Author Archives: matterspamer

REVIEW: Tabloid

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Tabloid
Directed by: Errol Morris
Written by: N/A
Starring: Joyce McKinney, Peter Tory, Kent Gavin and Jackson Shaw

Tabloid is what you would expect from an Errol Morris documentary, which is the unexpected.  With a career that includes films about a former Secretary of Defense, a Holocaust denier and a pet cemetery, it’s impossible to know what his lens will focus on next.

In this latest endeavor, he fixates on Joyce McKinney, a woman who was hounded by the British paparazzi in the 70s after a kidnapping scandal with her Mormon boyfriend.  Morris tells this story largely through talking head interviews with McKinney and members of the tabloids who covered her from various angles.  To simply say that it is a wildly entertaining film would ironically be to sell it short of its purpose, which is to deconstruct the entire idea of entertainment.

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CLASSICS: Goodfellas

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Goodfellas 
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Written by: Nicholas Pileggi & Martin Scorsese (screenplay), Nicholas Pileggi (book)
Starring: Ray Liotta, Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Lorraine Bracco

Goodfellas is a film in which everyone is doing the best at what they do best.  Alongside Taxi Driver, it is Martin Scorsese’s most undisputed masterpiece for several important reasons.  The most prominent reason is Scorsese’s technique, which is now one of the most easily identifiable “auteur” signatures.  From his use of rock music to the way his camera bobs, ducks and weaves alongside these mobsters, he defines the world they live in in almost every capacity.

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REVIEW: J. Edgar

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J. Edgar
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Written by: Dustin Lance Black (screenplay)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Judi Dench and Naomi Watts

Two men are fighting over a woman.  One declares that he may in fact be ready for a wife, while the other, in a fuming rage, declares that he cannot marry that woman.  He smashes some glasses and throws the first punch.  Not to be outdone, the other man fights back with all his strength, but to no avail.  The other man has him pinned to the ground.  And then they kiss.

That is the climax of J. Edgar, Clint Eastwood’s latest directorial endeavor and the sliest genre subversion since his masterful acting/directing one-two punch in 2008’s Gran Torino.  He is of course filming the illusive FBI titan J. Edgar Hoover, who here is embodied by Leonardo DiCaprio in his finest screen performance.

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REVIEW: Attack the Block

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Attack the Block
Directed by: Joe Cornish
Written by: Joe Cornish
Starring: John Boyega, Jodie Whittaker, Nick Frost and Luke Treadaway

Imagine the difficulty of trying to mug someone during an alien invasion.  You’ve just pulled a knife on an unsuspecting “Lone Woman At Night” (a stock character if ever there was one) and are about to collect your dues from her purse, when the car next to you explodes after something from the sky hits it.

If you find that a hard premise to relate to, you may have trouble with the beginning of Attack the Block, an alien invasion film set in the ghetto of South London.  Moses (John Boyega) and his gang of teenage would-be thugs fend off extraterrestrials after ruining the night of Sam (Jodie Whittaker), a new nurse who they eventually find out lives in their same apartment building.

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ARCHIVE REVIEW: V for Vendetta

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V for Vendetta
Directed by: James McTeigue
Written by: Andy & Larry Wachowski (screenplay), Alan Moore (graphic novel)
Starring: Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, John Hurt, and Stephen Rea

You can’t blame Alan Moore for not wanting his name put on adaptations of his graphic novels.  It all began with the atrocious adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and the tradition carried on with the below-average take on his most renowned work, Watchmen.  In between those two garbage heaps though, one of his graphic novels was given justice.  That movie was V for Vendetta (300 was just pretty.)

Though the Wachowski Brothers switch the focus of the novel to represent restrained rebellion against government rather than all-out anarchy, the movie still moves along with a purposeful pace and terrific action sequences.  Moore was still outraged at their nerve, and again, you can’t really blame him.  Unlike the other adaptations though, this one was made with more than a cash-in in mind.

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Five grossly underrated horror films

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Horror movies are very taste-specific because it’s difficult to scare a big group of people in the same way.  Some get freaked out by gore, others by the possibility of it.  Other times, all it takes is a m enacing villain calmly inching across the screen.  Here is a diverse list of movies that you may have overlooked in the sequel-driven, often scareless age of modern horror.

Let the Right One In– The Twilight vampire bump actually worked against this movie, causing many fans of horror to stay away from anything with two fangs.  Add to that the fact that it’s also foreign, and it is further doomed in American markets.  Let the RIght One In is a profoundly disturbing adolescent horror film from Sweden, one where a seemingly young girl (brilliantly played by Lina Leandersson) becomes much more.  It’s artfully done, to be sure, but the blood-letting helps it fit in with grimier-looking horror movies.

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REVIEW: The Trip

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The Trip
Directed by: Michael Winterbottom
Written by: N/A
Starring: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Claire Keelan and Margo Stilley

The Trip blends the line of fiction and reality so seamlessly that by the end you’re left uncertain of what you’ve seen.  As it unfolds it is clear that you’re watching a movie, but there’s something different about it.  It could be that there was no actual shooting script and that the actors are playing themselves (in a Curb Your Enthusiasm kind of way), but it’s not just that.

What Michael Winterbottom’s film does so brilliantly is comment on reality with a very close fictional version.  Its comedy is born out of deep personal truth.  This undertaking requires tremendous efforts from the two lead performers, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.  Steve is asked by The Observer to travel around the UK and try the finest restaurants.  His semi-girlfriend backs out, so he asks Rob, who is happily married.

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REVIEW: Submarine

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Submarine
Directed by: Richard Ayoade
Written by: Richard Ayoade (screenplay)
Starring: Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, Sally Hawkins and Noah Taylor

Richard Ayoade will probably emerge as a “unique” new voice of independent cinema after this debut feature.  Submarine is exactly the kind of movie that can be a cross-over hit in America.  It’s got everything critics and its built-in audience adore: a spunky sense of humor, an aesthetic flare and a sensitive young male protagonist.

Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) is a younger version of Harold, though this movie contains no Maude. Instead, there’s a younger Lulu out of Something Wild, bob haircut and all.  When Oliver meets Jordana (Yasmin Paige) he’s immediately drawn to her.  To win her over he must take part in the cruel bullying of a larger girl.  He does, and he feels subsequently guilty, but he views it as something he had to do for his muse.

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CLASSICS: Broadcast News

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Broadcast News
Directed by: James L. Brooks
Written by: James L. Brooks (screenplay)
Starring: Holly Hunter, Albert Brooks, William Hurt and Joan Cusack

From a modern perspective, this monologue by Albert Brooks in the last third of James L. Brooks’ Broadcast News is cringe-inducing, because it became true:

“What do you think the Devil is going to look like if he’s around? Nobody is going to be taken in if he has a long, red, pointy tail. No. I’m semi-serious here. He will look attractive and he will be nice and helpful and he will get a job where he influences a great God-fearing nation and he will never do an evil thing… he will just bit by little bit lower standards where they are important. Just coax along flash over substance… Just a tiny bit. And he will talk about all of us really being salesmen. And he’ll get all the great women. ”

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SPOTLIGHT: Kirsten Dunst

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Kirsten Dunst is so much more than Mary Jane Watson.  Yes, Spider-Man’s muse is her most famous role, but Dunst gives terrific performances in several other lesser-known films.  She uses her expressive facial features to convey unbearable sadness as well as inescapable joy.  Though her career is thought to have ended when the Spider-Man franchise went up in flames after the third installment, she’s been doing some of the best work of her career since then.

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