January 2010

January 2010

The Roost (West, 2005)|||||4.5

So The Roost, that was a very... "special" movie.

It's one of those "By-No-Means-Possible" movies. Which is a harder category to fall under than Oren Peli and Mother Hen Steven Spielberg think it is. When I tried to think of something, I came up with Wendy and Lucy, then I realized Larry Fessenden had his indie-producer mitts on that one too.

An Oh-so-clever and Oh-so-self-amused quasi-creature feature with a case of horror-hipster-itus. It's exactly as if snooty horror fans put up the time to make an especially arcane haunted house ride in order to laugh at the people not getting scared. And, of course, it's because they don't "get" that special type of "creep" sophisticated horror fans know and love.

Fancying myself one of those horror fans, I'm glad I watched this movie. It's not especially well-made, but it's inventive. Ti West, in this film at least, isn't particularly brilliant, but he's probably a really passionate [pretentious] guy. Many will very understandably think it's boring, and it's got some mildly retarded (intentionally??) moments where the film stops dead... WITH TENSION! Seriously, the movie tenses, and tenses some more, and makes you wait for it... then nothing happens. Haha, good joke, movie. You're weird and awkward.

Observe and Report (Hill, 2009)|||||5
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Fleming, 1941)|||||4.5

Far inferior to the Mamoulian film. If I had to stare at Spencer Tracy's face for another farcically prolonged minute just to see the 1940s' state-of-the-art make-up and dissolve FX, I'd have revolted.

Generally, Spencer Tracy cannot save himself from delivering a terribly neutered performance as Jekyll. All sense of consequence and the irreparable is seeped out of the story, resulting in some of the most bloodless torment you can imagine. Shouldn't really be a fault, but Ingrid Bergman is far too strong and distinctive a female presence to play Ivy. I took little productive affirmation being made from seeing Bergman being beaten around and controlled, as I did the irrepressibly common Ivy of Miriam Hopkins' portrayal.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Mamoulian, 1931)|||||9

Revelatory-good. It was smart and funny, then it was resplendent and sparkling and lovely, then it was audacious, then it was despairing, frightening, tragic.

Even the Muriel character, the stable, wholesome love interest, is an uncharacteristically strong character (and even - to a lesser extent of course - in the '41 film). Seeing Rose Hobart, the socially upstanding female presence in the film, forcing kisses on Fredric March, telling him she'll do anything to be with him, whilst he (impotently, in stark contrast to a female) tries to break it off with and (full of shame) explain himself to her, was really something. Now that's spectacle.

To the Devil A Daughter (Sykes, 1976)|||||5
The Last House on the Left (Iliadis, 2009)|||||5

Last House on the Left for the 00s is exactly how you'd imagine a studio remake to turn out. Drain out to about 2% the perversity, and then fine tune its premise into a crackerjack thriller. Krug and co. are just kind of low-lives. Haute bourgeoisie Mom and Dad are terribly competent and resolve to just "do what we have to do."

But it's actually a pretty engaging and visually strong movie. If you liked the Craven film's premise but wanted it to be more exciting and more about the dignity of humanity than the opposite (or, less theologically preoccupied like the Bergman film...), this would probably be pretty satisfying entertainment for ya.

The Stooge (Taurog, 1952)|||||5.5
Brideless Groom (Bernds, 1947, "Three Stooges" short)|||||5
The Hangover (Phillips, 2009)|||||4

The Hangover was going pretty strong for me... that is, until the hangover part came in.

From then on, it was all just a mild tolerance with the occasional amusement. I thought it was all pretty uninspired. Even Baby Mama had some surprises and subversion... but I guess that just goes with actually having a premise, while this is just a f**k-all of inane, point-deprived, transparently cooked-up misadventures.

As for the film being noxious and hazardous on a moral level, I rather liked the in-between the film found in making the characters unabashed caricatures of un-PC male-ness - it properly justified this fantasy adventure in inconsequentiality. Bradley Cooper's character, particularly, was something of a revelation - a character I should hate, but who is consistently played with a sort of flair embodying both the whole bonhomie thing and the whole "Be an asshole, be kicked in the balls now and then, but forget about it later" thing that the film's pretty much all about, so that I actually enjoyed him.

Otherwise, the film is saved by the performances and awesome one-liners and kaputt, that's pretty much it.

* Gremlins (Dante, 1984)|||||6
* Rio Bravo (Hawks, 1959)|||||8
* A Bucket of Blood (Corman, 1957)|||||7
* The Little Shop of Horrors (Corman, 1960)|||||6.5
* The Bubble (Oboler, 1966)|||||5.5
Monsieur Verdoux (Chaplin, 1947)|||||7.5
A New Leaf (May, 1973)|||||6.5
Inside Man (Lee, 2006)|||||6.5

Lee's a thinking filmmaker, who has the technique of tableau and montage down for his bold visual gestures. But with Spike Lee and Inside Man - that is, when his film's not soaked in very meticulous art design, a very personal story, or extreme thematic fervor - his work is more stylish than expressive, which is not so much bad so much as me being nitpicky and elitist with my artistes... since a stylist w/ ideas can be equally worthwhile as the artsy aesthete director I'm always wantonly digging for.

The final scene serves as a welcome reminder to Lee's visual acumen, though: beginning with the montage of insert shots of Washington removing from himself the items of his profession and societal purpose - his badge, his commemoration, etc. - that are simultaneously symbols of his material, personal well-being (that is, simply, that he has the money and means to feed himself and his dependents), the film comes into focus as one about the eternalness of that latter commonality of living, and how ethics and principles are the continuously recurring other side of that coin of common living. This flipping coin is pushed in the very final shot: a tableau of Washington's personal life, one that appears no less dignified, empowered, and deserved by Washington and his girlfriend, even though we're being dared to call it phony because the luxe aesthetic is too sexy, and Washington's white hat too debonair - as if no working class man has the right to be debonair in "post-9/11 New York." Yet sadly, we don't similarly find ourselves ironically perceiving in the same way the image of rich white bankers in their also very luxe interiors.

The Black Dahlia (De Palma, 2006)|||||5.5
* Adaptation (Jonze, 2000)|||||7
Sherlock Holmes (Ritchie, 2009)|||||6
* Transformers (Bay, 2007)|||||3.5