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March 31, 2006

SILVER LAKE FILM FESTIVAL 2006: A Coat of Snow

Well, we're sorta talking high pedigree on this one, folks. Directed by Gordy Hoffman, whose brother Philip Seymour just might be a familiar face to regular moviegoers. Gordy cowrote LOVE LIZA, one of two movies in a row (the other being OWNING MAHOWNY) in which Philip played a mopey, unlikable addict who didn't do very much for an hour and a half.

Greg Hatanaka says I'm his Philip Seymour Hoffman. But I have fun with my addictions.

Anyway, there's little that annoys a straight guy more than to be around a woman who's screaming, crying, and being very loudly indecisive all at once. But that's this movie's raison d'etre. I bet Gordy got laid out of the deal, just for putting up with it from six chicks.

The movie is about a bachelorette party, filmed from a camcorder brought along by one of the characters, and occasionally passed around. This isn't a bad idea, except that they call attention to it all the time. Pretty much every scene culminates in one of the chicks freaking out about something, and at some point yelling "WHY ARE YOU FILMING THIS? STOP FUCKING FILMING!"

Once would have been enough. It's a funny device sometimes, like when they get in a fender-bender with a dude who's an aspiring actor, and he gets all self-conscious about being portrayed in a flattering light. Then there's another part where they're all mean and try to embarass some random chick in teh ladies' room by taping her over top of the stall.

But then it builds to some weirdness, and a stupid plot revelation. Let's just say that if we're to buy this as a real device, no fucking friend in their right mind would artfully circle two key friends having a very volatile shoutout in an amateur pseudo bullet-time effect. The substance would be too raw for a close friend to be that functional and insensitive.

If you want women to yell at you for an hour and a half, there are easier ways to make it happen than watching this flick. Call your mom and tell her you haven't eaten vegetables in a month, or something.

Posted by LYT at 2:13 AM | Comments (15)

March 30, 2006

SILVER LAKE FILM FESTIVAL 2006: Pervert, Choker

I take flack for being a critic who doesn't like ANNIE HALL or SCHINDLER'S LIST, but I'm proud to stand behind such things.

What I am about to say, however, gives me no pride at all. In fact, it's rather shameful.

I have never seen a Russ Meyer movie. There, I said it. It's not that I don't want to -- I'm sure I'd like them. It's just one of those things that doesn't enter my mind when I'm in the video store.

But if PERVERT!, as it claims, is a fitting tribute to Meyer, then I need to get on it right now. Because PERVERT! is great. It's about this young guy (Sean Andrews) who drives out into the desert to stay with his dad (Darrell Sandeen) who goes by the name of Hezekiah. Dad likes to make sculptures out of meat, and get his own meat tenderized by Cheryl (Mary Carey, the porn star who ran for California governor. In typical American fashion, we picked the dude who made movies about killing over the chick who made movies about fucking). Cheryl fellates a corn cob early on to show what she's all about, then she gets it on with the son as well as the father. Then she gets killed. Then another huge-hootered chick shows up, and there's more sex, and another murder. This happens a few times before we learn that the main dude has a detachable penis with a face that likes to fuck women to death. The penis is rendered in claymation. Director Jonathan Yudis plays a redneck mechanic who speaks in Southern-accented Ebonics.

If you don't want to see this movie, I don't know what's wrong with you. It opens April 7 as a midnight show at the Sunset 5.

I wish I could say the same for CHOKER, especially since -- here comes that full-disclosure thing again -- my friend Geza Decsy is coproducer. But while the cinematography by Vladimir Van Maule is impressive, the movie isn't so much.

It begins with apparent flashbacks to a serial killer in jail, talking about how he lived in Bangor, Maine, but never read Stephen King. Then it goes to Los Angeles at night, and a storyline reminiscent of THE HIDDEN with an alien possessing people's bodies, and switching bodies by puking up neon green slime. Then the convict guy shows up to fight the aliens, only he's had his hair and beard shaved off so you don't know it's him for the longest time. And Geza shows up to beat on him with a baseball bat, which was my favorite scene.

Turns out there's four of the aliens, and they're kind of like Scientology Thetans, possessing human bodies so as not to become extinct. The convict dude has had a good alien inserted inside him so he can fight them - fortunately for the aliens, they seem to know martial arts. The leader of the aliens is in the body of a slightly androgynous chick (Hayley DuMond) who has an atrociously fake English accent (Geza should have asked our mutual friend Paul Hough to coach her a bit).

Other than her, the acting is decent -- writer-director Nick Vallelonga plays one of the main heroes, and I really think he ought to have concluded things with just him facing off against the powerful evil chick, because it makes a better underdog story than superbuff convict dude.

But the script, oh, it just doesn't go anywhere. It's the same thing over and over for the longest time - two people fight, green slime is puked, and we move on to the next confrontation. They had the resources and the technical skills to make a good movie here, but they started shooting without a script. Why? A script is the cheapest part of the process, and if you're movie is low budget, you NEED a good story.

As for the title "Choker" -- ??? A choker is often an item of clothing worn around the neck; nothing about that here. Did the convict choke his victims -- who knows? Does the slime choke people? Surely a better name could have been brainstormed.

Sorry, Geza -- I tried!

Posted by LYT at 4:02 PM | Comments (5)

March 29, 2006

Lindsay Lohan's naked tit

I'm sorry, but I can't resist linking to this.

Posted by LYT at 2:13 AM | Comments (5)

March 28, 2006

Three-word movie review: BASIC INSTINCT 2

Not enough fucking.

Posted by LYT at 11:28 PM | Comments (2)

SILVER LAKE FILM FEST 2006: Stripped Down

The more I do this job, the more people I meet, and the more I have to begin certain reviews by saying "Full disclosure: So-and-so in this movie is a friend of mine." One can try to be objective in such cases, but it may be illusory. Anyhow, as the week progresses, we'll see.

Elana Krausz originally had a significant role in MAD COWGIRL as Therese's pregnant landlady with the hilariously Wilder-esque name of Fanny Pappenheim. She also appeared later in the film as a pregnant nun presiding over an underground bondage society (my deleted sodomy scene was part of this same sequence). All that remains in the final cut is a quick shot of her in nun garb as Therese is changing channels on her TV, but the landlady scene is one that ought to be on the DVD.

Elana's also married to Christo Dimassis, who plays the dubious Catholic priest whom Therese confesses her sins to. So it was some trepidation that I attended a press screening of Elana's feature STRIPPED DOWN, which she also wrote and stars in. If I didn't like it, what could I possibly say?

I shouldn't have worried -- it is, after all, a stripper movie.

Elana plays Lily, a semi-retired stripper past her prime who wants to start a family with her Eurotrash husband Larry (Marcus Jean Pirae), but since they both co-own a strip club, and he has a few illegal activities going on on the side, he insists that their life is not the appropriate one for kids.

The drama in this movie goes down on the day that a man from the IRS (Ian Ziering) show up to check the books. Larry uses every excuse he can think of to avoid the guy, allowing the more naive Lily to deal with it, which seems like the right idea when it becomes clear that the taxman likes his women with a little experience.

On the same day, a young out-of-town runaway named Wren (Bre Blair) has a car breakdown outside the club. Lacking the money to get a tow truck, whatever will she do? Well, it's a good thing (or maybe not) that she's hot, and the club is hiring new girls. Jaded party girl Cara (Lisa Arturo) takes the little bird under her wing and shows her the ropes, or rather, poles.

Arturo holds the screen in every scene she's in -- doesn't hurt that she does several strip routines, but her onscreen persona is similar to that of Brittany Murphy in the days before Brit looked totally strung out and coked up all the time. There's a slight Kim Cattrall resemblance too. The role of Cara could easily have been played far too over-the-top, but she gets it just berserk enough to be believable. Bre Blair gets the relatively thankless role of just playing introverted and shy, but she does it well.

As for Elana, well, you might think when you watch this that it really is who she is, with eyes that look jaded and seen-it-all, and a casual attitude to nudity that comes from years of being taken for granted as an object. However: Elana in real life is not like that at all! Given that she did triple-duty on this movie, I wonder if what we see onscreen might occasionally be actual burnout from long shooting days -- if so, it translates well into the appropriate mood.

Most of the movie was shot at Visualiner studios, which I know well because about a third of MAD COWGIRL was filmed there. So when I saw the exterior of the place, I was just thinking, "Hah! Fuckin' Visualiner!" Then the characters went inside, and I thought, "Wow, they found a real strip club to shoot the interior in! Hey, wait a second - I recognize that prop!" Indeed, it was Visualiner, and they did an amazing job of transforming it, presumably with more money than James Avallone and I had.

Anyway, there's lots of stripping in the movie, which is the main thing. But there are plot developments later on, including a 9 to 5 type revenge angle. There are also occasional flashbacks to child abuse, via a girl in a pink dress and a pink doll that seems to have been in everybody's possession at some point. This is eventually made sense of, but I found most of these flashbacks mildly annoying, primarily because of the use of a kind of drop-frame slo-mo, the kind Peter Jackson likes to use sometimes (as in KING KONG, when Adrien Brody is typing out "S-K-U-L-L I-S-L-A-N-D"). But also, there are a couple of lines of dialogue that rather quickly address that there was abuse in some of the girls' pasts anyway -- I don't think we need lots of girl-on-swing shots to bring it home.

So how's Mr. 90210 Ziering in this indie film? Probably about what you'd expect --a TV star who over-acts a tad, but amusingly so. His introduction scene is great, reacting to an entertainingly unusual occurrence that one suspects happens to his character every other day. His actions towards the end of the film seem rather odd at first, but they do ultimately all make sense...save for one final revelation that I think the movie could have done without.

But in between beginning and end, I have no complaints. The main set is great, the acting's good, the chicks are very naked; Elana even throws in some guns and alcohol just to please everyone in the audience, and her script manages to both indulge the male libido and chastise it for the potential devastation it can wreak (it also makes clear that some men aren't bad -- good to know, and I'll bet Christo feels relieved). Lisa Arturo is a potentially huge breakout star, and overall, this has been the highlight of the Silver Lake film fest besides MAD COWGIRL.

STRIPPED DOWN screens Wednesday night at 8pm at the Arclight, with a party to follow for ticket-holders.

Posted by LYT at 5:39 PM | Comments (1)

MAD COWGIRL talkback thread

For those who saw the movie this weekend...comment below if you'd like to post your reaction, or discuss theories as to what was going on it, or whatever.

[NOTE: Since this thread is primarily for those who saw it...SPOILERS may be discussed]

It's always possible that others from the cast and crew will be reading...

Posted by LYT at 3:29 AM | Comments (21)

MAD COWGIRL Los Angeles premiere photos

Faggy rainbow hair reflected in the poster

...you're gonna...

...have to...

...scroll down a bit for the rest...

The Arclight marquee...

Douglas Dunning ("Sir Miles Graham the radio host")

Christo Dimassis ("Father Jehoshua") and Filmmaker's Alliance founder Jacques Thelemaque

LYT ("Big Brother Cheng/Theater Usher") and guests Ben and Xenia

Julie and David Scott ascend the escalataor with Matt King

Linton Semage ("Dr. Suzuki"), Jaason Simmons ("Jonathan Hunter/Tiger #1"), Douglas, Sarah Lassez ("Therese"), Gregory Hatanaka, James Duval (Thierry")

LYT and Linton Semage

John Daily and Justin Stone, who appear together in one very pivotal shot in the film.

Posted by LYT at 2:21 AM | Comments (4)

Review review review

Jaye gives Mad Cowgirl its best review since Phil Hall's.

Posted by LYT at 1:43 AM | Comments (1)

March 27, 2006

DNS on MCG

David N. Scott reviews MAD COWGIRL, at length ("length" by Pererro review standards, meaning more than a paragraph).

"Patches of it were absolutely brilliant... I definitely think that that Gregory Hatanaka can direct"

read the rest - mild tonal spoilers are involved but no plot specifics.

Posted by LYT at 12:06 PM | Comments (1)

New trailer for NAKED BENEATH THE WATER

Why yes, there is indeed a shot of me in it.

Posted by LYT at 1:59 AM | Comments (5)

March 26, 2006

"A bad man who wears disguises"

Jesse Hlubik writes in with an important message for his fans:

"On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday you can sit back and enjoy three fine episodes of General Hospital that I did. Confidentiality agreements prohibit me from saying much, but I can tell you that I play a bad man who wears disguises. In fact, halfway through the second episode I go so deep in disguise that you probably wouldn't recognize me if you weren't watching from the beginning, so watch from the beginning. Watch until the end too. There is a great moment back at the hospital that completes my character's arc. Anyway, the dates are 3/28-3/30. The episodes air on ABC in the daytime and later on at night on Soapnet. Soapnet apparently airs all of the week's episodes on Saturday too, marathon style if you missed them. You will be entertained, I promise."

Posted by LYT at 11:55 PM | Comments (5)

SILVER LAKE FILM FESTIVAL 2006: Edmond

The pairing of "Master of Horror" Stuart Gordon (RE-ANIMATOR) and "Master of iambic pentametered macho bullshit speechifying" David Mamet isn't necessarily an obvious pairing, but EDMOND is closer to horror than anything Mamet-based that has appeared onscreen previously [note: I mean "macho bullshit" in a GOOD way. Really.]

William H. Macy, no stranger to Mamet, plays the title role of a man who just up and leaves his wife (Mrs. Mamet, Rebecca Pidgeon, in her obligatory cameo) because she bores him. Walkign the streets of L.A. at night, he gets his fortune told -- it's mostly bad stuff like death [side tangent: You know what would be truly original in a movie? A scene where a guy has a dire fortune told, and it DOESN'T come true] -- and then he goes into a bar, where Joe Mantegna starts talking to him about how lucky niggers are.

At first, this choice of words seems like a silly tactic just to shock, but the story builds on it later. Anyway, Mantegna tells Edmond he needs to get laid, and gives him a card for a strip club. Edmond goes there, but decides it's too expensive -- sex is $50, but there's a two-drink minimum first, and the drinks are $50 each. For the next little while, the story follows Edmond's attempts to get laid, or at least get a decent porno experience, and the ladies involved are Denise Richards, Debi Mazar, Mena Suvari, Bai Ling, and finally Julia Stiles...a step up from what you'd actually find on Sunset Blvd. at night. [only Bai Ling gets naked, but Julia Stiles does one of those three-quarters-from-behind numbers like Angelina Jolie in the first TOMB RAIDER; more than she's ever shown before, anyway]

Then things take a darker turn, and Edmond starts to lose his shit. Combine that with the racism angle coming up again, and it starts to feel a lot like FALLING DOWN, but without the digressions that film had to the good cop on the case. Edmond began the movie as a sympathetic character, but he gradually becomes more and more unlikable and finally alienating.

All of which works well enough, until we come to the last 20 or so minutes of the thing, which play as stagey, as the drama slowly limps across the finish line with a bunch of metaphysical mumbo-jumbo talk that sounds like something you'd hear from an annoying pothead at around 3 a.m. while the party's dying down. At the Q&A session afterwards, I got the feeling that the film-makers see this last part of the movie as the heart and the point of the story, which makes a good case for letting the art stand apart from the artist. To me, it's a pointless digression, a shaggy-dog story with a cheap punchline just before fading to black. Even a fearless performance by Bokeem Woodbine during these final moments doesn't make things feel any less staged or slow. After spending a whole movie showing us that even civilized men can be stripped down to savagery, all of a sudden everybody's supposed to be deep and profound again?

After the screening, someone asked William H. Macy if it was hard, playing such a dark character, to shake it off at the end of the day. "It's just acting," he replied, "I think actors who do that are a pain in the ass."

Oh, and there were extra shots set-up purely to accomodate the showing of Bai Ling's butterfly tattoo. If you saw her in Playboy, you'll know why.

Posted by LYT at 3:15 PM | Comments (2)

FREE MAD COWGIRL TICKET for Monday screening

Yes, I have an extra ticket. If you haven't seen it yet, or if you'd like to see it again for free with slightly better projection -- it can be yours.

To win the ticket, just be the first to contact me any way you can.

Monday, 5pm, Arclight.

Posted by LYT at 1:43 PM | Comments (0)

Geoff Pevere FAILS AT LIFE!

Just kidding.

Posted by LYT at 1:05 PM | Comments (1)

Checking in real brief like...

Life is too busy to blog in detail right now. Since last I posted...

-we had our premiere of MAD COWGIRL (thanks to EVERYONE who showed up -- Monday at 5pm is the encore for those who didn't, and I'm a little disappointed in my journalist/blogger friends so far)

-Matt and I shot the sequel to GAYMAN, with new costar Justin Stone, whom many of you realize is an awesome force of actorliness.
In semi-related news, I ran into fomer Sunset 5 coworker Chris Pennington at the Arclight.

-I've partied my ass off at the Silver Lake Film Fest, and been interviewed for some kind of TV deal. Reviews are coming for EDMOND and PERVERT.

I paid to see a couple of movies that didn't screen for the press -- STAY ALIVE and LARRY THE CABLE GUY: HEALTH INSPECTOR. Neither is as bad as you think.

Posted by LYT at 2:42 AM | Comments (2)

March 24, 2006

It's showtime, folks

TONIGHT

ARCLIGHT

8pm

Do NOT say I never told you about it.

Posted by LYT at 1:59 PM | Comments (3)

Short reviews

STONED

In July of 1969, Rolling Stones founding member Brian Jones (Leo Gregory) was found dead in his swimming pool, at a house that had once belonged to Winnie the Pooh creator A.A. Milne. This movie documents the last three months of his life, as well as his business relationship with builder Frank Thorogood (Paddy Considine), hired to renovate the place after having done so successfully for Keith Richards. Thorogood apparently confessed, on his deathbed, to murdering Jones, but the movie doesn’t give us much of a clue why. Yes, Jones as depicted here is thoroughly unlikable; an arrogant rocker far less important than he thinks he his, and contemptuous of all others. But Thorogood could have left Jones’ company at any time and chose not to; Considine and director Stephen Woolley (a regular producer on Neil Jordan’s films) fail to make it clear what would finally push him over the edge. As Jones’ dreamgirl Anita Pallenberg, Monet Mazur undoubtedly draws on her own firsthand experience with Dave Navarro’s junkie years.

HOUSE OF THE DEAD II (Direct to DVD)

It isn’t really possible to make a worse zombie movie than Uwe Boll’s original House of the Dead, which interspliced actual footage from the Sega video game into its action sequences. So it’s no surprise that the sequel is better, though it certainly won’t make you forget about George Romero, or even Paul W.S. Anderson. Basically, the least competent military squadron in the world goes into a college campus that has become infested with zombies, and chaos ensues. Special guest star Sid Haig dies before the opening credits, which is too bad; but director Mike Hurst never takes things too seriously, and sustains some reasonable tension towards the end. Films like this don’t exactly deserve commentary tracks, but give this one a listen anyway, as it’ll make the viewing experience even funnier when you realize just how much thought went into such a brain-dead flick. Fealty to the arcade game is still, alas, a pipe dream (no mutant frogs or leeches to be found anywhere!).

Posted by LYT at 1:36 AM | Comments (1)

March 22, 2006

LA Times highlights MAD COWGIRL

Check out the photo they used in their Silver Lake Film Fest coverage

"Gregory Hatanaka's "Mad Cowgirl" is a wild genre mash-up with an experimental mind-set that could drive audiences to adopt a vegan diet."

Read the whole thing.

Posted by LYT at 11:57 PM | Comments (9)

Celebrating 75 years of Shatner today

I thought my grandparents were aging well, but Bill takes the cake. And eats it too.

Posted by LYT at 3:50 PM | Comments (4)

March 21, 2006

Press Club awards coming up

For Best Weblog I need to submit two consecutive days of posts from 2005.

So far, I have chosen the two posts that deal with my hospitalization, as well as my controversial review of WAR OF THE WORLDS (the one that was all about how heterosexual its star is) followed by a political post the day after.

But I thought I'd ask the audience -- do you have any favorite posts from 2005 that you think ought to be submitted in lieu of these?

Posted by LYT at 10:50 PM | Comments (10)

My Grandfather's Column

Asylum Seekers

One of the things that most impressed me on our arrival in Buckland Newton
nearly 12 years ago was the genuine warmth of our welcome. In next to no time
we were deeply involved in local life. Alas it isn’t like that everywhere.
There are villages in which one half of the population regards anyone who has
lived less than fifty years in the place as a newcomer. And newcomers are
outsiders. They’re not like us. They come along and take our jobs. They think
they ought to be running things.

Thank God, it’s not like that here. One of the great Christian doctrines is
that God is the father of every human being and we therefore are all brothers
and sisters. That we differ from each other greatly is fine but that we should
treat other people as if they were our enemies is not.

The most cursory study of our history shows us that, taking the long view, we
are all newcomers. We owe our national character in large measure to the
various influxes of people from other countries; and we in turn have, more than
most people, spread ourselves around the world - often for imperialistic or
plain selfish motives - so that half the world has absorbed much of our culture.

These are the considerations that make me hate the attitudes shared by much of
the press and most of our politicians, who vie with each other in the harshness
they shew to those who with great courage have done what so many of our
forebears did: that is they decided to up sticks and seek a new life in what was
hoped to be a happier land. The easy way to forget they are our brothers and
sisters is to label them illegal immigrants or bogus asylum seekers and to give
them bogus justice.

-Peter Graham

Posted by LYT at 5:33 PM | Comments (5)

March 20, 2006

Gayman Islands

If anybody cares, Matt and I have been shooting the sequel to "The Adventures of Gayman."

Like most sequels, it's pretty much the same thing but more. (to see part one, click the "FILM" link above and select the appropriate video)

And it looks like we have a pretty acclaimed actor lined up to play the victim. More news as we confirm it.

Posted by LYT at 2:12 AM | Comments (8)

March 19, 2006

TICKETS FOR MAD COWGIRL ARE ON SALE NOW

You can buy them online HERE

Sorry, I don't have any comps to offer - be lucky if I get one myself.

Needless to say, if any media types reading this are interested in interviewing me about the movie...I am available.

Posted by LYT at 11:58 AM | Comments (9)

March 17, 2006

An excellent Alan Moore interview (UPDATED)

Yes, he's temperamental, but he absolutely nails what Joel Silver didn't get about V for Vendetta.

As should be expected.

UPDATE: I guess it would help if I posted the link.

Posted by LYT at 3:46 PM | Comments (11)

Not exactly a review, but a plug

THANK YOU FOR SMOKING opens today in L.A., and I really enjoyed it. Aaron Eckhart is finally back at what he does best, playing a charismatic asshole.

I haven't read the book by Christopher Buckley, so it may well be watered down, a la V for V. But to me, the movie isn't missing anything. I'm actually rather surprised by the number of critics I've read who say that the satire isn't biting enough, or that the movie doesn't clearly take sides -- I wonder what it would take? Part of the point of the movie is to present the least obviously sympathetic type (a tobbaco lobbyist) as a protagonist, and the most apparent "good guy" (a liberal senator trying to mandate skull-and-crossbones stickers on cigarettes) as the antagonist.

In a way, I suppose, the movie uses the same idea as CRASH -- this guy's an asshole, but, y'know, he loves his kid! -- but instead of "We are all racist so let's be sad about it" the thesis is more like "We are all amoral hypocrites, and you might as well find the humor in it."

Perhaps the movie isn't "dark" enough for many of its critics -- maybe someone needed to die horribly in it or something.

I just thought it was funny. And I think Adam Brody's performance as a hyper-phony Hollywood agent's assistant is Oscar-worthy.

But then, I like movies with gleefully amoral "heroes." Even though I loathe tobacco.

Posted by LYT at 2:28 PM | Comments (0)

Happy Mick Day!

I've cleaned out my place a bit, so if anyone wants to drop by for some impromptu boozing, feel free.

Posted by LYT at 12:50 AM | Comments (3)

March 16, 2006

Another new review

"So wait. It's a movie about the longest criminal trial in US history, it's directed by the legendary Sidney Lumet, and it stars ... Vin Diesel in a wig? In a role originally intended for Joe Pesci? Can Lumet be serious? "

find out HERE

Posted by LYT at 11:15 PM | Comments (1)

Thomas' Guide (UPDATED)

LA Observed reports: "Kevin Thomas, the bought-out former LAT film reviewer is said to be starting a monthly screening series for the American Cinematheque at the Aero in Santa Monica. Source says that Kevin Thomas' Top 10 will debut with Night of the Hunter. "

No truth so far to the rumor that the screenings will start late, with loud talking during the movie encouraged and mandatory bullying of the ushers enforced.

UPON FURTHER REFLECTION...Given the way K-Tho has tended to give gushing reviews to virtually every movie that came out in the past ten years, couldn't he just go to ANY multiplex in town to present his "favorite" movies?

Posted by LYT at 2:48 AM | Comments (6)

V for Vindication: Alan Moore was right -- Hollywood can’t do him justice.

[This review is an obsessive, nitpicky fanboy expansion of my review currently running in multiple alt-weeklies. The original graphic novel is very near to my heart, so I've taken advantage of cyberspace to go longer than the page can contain]

The posters for V for Vendetta read, “An uncompromising vision of the future from the creators of The Matrix trilogy.” LOL, as they say online. “Uncompromising”? It simply isn’t possible to translate Alan Moore’s multilayered comic-book masterpiece into a two-hour movie without making cuts that oversimplify, and it certainly isn’t feasible to expect producer Joel Silver to keep things subtle. Moore, who’s notoriously cranky and anti-Hollywood, has insisted his name no longer be used in conjunction with any movies made from his work; From Hell (a good movie but an unfaithful adaptation) and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (a mess that induced director Stephen Norrington to retire from the business) soured him permanently on such things. Fealty-wise, V for Vendetta as a movie is better than those by a longshot, but frustratingly flawed in ways that could have been avoided by hewing closer to Moore’s -- not the Wachowski brothers’ -- vision. The brothers W (who wrote the script) and director James McTeigue claim to all be fans who’ve preserved the integrity of Moore’s work (and received the endorsement of the original artist, David Lloyd), so you’d think if they can’t do it right, no-one can.

I guess no-one can.

Written during the Thatcher years, Moore’s original depicted a future Britain that had withdrawn from NATO just in time to escape a nuclear war that wiped out every other country. Following a period of chaos and riots, it becomes a fascist dictatorship under the rule of insecure dictator Adam Susan. The protagonist is Evey Hammond, and orphaned teen prostitute who propositions the wrong man, only to be rescued from mortal peril by a vigilante known only as “V” who wears the mask of Guy Fawkes, infamous member of a 17th-century plot to blow up the houses of parliament. A masked, stuffed “Guy” is burned in effigy every year in England on November 5th as fireworks are set off. It isn’t entirely necessary to know this, but for the benefit of all Americans, we begin the movie with a full-on period reenactment of Fawkes’ gunpowder plot, and have both Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving recite a short poem about it on different occasions. Moore would drop literary and historical references and let his audience look them up, but Joel Silver doesn’t trust you to do that.

In adapting for the screen, the Wachowski brothers have updated things a bit, imagining a worst-case scenario for the War on Terror that leads to large-scale biological attacks and an America crippled by civil war, thereby allowing England to become the top superpower, and also a fascist theocracy. The dictator who has come to power via some very Revenge of the Sith-style maneuvering is now named Adam Sutler (Susan + Hitler = Sutler, dig?), and is ironically not at all subtler than his pen-and-ink prototype, but a barking maniac played by John Hurt. Evey Hammond is now twentysomething Natalie Portman (whose English accent has come a long way since her Queen Amidala days, but still ain’t perfect), and works at a major TV network as an assistant. V remains the same, perfectly embodied by Hugo Weaving (and an unbilled James Purefoy in a couple shots, prior to his being fired and replaced). I admit to some degree of possessiveness and jealousy here, as the role of V was one that, as a high school drama student, I intently coveted in any hypothetical movie. However, I can find no flaw in either the choice of Weaving or his performance. He doesn’t even do that “Miiiister Aaaaanderson” voice.

The philosophical underpinnings of the original story were like Fight Club before Chuck Palahniuk’s book existed -- a charismatic anarchist takes on a repressive system, but seems blind to the notion that his own philosophies, if followed to their logical extreme, merely replace one kind of devastating conformity with another (the Wachowskis try to emphasize this in their new ending, with mixed results). Meanwhile, a series of power plays within the government itself make V’s job even easier. V is charismatic, and the closest thing to a traditional “superhero” in sight, but he is also a terrorist and an anarchist, a man driven mad by a twisted past that he channels into a vendetta. He’s also not particularly nice to Evey, even though he functions as her protector.

We’re meant to question our sympathies for him as well as see the human frailties in the ostensibly all-powerful government thugs, but big studio movies tend to require simplistic heroes and villains, so things have been simplified for the screen. Gone is any hint of depth among the fascists, save for police inspector Finch (Stephen Rea), whose good qualities are played up -- alas, we do not get to see him drop acid at a ruined concentration camp, and a crucial romantic relationship for him has been dropped, robbing a key scene of resonance it might otherwise have had. V’s vengeance is also a lot more rote...some imaginative setpieces from the book have been replaced by more mundane poisonings.

V was a surrogate father for Evey in the book, but here, he has become a surrogate boyfriend instead. Meanwhile, Evey’s actual love interest has been eliminated, his narrative function fulfilled instead by a gay TV host (Stephen Fry). Fry’s presence may be welcome comic relief for some, but tonally he does not fit, and there’s a silly bit of business with him owning a contraband Koran -- emphasized three times so we get it --because he likes its poetic imagery. This seems particularly silly, one because it’s kind of a cop-out to emphasize the Koran without featuring any actual Muslim characters, and two, every non-Muslim I’ve ever known who’s read the Koran has told me they found it boring and didactic. Finally, the man is being persecuted because he’s gay -- has he read what the book says about homosexuality? And yes, there already is a gay character who is persecuted, so adding another is redundant.

Eliminating Evey’s love interest removes several crucial tensions: an abrupt abandonment by V, an affair with a man who has government involvement, and a re-emphasis on the path she must take after her lover is murdered. Instead, we get a rather odd joke about coincidental tastes in breakfast, and Fry’s character airs a TV show that relentless mocks dictator Sutler. But if he can get that on the air, the fascist government can’t be all that powerful, can they? The first thing any totalitarian would do is control the airwaves and broadcast studios. If the U.S. were to become a dictatorship, do you really think Jon Stewart or Michael Moore would still have a job?

But now the good news: The heart of (Alan) Moore’s work is a sequence in which Evey is captured, tortured, and has her head shaved, finding strength only when she reads a touching story written on toilet paper in the adjacent cell. This sequence has been perfectly preserved, and is the big beating heart of the movie too. Portman, being Portman, still manages to look beautiful by the end of it (less make-up is needed!), but her performance is note-perfect and the sequence as moving as it ought to be. It even ends in what looks to be a cinematic nod to The Passion of the Christ -- a verbal and visual motif linking God and rain. The sequence in the book has haunted my dreams on many an occasion, and I suspect the cinematic version will do likewise for others.

For the average moviegoer, the film may seem quite politically radical, though it would be a mistake to think it a specific critique of Bush, Blair, or whomever. Americans like to have hypothetical beers with their leaders, and Sutler gives off no such vibe -- he’s more Saddam than George Dubya. Thatcher, maybe: she and her cabinet always gave off a vibe of determined nastiness without warmth, proving that English voters don’t necessarily make personal likability a priority.

The movie does take veiled aim at Fox News, Pat Robertson, media-hyped panic, conservative bloggers, and even offers up a head propagandist who resembles Christopher Hitchens. While that’s all amusing, it mistakes the intent of the original story. Alan Moore wasn’t crafting a political diatribe, but writing pulp fiction set in a noirish near-future to distinguish it from all those set in a noirish near-past. He created a plausible dystopia scenario strongly influenced by his reservations about Thatcher, but in his vision, it may be crucial to note, it was the Labour Party who saved Britain from disaster, and a fascist third party that ultimately arose -- the movie takes care to point out that Sutler began in the Conservative Party, though the original Adam Susan did not.

Turning the story into a diatribe is a mistake, and it’s very nearly the movie’s undoing. Moore fully fleshed out all his characters, and wrote some occasionally very poetic dialogue that has been dumbed down by the Wachowskis, of all people (are they super self-conscious now because of the way people criticized the writing in the Matrix sequels? A shame if so). Compare the speech V makes when he hijacks the television airwaves in the movie to the one in the comic, and you’ll see what I mean.

By this point, you may well be thinking: “Well, so what if it’s not like the book? The Wizard of Oz is different from the book too. How does it work as a movie?” Well, as much as I love the book, I hadn’t read it years when I saw the film, so many details had been forgotten. Watching the movie, it felt very patchy -- some of it works well, and some of it really doesn’t. In particular, it’s not a story that needs the look of a big budget action movie, and it could have been done way cheaper and better by a director interested more in an exciting story than in making a point (I’d love to see what Lucky McKee could have done with the source material -- he’s not a fan of the movie, but I think he’d like the comic). Evey would have been better younger, English, and less confident. And the point late in the film where one character sits down with another and proceeds to explain the whole plot to him is really sloppy storytelling (before you bring up the Architect sequence in The Matrix Reloaded, here’s the key distinction: The Architect was telling us that everything we had been following up to that point was wrong. The character in this movie is merely reciting stuff we mostly already know). Not to mention the fact that the plot he spells out is mostly needless addition -- does a dictator have to have had an elaborate scheme to gain power? Isn’t it enough that he was authoritarian in the face of chaos?

If you don’t know the source, the movie may strike you as a radical studio film. See it before you read the comic, because if you do it the other way, there’s no going back.

From a comic fan’s perspective, though, one might wish for a smaller budget and a truly uncompromising vision. A BBC miniseries version would be nice -- those tend to respect the source in ways American filmmakers are incapable of.

Posted by LYT at 12:30 AM | Comments (13)

All the bitches love it

LYTerally

Posted by LYT at 12:17 AM | Comments (0)

March 15, 2006

Party's Over

I've never been a huge fan of America's two-party system, but I'm curious at the phenomenon over the course of the Bush administration of people leaving their party and claiming that it was the party that changed.

When I left the Dems to register as a Green, I didn't think that the party had changed so much as I realized how corrupt the party system was.

But more recently...In the wake of 9-11, numerous "liberal hawks," most of whom seem to be bloggers, got on the War in Iraq bandwagon, claimed that such a thing was actually a "liberal" position, and said stuff like, "I didn't leave the left; the left left me."

This year, I've seen and heard from quite a few Republicans who are distancing themselves from Bush, saying stuff like "I'm a Ronald Reagan Republican, and this isn't the party of Reagan any more."

I'm a little mystified, to be honest. Granted, I was quite young in the Reagan years, but it seems to me that as long as I've been alive...

Republicans have stood for: Lower taxes, less regulation of business, ending mandatory environmental and worker protection laws, distrusting unions, anti-abortion, pro-gun ownership, pro-death penalty, in favor of war against anyone who doesn't like us, against marijuana legalization of any kind, anti-porn, anti-affirmative action, pro-school prayer, pro-heavy defense spending, thinking homosexuality is a choice and gays should not be a protected minority, thinking global warming is overrated or imagined, punishment of criminals, pro-creationism, pro-nuke (power and weapons)

Democrats have stood for: taxpayer-funded health care, governmental regulation of business, pro-environment (to a point...), pro-union, pro-abortion rights, pro strict regulation or outright banning of guns, anti death penalty/cruel and unusual punishment, pro-war only as a last resort, pro free speech, pro-affirmative action, anti-public prayer, anti-militarism, pro-gay, global warming-panicked, rehabilitation of criminals, science over faith, anti-nuke

Now, aside from the fact that the Democrats are often pussies who won't actually stand up for what they believe, and the waning commitment to free speech nowadays, has any of this substantively changed?

Am I missing some grand nuance? I know the usual arguments -- "Democrats used to fight fascism in World War II, but they won't fight Saddam now" [we only fought fascism in WWII because Japan attacked us, which Saddam didn't] and "Bush spends too much money and doesn't veto bills" [Reagan spent a lot too, but of course that was the Dems fault, right?]

If you have recently decided that your party has left you behind, why is that? I'm honestly curious.

Posted by LYT at 5:41 PM | Comments (17)

Random Review: Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont

(This movie came and left L.A. in December, and may or may not have resurfaced in other towns since. It doesn't show any imminent sign of DVD or expansion, so I present the review here for your possible entertainment)

A Palfrey Sum
Age trumps beauty when Dame Plowright visits the Claremont.

It seldom fails. Every year, just in time for the Oscar deadline, we’ll get a movie that doesn’t necessarily have a remarkable plot or director, but does feature an aging master (or mistress) thespian from the U.K. whom one might assume is an automatic shoo-in for an award nomination, ensuring eternal recognition for the movie at hand. Often, these movies will be all but ignored and vanish without a trace -- does anyone other than this critic remember Richard Harris’ final film My Kingdom? -- but invariably, the lead performance will be good, and make the film worth watching even if it’s otherwise unremarkable. Such is the case with Joan Plowright in Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont.

Based on a novel by Elizabeth Taylor (not that one), the story does contain a bon mot or two about the generation gap, but if it weren’t for Plowright, things might fall quickly apart. As Sarah Palfrey, she plays a widow who, while not necessarily enjoying her widowhood, is at least trying to take advantage of the freedom it entails. The Claremont hotel is something like an old folks’ home, and she hates to think that she would ever be there permanently, but a month or two might suffice. Certainly she seems more lively than most of the other clientele, who appear to have settled into the slow pre-death rut that the apathetic elderly can find themselves in. For these residents, an argument over the changing of breakfast jam represents “exercising my rights -- keeps my heart going!” as one Althea Arbuthnot (Anna Massey) would have it. Aside from the fact that this is England, Grandpa Simpson would be right at home, watching Sex and the City in order to feel better about one’s imminent demise.

One day, in defiance of a forecast about imminent rain, Mrs. Palfrey takes a walk to the post office, and trips on a stray tree root. Quick to her rescue comes Ludovic “Ludo” Meyer (Rupert Friend, in an auspicious debut year that also boasted Pride & Prejudice and The Libertine), a sensitive young writer who lives in a subterranean apartment nearby. Taking her in and semi-erotically rubbing disinfectant on her knee, Ludo bonds with Mrs. Palfrey, and agrees to join her for dinner in the Claremont’s wretched dining room the following Sunday.

However, when Mrs. Palfrey tells her fellow residents that a guest is coming, they assume it will be her grandson Desmond, who (unbeknownst to them) has not returned any of Grandma’s phone calls. Mrs. Palfrey does not dissuade them from this idea, and Ludo, who aims to please, is eager to go along with it, pretending to be Desmond to impress the neighbors. Since he looks like a poor man’s Orlando Bloom, this isn’t hard to do, but one has to wonder: Where is the customary WWII-generation outrage over his perfectly conditioned, girlishly long hair? These are more forgiving grandparents than the ones you may know.

You’d think this ruse might become the crux of conflict, or the source of wacky hijinks, but it isn’t. The real Desmond does eventually make an appearance, but not to any great effect. Both Mrs. Palfrey’s family and Ludo’s family are relatively absent and inattentive; the story’s message is to find family wherever you can. When Ludo takes Mrs. Palfrey to meet his real mother (Clare Higgins), she gets tearful describing family life to the older woman, but instantly reverts to being snappy and short when Ludo returns to the room. Ludo rather insightfully says of his mother that “we live on different planets -- I sometimes visit hers, but she never visits mine.” Such is motherhood; Mrs. Palfrey’s daughter is equally incomprehensible to her (and us).

Plowright is thoroughly believable as a distinguished lady left behind by time, but Friend less so as Perfect Man. We’re asked to believe that not only does he look like the ultimate hunk by contemporary standards, but also that he reads avidly, insists on writing his stories on a typewriter rather than a computer, and knows his classics so well that he can sing, verbatim, Mrs. Palfrey’s favorite song. Also he’s a well-placed house-sitter who sings for spare change in the subway, yet he manages to win the heart of one of the world’s hottest women (Zoe Tapper) simply by virtue of the fact that both are trying to rent the same DVD at the same time, of a movie that happens to be Mrs. Palfrey’s favorite (David Lean’s Brief Encounter).

The rather predictable climax is a bit unfortunate, going where you expect it will but hope it won’t. It’s all very well that Mrs. Palfrey has been godmother to a new budding romance, but really, it’s hard to care about those young people when she’s around.

Posted by LYT at 4:25 PM | Comments (1)

March 14, 2006

Haven't linked to sean in a while...

But I thought this story was one perfectly told.

Posted by LYT at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)

Press release of the day

"Dimension Films today announced plans to make a feature film based on the hugely popular and entertaining classic television show "Welcome Back, Kotter" with Ice Cube attached to star in the title role."

Let the speculation begin as to who the next Travolta might be -- Bow Wow? Nick Cannon?

Posted by LYT at 11:16 AM | Comments (2)

March 12, 2006

Trailer for THE LOST

is HERE

There's a pretty nice shot of Justin Stone towards the end of it.

If you're in Austin right now watching the movie, drop us a line and say what you think.

Posted by LYT at 11:33 PM | Comments (12)

Master Blaster runs Bartertown!

Posted by LYT at 10:22 PM | Comments (1)

March 10, 2006

Kids in boxes

Adam

Jaz

Posted by LYT at 7:20 PM | Comments (0)

Two reasons to love Duty-Free shopping

Posted by LYT at 12:53 PM | Comments (6)

"What if his son loves to hit animals?"

"The worst part is, of course, the movie’s New Age Buddhism. Although the movie doesn’t teach reincarnation, Buddhist meditation solves a major plot problem. Also, the movie shares Buddhism’s belief that animals are equal to humans. Furthermore, David tells his son during the story’s resolution that whatever the son loves to do, he, David, will support it. This is bad advice. What if his son loves to hit animals? Will David support that? "

Can you guess which ABHORRENT movie is being discussed?

Posted by LYT at 12:12 PM | Comments (2)

Additional MAD COWGIRL screening added

The buzz must be pretty good already. However, the second screening will probably be a lot less convenient for many of you. It's Monday the 27th at 5pm, in a smaller house at the Arclight.

Try to come Friday. If you can't, or if you love it so much, come Monday. I'll plan on being at both.

Posted by LYT at 11:50 AM | Comments (2)

March 9, 2006

Forcibly retired and still acting like an ass clown?

I would have thought his medical issues and mandated retirement would have granted Kevin Thomas some humility.

But according to Dave White, it hasn't.

Posted by LYT at 1:15 PM | Comments (4)

Is it hypocritical to buy...

...an action figure of someone who was anti-consumer culture?

Knowing his wife will probably use the proceeds for something self-destructive?

Posted by LYT at 12:09 PM | Comments (3)

This post aimed almost exclusively at Brian

I just tried this new soda VAULT, that's Coca-Cola's latest attempt to do a Mountain Dew rip-off (Mello Yello is a perfectly good one, though it's been strictly regional for some years now).

Early word was that Vault was just repackaged Surge, with a stupider name. In fact, while similar, I found it to be yellower and sweeter.

That's my review.

Posted by LYT at 11:57 AM | Comments (2)

Review time

"From the stars of Elf, here's a new drama about depression and family baggage! Might not want to bring the kids to this one, lest they wonder why Buddy the Elf's girlfriend is drowning a kitten and deliberately slamming her fingers in cabinet drawers. On the other hand, the two movies do have some things in common: Both Elf and Winter Passing are tales of reuniting with distant fathers at wintertime, during the course of which Zooey Deschanel gets to sing and Will Ferrell gets to act childish. "

more HERE

Short takes after the jump:

ULTRAVIOLET

I adore this movie and don’t care who knows it. Some have criticized it for lack of plot or believable acting, or because the entire thing has a computerized gloss over it that makes everything including the actors look fake, but they are missing the point entirely. As opposed to his cult hit Equilibrium, writer-director Kurt Wimmer doesn’t seem interested in telling an actual story here, but in creating a kinetic art piece of color, sound, and movement that exists somewhere between the Underworld movies and Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle, with just a hint of Tron thrown in. Take any still from Ultraviolet, blow it up and frame it, and it would look pretty okay hanging in a modern art gallery.

Following in the tradition of Luc Besson and Paul W.S. Anderson, Wimmer created this movie especially for star Milla Jovovich, and probably hopes she’ll marry him for it too. Basically, she plays a future chick with a terminal illness that, en route to killing her, also happens to give her super vampire powers without any of the usual weaknesses associated with sunlight and crosses. Also, her clothes keep morphing to color-coordinate with wherever she happens to be, and she’s always wearing designer glasses even when kicking ass (which is most of the time), so eyewear fetishists should really appreciate this. Sometimes the editing is a little confusing because of cuts to get a PG-13, but, since you figure Milla’s always going to win, it’s not like it ruins the tension.

RAP DREAMS

“Do rap have a influence?” asks director Kevin Epps. His second documentary feature about life in the ‘hoods of Oakland is a blast of authenticity that will make you pay attention. Forget Hustle and Flow -- this is the real deal, real-life youngsters hoping to improve their lot by turning to hip-hop, and for the most part they aren’t as sexy as Terrence Howard. Epps captures numerous freestyles, some awesome and some not, while following the lo-fi recording adventures of would-be stars like Hectic, Mistah Fab, Kev Kelley, and (possibly the best rap name ever) Beedaweeda. Kelley’s grandfather shows up to be an unintentionally hilarious wet blanket on the odds of celebrity. Despite the unmistakable on-the-fly, on-the-cheap production values, there’s an energy and vitality to Epps’ film that many pricier docs don’t have -- it’s the cinematic equivalent of buying a rap CD out of somebody’s car trunk only to discover that it’s the best music you’ve heard in months.

Posted by LYT at 12:15 AM | Comments (19)

March 8, 2006

V for Vexatious

Did I loan my copy of V FOR VENDETTA to anyone and forget?

It's been staring me in the face forever, but now that I need it to review the movie, I can't find it.

Posted by LYT at 3:11 PM | Comments (17)

RAW is SNORE

I don't know what's wrong with me lately. I saw some brand-new Star Wars figures in a store recently and felt no desire to buy them. Then I turned of my videotape of WWE Monday Night Raw off about halfway through. This year's WrestleMania is the first one ever that I feel no excitement for at all.

I don't think it's all me though. Raw really is sucking big-time at the moment. I still like Smackdown pretty well -- Batista is finally hitting his stride, Kurt Angle is the best athlete in the WWE, the Boogeyman is a fun throwback to crazy gimmicks, JBL is growing on me despite -- or maybe because of -- his real-life obnoxiousness, Mysterio/Benoit/Booker continue to be workhorses. Smackdown's only real debits are the useless midget division, the unnecessary exploitation of Eddie Guerrero's death, and Mark Henry, whose 10-year contract finally runs out this summer. And where's Hardcore Holly now that an appropriate nemesis named Fit Finlay has shown up?

The reason Smackdown is still decent is, I suspect, the same reason RAW isn't -- Vince doesn't give a shit about Smackdown, so those guys do what they like. Raw is Vince's show, and as a result it's all about Vince and his family, notably son-in-law Triple H. The top feud on Raw right now? Shawn Michaels versus...Vince. Yes, a 60 year-old CEO booking himself as the main draw. I used to like Vince as a character, but he's overdone it by a longshot.

The problem with Triple H isn't that he lacks talent. The problem is that he's gotten incredibly stale. Absolutely secure in his position, he hasn't changed a thing about his style or persona in years, save growing a goofy handlebar 'stache that just doesn't work. His interviews are all the same mildly angry "I am that damn good" routine he's been doing since forever. And sorry, but spitting water isn't impressive or macho.

The newest wrestlers on Raw? A five-man male cheerleading squad. This is a stupid idea beyond the silly gimmick -- no-one can keep track of five guys who dress identically. At most, there should be three -- one to wrestle singles and one tag team. Five guys all with the same gimmick just ain't gonna work.

The divas division is ridiculous -- only three of them can actually wrestle. I have no problem with good looking women out there, but they shouldn't be the main focus of segments when there are actual athletes waiting for their spots.

Now, let's talk WrestleMania. The theme song is an '80s Peter Gabriel tune? What? As for the main event, Triple H versus John Cena was sadly inevitable, and Rey Mysterio versus Kurt Angle had to be watered down by adding Randy Orton, who's talented but recently tapped out to Chris Benoit on TV, making him look super-weak going into the biggest match of his career.

The one and only match that would have been a true larger-than-life main event for 'Mania would have been Cena versus Batista (the fact that these two guys are the only two guys whose action figures are constantly sold-out on LA toy shelves bears me out). Batista's injury precludes that. But for both Cena and Batista to become iconic, they need equally iconic foes. Hulk Hogan wouldn't have been who he was without Roddy Piper and Andre the Giant -- similarly, The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin needed each other to play off of, and Bret Hart will be forever associated with Shawn Michaels. Batista had a good feud with Triple H last year, as did Cena with Angle, but they need to take on each other.

And Ric Flair needs to pack it in. I love the guy, think he's the greatest, but he's become a bad parody. the fact that Jakks Pacific is coming out with an all-new Flair action figure that has a beer-gut should be a sign.

Shelton Benjamin should be a main event guy, but he needs a more marketable name and an end to the Mama's Boy gimmick. Carlito could becoem the epic nemesis Cena needs, but he's being stalled in tag team hell because the WWE can't get it's half-assed tag division in gear.

Something big needs to happen to change things. TNA really is a better show right now.

Posted by LYT at 10:47 AM | Comments (11)

March 7, 2006

Breaking Back

There are theories that Crash beat Brokeback Mountain for Best Picture because of people like Tony Curtis, who loudly and proudly proclaimed they weren't going to see it. I don't know if that's true.

But I will relate my experience, because it quite surprised some people in England when I told them this.

Many of my straight male friends have a lot of things in common with me. Nonconformist, politically left-of-center or at least socially libertarian, pro-gay marriage and anti-discrimination, cinephiles who see most major movies, etc.

And with only one or two notable exceptions (and critics are exempted from this, of course), most of them have told me rather vehemently that they will not see Brokeback Mountain.

Reasons for this range from "I'm tired of these movies with political agendas" to "It won't add anything to my life." Yet in the former category, none has refused to see Syriana, or in the latter, something like Batman and Robin.

There doesn't seem to be anything I can tell them that's persuasive: That it's a well-made film, that it doesn't grind a political ax, that it's of a piece with Ang Lee's body of work, that the gay sex doesn't show anything and lasts maybe a minute, that Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams have wonderful breasts...all pale in the shadow of Dudes Gettin' It On.

And I admit, I didn't expect to like it much myself -- the gay cowboy punchline made it seem like a joke. But I knew it was going to be significant, so I went. And was glad I did. I certainly liked it better than Casablanca.

In my job, I've had to review movies that feature hardcore gay sex. I'm talking close-ups of dick in butthole. I won't deny that I was briefly intimdated by such things. But after a while, I realized it was similar to the feminist fear of straight porn. And as Larry Flynt says, "Relax, it's just sex."

Most people do have sex. And watching it is only terrifying if those involved are hideously ugly, like in BATTLE IN HEAVEN.

To answer a hypothetical question Luke Ford poses often, I don't think you're homophobic if you don't want to see Brokeback Mountain. I do think you're homophobic if you like Ang Lee films, like well-made stories of unrequited love, or just like quality movies in general no matter the genre, and won't go see Brokeback because of a minute's worth of two dudes in a tent.

Posted by LYT at 9:52 AM | Comments (36)

March 6, 2006

Hooters!

Click the "More" link if you feel okay about looking

What about the children? Won't somebody think of the children?

Posted by LYT at 2:38 PM | Comments (26)

My Grandfather's Column

My grandfather, a retired minister in the Church of England and a World War II air force veteran, writes a column for his hometown free paper, reaching an audience in the twenties or so. I think he deserves more, and have been trying to persuade him to let me set up a blog for him. In the meantime, however, as part of a semi-regular feature here, I intend to reprint some of them for the millions...AND MILLIONS!...of LYTerati.

Giving and taking Offence

The cartoons of the prophet Mohammed published initially in a Danish newspaper
and widely reproduced thereafter in many countries - though not, I’m glad to
say, in the UK, has raised a number of questions about free speech and its
limits. Clearly some of the Islamic reaction to this insult to their prophet
was excessive and a good deal more deplorable than the original insult. And
that is the view of the great majority of moderate Muslims.

However from my point of view the big issue is the whole question of giving and
taking offence.. What one person regards as offensive another will think merely
humorous. There was an interesting parallel to the current crisis when the film
The Life of Brian came out. It mocked the Jews of New Testament times and many
Christians thought it mocked Jesus as well. Personally I thought it a
delightfully funny film. Even if the producers and directors meant it to be
insulting (which I don’t for a moment believe,) I could see no reason why
Christians or Jews should have taken offence.

In my personal experience it is when I am attacked or insulted with words which
I fear may be true that I get upset. If I am accused of something quite
erroneously it slides off me like water off a duck’s back. So it is probable
that those Muslims who really believe that their founder prophet taught that
they should kill “infidels” would be extremely upset when they saw Mohammed
portrayed as someone who wished to bomb his enemies. In fact what their prophet
proclaimed as his guiding principle was tolerance. Of course we should not
indulge in giving offence when we know that’s what we’ll be doing. Of course it
was stupid and insensitive to publish those cartoons; but the lesson I draw
from all this is one that simply re-enforces a long held principle which I put
like this: I will seek to live as though there were no such thing as giving
offence, only taking it; and I shan’t do that.

Peter Graham

Posted by LYT at 11:12 AM | Comments (6)

March 5, 2006

Reversing myself

I've changed my mind on Best Foreign Film. Still say Paradise Now deserves it, but I've come to believe Tsotsi will win.

Because it's easier for Hollywood to feel bad for black people than Palestinians.

Posted by LYT at 1:40 PM | Comments (2)

An announcement...

Tomorrow on this blog, I will post a picture of hooters.

This is not a trick-phrasing - nekkid breasts will be seen right here.

And no, it isn't anyone you know.

Tell your friends.

Posted by LYT at 10:38 AM | Comments (6)

The Graham all-star band in rehearsal

Simon

Lucy

Pat

Tony

Rosie

Steve

Posted by LYT at 10:28 AM | Comments (1)

Holiday snaps - the hotel Resident Evil

Posted by LYT at 12:07 AM | Comments (4)

March 4, 2006

I adore ULTRAVIOLET

...and I know I'll be verbally pilloried for doing so, but it don't matter.

Think Resident Evil by way of The Cremaster Cycle, enough so to piss off fans of each.

Story is irrelevent. Acting is deliberately dazed and dreamlike. The whole thing is an experiment in form, color, and sound. It won't be respected as such because it's ostensibly a big-budget sci-fi/action movie.

But let it just wash over you, and it might just work.

Posted by LYT at 7:17 PM | Comments (2)

MAD COWGIRL - LOS ANGELES PREMIERE

As previously announced, it will be at the Silver Lake Film Fest, held at Arclight Hollywood.

But now we have a date and time:

FRIDAY, MARCH 24, at 8:00 PM

I expect to see all of you there.

Posted by LYT at 12:46 PM | Comments (0)

LYT's obligatory Oscar post 2006

Each year, I pledge to do only one post where I comment on the Oscar nominations prior to the show. I would ignore them utterly, except that I assume my readers actually want some movie-related stuff from time to time.

So, as usual, here are the nominees, my predicted winners (my usual rate of guessing is around 60%), and the shoulda-beens.

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Capote" (UA/Sony Pictures Classics)
Terrence Howard in "Hustle & Flow" (Paramount Classics, MTV Films and New Deal Entertainment)
Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain" (Focus Features)
Joaquin Phoenix in "Walk the Line" (20th Century Fox)
David Strathairn in "Good Night, and Good Luck." (Warner Independent Pictures)

WILL: It's between Ledger and Hoffman, and I'm thinking Hoffman will take it. Ledger's in the better-liked film, but his performance is much more restrained and less showy. Also, he's playing a character who was written as Latino, so if you though being a gay cowboy had to be 100% politically correct...you wuz wrong. Howard's reward is the nomination.

SHOULD: Boy, do I not have a dog in this fight. Phoenix impressed me as Cash, but then he had to open his mouth and sing. Hoffman and Strathairn are doing impersonations, and Howard's doing that same slow-burn thing he always does. I like Ledger by default.

MIA: Jeff Daniels in THE SQUID AND THE WHALE was better than all of these, absolutely nailing that specific comination of intellectual arrogance and passive-aggressiveness so common in Boomer academics.

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

George Clooney in "Syriana" (Warner Bros.)
Matt Dillon in "Crash" (Lions Gate)
Paul Giamatti in "Cinderella Man" (Universal and Miramax)
Jake Gyllenhaal in "Brokeback Mountain" (Focus Features)
William Hurt in "A History of Violence" (New Line)

WILL: Giamatti, as penance for not getting it for SIDEWAYS.
SHOULD: Gyllenhaal was the one in this group who I did not think had the chops for the role. But he convinced me.
MIA: My personal favorite male supporting performances this year were by Ian McDiarmid in REVENGE OF THE SITH and Mickey Rourke in SIN CITY. Oscar generally isn't keen on fantasy or comics, though.

Performance by an actress in a leading role

Judi Dench in "Mrs. Henderson Presents" (The Weinstein Company)
Felicity Huffman in "Transamerica" (The Weinstein Company and IFC Films)
Keira Knightley in "Pride & Prejudice" (Focus Features)
Charlize Theron in "North Country" (Warner Bros.)
Reese Witherspoon in "Walk the Line" (20th Century Fox)

WILL: Either Huffman or Witherspoon -- the others, like Terrance Howard, are lucky to be nominated. Witherspoon gave arguably the most likable performance of the year, but Huffman stretched to play a man. Haven't seen TRANSAMERICA, but watching the trailer I had a tough time believeing it was her for a moment. Thus, I think Huffman takes it.

SHOULD: I haven't seen most of this, but I expect Huffman had the toughest acting challenge of all of them.

MIA: Claire Danes in SHOPGIRL. I used to hate her like no other actress, but she's made me do a total 180.

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Amy Adams in "Junebug" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Catherine Keener in "Capote" (UA/Sony Pictures Classics)
Frances McDormand in "North Country" (Warner Bros.)
Rachel Weisz in "The Constant Gardener" (Focus Features)
Michelle Williams in "Brokeback Mountain" (Focus Features)

WILL: Tough call here, very tough. I suspect Williams has the edge.
SHOULD: I'm ashamed to say I didn't see JUNEBUG, so I can't call that one. Also didn't see NORTH COUNTRY, but then neither did a lot of people. I'd love to see Keener take home an Oscar, but not necessarily for CAPOTE. Weisz is hot, but for my money her best acting was in the first MUMMY movie. So I'm gonna root for Michelle, an actress who could very easily get glammy leading lady parts but has chosen insted to do interesting things.

MIA: Q'orianka Kilcher in THE NEW WORLD.

Best animated feature film of the year

"Howl's Moving Castle" (Buena Vista)
"Tim Burton's Corpse Bride" (Warner Bros.)
"Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit" (DreamWorks Animation SKG)

WILL/SHOULD: There is no contest here. Wallace and Gromit.
MIA: Based on the rule that allowed STUART LITTLE 2 to get nominated even though about 30% of it was live action, how about MIRRORMASK, SIN CITY, KING KONG, REVENGE OF THE SITH...

Achievement in art direction

"Good Night, and Good Luck." (Warner Independent Pictures)
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (Warner Bros.)
"King Kong" (Universal)
"Memoirs of a Geisha" (Sony Pictures Releasing)
"Pride & Prejudice" (Focus Features)

WILL: Almost certainly Kong. Outside chance for GEISHA, except that everything in it but the art direction sucked and may put people off. Good Night and Good Luck is not even in the same league as its competition.
SHOULD: All of these nominess are based on existing source materials -- book, true story, or previous film -- which makes it harder to say. I think I enjoyed the visuals of the Harry Potter film the most.

MIA: This may become a refrain for me: SITH, SIN CITY, MIRRORMASK, WALLACE AND GROMIT, OLDBOY, DEVIL'S REJECTS...oh so many. I'd even put BATMAN BEGINS and FANTASTIC 4 above some of these.

Achievement in cinematography

"Batman Begins" (Warner Bros.)
"Brokeback Mountain" (Focus Features)
"Good Night, and Good Luck." (Warner Independent Pictures)
"Memoirs of a Geisha" (Sony Pictures Releasing)
"The New World" (New Line)

WILL: Brokeback Mountain
SHOULD: The New World
TRAVESTY: Batman Begins? The cinematography was that movie's second-biggest problem (Katie Holmes being the first). Watch some of the fight scenes in it again, and try to tell me exactly what the hell is going on in them.
MIA: Oldboy

Achievement in costume design

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (Warner Bros.)
"Memoirs of a Geisha" (Sony Pictures Releasing)
"Mrs. Henderson Presents" (The Weinstein Company)
"Pride & Prejudice" (Focus Features)
"Walk the Line" (20th Century Fox)

WILL: Probably Geisha.
SHOULD: Certainly not Mrs. Henderson presents, in which half the cast were naked! I'll root for Willy Wonka.
MIA: SITH, MIRRORMASK, DEVIL'S REJECTS...look, if it has its own action figure line, the costumes are obviously good enough for people to buy mini-replicas of.

Achievement in directing

"Brokeback Mountain" (Focus Features) Ang Lee
"Capote" (UA/Sony Pictures Classics) Bennett Miller
"Crash" (Lions Gate) Paul Haggis
"Good Night, and Good Luck." George Clooney
"Munich" (Universal and DreamWorks) Steven Spielberg

This is the first time I can remember the directors and pictures matching up exactly. Anyway...

WILL and SHOULD: Ang Lee. Miller is lucky to be nominated, Haggis and Clooney's movies are insufferable PC preaching (which BROKEBACK is NOT, despite what you may have heard), and Munich would have been great if it were just a little bit shorter.

MIA: Nick Park and Steve Box for Wallace and Gromit, but maybe you can't have two directors nominated, I dunno.

Best documentary feature

"Darwin's Nightmare" (International Film Circuit) Hubert Sauper
"Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" Alex Gibney and Jason Kliot
"March of the Penguins" (Warner Independent Pictures) Luc Jacquet and Yves Darondeau
"Murderball" (THINKFilm) Henry-Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro
"Street Fight" Marshall Curry

WILL: Duh. The penguins own this one. But maybe they shouldn't -- the version shown over here with Morgan Freeman is not the film the French directors made -- it had apparently insufferable voice-acting, with French actors giving voice to individual penguins.

SHOULD: I don't care.
MIA: The best doc I saw all year still does not have distribution -- Ears, Open. Eyeballs, Click.

Best documentary short subject

"The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club"
"God Sleeps in Rwanda" Kimberlee Acquaro and Stacy Sherman
"The Mushroom Club" Steven Okazaki
"A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin"

WILL/SHOULD: Will it be the Rwanda film or the Hiroshima film? Nukes are more relevant to us, I suspect, so Mushroom Club takes it.

Achievement in film editing

"Cinderella Man" (Universal and Miramax) Mike Hill and Dan Hanley
"The Constant Gardener" (Focus Features) Claire Simpson
"Crash" (Lions Gate) Hughes Winborne
"Munich" (Universal and DreamWorks) Michael Kahn
"Walk the Line" (20th Century Fox) Michael McCusker

WILL: Not Munich, which needed more editing, and had that atrocious sex/violence intercutting. Gardener and Crash deserve it the most, so I'll say Crash gets its token win here.

SHOULD: Constant Gardener is the only one of the bunch that told a nonlinear story, I believe.

MIA:Oh, you can fill in this blank for me by now. I'll add to my usual list STAY, which had an elaborate transition between every single shot.

Best foreign language film of the year

"Don't Tell" Italy
"Joyeux Noël" France
"Paradise Now" Palestine
"Sophie Scholl - The Final Days" Germany
"Tsotsi" South Africa

WILL/SHOULD: Paradise Now.
MIA: Cache, for stupid Oscar-politic rules about country of origin. OLDBOY (may have been eligible last year though). CRIMEN FERPECTO. KAMIKAZE GIRLS.

Achievement in makeup

"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (Buena Vista)
"Cinderella Man" (Universal and Miramax) David Leroy Anderson and Lance Anderson
"Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith" Dave Elsey and Nikki Gooley

WILL: Don't know. But I'll be optimistic and say SITH
SHOULD: Sith
MIA: SIN CITY, for Marv and Yellow Bastard alone.

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

"Brokeback Mountain" (Focus Features) Gustavo Santaolalla
"The Constant Gardener" (Focus Features) Alberto Iglesias
"Memoirs of a Geisha" (Sony Pictures Releasing) John Williams
"Munich" (Universal and DreamWorks) John Williams
"Pride & Prejudice" (Focus Features) Dario Marianelli

WILL/SHOULD: I don't give a flying fuck. I'll say Brokeback.
MIA: SIN CITY.
Not MIA: George Clooney's crappy jazz.

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

"In the Deep" from "Crash" (Lions Gate) Lyric by Kathleen "Bird" York
"It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from "Hustle & Flow"
"Travelin' Thru" from "Transamerica"

WILL/SHOULD: Hustle and Flow owns this category. No question.
MIA: "Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka, The amazing chocolatier!" (yep, Danny Elfman's one totally original number for that film - the others are ineligible as they were in the book already)

Best motion picture of the year
"Brokeback Mountain" (Focus Features)
"Capote" (UA/Sony Pictures Classics)
"Crash" (Lions Gate)
"Good Night, and Good Luck."
"Munich" (Universal and DreamWorks)

WILL: Brokeback. Seems a lock.
SHOULD: Brokeback, because it's the best-made movie of the bunch.
MIA: You know the drill by now...

Best animated short film

"Badgered"
"The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation"
"The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello" (Monster Distributes)
"9" Shane Acker
"One Man Band" Andrew Jimenez and Mark Andrews

Why can't short films have a different awards? No-one cares about these at the Oscars. Anyway, One Man Band is the Pixar film, and you can usually bet on that.

Best live action short film

"Ausreisser (The Runaway)"
"Cashback" (The British Film Institute)
"The Last Farm"
"Our Time Is Up"
"Six Shooter" (Sundance Film Channel)

Who knows or cares? The Last Farm sounds semi-"important," I guess.

Achievement in sound editing

"King Kong" (Universal) Mike Hopkins and Ethan Van der Ryn
"Memoirs of a Geisha" (Sony Pictures Releasing) Wylie Stateman
"War of the Worlds" (Paramount and DreamWorks) Richard King

WILL/SHOULD: Kong.

Achievement in sound mixing

"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (Buena Vista)
"King Kong" (Universal)
"Memoirs of a Geisha" (Sony Pictures Releasing)
"Walk the Line" (20th Century Fox) Paul Massey, D.M. Hemphill and Peter F. Kurland
"War of the Worlds" (Paramount and DreamWorks)

Can't say I'm 100% sure how to judge mixing versus editing. But I do know that Walk the Line should have no chance here. I'll go for Kong again.

Achievement in visual effects

"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (Buena Vista)
"King Kong" (Universal)
"War of the Worlds" (Paramount and DreamWorks)

WILL/SHOULD: Kong looked more like a real gorilla than Aslan looked like a real lion or Tom Cruise like a real sane human being.

Adapted screenplay
"Brokeback Mountain" (Focus Features) Screenplay by Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana
"Capote" (UA/Sony Pictures Classics) Screenplay by Dan Futterman
"The Constant Gardener" (Focus Features) Screenplay by Jeffrey Caine
"A History of Violence" (New Line) Screenplay by Josh Olson
"Munich" (Universal and DreamWorks) Screenplay by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth

I'm pulling for Josh, but I hear fans of the comic hate what he did. I think Brokeback probably will and should, simply because "I wish I could quit you" is the most quotable line from any of the nominees.

MIA: Oldboy. But it is foreign, and most people don't know it's based on a manga. Chronicles of Narnia was a perfect adaptation. I haven't read Shopgirl, but the movie speaks to some real truths.

Original screenplay
"Crash."
"Good Night, and Good Luck."
"Match Point" (DreamWorks)
"The Squid and the Whale"
"Syriana" (Warner Bros.)

WILL: I suspect Syriana, but Crash has a strong Chance.
SHOULD: The Squid and The Whale
MIA: Hard to say...Only the Sith deal in absolutes.

Posted by LYT at 11:20 AM | Comments (8)

March 3, 2006

Warblog-itis got you down?

I have the cure, right here.

(yes, this is real. From my stepmom's vitamin shelf)

Posted by LYT at 1:19 PM | Comments (4)

THE WOODS trailer

I'm late to the game posting this link -- on vacation, one snatches moments of free time to check email and stuff.

But someone posted a downloadable version of THE WOODS' official trailer that came out on the Amityville DVD box set about a year and a half ago, and Jaye is hosting it at her site.

I'm not a fan of the "Mr. Voice" narration on there, and it actually sounds like they dubbed another actor saying Bruce Campbell's line (you'd have a hard time telling that Bruce is even in the trailer).

But still, it gives you a good feel for the look and the tone of the thing (though not, alas, the music, which is key to the full effect).

I don't know if we're ever going to see this thing. But I hope so, someday.

Posted by LYT at 12:53 PM | Comments (2)

Links page note

The "New Times" section of links has been changed to reflect the merger, and the new company name of Village Voice Media.

Just so everyone knows, though -- I am not syndicated in all of the new papers. One of my pieces ran in Nashville, and one in the Voice, and I think that's all so far.

Whether there's an expansion coming for me or not is not something that is known to me at this time. But eagle-eyed readers of all the papers may have noticed that the Voice's Michael Atkinson is now syndicated through the chain too, so you New Yorkers can be proud of that.

Or, if you want to be absolutely consistent, maybe complain that Atkinson, as a New Yorker, couldn't possibly be expected to understand the Denver movie scene or whatever.

Posted by LYT at 12:38 PM | Comments (1)

The only reviews I have for you this week are...

Gilles’ Wife

Frédéric Fonteyne’s last feature, 1999’s An Affair of Love (Une Liaison Pornographique) depicted two strangers meeting strictly for sex who then start to fall in love. Here, he depicts a married couple becoming strangers, who try to force the love back. Slightly stylized, and beautifully lensed by Fonteyne’s usual D.P. Virginie Saint-Martin in a manner that recalls Peter Suschitzky’s work on David Croneneberg’s Spider, it’s the tale of 1930s welder Gilles (Clovis Cornillac) and the pregnant wife (Emmanuelle Devos) who suspects he’s having an affair with her sister (Laura Smet). The first half of the film is almost non-narrative, full of furtive glances and implied suspicions. Once the truth is revealed, character and narrative start to kick in, and patience pays off. The story takes place over one year, with seasons visibly changing throughout. At times, the story’s minimalism is exasperating, and the characters aren’t really that likable once you get to know them, but there are copious rewards for the viewer who can let things unfold as they must.

Battle in Heaven (composite review)

No doubt you probably know someone, probably foreign, who fancies him- or herself a highbrow connoisseur of cinéma and is prone to saying things like, “All American movies are shit!” These are the sort of people most likely to enjoy Battle in Heaven, and more power to them, because no-one else will. Director Carlos Reygadas is the kind of guy who says things like, “Unfortunately, narrative is still a part of cinema and I don’t know how to get around that,” and those who suffered through the boredom and hardcore geriatric sex of his admittedly great-looking debut Japón know that he means what he says.

Combine Bubble with The Brown Bunny, add a ton of suckage, and you have this. There’s real sex here too: Once between two grotesquely fat people (a man and a woman, but they’re fat enough that their chests look the same), and once between the fat dude (Marcos Hernández), and an attractive hooker (Anapola Mushkadiz), who later gives him oral pleasure too. Yet somehow the film is still by turns boring and abrasive, with minimal dialogue and incidental noises cranked up to pain-inducing levels, whether it be a marching band, gas station Muzak, or the cuckoo clocks sold by our aforementioned fat couple on the subway. The cast are all non-actors, and boy, does it show. Mostly, our full-figured protagonist -- named Marcos, presumably so the amateur thespian won’t forget it -- walks or drives around staring blankly at things. Eventually he pisses his pants, goes to a hooker, and finally commits an out-of-nowhere act of violence. If all this sounds artistically daring to you, you’ll love it. Also, you’re insane.

Posted by LYT at 10:00 AM | Comments (10)

March 1, 2006

Last day in the UK

Make sure y'all got the drinks chilling for me tomorrow.

Then drink them. Most people enjoy cold beverages.

Posted by LYT at 3:44 PM | Comments (4)

Happy birthday JPWT

Posted by LYT at 11:20 AM | Comments (1)

Anthony Kaufman's top ten films of 2005

Just as a matter of interest...

1 My Summer of Love
2 A History of Violence
3 Kings and Queen
4 Keane
5 Brokeback Mountain
6 The Holy Girl
7 Cache
8 The World
9 The Squid & the Whale
10 Good Morning, Night

I admit to not having seen The World or Kings and Queen, and I'm not sure The Holy Girl, Keane, or Good Morning Night ever opened in L.A.

But as for the others on the list, regular readers may notice something...

I gave good reviews to all of them!!! Gasp! Shock!

So to reiterate: I like most of the movies Kaufman loved. I also like movies he disdains.

Who loves cinema more, baby?

Posted by LYT at 3:00 AM | Comments (10)

Daily Variety's Dennis Harvey reviews MAD COWGIRL

The key graf:

"The point is not very clear, but there's an impressive weirdness to "Mad Cowgirl" that elevated it above more strained attempts at transgressive cinema at this year's San Francisco Indiefest. Outre tale of a nymphomaniac meat inspector who eventually goes on a murderous delusional rampage ticks off a checklist of offenses -- incest, blasphemy, casting "Star Trek's" erstwhile "Mr. Chekhov" Walter Koenig as a dirty old man, et al. Yet it has the kind of oddball conviction that separates a deserving cult flick from so many aspiring ones. Still, finding commercial exposure will be tricky."

The rest of his review mostly deals in plot spoilers. If anyone can pick me up a copy of the issue this review is in, I would be most grateful and attempt to respond in kind.

Posted by LYT at 2:50 AM | Comments (1)