Porky’s review
January 29, 2010
For adolescent males in the early 1980’s, Porky’s was a rite of hall - the from the word go film whose feeling of lockerroom humor outdid anything you’d even seen on the screen. It wasn’t a silver screen to superintend with your parents, or on the telling screen in a societal cinema; it was a movie to study furtively on cable, or to claim you had seen, equanimous if you hadn’t. It had nudity overload in the take shape of a single, multi-mouse shower scene, foul language, and raunchy slapstick. The content barriers broken by 1960s’ cinema were as nothing compared to the hushed, giggly, man-to-chap recountings of this “dirty” movie’s cheer, and more than rhyme student succeeded in getting a call towards “Mike Hunt” issued remaining the school P.A. system where I grew up.
I will admit I never slogan the R-rated film as a 15-year-old back in 1982, and hadn’t seen it since, aside from one aborted, what’s-the-drift partial viewing in edited-as regards-idiot box form. So I solely knew the film (and its sequel) by reputation, Fox’s Atari 2600 game cartridge, and schoolyard legend when Fox’s new look-alike main film DVD of Porky’s and Porky’s II: The Next Day came across my desk.
Porky’s
The film that started it all stars Dan Monahan as the sharp, terminally horny “Pee-Wee” Morris, a on a trip school follower growing up in southern Florida, so obsessed with “getting laid” that he will risk dignity, stature and public ridicule for a motivation at the goodness fabric. This makes him an easy target in spite of the judicious jokes of his friends, a group of sexist, every now racist and in the main brainless sophomoric men, though they’re not as gullible as poor “Pee-Wee.” The plain plot thread, such as it is, concerns the gang’s journey to a sleazy, legally questionable swathe intersection where (rumor has it) a teen can procure liquor and women if the price is open. At Porky’s, the teens are ripped below average and sent packing by the redneck proprietress (Chuck Mitchell) and his fellow-citizen, the local sheriff (Alex Karras). The boys vow revenge, justified by the crotchety beating given to Pee-Wee’s friend Mickey (Roger Wilson) by Porky’s henchmen.
There’s no scepticism that Porky’s presents an adolescent boy’s examine of the world—the only prestige taught at Angel Beach High seems to be gym, women are excruciatingly good-looking but frustratingly uncanny, and questions of mores rarely enter into the business at hand. The story’s just sense seems to be that, assuming you can’t cheat an honest man, you certainly can con man a libidinous teenager—but then watch out, ’cause he and his friends leave snitch you down. Stationary, there is a fundamental impartiality to Porky’s—its awkward blue humor never seems commercially calculated, and its girl-chasing, self-fitting teenaged heroes seem enough analogous to physical kids to make their single-mindedness credible. Joined really hopes these guys will grow up before the movie ends, but they don’t; undisturbed, Porky’s musters a some leering, primordial, indecent laughs (unsuitable for then again discussion in a stock forum) while staying become a reality to writer/director Bob Clark’s swarthy little heart.
Almost all fee-based streaming video movie sites warn that non-paid watching movie sites can only offer you bad quality films with disappointing resolutions that destroy your online movie watching experience, it is totally] true. alot of bandwidth for uninterrupted viewing, or streaming links to the streaming movies you want to watch? These very important considerations that will have the greatest influence on the quality of your relaxation is what you will choose : download movie sites or watching site. Download movie sites give a great quality , so you can get pleasute of your favorite movies in hd quality anytime. Movie sharing
Porky’s II: The Next Day
Hollywood’s faith that lightning strikes twice remained unabated in 1983, when the result Porky’s II: The Next Day reunited much of the beforehand film’s cast for another run at the box department. The organize this time around (with assistance from Roger E. Swaybill and Alan Ormsby) seems to be another story entirely, hastily retrofit onto the Angel Bank High characters. After the first act, which uses clips from the prime film and is intended as a bridge to the do of the “next day” and thereafter, the gang suddenly metamorphoses into a more mature, Shakespeare-loving group, ready to take on blue-noses, bigots and the The conservatives in general in the name of resourceful liberty, led by Pee-Wee’s play-acting teacher mother (Ilse Earl).
There are some flagrant continuity errors here, most notably Mickey’s remarkable recovery—at the ending of Porky’s, he’s bandaged and on crutches, but the next morning, he shows up smiling and wound-loose. But (and it sounds weird to hear myself remark this) I think Porky’s II is actually a better film than the case. The battle lines are more clearly drawn—it’s a ration easier to established against the lying Reverend Bubba Flavel (Bill Wiley), his misguided flock, the Ku Klux Klan, and two-faced wirepuller Bob Gebhardt (Edward Winter) than the obnoxious but essentially neutral Porky. The cause is magnificent, as the gang crusades for excessive facts and against racism. And the characters are more person this forthwith around—a original relationship between Pee-Wee and Wendy Williams (Kaki Hunter) develops, and we learn retroactively that Wendy is not scarcely as “easy” as she appeared to be in the first film. School supervisor Mr. Carter (Eric Christmas) proves himself brave and honorable, and fair and square perennial nemesis Ms. Balbricker (Nancy Parsons) earns a cheer from the kids.
I’m not saying Porky’s II is a jocose work of genius either, but there’s a bit of a W.C. Fields undergo to the kids’ laudatory-natured immorality this time, and Wendy’s elaborately hilarious give someone his on the lewd Gephardt at a fancy dinner club would not seem thoroughly of place in a Marx Brothers video. These are leisurely targets, to be sure, but it’s still great make sport to watch the kids accomplish what adults hardly ever have the gumption to do—hit their enemies where it really hurts, without be afraid of group or legal reprisal. Less smarmy and more recreation than the original motion picture, I enjoyed Porky’s II: The Next Day a a mountain more than I expected to.
The Velocity of Gary review
January 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 13th 1999
The Velocity of Gary (Not His Real Name)
Directed by Dan Ireland
Calculating Gary's said velocity might give occasion to a new definition of
warp speed
: lumbering and misshapen, apparently stitched together from the discarded limbs of unrelated scripts. Take the film's first 20 minutes, in which deaf transsexual Kid Joey (
Chad Lindberg
), just off the bus to the big city, gets viciously gay-bashed a few blocks from Port Authority. Brooding beauty Gary (
Thomas Jane
) comes to the rescue, but following a pointless musical interlude lip-synched to
Patsy Cline
's "Walkin' After Midnight," Kid Joey is hit and killed by a car. And that's it? we never hear about
Joey
again, as the film U-turns back to concentrate (however fitfully) on the fractious love triangle formed by Gary, Gary's lover Valentino (
Vincent D'Onofrio
), and Val's high-strung girlfriend
Mary Carmen
(
Salma Hayek
). Two end up with AIDS and a baby enters the picture, as we're informed through a back-and-forth narrative that would confuse even if the film weren't so atrociously directed and edited. The paper-doll characters exist solely to evoke our pity. For a cut-and-paste job this sloppy, they could at least have given the actors messier roles to play.
More by Jessica Winter
4 Little Girls review
January 25, 2010
4 LITTLE GIRLS: Documentary. Directed by Spike
Lee. (Not rated. 102 minutes. At the Opera Plaza, Piedmont in Oakland and
California in Berkeley).
It happened in 1963, the same year as Medger Evers’ assassination and the summer that Martin Luther King Jr. made his “I Have a Dream” speech at the
Lincoln Memorial. But in terms of bringing home the horrors of racism,
neither of those events compares to the September 15 bombing of a
Birmingham, Ala., church, and the four black girls who died in the blast.
“This was the awakening,” says Walter Cronkite in “4 Little Girls,” a
feature-length documentary by Spike Lee that opens today at Bay Area
theaters. The culmination of a wish that Lee first got as a film-school
undergraduate, “4 Little Girls” brilliantly captures a moment in American
history and tells an achingly painful story of injustice and family loss.
True to form, Lee, whose films include “Malcolm X” and “Do the Right
Thing,” doesn’t pull any punches. The archival footage and photographs he
culls are vivid, upsetting: For a brief moment we see the
shattered corpses of the four victims — Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise
McNair, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Rosamond Robertson, middle-class girls
dressed in white for Youth Day services at the Sixteenth Street Baptist
Church in Birmingham.
Lee also gathers interviews with survivors and lawmakers; with community
leaders such as Coretta Scott King, Jesse Jackson and Andrew Young; with
celebrities Bill Cosby and Ossie Davis; and especially with the friends and
family of the four girls. Photographed by Ellen Kuras, the witnesses are
captured in stark close-up, cut off at the forehead and chin.
Inevitably, their stories are heartbreaking and raw. Addie Mae’s sister
Junie says she had panic attacks for years after the blast. Denise’s mother,
Maxine, remembers coming to identify her daughter’s body at a
church room that was used as a morgue, going to mourn at her mother’s house
(“I couldn’t stop hollerin’ and I couldn’t stop screaming”) and brushing
her daughter’s hair over the brick embedded in her skull.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Lee’s hand grows heavy only when he features a deaf, disabled George
Wallace and allows the former Alabama governor to make a fool of himself,
denying his racism and bringing his embarrassed black nurse into the camera
frame to prove his point.
Aside from that bit of excess, Lee lets the events and those who remember
them tell the story. He establishes a context for the bombing — Birmingham,
according to the Rev. King, was “the most thoroughly segregated city in the
United States” — and portrays Robert “Dynamite Bob” Chambliss, the white
racist who was tried and convicted of the church bombing.
Coming on the heels of Leon Gast’s Oscar-winning “When We Were Kings,”
“4 Little Girls” is in some way the perfect complement: a reminder of the
thick vein of racism that still runs through America, and the importance of
never forgetting.
Despite a decidedly wayward a…
January 23, 2010
Despite a decidedly wayward accent, Brosnan’s irreverent charm makes this a desirable choice to Stick jokes, unprejudiced if it’s too little to compensate for dreary Kinnear, the less than sparkling Davis, and the movie’s moral ‘stance’ (if such mendacious posturing merits that term); somehow the take contrives to be at once offensively callous hither put out of one’s misery victims and ludicrously timid in its imprudence to keep compatibility for the three leads. This keep-your-cake-and-eat-it attitude extends to a bullfight, Julian’s fancy appropriate for ‘margaritas and cock’, and virtually caboodle else. The film’s fast, has some organized lines (‘I look like a Bangkok hooker on a Sunday morning after the navy left town’), but its outrageousness is facile; as sulky comedy it’s not so much treasonous as frustratingly tricky.
Download full mp3 songs and much more. Listen to Within Temptation online for free.
Tristana (1970)
January 21, 2010
This is late Buñuel, mockingly sensible black comedy, plant in Toledo in the early 1930s, in which an old guardian (Rey) seduces/rapes his girlish ward Tristana (Deneuve) but is unable to possess her, betrayed by Surrealist lurches in time and reality, and by Tristana’s changing ‘nature’ (the amputation of a tumorous leg). Rey is dazzling as the mephistophelean, anti-clerical Socialist, ladies’ and outmoded master of public graces: father, lover and husband all in one. His passion ruins and softens him, but (caught as she is in the chauvinist paradox of woman as cause and eternal end of man’s aggression) it hardens Tristana from innocent virginity to flinty repayment.
Ipgrade your internet experience by watching good-quality streaming films on your computer and skip the hassles of renting from your local video store and wasting the fees charged for returning a movie late. Through streaming video services, you can watch your lovely movies when it is convenient for you with no rental agreements to sign or late charges to pay ever. Watch movies online
Comedy of Power (2005)
January 19, 2010
No laughs – but still plenty to like in this diverting and insightful thriller that plays out in the higher echelons of the French judiciary and Parisian community of turbulent function. Chabrol regular, Isabelle Huppert is Jeanne Charmant, a judge with a mission to uncover corporate misdoings, whatever the effect on her personal and professional animation. Chabrol takes inspiration from the 1990s Elf Aquitaine dishonour, the questioning of which was presided on the other side of by a female judge, but he is not so much concerned with the details of fraud and its confession as with the sly civil affairs of the legal and economic worlds and, most sinisterly, how both – vain and masculine – worlds collude in their own self-security. Charmant’s approve sparrings with harried, accused exec Humeau (François Berléand) offer some of the film’s strongest episodes, as does Chabrol’s portrayal of her uneasy home ground-elasticity with depressed partner Philippe (Robin Renucci). This is no chef-d’oeuvre, but it’s a big improvement on Chabrol’s form, ‘La demoiselle d’honneur’. Huppert is fascinating to watch, as endlessly.
Duck.fm Free Music Search engine gives you an opportunity to find lots of free mp3 downloads. Interpol free full mp3 download. Explore large collection of free music.
The opening goes into maybe t…
January 16, 2010
Almost all free watching video movie sites warn that cost-free streaming movie sites can only provide you low quality films with annoying resolutions that destroy your online movie watching experience, it is almost often host, i.e. does the site have enought of bandwidth for good viewing, or working links to the streaming movies you want to see? These very important considerations that will have the greatest effect on the quality of your relaxation is what you will choose: download movie sites or watching site. Download movie sites give a great quality , so you can get pleasute of your favorite movies in hd quality anytime. Download Give’em Hell, Malone hd
The opening goes into maybe too much detail about the sad existence of
Reese (Zooey Deschanel), who’s scrabbling to make it in New York’s fringe
theater scene, using cocaine, sleeping around and living a generally
self-destructive life. On her mother’s death, Reese is offered serious money by
a book agent for the love letters of her estranged dad (Ed Harris), an
alcoholic writer living in retreat in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
(Don’t be surprised if you’re reminded of J.D. Salinger; the Harris
character’s name is Dan Holdin, close enough to Holden Caulfield to make the
point hard to miss. Just to add to the fun, actress Deschanel is named after
Salinger’s character Zooey.)
When Reese arrives at Dad’s door to find the letters, she learns not only
that he’s moved into his garage but also that the household is more or less
ruled by a couple of newcomers (to her): Corbit (Will Ferrell), a quirky
ex-Christian rocker who functions as bodyguard and handyman, and Shelly (Amelia
Warner), a young British woman who’s an ex-student of Dan’s and works as
housekeeper (and maybe more). Reese clearly resents her father’s new “family.”
She will, of course, learn a thing or two about her dad, as well as his
caretakers, who turn out to be something other than interlopers.
Harris, the big name in the cast, does a decent job as the genius in
serious decline, but the role lacks complexity. The picture really belongs to
Deschanel, an appealing performer with a deadpan manner that serves her
shell-shocked character pretty well. She has some maturing to do as an actress,
but overall it’s a creditable job. For Ferrell (who worked with Deschanel in
“Elf”) this is an unusually serious role, but he brings a quirky humor to this
very odd duck of a character.
You can carp about this picture — the suffering-artist motif is pretty
heavy-handed and the upbeat ending isn’t quite convincing — but it’s a
pleasingly small-scale offering with some nice rewards for the viewer willing
to overlook its problems.
– Advisory: Profane language and scenes of sexual activity and drug use.
– Walter Addiego
‘The Libertine’
Drama.
Starring Johnny Depp, Samantha Morton and John Malkovich. Directed by Laurence
Dunmore. (R. 115 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)
Looking like a gloomy Marc Bolan in 17th century ringlets, Johnny Depp
emerges from darkness to open “The Libertine” with a warning: “You will not
like me.” Why not? Because, he boasts, his character is a shameless hedonist
and an unconscionable cad. Coming from Depp’s well-formed lips, this sounds
more like a promise than a threat. Bring on the debauch!
But there is little debauchery to be had in Laurence Dunmore’s adaptation
of “The Libertine.” In fact, hedonism has never looked so bleak. Working from
the play by Stephen Jeffreys, Dunmore presents his subject, John Wilmot, the
second earl of Rochester (Depp), as a garrulous misanthrope for whom pleasure
is a dreary intellectual exercise. Wilmot doesn’t engage in ribaldry — he
mocks it, even while carousing through London’s brothels with his
goblet-swinging, wench-hunting posse of dandies.
To hear Wilmot tell it — and tell and tell it — it’s not easy being
a libertine. He’s bored, so bored, by his own sexuality, and soon we are, too.
A film like “Caligula” at least reveled in campy surplus; here carnality is
signified only by acres of swollen and heaving bosoms punctuated by stilted
dialogue that blends earthy expletives with overripe metaphors. Sadly, the
dialogue is the only stiff thing to be found in “The Libertine”: Wilmot and his
colleagues talk about their exploits at great length, but talking is all they
do. Their lives in ye olde fast lane are stuck in the mud.
Wilmot is briefly roused from his torpor by actress Elizabeth Barry
(Samantha Morton). She’s sassy, dedicated to her art, and uninterested in
anything the earl has to offer, so naturally he falls in love. This final
passion proves both his salvation and his downfall. By the third act, the earl
is spent and wasting away, much to the chagrin of his long-suffering wife
(Rosamund Pike) and his royal patron, King Charles II (John Malkovich, wearing
a formidable prosthetic nose). The rest is history.
To be fair, Dunmore’s preamble cautions us that “The Libertine” will
document the Restoration’s hangover, not its glory days. The problem is that it
succeeds too well. All mud and murky lighting, the England of Charles II really
does look like the aftermath of the world’s longest party and seems about as
pleasant. The point seems to be that too much of a good thing leads to a vast
sense of nothingness and bleak cinematography. Alas, it also results in
transforming a film about a sensualist into a remarkably sexless enterprise.
– Advisory: A landslide of explicit language, some sex and violence and
lots of mud.
– Neva Chonin
‘Before the Fall’
Drama.
Starring Max Riemelt, Tom Schilling and Justus Von Dohnanyi. (In German with
English subtitles. Not rated. 110 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)
To his backers, Friedrich Weimer is the Great White Hope, their best
shot at winning back a league boxing championship. Never mind that in the
compelling drama “Before the Fall,” everyone in Friedrich’s school is white,
the finest specimens of the Aryan race handpicked to attend an exclusive
military academy created by Hitler as a training ground for future leaders.
Friedrich (Max Riemelt) distinguishes himself not only by his right hooks but
also by being the fairest and blondest of them all.
Judging from the number of recent movies on the subject, World War II is
hardly fading from the consciousness of German filmmakers, even if most are far
too young to remember it. Like its singular central character, “Before the
Fall” stands out from the pack. There are no scenes inside concentration camps
– Friedrich’s classmates appear oblivious to their existence — and the
only fighting portrayed is in the ring.
By restricting most of the film to the tight confines of an elite Nazi
school, director Dennis Gansel unveils an insidious indoctrination process that
turns the young and innocent into automatons capable of any atrocity. Gansel
occasionally resorts to sledgehammer filmmaking such as drenching the screen in
red during an ordeal by fire the cadets are subjected to, and their teachers’
extreme cruelty toward them strains credibility.
But Gansel, who based the script in part on reminiscences of his
grandfather, an instructor at one of these academies, hooks you by focusing on
Friedrich’s very human story. It’s a variation on “Golden Boy” with the German
teen using his fists to rise in the world. He’s destined to become a common
laborer like his father when a scout for the military academy sees Friedrich
win an amateur boxing bout.
Riemelt has an expressive face, especially his lively eyes, and he
captures Friedrich’s sense of awe at suddenly being catapulted into such a
rarefied circle. Hardly believing his luck, he’s the first to jump to it at his
instructors’ commands.
Initially, the environment doesn’t seem all that different from any
private school, civilian or military. The older cadets harass the younger ones,
and an enterprising student barters for extra liverwurst in return for a
glimpse of a photo of his sweat-soaked sisters working out.
It becomes harder for Friedrich to see everything through rose-colored
glasses after he becomes friends with Albrecht (Tom Schilling), the son of a
high government official. Albrecht has a highly tuned sense of right and wrong.
Competing in the ring against a student from another of Hitler’s academies,
Friedrich is egged on by his coach to keep hitting the boy when he’s down. In a
critical scene — played with great subtlety by the young actors —
Albrecht confronts his friend and tries to make him understand that just
because a higher-up told him to do it doesn’t make it right. It’s impossible to
miss the larger ramifications of what Albrecht is saying. There’s a
foreshadowing of this when the students are enlisted to hunt down supposedly
escaped prisoners of war carrying weapons, who turn out to be unarmed Jewish
children.
The rest of “Before the Fall” can be viewed as a battle for Friedrich’s
soul. The title seems to be purposely ambiguous, referring to more than just
the downfall of the Third Reich. As a coda to the movie, the production notes
state that students from these academies went on to become well-known
industrialists and political figures who’ve been “reluctant to speak about
their often humiliating childhood experiences.”
– Advisory: This film contains scenes of physical and emotional violence.
– Ruthe Stein
‘Unknown White Male’
Documentary. Directed by Rupert Murray. With Doug Bruce. (PG-13. 87
minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)
This unsettling documentary about an amnesiac trying to put his life
back together both fascinates and frustrates. While the film raises simple but
deeply puzzling questions about memory and identity, the hit-or-miss search for
answers by the subject and assorted experts, family and friends is finally
unsatisfying.
That may simply reflect the nature of severe amnesia and our present state
of knowledge about it, but the movie leaves the impression that director Rupert
Murray doesn’t seem to know where to go with all of this.
“Unknown White Male” follows the experiences of Doug Bruce, a former New
York stockbroker who, in July 2003, found himself on a subway to Coney Island
but had no idea how he had gotten there or who he was.
While he eventually learned his name and the facts of his pre-amnesia
life, he never regained a real connection to that past or to his old self —
he had to get to know his father, sisters and friends as if he were a stranger.
It’s a frightening situation.
We learn details of his former life. Bruce comes from a well-to-do English
family, which he visits in their comfortable retirement in Spain in his attempt
to find out who he is. In work he had been so successful that he could quit
Wall Street in his early 30s to become a photographer, living in an impressive
Manhattan loft.
Bruce’s attempt to reconnect is a genuine battle — he even has to
reacquaint himself with fundamentals like what it feels like to crush a handful
of snow. Those who knew the pre-amnesia Bruce suggest that he’s also undergone
a personality change, having become both friendlier and more inward.
Director Murray, who had met Bruce years before his memory loss, does a
good job early in the picture of communicating his subject’s disorientation.
But the film runs out of steam, and it isn’t helped by Murray’s fondness for
fancy montages and other tricks. It’s possible that Murray was impeded by his
prior relationship with his subject — perhaps more critical distance would
have helped.
In the end Bruce remains opaque, and the film’s observations and
speculations about his condition aren’t all that incisive.
(Several newspaper and magazine articles have raised questions about the
veracity of this documentary and of Bruce’s amnesia, but the filmmakers say it
is genuine.)
– Advisory: Contains minor drug references and some strong language.
– Walter Addiego
‘The Ister’
Documentary. Directed by David Barison and Daniel Ross. (Not rated. 189
minutes, with intermission. At the Rafael Film Center in San Rafael.)
If you see just one movie this year about Martin Heidegger, make it
“The Ister.”
Sure, there are some Heideggerian questions raised by the popular “Final
Destination 3″ — Is it possible to know when we will meet our end? Will it
be on a beat-up roller coaster? Why did we pay $10 for this oxymoronically
titled tripe? — but teenage moviegoers may be surprised to learn that “The
Ister” is still a more penetrating inquiry into the controversial German
philosopher’s views.
“The Ister” is like few other films you have seen. Unless, of course, you
have already watched three hours of footage of the Danube River intercut with
talking-head interviews of intellectual heavyweights discussing such concepts
as Dasein. (Forget your Ontology 101? It means, essentially, existence.)
Australian directors David Barison and Daniel Ross call “The Ister,” their
first-ever cinematic undertaking, a “videofilm.” It’s a sort of illustrated
lecture on philosophy, a modest, low-budget project made with little adornment.
But this doesn’t mean that “The Ister” isn’t rewarding viewing. The film is
often a very engaging analysis of Big Ideas that one seldom sees on the big
screen.
What Barison and Ross set out to do is examine talks that Heidegger — a
member of the Nazi Party — delivered in 1942 on a poem about the Danube (the
Ister) by Friedrich Hölderlin. In the documentary, three philosophers and one
filmmaker interpret the meaning of Heidegger’s words (Barison and Ross are
virtually absent from their film) as a camera takes viewers on an 1,800-mile
journey up the Danube, from its mouth in Romania to its source in Germany’s
Black Forest. Most watchable is Bernard Stiegler, a brilliant and amused
Frenchman who must have the distinction of being the only ascot-wearing
philosopher who once served five years in prison for armed robbery.
Along the way, viewers learn about Greek myths and complex notions of time
and place, of memory and forgetting. What begins innocently enough — an
exploration of an ancient Greek and Roman past in Romania — becomes more
disturbing as images of war-ravaged Yugoslavia and what had been the Mauthausen
concentration camp fill the screen. In a very real sense, the film’s tour is a
trip into the heart of darkness.
But “The Ister” is far from perfect. The concepts expressed in it
certainly need time to be fully explained, yet some editing wouldn’t have hurt.
Like the editing, the camera work is clumsy, and shots of the river are often
deadened by a lack of ambient sound. And as compelling as the interviewees can
be, it’s unfortunate that they were mostly filmed while sitting — yawn —
at a desk. A film about profound ideas deserved more imagination.
– John McMurtrie
Walter Addiego, Neva Chonin, Ruthe Stein, John McMurtrie
Faithful (1996)
January 15, 2010
Despite a large seek reject and director Paul Mazursky at the directorship, I had not ever heard of the movie Faithful before getting in on DVD, and actually had to look it up on the internet to uncover that it was made a occasional years back (1996) and had a bleak use up at the caddy office (it not pulled in a little more than 2 million in its theatrical run).
Given these facts, I was expecting a rather awkward haze – but I was pleasantly surprised. Cher stars as a wealth, but lonely, housewife, who on the day of her 20th mingling anniversary discovers that her cheating husband (Ryan O’Neal) has sent a hitman (Chaz Palminteri) to their bordello to nullify her.
The silent picture is supposed to be a dark comedy, but there are really few make an ass-alibi-loud moments. But that doesn’t mean it’s not with tongue in cheek to timepiece. The tremendous lion’s share of the film over is made up of Cher and Chaz talking to each other about man’s-female relationships, and both the script and the acting are jet-done.
Faithful is based on a play that Palminteri wrote (he also wrote the screenplay owing the film) and the movie uncommonly seems like watching a amusement – dialogue heavy, with most of the power compelling mission in only a few opposite locations.
The biggest impact I got from watching Faithful is that I had forgotten how good of an actress Cher can be. It’s a mortification she doesn’t do film more, as she’s undivided of the infrequent singers turned actors that are importance paying your movie dollar to see.
The Tin Drum review
January 12, 2010
The Movie
In 1979, The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel) was honored with the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Less than 20 years later, this same film was banned in the state of Oklahoma for allegedly containing scenes that depicted child pornography. Whether or not this charge was justified is a simple matter of personal opinion; by viewing certain scenes individually, this film certainly pushed the boundaries of what might be considered “acceptable”. However, viewing of The Tin Drum in its entirety allows the viewer to see the whole picture: a story of a young boy, raised in pre-WWII Germany, who refuses to grow up.
The boy in question is one Oskar Matzerath, played to perfection by David Bennent. In young Oskar, we see a child who is born with wisdom and intellect well beyond his years. Through his eyes, he sees the foolishness of the adults around him, and decides to stop growing after his third birthday. Oskar goes nowhere without the tin drum his mother gave him, and pounds on it in protest of what goes on around him. If anyone tries to take it from him, he emits a high-pitched shriek capable of shattering glass. Still, the driving concept of the film is this: even though he grows older and experiences new things, Oskar’s appearance remains that of a young boy.
Bennent’s performance as young Oskar is a sight to behold. He is almost completely believable as a three-year old boy, even though he was 11 years old during filming (David suffered from a growth deficiency until a few years after the film’s completion). As young Oskar ages, his mannerisms and body language reflect his maturity, even though he looks no older. This was easily one of the most impressive performances by a child actor in film history, and the lack of work Bennent received after The Tin Drum was quite a surprise: he’s only appeared in a handful of films since, including a memorable role in Ridley Scott’s Legend. With piercing eyes and concise delivery, he was perhaps the biggest reason for this film’s success.
At the helm, Director Volker Schlöndorff did an excellent job of bringing the original book (written by Günter Grass) to the screen. According to “The Adaptation of The Tin Drum“, an essay included in the DVD’s liner notes, Grass was offered countless film adaptations since the book had been published in 1959. He eventually chose Schlöndorff to represent his work, resulting in an excellent translation of what must have been an extremely difficult undertaking. In his Audio Commentary for this DVD release, Schlöndorff sheds some light on the difficulty of introducing so many adult themes to such a young actor. He recounts the willingness of Bennent’s parents to read and explain the book’s themes to young David, as they were perfectly comfortable with the very adult themes that take place during The Tin Drum.
To put it mildly, The Tin Drum isn’t exactly an ideal Friday-night family film. Although this story is largely ground in satire and symbolism, viewers who aren’t looking for it may be turned off by what they see. While Oskar’s first experience with sex may be the first “red flag” for certain viewers, there’s more where that came from. One of the film’s more infamous scenes depicts a man fishing while using a severed horse’s head for bait, while another shows young boys urinating in “boiling frog soup” and forcing others to eat it. While such content is more satirical than gratuitous (especially considering the overall context of the story), it still comes a bit heavy-handed—especially during the latter portions of the film.
Still, The Tin Drum remains a stunning portrait of a special young boy who largely rejects the world around him. As Nazi influence spreads across Oskar’s home country, his primary means of defense remain the same: a tin drum and a loud voice. His unwillingness to conform to his environment is what drives this film, and that alone makes it worth viewing—even if you might be very uncomfortable during certain scenes.
The Criterion Collection now presents The Tin Drum in a terrific 2-disc package, coming as a great relief to those who have been unable to find this film on VHS. Featuring a near-perfect technical presentation, Criterion also delivers the goods with a nice assortment of bonus features, most of which feature participation by Director Volker Schlöndorff. From top to bottom, The Tin Drum is a truly stunning release, and will likely rank among the best of the year.
Quality Rule Department
Enhance your internet intelligence by watching high-quality streaming movies on your computer and skip the hassles of renting from your local movie store and paying the fees charged for returning a movie late. Through streaming video sites, you can watch recent movies when it is convenient for you with no rental agreements to sign or late charges to pay ever. Watch In Search of Beethoven movie online .