Rob's Cosmic Mai Tai Noir

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 14:40:24 GMT

Happy Xmas everyone!

3 Things

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:55:20 GMT

The Thin Man [1934]

1. She pours him a drink. He picks up the bottle instead.
2. "Send up a whole flock of sandwiches."
3. He ditches the cigarette, pulls his sport coat around himself tighter to ward off the cold. Opens the door and is gunned down. What goes through his mind between when he hunches his shoulders and the first shot?

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 23:40:27 GMT

Circle of Deceit [1981]

1. Scarred, towering Holiday Inn. No man's land.
2. A burned-out car. What was once a human being has its head thrown back.
3. "Don't worry. I never write what I think."

List of Best

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:23:58 GMT

The actual year a movie was "made" is in many ways becoming less and less relevant. Theatrical distribution can be glacial. Just look at Francois Ozon's ANGEL. It was completed in 2007 but won't get a proper US release until 2010. On the other hand, online streaming can mean that films largely unseen for decades are suddenly watchable with the click of a mouse. Any movie you see for the first time is a new movie. So I'm steadfastly refusing to limit my "best of" list to movies that happened to made in 2009. Here are the movies I watched for the first time this year that I loved the most:

BIGGER THAN LIFE (Nicholas Ray, 1956)
BILLY BUDD (Peter Ustinov, 1962)
CHE (Steven Soderbergh, 2008)
THE CLASS (Laurent Cantet, 2008)
DAYTIME DRINKING (Young-Seok Noh, 2008)
FEAR ME NOT (Kristian Levring, 2008)
THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE (Steven Soderbergh, 2009)
THE HEADLESS WOMAN (Lucrecia Martel, 2008)
LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF (Thom Andersen, 2003)
MOON (Duncan Jones, 2009)
MOTHER (Joon-ho Bong, 2009)
THE PERVERT'S GUIDE TO CINEMA (Sophie Fiennes, 2006)
POLICE, ADJECTIVE (Corneliu Porumboiu, 2009)
THE ROAD (John Hillcoat, 2009)

I'll be posting more about these next week.

Lists! Lists!

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:33:40 GMT

It's time for those year-end lists. Here's my first: 10 movies I wish I'd seen this year.

3 Things

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:13:20 GMT

Sayonara [1957]

1. Ricardo Montalban's fishy accent: Kobe by way of Mexico City.
2. A pamphlet falls out of her purse.
3. The two puppets lie down together and die as the curtain slowly descends.

3 Things

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:51:19 GMT

The Machinist [2004]

1. As he bends over we can see the knobs of his spine.
2. He is confronted by a menacing hallway.
3. A pile of bloody fish heads.

3

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 23:07:16 GMT

A Single Man [2009]

1. He parks the car. Janet Leigh's enormous eyes. A billboard for Psycho.
2. Fuzzy sweater. White jeans.
3. The hammer of the gun has left marks on his skin.

3 Things

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:31:34 GMT

eXistenZ [1999]

1. Country Gas Station.
2. Jennifer Jason Leigh's peculiar hair-weave.
3. He wraps up the package of frog organs and seals it neatly with a strip of brown tape. He places it on a conveyor belt.

Xmas Time

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:46:13 GMT

Check it out: a previously unpublished Christmas story by Barry Gifford

3 Things

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:52:01 GMT

Crimes and Misdemeanors [1989]

1. "The last time I was inside a woman was when I visited the Statue of Liberty."
2. Closeup: his expensive, polished shoes on the floor of her apartment.
3. Watching Singin' in the Rain on a flatbed editing table while eating carry-out Indian food. "This is the perfect way to watch this movie."

3 Things

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:45:27 GMT

The North Avenue Irregulars [1979]

1. "He's just a guy. He bought me a drink. Is that a crime?"
2. Cloris Leachman's eyelashes.
3. Rev. Hill obviously couldn't have officiated at the wedding, since at the time he was in conference with Dr. Fulton.

3 Things

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:46:34 GMT

The Headless Woman [2008]

1. It begins to rain.
2. He brings the dead deer to the backyard. "Do you want me to skin it?" asks one of the housekeepers. "Alright," he says, "but don't cut yourself." She laughs at his foolishness.
3. She kisses her assistant, greeting her, but is unable or unwilling to put on her smock. The assistant puts it on for her, guiding her arms into sleeves. Doesn't seem to notice what state she's in.

So glad I saw this last night. It really is a Last Year at Marienbad for the 21st Century. Also reminded me of Friday Night somehow. One of the most dreamlike movies I've ever seen; characters, elements, situations repeat themselves but, just like in a dream, you can't quite put your finger on where you saw them before. You only know that they're familiar. The ultrawidescreen ratio allows the camera to hold closeups while also showing us environmental context. We are shown plenty; yet, it's never quite enough to decipher where we're at, who these people are, what's going on. Mystery.

3 Things

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:51:11 GMT

In Memoriam [2009]

1. His neck pulses. You can literally see his heart beating.
2. "In another life," she says. Then she puts her finger to the other girl's lips.
3. Are they really talking to each other? Or just talking?

Quite a special movie. It starts off a bit like Under the Sand, and then just goes completely its own way. There's an obviousness to the turn it takes that's so simple it almost made me laugh. But that's because it feels so genuine that it really couldn't have turned out any other way. Tonight was the cast/crew screening; here's hoping it has a good life ahead of it. So often I feel compelled to cheer on Chicago movies simply because they're local. This is the rare one I can root for because it's, you know, a great movie.

3 Things

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:30:24 GMT

Billy Budd [1962]

1. He prepares to count to eleven, then catches himself.
2. "We do not deal with justice here, but with the law."
3. The Dansker takes the oath using his own Bible.

3 Things

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:05:12 GMT

Paris, je t'aime [2006]

1. "All I can say is that I felt, at the same time, joy and sadness. But not too much sadness, because I felt alive."
2. His hair draped over his forehead, falling into his eyes. Grey tank top.
3. Jagged banks of clouds, the sun setting over the placid city. Later: Gena's face reflected in the window as she smokes a cigarette.

3 Things

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:13:04 GMT

The Cider House Rules [1999]

1. "You splice, I'll deliver."
2. The countryside is strewn with autumn leaves, even though it's supposed to be summertime.
3. Blood seeps from his palm, mingling with the shards of broken glass from the ether bottle. He goes to sleep one last time.

3 Things

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:07:19 GMT

The Road [2009]

1. A forest of crooked telephone poles.
2. Naked, dirty, bleeding bodies suddenly shamble to life.
3. On top of the pile of clothes, he carefully places a single can of food.

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:35:48 GMT

"It's staggering really that modern American Christianism supports wealth while Jesus demanded total poverty, fetishizes family while Jesus left his and urged his followers to abandon wives, husbands and children, champions politics while Jesus said his kingdom was emphatically not of this world, defends religious war where Jesus sought always peace, and backs torture, which is what the Romans did to Jesus."

--Andrew Sullivan

3 Things

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:14:25 GMT

The International [2009]

1. "That's the difference between fiction and the truth. Fiction has to make sense."
2. Bullet-ridden Guggenheim.
3. The rebel leader in a suit and tie, looking like any other businessman. Perhaps he is.

3 Things

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:06:51 GMT

High Society [1956]

1. "Uncle Willy is in the pantry doing weird and wonderful things with various healing waters."
2. Her eyes spring wide open in alarm.
3. Satchmo: "End ... of ... story!"

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:45:06 GMT

My shuttle from Denver to the suburbs will take almost as much time as my flight from Chicago to Denver.

3 Things

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:42:34 GMT

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans [2009]

1. "Shoot him again. His soul is still dancing."
2. Iguana Cam.
3. He arches an eyebrow, holds it for a beat, then walks back to his car.

3 Things

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:58:07 GMT

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp [1943]

1. "While men have been fighting, women have been thinking."
2. "We're having the Bishop for lunch." "Let's hope he's tender."
3. A pile of burning leaves in a park on an autumn afternoon. Candy sits alone on a park bench and swats at the grass with his cane.

Chart Of The Day - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:50:30 GMT

Chart Of The Day - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

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