Fright Night

I survived one of three horror movies I plan to see in the coming months, Fright Night. This movie is seriously fun, not scary, and I liked it, a lot. Based on the 1985 original, which I did not see, the modern version features Colin Farrell as a neighborly (and hot) vampire hiding out in suburban Las Vegas.

Enter McLovin from Superbad as Ed, a nerdy teen who knows something is up with Farrell's character, Jerry. Ed tries to warn his friend, Charley, who lives next to Jerry, about his blood-sucking tendencies and pays the price. Charley, played by Anton Yelchin, is the hero in this high school student haunt.

Fright Night doesn't stray too far from the standard horror movie requirements where characters fearlessly run into the villain's house and areas they can't escape from; weapons malfunction; and, well, a lot of people die. But in this case they also come back to life as evil monsters of the night.
How does Charley save the day? Well spilling the beans would take the fun out of this movie if you decide to see it, so I'll leave the plot at that.
I will say I am thankful the writers managed to limit the cheese factor in Fright Night and added in some solid humor, especially in Farrell's lines. The Dublin-born actor does well as a sexy/evil vampire and monster.

My only disappointment with Fright Night was the effects because there just weren't enough of them and I am glad I didn't see the movie in 3D.

Overall, you'll have fun if you see Fright Night and I am satisfied my Halloween movie season started off on this note. With Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark and Paranormal Activity 3 on my agenda next, I don't think I'll be so lucky.

The Royal Tenenbaums

"In fact virtually all memory of the brilliance of the young Tenenbaums had been erased by two decades of betrayal, failure and disaster."

But there's always chance for redemption in The Royal Tenenbaums.

I recently purchased The Criterion Collection DVD of the film, thanks to a super sale at Barnes and Noble, and needed to revisit it as research for an upcoming costume-related holiday.

Research purposes or not, this is one of my favorite movies to watch.
It's individualistic and quirky mixed in with a dose of sad and happy. I especially enjoy that it's a film where the actors play roles you've never seen them in before and never will again. Especially Gene Hackman, who plays the self-described asshole Royal Tenenbaum. (If you haven't seen it, don't worry, he grows on you).

"You know who I am, I'm Royal. Have you heard of me?"

Royal visits his family for the first time in 17 years to share the news that he is sick with stomach cancer. While of course that doesn't go well, eventually his presence brings peace to the Tenenbaums and he makes up for his past mistakes, which is what he set out to do in the first place.

Usually I don't watch the special features with any DVD, but with the opportunity to have more of a glimpse into Wes Anderson's mind, I just might. He wrote in an enclosure with the DVD that The Royal Tenenbaums contains more unnecessary visual detail than his other films combined and even includes a map of all the elements to look out for.

That's what makes this film. The story is deep and dynamic enough that meaning after meaning can be taken away from it during each viewing and on top of that there is fun stuff to look at in the background. Like the game closet, for example. Add in one of my favorite movie soundtracks ever, and all is right in the world.
Happy weekend!

Beginners

Here's the Top 5 reasons why Beginners is the tops. 

1. Arthur the dog

2. Writer/director Mike Mills' use of flashbacks to portray a series of beginnings in the characters lives (and that it's an original script)
3. 1993 Chicken McNuggets (you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it, and yes I said when, not if)

4. Stealing roller skates

5. I like Ewan McGregor now, and Melanie Laurent even more.

Page One: Inside The New York Times



David Carr

I've been dying to see Page One: Inside The New York Times since it hit the Minneapolis box office a few weeks ago and the documentary recently made it onto my short list blog. THEN I learned yesterday was the last day it had a full docket of showtimes over at the Lagoon theater and this weekend it would only be available at 9:40 p.m. What's up with that? I expected the documentary would be playing longer given the legacy of the subject matter, but all good things must come to an end, I guess.
After making the deadline to see it last night, I find it unbelievable all the news they were able to fit into just under two hours of film. In reality, there is so much content to focus on about The Gray Lady that I could still be sitting in the theater right now. That would be fine by me. Andrew Rossi and his crew created a voyeuristic experience about The New York Times starting with its coverage of Wikileaks in 2010 and weaving through its history, including publication of the Pentagon Papers and more recent controversies caused by reporters Jayson Blair and Judith Miller.
Everyone on camera had nothing to hide as they gladly read aloud their nutgraphs and allowed interviews with top sources to be filmed. In a more humbling and heartbreaking moment, camera crews captured one day where the paper had to layoff 100 employees.
Then, the voyeurism increases with commentary from folks on the outside at journalism summits with the likes of Arianna Huffington, David Simon and Daily Kos blog creator Markos Moulitsas. All their views are enlightening, and a little bit scary, takes on mainstream media alongside the blog-o-sphere and online journalism. Newspaper moguls Carl Bernstein and Gay Talese, author of The Kingdom and the Power, also made appearances in candid interviews.

Most enjoyable to me was the focus on David Carr and his rise up from being addicted to crack and in jail to being a fixture at The New York Times as a reporter covering trends in media, including at the very paper he works at. Following Carr, the documentary includes scenes shot in Minneapolis as well as in New York as he spent weeks on a piece about the bankruptcy of the Tribune Company. He told his editor he was going to spend two weeks reporting on it and one week writing it. Now there's a man after my own journalistic heart.
"If you write about the media long enough, eventually you'll type your way to your own doorstep," Carr said.
He also said in the documentary that most often when he finishes an interview for an article, the source will ask him, "What's going to happen to The New York Times?"
As Carr put many people who challenged the institution in their place during the documentary, the answer appears to be nothing, and everything.
The documentary message rested on this: The public role of journalism and ground floor reporting of mainstream, historical media like The New York Times is everlasting.
Any journalist will certainly be fascinated with this glimpse into the fine print of one the most powerful news agencies in the world, but I strongly recommend everyone take a peek at it.

You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger

Woody Allen movies often remind me of plays. From the music, ensemble cast -- but with few people in each scene -- to the sense there are no cameras separating the characters from the audience, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger is no exception.
This time Allen chose Naomi Watts, Anthony Hopkins and Josh Brolin to lead his story about love, deception and failure all set against the backdrop of the fantasy of fortune telling.
All the characters essentially want what they can't have in their marriage or career, or both, and those who go for the forbidden get burned a little bit. This isn't a drama or a thriller, but the phrase You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger is not as romantic as it sounds.
How Allen weaves these stories in a way that looks so effortless is beyond me, but all that matters is his films provide everything that an on screen escape should.
While in Allen films there typically are not "spoilers," the ups and downs of the characters, from significant to subtle, are not to be known until you see this film. The unknown adds to the mystery and, as Naomi Watts' character Sally says, "Sometimes the illusions are better than the medicine."
I will say that line is one recited by the narrator near the end of the film, and I am still trying to tie in the William Shakespeare quote provided at the beginning: "Life was full of sound and fury and in the end signified nothing."
There is a sense in the film that perhaps some of the characters' wishes and wants and losses don't mean anything, so perhaps that's the connection. Regardless, what I like most about Allen's films is they can be deep and thought-provoking as little or as much as you want.
With that, I turned off my DVD player as the credits rolled with a sense of whimsy and enjoyment. Perhaps most of all because of the opening and closing song and my favorite lyric in it: "When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true."

Short list

When I saw the trailer for Gus Van Zant's Restless this week, I rushed to add the title to the list of must-see movies I keep saved on my computer desktop. I added it and then browsed through the list to delete some movies I've seen recently, only to notice Restless was already sitting at No. 15

Uh oh. When I start doubling up on listing films I would rush to the cinema to see I think it's time to narrow it down a bit. Starting with the aforementioned Gus Van Zant release, I am not sure what prompted its first addition to my list, but the trailer certainly sealed the deal. Restless focuses on the relationship between Annabel (Mia Wasikowska) and Enoch (Henry Hopper). Annabel, diagnosed with a terminal illness, falls in love with Enoch who spends his time attending funerals and with the ghost of a Japanese WWII kamikaze pilot only he can see. Van Zant's creative mind translates to complex, moving stories on screen and I hope he mixes in a silver lining to the plot of Restless.
Moving on to my next genre, Matt Damon (who was in Van Zant's Good Will Hunting and Gerry), has a role in  the Steven Soderbergh thriller, Contagion, due in theaters in September. A disease outbreak and the destruction it causes are at the center of the plot, which doesn't sound all that original. But the top-notch cast, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Jude Law in addition to Damon, should carry it through.

For films in theaters now, I am going to try to get out to see Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times or Beginners next and I am intrigued about whether Crazy, Stupid, Love will deliver when it drops in theaters July 29. It looks to be a rom-com but the ensemble cast, Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore and Marisa Tomei, is a step above most so I hope it doesn't fall into the standard formula of most love stories. Ok, so this list isn't so short anymore, but I think it's manageable. In the indie film realm, I'm of course anxiously awaiting Miranda July's The Future. And, The Muppets is my pick for animated fare mixed with real-life actors, Amy Adams and Jason Segel, who wrote the screenplay.

Finally, when it comes to action/adventure/comic books The Dark Knight Rises isn't due until next year but I've enjoyed all of Christopher Nolan's films in the series AND this installment has Joseph Gordon Levitt in it. I heard a sneak peak of the trailer is shown before the Harry Potter movie out now. I haven't seen any of the Harry Potter series, but could stand to watch it to get a glimpse of what Batman will be up to. Too many movies, too little time!

The Witches of Eastwick

If there is anything I know for sure about Hollyweird, if you need  an actor to play a strange, sadistic, criminal, crazy or downright evil character, Jack Nicholson is the man.

Certainly if I were making a movie that required such acting props, he'd be in it.

Then there's the other side to Nicholson, shown in roles he's pulled off flawlessly like Melvin in As Good as it Gets. He can sign on to box office blunders like The Bucket List and Something's Gotta Give and still keep his strong reputation among film fanatics, at least me anyway.

Nicholson can do no wrong in my book. Even as a devilish character with a greasy ponytail and off-kilter costumes, the professional accolades start rolling in.

Nicholson received best actor nods from the New York Circle Film Critics, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films USA for playing the wild Daryl Van Horne in the 1987 film, The Witches of Eastwick.

I'm guilty of owning the DVD for some time and never pulling it off the shelf, but it made for a perfect movie night selection when my friend Alicia and I resumed our weekly tradition on Monday.

Nicholson is joined by Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer in the kooky tale of three women wishing for the perfect man. They concoct a spell based on their criteria and poof, Daryl Van Horne storms into Eastwick.
It certainly shakes things up a bit when the other residents suffer the wrath of Van Horne sweeping through town in his bathrobe and high tops with his faithful servant, Fidel.

I am glad I chose this title out of the others in my collection I still need to see. Witches of Eastwick has something for everyone and I was initially drawn in by the chick flick mantra when Alexandra (Cher), Jane (Sarandon) and Sukie (Pfeiffer) create the vision for Van Horne over pitchers of martinis while complaining about the men in their lives.
From there the tale expands into comedy and science fiction. It did get just plain weird at times, but, I liked it.
Nicholson seduces each of the women individually and then to have them all live happily ever after at his mansion. But is that what these 1980s "witches" really want? Did they wish for the
wrong man and being ousted from town and their jobs forever? If they wanted to escape from ho-hum Eastwick, possibly.
But it's not that serious, rather a chance to see spells, voodoo and scenes akin to The Exorcist without the fright factor.
I haven't read the John Updike book where the film originated from, but I imagine the narrative of Witches of Eastwick is even more intriguing than the on screen version.
Like I said, Witches of Eastwick is very weird, but when Nicholson completely lets loose to capture Van Horne's mesmerizing and strange character and woo the audience, I was spellbound.