Oh The Horror! The Horror!

Saw 4 opened to 32.1 million. I consider myself a fan of the horror genre and have no desire to see it. I have missed the boat on the series. You can label me as out of touch as all those crotchety semi senile overweight film critic has beens, as after this weekend it seems to be “the” defining horror franchise of the decade. Much in the same way that Freddie and Jason defined the 80’s, Scream the 90’s, we now have Jigsaw entering the cannon of iconic horror villains for the 00’s. The 4th entry in four years [!], the last 3 have all opened north of 30 million.
It seems the series has become relevant by accident with its theme of torture. [abu gharib, the debate over torture/interrogation techniques, etc] I’m sure years from now academics will write extensively on the link between the proliferation of onscreen violence and the war that never seems to end. Its possible that it has touched a nerve or its just appealing to bored 16 year olds who have a steady diet of CSI and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit looking for a stronger fix.
It belongs to what is known as “torture porn” or the nicer “torture horror.” The genre was supposedly on its way out given the high profile summer flops, Hostel 2 and Captivity. The cultural mood had chilled rather quickly to the genre; however, the Saw series seems to say otherwise. Perhaps because the series injects a tone of ironic morality [I can’t write that without rolling my eyes] by having the killer “Jigsaw” picking people who have committed horrible acts or are not so nice people themselves, the violence Is mitigated for the audience, making it slightly easier or justified? I end that in a question mark, as I have no idea why this series is so popular and durable. I’m grasping for straws here. MY GOD, this is the 4th in the series and the marketing and advertising promised no new twists or plot revelations, the tagline was the dumb, “If it’s Halloween, it must be Saw.” So people showed up in droves for more of the same.
Now I’ve seen my fair share of flicks from this genre. I’ve sat through Hostel, the remakes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Hills Have Eyes, Wolf Creek, High Tension, Passion of the Christ and House of 1000 corpses. What strikes me is the cold hard cynical eye that has developed in the filmmaking process. I know these aren’t all technically torture porn but they’re part of the new wave of horror and are often lumped into the same category when media pundits talk about the disturbing violence found in modern horror.
In regards to the remakes, the originals that they were based on were extremely low budget and independently produced and financed. This gave them a power that perhaps they didn’t deserve or intend. The tone was a sort of punk DIY aesthetic that came across destructive, tasteless, and ripping at the fabric of society in a provocative and FUN way. The updated versions lack any of this humor and given the studio backing it loses all the aforementioned qualities and feels like corporate nilhism at its tackiest. Classy production values set to gruesome dismemberment. Truly anything will be green lit in the hopes of profit.
You’ll notice I put Passion of the Christ in there and for good reason. With 370 million in grosses in the US it stands as the most profitable torture porn pic of all time. Studio chiefs took note and saw that audiences had an incredible appetite and tolerance for onscreen violence and thus torture porn pics were given the go ahead making Passion also the grandfather of the movement. It predates all the films I’ve mentioned save House of 1000 corpses, having been released in February of 04. The first Saw was released the following October and perhaps in January 06 the genre reached its Apex with the success of Hostel. So yes, you can thank Jesus, in a way, for Saw 4.
My final plea is that you can justify anything if you have enough style and talent. I am not particularly squeamish and hate the standard cliché that so many people say, “I always think it’s scarier when they don’t show any violence.” Okay first of all those people are lying. They are the ones who rent Premonition and The Grudge 2 and drive 5 miles under the speed limit. I think you can argue that a key element to a horror film is a visceral reaction. You must be physically horrified or repulsed. Part of the appeal of the genre is shocking you out of your banal sedentary existence.
What would it take to shock an audience now? I think we’d have to go in the opposite direction to truly unsettle and upset. Perhaps characters getting naked and having sex on screen? A female character who after deliberation decides to have an abortion and continues on with her existence and she’s not a monster or destroyed from the experience? Characters flushing money down a toilet? Oh who am I kidding, we would NEVER see that.

36 years young today

Happy Birthday Winona! I was going to post on specific childhood memories associated with the various movies and roles she's done but I'm at work and lazy. I was trolling through imdb and there's a rather sweet/psychoic thread titled HAPPY BIRTHDAY darling from your TRUE FANS, that sends her birthday wishes from all her cute/crazy fans. Here's a sample poem

We ADORE you. And remember...


When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark.
At the end of a storm
Is a golden sky
And the sweet, silver song of a lark.

Walk on, through the wind,
Walk on, through the rain,
Though your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart,
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never walk alone!

Winona!

Its Almost Halloween!

This video is pretty funny because there is more than just a kernel of truth. Displaying just how limited the option of women's costumes can be

NO MAN

So a few days ago I came home to this flyer on my door . Yes, Universal pictures is basically shutting down Echo Park for three days and requiring that we cannot park on our streets and our compensation is..... FREE TACOS! Never mind that the film will probably cost about 80 million and be a major tent pole pic starring Jim Carey. Never mind that this smacks mildly of racism [just give the Mexicans some tacos and they'll comply!] given the neighborhood. We have received what? A two week notice? Why wasn't this translated into Spanish? If it were shooting in Compton would the catering services provide colored greens and fried chicken? Egg rolls in Chinatown? Boy did they mess with the wrong building. We are now thanks to gentrification a group of white, liberal, over educated under employed mid twenties kids with something to prove. We won't stand for it!

Movie Theatres like Premium Cable?

Eight films on 500 plus screens are being released this weekend. It is a record that no theatre owner will be busting out the champagne for. What's that sound? Is it the painful cries of the slowly dying movie theatre experience? What huge summer blockbuster smash that lowered the bar for what passes as mainstream entertainment was released this past Tuesday? If you guessed Transformers you are correct. But wait, wasn't that released in July? Wasn't that.... 3 MONTHS AGO? I thought only major box office flops were rushed to DVD right? Wrong. And with 8 films coming out this weekend it seems studios are expressing their disinterest in whether their film performs well or not. They certainly aren't taking the audience into consideration because I can bet that half these titles will be out of your local AMC before the middle of November hits. Is the theatrical release becoming as irrelevant as the Grammys? Is it now just pure decorum? The hours'dourves to the main course of revenue from DVD sales/rentals, cable rights, and merchandise? I can sadly count MANY foreign and independent releases that DID NOT MAKE IT to LA or were screened for a week at best and then left that were available simultaneously on IN DEMAND. This means my parents who live in a small backwoods suburban town could watch Dans Paris and Private Property before I could as they live in a giant air conditioned house with 300 cable channels. Its these LITTLE things, these small priviledges of city life that you cling onto and fool yourself into thinking make you superior and validate your insanly high apartment living, traffic, and pollution. This is a reason I have also held out on Netflix for so long. I still rent from my local video store, which has an amazing selection I might add, solely to preserve a sense of community, geography and space. But this is disheartening. I might as well live in the middle of FUCKING Utah. I'm sure there'll be a Starbucks there.

Box Office Roundup

Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married? opened strongly at number one with 21.3 million. I have never seen any of Mr. Perry's films but perhaps I should. I am always interested in modern day "word of mouth" audience driven films. He also wears all hats, usually producing, directing, and acting. Not to mention that his first two films, the Medea vehicles, have as their main star a black christian drag queen. From what I gather these films tend to have an urban grit in dialogue and style with extremely blatant Christian, conservative moralizing. The kind of melodramas that if the cast were white would be so stale and tired that they wouldn't get the greenlight on the PAX network as a TV movie of the week. But since it is filtered through the black experience it is fresh and new.
Michael Clayton opened at number four, a disappointment. I had a chance to see it this weekend and it is a smart, well acted, and the key word ADULT thriller/drama so of course it's only natural that it underperformed. Interesting to note though that George Clooney is seen as an A list star whereas Tyler Perry is not. However, check the box office records and Tyler Perry is a much safer bet. Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy are also extremely bankable stars who still in consistently profitable low budget comedies. And I think a case could be made that WIll Smith is the most sure thing to ensue a box office hit. However from a media representation standpoint they are nowhere near the same level as say Brad Pitt [ who has a very spotty box office track record]. What exactly constitutes a mega watt, A list star? Being white certainly seems to help.

But don't feel too sorry for Mr. Perry. There is an informative NYT profile on him which contains these ... interesting tidbits,

"In my mind,” he said, “going to a clothing rack in the pursuit of happiness is a total distraction. For me, it’s disheartening. Black people, especially, have gotten so lost in it.”

It is surprising, then, to hear Mr. Perry boast about his Rolls-Royce and his five houses, including one in the Hollywood Hills and three in Atlanta, as well as an apartment in Midtown Manhattan. (“Can you imagine being in my position and not having real estate in New York?” Mr. Perry said. “That would be an idiot move.”) He is also building his dream house, a 30,000-square-foot French Provincial, in a prosperous Atlanta neighborhood.

Inspired by evangelists like T. D. Jakes, who preach that the devout shall prosper, Mr. Perry sees no conflict in advocating austerity but coveting fine things.

“There is a movement within the black church that teaches it’s not a sin to have money,” Dr. Neal said. “The thinking is that money is part of the blessings you receive because you have been a good Christian.”

And Mr. Perry continues to accumulate material blessings: he has already outgrown the 75,000-square-foot studio he bought less than two years ago, and intends early next year to expand into the former world headquarters of Delta Air Lines in Atlanta, in a 30-acre campus. There he plans to continue filming new projects including “Meet the Browns,” starring Angela Bassett as a woman who leaves the Chicago projects to move in with her family in the South.

And Mr. Perry dreams of creating a TV network with cartoons, news broadcasts, comedy shows and dramatic series that “will reinforce positive good messages.”

And beyond all that? “Someday I’d like to own my own island,” Mr. Perry said."

Good luck with that Tyler! I can't get too mad at him though after watching him stick up for Janet in a recent CW31 interview. Nasty hosts of some dumb innocuous Sacramento morning program decide to start berating Janet about her career ending superbowl incident. It comes about two minutes in and this is after the smug condescending hosts accuse Mr. Perry of ripping off The Big Chill. It is out of left field and unfair to Janet considering it is not at all relevant to why they are on the morning show and happened THREE YEARS AGO. She has had to discuss and apologize for that "wardrobe malfunction" more times than she would probably care to and Tyler Perry actually steps in and doesn't let them bully her. And speaking of stepping in for defense, if memory serves me correctly, Justin Timberlake was the man who ripped it off. Now call me crazy but if he is the sexy, womanizing lothario that he claims to be. why didn't he step up, be a man and say, "yeah I ripped it off and its a damn shame you all only got to see one boob. Leave her alone, I was involved too" Instead he ran away with his tail tucked between his legs, notoriously silent as she was crucified by the media and the FCC.


UPDATE: from imdb.com
"Tyler's message of family values and personal redemption speaks very strongly to people who are not frequent moviegoers." (Perry's films appeal mostly to older black churchgoers; almost 90 percent of Married's ticket buyers were black.) Lionsgate distribution chief Tom Ortenberg.

90%! that's crazy!

The Greatest Music Video in the History of All Time

"Lets All Chant" is one of my all time favorite disco jams that is criminally ignored and underrated. It was put to useful effect in, "The Eyes of Laura Mars" and Whit Stillman had the good sense to include it in the soundtrack to his film, "Last Days of Disco" but otherwise its basically a forgotten classic. When I youtubed the video I went in with low expectations. Rarely does a music video so perfectly represent or capture the spirit of songs you hold dear. To me this song is thick with gothic atmosphere and irresistable dance beats. The kind of thing that makes you go ape shit on the dance floor. I took a deep sigh and clicked play. Even with the poor video and audio quality the brilliance of the video shone through. I want to live, dance, thrive, and die in this neon stark world of beautiful woman dressed in tailor made mens suits. Now the oboe solo does drag a little bit but it serves a purpose. You think the song is slowly winding down but then BAM! you're sucker-punched with a triumphant final dance break accompanied by a visual image of a windex blue 70's bikini goddess spread eagle.

UPDATE: I cannot stop watching this video. Every time I watch I feel as if I am seizuring with divine pop rapture. Its so good that I am no longer able to be productive [I'm at work]

Goodbye Desert Rose

My Wednesday morning has totally been ruined. I've been crying into my chamomile tea all morning [and last night when Billy Joel's Piano Man came on the radio in my car.... I might have problems] But anyway, Flower Whiskers, the regal matriarch of Meerkat Mannor passed last week and I just found out today. Apparently it was a Cobra, it gets worse. From the NYT, "Though the death had been foretold in advertisements, which announced an impending tragedy that would change things forever, few seemed prepared for the bloody eventuality of Flower’s end, her tiny head swollen from infection, the melancholy music that accompanied her never-to-be-resumed breaths. Flower had fallen protecting her cubs." Following is a fan tribute

Generation Debt

My favorite line has to be, "You never run out of money!"

click here for more info

Vive la France!

I think there is a general consensus that we are in the midst of a male acting crisis. No one from "our" generation [those born say post 75] has truly broken out and is revolutionizing the silver screen. You could argue there has always been a male acting crisis. In general men are often less interesting to watch on screen than women thanks to societal norms that dictate men can't really appear too vulnerable or weak onscreen. We get freaked out and uncomfortable. Passivity is just so euro faggy and betrays the American male spirit. So we often get performances that are stoic, constipated, and restrained. THINK Kevin Costner who in almost any of his films whether he is a serial killer, betrayed husband or terminally ill always gives this perplexed, confused look as if he can't find his car keys. Things I fear are about to get worse. With the baby boomer generation, who are the largest portion of the population and possibly the greediest and most self involved, we might never get a chance to fill the screen. The actors from this era seem to be digging their heels in refusing to evacuate the leading man position. We are still being asked to take Bruce Willis and Harrison Ford as legitimate action heros. Sylvester Stalone is in talks to revive the Rambo franchise and we all remember the atrocity that was Up Close and Personal which had a 107 year old Robert Redford romancing Michelle Phieffer. This all leads me to dystopian nightmares of erotic thrillers played out in convalescent homes.
DAMNIT, I want to see myself up on the silver screen, okay? We are in trouble. We are awash in a sea of Orlando Blooms [this generation's Mark Hamil] and Jake Gyllenhaals. Nice guys, cute, with noble intent but zero charisma and mediocre acting chops. Okay, okay there's always an exception to the rule, Ryan Gosling shows incredible promise and at this point seems incapable of giving an uninteresting performance. So what is my solution you ask? How do I turn this article from just being a complaint ridden rant into something positive, active, and hopeful? The answer is simple. We must look to where America has looked in the past when she was in trouble. France. Yes, France. There is a whole gaggle of young male actors bursting with energy, passion, and talent. It also helps that many of them are MEGA cute! My friend Arnold and I want to start a Tigerbeat Magazine but only feature art house European actors amidst panda stickers and neon pink hearts. Many of these boys need to come to the US pronto, brush up on their English skills and grace our screens. We need to mix it up, where's globalism when you need it?

I want to start with my personal favorite. Melvil Poupaud. Sigh, oh Melvil. He is currently in the NYT YSL Spread palling around with Stefano Pilati who says this of him, ‘‘There is something real and imperfect about him — he was able to wear the collection effortlessly. In his films, Melvil plays complicated characters — beautiful, conflicted and ultimately tragic. There is a richness and depth to his evocation on screen that resonates with the ideas behind the collection and my work in general at Yves Saint Laurent." Tasty! See LeTemps qui rest, Broken English, Un homme perdu



Next is Roman Duras who is perhaps my favorite young screen male presence. I recommend The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Russian Dolls, and Dans Paris. A leading man if I ever saw one.


Big up to Louis Garrel for doing a lot of interesting, varied, challenging work. He also likes to get fully naked a lot, just putting that out there. See Ma Mere, Regular Lover, Love Songs
So French!


Perhaps the most "Hollywood" of the lot is Gaspard Ulliel who brings a unique intensity and physicality to his roles. Sadly people across the pond took note and cast him in Hannibal Rising. Oops! However see Strayed, The Last Day, and A Very Long Engagement for less embarrassing fare

Jeremie Renier perhaps has the most impressive list of films under his belt having worked with a lot of big names. He often gives understated, ego-less performances. See The Promise, Criminal Lovers, The Pornographer, The Child, Private Property

Cycling The Frame