Things we watch in the cinema or on tape, DVD, and streaming
This one’s for my good friend, Akeshia, who’s been reminding me of fun times at the U. We watched a few movies together when we were undergrads. Perhaps, my belief that Start Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the best of all Star Treks stems from catching it with her on a packed opening night at the AMC in South Miami. No not the one across the street, the other cinema!
Nov. 5, 1991
In 113 minutes, director John Schlesinger can make you feel uncomfortable. His film, Midnight Cowboy is a tale of attempted sexual exploits of a young Texan stud. It contains themes that are less risqué today than when the picture was released in 1969. Homosexuality, prostitution, gang rape, and sordid sex abound and last throughout the film. Back in 1969, these topics were not as openly discussed, or shown, as they are today, and the film seems less likely to cause a stir now than during its first release. But the reason you’ll feel uncomfortable is that this film breaks down in the telling. The plot is simple, but Schlesinger’s direction is unclear; it makes hardly any sense when seeing it for the first time. Schlesinger takes liberties with the film medium. Certain filmic aspects which he uses confuse an otherwise simple story. Flashbacks occur so often that they’ll leave you wondering about what you are seeing. Odd angles and shots make the film seem twice as strange. You don’t understand what you’re seeing. You don’t know what the point is being made by the director . You won’t care about what you’re watching. It’s too bad, because Midnight Cowboy makes a good point about friendships.
At the heart of the film is the character of Joe Buck who is played brilliantly by Jon Voight. He is a swaggering cowboy who believes that he’ll make lots of money in New York City sexually satisfying rich, middle-aged women by prostituting himself. Needless to say, he doesn’t make it big as a male prostitute. In fact, his first trick not only ends up not paying but also swindles Joe Buck into loaning her money for cab fare. Joe Buck is completely out of place in the big city which leaves him at a disadvantage. He is a man innocent of the ways of hustling, and cannot hustle a trick without a the help of someone with some street knowledge. He eventually meets a crippled small time hood, Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), who thinks of using Joe as his meal ticket in exchange for help. Ratso wants to be his pimp, but their relationship starts off ugly as Ratso cons Joe Buck out of twenty dollars. Later, they become the best of friends, and it’s Joe Buck who supports them and cares for the sick Ratso.
Now that doesn’t sound too confusing, right? Wrong. The characters are more complicated than that. Schlesinger, in his attempt to show the underside of life in the big city, peoples the film with indecent characters. They run the gamut from a two bit, hustling thief, Ratso, to Warhol-like, drugged out artists. Not one of the characters are likable. Even Joe Buck, who at the end seems to be a decent person, leads the life of a male prostitute. This is not a job for such an ambitious person. Yet, his complex character is interesting for the fact that his life has been dominated by prostitution. Schlesinger points out through flashbacks that Joe Buck had a rotten childhood. His grandmother had plenty of male friends who had visited her plenty of times; she seemed to be a prostitute. He was also victimized at his peak sexual age by a gang. What little attention he got from his grandmother hinted toward sexual advances; he could’ve been molested as a child. Who knows, because the flashbacks to his childhood are indecipherable.
The most dizzying scene of the film is the party scene. It is of a Warhol-like gathering. Artists, stoners, and groupies gather in a loft to smoke dope and watch pretty, dancing lights. Joe Buck and Ratso go the party in order to get food and maybe make some money by picking up women. In this scene, Schlesinger reaches the epitome of distraction with plenty of flashy tricks. More flashbacks into Joe Buck’s past occur which are just as confusing. During the party scene, Schlesinger continues to make the plot confusing by his untimely switch into a psychedelic state. He has groovy music play as Joe Buck takes his first hit of a marijuana cigarette. Grotesque images flash on screen to highlight the weird atmosphere of the party. Strange camera angles and rough editing also impart a disorienting feel to the party. If you had hardly followed the film up until this scene, when you get to this point, you’ll probably furrow your brow and ponder what is it that Schlesinger wants to say.
Midnight Cowboy is obsessed with sex. Joe Buck thinks to make money from being a gigolo, but the cowboy routine suggests homosexuality. Throughout the movie, Joe Buck isn’t the only male prostitute prowling the streets in western garb; there are plenty of others who have the fringed shirt and cowboy hat. They all are gays, and in fact, Joe Buck has a few homosexual encounters to help pay the bills. In its time, the openly expressed homosexuality would have been considered very risqué for a major motion picture, but now in this politically correct world, men loving men is almost casual to hear about and see. The film doesn’t exploit gay love, but makes more of a statement on the relationship of two men, namely Joe Buck and Ratso. They don’t have homosexual tendencies, but what they do have is friendship. Their relationship is like the one between Lenny and George in Of Mice and Men. One is the brains; the other is the muscles. They have dreams of going to Florida and basking in the sun. They rely on each other to the point that if one falls so does the other.
Midnight Cowboy tries hard to establish itself as an important film. In some ways it does, and in others it falls short. The general story without the confusing details is a tragic tale of man’s search for an end to his loneliness. It’s a simple story that is similar to a great classic of literature, Of Mice and Men. It is a moving film, but John Schlesinger’s direction hinders the film from achieving its goal. Schlesinger mistakenly adds unnecessary elements to the film. He imposes his authority onto the story and creates confusion. Schlesinger cannot tell the story straight, but has to embellish it with a confusing style which ultimately leaves you puzzled. In Midnight Cowboy, the telling overshadows the tale.
Joss Whedon wrote one of my favorite X-Men arcs, the first twenty-four issues of Astonishing X-Men including its Giant Sized Annual. In it, he resurrects Colossus, makes Kitty Pryde into a Buffy clone, and furthers Emma Frost ambition to be the hottest mutant alive. It’s one helluva run on an X-Men book that rivals any of the Claremont/Byrne stories. Whedon forged a team from Cyclops, Emma Frost, Colossus, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, and the Beast even though they battled each other throughout. Then he threw in an alien invasion that had to be stopped. All this and more happened too in Whedon’s The Avengers.
What was good about Astonishing X-Men is that he added tons of action to the team and gave them a purpose. He changed their dour whining into something heroic. He made them heroes that would give all they can to save the world. He did it too with the Avengers.
They wrap up the Avengers in a great way bringing everything and everyone together from their individual movies. You’ve got Iron Man and his brashness, Captain America and his patriotism, Hawkeye and Black Widow and Thor. Then you have the Hulk. HULK SMASH!
It was great seeing Thor versus the Hulk. The two most powerful superheroes in the Marvel universe. They were beating each other up! And just like in Astonishing X-Men, they had to forge themselves into a team to defeat an alien invasion. And they did. And they were still a fun thing to watch.
4 of 5 stars.
I was awoken on Saturday by the hammering and the pounding of the work that’s happening on the buildings of my condominium development. They’re pulling down the siding and the brick and installing a better building wrap. The workers are all over and I get worried about the car out back. I needed to get the car out of there. So I go about and find an early movie to watch. Not really caring what it is, I pick The Three Stooges. I’m hoping to see heads being banged together so that I don’t rage and bang some heads together around my house. I want to go all Moe on someone.
The nice part about The Three Stooges is that they did old school style. Three different vignettes. Three different two reelers. Just like they had been presented back in the day. The also had the intro with their theme song and their floating heads — I’m hearing “3 Blind Mice” in my head now. This was nice and unexpected. They strung their story in these three segments.
The first was the Three Stooges origin story. They’re orphans raised by Larry David taking a nun’s vow. Larry David as a nun is funny. The second was the Three Stooges out at work. They were doctors and carpenters. They caused mayhem. The final was a big hoighty-toighty party. I was expecting many pies thrown. They disappointed me.
It was a fun and funny time waster. You couldn’t ask for anything more. I laughed. Everyone laughed. Guffaws! I’ve never heard a real deep belly laugh until the first noggin was knocked together. This lady laughed real loud for every head slap and eye poke. She infected the audience as she made us laugh when at times we didn’t need to. She made it enjoyable.
3 of 5 stars.
Watching Ozu on a rainy Sunday evening, and I end up looking up the wikipedia entry for Late Spring which leads me to today’s link.
It’s a link to a compilation of lists that add up to the 1000 best pictures of all time.
There’s a lot to digest in a list like this. Did they leave any out? Are there any out of order? Are there any out of place? I’m sure we all have our own biases. Does this list exhibit any?
What’s your take?
Also, Ozu’s Late Spring comes in at 207, but his Tokyo Story is high up there at 11.
The Cabin in the Woods is Scream for the Saw age. It takes the “wink-wink, nudge-nudge, no whatta mean-no whatta mean, say no more” snark and self-consciousness to another plane and cuts it up like a funny man. It’s so post-modern it’s back into the pre-historic days.
I couldn’t get into it. It writes itself; you know what was going to happen. Even the big “twist,” you’ll see it coming. Then you wonder if they would go there, and they went there.
2 of 5 stars.
Save 35mm film! That's what some people want.Bullocks to old technology! Embrace digital! That's what others want.In the end though, it's another rear guard battle in the transformation to the post-digital age. Someone's going to get hurt.http://www.laweekly.com/2012-04-12/film-tv/35-mm-film-digital-Hollywood/
Usually, I am in tune with pop culture. I know of, watched, or read lots of what’s been in pop culture. The Hunger Games came out of no where for me. Even when I spent weekends upon weekends in the bookstores, I’ve never heard of it until they started the advertising blitz last year. Should I read the book before the movie comes out? So I went in to the theatre last week blind. I didn’t even read the wikipedia page.
As I sat there I had to process the film on several levels. The first being as a film in and of itself. The second being the adaption of a book I didn’t even read. The third being the film as a pop culture phenomenon.
As a film, I liked it. It was enough action to keep me interested. Yet, I was bugged by it. As an adaption did it miss something from the book? I felt that it did, as plot points and themes that the readers of the book would figure out. I bet there was plenty I missed from not reading the book. It’s funny because my brother complained about the film and most of his complaints could’ve been handled if he had at least read the blurbs on the back of the soft cover his son was in the process of reading.
So the readers of the book could love this movie. There are points that those who haven’t can feel attached to the story, but it could be better if you know about the book before hand.
3 of 5 stars.
This Means War came out around Valentine’s Day. I only got to watching it today, and while watching, I can see the trappings of why it was released as such. You have lots of action: things blowing up good, guns a’popping, and fists and punches thrown. That would bring in the male demographics. The fact that the men doing the action are the pretty boys, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy, would also bring in the ladies. The female demographic can also settle for it being some kind of love/relationship story. The marketing threads are so apparent for this movie that it is no wonder that they went for the bang on Valentine’s day.
The movie as much as it was marketed for the ladies spends much of the time with Pine and Hardy. They’re good buddies in the CIA after the deadly Jonas Brothers. After a botched (incompetent) opening, one of the Jonas Brothers was dead and the surviving one has vowed revenge. He’ll be important as the third part will have to resolve this part of the story.
Pine and Hardy after that incompetent opening are desk bound. They’re left to wonder about what to do. The slack in the story allows Hardy to go all emo and Pine to go all debonair. Hardy has a kid and an ex who doesn’t want a wimp as a lover. Pine has his fun chasing women. What he doesn’t have is a copy of the bro code. Hardy starts web dating and meets up with Reese Witherspoon’s character. She, as all female leads in rom-coms, is a successful entrepreneur who isn’t successful in her love life and has to rely on her wacky female friend to put up an entry in the internet dating site. Witherspoon and Hardy meet and hit it off, but soon after Pine bumps into her trying the pick her up. She goes out with both.
Pine, no matter how close he’s to Hardy, goes against the bro code once it is revealed that they’re now dating the same girl. He doesn’t yield to Hardy’s emo. He doesn’t respect his buddies choices. Instead he lets his girl-getting ego take over and challenges Hardy to her. Then they both end up using government assets to spy on each other to slow the other’s progress with Reese. Bro code be damned!
Nothing good will come out of a marketing driven movie. I can see all that they threw to attract both males and females to this movie. I couldn’t take it serious. This was a product meant to attract the most movie goers. It’s just that. Guns and love. Everything is nothing.
2 of 5 stars.
I’ve whooped it up at a couple of epic parties like the idiots in Project X. The best one was the 10th Floor around the world party at The U my freshman year. The one that ended up like the house in the movie was another around the world party at The U in my junior year when we demolished our floor and got our RA fired from a job he hadn’t even started yet. Epic parties — you can only handle a few in your life, but if you have an epic party be careful with it and don’t let the party get out of bounds like the one in the movie.
The movie purports to be a chronicle of some geek’s buddies making his 17th birthday day legen— wait for it — dary. The mastermind is an obnoxious New York transplant who keeps complaining about not getting girls like he did in NYC, but you find that hard to believe from a guy hanging out with those losers. There’s the chubby guy who is McLovin’ but not as dorky. Then there’s the birthday boy (I don’t remember any names) who agrees to a smallish party which escalates and escalates until it became legen– wait for it — dary.
One last part of the group was the birthday boy’s childhood friend that was a girl. You know that they should hook up, but childhood friends shouldn’t be a couple. Thought they remind of the anime trope of childhood friend. It could happen. It will happen. That’s how they make this movie not as obnoxious; someone learns something in the end.
The party was epic. If it had been real, it would’ve been truly insane. Hundreds of people. One small neighborhood. Tons of booze. Tons of drugs. Girls. Girls. Girls. A pool. Two DJs. A bouncy castle. A dog. Boobies. High school boobies. Middle school security guards. A taser. Hapless neighbors. Angry drug dealer. A gnome. All of it contributes to the insanity.
I don’t know whether to be scared of how crazy dumb that generation is or to be jealous of not getting to experience anything like that in my crazy dumb days. I missed the boobies.
One thing I noticed is that even though there was beer, liquor, sex, and drugs there were no cigarettes. NO SMOKING! In all that mayhem, there was not one cigarette onscreen. And if there was I missed it.
2 of 5 stars.
