Armchair Commentary

DVDs from the Vault: Forgotten Noir, Jungle Thrills - Plus! Rock, Doris, Popeye, Penrod and Sam (and More!)

Let's begin this week's feast of vintage features on DVD with a newly remastered quintet of lessr-known noir, all culled from the Warner acquisitions library and released via their manufacture on demand imprint, Warner Archives. Monogram's The Fall Guy (1947) benefits greatly from its source material - the short story "Cocaine," by Cornell Woolrich,, whose doom-laden work also served as the inspiration for The Leopard Man (1943), Phantom Lady (1944), Rear Window (1954), The Bride Wore Black (1968) and countless other films. The Fall Guy draws from one of Woolrich's favorite tropes - the crime commited in the wake of an alcohol- or drug-fueled blackout (see also Black Angel and The Guilty, both 1947) - with actor/director Leo Penn (father of Sean, Chris and Michael Penn, and here billed as Clifford Penn) discovering that he may have murdered a woman while in the grip of a bender. The left-field upbeat ending and budget-driven is balanced by the presence of Robert Armstrong (King Kong, 1933) as Penn's cop brother-in-law and Elisha Cook, Jr., in full ferret mode as a highly suspicious stranger. 

DVDs from the Vault: Code Breakers, Killers, Cronenberg, Screwball Comedy and More

Warner Archives presents Volume 6 of the exemplary Forbidden Hollywood series, which unearths remastered editions of long unavailable titles from the Pre-Code era (late 1920s to 1934). As with many pictures from this storied period, the quartet of films included in Volume 6 address a number of "hot" topics which, while handled in a manner that would be considered quaint today, were decidedly mature subject matter in their day, including alcoholism (The Wet Parade, 1932), racism (Massacre, 1934) and a heady bouillabaisse of criminal and moral peccadillos (Michael Curtiz's Mandalay, 1934). There's also John Gilbert as a sexually voracious cad who upends a well-to-do household in the dark comedy Downstairs (1932), a proposed comeback feature conceived and co-written by the former silent film star. There's star power to spare in all four films, from Walter Huston, Myrna Loy, Wallace Ford and Jimmy Durante buffeting stars Robert Young and Dorothy Jordan in their fight against the evils of liquor in Victor Fleming's The Wet Parade to Ricardo Cortez, Warner Oland and Lyle Talbot doing their best Tex Avery wolf imitations at the sight of "hostess" Kay Francis in Mandalay. And while Richard Barthlemess and Ann Dvorak in tan makeup as Sioux in Massacre might strike modern-day viewers as camp (at best) or offensive (at worst, and the depiction of black characters in the film isn't much better), the film takes a remarkably sober and sympathetic look at the wholesale indignities heaped upon reservation dwellers by white government and religious representatives. Forbidden Hollywood Volume 6 is again a treasure trove for aficionados of Hollywood's Golden Age and its more eyebrow-raising efforts.

Forget Everything You Have Seen: Alejandro Jodorowsky Talks "El Topo" and "Holy Mountain" on Blu-ray

In 1970, world cinema was turned on its head by Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky's surrealistic Western El Topo. A violent fable about an unbeatable gunfighter (played by Jodorowsky) who loses his humanity to gain enlightenment, El Topo drew inspiration from a dizzying array of sources, including Zen Buddhist tracts, Antonin Artaud's "Theater of Cruelty," the films of Jean Cocteau and Sergio Leone and the art of Salvador Dali. Its head-spinning melange of arthouse and grindhouse tropes made it a sensation among the cognoscenti of the counterculture (most notably, John Lennon and Yoko Ono) and helped to kick off the "midnight movies" scene of the early '70s. Jodorowsky would follow El Topo with The Holy Mountain (1973), a equally dense-layered fantasy about a mystic (Jodorowsky again) who leads the six "most powerful people" on Earth to the title location, where they hope to unlock the secrets of the immortals.

Though Jodorowsky made several films after this powerhouse duo, including 1990's Santa Sangre, none would capture the imagination of the movie-going public like El Topo and Holy Mountain. Unfortunately, few could see the films following their initial theatrical runs; rights issues kept them in limbo for decades until they were released by ABKCO and Anchor Bay on DVD in 2007. On April 26, both entities will present Blu-ray editions of El Topo and Holy Mountain. To commemorate the occasion, Amchair Commentary spoke with Alejandro Jodorowsky via phone at his home in Paris, where he imparted his unique, decidedly frank (and possibly NSFW) views on his masterworks, the Blu-ray releases and his much-discussed future projects.

QUESTION: I want to read you a quote that you gave during the original theatrical release of El Topo. You said, "If you're great, El Topo is a great film. If you're limited, El Topo is limited." Do you still agree with this assessment?

Great Films Come in Small Packages

It’s easy to overlook a DVD or Blu-ray disc with an unfamiliar name. Is it even from this year? And why don’t I recognize any of the stars? But tomorrow’s nobody may just be the next big thing.

Consider Fish Tank’s Michael Fassbender, who currently stars as Rochester in the latest version of Jane Eyre and was recently featured in Entertainment Weekly. Ladies, in Fish Tank you can see him with his shirt off. Enough about Fassbender’s abs; Katie Jarvis is the real star of Fish Tank. She plays a street-smart young Brit, who pushes everyone away, but secretly dreams of being a dancer--and liberating a neighbor’s chained up horse. When her mom brings home her new boyfriend (Fassbender), it almost seems like Katie’s life could change for the better. But perhaps not everything is quite as it seems.

Speaking of movies that aren’t what they seem, Catfish is one of the year’s most interesting documentaries. It shares Exit Through the Gift Shop’s “is it real or is it invented” quality (though count me as one of the believers), and makes a good companion piece to The Social Network. All I can tell you is: A man meets a young girl on Facebook. The film is suspenseful, though not in the typical “scary” way. Watch it yourself and decide: Is it real?

Another movie that might leave you shaking your head (hopefully in a good way) is the Oscar-nominated Dogtooth. This film from Denmark about a man who’s determined to shelter his family from the outside world is disturbing in all the best ways. Its inventiveness—the parents make new meanings for worlds they don’t want the “kids” to know—combine with some shocking sex and violence (and who doesn’t love that) to create a world that you wouldn’t want to live in but is worth a two-hour visit.

Visually, Enter the Void is one of the trippier big-screen visions you’ll stumble across. Paz de la Huerta (Boardwalk Empire), an actress who’s never met a piece of clothing she didn’t want to remove in front of a camera, and newcomer Nathaniel Brown star as a brother and sister who are torn apart as kids but reunite years later as adults in the playground of Tokyo nightlife. Director Gasper Noe’s view of Tokyo looks nothing like the sterile city of Lost in Translation; he transforms it into a drug-fueled fairyland.

Melbourne’s no fairytale city in Animal Kingdom. It’s more like “boy meets family of Departed-style criminals,” when J (James Frecheville) is sent to live with his maternal grandmother (Oscar-nominated Jackie Weaver). If you thought that Black Swan’s Barbara Hershey and The Fighter’s Melissa Leo were the scariest moms of 2010, just wait till you meet Weaver’s “Smurf.” Without employing any of the histrionics of the others, she delivers a chilling performance.

Have you seen a small film you want to recommend to other Amazon customers? Share it with us. But please, no spoilers. --Paige Newman

Not with a Bang, But a Whimper: "Vanishing on 7th Street" and Other Quiet Apocalypses

When it comes to depictions of the end of the world on films and in television, audiences seem to like their apocalypse scaled at an epic size. Films like Armageddon, 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow have presented our final days as special effects spectaculars that can be appreciated for their feats of technical skill as much as for the fear they produce. But a handful of movies have presented an extinction event as a much quieter affair, with life as we know it ending, as T.S. Eliot said in "The Wasteland," not with a bang, but a whimper.

Brad Anderson's Vanishing on 7th Street, which opens on February 18, presents such a scenario, with most of the world's population simply disappearing during a global blackout, leaving a handful of survivors in Detroit to cope as daylight begins to fade into permanent night. Following are a host of similarly quiet apocalypse films, ranging in tone from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Five (1951) One of the earliest, if not the first film to depict life after a nuclear holocaust, this heavy-handed but watchable drama by radio pioneer Arch Oboler (Lights Out) charges a quintet of survivors to rebuild society while sorting out their ideological differences. The futuristic house where much of the film's action takes place was a Frank Lloyd Wright creation owned by Oboler.

The World, The Flesh and the Devil (1959) Harry Belafonte stars as a mine inspector who escapes a cave-in, only to discover that humanity has been wiped out by atomic poisons. He finds two other survivors, Inger Stevens and Mel Ferrer, in an eerily vacant New York City; romantic and racial tensions are soon ignited between the two men, who must learn to overcome old beliefs in order to survive in their new world.

The Play's The Thing: "The Tempest" and Other Eclectic Screen Shakespeare

As you read this post, there are most likely dozens, if not hundreds of professional and amateur productions of plays by William Shakespeare taking place across the world. Add to that number film and television adaptations of his work, as well as musicals, operas, ballets, animated and multimedia projects, and you have a veritable tidal wave of the Bard crashing upon the global cultural shores. While many of these mountings adhere strictly to the story and presentation on the page, the universal themes of his work -- the corrupting influence of power, the joys and folly of love -- have allowed directors to take the plays out of the Elizabethan era and graft them to times, places and cultures as diverse as feudal Japan, Southern California high schools, the Wild West, and even outer space. Similarly, Shakespeare's heroes, villains and fools have been recast as motorcycle club members, Midwestern hustlers, British jazz musicians, gangsters, brewery owners and even lions. 

The latest Shakespeare play to make it to the big screen is Julie Taymor's The Tempest (pictured) which takes its own eclectic route by offering not only a gender reversal on its lead, the wizard Prospero, who is played by Oscar winner Helen Mirren, but also offbeat casting in the form of comedian Russell Brand as the jester Trinculo and Djimon Hounsou as the "monstrous" Caliban, the wizard's former slave. Taymor's choices echo a near-century's worth of fascinating and unusual cinematic takes on Shakespeare. Following is a by-no-means complete listing of alternative Shakespeare, listed by the original work.

New Year's Resolutions You Can Keep: Watch This!

Sure, getting fit and eating better are great New Year's resolutions. But this year, why not focus on resolutions that will be easy to keep? That's right: this year, let's resolve to get caught up--or catch up our good friends--on the top buzzed-about films and TV series. You don't have premium cable? Overlooked some of the little gems on screens large and small? 2011 will be the year to set all that right:

1. Dexter -- Michael C. Hall is spellbinding as the serial killer with a conscience in Showtime's series, one of the best-written dramas in recent memory. If you don't have premium cable, don't sweat it--Dexter is great to catch up on via disc, when you can watch several episodes in a row. Each season has topped the previous, and it's best to start at the beginning of Season One. Watch for great (and dastardly) guest appearances by the likes of Jimmy Smits and John Lithgow. It's the most fun you'll have being super-creeped out.

2. The Kids Are All Right -- Lisa Cholodenko's little gem got great critical reviews but only so-so box office. But now that awards season is in full swing, more people are taking notice, and rightly so. Annette Bening, who hasn't graced movie screens in a long while, and Julianne Moore are terrific in this portrait of a family that's different, but full of love, and fully functional. (Follow it with The Who's The Kids Are Alright just for the name symmetry--and for another definition of  "all right.")

3. Breaking Bad -- Don Draper and Mad Men's  retro hipness have been in AMC's spotlight--rightly--this year. But AMC has been cranking out some other seriously great series, including Breaking Bad and the zombie-fest The Walking Dead. In Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston is outstanding as a desperate middle-aged dad whose life is crumbling around him, so he takes up dealing meth to earn money. It's a harsher, more real and human version of Showtime's Weeds, and Cranston is a knockout.

4. The Stieg Larsson Trilogy Films -- Everyone spent most of 2010 reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. And Hollywood has naturally gotten its mitts on rights to remake the original Swedish films. But don't wait to see if the U.S. versions can possibly measure up; take your time with the moody, eloquent originals and immerse yourself in the spooky calm of the Swedish countryside--and deep mysteries solvable only by the fiercest heroine in recent memory.

5. Big Love--The HBO series about modern-day polygamists has been compuslively watchable--but now its producers have announced this coming season will be its last. So get caught up on the goings-on in Sandy, Utah, with Bill Hendrickson (the excellent Bill Paxton) and his many merry mates.

6. Friday Night Lights--A critical favorite, Friday Night Lights still struggles in its viewership, and every season in the last few has threatened to be its last. Don't let this little gem about Texas high school football--and the lives that surround it--get away from you this year.

7. Biggest Loser: Power Walk--OK, so you would like to get in shape in 2011? You can do that, too, with some help from your favorite TV pals. The new Biggest Loser workout, Power Walk, is approachable and doable for every fitness level. No expensive equipment to buy, just that great feeling that if the motivated folks on the TV series can do it, so can you.

Happy New Year!

--A.T. Hurley

 

 

 

Judging the Movie Posters

With this winter's onslaught of holiday releases, it's a great time to totally judge a movie by its cover--or in this case, its posters.

Black Swan: You know the strategy. Start with an indelible teaser image, then do a wave in some character/conceptual art, then, closer to the film's release, go more literal and focus on star power. That said, Black Swan's series of posters gets it all right. The red-eyed, black-painted Natalie Portman in the first teaser poster is something you can't get out of your head (along with the uber-creepy trailer). The conceptual art are mostly fun to look at and explore, and even the final image (note the eerie blood-red arm) is a perfect marketing pitch for the movie (and puts Portman front-and-center for an Oscar campaign). I love all of them, and hope Fox chooses one for the DVD cover and not some awful floating-head thing that strips out all this artistic awesomeness.




Country Strong: Possibly one of the worst-drawn posters ever. Did Photoshop implode during the color/black-and-white adjustments? If it's trying to push an ensemble movie, why was only Gwyneth singing all over the CMA Awards and Glee instead of the other three? Clearly there are parallels between this film and last year's Crazy Heart, and that movie's poster was much cooler. (Also why does Tim McGraw look like Al Pacino in this poster?)


The Fighter: No shirtless, ripped Mark Wahlberg mid-punch a la Rocky. Christian Bale actually moves front and center here (another Oscar campaign in the works there). A lot of black space in between the title and two guys sitting on a stoop. Intriguing. (Side note: The palette looks very eerily like that of The Haunting in Connecticut.)


Somewhere: Sofia Coppola's new film takes place at Hollywood's famous Chateau Marmont hotel. There's a huge face hidden between the trees, presumably part of a billboard. I get a whimsical feeling from this poster, but that's because of the whimsical italicized font, which reminds me of Coppola's last film, Marie Antoinette (also whimsical).


Tron: Legacy: You can imagine the marketing meeting here: "Listen, we're TRON; there's no WAY the movie poster can NOT look cool."


True Grit: I'm not against faces in a poster, but I just like the feel of the first poster better than the second one. The bullet hole is more prominent as well; in the second, that little girl looks tougher than Matt Damon.



What movie posters do you love/hate this season? -- Ellen

Best Art House & International DVDs of 2010

The finest art house DVDs offer something for most tastes, from pointed melodramas to star-crossed love affairs. If laughs were in short supply, powerful performances and intriguing imagery ruled the day.

 

1. The White Ribbon:  After his unnecessary English-language overhaul of Funny Games, Austria’s Michael Haneke took on the roots of fascism in this beautifully-shot melodrama about a small town rotting from the inside.

2. Summer Hours (The Criterion Collection): There are no heroes or villains in the upper-class family at the heart of Olivier Assayas's quietly moving film, just a mother and her children trying to do right by each other in the face of mortality.

3. A Prophet: Jacques Audiard injects new life into the prison drama by tracking the rise of a French-Arab man who climbs the ladder from convict to kingpin. Comparisons to The Godfather were not misplaced. 

4. Bright Star: Jane Campion’s painterly portrait of the brief relationship between poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne brings young love to life in all its agony and glory. Her finest feature since The Piano.

5. Lorna's Silence: Belgian brothers Jean-Luc and Pierre Dardenne leave the suds behind for a gripping look at a marriage of convenience that blooms into love between a drug addict and an illegal immigrant. 

6. The Kids Are All Right: Lisa Cholodenko doesn't just create fully rounded characters, but entire communities, and her third film isn't just about parents and children, but about the ties that truly bind. Bonus: it’s hilarious. 

7. Winter's Bone: Down to the Bone director Debra Granik reinvents the procedural for the harrowing tale of a tenacious Appalachian teenager trying to save the family home against unbelievable odds. 

8. Fantastic Mr. Fox: This stop-motion adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic marks Wes Anderson’s most enjoyable outing since Rushmore. George Clooney is perfection as the family man-turned-action hero. 

9. Greenberg: After the morose Margot at the Wedding, Noah Baumbach’s carefully observed romantic comedy feels downright buoyant, thanks largely to the effortless charm of Greta Gerwig.

10. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans: Neither a remake nor a sequel to the Abel Ferrara original, Werner Herzog’s New Orleans noir stars a gloriously unhinged Nicolas Cage as a dirty, pill-popping detective with one last shot at redemption. 

Check out the rest of our Best of 2010 store for more editors' picks and customer's favorites. What were your favorite indie & foreign-language films of 2010? --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Trailer Park: "Black Swan" (I'm. Scared.)

Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream) has released the trailer for his new thriller Black Swan (releasing in December) which stars Natalie Portman as a ballerina competing for the lead in Swan Lake against a new, more seductive rival (Mila Kunis). Clearly, there are some All About Eve-Showgirls comparisons to be made here, but some of the startling images (Portman's reflection turning back on her, the mysterious injuries in her back, Barbara Hershey clipping fingernails with ferocity) made me watch this three times. And I'm freaked out, esp. by the red-eyed ending.

(And did you catch that creepy woman at 1:23? That's Winona Ryder!) --Ellen