Will Pfeifer's Blog, page 34

Why isn't this movie playing RIGHT NOW?

Because ever since I heard about it, I've been dying to see it. Hell, after watching this trailer, aren't you?

What I'm reading these days

Here are the books I'm either poring over, paging through or looking at from the corner of my eye as they loom on my nightstand, murmuring "read me ... read me..."


Massive, insanely detailed bio of the legendary Beat writer. Usually I get bored with writer biographies that start long before the actual writing begins, but this one starts with the childhood of Burroughs' grandfather (he invented the adding machine) and manages to never be boring for a minute. Probably going to have to give "Naked Lunch" another read when I'm done with this one.

Slim (less than 80 pages) volume with capsule commentary on dozens of forgotten paperback books of the 1960s and 1970s that tapped into (or tried desperately to tap) the edgy zeitgeist of the era. Lotsa fun and full of lurid cover reproductions.

Fascinating, deeply personal autobio of Kier-La Janisse, a troubled young woman who channeled the tension of a truly horrific childhood into running horror and cult movie festivals in Canada. Janisse contrasts various episodes in her own past with a variety of movies focusing on women in trouble, and the result is like no other movie book I've ever read. Great -- but strong -- stuff.

Paul Pope is one of my favorite cartoonists, delivering a sense of energy that few others can even approach, let alone match, and revealing his love for comics -- and the process of making comics -- in every panel. This thick, nicely designed hardcover collects a load of his work, from early stuff to recent shorts. It's the perfect thing to whet the appetite before his long-awaited (by this guy, anyway) "Battling Boy" arrives later this year.

I'd been wondering why Wally Wood didn't have a coffee table book to match those of his EC label mates Bill Elder and Jack Davis. Well, now he does and it's a beauty, with work from all stages of his brilliant career, including several gorgeous pages shot from originals, with every brush stroke and correction visible. One of the best art books I've seen in a long, long time.

Like everyone else, I read this one way back in high school, but I wanted to give it another spin now that I've (a) read a lot of crime books and (b) read a lot about Manson and the other crazy folks from that era. It's not exactly the most elegantly written work in this field (a long way from "In Cold Blood," in other words), but it is compelling in the way it puts together the picture of the man behind the murders piece by unsettling piece.

Haven't started this early DeLillo novel yet, but I found it at Half Price Books in Madison, and any novel that combines football and nuclear war sounds pretty solid to me. Speaking of DeLillo, I still have a freebie Blu-ray of "Cosmopolis," the Cronenberg movie based on his novella, that I haven't watched. I need to do that, post haste.

Another purchase from that trip to Half Price Books. I've liked everything I've read by Amis, and I've liked some of his books very, very much ("London Fields," "The Information," "Money"), so even though I read some so-so reviews of this, I figure middling Amis is better than most writers' best stuff. Plus, it could be great. What the hell do those critics know?

Great Moments in Comics History, Part 11

J. Jonah Jameson acts like a real journalist.

Daredevil #230, May 1986. Script by Frank Miller, pencils and inks by David Mazzucchelli, colors by Christine "Max" Scheele, letters by Joe Rosen, edited by Ralph Macchio.

Movies I Watched in January

Here's how I started 2013 -- with murder, slavery, hacking, more murder, music, a little more murder and a tale of woodland fairies. Enjoy?


Interesting little relic from 1971 about a hip, charismatic young guy named Skipper Todd (well played by Robert F. Lyons) who gets involved in a murder or two. He's not the serial killer the poster implies, but he is intriguingly amoral, playing the adoring kids of his California town off the disapproving older folks. Great footage of a world long-gone, with a nice late-in-the-movie appearance by a pre-Lou Grant Ed Asner. Richard Thomas, pre-John Boy, plays his buddy and Gloria Grahame, post-most of her career, plays Thomas' mom. I first heard of this movie decades before I actually saw it because the punk band The Angry Samoans have a song called "The Todd Killings" that pretty much just repeats the tagline of the poster over and over (and over). Via Warner Archives, of course.

This made my list of top movies of 2012 , but I actually didn't see it until 2013, which explains its presence here. I chose this poster because, really, how amazing is Samuel L. Jackson in this movie? Pretty damned amazing.
                      

This James Bond movie, the one Sean Connery returned for after skipping "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," gets a bad rap for being too damned goofy, but that goofiness is one reason I love it so much. You've got the gay assassins (one played by Bruce Glover -- Crispin's dad! -- and the other by jazz bassist Putter Smith), sausage magnate Jimmy Dean as an ersatz Howard Hughes, a fake moon landing being filmed, Blofeld in drag and Lana Wood appearing in a scene solely so Bond can make puns on her first ("Plenty") and her last ("O'Toole") names. What more could you want in a Bond movie?  Or any movie, for that matter?

If someone put every annoying thing about the mid 1990s and stuck it in a trash compactor, the slimy, stinking cube that emerged would be this movie. Like I said in a Twitter comment (follow me here , sheep!), "The Jazz Singer" isn't as dated as this movie. Ridiculous, swirling graphics; loads of techno mumbo jumbo; awful music; annoying Angelina Jolie; even more annoying Matthew Lillard and Fisher Stevens, of all people, as a skateboarding (!) bad facial hair-wearing computer mastermind. Awful but fascinating. But mostly awful.

Strange 1946 movie based on the (then) popular radio show, "I Love a Mystery." I can't judge how close it came to the show -- heck, for the first 20 minutes or so, I had a hard time telling who the lead character was -- but I do know it was a fun, short ride, full of shrunken heads, nonsenical plot twists, schemes of revenge and an indoor "jungle" full of stuffed animals in the back of a taxidermy shop. I watched it on Turner Classic Movies, of course, and films like this are the reason I love that channel so much. "Citizen Kane" and "Casablanca" are great, to be sure, but movies like "The Devil's Mask" are probably never going to be seen anywhere else, and it's movies like this -- obscure, forgotten pieces of pop culture -- that make being a film fan so much fun.

                 

It's too bad that Stallone "Judge Dredd" movie arrived here first, because American audiences who've never read the Judge Dredd comic books have an image in their heads of Dredd as just another lunkhead Stallone character, not realizing what a close-mouthed element of social satire he really is. This movie, simple and stark but still pretty funny, does a lot to reclaim the name of Dredd from the Stallone fiasco. Karl Urban (Bones in the new "Star Trek" movies) is great in the title role, never cracking a smile or (most importantly) taking off that mask. The plot is essentially the same as "The Raid: Redemption," but that barely matters. What counts is the convincing future world the filmmakers create and the bad, bad, badass at its center.

                     

Watched this one with Allie, of course, and though it's a little out of my current wheelhouse, I give the makers of the Tinkerbell movies credit for injecting a certain spirit of high adventure and deep mythology into these straight-to-DVD films (there are four so far) when they could just crank out some asinine tie-in products and go out for coffee. I chose this poster image, by the way, to point out how diverse the world of Tinkerbell has become. Back when she made her debut in "Peter Pan" (one of my favorite Disney movies, incidentally), the concept of "diversity" went as far as the "What Make the Red Man Red" musical number.

Quick-thinking, fast-talking Lee Tracy is one of my favorite classic movie stars, but this high-concept 1938 comedy doesn't really know what to do with him. Tracy plays a would-be screenwriter who meets up with an ex-con and his clever wife, and parlays their experiences with crime into a ridiculously lucrative deal at a Hollywood studio. Naturally, the real criminals they've based their movies on eventually come calling, and naturally hijinks ensue until everything works out just swell in the end. Trouble is, Tracy is playing a guy who's both too nice and too naive, and the energy of his better movies ("Doctor X," "Blessed Event") never quite crackles. 

Great idea -- celebrity chef takes revenge on obnoxious food blogger by putting him through a cuisine-centered torture regimen -- is torpedoed by so-so direction and an ending that stumbles into standard horror movie territory. Points to writer/director Joe Maggio, though, for convincing actual celeb chef Mario Batali to deliver a profanity-laden cameo.


I'm going to be writing more about this one for an upcoming project not related to this blog, but suffice to say I liked it more than I thought I would. When I heard that -- spoiler alert! -- the end of the film hinged on both a dance contest and a football game, I feared the worst. Actually, though "Silver Linings Playbook" does become a little too movie movie by that point, it doesn't matter much because by then you're rooting for these two crazy (poor choice of words) kids to get together. Plus, director David O. Russell gives the film -- especially the first half -- a rough, choppy look that mirrors the feeling Bradley Cooper's character could lose control at any time. Bonus points for delivering the first really committed performance I've seen from Robert De Niro in a long time.



In one of those notorious late '60s attempts (1970 in this case) by the studios to cash in on that oh-so-lucrative youth market, a group of random young guys are recruited to form a band (the titular Phynx) and sent behind the Iron Curtain to rescue a group of celebs well past their sell-by date (including Pat O'Brien, Rudy Vallee, Ruby Keeler, Joe Louis, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, the Lone Ranger, Tonto, Butterfly McQueen and, of course, Colonel Sanders). The would-be satire is at roughly the level of a rejected "Laugh In" sketch, and the songs are nothing you'll be humming while the credits roll -- thankfully. The movie is so bad that one of the bosses of the Super Secret Spy Agency (yes, that's the name) was doing a Bogart impression, but it was so lousy it took me half the movie to realize it. A fascinating time capsule that deserves to be re-buried  as soon as possible.

A great movie, obviously. The greatest horror movie? Possibly. I wrote a whole lot about it a few years ago, and you can read it by clicking here.


Before screening this early Hitchcock on TCM, host Robert Osborne actually warned the viewers that the movie is very slow to start, and to be patient because it's worth the wait. He was right on both counts -- for a movie set on a moving train, it takes a while for that train to actually get moving. Once it does, though, the plot quickly kicks into gear and the fun begins. The disappearance of a nice old lady (Dame May Whitty) makes poor Margaret Lockwood worry that she's losing her mind, and it's up to stalwart Michael Redgrave (father of Vanessa and Lynn) that she can relax -- it's just a deadly conspiracy of foreign agents to blame.

Great Moments in Comics History, Part 11

Hopey gets a haircut.

Love & Rockets, an issue I can't remember the number or date of (though I've never forgotten this panel), script, pencils, inks and lettering by Jaime Hernandez.

Great Moments in Comics History, Part 10

Harry Meekins returns home after being run over by a steamroller.

Journey Into Fear #19, May 1954. Reprinted in Mr. Monster's Hi-Shock Schlock #1, March 1987, which is where I first saw it. Script, pencils, inks and original colors by the Iger Shop;  recolored by Lovern Kindzierski. 

(By the way, this is arguably my single all-time favorite comic book thought balloon. You can read the entire story here, and I'd encourage you to do so. It's one of the  greats.)

It's about time! Here's the trailer for the next Coen Bros. movie, 'Inside Llewyn Davis'

I don't know when "Inside Llewyn Davis" is coming to theaters, I don't really know what it's about and, until I watched this trailer, I didn't even know how to pronounce the lead character's name. But one thing's for sure -- a new Coen Brothers movie is something to get excited about, and this movie, with its pitch-perfect period setting, typically offbeat characters and the return of John Goodman looks like something well worth the excitement. Maybe I should start waiting outside the door of my local theater right now...

Movies I watched in December

January's more than half over, but here's the December recap, better late than never -- right? Right? Right?

Awful, unfunny "comedy" "drama" about a struggling performer (Berle, of course) and his rise to fame. Berle is completely unlikeable, proving he was best seen on the small screen (and in small doses). The would-be serious parts are painfully maudlin, and it's stomach turning watching Berle romance his hot-cha-cha co-stars, Virginia Mayo and Ruth Roman.

I like the Bowery Boys as much as the next guy -- heck, more than the next guy, considering we're living in the 21st century and the next guy hasn't even heard of 'em -- but these early efforts are a little dry. Nice shots of giant Mike Mazurski manhandling comparatively tiny Leo Gorcey, but not much to write home about otherwise. Still, I've got a whole set of them from Warner Archives, so there's plenty of potential for improvement.

Barely laughed once. So far, December is a distinctly unfunny month, at least when it comes to comedies. That "Anchorman" sequel had better be much, much better than this lackluster effort, Mr. Ferrell.

Best movie of the month so far. I like the Bowery Boys, but if this so-so vehicle is taking the top title, you know it's tough going for this movie fan. Bonus points, though, for Jane Randolph ("Cat People" and "Curse of the Cat People") in a supporting role.

Now this is more like it. Fascinating documentary about a rich family suddenly hit by hard times. (Don't kid yourself though -- this doesn't mean they lose their home, like you or I would -- it just means they can't build (literally) the biggest house in America.) My favorite scene is when the wife rents a car from Hertz and asks who the driver will be. The expression on the clerk's face is worth the price of admission.

My first-ever concert was to see this Canadian trio during their early 1980s "Grace Under Pressure" tour at the since-demolished Richfield Coliseum, and though my tastes soon shifted the more stripped-down sounds of punk, I never lost my love for Geddy, Alex and Neal. This good-natured doc charts virtually their whole career, revealing them to be down-to-Earth, seemingly genuinely nice guys (though, admittedly, Neal can be a bit prickly). I just wish they'd had something about Geddy's performance on the McKenzie Brother's novelty hit, "Take Off."

Genuine oddity from 1966 given a (very) rare pair of screenings on TCM this past holiday season. Written by Rod Serling and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, it retells "A Christmas Carol" from a distinctly mid-1960s liberal perspective, with Sterling Hayden as a conservative, Hawkish Scrooge and Steve Lawrence, Pat Hingle, and Robert Shaw as the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. It's very strange -- especially the post-Apocalyptic finale, with Peter Sellers as a crazed leader of an even crazier population -- but somehow, it works perfectly. Be sure to check it out if you get a chance, especially if you're a "Twilight Zone" fan (and who isn't, really?)


Great, great, simply great. One of my favorite movies, and, depending on my mood, my all-time favorite. Lemmon, MacLaine and MacMurray are note-perfect, and they're give stellar support by the rest of the cast. Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond's script clicks like a fine Swiss watch, every part perfectly placed but never feeling mechanical or forced. And, as a bonus, it's a Christmas movie -- though a pretty grim one, with infidelity, betrayal and attempted suicide. The shot of Shirley MacLaine's face when MacMurray gives her a $100 bill as a Christmas present is one of the greatest moments in movie history. If you haven't seen this one, stop reading this blog and watch it. Now.

Finally caught up with this highly praised alien invasion movie, and I wasn't a bit disappointed. Simple but insidiously effective, it has just enough twists and turns and some nicely offbeat characters on the front lines of defense. Great eerie alien designs, too.

Like the Avengers? Like the holidays? You'll probably like this epic adventure about Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman and a reluctant Jack Frost teaming up to stop the Boogie Man. Lots of nice little jokes sprinkled throughout, and I thought the story was genuinely exciting. Didn't light the box office on fire, but I could see it becoming a perennial favorite on video.



What a wonderfully strange little movie this was, managing to tell a story of a tough (to say the least) young girl, her tough (in a different way) dad and the sometimes magical, sometimes terrible world they live in. A movie like this could've gone so wrong in so many ways, but it managed to avoid being mawkish or too cute and instead hit moments that just about take your breath away -- the kids dancing in the brothel, the dad yelling at the storm and, of course, those beasts ... maybe the best special effect of the entire year. (Yes, I coped this text from that post about the best movies of 2012. Sue me. It's my blog.)
Years before they betrayed and murdered each other in "Double Indemnity," Barbara and Fred fell in love in this Christmas-themed comedy/drama. She's a jewel thief, he's the D.A. assigned to convict her, and somehow they wind up at his family's farmhouse for Christmas, complete with perennial movie mom Buelah Bondi playing (who else?) his mother. And the script by the great Preston Sturges delivers both solid jokes and memorable characters. Catch it next Christmas, when TCM is bound to run it a few times.

Glad to see the art of stop-motion animation isn't quite dead yet. I thought this one was a tad overrated, not quite deserving some of the raves I read, but it's a solid, beautiful looking movie with some surprising twists and turns -- and the willingness to actually get scary at the end. Check it out if you haven't already -- and be sure to show your kids.

Ended this year with this 2008 Canadian film that I've had sitting on the (still formidable) unwatched free DVD pile for a few years. It looked like a bit of cheesy horror fun, with a plot that involved an average guy entering the world of Live Action Role Playing to win back his girlfriend (with something going very, very wrong), but turns out it's actually a solid little suspense drama with believable character, nicely realistic interplay between the reality and fantasy of the games and, of course, something going very, very wrong. Should've popped it into the player much sooner.

Great Moments in Comics History, Part 9

Black Widow gets a phone call in the shower.

Amazing Adventures #5, March 1971. Written by Roy Thomas, pencils by Gene Colan, inks by Bill Everett, letters by Artie Simek. Reprinted in Marvel Treasury Special: Giant Superhero Holiday Grab-Bag, 1974, which is where I first saw this undeniably memorable scene.

The Best Movies I Saw in 2012

Here's a quick rundown of the 10 best movies I saw in 2012 -- decades old, brand-new or something in-between. They're not ranked, just in the order I saw them. (How the heck could you possibly compare something like, say, "Kill List" to "Diplomaniacs"?)  Oh, and the last "bonus" movie on this list was technically one I saw in 2013, but it was released in 2012, so I figure I can count it. It's my list, after all. You make a list, you can make up your own crazy, hypocritical rules.



“On the Bowery” (1956) It's not a documentary — not exactly — but it’s one of the most fascinating peeks inside a hidden world I’ve ever seen. Filmed by Lionel Rogosin on New York’s notorious Skid Row, the film follows Ray (Ray Salyer), a relatively young man arriving on the Bowery with a suitcase in his hand and a little money in his pocket. Over the course of a couple of days, he loses both the suitcase and the money but — maybe — gains a bit of perspective from the Bowery’s other residents. And he drinks. A lot. What makes “On the Bowery” so compelling is that what you’re seeing is the real deal. Even Hollywood movies purporting to be gritty and grim in their depiction of alcoholism don’t come anywhere near what “On the Bowery” achieves in a few simple scenes where Rogosin simply sets up shop in a Skid Row bar and lets his camera roll. It’s such astonishingly intimate footage that I felt like I should look away from these people who’d obviously hit rock bottom, but I couldn’t. It was just too mesmerizing. As a story, it’s a simple but effective one. But as a time capsule of a forgotten world, it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Available on a great Milestone Blu-ray set with two other movies from Rogosin, plus loads of bonus features.


"Diplomaniacs" (1933) was the Wheeler and Woolsey comedy released the same year as the Marxist masterpiece “Duck Soup,” and it’s also a surreal political satire. Starting on an Indian reservation, where our boys are struggling to work as barbers (the movie claims Native Americans have no facial hair — not true!), it quickly proceeds to a peace conference in Geneva, where their efforts to end war are opposed by everyone else looking to make a few bucks. As with “Duck Soup,” the plot barely matters. Instead, it’s the gags that count, and while many are funny, some will look pretty shocking to 21st century eyes. There’s a stereotypical “Chinaman” played by distinctly non-Chinese actor Hugh Hubert, and, of course, the portrayal of Native Americans is less than politically correct. Most jaw-dropping of all is the final musical number, when a bomb is hurtled into the peace talks and, instead of killing everyone, it instead gives them an instant blackface makeover. Ah, the good ol’ days of happy Hollywood racism. Available from Warner Archives (of course), who also have a big Wheeler and Woolsey set due out this year. Hoo-hah!


"The Devils" (1971) Ken Russell's masterpiece (yes, I said it) of religious repression (and release) might've been my most memorable movie-watching experience of the year. I'd heard about it forever, and finally got my hands on the Region 2 version that's as close to a full-cut as we're likely to get. It's an amazing movie, still powerful after all these years, fueled by shattering performances by Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reed. Some old movies, you wonder why they were so controversial back in their day. Not this one. Not one bit.


"The Avengers" (2012) Best super-hero movie of the year (though "The Dark Knight Rises" was pretty solid, too, in a completely different way). The "battle" between Hulk and Loki was worth the price of admission all by itself, and probably the most enjoyable single movie moment of the year.

“Moonrise Kingdom” (2012) Wes Anderson at his most Wes Anderson-est, which is a good thing. Beautifully filmed, crisply acted and, of course, impeccably designed. And between this and "Looper" (another movie that just missed the top 10), Bruce Willis had himself a pretty impressive year.



“Kill List” (2011) There are few things I enjoy more than the feeling of overwhelming, surprising dread that a really good horror movie delivers, and Ben Wheatley's "Kill List" generates that emotion in spades -- even though, strictly speaking, it's not really a horror movie. Watch this one knowing as little as you possibly can. Just put the disc in the player, press "play" ... and brace yourself.

“Cabin in the Woods” (2011) Now this, this is a horror movie -- and a lot more, besides. Again, one best enjoyed the less you know. The moment when the elevator doors opened is the other contender for most purely fun movie scene of the year -- especially if you're a lifelong horror fan.

“Argo”(2012)  Yes, the ending is a bit too Hollywood suspenseful, and sure the truth was stretched here and ignored there -- but Ben Affleck's look at the crazy scheme the CIA concocted to rescue some hostages in Iran is the sort of smart, solid filmmaking you just don't see much these days. Wonderful period detail and some harrowing sequences -- especially that opening -- have me rooting for this one to take home Best Picture.


“Attack the Block” (2011) Finally managed to see this one, and damned if it wasn't one of the snappiest, zippiest alien invasion movies in years, with a streamlined plot and invigorating forward momentum. Striking just the right balance between thrills, comedy and character development, it hit all the right notes and never wasted a moment of screen time. Bonus points for a simple but effective alien design. And that final shot of Moses perfectly sealed the deal.



“Beasts of the Southern Wild” (2012) What a wonderfully strange little movie this was, managing to tell a story of a tough (to say the least) young girl, her tough (in a different way) dad and the sometimes magical, sometimes terrible world they live in. A movie like this could've gone so wrong in so many ways, but it managed to avoid being mawkish or too cute and instead hit moments that just about take your breath away -- the kids dancing in the brothel, the dad yelling at the storm and, of course, those beasts ... maybe the best special effect of the entire year.


Bonus: "Django Unchained" (2012) Somehow, Quentin does it again, turning his revenge-fueled spaghetti Western about slavery into a surprisingly complex, unusually poignant movie that I can't stop turning over again and again in my head. (Just like his last picture, "Inglourious Basterds.") Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonard DiCaprio and (especially) Samuel Jackson are all great, but this is a long movie full of memorable pieces that add up to a surprisingly rich tale. The sight of Jamie Foxx wearing a ridiculous blue outfit -- the first clothes he's ever been able to choose for himself -- is funny for a second, but it quickly becomes a powerful character moment that leads to many more such revelations -- and, this being a Quentin Tarantino movie -- a whole lotta bloodshed. I definitely need to see this one again.