SLC Punk

08.15.10

SLC Punk

(1998)

Starring: Matthew Lillard, Michael Goorjian, Annabeth Gish

Stevo: Wait, time out. I just wanted to ask real quick, if I can. You believe in rebellion, freedom and love, right?

Mom: Absolutely, yes.

Dad: Rebellion, freedom, love.

Stevo: You two are divorced. So love failed. Two: Mom, your a New Ager, clinging to every scrap of Eastern religion that may justify why the above said love failed. Three: Dad, you're a slick, corporate, preppy-ass lawyer. I don't really have to say anything else about you do I dad? Four: You move from New York City, the Mecca and hub of the cultural world to Utah! Nowhere! To change nothing! More to perpetuate this cycle of greed, fascism and triviality. Your movement of the people, by and for the people got you... nothing! You just hide behind some lost sense of drugs, sex and rock and roll. Ooooh, Kumbaya! I am the future! I am the future of this great nation which you, father, so arrogantly saved this world for. Look, I have my own agenda. Harvard, out. University of Utah, in. I'm gonna get a 4.0 in damage. I love you guys! Don't get me wrong, it's all about this. But for the first time in my life, I'm 18 and I can say "FUUUUUCK YOU!"

Dad: Steven, I didn't sell out son. I bought in. Keep that in mind. That kid's gonna make a hell of a lawyer, huh?

Mom: Yeah, he takes after his father. He's a son of a bitch.

Dad: Well fuck you dear

S.L.C. punk is the story of two punk kids, played by Lillard and Goorjian, who live in the worst city in America to be a punk, Salt Lake City, Utah in the 1980's. Stevo, played by Lillard, is a die-hard punk who rules the scene and just wants anarchy to ensue and to live a lifestyle that he believes redeems himself from the scummy world he looks in on. Bob, played by Goorjian, is a punk that doesn't do drugs, but he heavily drinks in order to escape the terrible family life he left to live with Stevo. This film documents the day in the life of a punk in S.L.C.: getting in fights, going to parties, going to shows, doing hardcore drugs, but most of all promoting anarchy. The movie takes a seriously unexpected turn at the end, and reality bites hard for all involved. But, SLC punk is a fantastic movie, one i'll watch again and again. A cult classic i'm sad i hadn't watched till just recently.

"I rest my case on this: In a country of lost souls rebellion comes hard. But in a religiously oppressive city, where half it's population isn't even of that religion, it comes like fire" - Stevo

Sleepers

08.12.10

Sleepers

(1996 )

Starring: Robert DeNiro, Brad Pitt, Kevin Bacon, Billy Crudup, Minnie Driver

"This is a true story about friendship that runs deeper than blood. This is my story and that of the only three friends in my life that truely mattered. Two of them were killers who never made it past the age of 30. The other's a non-practicing attorney living with the pain of his past - too afraid to let it go, never confronting its horror. I'm the only one who can speak for them, and the children we were." - Lorenzo {opening lines}

Sleepers is a tragic tale of four best friends who grew up in Hell's Kitchen that fall prey to a boyhood mistake that changes the course of the rest of their lives. This sad narrative chronicles how a similar traumatic life experience can lead men in many different directions. We see the paths that each of the four boys takes, and the men it leaves them 13 years after the fact. Painful at times to watch, the true story {under discrimination as to whether the story based on the book by Lorenzo Carcaterra is actually fact or fiction} of boys in a crooked juvenile detention facility in the early 1960's is beautifully executed. All of the characters in this film are played by talented actors and actresses that portray a very realistic take on the script. Robert DeNiro as the father-figure priest is beyond brilliant. Young Brad Pitt and Billy Crudup make an impressionable debut in this often overlooked title. Also, no one can play a creepier and more revolting prison guard than Kevin Bacon. Bacon's role in this film forever changed my opinion of him as an actor. Overall, Sleepers is a movie that i highly recommend and subsequently own. Not made up of easily digestible subject matter, but something worth mulling over and chewing on, a thought provoking piece that will be in my collection for years to come.

Lorenzo: Mike, are you sure you wanna go this way? I mean we buried this a long time ago.

Michael: You still sleep with the light on

Dig!

7.30.10
Dig!
(2004)
Starring: The Brian Jonestown Massacre & the Dandy Warhols

"The fuckers. The bean-counters, the lawyers, all of these assholes at every label. Those are people that wreck the music business. Not Napster, not some college kid downloading shit. The people without vision." - Anton

A rockumentary about the little known, but genius band called The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Dig! is the sad chronicle of a band who had nothing going for them but the music they made. Anton Newcombe is the mastermind behind the Brian Jonestown Massacre, a musical genius of epic proportion who can't keep his junkie habits and his unbridled temper from ruining his chance at fame. Essentially, the end of this film simply degrades into a constant feed of Anton's antics including bar fights, heroine binges, abusive relationships, and arrests. But the crux of the film is really the interaction between the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the joke of a pop band, The Dandy Warhols. Courtney Taylor and the rest of the "Dandys" practically worship Anton and the Jonestown boys, to an embarassing degree. All of this incriminating action caught on film, denial isn't an option for the puffed up egos of the band who could never hope to be one ounce as brilliant as any half baked creation of Anton's. The Brian Jonestown Massacre is doomed from the get go, because Anton believes signing with a record label is selling out and subsequently always sabatoges the bands shot at making it big time. The rotating entourage of the Brian Jonestown Massacre includes Matt Hollywood, Frankie Emerson, Ricky Maymi, Collin Hegna, Dan Allaire, Rob campanella and last but certianly not least Joel Gion (the tambourine man). This group of performers sticks around as long as they can put up with Anton's madness. Overall, this film will chronicle a band that could have been great, a story of brilliant musicians doomed to oblivion in the overstimulated ears of a generation of ipods filled with music that will never reach the pinnacle of the talent that is channeled through The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

"I'll just say what I got to say. I'm here to destroy this fucked up system. I will do it. That's why I got the job. I said let it be me; I said use my hands. I will use our strength. Let's fuckin' burn it to the ground! " - Anton

"Let the song sing itself" - Anton

Before Sunrise

07.22.10
Before Sunrise
(1995)
Starring: Ethan Hawke & Judy Delpy

Before Sunrise, the prequel to Before Sunset is full of youthful hope and vitality. A young couple, an american and a french girl, meet on a train and decide to spend a day together before the young man (ethan hawke) has to catch his flight back to America. I actually watched this film after i had first watched Before Sunset, and the movies worked almost better that way for me. Although, i understand, as a filmmaker how the films couldn't have been created in that order. All of the beauty of Before Sunset is because it draws on all the memories and rich emotional connection that was built between Ethan Hawke and Judy Delpy in this film, Before Sunrise. Before Sunrise was directed by Richard Linklater, one of my very favorite writers and directors, and his beautifully written script is the main character in this film. The dialogue is so rich and thought provoking. Despite my partiality to it's predecessor, i could never write off the beautiful chemistry Linklater cultivates and captures in Before Sunrise.

"Isn't everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?" - Celine {Judy Delpy}

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

7.20.10
Fantastic Mr. Fox
(2009)
Starring: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, William Dafoe, Owen Wilson, Wes Anderson

Mrs. Fox: You know, you really are... fantastic.

Mr. Fox: I try.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox is a whimsical movie from Wes Anderson. Very typical to Anderson's eclectic style, but set apart from his other work because of the digitally animated characters used to personify his quirky creations. The amazingly star studded cast (listed above) really made the Movie for me. None can discount Wes Andersons' talent, but this was not my favorite film of his, because it was a little too contrived and scripted. Anderson's typical character interaction is stilted, that's part of the humor in it, but the problem is that type of comedic style doesn't translate well through an animated characters face. The prevailing charm in any Anderson film is the rich non-verbal communication between characters, such as the circle scene in the Darjeeling limited where all the brothers and Anjelica Huston are grieving for their father. Much of the heart and soul was lost through the animation, but it also lent it a cute child-like whimsy that couldn't have been achieved through his normal medium. I would recommend this movie, but i wouldn't lead anyone to believe that they would be floored by it's production.

"They say all foxes are slightly allergic to linoleum, but it's cool to the paw - try it. They say my tail needs to be dry cleaned twice a month, but now it's fully detachable - see? They say our tree may never grow back, but one day, something will. Yes, these crackles are made of synthetic goose and these giblets come from artificial squab and even these apples look fake - but at least they've got stars on them. I guess my point is, we'll eat tonight, and we'll eat together. And even in this not particularly flattering light, you are without a doubt the five and a half most wonderful wild animals I've ever met in my life. So let's raise our boxes - to our survival." - Mr. Fox

Death At A Funeral

07.16.10

Death At A Funeral

(2007)

Starring: Matthew Macfadyen, Andy Nyman, Ewen Bremner

Jane: Would you like a cup of tea, Sandra?
Sandra: Tea can do many things, Jane, but it can't bring back the dead.

Not yet this year have i watched a film that made me laugh so hard i cried. Hilarious is the only word i can use to describe this witty British comedy. The dynamic between all of the characters was beyond brilliant. The humor from the cast is contagious and the viewer feels as if they've been hurled into the eye of a hazardous family storm. One unfortunate event after another marks a day in the life of Matthew Macfadyen's Fathers funeral. Accidental psychedelic drug episodes, crabby old men, sibling rivalry, and dissatisfied gay-lovers are only a tip of the catastrophic iceberg that make up Death at A Funeral.

New Moon: Twilight

07.08.10

Twilight: New Moon

(2010)

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner

As a whole, i haven't really jumped on the whole Twilight bandwagon, but was somehow corralled into watching the teenage vampire crazed movie. Compared to the first film of the series this was far superior in the special effects department and even the story construction. I'm under the impression that the two werewolves fighting was where much of the special effects budget was spent and it was well worth it! The story would not have made much sense to a viewer who had missed out on the prequel, it was constructed almost like a giant inside joke that anyone missed the first film would have felt extremely left out of. The acting was moderate to poor and not even the attractive Rob Pattinson and Taylor Lautener could outshine that fact. Overall, I was entertained, but the two hour viewing time did begin to drag about an hour and fifteen minutes in. Not a movie i'd recommend or speak highly of, but it was exactly what it was intended to be, a film for the generation who missed out on Harry Potter.