Welcome to the 105th Edition of my series. I'm releasing this one a
day early since I won't be able to release this tomorrow morning. Some
of these selections come from the Harvest Moon Film Festival which I
went to in my town of Muncie, Indiana last week. They showed many short
films from student filmmakers and would follow it with a mainstream
film as well so in the coming weeks, you will be seeing local short
films. Now for what you came to see...
From the 50 Yard Line (2007): This was one of the movies at the film
festival. This is a documentary of two high school marching bands.
One of which is an Ohio marching band who is considered one of the best
in the nation and their efforts to win the championship. The other is a
band in a Los Angeles high school who is marching for the first time in
18 years due to cutbacks and such. This movie gives a great inside
look on what it takes to become get ready and all the practice it takes
to become as good as possible. I was forced into band in middle school
and I hated it but I know how important the arts are to people and this
is one of them. I have found my niche in the world of art; Theater.
Others find it right here in band and this was not just band, this was
marching band which is even more difficult. The most eye-opening
segment of this documentary was the effects of the great No Child Left
Behind law which forced cutbacks to things like band. This next part is
for the kids here in the nation whether elementary, middle, or high
school. I don't know how many of you there are that read this but if
you are, don't let people make fun of you for what you do. I did that
when I was a kid and I stopped doing theater for a while or I would just
keep it a secret. Accept what your friends do whether it is in
athletics, band, whatever and this goes to the parents. Accept a
decision on if your son or daughter wants to do something like band over
something like basketball or vice versa. Okay, that's all I have to
say on that subject. There is a myspace for this movie on http://www.myspace.com/fromthe50yardline which shows dates coming up on film festivals on which you can view this movie.
The White Room (2006): This was a student film which I viewed at
this film festival which comes from Ball State graduate Carsten Kurpanek
who was the director of this short film. This is a very inventive film
in my opinion where a man walks in on his wife and best friend in bed
together where a shot gets fired and the two guys find themselves in a
strange afterlife world with a mediator who must tell them what can
happen and make them look into their past, present and future. There
was one scene which reminded me of a John Woo scene and the place to
view this movie is http://www.myspace.com/kurpanek
where he has another short film as well so when you have read my blog
and left your comment, you should take 8 minutes and check this out. I
do not believe you will be disappointed.
Welcome to Collinwood (2002): This was one of the mainstream films
shown at the film festival. This is a comedic heist film which starts
with Luis Guzman who plays a petty thief who learns of a "perfect heist"
from a lifer in prison. It's up to his girlfriend to try to form a
group and get him out which she seems to just move on with the people
she has. William H. Macy is a single father with a baby who needs the
money. That is a common role for Macy where he feels he must resort to
crime to get money but it is a role he plays very well and believably.
Sam Rockwell is a boxer who joins in on this heist. Look for George
Clooney in a small role as a safe cracker in a wheelchair who teaches
the inept criminals on how to do what he does. This wasn't the greatest
heist movie I've seen and it is nothing new but I still laughed and the
performances from Macy and Rockwell, who I have loved in everything I
have seen on him, really carry this movie for me.
Rebel Without a Cause (1955): This was another mainstream film shown
at the film festival. This is the second of what unfortunately would
become a trilogy for James Dean, though he was in tv shows and
uncredited roles before the big three. Natalie Wood also stars who
would also have an unfortunate early death, though much later than James
Dean's. Sal Mineo, the third lead was a real-life troubled youth who
found somewhat of an escape through acting but unfortunately was
killed. James Dean's hometown is just a town over for mine who he is
kind of a big deal here and people from all over the world come to
Fairmount, Indiana just for the James Dean Festival each year. James
Dean plays a youth named Jim with a troubled past who moves into a new
town and the bullies immediately start picking on him. He takes it as
long as he can but eventually can't take it anymore bringing out his
darker side. Natalie Wood plays Judy, who hangs with the popular crowd
but tires of them and takes to Jim. Sal Mineo plays Plato, another
troubled youth who really likes Jim from the first time he meets him.
This is a great look at the life of a teen and all of what I think are a
bunch of stupid rituals where everyone must be popular. Look for a
young Dennis Hopper who is part of the gang. Director Nicolas Ray
wanted an authentic feel so he ran around with an L.A. Street Gang and
even casted real-life gang members, one of which choreographed the knife
fight. The three leads were all very good and how tragic that they all
had to meet such untimely demise.
Blood on the Sun (1945): This was a more unknown James Cagney film
where he is a newspaper reporter in Japan and comes across a plan
against the United States but is pretty much alone. Unfortunately there
were a lot of Americans playing Japanese which I did not think was very
believable but I understand that it was probably hard in those times to
find Japanese actors to be in this movie. What is most interesting is
the martial arts that Cagney learns and it comes into play later in the
movie so basically what I am trying to say is that I never thought I
would see a martial arts fight with James Cagney. It's worth a look,
not the most memorable but still interesting.
The Iron Giant (1999): Last week I brought you Don Bluth, this week I
bring you a Brad Bird animation film from Warner Brothers. This was an
homage to sci-fi films of the 50s where a young boy named Hogarth, who
sees this huge gigantic robot and while at first he fears him, he then
sees that he is quite gentle. We have the fearing of the unknown type
theme. Vin Diesel provides the voice of the Iron Giant and is not bad.
Christopher McDonald plays a corrupt FBI agent who does whatever
possible to bring down the giant no matter how many lives it takes.
Harry Connick Jr. does the voice for a loner junkyard owner who also
takes a liking to Hogarth and the Giant. FRIENDS alum Jennifer Aniston
provides the voice for Hogarth's mom. This movie is pleasing to both
kids and adults.
The Misfits (1961): This is another film whose three leads were full
of tragedy which include Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, and Montgomery
Clift. It was the last movie for both Monroe and Gable. Here, Marilyn
is a divorcee who makes her way through Nevada and meets a free-spirited
cowboy, played by Clark Gable and his friend Guido, played by Eli
Wallach who fortunately broke the curse of the leads and still lives
today. Their other friend was a rodeo has-been played by Montgomery
Clift who was my favorite. These three guys lead the anti-work
lifestyle which comes to be admired by Roslyn (Monroe). She eventually
falls in love with Gay (Gable) who hasn't been the relationship type for
many years. However, she does start to bring some tension between the
three when Gay starts to see life differently. I haven't seen
everything Marilyn has done but of what I have seen, I felt this was her
best performance and I hate that it had to be the last. I watched it
forgetting she was the sex-goddess and even forgot she was Marilyn
Monroe.
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (1989): I caught this
at Travis' Co-Op viewing. This was a very controversial film and the
version he showed was actually NC-17. This is considered a comedy
though I felt bad at the things I was laughing at. Even the torture of a
young kid was rather funny. Helen Mirren stars as Georgina who tires
of her crime-boss/restaurant owner husband, played by Michael Gambon and
has an affair with a patron which leads to all kinds of mass chaos.
Gambon is very good as a man with absolutely no redeeming qualities. I
could also tell that when viewing this film, many people there had no
idea what to think since they weren't really used to something like
this. There is not much more I can say about this film except that if
you hate nudity, violence, and sex, you might not want to view this
film.
Breezy (1973): I had a hard time choosing the 70s film when looking
on On-Demand. There was a comedy which could be shown in the future but
I felt it was too similar to something else I had on here, then I saw
this film which Clint Eastwood directed. This in my opinion is a very
overlooked gem from Eastwood who shows a promising early directing
career in this film where I guess he can be seen in an uncredited role
which I learned on imdb.com. Kay Lenz plays the title character who is a
young, free-spirited girl, probably 19 years of age. William Holden
plays a divorced, cynical, maybe bitter 50 year old businessman named
Frank. Breezy kind of throws herself at Frank who slowly takes a liking
to her and even likes her when she gets into his car without asking to
hitch a ride. He tries to get rid of her but can't and starts to like
her ways but still wonders of the age difference which makes no
difference to Breezy. I was able to absolutely care about both of these
characters and this is a movie that I will always remember and think
about. Thank you Clint Eastwood.
Marie Antoinette (1938): Please notice the year, this is not the
Kirsten Dunst version nor is that version really a remake. Norma
Shearer stars as the title character and Robert Morley plays her husband
Louis XVI who really did not fit into royalty. Morley makes his debut
which was really good. Tyrone Power plays Marie's lover Count Axel de
Fersen. John Barrymore has a supporting role as the cunning Louis XV.
This was a pretty sympathetic biopic which portrays her as in over her
head. It covers her betrothel to Louis XVI up to her death. I'm not
really sure what the accuracy of her friendship with Power's character
was. This version and the 2006 versions were totally different stories,
both of which I feel have their qualities and even flaws.
Well, that is it for this week. Tell me your favorites and your
least favorites. I did a lot of sex and violence here and it's strange
that I did both The Misfits and Rebel Without a Cause, two films full of
real-life tragedy. I'll be back next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment