Lost in School

Apologies for being an absentee blogger, nearing the halfway point in my coursework and it's been a brutal spring. I've mentioned my ongoing interest in movie trailers, and as I prepare a research proposal comparing the content of green-band trailers [approved by the MPAA for all audiences] to the content of red-band [restricted] trailers for the same features, I'm going to take advantage of the generous embedding feature at ifilm [now www.spike.com] to post some samples. Age verification performed by the host site.


Rambo [released 25 January 2008] green band:

Rambo - Trailer 1 | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

Rambo [released 25 January 2008] red band:

Wicked Videos, Latest Virals | | SPIKE.com

Pineapple Express [released 6 August 2008] green band:

Pineapple Express - Theatrical Trailer | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

Pineapple Express [released 6 August 2008] red band:

Pineapple Express - Red Band Trailer | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

I Love You, Man [released 20 March 2009] green band:

I Love You, Man - Theatrical Trailer | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

I Love You, Man [released 20 March 2009] red-band:

I Love You Man - Red Band Trailer | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

If these embed correctly, I'll post some more.

An Seh / Those Three: A

First-time writer/director Naghi Nemati reportedly spent two years in the mountains of northern Iraq filming Those Three, and the stunning result was screened as part of the Global Lens film series sponsored by The Department of Electronic Media and Communication and The Institute for Hispanic and International Communication at Texas Tech's College of Mass Communications last evening.

Dr. Rob Peaslee, who is bringing film studies to the College with class and gusto, moderated a panel discussion following the screening. This has been the pattern for all three Global Lens screenings, and the commentary by scholars with extensive knowledge of Middle Eastern cultures gave the evening depth and breadth.

Those Three is a modernist fable of soldiers who desert, choosing the vast snowy unknown over their small company and overbearing officer. In contrast to Persepolis [2007], Those Three is not anchored to specific historical events, or even an easily definable narrator. As panelist Dr. Lahib Jaddo pointed out, Persepolis was not made in Iran, and therefore less subject to censorship. What Those Three reminded me of most powerfully was Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, although Dr. Kanika Batra argued for the powerful influence of Akira Kurosawa's Dersu Uzala [1975]. The white landscape is striking, and as in the Cohen brothers' Fargo [1996], rises to the level of an additional, omnipotent character. Stark, beautiful imagery, thoughtful bursts of vitality and humor, a puzzling narrative structure, and a fine cast contribute to a deeply moving art film.

Watchmen: C+

It is true that director Zach Snyder [300] struck a skillful balance between honoring his source, the classic graphic novel Watchmen [1986], and creating a movie which could be enjoyed by audiences not familiar with the original. The larger potential audience is most clearly addressed in the credit sequence, a simultaneously subtle and over-the-top bit of filmmaking. In most particulars, Snyder chose fidelity, and fans of the original seem grateful. At the risk of revealing how uncool I am, I'm part of the larger audience, and I just didn't get it. Cool visuals, especially Rorschach's constantly morphing mask, and Dr. Manhattan in all of his blue glory, but also dreadful superhero sex and, ultimately, more cognitive involvement than this non-fan could muster.

Slumdog Millionaire: A-

Watchmen can wait, I have finally seen Slumdog, this year's little movie that could. Having won nearly every major award stateside, and many international prizes as well, it's as hard not to root for this movie as it is not to root for its plucky young protagonist, Jamal [Dev Patel]. I have a friend from India who has worked in the film industry there, and found Slumdog too feel-good for his taste. But on Oscar night, he was cheering the movie's multiple awards as enthusiastically as anyone. Sorry, Lakshmi, you're busted.

What is undeniable, even for those who aren't crazy about it, is that this film manages to embody globalization in its very being. Based on the Indian novel Q&A by Vikas Swarup, co-directed by Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan, and scored by A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire is a heady mix of Bollywood, Charles Dickens, Trainspotting, Frank Capra, and the British export which conquered so many of the world's media markets in localized versions, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Some aspects of the narrative structure have been criticized for straining credibility [the answers coincide with Jamal's autobiographical chronology?], but I think this speaks to the film's hybrid genre, one-part Mumbai ghetto realism and one-part familiar fairy tale. As Scott Foundas wrote in the Village Voice, "Like so many of the Bollywood melodramas it stylistically apes, Boyle's film is unapologetically pop, even as Boyle himself seems to be at once inside and outside the idiom, embracing it while winking slyly at our collective need for escapist fantasy. Then, just when you figure he has pulled out all the stops, Boyle proves to have one more trick left up his sleeve: a joyous musical number that sends everybody out of the theater feeling like a winner." Jai Ho!

Doubt: B

Sorry to be scarce these days, intense couple of weeks in school. Hoping to catch Watchmen opening weekend, will post once I've seen it.

Doubt, adapted and directed by John Patrick Stanley from his own stage play, is better than it looked. Yes, Meryl Streep's Sister Aloysius Beauvier is a bit over the top at times, but it occurs to me that not long ago, actresses approaching 60 only had minor grandmother parts to choose from, so that's progress. Philip Seymour Hoffman likewise teeters on the edge of characature, particularly in the characters' climactic showdown. But Viola Davis's brief supporting role as a mother caught in an impossible situation makes the whole film worth watching, as does Stanley's eye for the details of time and place. I liked the epilogue, a sure sign of a strong script, and did not see it coming.

A big bowl of wrong

I've always taken a perverse pride in admitting when I'm wrong, and last night's Academy Awards show was the best I remember, well, in forever.

Generally recognized as a relatively weak year for movies, this year's Oscars were shorter and faster-paced; as Rob Peaslee pointed out, they even cut way down on commercial breaks. And Hugh Jackman was a fine host, like Christopher Walken and others with song and dance in their backgrounds, Jackman is a natural for musical theater.

No surprises among the winners, but having previous winners announce the acting awards was touching and classy. My personal favorite was the screenplay nominations, illustrated with clips while presenters Steve Martin and Tina Fey read from the scripts. Bravo, all around.

Now I just have to find time to see Slumdog Millionaire...

Does anyone outside the industry care about the Oscars?

Not a new question, but one that has become increasingly urgent in financial terms. Courtesy of Wes Wise, a terrific piece in yesterday's New York Times about the current challenge: "A best-picture nomination for Wall-E, from Walt Disney and its Pixar Animation unit, if not The Dark Knight, from Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures, might have done it. Even an acting nomination for Clint Eastwood, whose crusty appearance in Gran Torino, from Warner, turned out his biggest box office to date, would have helped. But the academy gave no points for popularity. And the company folks noticed." The Academy has long favored middle-brow artsy projects for Best Picture, and moved toward smaller, artsier fare in recent years. By ignoring popular favorites [or relegating them to minor award categories], the Oscars insist on their own irrelevance to the industry they serve. Now, if the Best Picture nominees included The Dark Knight and Iron Man, lots more people would care who wins tonight. Among the nominees, I'm rooting for Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon, but The Departed it ain't.

Oh, and if Mickey Rourke gives yet another acceptance speech, maybe this time he could thank screenwriter Robert D. Siegel for creating the character that made Rourke's comeback possible. That's about as likely as anything other than Slumdog Millionaire winning Best Picture.

Gran Torino: B

OK, there is some predictability about the narrative, but not so much that Gran Torino wasn't worth making, or watching. The script should have received an Original Screenplay nomination, in its better moments it breathes if not amazes. Eastwood plays his own Dirty Harry persona in retirement, but what is best here are the Michigan locations [the production brought much-needed capital to the rust belt] and the bigger picture of neighborhoods and culture in transition. Revenge is among our species' oldest narratives, and it plays out with more intelligence than usual here -- the conclusion is certainly more satisfying than the final act of Million Dollar Baby [2004].

Film Fund-amentals: The Horror, The Horror

Note: The following guest post by Dennis Toth is reprinted with the generous permission of R&R Consulting.

As the weekend success of the new Friday the 13th has demonstrated, you seemingly can't go wrong with a horror film. Well, sort of.

Despite its $45.2 million dollar take at the box office, the film will redoubtably drop like a rock from here on out. That is the destiny of any modern horror movie. The audience for these films is actually pretty marginal and the potential is normally depleted after the first few days. Yet there is a method to the madness -- as long as it follows some basic rules:[Excerpt Only]

• Keep the budget as tight as possible to $15 million dollars (even closer to $10 million would be best). Nobody goes to these movies for plush production values, so forget about it. The new Friday the 13th strictly adhered to this rule. With a budget of $20 million dollars, My Bloody Valentine in 3-D broke this fundamental law and went belly up faster than a horny teenager at Camp Crystal Lake. Granted, the budget difference is marginal. But everything in this genre is about narrow margins.

• Stick to the known brands. There are nearly two dozen more horror films coming down the pipeline, most of which are remakes of movies from the 1980s. Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street are the genre's version of Pepsi and Coca-Cola. The original My Bloody Valentine wasn't even close to being an RC Cola. Name brand recognition is supreme.


• Forget 3-D. Nobody goes to these flicks for the technical gimmicks. They go to these movies to see young people (and the occasional oldster bit player) get massacred in an R-rated but gory manner. It's all about sexual anxiety and taboo violations. Everything else is immaterial.


• Don't worry about the opening weekend. The first-run life span of a horror film is roughly three weeks. The real money is then made with the DVD release, which will normally double (at a minimum) whatever was made at the box office. That is why My Bloody Valentine in 3-D will still make a profit despite its lackluster performance (barely $48 million first-run). Much like the porno trade, more people prefer to watch extreme violence in the privacy of their homes.


• Last but not least, don't get too hung up on cinematic value. Most of these movies are incredibly stupid and artistically dead, but most attempts to expand beyond this (e.g. Wolfen and Mimic) have commercially failed. Most successes have struck to the basic formula that was neatly broken down and spoofed by Wes Craven in the Scream series (a must-see study guide to the genre).

Of the many horror films coming out this year, only one might succeed in breaking the artistic dead end of the form. I doubt if Zone of the Dead will travel far in first-run. But a Serbian horror film that promises to be a mix of Night of the Living Dead and Assault on Precinct 13 (the original, not the crappy remake) located within the aftermath of the recent Balkan Wars promises to be the first major cult movie of the twenty-first century. Too bad the midnight movie circuit is basically a zone of the dead.

-- Dennis Toth

got us surrounded

Even a low-end surround sound system greatly increases presence, an elusive quality perhaps best expressed by the current ad for Turner Classic Movies: the images on screen occupy the space beyond the frame. We watch and are immersed. For a quick guide to various surround decoders, see 5.1.com.

Examples of superior 5.1 mixes abound, discs where the possibilities of three-dimensional sound have been used imaginatively by the sound mixers. One is the opening sequence of Falling Down [1993], in which Michael Douglas's frustration while stuck in traffic on a hot day is expressed by sound effects and music swirling around the sound mix in a gradual crescendo. The soundtrack captures the moment his character snaps, which motivates the story that follows.

Music dvds normally spread the instruments out to all five directional channels, but with live performances, this creates the sonic impression of being on stage. OK for air guitar I s'pose, but I prefer the sound mix on U2: Rattle and Hum [1989], which uses the rear channels only for crowd and echo effects, keeping the music in the front of the soundfield, where it would be if you had seats front and center. Over the opening Paramount logo, Bono says "This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We're stealing it back." Helter Skelter shows what a difference a great 5.1 mix can make.

Coraline [2009]: A

Friend and colleague Rachel Kennedy introduced me to the critical concept of the female gothic last fall, a phrase coined by scholar Ellen Moers thirty years ago. While subsequent debate has concerned whether this subgenre is defined by the author’s gender, Rachel sided with those who define it in terms of the protagonist’s gender, and applied it to Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth [2006]: a young female heroine embarks on a fantastic voyage of self-discovery in a gothic house. A similar narrative and visual/thematic sophistication informs the latest 3-D release, Coraline.

Director Henry Selick, best known as the director of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas [1993], has adapted Neil Gaiman’s 1992 novella into a rich, entertaining film with lush visual and aural textures. While Selick has used computer-generated imagery in the past, Coraline is, astonishingly, made with stop-action animation, and demonstrates a deep affection for hand crafts onscreen and off. The score by Bruno Coulas and They Might Be Giants is subtle and perfectly suited – if you can see Coraline at a day and time when the theater is not full of kids, you’ll be glad.

And, if possible, do see it in Real D. As 3-D movies go, Coraline is only a distant cousin of those which use 3-D effects for cheap thrills [stay through the end of the closing credits, though]. It is more like Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder [1954], using the special effect to reinforce visual and thematic elements already woven into the text’s fabric. There’s an overhead shot near the end with a chandelier in the foreground which looks like a direct homage to Dial M, and hints of The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and other fantasy classics abound. The unity of visual and thematic elements involving the circus, eyes, and fabric crafts raise Coraline to the realm of popular entertainment which also functions as fine art.

Jon Stewart on Bill O'Reilly's Right to Privacy

If someone made this argument in print, it would be dull but true. The Daily Show's video memory vault and Stewart's wit make it entertaining but true:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=217706&title=bill-oreillys-right-to-privacy

updates and stuff

It is now less than a month until Zach Snyder's big-screen adaptation of Watchmen arrives, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox sorted out their legal dispute and all is happiness in geekland. The British Financial Times' film critic, Nigel Andrews, has written a terrific essay about the relationship between cinema and the comics, in which he discusses Watchmen at some length:
"In the best comic books and graphic novels, movement is the deferred magic that gives the pages their dormant power and dynamism. In the greatest cinema, stillness is the magic to which motion nostalgically, primally aspires to return. That is why the relationship between the two forms, though it may never be a marriage, will always be alive, mysterious and passionate as a romance."
That is not to say there aren't too many comic-based movies, but traditional storyboards drawn to plan cinematic shots are themselves virtual comics, so the love affair runs deep.

* * *

Christian Bale apologized, so at least he knows when he has behaved badly, something we all do occasionally. Ain't It Cool News' Harry had it right, the audio recording never was news, and its sudden appearance many months after the incident suspicious.

* * *

Michael Phelps has apologized too, but is losing sponsors right and left. Too bad, except for the camera it seems like it ain't nobody's business. The Huffington Post's Lee Stranahan pointed out the real hypocrisy:
"Kellogg's has profited for decades on the food tastes of marijuana-using Americans with the munchies. In fact, we believe that most people over the age of twelve would not eat Kellogg's products were they not wicked high... [W]e the undersigned plan to BOYCOTT your products. And we're serious. Even though the Pop Tarts thing will be HARD."
Ditto Subway, although I can understand corporate concerns over image, the role-model thing is tricky business. Here's a solution: legalize it, regulate it just like alcohol, and tax the nation's largest cash crop. Pay off a large chunk of the federal budget deficit. Free up some jail cells and courtrooms for criminals who hurt others or steal stuff.

To follow or not to follow

My friend and colleague, Sam Bradley, has introduced me to the sometimes mundane, sometimes astonishing world of Twitter. Sam's recent post on the etiquette of following others on Twitter expresses a view of Twitterquette with which I essentially agree.

I'm not writing this post to convince anyone to explore this relatively new social medium, my own experience with it has been rewarding, but I realize it's not for everyone. Whether you do or don't Twitter is your business, dear readers.

But I just blocked someone on Twitter for the first time, and the circumstances seem to me to capture something about our present cultural moment. Someone added me to their follow list, and I added this person back, usually open to the possibilities. That I disagreed with some tweets did not bother me in the least, I follow lots of people I disagree with, it's a good way to learn a thing or two.

The next morning, I received a Direct Message from this person, not in any way personalized, just a link with a politically provocative description involving imminent civil war in the U.S. Having been on the losing end of the last couple of Presidential elections, and having gradually become convinced the 43rd President will be remembered among our nation's worst ever, I still felt like I managed not to be a sore loser. Lots of sore losers this year, fine, everyone's entitled to their opinion.

The following morning, I received a similar Direct Message with another link, still not in any way addressed to me. Then I discovered that both links had been tweeted by this person, so that any followers could see them. What then was the purpose of duplicating the link directly, except to insist I stop what I was doing and read what someone wanted me to read. BLOCK!

It's like a neighbor knocking on the door or ringing the bell unannounced. First try is neighborly. Second and third try are simply refusals to accept no for an answer. It's like people who talk through movies in theaters as though no one else is there, something regular readers know makes me crazy. So I don't go to the movies much, and that makes me sad. When did we all forget simple good manners?

I include myself in that rhetorical question, it's a broad cultural problem. I suggest we heed the words of the late George Carlin and try to "Be excellent to each other." If excellent is asking too much, how about just considerate?

Mano a Mano

I'm on the fence regarding comic book movies, wasn't a comic nerd as a kid, and my memories of Speed Racer and Spiderman in their 1960s animated tv incarnations dwarf the Hollywood franchises that have arrived in recent years. Still, eye candy for its own sake is ok with me.

But it's hard to enjoy even the most dazzling movie images if they aren't held together with some storytelling. Yes, Heath Ledger was a talented young actor with much promise, and he managed to make us forget Jack Nicholson's Joker, no small feat. But, as The New York Times' David Carr wrote on the last day of 2008, "in an industry that seems unable to find a way to end a story, the Batman’s third act stands out as an amazing mess... Iron Man, on the other hand, may land somewhat prosaically — and the fight with Jeff Bridges is a bit cheesy — but there is a satisfying crunch to the end."

Today, for good measure, I was reminded how much I don't like Christian Bale. He was well-suited to the first role I saw him in, Patrick Bateman in Mary Harron's clever reworking of Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho [2000]. But after hearing Bale's on-set tirade at the cinematographer on the upcoming Terminator Salvation, I think the Bateman performance was a fluke, the actor was just a lot like the character. Robert Downey Jr. made his Batman look like a mannequin.

Bruce on video

The Superbowl half-time show was a bit more Vegas than most Springsteen shows, less intimate than usual. But he is the quintessential American singer/songwriter of recent decades, so it was just a matter of time. For those wanting some more Bruce on video, here's a sample:

Born to Run: 30th Anniversary Edition [1975], which includes a dvd concert recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon in London in 1975. High-energy show, main drawback is the goofy hat the Boss is wearing.
MTV Unplugged [1992]
Blood Brothers [1996]
The Complete Video Anthology [2001] includes two songs from No Nukes [1980], an acoustic “Born in the U.S.A.” recorded on The Charlie Rose Show in 1998, and popular videos by John Sayles, Brain DePalma, and Jonathan Demme, as well as lots more concert footage.
Live in New York City [2001] and Live in Barcelona [2003], both concerts with the incomparable E Street Band; the earlier set wins my heart because it was filmed at Madison Square Garden.
VH-1 Storytellers [2005] More talk than song, but it's insightful and intimate.
Bruce Springsteen with the Sessions Band: Live in Dublin [2007]
Working on a Dream [2009], like the Born to Run Anniversary Edition, includes a bonus dvd.

My favorite video of Bruce and the E Street Band is not commercially available, it was included in the original Concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. "Bo Diddley" > "She's the One" > "Bo Diddley," and the band drives that groove into the ground. Great to see the late Danny Federici on keyboards.

But the end of the Inaugural We Are One concert was pretty wonderful, too, Bruce and Pete Seeger side by side singing Woody Guthrie. Chills.

Deckard as Bogart

I confess, I have not seen all five versions of Blade Runner [1982] contained in the five-dvd "Ultimate Collector's Edition" issued in December 2007 for the noir-fi's 25th anniversary. Let's see, there's the original theatrical release, the original international release, the director's cut released in 1992, the new "final cut," and, exclusive to this set, a "workprint" cut. Me, I want the replica of Deckard's briefcase which houses the set.

This came to mind because of a discussion with my friend and colleague, Curtis Matthews, on twitter yesterday. He asked whether I consider the director's cut of Blade Runner a sequel, which I don't, but it's a good question. The versions of Blade Runner are dramatically different, especially with respect to the voiceover by Deckard [Harrison Ford] and the happy ending with Deckard and Rachel [Sean Young]. Both were included in the original theatrical release, and while the final romantic escape felt a bit disingenuous, I prefer the versions of the film which include at least some of Deckard's voiceover. Our film fiend/friend Wes Wise chimed in that he found the director's cut felt empty without the voiceover, and I think he has a point. The voiceover is one of the strongest links between Blade Runner and the classic films noir of the 1940s and 1950s, Deckard as world-weary, anti-hero detective. Deckard as Bogart.

best sequel ever

I’m not sure exactly how I ended up with Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Part II [1974] in my dvd player, probably when the “Coppola Restoration” discs were released last September, I placed it on my Netflix queue and here it was. This digital restoration is eye-popping in its clarity, the areas of the image in shadow have come to life once more, and the full palate of Gordon Willis’ extraordinary cinematography and Technicolor’s three-strip dye transfer processing is truly mind-blowing.

As for the unavoidable comparisons with The Godfather [1972], Part II only exists and makes sense in relation to the first film, but evaluated side by side is clearly the greater achievement. Film scholar David Bordwell perhaps explained it best in 1979 when he wrote, “we might consider The Godfather as a classical narrative film and The Godfather Part II as more of an art film.” The first couple of times the narrative moves back and forth between Vito Corleone’s life as a young immigrant and his son Michael’s rise to power half a century later, titles orient us to the time and place, but soon the slow dissolves separating these stories connected by the first film make sense and feel right. Vito’s story was adapted from Mario Puzo’s novel by Coppola and the novelist, while Coppola wrote the 1950s story arc, before Apocalypse Now [1979] robbed him of the ability to tell a coherent story.

The performances in Part II are as awesome and sobering as the images and story, and the film’s elements come together in an epilogue as devastating as any ever filmed. The third film, released in 1990, was understandably irresistable to make, but we should do ourselves the favor of pretending it doesn’t exist except as an unrelated, better-than-average mob flick. However, to think that between the first and second Godfather films, Coppola made The Conversation [1974] with Gene Hackman, well it just doesn’t hardly matter what he made before or since. Where’s my Netflix queue?

Jon Stewart's trickle up economics

This is a good interview anyway, with two of my favorite anchors, Jon Stewart and Gwen Ifill. But in passing, Stewart proposed an economic recovery plan that would save the banks and erase consumer debt, the proverbial two birds with one stone:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=216987&title=gwen-ifill

trailer trash talk

I'm preparing to run a focus group or two this spring on movie trailers, basic research designed to collect some evidence for subsequent work. One seemingly widely shared feeling about trailers is that, with all the economic pressure placed on opening weekend grosses, trailers often tell us too much about the movies they advertise, giving away plot developments and gags best experienced while watching the movie itself. Basically, the folks marketing the movie don't care whether they impoverish the experience of actually watching it, as long as people buy tickets. I'm also interested in the meteoric rise of trailers online, how that might be different than seeing them on television or in theaters. Have the new "red band" trailers for R-rated movies made any difference in what movies people see or why? Open to suggestions here, let me know what you think, thanks.

awards season in full swing

The ensemble cast award at last night's Screen Actors Guild ceremony went to Slumdog Millionaire, which also won the Producers Guild of America top feature award the night before, and a Best Picture nomination for the upcoming Academy Awards. Does anyone outside of the industry care?

Charlie Rose hosted an interesting conversation Friday with A. O. Scott and David Denby about the Oscar noms and movies generally, and in another day or so it should be online at www.charlierose.com. In the meantime, David Carr wrote an amusing column about the year-end glut of good movies in a generally mediocre year, and the frustrations of trying to watch movies with, you know, movie audiences.

Finally, for those of us with neither the time nor the money to spend the past week and a half in Park City, Utah, here are this year's Sundance winners:

Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Documentary We Live in Public
Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Dramatic Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire
World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary Rough Aunties
World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic The Maid (La Nana)
Audience Award: U.S. Documentary The Cove
Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic Push
World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary Afghan Star
World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic An Education
Directing Award: U.S. Documentary El General, director Natalia Almada
Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic Sin Nombre, written and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga
World Cinema Directing Award: Documentary Afghan Star, directed by Havana Marking
World Cinema Directing Award: Dramatic Five Minutes of Heaven, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award Nicholas Jasenovec and Charlyne Yi, Paper Heart
World Cinema Screenwriting Award Guy Hibbert, Five Minutes of Heaven
U.S. Documentary Editing Award Sergio
World Cinema Documentary Editing Award Burma VJ
Excellence in Cinematography Award: U.S. Documentary The September Issue, cinematographer Bob Richman
Excellence in Cinematography Award: U.S. Dramatic Sin Nombre, cinematographer Adriano Goldman
World Cinema Cinematography Award: Documentary Big River Man, director/cinematographer John Maringouin
World Cinema Cinematography Award: Dramatic An Education, cinematographer John De Borman
World Cinema Special Jury Prize for Originality Louise-Michel
World Cinema Special Jury Prize: Documentary Tibet in Song
World Cinema Special Jury Prize for Acting Catalina Saavedra, The Maid (La Nana)
Special Jury Prize: U.S. Documentary Good Hair
Special Jury Prize for Spirit of Independence Humpday
Special Jury Prize for Acting Mo'Nique, Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire

The week that was

The inauguration was moving, in spite of a few minor glitches: there should have been some indication that most of the crowd was hearing a recording of YoYo Ma and Itzhak Perlman as they played; and, more importantly, the re-do of the swearing in should have been on television, if only to keep the right-wing nuts from having one more hook upon which to hang their suspicions. Speaking of right-wing nuts, Rush Limbaugh had to express the hope that President Obama's economic recovery plan fails on ideological grounds. As the "loyal opposition" expresses concern over the amount of deficit spending the President is requesting, I can't help but wonder why they didn't raise similar concerns as George W. Bush turned a budget surplus into the largest deficit in history. Why was it ok to spend money we didn't have to fight the war in Iraq, but not to prevent even more foreclosures and unemployment here at home? One of the great strengths of our nation and culture is that we are pragmatic enough to put common sense ahead of ideology. I know Rush has to be angry and outrageous to keep his listeners, but at what point are his words unpatriotic?

President Obama on screen

An unusual collaboration between The New York Times' two first-string film critics, Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott, produced an insightful and timely essay on Friday about the development of male African-American personae on the big and small screens over the past fifty years: "Barack Obama's victory in November demonstrated, to the surprise of many Americans and much of the world, that we were ready to see a black man as president. Of course, we had seen several black presidents already, not in the real White House but in the virtual America of movies and television." Dargis and Scott connect the dots which link Sidney Poitier, blaxploitation, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby, Morgan Freeman, and Denzel Washington, among others, and point out that Dennis Haybert's president on 24 may have not just suggested Barack Obama was in our near future, but helped make it so.

Which side are you on?

An interesting, provocative question, asked most pointedly by musician Billy Bragg in the 1980s referring to class struggle in the context of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

But I heard it again in a graduate seminar this week, in a very different context. My background is in humanities-based film studies, but I'm in an empirical, social scientific Mass Communications program at Texas Tech, so this has involved a lot of getting with the program. The most difficult transition for me is to A.P.A. style (M.L.A. is better, Chicago is my favorite); A.P.A. does not use first names of authors or capitalize most words in book titles.

The big dichotomy in the social sciences generally, and in Mass Comm especially, is between quantitative and qualititative research methods. The clearest way to think about the difference is that quantitative research translates data into numbers so it can be analyzed statistically. The question posed in class this week was whether content analysis is a qualitative or quantitative method.

The consensus is quantitative, and certainly, most content analyses I've read include statistical data analysis. But here's my point: the coding of content in order to make it quantitative is a qualitative process.

A series of studies examining sexual and violent content in movie trailers by Mary Beth Oliver, et al. illustrates my point. In 2002, the authors conducted extensive content analyses of movie trailers and found that "approximately 76% of the previews in their sample featured at least one act of aggression (with an average of 2.5 aggressive acts per minute), and that 56% of the previews featured at least one sexual scene (with an average of 1.5 sexual scenes per minute)" (p. 597).

This is interesting, useful information, the kind of empirical evidence of commonly believed generalizations in which social science can excel. But these numbers were based on carefully articulated definitions of aggressive and sexual content -- is a character holding a weapon an aggressive act, for instance?

Not only do these numbers require qualitative judgments in order to be collected in the first place, they require qualitative contextualization in order to create any meaningful conclusions. In a subsequent study, Oliver et al. wrote, "Given that movie trailers have only an abbreviated amount of time in which to overview the plot of a film and to pique viewers' interest, violent content may effectively function as a quick and unambiguous indicator that the film will contain dramatic conflict..." (p. 599).

I am new to the social sciences, but when asked whether I'm interested in doing quantitative or qualitative research, my defiant answer is that purely quantitative questions only exist in the world of mathematics and statistics.

* * *

Reference: Mary Beth Oliver, et al., "Sexual and Violent Imagery in Movie Previews: Effects on Viewers' Perceptions and Anticipated Enjoyment," Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 51.4 (2007), 596-614.

24 more

I confess, I only got part of the way through the four-hour season premiere of FOX's 24. It would have been hard to believe when this show premiered in 2001 that it would have the legs to begin a seventh season, but then again, 2001 was an appropriate year to premiere a series about counterterrorism [life imitates art, again?].

I started watching it because of the real-time structure, and the producers have had the good sense to keep that, even when it has created credibility issues. Before 24, it was difficult to explain the concept of "real time" to students, now it's relatively easy. That's something.

What is hardest to take is Jack Bauer's constant sense of urgency, Kiefer Sutherland's earnest-o.d. is exhausting to watch, to the point of self-parody. Sure enough, season 7 begins with a congressional hearing at which Bauer admits to using torture against terrorist suspects, but has to be excused on national security grounds because there are more bad guys to catch and torture. It's as though Bauer is one part James Bond and one part Dick Cheney.

On the other hand, 24 gave us an African-American president before our current president-elect was on the national scene, and any show that gets Janeane Garofalo on weekly network tv can't be all bad.

Globes

There are many reasons to prefer the Golden Globe Awards over the Oscars, my personal favorite is the division of major categories into comedies/musicals on the one hand and dramas on the other, and the inclusion of movies and tv side by side. That the talent is seated at tables with drinks rather than the formal theater seating of most awards presentations often makes the Globes more fun to attend and to watch.

The evening's big winners were, most surprisingly, Slumdog Millionaire (best picture-drama, best director, best screenplay, and best score) and Kate Winslet (best actress for Revolutionary Road and best supporting actress for The Reader). Less surprising were multiple awards for 30 Rock and HBO's John Adams. The evening's comeback kid was Mickey Rourke, although the west coast feed didn't include The Wrestler director Darren Aronofsky flipping Rourke the finger in jest. Least surprising award of the evening was Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Knight, and director Christopher Nolan rose to the occasion with a brief but eloquent acknowledgement.

I also got a kick out of seeing Marty Scorsese present the Cecil B. DeMille award to Steven Spielberg, but the clear favorites in front of the microphone were Ricky Gervais and Tina Fey, who told her internet haters to "suck it." As I wrote in a post last fall, "If nothing is sexier than wit, Tina Fey is a goddess."

Why isn't Warner Bros. on Twitter?

Online buzz has reached a deafening pitch in the studio dispute over Watchmen, as a scheduled hearing before Federal District Judge Gary A. Feess was postponed Friday at the request of lawyers for Warner Bros. Pictures and 20th Century Fox [see today's update in The New York Times].

Links to an open letter about the dispute from Watchmen producer Lloyd Levin on Drew McWeeny's Motion Captured blog on Thursday were posted hundreds of times in individual tweets. Given WB's presence on Facebook and MySpace, it is curious that they have not chosen to put their Twitter account to better use.

Meanwhile, fans of the extraordinary 1980s graphic novel seem relieved that the $130 million movie adaptation's scheduled release on March 6 may materialize on time.

Pause Button Pressed

The Pause button has been pressed on Flixview for the time being. Please check back from time to time, and in the meantime, go check out Wall E, the new Pixar film from Disney. Fine and fun stuff!

Thanks for reading!

jb

July 15 DVD Releases

Looks like a pretty quiet week in DVD release world....The Bank Job, , a fairly interesting heist film will be out. This English piece is based on a the actual 1971 robbery of Lloyds' of London. Good action, but the pacing was annoying, saved, however, by good performances and direction.

Penelope, an interesting little rom-com starring Christina Ricci, makes its small screen debut. A sort of princess and the frog story, it is a fun and lighthearted way to pass 90 minutes or so....

The Year My Parents Went of Vacation is probably the highlight of the week. This story covers the story of 12-year-old Mauro who is left to fend for himself when his parents go "on vacation" during the military regime in 1970s Brazil...a classic coming-of-age story unfolds. Filled with warmth, love, heroism, nostalgia and humor', says Video ETA, and rightfully so.

On the small tube tomorrow is a very interesting sounding documentary which will screen on POV, a PBS show, The Last Conquistador. This is the story of the enormous and ugly statue of Juan de Onate that greets visitors at the El Paso International Airport. Without the input of American Indians, the city of El Paso and artist John Houser worked on the sculpture of Onate, whose history includes the slaughter of 800 American Indians at the Acoma Pueblo in northern New Mexico, in retribution for the killings of a about 15 Spaniards who were killed in a revolt by the Acoma, who were trying to rid themselves of the invaders. Additionally, by Onate's decree, 80 Acoma men had their left foot amputated.

When a much smaller statue of Onate was raised and praised in Espanola, NM about 10 years ago, person or persons unknown 'amputated' the left foot of this cowardly murderer as a reminder to what history really shows.

Should be an interesting watch to see how they justify the placement of this obtrusive monument to a mass murderer.

Looking for rare movies on DVD?

If you've given up on trying to find that film you saw 30 years ago, one time, and can only remember that one great scene,here are some resources that I use to find obscure titles that are either hard to find or are copies made from another source, whether it is an old obsolete VHS copy, laser disc, or from television...there are few things that are not available someplace, somewhere. Do note that often times the DVD is a DVD-R, which will not play on some DVD players.

Obviously, Amazon.com can be a good source,as can Ebay, although I don't do Ebay.

There is a guy in NY state that I have ordered stuff from in the past, with great success. Check out www.classic-movies-dvd.com. He has a fairly strong selection of older films, lots of film noir and older westerns, too.

www.stores.films-classic.com/ is a newer site that I have not used yet, but they have competitive prices.

www.movielead.com is also an interesting source. They are more expensive, but they claim they can get any film (although I proved them wrong), and their sources are from original prints of the film.

And since I am probably a bit behind the times when it comes to Internet searches, a friend just told me about www.ioffer.com Everything I looked up, except for one title was available here, so I have just placed my first order with a gent in Florida. It is an interesting site, and you don't need to use a credit card.

Happy hunting!