Before Girly Night, Pt 2 last night

I had a Me Party (h/t to the divine Miss Piggy and enchanting Amy Adams) in the City.  I took BART, listening to my Twee playlist (Talulah Gosh/Pastels/Vaselines/Aztec Camera) and reading Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? whilst on my way to the cinema.

Outside the theater the banner proclaims, "The most intimate movie experience in San Francisco" and they are not kidding.  The theater was tiny, just thirty-four seats.  I know.  I counted them. And I was not the only person there! Hoo-ray! There was a gay couple, dudes, at the very back; a straight couple right behind me; and the odd folks, a lady and a man, not together, across the "aisle", as it were, from me.

I had some popcorn and some clear hody and settled in for the film.  There were a ton of previews.  Here are some of them:

(By the by, I was at an NC-17 film -- shoulda been an R, more on this later -- so, I got to see some pretty racy, heavy trailers, including one, God Bless America, which sported the infamous Red Band Trailer Title Card.  God Bless America, written and directed by Bob -- he's dropped the "cat", apparently -- Goldthwait, looks like a complete waste of an intriguing subject matter.  Anyroad, ... )

This Willem Dafoe thing looks awful, too.

And I have no words to describe this extremely creepy weird looking film.  Is it made by Scientologists, or what?

But, I did get to see the trailer for this.  This looks fantastic, and, uh, yeah, that is Orson Welles "singing" I Know What It is to Be Young.

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Shame is very very good.  It is not a masterpiece, which is what director Steve McQueen seems to try just a bit too hard to make, but it is very very good.  And it is much better than his first film, Hunger, which also stars Michael Fassbender.

One of the best things about the film is its objectivity, which I almost always seem to admire in films these days.  McQueen and his co-writer, Abi Morgan, never pass judgement on Fassbender's Brandon character, they just tell his story.  Yet, there is no real plot per se.  The film hangs on the collision of two very damaged people, a brother and sister.  And Shame only barely suggests what might have scarred these two for life, which is fine by me.  I have my notions on what happened to them, to make them the way they are.

There are great acting performances all over Shame:  Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, Nicole Beharie (who Renee and I saw in the little jewel of a courtroom drama, American Violet), and Elizabeth Masucci all do an outstanding job.  But my favorite acting performance from Shame was the one by Lucy Walters.  Ms Walters' part in the movie is listed as Woman on the Subway, and she does not have a single line.  She appears in two scenes that bookend the film and it is the first scene she plays that I will be thinking about for a very long time to come.  This scene tells the story of Fassbender and Walters' silent, therefore secret, commuter relationship.  It starts with Walters recognition of Fassbender's intense amorous stare.  She pays him the compliment of his respectful attention with a shy smile and then looks away.  Fassbender never takes his eyes off her, though.  When she comes back to his gaze, she sighs, gathers her strength and returns his stare, flirting with him without speaking.  But she cannot match Fassbender's intensity and finally looks down for a moment.  The smile is gone now and the look on her face tells me that she has already played through their entire potential relationship in her mind:  The sex they would have, the horrible guilt they would earn for their illicit gamble, the fact that any intimate relationship would destroy any chance of friendship between them, the possibility he could be a stalker or a dangerous person, the horrible silence before they part ways, the awful furtiveness, the liberating awesome fantasy fulfilled, the thrill of being bad, and so much more.  Fassbender never takes his eyes off her, though.  The last time she looks back at him she looks scared.  His harmless flirting seems to have turned in to something more threatening and sinister.  Walters gets up from her seat and walks to the door as the train pulls in to the station.  We see her wedding ring as she grabs the rail to maintain her balance.  Fassbender stands just behind her, not quite touching, but as close as you could be without touching.  The subway doors open.

But that is just one scene in a film full of great scenes.  The scene where Ms Mulligan sings at a nightclub is one of the most moving and special things I have seen in years.  Even Fassbender's midnight run through Manhattan is memorable.  (Of course it does not hurt to have Glenn Gould playing Bach's Prelude and Fugue No. 10 in E Minor in the background as hottie Fassbender gallops through the City.  And all the music in the film is superb with a haunting original score and a blend of 70s disco and Gould playing Bach.)  All of Fassbender's scenes with Ms Beharie are rich and wonderful, as well.

There are only two hiccups in the film as far as I am concerned and one of those is so ticky-tack as to be completely unnoticeable to a vast majority of film-goers.  (Fassbender and Beharie are served a bottle of Pinot Noir at a fancy restaurant.  The Pinot is in a Bordeaux bottle and there is no where on earth that Pinot would be packaged in that type of bottle.  Even the Kiwis and Alsatians use Burgundy bottles for their Pinot Noir.)  The other misstep is considerably more serious and I was, for a minute in the theater, slightly worried the film might unravel, but it did not. This would be a part of Fassbender's Sex Bender Sequence near the end of the film that I am loathe to reveal, so as not to spoil anything for anyone.  But this part of the sequence seemed unnecessary and fell flat, to boot, for this reviewer.

But on the whole, Shame is an absolutely smashing, heavy, serious, moving, adult motion picture that I will add to my collection as soon as it becomes available.  It is a toughy, though.  And there is a lot of passionless sex and nudity in it.  No one is making love in Shame.

To finish, How is it that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo earned an R rating while Shame got an NC-17? Heaven forbid a male actor free his willy for the camera! Or a woman has a loud orgasm. Or there be explicit gay sex.

Anyhoo, if it seems your type of thing, most definitely see Shame.

Carey's all growns now and soon to wed.  She had her hen party two weeks ago.  

-- Ardent

Everywhere and Nowhere (UPDATED! 4/12/12)

There was a time back in the early 90s when I was convinced that Jim Jarmusch was one of the finest American film makers ever.  And my expectations for Dead Man, Jarmusch's 1995 film starring Johnny Depp, were very high, indeed.  Dead Man was a crushing bore that night (prob still is) and I left the theater, feeling particularly ripped-off.  I have not seen another new Jarmusch film since.

Moreover, his films are not aging well.  I have pushed Down By Law on numerous friends and each time I have seen it, it gets worse and worse.  Night on Earth was enjoyable in the theater but looks extremely silly and flimsy now.  I have not seen Stranger Than Paradise in a very long time but the last time I saw it, it was still refreshing and fun; a blast of black and white sunshine, strangely enough.

But Jarmusch has one film that still seems as lively and lovely today as it did in 1989, Mystery Train.  (Renee and I watched it last night, and Renee does not agree with me.)

There is so much to still love about Mystery Train.  The film is actually three short films, three stories that are inter-connected, and take place in the South Main Arts District of Memphis, Tennessee over the course of one day.  And like most of Jarmusch's work the cast is eclectic and superb, featuring Screaming Jay Hawkins, Rufus Thomas, Nicoletta Braschi, Elizabeth Bracco, Tom Noonan, Joe Strummer, Steve Buscemi, Rockets Redglare, and Tom Waits as a radio DJ.

Obviously, this being a film about Memphis, the music is amazing.  The funky moody score was done by Jarmusch regular, John Lurie, and includes the amazing Marc Ribot on guitar.  But the found music is the real highlight.  They use only about a dozen songs and almost all of them are from either Stax Records or Sun Studios, heavy on Elvis (natch) and Rufus Thomas.

In fact, Elvis and Rufus are the twin ghosts that haunt the entire film.  Rufus Thomas even makes an appearance in the first "film" of the inter-connected trilogy, Far From Yokohama.  Elvis' "appearance", as it were, comes in the second "film", A Ghost.  But both of these men are all over Mystery Train.  There are paintings of both men shown throughout nearly every scene, Joe Strummer's character is reluctantly known as "Elvis" amongst his neighbors and friends, and, of course, they use a number of Elvis' and Rufus' great great songs throughout.

My favorite of the three "films" is A Ghost.  Nicoletta Brasci's husband appears to have died on the plane, meaning she will have to spend one night in Memphis before she can fly back home to Rome.  She does not appear to be the least bit bothered by her husband's death.  After being confronted by a con-man and potential mugger, Tom Noonan, who gets twenty bucks out of her by relating an old Memphis urban legend about picking up a hitch-hiking ghost of Elvis, wanting to be dropped off at Graceland, Brasci finds herself lucky to share a room at a decrepit hotel with one of the most annoying loudmouth characters in film history, Lorraine Bracco's Dee Dee.  (This is obv Jarmusch making a statement about the difference between Europeans and North Americans, but it is realized with such taste that it is merely hilarious and not preachy.  All four of our protagonists in the film are auslanders -- as they say in the Cantons of Helvetica -- two Japanese kids, the Italian widow, and an Englishman.)

But the most poignant heartbreaking moment for me occurs in the last film, Lost in Space, when our three "heroes" drive by Stax Records.

This is what the mighty Stax records looked like in the late 80s.

Thank God, they have rebuilt this American Treasure and turned it in to a museum and recording studio again.

It is a splendid film and comes v highly recommended.  Renee and I watched it on Apple TV last night, as I only have a VHS copy of the film, but Criterion, once again, have come out with fantastic blu-ray and dvd versions of the film.

************

I am about to go to the City and see the film, Shame, at long last.  It is playing at the last stop Art House Cinema, the Opera at 2:20 PM.  I imagine I might be the only person in the theater and the film is rated NC-17.  It could make for an extremely unusual cinema experience.  I will give all of you the complete scoop re the film tomorrow.

************

Obama and his team are on a frickin' roll right now.  Earlier today on Fox News, in anticipation of Obama's Buffet Rule speech today, all their pundits trotted out their usual Talking Points:  The Buffet Rule is class warfare, that all millionaires are job creators, and their favorite today, that the Buffet Rule would only save us five billion a year on the deficit.  Obama, in his speech, hit on every single one of those Talking Points, smashing them down.

If only Obama governed as well as he campaigned.

And on the Mittens front, with Santorum out, Fox News granted Mittens a congratulatory interview today.  He is firmly in Projection Defense Mode re those recent crushing Gender Split numbers in the polls, "The GOP is not conducting a War on American Women.  Obama is!"

I am surprised he just did not have his Wife sit for the interview.








Ciao!



UPDATED! (4/12/12):  Yup.  Guess who sat for an interview on Fox News about an hour ago. That is right, Mittens' Wife, Ann.  They will be blasting her "best" bits from this interview on all their programs over the next few days.  And she could even appear on one or more of their commentary shows.  (I am guessing Greta gets her first.)

And by the way, Ms Rosen's comments on CNN yesterday were "inappropriate" and "wrong", just as Jim Messina and David Axelrod have stated.

I imagine Axelrod has gone full Malcom Tucker on Ms Rosen, already.

"You've been disinvited."









mds

I was reluctant and loathe

To start watching The Hour on BBC America.  First, because, after reading a review in the SF Chron, it seemed The Hour was another Mad Men rip-off like Pan-Am and however many others there are.  And, second, because I would have to watch the program with commercials, which I simply cannot abide these days.  We tend to dvr everything in this house, just so we can skip the ads.  (Love you RedZone! No commercials ever!)

Abi Morgan.  Yeah, how about a photograph of the writer once in a while?

But David Thomson wrote some nice things about it in his blog for The New Republic and mentioned how you can see it commercial-free onDemand with Xfinity (Comcast.)  (Thomson spelled Xfinity wrong, by the way.  He spelled it Exfinity.  But, is not that cute? Thomson lives in the City and we have the same cable provider.)  So, I watched the first three episodes of Season One last night.

(Sigh, and audible grin.)  It is great, of course.  Here is the amazing British cast, many of them big favorites of mine:  Dominic West (McNutty in The Wire, barely in Chicago); Ben Whishaw (I'm Not There); Romola Garai; Juliet Stevenson (so many things: Drowning by Numbers, Truly Madly Deeply, Inspector Lewis, A Place of Execution, Miss Marple, Bend It Like Beckham, When Did You Last See Your Father, etc, ... ); Burn Gorman (fantastic in Bleak House); Anna Chancellor (Miss Marple, Inspector Morse and Inspector Lewis!); Oona Chaplin (Game of Thrones and The Devil's Double); and Julian Rhind-Tutt (Poirot, Miss Marple, and AbFab).  Plus, The Hour is part of the BBC America Dramaville Series, so each episode is hosted and introduced by Idris Elba ("Stringer" Bell in The Wire, The Office, 28 Weeks Later, Law and Order, and AbFab.)

It is similar to Mad Men in style, with plenty of red lipstick and nylons for everyone! There is not as much sex as in Mad Men, though, and The Hour is told in a much more traditional, theatrical storytelling type of way.  The show is about a newsmagazine program, complete with a love triangle that features a woman producer, a privileged dense anchor, and a slightly unhinged journalist.  So, there is the Broadcast News similarity, as well.

The performances are great.  Ben Whishaw and Romola Garai are the real stand outs here. And it looks great, shot in a louche candlelit sort of a way, plus the script is chock full of fabulous dialogue, written by Abi Morgan (Ms Morgan is also a playwright, but she has two movie scripts coming out next month, Shame -- cowritten with the director, Steve McQueen -- and The Iron Lady.  So we'll be hearing a lot more about Ms Morgan very soon.)  The whole thing is a fabulous fun entertainment and much more my cup of tea than Mad Men.  But that is probably just me.

You should definitely check it out.  The Wife and I will finish Season One tonight with a big bowl of popcorn.

Kisses,
xxxoooxxx


Ardent

Films I am eager to see (UPDATE x 2!)

Right now,

1.  Rejoice and Shout!
2.  Midnight in Paris (Check.  Flimsy and fun as silk lingerie.)
3.  The Artist
4.  Drive
5.  Polisse
6.  Shame, starring Carey Mulligan and Michael Fassbender (no release date yet)
7.  A Dangerous Method, Fassbender again w/ Viggo, and Vincent Cassell, dir Cronenberg, about Freud and Jung, I am not making this up, release date later this year.
8.  The Trip (Check.  An absolute riot, basically a two hour set piece for Brydon & Coogan w/ lots and lots of impressions but a lame, soulful ending that still does not mess up the fun experience.)
9.  Tabloid, an Errol Morris doc about my new fave personality, Joyce McKinney, released July fifteenth.
10.  Le Nom des Gens, a French political satire about a sex pot lefty who "converts" tories by bedding them.

(And, no, I do not have any interest in Tree of Life.  Me and Malick just do not get along anymore, espec after The New World, what a gawdawful picture that was.)