My Favorite Line in 'The Wrestler'
“I heard Bob’s doing really good with his used car lot out in Arizona.” If you see the film you’ll know what I mean. (P.S. Don’t see the film if you’re in the mood for something new, different, fresh – it’s the oldest Hollywood story in the book – shockingly so).
The Extraordinary Lola Montes at the Belcourt Theatre Here in Nashville
Extraordinary! Magnificent! Spectacular! Some of the thoughts that came to mind as I watched Lola Montes yesterday. A legendary ‘lost film’ now restored. If you’re in Nashville and love movies – go see it, it’s at the Belcourt Theatre from January 16th to the 19th, I implore you. It’s clear that the young Baz Luhrmann [...]
Australia Redux
Regular listeners will know just how surprised I was when my genial co-host went into paroxysms of joy at Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Australia’ around Thanksgiving. I liked it a lot, too, but fell short of the adulation inspired in Jett. So I revisited the movie last night and feel the need to post today something I [...]
How Long Till Blu-ray is Declared Dead?
How long till Blu-ray is declared dead? The New York Times – Blu-ray’s Fuzzy Future Have always been a bit skeptical of the latest revolving disk media = with the ease of digital delivery, (yes, I’m hooked on Netflix’s Watch Instantly, soon with added goodness), the idea of having a physical piece of material, that [...]
Memphis Calling
Life’s funny sometimes. A TFT listener, Nole Kennedy, emailed us last month to say he’d seen a great short film starring one of our favorites, Craig Robinson. You know who Craig Robinson is – he’s one of those guys that, even if a film is bad – in fact especially if a film is bad, [...]
Bob Wilkins – Rest in Peace
As a little kid growing up in Oakland – somehow managed to stay up late on Saturday nights and watch Bob Wilkins hosting Creature Features. He passed away yesterday and I find myself melancholy at the thought of Bob not being around anymore. To my 7-year-old-eyes Creature Features was forbidden cinema. Bob himself would often [...]
Are Academy 'Best Picture' Winners Any Good?
Nice little article from the New York times a couple o’ days ago: films that win Best Picture at the Academy Awards are how the industry wants to be perceived: Big, Important Picture? Sure. But Is It Best? It’s always a big mistake when during an Academy Awards ‘special anniversary show’, (like the 60th annual, [...]
'The Visitor' Screening as Part of the 'Vote No to the Nashville English Only Referendum' Campaign
Professor Dr. Gareth Higgins has been trying to get me to see ‘The Visitor’ for ages, (it made his top-10 list this year). I was always planning to, but now I have a special incentive as it’s screening this Thursday at 6pm at Vanderbilt – Rand Hall, Room 220. It’s all part of ‘Nashville Says [...]
Movie Title Screens
If you haven’t been there before I recommend a visit to: Steven Hill’s Movie Title Screens Page It’s obsessive, exhaustive, continually growing and an all-around hoot. Submitted here for you approval in this post are some random pics from the site. Hmm. Looking at the images I’ve chosen I’m a little concerned for my state [...]
Timecrimes / Time Crimes / Los Cronocrímenes
Am a sucker for time travel movies me. But even if wasn’t I’d have been impressed with Timecrimes. It’s a perfect example of how to do your first film = keep to a minimum of locations with a minimum of actors, (as in Reservoir Dogs / Dark Star, etc.). What’s great of course is that [...]
U.S. National Film Registry Adds 25 More Films to the List
Via Metafilter comes the news that 25 more films have been added to the U.S. National Film Registry, (here’s the takeaway from the press release: Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year the Librarian of Congress names 25 films to the National Film Registry that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant, [...]
Chinatown and a Book of Memory
‘Chinatown’ again last night. New(ish) TV. New Blu-Ray player (though couldn’t watch the ‘Chinatown’ disc on it – my copy’s region 2 and haven’t figured out how to de-code Sylvania; so watched it on my perfectly acceptable forty-two dollar Phillips multi-region machine). No RGB cable (it’s connecting the Blu-Ray player). No HDMI cable (guy in [...]
Diamonds are Forever – James Bond at the End
Haven’t seen Diamonds are Forever since I was a kid. Watching it right now and am Shocked. Shocked at how clear it was to everyone making the film that James Bond was at the end. His days were over. Check out the frame above – there’s James in his snazzy white tux – all done [...]
Nixon Resigns – Or, Is this One Clip Better than Frost/Nixon?
Gareth and I will be reviewing Frost/Nixon on Part 47 of the Show. I won’t give away any spoilers re: our thoughts about the pic, (it’s directed by Ron Howard – so not a surprise to know that you’re gonna get middlebrow, well produced entertainment); but I will submit for your approval the astonishing clip [...]
Oh aXXo – Show Us the Way
Nice little article in the Independent about online film piracy, with Number 1 Pirate aXXo used as the story hook: Scene stealer: The aXXo Files Posted below my favorite passage from the article: In an article written for Torrentfreak.com in January, Matt Mason, author of The Pirate’s Dilemma, wrote that “when pirates enter our market [...]
Starman
Am watching Starman. Yes, yes I know – it’s not a good movie, (the way Carpenter directs the ‘chase team’ actors – I know he’s reaching for commercial gold – yet the broadness is oh so grating). Yet watching it am consistently struck by something. Though the film is made in the pre-CGI age it’s [...]
Kubrick's Aryan Papers to be Explored in Jane and Louise Wilson Installation
Oh Kubrick. Why didn’t you make Aryan Papers? Was the production process so long, (including the time needed to find the project in the first place), that you were beaten to the punch by Schindler’s List, (shades of Napoleon / Waterloo)? Or was it something else? We never got a chance to see the film, [...]
The Death of VHS
Ok. That’s it: VHS Era is Winding Down Back in the Day, future-directors like Scorsese imagined that films would be as easily accessible as paperback books, (to view their favorite films they had to hole up over a weekend and screen 16mm prints – it was a big deal to find a favorite film, or [...]
Battle Damage…Urgh…Must Return to Bio-Flesh Regenerator
Not even going to go into what I was searching for when I came across this YouTube video. I must admit: I love the kid voice acting – this is exactly how I talked when playing…and still do… “Must post…something for The Film Talk…must post…errghhh.”
Slumdog Millionaire & Frost/Nixon
In the interests of being comprehensive, now that I’ve seen them, I can happily say that, for me, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is one of the year’s best films, and ‘Frost/Nixon’ is not. ‘Slumdog’ is an astonishing array of Bollywood parody/homage mingled with a story of childhood trauma that bears comparison with ‘City of God’ or ‘Schindler’s [...]
