Posted By admin on June 3, 2011

Movie 146

Election (1999)
Rated R for smexin’ and cussin’
Runtime: 103 minutes
Written by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, based on the novel by Tom Perrotta
Directed by Alexander Payne
Notable peoples: Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Klein, Jessica Campbell, Molly Hagan, Delaney Driscoll, Mark Harelik
Look out for: Donnie Darko’s dad, Holmes Osborne, as Dick Metzler

High school is a black comedy, which is why I suspect so many of the best black comedies are set there. This one also happens to be a pretty biting satire as well.

Omaha high school teacher Jim McAllister (Broderick) is enthusiastic about his profession, somewhat less so about his personal life. On the day when overachieving student Tracy Flick (Witherspoon) announces her candidacy for student body president, Jim, who’s in charge of the election, decides to teach her a lesson. You see, Tracy had an affair with Jim’s best friend, another teacher, which resulted in the ruin of the teacher’s career and marriage, and no consequences whatsoever for Tracy.

So Jim recruits polite and popular football player Paul Metzler (Klein) to run against Tracy, who was running unopposed. Tracy’s not happy about this, to put it mildly, but it gets even worse. Paul’s younger sister Tammy (Campbell) has just been dumped by her girlfriend, who immediately switches her affections to Paul. So Tammy joins the race as well, mostly to get back at Paul.

The problem for both Tracy and Paul is that Tammy’s anti-student government platform is the wildly popular one with the other students. Paul, who is mostly a decent guy, is okay with this, Tracy, not so much. While at school one night over the weekend, Tracy attempts to fix one of her campaign posters and accidentally tears it. In a fit of rage, she destroys all of Paul’s posters.

When confronted by Jim, Tracy denies everything and threatens to sue the school. But Tammy, who saw Tracy disposing of the ruined posters, falsely confesses to the crime, so she can be “punished” by being sent to an all-girls parochial school.

Jim, whose own personal life is disintegrating, is beginning to realize that girls like Tracy always win in life, regardless.

This was my first exposure to Reese Witherspoon, and she does an outstanding job here of conveying Tracy’s ambition, frustration and vindictiveness.

Today’s quote – “This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election, and yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That’s democracy for you.”

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Tags: election, movies, reese witherspoon

Posted By admin on June 2, 2011

Movie 145

Sexy Beast (2000)
Rated R for epic cussin’ and hittin’
Runtime: 89 minutes
Written by Louis Mellis and David Scinto
Directed by Jonathan Glazer
Notable peoples: Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman
Look out for: Ubiquitous British character actor James Fox, as Harry

This is going to be a very short rec, because this is a very short movie. But it packs a powerful little punch.

Retired safecracker Gary “Gal” Dove (Winstone) is living the good life in Spain, soaking up the sun and just hanging out with friends and his beloved wife, DeeDee (Redman). But into every sunny life, a little rain must fall, and when sociopathic thundercloud Don Logan (Kingsley) shows up, it starts to rain buckets.

Don knew Gal back in his criminal day, and wants to recruit him for a London bank heist set up by crime lord Teddy Bass (McShane). And Don’s not taking “no” for an answer, no matter how many times Gal says it.

What makes this movie worth watching is the unbelievably mesmerizing performance of Ben Kingsley. To hear such torrents of abuse and rage coming from the man who won an Oscar for playing Gandhi is quite the eye-opener. Ray Winstone also does an excellent job of playing Gal, but it’s Kingsley your eyes keep following. Tour de force, y’all.

Trailer is NSFW for language.

Yesterday’s quote was from Matchstick Men.

Today’s quote – “Being God isn’t easy. If you do too much, people get dependent on you. And if you do nothing, they lose hope. You have to use a light touch, like a safecracker or a pickpocket.”

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Tags: ben kingsley, movies, sexy beast

Posted By admin on June 1, 2011

Movie 144

I Love You Phillip Morris (2009)
Rated R for cussin’ and smexin’
Runtime: 98 minutes
Written and directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, based on the book by Steven McVicker
Notable peoples: Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro, Antoni Corone
Look out for: Minute Maid Mojo guy Brennan Brown as Larry Birkheim

I know a lot of Ewan fans out there refused to see this movie because of a deep and abiding hatred for Jim Carrey. Which is fine — I feel much the same way about Melanie Griffith. But Jim Carrey isn’t very Jim Carrey in this one, and Ewan is just delightful.

Probably the most remarkable thing about this film is that it’s based on a true story. Which is really mind-blowing, if you know the facts.

Steven Russell (Carrey) is a cop, a Christian, and a devoted family man married to Debbie (Mann), raising a daughter and generally being a respected member of the community. But after a car accident, he realizes that life is short, and it’s time to stop lying to himself, if not others.

He tells Debbie he’s gay, divorces her and moves to Miami, where he immediately takes up the high gay life, moving in with Jimmy (Santoro), purchasing small dogs and other luxurious accessories. Quickly realizing that a glamorous life in Miami is a smidge on the expensive side, Steven turns to crime and finds he has a knack for it, especially insurance fraud.

He gets away with it for a while, but the long arm of the law eventually catches up with him, and it’s in prison that he meets the love of his life, Phillip Morris (McGregor), a sweet, unassuming man who is not a career criminal. (I can’t remember now what he’s in for, but it wasn’t anything too heinous.)

Steven devotes his life to A) getting Phillip out of jail and B) making Phillip happy. But he doesn’t realize that making Phillip happy means being himself, and not Steven Russell, super-con. When he poses as Phillip’s lawyer to accomplish A, Steven realizes that he can impersonate pretty much any profession, and sets about getting a job as CFO of a large company.

Once in charge of this company’s finances, Steven’s next aim is to divert large sums to his own account, enabling himself and Phillip to live the life Steven thinks they deserve. It works out well, until another employee of the company gets suspicious and soon enough, Steven and Phillip are back in prison again, even though Phillip had nothing to do with Steven’s fraud.

Luc Besson was one of the producers of this film, and his stylish touch shows up here and there, in subtle ways. And once again, Ewan McGregor made me weep with his performance, as his anguish and heartbreak over Steven’s betrayals (and death, maybe) cut through the comedy aspects of this film and right to the bone.

Yesterdays’s quote was from Angel.

Today’s quote – “I’m not a criminal. I’m a con man.”

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Tags: ewan mcgregor, i love you phillip morris, movies

Posted By admin on May 31, 2011

Movie 143

The Third Man (1949)
Not rated
Runtime: 93 minutes
Written by Graham Greene, based on his novel
Directed by Carol Reed
Notable peoples: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, Bernard Lee, Wilfred Hyde-White
Look out for: Orson Welles, as Harry Lime

Hack writer of Western novels, Holly Martins (Cotten) is invited to post-WWII Vienna by his oldest and bestest friend, Harry Lime (Welles), who has offered him a job. What Harry didn’t tell Holly about Vienna is that it’s controlled by four different occupying forces — English, Russian, American and French — and that crime, specifically racketeering, is out of control in the city.

Holly’s a bit puzzled that Harry doesn’t meet him at the train station, but goes on to Harry’s flat, where the porter (Paul Hörbiger) tells him in broken English that Harry is dead — hit and killed by a truck right in front of the building.

Holly shows up at the cemetery, just in time to see them putting Harry’s coffin in the ground. An English officer attending, Major Calloway (Howard) informs Holly that he’s at the right funeral, and offers to buy Holly a drink afterwards.

Over drinks, Holly begins to wax nostalgic about Harry, but Calloway cuts him off, telling Holly his friend is better off dead, since he was a racketeer and a murderer. Holly takes umbrage at this, and vows to prove that Harry was a good guy. Calloway tells Holly that he’d be smarter getting right the hell out of Vienna and forgetting about Harry Lime.

Holly, nothing if not a staunch friend, does not. He undertakes his investigation into Harry’s death, starting with the eyewitness account from the porter. Which seems to differ quite a bit from the accounts of other of Harry’s friends who just happened to be nearby when the accident occurred.

To go into too much more plot detail would get spoilery, so I’ll just wrap up by saying this is a lovely, suspenseful film, with stunning cinematography (some of which you can see in the kinda cheesy trailer below) from Robert Krasker. If you’ve never seen a noir film before, start with this one.

Today’s quote – “Locked me in a room, pushed me around, asked a bunch of questions. Your standard film noir.”

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Tags: movies, orson welles, the third man

Posted By admin on May 30, 2011

48 is the smallest number with exactly ten divisors.

48 is the atomic number of cadmium.

Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, sat under a bodhi tree for 48 days attempting to understand the nature of reality and Universe. Buddhism was the result.

According to the Mishnah, Torah wisdom is acquired via 48 ways.

48 is twice the total number of major and minor keys in Western tonal music, not counting enharmonic equivalents. Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier is informally known as The Forty-Eight because it consists of a prelude and a fugue in each major and minor key, for a total of 48 pieces.

48 is the number of a NASCAR car owned by Hendrick Motorsports. It is currently being driven by 5-time and defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.

48 is the retired number of former President Gerald Ford’s jersey at the University of Michigan.

Arizona is the 48th state in the Union.

’48 is an alternate history novel by James Herbert.

And a Happy Birthday to Karl!

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Posted By admin on May 29, 2011

And also determined, that whatever my brain tells me, I am not, in fact, 21 years old. Because I am so tired and wore out this morning.

Oh, but what a lovely time I had.

First of all, huge props to Boy and Girl, for being fabulous hosts, and providing this lovely setting for having a party. (This is their back porch, people. That’s a koi pond under the bridge, with lots of lovely fat fish. Just out of the frame is the tiki bar in the back.)

Most of my RL friends were there, save one who was sick and two others who had a wedding to go to (it was one of them’s daughter, so they get a pass.) And oh lord, did we eat and drink and make some serious merry. There was grilling, there was lots of lovely picnic-type food, and best of all, this hyar cake which is just as delicious as it looks. Also, half of it came home with me, which is even better.

And, as is usual when we all get together, the conversation was lively, loud and free-ranging, which is really what the best part is. I love my fiends. One friend, who came from out of state, said that’s what she misses most of all about not living closer.

*happy sigh*

I shall now commence a long day of doing nothing, interspersed with bouts of napping.

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Posted By admin on May 28, 2011

… will return on Tuesday, because I have a birthday party to go to today, tomorrow I’ll be recovering from said party, and well, Monday’s a national holiday.

As it should be. :)

Yesterday’s quote was from Seinfeld.

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Posted By admin on May 27, 2011

Movie 142

Marathon Man (1976)
Rated R for violins
Runtime: 125 minutes
Written by William Goldman, based on his novel
Directed by John Schlesinger
Notable peoples: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane, Marthe Keller, Fritz Weaver
Look out for: Treat Williams, uncredited as Central Park Jogger

This film (and book) began my love affair with William Goldman.

Thomas “Babe” Levy (Hoffman) is a history grad student, and an avid runner. His brother, Henry (Scheider) aka “Doc” says he’s an oil company executive, but in reality works for a shady government agency headed by Peter Janeway (Devane). Babe is, of course, ignorant of his brother’s true profession.

Doc’s latest assignment is Dr. Christian Szell (Olivier, who defines menace here) a Nazi war criminal, whose brother was just killed in a traffic accident. Szell’s brother had a fortune in diamonds in a New York safety deposit box, and Szell has the key to it. Doc suspects it won’t be long before Szell shows up to retrieve them.

Meanwhile, Babe starts dating a cute supposedly Swiss girl named Elsa (Keller), but when Doc takes the couple out to lunch, he tricks Elsa into revealing that she’s lying about her background. Doc suspects she has some connection to Szell, but tells Babe she’s just using him to get an American husband and citizenship.

When Szell arrives, he meets Doc, who tells him he’s not welcome in this country. Szell disagrees strongly, with a knife. Doc manages to make it back to Babe’s apartment, where he dies in Babe’s arms.

The cops interrogate Babe for hours, until Janeway shows up and takes charge. He tells Babe what his brother really did for a living, and wants to know what Doc said to him before expiring.

The bewildered and overwhelmed Babe says, truthfully, nothing, but Janeway’s not buying it. Neither is Szell, who feared that Doc had plans to rob him of his diamond cache, and kidnaps Babe to learn more.

Poor Babe, who still knows not a damn thing about any of this, also fails to convince Szell of his ignorance. And unfortunately for Babe, Szell is quite the skilled torturer.

If you weren’t afraid of the dentist before this movie, watching it will cure that.

This is one of the most suspenseful movies ever, and another photographic masterpiece from Conrad L. Hall.

Yesterday’s quote was from F. Scott Fitzgerald. And also Criminal Minds.

Today’s quote – “Dentists. Who needs ‘em?”

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Tags: dustin hoffman, laurence olivier, marathon man, movies

Posted By admin on May 26, 2011

Movie 141

Watchmen (2009)
Rated R for cussin’, smexin’ and violins
Runtime: 162 minutes
Written by David Hayter and Alex Tse, based on the graphic novel by Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore
Directed by Zack Snyder
Notable peoples: Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Malin Ackerman, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Matthew Goode
Look out for: Max Headroom Matt Frewer, as Edgar Jacobi/Moloch

I don’t remember exactly when I first bought the graphic novel this film is based on, but I remember reading it the first time and being blown away. I know when the film was announced, the fanboys all over the world started ranting about how it could never measure up, and I feared they might be right.

They were not.

There are changes, yes, but good and necessary changes, in my opinion. Whether you’ve read the novel or not, the film is breathtaking and stunning, much like a punch to the gut.

It’s 1985 in America, and Nixon is still president. The age of superheroes, which had its heyday in the ’40s, is mostly past, but a few still hang grimly on. Crime and unrest are high, as is the chance of nuclear war with the USSR.

A man later identified as Eddie Blake (Morgan) sits alone in a high-rise apartment in his bathrobe, watching TV when a hooded man breaks in. The two fight, and Blake is thrown through a window and plummets to his death, his smiley-face pin detaching as he falls. After the police investigation, another figure shows up to conduct his own illicit search.

This is Rorschach (Haley, who is beyond terrific in this), a superhero who is dressed in a trench coat and fedora, and wearing a full face mask that is a constantly changing ink blot. Rorschach found the smiley-face pin on the street below and suspects the fallen man to be other than just a private citizen. After a little digging around, Rorschach discovers a secret compartment behind Blake’s bedroom closet, one that contains a costume and memorabilia for The Comedian, a member of the original superhero league, the Minutemen, and also its successor, the Watchmen.

When an attempt is made on the life of Adrian Veidt (Goode), the former Watchmen member known as Ozymandias, Rorschach suspects someone is trying to wipe out the remaining Watchmen, of which he himself is a member. He shares his suspicions with Daniel Dreiberg (Wilson), aka Nite Owl, who dismisses them and tells Rorschach to stop dressing up and pretending to fight crime.

But quitting isn’t Rorschach’s style, and his investigation leads him to a former supervillain, Moloch (Frewer). Moloch is old and ill now, fighting cancer, but he knows something crucial to Rorschach’s investigation. Alas, Moloch is killed, and Rorschach is set up to take the fall for it.

Meanwhile, things aren’t going well for another former Watchman, Dr. Manhattan (Crudup) a scientist whose very cell structure was altered in an experiment gone horribly wrong, with the result being that he’s now the only superhero on the planet with actual superpowers. But even though he retains memories of his former life, and tries to fit in with the world, he feels himself becoming more and more remote from human life. This doesn’t sit will with his lover, Laurie Jupiter (Ackerman), aka Silk Spectre II (her mom was the first) and she comforts herself with Dreiberg.

And the nuclear clock is inching closer and closer to midnight.

These are superheroes who are, for the most part, unheroic and as human as you or I. But their story is gripping and dark and gritty, which makes their few shining moments of true heroism stand out like stars in the sky. Another must-see.

Yesterday’s quote was from Dr. Who.

Today’s quote – “Show me a hero, and I will write you a tragedy.”

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Tags: jackie earle haley, movies, watchmen, zack snyder

Posted By admin on May 25, 2011

If you never read another of my movie recs, I urge you to read this one. Because this one is very important to me.

Movie 140

Road to Perdition (2002)
Rated R for cussin’ and shootin’
Runtime: 117 minutes
Written by David Self, based on the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner
Directed by Sam Mendes
Notable peoples: Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Daniel Craig, Tyler Hoechlin, Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Stanley Tucci, the delectable Ciarán Hinds
Look out for: My favorite Mayor, Harry Groening, as Mr. McDougal

There aren’t many movies that can pull off artistic and eminently watchable at the same time. This is a film in which all the ingredients come together perfectly to make for one of the finest cinematic experiences I’ve ever had.

Michael Sullivan (Hanks) is an enforcer for Irish crime boss John Rooney (Newman, in his last feature film) in a small Illinois town during the Depression. Rooney took Mike in when he was young and orphaned, and has basically acted as Mike’s surrogate father ever since. Rooney has his own son, Connor (Craig), a spoiled, arrogant young man who’s also rather useless.

And Mike has his own family, his wife Annie (Jason Leigh) and two young sons, Michael Jr. (Hoechlin) who’s 12, and Peter (Liam Aiken) who’s a few years younger. Neither son knows what their father does for a living, something that eats at Michael. (For clarity’s sake in this review, I’ll refer to Senior as Mike and Junior as Michael.)

When Rooney sends Connor and Mike to talk to an employee who has been talking a bit too loosely, Michael hides under the back seat of his father’s car, curious. Mike stresses to Connor that they are just there to talk, to which Connor agrees. But when Finn McGovern (Hinds) starts making insinuations about Connor’s lack of scruples concerning his father’s money, Connor shoots him in the head, prompting Mike to open up with his Tommy gun on Finn’s bodyguards.

Michael witnesses the whole thing.

Connor asks Mike if his son can keep a secret, which Mike assures him he can. On their way home, Mike explains to Michael that he owes everything he has, everything the family has, to Mr. Rooney, and that he loves Mr. Rooney like a father.

The next day, Michael gets into a fight at school, and is forced to stay late to write lines on the chalkboard. Mike is sent to nightclub to put pressure on the owner to pay what he owes to Rooney, and Connor gives Mike a letter to give to the man.

When Mike hands the letter off, he becomes aware that all is not right, and when the owner attempts to pull a gun on Mike, Mike turns the tables on him, shooting both the club owner and the man’s bodyguard. The letter says, “Kill Sullivan and all debts are paid.” Realizing what this means, Mike races back home.

But he’s too late. Connor has already been there, and Annie and Peter are dead. Michael, because he was home late from school, was spared. (And also probably because Connor’s not bright enough to remember that Mike has two sons.)

Mike and Michael head to Chicago so Mike can beg a favor from Frank Nitti (Tucci), which is refused. Rooney is protecting his useless son, and Mike is advised to go home and bury his dead. Rooney, in the next room, overhears Mike’s refusal, and tells Nitti he wants Mike taken care of. Nitti knows just the man, and rings up the super-skeevy Harlen Maguire (Law) to do the deed.

Realizing he has no friends or protection left, Mike takes Michael on the road to his sister-in-law’s cabin on the shore of Lake Michigan, which is located in a little town called Perdition.

I cannot begin to explain the impact this film had on me upon my first (and many, many subsequent) viewing. Most of the actors are cast against type — Newman is ruthless, Hanks menacing and Law at his most unattractive and unappealing — but it works beautifully. And handsome little Tyler Hoechlin (who has the most amazing smoke-colored eyes — seriously, Google him) upon whose narrow shoulders most of the movie rests, does an outstanding job.

But the true kudos have to go to director Sam Mendes and master cinematographer Conrad L. Hall, whose last feature film this was. Every shot is gorgeously framed (they said they wanted to give the entire film the look of an Edward Hopper painting) and I haven’t seen photography this breathtaking since Citizen Kane. Adding to all this is the soaring score by Thomas Newman, which made me turn to my movie buddy at the time and announce that I was buying that CD post-haste.

If you haven’t seen this, see it. I mean it.

(All the trailers I found had non-Thomas Newman music, which just seemed so very wrong to me that I found this, my favorite piece from the score, accompanied by lovely stills from the film.)

Today’s quote – “You know, Stephen King said once, he said, ‘salvation and damnation are the same thing.’ And I never knew what he meant. But I do now.”

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Tags: movies, paul newman, road to perdition, sam mendes, thomas newman, tom hanks