A staple in middle/high school curriculum, William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies works overtime to put to rest both the myth of childhood innocence and the idea of the Noble Savage. When left to their own devices, the kids in Lord of the Flies go from order to anarchy in a shockingly brief amount of time, smearing paint on their faces and terrorizing those who disagree with them. What usually would be deemed "boys will be boys" youthful exuberance transforms into murder so smoothly that you can't help but feel a bit sick to your stomach. Basically, South Park is more accurate than Our Gang.
The film follows a group of boys who are stranded on an island after their plane is shot down. This sequence is depicted in a series of grainy photographs that has the feel of the final scene of Night of the Living Dead. The main boy we meet is Ralph, a responsible "good" boy who wants to escape the island at any cost. His friend is a fat, nerdy boy with glasses who gets called Piggy, which reiterates that bullying is an integral part of growing up. The antagonist is a choir leader named Jack, who forms a group of hunters and is pissed off that Ralph was voted as their leader and not him. Jack initially gets along with Ralph, but as tensions rise and Jack becomes more wrapped up in his own group, he eventually splits off and forms his own tribe. Murder, war-like chanting, and bodypaint follow.
Director Peter Brook gives this film a grainy documentary feel, and it's effective as hell here. As the film progresses you feel the growing uneasy, especially as Jack becomes increasingly arrogant and prone to violence. The actors here are superb, and they while they don't shy away from the viciousness of the characters, at no point do they seem to be hamming it up for the camera. There's an organic feel to the performances here, and you really feel for these kids, Piggy in particular. There's a scene of Piggy describing the origin of his hometown's name, and this perfectly shows why he's such an unpopular boy. In addition to being the stereotypical fat, asthmatic kid with glasses, he also thinks that the etymology of his hometown's name is the least bit interesting to his peers. Admittedly, as a linguist I personally found it interesting, but those boys were probably just waiting for that story to end.
While this film doesn't focus much on the animal life already on the island to the extent that a film like Walkabout does, there is a nice scene of a kid playing with a lizard, and the shot of the pig's head mounted on a stick is suitably disturbing. I would have liked more nature shots, as the island itself doesn't feel much like a character here. I understand the reasoning for not doing this since the story is about the boys, but I think that focusing on nature as an element in driving some of these kids to madness would have added an interesting dimension to the narrative. It's a minor quibble, really not much of a complaint at all, just something that I would have liked to see when you have an island at your disposal.
Overall this movie plays like a horror film, and is obviously superior to the 1990 version. While I enjoy this film, I don't think it holds up to repeated viewings. It's a great film, and probably the best adaptation that you'll ever get for this material, but there's only so many times I can watch kids being shitty to each other. Not to mention that I've been familiar with this material ever since I first read the book in high school, and after absorbing the theme of the book I don't know how many more times I need to have it reiterated. I think it's an excellent film, but I rank it just under Nanook of the North. This seems like a low ranking, but as I said, I don't think I'm going to watch this one again, despite how great it is. #35 it is.
The List
Next time: I don't think I fully appreciated the bitchiness of The Red Shoes the first time I saw it, so I'm eager to give it another go.
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Saturday, October 24, 2015
42. Fishing with John: Hip people fishing and being hip
Fishing with John is the first TV series to show up in the Criterion Collection, and possibly the strangest. The show's premise is actor/musician John Lurie taking his famous friends out fishing. Apparently he wasn't much of a fisherman, but the show is narrated in a way to assume that all of the sitting around and talking on boats is part of a larger, dramatic story. It's such an odd conceit that I'm still trying to figure out if this is brilliant or annoying.
The people John takes out of his fishing expeditions are Jim Jarmusch, Tom Waits, Matt Dillon, Willem Dafoe, and Dennis Hopper, with Hopper getting an extended two-part episode in Thailand. This film hinges on John's interactions with each guest, and it's not surprising that the shittiest episode is the one where a guest was forced on him by the financiers. John wanted Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but the financiers instead demanded Matt Dillon, so we get an episode with is largely the two of them sitting on a boat not talking to each other, and John dancing around like an idiot try to get something, anything usable for this episode. I wanted to single this one out because before I found out about Dillon being forced in, I remember hating this episode because of how dull it was. In every other episode John has a nice, easy-going chemistry with his guests, with the Dafoe and Hopper episodes being particularly fun, and you're watching this show just to see these two people hang out and shoot the shit. When you get an episode where there's clearly no chemistry between the two, it's painful as hell to try watching.
My favorite episode has to be the one with Willem Dafoe. Dafoe actually seems to be enjoying himself, with John clearly miserable. Maybe it's the Herzog man against nature aspect to this episode that helps it, but it's hilarious seeing Dafoe with a huge grin on his face, cheerful as hell and offering friendly suggestions while John sits around scowling and bitching about the cold. The Tom Waits episode is interesting mainly because apparently Waits hated doing the show and according to John didn't speak to him again for two years. Once again, without knowing this beforehand, when I saw the episode Waits looked annoyed and disinterested throughout. I have nothing to say about the Jarmusch episode except that Jim looked way too stylish to be on a boat trying to catch a shark.
The voice over in the show exists to both parody the standard voice over that you get in nature shows, and to also force a plot onto each episode. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. In particular, the voice over in the Thailand episodes was grating, especially when talking about the "squid-worshiping" monks. I know it's supposed to be funny, but given that this was a religious community that seemed very polite and welcoming and probably didn't know that they were being mocked, it came across as mean-spirited and ignorant. In fact, a lot of John's interactions with natives abroad rubbed me the wrong way, but I'm guessing that this will vary for each viewer. I did like how John was able to turn a series of conversations with his friends (and Dillon) into stories, and it really shows how editing can turn a random series of shots into a narrative.
I think this show, overall, was a bit too "cute" for my tastes. Growing up in the 90s I've been hammered over the head with irony so often that a premise like this one is immediately off-putting. It's a fun show, and the conversations are entertaining, but the overall tone of this series is frankly annoying. You have to be willing to buy in on the humor of this show to really dig it. I found like I liked parts of it but hated others, so it's an odd entry in the collection. Everything about it feels so light and airy, like it's nothing more than a goof, so it feels like the least essential entry in the collection so far. It's not the worst, mind you, but this is the first one that I feel someone could easily skip and not miss anything worthwhile.
This one is going to be ranked low, though not at the bottom. I didn't hate Fishing with John, but I have no desire to watch this again, and I don't see myself recommending it to anyone. It seems like one of those shows that it's more fun to talk about than to watch. I'm going to put it at #38, in between Summertime, which I thought was pretty good, and Alphaville, which I hated.
The List
Next time: I feel like eating a giant pig's head with the Lord of the Flies.
The people John takes out of his fishing expeditions are Jim Jarmusch, Tom Waits, Matt Dillon, Willem Dafoe, and Dennis Hopper, with Hopper getting an extended two-part episode in Thailand. This film hinges on John's interactions with each guest, and it's not surprising that the shittiest episode is the one where a guest was forced on him by the financiers. John wanted Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but the financiers instead demanded Matt Dillon, so we get an episode with is largely the two of them sitting on a boat not talking to each other, and John dancing around like an idiot try to get something, anything usable for this episode. I wanted to single this one out because before I found out about Dillon being forced in, I remember hating this episode because of how dull it was. In every other episode John has a nice, easy-going chemistry with his guests, with the Dafoe and Hopper episodes being particularly fun, and you're watching this show just to see these two people hang out and shoot the shit. When you get an episode where there's clearly no chemistry between the two, it's painful as hell to try watching.
My favorite episode has to be the one with Willem Dafoe. Dafoe actually seems to be enjoying himself, with John clearly miserable. Maybe it's the Herzog man against nature aspect to this episode that helps it, but it's hilarious seeing Dafoe with a huge grin on his face, cheerful as hell and offering friendly suggestions while John sits around scowling and bitching about the cold. The Tom Waits episode is interesting mainly because apparently Waits hated doing the show and according to John didn't speak to him again for two years. Once again, without knowing this beforehand, when I saw the episode Waits looked annoyed and disinterested throughout. I have nothing to say about the Jarmusch episode except that Jim looked way too stylish to be on a boat trying to catch a shark.
The voice over in the show exists to both parody the standard voice over that you get in nature shows, and to also force a plot onto each episode. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. In particular, the voice over in the Thailand episodes was grating, especially when talking about the "squid-worshiping" monks. I know it's supposed to be funny, but given that this was a religious community that seemed very polite and welcoming and probably didn't know that they were being mocked, it came across as mean-spirited and ignorant. In fact, a lot of John's interactions with natives abroad rubbed me the wrong way, but I'm guessing that this will vary for each viewer. I did like how John was able to turn a series of conversations with his friends (and Dillon) into stories, and it really shows how editing can turn a random series of shots into a narrative.
I think this show, overall, was a bit too "cute" for my tastes. Growing up in the 90s I've been hammered over the head with irony so often that a premise like this one is immediately off-putting. It's a fun show, and the conversations are entertaining, but the overall tone of this series is frankly annoying. You have to be willing to buy in on the humor of this show to really dig it. I found like I liked parts of it but hated others, so it's an odd entry in the collection. Everything about it feels so light and airy, like it's nothing more than a goof, so it feels like the least essential entry in the collection so far. It's not the worst, mind you, but this is the first one that I feel someone could easily skip and not miss anything worthwhile.
This one is going to be ranked low, though not at the bottom. I didn't hate Fishing with John, but I have no desire to watch this again, and I don't see myself recommending it to anyone. It seems like one of those shows that it's more fun to talk about than to watch. I'm going to put it at #38, in between Summertime, which I thought was pretty good, and Alphaville, which I hated.
The List
Next time: I feel like eating a giant pig's head with the Lord of the Flies.
Thursday, October 22, 2015
41. Henry V vs (real) Modern English
Cards on the table: I'm not the biggest Shakespeare fan. I like his stories well enough, but I'm not going to pretend that the language barrier isn't a huge issue for me. When you read his work, it's some of the most beautiful, lyrical combinations of words in the history of the English language. But when you sit back and have it thrown at you with hardly any time to figure out what each character is saying, then it loses some of its impact and starts to feel like a chore. I know you're not supposed to admit that, but fuck it. I'm admitting it.
I've never read Henry V, Shakespeare's historical play about the battle of Agincourt, so I had to go by my knowledge of French and British history to understand what exactly was going on. Predictably, the French are portrayed as either mincing cowards or jittery balls of nerves, given all the subtly of the villains in that piece of shit movie I watched in the last entry. However, the saving grace here is director/star Laurence Olivier, who fucking slays this material and delivers it with enough conviction to suck you in. Hell, even when I didn't know what the fuck he was saying during his extended monologues, his delivery sold it. He's an actor who gets this material and doesn't do that actor trick where they try to speak it really fast in an attempt to fool people into thinking it's "fluid."
Aside from that, what I love about this movie is the approach. The first half hour of this film is a filmed play, with curtains being drawn and glimpses of the actors backstage rushing through costume changes and getting ready for the following scenes. It throws you off at the start, but eventually you get used to seeing the actors playing to the crowd. Then the camera starts panning in on a drawn curtain that dissolves into a landscape, and the film proper begins, with standard cinema scene changes and some truly epic battle scenes. For 1944 this is a fairly bold move, and it works.
Another thing that works is that a ton of the background paintings look obviously fake. They seem a bit too artificial to not have been intentional, but somehow this also works. We are constantly being reminded that we need to imagine ourselves in a past time, and the fake backgrounds bring just the right amount of fantasy into this historical to make it feel dreamlike. Shakespeare adaptations are typically exercises in showing off how great a certain actor is, but Olivier here is perfectly willing to add sweeping camera moves and artistic flourishes to give us an idea of the scope of this story. If he was showing off just to prove that he can direct, then he succeeded. Good job, Larry.
This film isn't without its downsides through. The two big ones for me are the humor and the romance. Shakespearean humor is usually the cringiest bullshit imaginable for me. It's just not funny watching some guy getting tormented by a leek while making goofy faces. The annoying thing about these jokes is there's always that smirk, like "eh? eh??? isn't this funny?" No it isn't, motherfucker. Get back to the battle. Also, the scenes with Princes Katherine (played by Renee Asherson) are atrocious. There's two big ones, and both are terrible, the final one being a courtship between her and Henry that just goes on and on with no payoff. Fuck did I hate that scene.
As for ranking, while there was a lot that I liked about this movie, it was offset by the language barrier and the stuff that annoyed me. I recognize that it's a great adaptation and a great film, but it's not one that I'll probably ever watch again, unless I get on a Shakespeare kick and decided to read all his plays. I'm going to ram this one right between Nanook and Salo, so Henry V lands at #35.
The List
Next time: I join a bunch of hip as shit people and go Fishing With John. I'm already two episodes in. Did I like them? Will I like the others? Tune in to find out!
I've never read Henry V, Shakespeare's historical play about the battle of Agincourt, so I had to go by my knowledge of French and British history to understand what exactly was going on. Predictably, the French are portrayed as either mincing cowards or jittery balls of nerves, given all the subtly of the villains in that piece of shit movie I watched in the last entry. However, the saving grace here is director/star Laurence Olivier, who fucking slays this material and delivers it with enough conviction to suck you in. Hell, even when I didn't know what the fuck he was saying during his extended monologues, his delivery sold it. He's an actor who gets this material and doesn't do that actor trick where they try to speak it really fast in an attempt to fool people into thinking it's "fluid."
Aside from that, what I love about this movie is the approach. The first half hour of this film is a filmed play, with curtains being drawn and glimpses of the actors backstage rushing through costume changes and getting ready for the following scenes. It throws you off at the start, but eventually you get used to seeing the actors playing to the crowd. Then the camera starts panning in on a drawn curtain that dissolves into a landscape, and the film proper begins, with standard cinema scene changes and some truly epic battle scenes. For 1944 this is a fairly bold move, and it works.
Another thing that works is that a ton of the background paintings look obviously fake. They seem a bit too artificial to not have been intentional, but somehow this also works. We are constantly being reminded that we need to imagine ourselves in a past time, and the fake backgrounds bring just the right amount of fantasy into this historical to make it feel dreamlike. Shakespeare adaptations are typically exercises in showing off how great a certain actor is, but Olivier here is perfectly willing to add sweeping camera moves and artistic flourishes to give us an idea of the scope of this story. If he was showing off just to prove that he can direct, then he succeeded. Good job, Larry.
This film isn't without its downsides through. The two big ones for me are the humor and the romance. Shakespearean humor is usually the cringiest bullshit imaginable for me. It's just not funny watching some guy getting tormented by a leek while making goofy faces. The annoying thing about these jokes is there's always that smirk, like "eh? eh??? isn't this funny?" No it isn't, motherfucker. Get back to the battle. Also, the scenes with Princes Katherine (played by Renee Asherson) are atrocious. There's two big ones, and both are terrible, the final one being a courtship between her and Henry that just goes on and on with no payoff. Fuck did I hate that scene.
As for ranking, while there was a lot that I liked about this movie, it was offset by the language barrier and the stuff that annoyed me. I recognize that it's a great adaptation and a great film, but it's not one that I'll probably ever watch again, unless I get on a Shakespeare kick and decided to read all his plays. I'm going to ram this one right between Nanook and Salo, so Henry V lands at #35.
The List
Next time: I join a bunch of hip as shit people and go Fishing With John. I'm already two episodes in. Did I like them? Will I like the others? Tune in to find out!
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
40. Armageddon: A worthless piece of shit
Jesus fucking Christ did I hate this movie.
Armageddon is Michael Bay's shitfest about a crew of oil workers who get hired by NASA to drill a hole in an asteroid and plant a nuke in it so that it won't crash into the earth. Even though they're a bunch of loudmouthed obnoxious roughnecks and misfits, they are somehow smarter and "better" than the brightest people working in the space program. There's also a wack-ass love story between Ben Affleck and Bruce Willis' daughter Liv Tyler. Steve Buscemi's also in it playing his standard weirdo role. All the heroes are dick-swinging assholes, including Liv Tyler. This is the second time I've seen this movie, and somehow it's even worse the second time around. In Dave Pelzer's book A Child Called 'It' there's a scene where his evil mother sees that he vomited out his hot dog dinner, and forces him to re-eat the bits of hot dog that came out. That's what watching this film a second time is like.
If I had to pinpoint the moment where I knew this film was not going to work for me under any circumstances, it had to be when Bruce Willis and company are smacking golf balls at a Greenpeace boat at the beginning of the film. Granted, I have my own disagreements with Greenpeace, but this introduction to our "hero" was so off putting that there was no way I'd be able to root for this asshole at any point in this movie. This film, and Michael Bay's output in general, is so fucking hateful that it's hard to stomach, with his heroes always representing the ugliest aspects of American culture. From a character standpoint, I hated everyone in this movie. Characters were either obnoxious know-it-alls, crazy for no reason, or jittery "nerds" worthy only of contempt. It's like if Ayn Rand wrote an action film, only shittier.
Bay's much-praised action is admittedly fine here, but when you're watching two and a half hours of people screaming in your face, loud dramatic music cues, and explosions, it becomes tiresome and boring. Bay also seems intent on making sure the audience gets some nice scenes of shit blowing up real good every twenty minutes or so, and we get frequent cut-aways from the action just so we can see either Paris (of course) or some random Asian country getting pummeled by asteroid bits. Superficially this is to make sure the audience is kept aware that this is a serious threat and that the world is in danger. I mean, it's not like the frequent cut-aways to the ticking clock gave us any indication that this was an important mission.
I can't shit on the cast here, who are a great collection of character actors doing what they do best. It's just that no cast, however great, is going to save a Michael Bay movie. I've watched enough of his films by now to know that they aren't for me. I'm not an angry teenage bully who hates smart people and just wants to destroy stuff. I don't believe that people should do whatever they deem is necessary to accomplish whatever mission they're on just because they are awesome and "correct." I don't think the loudest person in the room automatically wins the argument. I don't think Michael Bay will ever make a film that I'd ever want to watch. It's popular to hate him, I get that. I will readily admit that he is an auteur, albeit one that I can't stomach. He's very, very good at what he does. He just happens to do something that makes me want to vomit.
As for ranking, is it really a surprise that I'm putting this fucker right at the bottom? I've heard that Border Radio is pretty atrocious, but I have a hard time believing that anything in the collection is going to piss me off as much as this film did.
The List
Next time: Laurence Olivier's Henry V will hopefully help me wash the puke out of my mouth.
Armageddon is Michael Bay's shitfest about a crew of oil workers who get hired by NASA to drill a hole in an asteroid and plant a nuke in it so that it won't crash into the earth. Even though they're a bunch of loudmouthed obnoxious roughnecks and misfits, they are somehow smarter and "better" than the brightest people working in the space program. There's also a wack-ass love story between Ben Affleck and Bruce Willis' daughter Liv Tyler. Steve Buscemi's also in it playing his standard weirdo role. All the heroes are dick-swinging assholes, including Liv Tyler. This is the second time I've seen this movie, and somehow it's even worse the second time around. In Dave Pelzer's book A Child Called 'It' there's a scene where his evil mother sees that he vomited out his hot dog dinner, and forces him to re-eat the bits of hot dog that came out. That's what watching this film a second time is like.
If I had to pinpoint the moment where I knew this film was not going to work for me under any circumstances, it had to be when Bruce Willis and company are smacking golf balls at a Greenpeace boat at the beginning of the film. Granted, I have my own disagreements with Greenpeace, but this introduction to our "hero" was so off putting that there was no way I'd be able to root for this asshole at any point in this movie. This film, and Michael Bay's output in general, is so fucking hateful that it's hard to stomach, with his heroes always representing the ugliest aspects of American culture. From a character standpoint, I hated everyone in this movie. Characters were either obnoxious know-it-alls, crazy for no reason, or jittery "nerds" worthy only of contempt. It's like if Ayn Rand wrote an action film, only shittier.
Bay's much-praised action is admittedly fine here, but when you're watching two and a half hours of people screaming in your face, loud dramatic music cues, and explosions, it becomes tiresome and boring. Bay also seems intent on making sure the audience gets some nice scenes of shit blowing up real good every twenty minutes or so, and we get frequent cut-aways from the action just so we can see either Paris (of course) or some random Asian country getting pummeled by asteroid bits. Superficially this is to make sure the audience is kept aware that this is a serious threat and that the world is in danger. I mean, it's not like the frequent cut-aways to the ticking clock gave us any indication that this was an important mission.
I can't shit on the cast here, who are a great collection of character actors doing what they do best. It's just that no cast, however great, is going to save a Michael Bay movie. I've watched enough of his films by now to know that they aren't for me. I'm not an angry teenage bully who hates smart people and just wants to destroy stuff. I don't believe that people should do whatever they deem is necessary to accomplish whatever mission they're on just because they are awesome and "correct." I don't think the loudest person in the room automatically wins the argument. I don't think Michael Bay will ever make a film that I'd ever want to watch. It's popular to hate him, I get that. I will readily admit that he is an auteur, albeit one that I can't stomach. He's very, very good at what he does. He just happens to do something that makes me want to vomit.
As for ranking, is it really a surprise that I'm putting this fucker right at the bottom? I've heard that Border Radio is pretty atrocious, but I have a hard time believing that anything in the collection is going to piss me off as much as this film did.
The List
Next time: Laurence Olivier's Henry V will hopefully help me wash the puke out of my mouth.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
39. Tokyo Drifter: More insanity, this time in color!
Once again the Criterion Collection makes the baffling decision to number this earlier Seijun Suzuki film before a later one, this film coming a year before Branded to Kill. While not as off-the-wall insane as Branded, this one is still plenty bonkers on its own, and I'm becoming increasingly fascinated by Suzuki and wanting to explore more of his filmography.
Tokyo Drifter is another film about the yakuza, this one about a hitman named Tetsu who has decided to go straight. A rival gang boss named Otsuka tries to recruit him, but Testu tells him that he's not about that life anymore. Otsuka, being reasonable, understands his decision and decides to leave him in peace. Well, not really. He basically spends the entire film sending various people after Tetsu to kill him due to him thinking that Tetsu would screw up a real estate scam that he'd been working on. Tetsu heads out and becomes a drifter, and is hunted by both Otsuka and his previous boss Kurata. They send a hitman called the Viper to take him out, and we're led on a series of adventures through nightclubs, a saloon filled with stereotypical Americans, and various other wonderfully decorated locations. The film ends on a sparse set with a piano, two pillars, one of the most bizarre shoot outs you'll ever seen, vivid colors, and an ending that's expected but still kind of weak.
What I like about Suzuki, again, is how strange his films are, if I'm going by this and Branded to Kill. This is a pretty simple gangster story, but Tetsu is given almost superheroic abilities, being able to fire his gun in ways that aren't humanly possible, and hit his targets perfectly. Some of the scenes feel like they're out of an Edgar Wright film, especially the shoot out between two thin pillars. The film doesn't load up on the grotesque as much as Branded to Kill did, but it's still jam-packed with lurid scenes, some decent bloody violence, and a straightforward plot that doesn't going into the psychedelic transgressions that we experienced in Branded. Not having seen any of his previous work, this film almost feels like a warm up for the insanity to come.
The soundtrack here is very good, with a number of catchy songs, particularly the theme (which you'll heard over and over again) and some of the rock numbers you hear at the night club. I loved the standard 1960's color palate here, where everything seems to pop off the screen. This film feels more fun than Branded, and the color is a big reason. The color helps the playful tone of this film, where a madcap scene like the saloon feels straight out of Looney Tunes. You don't get any Page of Madness-style scenes here.
I try not to do this but I jumped ahead and saw that Suzuki has a few more films in the Collection. I can't wait to get to those because this guy is hitting all the right buttons for my tastes. His films (so far) are visually intoxicating, truly unique and make the most out of their svelte runtimes. I can't peg him as a favorite just yet, but I'm definitely excited about seeing his name pop up again later. It's something to look forward to, especially given what I have coming up next.
I loved this film, but again I'm in a position where I don't want to rank it too high because I don't know how much of my enjoyment is going to last on a further viewing. Based on first impressions I can't put this over Branded to Kill, because the film was concentrated, white-hot weirdness the likes of which I rarely see. Moving down further, I can't say this was better than Les Diaboliques or The Killer. In a battle between this and This Is Spinal Tap, I have to remember how amazing Tap was, and that I was consistently entertained throughout it. Sadly, I'm going to have to place this one above Picnic at Hanging Rock, a film that I like but not one that thrilled me to the extent that this one did. Go ahead and call me a philistine. This one's going at #21.
The List
Next time: My enthusiasm for this project turns to dust in my mouth as I sit through Michael Bay's maggot-infested shitpile Armageddon. This film is consistently called the worst thing in the Criterion Collection. I saw it in the theater when it came out and instantly developed a life-long hatred of Bay's aesthetics. Will I like it more now that I'm older and wiser? Well, he prides himself on making films for teenage boys, and now that I'm not one, I'm going to wager "no."
Tokyo Drifter is another film about the yakuza, this one about a hitman named Tetsu who has decided to go straight. A rival gang boss named Otsuka tries to recruit him, but Testu tells him that he's not about that life anymore. Otsuka, being reasonable, understands his decision and decides to leave him in peace. Well, not really. He basically spends the entire film sending various people after Tetsu to kill him due to him thinking that Tetsu would screw up a real estate scam that he'd been working on. Tetsu heads out and becomes a drifter, and is hunted by both Otsuka and his previous boss Kurata. They send a hitman called the Viper to take him out, and we're led on a series of adventures through nightclubs, a saloon filled with stereotypical Americans, and various other wonderfully decorated locations. The film ends on a sparse set with a piano, two pillars, one of the most bizarre shoot outs you'll ever seen, vivid colors, and an ending that's expected but still kind of weak.
What I like about Suzuki, again, is how strange his films are, if I'm going by this and Branded to Kill. This is a pretty simple gangster story, but Tetsu is given almost superheroic abilities, being able to fire his gun in ways that aren't humanly possible, and hit his targets perfectly. Some of the scenes feel like they're out of an Edgar Wright film, especially the shoot out between two thin pillars. The film doesn't load up on the grotesque as much as Branded to Kill did, but it's still jam-packed with lurid scenes, some decent bloody violence, and a straightforward plot that doesn't going into the psychedelic transgressions that we experienced in Branded. Not having seen any of his previous work, this film almost feels like a warm up for the insanity to come.
The soundtrack here is very good, with a number of catchy songs, particularly the theme (which you'll heard over and over again) and some of the rock numbers you hear at the night club. I loved the standard 1960's color palate here, where everything seems to pop off the screen. This film feels more fun than Branded, and the color is a big reason. The color helps the playful tone of this film, where a madcap scene like the saloon feels straight out of Looney Tunes. You don't get any Page of Madness-style scenes here.
I try not to do this but I jumped ahead and saw that Suzuki has a few more films in the Collection. I can't wait to get to those because this guy is hitting all the right buttons for my tastes. His films (so far) are visually intoxicating, truly unique and make the most out of their svelte runtimes. I can't peg him as a favorite just yet, but I'm definitely excited about seeing his name pop up again later. It's something to look forward to, especially given what I have coming up next.
I loved this film, but again I'm in a position where I don't want to rank it too high because I don't know how much of my enjoyment is going to last on a further viewing. Based on first impressions I can't put this over Branded to Kill, because the film was concentrated, white-hot weirdness the likes of which I rarely see. Moving down further, I can't say this was better than Les Diaboliques or The Killer. In a battle between this and This Is Spinal Tap, I have to remember how amazing Tap was, and that I was consistently entertained throughout it. Sadly, I'm going to have to place this one above Picnic at Hanging Rock, a film that I like but not one that thrilled me to the extent that this one did. Go ahead and call me a philistine. This one's going at #21.
The List
Next time: My enthusiasm for this project turns to dust in my mouth as I sit through Michael Bay's maggot-infested shitpile Armageddon. This film is consistently called the worst thing in the Criterion Collection. I saw it in the theater when it came out and instantly developed a life-long hatred of Bay's aesthetics. Will I like it more now that I'm older and wiser? Well, he prides himself on making films for teenage boys, and now that I'm not one, I'm going to wager "no."
Monday, October 19, 2015
38. Branded to Kill: The fuck did I just watch?
Confession: Last time when I said that I was "very, very excited" to watch Branded to Kill, it was because it's a 1960's Japanese film, and the Criterion Collection has yet to do me wrong with their Japanese cinema selections. Unlike French cinema, where I've watched probably as many duds as classics, Japan really has yet to do me wrong. Therefore, as ignorant as it may seem, I went in assuming that I would dig this film based solely on its country of origin. Surprise surprise, turns out I was right to be excited.
The best thing a film can do is completely catch me off guard and show me something that I wasn't expecting, especially in a genre film. For instance, something like Hausu is sold as a haunted house story, but when you watch it your senses are completely bombarded with over-the-top visual and stimuli that it's difficult to define it as a horror film. A friend compared it to a feature-length TV ad, and that seems like a great comparison to me. With Branded to Kill, I popped this in expecting a standard yakuza story, with maybe some badass machismo bullshit, slick killers with cool shades, and visuals that I'll probably recognized as being stolen wholesale by Quentin Tarantino. What I wasn't expecting was a bonkers, surrealist nightmare that feels more like an episode of The Prisoner than Reservoir Dogs.
The story involves a hitman named Goro who is tasked with an impossible assassination by a femme fatale named Misako. He fails and is then hunted by Number One and his henchmen. On this simple framework director Seijun Suzuki hangs bizarre scenes of Goro hunched over a pot huffing rice because he has a fetish for it, Misako's apartment filled with dead butterflies, weird scenes of Number One locked arm in arm with Goro and having a "gentleman's agreement" over how he's going to kill him, and close up scenes of bullet wounds, fake eyeballs being popped out, and mashed insect guts. Oh, and a bunch of nudity.
There is so much in this movie that's surprising and defies description that it really must be seen for itself. The gangster aspect of the film, while important, is really just there to see how far Suzuki can deviate from it's tropes and throw something unexpected at you. At one moment you're seeing a standard contract killing, and the next you're getting animated butterflies tormenting the psyche of our hero. You'll get a standard sex scene, and then you'll see Goro sniffing rice and appearing on the verge of an orgasm. Aside from the general weirdness of this film, it's also fantastically shot, with great camerawork and fast-paced editing to keep things moving along at a clip. At a mere 98 minutes it feels much shorter than its runtime, just because there's so much stuff going on and you're hit with something unique every few minutes or so. I can't say I've seen anything quite like this before.
Despite the lurid poster and raciness of the film (including one of the most blatant panty shots I've seen outside of The Breakfast Club), this is one of the best over-the-top insane films I've seen. I can only really compare it to Hausu, even though it's not nearly THAT crazy. It's more of a toned-down Hausu with gangsters and a Prisoner edge, with less screechy schoolgirls. I typically love these kinds of films, but I need to be careful with how I rank this one. Just because I love it now doesn't mean it's going to hold up to another few viewings. As I look at the list I'm finding that the border on this one is between Walkabout and Les Diaboliques. Walkabout is just a better film overall, but Les Diaboliques, despite how much I like it, never got me pumped the way this film did. Therefore, I feel good putting this at #17.
The list
Next time: Now I'm even more excited to dive into Suzuki's film Tokyo Drifter. Bring it!
The best thing a film can do is completely catch me off guard and show me something that I wasn't expecting, especially in a genre film. For instance, something like Hausu is sold as a haunted house story, but when you watch it your senses are completely bombarded with over-the-top visual and stimuli that it's difficult to define it as a horror film. A friend compared it to a feature-length TV ad, and that seems like a great comparison to me. With Branded to Kill, I popped this in expecting a standard yakuza story, with maybe some badass machismo bullshit, slick killers with cool shades, and visuals that I'll probably recognized as being stolen wholesale by Quentin Tarantino. What I wasn't expecting was a bonkers, surrealist nightmare that feels more like an episode of The Prisoner than Reservoir Dogs.
The story involves a hitman named Goro who is tasked with an impossible assassination by a femme fatale named Misako. He fails and is then hunted by Number One and his henchmen. On this simple framework director Seijun Suzuki hangs bizarre scenes of Goro hunched over a pot huffing rice because he has a fetish for it, Misako's apartment filled with dead butterflies, weird scenes of Number One locked arm in arm with Goro and having a "gentleman's agreement" over how he's going to kill him, and close up scenes of bullet wounds, fake eyeballs being popped out, and mashed insect guts. Oh, and a bunch of nudity.
There is so much in this movie that's surprising and defies description that it really must be seen for itself. The gangster aspect of the film, while important, is really just there to see how far Suzuki can deviate from it's tropes and throw something unexpected at you. At one moment you're seeing a standard contract killing, and the next you're getting animated butterflies tormenting the psyche of our hero. You'll get a standard sex scene, and then you'll see Goro sniffing rice and appearing on the verge of an orgasm. Aside from the general weirdness of this film, it's also fantastically shot, with great camerawork and fast-paced editing to keep things moving along at a clip. At a mere 98 minutes it feels much shorter than its runtime, just because there's so much stuff going on and you're hit with something unique every few minutes or so. I can't say I've seen anything quite like this before.
Despite the lurid poster and raciness of the film (including one of the most blatant panty shots I've seen outside of The Breakfast Club), this is one of the best over-the-top insane films I've seen. I can only really compare it to Hausu, even though it's not nearly THAT crazy. It's more of a toned-down Hausu with gangsters and a Prisoner edge, with less screechy schoolgirls. I typically love these kinds of films, but I need to be careful with how I rank this one. Just because I love it now doesn't mean it's going to hold up to another few viewings. As I look at the list I'm finding that the border on this one is between Walkabout and Les Diaboliques. Walkabout is just a better film overall, but Les Diaboliques, despite how much I like it, never got me pumped the way this film did. Therefore, I feel good putting this at #17.
The list
Next time: Now I'm even more excited to dive into Suzuki's film Tokyo Drifter. Bring it!
Sunday, October 18, 2015
37. Time Bandits vs Evil and technology
The first part of his Trilogy of Imagination, Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits is fun, gross, and supremely fucked up. The story of a small boy who gets whisked away by a gang of thieving dwarves, the film bounces between different periods of time before winding up in the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness, where they do battle with a Skeletor-looking Evil. Different members of Gilliam's old Monty Python gang pop up, and while the standard Python vibe of mayhem is present throughout, this film solidifies the look and feel of Gilliam's style going forward and makes his previous film Jabberwocky seem even more like a false start.
The film is held together with a thin connecting plot: the bandits jump through time with a stolen map, and they rip off every historical figure they encounter. They are being chased both by Evil and by the Supreme Being, both who want the map and hound the bandits throughout. Really, this is just an excuse to see Gilliam play around with historical figures, with Ian Holm playing a goofy, size-obsessed Napoleon, John Cleese as an arrogant, dickhead Robin Hood, and Sean Connery as the charming Agamemnon. Even though film shoots are typically hellish (unless you're working on an Adam Sandler film), the cast radiates a joy in playing these roles, with everyone seeming to be having a great time. The biggest strength of this film is that the entire cast is fantastic, and even Keven, the little boy who is really the lead of this film, is played by Craig Warnock as both confused, excited, and sad over what happens throughout.
The best part of the movie for me was Kevin's relationship with Agamemnon, who decides to adopt him after Kevin helps him kill the Minotaur. Before the adventure begins Kevin's homelife can best be described as "shit." His mom and dad ignore him and are more interested in the newest technology, and force him to stop reading his books and go to bed before he disappears with the dwarves. The storyline drops away for the first few adventures, but comes back up with he develops a friendship with Agamemnon. For the first time in this film Kevin seems happy; before he was having fun robbing people with the dwarves, but when he's with Agamemnon he finally has a father figure who wants to look after him. It's telling that before arriving here he only took a couple of photos with his Polaroid, but here he can't stop snapping photos of the scenery. His joy is ruined when a show is put on in the main hall and the dwarves reappear and kidnap Kevin. It's a truly heartbreaking scene, even though you still like the dwarves and know that it wasn't done for vindictive reasons.
Evil is a great character in this film, and I love how his story ties in with Kevin's parents. Evil is obsessed with technology as well, and he doesn't see the point in a supreme being who creates countless forms of insect life before creating the computer. As much as I disagree with it (I'm obviously typing and posting this on a computer), I love the technophobia aspect to this film. This film seems to take a stance that technology and life are at opposing ends, and while I do think the consumerism being mocked in the early scenes with Kevin's parents do a great job at spoofing the technology = happiness philosophy, at times it feels like an old man shaking his fist at progress. It's refreshing to see something like this when you're living in a time where people line up for hours to buy a phone that's going to be obsolete in half a year.
I've been a Terry Gilliam fan for years, but surprisingly I came to Time Bandits later than his other works. I haven't seen Brazil in years, but Time Bandits its a fantasy masterpiece that seems to combine all of his tastes and aesthetics perfectly into something that doesn't feel overly niche. It's a movie that kids and adults can love, and has that crossover appeal that's so rarely present in his work. That said, I'm still shocked at how dark the ending is. The film ends with Kevin waking up and being rescued by firemen. Apparently his parents left something cooking in a toaster oven, which started the fire. When they open the oven Kevin notices that there's a leftover chunk of evil inside and tells his parents not to touch it. They ignore him of course, and when they touch it both of them explode, leaving Kevin alone, walking in front of his burned-down house, with no family. That's how the film ends. Even though you see Agamemnon as a fireman, there's no hint that he's coming back to adopt him. The film just ends with this boy walking alone with no family and no home. Cut to closing credits and a cheerful George Harrison song. Look, I know his parents were assholes, but still. Give us some hope here, Terry!
It seems like the running theme this week has been movies knocking other entries out of the top ten, and Time Bandits threatened to be another instance of this. It's one of the great fantasy films, and more importantly, it holds up and improves on repeated viewings. I'm finding that Shock Corridor seems to be the border that I'm using for these films, and I'm starting to wonder if I've possibly overrated that film. As much as I loved it I'm not looking back on it as fondly as I have with Sid and Nancy and Walkabout. Regardless, Time Bandits is an amazing film, and is a welcomed light-hearted entry in the collection. I'm going to put it at #11, between High and Low and Shock Corridor. As much as I love this movie, I just can't rank it higher than High and Low.
The List
Next time: I am very, very excited to dive into Seijun Suzuki's yakuza film Branded to Kill.
The film is held together with a thin connecting plot: the bandits jump through time with a stolen map, and they rip off every historical figure they encounter. They are being chased both by Evil and by the Supreme Being, both who want the map and hound the bandits throughout. Really, this is just an excuse to see Gilliam play around with historical figures, with Ian Holm playing a goofy, size-obsessed Napoleon, John Cleese as an arrogant, dickhead Robin Hood, and Sean Connery as the charming Agamemnon. Even though film shoots are typically hellish (unless you're working on an Adam Sandler film), the cast radiates a joy in playing these roles, with everyone seeming to be having a great time. The biggest strength of this film is that the entire cast is fantastic, and even Keven, the little boy who is really the lead of this film, is played by Craig Warnock as both confused, excited, and sad over what happens throughout.
The best part of the movie for me was Kevin's relationship with Agamemnon, who decides to adopt him after Kevin helps him kill the Minotaur. Before the adventure begins Kevin's homelife can best be described as "shit." His mom and dad ignore him and are more interested in the newest technology, and force him to stop reading his books and go to bed before he disappears with the dwarves. The storyline drops away for the first few adventures, but comes back up with he develops a friendship with Agamemnon. For the first time in this film Kevin seems happy; before he was having fun robbing people with the dwarves, but when he's with Agamemnon he finally has a father figure who wants to look after him. It's telling that before arriving here he only took a couple of photos with his Polaroid, but here he can't stop snapping photos of the scenery. His joy is ruined when a show is put on in the main hall and the dwarves reappear and kidnap Kevin. It's a truly heartbreaking scene, even though you still like the dwarves and know that it wasn't done for vindictive reasons.
Evil is a great character in this film, and I love how his story ties in with Kevin's parents. Evil is obsessed with technology as well, and he doesn't see the point in a supreme being who creates countless forms of insect life before creating the computer. As much as I disagree with it (I'm obviously typing and posting this on a computer), I love the technophobia aspect to this film. This film seems to take a stance that technology and life are at opposing ends, and while I do think the consumerism being mocked in the early scenes with Kevin's parents do a great job at spoofing the technology = happiness philosophy, at times it feels like an old man shaking his fist at progress. It's refreshing to see something like this when you're living in a time where people line up for hours to buy a phone that's going to be obsolete in half a year.
I've been a Terry Gilliam fan for years, but surprisingly I came to Time Bandits later than his other works. I haven't seen Brazil in years, but Time Bandits its a fantasy masterpiece that seems to combine all of his tastes and aesthetics perfectly into something that doesn't feel overly niche. It's a movie that kids and adults can love, and has that crossover appeal that's so rarely present in his work. That said, I'm still shocked at how dark the ending is. The film ends with Kevin waking up and being rescued by firemen. Apparently his parents left something cooking in a toaster oven, which started the fire. When they open the oven Kevin notices that there's a leftover chunk of evil inside and tells his parents not to touch it. They ignore him of course, and when they touch it both of them explode, leaving Kevin alone, walking in front of his burned-down house, with no family. That's how the film ends. Even though you see Agamemnon as a fireman, there's no hint that he's coming back to adopt him. The film just ends with this boy walking alone with no family and no home. Cut to closing credits and a cheerful George Harrison song. Look, I know his parents were assholes, but still. Give us some hope here, Terry!
It seems like the running theme this week has been movies knocking other entries out of the top ten, and Time Bandits threatened to be another instance of this. It's one of the great fantasy films, and more importantly, it holds up and improves on repeated viewings. I'm finding that Shock Corridor seems to be the border that I'm using for these films, and I'm starting to wonder if I've possibly overrated that film. As much as I loved it I'm not looking back on it as fondly as I have with Sid and Nancy and Walkabout. Regardless, Time Bandits is an amazing film, and is a welcomed light-hearted entry in the collection. I'm going to put it at #11, between High and Low and Shock Corridor. As much as I love this movie, I just can't rank it higher than High and Low.
The List
Next time: I am very, very excited to dive into Seijun Suzuki's yakuza film Branded to Kill.
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