Jason Watches Movies

Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 3

2012-02-11T10:26:00.003-08:00

And I'm already dragging. Didn't get much sleep last night. Long story, and it was nothing serious, but a little police activity delay on my bus home cost me about an hour of valuable sleep time. Maybe the movies will be boring today so I can make some of it up.

Nope, no such luck. Not that they were all great, but as I draft this write-up on the bus home I saw six movies and except for a few minutes in one of them I didn't sleep through any.

First up was MOTHER COUNTRY, a rather interesting road trip movie with some great acting (particularly star Thomas Galasso) and some not-as-great writing. Galasso plays Dwight, an African American in Austin. He seems to be a bright, good young man but not strong enough to resist his cousin when he puts a gun in his hand and insists he must help him get revenge. Things go wrong and he ends up on the run, on foot across the desert. His goal is to get to his old high school teacher's place in California. But along the way...well, to avoid spoilers let's just say there are difficulties all along the way. And, at the risk of generalizing, those difficulties all seem to center on race issues, questions of personal responsibility, or both. In the end, we're supposed to believe he has learned a lesson and will make an important choice. I just saw his choice as very naive, and it won't work out the way he thinks it will. I'm sorry to be so vague, but I'm struggling with spoilers here. If you've seen the movie, I can talk about it more. And if you haven't, your last chance is today (Sunday the 12th) at 5 pm.

Next up was the shorts program An Animated World. Yay cartoons (and other forms of animation)!
(BABY) ITS YOU: The robot Frankenstein of love. Cool stop-motion animation.
WALTZ OF THE DEMON KING: Very cool story of warriors, the demon king, and the unconquerable love of a big sister.
ATTACK OF THE KILLER MUTANT CHICKENS: It's exactly what it sounds like, with the extra bonus of being Bangladeshi. Awesome.
THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS: Robot naturalists in search of phosphorescent rabbits. Yay, glow-bunnies!
THE REALITY CLOCK: Lots of clocks, but reality still seems to be disintegrating. Perhaps a visualization of the struggle with a deteriorating mind.
SHERMAN: Minimally animated over still pictures, it tells the story of a decaying house from the point of view of an abandoned, imaginary friend.
BEING BRADFORD DILLMAN: The hilarious story of a little girl whose drunk mother tells her how she was born a boy but she wanted a girl so she asked the doctor to cut her willy off.
ANIMEDITATION: A cool, simply drawn bit of surrealism--shapes, faces, etc.
EVIL: A music video for Marble Hill, all about what is considered evil--dancing gorillas, samurai, boats in the sky, brains, alien invasions. Maybe evil is just your opinion, man. But that gorilla head flying around with arms is evil, I don't care what anyone says.
MASKS: First the score was written, then the animator invented this story to match the music. It's a story of mask-wearing giants who eat the little white people
KISS: A gorgeous black-and-white film of the mingling of the sun and moon during an eclipse, set to Bjork-ish music. Made I 3-D, but shown in 2-D here (it's still beautiful.)
TIME FOR CHANGE: This was easily my favorite, the secret life and troubled marriage of the characters who ring in the hour on the big town clock.
THE MAN WITH THE STOLEN HEART: And when he finds his heart, it's irretrievably connected to another.
BRUCKE: In the swinging post-WWI world, a disabled veteran struggles to fit in.
An Animated World plays again Wednesday the 15th at 7:15.

Then I saw a pretty interesting feature I LIKE YOU. I was surprised to find out the actors were amateurs (and real high school students), because they were excellent. I was a bit surprised to learn director Jamie Heinrich was a veteran filmmaker, but I wasn't surprised to learn he had made shorts but this was his first feature. In principle it's a very simple teenage love story. Avery (Mike Brenna) is smitten with Parker, the new girl in class (Parker Peterson), even though she has a boyfriend who is likely to beat the crap out of him. Plus his band mate and best friend Echo (Brian Boush) also likes her, and it's not clear at first if Parker even likes him. I found it very odd and challenging how individual scenes were great but seemed to end in the middle and not lead directly in to the next scene. It would jump from Avery talking to Preston to fighting with Echo or talking to his uncle without a lot of connecting tissue. But in a way that reflects the fractured, compartmentalized, multi-faceted life of a young man in love. So maybe that actually worked. Or maybe I'm being too generous. In any case, the aerial shots of them on the railroad bridge were pretty awesome. I LIKE YOU plays again Tuesday the 14th at 7:15.

And then one of the highlights of the festival, Belgium's Oscar nominee, BULLHEAD. It's a story of mafia and growth hormones in Flanders. Mostly illegal amounts of bovine growth hormones to increase the size and price of cattle. But there's also the cocktail of testosterone supplements that protagonist (it's impossible to call anyone in this dark, violent film a "hero") Jacky takes. That is a result of a squirm-inducing childhood incident, and let's just leave it at that. In the tense aftermath of a murder of a "hormone cop" there's a new cattle mafia deal in the works that brings up Jacky's traumatic past, and that just ends up being bad news for everyone. Excellent acting (I particularly liked seeing Sam Louwyck of EX-DRUMMER and 22ND OF MAY show up as a mafia boss, and it amuses me that I have a favorite Belgian character actor) and a good story with enough twists that I'm sure it would reward multiple viewings, if you can stomach that. BULLHEAD plays again Monday the 13th at 7:15.

Then I saw a really daring and novel documentary/narrative hybrid, SNOW ON THA BLUFF. According to a statement from the director, the beginning and ending were staged but everything in between is raw documentary footage, but I'm not sure I believe that (there is at least one scene where the subjects had to have been mic'ed, they were too far away from the camera for the built-in microphone to pick them up so clearly.) In any case, here is the story as presented: a drug gang steals a documentary crews camera, shoots their activity for several days, then drops of the footage to an editing house to make this film. That footage includes doing drugs, stealing drugs, shooting rival gangs, getting shot at, gratuitous nudity, and a surprisingly tender and innocent love of their children. To be honest, I had trouble following the story or the characters. I hope that has more to do with the raw nature of the footage--no establishing shots defining the characters and their relationships--and less to do with me being a racist who can't tell one black drug dealer from another. In any case, I spent almost the whole film awash in disbelief at the raw visceralness of this unique view into such a crazy fucking world. That is, except for the few minutes I nodded off. Hey, I was tired and this was my fifth film of the night. SNOW ON THE BLUFF plays again Thursday the 16th at 9:30.

And finally, I ended the night with a delightfully sick torture comedy, CHOP by Trent Haaga (writer of DEAD GIRL) and starring Tromeo himself, Will Keenan, who was there for the screening and is an awesome live wire. Will (credited as Billy Bakshi) plays Lance Reed, a seemingly normal guy who gets caught up in a hellish situation. It seems he has offended a stranger (Timothy Muskatell) who demands a sincere apology or he will make Lance's life a short, torturous hell. First he forces Lance to...do something horrible (must...avoid...spoilers.) Then when Lance doesn't play entirely by his rules, he systematically removes everything important to Lance...like his wife...or his limbs. And as Lance tries desperately to remember his infraction, he confesses to increasingly horrible behavior (turns out he used to be quite the drug-addicted asshole, and maybe he doesn't exactly deserve to survive this.) It's hilariously sick and twisted, with loads of insane characters--a detective who get off on solving weird torture cases, a crippled drug-dealer, his Conrad Bain-obsessed pervert bear cousin, and a blackmailing hooker to name just a few. Quite an unforgettable and hilarious experience. CHOP plays again Monday the 13th at 9:30 (and Will Keenan will be there again)

Total Running Time: 543 minutes
My Total Minutes: 264,857

Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 2

2012-02-10T09:16:00.003-08:00

We jump right into the first weekend.

First up was a special benefit show for the B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls with a few short shorts and then the medium short documentary SKATER 26. I have seen a number of Roller Derby movies in the past few years. Other than Drew Barrymore's directorial effort in the gleeful WHIP IT, probably the biggest highlight has been HELL ON WHEELS (Docfest '07). After any of these Roller Derby movies, I have pretty much the same reaction: I should catch a Roller Derby match live. Who knows, maybe this time I really will. The other reaction I always have is "Why hasn't anybody figured out how to film this sport so that you can follow the action?" For every sport there is a science to filming it so the audience can follow the flow of the action. E.g., cutting from long establishing shots to closer action shots, only showing reaction shots from the bench when there's a lull in play. Now maybe I'm criticizing this movie for not doing something it never intended to do, but it seems they were much more interested in using shaky, fast-cutting handheld shots that convey the emotion but none of the information (this is supported by the fact that they drowned out the commentary with dramatic music.) I'll give the filmmakers credit for showing the dedication and athleticism of all the skaters, not just skater 26 (aka 'Chantilly Mace,' birth name not revealed). I just wish someone would make the effort to figure out how to film and broadcast a whole match.

Since the film was pretty short, there was plenty of time for the after party. Cake, food, and free booze at 518 Valencia, while hanging out and chatting with my friends and the rest of the audience. Cool!

So I had a few beers at the party, and SNOWTOWN was a hell of a movie to watch while sobering up. It's based on the true story of Australia's worst serial killer, and it's an unflinching portrait of Australian white trash, complete with sexual abuse, drugs, vandalism, animal cruelty, torture, and eventually death. John becomes a sort of father figure to three boys who were molested and photographed naked by a neighbor. At first he seems to just offer a strong male authority figure who can protect them. He leads them in petty acts of revenge like writing, "Fag" on the guys house. And then it gets a bit sicker when he shops up a kangaroo, mushes the bits around, and tosses them on the door. Pretty soon it becomes clear that his bullying insistence on the kids (one in particular) participating in revenge is just messing them up more. And that's before we get to the killing. It's a stark, uncompromising, and realistic portrayal that's not for the squeamish. It's also longer than the 90 minutes running time listed in the program--more like 2 hours. And, if it sound like your cup of tea (you sick fuck!) it plays again Wednesday the 15th at 9:30.

And then the late show was GANDU, which I had seen a year and a half ago at 3rd I. Here's what I wrote then:

And finally, GANDU (ASSHOLE). This is quite an experience. Gandu is a Bengali rapper in India who spends his time (when he's not rapping) either getting high, masturbating, or...well, not much else. Getting into trouble, I guess. After a bit of a rocky meeting with Ricksha, a crazy Bruce Lee fan who pulls...a rickshaw, they eventually become friends. And the movie becomes kinda gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that. More drugs, more insanity, then the credit rolls...and there's at least another half hour, now in color (oh yeah, it was black and white up until then) and borderline pornographic. Awesome!

Hmmm...that seems pretty damn spoiler-y. Sorry about that. Also, it felt...different this time. I mean, the story, the rapping, the pornographic sex is still there, but maybe it was edited slightly, I just can't put my finger on exactly how. In any case, it plays again Thursday the 16th at 7:15.

Total Running Time: 225 minutes

My Total Minutes: 264,325

Jason goes to Indiefest--Opening Night

2012-02-09T17:34:00.001-08:00

The one that started it all (for me) started again for the 14th time (the 11th time with me) last night. It's one of my high holy days.

The opening night film was quite a blast, Abel Ferrara became the first filmmaker featured in all three Indiefest productions--Indiefest, Docfest (CHELSEA ON THE ROCKS, '08), and Holehead (DRILLER KILLER, '05) by opening Indiefest with 4:44 LAST DAY ON EARTH.

It's kind of a cliche to say, "Live each day as if it were your last," but how would you live if you really knew it was your last day? Even more, what if you knew it was the human race's last day on earth? Say, the ozone layer would give way to cataclysmic failure at 4:44 am tomorrow (give or take a minute) and we all fry? I'm still going back and forth in my mind whether that specific element worked or didn't. On the one hand, it's not very plausible. On the other hand, it's more contrived to not give a reason for the world ending, and it's appropriate that it's civilization's own fault--predictable (and predicted) but still inescapable.

More important than why the world is ending is how people react. Specifically, our hero and heroine Cisco and Skye (Willem Dafoe and Shanyn Leigh.) They're a couple living in New York. So they make love, Skype loved ones, paint, and freak the hell out (specifically, Cisco does--Skye is more at peace with her beliefs.) It's a very specific end of the world that Ferarra has envisioned. This isn't the moment of learning you're doomed where everyone panics. Those who are left in New York have already accepted their fate (well, except for the odd 11th-hour suicide.) So the restaurants that are left still deliver and people still hang out on the streets and drink beer. There's just a cockeyed (or maybe sensible) understanding of what's really important. Not that it gives a trite, easy answer (or perhaps any answer,) it just shows the struggle of a man who doesn't quite know what to believe in. In some ways it asks 'If you aren't going to pursue meaningless commercial goods, what's left?' Maybe it's the easy high of drugs. Maybe it's love. Maybe it's faith. Maybe it's reconciliation with your ex, even if that pisses off your current lover. Maybe it's the process of questioning what is valuable that's valuable in and of itself. In any case, a well-made, interesting, and thought-provoking movie.

Oh, and Abel Ferrara was there, and he was a total live wire. The Q&A mostly stayed on point (at least compared to tales I have heard). He did talk about how he could've turned it into a gay story with Dafoe and Ed Burns (or himself and Jim Jarmusch), and he did go off in odd directions. My favorite part was when he described filmmaking as a process of constantly becoming an expert in something you'll never do again. My second favorite was when he asked if anyone in the audience was a Buddhist and seemed disappointed when no one raised their hand.

And then there was the after party. It was at Sub-Mission and it was loud as hell. It was themed as Spinal Tap, but was really a venue for Live Evil to rock out. I love those goofy guys. Abel did show up, but left before Live Evil actually took the stage. And while it was too loud to talk to him, he was very quick with a handshake or embrace. That's right, I've now hugged Abel Ferrara, and for my money that's cool as all hell.

Oh, and after Live Evil finished up, around 11:30 in the evening Spinal Tap actually showed up to play. That was pretty awesome, and I think I figured something out. If I looked closely, Nigel Tufnel, Derek Smalls, and David St. Hubbins looked an awful lot like the members of Live Evil.... That's right, Live Evil must be one of those incognito side projects that the members of Spinal Tap do. Pretty awesome!

Running Time: 90 minutes
My Total Minutes: 264,119

Jason watches CONTRABAND

2012-02-08T00:15:00.001-08:00

Yeah...whatever.

Running Time: 109 minutes

My Total Minutes: 264,029

Jason watches CARNAGE

2012-02-08T00:14:00.001-08:00

Well, that was a fun chamber piece and a rather cute and clever comedy of disintegrating manners. Alan and Nancy Cowan (Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet) come to visit Michael and Penelope Longstreet (John C. Reilly and Jodie Foster). It seems the Cowan's kid Zachary (director Roman Polanski's son Elvis) got into a fight with the Longstreet's son Ethan (Eliot Berger). The fight is shown in the opening scene in a long shot. The audience can't hear what's going on but we do see Zachary strike Ethan with a stick. The rest of the action is entirely in the Longstreet's apartment (and the hallway immediately outside). Seems Ethan had a bit of swelling on his face and two cracked teeth. But rather than being confrontational, all the parents decide to take the civilized route and work it out among themselves. Until tiny slights, constant cell phone interruptions, an upset stomach, and a bit of scotch brings out their inner beasts. It's a joy to watch all four great actors playing off each other. Allegiances shift (at one time instead of couple vs. couple it becomes men vs. women) and the whole thing spirals out of control. Too much fun.

Running Time: 80 minutes

My Total Minutes: 263,917

Jason goes to Bad Movie Night and watches THOR

2012-02-07T00:02:00.001-08:00

Help me decide, which is worse:

A) The blatant racial tokenism that casts an Asian guy and an African-American guy as Norse Gods.

or...

B) Without them, it's a straight-up white-supremacist story.

Heil Thor!

Running Time: 115 minutes

My Total Minutes: 263,842

Jason goes to the Niles Film Museum for SHORE LEAVE

2012-02-06T21:36:00.003-08:00

But of course, first a few shorts.

THE INFERNAL CAULDRON (1903): The 2-month long celebration of George Méliès continues. In this one, demons throw victims into a cauldron where they disappear and translucent ghosts appear hovering over the demons' heads. Then the whole cauldron disappears.

THE DAMNATION OF FAUST (1903): Another Méliès. Okay, I admit I couldn't follow whatever passed as a story. But a victim (presumably Faust) is led through deeper and deeper pits of hell. Pretty cool scenery work.

As an aside, if you're a fan of the Faust story, Cinequest will be showing two versions of the story coming up soon. On Friday, March 9th they will present F. W. Murnau's silent classic at the California Theatre with Dennis James on the mighty Wurlitzer and Mark Goldstein on the Buchla Lightning Wands. But before that there are three screenings (March 1, 4, and 8) of Aleksander Sakurov's own take on the story.

Okay, that was a bit of a digression. Back to the movies.

HOT FOOT (1923): Little remembered silent comedy star Bobby Dunn stars as a vagabond who is mistaken for a famous dance marathon champion. Well, what the heck, there is a big cash prize. And then things get really, really weird when he drinks a bottle of chloroform and it gives him super powers. Kids, don't try this at home!

Then the intermission, and back for the feature presentation.

SHORE LEAVE (1925): This stars Richard Barthelmass, who isn't remembered much today but in the day starred in movies such as TOL'ABLE DAVID and D.W. Griffith's BROKEN BLOSSOMS. Here he plays Smith, a handsome young drifter who joins the navy, where he becomes known as "Bilge" Smith (a running joke is how many sailors are named Smith, even up to the admiralty.) While in port, he meets and is smitten with Connie Martin (Dorothy Mackail), but the life of a sailor keeps them apart. That, and his stubborn insistence on not being the kept man of no rich woman. The thing is, she's not that rich, she just owns a boat her father left her. She could have a nice pile of money if she sold it, but she would rather use it to host parties inviting every sailor named Smith. It's a little convoluted, and honestly I don't see what the big deal is about marrying a woman with money. Seems like a good idea to me, but I guess times were different back then.

Total Running Time: 121 minutes (estimated)

My Total Minutes: 263,722

Jason watches A SEPARATION

2012-02-04T09:45:00.002-08:00

Well, that was pretty brilliant. Good story, interesting characters, complex, suspenseful, surprising, morally complicated (which is different from morally ambiguous). And it's another step forward in my embrace of Iranian cinema.

You know, you can read about this movie anywhere else (on the off chance that you're both interested and haven't seen it yet). Just this once I'd prefer to enjoy the movie without feeling a need to write about it.

Running Time: 123 minutes

My Total Minutes: 263,595

Jason watches SHAME

2012-02-04T09:44:00.000-08:00

There's a point midway through SHAME when Brandon Sullivan (Michael Fassbender) is on an actual "date" date with a co-worker and they get to talking about relationships, commitment, and marriage. Brandon points out how old married couples never have anything to say to each other. Her response (that perhaps they are so connected they don't need to say anything) is almost irrelevant, given the crushing irony of how little Brandon has to say to anyone.

Brandon is a sex addict. And a successful...advertising man, I think? He works in an office and "kills it" for clients. And generally manages to keep those two worlds apart. That is, until his sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) shows up. Sissy is either really messed up herself or she's a total drama queen. Either way, staying with her emotional distant/abusive brother is not a good idea for anyone. She gets little more from it than a temporary roof over her head and tons of abuse, and he gets his whole insular world blown to pieces.

The acting is great, and of course there's a lot of nudity so I guess you can say the acting is brave, too. But I can't shake the feeling that--smooshing private bits together aside--the revelations about addiction aren't much beyond an after-school-special level. Much like its main character, SHAME fucks around a whole lot, but never says much of anything.

Running Time: 101 minutes

My Total Minutes: 263,465

Jason goes to Noir City--Finale

2012-01-29T09:29:00.000-08:00

So I skipped last Saturday due to other commitments, but I was there all Sunday for the closing Dashiell Hammett marathon. So let's just jump right in.

ROADHOUSE NIGHTS (1930): According to Eddie Muller's introduction, there's never been a "real" adaptation of Hammett's Red Harvest. It's just too brutal and violent, even for pre-code Hollywood. So this adaptation is mostly comedy, especially courtesy of the great Jimmy Durante. He plays Daffy, an entertainer at a nightclub that is really a front for a bootlegging business run by Sam Horner (Fred Kohler.) The local paper has caught wind of this, but Sam puts some serious pressure on them to kill the story. Enter crack report Willie Bindbugel (Charles Ruggles) to break the story, save the girl (Helen Morgan), and try to save his own neck. And speaking of necks, Daffy is always busting in fearing that they'll all get "the gallows!" I had forgotten how awesome Jimmy Durante was. It's sort of a weird thing to go to noir festival and end up obsessing about a famous comedian/singer. But that's just how I roll.

THE MALTESE FALCON (1931): This is the first version--Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels instead of Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor. The story of the black bird is very much the same, but in this pre-code version they can be quite a bit sexier. The best example of this (other than the bathtub scene and one other nude-but-not-revealing scene) is when Sam Spade berates Ruth Wonderly about how she never tried to win his loyalty with anything other than money. Well, when Bogart says that to Astor she needs it explained to him. When Cortez delivers the same line to Bebe Daniels, she knows exactly what to do. Oh yeah, and speaking of Bebe Daniels, I knew her exclusively as a silent actress, and almost always Harold Lloyd's love interest. It's really cool to see (and hear!) her in a very different role. Bogart will always be the canonical Sam Spade, but for my money I prefer Bebe Daniels as Ruth (oh yeah, in this version they drop the part where she admits her real name is Brigid O'Shaughnessy).

CITY STREETS (1932): This one Hammett wrote specifically for the screen, and it's all about how Gary Cooper is cool as all hell. He plays "The Kid," a sharpshooter working for the local carnival. His girl is Nan (Sylvia Sidney), and they plan to get married just as soon as she saves up enough money. Nan has a plan, The Kid could work for her dad. Only problem is that her dad (Guy Kibbee) is a bootlegger and racketeer--not exactly The Kid's cup of tea. She doesn't see what's so bad about it, but she learns her lesson when she ends up going to jail. Too bad by the time she's out The Kid is working for her dad. It's a nice bit of reversal, and by this time their only hope to get out of the business and on with their life together is for Gary Cooper to be cooler than the entire mob put together.

MR. DYNAMITE (1935): Another odd bit of Hammett being used for a comedy. In fact, very little of this is left from Hammett's original draft of the script. The original idea was something of a sequel to THE MALTESE FALCON, a second "Sam Spade" story. Although, this time explicitly make the private eye a disreputable cheat who is run out of town by the local cops. It was originally conceived to be very serious and dark, but by the time it was made it became a comical Edmund Lowe playing private dick T. N. Thompson (get it? T.N.T. = Mr. Dynamite) He is hired by a casino owner to solve a murder and ends up getting involved in two more. Of course, the cops won't help him out at all, but that's okay because he's smarter than all of them put together. It can be pretty funny--even when it's totally implausible--as long as you go in expecting a detective comedy story, not your typical realistic and hard-bitten Hammett.

THE GLASS KEY (1942): In a perfect piece of showmanship, Eddie Muller accepted a commendation from the city and county of San Francisco just before introducing this movie about corruption in politics. Paul Madvig (Brian Donleavy) is the kingmaker, the power behind the throne. And he has decided to clean up his image and stop backing the mob-backed incumbent Nick Varna (Joseph Calleia) and instead back the reformer Taylor Henry (Richard Denning.) Of course, that has a lot to do with Henry's daughter Janet (Veronica Lake.) But Janet has eyes more for Madvig's loyal right-hand-man Ed Beaumont (Alan Ladd.) Things get really bad really quickly when Henry's ne'er-do-well son turns up dead and Paul is the prime suspect. A cool mystery where no one is good because everyone is in politics. And damn it's fun to watch William Bendix (as Varna's enforcer Jeff) beat the crap out of Alan Ladd.

THE MALTESE FALCON (1941): And finally, we ended the night and Noir City 2012 with the iconic classic. I don't really need to say much. Bogart, Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, first time director John Huston hitting it out of the park...the stuff that dreams are made of. And it was so much fun seeing this version after seeing the 1931 version.

Total Running Time: 483 minutes

My Total Minutes: 263,363

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 8

2012-01-28T18:44:00.000-08:00

Friday night in Noir City is blue collar noir. And, according to the czar himself, the best double-bill they've ever played in the history of Noir City. I can't really argue with that.

THIEVES' HIGHWAY (1949): Nick Garcos (Richard Conte) arrives home from WWII. He shows up at home with gifts for everyone and a nice little bundle of money he made. Enough to marry his best girl and go into business with his pop (hauling produce to market). But when he finds his pop has been crippled, his thoughts instead turn into getting revenge on the guy who did it--Mike Figlia (Lee J. Cobb). So he hauls a truckload of apples into San Francisco (in the old produce district, which has since been replaced by the Embarcadero) and sets about to make things right. The whole story is steeped in the struggles of the working class and the machinations of the scofflaws who cheat them. Everything from broken down trucks, unscrupulous dealers, dangerous dames (Valentina Cortese),...even the "good girls" only want you if you have money. I think it's fair to say it's a pretty bitter movie. And it's realistically bitter.

THE BREAKING POINT (1950): Eddie Muller claimed this adaptation of Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not" is director Michael Curtiz's best work. Personally, I'm kind of a fan of a little movie he made called CASABLANCA, but this is pretty darn good, too. Harry Morgan (John Garfield) is a fishing boat captain and upstanding if struggling member of society. Just to make ends meet he takes a job he probably (okay, definitely) shouldn't. And that just makes things worse, until he gets way in over his head. Garfield is perfect as the struggling man who has been corrupted but thinks he can make things right on his own (after all, he's a WWII hero). Patricia Neal is great as the temptress. Wallace Ford is appropriately oily as a shady lawyer setting up illegal deals. And Phyllis Thaxter is great as the suffering wife reminding him that he has her and two adorable daughters to think about. And without giving away, the ending scene is just crushing. You know, maybe this is Curtiz's masterpiece.

Total Running Time: 191 minutes

My Total Minutes: 262,907

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 7

2012-01-27T10:59:00.000-08:00

Thursday night is Bad Girls night at Noir City. A few sips of Tough Dame Cabernet at the free wine tasting, and I was ready to go.

NAKED ALIBI (1954): The girl is Gloria Grahame, but we're getting ahead of ourselves. The story is about Al Willis (Gene Barry) and police chief Joe Conroy (Sterling Hayden). We open with upstanding local citizen (and popular baker) Al getting roughed up a bit by some cops at the station. Eventually he's let go, but not before threatening to kill them. And unluckily enough for Al, the cops do end up dead. That's a shame, because Conroy is sure Al did it, even though he has no evidence. Even when Conroy is caught on camera roughing Al up a bit (and subsequently fired), he still tails Al. It's driving Al nuts. So much so that he leaves his wife and kids just to get a little rest in Border City. And then things change. Turns out there's a girl there, Marianna (Gloria Grahame) who Al knows. In fact, he knows her well enough that he slaps her to make her kiss him. Maybe Al isn't such the innocent family man after all? But just because he has a girl on the side in a different city doesn't mean he's a killer, does it? I do love the amoral, morphing definitions of hero and villain, which genuinely surprised me (possibly because I brought too much of a modern "don't trust the police" ethos to it).

But I have one niggling comment--Marianna isn't really a "bad girl." She's more of a victim. Sure, she sings in a club and has an affair with a married man, but she didn't know he was married. And her loyalties changed but only after she realized what kind of a man Al was.

PICKUP (1951): Okay, in this one the bad girl (Beverly Michaels as Betty) is really a bad girl. Writer/direct Hugo Haas stars as Jan 'Hunky' Horak. He's an old widower, managing an isolated railroad station. His wife passed away a couple years ago, and his only friend is a literature-spouting tramp he calls, The Professor (Howard Chamberlain). As an aside, may I just say that the world needs more bibliophilistic hobos. He used to have two-friend, The Professor and Rover, his dog. But Rover just passed away, so Hunky goes to town to buy a puppy and ends up bringing home a total bitch. She proceeds to seduce him, marry him, and then take him for all he's got (um... $7,300). This is actually a pretty enjoyable piece of noir candy. Hunky is endearing for all his sad-sack foibles. Betty is perfect as the sassy gold-digger (and worse), and The Professor...well, he's my favorite.

Total Running Time: 164 minutes

My Total Minutes: 262,717

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 6

2012-01-25T14:10:00.000-08:00

Okay, after Tuesday's enjoyable but debatable night of noir comedy, we needed a return to classic, hard-boiled noir. And who better to lead us there than Samuel Fuller? Wednesday was a double-bill of his flicks.

HOUSE OF BAMBOO (1955): Who says noir needs to be in Black and White? Who says it needs to be set in America? Not Sam Fuller, that's who! He sets this in post-war Japan, in glorious color and wide screen Cinemascope. It opens with a robbery of a U.S. Army munitions train, where several machine guns and smoke pots are stolen. Perhaps the only thing that bugged me is that while the smoke pots are used, the machine guns never are. It makes a promise of machine gun violence in the beginning, and then doesn't deliver. But it does deliver a cool story, as later the same gang makes another raid and a wounded gang member is shot by his own men--leave no one behind to become a prisoner who can talk. Then enter Eddie Spanier (Robert Stack), the fallen gang member's former army buddy, who arrives in Tokyo just two weeks later. Finding his friend dead and nowhere to go in Japan, he starts a small-time protection racket, only to quickly be roughed up by the real gangsters. In fact, it's a gang of ex-GI's, all with dishonorable discharges and more than a few spots on their records. It's run by Sandy Dawson (Robert Ryan), who takes quite a liking to Spanier, and soon Spanier is Sandy's "ichiban" (number one guy). But Spanier has his own secrets, and quite a game of cat and mouse ensues with quite an impressive finale at an amusement park. It's half hard-boiled crime noir, and half fish-out-of-water comedy, as Spanier adjusts to the strange world. His interactions with Mariko (Shirley Yamaguchi) are particularly amusing.

UNDERWORLD U.S.A. (1961): Okay, so this one is black and white, and set in the classic noir setting of...well, UNDERWORLD, U.S.A. 14 year old Tolly Devlin (David Kent) witnesses his father being beaten to death by some thugs. His dad was a criminal, and Tolly was already well on his way to being one, too. In fact, he already knows the criminal code well enough that when the investigator from the D.A.'s office asks him if he recognized the guys, he insists he ain't no snitch. Fact is, he has a long term plan. 20 years later (an now played by Cliff Robertson), he gets the names of all the guys, finds out they're three of the biggest crime lords, controlling drugs, prostitution, and labor unions in the city. And he sets out to become part of their gang and take them all down. Along the way, he of course picks up a dame, Cuddles (Dolores Dorn) who at first is just a dame (or a broad, I forget the technical distinction), but eventually...well, not to give anything away but this might have to least romantic marriage proposal ever--I loved it. And I loved this slice of American crime, revenge, and commentary on the hypocrisy of the powerful.

Total Running Time: 203

My Total Minutes: 262,561

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 5

2012-01-24T16:52:00.000-08:00

Okay, this was a pretty odd night. The first ever Noir City night of noir comedy. What the hell, Eddie Muller? I mean, I love comedy, but this just isn't what I go to a noir festival for. Still, I'll give you props for challenging the audience's expectations.

UNFAITHFULLY YOURS (1948) Okay, I'll give you this one. You don't really need any excuse to play a Preston Sturges film. And there was plenty of noir nastiness in this one, including one of the best murder and frame-up jobs I've seen on film. Rex Harrison stars as Sir Alfred De Carter, English nobleman, accomplished symphony conductor, and devoted and loving husband to his equally devoted and loving wife Daphne (Linda Darnell). They so publicly display their affection that it makes Daphne's sister Barbara (Barbara Lawrence) a little jealous, since while Daphne has a man that makes you think of Brut champagne, she only has a man--August--who makes her think of prune juice (Rudy Vallee). When Sir Alfred left, he casually asked August to "keep an eye on my wife." Well, August took that a little too seriously and had her followed by a private eye, a prospect that sends Sir Alfred into a rage. He refuses to even look at the report, and it gives Rex Harrison to show his skills at witty apoplexy. But his suspicions overtake him, and during the concert of his life he fantasizes about various ways to avenge his wife's supposed infidelity. The results are pretty hilarious, and I'm happy to have seen this movie under any circumstances. As to whether it's appropriate in a noir festival...well, not really. But there was one sequence that taken out and viewed on its own could be one of the best noir shorts ever.

THE GOOD HUMOR MAN (1950): And then there was this real oddity. The really strange thing is that it was originally based on an entirely serious noir story "Appointment With Fear" by Roy Huggins. Then it was reworked by famous cartoon gag-man Frank Tashlin so that the hero drove a Good Humor ice cream truck and there was a non-stop barrage of corny (but sometimes pretty clever) slapstick gags. Tashlin was a cartoon guy, and this is very much a cartoon come to life. The titular Good Humor man is Biff Jones (Jack Carson), a sweet-hearted guy who is friends to all the kids. He's even a member of their Captain Marvel fan club. He's especially close with Johnny (Peter Miles), but that has more to do with Johnny's big sister Margie (Lola Albright). And then he gets stuck in the middle of some gangsters and a girl they're chasing. And a series of wacky hijinx leads him to being framed for murder, running around in a woman's nightgown, and pretty much destroying an entire school. In fact, he and Margie are in quite a lot of trouble until the Captain Marvel kids save them. Kind of appropriate, since the main villain is George "Superman" Reeves.

But again, not really right for a noir festival. But I'm sure we'll make up for it tonight, with a Samuel Fuller double feature.

Total Running Time: 185 minutes

My Total Minutes: 262,356

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 4

2012-01-23T16:31:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I skipped Day 3 to instead volunteer at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum and then host Bad Movie Night at the Dark Room. But I'm back for Monday night, and it's a Rita Hayworth/Glenn Ford double feature. So let's just jump right in.

GILDA (1946): Wow, what a classic, the movie that made Rita Hayworth a sex goddess. Charles Vidor worked excellently around the Hays code, and made it clear that Gilda dancing with other men meant she slept with them, too (or at least intended to, if she wasn't stopped). Not to mention the copious use of cigarettes (including a tiny bent one in a hilariously classic) or a cane sword that's clearly more symbol than prop. Oh there's a plot in there somewhere--a casino in Buenos Aires run by Ballin Mundson (George Macready), his assistant Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford), and his new wife Gilda (Rita Hayworth). There's an unspecified backstory in which Gilda clearly broke Johnny's heart. And there's a complicated plot with a fake suicide, an illegal tungsten cartel, and a police inspector who lets the casino stay open just so he can bust the cartel. But really, it's about Gilda driving Johnny a little bit mad, Johnny getting a bit of revenge, hate being just a half-step away from love, and Hayworth and Ford steaming up the screen.

THE MONEY TRAP (1965): This puts Hayworth and Ford together nearly 20 years later, and throws in Elke Sommer as the new sex-bomb. Now Ford plays Joe Baron, a cop married to a wealthy heiress (Sommer) who loves their rich life. Trouble is, they live the rich life off the dividends from her stocks, but her father's will specifically stated dividends only, she can't touch the principal. So when the company announces they won't pay off dividends this year, they have to live off a meager policeman's salary. Joe was always an honest cop, and so is his partner Pete Delanos (Ricardo Montalban). But a hot woman can turn a good cop into a lousy crook. Hayworth shows up as a murder victim's widow who happens to be Joe's old flame...a flame that is briefly rekindled. I hate myself for even thinking it, but watching these two films back to back it's sad how much she aged (she was 47, and still a fine actress but not a young looking 47.)

Total Running Time: 201 minutes

My Total Minutes: 262,174

Jason hosts Bad Movie Night--PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES

2012-01-23T06:20:00.001-08:00

Here's some interesting trivia for you kids out there. Did you know that The Pirates of the Caribbean was originally a ride at Disneyland? It's true, in fact the ride existed for 36 years before being turned into one actually-pretty-good movie followed by 3 god-awful sequels.

I mention this because one of the attractions in the ride was a scene where several pirates chased women around in circles, with one obese woman chasing a pirate instead. In fact, as a little boy this might have been my first indication that while little boys find little girls to be icky, grown men find grown women to something worth chasing (at least if they're not too fat). Sometime later they changed it so the one woman chasing the pirate was threatening him with a rolling pin--apparently a sexually aggressive woman was not acceptable, although men raping women is still just good family entertainment. But nowadays (since the late 90's), the women are now carrying plates of food (perhaps all along the pirates were chasing the women to force them to cook?) And we wonder why we have an obesity epidemic? Is this really the right message to send our kid? Our disgusting, pudgy, little lardball kids?

Now I want to make sure I'm on the right side of this. So let me just say that there are many, many bad things about rape. If one were to list the pros and cons of rape, it would be no contest. I'm not afraid to take a controversial position now and then, and I will state for the record that I am firmly, solidly, proudly anti-rape, and I don't care who that offends. But in the interest of fairness and showing both sides of the issue, I will concede that rape does burn calories. Really, you don't even have to be successful, even attempted rape burns plenty of calories--and that way everyone wins!

Anyway, I think I've pretty much digressed from whatever point I might have had in the beginning, and taken us all to someplace we never cared to go. Much like PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES.

Running Time: 136 minutes

My Total Minutes: 261,971

Jason goes to Noir City--Day 2

2012-01-21T10:36:00.000-08:00

Four more movies on Saturday

First an afternoon of proto-noir rarities from the pre-code era.

First up, a scathing portrayal of government corruption (not at all like today) in AFRAID TO TALK (aka THE MERRY-GO-ROUND) (1932). A bellhop witnesses a gangland murder in his hotel. He's even shot, but survives and can identify the shooter. Problem is, the guy who was murdered--Jake Stranskey (Robert Warwick)--was connected to everyone in city government, and the shooter--rival gang boss Jig Skelli (Edward Arnold)--has the proof. If he's prosecuted, he'll take everyone up to the mayor (Berton Churchill, playing an empty blowhard to the utmost) down with him. So first the prosecution is dropped for lack of evidence, and then when they need a fall guy they look at the one guy they can definitely put in the room--the bellhop. The real brains behind the corruption is Assistant District Attorney John Wade (Louis Calhern, oozing cool, calculating, stylish evil). You really hope he gets his comeuppance, even if no one else does. But don't look for me to spoil it.

Then there was a stylish, funny, and awfully weird film about radio, celebrity gossip, and organized crime--OKAY, AMERICA (1932). The hero is ~~Walter Winchell~~ Larry Wayne (Lew Ayres), a fast-talking newspaper gossip columnist who also has a weekly radio gig. He knows everyone, gets tips from everyone, and can't be talked out of a story--he's got a sign in his office reminding him that stories are brain children, and he can't kill kids. He certainly sells papers, but the "real" newsmen think he's just an egotist and a gossip monger (which, he kind of is). But he gets a break when he gets a tip about a kidnapping that has been dominating the front page (a tip that brings in both Louis Calhern and evenutally Edward Arnold from the previous movie). Rather than take it to the police, he decides to use his investigative skills, and especially his quick-talking skills to secure her release himself. It's a cool story, set in a pretty bizarre world. First you have to decipher the strange language in his gossip pieces. Then you've got the banter between Wayne and his secretary Sheila Barton (Maureen O'Sullivan), who is always complaining that he's not sexually harassing her enough. And as the crowning gem, when the kidnappers send some of the heiress' clothes to prove they have her, you've got a panty-sniffing newspaper editor. Priceless!

By the way, on a side note movies of this time tended to be shorter than films today. These two both came in at under 70 minutes, yet still told complete and gripping stories. It really shows how much filler there is in a lot of movies today. Think about that the next time you check your watch in the multiplex.

Then, although there was a significant time gap between this and the next show, I didn't even go outside (I did go up to the mezzanine for a few drinks), because I didn't want to give up my front row center seat for the Angie Dickinson evening. Actually, it was also a Lee Marvin evening, but he wasn't there on account of being dead and all. Angie was there, but more on that later.

While the afternoon was pre-noir, the evening was neo-noir--after the heyday of film noir--and started with THE KILLERS (1964). I had actually seen this last year at the Roxie, let's see what I said then:

This is the 1964 Don Siegel-directed remake, not the 1946 version, which I've never seen but I hear is a classic. In this version, two hitmen (Lee Marvin and Clu Gallagher) knock off an auto mechanic teaching in a blind school (John Cassavetes). He offers no resistance, and that bothers Lee Marvin's character. He just has to find out why. So he digs, and finds that mechanic was a race car driver brought down by a dame (Angie Dickinson). He was lured into a world of crime, led by ruthless crime boss Jack Browning (Ronald Reagan, in his final movie role). There's something enormously satisfying about watching Ronald Reagan slap Angie Dickinson and then John Cassavetes responding by punching Reagan in the face. Oh yeah, and Reagan's assistant/partner in crime is Mickey Farmer, played by Norman Fell. It took me an embarrassingly long time to recognize him as Mr. Roper from "Three's Company."

Ah, yeah, that's still all true (except for having forgotten that Norman Fell was Mr. Roper). And also, on a second viewing I'll say that Clu Gallagher's performance--always messing with whatever's in the room--might just be my favorite. And, of course, Angie Dickinson was awesome--lovely and deadly. I'm still guessing if she really was in love (at least somewhat) with John Cassavetes' character or if it was all an act.

And then, the woman we were all there to see, Angie Dickinson took the stage to a standing ovation and was interviewed by Eddie Muller. I say interview, but it was really like a 30 minute flirting session on stage. They clearly loved it (although I'm not so sure Angie liked being asked about the rumors of her and John F. Kennedy), and Angie could make Eddie blush a lot more easily than vice-versa. And as a bonus, she's a film fan who keeps up with what's going on today. When asked about what movies she would recommend today, she mentioned MY WEEK WITH MARILYN, THE ARTIST (which she has seen several times), HUGO (which she emphasized wasn't a "kid's movie" as much as it was "a movie about kids") and MIDNIGHT IN PARIS. Can't argue with that. And to cap it all off, Eddie made her reenact her famous line on The Tonight Show when Johnny Carson asked her if she dresses for men or for women. Her response, of course, was, "I dress for women. I undress for men."

And as if that wasn't enough, there was still another movie to watch before I rushed off to BART. That would be POINT BLANK (1967), an odd, somewhat experimental, surreal-ish revenge story directed by John Boorman and again starring Lee Marvin. Lee is Walker, and as the movie opens he wakes up in a jail cell. Turns out he's in Alcatraz, not in an operating jail, and he's there because he was double-crossed. He, his wife, and his best friend were there to steal $93,000 from a criminal organization. His friend took the money and his wife, but didn't kill him all the way. He swims off the rock, and sets out for revenge...and his $93,000. The story jumps around in time a lot, but he teams up with his sister-in-law Chris (Angie Dickinson) to take down the heads of the organization. He always seems one step ahead, in no small part because a mysterious man is leading him around. The whole thing is very strange, and maybe only works because of the taciturn cool of Lee Marvin and the sexiness of Angie Dickinson. And then, the ending is...very strange...with possibly a message about what's really important. Or not, maybe this whole movie is just Walker's fantasy as he's dying.

Total Running Time: 322

My Total Minutes: 261,825

Jason goes to Noir City--Opening Night

2012-01-21T08:01:00.000-08:00

Eddie Muller's fabulous film noir festival is back, still going strong after one decade. And of course, we start with a pair of San Francisco noir films.

First off, DARK PASSAGE (1947), starring perhaps the greatest trio of stars in all of film noir--Bogart, Bacall, and San Francisco. Bogart plays Vincent Parry, a convict escaped from San Quentin. For the first half of the movie, it plays out almost entirely from his P.O.V., an interesting and engaging technique that literally puts us in the eyes of a criminal. The effect is only diminished slightly when you realize it was used so that we wouldn't see Vincent's face until he gets plastic surgery and finally looks like Bogart. But I'm getting ahead of myself. He escapes San Quentin and is picked up by Irene Jansen (Lauren Bacall). This was not planned, she was just in the area painting, but as luck would have it she was actually his biggest fan. See, her father was wrongly convicted and died in jail, and she was convinced the same happened to Vincent. She even attended the trial every day. So her place becomes his safe house as he attempts to change his appearance and escape. But as the city closes in on him, and odd, unfortunate incidents make his appear guiltier and guiltier, eventually he turns from escaping to catching the person who has been framing him all along. A wonderfully made, gripping, pitch perfect noir. This was actually Noir City's inaugural film 10 years ago. It's easy to see why it opened the festival back then, and it's still easy to see why it Eddie would bring it back.

Then the second feature, THE HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL (1951). Eddie opened up the festivities by talking about his crush on the star, Valentina Cortese. In fact, he was supposed to interview her on camera but things didn't work out. So instead the entire audience recorded a video greeting on Eddie Muller's cellphone for Valentina (some 89 years young.) Anyway, the theme of the night wasn't just San Francisco noir, it was also fake identity noir. In DARK PASSAGE Vincent Parry got plastic surgery and became Alan Linell. In THE HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL, Nazi concentration camp survivor Victoria Kowelska doesn't need to change her look, she just has to take the papers of her dead friend and fellow inmate Karin Dernakova. Turns out, Karin has a son, Christopher, who was smuggled out of Poland as a baby. He has grown up in San Francisco in the care of Karin's wise old aunt. And so after the war, and after some time in and Allied refugee camp Victoria goes to America as Karin to reunite with her "son." But the life of luxury in San Francisco offers its own tortures, not as explicit but possibly just as deadly as the concentration camps. Karin's aunt is dead, the estate is looked over by the handsome Alan Spender (Richard Basehart, who went on to marry Valentina after they made this movie), a distant relative by marriage. In fact, if it weren't for Karin's aunt leaving the estate to Christopher, it would've undoubtedly gone to Alan (since at the time of her aunt's death, Karin was thought to have been dead, too.) So...there's that money angle, although that's rendered a little moot by Alan marrying Karin. There's also Christopher's caregiver Margaret (Fay Baker), who clearly has a thing for Alan, and who is awfully protective of Christopher. She's clearly none to happy about having Karin around stepping on her turf. So when odd, dangerous coincidences happen (e.g., brakes fail sending Karin careening down San Francisco's infamously steep streets), there's plenty to be suspicious about. Or it's all a coincidence and she's just so shaken up about her traumatic life in the concentration camps (and guilt over stealing her friend's identity) that she has become delusionally paranoid.

And that's how Noir City opens. Time to head back for a quadruple bill today.

Total Running Time: 199 minutes
My Total Minutes: 261,521

Jason goes to Bad Movie Night and watches HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2

2012-01-16T00:05:00.000-08:00

Yeah, yeah, I know it's the final movie (8th in 7-part series, somehow) in the most wildly popular franchise ever. And it ties everything up in a dramatic and thrilling battle. And hell, even the rude, noisy reprobates cheered when Neville Longbottom swung the sword of Gryffindor and beheaded Voldemort's snake (oops...SPOILER ALERT!) This is--arguably--not really a bad movie. But lest we forget, the whole thing was so damned dark I have reasonably suspicion that David Yates shot the entire movie up his own ass.

Oh yeah, and am I the only one who thinks Harry married Ron's sister because that was as close as he could get to marrying Ron?

Running Time: 130 minutes

My Total Minutes: 261,321

Jason goes to the Niles Film Museum and sees THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940)

2012-01-14T10:02:00.000-08:00

This was a special event put on by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) as part of their One Book, One Community reading of Steinbeck's fierce, political, and depressing classic The Grapes of Wrath. I'd read this a few years ago, and was very impressed (although East of Eden is still my favorite Steinbeck). But I had never seen the movie.

Well, in short the movie is fairly faithful to the book (and was made just six months after the book was released), which means it's awfully sad and depressing. The Joad family, led by recent parolee Tom Joad (Henry Fonda, nominated for an Oscar) and Ma Joad (Jane Darwell, who won the best supporting actress Oscar) leave the dust bowl of Oklahoma for the promise of work in California. Of course, this doesn't pan out, and they find similar economic forces that forced them out of Oklahoma are spoiling their chances in California. Plus, there's the added pressure of prejudice and hatred against the Okies that are taking jobs from locals.

You know, when I read it, the economy was still in good shape, so it seemed like just a sad, horrible patch in our history. Now, the themes in it (especially the unseen, greedy bankers controlling it all) resonate once more. I'm going to have to go back and re-read it.

Oh, and the ending is different than the book. Despite all the horrible stuff that happens, they just had to end the movie on a proud, hopeful note.

Running Time: 129 minutes

My Total Minutes: 261,182

Jason watches THE ADVENTURE OF TINTIN in 3D

2012-01-11T19:35:00.001-08:00

I'll start by confessing to knowing next to nothing about the original Tintin comics. I have seen the character before, but never read a single story. But this was an engaging caper with good guys, bad guys, humor, and adventure.

Tintin (Jamie Bell) is a journalist, and judging by the clippings on his wall, he's had quite a few adventures. He buys a model boat at a flea market, and that immediately enters into an adventure surrounding a hidden message and sunken treasure. Along the way he meets Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis), who is drunk enough to power an airplane engine with his breath (BTW, I have to give kudos to an ostensible kids movie that isn't afraid to show drinking or have the young hero use a gun). The action rarely lets up and the caper is smart as well as fun (a "sword fight" with giant cranes is particularly amusing). Beyond that, I can't really comment further. As I said at the start, I'm not a Tintin expert.

Oh, and as one final point, the 3-D was very well done, but not really necessary. If you're a fan of 3-D, it's worth it. If not, you lose nothing by seeing it in 2-D.

Running Time: 107 minutes

My Total Minutes: 261045

Jason watches A DANGEROUS METHOD

2012-01-11T19:34:00.001-08:00

I think David Cronenberg is on of those rare filmmakers--or really artist of any kind--who keeps getting more and more interesting the older he gets. He and Werner Herzog are really the only two who spring to mind (I'm sure you have your own favorites).

Here he takes on a biopic about the complicate, sometimes-friendly, sometimes-contentious relationship between the giants of psychoanalysis--Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen, who has become a Cronenberg regular after remarkable turns in A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE and EASTERN PROMISES) and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender, who seems to be in every movie right now, and to my tastes has yet to disappoint).

I will start by confessing to little more than a poorly remembered high school education on Freud and Jung, so I'm sure there are finer points to their lives and works that are exploited in the movie but I didn't appreciate. But rest assured, it's very easy to appreciate the movie without them. As the movie opens, a hysteric woman named Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley, surprising in a role that requires more than just being pretty) is delivered to Jung's clinic. There he tries Freud's new "talking cure" on her. While Freud has written of the ability to "psych-analyze" patients by talking to them, it's unknown whether he has actually used it clinically, so this might in fact be the first psych-analysis (Freud later coins "psychoanalysis") patient in history. Well, Spielrein turns out to be rather brilliant herself, enough that she actually becomes a doctor. She's also a sexually repressed masochist.

Things progress along, at first Jung and Freud are friends. On their first meeting, they talk for 13 hours straight before noticing the time. And then comes a random chance meeting that arrives and disappears like a storm, leaving devastation in his wake. That would be the patient Otto Gross (Vincent Cassel), who Freud leaves in Jung's care. He is oversexed, and argues with Jung that sexual repression is wrong and there should be no boundaries. In his philosophy, it is the artificial boundaries put upon us by civilized society that deny us our natural desires and cause mental illness. And Jung is intrigued by that philosophy, in no small part because it allows him to cheat on his wife and have lots of kinky masochistic sex with Spielrein.

Cronenberg made quite a career showing quite literal transformation of the flesh. More recently, and especially in this film, he has made parallel explorations of the transformative power of ideas. But Jung's conflict over the question of sexual liberty reminds me of his early film SHIVERS (aka THEY CAME FROM WITHIN) in which the horror is a parasite that infects the victims' brains and turns them into sex addicts. I heard him once say in an interview that he made it specifically to reflect his ambivalence about the Sexual Revolution. That was one of his earliest films, and yet he's coming back to the same ideas, from a mental rather than physical point of view. Because after all, in Cronenberg's world ideas are flesh and flesh is just an idea.

Running Time: 99 minutes

My Total Minutes: 260,935

Jason goes to bad movie night and watches TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON

2012-01-08T18:09:00.000-08:00

Fun trivia fact--the darkest part of the moon...is the asshole. I believe the title refers to where Michael Bay pulled the so-called "story" out of. I...just...don't...care...anymore.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, there are no STD's powerful enough to make Michael Bay pissing on my childhood hurt for him as much as it does for me.

Running Time: 154 minutes

My Total Minutes: 260,836

Jason watches TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY

2012-01-08T18:08:00.001-08:00

Wow, that was actually pretty impressive. A spy movie that's 99% talking with just a few bits of violent action. Gary Oldman is riveting as George Smiley, a high ranking official in the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6.) He and his mentor Control (John Hurt) are forced out after a botched operation in Hungary that led to the death of an agent. What Control didn't even tell Smiley is that the operation was to bring in a contact who knew the identity of an alleged mole at the very top of MI6. And about a year later, he is contacted to ferret out the identity of the spy. And as I said, it's almost all talking, very carefully paced, but somehow never loses the audience's interest. Pretty much proves you don't need lotsa 'splosions to tell a good spy story. And while I'm pretty sure I followed most everything, I can tell it's the sort of movie that rewards repeat viewings, revealing new details each time.

Running Time: 127 minutes

My Total Minutes: 260,667

Jason watches MY WEEK WITH MARILYN

2012-01-08T18:07:00.000-08:00

It's the behind-the-scenes account of the making of the Sir Laurence Olivier/Marilyn Monroe collaboration THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL, as told by neophyte 3rd assistant director Colin Clark. What was supposed to be the lightest of light comedies was a nightmare behind the scenes, as Marilyn was often on pills, showed up late to set, often flubbed her lines, and basically drove Olivier insane. But, as is said in the movie, when she gets it right she's magic (who cares that it takes a few dozen tries to get it right). Colin had a privileged look (and not just at Marilyn in her dressing room), became Marilyn's ally briefly, fell in love with her, and got his heart broken (as everyone warns him will happen). Marilyn comes across as a force of nature who sometimes dreams of being an ordinary girl.

As far as this movie goes, it's well done and an interesting story. The fact is Michelle Williams is not quite Marilyn and Kenneth Branagh is not quite Olivier, so I could never really lose myself in the characters. But that's a common problem with movies about well known real people, and it's no great slight to say you can't replace Marilyn and Olivier with anyone.

Running Time: 99 minutes

My Total Minutes: 260,532