A Brief, Humorous Word on Art: Exit Through The Gift Shop (2010)

“Are we art?  Is art art?”

These are the musing questions of one Lisa Turtle of Saved by the Bell as she tries to woo the new student at school; a young stud who also happens to be quite the brainiac and egotistical art-snob, much to Lisa and the gang’s dismay.   As such, Lisa transforms her Beverly Hills teen-fashionista image into something she believes he would appreciate, and strikes up a phony conversation on these pretenses in order to reel him in.  Her scheme works; but as 90’s-teen sitcoms would have it, she soon realizes how stuck up said young stud is for not liking or appreciating the “real” Lisa. 

As is my pattern, when contemplating life’s greatest mysteries over a cigar at 1:00 in the morning, it always comes back to Saved by the Bell.

Today I caught a magnificent documentary, Exit Through The Gift Shop, at the Lumiere Theatre in San Francisco while on vacation (yep, had to throw that in there).  It is an original in so many ways that I’m not even sure where to begin.  It is the first documentary-heist I have ever heard of: basically, the film’s subject, Banksy—a famous British street artist (see: graffiti) turns his own documentary back around on the filmmaker—a wannabe street artist with a camera; and the end result is a humorous, satirical contemplation about what art is, how our society interprets art, and what makes one an artist. 

I know many of my readers don’t have many documentaries saved on their netflix queue, or typically seek them out on their Friday-night Redbox visits.  Nor do I.  But let me make myself clear: if you appreciate art, or appreciate making fun of people who take art too seriously, or appreciate irony in general, or would enjoy watching someone make a complete idiot out of themselves for 90 minutes, then you should not miss this film.  I wrote in my earlier post this week (in bragging fashion) that I would not be interested in spending 2+ hours on a post since I am vacationing in California at the moment.   Well, seeing this movie made me reconsider that obtuse statement. 

In today’s web-based society, we are all artists.  We live in a meritocracy.  Post a funny facebook status, you’ll get several “likes” and comments.  Tweet something funny on twitter, you’ll get many followers and retweets that will likely go global.  Post a video of yourself doing something ridiculous on Youtube, and you’re an instant celebrity, and, (looking at myself here) start a movie blog and advertise it to your friends, and you’ll get a few hundred hits.  We are all “artists” and the world is our judge.  But are we really making art?  That is the question that this movie answers, with a resounding “Maybe, maybe not, but it is what it freakin’ is,” as the film’s subject rips off a few ideas, gets the right promotions from the right people, puts on a massive exhibit and sells millions of dollars worth of “art” to the general public that has no idea how badly they just got duped. 

Is art art?  Maybe Saved by the Bell was on to something...

16 For the Road: The Past Two Weeks in Movies

I don’t usually make lazy posts like this, but a) I’m in friggin’ Half Moon Bay, CA, and it truly does not interest me in the least to spend two hours on a post right now, and b) I’ve seen so many movies over the past two weeks that it would be extremely difficult to whittle it down to one thing to discuss.  But I did want to remind everyone of what a freak I am, knocking out 16 films over 12 days or so while I was a bachelor.  Man I really lived it up, didn’t I?  Here's a general rundown for you:

Becket (1964): 8/10.  Peter O’Toole + Richard Burton = Incredibly well-acted film.

Metropolis (1927):  8.5/10.  Heralded as a classic, this silent film by German director Fritz Lang is eerie and beautiful, and is deservedly credited for heavily influencing the sci-fi genre. 

The Secret in Their Eyes (2009): 7.5/10.  This Argentinean crime drama won Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards this year.  It was a very entertaining movie but Un Prophete (2009) was much better. 

Toy Story 3 (2010): 8.5/10.  I really hope everyone’s seen this by now.  Pixar continues its streak of greatness. 

The Searchers (1956): 6/10.  My mom will kill me for this, but I really didn’t think this movie is all it’s cracked up to be.  In 2007 AFI ranked it as #12 all-time…don’t really see it.  The story is entertaining but John Wayne is playing John Wayne as he always does, and the acting in general is unbelievably wooden. 

Seraphine (2009): 8.5/10.  This French film went completely under the radar for me last year.  It’s the story of the French artist by the same name who was discovered by her master while she was his house-maid in WWI-era France.  The lead performance is spectacular and the direction and photography are mesmerizing. 

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (2009): 6/10.  Weird as always with director Terry Gilliam.  Heath Ledger gives a worthy last performance. 

Edge of Darkness (2010): 5/10.  Mel Gibson’s latest film had a lot of potential but was forgettable and formulaic. 

Winter’s Bone (2010): 9/10.  I already gave it my glowing review here (post below).  Best movie I have seen so far this year, narrowly edging Toy Story 3. 

Tetro (2009): 5.5/10.  Francis Ford Coppola (director of “The Godfather”, et al.) made his comeback with this film in 2009 about long-lost brothers who reunite in Argentina.  Once again, this film had tons of potential but the acting and script were so awkward and clunky at points that it was almost embarrassing.  Sad to waste what otherwise was a visually beautiful and well-shot film. 

The Piano (1993): 7.5/10.  Really beautiful film that I’ve somehow missed until now.  The musical score is stunning and probably makes my top-5 all time scores.  Didn’t really like Holly Hunter in the lead role, otherwise this would probably be higher than a 7.5/10.

The Damned United (2009): 8/10.  THIS is what sports movies should aspire to be like.  It follows soccer manager Brian Clough of British team Leeds United in the 1970’s-80’s.  Extremely entertaining and Michael Sheen gives a very compelling lead performance. 

Seven Pounds (2008): 7/10.  This seemed to be a love/hate movie for a lot of people.  I didn’t love it or hate it but I think I enjoyed it more than most.  Will Smith is hard to resist. 

Invictus (2009): 6/10.  Juxtaposing The Damned United (above) in the sports-film category is this underwhelming Clint Eastwood-directed film about Nelson Mandella and the South Africa national Rugby team.  Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman give *decent* performances and make it better than it otherwise would have been, but the film is basically just a big pile of mush. 

Michael Clayton (2007): 9/10.  This is my 4^th time to watch this…it gets better and better every time.  One of my favorites of 2007 which was a strong year for film. 

Zombieland (2009): 7.5/10.  One of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a while (2^nd time to see it for me).  The Bill Murray cameo is just classic.  

How to Make a Movie, Volume I

'Winter's Bone' (2010)

I’m interrupting my summer movie-ing series to introduce yet another what I hope to be ongoing series of posts entitled “How to Make a Movie.”  Now, as you might have guessed, I’ve never actually made a movie.  One might think that as such, I’m unqualified to instruct others on the issue.  One would be correct.  Nevertheless, as I sat in my theatre seat last night watching Sundance sensation Winter’s Bone, I couldn’t help but think to myself, “this is such a good movie…why can’t more films be like this?  It’s not that hard.”

See, there was nothing spectacular about this movie.  I don’t expect AVATAR-like graphics in every film; just like I don’t expect drama with the emotional impact of Schindler’s List, or acting performances rivaling Marlon Brando, or a script as good as Pulp Fiction, or even production design as good as The Lord of the Rings…you get the point.  Those things come around once a generation, and Winter’s Bone is none of those things.  What it is, is a harrowing, adventurous, bleak, and airtight piece of film-making that is beautiful in its simplicity, effortless in its delivery, and every bit as chilling as its title suggests.  None of these things require anyone named Spielberg or Cameron to pull it off.  So here is what we can learn from Winter’s Bone about How to Make a Movie:

Lesson #1:  Start With a Halfway Original Idea

A poor Missouri teenage girl residing in the Ozarks looks after her two younger siblings and psychologically ill mother while her father is in prison.  “The Law” comes looking for her father who has jumped bail after putting the family’s house up for bond.  Girl assures the Sheriff she will find her father, dead or alive, so that she doesn’t lose her house or her family. 

Lesson #2: Hire a Director Who Knows What She Wants

In this case, Debra Manik, who I feel has a bright future ahead of her after this film.  This film has an identity; it has a feel; the storytelling, pacing, and every action or word spoken by any character reflects this identity.  Nothing feels awkward or out of place.  There is nothing exceptionally visionary or savant-like going on here; just a director who spent time figuring out what she wanted and executing.  Are you starting to get the picture?  

Lesson #3:  Pay Attention to Detail

The poverty-stricken community is strewn with stripped 30-year old trucks sitting on the lawn; lawn mowers that might have run at one point sit idly on the grass with weeds surrounding the wheels; the characters all look as though they have seen better days, with the clothes they wear indicating they probably got them from Salvation Army; an elderly woman sings folk-ified hymns in the background during pickin’ and grinnin’ time at a birthday party; our main character, a teenage girl, sleeps on a waterbed; a piece of great dialogue, “Never ask for what should be offered”, has meaning and weight behind it; it’s not just a throwaway line.

I could go on, but I’ve made my point.  It’s hard to know sometimes whether A-list directors are too ignorant on how to make a movie, or if it’s the production companies that are too gutless to make them.  Whatever it is, Winter’s Bone proves them wrong.  This isn’t an art-house film, or anything that main-stream audiences couldn’t enjoy.  Sometimes it just takes a halfway original idea, or a director who knows what she wants, or a little attention paid to detail, to make a film great.  

Summer Movie-ing, Part III

Goal #3: Decide the Ultimate Internal Debate:

2004 or 2007?

In case you haven’t noticed already, I’m a big picture guy when it comes to movies.  Obviously I like watching/analyzing/discussing/over-analyzing/being a snob about/contemplating movies, but it doesn’t stop there: I want to know how they fit into the bigger realm; how they compare with other movies that particular year or decade, how it compares with other films from the particular director, how and why it does or doesn’t resonate with pop culture, and what the movie indicates about the current social/political outlook.  This is why I’m intrigued by film awards—not because the “best” films always win, but because they represent a broader picture of what was going on that particular year, based on the factors I laid out above. 

Back in December when I was putting myself through hell to figure out my top 10 movies of the 2000’s (which, by the way, I have edited slightly, but more on that later), I was trying to decide which year out of the decade was the best for film: 2004 or 2007.  I realize this particular goal may seem kind of trivial to you—but trust me—cosmic filmdom forces hang in the balance upon proper analyzation and resolution of this question…so bear with me while I list the films from each year that I consider to be great:

2004:

Finding Neverland

Sideways

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Hotel Rwanda

The Aviator

The Incredibles

Downfall

2046
Garden State

Kill Bill 2

2007:

No Country for Old Men

There Will Be Blood

Into the Wild

Michael Clayton

Ratatouille

Once

Atonement

The Diving Bell and Butterfly

Sweeney Todd

Eastern Promises

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Gone Baby Gone

Lars and the Real Girl

Okay, at first glance, 2007 has the upper hand.  My quest to decide this debate will involve watching some of these films that I’ve only seen once, which, as you may have guessed, is only a few of these.  Hopefully I'll have some sort of divine intervention to give me clarity on the whole issue.

Other than that, I’m going to keep watching some old films (see: summer movie-ing goal #1), and keep being the worst kind of INCEPTION fanboy (summer movie-ing goal #2).  And on that note, get a load of THIS:

Beautiful, isn't it?  I may have to name my daughter Marion.  

Summer Movie-ing, Part II

Goal #2: Become the Biggest INCEPTION fanboy of all-time.  

If you read my top-10 ½ of the decade list, you know that I am a huge Neo[i] fan (The Dark Knight, Memento).   Well, his new movie, starring Leo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy, Michael Cain, and Ken Wantanabe opens July 16^th.  By the way, I almost peed on myself while typing the names in the last sentence.  Anyway, it is my goal to be the biggest, most-annoying fanboy you have ever seen, rivaling Star Wars and Lord of the Rings fanboys.  A couple of weeks ago, during the series finale of LOST,  which I was watching with some friends, we had the show DVR’d and we were fast forwarding through the commercials, only when the INCEPTION trailer came on I yelped and demanded we watch the entire commercial.  This is just a taste of what you can expect from me in the coming weeks.  By the way, any paragraph referencing both Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and LOST may indicate the level of nerdiness you are dealing with.   

Why do I want to be a fanboy?  You mean, other than the fact that I had higher expectations than almost any movie ever when I walked into The Dark Knight, and yet, they were surpassed?  Other than the fact that Neo made my #4 and #5 movies of the last decade?  Listen, I am the king of lowered expectations.  Expectations make the movie: raise them too high, and disappointment is inevitable; keep them low, and even if the movie isn’t anything too write home about, it at least wasn’t the complete waste of two hours that you thought it would be.  But a director can only make so many A+, entertaining, cerebral, and visually stunning films before you just have to throw your hands up, blow your lunch money on a jumbo popcorn and coke, plop down in your $15 IMAX seat and expect greatness.  And you know what, we deserve that…we deserve to raise our expectations to new heights. 

So really this fits in with my summer movie-ing goals perfectly: summer movie-ing is about reliving those late-night sleepovers with friends, throwing back 8 mountain dews and watching Happy Gilmore, Varsity Blues or Fight Club; summer movie-ing is about begging your 18-year old sister to buy your ticket to rated-R The Blair Witch Project, and pleading with your mom to get you the little kid-size movie-meal tray before the multiplex premiere of The Lion King.  My goal to be the biggest INCEPTION fanboy of all time is largely a channeling of my youth—my desire to be wowed and awed and surprised.  Neo, if anyone, is the man that can do this.

---

[i] For present and future reference, "Neo" is the pseudonym I have bestowed on the almighty director Christopher Nolan.  The only explanation for his greatness is that he was sent into our world to change cinema forever.  Amen.  

Summer Movie-ing

            Excuse my absence.  If you guys would just pay me 40K/year write the blog, I could quit school, there would be a lot more posts, and everyone would be happy.  That’s only like $8,000 a year for each of my five readers, so that would be worth it right?  Anyway, now that another semester is over with, I’ll have a little more time to devote to my one true love.  I’ll get to hang out with my wife a little more, too.

            When I was in elementary and junior high school, I always had summer reading that my school required me to do.  It always bummed me out to do at the end the summer when I had inevitably put it off and had to read an entire book in a week.  It’s not that I hated reading; it’s just that I hated being forced to read.  But I always enjoyed summer movie-ing as a child.  I’d drag my mom to every new Disney movie that came out, I watched every kid-sports movie in the vein of Sandlot, and of course at sleepovers my friends introduced me to such classics as Dumb and Dumber, Tommy Boy and Billy Madison, after which my life, in the words of Galinda from Wicked, “changed for the better.” 

            Anyway, I have some serious summer movie-ing to take care of this year, which should make for an entertaining read on this blog over the next couple of months.  In the spirit of carefree summers, I have devised a loose list of movie-ing goals that I may or may not accomplish.  I will be posting several of these in the coming weeks, along with updates on how it’s going.  As always, feel free to post your own summer movie-ing goals.  

Goal #1:  Getting Down on Some Classics.

Over the last year, I have become increasingly obsessed with classic cinema.  Within the last few months I have watched A Streetcar Named Desire, M, The Third Man, The Seventh Seal, and On The Waterfront.  All are worthy of their classic status, in my opinion (in fact, Streetcar may be one of the best movies I’ve ever seen (and, as always, keep in mind I don’t say things like this lightly)).  More and more as I watch films like this, I agree with my Grandpa: "they don't make 'em like they used to."  My goal for the summer is to tear through some more classics: finish off Hitchcock’s library, introduce myself to Billy Wilder, John Ford, and John Huston, and even dabble in some Charlie Chaplin if the mood strikes me. 

My dad is THE man on classic cinema.  His television is tuned to 3 and only 3 channels on any given day: Fox News, whatever channel the Astros are on, and Turner Classic Movies.  He can recognize any actor who appeared in more than one movie between 1930 and 1960 (it’s truly amazing).  I mean, he literally might have seen everything in that time period.  As it is my mission in life to make sure I am as smart and knowledgeable as my dad in anything and everything (only half-joking…okay, not joking at all), I guess it’s time to step my game up.   By the end of the summer, I hope to be at least 25% of the way to accomplishing that goal. 

I Need More Terrence Malick In My Life

             You ever get the feeling that God put something on this earth solely for your pleasure and benefit?  One time recently I was driving while listening to a Bill Evans jazz tune titled “Peace Piece,” a nice little piano song; and as I was driving I watched a fiery red sun setting directly behind the silhouette of a tall, majestic leafless tree.  After taking it all in—the romance between the sun, tree, and music, I decided, “Yep, that moment in time was carefully crafted just for me, and no one can tell me any different.”  It’s the same feeling my wife got that one time I cleaned the house. 

            Well, I also think some movies were just made for certain people.  Terrence Malick’s The New World is the new epitome of that for me.  Let me explain what I mean.   It has a 6.9 rating on IMDB (relatively low by IMDB standards, if a movie is under 7.0 then it’s usually a bad sign).  It has a 69 rating on Metacritic (decent score for Metacritic, but nothing to write home about).  It has a 60 on Rottentomatoes (way low for Tomatoes’ standards).  It made $12M in the U.S. box office on a budget of $30M.  So, relying on my conventional methods of determining what movies to watch failed me miserably this time.  

Nonetheless, as I watched this film with relatively low expectations, I was overcome by a strong sense of connection to it.  It’s truly a director-driven film; the story and script play second-fiddle to Malick’s photography of his landscapes, his old-English set design, and most importantly, his actors.  Showing vs. telling is very much at play here, as we observe the English explorers discovering their new world, the Native Americans discovering their new neighbors (it ends up being a “new world” for them too, after all), and then in the third act, Pocahontas discovering what for her is a new world when she travels with her husband John Rolfe back to Great Britain.  In all three of these cases, Malick expertly captures the feelings of the characters without the use of much dialogue.  Even then, a good portion of the speaking is voice-over.  I can’t explain why, but this approach to film-making just suits me.  As one critic who apparently didn’t think much of the film put it, “The New World is largely about Malick’s love-affair with his camera.”  Well, exactly. 

            For me, this is really a new type of movie, in a way.  I can honestly say that it’s more like watching a ballet than a film.  There are ensemble movements that advance the conflict and plot between the settlers and the Natives; there are solos of Pocahontas and John Smith as we observe their struggles and successes in dealing with their new surroundings, and of course, there are the romantic duets between both Pocahontas/John Smith as well as Pocahontas/John Rolfe.  As with any ballet, this is all accompanied by beautiful musical score.  The chemical reaction between all of these elements in the film evoked a reaction from me that only true art can do. 

            I’m not going to apologize for my strong opinion on this film despite the negativity surrounding it.  Like my sunset, tree, and jazz music, this movie was made just for me, and no one can convince me otherwise.