HERMAN: What’s this?

MAX: That’s the Perfect Attendance Award and the Punctuality Award. I got those at Rushmore. I thought you could choose which one you like more, and you could wear that one, and I could wear the other.

(pause)

HERMAN: I’ll take Punctuality.

MAX: Okay. — Rushmore, Wes Anderson, 1998.

Switching gears from the horror/noir/gothic kick I’ve been on lately, I would like to devote this post to Lone Scherfig’s new film An Education.  While this movie is not a horror film per se, it does touch upon one of the themes that has come up recently in discussing such previously blogged-about  films as Rosemary’s Baby, The Others, The Exorcist and even Sunset Boulevard.  Namely, this movie shares with these other films the major thematic touchstone of the “trapped woman”.  The idea of a 1960’s British teenager who falls in love with an older man might not readily conjure up the images of, respectively, a woman raped by the devil, a woman trapped inside a haunted mansion, a girl possessed by the devil, or a delusional elderly woman secluded from the outside world due to her own warped convictions, An Education puts its heroine, Jenny, in a position that is just as helpless and harrowing as that of Rosemary’s, Graces’, Regan/Chris’ and Norma’s.  The one thing that keeps An Education, fine film that it is, from reaching the artistic heights of these others is the ending.  But, we’ll get into that later.

First off, you should absolutely eat up all of the superlative praise out there on the interwebs for Education’s lead actress Carey Mulligan.  This girl has chops.  She carries almost all of the emotional weight of a very emotional narrative, and does so without once ringing a false note.  She will win many awards for her work in this film and she will deserve all of them.  Playing alongside Ms. Mulligan is Peter Sarsgaard, who does what Peter Sarsgaard does best: play a creep.  I do not mean this in a pejorative sense; this film is reliant upon an actor in the David role who is able to come across as both creepy and charismatic simultaneously.   David seduces half-his-age Jenny and quickly reveals himself as a morally fuzzy suitor; yet despite Dave’s rough spots, the audience must never doubt that Jenny can be wildly attracted to this man.  Sarsgaard skates this line with aplomb.  Alfred Molina is his usual excellent self in the role of Jenny’s strict but vulnerable father.  Other notable cast members are Emma Thompson as the headmaster of a private school and Olivia Williams as a private school English teacher, a role that has interesting parallels to her role in one of my favorite films of the 1990s: Rushmore.  In Rushmore, Williams plays a private school teacher seduced by a much younger boy, whereas in Education she plays a teacher advising a young girl who is seduced by a much older man.  Her facial expression is very similar in both films — she plays both roles so well that I think she should slap a trademark on the “I’m upset at this romance involving incongruently-aged people” face.

An Education is Nick Hornby’s first foray into scriptwriting since 1997’s Fever Pitch (not the 2005 Jimmy Fallon Red Sox film, although this was also based on Hornby’s novel of the same name).  Education’s script is very well-written, with a slowly building sense of dread punctuated with moments of deep despair along with a sprinkling of humor.  Much of the light-hearted moments are piled on in the beginning of the film, and I noticed that many people in the audience at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas in Vancouver, BC really wanted to keep the good times rolling long after the initial Jenny/Dave meet-cute stops being cute and one realizes that Jenny has painted herself in a corner that she may never get out of.  Gleeful guffaws became nervous laughter which tapered off into pointed silence as the situation worsened and a story that could have veered into RomCom treacle instead carried through with the sometimes uncomfortable implications of its setup and its characters.  Imagine that.

However, as I brought up earlier, the ending left me feeling like a double-crossed Bubble-Lub.  The film earned my trust and then squandered it with the employment of a voiceover and a syrupy pan out in the final scene of the film.  I’m not entirely anti-voiceover, but there had not been a voiceover up to this point in the movie, so why introduce one  in the very last scene?  Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, The Others and Sunset Boulevard all have very effective endings.  The endings of all of these films ensure that the feeling that had been cultivated throughout will linger in the filmgoer’s mind long after the theatre has been deserted.  Sunset Boulevard, which employs heavy voiceover from the beginning (granted, the acerbic voiceover of a dead man), is witty enough to eschew voiceover in its final scene in favor of a Norma Desmond monologue that is, in the final shot of the film, drowned in black like the overpowering delusions within Norma Desmond’s mind.  Boulevard features one of the best endings in the history of popular film.  An Education, however, fizzles.   I realize that it isn’t fair to require that every film hold up to the standard of Sunset Boulevard, but still you get my point.  The narrative ending of Education didn’t bother me necessarily, but the spell invoked by the film prior to the final scene was broken by an uninteresting and too-neat visual and auditory wrap-up that comes across as lazy.  It just doesn’t do justice to a very well-paced, well-acted and otherwise well-made movie.  Regardless, I still recommend it — I simply suggest that you ignore the ending in the way that a teenager might look past the glaring faults of an otherwise sophisticated lover.

We’ve all heard the hard-to-swallow advice that we should lose our four-wheel rides and roll on two. We know its smarter, healthier, greener…but if you’re anything like me – heading into a garage on a cold, dark November morning - the last thing you feel like doing is going for an ultra breezy haul across town on an unprotected two-wheeled mass of cold steel and deflated rubber. So this morning I’m offering up a few creative ways to beat the bike burnout, have some fun with it, and hopefully inspire you to dust off the seat, shine up the bell, and roll out! 

Hard to imagine, but once upon a time the bicycle was the Bugatti of the 1890’s – and how far its come since…in the midst of ever-rising energy costs, David Butcher spends 45 minutes a day cycling his way to a $0 electricity bill - checkout his secret and marvel at his motivation…( and speaking of energy contribution, checkout the University of Oregon’s industrial student-powered solution…)

Feel like you’re the only one biking to work? Not so! Big cities around the world have reported a spike in bike commuters. NYC has experienced a 26% increase in rush-hour cyclists in the last year. Boston appointed a former cycling champ to be the city’s first Director of Bike Planning. One of my favorite new big-city biking inventions, The Bike Dispenser, comes out of The Netherlands from the Dutch-based design agency, Springtime. These automated, transportable garages are engineered to conveniently sit in city hot-spots, awaiting to spit out a bright, shiny bike to each and every eco-friendly customer. Form meets function – love it! Another useful tool for city and country bikers alike is the helpful website MapMyRide. Not only does this site feature accurate and easy route planning and mapping with mile markers and elevation data – it offers workout tracking, logs, motivational goals, data import from external GPS devices, community forums and more.

Whether taking a brisk ride around the block or commuting to work, pulling the old-fashioned, man-powered pedal to the metal will have its payoffs, maybe even simply by bringing a smile to your face at the thought of keeping a grand tradition alive. If you’re still having trouble motivating, maybe one of these clips will help take you back to the good old days of gathering together the neighborhood bike gang of wheel-deflating pranksters. Which kind of biker are you going to be…?…

The Out-for-Revenge Biker:

Max Fischer of Rushmore

Biker on a Mission:

Miss Gulch of The Wizard of Oz

The Tandem Bikers:

Elliot and ET of ET

The Singing, Dancing, Trick Bike Posse:

The Muppets of The Great Muppet Caper

The Cooler, Geek-Chic Neighborhood Bike Posse:

The Goonies of…The Goonies

 (click picture for video…)

The Dangerously Distracted Biker:

Stacy of Wayne’s World

Rushmore: follows the ‘love triangle’ between a teacher, pupil and local businessman. While this put Anderson and Schwartzman on the map -  and re-ignited Murray’s career – they’re three guys that haven’t really drifted far from their comfort zone since: still, this is probably the best example of all three on form. The main problem I have with Anderson’s films is that they make weird things like stalking someone or a middle-aged man befriending a teenager seem normal, even cool. Like the rest of his films Rushmore is laden with mixed messages about father figures, retro music, humor, and quirky scenes / shots / dialogue (it’s impossible to describe any of his films without using ‘leftfield’, ‘offbeat’, ‘quirky’ et al). More so than his other features, Rushmore has been embraced by the indie crowd and pop culture – and enjoys a hardcore cult following. Personally, I think it’s good but not great. Pretty much the Napoleon Dynamite of the 90’s; you’ll either love, loathe or just not plain old not get it – I’m still in the later camp after several viewings. If you’re wanting to see any Anderson, Schwartzman or (modern) Murray film, best stick with this.

Score: 7/10

This scene has all you need for good comedy. Awkward dinner? Check. Drunken protagonist? Check. Lame pun? Check. Bill Murray’s character asking for the cheque? Check.

Rushmore is one of those rare things: a beautiful, funny and engaging film. Director Wes Anderson has been accused of promoting style over substance throughout his career (and I think in the case of The Life Aquatic the criticism is justified) but in Rushmore he strikes just the right balance, making a sumptuous movie that has characters you care about. It’s a film about growing up, love, heartbreak and friendship. And it’s great.

It also has some great scenes, and this one is up there with the best. Fresh from the success of putting on a school production of Serpico, Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) takes the teacher he loves, Miss Cross (Olivia Williams), and the teacher who is his friend, Mr Blume (Bill Murray), out for a celebratory dinner. Unfortunately for Max, Miss Cross has brought along a friend of her own, Dr Peter Flynn, played by Luke Wilson.

Fischer behaves like a complete brat here, yet Schwartzman’s performance is so humorously heartfelt he manages to keep the audience on the side of his character. Wilson is perfectly deadpan in a role that requires him to merely set up punchlines, Williams channels Miss Cross’s anger brilliantly and Murray is just funny because he’s Bill Murray.

The terrific dialogue is matched by the performances and let’s face it: if you or I had written and directed a hit play, we wouldn’t be sweating it either. This scene just might be Rushmore’s Rushmore.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SCENE FROM RUSHMORE?

GREAT SCENES ARCHIVE

So I’m writing a post from work today because I was going to write it yesterday at home but actually did stuff like clean out my fridge and wash towels instead. I had a really good weekend. Anyway – today I’m going to talk movies that have stuck in my head for the past however long, and I’ll start with the more recent that I’ve watched.

So let it begin.

The Saturday just gone my sister and I watched How To Be because we are total dorks and Robert Pattinson fans (I swear it’s the only thing me and the world agree on). As for the movie, I liked it but found it a little bit painful to watch. Not painful as poor acting, I didn’t mind the acting at all. It hit a little close to home and reminded me of a point of life I feel like I’ve only just come out of and don’t particularly want to run back to. My take on the film was that it was about that point in life where you’re really confused and beginning to finally understand what being an adult is.  I remember talking to my Dad with similar questions to Art with his, and hitting similar realisations. It was a bit Seinfeld and a movie about nothing while also being about everything. I loved the lack of high note it ended on. I loved the character Nikki – that guy made me forget that the movie had Robert Pattinson in it and I couldn’t help but think that guy (that stereotype) is always in Irish Pubs in Brisbane. I thought the friends would have made a really good BBC TV show. I understand why it wasn’t pushed in theatres everywhere and why it was hard to categorise. It’s a strange film that leaves you feeling a little strange. It in part reminded me of I Heart Huckabees with those really strange moments the self help writer would appear under a light that turned on. And when dealing with the mother character in the movie it felt a little bit theatre and less film. I think I liked the pub scene the most, especially when the new boyfriend is nice and starts to list off his awesomeness. I thought the movie really understood the ‘loser’ without really putting judgement on it by making a miraculous recovery into coolness – there was no ‘he got a hair cut and wrote a good song and all was right in the world when you become cool’ ending. And that is all I’m going to say.

Next. Something I watched recently and hadn’t been able to stop thinking about was Happy Go Lucky. I didn’t watch it from the beginning and I missed the end because I had to pick up the husband but what I did see of it I LOVED and can’t stop thinking about it. Again it’s one of those strange movies that are about nothing as far as events go, and I’m not even sure of the message of the movie. All I know is that the driving teacher was spot on – although mine was Scottish so on top of being a little angry about things I couldn’t understand a word he said. I loved the lead character and how she did very odd things, like following that homeless guy (this is the last part I really got to see) to see if she could help because sometimes I find myself following someone to see where things lead too. I like how the lead character giggled all the time and watching her relationships with family and friends – it left me feeling happy. Now when I see Sally Hawkins in other films I always think of her as Poppy in Happy Go Lucky. I really want to see it again, all the way through.

Ok. Next. Away We Go is one of the movies I saw at BIFF this year and again with being stuck in my head, every now and then themes from this movie sneak into my head and I can’t stop thinking about it. I have to say that I really loved this film. If there was a type of film that got made over and over it would be like this. I love real space, real emotion conveyed. I like actors/directors that at least try to be authentic with their stories. I’m not saying being entertained is fun, I love to be entertained too. But I think these films are just as important as books. One thing I found with Away We Go is that it parallels a little bit of how I feel in my life since I’ve have CP with the Husband. We moved here to Brisbane a few years ago but without the intention of settling, so what we have is a life that needs to be settled without the means to do so yet – so I liked that they found theirs. Another thing I loved about Away We Go is that it didn’t feel over styled. You didn’t feel like they were selling a doona cover or wall lamp to you through it, and movies often don’t really offer you that anymore. And like with The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (the train hi-jack scene with the light through the trees – the beauty of the movie haunts), the images from the film flick in my head – like the end scene where they look outside from the house, it was beautiful. I hope we see more films explore lifestyles that are different.

Action. Star Trek was really fun and it got my entertained double thumbs up fonz style. I have trouble with time travel films because it gets you thinking about alternative realities and what’s improbable, and because lately I’m feeling very answerless I find those kind of questions a little too much (not to mention I don’t have any education/understanding of those concepts). But the action was great, the cross cultural representation was quite pleasant and could they have picked a better person to play Scotty? I love Simon Pegg. Friends came back from London with Spaced, which was funny but then when his movies started to flood us I was lost to Mr Pegg forever. Back to Star Trek, it was great, cheesy and fun, my only complaint was that it was such an introduction to do a series of films. And Bana as a bad guy was hard for me to deal with after seeing a lot of his butt in the Time Travellers Wife.

Which reminds me. A movie I rented a little while ago and fell in love with was Charlie Bartlett (the lead actor also in Star Trek). I loved this movie so much. I mean it had so many things to comment on but I can’t really think of much right now. Mr Jr. as a principal, hello – best looking principal of all time. Would have totally fantasised about my principal if he’d be anything on Mr Jr., but we had a guy named Fuller who we couldn’t help but draw parallels with Skinner (Australians are the reason the Simpsons still exists I swear, it’s like a religion to us – House of the Simpsons where we pray in ‘Doh’s). I thought the honestly the Mr Jr. brought to his characters’ alcoholism is in part why the man can have such a huge “comeback” (because he has skills – honest to god compelling to watch him skills) and I look forward to buying my tickets and renting his films. My favourite scene in the film had to be when Charlie Bartlett freaked out on Ritalin and played piano in his undies. I totally googled that actor after falling in complete love with the character. I loved Kat Dennings in the film, but I think she’s quite a loveable actor for me. I quite like the girl who represents a girl a little different and I think she held up as Mr Jr’s daughter, there was some honesty to a relationship there without an incestuous vibe (incest vibe: see Heroes and the chemistry between cousins Claire and Peter). Charlie’s house was amazing (love a good house in a film) and the old car he was driven around in reminded me of Wes Anderson stuff. I did find myself drawing comparison between Rushmore and Charlie Bartlett, although they are different. Man I loved Rushmore. Jason Schwartzman is sort of my ideal guy, apart from the fact that he would be way too cool for me to ever know, even when he’s not cool. I mean his family is reason enough of being too cool. His sense of humour is dreamy. I could go with being with a guy that was like him, but the real him would make me feel like a rock next to a mountain. I think I friended him on myspace which is weird. I don’t know why I do that. I like to use myspace to bookmark bands I like but I also seem to have added people like Ashton Kuchter etc. as myspace friends.

And now I’m trying to match myself to famous people I’ll never meet but add (on a strange impulse I can’t explain) to my myspace friends although I’m happily married with a young child and if said actors were standing in a line up with my husband I would always pick the husband because even though sometimes he makes me want to smash him in the head, I passionately love the guy.  So because of the change from poor movie review to devotion of love – I’m going to end my blog before it becomes a fan letter to Jason Schwartzman begging him to never change and lobby for Wes Anderson to make Rushmore 2.

Ah, the trusty excuse used by film critics to justify distaste for a movie. Web legend The Filthy Critic was merciless in his lambasting of the Vince Vaughn- Jon Favreau groan-fest Couples Retreat: “This time, they’ve made a flabby, formulaic romantic comedy that forgot the romance or the comedy. Also, an important lesson for director Peter Billingsley (yes, that Peter Billingsley)…is that married couples yelling at each other is not inherently funny. It’s something we can get for free.” Rotten Tomatoes stalwart Tony Macklin was not impressed by (500) Days of Summer: “…it’s as formulaic and calculating as the Hallmark greeting cards to which it feigns superiority.”

There are many reasons to dislike these films. Sure, one could gripe about the painfully boring dialogue, or the Adam Sandlered-out trope of “uncomfortable bro” forced upon us in the yoga scenes. But who cares? The highest crime of Couples Retreat is the complete ignorance about “the principalities” of co-star Faizon Love’s past breakout as Big Perm/Big Worm. The director could have based the entire movie around a scene where Vaughn looks over at Favreau, lights up a doob, and says, “I was just BULLshittin’. And you KNOW this, Man!” (Tell me that Lester Long from Clay Pigeons isn’t the “film noir” translation of Smokey). As for (500) Days of Summer, we can castigate the stupid parenthetical title (as if I have any room to talk) although I can support the meta-irony of a film steeped in musicality making a reference to the oft-used song-title punctuation technique, especially one embraced by the likes of Van Halen and New Kids On The Block. (I hear you: if we really wanted to reference Diamond Dave-era VH, it would be called (500) Days! Of? Summer!) There was some serious potential here – what music-obsessed guy hasn’t had daydreams of a kick-ass girl being drawn to you because of taste in tunes? However, director Marc Webb, who cut his teeth at the helm of videos from noted rock goddess Ashlee Simpson, makes the same mistakes as Billingsley’s Retreat – if you show a relationship in freefall, give them something with bite and wit to say. No one wants to be reminded of that time they fought with their spouse over placement of kitchen appliances.

Notice what wasn’t the problem? The formulaic nature of the films. Complaining about a film for being “formulaic” is as pointless as complaining about heroin for being intravenous, Boob Scotch for tasting “a little breasty”, Nirvana for constantly-arising bootlegs (Outcesticide 3 is my fave), and David Foster Wallace for excessive footnotes. I think you get the point. Take a look at your favorite films, and notice how many of them follow a trusty formula. High Fidelity, Say Anything and Better off Dead all begin with the boy losing his lady, examining methods at recapturing her affection, and eventually winning her back (or someone else). Oh, sorry, spoiler alert. Just because each movie conforms to the Cusack, as sturdy a formula as it gets, doesn’t make it less watchable. Consider the audio realm. Whether it’s Ringo’s Merseybeat or Bill Bruford’s “21st Century Schizoid Man”, a song’s greatness is defined by so many factors that it would take an extremely lazy journalist to cite the simplicity/complexity of the drum part as their central criticism of the music. Now if Ringo’s on the ceiling (“look at him scoot!”) and can’t even drive you to Kenny Rogers’ house, let alone play a straight 4/4, so to speak, I see the logic in bashing the formula. But when someone is kidnapped, and all kinds of craziness ensues to obtain the ransom, and we are introduced to a mess of hilariously fascinating characters, it doesn’t matter if that mother-scratcher is Jackie Treehorn or Bill Parker. So in honor of the Urban Achiever in all of us, I present the list of my favorite components of tried-and-true movie formulae, which I will, naturally, refer to as “molecules”:

1. The long and winding road. You’ve seen it a million times, most notably in O Brother Where Art Thou, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut and Allison Anders’ gem Border Radio. We could drive all night – Smokey and the Bandit, The Getaway, Milo and Otis… Perhaps the movie molecule with the best hit-to-miss ratio, taking to the road is a damn fine way to create the undercurrent of tension and uneasiness without resorting to hack screenwriter clichés and clunky plot devices. When executed well, the tone is set for the reality of travel: memorable conversations, failed attempts to alleviate boredom, with the occasional bizarre interruption. Zombieland, prepare to become a midnight Halloween classic.

2. Our little baby’s all grows up! While it lacks the batting average of our first molecule, there are many great films that are based on the “coming of age” formula. Some of you youngsters might not believe this, but Vaughn and Favreau used to make quality films together. Swingers worked because of how well it reflected reality for post-collegiate guys in the late-‘90s – if a woman wanted to pull back the curtain to see how a tight group of male friends banter, argue, resolve conflict, deal with sadness, and just plain exist, they could do a helluva lot worse than to watch this movie. The film realistically dealt with the self-loathing and death-spiral that results from each successive romantic and career failure, especially when they are combined (Nicki pulling a Tim Russert on Mikey’s career by recalling his attempt at a job at her coffee shop, then responding to his cathartic repeat-messages by telling him to never call again). The redemption is handled even more realistically, with Mikey noticed that the population of Dumpsville was more than just himself. As their dance-revolution concluded, the confab with Lorraine did not lead directly to wah-pedals and saxophone solos, but a promising exchange of phone numbers. Admit it – as they walked past his car, you were thinking “Don’t screw this up, Favreau!”, which made the late-night pancake session even more gratifying. We might not have known how to throw women over our shoulders, or had access to places as cool as the Dresden, but we had our own versions of those things, and that’s why it resonated so strongly.

Rushmore is another standout “grows up” film, aided by well-timed blocked-shots, ambitious science-project fakery, and gratuitous smoking. The Slums of Beverly Hills gave us great lines like Marisa Tomei’s “Do you have anything for my nerves? You know, just laying around? Seconal, Demerol, Tuinal, Valium, Quaaludes, Percocet…Pot makes me paranoid!”

When I discuss films with friends, they’ll cite Almost Famous as a great example of this formula. Great movie, yes, but I can’t quite place it within this category, because William Miller’s “evolution” was more like the graph of a first-derivative. The declining maturity of everyone around him made it appear that he was growing up, when in reality, he ended the film as the same person he was before he stepped foot into the Ben Fong-Torres funhouse.

3. Two women who speak to each other about something other than a man. Also known as the Bechdel Principle. I made a list of all of my favorite movies that feature discussions about music, politics, architecture, films, books, gambling, or hell, anything that involves intellectual debate. In damn-near every case, neither participant in the conversations were female, and if one happened to be present, she was obviously secondary to the guys. When a female friend of mine asked “Where’s our High Fidelity, or Kicking and Screaming (Noah Baumbach version)?” I couldn’t answer her, because I don’t think there IS an answer. Of films in the mainstream side of “indie”, Ghost World gets quite close, although I remember most of Thora Birch’s cultural commentary involved Steve Buscemi (her character’s most direct musical conversation with Scarlet Johansson: in response to Scarlett’s “boner”-creating dude’s request if either of them is “up for some reggae tonight?”, she makes the “Didn’t I tell you he’s an idiot” gesture.) Michael and George Michael Bluth were directly involved in Juno’s cultural moments where she was not by herself (her “honest to blog” friend wasn’t all that deep). Dazed and Confused had a very few brief examples. Mallrats missed out by having the one Claire Forlani-Joey Lauren Adams exchange entirely about Jeremy London’s “T.S.” character.

I know what you are thinking: what about Sex and the City? Despite the promising moments within the first season of the TV show, the film regresses into the same topics that writers find “appropriate” for women. While films such as Kicking and Screaming, Metropolitan and Barcelona all had guys talking about non-brainy things, the majority of Grover and Max’s bantering did not involve shoes, handbags, dresses or pube length. Hey filmmakers – how’s about remembering that women have brains, too?

4. Walking around a beautiful city. I’ve been able to sit through some garbage because of the use of urbanity as a character. James Howard Kunstler, a curmudgeonly fellow that advocates for a new appreciation of Jane Jacobs-style urban places, says that people who live within walking distance of (or near rapid transit to) the places where they work, eat, shop and play will be healthier and happier, not to mention better global citizens. You can add that these urban places can make awful movies tolerable, while good films are lifted even higher. Among the terrible is Down To You, which Ol’ Filthy himself says “Is not as much a ‘coming of age’ story as a ‘food coming back up the esophagus’ story.” But all the shots of late-1990s New York, even the midtown-douchenozzle bar scene, allowed me to hang on until Freddie Prinze Jr. tries to kill himself with shampoo. Oh yeah, spoiler alert. Which brings us to the good. Barcelona is an obvious choice, as is the even less-imaginarily-titled Vicky Christina Barcelona (which in case you forgot where they were, and the “Travel-Porn” of the Gaudi imagery coupled with the post-siesta wine didn’t remind you, the soundtrack features a perfunctory Spanish song that repeats the word “Barcelona” about 700 times). Any Which Way You Can is another movie featuring a picturesque city as a character, although you’ll need to replace “where two people walk around” with “where two ex-prizefighters beat the living crap out of each other”. Jackson Hole, Wyoming, coupled with a wig-bearing motorcycle gang that stops feuding with Clint Eastwood long enough to profit from his bare-knuckle skills – what’s not to like? I almost forgot to mention Ruth Gordon as the shotgun-toting mama.

5. The last day of magic. I lifted this title from one of my favorite songs of 2008, a noisy piece of pop from The Kills. “We’ve only got a day (or a week) before it all ends, so let’s make the most of it.” Before Sunrise and Before Sunset both encapsulate how a time limit can brutally accelerate the cycle of emotions between two parties intrigued with one another. This movie molecule provides a steady bass line for wild and unsteady conversations, misread body language, and gloriously-bad decisions. The Befores also benefit from the walking-around-a-beautiful-city molecule, too.  Another great example is Hal Ashby’s The Last Detail. Two friends (Jack Nicholson and Otis Young) are assigned to escort a youngster to the “brig”. Instead of speeding him to his sentence, they spend his last few days of freedom by giving him lessons in how to make it in this crazy world. Before a young Randy Quaid is sent off, he gets in fights, downs some beer, engages in “it” (how tawdry!), and ends his teenage years with a smile on his face (Several years later, his teenage daughter introduces Audrey Griswold to the joy of marijuana. Ah, the circle of life).

Next week, I’ll get to the formulae and molecules that far too often result in a terrible movie experience. You’ve been warned.

Kamitsu screenshot

Did I get your attention this morning?

Rushmore is back again with an AMAZING Promotional Video for their song “Kamitsu”. Remember when I highlighted their Michael Jackson video? Well this is 100x better! Probably one if the best videos to wake up to in the morning. Read more about Rushmore at their avex website. Kamitsu is out on 11/18/2009.

Basically Rushmore decided to take their rockin’ song and make a gravure idol video! What more do you need to know? Check it out now! The following video is safe for work but keep in mind the men in black censors are making it safe for work!

Rushmore… in space!: “I’d like to do a movie in space,” Wes told AccessHollywood.com on Friday at the Hollywood premiere of his latest film, the animated Roald Dahl adaptation Fantastic Mr. Fox. “If possible I would like to try to actually shoot some of it on location in space. That’s my preference.”

Dir: Wes Anderson, 2009

…don’t use fantastic…don’t use fantastic…don’t use fantastic…

There has been a lot of talk, during the lead up to the release of Fantastic Mr. Fox, about how Wes Anderson was one of the most influential of the filmmakers comprising the indie film scene of the Nineties. During that decade I was ages four through fourteen, and largely had neither the inclination nor the necessary identification to test this claim for myself. I did, however, see The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou when it was released in 2004, and an Anderson fan was born instantly. I eagerly sought out the director’s earlier films, and awaited with great anticipation his next offering, The Darjeeling Limited.

I then heard tell of Anderson’s plans to direct an animated adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. Anxiety took hold. Whilst The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou had contained brief sojourns into the realm of stop-motion, Anderson himself had no experience of that technique. Could he be planning a (gasp!) CGI feature?

Mercifully, my fears were unfounded. Anderson did not resort to digital trickery; instead, the stop-motion animation in Fantastic Mr. Fox looks more old-fashioned than even The Nightmare Before Christmas, the first stop-motion feature film. There is an endearing jerkiness to the way old Foxy and chums move, and the fur on their bodies bristles in a way that suggests, paradoxically, both artificiality and genuine life.

The film, of course, follows the eponymous canine (voiced, in an inspired piece of casting, by George Clooney), once a serial poultry thief, as he battles Boggis, Bunce and Bean, the three most successful and horrible farmers in the land. After settling down with his family, Mr. Fox decides to carry out one last batch of burglaries. Things go awry, however, and soon the entire woodland is at jeopardy from the three vengeful farmers.

The spirit of Roald Dahl’s proto-socialist children’s book is here, but this is Anderson’s film. Stop-motion animation really is the ideal medium, as it lends another facet to the painstakingly crafted artificiality that pervades of the director’s work. The film’s loose chapters are all declared with headings overlaid onto the action (and written in yellow Futura Bold, of course), and scenes are often played out in meticulously blocked static shots, or cross-sections of the sets, ala Zissou’s Belafonte.

Anderson has also extended the cast to include his own array of archetypes. Mr. Fox’s son Ash (Jason Schwartzman) bears resemblance to Klaus Daimler in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou – a ball of frustration and unattained ambition. Ash feels threatened by the arrival of cousin Kristofferson (Eric Anderson), an amalgamation of Richie Tenenbaum and a more competent Max Fischer, and their rivalry is kept in check by Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep), who could just as easily have been played by Anjelica Huston. Other Anderson staples include Bill Murray as Mr Fox’s badger lawyer, Willem Defoe as a rat in the employ of Bean, and Owen Wilson as a whackbat coach. (Whackbat is a fictional sport only slightly more comprehensible than Futurama’s blernsball.)

Underlying all of this is the wry and understated humour that has made American independent films so popular as of late. “They probably didn’t have opossums in Ancient Rome,” Mr. Fox tells his friend Kylie when he can’t remember his Latin name (it’s Didelphis virginiana, by the way). This is sure to irk some viewers (the trans-Atlantic conedy, that is) who, lured in by the source material and the old-fashioned animation, will be expecting something unadulteratedly British. These same people will almost certainly find fault with a community of American-accented animals doing battle with the evil Boggis, Bunce and Bean (Robin Hurlstone, Hugo Guinness and Michael Gambon respectively). And maybe this is a real problem with the film, but nevertheless I cannot bring myself to criticise Anderson for it. Fantastic Mr. Fox strikes a perfect balance between both sides of the Atlantic, with quirky American characters interacting with a quintessentially British setting.

And why should American and British values be separated in the cinema? In the same way that Anderson’s signature style and Dahl’s source material both benefited from their coalescence, American humour and British settings play off each other to create something greater than either could have been on its own. Perhaps Fantastic Mr. Fox will be wholly accepted by neither the Anderson elite nor the Dahl devotees, but for those who still believe in the Darwinian ideal of cross-fertilisation will be sure to find Anderson’s latest nothing short of fantastic.

…damn it.

Wes Anderson is one of the best directors around when it comes to the use of songs in films. He’s different from Quentin Tarantino, who just about exclusively uses existing material to score his films (including, often, the scores of previous films). Anderson blends recorded songs with original film scores (by Mark Mothersbaugh, of Devo fame) and both are an integral part of his movies.

I can’t imagine The Royal Tenenbaums without Mothersbaugh’s baroque score, but neither can I imagine it without Nick Drake’s ‘Fly’ or The Rolling Stones’ ‘Ruby Tuesday.’ And the same goes, maybe even more so, for Rushmore, still Anderson’s best film.

Mothersbaugh does splendid work in Rushmore… striking a note of whimsy perfectly in line with the film’s blend of humor and melancholy. Anderson’s films remind me a lot of those old Charlie Brown cartoons, including the mood composer Vince Guaraldi contributed to them. Fittingly, Anderson used Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown Christmas theme in Tenenbaums.

But song selection is equally important in Rushmore. Anderson uses 60s British invasion pop almost exclusively in the film and every selection is note-perfect. Today’s song, The Kinks’ ‘Nothing in This World Can Stop Me Worryin’ Bout That Girl,’ plays as Bill Murray’s depressed Herman Blume watches his wife flirt with a tennis pro at their twin sons’ birthday party. He distractedly tosses golf balls into the pool, watching the horror show of his life unfolding around him, then saunters over to the diving board and plunges into the water. The camera lingers with him underwater (recalling the scuba diving scene in The Graduate, probably on purpose).

It’s a lovely scene that captures, without a word of dialogue, the cocoon Herman lives in. Murray’s performance is wonderful and this song, which I’d never heard before, plays its part just splendidly.

The upcoming Fantastic Mr. Fox is more than just another remake of a childrens book, directed by Wes Anderson (Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums & Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) this will be his first using entirely stop-motion animation.  The remake of this Roald Dahl classic will be in theatres 11-13-09.

I haven’t really done much in a “physical” kind of way this weekend but i did quite a few different kind of things.

Ok watch this :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_3g_yf1vzI

The video is so 80’s it hurts. The singer’s GREEN suit makes me want to rip my eyes out, and then all of a sudden… CHILDREN EVERYWHERE!! Just fantastic.  Great song though, and definitely in my top 10 80’s songs of all time. They don’t make songs or videos like these anymore.

I also wanted to go and vote for the Democratic Party representative for the next primary elections in Italy, but I realised I still haven’t got my new electoral card because i’ve changed city of residence. A bit angry but what could I have done.

Another thing i did this weekend was find all the films with Bill Murray that I haven’t watched and then ofcourse proceed to host myself a Bill Murray Film marathon (if two films can be considered a marathon).

Those two films were “Caddyshack” , still maintaining that 80’s feel. It was ok, nothing spectacular. One of those 80’s fun films with Chevy Chase. Bill had a relatively minor role but it was quite funny. Loved the way he kept his lips kind of deformed throughout the whole movie, to give his character that weird accent.

The second film was “Rushmore“. A more recent (1998) movie, and also a tad more serious than caddyshack. It gave me a weird vibe to start off with, somwhat like the vibe i felt when I saw “Step Brothers” for the first time. You’ll know what I mean if you’ve seen any of these two movies. In the end it was actually a very entertaining movie and it ends well which is always nice.

I have to say though that my favourite Bill Murray movie was and still is Groundhog Day, followed closely by Lost in Translation. Actually that reminds me of the funniest clip ever in Lost in translation, where Bill is in the hospital waiting room with an old japanese man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SntLhQLIfVE (could only find it in italian but it’s still understandable and funny, check out the ladies in the background..it’s so improvised.

On other news my back started hurting again, i’m just praying it’s not my hernia acting up again…

I bet there’s still tons of bill murray movies out there and i’m sure i’ll watch some more of them (Next on the list is “Where The Buffalo Roam“, which is supposed to be what they based Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: bookworms don’t flame me!, and where Johnny Depp based his character from)

Time to go

o/

P.s. Thanks to omgbruces.com/forums for the 80’s inspiration

Oh! and new watch: Vostok Komandierskie Tank, Automatic

☺☺☺☺☺

Uno dei primi film di Wes Anderson , pressochè sconosciuto alla tivvù italiana se non per essere stato trasmesso rare volte sulla terza rete nazionale ad ore impraticabili (strano eh) pur essendo un gioiellino.

Il film brevemente tesse le vicende di Max Fisher studente del Rushmore college dotato di una straordinaria originalità non premiata dalla sua condotta scolastica e del suo incontro/scontro con Mrs. Cross e Mr.Blume (un sempre gigantopico Bill Murray).

Rushmore pur essendo dotato di una trama semplice costruisce la sua forza , come del resto tutti gli altri film di Anderson faranno, nel confezionamento di qualcosa che raccontato in modo originale sorprende e mai annoia attuandosi nella scelta delle immagini e dei colori fino alle musiche che cadenzano ogni singolo frame della pellicola. Fantastica la costruzione della rappresentazione teatrale del protagonista.

Avvertenze :

Unica pecca di questo film sta nelle difficoltà di reperimento, consiglio di recarvi in un videonoleggio (che non sia blockbusterammazzafilm) e di armarvi di pazienza oppure di vederlo in lingua originale che fa sempre bene eh. Sconsiglio la visione a coloro che mancano di immaginazione lo troverebbero noioso oltremodo.

Alla prossima pillola. 

y3kxa78rd2

New Wes Anderson…doesn’t get much better than that!

For all the Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums, and Life Aquatic fans here’s an interview with Anderson discussing his new animated film Fantastic Mr. Fox

and here’s a mini featurette with Jason Schwartzman

Mitsuru Nishimura image from Rushmore's website

So Avex has released another video on their youtube channel for this band of old Japanese guys RUSHMORE. Check out their website HERE. The band consists of Mitsuru Nishimura, Mitsuru Agarashi, Nozomu Wakai, and Mitsuhisa Sakamoto.

Why you should watch it?

1. The song is  特別なんていらない, which I cannot translate.

2. It is obviously a tribute to Michael Jackson. And it is beyond disturbing. But it is also hilarious.

3.  A late 1980’s Hair band slow rock song.

4. A gang of dancing fools who intimidate a girl. (this reeks of potential gang rape)

5. Michael Jackson dancing into a gang fight to save the day!

6. All the MJ dance moves you can remember.

WTF? Check it out and enjoy. I clicked on it and you should too.