Thursday, October 1, 2009

Coming Distractions October 6th, 2009


Anvil: The Story of Anvil
Assassination of a High School President
Year One
Trick 'r Treat
My Life in Ruins
Purgatory House (written by & starring a 14 year-old girl)
Bones - 4th Season
Nip/Tuck - 5.2


Despite the silly 'r, Trick 'r Treat is actually really fun. It's got Anna Paquin & Dylan Baker, among others. It's 4 intertwined stories, in good old Tales from the Crypt fashion (but more seamless.)* I think you should watch it. And you should watch Creepshow 2, and I should rewatch it. I love the one with the couples on the raft. Even blobs of evil can't stop teen libido.


Other short story horror movies:
Tales from the Dark Side
3 Extremes
Creepshow
Creepshow 2
Twilight Zone: The Movie

Any others you can think of?

*Side note and a mild spoiler: some of the special effects in T'rT brought me straight back to Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves. A ridiculous movie about Little Red Riding Hood, wherein several different ways to get from Point A (human body) to Point B (wolf body) are explored. Angela Lansbury is priceless in it as Granny. "Never trust a priest. Why do you think they call him father?"

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Coming Distractions September 29th, 2009


The Brothers Bloom (by the director of Brick)
Away We Go
Shrink
Filth & Wisdom
Management
Monsters vs. Aliens
The Girlfriend Experience (check adult section for other movies starring "existential" porn star Sasha Grey)
Kings - Complete Series

I recently relistened to the This American Life episode that alerted screenwriter Scott Burns to the book and the true story that would become The Informant! (warning: the episode is, of course, one giant spoiler) and now I can't get The Clash song Lost in the Supermarket out of my head. Particularly the line, "Long-distance callers make long-distance calls."
So true. No matter how you look at it.

By way of explanation for the absence of a slightly movie-related anecdote from last week's blog post, we have compiled a list of some films where getting non-fatally ill and/or taking a sick day is an essential plot part.

Osmosis Jones: Anthropomorphized white blood cell. How much more relevant do you get?


Synecdoche, NY: The mental and the physical can not really be separated.


Twin Falls Idaho: What to do when your brother is sick. And the two of you share one body.


Fargo: I had a cold too! I was not, also, pregnant. Thank the heavens, cause I obviously need to deal with some issues about children and how easily possessed by demons they are (see lower post).


Kindergarten Cop: Also, kids are full of germs!


Mary Poppins: More kids with colds.


Secret of Nimh: Everybody's sniffling!


6th Sense: Though I would never, in any way, condone making kids sick on purpose, like the mom in this movie who has Munchausen syndrome by proxy. What a horrifying illness.


Overboard: Who wouldn't want to trick an amnesiac Goldie Hawn into believing that she is your wife and gave birth to your 4 children so she can be your stay-at-home servant? Naw, there are no moral issues with this movie. And a happy ending! Yeah, I maybe just gave a lot away about that movie, but honestly, I don't think anyone watches it for the amazing plot arc.


The Princess Bride: a cold as a plot-framing device.


The Reader: Get sick and meet a sexy older lady. Just beware of her dubious political affiliations.


Devil Wears Prada: Sometimes someone else's illness is your ticket to Europe and the fashion world beyond.


Taking of Pelham 123 ('74): One of the bad guys has a bad cold. Apparently, the new film ends on a bridge with cops and helicopters and the whole shebang. The old one ends with a sneeze.


McCabe & Mrs. Miller: Speaking of sneezes, when one of my co-workers was trying to investigate sick day movies for this here blog they came across a web page for sneeze fetishists. We now know this movie contains a great (sexy?) sneeze by Ms. Julie Christie, really satisfying: loud, realistic, & into a wonderfully (some say) dirty handkerchief.

Hope you all are keeping healthy!

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Coming Distractions September 15th, 2009


Nightwatching
Trumbo
Grace
Easy Virtue
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Four Dragons
Next Day Air
Stella: Live in Boston
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - 4th Season
Grey's Anatomy - 5th Season

First a note on the new Peter Greenaway movie Nightwatching, which focuses on a conspiracy theory that Rembrandt identified a murderer in his painting: Nightwatch is a common nickname given to this work, though the painting is actually titled The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenhurch, and it may not even be set at night: the misnomer comes from the way the painting blackened over time.

Do you know where your children are?

Now, let's talk about creepy little kids. I enjoy watching them and their evil beady little eyes. Here are some of the first movies that spring to my mind that feature those miniature menaces.


The Bad Seed: don't be fooled by the cute pigtails, Rhoda's the most heartless little girl you'll ever meet. I was always a bit disappointed by the deus ex machina ending, BUT any disappointment was instantly washed away by the post-credits sequence. Truly a bizarre little documentary/unwitting commentary on raising children in the '50's. Watch it til the end, I beg you.




Children of the Corn
: Stephen King's mixing of children & religion - a dangerous combination!






The Omen: Honey, did you really have to go and adopt the Antichrist?







Orphan: (coming soon to DVD!) Another regrettable adoption. I hear the ending's the best part.







Joshua: Proving once again that kids don't even need supernatural help to wreak tons of havoc.





The Good Son: Always knew Macauley Culkin was a troublemaker...








The Brood: One of my favorites! David Cronenberg and cloning and terror! When little versions of yourself mutate & turn against you... Also, therapy is a dangerous tool.




Village of the Damned/Children of the Damned: is someone you know tiny, a little too blond, and imbued with supernatural powers?






Don't Look Now: Is that really the ghost of your drowned daughter haunting you in the dark canals of Venice?



And now, as of this week, there is also Grace: Whose baby doesn't prefer to drink a little blood instead of milk?




There are so many! Any more you want to add?

Saturday, September 5, 2009

The Office - 5th Season
Parks & Recreation - 1st Season
Bones - 3rd Season
Fringe - 1st Season
Gomorrah
Crank 2
Dance Flick
Valentino: The Last Emperor


Due to the release of the new Valentino movie, I thought I'd do a rundown of other fashion documentaries.


Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton



Unzipped: probably my personal favorite fashion documentary, about Isaac Mizrahi (though he is not my favorite designer.) a lot of fun.


Seamless: also directed by Douglas Keeve (of Unzipped) about a Vogue fashion contest.





Lagerfeld Confidential: Karl is a very eccentric man.


We have a bunch of Project Runway, o' course.


We also have a new movie called Coco Chanel now on DVD, and a different Chanel biopic, this one with Audrey Tautou, is due out sometime in the future.


There are plenty of other fashion related movies, like Gia (one of my guilty pleasures... sometimes, to some small chagrin of mine, I am just fascinated by Angelina Jolie's face...), about the tragic-fate of a real-life supermodel.




Blowup
: Antonioni's day-in-the-life film about a fashion photographer that includes at least one sexy romp with 2 young models. The '60's were so scandalous!





Funny Face: the Audrey Hepburn movie that combines fashion and bookstores. Oh my! who could ask for more?


I am sure there are many more, because much as I enjoy pretty things, I only think about fashion tangentially and when, on the rare occasion, I am not already busy whining about needing to do my laundry. Any others spring to your mind?

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Coming Distractions September the 1st, 2009

State of Play
Sin Nombre
Che: Part 1
Good Dick
Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle
Bring it On: Fight to the Finish
Gigantic
Sugar
Shaun the Sheep: Little Sheep of Horrors
Rescue Me - 5th Season
Heroes - 3rd Season
Desperate Housewives - 5th Season

I've been watching a lot of classic films lately. Mostly screwball comedies from the late 30's - 50's, like Katharine Hepburn in Adam's Rib and The Philadelphia Story. They're great fun. Katharine Hepburn, to steal a word from Tyra Banks and that little guy on Project Runaway, is fierce. Though she was once called "box-office poison." I love the quick, sharp, stylized dialogue. It's fascinating to see the growing feminism addressed so directly. Or there is the slightly more serious (and mildly claustrophobia-inducing, but still fun to watch,) fare like Judy Holliday in The Marrying Kind. That one's about a married couple on the verge of divorce, forced to reminisce about their life together by their divorce court judge. That one was written by a real live married couple, Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin.

Anyway, I mostly want to bring your attention to another movie: Blast of Silence ('61). Written by, directed, and starring Allen Baron as a hitman from Cleveland. It is, certainly, one of the most relentlessly misanthropic films out there. The best part is the narration, which is in the 2nd person. "You are alone. You like it that way." It's full of gems, such as when the voice of Lionel Stander (a black-listed actor, uncredited in the film 'cause it was cheaper that way) tells you're looking at a picture of the kind of guy who has "the kind of face you hate," and who, "thinks he looks like a gentleman if his shoes are tied. You could kill him right now with pleasure." There is also an amazing club band in the film, fronted by a man singing while playing the bongos. You might want to wait to watch it until December though, so you can really empathize with Frank Bono when the voice from the t.v. tells you that you're, "Faceless in the crowd…Lose yourself in the Christmas spirit with the rest of the suckers."

Has anyone seen Surveillance? Is it any good? I heard director Jessica Lynch has picked up some tips (and Bill Pullman) from her father, David, and that it has a good twist ending, but I'm still a little hesitant to try it.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Coming Distractions August 25th, 2009

Adventureland
The Informers
Duplicity
Sunshine Cleaning
Rudo y Cursi
Goodbye Solo

Julia
London to Brighton
House - 5th Season
Life - 2nd Season
Scrubs - 8th Season
Californication - 2nd Season
Lie to Me - 1st Season




Look at all those new releases! Whew. That's a lot.











Today I want you to meet James Ensor, in case you two haven't yet been introduced.

These Snow Globes are very cool, too.