PAPERMAG

PAPERMAG http://www.papermag.com/ en Copyright 2012 Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:00:02 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Movies (Mostly) Not to See This Holiday Season

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Extremely annoying and incredibly shameless, sentimental and shitty. It's 9/11 Porn at best, and the kid really got on my nerves. I wanted to bang him over the head repeatedly with his tambourine.

War Horse
I prayed for the glue factory. Every shot is so seeped in movie history (John Ford, Victor Fleming's Gone With The Wind, etc.) that there was no room to breathe. I'll take Francis The Talking Mule. Or this SNL skit.

The Adventures Of Tintin
Frenetic and exhausting. And that weird animation was slightly creepy. I did, however, like Tintin's hair, which reminded me of the semen cowlick in American Pie.

Shame
Michael Fassbender's penis rules in this dour tale of a sex addict. The movie made me incredibly nostalgic.

My Week With Marilyn
A pleasant surprise. You have to give Michelle Williams credit for even attempting such an impossibility, but she did manage to capture a lot of the earthy vulnerability and sensuality and sadness.

J Edgar
I didn't buy it. I thought Leonardo DiCaprio was fine, and Armie Hammer is pleasing on the eyeballs, but it was melodramatic and hokey to me and the structure was tiresome.

The Descendants
George Clooney actually gives a great performance here, and I flipped over Nick Krause as the stoner boyfriend of Clooney's daughter, played by Shailene Woodley.

Young Adult.jpg

Young Adult
Charlize Theron gives an impressive performance as a recently divorced fiction writer who returns home to small town Minnesota in an attempt to get back together with her boyfriend, who is married with children. Here, Theron plays a different kind of monster -- one who's pathological, alcoholic, delusional and selfish. Her character is, however, strangely sympathetic, and that's a difficult tightrope act to pull off. The dialogue by Diablo Cody crackles with sardonic wit and Patton Oswalt is remarkably affecting too.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I also saw David Fincher's movie based on the best selling Swedish thriller by Stieg Larsson, but I don't want producer Scott Rudin mad at me for an early review like he was at The New Yorker, so I promise never to say if I thought this was equal or better than the Swedish film version. That goes for the performances by Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara as journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the mysterious Lisbeth Salander, respectively. And I promise not even to breathe a word whether I liked it even when it comes out on DVD, either.

]]> http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/x-mas_movie_roundup.php http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/x-mas_movie_roundup.php Cinemaniac Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close J Edgar Shame The Adventures Of Tintin The Descendants The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo War Horse Young Adult Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:00:02 -0500 Corman's World: Exploits Of a Hollywood Rebel -- A Great New Doc
Open in selected theaters this week is Alex Stapleton's sensational documentary, Corman's World: Exploits Of A Hollywood Rebel. The film chronicles the maverick director and producer Roger Corman, who began directing low-budget horror and sci-fi gems in the late '50s like Not Of The Earth and The Wasp Woman. Later, Corman evolved to stylish adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe films starring Vincent Price like Pit & The Pendulum, as well as the counterculture classics The Wild Angels and The Trip, starring Peter Fonda. His producing days at New World Pictures included distributing foreign films by Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman that brought art films to the drive-in and was instrumental in launching directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard and Jonathan Demme among others. His iconoclastic spirit resulted in a well-deserved lifetime achievement Oscar. Stapelton gets some fascinating footage, especially a revealing interview with Jack Nicholson, which is funny and ultimately touching. Corman is a personal hero of mine and this wonderful film does him justice.

Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel is showing at City Cinemas Village East, 181-189 2nd Ave., starting today.

]]> http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/cormans_world_exploits_of_a_ho.php http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/cormans_world_exploits_of_a_ho.php Cinemaniac Alex Stapleton Documentary Jack Nicholson Martin Scorsese Roger Corman Roger Corman: Exploits Of A Hollywood Rebel The Wasp Woman The Wild Angels Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:30:27 -0500 Splatter Great Intruder On Blu-ray
Out now on a Blu-ray/DVD combo is the uncensored director's cut of Intruder (Synapse). This enjoyably grisly 1987 slasher movie is set in a supermarket, where a late crew doing inventory comes under attack from a mysterious killer. Though it's reached cult status, the film's had a troubled history. Directed by Scott Spiegel and co-starring future Evil Dead and Spiderman director Sam Raimi, this was heavily cut before its release. Most of the outrageous gore effects were missing and sub-par DVD releases since have been disappointing. This edition, however, looks spectacular. The cast including Rene Estevez, David Byrnes, Elizabeth Cox, Ted Raimi with cameos by Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead) and Lawrence Bender (producer of Pulp Fiction) as cops. This digital restoration includes a ton of extras as well as the short film Night Crew which was the inspiration for this splatter great.

]]> http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/splatter_great-_intruder_on_bl.php http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/splatter_great-_intruder_on_bl.php Cinemaniac Blu-ray Bruce Campbell Intruder Lawrence Bender Sam Raimi Scott Spiegel Synapse Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:30:13 -0500 Gorgeous, Timeless Meet Me In St. Louis On Blu-ray
Out now on Blu-ray is Vincent Minnelli's Meet Me In St. Louis (Warner Brothers). This timeless Technicolor movie stars Judy Garland as a member of the Smith family and their fears of having to move from their home town when Mr. Smith gets a job in New York. The film follows their lives right up to the 1904 World's Fair. Filled with memorable musical numbers like "The Trolley Song" and "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," the film also features a scene-stealing Margaret O'Brien as the impressionable baby of the family, Tootie (O'Brien won a special small Oscar in 1944 for her performance.). It's a gorgeous color postcard of a bygone era and looks lustrous on Blu-ray. The special features include an introduction by Liza Minnelli, audio commentary by Garland biographer John Fricke with Margaret O'Brien plus a rare TV pilot starring Shelley Fabares and, as a boy friend, a young Michael Blodgett (who memorably played studly Lance Rocke in Russ Meyer's Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls).

]]> http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/clang_clang_clang-_meet_me_in.php http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/clang_clang_clang-_meet_me_in.php Cinemaniac Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls Blu-ray Judy Garland Margaret O'Brien Meet Me In St. Louis Michael Blodgett Vincent Minnelli Warner Brothers Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:30:16 -0500 Todd Haynes' Glittery, Visionary Velvet Goldmine On Blu-ray
Out now on Blu-ray is director Todd Haynes' (Poison, Far From Heaven) glittery, visionary pop-fable, Velvet Goldmine (Lionsgate/Miramax). Christian Bale plays Arthur Stuart, a reporter sent to track down the mysterious whereabouts of '70s glam rock god Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). Slade faked his own onstage assassination and quickly faded into obscurity and Stuart's journey triggers memories of his own teen years, when his sexuality and identity were informed by the low spark of high-heeled boys. Stuart retraces Slade's meteoric rise from androgynous London cabaret singer to Ziggy Stardust-like sensation, and unravels his tangled sexual relationships with his wife (Toni Collette), and Iggy pop-like rock 'n' roller, Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor). This 1998 film is so rich and layered -- visually, aurally and emotionally -- and so seeped in movie imagery it's like a sequined fever dream. It would make even Oscar Wilde, the movie's spiritual muse, swoon.

]]> http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/todd_haynes_velvet_goldmine_on.php http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/todd_haynes_velvet_goldmine_on.php Cinemaniac Blu-ray Christian Bale Ewan McGregor Jonathan Rhys Meyers Lionsgate Todd Haynes Toni Collete Velvet Goldmine Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:30:16 -0500 Racy Comedy Design For Living On Criterion DVD

Out now on DVD is the racy, delightful, pre-code comedy Design For Living (Criterion), based on Noel Coward's play which he wrote for his acting friends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. The movie, however, was drastically rewritten by Ben Hecht (The Front Page) and directed with comic flair by Ernst Lubitsch. Miriam Hopkins is Gilda, a free-spirited commercial artist who meets George, an artist (Gary Cooper) and Thomas, a playwright (Fredrick March), on a Paris train. She falls for both men but can't decide between them so they try to keep it platonic. But when Thomas goes off to London to stage his play Gilda admits to George: "It's true we have a gentleman's agreement but unfortunately I am no gentleman." This film still has a smart, sophisticated modern feel to it. The two-disc set includes a 1964 British TV version of the original play with an introduction by Noel Coward, so you can see the similarities and differences. Another extra incldues Lubitsch's The Clerk from the omnibus film If I Had A Million starring Charles Laughton.

]]> http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/racy_pre-code_comedy_design_fo.php http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/racy_pre-code_comedy_design_fo.php Cinemaniac Ben Hecht Criterion Design For Living Fredick March Gary Cooper Miriam Hopkins Noel Coward Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:00:35 -0500 Hilarious Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXII On DVD
Mystery Science Theater 3000 Volume XXII (Shout Factory), features episodes of the groundbreaking TV show about a stranded spacecraft and its occupants ( Joel Hodgson or Mike Nelson, and a few feisty robots) forced to watch bad movies. This new collection has some hilarious highlights, including Time Of The Apes (pictured below), culled from a 1974 Japanese series about a scientist and some children who are accidentally frozen and wake in the future where apes rule. Sound familiar? Mighty Jack is another Japanese 007-type spin off about a secret organization out to thwart the evil crime syndicate known as "Q". The Brute Man is a B movie starring Rondo Hatton as a man suffering from an actual disfiguring disease who was shamelessly exploited as a horror figure in several movies. Here he's "The Creeper." But my favorite is The Violent Years, about a group of bad teenage girls who rob gas stations, smash up schoolrooms for fun and at gunpoint sexually assault unwary men. Their motto: "So what!" During a shootout with police one girl says in astonishment: "They're shooting back at us!" The "bots" wisecrack that this movie (penned by Z-grade legendary director Ed Wood) is "the feel good movie of 1956".

]]> http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/mystery_science_theater_3000_v_6.php http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/mystery_science_theater_3000_v_6.php Cinemaniac DVD Ed Wood Joel Hodgson Mighty Jack Mike Nelson Mystery Science Theater 3000 Volume XXII Shout Factory The Brute Man The Violent Years Time Of The Apes Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:30:04 -0500 Furiously Paced, Supremely Suspenseful Point Blank On Blu-ray & DVD
Out this week on Blu-ray and DVD is the furiously paced, supremely suspenseful French thriller Point Blank (Magnolia). Skillfully directed by Fred Cavaye, this film plays like an Alfred Hitchcock wet dream. Samuel (Gilles Lellouche) is a night shift hospital aide, in training to be a nurse, with a very pregnant wife (Elena Anaya) at home. When he thwarts someone trying to cut the breathing tube of an unidentified thief (Raschdy Zern), he sets into motion a terrifying chain of events that includes his wife being kidnapped. He is also forced to somehow get the patient out of the hospital. What follows is a high-adrenaline chase across the city as he dodges wily killers and crooked cops and searches desperately of his wife. See it before it's remade in America with Matt Damon.

]]> http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/point_blank.php http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/point_blank.php Cinemaniac Alfred Hitchcock Blu-ray DVD Elena Anaya Fred Cavaye French Thriller Gilles Lellouche Magnolia Point Blank Raschdy Zern Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:20:40 -0500 Maria Callas Stars In Medea On Blu-ray & DVD This 1969 version of the Greek myth Medea stars legendary singer Maria Callas in the lead and was directed by the visionary director Pier Paolo Pasolini. Filmed in Turkey at the gorgeous Goreme Open-Air Museum, Pasolini creates unforgettable visions onscreen. This includes a haunting early sequence where a young man is sacrificed and his blood is sprinkled on the crops (more disturbing, he has a look of bliss on his face as he is led to slaughter). Callas' regal beauty and command are also thrilling to watch, particularly when she exacts her nightmarish revenge on Jason (Guiseppe Gentile) who left her abandoned and in exile with her two sons. The costumes and art direction are imaginative and beautiful in this rare DVD/Blu-ray gem (eOne) (which also features a 92-minute documentary of Callas by Tony Palmer).

]]> http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/madea_maria_callas.php http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/madea_maria_callas.php Cinemaniac Blu-ray DVD Guiseppe Gentile Maria Callas Medea Pier Paolo Pasolini Tony Palmer Mon, 05 Dec 2011 10:30:25 -0500 Sci-fi/Horror Classic Horror Express On Blu-ray + DVD
Out now in a sensational Blu-ray/DVD combo is the first-rate sci-fi/horror film Horror Express (Severin). This 1971 film begins in Manchuria, where an archeologist (Christopher Lee) thinks he has discovered the missing link buried in ice. Transporting it back on the Trans-Siberian express, the creature thaws and begins killing the passengers one by one (the monster's eyes glow red each time he attacks, which is pretty awesome). Peter Cushing plays a fellow scientist, and Telly Savalas is a brutish policeman in this excellent chiller directed by Eugene Martin. Formatted from the original camera negatives, this re-release looks amazing and comes with plenty of features and extras. If you've never seen it you're in for a treat and if you've suffered through bad, blurry, copies this will be like seeing it for the first time.

]]> http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/horror_express_on_blu-ray.php http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/horror_express_on_blu-ray.php Cinemaniac Blu-ray Christopher Lee Horror Horror Express Peter Cushing Sci-fi Telly Savalas Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:00:17 -0500 Beautifully Restored Sabu Dastagir Box Set On Criterion DVD
Out now on Criterion DVD in a wonderful box set is three beautifully restored movies starring Indian star of the 1930s and 1940s, Sabu Dastagir. Discovered by documentarian Robert Flaherty, Sabu became the lead in Elephant Boy (1937), based on Rudyard Kipling's "Toomai Of The Elephants". In The Drum (1938), Sabu starred as Prince Azim who helps British officers escape from a dastardly villain (Raymond Massey). In the fabulous Jungle Book (1942), he plays Mowgli, a boy raised by wolves in the wilds who has the ability to talk to the animals and a secret treasure lorded over by a cobra. This film directed by Zoltan Korda has always been a "public domain" nightmare with muddy VHS copies. The lustrous Technicolor is lovingly restored and the movie is pure magic.

]]> http://www.papermag.com/2011/11/sabu_box_set_on_criterion_dvd.php http://www.papermag.com/2011/11/sabu_box_set_on_criterion_dvd.php Cinemaniac Criterion DVD Elephant Boy Jungle Book Sabu The Drum Zoltan Korda Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:30:23 -0500 Smart, Suspenseful BBC Mystery Whitechapel: The Ripper Returns On DVD
A killer is replicating, in chilling detail, a famous crime spree in Whitechapel: The Ripper Returns (BBC), and if you missed this on BBC America here's your chance to watch this terrific new TV series on DVD. Joseph Chandler (Rupert Penry-Jones) is Detective Inspector Joseph Chandler, on the fast track for advancement, who is assigned to head the murder inquiry. The team immediately resents him and ignores his commands, even when he deduces the series of deaths are modeled after the famed Jack the Ripper murders. Then it becomes a race against time to thwart this wily adversary. Phil Davis is particularly good as the hard ass-detective who seems to block Chandler at every corner in the beginning. Smart and suspenseful.

]]> http://www.papermag.com/2011/11/whitechapple_the_ripper_returns_bbc.php http://www.papermag.com/2011/11/whitechapple_the_ripper_returns_bbc.php Cinemaniac BBC Mystery Series Phil Davis Rupert Penry-Jones Whitechapel: The Ripper Returns Tue, 29 Nov 2011 11:30:03 -0500 RIP Ken Russell

I was saddened by the news this morning that iconoclastic British film director Ken Russell has passed away at age 84. Making a name for himself in the '60s with his flamboyant BBC documentaries on Dante, Delius, Isadora Duncan and Richard Strauss (which so angered the Strauss family it was banned), Russell moved on to features with his successful adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's Women In Love starring Glenda Jackson and featuring a famous naked wrestling scene between Oliver Reed and Alan Bates (pictured below). Controversy followed with The Music Lovers, his unfairly panned biography on Tchaikovsky starring Richard Chamberlain and The Devils. The latter, based on a book by Aldous Huxley and starring Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reed, scandalized audiences with its depiction of possessed nuns. Russell's also known for adapting the rock opera Tommy, which starred the Who's Roger Daltrey, and he cast the rock star again in his bizarre Lisztomania. Other films included The Boy Friend starring Twiggy, Altered States with William Hurt, Crimes Of Passion with Kathleen Turner, Gothic and Whore. He was a true original.

]]> http://www.papermag.com/2011/11/ken_russell.php http://www.papermag.com/2011/11/ken_russell.php Cinemaniac Crimes Of Passion Ken Russell RIP The Boy Friend The Devils The Music Lovers Tommy Women In Love Mon, 28 Nov 2011 12:45:00 -0500 Hilarious Splatter Comedy Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil On Blu-ray & DVD Out this week on Blu-ray and DVD is the hilarious splatter comedy Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (Magnolia) If ever a movie deserved cult-hit status it's this rollicking, gruesome, horror tale from director Eli Craig. Good 'ol boys Dale (Tyler Labine) and buddy Tucker (Alan Tudyk) have inherited a dilapidated cabin in the woods and are thrilled (even though it looks right out of Evil Dead). Nearby are some partying, privileged preppy students who take one look at them and assume they're deranged hillbillies straight out of Deliverance. When one of the girls dives into the lake and hits her head, Tucker and Dale thoughtfully rescue her but the students mistakenly think she has been abducted by the duo and plan an attack on the cabin. This unfortunately results in people slipping into wood chippers and impaling themselves on wooden stakes, all a result of their own stupidity, and the two leads get more lovable as the carnage ramps up. Ultimately, however, this is a comedy about misinterpretation and misunderstanding. With lots of blood.
]]> http://www.papermag.com/2011/11/tucker_dale_vs_evil_on_blu-ray.php http://www.papermag.com/2011/11/tucker_dale_vs_evil_on_blu-ray.php Cinemaniac Alan Tudyk Blu-ray Cult DVD Eli Craig Magnolia Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil Tyler Labine Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:30:58 -0500 Reasons to Be Thankful: Jean Harlow 100th Anniversary Collection On DVD

I know what I'll be doing over Thanksgiving -- diving into this new, glorious DVD set, Jean Harlow 100th Anniversary Collection (Warner Archives). This seven-movie DVD treat includes some of my all-time favorites starring the platinum blonde sexpot who tragically died of renal failure at age 26 in 1937. Bombshell was a frenetic, hilarious satire about a big movie star (Harlow) hassled by a greedy family, an oily publicist (Lee Tracy) and a demanding studio. Frank Morgan plays her drunk dad in this wonderfully funny, fast-paced film directed by Victor Fleming (Gone With The Wind). Harlow finally meets who she thinks is the man of her dreams (Franchot Tone) only to have him coo to her, "I'd like to run barefoot through your hair..." Others films in the set include Personal Property, with Harlow matched with the handsome Robert Taylor; Suzy, costarring Cary Grant as a World War I flyboy; Riffraff, with tough cookie Harlow matching wits with Spencer Tracy; Reckless, with suave leading man William Powell; The Girl From Missouri, with Lionel Barrymore, in which Harlow tries to land a rich husband, and Saratoga, starring Clark Gable. It was her last performance.

]]> http://www.papermag.com/2011/11/jean_harlow_100th_anniversary.php http://www.papermag.com/2011/11/jean_harlow_100th_anniversary.php Cinemaniac Bombshell Cary Grant Clark Gable DVD Jean Harlow 100th Anniversary Collection Personal property Riffraff Saratoga Suzy The Girl From Missouri Victor Fleming Warner Archives Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:45:14 -0500