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February 25, 2012

HOUSE OF YES

Your Random Movie Club Results Are In!

Tagline: Meet Jackie O. She's elegant, glamorous, and well bred. When you've got it all, you can get away with murder.

PRESHOW ENTERTAINMENT: WHEN I'M OLD ENOUGH... GOOD-BYE!

Pizza: Artisan

THE HOUSE OF YES IS A DEVILISH MOVIE
FEATURING SNAPPY PATTER, WRY HUMOR
AND EVERYONE'S FAVORITE PORTMANTEAU WORD - TWINCEST

If you would have told me that there's a movie starring Tori Spelling and Freddie Prinze Jr. that's pretty good, I wouldn't have believed you. But I saw it myself. It's THE HOUSE OF YES, based on the play (and you can really tell this was based on a play) by Wendy MacLeod. I saw this movie in the theater when it came out in 1997, and again when the Random Movie Generator selected it for tonight's feature presentation.

Parker Posey plays a character named Jackie-O Pascal (we never really hear her real first name). Jackie-O, a smart girl with acid-tongued comebacks too quick for real life (toldya it was a play), fashions herself (literally and figuratively) after the real Jackie O. Yeah, she's got some problems, but it turns out she's not the only one in this family with issues.

By 14, Jackie-O (in a flashback, where her young self is played by Rachel Leigh Cook-Nathanson) was already obsessed with Kennedy/Onassis (were they called Onassedy back then?), able to give Jackie's O's White House tour speech using her own house as a stand-in. But she breaks character when she gets to daddy's room, and from there, the tour rides off the rails. This kid's nutty, and if you need further proof - in voiceover, she tells us that after the Kennedy assassination, she, accompanied by her brother Marty (Josh Hamilton), went to an Ides of March party (umm, isn't that when Caesar was assassinated?) dressed as Jackie Onassis with a pillbox hat, ketchup for blood on her pink Chanel dress with "macaroni kinda glued on, like... brains." This is heard before we really meet anyone, which means we're in for a black comedy. Don't believe me? It's soon revealed that at 14, she slept with brother Marty. But hey, who here hasn't done wacky things when they were 14?

1983. Jackie-O lives in a Washington D.C. manse with her overbearing mother (Genevieve Bujold), whose name is also never mentioned, and under-bearing brother Anthony (Freddie Prinze Jr., who is on Wikipedia's list of "Famous Puerto Ricans"). The floor to this house may as well be covered with eggshells as we learn that Jackie-O has recently returned from the mental ward of the hospital and that certain subjects can trigger her.

It seems she's prone to violent outbursts, so they must be careful what they do and say around her (her last name, Pascal, is a unit of pressure in physics, ain't it?). Writer MacLeod brilliantly takes a dark subject (a really dark one) and balances it with comedy, as easy a feat as balancing a pin on the head of another pin. Wow, that was a lousy analogy, but you get the point. Wow, that was a lousy pun. Anyway, everything's fine with Jackie and Andrew and mom, until Jackie-O's twin brother Marty comes home. With a guest. A guest who is female. A guest who is Marty's new fiancee. TRIGGER! Marty's fiancee Lesly is played by Tori Spelling. Gotta give the girl some chops credit, playing a role she never had to play in real life - the poor girl. Lesly is at first lost in the size of the house and the ways of this family. They may as well be Venusians to her Donut King waitress from Pennsylvania. Hell, they're aliens to us, too.

Soon, a hurricane knocks the power out (toldya it was based on a play), but this hurricane won't do as much damage as what's going on inside this house - a house whose exterior looks a little White House-y, but a closer look inside reveals that it needs maintenance. There's a picture missing from the wall, and some of those bookshelves feature books turned flat, as if in defiance of the others.

Jackie-O (Parker Posey) and Mother (Genevieve Bujold)

There are so many things going on beneath the surface of THE HOUSE OF YES, and they're all witty, wacky, funny and alas, tragic. The threat of Lesly's presence in Jackie-O's face is animalistic. And poor Lesly is no match for the rabbity Jacky-O, who grew up in a house where no one said "no" to her, hence the film's title. She is a spoiled brat, as Lesly accuses her of being in a moment of defiance.

Worse, she's an insane spoiled brat. She sets people up so she can knock them down. She feigns confusion when she knows exactly what you're saying. Like any brat, she rules the roost. And like any brat, you want to rap her in the teeth, but you can't, so you laugh. It doesn't hurt any that she's funny. She's like a verbal magician - The Queen Brat: Master of Manipulation.

With camera push-ins and people appearing seemingly out of nowhere (and that dramatic hurricane outside!), and even someone running for their life from that haunted HOUSE OF YES, this movie plays like a horror film. Well, I mean, a horror film on the outside and a psycho-dramedy on the inside. I suppose it's an internal horror film. The material could have been tonally gothicized, akin to WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, but darker and funnier (though JANE is also funny). But they're not just trapped in the house because of the hurricane. These people are trapped in the house because that's who they are - a family stuck in a bubble, whose ideas of what is acceptable are skewed, and there's no one around to tell them otherwise. They're like The Addams Family, or Spielberg when he made 1941.

It's the dialogue that fuels this movie, whether it's one-liners dipped in snark, like when Lesly tells Jackie-O "I can't talk like that about your brother," Jackie-O responds, "Just pretend he's not my brother. I do." Or the characters' snitched-out stories about each other, like the foreshadowing one Anthony tells Lesly about Jackie-O flushing Marty's lizard down the toilet because he really loved it. And then there's the just plain funny ones, like: Jackie-O: "Oh please, if everyone around here is going to start telling the truth, I'm going to bed."

It would be unfair of me to expose more than I already have regarding how it all goes down. Plus I'm too lazy at the moment. See the movie and let them do it for you. I will say this, though; The positioning for power is superb. Sometimes its subtextual, and other times blatant, like after Marty and Lesly barely bang CHOPSTICKS out on the piano and Jackie-O steps in. She and Marty play a song so complicated and in sync with each other that it warrants a hearty laugh. Then they break into some vaudeville-like patter that makes it clear to Lesly - these twins' bond is infrangible.

Posey, who has a twin brother in real life (draw your own conclusions, I'm staying out of it), is wonderful in this movie. She leads her small cast around on leashes as if they were her dogs (I saw Posey with her dog in West Hollywood once, so I know!). It's not just how she delivers her ball-of-fire patter, it's also how she listens as others are talking to her. She's processing what they are saying, rather than waiting for her next line. Posey's made some shitty movies and some great ones. I believe THE HOUSE OF YES might be her best, and undoubtedly meatiest, performance. It's a good role in general, and it's a great role for her. She makes the 85 minutes, largely in one location, breeze by. STORY SEEMINGLY FROM LEFT FIELD: I went to a SEINFELD taping once which included a line that killed me. Elaine's boss Mr. Peterman, alone in his office, is reading a newspaper. After a beat, he says to himself, "Parker Posey. I just don't get her." Obviously, Peterman hadn't seen THE HOUSE OF YES. By the way, when they ran the episode, they cut the scene before the line. So there, now you're inside Hollywood, thanks to me. You're welcome.

The ensemble works well together, due to developed characters. I can't say for sure this is Tori Spelling's best performance since I've only seen her in one other thing, a TV movie. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say it is. Her being in the cast probably didn't hurt any when they were looking for funding. Director (he also adapted the script) Mark Waters (MEAN GIRLS, FREAKY FRIDAY), whose brother Daniel wrote the black comedy HEATHERS, has a theater background, making this movie a natural choice. He was also smart enough not to Tim Burtonize HOUSE OF YES and just let it play. Like I said, it's ruled by its dialogue, let's not get all fancy with the camera. This was his first film, and perhaps his best film (did anyone see MR. POPPER'S PENGUINS? Oh wait, I did.). Wendy MacLeod's fat-free script is to be commended. As mentioned up top, it's "play dialogue." But oddly, like watching an English film where it takes some time to tune your brain into the accents, the dialogue here became a thing of its own. I really enjoyed her script and this movie. And although the Pascal house is not even a nice place to visit, let alone wanting to live there, THE HOUSE OF YES is definitely worth a viewing.

PRESHOW ENTERTAINMENT: WHEN I'M OLD ENOUGH... GOOD-BYE!

WHEN I'M OLD ENOUGH, GOOD-BYE (1962) is another ephemeral film. I really love these things. This cautionary tale warns us about the danger of dropping out of high school (by means of a work permit from the school, so it's not nearly as naughty as it sounds) to get a job. And that's what Doug does, despite warnings from his father and guidance counselor that with a high school education, you can get a job, and without one you can't. Of course, this was as much propaganda then as it is now. "No more part-time for me, Bonnie," he tells his girl. And even though he starts in the mail room, he dreams big, looking at suits in shop windows, getting his own bachelor apartment, and making his friends jealous...especially Carlos, who now also wants to get a work permit. But what he doesn't tell Carlos and his friends is that he got the pink slip...and I don't mean the one under Bonnie's skoyt. While Doug is hopping from dishwasher to truck unloader, we see his friends learning English and electronics, playing football and basketball. And Bonnie? She's got a new boy.

Will Doug dissolve into nothingness, or do the right thing and return to school?

What I found interesting in this 28 minute short was that the high school was interracial. Black, white, Hispanic. Pretty cool for 1962. Very cool for a film to come out of "Your State Employment Service, affiliated with the United States Employment Service."

Posted by Rich at 10:00 AM | Permalink |

February 11, 2012

SUPER

Your Unrandom Movie Club Results Are In!

Tagline: Shut up, crime!

Pizza: None

Preshow Entertainment: None

"SHUT UP, CRIME!"

-THE CRIMSON BOLT

If you're a regular reader of this self-indulgent, pleonastic, and frequently way-too-long blog, you'll know that I'm not much for Super Hero movies. From the SPIDER-MAN 3 write-up: I've seen 7 BATMEN, 5 SUPERMEN, a DAREDEVIL, a CATWOMAN, a not-so-SUPERGIRL, a FANTASTICly bad 4 (both), 3 X MEN (WOLVERINE? Oh puh-lease...), two less than credible HULKs, ELEKTRA, WATCHMEN and the man in the iron suit. Only two of them (SUPERMAN, SUPERMAN II) have thrilled me. But you gotta give me this - I've really tried.

There's a lesser known sub-genre of Super Hero movies where the hero either thinks he has powers or knows he doesn't but doesn't care. In the last five years there was Michael Rapaport in SPECIAL (which was both sad and bad), Woody Harrelson in DEFENDOR (less sad, but still bad), and Justin Whalin, whose cohorts had powers but he didn't, in SUPER CAPERS (this one was silly, yet funny, featuring an Adam West cameo where he played Manbat!). But there were also a couple of good ones, both from 2010; the incredibly fun and refreshing KICK-ASS and tonight's presentation, SUPER. While the former is clearly set in a comic book world (it was based on a comic), with everyone's little sweetheart Hit Girl and her Big Daddy doing things that people without powers can't physically do, SUPER's two inexperienced real world crimefighting characters can (and do) get hurt.

Jacques and Frank (Kevin Bacon and Rainn Wilson

Rainn Wilson plays Frank, a weak (his self-analysis) and weird (he pretty much knows this too) loner, a cook at a roadside joint. Frank's only two great moments in life, according to him, were marrying Sarah (Liv Rundgren, I mean, Liv Tyler) and telling a cop which way an escaping criminal went, which sets the stage for his innate sense of justice and fairness. It doesn't take long for Frank's fragile life to start crumbling. He was losing Sarah, losing her to Jacques (don't all nerds lose the girl to a jock?), a guy who looks a lot like Kevin Bacon (or so I thought for the first third of the movie until it hit me: "Oh!! That is Kevin Bacon!"). Jacques and his goons hang out (or he owns?) a strip club where Sarah, a not-so-ex-alcoholic/horse addict, works. Frank sees Sarah's path - a nosedive. And you know what? He's right. And he's already a hero for trying to rescue her in the first place.

Frank and Sarah are two damaged souls, one who took the wild ride, the other the crawl-inside-yourself method. So even though it's clearly a mismatch, there is indeed a connection. And like Michael Douglas in FALLING DOWN, he's no longer going to put up with it. But how is this mad-as-hell-and-not-going-to-take-it-anymore milquetoast going to fight back when he doesn't really have the tools to do anything about it? Oh wait, a wrench is a tool, right? Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.

On a visit to the local comic shop (and when I say local, I mean local to Random Movie Club, SmashComics on Ventura Blvd.), and with the help of excitable clerk Libby (Ellen Page-Nathanson), Frank selects a few superhero comics, ones where the heroes don't have real powers. Yep, Frank wants to suit up. This short order cook wants to trade in his apron for a cape to stop crime. Okay, when he becomes the Crimson Bolt, he doesn't have a cape, but it's my blog and I'll lie if I want to. Why does Frank want to do this, you ask? Well, let's just say he has visions (his flashback childhood ones are pretty funny). But his latest one, a trippy amalgam of things he saw on TV, is the game changer, and not-so-coincidentally, the act break.

His first problem comes when he is unable to locate crime. But soon, The Crimson Bolt finds some real criminals and takes them down using his weapon - a wrench. This is where SUPER turns on the dark. People sometimes (myself included) have problems with genre-jumping, but for some reason it didn't bother me in the least. I liked that SUPER was funny and bloody. And now that Frank's a famous (secret, shhh) superhero (he's made the news), the film itself becomes more comic-y, with BLAMs! and KA-POWs! superimposed and negative spaces painted in. Often, the movie itself looks painted, or I suppose a better word would be "inked," with robust and saturated colors. Sometimes, instead of a blackout, there's a red-out or a gold-out, which seem to be SUPER's color scheme, or image structure as they called it in archaic film school. It's in the art direction and wardrobe, too; gold bean bag chairs, throw pillows and shorts on Libby. Along with the colors, there's the stylized lighting, making some shots look like paintings. They went to some trouble, impressive, says me, for this low budget 24 day shoot.

It's a small moment that finally sets Frank off, putting him on the road to super heroism. A moment that you and I, and certainly Larry David, have encountered. It's when someone cuts in line at a theater. Sure, what Frank does is overkill (NPI), but it's also relatable. I think even the pacifistiest (I made that word up!) person among us has had visions of handling a situation this way. If not, then they have never been on the Cahuenga Pass during rush hour. Frank's a comical predator, his face becoming birdlike when he strikes. He's a doofus on a mission. When he tosses a homemade grappling hook over a gate, it returns to hit him in his face. That was my third biggest laugh (my fourth was when Libby pours alcohol on Frank's wound. My first and second are coming soon). Anyway, it doesn't take long for Libby to want in on the action. She transforms (oh my, it's a funny scene) to the Crimson Bolt's sidekick, Boltie. She's like tomboy Anybodys from WEST SIDE STORY but with the cutest psychopathic urges you ever did see. You can just eat her up in this movie, just don't bump her in a sporting goods store!

Besides the SWEENEY TODD plot of practicing on others while waiting to get the big cheese (Jacques), there's a lot of uncomfortably funny things going on in SUPER. For example, when Boltie beats the shit out of a guy who keyed her friend's car, we learn moments later that she wasn't even sure it was him. See, while he's a psychopath seeking justice, she's a psychopath getting off on the adrenalin of the violence. They would make an adorable couple...in fact, Libby's obsession with The Crimson Bolt eventually turns psychosexual. Of course, righteous Frank won't even kiss Libby because he's married and that's a sacred bond, despite the fact his wife left him. It's stuff like that that makes Frank human, perhaps even more than human - in a way, a super hero. Raise your hand if you wouldn't kiss someone who comes onto you long after your junkie spouse left you for another. I thought so. So you see, there's also a pathos in SUPER, bolstered by dialogue like "People look stupid when they cry," and "That's what happens in between the panels," referring to comic books.

As you may have guessed, the comedy in SUPER is there, but it's uneven. From small bits that can be easily missed, like when the lady in the wheelchair topples as The Crimson Bolt beats up a purse-snatcher, and you can hear her say "my neck!" Then there's the flash-sideways, you know, what a character thinks in his head. One particularly hilarious one is when Frank looks through his peephole to see Detective Felkner (Gregg Henry), and a whole elaborate (and utterly illogical) scenario plays out in his mind (That was the second funniest moment for me).

Director James Gunn's career began working for Lloyd Kaufman's Troma Films (Kaufman has a cameo in SUPER) as a co-writer on TROMEO AND JULIET. He also wrote the great screenplay for the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake. He's only directed two films so far, 2004's horror throwback SLITHER and this one. But he also wrote and directed an hysterical series of shorts called PG PORN, available on his site (they originally ran on Spike TV). It's "For people who love everything about porn...except the sex." Gunn does a really good job of making SUPER its own animal - black humor dressed up in a Hollywood movie costume.

Though Rainn Wilson's unusually tempered performance is just right as sad sack Frank, Ellen Page steals the show. And I'm not just saying that because I'm a guy and she dresses up in that way hot super hero costume, then tries to seduce Frank who is an average schlub like yours truly. I'm saying that because she fully commits to this role (doesn't she always do that?). That's the secret for actors. No matter how silly a premise, no matter how ridiculous a character, commit. That's your job, and Ellen Page knows her job well. And yeah, sure, all that stuff I said earlier doesn't hurt.

Also in the cast, the always-fun-to-see Gregg Henry, who went from BODY DOUBLE villain to rich GILMORE GIRLS daddy to HUNG, where he plays a character named Mike Hunt. Here, he's a detective trying to find out who The Crimson Bolt is so he can stop him. Nathan Fillion, who's worked with Gunn on SLITHER and PG PORN, plays The Holy Avenger, a religious TV super hero that Frank watches. There's cameos by Linda Cardellini and, get this, William Katt, you know, TV's GREATEST AMERICAN HERO (believe it or not, the aforementioned movie SUPER CAPERS uses GAH's cheesy yet famous theme song for its end credits). And here's some black comedy that went on behind the scenes; unless I'm wrong, director Gunn maimed (not for real, in the movie) both his brother and sister-in-law; he got his legs crushed, she her face wrenched.

One of the many fun things in SUPER is its opening credits, "Saturday Morning" and bloody, setting the tone for the movie to the power pop song CALLING ALL DESTROYERS by Tsar. But if that wasn't enough, it was what happens at the end of these credits that made me do the highest kind of laugh - saying "wow, that's funny." The cartoon characters are all dancing, as if on a variety show. When the song ends, in the dead spot where there'd be applause if an audience were present, they all freeze. That's when these cartoon characters stand there catching their breath, you know, like real dancers in that moment. I don't know if it was the choice of the company that did those titles or James Gunn's or what. All I know is this was my favorite laugh in the movie.

There have been other fake super hero movies in the past, like HERO AT LARGE with John Ritter, which I thought was charming. Even TV had the William Katt show, CAPTAIN NICE and MR. TERRIFIC. And more serious vigilante movies like THE BRAVE ONE, DEATH SENTENCE (Kevin Bacon's in that one too) and the grandfather of them all, DEATH WISH (Charles Bronson plays an architect of vigilantism). These movies, along with SUPER, take the ugly wish-we-didn't-have "revenge emotion" and makes us hold it up to a mirror. I don't think many of us are capable of violence. Me, I've never hit anyone in my life, nor do I plan on it. But you never know. Maybe one day, someone will cut in front of me on a line at just the right moment...and...KA-POW!

Posted by Rich at 5:00 PM | Permalink |

August 07, 2011

HOME MOVIES

Your August Random Movie Club Results Are In!

Tagline: Brian De Palma's comedy that catches every body in the act!

Pizza: Danielle's Woodfire Pizza

Preshow Entertainment: Norm MacDonald: ME DOING STAND-UP

DE PALMA SHOULD HAVE REMEMBERED RULE #1 IN LIFE -
NO ONE WANTS TO SEE YOUR HOME MOVIES.

I love every movie Brian De Palma's directed. From his popular stuff like MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, DRESSED TO KILL, CARRIE, CARLITO'S WAY, BODY DOUBLE, BLOW OUT, THE UNTOUCHABLES and SCARFACE, to his lesser-knowns like CASUALTIES OF WAR and SISTERS, to early stuff like GREETINGS and HI, MOM!, to his oddities like GET TO KNOW YOUR RABBIT, and even to his crap like REDACTED, SNAKE EYES and RAISING CANE. Yes, I love every film De Palma's done. Except HOME MOVIES (1980). And sadly, HOME MOVIES is what the Random Movie Generator selected tonight.

HOME MOVIES was a cooperative effort between De Palma and his film students at Sarah Lawrence, where he was teaching a class. It's hard to say how many people actually had their say in writing and directing this awful movie (he shared writing credit with 6 students), though De Palma has claimed that 5% of the finished film was directed by the students. So if you directed 95% of this movie, that means you blew it, Brian. And if others directed it with you, you were in charge, so...you blew it, Brian.

Keith Gordon (who I really like) is our protagonist, a film student named Denis Byrd. If you think your family is nuts, wait'll you meet Denis'. His doctor dad (Vincent Gardenia) is fooling around on his mom (Mary Davenport), a non-stop, querulous sad sack. His brother James (Gerrit Graham, who I just saw play a dentist on an old WONDER YEARS ep.) runs an EST-like camp that practices "Spartanetics," and likes saying things like, "Those who know, know." Denis' only hope is his film school teacher, The Maestro (Kirk Douglas), an egotistical meta character that often pops up out of nowhere (once in a tree!), like he's Gazoo helping Fred Flintstone. When The Maestro teaches his film class, he begins by making an entrance, which is followed by his proteges giving him a round of applause. Douglas plays The Maestro like a typical 70s acting coach - teacher-as-therapist. But the idea (and slight logline) of this is - If Denis can just make a film that is honest, maybe he can turn his life around. The Maestro preaches an existential technique called Star Power, which transcends filmmaking by teaching you how not to "be an extra in your own life." Because "the camera never lies!" He goes on to tell his class that Denis' story is a "tragic example of someone who refused to star in his own life." So just how did Denis wind up being an extra in his own life? That's the story. The wacky story.

Denis is the neglected one in the family. When his mother overdoses on pills because of his father's extracurricular nookie, Denis is there to help her. Lying there with a (really funny, but not to her) framed 8 x 10 of son James by her bed - MOM: "James. I need James." See? Neglected. Not that mom's the epitome of stability and logic. When Dad pumps her stomach, she sees it as "He saved my life!" But he's the reason she took the pills in the first place. The trouble really begins when James brings his fiancee Kristina (Nancy Allen) home for the first time. James is an asshole, and with his New Age malarkey and "don't eat anything" edicts, he controls Kristina's every move. While pounding potatoes in the kitchen, Denis sees Kristina walking towards him in slo-mo, accompanied by a Pino Donaggio score reminiscent of (or lifted from) his music from CARRIE. Most of the movie, the shy "extra in his own life" Denis pines for Kristina. So what if she's marrying his brother? So what if she's a total airhead? And was a prostitute. And "did a lot of sex acts with a rabbit." Moving on....

When Denis screens rushes of his film for The Maestro, he gets a bad review and is sent back out with a three day deadline. Meanwhile, James, a man who has yet to touch Kristina (because he's apparently gay, and clueless about it), catches her with dried mustard under her nails (evil food!). He declares the wedding off unless she agrees to a "Temptation Marathon" where he places her in situations to see if she's seduced by things like sex and food (two of my favorite things, but not in that order). Can she resist cheap sex with bikers? We'll never know, because Denis rescues her (as Gordon does to Allen in De Palma's DRESSED TO KILL, released a few months later).

This mess of a movie becomes even messier when, at the halfway mark, Kristina gets a call from Bunny, whom we hear but do not see. But the phone is unplugged. Bunny, it turns out, is a rude bunny puppet. It's clear at this point that HOME MOVIES has ridden thousands of miles off the rails. Maybe two thousand miles, as not once, but twice this movie finds Denis in blackface and an afro wig, spying through the window on his philandering father.

From its animated overture to its horror film cliche comedic coda, HOME MOVIES is a sloppy effort. I think its biggest problem is its tone, in large part due to its annoying and abrasive characters, none of whom you can get behind. Mom spends all of her screen time crying in agony, like Brenda Blethyn with no emergency brake. But she was a mere runner-up to the winner of the Most Annoying Thing About HOME MOVIES Award (and with so many nominees, too!) - brother James. Accepting the award is Gerrit Graham, performing James as if he were a camp counselor in a silent film version of MEATBALLS 4. I can't say I'm surprised Kirk Douglas did this movie (and even invested in it), not just because he was the lead in De Palma's THE FURY two years earlier, but because he had just done SATURN 3 (where you get to see his ass) and was about to do THE FINAL COUNTDOWN, two suck-fi movies. I like Keith Gordon (now a DEXTER director), but he was such a wimpy thing in this movie that I couldn't really root for him. Believe it or not, it was Vincent Gardenia who had the least offensive performance. But not by much. Gordon, Douglas, Davenport, Graham and Allen were all De Palma alumni (Allen was also his wife at the time). And speaking of Nancy Allen:

Yes, this is another story about when I worked in a New York City video store in the 80s. Here's the set-up; all of the movies are on the walls behind the counter, on shelves. Their spines are facing the store, so to see what movies are available, all you have to do is look. But of course, some people would come up and ask, "Is GHOSTBUSTERS in?" As your friendly neighborhood clerk, I'd assist them by looking at the wall behind me - "Why yes. Here it is right here, between GHOST and GHOSTBUSTERS II." At this point, they'd catch on and just look for themselves. Except one day, this girl came in and kept asking for one movie after another. That's when I snapped and became rude to her. She must have really pissed me off because she was cute and I still got mad. Anyway, I said, "Let's play a little game. Instead of asking me if a movie is in, see if you can find it on this alphabetical wall." Man, I was an asshole. I still am, but I'll stick to this story. Anyway, at this time, Lee, a customer that I became friendly with socially, came in. Before I knew it, Lee and this girl were chatting each other up. Asshole Loses Cute Girl to Customer - Story at 11. I pick up on some of their dialogue. "....movie....Sarah Lawrence....producer...." Turns out Lee was a student at Sarah Lawrence, talking to this girl about HOME MOVIES, a girl who turned out to be Nancy Allen. Maybe one day I'll tell you the story on how I insulted David Byrne and Ellen Barkin. At least it wasn't at the same time. Anyway...

HOME MOVIES is said to be a parody of De Palma's childhood family life (his father was a doctor). But who cares what it's a parody of if it's never funny? And the repeated use of classical music cues to prompt a "funny" moment doesn't help any. The conceit of HOME MOVIES, being a movie by The Maestro about Denis making a movie about himself, never really works (The Maestro calls shots by turning to us and barking things like "Medium shot!"). In fact, I'm not totally sure that's the idea here. It's not clear, maybe on purpose, maybe not. But it was made in 1979, which was still the 70s, so, I suppose all bets are off. Every now and then the movie does treat us to a signature De Palma moment, like those jump cuts that move closer to the person (once again, like CARRIE), usually to the meter of the soundtrack; but honestly, this is just a bad student film. Remember, "The camera never lies."

So kudos to De Palma for making and releasing a feature film using his film students (wish I was in that class), but boo!-dos for making a movie that's so crappy that even a big fan of his found it terribly hard to sit through. This class project was an experiment that failed. It should not have been released to the paying public with the name Brian De Palma stamped on it. HOME MOVIES is something that De Palma should torture his friends with in his own living room - just like you do with your home movies. Only his have Kirk Douglas in them.

Preshow Entertainment: Norm MacDonald: ME DOING STAND-UP

How much do I love Norm MacDonald? Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis muuuuuuuuuuuuuch. There are so many levels to his comedy. The smirk. The stammering. The pretend he doesn't know he's saying something wrong. The delivery; a mix of stand-up and him sitting on your couch talking to you. His wiseass-ed-ness. His angle on how he sees things, which is skewed yet somehow, ridiculously correct. His use of words that sound spontaneous, like "endive" and "Janice." And his ability to make me laugh for an hour, non-stop.

His hunks go on forever (the one on the heart and death went on about 15 minutes, and the one on network news 10), and they're all delivered with gleeful (and fake) spontaneity.

I had just seen him live last week and loved him so much, decided to screen this special, which was loitering in the DVR. It turns out I wasn't the only one laughing. We all loved him. TOTAL RECOMMEND.

Posted by Rich at 10:00 AM | Permalink |

July 17, 2011

2012

Your July Unrandom Movie Club Results Are In!

Tagline: We Were Warned.

PIZZA: Little Toni's

PRESHOW ENTERTAINMENT: None

Because I couldn't decide on a headline for this write-up, I'll let you see all the contenders and choose for yourself:

IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT,
AND I HAVE A MASSIVE HEADACHE.

NEVER HAS A TAGLINE BEEN SO TRUTHFUL - "WE WERE WARNED."

"I AM SUPER PROUD THAT WE'RE 45 MINUTES INTO THE MOVIE AND NOTHING
HAS REALLY HAPPENED YET."
--HARALD KLOSER, CO-WRITER/CO-PRODUCER OF 2012

I SURE HOPE THE MAYANS WERE RIGHT AND THE YEAR 2012 BRINGS A MASSIVE TRANSFORMATION OF SOCIETY. ONE THAT MAKES FEWER SHITTY MOVIES.

THE REAL END OF THE WORLD CAN'T BE THIS HARD TO SIT THROUGH.

2012 ISN'T SIMPLY THE NAME OF THE MOVIE, IT'S ALSO THE NUMBER OF TIMES YOU'LL SLAP YOURSELF ON THE FOREHEAD.

For the 12th anniversary of Random Movie Club, we screened 2012, a big fat stupid effects movie. But that's okay, sometimes we want to see big fat stupid effects movies. But when your big fat stupid effects movie has characters who you have less-than-zero emotional investment in, then you're left with just the effects. And when your effects shots are always moving, like you're on THE SIMPSONS ride at Universal (but without the fun of actually being on the ride), you're in a world of trouble. This movie is an assault on the eyeballs, as we find ourselves constantly dodging falling buildings, lava flows, missiles, airborne trains, and pavement whose cracks follow us like bloodhounds on a scent, no matter which direction we're running in. And therein lies an additional, less visible problem; because this is yet another movie with countless first-person POV shots, we never, not even once, feel that the characters are in any jeopardy. Instead, we feel like we're playing...no...we feel like we are watching someone else play an 80's Atari game.

2012 begins with the (not quite Annette Bening) Columbia Pictures woman holding the torch...whose flame sort of becomes a supernova. So they got me. They played with a studio logo. Somehow they knew that this trick would put me on their side, like it did for RAIDERS, CAT BALLOU, MARS ATTACKS!, SERENITY and so many more. Oh, how I love when they do that. And oh, how I wish I would have shut the movie off when that logo shot ended and instead, nursed a pint of antifreeze.

THE BEGINNING

India, 2009, and Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) ("Say, what is a Chiwetel Ejio for, anyway?") a deputy geologist for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (which in real life has no geologists, yes I checked) is visiting astrophysicist Dr. Tsurutani (Jimi Mistry). Tsurutani takes Adrian 11,000 feet down into what used to be the world's deepest copper mine so he could show him...a video on his laptop?? Really? Okay okay, after that, he opens a 6,000 foot deep well to show him that solar flares are mutating the neutrinos (now with less sugar!) to act like microwaves and are heating the earth's core. And that's all the time they spend on the reason why. To be fair, that's probably a good move. We don't want science (especially if it's wrong) in a popcorn movie. We want to see iconic landmarks destroyed.

So Adrian travels back to D.C. He hasn't slept in two days (he couldn't sleep on the plane?), yet he is compelled to interrupt Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt), a government bigwig whose last name is a veiled Bush reference, during a fundraiser. "You have to read this now!" he yells. Because apparently, after the party will be too late!! That means the world's going to end any second!!! So when this scene is over, we better cut to...six months later? In 2010??? And we're where? In...Tibet? To either relocate people or put them to work on an oppressive government dam project that's not really a dam project? Hmmm.

Later that year, President Wilson (Danny Glover, who really is too old to be doing this shit) informs the other world leaders that the world will end.

And now...poof!...it's 2011. Here's where I would have liked to have seen a scene where Adrian is feeling foolish for interrupting Anheuser's fundraiser two years ago with his "you have to read this now!" moment. But instead, we travel to London where a sheik is informed that something he is interested in will cost him one billion Euros per person (and he's got a big family).

France is next, where we witness the heads of the Louvre and some Heritage Organization replace the Mona Lisa and tell us that the original will be placed in a bunker in Switzerland.

See if you can guess what happens next. Go ahead. Try. Nope. Wrong. Try again. Uh uh. Also wrong! Okay, geez, will you calm down? I'll tell you. Next, we cut to...the opening credits. And that should give you some idea on just how much 100% USDA Certified Crap they've crammed into this movie. At best, it's all just silly, but it's rarely at its best. I won't bore you with all the subplots and details. They bored me enough for all of us. But I will tell you a little about the main character, Jackson Curtis, played by John Cusack.

Jackson's a 33 year old limousine driver/struggling author. When we first meet him, he has fallen asleep on the couch, in his clothes, with a laptop and a pad resting on his chest (struggling author, remember?) and the TV on (which happens to be running a breaking news story on a Mayan mass suicide). Jackson's awakened by an earthquake, though I don't think he ever realized it. He's late to pick up his kids, who he somehow lost custody of to his ex, Kate (Amanda Peet). She's got herself a new guy, Gordon (Thomas McCarthy), and he's a plastic surgeon, and...what the hell am I doing? Who cares? The world's going to end!!

And since the world is ending, there's really no need to tell you about bloated Russian billionaire Yuri (I bet they had fights whether to name him Yuri or Sergei) with two odd looking kids and his girlfriend, Tamara (more fights over Tamara vs. Svetlana?). Oh, and FYI - Jackson happens to be Yuri's limo driver. And I don't need to mention the cruise ship singing duo of Harry and Tony, played by Blu Mankuma (that's just too close to Blue Man Group) and George Segal. Tony won't speak to his son anymore because he married a Japanese woman, and they have a kid named, I shit you not - Yoko. I also won't tell you about the murders. Or Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson), a conspiracy theorist who happens to be right...and as cliche-eccentric (he enjoys eating pickles) as possible.

But all that's nothing. Here are the real reasons 2012 sucks.

DID YOU REALLY SAY THAT?

-Director/writer/producer Roland Emmerich: "We realized there was only one man who could play this part: John Cusack." Well, then how great is it for you that Cusack said yes? Because according to you, if Cusack turned you down, then you would have been forced to cancel your movie, since he was the only one who could play this part. Either that or say: "We realized there was only one man who could play this part - John Cusack. But he turned us down, so we got someone who stinks."

-Emmerich and co-producer Harald Kloser commented that their script was so good that people just signed on immediately. That means it had nothing to do with Emmerich's track record of multi-million dollar blockbusters featuring sky-high salaries. Do they really believe that cool, smart John Cusack would have done this movie for scale?

-Co-producer Marc Weigert: "We tried to do as much research as possible, so we watched the Discovery Channel shows."

DON'T INSULT MAYAN TELLIGENCE

-How does a geologist outrank security? Why would Helmsley, (who has the more pressing matter of saving the world) be in charge of someone who trespassed (Jackson)? Shouldn't he be looking at data and lava and a fissure or two? This man is clearly out of his bailiwick! (I finally got to use that word!)

-While the cruise ship is boarding, a large wave violently smashes the behemoth against the docks. Later, the ship is on its cruise. What the H? There was no damage?

-In one of the many getaway scenes, every single building and vehicle on the road is destroyed. Not one remains. Everything is either toppled or crushed. Except for the car that Jackson is driving. And because this is how they set the table, we're now sure that this family will be safe from anything thrown at them, except my pointed ridicule.

-QUESTION: If a 30 mile volcano was erupting, would you...
A) Stand in the danger zone with your family and watch it? or
B) Run the fuck away?
(Correct 2012 answer: A)

-And just how did the L.A. icon Randy's Donut roll 6 miles to El Segundo? That gives me an idea. This movie could have been this generation's AIRPLANE! (It actually did make me laugh a lot, when it wasn't angering me.) They could have used that Randy's Donut as a runner, popping up in China, Africa, wherever our players happened to be, and finally ending up as a giant life preserver that saves the world.

-I'm no geologist, but the idea of the earth's crust shifting thousands of miles and staying intact seems a bit implausible. But it's a summer movie, so okay. I'll let them have China moving 1500 miles. But how did the people survive? Was it like a giant People Mover? Was it like...land surfing?

-They're on an ark (they actually do call it an ark) at the end! Too on the nose? Well then dig this;

-The son's name is Noah.

-On the way to the arks, we see helicopters dangling giraffes and elephants underneath. Hysterical!!

-An alternate ending provides us with one of the biggest laughs. It turns out that George Segal and Blu Mankuna survived the overturned/sunk cruise ship. At the end, they're on one of the arks. Somehow, someone had spotted these two in the ocean, plucked them, and put them on the ark. And to drive home the extreme peril they were in, Segal's arm is in a sling.

"MORE RPMs THAN ANY MOVIE"

If there's one thing I hate in any movie, it's extraordinary coincidences. You know the kind; people bumping into people in weird places, like other states or countries. Sure, it can happen, so I always try and give a movie one or two passes. In 1985, I saw the movie REVOLUTION starring Al Pacino and Nastassja Kinski. That's the first movie that made me groan because of the coincidences. Pacino and Kinski bumped into each other everywhere, in different states, on battlefields, maybe even on the moon, I can't remember. From that point on, I've used the word "Revolution" to mean "far-fetched, movie-convenient coincidence."

I am here to tell you that 2012 wins for most "Revolutions Per Minute." Here, please sample but a few:

Adrian just happened to have read, and loved, Jackson's book, even though Jackson only sold 422 copies.
And if that's not enough of a coincidence, Adrian meets Jackson, who happened to be trespassing in the government restricted area of Yellowstone Park.
Because they can't make it to China, Jackson and his family (along with Gordon) land in what's left of Vegas. And who happens to be there, standing right on the tarmac? Jackson's boss, Yuri! This is a Double Revolution, because it turns out Yuri's girlfriend Tamara had her boobs done by Gordon.
On the ark, the crew turns on a monitor to check out the hydraulic gear shaft, and when it illuminates, who do they see? Jackson's family. In close up. "I know those kids!", says Adrian.
People on the ark look out the windows to see Air Force One floating by. That seems a little impossible, no? Especially with the earth now covered in more water than before.
With hundreds of thousands of people on the arks, Tamara and Yuri manage to spot each other.
While stopping at a convenience store near Yellowstone Park with his kids, Jackson's daughter sees a TV. Lily: "That's Mrs. Birnbaum, my teacher...on TV!" This is another Double Revolution, because Kate and Gordon were in that very same supermarket at the same time as Mrs. Birnbaum.
In Washington D.C., bodies are everywhere, covered in ash. But one guy manages to not die. He stands up. Hey! It's the President!

UNORIGINAL

-Sample dialogue: "When they tell you not to panic, that's when you run!!!"

-There are so many scenes where people call someone, and while they are on the phone they hear that person die. Then they put on a sour face of disbelief.

Laura (the president's daughter and head of that Heritage Foundation, played by Thandie Newton) talking to French Museum Director. (She gets to hear him die.)
Adrian talking to his friend Tsurutani. (He gets to hear him die)
Tony talking to his son (He hangs up right before he dies, so he doesn't have to hear it.)

-Then there's the hack dialogue-reversals, like:

Person A: "We're taking on an increase of almost .05%." Person B (incredulous): Per day???" Person A: "No. Per hour."
Person A: "One billion dollars is a lot of money." Person B: "I'm afraid the amount is in Euros."
Person A: "You're telling me that the North Pole is now somewhere in Wisconsin?" Person B: "Actually, that's the South Pole now."

-When it's all over, and the arks are floating to the new world (Africa, actually), Laura is in her room reading Jackson's book. Adrian asks her out, and Laura delivers Cliche Movie Line #1: "Are you asking me out on a date, Mr. Helmsley?" Awwww, how adorable. But that's not all. She continues, coyly, "You know, my diary is pretty full." WHAT? What the hell does that even mean? Doesn't she mean her "dance card' is full? Now maybe that's an expression I've never heard in my life (nor has Google), but even if it is, shouldn't they have gone with "dance card?" Did none of the thousand people working on this movie point that out?

-In the beginning of the movie, Jackson is unaware that his daughter still wets her bed at age 7 and that she needs to wear Pull-Ups. So what's the last line of the movie? Lily: "No more Pull-ups." Jackson: "Nice." I suppose one can argue that life will go on as usual. It's also lucky for Lily, as there are no more stores to buy Pull-Ups from.

THE END (OR IS IT?)

Out of curiosity (or maybe because of my abundance of masochism), I watched the knock-off movie 2012: ICE AGE. It was made by The Asylum, a production company that is defined by its intentional rip-offs of big budget tentpoles like TITANIC (theirs was TITANIC II) and SNAKES ON A PLANE (SNAKES ON A TRAIN). I'm here to tell you that as preposterous as the Asylum's version is, it's not any worse than the original 2012. It follows just one family (though the daughter is separated from them), instead of dozens of global characters and the attempted saving of the entire human race. We become more invested in this family unit, with one goal (meet up with the daughter and survive). Unfortunately, because of how insouciant the players were during the annihilation of Earth, it fell flat. But 2012: ICE AGE doesn't pretend to be anything more than it is - a low budget outing riding on the coattails of the movie 2012, whereas 2012 thinks it's not only a great movie, but an important one.

On the commentary, director/co-writer Roland Emmerich, no stranger to the disaster movie genre (INDEPENDENCE DAY, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW) and co-writer Harald Kloser seem like nice enough guys, though because of their respective German and Austrian accents, it's kinda like listening to Siegfried and Roy tell us about the end of the world. I can't really blame them for saying how great this actor is or that shot is (or even when Kloser, who also co-produced and scored the movie, started a sentence with - "As good producers, we..."). I mean, they did score three-quarters of a billion dollars on the theatrical run. So really, anything I say, and advice I give, would probably lower that number, perhaps by three-quarters of a billion dollars. But I just can't help thinking, What if 2012 wasn't a big stupid movie? What if it was a big smart movie? Or at very least, a big cool movie?

Okay, I know. We all work hard and sometimes when we see a movie, we just want to watch mindless stuff. We just want to see buildings topple, the Earth split, and giraffes dangle from helicopters. So if that's what you want, then that's what you got. But it saddens me that so many talented effects people did some amazing work on 2012, only to have it feel invisible, wasted on a movie where the characters are in the same amount of danger whether they are in the movie or at home watching it. What the filmmakers needed to do was watch some Irwin Allen and learn that putting heart into your movie (and a dash of schmaltz) will make you care about the people. Let them watch con man Fred Astaire get a cat handed to him, signalling the demise of the woman he was falling for in THE TOWERING INFERNO, or Shelley Winters sacrificing herself to save the others in THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE. Siegfried and Roy were absolutely right when they reminded me on the commentary that "when you look through the character's eyes...the action itself becomes emotional." Now if only they'd go out and make a movie that does this. Or they can just make another piece of crap like 2012. And another billion dollars.

Posted by Rich at 10:00 AM | Permalink |

July 11, 2011

MILK

Your July Random Movie Club Results Are In!

Tagline: His life changed history. His courage changed lives.

PRESHOW ENTERTAINMENT: Scopitones!

THE HUMAN KINDNESS
OF MILK

I hate biopics. They rarely capture the person they're biopicking. Sometimes they even backfire and I leave the movie hating the person. I liked Johnny Cash, Ray Charles and Jerry Lee Lewis until I saw the movies and realized what assholes they were (still love their music, though). But now and then, a movie like MILK (2008) punches through and actually inspires. Admittedly, when MILK came out, I prejudged it. "Oh wonderful...lefty activist Sean Penn doing yet another 'This Way to Oscarland' character where he gets to chew scenery while glued to his soapbox." And then, when it won some Oscars (Penn and writer Dustin Lance Black), it became "there goes Hollywood, rewarding its 'important' movies again." But I was wrong this time, or better yet, they were right. MILK is an important movie. A well-made, bittersweet, uplifting and important movie. And Sean Penn? Well, he's just perfect playing Harvey Milk, not only one of the first openly gay politicians, but a man who wound up helping to shape our society.

MILK begins during the flashpoint in gay rights. For those who don't remember or weren't yet around; The late 60s, a time when, depending on where you lived, a gay person could be charged with being a homosexual in a bar, or if you're a bartender, serving alcohol to a homosexual. Police routinely raided gay bars; harassing, clubbing and arresting. The American Psychiatric Association listed "homosexual" under "mental disorder." And get this - The New York Times wouldn't even print the word 'gay'. So it was no small wonder that gays were closeted. You'd have to be brave and crazy to tell the world you were gay. Harvey Milk shouted it through a megaphone. Harvey Milk was brave and crazy. In a good way.

It's 1978, and Harvey, alone in his kitchen, is speaking into a tape recorder - "This is only to be played in the event of my death by assassination." Following this, actual footage of Diane Feinstein's announcement that San Francisco mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk have been murdered. Even though I knew the key points to this story, this opening one-two punch drew me into the movie in record time.

Harvey's tape recorded account leads to voiceover, which takes us on the journey, beginning in 1970. Harvey, an insurance worker-bee a few hours south of 40, meets Scott (James Franco), and with a few moments of flirtation, they're making out in the subway station. Smart move, get the gay physical stuff out of the way so that the story can be told, a story springboarded by this line of dialogue that Harvey tells Scott - "Forty years old and I haven't done a thing...that I'm proud of." Together they move to the already progressive city of San Francisco, to an area called The Castro, one of America's first gayborhoods. Harvey and Scott settle in and open a camera shop. After the liquor store owner across the street meets Harvey and shakes his hand, he wipes it off with a handkerchief. But if you didn't do commerce with the neighborhood (read: gays), your business would eventually die. If you did, you'd flourish. The liquor store owner ended up staying. The times they were a-changing, albeit a-slowly.

Harvey's activism crept in as if it was unplanned (can't say it was, as Harvey could surely be cunning...more on this in a moment, or longer if you're a slow reader like me). Pretty soon people were coming to him, like teamsters who supported the Coors beer boycott (Coors was under fire for being non-union and also for firing gays). And as there's power in the union, there's also power in people sticking together for a cause. Still, the police were continuing to raid bars, and when someone got murdered for being gay, Harvey realized, "If we had someone in government who saw things the way we see them." Well, it doesn't take long for him to jump on his soapbox (Harvey is a funny and charming guy, so he actually stands on a homemade soapbox), and gives a speech on a street in The Castro announcing his candidacy for City Supervisor. He's dubbed "the Mayor of Castro Street" (even he's not sure who said it first - "...perhaps I invented it myself."), and people are listening. The irrepressible Harvey Milk saw a hole and filled it. Errr, maybe I could have put that better.

Harvey tries to win the election, and fails. The next year, he fails again. But then fate steps in as neighborhood boundaries are changed and so are the laws which now allow people to vote within their district. With the success of this election, he and his ragtag platoon of recruits ("My name is Harvey Milk and I'm going to recruit you!" was how Milk opened a lot of his speeches) knew they were in for a very steep uphill climb. But what they didn't know was that Harvey would be slain not by an anonymous homophobe, but by fellow supervisor Dan White (Josh Brolin). See, as Harvey's star rose, White's burned out. White, like others before him in his family, was a fireman with a Hallmark family. Suddenly, gays were shaking up his world. He tried to play ball, but eventually, with his morals threatened, he snapped. And so the fireman took action to put out the fire.

Harvey Milk died in 1978, and it was only four years later that I found myself in Times Square watching a sneak preview of a movie called BAD BOYS (not the Michael Bay movie) where Sean Penn played a vicious street thug named Mick O'Brien. I couldn't believe my eyes. This was the same guy who, one year earlier, played, with unmatched brilliance, stoner/surfer Spicoli in FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, and he was scary good in both (though scarier in BAD BOYS). I remember thinking, this guy can do anything (...and he did, including WE'RE NO ANGELS, which was a little unforgivable and a lot bad). But let's face it, Sean Justin Penn can act circles, and I'll be a monkey's aunt if he didn't really become Milk.

If you think his performance is exaggerated or untrue, then I command you to watch an amazing documentary called THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK (1984). Actually, everyone should stop reading this and watch it now. Okay, are you back? Where was I? Oh yeah...With Harvey Milk, what you saw was what you got. He was as true to himself as he was to the world. There was no phoniness in him, and likewise, there's no phoniness in Penn's performance. I enjoyed all the actors in MILK, but I'd like to single out a few. Emile Hirsch as Cleve Jones, a street urchin until Harvey takes him under his wing to become an activist ("My name is Harvey Milk and I'm going to recruit you!"), and Alison Pill as Anne Kronenberg, the lesbian biker chick who replaced Scott as Harvey's campaign manager (Scott couldn't take Harvey's devotion to activism, and neither could Harvey's next boyfriend, the playful but unhinged Jack, played by Diego Luna). Both Cleve and Anne have a waggish admiration for each other in the movie, and today are still big LGBT activists. All these characters, and more, unite for the cause, which could be anything from SF's pooper scooper law to the mega-important defeat of Prop 6, a/k/a the Briggs Initiative, which if it had passed would have made it legal to fire gay teachers (how do they know?) in order to "protect our children from these perverts and pedophiles who recruit our children to their deviant lifestyles."

Also bringing some major chops to the film is Josh Brolin, who played Dan White with such brilliance that his character should be studied in Psych 101 classes. He was a conflicted man, trying to be good, but ultimately unable to disregard his beliefs. When Harvey doesn't pull through on a promised favor, you can just see the inner torment on Brolin's face. Some say the real Dan White was gay and he either didn't come out or didn't know it (the movie even touches on this), which would explain why he acted out so much. In one scene, Harvey's quip to White, which would have seemed harmless and amusing to the open-minded, must have seared through White's skin -

MILK: "We're not against that (the family)."
WHITE: "No?? Can two men reproduce?"
MILK: "No, but god knows we keep trying."

I think if I saw Josh Brolin on the street, I'd tell him I hate him. But really, I love him in this. It's his Dan White I hated. That's how good he was. Later, when White started unraveling, I actually felt sorry for him. And then, when he passed the point of no return, I found myself worrying about Harvey's safety, even though I already knew White was going to kill him. White killing Harvey Milk led to the origin of the Twinkie Defense, an excuse so reprehensible that I can't even think about it right now. Of course, for me the Twinkie Defense is "It wasn't me.", as in "Hey! Who ate my entire box of Twinkies!!?" Anyway, Brolin nails it all, but he couldn't do it without a good writer (Black) and director (Gus Van Sant). They made us gasp at Harvey's demise, even though we knew going in that Harvey would be...demised.

Van Sant has had a heralded yet spotty career. He splashed with DRUGSTORE COWBOY, and followed up his hit GOOD WILL HUNTING with that shot-for-shot remake of PSYCHO, which his bio calls "controversial," though everyone else calls it "baffling." But here, Van Sant's work is skillful. His use of real footage (the anti-gay Anita Bryant stuff is disgusting, and it would be funny now if there weren't people still like her) is both effective and either amusing or devastating, and it integrates perfectly with the way this oft-verite film is shot. Van Sant was also able to use many of the same locations where the events happened, like Harvey's actual apartment and camera shop (redressed from its current gift shop) and San Francisco's City Hall. Also, among the extras in the film's candlelight vigil were participants in the original vigil over 33 years ago. It's a solid film, even though Van Sant breaks the tone at one point using a corny yet fun shot of at least a hundred people filling the screen, each in their own "Brady Bunch box", spreading the word of an upcoming rally on their phones BYE BYE BIRDIE-style. This was a gay network bigger than LOGO. Maybe part of the reason MILK is so good is that it was written, directed and produced by gays. I'd like to think that many straight directors, writers and producers could have made MILK (big deal, so do cows) (Sorry, I couldn't help myself), but I'm guessing being gay gave it lots of authentic moments and choices unavailable to breeders.

Now, back to Harvey being cunning. As heroic as he was, he was also a businessman, politician and entertainer, all professions under the umbrella of manipulator. I suppose you have to be to get your points across. Take for example the "pooper scooper" law. Though I'm sure he was really for it, he damn well knew it would get him noticed. So would his take on outing vs. privacy. Milk insisted everyone who worked with him came out, an idea that potentially has serious consequences regarding privacy and family. But Milk was always looking at the big picture: "If their families don't love them for who they are, for who they really are, then they should lose them." I can't pretend to imagine what coming out back then felt like, with the threat of losing jobs, family, friends, houses, and being beaten. And if you didn't come out, you were probably ripping yourself apart inside, perhaps even suicidal. And if you think it's easy, remember, Melissa Etheridge didn't come out until 1993 and Ellen DeGeneres 1997. Elton was more of a trailblazer, outing himself in 1976. Of course, Charles Nelson Reilly didn't have to say a word.

But the times are still a-changing. 1978's Prop 6 begat 2008's Prop 8. We all still have a long way to go. There'll always be some issue to fight about, and when there is, I want someone with the spirit of Harvey Milk there, because he proved to the world that one person can indeed make a difference. And just as he got people to be true to themselves and come out, maybe the movie MILK will do the same. Of course now we live in a time where it's more acceptable. Also, people have venues to look to, like Gay-Straight Alliances, Gay Student Unions and the slushie-happy GLEE. It's a time where movies like MILK can be made (imagine trying to make this film in the 1950s). Plus, being gay is not nearly as forbidden as it once was (thank you, Harvey). In fact, it's kind of voguish. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

PRESHOW ENTERTAINMENT: Scopitones!

Aaah yes. Scopitones. Those mini-film precursors to rock videos made to be watched on a specialized Scopitone jukebox in bars and other establishments in the 50s and 60s. These short music clips were usually filled with go-go girls. Sometimes, an act had a motif that was counter-intuitive to the song. Sometimes it was the artists themselves that were odd. No matter, for Scopitones are made of the stuff that makes my heart soar. They are goofy, fun, entertaining as hell and hot hot hot. No wonder I love them. I just described myself!

A vocally bland version of LAND OF 1000 DANCES by brother and sister team April Stevens and Nino Tempo. While girls danced, some in sailor outfits with bikini tops, Nino and April sang. Nino wore a black leather jacket which just looked wrong.

Gary Lewis (that's Jerry's son) and the Playboys did their Beach Boys-ish (so it makes sense they're at a marina) LITTLE MISS GO-GO. Yep. That's Teri Garr dancing around in this one.

WHEEL OF FORTUNE, with Kay Starr, who, and I'm just speculating here, had no idea there'd be girls doing stripper moves behind her as she sang.

Okay, next is Dion doing RUBY on an Air France plane (I guess that means he's in the Mile High Club). For some reason, he's the only passenger. And he's the pilot, too.

Bobby Vee (he did several Scopitones) is next, trying to act macho on a moped while singing THE NIGHT HAS 1000 EYES as couples dance and smooch behind fake rocks.

Bobby Vee (toldya he did several) is up again with PRETTY GIRLS EVERYWHERE. And he's right.

And, of course, Nancy Sinatra's famous THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR WALKING is a Scopitone.

We saw a bunch more, but I'm going to let you go YouTube fishing for some on your own.

Posted by Rich at 10:00 AM | Permalink |