More thoughts

THE HANGOVER

If I can be pretentious about movies once again, I thought this movie was a blast, but even moreso because of its bold move 1) to not have any big name stars and 2) use an artsy movie device by revealing only minimal parts of the shenanigans that led to the titular event. Thank goodness the movie’s title and poster explain all of what a casual film-goer needs, because if I were to push this same film, I would think it would be a perfectly reasonable pitch to say that it has this weird indie comedian who plays the piano, the Daily Show’s Ed Helms, and a cameo from this Asian doctor turned hilarious off-the-wall performer, who has appeared in a few movies but is REALLY good in the new NBC show Community. What? Nothing? And it's about a HANGOVER! OK, I'm glad you're now on board.

Fortunately, the Hangover has a poster with a missing tooth and a creepy bearded due with a baby harness, so there’s no question it’s appealing and approachable. Even better, the movie, while excelling in madcap freeflow hijinks in the same spirit as a Superbad or Harold and Kumar, is entertaining and different. My comments about Get Him to the Greek come into play, in the battle between whether in-your-face vulgarity or implied debauchery are better ways to get deeper humor. After watching this, I’d much rather attempt to IMAGINE why the heck a tiger and a chicken are in a hotel room then to have the preceding events shown to me. What happens is revealed in pieces later on, but that guessing element is what drives the movie, and perhaps implies that, like the hungover gang of drugged-up bachelors, we don’t have to know every detail of what happened to consider it something memorable.



SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD

I’m a little less trusting of the AV Club film reviewers, now that they gave this a so-so rating (and loved Adventurland, yawn). This was an amazing movie, making up for whatever lack of depth characters had with kinetic energy and complete unpredictability as to what images are going to come up next. In fact, what the AV Club reviewer might think of hollowness of character I believe might be an encapsulation of how 20-somethings might act as a reaction to sensory overload. Besides, it’s a comic book story, and I was kind of convinced that perhaps I shouldn’t read too many reviews before I see a film, because I think the most giddy element of this flick that turned up the excitement was how it shifted from a quirky little young relationship comedy to a who-knows-what kind of movie with the entrance of that first “evil-ex”. After that, everything was bright and exciting, and I had that invigorating anticipation of “the duel” that I hadn’t felt to such a great degree since watching Kill Bill Vol. 2, waiting for the Bride to finish the 3 left on her list.

I snuck out on Monday night after a stressful day of work to watch this at a theater, and then on Tuesday I took a peek at the Graphic Novel bookshelves, where I had seen Scott Pilgrim’s books many times. At first glance it seems like they were incredibly faithful to the comic panels. I kind of regret not reading the books beforehand, but maybe from the movie-first perspective I can appreciate how human they made the story.

GRAND ILLUSION

I know a question will come up sooner or later about my tastes (I can’t keep all these refined sensibilities to myself) and someone will ask me what kind of movies I like. Something similar has come up when I’m asked about my music tastes, and my lame attempt at a short answer is “indie rock”, which to some of my friends is still not an understood category. I can say I like interesting, unique things that sort of redefine my idea of an art form, but how does that nail down what type of stuff I like?

Well, I came up with another type of approach when it comes to movies, music, books, etc. I seek an experience that we help expose me to the breadth of creative expression, but in the context of a systematic ‘list’ approach that represents a futile attempt to corral all works out there into a manageable form, but nonetheless provides me a framework to tackle such tremendously numerous works in a sense where I can have a grand accomplishment, even just in theory, of completing a given 'list'.

What a mouthful! What I’m trying to say is that I use lists by cultural critics that I respect to often decide what to watch. And the more sweeping a list the better… if there’s some movie in the top 10 of an entire DECADE that I haven’t seen, then it’s a real shame if I haven’t seen it yet.

Some lists that are shaping my movie-watching habits…

Ain’t it Cool News best films of the decade list (the 2000s)

The same for AV Club (which also has a best TV series and best miniseries of the decade list)

Complete lists of all films shown at the Wisconsin Film Festival for the years 2008, 2009, and 2010

AND a new one

The films selected for release by the Criterion distribution company… conveniently organized here.

Now the reasons for all these lists reflect a respect I have for the particular motivations these cultural organizers have for watching movies. In the case of Criterion, I have been admired the way they present films as artistic works, with designer packaging (admired at the stores since they are very expensive to purchase), lots of unique bonus features, and a breadth of respect for works new and old. Ain’t It Cool News, for example, focused their attention recently on a movie called Revanche (also a selection for WIFF 2009) because Criterion selected it for special release, highlighting it among the variety of artsy foreign films put out normally during any given year. The fact that you can have a distribution company release Revanche, and then subsequently under the same Criterion brand, release something odd from 30 years earlier that was previously unavailable to home DVD, and then release the latest Wed Anderson movie because that director’s particular aesthetic taps into their mood, is the type of sophisticated yet playful approach that make Criterion another pleasing context in which to approach a life-long goal of watching every good movie ever made.

THE GRAND ILLUSION was “spine” number 1 and available on Netflix Instant, along with quite a few other earlier Criterion releases which I might as well watch soon. The downside to Netflix Instant is that you might not get a premium widescreen issue treatment that a Criterion DVD or Blu-Ray reissue might have. Plus side was that in the case of Grand Illusion, you have a film that deals with intimate spaces and the vital humanity of characters in a tragic situation. I had a little time to look this up on Wikipedia after watching this, and it looks like Hitler’s Germany banned this movie, lest the public might be convinced to identify with a faceless menacing foreigner that needed to be considered an enemy. Fascinating that this film was made in 1938, and that there was a sensibility towards this kind of view of war that made its way into a major film. But I couldn’t help but think how I got tired of liberal filmmakers putting out another depressing yet real depiction of current wars we have to live with. These films do a great job in preaching to the choir, but did they change the minds of the people that really are in charge? The Grand Illusion obviously didn’t, but it’s a minuscule consolation that there were people sensitive enough to make this movie back then.