock stars through the lens of passing time. At the time they can seem like no talent hacks driving kids into a frenzy; twenty years later they're icons of their genre...the bar against which all up and comers are measured. This transition makes it interesting to pause every once in a while and take a long hard look at how things actually happened. It's important to set aside what you know for a moment, and instead look and listen without preconception.
Such an approach makes WHEN YOU'RE STRANGE: A FILM ABOUT THE DOORS a fascinating watch. For starters, the film - narrated by Johnny Depp - breaks down the components of The Doors' music. It compares the music's unorthodox chemistry, and frenetic sound to a carnival. Quite an apt allusion as we can easily envision freak-show barkers, and twirling merry-go-rounds when we hear Ray Manzarek's oragn line on songs like "Love Me Two Times".
Something we all might have forgotten about is just how deep The Doors were able to cut in such a short amount of time. The band was playing The Whiskey and other such fine establishments on The Sunset Strip by 1966, but it would take another year for the rest of the world to get a listen to them with their debut album in 1967. The band was ended by Jim Morrison's death in 1971, the same year their final album "L.A. Woman" was released. Four years was all they had to make their mark. One can only wonder what might have been if the band got just four more.
The other detail that has been forgotten...over-written...mythologized...is the Christ-like iconography of Jim Morrison. The name evokes mental images of a shaman, an antichrist, a complete rebel. What we forget, and what this film reminds us with its very truthful photography, is that Morrison wasn't much more than a kid. He sometimes looks like he wasn't old enough to shave, and often wore a facial expression of a lost child. It makes one wonder whether the hell he continually kicked up was the only way he could cope with his fears and nerves.
WHEN YOU'RE STRANGE gets held back by a puzzling re-enactment-like narrative that dots the archival footage. Likewise, there isn't much new information here for die-hard Doors fans. But for even with those mis-steps, the film is a compelling watch. It provides us a moment dedicated to four boys we raised up into rock & roll icons. It gives us a moment to climb up on to the pedestal we built for them, and see them for the humans they actually are.
WHEN YOU'RE STRANGE plays North by Northeast on Thursday June 17th - 8:00pm at The Hyatt Regency (370 King Street West).
"You can bomb the world to pieces; You can't bomb the world to peace."
Let's wind the clock back ten years. The world was enjoying a small measure of peace. Iraq was that place we'd been ten years ago, and Afghanistan was just a country on a map most North Americans couldn't find. The musical scene was dominated by bubblegum pop acts and a strange influx of rock-rap groups...and we were buying all of it on shiny plastic discs.
Seems like a lifetime ago, doesn't it? Of course since then the entire world order has changed - both politically and musically - and the musicians featured in SOUNDS LIKE A REVOLUTION are the voices of this new world order.
The film champions artists you might not be so familiar with - names like Paris, Michael Franti, Anti-Flag, and NOFX. The reason for this possible unfamiliarity is because Wal Mart doesn't carry their music, and Clear Channel won't play their songs on the radio. Why not? Quite simply because these artists aren't content to sing about California girls or how they can't be tamed. No, these artists grabbed a mic and sung out to anyone who would listen that the world had become greedy, broken, corrupt, violent, and callous. Wonder what big box stores didn't like about that?
They weren't even the first to take such a radical stance. Lest we forget that forty years earlier, Bob Dylan advised the powers that be to 'start swimming' lest they 'sink like a stone'. Pete Seeger begged the oppressed to hold faith, ensuring them that 'we shall overcome'. And within days of its occurrence, Crosby Stills Nash and Young painted the sad portrait of four dead in Ohio. Labels gave these artists the freedom to take a stand. Their stand went out over the airwaves and quickly became part of a growing movement. What changed? In a word: money.
"When one makes twenty million, ten-thousand people lose."
What SOUNDS LIKE A REVOLUTION reminds us, is that musicians reaching out directly to their audiences is very much a new avenue. Remember that even eight or nine years ago, we were still listening to radio controlled by a small handful of corporations, and buying physical music from one of four corporate labels. Think a company as big as Sony wants to put their stock holders behind a song called "When You Don't Control Your Government, People Want to Kill You"?
Thus, the most socially aware and counter-culture acts were elbowed aside, and forced to work that much harder to get their battle cry heard. They were branded as traitors, unpatriotic. Think The Dixie Chicks had it bad? Imagine taking the same stance at the same time without the bank account to back it up.
"Fuck you, I won't do what you told me."
As we know by now, the world has become a much more tightly knit, and the divide between rock star and fan is now only as wide as the artist wants it to be. You might not hear artists like Michael Franti on an episode of CSI...but he no longer has to depend on any corporation, and their attention to the bottom line to get his music heard. It was a tough decade for artists like Franti; artists who seemed only slightly more than average people on the outside.
But as Tom Morello points out, history is not made by Popes and Presidents...it's made by average people standing up. When our governments, and our media won't stand up for us, we should count ourselves lucky that we have talented and passionate artists who will step in and do what's right. SOUNDS LIKE A REVOLUTION is a totem for those who took a stand, and for those who continue to stand up.
SOUNDS LIKE A REVOLUTION plays North by Northeast on Wednesday June 16th - 9:30pm at NFB (150 John Street).
Today begins my coverage of Toronto's North By Northeast music festival. While the music geek in me does indeed long to go to many of the concerts about town, the movie blogger y'all know and love is dedicated to writing about its film programme.
I'll be writing about most of the films in advance of their showings, however one of the hottest tickets is one I couldn't get my mitts on. Indeed, one of the most buzz-worthy films of the festival is Bruce McDonald's THIS MOVIE IS BROKEN. It's playing on Thursday June 17th, 7pm at the Royal Cinema, and judging by the trailer below - looks rather splendid.
Check it out!
Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.
The sun might shine or the clouds might lower,
but nothing could appear to me as it had done the day before."
- Mary Shelley
SPLICE is the story of Clive and Elsa (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley). To say they are gifted geneticists would be putting it mildly. They are rock stars in the scientific world, having already spliced together genes of several animals to create entirely new species. At the film's outset, they feel their research has brought them to a crossroads: the point of creating a hybrid of using human DNA.
The pharmaceutical company bankrolling their work expressly tells them not to, and to get to work on more lucrative results. However, being the scientific cowboys they are, Clive and Elsa secretly do it anyway. At first it's just to see if the can, but once they prove that they get intellectually greedy and see the experiment through to the stage of results. That result is Dren - a humanoid creature that physically grows at an extreme rate.
Now, along with putting in the required research their financiers require, Elsa and Clive are feverishly trying to keep their creation a secret. When keeping Dren at the lab no longer becomes an option, they move her to Elsa's abandoned family farm on the outskirts of town. It's here where they continue to face unexpected developments with Dren, and must ultimately face the repercussions of their decisions.
The character of Dren is what makes SPLICE work so well. We find ourselves caring about her in a way that we're unfamiliar with: some strange unexplored part of our psyche between our love for pets and our love for children. Not only is she human-but-not, but the way she grows turns her into a child in an adult body. This makes the Dren complicated (and dangerous) in many ways. In short order Dren becomes physically capable, but doesn't have the mental capacity to understand her capabilities.
Clive and Elsa discover that they have unwittingly become parents - but parents to being requiring so much more care and attention. Dren can kill as easily as blinking. However, she is missing both the human compassion, and the overall maturity to understand the gravity of taking life. In some ways, she's akin to giving Benjamin Button a loaded gun as he inhabits a teenager's body.
I must admit that SPLICE really left a contorted expression on my face in its final act, as the story goes to some rather twisted places. So much so, that I don't think it could have been possible to make Dren's only two words of dialogue any more disturbing. These unhinged scenes ultimately make the experience of watching the film truly unsettling, but is also makes it work. By this point, the film has already driven the moral question home. Now it forces the characters - and the audience - to deal with all the complications and violence of the decisions made.
That these complications are both foreseen and unforeseen is the problem with man playing God. What a film like SPLICE does best is illustrate why genetic experimentation is so touchy (Not that I staunchly pontificate for either side of the argument). The question isn't whether or not Elsa and Clive have crossed a line; the question is once they've crossed one line, when are they allowed to stop crossing lines?
What did you think? Feel free to leave comments with any thoughts or reactions on SPLICE.
Somebody needs to explain to me why this week felt so long despite me only spending three days at the office. Hopefully today will fly, especially with all the fun I have to look forward to next week. Along with recording the next Matineecast this weekend, I'm also hoping to catch two movies. Once all that's settled, I have NXNE to look forward to next week!
Hopefully you fine folks will drop by and see what I've been watching. I can tell you in advance that a lot of what I'll be writing about is either already on dvd, or will be very soon.
In other news, give me your opinion. I'm looking at finally getting my hands on a domain name, but am struggling with what I'd want to go with. "thedarkofthematinee.com" seems a tad too wordy...but simply "darkmatinee.com" seems like broken english.
Suggestions?
While I ponder that, here's some other awesomeness happening in the blogs these days. For your reading fulfillment, I give you...
Did you know that Scott from He Shot Cyrus started co-hosting a podcast with his wife. It's awesome stuff too! Here's the iTunes feed.
Along with THE A-TEAM, I'm hoping this weekend allows me enough time to get out and see SPLICE. Simon from Four of Them saw it recently - here's his thoughts on it.
Then there's Aiden who wrote about one of my all-time faves this week - OUT OF SIGHT.
Heh...the Movie Mistress has a delightful collection of movie moments set in the loo.
If that isn't enough listy goodness for you, Danny King ponders what the best shot film of the last decade was.
Oh - and Flixchatter turned one year old this week. Now everybody form a line, and we'll send rtm through the paddywhack machine.
Enjoy!
Seems like it's somewhat of a week of self-reflection here at Dark of The Matinee. Might not be such a bad thing given the amount of film-specific posts that are coming over the next ten days. Still, trends amuse me and I thought I'd point this one out.
Friday night I'll be going to see THE A-TEAM.
Alone.
Lady Hatter has decided to sit this one out, in many ways owing to apathy towards the film. She's told me to have fun without her, knowing full well that I have no qualms going alone. It's funny because much of our tastes overlap, but at least once a month a film like this will drop that one of us is hot for and the other could care less. What then?
Well first of all, one of us will rarely drag the other to something they don't want to see. Long ago, we learned that such arm twisting means no fun for both of us. Thus, we'll either find a friend to take instead of each other...or even go alone. Neither of us has a problem with seeing a movie by ourself, though admittedly, I tend to do it more than Lady Hatter.
It can be a sticky wicket for many couples. The "I want to see/but you want to see" conundrum...and it leaves me curious. How do you fine folks handle it? Be it at the theatre...on dvd...or even when and where you'll see what you see...
How do you solve a differing in cinematic opinion, and not find yourself single by the time the credits roll??
So while I found much of this past weekend's MTV Movie awards to be a long exercise in publicity stunts and teen-voting nonsense...I was quite excited to get my first look at the Harry Potter teaser they premiered.
So allow me to spare you the trillion and one f-bombs, TWILIGHT love-fest, and half-assed Aguilera...and just get to the good stuff...
So last week, Ross and Ross debated the pros and cons of being a movie blogger. Admittedly, reading this post gave me quite a grin as I could probably write two whole week's worth of posts on the subject - one on what gets my goat, another week on what I dig. However, I'll spare you fine folks and keep it to a few paragraphs. take a look after the jump, won't you?
To paraphrase the old saying, let's start with the bad news. I think what bugs me most about being a movie blogger is the way it seems like so few of my friends and family are actually reading my work. I can't completely blame them - lord knows they aren't all movie geeks. many of them are supportive, even if they don't completely "get it". I guess I just wish that they did. many of them do - and you know who you are - part of me wonders though if I would have to twist some of the others' arms quite so much if my movie babblings were being printed in The Toronto Star.
Also, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, there are times where it feels like I'm watching to write...and not the other way around. While it does make me examine films more critically, it can definitely take the fun out of it all. Last week for instance, I watched DOUBLE INDEMNITY for the first time and was knocked out by it. I have to wonder though if I might have fallen just that little bit more for it if I wasn't feverishly trying to scribble notes as I was watching.
I realize, as my friend Monika from Cinematical pointed out to me, that because I'm not getting paid to do this I can just "stop anytime". But that's the thing - because I'm not getting paid to do this, but still have an inherent drive to get taken seriously, there's no turning back. Something in the back of my brain feels like it has something to prove, and thus I try that much harder at something that started out as a lark.
Now it isn't all flat soda and stale popcorn...
Writing this blog has actually started leading to opportunities. I'm on my second festival where I'm covering it as accredited media. I know I've talked about that a lot over the last three months, but I'm not stopping yet. For me it's a badge of honour. I'm doing something I've always wanted to do, and people who know about such things are saying that I'm good enough to do it. Essentially, they are taking something I actually would have paid to do (go to a movie), and letting me do it for free!
Another thing that I love about this, is the way it adds another dimension to who I am as a person. Heady, huh? There are many who might see me as a middling desk drone. A company man with little power and little responsibility. But because I have more than that on my plate, it doesn't define me. It's what I do - it's not who I am. I'm a photographer. I'm a writer. I'm a cook. I'm not a 9-to-5 tie wearing schmoe. I'll prove it - strike up a conversation with me sometime, and I promise I'll never bore you with stories about the office.
Finally, as I illustrated in my latest podcast, what I've loved most about being a movie blogger is the people I've met doing it. The locals in the Toronto film scene that I love sharing a drink with once a month. The people online who both agree with my opinion and call me an uninformed twerp. And likewise the directors who I got to talk with at Hot Docs last month - professional filmmakers who were gracious with their time and amazingly encouraging to what it is I do.
It's strange: If someone cut my internet line tomorrow, I wouldn't entirely miss sitting in the blue glow and hashing these posts out every day. Lord knows I wouldn't stop going to movies. However, it's become such a big part of who I am and what I do, that I'd feel like something was missing.
Weird eh?
So this one runs a little long, but I beg patience. See, this is my birthday episode - and the thing I like to do most on my birthday is spend time with my friends. In the blogosphere, that's a bit tougher, so what I decided to do instead was spend time talking about my friends. And when it comes to talking about people I care about...I can get carried away.
(By the way - if the embedded audio doesn't work, can someone like tell me this time?)
So fun times and lots of it coming up. Here's the Pete Rose episode...
Here's what's in store in episode fourteen...
Runtime
73 minutes, 16 seconds
Up for Discussion
1. My brief introduction
2. KNOW YOUR ENEMY - Q & A with this episode's guest, Alex Kittle from Film Forager (1:40)
3. THANK U - A short mention of The Lammy goings-on (7:25)
4. COME TALK TO ME - Listener feedback on movies from years they were born. (12:15)
4. WHAT'S GOIN' ON - Japan doesn't like THE COVE, and del Toro leaves THE HOBBIT. (16:00)
5. THE NEW SLANG - Review and reaction of GET HIM TO THE GREEK (22:40)
6. BEST OF YOU - Alex & Hatter talk about ten great movie bloggers (39:17)
Comments and feedback are welcome, and thank-you very much for listening.
Enjoy!
In GET HIM TO THE GREEK, Jonah Hill plays a record label intern named Aaron Green, tasked with babysitting a rock star. I have to believe that this isn't far off the mark. There must be in credulous people in the music industry tasked with getting stars to interviews, to photo sessions, and on stage in some level of sobriety. In some ways, this movie is for them...but they deserved a better spokesperson than the one time Superbaddie, Hill.
As the film begins, we see what has become of rock star Aldous Snow (Russel Brand), the lead singer of Infant Sorrow. His latest album - the massively misfiring and deeply racist "African Child" - has bombed. His relationship with enabling party girl Jackie Q (Rose Byrne) has crashed & burned. He's drowning his sorrows in massive amount of booze, sex, and drugs...so when Aaron Green comes to ferry him to the show of a lifetime at The Greek Theatre, suffice it to say that Snow isn't exactly "daisy fresh".
Green is trying to juggle a lot by completing this one job. He is trying to win the favour of the record label rep, Sergio (P. Diddy - easily one of the best things about this movie). He is trying to play a part in getting an artist he admires back on top. And behind the scenes, he is trying to make sense of his relationship with Daphne (Elisabeth Moss) that is coming apart at the seams.
Aaron getting Snow everywhere he needs to be isn't so easy. The problem isn't just trying to keep a leash on Snow's rock & roll indulgences, it's Aaron trying to stay out of the line of fire and avoid himself being incapacitated by those very excesses. Can the comeback be completed? Can Snow get his act together for one more show? Can Aaron, indeed "get him to The Greek" before it all falls apart.
Most importantly - do we really care?
In GET HIM TO THE GREEK, I was constantly bothered by Jonah Hill. Thinking about this character in this situation, I find myself sympathizing...but not in the way Jonah Hill plays him. He's a schlub; a guy who only got into this position through an extreme bit of dumb luck. Watching him try to handle Aldous Snow, and how he can't seem to handle himself, I have to wonder how he isn't left on the outside of more velvet ropes - music industry insider or not.
That said, I did find myself pitying him when he goes through multiple moments of anal violation. That's right - he's put in this rather unfunny position more than once in this film. Why is this funny? Moments like this had me sighing out of boredom instead of laughing. As if they weren't enough, we also have to endure multiple scenes of stale party montages, bad drug trips, and full tilt debauchery. One of these are more than enough - going back for seconds is a waste of time.
The premise of this movie was going to be a bit of a minefield. We've seen film after film where characters are trying to duck and dodge through a hard-partying obstacle course. Making this the crux of a movie, makes it start the game one goal behind because we've already seen this before. What fresh party-gone-wrong, bad tripping, hard-drinking material can we possibly be about to see that we haven't seen in a few dozen movies before it?
Why this challenge especially irritate me, is because GET HIM TO THE GREEK doesn't just present Aldous Snow as a hard-partying has-been. It dares to give us many quiet moments of him reflecting on where he went wrong with his personal life. Brand plays him as a truly sad clown, a man looking to mend many fences, and a man who really isn't happy with who he has become. One glimpse of this side of him would have been token...the fact that this comes up over and over shows me that this film could have been on to something.
GET HIM TO THE GREEK did make me laugh...quite a bit actually. However almost all of that was based around Russel Brand and the character of Aldous Snow. That's strange because I never counted myself a fan of Brand or his comedy. However, he has a way of playing Snow that mixes cleverness, eccentricity, and an odd amount of intelligence. He was one of the things I liked most about FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, and I was happy to hear he was getting his own film...
...I just wish this film wasn't it.
What did you think? Feel free to leave comments with any thoughts or reactions on GET HIM TO THE GREEK.
Seems as though I'm going through one of those stretches where the "to watch" pile seems neverending.
For starters, there's the fact that there are four movies in theatres that i want to see right now (THE TROTSKY, GET HIM TO THE GREEK, HARRY BROWN, and SPLICE). Then there's the pile of dvd's I got myself with birthday loot (inc. ZOMBIELAND, A SERIOUS MAN, DISTRICT 9, and season two of Mad Men). Likewise a new rep theatre in Toronto has some good stuff scheduled over the next week (like UN PROPHETE, and THE WHITE RIBBON). Finally there are the screeners for NXNE that I must watch before that festival gets started...
Oh, and did I mention that summer has arrived in Toronto, and the last thing I seem to want to do is be stuck inside watching dvd's?
"Blurg" as Liz Lemon would say.
Oh well, time for me to stop complaining and get on with this busy weekend of bbq's, baseball, movies, and matineecasts. Thanks for listening to me gripe - I owe y'all a beer.
For your reading fulfillment, I give you...
Ross & Ross weigh the pros and cons of being a movie blogger (look for my thoughts on this next week).
THE KILLER INSIDE ME has been getting a lot of buzz since Sundance. Phil has a review up.
Movie Moxie, the queen of all film festivals is taking in The Worldwide Short Film Festival. Here's her take on Day Two. James from TSS is checking it out too - here's his thoughts on opening night.
Seems as though Univarn isn't a fan of those with the attention span of a fruit fly.
John Gilpatrick reminds us that sequels tend to suck.
Enjoy!
As MICMACS unfolds, a character has a moment of true epiphany. Like many such moments in the movies, the classical score starts to swell as the look of clarity washes over the protagonist's face. The difference is that in this film...the film is cheeky enough to sit a full orchestra behind the protagonist, and have them play that swelling score in the shot.
Some films might not survive such a blatantly self-aware moment of winking at the audience. But in a story that includes the traffic of famous body parts, the pursuit of a human cannonball world record, and a contortionist that likes to hang out in a fridge....it's just one more moment of absurdity.
MICMACS is primarily the story of Bazil (Dany Boon). When Dany was a child, his father was killed by a landmine. Many years later as a grown up, Bazil is caught in the head by a stray bullet - one the doctors decide to leave in to avoid further complications. When he emerges from the hospital, he discovers that his job has been filled and his apartment has been rented out. Rough day!
While trying to eek out a living as a street performer, Bazil is adopted into a an oddball band of brothers who scour the local dumps for usable scraps. The cast of characters include a human cannonball, an eccentric who only seems to ever speak in cliches, an inventor of various sources of innocent joy, and a contortionist.
As Bazil begins to find his place, he happens upon the headquarters of two munitions companies. One designed the landmine that killed Bazil's father, the other designed the bullet lodged in Bazil's head. Inspired to reap some overdue justice, Bazil plots to destroy them both. Or more to the point - he plots to have them destroy each other...
...and his newfound friends are only too happy to help.
As a film, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's MICMACS truly follows in the footsteps of Bazil's mental walkabout. It's early scenes have charm, but seem to be aimlessly wandering in search of inspiration. Even once he meets his new circle of friends, the film still seems stuck in the mud...though now with a bit more whimsy. In what might be a neat co-incidence, it's only after Bazil decides to trust his fellow freaks that the movie truly finds its way.
At that point, what was once just disjointed moments of sweet oddities gel into something much more endearing. We leave the fairy tale of circus freaks aside, and instead draw on the best things about these characters for one of the more original revenge films ever created. Bazil takes what first seems to be a motley crew of misfits, and hatches plan after plan that uses their eccentric talents like clockwork.
Perhaps his only more impressive, is the way he's able to use his enemies' greed against them. The scheme's every step is based on their every want. In that way, he gets them to lean into the very punch he is about to throw. In a way, Bazil shares a few things in common with Jeunet's most famous protagonist, Amélie. They both have a knack for devising some truly inspired bouts of mischief. Miss Poulain would likely be impressed by Bazil's talent for just desserts...but might likewise be put off by the fact that they are largely self-serving.
While MICMACS is unlikely to capture audiences' imagination the way that AMELIE did, the film is still a wonderful offering for the amount of pure expressionism on display. Every gesture...every prat fall...every widened eye that Jeunet coaxes out of these actors stops just shy of over-selling. It leaves us, is in a rare place: somewhere between zeal and insanity, a spot where we're laughing with these characters...not just at them.
Like Bazil himself, Jeunet deserves quite a bit of credit for taking what could just be a jumble of slapstick madness and giving it purpose (I haven't even mentioned the witty payoff of the whole caper). This movie succeeds because of the eccentric characters, and not just in spite of them.
What did you think? Feel free to leave comments with any thoughts or reactions on MICMACS.
Admission: I sometimes feel like posting a trailer is "phoning it in".
Oh well. As I get back to the working week with the taste of birthday cake still on my tongue, I'm sure you fine folks won't mind one little stall tactic before I get back to writing reviews and such tomorrow.
It's also not often that I post both a teaser and full trailer for the same movie, but with the craptastic summer we're in the midst of, this film is one of the few shining beacons pulling me through to the fall...
It's my birthday today.
A few years ago, a friend of a friend got me started on an annual tradition. The idea is to make a list of things you want to do in the next year. You make it on your birthday and seal it in an envelope. Odds are, within a week you'll forget at least half the list.
On your next birthday you open the list and have this serendipitous moment of seeing what you managed to do.
Last year, I morphed that idea into my own little bit of geekery. I turned the list into movies I wanted to see over the course of the next year. Given my affinity for the number, I chose twenty one titles. Out of last year's twenty one, I got through eight. Not terribly shabby for a list I'd forgotten all about!
This year's list - with a handful of selections pulled from yesterday's comments - is below the cut.
Now if you'll pardon me, I'm off to have a birthday breakfast with Lady Hatter...
COFFEE & CIGARETTESNO LOOKING DON'T LOOK BACK
SUNSHINE *
AMORES PERROS
UN PROPHETE *
STRANGE DAYS
BREAKING THE WAVES
OLDBOY *
THE STATION AGENT
TORREMOLINOS 73
THREE COLOURS TRILOGY (I know, technically that's three)
BRIGHT STAR
FRANKENSTEIN
SPIRITED AWAY
DELICATESSENTHE SECRET THE LIVES OF OTHERS
BARRY LYNDON *
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN *
YOJIMBO *
THE NEW WORLD *
MILLER'S CROSSING
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