Worst Movie Titles

So many to choose from but I can't help but dislike the new Vince Vaughn title THE DELIVERY MAN. Is this a title that attracts you? I get the double entendre in it but still…The original French-Candian title was STARBUCK, which is a bit better but not much. Don't they have clever people to title films more adeptly?

What's your choice for worst title ever?

How I Bailed on TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE...

I had planned to review this film for Crimespree Magazine this week. Several people had told me it was a great film and certain to be a tough competitor for Best Picture. The reviews were outstanding. But I knew it would be a difficult movie for me--I had the difficult experience of watching Django last year.

But I thought this director was a more serious film-maker and would treat the subject with more respect and ground it in a more authentic story since it was based on a memoir. The Tarantino film seemed to engage in torture porn--if there is such a thing--and I was sure this one would be more rigorous in its approach

I lasted 50 minutes and then paced the lobby while Phil and our friend, Mel Small, a historian, finished the film. So I cannot review the film or even comment on its merits. What I did see did not seem particularly artful or less generic than the other films about slavery I have seen. The world is painted very much in black and white. And I don't mean that racially. Or perhaps I do.

Going into this film, my thought was if slaves could endure their treatment, I could manage to watch it. In a theater of all black patrons with the exception of us, I was the only one to walk out, making me a coward. When I mentioned this once to a black friend after Django, she said, "Well, we have lived with this story our whole life. Watching it affirms that it happened."

And I guess this is also why Jewish friends seem able to bear films about concentration camps more easily than I can. They feel none of the guilt (in both cases that I feel). I feel guilt at being a part of the group that allowed such things to happen.

Related to this, I will not see THE BOOK THIEF, which managed to convey the idea that a lot of Germans were as much a victim as the Jews in the book. I cannot go along with that idea because it is one step closer to denying the Holocaust for me. My book group loved the book but I found it turned the war into a fairy tale at points.

I am drifting all over the place here, but what I want to ask is what things would make you put a book down or walk out of a theater? I have walked out of only four films, I think, and all for different reasons. But this is probably the film I should have sat through. I will always feel like a coward for bailing on this one.

One Movie to Watch for Halloween-What would it be?

I am choosing THE HAUNTING, which as you all know comes from THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE (Shirley Jackson) who I revere.  I watched the opening of it the other day and was reminded on how far implied horror can take you. Mood, music, camera angles can scare me plenty.

What about you?

What is the worst film by a great director(s)?

Even the best directors have one misfire in their resume. Sometimes it's early on but in the two cases I mention, it was not.
I am thinking of two: LADYKILLERS by the Cohn brothers and PRET A PORTER by Robert Altman.
Can you top those?

Movies Front to Back

If I rewatch a movie, it has to be from the beginning. Now Phil can't get this and if he flips by a movie he likes, or even one he has never seen even, he will watch ten minutes of it from the middle or even the end. I have to leave the room then so he mostly does it after I go to bed.

Does anyone else insist on watching movies in their entirety or not at all?

I mean beside Woody Allen and me?

One of the Best End of Summer Movies

And my review of IN A WORLD in on Crimespree Magazine's site.

Good actors miscast

So many, many examples but this one is near the top of my list. George Clooney is not Batman and never will be. Why did anyone think he was? Understanding who is Batman is part of the game.

It is hard to separate miscasts in bad movies like this one though. Or Tom Hanks in BONFIRE or Kevin Costner in ROBIN HOOD.

Who else?

Actors Who Never Get Their Due

Sam Rockwell  has been in perhaps two dozen or more movies but escaped much notice. I especially liked his performance in MOON, MATCHSTICK MEN, SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS, SNOW ANGELS and CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND. But I think he is known by very few.  He is rock solid in every movie.

Who else falls into this category?

Getting the Team Together

What is your favorite movie where the story begins with someone assembling a group or team in order to achieve a goal? I'll start with THE SEVEN SAMURAI.

MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS

This has one of the best premises ever. A police detective, failing to bring cases to a satisfactory conclusion, manoeuvers a group of small time crooks into a major crime so he can solve it.

This film was just released in the U.S. for the first time. We saw it at our local art museum theater. 

Not a perfect movie, but fun. And Romy is gorgeous.

What is your favorite premise in a movie?

What Book Sparks the Conspiracy Theories similar to a movie like ROOM 237?

ROOM 237 documents the ideas of a group of people who find hidden meanings in THE SHINING after multiple viewings. This seems to be more common in films than in books. Where multiple viewings of a movie begin to reveal previously hidden insights.

But what books spark such a frenzy over hidden signs, symbols, etc.

Your Favorite Gangster Movie?

Just saw this film from 1980 again the other night. It is still as fresh as it was then. It's innovative in its story telling and the story itself, about how a London underworld figure tries to figure out who is after him, is riveting. Great performance from Hoskins and Helen Mirren as his moll. And one of the best last scenes ever.

What movie about gangsters holds up this well for you?

My Best Of--but only the more obscure films and books

As I look over the books and movies I saw in 2012, I have to say it was a pretty good year in this regard.  
These are a few of the older books I read in 2012 or the more obscure 2012 movies.

Books

1)      MEMORY, Donald Westlake. This was a recent publication of Hard Case Crime, but it certainly would top my list any year. The protagonist, an actor, is beaten senseless by the husband of a woman he beds for one night. The rest of the book follows him as he tries to remember who is, what he is, how to solve this dilemma. If you want to learn how to plot, how to climb inside someone’s head, this is the book for you. Not a boring page in the book.

2)      MONTANA, 1948, Larry Watson. A small book, full of pain, full of graceful writing. A dying Sioux woman will not allow her employers, the town sheriff, to call for the town’s doctor, his brother. Powerful stuff as we watch events unfold through the eyes of a boy.

3)      RED BAKER, Robert Ward. I can’t say enough good things about this story of man who loses his job and everything else when he can’t come to terms with the loss. Just terrific. Newly available as an ebook.

4)      THE SILENT LAND, Graham Joyce. What if you woke up at a ski lodge and everyone else had disappeared. This book explores that notion through a young couple. Haunting and it shows that white can be as dark as black.

5)      WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN A CASTLE, Shirley Jackson, Probably you read this a long time ago. Reading it again makes you notice so much more.

Five of the Best Short Stories I read this year

1)      The Babysitter, Robert Coover

2)      Things I Learned in Fairy Tales, Roxanne Gay, PROTECTORS

3)      Tetanus, Joyce Carol Oates, GIVE ME YOUR HEART

4)      Girls in Their Summer Dresses, Irwin Shaw

5)      A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O’Connor, THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF THE 20^th CENTURY

Movies

1)      LE HAVRE, A great little movie that shows that community is everything for an African boy who turns up portside in a small French town.

2)      THE DEEP BLUE SEA-The wife of a judge falls in love with an air force pilot during the Second World War. He is not worthy of her love, which makes it all the more interesting. Rachel Weisz is brilliant in this moody little piece.

3)      A SEPARATION. When an Iranian couple wishes to separate, it turns out to be almost impossible. Insightful, sad, complex.

4)      AUGUST 31, OSLO. A day in the life of a recovering drug addict as he leaves his treatment facility to interview for a job.

5)      STARLET, A young woman meets an older one at a garage sale and they both impact the other’s life in surprising ways.Dree Hemingway is Ernest's great granddaughter and she is wonderful as is her co-star, Besedka Johnson, who has never acted before now.

6)      FOOTNOTES-A father and son, both Talmudic scholars, cannot move beyond earlier grievances.

Television-This will be the least unexpected choices, I am afraid

1)  MAD MEN-The best year yet was the 2012 season

2) BREAKING BAD-Since it was divided into two parts, it is hard to evaluate but I have faith in this one to have the nerve to take it to the mat,

3). The 2012 Presidential Election-horrible, sad, sickening, surprising yet the outcome made it worth it.When people mention 2016, I want to cry. Can't do it again.

4. VEEP/GIRLS-And these shows confirmed every impulse we had about politics in Washington or spoiled girls in New York

5. PARENTHOOD, When I needed a cry, this one was standing by and Peter Krause is the actor I would most like to have as my Dad. In effect, his family has two Moms.

6.  BIG BANG THEORY-Always there when I needed a laugh.

Not the greatest seasons for THE GOOD WIFE, JUSTIFIED, WALKING DEAD, MODERN FAMILY. And no new TV shows this fall showed much promise.

Ventriloquism and Other Scary Pastimes.

This was an odd little documentary about ventriloquist, Nina Conti, who takes the bereaved puppets of her now dead mentor (Ken Campbell) to a convention in Kentucky. Venthaven is the resting place for old puppets and getting me inside such a place would be akin to getting me into a coffin while still alive.

Dummies, as we used to call them, have always been one of my horrors and it probably comes from a Twilight Zone episode where the puppet controlled his master.

Do puppets freak you out? How about animals dressed like humans? Okay, what does?

What Movie's Charms Elude You? LOVE ACTUALLY

I have watched this movie several times in an effort to understand why people are so bonkers about it? Call me a grinch but it but it doesn't work for me at all. Too many story lines that all seem underdeveloped and manipulative. And this is surprising because I love the cast. Maybe the third time will be the charm.

What movie, widely loved, eludes you? (Not necessarily Christmas films).

My Favorite Supporting Actor

Although he had had the occasional leading man role (BLUE CAR) David Strathairn is basically a supporting actor. In the recent film, Lincoln, his was my favorite performance. What supporting actors are memorable to you? Am I the only Strathairn fan?

Multiple Screenings

A friend of mine has seen the Bond movie SKYFALL more than a dozen times since it opened. I don't think I have ever seen a movie more than twice at a theater and I am crazy about movies. Now over an extended period, the rules change. Or for me at least.

What movie did you see the most times at a theater? And how many times? 

Five Great Films=One Great Actress

                                                   Naomi Watts-Any other films to add?

Howard Hawks

I have a friend who whenever I mention a movie always knows the director. Or if he doesn't, it's the first question he asks having grown up on the auteur theory despite being the same age as me. I grew up on the movie star theory so I usually know who acted in the movie. But directors are pretty darn important and one of my favorites is Howard Hawks. There are a dozen movies of his that rank in my top hundred, but if I had to chose one it would be BALL OF FIRE.




Hate to mention actors again, but these are two of the best. 

What is your favorite Hawks movie?

Spencer Tracy

As more books come out recounting his life, it is clear Tracy was an enigmatic, very depressed person. But I don't like to dwell on that, instead on his great film career. I am especially fond of ADAM'S RIB and all the films he did with Hepburn for that matter.

f you look at the list on IMDB, it is clear he did it all: horror, western, poltical, romance, crime. He always radiated a natural intelligence though.

What is your favorite Tracy film?