Black Dynamite - 2009 - Dir. Sanders

This film was repeatedly recommended to me by a friend. It seemed like a good idea but I just repeatedly put it off. MAN! I can't tell you how surprised I was by this flick. It reinvigorated my faith in the Parody genre. After years and years of duds, this is one that actually got me laughing out loud. In fact, I could say I laughed more at this than I have at anything in a long while. The tone and attitude of the film is perhaps what helps it the most. Rather than getting overly silly, it sticks to it's Badass image. It saves all of the over-the-top wackiness until the very end, successfully topping itself. It felt like it was dragging a little at first, because it very distinctly shifts gears around the third act. So perhaps it's not the smoothest transition to the wackiness that it could be. But to be honest the third act works so well that the transition to it is a minor complaint. Naturally, it has all the classic Blaxploitation stereotypes of boom mikes in frame and shitty acting but the movie also maintains the style of a classic Blaxploitation. It's just a parody that really knows it subject and knows how to pace a story. Michael Jai White plays a terrifically badass protagonist, all the while being able to make sure there's a vein of inept acting running throughout. Excellent choice if you're in a goofy mood!

Yeah!

Capitalism: A Love Story - 2009 - Dir. Moore

I haven't seen a Michael Moore movie since Bowling for Columbine came out. I just find him awfully smug... or I dunno. I generally don't disagree with him. But often times, I'd rather just read an article. I don't need his jokey bits and "clever" illustration (we know he's not getting into the wall street offices, he knows he's not getting in, no one would expect that he be let in, so why bother?!). I gave in to this one because I do love a good anti-capitalism rant. Probably my previous experience with these kinds of movies, made this a bit less impact-full. Maybe I'm just too cynical but generally my reaction kept being "Yeah, and?" It's a little like The Corporation-lite, with schmaltzy tragedy thrown in. I dunno, there were so many sad crying people in this movie. I felt like I wanted more facts, more dates, more damning evidence. Of course, all this awful shit will make families upset, seeing it just makes me feel like Moore is trying to pull at my heart-strings rather than actually try and speak to me intellectually. I mean, it's Moore so I guess this IS more for mainstream consumption. For people who'd rather watch a movie than read. On a lesser note, Michael Moore looks like an exhausted old woman in this movie. It looked like any minute he was going to melt into the ground. I was always unhappy when he was onscreen... which was a lot.

That's guy's hand is HUGE! :o

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One - 1968 - Dir. Greaves

What I think is especially neat about this movie is that as you watch it, it does seem to be shaped as the movie goes on. Rather then there being a strong premise and we follow closely to that, there does seem to be an organic nature to the way the movie proceeds. Naturally, Greaves had an idea as to what he wanted to happen and seemed to plan ahead of time to a degree. And editing in the end shapes the story more than anything else. But the movie does kind of have an organic narrative that develops within this very free-form and experimental doc. It's also a pretty humorous movie. Greaves is entertaining to watch direct while trying to answer questions about what all these people are really doing in the film. While the crew ponder the meaning of the film, often times the pretentious language and high-handed explanations that occur are pretty amusing on their own. It's also just interesting to watch because of the way everyone is reacting as they are filmed. Greaves talks about how the Uncertainty Principle inspired the film and it is pretty clear. People's behavior DO change obviously when they are filmed, reality TV has long been proof of that, but it's neat to this late sixties take on it. The movie can be a little slow, even though it's under ninety minutes. But I feel like there's enough going on that I would definitely rewatch.

The Joys of Film making!

F for Fake - 1974 - Dir. Welles

I had no concept about what this movie was going to be like before watching it. So I was pretty surprised to say the least, especially coming from Orson Welles. It seems like Kane overshadows this later work, which I suppose makes sense, especially since Kane is way more accessible. It's Welles' examination of authenticity or FAKERY and naturally, he goes about it in a bit of a sneaky way. The movie is incredibly playful which also makes it unlike a normal documentary. Ostensibly, it is about Elmyr de Hory, a professional art forger, and his biographer Clifford Irving, who has been declared a hoax after writing a fake biography about the last days of Howard Hughes. There are a few deviations from this basic premise and it's a little tough to follow at first, Welles drops a lot of information on us at once. And he also has some pretty intense editing to begin with, which is probably my favorite part. It's like a precursor to the wild editing we're so used to seeing these days, but all seventies. It's pretty neat to see that Welles had a hand in it back in the day. As if his name wasn't already big enough! I have to say that I struggled to keep up with some chunks of the movie. Especially when it involved Hughes and Irving's relationship. I'm not well versed in what went on there, Welles mostly catches us up but he takes his time doing so, making some of the movie a bit of a struggle. Welles is charming enough to keep us going though, unless you happen to think of him as an unwatchable, pretentious douche later on in life... in which case, this movie might be a bit of struggle. He is ALL OVER THIS MOVIE. Like a plate of french fries. I don't hold that opinion, so I say: A great doc!

Orson is freaking ooouuuutttt!

Breathless - 1960 - Dir. Godard

I saw this back in my college days with Shoot the Piano Player and I got down with STPP way more. I saw this as not nearly as much fun as his other work and actually pretty dull most of the time. I understand it's place in cinema history and I think it fully deserves it's place. But I'd rather watch Weekend. That's just the kind of fella I am. But you know, I get it. It's his first movie, he's not gonna take the kind of risks he would later on, but I feel like without his visual flair and his editing lessened (comparatively), we're left with a story about a jerk who acts like a film-noir jerk and isn't able to convince a woman he loves her. I just don't really get into Michel. Godard doesn't normally have all that sympathetic characters by any means... or really strong characters at all, but usually there's so much other ridiculousness going on that I don't really care or notice. In Breathless, we're stuck with this schmuck, we get some nice jump cuts but that doesn't make up for it! I still think that the end sequence is bitchin' though. It stuck out most of all in my memory from my first viewing. So I'm done badmouthing this landmark type movie. Probably if I had to recommend any starter Godard, this would be the one... Although I suppose that would be kind of deceptive wouldn't it...

Seven!

Late Spring - 1949 - Dir. Ozu

It's a pretty run of the mill Ozu film. Like with many of his other films, I always get the impression that I've seen it before. They're always very satisfying to watch, calming almost, so I don't think I really mind familiar feelings. I guess, it's tricky because the topics of his films often overlap. Late Spring is about a daughter who is perfectly happy caring for her widowed father and planning on becoming an Old Maid in a sense. Her Father, wants her to get hitched, even though it'll leave him on his own. It features my two favorite Ozu actors, Setsuko Hara and Chishu Ryu. It felt like it leaned more towards the serious spectrum of his films. That's not to say he goes around making comedies or anything but they can be light-hearted sometimes. This one, not so much. Anyway, I'm always impressed as to how he can make the simplest stories so watchable... and enjoyable. I rarely find myself impatiently looking at the running time. I feel like he set his pace very clearly, very deliberately. So there's little confusion as to the speed in which the movie will go. It's a good film. Solid Ozu. There's certainly better ones out there but if you have a thirst for Ozu, this will certainly quench it... that or Gatorade (The joke is that Gatorade will make you feel like you just watched mid-twentieth century Japanese cinema).

Setsuko Hara friggin LOVES making that expression.

House - 1977 - Dir. Obayashi

I've been excited about this movie for a really long time. I had hoped to make a screening of it back in NY last year but THE TIME JUST WASN'T RIGHT. When someone tells me there's a Japanese movie where the directors eight year old daughter helped out and the special effects are outrageous, I get pretty excited and skeptical. Preferring to watch it in the right frame of mind. And the movie is certainly a handful, beginning with hyper melodramatic sequences of schoolgirl's "normal" everyday life. Oh, and the girls names are just descriptions (Prof, Gorgeous, Sweet). The movie is so insistently innocent and cutesy, I think I was a little surprised when the horror aspects ended being somewhat gory. It's certainly more goofy than scary or violent, probably no one under ten would be intimidated. The special effects make no attempt to convey realism and are more of a tool to say "Look what we can do with film!" So they end up being fun. The movie is fun when you get right down to it. It's silly, unpretentious, and paced really well. I didn't find myself getting impatient, "waiting for the good stuff." It's all good stuff. About as genuine as you can get trying to translate a child's vision to film. I would certainly be on board to watch it again.

Check out this rope I found!!