Category: Commentary

No shorts? Is that all, folks?

What happened to the animated short? Modern Hollywood animated features should take more cues from classics like “What’s Opera, Doc?”

This column was originally published on March 10, 2011 in the IDS Weekend under my column heading ‘Cine’cism

When you went to the movies many, many years ago, you got to see a newsreel, a short film, a feature and if you were lucky, a Mickey Mouse cartoon. That little guy was more famous than Shirley Temple.

Today there isn’t much of a market for animated shorts at the movie theater. That market has moved online in the form of independent viral videos, music videos or remarkable segments from otherwise popular shows.

But the studios once responsible for producing animated shorts for kids and adults the like have focused their attention on churning out poorly made Saturday morning cartoons or big budget, 3-D action extravaganzas with increasingly large sequel numbers on the end.

Now I’ll admit, “Kung Fu Panda” isn’t that bad. Even in loud, frenetic animated films, there is a considerable amount of craft that goes into making that panda somersault through the air, careening into everything, and then fart. Continue reading “No shorts? Is that all, folks?”

Casting ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ movie

Image courtesy of papertrailbooks.blogspot.com

“The Catcher in the Rye” is a masterpiece of a book. Having just finished reading it, I tweeted that I feel as though I’ve “grown as an intellectual and a person after this truly amazing book.”

And for as good as it is, the book’s reputation precedes it possibly more than any other work of fiction. I don’t mean to refer to the book’s popularity, which surely pales in comparison to Harry Potter if the buzz for this eighth movie is any evidence.

Rather, its reputation is notorious. Few books are such a cult staple. No book has been as censored. And no novel as influential as “The Catcher in the Rye” has ever gone without a proper film adaptation for this long. Continue reading “Casting ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ movie”

Oscars Best Picture nominees will range from 5-10

AMPAS announced a rule change to the Best Picture prize today, nominating anywhere from five to 10 films.

Photo courtesy of The New York Times and Associated Press

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences dropped a bombshell of Oscar news two years ago when the Best Picture field doubled from five to 10 films.

In a press release on Wednesday, AMPAS dropped yet another with the changed rule that the Best Picture field will now range anywhere from five to 10 films. This is based on the criteria that a movie must receive at least five percent of a first place vote to qualify for a nomination.

The Academy justified this decision by explaining that from 2000 to 2008, prior to the switch to 10 films, votes tabulated through this new method would have resulted in six, seven, eight or nine films. The idea is to find the middle ground of praising all of the highly loved films of the year without snubbing some and without padding out the field to include ones that aren’t worthy.

One other rule change affected the Best Animated Feature category. Originally, unless the list of eligible movies was 16 or above, nominees were limited to three films. Now if the list falls in between 13-16, there will be four nominees. Continue reading “Oscars Best Picture nominees will range from 5-10”

Why Marvel is starting to piss me off

Marvel’s extended universe and Easter Eggs are getting out of hand.

When Lou Piniella was managing the Cubs, a journalist asked him why he didn’t switch pitchers following a bad loss under the pretense that they could’ve performed better in the next game of the series. Piniella said, “I’m focused on winning THIS game, not the next one.”

Marvel Studios, since 2008 and their separation as an individual studio, has always been focused on the next game.

I bring this up because “Thor” bothered me quite a bit. As the first movie of what will now be a llllooooonnng summer, it signaled to me the same crap Marvel pulled with “Iron Man 2.”

They are making an “Avengers” movie in 2012, and in both “Thor” and “Iron Man 2,” it has been heavily marketed within the movie as a prominent side plot to the main one.

The upcoming film has an all-star cast, is directed by cult TV favorite Joss Whedon, and they damn well want you to know to be excited for it. Continue reading “Why Marvel is starting to piss me off”

Summer Movie Preview: 35 films worth talking about

“The Tree of Life,” “Hesher,” “Submarine,” “Crazy, Stupid Love” and “The Beaver” are amongst the most anticipated films of Summer 2011.

I didn’t really get much of an opportunity to throw in my two cents on movies in what turned out to be my last issue of the IDS WEEKEND on summer movies. But the typical problem I have with summer movie previews is the necessity to write at length about things I’m only speculating about (I have no inside sources as an amateur critic), and further to write about them objectively as though I’m genuinely interested in “Friends With Benefits.”

But this is my blog, so I’m going to ramble on about anything and everything I feel like. And I thought a creative way to do that would be to break up every movie I have thoughts about (not necessarily “interested” in) into rankings and subheads.

What this means is that this list is not extensive to every movie being released this summer. I will cover 35 of over 100 being released, so there are a bunch of films that I simply know nothing about at this stage. Either I haven’t seen trailers for them, they’re Sundance darlings without much more buzz than that or they’re movies that don’t fit in at any extreme on my spectrum, and be they good or bad, I’ll have to withhold my judgment.

Top 5 Movies I’m Genuinely Interested in this Summer

1. The Tree of Life – May 27

Terrence Malick has only made five films in his career stretching back to 1973 with his first film “Badlands.” And following what turned out to be a surprise contender for Best Movie of the Decade according to some critics with “The New World,” he’s been in production on “The Tree of Life,” which just got accepted into Cannes, for years. It stars Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and the newcomer Jessica Chastain in a family drama period piece blended with sci-fi elements, a first for Malick. Pitt plays a father to a boy back in the ’50s and Penn plays the grown up child in modern day. For anyone who’s seen “Days of Heaven,” which is one of the best looking films ever made, you can rest assured that this film will be visually stunning. It is a sure contender for Oscars at the end of the year and destined to live up to all expectations.

2. Hesher – May 13

“Hesher” is a stoner drama starring Joseph Gordon Levitt, Natalie Portman and Rainn Wilson in what looks like one of the oddest but grittiest and most awesome movies of the year. JGL plays the off-the-wall title character helping a young, straight arrow teen who is depressed with his family and life. Portman, who also produces the film, is sporting some thick rimmed glasses and I’m unsure of her role in the film just yet. I’m not familiar with the director, but it’s written by David Michod, who also wrote and directed the very good and gritty “Animal Kingdom.”

3. Submarine – June 3

A simple explanation would be it’s Wes Anderson in Britain, but this super quirky comedy starring British comedian Craig Roberts and Sally Hawkins looks lovely. It’s about a teen desperately trying to lose his virginity while dealing with a step-dad that has recently come into his life. Ben Stiller produces.

4. Crazy, Stupid, Love. – July 29

In the first post-“Office” role for Steve Carell, Carell plays a recently divorced man looking to womanize again. After his wife played by Julianne Moore leaves him, he meets Ryan Gosling as a lady-killer straight man to Carell’s comic foil. At the same time, Gosling also begins falling in love with Emma Stone (isn’t she a little young, 23, for the somewhat older Gosling, 30?). The concept sounds tired, but the trailer looks really good, and the cast also includes Marisa Tomei and Kevin Bacon, so there’s a lot to look forward to.

5. The Beaver – May 6

I still think this looks like “Mr. Hat: The Herbert Garrison Story,” but Mel Gibson actually went Method for this film, actually walking around with the beaver and talking to people (which is actually low on the list of crazy Mel Gibson stuff) to prepare for Jodie Foster’s film. This is her third feature but her first in 16 years, and the cast also includes Foster, Anton Yelchin (“Star Trek”) and Jennifer Lawrence (“Winter’s Bone”). Continue reading “Summer Movie Preview: 35 films worth talking about”

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Uncle Boonmee” series

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Uncle Boonmee” series combines two short films, a book of letters and the Palme D’Or winning feature.

Can I say I’ve seen three films by Apichatpong Weerasethakul or just one?

Weerasethakul (or Joe) is the Palme D’Or winning director from Thailand for his film “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.” He’s one of a kind purely in the fact that he’s from Thailand. I’ll give you a dollar if you can name another.

But from reading reviews of his other films, most notably “Syndromes and a Century” and “Tropical Malady,” Joe has a penchant for the exotic landscape of his homeland, and he’s a pro at allowing his camera to patiently and quietly explore it.

Joe brought this love of his home to fruition in his “Uncle Boonmee” series, a collection of a feature film (“UBWCRHPL”), two short films and one magazine booklet of photographs.

I’ve now seen all four components, and although I had my reservations about his feature alone (I may have to see it again), as a collective whole, various themes of nature, poverty, humanity and reincarnation come to fruition. Continue reading “Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Uncle Boonmee” series”

Campus MovieFest directors should find their voice

Student filmmaking is as indie as the movies get.

I would imagine there are some telecom students shooting with multiple HD cameras or in 3-D that would disagree with me, but the work done this past Sunday at the Campus MovieFest says differently.

I watched a number of films that lacked substance but were made up for in style, some that had strong concepts but called out for a larger budget and some that were impressive in both aspects but were still complex in their execution.

CMF provides equipment for the filmmakers to shoot their projects, but only a handful of the 16 finalists were clearly shot on the handheld camera given to everyone. But even those few demanded a lot from their actors, their screenwriters and their cinematographers to make a remotely decent film.

After the screening, a friend of mine who had made a very well shot, told and acted short and was selected as one of the nominees for Best Comedy, expressed his disappointment at his loss. He explained that in all of his precise cinematography and cooperating with the actor and screenwriter to achieve a convincing story, he might have left out his own voice. Continue reading “Campus MovieFest directors should find their voice”

TV and movies living in the past still make mark on the future

Leave it to the blogosphere to blow yet another writer’s attention grabbing conversation starter of an article way out of proportion.

Matt Zoller Seitz of Salon wrote a fairly well reasoned piece entitled “Will future generations understand ‘The Simpsons’?” and many writers that he later quoted in a follow-up post made equally valid arguments that he was either correct with an asterisk or simply wrong.

Most people were particularly shocked that he chose to target such a legacy show like “The Simpsons” and an episode of the show, “Krusty Gets Kancelled,” known to be one of their finest (it made my list of 20 last week). But he picked a single joke and failed in analyzing its immense level of pop cultural depth to his young child, which prompted him to question how anyone under 25 could possibly appreciate how in-tuned with the time period the episode was.

One of Zoller Seitz’s bullet points included that it is impossible to re-live certain moments in pop culture history, like to know how big a deal it was to see Johnny Carson leaving, or how it is whenever someone mentions Charlie Sheen now.

And while some of Zoller Seitz’s critics were a bit snarky at his initial column, their arguments were just as pointed. For instance, “The Simpsons” and many other shows are not for kids like the one he was watching with, comedies should not all strive to be timeless at the risk of sacrificing comedy now, absolutely everything begins to date itself, the best pop culture gags have something else going for them, and most obscure references can be understood with Google anyway.

There are only so many TV shows dated enough to test this theory (“Seinfeld” and a lack of the Internet, smart phones and text messaging is a fantastic example though). But movies as it turns out can be just as much relics of popular culture that found their prime in their day but hold up just as well today.

Movies may not share the super timely quality of scripted TV, nor the serial programming that can enough create footnote television across episodes and seasons, but they capture moments in history just as well.

If only Zoller Sietz was writing back when the Marx Brothers were around. A number of Groucho’s one-liners are an exercise in obscurity. In “A Night at the Opera” during the famous contract scene, the dialogue between Groucho and Chico goes, “Don’t you know what duplicates are? Sure, those five kids in Canada.” Type that line into Google and you’ll get the page for the Dionne quintuplets, a group of babies once famous in 1934 but no longer. But the line of dialogue still works because the Marx Brothers deliver it with such perfect timing and charm.

There’s also Cary Grant thinking the character Bruce in “His Girl Friday” looks a lot like Ralph Bellamy, Preston Sturges parodying all of Hollywood in “Sullivan’s Travels,” Woody Allen trotting out Marshall Mcluhan from behind that stand-up in “Annie Hall,” the religious pamphlet distributors in “Airplane,” the entire ‘80s music landscape in “This is Spinal Tap” and Paul Rudd calling Seth Rogen gay for liking Coldplay in “The 40 Year Old Virgin.”

I don’t intend to harp on Zoller Seitz’s very strong points about “The Simpsons” any more than any other writer, but it’s a scary thought believing that the shows and movies we love today may fly over the heads of future generations.

With any luck, some 2011 parody video will show people 20 years from now exactly how much we hate Rebecca Black today.