Miyazaki:still the most human

https://youtu.be/BfxlgHBaxEU

BONE TOMAHAWK

Ok just watched Bone Tomahawk and I am dazzled. Kurt Russell, for one thing, has the best beard and blue eyes in the business. Richard Jenkins! Matthew Fox! Patrick Wilson! And then it is an honest-to-god Western-with all the dust and dirt and brutality and bad outfits. The cinematography is gorgeous, all long shots to enjoy the gray dusty landscape--until you get to the 45-minute denouement and then it is all up close and stomach turning. Not lots of blood, but atrocities that are creative and visceral.The palette is is so monochromatic that you are relieved to see Kurt's blue eyes.  Even the trogs are pale and pasty and carry--you guessed it--bone tomahawks from leftover bison jaws. They have their voice boxes stuck in their throats and they make sounds that I guarantee you have never imagined. Rich characterization throughout, not usually a horror staple. And after I commented to Tom that it reminded me of that brutal jailhouse movie starring Vince Vaughn (Brawl in Cell Block 99), we found that both are directed by S Craig Zahler.  A total win. 👌👌👌👌

T'CHALLA in his own movie. CANNOT WAIT

Why Miyasaki has no challengers

Jackie Chan: ACTION not EFFECTS

TONY ZHOU on MARTIN SCORSESE

Martin Scorsese - The Art of Silence from Tony Zhou on Vimeo.

MY FAVORITE MOVIES OF ALL TIME (so far)

In no particular order: 

*la Belle et le Bete (Cocteau)

*V for Vendetta

Fight Club

*Raising Arizona

Titus (1999)
Shakespeare in Love
Wings of Desire
Dangerous Liaisons
Tombstone
Jackie Brown

*Amelie

*Manchurian Candidate 1962
*The Dark Knight

Grosse Pointe Blank

El Mariachi
Trollhunter

American Beauty

*Unbreakable

An Ideal Husband

the Grifters

Some Kind of Wonderful

Exodus

Rebecca

American History X

The Big Chill

Gunfight at the OK Corral

Gentle Persuasion

Pulp Fiction

Kill Bill 1
Kill Bill 2

Pollock

*Moonstruck

The Departed

Sin City

Tampopo

Ironman

*Rear Window
North by Northwest

Picnic at Hanging Rock

*Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Pulp Fiction

Ran

The Long Kiss Goodnight

It’s a Wonderful Life

Ronin

The Hidden Fortress

Blade Runner

Star Wars: 4,5,6

Pride and Prejudice 2006 version

* indicates favorite favorites

Horror's Head Honcho

I am embarrassed to say I did not even know Mr. Blum's name. but I did know his movies. This is entertaining. My list of favorite horror movies of all time will follow later this week. I  love Halloween (the pop culture version, no real affinity for the historical Halloween).

Horror's Head Honcho

Grandmaster: Never Enough Ip Man

**** of 5 stars. Beautiful cinematography, soundtrack unusual and powerful, fight scenes esoteric-not wuxia at all, Leung is perfect, though Ziyi Zhang almost steals the show. 

Growing up hurts: MUD ****

Slowing moving and gorgeous, MUD was as good as I hoped it would be. Ellis and Neckbone serve as the pure center of the film with a host of damaged, sinful adults around them who are alternately inspired and shamed by the faith of the innocent boys. And me? I was holding my breath, hoping against hope that nothing would rob either of them of their belief in love, and the river, and each other.

They navigate the parallel worlds of the the town and the river just as they ride their bikes between what passes for family and the outliers who invade the town with their own vengeful conflicts.  Every character was finely drawn regardless of their time onscreen. Michael Shannon as  Neck's Uncle Galen, and Ray McKinnon as Ellis' father were my favorites.  McConaughey dazzles, because he plays Mud as a foil to the two boys. It was a good strategy. A coming of age story must be about the individual who will become a man, not the corrupt man who creates the conflict. Ellis does his best given the models around him: his father, Mud, Mud's father (Sam Shepard), Galen, King, Carver. None of them is much good. Ellis and Neck must find their own way.

And they do.

Because it’s a work of art, not a polemic

That's John Hodgman, talking about Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. I was not aware that some have judged FMJ as a lesser film in Kubrick's canon. So far from the truth! So here is one of the best breakdowns I have ever read about Kubrick and this movie in particular. I have seen it only twice, and it is art, it is perfect, and it is not about VietNam.

http://thedissolve.com/features/the-last-great-movie-i-saw/15-the-last-great-movie-i-saw-john-hodgman-on-full-me/

need to think about this

http://kateoplis.tumblr.com/post/53776794104/earlier-this-month-at-a-symposium-at-the

MASTER CLASS, FILM EDITING, courtesy of Hitchcock

Listening to this video of Hitchcock on the art of editing film made me review the criteria I use to judge a film. 78 pieces of film in the 45-second shower scene in PSYCHO... (starts around 2:30)
See more at http://www.openculture.com/2013/04/alfred_hitchcocks_seven-minute_editing_master_class.html


230

EMPIRE MAGAZINE'S ICONIC MOVIE MOMENTS

Laurence Fishburne: Morpheus in THE MATRIX

Check out Empire magazine's tribute to the most iconic movie moments at http://www.empireonline.com/20/birthday-portfolio/
Seems more like greatest movie heroes to me. (This is just one shot.)
They have since published a book, so I hope the link still works.

Django Unchained *****

Why did I like Django Unchained so much? It engaged me, gave me dreams, had such a unique vision that I cannot forget it. The marks of genius, flawed or disturbed, were all over it. It had moments of perfection: the mythology, the filming, the music, the costumes, the acting: the purpose came together and it was perfect. I am not even sure how I judge which scenes were perfect. Christoph Waltz gently preparing Kerry Washington to see Django after she knew that he could not be alive, was simple, quiet, and made me cringe--so many ways for the reunion to be tragic. There was no fanfare, no one said: this is an important scene! watch carefully! it will move the film forward!  In fact, I wasn't sure that it would be a good thing for them to be reunited. At that point, all we had was Django's need to find her. We had no idea if she loved him at the same depth. And by that time in the film, it had been made clear that just as Django had become a killer on the strength of what had happened to him as a slave, Hildy could just as well have become an unfeeling comfort girl. How else would she survive, I found myself asking. Once the audience met Calvin Candie, all bets were off. I felt sick to my stomach after one scene with him. How would it feel to live in his house as a slave and by his rules? (still wondering why The Academy can't figure out Leo's genius). I am guessing for most girls, the faster you became numb the longer you would live. So, no feeling.

But of course, Kerry Washington does not go numb, she just gets more beautiful with each insult to her body and her psyche. And this is my complaint with Django Unchained: what a ridiculous premise! Slave rescued by German bounty hunter (there were so many of those traversing the Western landscape in the 19th c America), makes a living killing white folks and learns to read all in the noble pursuit of rescuing his wife from the clutches of the most ridiculously insane slaver ever portrayed on the screen. I think I feel equal parts of admiration for the craft AND anger at Tarantino's vision, that the solution to lingering shame over man's inhumanity to man is to ratchet up man's inhumanity to man into a bloodbath of revenge--not vengeance--so that I was left wanting to celebrate Django's triumph but also feeling sick to my stomach as he seemed to descend into the same sticky bloody bath as Calvin Candie. And juxtaposing hyperbolically written stock characters (Candie) with restrained dynamic characters ( Schultz) just confused even the most devoted audience (me). Which tone am I to register? I'm still not sure.

 I felt the same way at the end of Inglorious Basterds. How am I supposed to cheer for the destruction of all the Nazis in the movie theatre when it becomes obvious that the agent of their destruction has been driven mad by her desire for revenge? What is there to admire there? Nothing. But the fact remains, these last two films of Tarantino's are two of my favorite movies of all time. They achieve status as works of art, no doubt. But the talented white filmmaker taking on the ugly truth of human nature on behalf of those who cannot and then crossing the line--from justice to retribution--just smacks of the same aspects of humanity that got us into the mess in the first place. Maybe Tarantino got lost in the game of making the moving picture instead of wielding his considerable creative power to lift us all up. Someone always has to lose.

LO PAN STYLE trumps GANGNAM STYLE???

This parody of Psy's  gangnam style is as sly and subversive as the movie it pays homage to: BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA. I have seen this  1980s-era John Carpenter movie at least 6 times and there is something new every time. It is a sharp send up of kung fu movies and American arrogance/innocence (how do we manage both simultaneously?) that is a big favorite with everyone in our house. Enjoy Lo Pan style, and then go rent BIG TROUBLE.

CLOUD ATLAS

I just saw the trailer for CLOUD ATLAS. It was  maybe three minutes long, and I had tears in my eyes when it was over. I have never had a trailer do that before. I have been reading the reviews of the movie, and they are mixed. But something about the idea we can expect emotion and experience to be  infinite, rather than the cliched hope that our bodies would last, gives me chills. It reminds me of the moment in 2005's Pride & Prejudice when Elizabeth admits to her father that she loved Mr. Darcy, that she had misjudged him, and her father, the always excellent Donald Sutherland,  just chuckles to himself at the joy of the love he senses in her. The feeling between Darcy and Elizabeth is palpable and it always gives me a chill. Same thing as what I felt watching this trailer, I guess.
 I will have to read Cloud Atlas  now.

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD ******

It has been two weeks since we saw Beasts of the Southern Wild.  After a long satisfying visit to The Visions of Arcadia show at the art museum showcasing master canvases by Matisse, Gaugin and Cezanne, we strolled through town to see the movie on a whim. It was almost too much to handle in one weekend. The giant canvases of the bathers representing heaven on earth juxtaposed with the primal life of Hushpuppy and her band of outcasts in the wilds of Louisiana threw me over. The movie is gorgeous, and the intense beauty of the Eden that the characters inhabit is almost hard to watch--when I am reading, I can take the intensity a small dose at a time, my choice. But with this movie, I found myself wanting to replay bits to savor the lush cinematography, to get a better look at Hushpuppy, her dad, her school, her trailer, the aurochs. At the same time, the harshness of the environment--socially, physically-is impossible to absorb from my upper middle class perch, and I spent half of the film wanting to look away. The power of the hurricane reminded me of Katrina, of course, but I also found myself remembering the terrible storm of Their Eyes Were Watching God that propels Janie's life into a new chapter in the most terrifying ways. We are each of us beasts, after all. Hushpuppy knows that instinctively.

Hushpuppy lives on an outlaw island-the "bathtub"- in the bayou outside the levee's protection with her sickly father and a ragtag band of independent souls. Their days are spent scavenging for what they need, jimmying with the garbage that surrounds them to accomplish simple everyday tasks. But there is a nobility and power in their lives, which sets the viewer up to believe that Hushpuppy lives to understand life the way all animals do--she searches for her momma and she unconsciously knows that her father is sick and might leave her. As a deadly hurricane approaches, her dreams become nightmares of ancient aurochs who threaten to destroy her fragile world. There is an epic journey, and a hero's pyre. Hushpuppy will triumph?