Oscar "shocker!"... Chris Rock is controversial!
And in other news... The world is round.

Last night the Drudge Report broke a story that some of the academy members are calling for Chris Rock's removal from the show after a controversial interview in Entertainment Weekly where Rock states: "I never watched the Oscars. Come on, it's a fashion show." and "What straight black man sits there and watches the Oscars? Show me one!"

An article in Variety denies that Rock will be removed.

People are surprised??? This is the same guy who made the tossed salad man famous!!!

It's like the old crusty academy people suddenly woke up and said, "Oh sh*t!! Billyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!"

Update (2:30PM): More from Drudge...

Update (3:20PM): Other media outlets picking up on Matt Drudge's personal vendetta against Rock... Considering the way this is shaping up, I'm suspecting that Drudge is at the heart of this whole thing. Though I'm sure he wouldn't have trouble finding some academy people to jump on board.

Final update (11:16PM): Hmmm... Well, well... This isn't the first time that Rock and Drudge have locked horns... Flashback to March 2003. Another amusing item: GLAAD issued a statement saying that "Chris Rock isn't making fun of gays -- he's poking fun at the Oscars."

Personally, I think that the academy should stick to it and let Rock present. Hell! All of Matt Drudge's whining probably will probably just boost ratings. But in this *is* television post-Nipplegate... The academy will probably fold.
- posted by Stephen @ 11:19 AM

 
Spokane International Film Festival Roundup - (2005)
The festival came to a close on Thursday night, and I just wanted to take a moment to marvel at how good of a festival it was. Is it the next Sundance? Hell, no... But this is the coolest thing to happen to Spokane film snobs in... well... ever!

My thanks to festival director Bob Glatzer and the countless others that put this thing together, thanks to the AMC for hosting, and thanks to the people in Spokane who showed up and showed that this little town does actually have some culture!

I only made it to five of the fifteen offerings (darn that student thing!) If I'm still here next year, I'll make it to more!

SIFF Posts Index -

Introduction

Angel on the Right (Farishtay Kitfi Rost) - (2002, Tajikistan)

The Green Hat (Lu Mao Zi) - (2004, China)

The Thin Man - (1934, USA)

Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt) - (1998, Germany)

Heaven - (2002, Italy)

Closing (same as this post)

Personal Awards -
Best New Film - The Green Hat
Best Acting Performance - Congxi Li, The Green Hat
Best Short Film - Fetch

Spokane International Film Festival Website ->
- posted by Stephen @ 5:26 PM

 
Heaven - (2002, Italy)
Spokane International Film Festival (Day 8) - The final film of the SIFF brought out another near-sellout crowd. I can't say enough how impressed I have been with both the films and the festival itself. Kudos all around!

Again there was no short film to lead us off, which was mildly disappointing... But I guess they only got a limited number of them or something.

Tonight's film, Heaven, was written by Krzysztof Kieslowski (director/scribe of the Blue, White, Red trilogy) just before his death in 1996. It was intended to be the first of a Heaven, purgatory, Hell trilogy. As a tribute, Tom Tykwer took over and made the film starring Cate Blanchett and Giovanni Ribisi.

The film opens powerfully with a woman (Blanchett) placing an explosive device in a office building with a executive as the target. However, a cleaning lady accidentally removes the device while taking out the trash and the bomb ends up going off in an elevator killing the cleaning lady, a father, and two little girls. Blanchett is arrested and swears that the exec she targeted was the head of a drug ring and she never meant to hurt anyone else.

Ribisi plays the interpreter that is assigned to translate her interrogation. He is young and impressionable and quickly falls for Blanchett, eventually helping her escape.

The trouble with a character-driven film such as this one is that it depends on you connecting with *at least* one of the characters, or even just find them interesting... Something I never did. I found Blanchett to be self-centered and, regardless of what her words say, without remorse. Rabisi, on the other hand, is naive and pathetic. He even wets the bed.

The film seems to want us to get so caught up in their romance that we are supposed to forget that Blanchett murdered four innocent people (including two children), for no more noble reason than revenge. She may say that she did it to protect her students, but I personally think that it has more to do with her ex-husband's fate.

It's difficult to be so harsh on a film that is filled with solid acting and breathtaking imagery... But sometimes you just don't buy it.

Rating: OK
More Info ~~>
- posted by Stephen @ 6:31 PM

 
Run Lola Run (Lola rennt) - (1998, Germany)
Spokane International Film Festival (Day 7) - Well... The younger crowd finally showed. No surprise really due to the cult following that Run Lola Run has started to develop in the US. Still... It would have been nice to see a few younger people in the seats sooner than this.

No short today, so straight into the main feature!

Run Lola Run is one of the most original films out there. It tells the story of Lola's quest to save her idiot boyfriend's life by getting 100,000 marks in 20 minutes. So, how can a 20+ minute story translate into a 80 minute movie? Easy... Tell the story three times! This unique method of storytelling lets an otherwise simple story turn into an examination of fate, chance, and consequence.

How many times have we all asked ourselves, what would have happened if only I had been just *one* second earlier? This film shows us...

But don't let that give you the impression that the film is all highbrow or something... It is a pulse pounding, non-stop thrill ride that never gets old.

I had never seen Run Lola Run in a theatre before and it was a serious treat! The thumping techno soundtrack and frantic on-screen action evelops with intensity on a level you could never see in your home.

This film was the first of the SIFF's tribute to director Tom Tykwer. Also featured will be The Princess and the Warrior and Heaven.

Talk about nappy! (Trivia) - What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Run Lola Run? For me it is Franka Potente's fiery red hair. According to IMDB, Franka didn't wash her hair for *seven* weeks of filming, because the red coloring was sensitive to water and would have washed out...

Rating: HR
More Info ~~>
- posted by Stephen @ 12:32 PM

 
Million Dollar Baby (Revisited)

Alright... I can't wait any longer.

***If you haven't seen the film, turn away. NOW!***

There is a line in Million Dollar Baby where Maggie (Swank) says to Frankie (Eastwood) that she could see him off in a cabin somewhere... Away from it all. Living out his days in peace. (I'm paraphrasing, but you know what I am refering to.)

It is this line that has haunted me and continues to haunt me from this film. Why? Because even as she says those words, I could see Maggie there too. Peacefully living out her life. Maybe not off in a cabin literally, but still... She could find her peace. But that realization is so quickly snapped away by Maggie herself. She doesn't believe it.

I think that is what breaks my heart so much about Million Dollar Baby.

Maggie doesn't want to make peace with what has happened to her. She believes that death is the only peace that can be had. And being the fighter that she is, she fights to die. And being as subborn as she is, she will never stop until she dies. Frankie knows this and it is for this reason that he helps her, dispite the fact that he doesn't want to...

I know many of you may think that I am being overly romantic. She could never find peace. She was trapped and death was her only was out of a long, sad, lonely existence. But there was something in that one single moment that I can't shake.

Whether you agree with me or not is beside the point. It is the fact that we are still having this duscussion weeks later that makes this the best film of the year. Hands down.
- posted by Stephen @ 3:48 PM

 
The Thin Man - (1934, USA)
Spokane International Film Festival (Day 5) - The turnout for this event continues to amaze me, but not in terms of the number of people (which I have already rambled on about endlessly), but in terms of the relative age that I have seen at these films. The most common attendee is middle-aged, wealthly looking, and *very* white... Shame on the college crowd!!! You know, the same people that will constantly bitch about how there is no culture in Spokane...

Tonight's short was a serious disappointment. Its title was "The Stickup" but after what it did to the theatre, it should have been renamed "The Stinkup"! It tried to 'cleverly' tell the tale of a older couple who was 'spicing up' their sex life by pretending to be kidnapper and victim. Every joke in this feels forced and ultimately fails. It's sad when a film is only a few minutes long and you still want those moments of your life back...

Luckily, this pile was not indicative of what was to come...

One part film noir, one part screwball comedy, and one part Sherlock Holmes, (plus about six parts booze), The Thin Man is a classic in every sense of the word.

It is a story of a murder (or two) and a reluctant detective who (along with his wife and his terrier) drinks his way to solving the case. It starts of rather slow, but once we meet our interpid hero the laughs *never* stop.

The script is clever, the characters are delightful, the actors' comedic timing is magnificant (especially stars William Powell and Myrna Loy)... Hell! Even the dog is great!

I found it particularily interesting how much sexual inuendo is used between Powell and Loy. They may sleep in seperate beds, but they say some pretty suggestive stuff for 1934!

What a great film. I can't believe that I wasn't familiar with it until now! It has immediately vaulted onto my list of alltime favorites.

Historical note - 'The Thin Man' was nominated for four Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay) but ultimately did not collect any Oscars. They all went to a little film called 'It Happened One Night'...

Rating: HR
More Info ~~>
- posted by Stephen @ 8:11 PM

 
The Green Hat (Lu mao zi) - (2004, China)
Spokane International Film Festival (Day 4) - My second day at the festival was post Super Bowl drunkenness and gluttony... Needless to say, Kat and I pounded some Starbucks to keep ourselves going for the night's screening. The theatre wasn't as full as the night before, but was still impressive for the evening of the aforementioned Super Bowl. (Side note - McNabb is an f'ing idiot! I've *never* seen a slower 'hurry up' offense... But I digress...)

Tonight's feature will be The Green Hat (Dir: Fendou Liu)which our little festival bills as a 'US Premier'. Nice idea, but actually the film was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC last spring, winning the "Best Narrative Feature" and "Best New Narrative Filmmaker" awards. (Do your research people!)

The film opens with the US short film The Old Man and the Studio (2004, Dir: Eric Champnella). It tells the story of the Hollywood adaptation (read: bastardization) of Hemmingway's "The Old Man and the Sea." After countless rewrites ("Are you sold on the sea? Filming on water is just so expensive..."), the reworked "Fishing for Love" is ready to debut; at which time Hemmingway promptly 'ends it all'... Amusing enough... (Great poster in the background: Vin Diesel stars in "Great E~xXx~pectations")

The Green Hat itself was a fascinating film. As it began, it appears to be a crime story. Three companions meet on a beach at dawn and, after a little conversation, they execute a long-planned bank robbery. The story isn't really about that.

In fact, there is a robbery, a hostage situation, and a suicide all in the opening moments of the film, and the film is about none of the things. What is at the film's heart can be summed up in a question one of the robbers poses to a police officer during the height of the hostage standoff... "What is love?" The bewildered police officer's reply, "Shit man! I don't know... Just two people liking each other I guess..." The robber disagrees and gives his own vision of undying love, a love that he has just lost, before turning his pistol on himself...

It is ironic that this police officer would be asked such a question as he is trapped within a loveless marriage to a woman who seems to have never loved him. He blames this fact on his own sexual impotence... And once we see his wife lie limp as a blow-up doll during their sex, it is no wonder that he can't do the deed. In fact, in some later scenes, (*possible spoilers ahead*) the officer visits a prostitute to try out some new impotence meds, though I wonder if her pleasant demeanor and kindness have more to do with his improved performance. This is suggested to by his only request to her, "Say you love me while we do it..."

Of course, his wife already has someone new (hence the "Green Hat" term, which refers to a man whose wife is having as affair), though she doesn't love him either. She keeps telling him that it is over, but keeps coming back.

In terms of pacing, the film is quite slow, as one could expect of such a chiefly character driven venture. I found it quite remarkable that the film never shies away from silence; often we are left with time to ponder the character's words as they themselves do. In some films this might be a distraction, but this film seems to utilize this technique quite well.

The film is also remarkable in terms of its visual metaphors. The cop and his wife sleep in separate beds, with his being smaller and lower, and hers more plush and up off the ground. This makes it so that she is always in a commanding position in their nighttime encounters. Also, during one of the film's later moments, the two converse on a carousel. The rising and lowering of the horses seems to visually remind us of their sexual problems, and when his advances are rebuffed he seems to become small and limp, reminding us of his impotence.

As with many films of its type, it leaves us with more questions than answers, but truthfully when a film attempts to grasp a question so deep as "What is love?" Can an answer truly be given?

Rating: R
More Info ~~>
- posted by Stephen @ 11:57 PM

 
Angel on the Right (Farishtay Kitfi Rost) - (2002, Tajikistan)
Spokane International Film Festival (Day 3) - First off, let me set the stage for this a little bit. Katrina met me as I got off work at 5:00. She warned that there was already a pretty big line for the film... Thanking myself for having the forethought to actually reserve tickets, we rushed over to the AMC and cut past the ridiculous line to snag our tickets from will call.

Knowing 'Hickville' (aka Spokane) the way I do, I was expecting that this would be playing in one of the smaller theatres and would play to, at best, a half-full theatre. WRONG!! We were in one of the huge auditoriums and the place was *packed*... Kat and I ended up in the back row right under the projector as it was the only place we could find two seats together. By the time the film started the was just a few single seats left in the theatre. They actually had to delay the start of the film to accommodate the people still in line to get tickets.

The sight gave me hope for cinema in Spokane.

Anyway, on to the films...

First the Australian short film Fetch (1998, Dir: Lynn-Maree Danzey) told us the story of a young man arriving at a lady's apartment for their first date. While he waits for his date to get ready, he casually plays with her dog and its favorite toy: a red ball. He grows disinterested and steps out onto her balcony for a bit of fresh air. After coming back in, he sits down and naturally leaves the balcony wide open as he nonchalantly tosses the ball around. Oops! You can guess what comes next......or can you? The end of the film left me completely speechless! Dark comedy at its best!

And now, our feature presentation...

Made in Tajikistan, Angel on the Right (2002, Dir: Djamshed Usmonov) tells the story of a Moscow criminal, named Hamro, who is returning home to pay his final respects to his dying mother... or so he thinks! In reality, he has been duped by her into coming back to renovate her home and put in a long promised fence gate. Hamro's life is made even more complicated by the fact that he owes just about everyone money (the mayor, the door-maker, the Russian mob, etc.), and the sudden discovery of a long-forgotten son.

Hamro is a shockingly cruel man who has never taken responsibility for much of anything and plot of the film revolves around the possibility of his redemption. Will it come in the form of his mother, his illegitimate son, his mother's nurse (who he nearly rapes and before she falls in love with him!?), or will it even come at all? The answer is given to us in the powerful final shot of the film.

The theme of redemption fits well with the title, whose origins come from an Islamic tale of two angels that rest on each person's shoulders; the angel on the left records evil deeds and the angel on the right records good deeds. On judgement day these deeds will be weighed to determine the final resting place of a person's soul.

The pacing of the film is remarkably different from anything a your typical ADHD American audience would be used to. The film gradually drifts along, featuring extremely long takes of its characters doing relatively mundane actions. You could easily find yourself bored to tears if not for the fascination that the glimpse into everyday Tajikistani life brings.

Another point of interest is that the film, though very dark in places, is intended to be a comedy of sorts. The humor is very subtle and though you will seldom find yourself belly-laughing, the wry, dark comedy will bring a grin to your face more than once.

Overall, I enjoyed the film and I am looking forward tomorrow's post Super Bowl screening of the Chinese film, "The Green Hat."

Rating: R
More Info ~~>
- posted by Stephen @ 10:13 PM

 
Maria Full of Grace - (2004)
Maria Full of Grace (written and directed by Joshua Marston) is the story of seventeen-year-old Columbian girl who becomes a drug mule in the hopes of giving her child a better life. The story seems compelling enough on the surface, but ultimately falls short.

The script is plodding and deliberate. The story starts slow, ends slow, and moves S-L-O-W! While this does work to remarkable effectiveness during the scenes that she is actually swallowing, transporting, and delivering the drugs, during the rest of the film I found myself terminally bored.

In addition, the last act of the film seems very contrived. The presence of Maria's friend (also a mule) truly adds nothing to the story and in fact, her only apparent purpose is to do imbecilic things and make Maria's life even more complicated. I would have rather seen Maria isolated and alone, instead of stuck with a moronic, dumpy tag-along.

Unfortunately, the rest of the characters in the film don't fare much better. Aside from Maria herself, only Lucy, another mule Maria befriends, could hold my attention.

The single most compelling part of the film is the radiant performance of Catalina Sandino Moreno. I can't wait to see more from her in the years to come.

The film is worth seeing simply for Moreno and for the scenes specifically dealing the drug transport. It's a shame, really. The premise had such potential...

Rating: OK
More Info ~~>
- posted by Stephen @ 10:55 AM

 
Spokane International Film Festival - (2005)
Who knew? Spokane actually is trying!

February 3rd - 10th, fifteen films will be screened at the Riverpark Square AMC. They include films from India, Japan, Tajikistan, Argentina, Slovenia, China, South Korea, Austria, Germany, Poland, and the United States. Many of these films will be screened for the first time in the US.

I will personally be seing (at least) five films at the festival (starting tomorrow) and will report on what I see...

More Info: http://www.spokanefilmfestival.com
- posted by Stephen @ 11:42 AM

 
Million Dollar Baby - (2004)

One word: WOW!

As much as I *adore* Sideways, I have just seen the film of the year.

Simply a stunning film. A week spent playing the "don't you dare fucking tell me because I haven't seen it yet" game paid off bigtime...

I could go on about how amazing Eastwood, Freeman, and Swank are, how great the script is, and how the directing just blew me away, but you've already heard it all.

Whatever you do just stay away from spoilers and get your ass to this movie, RIGHT NOW!

Rating: HR
More Info ~~>
- posted by Stephen @ 5:28 PM

 
Shaun of the Dead - (2004)

The second of my quick hits for the day... Shaun of the Dead is a film that parodies all the classic zombie move stereotypes, but still manages to hold together as a film, instead of a series of funny skits. (Unlike other recent parodies like Scary Movie...)

The first act of the film is where it really shines... These two guys are just to dumb, drunk or oblivious to notice that the end of the world is upon them. "She is *so* drunk!!!" Priceless.

The final act is probably the script's weakest link; it basically becomes a classic zombie movie (not bad by any means, but nearly as funny and original).
Rating: R
More Info ~~>
- posted by Stephen @ 7:36 PM

 
Collateral - (2004)

First of two quick DVD hits...
I loved Jamie Foxx in this. His 'ordinary guy' performance is what makes this movie work. If he wasn't so damn believable I think it would just be another action/suspense movie.

Tom Cruise is a great villain too, (though what the hell is up with the white hair???)

Great script. Classic 'wrong place/wrong time' story. Kept me guessing throughout and even managed to surprise me on a number of occasions.
Rating: R+
More Info ~~>
- posted by Stephen @ 7:32 PM