Boogie Nights

Something about making a film about the Adult Film X Rated Industry and making the film rated R is like _______________(fill in your choice of reference to sexual frustration).  Isn't there a better option?

Mark Walberg is a young dishwasher working in the San Fernando Valley when he is discovered by that 70s icon of manly perfection Burt Reynolds.  A star is born as Dirk Diggler who explodes on the scene.  And you know what happens to shooting stars.

Lots of good comedic actors here, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, Don Cheadle, make the movie hard to take too seriously which is a good thing when dealing with porn and drugs.

Set in the 70s and early 80s, we have a constant background soundtrack of disco-era favorites.   the film produced 2 different soundtracks.  The L.A. area scenes are colored well giving that sepia-toned nostalgia.  The 2nd Annual Adult Film Awards was a nice touch.

The most iconic scene has to be one of my favorites, Alfred Molina, is a drunk/stoned/high rager.  This is actually a fictionalization of a scene that led to 4 unsolved murders in the Laurel Canyon called the Wonderland Murders.  Very interesting background story from Salon.

It's a lot like another L.A. story of a ground of small timers, Pulp Fiction.  Particularly toward the end.  It fools around, but never goes all the way.

* * * * of 5

Insurgent

A solid follow up to 2014's Divergent, which at its heart is a Hunger Games-type of premise. In the future, people are grouped by personality types, Candor, Dauntless, Erudite, Abnegation and Amity. If you don't fall into one of them, you are Divergent. And you will be culled from the herd.

 Shailene Woodley as Tris is of course Divergent. She's been separated from her brother (Ansel Elgort) and her boyfriend Four (Theo James). But when a tourture-ish, virtual reality test is developed, she volunteers to take it. The descent into the 5 separate worlds is the heart of this film. 

Not a bad popcorn film but it is typical pop action. Shot to the head? No blood. Three separate choking scenes for Tris - that's not much fun to watch. Torture? See for yourself if you dare. More violent than necessary in my opinion.

 * * * of 5

Paper Towns - July 24

Now that SXSW is over, it's back to reality.  That means, Young Adult, Blockbuster, Sequel,  MultiPlex Magic, Big Box Office, #TFIOS

Yes, Insurgent start this weekend.  And speaking of Shalaine Woodley, the followup to the Fault in Our Stars - the second book/movie from John Greene - looks like a teen version of Gone Girl

SXSW - final thoughts

Everyone was looking for something at SXSW.  Whether they found it or not, chances were probably not.  May the odds be ever in your favor, but the odds were certainly less than 1 of 12.  And the games were probably rigged to boot.

Example:  5000 submissions for 100 short films spots.

Ultimately it was probably what as expected.  The established gather in small groups to toast past and future successes.  But the hope for the future is the ones who are out doing it now, whether it be film, music, comedy, interactive - they'll be the next big thing.

For all the talk of crowds, maybe 2 of the 5 screenings were full.  No wait list that I could see.  It seemed like film was not as popular as interactive or music.

SXSW - the Short Review

One of the categories presented is the Shorts -  same production involved except the run time is limited to 15 minutes.  They show 8 of them back to back which gets me somewhat antsy - hard to sit there.  But once they start, they're good.

The short competition is like getting into Harvard - 5,000 submissions and they select 100.  So "they are all outstanding in some way" as a Stanford student put it to me.  Can't argue with those numbers.

There are narrative shorts and there are documentary shorts.  I like the documentary form better - the narratives were by necessity designed to shock.  The documentaries were surprising enough.  The old Truth v. Fiction proverb.... we'll start with Documentary Short 2 seen in the comforts of the Topfer Theather at the ZACH.


Born to Be Mild - spotlights English senior men who collect/follow  a variety of quirky things e.g photos of mailboxes

Calls to Okies: The Park Grubbs Story  - Bartlesville, OK 80s teens records their increasingly sophisticated prank phone calls

The Little Deputy - Trevor wants to take a photo cross dressing but is concerned what his father would think.

Love Has No Age -  Man and woman who were lovers as young people come together as seniors to recreate photos of themselves

Spearhunter - Col. Gene Morris advocates for hunting by spear throwing.

Terms of Intimacy - Cuddling for Fun and Profit at the Cuddle Connection LLC

Tiger Hood - black man plays street golf in New York City

Unmappable - Ph.D. geographer shows his darker, anarchistic side

My favorite:  Park Grubbs

____

And the Narratives:

Baby - a look through a high-rise window at a woman with a drinking problem

Donald and Jess - plumber comes to fix a leak for a lonely young woman - Not X rated

Followers - senior woman thinks she is falling for a strapping young black man in Cardiff, Wales

Guest Room - 2 teens with Downs Syndrome fall in love

Hallway - a scene in a club in New York

Happy With Bear- a look through a high-rise window at a woman with an eating disorder

Myrna the Monster - Myrna is an immigrant creature from the Moon living in L.A.

We'll Find Something - 2 couples look for a restaurant all night long in New York.  Thanks Seinfeld.

My favorite:  Donald and Jess

South by Southwest SXSW - So Far

It's now day 3 that I've been in Austin for "South By" as they say.  There is definitely a new way of doing things in this festival atmosphere.  I've been surprised that it has not been more crowded - I guess I expected Airport-at-Thanksgiving, Rush-hour-traffic, type crowds, but it has been much easier.




After seeing some of the presentations, I realized that these were like continuing education and that the real benefit was the movies.  My plan has been to see 2 each day, which doesn't sound like a lot, but when you combine picking a schedule that works, finding the locations, getting there, getting out and working around some semblance of an eating schedule, the day can go fast.

Here's some capsule reviews so far:

Uncle Kent 2 -

I'd say this was my favorite experience.  Seeing it offsite at 10:15 p.m. made it like a midnight movie which it was.  It was kind of Rocky-Horror-ish which worked well.   Once the story got rolling (e.g. I figured out what was happening), it was a fun time.  The filmmakers Kent Osborne was head writer for a show called Adverturetime which showed he knew a thing or two.  The Cat Agent character really topped it well.

Breaking a Monster -

This documentary was about a teenaged band called Unlocking the Truth, which started as a Times Square busking, heavy metal band.  Since they were black teenagers in a white world, they got attention.  From a white Jewish producer Alan Sacks ("I was big with Welcome Back Kotter and the Jonas Brothers!")   Conflict ensures.  Calling them teenagers is a stretch - they're only 12 or 13 year old.  Will their voices change?  Soon?  Ever?  Please?

Finders  Keepers -

Shannon is a Storage Wars type of person who buys the contents of a unit in Maiden, NC.  In the contents, inside a smoker grill, is a human foot/lower leg.  He reports it and publicity ensues.  Turns out the person from whom the foot came, John, had it amputed, had kept it for a memory and now wants it back.   But Shannon thought he had bought it fair and square.   A modern day Hatfield/McCoy story.

This one was picked up by a distributor and should be on Netflix/PPV - worth watching.

Dark Places

By the author of Gone Girl, here's a new movie trailer for Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. Stars Charlize Theron.

No US release date yet.  Enjoy!

Unfinished Business

Something about March brings out the Spring Break movies.  One year, Project X, another year, Spring Breakers.  This year, it's the adult version, about a business trip to Berlin.   Starring the odd coupling of Vince Vaughn (playing a Vince character, grown up in a cool sort of way), Tom Wilkerson (the dad figure) and Dave Franco (the virgin).

The premise of the trip is to close a big deal for this struggling 3 person company.  When they get to Berlin, they are told it is the busiest week of the year:  Oktoberfest, the Berlin Marathon and Scarpia, a gay convention.  Remember those characters:  they'll be back.

As a feel-good Jerry Maguire movie, it doesn't get there.  As a wild and crazy weekend, it has a light touch.  Best is that it does hit the American/Euro conflict pretty well.  We get a peek (no pun intended) as the differences in German and American views of a variety of subjects:  sex, politics, business, hospitality and entertaining.  That makes is worth a light look.

* * of 5