MENTAL MASTURBATION PART IV

Another list of understated films that don't get the attention they deserve...

Les Enfants Terribles (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1950)
Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1950)
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Robert Ellis Miller, 1968)
Claire’s Knee (Eric Rohmer, 1970)
Vanishing Point (Richard C. Sarafian, 1971)
Papillon (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1973)
1900 (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1976)
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
Over the Edge (Jonathan Kaplan, 1979)
Foxes (Adrian Lyne, 1980)
Strangers Kiss (Matthew Chapman, 1983)
The Brother from Another Planet (John Sayles, 1984)
Static (Mark Romanek, 1985)
As Tears Go By (War Kong Wai, 1988)
Alice (Jan Svankmajer, 1988)
Metropolitan (Whit Stillman, 1990)
The Rapture (Michael Tolkin, 1991)
Orlando (Sally Potter, 1992)
Living in Oblivion (Tom DiCillo, 1995)
The Taste of Others (Agnès Jaoui, 2000)
Everything Put Together (Marc Forster, 2000)
The Cell (Tarsem Singh, 2000)
Manic (Jordan Melamed, 2001)
Better Luck Tomorrow (Justin Lin, 2002)
Kontroll (Nimród Antal, 2003)
Somersault (Cate Shortland, 2004)
Control (Anton Corbijn, 2007)
Afterschool (Antonio Campos, 2008)
Redbelt (David Mament, 2008)
Funny People (Judd Apatow, 2009)

THE SOCIAL NETWORK (DAVID FINCHER, 2010)

The Social Network is a David Fincher film. No, no, I mean it is a David Fincher film. It has all the qualities of a Fincher movie. The script was brilliantly penned by Aaron Sorkin, who is quickly becoming one of the, if not the best screenwriter in the business. The performances were well directed and nuanced, headlined by the amazing Jesse Eisenberg who should rightfully receive an Oscar nomination. The shots, the music, the timely social topics are all brands of Fincher’s filmmaking style.

We all know what the film is about. It’s about Facebook. The $25 billion sensation (as of this writing), the website that has attracted 500 million users worldwide (again, as of this writing), and perhaps the biggest thing since sliced bread itself. Facebook first went online in the winter of 2004. Originally it was spearheaded by best friends Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin. Within the year however, Zuckerberg took majority control of the company and drove out Saverin which lead to a huge lawsuit and an out of court settlement. However, the heart of the movie lies in the simple question of whether or not Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook from a couple of Harvard students who approached him with a similar idea. In late 2003, Zuckerberg was approached by the Winklevoss twins, a set of athletic rowing men who came from a privileged family. Supposedly, while he was developing their idea into a site, he was creating his own website called “The Facebook”. After two months, the site was finished and up and running. Once the twins got word of this, they brought on a lawsuit as well which ended with a $65 million settlement.

The movie answers the question and doesn’t answer it at the same time. It makes Zuckerberg out to be an ambitious punk, but not necessarily a thief. Justin Timberlake stars as Sean Parker, the inventor of late 90s music sharing company Napster, who served as President of Facebook for a short while before being ousted after a cocaine bust at a party he attended. Timberlake does a great job in his limited role and has certainly evolved from baby-faced pop icon into an actor of serious note. Another stand out performance can be found in the Eduardo Saverin character who was portrayed by Andrew Garfield, a young brit who has yet to make his big splash. He does wonders with the role, and it will be interesting to see what he does with his career in the future.

As for Fincher, The Social Network is his best film in a long time. It is a timely, socio-political topic that the masses can understand and want to understand.

500 million people use Facebook and they are curious as to why they do, and why they are so infatuated with it, why they are so addicted to it, and where the origins of the site are.

Well, essentially, some girl broke Mark Zuckerberg’s heart.

And that’s when Facebook was created.

The awards season is young, and there are many films to look forward to. But The Social Network is the best film of 2010 thus far, and will certainly rack up the nominations when the Oscars roll around next year.

THE LATHE OF HEAVEN (FRED BARZYK AND DAVID R. LOXTON, 1980)

In the DVD version of the The Lathe of Heaven, there is an introduction that precedes the start of the movie. It goes that in 1979, PBS produced a televised film version of the Ursula K. Le Guin novel of the same name, The Lathe of Heaven. Unfortunately, after its premiere on TV, the materials were lost forever and the film was in limbo for years. Finally, recovered was a videotape of the film and from this tape, the movie was carefully color corrected and refined into the current version on DVD. It is a poor edition of the film, and in this day and age, it might even turn some people off. However, the film itself is a masterpiece, and perhaps the best televised film ever made.

Set in the near future, The Lathe of Heaven centers on a young man who attempts to commit suicide by swallowing a bottle of pills. He is unsuccessful in his attempt and is sent to do mandatory therapy. While at the therapist, he reveals to his therapist that he attempted to commit suicide because he suffers because of a strange ability that he possesses. The ability? His dreams can change reality.

The author undoubtedly was inspired by classic sci-fi novelists and writers of the 1950s and 60s like Rod Serling and George Orwell. In fact, the main character’s name is George Orr.

Starring Bruce Davison as Orr, it is a chillingly brilliant sci-fi brain twister. A thoughtless remake was made for TV in 2002 starring James Caan and Lisa Bonet. The original 1980 version still stands as one of the greatest science fiction films of all time.

The only flaws of the film are the special effects, which are admittedly sub par. But considering the film was produced in the late 70s, and had a modest budget to work with in the first place, you have to forgive the filmmakers for the laughable effects.

It is a film for thinkers. It is a film for outsiders. It is a film for science fiction fans. It is a film for people who enjoy movies that think outside of the box and offer more than just casual mindless entertainment.

I’ll end with an interesting trivia bit: The Lathe of Heaven was unseen for nearly two decades because of a copyright issue. In one scene, George Orr plays a record of The Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends". The film was finally allowed to be rebroadcast when The Beatles' version of the song was replaced with one sung by a different vocalist.

DÉJÀ VU (HENRY JAGLOM, 1997)

Déjà Vu is an odd film. It is almost magical. At first glance, you will see a simple film. A simple film about simple people set in simple times. In fact, I will admit, reading about the film beforehand, it sounds a bit boring. It is a typical romantic drama of two married people who meet by chance and fall in love.

That is the log line when viewed from afar. When you dig deeper, you will find a fantastic and warm film about people just like you or me or anyone else really.

Dana Howard is an antique shop owner and travels around the world looking for new artifacts for her store. On a business trip to Israel, she has a chance encounter with a strange, but lovely woman who approaches her and tells her of a story of when she was a young girl during the war, and falling in love with an American GI. The love affair was not to be, however, the woman leaves behind the only artifact that still remains from the relationship, which was one half of a pin. The woman leaves for a moment, and suddenly Dana realizes that things are not what they seem to be. For example, sitting behind her were two female soldiers. But as the woman left, suddenly two completely different people appeared out of nowhere and claim to have been sitting there the whole time. Thus begins, a unique and fascinating journey to find the woman, which leads her to meet a British man who sweeps her off her feet.

Déjà Vu is a love story, yes. But it is a love story in the classic sense of the term. A movie that feels not of its time, the 1990s, but of another time and place. A movie that belongs in that great era of movie-making in the 1930s and 40s. The “golden age”, as they say. The entire movie can be better represented by a story told by one of the characters midway through the film.

The story goes that when Katherine Hepburn was a young lady, before she became a movie star, and the most famous actress in the world, she was once in a car, being driven by her driver. On the way to their destination, the driver needed to stop off at a store to buy some things. So, they stopped off, and the driver went inside. And Katharine remained in the backseat of the car. A few moments later, another car pulled up a few feet away from Miss Hepburn’s car. The backseat passenger of that car rolled his window down and a young man peered out. A very good looking man. The two of them glanced at each other, just glanced, and the whole world just stopped. Nothing existed anymore. Nobody existed; it was just the two of them. And later in her life, Katharine Hepburn said that she knew at that moment, that they were meant for each other. That he was made specifically for her, and she was made specifically for him. But the driver returned, and they drove off. And she never saw him again. Katharine Hepburn lived to be 96 years old. She was quoted as saying that not a day went by that she never thought of that young man, never thought of what could have been. The point of the story is also the point of the movie, and might also be a way of explaining true love and the purpose of existence in general. Sometimes in life, you are presented with an opportunity. A rare opportunity. And you have two choices: you either go with it and see what happens or you ignore it and perhaps end up regretting it forever.

Déjà Vu is an amazing and unique film and even if only one person reads this and watches it, I will smile and know that this film had an impact on at least one other person than myself.

LAST ACTION HERO (JOHN McTIERNAN, 1993)

Last Action Hero might feel like a weird choice to be added to a list of underrated films, but I think it’s worth the distinction. This is one of those action movies that tried to be an innovator in its genre instead of being a typical explosion filled cliché machine. Ironically, it is explosion filled, and it does feature a crazy number of clichés, but that’s the point. It’s a very self mocking action picture. And it’s also a movie within a movie. How many times have you seen a high profile action movie starring one of the most famous a recognizable faces with a concept like that?

Directed by John McTiernan, known best for helming Die Hard and Die Hard 3, Last Action Hero was originally conceived by a couple of college friends including Zak Penn who would later pen several X-Men movies, excuse the pun. A big budget film which notoriously flopped at the box office, it is ultimately plagued by two elements of production. The shots and the cuts. Some of the shots look as if they shot for a low profile television show or commercial. And the editing was awful. There were tons of shots that should have been taken out, but due to pressure from the studio boss, the movie was cut in just two months, not nearly enough time to produce a blockbuster of this large a magnitude.

Schwarzenegger at the time was the biggest star in the world, pulling in $15 to $20 million a picture. He decided to take a departure from serious sci fiction films such as Total Recall and Terminator 2 and focused on a high concept action-comedy where he would be portraying a thinly veiled version of himself.

Filled with cameos from stars such as Sharon stone, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Schwarzenegger’s wife Maria Shriver, Jim Belushi, and Robert Patrick (who starred opposite Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2), Last Action Hero is a movie about movies, the clichés we all know and expect, and the obsession the public has with movies and celebrities in general.

The most significant reason for this movie’s failure at the box office and with critics as well, is that the audience never had the desire to see a movie about a movie. They don’t want to see death and explosions within another film. People watch this film and essentially the fourth wall is broken and that scares people because it breaks the illusion that film provides us with.

This film was a big risk for those involved. Schwarzenegger’s star managed not to drop too far off after the release of this film. He quickly followed it up with his third venture with James Cameron on the hugely successful action-spy thriller, True Lies.

McTiernan went on to direct Die Hard 3 just two years later; it ended up being one of the most successful installments of the popular series. The concept, however, has never managed to scratch the surface of celluloid again. Because as this film proved, people don’t want that illusion broken for them. They need the movies. They need it for entertainment. For fantasy value. For escape. For some, Last Action Hero was a neat twist on an old formula. For others, it was a failed experiment that did not ultimately satisfy. Either way, it is a unique piece of action cinema, and definitely worthy of a second look for those who have not thought of it in several years.

THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE (REBECCA MILLER, 2009)

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is an appropriate title for a wonderful film directed by Rebecca Miller. Released in 2009, the indie flick centers on a 40-ish, still pretty, blonde wife and mother who moves into a retirement village with her much older husband, played by the always amazing Alan Arkin. Despite the 30 year age difference, they have great chemistry together as husband and wife. While she adjusts to this new life, she begins a strange friendship with the son of a neighbor, played by Keanu Reeves. Wright-Penn (or is it just Wright now?) plays the title character of Pippa Lee, a woman who slowly begins to lose her sanity and occasionally drifts back on moments of her life. Pippa’s mother, who is portrayed by Mario Bello, gives a standout performance in very little available screen time. In fact everyone does. The cast is stunning. In addition to Wright-Penn, Arkin, Reeves and Bello, you also have supporting roles from Winona Ryder, Julianne Moore, Monica Bellucci, Zoe Kazan, Mike Binder, and the absolute best surprise of them all, Blake Lively, who plays Pippa as a teenager, and who falls in love with a 50-ish Arkin and marries him.

It is quite possibly the best written drama of the last 18 months. Although it got no love from the Academy (not surprised there. They rarely reward the best films anyway), it did make quite a splash on the indie circuit. The film is in fact, based on writer/director Rebecca Miller’s book of the same name. Miller is of course married to the two-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis, who starred in Miller’s last effort, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, released in 2005.

Pippa Lee excels where others fail. It manages to hold our attention, even though it jumps back and forth between time periods and characters, which is mostly comprised of a core of (very talented) female leads.

The story is so nicely woven together, almost like a beautiful piece of fabric. It is so pleasant to simply listen to the characters talk as if they really exist, and not just speak as if they are in a play or something. Of course, when you deal with such professionals as Alan Arkin and Robin Wright-Penn and Rebecca Miller, you know you will receive a good package.

It is Blake Lively, however, that held the center of my attention the most. Watching her onscreen was a pleasure. A real pleasure. She was only 21 or 22 years old at the time of filming and yet she gave a mature and provocative performance. Her career will go to far depths if she continues on this path. Although, with limited knowledge of the business, it is difficult to surmise what outside influences are really controlling her career choices at this time. In any event, we will always have The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. A career high for several of its stars. And one of my favorite films of 2009.

OPENING NIGHT (JOHN CASSAVETES, 1977)

John Cassavetes was a lucky guy. He was talented, but that was part of his luck, the fact that he was born with a certain talent. I’m not going to discuss his acting career, which included roles in the classic horror film Rosemary’s Baby and an Oscar nominated turn in The Dirty Dozen. I’m not going to discuss the fact that his wife, Gena Rowlands, was a dazzling actress in her time and starred in many of her husband’s productions. I’m not going to discuss how John’s son, Nick, has had his own share of success in Hollywood as a filmmaker. I’m not even going to discuss how Cassavetes, since his death, has become the godfather of independent cinema, and has been recognized as the premiere leader of the American indie film movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

What I really want to discuss is his masterpiece, Opening Night. Cassavetes might be better known for directing films such as 1968’s Faces, 1974’s A Woman Under the Influence, or his debut, Shadows, released in 1957, and then re-edited and re-released to better acclaim in 1959. But it is Opening Night that feels like the peak of a great cinematic career. It centers on an actress, played brilliantly by Rowlands, who is in the process of having a mid-life crisis and nervous breakdown while performing in a play in the heart of New York. Watching the film, and the play being performed in the film, you never know when you’re watching Gena Rowlands, or the character in the film, or the character in the play within the film. Cassavetes cast himself opposite Rowlands as the husband in the play, while Cassavetes-regular Ben Gazzara plays the production’s producer, nervously trying to hold the actress together during a successful run of the play. Rowlands is magnificent. It is as if she and her husband performed the play within the movie in real life and then simply re-staged it for the film. The lines between the film and the play within it blur constantly. It is the distinct reason why the movie makes such an impact on the viewer. Not only are you trying to pay attention to the characters in the movie, but you must also focus hard on the play, which shares a parallel storyline of hopelessness and despair with the characters in the reality of the film.

Opening Night is one of the longest films Cassavetes ever directed, clocking in at 144 minutes in length. It is evident that he poured in his heart and soul into the film, and was almost speaking to the audience about himself as a filmmaker and as a human being, as well as about his wife as an actress and as a human being. At one point in time, his character in the play says to Rowlands (the wife), “You wanna’ get drunk? You wanna’ take dope? You wanna’ go out with some guy at 4:00 in the afternoon? Go ahead. That’s your problem. You want to be young again, don’t you?” It is a heavy and deep film, one that stands out in a long career that was cut short in 1989, when Cassavetes died at the age of 59 from cirrhosis of the liver.

There is a lot to say about this film, but it is difficult to explain or to put into words. There is so much in this movie to take in and dissect. You must see it to truly understand its incredible emotional impact.

MENTAL MASTURBATION PART III

Another list of heavily underrated films...

Elevator to the Gallows (Louis Malle, 1958)
La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961)
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes, 1976/78)
Fingers (James Toback, 1978)
10 (Blake Edwards, 1979)
Scanners (David Cronenberg, 1981)
Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983)
Crimes of Passion (Ken Russell, 1984)
Blind Chance (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1987)
A Short Film About Killing (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1988)
A Short Film About Love (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1988)
12:01 PM (Jonathan Heap, 1990)
Rhythm Thief (Matthew Harrison, 1994)
Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas, 1996)
The Last Kiss (Gabriele Muccino, 2001)
Hollywood Ending (Woody Allen, 2002)
Auto Focus (Paul Schrader, 2002)
Baadasssss! [How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass] (Mario Van Peebles, 2003)
Melinda and Melinda (Woody Allen, 2004)
13 Tzameti (Géla Babluani, 2005)

HOUSE (NOBUHIKO OBAYASHI, 1977)

Where does one begin in reviewing and discussing Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 1977 cult film House? It is, without a doubt, one of the most unique films you will ever experience. I was fortunate enough to see it on the big screen, in all its bizarre glory. Being the type of person who rarely watches trailers, and previews, I had little to no knowledge of what I was in for. I thought I was going to see what I heard was a Japanese cult horror movie. It was definitely Japanese, it’s definitely a film deserving of a cult status, but I’m not sure what genre this film fits into. Horror? Thriller? Comedy? Experimental? All of the above?

Obayashi was clearly aiming to create a subversive and out of this world mash up of styles and genres with a touch of 1970s camp a la Pam Grier-type blaxploitation films. With its prolific use of music typical of films of that genre, in addition to a score that features classical piano pieces, it succeeds heavily in creating a multi-layered piece of art. It’s abilities to shock and fright were unmistakable, but the attempts at slapstick humor felt slightly out of place.

The film surrounds a group of female classmates who go on vacation to the residence of one of the girls aunts. The aunt turns out to be a psychotic killer who eats one of the girls, and who’s household objects, a piano, and a lampshade among them, eats the other girls alive as well. It is an insane experience to say the least. It mocks films of other genres (an especially hilarious scene makes fun of the “prince riding in to save the princess on a white horse”), while mocking itself as well.

You never really know what to expect from House, known as Hausu in its native Japan. Sometimes is very thought provoking and scary, mixing beautifully artificial set designs with imaginative cinematography, and tricky editing techniques. Other times, it is oddly humorous, and features sequences that feel like something out of an old Three Stooges routine. What the director was aiming for with this odd arrangement of styles is beyond me. Perhaps he was going out of his way to make something really crazy and different from everything else at the time, even if it hurt the film in the end.

The director did succeed in his goal-he made a film that makes you feel like you’re trapped inside a kaleidoscope or a nightmare you cannot awake from. To sum it up, the movie is incredibly weird and wonderful and eccentric and unlike anything I’ve ever seen. If you’re looking for something really different to watch, try House.

HARDCORE (PAUL SCHRADER, 1979)

Paul Schrader is probably best known for his work on the film Taxi Driver. The movie that elevated Marty Scorsese to the top of the directing food chain, and made Robert De Niro an acting God, it was a disturbing and riveting piece of cinema. The script, written by Schrader is considered one of the all time greatest to come from the turbulent and innovative 1970s decade of film. Schrader would go on to write or co-write several other screenplays for Scorsese including 1980’s Raging Bull, 1988’s The Last Temptation of Christ and 1999’s Bringing Out the Dead, which Scorsese once referred to as “Taxi Driver with an ambulance, instead of a cab”.

After the success of Taxi Driver, Schrader turned to directing, and in 1978, directed Richard Pryor in Blue Collar. He followed the film up with 1979’s Hardcore, starring George C. Scott. Schrader would later also direct the 1980 classic American Gigolo and Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters in 1985. It is Hardcore, however, that has attracted my attention the most. A gritty L.A. set drama centering around a father searching for his teenage runaway daughter in the sleazy back alleys of a city known for its sleaziness and culture built primarily on sex.

Scott, in one of his last theatrical roles, stars as a middle-class mid-western single father, whose daughter goes off on a church-related trip to California. Days later, he gets a phone call saying she’s disappeared. After hiring a private detective, played by brilliant character-actor Peter Boyle, Scott’s character learns of a 8mm film his daughter performed in-a snuff film. Apparently, she’s now part of a disturbing group of adult actors and filmmakers and pimps. Scott decides to search the streets for himself. His performance shows the troubling transformation from a regular, middle-class citizen, into a cold-hearted animal sifting through the seedy parts of L.A. and San Francisco to find his daughter.

It is exactly the kind of film Schrader mastered over his long career. Taxi Driver, Hardcore, American Gigolo, Bringing Out the Dead, Auto Focus, among others, all center on troubled individuals, and societies that are obsessed. These obsessions transcend our basic understanding of this world. He chronicles the people from small cities, and the people from big cities who eat them alive. Schrader, who came from a very conservative family experienced a very repressed childhood, and reportedly, only saw his first film at age 18. It is a result of his repression that Schrader grew into a filmmaker primarily known for making very dark and disturbing films, about the underbelly of society.

Though he will probably be remembered mostly for Taxi Driver and his collaborations with Scorsese, his talents as a director cannot and should not be disregarded. And Hardcore is one of the best examples of his talents.