Waiting for Godard - live from the Film Forum

No reason. Just always wanted to use that pun.

Top 15 Fall Films I'm Looking Forward To

Fall is my favorite time of year.  Not just because it's the time of year when New York City is at its most beautiful, thus reminding us all why we continue in this abusive relationship with it, but because the movies start to get good again after the onslaught of big-budget blockbusters that are only occasionally watchable.

 

People seem to think that, with each passing year, the movies get worse and worse.  Well, if you're looking at crap like Transformers (the new nadir of megahit blockbuster quality), then yeah.  But there's a whole crop of ambitious, interesting films that come out every fall and - even if they end up being bad - you have to give them credit for trying.  Unlike Transformers.

 

So here's my list of 15 films that I am dying to see this fall.  Some are already out (and I'm negotiating with my wife to be able to find the time to see them) and some I still wait in painful anticipation for:

 

 

15.  American Gangster - Ridley Scott might have actually done something he hasn't done in a long LONG time... make a great movie.  I'm not talking about just a good movie, okay?  I got news.  Gladiator?  Not "great."  Just "good."  Alien is "great."  The director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven?  Very good.  Not great.  And I'm not even bothering to mention Hannibal, Black Hawk Down, and Matchstick Men (could that movie have been any more obvious?).  The trailer for American Gangster caught me instantly, if for no other reason than the re-pairing of Virtuosity stars Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, and it looks like it could be Ridley Scott's first great movie in... 25 years?  Can it really be 25 years now since...

 

14.  Blade Runner: The Final Cut - OK, despite my rabid love for this film, it's low on my list for two reasons.  First, I've seen a different version of this film before.  Four different versions, actually, counting the TV edit.  THIS is not only A great Ridley Scott film, it's his masterpiece.  Every science fiction film or TV show in the last 25 years that has had call to borrow from Blade Runner HAS borrowed from Blade Runner.  It's visually stunning even now and as perfect an example of genre mixing (in this case, sci-fi and film noir) as anyone can ask for.  But do we really need six versions of the film, counting the TV edit?  Let's hope so because I'll call bullshit if this "final cut," which Scott shot new footage for as recently as last year (my second reason for putting it so low on the list), doesn't deliver the goods.  But I'll be first in line at the Ziegfeld.

 

[EDIT: I was first in line at the Ziegfeld last week and my GOD, it was amazing!  It delivered the goods and more!  More on that in a later post.]

 

13. (tie)  Juno/Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story - Judd Apatow, for the umpteenth time, is comedic gold.  Everything he's been responsible for in the last few years has been successful critically or financially, usually both.  This year alone, he's responsible for two of the year's funniest movies ( Knocked Up and Superbad) and is writing and producing what looks to be a third.  Walk Hard, a spoof of singer biopics such as Walk the Line and Ray, looks like a rare thing in the parody genre: genuinely funny.  Honestly, any comedy with John C. Reilly in a starring role has my money.  And whether it was intended or not (likely not), Apatow's sensibilities are being tapped into in a film like Jason Reitman's Juno, which will likely be described as Knocked Up meets Superbad.  Whether or not that is an accurate description, I don't know but considering it's about a girl who gets pregnant by her best friend and considering that the best friend in question is Michael Cera - the Mozart of comedic timing who also stars in Superbad - this is almost certainly how the movie will be sold to you.

 

12.  Cassandra's Dream - I'm hoping that Woody Allen is going to doing a "bad/good/good" alternation with his films.  Anything Else was bad.  Melinda and Melinda and Match Point were good.  Scoop was bad.  If the pattern continues, then this crime drama starring Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell should be a good one.  I'm hoping so.  On one hand it's got Ewan McGregor; on the other hand, it's got Colin Farrell (but he was good in The New World).  Pretty much the entirety of Woody's output this decade has been called into question by even his most ardent fans but I have faith.  He's 71 and working as hard as he ever did; you have to admire that. 

 

11.  John Rambo - I know, I know.  But fuck you for judging me.  The trailer that popped up on youtube was the single greatest thing I have EVER seen Stallone take part in, and yes, I am counting Rocky IV.  In a post-9/11 world, if you're gonna do a Rambo 4, it's got to be the most balls-out movie you've ever seen or no one's gonna give a shit.  The people want blood and lots of it.  It looks like Stallone heard the people and is giving them what they want.  Though I'm not sure why he's still fighting the Vietcong.

 

[EDIT: It looks like this is being pushed back to January.  I wept upon hearing the news.]

 

10.  Southland Tales - Richard Kelly has become, with only one film released to date, the most hyperbolized director of the decade.  Most people either think he's a genius or think he's a hack.  I really like Donnie Darko a lot but it's too soon to tell.  With Southland Tales' less-than-enthusiastic premiere at Cannes last year, the Kelly-haters felt vindicated and wasted no time in denouncing a film that they hadn't seen and knew almost nothing about.  A year and a half later, and with a 15 minute trim, the movie is finally coming out.  The trailer is interesting but I can't help but wonder if Kelly is going to be to apocalypse-minded sci-fi what M. Night Shyamalan is to the twist ending.  I'm not trying to fool myself but still, an interesting misfire will always be better than a piece of shit that hits the mark. 

 

9.  The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Or the slow, thoughtful movie that everyone but the geekiest film geeks will hate with a passion right out of the Bible.  Previous winners of this award include Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line and The New World, as well as Steven Soderbergh's remake of Solaris (which gets none of the respect it deserves).  2 hours and 40 minutes of slow-moving Western starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck?  I am SO IN!

 

8.  The Golden Compass - Not much to say here except I can't wait for the Christian protests of this over its atheist overtones, and Eva Green... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

 

7.  The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Basquiat is one of my favorite films of the 1990s.  It captured a time and place, not so much of when the film was set as when it was made.  If you want a great example of American independent filmmaking in its golden age, Basquiat is one of the first ones I would recommend.  It made me a lifelong fan of director Julian Schnabel and I eagerly await every film he makes.  The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is his latest film - only his third, after Basquiat and 2000's Before Night Falls - and it seems like Schnabel has a thing for biopics of people no one else would ever make biopics about.  This time, the subject is Jean-Dominique Bauby, a magazine editor who suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire body, with the exception of his left eye.  This performance might be a little bit harder of an Oscar sell than Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot (at least he could move his body some) but if anyone can make this into a compelling film without submitting to sap, Schnabel can.

 

6.  I'm Not There - The last time Todd Haynes made a movie about rock & roll, it was Velvet Goldmine.  And he turned it into a glam rock take on Citizen Kane.  I have no idea what he's going to do with Bob Dylan's life story besides casting several actors, including Richard Gere and Cate Blanchett, but whatever crazy shit it sounds like Haynes has planned, I have no doubt it will be effective.  After all, this is the guy who started his career by making a Karen Carpenter biography exclusively with Barbie dolls.

 

5.  The Darjeeling Limited - I think Wes Anderson is the Woody Allen of my generation.  Think about it.  He makes talky, quirky films; is an acquired taste; has been accused of making the same movie over and over; and no one can quite copy the formula that makes him so distinct.  Darjeeling is Wes' fifth film and unfortunately, the bulk of the reviews for refer to co-star Owen Wilson's recent suicide attempt.

 

4.  No Country For Old Men - I actually liked The Ladykillers.  There.  I said it.  I liked it a lot actually.  It's not one of the Coen Brothers' best movies but if you're going to make a bad movie in comparison to the rest of your work, then that's the way to do it.  This new one was considered a dark horse for the Palme D'Or this year (it didn't win though) and is already one of the best reviewed films of the year.  If the Coens have truly returned to form with No Country, it's going to be one of the best films of the decade.

 

3.  Lust, Caution - If you really think that Brokeback Mountain won all those awards because of political correctness and a push from the "gay mafia," then fuck you.  Seriously.  Fuck.  You.  And fuck Paul Haggis too.  If your homophobia keeps you from being affected by that movie, then you're just beyond help, plain and simple.  Ang Lee, just like his Taiwanese brethren Hou Hsiao-hsien and the late great Edward Yang, is a master of putting real human emotion on film without exploiting his characters or manipulating his audience, unlike a certain unworthy film about racism that stole the Oscar from Brokeback.

 

2. There Will Be Blood - It's been five years since Punch-Drunk Love.  Five years.  Paul Thomas Anderson may be setting himself up to be the new Kubrick and, as long as the product justifies the wait, I'm okay with that.  In the two-and-a-half minute trailer that has been posted on the internet, it's obvious that everything we knew about PTA is out the window, with the exception of quality filmmaking.  It just screened a couple of days ago and already it's being hailed as a masterpiece.  So I can't read anything more about it until its release for fear of it being overhyped for me.

 

1.  Youth Without Youth - So how can a movie I've waited five years for be topped?  By a movie I've waited TEN years for.  Francis Ford Coppola is back!  Sadly, it's not with Megalopolis , his ambitious project that A) would likely have been deemed a colossal failure had he actually made it; B) would, in actuality, have been the most important science fiction film since Blade Runner; C) that is, if it didn't kill him first, so; D) he decided to shelve it in favor of his winery. 

 

But now, ten years after The Rainmaker (which was much better than people realize), he's returned to the business of directing.  From the sound of it, he has made the sort of personal project that he hasn't had an opportunity to do in over 20 years.  Word is it's not an easy film to watch but I remain firmly committed to the idea that, when someone like Coppola makes a film that is "difficult," it's up to the audience to find the film, not the film to find the audience.  And it's Coppola's first foray into HD (well, the last time he made a movie, George Lucas was still shooting on film, so...) and it will be interesting to see how that visually affects his work. 

Truth in advertising - live from underneath 5th Avenue

What really needs to be said?

Muggy as hell - live from Central Park South

Lame-ass of the Week

"It's like another contemporary American phenomenon that's truly moronic.  The novelization of movies."

     - Woody Allen, Manhattan

 

On the subway this morning, I saw a woman reading a novelization of the upcoming vampire film 30 Days of Night.  As if the novelization of a film - with very few exceptions - isn't already a ridiculous thing, the fact that this is a novelization of a movie that is based on a GRAPHIC NOVEL makes it just about the most useless object on earth.  I noticed this once before, when Road to Perdition came out.  I saw it in the store and thought, "Why?  Are pictures too difficult to digest anymore?  It's not like you have to read all 100+ issues of the Lone Wolf and Cub manga.  It's just one book!" 

 

It's a misappropriation of energies that could be better spent reading something more fulfilling (or at least more artistically sound).  It's an embarassment.  Novelizations are an absurd idea to make ourselves feel like we're getting "culture" without actually having to extend ourselves intellectually.  "Well, I'm reading and reading is fundamental, so..."  It's just sad.  Unless you're under the age of 12, there is simply no excuse for reading a novelization.  And regardless of your age, there is no excuse for reading a novelization of a move based on something else you can fucking read... and much more easily as well.  It's like being hungry and trying to eat the TV when there's a picture of food on it.  What the fuck?!

 

Runner-up Lame-asses:  Firefly fans who are looking forward to a second movie.  Cinematical is reporting that there are ideas being tossed around for a possible sequel to the overrated Serenity.  Now, I don't begrudge the fans their rabid love for something that's just not really that good but fucking give it up already!  The show was cancelled and the movie tanked.  The DVDs are selling well but you know what?  It's not enough.  We Arrested Development and Veronica Mars fans lament the passing of those show but we know that the movie just isn't going to happen so please, for your own good, give it up.  You'll feel better.

 

It's like having sex with a flaky flight attendant.  Everytime she's in town, she calls you and you come running.  But by the time she leaves, you'll be in tears.  It will happen every time.  End the cycle and move on with your lives.  There's closure to be found here and it's called Battlestar Galactica.

The Man With The Horn (1926-1991)

Today marks the 16th anniversary of the death of Miles Davis. To say that he is a legend, a pioneer, an innovator, none of those words even come close to fully encompassing what his contribution to music was. Miles' work is as important to the world lexicon of art as that by Beethoven, Picasso, Virginia Woolf or Orson Welles. He was not only a brilliant musician - even when he played straight ahead, you could tell from the sound of his trumpet that it was him - but a musical visionary, creating some of the most exciting music of the 20th Century. I fear that, in this age of exponentially decreasing attention spans, once the generation before mine dies out, Miles' music will too. Maybe it's just the circles I travel in, in real life and on the internet, but I don't hear too much about fledgling music aficionados being handed copies of Bitches Brew and On the Corner in the same way that they are copies of The White Album or Led Zeppelin IV. I hope I'm wrong, but if I'm not, I'd like to do what little part I can to keep Miles' legacy alive by giving you a chance to listen to my Miles Davis Memorial Playlist, found to your right (which unfortunately will only play on shuffle, due to contractual shit with last.fm).

1. "So What" from Kind of Blue (1959) - Kind of Blue is widely considered the single most essential jazz recording of all time. It's at or near the top of every top jazz album list and is usually the first thing recommended to the uninitiated. I don't necessarily agree that it's the best ever but its reputation is very well-deserved; it's the Citizen Kane of jazz. "So What," the album's first track, is about the best place to start.

2. "Pharaoh's Dance" from Bitches Brew (1970)- Miles' second appearance on those same top jazz lists is usually Bitches Brew. In my opinion, this is his most essential recording. He went into the studio for three days in August of 1969 (starting the day after Woodstock ended) and recorded something that challenged everyone's conceptions of not just jazz but music in general. Miles was in his "electric" period, using electric guitar, keyboards and lots of distortion; he was taking the rock aesthetic of guys like Jimi Hendrix and applied it to jazz. It's big, loud, offensive and angry; punk rock before punk rock existed. "Pharaoh's Dance" is that shot heard round the world, so to speak. Back when music still had the power (and desire) to infuriate because of its ambition, many people didn't know what to do with themselves when listening to this. But a lot of people latched on immediately and Bitches Brew became Miles' first gold record and is argued to beat out Kind of Blue as the best-selling jazz album of all time.

3. "Concierto de Aranjuez (Adagio)" from Sketches of Spain - This is my third Track 1 in a row and it won't be the last, either. Sketches of Spain is my favorite album of all time, hands down. I remember flipping through my dad's small vinyl collection, looking for something "new" and finding this. Having only a cursory knowledge of who Miles Davis was at the time (I must have been 12 or 13 at the time), I put it on our barely-functioning turntable and listened to it one day. To date, it's the only album I've ever owned on record, cassette, and CD.

4. "Summertime" from Porgy & Bess - A pretty straightforward rendition of a classic,to demonstrate that he could play straightforward. I know a lot of people swear by Billie Holliday's cover of it but I prefer this one.

5. "Shhh/Peaceful" from In A Silent Way - I remember the first time I heard this album. It was early 1993 and I was on a day trip to Albany with my high school's jazz band. My best friend and musical guru Chris gave me two albums to listen to on the way up: Pearl Jam's Ten (which I had just started being interested in) and Miles Davis' In A Silent Way. Having two musical revelations in a single day is pretty special.

6. "On the Corner/New York Girl/Thinkin' of One Thing and Doin' Another/Vote for Miles" from On the Corner - This is the first half of the album. If you've listened to any jazz/electronica hybrids like Squarepusher, you'll get a feel here for where that all came from.

7. "What I Say" from Live-Evil - Hearing this piece makes me wish Miles had done more film scores. Live-Evil isn't one of them but the music, particularly "What I Say," should have been the score to some avant-garde Blaxploitation flick. Sort of like El Topo meets... I don't know... Superfly or something. Or was that what Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song was? Anyway, this is great music to jog to... or to run from the cops to.

8. "Zimbabwe" from Pangaea - In February of 1975, Miles played two shows on the same day in Osaka, Japan. The earlier show was released as the album Agharta and the evening show was released as Pangaea. Pangaea is more of a jam session than anything else. It's arguably the most difficult album of Miles' to get into, what with its two tracks each over 40 minutes in length. It's raw, it's rough, and it's one of the top 5 shows I wish I could have gone to. Pangaea's raw edge was almost like that extra bright flash as a light bulb blows out. Shortly after this show, Miles dropped out of the music scene and sent the next six years fucking himself up on drugs but resurfaced in 1981 to begin the final stretch of his career and his life.

9. "Agitation" from E.S.P. - The album that introduced the world (and almost 30 years later, me) to Miles' second legendary quintet, which included Ron Carter on bass, Wayne Shorter on saxophone, Tony Williams on drums (who kicks ass in the two-minute drum solo that opens this song), and a young Herbie Hancock on piano.

10. "My Funny Valentine" from My Funny Valentine - A classic rendition of a classic classic. Grab someone you love and slow dance to it.

11. "Bitches Brew" from Black Beauty: Miles Davis at the Fillmore West - Last.fm fails me. I was hoping for the version from Bitches Brew as, 2:50 into the 27 minute song, a bass groove kicks in that is the epitome of funk. That groove makes your face scrunch up like you smell something awful but you can't stop bopping your head to the beat either. At the essence of funk, those two conditions are all that matters. Unfortunately, the bastards at last.fm have this version which doesn't have that same groove. Whatever. It's still good.

12. "Time After Time" from You're Under Arrest - On the flip side of that, I was hoping last.fm would have one of the live versions of the song. Sadly, no. But it's fine. This version of Cyndi Lauper's timeless ballad (one of the best love songs ever written) isn't as heartbreaking as his live arrangements of it but it will do; it's still a great example of the best work of the end of his career.

Live from the N train

What do you think the odds are that a doctor or nurse will get on a train and sit next to a woman wearing a scrub-colored sweatsuit? Simpler question: should I play the lottery tonight?

I wanna dip my BALLS in it! - Live from Hunter College

I've just spent the last five or so minutes laughing to myself about how funny the concept of teabagging is. It's just amazing really. Dipping one's sack into one's mouth like a teabag seems much too delicate to be something so deviant. Or am I thinking to hard about this?