Format: Amazon Prime Streaming
Viewing: First
Decade: 2010's
Director: Ari Aster
Prophesy - Bobby Krlic, Midsommar OST
The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore) - Frankie Valli
Canon Playlist:
Film. Comics. Sci-Fi. Superheroes. Pulp. Noir. History. Superman. 20th Century Archaeology.
Monday, July 5, 2021
PODCAST: "Midsommar" (2019) - a Signal Watch Canon Episode w/ AmyC and Ryan
Food Watch: Chef (2014)
Format: Amazon Prime (I think. Jamie dialed it up.)
Viewing: First
Decade: 2010's
Director: Jon Favreau
Chef (2014) is a terrific little film, not too hung up on being more than light entertainment with a bit of grounding in mid-life crisis and family issues. And, of course, the whole thing is kind of meta.
Starting as a kind of wunderkind responsible for writing and starring in Swingers back in '96, Favreau had been working on bigger and bigger films, not least kickstarting the Marvel Universe by directing, starring in and otherwise producing the Iron Man films (at pre and post-Disney Marvel). But if the movie is about a guy who works at a well-respected LA bistro, losing touch with his son and after the divorce from his wife (a very good+funny Sofia Vergara), and certainly in a rut professionally - one can see how Favreau might have come to a story about a guy who felt like he needed to get back to the basics of what he loved in the first place.
In the film, he accidentally starts a twitter-war with a famed food reviewer that... escalates. Favreau has to do what Rocky's of all types have always done - go back to where it started and find the passion again. Unfortunately for me, that starting over looked awesome, and I was starving while watching the movie.
Sunday, July 4, 2021
Fourth of July
July 4, 1776 is the date that the Second Continental Congress voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence. A vote had been held on July 2, 1776 to agree to seek independence from Britain in the form of the Lee Resolution. However, a formal Declaration of Independence did not appear until July 4th.
Perhaps the date we observe has as much to do with the stirring text of the Declaration as anything - and it is the formal document eventually signed by most of the delegates to the Congress.
While not a document which laid down the manner in which the government would be run, which would not arrive for over a decade in the form of the Constitution of the United States, the Declaration of Independence does lay down the moral reasoning for our separation from England. The Preamble, often memorized by school children over the years, and familiar to most Americans, formed the ethos of America as a state which required the consent of the governed, and that the government would serve the needs of the people. But also that government not be changed on a whim - but when the government no longer responded to the needs of the governed.
Saturday, July 3, 2021
Neo-Noir Watch: Night Moves (1975)
Format: Criterion Channel
Viewing: First
Decade: 1970's
Director: Arthur Penn
46 years on, it's curious to watch a movie that was doing 1970's meta-commentary on hard-boiled detective stories of the 20's - 1950's in books and movies (and radio and early TV), and know that we're about as far from 1975 as Night Moves was from the earliest Black Mask detective stories. We've also processed and analyzed the 1970's movie era as much as any as directors leveraged the 1960's collapse of the studio system to tell stories TV could not, carrying with them the cynicism of the era.
The obvious comparison is to The Long Goodbye, based on one of the final Chandler-penned Philip Marlowe novels. But while that book was a metacommentary on... any number of things even in its 1950's release window and lended itself naturally to a 1970's adaptation, Night Moves exists in our world, in which everyone knows who Sam Spade is from the books and whatnot, and makes jokes about detectives thinking they're heroes of those books.*
Thursday, July 1, 2021
Anderson Watch: Bottle Rocket (1996)
Format: DVD (I own this DVD and totally forgot)
Viewing: third
Decade: 1990's
Director: Wes Anderson
Long before Wes Anderson became someone 32 year olds had strong opinions about on twitter, he released a small-budget picture through Columbia Pictures, which is likely a story unto itself. I note big names like Polly Platt and James L. Brooks showed up in producer credits - and.. y'all, this is Anderson's first feature credit and his second credit at all on IMDB. It's... weird.
But the good news is that this small film is still remarkably watchable, and free of many of the gimmicks and Anderson-isms that would make those 32 year olds have strong opinions on twitter, while clearly and obviously being part of the Anderson oeuvre.
Happy Birthday Debbie Harry!
If you don't know, I am a fan of the band Blondie, fronted by Debbie Harry and with her husband Chris Stein (who is very good at the twitters and a great photographer in addition to his musicianship).
Here's a happy birthday to musician, actor, artist and icon, Debbie Harry.
Here's "Atomic"
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Watch Party Watch: Vegas in Space (1991)
Format: Amazon Watch Party
Viewing: First
Decade: 1990's
Director: Phillip R. Ford
This was a Jenifer pick for a watch party, and it was a gd delight.
Filmed circa 1983-85 in apartments and a few borrowed locations in San Francisco, this sci-fi epic follows a group of agents of the Empress of the Galaxy who are sent to Vegas in Space, a pre-fab pleasure planet with an all-female population, to find out what's going on with a crime wave. To infiltrate the planet, the agents have to change genders and pose as a girl-group performing 20th Century showgirl routines.
It's probably best to mention - the movie was made on no-budget by a group of drag queens and their friends, and the story of the making of the film sounds like it'd be a hell of a film or prestige HBO mini-series itself.
For something shot by people with minimal experience, it's a surprisingly coherent film, with ideas thrown at the screen every few seconds, tons of wild visuals only someone without proper training would even think of (apparently meth is also a bit of an engine behind the film), and characters with an ocean liner's worth of presence, if not acting chops. I expected to have some good laughs at the attempt and the "let's put on a show" aspect of the movie, but instead... the movie just worked. It's insane, high-voltage camp, and tragically ahead of what I think America was ready for. I mean, it's really funny, good stuff.
While watching the film, make sure you listen to the ADR'd background chatter.
Tuesday, June 29, 2021
PODCAST: "Trancers" (1984) - A Sci-Fi Film Chat w/ SimonUK and Ryan
Watched: 06/25/2021
Format: DVD (Full Moon)
Viewing: First
Decade: 1980's
Director: Charles Band
Music:
Trancers Opening - Trancers OST, Phil Davies & Mark Ryder
Confrontation on the Roof - Trancers OST, Phil Davies & Mark Ryder
Playlist:
Pixar Watch: Luca (2021)
Watched: 06/26/2021
Format: Disney+
Viewing: First
Decade: 2020's
Director: Enrico Casarosa
Sometimes when I see a Pixar movie, I'm pretty sure I'll need to watch it one or two more times before I can do anything but say "wow, that was amazing". Luca (2021) is one more Pixar movie to elicit this response from me, and, once again, it gets a "wow" on every level. Story, design, music... you name it, this movie hits all the buttons.
Not every Pixar film has done this for me, but certainly Soul and Luca were sorely needed movies for my brain here over the past year. While Soul spoke to me, now, as an adult, and my concerns about "what the hell, exactly, am I doing with my life?", Luca was both a reminder of the value of pushing boundaries that we did as kids as we looked beyond our own yards for what else was out there, and as an adult - maybe that same need continues to exist? Even when people just want to protect us?
By now you've likely seen the trailers - and while I was dazzled by the look and feel I saw, I wasn't sure what the story would be, or if there would be enough story. One of my criticisms of other animation or kids' film efforts is that they become too fixated on gags and easy laughs and character and story just feels recycled and that, in turn, makes the jokes a little hacky.
Luca avoids the trap, and tells the story of two boys from under the sea who come to land, and a small port town in coastal Italy where they dream of obtaining a Vespa and riding off into the sunset to explore the world. A world neither knows a dang thing about - one because he's a sheltered homebody, and the other a stray, abandoned and playing it safe on his island, thinking he's got it sorted out.
Soon, a new friend starts opening doors for them, gets them involved in a triathlon, and a hunt for sea monsters ensues. I ain't spoiling anymore.
I'm hoping to grab Ryan M again and do a podcast on Luca soon, so I can ask about making the movie in the pandemic, and then gush about the design of the film, from character (which is very non-Disney) to the town to the underwater sequences to the dream sequences... but first I need to get in touch with the guy. So, maybe? Soonish? In the meantime, go watch Luca.
Crawford Watch: Above Suspicion (1943)
Format: TCM on DVR
Viewing: First
Decade: 1940's
Director: Richard Thorpe
A mid-WWII propaganda picture, Above Suspicion (1943) is also the last film she made with MGM before severing ties with the studio, where she'd starred for 18 years.
I'm honestly not clear on Fred MacMurray's star power in 1943, but Conrad Veidt, Reginald Owen and Basil Rathbone as supporting performers does give a notion of the high-caliber of the film at the time of the release. And, frankly, the sets, size of the crowds of extras and more suggest MGM planned to make some money while also revving up their audience against Nazis.*
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