dvd releases 7/29

The major release I'm looking forward to this week would be:
Dark City: The Director's Cut (Alex Proyas)

DVD picks-

Tiny Toons Adventures Season 1 part 1 and The Band's Visit.

There are several items I have slight interest in this week, but nothing I really feel like mentioning. Forget this week's new releases, just watch Dance Party, USA (Aaron Katz) two times in a row.

top 5 films 7/25-7/31

I wasn't going to include 2nd-run, but if I'm going to allow sports venues then I should also allow the cinematic equivalent of a babysitter.

1. Breaking Away (Peter Yates) Saturday only. Major Taylor Veldodrome
2. The Big Lebowski (Coen Brothers) Friday only. IMA
3. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Nicholas Stoller) Cinemarks
4. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan)
5. The Visitor (Tom McCarthy) Fri-Sun. Key Cinemas

Who keeps giving James Toback money?

The other night I tried watching The Outsider (a documentary on James Toback) on the Snag films website. There was a scene where Bijou Phillips says that Toback is one of the world's greatest filmmakers, which everybody knows. It was at this point where either the film froze or my theory; the computer made an editorial decision and would not continue. I don't really like Toback's films, especially his recent output. I basically wanted to see if he came off as a creepy, arogent hack or if they were going to try to make a case for his genius. It appered they were going for the latter. Starting with Two Girls and a Guy, he keeps hitting us with low budget mediocrities. You and your buddies could have made a more profound film about race at age 15 than Toback did in Black and White. In When Will I Be Loved, he had the gaul to cast himself as a professor of cultural relations or some bullshit like that. It was a bad idea when Woody Allen cast him as a professor. He didn't need to repeat the mistake. I think the only reason When Will I Be Loved was made was to show Neve Campbell nude. I did kind of like Harvard Man. The casting was its saving grace and there was a great cameo by Al Franken and his daughter. A couple of years ago I went to see Ben Kweller in Cincinnati and I was killing time at a coffee shop and I read an article about a female journalist that met Toback. He basically kept trying to sleep with her. She went back to his room. He passed out watching SNL and she snuck out unscathed. His new film is a documentary about Mike Tyson. Their friendship has always made sense to me. No, that is not a compliment.

dvd releases 7/22

DVD picks for 7/22:

Paranoid Park (Gus Van Sant) Blockbuster Excluive.

Re-release picks:
Bird (Clint Eastwood)
High and Low (Akira Kurosawa)
Un Flic (Jean-Pierre Melville)
Wild Reeds (Andre Techine)

New releases I want to see:
Help Me Eros (Lee Kang-Sheng) The 2nd directorial effort and first available on DVD from the star of the Tsai Ming-Liang filmography.
Love Songs (Christophe Honore) It appears to actually coming out on the 22nd instead of the previously reported date of 7/8.
Spaced: The Complete Series (Edgar Wright) TV series starring and directed by the Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz team.
My Favorite Season/I Don't Kiss/Hotel America (Andre Techine) The 3 of the 4 I haven't seen in the box set.
Big Dreams, Little Tokyo (David Boyle) I know nothing about this, except the plot description.
CSNY Deja Vu (Neil Young) This comes out in theatres in limited cities on Friday. According to Netflix, they will have it day and date. So if this is actually being released, then I am sort of interested.

Speaking of the sort of interested:
Duck (Nicole Bettaur) Again, know nothing besides description and that it stars Phillip Baker Hall, which is also a plus.
Satantango (Bela Tarr) 7 and a half hours is a huge commitment for something I am expecting to be very slow.
21 (Robert Luketic) Everybody has said this is crap and I do believe them. Still mildly interested.

Trying to help the key fit into the lock

Key Cinemas is doing another complete overhaul of its operations. He has decided to open movies on Wednesday. He'll be open from Wednesday to Sunday and closed on Monday and Tuesday. I have nothing but respect for what Ron Keedy does and this is in no way an attack against what he's doing.

Here's my advice for him, decide what you want to do and DON'T CHANGE IT. I never know if he's open for a full day or only in the evening, which days of the week he's open or the admission price. If I can't keep track of these things, I know the general public can't either. I understand the reason for all of the changes is trying to find what will work the best. I understand the notion of opening movies on Wednesday to not get lost on Friday. I understand trying to create publicity. Unfortunately, the general public needs to be trained. I'm afraid most people will realize movies are opening on Wednesday about the same time he goes back to opening on Friday. Support from The Indianapolis Star is tenuous at the very best. If the review is printed on Wednesday, nobody will read it. Limited release or "art" films live and die by their reviews in the Star.

top 5 films for 7/18 to 7/24

1. Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller) Thurs, July 24th only, Mass Ave Video Garden
2. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan)
3. The Visitor (Tom McCarthy)
4. The Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
5. War Games (John Badham) Thurs, July 24th only. I'm not saying to pay the 10 or 15 dollars or whatever. I'm just saying it's the 5th best movie I've seen with a public performance this week.

dvd releases 7/15

DVD pick for 7/15- The Bank List (Roger Donaldson)

DVD I want to see for 7/15- The Duchess of Langeais (Jacques Rivette) part of the IFC/Weinstein exclusive for Blockbuster.

I also have some interest in:
Times and Winds(Reha Edrim)
Trapped Ashes (Joe Dante, Monte Hellman, Ken Russell, etc.): I'm sure it will suck, but how often can you say "the new Monte Hellman"

Raining frogs and marching bands

The other day on Shane White's blog, in the comments section my friend Troy made a comment calling Schroeder the PT Anderson of the Peanuts. This leads me to my theory that Lindsey Buckingham is rock and roll's PT Anderson. Both found themselves in situations where they could pretty much do whatever they want because of Rumours and Boogie Nights respectively. They both realized they could do anything they want and instead of taking one idea, they took every idea they ever had for a film/album and put it all into their next work. The work that directly followed; Magnolia and Tusk were both self-indulgent, misunderstood coke-fueled masterpieces. I also believe that they were both caught up in their own genius enough to believe that their grander (i.e.; longer)efforts were going to be that more successful. When i listen to The Ledge, I visualize a music video directed by Paul Thomas Anderson starring Thomas Jane and Melora Walters doing coke and running around frantically. I'm sure part of the reasons for this are 1) the two of them are in a Michael Penn video that PTA directed and 2) they both play cokeheads in Boogie Nights and Magnolia. I'm surprised how unscathed Buckingham came out of Tusk, especially considering he was becoming his idol, Brian Wilson.

7/11/08-7/17/08

My top 5 films in release (in Indianapolis) for this week:

1) Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Nicholas Stoller)
2) The Visitor (Tom Mc Carthy)
3) Roman De Gare (Claude Lelouch)
4) Stuck (Stuart Gordon) fri, sat, and sun only, Key Cinemas
5) Return To Oz (Walter Murch) fri only, Mass Ave Video Garden

There's no smoking aloud in the Four Seasons

There was a news item today about the public smoking ban in Chicago that has led to the Jersey Boys stage show not being able to show people smoking on stage. I don't smoke. I don't particularly care for cigarette smoke. But this is ridiculous. It's one thing to not let people smoke in tight enclosed areas. It's another thing entirely to not let people smoke in public. In the article I read, they also said the new Michael Mann film is running into the same problems in Chicago. Because no smoking in a film about the era of Dillinger is realistic in any way. I think it was Rob Reiner who was one of the first people that said the state of California should be 100% smoke-free. Hasn't the statue of limitations run out on anyone giving a crap about what Rob Reiner thinks? The man hasn't made a movie I would be willing to watch since The Ghosts of Mississippi. That movie came out in 1996! The whole smoking ban is just another way that the country cannot or will not find a happy medium. The art of compromise has seemed to be thrown out the window long ago. Were a country of I'm right, you're wrong and your opinion doesn't matter.

dvd releases 7/8 and more naked people

DVD picks for tuesday 7/8/08: none.

DVD releases of movies that are decent:
Mon Oncle Antoine (Claude Jutra)
The Tracey Fragments (Bruce Mc Donald)
and for non-canadian cinema: Joe Strummer: I used to be in the Clash, but now I'm dead (Julien Temple)

DVD releases I have not seen yet and am looking forward to:
Chop Shop (Ramin Bahrani)
Love Songs (Christophe Honore)


I heard an old story today about some guy who found out his wife/girlfriend was cheating on him and after they broke up, he started putting footage of him and now ex-wife/girlfriend having sex at the end of porno VHS tapes with "for a good time call" and her new phone #.

People who record themselves or let themselves be recorded having sex get what they deserve. When will Jerry Springer culture end? The real problem is people like me that are disgusted by celebrity gossip and news of the uncouth but have that car crash fascination and won't stop reading about them.

One last random non-sequitur: Jesse Helms died at the end of last week. I've barely heard anything about this. I figured there would be people rejoicing.

Over at the Beer Cannes blog, they have compiled a list of the greatest recording artists of all time. Here are my thoughts on their selections.

Hall and Oates- They have an early album "Abandoned Luncheonette" that is underrated and not what you expect from Daryl Hall and John Oates. "She's Gone" was the hit. The album is kind of a cross between AM pop and coffehouse acoustic guitar music.

The Guess Who- It's better to have the courage to be drunken buffoons, than be a drunken buffoon posing as a poet.

The Jesus and Mary Chain- I remember the JAMC. They hit it out of the park early with the 1-2 punch of Psychocandy and Darklands. Two albums couldn't be different but at the same time totally representative of all that is the Jesus and Mary Chain.

The Boss- Where to start? For those of you don't know I had always favored the sensitive singer-songwriter side with the occasional anthem thrown in. Basically the one part of Springsteen I wasn't into was the soul tinged rock side. Troy told me I was wrong and after giving me a copy of Wild, Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, I also agree that I was wrong. The other part of Bruce that I had to warm up to was Clarance Clemons. Yeah, a lot of time Clarance is just standing around, maybe he has a tambourine. But could you imagine Thunder Road without the piano-saxophone coda. Of course, if I would have listened to Bill and Ted, I would know that the Big Man is one of the three most important people in the world. I saw Springsteen and the E Street Band in March. The show was a comeback of sorts for organist Danny Federici. It was his first (and unfortunately last) show back after an illness related hiatus. Danny only played a couple songs. But probably one of the single best moments of the year was seeing him strap on the accordion and the band played 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy).

America- A band that I always described as Crosby, Stills and Nash lite. Horse With No Name is exactly that, but the tag is so unfair. Ventura Highway has an emotional resonance that CSN have never been able to achieve. The opening guitar riff to Sister Golden Hair is thought as cheesy to some. I dare anyone to listen to that opening riff and not have it in their head for hours. That's not cheesy, I call that catchy.

Jim Croce- Anybody that has known me for sometime knows that I have a champion of Jim's for years. It seems that since every radio station in town now plays pop/rock from the 70's, he is everywhere again. Back in the early 90's when I would get irritated with people in my car and I would play Jim to piss people off thinking that they would just complain. A couple years later, I went over to a friend's house who originally hated Jim Croce and while snooping through their records, there was Jim's warm smile on the cover of Photographs and Memories to greet me.

M.I.A.- Yes, while watching the Pineapple Express trailer, Paper Planes is the best song in the world. Plus it samples Straight To Hell, which is one of only a handful of Clash songs I like.

ODB- Troy gets all of the credit for introducing the insane genius that was Ol' Dirty Bastard. Wu- Tang is for the children.

Led Zeppelin- The only thing that would make Houses of the Holy a better album would be if it contained Houses of the Holy.

New Order- If you ever want to piss off a room full of Joy Division fans, tell them New Order is a better band. I once did that on accident. I was right.

Stone Roses- I like the Beer Cannes claim that they only made one album.

The Eagles- I hate the fucking Eagles, man. Kind of like preferring Wings to the Beatles. I prefer the solo work to the Eagles. But if you want to hear a Don Henley song done right...


Neil Diamond- Prince before Prince and Neil still writes good songs.

Oasis- The Davies brothers twenty-some years later. Or is that Blur.

and of course, the suspiciously added Manimal.

revised movie picks

After skimming In Take or whatever their called now, I have a new #1.

1. Raise the Red Lantern (Indianapolis Arts Center, Tuesday, free)
2. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (College Park)
3. The Visitor (Landmark)
4. Reprise (Landmark)
5. Stuck (Key Cinemas)

movie picks for the week of July 4

Every Friday I will announce my top 5 picks for films playing in the Indianapols area. I won't include movies you will have to drive out of town to see. But if something awesome comes up I might mention it in passing.

For the week of July 4th:
1. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
2. The Visitor
3. Reprise
4. Stuck
5. Standard Operating Procedure

No, I haven't seen everything that's playing. You couldn't (literally) pay me to see Sex and the City.

This really isn't the time for your closeup

You know the scene in Animal House where John Belushi smashes Stephen Bishop's guitar. Well, there are way too many stupid people in the world who need this to happen to their cameras.

1. I watched Standard Operating Procedure tonight. The film is about the torture that happened at Abu Gharib. Basically, the whole thing went down because the people involved could not stop taking pictures of themselves while humiliating prisoners.

2. As you probably have heard, there is a Verne Troyer sex tape....... I will give those of you finding this out for the first time a second to regain composure from the ick factor......... So, yeah, TMZ got hold of a Verne Troyer sex tape and a distributor (the same one who released One Night In Paris) is wanting to release it to the public. Verne Troyer filed a temporary restraining order causing a judge to make TMZ take down excerpts from the "film". Here's the best part of the story, the girl in the tape is the one who leaked the footage causing the judge to overturn the restraining order.

3. I also read today that Vanessa Hudgens is going to do her best to be a good role model for young girls. Miss Hudgens has appeared in the High School the Musical movies and has a couple of albums out. But none of us know who the hell she is from any of her work. We all know her as the girl from Disney who had nude photos leaked to the internet not once, but twice last year.

The chief investigator in Standard Operating Procedure has a great comment that sums all of this up best: If you are doing something you know is wrong; DON'T TAKE PICTURES!

Getting started and list #1.

I figured I would try this blog thing. I need another responsibility in my life to ignore.

However, the title says it all. This will probably be a bunch of random lists not interesting to many, maybe anyone but me. I might have some random thoughts. Maybe I'll talk about why the world needs Kanye West. Maybe not. It will mostly revolve around music and film.

To start the festivities....

DVD picks for July 1st.

Baby It's You
My Blueberry Nights
Girl on the Bridge

DVD releases for July 1st I'm looking forward to see:

Pied Piper- Jacques Demy. Donovan. I'm sold.
Mad Men season 1- I'm curious.
Sunflower- Liked Zhang's previous films Shower and Quitting. Plus I like Joan Chen.

I'm also curious about the 3 hour Neil Diamond concert from the 70's that seems both unnecessary and excessive. But long before crap like America and Headed For the Future.