(January 1)

——Beerfest (2006)——

How many times have I seen this movie now? Four, five? And it’s only been out since August. So yeah, it’s good. Avoid the Unrated cut. See this theatrical cut, if you’re in for a good giggle.

(MUST SEE)

(January 2)

——Dreamgirls (2006)——

While I disliked a movie like Chicago, I actually really liked Dreamgirls. At times I did feel like there was a little TOO much singing (I don’t mind singing to move the plot forward, but what I really hate is when characters sing their lines instead of just saying them. I don’t understand why this is, but when characters do that it is akin to dragging your fingers down the chalkboard), but aside from that minor complaint, this is a really compelling movie with some great music and acting from its leads. It bothers me to no end, though, that Jennifer Hudson is billed as a supporting character and Beyonce as a lead, because this is Effie’s movie, and Beyonce just visits it from time to time. The decision has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with logic, and it’s a shame, but if Jennifer Hudson does get an Oscar out of it I guess that it’ll all be all right.

I only bring this up because Jennifer Hudson does such a good job with Effie’s character that she really just makes the movie, for me at least. Dreamgirls otherwise would have been a nice, if unremarkable movie, but with her the film just drips with emotion. It’s great. The film is a classic story of how the entertainment industry will take bright-eyed young talent and slowly twist and discard that idealism until nothing is left. It’s a world that will chew you up and spit you out, which is most evident in Effie’s story, where even though she’s the real talent in the group, she’s booted for being too “black” over Beyonce’s bootyliciousness. The film reminded me a lot of The Valley of the Dolls, except for in this film the girls seem more empowered than the pill-popping white chicks of Dolls. Effie, even though she is beaten to the ground and down on her luck, never loses that fire in her gut that made her such a powerhouse singer in the first place.

The cast all around is great (I pick on Beyonce, but she really does give a great performance at the end when her character finally pulls her head out of the sand and develops some personality). And what’s really fun is to try and look for all of the allusions to real black performers who made it big at this time period in music, since the film is really just a thinly veiled dramatic retelling of their stories (Diana Ross, the Supremes, The Jackson Five, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, etc. etc.). Above all it is just a great story of the history of black music on popular radio, about how black music was always popular but was ripped off and filtered through white performers, and about the people who struggled to have their music played the way they intended it. This is definitely worth a viewing.

(SEE)

——Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story (2004)——

This movie is so funny. I’m surprised that no one has ever heard of it, that it has gotten zero publicity. I guess it was just destined to be one of those word of mouth films. So here is the straight word from my mouth: If you are looking for the best damn mockumentary about paintball from some of the guys from the Daily Show, then look no further. And, um, even if you are not looking specifically for that (because, really, who the hell is?) see this movie anyway if you like to laugh, because it is so, so funny. It’s worth watching if just for the match against the Canadians, which gets about as close to comedy genius as one can get (see my original review for more).

(MUST SEE)

(January 3)

——The Good Shepherd (2006)——

Despite how funny I find Team America: World Police’s spoof impression of Matt Damon’s personality (“MATT DAMON!”), you can’t argue with what a powerful actor he’s become recently, from the Bourne films to last year’s The Departed and now The Good Shepherd. It came to me while watching The Good Shepherd that he’s become this generation’s Clint Eastwood, a performer who can say volumes without saying a word. He’s got a slow burn intensity to him that just makes him magnificent to watch onscreen. One needs only look at his body language in this film about one man’s journey during the rise of the CIA: he starts out as a young man erect and enthusiastic, but as the secrets he needs to keep start to pile up you can see when he walks this gigantic weight on his shoulders that is pushing him down. After the Bay of Pigs fiasco goes down you don’t need him to say a word to know instantly what he is thinking. The trick is that his character is ever the good soldier (or shepherd, as the case may be) and despite those many secrets wearing him down he still chooses to keep them, in the name of national security and the security of his family. He’s good at what he does and his secret is that he always seems to be one step ahead of his enemy, maybe just because he never gives anything away himself.

Robert De Niro does a great job at directing this story, which at its length (two and a half hours) could have fallen apart quickly. I really liked how the story of the fallout on the Bay of Pigs served as the perfect frame for telling the story of this man’s life, from his days at Yale and the Skull and Bones to life in the OSS during World War II to finally starting up the CIA with other spooks left over from the last World War, preparing for the Cold War. For those interested in espionage thrillers, look no further than The Good Shepherd.

(MUST SEE)

——The Great Yokai War (2005)——

Say what you will about Takashi Miike, no matter the quality of the film he makes, he always makes interesting films. The Great Yokai War, Miike’s answer to Harry Potter, is not a great film, but it is so overwhelmingly bizarre and fantastical that you might just want to see it anyway. A ten-year old boy is chosen at a festival to be the Kirin Rider, a duty much bigger than anyone could have guessed, since it involves stopping a mad spirit from using the souls of Yokai to power his death machines that will take over the world. The Yokai (friendly spirits) are too busy having fun to help him, so it is up to him and a few concerned Yokai to save the day. Weirdness ensues. Lots of weirdness. Like ten-year old boys fondling the wet thighs of a water sprite. Doomsday calves with human faces. The Yokai party where millions of them show up to a fight, with none of them realizing that they are at a fight. And to see a Yokai as an adult, apparently you have to drink a lot of beer. Don’t ask me. I’m just living in Miike’s world.

(MISS)

——Body Snatchers (1993)——

The third time this film was made, this time by cult director Abel Ferrara, was not the charm, and none of Ferrara’s trademark beautiful camera work could save the film from being dreadfully boring. There is a huge scriptwriting problem here, as there is A) nothing new here to differentiate it from the two other, better films, and B) it is horribly underwritten, as good ideas seemed to be thrown out just as soon as they were thought. The science fiction story of waking up to find that your neighbors and then family are not who they appear to be lends itself superbly to analogies of real world issues. The original film was an excellent metaphor for Communism and MacCarthy-ism. This one throws out there some vague idea about conformity in the military, as the story this time takes place on a military base, but follows that idea nowhere. It also had a great opportunity in the form of the stepmother being the first one to be changed into one of the body snatchers, but again, the story goes nowhere with this, despite the wealth of directions it could go in. It’s like everyone just slept their way through the making of the film, which was then replaced with a blander, pod person version of the film. Even the gore and nudity seems slapped on. When that’s the case, you know your movie is in trouble.

(MISS)

(January 5)

——The Far Country (1954)——

“I am NOT a freckle face!”

I don’t care how many times I hear her say that, it never stops being funny to me. In this Anthony Mann Western, James Stewart’s flawed cowboy keeps calling a young, resourceful Scandinavian girl a freckle face, and every time he does so she gets very upset with him, in her heavily accented speech. She’s in love with him, you see, and doesn’t like that he treats her like a kid. Thus, one of my all-time favorite film catch phrases.

That phrase kind of sums up the movie as a whole in a way, because in this film James Stewart is probably one of the biggest pricks that I’ve ever seen him be. He’s a selfish prick, to put it better, unlike most of the selfless cowboys that you are used to seeing in classic Westerns. He cares about no one aside from himself, and even his good friend played by Walter Brennan has to step into line with him or else be left behind, despite their years of friendship. A corrupt self-appointed lawman is looking to expand his reach from the coastal town he lives in to the gold claims in the Yukon territory, where kind, honest folk are trying to make a good living for themselves and build a new town. He runs everyone out of town while Stewart looks on, because other people’s problems aren’t his problems. That is until the lawman’s men jump him and Brennan, fatally shooting Brennan and wounding him. Finally he sees that helping others helps him too and goes back to town to do the right thing.

This is another one of Mann’s dark Westerns, not as good as some of the others that I’ve seen, but still pretty decent. And hell, it’s got the classic phrase, “I am NOT a freckle face!” so it is worth at least one viewing for that alone.

(SEE)

——To Live (1994)——

Jeremy’s wife, Sarah, gave this Zhang Yimou film to me with high recommendation and I think I’m going to do the same for you. It’s a sad movie, but very good, following forty years in the life of a Chinese family following World War II. A wealthy landowner loses his family’s fortune gambling, causing his wife (Gong Li) to take his son and daughter and leave him. This tragedy makes him vow to give up gambling and earn the respect of his family again, and he does so by trying to earn an honest living doing shadow puppet shows. While he is doing this the Cultural Revolution takes place, and he ends up drafted into first the Nationalist and then the Communist armies. His service with the Communists, combined with his loss of landowner status saves him and his family once the Revolution makes its way into his small town. All is not well with the world at that point though. The Revolution causes the family much suffering in their life. But the film is still hopeful, nevertheless, because like the title implies, the whole point of the film is that it is just a gift to live, and we should try to do as much with our lives as we can, no matter what obstacles life throws at us. The film is extremely touching, yet sad. Be sure to have a box of Kleenex nearby while you enjoy this beautiful film.

(MUST SEE)

(January 6)

——Inside Man (2006)——

Spike Lee’s first commercial hit actually seemed better the second time around, as you got to take your time to enjoy his nuanced direction instead of just going along for the ride. This could very well be a pretty standard heist movie, but Lee’s style and experience add little touches here and there that gives the film the legs it needs to survive multiple viewings. What’s really fun is that once you know how they pulled the heist off, you can instead look to see all the little details that went into pulling it off. I noticed little touches at the beginning that were there all along but I just never noticed because you had no reason to. This is a fun movie, well worth repeat viewings.

(MUST SEE)

——Trouble in Paradise (1932)——

If you have a tendency to stay away from older movies because you find them too tame, you might want to check out this Ernst Lubitsch gem made before the Production Code went into effect and took all the fun and sex out of filmmaking. The first scene, where the master thief meets the love of his life, is just priceless. The two of them, thieves both pretending to be persons of noble birth, slowly reveal to each other that they have in fact picked numerous objects from each other’s pockets. This is before the audience knows that they are both pickpockets, and each reveal, which should be shocking to the other, instead makes the other grow in lust. Their eyes sparkle as they realize that they are obviously made for each other.

Because this is the start of the movie, though, this romance is not yet to be storybook. Gaston, when returning a purse he stole for its reward, commands the interest of the wealthy heiress, who is obviously aroused by his charms as a man of the world. She offers him a position as her secretary, which he sees as a golden opportunity to rob her blind. But when he becomes too involved with her his girlfriend becomes jealous at his disregard for her and the ease at which he becomes a willing gigolo.

Ernst Lubitsch brings his trademark Lubitsch touch to the proceedings, with beautiful sets exposing the high life of the rich and pulling it all together with tracking shots that just glide effortlessly past the action. The leads are all fantastic and the script is top notch and extremely witty. This movie should be seen, and often.

(MUST SEE)

(January 7)

——Ms. 45 (1981)——

The first trailer on the second volume of 42nd Street Forever, a DVD compilation of weird and wild exploitation grind house trailers, is for Ms. 45, Abel Ferrara’s early revenge film about a mute girl who just isn’t going to take the abuse of men in pre-Disneyfied NYC. That trailer is so brilliant and well-shot that it pretty much makes every trailer that follows look like amaturish exploitation crap. So based on that trailer and my growing knowledge of Ferrara’s filmography (King of New York, Bad Lieutenant) I decided to pick up Ms. 45. And I’d have to say, aside from the fact that this DVD is not anamorphic and has zip for extras, it was well worth it.

Even though their plots have little in common, you can tell that Ferrara had seen, or at least heard of the Swedish revenge film, Thriller: A Cruel Picture, AKA They Call Her One Eye (1974), because that picture’s fingerprints are all over this film. First there is the whole mute girl takes revenge against her male attackers/rapists thing. And at the end there is a very similar slow motion sequence, although, thankfully, Ferrara didn’t go quite to the extremes of slowness that Thriller did. Even the main actress is the same, from her voluptuous body, big eyes and puffy lips to her to the way she whips her gun around to shoot people. Thankfully, Ferrara stopped there and didn’t completely rip off the other film, creating his own story that has some quite interesting subtexts to it. It’s rare that you see a cheap exploitation film like this one that makes you think about it and what it all means so long after the film ended.

Our mute “heroine” starts off the movie by getting raped by a masked assailant at gunpoint in a back alley. She stumbles home only to have the extreme misfortune to have interrupted a burglary in progress. The thief tries to find her stash of money, but when he discovers that she doesn’t have any money he decides to rape her instead. In the middle of this horrid task she manages to find a paperweight and brains him with it. Then, instead of doing the sane thing and calling the cops to report the crime, she drags his body into the tub and chops it into little pieces, which she then slowly starts to dump throughout the city. While dumping one of these bags, a sleazy man sees her drop it and tries to return it, but when he chases her into a corner she whips out the gun left at her apartment by the burglar and shoots him.

At first the killing and the attacks against her really shake her up. She can’t look at herself in the mirror without seeing one of the rapists her performance slips at work when things remind her everything that has transpired. But then she starts to get into the killing. This is where things get really interesting, as it becomes unclear whether or not you are still watching a classic revenge movie or if are really watching the origin of a serial killer. She hunts men taking advantage of women at first, but then gets so into the killing that it just becomes men in general that she’s after. There is a great scene towards the end that is a perfect homage to Taxi Driver’s “You talking to me?” scene, abet if Travis was a hot female mute. When she points her gun to the head of her landlady’s annoying dog you really know that she’s gone off the deep end.

It all ends at a costume party, where dressed as a nun she starts her aforementioned slo-mo massacre. Because the main character doesn’t speak, you have to fill in a lot of the blanks yourself in this movie, which is what I think makes it so fun to watch. While the costume party at first seems just like a cool set piece to end your movie, when you start to think about it there is a lot more meaning in that scene than meets the eye. The other stand out aspect to this film is Ferrara’s direction and use of cinematography. So far every film of his that I have seen has been expertly shot, and this early film from his canon is no exception. This was no sloppy, cheap production. Every penny they had was put on screen. It’s a shame Ferrara never made it mainstream, because he had real potential as an artist. If you’re interested and can find a copy of this movie, I definitely recommend you give it a shot.

(SEE)