DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:
THAT EVENING SUN / HAL HOLBROOK / SCOTT TEEMS / RAY MCKINNON / WALTON GOGGINS / RODNEY TAYLOR / ASK THE FILM TALK / CAPRICORN ONE / THE BLIND SIDE
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DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:
PRODIGAL SONS / CLANCY BROWN / WHITE RIBBON / CACHE / DAYBREAKERS / LEGION / EDGE OF DARKNESS / WHEN IN ROME / BEAUTY AND THE BEAST / THE PROPHET / FROZEN / I LOVE YOU PHILIP J. MORRIS / WOLFMAN / LICENSE TO KILL / SHUTTER ISLAND / COP OUT / ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO / CHASING AMY / ALICE IN WONDERLAND / BROOKLYN’S FINEST / NARC / RICHARD GERE / GREEN ZONE / REMEMBER ME / THE BOUNTY HUNTER / HOT TUB TIME MACHINE / CRISPIN GLOVER / THE RUNAWAYS / THE ANNIVERSARY PARTY / JENNIFER JASON LEE / SEASON OF THE WITCH / BEN STILLER / RON PEARLMAN / NICOLAS CAGE / LAST NIGHT / SAM WORTHINGTON / CLASH OF THE TITANS / CLASH OF THE TITANS / MULTIPLE SARCASMS / ANDREI RUBLEV / DIARY OF A WIMPY KID / FURRY VENGEANCE / THE LAST SONG / NICOLAS SPARKS / MILEY CYRUS / GREG KINNEAR / PRINCE OF TIDES / NICK NOLTE / REPO MEN / GATTACA / REPO MAN / WHY DID I GET MARRIED TOO / STAR TREK / MEDEA / THE BACK-UP PLAN / THE JONESES / NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET / PIRANHA 3-D / RICHARD DREYFUSS / CHRISTOPHER LLOYD / WALL STREET 2 / IRON MAN 2 / ROBIN HOOD / ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD / PRINCE OF PERSIA / GET HIM TO THE GREEK / SEX AND THE CITY 2 / JONAH HEX / TOY STORY 3 / THE A-TEAM / KARATE KID
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Steven Soderbergh’s Che is magnificent - Gareth and I have been remiss not to discuss it in detail on the show – will try to rectify soon Dear Reader. In the meantime I urge you to screen Che if you can – I consider it one of the major films of the last decade:
Three of the Most Important Films of the Decade
Its fusion of a documentary’s intense naturalism with the power of engagement that comes from narrative fiction is unique.
I look at this special quality of the pic in slightly more detail in this post, reproduced below.
‘Che’ is available right now in a beautiful 3-Disc boxed edition from The Criterion Collection – treat yourself if you can. In an age in which all media is seemingly available in digital form, actually holding the physical object – this boxed set, with an essay in booklet form by Amy Taubin and small ’suitable for framing’ Che poster feels kinda radical ya know?
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Che and the Creation of a Style, January 12th 2009
Best film I’ve seen in ages – Che.
I imagine we’ll go into the politics of the pic amongst its various other attributes when we review it on the Show – but right now I just want to mention its style.
If you look back at reviews of the Godfather when it first came out one thing puzzled some critics. Where did Francis Coppola get the amazing style for the film?
The framing, the pacing – it felt complete, mature, fully-formed. As if Coppola had always been making films that way. How did he do it?
I felt the same way while watching the magnificent Che.
Both Part 1 and Part 2 start off with a slow, meditative graphic that slowly reveals and hides the various locations we’ll be seeing in the film. It beautifully puts you in the mood for this long, hypnotic film.
In Che the camera’s a bit shaky, naturalistic. At first you’d be tempted to say it’s shot in a faux documentary style, but that’s not it.
It’s shot as if the camera’s not there.
What? Aren’t most films shot that way?
Nope: in most pics you get the sense of everyone/everything beingblocked – see Hitchcock’s films for this – the players are arranged in the space, in the graphic space, for Hitchcock to play with – to build suspense – to affect the audience – to manipulate.
Che is different.
It’s shot as if by time traveler. As if we’re seeing the recording of someone who was able to dip into the time stream of a person’s life unseen.
Watching the film we feel as if we’re getting impressions – impressions of a life – it’s up to us to read, research more about this person and his times – the film, miraculously treats us as adults. Just as we have to interpret the actions of those around us; fit the events of our own life into our own personal pattern so we have to do the same with Che.
It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen and it’s a masterpiece – go see it.
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I’m not anywhere near as familier and knowledgeable about current non-commercial cinema as I should be – I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Che’s style is taken from something I haven’t seen, (as in the influence of Béla Tarr on Gus Van Sant’s Elephant).
It’s a story of crime inspired by a real crime story. A young man does something terrible one morning in suburbia – in the hostage situation that follows, the police and the young man’s friends struggle to understand his actions.
That could be the plot of some witheringly tired corporate product – yet look at the cast of My Son My Son What Have Ye Done:
Wilem Dafoe as Detective Hank Havenhurst. Chloë Sevigny as Ingrid. Udo Kier as Lee Meyers. Verne Troyer as ‘midget’. Brad Dourif as Uncle Ted. Grace Zabriskie as Mrs. McCullum and Michael Shannon as her son Brad.
Yes that’s right, it’s a Werner Herzog film produced by David Lynch. Thank god – just when I was losing my faith in cinema yet again after screening yet again another corporate offering.
My Son takes place in a world parallel to ours – a world where there is no mental illness – or more accurately, where mental illness has yet to be discovered; mental illness and possibly psychology itself.
If this was a film striving for surface realism instead of the inner dark heart of things it would be clear right from the start that the young man, Michael Shannon’s Brad McCullum, is mentally ill – but in this world, (of magic? where nature is still untamed? where magic and nature are inseparable), the police, Brad’s girlfriend and his associates struggle to understand the nature of nature’s malfunction.
It’s extraordinary in this way – and it makes sense that Werner Herzog runs a film school – what a wonderful exercise – to alter just one element of our world, (in this case the aforementioned non-discovery of psychology), to create a new filmic reality. One can imagine more films along these lines – with plots that take place in a world where where there never was a Magna Carta, or to go more deeply as in My Son, a reality where there is only one sex, or the ‘denial of death’ was not a wellspring for creativity, etc.
In this ‘alter-reality’ way My Son is a parallel world flick, (what would happen if Hitler had never been born, etc.), and therefore is the finest science fiction film I’ve seen in years. And not just history of the world is different in My Son – with all due respect to James Cameron’s extraordinary work on Avatar, nothing on Pandora is as mesmerizing, strange or otherworldly as Mrs. McCullum’s front lawn as seen in this pic.
Now if the above doesn’t appeal to you I’d suggest it’s worth watching just for what I’ll call the ‘Willem Dafoe Coffee Conversation’; I won’t say more – that would just spoil it. Dafoe is wonderful in the scene and in the film – as is Michael Shannon, Grace Zabriskie, Brad Dourif and the great Irma P. Hall, (are her actions morally correct in Bad Lieutenant? You decide).
My Son My Son What Have Ye Done is a superb film – and due to it I’ve once again fallen in love with the movies after having to suffer this over the weekend. Thank you Werner and thank you to everyone involved. Onward cinema, onward!
My Son starts tomorrow at the always necessary Belcourt Theatre here in Music City – if you can’t see it here screen it anyway you can.
Hey there folks – Jett here. Hope everyone out there is having a happy and healthy holidays. I’d like to thank everyone for supporting TFT this year – Gareth and I have had a great time doing the show and we couldn’t have done it without you. I’d love to send each and everyone of you the new Criterion Collection Kurosawa Box Set but, unfortunately, Uncle Jett’s cash has all gone to keep the servers ticking over this holiday season – if we’re still here then maybe next year.
What I can do though, in lieu of Mr. Akira, is recommend a holiday movie treat. Ok, so here it goes and please stay with my on this one ’cause it’s a bit strange:
Yes, that’s right. Sherlock Holmes. Or to be more precise Joel ‘Lethal Weapon 4′ Silver’s production of Guy “Director of Snatch” Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes.
I loved it.
Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying it’s a good movie – and in fact it’s far more entertaining than it has any right to be. But it is entertaining.
Hear me out here.
You see they’ve cracked the secret to Guy Ritchie. Here’s what you do: don’t let Guy direct a project that is his baby, that he’s written or that he actually wants to do. Use him as a director for hire for fun, silly cheesy fare and BAM! you’ve got a hit.
And Sherlock Holmes is a hit.
Sure it drags a bit – especially when Holmes and Watson aren’t on screen together. But when they are it’s magic. Downey and Law are the great new cinematic couple – coming out of the theatre I couldn’t wait to see them in another adventure.*
Now there are some caveats. If you go into the theatre expecting a ’standard’, yet highly produced, version of a Sherlock Holmes story you’ll leave in the first five minutes.
Because, apparently in this film Holmes has the power of Neo and knows how to manipulate The Matrix. You’ll know what I mean when you see it Dear Reader. But, once you get over the fact that they’ve turned Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation into an action-packed, adrenaline-fueled thrill-ride you’ll have a great time.
Right, I’m off now to eat some Christmas Ham – but I’ll leave you with one thing – many thanks again to all of you who have contributed both in money and in time to supporting TFT and keeping us going. We’re not at the top of thermometer yet, but I have absolute confidence that there are enough folks out there who enjoy Gareth and I enough to cough up some cash.
And on that traditional note of the season, money, I wish you and yours a wonderful holiday time!
Till the ham is finished and I’m back on the site – I am, Dear Reader, your humble cinema servant,
Jett
* This is without a doubt the cheesiest, most ‘Ben Lyonsesque’ thing I have written on in this site in the three years since we started this.
