Filming a Ghost: Jandek in Chapel Hill

Last night, there was a ghost sighting in Chapel Hill, a sighting I was fortunately able to document on videotape. The ghost was dressed in a black suit and pants, with a black hat and a black electric guitar. He was accompanied by three other specters, who employed a wide variety of instruments, including keyboards, drums, bass, xylophone, saxophone, and howling. Together, their ghostly reverie haunted the sacred walls of UNC’s Gerrard Hall, a place that I was told James K. Polk had once spoken at, from 7:30 to 9:30 on a cold Sunday evening. The ghost in charge of the proceedings went by many names: Sterling Smith, the representative from Corwood, or the name most people know him by, Jandek.

An elusive individual, yet one who had been releasing records with astounding profuseness since 1978, Jandek only started giving live concerts in 2004, when a music festival in Glasgow wrote to his PO box in Houston (the only way to get in touch with him) asking him to come and perform. Shocking all parties involved, Jandek agreed, and has continued with an on-and-off tour schedule since, rarely playing the same venue twice, and always with a different backing band. For this performance, Jandek was accompanied by John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats on keyboards, an instrument he admitted to having never played live since he was 9; Anne Gomez on bass, sax and the aforementioned howling; and drummer Brian Jones, who also took time to bang away on a xylophone during some of the numbers. Before the show, some of the ushers had set up a table where you could pick up pairs of earplugs, giving an indicator as to what was in store for the audience.

The set lasted two hours, and incorporated roughly six songs, most of which stretched past the twenty-minute mark. The opening number began with about 15 minutes of instrumental noise courtesy of Darnielle banging away on the keyboards, Gomez slapping her bass, and Jones rapidly swapping out time signatures, before Jandek took to the microphone with a long list of items, each one beginning with the phrase “I tried…” One of the shorter numbers was a song entitled “I Think I’m Unstable”. I assume that was the title since that line was repeated ad infinitum during the eight-minute song, in between harmonica solos (also performed by Jandek) and Darnielle complementing the harmonica with organ. The most memorable song of the night was a sort of call-and-response between Jandek and Gomez, in which Jandek would recite a few lines from his lyric book and Gomez would respond with a sustained howl into her microphone. The first time she did this, it elicited some whoops and shouts from the audience. Subsequent times, it simply became another instrument in the swirling mass of the song.

Overall, it was a fascinating concert to watch, even though I had to watch most of it through a viewfinder. There were three cameramen total: me, positioned stage left, roughly six rows back; and my friends Justin and Daniel, who were both in the balcony, center stage and stage right, respectively. We were told that a live album/DVD would be forthcoming (if the pattern of live Jandek titles continues, this one will surely be called Chapel Hill Sunday), but that it might be a while because Jandek was still working on releasing albums of concerts from a couple years ago. As I handed the tapes off to the mysterious representative from Corwood, I made sure to tell him that I couldn’t wait to see the finished result.

The flyers were printed on manila envelopes, complete with a pair of one-cent stamps.

Thanks to Justin and Daniel for filming, Neil for moral support, and especially Ned for making it all happen.

The Lonely Island, Incredibad

The success of Internet comedy trio The Lonely Island could’ve easily been attributed to being in the right place at the right time, but their staying power has proved that Lorne Michaels didn’t just pick the first result that came up on YouTube. Now, the three Saturday Night Live cast members/writers have returned to their original moniker for Incredibad, a CD/DVD compiling their most memorable songs from SNL, as well as a handful of new tracks and sketches.

The first thing you may notice about the collection of tracks is that Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer have an affinity for nerdcore rap, whether its Andy and fellow SNLer Chris Parnell bustin’ rhymes about a trip to the theater to see The Cronicles of Narnia (“Lazy Sunday”), or Andy and Akiva bragging about their nautical escapades with T-Pain (“I’m On a Boat”). While this is a strategy that pays off pretty consistently, it does make for a somewhat tedious listen once we finally arrive at the alien three-way that is the title track. High-profile guests like Jack Black and Norah Jones provide entertaining diversions from the familiar material, and it’s nice to finally have unbleeped versions of SNL favorites like “Dick in a Box” and “Natalie’s Rap,” a hilarious hardcore rap parody featuring a wonderfully unhinged Natalie Portman.

Interludes like “The Old Saloon” poke fun at the obnoxious DJ call-outs during promo tracks, but sometimes, like in the case of “Shrooms,” the simpler the idea, the funnier. Songs rarely break the three-minute mark, which is the perfect length to get the jokes across without wearing out the concept, something the other writers of SNL could stand to learn.

Overall, Incredibad does an exceptional job cataloging the first few years of one of the more recent success stories to emerge from the Not Ready for Primetime Players. However, the accompanying DVD feels more like a last-minute bonus than a comprehensive collection, only delivering five of their infamous “SNL Digital Shorts” and three Lonely Island skits. Still, a gift horse this hilarious shouldn’t be looked in the mouth, especially if said horse has just consumed a bottle of Carlos Santana’s champagne.

Your Week in Zombie News

For some reason, there appears to be a steady amount of zombie-related media being released to the unsuspecting public, and while I am all for anything and everything zombie, I feel the need to point out two of the more recent releases:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Featured on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," and recommended by John Hodgman, one of the stars of the #1 Children's Film in America, this parody of the classic Jane Austen novel features the original text, plus "all-new scenes of bone crunching zombie action!" The book's already reached #88 on the Amazon.com Best-Seller list, and it hasn't even been released yet! Also, that cover is amazing. Zombifying the covers of famous literature needs to be the new Photoshop challenge.Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is just ten bucks from Amazon.com. It's release date is listed as "unknown."

Otto; or, Up with Dead People
a film by Bruce LaBruce

This film and I crossed paths last year when I was a programmer for the Cucalorus Film Festival, and let me tell you, I hope we never see each other again. I am all for more gay/lesbian cinema. In fact, a lot of the entries I viewed were about homosexual relationships, and for the most part, they were all very entertaining and would've been perfect fits for Cucalorus. Bruce LaBruce's gay zombie porn, however, was boring, incomprehensible, and featured embarrassingly bad acting by people who clearly had no need to attempt the fake foreign accents they were trying to pull off. I mean, seriously, how do you fuck up a film taking place in a parallel universe where "gay zombie porn" has become a cottage industry? It practically writes itself! And look at the tagline on the DVD cover:That's right; it says "Bringing sexy back...from the dead." If half the film were as creative as that tagline, maybe Otto would've been shown at the festival. It's still ten times better than the offensively heterosexual Deadgirl, recent Cucalorus entry and my pick for worst film of '08. Otto; or Up with Dead People is on DVD for $24.99 on Amazon.com.

Movie review: Fear(s) of the Dark

You gotta hand it to the French: they sure do love a good anthology. Last year’s Paris Je T’Aime had the considerable task of taking over fifteen short films from a wide range of directors (including American favorites like Joel and Ethan Coen, Wes Craven, Alexander Payne, and Gus Van Sant) and stringing them together in a multi-faceted look at France’s most cherished city. Now, Fear(s) of the Dark attempts to take the French anthology feature to the darkest points of the imagination, using an extremely limited color scheme (black, white, and various shades of gray) and a variety of talented animators of many nationalities.

Of course, the unfortunate truth is that Fear(s) of the Dark varies wildly in terms of quality and enjoyment. The biggest mistake that the curators of this miniature film festival make is chopping up three of the six entries and interspersing them throughout the program, making it hard for the audience to discern when (and if) those entries have reached their conclusion. Pierre di Scuillo’s short, in which a woman rambles on about her many fears while abstract images morph on the screen, works as a good transitional device, but shorts about a Japanese samurai ghost and an evil man with four vicious attack dogs would’ve had more impact if they were shown without interruption. Though this might come off as a little bias, the best shorts were the ones from the Americans, cartoonist Charles Burns and animator Richard McGuire. The former’s story, about a socially awkward college student with an unhealthy fascination of insects, does an exceptional job of creating a protagonist that has to earn its sympathy from the audience, as the young man (voiced by the late Guillaume Depardieu) changes from willing participant to hapless victim.

While most of the entries in Fear(s) of the Dark qualify as unsettling or disturbing in some way, McGuire’s short (the last in the program) is the only one that is downright scary. McGuire’s minimalist animation style makes the previous entries seem flamboyant by comparison, as he relates the wordless story of a man taking shelter in a house during a snowstorm, only to find that he may not be alone. So while Fear(s) in the Dark, as a whole, may not be a sweeping success, it does make me wish that new installments would show up each Halloween as opposed to new Saw films.

Music Review: Justice, A Cross the Universe

In 2007, a new French electronic duo, one that didn’t dress up in robot suits and shoot lasers out of a pyramid, released a debut album with a symbol instead of a title. It was considered one of the most promising new releases of the year, and a massive tour of America soon followed. That band, Justice, and that tour are documented on the new CD/DVD package A Cross the Universe, which includes a 64-minute documentary shot by Romain Gavras and So-Me, the directors of Justice’s provocative and wildly entertaining music videos (none of which are included on the DVD). The accompanying CD includes a full live performance from San Francisco, capturing Justice at their most raw and unhinged, carelessly mashing up bits and pieces from every song off their debut album, †, as well as snippets from sources as varied as Franz Ferdinand, Soulwax, Simian, and even Metallica.

However, it’s the DVD that shows exactly how Justice stand apart from their closest relatives, Daft Punk. For starters, it would be very hard to imagine Thomas Bangalter smashing a glass bottle on a fan’s head mere minutes before he was to take the stage, or Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo getting hitched in Vegas, only to have his new bride vanish the following day. Given one of the director’s penchant for staged misbehavior (one look at the video for “Stress” will tell you all you need to know), it’s hard to discern whether or not any of the mishaps Justice find themselves in are scripted. The supporting cast is quirky enough, from their tour manager and his obsession with firearms (an obsession that gets the band arrested at a local diner) to their bus driver’s desire to break the Guinness world record for singing the lowest musical note. There’s not much in the way of live footage, but there is plenty of pre and post-show antics, almost as if Justice had taken the mantra of their song “Tthhee Ppaarrttyy” to heart. Ultimately, A Cross the Universe makes for an attractive package, a gloriously fist-pounding live listening experience, as well as an amusing (and somewhat startling) look at the two guys behind the beats.

Cucalorus Watch '08: The Aftermath

Well, Cucalorus 14 is said and done. Thanks to the recent political sea change, the mood at this year's festival was decidedly chipper and optimistic. As a result, politically charged documentaries like Crawford and Secrecy were skipped in favor of more lighthearted fare, such as Good Dick, a comedy about a young video store employee who becomes obsessed with the girl who stops by and rents nothing but porn, and We Are Wizards, a documentary delving into the wide span of Harry Potter fandom.



The eccentric characters of Chicago were represented in a pair of documentaries, one of whom was present for this year's festivities. Vincent: A Life in Color, directed with an experienced eye by first-time filmmaker Jennifer Burns, follows Vincent P. Falk, who takes breaks during his programming job to dress up in flamboyant suits and dance on the bridges of the Windy City for the benefit of passing tour boats. Burns premiered the film at Cucalorus, and brought Vincent (as well as her editor, Christine Gilliland) with her. Vincent proved to be a fascinating figure, both on film and at the festival. He and Burns frequented many of the films my friends and I did, including Wesley Willis's Joyrides, a doc about a similarly eccentric Chicago figure, albeit with a somewhat more tragic story. Willis achieved modest success for his mathematically-precise artwork, but it was his disjointed and offbeat music (which has appeared in Super Size Me and Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law) that made him a star of the underground rock scene. Directors Chris Bagley and Kim Shively spent equal time focusing on Willis's art and his music, as well as the strange circumstances that turned this sometimes-homeless, borderline-schizophrenic into a household name, until his death in 2003 due to leukemia.

Movie Review: Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs

In the mid-2000s, something unusual happened. Futurama and Family Guy, two of the seemingly endless amounts of television programs Fox had cancelled at the start of the decade, were suddenly popular again, mostly thanks to a successful syndication of both shows on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup and strong DVD sales. Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane decided to exploit the situation, and revive the series for three increasingly formulaic seasons on Fox, as well as an upcoming spin-off, The Cleveland Show. In Futurama’s case, Matt Groening decided to take things in a different direction, choosing to create a series of direct-to-DVD movies, which would then be split into half-hour episodes for Comedy Central. While the first of these movies, Bender’s Big Score, oftentimes felt contrived and lacking in the biting satire that fans of Futurama had come to expect from its creator, The Beast with a Billion Backs actually feels like a feature-length film, and less like a series of episodes strung together.

What makes the new movie work is that writers Eric Kaplan and David X. Cohen (who co-developed the show with Groening) keep the subplots to a bare minimum and, thankfully, keep away from that nasty plot device called time travel. In the film, a giant hole in the universe has been ripped open, causing scientist Stephen Hawking (played by the real Stephen Hawking) to stage a conference for all the scientists to try and come up with a solution to the problem. Meanwhile, Fry (Billy West) starts a relationship with Colleen (Brittany Murphy), who gives him a bit of a surprise when it turns out that she has four other boyfriends. After discovering this, Fry dumps her and decides to jump through the rip in space, in order to start a new life. Once through the rift, he discovers a planet-sized, multi-tentacled monster called Yivo who falls in love with Fry’s universe and decides to mate with it. Strange, I know, and it gets stranger. Pretty soon, Fry becomes the Pope of Yivo’s new religion, and invites humanity to leave Earth and enter the other dimension. At the same time, Bender becomes a member of the secret League of Robots, whose mission statement to “Kill All Humans!” is pretty much ignored by its members, which include Calculon, Hedonismbot, and other familiar faces in the Futurama universe.

It may seem like a lot to swallow, but keep in mind that Bender’s Big Score had a lot more plotlines, and plenty of disorganization to go with it. The Beast with a Billion Backs keeps the energy focused on one story at a time, and only rarely pulls out some obscure character for a cheap laugh. The movie also benefits greatly from the casting of David Cross as Yivo, who injects some much-needed droll humor into an otherwise daunting character. Overall, Groening restores our faith in the future of Futurama with a wonderful new movie, and while it does represent a return to form, it doesn’t feel like a rehash of the same old jokes.

Radiohead: The Best Of (DVD Review)

Capitol Records drove the final nail into the coffin that was Radiohead’s contract today, with the release of a massive selection of greatest hits compilations, including a single-disc edition, a double-disc limited edition, a quadruple-LP edition, and a DVD featuring all of their videos. All of these came with the somewhat unoriginal title Radiohead: The Best Of, a puzzling choice considering so many of their song titles would make wonderful alternatives. What about No Surprises...or Exit Music...or We Suck Young Blood? Anyway, if you’ve already got most of Radiohead’s albums, you’ll probably find the DVD to be the only release this week of any value (though that LP box set looks pretty sweet, too). On it are 21 of their music videos, culled from each of the albums released on Capitol. The only glaring omissions are two videos done for Kid A, most notably Stanley Donwood and Shynola’s animated film for “Motion Picture Soundtrack.”

Unlike the single and double-disc CD sets, the DVD is arranged chronologically, so that viewers can truly see the evolution of the band from angst-ridden alt-rockers to representatives of the dark corners of the avant-garde. Pablo Honey alone is represented by four videos (three more than necessary, but I guess we must be thorough), most of which feature Thom Yorke mugging for the camera while the band plays on behind him. Radiohead’s visual style matured along with their music as they released 1995’s The Bends, and the directors they worked with began to forge dense narratives, as evidenced by the videos for “Just” and “High and Dry” (both the US and UK versions are on here, though the US version is the one worth watching). Jonathan Glazer proved especially good at translating Radiohead’s music into memorable visuals, with his beautiful time-lapse photography for “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” and the sinister car ride of “Karma Police.”

The real treat, however, is all the videos for Amnesiac and Hail to the Thief, most of which have never been released on DVD in the US. Michel Gondry’s astounding one-shot video for “Knives Out” is alone worth the price of admission, considering it was mercilessly removed from Gondry’s Director’s Label DVD at the last minute. Also essential viewing is Shynola’s ethereal computer animated video for “Pyramid Song,” featuring a polygonal character diving into an ocean filled with abandoned buildings and houses. One of the more surprising inclusions on this set is the video for “Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors / Like Spinning Plates,” directed by Johnny Hardstaff and featuring two Siamese twin babies whose chests get ripped apart by robotic machinery. The video isn’t as graphic as the description suggests, and the highly detailed machinery is actually quite beautiful to look at. Finally, out of the four videos for Hail to the Thief, the Jan Svankmejer-influenced “There There,” directed by Chris Hopewell, is the definite highlight.

Overall, Radiohead: The Best Of does a good job of showing a band in transition, as their video collection slowly goes from simply starring the band to reinterpreting their increasingly sinister, yet highly innovative music.

Music Review: Verve Remixed 4

One often wonders if Verve could’ve saved a whole lot of production costs if it had just lumped the best songs from the last three Verve Remixed compilations onto a single disc and released that instead. The same case could be made for the fourth volume in the series, which suffers from the same problem that plagued the earlier volumes, which is that not many DJs like to do a whole lot of tinkering to the classic compositions they are asked to remix.

Like volume three, which culled most of its remixers from the indie community (Postal Service, RJD2, and Danger Mouse, to name a few), volume four tries for thematic unity by recruiting globetrotting turntablists to work their magic on the Verve back catalog. It’s a gamble that pays off…for the most part. Nina Simone’s “Gimme Some,” a track originally rooted in the blues tradition, is given a Motown sheen by pop producer Mike Mangini, while French electro experimentalist Pilooski does a thumping cut-and-paste number on Simone’s “Taking Care of Business,” making it one of the biggest departures from the original and a definite highlight of the Verve Remixed series. Meanwhile, funk/jazz hybrid group Antibalas transforms the rhumba stylings of Patato & Totico’s “Dilo Como Yo” into something resembling an atmospheric outtake from Panda Bear’s last album.

But for every Pilooski and Antibalas, there’s a Truth & Soul, who simply add a beat to Dinah Washington’s “Cry Me a River” and call it a remix. Even more perplexing is Kenny Dope’s take on James Brown’s “There Was a Time,” which sounds like nothing has been altered, but still ends up being two minutes longer than its original incarnation. As always, the compilation ends on a downtempo note, with The Cinematic Orchestra taking Ella Fitzgerald’s cover of “I Get a Kick out of You” and laying some acoustic guitar over it, as well as a somewhat obnoxious vinyl-scratch sound effect. It’s an anticlimactic end to a somewhat lackluster compilation, but for the people at Verve, I suppose it’s business as usual. (In typical bureaucratic fashion, Verve decided to punish the people who actively searched for a physical copy of the album at record stores. A bonus, album-only remix of Ella Fitzgerald’s “Take the ‘A’ Train” by Mint Royale was added to the iTunes version of the album.)

Oscar Nods Announced!

I had written my Oscar predictions for the year, but never got around to posting them. So, now that the Oscar nominees have already been announced, let's see how close I was:

Best Picture
Juno
No Country for Old Men
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
There Will Be Blood
Zodiac

3 out of 5 ain't bad. I'll go ahead and say that I naïvely included a lot of nominations for Zodiac, thinking that a low-key Spring release date wouldn't hurt its chances of Oscar gold. Silly me!

Best Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Tommy Lee Jones, No Country for Old Men
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises

I was really surprised at how many of the Best Actor nominees I got right. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead was another film that undeservedly got snubbed by the Academy this year, but at least Hoffman got a nomination in the Best Supporting category. Also, I didn't know if Tommy Lee Jones' character in No Country for Old Men was the "star" of the movie, which probably explains why he was nominated, but for In the Valley of Elah instead.

Best Actress
Amy Adams, Enchanted
Helena Bonham Carter, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Julie Christie, Away from Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Ellen Page, Juno

Once again, three out of five. Adams will soon receive the Oscar she should've gotten for her role in Junebug, just not this year. I have no idea why Cate Blanchett received a nod for her Elizabeth sequel, not only because she was nominated for an Oscar for the same role back in 1998, but she's also up for a Best Supporting nod for I'm Not There.

Best Supporting Actor
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Paul Dano, There Will Be Blood
Robert Downey, Jr., Zodiac
Albert Finney, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Kene Holliday, Great World of Sound

Wow, did I ever screw this one up. Bardem is a given, but no props for Dano? Seriously? The dude more than held his own with Daniel Day-Lewis, so that's gotta be worth something! Also, I believe Kene Holliday's performance is one of the best I saw at Cucalorus 13 and I hope Great World of Sound finds some sort of a cult following.

Best Supporting Actress
Juliette Binoche, Paris Je T'Aime
Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
Jennifer Garner, Juno
Samantha Morton, Control
Imelda Staunton, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Once again, a measly one out of five. Even though Juliette Binoche's part in the sprawling project Paris, Je T'Aime is a small one, I was moved by her performance and thought it deserved recognition. I'm surprised the Academy overlooked Jennifer Garner in Juno, but maybe they haven't forgiven her for Elektra yet. Also, let me just say that Imelda Staunton's character in the fifth Harry Potter movie is one of the great villains of modern-day cinema.

Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
David Cronenberg, Eastern Promises
David Fincher, Zodiac
Sidney Lumet, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

I was happy to see P.T. Anderson and the Coens up on the list, but no Lumet? I enjoyed Jason Reitman's direction as much as the next person, but there were better directors out there this year. Cronenberg and Fincher have never even been nominated for a Best Director Oscar, a mistake that must soon be rectified.

Best Original Screenplay
Brad Bird, Jim Capobianco and Jan Pinkava, Ratatouille
Jeffrey Blitz, Rocket Science
Diablo Cody, Juno
Kelly Masterson, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
George Smith and Craig Zobel, Great World of Sound

I was blown away to find that I had correctly predicted that Ratatouille would be up for a Best Screenplay Oscar. And even though Blitz and Zobel were on there mainly 'cause I loved those movies so much at Cucalorus, I am once again disappointed at the Academy's lack of props for Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Leslie Dixon, Hairspray
John Logan, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
James Vanderbilt, Zodiac

Hairspray was kind of a last-minute addition to my list, mainly because I hadn't seen a whole lot of movies based on a previously existing work. Sweeney Todd also didn't get as many nods as I had thought it would, and once again, no love for Zodiac.

Overall, I'm happy that two of my favorite films of 2007, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, got the most nominations this year. I'm also happy that at least one song from Once is up for the Best Original Song award (though, according to the New York Times, this may be redacted). However, it saddens me to say that the Onion's pick for the worst movie of 2007 has been nominated for a Best Makeup award. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Academy Award nominated...Norbit.

Cloverfield Breathes New Life Into a Dying Genre

J.J. Abrams’ latest silver-screen spectacle reminds me of those “moving chair” rides at theme parks. You sit in front of a giant movie screen and watch some five-minute action-packed film (sometimes in 3D) while your chair rocks back and forth to correspond with whatever is happening onscreen. I half expected to walk out of the theater to find guys handing out buttons that read, “I survived Cloverfield.” However, the biggest surprise of the evening wasn’t the big reveal of the hotly-debated monster, but the remarkable attention to character development and plotline that producer Abrams and his crew (comprised of director Matt Reeves and screenwriter Drew Goddard) bestow upon the often dumbed-down and over-expository genre of giant monster movies.

The film opens with some ingenious “Department of Defense” visuals, informing us that what we are about to see was obtained from wreckage in an area “formerly known as ‘Central Park’”. Pretty soon, we are introduced to Rob (Michael Stahl-David), a successful twentysomething who’s just landed a vice president position at some company in Japan (what he does exactly is never elaborated on). He begins filming his girlfriend, Beth (Odette Yustman), and they start planning a trip to Coney Island. Suddenly, the film cuts to a few weeks later, when one of Rob’s friends, Lily (Jessica Lucas), and his brother, Jason (Mike Vogel), decide to throw a surprise going-away party, and take the camcorder in order for people to give testimonials during the event. Pretty soon, the camera ends up in the hands of Hud (T.J. Miller), another of Rob’s friends, and then the trouble starts happening. One of the more innovative plot devices in Cloverfield is the fact that Hud is recording over the aforementioned Coney Island footage, so that throughout the film, the camera occasionally cuts back to that earlier recording, providing an ironic juxtaposition of visuals, as well as a bittersweet ending scene.

Goddard's script spends a generous amount of time building each of the characters’ back-stories, something that comes in handy once the mayhem begins. In fact, one of the best things about Cloverfield is that the filmmakers have crafted a sci-fi/horror film in which the audience is actively engaged with the characters and is genuinely concerned about what will happen to them. Hud provides much of the comic relief, but none of it feels forced and the script thankfully keeps the humor to a minimum when things start to get serious. For a PG-13 film, Cloverfield is surprisingly violent, with a scene involving a makeshift hospital in the middle of a clothing store being the most gruesome.

As for the monster, Abrams and Co. do a great job of only showing parts of the monster from time to time, very much in the tradition of Alien, only quite larger in scale. Early in the film, news reports show the creature unleashing smaller, spider-like parasites that play an important role in a particularly unnerving scene involving a pitch-black subway tunnel. Thankfully, Cloverfield doesn’t keep its secrets for long, and fans will be happy to know that you get to see more than enough of the main creature towards the end of the film, in broad daylight, no less!

Overall, Cloverfield breathes some much-needed life back into a genre that all but vanished from the American landscape after the dismal box office of 1998’s Godzilla. Hopefully, J.J. Abrams’ vision will pave the way for future filmmakers to revisit the giant monster movie and deliver their own original and innovative spin on it.

Hall of Awesome: Worst Movies of 2007

I know, it's not very awesome, but this is my chance to riff on some truly bad movies I saw this year, and God knows they deserve it. Also, I refuse to see dreck like Norbit and Epic Movie, so don't bother commenting on why they aren't on my list. So, without further ado:

1. Flanders (dir. Bruno Dumont)
   As a film student, I frequently find myself defending some really difficult movies, ones that mainstream audiences simply aren’t meant to see, much less comprehend. “I know Drawing Restraint 9 doesn’t make any sense, but it’s so fascinating to watch!” “Give Old Joy a few more viewings. I’m sure you’ll come to love it!” Then there are films that are simply not worth defending. I have tried to come up with a reason why the 2006 Cannes jury decided to give one of their highest honors to this film, especially since the jury consisted of such great actors like Samuel L. Jackson, Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Roth, and Zhang Ziyi. For Flanders, director Bruno Dumont decided to conjure up the most depraved, indifferent, and downright horrible people he could find…and then make a movie about them. When a character isn’t walking down a road, or through a forest, or across a field, or through a war zone (there’s a lot of walking in this film), they’re either raping someone or getting raped. Or exploding. Maybe if Dumont made us genuinely care about these people, I would’ve been more receptive. But it seems his intentions are to make us hate these people in the beginning, downright despise them in the middle, and ultimately not to give a fuck what happens to them by movie’s end. Even though the screening of this film was free, I felt as if a part of my soul had been taken from me by the time the lights went up.
   
2. Spider-Man 3 (dir. Sam Raimi) / Shrek the Third (dir. Chris Miller) (tie)
   As far as sequels go, Shrek 2 was halfway decent and Spider-Man 2 was pretty damn good. But both of them are Empire Strikes Back-quality when compared to their god-awful third chapters. For Spider-Man 3, Sam Raimi decided to forego the usual plot development and story arcs in favor of an extended montage of Tobey Maguire hopping around like a fucking idiot, all while alienating the cardboard Kirsten Dunst in a subplot that somehow got bumped up to the main storyline. Even when we actually focus on the superhero stuff, it’s pretty pathetic. Sandman and Venom aren’t handled with nearly as much attention and care as Alfred Molina (Doc Oc) and Willem Dafoe (Green Goblin) were in the previous two films. I’ve always said that a Spider-Man film is only as good as its bad guy, and with two mediocre ones (not including James Franco as an amnesia-suffering Hobgoblin, and whatever that black alien ooze is), this third entry in the franchise just may be the last. Oh, and the same goes for the third Shrek movie. Anyone could’ve told you you’re making a big mistake when you cast Justin Timberlake as a main character. And the way the filmmakers use “Immigrant Song” is unforgivable.
   
3. Lions for Lambs (dir. Robert Redford)
   I’m sorry; I’m usually not this mean to movies I get to see for free, but I have to speak up about this one. Initially, I described this movie to friends as “Crash with politics,” but the problem with this comparison is that I actually liked Crash the first time I saw it. The reason I dislike Robert Redford’s new movie so much is that it’s one of those films that hits you over the head with its message, even though it’s murky as to what that message is exactly. Redford tries to criticize the Republican machine, but also dilutes that criticism by frequently blaming us for our lack of involvement. Not even Meryl Streep can save this film from stumbling into an incoherent jumble of liberal rhetoric and holier-than-thou posturing from poli-sci professor Redford. This is the guy that did Quiz Show, right?
   
4. Bug (dir. William Friedkin)
   This might have been a better movie if I had seen it in a different context, but I doubt it. Hopelessly misleading blurbs and plot descriptions dotted the DVD box for this film, leading me and my friends to believe we were about to watch a gripping horror film about bug infestations. How wrong we were. Ashley Judd gives a pretty impressive performance, but how hard is it to act like a fucking lunatic, especially when there’s another lunatic onscreen (Michael Shannon) who’s acting even crazier than you are?
   
5. Fracture (dir. Gregory Hoblit)
   Speaking of lunatics, Anthony Hopkins has made a career out of playing them. Every time he appears in a movie, I have a sneaking suspicion that someone else in that movie is about to die. In Fracture, Hopkins once again plays a kook, hell-bent on killing his wife and, more importantly, getting away with it. The audience finds the loophole that will incriminate Hopkins long before bland D.A. Ryan Gosling does, and the excellent Embeth Davidtz (Junebug) is sadly underused as Hopkins’ wife. The real crime is that the filmmakers tried to mix Silence of the Lambs with “Law & Order” without realizing that the crime that occurs onscreen could’ve been solved by Jodie Foster or Jerry Orbach before we even cut to commercial.

DVD Review: Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters

The two-disc DVD for the Aqua Teen movie, as per Williams Street standards, piles on the extras, though they might not be the extras die-hard ATHF fans were hoping for. Disc one has a commentary track with musician Patti Smith, Onion editor Todd Hanson, SNL's Fred Armisen (who also provides the voice of Time Lincoln), and Dana Snyder, the voice of Master Shake. Like most Adult Swim commentary tracks, it's just for shits 'n giggles and doesn't really provide any insight on the making of the film, but it's still fun to listen to. Plus, I now know a lot more about Patti Smith than I ever cared to know. For those who actually care about how the movie was made, there's a short behind-the-scenes documentary featuring the cast and crew, storyboards, and a pretty funny foley artist session including, in a bout of Mythbusters-inspired lunacy, the firing of a real-life potato cannon.

The selling point of the second disc is Colon, an 80-minute "deleted movie," which is essentially an early 2005 workprint version, before the addition of the Egypt opening, the Walter Melon subplot and before the special guests signed on (except for Bruce Campbell). Most of the deleted scenes that appear in Colon already appeared in finished form in the Aqua Teen "Star Studded Xmas Spectacular," which is also included on the disc. Most worth your while, however, are the music videos, which consist of either recording sessions or live performances at the movie's Atlanta premiere. The best of these are the ones featuring a quartet of radio jingle singers recording the opening song, "Groovy Time for a Movie Time," and Mastadon recording their death-metal response, "Cut You Up With a Linoleum Knife." There's just something about a group of middle-aged men and women collectively singing "Don't pull your penis out unless you really need to!" that puts a smile on your face. All of Dana Snyder's "man-on-the-street" promos are here, as well as the mock-interview he did with Bob Odenkirk, playing the obnoxious film critic Danny Mothers.

Overall, some pretty nice extras to complement a downright hilarious movie. My only complaint is that there aren't a lot of tidbits on how the movie got made exactly. How did they get all their special guests (other than by offering a fat paycheck)? Who came up with the idea for that ridiculous opening sequence? And how did the Boston bomb scare affect the marketing of the film? Other than a brief mention during the commentary that the Mooninites are the "Bin Ladens of the cartoon world," the subject is never brought up.

Maybe I'm just looking way too much into this.

New on DVD

Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law: Volume 3
(Warner Bros. Home Video/Adult Swim; $20.99 at Amazon)

As Adult Swim continues its slow descent into crude potty humor and bland concepts with the likes of Tim and Eric Awesome Show and Saul of the Mole Men, the late night programming block also took the liberty of ending one of their best programs, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. The two-disc set skimps on the special features (no commentaries this time around), but all 12 episodes are essential viewing, and include non-stop laughs from the show’s stellar cast, including Gary Cole (as Birdman), Stephen Colbert (as Phil Ken Sebben and Reducto), John Michael Higgins (as Mentok, the Mind Taker), and Paget Brewster (as the perky and suggestive Birdgirl). Special guest Lewis Black portrays the Deadly Duplicator, who runs the shop Birdman gets his copies from, and Turner Classic Movies’ Robert Osborne stops by to premiere an classic Hanna-Barbera “Birdman” cartoon, which has been skillfully redubbed by the show’s cast. Overall, the set is worth owning simply for the inclusion of the “Sebben & Sebben Employee Orientation” episode, as well as the half-hour final episode, “The Death of Birdman.”

Zodiac
(d. David Fincher; Paramount Home Video; $17.99 at Amazon)

Every time David Fincher gets another film of his released on DVD, it’s always a bare-bones version the first time through. Then, a few months later, a fully loaded 2-disc (or, in the case of Panic Room, a 3-disc set) will emerge, and used DVD stores will soon become flooded with single-disc editions of Fight Club and Se7en. The same goes for Zodiac, which doesn’t even bother to put the usual, fake special features on the back like “Scene Selections” or “Animated Menus.” In fact, its only special feature is a handful of previews for movies that have been out for a while and (get this) a commercial for the 2-disc director’s cut of Zodiac, which will be released sometime next year! It’s sad, really, because Zodiac is David Fincher’s finest effort, and the best movie I’ve seen so far this year, and really doesn’t deserve this “bait and switch” marketing ploy.

A Clunky Hunk of Machinery This Ain't

Michael Bay delivers one of the best excuses to sit in a dark room for three hours on July 4th and that excuse is titled Transformers. I’ve always considered Michael Bay to be one of the best directors of “disposable cinema,” that is, movies that you don’t need to see more than once. But this one just may end up changing my mind. You can’t help but enjoy a movie that dishes out not just the most incredible special effects ever seen, but also takes the time for characters to utter hilariously ‘80s-style dialogue like “You protect the weak. That is why you lose!”

The dialogue belongs to the sinister Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving, who is required by law to appear in every Hollywood blockbuster), and the character he is directing the statement towards is the noble Optimus Prime, voiced by Peter Cullen, who has been voicing the giant Autobot ever since I was born, a casting choice I commend the filmmakers for making. He’s the only guy I can take seriously with lines like “Before time began, there was... the cube.” Oh, that’s right; the reason all this mayhem starts in the first place is ‘cause there’s this cube called the Allspark and…you know what? It really doesn’t matter.

What does matter are the utterly mind-boggling special effects that take place within Transformers’ generous 144-minute running time. All of the transformers are given well-animated human characteristics, and their comedic value is put to good use in a sequence where lead actor Shia LeBeouf makes the Autobots hide in his backyard to keep his parents from seeing them. Robots transform seamlessly into various forms of Chevy vehicles, GPX boomboxes, Nokia cellphones, and even a Mountain Dew machine. As you can surmise, the only thing that is more prominent than the special effects is the product placement. I'd hate to ask Julian Casablancas how much he and the guys shelled out to have LeBeouf wear a Strokes t-shirt for most of the film’s first half.

But while the film’s generous screentime to car companies and cellphone manufacturers does make good fodder for critics to poke fun at, it hardly takes away from the entertainment value of this movie. All of the actors, LeBeouf especially, deliver quality performances, something of a challenge when you’re constantly being upstaged by giant machinery. The action flows pretty evenly throughout the film, and for the most part, Bay does a good job spacing the intense battle scenes with comic relief courtesy of Bernie Mac (as a used car salesman), Anthony Anderson (as a hyperactive computer geek), and John Turturro (as the eccentric head of the top-secret government organization Sector Seven). It all adds up to a great time at the movies and one killer sci-fi epic that will surely set the standard for all that come after it.

P.S.: I have to give J.J. Abrams credit for creating a trailer that almost upstages the movie it precedes. The trailer for his new film should be considered one of the best examples on how to whet the appetite of an audience without giving away any information, not even a freakin' title!

Your Friendly, Neighborhood Spider-Man 3 Review

Spider-Man 3 has an excellent beginning and ending. What it is in dire need of is a good middle.

Let's face it. Each Spider-Man film has only been as good as its villain. In the first installment, we had the excellent Willem Dafoe. In the undoubtedly superior sequel, we had Alfred Molina. This time around, we have two main villains, and neither really seem to be given the time or character development that was graciously bestowed onto the last two antagonists of the series. Thomas Haden Church does a great job with what little he is given to work with, while Topher Grace seems to be out of place in this movie, playing a overtly stereotypical bad guy in a series that's been heralded for avoiding stereotypes.

What makes this even more frustrating is the fact that instead of focusing on fleshing out these characters, Sam Raimi and company spend a large amount of time on a hokey montage, showing Tobey Maguire dancing like an idiot down a New York City street (apparently, that black goo that gets on him at the start of the movie makes him dress like an emo kid and act like Will Ferrell's character from Night at the Roxbury). The Spider-Man franchise has always had its share of goofiness (the ever-popular Bruce Campbell cameos are proof of this), but it should not detract from the overall thrust of the story. In fact, so much of the film focuses on Peter Parker sabotaging his relationship with Mary Jane, you almost forget you're watching a superhero movie.

At least the special effects are impressive. The visuals employed for the Sandman are top-notch, while the horrific look of Venom ranks as one of the best creature designs this series has yet produced. As always, the supporting cast is wonderful, with Rosemary Harris (Aunt Mae) and J.K. Simmons (Daily Bugle editor J. J. Jameson) delivering another great set of performances. Newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard, as Parker's newest love interest, does alright, though it's nothing special.

With Spider-Man 3, the franchise proves its on its last legs, and while the film itself is not unwatchable (despite it's shortcomings, it's quite entertaining), it does not bode well for future installments.

UPDATE: Screenwriter John August has posted an article dissecting Spider-Man 3 on his blog, and I totally agree with him. The film is chock full of coincidences, a lot of them wholly unnecessary. He also reminded me of something I forgot to mention in this review. Why bother casting the wonderful actor James Cromwell in your movie if you're only going to have him give a few lines of expository dialogue, and as a police chief no less? I mean, seriously: How many times has James Cromwell played some form of law enforcement official? (According to IMDb, at least ten.)

Spotlight on Cucalorus: Three Movie Reviews in 75 Words or Less

Dirt Nap
(Director: D.B. Sweeney; Cast: John C. McGinley, Paul Hipp, D.B. Sweeney, Ed Harris, Moira Kelly, Pat Hingle, Janet Jones, Mark Moses, Rex Linn, Ned Bellamy, Vanna White; dirtnapmovie.com)

Road movies always have their share of clichés and obligatory scenes. Dirt Nap takes those preconceived notions and turns them on their collective head. When three middle-aged slackers decide to take a trip to Florida for a football game, their whole world gets turned around, and their lifelong friendship is placed under close scrutiny. A fine cast all around, and an especially fascinating cameo appearance by Ed Harris as an amputee carnival owner.

Old Joy
(Director/Writer/Editor: Kelly Reichardt; Co-Writer: Jonathan Raymond; Composer: Yo La Tengo; Cast: Will Oldham, Daniel London)

Quiet, provocative filmmaking. People think a movie like this should be boring, but it is anything but. Two men who haven’t seen each other in years spontaneously decide to take a trip to the mountain springs of Oregon. While no major revelations are made, the characters re-evaluate their relationship, and start to realize just how far they’ve come in the many years they’ve known one another. Beautiful cinematography, gorgeous score by Yo La Tengo.

Shortbus
(Writer/Director: John Cameron Mitchell; Original Score: Yo La Tengo; Cast: Sook-Yin Lee, Paul Dawson, Lindasy Beamish, PJ DeBoy, Raphael Barker, Peter Stickles; shortbusthemovie.com)

A sexual revolution has begun, and writer/director John Cameron Mitchell is its muse. From a story developed by his cast, Mitchell gives us sex as a joyous combination, not only of body, but of spirit. Hearts are broken and mended again. New sexual heights are reached. All who enter the Shortbus salon are freed from the depression and anxiety of a post-9/11 New York City. Once again, Yo La Tengo delivers the perfect musical accompaniment.

An excellent review of Shortbus may be found here.

Spotlight on Cucalorus: 13 Tzameti

The first narrative I've seen at Cucalorus, and also the most unsettling. In this French film, a poor roofer stumbles across a drug addict's plan to make some big money fast. Fortunately, the addict overdoses before he has the chance to collect, and the roofer is left with a striped envelope containing a train ticket and a hotel reservation. What follows is a sick and twisted multi-player game, where the winner is handsomely rewarded, but the losers...well, you can probably guess what happens to them:



Even though an American remake is already in the works (of course), I'm really glad I saw the original first. I'm sure any American studio would jump at the chance to jazz up 13 Tzameti's ridiculously simple, but riveting storyline. The only problem is the story needs no jazzing up. The film's low-budget, black-and-white production only adds to the look of the film's dark and dingy locations, especially the rooms in which the game takes place, where a single light bulb is the only indicator of whether you will live...or die.

Spotlight on Cucalorus: Al Franken: God Spoke

Day 2 of Cucalorus, and the documentaries keep on coming. The Al Franken biopic God Spoke was definitely more lighthearted fare compared to last night's proceedings, but it was still a very fun and very entertaining movie.

When Saturday Night Live alum Al Franken became the target of right-wing radio and TV personalities (maybe it's 'cause he named his first book Rush Limbaugh is a Big, Fat Idiot?), it set off an endless string of debates and yelling contests, usually between Franken and any combination of Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and Bill O'Reilly. Especially Bill O'Reilly. After O'Reilly and Fox News raised a ruckus over what they believed to be copyright infringement (Fox claimed a trademark on the words "fair and balanced," which were part of the title of Franken's new book), the courts threw out the case and Franken laughed all the way to the bank as the free publicity shot his book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, to the top of the Amazon.com Best Sellers list.

The film begins with the release of Franken's book and the backlash it received, follows Franken as he haphazardly jumpstarts the first liberal radio station, Air America Radio (which, sadly, has since declared bankruptcy), and as he follows the Kerry campaign during the election of 2004. It's hard to watch the scenes where Franken seems so optimistic about Kerry's certain victory, knowing what surely lies ahead. And filmmakers Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus pull no punches. They show Franken's meltdown after Bush's re-election, ultimately leading to his decision to possibly run for Senate in Minnesota during the 2008 elections.



What I enjoyed most about this film is what I enjoy most about Franken: his sense of humor. He can always turn any depressing political situation into a scathing, satirical one-liner. Even when he's calling out radio personality Michael Medved or going one-on-one with Sean Hannity, he keeps his cool and lets the facts do the talking. Especially hilarious are his bits from Saturday Night Live, notably one in which Franken, as his Stuart Smalley character, consoles a depressed, post-election Al Gore. Also worth mentioning are his USO appearances in Iraq, one of which appears in the film. Franken, dressed as Saddam Hussein, tries to hit on JAG actress Karri Turner. Unfortunately, not much more of his USO tour is shown in the film, which is sad, because if his article about the tour, "Tearaway Burkas and Tinplate Menorahs," is any indication, there's a lot of extra material that's a whole lot funnier. I highly recommend anyone interested in more information on Franken to read that article, which can be found in the 2005 edition of The Best American Nonrequired Reading.

Overall, a solid documentary about a very funny man. For more information on the film, visit www.godspokefilm.com.

Spotlight on Cucalorus: The Trials of Darryl Hunt

Today marks the kickoff of Wilmington, North Carolina's premier independent film festival, Cucalorus, now in its twelfth year. The film that opened this year's festivities was the documentary feature The Trials of Darryl Hunt, and I can already tell you, it's going to be very, very hard to top this picture in terms of emotional impact from an audience.

The film relays the story of one Darryl Hunt, a 19-year-old black man who, in 1984, was convicted of raping and murdering a white woman in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. What followed were ten sad and horrifying years of judicial corruption, police incompetence, and outright bigotry, in a scandal that, if it hasn't yet rocked the judicial system of North Carolina to its very core, this film most certainly will. Even after DNA evidence proved Hunt's innocence in 1994, he still remained in prison for an additional ten years, due to the district attorney's stubborn belief that the DNA evidence was either contaminated or inconclusive, even though there was no evidence that either was true. Finally, on Christmas Eve of 2003, Darryl Hunt was released from prison and now walks free. The state gave him compensation for their wrongheadedness, but no amount of money can take back the 19 years of wrongful imprisonment this man has faced.

The Trials of Darryl Hunt is most certainly the best documentary I have seen all year. Yes, better than An Inconvenient Truth and Wordplay. I have always believed that, when the story and its people are handled with the proper respect and admiration, a documentary can be ten times more powerful than any narrative film could ever be. The only reason this film won't be nominated for a Best Documentary Feature Oscar is because it has not enjoyed even a limited release in select cities, a requirement that must be fulfilled before the end of the year. The general public is stuck with having to search far and wide for any film festival where this production is being screened. It's worth the time to look, believe me.

However, my screening of the film was unique, in that Darryl Hunt himself, as well as defense attorney Mark Rabil were present to answer any questions following the screening. The two did not appear until after the screening, prompting one person to ask if Hunt has the strength to view this film again. "No, I don't think I have it in me," he exclaimed. Countless questions were asked, emotions were charged. Hunt took questions asking for his future plans, his feelings toward the whole debacle, and Rabil answered questions relating to the litigation and specifics of the case, which Rabil had worked on since the court appointed him to the case in 1984. One interesting question was why there is no accountability when it comes to district attorney's making cases on fraudulent evidence or withholding evidence altogether, something that Hunt and Rabil experienced during both times their case went to trial (the second trial was in 1990). Rabil said that the three most important things people can do are to vote, serve in a jury, and support causes like Hunt's, who created the Darryl Hunt Project for Freedom and Justice to help individuals, like him, who have been wrongfully accused of crimes, and to educate the public about flaws in the justice system.

Out of all of this, what struck me the most was how kind and pleasant Hunt seemed. Even while district attorneys were frothing at the mouth, begging juries to send down a life sentence, Hunt's face remained stoic. A man with a strong faith in God, as well as a strong faith in his peers, his friends, and his family. Surely, no stronger man has lived.

The Trials of Darryl Hunt did make the Academy's shortlist for Best Documentary Feature, but ultimately was not nominated for the award, in favor of films focusing on more current events, such as global warming and Iraq.

The film will, however, be shown on HBO in April 2007.