GIVE A SHOUT TO WORD UP! wordup@papermag.com
Entries tagged with 'Film'
Posted Jan. 3, 2008,
Oliver Stone Loves a Dictator
By David Hershkovits
If it weren't so tragic, it would be funny: A failed mission spearheaded by Hugo Chávez and director Oliver Stone to free three hostages held by Marxist guerrillas in the Colombian jungle (Guardian). Sounds like a plot for a movie directed by a conspiracy spouting director starring a Venezulean populist despot who numbers as his friends fellow dictators Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Fidel Castro and Vladimir Putin. Stone should feel right at home among these crazies. (Unless, of course, he's pulling an Idi Amin Dada, Barbet Schroder's unforgettable docu where the strongman's own words and actions betray him to the camera.)
Convincing one and all that he was the man for the job, Chavez fell flat in his star-making attempt to bring life to the myth that he is endowed with superpowers that demand that he, in true old Hollywood fashion, ride to the rescue on a white horse with director in tow. Oh well, it makes for a better reality show than a movie anyway.
Photo caption via HuffingtonPost -- U.S. film director Oliver Stone, left, stands with a pilot at a military base in Villavicencio, Colombia, Monday, Dec. 31, 2007. A mission to retrieve three rebel-held hostages from Colombia's jungles was on standby Monday, with observers waiting for the guerrillas to give the pickup point's coordinates to Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez....
Posted Dec. 21, 2007,
Gemma Ward's Close-Up
By David Hershkovits
I number myself among the growing number of Gemma fans out there. That's Gemma Ward, the beauteous model who is maturing into an actor of serious potential. Sure, models have made the shift before, but looking at this clip from The Black Balloon makes me think that there's more here than meets the eye.
The Black Balloon is an Australian film with Gemma Ward, Rhys Wakefield, Luke Ford and Toni Collette, and will have its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in Feb. 2008. It will be in Australian cinemas beginning March 6, 2008.
Posted Nov. 7, 2007,
Best Movie of the Year: No Country For Old Men
By Dennis Dermody
Opening this Friday is the best movie of the year: No Country For Old Men. The combination of acclaimed novelist Cormac McCarthy and directors Joel & Ethan Coen create one of the Coen brothers' finest films -- an unbearable tense thriller and a sober mediation on man’s escalating dark nature.
The story couldn’t be more blood simple. A hunter (Josh Brolin) stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong out in the desert and finds a briefcase filled with $2 million in cash. Unfortunately a ruthless killer (Javier Bardem) is on his trail, leaving a bloody path towards the Mexican border in pursuit of the money. Tommy Lee Jones plays a weary West Texas sheriff, on the eve of retirement, who follows them both with grim resignation. Bardem creates one of the most unforgettable, truly frightening portraits of a cold-blooded assassin -- dragging across the desert landscape his deadly oxygen tank and air gun (the kind they use to murder cattle) and tossing coins to decide on his victims’ fate. A stark, superbly crafted dark vision.
Posted Aug. 20, 2007,
Calling All Mike Mills Fans
By Kim Hastreiter
I just finished watching a preview of Mike Mills' new documentary called Does Your Soul Have a Cold? that will debut on the IFC Channel in October. It was a fairly disturbing film about depression in Japan, which until quite recently has been a fairly taboo subject. I have always loved Mills' work, which I have collected for years since I saw his first graphic posters he did for Kim Gordon's X-Girl clothing line in the '90s and his shows at Alleged Gallery when it used to be in New York City. His graphic sensibility translates amazingly into film and this movie is unlike most docs I've seen, as its layered with Mills' signature graphic and color aesthetic.
Posted Aug. 13, 2007,
Fractured By Fracture!
By Dennis Dermody
Out on DVD this week from New Line is Fracture, a twisty thriller that I really kind of enjoyed. It stars Anthony Hopkins as a wealthy, wily, man who kills his wife, admits to it, and Ryan Gosling plays a cocky DA who assumes his last job before joining a prestigious law firm will be a slam dunk. But somehow that doesn't happen. Gosling is one of those actors that I watch with increasing pleasure -- he is so dynamic and thrilling on screen, I just love him. Hopkins is in full-out "Silence Of The Hams" mode, but what I liked about this mystery (directed by Gregory Hoblit) is that it doesn't cheat with some wild preposterous ending. The twist is believable and isn't out of left field. It's wild to watch how many "alternative endings" are on the disc because the one they used is so simple and direct and really works. It's fascinating to watch the other choices -- especially since they give Hopkins more room to chew the drapes. But it's a decent, fun thriller.
Posted Jul. 17, 2007,
Cate Blanchett and David Cross Wig Out as Dylan and Ginsberg
By Carol Lee
Todd Haynes' yet to be released (September 21, according to IMDB) Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There has all the Dylan fans salivating. The movie's unorthodox cast includes six different actors playing Dylan in various stages of life, among them Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere and Heath Ledger. But there could have been only one guy suited to portray the beat poet Allen Ginsberg, Dylan's longtime sidekick (there had been rumors that Ginsberg was hopelessly crushed out on Dylan) and that's Mr. Mr. Show/ Mr. Arrested Development/ Mr. That Guy from Scary Movie 2 David Cross. Here's a clip of Cross meeting Blanchett for the first time in the movie. Check it out and you'll see what I mean. Cross is sooooooo Ginsberg. Blanchett, I must say is pretty convincing as the young Dylan.
Posted Jul. 16, 2007,
Harry Potter Mania!
By Shanon Kelley
At the risk of alerting the general public to my super-nerd status, I'd like to admit that I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix twice this weekend. That's right, twice. It was that good. And aside from the hot factor of Gary Oldman as Harry's godfather, Sirius Black (see photo), the movie has succeeded in making my skin tingle with anticipation of the final book coming out July 21st. I'm even tempted to go to the Union Square Barnes & Noble Harry Potter midnight party, despite the maddening prospect of 5,000 expected attendees.
What will happen to Harry in the final installment? After the jump I've included a list of true spoilers from JKR herself (courtesy of The Leaky Cauldron). But more importantly, what will happen to me and the millions worldwide when this beloved series is finally over?
Posted Jul. 13, 2007,
RIP Kerwin Mathews
By Dennis Dermody
The handsome star of one of the best movies I ever saw as a child The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Kerwin Mathews, died in San Fransisco at the age of 81. His partner of 46 years, Tom Nicoll, confirmed this to the press. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, with those glorious special effects by Ray Harryhausen, was a movie I saw countless times, and the battle with the skeleton was one of the film's high points. Also the open shirt revealing Mathews' sexy hairy chest was definitely a turn on for me as a kid. Mathews starred in another wonderful Harryhausen film: The Three World Of Gulliver. He was always one of my favorites.
Posted Jun. 25, 2007,
Darwin's Nightmare: See It
By Ann Magnuson
I saw the DVD of Hubert Sauper's 2004 documentary Darwin's Nightmare over the weekend and I highly recommend this movie to everyone. It's one of the most difficult things I've ever seen and probably one of the most essential. This YouTube viewer made the above complilation but you can see more scenes from the film here and here.
Sauper's style is at times quite brutal in it's unflinching directness and yet also poetic. There is no narrator and many things are left unexplained, but he captures the uneasy strangeness of Africa, a place where great beauty and great cruelty too often co-exist. The DVD extras feature a very good interview with the director who explains how globilization and social Darwinism are at the root of much of the evil the befalls the poor souls who are unlucky enough to be born poor and in Africa. Vanity Fair and a host of A-list celebrities are currently propelling "the dark continent" into the limelight but Sauper's films take us places than Annie Liebowitz never could. I could not believe the things I was seeing and will truly never be the same after watching Sauper's films.
Posted Jun. 25, 2007,
Pickle Surprise
By Kim Hastreiter
My friend Henny just emailed this video to me that was made years ago by our old friend, the late great artist/filmmaker Tom Rubnitz. These were made in the '80s and are fabulous. Check out young RuPaul and Lady Bunny. The pickle is Sister Dimension. What impeccable fashion sense they all had for 1989, no?
Posted Jun. 25, 2007,
Live Free or Die Hard Premiere
By Dennis Dermody
Went to the premiere of Live Free or Die Hard last Friday at Radio City Music Hall. I drank martinis in my seat with glow swizzle sticks in plastic glasses with Rockettes's legs as the stems and watched as Bruce Willis arrived with his nuclear family Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher and the pretty daughters. There was terminally cute Justin Long too, who is terrific as Willis' sidekick in this wildly enjoyable action blast.
John McClain is back, and a simple assignment of picking up a computer hacker (Justin Long) becomes a run-in with an evil terrorist (Timothy Olyphant) who brings the nation to its knees by shutting down transportation, communication and electricity. But the set action pieces are pretty jaw-dropping -- one with a car hanging by a thread in an air shaft and a kick ass fight with femme-villain Maggie Q is staggering, not to mention one with a fighter jet attacking Willis in a truck, which is so preposterous it's fabulous. Justin Long is such a nice counterpoint to Bruce Willis's unsmiling no-nonsense blue collar tough guy. It's a great team, and director Len Wiseman keeps it racing along at top speed. It's too bad most summer movies are bloated, over-long toys that you tire of quickly. When you watch roller coaster ride junk as fun as this you realize they are few and far between.
Posted Jun. 22, 2007,
MGM Film Noir!
By Dennis Dermody
On July 10th, MGM is putting out four film noir titles and they're sensational: The Woman in ihe Window, a 1944 classic by Fritz Lang with Edward G. Robinson as a man who becomes intrigued with a portrait in a window and then falls under the spell of the painting's subject -- a devious dame (Joan Bennett).
A Bullet For Joey (1950) with Edward G. Robinson as a Canadian cop trying to thwart a commie plot to kidnap a scientist. With George Raft and the always divine Audrey Totter.
The Stranger (1946) with Edward G. Robinson again chasing an escaped Nazi (Orson Welles) through a Connecticut town. With Loretta Young, and wonderfully directed by Orson Welles this has always looked crummy on VHS and past DVD incarnations and now looks staggering.
And finally, Kansas City Confidential, a terrific 1952 Phil Karlson gritty crime drama with John Payne as an ex-G.I. trying to track down who set him up for an armored car robbery.
All of them look amazing!
Posted Jun. 21, 2007,
Tony Stone's Severed Ways Premieres at the LA Film Festival
By Alex Zafiris
Last year, we included director Tony Stone in our special Virgins of UnHollywood feature for his film Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America. It premieres tomorrow as part of the L.A. Film Festival’s Narrative Competition. If you are in L.A., go to the screening. This film is beyond.
Severed Ways is screening:
Friday June 22 at 9:45 p.m. at Landmark's Regent Theatre
Monday June 25 at 4:00 p.m. at the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum
Posted Jun. 21, 2007,
Annie Hall in Bryant Park: Reporting from the Front Lines
By PAPERMAG Editors
What's more New York than Annie Hall? Annie Hall in Bryant Park, that's what. On Monday evening, PAPERMAG's Erin Morris headed Midtown-ward to catch a dusk screening of this Woody Allen gem. While doing so, she chatted it up with some of the movie-goers. Here's what she got.
Who: Nick & Michelle
Time They Arrived at Bryant Park: 5:40 p.m.
Favorite Scene in Annie Hall: Christopher Walken's cab scene; I can identify with that compulsion behind the wheel.
Posted Jun. 20, 2007,
Zoe Cassavetes' Broken English Premieres
By Alex Zafiris
I'm no longer sure of who constitutes the indie movie elite, and even less clear on what it takes to join the circle. At Monday night's premiere of Zoe Cassavetes' second film, Broken English, the "famous types" who showed all seemed to have one foot in the Hollywood pool and the other on a banana skin: Jim Jarmusch, Sofia Coppola, Liev Schreiber (with protégé Eugene Hutz, Gogol Bordello's ringleader and the star of Schrieber's directorial debut, Everything is Illuminated), Drea de Matteo, and, um, Rachel Dratch and Andre Balazs.
A buoyant Cassavetes introduced her movie by explaining how hard it was to keep the damn project afloat, let alone finish it. (Her father had similar problems: It took several years to make Shadows; he self-distributed A Woman Under the Influence by cold-calling movie theaters across the country.) Cassavetes thanked the star of the film, Parker Posey, and the cinematographer, John Pirozzi, then scampered away from the audience, saying, "Enjoy the movie and don't tell me if you didn't afterwards!"
Posted Jun. 13, 2007,
Superbad Looks SuperbadASS
By Shanon Kelley
Ummmm... George Michael (aka Michael Cera from the best show of all time, Arrested Development) starring in his own movie?! YES PLEASE! Superbad comes out August 17th. And after watching this trailer, tell me the truth -- how amazing does this movie look?
And now after doing further research I've discovered an amazing site -- Clark and Michael -- that features Cera and his friend doing seemingly normal but really funny stuff. I originally stumbled upon one of their episodes on youtube wherein Clark takes Michael to play miniature golf. It was quite witty.
I also happen to know that Cera is into the music scene as well. He's buddies with the band, Oh No! Oh My!, and has been seen attending their shows in Los Angeles. Oh George Michael, how I love you so.
Posted Jun. 11, 2007,
Lights in ihe Dusk At IFC!
By Dennis Dermody
Opening on June 13th at the IFC Center is the terrific dark comedy: Lights in the Dusk. Koistinen (Janne Hyytianinen), a sadsack Helsinki security guard, meets a strange blonde femme fatale (Maria Heiskanen) who dates him only to use him for a ruthless gangster’s planned robbery heist. The last of Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki’s “Loser Trilogy” is his most cruel but devasting. The handsome stoneface lead’s impassive acceptance of his fate makes for an almost Dostoyvskean tragic antihero. The austere bleak minimalism of Kaurismaki’s filmmaking makes the drama somehow more heartbreaking as it is darkly funny.
Posted Jun. 7, 2007,
Hostel: Part II Is a Horror Classic!
By Dennis Dermody
Well get ready: Hostel: Part II joins that rare group of fright sequels like Evil Dead 2 and Dawn of the Dead that not only reinvents itself and ups the ante but crosses over into hard core horror art as well. Eli Roth is a rarity among genre directors. He has an affinity for horror but is smart enough to shape his films into something original, darkly funny and disturbingly visceral.
Hostel was about a bunch of dudes backpacking in Europe out for girls and ganja who are coerced to Slovakia for more of the same but end up becoming victims for rich decadents who want to experience the thrill of a kill. In the new film it’s three women -- Lauren German, Bijou Phillips and Heather Matarazzo -- lured by a gorgeous model (Vera Jordanova) to this dreadful place. But we also see more of the nefarious organization and the bidding war for potential targets (which is like eBay of the damned).
Posted Jun. 6, 2007,
Let's Get Lost At Film Forum!
By Dennis Dermody
Friday at Film Forum is a new 35 MM restoration of Bruce Weber's haunting, soulful, film, Let's Get Lost, about the late jazz legend Chet Baker, the young man with a horn -- and a habit. The juxtaposition of the beautiful, almost James Dean-like, young trumpet player and the ravaged junkie beatnik in this movie is heartbreaking. But director Weber does a good job of making the film feel as cool as listening to him sing My Funny Valentine, and that's saying something. Chet Baker died in Amsterdam (he fell out of a window one night), and I have a picture of the pavement where he landed on my wall.
Posted Jun. 5, 2007,
Happy Gay Pride Month - Pink Angels!
By Dennis Dermody
In tribute to Gay Pride this month, let me offer up a trailer for a sleazy 1971 exploitation gem about gay bikers called The Pink Angels. Trust me, it looks like a wild and weird action film -- and it is -- but then at the end, the whole gang gets strung up and hanged from trees, and it's supposed to be funny! There are times I think we've come so far, but then I see the trailer for I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry, the Adam-Sandler-Kevin-James- pretend-to-be-a-gay fireman-comedy and I want to set fire to my Judy Garland records...
Posted Jun. 4, 2007,
I'm Doing a Movie With Rutger Hauer!
By Ann Magnuson
There won't be much blogging this week because -- YES! I'M DOING A MOVIE WITH RUTGER HAUER! It's an indie film called Happiness Runs about a debauced commune in Vermont where the messianic, yet dissipated, guru in charge is played by the fabulous Rutger Hauer! Here he is in all his iconic glory in one of the famous final scenes from Blade Runner.
Mr. Hauer shall make an EXCELLENT guru, dissipated or otherwise! Happiness Runs mostly centers around the teenaged kids of the parents who have followed Hauer's character into mind-numbing (and sex-crazed) oblivion. I play "Chad's Mom." I'm proud to say that "Chad" is one of the most fucked up of all the kids! We begin filming today in Malibu. I'll send missives all week... direct from the craft service table! Horray for Hollywood!
Posted May. 31, 2007,
Mr. Brooks (Dances With Dead People)!
By Dennis Dermody
Kevin Costner's new Indian name is Dances With Dead People in the freaky new thriller opening June 1: Mr. Brooks. Mr. Brooks(Costner) is a successful businessman, philanthropist, loving husband (to Marg Helgenberg), and father (Danielle Panabaker plays his secretive daughter). But he is constantly attending AA meetings, not to supress his urge to drink -- but to kill. His alter-ego (William Hurt) is always over his shoulder egging him on to give in to his sick desires. Unfortunately a shutterbug (Dane Cook) catches him in the act of murder and blackmails him to take him along on his next kill. Demi Moore plays a detective doggedly in pursuit of him. This sardonically twisted psychological thriller by Bruce A. Evans is the damnedest thing -- none of these elements should work but they actually do. It’s creepy and disturbingly funny. Costner is sensational, wryly amusing, but like a coiled cobra.
Posted May. 30, 2007,
Gus Van Sant's Mala Noche!
By Dennis Dermody
Opening on June 1st at the IFC Center in New York is Gus Van Sant's fabulous 1981 debut film Mala Noche, about a convenience clerk (Tim Streeter) and his doomed love affairs with Latino migrant workers. A new 35 MM print, the dreamy black and white photography and funky, funny and ultimately moving film will drive you wild.
Posted May. 25, 2007,
Preston Sturges: My New Obsession
By Alex Zafiris
Preston Sturges is primarily known as a playwright, screenwriter and director of madcap but brilliantly written comedies from the '30s and '40s such as The Great McGinty, The Lady Eve and The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek. His films are chaotic rushes of hilarity, pratfalls, wonderfully witty women, drunks, money, sex and greed; he met with such resistance in Hollywood that he made only a dozen (although he worked as a writer on many others). His autobiography, Preston Sturges by Preston Sturges (Simon and Schuster) is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read. Despite having nothing to do with film whatsoever until he was advised to go to Hollywood after writing a successful Broadway play, Sturges a led a life (inventing long-lasting lipsticks, ticker-tape machines, silent engines, becoming a pilot, marrying heiresses) that made him into the marvel that he is. (When I talked to Cinemaniac Dennis Dermody about him, he said, “You know he’s buried upstate? I went up there and lay on his grave.”) Born in Chicago, Sturges grew up with his mother, an eccentric fabulous type who traveled all over the world, had countless lovers and was best friends with Isadora Duncan. She settled in Paris for a while and married a Turkish man, Vely Bey, whose tolerance for the very spoilt pre-teen Sturges came to a head one night at the theatre:
Posted May. 25, 2007,
Eleven-Year-Old Poised to Take Over Hollywood
By Ann Magnuson
I loved this story when it first broke. Precocious 11-year-old filmmaker Dominic Scott Kay sued the producer of his directorial debut, Saving Angelo -- who happens to be a mother of a kid he played soccer with. Best known as the voice of Wilbur the Pig in the movie Charlotte's Web, Kay recently won the suit and, as a result, now has full ownership and control of his similarly animal-themed flick. There can be little doubt that this kid is currently being woed by every major player in town. But time is of the essence!
Posted May. 24, 2007,
SS Girls Director Bruno Mattei Dies!
By Dennis Dermody
Italian exploitation director Bruno Mattei died on May 21st at the age of 75. A fave for eurosleaze fans, Mattei, usually under the pseudonym Vincent Dawn, cranked out a record number of grindhouse favorites. Rats: Night Of Terror, Hell of the Living Dead, Violence in a Women's Prison, SS Girls, The Other Hell, Virus, among countless others. Nunsploitation, Nazisploitation, zombie movies, women's prison flicks -- he covered the waterfront on this junk. He even completed Island of the Living Dead in 2006. Never much of an "original," on one of the message boards about his demise, a fan griped that Mattei "probably ripped off someone else's death" which is meanly funny. But attention must be paid.
Posted May. 23, 2007,
The Breed: Killer Dogs!
By Dennis Dermody
Poor Michelle Rodriguez -- she has bad luck on islands. She was killed off in the TV show Lost, and now in The Breed, she and some college friends travel by water plane to a remote house on an island to party one weekend only to find the place inhabited by genetically engineered killer dogs. Bad puppy! Produced by Wes Craven and directed by Nick Mastandrea, it's actually lots of fun. None of that annoying computer generated CGI -- they used plenty of real dogs and grease them up so they look pretty threatening. Others in the cute cast include Oliver Hudson, Taryn Manning, Hill Harper and Eric Lively. Made me think fondly back on The Killer Shrews and other psycho-dog-themed movies like Cujo, The Pack, Man's Best Friend, Devil Dog - Hound From Hell and one of my all time faves, Baxter....
Posted May. 22, 2007,
Bug Will Freak You Out!
By Dennis Dermody
Opening this week is Bug, a frightening new film by William Friedkin (The Exorcist). Ashley Judd and Mike Shannon are electrifying as two damaged souls in a seedy Oklahoma roach motel in Friedkin’s nightmarishly brilliant film version of the acclaimed play by Tracy Letts.
Judd plays the hard-drinking Agnes, haunted by her son’s disappearance years ago, and the repeated menacing phone calls (with no one on the line) that she assumes is her ex (Harry Connick Jr.), just released from jail and abusive as ever. Her girlfriend introduces her to Peter (Mike Shannon) a brooding drifter whom Agnes invites to spend the night. But she is soon drawn into his paranoid fantasies -- convinced that the government has infected his blood with mutant bugs. Soon the walls and ceiling are lined with tinfoil and fly strips and the couple’s descent into madness escalates into violence. Letts's play is like Sam Shepard on Special K, and Friedkin definitely has a feel for the dark side of this material. Judd gives a raw, shattering, Oscar-worthy performance and Shannon is just astonishing.
Posted May. 18, 2007,
Two Great Claude Chabrol DVDs
By Dennis Dermody
Two great Claude Chabrol films are out on Koch Lorber Films: The Comedy Of Power (2004) which stars Isabelle Huppert as a French judge exposing corruption, and the marvelous Violette (1978) again with Huppert, based on a true story about a young girl in the 1930s who poisoned her parent. Chabrol seems to always hit a home run when he works with Huppert, and both these films are terrific.
Posted May. 17, 2007,
Severance Is A Gory/Funny Blast!
By Dennis Dermody
Opening Friday is Severance, which is The Office meets The Hills Have Eyes, when six members of the European sales team of Palisades Defense are sent to a “team-building” retreat deep in the wilderness of Eastern Europe only to find themselves hunting targets of crazed killers. Directed by Christopher Smith (who made the twisted treat Creep), it’s good, gory fun, with plenty of laughs at the expense of the obnoxious workers, and some nasty shocks along the way. Particularly funny is Danny Dyer, as the druggy slacker of the group.
Posted May. 14, 2007,
Dante's Inferno, Circa 1911
By Ann Magnuson
Okay, because Dante and his infernal Inferno have been recurring themes of late, we've decided (yes, also at the urging of Mr. Randy Focazio) that it was finally time to post excerpts from the infamous silent film version of Dante's classic (or at least what we could find on YouTube). And since Catalina Island nearly went up in flames last week, we don't think we should wait until the next apocalyptic disaster befalls southern California before mentioning The Divine Comedy!
This film really is something to behold. I don't know about this metal soundtrack (courtesy of a band called Iced Earth). It's a little obvious, dont'cha think? If you really want to get spooked, watch it without any sound. Or put your own music to it! Hmmmm... wonder who can come up with the best alternative soundtrack ? (And don't tell us to cue up "Dark Side of the Moon" at Virgil's first appearance -- although that could sound good too. Maybe something from Diamanda Galas? With or without John Paul Jones? )
And if you liked Part One, please find Part Two after the jump.
Posted May. 14, 2007,
Querelle at BAM!
By Dennis Dermody
Check out the tribute to Jean Genet, a festival at BAM (from May 14-22), which celebrates the films inspired by the notorious French writer, renegade, criminal and homosexual. Genet's own homoerotic 1950 prison film Un Chant D'Amour will screen, plus Todd Haynes's amazing 1999 award-winner Poison and Tony Richardson's 1966 Mademoiselle. And on Tuesday, May 15th, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's ultra-stylized, misunderstood, brilliant, final film Querelle (1982), starring Brad Davis as a gay French sailor and co-starring Jeanne Moreau, who in this clip from the film sings: "Each man kills the thing he loves..."
Posted May. 10, 2007,
28 Weeks Later Kicks Zombie Ass!
By Dennis Dermody
Danny Boyle’s smash hit 28 Days Later pumped new blood into the zombie movie. 28 Weeks Later, out tomorrow, is directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (Intacto) and it’s a different strain of living-dead movie, but intense and frightening just the same. Army troops are letting civilians back into a small sanctioned section of London after the rage virus seems to have subsided. Don (Robert Carlyle) plays a father who’s being reunited with his son and daughter in this safe colony. The kids were luckily out of the country when the tragedy struck. But Don has a shameful secret that has to do with his late wife and it’s about to bite him on the ass -- literally. When the shit hits the fan and the kids have to run for their lives, they flee with a doctor (Rose Byrne) and a marine (Jeremy Renner). Renner is particularly good as the marine with a conscience. There are many scenes of claustrophobic horror and the apocalyptic political subtext is chillingly effective. A sensational scary sequel.
Posted May. 9, 2007,
Knockin' On Chan Marshall's Door
By Carol Lee
We made our love for Cat Power official by putting her on PAPER's May cover. When I flew down to Miami to interview Chan Marshall, I had very mixed feelings. The whole situation seemed touch and go all the way, but soon enough, I realized I had nothing to worry about. Chan was super-gracious, open, generous and all-around lovely -- I'm not just saying this, I swear. She bought me a souvenir crab leg keychain from Joe's Stone Crab ("you have to have this," she said) and put me up at her house when I had to stay an extra day in Miami because, well, it's a long story. It involves a canon ball and my tape recorder going bust -- the interview was by her pool (how Miami!).
When we talked, she was sweet and candid. She told me how she was nervous about taking on a cameo role in Wong Kar-wai's new movie My Blueberry Nights as Jude Law's ex-girlfriend from Russia, how she practiced her lines with a Russian accent only to be told on the day of the shoot to lose it by the assistant director, and about Wong's method directing style. "When we were shooting my scene, and you know, he always wears sunglasses even at night, he told me to act sad, then for the next scene he'd say to me, 'Chan (Chinese style pronunciation),' that's what he always called me, 'Now try shedding just one tear.'" Three takes later, she was balling. "Then he said, 'Now one more, but this time no tears.'" And that was the take he wanted.
Posted May. 8, 2007,
Gordon Scott: RIP
By Dennis Dermody
Gordon Scott, the musclebound star of '60s gems like Goliath and the Vampires and several Tarzan movies like Tarzan’s Fight for Life, Tarzan and the Trappers and Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle, died April 30th in a South Baltimore, Maryland nursing home. The German/American Scott was born on August 3, 1927 in Portland, Oregon, and as a kid I had a real fondness for seeing him oiled up and handsome on the silver screen. There’s a terrific, slightly sad, story about him that you should check out on his final years: http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=13574
Posted May. 7, 2007,
Guy Maddin's Sissy Boy Slap Party!
By Dennis Dermody
Guy Maddin, the director from Winnipeg, Canada, is really like no other. His surreal films like Tales from the Gimli Hospital, Careful, The Saddest Music in the World echo silent movies and early sound American and German films. They are playful, cracked and wonderful. His new film, Brand Upon the Brain, opens May 9th at the Village East Cinema (181 Second Ave. at 12th St.) and it's a silent, expressionistic, sort-of autobiographical work, accompanied by an 11-piece orchestra and guest narrators such as Isabella Rossellini, Crispin Glover, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Justin Bond, etc. It sound sheavenly. But here's one of my faves -- Sissy Boy Slap Party, a lunatic short from 2004. This is the "director's cut" too. Enjoy!
Posted May. 4, 2007,
Poison Friends: Movie to Watch
By Alex Zafiris
Essentially a film about the ambiguous benefits of charisma and leadership, Poison Friends (Les Amitiés Maléfiques, directed by Emmanuel Bourdieu) examines the relationship between a group of young men at university in Paris, each studying literature and unnerved by their ambition to become serious writers. Their ringleader, André Morney (Thibault Vinçon), is highly brilliant, has read everything and is adored unconditionally by his professors. He is outspoken, supremely narcissistic and seemingly unafraid. He mesmerizes his friends, Eloi (Malik Zidi), Edouard and Sébastien with his eerily accurate analyses of their characters, provoking them to take enormous risks (lying on their résumés, setting letterboxes on fire to destroy a regretted love-letter before it reaches the recipient).
As a result, their desires become more clear, they become more successful, they gain confidence; this makes Morney all the more essential to their lives. With this focus comes dependency, and his friends become fodder for his hateful, outrageous behavior: He beats them up, humiliates them and abuses them. This cycle preoccupies Morney so much that he neglects his thesis and is fired by his professor, at which point the unraveling of his character begins. This movie is completely absorbing and wonderful. See it.
Above, Malik Zidi and Thibault Vinçon.
Poison Friends is currently showing at Cinema Village
Posted May. 3, 2007,
Tales From Tribeca!
By Dennis Dermody
I intended to see a lot more movies this year at the Tribeca Film Festival but got thwarted by Jury Duty... did catch a few good ones, and a few stinkers.
The Education Of Charlie Banks is an exceptional first film by Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit) with an amazing performance by Jason Ritter as Mick, this hot-tempered kid from the old neighborhood (Manhattan), who shows up unexpectedly in the Vassar dorm room of a startled Charlie Banks (Jesse Eisenberg (who’s sensational). He doesn’t say how long he’s staying and charms all of Charlie’s friends with his rebel charisma (especially the girl Charlie’s smitten with -- played sweetly by Eva Amurri). But Charlie knows how dangerous this kid really is when provoked -- many years ago he witnessed Mick beat two kids to a pulp at a party and nearly leave them for dead. It’s really a terrific movie, and Ritter is both heartbreaking and scary at the same time.
Lady Chatterley is a needlessly long French adaptation by director Pascale Ferran of D. H. Lawrence’s second version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, John Thomas And Lady Jane. Marina Hands plays the wealthy wife of a wheelchair-bound husband who enters into a lustful affair with the gamekeeper (Jean-Louis Coullo’ch) on her estate. After nearly three hours of endless nature shots and the two of them rolling around nude in the mud you feel like screaming: “ We get it -- she’s finally come alive -- she’s erotically one with the earth!” But where the hell is Ken Russell when you need him?
Posted May. 3, 2007,
Happy Birthday William Inge!
By Dennis Dermody
Today is the birthday of the late, great, American playwright William Inge, born in Independence, Kansas in 1913, who rose to fame with searing 1950s dramas such as Come Back Little Sheba, Bus Stop, The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs, the wonderful original screenplay to Splendor In The Grass and my personal favorite Picnic.
Picnic also has the sexiest, most romantic dance in movie history between Kim Novak and William Holden, which I included here. Inge was a truly unhappy man who took his own life in 1973, and his portraits of lonely frustrated spinsters and sexually panicked youth seem rather dated now. But there are moments of poetry and genius in his writing that glow as brightly as the colored lanterns in this sublime scene from the 1965 film version of Picnic.
Posted May. 2, 2007,
Scott Walker Documentary Premieres at Tribeca Film Fest!
By Ann Magnuson
File this under: "If I Lived In New York I'd Be There!"
Director Stephen Kijak's documentary about the famous troubadour-turned-recluse Scott Walker opens in New York City today! I really do wish I could be there -- but hopefully it will play in L.A. soon!
I first met Stephen years ago when we were both working on the indie film Ghostlight. I knew of Scott Walker and was a big fan, but it wasn't until Stephen handed me a tape (yes, we still listened to tapes back then! Still do actually...) full of very obscure Scott Walker tunes that I became a fanatic. Similar fanatics appear in Stephen's doc, Scott Walker – 30 Century Man", including executive producer David Bowie, who, I am told, may grace the red carpet at Wednesday's premiere. Other folks who sing the praises of Walker include Allison Goldfrapp, Johnny Marr, Jarvis Cocker and Marc Almond (who I went to see at the Bowery Ballroom with Stephen. Almond gave a mind-boggling performance worthy of Walker -- with a big dose of Judy thrown in!)
Posted May. 1, 2007,
The Red Shoes for May Day
By Ann Magnuson
Who doesn't love this movie? Director Michael Powell and his writing/producing partner Emeric Pressberg