A Fistful of Criterion Wannabes! (Matt’s Picks)

    This week, we here at In the Mouth of Dorkness are putting together wish lists.  These are the movies we want the special edition maestros of the Criterion Collection to get their film-loving little hands on; a few movies that might not be on their radar.  A year ago, Seconds would have appeared on this list, but it just got the Criterion treatment, so its spot opens to something else.  And Things to Come?  Amazing.  With the Zatoichi films coming, I would love to see the entire classic run of Godzilla get a serious box-set.  In the meantime, here are some films that beg (I can hear 'em) for Criterion DVDs.

5.  The Fountain:  This is one of my favorite films, and the DVD has almost no special features.  The Blu is only slightly better.  What’s the story with the aborted version?  What about the graphic novel?  How about those special effects?  I want more than a few featurettes.  I want some serious stuff.  Commentary, documentary, motion comics even.  No less than 2 disks.  Bring it on.

4.  The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari:  This silent film is such a mindblowingly strange film it pretty much created the career (remember his early years were good) of Tim Burton.  It’s freaky, surreal, fanciful, and filled with enough visual flare for a dozen movies.  I would love to see a collection of directors talking about the film’s influence on their work.  A documentary about the film, or the filmmakers would be welcome as well.  And how complete is it?  How cleaned up can it be?  How about a biography on actor Conrad Veidt?  What little I know about that guy seems flippin’ fascinating.

3.  The Warriors:  This is a true Urban Fantasy film.  After the assassination of the new Gang Messiah, one gang must make an Odyssey-like quest across the hostile world of the City.  Facing various other gangs, the siren song of women, inner demons, and dangers untold, Swan and his people learn what’s really important.  The Warriors is a movie like no other, a strange journey into idealized gangs.  Along with Walter Hill’s other masterpiece Streets of Fire (which should also get the Criterion treatment), it helps to establish a certain mysterious and wonderful early 80s cinematic language.

2.  Lost Highway:  No love for Lynch from Criterion?  Lost Highway is the ultimate expression of what I love about David Lynch’s films.  The characters, the look, the odd dialog, the perplexing plot progression.  It’s all so wrong it’s right.  It may not be the most pure Lynch film (probably Inland Empire), but it’s perfect to me.  And, as usual, the DVD release was bare bones.  How about a nice two disk set, with Pretty as a Picture, the excellent documentary, conversations with the director and actors, and maybe even excerpts from the book Lynch on Lynch.  Short films, commercials, music.  Barry Gifford doing readings from Night People.  There’s so much that could accompany the movie, and give it more context.

1.  Speed Racer:  Opinions are, by their nature, subjective.  But your negative opinion of this film is wrong.  An amazing Kung Fu film of the highest order, blasted into your third eye with a Technicolor lightening bolt.  It’s not about racing, it’s about excellence.  It’s about the ultimate enlightenment.  It is about Kung Fu.  Like the great masters of the Martial Arts films, when Speed finally transcends, achieving Nirvana, he shapes the world not according to physics, but according to will.  He acts as one with the universe.  Add to that, and the candy-colored futropolis, a great story about family and love, and you've got something special.  Yet, the film did not connect with John Q. Lunchbox.  And I would argue that the reason may be more simple than many would think.  Speed Racer is an Art Film.  It has the trappings of a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster, but at its Zen center, it is a spiritual journey through perception and self-knowledge.  It may not be in black & white.  They may not speak French.  And it may not end in ‘fin.’  But Speed Racer is an art film.

    Sure, I could’a picked some Hong Kong melodramas about Gong Li looking sad (I do love those), or something depressing from France.  But not all art has to be about depression.  And some movies can leave you feeling pretty good…and that’s OK.  No.  It’s better than OK.  It’s pretty great.

-Matt

A Fistful of Double Features! (Matt’s Picks)

    Brad and I have been talking a lot lately about our favorite films, classics, and various elements of the movies and why we love them.  This may be in part because of the lackluster year 2013 has been, I’m not sure.  Not that it takes much to make us talk about this subject, anyway.  So, after expanding our favorite films list last week, this week we’re looking at movie pairings; movies that are especially good to watch together.  Not just sequels, like Crank & Crank 2 or Alien & Aliens.  But films that go together like peanut butter & chocolate, cheese & crackers, or Kool & the Gang.

5.  An American Werewolf in London & Cat People:  Two movies about doomed love and the beast within.  In both films, an innocent is cursed with an inner monster that must come out.  Both are about love & sex, and romance against the odds.  Both are interesting in their use eroticism; An American Werewolf is playful and cute, while Cat People is deeply intense and kinky.

4.  Apocalypto & The Fountain:  Both films are about going the extra mile for love, about risking everything to save that special someone.  And both feature Mayans as a central element, not a common thing in film.  When I watched Apocalypto with a friend a few years back, part way through the movie, I realized we had to follow it up with The Fountain, and they worked very well as a pair.

3.  The Omega Man & Soylent Green:  Two profoundly 70s Charlton Heston visions of unpleasant futures, these two movies have been linked in my mind for a long time.  I guess part of it is that I’ve frequently shown them together at HestFest celebrations.  Yet, each movie has its own strengths, and somehow they work well as a pair; one about a world where everyone is gone, and the other a world where there are too many people.

2.  Double Indemnity & Lost Highway:  Double Indemnity is one of the nastiest, ugliest movies lumped into the Film Noir genre, with two extremely unlikable characters doing some awful villainy.  And it’s obvious that David Lynch’s work has always been steeped in the Noir aesthetic, but nowhere is it more obvious than in Lost Highway.  Even the whole look of Renee/Alice harkens back to Barbara Stanwyck, a woman too fake to be attractive, but somehow sexually galvanizing, able to lure a sucker into the most vile of evils.

1.  The Rocketeer & Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow:  Two extremely fun homage films deeply rooted in the classic era of movie serials and early comic books.  Neither of the films can be watched while harboring an ounce of cynicism.  From battles atop zeppelins to mad science, these two movies cover a lot of pulp bases.  The Rocketeer might also be paired with The Shadow (1994), The Phantom (1996), or Dick Tracy (1990).  And Sky Captain would work well with Lost Horizon (1937) or King Kong (1933).

-Matt

Oh, the Internet.

Two More Fistfuls of Favorites! (Matt’s Picks)

    In the Spring of 2012, as Brad and I were still riding high on 2011’s great movies, we got all mushy, and put together our lists of all time favorite films.  Of course there were classics like Jaws and Commando, but there were also some odd choices.  What do you expect from two Dorks like us, who hope with shivering anticipation that the Saw franchise comes back (Saw X needs to be in SPACE!!!) and that there will be a Crank Meets Transporter prequel set in the Wild West?

    Anyway, Brad got to thinking we should do another list, but this time doing our next round of favorites.   Our 11-20.  Cool.  I like making lists (like Liam Neeson).  If you’re so inclined, take a look back at my top 10 films, and here are my next ten favorites:

20.  Howard the Duck:  This movie takes all kinds of guff from every which way (including loose).  But, as I’ve said before, F the haters.  I absolutely love this film.  Lea Thompson is adorable, Howard balances charm and snark.  And I just love the whole look and feel of the film.  You can’t watch it with even an ounce of cynicism.  I know people hate it.  And I don’t think I can come up with an argument for the film that equates to much more than “Oh, come on! It’s awesome, man.”  Because it is.

19.  Forbidden Planet:  What was happening in science fiction literature for decades finally got screentime in this classic science fiction retelling of The Tempest that would pave the way for galaxy adventures like Star Trek and Star Wars.  Postulating a future where it wasn’t just about getting to space, and maybe, just maybe landing on another planet, Forbidden Planet takes us to a time when Humanity has reached out to the stars and established an interstellar civilization.  Amazing special effects, crazy experimental music, and great characters.  A watershed moment in science fiction cinema.

18.  The City of Lost Children:  Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro raided my dreams and came up with this amazing visual feast of chronologically untethered retro-fantasy.  A circus strongman and an orphan thief search the tumbling labyrinth of girders and rust that makes up the city, looking for a young boy who just wants a snack…well, all the snacks.  Along the way, they meet and battle an impressive cast of strange and deviant folk.  Religious zealots, clones, brains in fish tanks, and the Octopus.  It’s beautiful and strange, and it’s wonderful.

17.  The Thing:  It’s hard not to just gush about this movie.  Almost as hard as it was for the thing not to gush out of that Petri dish when exposed to heat.  It may be a ‘perfect film.’  Not only is it intensely unnerving, beautifully shot, and bloody intense.  But it also has great music, excellent effects, and a crackerjack script.  It does what too few horror movies do, and makes a large cast of interesting and endearing characters I find myself caring for.  When one is hurt or dies or turns into a giant mouth that bites someone’s arms off, I’m bummed out.  When that one guy is a little upset that he has had to go through a major ordeal while TIED TO THAT F*&#ING COUCH, it’s funny in a sad sort of way.  And then there’s the ending.

16.  Metropolis:  When all I had seen was the hacked up, 90ish minute version of this film, it was one of my favorites.  Now that I’ve seen the complete (99.9%) version, it’s so much more.  The story transcends time, the set design is gorgeous, and world created remains a tremendous achievement.  The head and the hand must work together.

15.  Streets of Fire:  The 80s and the 50s come together in a rock fueled fantasy world of the city and the streets.  Back from The War, a young man comes to the aid of his sister.  It seems his old flame, a messianic rocker-girl, has been kidnapped by the demonic leader of a motorcycle gang.  Assembling a crew, he has to go into hell to bring her back.  The movie is so 80s you need to wear legwarmers while watching it (that’s a law), and like a lot of movies I love, you have to check your cynicism at the door.  As it says at the beginning, it’s a Rock & Role Fable.  Plus, it’s got the best hammer fight ever.

14.  Conan the Barbarian:  Arnold’s best movie, and the only attempt at adapting Robert E. Howard’s classic Conan stories that got anything at all correct.  With one of the all time great movie scores, top notch, old-Hollywood production design, and so much awesome violence, Conan the Barbarian isn’t just one of the best fantasy films ever made…it’s one of the best films.  Take that, Annie Hall.

13.  Touch of Evil:  Citizen Kane really is a great film.  I do not begrudge its place on many ‘best movie ever’ lists.  But my favorite Orson Welles film is still Touch of Evil.  Heston is great, Welles is disgusting.  The women are fascinating.  The hoodlums are horrible.  Dennis Weaver is shooting his Norman Bates all over the place.  There’s that tremendous single-take scene that opens the film.  So good.

12.  Lost Highway:  “Who the hell owns that dog, anyway?”  This is my David Lynch.  It was the first Lynch film I saw on the big screen.  It led me to read Barry Gifford.  The soundtrack is amazing.  It has one great scene after another, one quotable line after another.  And it’s seriously weird.  Years later, I still can’t tell you quite what it’s about, or quite what happened.  You want me to draw a timeline?  Timespiral?  I got nothing.

11.  Logan’s Run:  “You don’t have to die.  You can LIVE!”  Utopia is running down, the system is less than perfect.  But for a society of pretty young things, everything seems A-OK.  Except for those few who donn’t want to ‘renew,’ who want to ask questions.  What starts as an undercover mystery turns into an odyssey.  I love every moment of this film, except for the awful Farrah Fawcett, who has never been worse.  The film has a magic so many are lacking.  Something more than the sum of its parts.

(See 1-10 here and 21-30 here).

-Matt

Five Books About Movies

I love books.  I love movies.  I guess it’s no surprise I’ve enjoyed some books about movies.  There are plenty out there, from those 501 movies you must see to consummate tool Leonard Malton’s book of reviews.  And in this day of the internet, you’ve obviously got a lot of places to turn to for info on movies.  But sometimes it’s just fun to pick up a book, flip through the pages and get inspired to check out something new.  These books have led me to some great (and awful) movies, and I recommend them for any film buff’s bookshelf.

Out of the Past- Adventures in Film Noir by Barry Gifford:  The writer behind some truly weird and awesome books like Night People and Wild at Heart, Barry Gifford is also the co-writer of one of my favorite films, Lost Highway.  With this book, he discusses his love of Noir.  Like me, he has wide and liberal view of what counts as Noir.  So, you’ll occasionally get movies like Night Moves (1975) or King Creole (yes, the 1958 Elvis vehicle), along side more typical entries like Pickup on South Street (1953) and Dark Passage (1947).  Gifford’s reviews are sometimes vague, half remembered notions of films he once saw, recollected while sitting in a café somewhere.  He was not sitting in a darkened screening room, scribbling away as he watched.  So, there are times when he gets things wrong, left with impressions not actually true to the film.  It’s like someone telling you about a movie they watched a few weeks back, getting to a few of the details that really struck them, but maybe getting the order of events wrong, or having missed a bit of dialog, thinking an action meant something totally different.  But, the love of the movies is there.  And he makes you want to check them all out.  Even the ones he didn’t really like.  I’ve gone on to watch a whole bunch of movies from this book.  Some I’m sure I’d have seen anyway, but others I may have never even heard of.  And if you’re gonna watch Lost Highway, you should probably watch 1944’s Double Indemnity.  (ISBN: 978-1-578-06290-4)

Immoral Tales- European Sex and Horror Movies 1956-1984 by Cathal Tohill & Pete Tombs:  Europeans have had a strange love affair with film.  And I’ll admit it.  Most of the time I just don’t understand.  There was a time (in my teens and early 20s) when I dug really nasty gore films, which led me to watch a lot of Italian movies from the 70s.  And there was a time (circa 1981 to…well today) when I really enjoyed seeing women in various stages of undress.  Again, this led me to watch a lot of Italian movies from the 70s, as well as French films, Dutch films, UK films, etc.  But one of the reasons I moved away from European movies in general was the combination of those two things.  I got sick of seeing beautiful women mutilated, often in sort of sexual ways (cutting off naked breasts being a particularly common event in Italian horror).  And just generally, the way European film tended to treat women and sexuality started to genuinely bother me.  In French film, the men are frequently hideous middle aged ogres, while the women are comely and young.  Even when they’re not being raped, there’s a very rapey vibe to things.  But when I acquired Immoral Tales, I had yet to drift away from Euro-horror.  The book is packed with pictures that capture a lot of the WTF? nature of these films, in spite of being mostly in black & white.  The write-ups on these movies are informative, not only with lurid descriptions of movie content, but also with contextual references about the times they were being made and released, and about the people in front of and behind the cameras.  There are chapters on certain countries’ work (France, Italy, etc.) and on certain filmmakers (Jess Franco, Walerian Borowczyk, etc.).  And going back to the book now is nice, as I have developed an appreciation for the works of Jean Rollin I certainly didn’t (and likely couldn’t) have when I first got this book.  Rollin has lured me back into Euro-sleaze of the that era in part because while his films features some blood (and occasionally some gore), violence, and plenty of sex, there doesn’t seem to be that ugly sexual violence so common in that time.  Over the last couple years, I’ve found myself getting in tune with Rollin’s dream-logic storytelling.  And reading up on him as I flip through Immoral Tales again, I want to check out some more of his movies, and maybe revisit some I’ve already seen.  But this brings up a frustrating fact with all of the books on this list.  Often, outside of expensive purchases online, or lucky strikes, many movies discussed in these pages are near impossible to find.  I’ve lucked into some on NetFlix and other such places.  A few I’ve even found in stores.  But a lot of them still exist in some netherworld for me, beyond my reach.  And dropping serious dough on unseen movies isn’t a good idea, even when the review is glowing.  For example, Le bete, which sounded like it would be pretty danged amazing, turned out to be super dull.  $30 dollars I wouldn’t get back for something I watched once and would not be returning to.  (ISBN: 978-0312-1-35195)

My Year of Flops by Nathan Rabin:  The newest book on this list, I had an absolute blast reading it.  Rabin is a guy about my age, with a very similar outlook on movies.  Like me, he loves ‘em.  He even loves the ones he hates.  Maybe especially the ones he hates.  With his rating system of Failure, Fiasco, or Secret Success, he gets to the heart of movie flops.  Great movies nobody ever saw, like The Rocketeer, amazing disasterpieces like Heaven’s Gate, and all bookended by the strange cast of Elizabethtown.  His reviews are often hysterical, expletive heavy, and referential.  But he also has a lot of information to pass on, even getting the straight dope from some of the people involved in making some of these bombs.  Again, for anyone who loves movies, a must read.  Flops are a part of the magic of movies, and this book is a celebration of that magic.  (ISBN: 978-1-4391-5312-3)

Sex and Zen & A Bullet in the Head- The Essential Guide to Hong Kong’s Mind-Bending Films by Stefan Hammond & Mike Wilkins:  I used to catch bits of marital arts on TV and in movies, and sometime in my teens, a friend showed me a few classic Shaw Brothers films.  But truth be told, I didn’t get consciously into Martial Arts cinema until I saw Jackie Chan’s Rumble in the Bronx at a local theater.  Around the same time, I started watching some Gong Li movies on video, mainly because she was so beautiful on the VHS covers.  Eventually, I started to realize that Hong Kong was a happenin’ berg, and putting out some of the strangest, coolest movies.  I began consuming everything I could find at my local video stores.  As my newfound fascination with the HK film industry grew to new heights over the latter part of the 90s, I was rewarded by a one-two punch of The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which really pushed some of that Hong Kong style into American cinemas like never before.  And suddenly, the video market exploded with new and old titles for sale and rent.  This book came to my attention right around that time, and has served as a handy guide ever since.  Though it’s kind of out of date now (as these books are destined to become), it features some fairly in depth explorations of various movies, focused on the so called Hong Kong New Wave of the 80s and 90s.  An energy gripped movie makers, drawing on the film language of the West and on cultural changes in Hong Kong.  Out of that energy came a sort of neo-Noir, realism, and a rediscovery of Chinese classics.  The book covers everything from Jackie Chan and Jet Li movies to early Wong Kar-wai, to the difficulty created by actors having multiple names, to the often hilariously awkward subtitle translations (“He wants to be the toppest fight, shit!”).  If you’re interested in Honk Kong cinema, or just want suggestions for something a little different, this book is a must.  There are books out there that focus on martial arts, or on solitary figures like Bruce Lee, but this one gives you a nice sample from across the wide spectrum of genre, even if only from a limited time period.  (ISBN: 978-0-6848-0341-8)

Lurker in the Lobby- A Guide to the Cinema of H.P. Lovecraft by Andrew Migliore and John Strysik:  It’s no secret I’m a fan of pulp horror/sci-fi writer H.P. Lovecraft.  I love his soul blasting revelations of insignificance in the face of things so far outside human understanding his heroes often find themselves able only to escape through madness or death.  Though his stories typically dwell primarily in the minds of his protagonists, I’ve always felt they could make for excellent films.  Certainly, his concepts and themes do and have.  From direct adaptations like Re-animator (1985) and The Call of Cthulhu (2005) to thematic descendants like Alien (1979) and The Quatermass Xperiment, the book covers a lot of movies from way back all the way up to recent years.  It also gets into TV episodes (including The Real Ghostbusters!) and short films.  And there are a few extensive interviews with filmmakers and actors like Jeffery Combs, Guillermo del Toro, and the late Dan O’Bannon.  Plenty of illustrations and photographs give tantalizing glimpses at the various movies.  Annoyingly, like the above books, many of these films are difficult to come by without dropping some serious bank, or attending distant horror conventions.  Still, it’s a helpful look at some of the many movies influenced or directly inspired by a literary master and his fellows.  (ISBN: 978-1-892-38935-0)

-Matt

Book Review: Sad Stories of the Death of Kings

    I don’t know exactly when I became a David Lynch fan.  I think it was Twin Peaks.  You know that feeling you get, when you come home and you feel like you really and truly belong, and all is well?  That’s what I got (and still get) when I first watched Twin Peaks.  I’d never been there, and it never really existed, but if there was ever somewhere where I belonged, that was it.  From there, I got into his movies and began to enjoy the way he saw the world.  But there was one stumbling point, Wild at Heart (Fire Walk With Me hadn’t come out yet).  It was the first Lynch film I didn’t like.  It was the film that cemented my long time dislike of Nicolas Cage.  It was the film that decided me, that Laura Dern chick wasn’t someone I wanted to see naked again (or clothed for that matter).  And it let me know that even my favorite filmmakers didn’t always do what I wanted.  Years later, I got to see my first Lynch film on the big screen, Lost Highway, which became and has remained my favorite of his films.  While reading up on the film, I found out a bit about the co-writer.  I found out he was a novelist.  I found out Wild at Heart was based on one of his novels.  I was intrigued, but also wary.  Wild at Heart?  That Nic Cage movie where he wants to be Elvis, where the Good Witch shows up, where Laura Dern embodies everything I never want in a female companion?  Hmmm. 

    With these thoughts bouncing around, I read my first Barry Gifford book.  It was the first one I could put my hands on.  I went to my favorite used book store, Pro Libris (if you’re ever in Bangor, Maine, it’s THE place to go), and snagged a copy of Baby Cat-Face.  Wow.  What the crap?  That book rocked my world for a lot of reasons.  But as a long time reader of science fiction and to a lesser degree fantasy, and as a huge fan of H.P. Lovecraft, the book felt like some crazy stripped down murder machine of Literature.  I’d not read Hemmingway yet, nor was I up on modern fiction.  I wasn’t ready for the way he used language, the way he shot dialog at you like bullets.  And the only person who had ever prepared me in any way for his twisting, almost haphazard, storyline was William S. Burroughs (to whom, Gifford bares almost no resemblance, style-wise).  Like when I finished my first viewing of Southland Tales, I wasn’t sure if I’d just seen genius or garbage but I was driven to find out.  Subsequent books, including but not limited to Night People, Sailor’s Holiday, and (yes, the very same) Wild at Heart made me a devoted fan.  And his work inspired my own, helped me, if not sweep away my wordy prose, free myself and maybe become more visceral.  And helped me create a more natural voice in my dialog.  For the writer in me, his work was like opening a window and letting in some much needed air.

    At some point, I became aware of Gifford’s young adult novel, Sad Stories of the Death of Kings.  I was immediately curious, and genuinely didn’t know what to expect.  I knew he had varied interests and a wide ranging talent, but at no point along the way had I thought to myself, this guy is right for a kids book.  Well, this really isn’t one.  It’s for teens…I guess.  But it’s more along the lines of those ‘serious’ books your high school English teacher makes you read, that always remind me of 70s after school specials, where the pretty girl dies, someone tries weed, and a kid with a rockin’ fro gets into trouble at the playground.  This book seems to be one of those autobiographical novels, where big chunks of it are based on either Gifford’s own memories, or fragments of stories he heard as a boy.  This might work more for dramatic purposes, but for me, it meant I never quite connected.  I would have much rather read a memoir about growing up in Chicago during the 50s than about this kid Roy who goes through various adventures, some probably real, some no doubt imagined.  In that sense, it’s kind of like Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine, but without the fanciful elements that prompt me to forgive it’s fictional nature or the chronology to give a sense of growth.

    And more than any other book that I’ve read from Gifford so far (I’ll admit, he still has many I haven’t gotten to yet), this book is extremely disjointed.  There isn’t a narrative thread at all, unless I missed something.  It’s a series of vignettes that hop about willy-nilly throughout this Roy kid’s youth, from about age 10 to age 18 or so, with a few hints of a life to come.  This brief glimpse, combined with the fact that it isn’t a straight-up biography, left me somewhat unsatisfied.  It’s a story without a beginning, without an end, and without enough narrative structure to say it has a middle to speak of.  Yet, like the similarly disjointed (but for this reader, FAR less enjoyable) Slaughterhouse Five, it does have moments of poignant beauty that ultimately make me glad I’ve read it.  But it also makes me wish that much more for a less fictional collection of stories about growing up in the same area at the same time.  Gifford is a great storyteller and I have a feeling he has a great story to tell about himself.  Will he?  Did he?  I don’t know.

    If you’ve never read Gifford before, don’t start here.  You should probably go with Night People, or maybe Wild at Heart (which is not at all like David Lynch’s adaptation, by the way, though Lula is still pretty awful).  But if you’re a fan, it has some very good stuff.  And to those high school English teachers, there are some chapters which might make for good class reading.  But give your students some context.  Context makes all the difference.  One would think English teachers, of all people, would get that.

Sad Stories of the Death of Kings
Author: Barry Gifford
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
ISBN: 978-1-58322-948-4

-Matt

Matt’s Week in Dork! (7/3/11-7/10/11)

    While I got some movie watching in, and it was an oddly busy week for me, it wasn’t an especially good week in Dorkness.  Most of my movie watching was on the 4th, when I didn’t have any functions to attend, and threw myself a little party, thankful for a day of downtime.  And so, the movies…

Double Indemnity:  Fred MacMurray turns in a surprisingly lively performance as severely corruptible man who meets the wrong kind of woman.  One of the classic Film Noir movies, it involves insurance fraud, murder, sex and all sorts of dirty deeds.  Good stuff.  I love that MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck are not especially attractive leads, but that works for the reality of it, even with the stylized visuals.  And Edward G. Robinson is typically charming as he shifts from leading roles to supporting performances.

Lost Highway:  Hands down my favorite David Lynch film, everything is just spot on here.  Great characters, great performances, two tons of crazy, excellent sound track, and more questions than you can shake a stick at.  Don’t ask me to explain it.  Why does Frank become Pete?  How?  I don’t know.  What’s the deal with Alice, or is it Renee (“Are both of them you?”)?  Who is the Mystery Man?  I know, we’ve met before…at my house.  Some shocking violence, uncomfortable and somewhat creepy sex, back stabbing, murder, and super-nuts jazz sax.  Don’t tailgate.  Don’t murder your wife in a fit of jealous rage.  Do not talk to pale guys with no eyebrows.  And above all, don’t get mixed up with the scary blond trophy wife of a porn producing gangster.  And never stay at the Lost Highway Hotel.

Black Panther:  This animated series had a lot of potential, but generally didn’t live up.  Awkwardly tied to the rest of the Marvel Universe, it never seems to give a good sense of the world it inhabits.  I’d have rather the writers spent more time on life in Wakanda and the adventures of the Black Panther than on the ‘evil white man’ stories.  The animation style is interesting, but weird, looking kind of like a motion comic.  I’d really like to see this get a better treatment.  The Panther is a cool character and I think could make a really awesome animated hero.  Maybe one day it’ll get a better take.

Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde:  Very low budget, and not really especially good, this movie is made surprisingly entertaining by an excellent cast, especially the always awesome Bernie Casey.  For whatever reason, the mix of horror and Blaxploitation never really worked.  Like Blacula and others, this is worth watching, but not a particularly good film.

The Right Stuff:  THE epic of the American Space Race, The Right Stuff features a fantastic cast of actors playing an amazing group of people.  Pioneers of the future, they were also just people doing their jobs.  Crazy though those jobs may have been.  Filled with humor, daring do, thrills, tears and joy, the movie is a grand and beautiful vision.  More than worthy of its status as a film classic, it should be seen.  An inspiration.

 
Starcrossed:  A cute, if completely forgettable movie about an alien woman and a doofy young man and the romance that buds between them.  There’s not much to recommend it.  But if you enjoy very, very 80s films or the performances of a young James Spader, then check this one out.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold: Season One-Part Two:  More of that particular 60s fueled DC madness that is The Brave and the Bold, if you love the madcap, Adam West type, crazy comic book stories, this is a must.  Great villains, great heroes, and some super-zany antics.  From space to the bottom of the sea, and everywhere else, Batman sees it all, and then some.

The God Who Wasn’t There:  The interview subjects, especially Sam Harris, are interesting, but this is not a very good ‘documentary.’  It’s more of a polemic against his Christian upbringing.  I certainly agree with much of what he says, and he brings up some interesting points.  But you only get maybe 10 minutes of anything worth your time.  And most of that you can see if you look up Sam Harris on YouTube.

TrollHunter:  What is up with those crazy Scandinavians?  They sure do make interesting movies.  From Rare Exports to Dead Snow, they’re taking chances and making magic.  TrollHunter is the best ‘found footage’ movie I’ve seen to this point.  Good characters, fun story, great dark humor.  It’s not as cool as Rare Exports, but it’s a sure fire cult hit.

American Experience: Riding the Rails:  A fascinating, but perhaps too brief, look at a particular group of people at a very particular time in America’s history.  Those young people who climbed up on train cars and rode from one part of the country to another, living a strange, free, dangerous life filled with adventure and suffering.  I was impressed by the excellent interviewees, each an amazing storyteller in their own right.  This is a must for someone interested in the time period.  The little glimpses into the lives of such different people, all driven by chaotic times, are sometimes painful, sometimes wistful, but often tinged with a sort of subtle danger.

Watchmen:  I don’t care what the purists, say, this adaptation of the classic graphic novel is frickin’ amazing.  Grand in scope, gorgeous in execution, it is grim, violent, and ugly.  But it’s also sad, wondrous, and strangely uplifting.  Broken heroes, heroic villains, pathetic shells of former glory.  It’s packed with great characters, great quotes, and amazing action sequences.  And yes, the end of the graphic novel has been altered. However, I think the new ending perfectly fits with the story, and has an effect quite similar to the original.  Not for the feint of heart, if you’re willing to take the challenge, this film is plenty rewarding.

Gamer:  The Crank Boys take on Rollerball-type dystopian films in this extremely frenetic and bleak action film.  Extreme sports and ‘reality’ TV, along with internet anonymity are mainlined into your brain.  It’s brutal and nasty.  And it certainly takes a grim view of our disconnected voyeuristic society.  The movie has less humor than the Crank films, and feels more angry.  But, perhaps that’s good for the subject matter.  Great cast.  Excellent action.  But not for everyone.

    I got in a few episodes of Stingray and watched the first disk (of three) of the old British miniseries, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.  So far, to good.  But the plot hasn’t really taken off yet.  Hopefully have that finished by the next Week in Dork.

       I grabbed the fourth volume of the Hellboy Library Edition series, but won’t be reading that right off.  In fact, I got very little reading of any kind done this week.  I got some biking in, but wasn’t feeling well, so didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have.

    On the music front, I’m checking out Lykke Li.  So far, I’m digging it, but haven’t had a lot of time to listen.  And then, after hearing Grieg’s Hall of the Mountain King during the credits for TrollHunter, I got the hankering for some Scandinavian orchestral music, so I started listening to some Grieg and Nielsen.  Great stuff.

-Matt