Monday, September 27, 2004
BLOOD, SEX and DEATH
It’s been a busy weekend. Saw three movies at the theater this time around. So might as well get started.
First off, SHAUN OF THE DEAD. It’s a British film that successfully combines comedy and horror. It basically revolves around Shaun, an underachiever who spends most of his time at the local pub. He’s not exactly the brightest bulb in the batch, and it takes him and his layabout pal Ed awhile to realize that the world around them has been transformed into flesh-eating zombies. But once they figure it out – things get really wild. Shaun wants to save his mum, his girlfriend and her two roommates and hole up in their favorite pub, The Winchester, until things "die" down. The problem is, things are going to get a lot worse before they get any better and Shaun and his friends have a long night of horror ahead of them.
The makers of SHAUN are a pretty savvy bunch. There’s inside jokes here about everything from Romero’s zombie flicks (such as the fact that Shaun works at Foree Electronics, named after Ken Foree, one of the stars of Romero’s original DAWN OF THE DEAD) to 28 Days Later (at one point someone on TV says that rumors that the zombies were caused by contaminated lab monkeys is absolute rubbish). I actually enjoyed this a lot more than the much praised 28 Days Later. In fact, this might be the best zombie movie of the last couple of years, basically because it’s funny, it’s smart, and it’s a a lot of fun to watch.
Actor Simon Pegg is just perfect as the clueless Shaun, and Nick Frost is equally good as Ed, his fat layabout friend who plays video games all day. In fact the whole cast is really good, with another standout being Kate Ashfield as Shaun's "ex" girlfriend Liz. This movie is a good 'un. Run to your local theater before it's too late!
The next film I saw was John Waters’ new one, A DIRTY SHAME. And this one has me perplexed in some ways. I should begin by saying that I am a huge John Waters fan. His early films are some of the funniest films I’ve ever seen - real examples of guerilla filmmaking. Classics like PINK FLAMINGOS, FEMALE TROUBLE (my favorite Waters film) and POLYESTER are just some of the best comedies I can think of. Waters has a real anything-goes sensibility and most of his early films would easily get an NC-17 rating today. That is until he made his big hit, HAIRSPRAY and went Hollywood. I won’t say Waters sold out, because he never really gave up his very unusual sensibility. But he certainly did water it down a bit for a mainstream audience. While I like HAIRSPRAY, especially since it features the last apperance of the amazing DIVINE, it's not really one of my favorites, and his movies since have all suffered from one flaw or another. I think Waters is so out there that he just has a really hard time coming up with topics that would please both his hardcore fans and the more "normal" mainstream audience. But, hey, you can't please everybody. His best "recent" movie was probably SERIAL MOM with Kathleen Turner as a mother gone homicidal, and I liked PECKER with Edward Furlong as a small town photographer who hits it big with his goofy photographs of local eccentrics. His last film CECILE B. DEMENTED about a group of cinema-loving radicals who kidnap a famous actress and demand that Hollywood churn out better product was smart and ballsy, but not all that funny for some reason.
Which brings us to A DIRTY SHAME, his latest film. I had my reservations when I heard Tracey Ullman was going to be the lead in this one. A lot of people think she's brilliant, but I find her really annoying. But then the movie got an NC-17 rating for subject matter, and I had new hope that maybe Waters was going back to the more outrageous films of his youth. After actually seeing the movie, I'm even more mixed in my feelings about it. Like CECILE B. DEMENTED, it has some very subversive ideas and is definitely going to freak out the mainstream crowd. But, it's not as funny as I thought it would be - and the point of a Waters movie is first and foremost to make you laugh.
It's basically about a frumpy middle-aged woman (Ullman) who gets hit on the head and turns into a nyphomaniac. After which she in indoctrinated into a group of local sex addicts led by mechanic Ray-Ray (Johnny Knoxville) whose goal it is to change society by "sexing" it up. Their enemies are the prudes, here called "neuters," who are trying to stamp out indecency in their neighborhood.
Waters has a lot of fun with his premise, and the acting is for the most part pretty good. Ullman was much better than I thought she'd be, and she turns in a really fearless performance here. Chris Isaak as her husband is really good, too. He has a goofy charm about him (if you saw his Showtime TV show, you already know this) and is really likable. Knoxville really has a charisma to him and I think he's going to break out as a big star, which is pretty funny, considering his JACKASS beginnings. And Selma Blair, who is becoming a Hollywood hottie, has a pretty funny role as Ullman's daughter Caprise, otherwise known as Ursula Udders - a stripper who got implants so humungous that she's a freak.
I can't really explain why A DIRTY SHAME isn't funnier. It should be. There are lots of over-the-top moments. It's just that maybe, as it goes along, it seems to run out of ideas. The end becomes very chaotic, as the sex addicts take on the neuters. And a scene in a twelve step program is an excuse to list as many fetish/perversions as possible, but doesn't really have enough fun with it. WIth someone like Waters at the helm, you expect a lot more hilarity, and it just isn't there. A DIRTY SHAME is not an awful movie (though it looks like some critics disagree about that), it has some really inspired moments, but it's not a great movie either. And I think I know the reason why. In Waters' early films, he used a repertory company of friends and unknowns, Divine included, and turned them into underground stars. These people were real characters from Edith Massey to David Lochary, to Mink Stole (who still appears in his movies) to Mary Vivian Pierce (ditto). If you're a hardcore Waters fan, you know all these people and you probably have great affection for them. The thing is, many of Waters' early "stars" are either dead or not acting anymore. And when Waters got his big break with HAIRSPRAY, he started using a lot more Hollywood stars. Sure, his casts are always interesting, a mix of current stars and older, obscure types. I mean, he's the guy who turned Patty Hearst into an actress (she has a small role in DIRTY SHAME as well). But for some reason the "real" actors seem to be a step or two off. They don't mesh so well with Waters' off-the-wall comedy. While they may be gutsy tackling his outrageous subject matter, they don't seem to be as convincing at it.
Does this mean that Waters will never make another movie as funny as his early classics? Could be. But even if his current films are uneven and flawed, they're still a nice alternative to the same old same old. And I hope he keeps making movies. Hell, I hope I'm wrong and his masterpiece is yet to come.
The last movie I saw on the big screen this weekend was GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE, which is an anime film from Japan. I'm not really heavily into anime. I've seen some of the classics of the genre (AKIRA, GHOST IN THE SHELL) and I've liked them, but if you go to any store that stocks anime films, you can go dizzy at all the countless titles and series that are being pumped out. I really enjoyed the original GHOST IN THE SHELL, about a future policewoman who is really a machine with a human brain and soul, and I enjoyed it enough to go see its sequel.
GITS2 has some dazzling visuals. I thought it started off a little slow, but once the story kicked into high gear, I really dug it. This time the focus is on Boteau, a cyborg cop who is mostly machine. He's trying to track down hackers who are turned gynoids (sex robots) into murderers. His investigation takes him into some very heady territory as reality and virtual reality collide. If you're into this kind of thing, the movie is definitely worth checking out.
That covers the new movies for this week. I also should mention that Johnny Ramone died. Since I just recently saw END OF THE CENTURY, the documentary of the Ramones, this was especially sad. That leaves just drummer Tommy as the only original member left. The Ramones were one of the great punk bands and they inspired probably hundreds, maybe thousands, of other bands. Their influence is so widespread, it probably can't be properly documented.
Also, director Russ Meyer died. For those readers who don't know, he's a legend in "exploitation" filmmaking. He started out in the 50's as one of the pioneers of "nudie" films (which would open the doors later for nudity in mainstream filmn, and later, for pornography), with THE IMMORAL MR. TEASE, which just might be the first of its kind of play in theaters. Nudie films didn't have much plot, though, and it wasn't until his "noir" period that his movies got really good. These early black and white films usually dealt with love triangles and betrayal (MUDHONEY and COMMON-LAW CABIN come to mind), but his most famous film of the period was hands-down FASTER PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! which was his fuckin masterpiece. It's about three strippers led by Tura Satana who went around drag-racing, beating people up, and robbing. One scene where Tura wins a drag race with some guy in his twenties who wanted to impress his girl, and the guy argues with her after the race, and she grabs him and breaks his back over her knee, is so unexpected and so powerful, it's one of my favorite movie scenes ever.
Later on his movies became sex comedies, and he did pretty well with some of them, especially VIXEN, starring Erica Gavin, which became a big hit, and which led to Hollywood courting him. The notoriously independent filmmaker actually went the Hollywood route for BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, another masterpiece, which was strangely enough written by film critic Roger Ebert (!!). After that, though, Meyer was disatisfied with the studio system and went back to the total control that independence offered, churning out a few movies like BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRAVIXENS before disappearing for awhile. He died at age 82, and seemed to live a full life. I just wish he'd made more movies in his later years. Russ Meyer was 100% original. A lot of people dismiss the guy because he had a fixation for big breasts and tended to hire actresses who fit the bill, but many of his movies were gems who stood up on their own and deserve a resurgence. There was nobody like Russ Meyer.
Not much else. The latest CINEMA KNIFE FIGHT came out last week in Hellnotes. This time Michael Arruda and I tackled the new film EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING, which I absoltely hated. For people interested in checking out some of the earlier installments of CKF, a humorous review of horror movies that I co-write once a month for the HELLNOTES newsletter, an archive has been put up on my website. Just go there to read some of the older reviews, including SECRET WINDOW, VAN HELSING and the recently added DAY AFTER TOMORROW.
Until next time...
Saturday, September 11, 2004
A NEW LOOK
Well, the blog has a new look. Hope you dig it. It was time for a change.
Not much else going on. Laura and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary on Friday, September 10th. Man, do I feel old.
Thursday, September 09, 2004
BROWN BUNNIES AND RAMONES
Saw a couple of interesting movies last weekend. One was THE BROWN BUNNY, the new movie by Vincent Gallo. Gallo is a guy who has acted in a lot of independent movies, including some of Abel Ferrara's films, and he directed his own movie BUFFALO 66, in which his character kidnaps stranger Christina Ricci and brings her home to his family. BUFFALO 66 is a pretty good movie and worth a rental. I'd heard Gallo started his career as a male model (for Calvin Klein?) but there's something eternally scruffy about him, and something a little creepy. But I think he's a good actor and definitely has a kind of quirky charisma.
THE BROWN BUNNY has been controversial for several reasons. First off, when Gallo first screened it, at the Cannes Film Festival, it was a longer, unedited version and it sounds like it got a bad reaction. Critic Roger Ebert went on record as saying it was the worst movie he'd ever seen at Cannes. Gallo got pissed off and wished cancer on Ebert - and by coincidence Ebert got cancer not long afterwards. Some people might be superstitious and think there's a connection. But this is the kind of stuff that creates movie mythology. The other controversial aspect of the movie is that actress Chloe Sevigny has a scene where she gives Gallo head, for real.
What about the movie itself? Well, it's been compared to road movies of the 1970's and it does have that kind of feel to it. Not much happens. Gallo plays Bud Clay, a motorcycle racer who is traveling cross-country to California in his van. Along the way, he comes across several women, all named after flowers, and has brief scenes with them. For example, there's a girl who works in a convenience store named Violet who Gallo asks to go away with him early on. She agrees, but he ends up ditching her after dropping her off at her house to get her stuff. Later on, he comes across Cheryl Tiegs (I remember having a poster of her when I was a kid in the 70's, and while she's still recognizable, she's definitely aged a lot), who plays a character named Lily (it says so on her purse!), who he kisses for about 10 minutes before taking off again. It seems that they're all shadows of the "girl who got away" the love of his life, Daisy, who's played by Sevigny. While the movie is not big on plot, it does have a kind of haunting moodiness to it, and I kind of dug it, athough I can understand that it wouldn't be everyone's cup o' joe. I heard it's about a half hour shorter than the Cannes version - and that half hour supposedly was just a lot of meaningless mundane stuff that belonged on the cutting room floor. So this cut is obviously an improvement.
So what about Chloe's big scene? Well, it's explicit, but it's also kind of sad in the context of the film. And for those who want to know - yes, she swallows! haha.
I really liked it for some bizarre reason, even though there was a guy in the audience who kept falling asleep and snoring like a bastard (but, to be honest, he started nodding off and snoring even before the movie began, so maybe he had narcolepsy or something).
The other movie I saw was the new Ramones documentary, END OF THE CENTURY: THE STORY OF THE RAMONES, and it was a really enjoyable look at one of the seminal bands of punk rock. I liked this a lot better than the recent Metallica documentary, Some Kind of Monster, and it's a lot more entertaining. Unlike Metallica, the Ramones never met with a therapist, but maybe they should have. The personalities of the original members really stood out in interviews - the shy, sweet, insecure Joey. The iron-fisted boss of the group, Johnny. Wacky Dee Dee, and drummer Tommy, who really excelled as their producer and only took the drumming job when they couldn't find anyone else. There were personnel changes as the years went on (two more drummers, and toward the end Dee Dee left to become a rapper - a move he later regretted, since he wasn't any good at it). They talk about growing up in Queens in the 60's. Playing CBGB's in the 70's. Highlights include the band reminiscing about recording their album End of the Century (which featured the classic songs "Rock N' Roll High School" and "Do You Remember Rock N' Roll Radio?" )with legendary (and often psychotic-sounding) producer Phil Spector, who once kept them in his house at gunpoint, refusing to let them leave (foreshadowing Spector's current problems with the law), to interviews with the late great Joe Strummer who told stories of how much the Ramones' early tour of England inspired the Clash and the Pistols, to scenes from Dee Dee's rap video, when he called himself Dee Dee King.
The Ramones were an important band who turned rock n' roll on its ass and who inspired a ton of other bands who went on to be much more successful than they ever were. If the movie left some interesting things out, they were things like - how were they chosen to be the band P.J. Soles obssesses about in Rock N' Roll High School (the whole movie is like a love letter to the Ramones, and I always wondered how they got chosen to be the heart of the movie), and there's no mention of the later, bitter arguments between Joey and Johnny on the Howard Stern Show at least twice in the years just before Joey died.
One thing I really felt after the movie ended was how badly everyone treated Joey - he was this shy, obsessive-compulsive guy who was afraid to talk to anyone for most of his career, and everyone, especially Johnny took advantage of that. It's a sad movie in some ways, but it's also a funny movie (thanks mostly to Dee Dee and drummer Marky)and a really interesting testament to a great band that had a very important role in rock history. Definitely worth checking out.
