Kinda went all over the place this month. Started with a nice barrage of horror films, then got a few more of the Essentials in, and ended with some experimental films (which I already blogged about) and finished everything off with two of the worst films I’ve seen in damn near ever. For the record my girlfriend’s birthday is today, so that’s the one and only reason why we watched Blank Check and Night of the Twisters. Most of you are probably familiar with Blank Check in a “I kinda remember that movie sort of way” but probably have little idea about Night of the Twisters. Well in 1996 a movie named Twister was really popular, you probably heard of it at some point, Van Halen did a sweet song for the soundtrack. Anyways true to form a TV station decided to make a quick made for TV knock off with bad actors no one ever heard of, a small budget, and special effects that are laughably bad even by mid-90s standards. I mean this film can’t even do a proper rear projection for driving scenes and this is 1996, Hollywood figured it out years ago people.
Anyways this insufferable mess continues with a whiny kid (all bad movies have a whiny kid I’m sure) and well no less than five tornadoes touch down in rural Nebraska and he finds his family they live happily ever after, now he has confidence to go bang some girl from school, and his “fat” friend who eats all the time continues to love food. Sound like a movie you want to see? Didn’t think so, if you’re thinking “it’s so bad it’s good” you’re wrong, this is bad-bad, no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
I will say that watching Night of the Twisters made Blank Check look like Citizen Kane. As bad as the movie is this is one of those so bad it’s good films. It’s very fast paced and there are enough dated mid-90s references and incomprehensible plot points that can make this a damn potent drinking game. I was reminded of a day when Karen “Duff” Duffy was a relevant person. Granted back in the mid-90s I watched a LOT of MTV because a long time ago the M used to stand for “music” and when you have summer vacation, that’s what I’d watch. The fact that I completely forgot this person existed gave a nice whiff of nostalgia. Truth be told she hasn’t exactly gone away, her most recent film role was as a voice in Fantastic Mr. Fox.
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| This is Duff, there saved you a Google search |
There are plenty of other recognizable faces in Blank Check whose names you won’t know but you’ll recognize their faces. Miguel Ferrer (yes son of Jose Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney), who you’ll recognize from Robocop (he did coke off a prostitutes breasts before being shot in the knees and killed by the dad from That 70s Show), as well as Hot Shots! Part Deux, and even Twin Peaks. There is also Michael Lerner who you might remember as “the fat Jewish banker guy who always plays an asshole, usually in a position of power”. He even got an Academy Award nomination for playing his typical part in Barton Fink, this time his resemblance to Louis B. Mayer was a good thing. There’s also Tone Loc and Rick Ducommun who you’ve seen in Groundhog Day and The Burbs. Anyways put all these C and D-listers together and what do you get? That’s right crap. The plot is so simple I remembered it from the trailer that I hadn’t seen since 1994, and I never saw the film either. So many things don’t add up (mathematically as well as logically) and well you remember this movie was made for like 8 year olds dude, 8 year olds. So that’s why I watched ’em, figured it needed an explanation.
The A-List
Ah the antidote to garbage, watch more of the 100 Essential films. Since I’m also working on revising my all time top 100, this serves as a nice dose of extra research as well. This month we watched:
Nashville (1975)
Nothing says “America” quite like watching Nashville on the Fourth of July. This particular fourth, we were blessed with a million degree weather, a month long drought and as a result many local villages were cancelling their fireworks. Since I have cable TV and the internet such primitive entertainments like fireworks don’t seem quite as exciting, so Nashville it is. This is Altman’s best film by a long shot. I love how the film looks like such a mess on the surface. All these seemingly unrelated plot threads hanging around, everybody talking over everyone else, and even the songs which were written and performed by the actors themselves range from damn good, “Easy” won a best song Oscar and Ronnee Blakley was a legitimate singer before making her acting debut here, and kinda bad (read Henry Gibson). I pick up on more details each time I see the film and I still love it. Whether it’ll be in my top 100 whenever that list is done remains to be seen, but if any Altman related film will be in, it’ll probably be Corn’s-a-Poppin’. As a side note I also finished watching Star Spangled to Death on the same day, how's that for patriotism?
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
After sitting through my least favorite Vincente Minnelli film to date Tea and Sympathy (I haven’t seen I Dood It or A Matter of Time), I needed a film about a troubled youth to redeem this decent in theory but unforgivably dated and awful melodrama about a boy who likes feminine things and his inexplicable social leprosy. Well when discussing all time greatest troubled youth pictures does any film even hold a candle to Rebel Without a Cause? This is the nth time I’ve seen it, haven’t really kept count and well Nicholas Ray was a god. This is one of his best films for sure, and one of the few that he seemed to have some control over, as well as a budget. You’ll notice the same decaying mansion from Sunset Boulevard (thank you Thom Andersen’s Los Angeles Plays Itself), a Planetarium which seemed a lot cooler in 1955 than before, and even a very young Dennis Hopper as Goon (not to be confused with Chick, Crunch, or Moose). Even though this film is also dated, and 24 year old Dean was a bit old for the role, it still holds up remarkably well on two things alone. One is Ray’s direction which employs any trick it can to put you on the same page as the characters, and the other is Dean who gives one of the screens greatest and most iconic performances here. People want to say he’s overrated because of the legendary cult that surrounded him after his early demise, but looking back at this and East of Eden the man could rival Brando.
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| Here's Goon, Chick, Crunch etc |
I will say I have no idea where all the adult supervision was on the field trip. I mean there were no school buses to take the kids so they all drove themselves. Then when Crunch, Goon, etc were tormenting Dean’s Jim no one seemed to be around to say “Hey we have to get back to school, etc”. After his tire is slashed, Dean threatens with a tire iron only to throw it over the cliff in frustration, ok how the hell did he get his tire changed then? Oh well that aside the film is still damn amazing and I can’t think of any film from the 50s (and many tried) to so accurately capture different stages of teenagers incapable of understanding their parents and vice-versa.
Killer of Sheep (1977)
I first saw this on my 24th birthday at the Music Box. This was one of the two films on The A-List that eluded me forever. I even met Charles Burnett earlier in 2007 and asked him just what the deal was with Killer of Sheep and why it’s never been released on any format? He told me it wasn’t meant to be screened commercially, he didn’t bother to clear music from the film, and looked at it more a personal film that was mean as much for himself than other people. Thankfully Milestone did the leg work, and put it out on DVD after it’s brief theatrical re-release along with My Brother’s Wedding and several short films. I was a little let down at first. After all you look for a film for the better part of 6 years it’s hard not to be a little disappointed. Watching it again though with fresh eyes I was amazed. The film has no real plot to speak of but it is a landmark in many ways. It is one of the few, if not the only film that shows a working black family just getting by. No one resorts to drug dealing, prostitution, robbery, and these average black people don’t bother dressing in drag and bugging their eyes out at the camera like Tyler Perry would like them to. Even Spike Lee, whose first feature She’s Gotta Have It comes close to this still resorted too much to being the entertainer whereas Burnett’s film feels almost like cinema verite.
As a side note on this film, early on some of the neighborhood kids go to the train tracks and throw rocks at each other. Seemingly insignificant scene, and it’s repeated later on when they are jumping across the roofs, but for those who’ve seen It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia will remember Dee and Dennis’ trip to the public pool where they get hit by rocks. They make the point that only poor people and savages would throw rocks at each other for fun, cut to Charlie and Mack throwing rocks at one another. I hadn’t seen this episode (don’t even think it was made yet) the first time I saw this movie, but I couldn’t help but chuckle the second time around thinking about it.
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
Well this is now the Rainer Werner Fassbinder film I’ve seen the most. After watching it again I’m not sure too many new layers of depth emerged. I was able to focus a little more on his camera work then before, and knowing the ending the film is such an ironic joke. Fassbinder just toys with his Maria’s happiness, and gives her only the shortest glimpses of what a normal life could be like. As she says late in the film she’s had “2 and a half days” of marriage. There’s a reason this gets listed as his best feature. It had a sizable budget by Fassbinder standards, and coming after the breakthroughs of Herzog and Wenders internationally it was part of a wave of West German cinema that was making huge strides internationally. It was really the right film at the right time. Although the other two films in the BDR trilogy don’t hold up as well, and they have nothing to do with Braun plot-wise, this film does easily stand alone and above nearly all of his work.
…And the battle for the worst
Usually I watch only good movies. Some are duds every now and then, and in some cases I don’t have any film worthy of naming the worst of the month. July was the opposite, in fact the competition for worst film of the month is fierce. I thought The Orphanage (2007) would be an early front runner, then came Amos Gitai’s self indulgent Arena of Murder (1996), a disappointing Garrel film Un Ete Brulant (2011), and an absolutely awful Zhang Yimou film Keep Cool (1997). In fact Yimou was always one of my favorite directors, once upon a time To Live was my favorite foreign film ever, and after seeing Raise the Red Lantern, Ju Dou, and others I only thought higher of him. I’m one of the few people that love his bloated over the top martial arts epics so Hero, House of Flying Daggers, and Curse of the Golden Flower are all masterpieces in my opinion. However it seems the more I dig around the more bad films I find. Not One Less was a disappointment (and that actually got decent ratings), A Woman, A Gun, and a Noodle Shop is downright awful (it’s a quasi remake of Blood Simple so go figure), but Keep Cool was just the worst of the bunch. Former cinematographer Zhang seems to employ the attention span of a two year old here. He takes his camera on a non-stop tracking and moving odyssey that might leave you with a bit of motion sickness. Perhaps this is a cultural thing where things that are funny to the Chinese don’t translate well here. After all this is a comedy, but good god try laughing at this film.
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| One of many infuriating and agonizing scenes from Keep Cool |
And there you have it, here’s the rest of the bunch:
7/1
The Orphanage (2007) 4/10
The Changeling (1980) 8/10
A Serbian Film (2010) 6/10
Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) 10/10
7/3
Our Hospitality (1923) 10/10
Sherlock Jr. (1924) 10/10
The Amazing Spider Man (2012) 6/10
7/4
Star Spangled to Death 10/10
Ornamental Hairpin (1941) 8/10
Nashville (1975) 10/10
7/5
City Lights (1931) 10/10
7/8
A Summer at Grandpa’s (1984) 8/10
Reason, Debate, and a Tale (1974) 9/10
7/9
Tree of Life (2011) 10/10
7/10
Field Diary (1982) 6/10
Arena of Murder (1996) 3/10
7/11
A Mother Should Be Loved (1934) 6/10
Klondike Annie (1936) 7/10
Maranhao ‘66 (1966) 8/10
7/12
Miracles for Sale (1939) 9/10
7/13
Keep Cool (1997) 2/10
Un Ete Brulant (2011) 4/10
7/14
It Should Happen to You (1954) 9/10
Bhuvan Shome (1969) 9/10
7/15
The End of the World (1988) 7/10
Human Remains (1998) 9/10
7/18
Tres Tristes Tigres (1968) 6/10
A Movie (1958) 10/10
Cosmic Ray (1962) 10/10
7/19
King of the Jews (2000) 9/10
7/20
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) 10/10
7/22
Tea and Sympathy (1956) 4/10
Blow Job (1964) 2/10
Flesh (1968) 5/10
Rebel Without a Cause (1955) 10/10
7/24
Trash (1970) 6/10
7/26
Road to Glory (1936) 7/10
7/27
Little Toys (1933) 7/10
Indonesia Calling (1946) 7/10
Island of Flowers (1989) 10/10
7/28
Killer of Sheep (1977) 10/10
The Moon is Blue (1953) 6/10
7/29
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) 10/10
Keyhole (2011) 5/10
7/30
Forever Amber (1947) 5/10
7/31
The Bullfighter and the Lady (1951) 8/10
Blank Check (1994) 2/10
Night of the Twisters (1996) 0/10
Best Film of the Month - Tree of Life
Worst Film of the Month - Night of the Twisters
Best New Discovery of the Month - Island of Flowers
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