Please sponsor! The moviegoer you save might be you!

But it's probably me. =)

Donate/sponsor my 2013 Watch-A-Thon run!
-------------------------------------------
For about two dollars, you can buy a soda, regular or diet…

For just two dollars a film at the Watch-A-Thon, you can help the Brattle Theatre keep thousands of moviegoers fed with buckets of popcorn, salt and butter optional…

For about two dollars, you can also buy a cup of coffee…

For just two dollars a film at the Watch-A-Thon, you can help the Brattle Theatre save moviegoers from salt-and-butter-induced dehydration by keeping drinks, soft and hard, hot and cold, pouring at their concessions counter…

For about two dollars, you can buy a couple of donuts, filled or frosted…

Mmmm… Frosted… Rarrr…

What? Huh? Was I saying something? Oh yes—

*ahem*

For just two dollars a film at the Watch-A-Thon, you can help the Brattle Theatre keep moviegoers illuminated by the digital and celluloid brilliance of the greatest, funniest, darkest, funnest, truest, smartest, coolest, and most fried films available. Films that open minds and punch hearts. Films that get you thinking, talking, laughing, and crying…*

Why don't you click this link right now and show your support? With just one not-too-complicated payment of $24**, you can start to change the life of a moviegoer forever. And if you join me at the Brattle sometime, you'll find that life could be your own.

Thanks for your support.

Keep on keepin on~

* What? Yeah, that's right, crying. What? I suppose you're gonna say you've never seen SHAUN OF THE DEAD or STAR TREK II?

** A suggested, not required, amount. Based on the number of films presented in this year's Watch-A-Thon and—"I want my two dollars!"

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Please support the Unofficial Film School of Boston, the Brattle Theater—

Sponsor my 2013 Watch-A-Thon! Thanks!

2013 Watch-A-Thon: Security Alert (not! =)

Please support the Unofficial Film School of Boston, the Brattle Theater—

Sponsor my 2013 Watch-A-Thon! Thanks!

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Dearest Customer,

As part of security measures, we regularly screen activity in the internets mail system for the traffic connected to the Brattle Theatre. I am recently contacting you after noticing an issue on your account.

Our system detected unusual Brattle Theatre inactivity linked to your electronic mail account, please follow the world wide web hyperlink below to fill the Watch-A-Thon form and ensure that your account we will not require to suspend and operation of the theater to proceed:

IMPORTANT WATCH-A-THON FORM

Note: If you are not fill the application your account will be permanently undisenabled and we look forward to your benefit from added monies (in US Dollars currency) of continued picture motion services.

This is serious matters of securing your privates and funds for advantage to this community as well to your taxation and promotion of arts culture. Please do not disregard.

Much appreciations for timely action,
Saul Overman, Esq.
Watch-A-Thon Division, Brattle Theatre

* If you would to join yourself to our Watch-A-Thon team of 2013, please examine the instructions here:

REGISTER FOR 2013 WATCH-A-THON

** And also option so attend any or every Watch-A-Thon events of cinema as listed here for 12 and 13 October:

WATCH-A-THON MOVING PICTURES

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Thanks! =)

Keep on keepin on~

2013 Watch-A-Thon!

Please support the Unofficial Film School of Boston, the Brattle Theater—

Sponsor my 2013 Watch-A-Thon! Thanks!

WATCH ALL THE MOVIES!
IN ONLY TWO OF THE DAYS?

Greetings and salutations, my wise, enchanting, dashing, spiffily dressed, aromatic, arts-loving friend! I write to you as a fan and supporter of the super-awesome-fantastic Brattle Theatre, the unofficial film school of Boston and my favorite venue for soaking in the vast spectrum of cinematic radiation.

This Columbus Day weekend, October 12th and 13th, I will participate in the Brattle Theatre's Movie Watch-A-Thon fundraiser and would very much appreciate your most charitable (and tax-deductible) help!

The Brattle has programmed an intense course of six films for each day. That's *twelve* hours of movieing per day! The Saturday leg is an uphill climb of cult films, while the Sunday finish is a scenic trail of hills and dales through classic selections.

But hey, that's only the surface of the thing, the numbers, the trappings. The important bit, the heart and cash soul of the event—that's YOU! It's only with *your* help that my Watch-A-Thon run can raise funds to keep the non-profit Brattle Theatre's doors open, seats filled, beer and wine pouring, and films screening! You can sponsor my run on a per-movie basis, or make a flat one-time (or two, or three =) donation of support via my crowdrise page:

My Watch-A-Thon page @crowdrise

Each day's movie marathon runs from noon to midnight, and I plan to complete both, dominating all twelve films—check out the line-up!

Watch-A-Thon 2013 Schedule

If you're interested in joining me for any part of the marathon madness, let me know! And if you'd like to run yourself, or you're curious about the rules and details, sign up/check them out at the Brattle site!

Brattle Theatre Watch-A-Thon 2013

Thanks mucho for your support!

Keep on keepin on,
brian out =)

p.s. Please feel free to pass this message on to any filmaniac or cinephile you know who'd be interested in participating or supporting this awesome little theater. Thanks!

* October 7, 2013. Read "Watch-A-Thon Security Alert."

2011 Watch-A-Thon in snapshots

110801 to 110814 Watch-A-Thon 2011, a set on Flickr.

The End (of the Watch-A-Thon) Is Nigh!

DOOMSDAY APPROACHES!

Yeah, the details are a bit sketchy, but regardless of your personal beliefs, you know it's coming. You've seen the signs. Climate change. Increasing civil and political unrest across the globe. Environmental crises and natural disasters. Wars and rumors of wars. TRANSFORMERS 3.

Are *you* ready for Doomsday? Sure, you can try to survive it, save your mortal coil, if you can afford it. Invest in an apocalypse bunker so that you start off at the top of the hellscape food chain. But even an economy class bunker will set you back something like ten grand. Who can afford that in this recession, right?

You might be better off avoiding the hellscape altogether by seeing to your soul rather than your body. And how does one go about doing that? Well, you want to start by having lived all of your life in a wholesome, righteous fashion. Meaning, y'know, you've had love in your heart for all creatures great and small, been a responsible steward of the environment, turned the other cheek, recycled faithfully, flagellated yourself vigorously for those impure thoughts you've had when walking by American Apparel, and flossed regularly.

If you've done that, you should be all set and square with just about any maker, deity/s, or higher power who will be judging whether to honor you with a place in Valhalla or instead sentence you to a rendezvous with Sawyer, Jack, and Kate for a disappointing finale.

So, you've done all that righteous living, right?

Not so much, you say? Hrmm...

Well, then what you're gonna want to do is invest in some Good Works: charitable-type acts on your part in support of the needs of others. You know, that stuff that when you hear someone else does it, you say something like, "Yeah, right, he's just doing that so that no one can say he's a complete toolbox. You KNOW he cares more about the tax deduction than finding homes for those no-good slacker hobo clowns."

Now, here's where I can help you, cuz I've got a charitable-type act that totally supports the needs of others, namely, me, my Watch-A-Thon, and the awesome little moviehouse known as the Brattle Theatre.

So, do yourself a favor and save your eternal soul. Donate, and sponsor my 2011 Brattle Theatre Movie Watch-A-Thon! You can contribute to your salvation via my FirstGiving page.

Otherwise, well, I'll see you in Hell...

... Y'know, thru my binoculars, looking down from Valhalla.

Have a nice day. =)

Keep on keepin on,
brian out

P.S. Save a friend! Forward the good word on to those who don't want to be left behind with the mutants, reavers, and smokers.

P.P.S. Only three days to the finish line! Please donate, and let me know if you'd like to catch the original 3:10 TO YUMA or SKATETOWN USA at the Brattle, or FINAL DESTINATION 5 at Davis Square, with me this weekend. =)

2011 Watch-A-Thon: Day 8

[Rambling on movies I've hit as part of this year's Brattle Theatre Movie Watch-A-Thon. For the running count of 'thon films with titles, sans commentary, look here]

• THE REDEMPTION OF GENERAL BUTT NAKED
  trailer | website
  NOT the feel-good-hit-of-the-summer, but I hafta say, THE REDEMPTION OF GENERAL BUTT NAKED is a helluva film. A really well-crafted documentary with some amazing access to the subject over the span of five years, and edited so that its viewpoint remains as objective as possible.
  
  On the personal scale, it's an almost unbelievable situation (a known killer reinvents himself as a holy man), but on top of that, stepping back to a national / societal level, it demonstrates an impossible issue that many nations born or reborn in strife have to deal with. An issue most likely in the future of more than a couple of countries across the globe. Heck, we even deal with it to a degree in the U.S. Basically, what is a society to do with the likes of a General Butt Naked (a violent revolutionary and warlord) once the fighting is over and a government is in place, rebuilding, and ideally, meting out justice? Some of the General's warlord counterparts have ended up in the new parliament in Liberia, but apparently none will own up to the crimes they committed during the years of war. Joshua (the General's real name), having found God, claims he is ready to face punishment for his crimes, and has begun a perhaps lifelong journey to find every victim or survivor of his crimes and ask their forgiveness, as well as help as many of his previous child soldiers get on their feet as productive, God fearing citizens of Liberia. So, you've got ex-warlord politicians protecting their status by denying their crimes, and one ex-warlord evangelist seeking to make up for the tragedies he caused by turning lives around. Who do you put on trial?
  
  There's also the matter of the actual making/shooting of this film having an effect on Joshua's encounters with survivors and victims. You know, the "reality show" and quantum physics thing about how a result can be changed by the act of observing it? I wonder how the scenes we see in the film would have unfolded without documentary film cameras present. Butt Naked the General and Joshua the evangelist are both charismatic performers.
  
  Anyhow, I highly recommend it at the end of a REALLY Good day, when you feel like you can handle a fantastic true story that's built on a lot of tragedy. Y'know, like BRING IT ON, but with Kirsten Dunst as an apparently reformed merciless killer.
  
  Or something. =)
  
  Probably best seen with company so you can discuss afterward.
  

  [Brattle blurb]
  Directed by Eric Strauss and Danielle Anastasion
  
  Joshua Milton Blahyi (aka General Butt Naked) was a ruthless and feared warlord during Liberia’s 14-year civil war. Today, he has renounced his violent past and reinvented himself as a Christian evangelist on a journey of self-proclaimed transformation. Blahyi travels the nation of Liberia as a preacher, seeking out those he once victimized in search of an uncertain forgiveness. But in the end, are some crimes beyond the pale of forgiveness?
  
  Dubbed “General Butt Naked” for fighting with nothing more than an AK-47 and a pair of leather shoes, Blahyi believed he possessed supernatural powers that made him impervious to bullets. The General and his army of child soldiers are said to have killed thousands during Liberia’s horrific civil war.
  
  Following a dramatic conversion to Christianity, the General abruptly laid down his weapons in 1996, leaving behind his soldiers, his country and a war that would rage for another seven years.
  
  Today, Blahyi is on a quest for redemption: facing those he once terrorized, preaching where he once murdered, and trying to rebuild the shattered lives of those he commanded during the war. For five years, filmmakers Eric Strauss and Daniele Anastasion tracked his often troubling path up-close, finding both the genuine and disconcerting in Blahyi’s efforts. The film forces us to question the very nature of what true, meaningful reconciliation looks like in a country where justice has not been available.

  
  Keep on keepin on~

2011 Watch-A-Thon: Day 6

[Rambling on movies I've hit as part of this year's Brattle Theatre Movie Watch-A-Thon. For the running count of 'thon films with titles, sans commentary, look here]

• THE GUARD
  trailer | website
  A supercool, irreverant, and kind of joyous buddy cop/fish-out-of-water/Irish Western with a rocking cast including Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, Mark Strong, LOST's (as far as I'm concerned =) Fionnula Flanagan, and a half dozen others whom I don't know by name but who nevertheless shine, as bungling and malevolent cops, merciless but philosophical criminals, white hats, black hats, and simple townsfolk (aka kindly prostitutes and kid CIs).
  
  Right from the start, I *know* it's going to be good...
  
  
  *** SPOILER ***
  
  A quick-ish recollection of the opening scene of the film...
  
  We see a car full of kids racing recklessly down a two-lane seaside/country road, music blasting, drink and drugs passed around, car weaving across the center line (and in Ireland, so reversed from the U.S. =). We zip ahead to a Garda police car on the side of the road and then see the car zing by. The police car doesn't move. Doesn't even flinch. Off screen: the kids' car comes to an abrupt, crunchy, stop. The police officer, with title "Garda" sewn into his jacket, walks to the wreckage, makes his way from body to body, checking for a pulse and then items in their pockets, relieving them of anything that might compromise their good reputations, including a little baggie of pills and smiley-faced tabs. The officer, Sargeant Boyle, played by Brendan Gleeson, drops one of the tabs on his tongue and stands up to face the rising sun over the ocean. "Gonna be a beautiful day." THE GUARD.
  
  Right? Totally know it's gonna be good, right?
  
  And it only gets better. A new recruit from Dublin, joins Boyle's force later that day, just in time to check out the murder of a John Doe, stylized to appear like an occult, ritual killing. When Boyle is directed to report to central command, he learns from FBI agent Wendell Everett, played by Don Cheadle---
  
  "Behavioral sciences unit?"
  "No."
  "Meh..."
  
  ---that his John Doe is connected to a drug trafficking ring suspected of moving five hundred million - "That's half a billion..." - in drugs into Ireland in the next few days. And so, agent Wendell "straight-laced" Everett joins unconventional sergeant Gerry "feckin wichya" Boyle in his small Irish town hoping to bust this ring wide open. Wacky fun ensues, leading to a pretty wonderful and badass HIGH NOON scenario.
  
  Snappy dialogue, quirky characters, kickass soundtrack. I will be first in line for writer-director John Michael McDonagh's next films. He's the brother of IN BRUGES writer-director Mark McDonagh, and y'know, frankly, this film reminded me of that one in tone and attitude. Helluva gene pool there.
  
  Actually, the only weak bit, looking back, is the one that told me how good it would be - the opening scene. Maybe I missed it in some line that dripped overly heavily in an Irish brogue, but I would've liked for the situation with the reckless kids to have been connected somehow to the drug traffickers. Maybe the kids were blowing money or drugs that they were paid to help the ring in a very low-level way... Or something. But no, it was "just" a really great intro establishing Gleeson's Boyle's nature and the character of the film. =)
  
  
• ROAD TO NOWHERE
  trailer | website | Harvard Film Archive
  Okay, let's see if I can explain this. There's a scandalous mystery involving a lovely May ingenue and a September politician. There's a report of the mystery that gets adapted into a screenplay. There's a director who falls in love w the story and casts a young unknown as the ingenue and an anchorman veteran actor as the politico. This movie tells the story of the actual mystery as well as the story of the shooting of the film based on the mystery and isn't careful about cluing you in as to which bit of storytelling you're watching in any given scene.
  
  So, it's kind of a puzzlebox, and pretty clever in concept, but less than perfect in execution, at least, for my taste. It seems a little more "experimental" than it needs to be, but, having caught the first 15 minutes of post-screening Q&A w the director, it seems that that's most of what he wanted out of this film and filmmaking experience. O well.
  
  I kind of LOVE the basic idea, and the plot of the scandal, but I do wish it had been edited a bit better, and the meta-plot resolved more... deliberately. You'll hafta watch it to see what I mean.
  
  Oh, given that the plot was rather Hitchcockian, I thought it was cute that the anchorman actor's name was Cary Stewart. Of course, it helped that I'd just seen NXNW and VERTIGO, heh. =)
  

  [HFA blurb]
  With Shannyn Sossamon, Tygh Runyan, Cliff De Young
  USA 2010, digital video, color, 101 min
  
  Hellman's bold new film is a moody neo-noir that revolves simultaneously around an unsolved murder mystery and a daring film-within-a-film mirror game. An elliptical and seductive meditation on cinematic illusionism and story telling, Road to Nowhere reveals Hellman's ardent love of the cinema through its thoughtful allusions to Sam Fuller, Victor Erice and Alfred Hitchcock, among others. The gorgeous Shannyn Sossamon casts a bewitching spell on the film as a changeling starlet weaving enigmatically through the intertwined stories, sparking obsessive desires along the way. The first American feature shot using a handheld digital still camera, Road to Nowhere makes clear Hellman's remarkable gift for visual narrative through the haunting imagery that gives the film the floating quality of a waking dream.

  
  
• FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH
  trailer | Brattle
  

  [Brattle blurb]
  (1982) dir Amy Heckerling w/Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Ray Walston [90 min]
  
  This classic coming-of-age film is not only a hilarious comedy and touchingly human-scale story, but also a remarkable time-capsule of California in the early ‘80s. A clear template for Judd Apatow’s comedy blockbusters of today.

Keep on keepin on~

2011 Watch-A-Thon: Day 5

[Rambling on movies I've hit as part of this year's Brattle Theatre Movie Watch-A-Thon. For the running count of 'thon films with titles, sans commentary, look here]

• THESE AMAZING SHADOWS @the Brattle, 8/5/2011.
  trailer | website | National Film Registry
  A love letter to the movies. I didn't realize that this weekend's programming at the Brattle is actually framed by this film and its topic, the National Film Registry, created in the late 80s to collect and preserve American film. All the other films screening this weekend have been selected for the Registry and figure prominently in the clips and discussions in the documentary. Whether you're a film buff or not, if you get a chance to see SHADOWS, please do. It's fun to see how so many different movies, from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY to THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, can be artistic and historic reflections of America, its filmmakers, and its people.
  

  [Brattle blurb]
  (2011) dir Paul Mariano, Kurt Norton [88 min]
  
  THESE AMAZING SHADOWS is a remarkable documentary for anyone who loves movies – from the casual filmgoer to the ultimate cinemaniac. Ostensibly the story of the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress, THESE AMAZING SHADOWS is that and so much more – it is also a tale of discovery and exploration, a primer on the history of film, and an examination of how and why all cinema (from the sacred to the profane) must be preserved and protected. Through interviews with Registry board members, archivists, and notable directors, the filmmakers demonstrate how document artistic, historic, and societal milestones as well as being great entertainment. Guided by a true cinephile’s love of the medium and a treasure trove of archival footage, THESE AMAZING SHADOWS molds a cultural history from pieces of film, offering a microcosm of the work of the National Film Registry and making a powerful case for film preservation.

  
  
• BLAZING SADDLES @the Brattle, 8/5/2011.
  trailer | added to the National Film Registry in 2006
  What is there to say, really? As juvenile and musical and clever as ever. Oh, I never realized that Richard Pryor was a co-writer of this film until this screening. Maybe more than any other Brooks film, this one is chock full of Bugs Bunny-type setups and gags. For some reason, I never really identified them as such before.
  

  [Brattle blurb]
  (1974) dir Mel Brooks w/Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn, Mel Brooks [93 min]
  
  Mel Brooks’ maddeningly hilarious spoof of classic Westerns features some of the 1970’s best gags and most absurdly tasteless dialogue. Not to be missed on the big screen with a crowd!

  
  
• RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES @AMC Harvard Square, 8/5/2011.
  trailer | website
  RISE is pretty frickin awesome. You don't need to be a fan of the original film/s, but if you are, it's EXtra awesome. A totally satisfying action sci-fi flick, featuring CG apes as emotional and empathetic as their live-action human costars, if not moreso, and a clever updated reboot to the PLANET OF THE APES mythos.
  
  When Caesar, the first scientifically-enhanced chimpanzee, runs afoul of the law, Dr. Franco has to turn him over to an ape sanctuary until he gets a date for an appeal to have him returned to his custody. This part of the movie plays like a prison flick, a little SHAWSHANK, a little PRISON BREAK, and a really well done one at that.
  
  I don't think that the subtext of the original films follows all that strongly in this one. Of course you can read into bits of dialogue, conflicts, relationships, and circumstances, but I don't know that any are sustained as seriously developed themes throughout. I almost don't want to look that hard, y'know?
  
  
  *** SPOILERS follow ***
  
  Turn back now if you haven't seen the film already.
  
  There are a dozen or so callbacks to the original, visuals, dialogue, and some fun upside-down/reversed scenarios.
  
  
  1. "Get your stinking paw off me you damn dirty ape!"
     
  2. "It's a MAD HOUSE!"
     
  3. Caesar enjoys crafting it up in his attic home. One of the items we get to see him working on is a balsa wood-type replica of the Statue Of Liberty!
     
  4. Caesar's mother is nicknamed Bright Eyes by the chimpanzee handler and Dr. Franco.
     
  5. If you're paying attention, you'll see that there is a manned mission to Mars under way elsewhere in the world, and by the end of the movie's events, there is news that the mission craft has apparently disappeared. Cue up the original PLANET OF THE APES film for the fate of their crew! =)
     
  6. I don't remember a very satisfying explanation or conjecture from the original series about the cause of Man's devolution, but this film's story does something very clever by connecting the origin of the apes' increased intelligence to the downfall of Man and Man's civilization. When a human is exposed to the compound (113, not 112), it creates a killer contagion, whose patient zero conveniently infects an airline pilot. The end credits roll over a simulation of the spread of this virus across the globe. This does not definitely/obviously lead to a radioactive post-apocalypse, but the dots can certainly be connected with a little imagination.
     
  7. Not a callback, just a little annoying something. There's a line I remember from a commercial or trailer that didn't make the final cut. Dr. Franco to Caesar: Never let them catch you. It would have been a powerful directive.
  
  

Keep on keepin on~

2011 Watch-A-Thon: Day 2

[Rambling on movies I've hit as part of this year's Brattle Theatre Movie Watch-A-Thon. For the running count of 'thon films with titles, sans commentary, look here]

• TABLOID @Kendall Square 8/2/11.
  trailer | website
  Together with VERTIGO, this turned out to be an unplanned double feature about obsession. TABLOID is a wonderful Errol Morris documentary about Joyce McKinney, a young beauty queen (Miss Wyoming) who made headlines in 1977 when she tracked down and rescued (or was it abducted?) her lost true love, who had disappeared to London without a word. According to her, she was a naive innocent believer in true love, determined to save her fiancee from the brainwashing of his cult. In the words of UK tabloid reporters of the time, she was a manipulative stalker with a hidden past as an escort and adult model with a taste for bondage. It is an amazing story and the film does an excellent job of telling it like it is (and like it isn't). Only, you're never quite sure which is which. There's also a somewhat zany second tail to her story, unrelated to the true love and bondage, involving her faithful canine companion Booger and an appointment with a doctor specializing in cloning.
  
  That's right. You read it right: cloning.
  
  
• VERTIGO @the Brattle, 8/2/11.
  trailer
  A Hitchcock classic. I thought that I'd never seen it before, but as it unfolded, I remembered a couple of scenes and story elements and realized that I must have seen it at the Brattle in the last couple of years. This cinemnesia happens to me way more than I'd like. Sad.
  
  Jimmy Stewart is a favorite of mine and is as charming and instantly likable as ever. He plays retired police detective Jon Ferguson, who's hired by an old friend to keep watch on his wife. The old friend fears that she may need protection. As Stewart shadows Madelaine (Kim Novak, who reminded me here for the first time of Jennifer Connelly), he begins to fall for her. Of course, nothing is quite what it seems, and ultimately, once his protection services are no longer needed, Ferguson can't leave Madelaine alone. Wacky fun ensues. After this viewing, I hafta say, this is not my favorite Hitchcock film, and the plot/ending is not very satisfying to me, but it's still a fun bit of storytelling and manipulation.
  
  I thought that the director had a cameo in all of his films, but I didn't spot him tonight. Maybe I blinked and missed him somewhere? Foo.
  
  One of the elements of the film that sparked my faded memory of the film was a sting of music that happens early on. On screen I think Stewart is tailing Novak and we see the exterior of a building at twilight but I'm not clear now on which/where it is - the church w the graveyard? Anyhow, I remember remembering that this piece of music sounded like a theme from LOST's soundtrack and wondering that maybe it was the source inspiration. This film after all, along with NXNW, is playing at the Brattle as part of a centennial tribute to film score composer Bernard Herrmann, and the music is palpable and wonderful in both.

Keep on keepin on~

2011 Watch-A-Thon: Day 1

[Rambling on movies I've hit as part of this year's Brattle Theatre Movie Watch-A-Thon. For the running count of 'thon films with titles, sans commentary, look here]

• NORTH BY NORTHWEST @the Brattle, 8/1/11.
  trailer
  I've seen this maybe a half dozen times at the Brattle and it's always a pleasure. Cary Grant is so frickin dashing it's ridiculous. After watching summer blockbusters every week for the past couple months, the pacing is kind of remarkable. It takes its time, y'know? When Grant's Thornhill is dropped off in the middle of nowhere to meet the mysterious George Kaplan, it is MINUTES of waiting, wondering if this or that passing car is Kaplan and who that guy is waiting for the bus, before that iconic biplane cropduster begins its strafing runs. Does anyone DO that anymore? Let things happen on screen?
  
  I was kind of surprised that no one laughed when Hitchcock did his cameo.
  
  Early on in the film, Thornhill is very much in his element, an advertising man on Madison Ave. A Mad Man. I totally had flashes to a Don Draper / Jon Hamm playing this role. A different kind of dashing, but still, the role of the boozing charmer of a Casanova set off an odd televisional/cinematic deja vu resonance in my TV/movie brain. Gotta say, the Saul Bass opening titles also whispered "MAD MEN" to me. Simple, beautiful, ingenious motion graphics.
  
  Partway thru the film, I had words with a texter sitting in front of me in the balcony. I waited til I saw the annoying rectangle of light show up for the third time and then asked if he could please put that away. He ignored me and kept tapping out his (third) very important message. I was a little stunned, no pause, no recognition, not even a lame "almost done, sorry," so I raised my voice a bit, enough that everyone in the balcony heard me. And the guy got put out. I mean, he turned around to start talking back to me in a "You got a problem with me?" way. When I repeated myself, he said something like, "I was checking a message!" as if that was acceptable. I explained that he could've done that in the stairwell (he was in the row right next to the left one, altho he would have had to step across his two friends, who were silent). He stood up and turned to face me completely to say, "Do you want to take this outside? You messed with the wrong guy..."
  
  Really? Well, I did not want to step outside as I was there to watch this movie. I stayed in my seat, he continued with a couple more road ragey challenges, and I kept my replies to remarks about how ridiculous this is and the guy deflated in a couple of minutes and returned to his seat.
  
  An... interesting start to the Watch-A-Thon...
  
  
• MACHETE @the Brattle, 8/1/11.
  trailer | website
  AWESOME. A brilliant 21st century execution of (what I take to be) the grindhouse genre, specifically, Mexploitation, complete with social commentary subtext! Three years ago, a Mexican Federale, codename: Machete, is set up by leathery drug kingpin Torrez, his family killed and he himself left to die. Today, on the Texas side of the border, Machete surfaces as an anonymous illegal day laborer. When he is unwittingly tapped by a scheming businessman to play fall guy in the assassination of a senator who's built his platform on targeting illegals and walling up the border, Machete becomes a people's hero to an underground network of illegal immigrants being exploited for labor, profit, and votes by The Man on both sides of the border. He finds allies in the network's dedicated leader Luz (Michelle Rodriguez), the preacher from his past, Padre Cortez (Cheech Marin), and even feisty wide-eyed ICE agent Sartana (Jessica Alba), who's torn between her duty and the plight of her brothers and sisters. "There's the law, and then there's what's right." Wacky bloody fun ensues. =)
  
  This was my second big screen screening of the film and it remains thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable, loaded with over-the-top action, violence, and a frankly unbeatable cast, including Robert De Niro, Steven Seagal, Danny Trejo as the titular blade-slinging hero, and introducing a promising young upstart, Mr. Don Johnson. Heh. I hafta say that this film had already earned bonus points when I first saw the trailer cuz it reunited some of my LOST family: Michelle Rodriguez, Cheech Marin, and Jeff Fahey. Also, Lindsay Lohan!

Keep on keepin on~

running Watch-A-Thon count...

Please support the Unofficial Film School of Boston, the Brattle Theater—Sponsor my 2011 Watch-A-Thon! Thanks!

Note that altho this post is dated 7/31, the day before the starting line of the 'thon, I'll be updating it as I go along.

1. NORTH BY NORTHWEST @the Brattle, 8/1/11.
   
2. MACHETE @the Brattle, 8/1/11.
   
3. TABLOID @Kendall Square 8/2/11.
   
4. VERTIGO @the Brattle, 8/2/11.
   
5. LE QUATTRO VOLTE @the Brattle, 8/3/11.
   
6. RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES @AMC Harvard Square, 8/5/11.
   
7. THESE AMAZING SHADOWS @the Brattle, 8/5/11.
   
8. BLAZING SADDLES @the Brattle, 8/5/11.
   
9. THE GUARD @Kendall Square, 8/6/11.
   
10. ROAD TO NOWHERE @the Harvard film Archive, 8/6/11.
    
11. FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH @the Brattle, 8/6/11.
    
12. IT'S A GIFT @the Brattle, 8/7/11.
    
13. THE REDEMPTION OF GENERAL BUTT NAKED @the Brattle, 8/8/11.
    
14. CAPE FEAR @the Brattle, 8/9/11.
    
15. ON DANGEROUS GROUND @the Brattle, 8/9/11.
    
16. DEATH ON THE NILE @the Brattle, 8/11/11.
    
17. 3:10 TO YUMA @the Brattle, 8/13/11.
    
18. FINAL DESTINATION 5 @the Somerville, 8/14/11.
    
19. SKATETOWN USA @the Brattle, 8/14/11.

For those of you playing along at home, that's 14 Brattle films and 5 non-Brattle flicks, for a final total of 16.5 Watch-A-Thon movie-points. Ayep.

Anyone wanna go to the movies?

Keep on keepin on~

2011 Watch-A-Thon!

Greetings, Programs!

This August 1 thru August 14, I will be participating in the Brattle Theater's Movie Watch-A-Thon fundraiser, and I hope you'll support me in my run!

"What is a Watch-A-Thon?" you may ask (if you've only just met me). Well it's just like other fundraising 'thons you're probably familiar with, except that instead of all that leisurely, scenic walking, or luxurious, relaxing running, participants engage in exhausting, intensive on-your-bum-sitting for two weeks in front of excruciatingly entertaining films. But let's not forget the most important and enjoyable part of the process: YOU graciously and attractively sponsoring my laborious labor!

You can support my Watch-A-Thon run with a contribution per movie-I-see, or by one-time (or two, or three, I won't stop you) donation. I hope you'll help me in this effort to preserve the legacy of repertory film programming at Boston's Unofficial Film School, the non-profit Brattle Theater.

(You can donate online via my FirstGiving page.)

If you're not familiar with the Brattle (or even if you are), the theater is a unique, modest cinema located in Harvard Square, my favorite venue for catching classic, indie, documentary, foreign, cult, and just plain awesome films in the Boston area. No teeth-shattering THX, no stadium seats, but behind the counter there's freshly popped popcorn, real melted butter, and *hey!* beer and wine! And up on the screen are the coolest, smartest, classiest, campiest, funniest, and scariest rectangles of light in Boston. On stage you'll meet directors, authors, actors, and musicians, including the likes of George Romero, Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Wes Anderson, Bruce Campbell, Lars Nilsen, Frank Langella, Junot Diaz, James Ellroy, Elliott Gould, Willem Dafoe, MC Frontalot, Kid Koala, and Juliana Hatfield. And in the seats, you'll find people loving and digging them all.

Maybe even YOU! If you haven't already, check it out with me sometime. They've got some excellent programming lined up for the two weeks of the 'thon! =)

It's where my mind was blown when I watched Chow Yun Fat step-and-slide his way down that tea-house stairway railing, two guns a-blazin', partnered with Tony Leung in John Woo's HARD-BOILED! The darkened theater where I first experienced movies like CITIZEN KANE, DONNIE DARKO, and FALLEN ANGELS... Where I can go to see "What's Opera, Doc?" on the big screen, and properly observe my high holy days with screenings of EVIL DEAD 2 for Halloween, CASABLANCA for Thanksgiving, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE for Saturnalia, and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN for Valentine's Day... and where I consistently go to see the best of film's past (BICYCLE THIEVES, LE SAMOURI, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA), present (SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD, 13 ASSASSINS), and future (STAKE LAND, UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES).

Thank you for any little something you can give to keep the Brattle's screen lit up, either as a donation or a pledge for my Watch-A-Thon. Help the Brattle...

keep on keepin on~

running Watch-A-Thon count with comments...

Please support the Unofficial Film School of Boston, the Brattle Theater—Sponsor my 2010 Watch-A-Thon! Thanks!

Note that altho this post is dated 10/29 12/1, the starting finish line of the 'thon, I'll be updating it with short-to-shortish remarks as best I can as I go along. For the "naked" hit list, sans commentary, look here.

1. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 @AMC Harvard Square, 10/29/10.
   A great horror movie. Better than the first, but in great part because of how events in this one dovetail with it. The addition of an infant and a dog to the mix definitely, successfully, upped the horror/scare factor. Was a lot of fun watching the guys in the double-date in front of me jump out of their seats. =)
   
   
2. DEVIL @Muvico Centro Ybor, 10/31/10.
   A great little horror-iffic parable. One-by-one the five passengers on a stalled elevator, all strangers to each other, die in ghastly ways. The killer must be one of them, but as their numbers dwindle, prejudiced accusations fly, but the culprit remains unknown, even when only one remains... A wonderfully ridiculous situation framed by fun superstition offers up some decent sudden deaths and actually succeeded in keeping me entertained enough that I forgot to look for the twist, which turned out to be a fair and good surprise.
   
   
3. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 @Silver Moon Drive-In, 10/31/10.
   That's right, so nice I saw it twice. Or something. It was playing at the DRIVE-IN! ON HALLOWEEN! How could I NOT see it? It was fun to realize that the housekeeper in PA2 was DEVIL's Ramirez's mother. =)
   
   
4. CASE 39 @Silver Moon Drive-In, 10/31/10.
   Eh. Skip it. With the raw materials available, the cast and the seed of the story, this should've been a lot better. The young Lilith (TIDELAND) is good for a couple of great l'enfant terrible looks and one great spooky kid-v-know-it-all adult (Bradley Cooper) verbal confrontation. The most unbelievable part of the movie for me was the alleged chemistry between Zellweger and Cooper. Are they dating in real life? Whatev. Ian McShane's Ian McShane-ness was wasted. BSG's Leoben, aka Callum Keith Rennie, was good to see on the big screen, and he was good enough, just stuck in a crummy film. Boo.
   
   
5. EASY A @Cinemark Festival Bay, 11/3/10.
   A good and not-dumb high school flick. More fun than I expected. I appreciated its explicit acknowledgment of 80s movies conventions, but didn't love the annoying flat adults, which it seemed to try to borrow and update from those movies. I'm still waiting for a high school movie renaissance in the mainstream. Sigh.
   
   
6. RED @AMC Monmouth, 11/6/10.
   A ton of goofy action fun. Two explosive deaths that were hilariously satisfying.
   
   
7. GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH @the Brattle, 11/8/10.
   A courageous attempt at a new kind of musical, but in the end, only half-successful. Visually, it's pretty remarkable. I kind of love it actually. If you're up for seeing a re-imagining of Boston on screen as Paris in the 60s, definitely check this out. But, some of its musicality breaks the film for me. It's not a musical, it's a... music-ish. Glimpses and hints of greatness, one old-school song-and-dance number, but they just don't sustain, don't build a consistent language that works in the film. If you're seeking a musical experience, lower the bar a bit and then check this out to catch those glimpses. I honestly hope that the filmmakers regroup and make another run at this genre with reinforcements and refinements.
   

   [Brattle blurb]
   (2009) dir Damien Chazelle w/Jason Palmer, Desiree Garcia [82 min]
   GUY & MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH is about the often uneasy but always beautiful relationship between music and love. It tells the story of a young Boston jazz musician who drifts from affair to affair, his trumpet the only constant in his life. He makes a promising connection with an aimless introvert named Madeline, who immediately takes to his music. Their relationship is cut short, however, when Guy leaves her for another, more outgoing love interest. The two separated lovers slowly wind their way back into each other’s lives, through a series of romances and near-romances punctuated by song.

   
   
8. MACHETE @Somerville, 11/10/10.
   AWESOME. Got to see three reincarnated Losties in action: Ana Lucia, Hurley's pop, and Frank Lapidus! Also, Robert Deniro! Also also—and this is CRAZY that I didn't know about this before the opening credits—Lindsey Lohan! Also also also, well, let me put it to you the way the credits do..."Introducing... Don Johnson" AWESOME.
   
   
9. PAPRIKA @the Brattle, 11/10/10.
   Beautiful onieric detective anime. I think it's by the same creator-animators as the PARANOIA EFFECT series. Both stories marry some fun fringe science to everyday life with crisp animation and crystalline music.
   

   [Brattle blurb]
   (2006) dir Satoshi Kon [90 min]
   The film world lost a great talent earlier this year, but you might not have ever heard of him. Japanese director Satoshi Kon worked in a medium where greatness sometimes goes unrecognized – animation. His work on films like Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers is marvelous. And this, his last film is remarkable by any standard. In PAPRIKA, a prototype for the DC-mini, a device that enables access to people’s dreams, is stolen and falls into the wrong hands. It’s up to a prim psychotherapist and her sprightly alter-ego, the titular PAPRIKA, to find the culprit before dreams and reality irrevocably collide! Kon’s films are smart and challenging and PAPRIKA’s artistry and unexpectedly sweet emotional payoff make it one of the most delightful films of the past decade.

   
   
10. SKYLINE @AMC Burlington, 11/13/10.
    Eh. Skip it, sad to say. The seeds of a great sci-fi alien invasion event, but they land on the rocks and never take root. The film's plot drops the potential for a great fight-back scenario for a so-so personal scope and story, one better suited to a one-hour OUTER LIMITS. Should've been something like a kickas sprequel to BATTLE: LOS ANGELES. Bummer.
    
    
11. GRAVITY @Coolidge Corner, 11/14/10.
    A fun little riff on the AMERICAN BEAUTY / OFFICE SPACE scenario. The routine of a successful work-a-day cog with baggage is interrupted by a traumatic event (a customer's death, in front of his eyes) and tilts his world just so, opening his eyes to dark possibilities and a partnership with an old school friend who's since turned to a life of crime. Wacky fun ensues...
    

    [Coolidge blurb]
    Frederik Feinermann is an up-and-coming young bank employee who lives an ordinary life. When a client, whom Frederik has denied a loan due to the bank crisis, shoots himself in front of Frederik, he snaps. Together with ex-con Vince Holland he begins to live out a new, dark side of himself. He robs his rich bank customers' homes and gives the money to the needy. The initial rush of crossing social boundaries soon develops into an addiction to ever greater thrills. Gravity tells the story of a seemingly settled bank employee who breaks the shackles of his everyday life and becomes a wanderer between worlds.
    
    dir. Maximilian Erlenwein, in German with English subtitles, 1h35m, 35mm

    
    
12. BOXING GYM @the Brattle, 11/17/10.
    Wonderful! A beautiful bit of documentary meditation. I don't know the cinema jargon for it, but it's a truly naturalistic documentary, a (as) true (as possible) slice of life, y'know? No interference, interjection, intervention, or narration provided from the filmmakers. Like a nature show on boxers in their natural habitat. Just recording of events (granted, the camera's THERE, and the subjects know it, but to my mind, it's as invisible as possible) edited together just so. I couldn't keep track of the length of segments, as I was consistently drawn into the activity on screen, but the 30-second (?) clock in the gym almost dictates the pace of things. I got the idea in my head that maybe every cut lasted 30 seconds max, but realized that couldn't be the case with some of the prolonged training and discussion scenes. There's a lot of rhythm, visual and auditory, embedded in the gym's activity and it gets into your bones a bit. The experience of the film is very Zen, and shows me once again that there can be an art and craft to fighting (not counting martial arts films, WHEN WE WERE KINGS showed me the first time).
    

    [Brattle blurb]
    (2010) dir Frederick Wiseman [91 min]
    Legendary documentarian (and Cambridge resident) Frederick Wiseman returns to the Brattle screen with his newest film, BOXING GYM. Eschewing the languorous pace of his previous film, La Danse, Wiseman trains his unblinking camera-eye on a more kinetic subject – Lord’s Gym, and Austin, Texas institution. Founded sixteen years ago by Richard Lord, a former professional boxer, Lord’s welcomes people of all ages, races, ethnicities and social classes: men, women, children, doctors, lawyers, judges, business men and women, immigrants, professional boxers and people who want to become professional boxers train alongside amateurs who love the sport and teenagers who are trying to develop strength and assertiveness. Lord’s is an example of the American ‘melting pot’ where people meet, talk, and train. As is his usual technique, Wiseman allows the filmmaking to melt into the background, truly letting the people and the place speak for themselves.

    
    
13. ENTER THE VOID @Kendall Square, 11/17/10.
    Beautiful, but can be a bit of an endurance test. I highly recommend it for cinephiles if you can stand some NC-17-y action and images, and following some pretty wretched characters around. It does some pretty amazing POV stuff and it's hard to tell where live/real environments end and CG (or scale models?) begin. It has some seriously trippy moments, trippy as in psychedelic, and for many minutes too long, if you ask me. Strobing lights (and full screen strobing) are prominent, so if that's an issue for you, beware
    
    
14. TODAY'S SPECIAL @Kendall Square, 11/19/10.
    Alas, not nearly as funny as I'd hoped. The story is basic, but full of lots of potential (culture shock, romance, cuisine, maybe some magical realism?), left unrealized. Estranged son (Aasif Mandvi, who's great, but not really doing a whole lot here) of immigrant Indian parents seeks to make a name for himself in the big city as a five-star restaurant chef. When his father falls ill, he's drawn back home and resigned to taking over his father's business, the family restaurant, responsible for serving cuisine that he knows nothing about making. Unfortunately, the film only goes halfway at most into the wacky fun that should ensue. Or, if this wasn't about wacky fun, could have gone serious/sentimental in a stronger way. In the end, it's lukewarm, cute but could've and should've been better.
    
    
15. 127 HOURS @Kendall Square, 11/21/10.
    Pretty amazing. I know Danny Boyle makes great movies, but given what I knew of the story behind this film, I let my faith waver a bit going into this one, skeptical that he could turn this thin, stark, harsh survival story into an enjoyable movie experience. My badd, DB. Plain and simple, Danny Boyle makes great movies. The true story is remarkable. Franco is perfect. The resulting film is beautiful, smart, and clever.
    
    
16. STRANGE POWERS: STEPHIN MERRITT AND THE MAGNETIC FIELDS @the Brattle, 11/21/10.
    

    [Brattle blurb]
    (2010) dir Kerthy Fix, Gail O’Hara w/Stephin Merritt, Claudia Gonson [89 min]
    “Songwriter Stephin Merritt always seems to have a Chihuahua on his lap. Performing with the Magnetic Fields since 1991, he has composed some of his generation’s most intellectually incisive, whimsical, witty and acerbic music (Merritt has been compared to Cole Porter for his sophisticated use of language). A dedicated, growing army of admirers flocks to the group’s concerts and makes Merritt an odd sort of anti-celebrity, one who is happiest not being recognized, whiling away the hours in gay bars on either coast (his favorite place for writing music) or spending a good part of the day soaking up obscure movie classics. Ten years in the making, the film follows the famously grumpy Merritt and explores his relationship with Claudia Gonson, his creative collaborator and the band’s manager. It paints a portrait of an artist whose music brilliantly holds up a mirror to the fears, joys, and insecurities of his time.” – Film Forum, NYC

    
    
17. LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN @the Brattle, 11/24/10.
    

    [Brattle blurb]
    (1945) dir John M. Stahl w/Gene Tierny, Cornel Wilde [110 min]
    When young and handsome writer Richard Harland meets the beautiful Ellen Berent on a trail to New Mexico, it’s love at first sight for both of them. However, Ellen’s definition of love might be a little different than Richard’s, as she reveals layer upon layer of her obsessive nature. Richard slowly begins to realize that Ellen’s jealousy could have dire consequences for them all.

    
    
18. THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST @Kendall Square, 11/25/10.
    
    
19. ALIEN @the Brattle, 11/25/10.
    

    [Brattle blurb]
    (1979) dir Ridley Scott w/Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm [117 min]
    As if H.R. Giger’s designs couldn’t be any scarier, Ridley Scott brings them to life in this 1979 film. ALIEN is about, well, an alien that terrorizes a spaceship. Sounds simple enough, but this film has become a classic, crossing over from the sci-fi genre into the mainstream, but maintaining its grasp on what made it great in the first place. Stellar performances by Sigourney Weaver, Ian Holm, and Tom Skerritt ground an already terrific script, and a baby alien bursting out of a human chest cavity doesn’t hurt.

    
    
20. ALL ABOUT EVE @the Brattle, 11/26/10.
    

    [Brattle blurb]
    (1950) dir Joseph L. Mankiewicz w/Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Marilyn Monroe [138 min]
    “Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night!” The ultimate backstage backstabbing bitchfest with Bette Davis as aging Broadway star Margo Channing who takes an aspiring actress, Eve (Baxter), under her wing. Eve, meanwhile, schemes to worm her way into every corner of Margo’s life. The dialogue (including Bette’s oft quoted line above) flies fast and furious in this quintessential melodrama.

    
    
21. VANISHING POINT @the Brattle, 11/26/10.
    Awesome. =) The original death-defiant daredevil driver/muscle car race-against-time film, set in an EASY RIDER America, and heavily referenced in the DEATH PROOF feature of GRINDHOUSE. I have to watch DEATH PROOF again, but some of the big screen deja vu was so strong, I hafta believe that Tarentino sought some of the same locations for the chase scenes in his movie. The film's soundtrack is kick-ass, too, making for a HEAVY METAL-ish musical-cinematic experience, y'know, with a more rock-to-folk than metal flavor.
    

    [Brattle blurb]
    (1971) dir Richard C. Serafian w/Barry Newman, Cleavon Little, Dean Jagger, Victoria Medlin, Charlotte Rampling [99 min]
    Heavily referenced in Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof, VANISHING POINT is one of the ultimate hard-driving films. Barry Newman’s Kowalski makes a bet to deliver a car (a 1970 Dodge Challenger with a matte white paintjob) from Colorado to California in under 15 hours. Think that might mean exceeding the speed limit a little?

    
    
22. M*A*S*H @the Brattle, 11/27/10.
    

    [Brattle blurb]
    (1970) dir Robert Altman w/Elliott Gould, Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall [116 min]
    Robert Altman’s groundbreaking, counterculture masterpiece is, at its core, a movie about survival. Captains Hawkeye (Sutherland) and Trapper (Gould) go about dealing with the atrocities of life in a mobile surgical hospital during the Korean War by using humor, bad taste and the occasional sexual innuendo.

    
    
23. LITTLE MURDERS @the Brattle, 11/27/10.
    

    [Brattle blurb]
    (1971) dir Alan Arkin w/Elliott Gould, Marcia Rodd, Vincent Gardenia, Elizabeth Wilson, Donald Sutherland, Alan Arkin [110 min]
    Alan Arkin’s directorial debut finds a young girl bringing her new boyfriend home to meet her parents for the first time. Meanwhile, a string of violent and random shootings have been breaking out in NYC and the city begins to parallel the myriad failings of the family during these times of crisis. A remarkable and underseen performance by Gould anchors this terrific film.

    
    
24. BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA @the Brattle, 11/27/10.
    

    [Brattle blurb]
    (1986) dir John Carpenter w/Kurt Russell, Kim Catrall, Dennis Dun, James Hong, Victor Wong, Kate Burton [99 min]
    A reminder of the halcyon days of the magical Kurt Russell/John Carpenter partnership, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA follows Jack (Russell) as he and his motley crew fight Chinatown street gangs, kung fu warriors and an ancient sorcerer with really long fingernails, to save his buddy’s girlfriend from becoming the bride of the immortal and gross Lo Pan. The battles are epic and include a lot of kung fu action, Kurt Russell doing things, and claymation. The perfect trinity if ever there was one.

    
    
25. MADE IN DAGENHAM @Kendall Square, 11/28/10.
    A brilliant and heartwarming true-story film about the struggle for fair pay by 187 so-called "unskilled laborers," all of whom happen to be women, in a Ford plant in Dagenham, UK in 1970 (I think?). The multiple levels of protest, scheming, diplomacy, and resistance, along with the interconnectedness of all the players in a factory town, all mesh really well in the storytelling of this film. A kinda nerdy observation, but I found it really interesting to see the ripple effect of the strike of 187 workers in a massive automotive plant, interrupting and influencing lives in the community, the business of the company, and ultimately, national policy. The entire cast is great, but Sally Hawkins (HAPPY GO LUCKY) is perfect. Rosamund Pike here stood out for me as well, seeing as how my most recent screen memory of her is as an almost mirror-universe version of her role here, in AN EDUCATION. Hooray for women! They're so cute. Heh. =)
    
    
26. UNSTOPPABLE @AMC Boston Common, 11/29/10.
    Awesome! A really well-done buddy + disaster film. See it on the big screen!
    
    
27. DUE DATE @AMC Harvard Square, 12/1/10.
    
    
28. INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM @the Brattle, 12/1/10.
    Y'know, I always say it's the weakest of the films, but it's still a pretty damn fun ride. Also, I always forget, and then remember when he appears, that Dan Aykroyd has a random cameo in the film. Also also, love seeing the CLUB OBI-WAN sign at the end of the opening melee. As a kid, who maybe still kinda thought of Han Solo before Harrison Ford as being the guy who was playing Indiana, that moment had some weird movie magic in it, y'know?
    

    [Brattle blurb]
    (1984) dir Steven Spielberg w/Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Jonathan Ke Quan [118 min]
    This second installment of the Indiana Jones franchise hits the ground running, throwing Jones (Ford), kid sidekick Short Round (Quan), and torch singer Wilhelmina Scott (Capshaw) into the wilds of India. Although contoversial in its depictions of Indians, the scenes of human sacrifice (pulling beating hearts out of men’s chests) are so over the top, the dialogue between Willie and Indy so classically campy, the scene with the bugs so creepy, and the action sequences so fun, that TEMPLE OF DOOM stands solidly alongside the other adventures of Indiana Jones.

    
    

For those of you playing along at home, that's 12 Brattle films and 16 non-Brattle flicks, for a final total of 20.0 Watch-A-Thon movie-points. Ayep.

Anyone wanna go to the movies?

Keep on keepin on~

running Watch-A-Thon count...

Please support the Unofficial Film School of Boston, the Brattle Theater—Sponsor my 2010 Watch-A-Thon! Thanks!

Note that altho this post is dated 10/29, the starting line of the 'thon, I'll be updating it as I go along. For the list with short-ish commentary, check out this post.

1. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 @AMC Harvard Square, 10/29/10.
   
2. DEVIL @Muvico Centro Ybor, 10/31/10.
   
3. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 @Silver Moon Drive-In, 10/31/10.
   
4. CASE 39 @Silver Moon Drive-In, 10/31/10.
   
5. EASY A @Cinemark Festival Bay, 11/3/10.
   
6. RED @AMC Monmouth, 11/6/10.
   
7. GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH @the Brattle, 11/8/10.
   
8. MACHETE @Somerville, 11/10/10.
   
9. PAPRIKA @the Brattle, 11/10/10.
   
10. SKYLINE @AMC Burlington, 11/13/10.
    
11. GRAVITY @Coolidge Corner, 11/14/10.
    
12. BOXING GYM @the Brattle, 11/17/10.
    
13. ENTER THE VOID @Kendall Square, 11/17/10.
    
14. TODAY'S SPECIAL @Kendall Square, 11/19/10.
    
15. 127 HOURS @Kendall Square, 11/21/10.
    
16. STRANGE POWERS: STEPHIN MERRITT AND THE MAGNETIC FIELDS @the Brattle, 11/21/10.
    
17. LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN @the Brattle, 11/24/10.
    
18. THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST @Kendall Square, 11/25/10.
    
19. ALIEN @the Brattle, 11/25/10.
    
20. ALL ABOUT EVE @the Brattle, 11/26/10.
    
21. VANISHING POINT @the Brattle, 11/26/10.
    
22. M*A*S*H @the Brattle, 11/27/10.
    
23. LITTLE MURDERS @the Brattle, 11/27/10.
    
24. BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA @the Brattle, 11/27/10.
    
25. MADE IN DAGENHAM @Kendall Square, 11/28/10.
    
26. UNSTOPPABLE @AMC Boston Common, 11/29/10.
    
27. DUE DATE @AMC Harvard Square, 12/1/10.
    
28. INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM @the Brattle, 12/1/10.
    

For those of you playing along at home, that's 12 Brattle films and 16 non-Brattle flicks, for a final total of 20.0 Watch-A-Thon movie-points. Ayep.

Anyone wanna go to the movies?

Keep on keepin on~

2010 Watch-A-Thon!

Beginning this October 29, and running thru December 1, I will be participating in the Brattle Theater's Movie Watch-A-Thon fundraiser and hope that you will support me and help the Brattle Theater! For one month, I will watch as many movies as possible—at the Brattle and other venues—and seek sponsors to contribute to the Brattle Film Foundation per movie-I-see, or encourage one-time donations in support of my movie madness. I hope you'll help me in this effort to preserve the legacy of repertory film programming at Boston's Unofficial Film School, the non-profit Brattle Theater.

If you're not familiar with the Brattle (or even if you are), the theater is a unique, modest cinema located in Harvard Square. No teeth-shattering THX, no stadium seats, but behind the counter there's freshly popped popcorn, real melted butter, and *hey!* beer and wine! And up on the screen are the coolest, smartest, classiest, campiest, funniest, and scariest rectangles of light in Boston. On stage you'll meet directors, authors, actors, and musicians, including the likes of Bruce Campbell, George Romero, Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Junot Diaz, Daniel Clowes, Willem Dafoe, Kid Koala, and Juliana Hatfield. And, in the seats, you'll find people loving and digging them all.

Maybe even YOU!

Please contact me if you'd like to sponsor my Watch-A-Thon, and let me know how much you wish to pledge per movie. Feel free to specify a cap (if you're familiar with my moviegoing habits, you'll understand why). Or if you like, make a one-time (not per-movie) flat donation now through this webpage by credit card. And of course, going to see a movie at the theater itself wouldn't hurt any. =)

It's where my mind was blown when I watched Chow Yun Fat step-and-slide his way down that tea-house stairway railing, two guns a-blazin', partnered with Tony Leung in John Woo's HARD-BOILED! The darkened theater where I first experienced movies like CITIZEN KANE, DONNIE DARKO, and FALLEN ANGELS... Where I can go to see "What's Opera, Doc?" on the big screen, and properly observe my high holy days with screenings of EVIL DEAD 2 for Halloween, CASABLANCA for Thanksgiving, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE for Saturnalia, and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN for Valentine's Day... and where I consistently go to see the best of film's past (BICYCLE THIEVES, LE SAMOURI), present (THE HOST, SUNSHINE), and future (EXILED, MUTUAL ATTRACTION).

Thank you for any little something you can give to keep the Brattle's screen lit up, either as a donation or a pledge for my Watch-A-Thon. Help the Brattle...

Keep on keepin on~

final Watch-A-Thon count!

Please support the Unofficial Film School of Boston, the Brattle Theater—Sponsor my 2009 Watch-A-Thon! Thanks!

The watching portion of the Watch-A-Thon is now closed, having run from 11/3 thru 12/3. Fundraising continues until the "finish line" event, scheduled for 12/15, so do feel free to drop some charitable bucks on at my firstgiving page, either a flat donation or a pledge-per-movie total. Thank you for your support!

Below is the complete cinematic hit list from the past 30 days. If I've written a review/ramble for the film, the title will link to it. Otherwise/in addition, I'll try to drop a two-thumbs rating and a little summary after each now. No guarantees on how sensical they will be. I foresee lots of thumbs up (I *like* movies, can't help it) and equivocating rambling...

1. 35 SHOTS OF RUM @Kendall Square
   Thumb up, thumb down. A split because, altho I really enjoyed it in alternately meditative and fill-in-the-blank ways, I'm afraid that most people may not appreciate it in either capacity. You're introduced to an unconventional family and spend most of the film trying to figure out how they relate. Luckily, along the way, you get to watch Paris fly by from the driver's cabin of a commuter rail.


2. AMERICAN CASINO @the Brattle
   Thumb up, thumb down. A massive downer of a documentary survey of the recent/current subprime mortgage crisis. The film's material is consistently eye-opening—there are some great interviews with Good People who became victims of the crisis—but it could use some editing, stronger structure, to connect dots better. A personal, pop cultural observation/experience, watching the segments of the film focused on Baltimore felt like the outline of an unofficial next season of THE WIRE.


3. AMELIA @Kendall Square
   Thumbs down. Altho Hilary disappears into her role as Amelia, and the film is educational, the movie itself is, well, pretty standard stuff.


4. BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN @Kendall Square
   Thumbs up. John Krasinski's directorial debut is blessed with an excellent cast delivering some wonderful and wretched characters. Of course, they all have the advantage of working with material by David Foster Wallace. A female grad student undertakes a study into men's treatment (consistently unfair, fetishistic, and thoughtless) of women. See this with friends and in mixed company, then, discuss.


5. ANTICHRIST @Kendall Square
   Thumbs up for some beautiful creepiness. One one level, this is a luscious version of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, with a streak of harsh misogyny. On another level, it is a retelling of man's fall from grace. Try not to fall for that first level, cuz it is pretty hateful and ghastly.


6. WELCOME TO ACADEMIA @the Brattle
   Thumbs down. About the politicking among faculty and students when the dean of a liberal arts college is ousted and replaced by the last guy who wants the job. Saw this at a pre-release screening and unless they've got a lot of additional footage, I don't see this being released in a satisfactory form. It tries to be too many things and in the end fails at just about all of them. Sad, cuz it's got a pretty powerful cast for a smart comic drama.


7. COCO BEFORE CHANEL @Kendall Square
   Thumbs up. The story of Coco Chanel, with Audrey Tautau as the urchin-pixie of a designer. Tautau is a willful minx as Coco, and altho I didn't always like her character, I admired her throughout.


8. THE BOX @Showcase Woburn
   Thumbs up. So happy to see Richard Kelly working once again at a more intimate scale to address cosmic matters (he followed the perfectly crafted DONNIE DARKO (I prefer the original to the director's cut) with the, alas, too big for its cinematic britches, SOUTHLAND TALES). In THE BOX, he expands on and extrapolates from the Twilight Zoney short story, "The Button," in which a man presents a couple with the gift of a push button. Once the button is pushed, two things would happen: 1. The couple would receive a million dollars; 2. Someone they do not know would die. After some hemming and hawing, the button is pushed. The couple receives their money and the man returns to take the button back. When he leaves, the couple ask him where he's taking the button. He replies, "To someone you don't know."


9. GENTLEMEN BRONCOS @Kendall Square
   Thumbs up for superfantastic awesome! A budding young pulp scifi author apprentices himself for a time to his idol, whose career is on the verge of collapsing upon him. The idol sees the young writer's work as the key to saving his fortune, it just needs a little editing, his own name, and an enigmatic piece of art on the cover. Wacky fun totally ensues. =) Jared Hess, creator of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, is back in his wheelhouse, creating outsider-makes-good magic with a quirky, nerdy, charming sensibility. (I say "back" because I considered NACHO LIBRE to be somewhat forced, partly due to Jack Black's irresistible presence, partly due to big picture production value and pressure.) Sam Rockwell is aMAzing in this. I laughed so frickin much in this film! =)


10. THE GOOD SOLDIER @the Brattle
    Thumbs up. A documentary focused on a handful of American veterans of wars spanning 60 years. They are eloquent and thoughtful and all discuss how their experiences of war, of battle, of violence and death at close quarters, have hurt them, damaged them, and motivated them to seek out and commune with and support their brothers as well as speak out against the practices of war. Screened on Veteran's Day at the Brattle.


11. PICKPOCKET @the Brattle
    Thumbs up. A down-on-his-luck prideful young man with an itch for gambling decides to take up thieving to support himself and his habit. He builds for himself a philosophical justification for his behavior, which threatens to lose him the few friends he has. At the same time, he learns to upgrade his skills with the help of some new friends he makes, old hands at his newfound trade. The centerpiece of this beautiful little film is an amazing day at the train station in which the man and his new friends pick every frickin pocket in the place.


12. WILLIAM KUNSTLER: DISTURBING THE UNIVERSE @Kendall Square
    Thumb up, thumb down. A very educational documentary of a remarkable man who built an outstanding and notorious legal career based on the notion that everyone and anyone deserves the best legal defense available, especially against an establishment that has an egenda of oppression and persecution. Although the presentation of the man's life and story may have benefited hugely from the fact that his daughters are the filmmakers, their presence as filmmakers "broke" the experience for me in moments, sometimes enhancing, sometimes distracting. A different editing tactic might have made me happier, as well as MORE about several of the marquee cases the film covers.


13. THE NEW YEAR PARADE @the Brattle
    Thumbs up for a perfect little family dysfunctional film. The film follows a year in the life of a family with a generations-old tradition of performing with a certain troupe in the Philadelphia Mummer's Parade. It does a remarkable job of giving each member of the family, father, son, daughter, and mother, full and deep story and treatment. The family cast is excellent. They relate as their characters so very naturally. The kids are super impressive to me, the son looks like he may be Griffin Dunne's replacement, and the daughter, she's just frickin gifted. A spunkier Natalie Portman in BEAUTIFUL GIRLS. This is an indie flick and I don't know that it'll get any more big screen distribution, sadly. Regardless, see it.


14. UNTITLED @Kendall Square
    Thumb up, thumb down. Some great characters do their eccentricly artistic, dissonantly musical, and publicly relating things against the backdrop of the modern art and music world, calling in to question the purpose and value, fiscal and metaphysical, of art and music, their creation, collection, and popularity. The cast creates some great eccentric characters (as opposed to cliches, which I was worried about), but I had a few groany moments that had to do with pacing and weak follow-thru.


15. BOONDOCK SAINTS 2: ALL SAINTS DAY @Kendall Square
    Thumbs up for some satisfying heroic bloodshed, Boston style. I feel like the filmmaker was a bit self-conscious about topping himself and his original BOONDOCK SAINTS, and made a couple of non-optimal choices in action scenes and some dialogue which seems built to step on itself, but I could forgive it in exchange for some fun gunplay. I'd really like to see the first one again to refresh.


16. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK @the Brattle
    Thumbs up. It's RAIDERS!


17. THE MAID @Coolidge Corner
    Thumbs up. When a family decides to hire some help for their live-in maid, she sees each candidate as a threat to her station in their home and her relationship to the family. She takes all manner of stubborn and creative steps to drive them from her domain. An understated dark comedy full of loads of surprising laughs and some tender moments.


18. BIG MAN JAPAN @MFA
    Thumbs up. A faux documentary on a mild-mannered Japanese salaryman doing his duty in the family trade: growing fifty stories tall to protect Tokyo from giant monsters. A brilliant premise with a wonderful follow-thru. Funny throughout, but frickin seizure-inducingly hilarious at the end. =)


19. CRIME OR PUNISHMENT @MFA
    Thumb up, thumb down. Inconsistently funny, but the big laughs are pretty big, and the web of the intersecting lives of the characters is a little Monty Python, a little TAMPOPO. Not a bad thing at all.


20. BLACK DYNAMITE @Coolidge Corner
    Thumbs way way up! KICKASS. See this at a weekend midnight show at the Coolidge!


21. THE MESSENGER @Kendall Square
    Thumbs up. Some harrowing scenes of "casualty notification" punctuate the story of a soldier home from the fight, struggling with injuries physical and psychological. Great performances by the two leads, Woody as a by-the-book soldier with addiction issues just under his polished surface, and Ben Foster as the no longer quite right in the head young veteran trying to make sense of his experiences, his duty, and re/starting his life back in the world.


22. BRONSON @Kendall Square
    Thumbs up. A little of the old ultraviolence, wrapped in a superslick package.


23. PRECIOUS @Kendall Square
    Thumbs up for heart-punching quality filmmaking of an inspiring story of survival and love in the face of abuse, resentment, and fear. Check out the trailer. If you can handle it (and you may want to choose your moment), see the movie.


24. BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS @Kendall Square
    Thumbs up. A solid, quirky, double episode of THE SHIELD, with Nic Cage in a form-fitting role of good cop gone bad and kinda crazy. NOT as wretched a man as Keitel's bad LT, and a film more plotful than I remember Abel Ferrara's being. Mind you, to be fair, I don't remember a lot from my one screening.


25. CASABLANCA @the Brattle
    Thumbs WAY up! I LOVE this film. Louie's dialogue kills me all over again every time. =)


26. CYBORG SHE @MFA
    Thumbs down. TERMINATOR 2 meets SMALL WONDER. How can you go wrong, right? Ha. I think I might've given a split thumbs call in my longer review, but thinking about it again now, there was just such a good foundation of ideas in this film that were executed way too loosely and scattershot. I don't know if this is fair, but I'm more disappointed w the movie as time goes on (ha!).


27. RED CLIFF @Kendall Square
    Thumbs up! John Woo brings his brotherhood of action sensibilities to an epic historic Chinese battle. At the personal scale, sweet Woo choreography. At the battlefield scale, on land and on the water, LOTR deja vu. At the strategy scale, much to smile about, as clever plans and planning pay off in the heat of battle. A kickass ensemble cast led by the, frankly, beautiful, talented, charismatic Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro. Almost a dream movie for me.


28. ARSENIC AND OLD LACE @The Brattle
    Thumbs up. Cary Grant can do ANYTHING, and pretty much does. An absurd dark comedic classic with a brilliant cast featuring Grant and Peter Lorre.


29. PIRATE RADIO @Somerville Theater
    Thumbs up. Joyful laughs and rock and roll! The creator of LOVE, ACTUALLY delivers again, this time on the high seas off of th UK, directing a kickass cast, including the likes of Bill Nighy, Nick Frost, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Kenneth Brannagh, playing notorious pirate DJs who supplied the prim Brits with proper rock and roll.


30. THE ROAD @Kendall Square
    Thumbs up for the doomiest post-doomsday ever. Based on Cormac McCarthy's story about the trek of father and son thru the mostly depopulated wasteland of the future, the film successfully captures the bleak and deadly cinder of a world they inhabit. Each day brings the threat of starvation, sickness, uncontrolled fires, and of course, cannibals. Good end times! It's not about the why of the end, of society, of civilization. It's not a preaching cautionary tale. This is doom, and it's coming, there's no stopping it. It's about surviving vs. living, and hope, morality, and humanity weighed against human nature, desperation.


31. FANTASTIC MR. FOX @Kendall Square
    Thumbs up for clever, quirky, charming, anthropomorphic animated cool and fun. It's funny, I feel like Wes Anderson's vision suits this scale and aesthetic best, a natural fit for talking animals and miniature sets and manipulated time. Applying his style to human beings and human scaled drama, in a live action film, seems like a poor fit after seeing what he can do with fuzzy stop motion stars. Wonderful stuff. =)

For those of you playing along at home, that's 8 Brattle films and 23 non-Brattle flicks. 19.5 Watch-A-Thon movies. Feel free to use either number for your pledge calculations. Ayep. 31 movies in 30 days. No life, remember?

Keep on keepin on~

PIRATE RADIO

site | trailer
Thumbs up for some joyful and hilarious rockin and a-rollin!


Bill Nighy! Nick Frost! Philip Seymour Hoffman! Kenneth Branagh (doing a remarkable humorless Basil Fawlty)! Corralled onto a boat and mostly tamed by the writer of FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL and creator of LOVE, ACTUALLY. I really shouldn't have to say any more. Frankly, you should have already stopped reading and been off to the theater after reading "Nick Frost!"

OK. OK. I suppose I can tell you a bit more. It's England in the 60s, and altho the BBC provides news and entertainment for all over the airwaves, they do not program modern music, that is to say, rock and roll. To fill this gap, this need, pirate radio stations broadcast from out at sea, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Radio Rock is the most notorious of these stations. The film introduces us to the eccentric and hilarious DJs and staff of Radio Rock through the eyes of young Carl, who, after getting himself expelled from school, has been sent to... apprentice, sort of, with his godfather, owner and manager of Radio Rock, Quentin (Nighy). While young Carl learns a great many things from these rogue radio pirates, about music, love, loyalty, and life, at the same time, back in London, minister of what's proper Dormandy (Branagh) has made it his mission to shut down all pirate radio. He and his unfortunately named lieutenant manipulate the press and the law as best they can to this end, but Radio Rock continues to broadcast. What can the pirates do, tho, when the Dormandy attempts to criminalize the act of broadcasting on the high seas? Wacky fun ensues!

See this movie!

Keep on keepin on~

CYBORG SHE

site | trailer | New Japanese Cinema @MFA
Thumbs sidewise for several great ideas that, unfortunately, weren't properly mixed and stitched together, resulting in a clunky and meandering narrative that's not satisfying in any of the genres it attempts to straddle.


This is a goofy scifi/fanboy fantasy romantic comedy from Japan, an answer to that question that's been nagging you for decades: what if the Terminator in JUDGEMENT DAY was a hot chick who became John Connor's girlfriend? AN answer, not necessarily a good or correct answer. SHE's about the relationship a 20-something university student develops with a cyborg girl that his future self builds and sends back in time to protect him. It seems to subscribe to a BACK TO THE FUTURE treatment of time travel, which allows time jumpers to change the history that created them. Unfortunately, the film doesn't do anything particularly cool with this. It DOES play with more time than you'd expect, showing you how the cyborg uses her abilities to become a force for good in the past, and apparently survives to become repaired or rebuilt as herself six decades later, and even remains intact another few decades to inspire another time traveler.

Overall, the movie delivers some consistent calculated romantic comedy smarminess and laughs, but not enough to make up for the lagging and poorly connecting story. There are maybe two "magic" time traveler moments, but they would benefit seriously from stronger writing and better editing. The story unfolds as if it was written as the movie was being put together, from start to finish, with each new scene or chapter added on to the previous one with not quite enough thought put into how it ought to set up for the next. In the end, whether it tries to or not, it ends up being a little MY SUPER EX GIRLFRIEND and a little AI with a pinch of WEIRD SCIENCE.

The visual effects are very good (there's a massive disaster scene that totally surprised me), altho the cyborg v. humans fight/smack scenes should have been way better choreographed.

*SPOILER* The "magic" trick ending should have been much better and cleverer. It reminded me of the really magickal pro/epilogue of PARASITE EVE, at least it reminds me of how I remember it. In EVE, the evil intelligence claims to know all about the life of its host, and attempts to prove it by sharing intimate information that only she and her boyfriend would know. However, the boyfriend actually turns out to know more about his relationship with the possessed girl than the evil does, which tips the scale of things. In CYBORG, the cyborg visits her creator in his youth on two different occasions, once on his birthday in 2007, and then on his birthday in 2008. What I believed/wanted the explanation to be was that the earlier visit was made by a later/older cyborg, and the second visit was made by the newborn cyborg. The cyborg's claim regarding her year of origin is a clue to this. However, the film actually has the first visitor be a future human, not a cyborg at all, while the second visitor is the actual cyborg. Granted, this is basically a completely unpredictable ending, which might count for some points on some moviegoers' scorecards, but in my opinion it's a very unsatisfying, just for the helluvit, ending. This is the part that most feels like a rip-off of A.I., even though it sort of turns the Pinnochio story into a time traveling bit of sleight-of-hand.

*SPOILER* The other "magic" bit is when cyborg takes her young creator to revisit his home town one last time. He explains that the town that he knew as a child was destroyed in a flood and that the present day town is completely different. She urges them to go anyway. When they arrive, she transports them back in time to his childhood. He finds himself and spies on him depositing some little boy treasures in a secret hiding place. This sequence is sweet, but it doesn't contribute to any other part of the story. There's a LOT of potential in this visit, but it's another lost opportunity.

Keep on keepin on~