Polanski Short Film

Enjoy!

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One

While Fellini has the best film about film ever made, documentary filmmaker William Geaves made what is one of the most interesting and unique films about the process of film making.

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (what a title!), made in 1968, is about a film crew that is filming the actors, while another film crew films the first crew, and yet a third crew films the two previous crews. While this way sound confusing the whole magic of the film is in it’s editing. You really are seeing the film as it is being made. There periodic sequences that are show in split screen where you can see the shots two or all three cameras have at a given moment. One time it is particularly interesting to see a traditional movie shot in one part of the screen juxtaposed with a shot of the cameras getting the former shot. Anyone interested in seeing how a film shoot really goes down should check this film out.

As I stated earlier this film was made in 1968 so all of this “behind the scenes” type of drama that plays out in the film is very fresh. The film crew wax philosophical behind the directors back about why they think the project’s ultimate goal is and they even plan to stage a revolt against the whole thing. There is also a very interesting sequence where you can see a lot of tension between the two actors, Don Fellows and Patricia Ree Gilbert. It is also obvious that Fellows didn’t understand what Greaves was doing when we hear some of the comments he has to say about his fellow actress. We hear the advice Geaves gives the actors and we see just how frustrating to can be for an actress when she is trying to build a lot of emotion and gets “acting blue-balls” as the cameras run out of film.

There is also come pretty cool 60’s culture thrown into the mix and a great soundtrack from Miles Davis. Great film that literally depicts a film being made and all the drama, frustration, and emotions plainly present to the viewer. I have read a negative review from a professional film crew person saying that he doesn’t want to watch exactly what he does at work on his free time. That being said if you are fascinated by the film making process you could find yourself quite bored. However there is really is more than enough in this film to hold the interest of most everyone.

Grade: A

Guilty Pleasures

My friend over at The Noise Is recently put up a link for my little blog on his site. I just saw this literally two minutes ago and thought “Oh shit! I haven’t posted anything in a long ass time.” So I looked and saw that I had this golden old post in my drafts that I never posted. (I knew I kept that in the safe for a reason!)

A lot has been said about guilty pleasures. I think the most popular thought is that someone shouldn’t have to be “guilty” about liking any movie, if you like it go for it and show your love for it. I used to think this way but recently I have changed my mind. I think a true guilty pleasure film is one that is very similar to films that you strongly dislike or downright hate. The film does almost everything the same as every other bad movie but there is one little factor that pushes it over the edge and makes you forget all the flaws and really enjoy it. You have to feel guilty about it because you would look like a hypocrite if you say you hated Failure to Launch but loved Fool’s Gold. Those films are essentially the same so obviously you would dislike both of them, but you don’t. You just love it when Matthew McConohey crashed that plane in the water or something.

My guilty pleasure is the Pirates of the Caribbean series. I love all three of these movies. They are so damn fun! I love that Jack Sparrow. He really is a funny character. There is so much to like about him. He has snappy lines and a real way with words. He seems to stumble around and yet make daring haphazard escapes. I would speculate that most of the hate for Johnny Depp and all of his movies stem from the hatred of the Johnny Depp/Tim Burton followers. I will admit that I really don’t want to spend anytime with anyone the liked Charlie and The Chocolate Factory but you can’t hate a film just because the you hate the fans of the actor. This sort of stance is really a matter of keeping up appearances. One doesn’t want to be thrown in with the Depp worshipers so they blast any film he does (minus Fear and Loathing and Ed Scissors).

Jim Jarmusch

Could a film about a hit-man be described as slower than watching paint dry? If Jarmusch has anything to do with it one would expect nothing less. The first Jarmusch movie I ever saw was his latest, The Limits of Control. I watched it in theaters in a small theater in Chicago and it was probably my favorite movie-going experience I have had this year.

The film centers around a lone man moving from cafe to cafe talking to different weirdos who give him a box of matches with esoteric messages written inside. The film was described as an anti-thriller. Our hero occupies much of the screen but little of the soundtrack. He goes long stretches of time without speaking a word. All that is know is that he was payed well for the task he was set out to do and we have a relaxing time seeing him proceed to his ultimate end. Many could be bored by the film if they are looking for a traditional Hollywood experience, but Jarmusch is anything but Hollywood.

Jarmusch made a name for himself with one of the pioneering American independent films Stranger Than Paradise. The film centers around a young New Yorker, Willie, and his cousin from Romania, Eva, who comes to visit. She gets on his nerves but eventually grows on him, just as she is about to leave for Ohio. On a whim Willie and his friend go to save Eva from boredom in Ohio.

Shot in glorious grainy black and white, Stranger Than Paradise establishes Jarmusch’s unique style of eccentric characters, long periods of silence, and beautiful cinematography. Like Kubrick and Tarantino when you watch a few scenes of a Jarmusch film you can immediately tell it is one of his. The films aren’t full of excitement or anything that traditional films have to offer. His films give the viewer something different. It is hard to describe yet it is very relaxing and enjoyable. Jarmusch has truly come up with cinema magic. However his films are not for everyone. If you find yourself bored at any point he may not be your kind of filmmaker. On the other hand if you are willing to give the films a shot you will be pleasantly surprised how much you will enjoy them.

Other Jarmusch films:

Broken Flowers

Coffee and Cigarettes

Boobs!!

The poster really says it all. Mondo Topless is a cult classic you can’t help but love. If you are a huge fan of huge boobs you will not be disappointed by this film. The entire film is literally an hour of topless girls dancing. That’s about it. It is best viewed with a large group of people (intoxicants wouldn’t be a bad idea either). One thing about this film though is that it can come off as a tad mean spirited at times. If you are sensitive to the rights of women and objectifying women and other such things you probably should steer away from this grind-house doc from the 60’s. I don’t want to convey that I am a boob-crazy, woman-hating chauvinist. One shouldn’t take Mondo Topless seriously. The girls do have some insightful things to say, but really the tone of the film is that you shouldn’t be listening to these girls. Their ample chests are hanging out and bouncing all over the place! The narrator is probably the funniest things about Mondo Topless. He basically yells “LOOK AT THOSE TITS!” for most of the time. If anything this film is just a chance to laugh at how absurd it is that something like this was actually made. In all seriousness though if you don’t find an old man yelling at you to check out some large breasts –and large breasts themselves– for an hour you will be bored.

Overall just a funny distraction and shouldn’t be taken seriously.

Adventureland

In the sea of summer comedies about young people in crappy jobs, Adventureland really stands out. The most refreshing thing about this film is that it centers around recent college graduates. I can’t tell you how many movies there are about high school, recent high school grads, and college students. There is a different attitude about people at this age. The characters are more jaded. There is a serious sense of uncertainty that envelops Adventureland. Most of the characters are looking at their lives at realizing that all of their dreams they had at university aren’t working out the way they planned. As tired as this theme may sound, it is much more enjoyable than watching teenagers trying to dupe some attractive cool girls into having awkward, sloppy, sex.

The humor was smart but it wasn’t in the overtly clever humor ala Juno. There were plenty of solid performances by all of the actors. Jessie Eisenberg and Martin Starr were both acting in high gear on this one. This is the first film I have ever seen Kristen Stewart in and I felt that she put in the best performance. You can really see all of the sadness and pain she is feeling throughout her sordid summer.

One really great aspect of the film was the way that the characters were introduced to Eisenberg. It really felt like you gradually got to know the characters, especially Starr’s, Stewart’s, and Reynold’s characters. As the film progressed you got the feeling that you were learning things about these characters in the same way that Eisenberg did. I got the feeling that I was meeting these people. Everyone felt real.

Overall a really great film that I can’t believe I missed in theaters.

Grade: A

Zomba movie!!

This is my first post in quite some time. I guess I’m bored and figured I’d give my opinion on the biggest movie craze out right, Zombieland. The film has some tiny annoying bits to it. Very small things that if they were part of another film could have ruined it. Zombieland has a lot of charm, gore, and laughs that all of the small stuff doesn’t matter.

The film starts with Jesse Eisenberg (Columbus) giving us a description of the post-zombie-outbreak US known as Zombieland. Later we see Eisenberg team up with Woody Harrelson (Tallahassee) on a cross-country zombie killing road-trip. The two run into a pair of sly sisters played by Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin in a super market.

Zombieland is a romantic-comedy-road-story-zombie film. On most of these fronts Zombieland delivers mostly non-stop entertainment. The first two acts provide the audience with several stylized gory zombie kills. Eisenberg and Harrelson have a discussion of the top zombie kills of the week and even share war stories about their individual bouts with the undead. The end as well gives us a traditional zombie stand off. It was pretty refreshing to see that even though the aforementioned stand off is still there the filmmakers did leave out a few genre hallmarks.

There are significant portions times in which there are no zombies on screen. If not for one of the best cameos I have seen in some time these parts of the film would have dragged the quality down significantly. These non-zombie scenes featured most of the romantic themes in the film. A lot of films that cater to the same type of viewer as Zombieland does feature a lot of the same types of scenes, characters, and interactions. As I said before though these really don’t do much to drag the quality down.

While it was refreshing to see a zombie film that adds something new to the game without falling into the same traps as other zombie films (including Shaun of the Dead). It would have been even more refreshing if the film didn’t throw in a luke-warm romantic comedy that took a lot of screen time from the zombies. However the comedy and romance wasn’t bad enough to detract from some the best zombie moments I have seen in quite some time. I would see Zombieland again in theaters if I didn’t have so many other films I need to spend my money on. Although I know my money wouldn’t go to waste if I do see Zombieland again. I know that there will be plenty of blood guts and gore thrown out there. I’ll be charmed by the great performances of all of the actors. I’ll also learn to when it is appropriate to act like a zombie and when it isn’t.

Grade: B

List of thoghts while watching Weading Crashers

Weading Crashers:

Those girls have huge tits!

That whole sequence was like a creshendo of intensity!

These guys are like social champions!!

If this was real that would be so rediculous!

Man these guys get the gold metal at the bullshit olympics.

Those guys… OMG! How do they pull this off!!!

I’m only half way through. It was great after leaving Greensburg.

I’m back! Have a review of Fight Club

As I get older I am starting to realize that some of the things that I liked eight or nine years ago are pretty terrible. I think my favorite song in 2000 was by Limp Bizkit. I also used to love Ford Mustangs and Chevy Corvettes. I do give myself a lot of slack because I was ten or twelve years old back then. I recently watched one of my old favorite films again. I thought to myself “Now that I’m older and have a better perception of what makes good cinema, I should dust off the old Fight Club DVD.” Folks it looks like Fred Durst is going to be drag racing Tyler Durden in their Mustangs.

The thing I loved about Fight Club when I was twelve was that it was deep. It spoke out against all sorts of things that no one really spoke out against in my life. Now that I have seen countless other films speak out against consumerism and the entire “internet” “new millennium” “yuppie” culture I see how flawed Fight Club is. The awful glazed over philosophy in Fight Club now seems to be more of an excuse to show dudes beat the shit out of each other than a deep look into human nature. All the while David Fincher throws in a bunch of dark sets and darks visual effects that do little more than frustrate. I used to think that all the pranks that Project Mayhem pull used to be haha-stick-it-to-the-man-style forms of protest that had the potential to make real change. Now it just looks like a bunch of frustrated men running around being dicks. All of Tyler’s “cool” lines just make him sound like a high schooler that’s mad at his parents for not letting him stay out late or play his guitar loud. All of this added together makes for a very frustrating cinema experience.

Fight Club is just a bunch of machismo wrapped in tenth grade philosophy and aggravating visual effects.

Grade: D

I Must Make Amends

The following is the list of movies on my hard-drive that I have not paid for. Over the course of the next few years I will be trying to purchase a legal copy of all of these films and then delete them from my computer. I hope that this will make up for everything and I will also have a pretty sweet start to a DVD collection. I haven’t seen some of these movies yet and some of them are not movies that are very good but I stole them so I must make up for it and buy them.

*Film labeled with Rifftrax denotes that I will also buy the Rifftrax for it and listen for some laughs.

12 Angry Men

28 Days Later

2001 A Space Odyssey

2019 AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK

300 (Rifftrax)

The 40 Year Old Virgin

A Beautiful Mind

A Clockwork Oragne

Adaptatioin

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

A History of Violence

American Gangster

American Psycho

Animal House

Batman

Batman Begins

Battlefield Earth (For Rifftrax)

Beyond The Valley of The Dolls

Black Hawk Down

Blazing saddles

Blowup

The Bourne Identity

The Bourne Supremacy

The Bourne Ultimatum

Bullitt

Cape Fear

Cashback

Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke

Children Of Men

City of God

Crash (not the one from 2004 the good one)

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Daft Punk’s Electroma

Daredevil (For Rifftrax)

The Darjeeling Limited

Death Proof

Death-Race 2000

The Departed

Dirty Harry

Dogma

Eyes Wide Shut

Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Flash Gordon

The Fly (1986)

The Forbidden Zone

Gangs of New York

Garden State

The Godfather

Good Will Hunting

The Graduate

The Great Dictator

Harry Potter 1-5

High Anxiety

History of the World – Part 1

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Hot Fuzz

In Bruges

Indiana Jones And The Raiders Of The Lost Ark

Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom

Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade

Invasion USA

Jackass 2

Juno

Jurassic Park

Lawrence of Arabia

Let the Right One In

Little Miss Sunshine

Magnolia

Mallrats

Man on Wire

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

No Country For Old Men

Now You Know

O Brother, Where Art Thou

Old School

Once

The Passenger

The Phantom of the Paradise

Planet Terror

The Prestige

The Princess Bride

The Producers (old)

Rear Window

Rushmore

Saving Private Ryan

Shaun of The Dead

Shawshank Redemption

Silent Movie

Slacker

SLC Punk

Snatch

Spaceballs

The Spook Who Sat By The Door

Sunshine

Superbad

Taxi Driver

Teeth

There Will Be Blood

Three Amigos

Trainspotting

Transformers (Rifftrax)

Tropic Thunder

The Twelve Chairs

Twelve Monkeys

V For Vendetta

Videodrome

Wild Strawberries

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

The Wrestler

Young Frankenstein

Y Tu Mama Tambien

Zabriskie Point

Zapped

Zodiac (I guess)