The biggest surprise in Bloody Bloody Andrews Jackson is that the audience did not – repeat: did not – give it a standing ovation. Was it a different audience? Had I been transported to an alternate universe? Whatever the answer, the audience stayed seated until the cast took its one and only bo and the green light was given to raid the food in the lobby…wait a minute…food in the lobby? That could explain it…
I Love L.A.: Food
To continue, loosely, on last week’s column praising Huell Howser for his enthusiastic championing of California, this week I turn my attention to L.A. Like Mr. Howser, I am not a native of California, a little fact that often prompts people to ask me how I like L.A. My answer: I love L.A. For all its flaws and blemishes, for all the good and the bad, I actually prefer L.A. to the other city – you know, that big one on the East Coast – that is culturally correct to gush over.
‘4th and Long’ Scores a Touchdown
When independent filmmaker Timothy Vanderberg described the film he sent me for review, “4th and Long,” as a comedy about football fans trying to save their hometown team, I thought to myself, “Self, you can’t stand football… What the heck kind of chance does this film have of getting a fair review?” To make matters worse, I went back to some of the indie films I reviewed while still a baby film critic and, given their – how shall I put it? – inadequacies, another worry popped into my mind. What on earth would I write if I didn’t enjoy the film? It’s one thing to take shots at studio films; putting down an indie film feels like an act on a par with punting puppies. I had visions of writing diplomatic meta-critiques. Surely I’d have to discuss film theory. At the least, I’d have to examine differences in cinematic standards between big-budget Hollywood films and low-budget independent films. The point is: I fretted.
Huell Howser is Golden
When I first went to Disney’s California Adventure shortly after it opened, my enthusiasm weighted down somewhat by early mixed reviews, the first question I had was: Why does Southern California need a California-themed park? Whatever answer I could have come up with was soon set aside. While maybe not quite on par with Disneyland, California’s Adventure had a certain charm while offering its share of fun rides – even one that took a place among my favourites: Soarin’. While my wife and I had annual passes, we became wizards at using the FastPass to go on our favourite rides at California Adventure without missing out on our favourite rides at Disneyland.
Persepolis: A Lesson in Humanity
It’s tempting to view art, in whatever form it takes, with skepticism, to dig up the bones of Dadaists long gone and point out art’s failure as a force for social transformation. And with good reason: Art, indeed, has failed. For all the poets waxing poetic about poetry, writers proclaiming the power of the novel, painters exulting new visions, film critics singing the praises of cinema – for all that, art still hasn’t succeeded in saving us from the worst in ourselves. How many war films are there? War novels? War poems? In this beginning of the 21st century, we have more access to art communicating, representing and illustrating the horrors of war than ever. Yet we have Iraq. We have Israel and Palestine.
A ‘National Treasure’ with Issues Gets Only a Little Right
Review: “National Treasure: Book of Secrets”
Like both sides of a frosted mini-wheat in an argument, Fred and Erik discuss the merits of “National Treasure: Book of Secrets.”
Fred: I see “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” scored 35 percent at Rotten Tomatoes.
Erik: Probably for the same reasons the first one scored 41 percent. But so what? I really liked it. I had a good time.
Fred: Really?
Erik: Yeah! You didn’t?
National Treasure: Book of Secrets – Worth Reading?
Like both sides of a frosted mini-wheat in an argument, Fred and Erik discuss the merits of “National Treasure: Book of Secrets.”
Review: “National Treasure: Book of Secrets”
Review: The Orphanage
Warning! The following may contain spoilers…
“The Orphanage” is very much a traditional ghost story with traditional elements of the genre: A large, gloomy house with plenty of nooks, crannies, creaks and groans; a narrative structure founded on a mystery to be solved, namely, discovering the violent, traumatic event underlying the ghostly activity; a child sensitive to the presence of ghosts; and others. It is actually in some of these other elements that the film’s function as a ghost story critically compromises itself.
‘Sweeney Todd’: A Conflict — I Wanted to Love It More Than I did
Review: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tim Burton promised blood, and blood he delivers. When the incredible tension anticipating Sweeney’s first kill is finally cut, Burton’s slit-throat ballet is grisly and poetic, a Grand Guignol used to often haunting effect. Blood, so central to the visual vocabulary Burton employs to tell the story, is the only vivid splash in an otherwise dark and gloomy world – London. More Gotham than Gotham, the film’s London is an irredeemably corrupt black hole in the titular character’s eyes and, by extension, our own. Blood is the life, as the adage goes, and when it spills, the eventual loss of that colour to the oppressive black and blues of Dariusz Wolski’s gorgeous cinematography makes the spilling all the more shocking.
It’s 2008! We Haven’t Blown Ourselves up (Yet)!
That’s right, buckaroos; we’ve survived another year of Republican crypto-fascism and theocratic dreams, war, economic despair,
and all the usual causes of existential malaise. We haven’t blown ourselves up. Huzzah! Hey, we even survived Christmas despite the best attempts of egotistical, bloviating Christians to ruin the holiday by indulging their persecution complex. (It really is paranoia when no one is out to get you.) I think it’s safe to say that 2007 came to as good an end as we could hope for under the circumstances. Faint praise, I know, but as a positive pessimist, I’ll take whatever positivity I can get and join everyone in the hope that 2008 will be a better year. Happy New Year, then, dear readers.