Dirty Old Town

2010 independent comedy

Rating: none

Plot: An antique store owner has 72 hours to pay his rent.

After watching this and struggling to stay awake, I started to wonder if I even like independent films anymore.

The best thing about this was the use of the Pogues' song during the opening. I was hoping they'd use it.

I don't have anything else to say about this one. I watched it a couple weeks ago and barely remember anything about it. I apologize to fans of Dirty Old Town.

Antibirth

2016 horror movie

Rating: 9/20

Plot: I'm not writing a plot synopsis for this one.

I don't remember where I heard about this movie, but I was convinced I needed to see it. I hated it almost from the start. I hated the characters, I hated its general incoherence, and I hated the movies feel. This was frequently ugly and contained one of the most annoying characters I've come across in a while in Natasha Lyonne's Lou. At one point, the character actually says, "I love pissing." And Lyonne is really bad.

What's notable about this one is that it kind of feels like something completely fresh until you really think about it and break it into its smaller parts. Then, you realize it's kind of the same thing you've seen over and over again. The movie's loud and ugly, and I wouldn't recommend it to anybody.

Unless you absolutely love strobe lights. If you like strobe lights, this might be the movie for you.

Chaplin Mutual Shorts: Part Three

1916-17 shorts

Rating: no rating

We're at the end of the school year, the second year I've had with this batch of students. They're about to head to the high school, and I don't really feel like I've taught them much. The way our schedule works, my second class of the day has an extra half an hour every single day. Lately, I've stopped caring about language arts and have decided to just show that class silent comedies. If I've taught them nothing else, I'll at least teach some of them to appreciate Chaplin and Keaton. So far, we've watched a Buster Keaton short and The General and The Gold Rush and Modern Times. They laugh and, I think, enjoy the movies enough. They definitely prefer Chaplin over Keaton though, but I've got a few Keaton shorts up my sleeve that I think will knock them out.

But this isn't about Buster. This is about Chaplin's shorts that he made for Mutual. The other two can be found here and here.

Easy Street

This classic comedy short has a great opening shot--a curled Chaplin at the steps of Hope Mission. From there, it unfolds in that typical comedy short stream-of-conscious fashion with the character bouncing around from situation to barely-connected situation so that comedy can happen. Here, a tramp (but not necessarily the Little Tramp) becomes a police officer and helps rid a neighborhood of crime.

There's great physical comedy and action sequences, but I'm most impressed with Chaplin's acting here. He does some beautiful and modern things here, and it's amazing that he's doing it in 1917 and that he'd only been doing it for a few years.

A funny bottle gag, Eric Campbell tossing around police officers and one hilarious police officer dummy, a weaponized lamppost that led to a Chaplin injury, and a great use of limited space in a climactic chase/fight sequence. It all shows that Chaplin, when given complete control, was world's better than anybody else working at the time.

This movie also shows the powers of drug use similarly to a scene taking place in prison in Modern Times. Chaplin seemed to revisit his ideas quite a bit actually. But why not when the ideas are this fucking good?

The Cure

It's not 1917, but I'm just as entertained at watching exaggerated drunkenness just as much as audiences back then. There's probably a lot that makes me old fashioned, but that might be the number one thing.

This one's funny though you look at the initial set-up and figure out exactly what some of the physical comedy's going to be. Yes, Chaplin's upper-class little fellow and likely others are going to fall in that hole. Yes, that revolving door is going to be used for humorous effect. Yes, he's going to meet a girl. But it all works so well, and you can hardly complain about any unpredictability. And with the added ironic twist featuring that hole of healing waters, it becomes magical.

As with almost all of these shorts, this features both Eric Campbell, this time as a guy suffering from the Gout, and the lovely Edna Purviance as the love interest. It's also got the old guy as a bell hop.

And man, there really is a lot of play with that revolving door. The amount of time these cartoon characters go through that revolving door is something that you couldn't predict.

The Immigrant

If I had to, I'd guess this was the very first Chaplin short I ever saw--way back when I was a little kid and only slightly bigger than Charlie Chaplin. As a kid, I think I could identify with him because he was a little fellow, an underdog. Here, he's playing another traditional underdog character--an immigrant.

This short is top-heavy with all the funniest bits--the fish, the hiccups, the wildly-rocking boat--all happening in the first half. If it maintained that level of greatness throughout, this would be the first Chaplin I'd expose other people to. It's not that the second half isn't worth watching, but this is definitely a case of a movie shooting its wad too early.

One of my favorite things I like about Chaplin is watching his characters fall in love. It's old-fashioned, trite, and whatever other adjective you want to throw at it, and if one actually acted like Chaplin does when he experiences love at first sight, he'd likely be arrested, but they are some of my favorite movie moments ever.

The Adventurer 

Buster Keaton's physical abilities are perhaps more obvious, but you shouldn't underestimate Chaplin's athletic prowess. That's on display here in this short where he plays a convict on the run from the law. He plays with sand and hills and water, showing off his swimming skills. The direction shows a creative use of the landscape. You almost get the sense that he had a tiny bit of an idea and one more film to do with Mutual and decided to just find a location and see what he could do.

Lots of butt-kicking with slide whistles in this one. I'll say this about the butt-kicking. It still works with middle school audiences. I'd really like to see the Fast and Furious franchise incorporate kicks to the rear in their fight scenes eventually.

Sadly, this is Eric Campbell's final film. He was killed because he was driving while intoxicated.

Amanda Knox

2016 true crime documentary

Rating: 14/20

Plot: Man, America sure does like when pretty white girls commit crimes.

This documentary was also recommended by Cory.

Essentially, this is an extended episode of a TV newsmagazine detailing a case that captured everybody's attention a decade ago. I didn't know much about it, really just the name, but even though I'm not a fan of those true-crime TV documentary expose shows, this story was gripping. I guess the appeal of pretty white girls committing crimes is too alluring even for me.

Amanda Knox gets her name in the title, but for me, this is less about her and more about the investigators and the media. The investigators botch this thing in epic fashion, influenced by outside pressures to quickly make arrests and put Italians' minds at ease. The news media, believe it or not, turns this into a complete circus. They, more than Amanda herself, really drive this story. Don't get me wrong--Knox is an intriguing figure. She's impossible to read, something that probably didn't help her much as this whole thing unfolded. And although it's impossible to know how one is supposed to act in a situation like this, it just didn't seem like her responses to some of these twists and turns made complete sense.

This documentary does a good job of telling the story and is engrossing from beginning to end.

Gleason

2016 documentary

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Former NFL hero Steve Gleason and his wife live life and inspire others after he's diagnosed with ALS.

There's something so honest about this presentation. Gleason starts as a hero, that typical sort of artificial hero in America known for being fast and strong or for one silly-when-you-really-think-about-it thing. He gets this unfortunate diagnosis, finds out he's going to be a father, and starts fighting, and you really root for the guy because he and his wife are so likable. Not that you'd stop caring if Steve was unlikable. But instead of just painting this guy as 100% courage and heroism, this shows the reality of the situation. That dealing with something like this is impossible, that disease absolutely wrecks life, and that even the most courageous and heroic people are still flawed.

I was touched throughout. I loved this couple, and watching his friends--members of the band Pearl Jam, former teammates--step up brought tears to my eyes. At times, my tears were sad ones, but other times, I was moved by watching what human beings are capable of, always surprising since my misanthropic self lost faith in humanity a long time ago. At times, this isn't easy to watch, not always for the same reasons. I didn't always like scenes with Steve's father, felt something close to pain when Steve and his wife would argue, and wondered if a scene in a bathroom was exploitative. But it all adds up to something completely authentic, and I think it's a better film because of it. Plus, the overall optimism keeps this firmly in inspirational rather than depressing territories.

This was recommended (sort of) by Cory. He included it in his list of top films from 2016. I'd also highly recommend it as a documentary that could easily be about a disease but is instead about a remarkably strong and inspirational couple of human beings.

Roma

1972 love letter

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Rome, at various stages in director Federico Fellini's life.

This impressionistic glimpse at Rome sort of washes over you. It's filled with moments. Some vignettes, like when a bunch of people are having dinner, are beautifully mundane. Others, like the Catholic fashion show, are beautifully wild. That latter blast of blasphemy is the highlight, climaxing with a shot of a pope who manages to out-funky every other pope put together after a parade of bishops lit like arcades, roller-skating cardinals, and nuns in flapping garb. Prior to that, things are only mildly strange. You get a couple trips to brothels, fascinating footage in the subterranean parts of Rome with some disintegrating frescoes, and the eerie blue shadows of nocturnal dogs.

This feels like an artistically manufactured documentary, almost more like orchestral jazz than a traditional movie. It's got its beautiful movements, its darker and uglier ones, and its crescendos.

In the Loop

2009 political satire

Rating: 16/20 (Jen: 16/20)

Plot: Inept officials and news spinners work to prevent a world war.

I don't know the BBC show (The Thick of It) this spins off from, but that didn't affect my enjoyment of it. There's so much dark hilarity packed into this movie and its characters, that I almost feel like watching it again. There's a bleak breeziness that put a frightened smile on my face.

My favorite comedies, I think, are ones that manage to be so smart and completely juvenile at the same time. This combination of verbal slapstick and biting satire, such great lines delivered by a great ensemble cast, really hit the spot.

Theory of Obscurity: A Film about the Residents

2015 documentary

Rating: 14/20

Plot: A look at the influential and consistently inventive avant-garde goofballs, The Residents.

"We will die pretending to be a band."

This is almost like a 90 minute advertisement for the band, The Residents. I'm not sure there's anything revolutionary for fans here, especially since fans of this particular cult band are as obsessive diehards as they come. And I'm not sure why it would appeal to individuals who are not fans of this sort of thing.

Still, there's a treasure trove of footage--from very very early live stuff where faces seem to be clearly shown through the beginnings of their recording career through lots of fun stuff with the failed Vileness Fats film through their first tours through their ventures with various technological formats through the present day shenanigans. It's loads of stuff, showcasing an ensemble that is always in motion and always willing to take on new risks.

Les Claypool might have described fans of the art ensemble best when he talked about learning to "appreciate the fungus." You can't watch this and deny that the eyeballed freaks are a force though. This shows them off as marketing geniuses. And you just have to respect the evolution of a group of people who started off their careers feeling that music had been dominated by people who could play instruments for too long to a collective of who-knows-how-many sustaining a career that's lasted for over forty years.

I really enjoyed seeing Molly Harvey, a part-time vocalist for the group who in her real life appears to be a completely normal person.

Bad Movie Club: Cyber Seduction: His Secret Life

2005 Lifetime movie

Bad Movie Rating: 3/5 (Josh: 3/5; Samantha: 3/5; Mark: 3/5, Melissa: no rating [didn't last even as long as the movie's young protagonist would have had he engaged in actual intercourse])

Rating: 5/20

Plot: A high school kid's life spirals out of control when he becomes addicted to Internet soft-core pornography and forgets how to use doors. 

According to imdb's trivia page for this movie: One of the "porn" sites the main character in this looks at is called Naked Women with No Clothes On. I didn't catch that myself.

Bad Movie Club had never ventured into the dark world of Lifetime movies. As a made-for-TV venture, the possibilities of a wild masturbation sequence were severely limited. And, apparently, the "porn" websites were limited to things like Naked Women with No Clothes On. This was sort of like a Reefer Madness for Internet porn addiction, and the unbelievable downward spiral of this kid was probably a little more entertaining than it should have been. I did enjoy that his chosen Internet moniker was "Stroke Man." It was actually a reference to his swimming, but we all know it was the makers of this getting a way with a sneaky masturbation reference. Or maybe it's not even sneaky. 

My reference to doors in my plot synopsis? It might be my favorite thing about this movie actually. The kid never closes his door. He'll be in the room checking out Naked Women with No Clothes On, and his mom or younger brother--future self-abuser--will walk by and see his computer screen. If you're going to look at pornography, at least close the door! 

Kelly Lynch plays a MILF. 

I bet Mike Pence would love this movie. 

One More Time with Feeling

2016 musical documentary

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Following the death of a son, musician Nick Cave works on dealing with those emotions and wrapping up the recording of an album.

This is a weird one, so beautiful and haunting but almost devastatingly depressing. You want to question why Cave wanted this document of his sorrow. It was explained that he asked friend Andrew Dominik to direct this because he didn't want to be asked about the tragedy and his feelings, letting this movie do all that talking for him. I'm not sure it's all that effective in communicating those feelings, mostly because I don't think there's anyway to take the abstract feelings about the tragic loss of a loved one so soon after it's happened and forming them into something that other people are going to understand. It's all very raw, and although you can't fully connect the dots in his stream-of-conscious meanderings where he describes his feelings, it still somehow makes complete sense on an emotional level.

I can't say this was much fun to watch. It was like watching two people trying to pick up pieces of their hearts. But it's striking and it's really beautiful. Filmed in black and white--the only colors that makes sense for this sort of thing--and at least partially in 3-D, this has a look that is really unique, really unlike anything I've seen before. That Dominik knows how to set up a shot. Cave is an interesting-looking dude anyway. He's got an intimidating hairline and gauntness, and he also just looks striking here, almost in every single shot. Even before tragedy, I guess you could call Cave sort of a morose fellow, but in this, he looks like he's just got this enormous weight on him. You really feel this pain.

The studio stuff is shot so beautifully though. A lot of times, it's just Cave at his piano or Cave standing and gesticulating and singing. Dominik's camera swims around, artificially at times, and he even utilizes a circular track to get a 360 shot of Cave at the piano. I didn't watch this in 3D, of course, and I wonder what that effect would have been. There were certain shots that looked a little warbly. But that stark black and white--mostly black, to be honest--was just staggering.

There are a lot of touching moments in this. Longtime band-mate and pal Warren Ellis gets the second or third most interview time--maybe even ahead of Cave's wife--and you can tell that he's suffering from the loss as well. A scene where they look at a painting the deceased son had made is also very sad. Despite moments like that that seem like very private moments, this never really feels exploitative. The son isn't even mentioned initially, so if you didn't know the musician had lost a song going into this thing, you wouldn't even understand what he was going through for the majority of the film. I do question shots at the very end of the movie of the cliff where the tragedy happened. Those, I'm afraid, were unnecessary.

The music? Well, I'm not sure it has mass appeal. Cave is sort of an acquired taste anyway, and these songs are a bit difficult.

Anyway, this is an accurate portrayal of grief and loss. It's not a fun movie to watch, but it definitely is an experience.

Silent Saturday: More Chaplin Shorts

1916-17 shorts

Rating: I don't rate shorts! Will you please stop expecting me to? It's borderline harassment!

The first four shorts in this three-parter can be found right here. This covers the middle four of his 12 two-reelers he did with Mutual. I assume the dvds present them in order of when they came out.

The Count

Like all of these, this short's plot meanders a lot more than any 25-30 minute film should. Chaplin filmed these things without having much experience writing scripts, and he went into these having outlines and ideas more than scripts. Sometimes, as with the case of this, that's actually a good thing as it helps the movie feel fresh and organic.

Also with all of these, this features both Edna Purviance, his muse at the time, and his Goliath Eric Campbell, a man who is about twice his size. Campbell and Chaplin play a pair of tailors who wind up at a ritzy party and try to fit in and win the affection of the rich girl. The plot is secondary to the slapstick shenanigans, and this one is packed with laughs. Chaplin's character's ineptitude and firing, a lack of table manners with both spaghetti and watermelon, the funniest hip injury I've ever seen, some great dance moves that turn in a classic 1916 butt-kicking contest, and a frantic escape from the party are highlights.

And also like these other shorts, this one uses very few title cards. Really, there aren't any that actually advance the plot, just a handful that make little jokes. The lack of intertitles help keep this thing swimming and make it feel more modern.

There's even a joke about sound in this one. Man, that Chaplin was a genius. And another thing this helps confirm--absolutely nobody could move like Chaplin.

The Pawnshop

Ladder hijinks, lots and lots of fisticuffs, and about as many slide whistles as there were in that fireman one from the first batch of these. "The Pawnshop" is funny although it's even more episodic than most of the others.

What this helps illustrate about Chaplin is one of my favorite things about his characters--that they can be so clumsy and so graceful at the same time. Again, his character is completely inept as the assistant at a pawnshop. He's constantly jacking shit up, but he does it with the elegance of a ballerina and it's charming. Falling with grace isn't easy, and Chaplin does it so effortlessly in this.

James T. Kelley has a great part in this one as a guy who has been dead for 105 years. He's got a sad story.

There are a handful of really good bits, but my favorite is watching Chaplin repair a clock. It's the kind of thing you see a lot in silent comedies, but that doesn't make it any less amusing.

Behind the Screen

Not my favorite Chaplin short here. I remember seeing this one before, but I still hoped there would be more of a glimpse at the creation of movies during this time than there was. The gags didn't really work with me here although I enjoyed watching Chaplin pulling a lever.

The end erupts into a pie fight, just characters hurling pies at each other for what seems to be fifteen minutes. I'm sure it's the kind of thing that was a lot more fun to actually film than it was to watch.

The Rink

If you want to marvel at Chaplin's prowess at roller-skating, it's more impressive in Modern Times. But it's still fun to watch in this one. Here's how I think this one went down. Chaplin wanted to do some things in a restaurant, mostly involving a pair of doors, and then ran out of ideas and said, "Fuck it! Let's just do some skating." He probably thought it would get him laid even more than he was getting laid for just being Charlie Chaplin.

As a narrative, this one doesn't make a lot of sense, but if you're watching these 30 minute movies for a good story, you're probably not watching them for the right reason. This isn't one of the very best of his Mutual shorts, but like all of them, it's worth watching. And his roller skating really is impressive.

And I laughed out loud while watching this. If you can make something that has people laughing out loud 100 years later, you've probably done something right.

Sing

2016 animated movie

Rating: 12/20 (Jen: 16/20; Emma: 14/20; Abbey: 13/20; Buster: 20/20)

Plot: A koala voiced by Matthew McConaughey holds a singing competition.

As with most of these modern animated feature films, the only fun I have is trying to guess who is doing the voices. And I failed miserably as I thought the koala was voiced by Dave Foley.

I also had fun wondering how much money had to have been spent for the rights to these songs. There certainly were a lot of songs. Most of the song choices were completely predictable, and since it included a Leonard Cohen song ("Hallejulah," since it was the only song Cohen ever had) and David Bowie song back-to-back, I have to assume this is the movie that killed them both.

Buster says this was the "perfect movie." I don't agree with her.

Rated PG for mild farting.

The Handmaiden

2016 drama

Rating: 17/20

Plot: A crook and a pickpocket conspire to rob a rich lady of her fortune.

This was recommended by Cory, likely one of the most challenging and strangest things he's ever thrown my way. It's the latest dark and twisty drama from Chan-Woo Park, and I think it might be his best. It's hard for me to name something specific about it that is completely original or innovative, but as a whole, it feels completely original and innovative.

I don't want to say much about the characters or the plot, and that's for two reasons. First, I'm lazy. Second, the less you know going in, the more I think this will work for you. There's some violence and some kink, and that's all I really feel like saying about that.

Park organizes the story in a way that enhances the characters' relationships and interactions. It's told in three chapters. The first two overlap and are from two different characters' perspectives while the third wraps things up. Again, it's not a wholly original structure although I can't think right now of another movie that does exactly this. And I definitely can't recall a movie that does it this effectively.

I also love what Park does with the camera. It swoops, almost constantly. Sometimes, those swoops are seductive, sometimes they're haunting, and sometimes they're mysterious. It's always visually poetic, and the sumptuous setting of this mansion, the lighting and colors, and the nipples are visuals you just want to completely absorb.

Man, I'm glad I found that poster up there. I thought I was going to have to use the more normal one with the four characters just standing around. I also really liked this one:

Girl Asleep

2015 coming-of-age tale

Rating: 13/20

Plot: Greta tries to adapt to a new school and set of friends while Mom tries to ruin her life with a disco-fueled birthday party. Strange goings-on happen in a forest.

I really enjoyed this movie my brother recommended during its first half when it had a Napoleon Dynamite vibe, and that's despite knowing it would take a turn because of some characters who seemed like they'd seen Heathers a few too many times. Girl Asleep took forever to find some sort of a story, but the extended introduction to the quirky characters and the coming-of-age conflict was fun and made me laugh a few times. Non-sequitur details, spontaneous disco line dancing, and zany dialogue kept things amusing and breezy, like a lighter Yorgos Lanthimos movie or a much stranger Wes Anderson.

There's a jarring shift at around the midway point, and things get more surreal. I'll always welcome surrealism, even at its most childlike, but this just felt a little half-assed to me, like director Rosemary Myers and writer Matthew Whittet--both first-timers in those respective gigs--figured some minimalistic sets, creepy-cute costumes, and some whimsical funk was enough to keep anybody's interest. I'm not sure what any of it added up to, but I suspect it has something to do with being a teenage girl, something that I'm not really able to relate to.

I wish I liked this just a little bit more. I thought Whittet, playing the protagonist's father, was very funny, even though I guessed incorrectly that he was from New Zealand instead of Australia. This had that quirky Kiwi thing going for it though. I also thought Bethany Whitmore was great as Greta. I checked her filmography and noticed she was also the voice of Mary in Mary and Max. And Harrison Feldman, in his first movie role, was good even if his character was a bit one-note. In fact, I think all four of those people show enough here to be excited about where they go from here.

I did really like words that appeared in random places--basketballs, mantles--that sort of served as chapter titles. It, along with a lot of the visual flair, was creative.

Tekkonkinkreet

2006 anime

Rating: 13/20

Plot: Young Black and White (Kuro and Shiro, actually) fight off yakuza trying to take over Treasure Town.

Likely worth the price of admission--in my case, no cost at all since I watched this in a dvd player in my home--the Treasure Town built by a combination of computer animation and hand-drawn stuff is something else. There's an amazing attention to detail, the landscape just stuffed with things to see. If I liked the movie's story or characters better, this would be something I'd be willing to watch again just to soak in more of those details.

Other than vaguely remembering that the scenery was at times stunning, I'm not going to remember much about this. The story was simultaneously simple and difficult to follow, if that makes sense, and none of the characters were very interesting. I just never could get into this one.