Jason catches a sneak preview of BIG HERO 6

And you'll never believe me, because I didn't write this up until after it was released! Anyway, this was a special screening at Pixar for employees, friends, and families--I was a friend.

First up was the short FEAST, a delightful wordless story of a puppy who makes a best friend who feeds him really, really well. Until that man meets a health conscious woman and the feast pizza, french fries, bacon, eggs, etc...turns into meals of brussels sprouts garnished with a single leaf of cilantro. So the moral right there is that vegetarians ruin everything! But the movie continues, and there's actually a much better ending, with a much better moral.

And then BIG HERO 6. This movie won me over in the opening scene introducing the setting as the port of San Fransokyo, a Japanese-infused city by the bay where the Golden Gate Bridge sports Torii arches and our hero, Hiro, hustles underground bot-fighting rings. He's a young genius, but hasn't applied himself to anything worthwhile since his parents died, although his aunt encourages him to join his brother Tadashi at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. There Tadashi is part of a group of robotics wizards (and one stoner-ish "science fan.") Tadashi's big project is Baymax, a rotund, bouncy, medical robot and the second hero of the film. After some unfortunate events leading to a major loss (possibly this generation's "Bambi's Mother gets shot") and an introduction of a truly frightening kabuki-masked supervillain, Hiro supplies Baymax with armor, weapons, and some new programming to become a fighter as well as a healer. And the rest of Tadashi's team joins in to form a sextet of heroes to fight the kabuki-man. Exciting action, real pathos, good comedy. I know this is a kids' movie, but I hope it's okay that I just grinned like a kid most of the time.

Total Running Time: 114 minutes
My Total Minutes: 371,859

Jason catches a sneak preview of ALIVE INSIDE

Now this was quite a treat. I got an e-mail in the morning inviting me to this sneak preview in the evening at the Camera 7. I was interested because I knew a little bit about the subject--music therapy for senior citizens, a field my aunt has worked in for quite a long time. I had heard her stories about how these old folks with Alzheimer's or dementia would just light up when they hear a song they recognize from their youth. And now I've seen it live on film, and it's beautiful and amazing. And there are many ways this movie could have gone. They touch a bit on the science of what music does to our brains. They touch a lot more on the dismal state of our nation's nursing homes. But the vast majority is about the seniors, and the work of social worker Dan Cohen who brings music into their lives. It's amazing to see a non-communicative man suddenly come alive. Or someone who has used a walker for years suddenly toss it aside and start dancing. It's probably the closest I've ever seen to an actual miracle (note: I am not a religious man.) And for that, this movie is amazing and inspiring.

Find where you can see it here. For my Bay Area friends, it opens August 8th.

And if you want to get involved, even just to the point of donating an old iPod, you can learn more here.

Running Time: 73 minutes
My Total Minutes: 367,460

Jason watches WE ARE WHAT WE ARE

Thanks to Midnites 4 Maniacs, I got to see a special sneak preview of this slow-burn gothic drama-thriller-horror film. And I put them in that order. I think it's primarily a carefully crafted drama. The Parkers, led by father Frank (a wonderfully, quietly creepy Bill Sage) secretly live by "old customs." And they bury the...evidence of their customs in the woods near the creek that runs by their remote house. Daughters Rose and Iris (some flowers have thorns) are...conflicted about their customs.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. In the opening scenes we see the mother collapse in front of a grocery store. Frank never let her go to see a doctor, and he opposes an autopsy now, for reasons that become obvious soon enough. That and a torrential flood that unearths some incriminating evidence is going to threaten their old customs, and force Rose and Iris to take on responsibilities beyond their years.

There are plenty of gruesome horror elements, and a few frights that can actually make you jump. But the meat (sorry, I had to...that's not technically a spoiler, is it?) of the movie is the acting and the slow, steady, tense burn. A horror movie for thinkers...thinkers who like gore.

-------------------------------------------
Update on October 8, 2013. Apparently I had actually seen the Mexican movie that this was based on, I just completely forgot about it. That was back at Indiefest 2011 and here's what I wrote about it at the time:

It's an earnest family drama, a story of grief and struggles after the father dies. Not that he was a great man, but he did provide. Now there are power struggles, mother vs. sons, sons vs. each other, a daughter who seems to be the only one with a solid head on her shoulders. It's also a story about coming out of the closet. Oh yeah, and it's got cannibalism, whores, inept cops, and (for some reason) lots and lots of clocks. But let's go back to the cannibalism and whores. If I described this as a movie about cannibals vs. prostitutes, it would be completely accurate and totally misleading. It isn't the exploitation elements that are the driving force behind the movie, it's the drama and the characters. And of course, that tricks you into caring about the cannibals for reasons completely unrelated to their rituals. Brilliantly done, and very funny.

Well, the obvious difference is that the American remake is gender reversed. It's the mother, not the father who dies in the beginning. It's daughters, not sons, who fight with each other and with their father (not mother.) Also the importance of clocks wasn't so prevalent. Same with whores. No whores in this one. And I'm not sure what I meant by "very funny." The remake is certainly not a comedy, and I kind of doubt the original was meant to be. That might be a product of my sick sense of humor, or maybe the American version is more of a tense drama and the Mexican version actually had some comic elements.

Running Time: 105 minutes
My Total Minutes: 337,838

Jason's friend Ira watches the Cornetto Trilogy, including a sneak preview of THE WORLD'S END

Welcome to the start of something that might just become a recurring feature: the first ever Jason Watches Movies guest blogger! Ira is a good friend whom I've seen many, many movies with, and he had the great opportunity to see THE WORLD'S END before it's released nationwide. I'm jealous, but I wasn't able to (as he says) "play quasi-hooky with my job." I think the review speaks for itself, and I'm looking forward to my chance to see it. Thank you, Ira.

--Jason

------------Every word below this line is written by Ira---------

I should preface this by saying that I'm a pretty big Edgar Wright fan.  Not big enough to have hunted down his work prior to Spaced, and not big enough to have become a die-hard fan of Scotty Pilgrim in all it's myriad genres and media formats.  But I fucking loved Shaun of the Dead.  I came in to this party pretty late, because the first I knew of Edgar Wright was a Facebook (Holy crap, I was on Facebook all the way back in 2004?) posting from my cousin back home in NY (Check out her stuff sometime, http://www.amaltheasattic.com, *SHAMELESS PLUG*) about this movie I absolutely had to see.  I'd noticed some promotional material for it the last time I'd been at the California Theater in Berkeley but, as is with most of these things, had no idea what it was about.

Well, about a month and a half later I saw SotD in it's initial limited American release and it was kinda mindblowing.  I mean, it's hard to reflect back on a time prior to seeing it, but at the time I don't believe I'd ever seen a film that so effortlessly blended genres together.  It wasn't purely a slapstick horror parody (we've had plenty of those lately, and most of them SUCK).  It wasn't a simple homage.  It was, in my humble opinion, something new.  A film that transcended barriers and made a right mess of everything that it tried to be, and in a GOOD way.  Even when the story took a dark turn (the death of Shaun's mum..  Oh... wait..  Did I forget to mention there might be spoilers here?  It's A NINE YEAR OLD MOVIE!  GO SEE IT IF YOU HAVEN'T!), and it seemed as if it couldn't return to making me laugh, it DID.  Edgar Wright had found a formula which had started out with the television show Spaced (which I finally saw several moons later) that he'd successfully translated to the big screen.

Three years later, Hot Fuzz did for mismatched partner-police action flicks what SotD did for horror.  Simon Pegg, formerly the rudderless Shaun in the last flick, now portrays, for all intents and purposes, a London super-cop named Nicholas Angel.  He's so amazingly good at his job, in fact, that his superiors decide he's making the rest of them look bad and force him into a promotion that moves him out to a quaint country village.  But all is not what it seems in Sandford, Gloucestershire and shortly after teaming up with man-child police constable Danny (Frost), Sergeant Angel soon finds himself facing incredible odds in England's "safest countryside village".  More slapstick action-comedy than the first film of the trilogy, the references turned from horror films to action films (most notably Point Break and Bad Boys 2).  The cornetto theme is maintained in a small scene early on in the movie, and both films share a "short cut", fence-hopping gag.  One particularly standout performance is turned in by Flash-Gordon-forest-prince/brief-James-Bond Timothy Dalton as a flamboyant supermarket owner.  At many points of the flick, he totally steals the show.

Several weeks ago now, I had an amazing opportunity: to see the Cornetto Trilogy in it's entirety for the first time in San Francisco.  Jessie Hawthorne Ficks (chief "maniac" of "Midnites for Maniax") secured a spot on Edgar Wright's North American Cornetto Trilogy Tour for the Metreon in SOMA.  All three features in 4K digital projection and, of course, a month-early preview of The World's End.  Although I had to play quasi-hooky with my job in order to attend (sadly meaning a fair amount of quick ducks out of the theater in order to field phone calls during the first two movies), both of the first films stand up quite well to the test of time.  To this day (and TWE included), Shaun of the Dead still remains my favorite.

The latest entry in Edgar Wright's filmatic directorship, The World's End, continues to star both Simon Pegg (who also shares a writing credit with Wright) and Nick Frost.  With the sadly notable exception of Jessica Hynes, nearly every member of Shaun of the Dead's minor cast returns for at least bit parts in The World's End.  The film centers around the character of Gary King, a man stepping into his fourth decade of life but finding himself stuck in the glory days of his youth, particularly his last night of high school.  That night, he and his four chums attempted to make the epic pub crawl through their small town: 12 pubs in one night, culminating at The World's End.  Of course, they never completed the crawl and ended up having the night of their lives (at least as far as Gary is concerned), but he is still stuck on the failure of their "mission" and is determined to get the gang back together and conquer the Golden Mile.

The problem?  The rest of his gang have grown up.  Nearly all of them have families of their own and worthwhile careers and absolutely no desire to return to their dead-end hometown, much less relive the pub crawl 20 years prior.  Nick Frost's character has, in fact, become a complete teetotaller following his last traumatic interaction with Gary years prior.  That falling out has led to a complete rift between the two and it is he that Gary has the hardest time convincing.  The cast is rounded out by some relative newcomers to Edgar Wright films: Eddie Marsan, Paddy Considine (one of the "Andes" from Hot Fuzz), and Martin Freeman (also a small part in Hot Fuzz, more well known for his roles in the original BBC show The Office, as Arthur Dent in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and most recently as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit films).

There are a lot of themes being explored in the film.  At times, they tend to add a little too much to what should be a simple sci-fi/horror/comedy (emphasis primarily on the last), but the story does manage to reassert itself and you're kept entertained most of the time.  The theme of "You can't go home", represented by the current trend of "Starbucking" (everywhere you go, there's a Starbucks, and every one of them is EXACTLY THE SAME) hit me fairly poignantly seeing my relatively small Long Island town (primarily known for it's risque no-tell motel "The Commack Motor Inn" and being the birthplace of Rosie O'Donnell and Bob Costas) being completely overrun by Targets and Wal-marts where iconic childhood landmarks like the roller rink, drive-in, and arena flea market once stood.  The theme resonates to me seeing as I am one of these old fart at this point, not quite so childhood-retentive as Gary, but I can certainly identify with his character to some extent, having seen most of my friends get married and start families while I'm still basically striving to have a good time.

This, I believe, is really where the crux of the film lies.  Gary, point blank, is an alcoholic, a drug addict, and severely damaged.  Not unlike Humbert Humbert of Lolita, he has found himself stuck, fixated in his teens while pushing 40.  The repeat of the pub crawl is his obsession, perhaps because he feels that, if he finally completes it, maybe he can finally grow up.  This last film of the trilogy, all three of which have at least to some extent revolved around drinking and pubs, is inarguably the "drunkest" of the three, and yet, it is also the most sobering.  The severity of Gary's problems, though mostly the butt of jokes, is made pointedly clear in the climax of the film and, not to give away much of a spoiler, figures prominently in The End of the film.

In short, though I do not consider it the best of the three films (Shaun still holds that place in my heart, and has red on him), The World's End dovetails perfectly into place as the trilogy's caboose.  It is more similar to SotD in that the comedy is mixed and even becomes semi-melodramatic at times as opposed to the utter slapstick of Hot Fuzz.  I highly recommend it, even if you haven't seen either of the first two films though, I'm quite sure once you've seen The World's End, you'll be seeking out both Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the BBC comedy Spaced which was the first collaboration between Wright, Pegg, and Frost.  Hopefully, even though they have made pointedly clear that the Cornetto Trilogy has been completed, it will not be the last.

Jason catches a sneak preview of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

Wow, what a mess. And, of course, it breaks Jason's rule of 3-D all over the place.

Okay, I'm going to assume everyone knows the character and has seen the previews. So you know there's a new secret revealed about how Peter Parker really became Spider-Man. No spoilers here, other than to say the new origin is kind of nonsenical, and is related to the creation of the villain--Dr. Connors/The Lizard.

In fact, I want to avoid spoilers entirely, but here are a few surprises you should be aware of:

1. It's surprisingly anti-Semitic. Seriously, that seemed to come out of nowhere.
2. I know in Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN, there was some minor controversy about organic vs. technological web-slingers. But they really didn't help matters here by having shoot webs out of his butt.
3. There are a lot of scenes where he's just strutting around in his Spidey suit, pointing to his crotch and shouting "Wooo!" Either that, or after I went out to take a leak I accidentally wandered into MAGIC MIKE. Come to think of it, his cavalier attitude towards lawbreakers was kind of suspicious.
4. At one point Dennis Leary breaks character and goes on a ten minute rant about comics who only have one shtick. Then Bobcat Goldthwait comes out of nowhere and drags him away.
5. That reference to the SCOTUS health care decision--very topical, that must have taken last-minute pickup shots. But I think it risks becoming dated very easily.
6. If you wait through the credits, there's a scene of Samuel L. Jackson forbidding him from ever joining the Avengers.
7. It's Gwyneth Paltrow's head in that box.
8. Spoiler Alert: It's all a dream.
9. There's an odd cameo with Iceman and the Human Torch who show up just to explain that they consider Spider-Man more of an acquaintance/former roommate than a true "friend."
10. It's actually just Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN, but with Andrew Garfield's face photoshopped over Tobey Maguire and Rhys Ifans over Willem Dafoe.

Yup, that's about it.

Running Time: 0 minutes, despite over an hour of waiting in line, because they gave out way more sneak preview passes to the AMC Mercado 20 than they had room for. So even though I showed up over an hour before, I still didn't get it. Seriously, screw the AMC Mercado and screw phony sneak preview passes.

Jason watches RARE EXPORTS: A CHRISTMAS TALE

At a special sneak preview showcasing the San Francisco Landmark Theatres' new calendar. Lots of cool stuff coming up, but last Thursday was all about this twisted Christmas flick from Finland. The locals are pissed about the crazy American corporation that is drilling for archaeological relics in their mountain. But if they thought it was bad that they were disturbing the wolves and ruining the reindeer hunt (oh yeah, the heroes are reindeer hunters), just wait until they unearth the most amazing Christmas legend ever. You see, the Santa Claus created by Coca-Cola wasn't the real one. The real one was a demon who wasn't so interested in giving children presents, he was more interested in punishing naughty children. And now he's back. Pretty awesome, although I will say I wanted a bit more of a reveal at the end. Although to say anything more would be too much of a spoiler.

Running Time: 80 minutes

My Total Minutes: 216,210

Jason watches ZOMBIELAND

Oh yeah, sneak preview, bitches!

Jesse Eisenberg stars as a college student trying to make his way home to Columbus through a zombie-filled apolcalypic future hellscape. He's a whiny little dweeb, but survives by following his rules of safety, such as do cardio (so you can outrun the zombies), fasten you seatbelt, don't be a hero, check the back seat, etc..

Along the way he meets Woody Harrelson, on his way to Tallahassee. He's a bad-ass, reckless zombie-killing maniac with a craving for twinkies. They meet up with Wichita and Little Rock (Emma Stone from SUPERBAD and Abigail Breslin from LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE), a pair of sister con-artists. And they have wacky adventures and kill a lot of zombies on their way to Pacific Playland, an amusement park in Southern California that's allegedly zombie-free.

In short, this movie delivers what it promises--cool, fast action and silly gags involving zombies. Just don't think about it too hard, or you'll realize how much doesn't makes sense (it's much easier to just accept they're going to an amusement park because the filmmakers thought it would be cool to kill zombies in an amusement park, rather than for any reason given in the film). And Columbus's voice-over narration is a little too much. Sometimes it's a good joke or gives useful information, but at least half the time it could be cut out. Prime example: it's well established that seat belts are one of his important rules. So when he relaxes on the road with Wichita driving and unbuckles his seat belt (to try not to look so uncool in front of her), we don't need his voice-over explaining that he broke a rule.

But that's a bit of a nitpick. The crowd I saw it with seemed to eat it up (several came in zombie makeup), and frankly I ate it up, too. It was lots of fun. Oh yeah, and no spoilers but I'll say that the BM scene was by far the best surprise in the movie (that probably doesn't mean what you think it means).

Jason drinks Guinness, goes to a drive-in for "Mythbusters", slips into a Vortex for HEAD, and watches PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

Best four-part Thursday night mini-adventure in San Francisco ever.

First up, happy 250th anniversary to Guinness, that sublime blend of Bog Water and Chocolate Syrup (thank you, "Simpsons"). I joined a few friends to celebrate at the Irish Bank and had a few regular Guinness Stouts and a couple pints of the special 25oth anniversary Guinness. A good dark stout like Guinness, but actually carbonated (instead of nitrogenated). Yeah, a Guinness but you can taste the bubbles in it. Rather good.

Well, then I hopped into Ira's car (still dusty from Burning Man, that stuff never disappears) and headed over to the MobMov mobile movie drive-in. Last Thursday they were at an empty parking lot at 17th and Folsom. They played a short old Max Fleischer "Superman" cartoon and then the main event--the season premiere of "Mythbusters" (the rest of you suckers have to wait for October 7th to see this). They the classic Freshman Physics myth that if you drop a bullet and shoot a bullet perfectly horizontal from the same height they'll hit the ground at exactly the same time. After some slower tests (including proving that paintballs aren't aerodynamic enough to work) and some fiddling around with the mechanism to synchronize the start of the fired and dropped bullet, they got them to land in the same frame within 39 mS of each other--pretty darn close. Gravity isn't just a good idea--it's the law! Meanwhile, the build team tested the idiom "knock your socks off". Can you knock Buster out of his socks without killing him. Of course, this is just an excuse to abuse Buster, and eventually we get to the explosives. There's never any doubt this would be busted, but they sure had a lot of destructive fun trying to confirm it.

While there, we met a lot of cool MobMov people, but the coolest by far were the ones who were cooking pizza on a barbecue grill in the parking lot. People who feed me are cool. They still have some work to do on the technique, getting the toppings (the classic mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce, and basil) cooked without burning the crust. But it was still the best parking-lot barbecued pizza I've ever had. Thanks, guys!

Then adventure #3 of the night, over to the Vortex room for a martini and HEAD. Ummm, that is HEAD, the movie starring the Monkees. It's a weird, stream-of consciousness bit of psychadelia. I can't really tell you what it's about. Partly because I slept through quite a bit of it, but mostly because it makes no sense and is completely stream of consciousness. It's the Monkees being weird, and riffing on their personae (including how they're a manufactured pop band).

And finally, adventure #4 was over at the Castro, where there was a line around the block for a midnight sneak preview of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. That is, it was supposed to start at midnight, it actually started ~12:45. For some back story, this movie played at Slamdance last year, where it was bought up by DreamWorks to remake it. As a result, it was pulled from other festivals who had programmed it. Or, at least, DreamWorks asked that they pull it. Cinequest did, Indiefest did not. So I got to see it back then, and here's what I wrote about it back then:

Then it was back to the Roxie for "Paranormal Activity". This movie is fucking awesome! On the surface, it's a simple ghost story [note: that should be "demon story]. A young couple moves into a new house (in San Diego, but that's not really important). All was well until the wife Katie believes the house is haunted, possibly by the same spirits that haunted her as a kid. To assuage her fears, her husband Micah sets up a video camera in their bedroom to watch them while they sleep. This movie is all made of their home videos (new trend hitting the mainstream, what with "Cloverfield" and "Diary of the Dead"?) And it's a slow buildup. There's a good 30 minutes before the first "scare", and that's a door moving 2 inches back and forth [Note: I exaggerated, it moves a couple of feet]. Could be the wind, but all the windows were closed! But the sloooooow buildup continues, and without giving anything away I'll say by the end it was kicking everyone's ass. The slow build is absolutely vital for building up the realism, and although 30 minutes of not much happening might sound boring, it's absolutely vital. I haven't heard real screams like this in a theater in quite a while, and this is a jaded Indiefest midnight audience. Wow!

I also wrote an open letter to DreamWorks at the time:

Gentlemen, you've picked up a wonderful property, now please don't fuck it up! I'm not a hard-liner who's against remakes. Honestly, I'm curious to see how you will handle this material (I have a hard time believing a major studio will give the audience enough credit to go 30 minutes just to see a door move back and forth as the first "scare", but we'll see how it goes). I liked the original enough that nothing short of universally awful reviews will keep me from seeing your remake. With that said, please don't keep the original version hidden forever. I'm still displeased you got it pulled from Cinequest. I was looking forward to running around Cinequest telling everyone to see it, now I'll have to run around telling everyone how awesome it was and how they should cry because they don't get to see it. Anyway, I just want to beg you (seriously, I'm on my knees as I type this), please please please pleeeeease! After you've had fun with your remake, please release the original version in some form. Perhaps a special edition DVD with both versions? Because this movie is excellent, and if you hide this away the world of cinema will be missing a treasure. Thank you for listening to me.

Well, then DreamWorks was bought by Paramount, and they're releasing the original version (with some small changes, more on that later). I assume/hope the remake idea is shelved, and they'll let this movie thrive in distribution. And while I'm on the subject, they're doing something a little different with the distribution--they're letting the Internet buzz determine where it gets played. If you want it to play near you, click here to go to the film's website and click on the "Demand It!" button and enter your location. Cities that get the most demand, presumably get the movie on the big screen.

But back to last Thursday's screening. As I said, it was supposed to be a midnight movie, but it didn't start until well after. Luckily I was on Indiefest's list, so even though the line was around the block I did get to cut enough of the line to still get my front row center seat. There were a couple of guys there to introduce the movie, and then film rolled...

Starting with Harry Knowles annoying face talking about how he freaked out at every sound in his house at night after seeing it. Whatever. Perhaps I was just tired, pissy that the movie was starting late and kicking myself because I'd get hardly any sleep before going to work the next day, but all I could think of was 'get this fat sack of shit off the screen so we can watch the fucking movie already!'

And then the movie started, and I was immediately glad I was there. They changed very few things for the most part. There's one note of Paramount thanking the participants in this movie that obviously wasn't there before. I'm pretty sure they added the keys scene, and maybe her smile when she decides to stay home instead of fleeing to a hotel. I did notice that Micah is a kinda giant douche-bag. I think that was always the case, but it definitely stuck out more in my mind this time. And then the ending--that was changed a lot. No spoilers here, but it's now more Hollywood. It's still effective, but very different (and allows for the possibility of a sequel...okay, that's the closest you get to a spoiler). And although I like the original ending better, seeing it once like that was really cool because it gave someone like me who's seen it before something to make me jump.

As for the rest of the audience, just like last time a jaded midnight audience was screaming. Awesome. This movie totally works.

And then home, 2.5 hours of sleep (it was worth it), and then off to work. What a Thursday night!

Jason watches INGLORIOUS BASTERDS

I actually saw it last Wednesday at a sneak preview (courtesy of Indiefest) at the Castro with Quentin Tarantino in attendance (who was entertaining, although much of the Q&A were fans slobbering and asking him "How did you get to be so awesome?") Then I saw it again on Friday with a friend. And I've been slow to write about it. I think I've actually had writer's block. And I think I've figured out why.

At first, I couldn't write about it without sounding like ridiculous ad copy. Something like, "It's a bad-ass Nazi-killin' Jewish revenge fantasy" (and it is). But I couldn't put into words how it's something more than that. How the Basterds are just one part of the story. How the opening line--"Once Upon a Time...in Nazi-Occupied France" would be a more appropriate title (not that INGLORIOUS BASTERDS isn't the coolest title ever). How the opening scene with Col. Hans Landa, the "Jewhunter" (Christopher Waltz, who is the most amazing revelation in this movie. I predict big things in his future) interrogates a French dairy farmer to find the Jews hiding under his floorboards is so tense I held my breath at times. How it's a propaganda film about Nazi propaganda films. How it's very much about cinephilia, how it literally uses film as an incendiary device, and how the climax literally burns down the screen. And that's not even getting into the actual Basterds themselves. A team of Jewish-American soldiers undercover in France killing as many Nazis as possible. How can you not love that? Plus there's Brad Pitt doing an outrageous accent as Lt. Aldo "The Apache" Raine, there's Eli Roth (director of CABIN FEVER and HOSTEL) as "The Bear Jew". I know plenty of people who either love or hate Eli Roth, but you at least have to give him credit for bulking up for the role, and seeing him prancing around after beating a Nazi skull in with a baseball bat is pretty amusing ("Teddy fuckin' ballgame knocks it out of the park!") At times (in fact, quite a lot of the time) it devolves into a weird style of near-slapstick (especially when the Basterds go under cover as Italians). There are little moments I love. Like applying rouge as war paint--short, not at all-subtle, but effective and makes me laugh. There are so many more things to love. I haven't even talked about Hugo Stiglitz. And I haven't (and won't) talk about the surprising ending. In fact, a lot of this movie surprised me. You can go in expecting just the Basterds, but you get so much more (the main reason I think ONCE UPON A TIME IN NAZI-CONTROLLED FRANCE would be a more appropriate title).

In the Q&A afterwards, Quentin talked about story, and while there are some great movies out there, too many Hollywood movies don't really have a story, they're 90 minute sitcoms. I.e., they set up a situation in the beginning, and the rest of the movie is living up to that situation. There isn't a winding path it goes down where things happen to move from one situation to another. And that's really what impressed me. That if you just see the beginning, you can't guess how it will end. If you just see the beginning and the ending, you would have to wonder how it got from A to B. The ending is far from inevitable, and the route there is far from direct.

And if none of what I wrote about made any sense, then I'll just end by saying it's the fact of Jewish vengeance, and I loved that.

Jason watches "Flash of Genius"

With thanks to a friend for getting me into this sneak preview/press screening.

You might not think a movie about the invention of the intermittent windshield wiper and the ensuing 12 year patent litigation would be that interesting, but Greg Kinnear deserves tons of credit for making the central character--Dr. Robert Kearns--so compelling. Dr. Kearns was a professor of electrical engineering, living in Detroit in the 60's. The invention itself is a little perfunctory. After a bit of a buildup, it works the first time. He teams up with some friends in the auto parts business, and is soon demonstrating his invention to Ford. They like the idea, buy he wants to manufacture it himself. They string him along, then suddenly want out (shortly after he gives them a working unit to send to regulators in Washington, D.C.). The next year, Ford introduces intermittent windshield wipers on their cars. He tries to fight, fails, and has a little nervous breakdown. He comes back, tries to move on with his life, but that fight is still there. He gets a lawyer (Alan Alda, in a brief role), that gets him a settlement offer of $250K (which he thinks he can bump up to $400K). He declines, he goes it alone, and the fight consumes him as his children grow up and his wife leaves him. It's based on a true story, so if you've done your research there's no real surprise at the end. Even representing himself, after 12 years he finally wins. I will say two things--first, the scene of him interviewing himself on the stand is pure comedy gold that wouldn't have been so brilliant if Kinnear hadn't played it so straight (watch it, and then imagine Jim Carrey playing it and realize how silly and slapstick it could've been). Second, there's a distinct bittersweet quality to his victory--maybe even more bitter than sweet. The fight had cost him his marriage, most of his 6 children's childhoods, and for a time his mental health. As an engineer (okay, physicist. The point is, as a technical weenie), I appreciate his accomplishment and how it proved patents mean something (in the end, he was doing it more for that than for the money), but if I were in the same position I'd have bailed out at $400K. If not then, certainly near the end when Ford offered $30 million.

Jason watches "Kabluey"

Thank you to the SF Film Society for the invite to this sneak preview of this indie-comedy that opens Friday in San Francisco.

Lisa Kudrow is top billed as Leslie, but she's the straight woman here. The comic star is writer/director Scott Pendergrast (who will be at the Friday and Saturday screenings at the Opera Plaza). He plays Salman, Leslie's incompetent loser brother-in-law. Leslie's husband (his big brother) is on and extended tour of duty in Iraq, and she's having trouble holding it together taking care of her two young boys while working at a go-nowhere web startup Bluenexion (helping people blue-nect?) He moves in to help, but isn't much help as the kids hate him. They even actively try to kill him by poisoning him in his sleep or putting thumbtacks in his cereal. He's not even bringing in any money, until Leslie gets him a job at Bluenexion. They're barely surviving the dot-com bust, and are just trying to rent out office space to keep from falling apart. So they put him in a big blue round headed mascot suit and have him hand out fliers (despite not having fingers). It's hot, it's uncomfortable, and the costume just looks incredibly sad (he can't seem to keep the head up). But kids love him, and the anonymity becomes his ticket to...something. Not quite success, but something a little better. He connects with the kids, he learns secrets, and in some way develops a sense of courage to protect the kids and even Leslie. A nice indie comedy with a sense of absurdity and heart.

Jason watches "Full Grown Men"

Thank you to Indiefest for getting me into this sneak preview. "Full Grown Men" opens at the Lumiere Theater in San Francisco on Friday.

This movie boasts an impressive, eclectic supporting cast, including Alan Cumming as a psychotic former moose mascot, Deborah Harry as a professional mermaid, and Amy Sedaris as a clown/barmaid backed up by three midget bouncers. But the movie belongs to Matt McGrath as 30-something child Alby Cutrera. It opens with a jaunty animated recap of how fun his childhood was, and how great he was at tormenting his parents, teachers, and best friend Elias. So it's not surprising that even when he grew up, got married, and had his own son, he still likes to play with toys and get into trouble. And when he gets into another fight with his wife, he walks out (or as she puts it, "run away from home, little boy"). Instead of immediately making good on his promise of going to DiggityLand (a fictional amusement park), he goes back home to his sick mother and looks up Elias, who now works as a teacher for retarded children and tries to pick up the friendship where they left off. As it happens, Elias is going to DiggityLand for a special education teachers convention, and he invites Alby along. On the way, in between meeting wacky characters, Elias finally gets fed up with Alby's abuse and childishness, and kicks him out.

As I said, this movie belongs to Matt McGrath, and without his ability to show the sympathetic, even enjoyable side of a rather unlikable person, this movie wouldn't work at all. As it was, it's a fun little movie that catches the oddity of a segment of the young adult generation that hasn't grown up.

Jason watches "Wanted"

A friend invited me to a press screening of "Wanted" last night (opens today everywhere).

You've probably seen the previews for this over-the-top Angelina Jolie/James MacAvoy action flick about super-powered assassins. And you've probably had one of two reactions: either "That looks fuckin' awesome!" or "That looks fuckin' stupid!"

First, my review for the "fuckin' awesome!" people: You're right, it is! Whoooo!!! The action is incredible, awesomely choreographed. It's funny and twisted and exciting as hell. Even the twists that are telegraphed an hour in advance are handled with a grace, flair, and humour that makes the whole thing just gleeful fun. Plus, you get a brief glimpse of Angelina Jolie's ass! (Although, considering you're reading this on the Internet, if you wanted to see Angelina Jolie's ass, I'm sure you've seen it hundreds of times before)

Okay, now my review for the "fuckin' stupid!" people: To be specific, this is aimed at people who can enjoy a good action flick, but think this one in particular looks stupid--if you just don't like action, you probably haven't even read this far.

Look, they're obviously not attempting realism here, so stop complaining about it. I believe it was Roger Ebert who said (one of the few times I really agreed with him) that movies aren't about literal truth, they're about emotional truth. Otherwise, "The Wizard of Oz" is about a girl who bumps her head and is out cold for a few hours, not a magical journey about friendship and learning to believe in yourself. Well, emotionally, this is the twisted bastard child of "The Matrix" and "Fight Club".

MacAvoy provides the connection to reality as sad-sack nobody Wesley Gibson, an "account manager" who is so unimportant no results come up when he googles his name. His father left when he was 7 days old (presumably upon realizing he'd fathered the least important human ever), his boss is a bitch, his best friend is sleeping with his girlfriend, and he's broke. He doesn't even have the energy to wish for something better, instead plodding through life apologizing to everyone. Then Angelina Jolie and explains his father had just died, and the killer is now gunning for him. Turns out there's a Fraternity of weaver/assassins, his father was the one of the best, but now one has gone rogue and is taking out the whole Fraternity. Sure, it sucks that someone is trying to kill him, but he survives and a hot assassin chick is taking him on adventures. He feels different, like he's finally woken up. He tells off his boss, breaks his ergonomic keyboard over his best friends face, and goes off to join the assassins. Even if training consists of him getting his ass kicked over and over again, it's preferably to crappy old life.

And I realize I'm devolving into just a plot summary, so I'll quit before I get to spoilers. I suppose there are very few situations where "I want to quit my stupid fucking cubicle job and go become a super-assassin" is an appropriate thing to say. But a review for "Wanted" is one of those situations.

Jason watches "Body of War"

Thank you to the good people at Indiefest who invited me to a last minute free screening of this new anti-war documentary.

On September 13, 2001, Thomas Young, inspired by patriotism called his army recruiter and enlisted to go smoke out the evil-doers in the caves of Afghanistan. However, after his training it became pretty clear that he wasn't going to Afghanistan, he was going to Iraq, even though that didn't make much sense to him. After just 5 days in Iraq, his (un-armored) truck was ambushed and he took a bullet in the back just below his left collarbone. It severed his spinal cord and left him paralyzed from his torso down. This movie jumps back and forth between the story of his homecoming (and wedding, recuperation, frustrations, and anti-war activism) and the historic debate in 2002 authorizing the war, where Robert Byrd becomes the hero of the anti-war side and the leader of what he calls "The Immortal 23" senators who voted against the war (I don't say this lightly, but Mr. Byrd, you are forgiven for once being a member of the KKK).

The film deftly moves between the two stories, but it's really Thomas Young's story that's the heart of the movie (you could make the case that Robert Byrd's story is then the brain of the
movie). His story is tragic and moving, but he's still a charming guy (he gets big laughs addressing a church and apologizing for all the "umms" and "ahs" he uses. "I'm sorry if I might sound presidential"), and the Iraq Veterans Against the War gave him a voice (and he's now a political blogger for Billboard magazine). And I should note, this is not about a guy or a family who is afraid to sacrifice more--his little brother is in Iraq now, on his second tour after being stop-lossed.

The audience was full of members of various anti-war organizations--Code Pink, Iraq Veteran Against the War, etc. I might've actually been the only person in the theater who was there as a movie fan first and an anti-war activist second (in fact, it's not fair to call myself an activist. I support anti-war activities, but not very actively. I mostly live my life, do my job, and watch movies). So I'll take the task of saying that besides having a very powerful story to tell about a very good character, it's also a well-made movie. A movie that jumps from the personal story to the political debate could've ended up a lot more scatter-shot, and there were countless temptations to get off on tangents (the coffins not being photographed, poor medical treatment of wounded vets, etc.). But they do a good job of keeping it on Thomas Young, and when he finally meets Robert Byrd and they honor the Immortal 23, there's a scene of them walking down the hallway in Congress that's among the best shots ever (and not just because it reminded me of "Bubba Ho-Tep", it's a powerful scene in and of itself).

Here's a pic of the co-directors, Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue (making his feature co-directing debut):


That's right, Phil freakin' Donahue! I met him and shook his hand last night. And let me tell you, in the Q&A he's still masterful at working an audience. Of course, this was a very friendly, receptive audience. The one exception being the issue of impeachment. Some in the audience still want to impeach Bush (and Cheney) rather than just wait out the final months of their term. Phil disagreed, saying (and I hope I got this 90+% right), "If you try to impeach Bush now, you'll be accused of undermining the President in a time of war, and you will elect John McCain. And you can quote me on that!" (so I did, and for the record I agree). I also agree that trying to impeach Bush will a) be a failure, because there are enough Republicans in Congress to block it, and b) just come off as a political show of sour grapes and will make you look bitter (sorry for using such a political hot-potato word).

"Body of War" opens this Friday, April 18, at the Landmark Clay in San Francisco and the Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley. Unless I have this wrong or they've changed plans, Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue will be at the 4:45 show at the Clay on Saturday, and the 4:50 show at the Shattuck on Sunday. It's playing now or soon in select theaters across the country, check out their website for more information.

Jason watches "The Forbidden Kingdom"

Thanks to the good people at CAAM (who put on SFIAAFF), I was invited to a special sneak preview of the movie that unites Jackie Chan and Jet Li for the first time ever!

It's odd enough that they've never teamed up to make a movie. Despite the contrasts in their styles, they're both huge action stars who (as this movie shows) can complement each other very well. Odder still, when they finally do unite, it's in an American movie? At least, that's what was going through my mind as I waited for the movie to start--'They're gonna Americanize this too much, they need an obligatory American hero to sell it domestically, and that's going to ruin it.' Fortunately, as the movie rolled I quickly realized that this isn't a movie that belongs to America, nor is it a movie that really belongs to China, it's a movie that belongs to the international legions of Shaw Brothers fans.

Michael Angarano nominally "stars" as Jason Tripitikas, a Boston teen obsessed with kung fu movies he gets from Old Hop's (Jackie Chan, under tons of old man makeup) pawn shop. He finds a magic staff, and when cornered by bullies it transports him to ancient China where he's suddenly a monk. He runs into Jackie Chan as (Drunken Master) Lu Yan and eventually Golden Sparrow (Yifei Liu, in a variation of Pei-Pei Cheng's character from "Come Drink With Me") and the (nearly) Silent Monk (Jet Li). They join on a mission to return the staff to its rightful owner, the Monkey King (also Jet Li), imprisoned in stone by the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou). Loads of crazy fighting ensues, and a good time is had by all. Even the Bride with White Hair shows up. The whole thing plays like a cross of "The Neverending Story" (geeky kid gets drawn into the world of his dreams), "Big Trouble in Little China" (white guy is helpless as Chinese kick ass around him) and a gleeful mash-up of more Shaw Brothers and Kung Fu movies than I could identify.

"The Forbidden Kingdom" opens next Friday (April 18) in theaters nationwide. Go see it!

Oh, and as for the white guy being the hero in China, if you want to get hung up on that, I suppose you can. But at least it's played with appropriate humility and humor. It's nowhere near as annoying as Tom Cruise going to Japan and becoming the greatest samurai ever in one year. What the hell was that?

[Additional Note: I forgot to mention, director Rob Minkoff, screenwriterJohn Fusco, and stars Collin Chou and Yifei Liu (making her American movie debut) were in attendance and introduced the film. However, they were really strict about anti-piracy measures (which I applaud) so I didn't risk pulling out my cellphone and trying to snap a picture of them. Still, it was cool to see the creative people behind this, and my congratulations to them]

Jason watches a sneak preview of "Backseat"

Thank you again to Indiefest for getting me into another sweet sneak preview.

"Backseat" is a bit of deadpan road-trip absurdity. Two friends drive from New York to Montreal to a) meet Donald Sutherland, and b) deliver a brick of coke to a friend of a friend (of a friend? I forget how long that chain). Along the way, they hook up with a psychotic cousin and his friend who only communicates via text messaging. Yeah, it's pretty weird, but they play it totally straight (even the showdown where everyone starts pulling out guns). Pretty cool.

"Backseat" opens Friday at Landmark Theaters in San Francisco and Berkeley. Friday night two of the filmmakers will be at the San Francisco shows. Saturday night they'll be in Berkeley. Check it out!

Jason watches "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"

Aka, Judd Apatow and his cronies make a lazy, intermittently funny movie.

First, I must thank my friend Karen for taking me to this press screening (it opens April 18).

As for my review, that was it, in the first line. I guess I could summarize the plot--guy gets dumped by his famous actress girlfriend, goes to Hawaii to forget her, by coincidence she shows up there. They meander through a movie with cameos from Judd Apatow regulars--Bill Hader, Johah Hill, Paul Rudd, etc.--all playing the part of "conspicuous cameo from a friend of Judd Apatow". As I said, I laughed at bits. There really are a lot of good jokes, they're just hung on such a lazy, lazy story. And I should say that the audience seemed to laugh a lot more than I did.

Now what I really want to write about--penises (penes? What's the plural? Cocks.) Something has happened to mainstream film while I was off watching art house and festival films. I first noticed it in "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story". Apparently to mainstream American audiences, the sight of a penis is hilarious. A naked lady can be presented either erotically or comically in mainstream American film, but apparently a naked man can only be comedy. And it's getting worse. At least in "Walk Hard" there was some comedy in the penis being uncomfortably close to John C. Reilly's face. Here the comedy is just a naked man standing in his living room. Neither the penis nor any other part of the man is doing anything funny, but this was the biggest laugh of the movie. I think "Idiocracy" got it slightly wrong. The most popular movie 1000 years from now won't be "Ass" (2 hours of a guy's ass, sometimes it farts), it'll be "Cock".

I can't believe that after going to three film festivals back-to-back-to-back, this is the movie that eases me back into mainstream cinema.

Jason watches "Redacted"

Indiefest invited me to a special sneak preview of Brian De Palma's new anti-war film, "Redacted". Although this seems to be the season of anti-war films, this is actually the first I've seen. I missed "In the Valley of Elah", and haven't seen "Rendition" yet. "Lions for Lambs" comes out Friday, and I'll try to see it eventually. So this is the first, and my guess, without having seen any others, it will be the most controversial.

It's based on an incident in which a squad of American soldiers raped a 15 year old girl in Samarra and murdered her family. The crime was later covered up in the official US Army investigation (hence the title). It's told in a series of video journals, employing a range of styles from security cameras to home movies to news reports to a French documentary to videos posted on the web. This accomplishes a duel purpose--first to emphasize how important non-traditional sources are for uncovering the truth, second it let's De Palma play with different styles. And that's somewhat to the film's detriment. Especially early on, before it gets gross, it is a little too playful. More importantly, De Palma has such a strong visual eye that he's incapable of letting the amateur footage look amateur. Even the security camera footage is well framed and has clear audio. I sorta feel like a less polished filmmaker could actually do a more convincing job with this concept.

However, that's a very minor, niggling point compared to the power of the film. It is raw, tense, and disturbing. And most importantly (and what I predict will make it the most controversial war picture this season) is that it does not portray our troops as heroes. Even the soldiers who oppose the crime are too weak to stop it. It even makes a joke about "supporting the troops" during the rape scene. And unless I'm mistaken, one of the soldiers had an Oscar with a miniature M-16 and helmet. Yeah, this isn't a subtle movie--one of the villains is a big fat dumbass named "Rush"--but fuck it, I liked it's unsubtle guts.

Jason watches "Fido"--again

This zom-rom-com was the closing night feature at Indiefest this year. Click here and scroll ~2/3 of the way down for my review of it at the time. I'll generally still stand by my earlier review (with one correction--the corporation is ZomCon, not ZomCom), and I'll add that it holds up well to multiple viewings. In fact, signicantly more rested this time, I think I enjoyed it even more. I'll also add compliments to Tim Blake Nelson as pervy but heroic neighbor Mr. Theopolis and Henry Czerny as the villainous neighbor and ZomCon head of security.

And most importantly, my thanks to Dead Channels for getting me into this free sneak preview. "Fido" has been playing for a couple of weeks in NY and LA, and it comes to SF at the Lumiere starting July 6. Check it out!

Jason watches "Talk To Me"

As a special sneak preview, courtesy of Indiefest and going.com. I didn't realize how much of an advance preview this was. This doesn't open until July 13th in limited release and then August 3rd in wide release (according to IMDb).

Anyway, let me just say, Don Cheadle is a fantastic actor, arguably the current best at bridging comedy and drama. And this movie is, if nothing else, a showcase for his talents in both. I'll admit I didn't know who Ralph "Petey" Greene--the ex-con turned DJ/TV star/DC community leader--was before I saw this movie, and now I'm curious as to how faithful it is to reality (in my defense, I was 10 when he died and have never lived in Washington, DC). I wouldn't be surprised if many of the scenes were fabrications, exaggerations, or composites of multiple events. I'd believe that his first day on WOL radio was full of nerves and he was fired on the spot, I'm not so ready to believe that after getting fired he (with the help of Dewey Hughes, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) snuck back in and locked himself in the studio until he was saved by the sheer volume of listener calls. I'm willing to believe that he was unfaithful and fought with his girlfriend and his fellow DJ's. I'm definitely willing to believe that he reported the news of MLK's death with a sense of outrage, sadness, grace, and intelligence that defused a tense situation and calmed the chaos on the streets of Washington. I'm not necessarily buying that those happened on the same day and the news of MLK's death broke up a fistfight between himself and another DJ--that just seems too convenient and theatrical.

But the historical accuracy is not actually that important to me. In this regard, I remember something Roger Ebert once wrote (and I paraphrase): "Movies aren't about literal truth, they're about emotional truth. If they were about literal truth, 'The Wizard of Oz' would be a story of a little girl who gets hit on the head and has a weird dream. But any child can tell you that's not what it's about".

In the same way, biopics tend to work best when they give you a feeling of what the subject character was all about, rather than just a litany of events in his life. And in this sense, "Talk to Me" does an admirable job (again, this is coming from someone who didn't know who Petey Greene was, so people who knew him might have differing opinions). I especially liked how it didn't just fawn over him, it showed him warts and all--throwing up from nerves (or alcohol), showing up drunk, committing career suicide on the "Tonight Show" (and destroying his friendship with Dewey Hughes in the process).

I suspect when it comes out, some reviewers will take it to task for not being more political. Yeah, it takes place in a turbulent time, and he was an outspoken guy. But the political messages--Civil Rights = good, killing Martin Luther King Jr. = bad, burning down the city in response = also bad--are kind of no-brainers. But I didn't really see that as the point of the movie. It's just the celebration of the life of a flawed man who did great things. Perhaps, if you want to see politics in there, there's a message about finding ways to give ex-cons a shot at legitimate careers. But really, it's about the man, his life, and his friends--especially his relationship with Dewey Hughes. Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor work great together

Oh yeah, I also have to say that the period style and costumes were really well done. That's also a lot of fun of the movie. Alright, I've already written more than I generally do about movies that are/will be in general release, so I'm ending it there.