Normally with movies I tend to write reviews or wee little paragraphs attempting to express my desire for others to get it on all the positive hullabaloo or perhaps to warn them to tread lightly when approaching some of the more unsavory examples that I am often wont to traffic in. But lately I've been in a bit of a rut which, while not all that abnormal, has been a bit more pronounced than past emotional funks to the point that honestly if you were to ask me what I've been doing over the last fortnight I really couldn't tell you -- it's all kind of...blurry.
I know I have watched some movies as that's kinda sorta what I always do reflexively, but my brain is such that if I don't mull things over by writing or talking about them they quickly take on an almost dream-like tone and from there move on to vague oblivion as if perhaps I merely imagined the whole thing like a distant childhood beating that one can't properly remember if one deserved it or not. Typically I sort of wander into movies often by accident, then I would study them online a tad for their historical or cultural (pop or otherwise) significance, then perhaps on with the writing or some rewatching if I taped or had access to some highlights -- a rough sort of absorption of the film beyond my petty frame of reference but beyond a dreary film professor's misguided agenda.
So lately like I said it's been a bit of a blur and although normally I could talk your ears (or write as I'm sure some tired souls around Gamespot could attest to) off about the 20 odd movies I watched that week no matter their quality, not writing does make me lose my focus a bit. Luckily though I do have a friend who calls on me quite frequently and due to our discussion of some of them (really just me blah blah blahing to him), there have been a few things that have stuck with me during this time period that I can recall quite vividly.
So let's get on with those small synapses of entertainment.
Title - Rubber (2011)
Director - Quentin Dupieux
Country - France
I'm not fully sure why but I was so excited for this film that the nano-second it hit the preview PPV market I downloaded it and then I did that oh so daemon thing of then sitting on it for weeks. I think that initially I thought my friend might like to watch it as well but then I quickly realized how much drama was going on in his life and I didn't want to bug him about it so I just waited until suddenly I realized my film was about to expire so "on with the show" and all that tish tosh.
So what did I think?
Well it was...interesting, but not quite as interesting as I'd hope and yet it also turned out to be far different from what I thought it would be which, while pleasantly surprising, was not enough to allow me to fully embrace the film. Let's attempt to make this brief...
The film by French flat-beat composer Quentin Dupieux ,who some music aficionados might recognize as Mr. Oizo, is an aggressively fourth-wall busting film that is Dupeaux loving tribute to the "no reason" element of film i.e. characters and situations that occur in film on a regular basis that if you step back and take a good hard look at them you realize they only exist at the film-maker's whim and aren't based on any firm logical ground. Dupieaux is fairly up front about this as the film opens with one of the main characters speaking to the viewer informing them of this fact before the "actual" film starts. Accompanying the viewer are a group of spectators dragged out to the desert in order to watch the movie as well, but the film for them isn't on a screen, they watch it with high-powered binoculars as the movie unfolds in their world not too far away.
The film they are watching is a movie about a cast off rubber tire abandoned in the desert in a junk pile. For no reason the tire suddenly develops an awareness and once he gets his bearings, he sets about crushing small objects and creatures that he comes across. When he finally encounters an object he can't crush, he suddenly is aware he has telekinetic powers with which he can cause them to explode...much to the delight of the distant audience. As he heads down the road he begins to encounter more and more humans and although he becomes enamored of a lovely European model, he quickly becomes tired of people and a chance happening upon a specific location galvanizes his desire for revenge.
It's an odd film to be sure, but a rather enjoyable and typically quirky film as the many odd ideas and elements it contains are dealt with in a very plain and matter of fact fashion. The main problem it suffers from is that because of the odd way in which the film is structured, it really doesn't have anywhere to go and so it seems to lose direction and just kind of wanders around wallowing in it's own unique brand of oddness. Normally this is where I would call a movie such as this out for being too calculating in the creation of a cult-type movie instead of just letting it happen naturally. But honestly I feel that Dupieux's creation is so self-aware of this trap and so honest about almost openly mocking the very nature of these kinds of films that quite curiously it almost seem to poke fun at its own inherent weakness.
Bottom line - An enjoyable quirky film about a killer tire whose premise is stretched a bit too thin but is fun nonetheless.
Since I don't get out of the house all too often these days, I watch a lot of films in the comfort of my tiny abode. I thought I'd just throw out a few that I watched that really stuck with me over the last week or so just in case there's somebody out there that likes to watch interesting films beyond the generic cl@ssics that people tend to get stuck on.
Sunnyside Up (1929)
Oh pre-code films...you just so rarely let me down. Case in point a sudden broadcast of this pretty damn rare and just recently restored film which despite its arrival during the first solid year of talkie films, boasts some very good sound far superior to a lot of 1930-31 films I've watched. A comedy/musical that turns into a somewhat serious romance in the final act, Sunnyside Up isn't an amazing film to be sure, but the players are so infectious in their overall jubilance that despite my having to stay up all night to watch this film I found myself wide awake and rather transfixed. Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor were already a hot screen couple before this film and despite their rather questionable singing they manage to carry out their roles rather well. But for me I think I enjoyed their co-stars Marjorie White and Frank Richardson quite a bit more as their enthusiasm and solid comedic timing really carried the movie.
But what I REALLY carried away from the movie is the sudden large musical number called "Turn on the Heat" which instantly informs you it's the early '30s buddy and there's nothing we won't try to get away with. The film is basically a sexual orgy of innuendo in which a bunch of "Eskimo" women sing and gyrate to a song about how they can make things hotter by having lots of sex in their igloos. Of course all their gyrations cause the igloos to melt and trees and bananas to sprout while the women are dancing around and eventually it all gets too hot because of the mad, mad, sex and...well just watch the clip. It definitely presages the innuendo and excesses of the Busby Berkeley musical numbers that would soon be coming down the pipeline.
An embezzler recently released from prison and swears vengeance against these new-fangled computers that were the reason he was initially caught. He takes over the identity of a programmer with a solid record and manages to score a high position in a company. Day and night he reads up on computers and how to program them in an attempt to embezzle a million dollars from his place of employment..but first he has to find out a way to get past that blasted security system and its always vigilant blue light that lets everyone know that everything is safe.
An incredibly charming and thoroughly funny film that features a handful of very good actors at the top of their game. Peter Ustinov is the embezzler Marcus Pendleton/Caesar Smith and his eventual love interest is the great Maggie Smith whom which he shares a very solid sense of chemistry with. His nemesis and (not really) love rival for Maggie is played by none other than Bob Newhart and their boss is the very nice but always very concerned Karl Malden. There is a sudden twist to the conflict in the very final moments of the movie which if explained might seem like cheating just a bit, but honestly the way in which it is presented and dealt with is so charming and so fitting for the overall tone of the film that I would feel foolish to nitpick at it.
Oh also Caesar Romero randomly shows up in a tiny role as a baggage inspector.:| I know what?!
Bombshell (1933)
Despite being a fan of early films I'm really not very fond of Jean Harlow. I guess it's just because was this raw, sexual, iconic blonde bombshell and honestly I've always found her just really...um, weird looking. Sure I've seen some of her gangster pics but she usually wasn't a large focus so no big deal for me. Despite this I sometime ignore my impulses to follow my own particular sense of taste and change the channel and decided to give the Jean Harlow marathon a bit of a go and boy am I glad I did. Holy God but Jean Harlow has some serious comedy chops on her!
The film was at the time of production ostensibly a vaguely veiled send-up of Clara Bow's life in Hollywood and all the types of shenanigans she would have to put up with in terms of manufactured controversies, deadbeat relatives constantly sniffing around for money, and the general nasty way in which everyone feeds of off a star without any care for how it affects them. In real life Jean Harlow's Hollywood existence was very similar to Clara Bow's and many of the specific names and situations in the film are so close to what happened in real life to Jean Harlow that in fact what you have is a film the rips Hollywood's ass open for how awful it treats its talent whilst everyone around them does nothing but feed off of them in the most careless manner possible. Well...everyone except for the actress Louise Beavers who despite her playing the typical maid role, she does so in an surprisingly casual manner that feels as far away from many of her typical "mammy" type roles as one can get and is rather refreshing.
Yet despite the rather serious message of the film (which honestly probably went over most people's heads) the film is played for laughs and everyone is incredibly funny and spot on in their respective roles. Frank Morgan (the real Wizard from the Wizard of OZ) in particular as her deadbeat father is incredibly hilarious and I found myself treasuring all of his constant offended huffs and puffs every time somebody called him on his B.S. Really the only thing negative about the film I can think of is this little trumped up fake romance sequence which felt incredibly artificial and awkward. But that was a rather small part of the film and overall I was completely delighted by the entire movie and now feel quite stupid for ignoring Miss Harlow for so long.
Thanks for reading.
Oh yes for the handful of folks that wander by my comments are indeed turned off but feel free to drop me a line if'n you have a question or comment or recommendation...or candy.
I still miss my cat.