We don’t mean to constantly bitch about everything, but sometimes it just slips out. If you were paid a dollar for every minute we rant about 3D for the next year, you could begin preparations to retire now. Some of the unintentional insults hurled our way from the Oscars didn’t help matters much either. But we did manage to find some joy whilst visiting Wonderland. Some quality recent viewings and DVD releases made their way into our homes and hearts as well. Take a listen and feel free to leave your own sarcastic jabs at the Oscars (or whatever else tickles your fancy) in the comment section below and as always, thanks for listening!
http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_10/episode_158.mp3
Full show notes are under the seats…
show
IN-HOUSE BUSINESS:
Kurt on FilmJunk podcast
Annual Oscar pool
MAIN REVIEWS:
Alice in Wonderland (R3view)
WHAT ELSE WE WATCHED:
The White Stripes (Andrew’s review)
Cabin Fever 2
Repo! The Genetic Opera
Strange Wilderness
DVD PICKS:
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Andrew: “Scarecrow & Mrs. King” (IMDb) 
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Kurt: Tapeheads (IMDb) 
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Matt: Sonny Chiba set (IMDb) 
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BLU RAY:
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Andrew: Precious (Marina’s review) 
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Kurt: Up in the Air (Kurt’s review) 
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Matt: I don’t pick Blu-Rays! |
OTHER DVDs NOW AVAILABLE:
The Stoning of Soraya M.
Capitalism: A Love Story
The Avon Barksdale Story
Paris
Evangelion:
OTHER STUFF MENTIONED:
Academy Awards (Andrew’s recap)
Repo Men (IMDb)
Tron 2 trailer
Shark clip from Strange Wilderness:
NEXT WEEK:
Green Zone (IMDb)
She’s Out of My League (IMDb)
Art of the Steal (IMDb)
A Prophet (Marina’s review)
PRIVATE COMMENTS or QUESTIONS?
Leave your thoughts in the comment section below, or email us:
feedback@rowthree.com (general)
andrew.james@rowthree.com
kurt@rowthree.com
My bad. Jonathan GLAZER did the Dead Weather video; not Jonathan Demme. Which makes sense actually. I was just tired.
Glazer is one of my favourite new British directors. I wish he more prolific, but he is batting “one-thousand” with Sexy Beast and Birth, the latter of which is one of the best unheralded films of the aughties.
He did a load of classic British music videos and ad’s back in the 90′s and early 00′s too. I love his Unkle ‘Rabbit in The Headlights’ video especially. You’ve probably already come across the ‘Work of Director’ DVD series, but if not check out the ‘Work of Director Jonathan Glazer’ DVD, it’s awesome: http://www.palmpictures.com/film/the-work-of-director-jonathan-glazer.php
Skip to 1.47 for Glazer’s bit on the video.
Andrew, I was gonna call you on the Dead Weather Video, but glad you caught it. Props to Kurt for pointing out that NO, Carroll’s work is not just gibberish for a child’s whimsy. While I’m not sure if either Carroll or Burton meant to create a commentary on feminism, as Carroll was a Mathematician (Alice is imbued with mathematical symbolism) and priest, among other professions; but that’s the beauty of good art- it allows you to see what it might be for the creator and what can be for you as the viewer…”curiouser and curiouser” said Alice.
re: Oscars – I like Kurt’s POV on the what the Oscars should be, but I’d be very surprised if that kind of film history-centric show turned out as popular as we’d like it to be. Unfortunately. I guess the conceptual thing there is, do you see the Oscars as celebrating this year in film and the current spate of movies and stars (which is what they tend more and more to do each year), or celebrating the addition of a new year’s worth of films into the Academy’s 80-something-year canon of films. I like the second one, but I’m curious how many general moviegoers care? This year’s ceremony was a debacle no matter which view you take, though – it wasn’t about the films, the stars, or anything at all, really. And of course, even if you take the “Oscars should celebrate the whole history”, the Academy has always been an obviously US-centric affair, so you’d still only be celebrating the history of Hollywood.
re: Alice – Just to clarify, I think the White Queen is better for Underland than the Red Queen – at least under her all the villages weren’t heaps of rubble and the kingdom wasn’t a wasteland. But as far as queens go, she was pretty damn weak and still had a disturbing cruel streak. It might’ve been interesting to follow through on a conflict that wasn’t really between good and evil, but between evil and lesser-evil, or evil and meh, but they really didn’t. It felt like we were supposed to root unequivocally for the White Queen, and I just couldn’t.
“the Academy has always been an obviously US-centric affair,”
Well, it is the AMERICAN ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES” so American-Centric is fair game, they throw a few bones acknowledging foreign langague cinema, but really, it is indeed about HOLLYWOOD and AMERICA first. No issues with that.
As Andrew is fond of saying, CANNES and the Palm D’Or is the better measure of world-quality (although admittedly, they are only judging the Palm on a few competition films….)
@Jandy, “follow through on a conflict that wasn’t really between good and evil, but between evil and lesser-evil,”
Well said. Well Said. And that, is indicative of the ‘coming of age’ life thing that is going on with this new 10-years-older Alice. Evil and Lesser-Evil choices are pretty much the bulk of what we are left with in life! Yay, Cynicism!
Besides, Underland is really Alice working her shit out at a subconscious level – her dream if you will. It does not literally exist in Tim Burton’s film. My take on things, anyway.
Right, that’s why I said “obviously.” I don’t have a problem with it, either – there’s a whole lot to like in the history of Hollywood. Just pointing that with things like the horror montage, even if it were well-done, I wouldn’t have really expected it to include foreign horror (some critiques I heard were arguing that it should’ve had [rec] and Argento and stuff). I would’ve been pleased if it had included more than token nods to pre-1980s horror and given some real time to, say, Lon Chaney’s silents and Val Lewton’s 1940s films. They did have a few of the Universal monsters, I think, but only a couple of the really well-known ones.
Back on Alice, yeah, I’ll buy the subconscious thing (although that renders her “it’s not a dream, it’s a memory” revelation into nonsense), and I do think it’s interesting and plays into the growing-up themes that the White Queen isn’t a paragon of goodness, but I think if that was intentional, it should’ve been highlighted a little more. Not that things have to be intentional to be valid – I’ve had too much litcrit to think that.
@Jandy, “Not that things have to be intentional to be valid ”
Wheee! I’ve had that arguement with so many folks, I think we even get into it on the cinecast. Yes, sometimes an unintentional theme by the filmmakers is fantastic, and once the film is done and everyone has put it out into the wild, the creators yes, become just another viewer at that point.
Nice:
for once I am in entire agreement with Matt, the lone voice of reason on R3. The esteem for Alice in Wonderland here ranks, to me anyways, as the very highest WTF in these last couple of years.
I really enjoyed Demme’s Neil Young Heart of Gold doc and that is just performance but it jumps off the screen.