Sunday, January 30, 2005

 

HORROR COMES TO HARVARD


I had the pleasure of being part of a panel at Harvard University this weekend. They have an annual science fiction convention there called VERICON which seems to be geared toward Harvard students and focuses on sf, gaming and anime. This year they requested that some members of the Horror Writers New England Chapter put together a panel about horror.


So it was Michael Arruda (my cohort in CINEMA KNIFE FIGHT), John Harvey, F. Brett Cox, my wife Laura Cooney and myself. We discussed everything from how we see horror as a genre to the links between horror and sci-fi, to comparisons between horror on film and in literature. You know, the usual stuff. While the audience was only around 15 people, they seemed very interested in the topic and asked a lot of questions.


I had a great time and really enjoyed the chance to be my usual, opinionated self. I tried to be both thoughtful and outrageous (I'll admit, I've got a P.T. Barnum side), getting to pontificate on how good horror should be like a good sex scene, how we're often just animals in clothes deluding ourselves into thinking we're civilized, how like it or not war is part of our basic nature, and the revelation that "I love violence" (well, in movies and literature - let me clarify - not real life). It was a lot of fun and afterwards a bunch of us went to a nearby pub and continued the conversations and debates. All in all, a great, fun day.


Tuesday, January 25, 2005

 

THE OSCAR NOMINATIONS


Well, they announced the Oscar nominations this morning. First off - the bad news. Or let us call it the bullshit news. Paul Giamatti was not nominated for SIDEWAYS. The movie got about three or four nominations, including best supporting actor and actress, but the guy who was the heart and soul of the movie got fucked over. Giamatti is easily one of the best actors we've got, and yet the Academy continues to snub him. Just bullshit!


Secondly, KILL BILL VOLUME 2 was also totally snubbed. No Uma nomination for Best Actress. No David Carradine for Supporting Actor. No Best Picture or a Best Director nod for Quentin. I hear the main reason might be that the Academy has collective Alzheimer's and can't fucking remember anything from three or months back. Since KB2 came out in early 2004, it might as well have come out in 1932. Academy assholes, rent a fucking DVD once in awhile!


Now that the rants are out of the way, on to the big categories and what I predict will happen. Get your notebooks out for that big Oscar pool you're going to be a part of as Oscar night approaches.


BEST PICTURE


The nominees are THE AVIATOR, FINDING NEVERLAND, MILLION DOLLAR BABY, RAY and SIDEWAYS (if SIDEWAYS is nominated for Best Picture, how can the Academy snub the fucking star!!)....ahem...My prediction is THE AVIATOR will take it, because Scorcese hasn't won an Oscar for Best Director yet and the Academy feels a need to reward people at the wrong fucking time. So I'm thinking THE AVIATOR might sweep Best Picture, Best Director, and some of the smaller technical awards. Y'see, they should have given him the Oscar for TAXI DRIVER, or RAGING BULL, or even GOODFELLAS. But they didn't. So now they have to play catch up and give it to the AVIATOR, which may or may not be up to Scorcese's standards (I'll let you know when I've seen it - I plan to soon). If this happens, I won't be too pissed off, since Scorcese deserves a fucking award or two. But I'd really dig it if SIDEWAYS won (no fucking way). And if MILLION DOLLAR BABY does a surprise win, that isn't too shabby either.


BEST ACTOR


And the nominess are: Don Cheadle for Hotel Rwanda, Johnny Depp for FINDING NEVERLAND, Leonardo DiCaprio for THE AVIATOR, Jamie Foxx for RAY and Clint Eastwood for MILLION DOLLAR BABY. I predict Foxx might win it for RAY, because everyone's saying how uncanny his performance is. I'd rather see Eastwood get it. He kicked ass in MILLION DOLLAR BABY. Cheadle is a solid actor and will definitely get an Oscar someday. Depp is probably my favorite actor of the bunch, but I hear that FINDING NEVERLAND is a watered down biopic and I'd rather see him win next year for something more worthy.


BEST ACTRESS


The nominees are: Annette Benning for BEING JULIA (oh..c'mon!), Catalina Sadino Moreno for MARIA FULL OF GRACE, Imelda Staunton for VERA DRAKE, Hillary Swank for MILLION DOLLAR BABY, and Kate Winslet for ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND. I predict that it could be a toss-up between Hilary Swank (who already won an Oscar already) and the practically unknown Imedla Staunton, who's been getting rave reviews for her role in Mike Leigh's VERA DRAKE. I won't go on another rant about Uma being fucked out of his category.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR


You've got Alan Alda for THE AVIATOR, Thomas Hayden Church for SIDEWAYS, Jamie Foxx (again?!!) for COLLATERAL, Morgan Freeman for MILLION DOLLAR BABY and Clive Owen for CLOSER. I predict Freeman will take it for MILLION DOLLAR BABY - he's a great actor and he deserves it. But for me, I'd give it to Clive Owen. He's the main reason to see CLOSER - a movie that deserved a lot more nominations and is another movie that got fucked this time around. I also dug Hayden Church's performance, but he's even more of a longshot than Owen.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS


Cate Blanchett for THE AVIATOR, Laura Linney for KINSEY, Virginia Madsen for SIDEWAYS. Sophia Okonedo for HOTEL RWANDA and Natalie Portman for CLOSER. I think Blanchett has a chance, and Linney was good in KINSEY (another good movie that mostly got snubbed - where's Liam Neeson's nom?). But I predict this is the one award SIDEWAYS will win. I'd like to see Madsen take it.


BEST DIRECTOR


Clint Eastwood for MILLION DOLLAR BABY, Scorcese for THE AVIATOR, Mike Leigh for VERA DRAKE, Alexander Payne for SIDEWAYS, and Taylor Hackford for RAY. Like I said, Scorcese will probably take it. Eastwood could possibly pull an upset. Me, I'd prefer Payne out of this batch.


THE WRITING AWARDS


Well, since I'm a writer, might as well cover these too.


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY


The nominees are: John Logan for THE AVIATOR, Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth for ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, Terry George and Keir Pearson for HOTEL RWANDA, Brad Bird for THE INCREDIBLES and Mike Leigh for VERA DRAKE. I think Charlie Kaufman and company will get it for ETERNAL SUNSHINE. It's the most original and inventive of the screenplays, and if it wins for anything, it should be screenplay. If you didn't know, Kaufman is the same guy who gave us BEING JOHN MALKOVICH and ADAPTATION, and even when I don't totally love his movies, I am always surprised by them. He deserves the Oscar.


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY


David Magee for FINDING NEVERLAND, Paul Haggis for MILLION DOLLAR BABY, Jose Rivera for THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor for SIDEWAYS and Richard Linklater, Kim Krizan, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke for BEFORE SUNSET. I'd go with SIDEWAYS for this category, although MILLION DOLLAR BABY has a shot. I have to admit, I have no idea why BEFORE SUNSET is in this category. It was an okay movie, but there have got to be other more deserving films.


So that's me on the major categories. Let's see how many I get right on Oscar night. I'd do some more categories, but frankly I don't give a fuck about documentary short or best achievement in sound right now. Until next time...


Saturday, January 22, 2005

 

Haven't had much news lately. Haven't seen any movies since MILLION DOLLAR BABY, except for WHITE NOISE, which I reviewed this week with Michael Arruda for our CINEMA KNIFE FIGHT column in Hellnotes. Also been trying to get rid of a really annoying cold that won't go away.


Some good news, though. Back in December of 2002, my story "Second Chances" appeared on the webzine Gothic.net. This is the story that got me an Honorable Mention in THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR, and is one of my favorite things I've written so far. It also introduces the city of Blue Clay which will figure pretty prominently in some other stories I've written since that are looking for homes as we speak. Well, the thing is, I never got paid for this story.


After two years of trying to resolve the situation on my own, I turned to the Horror Writers Assocation (HWA)'s grievance committee. And guess what? I finally got paid! Nice to finally be able to say that. A big thanks to Doug Winter for his help in finally providing some closure to this situation.


In other news, Laura and I are going to take part in a panel on horror at VERICON, a science fiction convention at Harvard University on January 29th. They asked that some of us New England Horror Writers take part in the convention, so we were happy to be part of it. Other writers involved in the panel include my Cinema Knife Fight collaborator MICHAEL ARRUDA, as well as JOHN HARVEY (have you read his novel THE CLEANSING yet? You gotta!) and F. BRETT COX. It'll just be nice to finally be able to say I spoke at Harvard.


That's all the news for now. Until next time...INFERNALLY YOURS....


LLS


Saturday, January 08, 2005

 

MILLION DOLLAR BABY


Saw Clint Eastwood's new movie, MILLION DOLLAR BABY tonight. This is one of those movies that the big critics have been raving about and it's been getting a lot of Oscar buzz. Usually I'm a little leery of movies that get this much hype, since a lot of times they tend to be disappointing. I have to admit, I wasn't really excited about the storyline. In MDB, Hilary Swank plays a woman who wants to make it as a boxer. This has been covered in the movies before, most notably in 2000's GIRLFIGHT, starring Michelle Rodriguez, which I figured was the last word on the subject. I was wrong. Where GIRLFIGHT was raw and hungry, both good qualities for a boxing film, MILLION DOLLAR BABY is something else entirely. It's a work of art.


Swank's character, Maggie Fitzgerald, is in some ways a woman at the end of her rope. She's a waitress struggling to make ends meet and trying to distance herself from a past of poverty. The only light in her life is boxing, which might offer her a way out, but, at age 31, it's a longshot. She practically begs grizzled boxing manager and gym owner Frankie Dunn (Eastwood) to train her. When he finally does, after much reluctance, it's the start of a relationship which runs deep with love and respect and which changes both of them.


At its heart, MILLION DOLLAR BABY is a love story, but it's not about lovers or romance. It's about two people who have reached crucial points in their lives and who reach out to one another to fill the void. And while this is the story of Maggie and Frankie, the other main character who is crucial to the story is Eddie "Scrap" Dupris (Morgan Freeman), a former boxer (Frankie used to be his cut man) who is the janitor at the gym and Frankie's right hand man. The two of them have been together for a lot of years and Eddie narrates the story. He is also responsible for urging Frankie to take Maggie on as a fighter. In these three solid actors' capable hands, as well as Eastwood's masterly direction, we get the story of three people's lives with strength and grace, and some sadness. In fact, it's all handled so well and so unsentimentally, that it proves yet again that Clint Eastwood is one of the most underrated directors we have. Amazingly, this is his 25th film as a director, and yet most people identify him more as a movie star than as the craftsman that he also is. MILLION DOLLAR BABY is easily one of the highlights of his long career - as a director and an actor - and is one of the rare instances where the hype about a film is justified.


Frankie does indeed train Maggie, and, against the odds, she begins to win her bouts (the boxing scenes are great). With Frankie in her corner to believe in her, Maggie seems unstoppable. And when we get to see her family later on, we understand why Frankie means so much to her. Even when she buys her mother a house, her family seems to look down on her and her mother tells her, about her boxing career, that "Everyone's laughing at you." It's clear that Frankie is the first person in her life to love her unconditionally and this explains why she tries so hard to make him proud.


MILLION DOLLAR BABY takes some dark turns along the way, but we're in the hands of experts here and it all feels right. I have to admit, during the first half hour, I wasn't sure how much I was going to like this movie. But as it went along, it sucked me in and made me care about these people. It grew on me as I watched it, and by the end I was simply blown away by it. Many critics put this movie high on their year's best films for 2004. Some even put it in the number one spot. Since it didn't open where I live until this weekend, and we're now in 2005, it's just on the cusp of my own Top 10 list for 2004, which I unveiled last time. Which I guess brings us to the point - if I included this film in my 2004 list, which everyone else seems to be doing - where would it stand? Well, it's not good enough to bump KILL BILL VOL. 2 off of the top spot, Tarantino's film is still easily my favorite film of 2004, but MILLION DOLLAR BABY would probably place somewhere in the top 5. I dug it that much. And this was one of those rare films where at the end of the showing (with a packed house no less) a bunch of people started clapping. And deservedly so. It's that good.


Sunday, January 02, 2005

 

THE TOP 10 BEST MOVIES OF 2004


Well, here we are, my third annual "Best of the Year" list. I actually made a list of all the movies I'd seen in theaters in 2004, and it comes out to almost 50 movies - a lot more than I expected - making for an average of about one a week. So I took that list and tried to whittle it down to ten. It wasn't easy - this was a good year for movies. But here goes. Drum roll please...


Number 1: KILL BILL VOL. 2


Well, no big surprise here, considering that the cinematic dynamo that was KILL BILL VOLUME 1 was my top choice last year, and I consider both of these films halves of a whole. Where VOLUME 1 was ultraviolent and hyperkinetic and amazing, VOLUME 2 was quieter, more concerned with The Bride’s backstory and with characterization. And David Carradine turned in a terrific performance as Bill. I really dig that Superman/Clark Kent speech he makes. Of course, VOLUME 2 isn't totally devoid of violence - the final battle between Uma and Darryl Hannah is a real high point, too. And Michael Madsen is great as washed-up assassin Bud. And don't forget the training scenes with Pai Mei. The two Kill Bill movies compliment each other perfectly, and together they are one of my favorite movies of all time.
This just had to be my number one choice for 2004.


Number Two: THE BROWN BUNNY


There’s always a controversial film on my list every year(last year it was Gaspar Noe’s IRREVERSIBLE), and this year is no exception. As long as there are movies that propagate the outlaw spirit in movies, they’re probably going to make my list. The funny thing is, despite any controversies it generated, THE BROWN BUNNY is actually a pretty quiet film. Vincent Gallo, who’s previous directorial effort was the terrific BUFFALO ’66, returns with the tale of a a motorcycle racer who travels the country and sees the girlfriend he loved in the faces of several women he meets along the way. When it premeired at Cannes, the critics hated it, including Roger Ebert who was very vocal about it (and Gallo infamously wished cancer on him in return). Despite this, when the movie was released here with edits that presumably improved it a lot, Ebert made a public statement that he now liked the movie. Featuring a real fellatio scene between Gallo and co-star (and indie darling) Chloe Sevigny, THE BROWN BUNNY is a haunting, melancholy road trip into sadness. I can't wait to see what Gallo does next.


Number Three: SIDEWAYS


Alexander Payne’s new film features an amazing cast, led by Paul Giamatti, in the story of two middle-aged friends (Giamatti and the hilarious Thomas Hayden Church) who go for one last hurrah in wine country before one of them gets married. Once there, they meet two middle-aged women (Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh), and they all contemplate life and where it’s taken them. This movie is chockfull of regrets, and hits home in a dozen different ways. One of the most powerful movies of the year and it deserves a lot of attention at Oscar time. Loved it.


Number Four: CLOSER


The best Neil LaBute movie that LaBute didn’t make. Mike Nichols proves he’s still very vital at age 73 and churns out one of his best films (and this is the guy who also made THE GRADUATE and CARNAL KNOWLEDGE!), about two couples (Clive Owen and Julia Roberts, and Jude Law and Natalie Portman), betrayal and a kind of revenge. Featuring another great cast, spearheaded by an excellent performance by Owen, and some really fascinating insight into why some people are just doomed to make bad choices..mostly out of boredom.


Number Five: (TIE) NAPOLEON DYNAMITE & GARDEN STATE


NAPOLEON DYNAMITE – The sleeper of the year. There was one theater here that played it for about six months straight. A small, quirky little film about a nerd, Napoloen Dynamite (Jon Heder), who doesn’t realize he’s a nerd, and the strange friends and relatives who surround him. Easily, one of the funniest films of the year.


GARDEN STATE -Zach Braff (J.D. on the sitcom SCRUBS), writes and directs his first film (in which he also stars) and strikes gold. It’s not a masterpiece, but it is a satisfying chunk of cinema about a second-rate actor who has been on anti-depressants for as long as he can remember, who comes home for his mother’s funeral and decides to try life without the pills. Along the way he falls in love with Natalie Portman. Another quirky, melancholy film that really worked for me. And it easily had the best soundtrack album of the year (and the best trailer, too). If this is how he makes his directorial debut, we should be expecting big things from Mr. Braff.


Number Six: I HEART HUCKABEES


David O.Russell’s existential comedy about characters looking for the meaning of it all was one of the big surprises of 2004. Nobody else has ever made a comedy like this – smart, introspective, and, at times, just plain brilliant. With an all-star cast including Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, Jason "Rushmore" Schwartzman, Mark Walhberg (in one of his best roles yet), Jude Law, and Naomi Watts in a bikini. What's not to like?


Number Seven: (TIE) SHAUN OF THE DEAD & THE FORGOTTEN


I know, this is the second tie on the list - but these things happen. Since I do review horror movies throughout the year for places like HELLNOTES, I wanted to include the best of the lot on this list. The thing is, even though there were a bunch of horror movies in 2004, and the genre is still thriving, there weren't a lot that I really liked. For my favorite horror flick of the year, it would be a toss-up between these two. So I decided they deserved to share the Number 7 spot.


SHAUN OF THE DEAD – the world turns into a hotbed of flesh-eating zombies and two British slackers don’t even realize it until it’s too late. A really good balance of comedy and horror, that doesn't skimp on the gore, and director Edgar Wright really shows that he knows his George Romero movies along the way. And Simon Pegg is spot-on as Shaun, who has been pretty much a non-entity his entire life and is finally given a chance to shine as a zombie-slayer. A smart movie about dumb people and the end of the world.


THE FORGOTTEN - Julianne Moore turns in another great performance as a woman who is certain that her son, thought dead in a plane crash, is really alive. She convinces another parent (Dominic West) that his daughter may be still alive too. The two of them then evade the FBI to find out what the hell is going on. Good performances and a compelling script. While SHAUN OF THE DEAD is clearly the better of these two films, I really had no expectations when I walked in to the theater to see THE FORGOTTEN , and I left thinking it was pretty damn good.


Number Eight:DOGVILLE


Lars von Trier’s new film is like OUR TOWN in hell. It’s three hours long. It doesn’t have any sets and all takes place on a stage with chalk marks meant to represent individual houses. The people at times are downright annoying. And yet it all works. Nicole Kidman plays a gangster’s moll who is on the run and ends up in a secluded mountain town in rural America. The town poet (Paul Bettany) convinces the other people in town to give her sanctuary. But as the risks get higher (with both the police and gangsters searching for her), the people demand more and more from her in return, until she’s pretty much their slave. With a cathartic ending that makes it all worthwhile. I was cheering at the end. Von Trier will do that to you.


Number Nine: TEAM AMERICA


Marionette puppets swearing, fucking, and blowing each other’s heads off in geysers of gore. What a treat! Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the masterminds behind SOUTH PARK, do their own take on the old Gerry Anderson Thunderbirds show, this time featuring a band of American commandos who go after terrorists and don’t care who gets hurt along the way. With some funny, catchy songs. The politics are a little fuzzy, but when it comes to offending audiences, Parker and Stone have always sought out to be equal-opportunity offenders. As their theme song says, "Team America - Fuck Yeah!"


Number Ten: KINSEY


A brilliant biopic about the man who brought America in the 1950’s kicking and screaming into the modern world by actually giving them information about human sexuality and shedding some much needed light on a nation's ignorance. Kinsey’s influence on public knowledge and discourse can’t be underestimated, and Liam Neeson turns in a top-notch, Oscar-worthy performance as Dr. Alfred Kinsey. Also with great performances by Laura Linney as Kinsey's long-suffering wife, Clara, and Peter Sarsgaard (also great in GARDEN STATE) as Kinsey's number one desciple, Clyde.


So that's my Top 10 this time around. I thought I'd do a separate list for documentaries, since there were a bunch of good ones this year. So here's that list:


BEST 5 DOCUMENTARIES OF 2004:


1) FARENHEIT 911 - Probably the most important documentary of the year, as Michael Moore exposed the Bush presidency for what it was, and people came in droves to see it, making it the biggest grossing documentary ever. Unfortunatley, it didn’t seem to have much affect on the actual election. Go figure.

2) BUKOWSKI: LIVE THROUGH THIS: This documentary explores the life and times of one of the best writers America has ever produced – Charles Bukowski. He's probably most famous for writing the screenplay for the movie BARFLY, based on his own life. If you haven't sought out his poetry and novels, you really should check them out. Featuring interviews with the Buk himself and with the people who knew him. His poetry readings alone are a howl.


3) DIG! – The best rock movie of the year, as the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre start out as friends, then competitors, then enemies as they both strive for fame on their own terms. The thing is, both bands are really good and deserve to be heard. Brian Jonestown lead singer Anton Newcombe's descent into madness is the main focus of the second half, adding real drama to the works.


4) TARNATION – Starting from an early age, director Jonathan Caouette films himself and his family, including his schizophrenic mother. He edited it all on his laptop, and creates an impressive, riveting documentary on one man's life.


5) THE END OF THE CENTURY -the story of the Ramones, one of the best rock bands ever. Tons of bands were influenced by them and passed them by sales-wise, but they were the originals. I still feel worst for Joey. Gabba Gabba Hey!


HONORABLE MENTIONS:: not great movies, but some that I felt like mentioning:


THE VILLAGE – M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie proved what a lot of us already knew after seeing his previous film, SIGNS – the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes. Shyamalan went from media darling with great films like THE SIXTH SENSE and (the underrated) UNBREAKABLE and then showed us that he wasn’t perfect after all, and was capable of making clunkers too. THE VILLAGE starts off really promising, and then, as it goes along, shows us that it’s a joke with a bad punchline. Then why am I giving it an Honorable Mention here? Well, until the final secret is revealed, I thought it was fun. And the fact that it pissed off so many people (mostly big Shyamalan fans who felt betrayed) makes me kind of fond of it.


THE ANATOMY OF HELL - Catherine Breillat's sex drama was supposed to be serious but had a lot of unintentional laughs. I still think the "tampon tea" scene is hilarious. And it sure beats her other film that came out this year, the boring look at a director filming a sex scene - SEX IS COMEDY.


OPEN WATER – Two people are stranded in the middle of the ocean and draw the attention of sharks. Short and suspenseful, but not much in the way of characterization. You don’t care much about the people, but it keeps you on the edge of your seat, and I liked the ending. This movie became something of a low-budget hit on the art circuit due to word of mouth buzz, but don't believe the hype. It's more of an appetizer than a meal. JAWS is still the daddy of all shark movies.


THE SEED OF CHUCKY - More fun with that homicidal doll, Chucky. Along for the ride this time are his doll girlfriend Tiffany, cult director John Waters, and Chucky's "son" Glen. Pretty awful stuff, and the human actors are pretty bad, but has a high camp factor and it's good for some laughs.


Well, I'm movied out for now. Hope this list leads you seek out some of the best of the bunch. Until next time....





 

ANOTHER YEAR BEGINS


Happy New Year, everybody! Let's hope 2005 is a great year for us all. I know that some people thought my top 10 movie list would be out by now. Well, it'll be out very soon. In the meantime, I've seen a few new movies. So let's get to the action.


BAD EDUCTION - the new movie by Pedro Almadovar. I've been a fan of Almadovar for along time now. I think the first films of his I saw were Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, his big international hit in 1988, and 1990's Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down starring Antonio Banderas before he came to America. I've followed most of his movies before and since. Some of my favorites include Law of Desire, Live Flesh (starring Javier Badem and based on a book by Ruth Rendell!) and his last film, Talk to Her. Almadovar is a very capable filmmaker, and one of the most talented directors in Europe today. But I don't always like his films. Some of his biggest hits, like The Flower of My Secret, and his Oscar-winning All About My Mother, left me underwhelmed. And Bad Education kind of falls into that category.


Bad Education stars Gael Garcia Bernal (also the star of excellent Mexcian films Y Tu Mama Tambien, directed by Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu's Amores Perros) as Ignacio, an actor who comes to his childhood friend, Enrique (Fele Martinez), now a famous director, looking for work. Enrique tries to give Ignacio the brush off, but before he leaves, Ignacio leaves behind a story he has written about their shared childhood at a Catholic boys school. Enrique promises to read it, but really just wants to get Ignacio to go away. Enrique does read the story, though, and is spellbound by it. It's about their boyhood when the two of them were each other's first love, and the despicable priest, Father Manolo (Daniel Giminez Cacho) who expells Enrique in order to have Ignacio all to himself. The second half of the story, which Ignacio admits is fictional since the two have been out of touch, deals with their reunion as adults.


Enrqiue is touched by the story and it awakens in him the feelings he had when they were boys. He agrees to turn the story into a film, but he refuses to give Igancio (who now insists on being called Angel) the role that is patterned after himself, despite Angel's pleading for the role. What happens next involves many plot twists and turns, for which Almadovar is famous, as we find out secrets about the two men.


The film is ambitious, showing us both men now, and then giving us flashbacks to their boyhood, and also to the versions of their lives that are in Ignacio/Angel's story. You would think all of this flashing around would get confusing, but for the most part is works. I just wasn't particularly enthralled with the characters and their stories this time around. Bernal turns in a terrific performance as Angel, who is also a drag queen, and he's one of the few actors I've seen who can actually pull off dressing like a woman, but I think that the role he has here is not up to the standards set by his Mexican films. And, unlike Almadovar's last film, Talk to Me, which sucked me in with its storyline, Bad Education simply failed to woo me. These things happen.


I also saw Wes Anderson's new film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. The worst thing about this movie is its overlong title. As for the movie - I really liked it. I've been a fan of Anderson's since his first film, Bottle Rocket, but I think his film Rushmore is a masterpiece, and I really liked his last film, The Royal Tannenbaums a lot too (and it was the rare film where I actually liked a performance by Gwyneth Paltrow!). I don't think Life Aquatic is in the same league as something like Rushmore, but if you're a Wes Anderson fan - or a Bill Murray fan - you'll dig it.


Bill Murray has actually done something very interesting. After being a huge mainstream star in everything from Ghostbusters to Groundhog Day, he decided to stop making big budget Hollywood flicks for the most part (not completely - he did do the voice in the recent CGI atrocity Garfield, for example) and began to take roles in quirky, small independent films. This has paid off big time, giving his career a new life and even getting him an Oscar nomination for Sophia Coppola's Lost in Translation. Suddenly, Murray started making a string of really good, smart movies that were just off center. This all began with his role in Anderson's Rushmore. He's appeared in Anderson's films since, and he's the star of Life Aquatic.


In this film, Murray is Steve Zissou, a Jacques Cousteau-esque documentary filmmaker who explores the oceans of the world. He's reached a crisis in his life. His marriage to his wife Eleanor (Angelica Houston) is in trouble. His films aren't as popular as they once were and he's having trouble getting the next one funded. And his best friend (Seymour Cassell) was eaten by a "jaguar shark" in his last documentary. He vows to find the shark and kill it, to avenge his dead friend. Along the way he meets up with Ned Plimpton (Anderson regular Owen Wilson) who might just be Zissou's long lost son. Steve has never been a father before and is awkward at first, but he wants to make up for the 30 years he wasn't a part of his son's life. So he asks Ned to join Team Zissou aboard his vessel The Belafonte. Cate Blanchett is also in the picture as a pregnant journalist doing a cover story on Zissou and who falls in love with Ned. Also along for the ride are Michael Gambon as Steve's producer, always looking for funding, and Willem DeFoe as a needy German scientist who sees Steve as a father figure and who resents the sudden appearance of Ned.


The plot pushes the story along, but what makes a Wes Anderson movie great is the feel of it all, and the characters, and this movie is no different. You care about the characters, the movie is a helluva lot of fun. It also has a very interesting soundtrack as actor Seu Jorge sings old David Bowie songs in Porteguese throughout the film. All in all, a flick worth checking out. And a really nice capper to a year in movies for me.


I was also going to see Martin Scorcese's new film The Aviator (about the life of Howard Hughes) this weekend, but didn't get around to it. From what I'm seen of it, it doesn't excite me very much for some reason, but since it is Scorcese, I'll see it at some point.


I also really want to see Clint Eastwood's new one, Million Dollar Baby with Hillary Swank as a woman boxer who turns to Eastwood's grizzled trainer, but the film hasn't opened here yet, despite all the buzz of possible Oscar nominations for Eastwood and company. I'll probably see that one as soon as it's in wider release.


On the video front, I finally saw Elf, which I'd wanted to see for awhile. I had a really mixed reaction to it. I'm a big fan of director Jon Favreau (he wrote the indie classic Swingers and wrote and directed one of my favorite flicks Made - if you haven't seen that one yet, you should, Vince Vaughn is a fuckin howl in that one), and Elf was his big mainstream breakthrough. For the two people on the planet who haven't seen Elf yet, it stars Will Farrell (who is terrific in it) as Buddy, a human who was raised by elves in Santa's workshop in the North Pole, who finds out he was adopted and goes to the big city to find his dad (James Caan). Farrell is hilarious as a fish-out-of-water man-child; he's perfect for the role. And for the first half, Elf really worked for me. I thought it was funny and Farrell was a treat to watch. There's even a cameo by Artie Lange of the Howard Stern show as a department store Santa who gets into a brawl with Buddy. But about an hour into it, Santa (Ed Asner) has trouble with his sleigh in Central Park, and Buddy comes to the rescue, and the movie turns very sappy very quickly. And it becomes just another bad Hollywood holiday flick. I've got to give Favreau credit for trying, but I hope he goes back to make his quirky indie comedies. They're a lot more satisfying. As for Will Farrell, his career can only get bigger. The guy is a natural onscreen.


That's all for now. But I'll be back soon with my top 10 films of 2005.


Until then, Infernally Yours,


LLS



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