On the Waterfront, Mare

The famous line “I coulda (or could’ve) been a contenda (or contender),” stoned me to my soul last night while watching On the Waterfront for the first time. I didn’t know that the line came from this film, and a friend of mine used it last week while at lunch. Maybe it’s synchronicity, so I better write about it. The 1954 masterpiece written by Budd Schulberg and directed by Elia Kazan features Marlon Brando, who plays an ex-boxer turned longshoreman.

Marlon Brando looked like a former prize fighter in On the Waterfront.

(Spoiler Alert) Brando (Terry Malloy) plays such a noble character that embodies not only masculinity but also human integrity. He comes so full-circle in character by the end of the thing that the film is its own reward. That’s why I have no disagreements with its 99% Rotten Tomato score nor feel at all sheepish about labeling it a masterpiece.

Last week I watched East of Eden starring James Dean. I mention this because the Steinbeck novel adaptation was also directed by Elia Kazan. I’d never watched a James Dean movie before, unfortunately. He was great! I made my wife watch a few minutes. Dean reminded her of Brad Pitt. I kind of totally agree. He’s very fluid, at least here, an aggressive close-talker like Pitt in Fight Club or Snatch maybe.

James Dean was animated in East of Eden.

Plus, if you want to see the iconic hipster in action, East of Eden is perhaps the way to go since Dean says nearly every other line. Not to mention a pretty awesome story. I would like to read the novel one day since The Grapes of Wrath (also Steinbeck) was a pretty fantastic novel that I finished reading back in early November.

By the way, both of these these classic American movies are available on The Criterion Channel. I discovered it on my Roku about a month ago and couldn’t be happier. When I was an undergrad and even more delusional than I am today, I admired the Criterion group so much I used to say that I’d purchase the whole collection on DVD if I won the lottery. Now here it is on one streaming channel for me to afford monthly. Hashtag blessed.

Needless to say I abandoned the Iron Fist series on Netflix immediately for my newfound movie option when my wife falls asleep from now on.

Now, as for viewing that my wife stays awake for . . . we recently watched Mare of Easttown together. Boy, what a wonderful little miniseries that turned out to be! I was utterly impressed with the mystery of it all. The red herrings were thrown at me constantly. I didn’t figure it all out until it was told in plain English to the audience at the end (I didn’t try very hard). Wink.

But I thought it was wonderful and really wish there were more mainstream dramas written with the same effort. So, thanks to Director Craig Zobel and writer/creator Brad Inglesby for being extra awesome. And to Kate Winslet for crushing it as former high school basketball star turned detective Mare Sheehan.

If I could critique one aspect of the series though it would be that I’ll admit I had to lend a greater-than-usual suspension of disbelief towards (spoiler alert) why Erin the victim of the crime (Cailee Spaeny) was the way she was. Maybe I’m just naive, and it’s supernormal for a teenage girl to want to have an affair with her uncle (and vice versa). But I don’t think so. Regardless of my cynicism it was all quite creepy.

Thanks for reading! Happy viewing, cinephile!

Vampires should not sparkle

While I know, deeply—to the core of my existence—that this movie was not made for me, I have now successfully seen all three. I saw the second and third ones in the theater, and the first one (actually, twice) on video. The second one I saw on opening night. I recall every theater at the Palace-Elmwood was playing it. It was packed to the gills with people, young and old, wearing T-Shirts bearing the actors faces [sigh]. I might have been the only man in the audience, which at least partially explains why I snicker aloud at all the parts I’m not supposed to.

This time I saw the movie one week after its local release. The theater was still pretty full for a Tuesday night at 10 o’clock. I did however imagine it would be. After all, I don’t live under a rock. I watched some of the MTV Movie Awards. I’ve been to Burger King recently. The soundtrack bears some of my favorite artists (The Black Keys, The Dead Weather, Beck, Cee-lo, etc.). This I am actually not surprised about since Thom Yorke of Radiohead was on the “New Moon” soundtrack, and basically, whatever Thom Yorke does is gospel.

Back to the film, I think the Vampires often have the dumbest looks on their faces, like when they’re all lined up, ready for battle, and the camera zooms in on the whole gang. That’s one of those parts when I laugh out loud. The romance gets me, too. Not to mention the main character, Edward (Robert Pattinson), usually puts on the stupidest face of all. But sure, I’ll go ahead and show the other side—he’s young and trying hard to look affected. I don’t really think he’s a bad actor or anything like that. His face just looks stupid most of the time.

People keep telling me, “You’re so ‘Team Edward.’” No, I’m not. What’s the other ones name again? Oh yeah, Jacob.

“I’m definitely ‘Team Jacob,’” I reply. And here’s why: From a Wordsworthian point of view, the Werewolves are better. They live outdoors, among Nature. They’re a mysterious tribe, protecting their land, concealing hidden mysteries of life. They’re an indigenous, peaceful, spiritual race of beings. I think Wordsworth would agree with me. On the other hand: Vampires. Vampires are pretentious. They’re typically rich and often the epitome of aristocratic society. They cannot to be trusted because they’re barely alive. In my opinion, they are one step above Zombies.

Which reminds me, the film is sort of half original and half terribly unoriginal. I’ll start with the obvious unoriginal: Vampires and Werewolves. Romantic Londoner John William Polidori is credited with writing the first tale of the modern Vampire, called The Vampyre in 1819. Some say werewolves can be traced to ancient Greece.

Further, they are sympathetic, loving Vampires and Werewolves. The Twilight series is a perpetual “Interview With a Vampire,” toned down for your 13-year-old sister. In “Eclipse,” all the fast action possibly down to the red eyes of the Vampires has been ripped off from one of the coolest films of this decade, “28 Days Later.” Of course, in that film the villains are indiscriminant, violence-infected Zombies.

Adversely, I say it’s original just because it comes off as a novice film to me. Unless you want to hear that although original, I think it’s stupid that the Vampires do not have fangs, nor do they sleep during the day.

Certain scenes seem out-of-place across the Twilight Saga. Kind of like the “What doesn’t belong?” questions seen on standardized tests. Like in the first movie, I thought the very violent conflict at the end of the movie was out-of-place. It did not fit into the softy tone of the rest of the movie. In “Eclipse,” I thought it was out-of-place when the blonde Vampire Rosalie Hale, played by actress Nikki Reed, shares her gang-rape revenge story with Bella in the middle of the movie. Maybe I sound like Holden Caulfield trying to be ‘the catcher in the rye,’ wanting to save America’s tweens from coming-of-age?

I wouldn’t want to take anything away from the director of “Eclipse” David Slade (“Hard Candy,” “Stone Temple Pilots: Thank You,” “30 Days of Night”), though. He looks like a young Alfred Hitchcock. Except that there may have been too much time spent on the close-ups. At one point Jacob and Bella are having a moment in the middle of this gorgeous mountain valley and all we can do is count nose hairs. I let out a sigh of relief when the cut came to actually show the awesome landscape. Then I thought why? Why are we cutting out that landscape?

Now, maybe if I were just a tad more captivated by the beauty of actress Kristen Stewart or actor Taylor Lautner I wouldn’t have noticed. The problem is, to me they all look like young Hollywood big shots.

Quiet Chaos

This Italian film, incorporated with Roman Polanski, is about a typical male business exec, who decides it’s best to ‘sit out’ while his company merges with an American group.

It’s out on DVD from the latest grouping of IFC releases.  The film, called “Caos Calmo” in Italian, stars writer/producer/director/actor Nanni Moretti (a male) and actually, Valeria Golino (“Rain Man,” “Big Top Pee-Wee”), as Moretti’s neurotic sister-in-law.

To keep it brief, this movie was actually quite a roller-coaster from start to finish.  Some of the scenes are amazing, while the film does kind of drag on.  Megan asked at 1:30, roughly, “How long is this movie?”  Honestly, it keeps up because some of the transitions are perfect and many scenes are good enough to stand on their own.  Additionally, what might make it famous for years to come is the semi-unexpected, intense sex scene.

The only thing was The Polanski. His name pops up at the end of the film and you’re like, “I knew it!”  He plays the American CEO, “Steiner.”

Raging Bull

So, uh, whatdufug are you talking about my hair looks bad, that’s all I’m saying, your hair looks bad.  You muddafugga, I oughtta break your fuggin face talking to me like that.  –lame Joe Pesci impression, sorry.

“Raging Bull.”  Perhaps Pesci’s first big movie, I really liked this portrait of a fighter in the mid 20th century.  It was almost as tragic and close to life as Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” last year.  One thing about it was that there were plenty scenes.  So with that, some scenes were better than others.  Martin Scorsese sort of hit a home run directing this one in 1980.

De Niro won an Oscar for leading role for a male.  Thelma Schoonmaker won an Oscar for best film editing.  Altogether the film was nominated for 8 Oscars, including best picture and best director.  Check it out if you get a shot, it’s old, but timeless, and some of the shots are great.  For real, you’ll see exactly where some of that (recycled) Italian mobster stuff was brought to life first.

Rain Man

Yeah, so what, I just got to see this for the first time last night.  My girlfriend bought it on DVD, a three pack at Wal-Mart with “Dead Man Walking,” because her mom was an extra in that film, and “Raging Bull,” some boxing film starring the De Niro, nonetheless.

Anyway, I think Dustin Hoffman and co, nailed the autism-adult character for this film.  Valeria Golino plays the Italian girlfriend.  Tom Cruise was perhaps at his finest as a typecast, as well, and it did win Best Picture for 1988, so I guess I’m not going to trash it any.  It was pretty good.  It did though seem like every other scene was Tom Cruise hanging out in one room and Dustin Hoffman in another, then something would happen and they’d meet up.  The whole movie was like this.  And there was some weird jungle sounding music going on in it.

What has director, Barry Levinson, been up to since then?  Don’t worry, all kinds of stuff.  Try the whole HBO series “OZ” for starters.  He’s one of those regular Mr. Hollywoods.  As for the writers, Barry Morrow has had a much quieter career since “Rain Man,” than Ronald Bass, whose career soared throughout the 90’s.

Hunger

This is not the greatest date movie.  Rather, it is a recent IFC films DVD release, directed by first-timer, Steve McQueen III, that is pretty violent and also true.

Critics called it poetic and I completely agree–it’s pretty special.  Actor Michael Fassbender fasted to a  point where he looked like he was actually starving to death for the part of the provisional IRA leader, Bobby Sands, who in 1981 actually led a demonstrative hunger strike against Britain.

There is a dialogue scene in the middle of this film (that also ties into the last scene of the film) that is so good you may want to cheer.

Even though there isn’t much dialogue, better put the subtitles on, the Irish accents are a tad difficult to make everything out.

The Bicycle Thief

“The Bicycle Thief” by the late Italian filmmaker, Vittorio De Sica, is the 1948 classic that propels De Sica into the realm of writer/director/producer.  However, the film is based off of a book by Luigi Bartolini.  It was also adapted to a screenplay by Cesare Zavattini and seemingly written in a co-op by a total of six writers.  Zavattini was nominated for an Oscar for best writing.

“Ladri Di Biciclette” (the Italian name) has been said to be one of the best films of all time.  The film won 16 awards altogether.

The story is of a poor worker, “Antonio Ricci,” played by late actor Lamberto Maggiorani, with two children and a wife.  He gets a job hanging posters in the big city.  The only catch is that he needs a bike.

After he gets his bike out of the repair shop, the bike gets stolen on his first day of work.  The rest of the film he is running around Rome, looking for it, with his little boy, “Bruno Ricci,” played by Enzo Staiola.  That’s him in the picture. He looked like a little man.

The story is in the spirit of American literary modernism, which is the best way I can put it, this time in post WWII Italy, where poor people are trying to get jobs and luck and chance are making and breaking it for them.  No feel good ending, but brutally honest and sometimes that alone makes a work of art great.

Winged Migration

Ever wanted to see what it might feel like to get close to a group of migrating birds?  How about several groups?  I would’ve answered something like, “I don’t know,” yesterday, but this movie just sort of happened for me and life is good.

In the spirit of Buddha, I’d say, this documentary was shot over three years and followed mostly migratory bird species across seven continents.

Released in 2001, oh don’t worry, this film was (and is, I suppose,) highly regarded.  It was nominated for an Oscar for best documentary.  It won several other awards over multiple categories across the globe.

“Le peuple migrateur” (“Winged Migration’s original French name) is comparable to “Baraka,” from 1992, by Ron Fricke in that the narration is kept to a minimal and the cinematography is breathtaking.

It’s not all soft and furry, either.  Shots are fired, and birds fall from the sky when you least expect it.

Lemon Tree

The key thing this movie does is that it brings to life (real life) a region that easily becomes merely romanticized, idealized, or fantasized from culture to culture, shore to shore, news broadcast to news broadcast.  And it does it well.

It’s a real tragedy that Israel and Palestine exist recently by a huge wall, separating the two nations.  It can be difficult to understand, as well.

But “Lemon Tree” (actually “Etz Limon,” in Hebrew I’m guessing) makes the situation between Israel and Palestine relative.

In reality, Israel is a thriving nation, actually looking more impressive than most U.S. states, while Palestine is impoverished and seemingly moving backwards.

Israeli filmmaker, Eran Riklis, together with writer Suha Arraf, bring to the forefront the notion of ‘National Security,’ when it comes at the expense of basic humanity, through the story of an aging Palestinian woman defending her heirloom lemon grove from destruction in the face of the Israeli Defense Minister, “Israel.”

That felt like a mouthful.  Down to the basics, though, the film keeps moving at a nice pace.  I felt towards the start that it was kind of week melodrama, but that changed halfway through.  As with many films immersed in certain cultures, the audience becomes transported into another world.

The female lead, “Salma Zidane” is played by well known Israeli actress, Hiam Abbass (“Paradise Now”).  The Israeli Film Academy awarded her “Best Actress” for the role (2008).  Also from the film “Paradise Now” is the male lead, “Ziad Daud,” (Ali Suliman).  These two have a tricky romance going on in the movie.

“Defense Minister Israel Navon” (played by actor Doron Tavory) has a perfectly annoying English accent for a politician.  And his secretary dresses like a hussy.

Good film, stormy subject matter.

Goodbye Solo

“Goodbye Solo” deals with real social problems and is so carefully crafted, that I didn’t really begin questioning it until a couple days afterward.

Solo is a Senegalese cab driver in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  He has a Latina, pregnant wife (Quiera), a stepdaughter (Alex), and he is struggling to become a flight attendant.  Struggling.  William is also struggling–an “Original Player” as Solo calls him, an aging biker-type filled with remorse about the son that he never met.  William’s son works at a cinema that William frequents just to see him, but cannot dare to tell him who he is.

I don’t want to spoil the ending for anyone, so I’ll leave it at that.  This movie is so wonderful, spiritual, and sad at the same time that I was deeply pleased.  The audience is left with questions at the end, but I promise, only questions that are troubling to answer.

The actor that plays Solo (Souleymane Sy Savane) is largely unknown, having been in one other film that is under most radars, called “The Day of My Wedding.”  But it looks like his career is taking off from here with two more movies in the works.  He is delightful.  The actor, Red West (William), has been in films since the late 1950’s.

Notably, Roger Ebert gave praise to writer/director Ramin Bahrani, saying the film “establishes him as a major American director.” The film was co-written with Bahareh Azimi.  The direction in this movie was indeed, fantastic.  It received the FIPRESCI award at the Venice film festival (2008).  That’s the one given by the journalists and critics, so it looks like I’m siding with everyone else on this one.  “Goodbye Solo” is out on video. My favorite movie in a long time.