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The first Leonard flick I saw was MR. MAJESTYK on television, and while I wouldn't say it's the best one by any means, it's pretty darn spiffy, with one of Bronson's best performances - I have a fond memory of watching it with my Pop and realizing at some point that this wasn't an ordinary crime film - around the point Al Letteiri said "Bring the man's melons in."
Elmore Leonard, 1925-2013
I was at the after-party, or as they used to call it back then, the party, for the premiere of Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown in 1997, at this nice nightspot in Times Square that I think was called The Kit Kat Club or something, and I happened to be standing at the bar close to the kitchen doo...
Oh, your therapist isn't au courant with the Jean Rollin? You'll get little sympathy from me on that score - I brought up THE LAST DETAIL and BLADE RUNNER at different points during my last session, and my therapist hadn't seen either one.
"Iron Man 3" and "Kiss of the Damned"
I wasn't all that crazy about Iron Man 3, but my friend Tom Carson really liked it. I point this out not because it's so rare that Tom and I disagree—we disagree, at times avidly, about a lot of stuff. What I did find interesting is that, if you look at both reviews (of which Tom's is the bet...
Thanks JB and DE, you completely missed the point, comparing a young artist who's just starting out with a number of gents with decades of output to evaluate. Plus who said you didn't hold female auteurs in high esteem? We're just talking about the focus on Dunham's background.
Although come to think of it, Dunham is ahead of a number of the guys I just mentioned. Like I said, I haven't seen any of her stuff, but I'm willing to wager it's better than FEAR AND DESIRE, which Kubrick made when he was around Dunham's age and plays like Ed Wood's version of THE THIN RED LINE.
Don't get me wrong, I think Kubrick was the greatest filmmaker who ever lived and 2001 is the best movie ever made. I doubt Dunham will accomplish as much, but then again I don't think anybody will accomplish as much.
Cut your throat in your sleep
I The journalist-turned-screenwriter Joe Eszterhas has, either in spite or because of his standing as something of a self-important clod, made several significant contributions to the lexicon of show business. I was reminded recently of his late ‘80s citation of his former agent, the diminuitive...
I find the hype around Dunham annoying, but if we're going to talk "privilege," let's not forget that Rossellini, Visconti, and Louis Malle were all rich kids, Bunuel got money from his mommy to make UN CHIEN ANDALOU, and Kubrick hustled his uncle for the dough to make FEAR AND DESIRE. IIRC, Tarantino also came from a tonier background than he let on, his years as a video clerk notwithstanding. But they're all great filmmakers. Lots of rich kids go into film and still don't have the chops to make it. I haven't seen TINY FURNITURE or GIRLS, so I've no opinion yet of Dunham as an artist, but there does seem to be an element of sexism in the focus on her background.
Cut your throat in your sleep
I The journalist-turned-screenwriter Joe Eszterhas has, either in spite or because of his standing as something of a self-important clod, made several significant contributions to the lexicon of show business. I was reminded recently of his late ‘80s citation of his former agent, the diminuitive...
"what a superbly entertaining movie."
You said it. I walked out of BERNIE completely giddy - I think I have to go back to MARRIED TO THE MOB to name a comedy that gave me that kind of oxygen high.
The 25 best films of 2012: 20 through 16
Not Fade Away's John Magaro, Brahm Vaccarella, Jack Huston, and Will Brill. Toppermost of the poppermost not pictured. This could be considered the "populist" or "mainstream" bracket, it occurs to me. With an exception. Or two. Never mind. 20: Skyfall, Sam Mendes, reviewed here. 19: Beasts o...
I think Andrew Dominik is one of the best out there on the basis of CHOPPER and TAOJJBTCRF, but this one was a disappointment - not a grievous one, I mostly had a reasonably good time with it, but definitely a disappointment. And I'd certainly agree with previous criticisms - you should do Higgins straight up or not at all. The political shit simply does not work. THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE conveyed a lot more about the fraught economy of the 70s without saying anything directly, and KTS almost literally works you over with ham-handed "relevance."
The current cinema
Sure, Killing Them Softly has it's problems, but what/who doesn't? But then again and come to think of it, Cogan's Trade, the George V. Higgins novel on which the movie is based, has no problems; it's about as perfect as a crime novel not written by Donald E. Westlake could ever be, and perha...
Dunno if I think PTA is Kubrick's heir (although Kubrick's influence is all over the place) but I do know I think this is the most evocative "dream movie" since EYES WIDE SHUT. I do think Anderson has changed his game here to making a cinematic time-bomb, the sort of event you walk away from thinking that was good but somehow lacking and then you wind up thinking of nothing else for the next 78 hours. My favorite moment only involved one of the main characters peripherally - a department store model waltzing around as Ella Fitzgerald sings "Get Thee Behind Me Satan." The one thing I will say is anybody expecting the bravura flourishes that concluded THERE WILL BE BLOOD will be disappointed - but the film offers other muted, low-key rewards, grace notes and an experience that sets off explosions in your head days later.
"The Master"
My review for MSN Movies is up. Let's go. UPDATE: Also, to paraphrase Orson Welles: "Kent Jones, Kent Jones, and Kent Jones." FURTHER UPDATE: The release of this film has provided a pretext for another MSN Gallery, this one on Great American Living Directors, a list inhibited somewhat by spac...
My brother and his wife saw HAPPINESS on their first date. They're getting divorced now, but they had a reasonably good run (14 years as a couple, married for 7).
Almost too easy
At the end of a post for Indie/CriticWire chronicling some "awkward moviegoing experiences," the ever-game Matt Singer asks readers if they can "top" his anecdote about how he ill-advisedly brought his future in-laws to see Knocked Up. My answer is, yes, in a walk. Frenzy with my grandmother...
YEAR OF THE DRAGON with my grandmother and brothers. Ariane's nudity and horrible acting (I think it might be the worst performance ever in a mainstream Hollywood film) embarrassed everybody.
Almost too easy
At the end of a post for Indie/CriticWire chronicling some "awkward moviegoing experiences," the ever-game Matt Singer asks readers if they can "top" his anecdote about how he ill-advisedly brought his future in-laws to see Knocked Up. My answer is, yes, in a walk. Frenzy with my grandmother...
Hey, I've got PSYCHO at #3! Otherwise, no overlap whatsoever.
My "Sight & Sound 50 Greatest Films Of All Time" Ballot
I was quite honored, this spring, to receive an invitation to participate in the British Film Institute/Sight & Sound "Greatest Films Of All Time" poll. Now that the results of that poll are being unveiled online, I figure it would not be improper for me to put up my own ballot, along with the n...
Shit, Rob Bottin abandoning Hollywood, hands down. Stupid remakes have been going on for a while.
Seminal?
Because of a scheduling glitch, I'm not going to be able to review this week's "big" release, a PG-13 rated remake of Paul Verhoeven's delightfully garish R-rated (and with good reason) Total Recall. Which is tough, because I'm kind of curious as to what reason (aside from the obvious depressi...
Where's MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE? Other than that, good list, lots of ones I need to catch up on but this should shake out as a pretty damn good year for movies in the end.
Year's best
Back at Premiere, my bosses used to indulge me. In a LOT of ways, for sure, but one particularly crucial and welcome one was that they let me get away with doing non-weighted ten-best lists. Not only were they not weighted (sometimes I put 'em in alphabetical order, even), but they weren't alway...
"Question that's entirely beside the point of this discussion: Even though it's commercially available and purchasable/rentable, is it actually legal to be in possession of it? I'm almost sure that it is, but why? Who wants to rent this thing on Netflix then get thrown in jail?"
The Silverlake branch of the Los Angeles public library has the Criterion DVD, so I think at least in California, you're on safe ground.
The "Salò" imperative, such as it is
So Slate has started a "culture blog," called "Browbeat," get it?, and it seems pretty much as delightful as you'd expect. And yesterday over at said blog David Haglund put up a brief post with the headline "Must Film Buffs Watch the Revolting Salò?" which is really a pretty interesting hed by...
In The Tradition of THE LAST WAVE is a good thing. The TRAILER for THE LAST WAVE scared the crap out of me and haunted me until I caught up with the actual movie. This one is high on my list.
The current cinema, can't stop what's coming edition
The mighty Take Shelter, with the great Michael Shannon, reviewed for MSN Movies.
According to FF Coppola, Spradlin came up with most of the dialogue for his character in the briefing scene, which would account for its singular flavor.
G.D. Spradlin, 1920-2011
With Rod Taylor in Zabriskie Point, Michelangelo Antonioni, 1970. The obits say Spradlin specialized in playing "authority figures," but his real art was in mixing you up about how you felt about them. His most chilling scene is of course as General Corman (the name is amusing) in Apocalypse N...
"As a movie, the main problem with "The Beaver" isn't Gibson, but Foster. God knows she is an intelligent individual with her heart in precisely the right place and a genuine concern for her themes, which are hardly small ones. But there's something lacking in what she ultimately brings to this material. I'm not sure if it's actual skill, or the courage of her convictions."
I haven't seen the movie, and I don't know if this is the problem, but Foster has never struck me, in her performances or her interviews, as somebody with a good sense of humor.* The script sounded to me like a black comedy, or at least a black dramady, and it sounds like she played it too straight or wasn't able to put across the humor. I'm pretty curious to see it nonetheless.
* I've never seen FREAKY FRIDAY, though.
That's Bevay, Floyd
No, actually, it is The Beaver, a decidedly vexed issue of a film that's not a home run but hardly a disaster either. How about you-know-who? For what it's worth, his best pure acting in a while. My review for MSN Movies has details.
"When his American agent would send him scripts, he would often be unimpressed. 'So I would say 'I quite like it,' which in the English way means that I really didn't like it.'"
Huh - it seems to me that the Hollywood film culture and "the English way" are actually not that far apart at all.
'King's Speech' director Tom Hooper on Hollywood: No one says what they really mean
I had lunch the other day with Tom Hooper, whose film, "The King's Speech," has been earning plaudits everywhere for its absorbing portrayal of King George VI's relationship with his cheeky speech therapist, who helps him overcome a lifelong stutter. Colin Firth, who plays the king, and Geoffr...
Who knows... maybe the critics have gone collectively mad, or could it be that INCEPTION is everything they say it is? I've got an idea for you, Patrick - instead of indulging in your middlebrow smirking at a movie that apparently is trying to be about something besides giant robots fighting, why not wait until you've actually seen it? Your juvenile reaction reminds me of a letter written to Kubrick about the confusion over 2001 - "After decades of movies made for 12 year old children, we have finally gotten critics with 12 year old minds. Pity."
Will there be an 'Inception' backlash before the movie even opens?
I've been getting the feeling lately that Hollywood movies are finally driving our nation's embattled film critics completely crazy. Reviewers are either full of vitriol and indignation -- as they were with recent films such as "The Last Airbender" and "Killers," which received almost unanimou...
Am I missing something? It sounds like every other episode of "24" to me.
Is 'Unthinkable' the hottest new movie that you have never heard of?
How's this for a true Hollywood mystery? Last Friday, when I visited the Internet Movie Data Base's Movie Meter, which ranks the hottest films and TV shows of the moment in terms of searches by IMDB users, I found a movie ranked at No. 4 -- higher than "Get Him to the Greek," "Shrek Forever Afte...
Just in case the point hasn't been made - lousy, lousy, LOUSY movies to choose from. I'd rather stay home and catch up on MAD MEN.
Summer box office sees its worst Memorial Day weekend in 17 years
Blame the playoffs, blame the economy or just blame the movies, but this was a Memorial Day weekend that Hollywood would like to forget. With new releases "Prince of Persia" and "Sex and the City 2" failing to generate big box office, total movie ticket sales for the four-day holiday weekend ...
Mr. Ebert and Mr. Siskel were two of my first and most important teachers. I was 11 years old when I started watching "Sneak Previews" - for the first time I really got that two intelligent people could have a difference of opinion and that some questions didn't have answers. I learned that from them before I learned that from my actual schooling. Mr. Ebert continues to show me how to learn and how to live.
Roger Ebert on Esquire's profile of him: 'I got a jolt'
There are really only two words you need to describe Roger Ebert: indispensable, which would apply to his four decades of brilliant essays and criticism; and indomitable, which would apply to how he's handled his past few years of debilitating physical struggles. If you haven't read Esquire's...
CARRIERS sounds interesting - thanks for the heads up about that. MARC PEASE, otoh, sounds awful - it sounds like a lousy sequel to RUSHMORE, it has a lot of the same elements. I doubt I'll see THE GOODS, I'm pretty sick of Jeremy Piven at this point.
Paramount backs up the Vantage dump truck
It was a year ago last July that Paramount Vantage laid off the majority of its 100 or so staffers, signaling the end of the studio's short-lived specialty division that brought home a host of Oscar nominations but managed to lose loads of money along the way. Finally this past June the studio a...
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