Out of Focus

I’m just going to be blunt: If you don’t yet have a relationship with the films of Pedro Almod&#243var, get your head out of your ass and start one. Luckily for you, there’s not a better time to do so than this weekend which brings to movie theaters in New York and LA his latest, Bad Education starring Gael García Bernal. I saw the film at the New York Film Festival last month and it instantly hit my best-of-year list.

Like all his films, Almod&#243var is somewhat of an acquired taste. He creates worlds that lie somewhere between reality and fantasy. I like to call them a type of stylized hyperreality. They are an amazing blend of satire and heartfelt drama, filled with humanity and love and understanding for all people no matter how different they may be. At the same time, Almod&#243var never hesitates to challenge the audience.

Continue reading “WHEN GETTING A BAD EDUCATION CAN ACTUALLY BE GOOD”

Yesterday I got into a brief argument with someone over this whole Monday Night Football/Terrell Owens–Nicollette Sheridan/Desperate Housewives controversy. The person with whom I was speaking was arguing (politely but aggressively, I should note) that the outrage over that sketch was justified. That it was a question of context, and 6 PM on the West Coast (when MNF starts) with a football show is not a time to see a naked woman on network television. That if the sketch had been T.O. going to shoot steroids or smoke "reefer" instead of being out on the field with his team, and if it were a real situation, he would have been suspended, but this sketch suggests that if he’s just having sex with some hot starlet, there’s no problem.

Most importantly, however, I was told that my attitude towards the incident – one of, "Are you all crazy?" It’s a sketch, what’s the big deal? – was one of superiority toward the rest of the country who felt differently than me and were horribly offended, and my attitude is what’s creating this whole backlash against east coast liberal elite thinking. I didn’t really have much opportunity to even state my side of this debate, and I definitely wasn’t being heard when I was, which was fine, but I also probably held back from one very important reason. I hadn’t actually seen the sketch (which I hadn’t admitted) so I was speaking in the abstract.

That’s a situation in which I don’t usually find myself. Part of the reason I try to watch everything and be as informed as I can is specifically so that I am able to have an opinion on the topic. I won’t usually formulate an opinion on something without actually having a basis for it. The only difference in this case was that I had heard it described so much and I thought, knowing network television, I could predict what it would look like, and to me there was a bigger issue at play. A friend of mine works in production on a PBS round-table chatfest that is working on a piece about the "coarsening" of American entertainment through the years, from Lawrence Welk and Leave It to Beaver to Fear Factor and Howard Stern on E! I think "coarsening" is an unfortunate label when talking about options that people can choose to watch or not. What troubles me much more isn’t the variety of programming we now have but rather the heightened sensitivity about everything in this country. Tittygate at last year’s Super Bowl started all of this because everyone involved made such a huge deal out of it. But in that case, at least there was some actual nudity, so damaging to the youth of our country in the middle of three hours of guys trying to hit each other as hard as possible to knock them off their feet.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m a really big football fan. However there is a hypocrisy (and always has been) between the way our society treats sex and violence. But you know what shocked the hell out of me? When I finally, yesterday afternoon, sat down at my computer and webbed my way over to iFilm to watch the actual sketch in its entirety, I was shocked. I was appalled. I was speechless.

THIS IS WHAT HAS EVERYBODY SO PISSED OFF????

Continue reading “OFFENDED AND APPALLED AT THIS DISASTER OF CALAMITOUS PROPORTIONS”

After getting home really late last night, I absolutely did not intend to watch the entire 2 hour premiere of The Amazing Race. But dammit if that show doesn’t suck me in from the first BOMP of the opening theme, and since I couldn’t turn it off, here are a few, brief, quick first impressions:

• This was actually the least exciting beginning of a race so far. Every previous season, the producers managed to get the audience adrenaline pumping and seamlessly flow into the opening credits with the drums and the chanting and the excitement … not this time. There was a weird stutter or something as we faded from an empty subway track to the title sequence. Luckily, this was the only disappointment of the evening.

• Reality shows often have those grating personalities who you either love to hate or are actually so annoying you just hate them and want them gone. In fact, one of those types even one the third edition of TAR. Her name is Flo, and she’s the luckiest woman alive because her partner Zach managed to win this race basically on his own; she was utterly useless. But it took all of five minutes to realize that this edition of TAR has by far the most annoying person to ever run the race, and possibly the most grating — and dare I say evil? — contestant yet: Jonathan. How the hell his wife Victoria puts up with him is beyond me. He’s not even entertainingly annoying. He’s just plain terrible, and hopefully he’ll get Philiminated (TM Miss Alli and TWoP – I encourage you to read her weekly brilliant recaps) really, really, REALLY soon. Yes, he’s worse than Flo; he’s even worse than Wil, and for those who have followed TAR, that’s saying something.

• In fact, this looks like the most annoying cast ever to populate this show, but in most cases that’s a good thing. There will be plenty of eye-rolling watching this version of TAR.

• This may also be the “prettiest” TAR cast so far. It seems that every other team is composed of models.

• Damn, do I want to go to Iceland. That is one cool-looking country. Not to mention, everyone seems drunk all the time. What could be better?

• I was kind of happy with the first elimination. I won’t give it away to those who haven’t seen the episode yet and/or plan to watch or record it on Saturday (don’t forget — 8 PM this Saturday rebroadcast), but the team that comes in last had some good moments and clever lines, but overall their schtick was going to get tired really fast.

I’m sure I could think of more, and I specifically decided not to get all detailed this time. Check out TWoP’s recaplet and read the recap when it’s posted. They’ll enhance your enjoyment of the show, even though it definitely needs no help. TAR remains the best of all reality shows, and it fact, it’s one of the best series on TV, period.

All you hear is how TV is bad for you. Well, I’ll admit to a bit of hyperbole, but after last night, I have yet another reason to declare American Dreams one of the best shows on TV.

See, I had bought these Greek Lamb Burger patties at Whole Foods, and before rushing off to Movable Hype last night, I thought I’d broil one up for myself. So it’s cooking in the broiler, no problem. And then the smoke alarm goes off. I actually didn’t think much of it: there’s not really any ventilation in the kitchen so often, depending on what I’m cooking, the smoke alarm will start beeping. A few minutes later though, I opened the broiler to check the burger and what do you know? Flames. Actual fire. Apparently, the grease on the broiler pan had popped up and caught fire and basically there was a fire raging inside my oven. First, I thought it might be smart to turn off the broiler, but the fire still didn’t go away. The smoke from the broiler had chared the front of our classy (read: cheap) white oven.

I knew not to use water. But I was nervous to throw a towel or something on it for fear of the towel catching fire before putting it out, and suddenly there goes the whole kitchen. So what did I do? I grabbed my big container of salt and threw it on the fire. The fire went out. Kitchen and apartment saved. And you know why? Because on Sunday’s episode of American Dreams, when young son Will starts a fire on the stove, the mother Helen Pryor played by Gail O’Grady comes racing in and tosses salt (at least I think it was salt; it could have been baking soda or powder or something; but I’m sticking with salt) in the pan, killing the flames.

So see? American Dreams may be a great show (it is, no matter how many people chuckled at me tonight for even admitting to watching it), but it’s also educational. Sure, it can help teach you about ’60s America, maybe a little about race relations and civil rights, about families experiences in the early days of the Vietnam war, about pop music and culture of the period; but you never know what other wisdom you may receive, like how to put out fires the “Good Housekeeping” way.

Here I was, minding my own business, when I read an appalling — APPALLING I SAY — headline that I appear to have missed at the end of last week: Rent to Be Filmed in San Francisco. Obviously, it was being hidden from me, but thanks to Gothamist, I heard about it today. I already had problems with this pending movie adaptation of Rent simply because of news that Chris Columbus would be directing. A worse pairing of filmmaker and material can hardly be imagined (other than Barry Sonnenfeld and White Noise, although actually, I think that has a better chance of succeeding).

Now don’t get me wrong, I love San Francisco. Even more than New York, in fact. You see, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m from there. I was born there; I grew up there … and not "San Francisco" only to mean San Rafael or Hillsborough or Berkeley or Palo Alto or Daly City, but actually San Francisco. But pay close attention: San Francisco is not New York. Neither is Vancouver or Toronto. And I know movies always use different locations, but for Rent that really should not have been the case.

Additionally, the story mentions that filming will take place on "Treasure Island." For those who don’t know, Treasure Island is a man made island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. If you’re heading from San Francisco to Oakland across the Bay Bridge, Treasure Island and it’s natural sibling Yerba Buena Island are somewhere in the middle. Treasure Island was built in 1936 (opened in 1939) with the original intention of being an international airport and then it hosted the 1939-40 World’s Fair. (The photo is an arial shot of the fair. Looks just like the East Village at night, no?) The military took it over during World War II because of it’s position in the middle of the Bay. It now is mostly a tourist destination with a museum.

San Francisco is justly trying to increase filming in the city. But I’m confused: they’re going to build the East Village on Treasure Island? So it will all be a big set? Or, are they using it primarily for offices and some exteriors with the plan to shoot on location in the streets of San Francisco which, by the way, look absolutely nothing like Manhattan? San Francisco is a gorgeous urban landscape, but it sure as hell isn’t New York. I mean, see how pretty Treasure Island is? I guess you could mistake that for the Washington Square arch if you squint really tightly so you can’t actually see anything.

Either way, it’s bullshit. Although I’m not surprised. To be fair to Chris Columbus (and I disagree with Jen from Gothamist: he mangled the first two Harry Potters, especially the second), it’s possible that the studio is putting him up to this. But then again, I have no desire to be fair to such an immense hack. I wrote before that aside from being an utterly mediocre director with a decent talent for making pretty pictures, he has no talent at a story and will fundamentally misunderstand Rent. Well, here he is already starting to do so.

I’m sure Columbus’s idea is that Rent is actually a cautionary fable and as such the reality he tries to instill in it will be even greater with a purely designed (and therefore artificial) environment. Sadly, I believe this is probably a Harry Potter influence on him. He enjoyed creating the entire world of the film from scratch so much, he thinks he can do that with Rent and turn some part of Treasure Island into Tompkins Square.

He’s wrong. In fact, in the case of Rent, the exact opposite is necessary. Nearly the entire script (at least on stage) is sung. There is enough of the storyline and the show that rings completely false. The one thing it does ring true about is the time and place. A specific moment in time and a specific place in the world — New York in the early ’90s. That time and place should not be recreated somewhere else. That time and place should also not be moved. The show is not about the Castro or the Tenderloin of San Francisco, nor should it be. It’s themes may have been somewhat universal, but it’s story was not. Sadly, that’s something that Columbus won’t ever understand, maybe simply because he can’t.

Some people are expecting Rent to be the next Chicago, but along the way they seem to be forgetting that show isn’t just about people who live in New York: it is (or was) New York.

Tonight finally seems to be the end of the beginning of the new Fall television season. Fox premieres their new medical investigation series House (not to be confused with NBC’s Medical Investigation) while CBS finally unveils the new version of the best reality show of them all: The Amazing Race.

I’ve mentioned several times how damn good The Amazing Race is. If you’ve never given it a try, I enthusiastically encourage you to do so this time, and starting from the beginning is always best. If you can’t watch the 2-hour premiere tonight starting at 9 PM and you won’t have an opportunity to record it, CBS will be replaying it this Saturday at 8 PM which gives you plenty of time to find a sitter or set your DiVo/VCR.

TAR, as those who love it call it, has never failed to disappoint in five previous outings. It is the only reality show that has had such longevity. Yes, there have been more seasons of Survivor, but many of them have been relatively boring, including the current one. TAR manages to avoid the pitfalls of other reality shows, I think, in part because it’s not constructed like the other shows. While most reality shows are completely dependent on successful casting – picking good personalities and hoping that the interact (read: clash) with each other in entertaining ways – TAR seems relatively cast-proof. I don’t mean to say that 22 boring people would make for a good season, but TAR is the only show that by design has teams competing against each other, and those teams are composed of people with pre-existing relationships. Those relationships create their own dynamic – whether involving arguments or hugs – that bring their own conflict to the show that will always be different (and often better?) than the conflicts of strangers. Yet, fireworks between strangers are there too because throughout the race teams find it is beneficial to work with, or they have major disagreements, with other teams. Even the "nice" teams will usually at some point have to screw-over another; last season was a perfect example when the eventual (yay!) winners Chip and Kim became the only team in the entire race to use the "Yield" in order to hold-up Colin and Christie. Doing so at a relatively crucial time helped Chip and Kim win the entire race.

Continue reading “THE RACE IS ON … AGAIN”

Last week I encouraged everyone to head to Film Forum in order to see On the Waterfront. Chances are, however, that you had already seen that brilliant Elia Kazan–Marlon Brando collaboration so maybe rushing downtown wasn’t high on your priority list (although if there are a small group of films always worth a repeat viewing, this is one). I’m guessing the case is a bit different in regards to this week’s revival as most people probably have never seen Sam Fuller’s The Big Red One.

Starting today and running only through next Thursday, Film Forum is showing the new reconstructed version of Fuller’s 25 year old brilliant World War II drama which recently screened (and I saw) at the New York Film Festival. I never saw the original film released in 1980, but most who have seem to indicate that this restoration is a vastly improved and more complete movie. (Filmbrain seems to have seen the original, and he wrote a great review of the new version back during the NYFF.)

Robert Carradine – yes, the same Robert Carradine who became a nerd icon for all of us who came of age in the ’80s – comes closest to personifying Fuller in this "fictional life based on factual death." The film is a jigsaw puzzle of autobiographic episodes from Fuller’s own experience fighting in the War. While a lot happens and there may not always be a single simple narrative storyline to follow, what we get in The Big Red One is a dissertation on war and survival. The Big Red One is neither a pro-war nor an anti-war film. Like other war movies, it definitely depicts "War is Hell," but it tries not to place a value judgment on the entire enterprise.

It also does its best not to judge its characters. In the opening sequence of the movie, Lee Marvin (in what is arguably his best performance, and that’s saying something!) alone and away from his platoon kills a German soldier in World War I only to later discover that the treaty had been signed and the war ended just before. This moral distinctions articulated later by Marvin’s character Sgt. Possum – "We don’t murder, we kill" – hover over the entire film. Fuller manages to depict the experience of individuals acting within the context of a large group better than most other war films ever have. Is it possible to fight for a cause and for the good of a team when your primary purpose is simply surviving and coming out of it alive? Sure, when what’s good for the larger group directly benefits the individual. And ultimately, The Big Red One is as much about just making it through the war as it is winning it.

The film also stars Mark Hamill in what might be called the best example of a what-might-have-been moment. Hamill shot The Big Red One after Star Wars made him famous but before it was the only thing he was known for. His performance as the morally conflicted Private Griff, to whom Possum explains the above comment regardig murder, is full of qualities that I certainly never expected to see out of Luke Skywalker.

Fuller may be one of the closest examples to a neo-realist filmmaker America ever had. He was a maverick who dealt in reality. Even the most obviously staged scenes – such as when this small group of soldiers discovers a German infiltrator in their midst while eating dinner – feel like they could be a part of a documentary; the audience just peeking in to an otherwise natural and normal situation. Fuller’s realism is very matter-of-fact: what you see really is what you get. You don’t need to try to read seven layers of subtext to understand what Fuller shows you, yet at the same time, he’s never heavy-handed.

And through it all, within this "War is Hell" atmosphere, you discover that these men are real people living real lives. That even as they see the latest newbie to their platoon get blown to bits, they march on, accepting their current realities as best they can and enjoying the moments when they’re not directly in harm’s way. The headline on this post refers to a line Carradine’s character, Private Zab, says when trying to fine a local woman who will have sex with one of the soldiers while her "fat ass" is pressed up against a freezing cold window. Creating this scene is Zab’s attempt to honor and memorialize a recent casualty: Private Kaiser really wanted to fuck a woman with a fat ass pressed up against a frozen window. It’s absurd in its simplicity, yet Zab’s determination to have someone fulfill the fantasy of his friend who did not manage to survive is what this movie is all about. The war moves on and the world moves on, and those involved just need to try to get through it, day-by-day.

"The real glory of war is surviving." The real glory of this movie is showing us how "the greatest generation" really did. Most war films aim to be heroic. In today’s age of wars that divide rather than unite this country of ours, it’s fascinating to watch a war movie, particulalrly a WWII one, where survival and life takes precedence over heroism. Go check it out!

Tonight at 10:30 PM on IFC is the final episode of the first season of the channel’s great new documentary series Film School. Unlike IFC’s recent attempt at a game show – Ultimate Film Fanatic — I haven’t paid attention to Film School on this blog for two simple reasons. First, I got into the show about half-way through the season after having DiVo’d each of the episodes. And second, I never found the need to rip apart the program in the same way that UFF deserved to be consistently ridiculed and criticized. If you haven’t caught Film School yet and are thinking, “Damn, I don’t want to just watch the last episode,” don’t fret; IFC is airing a five hour marathon of all 10 episodes tomorrow starting at 2:30 PM.

I remember reading a review somewhere online before Film School premiered that essentially said the show was crap. The review focused on how pretentious and overly-artsy the four film students the show follows appeared. It talked about how these were four people who were so annoying (and hateful?) that there was no reason to watch them and their self-important struggles. I wish I could remember the critic and the publication because that writer not only completely missed the point and doesn’t understand the purpose of going to film school. His comments weren’t necessarily untrue, but they were stupid.

Whether or not film school is a worthwhile endeavor is a continuing argument within the filmmaking community. If you talk to working filmmakers at all levels of the industry, you’ll find people who never went to film school who think it’s a great idea and others with MFA degrees who would call it a waste of time. You’ll also, obviously, discover the reverse.

Continue reading “THIS FILM SCHOOL IS EASY TO GET IN TO”

Well that was fun. Today marks the last of Lily’s and my interviews on Gothamist. Hopefully you’ve been reading and enjoying, and we look forward to another round of interviews sometime in mid-December. Meanwhile, today’s interview came about totally by luck thanks to the kindness of publicist Sam Rudy. When he asked if we’d be interested in John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants who was making his stage debut in the new rock musical People Are Wrong! at the Vineyard Theatre, it took all of five seconds for us to say, “Uhm … YEAH!”

John talks about the new show, which was co-written by his wife, and his career with TMBG. It’s absolutely incredible how prolific TMBG has been the last several years. They’ve written theme songs that are almost hard to imagine came from the same group – take The Daily Show vs. WNYC’s daily The Leonard Lopate Show. They came out with a new album in July and plan to have another release by next Fall. Plus they’re now doing these kids-oriented projects for Disney. I got seriously tired just reading about John’s life.

Meanwhile, if you’re not that familiar with TMBG, you should be, and there are some great simple ways to do so. For one thing, you can download some free mp3s and buy many others from their web site. Even better, a documentary called Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) about TMBG was produced a couple years ago and now premieres on Sundance Channel a week from tomorrow (on 11/20) at 9 PM. Sundance will repeat the film several times over the next couple weeks, and you should definitely try to catch it. But for now, enjoy the interview.

If like me you waited just 1 day too long to buy Arcade Fire tickets for tonight at Bowery , or even unlike me you’re not having dinner with your girlfriend’s mother, you might want to check out tonight’s edition of the "Asbury Shorts of New York" taking place at 7:30 PM in The Tishman Auditorium at The New School (66 W. 12th between 5/6 Aves.).  And please don’t use The O.C. as an excuse not to go. By now you should know I’m the first one to understand the importance of television obsessions, but hey … that’s what DiVo is for.

What? You’ve never heard of the Asbury Shorts? But this is the 25th Anniversary of them, so that simply means that you’ve been missing out on some of the best short films around for the past 25 years. The Asbury Shorts scours film festivals from around the world looking for the best of the best, award winners that may get into a festival here or there but never seen by a broader audience. Consider it your digest of previous award winning shorts along with some great new shorts as well.

Included in tonight’s program are 2003 Student Academy Award winner Perpetual Motion, 1989 Oscar-winner for Best Animated Short, Balance, 2004 Aspen Shortfest winner Consent, and 2004 Nantucket Film Festival short film screenwriting award winner DysEnchanted which Jim Belushi must have squeezed in on his hiatus from According to Jim. I kid, I kid. The film actually has a relatively impressive cast of "working" actors like comedienne Laura Kightlinger, Sarah Wynter from the second season of 24, Gilmore Girls’ Alexis Bledel and Amy Pietz from Caroline in the City and the new ABC sitcom Rodney.

You can reserve tickets by calling (917) 612-2928 and they will also be on sale at the door for $15 (cash or check only).

UPDATE: There’s nothing more embarrassing to me than mixing up they’re and their because I do, in fact, know the difference. My only solace is that until I just happened to notice that in my overtired state this morning I had done so, nobody else seemed to notice or let me know. Of course, the more likely reason is simply that nobody’s actually reading.  Huzzah!