Saw the famous low-rent film-noir ‘Detour’ last night.  Was astonished by the performance of ‘Ann Savage’ as the hitchhiker with what we would probably call borderline personality disorder these days, who terrorizes the protagonist of the picture.  Take a look at the clip of ‘Ann’ below and tell me if if she doesn’t give one of the most amazing performances in cinema:

Anyhew, imagine my delight in finding out she plays Guy Madden’s mom in his new film ‘My Winnipeg’ coming to the Belcourst this month!  Whoo-hoo!

(P.S. I’ve decided to become a champion of the low-budget Dear Listener after my experience with the 175 million dollar fiasco that is the Mummy).

Yes, we’ll be reviewing the ‘X-Files, I Want to Believe’ and ‘The Mummy: Curse of the Dragon Emperor’ for Part 31, (released Thursday, August 7th Friday August 8th).

The good Professor Doctor won’t see the Mummy till Thursday morning; I’m recording it ‘on the fly’, editing and uploading it tomorrow night.

I just wanted to say to the Professor, (without giving anything away), re my request that you see the Mummy:  I’m very, very sorry.  I had no idea.

It’s Professor Doctor here, Dear Listener.  I’ve been trying to edit a book, and that process has reached the point where you feel that the whole project has been a naive waste - don’t worry, Dear Listener, it’s just a phase, and it will pass.  I have learned something new through the past few months of sitting at my desk and trying to find ways to inspire myself - I’ve discovered that there are certain movies I know so well that they serve the same purpose as music; I can have them on in the background and for some reason it becomes easier to work.  Doesn’t fit with every film I’ve ever seen - in fact, the organising theme appears to be that nostalgia for the films I saw as a teenager somehow makes work come more naturally to me.  My playlist for the past while includes ‘Back to the Future’, ‘Apocalypse Now’, ‘The Goonies’, ‘The Color of Money’, ‘Romancing the Stone’, and this morning I am trying to revise a lecture on the role of religion in violent conflict accompanied by the sound and images of ‘Hannah and her Sisters’.  These are all, of course, vastly different movies, and you, Dear Listener, may think that ‘Romancing the Stone’ does not belong on the same list as ‘Apocalypse Now’ (although, when you think about it, they’re both about jungle quests); but I think that along with asesthetic and artistic judgements, we evaluate and treasure films based on the context in which we saw them.  I don’t know why my parents let me stay up late one Christmas to see ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’, but they did, and I’m glad that the image of a bloke throwing a sink out a window doesn’t just engage whatever critical faculties I have, but makes me feel the way I did when I had very few responsibilities.  And maybe that’s the key to nostalgia - we feel freer when we think about earlier times; or maybe we tend to get into nostalgic moods when we’re feeling the stress of today more clearly.  Who can be sure?  Does it even matter?  As one of the dock workers in another of my nostalgic favorites ‘On the Waterfront’ puts it, ‘I don’t know nothing, I ain’t seen nothing, and I ain’t saying nothing.’

So, I’m off to see Michael Caine find out the meaning of life; meantime, would be genuinely interested to hear from you, Dear Listener, about the films that make you feel nostalgic, help you work, give you a sense of liberation, or just happy inside.

Wonderful documentary by Jon Ronson on the archived material of Stanely Kubrick, (a note - in this documentary as in other material about Kubrick much is mentioned of the ‘gaps’ between films - I think this is not correct - it’s not that he made a picture for a year then wandered around for a decade - his method of production was so involved that I would argue he was in a continual process of production with the release dates of the films getting farther apart).

Via Adam Eats Tilk, a deleted scene from The Dark Knight:

For all you doubters out there, (re: this podcast on The Dark Knight), check out these clips of the Joker, cough cough, Tom Waits, available via the magic of the Tubes:

As a change of pace from the serious discussion of violence in this post - via the Nashville Film Blog comes this James Bond theme, (produced on spec?), by Mr. Johnny Cash.

I had heard of the last-minute change in the theme of Thunderball, from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang to Tom Jones’ ‘Thunderball‘ - but had never heard that Mr. Cash had submitted one of his own.

As much of a fan of Johnny as I am, I can see why this wasn’t used.  The Man in Black’s doom and regret laden persona doesn’t really jibe with the casually violent and flippant Mr. Bond.

Which I saw at the Belfast press preview last night. When I got home, it was near midnight, and the Maestro and I were due to record our thoughts. But sadly the power grid in Paraguay had been de-activated to save energy in advance of this weekend’s national ‘Herbie Goes Bananas’ 28th anniversary fiesta, and so my genial co-host was unable to make himself heard. We shall, in due course return to the sixth Batman film in nineteen years, but for now, here are the words and phrases that came to mind as I watched ‘The Dark Knight’, and which I wrote down on the back of an envelope (literally) in prepping my part of the show that never was

Scape-goating

‘Heat’ and ‘Reservoir Dogs’

Brutality

Not cathartic

No music

Great production design

Heath caricature

One of the most believably redemptive acts in blockbuster cinema

Will be a great comfort to George W Bush in his retirement

We’ll surely expand on these thoughts, Dear Listener, and more, when the dynamo gets up and running again in Asuncion.

This will be a short post today, Dear Listener. While the Maestro (and if he gets to call me Professor Doctor, the least I can do is return the honour) suns himself on an Argentinian balcony, I am stuck here in cold and greying Belfast, with only a £6.50 for two nights deal on renting two ‘premiere’ releases and one ‘favourite’. And I need your help, Dear Listener, over a matter that may initially seem simple, but on closer reflection may well be the unanswerable question:

Justin Timberlake lip-synching to The Killers

Jon Lovitz as a racist cop

Sarah Michelle Gellar as a porn star investigative journalist

Dwayne Johnson as a much more famous version of himself

Wallace Shawn and Miranda Richardson together at last

Religious visions of the apocalypse and consumerism will eat itself scenarios

Some of the most striking visual images in US cinema of the past ten years

‘Strange Days’ meets ‘Memento’ meets ‘Blade Runner’ meets ‘Donnie Darko’ meets ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’

I think.

So, to the question: can anyone tell me what the hell ‘Southland Tales’ is about?

It’s well-known (and obvious from watching it) that this movie has been cut to ribbons - which didn’t harm ‘Across the Universe’, a movie that I felt could have lost a couple more scenes and still been breathtaking; on the other hand, I still wait in vain for a director’s cut of Billy Bob Thornton’s ‘All the Pretty Horses’, which I genuinely think could be a masterpiece if the studio hadn’t exercised their prerogative to make great things worse by dividing them in two. ‘Southland’ comes from Richard Kelly, who in ‘Donnie Darko’ proved himself capable of both smart philosophy and cinematic poetry - sort of a Ferris Bueller meets Ingmar Bergman kinda guy; and so I want to believe that his next film is more than the sum of its parts. But watching it last night was … how should I say this? Confusing to the point of monotony? Maybe, but I’m open to a re-viewing with new lenses: and this is what I need you for, Dear Listener. Is there any one among you who can tell me what I should do with ‘Southland Tales’?