Film Roundup #5
Killer's Kiss *
Stanley Kubrick, 1955
Extremely low budget, ridiculous cuts and inserts. Weak love story. Terrific chase scene and totally bizarre battle at the end. Best moments toward the end: one is the loop Davy takes around the roof of the building over which he's trying to escape from the hoods, the other is the surreal final fight in the mannequin room.
Blood Simple **
Joel and Ethan Coen, 1984
They craft powerful and disturbing images. The sound is very... tactile. You can almost feel the gunshot or the shoveled dirt or the fan blades turning. The windshield wipers in the first scene also get a lot of amplification. Repeated use of the Four Tops' "It's the Same Old Song." The use of the dog panting as premonition was great.
The Ice Storm *
Ang Lee, 1997
Christina Ricci really did it for me here. Everyone else seems to just fill their role as Ang Lee fills in the story with moody shots of the surrounding environment. The storyline really reminded me of Magnolia with the powerful meteorological event that helps to provide or mirror the mounting tension and eventually brings together the characters in the end.
The Shop Around the Corner ***
Ernst Lubitsch, 1940
My favorite Jimmy Stewart role. I really have no idea why Hollywood left this set in Hungary, but it works just fine. The dark story of the shop owner really seemed odd to me, as I expected nothing more than straightforward romantic comedy, but it probably counterbalances the mostly submerged but ultimately triumphant romantic relationship. This is as good an example as any of why people lament the passing of the classic Hollywood era.
The Aristocrats *
Penn Jillette & Paul Provenza, 2005
I thought it was just going to be 100 comedians telling the same dirty joke, all in a row. There are lots of tellings of the near-mythical joke, "The Aristocrats," but they're often intercut with other tellings or commentaries or observations about comedy itself, etc, etc. In the end it's mostly a triumph of editing, at least when it works well. Worth watching, especially if you've never seen Bob Saget outside of network TV. Other than him, I think Paul Reiser and Martin Mull probably provide my favorite versions and comments, although the Christopher Walker impression is great as well.
Stanley Kubrick, 1955
Extremely low budget, ridiculous cuts and inserts. Weak love story. Terrific chase scene and totally bizarre battle at the end. Best moments toward the end: one is the loop Davy takes around the roof of the building over which he's trying to escape from the hoods, the other is the surreal final fight in the mannequin room.
Blood Simple **
Joel and Ethan Coen, 1984
They craft powerful and disturbing images. The sound is very... tactile. You can almost feel the gunshot or the shoveled dirt or the fan blades turning. The windshield wipers in the first scene also get a lot of amplification. Repeated use of the Four Tops' "It's the Same Old Song." The use of the dog panting as premonition was great.
The Ice Storm *
Ang Lee, 1997
Christina Ricci really did it for me here. Everyone else seems to just fill their role as Ang Lee fills in the story with moody shots of the surrounding environment. The storyline really reminded me of Magnolia with the powerful meteorological event that helps to provide or mirror the mounting tension and eventually brings together the characters in the end.
The Shop Around the Corner ***
Ernst Lubitsch, 1940
My favorite Jimmy Stewart role. I really have no idea why Hollywood left this set in Hungary, but it works just fine. The dark story of the shop owner really seemed odd to me, as I expected nothing more than straightforward romantic comedy, but it probably counterbalances the mostly submerged but ultimately triumphant romantic relationship. This is as good an example as any of why people lament the passing of the classic Hollywood era.
The Aristocrats *
Penn Jillette & Paul Provenza, 2005
I thought it was just going to be 100 comedians telling the same dirty joke, all in a row. There are lots of tellings of the near-mythical joke, "The Aristocrats," but they're often intercut with other tellings or commentaries or observations about comedy itself, etc, etc. In the end it's mostly a triumph of editing, at least when it works well. Worth watching, especially if you've never seen Bob Saget outside of network TV. Other than him, I think Paul Reiser and Martin Mull probably provide my favorite versions and comments, although the Christopher Walker impression is great as well.
Labels: Film
Posted on Monday, February 20, 2006
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