The Player Review

 

        Throughout the entire month, we’ve looked at various filmmakers behind the camera. From just some clerks from the local video store, to an ambitious one discovering a giant ape. Then there’s Tommy Wiseau, you get the idea that these directors are varying in their talent. Although, there’s hardly ever a film that show’s what happens in the studio lot. If its any case in Robert Altman’s The Player, a whole lot of bureaucracy and paranoia occurs with one producer. SPOILERS will appear. 

1. Griffin Mills 

        Played by Tim Robbins, Griffin is our eyes and ears with what happens in a Hollywood studio. He’s a studio executive that hears story pitches, he only picks 12 out of 50,000 in a year. One day, he gets a series of letters that have vague threats written on them. He manages to find one of the writers who was offended by Mill’s denial. The disgruntled writer David KaHane played by Vincent D’Onofrio, gets mad at him for rejecting his script. 

        Becoming frustrated by KaHane’s arguments towards him and joking that he’ll lose his position in his job, Mills drowns the writer in a puddle of water. You would think that the letters would stop and Griffin has to now worry about a rival exec who wants to take over his position. It gets worse for Mills, as more letters pop up and faxed in. Soon, we see the sleazy exec becoming paranoid and attempting to steer clear from any reasonable doubt that he killed David. 

        Griffin is an interesting character, obviously different from the ambitious directors and Tommy Wiseau. There’s something about him where his sleaziness is his character, but he knows what works for a movie to succeed. He’s just part of the system that won’t take something that’s risky but knows how to make it pleasing for the other execs who want it to succeed for them. To put it bluntly, he’s full of shit. He talks about how they need to make movies be the art that it is, by citing famous director Orson Welles. Then in another moment, completely butcher an ambitious movie to keep it safe for the audience. 

2. Satirizing Hollywood

        The first minute is a one take shot and represents how the inside of Hollywood works. With overlapping dialogue and the camera moving from one meeting to another, this is the view that not many people see. There’s some real Hollywood cameos that’s littered in that opening shot and in the rest of the film to keep it real, well for Hollywood standards. There is one part that perfectly sums up Hollywood at its worst but makes sense when anyone is in such power like Griffin. 

        He goes to one of the restaurants expecting to meet the mysterious writer but is hounded by two writers who pitch him an interesting story. His script is called Habeas Corpus, the irony is deafening. One of the writers Tom is insistent that they don’t alter the ending, which he describes as depressing and real life. Much later in the film, everyone in the studio see the new cut of the film with a happier ending than the one that was originally pitched. Tom explains to Griffin’s girlfriend that the audience hated it. And they changed it, which is real life. Much of that shows just how everyone can be a hypocrite in Hollywood. Since he now embraces selling out just to have his movie become possible. 

        Other than that, most of the film can be interpreted that Robert Altman has seen some stuff while he was a director when he was alive. Looking him up on Wikipedia, most of his work is mostly Anti-Hollywood, and this film fits that idea like a glove. Perhaps, he saw just how awful the institution was and maybe wanted to make a satirizing take that’s slightly less agonizing to work with. 

3. Overall 

        This is a great film that is mostly an acquired taste. I feel that it’s a perfect bookend to this month to wrap it up where most of the decisions come from. One who follows the ins and outs of Hollywood as a satirizing comedy, for the regular Joe, it’s a view that is a weird perspective into one side of Hollywood no one wants to sell their soul to work in. 

The Player gets a four out of five. 

State From The Top #10

            Howdy everyone, the next three months will be dedicated to the summer blockbuster. This will be a big ambitious thing for me since I will be reviewing three films in a week, instead of the standard two. That and I’m drawing close to my 100^th review. Might as well let you guys in on it. The 100^th film will be Zack Snyder’s Justice League. I feel it’s poetic since for my 50^th it was the studio cut of Justice League.

            So this is how it will work for May, June, and July. Starting in May, it will be dedicated to the action films from the sixties to now. Obviously, one can’t start a conversation without doing a review of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. Which ushered in the summer blockbuster. Then in June will be a dedication of the best animated movies the country has put out. Including some that were beloved elsewhere in other countries.

            Wrapping the whole summer slate of reviews will be the reviews of the Superhero movies. It will be an amalgamation of Marvel and DC films. As well as others from other publications and original ones made for the movie. I know that I did a massive slate of the inconsistent DCEU films back in January. But this is the Summer Movie Slate, we will be talking about the great films* that people may or may not have seen. So here it is, the slate of movies for the Summer season.

 

May

Jaws 5/3/2021

A Fistful of Dollars 5/5/2021

The Italian Job 5/7/2021

Dirty Harry 5/10/2021

Enter The Dragon 5/12/2021

The French Connection 5/14/2021

Robocop 5/17/2021

First Blood 5/19/2021

Raiders of the Lost Ark 5/21/2021

Speed 5/24/2021

The Bourne Identity 5/26/2021

John Wick 5/28/2021

 

June

Snow White 6/2/2021

Fantasia 6/4/2021

Cinderella 6/7/2021

Fantastic Planet 6/9/2021

Persepolis 6/11/2021

The Breadwinner 6/14/2021

Toy Story 6/16/2021

Monsters Inc. 6/18/2021

Finding Nemo 6/21/2021

Underrated Gems: The Iron Giant 6/23/2021

The Prince of Egypt 6/25/2021

100^th Review Zack Snyder’s Justice League 6/28/2021

How to Train Your Dragon 6/30/2021

July

Superman: The Movie 7/5/2021

Flash Gordon 7/7/2021

Batman (1989) 7/9/2021

Darkman 7/12/2021

Underrated Gems: The Rocketeer 7/14/2021

Men in Black 7/16/2021

Blade 7/19/2021

X-Men 7/21/2021

Unbreakable 7/23/2021

Hellboy 7/26/2021

Kick-Ass 7/28/2021

Dredd 7/30/2021

Bowfinger Review

 

        This is one of the funniest movies you’ve probably never heard of during the late 90s. Frank Oz, who you may know him as a puppeteer and voice actor for Yoda, directs Bowfinger. Along with Steve Martin who writes and acts in the movie, tell quite possibly one of the funniest and ingenious ways to film a movie. While all the other ones have the dread of making the movie, here comes this one that lightens the mood. SPOILERS will appear. 

1. Rob Bowfinger

        Just like Ed Wood before, Bobby Bowfinger is a pretty ambitious filmmaker. Steve Martin wrote his own dialogue, and we see the absolute mad man that he is as a filmmaker. What sets himself apart is that he owns an independent studio that’s almost bankrupt. He reads a script that was sent in by his own accountant named Afrin. Bobby loves it and tells his own crew that this is their only shot to make it big. 

        He finds another producer named Jerry Renfro and shows him the script. He likes it and will work with him if he can get famous actor Kit Ramsey on the movie. The only problem is that Bobby meets Kit and promptly shoots the script since he hates it. This part is what makes the movie, Bowfinger and his crew decide to film wherever Ramswy is and have the actors act around him. The real comedy is having Kit just be completely confused and at times scared since he thinks that the actors are aliens. 

        It’s something with these recent films that I have reviewed that the filmmaker is the charm in the movie. Since this is the comedy, he goes to every length to get his film crew, especially smuggling in Mexicans at the border to handle the cameras. Their evolution in the film is just hilarious. Anyways, Bowfinger tries to act respectable in Hollywood, especially taking someone else’s fancy car with a built-in phone. He yanks it out and uses it as his own cell phone. 

2. Kit and Jiff

        Eddie Murphy also does a good job as action star Kit Ramsay. His problem is that he yearns to have a better action catchphrase. Most of the comedy is centered around him since, with the filming that happens he is so confused and afraid since the actors that are acting in front of him are doing it in a weird way. One thing about him which is supposed to be a spoof on Hollywood is the actor joining a cult. In this case, being a part of the Mindhead cult. 

        We all know who exactly their referencing, since it involves Tom Cruise and John Travolta. They really believe that Kit is hearing and seeing voices and tell him to relax. At one point, they invite him to stay at a celebrity relaxation center. To anyone who knows Scientology understands that those places are actually prisons like compounds. Anyways, the most shocking thing is that Murphy plays another character called Jiff. 

        Jiff is used as a stand in since Bobby needs Kit for a specific scene as the shooting continues. Like it’s obviously Eddie Murphy in the film, but the characters in the film are so befuddled that he looks exactly like Kit. More so when that he reveals that he is Kit’s long-lost brother. That part made me laugh since I was literally not expecting that at all. Most of the scenes involving Jiff are hilarious, since he’s nerdy and has braces in his teeth. My favorite moment is when Bobby directs Jiff to having him run in a busy highway. 

 

3. Guerilla Filmmaking 

        One thing that the film crew uses is a thing called “Guerilla Filmmaking”. It mostly involves a very independent film crew, like the one we follow, shoot one take of a movie without any permits. This method is embraced wholeheartedly by Bowfinger. Everything that they shoot is under a secret location around the city, mostly wherever Ramsay is at. There are moments where they might get caught, but Bowfinger’s charm has it where the cop is now part of the film. 

        Part of the charm is him being a director. Telling his cameramen to keep rolling and to call out his actors to appear and capture the genuine and hilarious reactions of Kit. It’s the best part since we get to see his film style and just how it’s just torture for Murphy’s character who gets scared and runs away. It’s like a game of cat and mouse, with Ramsay just trying to survive and the actors just pouncing at him. 

        The best part is when they actually see the film. For some weird reason they get a film premiere with a packed audience. The hilarious bit is that Bowfinger is led to his seat which is at the very front row at an odd angle seeing the screen. Seeing what they shot on location with shots of the actors and crew being happy that they were a part of something that was amazing. Especially when we see Bobby who is so happy with what he made, realizing just how much he loves his craft. 

4. Overall 

        Is it amazing? Yes. Should you watch it? Without a doubt. Bowfinger is another hidden gem of a comedic classic that has to be seen. It’s more hilarious than the movies that I’ve reviewed recently and is one of the best comedic films that I have seen that was released in the late 90s. 

Bowfinger gets a four out of five. 

The Disaster Artist Review

 

In 2008, I was watching a YouTube show called “The Nostalgia Critic”, he reviewed a film considered by many to be the worst movie ever made. It was called The Room. Years later, actor Greg Sestero wrote a book called “The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside ‘The Room’, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made”. The book detailed extensively on the making of the film, and the meeting between him and the enigma himself Tommy Wiseau. When word got out that it will be adapted to a movie, I was all for it. Having read the book to prepare myself and really get closure on what happened behind the scenes of The Room, the movie did an adequate job to really show just how filming went. And the unlikeliest paring ever conceived. SPOILERS will appear. 

1. Greg and Tommy

        Since the book was mostly around Greg’s experience, the film covers both sides of the main characters. James Franco wrote, direct, and starred to be the oddest human ever existed. Tommy is taking the same acting classes along with Greg, who is played by James’ small brother Dave. Both immediately hit it, and they go down to Los Angeles to chase their dreams to be famous. We get the moments where we see them getting the photo shoots and auditioning. The main point is that Greg manages to get everything. While Tommy is just struggling and completely full of delusion. 

        The dynamic is really something since, whenever something goes right with Greg, Tommy lashes out at him full of jealousy and smugness. To me, it feels like Tommy wanted to be better than Sestero in every possible way. Such as when Greg tells him that he got some offers, Tommy says that he is being coached by a legendary acting teacher. Which Greg’s girlfriend Amber says that the teacher has been dead. 

        There really is no way to imagine in actual life that these two would somehow be real friends. In the book and film, it explicitly states that Greg was in his late teens while Tommy is, well he doesn’t really reveal just how old he is. I’ll go on a tangent with him after this part. It feels like the dynamics and synergy between them really benefit the film because the actors are literal brothers. So when the drama really hits, no way does it ever feel forced in the least bit. Especially when Greg gets frustrated with Wiseau due to him costing a chance to appear in a TV show. 

2. Tommy Wiseau 

        Nobody could’ve done a tolerable job to portray this guy than James Franco. Just the way he talks, how he looks, his wardrobe, it’s like he’s an alien desperately attempting to be human. One of the things that is questionable, which I’ll give the film this since it’s entirely the point, is to make him be mysterious. Tommy explicitly tells Greg to not tell anyone about him. In context, it’s really a question as to how he has two apartments in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Or just how old he is. Just to put it out there, he’s old, no matter how much lies to Greg’s mom when she asks just what his age is. We get moments when the hair dye lady notices the gray hair on Tommy and when he applies black dye on his hair. 

        His acting is also one thing where you look at it and just laugh at how bad it is. The thing about him is that he quotes a Marlon Brando movie called A Streetcar Named Desire, where Brando’s character yells “Stella”. In context, Brando’s Stanley screams her name due to him abusing Stella in a fight. None of that matters since when Tommy recites or just yells out the name, he puts in a whole lot of energy without the needed context as to why Brando’s character yells out her name. His character is both likeable and just a plain asshole whenever something doesn’t work for him. 

        He’s an asshole when shooting an intimate scene, he sees a pimple on the actress’ body. From just the film, we are led to believe that this is probably an example of who he is if he was hired in a movie. That and the real ironic thing is that he can’t remember his lines. Just the idea that he wants to be an actor and the one scene where it’s just five sentences where he confuses the words is the cherry on top of the film. In actuality, filming that one scene took three hours and 32 takes to get right. The ending of that moment feels relieving because you feel like you’re part of the film crew who is so fed up with Tommy’s eccentricity. 

3. Behind the Scenes Drama

        Much like Living in Oblivion, everything goes wrong with the shoot. With Tommy having total control and being a dictator shows just how chaotic and toxic the filming of the movie went. The film is tame to show just how bad everything went, the book explains that there was a high turnover rate with people handling the cameras to shoot. Which were both 35mm and high-definition cameras. Your guess is good as mine as to why Tommy wanted to shoot in two different footages. 

        The damning thing is that there was an actress who suffered from heat exhaustion due to Tommy not wanting to install air conditioning. Much less give the cast and crew water. His naïve way of directing results in the rift that almost made Greg leave the film and sever ties with Wiseau. I feel like this is one of those things where the book could be made into a television series since there’s way more material that was left out in the film for time constraints. That would be my only negative is that for as much we see everything going south with the filming we could’ve seen more of it. 

4. The Room: The Last Best Worst Film

        After reading the book, it was only an obligation to watch the film the book is based on. I was fortunate enough to have a friend who has a copy of the film and, yeah. The film is bad, Tommy is bad, the story is anything but followable. Characters come and go and it’s one of those things where it’s hilarious and gut busting as to how inept it is. I wish that I would go to a live showing to see the audience throw footballs, spoons, and just jeer at the movie. 

        I feel that this is the last bad movie to ever be called “So Bad, It’s Good”. With social media nowadays, I believe that many people will make a movie which is bad in every possible way to be the next Room where people will be mystified and stupefied by it. The only way people can have fun with a bad movie is to make memes out of it. I believe that if a movie is bad that it will make plenty use of memes to poke fun at dialogue and just every facet with the film. 

        One thing that will always keep me up is if Tommy Wiseau ever had a behind the scenes footage that showed the conversations the film crew had when talking about Tommy. Having that behind the scenes footage would have on full display Wiseau’s method to his madness when he’s either directing or acting. 

5. Overall

        This film is I feel the heir apparent to Ed Wood, a study on two men with acting ambitions who made a movie that will forever be a part of them, for better and worse. James Franco did a great job recreating parts of The Room and just capture the chaotic filming of the bad movie. It makes you think if there’ll be more movies about the making of a bad movie. 

The Disaster Artist gets a four out of five. 

Ed Wood Review

 

        He was called the worst movie director ever in the 20th Century. Edward D. Wood Jr. made movies in an efficient and fast way that bordered on embarrassing and inept. He had a voice that he wanted to tell, but no one was willing to give him more money to make a film. In 1994, Tim Burton directed Ed Wood. It’s considered by many to be his best work. SPOILERS will appear. 

1. Worst Director Ever

        As I mentioned earlier, Ed Wood is a bad director, in every measure of the word. Johnny Depp portrays him and he should’ve been nominated. He has a very uplifting personality that borders on delusional since he actually thinks that the projects he made is the best. Before we see him as a film director, the film has him direct a stage play. Albeit, not a good one. We see the play with his girlfriend Dolores being let down on a pulley. Making the scene, is the shot of the audience: a couple, a homeless man, a person drinking, and a bucket collecting the rain from the ceiling. 

        You really have to admire him since he has a determined personality. When he and the stage cast go and get drinks, he only reads the positive parts of the review to justify that his play was great. He is one to be completely blinded by his ambition to make a good movie that he thinks that any take for a scene, either rushed or improperly acted is adequate. It’s justified since when making the films, he is given a short time to shoot the film. Adding on to the time crunch, having a short length of film to shoot. 

        One thing that makes him unique as a person was that he dressed in women’s clothing in the 1950s. Now, with the film coming out in the ‘90s and that kind of lifestyle being tolerable in some circles, it would make Ed ambitious enough to be open about his secret back in the day. He even shanghaies a film that was supposed to be about the first gender change ever, to him making a film that embraces his secret. 

        Now, the one thing that mostly set him up for failure is the money. Reading more about the man after watching the film, he never had a stable finance. He really did reach for people to finance his movie, including a Baptist church who allowed to finance his movie Plan 9 for Outer Space on the condition that the cast and crew get baptized. Ed is willing to go to any route to make his movie and that what makes him endearing for the most part. Well, his movies suck, but it’s that level of ambition that makes him the one to root for in the film. 

2. Bela Lugosi

        This is the perfect example of an actor literally becoming an actual person. Martin Landau portrays former famous actor Bela Lugosi, who is most famous for his portrayal in the film Dracula. We see him as a washed up actor who meets Ed Wood by a coffin shop. Wood is shocked to find out that no one will hire Lugosi. One of the best things is that Landau plays the former actor so perfectly. Right down to his voice and looking like an adequate vampire. The parts when we see Ed filming Bela’s scenes, is the cherry on top. 

        If you were to put both of his scenes in comparison to Ed Wood’s Glen or Glenda or Bride of the Monster, you can see the level of commitment that Landau does with his performance for a few moments in the film to be Lugosi. He is also one of the film’s funniest part. My favorite is when he arrives to shoot his first film with Wood, a stagehand asks for his autograph. He invokes the name Boris Karloff, for the uninitiated he was Frankenstein’s monster in Frankenstein. Lugosi loudly cusses out the stagehand and I was just laughing since, I was not expecting that. And you can see that Lugosi is jealous of Karloff. Since in real life, Karloff went on to have a successful career than Lugosi. 

        He is the tragic part of the film. We learn that he becomes addicted to morphine and he is broke. What I found interesting is that Ed wanted him in his films due to his name from Dracula. When he gets Bela into rehab, the actor is hounded by the paparazzi. Ed thinks that they’re exploiting him, but Lugosi tells him that he wants that attention. You have to feel for that man because he is only remembered for one film. Then just left in the gutter so to speak by Hollywood. 

        The best scene involving him is when he performs his monologue during the shooting of Bride of the Monster. He gives it his all, that monologue means more to him since it speaks to him in the context that he finally has his moment to shine. I think it shows just a dark side of Hollywood some films tackle rarely. That the big studios do away with the stars that made them money and just kick them to the curve. 

3. “Visions Are Worth Fighting For”

        One of the recurring motifs that Tim Burton has in his movies is the main characters being the rejects in his films. With Pee Wee Herman, Batman, and Edward Scissorhands, the director has the outcasts be the main focal point in his films to show them that they aren’t welcome in society. With Ed Wood, the director is constantly being hounded by the direction of his movies. With producer Ed Weiss, telling him that he butchered the movie he had before Wood came in. 

        His first girlfriend Dolores even tells him and the cast that the movie they made is terrible. She has a point, but the film paints her as the bad guy since she’s the normal person in the movie littered with misfits that society has shunned. There’s a level of empathy that’s going on since you want these people to at least see that the movies they are working on is bad, but they trust Wood that the film maybe at least be good. 

        My favorite scene involves Ed Wood and famous director Orson Welles who directed Citizen Kane. It's the meeting of the best movie director and the worst. Just to put it out there, this event never happened in real life, but regardless I like this moment. It’s vindicating to hear Orson played by Vincent D’Onofrio, tell Ed that “Visions are worth fighting for. Why spend your life making someone else’s dream?”. He tells him that since he tells Wood who is wearing an angora sweater, that Universal made him direct a film with Charlton Hesten to play a Mexican. The point is that no one can ever degrade your art for anything. Ed finally stands up and finishes his film the way he intends to. 

        It’s great, but at the same time and I hate to sound like a broken record. The film he made is just that inept. I get that finally he has a privilege to shoot his films, but at the price that it’ll be remembered with being “So bad, it’s good”. That’s one concept that actually works in the film and going along with Burton’s motif in the film. 

4. Overall

        I could’ve had this film be in the Underrated Gems series. Yes, it made less money than its budget, but it did garner two awards in the Academy Awards. This is the best film you’ll see that lacks any technicolor that came out in the 90s. This is another view of the sub-genre of movies about making movies. 

        Ed Wood gets a five out of five. 

Underrated Gems: Living in Oblivion

 

        This film is the ideal representation of making a movie. Including all the pains and struggles that come with it when you’re dealing with a variety of personalities on the set. Living in Oblivion represents that and amplifies it where you probably don’t want to be a film director. Or be involve in any artistic medium. SPOILERS will appear. 

1. Nick Reve

        Steve Buscemi steals the movie and plays director Nick Reve. He’s making the movie Living in Oblivion, what is it about, well we’re not told. Mostly it involves actress Nicole played by Catherine Keener in the three scenes that we see. As we delve into the scene, usually they end up in disaster. This is where we see Nick as a Jekyll and Hyde kind of person. With any inconvenience, he tries to prep the actors. As more problems progress he just absolutely loses it. 

        I don’t blame him since the scenes that the crew are shooting are intimate and the set is really not that big. None of that matters since Nick is constantly hounded by a boom mic getting in the frame to his mom walking into the set by accident. One thing that makes him likeable though is that he is open to changing how the scene is shot to the line exchange. Although, he is very specific on what camera technique to use. 

        One thing that makes him grey is him being honest with the actors he’s working with, For instance, when shooting with eccentric actor Chad Palomino, Nick tries to calm him down by agreeing with him that working with Nicole is a pain. It mostly paints him as a kiss-ass to his actors and not really being honest. I can understand since he wants everybody to be cooperative, but what makes it worse is that Nicole overhears the conversation between Nick and Chad through a boom mic that is live. 

2. 3 Scenes and Frustration

        Aside from Nick’s flip flopping in anger levels, the three scenes in the movie acts like the usual dramatic three act structure. I honestly thought that the whole film was in black and white. Then when the scene is shooting, it’s in color. It has a jarring effect when one inconvenience from the film crew makes Nick to shout cut and we’re back in the monotone view. What I love is that with each error, the anger grows not with Nick but with the producer Wanda. She has just this dictator vibe since when there’s outside interference, she is cussing to the outside crew to ensure silence. 

        Nothing is worse than an actor who constantly offers the director changes in shot direction and just be an overall jackass. Chad Palomino is that guy, full of ego that it can fill up a hot air balloon. Compounding the situation is that he slept with Nicole before the shooting of an intimate scene. Every time the scene is cut, he wants his character to wear an eye patch. Since he saw the camera man Wolf wear one. Overall, he is just insufferable and gets his comeuppance when Nicole offers a suggestion that they shoot the scene and have the dialogue be improv. It’s satisfying what happens to him. 

        The basic idea of the whole film centers on this one thing Nick learns how to deal with the constant drama as we see the last scene being shot. Just roll with it is the quote. He tells it to Nicole since both of them have dreams where the shooting just go south. That saying is applicable since with what we seen and pretty much what we do gets frustrating. It’s more or less a moral to how to handle the little things that set us off. Eventually, Nick decides to not just be pestered by the actor’s ego and to really just let things happen. 

        One scene is really interesting and it occurs after they shoot the final scene we see. The camera dollies the characters, to probably symbolize what they seen and went through to shoot a movie. We get small moments where we see Nick getting an award, Nicole being a waitress, and Nick’s mom who was visiting the set, in a hospital. The shot messed me up since it appears that she goes through a door. It’s pretty morbid considering what she did in Nick’s film shoot. 

3. Overall

        This is an enjoyable film from the 90s. It captures what a tortured director goes through when shooting a movie. One thing that can’t be overstated is that it came out during the boom of independent movies that were coming out during that decade. This was probably a look into a hypothetical one but seeing everything and anything going wrong is just a sight to see. 

        Living in Oblivion gets a four out of five. 

Be Kind Rewind Review

 

        When talking about movies about making movies, Be Kind Rewind fits every single checkbox on this sub-genre. I fondly remember commercials of it back in the late 2000s, but never really thought much of it. I can’t state how much the YouTube channel Cinemassacre has exposed me to films that I want to watch and be aware of other type of films. You know the drill right now, SPOILERS.

1. Save the Block

        With most films, there’s a standard way of telling a story and this one has a specific plot. Specifically, saving the block or building. Jack Black and Mos Def play Mike and Jerry who live in Passaic, New Jersey. Mike works in the town’s video store while Jerry is a screwy conspiracy theorist. After one weird moment where Jerry attempts and fails to blow up an electric grid, he accidentally wipes out the store’s VHS library of tapes. 

        After one of the customer’s request to see a copy of Ghostbusters, Mike and Jerry attempt to shoot the movie the only way they can. Cheaply and to the point. Soon, the business starts to pick up and they make their own version of the films. This movie is a love letter for the people who make their own home movies. The way the guys shoot is just one take with haphazard special effects. They even invite some of the locals to be in their films. Unfortunately, the lawyers of the studios sues the store. Additionally, the building is being threatened by gentrification. 

        I like that the film isn’t solely about making enough films to save the building but making the home version of the films since it’s fun. It seems that the actors had fun making the reenactments of the films. I’ll go more in depth about this method of filming after this. As well as the just the idea of the long gone video store. Little did people know that the term “Be Kind Please Rewind” was an actual business method that video rentals like Blockbusters wanted their tapes to be rewound.

2. Swedeing 

        This term appears in the film. It basically means that someone or a group of people remade a film with no budget and in a quick and efficient way. This is the first film that quoted the term since it’s a unique thing to remake a film without a budget. Both the guys had to remake their VHS tapes since Mike was assigned by his manager Mr. Fletcher to look after the store. It was actually Jerry who convinced Mike to “Swede” the films since people were slowly coming into the store. 

        As of now, the method is still being used. Albeit with it mostly reenacting movie trailers of big blockbusters. That’s why when you subscribe to a comedy channel, they’d “swede” a movie trailer with nothing but cardboard and cheap special effects. Looking more into the movie’s background, the film’s website invited people to make their movies based on actual films. I haven’t watch those, but to make it more meta, the director “sweded” the Be Kind Rewind trailer.

        One of thing that I’ve noticed is that throughout the film, we see footage of an old documentary that is haphazardly shot. It details about the jazz musician Fats Waller. Such as seeing the actors in the documentary have fake mustaches and cardboard cars in the town’s street. I honestly thought that it was something that Mike filmed before working in the store and feeling ashamed of it. I won’t reveal what that documentary is used for, but it’s the most endearing thing about the movie.

3. Video Store

        I feel now that the video store is slowly becoming a fading concept that will be nostalgic. I don’t have fond memories of it, but it beats seeing a screen and just trying to find something to watch. It’s human I guess to just get lost and find a film or anything to watch for a weekend. The last time I was in a video rental store was in Austin, it’s not surprising since that place is a hot bed of pop culture. 

        In the film, it shows that the whole thing is a time capsule of something people used to do before the advent of streaming services. While yeah, only a few people visited and rented from the store, but as both Jerry and Mike filmed their versions of famous movies, people wanted to see their versions. And be involved with the filming process in some regards. 

4. Overall 

        This is one of those endearing films that I have seen in a while. It’s endearing and has a humbling feeling to it where it ends in a feelgood way. 

        Be Kind Rewind gets a four out of five. 

King Kong (1933) Review

 

        In 1933, King Kong is considered by many to be the first giant monster movie ever in cinema. It contains groundbreaking filmmaking aesthetics for its time. Including stop motion animation which ushered in a new kind of special effects for the rest of the 20th century. This film is responsible for so much going forward. Without it, no one could ever imagine seeing a creature terrorize Tokyo, Japan. Or see lifelike dinosaurs in the silver screen. SPOILERS will appear. 

1. Creature Feature

        Since I chose this month to be mostly movies about making movies, I decided that this would be a great compromise because I wanted to review some giant monster movies. The film starts with director Carl Denham who is looking for an actress in his next film. He shoots safari movies and plans to shoot his next one in a mythical island. He goes into New York City to find any woman who looks the part. 

        He meets Ann who tells him that she has a minimal acting experience. That convinces Denham to be in his next film. Soon, Denham’s crew on the ship Venture sails to the island. Denham and the ship’s first mate Jack discuss about the mythical island where Carl is going. This is the part where we get to hear about Kong. It’s this moment where we only hear just glimpses of the creature since Denham wants to film it for his new feature. 

        As the crew come down and explore the island, they encounter a native tribe that plans to sacrifice a woman for Kong. The islanders kidnap Ann and have her be the new sacrifice. It is then we get to see Kong. For 1933, his movements is the best thing in the movie, I’ll elaborate more on the film’s techniques. So the crew go into the island and see more creatures that are dinosaurs as they try to rescue the woman from the giant ape. 

        For one thing, the whole story can be interpreted as the folly of man through greed. Denham is the antagonist of the movie since he wants to see Kong by any means necessary. He even goes far to bring explosives that contains anesthetic. When the situation changes since his crew has been mauled and killed by the various creatures in the island. Denham wants to use Kong as a display. There’s never a moment when he has a conscience that his ambition goes too far or just his actions are literally having people being killed. 

        It’s not technically brand new in storytelling since it’s human nature to want something and have it just blow up in disastrous ways. His motive is relevant since years before King Kong was released, films called travelogues which were movies that have shots of exotic places since people didn’t have the luxury to actually go to those locations. Additionally, there were films that have shown aboriginal people in their native habitat. It could be that Denham’s own ego wanted to replicate that but include the giant ape. 

2. Groundbreaking

        The word groundbreaking can’t be used in the lightest of terms when describing just how King Kong changed everything for special effects. Other than the fact that the creature and the other dinosaur inhabitants of Skull Island were in stop motion, the whole film was dynamic enough to have it be playing concurrent with our human characters. Looking more into it, when the crew are walking by a dead Stegosaurus, that footage is being projected to give the illusion that the characters are walking by it. This method comes before anybody decided to use green screen or blue screen. Even now, the method is being updated with a new setting called StageCraft. 

        More so, when the special effects are playing, the characters are being projected into the scenery. Frame by frame is the footage for the actors moving going alongside the movements of Kong and the other creatures. A little detail is that when Kong picks up a human, they are even in stop motion as well. Directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack were pioneers of putting regular characters in an exotic landscape that wouldn’t be perfected until Star Wars came out roughly 40 years later. Aside from that, Kong’s hands and face were controlled as well since we have closeups of him grabbing Ann and having humans in his mouth. I will say, Kong’s face up close looks goofy, but I’ll give it a pass. 

        I might as well talk about the stop motion more. Most of it is quaint since it’s a privilege to watch any creature be made in a computer. Watching Kong move without seeing any moves in his muscle has to be one of the most intricate and time-consuming method any artist has to do. Seeing both Kong and the T-Rex fight is the highlight of the movie. That whole sequence must’ve been a months long job to get right. I read that director Peter Jackson wanted to do a deleted scene of the film for the DVD release. Him and his film crew copied the same method that Cooper’s crew used and noted that it’s very time consuming. Just to put it out there, that deleted scene is only in the special features. 

3. Beauty and The Beast

        Another way to view the story is through the tale of “Beauty and The Beast”. Hell, Denham even says that his whole approach to having Kong in New York is just that. Having the creature be defensive about Ann is interesting since out of all the women that was used as a sacrifice, he is captivated by Ann. In one moment, he fends off a Pteranodon from swiping the woman off the cliff. 

        Kong is probably the only monster to have his own credit in any film as far as I know. Despite the animators creating a pain staking representation of him as an ape, he has a personality. He’s not just a brute by any means. It’s even interpreted that he’s the last of his kind. When he’s in New York, he’s not just some monster running amok, he’s a lost animal that’s out of his element. He kidnaps Ann since he thinks that Jack will do something bad to her. Him climbing on top of the Empire State Building is poetic since it reminds him of being on his cliff and just banging on his chest to declare that he is king. 

4. A King’s Legacy

        When you talk about what this film has done going forward, nobody could’ve anticipated what would come after. Little do people know that this film has a sequel. Son of Kong was released the same year as this one, with a smaller budget and small time to film, the movie was considered a disappointment. 30 years later, Japanese studio Toho released King Kong vs. Godzilla, which marked the first time both monsters appeared together and in color. A sequel was released which featured a new monster called Mechani-Kong. 50 years later, they would appear again in Godzilla vs. Kong. 

        Back in the United States, Kong was remade in 1976. It pales in comparison with the original since the film takes place in its time. A sequel was made and it sucked. Peter Jackson remade the film in 2005. It’s been hailed as a great remake of the classic. The film has the same 30s setting and giving Kong more personality. Yet another Kong movie was released but is connected with the Warner Bros.’ Monsterverse film series. Kong: Skull Island is a great monster movie that leads up to him fighting against Godzilla. 

        Aside from numerous Kong films, his first movie started an influx of monster movies that will follow. Some were tied due to the atomic age much like his Japanese counterpart. It would be years later where computer generated imagery made stop motion be extinct when Jurassic Park came out in the early 90s. Just one more thing, Donkey Kong was partly inspired by the popular ape and created a video game franchise for Nintendo. 

5. Overall

        Bottom line I love this movie, this is the oldest movie I have reviewed in this blog. Although, that mold will soon be broken don’t you worry. This film is a gamechanger by every meaning of the word for cinema. Watching it will give everyone an appreciation of just how far the medium has come in terms of special effects. 

        King Kong gets a five out of five. 

Singin' in the Rain Review

        This is my second musical that I have reviewed for this blog. This is probably one of my favorites now that I just got done finishing it. You’re probably asking what does Singin’ in the Rain has to do with films about making movies. Well, there’s a lot, and the approach is pretty hilarious. I think it still holds up despite being approximately 70 years old, it has that charm of well being able to adapt and has really catchy tunes. SPOILERS will show up. 

1. Hollywood is Changing

        I will say that this film is a historical fiction type. Since it mostly deals with the adjustment that Hollywood had to make when the idea of sound started to be implemented. They use the film The Jazz Singer, which exists and is the first film to have moving images and recorded dialogue. With all that, the film stars classic actors Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Gerald O’Connor. They depict a group of actors that have to adapt to Hollywood transitioning from silent pictures to “talkies” as they were called back then. 

        The two male leads decide to convince their producer R.F. Simpson, to convert the film both Kelly’s character Don and Jean Hagan’s Lina are in to a musical. Since when they released the movie The Dueling Cavalier with sound but shot as a silent film. It gets laughed at by the audience by just how inept it is. The moments where the director is just getting frustrated with Lina not speaking to the mic is hilarious. Especially when R.F. accidentally pulls the cord, unintentionally sending Lina falling backwards. 

        What makes the musical work, aside from the actual musical numbers, is the fact that the characters try everything to be in Hollywood. Don learns that Kathy is an up-and-coming stage actress that he asks Simpson for her to be in the film. From there, they decide to convert the film to a musical. By using her to dub in Lina’s voice, which has a distinct Brooklyn accent. I’m being nice when I say that. My favorite moment is when they are filming, it’s in color. Then it transitions to black and white when Simpson, along with Don and Cosmo are watching the assembly cut. Which is like a rough draft for a movie.

2. The Music

        It’s the scene stealer without a doubt. Just seeing snippets of musicals today just shows how this movie be the ideal film for anyone directing a musical. There’s no quick edits to see the choreograph in a different angle. Just seeing the three main characters dancing and singing as we’re watching a Broadway play. Most of the songs actually advance the story, so they’re not just there just cause. 

        Mostly they’re about Don being cheered up by his friend and when they’re pitching the new film to the producer. None of them are distracting or just stop the movie. Catchy is an understatement since they embody the flamboyant style the film has going for it. I think the important thing about musicals is that the songs are meant to forward the story not just stop and sing for no reason contextually. With Singin’ in the Rain, most of the main cast has their time to shine, especially O’Connor who is kinetic with his song “Make ‘Em Laugh”.

3. Legacy

        Without a doubt this movie has a massive influence after it came out. It didn’t win any Academy Awards, but it’s one of those films that has become beloved and cherished years after the fact. I only ever heard of the film from an episode of Family Guy. Unfortunately, it was referenced in the Stanley Kubrick adaptation of A Clockwork Orange, I’m not going to say where exactly it happens in the film, but it’ll probably scar you. Researching more on the film, I was not aware that the film was being used as a basis or reference to many films and with music artists. 

4. Overall 

        So what if it’s old, and the aspect ratio doesn’t cover your tv or mobile device. This movie has music that absolutely slaps until your hand is numb. It’s an absolute classic and you should definitely watch it. 

        Singin’ in the Rain gets a five out of five. 

State From The Top #9

        Howdy, so I was having a hard time trying to figure out what to review for April. One idea was to review some Kaiju movies. Think monster movies like King Kong and Godzilla. Another was reviewing some animated films, but I don't want to inundate the blog with just Disney classics. Maybe in another time where I'll review some animated features sometime this year. Right now, I will be dedicating the month on a small sub-genre which I call movies about making movies. 

        I have heard of this topic on YouTube when I sat down and watch a countdown video about that topic on the website Cinemassacre. That got me thinking that there are probably more than just the 5 films the host talked about. So with all that, here's the slate for April. 

Singin’ in the Rain 4/3/2021

King Kong ’33 4/7/2021

Be Kind Rewind 4/10/2021

Living in Oblivion 4/14/2021

Ed Wood 4/17/2021

The Disaster Artist 4/21/2021

Bowfinger 4/24/2021

The Player 4/28/2021