Cap from Mark Romaneck's 'Never Let Me Go' based on celebrated Kazuo Ishiguro novel
by Sam Juliano
October. For those who reside in the northeast, this is pictorially and temperately the most appealing time of the year. It’s also the start of the Metropolitan Opera season, the Major League playoffs and the contuation of the NFL schedule. It’s a time when orange comes in strongly in the seasonal spectrum, and a period where the young ones wear their masks and dye their hair. It’s also a time when all of us with a hankering for horror films, move ahead with special fervor, knowing there is something right and proper at this particular time. Indeed, the state of mind at Wonders in the Dark is slanted on this very genre, which has remained in filmgoer’s affections since the very birth of film as an art form. Jamie Uhler, Troy and Kevin Olson and Robert Taylor have continued to post terrific essays and moderate memorable disscussions in presenting the countdown of the best horror films ever that will end -logically enough- on Halloween. Waiting in the wings are Stephen Russell-Gebbet, Peter Lenihan, Bob Clark and Maurizio Roca, who will be chairing the animation, western, science-fiction and film noir pollings respectively. Yours Truly has tentative plans to proceed with the musical poll after that line-up has run through.
The big news on the movie front of course is the weekend opening of David Fincher’s The Social Network about the founder of the phenomenon known as ‘Facebook’, and the continuing controversy surrounding Waiting For Superman, the documentary hit about failing schools and ‘incompetant’ teachers who are recipient to powerful union protection. The American rendition of the Swedish vampire film, Let the Right One In, has also landed some surprisingly decent reviews. Down at the Film Forum, the three week “Heist Festival” began over the weekend. While I have a few double features targeted (Melville, Huston, Kubrick, Dassin) I will attend sparingly, as October offers a lot more on other fronts.
With Lucille, the kids, and/or friends, I saw the following films in theatres this week:
Easy A *** 1/2 (Wednesday night) Edgewater National Amusements
The Social Network ****(Saturday afternoon) Edgewater N. A.
Never Let Me Go **** (Saturday evening) Chelsea Cinemas
Let Me In *** 1/2 (Sunday afternoon) Edgewater National Amusements
Equinox Flower ***** (Sunday morning) IFC Film Center
EASY A is smartly-written and well-acted by its mostly female cast, (and it does some interesting updating on Hawthorne’s THE SCARLET LETTER for its central deceit) but it’s still a lightweight effort in a genre that almost never yields anything worth thinking about days later. It’s funny, but hardly resonant.
THE SOCIAL NETWORK is one of the year’s most brilliantly-written films without question, and a star is really born here with Jesse Eisenberg. It’s certainly not the next CITIZEN KANE, and I can think of several films I’d rate above it this year, but it’s often a sizzling and engrossing look (in an interesting flashback narrative) at the new millenium’s most spectacular communication phenomenon – facebook.
NEVER LET ME GO, based on the celebrated novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, is beautifully lensed and scored (by Adam Kimmel and Rachel Portman respectively), and it’s often affecting if disturbing. Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan are most impressive in lead roles. Yet, it might have been a truly great film if it’s dystopian story didn’t have some serious unanswered questions. Yet, I think this may improve on second viewing. For now I will go with 4/5.
Surprisingly, LET ME IN is a quality American re-make of the justly-acclaimed Swedish film, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN of a few years back, though it’s creation was rather unecessary. It’s beautifully filmed and acted, and it’s yields menace and tension at every turn. It might be a good idea to watch both back to back at some point. At the end of the day though, this faithful “re-enactment” of the original film, is just that.
EQUINOX FLOWER, seen on Sunday morning at the IFC Film Center with my friend Andrew Scala is a color masterwork by Ozu that stands with his best films. I will have much more to say on my round-up in November.
At Ferdy-on-Films Marilyn Ferdinand continues her prosperous attendance at the Chicago Film Festival. The latest post is a fabulous review on what appears top be a Tavanier gem: http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/?p=6383
John Greco continues his inspiring pace at Twenty Four Frames with a typically perceptive essay on Anatole Litvak’s Out of the Fog: http://twentyfourframes.wordpress.com/2010/10/02/out-of-the-fog-1941-anatole-litvak/
At Elusive as Robert Denby: The Life and Times of Troy Troy Olson continues to archive his stellar work on the horror countdown, the latest of which is Teshigahara’s The Face of Another: http://troyolson.blogspot.com/2010/10/face-of-another.html
Judy at Movie Classics has tracked down yet another Wellman gem with Dangerous Paradise, and typically has penned another buffo review: http://movieclassics.wordpress.com/2010/10/02/dangerous-paradise-1930/
Tony d’Ambra has an excellent commentary/screen cap presentation up at FilmsNoir.net on the Mann/Alton collaboration in Border Incident: http://filmsnoir.net/film_noir/subversive-poet-john-alton-on-the-border.html
Over at Exodus, our good friend Jaimie Grijalba has Robot, Monster at his #3 choice in his horror countdown: http://exodus8-2.blogspot.com/2010/10/3-robot-monster-1953.html
Terrill Welch has a winning recipe up at the Creativepotager’s blog which is perfectly in season!: http://creativepotager.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/stuffed-ambercup-squash-with-champagne/
Samuel Wilson has written another reviewing gem with his consideration of Werner Herzog’s My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? at “Mondo 70”: http://mondo70.blogspot.com/2010/10/my-son-my-son-what-have-ye-done-2009.html
‘Murderous Links’ has completed his monumental four-part series on the city of Tokyo during the war, Tokyo Story, and the cinema of Yasujiro Ozu at his place. It’s a thoroughly rewarding and fascinating study: http://vermillionandonenights.blogspot.com/2010/09/then-and-now-and-in-between-part-4.html
Jeffrey Goodman has another challenging post up at The Last Lullaby on the greatest directors. C’mon, don’t resist!: http://cahierspositif.blogspot.com/2010/09/15-directors.html
At “Cinemascope” Shubhajit has penned a superlative capsule on a theatrical release, Beomkesh Bahshi: http://cliched-monologues.blogspot.com/2010/10/byomkesh-bakshi-2010.html
Longman Oz has announced a short hiatus at No Ordinary Fool, but his last review is a keeper – Abbas Kiarostami’s Certified Copy: http://noordinaryfool.com/2010/09/30/certifiedcopy_copieconforme/
Michael Harford, the jolly Coffee Messiah, has another intriguing post up at his place which may well surprise many: http://coffeemessiah.blogspot.com/2010/10/money-tree.html
Over at Speaking From the Heart Laurie Buchanan continues her tour trought the color spectrum with some amazing insights and engaging discourse. The latest is a consideration of “indigo”: http://holessence.wordpress.com/2010/10/02/indigo-boost-your-insight/
Stephen Russell-Gebbett’s latest essay is a masterful piece on Jean-Luc Godard’s newest film. It’s a must-read for serious cineastes: http://checkingonmysausages.blogspot.com/2010/10/film-socialisme-jean-luc-godard.html
At Movies Over Matter, Jason Marshall has posted a typically exceptional essay, this time on the new documentary, Catfish: http://moviesovermatter.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/catfish/
Craig Kennedy’s Watercooler is up and running and this week’s releases have taken center stage in enthusiastic fashion: http://livingincinema.com/2010/10/03/the-watercooler-spinning-the-social-network/
Just Another Film Buff’s latest acomplished essay is a brilliant capsule on expressionist Guy Maddin’s The Heart of the World: http://theseventhart.info/2010/10/03/short-films-9/
It’s “John Carpenter” week at “Radiator Heaven” and J.D. has a masterful essay up on The Fog: http://rheaven.blogspot.com/2010/10/john-carpenter-week-fog.html
The musical classic Footlight Parade is seen in alluring acreen-cap at Peter Lenihan’s place of cinematic wonderment, The Art of Glimpsing: http://theshockofglimpsing.blogspot.com/
Kevin Olson, horror countdown writer extraordinaire has offered a wonderful post on “Friending” at his place in true Social Network spirit: http://coffeemessiah.blogspot.com/2010/10/money-tree.html
Roderick Heath has written some fantastic essays this week at “This Island Rod”, first on The Satanic Rites of Dracula, then The Brothers Karamazov, and now, The Mask of Fu Manchu with Boris Karloff: http://thisislandrod.blogspot.com/2010/10/mask-of-fu-manchu-1932.html
David Schleicher has been showing himself as the net’s most ardent admirer of Boardwalk Empire, and he has an “Episode Guide” posted at his place: http://theschleicherspin.com/2010/10/03/boardwalk-empire-broadway-limited/
Pat covers a few films in her latest post at the revamped Doodad Kind of Town, including Harold and Maude, which she admits doesn’t resonate with her: http://doodadkindoftown.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/the-road-from-may-to-december/
Jon Lanthier’s latest incomparable essay is on Who is Harry Nilsson (and why is Everbody Talkin About Him?) and for those who haven’t yet read Jon Lanthier, you haven’t read film criticism: http://aspiringsellout.com/
Dan Getahun has penned another of his trenchant 300 word reviews on I’m Still Here at Getafilm: http://getafilm.blogspot.com/2010/09/300-words-about-im-still-here.html
R.D. Finch has penned a first-rate essay on the Franju classic Eyes Without A Face at The Movie Projector: http://themovieprojector.blogspot.com/2010/09/eyes-without-face-1960.html
Tony Dayoub continues his stellar attendance at the New York Film Festival, and his latest is a favorable assessment of Aurora: http://checkingonmysausages.blogspot.com/2010/10/film-socialisme-jean-luc-godard.html
Adam Zanzie has written another top-flight piece on Kingdom of Heaven: The Director’s Cut at “Icebox Movies”: http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2010/09/kingdom-of-heaven-directors-cut-2005.html
Ed Howard examines another Rivette piece with an outstanding essay at Only the Cinema: http://seul-le-cinema.blogspot.com/2010/09/haut-bas-fragile.html
Drew McIntosh is back! And his newest post at The New Vial is a must for those who prefer to leave the box more often than not. It’s apparently an experimental work par excellence: http://thebluevial.blogspot.com/2010/09/false-aging-lewis-klahr-2008.html
Bob Clark’s magnificent essay for Tony Dayoub’s Cronenberg blogothon on Stereo and Crimes of the Future is up at Cinematic Viewfinder: http://www.cinemaviewfinder.com/2010/09/cronenberg-blogathon-cronenberg.html
Andrew Wyatt’s three-week holiday from Gateway Cinephiles is drawing to a close, with new postings promised over the coming days. Andrew’s excellent treatment of Machete is still headlining: http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2010/09/09/vaya-con-el-diablo/
Dave Van Poppel has his outstanding review of the Joan Rivers documentary up at Visions of Non-Fiction: http://visionsofnonfiction.blogspot.com/2010/09/joan-rivers-piece-of-work.html
At the home of the ever-thoughtful “Film Doctor” a post on Manly Links is currently headlining: http://filmdr.blogspot.com/2010/09/manly-links.html
Our friend Anu is still highlighting a review of Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie at The Confidential Report: http://theconfidentialreport.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/dennis-hoppers-the-last-movie/
With “A Rant from the Childless” Jeopardy Girl has again raised with candor and sensitivity the inevitable questions one must face in life: http://jeopardygirl.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/a-rant-from-the-childless/
And Dee Dee has some links at her site worth investigating!:
http://lalumiereetlobscurite.blogspot.com/2010/10/editors-note-i-plan-to-give-away-two.html
Click on names for archives
Writers/Founders
Wonders in the Dark 
Thanks Sam, for the links, as always. I’d thought you were cutting down on them. Apparently not!
A busy month ahead of me with lot of personal work. So I think it will be November by the time I start watching films at a better rate.
Waiting for SOCIAL NETWORK to open here.
And great work all around at the Horror countdown, where I haven’t seen most of the films.
Cheers!
Hey JAFB! Well, I’m sure there will be some instances where I’ll have to cut down the total, I’d try and stay the course for as long as possible.
I’m sure you’ll have SOCIAL NETWORK with you soon. You may have cut down a bit on the films, but you’d never know it from the prolific posting you maintain at THE SEVENTH ART. As always, brilliant stuff!
Thanks again, my very good friend!
Aye, thanks for the mention Sam. If it is not too presumptuous to say so, please do not feel the need to link to d’Fool for the foreseeable future. It is – in acting parlance – resting for a time.
Saw no films this week due to the commencement of the Dublin Theatre Festival. Here, though, I saw five plays, which is far more draining, I find, than attending an equivalent number of films.
Highlight to date has been a modern adaptation of Racine’s PHAEDRA by Ireland’s best independent theatre company ROUGH MAGIC. Fans of Polish cinema may also be interested to know that I saw both Jan Englert and Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieslak in a production called T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T., which is a stage adaptation of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s THEOREM.
Re your own week, I am surprised that THE SOCIAL NETWORK is any way decent, to be honest. The trailer had made it seemed like a film about nerds that has been given the Hollywood glamorising treatment. For the reason that you give above, I will probably also save my money with respect to LET ME IN.
Both POLICE, ADJECTIVE (finally) and MY SON, MY SON… have opened in Ireland this week. Terribly excited at the prospect of seeing both. Encouraging acclaim for BURIAL has also continued into the European media this weekend (I am always cagey regarding films with copious amounts of advance marketing!), so I will try and see that one too.
Longman, I will ALWAYS link to da ‘Fool, for as long as this thread exists. You are a great guy, and I’ve enjoyed all this discourse we’ve shared. Your place is pretty much like no other, what with that amazing blend, and I will miss the break. But you are a charter member here my friend! I couldn’t even imagine the name of your site not being part of this mix. This goes well beyound sentiment.
You are absolutely right that plays are far more draining than films in every sense. Your attention must be unflinching, and your senses intensified, and usually the length is comparatively formidable. The PHAEDRE does sound wonderful. Our Australian friend Roderick Heath wrote quite an extraordinary essay of the play at his literature site as his last post there:
http://englishoneoworst.blogspot.com/2010/07/impossible-choices-moral-tragedy-of.html
But I know that at some point you will address this attendance, and I’d like to read of your theatrical adventures. I am unfamiliar with that Polish production, but it’s generally the sort of thing I respond to.
THE SOCIAL NETWORK is distinguished by it’s deft screenplay, which yielded some of the year’s best dialogue, but I hear you on what you have anticipated. The advance publicity has been rather suffocating. Let’s see what you think.
BURIAL is certainly good for what it is, but watching it can be frustrating for obvious reasons.nnI am look forward especially to hear what you say on POLICE ADJECTIVE.
It’s always a real pleasure my very good friend!
OH NO!!!! You liked LET ME IN?????? I was really thinking this one would be a dog. One of my favorite films of the past ten years is LET THE RIGHT ONE IN and I really thought, after I had heard of an American remake, that this film would suffer the same fate another favorite horror film of mine, THE VANISHING, suffered.
Wonders NEVER cease.
THE SOCIAL NETWORK… Well, it’s gotten some of the best reviews of the year and I, for one, really think highly of this director. Aside from THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (a fantasy version of FORRES GUMP), David Fincher, in my mind anyway, has never dropped the ball. His ALIEN 3, i feel, is the best and most ingenious sequel in the ALIEN quadrology. SE7EN pulls out every stop in the serial killer/police procedural genre and is the only film of its kind to present a killer whose MO actually makes sense. THE GAME is a glorious joke of a film and houses not only the trademark style that Fincher brings to his action sequences, but actually gets a riveting turn out of the oft-times-than-not bore that is Micheal Douglas (his best performance is still WONDERBOYS hands down). FIGHT CLUB, now here’s the masterpiece so far in the directors career, a big glorious ode to anarchy sparked on by society’s laziness and one of the two or three best gay films of the decade 1990-99 (Brad Pitt steals every moment in the filom and delivers his finest turn and, if there was any doubt about helena Bonham Carter’s talent then her Marla Singer proved its on high octane). PANIC ROOM is a forgotten gem of a film that takes the best of Hitchcock’s REAR WINDOW and combines it with the finest elements of Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING to reveal a thriller of incredible ingenuity and intelligence. ZODIAC is not only a blistering account of the tribulations surrounding the historic chase of one of the United States most elusive madmen, but a golden recreation of the period and dotted with superlative performances all round.
NEVER LET ME GO has me interested and there are two reasons for this…
1. Katsuo Ishiguru’s novel was a revelation and his THE REMAINS OF THE DAY was not only one of the most brilliant books i have read but the seed for one of my favorite film adaptations in the past 20 years.
2. CAREY MULLIGEN is an up-n-comer of siesmic proportions. She delivered a breath-taking supporting turn in Jim Sheridan’s troubled BROTHERS (she was the very best thing about it) and her starring role in last years AN EDUCATION was not only a revelation but a refreshing rendition of innocence gone awry. She was nominated for the Oscar for BEST ACTRESS last year for that performance, was the best in field by a landslide, and was ROBBED the win by a sentimental voters system that felt a drug-addicted moron like Sandra Bullock deserved it more. OUCH!!!!!! Mulligen is one of the most exciting new actresses working in the business and her career promises to be long and fruitful…
Not much for me to report on my end this week, rather boring and depressed by the shitty weatherEating way too much and am forced to admit that I’m going to have to go on a serious diet (SAM-looks just like Salad for me on Tuesday!!!!). Will be taking my mother to see the orthopeadic surgeon this Wednesday for follow-ups from the car accident.
SAM-you are in my thoughts the past few days… I know you went for that Kidney stone procedure again… Was wondering how you made out. I was so busy this week at work (the rain brings on crazy business for me) and am totally embarrassed that I haven’t had the chance to touch bases with you…
Hope you’re well… See you Tuesday for dinner!!!!!
Thanks so much for the great response here Dennis.
Mulligan has been on the radar since 2005, since TV’s Bleak House, while Doctor Who fans will remember her as Sally Sparrow in the best episode of the modenr era, Blink. Her breakthrough to the big time and acknowledgement across the pond was only a matter of time.
YES, YES, I know Allan…
But, here in the states the general public was really only made aware of Mulligen when she procured the Oscar nomination. The stellar reviews for her performance in AN EDUCATION got a real buzz going around here for her and people that normally take time for a film like it suddenly were flocking to the theatres to see it. Frankly, although the Oscars really mean nothing in the end, I thought Mulligen got fucked (and without lube) as she was clearly the best of the five actresses nominated.
No matter though… Your assessment of where she will go, I think, is dead on. Carey Mulligen has more talent in her pinky finger than Gaby Sadibe and Sandra Bulloch have in their entire body.
I might also add, while talking about ‘seismic’, what abouyt Andrew Garfield. Already superb in Boy A, magnificent in the opening part of the incomparable Red Riding, he’s in both The Social Network AND Never Let Me Go, and is about to reprise Spiderman in the reboot. I think this American born Brit is about to go stratospheric. Oh, and he appeared in Doctor Who, too. Hehe. Both he and Mulligan deserve everything that will come to them.
Yep, Garfield is really coming into his own!
Oh God, not another Ozu masterpiece, that makes about 30 you have given *****, ridiculous. EF is good, but it’s second rank. **** tops.
Once again you exaggerate grossly. Ozu is one of the world’s greatest filmmakers ever, and it’s not at all unexpected that he’s have around 10 or 11 masterpieces. You award more five-star ratings to Bergman, Hitchcock and Hawks, which is no more “ridiculous” than what I have judged here with Ozu. Not that I disagree with the Bergman and Hitchcock ratings, but just illustrate them here to prove there are a few directors who have produced a plethora of great films.
Here are the five-star Ozus:
I Was Born……….But
There Was A Father
A Story of the Floating Weeds
A Hen in the Wind
Tokyo Story
Late Spring
Tokyo Twilight
Equinox Flower
Early Summer
An Autumn Afternoon
The total is 10, not 30. A few others stand at four and one-half. In view of the fact that I consider him the greatest Japanese director ever, (and one of the world’s greatest ever) I don’t think that is unreasonable at all.
For all sorts of reasons EQINOX FLOWER is a masterwork.
Sam you are generous with 5 star ratings. It just shows your boundless love for cinema. Me personally, I can only think of three directors that have more than three 5 star films. Kubrick, Welles and Dreyer. Even Hitchcock, only has Rear Window, Vertigo, and Psycho that deserve that ultimate honor (The Wrong Man and The Birds are now 4 1/2). Everyone has different rating guidelines so embrace your own. Allen also throws out plenty of 5 star ratings. He is not exactly strict with giving movies that decisive seal of approval.
Sam I am sure glad you didn’t live up to your intension for the fall – what an awesome round of blog links! Wow! And thank you for the mention of course.
Now to movies: I am The Social Network is definitely going on my ‘must watch” list even it you feel it falls short of Citizen Cane. We did watch a couple of movies this week but nothing really stood out as note worthy.
I am NOT into horror films so this time of year is painful for me in the movie area… I have been tiptoeing through Wonders in the Dark with my hands over my eyes for weeks. My gauge of scariness for those that don’t know is “nothing scarier than Murder She Wrote” Yep. That’s it. About the best I can do. I watch David Lynch movies in usually three sittings because I like the mystery and puzzles he present. But horror is out. I don’t like to be scared for entertainment.
But I know others can hardly wait for a new horror to be release so I make room… with my eyes closed and my hands over my ears:) Have a great week Sam!
Aye Terrill! Maintaining the status quo is definitely desirable. With a little bit of luck and timing I hope to stay the course for the upcoming months.
LOL on what you say there about SOCIAL NETWORK and KANE! The dialogue is superb and the acting (especially by Jesse Eisenberg) is top-notch. Stylistically it’s nothing revelatory, but it never set to establish any precedents, just to insightfully render a cultural phenomenon and the person who launched it.
“I am NOT into horror films so this time of year is painful for me in the movie area… I have been tiptoeing through Wonders in the Dark with my hands over my eyes for weeks. My gauge of scariness for those that don’t know is “nothing scarier than Murder She Wrote” Yep. That’s it. About the best I can do. I watch David Lynch movies in usually three sittings because I like the mystery and puzzles he present. But horror is out. I don’t like to be scared for entertainment.”
Terrill, your honesty here is refreshing! A number of others at the site have admitted horror is not their thing either, and I can see why this kind of film could be a major turn-off, especially with the kind of spirit you exude day in and day out. The ANIMATION POLL will follow the horror, and I’m sure you’ll be quite pleased with that venture.
I LOVE your closing line!!! You are a real sport as well.
All your comments here are treasured my very good friend!
Many thanks for the link, Sam, as ever, and the kind words. I can’t wait for ‘Never Let Me Go’, which isn’t out in the UK yet (liked the book even though it wasn’t one of my favourites by Ishiguro), and will also be interested to see ‘The Social Network’ after reading your views.
I saw ‘Eat Pray Love’ at the cinema this week – I have already had a load of stick from other members of my family for going to see this, but I mainly enjoyed it, although it is a bit slow at times. While I was seeing this, my son and husband went to see the big-screen 25th anniversary reissue of ‘Back to the Future’, a movie which I love but have seen so many times already! At home I saw ‘Imitation of Life (1959)’ – I liked it very much and now want to see the rest of Sirk’s movies before too long.
If you go for Sirk Judy, count me in! Ha! I am a huge fan, particularly for WRITTEN ON THE WIND, ALL THAT HEAVEN CAN ALLOW, IMITATION and a few others.
I can’t say I blame you for taking a pass on the Zemeckis, though I’ll admit it’s a treat on the big screen. It’s seems to be as popular now as the day it was released! I’ve stayed away from that Julia Roberts film, but your reaction has me thinking twice.
While I did read Ishiguro’s THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, I never got to NEVER LET ME GO. At times it’s frustrating, but it’s also deeply moving and magnifently filmed, acted and scored. Some of the narrative ineptitude is mostly forgiven.
Thanks as always my very good friend for the excellent wrap!
With my exams over I can now once again watch a few movies before the grind starts all over again. Watched a couple of Hindi movies this weekend, along with the Anthony Mann classic T-Men. I must say this, Mann’s movies are really among the most amazingly photographed, despite being B-noirs.
The photography credit is wholly DP John Alton’s.
Great stuff there Shubhajit! My apologies for accidentally omitting your link. Last week it was Joel. I have to try and devise a more ordered approach. I do agree with Tony that John Alton was the visual mastermind behind teh vital Mann noirs, starting with the western DEVIL’S DOORWAY. Thanks as always my very good friend! And thanks Tony for the excellent point!
Sam,
Thanks again and again for the shout out! Hope your procedure went well my friend and that it is all behind you now. As the rains have moved up North the weather in FLA. is beautifully dry with low humidity, temps in the mid 80’s and evenings are supposed to be in the upper 60’s for the week! The Yanks continue to stumble their way into the playoffs with Tampa Bay edging them out of first by one game. Hopefully they can get their act together. I just started working on a massive personal project, slowly beginning to digitalize all my photos, family and otherwise. This involves thousands of photos that will have to be copied, organized, photoshoped and filed.
On the movie front I saw two in the theaters this week, ‘Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps’ (***), at best okay, but overall disappointing when compared to the first film, mainly due the false happy ending where we discover the greed king has a heart. Also saw ‘The Social Network’ (****1/2) Certainly one of the highlights of the season. The irony of this film is that the young man who created the largest on-line social network was a social misfit (at least in this screen version), unable to connect with anyone on a real human level. The screen’s Mark Zuckerberg is a brilliant, oddly humorous social nerd who may or may not have a few ethical problems. He is not alone though, all the characters are an unpleasant bunch, not one of which is remotely likable. Fincher does a great job; the film’s pace is amazingly fast as if it were an action film or a thriller. Not to be missed!
The Violent Man (Rudolph Mate) ***1/2 Greedy landowner wants to run all the small ranchers off their land and keep everything for himself. Nothing original, but the film has a good script and a wonderful cast with Edward G Robinson, Barbara Stanwyck in a wicked role, Brian Keith and Glenn Ford. Just a good old action western.
Play it Again, Sam (Herbert Ross) **** The best constructed of Woody’s early films thanks to him leaving the direction in the hands of Herbert Ross. One of my favorite films of Woody’s and his first real romantic comedy. A full review will be up at 24frames.
The Street With no Name (William Keighley) *** Typical 20th Century Fox documentary style crime film, with too much narration, real life FBI agents in small roles and a boring Lloyd Nolan. The location work is nicely done and when director Keighley gets away from the procedural stuff it becomes a fairly decent crime flick. Remade by Sam Fuller in 1955 as HOUSE OF BAMBOO, a better film.
Cash on Demand ***1/2 an effective little psychological thriller from Hammer Studios that keeps you on edge for its entire 80 minutes in length. Peter Cushing is a Scrooge like manager at a bank. Two days before Christmas a man posing as an insurance investigator (Andre Morell) comes in with plans to rob the bank while his partners are holding Cushing’s wife and son hostage. Whether intentional or not the screenwriters have given us a unique twist on Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” including an ending that pleads for the line “God bless us everyone.” Peter Cushing would have made a superb Scrooge as he proves here, bullying his staff unmercifully over one petty matter after another. Andre Morell is perfectly hateful as the arrogant bank robber.
Blood on the Moon (Robert Wise)***1/2 A standard western improved tremendously by Nick Musuraca’s dark atmospheric photography and a moody performance by Robert Mitchum. There is an amazing brutally impressive fight scene between Mitchum and co-star Robert Preston.
The Dead (John Huston) **** Sam, I know you are a big fan of this film and I can understand why. Beautifully done. The long Feast of the Epiphany dinner party scene is exquisite and of course the centerpiece of the film. The final scene between Angelica Huston and Donald McCann is filled with a touching poignancy rarely seen. What a film for John Huston to go out on.
Hello, John!
Thanks so much for the concern and support. As I mentioned earlier, I will have that “procedure” (non-intrusive ultrasound ‘blast’) in about a month. I want to first deal with the gastro issue. But I am feeling much better now thanks!
Yes, John the nice weather or least comfortable temperature has extended up here as well, and it’s a great relief. That’s a great project you are engaged in and I know with you it’s a labor of love. John, the Yankeesa ctually finished in a tie with Tampa Bay, but the Floridians were given the divisional championship based on having a 10-8 record against the Bombers head to head this season. But Yanks/Minny and Tampa/Texas should yield some exciting baseball. Even though I am a die-hard lifelong Yankee fan, I am thinking the Twins are long overdue. After Sabathia, the Yankee starting rotation is questionable. But we shall see.
When you pose this about THE SOCIAL NETWORK, you are dead-on John:
“The irony of this film is that the young man who created the largest on-line social network was a social misfit (at least in this screen version), unable to connect with anyone on a real human level.”
I guess that’s what makes the film so fascinating, but there’s a lot here, and the screenplay is extraordinary. I didn’t bother with the Michael Douglas film, but your mixed verdict would have me rushing.
Yes, John I adore THE DEAD, and gave it five stars. That scene you descrive is extraordinary, as is that indescribably beautiful and melancholy final snow sequence (one of my favorite scenes in all of cinema) The first three films in this round-up deserve precisely what you give them here is assessment and star rating, with PLAY IT AGAIN SAM the top choice.
Mitchum is very good and Musuraca does his job exquisitely in BLOOD ON THE MOON, which I might give a half-star more on, and I am delighted to see you review CASH ON DEMAND! I am a big Peter Cushing fan, and this is rather an underexposed Hammer.
This was the typical John Greco round-up, impassioned, prolific..and spectacular!
Sam, thanks so much for the wonderful mention, and for participating in my post on “15 Directors”. I might have to go ahead and throw my hat in and do one on Actors.
You mention yet another Ozu I still need to see. That IFC series sounds tremendous, and I would be there alongside you if I lived in town.
My week of movie-watching was relatively slow. This week, I took in LIFEBOAT, Olivier’s HENRY V, and LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS. I enjoyed all three but was particularly impressed by the sheer scope and ambition of both the Olivier and Carne.
Here’s to another awesome week. Thanks, Sam, for all the wonderful things you do.
I do wish you were here Jeffrey! I’d love to meet you and watch an Ozu at the IFC! Once I started making preliminary choices for the ‘Director’s List’ I was hell-bent. I’d love to see an actor’s listing as well!
Yep, I couldn’t agree with you more on the “scope” and “ambition” of both the Olivier and the Carne! The former is one of the greatest of all Shakespeare adaptations, while the latter is a masterwork of world cinema. That was a great week you had there, with the Hitchcock a quality work as well.
Thanks for the very kind words my excellent friend!
Sam – In light of “The Color of Wellness” class that’s been going on over at “Speaking from the Heart” (thank you for the mention), the paragraph that jumped off the page at me was:
“EQUINOX FLOWER, seen on Sunday morning at the IFC Film Center with my friend Andrew Scala is a COLOR MASTERWORK by Ozu that stands with his best films. I will have much more to say on my round-up in November.”
I’m very interested to read what you have to say in November.
Ah, yes Laurie! Great connection. The reds, yellows, and oranges were especially rich and riveting in Ozu’s first color film. It’s remarkable that it turned out to be so pitch-perfect and exquisite. As one of the cinema’s greatest humanists, you would especially find him extraordinary, methinks. His films move on a level reached by few others. I am looking forward to that November roundup.
The Color of Wellness series at SPEAKING FROM THE HEART has really been a complete joy!
Thanks as always my very good friend!
Glad to hear that ‘Never Let Me Go’ is better than some critics have declared. I know that Ishiguro novel wouldn’t seem like an easy one to film, but that’s quite the acting trio. I plan on seeing ‘The Social Network’ this week.
Hope you are feeling much better.
Thanks Fred! NEVER LET ME GO could have been a masterpiece, but yes, as is it’s a deeply affecting and lovingly-crafted work with a few narrative holes. Still, I gave it 4/5 and look forward to seeing it again!
I’m feeling better, thanks my very good friend!
Sam,
Thanks so much for the plug. My John Carpenter Week has started off quite well and I’ve gotten some fantastic contributions so far.
I couldn’t agree more with you re: THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Caught up with it over the weekend and loved it. A fascinating look at the creation of a website – never thought that such thing could be possible but Sorkin and Fincher pulled it off.
Thanks J.D! I’ll definitely be checking out the Carpenter week! You always seem to be working your tail off at some some new venture!
Yes THE SOCIAL NETWORK was quite a show! We’ll be hearing quite a bit about this through awards season!
Thanks as always my very good friend!
Thanks for the plug Sam! Always appreciated.
Right back at ya, Dave!
Sam I also saw Let Me In this week and agree with your opinion and rating. I take half a star off for horrible CGI effects and a full star for being rather unnecessary. The original is unquestionably better. I will say though that the car accident scene was a welcome addition and that Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Moretz were slightly better than their Swedish counterparts. The film is very well crafted and if it wasn’t a remake would actually be rated even higher. The somber tone and beautiful cinematography is worth the price of admission. I will say that Americans averse to subtitles or anything foreign will probably enjoy this movie more. While I did find Let Me In rather pointless to be remade only 2 years after the original I was entertained for it’s duration and would not dissuade others from seeing it.
This week I saw……
Let Me In ***1/2
House Of Games ***
The Big Red One ***
Phantom ***1/2
The Big Sleep *****
Cutter’s Way ****
Twin Peaks: Gold Box Edition TV Series (this has been over a few weeks)
Episodes 1-16 ****
Episodes 17-29 *1/2
Boardwalk Empire (over three weeks)
Episode 1 ****1/2
Episode 2 **
Episode 3 ***
I couldn’t get motivated enough to go see The Social Network this week. I may change my mind and go next week. When it comes to David Fincher I have a very schizophrenic opinion on his films. Zodiac and Seven I love…… The Game, Panic Room, and especially Fight Club I dislike. Benjamin Button is very blah and obviously Oscar bait material. The Social Network trailer has a very wannabe FightClub/MTV “hip” vibe feel. I don’t get excited when Fincher goes off in that direction. As someone who has never been on Facebook I also have no idea what this particular phenomenon is all about. I have friends that seem to want to share every moment with thousands of others and display images and emotions with complete strangers. Me personally I would rather remain a mystery…………
Maurizio I definitely concur that is LET ME IN were not a scene by scene re-make of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, it would rate higher. But even in atmosphere and metaphorical underpinning it’s a distinguished copy cat. Good point on that car wreck and fire scene! At least we can be grateful it didn’t tank like American re-make of THE VANISHING did. Again great point about the somber tone and beautiful cinematography!
Again a fantastic week for you movie-wise, and I’m very happy to get the report here!
The only one of your line-up there I like more Maurizio is HOUSE OF GAMES. The others including THE BIG SLEEP I pretty much line up with you, except for CUTTER’S WAY, which I like less. But hey we can’t agree on every film, as it is we seem to be on teh same page about 80% or so of the time. I can’t say how much I want to see BOARDWALK EMPIRE, and you’re exceedingly well-regarded opinion is another reason to anticipate it gleefully.
I liked BENJAMIN BUTTON more, but I can see why you feel the way you do. A number of others are in full agreement with you. At the end of the day I was moved.
I have no use for Facebook either, and could never fathom how a young Harvard student would be worth 26 billion for inventing it!
Thanks as ever my very good friend for being part of this place and keeping it moving with daily insights and great conversation!
Yankees vs Twins.
So whata ya think?
Tough call Joe! I’m hoping Yanks of course, but the starting pitching after Sabathia is questionable.
I have my fingers crossed.
Thanks for the mention as always, Sam, and for increasing my confidence in Social Network and Let Me In. I didn’t get a chance to hit a theater this weekend, but I hope to make up for it next time. I didn’t have any confidence in the Facebook story’s cinematic potential, but the reviews so far, including yours, have been overwhelming.
Along with the Herzog, I took a look at Yoshida’s JOEN (aka The Affair or Flames of Passion) but the disc stalled out on me during the final chapter, which seemed to be setting up an Anna Karenina finish in keeping with this film’s big symbolic motif of traffic safety, with the heroine always careful to get out of the way of trains, rockslides, etc., up to a point, while her mother blunders into a truck’s path. From what I saw it was sub-par Yoshida, but viewers more sympathetic toward the characters and their dangerous interrelationships will probably like it better. I’m still looking forward to his big political films, which are coming soon on my schedule.
My main reading consisted of finishing Scott Eyman’s C. B. DeMille biography, which leaves me interested in seeing more of the director’s silent films and more certain of what’s wrong with a lot of his later work. DeMille seems to have succumbed to a condescending lowest-common-denominator notion of what the stereotypical shopgirl expected or wanted to see in a picture, forcing himself, his writers and his actors to conform to those supposed expectations (vulgar luxury, broad emoting, etc.). On the biographical side, the most dramatic parts of the book are the making of THE SQUAW MAN (with Patents Company thugs reportedly gunning for him, this story could make a great latter-day western itself) and an apparently definitive account of the legendary Directors Guild showdown (DeMille vs Mankiewicz, Ford et al) of 1950. It’s ironic given DeMille’s rep as a would-be blacklister (he rejected the dream casting of Burt Lancaster as Sebastian for GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH because he regarded the actor as a Red) that he was more-or-less blacklisted from radio and lost his lucrative gig hosting the Lux Radio Theater because he wouldn’t pay out one dollar to the radio-artists’ union to fund a political ad campaign. Eyman’s narrative is sometimes scattered — anecdotes often seem to be thrown in arbitrarily to slow down the chronological flow — but the unprecedented detail from DeMille’s papers and Eyman’s fair critical attitude towards the films make this one of the better movie bios I’ve read in a while.
Samuel, you certainly do not deserve to get this third-class treatment, but I lost control of this thread, and had to divide my sessions to respond. You have been one of the true loyalists around here, and your contributions (much like all your posts at MONDO 70) have been first-rate. And you are a good friend to boot.
As I stated in previous comments, THE SOCIAL NETWORK boasts one of the year’s finest sceenplays, and it’s superlatively acted. Whether this film stands up to repeat viewing is a question, but there are so many great things about it.
LET ME IN surprised me, though I would revisit the Swedish film far more often. With a few exceptions this was almost a scene by scene re-make of a film that really stood on its own, and didn’t need to be done over. But taken on its own terms, yeah it’s well-made.
Samuel I must admit I liked the Bermanesque THE AFFAIR (a.k.a. FLAMES OF PASSION) quite a bit more, but I fully understand where you are coming from, and I do look forward to your reactions to SUMMER LIGHT and AFFAIR IN THE SNOW particularly, as well as of course EROS PLUS MASSACRE. I will speak to you by e mail about that faulty disc.
Your assessment of the De Mille biography is extraordinary in every sense. Your close scrutiny of the shortcomings too is always appreciated. I’ve never read it but would love to one day.
I can’t tell you how much your presence and insightful comments are appreciated here, and I owe you way more fidelity at MONDO 70 than I have this far shown you. Your stellar work and true sportsmanship entitles you to the bets always.
Thanks so much my very good friend!
Hello Sam!
Last week was a very busy one for me as I out was out of town on business; I have a lot of cinematic catching up to do.
I was most interested in your take on NEVER LET ME GO – a film I am approaching with great trepidation, as the Ishiguaro novel on which it is based is one of my favorite books. Your review is considerably more positive than most I have seen. I may well get to EASY A over the coming, since it’s playing at the small theatre in my neighborhood. Also on my soon-to-see list: YOU WILL MEET A TALL, DARK STRANGER and A FILM UNFINISHED, both of which just made it to the Chicago area this weekend. I definitely want to see THE SOCIAL NETWORK as well, but figure I have some time to get to that a bit later.
Actually, I have a newer post up at my place as of Saturday – moved past the 70Ss May-December films and on to some thoughts about the artificial-insemination themed rom coms starring the Jennifer’s (Lopez and Aniston). My blog is tracking a few weeks behind my actual vieiwing experience, but I keep plugging away.
The only film I got around to this week – which I could not finish – was CALIGULA, a Netflix instant streaming view. I only made it 40 minutes or so into it – wretched, wretched stuff (but I’d always been curious.)
Hey Pat!
Sorry about that error with the updates. I will be thrilled to head over to your place this evening to investigate your new post!
NEVER LET ME GO has resonated with me, despite the fact that its narrative essence as conveyed in this adaptation seems oddly truncated. Yet, it’s central characters, it’s bizarre dystopian premise and it’s exquisite craftsmanship leave a lasting impression that can only intensify with time. I’m anxious to see it a second time soon, and I dare say that although I may be wrong I do believe you will embrace it (even with a few minor reservations). I was thinking about this film a good part of the afternoon in fact. Likewise, I’d be most interested in know where you land with THE SOCIAL NETWORK, though I could pose a good guess. Ha! The Woodman’s latest seems only for fans, but you do qualify on that count Pat! I liked A FILM UNFINISHED, but would like to supplement that with NUREMBERG, which is now playing at the Film Forum (where A FILM UNFISHED had been)
Ha, I can’t blame you for arriving to that conclusion on CALIGULA! Wretched indeed. Not even the deliberate decadence can save that turkey!
Thanks as always Pat for this fantastic wrap! It’s movie season!!!
This week I’m reading Ben Mezrich’s “The Accidental Billionaires”, mostly so that I can get to learn the whole Zuckerberg/Saverin story before I finally go out and see The Social Network sometime this week… maybe Wednsday. I’m pretty sure I’ll like the movie since I’m a fan of Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men is one of my all-time favorite screenplays) and because I generally like David Fincher’s movies. Well, Seven and Zodiac, at least!
I thought Easy A had some funny moments, and Emma Stone is definitely a born-movie actress; but I thought it was a huge mistake for the filmmakers to make that movie a “teen comedy”. I honestly didn’t find the story very funny. Still wishing that material had been transferred into something a little more serious–as it would have if somebody like, say, Alan Ball, had written the script.
That’s about as perfect a way to preface a viewing of THE SOCIAL NETWORK Adam, and I’m sure it will give you further insights. If you like ZODIAC and SEVEN, I don’t think there’s any question you’ll be singing the new film’s praises, though one could arge with some validity that it’s more conventional. But it’s mastery is in the dialogue, and with Eisenberg’s performance, methinks.
Great idea to pose Ball for EASY A. As it is I completely agree with you that the film was (largely) unfunny. Well-acted and mounted, but never living up to what it aspired to be.
Thanks Adam for the excellent wrap! Great to have you here as always!
Hi! Sam Juliano…
Hmmm…Once again let me comment on the “happening” in Sam Juliano’s world…
Sam Juliano said,”With Lucille, the kids, and/or friends, I saw the following films in theatres this week:
Easy A *** 1/2 The Social Network **** Never Let Me Go **** Let Me In *** 1/2 and Equinox Flower *****“
I see that all five films scored in a positive and there is not a weakest link among the five films that you, and your family, and friends watched…
…hmmm…very interesting. Sam,Thanks, for taking the time to share the links too…as usual.
By the way, Sam Juliano, don’t your procedure or doctor appointment take place on Wednesday or did I miss something along the way?!?
Now, I digress…
Here Goes The Happening in my world…
Books That I Will Soon Be Opening and books that I opened:
#1.Steampunk:Style Of Jewelry
#2.Lee Horsley’s The Noir Thriller
#3.Helen Hanson’s Hollywood Heroines:Women in Film Noir and the Female Gothic Film
#4. Sara Perry’s Deep Dark Chocolate
#5. Shara Aaron and Monica Beardon’s Chocolate
Books On My Online Bookshelf: Soon to be ordered…
Three By Author Gail Carriger, Oh! Yes, she deal with Vampire(s) in her books and her books are Victorian, Tea, and Steampunkish.
#1.Soulless
#2.Blameless
#3. Changeless
Films That I Watched or plan to watch this week…
#1.The Spiritualist…Watched again!
#2.Sherlock Holmes (2009) Steampunk-influenced…Watched Again!
#3.British Cinema Volume II: Renown Picture (Six Films) Boxset…Watched again!
#4.British Cinema Volume I: Renown Picture Boxset…Watched again!
#4.Mayerling, (watched) Gervaise, and Le Jour se Lève…I’am watching all of these films for the first time…
#5. I just recently, reordered “Out Of the Fog” starring actress Ida Lupino and actor John Garfield, from my DVD seller, who live in Canada and not Havana.
#6. I recently, ordered Volume 5 Of the Warner Bros. Box set…Completing the box set(s) that is/are available to-date.
#7.Chocolate…Starring Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, Alfred Molina, Lena Olin and Johnny Depp…
Unfortunately, I’am still suffering with computers issues…even though my family gave me computer (that is like new) to use it’s pretty slow. Therefore, I hope that my other computer is repaired…soon!
That is about it…I guess that I can call it a…“wrap” and “day.”
DeeDee 😉 🙂
Thanks again Dee Dee for the awesome response here!
Yes, the films I did see were all well-above average with Ozu’s masterwork and both NEVER LET ME GO and THE SOCIAL NETWORK very impressive. Funny, Dee Dee, I was thinking earlier this week of what the top ten films of the year were so far and I came up with these in no particular order, at least not yet:
Lourdes
Un Prophete
Toy Story 3
Winter’s Bone
Dog Pound
Jean-Michele Basquiat: The Radiant Child
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Shutter Island
Mademoiselle Chambon
and any of these for the last spot:
Vincere
Never Let Me Go
Welcome
Eyes Wide Open
How to Train Your Dragon
The Social Network
and of course 11 or 12 weeks still to go in the year!!!
John Greco just reviewed OUT OF THE FOG at his place, Dee Dee! Great to see you are on top of that and THE SPIRITUALIST, which I have been convinced to pick up after Tony d’Ambra’s effusive prise for! And as far as the Warners set, it seems to me that as usual you take care of others before yourself! You are amazing. The “Steampunk” volume and the one on the Hollywood Heroines, (and the Horsley work) are all excellent choices for your upcoming plans! I know you’ve been hot to trot for the Steampunk the last few weeks!
I have always fell for CHOCOLATE (not to be confused with Claire Denis’ earlier film, CHOCOLAT, which is even stronger) The British cinema collections sound great!
Anyway, thanks exceedingly for all your constant support and your fascinating itinerary, which I always look forward too. I hope the original PC is back in play soon!
Sam, Black Swan and True Grit are the two that I’m really looking forward to seeing the most this winter (now that A Tree Of Life has been moved to 2011). I also want to see the Joan Rivers and Pat Tillman documentaries. I would go with Winter’s Bone so far at number #1 but I have way too much to see before I can make any sort of list.
granted my filmgoing has been down a little of late, but the two best film’s I’ve seen this year (off the top of my head) are
WILD GRASS (a. resnais)
ENTER THE VOID (g. noe)
Maurizio, Sam, etc see ENTER THE VOID in a theater if possible. It’s a great ‘lose yourself at the movies’ type of experience. Oh yeah, and it’s a artsy extreme film (does it get better then that?).
Yeah Jamie Enter The Void looks interesting. I will try to see it soon.
My random off-the-top-of-my-head list, based on what I’ve seen this year so far:
(1) The Ghost Writer (2) Film Socialisme (3) Carlos (4) Edge of Darkness (5) Winter’s Bone (6) Robin Hood (7) Inception (8) Shutter Island (9) Salt (10) I Am Love
I also give special points to cool stuff on TV like “You Don’t Know Jack”, “Rubicon” and of course the finales to “Lost” and “24”.
Oh– and the unfotunate end of “Law & Order”, of course. I’m really pissed about that one.
Maurizio: TRUE GRIT and BLACK SWAN are indeed gleefully anticipated! And Jamie, I will definitely see VOID in the threatre…….Bob: I cannot wait to see CARLOS, UNCLE BOONMEE and a film by Abbas Kiarostami (the latter two recently reviewed by Marilyn Ferdinand!
Top 10 of the year:
…
I mean literally, I’ve seen about 3 movies in theaters – it’s been a DVD exclusive folks…
Dee Dee:
While I will be dealing with your wonderful response (as well as all the others on this thread later today) I just want to address the matter concerning my kidney stone procedure scheduled for Wednesday. Dennis had the time all wrong–the procedure was not done yet and is indeed scheduled for Wednesday. I’m not sure how or why he thought I was having that this past week.
However, I had the procedure postponed this morning until a later date, perhaps several weeks down the pike. As I spent six hours in a hospital emergency room this past Friday night having them perform an ultrasound on my appendix, gall bladder and other organs, I have been concerned with acute heartburn (bordering on chest pain) and abdominal pain, belching and bloatiness for the past weeks. I was cleared on all my concerns, but there is still the issue with the continuous heartburn, so I will be visiting a local emergimed this afternoon to make sure my heart is fine. I have never had heart issues ever, but it’s certainly better to be late than sorry. In any case, I will be seeing a gastrologist on Friday, and the plan is to have tests done to figure out what my problem is. A few other teachers are saying I probably have either “irritable bowel syndrome” and/or “divertriculitis” or a combination of both. These are hardly life-threatening matters, but untreated they could cause one great discomfort. I am feeling severe heartburn right now as I write this, so off to emergimed I go.
I am aware of the more dire possibilities in my prognosis, though I was told by the ultrasound doctors that was highly unlikely based on the results. I will speak to you soon.
Ahh Sam I know a bunch of people that have heartburn issues. Usually it feels like a heart attack but is nothing more than severe discomfort. You might have GERD (acid reflux disease) that causes the middle of your chest to feel tight and compressed. It also leads to heartburn and other symptoms that you described. About a year ago I had really bad chest pains and almost went to the hospital. I held off and went to see my doctor instead. He said I might have acid reflux and scheduled an endoscopy for me. I’m in my early 30’s and in pretty good shape. I weigh about 180 and 6 feet tall. I didn’t think that I would acquire such symptoms at my age. The truth is that a highly acidic diet can do the trick. From one Italian to another…… the red sauce pasta and penne ala vodka can cause all sorts of havoc if abused. I hope that you find out it’s just acid reflux since it can be controlled with a proper diet and cutting back on the traditional dishes we have been subjected to all our lives. I have three other friends all around my age with the same problem. All of them are healthy otherwise. Hopefully the doctor will give you a similar diagnosis. I’m pretty sure everything will be okay……
Sam,
I went through a similar thing a few years ago and was told I have GERD. I am now on Nexium and have been doing fine though I still have to go for a endoscopy envery few years.
Thanks Maurizio and John, and I do seem to have this condition. Of course until I get that final word from the gastrologist I will always be thinking all kinds of terrible things. But it’s clear that the acid reflux thing is what is mainly giving me the most trouble. The heart tests all came out very well.
Hope you feel better soon, Sam, and that the docs can find out what it is and give you some medication to sort it out. And, as Dee Dee says, don’t worry about replying to people here, just get some rest – your health is more important.
Thanks very much Judy. My use of “Prevacid” the last three days has given me much needed relief. My “heart” tests (EKG and Echo) have confirmed that my problem is gastro. John, Maurizio and Marilyn may well be right on.
Glad to hear the medicine is working, Sam – my husband had problems with acid indigestion a few years back, similar to what several other people have described in this thread, and had to take tablets prescribed by the doctor for a couple of weeks but he was then ok, though he has to avoid one or two things such as pasta sauces with a lot of tomato in them.
Sam hope you are feeling better, or that ‘feeling better’ is a possibility premaritally in the very near future!
Thanks very much Jamie. I do feel substantially better now than I did several days ago!
I’m sorry to hear your health problem has flared up again. I hope there is a simple answer for this.
I was interested in your remark on Never Let Me Go. Also I was pleased to see so many of the correspondents were also interested in that film.
Jim, thanks so much for your concern. It does appear to be what John and Maurizio suggested–something called GERD, where you get severe heartburn and fear a heart ailment, when in fact it’s a kind of acid reflux. The PREVACID I have taken is starting to work now.
This sounds like IBS Sam. I understand you want to clear the serious possibilities, but I’m sure you have nothing to worry about. That was a smart move to cancel the kidney procedure, as you’ve have double the discomfort afterwards.
Feel better!
Peter, I am not so sure about that, but I agree I probably have some kind of intestinal or gastro disorder. Perhaps my days of eating spicy foors are over, but hey if I have to eat plain, so be it. Thanks as always Peter for your concern!
For a short while anyway Sam. I hear you can return to your eating habits in moderation after a period of simple medication.
Speaking as somebody who’s roughly the same age as its inventors, and a member of the generation it was primarily intended for, allow me to ask a simple question: WHAT THE FUCK IS SO GODDAMN SPECIAL ABOUT FACEBOOK? It’s MySpace with better privacy settings? Seriously, I don’t get it at all. Hell, even after watching the movie, I have absolutely NO idea how they actually make money from the site, except for that it doesn’t come from advertising, because it isn’t cool.
Ugh. I thought the movie itself was good, but really– Facebook? Meanwhile, the actually important and more interesting story of Microsoft vs. Apple only ever got to be a low-budget (but fairly decent) made-for-TV movie, “Pirates of Silicon Valley”. Would that we could switch the fates around here…
I was thinking this to myself last night as I read the wiki pages of the Facebook guys. How is this product so revolutionary and how did these guys become billionaires? (The answers to the latter is private stock — the company has an implied value of around $22 billion).
Does the movie actually say they don’t do advertising? Because that’s where their revenues DO come from, having made over a half billion dollars in ad revenue last year (http://www.businessinsider.com/how-does-facebook-make-money-2010-5).
Maybe my real problem with the whole thing is I don’t spend more than 5 minutes a day on Facebook so I really don’t care about it all that much. God knows that without it I wouldn’t be able to know that so-and-so needs chickens for their Farmville farm or some such nonsense.
Enough ranting…I really just wanted to agree that Pirates of Silicon Valley is a great story. I watch it every time it pops up on TNT.
Troy, I don’t spend five minutes on Facebook per week, myself. The film does go out of its way to say that they avoid advertising, but if they generate revenue that way now, it sure doesn’t bother to let us know about that. According to Sorkin’s script, the money just happens by magic, apparently, because Facebook is just THAT COOL (despite the fact that it does the same shit that half a dozen or so sites before it did).
“Pirates” is a goofy little flick in a lot of ways, but at least it covers an expansive enough time period and hits enough generational milestones to earn that goofiness. “The Social Netowrk” has more realistic looking actors playing college kids and prettier cinematography, but “Pirates” is the genuinely smarter film, and much more fun, to boot.
Besides, didn’t Facebook already exist as “Friendster” at the time? It’s still surreal to me that this is a huge movie (which I’ll see and probably be writing my first new release review in 6 months). I remember when Facebook was just an inside-joke among college kids – not long ago I was doing double-takes seeing it in the newspaper.
Or “MySpace”. The film tries to address this, and insists that what makes Facebook so much cooler is the “exclusivity”. Which means what, though? That you get to use a Harvard domain name, and it’s closed off to people who aren’t in that network? I don’t really get the appeal of that, and after they made it available to everyone the argument’s pretty much dead. Perhaps that you have to invite somebody to be able to look at your page? That’s just a longer way of saying that it has privacy settings, something which all sites should have but few people actually use. So what is it, then? That you can check people’s relationship status?
I don’t doubt that people have fun on the site– good for them. I just don’t see how you can make money from something like this. It’s just a better version of MySpace or Friendster. That’s nice, but it’s not revolutionary. And it’s certainly not worth 22 billion.
Sam Juliano…
Please! Whatever you, do please don’t worry about responding to the feedback here at Wonders in the Dark…Because your health is the most important thing to face and deal with at this moment in time!
DeeDee ;-D
Thanks exceedingly for that Dee Dee!
As it turns out the EKG results were perfectly normal Dee Dee, and my blood work was perfect too. I do believe Maurizio and John may have diagnosed my problem, which is steady “heartburn” that feels like you are getting a heart attack with a stretched out chest. I am now taking an over-the-counter drug called PREVACID, which already is beginning to work for me. On Friday I will see the gastrologist to size up the situation. Maybe it’s a GI tract thing. The kidney stone thing is really unimportant now, as hypothetically they could stay there for years. Many thanks for all the words of support and concern here and by e mail. You are a saint.
I’m still amazed that “The Facebook Movie” can be any good, just because of what it is about (explaining to my wife that we will have to watch it at some point and explaining what it was about was pretty funny, as she thought that surely I was being sarcastic), but with so many good reviews and the pedigree of Fincher and Sorkin, I’ll surely give it a shot.
LET ME IN has gotten decent reviews, so I’ll probably have to give that one a shot at some point. Sounds like it’s a bit more faithful in theme and style than I initially suspected.
Another week and no movies for me, just watching the Oregon Ducks continue their great start and getting through some episodes of the AMC show RUBICON with my wife (a nice slow-burning 70’s style paranoia show). Oh, and some kids TV shows with my daughter here and there, which at some point I swear I’m going to review for my blog. You all need to know about the subtexts in THE GOODNIGHT SHOW.
“Rubicon” is awesome, and for my money the only really interesting show that AMC has on the air. “Mad Men” is just an obnoxious all-white boys’ club of men behaving badly with occasional retro-nostalgia thrown in. “Breaking Bad” is a clever premise for an indie thriller, but never had enough steam for a full series. The only thing that worries me about “Rubicon” is how the show’s creator was canned a couple of episodes in and replaced by a new showrunner, something I find absolutely disgusting. Still, the show has only been getting better as the weeks go by…
Wrong.
Bob, ‘Mad Men’ is also a genuine exercise in early 60’s (but not actually realistic) production design. It’s that and all that you say about it. Cinema, err TV for Baby Boomers to wax emotional about by gone times (because you know, we need more of that).
I’ll have to check RUBICON out, I really wanted to watch those first two episodes as I heard the early press for it, but I missed those and I don’t want to jump in not knowing the story from the start. Maybe I’ll be able to watch it after Season 1 ends on DVD and be ready for Season 2, though I really watch little TV.
Jamie, it may have very attractive production-design, but it’s still all rather shallow for me. What bothers me about the nostalgia aspect of the show is how two-faced it is– it obviously has a modern-era PC moralizing quality to it, reveling in drawing back the curtain to show all the scandalous behavior that happened behind closed Madison Avenue doors (drinking before happy hour! Salacious love affairs without sexual harrassment! Smoking!). But at the same time, it’s also just as obviously revelling in all of that behavior itself, the same way that a show like “Rome” or “Deadwood” did with the decadence of Caesar’s Empire and the Wild West. Problem is, both of those shows also had a fair share of unnatractive grit and grime that made all the vicarious sex & violence a little less palatable as reality, something that “Mad Men” doesn’t really have, obviously (aside from that lame reveal that somebody had assumed a new identity after serving in Korea, or something, like the Principal on “The Simpsons”). In the end, it has a rather snide, condescending sort of “have your cake and eat it too” attitude, as though the creators are saying “Look at how horrible men acted back in the early 60’s! Wasn’t it GREAT?”.
Anyway, it isn’t even Boomer-nostalgia. Back then, Boomers were more the ones rebeling against all that crap. Granted, they’d make their own “Mad Men” transformation from free-love hippies to free-market yuppies in time, and frankly that’d make a much more interesting show than anything seen here.
Oh I was saying that the production design, as ‘pretty’ as it is, isn’t realistic at all. Neither is something like ‘A Single Man’, though I like that film more or less.
Realistic or not, I could understand the production-design getting acolades. Perhaps even Emmy awards. I have no idea how the show itself keeps winning year after year. And that’s not my sour grapes as a “Lost” fan talking. Or at least not just that.
Well, I love all three hour-long dramas AMC has done thus far and am looking forward to THE WALKING DEAD as well.
Not sure why the hate for MAD MEN as an “obnoxious all-white boys’ club of men behaving badly” as that’s entirely the point, using that to critique the society of the 60’s. There’s never a time in the show when they say, “ah the racist, male dominated 60’s, weren’t they great?” That’s like not liking THE SOPRANOS because the mobsters are always killing people and doing illegal things. It’s the basis for which the show explores its themes.
As for BREAKING BAD, I’ll give some validity to your comment there, as I can see why wouldn’t get into that show due to its glacial pace.
Bob, well I just read your other comment on it in reply to Jamie. Looks like we’ll just have to disagree on how the show accomplishes its goals, because I don’t see the show relishing in the depravity, as you put it “have your cake and eat it to.” Most of the male characters coming off as leches and asses more often than not, in my eyes.
Bob/Jamie/others — have you checked out BOARDWALK EMPIRE yet? Thoughts? (I don’t have HBO).
Troy, I’ve watched the first two episodes, and I’ll get to the third sometime this week. “Rubicon” is the appointment television for me. And as for “The Sopranos”– there’s always a heavy wish-fulfilment drive in any show with that much bad behavior, and that show was definitely guilty of it just as much as any other. I just feel that “Mad Men” doesn’t balance it out as much as others– just as there was an unintentional effect of heroicizing Gordon Gecko in the original “Wall Street”, I think there’s a lot of people out there who wish they could be Don Draper.
Troy, haven’t seen it either. I also don’t have HBO so when I do watch one of their series it’s either on DVD or at someones house.
I will say a show on HBO that no one talks about (probably because it’s not a drama and not trying to win any awards) but I think is a real hoot is BORED TO DEATH, it’s like THE BIG LEBOWSKI, if the Dude was set in a noir-universe and from Generation Y (or whatever– he’s in my generation, that’s Y right?)
Bob I haven’t seen Mad Men yet. I’ve been kind of resisting its pull, but I resisted Sopranos at first and came to love it. At any rate, agreed boomers don’t figure here – the show’s subjects are all strictly Greatest Generation (plus I guess some Korea gen. or whatever the born in late 20s-mid 40s generation was called) – and the show’s creators all all Xers. Its main target audience seems also to be Xers & Millennials. Indeed, what’s most interesting to me about this whole phenomenon is how it’s re-setting the 60s, culturally, for the first time in about 40 years the decade ISN’T seen as being a boomer experience (which, if not in the way the series shows exactly, is true: Dylan, the Beatles, Abbie Hoffman, all the movers and shakers of the counterculture and New Left were born before 1946; the students rode the wave but they didn’t shape it). A digression but one which the show brings to mind. I understand it will be delving into the waters of the mid to late 60s (really a different era) before it’s run its course, and that this was part of what Weiner had in mind when setting the era of the series. I’ll be interested to see how that unfolds though I suppose I’ll have to give the earlier seasons a looksee first. At any rate, I try not to watch TV because there are already so many movies demanding my attention (as well as books and blog posts, 2 of which I’m avoiding at the present moment, ahem). Even tried to get it disconnected but Comcast wouldn’t let me get high-speed net without basic TV service, sadly.
Mad Men keeps social issues at the periphery. It is about advertising after all. The protagonists are not heroes, they are interesting jerks. It is highbrow Seinfeld – a show about nothing – and the most important television drama on US television.
Any given season of “24” had more importance going on than “Mad Men” has in its whole production. I’ll admit that “Rubicon” and the impending Darabont “Walking Dead” have given me some faith in AMC, but for the most part they’re practitioners in a whole lot of rather intellectually and aesthetically shallow soap operizing. It’s nothing but a vain, superficial show of vicarious unethical wish-fulfillment that’s deluded itself into thinking that it’s a show about vain, superficial wish-fulfillment. And I really can’t stand the awful, self-congratulatory tone that AMC sells the series with, either.
AMC also did that abysmal “Prisoner” remake a little while back. So really, they shouldn’t be tooting their own horn so loudly.
My oh my, so much hate for ‘Mad Men’…..Movieman, I think your going to love it! Most of the hate is the type that is usually associated with something that’s too successful. There are episodes that aren’t to the highest quality that the show sets itself, but for the most part it shows compassion for its people and their lives maybe empty of real joy and fulfilment – but that’s just the point. Miss that and a person misses the whole point of the show. It is, with ‘The Wire’ and other HBOs, the finest, cockiest show on the telly. All this generation ‘X’ or ‘Y’ is bullshit, rather a more sophisticated way of saying what a clueless niece said the other day, “I’ve never seen a black and white film!”. The only question is, is it any good? My answer is a resounding, bloody – “It’s magnificent!!! There are soapy elements, in the vein they were of ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ and ‘Hill Street Blues’. It matters not. It’s the most cinematically interesting and provocative show. Though I’m intrigued by ‘Rubicon’. The most dangerous subject of all…
Thanks for the reco, Bobby. I suspect I’ll be hooked once I give it a whirl – I tend to balk at massively hyped shows but once I give them a whirl, if they’re good I’m as suspectible as the next guy. Like I said, I was resistant to Sopranos at first too (and I was obsessed with gangster movies at the time) but when I watched it I was hooked. Indeed, much of my hesitation has to due with not wanting to get pulled in to watching something when I already have so many films/books/half-realized personal projects pulling for my attention! Same goes for The Wire.
Sam, hope you are fine…I’ve been suffering a bout of flu and have only just got back to normal.
I saw in the past week or so….
“The Path to War”** – Larger than life US President LBJ finds himself making the mistakes that drive the country into a war that was to destroy liberal America, the Democratic Party’s progressive strand and rip the country into turmoil not seen since the Civil War.
This is an excellent docudrama with superb performances by Gambon, Sutherland and Baldwin, full of splendid scenes and sequences worthy of Frankheimer at his best and his technique and style is all over the picture; deep focus photography, hand-held camera work, and the most remarkable combination of archive footage fused into the narrative so that it doesn’t call attention to itself. What let’s the film down, and this is where I part with John Greco, is that films based on history have a duty to historical fact. A docudrama, even more so. By shying away from the Gulp of Tolkin incident and the fact that the legislation for it was prepared TWO weeks before it happened, it makes LBJ a victim of policy choices that destroyed his Great Society programs. When every investigator that’s not beholden to the right-wing of American politics finds his finger prints all over the assassination, to spur the country towards war. Without this framing, which happens before the start of the movie, it’s dishonest.
“Berkely Square” – An 18th century gentleman finds himself 149 years back in old London. And falling for a woman whose group find him strange in his predictions, language and behaviour.
A very dry and archly dated time travel fantasy with too much talk overlaid to bland musically backing. Even the theatrical performances don’t work.
Thanks to DeeDee for this copy.
Superman 4 – Superman decides to get rid of all nuclear weapons but NuclearMan, at the behest of Lex Luthor has other ideas.
There was an enjoyable book about 25 years ago called the something like The Great Turkey Awards. Except, for some, a bad movie can be funny. I don’t see how, but I’ve heard the theory. I couldn’t watch this without thinking about how it belonged there. Its so bad, so misguided and woefully worthless; cookie-cutter film-making that would be an insult to pond life that the people who produced and wrote this should have be tarred and feathered. So why did I watch it? It was a part of the box-set containing all the movies, the cartoons, the serials and documentaries. And I was curious to see if it could be as bad as the critics of the time suggested. It is the worst super-hero film of the them all.
Talking Picture*** – watched the first 2 episodes of this 1987/88 10-part documentary with covers the sound age and the studios heyday up to the ’50s.
This is a very rare BBC show, presented by Barry Norman; a more intelligently incisive English version Roger Ebert but with charisma and a urbane wit. He was the presenter of the flagship BBC Film review show foe 25 years. This series is full of first-hand interviews with the writers, directors and stars giving an intimate glimpse of the topic, eg: Hollywood Goes to War, Hollywood and Sex, ect, ect. It might not be as great as the Beeb’s ‘The RKO Story’, yet, but its invaluable.
Hero at 30,00 Feet**** – Psychological illusionist Derren Brown goes about planting ideas into the head of a member of the public that stops him from becoming a passive bystander and, hopefully will get him to take charge by the end of the show, of an airliner whose pilot has been struck down.
A superb treat, one of the few high-lights of the TV year or the past decade has been this incredible mind-master. His programs have to be seen to be believed; like walking away from the dog races counter, having presented losing numbers, after using a Jedi mind trick. Or predicting the national lottery numbers live, before the lottery, or get a group of law-abiding citizens to pull out a toy gun and try to hold-up a man of England employee.
Good news Sam, after the remastered blu-rays of ‘Star Trek’ TOS, plans maybe underfoot to make the ST:TNG also into a 1080 hi-def blu-rays. This is something I didn’t know, but the show was actually shot on 35mm film and then converted and edited on video. This part can easily be converted from the masters removing that horrid blurred, fuzzy, bland look. The effects were done on video from the beginning, so they will have to redo them from scratch. It may be high-resolution, but the scores and photography were far inferior to the original shows.
Also finished reading Scott Eyman’s brilliant biography of ‘Ernest Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise’. An absolute classic.
When I was very, very young, like about five years old, I loved “Superman 4: The Quest for Peace”. It is one of the few movies I can honestly say I have absolutely outgrown. A Care-Bears movie offers more worthwhile of watching. Sad that even Christopher Reeves and Gene Hackman can’t save a flightless foul like that.
Thanks Bobby!
As I stated above in several posts I am feeling better, due to PREVACID, but I may well be looking at a diagnosis of GERD and/or stomach ulcers and perhaps even a touch of divertricilitis. I am really unsure at this point. All my blood work and organ tests have been perfect. I wish I felt better over the past weeks, but when you are 56 years old you have to expect some things to happen. I once thought I was indestrictible. I’m sorry you had to battle the flu, and hope you are feeling better.
I’ve seen some of your comments at the THRILLER site, and the last one you posted was a real gem as others attested to! I see THE DEVIL’S TICKET is up there, so I will have to add a comment. It’s definitely one of the series’ best episodes!
Your capsules here once again confirm that you should really be writing for this site. I tried to get you one other time, but you were (understandably) silent. Anyway the offer always stands here. Maybe I can entice you into doing something on one of the old TV shows we both love?! Ha!
God I really need to read Eyman’s Lubitsch volume!!! That would certainly appear to be fantastic!!! Kuds to you for managing it!
This is extraordinary news!!!
“Good news Sam, after the remastered blu-rays of ‘Star Trek’ TOS, plans maybe underfoot to make the ST:TNG also into a 1080 hi-def blu-rays. This is something I didn’t know, but the show was actually shot on 35mm film and then converted and edited on video. This part can easily be converted from the masters removing that horrid blurred, fuzzy, bland look. The effects were done on video from the beginning, so they will have to redo them from scratch. It may be high-resolution, but the scores and photography were far inferior to the original shows.”
God, I LOVE ST:TNG and have all the single season sets (all seven!) in the silver boxes. The blu-ray release is tempting, much as THE TWILIGHT ZONE was. I’ll have to see how the price holds up. Hopefully it will be manageable. I didn’t realize the facts you present here.
I love your trashing of SUPERMAN 4. I haven’t seen either HERO or TALKING PICTURE but both do sound fascinating! BERKELEY SQUARE is OK but yeah hardly great. Fascinating capsule here as usual! And yeah Dee Dee came through there as usual!
And I am guilty on not seeing PATH OF WAR yet either. What an intriguing report.
Spectacular my friend, spectacular!
Sam, I just did a check on …..
Diverticulosis
(“from wikipedia”)…. Most people with diverticulosis do not have any discomfort or symptoms; however, symptoms may include mild cramps, bloating, and constipation. Other diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and stomach ulcers cause similar problems, so these symptoms do not always mean a person has diverticulosis.
The development of colonic diverticulum is thought to be a result of raised intraluminal colonic pressures. The sigmoid colon (Section 4) has the smallest diameter of any portion of the colon, and therefore the portion which would be expected to have the highest intraluminal pressure. The claim that a lack of dietary fiber, particularly non-soluble fiber (also known in older parlance as “roughage”) predisposes individuals to diverticular disease is supported within the medical literature.”
Sam, please eat more fibre….white pasta (the most common kind) is stripped of “roughage”. East brown rice, (wholewheate) pasta, salads, vegtable stir-frys…chicken, steak even (occasionally)
please read this, it mat possibly be one of the greatest, most eye-opening articles you read….i’d like and respect your opinion on it.
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/diet_and_fitness/article4523487.ece
I will pen an article for you and one that you will love…
Thanks so very much for that Bobby!!!
Yeah it’s a clouded picture with all the symptom overlaps.
I don’t smoke or drink alcohol, but at 265 I am grossly overweight right now. I don’t exercise much what with the movies, DVD and PC involement, but I do believe I eat very good foods. I DO eat a lot of fiber, and favor whole wheat breads, high-fiber cereals, and a tremendous amount of blueberries. I also eat spinach, escarole and salmon in large quantities, eat a lot of chicken, and consume very little red meat, in fact almost none. I was eating walnuts in large amounts too until I got the kidney stone problem. My breakfast has always been either cereal or egg whites and spinach. I love brown rice and always order it in Chinese restaurants, going very rarely with the white. If I do wind up with a touch of this, it won’t be because of lack of fiber, but rather because I ate too much popcorn, seeds (tomatoes) and nuts, which many professionals say get caught in colon pockets and cause divertriculitis or osis.
This is a fascinating piece here, and I’ll more to say tomorrow.
I’m THRILLED to hear you will pen a piece!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for you deep concern!
Thanks from the bottom of my heart for the link towards my Movie Horror Madness which begins to get hard as my week starts and I have to cope with the writing and the watching and all the responsabilities towards the university. Right now I’m in the process of editing another exercise, documentary on a 85 year old guy birthday, with Alzhaimer and other disabilities.
Anyway, my week has been quite stressful, I presented my documentary project (about my mom and this site) on wednesday and it finally got rejected (I found out yesterday), so all the work I put into it does make me feel a bit sad, because I won’t be able to do it.
Saturday was one day I classify as good/bad, because I just spent it at house, watching movies and doing little else. Sunday I filmed what I’m editing now, so I am tired, a lot actually, the place was crammed with people.
So, enough about me, for a while and let’s see… oh yeah horror has overtaken Wonders for sure and the minds of many people, including me, as I go in my Madness of seeing a horror film a day, one I haven’t seen and then write about it. I did it last year and no remorses whtsoever (perhaps the lack of comments, those I love).
About your health condition, I can only hope and pray that you’ll be better.
About what you saw I really can’t wait for the premiere of The Social Network, since it’s one of the movies I look most forward to in this year. Never Let Me Go took me by surprise, as I thought it wouldn’t have much praise, so I’m definitively seeing it, specially because I LOOOVE the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, one of the best examples of lo-sci-fi as I like to call it, one of the genres in which my favorite things can be found.
Let Me In is a movie I have some interest in, being a Hammer, but I still haven’t seen the original, so I’ll wait until that.
Well, movie wise this week was pretty good, I saw at least a movie a day so I could get used to it when my madness started, and know I’m in full shape, so:
– Certified Copy (2010, Abbas Kiarostami) ****1/2 Nevermind what you’ve heard, this is one of the best movies of the year. Binoche is excellent, it’s well acted and perfectly made, every set piece is wonderful. Recommended.
– An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe (1972, Kenneth Johnson) **** Vincent Price is amazing and here he goes all out with his Poe love, doing four monologues based on four of his stories. Amazing acting in display, Price is wonderful.
– Groupie (2010, Mark L. Lester) * This must be the definition of cheese, if you open a dictionary it should read:
1.
a. A solid food prepared from the pressed curd of milk, often seasoned and aged.
b. A molded mass of this substance.
2. Something resembling this substance in shape or consistency.
3. Groupie (2010, Mark L. Lester)
– Monsters (2010, Gareth Edwards) **** This was a surprise, I never thought this would be that good. The lack of elements to play do enhance creativity.
– Not the Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy) (2010, Aubrey Powell) ****1/2 I rewatched this live performance in London for the 40th anniversary of Monty Python and I just wish I saw it live.
– The Oblong Box (1969, Gordon Hessler) *** I know I said that anything with Vincent Price is **** or more, but when the material is so lazy and the horror so minimal, and the blood so little, it can’t be that good.
– The Phantom Creeps (1939, Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind) ** I already talked about this serial in my horror madness, see it there!
– The Return of the Vampire (1944, Lew Landers) **** I already talked about this in my Horror Madness.
– Robot Monster (1953. Phil Tucker) *1/2 The entry featured here leads to my views on this film for my Horror Madness.
– Salt (2010, Phillip Noyce) ****1/2 I liked this because it felt short, it delivered the thrills and it was intelligent enough.
Not much else to report, still lacking tickets for the two concerts I wanna go to: Rush and Les Luthiers, and they’re both this month, so I’m kinda desperate in that sense.
Well, take care Sam and everyone of you!
Good day!
Jaime: You are a treasure! Thanks for those moving words.
I am very sorry and disappointed that the documentary with your mother was rejected; it’s seems terribly unfair. I hope you will get a second chance with it soon enough.
As far as this:
“Right now I’m in the process of editing another exercise, documentary on a 85 year old guy birthday, with Alzhaimer and other disabilities.”
That would potentially make for a fascinating subject for a documentary depending on (I guess) how far along the patient is with the Alzheimer’s. I would really love to get the chance to see it! I remember we used to record my paternal grandfather, who had all his marbles until maybe a year before he died at age 96. It was a transporting experience.
I have seen your own wonderful horror project at EXODUS, and plan to comment on more of the posts very soon. The writing and layout there is quite good!
Thanks for the kind words on my health. Apparently I have something that can be easily managed with nothing more than common sense. But I’ll wait for the final instructions.
I agree that you should see LET THE RIGHT ONE IN first up before tacking the re-make. As far as THE SOCIAL NETWORK, I would think you will be seeing that real soon. And I suspect you’ll be on board with it. If you love Ishiguro’s novel that much I do believe you’ll excuse the comparitively minor issues with the film. At the end of the day it’s hugely affecting. Warts and all Jaimie I just can’t stop thinking about it! I will be looking for your reaction to it!
I’m surprised you liked SALT, but as I still haven’t seen it I won’t dare pass judgement. I greatly respect your views anyway. I am with you on both of those Vincent Price films. OBLONG BOX is weak. And I like THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE quite a bit (as you do) and like you dismiss the silly ROBOT MONSTER, though its campy for many.
I haven’t seen GROUPIE thank God, (ha!) but I am green with envy that you have seen the Kiarostami film! I just commended Marilyn Ferdinand for her stellar review of it at the CIFF. Hence I know what it’s about and I am a deciple of this great artist (A TASTE OF CHERRY and THE WIND WILL CARRY US are my favorites) And Binoche is a treasure.
I really hope you get to see LES LUTHIERS as I know from your site how much you love them!
Thanks as always for this fascinating, frank and deeply-appreciated report, my very good friend!
Sam – It has taken me all day to get here, as I’ve been busy. But, as always, I’m grateful for the mention and gratified to be mentioned so early in your round-up. You’re FonF’s most reliable follower now!
My CIFF coverage continues with a review of Certified Copy. I owe a lot to Ryan Kelly, a great young film writer who runs Medfly Quarantine, for thrashing through that one with me and helping me clarify my thoughts. The weekend brought a bit of esoterica. I’ve been waiting since February to catch up with local experimental filmmaker Thomas Comerford’s The Indian Boundary Line, having unavoidably missed all other screenings. It was great to finally see it, along with a couple of his earlier works Chicago/Detroit Split and Land Marked/Marquette. He was a very engaging and informative commentator on his work at the Q&A. We also watched a little-known Polish film from the 1950s called Shadow, that dealt with political betrayal – very timely in the Stalinist era. It was quite good, though I wish I had a more thorough-going knowledge of Polish politics at the time to understand some of the plot points. The rest of the week will be all CIFF all the time. Wish me luck!
Marilyn, your appearance here is always a special treat, and frankly I’m amazed you have a chance to do anything with the CIFF in session! Your work on that festival has (typically) been fantastic, and you’ve given al of us the pointers of what to seek out the fastest in the future release schedule. I’ve already written down four titles: Tavanier, Weerasethakul, Cardiff and Kiarostami.
Ryan Kelly is a very gifted and articulate young man Marilyn, and I’m sure that was a great pairing for your most recent review (which I just read now) The Polish film really sounds interesting, though I know the politics could be tricky. I do absolutely wish you the very best in enjoyment and enrichment in this great festival! You’ve outdone yourself, and we your readers are the real winners!
Thanks as always my very good friend!
Sam – As always, you are so gracious you make me blush. I’m enjoying the films and preparing my prefestival coverage. Once the festival starts, I start feeling stressed by the schedule and trying to write up everything I want to in a limited amount of time. Prefestival is luxurious in terms of being able to take my time and really give films the consideration they deserve. I’m so glad you’re getting something out of what I’m doing; it’s very gratifying.
Well Marilyn, truth be said it is YOU who is providing the film community with this advance word on these eager-to-see releases, and let’s just say that your writing style is hardly a capsule report but on the top level., I have never seen the Chicago Film Festival offer such great stuff in this volume. Is this a first?
SAM-I get the SAME heartburn, chest pains you get and I found the best remedy for it is chewable GAVISCON tablets. They create an antiacid foam in your mouth when chewed. Once completely chewed, you swallow the foam and chase it with a quater of a glass of room temperature water. The foam coats the stomach and cools down the acid burn while simultaneously creating a foam barrier in the stomach where the esophogus meets up with it. This barrier keeps the acid in your stomach IN YOUR STOMACH and the chest pains and indigestion goes away. I had bad acid reflux for the loongest time till both my druggist (the legal one) and my doctor suggested the same…
What can you lose here????? Give it a shot…
Good advice Dennis! I went for the PREVACID, which has kicked in well over the past hour, eliminating most of that nagging mid-chest burn. Much appreciated my friend!
My husband had this problem, too, and he had cut out a lot of the acidic foods and tried not to eat later than 6 p.m. He tries not to take meds if he can help it. He’s feeling much better.
my father has this, and he sleeps with the head of the bed raised about six inches from the foot. so he basically sleeps on an incline so that the acid (from gravity) stays in his stomach. Plus he takes pills from the doctor. It was a trick his doctor recommended and he’s claimed it’s helped.
Jamie the bed trick definitely works. I was told the same thing after my endoscopy. I was found to have very low levels of acid reflux. I go months without any symptoms and then it hits like a brick for 3 or 4 days. I don’t really take medicine as it’s not something that is a daily problem. It is very uncomfortable when it’s occurring though. I think this is what Sam has and it isn’t a serious medical issue. He just has to watch certain things he eats which cause the discomfort. The raised bed sleeping position is a very good way to combat the acid at night .
Thanks Marilyn, Jamie and Maurizio so much for all those personal experiences. Today I heard of more, even memebers of my family. I’m sure my eating habits will be dramatically altered and it’s just as well.
Thanks for the hat-tip Sam. As always a busy week coming up – a Lennon doc review went up today (in honor of the singer’s 70th birthday) and Thursday will see what’s probably an extensive image post (I’m still compiling it but suspect it will be way hard to winnow it down) from one of my favorite films – which I suspect may have many admirers on Wonders, though I don’t think I’ve seen it discussed here yet. The film? You’ll all have to tune in Thursday to find out. 🙂
Ah, Joel, I am thinking but drawing a blank! Ha! I am hoping to see the Lennon biopic (of his early years) NOWHERE BOY, which seems to be getting solid notices. It would make a good companion piece to the documentary you have up there!
Thanks my great friend!
I didn’t hear about that but I’ll have to see it if I go ahead with my idea for a follow-up to the Wind in the Willows series: a “Beatles on screen” series. if I’m up for it that is – right now with the massive workload I’ve dumped on myself, I feel more like following Mole’s lead and crawling deep into a hole somewhere to hibernate haha…
I thought ‘Nowhere Boy’ was excellent and would definitely recommend it – great performances by Kristin Scott Thomas and Anne-Marie Duff as Lennon’s aunt and mother, as well as by Aaron Johnson as Lennon.
Judy thanks for that advance report on NOWHERE BOY! I hope to see it over the coming weekend!
Sam, I’ll be seeing “The Social Network” Wed. night (following Game 1 of the Phillies Series) with a review sure to follow.
“Never Let Me Go” looks intriguing enough. Your thoughts have prompted me to take a look – though probably not until the DVD.
“Let Me In” looks well done but completely unnecessary. I’m one of the few who did not enjoy “Let the Right One In”…so a remake does not excite me at all.
Speaking of unnecessarily remaking overrated Swedish films – I finally saw “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” over the weekend, and had my friend (who read the book) not been there to help me keep track of all the convoluted nonsense, it would not have provided much entertainment value. I really don’t understand why Hollywood is planning to remake this series of films which were already big hits globally…and why David Fincher is involved boggles my mind.
Other than that I was too busy enjoying the beautiful weather on Saturday and suddenly being stuck by a muse to write the 1st draft of new short story on Sunday to enjoy much else other than the Phillies’ games (always on in the background) and…of course…BOARDWALK EMPIRE, which, Sam, you really must see.
…”and suddenly being stuck by a muse to write the 1st draft of new short story” should read “and suddenly being STRUCK by a muse to write the 1st draft of A new short story” – as you can tell…I am in desperate need of an editor…STAT…
Great news on that short story David! Count me in on a read!
David you must be on Cloud Nine with the Phillies! They won game 1 this afternoon, though I know Dave and the Cincy fans are disappointed. I am expecting a report from you on THE SOCIAL NETWORK at “The Schleicher Spin” by this coming weekend, and I know it will be a doozer!\
David, as a writer yourself, and as a passionate authority on novel-to-film adaptations I do believe you will want to at least check out NEVER LET ME GO. I can’t quite read you, but you are probably a fan of Ishijuro. The film is tricky, but for me was affecting.
LET ME IN was well-done but unecessary. (as you rightly note!)
Finally someone who sees DRAGON TATTOO for what it is – “convoluted nonsense”. I couldn’t agree with you more and like you am amazed at Fincher’s planned incolvement.
God yes, David I do need to see BOARDWALK EMPIRE!!! And your site is like the home base for that show!
Ah I just see the Yankees took a 4-3 lead against Minnesota after trailing 3-0. I’m sure the final innings will be unbearably exciting!
Thanks as always for the terrific wrap my very good friend!
Sam – that no-hitter this afternoon was a beaute. I still can’t quite believe it. Dare I say the Phillies are unbeatable right now?
And The Social Network was a good capper to the evening. I decided to do an “off-the-cuff-and-in-the-moment” non-review-review. Would love to hear more of your thoughts on the film!
http://theschleicherspin.com/2010/10/07/the-social-network/
That was only the second no-hitter in playoff history….Larsen’s 1956 perfect game was the other.
Thanks for the links Sam. It’s that time of year when because of Marilyn’s festival coverage I stand around with my metaphorical thumb up my butt, but TIR gives me a chance to channel my energies.
Aye Rod, I see Marilyn is topping quite a bit as of late, but it’s true that the CIFF is major business. I’ve really appreciated her excellent coverage so far!
Aye, I’ve noticed you’ve stepped up the heat at “This Island Rod” with some amazing essays on some sadly-neglected films.
Thanks as always my good friend!
I have quite a few responses to make. I plan to commence tomorrow in the early afternoon. My apologies for not managing more, but I came home too late from the tests.
Speaking of which, are you feeling better?
Rod, thanks so much for asking. I am feeling much better today, I must say. I should have latched on to the Prevacids days ago!
Since it was too late to make the Monday Morning Diary it might as well be broached here – what a game!!! (and I missed most of it unfortunately.) I just heard the announcer say that the Pats are now the first team in history to score on their own field goal, their own touchdown, a kickoff return, a return on a blocked field goal, and an interception all in the same game. Way to wash out the lingering taste of the Jets loss, boys!
Joel, you have every reason to be beaming Joel! I am wondering if the Pats’ accomplishment here was a record?! Anyway, it does wash aways lingering depression over the Jets loss, and you can bet they will be back with a vengeance in that second meeting with Gang Green!
Gracias!
IM READY!!!! LETS GET A MOVE ON HERE!!!!!
You are incorrigible!
Check this out people!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.avclub.com/articles/today-in-things-you-already-knew-peter-jackson-wil,46002/
Wow, what a comment thread there. Makes me feel a bit better about some of our more ignominious moments haha…
I can already tell, that this film will be, like most Jackson flicks, overlong! Two films to film a novella? hmmm….more money, though. Cynical old me.
Hey Bobby, you may well be right there. Although I posted that with exclamation marks it was more by way of “I can’t believe it!”
Sam I just saw Never Let Me Go and must say that it’s a lousy film. I had no idea what the book was about but my girlfriend had read it beforehand. She really wanted to see the movie so we went tonight. The story is so idiotic and laughably unrealistic that I could not emotionally get connected to the characters. The scenario is so absurd that I wanted to chuckle through all the forced “deep” moments. I will admit the acting and cinematography was lovely. I also must praise the location scout for finding some beautifully scenic areas to shoot the picture. It was a lovely film to look at. I just can’t buy the whole raising clones to take their organs setup as anything but stupid and patently absurd. Gattaca had a much more believable story and must still be considered the best in the sub genre of post Dolly clone films. I also sensed a pro life strain running through the movie. My girlfriend didn’t notice this and is skeptical but I feel you can connect clones with fetuses (I’m on my way to do an internet search to see if I’m alone in this). One other unanswered question is how do they clone humans? The picture mentions drug addicts and strippers. Do they clone themselves for money or is it forced on them? It is never made clear….. ** Stars for me.
Also why don’t they just run away LOL!!! I was thinking this from the beginning. That flimsy bracelet/watch couldn’t really stop them. Everything just seems so illogical and hard to take serious…….
I more or less agree here. The cinematography was beautiful, the acting was decent and the script was fine, save for a few glaring holes in the plot and motivation of the characters. So the kids are clones for harvesting internal organs so adults on the outside well past the age 100. This raises three important scientific questions which the movie never bothers to address:
1: Are these kids clones of specific individuals, for whom their organs are specifically intended for? That makes sense, because it would provide you with an exact genetic match, and would cut down on the chances your body would reject an organ. That’s the whole point of cloning in standard dystopias like “Parts” and “The Island”. However…
2: Keira Knightley says that she thinks all the clones are actually modeled after trashy impoverished people like bums and junkies, and that they’d never meet their “originals” working even at a small office. Never minding that this isn’t even remotely evidence to the contrary of the above situation, let’s assume it were possible, that these kids are just clones of random individuals. That would mean there’s no longer the whole “perfect genetic match” scenario of cloning for specific people. So why would you need clones at all, to get organs? Isn’t it more likely that this would just create a new subculture of people at the bottom selling off their organs like poor shmucks who make money by giving their blood, plasma or eggs?
3: So, people can live past the age of 100, or something. Throughout the film you see plenty of older people, and save for the clone-kids themselves, nobody below the age of 30. Apparently, all these advances in medical technology only make you live longer– they don’t allow you to prolong youth, but just allow you to live in your 70’s or 80’s for another several decades. So, unless I’m really misreading the film rather badly, my question is– WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THAT?!? I could understand if all the new organs basically let you stay in your 20’s or 30’s for as long as you wanted, but otherwise, what’s the goddamn point? It’s called “quality” of life, not “quantity”.
Of course, a good science fiction movie is supposed to make you ask questions. But it’s a bad sign when you’re questioning the internal logic of the story, rather than its moral implications. Besides, those moral considerations are made pretty simple by the three-hanky storyline the film’s focus remains on– of course cutting up clones for spare parts is bad, because it interrupts their painfully poignant love triangle, those pretty young things, they. But what really bothers me above all is the passive acceptance they all have of their lot in life– there isn’t a moment of rebellion, not an attempt to escape, not a single scene where anybody questions why they have to go through with it. The closest we get is a mopey artistic clone (he reminded me of the illiterate Jared Leto in “My So Called Life”– cute boys with learning disabilities must drive girls wild because they’re easier to control than the smarter ones, with their puppy-dog IQ’s) politely asking for a deferral of some sort, sort of a sci-fi equivalent of Oliver Twist pleading for more gruel. It’s miles apart from how Roy Batty & the Replicants (I wonder if there’s a band with that name) wreaking havoc and incurring the wrath of Blade Runners everywhere– “I want more life, fucker/father” wouldn’t even be close to these kid’s vocabularies.
What bothers me so much about the passive characters is the message that it sends. Traditional dystopias may give you a bleak message about your chances when you fight the system– THX can only escape alone, after losing everyone he ever cared about, into a world that might not even be habitable; Sam Lowry only can escape in his dreams, where he’s safe from torture and the reality of his lost love; “Jerrome Morrow” may reach space, but he’ll forever have to lead the double life of a “borrowed ladder”, always looking over his shoulder; and of course, Winston Smith and Julia may enjoy a few weeks of passionate bliss out of the range of telescreens, but in the end they realise that they are the dead. Still, it’s worth it to have fought the system at all, perhaps to have won your freedom (limited as it may be) or at least to have tried.
The kids in “Never Let Me Go”, though? Nothing. They don’t fight against their horrific fate, despite the fact that there are seemingly few-to-no obstacles standing in their way. They don’t question it. They barely even seem to get that upset over it, unless they have a loved one they’re about to be parted from, and even then all they bother to do is ask for a few extra years. And considering how sucky most of their lives turn out to be anyway (all it takes is one Keira Knightley pout to ruin the love of your life, it seems) the fact that they don’t do anything just becomes even more pathetic. It’s a pretty disgusting message. Perhaps it can work in a short subject like Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, but on a longer work like this, it falls apart under the weight of even minimal scrutiny.
Some Roy Batty rage would of definitely lifted the picture somewhere more interesting. You further highlight all my serious problems with this film Bob. I can see some Libertarian conservative grinning through this movie saying ” I wish poor people and minorities acted this way”. Everything you mention is right on the nose….. though a pouty Keira Knightly sure can do the trick. Is their a better actress to play a sickly attractive woman. This picture and most likely the book are total rubbish.
“I can see some Libertarian conservative grinning through this movie saying ” I wish poor people and minorities acted this way”.” That sort of thinking would’ve worked if they wanted this movie to be a satire, instead of a sacharine romance. I recall that many reviews have said that American audiences just don’t understand the film because we’re raised to expect rebellion and dissent, wheras in England they’re geared more towards calmly accepting troubles– “Keep Calm & Carry On”, “Lie Back and Think of England”, whatnot. Except that’s complete nonsense– Orwell’s “1984” might be one of the best examples of a story that paints a bleak picture of rebellion, but one that’s worth it on some level. And what about Alan Moore’s defiant, doomed heroes in “V For Vendetta” and “Watchmen”? I shudder to think of what V or Rorschach woudld’ve thought of these clueless clones.
I do think the director was more interested in making another bloodless middle-brow british romance (like a sci-fi Atonement or Bright Star) that has the lovers miss out on a chance to live happily ever after. He should of just left out all the clone implications because it seriously compromised his unoriginal premise. Most likely though he needed the popularity of the book to get anything made.
Actually, I think the sci-fi premise is key in creating a scenario that allows for a maximum amount of emotional handwringing with as little appeals to common-sense as possible. If you’re a mainstream filmgoer, you’re probably not going to ask the same questions we’re raising here, and all you’ll see are the poor, shortlived clones. It’s a big hypothetical straw-man argument that appeals only to the emotions and leaves as much logic out of the equation as possible– much as I don’t like other “bloodless middlebrow British romance” movies, at least the ones you mention have a smidgeon of brains along with their oversized hearts. The clones here don’t live in a world that seems as though it is realistically tailored to breed clones for the sake of a medical breakthrough, but more for the sake of having a downtrodden underclass of pretty young things that we can all have a good cry about. So really, it’s one of the worst usages of sci-fi, where it’s there only to allow the film to be as superficial as possible. At least in “Gattaca”, the science kinda made sense, if the jobs everyone had didn’t.
Bob: This quite a presentation here is response to Maurizio’s well-founded original objections to the film. Many times I will read comments here from you, Joel, Jamie and others and decline to comment not because the the insights aren’t deserving, but invariably because I am split in so many directions. I did read everything you said (and completely understand Maurizio’s issues) and as I stated in my original capsule report, there were holes in this narrative.
I decided in the end to ignore them in the interest of my strong emotional connection to the material. While what you say about GATTACA being far more effective is irrefutable, I feel despite Romaneck’s playing loose with the source material, the very premise of the film was fascinating, and the artistic elements came together to weave a haunting scenario that weeks after viewing remain compellingly in the consciousness. It’s a mournful, meditative, and melancholic work about mortality and descision-making with allegorical underpinnings that underscores the entire realm of human experience.
It’s one of those rare films that’s both disturbing and beautiful at the same time, and for me, the plot issues are really besides the point.
I loved Rachel Portman’s score too.
You made some decent points there. I did a search on the issue and found most guys will agree with your blog.