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(02/09/12 1:42am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The average movie-goer treats the Best Picture nominees at the Oscars as the must-see list of the year. But this year, that audience might be disappointed with “The Help” and “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” and confused with “The Artist” and “The Tree of Life.”So for those of you looking to become acquainted with this year’s Oscar nominees and the potential winners, here’s a bit of homework due promptly before the ceremony, which will be Feb. 26.1. “Beginners”If Christopher Plummer wins Best Supporting Actor, he’ll become the oldest winner of all time at 82 years old.Thus, it’s fitting the movie he’ll win for is a loving story about a dying old man who has begun life again by coming out as gay. “Beginners” more artfully tackles themes of family lineage and societal norms than even “The Descendants” does, and it’s a wonderful indie drama that also stars Ewan McGregor, Melanie Laurent.2. “A Separation”“A Separation” might be an Iranian film, but it’s being called a universal drama that highlights the complications of divorce and difficult human choices. Not only is it the best-reviewed movie of the year, it is even the highest-rated 2011 film on IMDb, placing above “The Artist” and “Hugo.”The film’s nomination for Best Original Screenplay indicates it has a high chance of winning in the Foreign Language category despite the Academy’s notorious inclination to pick a generally weak and overwrought title among many great films.3. “Pina”The legendary German art house director Wim Wenders has been quiet for nearly two decades, but his documentary “Pina” has earned him his second nomination and potential first win for Best Documentary.The film is a biography about the life of recently deceased dance choreographer Pina Bausch, and Wenders celebrates her magic on the stage by composing an elegant spectacle of filmmaking in 3-D. The film is screening in 3-D at the IU Cinema starting Thursday, Feb. 16.4. “Rango”2011 was a weak year for animated movies, and the one film that has been cleaning up all the awards and is most deserving is the surrealistic Western “Rango.”Gore Verbinski’s bizarre film combines the best elements of Sergio Leone and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” Johnny Depp also does terrific voice work as the titular exotic lizard.5. “The Tree of Life”If you haven’t already watched “The Tree of Life” to support your awareness of important, critically-acclaimed films, you’re in for a challenging experience. Its nominations for Best Picture and Best Director are little more than tokens recognizing director Terrence Malick’s vision, and they are categories he stands no chance of winning.However, “The Tree of Life” is an undeniable visual feast thanks to five-time-nominated cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki. His work is a crowning achievement in a field of terrific nominees that includes “The Artist,” “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “Hugo” and “War Horse.” This will perhaps be the most deserving award of the night.
(02/03/12 4:46am)
The image of a man flogging a young boy is not a pleasant sight, but until now, this horrific scene lacked the chilling sound to go with it.
(01/26/12 3:47am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>There’s something depressing about watching Gina Carano kick ass in “Haywire” and then watching her lose a fight against Cris Cyborg on YouTube. Both Carano’s movie fights and her actual work as a martial artist are gut-wrenching in their skill and toughness, but the stylized minimalism of “Haywire” is nothing like something you would see in the Octagon. It got me thinking how impressed I was by the craft and choreography incorporated by Steven Soderbergh. He described his style in an interview with the A.V. Club. “We had people who could really fight, so I wanted the camera to be stationary, and through editing and movement with the camera on a dolly,” Soderbergh said. “I wanted to use wide lenses and looser shots than you’d typically see when you’re shooting action.”But the more I thought about it, I thought about how far back I’d have to go to actually find a modern action movie that looks or feels anything like it. “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?” “The Matrix?” “Enter the Dragon?” What is the modern action movie, and is it any good? Here I’ve described a few styles and the movies that influenced them, for better or worse.“Lord of the Rings” and the action extravaganzaIn the 2000s there was one action movie to rule them all, and that was “The Lord of the Rings.” Peter Jackson combined brutal but fun and bloodless PG-13 action with J.R.R. Tolkien’s sweeping fantasy scope and had an instant hit. The wars in the last two films of the trilogy specifically raged on endlessly to great effect, but movies as diverse as “Avatar,” “Star Trek” and “District 9” took that to mean an epic battle could substitute for a third act. Even dramas like the much-maligned “Alice in Wonderland” seemed to forget how to write a satisfying conclusion without every character fighting a pointless war.“V for Vendetta” and the style junkie“V for Vendetta” didn’t just attain cult status because of its rebellious message. Its hyper-stylized aesthetic, one that borrowed from “The Matrix”’s bullet-time effects and incorporated explosions of light, color, CGI and more explosions, was unlike anything anyone had ever seen.It wasn’t long before Zack Snyder used the look as a template for all graphic novel movies, and even worse, copycats started making completely unnecessary and lame CGI universes in something like the undying “Resident Evil” franchise. “The Bourne Supremacy” and the grittily realisticThe first Bourne movie was fun and all, but the series really became popular when Paul Greengrass took the helm on the second and third films. He made use of a handheld camera as a method of conveying dirty, down-to-Earth visuals and jerky, energetic motion. Jason Bourne’s fights were quick and capitalized more on sound than clear visuals to deal the killing blow.But the queasy cam has quickly gotten out of hand, resulting in hard-to-process action sequences without a coherent sense of cinematic space. Even Greengrass overused it in his modern warfare film “Green Zone,” and other Iraqi War movies have followed suit. The style has even migrated into horror movies like “Cloverfield.”The bigger pictureAll three of these styles have come to define the modern action movie in one way or another, and it’s strikingly different from “Die Hard,” “Terminator 2,” many of the Bond movies or countless more. And some movies share all three traits to varying levels of success. When the styles are all combined well, you can get something like “The Dark Knight” or “Inception.” When they aren’t, “Transformers” is the resulting mess.Superheroes and their batch of special effects-driven action are dominating right now, so filmmakers often make a point to distance themselves from those styles. Quentin Tarantino modeled “Kill Bill” off exploitation and Kung-Fu films, “Fast Five” and the latest “Mission: Impossible” go out of their way to avoid special effects, and thrillers like “Drive” and “The Hurt Locker” are occasionally expressions of minimalism.While some of these films are invigorating reasons to go to the movies, others can be tiresome. It’s about time someone beat the action film into shape.
(01/26/12 3:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Something with as many ass kickings as “Haywire” couldn’t possibly be called an experimental film, could it?Steven Soderbergh built one around porn star Sasha Grey, so why not for martial arts fighter Gina Carano?“Haywire” is a no-frills action movie that measures what can be accomplished in a film genre.It minimizes on sweeping photography or handheld queasy cam effects and produces a stylized, precise and expertly choreographed film. Its simplicity is compelling simply in admiring the craft of it all.Carano plays Mallory Kane, a secret agent betrayed by her private contractor (Ewan McGregor), but the plot, too, is stripped to its bare bones to the point that the cryptic details are just filler for “Haywire”’s artsy combat set pieces.Soderbergh gives us full-bodied fights that lovingly make use of space. His rapid editing delineates clear angles as though he were photographing Carano in the octagon.The gorgeous Carano makes for an unusual movie star with how at home she is during the film’s many battles.She’s the key in a film uninterested with her striking sexuality. But Carano demands presence, and although she could serve as a better feminist icon than David Fincher’s Lisbeth Salander, Carano is too tough and impressive for anyone to really notice or care.
(01/20/12 5:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Nov. 9, 2010The IU Cinema has an exclusive press opening with a special screening of “The Bridge on the River Kwai.” The audience seemingly shouted “Madness!” at the cinema’s digital projection.Jan. 13, 2011 As part of the flagship “David Lean” series, “Lawrence of Arabia” is screened on the IU Cinema’s opening night to a sold-out crowd. An additional screening was added the following Tuesday.Jan. 29, 2011 “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” closes the “John Ford Goes West” series that welcomed the director’s grandson, Daniel Ford. Spoiler: Liberty Valance gets shot.Feb. 11, 2011 Experimental filmmaker Dr. Kenneth Anger speaks, but not without some controversy. Days earlier, the threatening flyers “Manifesto #1” were posted around campus, and authorities believed them to be linked to Anger’s arrival. During his Q&A session, Anger openly challenged a programming decision to not screen one of his more explicit films. IU Cinema Director Jon Vickers said he now sees the occasion as humorous. “The tense situation was resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, but both incidents add to our unique memories of Kenneth Anger’s visit,” he said.Feb. 19, 2011 The restored version of “Metropolis,” complete with scenes that were once thought forever lost, is screened, accompanied by a live student orchestra. The orchestra pays homage to the cinema’s acoustics by parodying the THX noise at the start of the film.April 7, 2011 Angelo Pizzo and David Anspaugh speak with Andy Hunsucker and Jason Thompson during a live taping of the IU Cinema Podcast, following a screening of their film “Hoosiers.” “We felt like we’d been doing a good show up until then, but getting that vote of confidence from Jon (Vickers) was a big deal for us,” Hunsucker said. The podcast gained the attention of WFIU, where it now airs. April 10, 2011 “Breaking Away” makes an appearance during the cinema’s first Little 500, signaling yet another Cutters victory.Sept. 2, 2011 “A Clockwork Orange” becomes the first Midnight Movie at the IU Cinema. Dozens of unsuspecting college students left terrified of “Singin’ in the Rain.”Sept. 11, 2011 Patrons pay their respects to those lost in the World Trade Center attacks by watching the harrowing footage inside the towers in the documentary “9/11” on the tragic day’s 10th anniversary.Oct. 15, 2011Piano accompanist Ethan Uslan performs live during a screening of the silent film and 1927 Best Picture winner “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans.” Uslan said he wanted to recreate the experience of watching a film in the 1920s and succeeded brilliantly.Oct. 27, 2011 Michael Uslan, the producer of every Batman film to date, speaks at the cinema about how he went from being a middle-class IU alumnus to becoming a successful producer and advocate for comic books as a legitimate art form. Naturally, “The Dark Knight” screened to a flock of fanboys that evening.Oct. 31, 2011 As part of the Hermann and Hitchcock series, “Psycho” proves to be the pinnacle slasher film on a Halloween evening.Jan. 12, 2012The IU Cinema shows a storybook film series with a restored 35mm print of “Once Upon a Time in the West.” “The audience, including myself and Barry Allen, the Paramount Pictures archivist in charge of the restoration, was awestruck by the film’s beauty on screen,” Vickers said.A LOOK AHEAD: Feb. 4, 2012 The world premiere of the silent film “David Copperfield” will be screened with a Jacobs School of Music student-commissioned score and live orchestra performance in honor of Charles Dickens’ 200th birthday.
(01/19/12 2:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Why is everyone in “Contraband” a smuggler, a screw-up, an idiot or all three? Better yet, why do these people from New Orleans talk with Boston accents?“Contraband” is a thickheaded heist thriller with a laborious plot and a whole lot of contrived violence against women and children to make up for it.Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) is the best in the biz, and although he’s out of the game, he’s doing “one last job” (sigh) to pay back his kid brother-in-law’s debt after a drug run gone bad.These guys are in love with the idea of smuggling. They call Chris the “Lennon and McCartney” of smugglers. They discuss their work with their wives, family and friends. They walk right into danger and plot an elaborate heist just because they can, and then they act surprised when things go horribly wrong.I grew irritated at how many times Chris walked right up to his brother-in-law’s attacker, Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi), and then could think of nothing better than to run another job just to pay him his money. Still, it was not as irritating as Briggs’s voice, with an accent so thick and fake (“Say g’bye ta ya wiiife!”) his presence as a villain is laughable.What’s more, Wahlberg’s tough, bad-guy-turned-straight persona is getting weary. It’s a role he’s played so many times he better be getting a tax write-off.Their dull performances do nothing to energize this ugly film shot in a cliché documentary style. It’s often so slow and without vitality it has to concoct elaborate set pieces like a boat threatening to crash into a pier or a van dangling out of a high flying shipping container, none of which chalk up points for the film as intelligent.Please let “Contraband” be the one last time Wahlberg does one last job.
(01/12/12 5:18am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Once upon a time, a local cinema showcased an epic series of movies. The films were long, magnificent, colorful and expansive in scope. But that showcase was not in a land far, far away. It’s the “Once Upon a Time ... in Indiana” series running through the weekend at the IU Cinema. Starting tonight at 7 p.m. with a screening of Sergio Leone’s Western opus “Once Upon a Time in the West,” the IU Cinema is kicking off the spring semester with a collection of movies that shares the film’s grandeur and prefix. “This one’s interesting because it’s not based on a specific director, actor or filmmaker — it’s based on this phrase,” said Andy Hunsucker, the host of the IU Cinema Podcast. “These are films from a lot of different cultures, and this is a phrase that means a lot to a Western society.”In fact, Italian, Chinese, Indian and Turkish are all among the cultures represented by this series. “It’s a very diverse series, but it’s just based on the idea of the title,” Hunsucker said. “All of these films seem to be of an epic scope.”IU Cinema director Jon Vickers based this “storybook theme” on the inclusion of the 2011 art house title “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia,” which is screening from Jan. 26-29, and the guest appearance of Barry Allen, a film restoration expert who helped restore “Once Upon a Time in the West” to pristine condition. Allen worked with Martin Scorsese and the Film Foundation to restore the 35mm film. “This gives us a chance to bring in some interesting titles that allowed us to showcase the two films we really wanted to bring,” Vickers said. Vickers said he hopes a large audience comes to see “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia,” describing director Nuri Bilge Ceylan as someone with a great ability to capture the human condition.Allen, who is the former executive director of film preservation and archival resources at Paramount Pictures, will discuss the art and craft of film restoration in a guest lecture at 3 p.m. Friday. His speech will touch on his long career as a film distributor and restoration expert as well as an overall discussion of film preservation.“This is a major topic of conversation,” Allen said. “That print was beginning to show its age, and this was largely a matter of recapturing the past.”
(12/08/11 12:59am)
WEEKEND's absolute best albums of the year
(12/08/11 12:52am)
WEEKEND's top picks for the best movies of the year.
(12/08/11 12:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>This year was a backward-looking year for film, and only in recent weeks have we begun to climb out of our nostalgic holes and emerge rejuvenated. Hollywood is historically bad at correcting former mistakes, and at the dawn of each new technological advancement in film, we forget how to run or even walk and start by crawling once again. The culprit of 2011 was 3-D, which bombarded us in more movies than any year in history. The words “shot in 3-D” nearly lost their meaning, and the technology was almost considered dead, written off as another rising and falling fad in the cycle of Hollywood gimmickry. But as films like “Hugo” finally emerge, we get a good sense not just of how 3-D can improve the visual aesthetic of a film but how it can actually be incorporated to tell stories differently. And interestingly enough, this growth is part of a Hollywood cycle all its own. Dating back to the advent of sound, color or CGI, critics were there to judge the technology as no more than a gimmick. Sound was only a way to make bawdy musicals, color was only used to make pretty travelogues and epics and CGI was a cheap way to accomplish what great cinematographers, special effects and makeup artists had done for years.Studios milked these gimmicks before finally making something of convincing quality. Hollywood is treating 3-D and its surcharge in the same way.But before long, sound, color and digital pictures began reinventing the wheel, redefining the ways in which a story was told based on the new technological capabilities. Films made in these media told stories that silent, black-and-white and non-CGI movies could not. Martin Scorsese does in “Hugo” what James Cameron could not do in “Avatar.” He doesn’t just make “Hugo” look beautiful but conveys development and depth by making the 3-D work in his favor. Scorsese explores the endless depth of a train station to show how the whole movie will be seen from a child’s eyes. He even sends a train hurtling at the screen to re-imagine what early movie audiences felt when they saw some of the first moving images. Then, it is perhaps not a coincidence that Scorsese and several other directors this year did not use modern ideas to make forward-looking films but, in fact, reveled in cinematic nostalgia. What have been the greatest of the year? “Midnight in Paris” and “Hugo” were both nostalgia projects for legendary veteran directors, each fantasizing about a time when the artists were magical and the world was alive and colorful rather than drab and gritty like some movies.“War Horse” and “Super 8” are both homages to spectacle-driven masterpieces of the past, with Steven Spielberg emulating John Ford in his war epic and J.J. Abrams copying, well, Spielberg, in his children’s sci-fi. “Drive” is dripping in 1980s electronica, and “The Artist” is literally a silent film. Even movies like “The Tree of Life” and “The Descendants” deal with themes large enough to be timeless. On the other hand, “Moneyball” and its computerized, capitalistic mindset to baseball come to mind. Then there’s “Contagion,” which wasn’t just a pandemic movie but a pandemic movie in the digital age. Or maybe the dark comedy in “50/50” best reflects modern attitudes. Yet none of those are as striking candidates as “The Social Network” or “Up in the Air.” Perhaps “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and “Young Adult” — not, coincidentally, by the same two directors — will step in as big contenders to define the year. But this reveling in the past is already trickling into next year, with 3-D up-converts of “Titanic,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” planned for re-release. With some great films in 2011, we’ve now proved we know where we started and can see the road to the future. But with too many bad and mediocre ones, let’s pick a path and stop letting new innovations get us so lost.
(12/01/11 1:55am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>This time last year, the walls of Bub’s Burgers and Ice Cream were nearly bare. When the restaurant opened this past year, it claimed the prize of Best New Restaurant for Best of Bloomington.But today, 3-by-5 photos line every wall in the establishment. In each photo, a customer holds up an empty plate that once held what is now Bloomington’s best burger.Anyone who eats Bub’s signature Big Ugly burger, a one-pound-after-cooked patty of beef or elk, is rewarded with his or her photo on the wall, and owner Matt Frey has lost track of just how many people have come in to take a bite out of a burger and this opportunity.“When we opened the restaurant eight years ago in Carmel (Ind.), we thought a few people might try and eat it, but we never thought pictures would be wallpaper on the walls,” Frey said. Bub’s current general manager, Justin Tarin, said beyond eating the burger, people genuinely want to get their picture on that wall.“It’s really cool to have that atmosphere,” Tarin said. “I had a family stay to watch someone else try and finish two Big Uglies. It draws a crowd, and you don’t get that wherever you go.”But what most people like about the burger is its simplicity. Bub’s prepares its burgers with freshly baked buns and hand-pattied, never-frozen meat that is a significantly larger meal than elsewhere because the patty weighs more before it is cooked. “I don’t know if it’s the bun or the meat. It’s just really good,” said regular customer Katie Hannah, 21. “Our burgers are the closest burgers you get to the backyard, 4th of July burger,” said Caroline Shurig, 22, a Bub’s waitress since February. “It just reminds me of home.”And that’s what Frey says Bub’s does best.“Our business plan is be good at one or two things and keep it simple,” Frey said. “Long-neck beers, milkshakes and burgers. Who doesn’t like it?”Frey is flattered by how quickly Bloomington has accepted Bub’s as a local favorite. “There are so many restaurants that have burgers, so it’s a very competitive market for our main entrée,” Frey said. “It’s been an honor to get this award so quickly.”A tip from Frey to anyone itching to complete the Big Ugly challenge: Don’t fill up on water.“There are kids, there’s women and there’s an 8-year-old that’s done it three times now,” Frey said. “There are people that cheat a lot. But we want people to succeed, come back and try it again with their buddies. It’s not just a good burger. It’s the ambiance, and it’s a destination point where you have fun eating.”
(11/30/11 9:31pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>If there’s one film I thought I would never see converted into 3D, it was Georges Méliès’ 1902 fantasy “A Trip to the Moon.” Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” grants this bizarre wish with a visionary, lovely and wondrous film made for kids but dedicated to film fanatics. Although it essentially is a fantasy biopic of Méliès, arguably the first pioneer of cinema, there is much to love in this story about the orphan Hugo Cabret, who works tirelessly to repair a complex wind-up toy while living in the walls and clocks of a 1920s Parisian train station. I became giddy as I watched this fantastical mystery with clues dripping in film history unfold. Scorsese is revitalizing and swimming in his historical fantasy in much the same way Woody Allen did this year with “Midnight in Paris.” “Hugo” is a breathtaking miracle of 3D special effects. Every shot dives deep into the fascinating digital locales, and just watching the camera move about is stunning. Like Hugo, a boy obsessed and fascinated with the meticulous parts and inner workings of mechanics, I, too, marveled at the many tricks Scorsese had up his sleeve. “Hugo” is one of the magical joys of the year, and everything works like clockwork.
(11/29/11 1:47am)
If the film’s idyllic Hawaiian setting
or quirky indie comedy trailers seem deceptive, that is exactly the
point. “The Descendants” is a film about appearances, and with
each character there is a long lineage of Hawaiian heritage who show
us that with every meeting and action, we carry along with us emotional
baggage and sins of the past that skew our perception of the present.
(11/17/11 3:14am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A mute woman is raped twice in one day. In self-defense, she kills her second attacker, and after hiding the body, she wanders the street at night seeking revenge on any man who makes a pass at her. This is the story of “Ms. 45,” an exploitation film directed by Abel Ferrara that once attracted howls of approval from teenage boys in dingy drive-in movie theaters. Exploitation films were violent, sexually explicit, offensive to women, stereotypical of African Americans and a whole lot of fun. Today, the drive-ins and inner city grindhouses are closed, and the teenage boys watch their direct-to-video movies alone in dingy basements, but a few cinemas are still clinging to that gory nostalgia. One of them is the IU Cinema, which starts its Kinsey Collection Grindhouse Series with a screening of “Deep Red” at 9:30 p.m. today. The event continues through the weekend and features an appearance and lecture by exploitation filmmaker William Lustig. IU Cinema director Jon Vickers said the series will be a direct throwback to the feel of watching a 1970s exploitation movie in a grindhouse, right down to the scratchy, beat-up film prints that were common for these low budget movies. “There’s a term for this sort of thing today. They are of grindhouse quality,” Vickers said. “You will see faded prints, scratched prints and spliced prints. It will not be a pristine viewing experience, but that adds to the nostalgia.”In simplest terms, an exploitation film is one with a low budget and limited, independent distribution that would use shocking, exploitative advertising and provocative subject matter to get audiences in the seats.“Trailers, posters and lobby displays in theaters were all really brash, lurid and in your face,” said David Church, a Ph.D. student researching exploitation films. “Those were a way to suck the viewer in and compensate for the fact that they may not have had big stars, budgets or good special effects.”Under those confines, the genre has given us revenge action movies, Hong Kong karate films, zombie, slasher and splatter horror movies, Blaxploitation exhibitions, stylized Italian murder mysteries called “giallo films” and adult films that bordered on soft and hardcore pornography. Filmmaker Lustig, whose film “Vigilante” is showing at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, said why no matter what the subject is, exploitation films can appeal to anyone.“They are designed to be nothing more than crowd pleasers,” Lustig said. “There’s no intellectual pretense about it. They are intended to be pure entertainment for the masses.”And for Lustig, seeing one of these films in a group setting at a venue like the IU Cinema is precisely what makes the exploitation genre so fun.“I loved the communal feeling of audiences watching these films. It’s something you really can’t find today,” Lustig said. “They would play in these big grindhouses and audiences would just go nuts watching them. The audiences coming out to the revival of these movies really react in the same ways I remember seeing them in the theaters.” Vickers has known his share of similar screenings. “It lends itself automatically to taking you out of the formal confines and allowing the audience more talk-back and to be freer and more casual about the viewing experience,” Vickers said. “It is typically a more active audience that is usually more vocal.”But scholars like Church feel exploitation films deserve more attention than audiences give them credit for. “(With) some of these films, you can look at and laugh at them because they certainly seem campy and dated by today’s standards. But other ones like ‘Deep Red’ and ‘Vigilante’ are films (that) I think are trying to speak to something more serious, and they hope to be watched with something more than tongue-in-cheek irony,” Church said.In fact, exploitation films represent an important subsection of film history.“Often, exploitation films were made to cash in on a more successful film or on a controversial subject matter,” Church said. “You start to see little cycles or clusters of films, and you can track these weird connections of influences from one cycle to another and see how they descend over time.”That film history is reflected in the movies of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez today. Church called many of their self-aware films that verge on parody a kind of “retrosploitation.”Their films acknowledge the exploitation market is not what it once was in the 1970s and the genre they once loved is now relegated to direct-to-DVD bargain bins with the rise of home video and Netflix.Lustig, who is also a distributor of exploitation films with his company Blue Underground, described how this has affected the industry. “When home videos came in, it led to the demise of the grindhouses,” Lustig said. “The exploitation film is really relegated to video, which defeats its purpose, but that’s where the industry has gone for the last 20 years.”Church said this ever-growing collection of exploitation films on DVD has led to modern filmmakers doing all they can to make people aware of the overwhelming number of films in the market.“What do you make of that when there’s so much film history available to you?” Church asked. “If you want to make an exploitation film today, you have to include some sort of acknowledgment of that sheer accumulation of history that you didn’t have to the same extent before home video technology.”Despite the drastic changes in the exploitation landscape, a niche audience still exists to seek out these types of movies.“Technology compensates for one loss of the fan aspect,” Church said. “So many of these films are now commercially available, it cuts down on the interpersonal trading of tapes that people do. But now you have the rise of the Internet and fan forums that still give people the ability to network with each other and form a bond of shared cult taste.”“There’s still an interest in these films. There’s a big interest in these films,” Vickers added. “They are much more accessible than ever before. However, some of these titles are a little more rare, aren’t available on DVD and are still unique to see in a setting like this.”And Church said as long as there are movies, there will be exploitation films.“People will always want to make exploitation movies,” Church said. “It’s just the question of how widely are they going to be seen.”
(11/17/11 3:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.”Lou Gehrig spoke these words and was immortalized. But Gary Cooper spoke them, too. His wonderful monologue at the end of “The Pride of the Yankees” forever shaped and dramatized the image of Gehrig. In fact, the last thing Gehrig said at the end of his speech were not those infamous words but “I may have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for.”Had it been these words Gehrig wanted to be remembered, he might not consider himself quite as lucky.The biopic is a peculiar genre in film with the power to influence historical perception more than reality itself. If a director’s goal is typically to entertain or make a statement through a work of art, then the biopic is not often viewed as a director intended but as a recreation of a true moment in time.How will audiences going to see “J. Edgar” this weekend react? Perhaps several generations now have no memory of J. Edgar Hoover or what people thought of him as he was alive. Their imaginations of the man will be limited to Leonardo DiCaprio and the story Clint Eastwood tells. Wikipedia entries, historians and journalists may factually disprove allegations of his homosexuality and other inaccuracies, but will it matter in comparison to a portrait as vivid as a movie?Often, if a performance is strong enough, an actor will forever carry the mental image many people have of a historical figure. Jamie Foxx might have had dozens of memorable roles in his career, but he will be inseparable from his portrayal of Ray Charles. Helen Mirren played the queen, the largest public figure in the world, and many Americans will likely first picture Mirren when thinking about Her Majesty.For biopics in which the main character is not as widely known, the actor can supersede the person themselves. Consider the work of Charlize Theron, Daniel Day-Lewis and Robert De Niro in “Monster,” “My Left Foot” and “Raging Bull.” These people so became their parts in extreme method-acting performances that the performances became more famous than the people themselves. In fact, there’s a discrepancy between biopics and history. There’s a defense given for movies that don’t strictly follow the source material of a popular book, play or graphic novel: Why does adaptation have to be faithful in the first place?It is not uncommon for directors to willingly skew the accuracy of a person’s life to better illustrate a message. A great example is “The Social Network.” Perhaps it is not a biopic in the way “The King’s Speech” is, but simply telling the truth of the story is beyond the point of David Fincher’s look at the way we communicate in the 21st century. And yet, Jesse Eisenberg made Mark Zuckerberg out to be such an asshole, regardless of whether he actually is, that it created a PR nightmare for the Facebook founder. It’s a cliché to say the Oscars love awarding actors who have portrayed real people. In the past 11 years of the awards, both Best Actor and Best Actress have been about evenly split between real and fiction. The reason the cliché exists is because biopics make it so simple to put a name to a face. It takes a certain level of acclaim and attention to make a fictional character iconic. But, like it or not, biopics have the weight of history behind them.
(11/16/11 8:33pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>J. Edgar Hoover worked tirelessly to maintain an image of power, fame and significance in the 48 years he served the FBI. Since his death, his legacy has been tarnished, if not forgotten, with allegations that he was not as pivotal to the FBI as he appeared, that he kept confidential information about politicians and public figures as a form of blackmail and that he was a homosexual who occasionally wore women’s clothes.Clint Eastwood’s “J. Edgar,” with Leonardo DiCaprio in the eponymous role, dons an equally inflated presence and renders itself just as unmemorable. Granted, “J. Edgar” is a film that deeply understands the man. It views Hoover’s life as a constant performance, one marred by social hang-ups and insecurities fostered by his mother (Judi Dench). And as far as biopics go, Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”) identically molds the screenplay to Hoover’s personality. We see in Hoover an intentional bluntness, a constantly exaggerated sense of urgency and a near tendency toward obsessive-compulsive behavior, and the film follows suit, despite the fact these are not admirable qualities. Black gives us a laundry list of a history lesson, and Eastwood directs them as excessively patriotic and significant chapters of a political icon. It builds up a feeling of importance precisely because Hoover did to achieve all he felt was necessary for his country. Similarly, DiCaprio gives a bold performance, commanding every scene with his precise and confident delivery. But DiCaprio is never not performing. If he does immerse himself into the character, he constantly places Hoover on a soapbox, always preaching to the choir the weight of his words and gravity of his statements.Both DiCaprio and “J. Edgar” resonated in the same way: not without complexity but utterly hollow. Yet, for all the film’s politicking, it never veers into as deep a melodrama as much of Eastwood’s oeuvre does, for better or worse. “J. Edgar” retains the polished, low-light-filtered sheen that many of his films share, and it basks an elegant gloss on the period costumes and wonderful aging makeup on DiCaprio, Armie Hammer and Naomi Watts. Given the film’s performances and aesthetic style, “J. Edgar” has an undeniable presence, but it works so hard to maintain it, the reputation is ruined in the process.
(11/11/11 2:19am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Mike and Chris Farah are making nearly seven short films a week. They’re cooperating with some of the biggest names in comedy, and millions see their work each day.You might not know their names, but you know their brand.The Farah brothers are the key contributors behind the website Funny or Die and are bringing an exclusive body of work to the IU Cinema on Sunday and Monday, showcasing a behind-the-scenes look at their website and success story.Mike, an IU alumnus and Funny or Die’s president of production, is also the producer behind Chris’s film “Answer This!,” which is screening at 7:00 p.m. Monday.In addition to this film, a presentation of “An Evening with Funny or Die” will occur at 6:30 p.m. Sunday. This screening will feature a combination of digital shorts and insight into the creative process.The pair will also speak at 3 p.m. Monday as part of the Jorgensen Lecture Series. IDS What can people expect from your lecture?Mike When I was at IU, Hollywood felt like this very faraway place. I didn’t know how to get started, and I didn’t even know you could have a career in Hollywood. I want to talk to how I got where I’m at and the steps that I took. Both my brother and I didn’t really have any formal training in any of this. I want to convey that to people and use it as a constructive way to find the confidence to go out of their comfort zone and do those things.IDS Where did the idea for this group screening come from?Mike It is special for us because so much of what we make is just seen by people at work or at home, and we never really have a chance to show it in front of live audiences. We’re going to show a lot of videos. We’re going to show things that people have never seen before, and each kind of video that we show is going to illuminate a different part of Funny or Die and how we make videos. It’s not just a screening. You get an inside look into the company, how we operate, how we choose to make different things and be a whole case study of Funny or Die driven by the videos that we make. IDS How would you say Funny or Die has changed the way people seek out comedy?Mike We’ve created a destination site that has a great sandbox of things people can play with, be they celebrities, up-and-coming comedians or just people on college campuses like IU. The whole media landscape has changed. How students consume that is a big part of what we do. I feel like Funny or Die is doing a good job staying ahead of that curve, and that’s why screenings like this help. IDS What does it feel like to be part of that changing process?Mike It’s really exciting. To be able to make so much content and have people see it — they always say how tough it is in Hollywood to even get anything made, so from a creative and production standpoint, it’s very gratifying to make things that people are seeing and responding to. But it’s also just exciting and challenging to be ahead of that curve. This is not the time when Funny or Die should be getting complacent. We’ve done the hardest part, which is creating a brand and an identity. Now, we have to evolve and take advantage of all the different things out there and how the world is changing, so we can take it to the next level.IDS Tell us a little about “Answer This!” What attracted you to this project?Chris It’s a comedy coming-of-age story. Especially for IU people, it’ll resonate like a University of Michigan version of “Breaking Away.” “Answer This!” is about a kid who spent his entire life in Ann Arbor (Mich.) and a lot of his adult life at the University of Michigan trying to deal with the big question of whether he would be better off finally leaving. It’s not the punchier humor you might find on Funny or Die, but it’s got a humor that is more grounded in drama and real situations.IDS How did the idea of the movie originate from Funny or Die?Chris Compared to a movie studio where a project can take years to develop, Funny or Die is always making miniature movies — four, five, six or seven of them every single week. Our whole crew took away from that a fantastic preparation for doing a full-length feature. We’re always in a constant state of preproduction, postproduction and production all the time. Making a movie that is longer and more drawn out is a refreshing change from the manic pace at Funny or Die. IDS What advice do you have for students breaking into your same career path?Chris The standard advice that we give boils down to two words: make stuff. You’re always better off creating things than you are thinking up plans and then not following through. Mike No one hands you a career in entertainment, but it’s not as scary as it seems. I would encourage people to go after those things, say yes to the different opportunities that are out there and don’t settle. It’s not easy, but at the same time, if you love what you’re doing, it’s a great way to spend the day.
(11/10/11 1:31pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s probably not a mistake to feel somewhat robbed after “Tower Heist.” Brett Ratner’s movie is too rigid to be a good comedy and too goofy to be truly thrilling.
We learn a lot of mundane details about the inner workings of a New York
building that is essentially Trump Tower, including security policies,
elevator codes and its many tenants, minutiae that aren’t funny so much
as they are characteristic of the film’s dopiness.
It’s all managed by Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller), who, although very
faithful to the tower’s owner, business mogul Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda),
plans to steal Shaw’s nest egg after Shaw gambles the entire staff’s
money in a securities fraud scandal.
“Tower Heist” gets a lot better when Eddie Murphy shows up and spouts a
few amusing non sequiturs about “seizure boys” and “a gauntlet of
lesbians” that free the screenplay of its shackles. But even his gifted ability to improvise is stifled by more sight gags and stunts.
There’s a sense that “Tower Heist” could’ve been a riot if it just let
loose and didn’t spend so much time making its plot as busy and polished
as the equally lavish, excessive and indulgent tower it’s set in.
(11/03/11 12:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Don’t think I forgot about you, November and December. Just because you don’t have two Oscar-bait movies starring Ryan Gosling like September and October doesn’t mean I’m not excited for all the pedigree films you have to offer.November 9“J. Edgar”Leo working with Clint in the political biopic of J. Edgar Hoover is enough of a sale for me, but “J. Edgar” is also penned by the Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”) and co-stars Armie Hammer, the break-out star from “The Social Network” who was so memorable as both of the Winklevoss twins.November 23“Hugo”Wait, Martin Scorsese is doing a kids’ movie? It doesn’t quite fit for the greatest living director, but I don’t really mind. This could be the movie that saves 3-D, for better or worse.“A Dangerous Method”There might be a small group of people who wish David Cronenberg would go back to making horror movies, but his increasingly off-type movies, such as “A History of Violence” and “Eastern Promises,” make me ecstatic for his most off-type film yet. Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortensen, possibly two of the best actors working today, square off in a psychological thriller as Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, respectively. “My Week with Marilyn”Michelle Williams is such a gifted actress, and the Academy is buzzing about her impeccable transformation into Marilyn Monroe by former TV movie director Simon Curtis. Williams looks effervescent as Monroe, which distracts a lot of people from the fact that it also features Emma Watson, Kenneth Branagh, Dominic Cooper and Judi Dench. “The Artist”Sorry, the film nerd inside me is about to faint. French director Michel Hazanavicius is making the silent film “The Artist,” which takes pages from the plot of “Singin’ in the Rain” and promises to be an artistic critical darling.December 9“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”This Cold War spy thriller is the English debut of Tomas Alfredson, the director of the Swedish vampire smash hit “Let the Right One In.” The film looks absolutely chilling and bleak despite a booming British cast that includes Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, John Hurt, Tom Hardy and Mark Strong.December 16“Young Adult”I kind of love Jason Reitman, and I kind of love Diablo Cody and “Juno.” I also kind of love Charlize Theron and Patton Oswalt, so I’m already hugging myself because of “Young Adult,” a comedy about an immature prom-queen-turned-struggling-adult.“The Iron Lady”Meryl Streep is Margaret Thatcher. Streep is setting herself up for her kagillionth Oscar nod (actually, it would be 17). The film is, however, directed by Phyllida Lloyd of the wretched “Mamma Mia.” Here’s to hoping we don’t find out what it’s like to see Margaret Thatcher dancing in water fins. “Carnage”Anyone interested in theater and Broadway should be buzzing about this film. Roman Polanski is directing “Carnage,” a film based on the multiple-Tony-winning play “God of Carnage,” and his cast is impressive. John C. Reilly, Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz team up in the shouting-match dramedy. December 21“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”Combine the look and pacing of last year’s best movie, “The Social Network,” with the intensity of last year’s best foreign film, “The Girl with the Dragon Tatto,” add a Trent Reznor score and you have my most anticipated movie of 2011. Promised to be the feel-bad movie of Christmas, David Fincher’s direction of Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, Stellan Skarsgård, Christopher Plummer and Robin Wright can’t fail.December 25“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”Based on a novel by “Everything is Illuminated” author Jonathan Safran Foer, a boy genius searches for the lock opened by a key left by his father, who died on 9/11. The family is made up of “Teen Jeopardy” champ Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. It’s written by Eric Roth of “Benjamin Button” and “Forrest Gump” and directed by Stephen Daldry of “The Reader” and “The Hours.” Is this movie, just bursting with crowd-pleasing schlock, not the king of Oscar bait? “War Horse”After a year of polarizing, serious and even depressing films, the world needs a “real” movie by the world’s biggest director tackling a sprawling war epic. Spielberg’s “War Horse” is “Saving Private Ryan” on Broadway, and it’s going to be huge.Movies that do not exist in my mind, despite what some may say:“Jack and Jill” — 11/11“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1” — 11/18“Happy Feet Two” — 11/18“The Muppets” — 11/26“New Year’s Eve” — 12/9“Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” — 12/16“Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked” — 12/16“A Very Harold and Kumar 3-D Christmas” — 11/4
(10/31/11 1:10am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>You can practically hear the screeching violins now. Today at 7 p.m., the IU Cinema is honoring Halloween with a special screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 horror classic “Psycho.” The screening might be sold out, but anyone interested is still invited to wait for standby seating.For those privileged to attend, there are a few things to know about the film, and who better to tell them than Hitchcock himself? The IDS collected quotes from Hitchcock about the film, and further explained them.1. “It is required that you see ‘Psycho’ from the very beginning!” “Psycho” broke ground in the way American audiences went to the movies. For decades, patrons would come into a movie at their leisure and remain through the next screening until they had seen the entire film. Hitchcock feared audiences would feel cheated if they came late, expected to see star Janet Leigh and never did because she had already been killed in the now-famous shower scene. “The manager of this theater has been instructed at the risk of his life not to admit to the theater any persons after the picture started. Any spurious attempts to enter by side doors, fire escapes or ventilating shafts will be met by force,” promotional posters read as a way to build tension for “Psycho’s” now-widely known twists. 2. “It wasn’t a message that stirred the audiences, nor was it a great performance. They were aroused by pure film.”Only one year before “Psycho” was released, Hitchcock’s “North By Northwest” was made for an estimated $4 million. “Psycho” was shot in black and white for roughly $800,000.To make a movie that was purely cinematic, one free of gory special effects or elaborate chases like in “North By Northwest.” Rather, “Psycho” was filmed with the small crew on his TV show “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” Their goal was to deliberately make it resemble a cheap exploitation film, yet the stark lighting and cinematography is powerfully chilling.3. “You might say I was playing them — like an organ.”Hitchcock used “Psycho” as a way to direct and manipulate his viewers in ways few films had before, but it is not an organ that strikes the spine-shivering chord. Named the fourth best film score of all time by the American Film Institute, Bernard Hermann’s score immortalized the shower scene that Hitchcock initially intended to be silent, and even indirectly inspired the orchestral backing to The Beatles “Eleanor Rigby.” Sources: Alfred Hitchcock, NBC Universal