1. Some X-Files: I Want To Believe reviews: my own at UGO (longer one to come at Reverse Shot); Jeremiah Kipp at Slant Magazine; Chris Barsanti at Filmcritic.com; Alonso Duralde at MSNBC; Andrea Chase at Killer Movie Reviews; Roger Ebert at The Chicago Sun-Times; Stephanie Zacharek at Salon; and Manohla Dargis in The New York Times.
["Think of Carter, then, as a reverse-Argento (a so-so director and a terrific writer, especially when it comes to structure) and of I Want To Believe as his Deep Red (a wintry-white Rorschach stained, occasionally, with crimson). The X-Files has always walked a fine line between the palatably corporate and the defiantly personal. This latest (and, I would hazard a guess, final) installment tends more toward the latter than to the former. It's merely functional as a thriller (it's scariest moment - a widescreen contemplation of the gulf separating J. Edgar Hoover from George W. Bush - is also its funniest), and the resonance of its numerous grace notes are often dependent on prior knowledge of events and happenings in the long-running television series that came before."]
2. "The balcony is closed": Some more personal thoughts from Roger Ebert on his leaving behind At the Movies.
["I was surprised how depressed I felt all day on July 21, when Richard and I announced we were leaving the "Ebert and Roeper" program. To be sure, our departures were voluntary. We hadn't been fired. And because of my health troubles, I hadn't appeared on the show for two years. But I advised on co-hosts, suggested movies, stayed in close communication with Don DuPree, our beloved producer-director. The show remained in my life. Now, after 33 years, it was gone--taken in a "new direction." And I was fully realizing what a large empty space it left behind. Yes, we're planning to continue the traditional format in a new venue, and taking the thumbs along with us. I'm involved in that, and it will be a great consolation. But somehow I thought the show Gene Siskel and I began would roll on forever. How many other TV formats had survived so long? I sat in my chair and day-dreamed. I remembered a Saturday afternoon, it must have been the winter of 1975-76, when Gene and I were eating hamburgers in Oxford's Pub on Lincoln Av. with Thea Flaum, a young woman who would produce the show for WTTW, the Chicago PBS station."]
3. Girish Shambu blogs on the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and offers some links of interest.
["I must begin with a word of gratitude to the wonderfully generous Michael ("Maya") Guillen of The Evening Class, who invited me to the festival, offered his fabulous pad for me to stay in, and arranged for my press credentials. A highlight of my trip was meeting up and spending time with Darren, who flew in from Tennessee. Michael threw us a party and invited the San Francisco film/cinephile community to it (thanks again, Michael!). It was fun to meet and hang out with fellow film-bloggers like Brian Darr of Hell On Frisco Bay, Ryland Walker Knight of Vinyl Is Heavy, The House Next Door, and Free Nikes, Shahn of Six Martinis and the Seventh Art, Michael Hawley of The Evening Class, Miljenko Skoknic, and Adam Hartzell. I was startled by the high level of quality of the films at the festival (both the terrific prints and the films themselves)."]
4. "Ignominious Exits": The Top Ten Worst Final Films, a Screengrab feature in 3 parts. First part above; Part 2 here. Part 3 here.
["Last week, in honor of Heath Ledger’s last completed performance (as the Joker in The Dark Knight), we examined the final performances and films of actors and directors that served as fitting capstones to their careers. This week, in a Top Ten list suggested by YOU (in the general sense, and "Other Matt" specifically), we present ten ignominious exits: the cinematic equivalent of dying on the toilet, suffered by artists who really deserved better."]
5. "NZ judge orders 'odd' name change": From BBC News. (Hattip Ali Arikan the Man with the Plan Near Iran)
["A judge in New Zealand made a young girl a ward of court so that she could change the name she hated - Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii. Judge Rob Murfitt said that the name embarrassed the nine-year-old and could expose her to teasing. He attacked a trend of giving children bizarre names, citing several examples. Officials had blocked Sex Fruit, Keenan Got Lucy and Yeah Detroit, he said, but Number 16 Bus Shelter, Violence and Midnight Chardonnay had been allowed. One mother wanted to name her child O.crnia using text language, but was later persuaded to use Oceania, he said."]
Quote of the Day: Elbert Hubbard
Image of the Day (click to enlarge): The real war is closer than you think.
Clip(s) of the Day: Two Jimmy Scott clips, the first from the finale of Twin Peaks, the second a Birdland performance of "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child."
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"Links for the Day": Each morning, the House editors post a series of weblinks that we think will spark discussion. Comments encouraged. Suggestions for links are also welcome. Please send to keithuhlich@gmail.com.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Links for the Day (July 24th & 25th, 2008)
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13 comments:
Re: #4 - I was all set to comment upon Orson Welles and his final role as the planet-eating Unicron in "Transformers: The Movie" but I find the internet contradicting me - is this only an urban legend, that the voicework for that film was the last thing that he recorded? That some of his final lines had to be redubbed by Leonard Nimoy, who was also in the cast, that's been debunked; but it had been my understanding for years.
Welles was supposedly on record before his death voicing his disgust at performing in a feature-length toy commercial, but the role - aside from being a scary devil to my very young self when I first saw the picture - offered a kind of sad parody of the state of Welles's career and the state to which he'd let himself go, much like the infamous commercial outtakes.
Re #4: I still can't believe that, after all these years, Eyes Wide Shut still has the reputation it has. Was anyone really watching the movie without bringing ridiculous expectations to it?
I'm surprised that many pile on this Kubrick film, but seem to forgive The Shining and Full Metal Jacket for their many problems.
In my view, Eyes Wide Shut is every bit as good as Kubrick's best films and deserves to stand among them, no mater what Kubrick himself thought of it. But the discourse about it is as interesting as the movie, now that we're almost 10 years removed from its release.
Interestingly, it wasn't universally hated by critics; it had its detractors, sure, but the extreme negative reactions seemed to come from mainstream audiences who wanted to see Cruise and Kidman in something hot and sexy.
Also, it had been 12 years since Kubrick made a film. He was already canonized in literary and critical circles. His films were shown in high school English classes, parodied over and over, and popularly accepted as "art." It was another period in American cinema, and perhaps that coupled with the hype surrounding Kubrick's death and the stars made it go down all the more sour with American audiences. Nothing about the film seemed to synch up with what people expected / wanted.
When it comes to the film itself, many people were not willing to take that journey with Kubrick. Even though the film explores many of the same themes he has always dealt with, the plot seemed to estange a great deal of viewers. Many audiences are already uncomfortable with mature representations of sexuality as it is; Kubrick dared to offer a mature, cold perspective on sexuality.
While I think it's brilliant, it's not the kind of film he will be remembered. It's unfortunate, really, but maybe in time it will be better remembered. Who knows?
One worst in the making: Gene Hackman, in 2004's Welcome to Mooseport. Surely Gene might un-retire for a final Eastwood picture? French Connection: The Return?
I really dug EYES WIDE SHUT -- although it was mismarketed as a thriller. It's actually a comedy about Tom Cruise's failure to get laid.
http://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/dvd_review.asp?ID=1259
I absolutely agree with Comrade Kipp's comment. EWS suffers the same misreading as Barry Lyndon---it's a bitter comedy dressed up in another genre's clothes, the better to mock it.
When the movie started, I remember thinking "Why is this film so grainy?" After all, few people on earth knew as much about film cameras as Kubrick, so if the grain is this prominent, there's gotta be a reason. It all came together for me when his patient's daughter enthusiastically threw herself at Cruise: EWS is a parody of a porn film, with its opulent sets, grainy photography, and increasingly bizarre sexual set-ups (Here is the handsome doctor, pronouncing the old man dead. And here's the old man's horny daughter!)
--- (Here is the handsome doctor, pronouncing the old man dead. And here's the old man's horny daughter!) ---
The description alone is pretty funny.
everytime i read an x-files review, i just want to begin shouting
HERE. IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE.
sorry keith. jeremiah implanted that into my head and now it won't leave.
When I strolled out of XF 2: Look, Billy Connolly Was The Only Guy Who Said Yes, I thought, "Man, I'm probably going to be the ONLY ONE who liked this thing."
I'm shocked and pleased to see this is not the case.
Michael P: on the 20th anniversary materials for the TF DVD, all the principals say that Welles completed all the lines for the film. But they also say that when he recorded it, he was 400 pounds, in a wheelchair, and breathing with the aid of an oxygen mask, they had to do all sorts of metallic trickery to make his near-death rasps seem remotely menacing. Still, it's hard not to listen to his last few lines and wonder if that's not Nimoy.
Something similar happened when Marlon Brando recorded voicework for The Godfather: The Game right before his death, but there they just hired an impersonator and didn't credit him.
Unlike Scarface: The World is Yours, where Andre Sogliuzzo got at least a big credit because Pacino couldn't pull off Tony Montana.
The Godfather: The Game is great if your lifelong dream is to shoot Abe Vigoda in the head. I'm livin' the dream, dammit!
I loved EYES WIDE SHUT from day one, although I was far too young to see it in theaters when it came out (if one was near enough to my house that I could have walked and attempted to sneak in, you bet your ass I would have). Nevertheless, the unrated cut is still sitting on my shelf, unwatched. I kind of like waiting...it'll be my last "first" when it comes to Kubrick (with the exception of FEAR AND DESIRE). So sad.
Re: #4 - I was all set to mention a horrible last film by Brando: Free Money (with Thomas Haden Church, no less) but was sad to see that he actually made a movie after that; the so-so The Score. But it did lead me to find this little tidbit from imdb.com (I hope it's true):
"While filming The Score (2001), he refused to be on the set at the same time as director Frank Oz, referring to the former 'Muppets' director as 'Miss Piggy'."
Oh, Brando...you crazy, crazy man...
Re: #5 - Dammit! When will the Man with the Plan Near Iran blog again? I keep checking back for updates...but sadly there is still nothing since the end of May.
From your X-Files review: "I'm not prepared to call Carter and company homophobic, but the way he and co-writer Frank Spotnitz conspicuously place pedophilia, homosexuality, and foreigness, without comment, on the dark side of I Want To Believe's nonetheless multifaceted spectrum raises more than an eyebrow."
I'll give you foreigness, and pedophilia really should be on the dark side of any spectrum. But I must admit I didn't even blink at the gay couple at the heart of the A-plot, aside from maybe to think "Yay, Massachussetts!"
I don't know if that indicates exceptional insensitivity on my part or the fact that we've come a long way from Silence of the Lambs. To me, it was just what anyone would do for the person he or she loved, if he or she was, you know, a crazy person with no moral compass.
And having revisited the film, filmcricket, I think I've come to a more complicated, less knee-jerk reaction to that particular thread of the story. The problem for me is not that the movie is homophobic (personally, I don't think it is), but that, as presented, the movie could be interpreted as such. The hot-button nature of that reveal is still a bit bothersome to me, but I also happen to think it's the right choice for this particular story (and fits, beside, with other of the film's hot-button juxtapositions, such as having stem-cell surgery as a salient turn of plot in a Catholic hospital).
So I have very conflicted feelings that I hope to explore more in my eventual Reverse Shot review. Overall, though, the more I think about the film, the more I love and appreciate it.
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