Archive for the ‘General Ramblings’ Category

  • 27 Oct

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    Flyway Pubcast #4 – Madtown! (Mike Pickering and Mike Scholtz)

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    For this go-round, Matt and I got a look at the documentary short subject with new friends Mike Scholtz and Mike Pickering. These guys saw the importance of what was going on in Madison, Wisconsin last summer and decided to risk police arrest and capture as much as they could on film. Madtown is shown in three acts and goes right inside the capitol building to hear from the people who occupied it for almost three weeks in opposition to Governor Scott Walker’s union-busting bill.

    And though we didn’t get a chance to talk about it in this Pubcast, The Mike’s are also directors of the Free Range Film Festival which is “a celebration of independent film and country living. Films are screened inside a big old barn located in the heart of Minnesota’s organic farm country. The 2012 festival will be held on July 27 & 28. It will be more fun than you probably deserve.”

     

    Interview with Directors Mike Pickering and Mike Scholtz of MADTOWN [ 10:36 | 9.71 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup

     

    Madtown screened at this year’s Flyway Film Festival but is still making its way around the festival circuit. If you can’t find a big screen showing, you’re in luck as the guys have thrown a slightly rougher cut of the film on YouTube. You can check it out in its entirety underneath the seats…

     

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 16 Oct

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    Review: Kuroneko

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    Kuroneko1

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    This review was initially written for the J-Film Pow-Wow and published at the end of 2009 after viewing the Masters Of Cinema DVD release of the film. Since Criterion will be releasing Kuroneko for the first time in Region 1 on DVD and BluRay on October 18th, we’re re-publishing the review.

     

    Whenever you finally track down a film you’ve been dying to see for years, there’s always a risk that you’ve set it up for failure. It can’t possibly live up to your expectations, can it? It’s more than likely to leave you wanting more and even if you can’t really fault it, you’ll probably still walk away a little bit disappointed. Sometimes though…Sometimes it’s everything you wanted.

    Kaneto Shindo’s 1968 ghost story Kuroneko ended up completely satiating my long simmering curiosity. As one of the main inspirations for latter day J-Horror films (along with the director’s own previous Onibaba, Masaki Kobayashi’s Kwaidan and Nobuo Nakagawa’s Ghost Story Of Yotsuya and Jigoku), Kuroneko is not really a horror film itself. It deals with horrific occurrences, but is really a simple ghost story that also happens to be one of the most aesthetically pleasing black and white films I’ve seen. The sharp contrasts (e.g. the brightness of the ghosts white dresses versus the darkness of the forest around them, etc.) and the very theatrical lighting used in several sequences helps to highlight the fantastical nature of the story and tends to burn images into your mind like it’s an old television set. Shindo creates a somewhat surreal environment for these two female ghosts to exist – a house with changing shafts of light at the edge of a bamboo forest and near the Gates of Rajomon. The contrasts feel deeper here than in the real world where the rest of Japan is struggling through the Warring States period and samurai have all the power.

    The story begins with a wandering band of these samurai as they exit the woods and approach the hut of a mother and her daughter-in-law. These men have survived their recent battles, but seem to have lost their humanity – they raid the hut for food, rape both the women and burn the hut to the ground. In the smouldering remains, a black cat wanders over the two charred bodies and licks their wounds. Given the title of the film (Kuroneko means Black Cat) and the screen-filling closeups of the cat’s face and eyes, you know this is no ordinary feline. The two women return as spirits and have a simple task – to seek vengeance upon all samurai. Each and every samurai who wanders through the gates near the bamboo forest is met by the young woman. Each one appears honourable at first as they unfailingly help her back to her house through the darkness of the bamboo forest, but once they enter the house and have been served numerous drinks of sake, they feel they can help themselves to the young woman. This, of course, is part of the spirits’ plan. Once vulnerable, the young woman attacks them in a vicious animalistic way while the mother does a dance of death.

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  • 04 Oct

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    Villain!

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    It shall be Tom Cruise vs. Werner Herzog in Christopher McQuarrie’s (The Usual Suspects, Way of the Gun) new film, One Shot.

    The book series by Lee Child follows Jack Reacher, a former military policeman turned drifter. In “One Shot,” Reacher investigates the case of a sniper accused of murdering five people before being captured. Herzog will play The Zec, an ex-prisoner of war who arranges and stages the killing and is the head of the conspiracy.

  • 19 Sep

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    Tyrannosaur Poster & Trailer

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    Tyrannosaur, the Grand Slam first film for writer-director Paddy Considine set TIFF ablaze last week, eliciting a standing ovation at its premiere and creating a bit of a circus in my twitter feed. Best known for his acting credits, including In America and the cocky detective in Hot Fuzz, Paddy Considine elevates the British social drama into something more than your average miserable affair, tapping into the grandeur of Western archetypes as Joseph (I am sure there is a biblical parable in there somewhere as well) tries to do one right thing in a maddening world. Peter Mullan as Joseph is, well, Peter Mullan, no better praise than that. Olivia Colman plays Hannah, Joseph’s cross to bear in the frontiers of skid row, and nearly runs away with the film. One of my favorite films at TIFF, and one that has stuck with me long after the film ended. Catch it when it comes around.

    The trailer gives an idea of what you are in for, including the use of The Leisure Society’s song, We Were Wasted, which the film makes its own.

    The Trailer is tucked under the seat.
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  • 28 Aug

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    What’s In A Movie Title?

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    As I was walking in to see Rupert Wyatt’s wonderful Rise of the Planet of the Apes a couple of weeks ago I started to think about titles and their effect, if any, on my preconceptions of a movie. In the case of the latest Apes flick I have to say it bothered me a little. Regardless of the quality of the film itself, the title doesn’t exactly role off the tongue (I still don’t see why the simpler “Rise of the Apes” couldn’t have sufficed) and whether it’s right or wrong it cast a small shadow on the film before I’d even sat down. I didn’t let it affect me while watching the movie or my opinion of it after I’d seen it but I have to admit I was irritated every time I saw the poster beforehand.

    The question it raised for me was what’s the real importance of a title? After all it has no real bearing on the movie itself, it’s only a signifier of a main character, a crucial plot point or quote (which we don’t usually know until we see the actual movie itself) or maybe even just an overall theme. And how does a title affect the film’s chances at the box office? It’s true that a simple, often one-word title can serve some movies, particularly big blockbusters, very well. Something tells me – and it pains me to write this – that the upcoming Battleship movie will do very well at the box office and at least part of that success will come down to its easily remembered title (and that’s not just because it’s based on one of the world’s best known board games). But then again look at the Pirates of the Caribbean and Transformers franchises – with the exception of Michael Bay’s first movie about robots incessantly punching each other they all have long ass titles and as we all (unfortunately) know they have made more than some whole countries are worth.

    Some titles are misleading; The Constant Gardener isn’t really about someone who does nothing but cut the grass and arrange flowers, Million Dollar Baby doesn’t actually involve a very valuable newborn and there are no actual submarines in Submarine (spoiler alert!). Other titles are are so blunt it’s like being hit over the head; Snakes on a Plane, Monsters, Fighting and Bad Teacher (to name a few more recent examples) all deliver exactly what they say on the tin. Does an ambiguous or obvious title play that big of a part in a film’s success or does the content speak for itself?

    It would be impossible to prove in any sort of definitive way that a short and sweet title does the trick money-wise better than a longer, more complicated one. It’s more about how well it’s marketed to the public and, for the sake of repeat viewings and word-of-mouth buzz, the content of the movie itself. So ultimately I’ve gotta’ fall on the side of “it’s just a title, nothing more” side of the fence. But nonetheless I can’t discount them completely.

    Do you place any importance (big or small) on a film’s title or could you care less what a film is called? Just for fun what are some of your favourite movie titles and why?

  • 24 Aug

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    This is a Message for Emma Stone

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    Comedians can be creepy when they are this honest.

  • 24 Aug

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    What’s it like to have your film flop at the box office?

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    That’s the question Sean Hood answered in a recent post to Quora. While not quite a household name, Sean Hood has been around the Hollywood scene for more than a few years, first as a set dresser, prop assistant and art director, and the past decade as a screenwriter. His writing credits include Halloween: Resurrection, The Crow: Wicked Prayer, and his most recent endeavor, reworking the shooting script of Conan the Barbarian, which opened this past weekend with an underwhelming $10 million at the domestic box office.

    While these are not necessarily the types of films that interest me, when I was emailed the above link – which contained some refreshing brutal honesty – I was intrigued. He likens the long filmmaking process to that of a political campaign, a multitude of people working together for the common goal of success, but differing ideas on how to get there. After the filming is completed, it’s a long waiting game, when anticipation builds as to the film’s outcome: success or failure?

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 18 Aug

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    Ridley Scott is officially directing a new Blade Runner film.

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    I never thought that we would actually see the day, but it appears to be here. In a move that will certain ignite many emotional responses, Ridley Scott is confirmed to direct and produce a new Blade Runner film. Deadline has the official press release, which states that the filmmakers are not commenting yet on whether it will be a sequel or a prequel.

    Since childhood, the Blade Runner universe has always been one I (and certainly many others who grew up with the film) have wanted to explore more. How couldn’t a young child? Harrison Ford! Guns! Flying cars! Replicants! The strange and dark vision of a cyberpunk dystopian future! It’s one of those films I’ve always felt nostalgically connected to, and as such, irrationally in need to praise and defend. As a kid, I always referred to Raiders, Star Wars, and Blade Runner as the “Holy Trilogy of Harrison.” When I was ten or eleven, I bought and read numerous times the novelized sequel Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human – a novel of which I am glad to remember very little – and around the same time bought the Blade Runner PC game for Windows 95 (I never did beat that damn game). In my college years, I would go on to read Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which Ridley’s film was based on. As an adult, I’ve come to appreciate Blade Runner for different reasons and it’s still a film that I pop in to watch a few times a year.

    So needless to say, I can’t help but be emotionally attached to such news. While loving the world that Ridley created from Dick’s novel, I’ve subsequently always denounced the idea of filming a sequel because the wonder left by the first film was part of the fascination. Throw in the fact that both of the other two in the Holy Trilogy of Harrison have been butchered with god awful CGI-laden sequels/prequels and my skepticism seems justified.

    Still, despite this impossibly avoidable cynicism, I vow to remain open-minded until I know more. Since this is going to happen, we might as well accept it and hope for the best. In Ridley we trust.

    What do you want to see in this continuation of the Blade Runner universe? A prequel? A sequel? Could it be possible to bring Harrison back as Deckard (that’d be sure to strike up some heated nerdtastic arguments)? Perhaps a new, more badass Blade Runner (so help me, if it’s Sam Worthington…)? Or do all of these ideas sound equally terrible? Chime in, dear readers!

  • 17 Aug

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    10 Teachers You Wish You Had

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    With young people all over rushing to Wal-Marts and K-Marts and Targets to purchase their backpacks and pencils and pocket protectors, and with teachers gearing up for the school year by viewing marathon sessions of their favorite films portraying teachers, what better than to have Row Three’s resident educator release a list of the fictional teachers of all levels who have inspired him?

    That is precisely what you are here to read – yet this isn’t your eighth grade algebra teacher’s list. Move over, Edward James Olmos. Nobody wants to be inspired to learn nowadays. Watch out, Robin Williams. You’re too soft and influenced far too many terrible graduation speeches. Sorry, Michelle, nobody is falling for the leather jacket anymore. This isn’t the nineties.

    These are the teachers you wish you had. These are the teachers that every teacher wants to be more like.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 16 Aug

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    Read exerpts from Roger Ebert’s Memoir: Life Itself

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    Any time Roger Ebert puts up his own person reveries on the past, it is the best reading over at his Sun-Times Journal. Even tough I more or less agree with his politics, I find his personal processing and musing of his past to be 1000x more compelling. Today he put up the opening pages of his Memoir there, and it is well worth your time.

    “When I returned to 410 East Washington with my wife, Chaz, in 1990, I saw that the hallway was only a few yards long. I got the feeling I sometimes have when reality realigns itself. It’s a tingling sensation moving like a wave through my body. I know the feeling precisely. I doubt I’ve experienced it ten times in my life. I felt it at Smith Drugs when I was seven or eight and opened a nudist magazine and discovered that all women had breasts. I felt it when my father told me he had cancer. I felt it when I proposed marriage. Yes, and I felt it in the old Palais des Festivals at Cannes, when the Ride of the Valkyries played during the helicopter attack in Apocalypse Now.

    I was an only child. I heard that over and over again. “Roger is an only boy.” My best friends, Hal and Gary, were only children, too. We were born at the beginning of World War II, four or five years earlier than the baby boomers, which would be an advantage all of our lives. The war was the great mystery of those years. I knew we were at war against Germany and Japan. I knew Uncle Bill had gone away to fight. I was told, your father is too old so they won’t take him. He put bicycle clips on his work pants and cycled to work every morning. There was rationing. If Harry Rusk the grocer had a chicken, we had chicken on Sunday. Many nights we had oatmeal. There was no butter. Oleo came in a plastic bag, and you squeezed the orange dye and kneaded it to make it look like butter. “It’s against the law to sell it already looking like butter,” my parents explained. Daddy and Uncle Johnny ordered cartons of cigarettes through the mail from Kentucky. Everybody smoked. My mother, my father, my uncles and aunts, the neighbors, everybody. When we gathered at my grandmother’s for a big dinner, that meant nine or ten people sitting around the table smoking. They did it over and over, hour after hour, as if it were an assignment.”

    Read the rest here.

  • 08 Aug

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    The List of Our Lists

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    Over the course of our nearly four years in existence, we here in the third row have created quite a few lists, as our staff has been made up of many lovers (and, of course, many vehement haters) of organizing all things listable. Here, I hope to organize all of our original lists for your to peruse in an easily accessible manner. Feel free to browse through our lists and, if you feel so inclined, reignite some years old conversation and debate.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 05 Aug

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    Nolan’s Catwoman looks a lot like Wimmer’s Ultraviolet

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    While I have no doubt that tone, acting and overall groundedness of Ms. Hathaway (many of us are fans of some of here recent films) will be just fine in the new Bat flick, I’m getting a big Ultraviolet vibe from this photo.

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