Top 3 for March 20, 2014

Room 237 directed by Rodney Ascher

I actually saw this about a month ago, but the recent news brought it back to mind.

The film presents five persons giving their theories about the secret subtextual messages hidden in Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining. As the theories themselves are abjectly ridiculous, what I enjoyed about the film is the way the interview subjects' theories seem to exist in search of a vehicle to convey them. I mean how else would somebody happening upon a movie poster with generic advertising copy that goes something like "the wave of terror that's sweeping the country" have a reaction that goes "well neither this movie, nor the book on which it's based is all that popular, so this is obviously a reference to the slaughter of the Native Americans." The fact that The Shining is a movie by a director with a reputation for meticulousness which happens to be riddled with continuity errors can only mean that he is sending secret messages. (Well, some of the Native American stuff is kind of interesting, but since the setting is a desecrated Indian burying ground in Colorado, not as much of a stretch as the claim that the film is Kubrick's obvious confession to fabricating the Moon landing footage.)

No. 1 for March 8, 2014

The Pawnbroker dir. Sidney Lumet (1964)

Rod Steiger plays a Auschwitz survivor running a Harlem pawn shop who turns his survivor's guilt against the people in his life. Lumet uses almost subliminal flashback image to show how Steiger's Nazerman is haunted by his old life. A surprisingly underrated film I only learned about through Pictures at a Revolution, Mark Harris' fascinating book about the upheaval in the film industry in the mid-to-late sixties. This film was one of the first blows against the old fashioned production code. Steiger gives a strong performance in a role very different from the sheriff from In the Heat of the Night, which I also recently saw. Lumet is as masterful here as he was in any other part of his multi-decade carreer.

Top 3 for March 2, 2014

4^th Time Around by Robyn Hitchcock from Robyn Sings

“One of Uncle Bob's”, this performance gives the listener a glimpse at how the singer interacts with the lyrics. Robyn (who turns 61 tomorrow, by the way) replaces the line “I asked her how come” with the “and when she did come” from later on in the song and initially continues on from that later point before he realizes he's in the wrong place, stops and asks the audience for help, and continues on from where he left off. It's one of Dylan's more convoluted and dense lyrics, one that justifies the poet label that's sometimes too automatically placed on him.

Top 3 for February 15, 2014

In the Heat of the Night dir. By Norman Jewison

All I can say is I watched this on a night when a jury in Florida would not convict of murder a white man who shot into a car full of black teenagers who would not turn that shit down.

Lennie Tristano Solo in Europe and Lee Konitz Quartet in Europe

Bootleg recordings mostly from 1965 in TV mono with copy of a copy hum. Tristano brings more than the usual dissonance especially “Everything happens to me.” I wish I had known this recording of “Darn That Dream” when I tried a similar idea for an assignment back at Famous Music College. The highlight though are the tacked on Lee Konitz tracks, especially the with backup from Bill Evans, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Alan Dawson.

No. 1 for January 3, 2014

American Hustle directed by David O. Russell

Some fine acting from across the ensemble, especially Jennifer Lawrence as the loose cannon homebody housewife who almost blows everything (she's the gun from the first act that goes of in the third) and Jeremy Renner as the crooked politician with a heart of gold, excepting for some cringes from Christian Bale's impersonation of Robert De Niro circa 1980. Any movie that has characters bonding over Jeep's Blues, falling in love even, gets a big gold star from me. (Also, another scene is scored with Monk playing Straight, No Chaser. The source music selections are so well chosen throughout, that when Danny Elfman's credit came up, I actually said “wait, there was original music in this movie, too?” I can't recall any.) 

I also will now only refer to the microwave as the “science oven” from this point on.

No. 1 for December 31, 2013

The Wolf of Wall Street directed by Martin Scorsese

Um, … wow! I wasn't really, expecting a breakdown of the world of “too big to fail” or tales of financial-political collusion (like the man sitting behind me seemed to be) or even a sort of Goodfellas of Finance, but I wasn't prepared at all for this three-hour onslaught of sex, drugs and wretched excess that passes a bit into overkill. The acting is particularly good throughout, but there is a certain lack of the sizzle that Scorsese usually brings. But, as he often does, he takes you on a character's rise and fall through a world of which you may or may not (but secretly wish to) be a part (at least for the good parts). 
 

The debate out there seems to be if the depiction of this depravity equals endorsement. Scorsese does not moralize here and I don't miss it. Aside from brief moments seen from the point of view of the Wolf's first wife and his FBI nemesis, the destruction the Wolf reaps upon his clients, his relationships and himself are presented at face value, obvious to the audience, if not to himself. While the film shows the Wolf as unapologetic, it doesn't suggest he should be. The audience is trusted to react to what they are being shown without being told how to feel. (my point is much better made by the great Sara Benincasa here.) Perhaps this level of depravity needs to be depicted because even now, after all the crimes and shenanigans that have been brought to light over the past five years, the financial industry is presumed to be (and wants us to presume them to be) made up of boring men in suits leading staid upright respectable lives.

(an aside – did Family Matters play any other role in society other than to measure if the drugs were working? (Growing Pains wasn't on apparently))

Top 1 from December 1, 2013

All is Lost – dir. J.C. Chandor, starring Robert Redford

Cast of one. Crew of thousands.
Redford is man who's boat is hit by a shipping container while sailing alone in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Fortunate to know how everything on his boat works, and how to fix them, he makes a mighty, noble struggle to survive. Does he? Good question. This is the most spare movie that can remotely imagine being called “commercial” or “mainstream”. Or, perhaps the the most commercial, mainstream experimental film to come around in a long time. Dialog consists of an opening voice-over, a radio call, a cry for help, and a cry of exasperation and that's it. Takes William Goldman's advice to “start as late in the story as possible” to heart. (Also, by having the container smash through the spot containing all the radio, computer and other electronic equipment saves a lot of time, too). I wish the folks over at “Gravity” had had a chance to check this out before they started, to learn that things like character development, back story or even character aren't all that necessary and just stick to the action, please (especially if your action scenes are that awesome), the lost shoes of dead children are unnecessary. All is Lost also compares favorably to The Perfect Storm in the sense that, not knowing how this film was made (I'm sure they weren't shooting in a real typhoon), I was always at least convinced they were actually outside.

Top 3 from November 3, 2013

One – Harry Nilsson from Aerial Ballet

Brilliant song, brilliant arrangement. Rhodes piano, double bass, cello, flute, harpsichord. Eventually, the triple tracked lead vocals split apart in counterpoint. From Nilsson's truly genius period. The Aimee Mann / Jon Brion remake is brilliant in it's own way, adding vocal counterpoint and interpolations from elsewhere in Aerial Ballet, but this a true masterwork.

Street Hassle – Lou Reed

From the New York Times' “Music of Lou Reed” page

First heard this song in it's brilliant use in The Squid and the Whale. The string arrangement is fantastic, two each of cello and bass. Lou reaches back to the arty aspects of the Velvet Underground (not exclusively Mr. Cale's domain), which he didn't revisit as much as the rock 'n' roll or the pretty pastoral parts. Kudos to the Times for leaving in all the dirty words (and this song has all the dirty words).