Movie Tab II

Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols, 2011)

This is a modern-day psychological drama which also touches on apocalyptic imagery, expertly directed, acted and constructed with some breathtaking visuals, all accomplished on an apparent budget of only one million dollars. Michael Shannon plays Ohio construction worker Curtis who begins to have visions, nightmares and hallucinations about imminent storms and violent attacks from people and even his trusty dog. This is quite unusual because he has a happy family with a loving wife (Jessica Chastain) and a young deaf daughter who's about to get some hearing implants, and he has no major problems with his life. As his sleeplessness and nightmares continue though, he becomes worried that he will follow in the footsteps of his mother (Kathy Baker) whose mental illness has confined her to assisted living for most of Curtis's life. Eventually, he decides to upgrade a tornado shelter in his yard, and this begins to tear apart his family, but Curtis is compelled to do it to save his family from what he feels is an impending storm or perhaps even something approaching the Apocalypse.

Shannon is his usual intense, brooding self, although for the most part, he seems to be a slow-burner and only seems to really explode in one community get-together. Jessica Chastain balances his personality well by being rational and caring although she does feel betrayed when he goes behind her back to take out a loan they cannot afford. But eventually the family proves strong enough to withstand whatever comes, although the ending of the film is open to interpretation and leaves Curtis's character unresolved as to whether he truly is insane, a prophet or someone in between. One thing I will say is that although Take Shelter has a few elements of horror and is certainly suspenseful, it's basically a serious character study and doesn't try to take any easy outs getting to its resolution and forcing the audience to believe one way or another. The fact that it can get away with what it does is a sign of a sure hand behind the camera in writer/director Jeff Nichols who made another good low-budget film with Shannon, Shotgun Stories, although this film seems to be a noticeable leap in overall quality.

Love Exposure (Shion Sono, 2008) + Art House Rating

Wildly-entertaining four-hour epic from Sono (The Suicide Club, Noriko's Dinner Table) which I find the best of his films which I've seen. It's hard to believe that a film can cram so many different ideas and themes even at four hours, but the pace is frenetic enough that it's done easily and mostly completes the various story arcs successfully. What the movie tackles are subjects involving Christianity, true love, the concepts of sin and perversion, revenge, cult programming and deprogrmming, stalking, terrorism and even a skewed Doris Day/Rock Hudson romantic comedy involving mistaken identity, but here adding the dimension of cross-dressing. Throw in some martial arts, lots of Ravel's Bolero, Beethoven's 7th Symphony and some excellent modern rock songs, and the four hours fly by. I don't want to get into too many plot details because there are several twists and turns, but sometimes the film repeats scenes from different perspectives, so one could be reminded of Pulp Fiction, and there were a few moments I flashed back to Fight Club near the end, but for the most part, this is a highly original comedy-drama which perhaps is a little too outrageous to be taken completely seriously, but is honest enough to still create a considerable amount of power.

Shame (Ingmar Bergman, 1968) Art House Rating

This is one Bergman's best films of the 1960s. It allows him to make statements about war in general and Vietnam in particular. Here there appears to be a civil war going on involving two political factions, but since it's seen from the perspective of a married couple who live on a remote island and don't understand why the war is actually occurring, the reasons for the war are never actually explained. The couple is having some marital problems, apparently because the husband (Max von Sydow) committed some infidelities and the wife (Liv Ullmann) wants to have some children, but the war complicates everything, especially as the film progresses. At first, the war is only "heard" over a radio which periodically seems to break or from a few neighbors who seem friendly enough. Eventually, one of the sides bombs the island and later sends over troops who kill most of the villagers who live near the couple. However, this doesn't actually bode well for the two because eventually they're considered enemy sympathizers by their previous "friends". Bergman does a good job of conveying the horrors of war with a small budget, and his film is very visceral with more traditional storytelling and less surrealism than usual, but there are still plenty of nightmarish images, some dreams to interpret and an almost Kafkaesque feeling of utter helplessness, especially during the finale, which firmly allows Shame to fit comfortably into Bergman's oeurve.

Valley of the Bees (Franticek Vlacil, 1968) Art House Rating

This Czech film, set during the 13th century, follows a young man's journey to try to find his destiny amidst a world divided by what the characters consider pagans and extreme Christians. After a brutal introductory scene best left as a surprise, the young man becomes a Teutonic knight, dedicated to chastity, fighting crusades and righting wrongs in the name of Christ. He's mentored by a slightly older young man, but eventually the protagonist begins to see that violence is everywhere, especially in his religious order of knights, so he leaves to return to his family home and start a new life. Much of this widescreen B&W film is sumptious and authentic-looking, and sometimes it seems to be a cross between Bergman's The Seventh Seal and Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky, but director Vlacil has no intention of recreating an operatic or allegorical movie. He has a good eye but I had a few problems with his storytelling style which seems to involve having a few key scenes occur offscreen and thus I was not always able to understand all the character's motivations. I do believe the most-powerful scenes occur near the end of the movie where the director's intentions clarify, and I'm willing to rewatch this to see if I get it better next time. My brother owns this and another film from this director, so I should easily have a chance to watch them.

My Favorite Movies List

Shane (George Stevens, 1953)

I think that Shane still has it. Although it's been longer than I've been married since I've actually watched the film in its entirety, I've now indoctrinated Brenda and Sarah. Even so, I was able to quote many lines verbatim, but what do you want? I've seen it at least a dozen times. I feel like giving Shane a higher rating because it covers so much more ground than the average western ever even attempts. Shane is mostly seen from the viewpoint of the youngest person in the film, Joey (a terrific Brandon de Wilde; go ahead now and stick him in the Bakers Dozen Thread as an annoying kid ). However, there are other perspectives, and one of my favorites is the perspective of the Grand Teton Mountains. I've been to the Tetons three times, and it's a massively impressive sight to behold, both in real life and in Shane.

Shane is one of those films which seems to exist in some alternative universe. It seems to be a fairy tale, complete with Good Vs. Evil, so it's almost as if Joey is experiencing his bedtime stories, but the other characters in his family, his mom (Jean Arthur) and his dad (Van Heflin), are also experiencing either a fairy tale or a prayer answered. Shane (Alan Ladd) seems to be the only person who can deal with the dark, evil curse covering the Snake River Valley. Many of the visuals are wonderful, but it is also the fact that some scenes are obviously shot on sets with fake Tetons in the background and the dark filters seem to go overboard. Even so, for any visual flaws which the film occasionally exhibits, the sound design is spotless. Shane is one film where you really hear the loud parts, whether they are fist fights or gunshots. Director George Stevens utilizes his sound as masterfully as Hitchcock.

The supporting cast of Shane is truly exemplary, whether it be Jack Palance's "Angel of Death", Wilson, or Elisha Cook's little man with a big ego, Stonewall. Add in such great character actors as Edgar Buchanan, Ben Johnson, Ellen Corby, and Emile Meyer (the priest in Paths of Glory), and what is going on with the characters is just as interesting as the visual backdrop and the fairy tale aspect of the film. Everyone should experience Shane. Yes, it's a western, but even for those who don't like westerns, it's a coming of age story and perhaps one of the earliest "revisionist" westerns ever. After all, when Shane rides off at the end (by the way, he's NOT slumping), it's difficult not to believe that the end of an era has arrived.

Christmas in July (Preston Sturges, 1940)

Preston Sturges' second film as a writer/director is also his shortest, but it truly is short and sweet. Sweethearts Jimmy (Dick Powell) and Betty (Ellen Drew) dream of a happy future together, but Jimmy says they just don't have enough money to get married, support both their widowed moms, and start a family. But Jimmy is a dreamer and is sure he'll strike it rich by winning the Maxford House Coffee slogan contest where first prize is $25,000. (Just to put this in modern terms, that would equal at least $350,000 in 2008.) Jimmy and Betty both live in the tenements, and although Maxford is supposed to announce all the winners on their weekly radio broadcast, the 12-man "jury" is unable to reach a verdict as 120 million people eagerly tune in, amongst them Jimmy and Betty on their roof. The next day, the couple goes to work at the Baxter Coffee Co., and three practical jokers who work there decide to play a prank on Jimmy because they know he really wants to win the contest. They get a Western Union envelope and paper and cut up words and glue them on to make a fake telegram telling Jimmy that he's won the First Prize in the contest. This sets off a series of events which should make most people laugh and maybe even cry (Guilty!).

I don't want to get into all the characters and the crazy things which snowball when somebody thinks they've won money, but I will tell you this is a movie where the winner thinks about everybody he knows and not about himself. This is where the film's title kicks in. Everybody on Jimmy's street gets a present, his sweetheart gets an engagement ring, and he buys nothing for himself. Oh sure, there are wonderful scenes where his boss, Mr. Baxter (Ernest Truex) wants to fire him and then wants to promote him. Raymond Walburn is a hoot and a half as "Dr." Maxford, and what would a Sturges movie be without Bill Demarest playing a signicant role and having a ridiculous name (this time, it's Bildocker). Now, what happens when everybody learns that Jimmy really didn't win the contest is truly inspirational and hilarious. Another from me.

Last Exit to Brooklyn (Uli Edel, 1989, adapted by Desmond Nakano from the novel by Hubert Selby, Jr.)


1. The movie begins after Mark Knopfler's evocative score plays over the credits. You're immediately placed into an alternate universe where three military men are unfortunate enough to find themselves in the nightmarish world of pimps, whores and scumbags of Brooklyn 1952. Before three minutes pass, all hell has broken loose and you're completely enveloped in a cruel world which you cannot take your eyes away from.



2. We next see a family scene involving Union man Burt Young (Talia Shire's Bro in Rocky) whose family is so busy that he cannot even take a piss in his own apartment. So what does he do? He opens up his tenth (or so) story window and does the pause that refreshes right out into the courtyard below. OK, I'm laughing myself silly at this point, but then I fall off the couch when I hear a voice crying up from below saying, "Why the hell are you throwin' water on my kid's head?"

3. Next scene is an enormous one involving a strike with Burt Young's Union. Jerry Orbach is combustible as the Union organizer, and it's a good hint at some of the awesome set-pieces which are yet to come. Besides that, Daddy Burt gets to look for "Tommy with the bike", the union guy who knocked up his daughter (Ricki Lake). And, oh boy, you've got to see what happens when he finds him.

4. The film was shot entirely in Germany on sound stages, but it never appears cramped or fake at all. In fact the sets seem to be almost as important as all the characters. For example, the scene where the Union tries to break the strike is extremely spectacular and powerful. The fire hoses, the pointy metal fences, the buses trying to crash through; they all turn the film into a massive epic, even if it is an epic unlike any other.



5. The film is a multi-character epic, and although many people find Jennifer Jason Leigh to be the closest thing to a star in the flick, it's actually Stephen Lang who plays the central character and he's just as terrific as Leigh is. Lang has a tougher job though because his character's married to a woman who's hot to trot and he has an infant son, but he seems to be taking more of an interest in some effeminate gay men and really has no concept of who he is or why he does what he does. In fact, Lang thinks he's the biggest guy in the Union during the strike, but eventually Orbach rips him another one because he's just so naive about what his job actually is.

6. Jennifer Jason Leigh's whore Tra La La is a wonderful character who is used and abused and only knows an abusive kind of lifestyle. Even when she finds herself involved with a soldier in an honest and semi-deep relationship, she can only look at it as a success if she receives money.



7. The supporting cast is tremendous even though most of them play thoroughly dislikable characters. They either seem to be trying to take advantage of weaker characters or trying to get something for nothing. The world which Last Exit to Brooklyn depicts is a sad, sobering one, but I somehow find it almost prescient in the way it depicts people who have no morals and also something almost resembling no sexual preference. Let me back up a sec here. True, there are some straight characters and some gay characters, but the majority almost seem to fall into the bisexual or I'll take sex (and "love") where I can find it category. The cast, which mostly pushes this envelope, includes Peter Dobson, Stephen Baldwin, Sam Rockwell, and several others.

8. The most-memorable supporting character though is Georgette, played by Alexis Arquette (some of you may remember him from Pulp Fiction). Anyway, he foreshadows what happens to both the Stephen Lang and the Jennifer Jason Leigh character, although he gets the most spectacularly-humorous scene in the entire film. I really do feel bad about the pathetic Georgette, but at least he's involved with Hubert Selby, Jr. in a personal way in his final scene.

9. What happens to the two major characters is extremely difficult to take, but I still find it more realistic and honest than Aronofsky's adaptation of Selby's Requiem For a Dream. For those who think that Uli Edel is some kind of hack, this is my Exhibit A because not only is this film incredibly competent and involving, it takes a story which is about as off-putting as possible and completely humanizes it to the point where it seems a story about "Everyman". That is something very rare indeed, and as I said last week, it elicts tears from me.



10. The last thing I want to mention about the film version of Last Exit to Brooklyn is that somehow it produces as many smiles and laughs as it does tears and grimaces. The film seems to come full-circle and basically has an uplifting ending, even after displaying some of the most repugnant and disturbing images of any film I've ever seen. I will guarantee you that this is not a film for everybody. In fact, I can't even rationalize why it has such an effect on me, but it's just so cinematic and relates a nightmare world which is far more scary to me than most of David Lynch's films because this one seems like it could be real, as opposed to Lynch's LaLaLand. Sorry, I didn't mean to turn this into a Lynch Bash. I just wanted to mention that there is a difference and reality usually disturbs and provokes me a lot more than cinematic sleight-of-hand which carries with it a pricetag of head-scratching. I can still scratch at Last Exit to Brooklyn, but it never makes me feel any better or smarter; it just makes me feel as if my Creep can almost go to sleep until tomorrow when it will again raise its sad and disturbing head.

Slap Shot (George Roy Hill, 1977)

This is one of the most hilarious films I've ever seen, and what makes it even more significant is that it's truly one of the few mainstream American films to ever attack Americans' ideas that violence is somehow preferable to sex, at least when you are participating in something organized which allegedly has some form of "family values". Paul Newman stars as the aging player-coach of a lousy minor league hockey team, and when it becomes clear that the town's local mill, which employs most of the town's male population, is going to close, it becomes only a matter of time before the team will fold. Newman has to try to keep his team together in the face of little support from the General Manager (the wonderful Strother Martin), and Newman eventually gets a brainstorm to pump his team up by concocting a fake sale of the team from their cold Northern climes to Florida. All this is done while the team adds three brothers to their team which Newman won't play because he thinks they're both too violent and just too "retarded" - the Hanson Brothers.

This only scratches the surface of how wonderful and original Slap Shot is. Newman still has the hots for his ex-wife (Jennifer Warren), but he also has a yen for the young wife (Lindsay Crouse) of his best young player (Micheal Ontkean) who won't "go goon" but also shows little interest in his wife. Then there's the hot wife (Melinda Dillon) of a rival who has "turned lesbian" since her husband abused her, but she still loves to be in bed with Newman. The team is crammed with several memorable characters and then it turns out that all their arch-rivals are great characters too! Did I mention that this film is filled with colorful dialogue (written by Nancy Dowd) which would would probably make a sailor turn red in embarrasment? They just don't make films like this anymore. I mean, Judd Apatow tries, but it's just not quite so funny or so significant. So, does that really mean they don't make 'em like they used to? HA!