Monday, March 14, 2005

 

COUNTING CORPSES


Well, I recently got a whim to have a counter on my website. You know, to see how many hits the site gets. I'm starting to think it was a fucking bad idea, though. You see, the site's been up for about 2 years now, and any major traffic it's bound to have has probably already come and gone. So instead of 2,000 hits or whatever, the new counter started at 0 and reads, as of today, 13. Thirteen hits in the last week. Wow. Maybe I'll fucking delete it next week. Or maybe I'll just leave it there so I can wallow in the misery of knowing that nobody gives a fuck. HA HA.


But in the off chance that anybody's actually reading this fucking blog, let's assume I should update it now and again. Haven't got much news this time around. Haven't been to the theater in awhile and so I've got no real movie reviews to post. Just finished the latest CINEMA KNIFE FIGHT review with Michael Arruda for HELLNOTES. We reviewed the new Wes Craven movie CURSED this time around. And that's the last movie I've seen in the last couple of weeks.


As for TV, there's two great shows on right now. One just beginning it's new season, and one heading toward its end. Both on HBO. Both on Sunday nights.


First off, DEADWOOD has returned for a second season. Regular readers of this blog (is there anyone willing to admit that?) know that DEADWOOD is one of my all-time favorite shows. A profane, gritty western by David Milch who brought us NYPD Blue. Except, on HBO, Milch doesn't have to play nice for network television and can just cut loose. Like Al Swearangen (Ian McShane) says in the first episode of the new season last week, "Welcome to Fucking Deadwood!" The show continues to show us an old west full of fucking, muddy streets, filthy gunfighters, and amoral bastards. Just about all the women except for less than a handful are whores. And the words "fuck" and "cocksucker" are bandied about like bon-bons. McShane actually won an Emmy for his role as Swearengen, and that warmed the cockles of my little black heart. Can't say much about the new season yet, except that it started off with a bang - a knife fight between Swearengen and Sheriff Bullock in the street to greet Bullock's wife and son (actually his brother's wife and son, who he's taken on as his own) as they arrive at the camp. There's a lot yet to be seen, but the show had a strong beginning this season and it can only get better.


The other show, CARNIVALE is coming to an end. As I write this, there's two more episodes to go. I have no fucking idea if this means two episodes to the end of the season, or two more episodes, period, but it sure is looking more and more like the latter. For those who haven't been following it, CARNIVALE is about a traveling carnival (natch) run by a sour-faced dwarf (Michael Anderson, the infamous dancing dwarf from TWIN PEAKS!)and the show focuses on the many fascinating characters who populate the carnival, especially a lad by the name of Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl, previously of the acclaimed film IN THE BEDROOM) who has the ability to heal people. We've been gradually learning that young Hawkins is the force of good in the world and his opposite number is Brother Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown), a fervent preacher who also happens to be some kind of devil. The first season of CARNIVALE had some flaws. Despite the fact that it looked great and had some great characters, it moved at a slow pace and didn't really seem to be making any progress toward the big showdown between good and evil. This season, the show's second, things have changed dramatically. The atmosphere and characters are just as good, but now the storyline is barreling by like a locomotive as Hawkins gets closer and closer to finally taking Brother Justin on mano o mano. Along the way, the show has taken on some strong horror elements, from a backwoods family out of Deliverance (when Hawkins goes to meet his "Granma") to a death mask maker who wears the mask of a child as he forcibly plasters Hawkins, to black eyed demons and vicious serial killer Varlyn Stroud (John Carrol Lynch who previously played Drew's cross-dressing brother and Mimi's husband on the DREW CAREY SHOW!) who does Justin's bidding. This show has an extrememly dark tone this season, and I'm loving it. But it seems to be moving almost too fast now, as it hurtles toward the big finale. Is this the last season already? Or does the show have a life after Hawkins and Crowe battle it out? I sure hope there's some way it can continue. CARNIVALE has gone from a show with a lot of potential to one of my favorites, and I'd hate to see it end now.


And speaking of favorite shows, this Tuesday THE SHIELD returns for a new season on FX, after what seems like a year of waiting. Hmmm. DEADWOOD and the THE SHIELD back on TV again. I'm in fucking hog heaven...


Well, that's all for now, folks. Until next we meet...


INFERNALLY YOURS,


LLS


Tuesday, March 01, 2005

 

WHOLE LOT OF SHAKING GOING ON


Things have been a little quiet in Modern Nightmareland the last week or so, so it's time to shake things up again. First off - the Oscars.


Instead of just proclaiming them bullshit, I will say that I haven't really been that excited about the Academy Awards for a long time. Ever since PULP FICTION got fucked out of the major awards, it's hard to take the Oscars seriously. But I at least watch, which is more than I can say for shit like the Grammys which are so out of touch with current music that they might as well just close up shop and call it a day.


I've already written here about who I thought would win, and who I thought deserved to win. I've got to say, actually sitting through the Oscars this year was kind of a boring experience. I found myself doing other things while the tv was on (writing, answering emails, etc.). No big surprises this time around. Jamie Foxx won Best Actor for RAY just like everyone said he would. This was still a bitter pill since the guy who really deserved it, Paul Giamatti for SIDEWAYS didn't even get a fuckin nomination. MILLION DOLLAR BABY swept up all the big awards, and while there was some suspense wondering if MDB or THE AVIATOR (which I sadly admit, I still haven't seen yet) was going to be the big winner, we all knew it was going to be one or the other. I actually think Eastwood, Freeman and Swank deserved their awards. MILLION DOLLAR BABY was a really good film that justly deserved its accolades. I just wasn't all that excited about the Oscars as a whole. The lame-ass songs that still seem to dominate the proceedings didn't help. Beyonce might be okay at the saccharine pop crap she churns out on a regular basis, but I really didn't need to see her sing every damn nominated song (except for one). And frankly the songs themselves blew chunks and were as out of touch as the Grammys (why the fuck didn't a song from GARDEN STATE get nominated? that movie had the best soundtrack of the year, hands down).


As a host, I think Chris Rock did a so-so job. I was surprised that he actually made fun of a few celebrities during the night (A big no-no in Oscar-ville. On their big night, Hollywood's elite don't like to be poked fun at - so chances are very slim Rock will be asked back to host again). He definitely seemed to be consciously restraining himself throughout the proceedings, though, and wasn't as funny as he could have been. Even so, he was a breath of fresh air after such duds as Billy Crystal and Whoopie Goldberg who everyone seems to love. Rock's hosting job reminded me of how David Letterman went over like a lead balloon a few years back. Strangely, I still think Letterman was my favorite host in recent memory, even if everyone seemed to have a problem with him at the time. At least he did something completely different.


I should note that before the Oscars, I watched the Independent Spirit Awards, which I'd taped the night before on IFC (the Independent Film Channel, for those who don't get it). The two award shows were like night and day. At the Independent Spirits, SIDEWAYS swept the big awards (and rightly so, even if the Oscars totally snubbed them except for a token best screenplay award - the same and only award PULP FICTION won in 1995). In fact Paul Giamatti, the heart and soul of SIDEWAYS, not only got nominated for the Best Actor award at the Independent Spirits - he damn well won the fucking thing as well. At least the Spirts kinda made up for the Oscar snub. The Spirts were also hosted by Samuel L. Jackson, who might not have been as funny as Chris Rock, but he sure had more attitude, even laughing at some of the nominees (particularly the low-budget sci-fi flick PRIMER).


Aside from awards bullshit, I saw a couple of new movies this past weekend: A TALE OF TWO SISTERS and INSIDE DEEP THROAT


A TALE OF TWO SISTERS, a South Korean horror film by director Ji-woon Kim that looks and feels a lot like the recent Japanese ghost movies that have been making the rounds.


In this one, two teenage sisters (Soo-mi and Soo-yeon) return to their father's home after a long absence. There is some obvious tension right away between the girls and their stepmom - who was formerly one of their scientist father's colleagues. As the movie progresses, we learn more and more about the girls and what happened to their real mother.


Like a lot of recent Japanese ghost movies, there are plenty of confusing flashbacks and an appearance by yet another long-haired ghost making creaking noises as she crawls across the floor. But somehow, this one works. Unlike JU-ON (and its American counerpart THE GRUDGE), which seemed populated by sleepwalkers, this story works because you really care about the characters. The two sisters are sympathetic and tragic and you really want to find out more about them. Towards the end of the film, the flashbacks get downright frustrating as all is explained in a non-linear way using scenes from the past. But by the very end, I really thought I understood most of it. And the long-haired ghost (is this how all female ghosts look in Asia? I thought the long-haired one was specific to RINGU back when I first saw it, but I've noticed since how pervasive the image is in Japanese and Korean films. The long haired ghost must be the Asian equivalent of a western vampire or werewolf) actually works this time around.


I recommend looking for this one on DVD since chances are it won't be in theaters long (and probably won't be playing near you at all, unless you have a decent art theater nearby). Definitely one of the best foreign ghost movies I've seen so far.


The other movie I saw, INSIDE DEEP THROAT, was a fun documentary about the first porno movie to take the mainstream by storm back in the early 1970's. Suddenly, married couples and "decent people" were going to movie theaters to see porn, and it wasn't just old guys in raincoats anymore. The movie cost something like $25,000 to make and grossed $600 million. The documentary gives us an overview of the movie and the people involved (stars Linda Lovelace and Harry Reams are profiled, as well as director Gerard Damiano) and the legal battles the movie had once it got famous enough to incur the wrath of the right wing moralists who wanted to shut it down. INSIDE DEEP THROAT also interviews cops who shut the movie down and prosecutors who took it to court. At one point star Harry Reams was actually on trial facing jail time for the movie (co-star Lovelace and director Damiano already had immunity). It was the first time an actor was on trial for being in a film. Despite all this, DEEP THROAT remained as popular as ever, even getting mentioned in Johnny Carson monlogues. A lot of people were predicting that DEEP THROAT would lead to porn crossing over into the mainstream and that the big studios would start making their own pornographic movies, but, as we now know that never happened.


The documentary is fascinating mainly because things haven't changed much since the 70's. Some of the gains we've made since then towards free expression have been turned back under the Bush administration and, by proxy, the agenda of the religious right. Ever since Janet Jackson popped out her tit, the backlash has been not only far-reaching but also extremely irrational. Decades of progress and and a slow increase in permissiveness has been washed down the drain as the powers that be strive to turn the clock back to 1950. So much for our culture continuing to grow up and catching up with Europe. This country was founded by Puritans, and those muthafuckers are going to hold us back for as long as they possibly can.


The most tragic person in INSIDE DEEP THROAT is Linda Lovelace, who may or may not have been the victim of abuse at the hands of her boyfriend back when DEEP THROAT was made, as she alleged in a tell-all book she wrote in the 80's. But her see-sawing back and forth between riding the wave of success that DEEP THROAT afforded her and then rejecting it and aligning herself with its detractors smacks of someone who wants acceptance and to be loved more than anything else. Strangely enough, she went back to posing nude in magazines toward the end of her life, embracing again what made her famous, before a tragic car accident took her life in 90's.


INSIDE DEEP THROAT is a fascinating and often funny movie. Aside from the people involved, the directors also inteview people like John Waters, Norman Mailer, Erica Jong, Helen Gurly Brown and Dick Cavett for soundbites. I also thought it was interesting that after repeatedly discussing what Lovelace's big "trick" was (she could easily swallow an entire 10-inch cock without flinching) they actually SHOWED it in the documentary for about a minute! Afterall, if you're going to discuss why DEEP THROAT was such a big deal, you have to at least show why. The fact that the scene was so brief (and INSIDE DEEP THROAT was released unrated!) just shows how backwards things have gone. Then again, the movie THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT didn't show any of the photo shoots inside an actual issue of HUSTLER, so compared to that, INSIDE DEEP THROAT is kind of brave.


IDT is definitely worth checking out to see the history of a movie that might not have been a great movie (not even a particularly good porno film), but which had amazing ramifications on free speech in this country at the time. Nowadays, porn is a billion dollar industry on DVD and video, and makes more money than mainstream studio films. Well, it all started with the phenomenal success of a little movie called DEEP THROAT.


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