Tag: Film

Shouting at the Screen – Comedian Wyatt Cenac and Musician Donwill

SHOUTING AT THE SCREEN
Hosted by Wyatt Cenac and Donwill. Come early for a DJ set by Donwill in Trees Lounge from 8-9pm.

Back in the days before live-tweeting, the only way to express your thoughts while watching a movie was to yell them out loud to the delight of your friends, and the disgust of some old people a few rows in front of you. Comedian Wyatt Cenac (HBO’s Problem Areas, Bob’s Burgers) and musician Donwill (Tanya Morgan, Adulting with Michelle Buteau & Jordan Carlos) invite you to join them as they recreate the kind of ridiculous, loud mouthed magic that is generally found in movie theaters owned by a guy named Magic.

Each show, Donwill, Wyatt and a guest will present a classic film from the wonderful world of 70’s era Blaxploitation and Black cult cinema. The hosts will be mic’ed up providing commentary, lovingly poking fun at some of these films’ more absurd and problematic moments while also celebrating an important bygone era of Black independent cinema, whether that’s sharing obscure trivia or creating drinking games to highlight a film’s surprisingly large number of wide brimmed hats.

Michael Shannon – What’s In My Bag?

Michael Shannon goes shopping at Amoeba Music Hollywood.

Check out his picks:
Wilco – Star Wars (CD) http://bit.ly/2iBmGFx
Eleventh Dream Day – Works For Tomorrow (CD) http://bit.ly/2iRv9HS
Superchunk – Come Pick Me Up (CD) http://bit.ly/2ijTjKb
The Jesus Lizard – Down (LP) http://bit.ly/2ipuN8o
Jerry Garcia – Garcia (Compliments) (LP) http://bit.ly/2iRuiGX
Yo La Tengo – Stuff Like That There (LP) http://bit.ly/2hFil7f
Sonny Rollins – East Broadway Run Down (LP) http://bit.ly/2hFkgbS
Thelonious Monk – Alone in San Francisco (LP)

Get his films-
Man of Steel: http://bit.ly/1L0Kz2Z
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done: http://bit.ly/1JyQM0N
Boardwalk Empire: http://bit.ly/1Rc1pNk

James Hong Gets Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

When the petition to get James Hong a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame began, the response was immediate and overwhelming. Recognizing the groundbreaking body of work from the 93-year-old actor, who has more than 650 credits to his name, actor-producer Daniel Dae Kim started a crowdfunding campaign in 2020 to raise the $55,000 necessary for the star. The goal was met within four days.

The only person who didn’t respond right away was Hong himself. “In actuality, I didn’t hear a thing,” Hong says with a laugh. “Somehow the internet wasn’t quite working or I didn’t get the email. The next thing I hear, they had the money already.”

Hong, who will receive his star in a ceremony on May 10, is still somewhat overwhelmed by the honor. “I want to thank all the fans and friends who donated their money. It boggles my mind to think that there’s enough people out there who would do that,” he says. “And I don’t know who they are, so I’ll just have to thank them through your article.”

Variety

Faith and Self Acceptance – Thumbsucker Quote

Justin Cobb: I just came here for a checkup.

Dr. Perry Lyman: Really? Justin, I’m sorry if I contributed to any feelings of shame you may have about your thumb. I’ve been reading up on it. Medically, psychologically, there’s nothing really wrong with thumb sucking.

Justin Cobb: I don’t think I can agree with that.

Dr. Perry Lyman: No, really. Look. Justin… there was nothing wrong with you.

Justin Cobb: It felt like everything was wrong with me.

Dr. Perry Lyman: That’s ’cause we all wanna be problemless. To fix ourselves. We look for some magic solution to make us all better, but none of us really know what we’re doing. And why is that so bad? That’s all we humans can do. Guess. Try. Hope. But, Justin, just pray you don’t fool yourself into thinking you’ve got the answer. Because that’s bullshit. The trick is living without an answer. I think.

[both chuckle and laugh]

Dr. Perry Lyman: [Dr. Perry chuckles and lights another cigarette] I think.

IMDB

Realism Is but One of the 57 Varieties of Decoration

LES DAMES DU BOIS DE BOULOGNE
Robert Bresson’s Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne deserves a few explanatory notes, if only because this brilliant work has been so widely and wildly vilified by so-called realistic criticism. Realism, as Harold Rosenberg has so sagely remarked, is but one of the 57 varieties of decoration. Yet, particularly where movies are concerned, the absurdly limited realism of the script girl and the shop girl is too often invoked at the expense of the artist’s meaning. Why, oh why, whines one local reviewer, does Maria wear long dresses in the afternoon? (This same reviewer is unperturbed by the transparent contrivance through which East German nuns are dumped pathetically in Arizona, where they can be saved with topical miraculousness by a Negro deus-ex-machina machinist out of Robinson Crusoe via Going My Way—but that is another story.)

Confessions of a Cultist: On the Cinema, 1955-1969
Andrew Sarris

2022 Oscar Nominees Animated Shorts – List of

ROBIN ROBIN
Dan Ojari and Mikey Please
UK
When her egg rolls into a rubbish dump, Robin is raised by a loving family of burglar mice. As she grows up, however, her differences become more apparent. Robin sets off on the heist to end all heists to prove to her family that she can be a really good mouse, but ends up discovering who she really is.

BOXBALLET
Anton Dyakov
RUSSIA
Delicate ballerina Olya meets Evgeny, a rough boxer who personifies “strong but silent.” With very different lives and worldviews, will they be brave enough to embrace their feelings? Can two fragile souls hang on to each other despite the world’s cruelty?

AFFAIRS OF THE ART
Joanna Quinn and Les Mills
UK/CANADA
Welsh housewife Beryl muses on her lifelong passion for art as well as her family’s eccentric yet endearing obsessions with everything from screw threads to pet taxidermy.

BESTIA
Hugo Covarrubias and Tevo Díaz
CHILE
The life of a secret police agent during the military dictatorship in Chile in 1975 is explored as her relationships with her dog, body, fears and frustrations reveal a grim fracture of her mind and of the country.

THE WINDSHIELD WIPER
Alberto Mielgo and Leo Sanchez
SPAIN
Inside a café, after lunch and while smoking a whole pack of cigarettes, a middle-aged man asks himself and the audience an ambitious question: What is love?

You can check out trailers here:
https://shorts.tv/theoscarshorts/

Best Canadian Films of All Time – TIFF 2015

The Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time is a list compiled by the Toronto International Film Festival ranking what are the considered the best Canadian films. The list has been compiled once roughly every 10 years starting in 1984, typically assembled by polling a combination of Canadian critics and filmmakers. The list, which is separate from the festival’s annual Canada’s Top Ten list of the best Canadian films released within that year, has been published in 1993, 2004, and 2015.

Rank Title Year Director
1 Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner 2001 Zacharias Kunuk
2 Mon oncle Antoine 1971 Claude Jutra
3 The Sweet Hereafter 1997 Atom Egoyan
4 Jesus of Montreal (Jésus de Montréal) 1989 Denys Arcand
5 Léolo 1992 Jean-Claude Lauzon
6 Goin’ Down the Road 1970 Don Shebib
7 Dead Ringers 1988 David Cronenberg
8 C.R.A.Z.Y. 2005 Jean-Marc Vallée
9 My Winnipeg 2007 Guy Maddin
10 (tie) Stories We Tell 2012 Sarah Polley
10 (tie) Orders (Les Ordres) 1974 Michel Brault

Wikipedia

5 Best Movies of 2021

5 movies I saw this past year and recommend, blurbs via IMDB.

Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Feature documentary about the legendary 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival which celebrated African American music and culture, and promoted Black pride and unity.

Licorice Pizza

The story of Alana Kane and Gary Valentine growing up, running around and going through the treacherous navigation of first love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973.

Nightmare Alley

An ambitious carny with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychiatrist who is even more dangerous than he is.

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain

A documentary about Anthony Bourdain and his career as a chef, writer and host, revered and renowned for his authentic approach to food, culture and travel.

Dune

Feature adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel about the son of a noble family entrusted with the protection of the most valuable asset and most vital element in the galaxy.

5 Movies I Saw in 2021 that Weren’t Released in 2021

5 movies that I watched this year and recommend. Blurbs via Amazon.

My Dinner with Andre – 1981

In Louis Malle’s captivating and philosophical My Dinner with André, actor and playwright Wallace Shawn sits down with friend and theater director André Gregory at an Upper West Side restaurant, and the two proceed into an alternately whimsical and despairing confessional on love, death, money, and all the superstition in between.

The Source Family – 2013

The Source Family’s outlandish lifestyle made them the darlings of Hollywood; but their outsider ideals and spiritual leader, Father Yod, caused controversy with local authorities.

The Overnighters  – 2014

A modern-day Grapes of Wrath, award-winning documentary THE OVERNIGHTERS is a portrait of job-seekers desperately chasing the American Dream to the tiny oil boom town of Williston, North Dakota.

Bad Times at the El Royale – 2018

Several strangers meet up at a rundown Lake Tahoe hotel in 1969 for a violent and fateful night filled with wild twists and turns.

Collective – 2020

Follow a heroic team of journalists as they uncover shocking corruption in the Romanian national healthcare system. Take an up-close look as the Gazette team methodically discovers layer upon layer of unbridled fraud and criminal malfeasance.

Movies – Why are they so Loud and Unintelligible?

But what’s happened is, particularly in the ’90s, because that felt like the time when they were doing the loudest mixes – I didn’t mix in those times, but the stories were that mixers and maybe directors would want stuff mixed at a level that was just ear-bleeding. And what would happen is, that would get to the theater, there would be complaints from the patrons, and the theater would be compelled to turn down the mix. And when the next feature came in the next week, the level was never reset, and now that level is playing way low for the regularly mixed movie…

The anonymous sound pro also pointed to what they view as an increase in the amount of music in modern movies compared to older films, bemoaning directors’ over-reliance on music as “pushing emotion” on audiences and the way music and dialogue are forced to jostle for prominence in the mix. “The technology we have today is so vastly improved that there is no limit to what can be added: whatever the director wants, for months on end. We literally have hundreds of tracks at our disposal … in a final mix, we therefore have a lot to deal with. Unending score smashed up against hundreds of tracks, with the client asking to hear every nuance above every other nuance.”

https://www.slashfilm.com/673162/heres-why-movie-dialogue-has-gotten-more-difficult-to-understand-and-three-ways-to-fix-it/

Auggie’s Photo Album – Smoke

Auggie: You’ll never get it if you don’t slow down my friend.
Paul: What do you mean?
Auggie: I mean you’re going too fast you’re hardly even looking at the pictures.

Also of note, from IMDB quotes:

OTB Man #1, Tommy: Look, I’m telling you, there’s gonna be another war. I mean, those slobs in the Pentagon are gonna be out of job unless they find a new enemy. They got this Saddam character now, and they’re going to hit him with all they’ve got. Mark my words.

Smoke (1995)
A Brooklyn smoke shop is the center of neighborhood activity, and the stories of its customers.