When I originally started this blog all those many moons ago (geez — it’s only like 16 moons; it feels so much longer, and I’m sure even longer still for you), I really intended to regularly do two things: first, have some semblance of regular reviews of the movies I see — long, short, whatever; and second, do a weekly preview of all the new releases — big and small — as much for you my loyal reader as for myself to make sure I at least have taken the time to know when stuff is coming out. Well, I’ve performed horribly at both goals, and for that reason, I am quitting blogging.
HEY! Stop cheering. I’m kidding. You can’t get rid of me that easily.
I’m still working on the reviews, but how’s this for a really short one:
Must Love Dogs must hate me, because I do love dogs, but that movie irritated the hell out of me.
How’s that? A little more than a headline; a lot less than I’m used to. OK, I’ll get into more detail later, maybe even in an IMreview with my screening companion from the other night. However, I have so many other things I feel are more interesting to discuss, we’ll see if I actually get around to it. Broken promises: it’s what we’re all used to, no?
But Must Love Dogs is just one of a whole slew of notable new releases this weekend, and wouldn’t you know it? I still haven’t seen anything from last weekend, when I actually did manage to carve out a weekend preview post.
None of the releases this weekend are so huge that they will really challenge the box office rankings. Chances are good that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Wedding Crashers can hold on to their top spots, but if certain people who I said I wasn’t going to talk about again until I seen a certain movie was upset last week, he’ll be crying far more hysterically come Monday after being bumped out of the top five. Each of this weekend’s wide releases however do have sleeper potential, especially Must Love Dogs which really should have been a cute romantic comedy with two incredibly engaging leads, both of whom are crushes to the vast majority of movie-going America. But enough about this dog.
The movie I’m most excited for as it receives a limited release this weekend is The Aristocrats, a documentary from comedians Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette which features over 100 of their comic colleagues telling the same (sort of) famous filthy joke over-and-over again. The film was a big hit earlier this year at Sundance. More recently it’s been the center of a minor controversy: due to it’s graphic language, distributor THiNKFilm has decided to release the movie with no rating, and gigantic theater chain AMC has declared they won’t exhibit it. Of course, it’s hard enough to get a small picture into parts of the country that don’t have initials like NY or LA; take away the major multiplexes, and you’re potentially done for. Regardless, I’ve heard from some that the gimmick gets tiresome, but I’m still fascinated to take a look at this films main purpose: to expose just a little bit about the inner workings of the comedic profession. If you want a preview, take a peak at the contribution to the film from Eric Cartman and his South Park friends. It’s genius. (It’s also sort of NSFW; at least the sound and language is.)
The other movie I’m really excited for this weekend is Sky High which has a chance to become the little movie that could if it’s a) any good and b) Disney actually did enough promotion. I’ve seen the trailer a ton of times, but several of them were that day I saw six movies in a row. I think it looks like a lot of fun, but at the same time, there are some definite pros and cons. On the plus side, it’s got a great cast, including the lead kid Michael Angarano who was a standout in Lords of Dogtown earlier this summer. Also, the idea looks like it has a lot of promise, and the director Mike Mitchell was a director on the great cancelled somewhat-subversive Fox series Greg the Bunny. On the con side, the same director is the man who brought us the sincerely horrible Surviving Christmas last year, and with this being a Disney film (actually from Walt Disney Pictures, even), there’s a good chance some of the more clever ideas could be dumbed down. Either way, I’m really looking forward to it, and will probably bemoan my stupidity later.
Then we have the other wide release: Stealth, which I really couldn’t care less about. You just watch, though. This is exactly the kind of movie that with no major new competition up against it comes out of nowhere, surprising everyone with a relatively huge opening weekend. Maybe even $25-30 million! I wouldn’t wager on it, but I won’t be surprised if it happens either. Besides, for some inexplicable reason, the poor-man’s Michael Bay directed this one. That’s actually not fair to Rob Cohen who actually directed a pretty decent movie before tackling a mediocre but not awful one. Only then did he move on to an amazing declining succession of crap. And just in case you’re wondering, Jamie Foxx made this one before he decided that he actually was, in fact, Ray Charles, so he’d appreciate it if you didn’t call this his Oscar follow-up. Thanks.
Also on the docket this weekend:
- the French and Chinese adaptation of Dai Sijie’s novel “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” finally gets a US release after premiering at Cannes three years ago. (Opening at the Paris Theater.)
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The Australian love story Oyster Farmer about a young man from the city who winds up wrangling oysters in rural New South Wales, only to fall-in-love with small town existence and a girl, of course. (Opening at the Quad Cinemas and the New Metro Twin in NYC.)
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Tony Takitani may be in Japanese, but its story is one many married men probably consider universal, even if it is a stereotype — the wife’s penchant for clothes shopping might just get in the way of their relationship. (Opening at the Angelika.)
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Film Forum’s premiere screen offers The 3 Rooms of Melancholia, a Finnish documentary about the children who have become orphans due to the ongoing conflict in Chechnya.
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A film that belongs on A&E rather than in the theater, I was a little surprised to see that Edgar G. Ulmer — The Man OFF-Screen was getting any sort of theatrical release. Sure, one week at Anthology Film Archives is anything but wide; I guess it’s not even limited. But this documentary about the “King of the B’s” — as in B-movies, that is — is basically simply Biography fare. I happen to know because we showed it at Tribeca, and I happened to screen and do the write-up for it. Don’t get me wrong: it’s an interesting film for the cinephile who is curious about Ulmer, the man responsible for one of the great films noir of all time with Detour. You just don’t really learn so much about the guy. I wouldn’t rush down to Anthology; even if you’re curious, wait for the DVD or television broadcast.
However, Anthology is using the Edgar Ulmer documentary as an intro to show a whole bunch of Ulmer’s films, including some of his best-known and influential B-pictures, The Man From Planet X (tonight at 8 PM), The Black Cat which features both Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi (tomorrow at 8 PM) and Moon Over Harlem, one of Ulmer’s early “ethnic” films for which he became famous, featuring an all-black cast and shot in just four days (Sunday at 5:15 PM).
Actually, the movie everyone should go see this weekend is, as often is the case, is Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1970 classic The Conformist, which starts a two week engagement today at Film Forum.
Other films to check-out at the rep and revival houses around town include:
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BAM Cinematék wraps-up its “In Deppth” celebration of Johnny Depp with two of the versatile actors best performances. On Friday you can watch Depp give a brilliantly quiet performance in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape that often goes unnoticed due to his co-star Leonardo DiCaprio’s equally fine, but more showy, role. Then on Saturday and Sunday catch Depp minimalism at its best in Dead Man, the film many consider to be indie-auteur Jim Jarmusch’s best.
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MoMA gives some overdue recognition to one of the great Hollywood comedy directors of the first half of the 20th Century: Gregory La Cava. They’re running a series featuring his films that continues through August 15. This Saturday at 4 PM you can catch the great Stage Door with Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Lucille Ball, Eve Arden and Ann Miller, not to mention Adolphe Menjou.
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If you want to head to Astoria, you could do worse than check out The Museum of the Moving Image‘s series showcasing the great Raoul Walsh. Go Saturday or Sunday at 2 PM and see Bogie in classic form in High Sierra. While you’re out there, with all the talk about Michael Winterbottom’s 9 Songs floating around the film ether, do yourself a favor and stick around to see another Bertolucci classic: his erotic masterpiece Last Tango in Paris. Few if any have compared 9 Songs to Last Tango favorably, so remind yourself why.
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I suppose if I’m really being thorough, I should mention “Scanners: The 2005 New York Video Festival” at the Walter Reade Theater, but I just can’t get excited by it.
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I would be remiss, however, in my job as a Billy Wilder-worshipper if I neglected to mention that the Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space happens to be showing THE GREATEST FILM EVER MADE this weekend. That’s right, my all-time favorite movie Sunset Blvd. will screen on Saturday and Sunday in a double-feature with the 1954 Judy Garland version of A Star Is Born. And you know what? I probably won’t go, because no matter how much I love Sunset Blvd. — and love it I do — I don’t particularly like the Thalia. But if god forbid you’ve never seen Wilder’s masterpiece that manages to span all-sorts of genres from drama to noir to, arguably, monster movie, and still manages to enthrall me every time I see it (and that number is getting up there!), get thee to the Symphony (Space) already.
Whew! And with that, I’m done. Will this lovely feature continue? Your guess is as good as mine! Besides, I’ve still got to see everything I didn’t get to last weekend.
Oy!
Out of Focus 