EXTRA CRITICUM

2nd Look: Five Underrated Movies

A certain consensus seems to get agreed upon about movies before they recede into the past. A combination of popularity and critical response are the primary ingredients, and it’s usually more-or-less right. Movies like The Last Emperor or Crash may capture the zeitgeist enough to walk off with a Best Picture Oscar, but they tend to disappear as time goes on. Whether this is because they are beautiful but somewhat ephemeral (The Last Emperor) or thuggishly manipulative and self-important (Crash), time takes care of what we could not see in the moment.

The opposite, however, happens as well. Really wonderful films get disregarded and slip away largely unseen. It’s a shame, so I’ve decided to do my small part to undo the process and pick out five films that I think have been unfairly maligned. I’m sure everybody has some version of this list in their mind (I could probably get to 20 without breaking a sweat), but here’s mine:

Time, Nature, Mortality... A Life's Work.

Recently I caught a few minutes of a nature documentary on TV. I’m not sure what the whole thing was about, but what I remember was the fish. Lying in a rapidly evaporating stream, it was just barely covered in water. The day was blazingly hot. It flopped around madly, but there was nothing to be done. It had only minutes to live.

I was riveted by this spectacle, horrified actually (I’ve dreamt of it several times). Thinking of it later, I wondered why this image so burned itself into my mind. Then it occurred to me – that fish is me. And not only me. That fish is EVERYONE.

My Favorite Movie of the Year Is (Or Will Be)....

..."Les Miserables."  Hands down!  Four thumbs up! Seventeen stars!

Okay, okay, I haven't seen it yet.  But of course it's gonna be my favorite - how could it not be?  Those trailers really do look amaaaaaaazing.  (And arty!)  From what I've seen so far, it looks like they've succeeded in turning a stage extravaganza into a film.   (I know, I know, it's just the trailer. But I am cautiously optimistic.)

Please click HERE to read my recent post about why I think "Les Mis" is a natural fit for film - and about how the show's creators employed cinematic techniques in the writing and the staging of the musical, in the first place. To the barricades!

In Search of Lost Time with Ross McElwee

I’ll be honest, when I first encountered Ross McElwee’s work I was less than thrilled. It wasn’t his fault. Well, maybe that’s not entirely true. It was his film, Sherman’s March, that I was responding to after all, but my response had more to do with where I was as a viewer at that time, and as John Landis said, “Everything about a movie is who you are and where you are when you saw it.”

Book Review: Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide

They come from Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Spain, Hong Kong, Japan, Italy (a LOT come from Italy), Pakistan and many other places around the world. They can be giant productions, like the upcoming Brad Pitt vehicle World War Z, reportedly costing more than $170 million, or made for practically nothing, such as Colin, which supposedly cost $70! (I’m sure that doesn’t include P&A.)

 

Breath Mint

For those of you who have given up any hope for civility when choosing to see a movie in a public space, there’s good news – the Chelsea Clearview seems to be making a stab at bringing it back. Ro and I went the other night and I was reminded of the cool new service that the theatre is providing at the start of each show.

Welcome to the movie and enjoy the show.

So the clever folks at Clearview Cinemas are trying something new again. I assume in an effort to trade on something a smaller chain has that the bigger ones don't (neighborhood local homeyness) they're having one of their staff walk down to the front of each screening room to introduce the movie.

"HUMBLE BEAUTY: Skid Row Artists" A Different Kind of L.A. Story

Full disclosure: I’m working as the Social Media & Crowdsource Consultant for the film HUMBLE BEAUTY: Skid Row Artists. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on to the interview with the directors, Judith Vogelsang and Leititia Popa Schwartz.

DL: Tell me a little bit about HUMBLE BEAUTY: Skid Row Artists. 

Judith: HUMBLE BEAUTY is the true story of how art saved the lives of talented homeless and very indigent men and women -- fine arts painters -- in the worst area of Los Angeles.

Take My Advice, Don't Take My Advice

Here's a recent email exchange I had with Andy Bowley, one of the fine, fine cinematographers who worked on my documentary, A Life's Work. How we arrived at this point in our back and forth doesn't matter. What matters is the content of this excerpt, which I think fits in nicely with the theme of the film and the blog.

How Steely Dan Is Helping Me Edit My Film

A while back I was chatting with a friend about A Life’s Work and I said music influenced  it, and all my work, in a big way. My friend asked me to elaborate and I couldn’t really articulate it at the time, but here’s an example of what I mean, with apologies to those of you who can't stomach Steely Dan. (I do understand why some folks hate this band, I really do.)

In May I stumbled upon a TV show called Classic Albums  and watched an episode devoted to Steely Dan’s Aja album. (My relationship with Steely Dan has been tumultuous: loved them in the 70s, hated them in the 80s, 90s, 00s, appreciate them now.) When it came time to talk about the guitar solo in Peg, my ears perked up. The studio solo by Jay Graydon is possibly my favorite rock and roll-fusion-jazz-whatever 26-seconds of guitar ever put down on vinyl. I would have said that no matter what decade I was in.

Don Draper's Season 5 Adieu Shot Recalls Gregory Peck's in Roman Holiday

Season 5 of Mad Men came to a close with a long pull-back, holding still on Don Draper's face as his wife, Megan--on set for her first television comercial shoot and in full costume--recedes further and further into the darkness, gradually becoming smaller and smaller in frame as Don walks toward us. I'm told the effect has receieved mixed reviews online but I found it wonderful. Emotionally arresting in the way all great filmmaking is. The visual reflects the emotional. Period. So much so that writing about it tends to deaden its effect.

So I'll not say too much more about it other than to point out its obvious homage to William Wyler's use of the same shot to convey the same emotional transition in the brilliant film Roman Holiday in which after a couple of days together, Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn's characters finally face the reality that they are (and will be) forever worlds apart. Here's a shot from the original:

The Slasher Movie Book!

I had seen films in the theater before I was 17 years old, and I’ve even written about that experience here once before, but when I was 17, a perfect storm blew into my life. I finally had my driver’s license and a car, I lived in the suburbs and hung out with a group of bored, like-minded, teenage boys, and the Golden Age of the slasher film was about to begin. In the fall of 1978, John Carpenter unleashed Michael Myers on the world and the gruesome genre was born, big shiny knife in hand.

Meanwhile, on the Filmmaker Magazine Blog

In 1976 Werner Herzog hypnotized his cast of actors and directed one of the strangest narrative films in the history of cinema, Heart of Glass. Alan Greenberg, then a young writer, aspiring filmmaker, and Herzog disciple, was on the set, and thirty-odd years later he, and Herzog, would like to tell you all about it. Hence, Every Night the Trees Disappear: Werner Herzog and the Making of “Heart of Glass” (Chicago Review Press).

Hurt, Beckett, Egoyan, Krapp

Not too long ago Duane Kelly wrote about seeing John Hurt on stage in Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape.

Some kind soul posted on YouTube a film adaptation of the play, directed by Atom Egoyan and starring Hurt. It's simply incredible. Egoyan's camera does not get in the way here, and neither does his editor. The director lets the actor do his job, and we are all better for it. See for yourself.

Athena Film Festival opens Feb. 9

Thanks to our pals at Indiewire for drawing our attention to this inpsiring festival trailer. If you're going to be in Manhattan in February, head uptown to Barnard College for the Athena Film Festival - a celebration of women and leadership.